The Morning Fix: Golden Globe analysis. Stephanopoulos’ first day. News Corp. is looking at Flixster. Comedy Store battle isn’t funny.
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After the coffee. Before working on the Golden Globes acceptance speech.
It’s an honor just to be nominated. The Golden Globes, which take place next month, unveiled their nominations this morning. ‘Up in the Air’ landed six nominations while Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep were each nominated twice for two different categories. Oh yeah, and some little movie that’s opening later this month, ‘Avatar’ or something like that, also got some nominations. On the TV side, it’s easier just to say that in drama, cable dominated the broadcast but it was the other way around in comedy. Fox’s ‘Glee’ cleaned up. Early reports and analysis (in other words, these articles are actually different from each other) from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Variety and Hollywood Reporter.
News Corp. looking at Flixster. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. and its social networking site MySpace are kicking the tires of movie gossip site Flixster. News Corp. already owns Rotten Tomatoes, so a combination of the two would seem to be a likely motivation, speculates All Things Digitial. In other Murdoch news, the media mogul apparently is still pretty hands-on and has even been spotted visiting newsstands and inquiring about newspaper sales and placements, according to the Observer.
George’s first day. George Stephanopoulos tried to bring more politics and news than fluff to ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ on his first day as co-anchor. Stephanopoulos, who replaced Diane Sawyer (who is replacing Charlie Gibson on ABC’s ‘World News Tonight’) did not go tabloid on his first day, and that alone may be reason to cheer. New York Times critic Alessandra Stanley and USA Today’s Robert Bianco on Stephanopoulos. Don’t get too excited, he’ll probably be interviewing Tiger Woods’ mistresses soon enough.
Piracy pow-wow. Vice President Joe Biden and other D.C. honchos are meeting with Hollywood big shots today to discuss how to rein in piracy (or as you might call it, the theft of intellectual property). The White House meeting is intended to reiterate the Obama administration’s commitment to battling piracy. Viacom Chief Executive Philippe Dauman will be there as well Warner Bros.’ Barry Meyer and NBC Universal’s Jeff Zucker. Details from Variety.
No money? There’s always TV. Just as the movie industry experienced an up year in down times, TV viewing is up as well, according to a study being released by consulting firm Deloitte. The biggest watchers are the millennial generation (aren’t they the ones who are supposed to be obsessed with that Internet thingy?). Overall average viewing is up to almost 18 hours a week. More from Reuters.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: Disney’s top D.C. lobbyist Preston Padden is retiring after 10 years with the company and more than 30 years storming Capitol Hill for the media industry. Redbox and Paramount have extended their current deal. The battle over the Comedy Store has few laughs.
-- Joe Flint
