'Boy Meets World': That's our 'Girl'!

Boy Meets World fans, meet your Girl: EW has exclusively learned that 11-year-old Rowan Blanchard will play the daughter of Cory (Ben Savage) and Topanga (Danielle Fishel) in the Disney Channel spin-off of Boy Meets World, titled Girl Meets World.

The Los Angeles-based actress — with credits in Spy Kids: All the Time in World in 4D and The Back-up Plan — was just notified tonight that she’d be playing the part of Cory and Topanga’s daughter Riley Matthews after a nationwide casting search.

“As soon as Rowan walked into the room, I was reminded of why Ben Savage was loved as Cory Matthews,” says Michael Jacobs, who’s producing the Girl Meets World pilot. “Rowan is real and accessible and I am hopeful this girl is about to meet a world that will love growing up with her as well.”

It should be stressed, however, that the return to World is still a ways away: The pilot for Girl Meets World is set to begin production next month. If it gets greenlit to series (which is all but assured), expect this Girl to find her place on Disney Channel’s 2013-14 schedule.

Tanner on Twitter: @EWTanStransky

Read more:
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Cory and Topanga 4-ever: Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel set to return to Disney ‘Boy Meets World’ spinoff
‘Boy Meets World’ sequel: Casting breakdown reveals Cory has become…Mr. Feeny?
‘Boy Meets World’ Disney spinoff: Great idea or the best idea?

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'Boy Meets World': Our 'Girl' sings

Image Credit: David Livingston/Getty Images

Still reeling from the news that Disney has chosen 11-year-old Rowan Blanchard to play Riley Matthews on their upcoming Boy Meets World spin-off? Well, prepare for your mind to be blown a second time — because we just found out that little Rowan likes to sing. And she’s good.

The budding actress already has her very own YouTube channel, where she’s posted a handful of covers over the past year and a half or so. (She’s also got a Facebook fan page and a Twitter account that’s racked up nearly 4,000 tweets. The early bird catches the followers, right?) Rowan favors big, showy tunes that have been covered on Glee, including “Don’t Rain on My Parade”, the show’s “Anything Goes”/”Anything You Can Do” mashup, and Adele’s “Someone Like You,” her take on which I’ve embedded below. It’s a pretty impressive showing, though she doesn’t really reach for the rafters on “don’t forget me!” (To be fair, not even Adele always hits those notes live. Also, ROWAN IS A TINY CHILD.)

On one hand, I’m glad that these videos exist: They prove that Rowan is cute and charismatic, which bodes well for her casting. But on the other hand, they make me worry about the tone Girl Meets World might strike.

When Boy Meets World premiered, it was remarkable precisely because its protagonist was so normal — Cory Matthews’s averageness was essential to his character, and it’s what made him so endlessly relatable. (As it aged, of course, Boy and the boy himself got wackier and wackier — but that’s a topic for another time.)

But if Rowan Blanchard is a singer, chances are that Riley Matthews will be a singer as well. And if Riley harbors dreams of superstardom, Girl Meets World won’t be the story of a regular kid trying to navigate the realities of growing up, like BMW was — it’ll just be the latest in a long string of Disney Channel shows about kids who want to be famous. Which would be a shame, since mining less glitzy material might actually help the nascent series stand out.

These worries are entirely premature, of course; GMW‘s pilot won’t shoot until next month, and the show itself won’t appear on TV screens until the 2013/2014 season (if it gets picked up to series, which is all but inevitable). Even so, Disney execs, take note: Our Girl should be more like Lizzie McGuire than Hannah Montana. And no, I don’t mean the Lizzie who’s mistaken for an Italian pop star in the Lizzie McGuire movie.

Read more:
‘Boy Meets World’ spin-off: Meet Cory and Topanga’s daughter — EXCLUSIVE
TV Reboots: Our 2013 Wish List!
‘Boy Meets World’ star Rider Strong engaged
The year in nostalgia: Reboots, sequels, comebacks, and callbacks to a simpler time

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'Boy Meets World' taught us...

Image Credit: Everett Collection

It was the show that taught ’90s babies right from wrong while simultaneously making all of us jealous that our teachers weren’t anything like Mr. Feeny. From Cory and Topanga’s lifelong love story to Shawn’s difficult childhood, Boy Meets World was packed full of sweet moments, quirky jokes and life lessons. And now, another generation could be defined by what the kid next door says, does and learns with the creation of Disney Channel’s Girl Meets World.

A mere 20 years after we first met Cory and Topanga, we’re introduced to their daughter, who is about to set out on her own journey. But before we get a glimpse into her life, we’re revisiting Cory’s journey, what it taught us in the 90's and what we hope Girl Meets World will teach a new audience.

No two families are the same, and you make your own: Shawn’s childhood taught us that your home life doesn’t define you, and that all families don’t look the same. We also learned that your family isn’t always those you’re related to by blood. You can make your own family … even with people you look nothing like.

Even true love has its struggles: Some people might argue that Cory and Topanga never really hit a rough patch, but we have two words for them: ski lodge. And yet, Cory and Topanga’s love (just one representation of love on the show) prevailed, and now they have a daughter (who sings!).

Everyone has their own path: From Cory and Topanga’s early-in-life wedding to Shawn’s search for purpose and even Eric’s hard-to-follow journey, Boy Meets World was all about finding your own way and supporting one another no matter what. And let’s not forget the importance of being true to yourself, even if you speak to aliens or your name is Minkus.

Respect your elders (they really do know more than you): In the early days of the show, the biggest lesson was always about listening to your elders. Whether it was Cory’s parents or Mr. Feeny, with age came wisdom.

You never really have to grow up: Yes, the young kids we met in season one eventually matured and technically entered adulthood, but if Eric taught us anything, it was that keeping the child in you alive is what makes life fun.

Believe in yourself. Dream. Try. Do good.

We’re not sure what the future holds for Cory and Topanga’s adorable daughter, but as long as she has a sense of humor, a surprisingly mature outlook on life and an incredibly wise neighbor, we can’t wait to see what she teaches us. Correction: What she teaches the next generation of fans … and us.

Read more:
‘Girl Meets World’: Cory and Topanga’s daughter sings! Is that a good thing?
‘Boy Meets World’ star Rider Strong engaged
‘Boy Meets World’ spin-off: Meet Cory and Topanga’s daughter — EXCLUSIVE

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Google Doodle meets 'Star Trek'

Calling all Trekkies!

As the obsessives among us surely already know, this year is the 46th anniversary of Star Trek: The Original Series. To mark the occasion, Google has created a special Doodle — going live right now on Google’s homepage.

Yesterday, EW talked with Ryan Germick, who headed up this particular Google Doodle, about Star Trek’s pop-culture significance. “We often talk at Google about how awesome it would be to talk to a computer and get exactly what you want and have that kind of engagement, where the computer just knows all [like in Star Trek], and that’s what we’re moving toward,” Germick said. “Other than that, it just seemed like a perfect fit. There are so many Star Trek fans, myself included, it seemed like such a fun thing to celebrate.”

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Did you watch Star Trek growing up?
RYAN GERMICK: I did, yes. I’m early 30s and I grew up watching the original series with my dad, and I kind of realized, the guys on the Enterprise were like family friends to me. I’d watched so many episodes of the show that Spock and the others have a space in my mind like my uncles and my aunts. [I also liked the idea] that technology could be a hope for the future. It was a part of my childhood and it’s awesome to try and bring that to life on the homepage.

I love the GOOGLE word with the iconic hairstyles. Why did you decide to do that?
We went through lot of different iterations. What we’re looking to do is show them. And it seemed like a way to double-down sort of silly, campy nature of what we’re doing with the doodle to put in Kirk’s block of hair, Spock’s ears. It’s a testament to the power of the show, and how iconic it is, that you can just put a couple details on anything, even a letter ‘G’ and know it’s a Vulcan. That was really fun to play with and informs the whole direction of [the silly style].

What’s the process like to make an interactive design like this?
It’s actually more like a story — you can click around and discover things. Find some really unique, tiny nuggets from the show that meet the details of the program we all love. It’s something we’ve wanted to do for a long time. We had drawings and ideas for the past couple of years. We started putting it together in earnest three or four months back.

What do you think Star Trek’s legacy has been?
For me, it was a vision for the future. I think it was also that it was multicultural, pro-science, and full of curiosity and passion. I think like a lot of good science-fiction, it sort of says a lot about its present era. We can really appreciate what Star Trek did in its time. As an adult, you can appreciate how progressive it was. You learned to be compassionate towards all kinds of people — even alien creatures. Also, the style is just incredible: retro-futuristic. There’s so much to love. As a person that loves technology, there is so much to be inspired by. Being able to get the answers right away — that was from a crazy, far-flung era where computers were the size of refrigerators. And now, I’m so happy to work in the industry I’m in. So some of the realities from the vision of Star Trek are coming true. To be part of a company that makes it happen is really exciting.

Read more:
‘The Drive-In’: Get the story about Google’s latest doodle
Modern love: Google honors pioneering architect Mies van der Rohe
Amazon takes on tablet market with new, bigger, brighter line of Kindles

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Obama the attacker: ‘Hope and Change’ meets swift boat tactics

Top Line

The Obama campaign is going retro, circa 2004. Back then, President Bush supporters attacked then-Democratic candidate John Kerry on what was supposed to be Kerry's greatest strength -- his military service. A group known as the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth undermined that strength, calling into question Kerry's credentials and military awards. And thus was born "swiftboating" -- a term used to describe unfair or untrue political attacks.

The latest wave of Obama attacks is like Bain boating. The president's re-election campaign is armed with surrogates tasked with specific duties, making the case early and often that voters should be questioning Mitt Romney's taxes, off-shore accounts, and his record at Bain Capital. They are probing for different weaknesses, and aggressively attacking Romney at a time when voters should be talking about negative job numbers.

And they've succeeded. Romney has been unable to effectively respond to the attacks. The Obama campaign took advantage of the fact that Romney spent a week on vacation and hit him hard everywhere -- online, on TV, and in print.

Check out this week's Top line for more on Obama's negative campaign tactics, and whether all the negative campaigning has even had an impact on the race.

ABC News' Chris Good contributed to this report.

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