At the NBC Network/Television Critics Association (TCA) bash, personal publicist Pat Kingsley repeatedly thwarted reporters' attempts to mingle w/ her client, Aaron Sorkin. In his blog dated July 24, a baffled Rob Owen, tv critic for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, dubbed Kingsley one of the "Sith Lords of PR."
When Kingsley steered her client away from the affable Owen, perhaps she wasn't aware that he's also the President of TCA. Way to represent, Pat!
It's pandemonium as thousands of Battlestar fans jostle for position before doors open; an aptly dressed and outnumbered red-shirted security guy tries to hold the line. CLICK TO ENLARGE.
During a panel in front of a packed house of thousands at yesterday's ComicCon in San Diego, Battlestar Galactica cast and executive producers lobbed some bombshells into the crowd. They candidly prepared viewers for an intense, dark and brutally honest third season, and warned that viewers would be "saddened."
The series will explore issues ranging from suicide bombers to pandemics and some characters will depart.
Edward James Olmos (Adama) offered this frank assessment. "I'm known for being very serious and and I am very serious - this is the darkest show I've ever been a part of in my life."
Executive Producer David Eick told the standing-room-only crowd that as season three begins New Caprica is still occupied by the Cylons. Baltar is the titular president of an occupation government and the Galactica is somewhere in space, plotting to rescue the trapped colonists with only "two battlestars at half strength" at their disposal.
On the ground, characters are divided. Some have taken sides, said Eick, others are "in between and one in particular is missing a vital part of his anatomy."
At that point in the presentation the crowd groaned, many unsure if Eick meant the remark in jest. But then he turned serious. "Yeah - think about that on the way home," he said, eliciting uneasy titters from the fans. "It ain't pretty. It's a very dark and provocative and a challenging beginning of the tale of what happens to these people on New Caprica."
Lucy Lawless, who joins the series for a ten episode arc, then stepped in to break up the darkness drumbeat a little. "There are some great moments of hope and redemption in there too," she asserted.
Later she commented the "struggles, the darkness of their situation, make the sweet [moments] all the sweeter. It's a real triumph, particularly for Adama and the whole crew, when they pull it together and get through some really hideous, post-apocalyptic chapters."
Olmos lavished praise on the writers and producers. "What Ron and David and the writers have done has been monumental. This show, the reason I got involved in it, is because of that single aesthetic. His writing was superb, the idea of keeping this reality in the midst of what was happening after 9/11.... it's a reality that we're all facing. So the truths that were happening to us sociologically now were truths that we could now look at, and we had to take a look at, and he was willing to go into that."
But Olmos continued to shake his head and laugh ruefully, "I..I must tell you this is the darkest show I have been on," he repeated, "and I say that w/ love because basically it makes you think.....In essence you're [the viewer] going to really get yourself confused because of the way that they've [the writers] structured the understanding between the human beings and the Cylons - the technology we created that comes back to haunt us - and it's monumental."
Olmos also disclosed the series will explore the psychology of suicide bombers who "take out five Cylons. It becomes incredibly dark. And an incredible journey as we step into this world for the third season - much more so than any season than we've had."
He also joked it would be "better to watch CNN, okay?"
"The relationships this year are so deeply rooted in...hurting each other. I gotta tell you. I'm not kidding you," he said, "I think the most stunning part of the relationship is Lee, my son, who has a tremendous, tremendous relationship going w/ Dualla and Starbuck, really out of Page Six in NY [Post]. You'll enjoy it. A lot of people leave us too. You'll be very saddened by that."
Approaching the close of the panel, both Olmos and Eick had warmed to their subject considerably and were on a spoiler roll. Eick confirmed the character departures and Olmos pointed out that the series darkness is rooted in reality He then revealed a big spoiler and issued a strongly worded warning about pandemics.
The quotes are here, in their entirety:
Eick: You're going to see all your favorites back from the previous two w/ some new characters thrown into the mix. It's going to be an interesting season. We're going to lose some people that I think we're all very fond of. There are going to be some losses that the family is going to take. The family is also going to have some victories that they haven't had in the past. they're going to make some break throughs in some relationships. There's going to be some pairings that I think you've been waiting to see if they'll ever get together or ever say what they mean to each other. And the answer to that is "yes" but it ain't gonna be that simple. Because nothing's that simple on Battlestar Galactica. I think this season you'll see that we took a lot of chances w/ the characters. They go in a lot of unexpected directions."
Olmos: What the writers have been able to create, the darkness comes from the reality...the reality of,,, something we know very well. And it makes you rethink... because I dare somebody to tell me who the good guys are and who the bad guys are in this show. As you get into it deeper and deeper you start to realize the Cylons are much more cohesive in understanding their experience and what they're trying to get out of their experience than the humans.
We end up - I'll just put it to you this way - in the show this year we are going to touch the issue that is most affecting the planet which is the pandemic - which is coming, and you all know it's coming, and yet no one is really preparing for it. The bird flu pandemic. Until it hits you like it hit in 1918 and took out 40 million of us, you don't really get it. And in this case we use it the same way the English used it against the indigenous people here in the United States. Human beings use it against the Cylons. And we spread a pandemic amongst them. and it's incredibly difficult to take. it's just incredible. And then you realize, how else are they going to do it. there's nothing left. I'll put it to you this way. At last count we were less than 38,000 people. So you'll have to figure out how we got from 49,000 at the end of the second season to now this new number, 38,000. We're losing FAST.
In TV Land's I Pity The Fool, Mr. T., steps into the self-help business and dispenses T-style, homespun, gospel-inspired advice to fools everywhere. It's Tony Robbins meets Rocky.
Just a few minute ago, the irrepressible, energetic T. announced that he'll "put the 'T' in TV Land."
Dressed in an understated black suit, tie, and white tennis shoes, T said he's given up his signature gold chains for God. "It's a sin against god to wear gold again. The gold is in my heart now."
T. says T stands for "Tender" and he repeatedly referred to the influence of his now 90 year-old mother who taught him "if you do your best, god will do the rest."
Still single, T claims he can't find a woman he admires as much as his mom, and then quipped, "You know the saying - as soon as you find a woman who cooks like your mother, she looks like your mother."
However, he assured the critics that he's "no sissy mama's boy."
T defended his qualifications to dispense advice. "I'm qualified to beat people up but I am pretty intelligent. I've studied a lot. On my off time I'm reading."
In the clip run by MTV, he occasionally employed some therapeutic vernacular in his interventions - like the term "co-listening."
time: late, very late, due to typepad glitches;
Ted Koppel appeared before television critics this morning via satellite from Guantanamo Bay where he was shooting Security and Liberty, the first special in the Koppel on Discovery series. The three-hour long program debuts on the eve of 9/11 and examines the "delicate issues at the nexus of protecting our national security and preserving our civil liberties," said Discovery Net President Billy Campbell as he introduced Koppel.
On stage during Discovery Nets' January '06 presentation, a testy Koppel snapped at a respected critic who dared ask a fairly innocuous and well-researched question. But this time - with a 15-knot wind ruffling his gray hair and flanked by a half-dozen fatigue-clad military personnel holding a white canopy overhead - Koppel kept his temper in check.
Koppel's concerns about ratings and demographic pressures on news divisions echoed those of Dan Rather, who appeared at yesterday's (Tues.) HDNet presentation. "When it comes to news coverage we have an additional responsibility," Koppel said, "and that is to tell people what they need to know, what they ought to know. And it is our business to make that as easily understandable and as interesting as possible, but not to avoid subjects simply because it drives away younger viewers."
Koppel also slammed networks for cutting budgets and shuttering news bureaus.
"It was hoped as a consequence of 9/11 that networks would focus in again on foreign news. that is not the case. Our network news divisions simply do not have the corps of foreign correspondents that they had twenty to twenty five years ago. Now it is done far more by parachuting in an anchor or some correspondent who is based in London.
What we don't have but what we need more than we have ever needed before in the history of television is young, aggressive correspondents who are willing to spend two, three, even ten years in a certain region getting to know the language, getting to know the culture, getting to know the people. I don't think there is a commercial network around that has a permanent correspondent based in India.
I'm not taking a cheap shot here. I'm suggesting that India one way or another is destined to become one of the most important countries in the world, if it's not already. It is, after all, the world's largest single democracy. It's economy is growing by leaps and bounds. It's needs and demands for energy are going to come into direct conflict w/ our own.
For this, of all times, for network news divisions to feel they can't afford to have active news bureaus in some of the most important overseas locations, I think its a travesty and it's something that we're going to be paying for for years to come."
This afternoon, during HBO's executive session, CEO/Chairman Chris Albrecht tap danced around the cancellation of Rome. The HBO press materials announced that the second season will be the series' last but ultimately Albrecht left the door open just a crack for renewal.
After greenlighting the show, Albrecht said the network subsequently "met the Euro and the travel and [the challenges] of doing a regular series 6,000 miles away in a foreign country."
But ten seconds later, Albrecht also observed that Rome is "one of the most cost effective shows that we do because of the international nature of the story. The show sells incredibly well overseas."
Albrecht suggested that part of the problem lay w/ their BBC and RAI partners who are apparently unwillingly to go beyond a second season commitment. "They were only contracted for two seasons and I think it was going to be hard to pull the BBC along for more. That's not really what they do, This was a big bite for them as well and a big bite for RAI."
Then Albrecht suddenly threw himself into reverse. "Now having said that, we are HBO and just like we can pull the rug out from people, we may decide to look at this show and go 'you know what? The food is so good in Rome. Let's find a way to keep going.'"
Referring to viewer discontent over the Deadwood cancellation, Albrecht said his favorite fan email read "May you never take an easy dump again."
"Being Italian, that's not a problem," Albrecht joked.
When one journalist wanted to know whether Tony Soprano lives or dies at the conclusion of The Sopranos series, an incredulous Albrecht asked "Are you high!? I might as well shoot myself in the head if I tell you that."
Two hours ago, adressing a packed room of reporters during the HDNet TCA session, Dan Rather passionately defended his more than five decades of work in journalism. At times his voice quivered with emotion as he spoke of Edward R. Murrow's legacy and what he hoped to accomplish in his remaining years.
Rather insisted he is "exclusive to HDNet for three years for the businesses they are in. My first priority is HDNET, my second priority is HDNET, my third priority is HDNet."
Rather said fellow Texan and HDNet CEO Mark Cuban is giving him "complete creative and editorial control" to produce a weekly "hour long news program emphasizing accuracy, fairness and guts."
Here are some of Rather's remarks, uncut.
When a journalist suggested that some believe that Rather arrived at HDNet w/ a good deal of baggage and bias, Rather answered w/ unusual vehemence.
Rather: "Yes I have baggage - I have the baggage of being a graduate of the journalism school of South Vietnam. I have the baggage of the civil rights movement in Birmingham. I have baggage from Watergate and the White House and covering it as the lead correspondent for CBS News when the only president in history resigned. I have baggage from Afghanistan when the Soviets invaded it. I have baggage from two interviews w/ Saddam Hussein. You bet your life I have baggage. And make no mistake, I'm proud of it. Yes, I'm biased. I have a very strong bias toward independent journalism. Italicized, underlined, put it in bold caps. Some, not all, of the problems I have, and have had, w/ this question of bias, is a misunderstanding what my bias is. I'm committed to independent journalism, and yes, I'm fiercely independent when necessary and a lot of the times it's necessary.
Not all, but some, of what you describe as quote 'baggage' comes from people who have the following view which they're entitled to have. And, this god bless it, is America and you can have it. Their view is - and not just toward Dan Rather but to a lot of people in journalism - is 'listen mister or ms, you report the news the way I want it reported or I'm gonna make you pay a price. I'm gonna hang a sign around your neck saying you're a Bolshevik. I'm gonna mount a sizeable and very effective smear campaign against you'
Now, this doesn't just happen to me. If you've seen Good Night and Good Luck you know what I'm talking about. And I should be [voice breaking] lucky enough to live for the day that I could walk in the same room with Ed Murrow. But I can't, and nobody before or since even could. But there's the model of things. if you're determined to be independent you're going to take the heat. If you're determined to be fiercely independent when necessary and say "no sir or m'am, I'm not going to report the news the way you want it reported. I'm not going to be bullied or intimidated. I'm not going to back up or back down to meet your partisan political or ideological agenda. I'm going to play to my bias for independent news.
Now, when you face the furnace, you have to take the heat. And some of the time you're gonna get burned. and I've got plenty of scars, I've made my mistakes. Some of my wounds are self-inflicted. But the one thing, if you check the record and I invite you to check the record, you will not find me cowing to pressure. Now sometimes that can lead to making mistakes. and sometimes I've had people tell me, 'Dan this is not helping your career.'
Well, my answer to that is: to hell with the career. I didn't get into journalism as a careerist. I'm not going to go out of journalism as a careerist. So, yes I'm biased about doing independent journalism. And you bet I'm prejudiced. I'm prejudiced toward reporters, and America is filled w/ reporters, who want to do the right thing. Increasingly, it's difficult to do the right thing because of what I described before. You stand up and ask the tough questions, you ask the toughest questions you know how, of the highest power you can find, and I can guarantee you the second your backside hits the seat, there are going to be people coming after you. But you know, that goes w/ the territory. I wouldn't have it any other way. That news, real news, news at its best, is a wake up call, not a lullaby. And I'm not in the lullaby business."
Question: after all you've accomplished, do you feel you still have something left to prove?
Rather: "if you can believe it or not, I don't believe I've accomplished very much. I've been paid since I was 18 years old...I'll be 75 in October. I don't feel I have anything to prove. I know Mark feels differently. Sometimes you're not the best judge of what motives yourself. Mark thinks I have something to prove. Perhaps I do but I don't feel that way.
What I feel, what's in my marrow, is that I want to do work that matters [voice shakes]...I want to do great work.. and if my health and Mark's money holds out..."
[laughter]
Danny Bonaduce is proof positive that there's no such thing as bad publicity. Trading on - even relishing - his tabloid past, Bonaduce hosts GSN's StarFace, a perverse game of trivial pursuit that gleefully takes aim at celebrity culture. In segments like Mug Shot, players test their knowledge of celebrity criminal exploits.
The former child star of The Partridge Family seems the perfect choice to host since his mug shot is probably still on file in Arizona following his 1991 arrest for assaulting a transvestite prostitute. On stage during the GSN luncheon, Bonaduce asserted that he was born to the job. "If we have problem w/ Mug Shot, we can just use mine," he quipped, "I mean, I was made for this show."
Bonaduce wiggled his tail at the crowd, modeling the American eagle patches sewn on the bum of his jeans. And when GSN President and CEO Rich Cronin mentioned that the network employs a team of lawyers "that pours over everything," Bonaduce broke in to say "also, like, if it was Charlie Sheen, I was probably with him, so I can just back that one up."
When asked to name his favorite game show, Bonaduce said he has fond memories of The Dating Game. "I was actually on The Dating Game when I was twelve," he reminisced, "and my prize was Disneyland, and I got kissed. Dude, it rocked!...it was really nice to get a smooch on Pirates of the Caribbean."
The press played a round of Chain Reaction, another of GSN's new shows.
Connect "press" with the word "wars."
Answer: press play action Jackson five star wars
I wouldn't be able to sit through 30 minutes of Chain Reaction. But High Stakes Poker - where evil looking professional players w/ hoodies drawn low over their faces come to the table w/ a minimum of $100,000 of their own $$ - might be kinda exciting.
TCA trivia/GSN lunch menu: chicken salad on limp croissant, a skewer of fresh fruit squares, shrimp cocktail, and iced tea and lemon tart dessert....
okay...this day began...well, it started YESTERDAY at 8a.m. it's now 1:30 a.m on...at least I think it's Wednesday now. And it starts all over again in less than seven hours and I haven't even gotten to Shannen Doherty's tearful meltdown and ABC Family's cool new programming and lots, lots more.
I'm talking Wifi, people! Now we can blog at the pool, in the ballroom (hopefully), from bed, and, right now, from the Terrace Restaurant.
This, and the fantastic staff who cater to your every whim request (go staff!), rather makes up for the fact that this is...The Ritz, w/ its faux neo-Edwardian decor, belonger crowd and luxury down super comforters best suited for use in the high Austrian Alps. Earth to Ritz. This is LA. It's...the desert!
This is a night at The Ritz: it's getting hot, air conditioning kicks in. the vent is fixed in place and the fan blows directly onto the bed. sheet isn't enough. pull "super down monster" up to shoulders. air conditioning kicks off, bed turns to sauna. kick off monster.
After this happens about ten times in a night, one gets a little cranky.
A few laps in the pool? fuhgedaboudit. The place is overrun w/ young kids. And their parents who pack the elevators dressed in bathing suits and flip-flops.
and conventions. lots of conventions. and...bad food. I swear, the thick, syrupy glaze slopped on my shrimp last night came straight from a jar.
But soon all of this (except the sleepless nights) will fade to black as the TCA Summer Tour '06 adventure gets underway.
Onward to ABC Family and Starz, this afternoon.
