Not everyone has such positive overseas journeys.  Take Pasha Talankin, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for Mr. Nobody Against Putin.  When going through TSA in JFK, an agent told him he couldn’t take his Oscar onboard.  Why?  Because it could be used as a weapon!  I’ve heard of people doing crazy things with their statuette (some involving slippery substances), but a weapon?  Previously, Talankin had no incident traveling with his Oscar.  Lufthansa offered to hold the statue in the cockpit (without a slippery substance), but TSA said it would have to be checked in baggage storage.  He complied and, naturally, the bag was lost!  After 48 tense hours, the airline made an announcement.  “We can confirm that the Oscar statue has now been located and is safely in our care in Frankfurt.  We are in direct contact with the guest to arrange its personal return as quickly as possible.”

We hear that a reboot of The Apprentice is in the works.  The person at the center of these talks is Don Junior!  If this is the first you’re hearing of this project, you’re not alone.  Someone close to Don claims that he first heard about it by reading reports in the news.  Unlike the previous incarnation for NBC, this is being shopped to Amazon.  Well, naturally – they funded that blockbuster documentary, Melania!  Senior seemed less surprised.  He told the press, “He’d be probably good.  He’s got a little charisma going.  You need a little charisma for that sucker.”  Days later, Amazon pushed back, “The show is not in active development, and any reporting on details of the show or names of potential hosts would be purely speculative.”  Here’s my question – what would an apprentice to Junior actually do?  Carry the bags of cash out of the Middle East?  Do midnight runs to pick up his “medications”?

In a less controversial return, Ellen DeGeneres is headed back to Pixar for another shot at playing Dory.  Details are unclear, but we’re told it will be a short film and probably won’t come out for a couple of years.  A gig’s a gig.

Someone else is going back to his roots.  One of Jonathan Bennett’s early jobs was playing JR Chandler on All My Children.  Bennett is headed back to the soaps by way of General Hospital, playing a mysterious man named Joe Fitzpatrick.  “I learned how to act on daytime television when I was 19 years old.  Now I’m back, but I’ve got a few more tools in my tool belt, so this should be fun,” says Bennett.  Now, getting back to his tool…