Quick Takes: ‘Hellcats’ boosts CW

The CW’s latest teen-angst drama, “Hellcats,” about a bunch of cheerleaders with bad attitudes, gave the executives at the network and its parent companies CBS and Warner Bros. something to cheer about. The show drew 3 million viewers and performed well in the key female demos the network targets.

Although one strong debut does not a season make, it’s good news for the CW, which this week launches its fifth season. There were plenty of doubters that the network, which was born out of the merger of the WB and UPN networks, would last this long. Though it still hasn’t made a profit, its shows have become successes for its two parent companies.

“It is the assets that really make the money,” said CW President Dawn Ostroff in an interview. “When you look at what we make for our parent companies, it certainly is big in the plus column.”

This season, the CW will carry 10 hours a week of original prime-time programming, including the much-anticipated remake “Nikita,” starring Maggie Q as a lethal spy.

—Meg James

‘Birds’ auction in the millions

A rare copy of John James Audubon’s “Birds of America,” billed as the world’s most expensive book, is up for sale alongside a first edition of Shakespeare’s plays at an auction to set book lovers’ pulses racing, Sotheby’s said Thursday.

One of only 100 or so remaining copies of “Birds of America” is valued at between $6.2 million and $9.2 million while a Shakespeare First Folio from 1623 is expected to fetch at least $1.54 million.

Sotheby’s books expert David Goldthorpe said the two tomes are “the twin peaks of book collecting.” The books come from the estate of the 2nd Baron Hesketh, a book collector who died in 1955. The auction house is selling them in London on Dec. 7.

Another complete copy of “Birds of America” was sold by Christie’s for $8.8 million in 2000, a record for a printed book at auction.

—Associated Press

Willow Smith pops on radar

Watch out Rihanna, there’s a 9-year-old looking to steal your thunder.

And judging by the barrage of tweets and online buzz that followed after Willow Smith — the youngest offspring of Will and Jada Pinkett Smith — leaked her debut single, Rihanna and every other pop starlet should have Willow on their radar. Titled “Whip My Hair,” the radio-, club- and recess-friendly track sounds like something that Rihanna, Keri Hilson or Ciara might have cooked up for their latest albums.

Jay-Z’s Roc Nation music label officially announced they signed Smith to a record deal Thursday morning. The 9-year-old appeared on Ryan Seacrest’s morning show along with label founder Jay-Z. “We at Roc Nation are excited to work with Willow,” Jay-Z said in a statement. She has an energy and enthusiasm about her music that is truly infectious.”

—Gerrick D. Kennedy

‘Exhale’ sequel took its time

Fans of the bestselling novel “Waiting to Exhale” may have been holding their breath for a sequel all these years, but author Terry McMillan never thought she would revisit her most famous characters.

“I had not intended to write a sequel about these women. Not at all,” says McMillan, 58, of the four black thirtysomething women whose stories of love, affairs, fires and friendship were told in 1992’s “Waiting to Exhale” and are reprised in “Getting to Happy,” published in the United States this week.

Film rights to “Getting to Happy” have been optioned to the production team behind the “Exhale” movie — which starred Angela Bassett and Whitney Houston.

—Reuters

De Havilland’s French honor

Oscar-winning actress Olivia de Havilland, whose memorable performance in “Gone With the Wind” touches hearts 70 years later, has been awarded the Legion of Honor by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

De Havilland, who has lived in Paris since 1953, played the role of fragile Southern belle Melanie Wilkes in “Gone With the Wind” and is the last surviving major star of the 1939 classic.

—Associated Press