Trade Round-Up: Peter Jackson's 'King Kong' Joke
· Variety celebrates the Pope's "theatrical" flair and claims he was "as much of a global pop-culture icon as Michael Jackson in his heyday." We suppose the publisher wouldn't pay for a plane ticket to Rome and a bag of rocks to toss at the pontiff's body. [Variety]
· BET is developing new series for the network, including their own, completely original Apprentice knock-off featuring Damon Dash. [THR]
· After months of breathless anticipation, the Fox Reality network is finally ready to launch in May. Finally, the country's 24-hour-a-day hunger for bastards to finally meet the parents that abandoned them as children will be sated! [Variety]
· Director Peter Jackson's completely plausible claim that he's shooting back-to-back King Kong sequels alongside the first installment in New Zealand was merely an elaborate April Fool's Day prank. Don't worry, kids, Universal will shoot the inevitable sequels at a later date in a fashion that will waste as much money as possible. [THR]
· The assumed-dead Yes Dear's surprising success filling the schlubby-husband-with-hot-wife sitcom hole left by the flop Center of the Universe in CBS's schlubby-husband-with-hot-wife schedule might earn the series a new episode order. [Variety]