‘Wolverine’ has dull claws! NBC bets on Hillary Clinton.
After the coffee. Before hearing CBS CEO Leslie Moonves talk fall TV.
The Skinny: Saw “Blue Jasmine” over the weekend and though it is a good movie, it’s really ultimately not about a woman who loses everything as much as it is about an alcoholic in denial. Andrew Dice Clay is good in it. Monday’s headlines include the box office recap, NBC’s plans for a Hillary Rodham Clinton miniseries and a big advertising agency merger.
Daily Dose: Fans of “Dr. Phil” may be out of luck this afternoon if CBS and Time Warner Cable are unable to strike a deal that would keep TV stations owned by the network on the pay-TV distributor’s system. Most of the country isn’t in risk of losing their CBS signal, but Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas are. Deadline for a deal or extension of the old deal is 2 p.m. this afternoon. Here’s my latest update.
Dull claws. “The Wolverine” was supposed to slash the box office this weekend but it scratched its way to only $55 million. That’s far less than what industry analysts had projected and even lower than 20th Century Fox thought it would make and studios are notoriously conservative when predicting box office for their movies. “The Conjuring” continues to thrill moviegoers, taking in $22 million. Weekend box office recaps from the Los Angeles Times and Movie City News.
Commercial kings. Advertising agencies Omnicom and Publicis announced Sunday that they were merging in a deal worth $35 billion. The combination will make for strange bedfellows as Omnicom does work for Pepsi while Publicis counts Coke as a client. Some are positioning the deal as Madison Avenue’s answer to the growing power of digital advertising. By getting bigger the two shops will be in better position against Google and Facebook. More on the deal from the Wall Street Journal, Variety, Bloomberg and Advertising Age.
Betting on Hillary. NBC said it is planning a miniseries on Hillary Rodham Clinton starring Diane Lane as the former first lady and secretary of State. The program is one of several big event projects NBC said it has in the works. NBC brass also indicated that it hopes Jay Leno will maintain ties with the network after he finishes his run on “The Tonight Show” next year. Details from the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and Hollywood Reporter.
New boss. Bloomberg Media, the business news conglomerate whose properties include the Bloomberg TV cable channel and the magazine Business Week, has tapped Atlantic Media boss Justin Smith as its new president. Smith is credited with will building a strong digital presence for the Atlantic magazine. Andy Lack, who had been president of Bloomberg Media, has been named chairman. Details on the hire from the New York Times.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: Greg Braxton on the final season of “Breaking Bad.” Robert Lloyd on the new Sundance Channel series “The Writers’ Room.”
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