Albert Brooks - FishbowlLA

Judd Apatow Understands if Some Find This Is 40 Line Offensive

Richard Horgan — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 12:00:16 +0000

Is this taking the post-Newtown massacre media climate a little too far? Some, like Variety film reporter Jeff Sneider, certainly think so.

Sneider is referring to a December 19 article on TheWrap by Greg Gilman. The site sought (and received) comment from This Is 40 writer-director Judd Apatow about whether a line of dialogue that has the grandfather character played by Albert Brooks joking about “murdering” his triplet sons will/should have been removed:

“I wrote this script two years ago. That line is spoken by a sarcastic father kidding with his children,” the director said in a statement to TheWrap. “In light of recent events, I understand if some people might make an unfortunate association or put it in a context in which it was not intended.”

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FishbowlLA Set Visit: SoCal Connected

Richard Horgan — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 12:55:52 +0000

The views from the fifth and sixth floors of KCET’s glass-encased offices at The Pointe in Burbank are spectacular, offering panoramic vistas of next-door neighbors NBC LA, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Forest Lawn in the southern distance and more. Another big difference from the station’s previous red-brick HQ on Sunset Boulevard is that employees are now ensconced in an open-cubicle set-up as sleek as that of a Madison Avenue ad agency.

But these are not the only reasons for the renewed sense of excitement at KCET. Thanks to the expansion of SoCal Connected to four nights a week, the addition of Madeleine Brand to the show’s talent ranks, a recent merger with San Francisco’s Link Media and the resulting imminent arrival of new chief strategy officer Paul Mason, this viewer-supported TV station is very clearly and boldly trying to re-invent the jettisoned PBS model.

SoCal Connected shoots two shows on Monday and another two on Wednesday, with a repeat broadcast Fridays. As FishbowlLA sat at the back of the control room yesterday watching the production of tonight’s November 29 broadcast, we were reminded of that scene in Broadcast News where William Hurt’s character shows nervous newbie Albert Brooks how to properly sit on a sports jacket. TV news is all about the smallest of details.

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Richard Roeper Makes a Very Good Oscar Nominations Point

Richard Horgan — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:00:53 +0000

There’s no shortage, as usual, of exasperated critics this morning in the wake of the announcement of nominees for the 84th Academy Awards. Our quick first favorite is the rant from the eminently qualified Richard Roeper.

He starts off his look a this year’s Oscar snubs with an always welcome Shawshank Redemption reference, followed by a salient media observation:

Amazing, but these guys still think the best way to announce the Oscar nominations is to hold a press conference at 5:30 a.m. Pacific time in order to get maximum coverage from the morning chat shows.

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LA Times Reader Corrects Doris Day

Richard Horgan — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:30:00 +0000

In the latest telephone interview granted by Doris Day from Carmel, the actress told LA Times reporter Susan King that Hollywood stopped calling after she moved up the coast, and that there was never any Cary Grant-like effort to lure her out of a benevolent retirement from showbiz. But perhaps the actress meant only that no major studio mogul paid her a personal visit.

In the reader comments, user pebrogan reminds that Day was approached to discuss starring in Murder She Wrote, Dynasty and other TV series. He also accurately points out that there was at least one notable feature film entreaty:

There were multiple film offers, most notably from Albert Brooks who went to Carmel in the mid-90′s to offer Miss Day the title role in Mother. Miss Day met with Brooks but ultimately decided against doing the film. Distinguished columnist Liz Smith reported in the early years of the new milennium that Elizabeth Taylor was interested in working with Doris Day.

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