‘Katie’ Shakeup: Rachel Miskowiec Replaces Michael Morrison As Executive Producer

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday May 24, 2013 @ 6:45am PDT
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: The rumored post-season changeover at Katie Couric’s daytime syndicated talk show is a reality. I’ve learned that veteran daytime talk show producer Rachel Miskowiec will be joining Katie as executive producer for the upcoming second season. She will replace Michael Morrison, who came on board in January, succeeding original executive producer Jeff Zucker who left to take over CNN. The move comes a month after original Katie co-executive producer Michael Bass followed his former boss Zucker to CNN. (He was replaced by Ethan Nelson, with producer Matt Strauss also getting a bump to serve as co-exec producer alongside Kathy Samuels.) The shakeup also follows a rocky freshman season for Katie.

After a strong opening, the show slipped in the ratings. Its numbers eventually leveled off and Katie remained No.1 in households among all freshmen for the entire season but it has been running neck and neck in households and total viewers with fellow rookie Steve Harvey, which has been edging Katie in the key women 25-54 demographic. Katie also has been struggling with its identity, with Couric, who also serves as exec producer, reportedly pushing for news-making interviews and more serious journalistic approach normally reserved for in-depth news programs like 60 Minutes as opposed to daytime TV’s conventional emphasis on lighter fare and celebrities. (Katie drew its largest audience to date with the January Manti Te’o interview, which averaged almost 3.8 million viewers.) With Katie searching for direction, I hear Morrison, who helped launch Late Night With Conan O’Brien, never quite fit in a tough environment. Such growing pains are not unusual for a daytime talk show. CBS’ The Talk went through controversial executive producer and co-host changes during and after its freshman season but, after a rough start, has become a success story.

Most recently an executive producer at Telepictures Prods., Miskowiec previously served as executive producer on The Tyra Banks Show, garnering two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Informative Talk Show, the same category Katie landed its first Emmy nomination in this year. She also executive produced talk shows Dr. Drew’s Lifechangers on the CW and Your Best Life Now on OWN and early on spent more than eight years on the syndicated Ricki Lake Show, rising to supervising senior producer. Distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Katie is in the midst of a two-year deal with the ABC O&O stations.

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Sky Atlantic Acquires Showtime Series ‘Ray Donovan’ For UK; Sets July Premiere

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday May 24, 2013 @ 6:17am PDT

Sky Atlantic HD has entered a deal with CBS Studios International for exclusive UK rights to Showtime‘s upcoming Ray Donovan. The series, which kicks off Stateside on June 30, stars Liev Schreiber as LA’s best professional fixer, the go-to guy who makes the problems the rich and famous disappear. Jon Voight plays Ray’s father, whose release from prison sets off a chain of events that shakes the Donovan family to its core. James Woods plays Patrick “Sully” Sullivan from South Boston, who has a very complicated history with the Donovan family. Also starring are Elliott Gould, Peter Jacobson, Steven Bauer, Katherine Moenning, Dash Mihok, Eddie Marsan and Paula Malcomson. Rosanna Arquette will guest star. The show is created and executive produced by Ann Biderman. Mark Gordon and Bryan Zuriff also exec produce. Sky Atlantic will launch the show in Britain in July.

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Hammond On Cannes: French Hero Jerry Lewis On His Return To Movies, Unfunny Women, And The Film You Will Never See

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday May 24, 2013 @ 5:02am PDT
Pete Hammond

If there is one place Jerry Lewis can go to get an ego boost it is clearly here in France, a country that has had a collective love affair with the comedian his entire career. Lewis, now 87, has been here many times to collect awards and adoration , he’s even made French movies but he hasn’t been in Cannes for about two decades so it was a big deal Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival when Max Rose, the first movie in which he has starred in 18 years, premiered to a standing ovation for Lewis (naturally) and turnaway crowd (filled with many locals). The film is anything but a typical vehicle for Lewis as it is a sentimental and somewhat serious study of the dilemna of old age and how we treat our senior citizens when life throws them a curveball just when they least expected it. Presented Out Of Competition and billed as an “hommage to Jerry Lewis”, the film came about when first-time writer/director Daniel Noah approached him to play the role , and much to his surprise, Lewis accepted right away telling the filmmaker it was the best script he had read in 40 years. Clearly it also spoke to him personally.

A press screening that had been scheduled for the movie Thursday morning was abruptly cancelled, though … Read More »

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Cannes: Another Jewelry Heist? $2.6M Necklace Missing After Hotel Du Cap Soirée (Reports)

By NANCY TARTAGLIONE, International Editor | Friday May 24, 2013 @ 12:17am PDT

In what would be the second high-profile jewerly heist of the Cannes Film Festival, a diamond necklace valued at $2.6M is said to be missing after a star-studded party at the Hotel Du Cap earlier this week. Fawaz Gruosi, founder of Swiss jeweler De Grisogono, told Reuters that the necklace disappeared after being worn as part of an annual event, which this year celebrated the company’s 20th anniversary and was attended by Sharon Stone and Paris Hilton among others. Local police, hotel security and 80 bodyguards had been on duty Gruosi told Reuters, but an inventory at the end of the night found the necklace missing. A Cannes police source said they were investigating whether it was a theft, an inventory issue, or a loss, according to Reuters. Last week’s theft of $1.4M in Chopard jewels is still under investigation. Swiss newspaper Le Matin says police are actively pursuing at least three suspects.

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‘Hangover III’ With Weak $11M Wed/Thurs Kicks Off Too Crowded Memorial Weekend

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 11:48pm PDT

Box Office Hangover Part IIITHURSDAY 11:30 PM, 2ND UPDATE: Warner Bros’ The Hangover Part III co-financed with Legendary Pictures went wide in 3,555 North American theaters today and my sources say it opened to $11 million which includes Wednesday late shows and Thursday midnights. That’s miniscule compared to The Hangover Part II‘s Thursday opening of $31.6M - 3,615 locations on May 26, 2011 - which was the highest-grossing opening day ever for a live-action comedy. (H3‘s also is less than Thursday’s $13.5M debut a week ago for Star Trek Into Darkness.) Plus audiences only gave The Hangover Part III a ‘B’ CinemaScore compared to the ‘A-’ which the sequel scored. This threequel also scored even worse reviews (only 26% positive on Rotten Tomatoes) than H2 (34%) which was considered embarrassingly awful. But it’s still going to make a lot of moolah: worldwide moviegoers really like this mindless crap especially during the summer months. Internationally, the comedy is taking off in 3 markets this weekend – the UK, Australia and New Zealand. The studio tells me early numbers in Australia indicate a strong opening day of A$1.75M from 494 screens, dominating 80% of the Top 5. NZ also opened big, controlling over 70% of the Top 5. Next weekend H3 opens in 32 markets, including Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Brazil. Here in the U.S., the Hollywood studios now think weekends should start on Wednesday just to wring every last dollar from … Read More »

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ABC, NBC & Fox Go To DC Court Against Alki David’s FilmOn And Aereokiller

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 9:19pm PDT

ABC, NBC and Fox today filed a lawsuit against digital entrepreneur Alki David‘s FilmOn and his Aereokiller service, claiming copyright infringement. Allbritton, which owns ABC’s TV station Washington DC also is a plaintiff in the suit. Filed in Federal District Court in D.C. on David’s 45th birthday, the complaint (read it here) is similar to one filed in Los Angeles in August by ABC, NBC and CBS against his streaming site that then was known as BarryDriller.com. It, in turn, hewed closely to a suit filed against the site by Fox days earlier. (David this week finally  settled his name-game tussle with Barry Diller and the latter’s Aereo service.)

Related: TV Networks Get Tentative Victory In Aereokiller Streaming Case

David is a media industry provocateur whose FilmOn streams programming taken from over-the-air signals, and it — like Diller’s Aereo — has incurred the wrath of broadcasters. In today’s suit, the networks and Allbritton claim that “Aereokiller provides users and subscribers the ability to receive whichever broadcast station the user or subscriber chooses, ultimately having the ability to watch live broadcast television programming over the Internet using any device. In other words, through the Aereokiller service, Defendants built a business founded on offering its users and subscribers a ‘live’ Internet and mobile streaming service based on Plaintiffs’ television programming, but without authorization or license from Plaintiffs.” Read More »

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Global Showbiz Briefs: Chello Zone Goes ‘Hardcore Pawn’; Karlovy Vary Celebrates Schatzberg; R&H Malaysia Goes It Alone

Chello Zone Bringing ‘Hardcore Pawn’ To Several Territories
International TV provider Chello Zone has acquired all nine series of the US reality TV show Hardcore Pawn for its CBS Reality network in Poland and one of its EMEA feeds. CBS Reality will air the shows in primetime across Poland, Cyprus, Hungary, Romania, the Middle East and Africa. The first will premiere in Poland in June. The reality documentary series, which centers on a Detroit pawn shop, is produced by Zodiak USA for Tru TV and distributed internationally by Zodiak Rights.

Karlovy Vary To Celebrate Jerry Schatzberg
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival said today that Palme d’Or-winning director Jerry Schatzberg will attend the 48th edition of the festival to screen three of his earliest films. The influential American director will introduce his recently restored debut Puzzle Of A Downfall Child (1970), The Panic In Needle Park (1970) and Palme winner Scarecrow (1973). The Czech Republic fest runs June 28-July 6. Read More »

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Hammond On Cannes: Leo DiCaprio’s Moon Trip Tops ‘Cinema Against AIDS’ Auction

Pete Hammond

Would you pay €1.5 million ($1.94 million) to spend a weekend at Oscar parties? Or €1.8 million to fly to the moon on Virgin Galactic with Leonardo DiCaprio?  Someone did — and more. That happened at amFAR’s annual Cinema Against AIDS Cannes Film Festival gala’s very special 20th anniversary Thursday night. Co-hosts Weinstein and Kenneth Cole announced to a roomful of very high rollers that the event, held of the Hotel Du Cap, raised €25 million ($32.3 million), smashing last year’s record total of over €10 million. The ultra-high style party is a two  decades long staple of the Cannes festival, and Weinstein told me if it just made a dollar more than the previous year they’d be happy. But these multimillionaires and billionaires obviously came to play this year and really stepped up at the auction that featured numerous stars including jury members Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz, along with Jessica Chastain, Jeremy Renner, Rosario Dawson, Heidi Klum, Goldie Hawn, Janet Jackson, Adrien Brody and major fundraiser/auctioneer Sharon Stone.

Read More »

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The Elvis Presley Family Supports Potential Sale Of CORE Media’s Majority Estate Stake

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 7:22pm PDT
Nellie Andreeva

As we reported earlier this week citing the Financial Times, CORE Media Group is exploring a sale of Elvis Presley Enterprises as well as Muhammad Ali Enterprises. There had been no official comment on the potential sale until now. Deadline has obtained exclusively a statement from the Presley family about the development. “Our family enjoys a strong working relationship with CORE and is supportive of their process,” the statement says. “Lisa [Marie Presley] will maintain her interest in EPE and ownership of Graceland Mansion and looks forward to whatever opportunities enable the best long-term interests of the family.” Lisa Marie Presley owns 15% of EPE, which manages the assets of the Elvis Presley estate, including the 100-acre property in Memphis, Tennessee. CORE’s predecessor, CKX, bought the other 85% in 2005. (The Muhammad Ali family retains 20% ownership in MAE.) The Presley and Ali assets are estimated to fetch more than $200 million but CORE is not dead set to sale and may retain the properties if it is not satisfied with offers.

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IATSE Seals 3-Year Pact With Commercials Producers

NEW YORK, NEW YORK — The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) concluded negotiations in New York on Tuesday for a new 3 year collective bargaining agreement covering below the line technicians and artists who create commercials.

The parties agreed to early negotiations in order to promote stability and give both sides an opportunity to plan and budget past the current expiration date of September 30, 2013.

IATSE President Matthew Loeb commented, “We recognized the value of early negotiations when both sides are willing to address the important issues and provide stability to the members of the IA and the commercial producers.”

The details of the pact have not been released. Issues that the parties dealt with include wages and benefits, training, safety, overtime, long work days as well as non-traditional commercials and low budget commercials.

“The industry is changing and it is important that as we see new opportunities that come with new challenges, we can work with the skilled crew base we have always relied on in new and progressive ways,” said Matt Miller, President and CEO of AICP. “Our open and frank discussions centered around this theme.”

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What’s Hot At This Week’s LA Screenings?

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 6:22pm PDT
Nellie Andreeva

After ad buyers at last week’s upfronts, it is international buyers’ turn to get a glimpse of the broadcast networks’ crop of new shows. The annual LA Screenings are wrapping after marathon sessions of the studios unveiling their new series, with talent and producers on hand to promote them. After lackluster LA Screenings last year, with international buyers lamenting the lack of breakouts, there is some excitement this week. That is a promising sign for the broadcast networks as the screenings usually serve as a good barometer — last year’s broadcast freshman class indeed failed to produce major hits. The interest seems spread almost evenly between drama, which normally travels better overseas, and comedy this year. Not surprisingly, hot NBC drama pilot The Blacklist is garnering a ton of attention for producer Sony TV. Also hot at the studio is 1980s comedy The Goldbergs. Interestingly, Australian networks are very high on Rake, a remake of an Australian series. Additionally, Michael J. Fox, star of Sony TV’s new NBC series The Michael J. Fox Show, has been receiving enthusiastic reaction from buyers who waited up to an hour for a photo with the actor at the studio’s party Monday. Star power also is boosting 20th TV’s new comedy The Crazy Read More »

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Specialty B.O. Preview: ‘Before Midnight’, ‘We Steal Secrets: The Story Of WikiLeaks’, ‘Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton As Himself’, ‘A Green Story’, ‘The Lesser Blessed’

Brian Brooks is a Deadline contributor.

Cannes is winding down with the year’s first glimpse of titles that will hit the fall release slates for companies Stateside, with a number likely to factor into the fall awards season. But first off, of course, is summer and Memorial Day weekend. Sony Classics’ Before Midnight and FocusWorld’s We Steal Secrets: The Story Of WikiLeaks will anchor the Specialty alternative to the official onslaught of blockbusters season. Richard Linklater’s Midnight is the third installment which debuted in the ’90s with Before Sunrise, while Oscar-winner Alex Gibney’s expose on WikiLeaks will take the non-fiction spotlight along with Plimpton! Starring George Plimpton As Himself from Laemmle/Zeller Films. Indican Pictures is bowing immigrant feature A Green Story with Shannon Elizabeth, Ed O’Ross and Billy Zane, while Monterey Media will open coming-of-age story, The Lesser Blessed.

Before Midnight
Director-writer: Richard Linklater
Co-writers: Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Kim Krizan
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Prior, Charlotte Prior
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

SPC’s Michael Barker and Tom Bernard have played pivotal parts in Richard Linklater’s career, having released his first film Slacker at Orion and later Suburbia at SPC. They were also at Sony when Columbia Pictures released the first film that now forms a trio, Before Sunrise. “We’re big fans of these films and of Rick,” said Michael Barker in Cannes. “And when we saw the first screening of [Before Midnight] in Sundance, we knew we had to have it. The producers wanted us as well, so it felt like a match that had to happen. A deal was made very quickly and it’s been such a pleasure to work on this film. It has Rick at the peak of his form in a very relaxed sort of way. It has artistry but it’s also done in an entertaining way and being in Greece is just awesome.” Read More »

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Isabelle Fuhrman Joins Kevin Connolly-Helmed ‘Dear Eleanor’

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 5:11pm PDT

EXCLUSIVE: Isabelle Fuhrman is set to star in Dear Eleanor, a coming-of-age story about two teenage girls who travel across the U.S. in 1962 during the chaos of the Cuban missile crisis in search of Eleanor Roosevelt. Kevin Connolly is directing the pic, which is being produced by Leonardo DiCaprio’s Appian Way. Amy Garcia and Cecillia Contreras wrote the script, and Chuck Pacheco, Hillary Sherman and Caleb Applegate are producing. Shooting began last week in Colorado. Fuhrman recently wrapped Michael James Johnson’s The Wilderness Of James opposite Kodi Smit-McPhee and played Clove in The Hunger Games. She is repped by CAA and Management 360.

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‘Glee’s Jacob Artist Signs With UTA

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 5:04pm PDT

United Talent Agency has picked up another one of the Glee club. Jacob Artist will be joining Cory Monteith, Naya Rivera, Jayma Mays and Melissa Benoist at UTA. The actor, who was previously with APA, will be represented by UTA in all areas. He continues to be represented by David Dean Management. Artist joined Fox’s Glee this season as Jake Puckerman the half-brother of Noah “Puck” Puckerman who is played by Mark Saling. The actor was seen last year in Lifetime’s Blue Lagoon: The Awakening TV movie. Artist appears next in the feature The Philosophers as well as in White Bird in a Blizzard with Shailene Woodley, Angela Bassett and Gabourey Sidibe.

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Nat Geo Orders ‘Divine Intervention’ Reality Series That Fixes Struggling Churches

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 4:20pm PDT
Nellie Andreeva

EXCLUSIVE: National Geographic Channel has ordered Divine Intervention, a six-episode unscripted series from T Group Prods. (Storage Hunters, Mystery Diners). Described as “Kitchen Nightmares for churches”, it features a trio of “Church Hoppers” who use a tough love approach in helping struggling faith-based organizations around the country. T Group’s Jenny Daly is executive producing with Eric Lange and Mike Duffy. The series is eyed for a summer launch.

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Deadline Awards Watch With Pete Hammond, Episode 27

Pete Hammond

Listen to (and share) episode 27, a special Cannes Film Festival edition of our audio podcast Deadline Awards Watch With Pete Hammond. Deadline’s awards columnist talks with host David Bloom about the Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis and other notable films screened in competition so far at Cannes; the legacy of Liz Taylor and a restored Cleopatra; and whether Oscar season should just officially start with the festival, given its recent success in spotlighting awards-worthy films.

Deadline Awards Watch, Episode 27 (MP3 format)
Deadline Awards Watch, Episode 27 (MP4a format) Read More »

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2012-2013 Season Network Rankings: CBS Sweeps In Final Numbers; ABC, CBS & Fox Tie In May Sweep

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 4:05pm PDT

The 2012-2013 season is officially over and the final network rankings are in. As was long expected, CBS took the top spot in viewers and the adults 18-49 demo, the first time the network has claimed a No. 1 ranking in both categories since the 1991-1992 season. There wasn’t any significant change from the preliminary numbers I reported earlier this week. Fox fell to second place in adults 18-49 for the season, hurt by a variety of factors including a more-than-25% key demo decline for American Idol, lackluster Season 2 numbers for The X Factor, a lack of traction among its comedies, a disappointing baseball postseason and a plethora of pre-emptions in the fall. That breaks Fox’s hold on the key demo title for the past eight seasons.

Related: Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings

As with last year, NBC was third in adults 18-49 and ABC was fourth. ABC did move over Fox to second place among total viewers this year. This season’s results also see CBS as the first network to simultaneously top viewership and the key demo since Fox took the double gold in 2007-2008, the year of the writers’ strike. Here are final numbers: Read More »

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Full 2012-2013 TV Season Series Rankings

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 4:04pm PDT

The 2012-2013 TV season is officially over and there were some top spot shifts among the series rankings from last year. While NBC’s Sunday Night Football remained No.1 among adults 18-49 spot, it was tackled by CBS’ NCIS in total viewership, with the latter squeaking out a win for the period from September 24, 2012-May 22, 2013. Still, NBC is hyping a viewership victory by counting all 19 telecasts of Sunday Night Football starting September 5 and the 21.5 million they pulled in on average compared to NCIS 21.3 million. The network is citing Nielsen’s allowance to broadcasters to track ratings results from a show’s debut even if it occurs before the season starts. Sticking to the boundaries of the season, the 26 scheduled airings of NCIS beat the 14 regularly scheduled broadcasts of SNF in the 2012-2013 season by just under 350,000 viewers. (See comprehensive series ranking lists for the 2012-2013 season according to both total viewership and Adults 18-49 after the jump)

Related: 2012-2013 Season Network Rankings

Within the confines of the 2012-2013 season start and end dates, SNF was essentially the same in terms of viewership and ratings as last year. Coming off a strong 10th season, NCIS was up 10% in viewers and even in the ratings. Replaced by Big Bang Theory in the second spot among the 18-49s, the Wednesday airing of American Idol fell 25% from last season. Elementary, the now cancelled Vegas and The Following were the only new shows to make it into the Top 20 most watched series this season. NBC’s Revolution joined Fox’s Following as the only new shows to make it into the Top 20 shows among Adults 18-49. CBS’ Rules of Engagement was the highest rated show to be cancelled this year while Vegas was the most watched show to get the axe. Among the Big 4 networks, NBC’s Community was the lowest rated scripted show of the season to be renewed with CBS’ Undercover Boss as the lowest rated unscripted show of the season to be returning. The CW’s Nikita was the lowest-rated show overall to be coming back. Here are the full final rankings: Read More »

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Lifetime’s Jodi Arias Movie Gets June 22 Airdate

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday May 23, 2013 @ 4:02pm PDT

Jodi Arias: Dirty Little Secret will have its world premiere on Saturday, June 22, at 8 PM, Lifetime said today. The two-hour movie will be followed by an hourlong documentary, Jodi Arias: Beyond the Headlines, featuring key players in the juicy murder trial. The telepic stars Tania Raymonde as Arias, who was just found guilty of murdering her former boyfriend Travis Alexander, who was found dead in his shower in June 2008 with a slit throat, 27 additional stab wounds and a bullet to the head. Jesse Lee Soffer plays Alexander in the movie, and Tony Plana and David Zayas co-star. The salacious case has been plastered across the tabloids and cable news shows for months; HLN even created a show devoted to the day-to-day happenings of the Phoenix-set trial. The movie was announced last month, with the ending needing to be written after the verdict was known. She was found guilty May 8 and the jury is now deliberating whether to hand down a death sentence. Read More »

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