She’s baaaaack! Shannen Doherty joined the cast of The CW series 90210 on set at the Gay and Lesbian Center in Hollywood this weekend. I assume that an upcoming ep of the show may have a gay storyline but it could just be that the center will merely stand-in as something else on the show. In any event, Shannen was proudly showing off a new dude on set but it was unclear what, if any, the state of their relationship is. Jennie Garth was also on set, proudly showing off a No on Prop 8 sign she got from the Gay and Lesbian Center to show her disdain for the discriminatory proposition’s passage here in California:

As we learned previously, Shannen was asked back to appear in two more eps of the series later on in the season and it looks like she’s begun work filming those eps. No word on if any other Beverly Hills, 90210 alums will be appearing on the spin-off this season but at least now we know that Shannen is back for sure. I just love that Jennie Garth has joined the chorus of celebs who are vocalizing (in whatever way they can) their opposition to Prop 8 in this State. I understand another round of protests are taking place today … and for the foreseeable future. A few Pink readers have asked if I knew of any planned protests coming up so I offer THIS link to a list of events that should be updated as new events are planned.

In any event, it’s great to see Shannen back to work again (we’ll see if this new guy turns out to be someone relevant) and to see Jennie be so awesome :)

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Entertainment Weekly magazine is reporting that Jason Priestly has agreed to return to the world of 90210 … but, before all you Brandon Walsh fans start celebrating, there is a caveat — he will be returning as a director, not as an actor. While Jason will not be reprising his role as Brandon in front of the cameras (at least, not yet), he has agreed to step behind the cameras to direct at least one episode of 90210. In more positive news for Beverly Hills, 90210 fans, EW also reports that Shannen Doherty (who just recently ended her 5-ep run on the new 90210) is close to securing a deal that will bring her back as Brenda Walsh for at least 2 more eps later on in the season:

Beverly Hills’ original side-burned heartthrob is back! Sort of. Jason Priestley has agreed to do an episode of The CW’s 90210 later this season, but you won’t see him — he’ll be behind the camera, working as a director. Sources confirm to EW.com’s Michael Ausiello exclusively that Priestley will helm this season’s 18th episode, which is slated to air this spring. Meanwhile, a 90210 insider also reveals that Priestley’s TV sis, Shannen Doherty, is nearing a deal to return for two more episodes later this season. Executive producer Gabe Sachs would only confirm that she’s “in talks,” but my 90210 spy insists “she’s coming back. The deal isn’t officially done, but it’s happening.” Might one of Doherty’s two episodes be the Priestley-directed installment? Sachs says that’s TBD. “I think it would be a kick for Jason to work with any of his [former 90210 costars], and it would also add something special to that episode,” he says. “But we don’t know whether that will happen yet.” A more likely scenario has Priestley bossing around his other leading lady, Jennie Garth, who’s back for at least six episodes — despite what the actress herself told Ausiello at EW’s pre-Emmy party last month. “That was a misunderstanding,” whispers a source.

Woot! Any news that involves of the BH, 90210 alums to return in any way, shape or form to the new world of 90210 is great news. Knowing that Jason Priestly is amenable to returning as a director means that he may be willing to reprise his role as Brandon Walsh … which may lure, mebbe, Luke Perry to return as Dylan McKay (who, whether he likes it or not, already figures very importantly in the new version of 90210 as Kelly Taylor’s babydaddy). I really don’t understand the hesitation on the part of the male actors from BH, 90210 that is keeping them from running back to reprise the roles that made them very famous but … mebbe they’re playing hard to get? In any event, I am very much looking forward to Shannen Doherty’s return later on in the season (I mean, you KNEW she was comin’ back). Now, if they could only figure out a way to get Tori Spelling back as Donna Martin … that would rule all. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we may, one day, have a great West Beverly High Class of 1993 class reunion, doesn’t that sound like the most awsomest idea ever?

[Source]

Shannen Doherty is featured in the new issue of Details magazine (the one with the Gossip Girl guys on the cover) wherein she talks about shark attacks, her ex-husband and (of course) her return to the world of 90210. Here are a few of Shannen’s Details magazine photos which were shot by Michael Evanet for the mag:

Not long ago, Shannen Doherty, the once and future Brenda Walsh, took a day off from shooting the short-lived TV show North Shore in Hawaii and went on a shark-diving trip with a couple of friends. Hundreds of yards offshore, Doherty descended into the water in a protective cage. Members of the boat’s crew chummed the water, sharks gathered—and Doherty freaked. “I couldn’t breathe, I started having an anxiety attack, I couldn’t stay out of their reach,” Doherty says, shuddering. Her Irish brow crinkles into slight worry lines that make her look her age, which is 37. “They were slamming into the cage—they looked so frickin’ mean! My leg slipped a little through the bars, and a shark swam up against me and rubbed off a layer of my skin.” Doherty is telling the story in a restaurant on the Pacific Coast Highway, in Malibu, a few hundred yards from the beach. She still owns nine or ten surfboards but hasn’t been on one—or even swum in the ocean—since the shark encounter. “I tell myself the least I can do is give the ocean back to the sharks,” Doherty says. And then she giggles. “No, that’s just a bullshit rationalization—I’m just terrified now.” … Shannen Doherty may not have been a nice girl, but she is a sweet woman. Then again, there is nowhere to go but up after you’ve singlehandedly defined the modern American mean girl. The journey began with her performance in 1989’s Heathers, as the quiet yet lethal member of the troika of button-nosed title characters. But Doherty went hard-core after she was cast on Beverly Hills, 90210, which made its debut in 1990. As Brenda Walsh, she played a virginal daughter of Minnesota relocated to the zip code of the entitled and wealthy. Brenda was initially a likable, naïve beauty, but her equanimity didn’t last long: she soon morphed into Elizabeth I in Guess jeans, adopting a kill-or-be-killed attitude toward all of teendom. Kurt Cobain’s refrain “Here we are now, entertain us” might have captured the nineties Zeitgeist, but so did Brenda’s Season 2 bon mot, “To be a bitch or not to be a bitch—that is the question.” “I don’t think Brenda was a complete brat,” Doherty says. “She was fueled by her insecurities: not being from Beverly Hills, not feeling safe in that environment. And then the love of her life was stolen from her. That can really injure a young girl’s esteem.” Alas, poor Doherty was playing the role of a lifetime as her TV and real-life personae began to merge. There was boy trouble and more boy trouble. Doherty’s relationship with Dean Factor, heir to the Max Factor makeup fortune, ended when a restraining order was filed against her after she allegedly tried to run him down with her car. (Her memorable line: “If I really wanted to run him over, I wouldn’t have missed.”) Then there was a teen-angst-worlds-colliding liaison with Judd Nelson. Next Doherty met George Hamilton’s son, Ashley. They married after two weeks; the union lasted all of seven months. Her chaotic personal life exacted a professional toll. Amid rumors that she was consistently showing up late to the set, Doherty left Beverly Hills, 90210 in 1994, after the fourth season. She lay low for a while, except for a winning turn in Kevin Smith’s Mallrats in 1995 and an appearance in Playboy. Then, in 1998, Aaron Spelling cast her in Charmed—as an actual witch—opposite Alyssa Milano. Just as the “Shannen is back” story line began to gel, she quit, reportedly because she was at odds with Milano. But that was seven years ago. Since then Doherty has, much to her relief, fallen off the tabloid radar. “I have a great life now,” Doherty says. She owns three horses and rides them obsessively, and her parents live a five-minute drive away. “If you could see me with my horse Picasso, how I call his name and he sticks his head out of his stall and then licks me from the neck up—that’s what my life is like now,” she says. “It’s really kind of boring.” An obvious question arises: If Shannen Doherty is so happy with her placid life, why is she raising Brenda Walsh from the dead?

And the Details article, which you can read HERE, goes on to answer that question. The one question that isn’t answered in her interview is how the magazine stylist managed to convince her to wear that horribly outdated leather vest for the shoot? It looks exactly like the sort of outfit that Brenda Walsh would’ve worn back in the day … and mebbe I just answered my own question. I’ve yet to grow tired of all the Brenda Walsh/90210 hoopla but it can’t last much longer … especially since this week’s ep (which aired last night) was the last ep of 90210 to feature Doherty for some time. How much longer can she milk this role? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

After the jump, check out a few new outtake photos from Shannen’s feature in Radar magazine along with some outtake portions of her interview with the mag … (more…)

Shannen Doherty is featured on the cover and in the pages of the October issue of Radar magazine and in her coverstory interview talks about a range of topics — from germophobia to shoeophilia — Shannen also poses for an “arty” photospread (cue the Oohs and Aahs). Here is what Shannen’s Radar cover looks like and an excerpt from her interview:

On how it felt to be hated by the tabloids:
“I was exploring who I was as a person and testing my own boundaries and trying to be a normal 18-, 19-, 20-year-old, and I got raked over the coals. Many nights I cried myself to sleep over that stuff.”

On the worst lie she ever read about herself:
“There’ve been so many. One of those bullshit rags [wrote that I'd entered AA]. They said that I was so, quote, ’scared of the drink’ that I was sleeping on my sponsor’s couch. Now, I’ve never been in AA. I accompanied my husband to AA meetings—actually, I forced him to go to one—but I’ve never actually gone for myself. Sometimes you can find some truth, a little nugget somewhere, but not one thing about this was true … But people sell their stories and make their 500 bucks at your expense, and it’s like, ‘Wow. Really?’”

Fascinating … well, not really. But, I am intrigued to read the whole interview tho, I mean, it’s Shannen Doherty … she’s gotta have something worth talking about, right? Well, OK, mebbe not … but perhaps they ask her about Tori Spelling again and she gets all pissy with the interviewer — that always manages to get a small chortle out of me. Now … I must say that I like her coverphoto very much … it’s simple, it’s nice. The rest of the photospread, tho, leaves much to be desired IMHO. After the jump, check out a few pics from Shannen’s Radar photospread … (more…)

The CW was gracious enough to share a few preview photos from tomorrow’s episode, titled Wide Awake and Dreaming, of 90210 where West Beverly High alum Brenda Walsh (Shannen Doherty) directs the new West Bev gang in their high school production of the hit Broadway musical Spring Awakening:

But, I know that some folks don’t like to read/see/hear about spoilers before the episodes air so I’m putting all the spoilery stuff behind the cut. After the jump, check out a few preview pics of tomorrow’s ep along with a short episode synopsis … (more…)

Last night’s episode of 90210, you know — the one that revealed the identity of Kelly Taylor’s babydaddy, featured a very prominent shout-out to Tori Spelling’s character Donna Martin (and the famous Donna Martin Graduates episode of BH, 90210) in the early part of the ep. It sounded so natural to have Kelly Taylor and Brenda Walsh talking about Donna Martin as if no time had passed, as if all was right with the world (Brenda also revealed that Donna has a baby … tho it wasn’t specified if she had that child with her husband David Silver). I feel that there is hope that Tori Spelling might still be brought on the show … in fact, Tori Spelling herself is still hoping that she might be able to, one day, return to the role that made her a star:

At the Silverspoons Pink Party Luncheon in recognition of breast cancer awareness, OK! caught up with Tori Spelling as she tried on the New Balance pink sneaker designed especially for breast cancer awareness month. Tori was happy to talk about upcoming projects, revealing she’s still holding out for a role on the new 90210. “Yeah, well see. I’m a big believer in what’s meant to be will be, so if it’s meant to be it will work out,” she says. “I watched it and I think it’s so cute. The new cast is so cute.”

My money says that last night’s Donna Martin shout-out is a clue that producers will eventually bring her back on the show again. My guess is that she will, indeed, return … most probably after Shannen Doherty’s 4 eps have aired. I would love to have Kelly, Brenda and Donna all together again on screen but … at this point, I’ll take what I can get. After the jump, check out video of Kelly and Brenda talking about Donna in the cafeteria of West Beverly High School … (more…)