Category: media

Older actresses are finding better roles in Hollywood these days. “Actresses used to lament that turning 40 was a fast train from playing leading ladies to playing mothers. It still is, frankly, but forward-thinking screenwriters and sexually vital actresses are crafting complex mother characters more reminiscent of Grace Slick than Donna Reed.”

According to a lobbiest group, Canada’s CBC faces “layoffs in journalistic and production staff of between 400 and 1,200 are being predicted All in all, the public broadcaster would suffer nearly $30 million in cuts in fiscal 2003-2004, says the lobby.”

What happened to Saturday night television? Saturday night used to be the premiere night of the TV week, the most important night. But “it’s been TV’s most ignored and neglected night for years, the video equivalent of a landfill. Saturday now is where TV series go to live out their last useful seasons, or where they escape from to thrive on another night. Saturday night television has become so degraded that it no longer sustains a single original sitcom.”

“Money measures success in Hollywood, and industry figures show just how successful the DVD format has become in its six-year history. People spent nearly $20.3 billion last year to buy or rent movies to watch at home. DVD accounted for 57 percent of that total or $11.6 billion, compared with $9.3 billion in theatrical ticket sales, according to various financial analyses. Money also means power, and DVD has become a major creative force in Hollywood, changing how movies are made by giving filmmakers a new and vast canvas on which to work.”

It’s been a great year for women in Hollywood. “Not just the sheer number of good women’s roles, but their breadth and range in terms of age and ethnicity, made this a watershed year. A genuine one, not the phoney annus mirabilis of a decade ago when a defensive Hollywood gave itself undeserved brownie points by declaring 1992 ‘The Year of the Woman’ – an especially hollow gesture in a mediocre year in which the best woman’s role went to a man: Jaye Davidson in The Crying Game.”

Can the “reality TV” sensation survive? “Simple economics dictates the phenomenon will run its course. TV executives, apparently forgetting the law of supply and demand (not to mention the flameout of ‘Who Wants to Be a Millionaire’), have scheduled a record 42 new ‘unscripted dramas’ to bow before September. Nor can they afford to feed the phenomenon long-term: Studios make their real money in syndication fees, and no one wants to watch reality reruns.”

New screenplay-writing software is so sophisticated, you just plug in a few sentences and the computer does the rest. “I mean, how hard can it be when the very first ‘story box’ in the program, which asks what your movie is about, offers this reassurance: ‘If you do not yet know what your story is about, leave this question blank and return to it later’?”

The Academy Awards are serious business in Hollywood, but producers are well aware that the minds of their audience may be elsewhere if the Oscars are held in the midst of an invasion of Iraq. The show will go on, regardless of the political situation, but new rules are being imposed, and organizers say they will be strictly enforced. Rule #1: No one wants to hear actors in ball gowns spouting their political opinions. Rule #2: No paper lists of people to thank. Rule #3: For that matter, thank more than five people, and the orchestra will play you mercilessly offstage.

HBO has suspended production of its global hit The Sopranos as a result of a bitter legal fight between the network and the show’s lead actor, James Gandolfini. The conflict began when Gandolfini claimed that HBO had missed a contract deadline, and thereby voided his agreement. HBO has countersued in an effort to force Gandolfini to work. Conventional wisdom holds that Gandolfini doesn’t actually want to leave the hit show – he’s simply angling for a sizable raise.

Seattle PBS station KCTS has limped along for years and has a small local presence. It’s also having big money problems. The station is behind on its rent, has been contacting funders to try to cut deals for grants, and has been losing staff. A consultant recommended the station’s president step down, but he hasn’t. “The important thing is that the overall state of the station is in decline, and these are just symptoms.”