Children's network launches anti-bullying campaign
By David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --The popular children’s television network Nickelodeon is the latest voice to raise awareness of digital bullying.
Nick, the most-watched TV network among kids ages 2 to 14, will begin an on-air public service campaign Monday featuring some of its stars offering advice on what young people should do when confronted with hostile texts, emails or Facebook posts.
The advice offered in one ad featuring Ashley Argota of “True Jackson, VP” and Gage Golightly of “The Troop”: Sign off the computer; don’t reply to a hostile messenger; block bullies from access; make a copy of the message to show to an adult you trust.
“It’s not tattle-telling,” Golightly says. “It’s standing up for yourself.”
The issue has received national attention after the suicides of teenagers who were cyberbullying victims. President Barack Obama held a White House conference on bullying earlier this month. Nick is collaborating with the advocacy group Common Sense Media, which has also worked with MTV and the Disney Channel on spreading the word about the issue.
The hope is that the anti-bullying effort can become as pervasive and successful as campaigns calling for a designated driver who has not consumed alcohol when friends are out drinking, said James Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media, which offers reviews and advice for parents.
Miranda Cosgrove and Nathan Kress of Nick’s “ICarly” are also participating in the campaign, which will last for two years, said Marva Smalls, Nick’s executive vice president for public affairs.
“We are happy that our talent agreed to be a part of it because that would make it resonate even more for kids,” Smalls said.
Half of young people ages 14-24 said they had been the victim of cyberbullying, according to a survey conducted in late 2009 for The Associated Press and MTV.
“We have to be laser-focused on finding solutions to the issue of cyberbullying,” Steyer said.
Nickelodeon is an important partner for its ability to reach kids as they’re just starting to use the Internet and cellphones, he said. Nick is also publicizing Common Sense’s “Rule of the Road” for online behavior, urging young users to guard their privacy and assume that everyone in the world can see whatever they are posting.
Nick will also host a discussion board and have information available on its web page devoted to parents who want to learn about the issue.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More