Road Rules / Real World type show set in Japan? DO WANT!!!
The season premiere of the summer replacement reality/game show "I Survived a Japanese Game Show" was Tuesday night at 9 and boy was I surprised at what it turned out to be. Unlike MXC (which is basically Takishi's Castle remixed, and what is basically remodeled Wipeout airing on ABC as well) this is so much better. Labels: Japan, television
Standard rules apply of course. Cast of characters, some annoying, some rude, some old, some young, some sexy, whatever are all put in a home and they compete in games in order to win prizes or not be eliminated.
The twist of it all happening in some kind of meta Japanese game show is just crazy and so very welcome.
I'll miss that Kid Nation isn't back for a second season over on CBS, but this is absolutely must watch for any Japanophile.
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24 sold. I could use the help.
Labels: later skater, television, you tube
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RickRoll with a steel chair!
Labels: internets, television, you tube
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Foul-mouthed motherfucking artist Aphex Twin gets fucking MTV Europe in trouble.
The fucker.
MTV Networks Europe has been fined a total of £255,000 ($484,500) by U.K. media regulator Ofcom for "widespread and persistent" breaches of its broadcasting code by four of its channels. Labels: court drama, international news, music news, television
The Viacom-owned operator will have to pay the following penalties: TMF £80,000 ($152,000), MTV France £35,000 ($66,500), MTV UK £80,000 ($152,000) and MTV Hits £60,000 ($114,000).
The "highly offensive language and material" was broadcast before the 9pm family-viewing watershed.
Auds complained about a number of shows. They included: repeated use of the words "motherfucker", "fuck you" and "fuck" in a music video by Aphex Twin for the song "Windowlicker" on TMF, and racist and homophobic text messages aired by MTV France in "Belge Chat."
Additionally TMF screened a trailer for the reality skein "Totally Jodie Marsh" on seven occasions between 9.48am and 3.15pm on July 24 last year containing the sentence: "I just don't want you settling down with some fucking wanker from a modeling agency."
Other breaches identified by Ofcom included a 4.30pm broadcast of MTV UK show "Totally Boyband" in 2006 featuring "extensive offensive language."
In a statement the regulator said: "Ofcom concluded that this material was not justified by the context of broadcasts that were likely to appeal to children and that the likely audience would have expected to have been protected from the most offensive language and material in such programming."
A spokesman for MTV said: "MTV Networks Europe takes this sanction and fine very seriously and has taken a series of steps to minimize as much as possible any breaches in the future.
"These include strengthening procedures regarding programs for pre-watershed broadcast, reviewing MTV's archive programming, increasing the number of staff involved in compliance and investing in a new channel management system."
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Ellen is getting married.
Ellen DeGeneres is putting the California Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage into action -- she and Portia de Rossi plan to wed, DeGeneres announced during a taping of her talk show. Labels: celebrity news, gay news, television
DeGeneres was taping the episode of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" on Thursday, the day the state's high court struck down California laws against gay marriage, and it was to air Friday, a person close to the production said.
The person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
Citing the court's ruling, DeGeneres said she and girlfriend de Rossi ("Ally McBeal," "Nip/Tuck") would be getting married.
De Rossi, 35, who was in the studio, and DeGeneres, 50, were applauded by audience members, the person close to the production said.
Calls and e-mails late Thursday to DeGeneres' publicist were not immediately returned.
The court ruling means same-sex couples could tie the knot in as little as a month. However, religious and social conservatives are seeking to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November that would undo the Supreme Court ruling and ban gay marriage.
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Oh Butters, how I love you so.
Labels: music, shota, television, you tube
UPDATED: YouTube is going to keep trying to take it down. I'll repost if I can. Just leave a comment if it's gone. It truly is the funniest thing I've seen in a long long time.
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Pyro accident during Wrestlemania causes injuries.
What was supposed to be a celebration after another successful Wrestlemania, ended up with dozens of people injured when fireworks and cables landed on part of a near sell-out crowd at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando on Sunday night. Labels: disasters, Florida, sports news, television
Orlando Fire Department spokesman Greg Hoggatt says a cable holding the fireworks collapsed at the end of the show. The collapse sent sparkles from fireworks into the crowd. He says there were burn injuries, "up and down the stadium."
The show experienced a problem earlier in the show when power was temporarily lost to the lights surrounding the ring, leaving the announced crew confused as to what was going on.
At least 40 people were injured when the fireworks and cable collapsed. Officials say all the injuries were minor, but at least three people were taken to area hospitals.
World Wrestling Entertainment has had serious problems at a pay-per-view event in the past, most notably, the death of wrestler Owen Hart, who fell from a scaffold atop the ring while preparing for a stunt.
The Associated Press reported the phone number for the press relations office at the WWE Corporate Headquarters stayed busy for much of the day. Stadium officials have yet to comment on the story. The WWE typically launches fireworks as a show begins and multiple times during a show as certain wrestlers enter a venue.
The company released this statement on the accident:
"We're investigating the incident and doing everything we can to find out why it happened and to make sure it never happens again. While we apologize to anyone who was injured and/or alarmed by this occurrence, we take solace in the fact that the reported injuries were minor."
Estimates for last night's crowd for Wrestlemania topped 74,000.
(Ed note: I hate TMZ but here is the link to the video. Obviously Undertaker should leave the pyro to his brother, Kane.)
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A protest FOR more gayity on "As The World Turns."
Labels: controversial, gay news, television
NEW YORK — The love affair between two young men on the venerable CBS soap opera "As the World Turns" has triggered a protest campaign by angry viewers.
It's just not the sort of protest you'd expect.
Fans of the fictional romance between Luke Snyder and Noah Mayer are baffled about why the two characters haven't kissed on-screen since September, wondering whether it's a sign of squeamishness by CBS or show sponsors Procter & Gamble Co.
The fans have started a letter-writing campaign, posted an online petition and even have a Web site that counts the days, hours, minutes and seconds since Luke and Noah last locked lips.
"We totally support this show and applaud the show for doing this story line," said Roger Newcomb, a computer worker from New York's northern suburbs and the man behind the campaign. "We just don't understand why they have to be censored or treated differently."
"As the World Turns," which premiered in 1956, had the first gay male character in daytime drama in 1988. Last August was another milestone — believed to be the first time two gay men kissed on a soap — when Luke surprised Noah with the sign of affection.
They kissed again in September, at a time Noah was still coming to grips with being gay. But since officially becoming a couple, their lips have been sealed.
Fans first sensed the new attitude around Christmas, during a tender scene where the two men proclaimed their love for one another. It was clear they were about to kiss, but the camera instead panned up and focused on some mistletoe.
"I've been watching soaps for decades," Newcomb said, "and that doesn't happen."
Valentine's Day featured fantasy sequences involving several of the show's couples. All the stories ended in a kiss, except for Luke and Noah's. They hugged.
That's when the campaign started.
"There are some people who want to see sex between Luke and Noah," said 34-year-old Theresa Webber, who lives north of Boston. "I've been watching soaps long enough to know that they're a teenage couple, so it's not going to happen anyway. But for them to not kiss at all, it's a little extreme."
The soap is owned, produced and written by Procter & Gamble Productions Inc., a subsidiary of the consumer giant that makes Bounty, Crest, Pampers, Mr. Clean and Ivory soap. CBS executives consult on the series, but the creative direction is set by P&G.
There's no kissing ban, said Jeannie Tharrington, spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble Productions, although she wouldn't say what will happen in future shows. She explained the mistletoe shot as a "creative decision."
"It's always hard to please a diverse audience," Tharrington said, "and we have a diverse audience."
Webber recalls reading a handful of letters in soap opera publications after last summer's first kiss along the lines of "I don't care if Luke is gay, but I don't want to see it."
Barbara Bloom, CBS senior vice president for daytime, said there was a "minimal" negative reaction from viewers about the story line, although she couldn't define what that meant. There was apparently no organized campaign by conservative or parent advocacy groups that monitor television content.
"It's entirely new to me," said Tim Winter, president of the Parents Television Council. "I hadn't heard anything about it."
The American Family Association Web site has a "take-action alert" against Procter & Gamble, calling the company the "top pro-homosexual sponsor on television." The group bases its determination on the number of P&G products advertised on prime-time TV shows with gay or lesbian characters.
"As the World Turns" isn't even mentioned.
Webber and Newcomb said they've been more bothered by other things they have seen on the soap, like when a 14-year-old boy shot a man who was attacking his mother. One character is so desperate for a baby that she slept with her ex-brother-in-law, and was nearly caught having sex in an elevator. Another woman led her children and ex-husband into believing she had a brain tumor, just to get him back.
All are more offensive to her than two men kissing, Webber said.
"It's 2008," she said. "It's something that's real. If they were not going to follow through with it, they shouldn't have started it."
The story's popularity complicates matters. Some 140 scenes featuring the two actors, Van Hansis and Jake Silbermann, are posted online. The message board on Vanhansis.net gets posts from around the world. While competitors "One Life to Live" and "Days of Our Lives" have seen double-digit drops in viewership over the past year, "As the World Turns" is down only 2 percent.
The soap's producers seem to want it both ways, to get credit for having a gay couple but no backlash from long-term viewers for showing intimacy, said Carolyn Hinsey, editor of Soap Opera Weekly.
CBS' Bloom said she would like to see Luke and Noah's romance continue. "If that means there is a natural progression to the physical relationship, I would be in support of it," she said.
Tharrington laughed when asked about any behind-the-scenes debates over showing intimacy between the two men. "You wouldn't even believe," she said.
Producers are committed to telling the story of the romance, she said, adding she hoped the audience would recognize what "As the World Turns" is showing, instead of just what it isn't.
"We feel like we're doing so much right here," she said. "We're telling a story that no one else is doing. We're telling a story that has really engaged our audience."
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American Living Shotalicious Ads!!
This past Sunday during the Oscars™, J.C. Penny's American Living brand put out 4 commercials. Two of which feature shota in heavy sugary sweet amounts. Labels: internets, loli, shota, television
You can watch the commercials by going to their website, here, and clicking "Watch The Commercials" at the bottom.
The second one and the fourth one are the most shota inclusive, with the last one particularly Calvin Kline blushworthy as several boys and a girl appreciate their love for both nature and all piling in a bed together. It's saccharine sugary goodness to be sure.
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Academy Gives Crappy Reason for Omiting Renfro
Nearly 100 industry heavyweights were honored last night during the Academy Awards' "In Memoriam" video package, but not 25-year-old star Brad Renfro, who died last month from an accidental heroin overdose in his Los Angeles home. Labels: boys, movies, television
According to a spokeswoman at the Academy, the omission was not an intentional slight but a necessity, given limited time to make and show the piece.
"Obviously, [that piece] is not something that we can continue to cut right up until the day of the show, so there's a point at which we have to make difficult decisions," she told MTV News. "It's a very difficult piece to put together every year, but we're just not able to include everyone. There were many people [this year] who were not included."
Veteran TV actor Allan Melvin, who played Sam the butcher on "The Brady Bunch" and appeared on "All in the Family" and other shows, was also left out of the package, as was "Jaws" actor Roy Scheider. The spokeswoman acknowledged that Scheider's February 10 death was too close to the broadcast for inclusion.
Renfro made a name for himself at the tender age of 10 when he landed a central role in the 1994 John Grisham legal thriller "The Client," alongside Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. Although plagued later in life by a crippling drug addiction and run-ins with the law, Renfro continued to work on high-quality projects well into his teens, including starring roles in "Apt Pupil" and "Sleepers."
But MTV News has learned that he was not an invited member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the organization behind the Oscars. In the end, that might have been a contributing factor to his exclusion from the montage, the spokeswoman admitted.
"We try to represent people — not just actors and actresses — but people who have contributed to film in a variety of different ways," she said. "But [being an Academy member] is certainly one of the considerations that's taken into account, though not exclusively."
Although edited by one individual, "A number of people are in the decision-making chain about who might be included" in the montage, the spokeswoman said.
(Ed note: I love Renfro's films. The Client, The Cure, Tom and Huck, Apt Pupil, Happy Campers, Bully, and Ghost World.)
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The One. The Only. The Oscars.
Oscar said yes to "No Country for Old Men" and to European actors on Sunday night. Labels: movies, television
"No Country," the Coen brothers' brutal tale of a man pursued by death and the law across the bleak moonscapes of West Texas, won best picture at the 80th Academy Awards.
The four acting awards, meanwhile, went to Europeans: Marion Cotillard, Daniel Day-Lewis, Javier Bardem and Tilda Swinton.
The Coens also won best director and best adapted screenplay, and Bardem, who played cattle-gun-armed killer Anton Chigurh, won best supporting actor. Producer Scott Rudin shared the best picture award with the brothers.
"We're very thankful to all of you out there for letting us continue to play in our corner of the sandbox, so thank you very much," Joel Coen said in accepting the directing award.
He observed that the pair didn't think they were doing much different work now from when, as a child, Ethan Coen "got a suit and a briefcase and we went to the Minneapolis International Airport with a Super 8 camera and made a movie about shuttle diplomacy called 'Henry Kissinger, Man on the Go.' "
The Coens, who have been known for their arch style and oddball humor in films such as "Fargo," "O Brother, Where Art Thou" and "The Big Lebowski," received some laughs for Ethan Coen's laconic acceptance speeches.
After the pair won for adapted screenplay, Ethan Coen gave a brief thanks. Upon winning the directing award, he expanded on his speech slightly, sort of: "I don't have a lot to add to what I said earlier. Thank you," he said.
Day-Lewis was more effusive in his thanks after winning best actor for his performance as a misanthropic oilman in "There Will Be Blood."
"My deepest thanks to the members of the Academy for whacking me with the handsomest bludgeon in town," the British actor said as he accepted the award.
"I've been thinking a lot about fathers and sons in the course of this, and I'd like to accept this in the memory of my grandfather, Michael Balcon, my father, Cecil Day-Lewis, and my three fine boys, Gabriel, Ronan and Cashel," he added. See the complete list of winners
As he accepted his first Oscar, Bardem, one of Spain's top actors, thanked his directors and reflected on his role as a creepy killer with a bad haircut.
"Thank you to the Coens for being crazy enough to think that I could do that, and to put one of the most horrible haircuts in history over my head," he said.
It was his second career nomination. His other came for "Before Night Falls" (2000), in which he played Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas.
In a mild surprise, French actress Cotillard won her first Academy Award for her portrayal of singer Edith Piaf in "La Vie en Rose." Early handicappers had bet heavily on veteran Julie Christie, a previous Oscar winner who played a woman falling victim to Alzheimer's in "Away from Her."
But Cotillard, who's received raves for her performance as the French singer, had been considered a strong contender for best actress.
"I'm speechless now ... I ... I ... thank you life, thank you love," Cotillard exclaimed. "And it is true, there are some angels in this city. Thank you so, so much!"
The actress has appeared in dozens of films in her native France, but she may be most recognizable to American audiences for her performances in "A Very Long Engagement" (2004) and "Big Fish" (2003).
In a highly competitive race, Swinton nabbed the best supporting actress Oscar for her portrayal as lawyer Karen Crowder in the legal drama "Michael Clayton."
"I have an American agent who is the spitting image of this. Really, truly, the same shape head and, it has to be said, the buttocks," the British actress said, examining her new Oscar. "And I'm giving this to him because there's no way I'd be in America at all, ever, on a plane if it wasn't for him."
Swinton beat out 83-year-old Ruby Dee, who had been considered a sentimental favorite for her first Oscar nomination in the supporting actress category, playing Mama Lucas to Denzel Washington's drug kingpin Frank Lucas in "American Gangster."
Swinton also beat Cate Blanchett (as a mid-'60s take on Bob Dylan in "I'm Not There") and Amy Ryan (a difficult working-class mother in "Gone Baby Gone").
The Academy Awards opened with host Jon Stewart joking about the recently ended writers strike -- which forced a cutback in the Golden Globes and threatened the Oscars as well -- and commenting on the bleakness of the best picture nominees.
"Tonight we look beyond the dark days to focus on happier fare: This year's slate of Oscar-nominated psychopathic killer movies," Stewart joked. "Does this town need a hug? What happened? 'No Country For Old Men,' 'Sweeney Todd,' 'There Will Be Blood'? All I can say is, thank God for [the comedy "Juno's"] teen pregnancy. I think the country agrees."
"Juno" has been the little movie that could all season. The film, which cost a relatively paltry $7.5 million, was the only best picture nominee to top $100 million at the box office, ensuring it a rooting interest from moviegoers.
Star Ellen Page received plaudits for her performance as the title character, and screenwriter Diablo Cody -- famously a former stripper -- has become one of Hollywood's "it" scribes. Cody won best original screenplay.
"This is for the writers. I want to thank all the writers. I especially want to thank my fellow nominees because I worship you guys and I'm learning from you every day," Cody said.
The first award of the evening, for costume design, went to "Elizabeth: The Golden Age."
The best animated feature went to "Ratatouille," a computer-animated Pixar film directed and written by Oscar winner Brad Bird ("The Incredibles"). The rat-turns-chef movie beat out "Persepolis," based on the graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, and "Surf's Up," a computer-animated film about penguins.
"The Counterfeiters" from Austria took the best foreign-language film. The movie is based on a true story about a counterfeiter who, after being sent to a concentration camp, was employed by the Nazis to fake other countries' currency.
Best original song was awarded to "Falling Slowly" from "Once." It beat out three songs from "Enchanted," the Disney film about an animated princess come to life.
The Oscars were spread around. "No Country" picked up four, "The Bourne Ultimatum" earned three (one for its rapid-fire editing) and "There Will Be Blood" received two: Day-Lewis' acting award and Robert Elswit's cinematography honor. But nobody had any doubt what film was considered the evening's big winner.
"There's nothing like it, and especially with these two guys," producer Rudin said backstage with the Coens of their unusual Western. "I'm incredibly proud, and I think it's the best movie we have been involved with. I loved it from the first minute I saw it."
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Writers end strike.
LOS ANGELES - Striking Hollywood writers are going back to work. Labels: movies, television
The Writers Guild of America said its members voted Tuesday to end their devastating, three-month strike that brought the entertainment industry to a standstill.
Writers will go back to work Wednesday after voting in Beverly Hills and New York.
"At the end of the day, everybody won. It was a fair deal and one that the companies can live with, and it recognizes the large contribution that writers have made to the industry," said Leslie Moonves, chief executive officer of CBS Corp., who was among the media executives who helped broker a deal after talks between the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the trade group, collapsed in acrimony.
One winner in the vote was the Academy Awards that can now be staged on Feb. 24 without the threat of pickets or a boycott by actors that would have dulled the glamour of Hollywood's signature celebration.
The strike's end would allow many hit series to return this spring for what's left of the current season, airing anywhere from four to seven new episodes. Shows with marginal audience numbers may not return until fall or could be canceled.
"It will be all hands on deck for the writing staff," said Chris Mundy, co-executive producer of CBS' drama "Criminal Minds." He hopes to get a couple of scripts in the pipeline right away, with about seven episodes airing by the end of May.
The combined New York-Beverly Hills count was overwhelmingly in favor of ending the strike: 3,492 voted yes, with only 283 voting to stay off the job.
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Smackdown gets the smackdown. Wait, that's a terrible pun. I can totally do better.
[User was armbared for this post.]
NEW YORK — Pro wrestling is getting smacked down by the CW network. Labels: sports news, television
The long-running "Friday Night Smackdown" won't be airing on the CW this fall, the network and World Wrestling Entertainment said late Thursday. In separate announcements, they stated that "after a successful decade of `Smackdown,'" they had agreed to conclude their partnership after the 2007-08 season.
No reasons were offered.
WWE added that it began talks with other networks after the CW's exclusive period to negotiate a renewal ended Jan. 31. Although no details were disclosed for a possible new home for the show, candidates might include NBC Universal, whose USA cable channel already carries "WWE Raw," and MyNetworkTV, where some affiliates aired "Smackdown" when they were UPN stations.
The two-hour "Smackdown" premiered on then-fledgling UPN in fall 1999 as strategic counterprogramming on Thursdays. "Smackdown" gave UPN a foothold on that night of bruising prime-time competition, but even as a ratings contender, it proved to be a sometimes uncomfortable fit with UPN's image.
When UPN, owned by CBS, merged with Warner Bros.' WB in 2006, "Smackdown" seemed no less out of place on the resulting CW network.
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Stewart and Colbert do better without writers.
It would seem that without their writers, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are more popular than ever. Labels: television
Comedy Central’s Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report are both posting big gains since returning to the air on Jan. 7.
Jon Stewart is up 17 percent from the same time period in 2007 among viewers 18-34, and is up 9 percent among 18-49s. Colbert is up 21 percent in the 18-34 demo and 15 percent in 18-49s, compared to a year ago, writes Media Life.
Colbert and Stewart have returned to the air without their writers, crossing picket lines and relying on their wits, which are apparently seeing them through the writers strike without a hitch.
The late-night shows, on the other hand, are suffering. First-place Tonight is down 25 percent from last year in 18-49s. NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien is down 18 percent. Both shows returned without their writers. David Letterman, who returned thanks to an agreement between the WGA and his production company, is flat to last year. Craig Ferguson, who returned via the same agreement, is down 14 percent, while ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel is down 14 percent.
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Nevermind it's 2008, but an ass isnt a sexual organ? ORLY?
WASHINGTON — The Federal Communications Commission has proposed a $1.4 million fine against 52 ABC Television Network stations over a 2003 broadcast of cop drama NYPD Blue. Labels: controversial, government, nakedness, television
The fine is for a scene where a boy surprises a woman as she prepares to take a shower. The scene depicted "multiple, close-up views" of the woman's "nude buttocks" according to an agency order issued late Friday.
ABC is owned by the Walt Disney Co. The fines were issued against 52 stations either owned by or affiliated with the network.
FCC's definition of indecent content requires that the broadcast "depicts or describes sexual or excretory activities" in a "patently offensive way" and is aired between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.
The agency said the show was indecent because "it depicts sexual organs and excretory organs — specifically an adult woman's buttocks."
The agency rejected the network's argument that "the buttocks are not a sexual organ."
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Netflix offfers even moar instant gratification in effort to fight off Apple newcomer.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Girding for a potential threat from Apple Inc., online DVD rental service Netflix Inc. is lifting its limits on how long most subscribers can watch movies and television shows over high-speed Internet connections. Labels: internets, movies, television
The Associated Press has learned the change will become effective Monday, on the eve of Apple's widely anticipated move into the movie rental industry. Although Apple hasn't confirmed anything yet, Chief Executive Steve Jobs is expected to make it official during a presentation Tuesday in San Francisco.
Netflix is gearing up for the increased competition by expanding a year-old feature that streams movies over the Internet instead of making customers wait for their online rental requests to be delivered through the mail.
Until now, Netflix restricted how long its more than 7 million subscribers could use the streaming service each month, based on how much they pay to rent DVDs.
For instance, under a popular plan that charges $16.99 per month to rent up to three DVDs at a time, Netflix customers could watch as many as 17 hours of entertainment each month on the streaming service, dubbed "Watch Instantly."
With Monday's change, virtually all Netflix subscribers will be able to stream as many movies and TV shows as they want from a library containing more than 6,000 titles. There will be no additional charge for the unlimited access.
Only the small portion of Netflix customers who pay $4.99 to rent up to two DVDs per month won't be provided unlimited access to the streaming service.
The unlimited streaming option figures to become more enticing later this year when LG Electronics Inc. will begin selling a set-top box that will deliver the content to TVs.
Removing the time constraints on its streamed entertainment could give Netflix an advantage over Apple's movie rental service. Apple will charge $3.99 for movies that can be downloaded and played for up to 24 hours, according to media reports citing people familiar with the company's rental plans.
Letting subscribers stream as much as they want could erode Netflix's profits because the Los Gatos-based company isn't raising its monthly rates even though its expenses may rise if increased usage drives up the licensing fees owed to studios.
Providing unlimited streaming access "fits within the parameters of our overall financial goals," Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey said. The impact of the change will likely be addressed when Netflix discusses its fourth-quarter earnings in a call scheduled for Jan. 23. The company had earned $51 million on revenue of $903 million through the first nine months of 2007.
With more than 90,000 titles available in its DVD library, delivering movies through the mail is expected to remain Netflix's primary moneymaker for years to come.
Nevertheless, Netflix has spent about $40 million on the development of its streaming service during the past year.
The service still doesn't appeal to many Netflix subscribers because it requires watching the entertainment on a personal computer with a high-speed Internet connection.
Subscribers must also use a computer running the Windows operating system to watch streaming Netflix content, which leaves out most Mac users.
Netflix hasn't specified how much content has been streamed since last summer, when management disclosed that more than 10 million movies and TV episodes had been watched through the service. The company says its streaming service has gained the most traction among younger subscribers more accustomed to watching movies on laptops.
Apple's rental service is expected to offer its customers more flexibility, allowing movies to be viewed on the Cupertino-based company's ubiquitous iPod and iPhone, as well as on computers.
Still, most people seem to prefer watching movies on their big-screen TVs - an issue both Apple and Netflix are trying to address.
Apple last year began selling a $299 device designed to transport video from computers to TVs. LG Electronics hasn't disclosed the price of its Netflix box, which is expected to debut in late summer or early fall.
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My first RiffTrax DIY.
I changed it to a link since the embedded player was constantly stuck on loading. And sadly it looks like they're running on some mighty slow severs. I haven't been able to really do much on the site since 3amEST last night. Too bad. It's lots of fun. Labels: movies, television
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What won't the RIAA and MPAA do to try and stop online piracy?
For the past fifteen years, Internet service providers have acted - to use an old cliche - as wide-open information super-highways, letting data flow uninterrupted and unimpeded between users and the Internet. Labels: controversial, internets, movies, technology news, television
But ISPs may be about to embrace a new metaphor: traffic cop.
At a small panel discussion about digital piracy here at NBC’s booth on the Consumer Electronics Show floor, representatives from NBC, Microsoft, several digital filtering companies and telecom giant AT&T said the time was right to start filtering for copyrighted content at the network level.
Such filtering for pirated material already occurs on sites like YouTube and Microsoft’s Soapbox, and on some university networks.
Network-level filtering means your Internet service provider – Comcast, AT&T, EarthLink, or whoever you send that monthly check to – could soon start sniffing your digital packets, looking for material that infringes on someone’s copyright.
“What we are already doing to address piracy hasn’t been working. There’s no secret there,” said James Cicconi, senior vice president, external & legal affairs for AT&T.
Mr. Cicconi said that AT&T has been talking to technology companies, and members of the MPAA and RIAA, for the last six months about implementing digital fingerprinting techniques on the network level.
“We are very interested in a technology based solution and we think a network-based solution is the optimal way to approach this,” he said. “We recognize we are not there yet but there are a lot of promising technologies. But we are having an open discussion with a number of content companies, including NBC Universal, to try to explore various technologies that are out there.”
Internet civil rights organizations oppose network-level filtering, arguing that it amounts to Big Brother monitoring of free speech, and that such filtering could block the use of material that may fall under fair-use legal provisions — uses like parody, which enrich our culture.
Rick Cotton, the general counsel of NBC Universal, who has led the company’s fights against companies like YouTube for the last three years, clearly doesn’t have much tolerance for that line of thinking.
“The volume of peer-to-peer traffic online, dominated by copyrighted materials, is overwhelming. That clearly should not be an acceptable, continuing status,” he said. “The question is how we collectively collaborate to address this.”
I asked the panelists how they would respond to objections from their customers over network level filtering – for example, the kind of angry outcry Comcast saw last year, when it was accused of clamping down on BitTorrent traffic on its network.
“Whatever we do has to pass muster with consumers and with policy standards. There is going to be a spotlight on it,” said Mr. Cicconi of AT&T.
After the session, he told me that ISPs like AT&T would have to handle such network filtering delicately, and do more than just stop an upload dead in its tracks, or send a legalistic cease and desist form letter to a customer. “We’ve got to figure out a friendly way to do it, there’s no doubt about it,” he said.
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Ongoing writers strike successfully kills off Golden Globes
Fags everywhere on suicide watch.
LOS ANGELES — The Golden Globes, the ceremony known for getting Hollywood's awards season off to a rollicking start, will be reduced to a news conference Sunday by the writers strike and will likely draw picket lines and lack star power. Labels: movies, television
Despite the revamped ceremony announced Monday by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Screen Actors Guild said it was encouraging its members to skip the show in support of the two-month walkout by the Writers Guild of America.
"The WGA informed us they will picket the event on Sunday," the actors guild said in a statement.
The writers guild said it would not have an immediate comment on whether it would call off its pickets because of the new approach.
As he arrived at Monday's Critics' Choice Awards, George Clooney said only that that he belongs to six unions and would not cross any picket lines.
Later, as he made a presentation, Clooney said, "Our hope is that all of the players involved will lock themselves in a room and not come out until they finish. We want this to be done."
Nikky Blonsky, also on the red carpet, said she was undecided about whether to attend the revised Golden Globes, where she is a nominee for "Hairspray."
"The writers are the backbone of the business, so we don't want to lose them in any way," she said.
The press association, which owns the Globes, issued a bleak statement about the ceremony that was to have showcased the likes of nominees Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington.
"We are all very disappointed that our traditional awards ceremony will not take place this year and that millions of viewers worldwide will be deprived of seeing many of their favorite stars celebrating 2007's outstanding achievements in motion pictures and television," association president Jorge Camara said.
"We take some comfort, however, in knowing that this year's Golden Globe Award recipients will be announced on the date originally scheduled," he said in a statement.
Besides Jolie and Washington, this year's nominees include such other A-listers as Clooney, Tom Hanks, Daniel Day-Lewis, Keira Knightley, Cate Blanchett and Johnny Depp. Among the nominated films are "There Will Be Blood," "American Gangster" and "Sweeney Todd." But faced with a potential celebrity vacuum because of the picket line, the association and NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker had to devise another approach for the Globes broadcast.
The association will forgo any network payment — reported to be $5 million — for the broadcast, said a person close to the show who was not authorized to comment and requested anonymity. But NBC will have exclusive electronic rights to the show and will be able to sell advertising for it, the person said.
Although other TV media won't be given access, print outlets will, according to the agreement between NBC and the association, the person said.
The developments stand as an ominous sign for the Academy Awards, which are scheduled to air Feb. 24 on ABC. The writers guild refused to grant waivers for its members to work on the Oscars or the Globes.
Disrupting the awards show season, a huge promotional showcase for the entertainment industry, is one way the guild can flex its power and attempt to bring producers back to the table to resume talks that collapsed Dec. 7.
Oscar broadcast producer Gil Cates has vowed there will be a televised show, one way or another.
The writers strike, which began Nov. 5, has broad implications for the way Hollywood does business. Whatever deal is struck by writers on the key issue of payment for projects offered on the Internet could affect talks with actors and directors, whose contracts expire in June.
Instead of the traditional Globes show featuring a boozy, glitzy dinner party and awards presentation, the winners will be announced in an hour-long news conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, the press association said.
A Los Angeles Times report, citing an NBC memo e-mailed to movie studios, said there were plans for other Globe-related shows, including a "Dateline NBC" program with clips and interviews with nominees, and a show covering Globe parties.
NBC was also in talks with dick clark productions, which produces the ceremony, for an hourlong Globes retrospective.
There was no announcement by the association or NBC on regarding further programming.
The Globes have been on a ratings roll. The 2007 ceremony drew 20 million viewers and marked the second straight year the show drew a bigger audience than the year before. The show's biggest audience ever was in 1998, the year of the blockbuster film "Titanic," when 24.5 million people watched.
Compared with the more formal Oscars, the Globes are presented at a relaxed event that brings out the frisky side of stars. In 1998, for example, Jack Nicholson mimicked Jim Carrey's "butt-talking" routine in accepting his acting award for "As Good As It Gets."
When the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were on strike in 1980, only one winner — Powers Booth — showed up to collect his trophy.
Dick clark productions has lashed out at the guild, citing repeated efforts to reach an interim agreement akin to the union deal with another independent company, Worldwide Pants, which produces David Letterman's show. The writers guild announced Monday that it also reached a deal with Tom Cruise's production outfit, United Artists Films, to resume working while the strike continues against other studios.
The guild was accused by dick clark productions of failing to bargain in good faith.
Writers guild President Patric M. Verrone has lauded the move by actors to boycott the Globes and said the awards show season is being jeopardized by the "intransigence" of media corporations.
For its own awards on Jan. 27, the actors guild has reached an interim agreement for a writers guild member to script the ceremony.
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Daily Show / Colbert to return sans writers.
The wordsmiths might still be on strike, but The Wørd is coming out of mothballs: Stephen Colbert and pal Jon Stewart are heading back to work. Labels: television
The Daily Show and The Colbert Report will resume production Jan. 7 without their respective writing staffs, Comedy Central announced Thursday.
Both award-winning faux newscasts have been in repeats since Nov. 5, when the Writers Guild of America strike officially began.
"We would like to return to work with our writers. If we cannot, we would like to express our ambivalence, but without our writers we are unable to express something as nuanced as ambivalence," Stewart and Colbert said in a joint statement.
Stewart, whose Busboy Productions oversees both shows, has been paying the salaries of staffers since the strike began.
The decision to go back to work was obviously not an easy one: Both Stewart and Colbert are guild members themselves. Both are also talented comedians and will have to call on their improv skills to essentially ad-lib their way through their respective shows.
Regardless, Comedy Central has to be pretty pleased to have its Emmy-winning Daily Show and its equally deserving Colbert Report coming back.
Even after going two months without a fresh episode, Colbert was on Thursday named Associated Press Celebrity of the Year, an honor bestowed on the personality who had the biggest impact on pop culture in 2007.
When NBC announced that The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien would be returning with new episodes Jan. 2, the WGA said that it was unfortunate NBC wouldn't be able to put on the best shows possible thanks to the writers' absence, and the union expressed a similar sentiment in response to this latest development.
"Comedy Central forcing Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert back on the air will not give the viewers the quality shows they've come to expect," the WGA West said in a statement. "The only way to get the writing staffs back on the job is for the [Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers] companies to come back to the table prepared to negotiate a fair deal with the Writers Guild."
With Jimmy Kimmel Live also resuming Jan. 2, that leaves David Letterman, whose Worldwide Pants production arm is still trying to negotiate a temporary deal with the WGA that would allow him and fellow CBS host Craig Ferguson (Late Late Show is also produced by Pants) to return to the airwaves with their writers.
Reps for striking writers are planning to meet with Letterman's company Friday to talk logistics. The veteran funnyman has this option because Worldwide Pants, not the struck company that is CBS, owns The Late Show.
"With the WGA now embracing a strategy of offering interim agreements to individual companies, it is inconceivable to us that there is any producing entity more deserving than Worldwide Pants, which has been and continues to be a staunch supporter of the Writer's Guild and its positions," company president Rob Burnett said in a statement regarding tomorrow's meeting.
Worldwide Pants could be getting the WGA on an upswing. The guild also announced Thursday that is has granted a waiver to the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards, meaning union scribes can provide material for the Feb. 23 ceremony.
"Film Independent came to us before the strike, and the WGAW Board decided to grant an interim agreement allowing for writing services for the Spirit Awards," the WGAW said, calling further negotiations the only way to get awards season "back on track."
The Academy Awards are the following day. Stewart is lined up to host, although as of now he won't be receiving any scripted support from union writers. The WGA has rejected the Hollywood Foreign Press' waiver request for the Golden Globes and is rumored to be planning to similarly diss the Academy.
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In other news: Steve finally catches on to some of Blue's Clues.
NEW YORK (AP) - Nickelodeon is considering a special for its young audience about sex and love following the news that 16-year-old "Zoey 101" star Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant.
The television network has made no announcement about the future of "Zoey 101," its popular program aimed primarily at youngsters aged 9- 14. Filming for the show's fourth and final season has finished, and episodes are scheduled to begin airing in February.
For the special, Nickelodeon said it's talking with Linda Ellerbee, the veteran newswoman who has stepped in frequently in the past with shows on talking to children about difficult issues in the news. She's done shows about same-sex parents, AIDS, the Columbine shooting and President Clinton's impeachment scandal.
"I think it's important that something be done," Ellerbee told The Associated Press on