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While Miss America hasn’t bred any headline-stealing celebrities recently, beauty pageants were once a place where future stars got their start. Oprah was Miss Black Tennessee; Halle Berry was Miss Ohio. Vanessa Williams made it all the way to the top, nabbing the Miss America title in 1984.

With Miss America’s 88th annual pageant airing Sunday on ABC at 9 p.m. Et, EW took a look at the most famous Oscar winners and television icons who once won crowns and sashes:

Cloris Leachman

Leachman represented Chicago in 1946’s Miss America pageant and, though she didn’t win the ultimate crown,...

Emmy winner Margo Martindale (Justified) is set to co-star opposite Will Arnett in CBS‘ untitled Greg Garcia comedy pilot. The project, written and executive produced by Raising Hope and My Name Is Earl creator Garcia, centers on Jack (Arnett), a recently divorced guy whose life gets more complicated when his parents have marital problems of their own. Martindale plays the mother, Carol, a vibrant but meddlesome and slightly controlling character who has to have her finger in every pie. CBS Studios is producing. Last season Gersh-repped Martindale also was cast in a comedy pilot, ABC’s Counter Culture, which was not completed after co-star Delta Burke sustained an injury on set. In another CBS comedy pilot casting, Christian Barillas has joined the untitled Jim Gaffigan project, about Jim (Gaffigan), a guy who lives with his wife Jeannie (Mira Sorvino) and five kids in a 2-bedroom New York apartment. Barillas plays Arlen,...

Exclusive: NBC has bought half-hour comedies from writer-actress Stephnie Weir and sitcom veteran Peter Murrieta. Coincidentally, the two were at Chicago’s Second City together. Weir’s Leisure Club, from Sony Pictures TV and studio-based Original Films, has received a script commitment with a sizable penalty from the network. It revolves around a group of younger Baby Boomers living in a 55+ retirement community who revert back to the archetypes they were in high school. Weir will executive produce with Original’s Neil Moritz and Vivian Cannon. Weir’s manager Meghan Schumacher will also produce. The project stems from the last of several blind script deals Weir had at Sony TV. The previous two resulted in two comedy pilot orders at ABC, for the Debra Messing starrer Wright vs. Wrong in 2010 and Counter Culture this past season. Weir is with UTA and attorney David Fox. Murrieta’s comedy is a multi-generational...

Make It or Break It is coming to an end.

ABC Family not-so-subtly announced this week that the current third season of the gymnastics drama will be its last when new promos touting the upcoming season ender featured the words “series finale.”

Showrunner Holly Sorensen also took to Twitter to confirm the news, writing, “We all love you so much. And we are, very sadly, three weeks away from the series finale of Miobi.”

Make It or Break It‘s closer airs Monday, May 14 at 9/8c.

Ready for more of today’s TV dish? Well…

• The CW’s repeat airing of L.

I’ve learned that ABC’s comedy pilot Counter Culture is being shelved following last week’s injury suffered by one of its stars, Delta Burke, who fell on the set during pre-shoots two days before the multi-camera pilot’s main taping in front of studio audience. The producers had been hoping for a quick recovery that would allow the pilot to shoot and be in consideration for fall but that didn’t happen. I hear the matter is now in the hands of the insurance company, which has to sort out a host of issues surrounding the shutdown, including compensation for the cast and crew. The actors have not been formally released, allowing the network and producer Sony Pictures TV to film the pilot after the upfronts, though that doesn’t appear likely. Written and executive produced by Stephnie Weir and executive produced by Claudia Lonow, Counter Culture was...

Birthday shoutouts go to Lost star (and Sexy Jesus) Henry Ian Cusick (above), who is 45, the faboo Liz Phair is 45 (and Exile In Guyville still holds up almost 20 years later), Rooney Mara is 27, and Victoria Beckham is 38 (again). What are your favorite Spice Girls songs? Here are mine: 5. "Too Much," 4."Goodbye," 3. "Spice Up Your Life," 2. "Wannabe," 1. "Say You'll Be There."

Disney is making plans to turn Mr. Toad's Wild Ride into a feature film. Obviously, they're hoping for another Pirates of The Caribbean and not another Haunted Mansion.Speaking of Disney, "Gay Day" is coming to Disney World, which means you can expect a lot of hand-wringing and banner flying.In today's unnecessary remake item, a feature version of The Rockford Files is on the way, with Vince Vaughn taking over for James Garner. Hopefully without electric cars.In ratings news, the gayish Smash was down to a series low.

I’ve learned that production on ABC’s comedy pilot Counter Culture has been stopped because of an injury suffered by one of its stars, Delta Burke, who had a fall on the set yesterday. The multi-camera pilot had been doing pre-shoots, with the main taping in front of a live audience scheduled for tomorrow. Word is Burke will be sidelined for at least a week, but producers are still hoping to finish the pilot in time for fall consideration. Written and executive produced by Stephnie Weir and executive produced by Claudia Lonow, Counter Culture revolves around three sisters — Billie (Kerri Kenney), Nonie (Burke) and Joyce (Margo Martindale) — running their family diner together in West Texas who find that sibling dynamics are always getting in the way of getting the job done. The pilot, produced by Sony Pictures TV, co-stars Doris Roberts as the sisters’ aunt.

Cougar Town's Briga Heelan has landed a role in a new ABC comedy pilot. The actress - who appears in a recurring role as Grayson's old flame Holly on Cougar Town - has signed up for a series regular role on Counter Culture, TVLine reports. Heelan is a relative newcomer to series television, with her previous credits including a guest appearance in short-lived ABC comedy Man Up. Counter Culture is a multi-camera show focusing on three sisters - played by Margo Martindale (Justified), Delta (more)...

Briga Heelan, who is recurring on the ABC comedy series Cougar Town, has been cast in a new half-hour project for the network, pilot Counter Culture. The multi-camera pilot, produced by Sony TV, revolves around three sisters, Joyce (Margo Martindale), Nonie (Delta Burke) and Billie (Kerri Kenney), running their family diner together in West Texas. Heelan, repped by Gersh and Stein Entertainment, will play Jill, Tate’s (Ike Barinholtz) very attractive and sweet wife who is simple (but in no way stupid), likes crafts and is often at odds with her mother-in-law, Joyce. Heelan was cast as a guest star in the pilot with a series regular option if it’s picked up. Lisa Vidal (The Event) is set to co-star opposite Gabrielle Union in Bet’s hourlong pilot Being Mary Jane (form. Single Black Female). Written by The Game creator Mara Brock Akil and to be directed by Salim Akil,...

Up-and-comer Briga Heelan, who is currently making quite the first impression as Grayson’s flighty baby mama on Cougar Town, is staying in the ABC family with a series regular role in the network’s comedy pilot Counter Culture, TVLine has learned exclusively.

The project stars Margo Martindale, Delta Burke and Kerri Kenney as three sisters running their family diner together in West Texas.

Heelan will play Jill, the daughter-in-law of Martindale’s character.

The enviable cast also includes acting vets Ken Howard and Doris Roberts.

Follow @MichaelAusiello...

Ken Howard has joined the cast of ABC's comedy pilot "Counter Culture." The multi-camera project, penned by former "MADtv" cast member Stephnie Weir, centers on three aging sisters who run their family diner together in West Texas and find that sibling dynamics are always getting in the way of getting the job done. Also read: Ken Howard on the SAG/AFTRA Merger: "A Hurricane Couldn't Stop Us" Howard, who splits his time between acting and his duties as SAG president these days, will play Ken, the husband of one of the sisters, who serves as...

NeNe Leakes is fast becoming Ryan Murphy‘s newest protégé.

The Real Housewives star — who’s made a handful of appearances on Glee this season — has joined the cast of Murphy’s NBC comedy pilot The New Normal.

Also among the latest wave of pilot castings: a Vampire Diaries alum returns to The CW, Notorious adds a Breakout Kings vet and more.

As for Leakes, she joins the project — which centers on a modern-day blended family of a gay couple and their surrogate — as the heavily recurring character, Rocky.

In other pilot news…

• Trent Ford (Vampire Diaries) will co-star in The CW’s Shelter,...

Exclusive: Veteran actor and SAG President Ken Howard has landed one of the last regular roles this pilot season — he is set to co-star in the ABC comedy Counter Culture. The multi-camera pilot, written and executive produced by Stephnie Weir, executive produced by Claudia Lonow and produced by Sony TV, revolves around three sisters, Joyce (Margo Martindale), Nonie (Burke) and Billie (Kerri Kenney, running their family diner together in West Texas who find that sibling dynamics are always getting in the way of getting the job done. Howard, repped by Greene & Associates and manager Randy James, will play Joyce’s working-class husband Ken who is the caretaker of the diner. Ironically, Counter Culture is produced under AFTRA jurisdiction. However, as SAG president, Howard has been leading the charge for merging the two actor unions. Howard, who has been recurring on 30 Rock, is currently filming Acod opposite Catherine O’Hara is...

Exclusive: Designing women alumna Delta Burke is set as a lead of another comedy about sisters running a business together, ABC/Sony TV’s multi-camera pilot Counter Culture. Written and executive produced by writer-actress Stephnie Weir and executive produced by Claudia Lonow, Counter Culture revolves around three sisters, Billie (Kerri Kenney), Nonie (Burke) and Joyce (Margo Martindale), running their family diner together in West Texas who find that sibling dynamics are always getting in the way of getting the job done. Nonie is the put upon middle sister, a dreamer. Orlando Jones has joined Claudia Lonow’s other ABC comedy pilot, How to Live With Your Parents For The Rest Of Your Life, which she wrote. The single-camera comedy, from 20th TV and Imagine, centers on Polly (Sarah Chalke), a recently divorced single mom, who moves in with her eccentric parents, Elaine and Max, (Brad Garrett, Elizabeth Perkins) a couple...

Exclusive: Reno 911 veteran Kerri Kenney is set as one of the leads in ABC/Sony TV’s multi-camera comedy pilot Counter Culture. Written and executive produced by writer-actress Stephnie Weir and executive produced by Claudia Lonow, Counter Culture revolves around three sisters running their family diner together in West Texas who find that sibling dynamics are always getting in the way of getting the job done. Kenney, repped by Gersh and Principato-Young, will play the youngest sister Billie, the baby of the family — an aging party girl who doesn’t realize that her best days are behind her. She is currently sober and attending AA meetings on a regular basis. Kenney, most recently seen in Wanderlust, joins previously cast Margo Martindale, who plays the eldest sister Joyce; and Doris Roberts, who plays the sisters’ aunt.

Angela Bassett and Julian McMahon are in final negotiations to star in Fox's untitled Karyn Usher drama. The program focuses on Jane Forsythe, a 14-year-old orphan of a CIA operative who finds a surrogate father in McMahon's rogue agent. Bassett will play the shrewd political director of the CIA who also takes Jane under her wing. [Deadline]

Wendy Crewson, last seen on ABC's "Georgetown" pilot in 2011, is joining the cast of "Beauty and the Beast" as Mara, a member of the Emperor's (F. Murray Abraham) cabinet and a friend of the titular beauty. [ABC]

ABC has also added two actors to pilots - Luis Guzman has been cast as a worker at the Texas diner run by Margo Martindale and her as-of-yet uncast siblings in "Counter Culture," while Rade Serbedzjia has joined "Penoza," the drama focusing on a woman who must take over her dead husband's role in a crime syndicate in order to protect her family.

In about two months, the networks will start revealing their programming lineups for the 2012-13 season. But Zap2it would like to give you a head start about which ones have caught our eyes. Plus, there are so many pilots and actors filling up roles being announced that we would also like to hopefully simplify things for you.

The (enormous) caveat is, of course, that we haven't seen these pilots because most of them haven't finished (or even started) filming yet. But here are the pilots from ABC that we think look promising.

Dramas

"666 Park Avenue": This one-hour spookfest is about a young couple (Dave Annable and Rachael Taylor) who has come to manage one of the most historical apartment buildings in New York City. But all is not what it seems, as supernatural goings-on complicate things. We like scary and the addition of Terry O'Quinn and Vanessa Williams...

Chris Messina has joined Mindy Kaling’s Fox single-camera comedy pilot, in which she stars as a young Bridget Jones-type Ob/Gyn balancing personal and professional life, surrounded by quirky co-workers in a small office. Messina, who had multiple pilot offers this season, will play a character written for him by Kaling. Messina, repped by Wme and Brillstein Entertainment, is finishing up a recurring role on Damages and is also recurring on Aaron Sorkin’s upcoming HBO series Newsroom. His upcoming films include Celeste And Jesse Forever and the Ben Affleck-directed Argo. Luis Guzman has been cast in ABC’s multi-camera comedy pilot Counter Culture. Written and executive produced by writer-actress Stephnie Weir and executive produced by Claudia Lonow, Counter Culture revolves around three sisters, one of them played by Margo Martindale, running their family diner together in West Texas. Guzman will play a Puerto Rican who has...

Exclusive: It’s A Gifted Man reunion on the CBS pilot Applebaum, directed by Chris Columbus. Rhys Coiro is set as a male lead opposite his Gifted Man co-star Rachelle Lefevre in the pilot based on Ayelet Waldman’s Mommy Track Mysteries series of books. Applebaum centers on Juliet Applebaum (Lefevre), a former public defender who becomes a private investigator to keep from being bored to death as a stay-at-home mom. Coiro will play Juliet’s husband Peter, a successful comic book artist who is crazy about his wife. For both, Applebaum is formally in second position to CBS’ A Gifted Man, which is produced by CBS TV Studios, as is the pilot. Ayelet, Jennifer Levin and Sherri Cooper wrote Applebaum and are executive producing with Columbus, Michael Barnathan and Jeff Rake, who serves as showrunner. In addition to Lefevre and Coiro, A Gifted Man co-star Margo Martindale also booked a pilot in second position,...

Interested in a new round of pilot casting scoops, TV Fanatics? As you wish...

Natalie Zea has landed a role on one of the most anticipated fall pilots: Kevin Williamson's Fox drama about a series killer (James Purefoy) who creates his own cult of fellow murderers and is tracked by a FBI profiler (Kevin Bacon). Zea will play the killer's ex-wife, raising questions about her future on Justified.

More Justified news, sort of: Emmy winner Margo Martindale has been cast as one of three sisters running a family diner in West Texas on ABC's Counter Culture. Doris Roberts is also on board for the project, which sits in "second position" to A Gifted Man for Martindale in case that CBS drama gets picked up.

The ABC sitcom How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life has cast former Weeds scene-stealer Elizabeth Perkins in the role of Sarah Chalke's mother.

Weeds alumna Elizabeth Perkins is set to star opposite Sarah Chalke in Claudia Lonow’s ABC comedy pilot How to Live With Your Parents For The Rest Of Your Life. The multi-camera/hybrid comedy, from 20th TV and Imagine, centers on Polly (Chalke), a recently divorced single mom, who moves in with her eccentric parents, Elaine (Perkins) and Max, a couple who’s full of life but knows no boundaries. I hear that the role, originally written a bit older, has been reworked for Perkins. Perkins, repped by Gersh and Brillstein Entertainment, got 3 pilot offers this season. In an interesting twist, her decision came down to How To Live With Your Parents and Lonow’s other ABC comedy pilot, Counter Culture. Perkins’ five-year run on Showtime’s Weeds earned her 3 Emmy noms.

Margo Martindale is readying a fallback plan in the event A Gifted Man fails to see a second season.

The Emmy winner has joined the cast of Counter Culture, ABC’s sitcom pilot about three aging sisters running their family diner together in West Texas. She’ll play the eldest sister, Joyce. Doris Roberts co-stars as coiffed southern belle who runs the cash register at the diner.

The pilot is in “second position” to Martindale’s current gig, CBS’ A Gifted Man, which airs its season finale this Friday and is considered a long-shot for renewal.

Showtime, meanwhile, announced Wednesday...

Justified alumna Margo Martindale has been cast as one of the leads in ABC’s multi-camera comedy pilot Counter Culture. Additionally, Martindale has been taped for a guest-starring role in the Showtime pilot Masters Of Sex. Written and executive produced by writer-actress Stephnie Weir and executive produced by Claudia Lonow, Counter Culture revolves around three sisters running their family diner together in West Texas who find that sibling dynamics are always getting in the way of getting the job done. Martindale will play Joyce, the bossy eldest sister, the glue of the family and the rock, who is also a cancer survivor. It’s another matriarch role for Martindale, who won an Emmy for her portrayal of drug kingpin Maggs Bennett of the Bennett crime family on FX’s Justified. Counter Culture reunites Martindale with Sony TV, which produces both the ABC comedy pilot and the FX drama series. For Martindale,...

Emmy-winning Everybody Loves Raymond co-star Doris Roberts is returning to active series duty with a co-starring role in ABC’s multi-camera comedy pilot Counter Culture. Written and executive produced by writer-actress Stephnie Weir and executive produced by Claudia Lonow, Counter Culture revolves around three aging sisters running their family diner together in West Texas who find that sibling dynamics are always getting in the way of getting the job done. Roberts will play Aunt Lee, a meticulously coiffed southern belle with a doomsday attitude who runs the cash register at the diner. She recently did an arc on another ABC comedy, The Middle, toplined by her Raymond co-star Patricia Heaton. Julian Morris has been cast in Fox’s pilot Guilty, a legal drama from Greg Berlanti and Marc Guggenheim, which centers on Billy Remz, a brilliant, morally questionable defense attorney who, after being falsely convicted of fraud and stripped of his legal license,...

Doris Roberts is going Counter Culture. The Emmy-winning Everybody Loves Raymond actress has signed on to play Aunt Lee in ABC’s multicamera comedy, which centers on three aging sisters who run their West Texas family diner together with sibling dynamics always getting in the way. MADtv’s Stephnie Weir is on board to pen the Sony Pictures TV pilot, which multi-tasking Claudia Lonow will executive produce. Ted Wass (Two and a Half Men, Rules of Engagement) has signed on to direct. Roberts, who has guested on The Middle, Grey’s Anatomy and Hot in Cleveland in recent years, is repped by Wme and

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ABC is rounding out its pilot directors. Craig Zisk (United States of Tara) has been tapped to helm the network's untitled Kari Lizer project, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. He's repped by UTA, Brillstein Entertainment Partners and Morris Yorn. In addition, the network has also tapped the following pilot directors: • Beth McCarthy-Miller (House of Lies, Up All Night) will helm its Judy Greer comedy American Judy. She's repped by CAA. • Ted Wass (2 Broke Girls, Rules of Engagement) will direct the Stephnie Weir comedy Counter Culture as well as the John Leguizamo comedy Only Fools and Horses.

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Kyle Bornheimer — last seen in Romantically Challenged, Perfect Couples and Worst Week — will join the cast of the ABC comedy pilot White Man Van.

The single-camera project from Bobby Bowman is based on the British format White Van Man, and centers on a man who is forced to put his dreams on hold in order to take over the family handyman business from his father.

White Man Van is one of eight new comedies in development for ABC’s fall 2012 lineup. If you don’t like the sound of that one, check out these others:

How to Live With Your...