January 6, 2011
Photojournalist Eve Arnold dies at 99
LONDON (AP) – Eve Arnold, a globe-trotting photojournalist who captured iconic images of Marilyn Monroe, has died. She was 99.
Magnum photo agency spokeswoman Fiona Rogers says Arnold died peacefully Wednesday in a London nursing home.
Born in Philadelphia in 1912 to Russian immigrant parents, Arnold worked for publications including Life magazine and joined the Magnum collective in the 1950s.
Her subjects ranged from bartenders and cowboys to Jacqueline Kennedy and Malcolm X.
Her most famous shots include portraits of Monroe taken throughout the actress’s career and collected in “Marilyn Monroe: An Appreciation.”
Arnold settled in London in the 1960s, working for the Sunday Times.
She is survived by her son, Frank, and three grandchildren.
Independent’s Ed Sayers To Open New Shorts Film Selection at London Short Film Festival
LONDON – Ed Sayers’ acclaimed short, Goldfish, will be opening the New Shorts film selection “Fucked Up Love” at the London Short Film Festival this Saturday, 7th January, at 12pm at the Curzon Soho.
Starring Michael Fassbender, currently receiving rave reviews for his leading role in Shame, Goldfish is an off-the-wall look at breaking up – a fish’s eye view of the decline of two relationships – one in his bowl and one outside it. And all delivered in Cantonese. Naturally.
Disney and Comcast reach a long-term deal
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday that it reached a long-term agreement with the nation’s largest TV signal provider, Comcast Corp., that extends their partnership into the next decade.
The 10-year deal covers major pay channels ESPN, Disney Channel and ABC Family and the retransmission of free ABC broadcast network programs through seven ABC TV stations. It allows Comcast subscribers to gain greater access to shows on demand over the Internet on multiple devices.
Terms were not disclosed.
The deal comes as TV distributors and content owners continue to spar over fees to carry programming.
In the New York area, a dispute between Time Warner Cable and The Madison Square Garden Co. has left some cable subscribers without access to Knicks basketball or Rangers hockey games since early in the new year.
Disney and Comcast agreed on the package covering 70 channels or services even though only a few agreements covering ABC Family, Disney Channel and Disney XD had expired at the end of 2011. The companies agreed that a long-term comprehensive deal was in both their interests.
Comcast and Disney called the scope and range of the deal “unprecedented.”
“It reinforces the value of the multichannel subscription and takes full advantage of new technologies, which serve all of our viewers,” said ESPN executive chairman George Bodenheimer in a statement.
The deal incorporates Comcast’s Xfinity TV online suite of programs and gives its 22.4 million video subscribers online access to services such as ESPN3, which offers live feeds of games that are sometimes not on the television network. Comcast subscribers will also be able to watch ABC shows such as “Castle” and “Grey’s Anatomy” on demand, but they won’t have the option of fast-forwarding through commercials.
Comcast also agreed to carry the pay TV channel Disney Junior, a rebranded network focused on children up to age 7 that will replace the SOAPnet channel in February.
‘Potter,’ ‘X-Men,’ ‘Apes’ vie for visual Oscar
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Academy Award for visual effects is shaping up into a showdown among such heroes as Harry Potter, the X-Men, the Transformers and Captain America.
Oscar organizers Wednesday announced 10 finalists for the visual-effects prize. Among the contenders are “Captain America: The First Avenger”; “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2”; “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”; and “X-Men: First Class.”
Also in the running: “Hugo”; “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol”; “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”; “Real Steel”; “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”; and “The Tree of Life.”
The academy’s visual-effects branch will watch excerpts from each film and select five nominees, which will be announced along with other Oscar nominations Jan. 24. The Oscar ceremony is set for Feb. 26.
Singer of ‘I’m Your Puppet’ dies in Florida at 72TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – Robert Dickey, a guitarist and singer in the group that recorded the hit song “I’m Your Puppet,” has died.
The 72-year-old died in his hometown of Tallahassee on Dec. 29. His death was confirmed by a Tallahassee funeral home. No cause was given.
Dickey began his musical career during the ’60s and spent time touring with various soul and rhythm and blues singers such as Otis Redding. He eventually became part of the soul group “James and Bobby Purify.”
The duo had its biggest hit in the fall of 1966 when “I’m Your Puppet” hit the Top 10. The group has also had a hit with a rendition of “Shake Your Tail Feather.”
Dickey told The Tallahassee Democrat back in 2000 that he never liked “I’m Your Puppet,” which was written by Spooner Oldham and Dan Penn, who also authored other hits from the same time period.
“I hated it,” Dickey told the newspaper when he was honored as part of a Florida rock and roll exhibition held at the Museum of Florida History. “It was originally intended to be the B-side. But things got changed … I sang it for 23 hours straight (in the studio), that’s why I hate it.”
Dickey wound up quitting his professional music career and returned to Tallahassee in 1972. He became a city maintenance supervisor but he also kept singing and playing guitar with his church and as a member of the Bethlehem Male Singers.
Scorsese to be honored by British film academy
LONDON (AP) – Britain’s film academy is honoring Martin Scorsese for his “outstanding and exceptional” contribution to cinema.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts said Wednesday that Scorsese will receive its highest honor, the Academy Fellowship, at a ceremony next month.
Academy chairman Tim Corrie said the director of “Taxi Driver,” ”Raging Bull” and “Hugo” was “a true inspiration to all young directors the world over.”
Scorsese said he was honored to receive the fellowship, whose previous recipients include Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock and Elizabeth Taylor.
The British awards, popularly known as BAFTAs, are considered an important indicator of likely success at Hollywood’s Academy Awards.
They will be presented Feb. 12 at London’s Royal Opera House.
Iran closing House of Cinema film center
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) – Iran’s Culture Minister says the government has ordered the closing the independent Iranian House of Cinema. Artists say political reasons are behind the decision.
Mohammed Hosseini says his ministry determined that the film promotion institute lacked a legal basis for operations. His comments were reported by the official IRNA news agency Wednesday.
The Iranian House of Cinema is an independent body that has operated for 20 years. Recently it threatened to boycott the state-organized annual Fajr International Film Festival, Iran’s most important cinematic event, over threats to close the House, charging the campaign against the center is politically motivated.
Hard-liners have repeatedly criticized the House for adopting liberal stands contrary to government cultural policies.
NY grocery chain changes course on Alec Baldwin TV ads
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A New York-based supermarket chain has had a change of heart about grounding Alec Baldwin as a spokesman because of his antics aboard an American Airlines flight.
Wegmans Food Markets said Wednesday it will continue running television ads featuring Baldwin after being inundated with “hundreds and hundreds of tweets, emails, and phone calls” in support of the actor.
“We regret ending the Alec Baldwin holiday commercials one week earlier than planned in response to a couple of dozen complaints,” Wegmans said in a statement. “We have decided to run the commercials again, effective immediately. Clearly, many more people support Alec.”
Wegmans revealed Tuesday it had pulled the ads after drawing customer criticism about Baldwin’s behavior. He was removed from a New York-bound flight at Los Angeles International Airport on Dec. 6 for refusing to turn off his cellphone.
The commercials, which were filmed for the 2010 holiday season, were supposed to run again for three weeks last month but were pulled a week early after Baldwin’s airline dustup.
Baldwin was hired for the ads after he mentioned that his mother, who lives in the Syracuse area, is a loyal Wegmans customer.
“We appreciate Wegmans’ decision and the sentiment expressed in their statement,” Baldwin publicist Matthew Hiltzik said.
Wegmans, a family owned business founded in Rochester in 1916, is credited with helping pioneer “one-stop shopping.” It has 79 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts.
Combo of Big TV Event spot buy with cinema advertising shows positive results in study
NEW YORK-Screenvision commissioned Lieberman Research to do a study that looked at two different groups exposed to the same Big Event TV ad, on television and in-cinema. The study’s results deem that seeing a Big Event TV ad on television and in-cinema increases the viewer’s brand awareness, affinity, recall, and recommendation.
An online survey was conducted in the 24-48 hours after the airing of the commercial during Super Bowl XLV™ in February 2011, with a nationally representative group of 1,001 adults, age 18 and over. A second, in-depth interviewer-administered survey was conducted with 297 respondents at theaters in the Los Angeles and Nashville DMAs which screened these same ads, in the weekend following Super Bowl XLV.
Moviegoers who saw the Big Event TV ad on television and in-cinema had 41 percent higher brand affinity compared to cinema-only and Big Event TV-only viewers. Viewers had a 27 percent increase in brand awareness and chance of sharing their positive opinions. Brand recommendation increased 13 percent when viewers saw the ad in both environments.
Cinema-only viewers returned more positive results than Big Event TV-only viewers. Cinema-only viewers had an increase of 14 percent in ad likeability. They showed 21 percent higher results in ad persuasiveness.
Brand consideration was 6 percent higher for Cinema-only viewers. Opinion of the brand showed a 4 percent increase compared to Big Event TV-only viewers.
The recall of respondents who were exposed to spots only in theaters was 12% higher than those who had only viewed the spots on television.
Seventy-seven percent of respondents thought Super Bowl and other Big Event TV ads were a good fit for cinema.
Moviegoers enjoyed the Super Bowl ads more in the cinema environment, by a margin of 17 to 1.
“This study clearly demonstrates the unique power of cinema advertising and the role it plays in driving awareness, affinity, positive word of mouth and purchasing intent,” said Mark Mitchell, Chief Revenue Officer of Screenvision. “It also dramatically reinforces the benefits that cinema delivers to amplify a Super Bowl, Grammys, Academy Awards and other Big Event TV investment.”
