Category: media

Couch potatoes who have complained that the award-winning cable network ‘ isn’t available north of the border will get their wish starting Oct. 30. HBO Canada will offer the full HBO slate of programs, including Big Love, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Real Time with Bill Maher as well as repbroadcasts of older hits like Oz, Da Ali G Show and Angels in America. (Yes, of course there will be Canadian content.)

America’s wealthiest agitpropster is releasing Slacker Uprising, a documentary of his 2004 anti-Bush college tour, as a free download. “I prohibited [my agent] from contacting any studios to ask them whether they were interested. I just said straight up, ‘I want to give this away for free.’ He thought I should have my head examined.’

“The prime-time television season started this week — for reasons that have almost nothing to do with how the business of television works anymore. The networks now like to emphasize that they are a 52-week business.”

“A court in the Indian capital Delhi has rejected a lawsuit filed by Hollywood company Warner Bros. against the makers of a Bollywood film [titled] Hari Puttar.”

Estimates suggest that “12.24 million people watched Sunday’s show. If that number holds up when more complete national ratings come in, it will be less than the 2007 and 1990 shows, which were both slightly under 13 million.”

“A New York state Supreme Court judge on Monday limited the scope of Dan Rather’s $70-million lawsuit against CBS Corp., tossing out his claims that the network committed fraud and unlawfully interfered with his contract… [but] allowed Rather to proceed with his claims that CBS broke the terms of his contract… in the wake of a controversial story about President Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard.”

A West End director, a film producer and the associate director of the Royal Court Theatre explain it all for you , from plotting to dialogue to visuals to getting your manuscript read. (And thousands of frustrated writers wonder why they didn’t share this info until now.)

“Two period dramas set 200 years apart in American history — “Mad Men” and “John Adams” — claimed a place in the Emmy record books on Sunday while a satire of network TV itself, “30 Rock,” dominated the comedy side of the awards.”

A new Pew study has even more dramatic evidence of how far videogames have entered the American mainstream, noting that 97% of teens 12-17 play videogames.

“Since it bought Miss Piggy, Kermit and crew in 2004, executives have struggled to figure out how to put them to work. Now Disney is giving it another go by revving up the full power of its culture-creating engines.”