Teri Hatcher Unhitched
Not even Superman could save Teri Hatcher's marriage.
The ex-Lois Lane has filed for divorce from her husband of eight years, actor Jon Tenney, citing the usual bugaboo, "irreconcilable differences."
According to a petition submitted in Los Angeles Superior Court on Friday, the couple have agreed to joint custody of their five-year-old daughter, Emerson Rose, but she will live with Hatcher, Los Angeles' City News Service reports.
No immediate word on how the actors will split their assets.
Hatcher and Tenney met on a blind date and married in May 1994. Emerson Rose was born three years later.
This is the second marriage to end in divorce for Hatcher, 38. Her first, to personal trainer Markus Leithold, imploded after a mere 10 months in 1988.
A onetime mermaid on The Love Boat, Hatcher shot to fame opposite Dean Cain on ABC's Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, which ran from 1993 to 1997 and made her one of the Internet's most popular downloads. Stints as a Bond babe in Tomorrow Never Dies and as Jerry's well-endowed date Sidra ("they're real and they're fabulous") on Seinfeld didn't hurt, either.
More recently, Hatcher has cranked out TV movies (Running Mates, Jane Doe), starred as Sally Bowles in the national tour of Cabaret and appeared in Spy Kids, but received her biggest exposure hawking Radio Shack products alongside Howie Long and Ving Rhames.
Hatcher has two indie movies in the pipeline for 2003--Momentum, a drama costarring Louis Gossett Jr., and Two Girls from Lemoore, a comedy with Ally McBeal's Portia de Rossi.
Tenney, 41, has bounced around Hollywood for years and is probably best known for his stint as the top cop on the CBS series Brooklyn South. His résumé also includes You Can Count on Me, Fools Rush In, Tombstone, Lassie, Free Willy 2, Beverly Hills Cop III and a 2001 episode of Will & Grace. His next role is in a film called Second Born, due out later this year.
BIG FAT RATINGS
The premiere of My Big Fat Greek Life on February 24 attracted just under 23 million viewers, on par with the week's most popular show CSI, while the second episode of Life, airing in its regular Sunday timeslot March 2, was watched by 16.6 million.
Will Oscar Soldier On If War Comes?
By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY
The Oscars will probably go on. That's as specific as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences can be, as war with Iraq seems unavoidable.
With talk centering on a mid-March attack, the timing couldn't be worse for the planned March 23 Oscar telecast. But even if troops invade, the ABC show — second only to the Super Bowl in annual viewership — is unlikely to be delayed, academy officials say.
"The issue has come up before, and we've taken a very hard-line stance saying it will go on no matter what," says producer Mark Johnson, an academy board member. "The theory being that the country loves entertainment during moments of crisis."
No contingency plans are in place and no formal discussions have been held, academy spokesman John Pavlik says. "We have to wait and see."
But what to do if war begins is likely to be a topic of discussion at tonight's academy board meeting.
"I know the producer and the people upstairs have it in their minds, but not in a way that it's written on paper," Pavlik says.
At ABC, discussions are being held as to how to tastefully break in on Oscar coverage with news from the war.
"If there are world events that warrant coverage on the night of the Academy Awards, ABC News will bring them to the American audience with the full support of the academy," ABC senior vice president Kevin Brockman says.
Academy president Frank Pierson said in a statement: "The possibility of war or a high security alert are always on our minds, as they must be to most people. Our security plans are aimed at making people at the Oscars ... feel both safe and comfortable. We will meet any new or unexpected events with these goals as our guidelines."
In 2001, the Emmy awards show was postponed twice in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A similar catastrophic event is one possible scenario that might postpone the Oscars.
History favors soldiering on.
"We held it every year during World War II," Pavlik says. "But the industry was so involved in the war effort in those days."
Those days were also pre-television and the ceremony was not the multimillion-dollar enterprise it is today. Plus, this is the Oscars' 75th anniversary.
But both the ceremony and the parties may be scaled-down affairs, says Jeffrey Best, whose company Best Events is planning Oscar parties for Miramax and Paramount Pictures. "For a celebrity, it's probably not proper to have a picture of yourself sipping champagne and eating caviar when American troops are fighting."
Film Flops Flourish On DVD, VHS
(CNN) -- Have you ever waited until a movie reached DVD or video because you were embarrassed to be seen watching it in the theater?
Was it the big-budget, sci-fi, box office flop "Battlefield Earth" (2000) starring John Travolta? Or was it race-car action film "Driven" (2001) with Sylvester Stallone and Burt Reynolds?
Those movies and many others can get more attention on DVD and video because of "the curiosity factor," says BET.com senior entertainment producer James Hill. "It's like porn. Actually going to see it in a theater invites too many eyes -- it's like a public admission that you like something everyone else says is bad."
Or maybe you heard good things about a film, but didn't have time to see it in the theater. Or, perhaps, you just didn't want to shell out nine bucks at the time, and the film went away before it had a chance to become successful.
Regardless of the situation, weak box office returns are not necessarily a film's death sentence anymore. Films that failed to come close to the $100 million mark in theaters can sometimes catch their second wind in DVD and video sales and rentals. Comedies "Office Space" (1999) and Ice Cube's "Friday" are examples of second-wind flicks.
"Films offered in limited release and only marginally promoted, and films with dark or heady messages that studios think audiences can't handle" are other examples of rental films that can hit it big the second time around, says Jim Farrelly, director of the film minor program at the University of Dayton.
Or guilty pleasures, such as "Battlefield Earth," "Driven," and "Steven Seagal's kickboxing films," says market analyst and Alexander and Associates president Bob Alexander.
Studios count on these second chances. VHS and DVD rental and retail count for the largest percentage of a studio's revenues, according to Randy Hargrove at Blockbuster's corporate headquarters in Dallas, Texas.
"Renting a movie is less a commitment than going out to a movie," Hargrove says.
Second chances
"Office Space" made a measly $10.8 million at the box office in 1999, but word of mouth made it a popular pick among renters.
Video and DVD rentals and sales are "a deciding factor when it comes to making sequels," says Pat Moran, an analyst at Alexander and Associates in New York City. He says studio heads would have never been interested in making "Shanghai Knights" (2003) with Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan if "Shanghai Noon" (2000) had not caught their attention with cash made from video and DVD sales and rentals.
Similarly, 1989's "Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!" would never have emerged from the "dark side" if 1983's first "Eddie" flick had not done so well on video, observes Keith Simanton, managing editor at IMDb.com, adding that the "Eddie" sequel may have been the first major second-wind movie.
Even blockbusters can arise from video success. "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" did reasonably well at the box office in 1997 but made a killing when it became available to rent, prompting two increasingly successful sequels.
A big renter from 2002 worth noting is "Monster's Ball." Moran argues Halle Berry's Oscar probably prompted interest in the film, since "Ball" made a mere $22.9 million in initial box office sales. Also, Sean Penn's Oscar nomination for "I Am Sam" (2001) boosted interest in that film when it became available to rent.
Moran says horror movies typically do better the second time around, which explains the success of 2002 renters "Thirteen Ghosts" and "Jeepers Creepers."
Horror film "Stir of Echoes" (1999), with Kevin Bacon, and the thriller "Don't Say a Word" (2001), starring Michael Douglas, also did exceptionally well on video and DVD, according to Hargrove.
When it comes to video and DVD releases, Moran says, "word of mouth has a stronger presence than it does at the box office because videos are out longer than films are, typically." If people praise a movie they saw three months ago on video, their friends can still go out and rent it, Moran says.
The home entertainment pie
But renters should beware -- second-wind movies are not always easily available. "Second-wind movies are usually underbought [by video stores] and hard to rent. That alone makes them desirable," Farrelly says.
Even though several factors play into the success of a second-wind movie, Hargrove says, "In 2002, the American public watched more pre-packaged movies at home than ever before. ... The home entertainment pie is growing."
Experts also say the future of second-wind movies is in DVD sales. "DVDs have new material, they offer insight and 'insider' information and they allow access to the proverbial 'favorite scenes' without excessive remote manipulation," Farrelly says.
Hill adds, "With outlets competing with increasingly lower prices for DVDs, it's probable that people will be buying second-wind DVDs they've never seen instead of renting them."
New Street Date Information
Bond Is Back!
As we told you last week, MGM Home Entertainment has announced a June 3rd release date for the latest 007 adventure, DIE ANOTHER DAY. No specs have been revealed as of yet, but separate widescreen and pan & scan editions will be releaed, each retailing $29.95. Expect a full announcement in the coming days...
How Long Is It?
In late-breaking news from Universal Studios Home Video, the next Best Picture Oscar nominee to get a DVD release date is Roman Polanski's highly-acclaimed THE PIANIST, now consider a dark horse favorite by many to take home the gold. Universal will release the film on April 15th in separate anamorphic widescreen and full screen special editions.
It Was A Huge Disappointment To Me
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has just announced a July 1st retail date for Martin Scorsese's GANGS OF NEW YORK, the auteur's controversial epic that has drawn reactions right down the middle - some love it, others hate it. I hate it. No specs have yet to be announced for the release.
Coen Brothers Coming Soon!
Just in are the long-awaited details on two Coen Brothers cult classics finally making their DVD debuts, BARTON FINK and MILLER'S CROSSING. Fox will issue both films on May 20th, each with newly-remastered anamorphic widescreen transfers and English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks. Neither include audio commentaries, but there are some extras: Barton Fink features 8 deleted scenes, while Miller's Crossing includes cast interviews with Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden and John Torturro. Both feature trailers, and retail is $19.95 a pop!
Finally, Big Rumours!
Word coming in from retail sources is that Fox's DAREDEVIL: Special Edition will street in early to mid-June (the 10th is the date that's apparently being targeted). If everything holds together, that same day you can expect SOLARIS as well. And JUST MARRIED will follow later in the month.