By Sandy Cohen, Entertainment Writer
PARK CITY, Utah (AP) --Norman Lear was so touched by the documentary made about his life, he wanted to cuddle up with the entire audience at the Sundance Film Festival.
"If we could find the largest bed and we could all get in bed together, it would express everything I'm feeling right now," Lear, 93, said after watching the film.
"Norman Lear: Another Version of You" was received with a standing ovation when it opened the Sundance Film Festival on Thursday night. Directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, the film spans practically the whole of the 93-year-old artist and activist's life, professionally and personally.
It explores Lear's reasons for creating such groundbreaking sitcoms as "All in the Family," ''Maude," ''Good Times" and "The Jeffersons," which were based as much on his personal experiences as his desire to bring real, relevant subjects to TV audiences.
"Another Version of You" skips through time, unfolding Lear's story without chronological restraints. A theme throughout is Lear's unresolved feelings for his father, who was jailed for fraud when Lear was 9. Lear grew up between uncles' and grandparents' houses, and the film frames his work – particularly in "All in the Family" – through this painful lens.
Even more than 40 years later, Lear tears up when watching an episode where Archie Bunker is faced with the reality that his father was bigoted and cruel.
"How can a man that loves you tell you anything that's wrong?" Bunker pleads.
As much a history of the modern sitcom as a portrait of their creator, the film reveals behind-the-scenes strife in Lear's TV families. Carroll O'Connor, who famously played Archie Bunker but was actually a liberal, often challenged Lear over his character's abrasive manner. "Good Times" stars Esther Rolle and John Amos also argued over how their characters were portrayed. As the first black family on television, the actors bristled against what they saw as caricatures and stereotypes.
"You can have comedy without buffoonery," Rolle says in the film, which blends archival footage and old interviews with recent material and artistic re-enactments, with a young boy playing Lear.
Other actors appearing in the film include Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Lena Dunham, George Clooney, Amy Poehler and Jon Stewart, who told Lear, "You raised me." Lear's children and wife appear in the film and were by his side at the screening.
The title, Lear said, refers to a perspective he has long held: that all people are simply versions of one another.
"That feeling that we are one," he said, "has always been there."
"Norman Lear: Another Version of You" is set to air on PBS later this year as part of its American Masters series.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More