ABC: Not Another Barack Channel

Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama’s half-hour campaign commercial is scheduled to run Wednesday night on all of the major television networks – except ABC.

The senator from Illinois this month arranged to buy Wednesday's 8 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. slot on CBS, NBC and Spanish-language network Univision. Fox Broadcasting joined the field after Major League Baseball agreed to delay the start time of Wednesday's World Series game.

Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC, however, initially balked at selling its 8 p.m. Wednesday slot, saying it didn’t want to bump its regularly scheduled series, “Pushing Daisies,” even though the whimsical show has been struggling in the ratings.

ABC executives said the earlier decision not to accept the Obama infomercial was due to the problem of filling the second half hour of the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. time period – and not for political reasons. (Scheduling conflicts did not stop NBC from quickly clearing its hour to make room for the commercial. NBC preempted its hour-long series “Knight Rider” and expanded the game show “Deal or No Deal” from 60 to 90 minutes to fill the extra time.)

CBS pushed “The New Adventures of Old Christine” to 8:30 p.m. and dumped an episode of its new series “Gary Unmarried.” Fox persuaded Major League Baseball to delay by about 15 minutes the start time of Wednesday’s game so the network could air the Obama ad at 8 p.m. in the Eastern and Central time zones. In California, the campaign commercial will follow the game.

Then, about 10 days ago, ABC changed its mind. It told the campaign the Wednesday 8 p.m. slot would be available after all. “We ultimately offered them the time slot that they had requested,” a network spokesman said today.

ABC had planned to charge slightly more than $1 million for the half hour, a higher rate than what Fox, CBS and NBC charged the Democrat for their time.

But it was too late.

“We had already committed our resources by the time they offered us the time,” said an Obama campaign spokesman.

That explanation struck some as odd, however, given the Obama money-raising machine generated $150 million in donations in September alone. “The Obama campaign has the resources,” said Peter Sealey, adjunct marketing professor at the Peter Drucker Graduate Management School at the Claremont Graduate University.

Sealey said that if the Obama campaign had bought the time on ABC it would have accomplished the rare feat of what’s called a “roadblock.” Channel flippers would have a hard time avoiding the ad because it was seemingly everywhere.

“It’s amazing that they got everyone – but not ABC, one of the top-rated television networks,” Sealey said. “Maybe the campaign decided that they didn’t need the extra ratings points.”

-- Meg James

Cometh the penguin (to a box store near you)

It was only a matter of time before Club Penguin's online inhabitants waddled into retail.

Walt Disney Co. has licensed a toy line based on its popular virtual world for kids -- just in time for the holidays. 

As with the avatars that wander the snow-covered online community, these stuffed penguins and plastic figures come dressed in an assortment of costumes (bees, aliens, superheroes, pirates, etc.). Even their virtual pets, known as "puffles," can be found in plush, selling for $10 each.

Such a move by Disney Consumer Products was all but inevitable after Disney's acquisition of Club Penguin in August 2007. Until then, Club Penguin sold a limited assortment of stuffed puffles as a promotional item, but had not created a full line of toys inspired by the flightless waterfowl. 

Hollywood learned long ago that penguins are box-office gold.

The documentary "March of the Penguins" was the sleeper hit of the summer of 2005, grossing more than $77.5 million for Warner Independent Pictures. The following summer,  Warner Bros. reprised the penguin theme with the animated hit "Happy Feet," which sang and danced up $198 million in domestic box office.

Disney could lay claim to giving penguins their cinematic debut as Dick Van Dyke's dancing partners in the 1964 film "Mary Poppins." 

-- Dawn C. Chmielewski

(Photo of the 6.5-inch stuffed figure courtesy of Stuart Ramson for Disney Consumer Products).

'Twilight' Countdown: Before they were vampires

23 days left...

Today brings a then-and-now look at the "Twilight" stars before and after they got cast into Stephenie Meyer's vampire saga. Enjoy!

And tomorrow ... Edi Gathegi answers your questions.

-- Denise Martin

Related:

Complete 'Twilight' Countdown coverage
Complete 'Twilight' coverage on Hero Complex

FilmL.A. selects new president

FilmL.A., the nonprofit group that coordinates on-location film permits for the city and much of Los Angeles County, has tapped a Hollywood outsider to run the organization.

FilmL.A. said Monday that it had hired Paul Audley, formerly Arizona state director for the conservation group Trust for Public Land, as its new president. Audley replaces Steve MacDonald, who resigned this year to take another job.

Despite his lack of experience in the entertainment industry, Audley was tapped for his skills as a consensus builder and experience working with nonprofit organizations. Audley, 51, is a former mayor of Fairfield, Conn. He also served as Connecticut's deputy secretary of state.

Audley will face a daunting challenge in his new job. The organization has struggled in recent years to balance the needs of filmmakers and residents who've grown increasingly impatient about filming in their neighborhoods, prompting calls for the city to improve efforts to enforce film permits.

"You have competing interests all being served by the same organization,'' Audley said. "I have a huge amount to learn, but I'm a quick study."

-- Richard Verrier

Photo: Paul Audley, who replaces Steve MacDonald at FilmL.A.

'Twilight' Countdown: Taylor Lautner takes your questions

24 days left...

Taylor Lautner, 16, who plays one third of the Bella-Edward-Jacob love triangle in “Twilight,” might just be the busiest of the movie's cast members.

Today he has several meetings and a few hours worth of interviews, and he’s still filming NBC's “My Own Worst Enemy.” Lucky for us, he took a timeout to talk about “Twilight,” women’s underwear and giving fan advice to costars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

(One note: I tried to get in as many of your questions as possible, but I had limited time with Taylor today. The good news is that there will be at least two more opportunities for me to pry more information out of him, so keep your questions coming in the comments below.)

Talk to me about the sequels. Are you bulking up to play a werewolf? What’s the status?
They haven’t made any decisions whatsoever about sequels. I’m sure they’re going to wait for 'Twilight' to come out and see how it does before they make any decisions. It’s just a matter of waiting and seeing what Summit wants to do. But it would be fun. I try not to get my hopes up and even think about it.

Have you had any discussions with the director [Catherine Hardwicke] or anyone about it?
Not really. I tried to once, but she just didn’t even want to go there. Nobody wants to go there! It’s hard!

But there’s reason to hope, right? Because you’ve been in character as “older” Jacob before …
Yes, during the auditions. I originally met with Catherine and she wanted me to do a ‘chemistry read’ with Kristen Stewart. We did a few scenes from the first book, like the beach scene, and then we read some lines straight out of the books “New Moon” and “Eclipse.”

Which parts did you read?
I don’t remember the specific scenes, but I do know that the scenes I did showed a huge difference in Jacob’s character. He goes from happy-go-lucky and friendly in “Twilight” to when he’s more of a werewolf and more of an adult, all intense and grumpy. She wanted to see as much of me playing the different sides to Jacob as possible.

'Kung Fu Panda' to drive DreamWorks Animation third-quarter results

One of the things about being a small Hollywood studio is that results swing heavily based on the performance of single film. That will be amply demonstrated Tuesday when DreamWorks Animation SKG releases its third-quarter earnings.

"Kung Fu Panda," which was released in June, has become one of DreamWorks' most successful movies, generating $630 million in worldwide ticket sales. The movie's box-office performance -- it hasn't come out on DVD yet -- has prompted some analysts to raise DreamWorks earnings estimates for the year.

But as good as it is, "Kung Fu Panda's" performance won't be enough to overcome unfavorable comparisons, thanks to the even better showing of "Shrek 3" in the same period last year.  As a result, net income for DreamWorks Animation is expected to decline 34% to 31 cents a share, while revenues are forecast to drop 19% to $130 million, according to analysts polled by Thomson/First Call.

Despite the mayhem on Wall Street, however, analysts generally are upbeat about DreamWorks' outlook, viewing the company as less vulnerable to an economic downturn because, unlike some of the larger studios, it doesn't have any major advertising-supported businesses. And they have high hopes for "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa,"  which debuts Nov. 7. Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst Michael Pachter predicts the "Madagascar" sequel will do nearly $450 million in worldwide ticket sales.

"I think they will do well in the economic downturn," Pachter said.

To be sure, DreamWorks faces challenges. The studio has banked heavily on 3-D technology, which has been slow to take hold in theaters.  And DreamWorks has yet to match the track record of its rival, Walt Disney's Pixar Animation Studios, which scored its ninth consecutive critical and commerical hit this summer with "Wall-E." (Disney's in-house animated feature, "Bolt," hits theaters Nov. 21.)

"Kung Fu Panda was very successful,'' said Doug Creutz, a media analyst with Cowen & Co. "The key for them is to show that they can do that consistently and not just once every few years."

--Richard Verrier

'Twilight' Countdown: Vote for your favorite scene

25 days left ... And the excitement is building. I'm curious to know what you guys are most stoked about seeing.

-- Denise Martin

Photo:  David Strick / Hollywood Backlot

'Twilight' Countdown: Why are you running, Edward?

26 days left...

Introducing Caption this! Saturdays. This little-seen picture of Edward darting through the woods practically begs for a good caption. Be creative. You can find inspiration here and here.

Give it your best shot below and next Saturday the winners will be celebrated right here.

In other news, on Monday I'll also be talking to Ed Gathegi, who plays bad vamp Laurent. If you've got questions for the actor, I'll get the answers.

Twilight Lexicon says that tickets for the first midnight "Twilight" showings are on sale for select locations. Check with your local theaters.

Finally, keep the soundtrack reviews coming -- I have yet to hear anything positive!

-- Denise Martin

Photo credit:
Robert Pattinson in "Twilight" / Summit Entertainment
Ed Gathegi / WireImage

Related:
All 'Twilight' Countdown posts

New report: EMI lost $1.2 billion, revenue declined

To paraphrase one of its late great former acts, when EMI was 77, it wasn’t a very good year.

According to new figures just released, the underdog of the four major labels suffered losses of $1.2 billion in the financial year ended March 31, far deeper than the prior year’s $455 million. Revenue declined to $2.3 billion from $2.8 billion. 

The report came from Maltby Capital, owned by funds managed by Guy Hands' private equity firm Terra Firma, which purchased EMI -- home of Katy Perry and Coldplay -- last year.

The loss stems from “poor" operational performance, according to the company, which cites in particular a high-spending culture (including high executive salaries), overly traditional artist relationships and poor reporting of data related to artist profitability.

Those practices meant that, despite EMI’s strong artist roster and well-performing publishing business, the company finances suffered. EMI lost its third-place rank among the labels to Warner Music Group in 2006. Physical CD sales for the label fell 45% from 2005 to 2007, the report notes, even though the average market decline was 19%. Also, the label’s digital music revenue has had slower growth than the industry overall.

“EMI Music had a history of signing great artists but had not adapted sufficiently to the changing consumer market for music,” the report states.

And, the report suggests, the company may not see solid returns from signing those great artists, either. The report notes that EMI artists’ marketing and production budgets generously estimate likely sales. In the end, marketing and production eat up on average 81% of sales; nearly 9 in 10 EMI artists aren’t profitable.

Still, the report states that a change in strategy and operations, pursued out of the public-company spotlight, could turn the company around, if slowly.

“[T]here should be no false expectations,” the report reads. “EMI cannot be turned around overnight.”

EMI spokesman Neil Bennett noted also that since the end of the financial year, much of EMI's restructuring has moved forward.

"An awful lot has happened since then," he says. "EMI is a company going through radical change." 

--Swati Pandey

*Photo: Katy Perry. Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

'Twilight' Countdown: Burning questions for Taylor Lautner

27 days to go...

On Monday, I'll be talking to Taylor Lautner, who as you all know plays young Jacob Black in "Twilight." Taylor has already done tons and tons of press for the movie ... which is why I'm asking for your help.

Submit your burning questions into the comments section below and I'll make sure they get to him. (And by "they," I mean appropriate questions, friends. Yes to questions about Taylor, "Twilight" and "My Own Worst Enemy." No to marriage proposals and standalone shout-outs. Sorry!)

So fire away! What do you still want to know? 

Here's at least one thing that I want to know: If sequels to the first film get made -- is there really any doubt? -- will Taylor continue in the role? Remember, in "New Moon" he's still 16 years old, but is supposed to appear to be 25 -- a perk of being half werewolf. How will director Catherine Hardwicke handle that?

Also, a reminder about tonight's "Twilight" soundtrack listening parties at all Hot Topic stores. From Stephenie Meyer's official Web site:

Exclusive Twilight Listening Parties at Hot Topic stores:

Be one of the first people to hear the entire Twilight soundtrack (in-stores November 4th). Hot Topic will be hosting exclusive listening parties at all of their locations on Friday, October 24th at 7pm. They'll be playing every song, including the previously unreleased songs from Paramore, Rob Pattinson, Perry Farrell and Mutemath, PLUS hear the unveiling of "Bella's Lullaby." Hot Topic is also offering 10% off your Twilight purchase at the event and you can preorder the soundtrack to get a special gift.

To those of you who go, drop me a line. Leave your reviews here. I think it's safe to say that there will be many who want to know what "Never Think" sounds like.

And with that, I leave you with this Taylor-rific video from the actor's XMA (extreme martial arts) days. Love the scream.

-- Denise Martin

Photo credit: Michael Buckner / Getty Images