Strike Ends!
The future of movies and television seems a bit more secure this week. Last Sunday, negotiators from the actors’ unions and the advertising industry reached a tentative agreement, ending the longest strike in the history of the entertainment industry.
The settlement is set to be approved by the joint board of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and, if all goes as planned, actors could be back at work as soon as Monday.
According to Movieweb.com, the deal was finally secured once the advertising industry agreed to give unions control over Internet commercials.
Bizkits are Baking
In the past, they might have done it all for the nookie. But this week, rock-rap act Limp Bizkit has done it all for the fans.
A little over a million of them turned out last week to purchase Limp’s oddly titled latest effort, Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water. These sales put the group among only five other artists to have ever sold a million-plus albums during the first week of release.
According to E! Online, Limp Bizkit joins ‘N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Garth Brooks, and Eminem as the elite first-week platinum artists. The band sold nearly six times as many units as the second-place artist on the pop album charts, Ja Rule.
And with all this revenue, I’m sure Limp frontman Fred Durst and the rest of the boys will have no problem getting nookie.
Back in the ‘High’ Life
If you were a fan of the former Fox reality series American High, you’re in luck.
And for the majority of you who have never even heard of it, take note: PBS has decided to revive the cancelled show and plans to broadcast two new episodes each week beginning in April. The documentary tracks the day-to-day lives of 14 students at a suburban Chicago high school. The cast includes, among others, someone from a broken home, a sensitive jock, and his gay best friend. It’s more or less a real Real World.
Yet despite intense critical praise for American High, it was pitted against CBS’ popular summer series Big Brother and thus audiences never really tuned in. Fox dropped the program from its lineup last July after just two weeks of extremely poor ratings.
And if High’s second breath proves more sustaining, PBS may even order original episodes of the show for the 2002 season.
Does TV Taint Us?
When it comes to television, social scientists really can’t agree on much. Many have adamantly claimed that viewing television violence leads to real-world aggression. Others have disagreed.
But this week, the ball seems to be in the latter group’s court. A Canadian survey which attempted to examine every English-language media violence study ever done has concluded that TV does not contribute to violence.
Here’s to controversy.
E-News Briefs
NBC has axed the family comedy Tucker, making it this season’s first cancellation … Eminem’s estranged wife, Kim Mathers, has pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct charge … Former Good Morning America host Joan Lunden claims that ABC executives forced her off the show when its ratings began to fall in 1997.
Quote of the Week
“I finally had to go to the producers and say, ‘Look, I’m here to do a job, not be naked the entire time’.”
–Tiffani Thiessen in Movieline, discussing her attempt to overcome the sexual image of her character on Beverly Hills, 90210.
Archived article by David Kaplan