The network announced Wednesday that Spader will reprise his guest role as manipulative salesman Robert California when the comedy returns this fall.

California will have been hired over the summer as the new manager of the Scranton office of Dunder Mifflin paper company. But within hours, he wangled a promotion to CEO of Sabre, the parent corporation of Dunder Mifflin.

This leaves the branch manager’s position vacant again. An actor to replace departed series star Steve Carell is yet to be announced by NBC.

Spader appeared as one of several guest stars on “The Office” this spring. He’s previously starred in the drama series “Boston Legal” and “The Practice.”

Cruise, Beyonce join Oprah farewell
CHICAGO – Oprah Winfrey neared the end of her quarter-century reign on national television on Tuesday night with a star-studded send-off featuring Beyonce, Madonna, Aretha Franklin, Tom Cruise, Michael Jordan and many others who honored the talk show queenís efforts to boost education and fight poverty.
ìSheís a self-made woman whoís been at the top of her game for over 25 years ó and sheís still kicking ass,î Madonna told a delighted audience of about 13,000 in a Chicago arena.
Wearing a purple gown, the pony-tailed Winfrey basked in the night of tributes from A-list celebrities and friends. Billed as ìSurprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacularî because Winfrey was kept in the dark about the guest list, the show will air in two parts on May 23 and 24.
Winfreyís final original ìOprah Winfrey Showî, whose contents are still under wraps, will air on May 25, bringing to a close 25 years of the most-watched daytime talk show on U.S. television.
ìYour show has turned surprise into an art form,î actor Tom Hanks told Winfrey on Tuesday. ìOprah Winfrey, today you are surrounded by nothing but love. Your studio was not big enough to hold it all, so here we are,î Hanks said, gesturing around the glittering basketball arena and concert venue.
Madonna praised Winfrey for her courage. ìItís no secret that millions of people are inspired by Oprah,î she said. ìI am one of those people … She fights for things she believes in, even if it makes her unpopular.î
A slimmed-down Aretha Franklin, now recovered from major surgery six months ago, sang ìAmazing Graceî to a stunned Winfrey. Beyonce, who performed her new single ìRun the World (Girls), said that because of her ìwomen everywhere have graduated to a new level of understanding of what we are, who we are, and who we can be.ì
Maria Shriver, whose estranged husband Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday admitted fathering a child in an adulterous relationship, also came to Chicago to pay tribute to her 30-year friendship with Winfrey. ìYouíve given me love, support, wisdom, and most of all, the truth,ì Shriver said.
A beaming Cruise told Winfrey it was an honor to have been on her show 12 times since 1988. Referring to his first appearance on the show 23 years ago, Winfrey quipped, ìYou looked like you were 10.ì
The special also included appearances by Will Smith, Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry, singer-actress Queen Latifah, Josh Groban, Patti LaBelle, Jerry Seinfeld, John Legend, broadcaster Diane Sawyer and basketball star Michael Jordan.
Winfrey, regarded as the most influential woman on U.S. television, is wrapping the final season of her syndicated Chicago-based show to devote more energy to her fledgling OWN cable network, which launched in January.
On a night of both performances and tributes, Jamie Foxx and Stevie Wonder serenaded Winfrey with ìIsnít She Lovelyì and country band Rascal Flatts sang ìI Wonít Let Goì.
R&B star Usher closed the evening by singing the rousing spiritual ìOh Happy Dayì and was joined by Winfrey and many of the other celebrities, clapping and singing.
Overcome by emotion, Winfrey declared, ìI feel the love, and I thank you for it.ì

SO LONG TO ‘HUDDY’ ON HOUSE
It looks like Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) will have to find someone else to romance on the popular medical drama House.
Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Lisa Edelstein, who plays Dr. Cuddy, House’s on-again, off-again squeeze (hence the Huddy nickname), won’t be back next season.
No word on why she Edelstein didn’t renew her contract. Deadline says she was asked to take a pay cut of $175,000 an episode but would still have been making more than $2 million.

Shift awaits Baldwin as his `30 Rock’ days dwindle
NEW YORK ñ In a recent episode of “30 Rock,” Alec Baldwin’s character, Jack Donaghy, went through a kind of midlife crises, splitting into four alternate versions of his self.
One, “sideways Jack,” chastised Donaghy for allowing an intended six-month stop in TV to turn into five years, leaving him stalled and no longer a “shark.”
“You don’t even know what a shark is anymore!” exclaimed the alternate Donaghy.
The episode played artfully with Baldwin’s own career ambitions, which didn’t include sitcom stardom until Tina Fey’s “30 Rock” came along.
Now, though, Baldwin is contemplating his exit from “30 Rock.” He has one season left on his contract with NBC and has said he will leave at that point.
“That’s pretty much all I think about right now,” said Baldwin in a recent interview. “To finish the show, I’m going to do this year then start thinking about what I want to do next. It’s the big question. It’s been a great experience, and I’ve loved doing the show. It changed my life. I’ll never have it this good again, I know that. But I know that I’ve got to do something different, try something different. I don’t know what that’s going to be.”
This summer, Baldwin will be shooting Woody Allen’s next film, to be shot in Rome, as well as the big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical “Rock of Ages” and the indie drama “Hick.”
Though Baldwin, 53, worked primarily in movies before “30 Rock” and has since worked in such films as 2009’s “It’s Complicated,” he says he won’t necessarily return to that path.
“When I go back into the world to go to work, I don’t know how likely I would be to (make movies). This is something I can’t answer now,” says Baldwin. “But if I want to do something after that, I don’t know if that would be another series on television ó I doubt I would do that. Just to go to work, maybe I would do films again. But it’s difficult because films are hard.
“I look at romantic comedies and independent films, quirky comedies, and I think I don’t really appreciate them that much. And all of this is as a result of doing `30 Rock,’ because I’ve really been completely tainted by the people I work with because they’re so funny. … It’s tough to find something that’s really, really well written.”
Baldwin has an interest in politics and regularly blogs for the Huffington Post. But because the top New York State offices are safe Democratic seats, he doesn’t want to run for office in his home state.
“It would be easier for me to run if I moved ó California or Connecticut or somewhere. And I’m not prepared to do that right now,” he says.
In the meantime, he’s happy to recover from another season of “30 Rock.”
“I try to speak as slowly as possible,” says Baldwin. “When we do the show, I actually talk as quickly as possible. Now I take my time talking to people.”

Jerry Lewis retiring from MDA telethon in Sept.
LAS VEGAS – After 45 years promoting treatment and a cure for children he calls “my kids,” comedian Jerry Lewis announced Monday he is retiring as host of the Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon that has become synonymous with his name.
Lewis, 85, issued a statement through the association calling it “time for an all new Telethon era.”
“As a labor of love, I’ve hosted the annual Telethon since 1966 and I’ll be making my final appearance on the show this year by performing my signature song, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone,'” Lewis said of a shortened six-hour primetime broadcast scheduled for Sept. 4.
Lewis, a Las Vegas resident, has in recent years battled a debilitating back condition, heart issues and the crippling lung disease pulmonary fibrosis. He said he’ll continue serving as national Muscular Dystrophy Association chairman, as he’s done since the early 1950s.
“I’ll never desert MDA and my kids,” he said.
Officials with the Tucson, Ariz.-based nonprofit hailed Lewis as one of the world’s great humanitarians.
More than $1 billion has been raised during Muscular Dystrophy Association telethons over the years, association spokesman Jim Brown said. And a national network of some 200 hospital-affiliated clinics has opened since Lewis became involved in the telethon.
Lewis’ first live Labor Day weekend telethon in 1966 was broadcast by a single New York City television station. It raised more than $1 million in pledges.
The telethon moved from New York to Las Vegas in 1973 and had stints in Los Angeles before returning in 2006 to Las Vegas.
Last year’s Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon aired from the South Coast hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip and was broadcast by more than 170 stations. It raised almost $59 million to fund research to find a cure for muscular dystrophy and ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
The live telethon usually lasts 21 1/2 hours. Sometimes Lewis sings or tells lighthearted jokes. He introduces guests and other performers like a ringmaster. Sometimes, he turns serious and shares stories of people afflicted by the disease or who are helped by the association. All the while, he urges donors to contribute while a tote board rings up pledge totals.
Some telethon moments have made history.
In Las Vegas during the 1976 telethon, Lewis was reunited by Frank Sinatra with Dean Martin, with whom Lewis had an acrimonious split 20 years earlier. The famous entertainer best known for his slapstick humor first teamed with Martin in the 1940s to play nightclubs and television shows and to make a series of comedy films.
The association tallied Lewis’ live hours in telethons at 900, and association president and chief executive Gerald Weinberg called Lewis an unparalleled advocate and humanitarian.
“All of us who’ve been privileged to work beside him, and the hundreds of thousands throughout the world affected by the myriad of muscle diseases MDA battles, will acknowledge in our hearts forever the unrivaled role Jerry has played in our lives and the lives of all Americans,” Weinberg said in the statement.
Lewis’ success as a philanthropist was celebrated in 2009 when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences presented him with its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. The award was presented to Lewis by Eddie Murphy, who starred in a remake of one of Lewis’ signature roles, “The Nutty Professor.”

New ‘Office’ Boss Won’t Be Revealed Until Next Season
Fans of “The Office” will have to wait until next season to find out who’ll be riding herd at Dunder Mifflin.
“There will definitely be a new boss in ‘The Office’ come fall, but we won’t be revealing that until after the season,” Bob Greenblatt, NBC’s freshly minted entertainment president, said during the network’s upfront presentation at the Hilton Hotel in mid-town Manhattan on Monday.
The upcoming finale features James Spader, Ray Romano and Ricky Gervais, but it won’t revealed yet if they’ll be stepping into Steve Carell’s shoes until the fall.
In other Thursday night comedy block news, “30 Rock” may be getting pushed to mid-season, because of Tina Fey’s pregnancy. However, that doesn’t mean fans of the sitcom will have to suffer through an abbreviated season.
The show is being picked for a full 22 episodes, Greenblatt said.
Greenblatt also revealed the network’s contingency plans if the NFL lockout drags into the fall. The network executive said NBC would air “larger than life” game shoes in lieu of “Sunday Night Football.”

Fox will reboot ‘The Flintstones’
Yabba dabba do, Seth MacFarlane will finally achieve his dream! The mastermind behind Family Guy will reboot the classic animated series The Flintstones for Fox.
Fox execs made the announcement at the networkís presentation today in New York. The show will go in production this fall for a 2013 launch. ìOne of the first things I ever drew was Fred Flintstone,î MacFarlane told advertisers. As for his re-imagination, he said the show has to keep up with the times but some things will remain familiar for old fans. ìThe characters will look the same but the only thing that will change is the stories,î he said. ìWhatís the [prehistoric] version of an Ipod?î
Dan Palladino (Gilmore Girls) and Kara Vallow (Family Guy) will also serve as exec producers.
In case youíve been living under a rock (díoh!), The Flintstones follows two hard-working middle-class families living with the ìcontemporary conveniencesî in the dinosaur-era town of Bedrock. The series centers on Fred Flintstone and his best friend and sidekick Barney.

Is Jennifer Love Hewitt Replacing Mariska Hargitay on ‘Law & Order: SVU’?
Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni have made it no secret that they hope to cut back on their hours solving crimes on ‘Law & Order: SVU.’ Now, sources say another veteran TV star is eyeing a role as Hargitay’s replacement: Jennifer Love Hewitt.
The former ‘Ghost Whisperer’ star is in talks to step in as the new partner of Elliot Stabler (Meloni), after Det. Olivia Benson (Hargitay) is promoted in the precinct to a supervising position mid-season, TV Line reports.
Hargitay has signed a deal to return for the 13th season of ‘SVU,’ but working fewer hours at the same salary. Meloni hasn’t yet signed his deal, but is reportedly asking for a raise.
Hewitt has also not signed a deal yet. The actress appeared on the series earlier this season during an episode that brought attention to the problem of rape kit backlogs in police precincts across the country; Hewitt played a woman who was stalked and raped by a man for 15 years.
Hewitt, 32, was nominated for a Golden Globe for her starring performance in the Lifetime TV movie ‘The Client List.’
Hargitay, 47, was awarded an Emmy in 2006 for her ‘SVU’ role.

Sheen: ‘Men’ will fail with Kutcher
Kutcher on ‘Men’? Hey – why not?
Charlie Sheen has poked fun at the news Ashton Kutcher will take his place on sitcom Two And A Half Men, insisting the show will fail without him.
Sheen was fired from the TV comedy in March following a dispute between him and creator/executive producer Chuck Lorre, which became a very nasty public public feud.
Kutcher was confirmed as his replacement on Friday, prompting Sheen to take aim at the show and it’s new star.
A statement obtained by TMZ.com reads, “Kutcher is a sweetheart and a brilliant comedic performer… Oh wait, so am I!
“Enjoy the show America. Enjoy seeing a 2.0 in the demo (demographic) every Monday, WB (Warner Bros.).”
And he signs off with a warning to his successor, adding, “Enjoy planet Chuck, Ashton. There is no air, laughter, loyalty, or love there.”
Kutcher will join Sheen’s former co-stars Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones when the sitcom returns after a lengthy hiatus later this year.
In a statement, Kutcher insists he won’t be trying to replace Sheen on the show: “I can’t replace Charlie Sheen but I’m going to work my a** off to entertain the hell out of people.”
Reports suggest the actor will earn between $800,000 and $900,000 per episode.