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adventures in moguldom
Surprise Tony-Winner Harvey Weinstein Milks 'Runway' and Broadway For Fun and Profit
Congratulations go out today (we think) to Harvey and Bob Weinstein, whose 2008 Mogul Comeback Tour finds them diversifying yet again en route to reclaiming some kind of surly, deep-pocketed mojo. It all starts on television, apparently, where the brothers plan to renew their old Miramax TV experiment with a full slate of new programming drawing on the success of Project Runway. One show, the late Anthony Minghella's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, has already found traction at HBO; the rest, however, comprises a mixed bag ranging from retreads to stillbirths — and that's before we even get to their plans for Broadway: More »
cougars
Heather Locklear And Denise Richards Square Off In Bikini Deathmatch
Former BFFs Heather Locklear and Denise Richards have each enjoyed watching the other's respective star status fall farther with each passing year, but the good news is they both share something in common to smile about. While it's not exactly an Emmy, they both look hot in bikinis. Heather's gone from starring in a hit primetime drama and being the object of many a male fantasy to her current role in a Lifetime movie about women over 40 or something. And Denise? Well, after impressing nearly every male on the planet with her pouty lips and lesbian pool antics in Wild Things, she earned the title of Mrs. Charlie Sheen (quite an honor, indeed). Now? She's filming some kind of reality show that no one cares about. What do we care about? Who looks better in their red bikinis, and who's the better surfer! Judge for yourselves after the jump: More »
reality television
TLC Becomes Only Network Not To Pass On Jennifer Lopez's Next Reality Show
Remember when The Learning Channel was proudly cheesy? Back when they featured all those low-budget Baby Stories and Wedding Stories and any kind of Story that would set housewives' hearts aflutter? Well, it looks like those TLC-loving housewives are in store for something a bit more glamorous. According to the NY Daily News, diamond-drenched new mother of twins Jennifer Lopez is gearing up to invite us into her and vampire-like husband Marc Anthony's home to "deliver a slice of [Lopez's] life that audiences have never seen before, as she takes on her career and launches a new fragrance while trying to juggle her new responsibilities as a first-time mom." While we couldn't be more excited to watch Lopez cook enchiladas that Anthony will eventually purge, we're noticing a trend. Namely, that previously straight-laced networks like TLC and Lifetime have taken notice of Bravo's success and, thus, are beginning to follow their bold footsteps by greenlighting programs that strongly appeal to the gay and lesbian community. More »
weinstein woes
Jeff Zucker's Wife and Kids Nervous About Harvey Weinstein's 'Runway' Restitution
Some days we're so full of love for Harvey Weinstein that our weak, arrhythmic blogger hearts nearly explode. It was one thing last week when he brazenly moved Project Runway to Lifetime, pulling the rug out from a supposedly unwitting NBC. It was another thing entirely on Monday when Harvey rolled the rug up and started whacking NBC boss Jeff Zucker over the head with it: More »
weinstein woes
More Fallout For Controversy Magnet Harvey Weinstein As 'Runway' Heads To Lifetime
Spring 2008 hasn't been kind to Harvey Weinstein and his little production company. First, his close friend Anthony Minghella passed away (prompting a highly critical piece penned by New York Magazine film critic David Edelstein), then he butted heads with the Marley family over his planned biopic on the reggae singer, and now the portly producer finds himself at the center of NBC and Lifetime's battle for Project Runway. Moments after Lifetime announced their five-year $150 million deal with the Weinstein Co. to take over the helm of Bravo's signature show, Jeff Zucker and his peacocked lawyers immediately responded by suing Harvey and his goons for breach-of-contract. And insiders at NBC aren't keeping mum about their feelings towards the money-hungry Weinstein:
"Harvey hates us passionately, always did...He despises Bravo because he thinks we didn't pay him enough."More »
trade roundup
Trade Round-Up: Williams, Travolta To Form Latest Unholy Buddy Comedy Union
· No, sillies! His name is Gay! LOL! CMT would never hire a real Gay! [Variety]· We thought that Disney could never top itself after casting John Travolta, Tim Allen, and Martin Lawrence together in Wild Hogs, but they've just officially blown our minds by getting Travolta and Robin Williams into Old Dogs, the story of "two best friends and business partners whose lives are turned upside down when they find themselves in the care of 7-year-old twins." This one could do $300 million, easy. [THR]
· With no more female-friendly MOW worlds to conquer after landing both Jennie Garth and Lacey Chabert for upcoming projects, Lifetime president/CEO Betty Cohen "steps down" barely 24 hours after the network's upfront presentations. [Variety]
· Following yesterday's (possibly premature) reports that Spiderman: 3 may have already been pirated in Beijing, enraged MPAA head Dan Glickman stops just short of announcing an immediate Hollywood-led nuclear strike against China. [THR]
· In happier MPAA news, pirate-hunter emeritus Jack Valenti is out of the hospital after a recent stroke, but could suffer a setback should he be updated on this troubling China/Spider-Man situation. [Variety] More »
pirates
Trade Round-Up: Chinese Pirates Already Disrespecting 'Spider-Man 3' Copyrights
· Realizing that he's only played a lawyer once (Fatal Attraction), Michael Douglas quickly signs on to fill the courtroom-drama-shaped hole in his career by starring in Tragic Indifference, based on a landmark case against Ford over its "indifference to flaws in its SUVs." Scene-chewing delivery of a stirring closing statement to follow. [Variety]· Chinese Pirates 1, Sony 0: China's camcording brigade has already made pirated copies of Spider-Man 3 available on the streets of Beijing, nearly two weeks ahead of the movie's U.S. debut. Didn't that flashy Tokyo premiere teach the scofflaws anything about respecting copyrights? The MPAA's next step: dispatching piracy-hating stuntman Manny Perry to smash some black market DVD stalls with a Louisville slugger. [THR]
· The Coen Brothers will make the Fargoesque dark comedy A Serious Man for Working Title and Focus Features. Lantern-jawed muse George Clooney has yet to be attached. [Variety]
· Should ABC pick up the much-discussed Grey's Anatomy spin-off for the fall, creator Shonda Rhimes has selected Krista Vernoff to run the Grey's mothership and Marti Noxon for the satellite; Rhimes will oversee both, which will primarily involve ensuring that both shows' characters have properly overwrought speeches about their impossibly complicated love-lives to deliver and collecting enormous paychecks [THR]
· Lifetime proves its admirable commitment to keeping the female television drama stars of the 90's off the streets, signing up 90210's Jennie Garth and Party of Five's Lacey Chabert for made-for-TV movie gigs. [Variety]
michael j. fox
Michael J. Fox Explains To Rush Limbaugh How Not All Pill-Popping Gives You A Killer Buzz
Michael J. Fox has spoken out in response to Rush Limbaugh's recent accusations that he was exaggerating the symptoms of his Parkinson's disease in a political endorsement TV spot for a candidate who is in favor of stem cell research. Sitting down with Katie Couric—whom, we'd be remiss in failing to point out, would be the actor's mirror image were he to indulge his innermost businesswoman-drag fantasies—Fox explained that the problem was too much, not too little, medication: More »
trade
Trade Round-Up: Rupert Murdoch Ready To Dump His 'Turd Bird'
· The best thing to come out of the Toronto International Film Festival so far, says Variety, is a transcendent documentary from a little known Eurasian filmmaker with a "chram thick like tube of Pringles." [Variety]· We hope Nick Meyer, formerly of Lionsgate, likes hugs, because his new co-president at Paramount Vantage, John Lesher, prefers to celebrate every new acquisition with a big, bear embrace from behind. [Variety]
· Second-tier Rocky and Bullwinkle regulars Mr. Peabody and Sherman get their own CGI feature, in which Sherman finally shuts up the know-it-all, time-traveling mutt by threatening him with a one-way ticket to Dr. Kebarkian's Furry Friends Cat & Dog Clinic. [Variety]
· Rupert Murdoch is looking to dump his controlling interest in DirecTV, a company he has been dismissively referring to lately as his "turd bird." No joke. [Variety]
· "Lolita Davidovich has been cast opposite Lili Taylor in Lifetime's drama pilot State of Mind." Davidovich, fine. But Taylor? A Lifetime pilot? Things sure have taken a turn for the worse since Nate buried her in a burlap sack in the desert. [THR]
· Universal Music CEO Doug Morris tells shareholders YouTube and MySpace users are violating copyright laws, but that he has a great plan to catch them that involves a smoking hot 16-year-old chick with an online video diary. [THR]
american idol
Fantasia: The Lifetime Movie
Many saw similarities between American Idol's most recent contestant evictee, 17-year-old Paris Bennett, and the show's previous winner, Fantasia, but what really set the two cartoon-voiced, soulful songbirds apart was backstory. For while Paris was merely a nice kid from a good family (read: bo-ring), Fantasia's life unfolded like a charmed, inner-city fable: Unwed, teenage mother comes from dead-end poverty street (and, it later comes out, hides illiteracy) to win America's ultimate popularity contest. Just when you thought Fantasia's life couldn't be any more charmed, however, there's more: THR reports that she will star as herself in a Lifetime biopic. More »
trade round-up
Trade Round-Up: Next Steps For Ri Schroder
· M. Night Shyamalan tells exhibitors at the ShowEast conference that collapsing traditional distribution windows is "the worst idea I have ever heard. Then, in a stunning coda that reversed everything his audience thought to be true, he revealed that they were in fact at ShoWest all along. [Variety]· Sam Mendes acceptance speech for his director of the year award at the Hollywood Film Festival is the height of humility and graciousness: "I'm very fond of giving awards to movies you've never seen. To those of you who've seen the movie, thank you very much. To those of you who haven't it's perfect." [Variety]
· Sony slips into the red, largely in part to well-deservedly ignored crapola like Stealth. Amy Pascal stands soaked in the metaphorical rain, praying a Spidey-in-shining-spandex will lower himself to her upside-down and slip her the profitable tongue. [Variety]
· Six Feet Under creator Alan Ball sets up another drama at HBO based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire series of novels, about a world where vampires and humans co-exist. Gee, yet another entertainment industry related show on HBO. Quel surprise. [Variety]
· Lifetime's Strong Medicine kicks the bucket. Rick Schroder thinks about next steps, starting with further shortening his name to Ri.' [THR]
lifetime
