July 1, 2011
Singer headlines P&G anti-dropout promotion
By Dan Sewell
CINCINNATI (AP) – Singer-songwriter John Legend will headline a Procter & Gamble Co. promotion to benefit dropout prevention as part of his broad support of education reform.
The winner of 11 Grammy awards has made commercials that will air ahead of P&G coupon insert booklets with him on the cover with schoolchildren that will be in Sunday newspapers on July 31. The promotion by the Cincinnati-based consumer products giant will include Facebook and other online efforts to raise money for the Communities in Schools organization’s efforts to keep children in school.
Legend has focused much of his charitable work on improving education, which he calls “a civil rights issue for our time.” He said there’s a dropout crisis in some impoverished communities, making it harder to break the cycle of poverty. He’s also concerned about what he sees as politically motivated efforts to weaken teachers’ unions in his native Ohio and other states.
“I believe that making sure that every kid has a quality education is the key to making sure that every kid has the opportunity to pursue the American dream,” Legend told The Associated Press.
P&G’s Jim Leish, director of U.S. operations, said Legend is a good choice for the promotion. “At the end of the day, he has a history of helping this cause,” Leish said. “We’re more focused with his ability to drive awareness of what we can do to keep millions of kids in school.”
Legend is tied to the documentary “Waiting for Superman,” which depicts innovative educators around the country trying to turn around struggling schools. It at times portrays teachers’ unions as hindering their efforts. The movie, to which Legend contributed his song “Shine” for the closing credits, has been cited by Ohio Gov. John Kasich and other officials as they have pushed new restrictions on the collective bargaining of teachers and other public employees.
“It’s interesting, because unfortunately, I think sometimes some of these governors are using the film as a kind of political tool to crush unions, which have often been an important source for organizing for Democrats,” Legend said.
He said he thinks some Republican governors such as Kasich are trying to weaken unions under the guise of saying they’re going to improve the schools when the goal is to make sure they win the next election. Legend said “demonizing” teachers isn’t the answer to education reform, but rather increasing teacher accountability and performance is important
“To the extent that unions are in the way of making that happen, they need to get out of the way,” said Legend, 32, who was homeschooled before attending Springfield (Ohio) North High School and the University of Pennsylvania.
Asked for a response to the comments by Legend, who will perform in Cleveland and Columbus next weekend as part of his current tour with Sade, Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said: “We welcome John back to Ohio and hope he has a great show.”
Online: http://www.communitiesinschools.org
Coalition announces boycott of CBS over Grammys
By Nekesa Mumbi Moody, Music Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – A coalition of musicians that has protested the Recording Academy’s decision to drop 31 categories from the Grammy Awards is stepping up the pressure, calling for a boycott of the Grammys’ telecast partner, CBS, and hiring a lawyer to explore legal action.
“We will ask people to stop watching CBS, boycott their sponsors and then write them,” said Bobby Sanabria, a Grammy-nominated Latin jazz musician and the leader of the coalition, in an interview Wednesday night. “We’re at a critical juncture.”
The group planned a press conference on Thursday to speak about the boycott. A representative for the Academy didn’t return requests for comment.
CBS is scheduled to broadcast the Grammys next February from Los Angeles. The network declined to comment, a rep said Thursday.
In a surprise move, the Academy announced in April that it was reducing the number of award categories from 109 to 78. While the changes involve mainstream categories such as eliminating the male and female divisions in the pop vocal category to one general field, the Academy also reduced specific categories, including some of the instrumental categories in pop, rock and country; traditional gospel; children’s spoken-word album; Zydeco or Cajun music album; best Latin jazz album; and best classical crossover album. Artists in those categories will now have to compete in more general fields, making the process more competitive.
Sanabria has claimed the reductions unfairly target ethnic music and called the Academy’s decision racist.
He has also said the Academy made the changes without the knowledge of its members. However, Grammy President and CEO Neil Portnow has said the changes were properly implemented after an examination by a committee, then voted on by a board that represented its members.
Sanabria said the Academy hasn’t released minutes from its meetings regarding the changes.
He said the Academy can still reverse the cuts if enough members of its board of trustees decide to act. But in meetings in San Francisco and New York earlier this month, he said the Academy said the changes would remain in effect at least for the 2012 Grammys.
“They say, ‘Well, next year, we’ll see how it goes and maybe possibly we can readmit some of the categories,'” he said. “Again, they obfuscated us, insulted us.”
Attorney Roger Maldonado has been hired by Sanabria to explore legal action.
Online: http://www.grammy.com http://www.grammywatch.org
Baby Einstein creators question research again
By Donna Gordon Blankinship
SEATTLE (AP) – Ever since a University of Washington study published in a major medical journal in 2007 showed baby videos don’t make infants smarter, the creators of the Baby Einstein series have been battling the university in court and in the media.
Baby Einstein co-founder William Clark is announcing on Thursday what he feels is a victory in this battle. The university has agreed to pay him $175,000 and turn over the original data from the study that discredited baby videos. And Clark says the data he has been given appears to have some problems.
But the university and a researcher involved in the project stand by the study and the data and say if Clark wants to discredit the research, he should do his own study or reanalyze the data.
Spider-Man creator eyes Chinese comic fans
By Min Lee, Entertainment Writer
HONG KONG (AP) – Stan Lee wants to see the likes of Spider-Man and the X-Men weaving between skyscrapers in Shanghai and battling enemies on the Great Wall.
The comic book legend has announced a joint venture with a Hong Kong investment company that aims to roll out a new superhero franchise targeted at Chinese and foreign audiences.
Lee’s POW! Entertainment said in a statement issued on its website this week that the new company, Magic Storm Entertainment, will announce its first film project later this summer.
“I have been eagerly awaiting this great opportunity – a chance to combine the best of American superhero epics with the best of Chinese and Asian classical filmmaking for a motion picture that would be excitedly received worldwide,” Lee said in the statement.
It did not say if the creator or co-creator of Marvel Comics characters such as Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, X-Men, The Fantastic Four and Iron Man will come up with new characters for the new movie or write a new story for his flagship characters, many of which have already been adapted for the big screen. It also wasn’t clear if the film will be animation or feature real actors.
Magic Storm Entertainment will be a partnership between Hong Kong investment company Ricco Capital Holdings and Panda Media Partners, a joint venture between POW! Entertainment and the media consulting company Fidelis Global Enterprises. Fidelis Managing Director Eric Mika, the former publisher of the trade publication The Hollywood Reporter, will serve as chief executive of Magic Storm, which will be based in Los Angeles.
More than 2 million of Lee’s comic books have been published in 75 nations and in 25 languages, but they do not appear to have a big following in mainland China.
But recent movie adaptations of Lee’s characters, like other American blockbusters, have done strong business in China, which is fast becoming one of Hollywood’s key markets despite a quota that effectively limits the country to 20 major foreign productions a year. Lee’s strategy is likely to capitalize on the popularity of those movies.
The three “Spider-Man” movies starring Tobey Maguire have made a combined $30 million in China and the two “Iron Man” movies featuring Robert Downey Jr. made $23.2 million, according to the box office tracking website Box Office Mojo.
Wyo. city in running for ‘Modern Family’ premiere
JACKSON, Wyo. (AP) – Jackson Hole, Wyo., is reportedly in the running to be the setting for the premiere of “Modern Family.”
The Jackson Hole News & Guide reports Wednesday that producers of ABC’s “mockumentary” sitcom named the resort town as their top pick but that network approval is still pending. The proposal would have the show’s characters on a family vacation at the Lost Creek Ranch, a lodge and spa.
ABC officials declined to comment.
The newspaper reports that Jackson emerged at the front-runner after the Snow King Resort offered to set aside rooms for the production crew and actors, and the lodging tax board agreed to help pay for the rooms.
The show has also considered sites in Tucson, Ariz.; Bozeman, Mont.; and Steamboat Springs, Colo.
HBO comedy on ballplayer to film in Myrtle Beach
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) – The HBO comedy “Eastbound & Down” is going to be filming in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
The sometimes raunchy series about a ballplayer past his prime received permits from the city council Tuesday to film there next week. The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports the council was told filming will take place in locations including BB&T Coastal Field, the boardwalk and the beach.
The series starring Danny McBride is about a former major leaguer named Kenny Powers, who’s struggling to get back into professional baseball. Season three will see Powers pitch for a minor league team in Myrtle Beach.
Councilman Wayne Gray says he’s a fan of the show. During the meeting, he asked if he could make a cameo appearance.
Lincoln Center to show Lumet’s movies as tribute
NEW YORK (AP) – Lincoln Center will pay tribute to one of New York’s favorite sons, the late director Sidney Lumet.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced Monday evening that it will hold a weeklong retrospective titled “Prince of the City: Remembering Sidney Lumet.” It will screen July 19-25 at the Walter Reade Theater.
Among the 16 features to be shown are Lumet’s “Dog Day Afternoon,” ”Network,” ”The Pawnbroker,” ”Prince of the City” and “Running on Empty.”
Lumet died in April at the age of 86 in his Manhattan home after suffering from lymphoma.
Online: http://www.filmlinc.com/
Indonesians bemoan Hollywood blockbuster blackout
Michael Holtz
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) – Indonesian moviegoers are facing a bleak year of second-rate foreign releases and lowbrow local productions as Hollywood studios, the government and movie importers remain locked in a protracted standoff.
It’s been four months since major Hollywood studios withdrew films from Indonesia, a nation of 237 million people, in opposition to a new levy on imported movies that was meant to protect local filmmakers.
The government earlier this month announced a revised tax it says will bring back Hollywood, but film buffs remain skeptical.
Another big hurdle must be overcome before blockbusters such as “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2” hit Indonesian theaters. The government has banned Indonesia’s largest film distributors from bringing in new Hollywood movies, pending their payment of more than $30 million in unpaid taxes and related penalties. The film importers are challenging that in court.
“Until I see actual (Hollywood) movies running in the cinemas, I won’t get my hopes up just yet,” said Marvel Sutantio, creator of the blog Indonesian Movie Crisis, which blames “greedy” tax and customs officials for the dearth of new releases.
Studios participating in the boycott include Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Walt Disney Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film, Warner Bros. Pictures and Universal Pictures, leaving Indonesian movie fans gasping. Normally, they spend an estimated $6.2 million a month, but local media report box-office takings are down 60 to 70 percent since February.
Studio representatives declined to comment on their negotiations with distributors and the Indonesian government.
Film buffs are making do with a handful of minor Hollywood releases and local productions that are widely derided for their low production values and limited number of themes. Moviegoers often complain about the influx of B-rated horror flicks that are light on character and plot development and heavy on cheap scares and frequent sex scenes. Japanese porn actresses are among the stars.
“Limitless,” released May 24 in Indonesia, is the newest Hollywood film showing at a movie theater in one of Jakarta’s high-end shopping malls. Its lobby, which once bustled with big crowds for midnight screenings, is as quiet as a morgue.
Other Hollywood films produced by smaller studios not participating in the film boycott include “Scream 4,” ”Beastly” and “Insidious” – not exactly the summer blockbusters Indonesian moviegoers had hoped for. A poster for “Kung-Fu Panda 2” announces it is “coming soon” despite the film’s release in other Southeast Asian countries in late May.
Mixed signals and delayed decisions from government officials have compounded the problem. The finance ministry failed to keep its initial promise of announcing a revised tax regime by mid-March. And movie lovers are still bitter at Syamsul Lussa, the film department director in the culture and tourism ministry, for attending the Cannes Film Festival in France last month instead of addressing the growing controversy at home.
Before the boycott, film buff David Kurmiabi went to theaters about once a week. He traveled to Singapore last month with his mother, who was receiving medical treatment there. He saw three movies in three days to get his fix.
“We feel abandoned,” said Kurmiabi, 39. “I just hope they will return very soon.”
Other film lovers have turned to the black market to see the latest Hollywood hits, making for a thriving trade for the dozens of vendors of pirated DVDs in Jakarta’s Chinatown.
Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo says the revised rules eliminate the disputed tax on the royalties paid by film distributors to the studios. Instead, there will be a tax of 21,000 to 22,000 rupiahs, about $2.50, per minute of film for each copy. The duty was previously based on the physical length of film.
Martowardojo said while the new tax should be low enough for Hollywood studios to resume releasing their films in Indonesia, it would also help protect the domestic film industry.
The government opened a new front last week when Martowardojo announced a government plan to allow foreign studios to distribute movies themselves, rather than relying on local companies.
Film distribution in Indonesia is dominated by Group 21, whose affiliates import Hollywood films and which also owns Cineplex 21, Indonesia’s largest theater chain with more than 500 screens.
But it will be at least three months before legislation is introduced to Indonesia’s parliament.
“We’re going to miss the whole summer this year for sure with the way it’s going,” said Ananda Siregar, owner and CEO of Blitzmegaplex, the second-largest theater chain in Indonesia.
High court to rule on TV indecency, GPS tracking
By Mark Sherman
WASHINGTON (AP) – The Supreme Court has added a couple of high-profile constitutional challenges to its lineup of cases for next term: One looking at governmental regulation of television content and the other dealing with the authority of police to use a GPS device to track a suspect’s movements without a warrant.
The court’s action Monday agreeing to review the two cases foreshadows what could be an extraordinary year for the justices. Gay marriage, immigration and the health care overhaul all are working their way to the court and could arrive in the term that begins on the first Monday in October.
The court’s look at what broadcasters can put on the airwaves when young children may be watching television could be the most important treatment of the issue in more than 30 years.
The justices said they will review appeals court rulings that threw out the Federal Communications Commission’s rules against the isolated use of expletives as well as fines against broadcasters who showed a woman’s nude buttocks on a 2003 episode of ABC’s “NYPD Blue.”
The Obama administration objected that the appeals court stripped the FCC of its ability to police the airwaves.
The U.S. television networks argue that the policy is outdated, applying only to broadcast television and leaving unregulated the same content if transmitted on cable TV or over the Internet. “Responsible programming decisions by network and local station executives, coupled with program blocking technologies like the V-chip and proper guidance of children by parents and caregivers, are far preferable to government regulation of program content,” the National Association of Broadcasters said.
Parents Television Council president Tim Winter called on the court to uphold the FCC policy, saying that to do otherwise “would open the floodgates for graphic nudity” on television.
In a landmark 1978 decision, the court upheld the FCC’s authority to regulate both radio and television content, at least during the hours when children are likely to be watching or listening. That period includes the prime-time hours before 10 p.m.
The “NYPD Blue” episode led to fines only for stations in the Central and Mountain time zones, where the show aired at 9 p.m., a more child-friendly hour than the show’s 10 p.m. time slot in the East. The administration included a DVD of the episode with its filing.
The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York noted that ABC said the scene was intended to portray the awkwardness between a child and his parent’s new romantic partner, and the difficulty of adjusting to the situation.
A second part of the FCC case involves the use of curse words on awards shows on television, which has been to the high court before.
Three years ago, the justices narrowly upheld the policy, but in a ruling that pointedly avoided dealing with First Amendment issues. Instead, the court directed the appeals court to undertake a constitutional review.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor is not taking part in the case because she served on the appeals court during its consideration of some of the issues involved.
But Justice Samuel Alito, who sold his Walt Disney Co. stock last year, will participate. Disney owns ABC.
Alito recently acknowledged he should not have taken part in the “fleeting expletives” case that the court decided in 2009.
In the GPS case, the court will decide whether the police need a warrant before using the device to track a suspect’s movements.
Iranian filmmaker reportedly arrested in Tehran
PARIS (AP) – The Iranian reformist website Kaleme.com says Iranian filmmaker and women’s right activist Mahnaz Mohammadi has been arrested in Tehran.
She was taken into custody at her house by security agents on Sunday, according to the website, which is linked to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Mohammadi directed the film “Women Without Shadow,” and she contributed to a documentary by filmmaker Rakhsan Bani-Etemad about Iran’s disputed presidential election in 2009.
Mohammadi’s passport was confiscated to keep her from attending the Cannes film festive in May.
Speaking on the sidelines of a press event in Paris, Greek filmmaker Costa-Gavras said Monday he is worried about Mohammadi following her reported arrest.
“Dabangg” wins best picture at Bollywood awards
By Charmaine Noronha
TORONTO (AP) – A tale about a corrupt police officer, “Dabangg”, has snagged the best picture award at the glitzy, star-studded 12th International Indian Film Academy awards in Toronto, held on North American soil for the first time.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan took the prize for leading male role for the film “My Name is Khan,” about the treatment of Muslims in a world of heightened suspicions following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Khan played the family’s Muslim patriarch who suffers from Asperger’s syndrome. The hit film, nominated in seven categories, also took home the prize for best direction.
Anushka Sharma won the leading female role award for “Band Baaja Baaraat”. The awards were handed out early Sunday.
Ad for Walkers potato chips wins award at Cannes
Ellen Gibson, Retail Writer
Recruiting a former Baywatch star to hand out free potato chips and beer may sound like a cheap publicity stunt, but for one British brand, it actually helped boost sales.
Judges at a major awards ceremony for the advertising industry in France this weekend evaluated marketing campaigns for the first time on how much product they sold, not just whether they made people laugh, cry or cringe.
The grand-prize winner, a U.K. campaign for PepsiCo’s Walkers potato chips, brought Pamela Anderson and other celebrities into the sleepy British town of Sandwich, Kent, to illustrate the tagline: “Walkers can make any sandwich more exciting.”
In the days following the event, footage of the surprise appearances and the residents’ shocked reactions got spread around on sites like YouTube.
The new prize for effectiveness, handed out Saturday at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, signals a shift toward greater accountability for ads. It also comes at a time when advertising agencies are fighting for every dollar they can get.
Corporate marketing budgets were slashed by 8 percent during the Great Recession, and that spending still hasn’t come back, according to Zenith Optimedia, a research division of communications giant Publicis Groupe.
“You have to prove you got someone to pay attention and act, particularly in this economy,” said Chris Kempczinski, Kraft Foods’ senior vice president of marketing, who helped judge the category.
The Walkers campaign did just that.
To win in the effectiveness category, an ad had to show a proven impact on “consumer behavior, brand equity, sales, and where identifiable, profit.” Judges combed through more than 150 nomination forms audited by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
For Walkers, the U.K. office of advertising giant BBDO devised a one-day event featuring famous athletes and artists. Formula One winner Jenson Button drove a taxi around town, Chelsea soccer star Frank Lampard popped into a school soccer game, a Michelin-starred chef made sandwiches for everyone, and Anderson poured drinks at a local pub. The events were recorded by professionals and by locals armed with smartphones, who posted the photos and videos online.
The spectacle delivered results. The videos drew 1.6 million views. Media outlets including the BBC and MTV reported on the event. Local supermarkets devoted more space to Walkers in the potato chips aisle. And revenue increased 26 percent on the sale of 1.5 million additional bags of chips, according to a case study compiled by the agency.
“The unique and exciting nature of the campaign really captured the imagination of our sales teams and our customers,” said Jason Richards, vice president of sales for PepsiCo UK, in the company’s nomination form.
Other work that won awards in the effectiveness category included a campaign for Old Spice men’s body wash, Gillette ads that appealed to men in India to lose their stubble and a Snickers campaign that says: “You’re not you when you’re hungry.”
