Mark Burnett has some advice for how to fix the Academy Awards:
“The Oscars, I think, could certainly be shorter. The show seems very long,” notes the ultra-successful and influential producer. “I think it would be really appropriate to include some of these big comedies and action blockbusters in the running,” he adds. The Oscars “air on the broadcast networks – the key word is broadcast. You know, as much as I enjoyed ‘La Vie en Rose,’ I don’t know that a big portion of the audience saw that movie to say whether or not it deserved to be honored.”
Burnett is producing this Sunday’s (6/1) 2008 MTV Movie Awards — the second time he’s taken on producing the show. This year’s edition has Mike Myers hosting, Coldplay and the Pussycat Dolls among the performers, and a new Best Summer Movie So Far category being voted on ‘til the last minute. It promises to be a blockbuster event.
Last year’s MTV Movie Awards saw a ratings increase of 9 per cent over 2006. On the other hand, the many times larger Oscar show saw its worst ratings decline yet this past February — 14 per cent lower than the previously least-watched Oscars.
“From a relevance point of view, the MTV Movie Awards are a perfect way to do an awards show that celebrates movies,” says Burnett. “They’re a lot of fun and very, very relevant.”
Burnett, a.k.a. the reality TV king whose shows range from “Survivor” to “The Apprentice” to “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader,” points out that transforming the MTV Movie Awards into a live show last year “has given it a whole new sense of energy. There’s a reason to tune in and see it live.”
WOMAN ON THE MOVE: “It’s a big summer for me, but I just got my first house so I need a big summer,” says Haylie Duff,
who’s working hard for those house payments. ”I’m doing a movie in Vancouver called ‘Deep Cove’ that I get to film on big boats and in the woods. Then I’m doing a movie called ‘Slightly Single in L.A.’ It’s kind of a funny twist on women in their twenties who are dating in Los Angeles,” she tells us. ”I think guys get a bad rap for being able to walk away from relationships and we don’t always get to see that women are the same way.”
In the meantime, Duff is anticipating the June 2 premiere of “Legally Blonde: The Search for the New Elle Woods.” ”I look at those girls as my peers. I’m constantly auditioning for things so I felt like an equal to them more than I did somebody that was going to be judging them or eliminating them,” says Duff of hosting the new MTV reality series. ”I got to be there when they were upset and tell them I’ve been through all the same things they are feeling and it does get better, and there’s a huge payoff at the end.”
Duff can then be seen June 8 in the Spike TV movie, “Backwoods,” about a group of colleagues, who set out for a company retreat in the woods, only to find themselves being hunted. ”It was a great experience for me because I got to play a girl that went from being quite vulnerable in her life, to being really strong and empowered.”
WEDDING TRIBUTE: Emmy Award winning (“Win Ben Stein’s Money”) TV personality Teresa Strasser’s Vegas wedding at the Venetian next month (Iune) to Daniel Wachinski promises to be a time of rejoicing - and healing. The former host of TLC’s “While You Were Out” and current sidekick on The Adam Carolla radio show is wearing the gown of her fiance’s deceased sister. The sister, Lynn, and her new husband were killed in a car accident 10 year ago, leaving a devastated family. Knowing how much her future husband idolized his big sister, Strasser committed to wearing the wedding gown sight unseen. It turned out to be Kismet. The current co-host of the TV Guide Network’s weekly pop-culture roundup, “TV Watercooler” discovered the dress to be a beautiful, classic Vera Wang gown — that fits perfectly.
PLANET PLEASING: Rob Morrow and Fisher Stevens are collaborating on a pilot presentation for NBC called “Green Team” – about a self-made billionaire who decides to turn his life around after a terrible health scare, and goes from being a big-time ecological offender to going Green. Stylistically, they’re tying for a not-so –scripted approach ala “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Stevens and Morrow are exec producing and Morrow directing the presentation.
There was that time in April 2006 when she traumatized flashed her bum to millions of children across America at the Nickelodeon Awards. (Though I suppose Lohan should be given some credit for this one. I mean she was supposedly wearing a thong…) Check out this video if you wanna see it for yourself…perv.
Her underwear! Well, that was until this past Sunday at the MTV Movie Awards at Universal City, California. Though I’m sure it’s not the first time, due to Lindsay’s desire to have EVERY bit of her captured on film an unexpected gust of wind, the public got a look at some actual underwear! And ain’t that the real surprise?!
