Entertainment

Some of fall's most promising new shows

Sat, 18 May 2013 18:01:38 GMT

Networks unveiled their fall lineups this week in New York at their various upfront events, and although CBS, NBC, ABC and Fox all trumpet their new shows as the best of the best, not every pilot is destined to be a hit, or even worth your time. Which ones are? CNN scoured the various presentations to find the most promising comedies and dramas (and comedy/dramas) of the batch, weighing star power, concepts, production teams and four-quadrant appeal. If the pilots are any indication, these are the shows to watch:

"Almost Human," Mondays on Fox

In the year 2048, cops are paired with synthetic partners: androids. But one cop, John Kennex (played by Karl Urban), who is battling the rejection of his own synthetic appendage after losing a leg in an attack, also rejects the robots paired with him. That is until a technician (Mackenzie Crook) gives him Dorian (Michael Ealy), an android capable of emotional responses. Shades of "Star Trek," "Minority Report" and "Robocop" give edge to this action-packed pilot from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot company and showrunner Joel Wyman ("Fringe").

"It always comes down to the people and why you care about them," Abrams said at the Fox upfront. "Why do you believe in them? If it's a drama, it's because your heart breaks for them." Rounding out the cast are Minka Kelly as a detective and Lili Taylor as the police captain.

"The Blacklist," Mondays on NBC

James Spader is Raymond "Red" Reddington, a master criminal and one of the FBI's most wanted. Reddington mysteriously comes out of exile to turn himself in one day and says that he will speak to only one agent, Elizabeth Keen, a rookie who is on her first day of the job. "You must have many questions, so let's begin with the most important one: why I'm here," he tells the FBI. His proposal? That he help catch terrorist Ranko Zamani, who was thought to be dead, and other criminals, mobsters, spies and fugitives on a list he's been cultivating for over 20 years. "I'm talking about the criminals who matter, the ones you can't find because you don't even know they exist," he says. "Let's say our interests are aligned." Look for Spader to be at his creepy best.

"The Crazy Ones," Thursdays on CBS

David E. Kelly's new comedy-drama is about the ad agency Roberts & Roberts, run by father-daughter team Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Williams' Simon Roberts is a slightly unhinged advertising genius, Gellar's Sydney Roberts is a type-A control freak who has to learn to be a little nuts to make a deal. In the pilot, they have to land a big voice for a fast food ad, and Kelly Clarkson is willing to oblige -- so long as she can sing about sex instead of meat in the jingle. If casting like that is any indication of what the show can do, "The Crazy Ones" might not be so crazy after all.

"Hostages," Mondays on CBS

Expect tons of plot twists in this Jerry Bruckheimer political thriller/family drama. The night before a surgeon (Toni Collette) is to operate on the president of the United States, her family is taken hostage and she's ordered to assassinate POTUS. To make things more complicated, the terrorist who's calling the shots (Dylan McDermott) is a special agent for the FBI and a hostage negotiations expert, and may not be a bad guy after all. Her supposedly loving husband (Tate Donovan) has a secret and is urging compliance only because he's being blackmailed. In case you were starting to wonder how long they could sustain the premiere, it's a limited-run series and will reach a finale in January.

"Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Tuesdays on ABC

Agent Coulson lives! Despite his demise in "The Avengers," the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent/fanboy will live another day, at least long enough to assemble a new team for ABC. "When I got the call, 'Look, he might not be all the way dead,' I kind of couldn't believe it," said Clark Gregg, Coulson's portrayer across various Marvel films. How this happened, they won't say, "but trust me when I say we earn it," showrunner Joss Whedon promised.

The series (about what it's like to be ordinary people in an unreal world) will also feature Agent Grant Ward (a combat and espionage expert), Melinda May (a pilot and combat expert), Agent Leo Fitz and Agent Jemma Simmons (who together are gadget and biochem experts Fitz-Simmons), and hacker Skye. Who knows? Some of them could turn up in Marvel films in cameo roles, a la Coulson.

"We're open to that," Whedon said, "but we're not focusing on that. I want people to love these guys. Everything else is gravy. I'm not writing 'Avengers 2' to go, 'How can I work them in?' They're two separate things. But if they do come together, woo-hoo!" Making the cast go woo-hoo in the meantime are all the fun gadgets they get to play with on the show. "It's enough of a kind of blend of 'Men in Black' and James Bond that 'S.H.I.E.L.D.' has toys that you just can't even believe," Gregg said with a grin.

"The Michael J. Fox Show," Thursdays on NBC

Playing a former beloved New York news anchor (for NBC, natch), Michael J. Fox is Mike Henry, who quit his TV gig after he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Five years later, his family wants him out of the house, and his old boss wants him back on the air. "We both know NBC is going to milk it by showing me in slow motion with lame uplifting music in the background," Mike tells him, which of course, is what happens. "When they show it in slow motion, you're either dead or under indictment."

"Mind Games," midseason on ABC

Although it won't be on until later in the year, this show (formerly titled "Influence") might be the one that finally sticks for Christian Slater after his excursions with NBC's "My Own Worst Enemy" (in which he played dual roles involving an agent unaware of his own double life), ABC's "The Forgotten" and Fox's "Breaking In." This time, he's the con man brother of Steve Zahn, a bipolar psychological genius. Together, the pair start an "A-Team-like" company that can manipulate people and situations to get the outcomes they desire.

"It's all these Jedi mind tricks," Slater enthused. "A lot of it is very scientific, so when I first read the script, I thought, 'Wow, this is fascinating!' I was particularly blown away by how you can do this stuff to get things to work in your favor, to get people to see things in a slightly different way and change the scenario."

Tensions arise between the two brothers, since Slater's character, Ross, is "money-obsessed" and wants to change corporate deals and political elections, while Zahn's Clark just wants to help people. "I like that he's up to no good," Slater said. "The first episode is about getting a head on the wall, to show that if we can do something impossible once, we can do it again."

"Resurrection," midseason on ABC

Based on Jason Mott's book "The Returned," "Resurrection" asks what would happen if people who were long dead came back to life -- not as zombies or vampires but as flesh-and-blood human beings who want to return to their former lives. Omar Epps' immigration agent starts to discover the deceased's return when an 8-year-old boy who died more than 30 years ago turns up in China.

"What got me really excited about the show is that if you approach it from a logical perspective, it opens up a lot of doors," Epps said. "My character, he's just like, 'What's going on here?!' And we'll have wisps of things, religious undertones, the supernatural, but the tone is more real and organic, because this is just impossible, right?" Also on hand are Kurtwood Smith and Frances Fisher as the parents of the returned boy.

"Sleepy Hollow," Mondays on Fox

"Star Trek" and "Transformers" writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have updated Washington Irving's classic, making it both modern-day and a new mystery. Two hundred and fifty years ago, Ichabod Crane (played by Tom Mison) worked as a paid assassin for George Washington, when he crossed paths and became linked with the Headless Horseman. To save him, his wife, Katrina (Katia Winter), casts a spell to put him to sleep, "because the only way to kill the Horseman is to kill Ichabod, and obviously Katrina doesn't want to do that," Winter said.

In 2013, someone resurrects both Crane and the Horseman, who turns out to be the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse -- never a good sign. Adjusting to the modern world, Crane teams up with local law enforcement (which includes Orlando Jones and Nicole Beharie) to try to stop history from repeating itself. "Meanwhile, I've been trapped in between lands, and I'm reaching out to him to help," Winter said. "So it's got action, the supernatural, hot guys, violence and humor as well. It's actually really funny."

"Super Fun Night," Wednesdays on ABC

CBS almost scored this Rebel Wilson comedy about three nerdy girlfriends who break their tradition of staying in on Friday nights to finally go out and try to have some fun. But after the show got passed over last pilot season and with some retooling (replacing BFFs Jenny Slate and Edi Patterson with Liza Lapira and Lauren Ash), ABC is good to go. "It's been an 18-month process since I signed this deal, so it's kind of awesome," Wilson said.

Calling the show an "anti-'Sex and the City,' " Wilson promised the crowd at the ABC upfront that she wouldn't be "doing a Lena Dunham" like on 'Girls': I won't be doing nudity unless it's necessary for the storyline, or if it's Wednesday." Of course, the trailer for the show features her dress getting ripped off, revealing lighted-up underwear. "I'm glad I had the flashing nipples, because otherwise my real ones might have shown, because it was freezing that day," Wilson laughed. "I'm not vain when it comes to comedy. I don't care. I just go for the laugh."

Cannes Chaos: Man fires blanks on set

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:43:59 GMT

A man was arrested Friday at the Cannes Film Festival after firing a gun loaded with blanks during a live television interview, sending an Oscar-winning actor running for cover.

Canal+ was interviewing Christoph Waltz, who won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in "Django Unchained," and actor Daniel Auteuil when a man fired two shots from a starter pistol, according to authorities and the French television station.

The man allegedly had a dummy grenade in one hand, and footage and photographs of the incident show Waltz and Auteuil being taken offstage and attendees scrambling for cover.

The incident, which occurred on the Canal+ set along the popular Promenade de la Croisette -- the main boulevard in Cannes -- briefly interrupted the show.

Canal+ anchor Michel Denisot came back on the air a short time later and told viewers: "The shots fired were blanks and the grenade was fake. That's what we know."

No injuries were reported; French authorities have not identified the man.

Pictures of the arrest obtained by The Hollywood Reporter show police wrestling the man to the ground.

The man said to a woman next to him, 'If I were you, I wouldn't stick around here'," Denisot later told France 24.

It was far from the typical scripted fare of the Cannes Film Festival, where chaos plays out on screen and not among the audience.

The annual festival brings together the rich and famous from around the world for movie screenings and glittering parties.

The incident followed news the same day that more than $1 million in jewels belonging to the Swiss firm Chopard were stolen from a hotel room in Cannes.

The theft of the jewels occurred Thursday night, on the second day of the festival, which opened Wednesday and runs through May 26.

Commandant Bernard Mascarelli, of the Nice police, said the jewelry was stolen from a safe in the Suite Novotel hotel on Boulevard Carnot in Cannes.

A Chopard employee was staying in the room but left it to go to dinner from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. local time, he said. She returned to discover the safe containing the jewels was missing.

The whole safe had been unscrewed from the inside of the hotel room and carried out, Mascarelli said.

No detailed description has yet been given of the stolen jewels.

Chopard, which is an official sponsor of the festival, has provided the Palme d'Or trophy awarded to the director of the best feature film for the past 15 years. The trophy features a 24-carat gold palm attached to a piece of cut crystal.

The firm is promoting its Red Carpet Collection 2013 at this year's festival, with a number of actresses sporting its gems.

Police: Cannes 'shooting' suspect faces court

Sat, 18 May 2013 15:43:01 GMT

A man arrested at Cannes Film Festival after firing a gun loaded with blanks during a live TV interview is due to appear in court Sunday, Cannes police said.

Canal+ was interviewing Christoph Waltz, who won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in "Django Unchained," and actor Daniel Auteuil when a man fired two shots from a starter pistol on Friday, according to authorities and the French television station.

The man allegedly had a dummy grenade in one hand, and footage and images of the incident showed Waltz and Auteuil being taken offstage and attendees scrambling for cover.

The 43-year-old suspect, who fired twice into the air, told police he believed in God and wanted to change the world, a Cannes police spokesman said Saturday.

He has been examined by a psychiatrist who concluded that he "is not mentally ill," the spokesman said.

Many police officers were present at the time of the shooting and the suspect was caught immediately, he said.

The court is expected to consider the case against the man, who remains in custody but whose name has not been made public, on Sunday, he said.

'Fake grenade'

The incident, which occurred on the Canal+ set along the popular Promenade de la Croisette -- the main boulevard in Cannes -- briefly interrupted the show.

But Canal+ anchor Michel Denisot came back on the air a short time later and told viewers: "The shots fired were blanks and the grenade was fake. That's what we know."

No injuries were reported.

Pictures of the arrest obtained by The Hollywood Reporter showed police wrestling the man to the ground.

The man said to a woman next to him, 'If I were you, I wouldn't stick around here'," Denisot later told France 24.

It was far from the typical scripted fare of the Cannes Film Festival, where chaos plays out on screen and not among the audience.

The annual festival brings together the rich and famous from around the world for movie screenings and glittering parties.

Stolen jewels

Earlier the same day, police in Nice said that more than $1 million in jewels belonging to the Swiss firm Chopard had been stolen from a hotel room in Cannes.

Chopard later said in a statement that the value of the stolen pieces was "far lower than those in the figures circulating in the media."

The theft of the jewels occurred Thursday night, on the second day of the festival, which opened Wednesday and runs through May 26.

Commandant Bernard Mascarelli, of the Nice police, said the jewelry was stolen from a room in the Suite Novotel hotel on Boulevard Carnot in Cannes.

A Chopard employee who was staying in the room left it for several hours to go to dinner, he said. She returned to discover the whole safe containing the jewels had been unscrewed and taken away.

No detailed description has yet been given of the stolen jewels, but a Chopard spokeswoman said they were not part of the firm's "Red Carpet Collection 2013" and were not due to be worn by any actresses in Cannes.

Pop acts prepare for Eurovision Song Contest

Sat, 18 May 2013 14:36:45 GMT

Millions of people across Europe and beyond are gearing up to watch pop acts from 26 countries take to the stage Saturday night in the Eurovision Song Contest final.

Organizers expect more than 100 million people to tune in for the contest, hosted this year in the Swedish city of Malmo, since Sweden won in 2012.

After an opening ceremony in which all the performers will join together in a song, the first act on stage will be French singer Amandine Bourgeois.

But the odds are on a Scandinavian nation to take the title again, with Denmark and Norway the bookies' favorites.

Semi-finals were held this week to earn 20 of the places in the final.

Five nations -- France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom -- get an automatic entry to the final because they are the biggest financial contributors. The previous year's winner also automatically qualifies, as the host nation.

Eurovision is widely loved for its combination of over-the-top costumes, kitsch pop songs, sometimes questionable talent and international rivalries.

After all the finalists have performed live Saturday, the voting begins.

The 39 countries involved in the contest award a set of points from one to eight, then 10 and finally 12 for their favorite songs. They can't vote for themselves and they must announce the score in both English and French.

Television viewers can cast votes in their respective countries through telephone hotlines, which count for half the final tally. The remainder of the vote is cast by national expert juries, who based their scores on a dress rehearsal performance Friday night.

Many perceive the voting to be tactical, with neighbors or members of regional blocs, such as the former Soviet nations, appearing to base their scoring on geopolitical alliances rather than artistic merit.

Contestants can come from any member country of the European Broadcasting Union, which includes several non-European nations, including Israel, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Whoever wins, victory may not be welcomed by everyone back home since that nation bears the expense of hosting the following year's event -- a commitment that's more of a burden at a time of wide austerity in Europe.

Police arrest actor Edward Furlong

Sat, 18 May 2013 04:11:16 GMT

Actor Edward Furlong tried to hide, but ended up caught and behind bars in California for allegedly violating a protective order filed against him by an ex-girlfriend, authorities said.

West Hollywood, Calif., deputies responded at 5:44 p.m. Thursday to a call about a possible violation of a protection order, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Friday in a news release.

They found the suspect -- the 35-year-old actor best known for his role in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" -- hiding on a nearby property. He was arrested and brought to a sheriff's substation in West Hollywood, authorities said.

The protective order was imposed after the actor was arrested following a domestic disturbance at the same address in January, the sheriff's department said. He was then charged with felony domestic violence and domestic battery.

The actor, who was already serving probation, is being held on $100,000 bond, according to Los Angeles County jail records.

After his breakthrough role as John Connor in 1991's "Terminator 2" alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger, Furlong went on to play roles in a number of movies, including "American History X," and TV projects, such as "CSI-NY."

New 'Idol' winner: Show helped me be myself

Sat, 18 May 2013 02:13:14 GMT

Candice Glover could barely remember her own name after she was crowned the new "American Idol" on Thursday.

"I'm still trying to process the whole thing, I don't even know what's happening," she told the press backstage. "It feels amazing though that I finally got to this point; I've been working for so long."

The singer, who stunned judges and viewers with a remarkable performance of "Lovesong" earlier in the season, had tried out for "American Idol" twice before, making her third audition truly the charm. Candice, 23, is the first woman to win "American Idol" since season 6's Jordin Sparks.

Yet "Idol's" final stretch has been all about the ladies, as the final three included Candice, Kree Harrison and Angie Miller. Although Candice earned enough votes to surpass Kree, the singer said they're both "super supportive of each other, and I know no matter what I'm going to buy Kree's album, and I think the whole world will."

Thursday's "Idol" finale included performances from former "Idol" judge Jennifer Lopez, current judges Keith Urban and Mariah Carey, and former "Idol" star Jennifer Hudson, who sang "Inseparable" with Candice.

While the new "American Idol" hasn't started on her album yet, fans have a taste of what's to come with "I Am Beautiful," which is Candice's first single.

"When I first heard the song, I was in tears, because I connect with the song so much. It's not only about a girl that's been done wrong by her ex-boyfriend, but, like with me, being attacked all the time, and being told that you're not good enough, or you're not as pretty as you should be. ... That song is a message to everybody that ever said that to me, as well as all these girls that are growing up and feeling that they're not beautiful. I think it's connects with a lot of people in their hearts."

It took Candice a few tries to get to this point on "Idol," but the lessons learned along the way were worth it.

"I think I definitely learned how to be confident and how to be myself and be OK with who I am," she said. "In previous seasons, I was doing what I thought America wanted, or what the judges wanted, but this year I did whatever I wanted to do. Hence why I would do a rapper's song on the show, or why I would do The Cure when nobody expected me to. In previous seasons, I wouldn't have done any of that, because I wasn't comfortable in who I was. But I think that's the difference between now and other seasons."

Police: $1M jewel theft at Cannes hotel

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:40:31 GMT

Jewels worth more than $1 million were stolen from a hotel in Cannes, France, police in the nearby city of Nice said Friday.

The theft of the jewels, from the Swiss firm Chopard, came Thursday night, on the second day of the renowned Cannes Film Festival, which opened Wednesday and runs through May 26.

The annual Cannes festival brings together the rich and famous from around the world for movie screenings and glittering parties.

Commandant Bernard Mascarelli, of the Nice police, said the jewelry was stolen from a safe in the Suite Novotel hotel on Boulevard Carnot in Cannes.

A Chopard employee was staying in the room but left it to go to dinner from 8 p.m. to 3 a.m. local time, he said. She returned to discover the safe containing the jewels was missing.

The whole safe had been unscrewed from the inside of the hotel room and carried out, Mascarelli said.

Police are now scouring security camera footage from the streets around the hotel and citywide for clues, he said.

No detailed description has yet been given of the stolen jewels.

The firm is promoting its Red Carpet Collection 2013 at this year's festival, with a number of actresses sporting its gems.

The collection is "a world of unparalleled glamour and craftsmanship, where originality, creativity, and technical mastery are pushed to their ultimate limits," according to Chopard's Facebook page.

By coincidence, the theft occurred on the same day as the screening in Cannes of Sofia Coppola's "The Bling Ring," which stars Harry Potter actress Emma Watson as a member of a thieving group of teens who steal from the famous.

The movie isn't in competition but was selected to open the "Un Certain Regard" portion of the film festival.

Pat Robertson shrugs off adultery

Fri, 17 May 2013 18:29:53 GMT

The Christian Broadcasting Network regrets the misunderstanding. Again.

Pat Robertson, the network's 83-year-old founder, was not condoning adultery when he answered a viewer's quesion on "The 700 Club" this week, the network said.

The viewer said she was having difficulty forgiving her husband for cheating. Robertson said the "secret" was to "stop talking about the cheating. He cheated on you. Well, he's a man. OK."

Robertson went on to suggest the woman focus on why she had married her husband and whether he provided for her needs and those of their children, adding, "Is he handsome? Start focusing on these things and essentially fall in love all over again."

"Males have a tendency to wander a little bit. And what you want to do is make a home so wonderful he doesn't want to wander."

CBN spokesman Chris Roslan wrote in a statement that Robertson's "intent was not to condone infidelity or to cast blame. We regret any misunderstanding."

Robertson off-the-cuff comments over the years have perplexed and angered other Christian leaders. One Christian pastor said his New Year's resolution was to not comment on Robertson's gaffes for an entire year.

Here are some of Robertson's most memorable statements:

1. The U.S. should kill Chavez

In 2005 Robertson suggested the United States should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with," he said in a segment about the now-deceased head of state.

After considerable outcry, the minister backtracked and released a statement saying, "Is it right to call for assassination? No, and I apologize for that statement. I spoke in frustration that we should accommodate the man who thinks the U.S. is out to kill him."

A U.S. State Department official called the remarks "inappropriate."

2. How bad is weed, really?

Robertson, who once ran for president as a Republican, broke ranks with religious conservatives by endorsing the legalization of marijuana. "I believe in working with the hearts of people, and not locking them up," he said in a 2010 broadcast of "The 700 Club."

Cue spokesman Chris Roslan, who wrote, "Pat has never condoned the use of, nor does he use, marijuana."

3. You know who's to blame for that earthquake in Haiti? Haitians.

Shortly after a 2010 earthquake in Haiti left more than 220,000 people dead and Port-au-Prince decimated, Robertson referenced a slave revolt in 1804, where, legend has it, the Haitian slaves made a deal with the devil to shake off French colonialism.

"And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, 'We will serve you if you will get us free from the French.' True story. And so the devil said, 'OK, it's a deal,'" Robertson said one day after the quake.

"You know, the Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since, they have been cursed by one thing after the other."

That day CBN quickly clarified: "Dr. Robertson never stated that the earthquake was God's wrath. If you watch the entire video segment, Dr. Robertson's compassion for the people of Haiti is clear." In fact, while Robertson was talking about Haiti on TV, his charitable arm Operation Blessing was already on the ground providing medical treatment, food, and supplies to victims.

4. Gay days = hurricanes and possibly meteors

In June 1998, after Walt Disney World announced it would have special days for gay and lesbian families in Orlando, and city officials announced they would fly rainbow flags in support of the event, Robertson warned the city, "You're right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you."

Robertson told the Orlando Sentinel at the time that his comments were taken out of context and released a full transcript of what he said on the show:

"So if the United States wants to embrace 'degrading passions' - according to the Bible, something that the Bible says is an abomination against God - we're not in any way, shape or form hating anybody. This is not a message of hate; this is a message of redemption. But if a condition like this will bring about the destruction of your nation; if it will bring about terrorist bombs; if it'll bring about earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor, it isn't necessarily something we ought to open our arms to. And I would warn Orlando that you're right in the way of some serious hurricanes and I don't think I'd be waving those flags in God's face if I were you."

'The Office' goes out on ratings high

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:31:22 GMT

We thought Steve Carell had a good reason as to why his character Michael Scott wouldn't return for "The Office's" series finale -- he'd already said good-bye once before, etc., etc. -- so his surprise appearance on Thursday was even more poignant.

The way the creative team -- which, along with Carell, played coy with the press for months -- worked him in to the final episode was so fitting, we're not ashamed to admit it made us miss "The Office" before it was even officially off the air.

To begin with, Dwight's (Rainn Wilson) expression when Michael Scott showed up was priceless.

Dwight was preparing to tie the knot with Angela, and lo and behold, his old boss, who left the series in 2011, appears behind him.

Dwight: Michael, I can't believe you came!

Michael Scott: That's what she said.

And with that, "The Office" can rest in peace.

The cast is probably feeling pretty accomplished right now, knowing that they not only pulled together a great series-ender, but that audiences returned to see them off.

Part of "The Office's" legacy is how successful it was for being a low-rated comedy, but its last show was an exception to the rule.

Early numbers are an estimation given the fact that "The Office's" finale was 75 minutes and Nielsen's preliminary numbers use half-hour blocks of time. And yet, as Entertainment Weekly reports, at least 5.4 million viewers watched the last "Office" episode, delivering a minimum of a 2.9 rating in the major 18-49 demo. It's a season high, and the series' best showing in 16 months.

Do you remember rock 'n' roll radio?

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:16:03 GMT

In this capital city and college town, there is a shrine to a disc jockey.

His name was Andy Davis, better known as "Andyman," and he manned the evening drive-time shift at WWCD-FM. He was a bear of a man, a hugger, a backslapper, a preacher's son who called everybody "brother." He could carry you along with his enthusiasm.

DJ Brian Phillips recalls Davis' annual 48-hour fundraising extravaganzas, known as "Andyman-a-Thons," exhorting callers to outbid one another. "Come on, brother, 10 dollars more!" Andyman would say.

"Our children's charities meant everything to him," Phillips says. "By the end of each Andyman-a-Thon, he was drained and everyone was in tears. He had given his all, and yet you'd have to drag him out of that studio."

He gave everybody a shot. Lesley James was a guest DJ -- an enthusiastic listener who once got to do an hour of her favorite songs on-air. When she was done, she nervously handed Davis her resume.

"(I) mentioned that I grew up listening to the radio station and wanted to be a part of it," she recalls. "He laughed, smiling at me and said, 'Honey, I don't need a resume. I like what I heard over the past hour.' "

He was an evangelist for local music. "I felt like Andy was someone who was looking out for a local musician just getting started and looking out for my best interests," says musician Brian Epp, who remembers Davis' support before a show.

"I will never forget his smile and that initial hug. When he announced us and said that he was from CD101, I felt like we were getting some rite of passage."

That was Andy. He was your friend.

On July 18, 2010, Andy Davis died. He was just 42.

His death hit everybody hard -- and shook the station to its core. WWCD was hanging on by its fingernails. The recession had ripped into revenues. The ratings were troubling. The station was going through a complex financial transaction: It had just sold its frequency, 101.1, to Ohio State University and was making arrangements to move up the dial to 102.5 in hopes of expanding its audience. The entire staff had taken a substantial pay cut. Even the lease on its office space was up.

In the midst of all this, here was Andy's wife, Molly, calling to deliver the awful news.

For a rare bird in an increasingly generic business -- a completely independent commercial music station -- it was going to be a struggle. WWCD had no safety net: It wasn't part of a regional "cluster" of stations, it had no TV or newspaper ties, there was no giant conglomerate to move money over from another division's pockets. Everybody's lives were wrapped up in the station.

Competition, the economy and now its beating heart: WWCD was at a crossroads, and the path ahead was full of static.

"During all that time, we had to make a decision on whether to keep the radio station," recalls Wendy Vaughan, wife of owner Roger Vaughan. "And my head said, 'You need to let it go.' But my heart said, 'This is a guy's life, his legacy, his identity, you can't let it go.' "

A medium in flux

"The world is collapsing around our ears I turned up the radio But I can't hear it ..." -- R.E.M., "Radio Song"

It wasn't just WWCD. Quietly in some markets, loudly in others, music radio has been under siege. Like many media, it's battling demographics and technology to stay alive, at the same time losing the institutional memory and talent that made it distinctive.

"Radio creates such a powerful connection," says Randy Malloy, who as general manager was trying to save the station with Roger Vaughan.

"You don't remember the newspaper article that you read when you had your first kiss or the TV show. It was a song. You remember that song. There's such a hard-wired connection in our brains to music."

Which is why people in the industry are worried that old-fashioned AM/FM radio may be drifting off into the ether, as it struggles to attract the young listeners who have been its bedrock for generations.

Sure, broadcast radio's been the redheaded stepchild of communications media for decades. TV, CDs, satellite, the Internet -- they were all supposed to kill it off.

Radio ad man Mark Lipsky jokes that he "keeps a black suit in my closet" for all the funeral announcements he's seen for the medium. He says radio remains strong and will adjust. It always has.

"AM/FM radio will probably command a smaller slice of the pie," says Lipsky, president and CEO of the Radio Agency. "But it's certainly not going to be replaced."

Others are less optimistic. The business is in flux. Rock music has fallen out of fashion. Format changes are common. The 12- to 24-year-olds who are the radio listeners (and employees) of the future are gravitating toward the Internet or iDevices. Three of the biggest hits of the last year -- "Call Me Maybe," "Gangnam Style" and "Harlem Shake" -- were driven by YouTube and social media. Billboard magazine, the chart bible, just added YouTube to its pop chart sources.

Clear Channel and Cumulus -- the two dominant radio broadcasters, each with hundreds of stations -- are struggling to pay off mountains of debt and have laid off thousands of workers, including many DJs.

And the heart of terrestrial radio -- its emphasis on the local -- has drifted. Hometown DJs, once the central voice of it all, increasingly find themselves marginalized in favor of syndicated voices and formulaic presentations.

That's a concern, says Lipsky. "Anybody can play Bruno Mars and Pink, but nothing's going to replace the sound of having a local jock tune you in to when (those artists are) coming to town -- things that make you part of your community."

Industry analyst Jerry Del Colliano, publisher of "Inside Music Media," says he believes the future is dim.

Radio, he warns, is no longer appealing to young people. "They don't like it, don't use it that much, don't know the stations, and at the same time the radio companies are shooting themselves in the foot by cutting back and getting rid of personalities."

He looks at the landscape and wonders about the attraction.

"If any of this is true, why would you want to be in this business?"

Ed Levine, whose Galaxy Communications owns a handful of stations in central New York State, puts it more bluntly.

"If we're not proactive, we'll be newspapers."

'God, disc jockeys, then parents'

"I'm in love with the radio on It helps me from being alone late at night ..." -- Jonathan Richman, "Roadrunner"

Andyman always wanted to be in radio.

A native of rural Ohio, he got the bug early, going to broadcasting school and working as an overnight jock at a country station. But WWCD was where he wanted to be, and he called the station incessantly, volunteering to work any shift, do any job.

"He finally wore them down," says Molly Davis, his widow.

He worked his way up from overnights and random shifts to become music director -- the person who manages the station's song selection -- and then program director, a job that oversees the station's entire on-air output, including DJs, music and commercials.

He was always sincere and passionate, says Tom Butler, one of his many protégés.

At the end of a summer festival, Butler recalls, "Andy was still standing at the gates, shaking hands with every single person who walked through. He just genuinely wanted to meet and connect with every single listener, every single fan."

It's the sort of enthusiasm one might associate with a different generation, when DJs were the "pied pipers of rock 'n' roll," and their distinctive voices were ubiquitous -- and powerful. In 1966, a Hollywood teen fair asked visitors about the biggest influences in their lives. The order: "God, disc jockeys, then parents," the late Robert W. Morgan, the leading voice of Los Angeles' KHJ, once recalled.

Of course, that was a different time, when Top 40 ruled and "everybody listened to the same stuff," says Allan Sniffen, who runs a website dedicated to New York's old WABC-AM back when it was "Musicradio 77."

Nowadays, radio is more corporate and buttoned up, which has made DJing and programming a harder job. On the one hand, people complain that radio sucks -- it's generic and boring and the DJs all sound the same, the music all sounds the same, even the manic car commercials all sound the same.

On the other hand, new music and creativity can be tough sells. People like the familiar. The familiar is dependable, and dependable is easier to sell. The pressure at music stations is to stick with the tried and true, to run focus groups and test out the wazoo.

Margot Chobanian, former music director of Atlanta's now-defunct DaveFM, says the trend has been to cut back on DJs and their patter because ratings show that people don't like chatter.

She doesn't agree with that interpretation of the data though. What corporations don't understand, she says, is that the amount of DJ chatter has nothing do with tuning out -- it's the quality of what the DJs say.

"(People) were engaged by the DJs," Chobanian says.

Though Chobanian's bosses at CBS Radio gave the adult-alternative station a longer run than she expected, last fall, when the ratings declined, the station switched to sports talk and much of the staff got the ax.

Chobanian is leaving terrestrial radio behind. She now has a website called eavradio.com, a new-music station with an emphasis on the Atlanta scene.

"I see it as an extension of what DaveFM could have been," she says.

And old-fashioned broadcast radio? She's done -- done with the numbers, the restrictions, the suits.

"I'll never program for a corporate radio station again," she says.

Remaking the business

"Life is a rock But the radio rolled me ..." -- Reunion, "Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)"

At 15, Bob Pittman started as a DJ in his hometown of Brookhaven, Miss. It was not his first choice.

"I really wanted the high-paying job in town, which was bagging groceries at the Piggly Wiggly," he says.

Radio was, however, the right choice.

He was quickly promoted to positions up the line. By 1974, when he was 20, the "Boy Wonder" was the program director of WMAQ-AM in Chicago. Within three years, he was running WNBC-AM in New York, one of the biggest stations in the country.

Over the next three decades, he helped found MTV, became a successful producer, headed Time Warner's Six Flags theme parks division, ran the Century 21 real estate company, took over AOL in its formative years and was chief operating officer of the merged AOL Time Warner.

And then, three years ago, the famed media entrepreneur returned to his radio roots, investing $5 million in Clear Channel. Today he's head of the nation's largest radio company, becoming the symbol of "corporate radio."

While he was gone, there were plenty of changes. When Pittman started, music radio mainly used to be AM Top 40; over the years, it moved to FM on a continually splintering array of formats.

But the big sea change in the business came 17 years ago when Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Gone were restrictions on the number of stations a company could own in a market; suddenly corporations went on a buying spree. The two biggest, Clear Channel and Cumulus, started dominating markets by purchasing several stations in the same city.

At its peak, Clear Channel owned more than 1,200 stations, a concert promotion company, a billboard division and a variety of other interests. (Before 1996, it owned 43 stations.) It's since sold off the concert firm, but still owns about 850 stations. Cumulus has about 570.

With Clear Channel's aggressive tactics and formidable clout, others in the business took to calling the company the "Evil Empire." Eric Boehlert wrote a number of stories for Salon about its power plays, calling it "radio's big bully."

For a decade, the big companies thrived, but the recession hit them hard. In 2008, Bain Capital helped lead a leveraged buyout of Clear Channel. The company now has $20 billion in long-term debt, and according to a 2012 article in Forbes, "barely earns enough to cover its interest payments and capital expenditures." Cumulus posted a huge loss last year thanks to its debt load.

In 2010, Pittman bought into Clear Channel, telling The Wall Street Journal he'd agreed to "help out part-time." A year later, he became CEO. He's been trying to remake it ever since.

It hasn't been easy. The company has been on a cost-cutting binge for several years, shedding stations, cutting jobs and consolidating operations. One of its practices, voice-tracking -- in which a DJ in one city can broadcast his or her show to several others, giving the appearance of a local broadcast in each market -- has been particularly criticized as emphasizing the national (and generic) over the local.

The cutbacks have taken a toll: Rick Wright, a longtime radio veteran and communications professor at Syracuse University, does a weekend show at a Clear Channel station. He says the building's local studios are like a ghost town when he visits.

Pittman dismisses the criticisms. The company still believes in local, he says, only now it's tapping into national talent -- the way local TV stations replaced their self-produced talk shows with "The Oprah Winfrey Show" nearly three decades ago. And the company's head count, he maintains, is still healthy.

"We have cutbacks, but you don't look at the other side of the equation, which is, how many people have we hired?" he says, his Southern accent mixing smoothly with his rat-a-tat-tat, statistic-laden delivery. "Our head count has not gone down as a company, and the reason it has not gone down is because we're constantly rebalancing."

Creating a 'trusted friend'

"There goes the last DJ Who plays what he wants to play ..." -- Tom Petty, "The Last DJ"

Roger Vaughan got the idea for WWCD after living in Denver in the 1980s while working in real estate.

He was inspired by KBCO, a station in nearby Boulder, Colo., that played new music with the energy of old radio.

"I've had this love of both radio and music my whole life," he says. "I considered both businesses 'magical' and never even dreamed I might work in either. You needed some sort of special talent or something, right?"

Vaughan wondered if he could replicate something like KBCO in Columbus, where, he says, "radio sucked."

"I ... convinced myself that Denver and Columbus were similar demographically, that a radio adventure like this could both sound unique and be profitable and that I should try to do this," he says.

WWCD -- then CD101 -- went on the air in 1990.

Randy Malloy was there almost from the beginning. He moved to Columbus from college in New Jersey in the late 1980s, started at the station as an intern and worked his way up.

At 49, Malloy looks like an older version of Crispin Glover's grown-up McFly character in "Back to the Future": blond hair with bits of gray, lank and long on the sides and back, as if he'd gotten in an argument with his barber halfway through a haircut.

He talks fast and thinks faster, his voice a Mel Brooksian rasp trying to keep up with all the possibilities in his brain.

He's a one-man chamber of commerce for his adopted hometown.

On a gray winter's day he drives up High Street -- the Ohio capital's main drag -- and proudly points out sights: the reborn downtown, the once-dead Short North neighborhood, the Ohio State hangouts. He talks about the city's plans to get rid of the one-way boulevards that shuttle people to the suburbs; he praises the homes in German Village and hopes for growth in the nearby Brewery District. It's a gentrifying but still patchy area south of downtown by the Scioto River, the kind of place where you'd imagine an alt-rock broadcaster to take up residence.

Localness used to be the point of radio. It may have attracted its audience through the music, but it kept them by keeping them informed -- being a "trusted friend," as Malloy says.

Syracuse's Wright puts it more succinctly: "The greatest social media is radio broadcasting."

Wright remembers his godmother advising him on the importance of community. She hosted a popular midday show on WRAP in Norfolk, Virginia, that played music, conducted interviews and provided information.

"She told me, if you're ever really serious about putting a radio station together, you want your air personalities to become so integrated into the total sociological fabric of the audience that you're serving, that when they're in trouble, they'll call the disc jockey at the station before they'd call the police," he recalls.

"You've become part of the family. They feel they know you."

'Rock local'

"It blows a hole in the radio When it hasn't sounded good all week ..." --The Clash, "Hitsville UK"

It took a lot of effort after Andyman died, but WWCD stayed on the air.

Vaughan plowed in more money. Malloy sank his 401(k) into buying a majority interest. The station redoubled its marketing efforts, particularly partnerships with a local music promoter and Columbus' pro hockey team, the Blue Jackets. Everybody took pay cuts and multitasked, with DJs doing promotions and interns doing everything.

WWCD is a throwback. It's one of just a handful of independent, major-market commercial music stations left in America. It's run like a throwback, too, with a strong focus on new music and community service.

Indeed, the station flaunts its indie credibility like a bold tattoo. "We're not Clear Channel," trumpets the station's on-air IDs -- a shot at its powerful competitor, which owns six Columbus stations, including the market leader. A CD file drawer in the studio sharpens the point with the bumper sticker "Clear Channel Kills." "Rock local," adds a banner on its website.

There's a lot of bad blood between Clear Channel and others in the industry, thanks to the former's tactics in the early 2000s. Malloy and the Vaughans talk about Clear Channel's dominance with an attitude bordering on disgust; Wendy Vaughan says the company offered $15 million for the station at one point.

WWCD's studio and offices form a ramshackle warren of rooms in the basement of a renovated restaurant and reception hall in the Brewery District. Fittingly, the dominant feature is a large bar complete with an ice-cream freezer. ("We're a bar with a radio problem," Malloy jokes.)

Decorations around the studio window wish patrons a happy holiday -- changing with the season. Inside the studio are wooden slat seats from the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium. A mannequin wearing a skull mask and black robes keeps watch over an equipment closet. There are about a dozen employees ambling about, some dressed so casually it's hard to tell the veterans apart from the college-student interns.

The station van, an old ice-cream truck, is parked outside. Malloy, a DIY-type guy who drove an ambulance to put himself through college, has been spotted covered in motor oil from trying to get it started.

The vibe is that of a low-key clubhouse.

A number of employees talk about growing up with the station and say that working there is a dream come true. Kyle Hofmeister, one of the DJs, grew up near Columbus but spent his college years in Florida.

"One of the big things about leaving town was I realized how much I missed this particular radio station," he says.

"We have kids who tell us, 'I grew up listening to you,' and now they've started a band, and now their goal is to get on the 'Top 5 at 5,' " Malloy says. "They're excited, and that excites us."

On a recent Tuesday morning, the DJs and interns pour into Lesley James' narrow office for their weekly music meeting -- a kind of rate-a-record free-for-all for new releases.

That one-hour guest DJ whom Andyman hired without seeing her resume is now the station's program director -- taking over after Davis died.

The music meeting is open to pretty much any staffer. As in Andyman's day, anything is fair game; record labels drop off new records all the time, but if a listener records a song in his dorm room and sends over the MP3, the gang will give it a go.

Tom Butler, the evening-drive DJ who shares an office with James, pops in record after record: the Dirty Projectors, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, Grizzly Bear.

A new cut by the French turntablists C2C earns wildly different reviews: "It's innovative ... if that's what you're going to call it," says one staffer. Johnny Marr, the former Smiths guitarist, fares better with his latest.

Through it all, James scans Facebook, goes over playlists and takes notes. She lets the group offer their take and then she offers her opinion with a firm politeness that suggests she can hear whether the song fits with the station's overall feel.

Which is not to say that CD102.5 doesn't experiment. Its playlist includes more than 40 slots for new releases -- a huge number in the play-it-safe world of commercial radio. And James is aggressive: When the new David Bowie single was released, she didn't wait for a handout but paid the buck to download it from iTunes. It's not an unusual occurrence.

"We're a new music station," she says. "We love to break bands."

Among the groups that have used WWCD as a launching pad have been the Lumineers, Fitz and the Tantrums, the Black Keys and Mumford & Sons.

WWCD also likes to support the local community -- a connection that goes both ways, Malloy says. CD102.5 has been voted the city's best radio station in a local poll for almost two decades straight.

"We believe we make the city better," Malloy says.

The station offers "stress breaks," handing out treats from its ice-cream truck, maintains a "Green Team" beautification squad, participates in arts festivals and still engages with residents through the Andyman-a-Thon.

Jami Goldstein, vice president of marketing for the Greater Columbus Arts Council, says the station goes above and beyond.

"Other stations do provide promotional support but don't go the distance like CD102.5 does," she says.

"For a community to be truly vibrant culturally, you need to have really good institutions, access to great events and support for individual artists. The great thing about 102.5 is they help in all three areas."

Talent and technology

"So get off the wall, become involved All your radio problems have now been solved My treacherous beats make ya ears respond And my radio's loud like a fire alarm ..." -- LL Cool J, "I Can't Live Without My Radio"

Does anyone dream of owning a radio station anymore?

When I was in my teens and early 20s, my friends and I would fantasize about winning the lottery and buying a crappy AM signal. (An FM signal would be fine, too, but we figured it would be too expensive.)

Our model was a cross between the AM greats and the free-form FM stations, in which the DJs would be energetic, fun and a little off-color, and the music would be a mix of ... well, whatever tickled our fancy. It would be exciting, it would be rhythmic and fluid and honest, and we'd always tell listeners the names of the songs and artists they'd just heard.

If I were in college today, would I even dream of working at a radio station -- much less owning one?

"I don't think there is a living to be had in (radio)," says Ana Zimitravich, a student at Georgia State University and general manager of its new-music oriented WRAS-FM. "It is a slowly dissolving business."

Her colleague, WRAS music director Fray DeVore, says that's true for much of the staff, including himself. The Georgia State students they cater to in Atlanta are partial to the Web.

"Now we have a culture of blogging. That's how a lot of (musical) exposure is going on now, through the Internet," DeVore says. "There are so many other resources available than getting in your car and turning on the radio."

The high school and college kids who once craved radio employment -- and trained on their college or local stations -- are finding it harder to get jobs, thanks to the elimination of air shifts. The farm system has been devastated.

"In the old days, if you were a (communications) major or just anybody who was interested in getting into radio, you could find a small- or medium-market radio station and you learned your craft," Syracuse's Wright says. "Now you go into a radio station and there is nobody there. Nobody. There's a computer running the place."

Wright blames the industry leaders.

"The guys who really own this industry are trying to run it as cheap as they can, and that means not hiring any people," Wright says. "And in the meantime they're not laying any seeds for the future of the industry."

Clear Channel's Pittman admits his primary focus now is technology.

One of Clear Channel's major new ventures is IHeartRadio.com, a Web service that features "1,500+ live stations or create your own," its website says, including a Pandora-like channel and several programmed playlists. It's available on the Web or through a variety of device platforms, including apps for iPods, Androids and Kindles.

The idea is to get more stations into more places, whether it's through the Internet or portable device apps. Public transit commuters, for example, can plug into IHeartRadio.com through their smartphones, or people in one market can listen to stations in others.

"What we want is to find more listening occasions," Pittman says.

Digital listening is currently less than 10 percent of the radio audience, according to a 2012 Pew Research Center survey, but Pittman expects it to be a major part of the future.

"In terms of the digital revolution, we're way behind, but we think it's a terrific opportunity for us," he says.

But others call out the clash between Clear Channel's digital plans and its local cutbacks.

"What he says sounds really good. What he does, not so good," says Galaxy Communications' Levine. "He talks about content over here and when you're not looking, lays off 700 people over here. And nobody calls him on it."

He says IHeartRadio will be stillborn without investing in talent and stations.

"(The) IHeartRadio app is not content," he says. "You need living, breathing people to drive this thing called content, and if you keep systematically firing them, like Clear Channel and Cumulus do, you're not going to have much of an industry left."

Del Colliano, the radio analyst, is even harsher: "He's not there at Clear Channel to turn it around. He's there to do what he's done best in the prime part of his life, which is to find a way to package the company so it can be sold to someone else."

A recent post on Del Colliano's site maintains that Clear Channel will start selling off its lesser market stations in about a year and offer the buyers a Clear Channel product called "Premium Choice," featuring voice-tracked talent.

Clear Channel dismisses Del Colliano's criticism. "Jerry Del Colliano's blog is less a tip sheet than a fantasy," says a spokeswoman. "He's been 'predicting' things for years that don't happen and have no basis in reality."

Del Colliano is a pessimist about broadcast radio. Pittman looks at Clear Channel as an "opportunity."

"When people call you an evil empire, what they're saying is, you're not doing anything new and exciting. And I think the opposite side of having a big platform to play with is you can do great stuff," he says, reeling off charitable initiatives, indie band programs and other digital projects.

"That's the exciting thing about being a big platform. The unexciting thing is if we were dull and boring and did what we did 10 years ago or 20 years ago."

'We are so plugged in'

"There is magic at your fingers For the spirit ever lingers ..." -- Rush, "The Spirit of Radio"

Things are looking up in Columbus. The recession is fading and sales are improving. Thanks to the new signal, WWCD's ratings are up as well -- in March it posted its best overall audience numbers in at least three years, with strong showings in key demographics -- and the staff believes the community is behind them.

"We are so plugged in to this community. If we went away, people would definitely notice," says Phillips, a DJ who's been with WWCD for 18 years. "It's the personal touch that's been completely lost from radio. ... Obviously, this is a business, but we're always thinking, how can we be more involved in the community?"

It could be for naught, of course. Del Colliano is fond of a metaphor to describe good, profitable, well-run stations in the current media environment: They're like beautiful estates in the middle of a slum.

"(In radio) you can be a good operator," he says, "but the majority of the real estate is blighted by companies that don't care."

Lipsky, the radio agency head, doesn't buy into the doomsaying. Radio's not going any place; it'll just be another platform, he says, "a wonderful conduit that still keeps you connected."

At CD102.5, the staff chooses to look at the bright side.

Malloy, who started out in the promotions department, is always coming up with new ideas; the latest is a television reality show based on the station called "Life On Air." He's had a reel produced and is trying to interest a network in picking it up.

He prefers another metaphor to Del Colliano's, of big box stores and a local hardware retailer. There's no reason both can't thrive.

"I love Lowe's. I love Home Depot. They serve a purpose for me. But I also love Zettler Hardware," he says. "Because when I know exactly what I need, I know I can go to Zettler Hardware and they'll have it. And someone's going to meet me at the door and go, 'Can we help you with something?' And they walk me over to it, they show me the product, I purchase the product and I walk out happy. That's what we are. We're Zettler Hardware."

The shrine to Andyman is just a few steps from WWCD's studio -- a table lined with candles, photos and a mock check for the Andyman-a-Thon. In the center, there's a portrait of Andy Davis.

His spirit is always present: the spirit of a big-hearted man, the spirit of music radio.

Malloy remembers a time long ago. It was his first day at the station, and he was at an event, walking across a field. The ice-cream truck pulled up. Inside was Andyman.

"Get in," the DJ said. "Let's go!"

Andyman may be gone, but the station rolls on.

'Days of Our Lives' actor allegedly sold cocaine

Fri, 17 May 2013 11:05:15 GMT

Soap opera actor Dylan Michael Patton faces a judge Thursday on charges he sold cocaine out of his Los Angeles home.

Patton, 20, played Will Horton for a year on NBC's "Days of Our Lives, according to his Internet Movie Database biography.

Since Patton's Agora Hills home is next to Sumac Elementary School, he is charged with selling drugs within 1,000 feet of an elementary school, the criminal complaint said.

Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies arrested Patton at his home, which they then searched, according to the Los Angeles district attorney's office. "Deputies allegedly seized cocaine from the residence," the release said.

Prosecutors said they will ask Patton's bail be set at $30,000. He would face up to nine years in prison if convicted.

Patton was nominated for a Daytime Emmy for outstanding young actor in a drama series in 2010, according to his official biography.

His role on the daytime soap lasted from February 2009 until January 2010, according to IMBD.com.

A native of Texas, Patton began his professional acting career at age 7 with regional and national commercials, his official biography said. His resume includes a handful of small films and several TV roles, including on "Cold Case" and "That's So Raven."

Nephew: MJ was my 'support' when molested

Fri, 17 May 2013 04:42:57 GMT

Michael Jackson's nephew revealed Thursday that when he was molested as a child, Jackson "was a support system for me and my mom."

Taj Jackson, 39, claimed he was a child sex abuse victim in a series of Twitter messages posted in response to Wade Robson's televised claim that Michael Jackson molested him. "I will not let them smear my Uncle's legacy," he tweeted.

Robson, a dancer who frequently visited Jackson's Neverland Ranch as a child, called Jackson "a pedophile and a child sexual abuser" in an interview Thursday on NBC's "Today Show." He said Jackson "performed sexual acts on me and forced me to perform sexual acts on him" from ages 7 to 14.

Apparently Taj Jackson, one of three sons of Tito Jackson, posted a series of Twitter messages in defense of his uncle, Michael Jackson.

"I hate that Wade made me do this, this way," Taj Jackson tweeted. "But since my uncle Michael is no longer here to defend himself. I will."

"I am writing these words knowing that the minute I press send, my life will never be the same afterwards," he tweeted, before claiming in another tweet that he was sexually abused as a child by a relative.

Michael Jackson "was a support system for me and my mom," he tweeted. "He wrote a letter to her that many have seen already, u just didn't know what it was about."

He posted a photo of that handwritten note from Michael Jackson to Taj's mother Dee Dee Jackson:

"Dee Dee, Please read this article about child molestation and read it to Taj, T.J. and Taryll. It brings out how even your own relatives can be molesters of children, or even uncles or aunts molesting nephew or nieces. Please read. Love MJ."

It was his own childhood experience that qualified him to question Robson's accusations, he said. "That is how I KNOW Wade is lying. Because I AM a survivor."

Robson, now 30, denied in testimony at Jackson's child molestation trial in 2005 that he had been molested by the singer. Jackson was acquitted, partly based on the testimony of Robson, his sister and his mother. Tom Mesereau, the lawyer who successfully defended Jackson in the trial, said he was one of his strongest witnesses.

Robson said Thursday that his denial was the result of Jackson's "complete manipulation and brainwashing" of him.

"Don't forget I was living at Neverland when Wade testified during my uncle's case," Taj Jackson tweeted. "I sat there and ate dinner with him and his family."

Robson, who filed a creditor's claim against Jackson's estate this month, insisted in the NBC interview he was not now coming forward because of money. "The idea that I would make all of this up and put myself, my wife, my son, my entire family through this extremely stressful and painful experience all for the sake of money is completely incomprehensible," he said.

Taj Jackson's tweets challenged Robson's explanation. "What people will $ay and do for money and to $tay relevant is $ickening. De$perate times call for De$perate mea$ures. I will not sit back and let someone flat out lie about my uncle. PERIOD."

"I always told my uncle Michael that I would take a bullet for him," he tweeted. "I mean it today just as much as I meant it back then."

Taj Jackson's brother T.J. Jackson was appointed as a co-guardian of Michael Jackson's three children last year.

Zoe Saldana responds to weight-y controversy

Fri, 17 May 2013 04:06:44 GMT

Not everyone would be OK with their body weight being displayed on the cover of a national magazine, but Zoe Saldana doesn't mind.

The 34-year-old covers the June issue of Allure magazine, which not only reveals a little skin but also the star's weight with the headline: "115 pounds of Grit and Heartache."

Some saw the mention of Saldana's size as unnecessary and a poor decision, causing a healthy amount of chatter that Allure responded to on its Facebook page.

"There's been some talk around the blogosphere about the cover line for our story about Zoë Saldana," the magazine said. "The girl is a powerhouse. And we were so impressed by what a tough, confident woman Saldana is (on-screen, in her action-movie roles, and off) that we wanted to capture that."

Saldana herself has said that she doesn't take offense.

"I think that it would've been wrong if they were lying about my weight," the actress told "Today's" Savannah Guthrie Thursday. "This is how much I weigh, it's something I can't control, it's who I am. I've always had a very thin frame, I was a ballet dancer. ... I don't think it was to make an issue of my weight, I think it was to talk about that, for a lightweight person, I seem to be really strong-minded."

Robson: Michael Jackson was 'a pedophile'

Fri, 17 May 2013 03:40:43 GMT

A dancer-choreographer befriended by Michael Jackson when he was a child now calls the late pop icon "a pedophile and a child sexual abuser."

Wade Robson, who is seeking money from Jackson's estate for alleged child sex abuse, talked about his claims Thursday on NBC's "Today" show.

Robson, now 30, denied in testimony at Jackson's child molestation trial in 2005 that he had been molested by the singer.

Two months after Jackson's death in 2009, Robson said they had "a wonderful relationship" and he called Jackson "a kind human being."

"This is not a case of repressed memory," Robson told "Today's" Matt Lauer. "I never forgot one moment of what Michael did to me, but I was psychologically and emotionally completely unable and unwilling to understand that it was sexual abuse. "

The lawyer for Jackson's estate called the accusations "outrageous and sad" in a statement given after the Thursday interview.

"Mr. Robson has adamantly denied under oath and in numerous interviews over the past 20 years that Michael Jackson ever did anything inappropriate to him," Jackson estate attorney Howard Weitzman said. "He now wants us to believe that he committed perjury at least twice and has been lying to anyone and everyone about Mr. Jackson since the early '90s so he can file a claim for money. Mr. Robson's transparent lawsuit comes nearly four years after Michael passed."

The accusation came in the form of a creditor's claim against the estate in a Los Angeles probate court this month.

Robson said the abuse started when he was 7-years-old, when he often visited Jackson's Neverland Ranch. It continued until he was 14, he said.

"He performed sexual acts on me and forced me to perform sexual acts on him," Robson said.

Jackson was acquitted of child molestation charges in 2005, partly based on the testimony of Robson, his sister and his mother.

"It's absurd," said Tom Mesereau, the lawyer who successfully defended Jackson in the trial. "He was one of the strongest witnesses for the defense at Michael Jackson's criminal trial in 2005. He was adamant under oath that he had never been molested at any time."

Robson said his denial to investigators during a 1993 criminal investigation was the result of Jackson's "complete manipulation and brainwashing" of him. He denied Jackson ever offered money to keep him quiet.

"He would call me every day and role play and tell me the same sort of things and also tell me then that if anyone ever thought that we did these things, any of these sexual things, that both of us would go to jail for the rest of our lives," he said.

Robson met Jackson in his native Australia when he was just 5. Jackson invited him for frequent stays at Neverland after Robson and his family moved to Los Angeles two years later. Their visits continued until he was 13, according to court testimony.

"From day one of the abuse, Michael told me that we loved each other and that this was love, that this was an expression of our love. And then you follow that up with 'but if you ever tell anyone what we're doing, both of our lives and our career will be over,'" he told Lauer.

Robson paid tribute to Jackson In an interview with "Entertainment Tonight" to promote his choreography work on the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2009.

"I just had a wonderful relationship," he said. "I learned so much from him, as an artist and as a kind human being, and it's my goal to just try and continue as much as I can in my own little world that legacy.

"We talk so much about him as the pop legend, which is important, but it's nice to remember that he was a man, that he was a father," Robson said. "And that's what it's really about is a father and his children, and he was a wonderful dad."

But it was becoming a father himself two and a half years ago that caused Robson to change his story about Jackson, he said.

He said he "collapsed into two nervous breakdowns, terrifying nervous breakdowns" in his son's first 18 months.

"At that point I had no idea what was wrong with me, what was going on," he said. "During the second one, this thing happened where I started looking at him and imagining him being a victim of the sexual abuse that I was at the hands of Michael. For the first time in my life, I began to realize that my completely numb and unexplored feelings in relationship to what Michael did to me might be a problem and maybe I need to speak to someone about it."

The accusations created a major stir among Jackson fans, many calling Robson a traitor to the man who made his career. They argue his motivation is money from Jackson's estate.

"I understand completely how hard it is to understand this," he said. "That being said, the idea that I would make all of this up and put myself, my wife, my son, my entire family through this extremely stressful and painful experience all for the sake of money is completely incomprehensible."

Robson said the court claim is about healing.

"I've lived in silence and denial for 22 years, and I can't spend another moment in that," he said. "In order to truly heal I have to speak my truth and speak the whole truth. That's one thing you'll never see from me. I'm never going to go away with this for the sake of money. I'm never going to be silenced for money. That's not going to happen."

Lauer asked Robson what comes to mind now when he thinks of Michael Jackson.

"Heartbreak, pain, anger and compassion," he said. "There's no excuse for what he did to me and I believe many others, but he was a troubled man and every effect has its cause. The image that one presents to the world is not the whole explanation of who someone is. Michael Jackson was, yes, an incredibly talented artist with an incredible gift. He was many things. And he was also a pedophile and a child sexual abuser."

The 2005 trial in Santa Barbara County, California, centered on charges that Jackson had molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor who often visited his ranch. He was also charged with plying the boy with alcohol and conspiring to abduct, extort and falsely imprison the child and his family. He was acquitted on all counts.

"I've known Michael for a long time. I've spent many hours talking to him about everything. I trust him. I trust him with my children," Joy Robson, the mother of Wade Robson, testified when called as a prosecution witness.

Robson said she let Wade, who was then 7, and daughter Chantal sleep in Jackson's bedroom from the first visit.

Virtual Eazy-E, Ol' Dirty Bastard to perform at concert

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:29:30 GMT

As Ol' Dirty Bastard rhymes in "Brooklyn Zoo II," "When you take north, east, west, south/and put it all together and it spell newwwwws!"

Know what else spell(s) news? A star-powered hip-hop festival announcing that two rap legends - not figurative legends, mind you; one's been dead eight years, the other 18 - will perform this fall.

Rock the Bells announced Wednesday that Ol' Dirty Bastard and Eazy-E (aka Russell Jones and Eric Wright) will take the stage during the festival's 10th anniversary performances.

ODB will perform with his former group, Wu-Tang Clan, while Eazy-E will join his old pals from Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

How, you're asking, might Ol' Dirty shimmy shimmy ya onto the stage when he died of a drug reaction in a New York recording studio in 2004? And didn't Eazy die of AIDS complications in 1995?

Indeed, but there won't be any seances. The two will appear as virtual images - not holograms. It will be more along the lines of Tupac Shakur's performance last year at Coachella, and less like Obi-Wan or Jessica Yellin.

The latter, of course, were holograms, while 'Pac appeared on stage with Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre via a stage technique called Pepper's Ghost that dates to the 16th century. (Ars Technica explains how the optical illusion works.)

Guerilla Union founder Chang Weisberg, whose organization pulls together Rock the Bells, explained to Vibe magazine that the Tupac performance was the inspiration for this year's resurrection of Eazy and Dirt McGirt.

Weisberg told Vibe that when 'Pac began performing "Hail Mary" at Coachella, he was entranced.

Likewise, ODB's mom, Cherry Jones, told Rolling Stone that she was amazed to see her son brought back to life, so to speak.

"Last night was the first time I saw it, and to me, it was so wonderful to stand by him again," she told the magazine. "I don't know how I'm going to react - they'll have to carry me off, but I think it's amazing. I want to sing with it."

She added, "This keeps the artists alive. Dirty was a great artist onstage. This is going to be something else, because he was really great onstage. ... I just want to see the look on his sister and brother's face, his children, grandchildren."

Eazy's widow, Tomica Wright, was similarly excited, telling the magazine, "To have old generations, new generations be able to experience that chemistry between ODB and Eazy and Bones -- you see it on video, you see it on the Internet, but to feel it and have that sense of presence is a great experience."

Rock the Bells has four shows slated for the tour thus far, beginning in September with a stop in San Bernardino, California. The festival, known for drawing a broad range of hip-hop acts, will also include performances by Black Hippy, Common, E-40 & Too Short, Tyler the Creator, Jurassic 5, Rakim and Talib Kweli.

It's safe to assume none of them wants to follow ODB.