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Chuck star Zachary Levi reveals to E! exclusively that NBC will not renew or cancel beloved spy dramedy Chuck for at least another week. Cast and crew had originally expected to hear before Monday’s planned NBC “infront” presentation to advertisers.

When asked last night at an Eva Longoria Parker-hosted charity event benefiting Children’s Hospital Los Angeles about prospects for a third season of Chuck, Levi said, “I thought we were going to hear about it this Monday because NBC’s announcing a bunch of its schedule, but I just got an email from [Chuck executive producer] Josh Schwartz, and he said stay positive, [but] we’re not going to find out on Monday. It could be another week or two. They’re making their final tallies and decisions.”

Chuck was the runner-up in E!’s 2009 Save One Show campaign and has been the focus of a vast Internet-based #savechuck campaign that has included Nerds candy mails-ins and a Subway “buy-in” demonstration.

So what’s the holdup with the decision? Here’s what Levi said about the NBC schedule right now:

“I don’t envy the job of anyone at NBC or any network to have to make those calls,” he told us. “It’s a very difficult thing to do, especially in television nowadays, even trying to get a solid idea of how many people watch. It’s so difficult between live and DVR and videotapes and Internet streaming and downloading and all that. And really, the concept of television has always been ‘advertising money makes the shows,’ and when people stop watching advertising because they’re just going blip-blip, blip-blip [through the commercials] or watching online, you can’t blame the companies for not wanting to put their money into it. Because it’s like, what’s the point? Nobody’s watching the commercials.”

So what do you think is causing the delay? And should NBC keep Chuck?

It’s not just Heidi Montag who’s making news on the cast of The Hills.  According to rumors, the original focus of the MTV reality show, Lauren Conrad, might be returning despite a prior announcement that she was done being on camera.

“She kind of realized, especially in this economy, there’s not much else out there for her.  What else can she do that would earn as much?” a source tells the New York Post, adding that her Laguna Beach arch-nemesis Kristin Cavallari is set to join the cast as well.

Conrad said in early April that she actually thought season 4 would be her last, but she stayed on “hopefully give the show some sort of closure” which needed one more season. “I didn’t have that much conflict in my life over the last few months,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “I think I only cry in one episode.”

She added that she was in talks to turn her upcoming young-adult book series loosely based on her The Hills experience into a television drama (not that The Hills isn’t dramatic enough).  Her first novel L.A. Candy is set to hit shelves in June.

In other news, Conrad appeared on last night’s episode of
Family Guy, as she hooked up with Brian (yes, that’s the family dog), who was reeling from the news that ex-girlfriend Jillian was getting married.  “The idea in the episode is that they make fun of me for being dumb and then discover that I’m actually a genius, and that kind of a character I play [on TV], because America likes dumb people.”

Conrad’s potential future cast mate, 22-year-old Cavallari lived in Chicago with her mother before living in Orange County with her brother and father.  She and then boyfriend Stephen had a rather weird relationship before and during filming of Laguna Beach, as he was very close to childhood friend LC, and she hooked up with other boys.  After filming, Cavallari went on to finish her senior year at Laguna Beach High.

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The Word From on High: So what’s the latest word from Fox on the show’s future? Josh Friedman, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles’ show runner and executive producer, tell us that the latest news from the network is this: “They have given me no signs in either direction. I actually haven’t spoken with Fox in weeks. They said they’re going to make all their decisions when they get the pilots in, and I don’t think they have any of their pilots in yet. Things are just starting to come in from the other shows.”

Never Give Up, Never Give In: Definitely hang in there, fans, because Josh believes there is every hope that the show will get picked up. As he tells us about Fox’s executives and programming bosses (aka the powers that be), “They’re all people, too, and they hear what goes on [with stuff like Save One Show]. I don’t think it’s a futile effort at all for people to continue to fight for the show.”

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The Drop-Dead Date: When will we know for sure? Says Josh, “My experience with them in the past is they make their decision on the day that they have to make their decision and not a day before that.” And that day? That’s May 18, the day of the Fox upfront, so mark your calendars, Terminator fans! We’ll be in New York that day to get the word live, so check back early and often for the latest updates on Terminator’s fate!

As the Man Said: “Fame. Ain’t It a Bitch?” In the meantime, don’t get bogged down in the to-and-fro reports in the media about Terminator’s fate. As a show runner with an endangered series, Josh likens the experience of constantly reading reports about his own future and fate in the press as being somewhat similar to living life as a Brangelina, Zanessa or Robsten (who are real people, believe it or not): “I think it must be what it’s like if you were a celebrity couple. You read stuff. Some of it may be true; some of it is definitely false, and you could spend time chasing down every jackass opinion and lie, but it would really take a lot of time.”
Josh Friedman Chris Wolf/Getty Images

The Future You’re Fighting For: If and when season three does get a green light, Fox already has a sense of what it’s getting. Josh says, “I haven’t pitched a season three yet, but near the end of season two, I had a conversation with the network about season three just because they needed to understand the radical change in direction we had gone through in the finale. So they’ve know for a while some of my ideas for season three.”

Other Venues? And what if season three doesn’t happen? Could it go to another network? Says Josh, “It’s not an expensive show. It’s very average in terms of its costs, but it’s more expensive than all cable shows. There are limited places for a show like this, I think.” What about a comic? Josh says, “Everyone wants to plan for success and hope that it works out that way, and then if it doesn’t, we’ll see what happens.”

Shhh…It’s a Secret: Either way, there will be no spilling of secrets about Terminator’s third season…yet. “I think the finale speaks for itself. It’s very clear what season three is from watching the finale,” says Josh. (He’s kidding. I think.)

Still, there’ll be nothing but radio silence on storylines from team Terminator for the foreseeable future. Says Josh, “I just sent an email out to all the other writers, and I said that, probably, in the weeks ahead, many people will ask you either online or in interviews to talk about season three or ‘Can you explain certain things from the season two finale?’ I asked all the writers to just cordially not. I kind of feel like if we have a season three, people will see it, and if we don’t have a season three, I like people using their own imagination to see where it goes. And if we don’t have it, for me to kind of put my foot down—this is what this is and this is what that is—shuts down everyone else’s imagination. I think in a situation like this, it’s nice to let people kind of create their own fan fiction going forward.”

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The actress suffered a painful fall during scenes for ‘Hannah Montana: The Movie‘ and then hurt her leg as she headed back to her dressing room to recover. She said: “The most embarrassing thing to happen on set was when I busted my face. I tripped over a wire that was in the grass and totally busted it. I was having the worst day because when I went in my trailer, I fractured my ankle falling up the stairs. My mom was like, ‘I don’t know how anybody falls up the stairs and breaks their ankle.’”

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Gilmore Girls: Edward Herrmann Joins “Born to be a Star”

Edward Herrmann (Richard Gilmore on Gilmore Girls) has joined the cast of a new Adam Sandler and Jack Giarraputo-produced film, Born to Be a Star.

The new movie will star Nick Swardson starring as a small-town nerd who learns his demure parents were porn stars in the 1970s. This knowledge drives him to leave Iowa for Hollywood, hoping to follow in their footsteps and be the biggest adult-film star in the world.

Other actors in the movie include Don Johnson as a down-on-his-luck porn director who gives the nerd his big break. The cast also includes Christina Ricci, Stephen Dorff, and Tyler Spindel. As yet, there’s no information about Edward Herrmann’s role (I wonder if he’s the dad?).

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