'Cougar Town' Cast on Switching to TBS for Season 4

After premiering on ABC, Cougar Town has moved to TBS after three seasons, making the switch from network television to cable. With the show now in its fourth season, the cast revealed what they think of the channel switch.

"'Those are some smart people!'" star Courtney Cox emulated her response to TBS picking up the show. "I was just like, 'Great. It's someone who'll promote the show and it'll be something they're proud of.' It just felt great."

The cast echoed Cox's feelings on the move to TBS, citing their new network's heavy promotion of its shows as a big perk. Busy Phillips summed up the cast's perception of the move as a confidence boost to the show.

VIDEO: 'Cougar Town' Cast on the Prowl in Vegas

"Anytime you're given a second chance as a television show, it's awesome," she said. "With TBS, it's been such an awesome opportunity 'cause here's a network that...has this great brand that they're promoting...Of course it's been great to move from a place where we didn't feel like we were getting a lot of attention or promotion or network love to a network that's very enthusiastic."

Phillips, who plays Courtney Cox's character's assistant, "Laurie Keller," maintains that not only does the new network give Cougar Town a new platform but also gives it an opportunity to properly establish its identity.

"People will get a chance to see that it's not a show about...Courtney Cox sleeping with young guys. It's not about cougars; it has nothing to do with cougars," she said. "It's about this amazing, weird, funny group of friends and family that drink a lot of wine and have a lot of silly games that they like to play."

PICS: A Marriage in Pics: Courteney Cox and David Arquette

With the switch from network to cable comes more leeway with censorship, which presents the already racy show with an opportunity to become even racier. Cox, who is also a co-executive producer on the show, said she can already feel the difference.

"I think already our show is the same, yet I feel like it's a little racier," she said. "It's a little more out-and-out funny."

Watch the full video to see how Cox's young daughter, Coco, reacts to hearing her mom recount a naked shoot in front of the entire cast and crew.

Cougar Town airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on TBS.

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Mayor: City won't back down on bus union's job demands as thousands of kids, parents left stranded

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Thousands of city kids were left stranded this morning when school-bus drivers and matrons went on strike, leaving parents scrambling to find other ways to get their childen to school.

On Fox-5 TV this morning, the mayor said the city won't back down.

"There's no extra money so we couldn't change our mind and cave if we wanted to," Bloomberg said. "There's only a certain amount of money. I'm not going to move money away from police and worry about safety in the streets to pay bus drivers."

The mayor also said he would not ask the courts to intervene right now.

"I don't think it's time yet to do that. No. 1, it's not clear that all of the unions are striking. We'll find out later this morning. It's not clear this union won't come to its senses and say I just don't want to hurt the kids -- and this is not something that's going to help them. They're going to lose out on their pay from now until June," said the mayor.

The schools chancellor predicted widespread problems.

"It's going to be chaotic today, it's going to be traumatic. This is the first day. It hasn't happened in 33 years," said Walcott.

The devastating job action, called Monday by the union representing most of the city’s yellow bus drivers and matrons, left as many as 152,000 children — including 54,000 special-needs kids — faced with travel nightmares or even getting stuck at home for the duration of the work stoppage.

City officials took to the airwaves yesterday to blast Local 1181 of the Amalgamated Transit Union for leaving the students — many of whom have already suffered through Hurricane Sandy and missed a week of school — in the lurch.

“The union drivers are striking against our children, plain and simple,” Walcott said yesterday.

The city distributed free MetroCards to tens of thousands of students yesterday to help them with the expected transportation chaos. Free monthly cards also will be handed out to parents of kids in second grade and younger today.

But MTA officials acknowledged that the cards might not work at all subway stations until later today, nor on all public bus routes until late tomorrow.

The last time city school-bus drivers went on strike was 34 years ago. It lasted three months.

Today’s strike was sparked over a job-protection clause that the city removed from newly bid-out contracts.

Local 1181 claims that up to 2,500 of its members’ jobs will be at stake if new bus companies are awarded contracts in June without the protective clause.

“We’ve tried every option to avoid a strike, but our members feel that their back is to the wall and they must take a stand on this issue,” said Local 1181 chief Michael Cordiello.

Workers were heard chanting this morning "What do we want? Contracts. When do we want them? Now."

The city disputes the group's job numbers and insists it wasn’t allowed to maintain the protections because they were deemed illegal by the state’s highest court in 2011.

Education officials also said they’re trying to trim costs from their $1.1 billion yellow-busing budget, the highest in the nation.

While at least six small bus companies said they were planning to operate as usual this morning, it wasn’t clear whether union protesters might try to block them.

Asked yesterday whether his union would allow other workers to cross picket lines or enter non-union bus depots, Cordiello would only say, “Our members have been instructed to do nothing that’s illegal.”

His union represents nearly 9,000 drivers, matrons and mechanics — including nearly all the bus matrons who are required to supervise special-ed students.

That appeared to mean that even companies with non-Local 1181 drivers would be prevented from running their special-education routes.

Local 584 of the Teamsters union — which represents roughly 1,000 drivers, matrons and mechanics — said it wouldn’t join the strike because its contract with bus companies doesn’t allow for it.

But its president, Dan Gatto, also said his members wouldn’t cross picket lines.Parents can get updated information on which bus routes are running by clicking the Department of Education link on the city’s nyc.gov Web site or at www.opt-osfns.org/opt/Resources/SchoolRouteStSearch/searchresult.aspx.

yoav.gonen@nypost.com

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Miami Dolphins bill would bring state money to aging stadiums

A bill drafted by the Miami Dolphins would give Florida sports teams $3 million a year in state money to improve older stadiums, provided the owner pays for at least half the cost of a major renovation.

Under the law, the stadium would need to be 20 years old and the team willing to put in at least $125 million for a $250 million renovation. That’s less than the $400 million redo of Sun Life Stadium that Dolphins owner Stephen Ross proposed this week, which he hopes will win state approval thanks to his offer to fund at least $200 million of the effort to modernize the 1987 facility.

Miami-Dade and Florida would fund the rest through a mix of county hotel taxes and state general funds set aside for stadiums. Sun Life currently receives $2 million a year through the program, and the Dolphins want to create a new category that would give them an additional $3 million.

While the Miami Marlins and Miami Heat both play in stadiums subsidized by county hotel taxes, the Dolphins receive no local dollars. The bill would change that by allowing Miami-Dade to increase the tax charged at mainland hotels to 7 percent from 6 percent, and eliminate the current rule that limits the money to publicly owned stadiums. Sun Life Stadium, in Miami Gardens, is privately owned but sits on county land.

The bill pits enthusiasm for one of Florida’s most popular sports teams against a lean budget climate and lingering backlash against the 2009 deal that had Miami and Miami-Dade borrow about $485 million to build a new ballpark for the Marlins. Ross also must navigate a Republican-led Legislature that has twice rebuffed his requests for public dollars.

“I would be surprised if that bill even got a hearing in committee,” said Mike Fasano, a Republican representative from the Tampa area and a critic of tax-funded sports deals. “I’m a big Dolphin fan, and have been for years. But with all due respect, we’ve got people who are struggling throughout this state right now . .. The last thing we should be doing is giving a professional sports team or facility additional tax dollars.”

While the bill would open up the $3 million subsidy to other the teams, the Dolphins see it as unlikely that another owner would be willing to put up as much money for renovations as Ross, a billionaire real estate developer.

If the bill were enacted today, any stadium opened before 1993 would be eligible for the money, provided it could show the proposed renovation would generate an additional $3 million in sales taxes.

Ross and his backers are pitching the renovation as a boon to tourism, with Sun Life a magnet for the Super Bowl, national college football games and other major events. The National Football League is considering South Florida and San Francisco for the 2016 Super Bowl, and the Dolphins say approval of renovation funding is crucial to winning the bid.

Sen. Oscar Braynon, D-Miami Gardens, who sponsored the Senate bill, said the funding makes sense because when Sun Life hosts a Super Bowl, the entire state benefits from both tourism dollars and publicity.

“It’s a small price to pay for economic development, and for all the shine we get from major sporting events,” said Braynon, whose district includes Sun Life. Rep. Eduardo “Eddy” Gonzalez, R-Hialeah, is the sponsor on the House side.

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Wedgie-spree at Florida theater lands prankster in jail

Authorities say that Charles Ross is known to go around Manatee County and create situations in order to harass and annoy people while filming their reaction for You Tube.

Last weekend, Ross, 18, of Bradenton, ended up in jail after police say he went on a wedgie spree at a theater.

Deputies say Ross was at Royal Palm Theater Sunday night with a friend and began grabbing people by their pants and pulling them up hard, causing discomfort.

A victim told deputies that Ross pulled up his pants, wedgie-style, and then asked the victim if he wanted to hit him, all while his friend was filming, according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.

One victim decided to press charges but others were too embarrassed, deputies said.

The deputy took the camera as evidence and both Ross and his friend were removed from the theater and told they would be arrested if they come back, according to the report.

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The Golden Globes, Starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler and Nobody Else

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:  

RELATED: The Way the World Could Have Ended

Now, we know what you’re thinking. Forget the rest of the show. And the red carpet. And the after-parties. And Lena Dunham, and maybe even Unimpressed Tommy Lee Jones. Now if only someone could just put together all the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler bits from last night’s Golden Globes — what little their was after that fantastic monologue, anyway. Well, you’re in luck. Don’t thank us, thank Flavorwire. Oh, fine, thank us a little bit:

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RELATED: Let’s Get Honest with ‘The Avengers’

If you were wondering, we were totally rooting for the fish: 

RELATED: ‘Roseanne’ Predicted Internet Addiction; A Weather Alert from Hell

RELATED: Yes, Someone Turned Their Dead Cat Into a Helicopter

As you may have heard, it is very cold in Los Angeles. As you also may have heard, cold in Los Angeles is very different than cold anywhere else, and, well, it’s quite funny watching them squirm:

And, finally, here is a cat using its feline agility to maneuver itself into a hammock. Yes, we are jealous: 

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SAG Awards Flashback: Daniel Day-Lewis 2003

Movie and TV stars have thousands of fans around the globe who would love to meet them, shake their hand, or even just be in the same building as them. Sometimes we forget that those very stars themselves worship other stars. As we found out at the 2003 SAG Awards, Matthew Perry has a steady admiration for Daniel-Day Lewis.

At that year's SAG Awards, Day-Lewis was nominated for his first SAG Award for Best Actor following his vivid performance in Gangs of New York. As he is being questioned by ET's former correspondent Jann Carl about fame and fandom, he is interrupted by a celebrity fan: Matthew Perry.

VIDEO: First ET Interview: Daniel Day-Lewis

The Friends actor, who is being interviewed on the other end of ET's platform, approaches Day-Lewis and shakes his hand, wishing him luck on his nomination. Perry may have been in attendance that night for his own nomination for Friends for Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series but wasn't too proud to express his adoration for a fellow actor.

"I don't know if anyone really gets used to it 'cause obviously it's not something...you...do...every day," Day-Lewis responds to the fandom question after meeting Perry. "Plus, I live it a very remote place as well. Even just going to the city for the day is shocking."

While the English actor reveals that he hasn't prepared an acceptance speech for the nomination, he would eventually have to improvise one at the podium, as he was granted his first SAG Award that night.

VIDEO: Oscars Flashback '90: Day-Lewis's Right Foot

ET catches up with Day-Lewis backstage right after he wins the award. Although his acceptance speech went well without preparation, he confesses that his heart is racing. With the Oscars following a month later, Ms. Carl informs Day-Lewis of a promising trend for him that suggests that he will also win the Best Actor Award at the Oscars.

"Is that true? Don't put a curse on it. Let's wait and see," he says. "...Quite honestly, to be amongst this group of people, if any one of them won anything we'd just stand up and applaud because it's fine, fine work."

VIDEO: Daniel Day-Lewis Spoofs Eastwood's 'Empty Chair'

Curse or no curse, Day-Lewis didn't receive the Best Actor award a month later at the Academy Awards. However, he did receive the Oscar five years later for There Will Be Blood, for which he had also received a SAG Award.

Five years after his last SAG-Oscar winning pair, Day-Lewis has another chance to repeat his awards season success with nominations for Lincoln for both the SAG Awards and the Oscars after recently winning a Golden Globe.

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VOTE for the worst liar in history

Lance Armstrong’s lies weren’t the first to lead to a stunning crash. Here is a list of the rest of history’s 10 all-time greatest liars, a rogues gallery of devious dissemblers who can all be enshrined in the forked tongue Hall of Shame.

AFP/Getty Images


RICHARD NIXON — You know when a guy says “I am not a crook,” watch out. “Tricky Dick” Nixon took presidential perfidy to new heights, when he went on TV on August 15, 1973 and said “I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in.” A year later, he resigned.

AP



BERNIE MADOFF — He was more of a Ponzi King than the scam’s inventor, Charles Ponzi. Madoff pretended to be one of the most savvy investors in New York, but his firm was a bogus house of cards that wound up costing his investors $50 billion when it collapsed. Now Bernie cooling his heels in prison.

Spencer A. Burnett

TAWANA BRAWLEY — Her lie set racial tensions in New York to boiling in the 1980s. The Dutchess County teen falsely claimed to have been abducted and raped by a group of men, including a cop and a prosecutor. In 1988, a grand jury found her story was a horrific hoax.

AP

JOHN EDWARDS — A slick haircut doesn’t mean you’re honest. The clean-cut Edwards went from possible President to loathed liar when — after two years of denials — he admitted in 2010 to siring a love child with mistress Rielle Hunter while his wife, Elizabeth, was dying of cancer.

AP

MILLI VANILLI — Their album may have been called “Girl You Know It’s True, ” but it was really a big lie. The “musical” duo of Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, became laughing stocks in 1990 when they had to return their Grammy for best new artist after it was revealed they did not actually sing the songs on the album.

AP

ANTHONY WEINER — Sure, you were “hacked” Mr. Weiner. When a picture of the Queens Congressman’s “member” wound up on the internet he tried to claim he got shafted — by a hacker to stole the picture and put it on line. Later it was revealed that he actually sent the pic to a young woman who was not his wife. He finally admitted “I have not been honest,” and short time later resigned.

AP

PETE ROSE — He was known as “Charlie Hustle.” It was an appropriate nickname. Baseball’s all time hit leader denied for years that he ever gambled on baseball, even though he was banned from the game in 1989. Then in 2004, he admitted he did place bets on the national passtime, and even bet on his own team, the Cincinnati Reds “every night.”

AP

MARION JONES — She lost her golds on the track, but still takes top honors for lying. The disgraced track star had the five medals she won in the 2000 Summer Olympics stripped for doping, charges she initially denied. She was later sentenced to six months in jail for lying to federal prosecutors who were probing use of steroids.

PINOCCHIO — History’s all time greatest liar, this little wooden “boy” wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him. His fibs were so devious that they actually made his nose grow, making him the forerunner of all politicians throughout history.

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Global entrepreneurship nonprofit Endeavor coming to Miami

Flawless execution helped propel Argentine Marcos Galperin’s e-auction site, Mercado Libre, above the competition to become a $3.8 billion company. Some 50,000 small businesses now use it to market their wares.

Leila Velez and Heloísa Helena Assis, cousins who grew up in the slums of Rio, started with one product and one salon. Today their company, Beleza Natural, operates 24 salons that bring in $75 million in revenues, employs 1,500 people and has an eye on U.S expansion.

Both were powered, in part, by Endeavor, a global nonprofit that selects, mentors, supports and accelerates high-impact entrepreneurs in metropolitan areas of 16 countries — and, soon, in Miami.

Endeavor and its local supporter, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, announced Tuesday that Knight is providing Endeavor with $2 million in grant funding over five years for Endeavor’s first U.S. expansion. Endeavor’s Miami office could ultimately service dozens of local entrepreneurs, but first a local board needs to be assembled, a managing director hired and offices set up.

Beginning late this year, South Florida’s innovators will be able to apply to become Endeavor Entrepreneurs, connecting them to a global network of mentors and advisors who can help grow their ventures. “We think this is a cornerstone of making Miami more of a place where ideas are built,” said Matt Haggman, Miami program director for the Knight Foundation, which has made entrepreneurship a key focus of its Miami program.

The announcement is an important milestone in Miami’s efforts to accelerate an entrepreneurial ecosystem, which has been gaining momentum, said Haggman, who led the effort for Knight, its largest investment in entrepreneurship to date. Accelerators, incubators and co-working spaces have been opening up, including Launch Pad Tech, which is receiving $1.5 million in public funding and opens for its first class next week. Last month, the first ever Innovate MIA week attracted hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors and other supporters to a packed schedule of daily events, which included the Americas Venture Capital Conference and Endeavor’s International Selection Panel.

“Miami is almost the perfect seeding ground for Endeavor,” said Peter Kellner, co-founder of Endeavor and now an Endeavor board member, an investor and South Florida resident who began discussing the project with Haggman in the spring. “There are commitments from large institutions like Knight, FIU, UM, there is capital, there are people that are interested in making things happen, there are already clusters of activity like accelerators and incubators. That’s where Endeavor thrives.”

Endeavor selects and works primarily with companies from a wide range of industries that are already earning $500,000 to $15 million in annual revenue and ready for the next stage: explosive growth.

“While the vast majority of small businesses employ two or three people, Endeavor businesses employ an average of 237,” said Endeavor co-founder and CEO Linda Rottenberg.

Launched in 1998 and headquartered in New York City, Endeavor now operates throughout Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia and supports more than 750 entrepreneurs who are chosen in a rigorous selection process.

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Veteran Keys deputy being ousted from city-owned home meant for low-level officer

Monroe County Sheriff Office Sgt. Jake Brady is officially on the lookout for new digs — but he'll have a hard time matching the sweetheart deal he's had with the city of Marathon since 2002.

The longtime Keys cop and Republican candidate for sheriff last year was given 90 days notice to vacate the city-owned three-bedroom house at Sombrero Beach in which he has been living for 10 years, according to Marathon City Attorney John Herin.

"We provided notice to the current occupant to give him 90 days," Herin said.

The council agreed in 2003 to rent the house to a low-tenure Sheriff's Office deputy for $500 per month. Brady has been living at the beach since and the original lease expired in August 2004.

Herin went so far as to ask the council for "authorization to do eviction procedures" in the event Brady doesn't move out on time. He was clear the request is precautionary but noted that Brady has "consistently been late with his monthly payment."

City Manager Roger Hernstadt said the house is the only one owned by the city intended for Sheriff's Office deputies. He said Brady's arrangement came to his attention during an end-of-year review of contracts and properties.

"That's when it came to my attention that he'd been there a long time and we didn't have a current lease," Hernstadt said. "It's been roughly 10 years and we haven't been in it and we want to be sure ... that whatever it takes to maintain the property happens."

Once Brady moves out and the house is cleaned, another deputy — on the lower end of the pay scale — will likely move in.

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BlackBerry service outage hits Europe [updated]

BlackBerry subscribers using Vodafone in Europe, the Middle East and Africa were hit with a service outage on Friday morning that left many with no access to data services. Vodafone confirmed the outage to ZDNet but did not indicate what might have caused the service interruption. “We are aware that some BlackBerry customers are experiencing issues,” Vodafone said in a statement. “Vodafone is working closely with Research in Motion (RIMM) to restore full service as soon as possible.” Email, BlackBerry Messenger and other key services were all impacted by the outage, and Vodafone has subsequently told TechCrunch that service is in the process of being restored.

[More from BGR: How computer scientists are trying to stop smartphones and tablets from breaking the Internet]

UPDATE: RIM has issued a statement confirming that the issue lies with Vodafone and it is supporting the carrier’s efforts to restore service:

[More from BGR: ‘Apple is done’ and Surface tablet is cool, according to teens]

All BlackBerry services are operating normally but we are aware that a wider Vodafone service issue is impacting some of our BlackBerry customers in Europe, Middle East and Africa. We are supporting Vodafone’s efforts to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

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