Fall TV Blog

The Office wraps its fourth season Thursday, but the fate of Jan and Michael’s relationship remains a mystery, actress Melora Hardin tells PEOPLE. The couple’s ill-fated dinner party left things up in the air, but don’t count them out just yet.

“There’s some really good surprises in the season finale, so tuning in would be a really good idea,” says Hardin, whose portrayal of Jan has led to some of the show’s most memorable episodes.

While Jan’s fate will linger over the summer, Hardin’s dance card has been kept full with two of Disney’s leading men. She recently wrapped Seventeen Again, with Zac Efron, on whom she confesses a minor crush.

“Isn’t he great? He’s so sweet and absolutely grounded and lovely,” Hardin, 40, gushes of the High School Musical 3 star. “I thought he was adorable. I told him, ‘If I was your age you’d be in a lot of trouble right now.’ He laughed and said, ‘I don’t think I’d mind.’ So cute!” (more…)

The season’s not over yet, but Kate Flannery is ready to dish some Office gossip.

“We had a wrap party on the Santa Monica Pier, which was really fun,” Flannery, who plays Meredith Palmer, told PEOPLE at Thursday’s Lupus L.A. Orange Ball in Beverly Hills.

The NBC show just wrapped its fourth season, though the finale is yet to air.

“Everybody brought their families. I left with a ton of stuffed animals – and got a little sick on the roller coaster, but it was worth it.

“You can’t drink and ride the roller coaster, I learned,” Flannery says, smiling. “I think they’re still looking for Creed [Bratton], he may have jumped into the ocean, just right off the pier.”

It turns out one main Office star will be leaving after this season -– though details are secret as to which one. Who’s NOT a likely candidate for Office downsizing? Leatherheads star John Krasinski.

“There couldn’t be a show without John Krasinski,” Flannery says. “Jim and Pam? Come on!”

Meantime, another Office star, Angela Kinsey, is prepping to give birth in real life.

Flannery reports, “Angela is about to have her baby any minute now – even as we speak.” – Nicholas White

Michael Bezjian/WireImage

After several episodes of stolen glances over the reception desk, revelations that Jim is “in love with Italian food” and one very sweet kiss, Jim (John Krasinski) revealed last night that he’s ready to kick his relationship with Pam (Jenna Fisher) up a notch. After joking that she couldn’t move in with Jim without being engaged, Jim — who pined away for Pam for two seasons — told Pam that a proposal is coming. Proving that he wasn’t kidding, he shows the camera a ring that he bought a week into dating. Gah! The mind races. Will Michael bring Jan to the wedding? Will Scrantonicity play? Will Kelly (again) wear white? Will Pam say yes? –Cara Shultz

Tell us: What will a Jim and Pam wedding be like?

Byron J. Cohen/NBC

Jenna Fischer doesn’t like her fans to get Office news secondhand. Which is why America’s favorite secretary posts her MySpace blog directly “from the desk of Pam Beesley.” She points out that she loves the details from last week’s episode at Jan and Michael’s house, from the Andy Warhol-esque painting of Jan to Michael’s sleeping bench at the foot of the bed. She also comments on Jim’s (John Krasinski) attempt to ditch the party without her: “I always imagined she’d be a little pissed if he actually left, but in the end she’d say, ‘I get it. It’s every man for himself.’” The actress goes on to say that Thursday’s episode, titled “The Chair Model, is one of her favorites of the season. “We laughed, we gasped. I even got a little choked up. I think these six post-strike episodes are some of our strongest yet.” —Jonathan Stern

NBC

She’s having a baby, but it’s just another day at The Office for Angela Kinsey, who plays the tightly wound Angela Martin on the NBC comedy.

Blogging on her MySpace blog during the taping of a new Office episode, Jenna Fischer (who plays receptionist Pam) fills anxious fans in on how the writers plan on hiding Kinsey’s ever-growing baby bump. “The Angela character is not pregnant on the show,” writes Fischer. “We have been hiding her belly with files, purses, copy machines and even people. Yesterday we did a scene and it was my job to block her belly. So cute!”

Last month Fischer threw a down-home baby shower for her Office mate Kinsey. Read about it here. —Jonathan Stern

Photos: Jemal Countess/WireImage

Jenna Fischer is not shy about calling attention to her accomplishments — no matter how dubious.

On the set of her hit show, The Office, Fischer throws around her accolades to get respect, she tells Playboy magazine in their April issue. “Rainn Wilson and I refer to ourselves as Emmy-losing actors. We’ll be on set in a scene, and I’ll be like, ‘Seriously everyone, be quiet — Emmy-losing actor about to work.’”

And she encourages others to follow suit: “Maybe everyone should have something like that. Did you win the fifth-grade spelling bee? You can go with whatever your highest achievement is. That should precede your name at all times,’” she tells the magazine, which hits newsstands March 7.

The other honor she’s proud to add to her resume — and jokingly brag about — is being included in PEOPLE’s 2006 Most Beautiful issue. “I was so tickled by that because I loved the Most Beautiful issue when I was a little girl. I got it every year. I still have one with Julia Roberts on the cover, because I was just oh so excited. Now I think I’m going to put it in my movie contract that they have to call me ‘37th Most Beautiful Person 2006, Emmy-losing actress Jenna Fischer. ‘”

As much as she enjoys being beautiful, she just can’t be too beautiful. Fischer says she sacrifices some Hollywood luxuries to stay true to her Office character, Pam. “I’ve held back from doing some things. I haven’t had my teeth whitened. I haven’t gotten porcelain veneers,” she says. “And you’ll notice other things if you look carefully. I don’t get Mystic Tan treatments, for example, or any of that stuff. I need to keep it real so Pam can always look like a believable girl, not suddenly all plastic-y like a movie star.”

Chris Polk/WireImage

John Krasinski is “thrilled,” to go back to work on The Office this week now that the writers’ strike is finished.

“I can’t wait,” the actor told PEOPLE at Cosmopolitan’s Fun Fearless Male Awards Monday. “We’ve all been away from each other for a really long time and you forget that it’s not just like doing a show, but there really is a family atmosphere.”

Krasinski did keep busy during the strike, starring with George Clooney in Leatherheads, and debuting his directing skills with Brief Interviews with Hideous Men. “Directing was a great experience but it’s terrifying to have the responsibility of carving up the other actors’ performances,” says Krasinski, 28. “I don’t want to do that ever again. I want to be the guy who watches.”

Instead, he’s looking forward to hanging out with costars Rainn Wilson and Brian Baumgartner since, he says, “Pretty much our entire social life is on the show.” Adding: “Truly [I'm friends with] everybody there. But Rainn and Brian are probably the closest to me by default because they’re in my trailer every day at lunch playing video games.”

So will he miss having ex-girlfriend Rashida Jones on set? “She’s got her new show Unhitched, so that’s great,” Krasinski says. “We’d been friends for so long. We dated before the show, and we’ve stayed friends, so to see her going on to all these other things, she’s doing just fine without us.” –Charlotte Triggs

Michael Loccisano/FilmMagic

When The Office’s Angela Kinsey, who announced her pregnancy in November, returns to work March 6th, she’ll be curious to see how the show’s writers will incorporate — or ignore — her pregnancy.

“I feel like they can’t [incorporate my pregnancy on the show] but you never can tell with [executive producer] Greg Daniels. He could always have something up his sleeve,” Kinsey tells PEOPLE on Feb. 28, at Paige Premium Denim’s “Your Perfect Fit” launch party, which benefited the National Eating Disorders Association.

Should the writers need any ideas, Kinsey, who spent the hiatus decorating a nursery, has plenty. “I think there so many funny ways you can go. Like one thing I love is that she’s pregnant but she doesn’t acknowledge it. Phyllis could be all suspicious, and Dwight could be wigging out, and Angela’s pious like, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ And then the whole time Michael Scott would just think she’s fat. He’d be like, ‘Wow, what kind of diet is that?’ Maybe I’ll pitch that to the writers tomorrow!” says Kinsey, whose costar Jenna Fischer will help host an upcoming baby shower.

“The great thing is we’re in an office. It’s not Law & Order. I don’t gotta like walk around a crime scene. I can be behind a file cabinet, Xeroxing — a lot of photocopying for me!”

One thing the writers might want to consider: cutting back on her dialogue. She explains, “I’ve always been athletic so it’s weird to all of a sudden be like, ‘Okay, I’m going to take a breather, and I’m going to finish my story in a second. [Talking]’s a workout at 7 months pregnant!” –Jenny Sundel

Justin Lubin/NBC

This might take just the tiniest bit of sting out of the fact that last week’s episode of The Office is likely to be the last new installment we see until the writers’ strike is settled: NBC Universal is launching an online auction on Monday that will include the watch Steve Carell’s Michael Scott wore during his Dunder Mifflin adventures.

Among the other goodies up for grabs in the first batch of props at www.NBC.com/auctions:
(more…)

It’s official: Jan is the worst. Girlfriend. Ever. Last night on The Office, she asked (well, forced) Michael to give a deposition in her wrongful termination suit against Dunder Mifflin. She gave Michael answers, which she forced him to rehearse. Things were going well until the questioning focused on when they started dating versus when they informed the company of the romance. (Remember their Jamaican getaway?) When things fell apart, Jan produced Michael’s diary (yes, he has a diary, and he signs every entry, “Love and kisses,” like a 15-year-old girl), which detailed key moments when Jan told him their romance would go no further. Michael was devastated, even more so when he learns Jan recommended that he be demoted. But at the end of the episode, he’s still with her, trying to figure out a place to get dinner. Poor Michael! Think you have a story to top Michael and Jan’s “love” story—tell us! —Cara Lynn Shultz

Photo: NBC