Watching KVille

But this time it is on CBS. And it’s still a maybe…

Many thanks again to TCNA, a reader/commenter, who graciously tipped me off that Cole Hauser has joined the cast of a new CBS pilot called The Tower.

Upon researching said pilot, I have found out the following:

Marcia Gay Harden plays a millionaire newspaper owner in Chicago, and the pilot/potential series is being produced by Cold Case executive producer, Meredith Stiehm, as well as Davis Guggenheim, the director of the Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth. Stiehm is listed as the writer on IMDb in addition to her duties as the EP, and Guggenheim will be directing the pilot.

CCH Pounder and

Denis O’Hare

are also attached to The Tower. CCH Pounder, who comes from The Shield, was usually my favorite character. And Denis O’Hare, who has been in just about everything, is a Tony-winner for his role in Take Me Out, and almost won for the revival of Sondheim’s Assassins. He can dance, he can sing, he can act. He’s a triple-threat!

*Side note* about Assassins. It came out in the early 1990’s, but nobody got it. It was then shelved for a decade, and became a hit. It’s a great musical if you have never heard it.

Here’s a little trivia about Meredith Stiehm. She first started writing for TV on Northern Exposure, and even spent a couple of seasons writing for BH 90210. Neat. I have to wonder if she will be somehow involved in the rumored 90210 spin-off, arriving this fall, possibly.

A bit from Variety:

Harden is set to play Zoe, a millionaire who buys the newspaper at the center of the Eye pilot “The Tower.” Project revolves around journos who not only break stories but also solve mysteries.

And from the Hollywood Reporter:

“Tower,” from CBS Par, revolves around a group of Chicago reporters who treat breaking news as cases to be both investigated and solved. Hauser will play a crime reporter. “The Shield” alumna Pounder will play the paper’s managing editor.

The Hollywood Reporter offered a bit more info on Hauser.

Cole Hauser has been tapped for the lead role in “The Tower,” the CBS drama pilot from “Cold Case” exec producer Meredith Stiehm.

Davis Guggenheim is directing the project, which will have Hauser starring as Sean Castleman, a crime reporter at a paper where journos investigate and solve crimes. CBS Paramount Network TV is producing.

Hauser most recently co-starred in the Fox drama “K-Ville.” He’s filming Tyler Perry’s “The Family That Preys Together” and is set to appear in the features “Tortured” and “Like Dandelion Dust.”

Hmm. I like the idea of Chicago-based reporters, even though I am sure the series will be shot in LA, despite the setting. It’ll probably be like ER in that they show a couple of shots of the Sears Tower and then everything is very sound-stagey. I really hate that, and that is one of the reasons that I thought K-Ville stood out from the pack. Filmed in the actual location is a nice touch for authenticity in a very un-authentic world.

Still, glad that Hauser is returning to TV, and in a lead is even better.

Cole Hauser, Marcia Gay Harden, CCH Pounder, Denis O’Hare, CBS, Paramount, Chicago, The Tower, K-Ville, Meredith Stiehm, Davis Guggenheim, Cold Case, An Inconvenient Truth, Assassins, Take Me out, Northern Exposure, Beverly Hills 90210, ER, Hollywood Reporter, Variety

That boy ain’t right.

The Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, will be joining our fearless President George the Younger in New Orleans today and tomorrow. The trio will be meeting over the two days to discuss how much better the world would be if K-Ville were still in the air. Ok, that is a lie. I’m sure there will be a lot of talk about immigration, free trade, and how to get Trey Parker and Matt Stone to quit making fun of Canadians so much.

The woman in charge of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau, a Ms. Romig, told a reporter from Voice of America that the PM and the Mexican President will be visiting other parts of the city, in addition to wherever it is that they are staying and meeting (I assume at a very nice hotel). Strangely, the article doesn’t mention if Mr. Bush will venture out with the tour group.

Romig says both Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon and their official delegations will have the opportunity to visit parts of the city outside the sites where the summit meetings will take place. She says President Calderon, in particular, will be active, re-opening a consulate here that was closed in 2002. –VOA

But hey, that’s good news that the Mexicans are opening up the New Orleans consulate right?

More from the same article.

The Mexican consulate here had been one of the two oldest consulates Mexico had in the United States before it was closed in a cost-cutting effort in 2002. Much of the rebuilding work carried out in New Orleans following Katrina has been done by immigrants from Mexico and other parts of Latin America and there are now around 30,000 Mexicans living in and around the city.

I have to admit that I do find it odd that immigrant labor was used/is being used to rebuild New Orleans. You would think that some sort of work program could have been formed to give locals jobs in the rebuilding process, but then what do I know? And besides, where would the Federal Government come up with funds for something like that? Ill-used FEMA funds or funds from the ill-conceived Iraq war?

That would never work.

Canada, Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, Mexico, Felipe Calderon, consulate, New Orleans, Federal Government, President, Bush, VOA, free trade, immigration, FEMA, Iraq War

Ah, thank goodness the FBI is following through on issues and problems resulting from Hurricane Katrina.

We all know FEMA sure isn’t doing much.

Still, I am not entirely sure that sending a woman away to federal prison is the best way to deal with fraud ensuing from Katrina, especially when the sentence could be up to the maximum of 20 years.

In a press release from the FBI New Orleans Desk, 46 year old Barbara Stewart of Reserve, Louisiana pled guilty to wire fraud in connection to her fraudulent applications to the Red Cross in the months after Hurricane Katrina.

According to the FBI’s case, Stewart applied for Red Cross financial aid 8 times in September and October 2005. At the time, the Red Cross offered financial assistance for the disaster relief of those affected by the hurricanes in 2005. It was a one-time payment of $1565. Instead of receiving the charity and appreciating it, Stewart must have taken advantage of the chaotic nature of disaster relief to receive 8 one-time payments, in total of $12,520 over the course of two months. Stewart supposedly kept telling the Red Cross that she simply never received the money, and I guess that little ploy worked seven more times.

Now, Stewart is facing 20 years…for a little more than $12,000. Admittedly, we do have to punish those who take advantage of others, especially charitable organizations, but 20 years, come on. Wouldn’t it fit the crime instead to mandate that Stewart pay off her debt to the Red Cross and Society in general literally? Granted, Stewart is also facing fines of up to $250,000 (that’s a quarter of a million dollars here, so I’m sure Stewart can just write a check, right?), so in essence any fine can go toward restitution. However, as I highly doubt the guilty party will be able to pay her potential fine; for a crime of this nature, couldn’t Stewart be put into a work program in which she could gain a valuable skill for later use, and then get out of the cycle of poverty, and maybe not feel the need to scam the Red Cross?

I don’t know, maybe I am idealistic in thinking that poverty tends to lead people down the path to a life of crime, or even a small foray into what can be construed as smaller crimes. The US penal system is simply not working as it is set up. The system will pay thousands and thousands of dollars to house criminals, but spend relatively little to rehabilitate them, and why is that? I truly believe that, given the choice, most people would much rather earn their living than steal it. Sure, there are always those out there that will become criminals no matter what upbringing they have had or which socioeconomic class they come from (hi, Enron and WorldCom), but the large majority of criminals are in that predicament due to poverty or other dire situations.

Hurricane Katrina created a desperate situation for many people, and those that were already experiencing the ills of poverty, were perhaps driven to extremes. Does a bad situation excuse bad behaviour? No, of course, but maybe if this nation spent more on preventing poverty and crime, we would not have so many of our poor in prisons.

Just a thought.

FBI, FEMA, New Orleans, Hurricane, Katrina, wire fraud, prison, poverty, Red Cross, penal system, Louisiana

Now, I am not one to advocate defrauding the Federal Government, even when the ineffective and ineffectual FEMA is the government entity in question, but I do think the possible sentence for defrauding FEMA is a bit, well, excessive.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation published a news release on Friday detailing the case of Trinise Causey of New Orleans. Causey is facing 20 years in a federal penitentiary for scamming FEMA for, get this, $2,358. That’s almost a year for every $100 she got for her efforts.

The FBI reports that Causey has pled guilty before a federal judge last week. She is going to jail because she commited “wire fraud”, technically. Causey filed a false claim with FEMA in September 2005, following Hurricane Katrina. She claimed to have suffered property damage. She even went as far as to produce a fake lease in order to make her claim look more credible.

Other than the severity of the punishment, the other thing that surprises me is how long Causey waited for that “rental assistance” check from FEMA. She filed her claim in September, submitted additional paperwork in November, and didn’t receive any money until MARCH 2006. Good thing she didn’t actually have any property damaged (or whatever actually went on — I tend to think that she did lose some stuff, but just couldn’t prove it, and possibly claimed to have lost more than she did) ’cause she would have been screwed if FEMA was all she could count on.

Anyway, Causey is facing one count of wire fraud, as the money (again, that’s $2,358) was wired to her bank account. That begs the question — or many questions if you start thinking about the fact that the FBI can investigate and charge this one little woman in three years, but still cannot seem to do much about charging war profiteers for willfully defrauding the US from billions — would Causey be guilty of wire fraud if she had received a paper check from FEMA, or what would they have charged her with then?

New Orleans, FEMA, wire fraud, FBI, Federal Government, Hurricane Katrina

Yep, it’s true. Anthony “Marlin Boulet” Anderson has moved on to greener and (currently slightly) higher-rated pastures, joining NBC’s long-long-long-running drama, “Law & Order.”

Photo comes from the NY Post, as does this blurb.

“He’s a former IAB [internal affairs] officer who didn’t sign up for that job - they recruited him right out of the academy and told him he could become a homicide detective in two years,” Anderson told The Post.

“It’s what he really wants to do,” Anderson said. “Bernard feels he can really make a difference as a homicide detective.”

Bernard is replacing Det. Ed Green (Jesse L. Martin), who’s leaving the show. Bernard’s first appearance on “L&O” will overlap with Green’s final appearance, scheduled to air April 23 on NBC. Bernard will be paired with Det. Cyrus Lupo (Jeremy Sisto), who’s also new to the “L&O” family.

“He’s not a hard-ass,” Anderson says of Bernard.

“He’s a fair guy trying to find his way in a new station house - and trying to get away from the stench of the ‘rat squad’ of internal affairs.”

Don’t bother checking Anthony’s website for any information, as it looks as though it has not been updated in quite some time. K-Ville is not even listed in the filmography.

That’s an odd word, isn’t it? Filmography.

One, I think this is a good move for Anderson, as FOX is notoriously bad at supporting shows that don’t rake in the benjamins. If you ain’t American Idol, your job is not safe at FOX. And working on Law & Order carries a certain loyal audience that tunes in now matter what, and L&O goes into a profitable syndication outlet that means that in a few years, maybe one or two depending on how fast the current season goes into re-runs, Anderson will be raking in the residuals.

However, L&O is getting very long in the tooth, if you know what I mean. There are rumours that NBC may end up giving it the boot, which I doubt, as L&O has spawned so many time-slot fillers for NBC, and I would think that NBC would not want to piss off Dick Wolf. Wolf will more likely be the one to pull the plug.

I popped by the Law & Order forum on the NBC website, and it seems that there are mixed feelings about Anderson joining the cast. I think that Anderson is a surprisingly good actor with tremendous range (The Shield providing a good example of this), so it is not like he will ruin the show, which personally I cannot watch anymore due to having a tv writing teacher that had worked on L&O back in the day and she ruined the show for me, thank you very much. L&O has had a venerable cast over the years, (Jerry Orbach is King! May he rest in peace.) so if anything Anderson is joining a great cast for the most part.

Anthony Anderson, Law & Order, L&O, NBC, K-Ville, FOX, American Idol, Dick Wolf, Jerry Orbach

My gratitude goes out to Laura, who submitted a comment on my last post about Cole Hauser, and her news of another film coming out starring Mr. Hauser.

It seems that Cole has been added to the cast of the new Tyler Perry film, The Family that Preys. Due out in theatres this September with a huge cast including Kathy Bates and get this, Robin Givens.

Here is a rather involved “preview” from CinemaBlend. Seems a bit different from the typical Perry fare, but then again, I have never seen any Tyler Perry film, but I do know the man seems to have a rather charmed existence in “Hollywood” by way of Atlanta.

Wealthy socialite Charlotte Cartwright (Kathy Bates) and her dear friend Alice Pratt (Alfre Woodard), a working class woman of high ideals, have enjoyed a lasting friendship throughout many years. Suddenly, their lives become mired in turmoil as their adult children’s extramarital affairs, unethical business practices and a dark paternity secret threaten to derail family fortunes and unravel the lives of all involved. Alice’s self-centered newlywed daughter Andrea (Sanaa Lathan) is betraying her trusting husband Chris (Rockmond Dunbar) by engaging in a torrid affair with her boss and mother’s best friend’s son William (Cole Hauser). While cheating on his wife Jillian (Kadee Strickland) with a string of ongoing dalliances with his mistress Andrea, William’s true focus is to replace the COO of his mother’s lucrative construction corporation. Meanwhile, Alice’s other daughter Pam (Taraji Henson), a kind but no nonsense woman married to a hard working construction worker (Tyler Perry), tries to steer the family in a more positive direction.

Hmm, seems like Cole gets to play a rather less-than-noble character (that gets laid a lot). Sweet. I think Hauser can play bad pretty well, as I remember him in Pitch Black, and though my memory is less than stellar for that particular film, I believe he played kind of an *sshole. And I remember liking it. But enough about my taste in men…

And check this out. Anthony Anderson is joining Law and Order?!?

From Blackfilm.com, the same article that mentions that Cole has joined The Family that Preys, notes that

Hauser was last seen in the Fox TV series K-Ville opposite Anthony Anderson, but with Anderson ready to join NBC’s Law and Order at the end of this season, the series is expected to be cancelled.

That news is dated March 4, 2008. So I am going to see if I can find out any more about this “rumor.” It would definitely be definitive proof that K-Ville ain’t comin’ back if Anderson joins the cast of another weekly series, but I just think that L&O has grown a bit long in the tooth, if you know what I mean. Although, it is a solid show with a solid audience, but alas, no gumbo.

Cole Hauser, Tyler Perry, The Family that Preys, Kathy Bates, Robin Givens, CinemaBlend, Blackfilm.com, Anthony Anderson, Law & Order

Cole Hauser, formerly of the much beloved and much maligned but still very cancelled K-Ville, has completed work (or should be done soon) on his next project, a film with Mira Sorvino. The title is Like Dandelion Dust, and it’s based on a novel by Karen Kingsbury, who is also a producer on the film.

Here is the quick synopsis I found on IMDB:

Jack and Molly Campbell enjoyed an idyllic life with their adopted 5-year-old son, Joey. One phone call shatters their world when they learn Joey’s biological father has just been released from prison and discovered a loop hole in the adoption papers and now lays claim to his son. He wants to start a new life by taking back his son. When a judge upholds the biological father’s claim and Molly and Jack learn they must give Joey over to this brutal man they devise a plan. How far would you go to protect your family? Written by Karen Kingsbury

Hmm. Though I am not likely to see this film, it looks like it could be good. I mean anything is possible, right? Barry Pepper is playing the biological father, Rip. You remember this guy, he played the sniper in Saving Private Ryan, and then I think he went on to the unfortunate Scientology-pet-project, Battlefield Earth.

He’s the one on the far right. He is quite good and kind of intense, so if this Like Dandelion Dust has a face-off between him and Cole, that might be kind of cool. But I don’t know if this is an action film, per se, so I am holding judgment for the time being (I know, what a surprise!).

By the way, if you didn’t see The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, you should. It is quite black, but also quite funny. I only bring that up because that is another film that Barry Pepper has done in the last few years. Tommy Lee Jones is also in it, and excellent as always. I mean, really, what isn’t Tommy Lee Jones good in? That Batman movie he did…I don’t know, I didn’t bother to see it.

Now, back to Like Dandelion Dust. I found a short article on Jacksonville.com that mentioned that it was an “independent Christian film”, whatever that means.

But I did find a synopsis of the film on Christians in Cinema’s website, so I guess it’s a Christian film afterall. And yet, I still have to ask, what does that mean? Straight to DVD?

The director is Jon Gunn. The last film that Mr. Gunn headed was My Date with Drew, as in Barrymore. Yeah, looked pretty bad despite Ms. Barrymore’s charms. Gunn’s first film was Mercy Streets. I don’t know anything about this one except that Eric Roberts was in it, which is never a good sign.

But still, good to see Cole Hauser is working.

Cole Hauser, K-Ville, Like Dandelion Dust, Mira Sorvino, Barry Pepper, Saving Private Ryan, Scientology, Battlefield Earth, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Tommy Lee Jones, Jacksonville, Christian, Cinema, Jon Gunn, Drew Barrymore, My Date with Drew, Eric Roberts

The FBI announced today that New Orleans no longer has to worry about the potential destruction of new condos.

Huh? Oh, let me provide a little backstory. Back in December (that’s 2007), some threatening posters started showing up around the central business district. These posters had a picture of a burning building as the background and signed “The Angry & Powerless.”

Both the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the New Orleans PD worked on the case, and as of today, NOLA is safe from the Angry & Powerless.

From the FBI Press Release March 13, 2008: As the FBI takes all threats seriously an investigation was immediately launched by the Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) and NOPD to determine if there was any merit to the threats. Suspects were identified and agents found that no adverse action was planned. The FBI has concluded after its long and arduous investigation that there is no threat to public safety as it relates to the above threat.

These posters started popping up after some demonstrations in New Orleans in early December. Seems that developers are looking at New Orleans as prime real estate now that the poor (read Angry & Powerless) have been effectively kicked out of town with the help of a hurricane.

So with the rest of the country having housing problems, double that problem for New Orleans. Buildings that are damaged are being slated for demolition, rather than repair. The issue is that many of these buildings are apartment buildings for low-income residents. You know, the projects. Sorry, that may be unfair to call all of these buildings “projects”, but I am using that term ironically, as who knew that poor people would ever protest against the demolition of the low-income housing units that are usually not much more than the bare minimum when it comes to living space.

Still, these buildings are home for some people. And now those same people are concerned that as low-income housing is torn down, the new units will not be so cheap. First, Mother Nature (with the fury of fossil fuel-derived elevated atmospheric heat, which equals energy, which in turn equals force and ferocity) comes along and displaces the New Orleans poor, and now the Government is backing development plans which don’t figure in the appropriate amount of low-income housing units. All this after years of corrupt city and state, along with the federal, government ignoring the impending doom coming at New Orleans from the Gulf. Engineers, scientists, and conservationists had been warning that Louisiana’s shrinking wetlands buffer meant that a Class 4 or 5 hurricane could and would decimate the city.

New Orleans, FBI, NOPD, Angry & Powerless, Anti-Demolition, Protests, low-income housing, hurricanes

I happened upon this little tidbit in the Times-Picayune, and I thought it was nice enough to pass on to anyone watching “K-Ville” or at it is better known, New Orleans. Since I don’t have a television cop show to cover, I can still cover news from the real K-Ville, right? Not that anyone in New Orleans really calls it that, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, it seems that members of the bands Linkin Park, Coheed, and Cambria stopped over for a spell in NOLA in order to help out with the construction of a Habitat for Humanity house. This little housebuilding project is under the auspices of Linkin Park’s Music for Relief, which funds the building of houses lost to natural disasters, among other relief work for those afflicted by the hand of Mother Nature.

Photo courtesy the Times-Picayune.
Thank you kindly.

Actually, the Music for Relief organization has been able to fund the construction of TWO houses, which is super. And the organization uses the band’s fame and fans to bring in the donations, by making it a contest with the winner being able to lend a helping hand along with the band. I assume that the draw in the contest is Linkin Park, but that is only because I don’t know who Coheed or Cambria are.

Thank goodness the rockers of America are there in addition to a certain mega-celebrity to help out New Orleans, as we know that our Federal Government sure isn’t. FEMA trailer, anyone?

New Orleans, K-Ville, Times-Picayune, Linkin Park, Coheed, Cambria, Habitat for Humanity, Music for Relief, FEMA

Thanks a lot, Writers Strike. Now what am I supposed to write about?

News came this week that K-Ville will not be returning to production, FOX, or Monday nights. Get your fill of the existing K-Ville episodes on the official FOX website or on Hulu, or wait until the DVD set comes out — if it comes out on DVD??

The Times-Picayune reported that K-Ville will not return for our viewing pleasure, or displeasure, depending on how you viewed the show starring Anthony Anderson and Cole Hauser. I, for one, will miss K-Ville, but as I have had the past three months getting used to the fact that it ain’t comin’ back, I am not upset or surprised for that matter.

The Times-Picayune reporter was not surprised either.

I’ve been writing and rewriting “K-Ville’s” obituary for months.

And the author, Dave Walker, added this…

Every[sic] since the strike shut-down, “K-Ville” has existed among TV’s undead — not quite canceled but presenting very weak vital signs.

The resolution of the strike — which is happening this week; see this link for a rundown on when or if your other favorite shows will return — was supposed to provide closure for the handful of fans holding out for a “K-Ville” resurrection.

No such luck. Fox is one of those networks that never quite cancels anything. Its shows just stop running, and their demise is never officially acknowledged.

“K-Ville’s” home page, streaming episodes and streaming theme song are still active at www.Fox.com, but that’s really all that’s left of the series.

So, there we are. Forced to think of Boulet and Cobb, who I thought could become the next Crockett and Tubbs, as only a memory

Personally, aside from my disappointment regarding this website, I thought that K-Ville was getting slightly better each week, until that crapfest of a “fall finale” aired as the last episode. Granted, that episode was never written as a “finale” of any sort, but it was what it was, and it was bad. Again, sadly that will be the last taste of K-Ville many of us will be left with, as we watch Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. Yet another fine show from the FOX network…Kudos oncasting Summer Glau, because she is the only thing watchable on that show. Although, I do like the guy that plays the terminator that took the identity of d-list actor, and is hunting down that whiny brat, John Conner. Let’s hope he sticks around for a few episodes.

That actor, Garrett Dillahunt, was also in John from Cincinnati, and also had a small role in one of the year’s best, and most talked about film, No Country for Old Men. If you have not seen No Country, see it. It’s excellent. You can read a review I wrote of it by clicking here. Dillahunt is someone to watch, as I think he is a very good actor. Although, he does seem to take just about any job he is offerred. Oh, I kid, I kid. He’s working…a lot, and that’s great.

But still, this is about K-Ville. Just remember…Jericho was cancelled and has returned to primetime. Viewers wrote CBS and complained enough that the show was brought back. I’m just throwing that out there…

K-Ville, FOX, Jonathan Lisco, Writers Strike, Hulu, Anthony Anderson, Cole Hauser, Times-Picayune, Terminator, The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Garret Dillahunt, John from Cincinnati, No Country for Old Men, Jericho

So official word from the Writers Guild of America is that WGA members have all day Tuesday, February 12 to vote on the proposed deal to end the three-month long strike. However, as the WGA announcement mentions, the vote is only to immediately end the strike pending ratification of the new deal between the Writers Guild and the studios OR wait until the deal is ratified and then end the strike.

So my question is, let’s say they do indeed vote to end the strike, but the deal is then not ratified. Would the writers re-strike?

The LA Times reported today that the ratification process could take up to twelve days. Can the writing staff of K-Ville crank out a script in twelve days? And if so, what is the point of giving me only one more new episode, when there are so many plotlines to wrap up? The mole in the department? Cobb’s secret affair? Boulet’s etouffe recipe?

Still, the bigger question of whether K-Ville will return or not remains foremost on my mind. Well, ok, I do have other things going on in my life, but I mean foremost when it concerns this blog, right?

But really, look at the evidence. K-Ville was not winning the ratings race on Monday night by any stretch, and FOX has since replaced K-Ville in its time slot with Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. This worries me, but also gets me thinking of a better time for FOX to air K-Ville. I am thinking Tuesday after American Idol, except I believe that is House’s time slot. Wednesday then, maybe? I honestly have no idea what is on FOX Wednesday night now…Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares? Too bad I like the BBC’s version of Kitchen Nightmares a gazillion times better, because it is more about food and less about abject filth (anyone else notice that?). But there I go again, digressing.

I just checked the FOX website’s posted schedule, and it looks like that lie detector show, The Moment of Truth, is now on Wednesday’s at 9pm. American Idol is going to be the two-hour shows for a couple of weeks, I think. I tried watching American Idol for a season or a half, and I just tend to get rather bored with it, so I am not entirely sure how long the two-hour shows continue for.

It may not matter anyway, as who really knows what the genius minds behind FOX programming have in mind for this truncated season. Will K-Ville throw us a couple of episodes before summer, or just try to pick up again next season? I think that putting out a few episodes is the best idea, to renew the public’s memory of K-Ville, before a longer summer break. Not only that, but New Orleans has been in the news lately, and with the juggernaut of Brad Pitt hanging around, doing all sorts of goodness, it might just be a good time to revisit the Big Easy during prime-time.

Writers Strike, WGA, K-Ville, House, Terminator, The Sarah Conner Chronicles, American Idol, FOX, Kitchen Nightmares, BBC, Brad Pitt

It’s the Monday before the big day in New Orleans. I’m sure residents are ready to get rid of all those drunken students that flunked out of college last semester and have nothing better to do than to keep drinking. Ah, to be nineteen again. Wait, doesn’t Louisiana have a lower than 21 age limit on alcohol, or is that no longer? I think I remember hearing how Louisiana was more like a cautionary tale when it came to alcohol and teenagers. Feel free to jump in here, anyone.

Though by this time of the evening, the parades are probably done, and the drunkenness is in full force. Anyway, you only have one more night after tonight, Catholics or anyone who needs an excuse to binge drink for the next 30 or so hours…

This is something that I found on the Times-Picayune website. Sorry it’s a little big. He, “little big”, cute.

I guess just because K-Ville isn’t shooting, it doesn’t mean that nothing is being filmed there. Although this “project” seems a little dubious. Is it simply a cover operation for Girls Gone Wild?

Here’s a picture of the “notice.” The “recognizably” means that there will be close-ups. Is that even a word?

Looks very unofficial, and I know, as I worked on a show in Chicago. It wasn’t fully “licensed” either, so I remember simply printing up signs like this. Kinda like poaching.

I mean who else needs footage of drunken revelers on Bourbon Street. Maybe a anti-drinking campaign? Maybe a “be good to your liver” campaign? Probably just in need of exterior shots and maybe establishing shots. The story doesn’t mention how long the group was filming for…

Anyway, Happy Mardi Gras!

New Orleans, Lundi Gras, Mardi Gras, drinking, K-Ville, filming, Bourbon Street, Louisiana

I have noticed New Orleans has been in the headlines. I guess Watching K-Ville is now Watching “K-Ville.”

Democratic Presidential hopeful John Edwards, a great candidate in my estimation, has bowed out of the running, after finding himself in a Ralph Nader-like spot between two stronger(?) candidates. When Edwards announced he was running for the rather thankless job of picking up George Dubya’s mess, he did it in the Ninth Ward.

And then Edwards chose the same spot to announce he was no longer pursuing the presidential problem. To again draw attention to the slow work in New Orleans, and/or to bring everything back full-circle. Was Edwards being cheeky or poetic? Bold, either way, as Edwards has been criticized for working at a hedge fund after 2004’s failed VP bid that included investments in companies that foreclosed on Katrina victims. Either way, he and his family spent the rest of the New Orleans afternoon building houses.

Although the Times-Picayune did offer the following correction to the Edwards campaign rhetoric.

Although Edwards was fond of saying that his campaign started in the Lower 9th Ward, a poor, mostly black area that became a national symbol of the post-hurricane flooding, he neither started it nor ended it there. Edwards launched his campaign from eastern New Orleans and closed it in the Bywater neighborhood, both of which are in the 9th Ward but not the Lower 9th Ward. — Times Picayune

Another blow to the “working class” came at the pounding of a gavel in New Orleans. The Army Corps of Engineers, so fond of building crappy canals, cannot be held responsible for any damages that resulted to property as a result of the levees breaking during Katrina. The Times-Picayune reported this today.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Army Corps of Engineers is immune under federal law from responsibility for damages resulting from the failure of drainage canal walls in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.

The action apparently shields the agency from a portion of nearly 500,000 claims filed by New Orleans area homeowners, businesses and city agencies, many of whom navigated traffic jams around the corps’ Uptown headquarters or waited in long lines to beat a deadline for filing the claims, totaling more than $3 quadrillion.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled that the Flood Control Act of 1928 provides immunity to the corps and other federal agencies involved in building flood projects. He relied on 1986 and 2001 Supreme Court rulings that found the law “provides immunity where, as here, a flood control project fails to control floodwaters because of the failure of the flood control project itself.” –Times-Picayune

K-Ville, New Orleans, John Edwards, Ralph Nader, George Bush, Ninth Ward, Katrina, Times-Picayune, Army Corps of Engineers, Flood Control

Thanks to Variety’s Scribe Vibe blog.

Today, the LA City Council is having a hearing on how much the WGA Writers Strike is impacting the local economy. As feature films are being made everywhere else it seems, TV is king in LA. Did you realize that there are 52 dramas and 19 sitcoms (not) being produced this season? Geez, I think I could name maybe half. I wonder if Telemundo shows are included?

John Bowman, the head of the WGA negotiating committee, estimates that if the remainder of the 2007-2008 season is scrapped, the loss for both the “industry” and LA will be upwards of 2.5 Billion with a B dollars. That makes the writers’ demands seem fairly paltry when the WGA is basically asking for a 3 percent raise, or $150 million.

On the plus side of the Writers strike, CNN (as well as everybody else) reported yesterday that the WGA is not allowing its members write any of the delightful quips and witty bon mots for the Golden Globes. Oh, poo. Then again, if I have to listen to quasi-celebrities adlib their way through handing off the statuette to Ernest Borgnine for his portrayal in A Grandpa for Christmas, I may puke up all that grenache I’ll be sure to be imbibing.

No, seriously, it should be quite a blow to both the Golden Globes and the Oscars if the writers sit this year out. Will the actors follow suit in a show of solidarity? Will their egos allow them to stay at home rather than talk to Joan Rivers? Hmm, that is a tough decision. I’d stay home.

Variety, WGA, writers strike, Los Angeles, Telemundo, CNN, Golden Globes, Ernest Borgnine, Oscars, Joan Rivers

The New York Times (from the Associated Press) today reported that there was quite a scene yesterday at New Orleans City Hall. A civil rights lawyer was arrested for disturbing the peace amid protests over the US Dept. of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) plans to tear down mostly vacant “projects.”

Here’s where things get sticky. New Orleans is indeed facing a housing crisis (despite Brad Pitt and his little pink ecologically-friendly houses), and yes, maybe the HUD plans are not the best idea. HUD is going to replace the 4000 units with “mixed-income” housing. The problem is that low-income residents are worried that they will be priced out of the “mixed-income” units. Another example of the US Govt hating poor people?

HUD counters that the units planned for demolition are mostly vacant and/or damaged from Katrina.

The demolitions of the housing projects, decaying and riddled with crime for years, are part of a plan HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson pushed for after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005.

Most of the units slated for demolition are vacant; many suffered heavy damage in the hurricane. But several hundred people continue to live in at least one of the four major housing projects targeted.

The redevelopment plan has grown more emotional since it was unveiled in mid-2006 as tens of thousands of former residents and other poor residents found themselves unable to find housing in New Orleans because of a housing shortage and inflated rents.

Critics of the plan say the redevelopment plan will drive poor people from neighborhoods where they have lived for generations, but HUD denies that and says the plan will create an equal amount of affordable housing as existed before Katrina hit.

There are strong points on both sides of this debate, since if HUD wants to tear down “old barracks-style buildings” otherwise known as “projects,” that should be a good thing. Ugly, eye-sore projects are coming down all over the country, and rightfully so. Just because you are poor should not mean that you must be forced to live in concrete towers. But still, some form of low-income housing should be available. And many of the NOLA diaspora are complaining that the lack of low-income units is what is keeping them from returning home.

This is just another tussle between HUD and New Orleans. The HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson has been accused of making sure that his friends are winning the bids to rebuild New Orleans.

Others criticize Bush and HUD for decreasing the vouchers in the Section 8 Program. From an editorial from the NY Times in March of this year…

Many of these families would have long since found permanent homes and settled into new lives had the Bush administration brought HUD — which was created to deal with these kinds of situations — into the picture at the very start. But Hurricane Katrina arrived just as the administration had made up its mind to cripple HUD and the successful Section 8 program, partly as a way of offsetting tax cuts for the wealthy.

The administration instead rigged up a confusing and inflexible housing program and put the Federal Emergency Management Agency in charge. FEMA frustrated landlords and Katrina’s victims alike. Last year, one federal judge likened the convoluted application process — which too often led vulnerable families to lose aid without knowing why or having reasonable recourse to appeal — to something out of a horror story by Kafka.

As K-Ville so presciently covered the Blackwater Security issue in the season premiere, maybe this topic will come up soon. Boulet can force his gumbo down Alphonso Jackson’s throat until he gives in, and hands out more Section 8 vouchers.

New York Times, New Orleans, protest, arrest, civil rights, Housing and Urban Development, HUD, FEMA, housing, crisis, low income, mixed income, Katrina, Alphonso Jackson, K-Ville, Section 8, Blackwater