Signs of the Apocalypse Roundup – December 2009 – Week 2
VH1 orders ‘Basketball Wives’ with O’Neal
VH1 is getting into the housewife docusoap genre with a new series “Basketball Wives.” The eight-episode half-hour series will show the wives and girlfriends of players Shaquille O’Neal, Eric Williams, Antoine Walker, Jermaine O’Neal and Udonis Haslem’s.
Simon Cowell taking ‘X Factor’ to Vegas
Report: Talent show to be a global pay-per-view Web venture
British TV and record producer Simon Cowell, one of the most successful entrepreneurs in British and U.S. show business, is planning to bring his “The X Factor” talent show to Las Vegas in a global pay-per-view Internet venture.
Seagal’s ‘Lawman’ sets record for A&E
Good start for reality show at cable network
Action star’s new 10 p.m. reality show, “Steven Seagal: Lawman,” drew 3.4 million viewers in its premiere episode Wednesday night on A&E. Number represents the most ever viewers for a premiere episode of any series on the cabler.
‘The Hills’ receives season pickup
MTV also renews ‘The City’
Despite falling ratings, MTV’s “The Hills” will return for a sixth season. Skein was once a must see among the 18-34 demo but show has lost a bit of its luster with the departure of Lauren Conrad, who began the franchise when she starred in “Laguna Beach.” Conrad left “The Hills” after a handful of episode from season five.
CBS schedules another ‘I Get That a Lot’
CBS is bringing back its celebrity-filled prank special “I Get That a Lot,” where famous faces work menial jobs and confuse unsuspecting customers. This next edition features, according to the press release, “Julie Chen, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, Rachael Ray, Gene Simmons and Tony Hawk.”
More Horsemen
- Oxygen, Russell Simmons prep reality show
- ‘Married on MySpace’ web series to become reality show
- Adam Lambert to perform on ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ finale
- ‘Judge Alex,’ ‘Divorce Court’ extended
- Germany’s Vox acquires ‘X Factor’
- Mark Burnett signs on to produce HGTV ‘Design Star’
- Kevin Pollak to host Fox’s ‘Our Little Genius’
- CBS to air ‘Celebrity Skifest’ special with Neil Patrick Harris
- Nancy Grace set for daytime TV show
Business of the Business
Domestic B.O. dynamo
‘Transformers’ sequel leads studios to U.S. record
The domestic box office has rocketed to its best year ever, with “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” topping the chart. Through Sunday, revenues for the year were $9.61 billion, besting last year’s record-breaking take of $9.59 billion, according to Rentrak.
New Web site offering 12,000 film clips
Movieclips.com inks deals for videos from six major studios
Movieclips.com, which launched Wednesday, has signed licensing agreements with six of the major studios so that it can offer more than 12,000 two-minute clips culled from a diverse collection of movies. The free, ad-supported site has deals in place with Fox, MGM, Paramount, Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. The clips, which can be searched by such criteria as title, genre, actor and dialogue, link to third-party sites where consumers can rent or purchase feature-length versions of each title.
India’s VCL sets up in California
Hynek, Ashford, Blue join Santa Monica studio
Indian VFX house Tata Elxsi’s subsid Visual Computing Labs has set up a $5 million studio in Santa Monica, which will be up and running Dec. 7. VCL has created VFX for several Bollywood films including “New York,” “Jodhaa Akbar” and “Rang De Basanti,” and executed India’s first 3-D animation feature, the Walt Disney Pictures-Yash Raj Films co-production “Roadside Romeo” in 2008.
Murdoch talks future of online journalism
News Corp. CEO defends pay-for-news model
Murdoch said the future is promising for publishers that can adapt to the ongoing migration of audiences and advertisers to the Web. Key to survival, he said, is giving consumers what they want how they want it – be it on a computer, mobile device or e-reader – and then charging for it, as his company already does with The Wall Street Journal. “We need to do a better job of persuading consumers that high-quality, reliable news and information does not come free,” Murdoch said. “Good journalism is an expensive commodity.”
Nielsen to combine TV and online ratings next year
Urged by clients to move faster, Nielsen announced Tuesday a plan to accelerate adding an Internet measurement to its national ratings sample. The plans call for Nielsen to complete the roll out by Aug. 31, 2010, instead of some time in 2011 as previously planned. The initiative, now called “TVandPC,” will create the industry’s first single source measure of viewing to both TV and online. Once the rollout is complete, Nielsen will be able to report online video viewing from 7,500 national-people-meter homes, representing about 20,000 people and 12,000 computers.
Minutae
- Reliance MediaWorks in pact to help with 3D conversion in India
- Showbiz sees bright spot in ad market
- Film Department makes ‘Law Abiding Citizen’, now enters distribution biz
- Cable ads outperforming expectations, up 1.8% from last year
- GE pledges $345 mil in ads to NBC
- SAG, AFTRA face deadline to negotiate together
- FTC: Still too much violence for kids
- U.K.’s Five inks output deal with YouTube
Planet of the Odd
Ron Livingston sues: I’m not gay, Wikipedia!
Ron Livingston, who starred in ABC’s short-lived sci-fi series Defying Gravity, is suing someone who persists in altering Livingston’s Wikipedia page to say he’s in a gay relationship. Livingston also claims that someone has created fake Facebook profiles for him and Dennison, whoever that is. Livingston is suing for libel and invasion of privacy and for using his name and likeness without his permission.
Star Trek named one of the 10 best films of the year
The venerable National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, a national film group, selected J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek as one of the top 10 films of the year! The list also included Quentin Tarantino’s alternate-universe World War II movie Inglourious Basterds, Spike Jonze’s fantasy Where the Wild Things Are and Disney/Pixar’s animated Up. The organization also singled out Neill Blomkamp’s sci-fi action movie District 9 and Duncan Jones’ creepy Moon as among the year’s top independent films.
A Star, a Soap and the Meaning of Art
Why an appearance on ‘General Hospital’ qualifies as performance art
I have been obsessed with performance art for over a decade—ever since the Mexican performance artist Guillermo Gómez-Peña came to visit my class at Cal Arts summer school. I finally took the plunge and experimented with the form myself when I signed on to appear on 20 episodes of “General Hospital” as the bad-boy artist “Franco, just Franco.” I disrupted the audience’s suspension of disbelief, because no matter how far I got into the character, I was going to be perceived as something that doesn’t belong to the incredibly stylized world of soap operas. Everyone watching would see an actor they recognized, a real person in a made-up world. In performance art, the outcome is uncertain—and this was no exception. My hope was for people to ask themselves if soap operas are really that far from entertainment that is considered critically legitimate. Whether they did was out of my hands.
$110 million lawsuit says ‘Bruno’ and Letterman defamed Palestinian leader
Now Ayman Abu Aita, the leader of the Al Aqsa Bartyrs Brigade, is filing a libel and slander lawsuit against Cohen and NBC Universal over his portrayal in “Bruno.” The case will be filed in federal court in the District of Columbia. The plaintiff says Cohen represented himself during filming as a German filmmaker doing a film about the Palestinian cause. The film allegedly portrayed Aita as a “terrorist group leader.”
Meredith Baxter reveals she is a lesbian
Announced her four-year relationship on NBC’s ‘Today’
Meredith Baxter, who played mother Elyse Keaton on the 1980s TV series “Family Ties,” has revealed that she is a lesbian. “I am a lesbian, and it was a later-in-life recognition of that fact,” the 62-year-old actress said in an interview Wednesday on NBC’s “Today” show. Baxter said she has been in a relationship with her girlfriend, a general contractor, for four years.
Bits and Pieces
- Pauly Shore sues brother over control of Comedy Store
- Bollywood actress Bina Rai dies
- Oscar producer Adam Shankman Twittering about ceremony
- Roman Polanski moves to Swiss chalet
The Fine Print
This is by no means meant to be a comprehensive roundup of the entire weeks’ news. All stories are chosen by me for no other reason than that they got my attention and might capture yours. If something you think is more important chime in on the feedback; we’d love to hear comments and have a conversation about it.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
The Great Movie Never Made – Podcast Special
Rare Unsigned Copy – Book Review
Universal Soldier: Regeneration – Podcast Review
The Big Racket – Movie Review
The Men Who Stare At Goats – CSW Podcast Review
Slice Of Life – Book Review
Games Roundup – Week Three, March 2010
Signs of the Apocalypse Roundup – March 2010 – Week 1
Comic News Roundup – March 2010 – Week 1
TV News Roundup – March 2010 – Week 1
The Top and Bottom 5 films of 2009 – A (Cool) Shite Poll
The (official unofficial) Top 5 Video Games of 2009!
Australia’s R18+ Discussion Paper and Submissions – The Great Debate
Separation City – Paul Middleditch Interview
Kick Ass: Aaron Johnson – Interview
Planet Hulk: Josh Fine – Interview
Star Chicks – Interview
Van Diemen’s Land: Jonathan auf der Heide – Interview
Dr Who – Series 31 trailers
Predators – Movie Trailer
Predators – Featurette
The Losers – Movie Trailer
Tron Legacy – Full Trailer
