HollywoodIdiocy.com

While it may do a lot for Hollywood investor relations, tonight’s 80th annual Academy Awards are nothing I care about all the much, other than the pending broadcast of the ceremony helped bring the writer’s strike to an end at last.

To be honest, there’s simply no actor, actress or movie nominated this year that I feel very strongly about, and given the recent trend toward blatently politicizing the Oscars anyway, I have plenty of more-pleasant ways to spend my evening. For exmaple, taking my wife out to a movie, if she’s up for it; or writing my blogs, or doing some Torah study, or flipping in a movie to watch.

No matter what I do, it’s certain to be a better use of my time than watching a bunch of HollywoodIdiots pat themselves on the back for being good at their craft. Never mind that fewer and fewer of these films are going over well with large audiences.

Charlie may be drowned and dead on Lost, but actor Dominic Monaghan is anything but; the actor is landing feet-first with a plum role in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie, which will focus in on the solo adventures of Hugh Jackman’s character.

Although his longevity may not be the stuff of low term life insurance quotes, Monaghan’s character in the mutant action film will be a character called Blackwing, whose powers are similar to Angel’s, the bird-like flying character in 2006’s X-Men 3: The Last Stand.

Like many former Lost-ies, Monaghan’s run on the ABC drama has earned him a rep as a hot property in Hollywood and adding this talented actor to the cast seems certain to further cement interest in the next X-flick.

It didn’t take long at a beer pong table to see that Vantage Point, the Matthew Fox vehicle, was the weekend’s top drama, raking in over $24 million to secure the top spot at the box office. Jumper, last weekend’s number one flick, could only manage just over half that total with $12.65 million for second place, just ahead of the children’s drama, the Spiderwick Chronicles.

Step Up 2 the Streets and Fools’ Gold rounded out top five, but only Vantage Point was a first-weekend debut release. New Line’s Be Kind, Rewind placed seventh overall, while the comedy Witless Protection and the heavily promoted Charlie Barlett took 13th and 14th place respectively. Indy comedy June remains strong, raking in another $4.1 million to add to its $130 million total so far.

ABC’s critically-acclaimed murder mystery series, based on the novels of James Patterson, Women’s Murder Club, has landed a showrunner just in time to crank our four more episodes before season’s end, giving the show a shot at renewal next fall. The Angie Harmon-fronted drama, based around the efforts of four female friends in positions of power in San Francisco to solve the city’s toughest crimes, has been teetering on the edge of cancellation largely due to losing its show-runners over the course of the 100-day writer’s strike, recently resolved.

Now, Robert Nathan, a veteran show runner on NBC’s Law and Order, has been tapped to come on board for at least the last four episodes this season and try to gently retool the show enough to get a ratings bump and secure a season renewal. Word is, if the network hadn’t found a show runner, the drama was doomed to see its sets struck, right down to the bathroom fixtures, and grind toward slow, painfel non-renewal death. At least now, it has a shot.

In a season with so little original program, it’s a wonder so many shows are rumored to be on the bubble right now. Some of those currently balancing between cancellation and renewal are silly shows to think of cancelling, while others seem long overdue and you’d need a magnifying glasses to see how they’ve lasted as long as they have.

Here’s the lowdown on the “bubble shows.”

CBS’ How I Met Your Mother: Though consistently winning its time slot demographically against stiff competition like NBC’s American Gladiators and Chuck, as well as Fox’ Prison Break and Sarah Conner Chronicles, this is a show ABC should be talking to about a multiseason renewal, not possible cancellation. But it’s produced by Fox, so it’s not their own money on the line. This is one bubble show that must not die.

CBS’ Moonlight: Although it does not involve Joss Whedon or David Greenwalt, the vampire drama has carved out an interesting niche all its own and deserves a full-season renewal.

ABC’s Women’s Murder Club: The James Patterson-based crime drama has a good pedigree and was stirring up some competition against CBS’ Friday night lineup; again, this one should get the “quality television” renewal.

Fox’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: A strong reboot of the Terminator franchise, the show has been tossed about the network schedule in the wake of the writers strike, never really given a chance to shine. It deserves another shot.

The rest are shows I don’t care for myself and won’t feel strongly one way or another if they bow after this season: NBC’s Friday Night Lights, CW’s Aliens In America, ABC’s Carpoolers, ABC’s Men In Trees, ABC’s October Road, CBS’s Cane, Shark and The Unit.

Bye and good riddance to all, if you ask me. I just hope The CW keeps Reaper around for a full-season run.

The last few months have provided a lot of fodder for this site; stubborn producers robbed us of a good chunk of this TV season and ended up giving writers most of what they were asking for to begin with - pure idiocy. Fortunately, the foolishness is now in cease-fire mode, at least until SAG sits down to the bargaining table.

But worry not. HollywoodIdiocy.com is still here to chronicle the ongoing stupidity (and occasional flashes of brilliance) that emanate from the San Andreas Fault on a regular basis. The strike is over, but HollywoodIdiocy.com goes on and on and on…

Here’s the official “Strike’s over” message from WGA West prez Patric Verrone:

On Tuesday, members of the Writers Guilds East and West voted by a 92.5% margin to lift the restraining order that was invoked on November 5th. The strike is over.

Writing can resume immediately. If you were employed when the strike began, you should plan to report to work on Wednesday. If you’re not employed at an office or other work site, call or e-mail your employer that you are resuming work. If you have been told not to report to work or resume your services, we recommend that you still notify your employer in writing of your availability to do so. Questions concerning return-to-work issues should be directed to the WGAW legal department or the WGAE’s assistant executive director.

The decision to begin this strike was not taken lightly and was only made after no other reasonable alternative was possible. We are profoundly aware of the economic loss these fourteen weeks have created not only for our members but so many other colleagues who work in the television and motion picture industries. Nonetheless, with the establishment of the WGA jurisdiction over new media and residual formulas based on distributor’s gross revenue (among other gains) we are confident that the results are a significant achievement not only for ourselves but the entire creative community, now and in the future.

We hope to build upon the extraordinary energy, ingenuity, and solidarity that were generated by your hard work during the strike.

Over the next weeks and months, we will be in touch with you to discuss and develop ways we can use our unprecedented unity to make our two guilds stronger and more effective than ever.

Now that the strike has ended, there remains the vote to ratify the new contract. Ballots and information on the new deal, both pro and con, will be mailed to you shortly. You will be able to return those ballots via mail or at a membership meeting to be held Monday, February 25th, 2008, at times and locations to be determined.

Thank you for making it possible. As ever, we are all in this together.

Best,

Patric M. Verrone
President, WGAW

Michael Winship
President, WGAE

Never mind the planes, boats and Coaster furniture that was wrecked during production … it turns out viewers loved Fool’s Gold, the Matthew McConaughy / Kate Hudson romantic comedy enough to give the first-week release top honors at the box office the weekend before Valentine’s Day, to the tune of approximately $22 million. The first-week release, Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins, starring Martin Lawrence, also proved popular with a $17.1 million reception, good enough for second place.

Business was down significantly for the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert film, though it took third place with over $10 million, while chiller-thriller The Eye, starring Jessica Alba, took in over $6 million to seal away fourth place. Underdog indy comedy Juno moved up a spot, showing remarkable staying power in its 10th week of release as Oscar buzz builds around it, taking in $5.72 million to edge out 27 Dresses. Juno is the highest-grossing movie currently in the Top 5, having garnered $117 million to date.

Rambo dropped to eighth place and Meet the Spartans to ninth place in their third weeks of release. Rambo, which cost $50 million to make, has only raked in $36 million domestically and will likely need to rely on overseas and home video sales to get into the black. Unlike last year’s Rocky Balboa, it appears Rambo was not re-embraced by nostalgic Sylvester Stallone fans.

Following a membership meeting Saturday and a press conference Sunday, it appears the WGA has reached a labor agreement with the AMPTP that could put striking writers, who’ve missed three months, and almost four months, of work while out on strike, back to work as early as Wednesday of this week. Show runners have been ordered by all the major studios and networks to report to work today (Monday) to start preparing for the return of writers.

Networks are hoping to salvage as much of the remaining 2007-08 TV season as possible. As recently as a week ago, some show runners for shows like Pushing Daisies, have said that this season is already a wash and they would expect any return to work to be in preparation for next fall. While some shows may indeed skip the rest of the season, you can bet the Big Four - ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC - as well as possibly the CW - will want at least their top-rated scripted comedies and dramas to go back into production for fresh episodes immediately.

It’s still unclear, however, how fast productions can get back up and running. NBC’s The Office, for example, notoriously laid off over 100 nonwriter, nonactor and nondirector technical staffers with no guarantee of being rehired once the strike was over. Whether shows in that situation, like The Office, can regroup, recall and/or replace entire tech crews and get back into production in a timely matter is still a relevant question; some of their previous workforce, due to the length of the strike, may no longer even be available to be rehired, which would necessitate a filling positions left vacant on the fly; in other words, it could be as much as a month before some shows are back to their normal production schedules, filming and completing episodes for broadcast, even after the writers start writing again.

And that’s not even taking into consideration all the paperwork involved in rebooting the suspended season, including everything from drafting revised production schedules to re-employment considerations like the paperwork for job benefits like health care, dental insurance and even Medicare insurance. After months of inactivity, look for the next month to be a frenetic frenzy of activity on all fronts.

While all the detailing and chrome accessories have yet to be finalized, the WGA appears to be taking steps that could signal an end to the four-month-old TV and movie writers strike. WGA West has scheduled a general membership meeting for Saturday at which the details of a tentative contract between the writer’s union and the AMPTP will be announced and explained to membership.

If the deal passes muster with Saturday audiences, a union-wide ratification vote and an end to the work stoppage could take place within a week, just in time for the Academy Awards to move forward; some speculate that a few of the bigger network hits may even return to production to crank out several more episode prior to the traditional summer break and ramp-up to the fall TV debut.

If the strike does end, several shows like ABC’s Pushing Daisies are expected to wait until fall to return to air, while others will rush back into production as soon as the pistol sounds for the end of the strike. The Screen Actors Guild, however, may throw a wrench in the works; their contract is up in June and if an early deal is not worked out between AMPTP and SAG, we could be headed right back into a work stoppage, this time due to the actors rather than the writers.