A Look Ahead
LAFF: NBC's programming topper Jeff Zucker, along with his counterparts at ABC and the WB, have just one aim in life right now: They need to find new half-hour comedy hits, and they need to do so in a hurry.
CANAL: The Canal Plus Group, expected to post losses of 1 billion francs for 2000, is bidding for profitability by 2003, a Vivendi Universal source confirmed Monday. But Canal Plus declined to comment on a press report in daily Le Monde that Viv U had given it just "six months to deliver its first results."
TWE: The faceoff between AT&T and Time Warner over joint ownership of Time Warner Entertainment continues, with AT&T saying Time Warner's offer to pay $9 to $10 billion for AT&T's 25% stake isn't enough. So AT&T is considering selling its stake off in an IPO.
RATES: ABC's Judy Garland mini does very well (the best ratings for a made-for since "Jesus" last May); Fox also has a great night behind the highest-rated "X-Files" in more than a year. CBS is projected to win the week behind two of the frame's top three shows ("Survivor" and the Grammys).
WHITESELL: Creative Artists Agency's Patrick Whitesell has ankled the company to join the Endeavor tenpercentery.
WARNERS: With Lorenzo DiBonaventura having been reupped, the studio will lay out its strategy for local-lingo pics worldwide, including tapping someone specific to oversee the effort.
WGA: Film-TV contract talks between writers, studios and networks enter their sixth week, with the news blackout still in effect.
BERMUDA: Columbia-based production and distribution concern Escape Artists' has inked a mid-six-figure deal with scribe Chris Morgan to pen "The Bermuda Triangle."
CHICAGO: "Almost Famous" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" each won four awards at the 13th annual Chicago Film Critics Awards at Chicago Shakespeare Theater on Monday.
A&M: Former RCA A&R exec Ron Fair was tapped to fill the long-vacant prexy position at Universal Music subsid A&M Records.
BRITS: Singer Robbie Williams came out tops at the Brit Awards Monday night, taking three statuettes: "Best British Male," and both song and video for his mega-hit "Rock DJ."
CYBERBIZ BRIEFS: Universal links up with RightsLine to license its broadcast film clip and stills on the Web. BET launches a new slate of interactive programming. Boston-based Digital Media on Demand opens an LA office to cozy up to Hollywood.
RAUCH: Showtime ups exec Michael Rauch from senior VP of motion pics to exec VP of production for the pay TV net. He'll continue to be based in Los Angeles.
MARCIA: Marcia Clark will join the cast of Twentieth Television's successful syndie court strip "Power of Attorney," which features high-profile attorneys battling it out on behalf of everyday litigants. Clark will argue against any and all castmates except her former co-prosecutor on the O.J. case, Christopher Darden.
HERSH: Kenneth N. Hershman was named senior VP of corporate strategy/Showtime Sports and event programming for Showtime Networks Inc.
TOON: Local 839 of the Motion Picture Screen Cartoonists has announced a victory in a long-delayed organizing election at Los Angeles-based Bohbot Kids Network.
VARA: L.A. morning news personality Kathy Vara, who is leaving KNBC's "Today in L.A." as part of the station's recent on-air revamp, has been hired by competitor KABC as 11:30 a.m. co-anchor/reporter.
LOT47: Lot 47 picks up two pics from Sundance.
GROSS: B'way B.O. for past week.
ROBARDS: Jason Robards memorial on Feb. 26 at Broadhurst Theater included speeches from Kevin Spacey, Paul Thomas Anderson, Judith Ivey, Matthew Broderick and Jonathan Demme.
BUSINESS
DISNEY: Disney fires 135 online staffers, mostly from ABCNews.com and ABC.com. Move comes after it decided to shutter its Go.com division and after ABC News recently laid off employees.
IFILM: iFilm and Film Finders, which iFilm bought last year, part ways. COMCAST: Comcast's lightning-fast rollout of next-generation digital cable services and stronger-than-anticipated results at its home shopping unit QVC helped power the Philadelphia cabler to double-digit gains in cash flow for 2000.
ALLIANCE: Alliance Atlantis Communications of Toronto boasted boffo third quarter results Monday, while the company's backend-weighted delivery schedule deflated its nine-month numbers slightly.
KINOWELT: German distrib Kinowelt Medien saw share prices climb more than 20% by late Monday after market speculation that German giant Bertelsmann may buy a stake in the company.
AFM
TANGLED: Miramax picks up N. America rights for "Tangled."
WBEURO: Warners ramps up local-lingo productions, hires exec to oversee them.
WORLD
EMTV: Final decision on whether Kirch and EM.TV get Formula One Rights will be known by Wednesday, when buy option expires. EM.TV is in talks with leading car makers about their bid to buy into F1 marketing outfit SLEC.
CENSORS: British Board of Censors have passed controversial French film "Rape Me" for an 18 rating.
YAK: Televisa has dropped two more talkshows, "Cristina" and "Laura," following months of complaints from the Catholic church, family values groups and politicians.
AFRICA: The 17th Pan-African Festival of Film and Television (Fespaco), a celebration of African filmmaking, opened in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, over the weekend.
TOMB: Helmer Simon West's upcoming "Tomb Raider," starring Angelina Jolie as sexy scientist/adventurer Lara Croft, is the first international production to benefit from the new Icelandic incentive scheme, introduced on Jan. 1.
REVIEWS
FILM: Lady and the Tramp direct-to-video release
OFF B'WAY: High Dive
LEGIT: The Bells Are Ringing; Strike up the Band, Reprise; Driving While Black in BevHills, Matrix
OPERA: Giulio Cesare, L.A. Opera
CONCERT: Jeff Beck, Universal; Luna, Knitting Factory; NOFX, House of Blues; Stacey Kent , Joe's Pub
