Motley Crue has already demonstrated their complete ignorance of pop culture. Now they’re demonstrating their complete ignorance of the law, filing suit yesterday against NBC for banning the band after lead singer Vince Neil let the cuss words cometh on a Dec. 31 Tonight Show appearance.
The charges? Violating their right to free speech. Oh, and and weakening the band’s sales.
Now we don’t flaunt our Newhouse j-school education that often, but we fear the hear and now is the perfect time to do so. As we learned in that brilliant course called Communications Law, free speech concerns can only be addressed with the federal government, not a private company like GE-owned NBC. So take it up with the FCC, rockers.
Ensuring only media folk will continue to barely care about the Today vs. Good Morning America arms ratings race, both The New Yorker and New York magazine are putting man-power into the story. Naturally, this forces regular “intellectuals” to feign interest in Katie Couric‘s behind-the-scenes statements while waiting for their name to be called at the abortion clinic.
The New Yorker‘s Ken Auletta and New York‘s Meryl Gordon are fighting for access, though it seems NBC insiders are favoring Auletta. Meanwhile, Couric’s fan club at Today are still heated over last month’s New York Times piece by Alexandra Stanley, which they claim was a scheduled attack on the network stemming from exec producer Tom Touchet‘s firing. It just so happens Touchet’s brother is Matthew Wald, NYT‘s energy and transporation staffer.
If we had any art direction sense (and you can tell by how bright this website is that, well, we don’t – but at least it’s better than Giant magazine’s) we’d be piecing together outrageous mock-ups of what New York magazine’s cover will look like when the story runs. And by “outrageous” we mean “totally in line with Adam Moss‘ existentialism.”
NBC didn’t waste time naming sports producer Jim Bell as Today‘s new exec producer, stepping in where Tom Touchet‘s ashes lay. Jeff Zucker is in a tizzy explaining away Good Morning America‘s ratings climb (something about it not being fatigue ..), but it’s NBC News president Neal Shapiro who coined the most descriptive explanation: Under Touchet, Today “didn’t sparkle enough.”
Really? Even with all that Katie Couric–Matt Lauer magic?
UPDATE: We somehow missed Zucker’s own caffeine-drink zinger: “We thought the show needed a jolt.” It’s sorta like Pepsi One, but with twice as much fun per serving.
Those network morning shows are like, well, in the morning, so forgive us if we haven’t seen them in months or years and are writing this item based completely on blind reportage and thirdhand storytelling. And with that disclaimer out of the way, Today exec producer Tom Touchet (we’re nearly certain it’s not pronounced “Tom Touch-it”) got the axe like Pamela Anderson‘s Stacked is about to. (Whoo, two Stacked jokes in as many posts!)
It all has to do with the ratings gain ABC’s Good Morning America has been privvy to, which actually superceded Today on some days. But we’ve got it on good word that all those extra viewers are actually tuning in to see the health reports by the v. “dreamy” Dr. Tim Johnson.
No replacement has yet been named, but that’s not really phasing anyone.
· Ted Koppel is splitting ABC and leaving Nightline in the dust, which leaves us with just one question: How will SNL recover from no longer giving Darrell Hammond free reign to do something, well, funny?
· Who says the threat of jail time needs to kill a career? (Okay, Michael Jackson not included.) It certainly isn’t hurting Lil’ Kim‘s, whose VH1 Hollyhood Makeover reality show is still on track. Maybe the Queer Eyes should get arrested for public indecency, which might help boost ratings and secure another season.
· Newsday says Liz Smith didn’t want to renew her contract. Liz Smith says Newsday didn’t want to renew her contract. Hmm, who to believe – a gossipist or a circulation inflater?
· Ian Schrager announced he’s leaving the hotel management business to do real estate development full time. Surprisingly, this may be the first time such a move doesn’t count as selling out, since he’s been doing it for his whole career.
· Donnie Deutsch is “trying a trial separation” with wife Stacy Josloff, which unfortunately does not mean he’ll also be leaving CNBC. His 19,000 viewers must be quite the lobbying group.
The easiest way in television to have your cake and start a foodfight too is to downplay any hope for decent ratings. And looky loo, that’s exactly how The Office executive producer Greg Daniels is playing it for tonight’s debut of the British rip-off.
Daniels says that both he and NBC don’t expect “The Office” to draw in huge audiences right away. On the contrary, he thinks that “a lot of people … who are the main audience of NBC are going to be put off by the fact that it’s such a different show.”
In just a few months they’ll be using that same excuse for not resigning LAX and The Contender.
As we told you earlier, we were quite confused as to why it’s taken so long for Fox to resign The O.C. for its third season.
Is Adam Brody and Rachel Bilson‘s real-life relationship getting so intense it’s screwing with production schedules? Have all the lesbian grips walked off set after being so offended by Mischa Barton‘s attempt to make girl-on-girl kissing look unremarkable? Did network execs have heaps of paperwork to pour over just so Peter Gallagher could get an eyebrow wax? Is Jason Binn trying to buy Julie Cooper-Nichol’s Newport Living magazine?
The possibilities are never ending, so who better to explain the situation than Defamer‘s Mark Lisanti, king of all things superficial in the entertainment industry (well, that’s a bit redundant). We asked him to explain the nervous steps taken by Fox, waiting so long to tell Benjamin McKenzie he would have to play brooding Ryan for at least one more year.
And Mark put it to as simple as Melanie Griffith‘s personality: “Because it sort of sucks this year.” Whew, finally, an answer we can manipulate.