Archives: June 2006

Searchlight brightens for some shining veeps: Fox Searchlight is hiring two guys with good indy-ish cred as senior production veeps: Jeremy Steckler, a former di Bonaventura exec, and Matthew Greenfield, a Searchlight producer responsible for Star Maps and The Good Girl.

Devil’s in the Demographics:
Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen narrowly beat out the other networks Monday in the 18-49 demographic. Does this mean the show is good? No. No, it does not. Does it mean it’s more watchable than dumb sitcom reruns on CBS and NBC’s Treasure Hunters? Maybe. Does Hell’s Kitchen’s win mean more 18- to 49-year-olds need TiVo and Netflix? Yes. Yes, it does.

Appetite for Destruction?: Swedish authorities arrested Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose early this morning after he allegedly bit a security guard on the leg outside his hotel, marking the first interesting new thing Rose has done in, like, 15 years.

In a move being quietly replicated at other media companies, MTV Networks announced it is sharpening its focus on online and wireless content. MTV is moving production veteran David Gale to the newly created post of executive veep of new media and speciality film content.

The post is further proof that the industry is betting future movie-goers will watch flicks on their iPods, cell phones and computers.

Gale’s move is also the first part of a planned revamp at Paramount Pictures, which is planning to tighten the reigns on its two sister movie operations, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies.

Feds Target Paparazzi :The FBI is investigating whether a paparazzi firm tapped into US Weekly’s e-mail system to steal celeb scoops.

Cuz, really, when you’re stalking new moms outside of daycare centers with 20-foot lenses and assignments like, we’re guessing, “Make sure you catch her crying,” you really need the FBI safeguarding your professional integrity.

Mighty Morphin’ Power Guardias:
Media mogul Haim Saban is among a group of investors in a $11.3 billion deal to buy Univision Communications Inc., the nation’s largest Spanish-language media company.

We don’t have a joke here. We just like being able to make references to the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers in Spanish.

Mouse Keeps Bear:
The Supreme Court declined to decide whether the granddaughter of Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne can wrest copyright control of the honey-loving bear from Disney’s mitts.

“Independent” is a very fashionable adjective. Put it in front of the word “music” or “film,” and watch pure garbage transform into highly acclaimed “art.”

But with festivals like Sundance and Cannes increasingly becoming studio shark feeding frenzies, “independent” is also a very meaningless word.

That might change.

The buzz at the Los Angeles Film Festival this week is all about “the little guy” kicking movie studios in the groin the way he already zinged the music industry.

One such little guy, filmmaker Lance Weiler directed, wrote and produced his new film Head Trauma.

That’s not that unusual, but Weiler is also the film’s distributor. And he said that by making an initial short-term commitment to a small distributor and then calling movie houses directly, he managed to self-distribute 150,000 units of his last film, 1998′s The Last Broadcast to 26 countries worldwide.

Other filmmakers are holding up Weiler as an example of how to maintain control of the work, while still getting the films seen.

“Lance is the guy you need to talk to,” says Mary Jordan, the filmmaker behind Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis. “With Video On Demand and self-distribution, it’s going to be interesting to see how the studios will fit in.”

First off, we want to apologize to Calista Flockhart for nearly knocking into her at the W Hotel last night. We were a little discombobulated, having just hoofed it four blocks in new heels, and we were really in a hurry to get to the bar.

We wish we had body-checked Flockhart’s flame, instead. Harrison Ford, who hosted the Los Angeles Film Festival’s Filmmaker Reception was as dashing and funny and yummy as ever.

He addressed the crowd of independent screenwriters, producers, directors and actors by saying, in essence, that he had nothing to say. No one does. Not anything worth listening to, anyway: “Conventional wisdom produces conventional films,” he said.

He warned filmmakers against the platitudes, pressures and pure horse crap of Hollywood.

“I can’t tell you to be true to yourselves, because I don’t know who the hell you are,” he said. “I can’t tell you not to listen to anybody, because then you won’t listen to me telling you not to listen to anybody — and you might listen to somebody who gives you shitty advice.”

Pirates of the Caribbean is subtitled Dead Man’s Chest. And after Saturday’s premier at Disneyland, we know why.

Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom couldn’t even make it down the red carpet without veering off midway, body guards in tow, to stop for a cigarette break, a red carpet doyenne tells us.

“Granted it was a long red carpet, and they were being sweet and signing autographs for everyone who asked,” says the eye-witness, who asks not to be name for fear of never being able to bum a smoke in this town again. “But still, it had only been about 45 minutes.”

Eisner Goes Gaga for Kid-Vids
Want to brainwash your children into loving your college football team? Let former Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Michael Eisner show you how. Eisner is buying Team Baby, a children’s video supplier that showcases college sports teams and mascots.

Final Syndication
Aaron Spelling was buried Sunday at a family-only ceremony at Hillside Memorial Park. Tori Spelling, who attended the services with mom, Candy and brother, Randy, told the L.A. Times she was grateful to have made amends with her dad before he died.

Sandler, the Real Super Man
This weekend “marked the sixth consecutive up session at the boxoffice” compared to last year’s numbers, according to the Hollywood Reporter. This is thanks, in part, to that golden-egg gooser, Adam Sandler, whose film, Click, posted a $40 million boxoffice rating and share.

Apparently it’s OK to pretend you’re Clooney, excoriate Bush and embarrass Schwarzenegger. But turn your sites on Arianna Huffington, and someone’s going to get hurt (feelings).

The Huffington Post let go one of its contributors, Dr. Peter Rost, for complaining that a HuffPo staff member posted negative comments on Rost’s blog.

Huffington says the unprecedented firing followed repeated warnings to Rost that his posts had grown tiresome, personal and boring. If this is the criteria for firing, we expect major shakeups up HuffPo soon.

Award Shows are like other people’s proms: We don’t care who won king and queen, we’re not interested in what the theme was and, unless someone’s boob pops out of her gown, we don’t want to see the video.

But clearly someone out there does wants to see this stuff, because every year they put it on television. So, to the housewives of Peoria and meth dealers of Riverside, this Fishbowl item is for you:

To spread the wealth of nominations, The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has changed the rules and expanded the number of voters for the Emmy Awards.

The new rules are meant to highlight much-loved but oft-overlooked shows like Gilmore Girls and Battlestar Galactica.

But TV conspiracy theorists have posted all manner of gossip for your consideration – including suggestions that the more “secret” procedures are meant to cover up “a bloc-voting scandal.”

Like it hasn’t been obvious for years that not everybody could, possibly, love Raymond.

Looks like super-sleaze super-sleuth Anthony Pellicano is getting a helping hand — from Al Qaeda.

Prosecutors in the wiretapping case against the Hollywood private eye have failed to deliver any new indictments for three months, and the clock is ticking on the statute of limitations for some of the case’s biggests suspects. One of the problems: Government code breakers are too busy eavesdropping on Americans’ phone calls to crack Pellicano’s encrypted audio files.

Fans Flame: Rescue Me the FX comedy-drama about New York firefighters, has come under attack on various blogs and message boards after a recent episode featured Denis Leary’s character beating and raping his estranged wife.

And to think there was a time when Lucy and Ricky slept in separate beds.

Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor, Your Cheek Swab: Immigrants are using DNA tests to confirm relationships of relatives who are trying to become U.S. citizens.