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In Monday’s episode of As the Strike Turns, soap opera stars joined WGA members on the picket lines.
Meanwhile, the producers main trade group railed against the economic impact of the writers strike action, which entered its seventh week.
“The below-the-line workers whose families depend entirely on our industry have already lost more than $200 million in the Los Angeles area alone, and the health-care benefits for many of these families are now in real jeopardy because of the WGA strike,” the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers said in a statement posted on the organization’s Web site.
More than just a name for a one-day marketing event, the “Simpson-izing of Manhattan” is apt shorthand for Gotham’s newly enlarged role in the movie landscape.Today’s Simpsonfest is an all-day Fox affair in the heart of the city marking the hit toon’s DVD release. Anyone in Midtown will find it difficult to miss the yellow-jacketed street teams, the “Simpsons on Ice” show at Bryant Park, the giant inflatable Homers and the Empire State Building lit up yellow in the landmark’s first-ever movie tie-in.
The stunt comes on the heels of the weekend’s $77.2 million B.O. launch of “I Am Legend,” which starred Gotham onscreen and off. It caps 2007 as a year when New York — as location, as marketing canvas and as creative wellspring — reached boom levels arguably not seen since at least the 1980s heyday of “Ghostbusters,” Gordon Gekko and Spike Lee.
Did anyone catch last week’s episode of 30 Rock? It’ll be the last original episode in a long time because of the strike. Just a quick mention though - aside from the show’s reliable laughs, I’m still amazed at how seamless Tina Fey and the writers incorporate product placement on the show. Take last week’s holiday episode for example when Alec Baldwin’s Jack is compared to an Arrow shirt model. In any event, Merry Ludachristmas.
Raising the question of who blinked first, the New York Times reported today (Monday) that David Letterman is working out a deal with the Writers Guild of America that would allow him to return to the air on CBS in early January with his usual writing staff even if the strike continues. Executives of Worldwide Pants, Letterman’s production company, told the newspaper that they were hopeful the deal with the writers could be concluded this week. “That could potentially put Mr. Letterman at an enormous advantage over most of his late-night colleagues” the Times observed. The newspaper noted that Letterman is in a stronger position to hash out a deal with the writers because, unlike many other late-night shows, he owns the production company responsible for it, not the network. However, the Times article did not indicate whether Letterman’s company and the WGA had come to an agreement on residuals for new media, the principal issue involved in the current labor dispute. Complicating matters is the fact that while Worldwide Pants produces the program, CBS nevertheless distributes it and presumably would be responsible for paying writers residuals for online use of their material on CBS.com and/or other Internet sites. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported today that NBC is expected to announce that it will return its late-night shows to the air as early as January 2 — without writers.
LOS ANGELES (Dec. 18) - Jimmy Kimmel will join NBC’s late-night hosts in returning with new shows Jan. 2 in the midst of the Hollywood writers strike, ABC said Tuesday.
Kimmel, along with Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and other hosts, had honored the strike that began Nov. 5. He said it was a difficult decision to resume work without writers, but he wants to save the jobs of other staffers on the show.
He also voiced support for colleagues and friends in the Writers Guild of America and added that he hopes the contract dispute with producers ends fairly and soon.
Belfast, Northern Ireland-based producer Jo Gilbert has secured £20 million ($40 million) from property developer Robert Whitton to launch a film and TV production outfit.Real Holywood Prods. (named after Belfast’s Holywood suburb) will be chaired by Richard Attenborough. Gilbert produced Attenborough’s latest movie, “Closing the Ring,” a romantic drama that opens Dec. 28 in the U.K.
NEW YORK: Advertising about advertising has long been a popular ploy on Madison Avenue. So, too, has the idea of ads that parody other ads. Now, with the increasing interest among marketers in embedding brands in entertainment programming, a viral campaign is arriving that spoofs the concept - while at the same time, of course, playing up the product.
The U.S. consumer products division of L’Oréal is starting an online campaign - viral, because consumers are meant to pass it along - that sends up the concept of sponsors insinuating products into television shows, movies and video games.
The humorous campaign includes a Web site, video clips and a blog. They were developed by the L’Oréal division’s digital agency, Avenue A/Razorfish, part of Microsoft, and Kirt Gunn, an agency in New York that specializes in interactive advertising.
THE REINVENTION OF ADVERTISING FORM and value–media’s most formidable and exhilarating sea change–will intensify in 2008 as an unintended consequence of the writers’ strike. The Internet has been the catalyst for advertising’s seminal moment–making it active and transactional. The lingering strike has stripped TV’s vulnerable ad-supported framework of any semblance of normality: the fall prime-time season and its attendant upfront. The combination of the two is lethal. The two-month walkout, with no sign of resolution, could be a disruptive force at the worst possible time for conventional television. The inability to deliver the new scripted series sold in the upfront is forcing all networks to compensate advertisers with cash (a virtually unheard-of practice), since their commercial inventory is tight. Even if the writers’ strike was settled tomorrow, it would take months to ramp up original programming worthy of premium ad pricing, and hopefully attract a declining viewer base.
Raising the question of who blinked first, the New York Times reported today (Monday) that