BC Crawler

Tuesday, November 13, 2007
November 13, 2007

By Alex Weprin

[Real Life Drama!] Writers for CBS’ The Young and the Restless are crossing the picket lines to go back to work. Says Variety: “a high-ranking writer-producer on CBS's "The Young and the Restless" has informed the WGA that he plans to go "financial core" -- that is, give up full membership in the guild and withhold the dues spent on political activities in order to continue writing during the strike.”

[Brothers in Keyboards] 22 TV fan blogs are going dark today in solidarity with the WGA. The blogs are encouraging fans to sign the online petition asking for support of the union. Says Glowy Box: “we are coming together to express our strong support for the writers and their goals. We believe that when a writer's work makes money for a company, that writer deserves to be paid.”

[Sacre Bleu!] Europeans, particularly 16-24 year old Europeans, are increasingly getting their media fix from the web, rather than television. 82 percent use the Web between 5 and seven days a week, while only 77 percent watch TV regularly, a drop of 6% from last year. European users age 55 or older saw a 12 percent jump in internet usage. More than 80 percent of all respondents said they “couldn’t live” without some Internet activity. What else is there to say? The Internet is where its at.

[Lawyers, and Lawyer’s Socialite Daughters] FX picked up seasons two and three of the hour long legal drama Damages, while E! picked up a second season of Keeping up with the Kardashians, a “reality” show which follows the wacky hijinks of Kim Kardashian.

 Kardashian is best known for being the daughter of OJ Simpson lawyer Robert Kardashian, and going to parties, and being in a sex tape. Think Paris Hilton but with slightly  less money… and a reality TV show. This is what a writers strike gets us.

[Freedom, Sweet Sweet Freedom] News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch has said that he expects to make WSJ.com, the web site of the  recently acquired Wall Street Journal; free to all visitors, currently it uses a subscription system. Says Murdoch: “"We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having one million (subscribers), having at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth."

Well that doesn’t sound Mr. Burnsish at all.

[ELLEN PUPPY UPDATE] Alright, now for the news you really want. Iggy, the dog that left Ellen in tears on her show, has a new gig: TV commercial star! The dog will star in a series of public service announcement s promoting pet adoption. Just make sure you don’t give any of your adopted pets to housekeepers. On a positive note: Iggy can now join Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Lassie in the TV canine hall of fame.

[The Networks Must Love the Mitt Right Now] Republican Presidential candidate Mutt Romney is spending an average of $85,000 a day on TV advertising. Romney has already spent 10.2 million in TV advertising this year, a record. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) leads the Democratic field with $3.9 million in TV ads. The closest Republican to Romney is Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) who has spent only $300,000 in TV campaign ads.

Posted by BC Crawler on November 13, 2007 | Comments (0)