Get ready for some bad singing, outrageous personalities, and in-between all that, possibly a new musical sensation. "American Idol" returns this week, with the first crazy audition shows. Also: Two more familiar faces are back, as TV viewers meet a young Carrie Bradshaw in the "Sex and the City" high-school prequel series, and Arnold Schwarzenegger muscles back into theaters with "The Last Stand."

Fox

"American Idol" returns this week.

MONDAY: 'The Carrie Diaries'
What would Carrie Bradshaw of "Sex and the City" have been like in high school? A new series, "The Carrie Diaries," tackles that question. AnnaSophia Robb, of "Soul Surfer" and other movies, will play a teenage Carrie in this CW prequel. In the premiere, Carrie, who has lost her mother, must deal with an overprotective dad and an internship at a Manhattan law firm. Do juniors in high school really get internships at Manhattan law firms? Anyway, we love the 1984 fashions in the preview. (Premieres Jan. 14, 8 p.m., the CW.)

WEDNESDAY: 'American Idol'
Ryan Seacrest brags that the upcoming season of "American Idol" will be its "best season yet." Yeah, seems like we've heard that before, but mixed in with the forgotten winners (where's Taylor Hicks today?), the show has produced enough real powerhouses (Carrie Underwood, Kelly Clarkson) to make us tune in at least through the zany, chicken-suited auditioners to see if Seacrest can fulfill his promise. Randy Jackson, Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban are the judges. This year, the show tried to give small-town singers who might not be able to make it to a big city to audition a shot by taking a bus tour of smaller towns. And the new "Nominate an Idol" twist let family and friends secretly submit their favorite young singers for consideration. (Premieres Jan. 16, 8 p.m., FOX.)

FRIDAY: 'The Last Stand'
Arnold Schwarzenegger is done governing, folks, and he's back to the career for which we know him best -- acting. The Terminator stars in "The Last Stand" as a failed small-town sheriff who must step up when he learns a drug kingpin is zooming towards his border town. Somehow we have trouble picturing Arnold as a failed anything, and have only sympathy for the kingpin (played by Spanish actor Eduardo Noriega). Johnny Knoxville of "Jackass" co-stars. (Opens Jan. 18.) 

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His life may be untidy at times, Arnold Schwarzenegger has always tended to keep his hair fairly neat. So when he was spotted strolling around southern California with a "Dumb and Dumber" style haircut, fans took notice.

Splash News

Arnold Schwarzenegger shows off an apparent "bowl" haircut in Los Angeles.

The former California governor will be seen on the big screen again come January when he plays a disgraced sheriff in "The Last Stand." But it's believed that the bowl haircut is related to his role in "Ten," an upcoming action thriller in which he plays the leader of a DEA task force.

In late October, Schwarzenegger tweeted a picture of himself in full costume from that set, in a look that included neck and knuckle tattoos still visible in the later photograph. For the "Ten" role, however, he sported much more of a neat, militaristic hairdo.

twitpic/@Schwarzenegger

Schwarzenegger tweeted this photo from the set of his movie "Ten." The fake tattoos seen clearly here are still somewhat visible in the more recent photo.

Schwarzenegger's keeping his movie slate jammed full. He's also said that he'll be starring in prison-break film "The Tomb" with Sylvester Stallone, in another action film called "The Unknown Soldier," and in "Triplets," the sequel to 1988's "Twins."

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They remade "Total Recall," but the first look at "The Last Stand" proves that you can't replace Arnold Schwarzenegger.

While the action star-turned-politician makes an appearance in this weekend's "The Expendables 2," he makes his true, leading-man return in Korean director Jee-Woon Kim's American debut, in which he plays a border-town sheriff nearing retirement.

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The plan for relaxation gets waylaid, however, when a drug cartel makes the very careless mistake of deciding that, with all the unpatrolled land along the American-Mexican divide, it has to choose the small, arid patch the hulking lawman has sworn to protect, no matter the cost in blood or vehicles.

He's joined in the film by Forest Whitaker, Luis Guzman, Genesis Rodriguez and Johnny Knoxville (obviously). The action thrill ride roars into theaters in January.

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