Disney Family Museum taps Calicchio

Legit professional Gabriella Calicchio continues to be named Boss from the Wally Disney Family Museum in Bay Area.She will go ahead and take helm from the museum in November after investing yesteryear 4 years as controlling director from the Children's Theatre Company in Ontario. She was formerly controlling director of Marin Theater Company in Mill Valley, Calif., for six years. The professional "brings extensive experience across disciplines within the non-profit arts," stated Walter E.D. Burns, museum co-founder and grand son of Wally Disney. "She's highly regarded as within the area and it has accumulated an alluring record of administrative and artistic achievements."Calicchio works the museum's founding professional director, Richard Benefield. The museum opened up inside a 40,000 sq . ft . facility within the Bay Area Presidio in 2009. Contact Cynthia Littleton at cynthia.littleton@variety.com

The Help tops the US box office

After hogging top spot for the last two weeks, Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes was toppled by Disney's The Help this weekend.Bringing in just shy of $20.5 million, The Help was down just 21% on last weekend, suggesting it should have the legs to stick around the upper echelons of the box office chart for a while to come.The take leaves the film's overall gross at $71.8 million and it looks a good bet to break the $100 million mark in the coming weeks. ROTPOTA has already reached that milestone, with a $16.3 million weekend taking its overall tally to $133.8 million.Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids 4 was the highest-placed new entry, with the latest instalment of junior sleuthing taking third place with $12 million. Fellow newbie Conan The Barbarian was fourth with $10 million, a disappointing return on its $70 million outlay.Fright Night fared even worse, with an $8.3 million weekend only enough to take fifth place. The Smurfs continued to impress in sixth, adding another $8 million to the pot, whilst the fifth Final Destination movie took just under that amount in seventh place.Jesse Eisenberg comedy 30 Minutes Or Less took $6.3 million in eighth, whilst One Day endured a shocking opening weekend with just $5.1 million in the bag. Crazy Stupid Love props up the top ten, taking a little less than $5 million.Next week sees a trio of new releases hoping to perform better than this week's collection of flops. They are Zoe Saldana's Colombiana, the Guillermo Del Toro produced Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark and Paul Rudd vehicle Our Idiot Brother.UPDATE: According to a report by the Guardian, The Inbetweeners Movie has broken box office records in the UK with a whopping £13.2m take (including Wednesday and Thursday previews).That gives the spinoff the largest ever opening for a UK comedy, toppling previous record holder Bridget Jones: The Edge Of Reason. Blimey. Reckon we'll be seeing a sequel soon then?

Joel Schumacher's Trespass gets a shouty trailer

The trailer for upcoming Joel Schumacher movie, Trespass, has arrived online.Trespass (not to be confused with the 1992 Bill Paxton film) stars Nicolas Cage and Nicole Kidman as a husband and wife who have their home invaded by masked thugs.Cage has cash hidden somewhere in the house and they know about it, but he doesn't give up so easily. Things begin to unravel and it turns out Kidman may not be the Stepford Wife she'd have us believe her to be.The film looks like what might happen if Panic Room, Hostage and Funny Games managed to somehow have a child that shared an equal amount of their genetic make-up.It's not looking like a particularly pretty sight so far, but the Cage and Kidman team-up is intriguing enough to have us reserving judgement.Considering the DVD and On-Demand release is literally two weeks after the cinematic one, hopes aren't particularly high though.See the shout-filled trailer for yourself here:A UK release date isn't confirmed as yet but Trespass will be in US cinemas on 14 October 2011.

Hysteria trailer produces a buzz

Anybody fancy a Victorian comedy concerning the invention from the vibrator?In 2006 a movie known as Rabbit Fever spoofed women's associations using their special electric buddies and getting trained with one star ("Smirking mockumentary that's nowhere close to stimulating since it's subject") TF wished this is the final comedy about vibes it needed to view.And so the trailer for Hysteria hit the net.The film about Victorian physician Frederick Mortimer Granville's invention of the device for stopping women's hysteria will premiere in the Toronto Worldwide Film Festival this September.Regardless of the final scene within this trailer, we can not see that one obtaining a Royal Gala screening within the United kingdom.Hysteria is anticipated to spread out within the United kingdom later this season.

Does It Pay To Blur TV Commercials And Content? Marketers Don't Know

Marketers have done so much to blur the line between entertainment and advertising that it's often hard for consumers to tell the difference. But here's an interesting little factoid from a new Association of National Advertisers survey of 73 client-side marketers.The folks who decide whether to use product placements and other tactics to mess with our minds don't really know whether they work. Branded entertainment is supposed to give audiences warm feelings about a company or product, but nearly two-thirds of the surveyed marketers say that they're unhappy with the quality of the research about its effectiveness.That's the second biggest concern, after cost, cited by those who don't use branded entertainment.ANA chief Bob Liodicesays it is "up to the internal researchers, media providers and agencies to better measure branded entertainment integrations.The lack of persuasive research may explainwhy the number of marketers using TV for branded entertainment has fallen 10% since 2006, the last time the ANA conducted the survey. (We don't know how many of the marketers still put branded entertainment on TV; the ANAjust disclosed selected facts in a press release -- not the complete data.)But the number of client side marketers using Internet films to promote their brands has more than doubled to 31% over the same five year period while 55% use the Web for other forms of branded entertainment, up from 28%. Promotional entertainment is up 20% at sports venues.

In most her 'Gloria'

The Cinemax doc "Gloria: In Their Words" highlights activist Gloria Steinem, whose early work was reduced because of her appearance.InchIt's not only the issue of ladies who're considered attractive -- whatever that's -- it is also the issue they are ignored in one other way if they are not attractive," Steinem stated in a La Grenouille lunch on August. 10.Visitors were requested if attitudes about being female and pretty have transformed.Kim Cattrall: "God I really hope so, that's all I'm able to say."Leslie Stahl: "Significantly, clearly."Christine Baranski: "Now they are doing Television shows about Playboy Rabbits and stewardesses and extremely, men, haven't we become past that time? It type of blows my thoughts however the fight continues."Sheila Nevins: "Let us place it by doing this: It does not hurt to possess people look two times."Debra Winger: "Like a nation we are all (screwed) track of 'pretty.' As my dad would say, 'That's pretty ugly -- and pretty likely to stay this way.A "Also lunching: Candice Bergen and Fran Lebowitz. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

New Mess Mess Clips At Giant Screen

World firsts from Alfredson's thrillerThere's greater than a little excitement during these parts for any little spy thriller known as Mess Tailor Soldier Spy, so its presence at Empire Presents.... Giant Screen had us putting on our espionage casual, gripping our annoying products* and going to its panel to look at some world-first footage in the film. Producer Robyn Slovo and film writer Peter Straughan have there been introducing three new clips in the film. The very first demonstrated the influence of MI6's 'Control' (John Hurt) waning inside the agency's HQ. Also known as 'the Circus', it is the setting for many heavyweight acting. Tight and claustrophobic, Hurt and Toby Jones' Percy Alleline slug it vocally over Alleline's mysterious new 'Witchcraft' apple. The 2nd gave our start looking proper at Gary Oldman's Smiley, the smoothness made famous on-screen by Alec Guinness within the 1979 BBC dramatisation. The soft lisp, inscrutable gaze and middle-age slouch disguise an iron will and cat-like intelligence. He's just as 'Smiley' once we were expecting: a pitch-perfect reinvention of the literary and screen icon. The scene saw Smiley send his reliable confederate Peter Guillam on which appears like a fool's errand to lift a vital dossier in the Circus. It is a nerve-racking and superbly designed sequence that simply sings about the giant screen. The 3rd sequence from Tomas Alfredson's thriller exhibited to MI6 agent Ough Tarr's amount of time in Portugal, and also the first thought of the Soviet mole within the Circus. It's Tom Hardy's opportunity to shine. The vignette occupies the majority of a chapter within the BBC's '70s adaptation of John le Carré's novel, and also the movie appears like giving equal weight to Tarr's pivotal back story. Straughan confirmed that. We needed to merge a couple of figures, described the film writer, but otherwise it's almost all there. Oddly enough, Slovo says it had been Alfredson themself who hunted lower the directorial gig. Tomas really found us, she revealed. He'd heard that people used to do it and set themself forward for this. Should you haven't laid eyes on Mess Tailor Soldier Spy's terrific teaser and equally heavyweight trailer, its time. This fantastic-searching spy business is going to be coming in United kingdom movie theaters on September 16. Circle the date on the sheet of paper, then swallow it. *Not literally, legal types

Clint Eastwood Says He'll Keep J. Edgar's Sexual Orientation 'Open to Interpretation'

Oh, great. Just when we thought Armie Hammer’s kiss with Leonardo DiCaprio in Clint Eastwood’s upcoming J. Edgar Hoover biopic was going to be explosive, Eastwood himself is confirming that he’s leaving the first FBI director’s sexual orientation “open to interpretation.” I know a certain TV personality who might have damning evidence to the contrary. Eastwood says that the rumored affair/relationship between Hoover and his Associate FBI director Clyde Tolson isn’t exactly a sure bet: “Some people might say [they] were just inseparable pals. Or maybe it’s a love story without being gay, I don’t know. But it’s very interesting, the way [Dustin] Lance [Black] laid out the script. It was nicely written. It didn’t go to the obvious.” First of all, Tim Gunn told us that during his childhood, he’s pretty sure he talked to J. Edgar Hoover while he was dressed up as Vivian Vance. That doesn’t make J. Edgar Hoover gay, but that does mean he, y’know, dresses up as Vivian Vance. Makes you think J. Edgar Hoover had firm answers about his own sexual orientation, and none of the ambiguity that Eastwood describes. Plus, J. Edgar Hoover was a real person, not a literary character. Can we stop pretending there’s anything to “interpret” about whether he preferred to sleep with men? Mind you, there’ve been plenty of biopics featuring main characters whose sexual preferences remain nebulous: For instance, in 1977’s Julia, Jane Fonda, as playwright Lillian Hellman, attacks a restaurant patron who questions her relationship with the titular activist. The difference between the ambiguity in that movie and in the ambiguity in J. Edgar is how that gray area relates to the public perception of the real-life subjects. Lillian Hellman is a fascinating figure for reasons other than her rumored romances, but I’d argue that J. Edgar Hoover’s (allegedly) closeted behavior is central to his intrigue. I can’t see how the movie will function without fully exploring his emotional side, but whatever: Maybe we’ll still get an “interpretable” Armie Hammer kiss out of it! Or a couple of knowing stares! Or some fancy, arguably gay lighting! Clint Eastwood Says Hoover’s Sexuality ‘Open to Interpretation; [HitFix]

One on One

Henry Steele is a basketball phenom at his small town high school, but when he matriculates to a big city university on a scholarship, soon realizes that he has few skills outside the sport. Expected by his coach to contribute significantly to the team, Henry is overwhelmed by the demands on his time, the "big business" aspect of college sports, and the fact that he never fully learned to read. Things look bleak for Henry when Janet Hays, a pretty graduate student, is assigned as Henry's tutor. Her intellect and strength lift Henry out of his doldrums just in time to battle the coach, who attempts to rescind Henry's scholarship.

Terry Notary on 'Rise from the Planet from the Apes'

Not just was Terry Notary the movement choreographer and stunt coordinator for the apes on "Rise from the Planet from the Apes" - he also performed three from the primates. The film used motion-capture technology to transfer those things from the ape-playing stars towards the photorealistic CG animals produced by Weta Digital for that Fox feature, which opened up to some domestic gross of $54 million earlier this weekend. An old gymnast at UCLA and Cirque du Soleil artist, Notary earlier applied his abilities to such photos as "Transformers: Revenge from the Fallen," "Avatar" and also the approaching "Container Container." He's now focusing on Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" movies. Earlier in the career, Notary was choreographer and movement coach on Tim Burton's 2001 "Planet from the Apes." Here he discusses the talent and technology that incorporated in the roll-out of the most recent "Apes" film, an origin story for the whole opus.Peter Caranicas: Exactly what does a movement coach do?Terry Notary: I trained all of the ape movement towards the ape stars.PC: How have you select the stars?TN: We cast from about 150 stuntmen and selected about 7 or 8 - the men that may move the very best. I developed some arm extensions which are about one foot off the floor, and that we used individuals for quadruped (actions). We did not have individuals for that Tim Burton version ten years ago. I needed them on that one also it made an enormous amount of difference.PC: How lengthy have you train?TN: We'd about six days for training and educating them about the three kinds of apes within the film, and also the variations within their actions, and all sorts of the subtleties. We viewed a lot of footage and reference video. PC: What type of videos?TN: I collected each and every video with apes inside it which i could, real apes. And That I visited the zoo and shot my very own. I'd come up with my list of the greatest shots, then demonstrate to them to Rupert (Wyatt, the director) and say, "this can be a beautiful moment ideas should capture this in some way."PC: That which was it concerning the apes you popular to capture?TN: The soul, the connectedness, the depth. Apes are just like old souls, deep-rooted figures. They are so grounded, not aware of themselves, without any social conditioning.PC: How have you convey that towards the stars?TN: It is a wonderful factor to have an actor to experience an ape. You will find no mental distractions tugging us from what's happening internally. They've whole rainbow of feelings they've anger, they are sly and sneaky, happy, with pleasure and elation, they get depressed, they mourn plus they celebrate. The large challenge was getting for the reason that zone where you are vulnerable since you feel everything, you do not disguise any feelings when you are tough, or mask that you are hurt with a certain comment. PC: What changes once the apes become a lot more like humans?TN: After we grew to become genetically modified using the drug, we began to get rid of that ape essence. The thing is thinking behind your eyes, and also the eyes become a lot of focus from the figures. Instead of leading using the heart and also the stomach, it might be your brain and also the mind and also the eyes. PC: Was everything motion-taken?TN: Every ape is really a mo-cap character, with body suit along with a mind camera. I labored with Weta on "Avatar" plus they pressed the envelope on that, however they broke newer and more effective ground on that one. PC: How have you work?TN: Everything was with real stars outfitted for mo-cap carrying out instantly. We'd block moments, the stars would take positions, therefore we would shoot until Rupert was pleased with the scene. I was in gray velcro mo-cap suits with Brought lights on. I was wired for seem and transported battery packs - pretty loaded up. The good thing about mo-cap is you can play a personality one of the ways, then move to another place and take part in the same scene out, after which move again and play - they marry them altogether plus you've got a huge crowd of apes. It takes approximately three minutes to change from an orangutan to some gorilla to some chimp - you are able to become anyone at any time over time.Computer: What goes on following the acting is performed?Tennessee: Once it had been all there and Rupert was pleased with it, it had been at the disposal of Weta. They required all that capture data, the facial capture performances, the seem and voice, plus they married everything together. They can married several figures that were not acting simultaneously together. But more often than not we'd enough men - we're able to capture about eight or ten apes any particular time. It returned from Weta like a rough cut of unrendered apes.PC: What had you been capable of seeing?Tennessee: These were beautiful - unrendered but amazing. You can see all the little subtleties, the shoulder shrugs, the mind tilts, with no facial performance. You'd begin to see the movement of the three-dimensional character. You could not see loose hair and so forth. It is a spend, but a very beautiful puppet to utilize. You are feeling a feeling. People say it's animation. Almost all. It's acting. PC: Andy Serkis performed charge ape character, Caesar. Who have you play?TN: Mostly I performed Rocket, his right-hands. I additionally play his father, who will get taken, and that i performed his mother. Mo-cap enables that. With mo-cap, when the role requires you to definitely be 6'5", it's not necessary to be that tall to experience the smoothness. You are able to put good stars in suits plus they may take on any physical form.PC: Where have you do all of the mo-cap work?TN: In Vancouver at Mammoth Galleries. There have been around three-and-a-half several weeks of principal photography plus some reshoots that Andy and that i did in New Zealand, where we are presently focusing on "The Hobbit."PC: You've done "Avatar," "Container Container" and "Apes." Do you know the greatest advances in mo-cap technology?TN: On "Apes" we went from reflectors - reflective tape the cameras would see as light - all around the body, to little Brought lights. They needed to energy you up, however it permitted you to accept mo-cap stage outdoors, shoot within the vibrant sun, but still get motion. I was ruling real cars, getting chased by real horses, jumping over things, getting shot at, dodging explosions - it assisted using the performance because i was in tangible situations.PC: Which other artists about the film have you collaborate most abundant in?Tennessee: The vfx people. As I was training the stars, in the finish during the day I'd use the puppeteer who had been building the figures. You are basically a puppeteer when you are doing motion capture. You are the life blood of the character which has a different anatomy. Contact Peter Caranicas at peter.caranicas@variety.com

Rupert Wyatt talks Apes sequels

Stay in your homes, people. The apes are on the rise! Because just days after Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes topped the US box office, director Rupert Wyatt is already batting around some ideas for a potential sequel."You could start this story again eight years from where we left off," said Wyatt, speaking to Bleeding Cool. "[We could have] the next generation of apes, those that have come from our protagonists, perhaps going in to a conflict with humans and showing real fear in the same way as going into war [is] for young soldiers in this day and age.""Or how apes are taking over cities," he continues, "and being moved into human environments and having to interact with them. Having to deal with things that are part of our culture and understand and evolve through them.""[There could be] spies that are in the employ of the apes, working against humans who may be existing underground, because that's a way they can avoid the virus. They could come up above ground wearing gas masks, and maybe that's what dehumanises them."It sounds as though Wyatt has put a fair amount of thought into his ideas, all of which would fit nicely into the new timeline established by his first film.20th Century Fox initially spoke of kick-starting the franchise as a whole when they first announced ROTPOTA, and given the film's strong showing on its opening weekend, we wouldn't be at all surprised to see one of Wyatt's ideas greenlit sooner rather than later.Source: Bleeding CoolUp for a bit more monkey business? Or are you sick of those damned dirty apes? Tell us!

Fox Orders 13-Episode Follow up To Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos' Docu-Series With Seth MacFarlane Creating For 2013 Launch

After lately signing onto reboot one classic Television show, Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones, Seth MacFarlane is dealing with another legendary TV series, Carl Sagan's Cosmos: An Individual Voyage. Fox has greenlighted Cosmos: An Area-Time Journey, a 13-part docu-series from Family Guy creator MacFarlane and late Sagan's original collaborators his widow, author/producer Ann Druyan and astrophysicist Steven Soter. Imagined like a successor towards the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning original 13-part program, that was located by Sagan, the brand new Cosmos series is going to be located by famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. Underscoring MacFarlane's commercial appeal, Cosmos will air on Fox in primetime, something pretty unparalleled nowadays for any science documentary series on commercial American television. (The initial series broadcast on PBS.) Fox will air Cosmos: An Individual Voyage in 2013, also is once the network will launch MacFarlane's Flintstones reboot. National Geographic Funnel, that will co-produce Cosmos, will air a same-evening encore from the episodes following their broadcast on Fox. The project has been done outdoors of MacFarlane's overall cope with twentieth century fox TV. Never more than now in modern times are we needed a profound indication from the colossally important and exciting role that science, space exploration and also the human mission for understanding must still play within our development like a species, MacFarlane stated. You should be intensely going through the photo voltaic system right now, and who easier to inspire us to obtain there than Ann Druyan, Steven Soter, Neil deGrasse Tyson and, obviously, Carl Sagan. A self-professed geek, MacFarlane hit them back with Druyan following the two met in a function a while ago. When she distributed to him the concept for any new Cosmos series, MacFarlane immediately sparked into it and hang up a conference with Peter Grain, entertainment chairman of Fox where MacFarlane has 3 series about the air, Family Guy, The Cleveland Show and American Father. That happened about last year, and after extended discussions, Fox just closed all deals for that project to visit forward. In September 2010, MacFarlane and Druyan made an appearance together on HBO's Real-time With Bill Maher where they shared their worry about the growing anti-science sentiment in American society, something Druyan credited to "the failure of public education," that has "compartmentalized science to twenty-40 boring minutes per week, maybe thought with a gym teacher." That's far in the way her late husband trained about science. Carl thought that science goes to most of us, Druyan stated now in mention of the the Fox series. He desired to convey the excitement of their cosmic perspective towards the largest possible audience. If only I possibly could tell Carl what Seths leadership about this new Cosmos makes possible. Besides, I understand how much they'd have loved one another. Based on the producers, the brand new series will inform "the storyline of how people started to understand the laws and regulations of character and discover our devote space and time. It will require audiences with other mobile phone industry's and travel over the world for any vision from the cosmos about the grandest scale. Probably the most profound scientific concepts will be provided with stunning clearness, joining together skepticism and question, and weaving rigorous science using the emotional and spiritual right into a transcendent experience." Carl Sagans original series Cosmos, that was first broadcast in 1980, continues to be most effective American public television series ever and it has been seen by an believed 700 million audiences all over the world. Among the signature options that come with the eighties series were the groundbreaking because of its time visual effectsThat permitted Sagan just to walk through space. The brand new series is anticipated to use the most recent special effects, although it is unclear whether it will incorporate another signature component of the initial, the appealing music by Vangelis. Cosmos: An Area-Time Journey is going to be created by Druyan's Cosmos Galleries. Ann Druyan, Seth MacFarlane and Cosmos Galleries leader Mitchell Cannold will executive produce together with Allan Butler of National Geographic Funnel.

Jason Statham Buys Ben Stiller, Christine Taylor's 10-Bedroom Estate

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Jason Statham has bought Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor's house and has been excitedly telling friends. The 10-bedroom Mediterranean in Outpost Estates (near the Hollywood Bowl) includes a guest house and was being offered for $11.5 million. It clearly pays to be an action hero. Stiller and Taylor bought the home at 2427 Castilian Drive for $1.825 million in December 1999. They had first listed it for sale in 2009 for $12.5 million and re-listed it this past spring at the reduced price. Meanwhile, witnessed at the Sunset Tower Hotel recently: a woman checking in and asking for a room -- for a month or two. "My house has been for sale for a while," she explained to a desk clerk. "Then tonight, Steven Tyler and his girlfriend walked in and decided to buy it with everything in it and pay cash if I would leave tonight." Looking at the amount of luggage she had, it was clear she took them up on it. Reps for Statham, Stiller and Tyler did not get back to THR. Related Topics Christine Taylor Steven Tyler Ben Stiller

Up All Night's Maya Rudolph on Playing an The famous host oprah Aspirant

Maya Rudolph The Christina Applegate-Will Arnett sitcom Up Through The Night has not even opened yet, but already co-star Maya Rudolph has become a campaign. Talking with reporters in the fall TV previews Monday, NBC Entertainment Chief Robert Greenblatt introduced that servings of the pilot could be reshot to recast Rudolph's character, Ava, like a daytime talk-show host. "We made the decision to alter the place of work altogether to provide Maya a much better platform to complete her factor," Greenblatt stated. Applegate will have a producer on Ava's show. (Within the original pilot, Applegate and Rudolph performed partners inside a PR firm.) Watch videos from Up Through The Night The modification is sensible to series creator and former SNL author Emily Spivey. "It had been nearer to what my actual experience was focusing on SNL and getting an infant and returning in to the place of work," she stated. It is a boy for Maya Rudolph and Paul Thomas Anderson Rudolph has some knowledge about the role, getting spent years impersonating The famous host oprah Winfrey on Saturday Evening Live. "She really stated she loved it," Rudolph stated of Winfrey's a reaction to her impression. "She was happy because she stated I had been the very first lady to really play her." Added Spivey: "[Winfrey] thanked us because of not putting her inside a body fat suit." NBC uncovers premiere dates for Playboy Club, SVU and much more But Ava's no The famous host oprah. "This character's journey will probably be somebody that is looking to get there," executive producer and SNL creator Lorne Michaels stated. "She's definitely not at the purpose of celebrity." Up Through The Night, starring Applegate and Arnett as new parents, premieres Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 10/9c on NBC before moving to its regular timeslot on Wednesday, Sept. 21 at 8/7c.

TCA: NBC Lets Slip A Slight British Accent

Diane Haithman is contributing to Deadline's coverage of TCA. At the NBCUniversal press sessions at Mondays TCA, not one but two of the new series introduced here are re-imaginings of British shows. In the morning, it was the comedy Free Agents. This afternoon, it was the Maria Bello starrer Prime Suspect, a re-invention of the critically acclaimed British procedural drama starring Helen Mirren as Jane Tennison, a homicide detective with a dark side.This time around, England is New York City, and Maria Bello is Jane Timoney, a brilliant bad cop disliked by her squad. Shes all tough and stuff.At age 44, Bello joins the ranks of glamorous middle-aged actresses who have found a place for themselves in TV's procedural dramas. Also like the producers of Free Agents, co-executive producer/writer Alexandra Cunningham said the show would be a little less dark than seems to suit British tastes: While the New Jane drinks like the Old Jane, the story lines wont delve into alcoholism. New Jane smokes like Old Jane -- but in the USA in 2011, shes trying to quit. (Bello also confessed that she is a smoker.) Said Cunningham: The thing that makes this different from other procedurals is the humor, which she adds will harken to the style of Hill Street Blues and Barney Miller. She added, however, that there would be plenty of procedure in this procedural, making sure theres enough for the fans, but have a lot of fun with Maria and her personal life.Co-executive producer Peter Berg was a little more blunt: Lets satisfy people like my sister, who loves procedural dramas, with a really gruesome murder at the beginning.

FCC Tells Cable: Don't Drop Independent Channels During Contract Fights

The cable industry is livid today over a new FCC order that makes it harder for pay TV distributors to mess around with independently owned channels. Regulators clarified the rules of engagement called for by the 1992 Cable Actto resolve contract disputes that channels have with cable and satellite companies.One provision particularly infuriates cable: The FCC says operators can't drop channels during a fight, for examplethe way Cablevision briefly didwith Food Network and HGTV in early 2010 when Scripps wanted to raise the price for its services. A standstill order would keep existing contract terms in place while the FCC resolves the matter. The agency particularly wants to prevent cable operators from using their near-monopoly power in TV distribution to favor channels that they own -- or extort channel owners to sell equity in order to guarantee carriage. Public interest advocates welcome the change. This will promote diversity in cable TV offerings by insuring that independent cable channels have a shot at getting carriage on large cable systems" says Media Access Project policy director Andrew Jay Schwartzman. But former FCC Chairman Michael Powell -- now CEO of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association -- says the order shows "little regard for the limits of agency authority or constitutional rights, and a disturbing lack of appreciation of the potential impact of government intervention on consumers or the marketplace." The lobby group says that it will "explore other avenues for redress."