Tony Danza says show will not return
NEW YORK, March 24 (UPI) -- Syndicated talk show host Tony Danza said during a New York taping of his TV talk show Friday that the show will probably will not be back in the fall.
Danza said he mounted a personal effort to find a station to air his show in New York next season, but with no deals on the horizon, chances of a third season looked dim, TVWeek.com reported.
"We are going to finish real strong and enjoy what we have left," he said.
The New York and Boston stations currently running "The Tony Danza Show" announced in December they would run the new talk show, "Rachel Ray," in its place next fall.
Buena Vista Television released a statement in response to Danza's comment Friday saying the program would remain in production for the balance of the 2005-06 season.
Danza's show has consistently been at the bottom of the talk show ratings list throughout the current season, TVWeek said.
Drew and Lea Lachey welcome daughter
LOS ANGELES, March 24 (UPI) -- Former 98 Degrees singer and ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" champion, Drew Lachey and his wife Lea, are parents of a baby girl in Los Angeles.
The couple's first child was born Thursday, People magazine reported.
"Mom, Dad and baby are all happy and healthy," a rep for the couple told People.
In addition to his new dad duties, singer Nick Lachey's little brother has been tapped as co-host -- along with "Access Hollywood's" Nancy O'Dell -- of the Miss USA pageant in Baltimore.
Opera maven Sarah Caldwell dead at 82
PORTLAND, Maine, March 24 (UPI) -- The first woman to conduct New York's Metropolitan Opera, Sarah Caldwell, has died in Portland, Maine, at age 82.
The founding director of the Opera Company of Boston died Thursday, The New York Times reported.
Caldwell became the first woman to conduct at the Met in January 1976 with "La Traviata," two months after Time magazine featured her on its cover as "Music's Wonder Woman."
She founded the Opera Company of Boston in 1958. The company closed 32 years later in debt and disarray, the Times said, but during its heyday, Caldwell was known for her innovative programs and productions on a shoestring budget with top stars such as Beverly Sills, Marilyn Horn and Joan Sutherland.
Her program was not supported by the local arts community and she stepped into a political firestorm in 1982 when she signed a contract with Imelda Marcos to develop an opera program in the Philippines, the Times said. Caldwell pulled out of the deal a year later after pressure from human rights groups and patrons of her Boston company.
Caldwell lived for years with her mother in the Boston suburb of Weston and has no immediate survivors.
Patricia Heaton mulls talk show offer
LOS ANGELES, March 24 (UPI) -- "Everybody Loves Raymond" Emmy winner Patricia Heaton is reportedly in talks to head up a daytime TV talk show.
Sources told The Hollywood Reporter Heaton was talking with Buena Vista Television about doing a show, most likely to debut next fall.
The show would be along the lines of the ABC's "The View" with several hosts in addition to Heaton, the source said.
