NBC, CBS MAKE NICE DURING SUNDANCE CHANNEL SALE
May 11, 2008
We all know that there's no love lost between NBC and CBS, but when it came to the Sundance Channel the normally intense competitors were all backslaps and good blessings.
The networks came to be Sundance's principal owners through a complex series of deals spanning several years. And given the history of infighting or inertia in media joint ventures, the pairing could very well have ruined the Sundance Channel.
But instead, according to Sundance CEO Larry Aidem, the two broadcast rivals put their differences aside and consistently acted as good stewards for the network.
Or, as Aidem wrote in a email to friends alerting them to the channel's sale, a copy of which was obtained by The Post, "Sundance Channel has thrived, most recently supported by an improbable but, when it came to Sundance, remarkably unified couple in NBC and CBS."
Of course, when it came time to cash out of Sundance, NBC and CBS quickly reverted back to their hostile ways - the original plan was for either NBC or CBS to buyout the other side, but Aidem said neither company wanted to give up full ownership to the other.
Peter Lauria
What a card
It looks like Michael Eisner's baseball card company, Topps, is cutting a few corners.
Several sharp eyed observers - well okay, my 10- and 8-year old sons - noticed that an Opening Day 2008 card of Johan Santana decked out in his Minnesota Twins uniform looked very similar to the Mets-pack card purchased at Shea earlier this season.
It looked as though the Mets' uniform was photo-shopped onto the Santana shot in his Twins uniform. Couldn't Topps simply use a more recent photo of Santana, who was traded to the Mets this off-season?Did they have to take the cheaper way out?
"We've been doing that for years," said Clay Luraschi, the director of product development at Topps said when asked about the identical-photo caper. "The collectors want the player in their new uniform and sometimes in rare scenarios, the only way we can do that is via computer."
He said Photoshopping a new uniform over an existing uniform
in only happens in a "very small percentage" of cases when long, 30- to 36-week deadlines require sleight-of- hand.
Keith J. Kelly
Meet my site
CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" is no stranger to sparking viral Web hits with phony sites devoted to its characters like TedMosbyisaJerk.com, and YouTube clips from a fictional pop star called Cobie Smulders - but the show's latest online stunt will test whether fan's enthusiasm for such Web jokes can be converted into dollars.
In tomorrow night's episode, a pair of cash-strapped characters decide to sell off their stuff online. Fans that visit the web address referenced in the show, lilyandmarshallselltheirstuff.com, will link through to a charity auction and have the chance to bid on everything from clothes worn by the characters to a special set visit.
Spearheading the charity component is CharityFolks.com, a three-year-old celebrity charity site, founded by Kelly Fiore, a former Wall Street exec.. The site has raised more than $10 million since 2005, specializing in dangling entertainment exclusives-front row seats and back stage passes to big concerts from The Police, Miley Cyrus, ; tickets to the Sex & the City movie premiere- to attract donations.
Brian Garrity
