Ill ‘Will’: One and done for CBS show

Where there’s “The Will,” there’s a really small audience. Which means “The Will” isn’t there anymore.

CBS has yanked the Mike Fleiss-produced unscripted series, in which family and friends were competing for a piece of a wealthy 73-year-old’s estate, after only one episode. It’s believed to be the quickest hook for a new series since the cop show “South of Sunset” didn’t get past its premiere on CBS in October 1993.

“The Will,” which bounced around two networks for more than two years before seeing the light of day, earned that dubious honor by drawing only about 4.2 million viewers for its 90-minute premiere Saturday.

Marge gets a makeover

Los Angeles — Marge Simpson has surrendered her towering blue coiffure to help market a new hair-care line.

The animated mom from “The Simpsons” is part of new magazine ads starting next month for Dove Styling. Also featured in the ad campaign are fellow cartoon characters Wilma Flintstone (“The Flintstones”), Jane Jetson (“The Jetsons”) and Velma Dinkley (“Scooby-Doo”).

A TV commercial that began airing this month features Jane, Wilma and Velma.

The characters received a temporary makeover for the promotion, trading their usual helmet hair for “beautiful styles that move naturally,” the company said in a statement.

Fan donates early Dylan

St. Paul — A Minneapolis man has donated some of the earliest recordings made by Bob Dylan to the Minnesota Historical Society.

Cleve Pettersen said he made the reel-to-reel tape at a Minneapolis apartment in 1960 after getting to know Dylan at coffeehouses in the Dinkytown neighborhood of Minneapolis near the University of Minnesota.

Dylan, briefly a student at the university, didn’t make any formal recordings until two years later. On the tape, he sings traditional folk songs by Woody Guthrie, Jimmie Rodgers and others.

Pettersen, a teenager when he invited Dylan to the apartment to record the songs, has been the sole owner of the tape. But the tape’s existence has been well-known by music buffs and Dylan aficionados who have come to know it as the “Minnesota Party Tape.”

The public can listen to the tape, copied onto CDs and cassettes, for free at the Minnesota History Center library in St. Paul, but cannot make copies.

Serena makes another on-court fashion statement

Melbourne, Australia — Just days after being ranked No. 6 on Mr. Blackwell’s annual worst-dressed list, Serena Williams unveiled her new line of lime green-and-white Nike tennis apparel.

She co-designed a three-in-one dress and knee-high boots.

Williams, No. 7 in the world tennis rankings, modeled the outfit Thursday, stepping out of the dress to reveal what she’ll be wearing at the Australian Open next week: a top and shorts that are just “ideal” for practice.

Unconventional? “You bet!” she said.

Like the black knee-high warm-up boots that made headlines at the U.S. Open in August, the new boots can be unzipped and removed between the warm-up and a match.

“My legs take a little longer to warm up than the next opponent, so it’s perfect for me,” she said. “They’ll keep me warm and then I’ll be able to blast off.”

Groups push for Prince Harry visit to Nazi death camp

London — Prince Harry is considering invitations from Jewish groups to visit the Auschwitz death camp, a royal spokeswoman said Friday, while Britons debated whether his wearing a swastika armband at a costume party has damaged the monarchy.

The invitations “will be given due consideration, but there are no plans at the moment,” the spokeswoman said as the controversy about Harry’s Nazi costume dominated front pages for a second day.

Some argued that Harry is just an academically undistinguished 20-year-old who is unlikely ever to become king, and who has a right to a private life.

But the modern monarchy’s power is all in symbolism, and Harry’s detractors say he needs to be better attuned to the power of images.

Charles’ office stressed that Harry would not attend ceremonies on Jan. 27 commemorating the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex, although the Simon Wiesenthal Center had urged him to do so.

Quaid aims to age with grace

Los Angeles — Dennis Quaid has a hard time working for a boss who is much younger than he is in the new film “In Good Company.” But in real life, he doesn’t have a problem with it.

The 50-year-old actor recently told AP Radio that heads of studios and directors were mostly younger, but he didn’t mind.

“I used to look upon directors as father figures. I don’t know when that changed,” he said.

He said he had matured as an actor and had learned some lessons that only come with age, something he’s grateful for.

“As you get older you start to acquire more character,” he said. “You seem to care less about how you appear. So you just sort of let go of stuff. You can be a leading man and a character actor at the same time, in a way.”

“In Good Company” also stars Topher Grace as Quaid’s much-younger boss. Scarlett Johansson plays his 18-year-old daughter who becomes involved with Grace’s character. The film, written and directed by Paul Weitz, opened in wider release Friday.

Stefani’s dress, culture’s loss

Fullerton, Calif. — Call the Major Case Unit. Heck, call the FBI! Platinum-tressed dream girl Gwen Stefani is missing a dress.

Well, actually, the Fullerton Museum Center in California is missing the red vinyl dress Stefani wore on the cover of “Tragic Kingdom,” the first album by her band, No Doubt, which yielded the massive hit “Just a Girl.”

The dress was part of an exhibit on the history of rock music in Orange County. (Lacking actual history or culture, Californians do this sort of “cultural” thing for comfort.)

The exhibit’s curator, Jim Washburn, said the dress could be worth $5,000. Prime suspects reportedly are two backpack-carrying young women seen acting fishy at the show.

Birthdays

Actor Chad Lowe is 37. Actress Margaret O’Brien is 68. Actor-director Mario Van Peebles is 48. Singer Lisa Lisa (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam) is 38. Actress Regina King is 34. Actor Eddie Cahill is 27.