Gawker: defamer, starz

Chris Albrecht Discovers How Long It Takes for Hollywood to Forget a Casino Girlfriend Beating

Brian Moylan — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:17:16 EST

Albrecht is the new CEO of premium cable channel Starz! Well, looks like we finally have an answer for how long it takes Hollywood to forgive you for beating up your girlfriend in public. It's about two-and-a-half years.

This is a good thing for Starz!, which is trying to turn itself into the new HBO with lots of highbrow original content, and Albrecht, who has flailed every since being ousted by Time Warner share holders almost three years ago.

Albrecht was asked to step down from his post as head of HBO in 2007 after reports surfaced that he beat his girlfriend in front of a casino. He started at HBO in 1985 and had a hand in bringing us The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire, and every other show you love that was not TV, it was HBO. At the time, he said the incident stemmed from a relapse of his alcohlism. The girlfriend in question didn't press charges and later married him.

She forgave him, and so has the industry! After leaving HBO, Albrecht headed IMG Global Media and started Foresee Entertainment, a production company that sold a fashion-based drama to Starz! They must have liked it so much, they they brought Albrecht on board to run the whole show. We can't wait until he's up on stage accepting Emmys for the channel in 2014. We promise not to make any jokes about him choking the golden lady. OK, maybe not.

[Image via Getty]

Starz's 'Spartacus: The Series' Strenuous To Say With Lisp

Seth — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:05:00 EDT

· Sam Raimi is executive producing Spartacus for Starz, a gladiator drama whose look and tone will owe more to 300 than it will to the 1960 Kirk Douglas movie. So it won't be suggestively homoerotic, but rather overtly homoerotic. We're seeing plenty of cross-promotional broadcast potential on Starz sister-channel, Gayz! [THR]
· Warners has bought the rights to Japanese anime movie Ninja Scroll. The rights to commenter scroll_lock's life story, however, are still available, and would make a compelling action/suicider. [Variety]
· The economy is affecting your quality of life in ways you hadn't even thought of: It's being fingered as the reason a group of struggling new shows like Knight Rider, Private Practice, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles have been given full-season pickups. [THR]

After the jump: Is it a Dr. No or a Dr. Yes? Chinese weigh in on the new Bond film.

· A&E has picked up a second season of Benjamin Bratt series The Cleaner. [THR]
· The People's Glorious Bureau of Cinematic Cleansing has deemed Quantum of Solace appropriate for Chinese eyes, as the latest Bond film will screen in that country without a single edit. [Variety]

'Crash: The Show' To Capitalize On Weekly Racist Cliffhangers

Seth — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:45:00 EDT

Out of the 2006 Oscars came many things, among them an unlikely two-horse sprint—one gay, one racist and mangled—between Brokeback Mountain and Crash for Best Picture. Crash would win, its tapestry of bigoted Angelenos embarking upon a futuristic death race for ultimate ethnic supremacy striking a chord in many Academy voters. Some time passed, and news came down the transom that Crash would become a weekly TV series on Starz. (While Brokeback Mountain: The Series never really progressed past the point of some preliminary interest at that network's specialty offshoot, Gayz.) Well, friends, we're thrilled to now present for you the Crash series trailer. It might not have Matt Dillon and Sandra Bullock, but it does have Dennis Hopper—who told us personally about his enthusiasm for the series ("We had an orgy the other day. For me it's a joy,"), and who in it delivers what is sure to become his signature phrase ("OOOhhh—I'm scared of a black man with a gun!") with admirable aplomb. [Crash]

Bold Starz Campaign Insists You Will Hate The Lindsay Lohan Film Airing Saturday

STV — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 12:00:00 EDT

There's no denying Lindsay Lohan's "thriller" I Know Who Killed Me was among the most critically and commercially reviled B-movies of last year — of any year, really. But now that IKWKM is approaching cable oblivion with its premiere June 14 on Starz, we doubt our inbox has ever seen a publicity campaign this wonderfully defensive or reactionary — almost Warholesque in its celebration of its own product's awfulness, proudly emphasizing its Razzie Award cred and critical pull quotes exhorting viewers to check out "a disaster that exerts a perverse fascination" (Variety) or "the monumental trashiness of this mess" (NY Daily News).

While we're loathe to plug the film (in fact, we would sooner piss in our own mouths than watch it again) or its network, we acknowledge the vague intrigue of Lohan's pseudo-twin/stripper/victim antics among the IKWKM cultists out there. Here's hoping the torpedoed likes of Speed Racer and The Happening find this kind of love in their own pay-cable afterlives, perhaps on Starz soon-to-be-introduced sister channel Flopz.

I Know Who Killed Me [Starz]

Lionsgate, Starz Delivering The 'Crash' TV Series Your Secret Inner Racist's Been Craving

Mark — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:55:50 EST

When we briefly worked through the ramifications of the interim deal that Lionsgate struck with the WGA late last week, our thoughts immediately turned to the eventual resumption of production of the company's critically acclaimed, hit TV properties like Mad Men, daring to dream that our favorite hard-drinking, secretary-despoiling ad execs might find their way back to AMC in the not-too-distant future. But we never thought to consider the potential dark side of LG's television business lurching back into action, and so were shocked to learn this afternoon that the studio is partnering with Starz, our go-to premium-cable movie outlet when HBO seems to be showing nothing but Just My Luck and The Devil Wears Prada, to adapt subtle, multiple-Oscar-winning L.A. race-parable Crash for the small screen. The good news: according to Var, "high production values" and the participation of the original, uniquely heavy-handed creative team will ensure a viewing experience every bit as fulfilling as your original trip to the multiplex. The bad news:

None of the major characters from the movie, including the ones played by Matt Dillon, Brendan Fraser and Sandra Bullock, are likely to make it to the series, said Beggs. "We'll use the style of storytelling from the movie," he said, "but there'll be new characters and new stories to get into the subjects of race and class, and the bigotry that's simmering under the skin of a city like Los Angeles."

Though the jettisoning of Crash's beloved character-types is certainly disappointing (surely, someone at least considered the possibility of making an offer to Kevin Dillon to reprise brother Matt's Oscar-nominated performance), we're sure viewers will embrace the fresh players Paul Haggis uses to expose the prejudice-riddled underbelly of Los Angeles on Starz, open-mindedly accepting the secretly racist firefighters, Hollywood agents, or middle-class housewives who find their lives improbably intertwined by the we're-all-just-trying-feel-something fender-bender that opens each episode.

Starz braces for 'Crash' [Variety]
Previously: Lionsgate Pulls WGA Into A Negotiation Room For A Spat-Ending Quickie [Defamer]