Movie producer Tyler Perry’s Mother Dies at Age 64
By Dionne Walker
ATLANTA (AP) – Willie Maxine Perry, who helped inspire the character Madea played by her movie producer son Tyler Perry, has died. She was 64.
Tyler Perry announced her Tuesday death on his Web site, where he thanked fans for their prayers. He did not say where his mother died or anything about the cause.
Perry’s publicist, Keleigh Thomas, would not give further details Wednesday afternoon.
Perry owes much of his popularity to his portrayal of Madea, a sharp-tongued, iron-willed Southern matriarch played by Perry in a padded suit and wig. She is the central character in films like “Tyler Perry’s Madea Goes to Jail,”
In an October interview, Perry told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the character is a celebration of strong black women who is based in part on his own mother.
“Madea’s a cross between my mother and my aunt – she’s the type of grandmother that was on every corner when I was growing up,” he said. “… She’s a strong figure whe re I come from, in my part of the African American community.”
But the character has also earned criticism from some black community figures who argue Perry is reinforcing stereotypes of black women as overbearing, violent and brash. Film maker Spike Lee recently labeled Perry’s TBS sitcoms and films “coonery.”
Arlene Barron, executive director at the Jewish Community Center in New Orleans, said Maxine Perry had worked there as a nursery school assistant for about 10 years from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s.
Affleck, Stewart Films Taking Sundance Road Trip
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Sundance Film Festival will take to the road with films featuring Ben Affleck, Kristen Stewart, Kevin Kline and other stars screening around the country.
Robert Redford’s independent-cinema showcase will show eight films in eight different cities on Jan. 28, the movies chosen from the lineup playing during the Utah festival that runs Jan. 21-31.
The downsizing drama “The Company Men,” featuring Affleck, Kevin Costner and Tommy Lee Jones will screen in Brookline, Mass. Stewart’s Joan Jett music tale “The Runaways” will play in Madison, Wis. And Kline’s gigolo story “The Extra Man” will run in Nashville, Tenn.
Other films will play in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Brooklyn, N.Y., and Ann Arbor, Mich.
CBS Chief Says Advertisers Paying 25 Percent MoreNEW YORK (AP) – CBS chief Leslie Moonves says advertisers are now paying 25 percent more for TV commercial time than they did earlier in the year.
That’s an indication that businesses are having the confidence to spend more on marketing.
Each year, before the start of the fall television season, advertisers buy commercial time during a period called “upfronts.” Later, after the season has begun, advertisers buy additional time during the so-called “scatter market” closer to airtime.
Many broadcasters withheld spots for sale during the upfronts this year, gambling that prices would improve closer to airtime.
The bet paid off. Moonves says scatter pricing is up 25 percent over the upfronts.
The CBS Corp. CEO spoke Tuesday at the UBS media conference.
Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Has Premiere in LondonLONDON (AP) – James Cameron’s sci-fi extravaganza “Avatar” was getting its public premiere in London Thursday, and the movie industry is watching intently to see whether it will match the success of the director’s blockbuster “Titanic.”
Stars Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana were expected to join the crowds in London’s Leicester Square before Thursday’s gala screening.
The 3-D epic about humans taking extraterrestrial form as they explore a distant world is reportedly one of the most expensive movies ever made, with a price tag well in excess of the $200 million spent to make “Titanic.” It uses cutting-edge digital technology to create dizzying special effects.
Cameron conceived the story for “Avatar” in 1995 then waited a decade for technology to catch up so he could film it. The film mixes live action and computer animation to create an eye-poppingly vivid alien world.
The industry is watching closely to see how audi ences respond to Cameron’s first narrative film since 1997’s “Titanic,” which won 11 Academy Awards and has taken $1.8 billion worldwide at the box office.
“Avatar” opens around the world next week.
Hollywood Breaks Revenue Record of $9.68 billionLOS ANGELES (AP) – Hollywood has set a new box-office record as the year’s domestic ticket sales head beyond $10 billion for the first time.
Revenues for the year have inched ahead of the previous record of $9.68 billion set in 2007, according to Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian (dehr-GAIR’-uh-BEE’-dee-uhn).
With three weeks left in the year and huge films still to come, Dergarabedian projects that domestic revenues will climb to $10.6 billion for 2009.
Among the potential blockbusters arriving by Christmas are Robert Downey Jr.’s “Sherlock Holmes,” James Cameron’s “Avatar” and an “Alvin and the Chipmunks” sequel.
Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, Others Sold; Editor & Publisher closing after 108 years
By Andrew Vanacore, Business Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – The Nielsen Co. is selling some of its most prominent trade journals – including The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard – and shutting down Editor & Publisher, which has chronicled the newspaper business for 108 years.
In all, Nielsen is selling eight titles to e5 Global Media LLC, a new company formed by private equity firm Pluribus Capital Management, and Guggenheim Partners, a financial services company. Nielsen said James Finkelstein, who founded Pluribus this year with George Green and Matthew Doull, will serve as e5’s chairman.
Along with Editor & Publisher, the company is also shuttering the book review title Kirkus Reviews. The two publications have 18 employees combined. Nielsen would not reveal details about the financial performance of E&P or Kirkus.
Variety To Begin Charging for Web Access Today
Ryan Nakashima, Business Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) – The Hollywood trade newspaper Variety is putting its Web site behind a “pay wall” starting Thursday – reserving its online content for paid subscribers and hoping its advertisers will stick around despite the smaller Internet audience.
Variety plans to shut off free access gradually, asking one in 10 visitors for a user name and password that will be sent to paying subscribers.
After about two months, the newspaper plans to block free access – except for five free page views a month – ending an experiment with entirely free online content that Variety began in October 2006.
“We fundamentally believe that the readers should pay one price and get all or any of our content,” said Neil Stiles, president of Variety Group, a unit of London and Amsterdam-based Reed Elsevier Group PLC. “If you don’t pay, you don’t get anything.”
While the 104-year-old newspaper expects to lose many of its roughly 2.5 million monthly online v isitors, it values more highly the 25,000 subscribers of its daily printed version and 30,000 subscribers of its weekly printed version.
Variety plans to initially charge a promotional rate of $248 a year for access to any of its content, including daily and weekly print offerings, the Web site and iPhone application. That’s roughly the average of what current subscribers pay for the print version, although some pay as much as $330.
The vast majority of Variety’s subscribers are in the entertainment industry, and so are the advertisers. Because these agents, studios and other companies in the trade seek readers in the industry, they care less about the general audiences that had read the site for free, Stiles said. About 95 percent of Variety’s advertisers buy spots on the Web site and in print.
Stiles estimates the company will lose a minimal amount of online ad revenue but may gain subscribers among people who had put off paying because the online version was free.
Magazine and newspaper publishers are wrestling with whether to charge for access to their Web sites, and so far those with specialized content – such as The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times – have tended to find the most success.
Charges Dropped in Illinois Taping of ‘New Moon’
CHICAGO (AP)–Charges have been dropped against a 22-year-old Chicago woman accused of videotaping part of “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” at a movie theater.
Cook County prosecutors on Friday announced in court that they won’t pursue charges against Samantha Tumpach.
Tumpach was arrested Nov. 28 in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont and faced a felony charge of illegally copying the film.
She had about three minutes of “New Moon” on her digital camera. Tumpach has said she was taping her sister’s birthday party and wasn’t trying to record the movie.
The film’s director, Chris Weitz, came to Tumpach’s defense. He told the Chicago Sun-Times there’s a difference between trying to protect a copyright and prosecuting someone who didn’t mean to commit video piracy..
Director Chris Weitz told the Chicago Sun-Times that he was dismayed to hear about Samantha Tumpach’s Nov. 28 arrest at a Rosemont movie theater. She faced a felony charge of illegally copying Weitz’s new film and could have been sentenced to three years in prison if convicted.
Weitz says he contacted the film’s studio about his concerns.
Charitable Trust Refiles ‘Dukes’ Royalties Lawsuit
By Dirk Lammers
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) – A charitable trust set up by “The Dukes of Hazzard” creator has filed a new $15 million federal lawsuit against Warner Bros., claiming the studio and its television production company shortchanged it on royalties stemming from the hit series.
First National Bank in Sioux Falls, acting as trustee for Sequoia Charitable Trust, refiled its claim in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles last week.
A federal judge had dismissed the bank’s previous lawsuit in July on jurisdiction issues after the movie studio successfully argued that series creator Gy Waldron was seeking “a new audience for its old arguments” by setting up an out-of-state trust, assigning it royalty claim rights and then filing what had been a California case in federal court, according to court records.
In its new filing, the bank notes that Sequoia’s trust agreement has since been modified in South Dakota to ensure that Waldron’s family has no financial int erest in the trust and its sole purpose is to benefit charity. That, the bank argues, gives the federal court jurisdiction since the plaintiff and defendant are in different states.
“The Dukes of Hazzard,” which ran on CBS from 1979 to 1985, featured cousins Bo and Luke Duke – portrayed by John Schneider and Tom Wopat – racing their 1969 “General Lee” Dodge Charger around the fictional Hazzard County, Ga., to avoid Boss Hogg and Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane.
Waldron had pitched the idea, which was based on his 1975 film “Moonrunners,” to Warner Bros. in 1978 and wrote and produced episodes of the series.
He set up the South Dakota trust in 2008 after suffering a major heart attack and assigned it any future claims against Warner Bros. He and the studio had reached a 1987 settlement that granted him $6.2 million and 6.5 percent of future earnings from the “Dukes” franchise above $293.6 million.
The new lawsuit claims Waldron is due royalties not only from the series, but also from any derivative works including television programs, films, video games, merchandising and soundtracks.
A 2005 feature film based on the series starred Seann William Scott, Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson.
Rudolph’s The Man for TV AudienceBy David Bauder, Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – When it comes to holiday TV traditions, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” has it all over the Grinch, a Rockefeller Center tree lighting and half-naked women selling lingerie.
The annual TV return of Rudolph, on CBS last week, was seen by 10.6 million people, the Nielsen Co. said. That beat “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” on ABC by more than a million and a half viewers.
“Christmas in Rockefeller Center” on NBC had 8.7 million viewers and the annual Victoria’s Secret fashion show had 8 million on CBS.
The Grammy Awards may want to rethink its strategy of a prime-time nomination special. It was a relative dud, with only 6.3 million viewers.
NBC Chief Says More Cash Going to Broadcast Shows
NEW YORK (AP) – NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said Monday the company is putting more money into its network broadcast programming, calling it a “mistake” that it hadn’t invested more over the past few years.
Control of the fourth-place NBC network, along with the company’s movie studios and stable of cable channels, will change hands from General Electric Co. to Comcast Corp. if the companies’ multi-billion-dollar deal goes through.
Speaking Monday at the UBS media conference in New York, Zucker said NBC is confident ratings will improve with more money for developing shows.
But he conceded, “We haven’t done a good enough job.”
His remarks came as Comcast executives reiterated their commitment to NBC’s broadcast business, though Comcast CEO Brian Roberts acknowledged NBC’s cable channels are the driving force behind the deal.
Comcast wants to control more of the television shows and movies that it distributes to its subscribers.
Overall, the cable model has emerged stronger during the recession. The slump in advertising sales has hurt the broadcasters. Cable networks have been able to soften the blow by also drawing fees from cable and satellite providers for carrying the channels.
AT&T Boosts Top Broadband Speed in 3 marketsBy Peter Svensson, Technology Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – AT&T Inc. is boosting its top available broadband speeds in Austin, Texas, San Antonio and St. Louis in preparation for a wider rollout.
The new U-verse High Speed Internet Max Turbo tier will provide downloads at up to 24 megabits per second and uploads at up to 3 megabits per second, the company said Wednesday.
The new tier will be available where AT&T has upgraded its phone lines to carry its U-Verse TV and data service. Max Turbo will cost residential customers $65 per month when bundled with TV.
Previously, the top download speed available on U-Verse was 18 megabits per second. Among the major phone companies, Qwest Communications International Inc. has had the highest download speeds over phone lines, at 20 megabits per second.
Phone companies are ramping their speeds to compete with cable companies, which are upgrading their modems to support download speeds of around 50 megabits per second.
Tyler Perry stands next to a poster of his character Madea, based on his own mother Willie Maxine Perry. Tyler announced Tuesday that Willie Maxine Perry has died. She was 64. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer)
