Morning Report - News from June 4, 2002

THEATER

CBS Explains Trim of Tony Acceptance Speech

CBS expressed regret Monday that it had to trim Elaine Stritch’s Tony Awards acceptance speech Sunday night--a move that caused the 77-year-old actress to fume backstage after winning in the special theatrical event category.

“We’re big fans of Elaine Stritch,” said Nancy Carr, vice president of communications for the network. “We’re pleased she received the well-deserved Tony, and we’re sorry that time constraints made it necessary to move along.”

Stritch, whose “Elaine Stritch at Liberty” brought her her first Tony after four nominations, cried out, “Please don’t do this to me,” as the musical cue interrupted her. And she was inconsolable backstage.

“I wanted to accept my prize with graciousness,” she told reporters. “I was anxious to tell the audience what this means to me. But they rang the curtain down before the play was over.” Asked if anyone from CBS had called to apologize, she sneered, “In your dreams.”

A source close to the production pointed out Monday that all the contenders were notified in writing that there was a one-minute “guideline” for onstage remarks--a fact producer Gary Smith reiterated before the show. A commitment had been made to stay within the two-hour time-frame rather than running long, a la the Oscars, the source said.

The two-hour CBS telecast, meanwhile, registered lackluster ratings. In much of the country, it was up against NBC’s coverage of the seventh game of the Lakers-Kings series in the NBA playoffs. The Tonys drew an average of 8 million people--down 11% from last year, which benefited from the popularity of Broadway’s “The Producers.” Barbara Koppel’s documentary “The Hamptons” averaged a mediocre 7.3 million viewers in the same time slot on ABC.

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MOVIES

Women Hit Celluloid Ceiling, Survey Says

The number of female producers fell sharply last year, according to a survey released Monday by the San Diego State University School of Communication.

“The Celluloid Ceiling,” an annual event measuring industry credits since 1987, assesses the number of female producers, directors, writers, cinematographers and editors on the year’s 250 top-grossing films.

Martha Lauzen, a professor at the university, told Daily Variety that little progress was seen in any area in 2001. Women accounted for 17% of all executive producers and 25% of producers last year--up 1% in each case from the year before.

The number of female directors, however, went from 11% in 2000 to 6% in 2001, while female writers fell from 14% to 10% in the same time frame, the survey said. More than 20% of the movies had no women in any of the categories analyzed.

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MTV Awards Go to ‘Moulin Rouge,’ ‘Rings’

In the 11th annual MTV Movie Awards, taped Saturday night for broadcast on Thursday, Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge” led the way with two wins apiece.

“Lord of the Rings” won for best movie and for best breakthrough male performance, for Orlando Bloom. “Moulin Rouge” was honored for Nicole Kidman’s performance and for best musical sequence.

Other winners included Will Smith (“Ali”), Reese Witherspoon (“Legally Blonde”) and Denzel Washington (“Training Day”). Paul Walker and Vin Diesel were voted best on-screen team for “The Fast and the Furious.”

The show airs on MTV at 9 p.m. Thursday.

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POP/ROCK

Springsteen’s Album to Hit Stores in July

Bruce Springsteen says he and the E Street Band completed their first full album together since 1984’s “Born in the U.S.A.” in a relatively breezy eight weeks, which surprised him as much as anybody.

“I woke up one morning and I had a record,” Springsteen joked about “The Rising,” his first studio rock album since 1992. The album, set for release July 30, includes “My City of Ruins,” which Springsteen sang on the national telethon for Sept. 11 victims. All but two of the 15 songs, he said, were written after that time.

“The stories all happen in a post-Sept. 11 context,” the 52-year-old rocker told Associated Press. While some songs “deal more directly with it than others ... it’s in everything in some fashion.... It’s more of an emotional feeling that I felt, and that I felt was in the air at that time.”

On playing and recording again with the E Street Band, Springsteen says, “It’s a very powerful sound, just the intensity I wanted.... The guys are playing better than they did 15 years ago. There’s a confidence.”

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QUICK TAKES

“Sounder” is coming back--with two of the stars from 1972’s Oscar-nominated original involved in the remake for ABC. Paul Winfield, who played the father , will now play a teacher, and Kevin Hooks, who played the boy, will direct the movie....Showtime has renewed its gay-themed series “Queer as Folk” for two more seasons, slated to kick off in March.... Bernie Mac has been signed to star in the Dimension Comedy “Bad Santa” and to replace Bill Murray in the Columbia Pictures sequel to “Charlie’s Angels,” Variety reported.... “Sister Wendy at the Norton Simon Museum” will have a free public premiere at the Pasadena museum at 6, 7 and 8 p.m. on Friday. In the one-hour film, Sister Wendy discusses her favorite pieces of art at the venue.