Gold Derby nuggets: '24' shuts down to 'retool' | Keira Knightley fears Oscars speech | Jordan jumps into derby

•Entertainment Weekly's Hollywood Insider blog is reporting that production on the seventh season of "24" has been shut down for at least two weeks after filming finished on Episode 18. As exec producer Howard Gordon tells EW, "We had a couple of scripts that we weren't happy with. We just couldn't get this direction to work, and we found another one that we liked better, so we wound up retooling it."

This marks the second time shooting has stopped on this seventh edition of the Kiefer Sutherland spy drama. The first came last fall after eight episodes were in the can when the writers strike disrupted production and pushed the premiere back by a year. However, this new delay will not stop this season from beginning on Fox in January 2009 with an uninterrupted run until May. After five consecutive Emmy nods for best drama series culminating in a win for a riveting fifth season, fans and critics were disappointed in the most recent installment.

• TV Squad has some fun with the news that onetime regular Anthony Edwards is returning to "ER" for a guest spot during the medical drama's upcoming 15th and final season. Edwards, who had four consecutive Emmy nods for his work on the show (1995-1998) as well as a 1998 Golden Globe win, left the series after eight seasons in 2002. Given that his character, Mark Greene, died of a brain tumor, his return seemed out of the question. As those wags at TV Squad report, "He hasn't been kept alive by some mysterious millionaire in a mountain hideout all these years (though I would happily swallow such a soap-opera-ish plot because I never thought they should have killed off Mark in the first place), the character will actually be seen in new flashbacks that have something to do with a new character played by Angela Bassett (this won't be footage from past episodes, they're new flashbacks to events we didn't see on the show before)."

• Keira Knightley tells the London Guardian that she doesn't think she'll win the Oscar this year for "The Duchess" because "it's what's known as a 'big year' in the business," and that's probably OK because, if she did triumph, "I'd probably ... myself if I had to give a speech."

• Over at InContention.com, Kris Tapley posts an audio recording of director Christopher Nolan discussing with the L.A. Times' Kenneth Turan the first flick he directed, "Following," after a screening of it. Tapley promises: "It’s a delight to listen to Nolan discuss the particulars of his craft today, with five other films under his belt and a lot of perspective to shine back on his initial cinematic foray." Tune in HERE.

• The nation of Jordan is officially joining the Oscar derby for the first time, submitting Amin Matalqa's "Captain Abu Raed" for consideration. READ MORE.

Photo credits: Top, Fox; Paramount Vantage.