April 15, 2011
Altoona, Pa., sells naming rights for filmmaker
ALTOONA, Pa. (AP) – Later this month, there will still be a city with roughly 31,000 residents in the Allegheny Mountains east of Pittsburgh. What there won’t be is a city named Altoona.
That’s because the city has sold its name to make some money – and to help independent filmmaker Morgan Spurlock make a point.
City Council on Wednesday approved a deal to change Altoona’s name to “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold” for 60 days. Spurlock will pay the city an unspecified amount that will benefit its police department.
The film skewers the proliferation of advertising in American life. POM Wonderful is a juice company that paid to be the movie’s title sponsor.
The film will screen in Altoona on April 27, the day the name change takes effect.
Leading advertisers expanding TV movie initiative
NEW YORK (AP) – Two leading television advertisers say they are producing five new TV movies designed for families to watch together.
The first, “Truth Be Told,” airs Saturday on Fox. It’s a romantic comedy about a relationship expert who fakes her own marriage to help a couple in trouble.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the Procter & Gamble Co. are bankrolling the movies. They began the effort last year and have already been behind four family-friendly movies that have aired on broadcast networks.
NBC will air the next four movies, starting June 11 with a sports drama that takes on the topic of bullying.
The companies say they will continue making new movies in 2012.
Sondheim’s ‘Company’ to be shown at movie theaters
NEW YORK (AP) – The New York Philharmonic’s star-studded production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Company” is heading to a movie screen near you.
The distributor Screenvision said Thursday that starting June 15 it will broadcast a taped production of the musical featuring Craig Bierko, Stephen Colbert, Jon Cryer, Katie Finneran, Neil Patrick Harris, Christina Hendricks Patti LuPone, Martha Plimpton and Anika Noni Rose, among others.
The production, which was staged at Lincoln Center in early April under the direction of Lony Price, boasts the songs “Ladies Who Lunch” and “Side by Side by Side.”
Screenvision has a network of more than 2,400 theaters in 50 states. Dates and locations of the “Company” broadcast were still to be announced.
Other shows that have recently been taped for broadcast include “The Importance of Being Earnest” and “Fela!”
Discovery launching network for rich men in Sept.
David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – Discovery Communications Inc. is launching a television network for rich guys and their toys.
Called Velocity, the new network will replace the current network HD Theater in some 40 million homes on Sept. 25, Discovery officials said Thursday. The target audience is men with incomes of $150,000 a year and more.
“We just felt like this was a space missing in the marketplace,” said David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications.
HD Theater was launched in 2002 with the specific purpose of showing high-definition versions of programs on other Discovery networks. The rapid adoption of high-def by consumers, and the addition of high-def versions of a full network’s signal, rendered HD Theater obsolete.
Discovery has tested a series of programs on HD Theater in recent months that will make the switch to Velocity. They include “Chasing Classic Cars,” ”Cafe Racer” and “Mecum Auto Auctions.”
As those titles suggest, cars will be the “bull’s-eye” of Velocity programming, Zaslav said.
“Culturally, cars are so important for us guys in America,” he said. “We grew up dreaming about what the day would be like when we got our licenses and what cars we would drive.”
Velocity will also televise an upscale sailing race that touches on five oceans, travel programming to upscale locations, adventure sports and “real-life adrenaline shows,” said Robert Scanlon, senior vice president of Velocity.
If done right, Velocity could be a magnet for advertisers, who generally pay a premium to reach an upscale audience.
There are no plans for a network to appeal to rich women. Discovery also operates the Oprah Winfrey Network, TLC and Animal Planet, networks with strong appeal to women, Zaslav said.
007 remains spy who loved Sony in deal with MGM
LOS ANGELES (AP) – James Bond is staying put with the studio that distributed his last two big-screen adventures.
Sony Pictures has signed a deal with MGM to co-finance and distribute the 23rd film in the super-spy franchise, due in theaters Nov. 9, 2012. Daniel Craig will be back for the third time as British agent Bond.
In an announcement Wednesday, the studios said they hope to partner up for a 24th Bond film, as well.
Sony Corp. had been a part owner of MGM and distributed Craig’s earlier Bond flicks, “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace.” But the Bond franchise had been on hold until MGM worked out financial problems and emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership.
Sony will handle worldwide distribution for Bond, except for some overseas markets MGM will oversee directly.
Court upholds $4M verdict in A&E TV show dispute
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) – A federal appeals court has upheld a South Carolina real estate investor’s $4 million verdict in a dispute over profits from the A&E reality television show “Flip This House.”
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week upheld the verdict awarded to creator and one-time host Richard C. Davis.
A jury in 2008 awarded the money to Davis, who created the show and appeared on its first season. The Trademark Properties Inc. real estate investor sued after he said the cable network broke an oral agreement to split the show’s profits.
Attorneys for A&E have said the network had no such agreement. A spokesman on Tuesday would not talk about the appellate decision.
Davis said Tuesday that he wants to return to television with a series about restaurant renovations.
Denzel Washington filming causes stir in Cape Town
JOHANNESBURG (AP) – A movie starring Denzel Washington was a little too thrilling for a Cape Town neighborhood that has experienced gang violence.
Callers to talk radio Tuesday said they feared gang fights had returned to the township when they heard the sounds of automatic gunfire overnight.
Adam Merims and Genevieve Hofmyer, producers of the crime thriller “Safe House,” issued a statement apologizing “for any inconvenience or negative effect.”
Denis Lillie, head of the Cape Film Commission, said the producers had been authorized to film a sequence involving car chases and the firing of blanks, and had informed residents in the immediate neighborhood. But he said the sound carried further than expected.
“The economic benefits and the profile that it gives to Cape Town is … astounding,” Lillie said, saying occasional disruptions due to filming is “something that we’re going to have to get used to.”
Crist, Byrne settle lawsuit over campaign song
Mitch Stacy
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) – Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has settled a lawsuit filed by Talking Heads singer David Byrne after Crist used one of the group’s songs without permission in a campaign ad last year, both parties confirmed Monday.
Terms of the settlement were not released, but it included a recorded apology by Crist that was posted on YouTube Monday afternoon. Byrne had sued Crist for $1 million for using the song “Road to Nowhere” in a YouTube video attacking Marco Rubio, one of the governor’s opponents in the U.S. Senate race.
Crist said Monday that he was pleased with the terms of the settlement and that Byrne “couldn’t have been a better guy” when they met last week to mediate the case.
“As I told him, I was sorry it ever happened at all,” Crist said. “He couldn’t have been more of a gentleman about it.”
Crist and the advertising agency that made the video have blamed each other for not seeking permission to use the song.
In a statement Monday, Byrne said he was shocked to discover that the unauthorized use of songs for political ads is “pretty rampant.”
“It turns out I am one of the few artists who has the bucks and (guts) to challenge such usage. I’m feeling very manly after my trip to Tampa!” Byrne’s statement said. “Other artists may actually have the anger but not want to take the time and risk the legal bills. I am lucky that I can do that. Anyway, my hope is that by standing up to this practice maybe it can be made to be a less common option, or better yet an option that is never taken in the future.”
In the YouTube apology, a serious-looking Crist reads from a statement saying that he doesn’t condone “any actions taken by anyone in the Senate campaign that were inconsistent with David Byrne’s rights or any other artist’s rights.”
“I pledge that, should there be any future election campaigns for me, I will respect and uphold the rights of artists and obtain permiss ion or a license for the use of any copyrighted work,” Crist said.
Rubio, who ultimately won the election, also ran into trouble over the use of a copyrighted song in a campaign ad. He was called out after using the Steve Miller Band’s 1976 song “Take the Money and Run” in a YouTube video attacking Crist, but Rubio was not sued.
Byrne was represented by Lawrence Iser, who sued on behalf of singer Jackson Browne when Republican presidential candidate John McCain and the Ohio Republican Party used the song “Running on Empty” without permission in the 2008. The party and McCain apologized.
“This settlement again confirms that the U.S. copyright and trademark laws apply to politicians and their advertising agencies, just like everyone else,” Iser said Monday.
Italy’s Bertolucci to be honored at Cannes
PARIS (AP) – The organizers of the Cannes Film Festival say they will honor Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci with an honorary Palme d’Or at the opening ceremony of this year’s 11-day-long cinema extravaganza.
The Palme d’Or is the festival’s top prize, usually awarded by the jury to one of the films in competition. But honorary Palmes d’Or have been bestowed upon “important filmmakers, whose work is authoritative” but who’ve never won the award, including Woody Allen in 2002 and Clint Eastwood in 2009.
Cannes organizers said in a statement Monday that Bertolucci, director of 1978’s “The Last Emperor” and 1982’s “Last Tango in Paris,” will be presented the award during the May 11 inauguration.
The festival runs through May 22.
Olympian-turned-actor Tian dives into film romance
Min Lee, Entertainment Writer
HONG KONG (AP) – Chinese champion diver Tian Liang has won glowing reviews from a prominent Hong Kong director as the two-time Olympic gold medalist transitions from elite athlete to entertainer.
Tian, the men’s 10-meter platform champion at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and synchronized platform champ four years later in Athens, plays an autistic young man who marries a mute woman in Andrew Lau’s upcoming Chinese-language romance “A Beautiful Life.”
“The surprise this time was Tian Liang,” Lau told The Associated Press on Sunday.
“He was very hardworking. He bought many books about autism. He studied how autistic people speak. And I was very happy that he even mastered the gestures of autism sufferers,” said Lau, best known in the West for his “Infernal Affairs” trilogy of crime thrillers.
“He needs more experience. He also needs to come across the right scripts. But I think he has potential,” the veteran filmmaker said.
Lead actor Liu Ye, one of China’s top young talents, was also impressed by Tian’s diligence, and offered Tian acting tips on the set.
“An Olympic gold medal is the highest honor in popular opinion. He doesn’t have to prove anything with his acting. He is not a trained actor, but I saw the hard work he put in,” Liu said.
Besides “A Beautiful Life,” Tian also appeared in Jeff Lau’s 2010 romance “The Fantastic Water Babes” and has starred in several TV series.
Tian is not the only Chinese star athlete looking to switch to entertainment.
Gymnast Liu Xuan, the women’s balance beam champion at the Sydney Olympics, released her debut pop album in February and stars in “Grace Under Fire,” a kung fu drama on leading Hong Kong broadcaster TVB.
LA councilmen fined over free award show tickets
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Four City Council members agreed to pay $13,300 in fines for improperly accepting free tickets to Hollywood shows and dinners, including the Academy Awards.
The city Ethics Commission, which issued a report on the fines Friday, is scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether to accept deals with Tony Cardenas, Eric Garcetti, Jose Huizar and Herb Wesson.
City law prohibited them from accepting gifts worth more than $100 a year from donors that have business before the city.
Garcetti agreed to pay the largest fine – $4,800 – for alleged violations that included accepting tickets to the Governors Ball that accompanied the 2007 Oscars and Emmys.
Garcetti said he believed that he was paying the full value of the tickets at the time, according to the report.
“While I paid the full cost of the award show tickets, I messed up when it came to the dinners afterward,” Garcetti said in a statement. “That’s my mistake.”
The other council members agreed to pay lesser fines for accepting tickets to the Oscars, Emmys and BET Awards.
Ticket donors also have agreed to pay fines.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which produces the Oscars, agreed to pay $13,250, and the Emmy-producing Academy of Television Arts and Sciences is set to pay $7,900. The Recording Academy, which produces the Grammys, will pay $8,300.
Black Entertainment Television Networks, which stages the BET Awards, and theater and arena owner AEG agreed to smaller fines.
Last week, state and city ethics officials announced that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa had agreed to pay nearly $42,000 in fines for failing to disclose that he received free tickets to Los Angeles Lakers games, the finals of “American Idol” and more than two dozen other sports and entertainment events.
The California Fair Political Practices Commission will vote Monday on whether to accept its share of the fine, which is considered to be the largest of its kind by the commission. The city Ethics Commission will vote on its share Tuesday.
