Cinemark and Paramount Pictures Celebrate the Coppola Restoration of “The Godfather Part 2”

By: Josh Abraham
HollywoodNews.com: Cinemark, a leading motion picture exhibitor, is following up the successful presentation of the Francis Ford Coppola’s restored version of his Academy Award®-winning “The Godfather,” with an exclusive, one-night only XD presentation of “The Godfather Part 2” on Thursday, April 19, 2012. The “Coppola Restoration” of the film, presented by Paramount Pictures, was meticulously restored using 5.1 digital surround sound and re-mastered using state-of-the-art technology, all under the watchful eyes of director Francis Ford Coppola, archivist Robert Harris and cinematographer Gordon Willis.

“The response to the first Godfather movie in Cinemark XD was incredible, so it is natural to present “The Godfather Part 2” to our customers,” states James Meredith, Vice President of Marketing for Cinemark Theatres. “We are very pleased to once again work with Paramount to show this award-winning classic film on our XD screens and give it the true big-screen treatment it deserves.”

Publicizing Your Film At Festivals

When: 4/17/12
Time: 7:30 pm

Where:
Film Independent
9911 W Pico Blvd Los Angeles, CA

Who: Members Only
(get tickets)

If you have questions, please call 310.432.1222 or email reservations@filmindependent.org

So you’ve been accepted into that great festival… now what?  It’s time to find a publicist to help you position your film for maximum exposure.  Join us for a special session with Film Independent’s Director of Publicity & Communications, Elise Freimuth and indie film publicist Chris Libby (of Ginsberg/Libby) who will guide you through the process of hiring and working with a festival publicist: how to choose the right publicist for your project, how much you should expect to spend, and what services you’d usually receive.  For filmmakers with no budget for a publicist, learn how to leverage festivals’ in-house publicity teams whose job it is to help promote all the films playing a festival.

'My Three Sons' star Barry Livingston watched 'Popeye' with Elvis, but says fame is dangerous

By Hollie McKay
As a child star in Hollywood in the 1950s and 60s, Barry Livingston appeared in everything from “My Three Sons” to “The Dick Van Dyke Show” to “The Lucy Show,” experiencing more than his share of ups and downs before he was even a teenager.

But one of Livingston's most striking memories was after he won a role in the 1958 movie “Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys!” playing the son of Paul Newman. It was his film debut, his big break: or so the then five-year-old thought.

“It was the very first job I'd ever had. Paul (Newman) was cool and he came to my defense when a director, who was a screamer and an old geezer ... was yelling at me," Livingston, who recently released the memoir “The Importance of Being Ernie,” told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. "He didn't think I was following his direction in this scene where I just had to look at the television and my eyes were just ping-ponging around in my head because I wasn't wearing glasses at the time. Paul Newman was playing my dad and he just said, 'Take it easy, lay off the kid, you're being too hard on him.'”

But even Newman couldn't save Livingston from what happened next.

“I couldn't even keep my eyes still, they said my eyes were not looking at the TV, then they thought maybe I was having a seizure and rushed me to a hospital and diagnosed me with having astigmatism,” Livingston recalled. “I came back to the set maybe a day or two later with my glasses, and I was promptly fired by the producer, who said he did not think Paul Newman's son in this movie would be wearing glasses. That was my wonderful introduction into the sensitive world of Hollywood.”

Livingston credits his tough-as-nails mom for protecting him from the predator types that roamed Hollywood even back there.

“My mother was a nutty old girl; she was a stripper in the 40s. She wasn’t the type that hadn’t lived out in the world and in some crazy environments herself. She was well aware that there were predator people, it is such a hot-button today but it was taken for granted (back then),” Livingston explained. “She warned me about people, she had a good bulls**t meter about people who seemed to be wanting to get close because they were drawn by an ulterior motive. That’s what served me over the years.”

But there were some perks that came with fame – like peering into a limousine, having Elvis Presley stare back at you, and then invite you to go for a ride while watching “Popeye” on the limo’s swanky in-built television.

“It was amazing, he was away from all his handlers and I didn’t even know it was his limo until he just popped out,” Livingston, who was just nine at the time, said. “He was just in the mood to play with his new toy they have delivered to him, he saw I was a kid completely in awe of the television and let me drive around the studio block with him. He liked ‘Popeye’ too, which I thought was cool."

And although Livingston still managed to score lots of sought-after roles – specs and all – he eventually fell victim to the dark side when he was no longer wanted by the fickle industry.

“I had a lot of challenges to overcome – depression, drug use, the obstacles of re-inventing myself and my credibility. I could barely get an agent, or get in to see casting people. It is a strange town and you never really know why you’re hot and the next minute you’re not. I found myself no longer on the list of people called to read for roles in TV and film,” he said. “That period was sprinkled with a lot of pharmaceuticals and herbicides that I took…I never got to the point where it was an endless cycle, I never crashed my car or robbed and hurt anybody. I just got to the point where I realized I didn’t like how I felt in the morning. I didn’t like the person looking back at me in the mirror.”

Livingston has managed to bounce back in a big way in recent years – appearing in everything from “The Social Network” to “Mad Men.” But he hopes his book, filled with trials and tribulations, will serve as a word of warning to youngsters looking to enter the entertainment industry.

“People think that being famous, well it is a wonderful thing and it creates a lot of opportunity, but it also creates some issues in your life when that fame when it’s pulled away,” Livingston added. “It can be a hole in your life and that creates a problem… Lucky for me I married a good woman and raised a kid. It’s nice that it has turned around and I can have a career again.”

Danielle Jones-Wesley contributed to this report.

Gary Sinise back performing with Lt. Dan Band after car crash

by Marc Snetiker
CSI:NY star Gary Sinise is back with his Lt. Dan Band to perform two scheduled concerts in New York after a car accident in March forced him to cancel several appearances.

Sinise, 57, is currently recovering under doctor’s supervision from injuries that resulted after he was a passenger in a traffic accident on March 30. The actor will play with his band as scheduled in Brooklyn on April 27 and in Albany on April 28, with all proceeds from the concerts going towards building “smart homes” for injured army vets Spc. Bryan Dilberian and Tech Sgt. Joe Wilkinson.

The cause is certainly appropriate for the Lt. Dan Band, which was named after Sinise’s character, a double-amputee Vietnam War veteran, in 1994′s Forrest Gump. The band has a history of performing in charitable concerts that benefit the Gary Sinise Foundation, which supports disabled veterans and their families.

TV ratings show season-low audiences

NEW YORK - Whether it was the upcoming religious holidays, nice spring weather, school vacations or just plain boredom with their choices, many television viewers took a siesta from their sets last Thursday.

CBS' comedy "The Big Bang Theory" had its smallest audience of the season for a new episode, the Nielsen Co. said. ABC's "Missing" had a series low. All the originals on NBC's lineup — "Community," ''30 Rock," ''Up All Night" and "Awake" — had season lows.

The NBC showing is particularly eye-opening, especially considering the network's former "must-see TV" status on Thursday nights.

Only "Community" reached 3 million viewers. The comedies "30 Rock" had 2.79 million, "Up All Night" had 2.58 million and "The Office" had 2.52 million for a repeat episode. The hourlong drama "Awake" had 2.56 million viewers, Nielsen said.

On the same first Thursday in April 10 years ago, NBC reached 28.5 million viewers for "ER" and 22.6 million for "Friends."

Maybe half of that drop could be attributed to the same factors that have hurt broadcast TV in general, such as DVR usage, video games and more aggressive competition from cable. But not all of it.

"My guess is it just comes down to the shows," said Robert Seidman, a ratings guru for the website TV By the Numbers.

Elsewhere during the week, NBC had been seeing some positive momentum with "The Voice," but that has faded compared to old favorites "American Idol" and "Dancing With the Stars."

Kentucky's victory over Kansas in the men's NCAA basketball championship was the week's most popular program, and the only to exceed 20 million viewers, Nielsen said.

That helped CBS to an easy victory with an average of 10.3 million viewers in prime time (6.4 rating, 11 share). ABC had 7.7 million (5.0, 9), Fox had 6.6 million (4.0, 7), NBC had 5 million (3.2, 5), the CW had 990,000 and ION Television 960,000 (both 0.7, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with a 3.7 million viewer average (1.9, 3), Telemundo had 1.3 million (0.7, 1), Telefutura had 690,000 (0.4, 1), Estrella 200,000 and Azteca 150,000 (both 0.1, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 7.9 million viewers (5.4, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 6.8 million (4.7, 10) and the "CBS Evening News" had 5.8 million viewers (4.0, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of April 2-8, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Kansas vs. Kentucky, CBS, 20.87 million; "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 17.09 million; "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 16.87 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 15.61 million; "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 14.34 million; "Person of Interest," CBS, 13.69 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 13.3 million; "The Mentalist," CBS, 12.59 million; "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," CBS, 12.06 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 11.73 million.

‘Simpsons’ Creator Reveals Where Springfield Is Located

Portland, Ore. (CBS Seattle) – After 20-plus years, we have finally found out what state Homer Simpson eats his donuts and drinks his Duff beers.

“Springfield was named after Springfield, Ore.,” “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening told Smithsonian Magazine.

He chose that location because of a popular television show he watched growing up.

“When I was a kid, the TV show ‘Father Knows Best’ took place in the town of Springfield, and I was thrilled because I imagined that it was the town next to Portland, my hometown,” he told the magazine.

Fans argued and debated for years the location and scoured each episode for clues, but Groening remained mum.

“Whenever people say it’s Springfield, Ohio, or Springfield, Mass., or Springfield, wherever, I always go, “Yup, that’s right,” Groening told the magazine.

He wanted to keep it a secret because he didn’t “want to ruin it for people.”

“The Simpsons” is a landmark in television programming. The show first premiered as shorts on “The Tracy Ullman Show” on Fox. It then premiered as its own show in 1989 and has been on the air ever since with a total of over 500 episodes.

Ryan Seacrest joins Olympics coverage for NBC

By Ann Oldenburg

Matt Lauer asked Ryan Seacrest this morning if he was after his Today job.

After hyping Seacrest's appearance for an hour, Lauer directly asked "what kind of conversations" he has had with NBC about joining the Today show.

"Oh, they didn't tell you?" joked Seacrest.

"I've worked with the E! network for years and NBC Universal and E! are in the same family. The plan is for me to join the NBC family and continue to have role at the E! network. The first assignment will be to join the prime-time team for the Olympics on NBC."

He said he's "very much looking forward to" it.

Lauer still wanted names and dates of conversations about Today. Seacrest joked that the conversations were about "filling in to do weather."

But Lauer kept digging. Does Seacrest see himself doing a job like Lauer's?

"I see you doing this as long as you want to," countered Seacrest. "So the question is: How long will you be on the Today show?"

Lauer didn't answer that directly. "Can I say something? I think you'd be great at this job," he said to Seacrest. He added that the two "are friendly. We have talked about this, joked about this. There is no tension here."

As for American Idol, Seacrest said, "I plan to stay there." He said a deal isn't "quite there."

So where does Seacrest see himself in five years? "The same height," joked Seacrest, "but hopefully balancing everything that I've been able to build and doing a good job at it." He added, "I like to be a good conduit to pop culture."