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Trade Round-Up: Les Moonves' Sweet Victory

Seth — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:53:10 EDT

· Four of the six big media companies saw their stocks rise this year. Among them, CBS' went up 4%, while Viacom went down 10%. Les Moonves was last overheard cackling in his office, inviting his secretary to join him for a slice of a custom-ordered cake iced to resemble a naked, weeping Tom Freston. [Variety]
· Superman Returns pulls in a healthy $21 million on its opening day, performing to but not exceeding Warner Bros.' expectations, and not coming anywhere near Spider-Man 2 record of $40.4 million. Brandon Routh's agent announces the happy news at some teenager's house party in the Valley, as his client teeters on the roof, having an Almost Famous moment. [Variety]
· Sony screens 20 minutes of Casino Royale at the Cinema Expo, revealing a much grittier, angry Bond who [SPOILER!] blossoms once he reluctantly accepts an undercover post acting as a bitchy fashion editor's assistant. [Variety]
· "How do you end a network?" In the case of The WB, apparently you end it by airing a day's worth of old pilots and "classic promos and image campaigns from the WB's 11-year history." Be sure to catch the montage of Regrettable Felicity Hair Decisions, set to a tear-jerking "Time Of Your Life (Good Riddance)." [Variety]
· Kyra Sedgwick's TNT series The Closer has been renewed for a third season, in which audiences will finally learn what Kyra has been getting closer to in the first two seasons. [THR]

Trade Round-Up: JJ Abrams Declared New Trekkie God

Mark — Fri, 21 Apr 2006 16:05:17 EDT

· Paramount hands over its Star Trek movie franchise to JJ Abrams for a resurrection, who will write, produce, and direct (with a host of his Lost and M:i3 cohorts) a Trek prequel. Abrams, respectful of Trekkie devotion, plans to adapt this piece of fan art into the story of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock's early, experimental days at Starfleet Academy. [Variety]
· And in other JJ Abrams-related news, Alias and Lost producer Jesse Alexander signs a two-year overall deal with NBC Universal TV Studios. [THR]
· Hollywood NepotismWatch: Ron Howard will direct The Look of Real, and "hopes" that the movie will star his daughter, Bryce Dallas Howard. Yeah, we think we like the kid's chances of getting the gig. [Variety]
· Gilmore Girls showrunners Amy Sherman-Palladino and Dan Palladino leave Gilmore Girls after Warner Bros TV refuses to play ball on a new contract as the show shifts to The CW for its probable last season. [THR]
·The Lifetime Network enables Shannen Doherty to become professionally bitchy, signing her up for a reality series in which viewers can hire the actress to dump their boyfriends or terrorize other people in their life. Yes, for real. We can't wait. [Variety]

CBS Teen Orgy Scares The WB Into Hiding Bi-Curious Antics On Web

Mark — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 16:12:10 EST

Last week's stunning $3.6 million fine of CBS for its now-infamous Without a Trace "teen orgy scene" has other network executives crapping their collective pants in fear, as they realize that the venerated practice of using some primetime-boundary-pushing sex for an easy Nielsen spike may have expensive consequences. Today, the NY Times reports that The WB has willingly self-censored the first episode of its soon-to-premiere series The Bedford Diaries (the first time we'd ever heard of the show—if this is a publicity stunt, nice job! It's working.), banishing the slightly racier, lesbian-lite version to their web site:

The pilot episode of "The Bedford Diaries," which concerns a group of college students attending a class on human sexuality, had already been accepted by WB's standards department. After the F.C.C. decision last week to issue millions of dollars in fines against broadcast stations, the network's chairman, Garth Ancier, contacted Mr. Fontana and asked him to edit a number of specific scenes out of the show, including one that depicted two girls in a bar kissing on a dare and another of a girl unbuttoning her jeans.
"I said no," Mr. Fontana said in an interview Wednesday. "I told him I found the ruling incomprehensible. He said the censor would do the edit."

The decision, several network executives said yesterday, could represent a further step in the spread of alternative means for television programs to reach viewers, including iPods and computers. It could also increase the risk that network television will be seen as pass by some of its audience, especially younger viewers.
"The message here is that they'll be forced to go alternative ways of looking at shows if they want to see the real thing," Mr. Fontana said. "It's like they're telling people that broadcast television now has much less interesting stuff than you see on the Web or cable."

What is at stake is nothing less than the American public's right to watch on network television twentysomething actresses playing curious teenagers unconvincingly pressing together their lips in a fashion that will not reveal any intertwined tongues, thus ruining a broadcast-acceptable take. More importantly, the practice of presenting these "uncut" episodes on the Web threatens to taint the whole internet, that unspoiled bastion of true, unashamed, hot lesbian action. Let's keep Mischa Barton's clumsy, bi-curious experimentations where they belong and stop this madness before it's too late.

WB Censors Its Own Drama for Fear of F.C.C. Fines [NY Times]
Previously: 'Without A Trace's' $3.6 Million Teen Orgy Scene [Defamer]
'Without A Trace's' Teen Orgy Scene: The Totally Hot Full-Text Version [Defamer]

Trade Round-Up: Sony Crosses Fingers, Waits For Da Vinci

Mark — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 14:27:31 EST

· More The CW fallout: Fox is still trying to figure out what to do with their nine UPN stations in top markets, while other affiliates lash out with public defiance: "The strength of KQCA is not solely dependent on the WB Network programming for success. We will develop a new strategy for the station, which will include new programming, new content and a new station identity." Right on! Fuck you, Gilmore Girls! [Variety]
· Sony reports a 17.5% quarterly profit (mainly on the strength of video games and fancy TVs), looks hopefully to a 2006 in which its movie operation isn't a gigantic disaster. [THR]
· Warner Bros will remake the 1944 thriller Gaslight with Pride and Prejudice director Joe Wright, but with a modern twist: The studio hopes to lure Jennifer Aniston to play a jilted woman slowly being driven insane by her ex-husband and his new girlfriend's incredibly public displays of affection. [Variety]
· Fox's American Idol continues its completely mundane obliteration of everything in its path. [THR]
· Still more Sundance deals: Lionsgate buys thriller Right At Your Door for $2 million, IFC shells out $1 mil for the documentary Wordplay. [Variety]