It’s almost enough to wonder if someone running a list of the rich and famous decided they wanted to learn how to burn fat from the list by eliminating several aging stars. While celebrities die every year, this past summer has seemed particularly hard on the rich and famous.

Here’s a list of just some of the big names who are no longer with us, just from this summer:

Walter Cronkite
Sen. Ted Kennedy
Michael Jackson
Dom DeLuise
David Carridine
Ed McMahon
Farrah Fawcett
Billy Mays
Robert S. McNamara
Don Hewitt
Frank McCourt
John Hughes
Eunice Kennedy Shriver
Les Paul
Dominick Dunne
DJ AM
Patrick Swayze
Mary Travers
Gale Storm
Karl Malden
Allen Klein
Steve McNair
Sir Edward Downes
George Russell
Merce Cunningham

Of course, with death, one cannot even rhetorically ask, “Where will it end?”

Because, naturally, death never does.

CBS’ Simon Baker fronted not only the best new series of last season, but the best-rated show of last season, when he fronted the off-beat crime procedural, The Mentalist. His wry smile and comic charm won people over in a way that the star of Fox’s me-too drama, Lie to Me, never did.

Now comes word that Baker will be seated in the front row at the Emmys, an indicator that his chances for a best actor in a drama series are quite good. Hey, whether you watch the results on an HDTV or a Bell TV, I’d be down with that result. He did a darn fine job on a rookie drama, and while Hugh Laurie’s a long-time favorite of mine, I wouldn’t be upset at all to see Baker acknowledged.

While netbooks are all the rage right now, even a small screen won’t make this look good: American Idol has selected, to replace Paula Abdul as a permanent judge on the show: talk show host and stand-up comic Ellen DeGeneres.

Really? Unfortunately, yes, really…

If DeGeneres were being selected as a judge for NBC’s Last Comic Standing, that would make perfect sense to me. She’s a former stand-up herself and while she may not be the funniest stand-up ever, she certainly knows what funny is, and what it takes to make a stand-up comic great.

Trouble is, DeGeneres is not a singer, not a musician, not a former band member… she’s just NOT a music person. So what qualifies her at all to judge aspiring singers? Nothing. The choice is entirely based on her celebrity status and, given the straight vs. gay upset result in last season’s AI finale, probably a political decision as well.

Hey, there are plenty of gay and lesbian singers out there who have real music backgrounds; want to make up for last season’s finale? There’s plenty of choices out there who would be a better fit than Ellen DeGeneres.

Again, if this were Last Comic Standing, I’d love to see DeGeneres as part of the judges’ panel. But it’s not. It’s American Idol; it’s about singing and music, and as a judge for THAT, DeGeneres is shockingly under-qualified.

This summer, thanks to NBC, America discovered what Great Britain already knew: the pleasant joys of a quiet new light drama, Merlin, a retelling of the legend of King Arthur from the perspective of his future best friend, the wizard Merlin.

Of course, Merlin is a “before they were famous” take in the vein of Smallville, so while all the main players are on the table, not all of the relationships are yet established. But for Joss Whedon fans, here’s an extra morsel: one-time Buffy Watcher, Anthony Stewart Head, plays the often ruthless and yet relatable father-figure, Uther Pendragon, whose hatred for all things magic casts Merlin’s safety in doubt and his abilities a necessity to keep secret.

While Colin Morgan as Merlin, who doesn’t need any more of those best diet pills the rail-thin actor seems to be on, and the rest of the cast, return at full strength, for now the show is only airing on BBC in Great Britain. Whether the second series will end up back on NBC next summer, or on BBC America, remains to be seen.

This information my not be as hard to find as quality Ferrari parts, but it is good information to have handy. The fall TV debut season really swings into full gear this week, with several favorites making their opening bow.

Here’s a list:

Monday 2009-09-21
Castle
Heroes
House

Tuesday 2009-09-22
The Forgotten

Wednesday 2009-09-23
Eastwick
Flash Forward

Thursday 2009-09-24
Mentalist

Friday 2009-09-25
Ghost Whisperer
Dollhouse
Medium
Smallville

Sunday 2009-09-27
Dexter

With the exception of Ghost Whisperer, I’m interested in all these series! At least initially…

It seems most folks are more interested in whatever sits atop their tv stand than in what’s on the silver screen in the month of September; this month marks the worst month of box office results all year, and it’s not even close; although there’s another week remaining in the month, next week would have to come up with something like $150 million total to make up for how weak September has been to date.

Sitting alone above the $10 million mark in this week’s box office is animated runaway-hit family film, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, which earned $30.1 million easily in its debut bow. However, with a production budget of $100 million, that still leaves the film less than one-third of the way to being in the black.

Tightly packed well behind Meatballs were the new Matt Damon vehicle, The Informant!, which managed $10.5 million, just enough to secure second place in its debut behind Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All By Myself, now in its second week, which added $10 million even for a two-week total of $37.9 million.

No other movie cracked the $10.0 million level, but both were new movies this weekend; Love Happens took fourth place with $8.4 million, while Megan Fox vehicle Jennifer’s Body took fifth place with a mere $6.8 million.

The sad part is that The Informant!, Love Happens and Jennifer’s Body all played it safe with modest production budgets ranging between $16-$22 million, and yet with suck meager first-week returns, will likely struggle to get into the blank during their box office run, and will need to rely on strong DVD/Blu-Ray sales to rescue them from red ink.