Ellen Gray: Paula Abdul steps up for another season on 'Diva'

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Lifetime hasn't yet picked up "Drop Dead Diva" (9 p.m. Sundays) for Season 3, but Paula Abdul's already on board as a guest star.

Make that in bed.

The former "American Idol" judge, a recurring guest star as an actual judge in some of the dreams of lawyer Jane Bingum (Brooke Elliott), not only appears in the show's two-hour season finale on Aug. 29, but she'll also be in next season's premiere, "Diva" creator Josh Berman said Tuesday night.

The finale, Berman said, "starts with our best dance number yet and it ends with an amazing cliff-hanger. Natasha Henstridge guest-stars for the whole two hours [and] we have Gloria Reuben in the episode," as well as Abdul.

"I love this woman, and she's so embraced the show . . . and when she was there for the finale, she says to me, 'You know what? I want to shoot another scene.' And I say to her, 'Paula, this is our season finale. There's nothing else to shoot.'

"She said, 'What about Season 3?' I said, 'You're absolutely right.'

"She goes, 'If you want to go write a scene, I'll shoot it right tonight. Just keep the cameras, I'll wait as long as you want, I'll hang out in my trailer. Grab me when you're ready. I love the show.' So I literally wrote a scene and we shot a scene for Season 3 for the first episode already, which has Jane and Paula in bed together," he said. "Lifetime doesn't even know."

And, yes, "It's a dream. At first you think she's in bed with a woman, and then she taps her shoulder and she turns around and reveals Paula, and Fred's on the other side of her," Berman said. "So we have [a bit of] Season 3 shot already even though" the show hasn't officially been picked up for next season.

"They've given us every indication that we're picked up. But

we're probably the first show in history that has shot a scene for a new season without having a pickup yet," he said.

On Nov. 21, PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre Contemporary" will air "Lennon Naked," which stars Christopher Eccleston ("Doctor Who") as John Lennon in an original drama about the former Beatle's final year in England.

But the big news, perhaps, for PBS fans old enough to remember the naked Lennon, is that "Masterpiece" will mark its 40th anniversary next spring with a return to "Upstairs, Downstairs" in a remake that will, amazingly enough, star Jean Marsh and Eileen Atkins, who created the original four decades ago.

Bala Cynwyd's David Crane doesn't get back to Philadelphia "enough," the "Friends" co-creator said last week after a press conference for his new Showtime series, "Episodes." He's writing the series with his life and writing partner, Jeffrey Klarik - the two also collaborated on CBS' "The Class" - and it stars "Friends' " Matt LeBlanc.

"Neither of my parents live there anymore. My dad lives in Mexico, my mom lives in New York," he said. Crane's dad, of course, is legendary Philadelphia broadcaster Gene Crane, who "at like age 85, finally fully retired from WCAU and moved full time to Mexico," said his son.

"He just turned 90. He is fantastic. He plays golf, tennis, travels, they're going to Europe - going to Europe, he's 90!" said Crane.

"She's [Gene Crane's wife, David's stepmother, Jean] 80, he's 90, and they have more energy than the both of us combined," he said, indicating Klarik. "It's insane."

"Episodes," a comedy about what happens to two British TV writers when an American network gets its hands on their beloved show and messes with it, in part by hiring LeBlanc - who plays a character named Matt LeBlanc - is being done for both the BBC and Showtime. It's an experience that so far has apparently been very different from the making of "The Class" for CBS, which Klarik told reporters had left him feeling "like a puppy in a dryer."

Crane, the more restrained of the pair, said that for his part, "I had a lot of fun doing 'The Class.' 'The Class' was wonderful. It was just, we wish we could have done it more, you know?"

Given that both LeBlanc and Crane are in a similar position to "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David - presumably each can afford to stay out of the network dryer forever if he chooses - and "Episodes," like David's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," is set in the industry, there are bound to be comparisons.

"I think in both cases, neither show is really about show business," Crane said. "I mean, it's got the trappings, it's got the backdrop. But in the same way that ['Curb'] is really about who he is as a human being and how he deals with the world, this show is really about what it's like to have a relationship where you're married to your work partner and you bring all the dynamics of your relationship to your work relationship and then take you out of your element and your comfort zone, and put you somewhere else."

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