In Brief
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Still experimenting with new ways of linking news and writing commentary here, so bear with me as I try a daily post with summaries to things that might not warrant a post of their own but still may be of interest. Please leave comments if you have any.
Featured: Letterman, 4400/Dead Zone, AvP, bad puns, more..
Don't Eat That FUD
The longer the writers strike goes on, the more PR lies you'll hear, especially with the high-priced political consultants (e.g. "smear merchants") the multi-billion dollar multi-national corporations have hired. Recent this week was an attack that writers have lost more in compensation from this strike so far than they would have gained for their demands, an obvious attempt to make it look like writers are striking over nothing.
Don't believe it. If the money was so small and inconsequential, the studios would have paid it already. The strike is costing them a hell of a lot more, trust me. They know they are going to rake it in with new media and they don't want to share, it's as simple as that.
I recently published a story with Associated Content on the Letterman/WGA deal here.
Late Night
All the late-night talkers are coming back on January 2nd, and I suggest if you support the writers plight that you find something else to watch. Tuning in will only reward the studios and networks for walking away from negotiations twice with more ad dollars, money they refuse to share when those same shows are streamed and downloaded off the Internet.
David Letterman has secured an independent deal with the WGA and will be returning with his writers, which you can read about from the link above, and he and his people have our blessing. Tune in with the rest of us to see what kind of jokes his writers will have ripping on CBS and the other networks.
Rip Dead Zone & 4400
Yeah, it happened a week ago, but I've not been keeping up with the site for a while and in case you haven't either, USA canceled The Dead Zone and The 4400, supposedly to make room for their own new series. Since I'm pretty sure those were the only two good shows USA had (maybe besides Monk), it kind of makes me wonder if NBC-Uni is trying to save money with the intention of killing off USA, or something.
Box Office
AvP 2 opened on Christmas and rolled through the weekend with a $26.8 million first-week take. After theaters take their cut, that's about $14 million and change for a $40m flick that doesn't have great prospects for a long run. So can you guys stop making these cinematic abortions already? What's next, Alien vs Predator vs Cloverfield Monster?
Nick Cage's National Treasure sequel is taking care of business, topping the weekend, with a strong second by the Alvin/Chipmunks animated feature. I Am Legend ran a very close third for one hell of a weekend.
As a side note, with the studios claiming absolute poverty to the WGA as a reason for not wanting to pay them for new media, this years box office according to the AP will top $10 billion dollars for the first time -- ever. With those same studios swearing up and down that they'll let this strike go on long enough to completely blank the 2009 schedule, that year too will set a new record: $0.00 for the first time -- ever.
Worst Pun
This one is easy -- Zap2it reported on December 27th that Brendan Fraser was leaving his wife (royally ruining the lives of their kids - 4, 3, and 2 - at least for the next ten years) with possibly the worst pun ever written: "'Mummy' star Brendan Fraser is splitting with the mummy of his three children."
For shame.
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