Emily Carlson's Industry Site

Get ready for a media blitz tomorrow. With Super Tuesday merely hours away, every television station in the country is getting ready for a full on press of political coverage. Forget about the half hour nightly national news. On ABC, Charles Gibson will anchor a whopping 5 hours of political coverage with Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos. Katie Couric and CBS will be on the air 2 hours, and Brian Williams will anchor an expanded version of his "Nightly News," plus a one hour update, prime time, with some of the results. Over on cable, it's an all day affair, with stations like CNN starting their coverage at 5 am and going until the wee hours of Wednesday morning. It's a far cry from Super Tuesday 4 years ago, when networks limited their coverage to quick cut-in updates. The Super Tuesday of 2004 and the Super Tuesday of 2008 couldn't be more different. In 2004, President Bush was running for re-election on the Republican side, and John Kerry was the expected shoe-in winner, crossing the finish line with 9 of the 10 Super Tuesday states. 2008 brings one of the most indecisive races ever. McCain and Romney are duking it out for the Republican nomination, while Clinton and Obama are virtually tied for the Democratic nomination. This year, one of the two will make history, becoming either the first woman or the first black presidental nominee. The tight races and historical implications has voters rushing to the polls in record numbers. In 2004, just 9 percent of South Carolina Democrats voted in their primary. A week and a half ago, 29 percent of those South Carolina Democrats voted. The way things are going, Super Tuesday could look very simmilar. Not only will more voters vote, more states are holding their primaries on Super Tuesday. In 2004, only 10 states held primaries. This year, a record 24 states will send voters to the polls. Viewers care, and the tv networks are happy to carry more coverage. The icing on the cake, however, could be the writers strike. With no new episodes of network shows to air, prime time television is open for more Super Tuesday coverage. Every where you turn on Super Tuesday, your television will be inundated with political coverage. People are excited. The country, it sems, is eager for change. It will be a much different Super Tuesday than 4 years ago.

It was a cordial, friendly, even touchy-feely debate. Gone were the raised voices and personal attacks of past meetings; last night at Kodak Theatre, Sen. Barak Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton set a new, warmer debate atmosphere. It's the first head to head debate since John Edwards announced his withdrawl from the presidental race. And that meant the pressure was on last night, as both Obama and Clinton jockeyed to win over former Edwards supporters and undecided voters. But why this new civil approach? Why do Clinton and Obama seem to suddenly be pals? One theory is an Obama-Clinton, or Clinton-Obama ticket. Both dodged the question last night, saying there was a big difference between those two choices. The other anwser to the question of why the two put forth this new cordial atmosphere could be that neither canidate seems to be feeling the pressure of losing everything on Super Tuesday. It could be so tight next week that the fate of who the next Democatic Presidental candiate could stretch all the way to the National Convention in August. Neither took crazy shots at each other, which has political analysts guessing that neither thinks they are behind. And according to MSNBC,Obama has already bought television slots well beyond Super Tuesday, suggesting he's not giving up after Febuary 5th. While Obama raised an unbeliable $32 million last month, he goes into Super Tuesday the underdog. The Wall Street Journal says Obama trails Clinton by large margins in polls in most of the big states. But as history shows, no amount of polls can predict what voters will do once they enter the voting booth. And both canidates seem very unlikely to give up the fight anytime soon.

From Melodika.com: By the time you read this, the last Grey's Anatomy episode will have aired (well, the last one they have a script for anyway) and you'll probably be in dire need of some Grey's Anatomy quotes to get you through the drought. Who would have thought the 2007/2008 writers' strike would have had such dire consequences for us Grey's fans? Alas, while I can't provide you with a new Grey's Anatomy episode, I can recap some of your favorites with these 10 Grey's Anatomy quotes. 1. "We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?" ~ Meredith 2. "I live with these women and every time you guys don't meet their expectations I have to hear about it. So it is my business." ~ George 3. Boundaries don't keep other people out. They fence you in. Life is messy. That's how we're made. So, you can waste your lives drawing lines. Or you can live your life crossing them. ~ Meredith 4. "I know you all have your messy love lives and your secrets and your silliness, but I want more. I need something to hold on to. I need a reason to believe that medicine can do more than stitch you up and send you away. I need to believe that medicine can not only save lives, but change lives! I need... I need... to believe in something the way I used to believe in you all. Sign the papers! Sign the papers." ~ Dr. Bailey 5. "Why don't you pick a floor and stay on it and I'll pick a floor and stay on that because I really need a moment or two without you. Your face pops up in my head and your panties show up in my husband's pocket, really, you're everywhere, and I need a moment or two without you." ~ Addison 6. "I dunno... it's just... Meredith always makes me think screwed up people have a chance." ~ Alex 7. "Dr. Bailey. You need those clowns to sign off on your proposal because one of them may be Chief of Surgery in a month. It's hard to imagine, for me more than anyone, but since you're not ready for the job, one of them has got to do it for the next few years." ~ Richard 8. "Four years of high school, four years of college, four years of med school. By the time we graduate we're in our late 20s and we've never done anything except go to school and think about science. Time stops. We're socially retarded." ~ Callie 9. "Could you stop looking at me like that? It's creepy and it makes me feel like you haven't been fed." ~ Cristina 10. "I'm both. I'm a surgeon and I am a person who becomes emotionally involved. I will never again cross the line like I did with Denny. I have learned my lesson. But I'm still both, and I'm not going to give up either part of me. And I am not going to apologize for it." ~ Izzie So here's to hoping the writers' strike is over soon. Don't get me wrong -- I support those writers and all the hard work they do. I just know that there are great Grey's Anatomy quotes waiting to be written, and I'm not exactly the patient type.

By Sarah Roberts GateHouse News Service Thursday, "Lost" makes its highly anticipated return to ABC. The show will enter its fourth season with a two-hour premiere starting at 7 p.m. on Jan. 31. 'Lost,' moving from Wednesdays to Thursdays, will air at its regular 8 p.m. slot starting Feb. 7. Not only will hard-core Losties get to spend hours trying to decipher all-new clues, but the series will be a bright spot for TV viewers looking for a reprieve from the slew of shows ('Crowned' or 'The Moment of Truth,' anyone?) that have been dumped on air as a result of the ongoing writers strike. 'Lost' will be in a unique position as the only big-name scripted show on network TV with new episodes, eight so far. in the can. Producers of the Emmy and Golden Globe winning series confirmed last year that 'Lost' will wrap up in May 2010. More good news for fans: The backlash that ensued when producers put out six episodes in fall 2006 then waited three months before airing another new one convinced them to never try that again. So, for each of the next three scheduled seasons, 'Lost' will run for 16 straight episodes, meaning a new show every week from January or February through May. We understand that watching 'Lost' can be very a serious, often frustrating business. But as you prepare to go back to the island, why not have some fun? The multitude of hidden clues, catchphrases, nicknames and fake products scattered throughout the show makes perfect fodder for a viewing party. The following tips come courtesy of Stacy Conradt of Des Moines, Iowa, who maintains a regular blog about life and pop culture. Conradt and her husband tuned in to 'Lost' toward the end of the first season and became 'rabid fans pretty much immediately,' she said. Now Conradt meets up with five friends to watch the show each week. The group rotates houses to share food and their ideas on what the heck is going on in the series. Like many 'Lost' fans, Conradt enjoys catching minuscule details during repeated episode viewings and trying to figure out how they fit or don’t fit into the larger plot. 'It’s kind of mind-boggling to know how much planning and thought would have to go into the plot beforehand to make all of those little details possible,' Conradt said in an e-mail to the Register Star. Conradt has been trying to plan a party night, with 'Lost' themed food and decor, for the season debut. She’s grouped party suggestions from the obvious to the obscure. If you’re a casual 'Lost' viewer who winds up at one of these gatherings, don’t worry if some references go over your head. The Others in your viewing party can explain it all. Obvious ideas: Serve airplane-size bottles of liquor and mini packets of peanuts. Label your condiments and boxes with Dharma logos. You can get the Dharma and other 'Lost' related fonts at dafont.com/lost-font. font. Serve seafood of any kind. Jazz up some cupcakes by sticking plastic airplanes and/or trees into them. Scatter your luggage all over the living room, or wherever you are viewing the show. If you’re artistically inclined, draw a Dharma logo on some butcher paper and attach it to your door, as if your guests are entering a hatch when they’re entering your house. If you really want to get fancy or are a pro at Photoshop, you can send out invitations that look like Oceanic Air boarding passes. Subtle ideas: Make cookies shaped like fish, for Sawyer’s fish biscuits. Leave out a tray of candy bars covered in the Apollo logo. Get some fried chicken and slap 'Mr. Cluck’s Fried Chicken' labels on the buckets. Make your own 'Lost' soundtrack. You could give out a prize for the first person to correctly identify when or where the song was used in the show. Some essential songs include 'Make Your Own Kind of Music' by Mama Cass, 'Downtown' by Petula Clark, 'Wonderwall' by Oasis and 'Good Vibrations' by The Beach Boys. Check out lostpedia.com/wiki/Music for more songs that have been featured in the show. Obscure ideas: Arrange orange slices on a plate. You could add some pineapple and coconut to balance it out. (The orange slices are the obscure part.) Mark your wine with a Moriah Vineyards label. Label a bottle of whiskey as 'MacCutcheon.' You could substitute apple juice for the booze if you don’t feel like tying one on.

By KEVIN WILLIAMSON, The Winnipeg Sun PARK CITY, Utah -- Sandra Oh is playing down hopes that Grey's Anatomy's season can be salvaged. This week, the Director's Guild of America made a peace pact with Hollywood's studios, leading many to speculate it could spark a resolution to the three-month-old writers strike that has crippled the television season. But the Canadian actress, at Sundance this year as a festival juror, is more cautious than optimistic. "The longer we're out, the less chance we have of completing the season," she tells Sun Media. "I don't know the (DGA) deal. I don't necessarily think the DGA and the WGA have the same needs ... But everyone wants to go back to work. I was out on the line the other day and the writers are really, really suffering." And even if Hollywood's scribes resolve their walkout, that doesn't mean the industry's actors won't still strike over the same issues when their contract expires in June. "The DGA membership is less than 5,000. There are over 150,000 Screen Actors Guild members," Oh says. "Their needs cannot be the same, especially on new media. Actors live on residuals." So while Oh and everyone else in La-La Land waits for an end to the labour strife, she's just thrilled to focus on seeing -- and supporting -- Sundance's latest crop of independent fare. "Why not champion films that don't have a giant budget? Do we need to support the next M:I 6? I'm not here for that."

From film.com Grey's Anatomy originally followed Desperate Housewives on Sunday nights, and is experiencing a similar life cycle. Both shows were popular and critical hits out of the box (though critics have always been a little more divided on Grey's). But even as the ratings for Desperate Housewives remained solid, the kudos for the show waned dramatically in its second season, as complaints mounted about superfluous new characters and ridiculous behavior from the old ones. Grey's Anatomy began to experience this backlash last season. The show survived its move to Thursdays; even with the weaker lead-in of Ugly Betty and the tougher competition from CSI, ratings remained as good as ever. But many of its most ardent fans spent the season in a state of panic over what they were seeing on the screen. The show's namesake character Meredith Grey pushed every last nerve with her interminable off-again on-again romance with Derek Shepherd aka McDreamy, to the point where many were hoping the episode where she hovered between life and death would end with the latter winning out. The decision to pair off George and Izzie was greeted with general disbelief, partially due to the sense that Grey's was overdosing on workplace hookups, and partially due to their manifest lack of any chemistry. The show was never a big one to showcase the everyday working lives of doctors, and became less so as it began to rely on late-period ER stunts like the big ferry accident. And Grey's, like Desperate Housewives before it, started to show up in entertainment press controversies, the biggest one involving the fight between Isaiah Washington and Patrick Dempsey. So as Grey's airs its final new episode of the season, we can judge whether or not it has made any sort of creative comeback in its fourth season. The evidence is incomplete. Some of the less successful elements of Season Three have been pared back; while they're going about ending it very slowly, they seem to have decided to stop torturing us, and Katherine Heigl and T. R. Knight, with the George and Izzie business. At least one of the new characters--there's always at least one new character on Grey's--looks to be a strong addition. But it does seem as if the show still loses sight of its core relationships on occasion, at the expense of moving the doctors into new pairings like a game of medical musical chairs. Last season ended with Washington's Preston Burke character leaving Cristina at the altar on their wedding day, a prelude to Washington departing the show entirely (he was last seen going down with the Bionic Woman ship). Washington probably couldn't have stayed after the controversy over his fight and homophobic remarks directed at Knight, but he was a weighty presence on an often frothy show, and losing an original character was a blow. The departure of Burke has given Cristina less to do this year, a problem since Sandra Oh is one of the better actors in the cast. Grey's also lost Kate Walsh after last season when she moved on to Private Practice, which draws decent ratings but has yet to impress anyone as something other than the junior varsity Grey's. Replacing Walsh, less in position at the hospital than in the role of "authoritative-appearing 40-ish woman," was Brooke Smith as cardiothoracic surgeon Erica Hahn. Smith has rare talent for network television and unprecedented talent for this show, so landing her as a regular was a coup. The key now will be to keep her acting like a serious doctor and not as someone using the hospital as a dating service, which is always a struggle on Grey's. Hahn is the sort of type A personality who tends to get far in that field in real life, and so far she has been an interesting contrast with the others. The other new regular this season, Meredith's half-sister Lexie (Chyler Leigh), hasn't been as terrible as feared (what people were fearing was another Meredith). But Grey's is about where ER was at during its first years of development, where original cast members were beginning to get restless and new people were shuffled in and out without any attempt to stop and think how to use them. The latest example is Rose (Lauren Stamile), the new love interest for McDreamy. The character seems to be here because Grey's doesn't want to pair up Meredith and Derek for good--no more tension, no show, or so the theory goes. But the new characters are stepping on the toes of older characters people have invested in. More of a focus on the actual work of doctors is always a good thing on Grey's--the two-parter that represented the two most recent episodes was a good example. The next move, once people are writing for the show again, will be to flesh out some of the thinner new characters (if they stick around), and give some of the older ones like Cristina something to do. And if Katherine Heigl takes off for a movie career as now seems increasingly likely, don't panic. Trust me, she and Izzie are expendable.

By RICHARD CORLISS It's not an awards show with the vibe of an all-star party; it's a party masquerading as an awards show. That's the Golden Globes when it's in full, fulsome flower. For one night, the TV viewer gets up-front gawking privileges, a chance to see George and Johnny and Julia and Jodie act, not like actors, but like movie stars — looking great, cracking wise, radiating celestial glamour. That's why the Golden Globes is the third-highest rated of these annual bashes, after the Oscars and the Grammys. The point was proved last night when, because of the actors' union's support of the writer's guild strike, the Globes show limped onto the small screen as a brief "news conference" covered by four networks instead of the usual three-hour bash on NBC. The Beverly Hilton Hotel was a mausoleum, no sexier than a high-school auditorium stage; and the reading of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's awards had about as much zazz as the principal's speech on fire safety. The import of the awards was also reduced. Typically they are seen as leading indicators for the Oscars. This time, who knows? Will Atonement, deemed Best Drama, and Sweeney Todd, the Best Comedy or Musical (we say Musical), even be nominated by the Motion Picture Academy? And if Hollywood grandees don't ornament their big dinner, isn't the HFPA revealed as, let us say, one of the lesser critics' groups? Without the star-stacked, televised party, they're just 82 schlubs with funny accents. For the record, the main winners in the dramatic acting categories were Daniel Day-Lewis (in There Will Be Blood) and Julie Christie (Away from Her). Johnny Deep (Sweeney Todd) and Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) won for comedy or musical. The Supporting prizes went to Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men) and Cate Blanchett (I'm Not Here). For you xenophobes keeping score, yes, that's five foreign winners — two Anglos, a Frenchwoman, a Spaniard and an Aussie — and an American who lives in France. All these winners are shoo-ins for Oscar nominations. So is Juno, the indie comedy that has that Little Miss Sunshine sheen and has already topped Sunshine's total box-office gross. The foreign-language film award went to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, made in France by New Yorker Julian Schnabel, and Ratatouille, set in France but made by Pixar, was the animation winner. Schnabel was named Best Director, and Joel and Ethan Coen got the Screenplay nod for No Country for Old Men. Somehow, NBC —whose president Jeff Zucker has been a belligerent voice against the striking writers — didn't find time in its vacuous hour-long show to mention the writing award. In other years I've parsed the portents of the Globe awards, and applauded or derided the winners' speeches. This time there was no star wattage; the announcers on the channels I watched all sank into a sea of blandness and blondness. As for hints of Oscar triumphs and upsets... honestly, does it matter? It's my job to care, and I don't. Movie audiences may feel similarly indifferent toward Feb. 24 Oscar show — and not just because, if the strike lasts, it too will be hobbled. Deprived of their usual chance to suck on the helium of the Globes' star quality, filmgoers may be less eager to catch up with the Oscar nominees when they're announced Jan. 22. Last night's starless show underlines how much the awards hoopla, and the Globes as a free, high-rated showcase, mean to the "little" films that get nominations. The HFPA may have lots of stars, and several blockbusters, among their finalists; but like every critics' group it wants to remember the neediest, to reward the little movies that could. Producers of indie films often factor the "Globes bump" into their production and marketing budgets. Exposure on the Globes program puts their product in front of millions of new eyes and can mean millions at the box office. But what happens when the worthy film that people haven't seen depends for its promotional push on an awards show that people didn't watch? Multiply this negative number by the missed opportunities for stars' late-night flackery on Leno, Kimmel and The Daily Show — all being boycotted by the actors' union — and the result may be a big, mass-audience yawn that will hurt the indie films' chance to make a few bucks. The HFPA has taken heat for being a club of undistinguished foreign newsmen, desperately avid for access to the stars. Show business reporters for some top newspapers (The Times of London and Le Monde, for example) are not among its members (though others, including The Daily Telegraph and Rome's La Reppublica, are.) But the important point isn't the pedigree of the journal; it's the job of the journalist. And the job of most HFPA members is to cover the entertainment industry, not to write film reviews. They should be voting on Most Cooperative Actor, Least Obstructive Publicist, Best Free Hors d'Oeuvres (Premiere or Junket). Actually, the parasitic relationship of the HFPA to the movie industry is part of its raffish charm. The group was founded in 1945, the same year as the United Nations, and in the spirit of postwar amity its first awards list included a citation for Best Film for Promoting International Good Will. But the Association soon found a way to distinguish itself from the Oscars: by giving prizes for people who don't win Oscars. In 1950 it instituted a Most Promising Newcomer award. (What the young actors had to promise the members remained vague.) This was the category that, 22 years later, brought scandal on the HFPA when shady businessman Meshulam Riklis invited the gang to Las Vegas to meet his young wife, Pia Zadora, then gracing a turkey called Butterfly (Diving Bell not included), and, presto, she won the prize. Through the 50s, the HFPA found inventively silly ways to honor celebrities who might never grace an Academy Award stage. Guy Madison was named Best Western Star (for acting in horse operas, not visiting the hotel chain). A category called World Film Favorite could be roughly translated as: a famous person who'll come to our party. Early winners here included Marilyn Monroe, Kim Novak and swimming star Esther Williams. In 1956 Williams received a second honored: the Hollywood Citizenship Award. (Only two of these were handed out, Ronald Reagan winning the other one.) Zsa Zsa Gabor was named Most Glamorous Actress in 1958, the year she starred in the no-budget sci-fi farce Queen of Outer Space. Considering that Zsa Zsa was mainly famous for her many marriages (now 90, she's been wed nine times), the citation was really kind of a Wife Achievement Award. Some of the HFPA's goofier inspirations have stuck, like the Miss Golden Globe designation, begun in 1963 in homage to the sweet young thing of the moment. The honoree usually comes from Hollywood royalty (Tippi Hedren's daughter Melanie was Miss G.G. in 1975, and 31 years later the slot went to Griffith's daughter Dakota Johnson). It's one more way of guaranteeing that one more proud parent, who just happens to be a movie star, will show up. This year, though, nobody showed. Blanchett graciously issued a thank-you statement anyway. Schnabel watched the show on an airport TV set, and told a reporter he was pleased. The rest presumably saved their acceptance speeches in hopeful anticipation of delivering them on the Oscar show — if there is one. I have to say that, for all the flak the usual Globes dinner takes, I missed the parade of the elite, the witticisms and platitudes, the stars chatting one another up, or stuck in traffic or the bathroom. I can forgive the Hollywood Foreign Press Association almost anything, so long as, next year, they lure their famous guests back to their party.

by Vanessa Juarez, Hollywood Insider Hollywood Insider spoke this morning with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation's chief economist Jack Kyser, who explained how the ongoing writers' strike, the resulting cancellation of the Golden Globes, and the prospect of a year without the Academy Awards impacts those who count on Hollywood for a paycheck. HOLLYWOOD INSIDER: What kind of an impact is the cancellation of the Golden Globes going to have on the local economy, and what will happen if the Academy Awards are canceled? JACK KYSER: What we’re looking at is an economic impact from the Golden Globes of about $70 to $80 million each time the event is held, and with the cancellation, there’s probably a lot of people looking at refund policies, because the production costs were already spent with a lot of people planning on parties. And the parties account for a big piece of the pie? Oh yeah. It’s a huge impact. We count at least five parties that have been canceled, and that comes to about $2.5 million. And the pain is being spread to a lot of unexpected sectors of the economy. For example, the banquet staff at the hotel: They won’t be working that night, won’t be earning money in tips. The people that would be working the parties, the same situation. So you’ve got that impact. Do you know which parties have been canceled? NBC-Universal, HBO, Warner Bros-In-Style, The Weinstein Company, and Fox-Searchlight. Even for the smaller parties that are going on, I would imagine stars aren’t going to be really excited about them without the big star-studded event. Oh yeah. This is not going to be something that people want to watch. As somebody said, watching a press conference is almost like watching paint dry. What about the Academy Awards? We’ve done more research on that, and that’s around $130 million, and it has unexpected impacts. For example, there’s a firm in Los Angeles called ABS by Alan Schwartz, and what he does is knock-offs of the most popular gowns on the red carpet, and so if there’s no red carpet, there’s not business for Alan Schwartz. So it’s just spreading. What's the cumulative effect of the writers' strike so far? Right now the impact of the lost wages [of WGA members and below-the-line workers], when you apply that ripple factor, it’s about $1.4 billion. Do you know what these cancellation policies are like? There must be a deposit that’s lost in the process. Yes, there is a deposit that is lost in the process. Literally, when you’re blocking out a room for a party, there’s always the setup, so you’re taking it out of circulation for at least three days so there would be a significant cancellation policy. There’s pain for a lot of people out there. This is the first strike that’s really affected the awards shows, with the exception of a strike in 1980 that affected the Emmy’s. Do you think this is going to give the public more strike fatigue, and do you think the tide is going to be turning on the WGA because of all of these lost jobs? Yeah, I think the problem for the production workers is that they have to work a certain number of hours per year to qualify for health and retirement benefits. There’s pain there, and I think you are going to start to see the WGA probably lose some sympathy. What they’re doing with this policy of not allowing what you call the industry award shows — the Golden Globes and the Academy Awards — is taking away a promotion venue for the studios. A lot of people are expecting prestige films to garner most of the nominations, and generally those [movies] don’t bring in a lot of the box office. They’re trying to hit the studios in their pocketbooks. Do any of your numbers or predictions account for advertising that would be lost in airing these shows? NBC estimates that they’re going to lose about $14 to $15 million in ad revenues. It doesn’t seem like people really thought this would go into the New Year. And that negotiations would be so bitter. By the time SAG [contract negotiations] come up, I think the hash will be settled because I think the DGA will start to negotiate [before then] and we’ll figure out if a pattern is being set. If a pattern does seem to be set [by DGA talks], then both SAG and WGA will sort of be forced to go along with it. Has this provoked any movement from Gov. Schwarzenegger? No, the governor has his hands full up in Sacramento. He did this State of the State and [he’s] looking at a $14 billion-plus state budget deficit, so he has other things to look at. Some people have asked about [Los Angeles] Mayor Villaraigosa, and here again, not much movement. Do you think this is going to have any affect on the presidential candidates? No. If they come to Los Angeles they may talk about it, but remember, this industry is very Los Angeles-centric, so if you’re trying to carry California, you wouldn’t focus on this.

Interesting. I thought the actors are supposed to back their writers 100%? I think maybe Ms. Heigl may be a little selfish, although I want the writers to break strike too, I love watching the Golden Globes! KATHERINE HEIGL is begging the Writer's Guild Of America to break its strike for the Golden Globe Awards on Sunday. Heigl is nominated in the Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role In A Series, Mini-Series Or Motion Picture Made For Television category for her role in Grey's Anatomy. Stars are currently planning to boycott the glitzy event in support for striking writers, who are seeking a better pay deal from studios. But Heigl is desperate to take to the red carpet - and would be devastated to win a prize and not be there to pick it up. She says, "My union has asked me not to cross the picket line and I feel I need to honor that. I don't want to not go. I really want to go. "It's an awesome night and it's really fun and the air of celebration and getting to honor and support people's work that you admire and being in the same room with people that you love is hard to pass up, so I'm really hopeful we get a waiver. "I don't see any reason to hold the Golden Globes hostage for the sake of the writers because I think one has very little to do with the other. I understand the writers not writing for movies or television right now but an awards ceremony that only airs one night... "But maybe the studios and networks do stand to make a lot of money off of that (night).

Vince Horiuchi
The Salt Lake Tribune

1. Planet Earth - No documentary in recent memory has captured the pristine delicacies of Mother Nature's wonderments like this 10-part experience from the BBC and Discovery Channel.
Each focusing on a different region of the Earth - from the rugged mountains to the cold, stark depths of the world's oceans - this visually stunning travelogue took us there and introduced us to the amazing creatures that dwell there.
No television program this year better captured our imaginations thanks to more than 40 filmmakers who spent five years shooting the documentary. Sometimes that meant sitting in the same spot for months, waiting to get the right shot of, say, a great white snatching up a seal in its jaws or of mountain sheep ramming each other to claim their territory.
It's a monument to patience and a keen eye and certainly the greatest television discovery this year. And because it was built from the ground up for high-definition television, it's the best excuse to get an HDTV this year.

2. Mad Men - American Movie Classics wanted to created an original series for TV and hit the ground running with this engrossing, funny and critical look at the gender gap, sexual harassment and excess in the 1960s among Madison Avenue advertising executives.

3. Big Love - HBO's profile of a polygamous Utah family only got better in the second season with searing and heartfelt episodes about sexual values in the church and about a rival polygamous family competing with the Henricksons.

4. Entourage - This half-hour look at Hollywood's celebrity trappings through the eyes of a movie superstar has been on one of the most incredible runs in television. This last season was another gem, this time about the making of a pet film project that turns to disaster.

5. The Office - This irreverant yet wholly identifiable sitcom gets the award for one of the most consistently laugh-out-loud comedies for the past four years. Some of this year's episodes, like the one about the "Race for the Cure" for both rabies and Meredith's bad leg, were priceless.

6. Heroes - This pick really refers to the brilliant second half of the first season (which aired the first half of this year), which came to an explosive, edge-of-your-seat conclusion involving our heroes' fight with the evil Sylar. The series has somewhat faltered the beginning of the second season (but not by much), yet there's hope it will continue next year with a more exciting story arc.

7. Curb Your Enthusiasm - After a two-year break, Larry David returned with new episodes that were his funniest and most wicked in three seasons. In a bizarre twist, the story arc involved separating from his wife amid a divorce from real-life wife Laurie David.

8. Friday Night Lights - This wonderfully told drama about high-school football in a small Texas town is here for the same reason as "Heroes": an emotionally riveting first-season second half that nailed the struggles and dreams of rural America like no other series. The second season has included some missteps, including an unnecessary murder subplot, but still told its story with sincerity and style.

9. The Sopranos - I liked the ending to one of the most praised dramas on television. I liked its ambiguity, its mystery and certainly the controversy that surrounded it after it aired. But the whole season leading up to it - particularly the second half - was pure "Sopranos" mastery.

10. Flight of the Conchords - Think of a mellower, more wry version of Tenacious D, and you get a sense of how this offbeat comedy is as it follows the trials of two New Zealanders and their musical exploits in New York City. Hilarious, dry, with spot-on laughs.

Plastic surgery is very big among Hollywood stars today, and even television star Dylan Walsh, who plays a cosmetic surgeon on FX's Nip/Tuck, admits to feeling the pressure to go under the knife.

“It is nothing to be embarrassed about,” Walsh said in an interview with Hollywood.com. “You feel the pressures of looking good because that is the business. Let's face it, it is not radio.”

Walsh also pointed out that looking good has always been a priority in the entertainment industry, saying that even when he was just starting out, actors were already obsessed with maintaining an image, the only difference being that back then, all they had were trips to the gym.

“Now," he said, “…you have this option to get plastic surgery, [so] it is no surprise that a lot of people are going to it.”

Dylan Walsh admitted, however, that while he understands his fellow actors' want for plastic surgery, he sees “more and more bad work done.”

“It is not always going over very well,” he said. “In fact most of the time I think it doesn't go over very well. I think most people's reaction when they see someone who has had some work done, most of the time it is a negative reaction even if the work is pretty good. It is the change--and there is something that is usually negative.”

On Nip/Tuck, Dylan Walsh's character, Sean McNamara, and his partner, Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) accommodate clients from all walks of life, all of whom have different motivations for getting plastic surgery.

“What the show has always been about is 'What are the parameters?'” Walsh told Hollywood.com. “It is not a science like normal medicine where somebody is sick and you have to help them. This is something where it is trickier to define what is right and wrong. That is what the show has always tried to look into…”

Nip/Tuck airs Tuesday nights at 10pm on FX.

I agree with the author. Lost and the Office are the two best shows on tv (and Grey's Anatomy) and they both got the huge snbu by the Golden Globes. What is up?

by Kristin Dos Santos

Either I didn't slam enough espresso this morning for my very early morning call and was nodding off while the Golden Globe nominations were announced, or the following should-be shoo-ins were completely left out of the running this year:

• Lost
• Heroes
• Ugly Betty
• Desperate Housewives
• And even...the freaking Office!

Say it with me now: Whaaaaat?!

And what's more, save for acting nods to America Ferrera and Steve Carell, all the actors and actresses from these shows were completely shut out, too. (Get all the deets and the full list of noms in our news stories.)

So, if all of these fan-favorite heavyweights were left out in the cold, who actually managed to make it in?

Turns out, the normally mainstream-minded Hollywood Foreign Press decided to shift its attention to cable this time around, giving multiple nods to such stellar shows as Showtime's The Tudors, FX's Damages, AMC's Mad Men, Showtime's Californication and HBO's Extras.

If you ask me, this surprising cable sweep offers up a pretty poignant commentary on the current state of television and, specifically, the quality (or lack thereof) of freshman network series.

See, Globes voters are notorious for being all about hot new shows—preferably big-buzz and big-audience (read: network) new shows. But this season, the only network newbies voters deemed worthy of attention were Pushing Daisies (God bless that genius show and its three nods for Best Comedy Series and Best Actor and Actress Lee Pace and Anna Friel), Christina Applegate (Samantha Who?) and Donald Sutherland (Dirty Sexy Money).

Save for a possible nod for something or someone related to Private Practice (and really...meh), there simply aren't any first-season comedies or dramas that jump to mind as having been royally snubbed. Yes, I love Gossip Girl and Chuck as much as the next guy, but they just aren't the type of shows that normally get taken seriously by awards voters.

Perhaps it's time for the networks to up their A game and get more competitive with cable. And maybe give show runners and writers more creative control, like they have over on the now-lauded cable nets, who appear to be kicking their keisters.

Just a thought.

Indian filmmaker Mira Nair’s film The Namesake has earned a place in the National Board of Review (NBR) awards’ list of best indie films of the year.

The film, based on Pulitzer Prize winning author Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel of the same name, was among the four Fox Searchlight Pictures films that made it to NBR’s indie list.

The other three were Tamara Jenkins’ The Savages, John Carney’s Once and Adrienne Shelly’s Waitress.

Grim crime thriller No Country for Old Men, from brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, was named best film of 2007.

"We screened 328 films, and the diversity of these narratives is reflected in our 2007 ten best films. No Country for Old Men is a "brilliant convergence of extraordinary directing, a masterful screenplay and incredible ensemble performances,” Variety quoted NBR President Annie Schulhof, as saying.

George Clooney won best actor for his role as a conflicted attorney in Michael Clayton and Julie Christie earned the best actress honour playing an Alzheimer's disease sufferer who puts herself into a nursing facility in Away From Her.


The best director prize went to filmmaker Tim Burton for his dark retelling of Sweeney Todd starring Johnny Depp.

Oscar-winning actor-producer Michael Douglas was honoured with the career achievement award.

The NBR's list of top 10 films includes Assassination of Jesse James, Atonement, Sean Penn's Into the Wild and The Kite Runner, as well as action film The Bourne Ultimatum.

Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly won the best foreign film award. Body of War won best documentary and Ratatouille was named best-animated feature.

Awards will be handed at a gala dinner at Cipriani in Gotham on Jan. 15.

Meet Meredith Grey. She's a woman trying to lead a real life while doing a job that makes having a real life impossible. Meredith is on the job at Seattle Grace as a first year intern with at least 20 others. Each year the interns are split into groups are assigned to residents which often results in them getting to have a support system or just a possible chance to get to know the competition. Meredith has been assigned to senior resident Miranda Bailey, infamously known as "The Nazi" for her work ethic and her attitude. Bailey gets things done and she doesn't take any bull. In Meredith's group are 4 other first-year interns: Cristina Yang, Isobel "Izzie" Stevens, George O'Malley and Alex Karev. Yesterday they were students but today they are doctors at Seattle Grace Hospital. They are participating in the toughest surgical residency program west of Harvard. But their new jobs aren't the only things they have to keep them busy. There are always their personal lives. That is, If they get a chance to have them... Meredith is a one of the surgeon in the top of her class. She's somewhat considered royalty because her mother, Ellis Grey, was a noted pioneering surgeon known for making breakthroughs in the specialty as a talented surgeon and as a woman who broke barriers. Only thing is Ellis now lives in Roseridge where she suffers from a tragic and devastating illness but she doesn't want anyone to know. Meredith keeps her mother's secret because she asks her to. Cristina is highly competitive and driven but usually lacks the people skills required to do her job effectively. Bedside manner is not her strong suit. Izzie grew up on the other side of the tracks and worked her way up by paying off her tutition by modeling. She's beautiful but sometimes she's too personal with her patients and may run into trouble when it comes to letting go. George is warm and kind and he has the hugest crush on Meredith. Besides having a habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time he can't seem to move out of the "just friends" zone. Kavev is a jerk but he's honest about his cutthroat attitude. He's arrogant and somtimes he's idiotic. The five interns struggle to find people that they can connect to and often find that they only people they have time to meet, date, or hang out with all work at the hospital. So I guess it's no wonder that the person Meredith meets in the Emerald City Bar across the street turns out to be her bosses' boss. Derek Shepherd is an attending at Seattle Grace and he just moved here from New York City. Her likes ferry boats and, like almost everyone in the hospital, has secrets to share. Derek is a flirtatious neurosurgeon who Meredith insists she can't date because of hospital politics. Preston Burke is arrogant but with a good amount of reason. He's one of the best cardio-thorasic surgeons in the country with one of the lowest patient mortality rates. The only problem with his arrogance is that it may make him less suited for the job of chief of surgery in comparision to Derek. The job of chief of surgery currently belongs to Dr. Richard Webber, Seattle Grace's paternal, but no-nonsense leader. Grey's Anatomy is a drama about the intensity of medical training mixed with the funny, sexy, and sometimes painful lives of people who are about to discover that neither medicine nor relationships can be defined in black and white. Real life only comes in shades of grey.

Has anyone seen the new move Beowulf? Emily Carlson isn't sure about the new movie Beowulf. Why is it animated with real people? I'm sure they had to pay Angelina Jolie and ton of cash to use her voice and likeness... why wouldn't they just have her REALLY do the movie, and not some image of her? Here's a synopsis from Wikipedia: This adaptation of Beowulf tells the story of how the warrior Beowulf helps King Hrothgar protect Heorot from the powerful Grendel. After defeating Grendel, Beowulf incurs the wrath of Grendel's mother, who seduces him in order to conceive a son. Beowulf leaves with Grendel's head to secure his reputation and claims to have also killed the mother. Fifty years after these encounters, Beowulf discovers that he has a third antagonist to battle with: a ferocious dragon that turns out to be his son. After a fierce battle that ends in the death of both warriors, Grendel's mother is once again left childless.