Through the Wire

Earlier this month, NBC put up info on its Web site about a new primetime cop-drama called Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime. Starring Billy Baldwin and one Sarah Marshall, the show has the trappings of a horrible CSI-meets-Moonlighting hybrid. (Tagline: “Sex Crimes Just Got a Little Sexier.”)

Like every TV show these days, Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime has video clips on its site — one from an episode called (ugh) “Bones in Semen” — plus behind-the-scenes photos and a discussion board.

It’s a hoax, of course. The concoction is an alternate reality on the Internet used to promote Universal Studios’ April 18 release of the Judd Apatow-produced comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. The movie documents the ugly aftermath of Sarah’s split with Peter Bretter, the character who writes the music for Crime Scene: Scene of the Crime.

As guerilla-marketing tactics go, this one is pretty elaborate. Apatow & Co. put up a fake blog site by the enraged, jilted hero, ihatesarahmarshall.com, embedded with embarrassing pre- and post-breakup YouTube videos. There’s a fake fansite for the starlet of the title, sarahmarshallfan.com. There are posters pasted all over New York, Los Angeles and other cities declaring hatred for Marshall. Even a fake MySpace page for the band of Sarah Marshall’s new British boyfriend, Infant Sorrow, with two songs worthy of This Is Spinal Tap.

And NBC fronted the fictional Sarah Marshall vehicle on its official site (synergy, you see, between NBC Universal’s TV and movie groups), in what is a convincing pantomime of TV shows’ Web companion sites.

Bummer — we were actually looking forward to the pilot.

Bonnie Hammer, the NBC Universal executive who has lifted up USA Network and Sci Fi Channel, also lifts up the talent who works with her.

On the red carpet at Sci Fi’s recent upfront, Battlestar Galactica cast member Jamie Bamber picked up reed-slim Hammer — who is usually well-grounded — and held her in his arms for a photo. The New York Times ran the shot last week.

At last week’s USA upfront, Hammer apparently thought turnaround was fair play. She tried to lift up WWE wrestler Shawn Michaels for the paparazzi. Hammer, something of a featherweight, only managed to get his leg off the ground.

Hammer also seems to have made a huge fan of normally brooding actor Edward James Olmos of Battlestar. During a press conference at Sci Fi’s upfront, Olmos shouted out from the stage, “I love you, Bonnie Hammer.”

And when a Los Angeles Times reporter recently interviewed Hammer in her Rockefeller Center office, Olmos “burst” in, hugged Hammer and kissed her on both cheeks.

If this keeps up, The Wire suggests that Olmos be confined to quarters on his spaceship, for Hammer’s sake.

Hammer herself got a real boost last week by NBCU, which named her president of Cable Entertainment and Cable Studio, in a multiyear deal.

Hammer keeps her old duties and adds development oversight for shows on NBC’s cable networks, as well as new networks such as Chiller, Sleuth and Universal HD.

FSN Prime Ticket has a great viewing hook this year for its coverage of Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games: it’s the 50th anniversary of the team’s move from Brooklyn, N.Y.

One way FSN will hit home: True Blue Stories: 50 Years of Dodger Glory. The 50 three-minute episodes will feature team highlights in each of the 50 years.

Bruce Beffa, who has worked at the side of Olympics chronicler Bud Greenspan for years, will cull team history and create the short films.

Screening footage, Greenspan always looked for the “I didn’t know that!” moment, Beffa said. “That’s what I love as a lover of history.”

Some factoids The Wire can tease: pitcher Don Drysdale played in high school in Van Nuys, with a second baseman you might have heard of in another context. His name was Robert Redford.

And base-stealing whiz Maury Wills? He was also a musician.

Supplementing the anniversary package are two other short-form series, “Reelin’ in the Years,” a series of 30-second shorts on Dodger players; and “Torre’s Stories,” two- to three-minute reminiscences about the career of veteran Mets, Braves, Cardinals and Yankees manager — and new Dodgers skipper — Joe Torre.