Category: International

MUMBAI: Actor Johnny Palermo, who appeared in more than 30 television shows in his brief career, died June 8 in an early morning car accident in North Hollywood. He was 27.

His girlfriend, Alessandra Giangrande, who was driving at the time, was also killed, and her brother suffered serious injuries. Palermo and Giangrande were pronounced dead at the scene.

Palermo was a regular on the Nickelodeon series “Just for Kicks” and appeared in three episodes of the CW‘s “Everybody Hates Chris” as Frank DiPaolo, Chris‘ recurring, overgrown classmate.

Palermo also appeared in Cold Case, General Hospital,CSI: Miami, . This fall, the native of Rochester, N.Y., can be seen in the indie film Pizza With Bullets.

MUMBAI: CSI: NY‘s Peter Lenkov has inked a new two-year overall deal with CBS TV Studios, as series producer. Under the seven-figure pact, Lenkov will continue as an executive producer on the crime drama, which returns for a sixth season in the fall.

Lenkov joined CSI: NY after the first season in 2005 as a co-exec producer, but his association with the “CSI” franchise and CBS TV Studios president David Stapf dates back another five years.

In fall 2000, Lenkov was a writer-producer on a new UPN series, Level 9, which aired in the 9 p.m. Friday slot against another rookie drama, CBS‘ CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. He said he was so intrigued by the promos for “CSI” that he found himself watching the forensic drama instead of his own series.

On the morning after the CSI premiere, Lenkov went to his daughter‘s soccer game and approached Stapf, then CBS‘ head of current programming, who was coaching the team. “I told David Stapf, ‘You have the best show on television,‘ ” Lenkov recalled. “I was so impressed by ‘CSI‘ and wanted to be in involved in that franchise.”

Lenkov and Stapf crossed paths professionally in 2003 when Lenkov joined the CBS‘ The District as a co-executive producer. There he worked with Pam Veasey, who soon became the drama ‘s showrunner.

After a one-season stint on Fox‘s 24, Lenkov got a call in 2005 from Veasey, then newly minted exec producer-showrunner of CSI: NY, who invited him to join the series.

MUMBAI: Despite interest from TBS to continue the canceled NBC series with new episodes, both 20th Century Fox TV and creator/executive producer Greg Garcia have opted not to move forward, putting an end to the offbeat comedy after four seasons.

The decision came after the studio conducted preliminary talks with TBS and examined the cuts it would have had to make to produce the single-camera broadcast series for the cable network.

“While we had hoped to find a way to produce additional episodes for TBS, in the final analysis we simply could not make the economics work without seriously undermining the artistic integrity of the series,” 20th TV said Thursday. “As none of us, Greg included, want the show to go out on anything but a high note, we regret that we must put to rest any speculation that Earl will continue.”

We are grateful to everyone at TBS for their enthusiasm for the series and wish to offer our heartfelt thanks to the cast and crew of My Name Is Earl for their incredible work.”

TBS owns off-network syndication rights to the comedy and will begin airing it in the fall.

MUMBAI: Members of the Screen Actors Guild have voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract with the major Hollywood studios, ending a nearly year-long standoff.
The delay resulted in the union‘s missing out on millions of dollars in potential pay increases and on contracts to represent actors on many of next fall‘s new television series.

The union announced Tuesday night that 78 per cent of those who voted supported the contract. About 35 percent of the union‘s 110,000 members returned ballots. The votes in favor of the contract exceeded 70 per cent in all three of the union‘s major divisions, including in Hollywood, where much of the most high-profile opposition was centered.

The new, two-year contract gives the union a 3 per cent wage increase immediately and a 3.5 per cent increase after one year. In addition, it provides a number of benefits for actors working on material created for digital distribution, including residual payments for ad-supported Internet streaming of feature films and television programs.

Those benefits came at a cost, however. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the major Hollywood studios, offered essentially the same terms to the Screen Actors Guild when its previous contract expired a year ago.

The producers‘ alliance first reached contracts with several other unions, including those representing directors, writers and a rival union representing actors. The Screen Actors Guild initially took a hard line in negotiations, but a lack of progress eventually led to the ouster of the union‘s executive director and its chief negotiator.

The producers‘ alliance hailed the ratification as “good news for the entertainment industry.” In a statement, the alliance said: “We look forward to working with S.A.G. members – and with everyone else in our industry – to emerge from today‘s significant economic challenges with a strong and growing business.”

MUMBAI: Just days before the transition to digital TV, 2.8 million households, or 2.5 per cent of the TV market, are unprepared. According to Nielsen‘s final update, the new tally is half of the 5.8 million that were unprepared in February, when the government postponed the transition by three months.

At a news conference in Los Angeles on Wednesday, acting FCC chairman Michael Copps reiterated the importance of the transition and said the agency was expecting relatively minor problems when the switchover begins Friday.

“This is the biggest transition in television, an even bigger transition than black and white to color,” Copps said. “Our whole society is going digital, and broadcast needs to be a part of that transition.”

Copps the Barack Obama appointed head of the FCC was also critical of the government‘s handling of the transition during the past two years.
Copps said the freed-up bandwidth will help establish a public safety network, as well as provide more room for wireless and broadband applications.

“We‘ve got some humps and bumps to navigate; there‘s still a number of people who don‘t know what to do,” Copps said. “We knew this transition was coming; the government was late getting itself organized … but we are where we are and have to make this transition.”

The FCC has employed 4,000 phone operators to be standing by through the weekend to handle calls coming through their information line (888-225-5322). Some broadcasters are layering on their own initiatives to help viewers make the switch. For example, in Los Angeles, the TV stations have set up their own phone bank to help ease the transition.

MUMBAI: Peter Hedges has signed on to write and direct The Odd Life of Timothy Green, a modern-day fable for Disney. Green is based on an idea by Ahmet Zappa, who will produce with Scott Sanders.

Disney is keeping plot details under tight wraps, though it is understood to be a high priority for the studio as well as very personal to Zappa. Disney president of production Oren Aviv is overseeing with vp production LouAnne Brickhouse. Mara Jacobs is exec producing.

Zappa is a principal at Disney-based production shingle Monsterfoot Prods. and also runs Kingdom Comics, the studio‘s graphic novel publishing unit.

CAA-repped Hedges wrote and directed the Steve Carell dramedy Dan in Real Life for Disney. He was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing the adaptation of About a Boy and is working on Everything Changes a drama set up at Columbia with Tobey Maguire attached to star.

MUMBAI: Veteran NBC comedy and current executive Erin Gough Wehrenberg has joined Warner Bros. TV as senior vice president comedy development.

Gough Wehrenberg, who exited as the No. 2 executive at Universal Media Studios as part of an NBC executive shake-up in December, will run day-to-day operations of WBTV‘s comedy department, reporting to executive vp creative affairs Len Goldstein.

Gough Wehrenberg, who starts Aug. 1, will fill a position that had been vacant since WBTV‘s previous head of comedy, senior vice president Marianne Cracchiolo Mago, left the entertainment business in 2007.

For the past two years, WBTV‘s comedy development efforts were spearheaded by Goldstein with the help of vps comedy Lisa Lang and Wendy Steinhoff-Baldikoski, who will work under Gough Wehrenberg.

Gough Wehrenberg spent 13 years at NBC Entertainment and sister production company UMS, most recently as executive vice president at UMS, where she oversaw comedy development and current programming for comedy and drama series until UMS merged with NBC in December.

From 2004-08, Gough Wehrenberg worked in series programming at NBC Entertainment, rising to executive vice president current series. She supervised such shows as 30 Rock,Friday Night Lights, Heroes, My Name Is Earl, The Office and Medium.

MUMBAI: James Van Der Beek and his wife actress Heather McComb, have split up, according to the actor‘s

secretary.

“They remain good friends,” the secretary declared which reports that the couple separated two months ago.

Van Der Beek and McComb, both 32, tied the knot in Malibu in July 2003, not long after Dawson‘s Creek wrapped its sixth and final season.

McComb had a four-episode run on Prison Break last year, while Van Der Beek has been guest-starring all over the place since packing it in as Dawson Leery.

MUMBAI

: Producer Frank Marshall is making a rare foray into directing, conceiving and taking on the documentary Right to Play for ESPN Films. The picture, which will be part of the cable network‘s 30 for 30 series, will examine Norwegian speed-skating great Johann Olav Koss and his Right to Play organisation, which aims to bring sports to children in poverty-stricken and war-torn areas.

Koss won three gold medals at the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway, but after retiring decided that instead of taking it easy he would found the nonprofit organization and travel around the world spreading its gospel. Right to Play, which now has scores of employees and volunteers, works on continents ranging from Africa to Europe to South America organizing sporting events and providing the means for kids to play.

Marshall has begun shooting in places such as Pakistan and plans to head soon to Africa to explore some of Koss‘ work there. Footage will include, among other things, a soccer game in the Middle East between Israeli and Palestinian clubs that are affiliated with Right to Play. The documentary should be ready in 2010, Marshall said, with plans to also shoot at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver next year.

A prolific producer behind hits like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and franchises including the Indiana Jones and Jason Bourne series, Marshall occasionally has undertaken projects as a director. Perhaps best known for the 1990 thriller Arachnophobia, he most recently helmed the Disney survival tale “Eight Below” in 2006.

ESPN‘s ambitious 30 for 30 series pairs high-profile filmmakers with sports-related passion for hour-long documentaries. Spike Lee, Pete Berg, Barry Levinson and Barbara Kopple have all previously signed on for the series, which will debut in the fall.

MUMBAI: In a clear move toward moderation, Screen Actors Guild members have overwhelming ratified a two-year feature-primetime contract with a 78% yes vote.

The vote brought down the curtain on a year-long drama that‘s left the guild mired in acrimony and the town dogged by uncertainty.

“This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future,” said David White, interim national exec director.

Turnout among the 110,000 eligible members was a higher-than-normal 35%. And the vote also represented a stinging rebuke to SAG president Alan Rosenberg and his allies who have insisted on holding out for a better deal – and going on strike if the congloms failed to comply.

“It may be due to fatigue, fear and the economy,” Rosenberg said. “This contract will have a devastating impact.”

Despite allowing the SAG master contract to expire a year ago, guild leaders wound up with essentially the same deal signed last year by the DGA, WGA and AFTRA. After the moderates fired Doug Allen for allegedly botching the negotiations, the only concession that White and chief negotiator John McGuire got from the congloms was a two-year term – placing SAG‘s June 30, 2011 termination in synch with the other unions.