Through the Wire
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 6/22/2003 8:00:00 PM
Yes, He said Yes, He's Read Ulysses
When Stephen Colbert, a correspondent for Comedy Central's The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, and his wife moved to New York in 1993, they missed the last two weeks of a course they were attending in Chicago on reading James Joyce's Ulysses.
That meant not reading the book's last two chapters, or episodes. So Colbert was thrilled the following June 16 when he came upon a local radio station's broadcast of the annual Ulysses reading from New York's Symphony Space.
"They did those two chapters that year," Colbert told us last week.
Last Monday — 10 years to the day of that broadcast — Colbert was on stage with more than 40 other actors and performers re-enacting the Cyclops episode on the same stage. Over the years he's become a big fan of the book (set on June 16, 1904) and of the Symphony Space readings, and, yes, he has finished the book, and enjoys dipping into its "800 pages of poetry" when the mood strikes.
"For me it's ever unfolding, ever blossoming," he said.
Real World Eyes Site
Neighbors of the proposed site of the next The Real World/Road Rules Challenge have succeeded in scaring the show's producers out of Newport, R.I.
The show features teams from past episodes of MTV: Music Television reality shows squaring off in competitions that involve wild stunts. Producers were negotiating for use of a mansion known locally as the Ivy Tower. But the Bellevue-Ochre Point Neighborhood Association raised a stink about establishing a "party house" in the upscale residential neighborhood.
The neighbors' attorney, Turner Scott, said the community doesn't oppose the show per se, but just wanted to see that all local zoning and design laws were observed — such as the rule prohibiting the co-habitation of more than 5 unrelated persons under one roof.
The ruckus was enough to send MTV packing: Producers withdrew their application with the city, according to Scott.
"My 17-year-old watches the show. She was very mad at me," the attorney said.
But the producers haven't gone far. Scott said they are in negotiations with a homeowner in nearby Middletown and researching the permits they would need to film there. Scott would know — he said he's the attorney for the homeowner in talks there.
Pigskin vs. Gooseflesh
Next Super Bowl Sunday, it could be interesting to see which contest wins the most loyalty of male viewers: the broadcast halftime show or a silicone-fest on cable.
Backers will this week announce details of a pay-per-view "alternative half-time game" dubbed Lingerie Bowl 2004. Playboy Playmates and other team members will face off in a "7 on 7, full-contact football game between Team Euphoria and Team Dream" on an arena-sized field. The event, produced by Horizon Entertainment, will be available in 40 countries, according to backers.
And just in case the proposed event isn't enough to lure ink-stained wretches out to the launch press conference, backers promise a preview of the "custom made team lingerie" at the press conference. What, no accompanying mud pit?
They've Got Sole
We've seen traveling exhibits of celebrity gowns, Marilyn Monroe memorabilia and critters by cable networks. Now there's one for the fetishists out there: Hallmark Channel is helping sponsor a traveling exhibit of autographed celebrity shoes.
The national mall tour began last week in Los Angeles and is part of Hallmark's public-affairs initiative promoting adoptions. Huh?
No, it does make sense. The shoes, including rhinestone-studded boots from singer Wynonna Judd, strappy high-heels from Sarah Jessica Parker and high-top sneakers from Julianne Moore, will be auctioned on eBay in October. The proceeds will go to Shoes for Orphan Souls, a non-profit organization that purchases and distributes new shoes to orphans all over the world.
Image Facelift
Insight Communications Co. is comfortable enough that customers know it "communicates" that its new logo just says "Insight."
Senior vice president Pam Euler Halling said the old logo, circa 1990, needed freshening up. After all, "It's the first experience anyone has with our brand," she noted.
Ad agency Red Tettemer chose a more happening typeface and junked the all-cap INSIGHT for a "more approachable" upper-and-lower rendering. The fiber bundle is still on the left, in a slightly jazzier fashion.
Start looking for the new logo on letterheads soon — and, in Insight markets, keep an eye peeled for fun new "customer-focused" Insight image ads, featuring Insight employees.
Kitsch Collector
Round and round the nation the Chuck Woolery bobblehead goes, and where that gigantic profile ultimately ends up, nobody knows.
Bob Boden, Game Show Network's senior vice president of programming, knows where he wants the bobblehead to end up when its ramblin' days are done. Boden, we understand, has let associates know he has designs on the big guy.
His home in California's San Fernando Valley, outside Los Angeles, is partly a game-show shrine.
Several rooms of the abode host full-scale, original game show sets right down to the last buzzer, including one from Family Feud.
Contributors: Kent Gibbons, Simon Applebaum.
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