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Ben Silverman Totally Wants To Party With Ben Silverman
5:10AM Mark | In an interview with TV Week following his selection as one of the trade publication’s “12 To Watch”, always-quotable NBC perfect storm Ben Silverman was asked to reflect on his oft-controversial tenure as the network’s designated rock-star and what, if anything, he might have done differently if given a second chance. But while he seems to admit that he could stand to work on his propensity for baring his razor-sharp, rival-eviscerating Peacock talons each time he’s placed in the threatening presence of a recording device (the infamous “D-Girls” and “Ugly, Prom-Ruining WGA Nerds” incidents immediately come to mind), he still finds his own candor fun and refreshing. In short: Ben Silverman is someone Ben Silverman would want to hang with: With Mr. Silverman seemingly on the verge of uncharacteristic self-abasement, I asked if he were an outsider who had read all of his comments this past year, would he like himself? What would he think of that bragging, partying executive in the press? More »
Spandex-Clad Robertson Rollerblader’s T-Shirt Line Draws Ire
5:30AM Defamer Hollywood | Kudos to the Wall Street Journal for profiling an atypical celebrity of sorts this morning: John Wesley Jermyn, better known as “The Crazy Robertson” or “The Robertson Dancer” to locals. Jermyn, onetime draft choice for the Kansas City Royals and a fixture for decades on the southern tip of the celebrity-drizzled slice of Robertson, has over the course of two decades made a name for himself by doing one thing and doing it better than anybody else: dancing on rollerblades in riotous sheer spandex outfits. More »
Enraged Blizzard Carpenters Protest, Prefer Universal Music’s Unrelated Locale
5:15AM Defamer Hollywood | Unsatisfied with Blizzard Entertainment’s recent hiring of independent carpentry contractor All Star Installations in Irvine, Carpenters Local 1506 has strategically (albeit somewhat puzzlingly) staged a miniature “hired gun” protest outside Universal Music Group’s Santa Monica office, a highly visible locale tangentially connected within the Vivendi family. It’s always fun to see a protest unfold, but something’s missing in the scene above given the whirlwind events of the last two weeks. Where’s Ray Romano? Where’s Picketing Baby!? Informational, rat-lingo-suffused flyers are currently being passed out in lieu of churros: More »
Update: Innovative, William Morris Putting Assistants Out On The Streets
6:00AM Defamer Hollywood | [Note: an update follows after the jump.] As it turns out, those call-rollers who were told that they’d be sacrificing their overtime pay to help their companies weather the writers strike were the lucky ones, as THR confirms that Innovative Artists has laid off about 10 of its assistants, a move the agency’s head says is necessary for the firm’s survival while the flow of executive-nourishing commission checks slows to a trickle:
“If in my judgment I need to make changes … (or) cut expense accounts, I’m going to do what every one of my competitors is doing,” Innovative owner Scott Harris said. “I need to take measures to survive what could be a very lengthy strike. My priority is to keep this business running.” Harris said that he has no plans at this time to lay off any executives but that more assistants will probably be let go.
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Fundraising Shocker: Fred Thompson Probably Not Going To Squeeze Much Money Out Hollywood
12:37AM Defamer Hollywood | With Law & Order star Fred Thompson’s well-publicised announcement of his presidential candidacy still fresh in everyone’s minds, the LAT’s Cause Cèlebré column takes an opportunity to evaluate the former senator’s prospects for raising some of the seemingly limitless industry cash that rains down from the Southern California sky each time Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama set foot within the Los Angeles city limits. Unsurprisingly, the Times finds that the Republican’s Hollywood fundraising time would be better spent robbing some Famimas at gunpoint rather than waiting around for a gay billionaire to throw him a Malibu beach party: So what’s Thompson to do? Take the show on the road and rake in the dollars elsewhere. The place that made the former Tennessee senator rich as an actor cannot be counted on to pour cash into his presidential run, especially if he’s going around bashing gay marriage and Roe vs. Wade. The minute he comes out strong against embryonic stem cell research – a fervent Hollywood cause – he’ll be banished from every cocktail party north of Sunset Boulevard. More »
The Infectiously Enthusiastic Ben Silverman
7:15AM Defamer Hollywood | We suspect that we may never tire of reading stories about how new NBC co-chairman/rock-star Ben Silverman plans to remake the last-place network in his own fun-loving, party-positive, hey-let’s-have-that-meeting-at-The-Standard’s-pool! image, especially when such pieces continue to yield details like this one from today’s NY Times article on Hollywood’s high-fivingest new executive: He is now so enthusiastic about the assignment of resurrecting NBC’s fortunes that he brings a small set of chimes along with him to meetings so he can play the three-note N-B-C jingle whenever a happy moment occurs. More »
Kevin Reilly In At Fox, Where He’s Now Sworn To Wipe NBC’s Class From The Face of the Earth
7:10AM Defamer Hollywood | It’s official: the much-rumoured-about Fox reunion of former FX pals Peter Liguori and recent NBC Memorial Day Massacre victim Kevin Reilly (pictured above slipping his business card to Liguori at a luncheon two years ago, knowing he’d one day have to hit up his old boss for a job) has come to pass, with Reilly, as expected, taking over the crucial programming responsibility of shouting at panicked underlings, “I don’t care how the fuck we do it, but I want American Idol on every night from now until the Earth hurtles into the sun!” Variety notes the irony that Fox’s new hire will now have the opportunity to turn the power of that aforementioned Nielsen Death Star against the schedule he meticulously crafted for NBC shortly before his ouster, watching through bittersweet tears as each crass Idol installment wipes out his classy primetime children one by one. [Photo: Getty Images] Fox names Reilly president [Variety] More »
ABC Hits ‘Cavemen’ Pilot With Jagged Rock, Grunts At It To ‘Be Funny Now’
7:00AM Defamer Hollywood | With the heady buzz generated by creating the hybrid sitcomfomercial art form out of the best parts of half-hour TV comedy and thirty-second auto-insurance advertising finally dissipating, pioneering network ABC is starting to second-guess the programming instincts that led them to make the Geico-inspired Cavemen one of the linchpins of their Fall schedule. According to THR, they’ve initiated the dreaded “retooling” process, using the primitive series-salvaging implements of “recasting” and “pilot reshoots” to rescue their Neanderthal-powered racism allegory from looming Nielsen disaster: [Sam] Huntington will play a new caveman character, Andy, who is the younger brother of Joel (Bill English). Andy, who lives in their small hometown, comes to Atlanta to visit his brother after breaking up with his girlfriend. Andy will replace Jamie, Joel’s easygoing little bother character played in the pilot by Dash Mihok. [...] More »
Revealed: The 10 Shows From Which Your Emmy Nominees Will Soon Be Chosen
1:53AM Defamer Hollywood | We’re still a good six weeks out from pretending to care about the Emmys, but LAT Gold Derby blogger Tom O’Neil spent some time this weekend kidnapping TV Academy voters as they left a Beverly Hills Hilton screening of awards candidates, then waterboarding them in the back of a van until they begged their cruel interrogator to exclusively take down the names of the ten contenders that will soon be narrowed down to a mere five nominees. (You’ve never seen a man truly suffer until he’s spent ten minutes trying to cough the words “Grey’s Anatomy” through excruciatingly waterlogged lungs.) While we’d never dare dissipate the delicious tension of the Emmy nominations parties you’ve planned for July 19th by reprinting the lists here, we will note a handful of key snubbees from the drama category: The Shield, Brothers & Sisters, Rescue Me, and [sci-fi fans please look away, for it's just too horrible to contemplate] Battlestar Galactica. The full lists, for TV fans with poor impulse control, can be found here. Report: Top 10 Emmy finalists for drama & comedy series [Gold Derby] More »
