Swift’s Poetry Turns Into Globe-Nominated Tune

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday January 11, 2013 @ 9:00pm PST

Anthony D’Alessandro is Managing Editor of AwardsLine

Who better to provide a voice to the well-received feature adaptation The Hunger Games than the generation’s most popular soulful vocalist, 23-year-old Taylor Swift? However, when Lionsgate executives and Oscar-winning singer-songwriter T-Bone Burnett approached Swift to pen an end-credits song, it wasn’t about the marriage of pop brands, rather it was her penchant for confessional folk ballads that caught their ear. Still, synergy doesn’t hurt. Last year, Swift’s album-sales headlines read like the boxoffice numbers of a record-breaking tentpole film: Her fourth album Red marked the second time in a debut week she sold over a million records, a feat no other female recording artist—not even Lady Gaga—can tout.

“They wanted the song to reflect what Appalachian music would sound like in 300 years, and they wanted me to write from Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence’s character) perspective,” says Swift of the Golden Globe-nominated tune. After watching exclusive clips from the apocalyptic thriller in Nashville, she promptly ripped through Suzanne Collins’ trilogy before teaming up with Burnett and the Civil Wars (Joy Williams and John Paul White). When the four gathered in a studio home that Burnett was working from, “It was just like lighting a match,” she says. “Joy suggested that we write about how Katniss wants to protect and comfort (the youngest Hunger Games contestant) Rue to the very end.” Coincidentally, Swift had been working on a song concept she was calling “Safe & Sound,” hence the tune’s title. Swift wrote the song on the back of her baby Taylor guitar (a brand unrelated to Swift), while the Civil Wars mapped out harmonies, an experience that she says was akin to “watching twins.”

“Throughout the course of writing ‘Safe & Sound,’ we discovered we were also writing about Katniss and her (best friend) Peeta, as well as her relationship with her (sister) Prim,” explains Swift. “The theme of protecting and comforting someone is so broad-reaching throughout the film.”

This is further evident in the song’s refrain, recalling the scene in which Rue dies in the forest before a crying Katniss: Just close your eyes/The sun is going down/You’ll be alright/No one can hurt you now/Come morning light/You and I’ll be safe and sound.

Swift dropped the song on Twitter just before Christmas 2011, three months prior to the Stateside release of Hunger Games. Within two days, the song sold 136,000 copies on iTunes before culminating a tally of 1.4 million last month, in addition to two Grammy nominations (best country duo/group performance, best song written for visual media) and, of course, its Golden Globes best original song nom. Unfortunately, the song was deemed ineligible by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences as it plays as a second end-credits track—a pity because the song, coupled with Swift’s ethereal, touching vocals, truly captures the film’s spirit.

Outside the film, “Safe & Sound” stands on its own with its guitar-stringed heart-wrenching lyrics about undying love against a wilderness setting. Should “Safe & Sound” softly bring to mind Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide,” that’s no coincidence.

“Stevie Nicks has inspired me in so many ways,” exclaims Swift, who spent time with the iconic artist a few years ago, “I’ll never forget the way she tells a story. There’s so much feeling in everything she does. No wonder that comes through in her songs.”

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Q&A: Jodie Foster On Her DeMille Award

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 10, 2013 @ 11:47pm PST

David Mermelstein is an AwardsLine contributor

Few stars can rival Jodie Foster’s durability. One has to go back to Hollywood’s golden age—to the likes of Judy Garland—to find those who even approach her successful transition from childhood roles to adult parts. And what other child actor started directing after accomplishing that transition? None. Which is why it’s fitting that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is bestowing on Foster its highest honor, the Cecil B. DeMille Award.

Foster has been with us so long, it’s almost impossible to believe she’s just 50. Amazingly, it’s been 20 years since she won her second best-actress Oscar (for Silence Of The Lambs). Her first came three years earlier (for The Accused). But her first Academy Award nomination dates back to 1977, for Taxi Driver, in which she played a young teen prostitute, opposite Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel.

“I’ve been doing this a long time,” Foster says with typical understatement during a recent phone interview. “And it feels like a long time, but it also feels great. I don’t remember ever starting. My earliest memories are doing commercials and TV. And here comes this celebration of my whole life. So now what? Hopefully there’s more to come.”

Related: Golden Globes Film: HFPA Spreads Wealth As Tightest Awards Race In Years Accelerates

There no doubt will be for Foster, who continues to eye both acting and directing projects with an eagerness tempered by discernment. Yet she acknowledges a certain ambivalence regarding her career. “I don’t know if I have the personality for it,” she says. “I’m not sure if I’d not fallen into it, it’s what I’d have done. I mean this mostly as an actor rather than as a director, but I’m one for entirely different reasons from most people. It’s become a psychological evolution. I chose movies based on what I had to learn about myself, not because I had to act. There’s lots of things I’m not interested in, and I don’t want to play parts in those movies.” Read More »

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Ricky Gervais To Miss Sunday’s Golden Globes: TCA

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday January 9, 2013 @ 1:33pm PST

Ray Richmond is contributing to Deadline’s TCA coverage.

After serving as its controversial, take-no-prisoners host the past three years, Ricky Gervais is going to have to miss the Golden Globes this Sunday, he told critics during a TCA promo for his latest original comedy series, Derek, on Netflix. “I honestly enjoyed the last three Golden Globes immensely,” he said. “To be the most feared man in Hollywood for three hours is such fun.” Responding to the fact his insults of the gathered stars became such a huge deal, he maintained that the experience Ricky Gervaisultimately had little impact on his life and career. “That was such a tiny part of my life,” he said. “I literally treated it as three hours’ work. But usually you have to murder someone to get that many column inches. The next day, I’d forgotten about it and was writing new series and new standup.”
Read More »

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Deadline Awards Watch With Pete Hammond, Episode 6

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday December 26, 2012 @ 3:12pm PST
Pete Hammond

Here’s Episode 6 of our audio podcast Deadline Awards Watch With Pete Hammond, our year-end look at the best of 2012. Listen to Deadline Awards Columnist Hammond and host David Bloom discuss the year’s best films, TV shows and performances in each that shouldn’t be overlooked as voters for Oscars, the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild and other organizations consider their year-end awards.

Deadline Awards Watch, Episode 6 (MP3 format)
Deadline Awards Watch, Episode 6 (MP4A format) Read More »

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UPDATE: ‘Guilt Trip’ Promo Not So Golden For Barbra Streisand

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 10:34am PST

UPDATE, 10:34 AM: Paramount moved swiftly to remove the clip from its YouTube page and has sent along this statement: “Given Barbra’s incredible performance in the film, there was certainly every hope in our mind that she would be duly recognized this morning. Like all studios, we create many advertising spots in advance of they key award nomination announcements so we are prepared in the event of a nomination. One such spot was inadvertently posted online and immediately taken down.” The spot in question was a 20-second ad for the road-trip comedy due out December 19, with a voice-over touting Streisand just having been nominated for a Golden Globe, with words appearing on the screen to that effect.

PREVIOUS, 8:02 AM: Somebody in the Paramount awards department was a bit too eager to tout Barbra Streisand‘s Golden Globe nomination for Guilt Trip, posting this promo to the studio’s YouTube page last night. Of course, it would have been forgiven probably — if Streisand had actually been nominated this morning. It goes to show just how sure Paramount and many others were that she would land a nom. After all, she’s a darling of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, having been nominated for countless Globes for acting, directing and songs. She even won the group’s lifetime achievement honor, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, in 2000. Read More »

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Nikki’s Censure Of 2013 Golden Globes

Deadline is, only for informational purposes, posting the 2013 Golden Globes nominations held by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with winners to be broadcast live on NBC on January 13th. I refuse to treat these nominations with any seriousness. And if you don’t want that, then for crissakes stop reading me. True, my Deadline colleagues will analyze today’s nominations. But that’s because they choose to. I won’t. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: it’s a completely meaningless awards show from a scandal-riddled organization aired by a production company desperate for money on a network praying for ratings. That’s why I opt out of analyzing the nominations every year: because the Golden Globes have zero integrity. Studios and networks who lavishly lobby the HFPA almost always score nominations. Actors win in direct correlation to their glamour quotient. By splitting dramas and comedies/musicals, and including movie and television categories on the same night, more star wattage can goose the Nielsens. And even though the entire entertainment industry ridicules the awards, it props them up because they’re a useful marketing tool for the studios and networks. Let’s not forget the year that host Ricky Gervais couldn’t resist openly loathing the HFPA and its tarnished reputation from the podium. (“I’d like to quash this ridiculous rumor going round that the only reason [The Tourist] was nominated was so the Hollywood Foreign Press could hang out with Johnny Depp and Angeline Jolie. That is rubbish. That is not the only reason. They also accepted bribes.”) At least it was a rare injection of honesty into the night.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association isn’t as advertised. It’s actually a small motley group of 85 mostly freelancers who won’t grant membership to the real foreign journalists at the prestige media outlets across the world. The HFPA clique doesn’t want to dilute the financial bonanza it receives from the studios and networks who arrange exclusive interviews about each year’s movies and TV shows. Not only have legitimate journalists for years been attacking the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for its exclusionary membership policies and too-cozy relationship with studios and networks. But an Oscar-winning documentary director (Vikram Jayanti, in his 2004 film The Golden Globes: Hollywood’s Dirty Little Secret) has called the group a bunch of “freeloaders” who know more about hors d’oeuvres than auteurs and select winners based on “who kisses butt best”. The HFPA was even accused in a lawsuit filed by its former publicist of accepting “payola” — like taking lavish gifts from studios in exchange for nominations — and other questionable business practices. This and other lawsuits have laid bare many of the dirty little secrets behind the Golden Globes and its largely ludicrous gang of organizers. Read More »

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Golden Globes Film: HFPA Spreads Wealth As Tightest Awards Race In Years Accelerates

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 8:37am PST
Pete Hammond

Christmas came early for Hollywood this year, as it usually does, with the announcement this morning of the Golden Globe nominations. Ever quirky but dependable in its ability to spread the wealth by way of splitting major contenders into Drama or Comedy/Musical, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association has further clarified the race. The group gave multiple key nominations to Oscar frontrunners like Argo, Life Of Pi, Lincoln, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables and Silver Linings Playbook as well as major impetus to the late-breaking hopes of Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, which grabbed five key nominations including Picture-Drama, Director and Screenplay for Tarantino and two supporting actor nods for Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz, shaking up the supporting actor race in the process. So other than The Weinstein Company with a leading 15 nominations (Harvey really knows how to work the HFPA), who really came out on top here?

Related: Golden Globe Award Noms: Scorecard

As has been the case since Monday’s announcement of the AFI top 10 films of the year, Tuesday’s Critics Choice Movie Awards, where it led with 13 nominations, yesterday’s SAG noms, where it grabbed everything it could, and now today’s leading 7 nominations, Lincoln is now certified at the top of the pack going into Oscar balloting, which begins Monday. Steven Spielberg’s historical drama nabbed a nomination in every single Globes category it was eligible (with 7 nods, the most ever for a Spielberg film at the Globes) and made perhaps the most impressive showing of all the nominees. To put the cherry on top for Disney/Dreamworks, the film will hit $100 million domestically today. But in a race that remains as tight as ever, Argo also almost ran the board, missing out as expected for producer-director Ben Affleck’s lead performance but named in 5 other categories. Zero Dark Thirty also did what it had to do, grabbing the four key nominations (Picture-Drama, Director for Kathryn Bigelow, Screenplay for Mark Boal, Actress-Drama for Jessica Chastain) it was targeting. Add the aforementioned impressive showing of Django and you have the BIG winners of the morning as the HFPA handed out lots of gifts to each. Correlation to actual Oscar nominations and wins is sometimes spotty with the Globes, but because this has become such a high-profile awards show on NBC, one of the year’s biggest, the town pays attention and, if nothing else, the HFPA has confirmed the closeness of this race. Read More »

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Golden Globes TV: ‘Homeland’ Tops; ‘Girls’, ‘Newsroom’, ‘Smash’, ‘Nashville’ & ‘Political Animals’ Make Entrance; ‘Mad Men’ Snubbed

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 8:35am PST
Nellie Andreeva

Once again, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was far more receptive to new series than the Screen Actors Guild, with a slew of freshmen, including HBO’s Girls, The Newsroom and Veep, NBC’s Smash, ABC’s Nashville, Showtime’s House Of Lies, USA’s Political Animals and Starz’s Magic City landing Golden Globe Award nominations this morning.

Related: 70th Golden Globe Awards Nominations

And once again, pay cable dominated, with HBO (17 nominations) and Showtime (7) finishing as No. 1-No. 2 in the network rankings for a second consecutive year. The two networks also landed the most series noms, 7 each. Showtime’s Homeland was the most nominated series with four noms: for best series, best actor (Damian Lewis), actress (Claire Danes) and a welcome surprise, a first major awards nomination for co-star Mandy Patinkin in the supporting category. (HBO movie Game Change was the most nominated program overall with 5 noms.)

Both top series categories were fluid, with only two returning nominees in both. On the drama side, those were the best drama series winners from the past two years — Showtime’s Homeland and HBO’s Boardwalk Empire — joined by Breaking Bad, landing its long-overdue first best series nomination; PBS’ Downton Abbey, which made a successful transition from the movie/miniseries category, which it won in January, to series; and HBO’s The Newsroom. For Aaron Sorkin’s cable news drama, which also got a nom for star Jeff Daniels, this is the biggest awards recognition so far after landing a nom for Daniels at the SAG Awards. The biggest surprise in the category was the omission of AMC’s Mad Men, which failed to make the best drama category for the first time (it won in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and sat out the last Golden Globes because of a large gap between seasons.) Also out was last year’s nominee Game Of Thrones. Read More »

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Tina Fey & Amy Poehler’s Golden Globe Promo: Video

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 7:44am PST

NBC has released the first promo for the Golden Globe Awards ceremony January 13 featuring co-hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, who were both nominated this morning for Best Actress In A Television Series — Comedy Or Musical. Check it out:

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Golden Globe Award Noms: Scorecard

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 6:30am PST

Related: 70th Golden Globe Awards Nominations

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s movie and television scorecard:

NOMINATIONS BY MOTION PICTURE DISTRIBUTOR
The Weinstein Company 14, Sony Pictures Releasing 12, Touchstone Pictures 7, Warner Bros. Pictures 6, Fox Searchlight Pictures 5, Focus Features 4, … Read More »

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70th Golden Globe Awards Nominations

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday December 13, 2012 @ 5:23am PST

The nominations in 25 categories for movies and television for the 2013 Golden Globe Awards were announced this morning at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. The nominees were introduced by Hollywood Foreign Press Association president Aida Takla-O’Reilly along with Jessica Alba, Megan Fox and Ed Helms. Ballots were submitted to the accounting firm of Ernst and Young on Monday. The 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards will air live on NBC on Sunday, January 13 hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.

Related:
Golden Globes: Nikki’s Annual Censure
Golden Globes Film Analysis
Golden Globes TV Analysis
Golden Globe Award Noms: Scorecard

Golden Globes nominationsBEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
ARGO
Warner Bros. Pictures, GK Films, Smokehouse Pictures; Warner Bros. Pictures
DJANGO UNCHAINED
The Weinstein Company, Columbia Pictures; The Weinstein Company/Sony Pictures Releasing
LIFE OF PI
Fox 2000 Pictures; Twentieth Century Fox
LINCOLN
DreamWorks Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox; Touchstone Pictures
ZERO DARK THIRTY
Columbia Pictures and Annapurna Pictures; Sony Pictures Releasing
Read More »

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Jodie Foster To Receive Cecil B. DeMille Award At Golden Globes

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday November 1, 2012 @ 9:40am PDT

Jodie Foster Golden Globes Cecil B DeMille AwardThe Hollywood Foreign Press is bestowing its lifetime achievement award on actor-director-producer Jodie Foster and will present it at the 70th annual Golden Read More »

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Tina Fey & Amy Poehler To Host The Golden Globe Awards On NBC

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday October 15, 2012 @ 4:50pm PDT
Nellie Andreeva

Former SNL Weekend Update co-anchors Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are reuniting for another joint hosting gig, this time emceeing the upcoming 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Long-time friends Fey and Poehler are only the second hosting team on the awards show, which went without a host until Ricky Gervais was tapped for the job the last three years. “Having both Tina Fey and Amy Poehler on board to host this year’s festivities is a major coup,” said Paul Telegdy, NBC‘s President, Alternative and Late Night Programming. “Tina and Amy have a proven chemistry and comedic timing from their many years together on SNL to their successful co-starring roles in Baby Mama.” Read More »

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How Oscar’s Surprising Changes Affect Awards Season: Analysis

Pete Hammond

My phone started ringing off the hook shortly after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences sent out their press release today detailing key dates in the voting schedule for the 85th annual Academy Awards. Awards consultants I spoke to were clearly thrown for a loop and expressed dismay over the new dates — particularly the Academy’s switch from the previous Oscar nominations announcement date of January 15 to January 10, an unprecedented three days before the Golden Globes.

Related: OSCARS: Nominations Date Shifted To Jan. 10 — Before Golden Globes

Does this blunt the impact of the Globes? In some ways it definitely will as the Academy’s nomination announcement will get enormous attention just as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association is drumming up attention for its own big night. Also, the usual window in which studios use Globes wins for newspaper, online and TV advertising is, well, out the window as Oscar nominations will likely take precedence. Last year, there was a week-and-a-half between the Globes ceremony and the Oscar noms. Now the two are much, much closer. The impact, if any, of Globes nominations on Oscar voters is also minimalized as the Globes noms are announced December 13 and Oscar nom voting starts four days later on December 17, with ballots now due back January 3.

And then there is the Broadcast Film Critics Association’s Critics Choice Movie Awards, another big telecast movie awards show that usually falls on the Thursday or Friday before the Globes. No date has been announced for 2013, but the group’s decision will certainly be impacted by today’s Academy news. Certainly they don’t want to show to fall on the same day as Oscar nominations, but will they move earlier because of this? There’s only so much wriggle room here. Making things even more crowded and headache-inducing for awards consultants, The National Board Of Review also holds their awards ceremony in New York on January 10th Read More »

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OSCARS: Nominations Date Shifted Ahead 5 Days To Jan. 10 — Before Golden Globes

BREAKING… The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says the new January 10 date, five days earlier than previously announced, will give members a longer period of time to see the films up for Oscars. It also makes the nominations three days before the Golden Globes, rather than after, as has been the norm in previous years. That makes for a very busy week in the heat of awards season. The shift comes as the Oscars’ governing body unveiled key dates for the 85th Academy Awards, which are February 24 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. As this is the first year members will have the opportunity to cast ballots electronically, the Academy also said today it is making resources available to members during the transition — including creating assisted voting stations in Los Angeles, New York and London; a 24-hour telephone help line during voting periods; and paper ballots. The longer stretch between nominations and the February 19 date for final voting ballots to be submitted also provides a cushion to further work out kinks with members over the new voting methods. Here are the 2013 Oscars’ key dates: Read More »

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Guggenheim Partners-Led Group Reaches Agreement To Buy Dick Clark Prods.

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday September 4, 2012 @ 6:35am PDT
Nellie Andreeva

Dick Clark Productions SaleAfter several rounds of bidding, Guggenheim Partners together with Peter Guber’s Mandalay Entertainment and Allen Shapiro’s Mosaic Media Investment Partners today announced an agreement to purchase Dick Clark Prods. from RedZone Capital Management. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed, though the number floated out by insiders is in the ballpark of $370 million. Guber was the largest shareholder of dcp before selling it to RedZone in 2008 for $175 million. He recently partnered with Guggenheim in the $2 billion purchase of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Guggenheim, Mandalay and Mosaic Media, which outbid a slew of suitors, including CBS, CORE Media and Ryan Seacrest, plan to “continue dcp’s tradition of providing its network partners with devoted and growing audiences across dcp’s premier programming,” the group said. Founded by the later Dick Clark, dcp produces such programs as the Golden Globes, the American Music Awards, the Academy Of Country Music Awards, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve and So You Think You Can Dance. Here are statements from the new owners as well as dcp CEO Mark Shapiro:

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Golden Globes Sets January Date For Awards

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday August 21, 2012 @ 1:52pm PDT

Universal City, Calif. – August 21, 2012 –The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and producer dick clark productions (dcp) present “The 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards” live on Sunday, January 13, 2013. Next year’s show will air live on NBC coast-to-coast from 5-8 p.m (PT) and 8-11 p.m. (ET) from the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills.

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, dick clark productions and NBC made the announcement today.

Nominations for “The 70th Annual Golden Globe Awards” will be announced at 8 a.m. (ET) on Thursday, December 13.

Produced by dick clark productions in association with the HFPA, The Golden Globe Awards are viewed in more than 160 countries worldwide and are one of the few awards ceremonies to include both motion picture and television achievements. The 2012 “Golden Globe Awards” averaged 16.9 million viewers, which was the biggest audience for ABC, CBS, NBC or Fox in the time period, excluding sports, since the prior year’s Academy Awards.
A timeline of upcoming events follows:

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Sale Of Dick Clark Prods Heads To 2nd Round With 4 Main Bidders; CEO To Leave

By DOMINIC PATTEN | Monday August 13, 2012 @ 4:00pm PDT

EXCLUSIVE: Second-round bids for Dick Clark Productions best known for producing the Golden Globes and other awards shows came late last week into the Raine Group which is handling the sale. Deadline has learned … Read More »

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CBS Eyes Dick Clark Productions: Reuters

The TV community knows that CBS Corp President and CEO Les Moonves wants to broadcast the Golden Globes. But a judge this summer ruled that the Globes broadcast rights are controlled by Dick Clark ProductionsRead More »

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