Sweeps Are Beginning, Everyone Say ‘Boo!’

Thursday isn’t scary in television circles just because of Halloween. It also marks the start of the November ratings sweeps, the four-week period in which the networks load up big programming events to help their affiliated stations, who use the surveys in November, February and May to determine local advertising rates. As a result, during November look for three major miniseries (“Titanic” and “In Cold Blood” on CBS, and NBC’s “Pandora’s Clock”), several blockbuster movie premieres (“Speed,” “Maverick” and “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” among them), the latest series-reunion movie (CBS’ “Dallas: J.R. Returns”) and a horde of specials. ABC, meanwhile, is hoping Sunday’s network premiere of Disney’s “The Lion King” will help the network roar out of the sweeps starting gate. Having begun the current season in third place, ABC’s November performance will be watched closely--especially after Disney chairman Michael Eisner pledged to affiliates last spring that its third-place showing in February wouldn’t be repeated, only to finish third again in May. ABC won’t be helped by Nov. 5 election coverage, which will disrupt the network’s high-rated Tuesday lineup.

Of Course, Now He Won’t Work for Peanuts

Audiences who attend the Bill Murray elephant comedy “Larger Than Life,” which opens Friday, will be treated to a larger-than-planned-for dose of co-star Matthew McConaughey. When the young Texan was cast last year for the bit part of flamboyant, paranoid trucker Tip Tucker, he was just another struggling character actor. He filmed his scenes--a quirky fast-talking performance of “the most annoying person in North America,” according to director Howard Franklin--before filming his star-making role as a Southern lawyer in “A Time to Kill.” Even before “Kill” opened this summer, he became the talk of Hollywood, likened to such mega-stars as Paul Newman and Marlon Brando. Test screenings of “Larger Than Life” followed and “the audience went nuts about him,” Franklin said. So the MGM brass ordered a rewrite to increase McConaughey’s presence (doubling his screen time) and to get him back to shoot the additional scenes--pronto. “As opposed to being one of the people Murray meets along the way, he becomes an integral character who keeps popping up and, in fact, is in the climax of the movie,” Franklin added. Sources said shooting the additional scenes added less than $1 million to the movie’s overall budget of about $30 million. No word from the elephant’s agent on the matter of screen time.

‘Dear God, Please Let My Movie Make Money’

After making his film debut alongside Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond in 1995’s “Sabrina,” Greg Kinnear is being asked the second time around to carry a film by himself. In the feel-good comedy “Dear God,” which opens Friday, the former TV talk-show host (“Talk Soup,” “Later With Greg Kinnear”) plays a gambling con artist ordered by a judge to find a job. Consigned to the dead-letter section of a post office, he answers mail addressed to God--triggering yet another scam and, ultimately, an epiphany. Paramount chief Sherry Lansing suggested Kinnear for the lead in the film. After seeing “Sabrina,” executive producer Mario Iscovich understood why. “Greg has a boyish charm, a slightly devilish look in his eye, which worked well for this part,” he said. “Like Clark Gable and Steve McQueen, Greg can be a bit of a bad boy without the audience disliking him.” The filmmakers never regarded Kinnear as a risk, Iscovich said. “This isn’t ‘Sleepers,’ but a light comedy, something Greg can be relaxed and casual with,” he said. “[Director] Garry Marshall surrounded Greg with top-rate professional actors like Laurie Metcalf and Tim Conway so he’d have people to play off. He wouldn’t be a guy walking alone into the desert talking to a cactus.”

Get This Guy to Buy a Lottery Ticket for You

The hottest writer-producer in the record industry has taken time out from his day job to record his fourth solo album. And chances are good that Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds will have another smash on his hands when the new collection, “The Day,” is released Tuesday on Epic Records. The first single from the album, a remake of the 1981 Shalamar hit “This Is for the Lover in You,” debuted at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart last week. That’s hardly surprising considering that the four-time Grammy winner has written or produced more than 100 Top 10 R&B; and pop hits while working with everyone from Whitney Houston and Michael Jackson to Madonna and Eric Clapton. Besides “Lover,” Babyface wrote or produced five of the songs on this week’s Billboard Hot R&B; Singles chart, including Az Yet’s “Last Night” and Toni Braxton’s “You’re Making Me High.” At 15 million-plus in sales, the Babyface-produced soundtrack to “The Bodyguard,” the 1992 smash featuring Whitney Houston, is one of the industry’s Top 10 all-time best-selling albums, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America. And the sales beat should continue with the upcoming soundtrack to “The Preacher’s Wife,” also featuring Houston and including two Babyface-produced tracks.