.......................................................................................................................................................... After 86 days, H'wood ready for strike to end
With the writers' strike in its 86th day, the town's running out of patience -- despite hints of progress at informal meetings to lay the groundwork for official WGA negotiations to resume.
SAG muddied the picture Tuesday by blasting the DGA's two-week-old tentative deal, prompting an immediate rebuke of SAG's leaders by DGA president Michael Apted.
SAG's dismissal of the DGA deal may dash hopes that the directors pact would serve as a template for a WGA deal and get the scribes back to work in the next few weeks.
In a message to SAG members, prexy Alan Rosenberg and exec director Doug Allen amplified previous prounouncements that the DGA deal would not automatically be the model for a new SAG deal -- echoing what WGA leaders were saying before they launched the informal contract talks last week and began a news blackout.
"Some have rushed to anoint their deal as the 'solution' for the entertainment industry," Rosenberg and Allen said. "We believe that assessment is premature."
Apted responded by accusing SAG -- which has been in lockstep with the WGA throughout the strike -- of throwing a monkey wrench into the WGA talks. He pointed out that the SAG letter says too little is known about the DGA deal for anyone to "assume" anything about it.
"Then why do they need to send any letter to their members?" Apted added. "They are not in negotiations and have not scheduled any. Their letter has one purpose and one purpose only: to interfere with the informal talks currently under way between the WGA and the studios. Simply put, their assumptions and arguments are specious. The DGA deal is a great deal for our members."
The inter-guild brawling comes with rumors circulating that the WGA strike may end within the next few weeks and that some progress has been achieved. But with pinkslips piling up, frustration's mounting over the lack of resolution from the weeklong informal talks between WGA leaders and the moguls.
Worries center on what's emerged as a de facto deadline of mid-February for the WGA to decide to stop striking. If a deal's in sight at that point, networks could still salvage the current season by shooting a few episodes of suspended shows, a truncated pilot season could still take place, and the possibility of a summer SAG strike would diminish significantly.
The town's hopes for an end to the strike's been feuled by the Jan. 17 announcement of the tentative DGA deal, the WGA's agreement to take up the moguls' invitation to launch informal talks and the guild's move to ditch its reality and animation proposals. But SAG's thumbs-down on the DGA deal may put optimism in the deep freeze for now.
Rosenberg and Allen zeroed in on what they see as the lack of details about the DGA deal in areas such as paid downloads, determining fair market value and the "very high thresholds" in jurisdiction for made for new media content. The duo noted that DGA's download residuals formula -- calling for .7% in TV and .65% in features, or about double the current rate -- falls well below the 1.2% pay TV formula that all three guilds are seeking in arbitration and represents a concession and "an AMPTP roll-back."
Rosenberg and Allen also said thresholds in the DGA deal for jurisdiction in made-for new media may spur non-union work below the threshold amounts ($15,000/minute, $300,000/program, $500,000/series).
"What will stop the industry from making cheap, non-union pilots at below $300,000 per episode, for testing first on the Internet before the productions migrate to broadcast or basic cable?" the duo said, noting that only seven of 210 Internet producers signed to SAG contracts in the past two years would fall inside the DGA thresholds.
"We have worked hard, just as we do with low budget features, to capture this Internet work and to make sure it is done union," they added. "This DGA proposal appears to abandon jurisdiction over a huge swath of actual Internet productions, which we currently cover."
The duo said the DGA's definition of distributor's gross is "vague and not sufficient to protect against manipulation by the employers." And the SAG leaders also scorned the DGA's deal for streaming residuals, which includes a 17-day window for free streaming (and a 24-day window for new programs) and a one-year $1,200 buyout. "Residual compensation should be based on a fair share of revenue generated by covered content from the first dollar," Rosenberg and Allen added.
The letter ended by asserting that it's up to DGA members to determine if the DGA deal is acceptable, but noted that decision won't be satisfactory for SAG. "Each guild must act in the best interest of its own membership, including rejecting management-imposed 'pattern bargaining,'" it added.
SAG's current contract expires June 30 and no talks have been set yet.
Both sides in the WGA talks continued to observe the news blackout. But sources close to the talks said the slow pace of the talks stems partly from WGA efforts to convey to members -- particularly those that have grown weary of striking --that its leaders are negotiating hard and pushing for a better deal than the DGA pact.
"I still think they are a few weeks away, even if this process continues to be positive," one said. "But I think it's much harder than the DGA talks were because the personalities are not as compatible."
Without a deal soon, however, the positions of companies are certain to harden, which would likely result in more deals being terminated and more jobs lost. The WGA could see members follow through on threats to resign from the union, and SAG would probably become more militant.
But with SAG members who work in TV already being on a de facto strike for several months, the actors guild may lose its fervor to follow the WGA out on strike.
The WGA returned to normal picketing Tuesday in Los Angeles. It was operating lines at its eight usual locations: Warner Bros., CBS Television City, CBS Radford, Warner Bros., Disney, NBC Burbank, Fox and Paramount.
Most pickets remain cautiously optimistic about the informal talks between the WGA and moguls.
"I'm ready for this to be over," said WGA member Bob Zeschin at the Paramount lot.
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.......................................................................................................................................................... Fly naked on nudist holiday flight
Passengers must be clothed before boarding, dress before deplaning
FRANKFURT - German nudists will be able to start their holidays early by stripping off on the plane if they take up a new offer from an eastern German travel firm.
Travel agency http://www.ossiurlaub.de said it would start taking bookings from Friday for a trial nudist day trip from the eastern German town of Erfurt to the popular Baltic Sea resort of Usedom, planned for July 5 and costing 499 euros ($735).
"It's expensive, I know," managing director Enrico Hess told Reuters by phone. "It's because the plane's very small. There's no real reason why a flight in which one flies naked should be more expensive than any other."
The 55 passengers will have to remain clothed until they board, and dress before disembarking, said Hess. The crew will remain clothed throughout the flight for safety reasons.
"I wish I could say we thought of it ourselves but the idea came from a customer," Hess told Reuters by phone. "It's an unusual gap in the market."
Naturism, or "free body culture" (FKK) as it is known in Germany, was banned by the Nazis but blossomed again after the Second World War, particularly in eastern Germany.
"There are FKK hotels where you can go into the restaurants and shops naked, for example," Hess said. "For FKK fans — not that I'm one of them — it's nothing unusual."
"I don't want people to get the wrong idea. It's not that we're starting a swinger club in mid-air or something like that," he added. "We're a perfectly normal holiday company."
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Having perhaps developed a new sense of perspective on What Really Matters since surviving a kale-induced gastrointestinal attack, Gwyneth Paltrow has again emerged from self-imposed career hiatus to deliver an important announcement on the current state of her always-tentative relationship to stardom. Sadly, however, the words "red-carpeted hole in my soul that no amount of baby-burping can fill" appear nowhere in the declaration, as the actress tells U.K. magazine Now that she currently has no immediate plans to return to Hollywood's ass-kissy embrace:
"I don't have the same ambition that I used to have, and don't work at a furious pace. I have a great life and I see everything differently now," she said.
"I know that shooting film after film doesn't make you happy, and I've never been happier with Chris and the children."
"I will do more films now that Apple and Moses are a little bit older," she adds to Britain's Now Magazine.
Which isn't to say Paltrow isn't completely unavailable for work--just so long as the part can accommodate her busy parenting schedule. Producers of Iron Man, for example, were so insistent on casting Paltrow as Tony Stark's executive secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts, they reconfigured the character to allow for the accompaniment of her two young children in every shot, even going so far as to rework her dialogue in the pivotal identity-reveal scene to now read, "A rocket suit? How exciting, Tony! But I should really go, or Orange and Aron are going to be late for their African dance class! Good luck, though! Byeee!"
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Christian Brando is photographed outside the Los Angeles County superior courthouse in this Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005 file photo, in Burbank, Calif.
LOS ANGELES - An autopsy was scheduled Tuesday on the body of Christian Brando at the request of his family, the coroner's office said.
Brando, the troubled son of the late Marlon Brando, died Saturday at a Los Angeles hospital. An attorney representing Marlon Brando's estate said the 49-year-old died from pneumonia.
His family requested the autopsy "based on his past drug history," Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Fred Corral said Monday.
Corral said the autopsy would include a toxicology analysis.
Christian Brando's ex-wife Deborah sued the executors of Marlon Brando's estate Monday, claiming she is a victim of professional negligence, fraud and deceit.
She claims that as part of a February 2007 settlement with Christian Brando in a domestic violence case, she would become assignee of her ex-husband's rights and claims in the estate.
After-hours calls to David J. Seeley, an attorney representing Brando's estate, and Brando's personal attorney, Benjamin Brin, weren't immediately returned Monday.
Deborah Brando accused producer Mike Medavoy and fellow executors Larry J. Dressler and Avra Douglas of executing a forged codicil to Brando's will days before the actor's death July 1, 2004.
"The will was forged ... designed to separate and alienate (Deborah Brando) from others in Marlon Brando's close and extended family, friends, and business acquaintances, and to keep them from challenging the will or trust," the lawsuit said.
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Neither managers nor talent landed a total win, but managers came out ahead Monday as the California Supreme Court delivered its much-anticipated decision on the Talent Agencies Act.
While the court unanimously held that the act does preclude managers from procuring employment for clients, it ruled that an "isolated instance of procurement does not automatically" bar a manager from collecting commissions.
The labor commissioner has the discretion to review the manager-client relationship on a case-by-case basis and apply principles of fairness to allow managers to be paid despite isolated acts of procurement, according to the decision. For the past four decades, the labor commissioner virtually automatically voided a contract if a manager ever procured employment for the client. The result was that the client stopped paying commissions, and the manager was required to disgorge a portion of payments already made.
In legal terms, the court applied the doctrine of severability of contract, holding that the valid part of the talent-management relationship could be severed from the illegal procurement portion.
The court also urged the legislature to rewrite the Talent Agencies Act, which is universally loathed by talent managers.
The case stems from the 1978 act, which deregulated managers but prevented them from procuring work for their clients. Only talent agents, which are regulated by state statute, can procure employment.
Managers have long contended that early in an actor’s career, the line between managing and procuring is vague and that once an actor becomes successful, he can use an isolated instance of procurement to get out of paying commissions. The law, which was intended to shield talent from unscrupulous operators, had become a sword against managers, they claimed.
Plaintiff Rick Siegel, the president of Marathon Entertainment, said he was "very happy" with the result and believes it represents a "sea change" in how the Labor Commission will resolve his long-running case against actress Rosa Blasi, as well as how such cases will be handled in the future. Siegel also expressed disappointment that the court rejected his contention that the Talent Agencies Act is not applicable to managers.
Gerry Margolis of Manatt Phelps & Phillips, who filed an amicus brief on behalf of the National Assn. of Artists’ Managers, hailed the decision as good for managers, as well as for the business at large.
"The labor commissioner and the courts will have to do more work now," Margolis said. They will have to look at the overall relationship between a manager and a client and apply principles of fairness." Margolis said the commissioner’s previous position that any act of procurement voids an otherwise productive relationship was just unfair.
Blasi’s attorney, Michael Plonsker, said: "Although we are pleased that the court has confirmed the applicability of the Talent Agencies Act to personal managers and all others who would procure employment without a license, we are disheartened that the court has seen fit to strip the act of the deterrent mechanism -- namely, automatic voiding of the illegal talent agency contract in its entirety -- that has stood for 40 years. Now it is for the Legislature to determine -- as suggested by the Supreme Court -- whether it will amend the Talent Agencies Act to make explicit that the remedy announced by the court is contrary to the bright line and harsh deterrent intended by the Legislature."
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ statement sounded a similar note:
"While AFTRA is disappointed that the California Supreme Court did not strongly affirm the contractual rights of performers and other talent and their relationships with talent agents, we are encouraged that ruling found that personal managers are regulated by the California Talent Agencies Act."
In the Blasi case, the court found that Marathon did not procure Blasi’s lead role on the television series "Strong Medicine," and directed the lower court to determine whether severing the contract to allow payment to Marathon was appropriate under those circumstances.
Blasi’s is one in a long line of cases, including those involving Arsenio Hall and Thomas Haden Church, in which the labor commissioner barred payment to the manager.
As outlined at great length by the court, Blasi hired Marathon in 1998 to serve as her personal manager in exchange for a 15% fee. During the ensuing three years, Blasi’s professional appearances included a lead role as Dr. Luisa Delgado on the television series "Strong Medicine." In 2001, Blasi terminated her Marathon contract.
Marathon sued Blasi, seeking to recover unpaid "Strong Medicine" commissions. Blasi filed a petition with the labor commissioner alleging Marathon had violated the act by soliciting and procuring employment for Blasi without a talent agency license. The labor commissioner agreed, finding that Marathon had violated the act by providing talent agency services without a license, and barred Marathon from recovery.
Marathon appealed the labor commissioner’s ruling to the Superior Court, claiming that the Talent Agencies Act as applied to managers violated the state and federal constitutions. Marathon again lost in the trial court. The Court of Appeal reversed the decision in part; it agreed with the trial court that the act applied to personal managers.
However, it concluded that under the law of severability of contracts, the possibility existed that Blasi’s obligation to pay Marathon a commission on that contract could be severed from any unlawful parts of the parties’ management agreement.
Monday’s opinion affirms the Court of Appeal’s decision.
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Hip-hop artist Foxy Brown touches her ear during a news conference to discuss her hearing loss in this Dec. 15, 2005, file photo in New York
NEW YORK - A judge has denied Foxy Brown's request to get out of jail early so she can go to California for an ear examination and for repair of an electronic ear implant.
State Supreme Court Justice Melissa Jackson ruled Thursday that the singer will not let Brown go to Los Angeles' House Clinic for the exam and repair of a defective cochlear implant, the Manhattan district attorney's office reported Monday.
Brown, 29, revealed her hearing problems during a court appearance in 2004. Her petition to Jackson said that her condition was worsening in jail and that she faced serious harm to her hearing unless she had the cochlear implant reprogrammed and repaired.
Prosecutors say Brown can get the treatment she needs in New York, but her attorneys say she requires the treatment of specialists at House Clinic.
Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, was sentenced in September 2007 to a year in jail for violating probation. Jackson had put her on probation after she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault of two manicurists at a Manhattan nail salon in August 2004.
Brown's albums include "Ill Na Na" and "Chyna Doll," and she is known for her sexy outfits and racy lyrics. Her lawyer, Laura M. Dilimetin, had no comment on the ruling.
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.......................................................................................................................................................... Spoof edges out Stallone at box office
One movie about ancient warriors inched out another at the box office this weekend, as "Meet the Spartans" came in just ahead of "Rambo."
Last weekend's openers had a tight race for the third and fourth spots, but a huge 68% tumble for "Cloverfield" and a skimpy 41% drop for "27 Dresses" meant that Fox's romantic comedy landed on top after being handily beaten a week ago.
Financed by New Regency and distribbed by Fox, spoof "Meet the Spartans" took in $18.7 million at 2,605 theaters.
Perf is virtually identical to that of "Date Movie" and "Epic Movie," previous spoofs from writer-directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer that bowed in the winters of 2006 and '07. Auds for "Spartan" were 75% younger than 25.
Revival of "Rambo" proved a success, grossing $18.2 million from 2,751 locations. Pic significantly outperformed writer-director-star Sylvester Stallone's last film resurrection, "Rocky Balboa," which took $12.2 million on its first weekend.
Pic was acquired by Lionsgate from Avi Lerner's Nu Image/Millennium, which got rights to the franchise from the Weinstein Co.
Auds were primarily male, but evenly split between those over and under 25, indicating that there was a healthy mix of those new to the action star and those with fond memories of his ass-kicking deeds in the '80s.
Weinstein Co. execs are already thinking about reviving "Rambo" as a franchise.
"This film has been a long time coming," said Harvey Weinstein, noting that his brother Bob bought the "Rambo" rights at auction when they were running Miramax, and the new film only got going when Lerner became involved more recently. "Based on these numbers, there should be another one."
Frame's other openers were Sony Screen Gems' thriller "Untraceable," which grossed a so-so $11 million at 2,368 locations, good enough for No. 5 for the weekend, and Paramount Vantage's dancing drama "How She Move," which managed only $4.2 million at 1,531 theaters and didn't break the top 10.
Though horror films don't typically hold well, few expected "Cloverfield" would fall quite so dramatically. After opening with $41 million, it grossed $12.7 million on its second weekend. The 68% drop isn't quite as big as those taken by record holders like "Gigli" and "Doom," but it's still a dubious mark after "Cloverfield's" record-setting opening.
Nonetheless, Par execs are surely thrilled the pic, which the studio says cost $25 million, has cumed almost $65 million in 10 days.
Fox had nothing to complain about either, as "27 Dresses" enjoyed a modest decline that indicates it should have strong legs. Katherine Heigl starrer grossed $13.6 million, bringing its total take to $45.3 million.
Two Fox films passed major milestones, as "Alvin and the Chipmunks" continued its boffo run by crossing the $200 million domestic mark, and Searchlight's "Juno," enjoying a bump following the Oscar noms, came in No. 6 for the weekend and upped its cume to more than $100 million.
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I got this note about last night's DGA awards this morning, and had to read it twice. Apparently, things got a bit feisty. Well, just take a look for yourself:
Being in the room was an odd experience to say the least. I'm sure you have heard by now the drama of the show....
An extremely drunk Sean Young heckled Julian Schnabel the moment he walked on stage to accept his medallion. She was quickly 86'd by security and tried to throw a punch at those ejecting her from the venue. She really ruined Julian's moment and it was kind of sad. He looked into the audience and said "Who said that?" She blurted out something else unintelligible and then he said "Perhaps you'd like to finish my speech," said "thank you very much" and started to step away from the podium. He came back, of course, but it seemed he was visibly pissed and upset by the interruption. Sort of sad, actually. It's like you get this big moment where you're one of the 5 directors honored in a year and then some drunk ass wipe in the audience ruins a lifetime moment for you.
There was also this, which was kind of, sort of interesting:
Tony Gilroy's speech STUNK and he insulted George Clooney in a manner that didn't draw laughs, but snickers, from the audience. He said "...George Clooney, who couldn't be here tonight, but we'll tell him it was all about him." Not nice. He managed to salvage the moment by evoking Sydney Pollack's name and asking the audience to raise a glass to Sydney. Still, his speech was lame and he is truly a bit of a tool if you ask me. Pulling the Sydney Pollack card in the way he did was over the top and bizarre and looked like campaigning 101.
If you're looking for more coverage of last night's festivities, Tom O'Neil has a podcast up of the Coens' acceptance speech as well as some speculation on the DGA-Oscar win percentage. Is "No Country for Old Men" going to take this year's Best Picture award?
Also, as always, Variety has its coverage of the goings-on.
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In an interview with <em>TV Week</em> following his selection as one of the trade publication's "12 To Watch," always-quotable NBC perfect storm Ben Silverman was asked to reflect on his oft-controversial tenure as the network's designated rock-star and what, if anything, he might have done differently if given a second chance. But while he seems to admit that he could stand to work on his propensity for baring his razor-sharp, rival-eviscerating Peacock talons each time he's placed in the threatening presence of a recording device (the infamous "D-Girls" and "Ugly, Prom-Ruining WGA Nerds" incidents immediately come to mind), he still finds his own candor fun and refreshing. In short: Ben Silverman is someone Ben Silverman would want to hang with:
"With Mr. Silverman seemingly on the verge of uncharacteristic self-abasement, I asked if he were an outsider who had read all of his comments this past year, would he like himself? What would he think of that bragging, partying executive in the press?"
But Silverman is always Silverman.
"I'd think: 'I want to go hang out with that guy!'" he said. "'I think that person is real.'"
Struck by this unexpected realization of his own awesomeness, Silverman produced his ever-present BlackBerry and began furiously tapping away at the keys, telling his inquisitor, "In fact, I totally want to party with Ben tonight. I'm texting him right now. We'll chill at the Chateau and talk about what a genius idea bringing Gladiators back was--I mean, look at the ratings! It's the same fucking show as it was, like, twenty years ago! So good!--and kick around Steve McPherson a little bit, it'll be so epic. Damn, I hope he's around. Last time we tried to get together he blew me off because he said I was acting too clingy and desperate. Whatever! Full of yourself much? But still love that guy."
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.......................................................................................................................................................... Smaller films continue to generate buzz
While smaller projects and documentaries continued to generate buzz as Sundance started drawing to a close, star-driven vehicles like the Robert De Niro pic "What Just Happened?" and "The Great Buck Howard," which Tom Hanks produced and co-starred in, held all of the appeal of three-day-old fish.
"What Just Happened?" -- in particular -- entered the fest with a roar and a great deal of enthusiasm. Still, even a red-carpet appearance by De Niro himself could do little to prevent the insider Hollywood tale from leaving Park City with a whimper.
As for the overall deal mojo, although several films hovered on the verge of landing distributors, only one found a home in the past 24 hours. Sony Pictures Classics scooped up U.S. rights to the fest's dramatic competition entry "Frozen River," for low- to mid-six figures.
William Morris Independent repped the film, which was written and directed by tyro helmer Courtney Hunt and centered on a woman caught up in poverty and human smuggling in rural upstate New York.
Meanwhile, it was deja vu for a number of pics that remained in a holding pattern with interested buyers.
Distribution deals were expected for the Deep South-set drama "Ballast" and the Colin Farrell-narrated soccer documentary "Kicking It," which was acquired earlier in the fest by ESPN.
Three buyers were courting the Duplass brothers' relationship-themed comedy "Baghead," with another three possibly coming to the table. The Weinstein Co. circled the Russian-language fairy tale "Mermaid," but no deal had been inked by early evening.
The ensemble wine country drama "Bottle Shock," which unspooled nearly a week ago, fielded offers, as buyers were in play for Stacy Peralta's Crips and Bloods documentary.
Multiple buyers spent the day circling the feel-good drama "Phoebe in Wonderland" and the Spanish-language CG-laden "Sleep Dealer," which had IFC in the hunt.
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With Hollywood holding its collective breath, WGA leaders and moguls provided another slice of optimism as they continued to meet informally for a third straight day to hammer out a conclusion to the three-month writers strike.
Talks remained under a news blackout Thursday with another session planned for today -- giving rise to hopes that the de facto negotiations are productive enough developing sufficient momentum to lead to the resumption of formal negotiations.
The WGA trumpted a pair of interim deals Thursday with Lionsgate, the largest indie producer, and superhero specialist Marvel Entertainment. The new pacts give the WGA a dozen such deals as part of its "divide and conquer" strategy to put pressure on the majors to accept the guild's terms.
"Lionsgate is considered a leader in the industry and its signing an interim agreement again confirms that it is possible for writers to be compensated fairly and respectfully for their work and for companies to operate profitably," said WGA West prexy Patric M. Verrone and WGA East prexy Michael Winship.
Lionsgate's pact with the WGA is the first of the guild's interim deals to make a dent on the scripted primetime series side, because Lionsgate at present is the only distrib beyond the majors that is deficit-financing scripted series.
And the timing of the deal is particularly good for Lionsgate's TV biz; the indie's Showtime comedy "Weeds" would normally be gearing up for pre-production right about now, and its understood that the company had hoped to begin prepping the second season of its much-praised AMC drama "Mad Men" as early as last November.
Moreover, Lionsgate Television has a number of high-profile development projects in the works with broadcast and cable nets. If the strike endures, Lionsgate could wind up as the only major player that is able to proceed on script revisions and pilot production.
As for Marvel, Chairman David Maisel said the deal will allow it to resuming work with writers on future projects including "Captain America," "Thor," "Ant-Man" and "The Avengers."
The AMPTP reiterated its statement about such deals: "These one-off agreements are meaningless because the companies signing them know they will not have to abide by their terms for very long, since they'll be superseded by whatever final industry-wide accords are reached. If companies truly had to live by the terms of these one-off agreements, we are confident none would ever be signed."
The majors have continued to pressure writers by tightening its purse strings. ABC joined most of the other broadcast nets Thursday in opting to cut back some of its scripted development for the 2008-09 season.
It's believed the net has cancelled commitments to between two and three dozen projects, repping perhaps a quarter of its previously planned development. Alphabet telegraphed its intention to reduce its script roster last week, but until Thursday, it hadn't made any moves in that direction; in the meantime, CBS, Fox and the CW all informed dozens of scribes that their projects were no longer wanted.
ABC released a statement saying that the "ongoing strike has caused us to reevaluate our development needs and we've made the difficult decision to reduce the number of scripts under consideration."
NBC Wednesday said it wouldn't trim back any of its script orders for next season.
The key issue at the DGA negotiations -- and for WGA members on picket lines -- centered on spelling out how creatives will be compensated for work in new media. The DGA's deal provided for specificity in electronic sell-through, streaming and jurisdiction over work created for the Internet.
Informed sources have said the DGA's projections have shown that the digital businesses covered under its agreement will be generating revenues of $3.5 billion annually by 2014.
Meanwhile, the WGA continued picketing at most major lots in Los Angeles despite heavy rains on Thursday.
"It's not the most pleasant thing but I'm from Seattle so this kind of weather is nostalgic for me," noted strike captain Steve Chivers at the Paramount Windsor gate as rain came sluicing down.
Chivers, who was overseeing about 25 pickets at mid-morning, pointed out that WGA pickets in New York routinely faced far more challenging weather.
"I remind myself that this kind of weather is nothing compared to what they see every day in New York," he added.
Chivers said the mood on the picket line has stayed upbeat, particularly with the WGA leadership announcing that it's meeting with moguls to lay the groundwork for official negotiations to resume.
"I think people are feeling like we finally may be able to make a deal, although we still have not seen the actual numbers -- just the DGA announcement," he added.
He also noted that WGA negotiating committee members and board members have been visiting picket lines in recent days to seek feedback and explain the nuances of what the DGA announced in its deal last week.
"We're just ordinary people," Chivers said. "Despite what (AMPTP media consultants) Chris Lehane and Mark Fabiani may say, we are not crazy and we don't have horns and tails."
In New York, the WGA called off a large picket scheduled for today at Time Warner Center. Media rep Sherry Goldman said the decision stemmed from the press of other events -- including an Oscar event, a Congressional visit and daily pickets at the morning and latenight talkshows Monday through Thursday.
"It was becoming logistically too difficult to do this major event, too, and then be able to plan for next week so we decided to postpone," she said.
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LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Screen Actors Guild has filed hundreds of payment claims on behalf of TV actors who have been idled by the Hollywood writers strike.
SAG is demanding that the production entities behind the vast majority of scripted shows pay regular cast members half their salaries for up to five weeks.
The union has also sent out questionnaires to talent representatives inquiring if their series regular clients have been paid their minimum guarantees for the season (on average, 13 episode fees). It plans to file new claims on the issue for those actors whose guarantees haven't been met.
In the letters, SAG also offered to assist any series regulars who want to terminate their deals at the end of the five-week period. SAG claims that would be possible if production companies haven't satisfied both the half-pay and minimum guarantee requirements.
SAG already has discussed the half-pay issue with various production entities. The half-pay claims are now handled by SAG's legal department and appeared headed for arbitration.
The terms for suspending series regulars when their shows were shut down because of the writers strike have become a bone of contention between the studios and SAG.
Some studios, such as CBS Paramount Network TV and Sony, qualified the production shutdown as non-paid "hiatus."
That definition came under fire from SAG and another performers union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which called it a violation of their joint TV contract.
SAG has insisted that the studios have to invoke the "force majeure" -- or act of God -- provisions in the SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreement, which include up to a five-week suspension at half pay and possible termination of the actors' contracts at the end of that period.
Universal Media Studios has been the only TV studio to say that it would comply with SAG's force majeure provisions.
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Evening commuters reach for copies of the afternoon MX newspaper reporting the news of the death of actor Heath Ledger, in Sydney, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2008
NEW YORK - A massage therapist who discovered a lifeless Heath Ledger in his Manhattan apartment made her first call to Mary-Kate Olsen, according to an in-depth timeline police released Wednesday of the moments surrounding the Australian-born actor's death.
Police said Ledger probably died sometime between 1 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. on Tuesday of what authorities say may be an accidental drug overdose.
Authorities found six types of prescription drugs in Ledger's apartment, including pills to treat insomnia and anxiety, according to two law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. Three of the drugs were prescribed in Europe, where Ledger had been filming recently.
Ledger's housekeeper, Teresa Solomon, arrived at his apartment with her own key and let herself in. At 1 p.m., she went to his bedroom to change a light bulb, and saw Ledger sleeping and heard him snoring. She left the room without thinking anything was wrong.
At 2:45 p.m., massage therapist Diana Wolozin showed up for her appointment with Ledger, who didn't answer when she knocked on his door. She then tried to call him on his cell phone, but again got no response. She went into the bedroom, set up her massage table and again tried to wake Ledger.
Wolozin told police that Ledger was cold to the touch, but that she assumed he was just unconscious. She grabbed his cell phone and called Mary Kate Olsen, whose number was programmed into the phone. Wolozin knew that the "Full House" star and Ledger were friends, and she asked Olsen for advice on what she should do next.
Olsen, who also lives in Manhattan but was in California at the time, responded by saying she would send over her private security guards to help deal with the situation. In the ensuing moments, Wolozin realized that Ledger might be dead. She called Olsen again, then called 911.
The emergency operator provided Wolozin directions on how to do CPR, but it was too late.
Paramedics arrived minutes later — at about the same time as Olsen's security guards.
Messages left at telephone numbers listed for Wolozin and Solomon were not returned Wednesday.
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CHICAGO - After undergoing a series of cancer surgeries, Roger Ebert says he'll have yet another operation.
According to a statement in the Chicago Sun-Times, Ebert was to have surgery Thursday in Houston to address complications from previous operations.
Ebert, 65, has been a film critic at the newspaper for more than 40 years.
He has undergone a series of operations, including the removal of a growth on his salivary gland and a tracheostomy, a procedure that opens an airway through an incision in the windpipe, that left him unable to speak.
Though he has been unable to appear on "At the Movies with Ebert & Roeper" for more than a year, with guest hosts filling in, Ebert has been writing reviews regularly.
He said he's written several advance reviews and other columns to appear while he recuperates.
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.......................................................................................................................................................... Hollywood holds breath after 2nd day of talks
The WGA and the majors have stayed on their tentative path to peace with a series of informal meetings aimed at ending the brutal three-month writers strike.
Moguls and guild leaders confabbed Wednesday morning for the second consecutive day amid reports that the session was productive. Both sides observed a news blackout, and another meeting is set to take place today.
In a move aimed at keeping the pressure on the companies to get back to the bargaining table, the WGA is expected to annouce shortly that it's signed an interim deal with Lionsgate. It will be the 11th such pact the guild's inked with an independent production company, with terms mirroring those contained in the initial deal with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants.
The WGA deal will allow Lionsgate to hire WGA writers for work on scripts to keep the company on track for meeting its goal of releasing 20 films annually along with maintaining TV operations in production and syndication. Lionsgate also owns Mandate Pictures, which signed an interim deal last week.
In the meantime, the town's hopes for a deal have received several major boosts thanks to a variety of signals -- the Directors Guild of America deal, the direct involvement of powerful players such as News Corp.'s Peter Chernin and Disney's Robert Iger, the cooling of rhetoric from both sides and the WGA's decision not to picket the Grammys.
Perhaps most critically, Tuesday's decision by the Writers Guild to ditch proposals for reality and animation jurisdiction was widely interpreted as an indication that WGA leaders are ready to make a deal. The move came in the wake of pressure from high-profile screenwriters and showrunners to take advantage of the moguls' offer to start the process -- or face the possibility that a significant number of that group would resign from the WGA by filing for financial-core status.
Still, the WGA has not stopped its strike activities. Despite drizzle throughout the day, the usual picketing resumed Wednesday morning at major Los Angeles lots, with negotiating committee members meeting with pickets on the lines to explain the latest developments.
During a midday meeting on the sidewalk outside Paramount's Windsor gate, panel member Steven Schwartz stressed that one key goal for WGA leaders is to build long-term protections into the new deal.
"What I want to do is protect us regardless of consumer behavior," he said, in answering a question about how writers should be paid when their TV shows are streamed on the Internet. "The staff is trying all kinds of ways to skin that cat."
Schwartz admitted the terms in the DGA deal for ad-supported Internet streaming -- about $1,200 for a primetime drama for the first year and a 17-day period of free use for promotional purposes -- don't sound impressive. He also cautioned the members against reaching the conclusion that Internet residuals will automatically replace conventional TV residuals, which usually amount to about $20,000 per year, since it's unclear whether all TV will shift to the Internet.
"If you are insisting on replacing the $20,000 residual with the Internet residual, you're going to be on strike for a long time," he added. Schwartz told a group of about 20 pickets that other key issues to be sorted out include language on separated rights, which covers compensation for scripts when used in areas such as plays, and the DGA's gain of jurisdiction on made-for-the-Internet.
Schwartz, whose credits include "Critical Care" and "The Practice," noted at one point that the negotiating committee has not yet seen the actual DGA deal. He credited the DGA deal with locking in the definition of "distributor's gross" as the basis for payment of residuals in electronic sell-through.
"Distributor's gross is huge," he added.
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Australian-born actor Heath Ledger, pictured in 2007
-- NYPD Police officers move the body of actor Heath Ledger a into vehicle outside of his apartment building were he was found dead on the afternoon of January 22, in New York City
NEW YORK - An autopsy on Heath Ledger was inclusive, and more tests are needed, the medical examiner's office said Wednesday, a day after the 28-year-old actor was found dead with sleeping pills nearby.
It will take about 10 days to complete the investigation, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner.
Earlier, police said the death was caused by a possible drug overdose and appeared to be accidental.
Fans left flowers and candles outside the apartment building in Manhattan's SoHo where the body of the Oscar-nominated star of "Brokeback Mountain" was found.
Khaled Ali, 41, a stage manager for a Broadway show, dropped off a candle on his way to work. He said he and his fellow cast members were devastated by the news of Ledger's death.
"I felt a connection with him as an actor, as a fellow in the theater community," he said. "With `Brokeback Mountain' he touched me personally in telling the story of my community. It was very touching."
Ledger was known for grueling, intense roles that became his trademark after he got his start in teen movies like "10 Things I Hate About You."
The Australian-born actor was found dead Tuesday by his housekeeper and masseuse — lying naked and face-down at the foot of his bed, with prescription sleeping pills nearby, police said.
It was a shocking end to a career built on unpredictability. Ledger avoided the safe path in favor of roles that forced him to bury his Australian accent and downplay his leading-man looks: a tormented gay cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain," a drug addict in "Candy," an incarnation of Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There."
In what may be his final finished performance, he took a rare role in a guaranteed summer blockbuster, playing Batman's nemesis, the Joker, in the upcoming "The Dark Knight." But the role was nothing he could phone in; it forced him to re-brand a character last played on the big screen by Jack Nicholson.
"I had such great hope for him," Mel Gibson, who played Ledger's father in "The Patriot," said in a statement. "He was just taking off and to lose his life at such a young age is a tragic loss."
Ledger split last year with Michelle Williams, who played his wife on the set of "Brokeback Mountain." The two had a daughter, the now 2-year-old Matilda, and had lived together in Brooklyn's Boerum Hill neighborhood.
Early Wednesday, Williams and Matilda left Trollhattan, Sweden, where the 27-year-old actress had been shooting scenes for the upcoming film "Mammoth," said Martin Stromberg, a spokesman for film production company Memfis Film.
"She received the news at her hotel late last night," Stromberg said, adding he had not spoken to the actress after she learned of Ledger's death.
The actor's personal strife was accompanied by professional anxiety.
Ledger said in an interview in November that "Dark Knight" and last year's "I'm Not There," took a heavy toll. He said he "stressed out a little too much" during the Dylan film, and had trouble sleeping while portraying the Joker, whom he called a "psychopathic, mass-murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy."
"Last week I probably slept an average of two hours a night," Ledger told The New York Times. "I couldn't stop thinking. My body was exhausted, and my mind was still going." He said he took two Ambien pills, which only worked for an hour.
News of Ledger's death spread quickly, from the crowd of 300 people that gathered Tuesday outside his Manhattan apartment to the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, where those with close ties to the actor included Naomi Watts, who dated him after they met on the set of "Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized story about the birth of modern skateboarding.
Ledger was born in 1979 in the western Australian city of Perth to a mining engineer and a French teacher, and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 at a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, "Seat."
Speaking in Perth, Ledger's father called the actor's death "tragic, untimely and accidental."
Kim Ledger called his son "down-to-earth, generous, kind-hearted, life-loving, unselfish" and "extremely inspirational to many."
"Heath has touched so many people on so many different levels during his short life," he said. "Please now respect our family's need to grieve and come to terms with our loss privately."
After several independent films, Ledger moved to Los Angeles at age 19 and starred opposite Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You," a reworking of Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." Offers for other teen flicks came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like.
"It wasn't a hard decision for me," Ledger told The Associated Press in 2001. "It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, `You're crazy,' my parents were like, `Come on, you have to eat.'"
He began to gravitate toward more independent films after roles in "Monster's Ball," "The Patriot" and "A Knight's Tale." His work in 2005's "Brokeback Mountain" earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor.
In the 2006 film "Candy," Ledger played a poet wrestling with a heroin addiction along with his girlfriend. Neil Armfield, who directed Ledger in the film, said the actor had "handled his career incredibly well," steering himself toward more challenging roles.
"He made a decision about four years ago to stop being led by producers and managers and to forge his own way," Armfield told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.
He brought the same intensity to "Dark Knight." Glimpsed in early teaser trailers, Ledger is more depraved and dark than comical. The film's director, Christopher Nolan, said this month that Ledger's Joker would be wildly different from Nicholson's.
"It was a very great challenge for Heath," Nolan said. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."
Ledger was a widely recognized figure in his SoHo neighborhood, where Michelle Vella said she frequently saw him carrying his 2-year-old daughter on his shoulders, or having ice cream with her.
"It's a shock; he's so young," said Taren Dolbashian, who also had seen Ledger with his daughter. "He always seems so happy."
Near the entrance to the building housing his loft, about two dozen bouquets and a dozen candles formed a makeshift memorial.
One note said, "I couldn't find anything bad about you."
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Striking writers picketing in New York City on January 7
LOS ANGELES (AP) — With idled entertainment industry workers and Oscar-nominated actors among the interested observers, striking writers and studios are talking again after weeks of bargaining silence.
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a joint statement they will start informal discussions Wednesday aimed at full negotiations and an end to the nearly 3-month-old strike.
The announcement came the day nominations were announced for the Academy Awards, raising the prospect that the Feb. 24 ceremony might proceed without the threatened union picketing that derailed the Golden Globes.
In a goodwill gesture toward another big ceremony Tuesday, the guild said it had decided against picketing the Feb. 10 Grammy Awards.
Recording Academy President Neil Portnow said in a statement that his organization was pleased with the decision and that the awards "will focus solely on the great music, artists and charitable work resulting from our show."
An interim agreement allowing writers to work on the show would be welcome and might yet occur given the "fluid situation," Portnow told The Associated Press. But the performance-driven Grammys can still be "a complete show" without it, he said.
Contract talks between the guild and studios broke down Dec. 7 after the companies demanded that a half-dozen issues be dropped, including calls for the unionization of reality and animation shows. The guild rejected the demands.
The guild agreed Tuesday to withdraw those two issues to "make absolutely clear our commitment to bringing a speedy conclusion to negotiations," union executives Michael Winship and Patric Verrone said in an e-mail letter to members.
But organizing efforts for guild representation in those genres will continue and will be discussed more fully in the next two weeks, said Winship and Verrone, presidents of the East Coast and West Coast guilds, respectively.
Compensation for movie and TV projects distributed over the Internet are considered to be the central contract issues.
Both sides said a media blackout would be in place during the discussions.
On Tuesday, guild leaders met with studio chiefs to help get the negotiations back on track, according to a person familiar with the bargaining strategy who was not authorized to publicly comment and asked for anonymity.
The new approach mirrors a series of meetings held by the Directors Guild of America and studio heads before they began formal talks and reached a tentative deal last week after less than a week of bargaining.
The writers strike started Nov. 5. When the directors guild announced its deal with the alliance last week, studio heads urged the writers to join informal talks that could lead to the resumption of their negotiations.
In its deal with producers, the directors union reached agreement on the new-media compensation issues that also were key to their members, including compensation for movie and TV projects delivered over the Internet.
The studio executives said the deal established a precedent for the industry's creative talent to "participate financially in every emerging area of new media."
The directors won several key contract points, including union jurisdiction over programs produced for distribution on the Internet and payments for downloaded TV programs and movies based on a percentage of the distributor's gross.
But the writers guild was seeking 2.5 percent of such grosses — about three times what the directors' deal provides.
Interim deals made by the writers guild with several individual production companies provide 2 percent compensation on downloaded films and 2.5 percent on TV programs, the guild has said.
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U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, argues a point as Senator Hillary Clinton listens at the CNN/Congressional Black Caucus Institute Democratic Party presidential debate at the Palace Theatre in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina January 21, 2008
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Monday night's Democratic presidential debate on CNN was the most-watched primary debate in cable TV history.
The two-hour debate averaged 4.9 million viewers, Nielsen Media Research said Tuesday. It also set records in many key demographics, including adults 18-49 and 25-54.
The debate topped the previous record of 4.5 million viewers, set by the CNN-You Tube GOP debate November 28. Last week, the Fox News GOP debate in South Carolina averaged 3.7 million viewers.
The most-watched debates of the primary season so far are the back-to-back events sponsored by ABC News and Facebook on January 5 at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. The Democratic debate, in primetime, was seen by 9.4 million viewers.
Meanwhile, MSNBC said Tuesday that it will televise a Republican presidential debate -- the last one before the Florida primary -- on Thursday. Brian Williams and Tim Russert will moderate from 9-10:30 p.m., with Chris Matthews leading the analysis afterward.
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Actress Kathy Bates, left, and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis announce the nominees for best picture as they reveal the nominations for the 80th annual Academy Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., Tuesday morning, Jan. 22, 2008
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" led with eight Academy Awards nominations each Tuesday, among them best picture and acting honors for Daniel Day-Lewis and Javier Bardem — but it remained in doubt whether any stars would cross striking writers' picket lines to attend the ceremony.
"No Country for Old Men," a crime saga about a drug deal gone bad, and "There Will Be Blood," a historical epic set in California's oil boom years, will compete for best picture against the melancholy romance "Atonement," the pregnancy comedy "Juno" and the legal drama "Michael Clayton."
Awards shows have become casualties of the strike by writers, whose union leaders say they will not allow members to work on the Oscars. Nominees already are saying they would stay away in support of writers if the strike lingers until Oscar night Feb. 24.
"I wouldn't do that. I couldn't. I come from a tradition of not crossing picket lines," said Tom Wilkinson, a supporting-actor nominee for "Michael Clayton."
"Atonement" and "Michael Clayton" trailed with seven nominations each, including best actor for George Clooney in the title role of "Clayton." The lead players in "Atonement," Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, were shut out on nominations, however, with teenager Saoirse Ronan the only performer nominated for that film, for supporting actress.
Past Oscar winner Cate Blanchett had two nominations, as best actress for the historical pageant "Elizabeth: The Golden Age" and supporting actress for the Bob Dylan tale "I'm Not There."
On strike since Nov. 5, the Writers Guild of America refused to let its members work on the Golden Globes, which prompted stars to avoid the show in solidarity. Globe organizers were forced to scrap their glitzy telecast and instead announce winners in a swift, humdrum news conference, without anyone on hand to accept the prizes.
If guild leaders follow through and refuse to let writers work on the Oscars, it would leave nominees and other celebrities forced to choose between attending the biggest night in show business on Feb. 24 or staying home to avoid crossing picket lines.
"I would never cross a picket line ever. I couldn't," said Tony Gilroy, a directing nominee for "Michael Clayton." "I'm a 20-year member of the Writers Guild. I think whatever they work out is going to be one way or the other but no, I could never cross a picket line. I think there's a lot of people who feel that way."
Viggo Mortensen, who received a best-actor nomination for his performance as a Russian mob member in "Eastern Promises," said he would not go if the strike is still on.
"But I have a feeling they'll solve it," he said. "I hope they do. I'm sure my mom would like to see my on TV and so forth. But if there's a strike I'm not crossing the line."
The acting categories generally played out as expected — with a few surprises, including best actress nominee Laura Linney for "The Savages" and best-actor nominee Tommy Lee Jones for "In the Valley of Elah." Neither performance had been high on the awards radar so far this Oscar season.
Best actress looks like a two-person duel between Julie Christie, an Oscar winner for "Darling," as a woman succumbing to Alzheimer's in "Away From Her" and Marion Cotillard as singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie En Rose." Both won Golden Globes, Christie for dramatic actress, Cotillard for musical or comedy actress. Yet they face strong competition from Blanchett, Linney and relative newcomer Ellen Page as a whip-smart pregnant teen in "Juno."
Day-Lewis, an Oscar winner for "My Left Foot," grabbed another best-actor nomination as a flamboyant oil baron in "There Will Be Blood," for which he could emerge as the favorite.
Along with Day-Lewis, Clooney, Mortensen and Jones, the other nominee was Johnny Depp, who won the Globe for musical or comedy actor as the vengeful barber in "Sweeney Todd."
With a Golden Globe and universal acclaim for his performance as a relentless killer, Bardem looks like the closest thing to a front-runner this Oscar season, which is unusually wide open for best picture and other top categories.
Bardem and Wilkinson are up against Casey Affleck for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Philip Seymour Hoffman for "Charlie Wilson's War" and Hal Holbrook for "Into the Wild."
Joining Blanchett and Ronan in the supporting actress category were Ruby Dee for "American Gangster," Amy Ryan for "Gone Baby Gone" and Tilda Swinton for "Michael Clayton."
Snubbed along with Knightley and McAvoy was "Atonement" director Joe Wright. Besides Gilroy, the directing nominees were Paul Thomas Anderson for "There Will Be Blood," Ethan Coen and Joel Coen for "No Country for Old Men," Jason Reitman for "Juno" and Julian Schnabel for "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."
The Coens and Anderson also were nominated for writing the screenplay adaptations of their films.
The wide-open awards season had left the field up in question, and some other notable prospects were shut out, including past Oscar winner Angelina Jolie for "A Mighty Heart," Helen Bonham Carter for "Sweeney Todd," and Emile Hirsch for "Into the Wild." Sean Penn also missed out on a nomination for directing "Into the Wild," as did Eddie Vedder, who was shut out in music categories.
The fairy-tale comedy "Enchanted" had three of the five best song nominations.
Michael Moore — who castigated President Bush over the Iraq War in his best-documentary acceptance speech for "Bowling for Columbine" in 2003 — is back in Oscar contention with his health-care documentary "Sicko."
War-on-terror documentaries dominated the category, with "Sicko" up against "No End in Sight," "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience" and "Taxi to the Dark Side."
Even if the strike lingers, Oscar organizers insist their show will go on, with or without writers.
"We're dealing with contingencies but we're thrusting ahead. The point is, we're going to have a show, and we're going to give these incredible artists what they're due," said Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
A glimmer of hope arose late last week as the Directors Guild of America reached a deal with producers for a new contract. Many in Hollywood are counting on that deal to help resuscitate negotiations between writers and producers, who walked away from the table Dec. 7.
If the two sides settle their differences in time for the Oscars, the ceremony would become a dual celebration, honoring the best in Hollywood from the previous year and the end of a season of labor discontent that idled TV shows, delayed some movies and threw thousands of production workers into unemployment.
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Complete list of 80th annual Academy Award nominations announced Tuesday:
1. Best Picture: "Atonement," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
2. Actor: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"; Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"; Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"; Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises."
3. Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"; Julie Christie, "Away From Her"; Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"; Laura Linney, "The Savages"; Ellen Page, "Juno."
4. Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"; Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"; Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton."
6. Director: Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Jason Reitman, "Juno"; Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."
8. Adapted Screenplay: Christopher Hampton, "Atonement"; Sarah Polley, "Away from Her"; Ronald Harwood, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."
9. Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, "Juno"; Nancy Oliver, "Lars and the Real Girl"; Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"; Brad Bird, Jan Pinkava and Jim Capobianco, "Ratatouille"; Tamara Jenkins, "The Savages."
11. Art Direction: "American Gangster," "Atonement," "The Golden Compass," "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street," "There Will Be Blood."
12. Cinematography: "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," "Atonement," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
13. Sound Mixing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "No Country for Old Men," "Ratatouille," "3:10 to Yuma," "Transformers."
14. Sound Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "No Country for Old Men," "Ratatouille," "There Will Be Blood," "Transformers."
15. Original Score: "Atonement," Dario Marianelli; "The Kite Runner," Alberto Iglesias; "Michael Clayton," James Newton Howard; "Ratatouille," Michael Giacchino; "3:10 to Yuma," Marco Beltrami.
16. Original Song: "Falling Slowly" from "Once," Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova; "Happy Working Song" from "Enchanted," Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; "Raise It Up" from "August Rush," Nominees to be determined; "So Close" from "Enchanted," Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz; "That's How You Know" from "Enchanted," Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz.
17. Costume: "Across the Universe," "Atonement," "Elizabeth: The Golden Age," "La Vie en Rose," "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street."
18. Documentary Feature: "No End in Sight," "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience," "Sicko," "Taxi to the Dark Side," "War/Dance."
19. Documentary (short subject): "Freeheld," "La Corona (The Crown)," "Salim Baba," "Sari's Mother."
20. Film Editing: "The Bourne Ultimatum," "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," "Into the Wild," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."
21. Makeup: "La Vie en Rose," "Norbit," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."
22. Animated Short Film: "I Met the Walrus," "Madame Tutli-Putli," "Meme Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)," "My Love (Moya Lyubov)," "Peter & the Wolf."
23. Live Action Short Film: "At Night," "Il Supplente (The Substitute)," "Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)," "Tanghi Argentini," "The Tonto Woman."
24. Visual Effects: "The Golden Compass," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," "Transformers."
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.......................................................................................................................................................... Most talked-about titles arrived with little buzz
The 24th annual Sundance Film Festival won't be remembered for big sales, but it may be remembered as the year that buyers wised up.
At the festival's halfway mark, the most talked-about titles are ones that came into Park City with neither cast nor buzz. Audiences are raving about "Ballast," a drama set in the Mississippi Delta written and directed by Lance Hammer; "The Wave," a German-language thriller in which a high school teacher's sociology experiment goes awry; and the Spanish-language Andes survival doc "Stranded."
Meanwhile, Sundance's movie-star titles are starting to look a lot like studio refugees seeking indie cover.
Art Linson and Barry Levinson's $20 million Robert De Niro starrer "What Just Happened?," funded by 2929 Entertainment, hoped to play well enough to fest auds to find a buyer. While Linson, Levinson and the pic's stars worked for less than their usual fees, the film will require a heavy P&A commitment. And 2929 already holds foreign rights. The barbed comedy also offended some buyers, who resented its cutting portrait of Hollywood. "You'd have to pay me to buy that movie," said one distributor.
Audiences were less annoyed, though no less disappointed, in "The Great Buck Howard," which stars John Malkovich as a has-been mentalist opposite Colin Hanks, with producer Tom Hanks in a supporting role. The film has already made the rounds at the studios; when it failed to find a home, the filmmakers came to Sundance with the Hanks family in tow to search for a distributor.
Buyers say it's unfair to declare Sundance a dud because fest director Geoff Gilmore and his team programmed a slate that didn't swiftly sell the first weekend. "That's not what it's about," said Picturehouse prexy Bob Berney. "If it's small, good titles, that's great, too. My sense is there hasn't been an appetite for the films so far to jump into a bidding situation. It's a glutted, tough marketplace, and you have to be cautious about overpaying."
After all, Sundance 2007 was where the Weinstein Co. fought for the right to pay $4 million for worldwide rights to "Grace Is Gone," which went on to earn just $37,000 in its domestic release. The documentary market wasn't much kinder, with last year's hot doc title "Crazy Love" taking in a little more than $350,000 worldwide.
This year's fest "has a different vibe," said Overture Films CEO Chris McGurk. "You haven't seen the early feeding frenzy. There's a nervousness among the buyers that didn't exist in prior years."
Buyers say they simply decided to wrest back control from the sellers, restoring the ability to just say no to overpaying.
"A lot of films haven't done as well this year," said Submarine Entertainment seller Josh Braun, who sold "Polanski: Wanted and Desired" to HBO and the Weinstein Co. at the top of the fest with Cinetic Media. "There's a hesitation in the marketplace. It's amazing to come to Monday at Sundance and only docs have sold."
However, that's not because the market is loving docs; it's because buyers want to find love before they commit to releasing an indie pic that requires intense labor and investment and comes with no guarantee of good results. And so far, Cupid's being cagey.
"There are many terrific films at the festival this year, but so far not enough good ones with strong box office potential," said Lionsgate president Tom Ortenberg.
No deal has materialized on three films that played well. Sony Pictures Classics and Paramount Vantage, among others, were pursuing the Indiana high school doc "American Teen." Lionsgate was in the hunt for Jonathan Levine's "The Wackness," starring Ben Kingsley. And Focus Features and Fox Searchlight were still chasing Christine Jeffs' well-received dramedy "Sunshine Cleaning," starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
On a smaller scale, Magnolia Films is getting a good response on both its sci-fi Spanish-language thriller "Timecrimes" (which has already been acquired by UA for a remake) and Alex Gibney's Hunter Thompson doc, "Gonzo."
Another fest favorite is "Trouble the Water," which features life-and-death footage shot by a New Orleans Ninth Ward resident during Hurricane Katrina. The crowd at the film's Sunday premiere grew animated and emotional as the story's protagonists endured their real-life quest for survival.
The film also produced the feel-good story of the fest so far, as Kimberly Rivers Roberts, who shot the harrowing footage, showed up at the premiere nine months' pregnant.
Less than 12 hours after the bow, she was en route to a Salt Lake City hospital with husband Scott Roberts -- one of the film's heroes -- to give birth to a baby girl. Press converged at the film's luncheon Monday to hear about the delivery.
Other fest titles picking up good word of mouth -- which may or may not have anything to do with their eventual commerciality -- are "Secrecy," "Mermaid," "Frozen River" and "Phoebe in Wonderland."
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NEW YORK (MediaWeek) - The daytime soap operas might be losing their bubbles in the weeks ahead as networks resort to episodes not penned by striking writers.
The Writers Guild of America, which has been on strike since November 5, has picketed for several days in front of ABC headquarters in New York, primarily to protest its airing of "All My Children" episodes written by non-union members. ABC is the only network to produce all of its soap operas, while "Days of Our Lives" on NBC is produced by Corday Prods. and all of the CBS soaps are produced outside the network, including two by Procter & Gamble and one by Sony.
The networks and soap production companies have gone radio silent about how many scripts they still have from WGA writing staffs, and the writers themselves say it varies from soap to soap.
"Our daytime shows have remained in production and have continued to produce original episodes" is all Chris Ender, senior vp communications at CBS, would say. An ABC statement simply read: "The shows are staffed, and we have people in place to continue producing original programming."
Regarding the number of remaining WGA-written soap scripts, Courtney Simon, who writes for "As the World Turns," which is produced by P&G for CBS, said: "There is a huge variation from show to show. Some do not want to get too far ahead with their story lines." But Simon said she's heard that scripts written by her team will run out this week.
It remains to be seen what impact this will have on viewership.
Simon does not believe that the writers behind the new scripts will be able to maintain the integrity and focus of the story lines. "It will be painful for us to see what happens to our story lines and know that when we return, we will have to clean up what these makeshift teams do," she said.
So far, the ratings and viewer levels for the soaps on all three networks have been pretty much flat since the strike began -- not a surprise since the scripts being used were from the regular writing teams. Going forward, however, ratings could take a melodramatic turn.
All the networks and production companies that own soaps said they have enough scripts and a system in place to remain on the air and produce fresh episodes indefinitely. That has been facilitated by a government rule that allows WGA members to cross picket lines by filing for "financial core" status. Technically, they resign from union membership but still pay dues, and the guild can't stop them from returning to work.
Two writers on "All My Children," James Harmon Brown and Barbara Esensten, have returned to work under the "fi-core" provision, and other soaps might each have a couple of writers who also exercised the provision. ABC, without naming names, did acknowledge that some soap writers have returned under fi-core and that producers are aiding in the writing process.
Over at CBS, for example, "The Bold and the Beautiful" executive producer Brad Bell also is the head writer.
But Simon said it is a struggle to stay ahead with scripts even with a full complement of writers, which could number from 10-15 depending on the soap.
Although the Screen Actors Guild has supported the WGA by not crossing their picket lines for televised TV and movie awards shows, SAG members have not boycotted show production and continue to show up for work. That could change, however, if soap producers begin using scripts written by non-WGA writers.
Despite that, Shirley Jones recently joined the "Days of Our Lives" cast and will appear in episodes beginning January 31. And Mario Van Peebles has joined the cast of "All My Children" and will first appear in a January 29 episode.
The networks maintain that keeping the soaps on the air during the strike is vital to the future of the ailing genre. They argue that if the soaps were to go into repeats or be pulled during the strike, viewers might defect and never come back.
Clearly the ratings support the notion that daytime is in decline. Compared with last season, soap ratings among women 18-49 and 25-54 are down anywhere from 5%-25%, with most soaps averaging about 300,000 fewer viewers per day.
However, while soap ratings are down from last year -- almost a regular annual occurrence during the past decade -- advertisers so far are not complaining. Soaps are still a desirable place to run messages, particularly for advertisers targeting women. The soaps are still averaging between 2.4 million ("Days of Our Lives") and 5.5 million ("Young and the Restless") viewers a day.
But if audiences begin to notice changes in story lines written by non-WGA writers and producers, they could start tuning out. "Good shows can't be written when the situation is panic-driven," Simon said. "Soap opera story lines have to be well thought out and take time to play out. Makeshift, temporary writing teams can't do that."
Although the soaps are part of the overall negotiation process, the WGA can negotiate separate deals with the individual production companies such as Corday, P&G or Sony. WGA sources said none of the companies has so far been willing to do an individual deal.
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Actress Lindsay Lohan is shown at the Los Angeles Lakers game in this Dec. 2, 2007 file photo in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES - Lindsay Lohan is about to see dead people.
The 21-year-old actress will soon be working at a morgue as part of her punishment for misdemeanor drunken driving, her attorney, Blair Berk, told a judge Thursday.
She has also spent two months in rehabilitation and has done some community service, Berk said at a hearing on her progress toward fulfilling the terms of her plea bargain.
Her two four-hour days at the morgue are part of a court-ordered program to show drivers the real-life consequences of drinking and driving. She must also spend two days working in a hospital emergency room.
Lohan was arrested twice last year on DUI charges and pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor drunken driving and cocaine charges. She has already served 84 minutes in jail as part of the plea deal.
Lohan was not required to appear at Thursday's hearing.
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Actor Wesley Snipes raises his hand in praise as he comes out of U.S. District Court for his tax evasion trial in Ocala, Fla. Thursday, Jan. 17, 2008
OCALA, Fla. - A financial adviser has testified that he warned Wesley Snipes that he could get into trouble if he didn't pay his taxes.
Snipes is on trial on charges of tax fraud, conspiracy and willful failure to file tax returns. He faces up to 16 years in prison.
The 45-year-old actor allegedly stopped filing returns, illegally sought refunds totaling $11 million for 1996 and 1997 taxes paid, and drew fake checks to pay the U.S. Treasury.
Kenneth Starr, head of New York-based Starr and Co., testified Thursday that he tried to persuade Snipes to pay his taxes in a 90-minute telephone conversation in 2000. Starr handled the actor's taxes before Snipes met his co-defendants.
"(Snipes) was adamant about the fact that he did not have that obligation," Starr said. "I said that was ridiculous; that everyone has that obligation. He said he had spoken to some people that said he didn't have to."
Prosecutors say Snipes paid taxes in the '90s, but changed his mind after meeting co-defendant Eddie Ray Kahn, founder of the tax protest groups American Rights Litigators and Guiding Light of God Ministries, in 2000.
Kahn and Douglas P. Rosile, who allegedly prepared Snipes' false documents, are co-defendants. They face up to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors presented Thursday letters that Snipes sent to the Internal Revenue Service that insisted the agency was never properly established and didn't prove he had to pay taxes. Snipes gave the government several timelines, then declared himself the winner in a default judgment when agents didn't respond.
Starr said he had a good relationship with Snipes before the actor stopped believing in taxes.
"He said, `You always think you're right and you always think you know everything. You're not right about this,'" Starr recalled of his pivotal phone call with Snipes in 2000. The next day, Starr terminated his services.
Defense attorneys said Starr never told Snipes in writing that it would be illegal to stop paying taxes. Starr said he told Snipes on the phone and nothing further was needed to end their tax arrangement.
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Hip-hop artist Foxy Brown touches her ear during a news conference to discuss her hearing loss in this Dec. 15, 2005, file photo in New York
NEW YORK - A judge wants more information before she decides whether to let Foxy Brown get out of jail and go to California for repair of an electronic ear implant.
Acting state Supreme Court Justice Melissa Jackson said Thursday she wants proof that deafness looms unless the 28-year-old rapper goes to a Los Angeles clinic for treatment and repair of a cochlear implant.
Brown revealed her hearing problems during a court appearance in late 2004. Her petition says her condition is worsening in jail and her hearing faces serious harm unless she has the implant reprogrammed and repaired.
Assistant District Attorney Cindy Chung objected, saying Brown had offered nothing to show the medical procedure could not be done in New York. She said a jail inmate has no right to the doctor of her choice.
Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, was sentenced in September to a year in jail for violating probation. A judge had put her on probation after she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault of two manicurists at a Manhattan nail salon in August 2004.
Jackson ordered Brown's lawyer, Laura Dilimetin, to give the rapper's medical records to the district attorney, the Department of Correction and the Department of Probation so they could file position papers. She said the records would be sealed.
"I need to have more information on this," the judge said.
Before being led out of the courtroom, Brown told the judge she had learned a lot in jail, including how to suppress her emotions and make better decisions.
"I have too much talent to throw it away," Brown said. "I know I will make you proud and my family proud."
The judge told the rapper: "I'm glad you're learning some very hard lessons that needed to be learned."
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LOS ANGELES - Four paparazzi have been arrested for reckless driving while chasing Britney Spears' car in the San Fernando Valley.
Los Angeles police Lt. Mario Munoz said officers observed several cars following a white Mercedes-Benz around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday in Mission Hills.
The cars were following Spears' car too closely and traveling at unsafe speed. They also made several unsafe lane changes, authorities said.
Munoz said officers stopped the Mercedes, interviewed Spears and released the 26-year-old pop star after verifying her driver's license.
But the four photographers in the cars chasing her were booked for investigation of reckless driving.
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n this undated police photo provided by the Volusia County Sheriff's Office, David Faustino, the actor who played Bud Bundy on the TV series 'Married with Children,' is shown
NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. - Prosecutors have dropped a drug charge against David Faustino, best known for playing Bud Bundy on the TV series "Married With Children."
Faustino was charged in May 2007 with misdemeanor marijuana possession after he was arrested during an argument with his estranged wife. A disorderly intoxication charge was dismissed later that month, and Faustino agreed to complete a drug treatment program.
"He successfully completed the deferred prosecution agreement, which included a drug treatment program," said Linda Pruitt, spokeswoman for the State Attorney's Office.
Faustino, 33, completed the treatment program in California, where he lives.
"He received no special treatment from the State Attorney's Office," Faustino's Daytona Beach defense attorney, Mike Rodriguez, said Wednesday. "He did what was asked of him, and he fulfilled all of his conditions."
Police spotted Faustino trying to climb out a car window before continuing to argue with his wife in the street while their car was stopped at an intersection. Faustino's breath smelled of alcohol, and he had a plastic bag containing a gram of marijuana in his pocket, police said.
The couple divorced in December.
"Married With Children" ran on the Fox network from 1987 to 1997.
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Actor Eddie Murphy poses with actress Tracey Edmonds at the premiere of 'Good Luck Chuck' at the Mann National theatre in Westwood, California, in this file photo from Sept. 19, 2007
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Comic actor Eddie Murphy and his new wife Tracey Edmonds have split up just two weeks after their romantic wedding in French Polynesia, People magazine reported on Wednesday.
The star of "Shrek" and "Dreamgirls" and Edmonds, a film producer, exchanged their vows on a private island off Bora Bora on Jan. 1.
Under U.S. law, the couple needed a ceremony on U.S. soil to make the marriage legal.
But Murphy, 46, and Edmonds, 40, told People in a statement they would not do that and had decided to remain friends.
"After much consideration and discussion, we have jointly decided that we will forego having a legal ceremony as it is not necessary to define our relationship further," the statement said.
"While the recent symbolic union in Bora Bora was representative of our deep love, friendship and respect that we have for one another on a spiritual level, we have decided to remain friends," it added.
Murphy, 46, was divorced from his wife of 13 years, Nicole, in 2006. They had five children together. Last year, he fathered a daughter with Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls, but did not acknowledge paternity until four months after the baby was born.
Edmonds split last year with her husband, R&B singer/songwriter Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. They had two sons together.
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Brad Renfro attends the New York Premiere for Alfie, held at the Ziegfeld Theatre, in this Oct. 18, 2004, file photo in New York
LOS ANGELES - Actor Brad Renfro, whose career began promisingly with a childhood role in "The Client" but rapidly faded as he struggled with drugs and alcohol, was found dead Tuesday in his home. He was 25.
Paramedics pronounced him dead at 9 a.m., said Craig Harvey, chief investigator for the Los Angeles County coroner's office. The cause of death was not immediately determined, Harvey said, but an autopsy could be conducted as early as Wednesday.
Renfro had reportedly been drinking with friends the evening before his death, Harvey said.
Renfro's lawyer, Richard Kaplan, said he did not know whether the death was connected to any problems with addiction.
"He was working hard on his sobriety," Kaplan said. "He was doing well. He was a nice person."
Renfro recently completed a role in "The Informers," a film adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel that stars Winona Ryder, Brandon Routh and Billy Bob Thornton.
"Brad was an exceptionally talented young actor and our time spent with him was thoroughly enjoyable," Marco Weber, president of the film's production house, Senator Entertainment, said in a statement.
The actor served 10 days in jail in May 2006 after pleading no contest to driving while intoxicated and guilty to attempted possession of heroin.
The latter charge stemmed from his arrest in Los Angeles' Skid Row area, when he attempted to buy heroin from an undercover officer in 2005.
For several years he was better known for that drug bust and the resulting criminal case than for acting.
After one court appearance, he talked to reporters about drug rehabilitation, saying he was "tired of paying the consequences" for drinking and drug use and eager to get clean.
"It's definitely been an eye-opener," he said of his rehabilitation program.
Other run-ins with the law included a 1998 charge of cocaine and marijuana possession, for which he avoided jail time in a plea deal. He was also placed on probation in January 2001 and ordered to pay $4,000 for repairs to a 45-foot yacht he and a friend tried to steal in Florida in August 2000.
He was arrested again in May 2001 and charged with underage drinking, violating the terms of his probation, and was ordered into alcohol rehabilitation the following March.
A native of Knoxville, Tenn., Renfro's film career began when he was 12, acting opposite Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones in "The Client." His other credits included "Sleepers," "Deuces Wild," "Apt Pupil" and "The Jacket."
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Zac Efron is shown in Los Angeles in this, Nov. 19, 2007, file photo
LOS ANGELES - "High School Musical" star Zac Efron underwent emergency surgery Tuesday to remove his appendix, his publicist said.
The 20-year-old actor had the operation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, Gina Hoffman said.
Efron became a teen heartthrob with his starring role as Troy Bolton in the hit Disney Channel TV movie "High School Musical" and its sequel. He also starred in the film "Hairspray."
He was hospitalized a day after Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Productions announced that he and his five "High School Musical" co-stars had signed on to appear in the theatrical film "High School Musical 3: Senior Year."
Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu and Monique Coleman will star as high-school seniors staging an elaborate musical before they graduate, the studio said.
Filming was scheduled to start in the spring, the studio said.
In August, 18.6 million viewers watched the first telecast of "High School Musical 2," Disney said.
The first film debuted in January 2006 and became an instant hit, mostly with teens and preteens.
The show's soundtracks, concert series, ice skating tour and Broadway-style show have also been successful.
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Director John Singleton arrives as a guest at the 79th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood, California February 25, 2007
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Director John Singleton is among the latest casualties of the Hollywood writers strike, losing his production deal at Warner Bros. TV as part of a sweeping cost-cutting action by major studios.
"Force majeure" -- or act of God -- provisions in the contracts allow studios to cancel deals with writers and producers idled by the strike, which is now in its third month. These deals usually involve the supply of offices and staffers on the studio lot, and can be both costly and unproductive.
Warner Bros. TV, along with CBS Paramount Network TV, Universal Media Studios and 20th Century Fox TV, sent termination letters to a total of 45-50 writers and producers on Monday. ABC Studios dropped 25-30 producers last Friday.
CBS Paramount's hit list included such high-profile names, as Australian actor Hugh Jackman, who produced the recent CBS bomb "Viva Laughlin," and "Chronicles of Narnia" producer Mark Johnson.
In a clear sign about the future of Fox's "K-Ville" and NBC's "Journeyman" -- two low-rated freshman series whose ultimate fate has remained in limbo because of the strike -- 20th Century Fox TV terminated the overall deals of "K-Ville" creator Jonathan Lisco and "Journeyman" creator Kevin Falls.
Among the writers with force majeure letters from Universal were Moses Port and David Guarascio, creators of CW's freshman comedy "Aliens in America," which is now produced by CBS Paramount and WBTV.
Producers terminated by ABC Studios included "Brothers & Sisters" creator Jon Robin Baitz and "Borat" director Larry Charles.
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Production crew members protest the Writer's Guild strike prior to the 65th Annual Golden Globes, Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008, in Beverly Hills, Calif
LOS ANGELES - Four major studios have canceled dozens of writers contracts, effectively conceding that the current television season cannot be salvaged, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
The move signals that development of next season's crop of new shows also could be in jeopardy because of the 2-month-old writers strike, the newspaper said.
January typically marks the start of pilot season, when networks order new comedies and dramas. But with writers not working, networks do not have a pool of scripts from which to choose.
20th Century Fox Television, CBS Paramount Network Television, NBC Universal and Warner Bros. Television each confirmed to the Times that they terminated development and production agreements. Studios typically pay $500,000 to $2 million a year per writer for them to develop ideas for new TV shows.
"I didn't see it coming," Barbara Hall, a writer and producer whose credits include former CBS series "Joan of Arcadia" and "Judging Amy," told the Times, which said ABC executives gave her the news Friday. "I am not entirely sure what their strategy is, all I know was that I was a casualty of it."
Overall, more than 65 deals with writers have been eliminated since Friday, the newspaper said.
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In a file photo writer Neil Gaiman, left, and writer Roger Avary, right, speak to an audience at a screening of 'Beowulf' at Comic Con in San Diego, Calif. on Wednesday, July 25, 2007
VENTURA, Calif. - An Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Pulp Fiction," accused of drunken driving after a weekend accident that killed a passenger visiting from Italy, apologized Monday.
Roger Avary, 42, was driving early Sunday when his car spun out of control and hit a telephone pole in Ojai. He was arrested and booked on suspicion of gross vehicular manslaughter and felony drunken driving.
Killed in the crash was Andreas Zini, 34, a resident of Italy who was apparently visiting Avary and his wife, Gretchen, 40, according to the sheriff's department. Gretchen Avary was seriously injured but is expected to survive, said Capt. Jerry Hernandez.
"Roger wishes to publicly convey his heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased," said a statement released by publicist Julie Polkes. "Words cannot express how sorry he is, and this tragic accident will always haunt him."
Firefighters cut Zini from the car, and he died several hours later at Ventura County Medical Center. An autopsy Monday determined that he died of "blunt force chest and abdominal injuries," said Shasta Gainer, deputy medical examiner.
Gretchen Avary was thrown from the car and found in the road by sheriff's deputies.
Avary, who is free on $50,000 bail, faces arraignment Friday.
Avary won an Academy Award along with Quentin Tarantino for writing "Pulp Fiction," and was also a co-writer of the recent epic "Beowulf." He and his wife live in Ojai, an artists' colony and tourist destination near Ventura, northwest of Los Angeles
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Actor Wesley Snipes leaves the Federal Courthouse in Ocala Fla. after posting a $1 million bond in this Dec. 8, 2006, file photo
OCALA, Fla. - Attorneys for Wesley Snipes ticked off more than 70 potential character witnesses, including several celebrities, as jury selection began Monday in the actor's tax fraud and conspiracy trial.
Muhammad Ali, Spike Lee, Tom Brokaw, Barbara Walters, Woody Harrelson, Sylvester Stallone and Gus Van Sant were among the names mentioned.
Snipes, 45, and two co-defendants, both known tax protesters, are accused of conspiring to defraud the U.S. of millions of dollars. The actor allegedly first collaborated with Eddie Ray Kahn and Douglas P. Rosile in 2000, then stopped filing tax returns.
Prosecutors say he fraudulently tried to retrieve $11 million in paid 1996 and 1997 taxes and directed his movie companies to stop withholding taxes from employees.
Attorneys for Snipes insist he was misled by unscrupulous advisers and didn't know he was doing anything wrong. They have tried, unsuccessfully, to separate the three defendants at trial.
Snipes, who starred in the "Blade" movies, faces as many as 16 years in prison if convicted, while Kahn and Rosile face 10 years.
His case has been delayed twice because of his commitments and the huge volume of paperwork in the case. Jury selection did not conclude Monday, as had been scheduled.
Snipes had tried unsuccessfully to get his trial moved from this central Florida town, arguing it was racist and he couldn't get a fair hearing. The pool of 37 potential jurors was predominantly white, and Senior Judge William Terrell Hodges moved through them slowly.
Most had heard of the case, but not extensively.
Before court, Snipes appeared at a vigil with the leaders of several predominantly black churches. The pastors followed Snipes to the courthouse and continued to watch when jury selection began.
Snipes did not speak after court, on the advice of counsel. But two attorneys from his legal team offered short statements, reminding potential jurors that Snipes went to high school in nearby Orlando and of "the dichotomy of the man known as Wesley Snipes."
"We want the jury to understand that Wesley Snipes is very much like everybody at the same time, and at the same time very different," said Daniel Meachum, a longtime Snipes adviser.
Lead attorney Robert Bernhoft said Snipes "begged, pleaded and prayed for answers from the IRS" but got no response before the indictment.
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Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., mingles with church-goers after services at the Northminster Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C., Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008
LAS VEGAS - Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama have become embroiled in racially tinged disputes as large numbers of black voters prepare to get their first say in the Democratic presidential campaign.
The candidates and their surrogates are heating up their rhetoric, and it could prove to be combustible beyond South Carolina's Jan. 26 primary.
Clinton, on defense over comments that she and her husband made regarding Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy and Obama's fitness for the White House, tried to turn the tables on her top primary rival. She accused his campaign of looking to score political points by distorting their words.
Hillary Clinton had said King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, while Bill Clinton said Illinois Sen. Obama was telling a "fairy tale" about his opposition to the Iraq war. Black leaders have criticized their comments, and Obama said Sunday her comment about King was "ill-advised."
"I think it offended some folks who felt that somehow diminished King's role in bringing about the Civil Rights Act," he told reporters on a conference call. "She is free to explain that, but the notion that somehow this is our doing is ludicrous."
As evidence the Obama campaign had pushed the story, Clinton advisers pointed to a memo written by an Obama staffer compiling examples of comments by Clinton and her surrogates that could be construed as racially insensitive. The memo later surfaced on some political Web sites.
"This is an unfortunate story line the Obama campaign has pushed very successfully," the former first lady said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "I don't think this campaign is about gender, and I sure hope it's not about race."
Clinton taped the show before appearances in South Carolina, where at least half the primary voters are expected to be black. On Monday, she planned to attend a union event honoring King's legacy in New York City.
But no sooner had Clinton said she hoped the campaign would not be about race than it got even more heated. A prominent black Clinton supporter, Black Entertainment Television founder Bob Johnson, criticized Obama and seemed to refer to his acknowledged teenage drug use while introducing Clinton at her next event.
"To me, as an African-American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues — when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood; I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book — when they have been involved," Johnson said.
Obama wrote about his youthful drug use — marijuana, alcohol and sometimes cocaine — in his memoir, "Dreams from My Father."
Johnson later said in a statement released by the Clinton campaign that his comments referred to Obama's work as a community organizer in Chicago "and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect."
Another Clinton campaign official, Bill Shaheen, resigned last month after suggesting Democrats should be wary of nominating Obama because his past drug use could be used against him in the campaign.
Obama, campaigning in Las Vegas, declined to respond to Johnson.
"I'm not going to spend all my time running down the other candidates, which seems to be what Senator Clinton has been obsessed with for the last month," Obama said.
His strategist, however, didn't spare Johnson or Clinton.
"I don't see why this is so much different from what Billy Shaheen did in New Hampshire," David Axelrod said. "Senator Clinton apologized for that. It's bewildering why, since she was standing there, she had nothing to say about this."
Clinton was not yet on stage when Johnson made his statements and she did not mention them when she emerged.
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Obama's wife rose to his defense over Bill Clinton's "fairy tale" comment. Michelle Obama said some blacks might be skeptical that white America will elect her husband, but advised them to look to his win in Iowa.
"Ain't no black people in Iowa," she said during a speech at the Trumpet Awards, an event celebrating black achievement. "Something big, something new is happening. Let's build the future we all know is possible. Let's show our kids that America is ready for Barack Obama right now."
John Edwards, a third candidate in the Democratic primary, waded into the dispute Sunday.
"I must say I was troubled recently to see a suggestion that real change came not through the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King but through a Washington politician. I fundamentally disagree with that," Edwards told more than 200 people gathered at a predominantly black Baptist church in Sumter, S.C.
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In this image from video provided by the Huckabee for President campaign, Republican presidential hopeful and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist minister, speaks during the sermon at First Baptist North Spartanburg Church during a campaign stop in Spartanburg, S.C. Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Republican Mike Huckabee spoke from the pulpit Sunday, not as a politician but as the preacher he used to be, delivering a sermon on how merely being good isn't enough to get into heaven.
Huckabee is vying for support from the Christian conservatives who dominate the GOP in South Carolina, which chooses a Republican presidential nominee on Saturday. A former Baptist minister and Arkansas governor, Huckabee is competing for their votes with fellow southerner Fred Thompson.
As in Iowa, where he won the Jan. 3 caucuses, Huckabee is rousing pastors to marshal their flocks for him. He pitches himself as someone who not only shares their views against abortion and gay marriage but who actually comes from their ranks.
On Sunday in South Carolina, Huckabee avoided politics entirely, instead preaching about humility and trusting in Jesus to open the gates of heaven.
"The criteria to get into heaven is you have to be not good, but perfect. That's the real challenge in it," he said at First Baptist North Spartanburg, a megachurch with 2,500 members.
"On that day, when I pull up, I'll be asked, `Do you have what it takes to get in?'" Huckabee said. "And if I ask, `Well, what does it take to get in?' 'Gotta be perfect.'"
"Well, I'm afraid I don't have that, but you know what, I won't be there alone that day. Somebody is going to be with me. His name is Jesus, and he's promised that he would never leave me or forsake me," he said.
Asked by reporters later if he thinks only Christians will go to heaven, Huckabee refused to say. He often says that as a minister, he joked that he doesn't even believe all Baptists are going to heaven.
"I'm going to stick to the things that make it critical for me to be president of the United States," Huckabee said Sunday. "I have deep convictions about who goes and who doesn't, but as far as who makes that decision, it isn't me, it's God. I'm going to leave that up to him."
He argued that the Constitution forbids a political candidate from being subjected to a religious litmus test. And he claimed to be the only candidate who gets asked about specific tenets of his faith.
However, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has also been asked about his Mormon faith. In fact, Romney got questions about his faith after Huckabee, in The New York Times, asked whether Mormons believe Jesus and the devil were brothers. Huckabee quickly apologized to Romney and said the quotes were taken out of context.
In South Carolina, Huckabee didn't ask for votes or discuss the campaign, but senior pastor Michael S. Hamlet encouraged the congregation to vote according to how they try to live their lives, by the principles of Bible scripture.
"I'm going to tell you something, when you go vote, you ought to follow those principles," Hamlet said.
But Huckabee did wade into politics Sunday evening in Michigan, telling members of the Apostolic Church of Auburn Hills about his opposition to abortion and gay marriage, and expressing his concern about job losses in the state. He played bass guitar in the praise band and, before he spoke, the organist played a few notes of "Hail to the Chief."
Huckabee's shoestring campaign has relied on pastors to encourage their flocks to vote.
"They can't mobilize for example, from the pulpit, get up and say to everybody, 'The bus leaves the church at 8 a.m. on Saturday.' It's a matter of urging them to use the influence they have to get their people out to vote, and I hope they will. Why wouldn't they?" Huckabee said.
Huckabee also is hoping to win over the Christian conservatives who dominate the GOP in Michigan, which votes Tuesday. He emphasized his opposition to abortion during a meeting with about 100 pastors in Grand Rapids on Saturday, urging them to use their address books and e-mail lists to mobilize others.
Polls there have shown him running in third place, behind Romney and Arizona Sen. John McCain, winner of the New Hampshire primary last week.
In contrast to Huckabee, Thompson held no public events Sunday in South Carolina, where Huckabee has the edge following his Iowa caucus win.
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Dayna Devon announces that Dario Marianelli wins the award for Best Original Score Motion Picture for his work on Atonement at the 65th Annual Golden Globes, Sunday, Jan. 13, 2008, in Beverly Hills, Calif
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The Hollywood writers strike took the glitz, the glamour and roughly two-thirds of the audience from this year's Golden Globe Awards.
NBC's no-frills, one-hour presentation of the winners Sunday night drew a 4.8 rating and 7 share, according to preliminary estimates from the nation's 55 largest metered markets by Nielsen Media Research.
That left NBC fourth in the hour, behind CBS' miniseries "Comanche Moon," ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and the Fox comedies "Family Guy" and "American Dad." For the hour, "Comanche Moon" had almost twice the audience as the NBC awards announcement, Nielsen said Monday.
Last year, the Golden Globes ceremony on NBC had a 16.0 rating and 23 audience share, Nielsen said. A ratings point represents 1,128,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 112.8 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
Nielsen didn't immediately have an estimate of how many people actually watched the show on NBC or on other networks that carried the announcement of the winners.
Unlike the months-long writers strike itself, Hollywood's first big awards show was over in a flash, with no key winners, no stars in sight and no real fun for show biz fans.
The Golden Globes honored such films as the tragic romance "Atonement," the crime saga "No Country for Old Men," and the bloody musical "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street."
Yet no one film gained critical momentum that might set it ahead of the pack for the Academy Awards on Feb. 24, and a compressed Globes show highlighted what a joyless awards season this is for Hollywood.
The two-month-old strike by the Writers Guild of America scuttled the big celebrity bash at the 65th annual Globes, which was replaced by a bizarre and speedy news conference to announce recipients, without any winners around to gush their thanks.
"I wish circumstance would allow me to be there," Cate Blanchett, who won the supporting-actress prize for the Bob Dylan tale "I'm Not There," said in a statement.
With the Globes left in shambles, everyone in Hollywood was left wondering if the same fate might befall the town's big prizes come Oscar night on Feb. 24.
"I just hope this whole thing gets cleared up before the Academy Awards, because it would really be a tragedy if a similar fate transpired for them," said Richard Zanuck, producer of "Sweeney Todd," which won the Globe for best musical or comedy.
"Sweeney Todd" also earned Johnny Depp the Globe for best actor in a musical or comedy for his title role as the bloody barber who slits the throats of customers in his quest for vengeance.
Normally one of Hollywood's brightest nights, with stars carousing into the wee hours, the Globes this year became a mild curiosity as TV entertainment show hosts announced the winners in half an hour.
The guild, on strike since Nov. 5, had planned pickets outside the show if organizers tried to move ahead with their usual televised ceremony. With nominees and other stars refusing to cross picket lines, Globe planners had to scrap their glossy show and hope for better times in 2009.
"Rest assured that next year, the Golden Globe Awards will be back bigger and better than ever," said Jorge Camara, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which hands out the prizes.
Along with "Sweeney Todd," three other films received two prizes, with the tragic romance "Atonement" winning the top honor for best drama, plus the Globe for musical score.
The crime saga "No Country for Old Men" came away with the screenplay award for writer-directors Ethan and Joel Coen and the supporting-actor Globe for Javier Bardem, who offers a chilling performance as a killer tracking a fortune in wayward drug money.
The other double winner was "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," which received the directing prize for Julian Schnabel and the foreign-language film honor.
The Globes did virtually nothing to sort out the Oscar picture, with the main prizes up for grabs among "Atonement," "No Country for Old Men" and other critical favorites such as "There Will Be Blood" and "Michael Clayton."
A historical epic set in California's oil-boom days of the early 20th century, "There Will Be Blood" earned Daniel Day-Lewis the Globe for dramatic actor.
Other winners included Marion Cotillard, best musical or comedy actress for the Edith Piaf saga "La Vie En Rose"; Julie Christie, best dramatic actress for the Alzheimer's drama "Away From Her"; Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, best original song for "Guaranteed," from Sean Penn's road drama "Into the Wild"; and the rodent tale "Ratatouille," best animated film.
Talks between writers and producers have been stalled for a month, though the weekend brought a new development that some in Hollywood sense could be an ice-breaker. The Directors Guild of America began its own negotiations with producers, and any deal the union negotiates might prompt writers to follow suit.
The winners of the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards are:
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The winners of the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards are:
MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
"American Gangster" - Imagine Entertainment/Scott Free Productions; Universal Pictures
WINNER: "Atonement" - Working Title Productions; Focus Features
"Eastern Promises" - Kudos Pictures - Uk Serendipity Point Films - Canada A Uk/Canada Co-Production; Focus Features
"The Great Debaters" - Harpo Films; The Weinstein Company/MGM
"Michael Clayton" - Samuels Media and Castle Rock Entertainment a Mirage Enterprises/Section 8 Production; Warner Bros. Pictures
"No Country For Old Men" - A Scott Rudin/Mike Zoss Production; Miramax/Paramount Vantage
"There Will Be Blood" - A Joanne Sellar/Ghoulardi Film Company Production; Paramount Vantage and Miramax Films
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
Cate Blanchett - "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"
WINNER: Julie Christie - "Away From Her"
Jodie Foster - "The Brave One"
Angelina Jolie - "A Mighty Heart"
Keira Knightley - "Atonement"
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
George Clooney - "Michael Clayton"
WINNER: Daniel Day-Lewis - "There Will Be Blood"
James McAvoy - "Atonement"
Viggo Mortensen - "Eastern Promises"
Denzel Washington - "American Gangster"
MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
"Across The Universe" - Revolution Studios International; Sony Pictures Releasing
"Charlie Wilson’s War" - Universal Pictures/Relativity Media/Participant Productions/Playtone; Universal Pictures
"Hairspray" - Zadan/Meron Prods./New Line Cinema in association with Ingenious Film Partners; New Line Cinema
"Juno" - Mandate Pictures/Mr. Mudd Production; Fox Searchlight Pictures
WINNER: "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" - Parkes/Mac Donald and Zanuck Company; Warner Bros. Pictures
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Amy Adams - "Enchanted"
Nikki Blonsky - "Hairspray"
Helena Bonham Carter - "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
WINNER: Marion Cotillard - "La Vie en rose"
Ellen Page - "Juno"
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
WINNER: Johnny Depp - "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Ryan Gosling - "Lars And The Real Girl"
Tom Hanks - "Charlie Wilson’s War"
Philip Seymour Hoffman - "The Savages"
John C. Reilly - "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story"
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
"Bee Movie" - DreamWorks Animation; DreamWorks Animation
WINNER: "Ratatouille" - Pixar; Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Distribution
"The Simpsons Movie" - Gracie Films; Twentieth Century Fox
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days" (Romania) - Mobra Films; IFC First Take
WINNER: "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly" (France And USA) - A Kennedy/Marshall Company And Jon Kilik Production; Miramax/Paramount Vantage
"The Kite Runner" (USA) - Dreamworks Pictures Sidney Kimmel Entertainment And Paramount Classics Participant Productions Present A Sidney Kimmel Entertainment And Parkes/Macdonald Production Distributed By Paramount Classics
"Lust, Caution" (Taiwan) - Haishang Films; Focus Features
"Persepolis" (France) - 247 Films; Sony Pictures Classics
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
WINNER: Cate Blanchett - "I’m Not There"
Julia Roberts - "Charlie Wilson’S War"
Saoirse Ronan - "Atonement"
Amy Ryan - "Gone Baby Gone"
Tilda Swinton - "Michael Clayton"
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Casey Affleck - "The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford"
WINNER: Javier Bardem - "No Country For Old Men"
Philip Seymour Hoffman - "Charlie Wilson’s War"
John Travolta - "Hairspray"
Tom Wilkinson - "Michael Clayton"
DIRECTOR - MOTION PICTURE
Tim Burton - "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"
Ethan Coen & Joel Coen - "No Country For Old Men"
WINNER: Julian Schnabel - "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly"
Ridley Scott - "American Gangster"
Joe Wright - "Atonement"
SCREENPLAY - MOTION PICTURE
Diablo Cody - "Juno"
WINNER: Ethan Coen & Joel Coen - "No Country For Old Men"
Christopher Hampton - "Atonement"
Ronald Harwood - "The Diving Bell And The Butterfly"
Aaron Sorkin - "Charlie Wilson’s War"
ORIGINAL SCORE - MOTION PICTURE
Michael Brook, Kaki King, Eddie Vedder - "Into The Wild"
Clint Eastwood - "Grace Is Gone"
Alberto Iglesias - "The Kite Runner"
WINNER: Dario Marianelli - "Atonement"
Howard Shore - "Eastern Promises"
ORIGINAL SONG - MOTION PICTURE
"Despedida" from "Love In The Time Of Cholera" - Music By: Shakira, Antonio Pinto, Lyrics By: Shakira
"Grace Is Gone" from "Grace Is Gone" - Music By: Clint Eastwood, Lyrics By: Carole Bayer Sager
WINNER: "Guaranteed" from "Into The Wild" - Music & Lyrics By: Eddie Vedder
"That’s How You Know" from "Enchanted"- Music By: Alan Menken, Lyrics By: Stephen Schwartz
"Walk Hard" from "Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" - Music & Lyrics by: Marshall Crenshaw, John C. Reilly, Judd Apatow, Kasdan
TELEVISION
TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
"Big Love" (HBO) - Anima Sola and Playtone Productions in association with HBO Entertainment
"Damages" (Fx Networks) - FX Productions and Sony Pictures Television
"Grey’s Anatomy" (ABC) - ABC Studios
"House" (Fox) - Heel and Toe Films, Shore Z Productions and Bad Hat Harry Productions in association with Universal Media Studios
WINNER: "Mad Men" (Amc) - Lionsgate Television
"The Tudors" (Showtime) - Showtime/Peace Arch Entertainment/Working Title/Reveille Productions Limited/An Ireland-Canada Co-Production
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
Patricia Arquette- "Medium"
WINNER: Glenn Close - "Damages"
Minnie Driver - "The Riches"
Edie Falco - "The Sopranos"
Sally Field - "Brothers & Sisters"
Holly Hunter - "Saving Grace"
Kyra Sedgwick - "The Closer"
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES - DRAMA
Michael C. Hall - "Dexter"
WINNER: Jon Hamm - "Mad Men"
Hugh Laurie - "House"
Jonathan Rhys Meyers - "The Tudors"
Bill Paxton - "Big Love"
TELEVISION SERIES - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
"30 Rock" (NBC) - Universal Media Studios In Association With Broadway Video And Little Stranger - Inc.
"Californication" (Showtime) - Showtime Presents In Association With Aggressive Mediocrity, And Then…, Twilight Time Films
"Entourage" (HBO) - Leverage And Closest To The Hole Productions In Association With HBO Entertainment
WINNER: "Extras" (HBO) - BBC And HBO Entertainment
"Pushing Daisies" (ABC) - Living Dead Guy Productions, The Jinks/Cohen Company in association with Warner Bros. Television
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES -COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Christina Applegate - "Samantha Who?"
America Ferrera - "Ugly Betty"
WINNER: Tina Fey - "30 Rock"
Anna Friel - "Pushing Daisies"
Mary-Louise Parker - "Weeds"
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Alec Baldwin - "30 Rock"
Steve Carell - "The Office"
WINNER: David Duchovny - "Californication"
Ricky Gervais - "Extras"
Lee Pace - "Pushing Daisies"
MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
"Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" (HBO) - A Wolf Films/Traveler’S Rest Production In Association With HBO Films
"The Company" (TNT) - Sony Pictures Television
"Five Days" (HBO) - HBO Films In Association With BBC Films
WINNER: "Longford" (HBO) - A Granada Production in association with Channel 4 and HBO Films
"The State Within" (BBC America) - BBC America, BBC
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Bryce Dallas Howard - "As You Like It"
Debra Messing - "The Starter Wife"
WINNER: Queen Latifah - "Life Support"
Sissy Spacek - "Pictures Of Hollis Woods"
Ruth Wilson - "Jane Eyre" ("Masterpiece Theatre")
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Adam Beach - "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee"
Ernest Borgnine - "A Grandpa For Christmas"
WINNER: Jim Broadbent - "Longford"
Jason Isaacs - "The State Within"
James Nesbitt - "Jekyll"
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Rose Byrne - "Damages"
Rachel Griffiths - "Brothers & Sisters"
Katherine Heigl - "Grey’s Anatomy"
WINNER: Samantha Morton - "Longford"
Anna Paquin - "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee"
Jaime Pressly - "My Name Is Earl"
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Ted Danson - "Damages"
Kevin Dillon - "Entourage"
WINNER: Jeremy Piven - "Entourage"
Andy Serkis - "Longford"
William Shatner - "Boston Legal"
Donald Sutherland - "Dirty Sexy Money"
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An Iraqi couple enjoys a snow battle in a garden in Sulaimaniyah in 2007
BAGHDAD - After weathering nearly five years of war, Baghdad residents thought they'd pretty much seen it all. But Friday morning, as muezzins were calling the faithful to prayer, the people here awoke to something certifiably new.
For the first time in memory, snow fell across Baghdad.
Although the white flakes quickly dissolved into gray puddles, they brought an emotion rarely expressed in this desert capital snarled by army checkpoints, divided by concrete walls and ravaged by sectarian killings — delight.
"For the first time in my life I saw a snow-rain like this falling in Baghdad," said Mohammed Abdul-Hussein, a 63-year-old retiree from the New Baghdad area.
"When I was young, I heard from my father that such rain had fallen in the early '40s on the outskirts of northern Baghdad," Abdul-Hussein said, referring to snow as a type of rain. "But snow falling in Baghdad in such a magnificent scene was beyond my imagination."
Morning temperatures uncharacteristically hovered around freezing, and the Baghdad airport was closed because of poor visibility. Snow is common in the mountainous Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, but residents of the capital and surrounding areas could remember just hail.
"I asked my mother, who is 80, whether she'd ever seen snow in Iraq before, and her answer was no," said Fawzi Karim, a 40-year-old father of five who runs a small restaurant in Hawr Rajab, a village six miles southeast of Baghdad.
"This is so unusual, and I don't know whether or not it's a lesson from God," Karim said.
Some said they'd seen snow only in movies.
Talib Haider, a 19-year-old college student, said "a friend of mine called me at 8 a.m. to wake me up and tell me that the sky is raining snow."
"I rushed quickly to the balcony to see a very beautiful scene," he said. "I tried to film it with my cell phone camera. This scene has really brought me joy. I called my other friends and the morning turned to be a very happy one in my life."
An Iraqi who works for The Associated Press said he woke his wife and children shortly after 7 a.m. to "have a look at this strange thing." He then called his brother and sister and found them awake, also watching the "cotton-like snow drops covering the trees."
For a couple of hours anyway, a city where mortar shells routinely zoom across to the Green Zone became united as one big White Zone. As of late afternoon, there were no reports of violence. The snow showed no favoritism as it fell faintly on neighborhoods Shiite and Sunni alike, and (with apologies to James Joyce) upon all the living and the dead.
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WASHINGTON - Telephone companies have cut off FBI wiretaps used to eavesdrop on suspected criminals because of the bureau's repeated failures to pay phone bills on time.
A Justice Department audit released Thursday blamed the lost connections on the FBI's lax oversight of money used in undercover investigations. In one office alone, unpaid costs for wiretaps from one phone company totaled $66,000.
In at least one case, a wiretap used in a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act investigation "was halted due to untimely payment," the audit found. FISA wiretaps are used in the government's most sensitive and secretive criminal and intelligence investigations, and allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies.
"We also found that late payments have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence," according to the audit by Inspector General Glenn A. Fine.
More than half of 990 bills to pay for telecommunication surveillance in five unidentified FBI field offices were not paid on time, the report shows.
Assistant FBI Director John Miller said wiretaps were dropped only a few times because of the backed-up billing, which he said didn't significantly set back the investigations under way. He said the FBI "will not tolerate financial mismanagement, or worse," and is working to fix the problems.
"While in a few instances, late-payment of telephone bills resulted in interruptions of the timely delivery of surveillance results, these interruptions were temporary and in our assessment, none of those cases were significantly affected," Miller said in a statement Thursday evening.
The report released Thursday was a highly edited version of Fine's 87-page audit that the FBI deemed too sensitive to be viewed publicly. It focused on what the bureau admitted was an "antiquated" system to track money sent to its 56 field offices nationwide for undercover work. Generally, the money pays for rental cars, leases and surveillance, the audit noted.
The American Civil Liberties Union called on the FBI to release the entire, unedited audit. The group, which has been critical of some of the government's wiretapping programs, also took a swipe at telecommunication companies that allowed the eavesdropping — as long as they are getting paid.
"It seems the telecoms, who are claiming they were just being 'good patriots' when they allowed the government to spy on us without warrants, are more than willing to pull the plug on national security investigations when the government falls behind on its bills," said former FBI agent Michael German, the ACLU's national security policy counsel. "To put it bluntly, it sounds as though the telecoms believe it when the FBI says the warrant is in the mail but not when they say the check is in the mail."
The audit also found that some field offices paid for expenses on undercover cases that should have been financed by FBI headquarters. Out of 130 undercover payments examined, auditors found 14 cases of at least $6,000 each where field offices dipped into their own budgets to pay for work that should have been picked up by headquarters.
The faulty bookkeeping was blamed, in large part, for an FBI employee who pleaded guilty in June 2006 to stealing $25,000 for her own use, the audit noted.
"As demonstrated by the FBI employee who stole funds intended to support undercover activities, procedural controls by themselves have not ensured proper tracking and use of confidential case funds," it concluded.
Fine's report offered 16 recommendations to improve the FBI's tracking and management of the funding system, including its telecommunication costs. The FBI has agreed to follow 11 of the suggestions and one additional recommendation was found unnecessary. But it said that four "would be either unfeasible or too cost prohibitive." The recommendations were not specifically outlined in the edited version of the report.
On the Web: http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0803/final.pdf
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WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (OneWorld) - Business and governments are vastly increasing their investments in solutions to climate change and other environmental problems that threaten the global economy, says a new report from a leading environmental think tank.
"Pioneering entrepreneurs, nongovernmental organizations, and governments...are field-testing a remarkable array of economic innovations that offer surprising and hopeful new opportunities for long-term prosperity," said researchers from the Worldwatch Institute Wednesday, launching their "State of the World 2008" report.
Over $100 billion in capital flows are now being redirected each year to meet environmentally sustainable ends, said project co-directors Gary Gardner and Thomas Prugh.
Renewable energy, which received an estimated $66 billion in investments in 2007, and carbon trading, which saw a trebling of activity on its markets between 2005 and 2006, are leading the field, they said.
"Some of the most powerful players in today's economy have announced breakthrough environmental initiatives in the past two years," according to the report, which notes particularly the efforts of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, McKinsey & Company, and Wal-Mart.
Representing just one of millions of pioneering new business plans, Wal-Mart recently announced it would outfit refrigerator cases in more than 500 of its stores with a light-emitting diode, or LED, lighting system. LED-powered lights save energy as they emit more light per watt than incandescent bulbs and reduce waste as they have longer lifespans than traditional bulbs.
This simple switch is expected to save Wal-Mart $3.8 million a year and reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 65 million pounds.
These eco-friendly business efforts come not a moment too soon, said Worldwatch, as recent studies have shown that the devastation caused by global climate change could cause world economic output to decline by as much as 8 percent this century.
"State of the World 2008 finds growing evidence suggesting that the global economy is now destroying its own ecological base," the report's authors said.
In order to stave off "economic collapse at the global level," the study's authors call for "major reforms of government policy to steer investment away from destructive activities such as the extraction of fossil fuels and toward a new generation of environmentally sustainable industries."
In fact, 27 leading American corporations, including Dow Chemical, General Motors, and Xerox, have joined joining many U.S. states and municipalities in demanding that the federal government pass stricter legislation regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
But many analysts suggest that a global economic transformation will require sustained action not only from policy makers, but also from entrepreneurs, investors, consumers, and manufacturers.
"State of the World 2008" cites the story of entrepreneur David Oakey, the head product designer of the carpet company Interface, which pulls in a predominantly green profit of roughly $1 billion a year.
To create his innovative and environmentally friendly product, Entropy, Oakey sent his design team out into the forest "to find out how nature would design floor covering."
The team eventually concluded that the forest floor, albeit extremely beautiful and strangely peaceful, constituted complete chaos. Born from this revelation was the design idea of "a carpet tile such that no two tiles have the same face design. All are similar but all are different."
The ecological advantages of Entropy, conceived of through the procedure known as "biomimicry," are many. The carpets are made with recycled content in a climate-neutral factory and the production and installment processes barely produce any waste. Many contend that ecological benefits also accrue as its design improves users' overall state of mind.
Oakey's carpets demonstrate what the State of the World report calls biophilia, or the theory that "humans gravitate to nature for the perfect comfort zone."
A speaker on an environment lecture circuit reinforced the validity of this claim when she repeatedly asked her audiences to close their eyes and picture their "ideal comfort zone of peace and repose, of solitude, creativity, security." Almost everyone pictured a space outdoors, she said.
This relationship between environmentalism, economic prosperity, and human happiness is driving many of those at the forefront of the eco-transformation occurring within the U.S. economy.
As "environmental guru" and Earth Policy Institute director Lester Brown writes, "Participating in the construction of this enduring new economy is exhilarating. So is the quality of life it will bring. We will be able to breathe clean air. Our cities will be less congested, less noisy, less polluted, and more civilized. A world where population has stabilized, forests are expanding, and carbon emissions are falling is within our grasp."
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Honorary Hollywood Mayor Johnny Grant, left, holds up a cupcake as he celebrates his 80th birthday with friends, from left, Red Buttons, Mickey Rooney and Jan Rooney, in this May 10, 2003 file photo, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES - Johnny Grant, the avuncular honorary mayor of Hollywood who traveled the world as Tinseltown's No. 1 cheerleader for more than a half-century, has died. He was 84.
Grant died just before 7 p.m. Wednesday, apparently of natural causes, said Officer Jason Lee. Grant was found dead on a bed in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, Lee said.
Grant was perhaps best known as the jolly host alongside more than 500 celebrities he inducted into the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
The lifelong bachelor lived in a 14th-floor suite at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.
Grant's mission in life was bringing the Tinseltown story to everyone. He hosted red carpet Oscar arrivals and Walk of Fame festivities, appeared in bit parts in movies, and produced Hollywood's annual Christmas Parade.
"I feel I have been the luckiest guy in the world," he often said. "It's been a pretty good ride."
Ana Martinez-Holler, a spokeswoman for the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce who has worked with Grant for 20 years, said he had had several recent health problems, including a broken bone in his back.
"I had lunch with him today ... we had omelets together and he said he wasn't feeling good," she said Wednesday. "I saw him walk away after lunch, and that was the last time I saw him."
"Hollywood won't be the same without him," she said.
Grant also joined globe-trotting Bob Hope as a USO ambassador, bringing entertainers to war zones to perform for U.S. military personnel during the Korean and Vietnam wars and battles in the Middle East.
He helped introduce homesick soldiers to Debbie Reynolds, Connie Stevens, Jane Russell, Terry Moore, Penny Singleton and Angie Dickinson, among others, leading Hope to once quip that he himself was "the rich man's Johnny Grant."
"You'll never find a more generous soul in your life," Dickinson told The Associated Press in 2006. "He was a ladies man. He's a Taurus. He's a doll."
Another close friend, actress Mamie Van Doren, described Grant simply as "Mr. Hollywood."
"I dated him in my teens," she recalled. "He's one of the greatest people I've ever known, so kind."
Over the years, Grant chatted with Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise, Bing Crosby, Walt Disney, Frank Sinatra and Dolly Parton, and was a friend to several presidents, including John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. He counted President Reagan as one of his closest friends.
Born in Goldsboro, N.C., Grant was a cub reporter for radio station WGBR when he hitchhiked to Washington to cover President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third inauguration. The diminutive reporter sat in a tree to write down what he saw for his report.
He joined the U.S. Army in 1943, then came to Hollywood after his discharge, where he landed a small role playing a reporter in "The Babe Ruth Story" (1948), which starred William Bendix.
He was lured to Hollywood, he once recalled, after seeing Mickey Rooney in the 1938 film "Boys Town."
"If that little guy can do it, so can I," he remembered telling himself.
Grant also had a part in Irving Berlin's "White Christmas" (1954) with Bing Crosby and played himself in 1966's "The Oscar."
He did Lucky Strike cigarette commercials on radio's "The Jack Benny Show" and radio celebrity interviews at the Ham & Egger restaurant on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street.
He also did radio interviews in the lobby of Ciro's on Sunset Boulevard, now the Comedy Store, which was the personification of glamour and glitz in the 1940s and 1950s. His guests included Eleanor Roosevelt, Betty Grable, Mel Torme and Joe DiMaggio.
"This really was Hollywood," Grant said of those days.
In 1951, he made his first overseas trip to entertain the troops.
Beginning in 1946, he was host of the game show "Stop the Clock," which aired alternately on Dumont Television in New York City, WBGR-TV in Schenectady, N.Y. and WPTZ-TV in Philadelphia.
He also worked for Gene Autry at radio station KMPC as host of the "Freeway Club" from 1951 to 1959, becoming one of the nation's first disc jockeys to mix regular traffic reports between playing records and interviewing celebrities.
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce named Grant Hollywood's honorary mayor in 1980, a position he held for the rest of his life.
The Associated Press Television and Radio Association honored Grant last March at the Mark Twain Awards in Universal City with a special award for his accomplishments.
During the dozen or so Walk of Fame ceremonies the job called for him to preside over each year, he would gin up the crowd with laughter, jokes, handshakes and an occasional embarrassing moment.
His biggest flub, according to Grant, was when he introduced inductee Joan Rivers to the cheering crowd by shouting, "Here she is, Miss Joan Collins."
Rivers shook it off, telling the host she had been called much worse.
During his 84th birthday last May, Grant said of all his accomplishments in Hollywood, he was most proud of three things: the Hollywood sign, the Walk of Fame and the Hollywood postmark.
"We're not supposed to have one because we're not our own city," he said. "But I got it."
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On The Net: http://johnnygrant.com
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Writers Guild of America has reached a new contract with CBS News covering 500 newswriters, editors and other union members, averting a possible strike and ending a two-and-a-half year dispute.
The agreement still must be ratified by members of the guild but has been approved unanimously by the WGA-CBS Negotiating Committee. The previous contract expired in April 2005.
The new contract runs until April 1, 2010, and calls for CBS news employees covered by the guild to receive a 3.5 percent raise in 2008 and 2009.
The agreement comes amid a much broader dispute between Hollywood screenwriters and major film and TV studios. That contract dispute led to a strike by about 10,500 WGA members in November, and has brought to a halt production on all scripted prime-time TV series.
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An exterior photo showing Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles, Friday. Jan 4, 2008
LOS ANGELES - Dennis Quaid and his wife denounced the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center over a "lack of candor" about medical errors they believe caused their newborn twins to receive overdoses of a blood thinner.
The couple said they were particularly upset to learn from a state investigation that their babies were given dosages of heparin that were 2,000 times stronger than what was prescribed.
The report's findings released Wednesday by the California Department of Public Health conflict with the hospital's initial report that the children each received one vial containing 10,000 units per milliliter of heparin instead of the common dosage of 10 units per milliliter. The report found that the children actually received two of the vials.
"We find it outrageous and totally unacceptable that we are learning for the first time... exactly what transpired," the actor and his wife, Kimberly, said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.
"We were told by upper Cedars-Sinai administration that our children had received only one 10,000 unit dose of heparin when in fact they had received two 10,000 unit doses over an 8-hour period that we now know of. The hospital's lack of candor has left us with the uneasy feeling that we may never know the whole story," the statement said.
The hospital has previously issued an apology to the patients' families and said it has taken steps to provide more training to staff and review all policies and procedures involving high-risk medication.
The state report describes the cases of three, unidentified patients. All recovered, but two needed a drug that reverses the effects of heparin.
The Quaid family's representatives previously confirmed the newborns' involvement. The twins, born Nov. 8 to a surrogate mother, were at Cedars-Sinai for treatment of an infection.
The 20-page report said the hospital overdosed three children with heparin, a high-risk medication used to prevent clotting in intravenous tubes, on Nov. 18.
It found that the mishandling of the drug put pediatric patients in "immediate jeopardy," meaning it has caused, or was likely to cause, "serious injury or death to the patients who received the wrong medication." The report faulted the hospital for its "deficient practices" in giving the drug.
A call to a hospital spokeswoman early Thursday was not immediately returned.
Cedars-Sinai's chief medical officer, Michael L. Langberg, said in a statement that the state's review confirmed the hospital's own internal findings about the error and that the hospital had cooperated fully with the investigation.
The investigation also found the hospital did not adequately educate staff about the safe use of heparin and that nurses and pharmacy technicians did not check labels on the vials and did not keep adequate records of when it was used.
The lapses began when two pharmacy technicians mistakenly delivered 100 vials of the high-concentration heparin to the pediatric unit.
The Quaids have sued Baxter Healthcare Corp., the Illinois-based makers of heparin, accusing the firm of negligence in packaging different doses of the product in similar vials with blue backgrounds. In February, Baxter Healthcare Corp. sent a letter warning health care workers to carefully read labels on the heparin packages to avoid confusion.
Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) is joined by her husband, former President Bill Clinton (C), and their daughter Chelsea (R) on stage at her New Hampshire primary night rally in Manchester January 8, 2008.
MANCHESTER, N.H. - Hillary Rodham Clinton proved Tuesday that more than one Clinton can be "the Comeback Kid." "Over the last week, I listened to you, and in the process I found my own voice," Clinton said at a victory celebration after her win over Barack Obama. "Now, together, let's give America the kind of comeback that New Hampshire has just given me."
Clinton, whose husband used a second-place finish in New Hampshire in 1992 to propel himself to the White House, had trailed Obama in recent polling. In the last days, though, she overhauled her campaign operation here and took a new tone to the trail. Aides, meanwhile, executed the long-laid ground game that even rivals acknowledged was masterful.
The New York senator and former first lady hugged both former President Clinton and their daughter, Chelsea, before taking the podium and saying, "thank you, thank you so much" repeatedly.
"I come tonight with a very, very full heart and I want especially to thank New Hampshire," she said. "For all the ups and down of this campaign, you helped remind everyone that politics isn't a game. ... We came back tonight because you spoke loudly and clearly."
"Tomorrow, we're going to get up, roll up our sleeves and keep going," Clinton said to enthusiastic applause.
In the end, though, key voting blocs were there for Clinton in New Hampshire — or weren't there for Obama, depending on how the campaigns frame it. According to exit polling conducted by The Associated Press and the networks, far more women voted than men; Clinton won 45 percent of them compared to 36 for Obama.
Also according to exit polls, fewer younger voters turned out in New Hampshire than in Iowa, depriving Obama of crucial support.
Clinton's organization delivered. She hired the state's top political organizers, including the executive director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party that helped orchestrate 2006's landslide wins in the state House, Senate and Executive Council. She also picked up the popular chairwoman of the party and other party elders. She also picked up key advisers, including Howard Dean's guru Karen Hicks and belatedly Al Gore aide Doug Hattaway.
The homegrown, Granite State feel of the Clinton organization mimicked that of Sen. John Kerry's 2004 win here.
The campaign organized down to the precinct level. They built lists of endorsers and volunteers. They spent more than $5 million on 5,000 television ads in New Hampshire media markets.
Despite that, as the summer wore on, Clinton's poll numbers leveled out. Obama built a similar organization and his name identification crept upward.
When asked Tuesday morning what she planned to tell supporters Tuesday night, Clinton only offered a cautious "We'll see."
As her optimistic smile made its way to polling places and businesses, record turnout hinted she faced a more difficult than predicted challenge from Obama. Her husband, the former president, starting spinning a loss here and blaming the calendar for not giving the campaign time to adjust after Iowa.
"The only thing I hate is New Hampshire should have had the customary 10 days after Iowa. If they had, I wouldn't have any doubt about the outcome of this. It's just hard to overcome the media deluge," Bill Clinton said in Seabrook, returning to his frequent criticism of how reporters have covered his wife compared to Obama.
"It's just almost impossible to vote five days after Iowa without being unduly influenced by the media coverage from Iowa. So, you know, that colored the polls — the switch in the polls for two days — and then we've had a three-day election."
Even without the time, it was enough.
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Posted on Jan 9, 2008, 9:28 AM from IP address 204.128.192.4
A researcher holds up two piglets born from a cloned pig under ultraviolet light to show the fluorescent green glow from their snout, trotters, and tongue at the Harbin Sanyuan Animal Husbandry Industrial Company.
BEIJING - A cloned pig whose genes were altered to make it glow fluorescent green has passed on the trait to its young, a development that could lead to the future breeding of pigs for human transplant organs, a Chinese university reported.
Two of the 11 piglets glow fluorescent green from their snout, trotters, and tongue under ultraviolet light, according to Northeast Agricultural University, located in the city of Harbin.
Their mother was one of three pigs born with the trait in December 2006 after pig embryos were injected with fluorescent green protein.
"Continued development of this technology can be applied to ... the production of special pigs for the production of human organs for transplant," Liu Zhonghua, a professor overseeing the breeding program, said in a news release posted Tuesday on the university's Web site.
The birth of the glowing piglets proves such transgenic pigs are fertile and able to pass on their engineered traits to their offspring, Liu said.
"The smooth birth of these transgenic fluorescent green pigs testifies to the mature development of our country's use of somatic cell nuclear transfer technology to produce transgenic pigs," Liu said.
Calls to the university seeking comment Wednesday were not answered.
Robin Lovell-Badge, a genetics expert at Britain's National Institute for Medical Research, said the technology "to genetically manipulate pigs in this way would be very valuable."
Lovell-Badge had not seen the research from China's cloned pigs and could not comment on its credibility. He said, however, that organs from genetically altered pigs would potentially solve some of the problems of rejected organs in transplant operations.
He said the presence of the green protein would allow genetically modified cells to be tracked if they were transplanted into a human. The fact that the pig's offspring also appeared to have the green genes would indicate that the genetic modification had successfully penetrated every cell, Lovell-Badge added.
But he said much more research and further trials — both in animals and in humans — would be necessary before we could see the benefits of the technology.
Other genetically modified pigs have been created before, including by Scotland's Roslin Institute, but few results have been published.
Tokyo's Meiji University last year successfully cloned a transgenic pig that carries the genes for human diabetes, while South Korean scientists cloned cats that glow red when exposed to ultraviolet rays — an achievement they said could help develop cures for human genetic diseases.
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Well, any scientific research that brings us closer to glow-in-the-dark pets is ok by me!
Posted on Jan 9, 2008, 9:27 AM from IP address 204.128.192.4
NEW YORK - Two men wheeled a dead man through the streets in an office chair to a check-cashing store and tried to cash his Social Security check before being arrested on fraud charges, police said.
David J. Dalaia and James O'Hare pushed Virgilio Cintron's body from the Manhattan apartment that O'Hare and Cintron shared to Pay-O-Matic, about a block away, spokesman Paul Browne said witnesses told police.
"The witnesses saw the two pushing the chair with Cintron flopping from side to side and the two individuals propping him up and keeping him from flopping from side to side," Browne said.
The men left Cintron's body outside the store, went inside and tried to cash his $355 check, Browne said. The store's clerk, who knew Cintron, asked the men where he was, and O'Hare told the clerk they would go and get him, Browne said.
A police detective who was having lunch at a restaurant next to the check-cashing store noticed a crowd forming around Cintron's body, and "it's immediately apparent to him that Cintron is dead," Browne said.
The detective called uniformed New York Police Department officers at a nearby precinct. Emergency medical technicians arrived as O'Hare and Dalaia were preparing to wheel Cintron's body into the check-cashing store, Browne said. Police arrested Dalaia and O'Hare there, he said.
Cintron's body was taken to a hospital morgue. The medical examiner's office told police it appeared Cintron, 66, had died of natural causes within the previous 24 hours, Browne said.
"He was deceased in the apartment when he was removed by these two," Browne said.
Dalaia and O'Hare, both 65, were being held by police and faced check fraud charges, Browne said.
A call to a telephone number listed for Cintron at the apartment he shared with O'Hare went unanswered Tuesday evening. Police said they didn't have an address for Dalaia or attorney information for him or O'Hare.
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Wow! "Weekend at Bernie's VI - The real deal." I hope it turns out that these two 65 yr olds have made a bonafide money deal with the Weekend at Bernie's franchise, because otherwise I'm facing a pretty grim reality.
Posted on Jan 9, 2008, 9:27 AM from IP address 204.128.192.4
Efforts by industry insiders to salvage next Sunday's Golden Globe Awards festivities imploded Monday in a complicated scenario that mirrors the breakdown in trust and communication that has fueled the Writers Guild of America's 11-week-old strike against Hollywood's majors.
By Monday evening, the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn.'s 65th annual kudos had been downscaled from a gala dinner ceremony and live telecast to an hourlong news conference at the Beverly Hilton, to be covered live (taped delayed for the West Coast) by NBC News, with only journos in attendance -- and most likely with WGA pickets outside.
The after-parties that traditionally make the Globes a fun night of event-hopping were also scrapped. NBC Universal-Focus, Warner Bros. and HBO cancelled their events, with Fox Searchlight and the Weinstein Co. expected to do likewise.
The Globes outlook had seemed significantly brighter just hours earlier, after a weekend of brainstorming and wrangling by NBC U's top brass, the HFPA, Globes ceremony producer Dick Clark Prods. and a handful of top publicists who hoped to save some of the celebratory and PR value of the event on behalf of their clients.
Faced with the promise of WGA pickets lining up outside the Hilton and a no-show of top nominees, NBC U prexy-CEO Jeff Zucker had the idea during the weekend to shift the paradigm of the telecast to an NBC News special covering the announcement of the winners.
NBC had leaned on the HFPA to postpone the event, but the press org was adamant about sticking with Sunday to maintain the Globes' position as a precursor to the Academy Awards race.
Once NBC and the HFPA settled on the news conference format, NBC was no longer concerned with whether talent turned out or pickets raised a ruckus outside the Hilton. NBC U execs made the decision to scrap their after-party during the weekend, insiders said.
But the HFPA, Dick Clark Prods. and the PR reps had their respective incentives to maintain the red-carpet procession and the parties. To ensure that talent would show up, the HFPA needed the guild's assurance that it would not picket if the telecast was limited to an hourlong news spec.
Lawyers for Dick Clark Prods. and the WGA conferred multiple times Monday morning in an effort to reach such a detente. Dick Clark Prods. even broached the subject of whether the guild would picket if it sought to produce a clip reel or some component of red-carpet coverage to accompany the NBC News press conference coverage.
NBC and the HFPA had previously told journos to expect an announcement regarding the Globes at around 1 p.m., but it was delayed in the hopes that all sides could agree on a compromise to allow a bit of the celebration to go on.
The emails, phone calls and faxes went back and forth until shortly after 1 p.m., when Internet reports -- later disputed -- surfaced that NBC had plans to fill out its Sunday primetime sked with three hours of Globes-related specials preceding and following the 6 p.m. PT announcement of winners.
Those midday Internet reports deeply angered WGA brass. NBC insiders acknowledged that the Peacock was keeping open its options for supplemental programming but that they were not as elaborate or detailed as the reports asserted.
"Golden Globes scam" was the subject line of a Monday email that WGA West exec director David Young sent to his counterparts at SAG. The actors guild, which has been supportive of the WGA, last week helped put the nail in the coffin of a traditional Globes telecast by asserting that none of the more than 70 actor nominees was prepared to cross a picket line to attend the show (Daily Variety, Jan. 7).
Young's email, sent around 2:30 p.m., informed SAG leaders Doug Allen and Pamm Fair that the Globes compromise proposal was a "scam" and that the WGA would picket the event. HFPA leaders and others involved in Monday's diplomatic mission tried to straighten out the situation with WGA and NBC, but positions quickly hardened.
NBC execs are enraged at being in the crosshairs of the WGA the past two weeks given the Globes imbroglio and the pressure the guild has put on NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" for resuming production without scribes. For weeks, the HFPA and Dick Clark Prods. sought a waiver or interim agreement with the guild to allow the Globes to proceed as usual, but the WGA refused.
"It is a blatant ploy to get actors and other talent to attend the event," Young wrote in his email to SAG execs. "It is the Globes under the name of a news conference. We have informed Dick Clark Prods. that we will picket the event on Sunday."
SAG, in turn, sent an alert about the WGA's decision to the group of PR firms that had warned NBC Universal regarding the resolve of their clients not to cross the picket lines for the Globes in a letter sent to NBC U's Zucker on Friday. Once the praiseries got the word from SAG on Monday that WGA pickets were a certainty, the fallout was swift. Stars were certain to stay away, the studio parties were scuttled, and shortly after 4 p.m., the HFPA issued a statement confirming what most people in town already knew.
"We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007's outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television," said HFPA prexy Jorge Camara. "We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year's Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled."
Under normal circumstances, the Globes kudocast is understood to bring in about $15 million-$20 million in ad revenue for the Peacock, which pays the HFPA a license fee of about $6 million for the rights. This year, the HFPA will forgo that fee, while NBC will sell ad time in the news conference and likely have supplemental Globes programming on Sunday.
WGA West prexy Patric Verrone declined to comment on the specific circumstances seen Monday, saying he had been engaged all day with other guild business. But on the general issue of the disruption caused by the strike, Verrone cited the guild's recent progress in cutting interim pacts with small entities and put the blame squarely on the majors, who broke off the last round of negotiations on Dec. 7.
"I'm hoping that they see the collapse of awards season and our ability to make interim deals with other companies as a sign that we are serious, and they need to get back to the table with us," he said.
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Actor Wesley Snipes leaves the Federal Courthouse in Ocala Fla. after posting a $1 million bond in this Dec. 8, 2006, file photo
OCALA, Fla. - A federal judge has denied Wesley Snipes' most recent request to have his tax-evasion trial moved from this central Florida city.
Senior U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges said Monday the motion was meaningless because the change of venue request applied only to some counts and not all.
Hodges also said the motion cited no legal authority for an appeal, making it "frivolous both on the merits as well as the absence of any established jurisdiction" for the appeals court, the Ocala Star-Banner reported.
Snipes' lawyer, Robert Barnes, filed the motion last week in an attempt to delay the trial, scheduled to start Jan. 14.
The actor's legal team argued Snipes cannot get a fair trial in Ocala, located about 80 miles north of Orlando. Snipes previously filed two motions to dismiss or transfer the trial because of racial prejudices.
A telephone message left for Snipes' attorney Monday evening wasn't immediately returned.
Last month, Hodges denied Snipes' motions to relocate and postpone the trial.
Federal prosecutors have previously said there is "no basis in reality" for Snipes' claims.
A federal indictment charges Snipes with fraudulently claiming refunds totaling almost $12 million in 1996 and 1997 for income taxes already paid. The 45-year-old star of the "Blade" trilogy and other films also was charged with failure to file returns from 1999 through 2004.
Snipes allegedly conspired with American Rights Litigators founder Eddie Ray Kahn and tax preparer Douglas P. Rosile Sr. to file false refund claims based on a bogus argument that only income from foreign sources was subject to taxation.
Lawyers argued Snipes had the right to a trial in New York, where he lived between October 2000 and April 2005 when the offenses allegedly occurred, or in Orlando, where he also has a home.
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Blu-ray Discs at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada January 9, 2007
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Fears of a deteriorating U.S. economy and falling DVD industry sales helped drive Warner Bros's decision to back Sony's Blu-ray next generation DVD format exclusively, a top executive told Reuters on Monday.
Hollywood's biggest seller of home movies tipped the balance of power on Friday in favor of Sony in a fight for the next generation of DVDs between the electronics giant and Toshiba Corp., developers of the HD DVD format.
"We've typically been recession proof," Warner Bros Entertainment Group President Kevin Tsujihara said in an interview at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
"But the thing that we saw in the fourth quarter...was gas prices beginning to affect sales. And since we're considered an impulse purchase, it's beginning to impact us," he said.
Tsujihara said the company needed to quickly erase consumer and retailer confusion over dueling DVD formats before economic conditions deteriorated.
Toshiba vowed the format war was not over, but Warner's move was seen as a major setback, at least, in the race to develop a potentially multibillion-dollar market for high-definition discs.
Warner executives said the consortium of companies backing Blu-ray, including five of the seven big Hollywood Studios, could spend more than $50 million in 2008 to convince consumers to upgrade, or more than the amount spent by the backers of both HD DVD and Blu-ray in the 2007 holiday season. Budgets have not been finalized, Warner Bros said.
The movie division of media conglomerate Time Warner Inc, out of respect for Toshiba, has kept a low profile at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the neon-lit gambling oasis in the Nevada desert not known for its subtly.
Even Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer kept his remarks about Warner brief in public presentations.
Warner's decision is seen cementing Blu-ray's victory in what could possibly be the last physical format for movies and TV shows as technology and Internet companies race to build online distribution channels, according to Citigroup analyst Tony Wible.
A 2007 decline in DVD sales, which account for half of Hollywood's profits, and anticipated further declines in 2008 sped Warner's decision making process.
Merrill Lynch said on Monday the United States had entered its first full blown recession in 16 years.
The economy had little impact on the fourth quarter's higher sales of high definition televisions, which in turn helped boost sales of next generation DVD players, Warner Bros Home Video President Ron Sanders told Reuters.
But worsening conditions in 2008 could scupper sales of new players, and movies, even if only one format survived.
"We've hit the first 30 million" households with high definition televisions, Tsujihara said. "As we go in deeper, they'll be more cost conscious."
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Sean Penn smiles as he accepts the director of the year award at the 19th annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm Springs, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2008
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. - Britney Spears' hospitalization and concerns over whether the continuing Hollywood writers strike would keep next week's Golden Globes ceremony off the air dominated red-carpet chatter at the 2008 Palm Springs International Film Festival gala.
As honorees made their way through the media gauntlet Saturday at the year's first major entertainment-award event, many initially chirpy interviews quickly careened into talk about prospects for next week's Golden Globes broadcast.
"It's always sad when a program may have to be canceled," John Travolta , who was honored with an Ensemble Performance Award, told AP Television. "If it doesn't happen, we'll postpone it and do it another time."
A Globes telecast became increasingly unlikely after Friday's announcement by the Screen Actors Guild that its nominated members would not cross the Writers Guild of America's planned picket lines to get to the event.
The actors guild, which represents most of the Globes' 72 acting-category contenders, made its announcement after the writers guild failed to reach a a so-called "interim agreement" with the award show's producers.
The fate of the Globes telecast should be clearer Monday, following a scheduled announcement by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which votes on the awards and hosts the show.
Many Globe nominees were in Palm Springs collecting statuettes from the film festival, including Daniel Day-Lewis (Desert Palm Achievement Award), Ellen Page (Chairman's Vanguard Award) and Travolta's "Hairspray" co-star Nikki Blonsky (Rising Star Award).
Blonsky said she was hoping and preparing for a last-minute resolution that would permit actors to attend the Globes.
"A girl's gotta cover her back and have a dress, just in case," she said.
French actress Marion Cotillard said she would not cross the picket line although she is not an actor's guild member because she believes writers deserve a greater share of the proceeds from productions they work on.
"I think that everyone involved in a project should share the benefit of it," said Cotillard, who received Palm Springs' Breakthrough Performance Award and is a Globe nominee for her performance in "La Vie en Rose."
The fate of Britney Spears was the other red-hot topic on the Palm Springs red carpet. The troubled pop star was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center by paramedics Thursday night after police were called to her home because of a dispute involving her two sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline.
Television show psychologist "Dr. Phil" McGraw said Spears was released from a hospital Saturday but still needs psychological help, according to syndicated celebrity news programs "Entertainment Tonight" and "The Insider."
"I feel bad, you know, because everyone kind of judges her and splatters her business everywhere," said Page, who appeared in the film "Juno." "No one goes, 'Why is this happening?' They just judge and judge and judge. It's too bad."
Amanda Bynes, who acted in "Hairspray" and TV's "What I Like About You," said she sympathized with Spears.
"I think that this business just does weird things to people, and I think that it's sad," Bynes said. "They get wrapped up in the hoopla and the hair and the makeup, the shopping, the paparazzi and the trying to be famous. That's not what it's about. It's about doing what you love."
Other Palm Springs honorees in attendance included Sean Penn (Director of the Year), Halle Berry (Desert Palm Achievement Award) and "Into the Wild" actor Emile Hirsch (Rising Star Award). The 19th Annual Palm Springs Film Festival continues through Jan. 14.
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France's President Nicolas Sarkozy's sons Jean (R) and Pierre (L), attend a ceremony at the Royal Palace in Marrakech, Morocco, October 22, 2007
PARIS (Reuters) - It was rumored for some time but seems finally to have been confirmed: Pierre Sarkozy, the French president's eldest son, aged 22, is a hip hop producer.
Parisian rapper "Poison" told hip hop radio Generations 88.2 in an interview last week that Pierre Sarkozy, also known as "Mosey," had composed "La Rue," one of the titles on his upcoming album "Mec de Tess" (city guy), the daily Liberation reported on Monday.
"Hey, I'm Mosey, a young Parisian producer, with my crew: Da Crime Chantilly we produced hip hop, soul and rnb beatz."
That's how "Mosey" -- which means to amble along -- describes himself on the Myspace page of his label: Da Crime Chantilly: http://www.myspace.com/Moseyproducer
Pierre Sarkozy is one of President Nicolas Sarkozy's two sons from his first marriage to Marie-Dominique Culioli.
"I have known him for five years," "Poison" was quoted as saying. "I met him at a party. When I heard (who he was), I lost it, I called him. He told me: 'Poison, I did not want to tell you, you would not have wanted to hang out with me'."
During his time as interior minister, Sarkozy initiated cases against French rappers such as Mohamed Bourokba, better known as "Hame" from the group La Rumeur, for defaming the police. Sarkozy is also known for his tough approach to curbing violence in the suburbs.
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