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JLo's NBC Musical; Trump TV Reviewed; Scientology Show Revealed; Brad Grey Touts Paramount Slate

October 28, 2016

What's news: Should Leonardo DiCaprio give back his $25 million Wolf of Wall Street salary if the money came from a "corrupt" source? One watchdog thinks so. Plus: A Will & Grace revival is in the works, Paramount teases Martin Scorsese's Silence, A&E shares details about its Scientology-centric series and Trump says he may sue NBC. — Matthew Belloni, Erik Hayden and Jennifer Konerman.

NBC Unveils New Live Musical

It's going to be Bye Bye Birdie, starring Jennifer Lopez, and it will arrive in time for the holidays in 2017. Lesley Goldberg and Bryn Elise Sandberg have the details:

Lopez will star as Rosie in the network's next live musical event, NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt announced last night. Bye Bye Birdie Live will be based on the 1960 Broadway musical that starred Dick Van Dyke as Albert Peterson and Chita Rivera as Rosie.

Also set to exec produce are NBC's live musical masterminds Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Hairspray, The Wiz, Peter Pan, The Sound of Music).

It's NBC's fifth holiday live musical event: Hairspray, starring Kristin Chenoweth, Jennifer Hudson and Fierstein, will air Dec. 7 on NBC. The network also is teaming with Aaron Sorkin to bring A Few Good Men to the network as a live event, which sources say is being eyed for an April debut, though no announcements about a premiere or timeframe other than a 2017 date have been made.

Elsewhere in TV...

↱ Trump may sue NBC after all. Trump on The O'Reilly Factor last night said it was an "illegal act" for NBC to record his conversation that appeared in the Access Hollywood tapes. "The microphone was not supposed to be on."

Matt emails: Is Trump right? Maybe. California law requires Trump to have given his consent to being recorded. But he arguably should have known he was being recorded when he was wearing a microphone while sitting on an Access Hollywood bus preparing to be interviewed by Billy Bush. ↲

► Will & Grace revival in the works at NBC. The network is in talks to reboot the Emmy-winning comedy starring Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Megan Mullally and Sean Hayes. The goal, sources say, is to do a 10-episode limited series.

► ABC, Viola Davis plan family comedy. The network is teaming with the How to Get Away With Murder star to develop single-camera comedy The Zipcoders. Marshall Todd (Barbershop) will pen the script, which centers on a group of friends who aspire to be like The Beatles.

► A&E's Leah Remini show to tackle Scientology "abuse." "This series is about sharing the truth about Scientology," said Remini about the upcoming Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. "For too long, this multi-billion-dollar organization bullied victims and journalists to prevent the truth being told."

↱ Trump Tower Live, reviewed. Spoiler alert, the candidate's nightly live show doesn't work well as TV. Frank Scheck writes: "Boasting production values that make Wayne's World seem state-of-the-art and all but begging for an appearance by a crochet-bikini-clad Robin Byrd to provide some class, Trump Tower Live is DOA." ↲

► Fox teams with Simon Cowell and Diablo Cody. Their untitled synchronized swimming comedy, also from Glee co-creator Ian Brennan, has received a hefty put-pilot commitment from Fox.

► Heathers reboot casts its three Heathers. TV Land has tapped Melanie Field, Brendan Scannell and Jasmine Mathews to take on the roles of the popular Heathers from the 1988 cult hit. Production on the pilot is expected to begin this fall.

► Raven-Symone exits The View. The panelist announced her exit from the ABC talk show during Thursday's episode. And, in a twist, she'll turn her attention to a potential revival of her mid-aughts Disney Channel vehicle — That's So Raven.

► Freeform is ordering more Young & Hungry. The cabler has renewed the multicam comedy for a fifth season, with new episodes debuting in 2017. The renewal comes in the wake of the show's fourth season, which saw ratings rise from season three.

► Casting exec sues E!. Blythe Asher says E! News fired her after her breast cancer treatment caused a dip in her performance and is suing E!, and the NBCUniversal family, for discrimination, retaliation, breach of contract and wrongful termination.

↱ Pure Genius, reviewed. Chief TV critic Tim Goodman writes: "The best thing about Pure Genius is that it's laugh-out-loud funny, which CBS can't say about any of its new sitcoms. Of course, Pure Genius is a drama that's not actually supposed to be funny, so there you go." ↲

R.I.P. Vine. Twitter said yesterday that the video app, which gave rise to an entire new class of online stars, would be discontinued soon. One of Vine's original founders, Rus Yusupov, tweeted in response to the news: "Don't sell your company!"

DiCaprio Asked to Turn Over 'Wolf' Earnings

The latest fallout for The Wolf of Wall Street actor over his alleged ties to the 1MDB scandal concern his salary for the 2013 film, Alex Ritman reports:

A major anti-corruption organization has called on Leonardo DiCaprio to "do the right thing" and pay back his earnings from The Wolf of Wall Street, estimated to be worth at least $25 million, should the U.S. Justice Department find that they are linked to a multibillion-dollar 1MDB Malaysian corruption scandal.

"If he knows these are corrupt funds, we would very much like to see him return them," says Samantha Grant of Transparency International, a Berlin-based non-governmental organization that looks to combat global corruption and prevent criminal activities arising from it.

Grant adds: "If that money is found by the DOJ to be corrupt, to not give it back sort of says that money that was due to go to the Malaysian public is sitting in Leonardo DiCaprio's account."

Elsewhere in film...

► Paramount's Brad Grey touts upcoming titles: His slate presentation last night in N.Y. included a trailer for Martin Scorsese's Silence, as well as first looks at 2017 titles including Ghost in the Shell, the Baywatch reboot, World War Z 2 and Mission: Impossible 6.

Key quote: "Obviously, we'll see where the potential merger with Les [Moonves] and CBS goes, but that will have absolutely nothing to do with how we move on at Paramount and how we market and promote these pictures."

► Fantastic Beasts tracking for $75M U.S. debut. The Harry Potter spinoff came on tracking Thursday, with one major service putting forth the $75M number, according to those with access to the surveys. Some are being more cautious, saying in the $70M range.

► Live-action Pinocchio casts Geppetto. The Great Beauty star Toni Servillo is set to reunite with Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone for the update of the classic tale. The project is due to start shooting in spring.

► Erin Lee Carr's new true-crime Doc to air on HBO. The daughter of the late New York Times columnist David Carr is planning a new project, Mommy Dead and Dearest, which tackles the case of Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard. The title will debut in March.

► Mummy actor joins Murder on the Orient Express. Dutch actor Marwan Kenzari, who also appeared in Ben-Hur, has joined the all-star cast of 20th Century Fox's film, also starring Kenneth Branagh, Johnny Depp and more.

In THR, Esq: Hollywood photo hacker sentenced. The man responsible for the 2014 nude photo leak will spend a year and a half in prison. Investigators have identified more than 600 victims, including Jennifer Lawrence, Gabrielle Union and Kate Upton.

Robin Williams' 87 Bikes Get Donated

The extraordinary bicycle collection of actor Robin Williams has fetched more than $600,000 in an auction that closed on Tuesday night, Peter Flax writes:

The proceeds from the sale of the 87 bikes, which were donated by the Williams’ family, were donated to two charitable organizations that the actor, who died in 2014, had supported in his lifetime — the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) and the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation.

The highest bid of the auction came for the Master Pista, La Carrera Futura 2000 — one of only 38 bikes created in 2007 out of collaboration between legendary Italian bikebuilder Colnago, the Toronto bike shop La Carrera and graffiti artist Futura 2000. This polka dotted beauty went for more than $40,000.

While he was alive, Robin Williams was a fixture at CAF events, and a 2015 event celebrating his life raised more than $2 million for the organization.