ESPN Reporter Forges "Feud" With Take advantage of Lowe

Take advantage of Lowe Twitter was buzzing after Parks and Recreation's Take advantage of Lowe tweeted that Indiana Colts quarterback Peyton Manning was likely to retire - news that came like a huge surprise to fans and particularly to a single reporter since the National football league. Inside a passive-aggressive (although funny) make an effort to zing Lowe for encroaching on his territory with false reviews, ESPN's Adam Schefter tweeted, "Growing chatter that Parks and Entertainment gets canceled."Watch full instances of Parks and Entertainment Lowe has yet to fireplace in reaction to Schefter's "rumor," but he did retweet his son's feelings around the matter: "@MatthewELowe @RobLowe It's okay father, Johnny and that i still adore you even when you probably did awaken the twittersphere... even around the blackout. #SOPA #Faceplam"Lowe's repetition didn't immediately react to a request comment.Watch Schefter enter his on-air injections at Lowe and the show:

Up-to-date: Kelsey Grammer & Wife Expecting Twins

First Launched: The month of the month of january 15, 2012 11:15 PM EST Credit: Getty Images La, Calif. -- Caption Kelsey Grammer and Kayte Walsh cope with towards the 69th Annual Golden Globe Honours locked in the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Slopes, Calif. around the month of the month of january 15, 2012 Kelsey Grammer has baby Five and six along the way! In Control star who won a Golden Globe to find the best Actor in the TV Drama series and wife Kayte Walsh Grammer, 32, expect twins. Im really searching toward meeting these new arrivals, the actor told reporters backstage within the Golden Globe Honours after his win. Fatherhoods always different, in line with the level of smoothness which involves your existence. They arrive and let guess what happens you must do, he ongoing. [Kayte is] amazing. Shes most likely probably the most loving, amazing, warm people Ive ever met. Shes funny and high all concurrently. Shes an amazing person but spend blow [the kids] away. The twins will probably be Kaytes first children. She formerly experienced a miscarriage this season. Kelsey, 56, is father to boy Jude, 7, and daughter Mason, 10, while using Real Regular folks of Beverly Slopes star Camille Grammer. He's also father to Greer, 19, with Barrie Buckner, and Spencer, 28, with Doreen Alderman. The longtime TV, film and stage veteran is yet another grandfather to Spencers boy Emmett, who's 3 several days old. Copyright 2012 by NBC Universal, Corporation. All rights reserved. These elements is probably not launched, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

IATSE, Teamsters focus on health care

With healthcare costs expected to dominate, Hollywood's below-the-line unions have set March 5 as a start date for contract negotiations with the congloms -- less than four months before the current master contract ends July 31. The first round of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers should last for several weeks. The unions -- the West Coast locals of the Intl. Alliance of Theatrical & Stage Employees and Local 399 of the Intl. Brotherhood of Teamsters -- are expected to negotiate jointly on healthcare and retirement issues while holding separate bargaining on the remainder of their contracts. Reps for IATSE, the Teamsters and the AMPTP had no comment on the negotiations. Both unions have ramped up their activity to heighten membership awareness on the specifics amid rising healthcare costs with a series of explanatory sessions for members, which have included presentations by healthcare expert and consultant John Garner and David Westcoe, exec administrative director with the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health Plan. The Teamsters have scheduled a Jan. 22 town- hall meeting in Burbank, according to a message to members this week from longtime Local 399 secretary-treasurer Leo Reed. "The cost of healthcare benefits has become one of the most important issues facing our members," Reed said. "Costs of care and insurance coverage have been going up at an alarming rate for the last decade or more. Indications are that costs will rise an average of 9% to 10% a year for the next five years." Reed noted that the Motion Picture Industry Pension and Health trust, which administers the benefits package paid approximately $500 million in healthcare costs last year for actives and retirees. "If the projections are accurate, next year's costs for just health care will increase by approximately $50 million," Reed said. "The $50 million more a year is just to stay even. There are also the increased pension cost, and the reduced reserves caused by the 2008 market crash." Health and pension have traditionally been among the top priorities for the unions, alongside salaries and working conditions, but the developments underline the uncertainty over health care amid a struggling economy. "Health care costs have increased at a faster rate than anyone was able to predict," Reed said in the missive. "All over the country, people have seen rising costs for medical services, doctor visits, tests, prescription drugs and hospital care." The Teamsters Local 399 covers about 3,200 drivers in 13 Western states and about 1,000 basic craft workers, while the IATSE deal covers 15 locals on the West Coast encompassing more than 20,000 members. The two unions entered into a formal alliance in August 2010 -- two weeks after Teamster Local 399 drivers reached a deal with the AMPTP and synched up its contract expiration with the IATSE deal as IATSE president Matthew Loeb, who replaced the retiring Thomas Short in 2008 as the head of IATSE, has attempted to foster closer ties between the two unions. Additionally, IATSE members are facing tightened eligibility to qualify for the health plan, which is overeseen by reps of the unions and the showbiz companies and funded from residuals and ancillary markets. IATSE agreed in 2009 to a hike in the eligibility threshold during the final year of the pact requiring that members work 400 hours over six months to qualify, up 33% from the previous 300-hour requirement -- a change that stirred an uproar among below-the-line workers when the pact went out for ratification. In the 2010 negotiations, Teamsters sought 3% in annual wage hikes but the companies insisted on a 2% wage gain, which the Teamsters accepted with several sweeteners along with the same 1.66% hike in benefits contained in the earlier IATSE deal. The Teamster deal set the template for negotiations in late 2010 and early 2011 with the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Televison & Radio Artists, the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America -- all with 2% hikes in minimums and all with the chief gain being an increase of 1.5 per dollar in employer contributions to the pension and health plans. The Teamsters Local 399 contract is negotiated jointly with four other Basic Crafts unions: Local 40 of the Intl. Brotherhood of Electrical Workers; Local 724 of the Studio Utility Employees; Local 755 of Plasterers and Cement Masons; and Local 78 of Journeymen & Apprentices of the Plumbing & Pipe Fitting Industry. Reed noted in his letter that the plans face the dual impact of rising costs and the aging of the industry's population, leading to greater use of health benefits. "Part of the blame for rising insurance costs is due to escalating costs for medical care, pharmaceuticals, and other health care expenses," he said. "A new mandate in the federal health care overhaul is also a factor in making insurance more expensive, by allowing adult children to remain on their parents' insurance policies until age 26." Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

Preston Beckman set for Fox segue

Longtime Fox Broadcasting Co. skedding topper Preston Beckman, the reigning dean of network program planning execs, will transition at the end of the TV season to a new role as senior strategist for Fox Networks Group.The new role calls for Beckman to offer skedding, programming and research insights across all Fox Networks Group outlets, reporting to Peter Rice, chairman of entertainment for Fox Networks Group."Fox has been incredibly fortunate to have Preston guiding our schedule for the past decade and seven consecutive years of No. 1 finishes," Rice said in announcing Beckman's segue. "His strategic mind and love of television make him the Muhammad Ali of scheduling executives, and we all look forward to working closely with him, here at Fox, for many more years."Beckman has been with Fox the past 11 years, serving as exec veep of strategic program planning and research. Before Fox, he spent nearly 20 years at NBC and was a key member of the Peacock's programming team in its 1990s heyday."In my job, you're only as good as the people who bring us their ideas and the executives who nurture and market the shows. I have been very fortunate to work with the best in the business and to have a scheduling team that is second to none," Beckman said. "I also want to thank Peter for persuading me to remain in the FNG family and for giving me the opportunity to transition over the next three years to whatever path I choose to follow."Beckman is known in the biz for his colorful personality and for the candid observations he shares on his Twitter feed, where he's dubbed "The Masked Scheduler." Contact Cynthia Littleton at cynthia.littleton@variety.com

Gallic laffers get guffaws

Gaumont comedy 'Intouchables' had notched up an remarkable $116.4 mil within the French box office by 12 ,. 20.At 2008's Unifrance Paris Rendez-Vous, foreign entrepreneurs jeered their heads off watching Pathe's "Thank you for going to the Stays." But nobody considered buying it.That was then. Meanwhile, the world biz has experienced credit and Eurozone crises, entrepreneurs are becoming more risk-averse, arthouse auds happen to be have contracted -- as have TV sales and DVD areas over much around the world.InchGeneral, prices come in freefall since the economic meltdown in 2008, apart from Germany, Russia and China, where they've elevated,Inch states EuropaCorp worldwide sales mind Marie-Laure Montironi.Global Gallic B.O. walked from $549 million in 2008 to $457 million this past year and $442 million a year ago, Unifrance estimations.Knowing by these amounts, France's sales sector should practically maintain mourning, but that's not the problem whatsoever.Whatever their box office, Gallic sales agents' revenues on French film exports rose a muscular 26.1% this season to $225.2 million, the most effective result since French CNC film agency began tallying sales in 2004.Several factors have been in play.Once easily wiped off as local product, comedies are really prime export fare. Some say like auds like feel-good films in feel-bad occasions.Introduced by Dany Boon's "Nothing To Declare," Franois Ozon's "Potiche" and Jean Becker's "My Days With Margueritte," eight laffers, plus two dramedies, figure among France's finest-grossing exports (see chart).Since Boon's 2008 laffer "Stays" received an eyecatching $53.7 million within the B.O. outdoors France, Gallic comedies have attracted more customers, states Pathe Intl.'s co-intl. sales mind Muriel Sauzay.French dramedy "Intouchables," which received $116.4 million in France through 12 ,. 20, looks set to assist goose comedy sales.Repping combined revenues for sales agents of $15.7 million, Belgium and French-speaking Europe, where French comedy stars are huge, ranked together as French films' third greatest export territory this season, trailing only the U.S. and Germany.Frequently more middle-of-the-road than edgy dramas, comedies can also enjoy well on tv, a continuously-more valuable distributor concern, states Other Position prexy Olivier Albou.Other key areas also provide rallied."At Toronto as well as the AFM, Korea and japan were buying a little more in comparison to previous years," states Films Distribution partner Nicolas Brigaud-Robert."The U.S. companies are more dynamic when compared to a couple in the past,In . reviews Gaumont Worldwide mind Cecile Gaget. "New players Open Road and Film District, for instance, have revived industry. The Weinstein Co. and IFC remain very essential for European cinema."Thrillers and actioners now command "high costsInch in Russia, Sauzay adds.The occasions when movie revenues depended on theatrical have remaining. Genre films may hardly register on B.O. charts but pack good ancillary sales, Brigaud-Robert argues. "Particularly for foreign movies in several places that P&A is extremely high, ancillary is strong and flicks aren't cast-driven, cash is not created from theatrical any longer.InchInchInternational TV and DVD sales aren't that disastrous," adds Camille Neel, Le Pacte's worldwide sales mind. "We've been making good catalogue sales on films that labored better in the TV format than theaters."States Gaget: "Small-budget French genre films from emerging company company directors sell well should they have got a effective concept that's original enough (and) a great script -- which is easier if they're backed by producers getting a brief history.InchA completely new generation of French company company directors for instance Fred Cavaye ("Point Blank") and Frederic Jardin ("Sleep deprived Evening") are turning out cost-contained thrillers that, like genre, pack large ancillary potential."Industry has reduced for dark, intimate French dramas, whether there's a cast or else,In . Gaget states. "These films is only able to be employed in theaters, need top reviews and great festival exposure."Nonetheless, on art films generally, customers still buy films they love, which regularly leads to investing in an offer wars simply because they frequently love the identical films, states Pyramide leader Eric Lagesse.But, it's the bigger films have a tendency to punch the big sales amounts: Pathe's $64 million-allotted "Oceans" and $26 million "Declare" drove up agents' sales figures this season, states Sauzay.France's finest-grossing films of 2011 might use be two major worldwide movies, both French minority co-productions: "The Three Musketeers" and Studiocanal co-produced "Unknown," getting an overall total $133.millions of gross.Any $40 million-plus Gallic movie runs the risk of with different U.S. buy for recoupment along with its French backers needing to setup the big Stateside P&A costs.Techniques to sidestep over-reliance upon the U.S. cut different ways. Plus, lots of Gaul's finest films -- for instance, the $33.3 million "Would I Lie, However? 3" -- are juggernaut comedies that largely recoup from France.Also, companies are paring budgets and restricting exposure via co-production. "Budgets come down substantially in the last two to three years," one producer states."Oftentimes, we've handled to pre-finance films without any U.S. deal, most likely through pre-sales or worldwide co-productions," Sauzay adds, stating the $40.5 million toon pic "Why I Did not Eat My Father,Inch pre-funded worldwide with Italian and Chinese companies.Revenues is a factor, profits another. And nowadays everybody has one eye in the base line.RELATED LINKS: Distribs, exhibs flock to Paris Contact the number newsroom at news@variety.com

Hugh Hefner, Playboy Ready For Their Next Chapters

First Published: December 30, 2011 1:20 PM EST Credit: WireImage Caption Miss January Anna Sophia Berglund and Hugh Hefner step out at Day 1 of TCM Classic Film Festival 2011 in Los Angeles on April 28, 2011 LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- On the second floor of the Playboy Mansion, beyond the seemingly endless hallway lined with photos of the famous folks who have visited the legendary party playground, is a narrow staircase that leads to a small loft. LOCK DOOR, signed Hef, reads a handmade note tacked to the lofts tiny entrance. Excuse me if I sit? asks Hugh Hefner, ever the gentleman as he leads a reporter into the cramped room that has only one chair. Ive got a bad hip. Here in this modest space is where Hefner keeps a detailed record of his life that spans more than 2,500 volumes and counting a Guinness world record for a personal scrapbook collection. Every Saturday, the 85-year-old founder of Playboy magazine spends a few hours scrapbooking a hobby he began in 1943 with cartoons he drew of himself and his high-school classmates. Those doodles were probably just a way of creating a world of my own to share with my friends, Hefner says, seated amid the archives of his life in yes, his trademark silk pajamas and bathrobe. And in retrospect, in thinking about it, its not a whole lot different than creating the magazine. As the new year begins and Playboy approaches its 60th birthday, Hefner intends to continue working on the magazine, his scrapbooks and a Hollywood movie about his life. Thats alive again, he says of the biopic idea thats been bandied about for decades. Though 2011 wasnt entirely kind to the man or the brand Hefners 24-year-old fiance called off their engagement days before their June wedding and NBCs The Playboy Club was the first fall TV casualty, canceled after just three episodes Hefner is optimistic about whats next, personally and professionally. Retirement is unthinkable to me, he says. The future is bright and very exciting and Im looking forward to playing a part in it. Hef his preferred nickname since his teens has been a media force since he published the first issue of Playboy in 1953 and he remains the figurehead of the empire he created. Although Playboy Enterprises named Scott Flanders its chief executive in 2009, Hefner continues to serve as editor-in-chief of the magazine, choosing the cover models and centerfolds and editing the cartoons, letters and party jokes. Even Hefner is at a loss to explain the enduring appeal of Playboy, which has spawned and outlasted so many imitators, but he speculates that it has to do with the quality of the publication and the fact that we were saying things that were important then and now. The current issue, which features the much-touted nude pictorial of Lindsay Lohan, includes articles about Occupy Wall Street and Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, along with an excerpt from Elmore Leonards latest novel and, of course, those photo spreads. Its impossible to separate Hefner from the notionof busty young beauties and the whole clothing-optional, lifes-a-party, I-work-in-pajamas thing. But such an image belies a thoughtful man who deeply values his contributions to the social-sexual changes of my time, yet whose orderly persona seems tame compared to the celebrities of todays tabloid scene. A longtime supporter of the First Amendment, Hefner was an early advocate of civil rights and reproductive rights, and hes championed personal liberties in print. Its very clear that Playboy was instrumental in the sexual revolution, he says. We were making a case for the irrational sexual values that we had back then, and making a case for the sexual revolution back in the years immediately before it became a reality, and doing it in a forum that was very influential. In the 1960s, he says, everybody read Playboy. The magazine was at its peak, selling nearly seven million copies a month, and its cutting-edge content of new writers and nude photos and Hefners own editorials against puritanical repression appealed to a college-age audience hungry for change. Hefner was opening the Playboy Club in London in 1966 when he realized the sexual revolution was well under way. The miniskirt had just arrived, sex was in the air and gaming, gambling had just become legal in the clubs, he recalls. I had been writing the Playboy Philosophy for a couple years, and I felt that week in London that I was looking at the future. Thats when Hefner took his practice of the Playboy lifestyle to a new level. He opened more and more Playboy clubs, launched a TV show in Los Angeles and bought a private jet, dubbed the Big Bunny, to shuttle him back and forth from Playboys headquarters in Chicago to the West Coast. He bought five and a half acres in the posh Holmby Hills neighborhood next to Beverly Hills and, as he puts it, jumped into the swimming pool. He was slowed by a stroke in 1985 as well as the conservative values that dominated during the Reagan era. Hefner married his 1989 Playmate of the Year, Kimberly Conrad, in July of that year. Son Marston was born a year later and Cooper was born in 1991. Hefner and Conrad separated in 1998 but remained married until their sons turned 18. They divorced in 2010. Cooper Hefner is now a 20-year-old junior studying film and history at Chapman University in suburban Orange, Calif., and he says he hopes to be part of an effort to restore Playboys appeal to young people. I definitely think there is some rebranding that needs to be done, Cooper Hefner says on a tour of the game house, a little cottage a short walk from the mansion thats home to a pool table and an array of arcade games. I personally dont think, with my generation and people of my age, the brand is as cool as it was in the 60s and 70s. Indeed, Playboys print circulation is now down to 1.5 million and its readership skews older than in its heyday. Although not a major moneymaker, Hugh Hefner insists the magazine remains the heart and soul of the company. Still, the real future of Playboy which Hefner took private in 2011 after 40 years of public ownership is in brand licensing for merchandise and clubs, says CEO Flanders, noting that the one billion dollars-plus the licensing generates annually dwarfs the companys media profits. Cooper Hefner agrees updated Playboy Clubs can play a big part in wooing a more youthful following, but he believes cinema projects such as Playboys new short-film contest and his fathers big-screen biopic can also help lure a younger demographic. The elder Hefner has always loved the movies, calling them my other family. Movies helped solidify his ideas about the painful result of sexual repression. What he saw on screen echoed the hurtful and hypocritical side of puritanical values that he experienced in his own life. I saw the censorship in the movies when the production code came in in 1934 when I was still a kid, and saw the fact that in movies, even sophisticated couples, like in The Thin Man, Nick and Nora Charles slept in twin beds, Hefner says. In other words, married people in movies slept in twin beds, and I related that as a kid to the fact that I didnt get a lot of hugs and kisses in my home. Hefner still screens movies at the mansion three times a week: Classics on Fridays and Saturdays and new films on Sundays. Every year on his April 9 birthday, he runs his favorite film, Casablanca, and guests dress in the fashions of the 1940s. The original playboy isnt bashful about wanting to see his own colorful life on the big screen. Previous attempts at screenplays of his story read as if they were doing a piece on someone whos already gone, Hefner says, offering a rare acknowledgement of his own mortality. But youve got the guy here. There isnt a great mystery. I can point where the bodies are and how to do it. Besides working on a new script for the biopic, Hefner is working on new relationships with 25-year-old Playboy models Shera Bechard and Anna Berglund. He describes himself as essentially a very romantic person. I dont know that I would be best served at married (life), he says. But I do know that I need an ongoing romantic relationship. He also needs to keep working on Playboy, conceding that perhaps the business he built has become the soul mate hes sought throughout his life. It most certainly is the other half of who I am, without question, and it does fulfill me in ways that most work wouldnt for other people, he says. It has provided him with the kind of larger-than-life existence reflected in the photos that fill the hallway near his scrapbooking room. Its kind of like in Casablanca, Ricks Caf. Everybody comes to Ricks. Well everybody comes to Hefs, he says, passing by the pictures. Youll find them from Mick Jagger to Doris Day to Groucho Marx, young and old. Hefner says he was always a dreamer, but his life is beyond anything he ever imagined. Most peoples lives, if they are successful, have a peak and then its a bell-shaped curve, or they have wonderful years and then a slow dissipation. The opposite has been the case here, Hefner notes almost shyly. Im the luckiest guy, from my perspective, the luckiest guy on the planet. If you can do that and make some real difference in the world, its too sweet. Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Holiday Movie Playlist: The Most Popular Christmas Movies

The holiday season is nearly here, even though a lot of you available will unquestionably be investing your time and effort roasted chestnuts with an open fire (as well as other happy activity) with the family, there's likely to be down-time. And believe to invest that point compared to watching some classic holiday movies? You will find too many feel-good Christmas movies (in addition to some feel-bad holiday movies) available to select from, so when you are stumped come December 25, don't worry -- the MTV Movies team has put together our all-time favorite holiday movie viewing encounters to create your season vibrant. "Die Hard" Now I've got a machine gun. Ho Ho Ho. These words, written on the dead criminals shirt by NY cop John McClane (Bruce Willis) and uttered through the Grinchiest of movie menaces Hendes Gruber (Alan Rickman), exemplify why Christmas at Nakatomi Plaza is really enjoyable. The initial Die Hard, a vintage action flick which taken the wisecracking talents of Willis around the edge of his mega-fame, is infinitely quotable and merely as enjoyable around the tenth viewing as around the first. -Tami Katzoff "Home Alone" A lot more than two decades after Kevin McCallister sledded lower his staircase and into theaters, "Home Alone" remains among my personal favorite Christmas movies. Starring blond moppet Macaulay Culkin because the left-behind lad, the 1990 romp follows the boy who remained because he safeguards his home from a set of bungling criminals (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern), even while effortlessly weaving sincere holiday-ness with amusing hi-jinks. I (and also the Ada) approve. (I most likely should not speak with respect to the ADA, so for legal reasons, please think about this a belief.) -Amy Wilkinson "Love, Really" Can there be anybody who does not love this wonderfully well-received ensemble romantic comedy? The most testosterone-billed of my male buddies get all warm and fuzzy once they bring it up. The main reason it's ideal for the holiday season is apparent: it's set around Christmas, but unlike other films that attempt to take advantage of a previously over-commercialized season with kitschy gimmickry (see "Valentine's" and "New Year's Eve"), "Love Really" is guaranteed as it's central theme is soul mates: The great, unhealthy, the untidy, hard to look at. Plus you can not assemble a much better cast: Emma Thompson, Hugh Grant, Alan Rickman, Laura Linney, Colin Firth, Rodrigo Santorro, Keira Knightley, Andrew Lincoln subsequently (pre-"Walking Dead!") and amazing Bill Nighy carrying out the very best new Christmas song ever, "Christmas Encompasses.Inch -Kara Warner "The Christmas Toy" With "The Muppets" in the spotlight, there is no better time for you to revisit this little-seen Jim Henson made-for-TV jewel about several toys who arrived at existence when no a person's searching. No, we are not speaking about "Toy Story" -- "The Christmas Toy" dates the Pixar classic by a number of years, even though I'd stop lacking saying it is a better film, it's certainly the main one I cherish more. Old buddies, dear buddies, Meteora, eww-it's-Mew, Rugby the Tiger (also known as the finest Christmas toy of)... this movie has everything. Hands lower, my personal favorite holiday movie ever. -Josh Wigler "The The almighty from the Rings" Extended Edition It isn't probably the most apparent choice, but stick to me here. In most, the 3 extended models from the "The almighty from the Rings" trilogy clock-in in a butt-mind-numbing 12 hrs. Now, I really like these movies, however when I'm designed to watch them and never feel below par about sinking four hrs on "Return from the King" on the random Saturday? The holiday season provide the perfect mixture of guilt-free sloth and enormous levels of spare time, the perfect movie marathon conditions. Apart from being convenient, the season always jogs my memory of "The The almighty from the Rings," simply because they were guaranteed Gifts every year they arrived on the scene on DVD. So perhaps it is not that strange in the end, jerk. -Kevin P. Sullivan What exactly are your preferred holiday movies? Inform us within the comments section as well as on Twitter!