Trade paper The Hollywood Reporter claims that Perry will both star in and co-write for the as yet unnamed series, playing the manager of a mediocre sports arena who begins to wonder what he is doing with his life when he reaches the dreaded 40. Outside of his “Friends” success, Perry was nominated for various awards for his role as inspirational teacher Ron Clark in the TV movie “The Ron Clark Story” and appeared in the West End theatre production of the famous David Mamet play “Sexual Perversity in Chicago” in 2007.

Most recently, he played the older incarnation of teen heartthrob Zac Efron in the “Big” style comedy movie “17 Again”. The new series is believed to have been the centre of a bidding war between ABC and NBC, which was home to “Friends”, with Thomas Schlamme set to direct the show.

Schlamme and Perry have worked together before, on “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”. Perry is also believed to be serving as executive producer for the show. No further information – such as a broadcast date – is available as yet.

Or at least, he did until last week, when the Amazonas state assembly expelled him from parliament, thus ending his immunity – and now he appears, despite his protestations of innocence, to have made a run for it. Airports and roads in the state of Manaus are being monitored as a full scale search gets underway for the fugitive TV star who is alleged to have ordered mob killings to eradicate his rivals and secure high ratings for his TV show, when his camera crews were able to arrive at crime scenes with almost supernatural speed and good luck.

Souza has previously denied all charges, claiming them to be a smear campaign dreamed up by his political opponents, but it appears that the moment a warrant was actually issued for his arrest immediately following the vote to expel him from parliament, he could not get out of town fast enough, with police having been unable to locate him at his home or any of his regular haunts. It is yet another dramatic development in a bizarre case that has gripped the world and seems to have been ripped straight from the plot lines of fictional crime shows.

The statement, released yesterday, makes it clear that the network’s desire to continue making money from the show and the family – while preferably putting the husband and father out to pasture – is not going to happen easily, or pleasantly. “As legal counsel for Jon Gosselin,” the statement reads, “I am totally confident that he will be completely successful in his quest to take back control of his family and preserve, protect and ensure their future well-being by putting the brakes on their divorce and pulling the plug on TLC… Jon is resolved to not to allow the TLC corporate machine to devour his family and promote the monster’s best interests over those of his family.

TLC and Discovery have been reputed to have generated approximately $186 million dollars for the quarter – courtesy of the Gosselin family, and Jon firmly believes that their greed to continue that cash flow will be trumped by his courage and determination to protect his family.”

Watch this space, because this is going to be get ugly.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s “Front Row”, he admits the extra attention he gained from being a part of the MTV series, which focused on him, his wife Sharon and his two children Jack and Kelly, all of whom have gone on to forge their own showbiz careers as a result, started to become “really creepy” after a while. “It was as if I went to bed in one world and woke up in another,” the sixty year old rocker admits.

“We went down to this market in Beverly Hills where you can just walk around artwork and statues and dolls and all this stuff and I got this really creepy feeling…. I look around. People aren’t looking, but I could feel eyes on me… I thought I was getting paranoid or something.”

The star, who appeared on the show to promote his new autobiography, “I Am Ozzy”, admits it is not an experience he cares to repeat, even though his wife Sharon has used the fame the show generated to become a regular fixture on television in series such as “America’s Got Talent” and “The X Factor.” “Sharon loves it,” he concedes, but “I don’t really want to do TV. I don’t like doing TV much.”

The star wasted no time in contacting police and setting up a sting operation, where the chat show host handed his would be extortionist a fake cheque for the two million. The blackmailer was arrested yesterday.

Letterman made no bones about the facts of the matter, which he revealed on yesterday’s edition of “The Late Show With David Lettermen.” “This morning, I did something I’ve never done in my life,” the star announced on the show. “I had to go downtown and testify before a grand jury.”

Lettermen, who has been married since March, admits that he was not about to be blackmailed by anybody, despite the embarrassing nature of having to admit to having relations with some of his co-workers in the past. “My response to that is, yes I have. Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Perhaps it would… I feel like I need to protect these people – I need to certainly protect my family.”

This isn’t the first time Letterman has been the target of an extortionist, and with John Travolta likewise turning in a would-be extortionist over the details of his son’s tragic death, it seems Hollywood’s celebrities are not the easy targets their persecutors no doubt wish they were.

The series, which starred Mischa Barton (“The OC”), Corbin Bleu and Sara Paxton, and was executive produced by actor Ashton Kutcher (“That ‘70s Show”), received just one and a half million viewers for its premiere and was already down to just a million by its second week. The cast were told of the cancellation of their new show on Friday, while in the middle of shooting the seventh episode.

The replacement for the series in its Wednesday 9:30 pm slot has been confirmed as being repeats of the new “Melrose Place” (a similar strategy having been adopted to gain more viewers for the new “90210” last year). The new “Melrose” has yet to set the ratings alight itself, but CW are clearly more committed to building that show than they were “The Beautiful Life”, particularly with the recently announced return of original “Melrose” star Heather Locklear.

CW is now believed to be looking at picking up several other new shows as mid year replacements, including two reality shows, “Fly Girls” (about airline attendants) and one about New York socialite Tinsley Mortimer, who has been referred to as a real life “Gossip Girl”.

Barton has been in the news recently for her two week stay in a psychiatric hospital, but the publicity appears to have done little for her new show.