Category Archives: entertainment

Once Upon a Time – Preview of the New TV Series

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I’ve been asked to preview and review the upcoming ABC series “Once Upon a Time” and thought it might be more fun to report reactions  from folks at the blog – please comment below.    I’m glad to see Robert Carlyle find a new gig after Stargate SGU was cancelled.   He’s a fine actor and even better suited to this “older times” theme than to SGU.

You can view the Once Upon A Time preview video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yz9VFa7Z6Y0

I’m not sure how exclusive this is, but based on the tiny number of views so far I think YOU and I are among the first to see it!    Woo Hoo.

ONCE UPON A TIME

http://abc.go.com/shows/once-upon-a-time
http://www.Facebook.com/OnceUponATimeABC
http://www.twitter.com/OnceABC

Here’s the Press Release from ABC:

Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (Lost, Tron: Legacy) invite you to a bold new vision of the world where fairytales and the modern day are about to collide.

Anna Swan (Jennifer Morrison) knows how to take care of herself.  She’s a 28-year old bail bonds collector who’s been on her own ever since she was abandoned as a baby.  But when the son she gave up years ago finds her, everything will change.  Henry (Jared Gilmore) is 10 years old now and in desperate need of Anna’s help.  Henry believes that Anna actually comes from an alternate world… and is Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) and Snow White’s (Ginnifer Goodwin) missing daughter.  According to his book of fairytales, they sent her away to protect her from the Evil Queen’s (Lana Parilla) curse, which trapped the fairytale world forever, frozen in time.  Of course Anna doesn’t believe a word, but when she brings Henry back to Storybrooke, she finds herself drawn to this unusual boy and his strange New England town.  Concerned for Henry, she decides to stay for a while, but she soon suspects that Storybrooke is more than it seems.  It’s a place where magic has been forgotten, but is still powerfully close… where fairytale characters are alive, even though they don’t remember who they once were–including the Evil Queen who is now Henry’s foster mother.  The epic battle for the future of all worlds is beginning, but for good to win, Anna will have to accept her destiny and fight like hell.

Brace yourself for a modern fable with thrilling twists and hints of darkness.  Brimming with wonder, and filled with the magic of our most beloved fairytales, Once Upon A Time is a fitting follow up to Lost from two master storytellers.

SHORT:
Welcome to a world where fairytales are real.  Anna Swan is like any other 28 year old, until she discovers she’s a lost princess destined to save her world from darkness.  Experience the passion project of executive producers/creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (Lost, Tron).  Once Upon A Time is a thrilling twist of our most beloved stories.

CAST
Robert Carlyle – Rumplestiltskin
Josh Dallas – Prince Charming/John Doe
James Dornan – Sheriff Graham
Jared Gilmore – Henry
Ginnifer Goodwin – Snow White/Sister Mary Margret Blanchard
Jennifer Morrison – Emma Swan
Lana Parilla – Evil Queen/Regina
Raphael Sbarge – Archie/Jiminy Cricket

CREDITS
Production Company – ABC Studios
Executive Producer – Edward Kitsis
Executive Producer – Adam Horowitz
Executive Producer – Steve Pearlman
Executive Producer/Director – Mark Mylod

American Idol Contestants

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After the sad and surprising departure of Pia Toscano last night on American Idol, it’s time to review all the contestants that are left.   I’m a big fan and something of a pop musical genius  (just kidding : ), so I thought I’d rank all the American Idol Contestants based on the following items:

Singing Ability, Personality, Looks, Star Power, Likelihood of winning.    Feel free to chime in with comments if you do or don’t agree.   1 is low, 10 is high.   For likelihood I’ve ranked them 1 through 7

THIS …. is AMERICAN IDOL!

Idol Contestant | Singing Ability       |  Personality      | Looks      |  Star Power      |  Likelihood of winning

Haley Reinhart                9                           8                 9                   7                             2

James Durbin                   8                           9                 8                   9                              1

Casey Abrams                  9                           8                 6                   7                              4

Jacob Lusk                        8                           7                 6                    7                             7

Stefano Langone             8                           8                  7                   7                              5

Paul McDonald                6                           8                  9                    7                             8

Lauren Alaina                  9                           8                  8                    7                             3

Scotty McCreery             7                          6                  7                    7                             6

 

Of course the fact that I was a big Pia Toscano fan might indicate I’m not very good at this game.   I don’t think my favorite has *ever* won American Idol since Kelly Clarkson who I had picked very early on correctly at the first winner.   I was also close with second place Clay Aiken, who narrowly lost to Ruben Studdard in what remains my favorite American Idol season of all time, though not the most talent filled season which is absolutely this year.    No bad singers made it past the round of 24 and everybody left, with the possible exception IMHO of Paul, has tons of raw singing talent.

P.S.  Wow, my post Pia Toscano Leaves American Idol already has over a thousand views and 10 comments in under 24 hours.    Clearly, American Idol is an amazing traffic magnet for a blog, and since I’m a big fan I think it’s time to start writing a lot more about the show and the contestants because

” THIS …. IS AMERICAN IDOL “

Hope for Haiti Concert – Beyonce

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Donate Now: 1-877-99-HAITI in US/Canada, or go to www.hopeforhaitinow.org

http://www.mtv.com/videos/misc/474738/beyonce-halo-live.jhtml

The music from this concert was pretty amazing, and if you buy it from iTunes it’ll help Haitians recover from what now appears to be one of the greatest natural disasters in many years.

There’s a lot of political discussion that should center around how to best help developing countries, but I think that should wait until after we address the emergency needs with water, food, medicines, and security. After that I hope we start an international discussion about what it takes to rebuild a failed state into the healthy and vibrant democracy people deserve to live in – the kind of country we in the USA take for granted.

Celebrity Salaries

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Don’t you always wonder what those celebrities make on TV?    Years ago ago I’d read that Vanna White was pulling in about 100k per show for “Wheel of Fortune” (it may be more now), and Pat Sayjak 250,000  (these may be higher now).  This seemed especially remarkable given that Wheel rarely gives away even a tenth of those combined salaries in prize money, and I think *never* has given away as much as the two “stars” earn.    Although I’m not for putting salary caps on stars I think these numbers certainly reflect bizarrely on what we value here in the good old USA.

These are from July 2007 – could not find newer numbers but I’m guessing these are current ballpark as well:

The morale of this story?   Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be Production Assistants ….

NETWORK PRIME TIME (salary per episode)

William Petersen, CSI $500,000   Update:  600,000
Update: Keifer Sutherland makes about 500,000 now for “24”
Zach Braff, Scrubs $350,000

Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: SVU $350,000
Chris Meloni, Law & Order: SVU $350,000
Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men $350,000
Hugh Laurie, House $300,000  Update: Hugh Laurie’s Salary is rising to $400,000 per episode next season.
Patrick Dempsey, Grey’s Anatomy $225,000
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Old Christine $225,000
Eva Longoria, Desperate Housewives $200,000
Ellen Pompeo, Grey’s Anatomy $200,000
Jeff Foxworthy, Are You Smarter… $150,000
T.R. Knight, Grey’s Anatomy $125,000
Chandra Wilson, Grey’s Anatomy $125,000
Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters $100,000
Special guest stars per hour episode minimum $6,527
Stand-ins per day minimum $145
Background actors w/ special abilities per day $140
Background actors or “extras” per day $130

NEWS ANCHORS (salary per year)
Katie Couric, CBS Evening News $15 million
Matt Lauer, NBC Today coanchor $12 million
Diane Sawyer                                                              $12 million
Meredith Vieira, NBC Today coanchor $10 million
Brian Williams                                                               $8 million
Anderson Cooper                                                         $5 million
Keith Olbermann, MSNBC anchor $4 million
Harry Smith, CBS The Early Show coanchor $3 million
Ernie Anastos, New York City local news anchor $2 million
Lesley Stahl, CBS 60 Minutes correspondent $1.8 million
Sr producer for network newsmagazine $250,000-$400,000
Average local TV news anchor                                        $75,500
Broadcast news associate entry level $30,000

CABLE (salary per episode)
Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer $250,000
Julian McMahon, Nip/Tuck $125,000
Dylan Walsh, Nip/Tuck $125,000
Joely Richardson, Nip/Tuck $90,000
James Roday, Psych $60,000

DAYTIME
Oprah Winfrey, per year $260 million*
Judge Judy, per year $30 million
Bob Barker, per year $7 million
Ellen DeGeneres, per year $5 million
Jerry Springer, per year $3-4 million
Tyra Banks, per year $3.5 million
Star performer, daytime drama, per episode $7,500-$9,000
Writer, daily children’s show, per week $5,631
Freelance director, daytime drama, per program $3,726
Writer, daytime drama, per script $3,087
Question writer, quiz show, per week $1,324

* Includes earnings from Rachael Ray, Dr. Phil other TV shows in her empire.

BEHIND THE SCENES
Director, per hr episode min. $35,927
Writer, for story and script, per hr episode $30,823
Staff writer, per wk minimum $2,890
Executive story editor, per episode average $8,500
Crafts services (provides food to cast and crew), per hr $25.40
Film editor, per wk min. $2,575
Sound editor, per wk min. $1,887.94
Music editor, per wk min. $1,887.94
Head makeup artist, per wk $2,271
Head hairstylist, per wk $1,804
Costume designer, per wk min. $2,009.65
Scenic artist, per wk min. $1,840
Microphone boom operator, per day $309.78
Production assistant, per hr $8

Source:  TV Guide

John Stewart Hates Twitter?!

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Hey, John Stewart *hates* Twitter, falling for the correct but misguided criticism that  “it is superficial” .   News flash John – try watching your own network.   OF COURSE TWITTER IS SUPERFICIAL – that’s why it’s exploding in usage!

Let’s see how long Stewart can dodge the Twitter bullet that is becoming almost an essential piece of the interactive media landscape.

I’m having trouble embedding the Daily Show Video because the Daily Show and Viacom are not hip enough to allow YouTube to run these, giving them far more advertising and exposure than they get by restricting the clips to their own site. However, here’s the link if the videos does not appear below:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=219519&title=twitter-frenzy

Slumdog Millionaire means more than a movie

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Watching Slumdog Millionaire scoop up Oscars tonight is more than a sign that this is a great film. I’d suggest it’s also a sign that the world is getting smaller and flatter and that brilliant, talented folks don’t all come from the USA. Although this film is a British more than Indian production, the appeal is thanks in large part to a rising India.

Of course we all have known for some time that there are millions and millions of talented folks from nations all over the world, but the lesson of Slumdog’s Oscar success is that we’ll be seeing a lot more of that Talent in a lot more venues a lot more often.

The Slumdog phenomenon is ‘in your face’ globalization, and its importance is significant. We’ve enjoyed
great success and prosperity in the USA much to the envy and sometimes the anger of other parts of the world. We’ve shared some stuff and hogged other stuff, but the new rules of a global economy have equalized much of the playing field – flattened the earth as Tom Friedman suggests in his book “The Earth is Flat”.

We’ll be reeling for some time from the negative economic forces created as tens of millions played the paper wealth game while the government fiddled and Wall Street schemed to cash in on the folly of a massive housing bubble. Yet this is likely to pale in comparison to the massive global changes sweeping over us at every turn. These changes are unstoppable and mostly positive if you believe in fair chances for everybody.

The overwhelming success of Slumdog Millionaire isn’t just telling us that the Indian themes and talent in the film industry are rising, its telling us that the whole developing world is rising up to match – and sometimes exceed – the remarkable history of American accomplishment and prosperity.

In this increasingly globalized world it’s not longer enough just to copy and expand on former great ideas – we all need to look for the best ways for *everybody* to be run faster, jump higher, and be smarter and more productive than ever before.

But before that I’m going to finish watching the Oscars…

More Copywrong News

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Liked Matt Asay’s piece today about how poorly Government is comprehending issues surrounding copyright, especially in moves to extend the times which generally have little of the intended benefits to the artists but inhibit the much more significant process of moving all the world’s information online.

He’s noting that a European Union proposal to extend copyright a whopping 45 years will net artists on average an extra $40.    I’m assuming that number does not factor in the potential for those same artists to make money from derivative works that are much less likely to see the light of day under this proposal.

Although I’m not insensitive to the idea that online folks routinely violate copyright rules, and unlike many people I always groan when web 2.0 folks pretend that widespread unfair use is not common, it is also clear that the copycat is out of the bag and the most functional responses now are to develop systems that make sure artists can *track* and *claim ownership* when their works are used to make *other people money*.   ie I think we need to move away from models that restrict use into models that *encourage* uses and derivative works but give the original artists powerful tools to claim ownership and claim a piece of the action if their derivative works are used to make money.

Sure, there are pitfalls here but the original idea of copyright is now obsolete, yet we keep trying to fit the new pegs into the old holes.

Olympics Opening Ceremony Fireworks Coverage Faked – sort of…

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Wow, when I first read this I thought it was a conspiracy theory but the UK Register report appears true.  Some 55 seconds of fireworks during the opening ceremony were computer generated.    The fireworks *really did happen* and presumably looked very similar to the clip, but fearing they could not film this in all it’s spectacle NBC spent about a year creating the fake clip.

Of course this would be crazy if the fireworks did NOT happen, but given that they did it clouds the issue of misrepresentation.   ie they didn’t do this to “fake us out”, rather to better represent a reality that would have been hard to capture in real time.    Still, I don’t like it.   When you fake something like this it is incumbent to present it as a simulation or animation.    Not doing so raises a lot of credibility questions, which are particularly unsavory for the main reporting agency in the world’s top sporting event.

Sheesh – I was prepared to be very complimentary of NBC ever since I heard their great presentation at CES Las Vegas where they talked about Beijing coverage.     C’mon NBC – let’s provide transparency in coverage and distribution and everybody can be happy!

Goodbye [S][C][R][A][B][U][L][O][U][S]

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Hasbro appears to have won a battle with Facebook application “Scrabulous” which has been wiped off of Facebook.   One of the most popular applications on the massive Social Network, many thought Hasbro would buy Scrabulous from the two founders.   That may still happen but Scrabulous’ negotiating position has been severely weakened over the past month as Hasbro first launched an “official” Scrabble on Facebook and now has won the copyright battle and had the competitor removed.

As I’ve noted many times before the prevailing notions of copyright among onliners differ quite a bit from those held by most judges and the legal world at large and this will continue for some time.   Napster, YouTube, and Scrabulous may seem like reasonably clean applications for the online crowd, but in a legal sense they are on very shaky ground.   Will these copyright issue clear up anytime soon?   In one two letter word …  [N][O]

Ballmer: Yahoo a tactic, not a strategy

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Microsoft Chief Steve Ballmer spoke to the Microsofties today about the companies plans.   For Yahoo merger followers there was nothign much new as he simply reiterated this point:

Related to Google and our search strategy are the discussions we had with Yahoo. I want to emphasize the point I’ve been making all along—Yahoo was a tactic, not a strategy. We want to accelerate our share of search queries and create a bigger pool of advertisers, and Yahoo would have helped us get there faster. But we will get there with or without Yahoo. We have the right people, we’ve made incredible progress in our technology, and we’ll continue to make smart investments that will enable us to build an industry-leading business.

Some would argue that the reason Microsoft needs Yahoo is that their online strategy has so far failed to do very much.   My take is that they have not moved the online market as they’d hoped, but that they also have not worked nearly as hard in this area as they could have because Microsoft (correctly) sees that their huge presence in the software market is where the big money remains, at least for the next few years.    They have chosen in large part to protect their huge revenue ship rather than act more aggressively and nimbly (and expensively) to find online revenues or pull market share from Google.    I think many analysts – especially those in blogging – fail to recognize that Google’s revenues simply pale in comparison to Microsoft’s.   Google has the lion’s share of online money but Microsoft still has the lion’s share of the lion’s share money, which is in software, gaming, and entertainment.      I agree that the power curve is shifting from MS to Google, but MS remains the 800 pound revenue Gorilla.    Money beats buzz to the bank every time, and this point is not lost on Microsoft or Google.

Disclosure:  Long on YHOO