April 8, 2011
Larry King, TV pitchman; want a breath freshener?
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Larry King’s business portfolio is expanding from bagels to breath mints.
The former CNN host, who announced last month he was joining with a New York bagel maker to open a Beverly Hills store, now is hawking a breath freshener.
In a release Thursday, King said he and his wife, Shawn, “love” the product so much that they have become partners in it. The goal, King said, is to “make sure people share our enthusiasm” for the mint-coated capsule, BreathGemz.
King and his wife will promote the product in TV and radio spots and, as the company put it, demonstrate that people in all “strata of life” face breath issues.
Ken Burns says public media funds key for his work
By Brett Zongker
WASHINGTON (AP) – Ken Burns has a slew of documentary projects planned for the next six years, and he says they depend on funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Funding for the humanities and for public broadcasting has been targeted for deep cuts in Congress.
Burns says more than a third of his budgets come from those sources. A $1.3 million grant helped him make “The Civil War” series, and that money was quickly repaid through sales of his work.
He planned to tell Congress that cuts would devastate film producers. But a hearing Wednesday was canceled amid stalled budget talks.
Burns says Americans should know funding for public media is an “infinitesimal percentage” of the federal budget. He says such cuts won’t reduce the nation’s deficit.
Bong to head Cannes jury for debut filmmakers
PARIS (AP) – The Cannes Film Festival says South Korean director Bong Joon-ho will preside over the jury that awards the Camera d’Or prize for a first-time filmmaker.
Bong is the director of “Barking Dog” (2000) and “Memories of Murder” (2004) but is best known overseas for his 2006 monster film “The Host,” which became a massive hit in South Korea. It made $2.2 million at the U.S. box office, and Hollywood producers bought remake rights.
His 2009 drama “Mother” premiered at Cannes, in the prestigious film festival’s secondary Un Certain Regard competition. It did not win any prizes at the 2009 festival.
Last year’s Camera d’Or went to Michael Rowe’s “Leap Year.”
Network aimed at black audience announced for fall
By Errin Haines
ATLANTA (AP) – The country’s first broadcast network aimed at African-American audiences is set to debut this fall with free movies, sports and documentaries.
Atlanta-based Bounce TV will be an over-the-air channel supported by sponsors, showing programs for blacks ages 25 to 54. It is designed to be carried on the digital signals of local television stations, and it doesn’t necessarily want to compete with existing cable networks like BET, TV One or Centric, said Ryan Glover, a former Turner Broadcasting executive and member of the Bounce leadership team.
“We are basically targeting the rabbit-ear consumer,” Glover said.
As the network grows, it also plans to produce original programming. The network hopes to launch in many as half of American television households – up to 50 million homes.
Glover declined to disclose how much the venture will cost, saying only that it is less than launching a cable network.
“Our audience is so desperately underserved, I think consumers will welcome a fourth option,” he said. “Hopefully in the future, there will be a fifth, sixth, and seventh offering. Bounce TV will fill the void for people who are hungry for more African-American related programming, stories, characters, sports and events.”
Bounce has already acquired the television rights to nearly 400 movies, including “The Wiz” and “Car Wash”; several Spike Lee productions such as “Jungle Fever,” “Mo’ Better Blues” and “Do the Right Thing”; and films featuring Oscar winner Denzel Washington, such as “The Hurricane,” the Civil War epic “Glory” and “Philadelphia.”
The network also announced a multi-year rights agreement with Urban Sports Entertainment Group to televise football and basketball games from the country’s largest black athletic conference, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, including the CIAA championship football game and select quarter- and semi-final CIAA tournament basketball games.
Media analyst and consultant Shari Anne Brill called the startup interesting.
“What it will do is give access to that type of programming to those who may not have access to” cable, she said. “Everything competes in a multi-channel environment, but it’s not like someone who has cable won’t want to watch this if it’s good. As long as they have big investors behind them, they’ll be able to get the word out. It’s tough to get on the map. The key is marketing and generating awareness.”
Martin Luther King III and civil rights icon Andrew Young are also listed as founders of the network. Rainforest Films co-founders Rob Hardy and Will Packer are also on the network’s leadership team, and ex-Sony Pictures Television Executive Jeffrey Wolf is leading distribution efforts.
Online: Bounce TV: http://bouncetv.com
Grammys drop more than 30 categories
By Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Music Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – Men and women will compete head-to-head, some of the more exotic awards like best Native American album and best spoken-word children’s record have been eliminated, and the number of categories has been reduced by more than 30 in the biggest overhaul in the 53-year history of the Grammys.
While no musical genres will be excluded from Grammy contention, the changes will make the awards a lot more competitive.
“It ups the game in terms of what it takes to receive a Grammy and preserves the great esteem of with its held in the creative community, which is the most important element,” Recording Academy President and CEO Neil Portnow said in a telephone interview Wednesday.
While the Academy has adjusted its rules and adapted to industry changes over the years, these changes follow its first major examination of the awards structure, a process that took more than a year.
The biggest change will come in the number of categories, cut from 109 to 78. Awards will no longer be given in such categories as rap performance by a duo or group; some of the instrumental categories in pop, rock and country; traditional gospel; children’s spoken-word album; Zydeco or Cajun music album; and best classical crossover album.
That doesn’t mean that those types of music are ineligible; they will simply compete within larger fields.
Portnow said the changes will make the awards process more rigorous.
“That’s appropriate. We are talking about the most prestigious, coveted award and it should be a high bar in terms of the measurement of receiving that,” he said.
Separate male and female vocal categories in fields like pop, R&B and country are among those being dropped. Men and women will now compete in each overall field. That is already the case in the field of rock, which does not have male and female vocal categories.
“A great singer is a great singer is a great singer, and somebody that has a gift in terms of their voice, and is at the top of their game in terms of their delivery and emotion, really isn’t necessarily defined by gender,” Portnow said.
The changes would appear to make it more difficult for artists in lesser-known and less mainstream categories. Tia Carrere won’t be taking home any more Grammys for best Hawaiian music album, for example. But she could still win in the new best regional roots music album category, which comprises more genres.
Other changes will require each category to have at least 40 entries instead of 25, and categories that receive between 25 and 39 will have only three nominations instead of four or five.
If a category gets fewer than 25 entries, it will be removed for that year, and if it happens three years in a row, the category will be discontinued and the material will find a new home in a related genre.
Online: http://www.grammy.com
‘Mad Men’ will be streamed on Netflix
NEW YORK (AP) – Netflix will start streaming the hit TV series “Mad Men” in a multi-year deal the online movie rental company struck with Lions Gate, the show’s producer.
Netflix Inc. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. said late Tuesday the show’s first four seasons will be available beginning July 27, with additional seasons added each year after they air on AMC.
Netflix is already streaming the first four seasons of “Mad Men” in Canada. Set in the 1960s, the drama series stars Jon Hamm as an advertising executive working in Manhattan. The fifth season will return in early 2012.
The deal comes as traditional TV services are increasingly viewing Netflix as a competitor rather than a customer. CBS Corp.’s Showtime recently pulled back shows such as “Dexter” from Netflix’s streaming service. Netflix, meanwhile, is also stepping up the rivalry with the planned debut of an original series, “House of Cards” with actor Kevin Spacey.
Netflix had 20.2 million subscribers by the end of 2010. That compares with an estimated 28 million customers for Time Warner Inc.’s HBO. Liberty Media Corp.’s Starz, which ended the year with 18.2 million subscribers, said in late March it will start imposing a 90-day delay on streaming new episodes of original series on Netflix. Previously, Netflix customers were able to stream new episodes of the Starz original series “Spartacus” immediately after they aired. Showtime, meanwhile, had less than 20 million subscribers.
Third ‘Dark Knight’ to film in Pittsburgh
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Criminals beware, Batman will be on the beat this summer in Pittsburgh.
Film director Christopher Nolan, who has helmed the two previous Batman films – starring Christian Bale as the caped crime fighter and his alter ego, Bruce Wayne – said Tuesday the Pennsylvania city will host filming for a third film for at least a month.
“Pittsburgh is a beautiful city. We have been able to find everything we were looking for here and I am excited to spend the summer in Pittsburgh with our final installment of Batman,” he said in a statement, adding that he finally settled on the city because of its architecture and diverse sampling of locations.
Mayor Luke Ravensthahl said the decision was “another example of the growing film industry in our community and we will be rolling out the red carpet for them.”
The city is no stranger to film productions, having been the location for more than 100 film and television products since 1990, including “I Am Number Four” and Kevin Smith’s “Zack & Miri Make A Porno.”
The Pittsburgh Film Office is a non-profit economic development agency that markets southwest Pennsylvania as a location for filming.
“Film production means jobs for Pennsylvanians, it’s as simple as that,” Office director Dawn Keezer said. “A single film can mean millions of dollars and many local jobs. A franchise as prestigious as Batman opens our region up to an entirely new audience as filmmakers and studio executives experience southwestern Pennsylvania.”
She said filming could last between four and six weeks and will start in July. The film, “The Dark Knight Rises,” is scheduled to be released in July 2012, and stars Bale, Gary Oldman, and Anne Hathaway as Catwoman.
The previous two films include “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.”
Online: http://www.pghfilm.org
Movie studios sue Zediva over movie streaming
By Barbara Ortutay, Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – Hollywood movie studios are challenging a gutsy startup that thought it had found a loophole to make the latest hit movies available for instant viewing online long before they are available on Netflix or Redbox.
Zediva tried to circumvent the fact that it didn’t have licenses to stream movies online. It lets customers rent a DVD and a player that are physically located in the Silicon Valley.
But the Motion Picture Association of America said Zediva’s approach is illegal. Six studios, including Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures and Disney Enterprises, filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles on Monday against Zediva’s parent company, WTV Systems, and founder and CEO Venkatesh Srinivasan.
Zediva had no immediate comment Tuesday. The company launched its service to the public last month, after spending two years developing its technology. It only lets one user rent a DVD at a time, so if it buys 20 copies of a DVD, only 20 accounts can watch it at the same time. It costs $1.99 to rent one movie or $10 to get 10 movies.
The MPAA said Zediva’s claim that its service is just like any brick-and-mortar DVD rental store is a sham.
“Zediva’s mischaracterization of itself is a gimmick it hopes will enable it to evade the law and stream movies in violation of the studios’ exclusive rights,” said Dan Robbins, senior vice president and associate general counsel for the MPAA, in a statement.
On Tuesday, Zediva’s website said registration was temporarily closed to new users while it was building more capacity.
Kevin Spacey calls for arts funding in Congress
By Brett Zongker
WASHINGTON (AP) – Kevin Spacey performed some impromptu “street theater” Tuesday to ask Congress for continued funding of the National Endowment for the Arts amid calls for deep budget cuts.
Spacey was supposed to testify in the House during a hearing that was canceled at the last minute for budget negotiations to avoid a government shutdown. Instead, he performed a version of his testimony for arts supporters.
“Let’s pretend,” he said, introducing himself to a packed crowd that included a few lawmakers before reading his prepared testimony.
The Academy Award-winning actor said a theater workshop led by the great actor Jack Lemmon when Spacey was 13 gave him a big boost into theater. When it came time to perform a scene for Lemmon, Spacey spoke in a shaky voice with little self-esteem.
“Now that was a touch of terrific,” Lemmon told Spacey.
“He saw something in me – a potential – that even I hadn’t recognized,” Spacey said. “That moment shaped me, and it shaped my life.”
Spacey – who won Oscars for his roles in “American Beauty” and “The Usual Suspects” and was executive producer of last year’s “The Social Network” – said he’s worried fewer kids will have opportunities in the arts. Funding cuts in the 1990s and similar notions now threaten the grants provided by the arts endowment for local theaters and arts groups, he said.
“To me, it is important just to absolutely embrace arts and culture and the creative industries and what they bring to our nation,” Spacey told The Associated Press. “It is the single greatest export we exchange around the world.”
Alec Baldwin and Hill Harper of TV’s “CSI: NY,” who was a law school friend of President Barack Obama, spoke later on Capitol Hill, also urging lawmakers to shield the arts from drastic cuts.
House Republicans have passed a $40 million cut this year to the relatively small $168 million annual budget of the arts endowment, though the cut is subject to Senate negotiations. Others want to cut off funding entirely in 2012, including Sarah Palin, who recently called such government spending “frivolous.”
Obama’s proposed budget for 2012 calls for a $22 million reduction due to pressure to cut spending.
Several state arts agencies also are facing severe cuts. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback called for eliminating the state arts commission but met resistance in the state Senate. Cuts have been proposed in Washington state and New Hampshire as well.
Grants from arts agencies are used as leverage to draw donations from corporations and philanthropists for substantial projects. Spacey said an NEA grant is a “stamp of approval” for small arts groups.
Robert Lynch, president of the lobbying group Americans for the Arts, said many new lawmakers in a rush to cut budgets fail to see the jobs and economic boost that arts organizations provide as small businesses. The $166 billion nonprofit arts sector includes 5.7 million jobs and generates nearly $30 billion in tax revenue, he said.
“Without a lot of time to understand what this sector means and how it can contribute, it’s lumped along with everything else that can be cut to make a smaller government,” Lynch said, adding that many arts supporters have left Congress. Still, he said, “I’m one of the last optimists in Washington.”
The arts group plans to hold its first-ever White House briefing Tuesday to press for support from Obama’s staff.
Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho, chairman of the House subcommittee that funds the arts, told supporters he believes a majority in Congress supports preserving funding. Still, some believe the government simply shouldn’t fund the arts at all.
Democratic Rep. James Moran of Virginia said the government is buying fighter jets that each cost as much as the annual budget of the National Endowment for the Arts. The F-22 costs $412 million each, and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter costs $126 million each. The government is buying hundreds of them.
“We are not a poor country. We are a wealthy country, but our real power comes from the power of our ideas,” he said “This is not about saving money. This is ideological.”
Spacey also has publicly opposed a recently announced 30 percent cut to arts funding in Britain, where he serves as artistic director of London’s Old Vic Theatre. He said the cuts taking full effect by 2015 would devastate hundreds of arts groups.
The British government should change its tax laws, Spacey said, and use the U.S. model of providing tax breaks for charitable donations to help fill the gap left by cuts in public funding.
