Hollywood Bits and Pieces: New projects for Mark, Josh and Liz

A bunch of Hollywood bits and pieces about Penn alumni deals to report on including

• a new VH1 reality show
• a new half hour NBC comedy
• a new atypical role for Elizabeth Banks

More after the jump!

Mask and Wig alum writes hot new Spiderman Broadway Show

Bono, Julie Taymor, Glen Berger and The Edge.

Who knew that years after appearing as the lead role of Sir Rupert in Mask and Wig 's 100th production of "Lurline, Again!" Glen Berger (C'89) would go on to write the book for the hottest new show slinging onto Broadway on November 14...

More after the jump!

Penn Alum victim of "The Streisand Effect"; appears in banned IPad viral video

Actor Neil Hellegers (C'99, Arts House Theatre, Pi Lam) has quite an interesting story here...

Recently, Neil shot a commercial for Newsday (Long Island/NYC local paper) for their new IPad application. In the spot, Neil demonstrates that the new Newsday Ipad app is better than the newspaper in all kinds of ways, except for one... In a matter of 4 days, the video became viral and reached 1,000,000 hits!

After the jump, watch the video and find out about its controversy and why it was soon abruptly removed from the web!

Penn Alum Chats it up with Madonna (VIDEO)

NY's WPIX (Penn alum) journalist Emily Frances recently interviewed Madonna and her daughter Lola at the debut of the teenager's new exclusive Macy's clothing line "Material Girl." Apparently the clothing line is 80's inspired.

Check out Emily's interview after the jump and find out what Emily had to say about meeting Madonna!

Her First SNL Appearance: Is Vanessa Bayer SNL's next Cheri Oteri? (VIDEOS)

If you missed SNL on Saturday night you missed seeing Penn alum Vanessa Bayer's (C'04, Bloomers) enthusiastic energy and smile planted in a good number of sketches. In fact, her face was the first to open the show in a sketch where she played a secretary announcing Christine O'Donnell's arrival at the Republican National Committee Headquarters.

Having been a fan of SNL now for almost 25 years, it is clear to me that Vanessa's got "it".  As I watched her through the show, it became clear to me that she reminded me of a young Cheri Oteri.... super committed to her characters with that great smile!  ...I realized this during the sketch when she played a woman lunching commenting on how fantastic her friend's "tiny hat" was.

After the jump check out the "Wedding Venue: it could happen" and "Tiny Hat" sketches she appeared in and screengrabs from all her appearances throughout the show (including the magical look from Vanessa in the show's final "goodbye" moments)!