Flash!

We're still wondering how Crash beat Brokeback Mountain for best picture. So we can imagine how Bruce Davis must have felt to learn that ABC's Oscar Countdown upset The Price Is Right for most “brand appearances” in primetime.

Davis, executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, was perplexed by a May 31 report from TNS Media Intelligence measuring first-quarter ad expenditures.

According to TNS, the one-hour Oscar pre-show contained 31:28 minutes of brand appearances, or product plugs—a good three minutes more than a primetime edition of Price (a show that is unabashedly all about brand appearances).

But Davis insists that the academy goes out of its way to limit commercial “clutter” and plugs. It even spent $136,000 to avoid any inadvertent plugs.

“We spend prodigious amounts of money every year covering the commercial signage at Hollywood and Highland, so that shots from the red carpet don't become a festival of background product placements,” says Davis.

Turns out TNS counts the nominated films themselves as brand appearances.

Jon Swallen, TNS' director of research, says the company uses a consistent metric that includes references to movie titles and clips featured in montages.

“We are not making a value determination,” Swallen says, “but taking an objective look at programs and cataloguing where we see brand appearances.”

At least they don't count the actors.

Did a family drama erupt in the middle of a Wall Street Journal article last week?

Luke McCormick, a young staffer at video-sharing site Bolt.com, was featured in a June 6 Journal story concerning “Hazy Monday,” a video that he and Bolt colleague Geoff Gresh had produced and posted to the site.

A parody of the “Lazy Sunday” short from Saturday Night Live that went viral before NBC ordered sites like Bolt and YouTube to pull it, “Monday” has McCormick and Gresh rapping about downloading pirated movies.

The article quotes McCormick saying NBC's cease-and-desist orders show it “doesn't really get it” and that letting its clips go viral was “the only thing that was going to get anyone our age to watch Saturday Night Live.”

And by the way, the Journal adds a line later, McCormick's father, Doug, just happens to be an NBC Universal executive (the former Lifetime was CEO of iVillage, a recent NBC U acquisition).

Whoops? Well, no. According to an NBC U spokesperson, McCormick the Elder left iVillage in May.

And in any case, there's no McCormick feud.

“He's very proud of me,” says McCormick. “My dad's just pissed off that I got my picture in the Wall Street Journal before he did.” (Read the complete interview with McCormick the Younger at www.bcbeat.com.)

Waxing idealistic about “a media revolution that's been building steam for years,” Young Luke says his dad “understands what's going on. He's part of the revolution in his own way.”

Happy Father's Day!

Imagine the pitch meeting: “Boss, we've got it! Dancing With the Stars meets David Letterman's 'Stupid Pet Tricks'! That's right! People dancing with animals—and getting judged! We're rich!”

Yes, the folks at Animal Planet must be wagging their tails over Dancing Pet Stars, a one-hour special premiering June 24 at 8 p.m. ET. Hosted by Mario Lopez of Saved by the Bell fame (and here we use “fame” loosely), the show assembles dancing clips from the network's animal-tricks show Pet Stars and ranks the top 20 hoofers.

Typically on Pet Stars, a panel of celebrity judges—including Best in Show judge Fred Willard and ex-Baywatcher Gena Lee Nolin—decides the fates of the beasts and their masters.

An Animal spokeswoman assures us that this isn't just a people dragging dogs around by the front paws. Remarking on a “jive-dancing” golden retriever, she says, “The choreography was complicated.”

We reviewed a few clips on the network's Website. We loved the kilt-wearing, Scottish-jig–dancing German shepherd. But we're setting our TiVos for the horse, of course, that does the hokey-pokey.

But does the Discovery-owned channel really expect to unleash a dancing-pet rage? “Well, there is a huge dance craze now,” the spokeswoman insists. “And it's a fun way to connect with your pet.”

We're sure the pets feel the same way.