MOVIES/TELEVISIONCBS Tops Daytime Emmy NominationsABC’s “All My...

MOVIES/TELEVISION

CBS Tops Daytime Emmy Nominations

ABC’s “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” will vie with CBS’ “As the World Turns” and “The Young and the Restless” for the title of best drama series at the 29th annual Daytime Emmy Awards. Nominations were announced Wednesday by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.

CBS, the daytime ratings leader, also topped its competitors in nominations, collecting 55 to runners-up ABC and PBS, which got 49 each. NBC garnered 11.

Susan Lucci of “All My Children” was nominated for the 21st time as best actress in a drama (she won once, in 1999), along with costar Finola Hughes, Martha Byrne and Colleen Zenk Pinter of “As the World Turns” and Susan Flannery of CBS’ “The Bold and the Beautiful.”

The winners will be announced May 17 in a ceremony that will be broadcast in prime time by CBS.

*

Study Reveals Movie-

Tobacco Link in 1980s

A British medical journal reports that tobacco companies pushed hard to get as much movie screen time as possible in the 1980s in an effort to increase sales.

One company, R.J. Reynolds, supplied free cigarettes to at least 188 Hollywood personalities--among them Jerry Lewis, John Cassavetes, Liv Ullman and Shelley Winters--in the hope that they would continue their habit on camera.

The article, published in Tobacco Control this week, was based on more than 1,500 formerly secret tobacco industry documents, the New York Times reported.

“In many ways, it confirmed what we suspected all along,” said Curtis Mekemson, a consultant for the American Lung Assn. who was the author of the study. “The tobacco companies were well aware of the benefits of having audiences, especially young audiences, see their favorite stars smoking on screen.”

The report concluded that such tactics played a role in the rise of tobacco use in films and TV shows during the 1990s. Still, none of its findings contradicted tobacco company assertions that they halted product placement in movies more than a decade ago.

*

Producers Line Up

for Enron Projects

When disaster strikes, can Hollywood be far behind? A handful of producers, it seems, is convinced that the Enron debacle has all the ingredients for success on the big and small screens.

According to Variety, Paramount producer Scott Rudin has optioned a piece on the energy company appearing in the April edition of Vanity Fair. The article was written by Marie Brenner, whose previous story on CBS and the tobacco industry was the basis for Michael Mann’s “The Insider.” Meanwhile, producer Robert Greenwald is moving ahead on a two-hour CBS movie based on “Anatomy of Greed,” a book by former Enron employee Brian Cruver to be published by Avalon in the spring.

The talent agency ICM is peddling film rights to Mimi Swartz’s “Power Failure,” the story of Enron whistle-blower Sherron S. Watkins that Doubleday just bought for $500,000. And, as previously announced, Artisan Television and FX Networks have hired former “60 Minutes” producer Lowell Bergman to develop an original TV movie on the subject.

*

QUICK TAKE

“Die Another Day” has been selected as the title of the 20th James Bond installment, due for release Nov. 22.