Through the Wire
By Jim Forkan, with bureau reports -- Multichannel News, 11/24/2002 7:00:00 PM
Disney Data
If you're bringing the spouse and kids to the Western Show for a little pre-Christmas getaway, here's some theme park information you might want to know.
Yes, Disneyland and its new sibling, Disney's California Adventure, are decorated for Christmas. Admission is up to $45 for adults, $35 for kids aged 3 to 9. (Tykes under three are free.). You might want to think twice about evening forays: the parks are only open until 6 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. Disneyland is open until 8 p.m. on Wednesday, but California Adventure still closes at 6 p.m.
If the family wants to go for more than one day, plan ahead and buy your tickets online: Five-day passes are available for a three-day price.
For those of you stuck in meetings, here's a tip. If you're in a north-facing room, you'll be able to see the park's nightly fireworks, which occur15 minutes before closing.
One last tip: Don't park at the Grand Californian Resort Hotel if you're visiting the parks or Downtown Disney, as the rates break the bank. Park in the theme parks' structure and take the free shuttle to all three areas. Downtown Disney has its own separate lot and most restaurants will validate parking.
'Taken' to The Cellar
For something so big — and with Steven Spielberg's name attached —Sci Fi Channel's screening of Taken in New York last week was a sedate affair.
That event could have used some close alien encounters to perk things up, though the preview episode stirred Emmy Award buzz among attending earthlings.
Sorry, Spielberg watchers — he didn't join Sci Fi CEO Bonnie Hammer and key Universal Television executives. As for the 20-hour maxiseries' cast, many dropped into The Cellar Bar — across and below the street from Bryant Park — for the screening. But Dakota Fanning, child star of I Am Sam, enjoyed pasta with her own entourage and hit the exit minutes before most others entered the screening room.
Another cast notable, Max Headroom's Matt Frewer, got caught in a snowstorm en route.
One noteworthy non-cast celebrity on hand was John Edward of Crossing Over, clad in black.
Incidentally, for trivia fans: Taken writer and co-executive producer Leslie Boehm is a TV late-bloomer. His father, Endre Boehm, was producer of Rawhide, but Leslie initially opted for a music career, then moved into movies a few years back with Dante's Peak.
Shania's Future World
That music video for Shania Twain's single "I'm Gonna Getcha Good" — which debuted on CMT: Country Music Television earlier this month, and is now among those featured on the channel's Top 20 Countdown — includes more than 70 computer-generated shots, according to Blur Studio creative director Tim Miller.
The video is set in a futuristic world in which Shania — or rather a "digital double" on whom Blur animators placed the singer's face — escapes huge robots via a souped-up motorcycle. The real Shania was taped as she sang on a London sound stage.
The project involved 27 animators over a production schedule of six weeks.
"[That's] the largest number of artists we have ever had working on one project," noted Blur producer Al Shier.
CMT viewers saw plenty of that video clip last weekend when the network ran Shania in London: Making the Video and Most Wanted Live Stacked: Shania.
NCT (for Turnover) A
Spokesman Marc Osgoode Smith's abrupt departure from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association last week continues the year's turnover trend at cable's top lobbying shop.
David Beckwith, vice president of communications, left last January after 23 months. Peggy Binzel, executive vice president, took another job in June after 26 months, and Smith packed it in as No. 2 spokesman after 23 months.
All three were prominent hires by NCTA president Robert Sachs, who ended up losing confidence in all three. And it's no secret that all three wound up losing confidence in Sachs. "We wish [Marc] well in any new endeavors and appreciate his contributions to NCTA and the cable industry," NCTA communications senior vice president Rob Stoddard said in a Nov. 21 staff e-mail.
Smith, famous for his buttery leather jackets and his fondness for martinis the hue of Aqua Velva, said farewell to NCTA in his inimitable way. "They were a little bit country and I'm a little bit rock 'n' roll," he said.
Playing Second Fiddle
CNBC went for class with its New York gallery soirée two weeks ago. The network's event at the Museum for German and Austrian Art, billed as a celebration of its primetime lineup, seemed to draw just about every Wall Street analyst given face time by Maria Bartiromo, Louis Rukeyser and Squawk Box.
Aside from getting treated to long celery sticks and creamed pasta, attendees received an impromptu discourse on bodies economic and politic from CNBC's evening talent, as moderated by NBC and CNBC's Brian Williams. The anchor showcased his humorous side, as he dubbed the hosts of Kudlow & Cramer (Lawrence & James) "decaf and caf" and praised The Wall Street Journal's editorial board for an extraordinary "piece on Tummy Time."
Bartiromo was one of the few CNBCers who escaped zing-free.
Although everyone packed the room for that session, few made their way upstairs to the museum's main rooms, to view a stunning collection of paintings, watercolor portraits, pencil sketches and clocks. The reason: Guests had to get past a violin quartet and conductor to brave a winding marble staircase.
Before & After
Country singer Alan Jackson, who scored earlier this year with "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)" — his tribute to victims of the Sept. 11 tragedy at the World Trade Center and elsewhere — a few years ago featured the Twin Towers in one of his music videos.
That clip, for "Gone Country," cropped up last Thursday on Great American Country's More Music Videos. The video, from 1993, opens with shots of the Statue of Liberty and the Twin Towers.
Jackson's "Where Were You" video, which has run on GAC and CMT: Country Music Television, features his live performance from CBS'Country Music Association Awards special of a year ago.
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