Morning Report - News from March 9, 2002

MOVIES

Universal Chief Decries Nasty Oscar Campaign

In the wake of new criticism of best picture nominee “A Beautiful Mind,” Universal Pictures Chairman Stacey Snider lashed out at what she considers below-the-belt Oscar maneuvering.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter at Las Vegas’ ShoWest Convention, Snider alluded to charges that the filmmakers had twisted history in their portrayal of schizophrenic, Nobel Prize-winning mathematician John Nash, sidestepping his homosexuality and purported anti-Semitism as well as elements of his personal life.

The innuendo, she said, was painful to the filmmakers--and Nash. “A 73-year-old man who has gone through hell and who agreed to entrust us with his life shouldn’t have to go through these attacks,” Snider said. “To take statements out of context, which were said at a time when he was a self-admitted schizophrenic, seems shameful.... We never set out to sugarcoat his life.”

Without naming names, Snider suggested that the criticism was attributable to mudslinging competitors in the Oscar race.

“There’s been a shocking absence of self-restraint,” she said of the campaign. “Lines that should be clear to us have recklessly been crossed. Filmmakers who have done honest work that was never engineered to win an award are having to defend their intentions.”

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Actors Try to Lure Talent to Trenton, N.J.

William Baldwin, Paul Sorvino and Valerie Harper met with New Jersey lawmakers in support of a $20-million plan to build movie studios in the city’s abandoned factories.

Baldwin, president of an activist group called the Creative Coalition, said the $20 million would generate $100 million in taxable revenue, while Harper said it would create hundreds of jobs for construction workers, hairdressers, tailors and dry cleaners. Sorvino, who, like Harper, has roots in the state, said he has three movies ready to go if the legislation is passed.

Still, some say the move is ill-timed. Citing a $3-billion budget deficit, Gov. James E. McGreevey has laid off state workers, frozen aid to schools and municipalities and cut aid to higher education. “We’re all in favor of luring independent filmmakers to the Trenton area, but we believe other communities have managed to attract such business without employing so much in taxpayer funds,” Assembly members Linda Greenstein and Gary Guear said in a letter to Republican state Sen. Peter Inverso, who sponsored the measure.

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THEATER

Broadway on the Rebound at Box Office

For all the gloom-and-doom talk in the wake of Sept. 11, Broadway seems to have rebounded. Last week’s weekly gross, in fact, was $12.2 million--a 16% increase over the same period last year, according to the New York Times. Another hopeful sign: All but one of the 39 Tony-eligible theaters are booked.

The season’s total box office is still down by 5% from the previous year, but the figure was 10% in mid-fall. Theater executives credit a rise in theatergoing by locals, spurred by two promotional campaigns, for helping to make up for the lack of tourists.

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THE ARTS

Artists May Be Asked

to Repay Federal Grants

Payback time? If two Republican congressmen have their way, artists who achieve commercial success will have to reimburse grants made to them earlier in their careers.

Rep. George Nethercutt of Washington raised the issue this week, citing the practice in which professional athletes return scholarship money to college. Rep. Jack Kingston of Georgia also took up the cause, suggesting that successful actors who had received money from the National Endowment for the Arts return it.

Eileen B. Mason, acting director of the NEA, told a subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee that she’d take it under consideration. Paybacks would be difficult to implement under present rules, which say the NEA can only accept contributions from individuals and organizations not eligible to apply for grants. Besides, since 1996, Congress has banned NEA grants to individuals, except for writers.

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TELEVISION

E! to Begin Showing Reruns of ‘SNL’

Reruns of “Saturday Night Live,” which already can be seen on cable’s Comedy Central, will soon begin popping up on E! Entertainment Television, as the network best known for its slavish coverage of Hollywood has licensed the “SNL” library through 2008.

Under the deal, E! will begin airing repeats of the current “SNL” season in September, while reruns of the early years will begin in April. Comedy Central still has rights to rerun 20 years of “SNL” through 2003.

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QUICK TAKES

Susan Stamberg, who hosted “All Things Considered” from 1972 to 1986, will return temporarily to NPR’s afternoon newsmagazine, co-hosting next week with Robert Siegel.... A memorial in Van Nuys to slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, which was to have included a performance today by the Los Angeles Chamber Group, has been postponed. A new date has not yet been set.... John Glover and Judith Light will head the cast in the West Coast premiere of Athol Fugard’s “Sorrows and Rejoicings,” which opens at the Mark Taper Forum on May 23. The playwright will direct the piece, which deals with a poet exiled for his political beliefs.... More turnover at embattled KPFK-FM (90.7): Betto Arcos will end his stint as music director but will continue as one of the anchors on his radio show “Global Village.” And, after five years, Marc Cooper--who recently locked horns with management over his refusal to do on-air fund-raising--is leaving as afternoon host of “Marc Cooper’s Daily Review.” “Radio Nation,” which he anchors, will continue to air on the station.... Will Smith and Martin Lawrence will hook up again for “Bad Boys 2.” Paramount Pictures is planning a remake of John Frankenheimer’s 1962 classic “The Manchurian Candidate,” Variety reports. And, according to the trade paper, Goldie Hawn’s production company is developing a TV movie for cable outlet FX about the passengers of United Flight 93, the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.