Category: media

“Hollywood could have its first $4 billion summer, topping the record $3.95 billion haul from the first weekend in May through Labor Day in 2004. Factoring in higher admission prices, modern Hollywood’s best summer for attendance came in 2002 with 653 million tickets sold, another record that could fall.”

“Ken Burns and PBS have just been mugged by censors and pressure groups demanding major changes to his critically acclaimed documentary.” So where are the protests from the usual sources?

Seattle radio station KEXP is a technical innovator. But “technology innovation in music is dangerous inherently because the labels are always afraid that somehow technological innovation is going to further encroach on their sagging revenue. Rather than trying to embrace technology to improve revenues, their knee-jerk reaction is to figure out how to strangle technology.”

The FCC and various lawmakers are looking for a way to exert more control over how much violence is allowed on television in the US. But if new regulations are to stick, the trick will be defining “violence” narrowly enough that the rules won’t be immediately struck down by the courts.

“The Upper West Side just got a little more connected: Lincoln Center will offer free wireless Internet access throughout its 6.3 acres of outdoor space beginning in June, the president of Lincoln Center, Reynold Levy, announced yesterday. The organization signed an agreement with the wireless carrier Nokia.”

“New episodes of ‘Sesame Street’ are going on TV in Israel and the Palestinian territories, producers report, years after the original versions signed off because of a lack of funds. … Gary Knell, president of Sesame Workshop, the New York-based nonprofit group behind ‘Sesame Street’ programming worldwide, said the goal was to counter the potentially negative influences of society, because children as young as 3 can begin to demonstrate prejudice.”

“The BBC said the new iPlayer system would allow viewers to catch up with programs from the previous seven days and store them on a computer for 30 days, while cable viewers will be able to use this service on their televisions.”

“Montreal-born Timothy Casgrain, 58, who is currently chairman of the aviation company Skyservice Investment, was named the CBC’s new chairman Friday. He fills the position left by author-producer Guy Fournier, who resigned in September after a controversy surrounding a column he wrote joking about sexual behaviour in Lebanon. The CBC’s president and chief executive officer Robert Rabinovitch had been filling in as acting chairman.”

Jack Valenti, “who died on Thursday at 85, created what is officially named the Classification and Rating Administration 38 years ago in one of his first policy initiatives upon taking charge of the Motion Picture Association of America. Since then the ratings board has been accused of Star Chamber-like censorship, compared to a fussy church lady tougher on sex than violence, and perennially second-guessed in its decisions. But the system is almost certain to long survive Mr. Valenti.”

Autism has takn Hollywood by storm. “How did autism, one cause among many, gain such high new visibility? April is National Autism Awareness month, which merely explains the scheduling, not the sheer volume of projects about the subject. That proliferation is due to a mixture of celebrity clout, a huge increase in diagnoses, and the nature of the disorder itself. A condition that thwarts the ability to communicate and express emotions, autism seems ready-made for symbolic use.”