'Seinfeld' spurs Festivus pole sales
MILWAUKEE - Kevin Campanella hates buying and receiving Christmas presents that he says inevitably disappoint. This year, no such worries.
Campanella plans to seek "serenity now" by celebrating Festivus, a wacky holiday popularized in a 1997 "Seinfeld" episode. Billed as "Festivus for the rest of us," the holiday celebrated by the Costanza clan on Dec. 23 features an airing of grievances and feats of strength in which a guest must pin the host before the party ends.
In protest of Christmas' commercialism, character Frank Costanza puts up an unadorned aluminum pole instead of a tree. The metal, he says admiringly, has a "very high strength-to-weight ratio."
"I just always loved that episode," said Campanella, 28, a landscaper from Warwick, R.I. "But it's not so much about the show — I think the idea of Festivus is a good idea."
So does The Wagner Companies. The Milwaukee-based maker of hand-railing components is bringing back its line of Festivus poles for the holiday season. The company had plenty of metal rails on hand already and launched the product last year on a whim.
"We did it mainly as a lark. We never looked at it as a tremendous moneymaking scheme," said Tony Leto, the firm's executive vice president of sales and marketing. "But in many ways, Festivus is taking on a life of its own."
Wagner, which made $15 million last year from products including handrail brackets and pipe elbows, earned only a few thousand dollars from Festivus pole sales. Leto said the company received some media publicity upon launch of the poles but he credits bloggers with strong "Seinfeld" loyalties for spreading the news far and wide.
Wagner sold about 250 poles in 2005, with around 100 sales coming from the firm's 120 employees. This season, it sold about 300 poles by mid-December and was on pace to sell twice that number by Saturday, said Leto, whose claim to fame is that he shared a drama class with Jerry Seinfeld at Queens College in New York.
Wagner offers a 6-foot Festivus pole for $38 and a 2-foot-8-inch tabletop model for $30. The setup is simple: a hollow pipe, 1.9 inches in diameter, inserted into a collapsible aluminum base.
Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, a "Seinfeld" fanatic who claims to have seen every episode eight times, proudly displayed one of the company's poles last year at the governor's mansion in Madison. But Doyle said he will donate the pole to the Wisconsin Historical Museum after reports that "Seinfeld" co-star Michael Richards used racial slurs during a standup comedy routine last month.
Leto said he hoped the Richards incident wouldn't affect his company's sales.
"Fans know it was a Costanza holiday, not a Kramer holiday," he said, referring to characters played by Jerry Stiller and Richards. "Anyway, Kramer eventually rejects the holiday at the end of the episode."
Gabriel Morales, 32, of Atlanta, said Richards' tirade didn't keep him from ordering a Festivus pole earlier this month.
"You know, people make mistakes, they say stupid things," said Morales, an information technology analyst who held his Festivus party early this year to coincide with a monthly dinner club. "No one at the party really cared about that either."
The "Seinfeld" Festivus episode developed from series writer Dan O'Keefe's childhood experiences. His father invented the holiday in the 1960s.
"As a kid, we'd come home and there'd be weird decorations," said the 30-something O'Keefe. "There was the playing of strange German and Italian pop music from the '50s. And the airing of grievances was a real thing."
Instead of a pole, his family celebration featured a clock and a bag. (O'Keefe said his father won't say what they symbolized.)
Wagner's Leto acknowledged the irony of making money off a holiday that celebrates anti-commercialism. But the company is having too much fun with the holiday to stop now, he said.
O'Keefe doesn't begrudge Wagner's commercial efforts.
"It sounds to me like they're making a good living — good for them," O'Keefe said. "It's just this joke holiday on a TV show. If they want to make a buck on it, go for it."
Or, as Seinfeld might say, not that there's anything wrong with that.
Canadian actors' contract talks break down
TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - Talks between North American producers and Canada's actors union have broken down, setting the stage for a strike in the new year.
The current impasse follows marathon negotiations that began November 23 and culminated Wednesday with the producers, including a host of Hollywood studio representatives, putting their first wage proposals for a new Independent Production Agreement, which governs wages and workplace conditions.
The actors were offered a one-percent wage increase in the first year, another two-percent increase in the second year and a one-percent increase in the third year of the proposed agreement. Representatives for ACTRA (the Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists) promptly rejected the offer.
No new talks are scheduled before the current agreement expires December 31. Barring a last-minute breakthrough, ACTRA's members will be in a legal position to strike in early January.
"We're not going to give away the future for free. And we are not going to let our members' pay continue to erode compared to other performers in North America," said Stephen Waddell, ACTRA's national executive director.
John Barrack, chief negotiator for the Canadian Film and Television Production Assn. (CFTPA), defended the wage increase proposal, insisting it was the same pay increase offered and agreed to by the Writers Guild of Canada last May.
...Rowling names last book in Potter saga
LONDON - J.K Rowling announced on Thursday that the seventh and final book in her teenage wizard saga will be called "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".
No publication date has yet been set.
The British author confessed on her website this week that Potter, the creation that has turned her into one of the world's most popular and successful authors, had now entered her dreams.
"For years now, people have asked me whether I ever dream that I am 'in' Harry's world," she wrote. "The answer was 'no' until a few nights ago when I had an epic dream in which I was, simultaneously, Harry and the narrator."
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By Nicole Sperling
MGM's "Rocky Balboa" proved no underdog at the boxoffice its opening day. The Sylvester Stallone-starrer reaped $6.2 million on 2,752 theaters. The PG-rated boxing tale generated a per-screen average of $2,267 for its first day in the theaters.
The film will expand to 3017 theaters on Friday. At that time competition will certainly have heated up as Twentieth Century Fox opens "Night at the Museum," Warner Bros. Pictures bows "We Are Marshall" and Universal Pictures unveils the R-rated spy thriller "The Good Shepard."
Bjork, Prince Lead Joni Mitchell Tribute Disc
Bjork, Prince, James Taylor and Elvis Costello are among the artists who have recorded covers for "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell," due in the spring via Nonesuch. The 11-track set also boasts contributions from Sarah McLachlan, k.d. lang, Emmylou Harris and Sufjan Stevens.
In related news, Billboard.com has learned that Mitchell has been recording original material at a Los Angeles studio in recent weeks. It is unknown in what form she plans to release the music; she angrily announced she was quitting the music business in 2002 after her last album, "Travelogue."
"A Tribute to Joni Mitchell" comes concurrently with 429 Records' "Endless Highway: A Tribute to the Band," due Jan. 30. That projects boasts covers from Death Cab For Cutie, My Morning Jacket, Jack Johnson and Widespread Panic, among others.
Here is the track list for "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell":
"Free Man in Paris," Sufjan Stevens
"Boho Dance," Bjork
"Dreamland," Caetano Veloso
"Don't Interrupt the Sorrow," Brad Mehldau
"For the Roses," Cassandra Wilson
"A Case of U," Prince
"Blue," Sarah McLachlan
"Ladies of the Canyon," Annie Lennox
"Magdalena Laundries," Emmylou Harris
"Edith and the Kingpin," Elvis Costello
"Help Me," k.d. lang
"River," James Taylor