Hollywood

Anti-NBC Frenzy Continues Over Conan's $40M Firing; Zucker Threatens to Ice O'Brien For Three Years

Ari Emmanuel, Conan O'Brien, Hollywood, Jeff Zucker, NBC

NIKKI FINKE

DATELINE HOLLYWOOD

BREAKING NEWS! EXCLUSIVE! 11TH UPDATE, SUNDAY 8:50 AM: Below is Saturday Night Live‘s cold opening about the festering late night debacle about to end — now possibly Tuesday after the MLK long weekend — with NBC’s $40 million “don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out” payment to Conan O’Brien that also frees him to compete against Jay Leno immediately. Best line of the show was SNL

Weekend Update anchor Seth Meyers’: “This week you didn’t need Cinemax to see someone screwed on TV.” It’s amazing and bewildering that the network keeps vigorously promoting this comedy of errors to the media via video clips of its own employees denigrating and humiliating the beleaguered brand.

(I asked one SNL insider if there was any behind the scenes bitching from the suits because of the NBC bashing. “None at all.”) Perhaps, at this nadir, NBC has to put ratings above its own reputation. Or maybe there’s just no defense possible. Although Jeff Zucker keeps desperately trotting out more and more NBC execs — first entertainment boss Jeff Gaspin, then sports czar Dick Ebersol, then news topper Steve Capus — to give dictation to The New York Times in support of himself. (When did stenography replace reporting there?) In that article, Zucker tries to play the victim of a media frenzy — but it was a self-inflicted wound. Hollywood is now hearing from people around Zucker how he’s “‘wiped out from his Conan ordeal’,” Deadline New York Editor Mike Fleming learned last night, “Zucker apparently scrapped plans to fly to LA with his family for tonight’s Golden Globes broadcast by NBC or the NBC Universal after-party.

At least that is how he is feeling at the moment.” Meanwhile, someone posting O’Brien’s Tonight Show episodes at NBC’s Hulu.com weighed in on the Team Conan vs Team Leno battle. “When you highlight the January 13th Conan clip with your cursor, the tag reads ‘better than leno’,” a tipster showed me. Then there’s this zinger from O’Brien’s longtime rep Gavin Palone. The manager sent an email to CBS mogul Les Moonves, while this mess unfolded, asking whether “a long time ago you planted Jeff Zucker there as a way to destroy NBC from inside.” Ouch!

10TH UPDATE, FRIDAY 5:15 PM: A settlement of NBC vs Conan is close but not yet signed. “There are still issues to be worked out,” an insider reports back to me. This follows all-day negotiations between NBC and its attorneys, and Team Conan and their manager-agency-lawyer reps. “There’ve been some very intense conversations”.

All are under confidentiality agreements. So to what extent did NBC blink? Remember that all week, as I’ve been reporting, NBCU chief Jeff Zucker stuck to an extreme position that threatened to hold Conan to his contract and keep him off the air for 3 1/2 years and not pay him a penny of that $60M penalty fee if O’Brien doesn’t host The Tonight Show as the network promised. Instead of a prolonged and ugly battle, NBC has given in to Team Conan who’ve insisted their guy exits only with a lot of cash and freedom. How much cash?

“Zucker’s NBC spin puts it at $25 million. But it’s a lot closer to $40 million than $25 million,” my insider says. “And Conan was adamant that NBC take care of the people close to him — [executive producer] Jeff Ross and the staff who moved out to Los Angeles.” According to the pact, Conan leaves The Tonight Show on January 22nd. Meanwhile, he’s free to go anywhere and compete with Jay. This is that Ron Meyer-negotiated deal (which I first reported yesterday at 3 PM). The Universal Studios president/COO was asked to step in secretly by WME agents Ari Emanuel when Team Conan and NBC were so far apart they weren’t even on speaking terms. “They [NBC Universal] were lucky to have Ron.” I’m told the deal might close as soon as Saturday. And NBC’s PR nightmare will end. Or will it? In his Friday night monologue, Conan defended himself against NBC sports czar Dick Ebersole’s very public (and inappropriate) takedown: “In the press this week, NBC has been calling me every name in the book. In fact, they think I’m such an idiot, they now want me to run the network.”

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Brittany Murphy Dies, Aged 32

Brittany Murphy, Broadcatching, Hollywood

GUARDIAN UK

RIP SWEET GIRL

The Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy has died in Los Angeles, according to reports.

Officials at the Los Angeles county coroner’s office confirmed that the Cedars-Sinai medical centre in Beverly Hills reported the death there earlier today of a person named Brittany Murphy.

The Los Angeles fire department said it responded to an emergency call from the home of actress Brittany Murphy’s husband.

Fire department spokesman Devon Gale said the call was made at 8am from a home in Los Angeles that is listed as belonging to British screenwriter Simon Monjack, who is married to Murphy. One person was transported to a hospital.

The entertainment website TMZ reported that Murphy, 32, went into cardiac arrest and could not be revived. She was said to have been pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

The actor, who was born in Atlanta, began her career on television as a teenager before her breakthrough role in the 1995 film Clueless, which starred Alicia Silverstone.

Murphy went on to star opposite rapper Eminem in 8 Mile and appeared in the comic book adaptation Sin City.

She also provided the voice for Luanne Platter in long-running animated television series King of the Hill and Gloria the penguin in box office smash Happy Feet.

She had a brief relationship with actor Ashton Kutcher in 2002 after filming the comedy Just Married, in which they both appeared, and married Monjack in 2007.

Dennis Hopper Admitted to Hospital

Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider, Hollywood, John Kennedy, Peter Fonda, The Sixties

Actor Dennis Hopper In Hospital With “Flu” Symptoms

hopper_fonda

The San Francisco Chronicle

Veteran actor Dennis Hopper has been admitted to a New York hospital, suffering from influenza-like symptoms.

The actor, 73, took ill on Wednesday afternoon with a stomach complaint, his representative has confirmed.

His full condition was unknown as WENN went to press.

As a result of his illness, Hopper has been forced to pull out of several appearances on talk shows including “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” and “Today.”

The actor is in the Big Apple to promote his new TV show, “Crash,” a series based on the Academy Award-winning 2004 movie.

Randy Quaid And Wife Arrested in Texas

Crime, Hollywood, Randy Quaid

quaid-randy

Los Angeles Times

Actor Randy Quaid and his wife are arrested

September 24, 2009 |  5:36 pm

After allegedly skipping out on a Santa Barbara hotel bill earlier this month, actor Randy Quaid and his wife, Evi, were arrested Thursday near Marfa, Texas.

Hours earlier, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department had obtained a warrant for their arrest, accusing them of running up a tab of more than $10,000 at an unidentified hotel.

Department spokesman Drew Sugars said Evi Quaid apparently put up a struggle during the arrest but “was quickly restrained.’

It was not clear whether the couple would be extradited to Santa Barbara, Sugars said.

—Steve Chawkins

KNBC Anchor Paul Moyer Leaves Door Open

Hollywood, KNBC, Los Angeles, Media, paul Moyer, Venice Beach

moyerLOS ANGELES TIMES

His departure from the station doesn’t necessarily mean the end of his news career, he says.

By Greg Braxton

April 27, 2009

Veteran news anchor Paul Moyer may be done with KNBC-TV Channel 4, but he may not be finished with local news.

“I’m officially retired from Channel 4, but that doesn’t mean I’m officially retired from the news business forever,” Moyer told The Times on Friday. “I can’t predict what will happen in the future. I’m not closing the door, but there’s nothing out there at the moment.”

While on vacation early this month, Moyer unexpectedly announced he was retiring from KNBC after 22 years but would return for a short time before selecting a final broadcast date. However, station News Director Robert Long told staffers Friday that Moyer had “decided to make the transition from vacation to retirement a seamless one, and he will not be returning to our air to say goodbye.”

“I just didn’t feel there was anything to gain by going back and working for another few weeks,” said Moyer. “I hope that people understand why I’m not going back. I get very uncomfortable with big formal goodbyes.”

Moyer is considered one of the last of a breed of well-paid and highly promoted local news anchors. His departure follows speculation that his salary, estimated at more than $3 million a year, had been too costly for the station in a time of declining revenue and viewership industrywide.

The newscaster said he has been moved by viewers who have expressed their sense of loss about his departure. “What really touches me is they thank me for being there,” he said. “I really feel like I have a relationship with the people of Southern California. I feel connected to them. I will really miss that.”

For now, Moyer said his focus will be on his family and his children: “I’ve got two kids, 16 and 19, and they need their dad. Now they’ve got him, full time.”