'TBH Politoons'
Thanks, again, Tim!
The Artful Dodger
THE HOLLYWOOD HUSTLE
Here are some recent screenplay deals that might make it through development hell and show up on your local movie screens in a few years.
Get closer
Director Mike Nichols and actress Julia Roberts are moving toward making "Closer," about two couples whose sex lives mingle. Also starring will be Natalie Portman and Jude Law.
Prediction: The script is based on a well-regarded stage play so Nichols gets to do the thing he does best – direct actors in intensely emotional scenes. If he can persuade Roberts to focus on the role and forget her deeply-ingrained persona, he might tease an Oscar-worthy performance out of her.
*****
All wet
"The Swimmer" will star Alec Baldwin. It's a remake of an old Burt Lancaster movie about a guy who makes his way home by swimming in the back yard swimming pools of his neighbors.
Prediction: It was a strange one when it came out decades ago and it will be a strange one when it comes out this time. But Baldwin is eminently watchable and hey, it's been a while since we've seen a lead character spend a whole movie getting wet.
*****
It's the box office, stupid
"The Beltway" will be a political thriller starring Nick Cannon. It's about a shady CIA plot uncovered by a young intern.
Prediction: Hot young actor, action flick, politics as the seamy underside – it could do well on opening weekend but not at number one, and not for two weeks in a row.
*****
David vs. Goliath
Actor David Duchovny puts on his director's hat for "House of D," a drama about a man dealing with the relationships in his life. Also starring are Duchovny's wife Tea Leoni, Robin Williams and songstress Erykah Badu.
Prediction: This one will garner a high curiosity factor among moviegoers, but what can Duchovny bring to the table that's new and fresh? And will he have the nerve to rein in the larger-than-life Williams?
*****
Kong Ka-ching
"King Kong" is coming back for the 21st century. Universal Studios and director Peter Jackson are set to update the hairy beast's tale, this time with Naomi Watts taking over the Fay Wray role.
Prediction: This will be a colossal embarrassment but nobody will lose their job over this green light because they only fail upward in Universal City. Regardless of whatever high-tech gizmos they come up with to create a "realistic" ape, the bottom line will remain the same: it's obvious that the big U is simply trying to leverage their assets into one more payday. It's so much easier than actually developing original material but there's a heavy karmic debt to be paid for such cultural duty-shunning.
~ The Artful Dodger
Reader Comment
Re: EastEnders
Open letter to the Vice President of Programming, BBC America
Dear Sir,
Just how poorly supported does a show have to be in
order to be cancelled from cable for lack of ratings?
Certainly by now you are being inundated with
complaints from the many steadfastly loyal fans of
EastEnders. I have no idea what benefit you expect to
accrue from cancelling a show that, although the
Nielsen rating aren't quite what you'd expect,
commands an audience that can be counted on to tune in
week after week, but judging from the number of times
BBCA's schedule is filled with the likes of "Changing
Rooms," it cannot be so consequential that it is worth
alienating a significant portion of your overall
viewing audience.
Perhaps if the show were on at an hour when people are
more likely to be watching television - perhaps
weekday afternoons, or evenings before prime time,
you'd find that ratings might improve. I have far
better things to do on Saturday afternoons than watch
television for two and a half hours, and I doubt that
whatever replaces EastEnders from 1:00 - 3:30 PM will
improve either your audience share or your audience
size. We, for example, typically time-shift
EastEnders while we go about our business, and watch
it later, usually at about six or seven PM, and
sometimes over two nights, since we're not always in
the mood to watch four straight episodes of anything.
This all reminds me of what NBC did with Star Trek
toward the end of its run - putting it on late
Saturday evenings when no one was watching (and home
VCR's haven't yet been invented) so the network could
later make the same argument you are now making about
ratings. What's the matter, is EastEnders, like Star
Trek, a little too unconventional for you?
Later this week, if this matter isn't resolved, I plan
to take my digital cable box back to Adelphia and
downgrade to basic cable, making sure they know the
reason for this is because I can't watch EastEnders
anymore. You just lost me as a member of your
audience, and you might just lose some cable providers
as well, because I refuse to pay through the nose for
junk programming, and my wife and I cannot possibly be
the only people in North America who watch EastEnders.
=====
The ALL NEW way Too Much Sense! (TM)
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
from Mark
Another Bumpersticker
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
The great weather is holding.
Talked with dear old Dad - he's booked another 'polka cruise' for the end of the month.
While I think it's a great idea, I remember how disgusted he was with the airport hassles in getting to his last cruise this spring. The one he swore that would be his last...
Ahnold is behaving like he's already won the election - the local TV stations are acting that way, too. Bummer.
Tonight, Thursday, CBS opens the night with a FRESH 'Survivor: Pearl Islands', followed by a FRESH
'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation', then a FRESH 'Without A Trace'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Dave are Lisa Kudrow and R.E.M.
Scheduled on a FRESH Craiggers are Val Kilmer, Gina Gershon, and Fuel.
NBC starts the night with a FRESH 'Friends', followed by the Season Premiere of 'Scrubs', then a FRESH
'Will & Grace', followed by a FRESH 'Coupling', then a FRESH 'ER'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jay are Lucy Liu, Dame Edna, and Bonnie Raitt.
Scheduled on a FRESH Conan are Jack Black and Staind.
Scheduled on a FRESH Carson Daly are Seann William Scott, Danica Patrick, and Leona Naess.
ABC begins the evening with a FRESH 'Threat Matrix', followed by a FRESH 'Extreme Makeover', then 'Primetime Thursday'.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jimmy Kimmel are Ted McGinley, Sarah Silverman, and DJ Z-Trip, with this week's guest co-host Kermit the Frog.
The WB offers a FRESH 'Steve Harvey's Big Time', followed by a FRESH 'Jamie Kennedy', then a FRESH
'What I Like About You', followed by a FRESH 'Run Of The House'.
Faux has 'MLB Baseball', and RERUN 'Simpsons' and 'King Of Queens' to fill primetime on the left coast.
UPN has 'WWE Smackdown!'.
A&E, in a bit of synchronicity, is scheduled to profile Donald O'Connor on 'Biography', followed by 'Columbo: It's All In The Game'.
AMC offers the movie 'The Hunter', followed by the movie 'Stalag 17', then the movie 'Shane'.
BBC -
[6pm] 'BBC World News';
[6:30pm] 'Cash in the Attic' - Farrier;
[7pm] 'Ground Force' - Isle of Sheppey;
[7:30pm] 'Changing Rooms' - Hitchin;
[8pm] 'House Invaders' - Rotherby, Leicster;
[8:30pm] 'House Invaders' - Rutland;
[9pm] 'Faking It' - Ballet Dancer to Wrestler;
[10pm] 'Coupling' - Size Matters;
[10:40pm] 'Behind the Screen' - Coupling;
[11pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Rod Stewart and Rosanna Arquette;
[11:30pm] 'So Graham Norton' - Alan Cumming;
[12am] 'Faking It' - Ballet Dancer to Wrestler;
[1am] 'Coupling' - Size Matters;
[1:40am] 'Behind the Screen' - Coupling;
[2am] 'House Invaders' - Rotherby, Leicster;
[2:30am] 'House Invaders' - Rutland;
[3am] 'So Graham Norton' - Rod Stewart and Rosanna Arquette;
[3:30am] 'So Graham Norton' - Alan Cumming;
[4am] 'Faking It' - Ballet Dancer to Wrestler;
[5am] 'Coupling' - Size Matters;
[5:40am] 'Behind the Screen' - Coupling; and
[6am] 'BBC World News'. (ALL TIMES EDT)
Bravo has 'West Wing', the movie 'True Confessions', 'Queer Eye', and 'West Wing', again.
Scheduled on a FRESH Jon Stewart is Rob Lowe.
History has 'Modern Marvels', followed by the movie 'Posse', then another 'Modern Marvels'.
SciFi has 'Dune - Part 1', followed by 'Dune - Part 2', then 'Dune - Part 3'.
TCM starts the day with most of the Marx Brothers
(Groucho, Harpo, and
Chico). No Gummo or Zeppo, nor their best efforts, but it beats the crap out of 'The Price Is Right'. And, no Chico & Harpo in
'Double Dynamite' or 'A Girl In Every Port'...
[6am] 'At The Circus' (1939);
[7:30am] 'Go West' (1940);
[9am] 'The Big Store' (1941);
[10:30am] 'A Night In Casablanca' (1946);
[12pm] 'Love Happy' (1949);
[1:30pm] 'Double Dynamite' (1951);
[3pm] 'A Girl In Every Port' (1952);
[4:30pm] 'Passport To Destiny' (1944);
[6pm] 'A Lady Without Passport' (1950);
[7:30pm] 'Festival of Shorts #25' (2000);
[8pm] 'Shenandoah' (1965);
[10pm] 'Rebecca' (1940);
[12:15am] 'I Never Sang for My Father' (1969);
[2am] 'The Courtship Of Eddie's Father' (1963); and
[4am] 'The Gazebo' (1959). (ALL TIMES EDT)
A unidentified protestor, dressed like a chicken, danced around calling for actor Arnold Schwarzenegger to debate Gov. Gray Davis, during a protest held outside a Schwarzenegger rally in Sacramento, Calif., Wednesday Oct. 1, 2003. More then 100 people demonstrated against the recall and calling for Schwarzenegger to debate Davis before next Tuesday's recall election.
Photo by Rich Pedroncelli
The Information One-Stop
Moose & Squirrel
In Talks to Buy Newsworld International
Al Gore
Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore is close to a buying a cable TV channel, putting him in a position to launch a liberal news outlet to counteract the increased popularity of conservative stations like the Fox News Channel, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Gore and a group of investors are in talks to buy Newsworld International, a cable news channel owned by Vivendi Universal, for $70 million, the source said.
If Gore succeeds, Newsworld International could compete with Fox News Channel, which has unseated CNN as the most widely watched news channel in the United States with a formula of brash talk show formats mixed with hard news.
Reports surfaced earlier this year that Gore was seeking financial backers for a liberal cable channel to help Democrats counter conservative media voices.
Al Gore
Gets Star on Hollywood Boulevard
Kevin Bacon
If you walk down Hollywood Boulevard, now there's only one degree of separation between you and Kevin Bacon.
The actor received the 2,238th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Tuesday in front of the Ivar/Cinespace Nightclubs, where he and his sibling have performed music as The Bacon Brothers band.
Bacon told the crowd on Hollywood Boulevard that he was grateful to have the support of his family, even though they didn't always understand his acting ambition.
"I had two great parents who didn't know anything about the movies, they never saw movies or went to the movies," the 45-year-old said. "They said if I wanted to be an actor, go pursue acting. I think it might be weird for my family who is here to watch their annoying little brother become a movie star. It's kind of a strange thing to deal with."
Kevin Bacon
Fabulous Woman With An Opinion
Bernadette Chirac
Bernadette Chirac, wife of French President Jacques Chirac, says she hopes Hillary Clinton will one day be elected US president because she would become a trailblazer for women across the world.
Clinton "does not say it, but I think she is aiming for the White House," Chirac said in an interview with Thursday's edition of the French magazine Nouvel Observateur.
"And I want her to succeed because the day that she is elected president of the United States she will become a trailblazer for all women of the world," she said.
Madame Chirac said women needed such an example, adding she knew many who did not put themselves up even for small-scale elections.
Bernadette Chirac
Actresses Amy Brenneman (L) and Emmy award winner Tyne Daly celebrate the 100th episode of their television drama series 'Judging Amy' during a break in filming in Pasadena, California September 30, 2003.
Photo by Tony Esparza
Plaque Better Than an Oscar
Michael Caine
Unveiling a commemorative plaque attached on the gatehouse that is all that remains of St. Olave's Hospital in south London, Michael Caine confessed that the moment was special.
"I've won a few awards in my life but this is by far the greatest. Really I'm not saying this to flatter or flannel (kid) — this is absolutely unique," the 70-year-old actor said.
"I could get my star in the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Hollywood Boulevard but that doesn't mean anything. This is something I wouldn't miss in the world."
Michael Caine
Pop Auction
Beatles
Beatles mementos were among hundreds of items from artists such as the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Queen and Madonna that went under the hammer as part of Christie's biannual pop memorabilia auction. Items up for sale included autographed material, lyrics, gold discs, unpublished photographs and clothing.
The poster for The Beatles 1962 "Number One Star Show" at New Brighton, northern England, sold for $19,516 while the U.S. tour program — signed by all four Beatles — raised $22,443.
A wooden sculpture of a twin door closet, entitled Open and Shut, designed by John Lennon, claimed the highest price of the day at $46,840, double its original estimate.
A single record of The Beatles' "Hey Jude/Revolution" from 1968 fetched $17,565 while a 1964 Pan American Airways in-flight menu, signed by all 4 members of the group, went for $15,048.
Beatles
Fans Raise Funds
Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart fans have contributed more than $3,000 to mount a Times Square billboard to support her defense against insider trading charges, said New York small business consultant John Small.
The goal is to raise at least $20,000 by the time Stewart's trial starts Jan. 12, said Small, 41, a subscriber to Martha Stewart Living magazine who says he loves her products.
Small, who runs a SaveMartha.com Web site, said he'd raised $1,000 on Wednesday alone, following a story in the New York Post, mainly from "a lot of people on the East Coast and California."
The billboard would declare: "If the stock sale was legit, you must acquit," Small said. Clear Channel Communications Inc. said it would provide the space if Small can raise the funds.
Martha Stewart
In The Kitchen With BartCop & Friends
Marks Comeback - Oct. 9 Test Debut
Napster
Napster, the pioneering song-swap service that was shut down for copyright infringement, is coming back next week to face the music as a paid site in a vastly changed online music arena.
Digital media company Roxio Inc., which bought Napster for $5 million last year, plans an Oct. 9 test launch for a new, legal version of the service called Napster 2.0, according to Napster spokesman Seth Oster.
Oster said the company also will unveil full details and the official launch date for Napster 2.0 at the service's "beta," or test, launch event in New York City, next Thursday, where over 200 members of the press and industry are invited.
For a lot more, Napster
Singer Anastacia shows off her blouse reading, 'Survivor Chick,' in reference to her battle with breast cancer, during the recording of Lifetime Television's 4th annual 'Women Rock! Songs From the Movies' benefit concert at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, September 30, 2003. The concert, which benefits breast cancer research, featured female musical artists singing songs from major motion pictures, and will be broadcast October 23 on the Lifetime television network in the United States.
Photo by Fred Prouser
Building Pool
Sheryl Crow
If Sheryl Crow wants to soak up some sun, she'll eventually be able to do it in the municipal swimming pool she plans to help build in her hometown, Kennett, MO.
Crow, along with civic leaders in this Missouri Bootheel community, announced this week plans to build a new pool just off the town square. Details about her financial commitment weren't disclosed, and it wasn't known when construction would begin or the pool would open.
Crow had considered making an anonymous donation, but civic leaders told her that the association of her name could prove as valuable as the financial contribution.
Sheryl Crow
www.sherylcrow.com
Formerly 'The Vidiot'
To Play Carnegie Hall
Hanson
Hanson will bop into Carnegie Hall for the final show of their acoustic tour. The trio, whose 1997 hit "MMMBop" helped launch the boy band craze of the late '90s, will perform there Nov. 8, they announced Wednesday. Tickets go on sale Thursday.
Isaac Hanson, the oldest of the three brothers at 22, said it was "a lifelong dream for us to perform at the historic Carnegie Hall and be able to stand on the same stage as many of the artists we so admire."
Taylor Hanson, 20, and Zac Hanson, 17, round out the group.
Hanson
www.carnegiehall.org
Romanian Roma princess Ana Maria Cioaba, 12, looks on during an Antena 1 TV talk show in Bucharest October 1, 2003. Romanian Roma king Florin Cioaba on Wednesday defied a state investigation into whether he forced his 12-year-old daughter to marry against her will and paraded her on TV to say the wedding was her choice. Ana Maria, whose marital age is common among Romania's traditional Roma who are estimated between 500,000 and three million, tried to escape the wedding by running out of the church ceremony but was convinced to return by her family.
Photo by Bogdan Cristel
Visited 'Tonight' Show
Quentin Tarantino
Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino appeared to take advantage of the open bar backstage at Jay Leno's "Tonight" show on Monday.
Leno joked, "don't light a match in here," in the midst of Tarantino's rambling, occasionally incoherent, guest shot. Tarantino was on the show to promote his new movie, "Kill Bill: Vol. 1," set for release Oct. 10.
"Have you been drinking tonight?" Leno asked.
Tarantino responded that he thought he'd bring back the spirit of Johnny Carson's "Tonight" show. "You have an open bar backstage," he reminded Leno.
His appearance ended shortly after an impatient Leno introduced a film clip. There will be no repercussions from the incident, "Tonight" show spokeswoman Carrie Simons said Tuesday.
Quentin Tarantino
Arrest Warrant Issued
Lil' Kim
Pint-sized rapper Lil' Kim has more than her jewelry to worry about these days as authorities in Teaneck, New Jersey are currently attempting to execute an arrest warrant for the rapper, according to Allhiphop.com. The warrant was issued after Lil' Kim missed several municipal court dates to answer marijuana possession charges.
The charges stem from a July 1996 raid of the home of the late Notorious B.I.G. Police arrested the Notorious B.I.G. and several members of the Junior M.A.F.I.A. including Lil' Kim after they discovered several weapons and marijuana in the late rapper's home.
Lil' Kim
Warned Not To Flush
Fish Hobbyists
As the American summer blockbuster "Finding Nemo" surfaces on European movie screens, conservationists are beseeching fish hobbyists: Don't flush!
Inspired by the adventures of the animated clownfish character — including his unlikely escape down a dentist's spit sink — conservationists say hundreds of children have flushed their pet fish down the toilet, hoping to free them.
The United Nations Environment Programme and its partners want to discourage the innocent practice, while using the film's Friday opening in the United Kingdom to highlight a new report that tallies exotic fish losses and habitat damage caused by the growing pet trade.
Fish Hobbyists
Marine Aquarium Council
United Nations Environment Programme
Des experts malaisiens ont mis en doute mardi des déclarations d'un chercheur américain estimant que les orangs-outans, qui vivent uniquement en Indonésie et en Malaisie, pourraient disparaître dans les 10 à 20 ans à venir.
Photo by Sophia Anada
'The Osbournes'
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