MTV Caves to Jersey Shore Crew's Demands
The stars of Jersey Shore know how to haggle. NBC buys a show from Conan O'Brien. Everyone loves Clint Eastwood, Martha Stewart pulls an Oprah and a pharmaceutical company-backed obesity documentary raises eyebrows. Are you ready for trade roundup time?
•When MTV offered the Jersey Shore kids $5,000 an episode for season two, they were all like: "Five grand? Our hot tube sanitizing expenses alone total $50,000 a quarter." MTV threatened to replace them, but appears now to have come to the same realization as us all: Each Jersey Shore cast-member is unique and beautiful in their own way, like a snowflake made out of frozen gin. So MTV is now reportedly offering $10k an ep, and things look good (not literally) for an encore performance. [Variety]
•The first piece of evidence suggesting that the Late Night Wars were an elaborate scam to boost ratings has arrived: NBC has just picked up a pilot from Conan O'Brien's production studio, Conaco. The project is known as "Justice" and focuses on Supreme Court justice who starts his own legal practice. We'll see if the pilot calls for the purchase of any multimillion Kentucky Derby-winning horses. [THR]
•A new poll from Harris Interactive says that you love Clint Eastwood more than any other film actor. Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks round out the top three. Oprah won for TV personality, followed by Glenn Beck. And, ha ha, Jay Leno is third. (The poll was taken before Late Night wars.) Do we need any more proof that polls should be banned forever? [THR]
•Moving your popular daytime network show to cable? Probably a good move, given the ever-quickening death of network TV. Moving to the Hallmark Channel? Only advisable if your show is The Martha Stewart Show. This is a brilliant move, as Martha Stewart is the human embodiment of a Hallmark Card. You do know you that Hallmark Cards are great for jimmying locks and stealing insider stock info, right? [Variety]
•You may know that Barry Levinson (Rainman) is directing a documentary about obesity sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, the drug company which makes the diet drug alli. TheWrap just interviewed a GlaxoSmithKline marketing exec, who, would you believe, actually defended the project? She said that the company will have no creative control over the doc, and the fact that the title is,Obesity: The American Epidemic Best Treated With Ali, is purely coincidental. Just kidding, the title is undecided. What's known is that a copy of the Vice Guide to Documentary Filmmaking was found in Levinson's Volvo. [TheWrap]
•Sam Worthington, the guy who starred opposite special effects in Avatar, is in negotiations to star in Dracula Year Zero, a film about the origins of Dracula. [THR]