'Simpsons' Stars Strike for More D'oh - Report
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The actors who provide the voices for the cartoon characters on the long-running TV show "The Simpsons" have stopped work in a bid to force a settlement of lengthy contract renewal talks, Daily Variety reported in its Thursday edition.
The Hollywood trade paper said the six actors have not shown up for two script readings in the past few weeks, holding up production on the hit satire's upcoming 16th season.
It quoted insiders as saying each cast member is asking for about $360,000 an episode, or $8 million for a 22-episode season. Each member currently earns $125,000 an episode. The highest-paid star in TV is Ray Romano, who reportedly earns between $1.7 million and $2 million per episode of his Emmy-winning series "Everybody Loves Raymond."
The three-year contracts for Dan Castellaneta (Homer), Hank Azaria (Moe, Apu, Comic Book Guy), Harry Shearer (Mr. Burns and others), Yeardley Smith (Lisa), Julie Kavner (Marge) and Nancy Cartwright (Bart) expired several months ago, and their representatives have been negotiating new ones to no avail, Daily Variety said.
The last "Simpsons" work dispute was in 1998, at a time when the actors were making $30,000 per episode. The show's producer, Twentieth Century Fox TV, hired casting directors in five cities to replace most of them before both sides worked out a new deal and resumed production.
"The Simpsons" airs in the United States on the Fox network. Both Fox and Twentieth Century Fox TV are owned by News Corp. Ltd.
Sarandon wanted for Crowe film
Susan Sarandon may be teaming with Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom in Cameron Crowe's upcoming romantic comedy "Elizabethtown," Variety reports.
Sarandon would play the mother of Bloom's character in the movie about an unexpected romance that develops at a Kentucky patriarch's memorial.
Judy Greer, Jessica Biel, Loudon Wainwright III and Paula Dean are also in talks for parts in the movie.
Production on "Elizabethtown" is expected to begin this summer.
Sarandon's other upcoming projects include "Shall We Dance?" with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez, "What Is It About, Alfie?" with Jude Law and Omar Epps, and "Noel" with Alan Arkin, Penelope Cruz and Robin Williams.
Pink-Haired Amy Gets 'Idol' Pink Slip
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - "Last night the Top 10 'American Idol' Finalists showed why they all deserved a place on our stage," the "Idol" announcer declaims boldly, as Wednesday night's (March 31) results show begins.
Um, Mr. Disembodied Voice, I don't mean to nitpick, but the only people who consistently showed they belonged on the "Idol" stage for Motown Night (March 30) were the backup band, the Funk Brothers. Others showed that they can't yet sing and dance at the same time (like Camile Velasco) or that they can't yet carry a conventional tune (poor John Stevens) or that they can't ever hope to be heard above their musical accompaniment (sheepish Jon Peter Lewis).
This isn't to say that the frontrunners -- the LaToya Londons, Fantasia Barrinos and George Huffs -- didn't show why they deserve a place on the stage, but even if 20 million votes were cast, the show was far from an unqualified success.
The recap of Tuesday night's show confirms that fact and also allows for one more chance to gawk in awe at guest judge Nick Ashford's hypnotically grotesque hair process.
The 10 Finalists then follow with an equally hypnotically grotesque take on the Ashford & Simpson classic "Ain't No Mountain." The remaining seven gregarious women sound great and even seem capable of throwing in some rudimentary dance moves. The three guys look embarrassed. It's like a junior high dance where the girls are perfectly content to dance together in packs and the boys are too shy to do anything more than stand in the corner whispering. Certainly neither Jon nor John contributes much more than a whisper.
After the usual shout-out to Ford and its diverse array of "Idol"-lovin' driving machines, host Ryan Seacrest returns to pull the Bottom Three. As you may have heard through the grapevine, Fantasia continues to ripen. A legion of teenage girls refuse to break this old heart of Jon-Boy's, keeping him safe for another week. Jasmine Trias proves that the support of the nation is all she needs to get by. George ain't too proud to beg for votes and the voters ain't too proud to comply. While Amy Adams may have been dancing in the streets, America leaves her dancing to an ignominious position at center stage. Similarly, voters give Jennifer Hudson the cold shoulder when what she craved was a heatwave.
Diana DeGarmo asked viewers "Do You Love Me?" and enough of them replied that they do. She's safe. Camile, nearly voted out last week and mediocre last night, seems to be in trouble, but she discovers that for once in her life she's got someone who needs her. That leaves John and LaToya waiting through a commercial break for the last spot in the Bottom Three.
First, though, the "Idol" Finalists take to the desert in their Ford automobiles, scaring the cacti and Joshua Trees as they ramble through "Life is a Highway," by everybody's favorite Manitoba-born "Idol," Tom Cochrane. Where have you gone, Tom Cochrane? We haven't thought of you since 1991 and this is how you want us to remember you?
The showdown between LaToya and John should be a simple enough choice, right? Surely John must have scared off at least a few of his fans by delivering an entire song flat, right? Wrong. After ads explaining that, like Ford, Toyota also produces a diverse array of "Idol"-lovin' driving machines, we discover that John is actually safe.
Amy, Jennifer and LaToya stand together as the crowd gasps and boos. John looks frustrated, agog and mournful.
Ryan turns to the judges. First he asks Paula if what she sees before her is the correct Bottom Three.
"Nope," Paula declares, shaking her head so wildly it threatens to swivel on its axis like the "Trainspotting" baby.
Ryan puts Randy on the spot and asks how many of the contestants don't belong in the Bottom Three.
"At least two of them," Randy says without hesitation.
Ryan, following the train of thought, challenges Simon on which two don't belong. The British judge isn't playing.
"Let America vote, you live with the decision," he rationalizes.
Every week on "American Idol" there are one or two baffling moments that make you wonder what the voters were watching and what they think the point of the show is. I'm not sure, though, that I can recall a Bottom Three this disconnected from the performances of the night before. For John, Jon Peter and Camile to all be safe after what they put the audience through last night almost seems cruel to the nearly 26 million people who watched the show.
LaToya is safe, sent back to the podium.
As Jennifer and Amy stand under the glare, shifting back and forth out of nervousness, the cameraman keeps going back to shell-shocked John. Amy is humbly gracious about her prospects. Jennifer isn't so humble, but she's gracious enough. It turns out that her humility can wait an extra week. Pink-haired Amy Adams is heading home.
One week after blowing the competition away during Country Week, the 24-year-old make-up artist (and reputed Jay Leno lookalike) comes up short.
"I'm not gonna go away," she promises, as the camera goes back, one last time, to John Stevens, looking miserable.
Jewel Planning 'Lo-Fi' New Album
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Jewel's current solo acoustic tour will likely influence the approach she'll take with her next album.
The singer/songwriter told Billboard.com she's planning to make "a really simple, kind of lo-fi record" to follow up last year's "0304," which took her in an unexpected dance/pop direction.
"I've started," she said during a tour break in Texas. "I always write. I'm fairly prolific. I'm probably going to do a pretty simple record this next year. I've just been touring solo and have a lot of material I'd like to do ."
That as-yet-unscheduled next album will be the last under her deal with longtime home Atlantic Records, which is in flux in the wake of an Edgar Bronfman Jr.-led acquisition of the label's parent company, Warner Music Group. Jewel says she'll "have to see what the offer is" before deciding if she'll remain with the label or decide to work with another company.
"I'm in a really unique position," she says. "I have been since my first record. You know, I lived in a car and I was broke and I sold 11 million records on my first record . I'm not broke anymore and I have the freedom to do whatever the heck I like."
Armed with just a guitar, Jewel will resume touring April 6 in Charlotte, N.C., and plans to be on the road in the United States through July. Along with "0304," she is also out in support of her first concert DVD, "Live at Humphrey's by the Bay," released March 30 by Eagle Vision.
Recorded in 2001 in San Diego, the disc features the artist performing 13 songs, including the hits "Who Will Save Your Soul," "Hands" and "You Were Meant For Me." Three bonus tracks recorded elsewhere on that tour, as well as an interview, behind-the-scenes tour footage, a photo gallery and discography are also included.
"I think anything that can get you directly to a fan without a lot of middlemen is great. I prefer it," Jewel says of the DVD. "I think I'm better live. I think my personality comes across a lot more; it's a lot more three-dimensional format . And, really, rarely does a fan ever get to hear a person talk directly without an outside editor with some kind of agenda working on it. For this, I just think it's a really pure format.
"That was my first night with a new band, literally our first show, so there were a lot of times, just personally, where I was going by the seat of my pants," she remembers. "We all were!"
"0304" debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 last June, and sold 619,000 copies during its 21 weeks on the chart.
Oscars to Keep Early Date Next Year
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Next year's AcademyAwards will keep to the shortened schedule introduced amid some controversy for last month's event.
The 77th annual ceremony will take place on Feb. 27, the last Sunday of the month, and the same relative spot on the calendar where this year's show was set. Nominations will be announced at 5:30 a.m. PST on Tuesday, Jan. 25.
In previous years, the Oscars took place at the end of March. The truncated schedule resulted in less time for the studios to promote their contenders and for voters to view all the offerings. But the early finish has allowed Hollywood to get back to business as usual sooner.
"I think people were surprised by how much they didn't dislike the new schedule," Academy spokesman John Pavlik said. "This year was sort of abnormally smooth. It certainly seemed to work better than we had feared. I think people did like the earlier schedule, and they liked the fact that it was all over (earlier in the year)."
Under next year's schedule, nomination ballots will be mailed Monday, Dec. 27, and nominations polls will close at 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, 2005. Final ballots will be mailed Feb. 2 and due back at the Academy by Feb. 22.
There is only one departure from the original template used during the past awards season: When the schedule for the 76th awards was first announced last year, nomination ballots were scheduled to be mailed Jan. 2. However, realizing that the Academy would be closed that day for the New Year's holiday, the Academy decided to begin mailing ballots Monday, Dec. 29, a last-minute move that caught a number of Oscar campaigns off guard.
Next year, the nominations mailings are officially set for Dec. 27, the first Monday after the Christmas holiday weekend. That move is expected to put pressure on distributors to release their Academy hopefuls earlier than the year-end dates that have been favored in the past. If a movie is released on Dec. 24, the Friday before Christmas, Academy members will barely have a chance to sample it before their nomination ballots arrive in the mail, so the shift to November and early December releases for potential awards contenders -- a shift that began this year and that a number of distributors have vowed to continue next year -- is likely to gather momentum.
The 2005 timetable was approved at a regularly scheduled board of governors meeting Tuesday night.
There was some discussion at the meeting of moving the entire 2005 timetable up one week, which would have seen nomination ballots go out before the Christmas holiday and the awards take place on the third weekend of February. But after concerns were voiced about mailing ballots amid the crush of holiday mail as well as well as the possibility of February rainstorms materializing on show night, that idea of moving to an even earlier date structure was quickly dropped.
When the Academy decided to accelerate its awards schedule last year by shifting the ceremonies to late February rather than late March, it decided to follow the new, foreshortened schedule for two years before assessing its use in future years.
Decisions about the 2006 schedule are not expected to be made until after the 2005 awards. But with this year's schedule drawing generally positive reviews within the Academy, the Academy could well opt to stick to the new timetable in future years.
However, in 2006, the Academy Awards will face one competitor that could force it to move its date by at least one week either forward or backward on the calendar.
The Winter Olympics, taking place in Torino, Italy, will stage its closing ceremonies, to be broadcast by NBC, on Feb. 26, 2006. Because the Academy is not likely to want to pit the Oscars against the end of the games, the 2006 Oscar calendar may have to make some adjustments on the 2005 template.