Gwinnett Daily Post

Glenn Beck's Fox show dropped

NEW YORK -- Fox News Channel on Wednesday said it was dropping Glenn Beck's afternoon talk show, which has sunk in the ratings and suffered financially due to an advertiser boycott.

Fox and Beck said the show will end later this year.

Fox News and Beck's company, Mercury Radio Arts, said they will work together to create other projects for Fox television and digital.

Beck was a quick burn on Fox News Channel. Almost immediately after joining the network in January 2009, he doubled the ratings at his afternoon time slot. Fans found his conservative populism entertaining, while Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert described Beck's "crank up the crazy and rip off the knob" moments.

J.J. Abrams' new frontier: Novels

NEW YORK -- "Star Trek" director J.J. Abrams is headed for a new frontier: Novels.

Abrams has a deal with Little, Brown and Company to write a thriller, currently untitled. The publisher said Wednesday that the book would be a collaboration with award-winning novelist Doug Dorst and come out in the fall of 2012 through the Mulholland Books imprint.

Abrams' movie credits include "Star Trek," "Mission: Impossible III" and the upcoming "Super 8." For television, he is the co-creator of "Lost" and "Fringe."

Crystal in 'When Harry Met Sally' Web video

NEW YORK -- Billy Crystal's ''When Harry Met Sally...'' has finally gotten a sequel in a new Web video that mixes in a bit of ''Twilight.''

Crystal debuted his first video for the comedy website FunnyOrDie.com on Wednesday. In it, he and director Rob Reiner pitch a sequel to the 1989 film.

A studio executive, played by Adam Scott, requests one tweak to Crystal's plans: vampires. A trailer for the mock results follows, with Crystal falling for another woman, Sharon -- played by Helen Mirren -- in a retirement community.

Sharon, though, turns out to be a bloodsucking vampire. The film is dubbed ''Grampires: When Sharon Bit Harry.''