CW may pass on ‘Aquaman,’ drop ‘Everwood’

RUMORS have swirled in recent days about darkening prospects for CW’s “Aquaman” pilot, starring Justin Hartley as the DC Comics superhero. Sure enough, I heard from multiple sources at the upfronts that the show didn’t make the cut for the network’s fall schedule, which is to be announced this morning.

That’s a disappointment for Warner Bros. Television and executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who were angling for “Aquaman” as a spinoff of their successful “Smallville” on the WB. A lot of projects were left hanging after the WB and UPN merged to create the CW, but this one counts as a high-profile development casualty.

Then there’s “Everwood,” a critical favorite that, as I noted earlier, is almost certain to be MIA on the CW’s fall lineup. That news would be even more surprising in light of the apparent renewal for “One Tree Hill,” the youth soap that has struggled for viewers. Speculation is that “Hill” is simply cheaper to produce than “Everwood.” Also, one agent noted, the surprise (apparent) renewal for the popular but aging “7th Heaven” gives CW one less drama slot to fill.

No more Sunday movie at CBS

CBS’ fall lineup, announced Wednesday morning in New York by network chief Leslie Moonves, had no scheduling shockers, but there were a few items of note:

* The Sunday movie is dead, making CBS the last network to kill off its weekly made-for-TV movie franchise (other nets still air occasional “event” movies). The network in recent years had increasing trouble competing with similar fare on cable and, especially, with ABC’s “Desperate Housewives.”

* Starting its fifth season, “Without a Trace” will move from 10 p.m. Thursday to 10 p.m. Sunday, to help fill that vacated movie slot. ABC will have a female-skewing drama, “Brothers & Sisters,” in that slot, presumably leaving plenty of viewers for both. However, “Trace” could have problems with NBC’s football matchups in the fall. “Cold Case” will move one hour later, to 9 p.m., against “Housewives.”

Lipton, outside ‘Actors Studio’

Throughout the crush of this week’s TV upfronts, you’ve no doubt been asking the same question over and over: What is Bravo’s “Inside the Actors Studio” host James Lipton doing?

Well, he’s as busy as ever, as I learned during our chat Tuesday night at the ICM party in Chelsea. Lipton told me he just signed with Bravo for two more years of the 12-year-old cable TV staple, where in recent months he’s held court with Tom Hanks, Teri Hatcher and Don Cheadle. For Emmy consideration, he’s offering his sitdown last winter with Dave Chappelle, who because of a plane delay showed up three hours late for an interview that ended up stretching for four hours. And Lipton’s students sat still for all that? “Nobody went to the bathroom! They were afraid someone would take their seats!” he said, adding that he “fell in love” with the comic.

Who knew an emeritus dean could be so intense? Or that he longs to get tattooed but just can’t persuade his wife of 35 years to give her consent (“Johnny Depp offered to pay for my tattoo!” Lipton said). Or that he’s become good friends with Will Ferrell, whose deathless impersonation on “Saturday Night Live” enlarged Lipton’s fame (“I knew when he was leaving ‘Saturday Night Live,’ I was leaving ‘Saturday Night Live,’ ” he said sadly).

Turns out the ICM party was a good place for coincidences. Plenty of boldface names from the TV biz turned out. Warner Bros. Television studio chief Peter Roth was there, as were his Twentieth Century Fox counterparts, Gary Newman and Dana Walden; and Steve Mosko, president of Sony Pictures Television.

But some of the best action swirled around ICM uber-agent Nancy Josephson, to whom the famous flock as surely as they do to “Inside the Actors Studio.” Just by watching Nanjo work the room, I can tell the grandkids I was present when ... Carson Kressley hugged Star Jones.