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Deep Inside Hollywood: Nixon, White, Rapp & Debbie Gibson

By Romeo San Vicente

Cynthia Nixon.

Cynthia Nixon catches The Big C

Time to shake the embarrassing sands of Abu Dhabi from Cynthia Nixon's resume with some fresh work, wouldn't we all agree? Well, she's got some - and the new gig will take her right back to a premium cable channel sitcom, Showtime's upcoming Laura Linney-and-Gabourey Sidibe-starring cancer dramedy The Big C. It debuts Aug. 16, and during the show's inaugural stretch of episodes - it's assumed some remission time will be involved if it gets picked up for multiple seasons - Nixon will play Linney's long-lost college roommate for a four-episode story arc (Idris Elba will also guest star for a four-episode run). There's no word on whether her character will eventually be recurring, but it's a good casting move all the same, since Nixon brings with her that acerbic voice from her own hit franchise. That's a tone a comic look at chemotherapy will probably employ in large quantity.

Zombieland director takes on White's Babe

Call it beginner's luck if you want, but the reality is that Ruben Fleischer, who made his directing debut with the surprise hit horror-comedy Zombieland, has been in the business working his way up the ranks for some time now and he's had a cool queer ally along the way: Mike White. Still not a household name but known in Hollywood for his off-kilter wit and hilarious writer's sensibility, White is the man who not only competed along with his own gay father on The Amazing Race, but also penned School of Rock, Chuck and Buck and directed the strange and strangely funny Year of The Dog. His new script, the comedy Babe in The Woods, is on track to be Fleischer's third feature, right after he finishes the caper comedy 30 Minutes or Less starring Jesse Eisenberg, Danny McBride and Aziz Ansari. No one's cast for it yet, but the plot concerns a female Yale freshman who becomes a mafia target. So think The Sopranos meets... The House Bunny?

Anthony Rapp stages Without You

Few Broadway musicals of the past 20 years have inspired as intense a subculture of fandom as Rent. It's not simply a show its devotees like, it's a show they love for wildly varied, intimate and personal reasons and will see it over and over, sometimes developing connections even to the cast. Anthony Rapp, one of those original cast members, seems to feel the same way about the show. It inspired a memoir Without You, about his experiences with the show and about the death of his mother, and now the book will become a stage musical all its own. Rapp has turned Without You into a one-man production that will debut in September at this year's New York Musical Theater Festival and will feature original songs as well as music from R.E.M. and Rent's creator, the late Jonathan Larson. Rentheads, book your tickets now.

Tiffany + Debbie = Mega Python Vs Gatoroid

Syfy network fooled us all once with the so-bad-it-zoomed-right-past-good-and-landed-back-at-just-plain-old-boring-and-bad Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (but seriously, how do you turn the most awesome TV movie title ever into something so sleepy and lame?). And so, as the saying goes, shame on them! But now they want to make us say shame on us by attempting to manufacture a camp film again? OK, yes, the title is great: this time it's Mega Python vs Gatoroid, and not only will Deborah Gibson (formerly Debbie, and make sure you say it right or she'll cut you) be reprising her scientist role from the first movie, but her '80s bubblegum pop star archrival Tiffany is also going to be in it. And, well, OK, we are also intrigued by the concept of a "gatoroid" because that just sounds like an animal made of electrolyte-containing sports drinks. So... yes, we're in. It airs sometime in 2011. Shame on us.

Romeo San Vicente, by popular demand, has also decided to apply the "mega" prefix to his own name. He can be reached care of this publication or at DeepInsideHollywood@qsyndicate.com.