Ben Silverman
Report: NBC's Ben Silverman to Appear on HBO's Entourage
Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke is reporting that NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman will be appearing this season on HBO's glitzy Hollywood fantasia Entourage.
As Ms. Finke writes:
Fox mogul Tom Rothman and NBC mogul about to go-go Ben Silverman will appear in cameos this fall as well as ABC's The View and film critics Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips. Now exactly whose idea is that edgy viewing? Unless, of course, Ben is partaking of weed or worse on air.
Mr. Silveman, who is assumed by some to be the basis for B.J. Novak's temp-turned-ambitious executive on The Office, will probably not be toking any weed on HBO after Esquire"s Matthew Belloni read more »
Morning Memo: Really, Who Could Think John Kerry Was Fun?
John Kerry's reps says that he was not partying with co-eds as the pictures of the Massachussets senator surrounded by college women and holding a beer might suggest. [Us Weekly]
Kate Hudson and Lance Armstrong may be over. [P6]
Tim Gunn reportedly appeared on the first season of Project Runway free of charge, and made only $2,500 per episode during the second season. [NY Daily News]
Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment, is reportedly having some trouble with his summer programming choices as ratings have dropped. Who knew Baby Borrowers and American Gladiators could fail? [P6]
Michelle Obama made Vanity Fair's best dressed list alongside Julian Schnabel and SJP. [VF]
Madonna's rep says her client, who was recently photographed looking thin and sickly pale, is a just victim of an unfortunate and possibly touched up photo. [NY Daily News]
What Ratings Decline? NBC Sells $1.9 Billion in Advance Primetime Ads
According to several news reports today, though it is currently in fourth place among the broadcast networks, NBC has wrapped up its advance advertising sales this year with successful results.
And they didn't even throw an upfront!
Earlier this year, NBC executives announced that they would eschew the traditional TV time frame, not show pilots to advertisers at an upfront presentation, and would roll out new programming all year long.
"NBC's intention to announce a new sked in April—and then follow with a mix of small meetings and one big Gotham pitch—promises to disrupt the usual upfront selling season by giving the net a full month's head start on dealmaking," Variety reported back in February.
Four months later, that approach appears to be working. read more »
NBC Officially Crowns Fallon Prince of Late-Late Night
There were no surprises at 30 Rock today as NBC announced the new host of Late Night when current host Conan O'Brien decamps to 11:30 PM sometime in 2009. As far back as February 2007, Bill Carter, The New York Times' veteran TV reporter and de facto historian of late night, had been reporting that Saturday Night Live alum Jimmy Fallon would be tapped to host the show. As reporters and film crews assembled on the 67th floor to take their lucite seats in a room with floor-to-ceiling windows dramatically framing a rainy, overcast day, Fallon's name was openly bandied about. read more »
How Green Is His Valley? At Vanity Fair's Enviro-Bash, Brokaw Brags of Bison
On Monday, April 28, in the subterranean auditorium of the New York Public Library, Vanity Fair hosted a cocktail hour and convocation of experts grandly titled “Redesigning the World: A Green Way to the Future.” And environmentally concerned New Yorkers Mary Richardson Kennedy (wife of Robert Kennedy Jr.< read more »
Is NBC's The Office Too Prickly for Primetime?
