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‘Midnight Rider’ Producer Made Controversial Comments About Local Filming Days Before Sarah Jones Death

By JEN YAMATO

The weekend before the February 20 train accident that killed camera assistant Sarah Jones, Midnight Riderproducer Jody Savin made controversial public comments at a meeting of local production crew in which she touted her company’s methods and complained about the Savannah film commission for keeping a close watch on her previous film, CBGB.

Savin, who is married to Midnight Rider directorRandall Miller and co-owns their Unclaimed Freight production company, was an invited guest speaker at a

Midnight Rider Sarah Jones death Jody Savin

February 16 meeting held by the Savannah Women In Film and Television (SWIFT). Savannah-based hair stylist JC Davis was in attendance with about 30 others including local production crew, many of whom were seeking to work on the upcomingMidnight Rider production. According to her, Savin “went on to talk about CBGB and was bitching about how our former film commissioner Jay Self kept showing up to set, telling her she couldn’t do this, she couldn’t do that and that she was so glad he was no longer film commissioner. [Savin] said, ‘We make movies by our own rules.’ ” Deadline has talked to other attendees who also corroborate the comments made by Savin at the event.

Savin’s comments during the hourlong chat reportedly left some of those in attendance unsettled. “A lot of people felt insulted by the whole thing. It was very negative toward a lot of people who work in this town,” another attendee present at the event told Deadline. “Savin seemed proud of the fact that she was able to get crew cheaply. It was more about the bottom line. A lot of women wanted to work on it but I think after meeting a lot walked away and thought. ‘I wouldn’t work on that show.’ “

Four days after the SWIFT event, the crew of Midnight Rider began filming on the remote Doctortown Trestle outside of Savannah. Jones, 27, was killed in a train collision that left seven others injured. The production was halted days later as state and federal investigations launched to determine which parties are responsible. Last week Deadline broke the news that director Miller was looking to resume filming on the Gregg Allman biopic in Los Angeles eyeing a potential June shoot. A campaign calling for LA-based crew to boycott the production has now racked up 5,700 members on Facebook.

Kenny Loggins to Guest Star and Sing in the Emotional Season 4 Finale

by TIERNEY BRICKER

FOX, Getty Images

Raising Hope is entering the danger zone.

Musician Kenny Loggins is set to make a guest appearance in the Fox hit sitcom's season four finale, E! News has exclusively learned.

Loggins, will appear as himself in the episode, slated to air Friday, April 4th.

And fans of the "Danger Zone" and "Footloose" singer will be happy to hear that Loggins will also be performing in the episode, playing "Danny's Song," his hit song from 1971, which has a special significance on Raising Hope.

Longtime fans of the series will remember that "Danny's Song" is the tune Virginia (Martha Plimpton) sang to Hope in the pilot episode four years ago. Yeah, the scene still makes us tear up!

Though he recently lent his vocal talents on FX's animated hit Archer, Raising Hope marks Loggins' first acting appearance since he guest starred on Dharma & Greg in 1999.

Also set to appear in the finale? Returning guest star Jeffrey Tambor, who will reprise his role as Virginia's father and returns with a very big request for the Chance family.

Raising Hope airs Fridays at 9:30 p.m. on Fox.

HOWARD BINGHAM Achievement in Photojournalism

Photo by Douglas Kirkland

In 1958, Howard Bingham, hoping to turn a hobby into a trade, took a beginner's course in photography at a local community college where his instructor, after handing Bingham an "F", advised him to try something else. Photography, he was told, would not be a prudent field to choose as his life's work. But Bingham's inner voice told him otherwise and he has spent the better part of the last three decades photographing many of America's historical turning points, as well as one of the world's best known and most beloved figures, Muhammad Ali.

Born in Jackson, Mississippi in 1939, Howard moved to Los Angeles with his parents at age four. He was educated in the city's public schools, and attended Compton College. After receiving that eye-opening "F" in photography, Bingham was determined to hone his craft, so he apprenticed at the Los Angeles Sentinel, one of the country's largest black newspapers. After a month, he was hired. That job lasted for about 18 months, when he was fired -- for trying to augment his $75.00 weekly salary by moonlighting as a wedding photographer.

It was while working at the Sentinel in 1962 that Bingham was assigned to cover Ali, then a brash young boxer from Louisville, who still answered to his birth name, Cassius Marcellus Clay. Ali was in town to promote an upcoming match and Bingham showed up, photographed the event and left. But he ran into Clay a few hours later (he was with his brother, who had an equally ambitious name: Rudolph Valentino Clay...) watching the passing show on a Los Angeles street. Amused, Bingham offered to show the young Clays the town. That impromptu generosity became the first step in a life- long friendship.

Since then, Howard Bingham has toured the globe with Ali, chronicling the athlete-statesman's every major championship win and loss, personal appearances and diplomatic trips, including a humanitarian visit to Bangladesh and many visits to the African continent. And although most people assumed he was on Ali's payroll, Bingham photographed Ali simply because he wanted to. "Ali and I are friends. I did not, and do not, make a living from him," Bingham insists. As Ali's recognition expanded, so did Bingham's photographic skills and his reputation for them.

During the turbulent 60's, he recorded the devastation of virtually every urban uprising of significance. "Wherever there was a riot, I was there. I covered them all." As a contract photographer for LIFE MAGAZINE in 1968 he journeyed to Chicago to cover the chaos of the democratic convention. A 1969 LIFE photo-essay on Mound Bayou, Mississippi, done with writer Dick Hall, has been likened to James Agee's and Walker Evans celebrated collaboration, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men."

He's photographed celebrities as disparate as Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and Malcolm X, to President Gerald Ford. His work has also appeared in TIME, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED, LOOK, PEOPLE, NEWSWEEK and EBONY, among other international publications as well.

While in Ali's orbit, Bingham came into contact with rising comedian Bill Cosby. Their rapport was good enough that when Cosby nabbed his stereotype-smashing TV role in the Bill Cosby Show, he asked Bingham to work as a still photographer, which eventually led to work as one of the pioneer African-American still photographers in the movie industry -- three of them with box office titan Robert Redford. In addition to his paid work, Bingham also devoted several unpaid hours to mentoring young African Americans who also wanted to be in the movie industry.

In addition to his many accomplishments listed above, Howard was the recipient of the “Gordon Parks Choice of Weapons Award” in 2006 and last year was honored by the Congressional Black Caucus with the Celebration of Leadership in the Visual and Performing Arts Award. Bingham is the honorary curator of the Muhammad Ali Center which opened in 2005 in Louisville, Kentucky and serves on its board. Bingham is the 1997 recipient of the ASP International Award presented by the American Society of Photographers. In 1998 he was named Photographer of the Year by the Photo Marketing Distributors Association (PMDA). Bingham also is the recipient of the Kodak Vision Award and Kodak named a scholarship in his honor.

Bingham’s photographs have been seen by thousands in many exhibits around the world and he is in constant demand as a keynote speaker for many worthy events. Today Bingham divides his time between commercial assignments and documentary work. He spends a great deal of time with his two sons, Damon and Dustin.

Howard Bingham's Exibition the Rumble In The Jungle was exhibited at THE SMITHSONIAN in 2002. His own book Muhammad Ali: A Thirty-Year Journey was published by Simon and Schuster. Not bad for a kid who was told he'd never amount to anything in his chosen field.

As ‘Meet the Press’ struggles in the ratings, plenty of questions for host David Gregory

By Paul Farhi
If “Meet the Press” moderator David Gregory were a guest on his own show, he knows the kinds of questions he’d be asked.

Why have your ratings been falling? Is the show in trouble? Is your job in trouble?

“I get it,” says Gregory, the face of the longest-running TV program in American history (founded: 1947). “Do I want to be number one in the ratings? Every week I want to be number one, and we fight like hell to get there. And it’s tough right now. It’s a fight.”

He adds, “I’m not just trying to sell you — well, I am trying to sell you — but I’m not going to B.S. you, either. Yeah, it’s hard. I see what our challenges are. But we’re going to fix our problems.”

The main problem: The great-granddaddy of Sunday-morning Beltway blabfests isn’t just not No. 1. It’s No. 3 and in the midst of a three-year slide. During the first three months of this year, the NBC program finished behind perennial rivals “Face the Nation” on CBS and “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” on ABC, despite being helped by two weeks of Winter Olympics hoopla. In the final quarter of last year, viewing among people ages 25 to 54, the preferred group for TV news advertisers, fell to its lowest level ever.

Bad enough. But fairly or not, Gregory’s “Meet the Press” still gets measured against the lofty peaks scaled by Tim Russert, his predecessor. Russert, the folksy inquisitor, ruled the ratings for more than a decade until his death in June 2008. He often attracted an audience 40 percent larger than his rivals, an unheard-of margin in television.

But now — to paraphrase Russert’s famous sign-off — if it’s Sunday, it’s not necessarily “Meet the Press” that Americans are watching.

These days, the leader is “Face the Nation,” hosted by Bob Schieffer, the grandfatherly 77-year-old newsman. Schieffer not only attracts the largest overall audience (a weekly average of 3.35 million during the first three months of 2014, 5 percent more than “This Week,” 8 percent more than “MTP” and 61 percent more than “Fox News Sunday”) but the largest audience among the coveted 25-to-54 set, too. (Schieffer’s competitors are quick to point out that comparisons aren’t quite fair since “FTN’s” ratings are based on its first half-hour, not the standard full hour; the program’s second half-hour isn’t broadcast by CBS stations in many cities).

The Sunday shows — which comprise what Schieffer calls “the smartest morning on TV” — are more than just prestige projects for the networks; the relatively large and affluent audiences they attract make them magnets for corporate image advertisers that pay premium prices for airtime. Russert’s dominating position helped NBC earn a reported $60 million from “Meet the Press” in 2007.

Thus, “MTP’s” meltdown has sounded alarm bells inside NBC News and attracted the attention of its new president, Deborah Turness, who arrived from Britain’s ITV News in August. Gregory’s job does not appear to be in any immediate jeopardy, but there are plenty of signs of concern.

Last year, the network undertook an unusual assessment of the 43-year-old journalist, commissioning a psychological consultant to interview his friends and even his wife. The idea, according to a network spokeswoman, Meghan Pianta, was “to get perspective and insight from people who know him best.” But the research project struck some at NBC as odd, given that Gregory has been employed there for nearly 20 years.

Around the same time, the network appointed a new executive producer at “MTP,” Rob Yarin, a veteran media consultant. Yarin, who had worked with Gregory on an MSNBC show, “Race for the White House,” during the 2008 campaign, succeeded Betsy Fischer Martin, who reigned over “MTP” for 11 years. Fischer Martin had helped Russert soar to glory, but had disagreed with Gregory over matters of style and substance (she was promoted to oversee all of NBC’s political coverage).

In interviews, Yarin and Gregory say they are tinkering with the show to keep it abreast of a changing media environment. They’ve made the program’s pacing faster, with shorter interview segments. The range of topics and interview subjects has been opened up, too. Last month, for example, Gregory interviewed NCAA President Mark Emmert about proposals to unionize student-athletes — stealing a little thunder, he notes, from CBS, which was televising the NCAA basketball tournament at the time.

The overall effect is that the program now bears only a vague resemblance to the one over which Russert presided. Whereas Russert would spend multiple segments grilling a single newsmaker, Gregory now barely goes more than six or seven minutes on any interview or topic.

The changes were readily apparent on Sunday’s program, recorded at NBC’s studios in Northwest Washington. After opening with Gregory’s taped interview with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the host moved swiftly to live dual-screen chats with Senate Foreign Relations Committee members Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). Then it was on to the journalists’ roundtable discussion, followed by an interview with Democratic National Committee chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) about health care and the midterm elections.

Then, still more segments: A new recorded feature called “Meeting America” in which reporter Kevin Tibbles looks at something happening outside Washington (in this case, a debate in Kentucky over the building of a Biblical theme park using tax subsidies); more roundtable discussion; and a photos-of-the-week feature called “Images to Remember.” The program closed with a short interview with New York Times reporter Jo Becker about her new book about gay marriage, “Forcing the Spring.”

Gregory says the new look “delivers on the core of what ‘Meet the Press’ is” but “widens the aperture . . . I’m dedicated to building something that says we’re not just thinking about politics. We’re thinking about who the real influencers are in this country.”

“This Week,” which is anchored irregularly by Stephanopoulos (he also hosts the daily “Good Morning America”), says it’s shaking things up, too.

The ABC program has a new executive producer, Jonathan Greenberger, a 30-year-old Stephanopoulos protege. Greenberger started at ABC News out of college at 22, and climbed so fast that the network waited for him to finish Stanford Law School before handing him the executive producer job at “This Week” last year.

Greenberger describes a program that is more ensemble in nature and more of a magazine than a traditional newsmaker-interview show. On a recent program, Stephanopoulos chatted with an ABC reporter in Ukraine about the latest news, then segued to a discussion with correspondent (and sometime fill-in host) Martha Raddatz about the unfolding diplomacy, followed by an interview with Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

“A few years ago, we wouldn’t have moved so fast to integrate all of those elements into the program,” says Greenberger. “We’d have the vice chairman and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee on to have a debate.”

Like “Meet the Press,” “This Week” has to be wary of changing too much. The ABC program is still recovering from its attempt to build itself around former CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, whose strength is foreign affairs, not domestic politics. Amanpour lasted about 18 months as host before going back to CNN in 2011.

Schieffer, meanwhile, says “Face the Nation” isn’t planning to change. “There’s no bells and whistles here,” says the host, who’s been “Face’s” face since 1991. “We just try to move the stories of the week forward.”

The good news for all three shows is that they remain among the most durable on TV, if perhaps less influential than they once were. Even as everything else on TV has lost viewers over time, the Big Three have held steady and even gained viewers. Collectively, about 9.6 million people watched them each week during the first three months of this year, about the same number that watched Russert in 2005. This doesn’t count the audience for innumerable Sunday-morning competitors, from Fox News Sunday (hosted by former “Meet the Press” moderator Chris Wallace) to “Al Punto” on Univision.

The shows can occasionally make news, too, if the interview subject is big enough. Conservatives are still raising questions about then-United Nations ambassador Susan Rice’s comments on the Sunday shows in 2012 about the attack on a U.S. facility in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead. Gregory, meanwhile, mentions his “Meet the Press” interview with Vice President Biden in 2012, in which Biden expressed support for same-sex marriage, prompting President Obama to become the first sitting president to declare his support a few days later (in an interview with ABC).

Gregory himself has sparked controversy for what he’s said and done on the air. Conservatives called for the moderator’s prosecution after he held up a high-capacity ammunition magazine in an interview with National Rifle Association chief executive Wayne LaPierre in late 2012 (possession of such armaments is illegal in the District; Gregory wasn’t charged). Last June, the Twittersphere exploded with outrage when Gregory asked journalist Glenn Greenwald about having “aided and abetted” NSA secrets leaker Edward Snowden, insinuating that Greenwald was complicit in espionage.

The impossible burden for Gregory, of course, has been to follow the beloved Russert. As one NBC colleague describes it, Russert is a “ghost” who still haunts Gregory’s tenure at “MTP” six years into his run.

“I am fully aware that there are a lot of people who believe Tim Russert will never be replaced, and I’ve never tried to replace Tim Russert," he says. “I have nothing but respect and admiration for Tim and his legacy. And I’m doing my own thing, just like Tim did.”

But he also adds, a little more defensively, “I’ve covered the White House, I’ve covered 9/11, the road to war, constitutional crises, and honestly, I wouldn’t be able to focus on this job if I was going to let that stuff get to me. I knew it would be there going in and I’m just focused on being David Gregory and taking the show to the next level.”

Some Gregory supporters think he has the best hand to play over the long haul. Stephanopoulos has already pulled back from moderating “This Week” and may be in line to succeed 68-year-old Diane Sawyer as the anchor of “ABC World News Tonight” some day. Although Schieffer says he hasn’t set his retirement date, it may be not be very far way — “another year or so,” as he put it.

Which means both CBS and ABC would have to retool their Sunday-morning shows with new moderators.

“Time is on David’s side,” says Bloomberg View columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, a semi-regular “MTP” panelist. “It’s semi-inevitable. He just has to keep doing what he’s doing, and continue to break new ground on the big stories of the week. In five to 10 years, we’ll be talking about him as the grand old man of Sunday morning.”

Jimmy Kimmel Hits Season High & Tops Late Night With ‘Scandal’ Finale Show

By DOMINIC PATTEN

Over at ABC‘s Jimmy Kimmel Live! this morning they’re likely celebrating with two words: “Scandal!” & “Victory!” For the first time since Jimmy Fallon took over The Tonight Show this year, the other Jimmy was the King of Late Night thanks to his Scandal Season 3 finale-themed show — though NBC’s and CBS’ late-night shows were repeats. In metered-market household results, Kimmel drew a season-high 3.4/8 rating. That beat The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon’s 2.1/5 and Late Show With David Letterman‘s repeat, which drew a 2.1/5. Among adults 18-49 in the 25 LPM market ratings, Kimmel had a 1.4/6 to Fallon’s 0.8/4 and Letterman’s 0.4/2. Last night’s Tonight Show replayed its February 20 show with First Lady Michelle Obama and Will Ferrell as guests. Other than Thursday’s show, JKL has been in repeats all this week. Last night’s result actually is the best JKL has done since the show’s move to 11:35 PM in January 2013.

Last night’s “Behind The Scandalabra” broadcast, featuring an interview from theScandal set with Shonda Rhimes, creator of the politically themed soap, did 36% better than Kimmel did last week. On April 10, the ABC host pulled in a 2.5/6 rating in metered-market household results. Fallon’s April 10 show got a 2.9/7 result in the 56 metered markets. Last week’s Late Show was an encore delayed by coverage of The Masters golf tournament and drew a 1.6/4.

Two weeks ago, the two Jimmys were tied for the No. #2 late-night spot with a 2.4/6 each in metered markets. Letterman won the night April 3 for the first time in a long time as the CBS host announced his retirement. Otherwise, Thursdays have been many of Kimmel’s best nights of late. The host has featured an actor from Scandal on the shown — starting with star Kerry Washington — every week since the soap’s midseason premiere February 27. Besides an extended interview with Rhimes, last night’s JKL featured a Scandal blooper reel for hard-core fans.

Glenn Beck Moves Into Movie Production

by Paul Bond

The conservative radio host tells THR he is developing three original stories as theatrical films: one set in ancient history, one in modern history and a third he considers "faith-based."

Glenn Beck is going Hollywood.

Nearly three years after leaving Fox News, the controversial conservative radio host and media entrepreneur is ramping up a film division at Mercury Radio Arts, the parent company of his popular radio show and digital media operation TheBlaze. Beck, 50, tells THR he has been refurbishing The Studios at Las Colinas, a 72,000-square-foot facility in Irving, Texas, where such films asJFK and RoboCop and TV shows including Prison Break andWalker, Texas Ranger have been shot. "We're getting it ready for some big plans," he says of the property, which he purchased in June.

Beck says he is developing three original stories as theatrical films -- one set in ancient history, one in modern history and a third he considers "faith-based" -- and has optioned several other ideas, some of which could be adapted into VOD features. He adds that he has purchased rights to his 2008 best-seller The Christmas Sweater back from Sony and will turn the story into a movie for television or theatrical release.

PHOTOS: Movies That Became TV Shows

The Christmas Sweater is a semi-fictionalized recounting of a 12-year-old Beck celebrating his last Christmas with his mother before she died. He says his later real-life problems with drugs and alcohol (he's been sober since 1994) can be traced back to that Christmas.

"The meaning of The Christmas Sweater is that there are second chances," says Beck. "It is based not only on my childhood but a dream that I had as an adult after I sobered up."

Beck notes it's too early to specify budgets or potential financing partnerships, though he probably has leverage to attract interested parties, considering TheBlaze lands an estimated $40 million in revenue annually and he earns $20 million a year hosting the radio show, according to sources familiar with his business. He also declined to identify the Hollywood moviemaking talent he has hired so far.

"I bought a movie studio for a reason," he says. "I have every intent of finding great artists who will tell great stories that aren't typical. Everybody thinks they know who I am because of my stint on Fox -- that was two years of my life. I'm much more into culture than I am into politics, and that's where I intend on making my stand."

STORY: Glenn Beck Watches 'Noah,' Continues to Bash the Movie -- 'It Is Awful'

Beck says he has great respect for "artists who risk big," citing filmmakers Baz Luhrmann and evenDarren Aronofsky as examples (despite having called Noah a "Babylonian chainsaw massacre" on his radio show). "Hollywood is missing this moment to reconnect with the American people because they don't speak the language," he says. "Some of it is out of spite -- they might not like people of faith."

Beck, though, says he isn't interested in making movies that preach and cites Divergent, Lone Survivor,Moulin Rouge!, 2010's True Grit, The Magnificent Seven and The Princess Bride as inspirations, along with The Lego Movie, which he calls "tremendous storytelling and great for the whole family, without the double meanings and adult humor that I just hate. It was truly brilliant. I took everyone on my staff one afternoon to see it."

He also loves Frank Capra's 1941 political dramedy Meet John Doe, calling it a timely story. "The message of that film is: Help each other and just be decent," says Beck. "We're beginning to agree that Republicans and Democrats suck -- they've built this machine to grind people into the ground. I hate this stuff. I hate politics. I hate politicians and I feel like I'm wasting my life. Don't we all know what's happening? George W. Bush was taking us down a road, and Barack Obama is taking us down that same road. What difference does it make? I don't want to waste my life anymore."

Email: Paul.Bond@THR.com

Glen Campbell Has Been Moved Into a Facility

by Gillian Telling
photo's by Ray Tharaldson
all rights reserved 2014

Glen Campbell has been suffering from Alzheimer's for over three years, but the Grammy-winning singer, 78, has recently moved into a facility, PEOPLE has confirmed.

"He was moved to an Alzhemier's facility last week," says a family friend. "I'm not sure what the permanent plan is for him yet. We'll know more next week."

The "Rhinestone Cowboy" crooner first opened up about having Alzheimer's to PEOPLE in an exclusive 2011 interview.

Campbell and his fourth wife, Kim Woolen, decided to go public with the news because Campbell hoped to embark on a final farewell live tour. The couple wanted his fans to be aware of his condition in case he forgot lyrics or flubbed a song during the performances.

The "Goodbye Tour" tour was filmed for a documentary called Glen Campbell … I'll Be Me, which will make its debut Friday at the 2014 Nashville Film Festival. The documentary follows Campbell, his wife, and their three adult children – Cal, Shannon, and Ashley – as they deal with the various stages of the disease and perform on the road together.

"I still love making music," Campbell told PEOPLE at the time.

"And I still love performing for my fans. I'd like to thank them for sticking with me through thick and thin."