Knoxville News Sentinel

Adventure Con 2009 has just started, and already plans for the next show is underway. Organizer Adam Phelps says celebrity guests have been secured for an October edition of Adventure Con, set for the Grand Hotel Convention Center in Pigeon Forge. Among the stars slated: Jason Mewes (of "Jay & Silent Bob" fame). Micky Dolenz is also scheduled.

While talking to Dolly Parton on Friday, the superstar told me she saw Bret Michaels' on-stage accident during the recent Tonys ceremony. After completing a song, Michaels turned around and walked straight into a set piece, clocking him good and knocking him to the ground. "When he fell, a bunch of us were off to the side and ran up to make sure he was all right," Dolly says. Earlier in the day, Dolly said she enjoyed catching up with Liza Minnelli. "Our dressing rooms were right next to each other," Dolly says, "so we kept yelling back and forth to each other. She's a lot of fun." What were these 2 icons chatting about? Dolly ain't sayin'.

Jimmy Fallon harpooned Knoxville in his Thursday night/ Friday morning installment of "Late Night." He mentions WBIR, Channel 10, during a sketch about making local promos, but other than that, the bit is really not much to see. I might be offended if the sketch was actually funny. Check out the reference to Knoxville at 2:37.

Kendra Wilkinson -- that perky ex-girlfriend of Hugh Hefner's -- is pregnant by her new love, Hank Baskett. E! confirmed the news today. Wilkinson, 23, and Baskett, 26, announced their engagement last November after the pro footballer popped the question at the top of Seattle's Space Needle. The couple's wedding is set for June 27 at Wilkinson's former abode, the Playboy Mansion. "Kendra," her new post-Girls Next Door show, premiered Sunday, scoring E!'s second-highest rated series debut ever with 2.6 million viewers.

ABC News is reporting that Dr. Drew and his gang at "Celebrity Rehab" have offered troubled star Lindsay Lohan a six-figure deal (that six dollar figures ... four dollar figures plus change) to join the cast of "Celebrity Rehab." So far, she has not accepted, but her dad says it sounds like a good idea. Is going into rehab for money such a good idea? Doesn't sound like it is. What would keep someone from going in, getting paid and then continue their drugging/ drinking? Hmmmm.

Comedy Central is starting to have a knack for bringing back previously dead animated shows. First, Comedy Central's repeats of "Family Guy" helped revive that series. Now, "Futurama" is going back into production with new episodes. Here are the details:

AMC is all about the "Mad Men." The acclaim retro drama is back for its third season on Sunday, Aug. 16. To get us in the mood and remind of us what has happened previously, AMC will feature a marathon of season 2 on Sunday, Aug. 10, starting at 7 a.m. More details from AMC:

Knoxville-based Rivr Media got some great news about the season two premiere of "Whale Wars," the Animal Planet series it produces. The show was seen by nearly 2 million folks and remains the channel's most-watched series. Here are the details.

Good news/ bad news for TNT shows "The Closer" and "Raising the Bar."

Jerry Seinfeld may not want to star in another sitcom, but he's coming back to series TV anyway. The comic, who is in town Friday night for a show at the Civic Auditorium, is reuniting with the cast of "Seinfeld" for multiple episodes this fall on HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm." It marks the first time Seinfeld, Michael Richards, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander have worked on a series together with Larry David since "Seinfeld."
"Curb" returns Sept. 20. "It was a lot of fun, incredible fun," says Seinfeld of the reunion. "We all get along so well together." He says he and the neurotic David, who created "Seinfeld," are very similar people. "We're not alike, but we have the same brain matter," Seinfeld says. "We fit together perfectly when we are working."

Maybe it wasn't suicide after all. According to new reports, David Carradine may have been doing something kinky when he died.

It took me a while to warm up to the Bravo series "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List." Griffin can be a harpy with a microphone. But over the past couple of summers, I've enjoyed the series for a quick laugh. It's like a TV version of a cheap summertime book. "D-List" satisfies, but it's not substantial. The new season begins Monday night. The opener has Griffin going to Las Vegas to visit Bette Midler and ends up as part of her act. Oh sure, "D-List" isn't really reality. Almost all of the scenarios are pre-planned and set up, but the bits work anyway. Griffin has a sharp wit and fantastic timing. That's enough to make me watch.

Leave it to us fickle TV critics to change our mind on what we like. "Mad Men" was our darling last year at this time. The year before we couldn't get enough of "Friday Night Lights." Well, now, we are all about "The Shield" and its final season. The Television Critics Association has sent out its ballot containing nominees for this year's awards. Here are the major nominees:

PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
"Battlestar Galactica" (SciFi Channel)
"Lost" (ABC)
"Mad Men" (AMC)
"Saturday Night Live" (NBC)
"The Shield" (FX)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY
"30 Rock" (NBC)
"The Big Bang Theory" (CBS)
"The Daily Show" (Comedy Central)
"How I Met Your Mother" (CBS)
"The Office" (NBC)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA
"Breaking Bad" (AMC)
"Friday Night Lights" (NBC/DirecTV)
"Lost" (ABC)
"Mad Men" (AMC)
"The Shield" (FX)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT MOVIES, MINI-SERIES AND SPECIALS
2008 Summer Olympic Coverage (NBC)
"24: Redemption" (Fox)
"Generation Kill" (HBO)
"Grey Gardens" (HBO)
"Taking Chance" (HBO)

OUTSTANDING NEW PROGRAM OF THE YEAR
"Fringe" (Fox)
"The Mentalist" (CBS)
"No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" (HBO)
"True Blood" (HBO)
"United States of Tara" (Showtime)

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN COMEDY
Alec Baldwin ("30 Rock")
Steve Carell ("The Office")
Tina Fey ("30 Rock")
Neil Patrick Harris ("How I Met Your Mother") Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory")

INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN DRAMA
Glenn Close ("Damages")
Bryan Cranston ("Breaking Bad")
Walton Goggins ("The Shield")
Jon Hamm ("Mad Men")
Hugh Laurie ("House")

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMING "Camp Rock" (The Disney Channel) "The Electric Company" (PBS) "Nick News" (Nickelodeon) "Sid the Science Kid" (PBS) "Yo Gabba Gabba" (Nickelodeon)

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN NEWS & INFORMATION "60 Minutes" (CBS) "The Alzheimer's Project" (HBO) "Frontline" (PBS) "The Rachel Maddow Show" (MSNBC) "We Shall Remain" (PBS) HERITAGE AWARD "ER" (NBC) "M*A*S*H" (CBS) "Saturday Night Live" (NBC) "The Shield" (FX) "Star Trek" (NBC)

Knoxville's Joseph Benton did not make the Top 20 cut on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" on Thursday night. Benton was born and raised in Knoxville. He graduated from Austin-East in 2007. Now at age 20, he works as a dance instructor in Orlando, Fla.