Fox’s ‘E.D.J.’ Nips at Heels of Show Business Lap Dog

The entertainment industry’s lap dog now has a watchpuppy yipping at its paws.

Although hardly using show business as a fireplug, Fox’s new “E.D.J.” (short for “Entertainment Daily Journal”) appears determined to do at least some serious reporting about the industry instead of slobbering all over it in the licking, tail-wagging manner of Paramount’s established “Entertainment Tonight.”

So far, “E.T.” vs. “E.D.J.” is far less dogfight than mismatch, with the former (7 p.m. on KNBC Channel 4) continuing as one of TV’s most popular nationally syndicated programs and the Fox series (11 p.m. on KTTV Channel 11) barely rippling the ratings in its first week as successor to Fox’s frowzy, syndicated tabloid series “Personalities.”

The biggest champion of “E.D.J.” is 20th Century Fox Chairman Barry Diller, who studio sources say is closely involved with the series to the point of personally deciding in some cases which stories will air and how they will be shaped.

It was under Diller’s tenure as Paramount chief that “Entertainment Tonight” was born in 1981. His new “E.D.J.” seems closer to the middle-brow legitimate reporting that was originally envisioned for “Entertainment Tonight” before it went astray, becoming the uncritical industry cheerleader that made it every promoter’s dream.

Hollywood’s publicity mills grind relentlessly. There is even a cable channel devoted to it, E! Entertainment Television. And when even cable’s supposedly higher-brow Arts & Entertainment Network is sucked in, regularly running a short on the making of the new movie “Point Break,” you know that press agentry penetration is just about universal.

Within the industry, however, it’s getting a shot on the popular “Entertainment Tonight” that’s the equivalent of getting to heaven. How important is it?

“How high is up?” answered Stan Rosenfield, a Los Angeles publicist with numerous show business clients. “It’s incredibly important. People who are in the business watch it, and people who go to movies watch it.”

How important is the infant “E.D.J.”?

How low is low?

The audience potential for this harder-edged show is undoubtedly much smaller than for a series such as celebrity-stroking, skin-ogling “E.T.” Also working against the Fox show in the crucial Los Angeles market is a time slot drawing from the relatively small audience of Channel 11’s late news.

Based on its first week, though, “E.D.J.” (whose production staff includes several former Times entertainment writers) already heads “E.T.” in Journalism 101 while refreshingly giving anchors Jim Moret and “Personalities” holdover Janet Zapala relatively minor roles.

“Entertainment Tonight” delivers the rare poignant feature, such as one last week about Esther Rolle’s recovery from the injuries incurred in an auto accident. And you also get the occasional hard news story that doesn’t blow kisses, such as 20th Century Fox and the producers of its hit film “Die Hard” being accused of plagiarism by a Canadian filmmaker. Curiously, that’s one item Fox’s “E.D.J.” seems to have missed.

What “E.T.” does best, though, besides displaying co-host Mary Hart’s legs, is uncritically promote celebrities and their openings, whether in movies, TV or supermarkets.

“E.T.” also excels at the say-nothing interview. Here was the capper on its chat with Stephen King preceding the premiere of his “Golden Years” on CBS: “He’s happy that network TV took a chance on this story.” Yes, news flash.

On the movie front, “E.T.” seems never to have met a film it didn’t like nor a story it couldn’t transform into a flesh market. What began promisingly last week as a serious piece on alleged steroid use by Hulk Hogan and other stars of professional wrestling, for example, inexplicably broadened into a trivial display of male hunks, Cosmo covers and entertainers who work out because “sex sells.”

As “E.T.” well knows, evidenced by Thursday’s pudgy “inside story” on oversized actors, followed by Friday’s about romances on the set.

There’s a sameness pervading entertainment news shows, whether “E.T.,” “E.D.J.” or the low-budget “Show Biz Today,” which, despite having the benefit of some able reporters, has never grown beyond footnote size in its 2:30 p.m. time slot on CNN.

One day last week, “Show Biz Today” covered Milton Berle’s birthday celebration. “I feel like a 20-year-old,” Berle told the camera. “But I don’t see one anywhere.” On “Entertainment Tonight,” same story, same fossilized joke.

So, too, did Annette Bening’s pregnancy make all three programs--in addition to just about every regular newscast--as did Roseanne Arnold (formerly Barr), footage from the set of an upcoming “Dynasty” movie and, of course, extensive coverage of “Boyz N the Hood.”

But the the coverage of “Boyz N the Hood” was deeper, longer and brawnier on “E.D.J.,” as was its reporting on last week’s Emmy nominations, which “E.D.J.” widened into a fairly intelligent status report on prime-time drama. Even more impressive was a two-part report on black filmmaking that included the influence of rap in some of these movies.

In some ways, though, “E.D.J” was as puzzling as it was promising. The best, most exhaustive reporting of its first week, for example, was an ambitious two-parter on Leonard Peltier, the American Indian activist serving a life sentence for a murder his supporters insist he did not commit. But the story was so tenuously linked to entertainment that it belonged in a traditional newscast, not this one.

At the opposite pole journalistically, meanwhile, was a dopey story on censorship that somehow designated super-producer Stephen J. Cannell as spokesman for courageous TV despite his spotless record as a formulaic mainstreamer. Then--proving that “E.D.J.” runs its own share of movie-hyping segments with puff interviewers--there was gossip columnist Liz Smith’s frothy chat with Harrison Ford about “Regarding Henry.”

Oh, well, on “Entertainment Tonight,” everybody is Liz Smith.