The Cheetah Girls new album, “TCG,” represents a new name for the group and hopefully a new phase, says singer Kiely Williams. “This is the first in-studio album, separate from the soundtrack,” says Williams, who comprises The Cheetah Girls with Sabrina Bryan and Adrienne Bailon. “It’s like the first look at the Cheetah Girls apart from our roles in the show. … Just Sabrina, Adrienne and Kiely kind of saying what we feel … We actually co-produced and wrote a good portion of the album.”
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She also says the “TCG” CD, due out Sept. 5, is “a little bit more mature” than Cheetah Girls fans are used to. “We stepped up the quality of the music a whole other notch … People are really going to be surprised with how we blend hip-hop and R&B into so much positive music for all ages.”
The new album does not feature Raven Symone, who starred in the first two “Cheetah Girls” films — nor, it seems, will “Cheetah Girls 3,” which they’re set to start shooting in India in January, says Williams. “Raven was a producer on the last movie we did and may be on this one, but as of now she’s not scheduled to be in it,” reports Williams.
Last year, Raven told us, “There were territorial issues. There were catfights” when she rejoined the rest of the Cheetahs for the second movie — after the other girls had bonded as a group, toured together without her, etc.
Williams now says of Raven, “She’s really actively pursuing her solo career, and we would never want to hold her back from anything. We’re just so proud of her and the things she’s done for people of color on the Disney Channel.”
Williams has her own solo work ahead. She’s about to start shooting the big-screen comedy “The Bunny House,” produced by Adam Sandler.
DEVITO RETURNS TO SCENE OF LIMONCELLO “CRIME”: It’ll be a return to the scene of the “crime” for Danny DeVito. He’s going to launch his Danny DeVito’s Premium Limoncello Sept. 5 on “The View” — where he made a drunken appearance last November after an all-night bout of drinking the Italian liqueur with George Clooney.
There were reports that Barbara Walters was visibly upset over Danny’s inebriated behavior on the show. But she obviously bears no hard feelings. As far as Danny’s wife, Rhea Perlman, “She told me I was cute, very cute,” says DeVito of Rhea’s reaction to his TV appearance, which included some hard knocks at President Bush.
As for Danny, his behavior on the show marked the beginning of a new business endeavor. He tells us that the fuss that ensued over his appearance “brought an importer out of the woodwork, and ended up with my flying to Sorrento, Italy, where one thing led to another and, well, they are designing the bottle — very sexy, black with a yellow lemon — for Danny DeVito’s Premium Limoncello as we speak, and it will be in stores here next month.”
Rhea has yet to visit Sorrento to see the bottling operation for Danny’s Premium Limoncello, but he intends to change that situation soon.
In between doing publicity for the third season of his FX “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” which kicks off next month, and shooting of the big-screen “No Place Like Home” with Katey Sagal, which is just starting production — and visiting his hot new DeVito South Beach restaurant — Danny intends to visit Rhea in London, where she’s on the West End boards in the play “Boeing, Boeing” in a run that he says is “too long for me. She finishes there next month, and then I want to take her on a four- or five-day trip to Sorrento to see what we’ve set up there.”
MEANWHILE: Danny DeVito might laugh about his “The View” drunken appearance, but he stresses that he knows excess drinking is no laughing matter. “I tell my three teen children how important it is to follow the D.D. rules — that doesn’t stand for Danny DeVito, but for designated driver. I tell everyone how important that that rule be enforced. That’s the vital message.”
THIS IS BIG: Comic/actor Jim Gaffigan tells us one of the projects he has in the pipeline is “Our Massive Planet” — as in his MySpace and YouTube hit vlog(cq) with Jordan Rubin. It’s heading to TBS, where Jim’s seen regularly on “My Boys.” The nature show spoof features wildlife footage, “and we comment on it. I play this professor who knows everything about animals, and Jordan plays the interviewer,” says Jim. “Of course I don’t know about animals, so I’m just making stuff up.”
RETRO SPACE AGE: They’re preparing for a fall production on “It Came From Beyond Space” — not to be confused with the cult classic 1953 3-D movie of Ray Bradbury’s “It Came from Outer Space,” or the Robert Hutton 1967 flick, “They Came From Beyond Space.” Or … maybe that’s the point. The new sci-fi picture, to shoot in British Columbia, is supposed to look as if it was filmed in the 1950s, with producers intending to claim that it was found in a time capsule.
(With reports by Stephanie DuBois and Emily Feimster)