Nikki Finke

Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke directs us to this great Funny Or Die video that purports to show Variety Writers Sling The Slanguage.

The video is a satire of Variety's semi-impenetrable Slanguage, including new definitions for Geek Meat (n., "a movie that's based on a video game") and Ben Silvermandering (v., "when a studio executive doesn't show up for work because he's too busy partying"). Watch the whole thing to see how they rename the Oxygen Network. (Warning: Language NSFW.)

Of course, most of the satire's bite is mitigated by the fact that Variety is proudly hosting the video on its own site. Allowing one's targets to feel like they're in on the joke out of a spirit of generosity and/or fear? Call that SNLing.

Ben Silverman, co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio and executive producer of NBC's The Office, The Biggest Loser, and ABC's Ugly Betty, appeared on Charlie Rose last night to talk about YouTube vs. Hulu, the iPhone, the awesomeness of The Today Show, and other yawn-inducing topics.

A quote from Mr. Silverman during the interview:

'Digital delivery has altered how entertainment is both produced and delivered forever. And it will continue to alter and evolve.'

Ho-hum. The interview left us nonplussed.

But he certainly agitated Nikki Finke. "Yes, I feel so much better about NBC bettering its primetime prospects now that I've watched Ben Silverman toss around phrases like 'disintermediated from my audience via technology' and 'trigger digital activation' on Charlie Rose last night," she wrote on her blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily. "Silly me for thinking that Ben was hired to program the network instead of parrot advertising-speak."  read more »

Gawker's Richard Lawson points us towards a controversy brewing over this week's 12th season premiere of Comedy Central's South Park.

According to a post by Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke and one by Los Angeles Times Show Tracker blogger Todd Martens, some people—especially at Paramount—feel that South Park auteurs Matt Parker and Trey Stone went too far in calling Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a "rape" of a beloved movie franchise. The "joke" was compounded later in the episode by depicting George Lucas and Steven Spielberg as rapists—both of the Indiana Jones movies and of Stars Wars.

What no one seems to remember is that Mr. Spielberg was once the victim of a real-life stalker who may have threatened to rape him. Literally.  read more »

Deadline Hollywood Daily's Nikki Finke has weighed in on Tina Brown and Barry Diller's newly-launched Web site, The Daily Beast.

Ms. Finke's succinct summation of the site calls to mind the scene in This is Spinal Tap in which director Marty DeBergi recites a "merely a two-word review" of the band's album Shark Sandwich.

It should be noted Ms. Finke called The Huffington Post, "the sort of failure that is simply unsurvivable. Her blog is such a bomb that it’s the movie equivalent of Gigli, Ishtar and Heaven’s Gate rolled into one. In magazine terms, it’s the disastrous clone of Tina Brown’s Talk, JFK Jr.’s George or Maer Roshan’s Radar."

So, The Daily Beast might have a chance yet.

Scott Rudin has admitted that he lied to Page Six about an email that Harvey Weinstein supposedly sent to producer Sydney Pollack on his deathbed, along with the widow of another producer, Anthony Minghella, over issues related to the upcoming release of The Reader. [Gawker]

During a talk about the joys of philanthropy featuring Bill Clinton, The Economist's Matthew Bishop noted, "Neuroscientists have monitored the part of the brain where you get the reward for giving, and it's the same place for sex." The former president's response? "The older you get, the more the giving scale goes up."  [R&M]

Drummer Travis Barker, who was injured n a plane crash two weeks ago, has been released from the hospital.  read more »

Deadline Hollywood's Nikki Finke is reporting that NBC Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman will be appearing this season on HBO's glitzy Hollywood fantasia Entourage.

As Ms. Finke writes:

Fox mogul Tom Rothman and NBC mogul about to go-go Ben Silverman will appear in cameos this fall as well as ABC's The View and film critics Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips. Now exactly whose idea is that edgy viewing? Unless, of course, Ben is partaking of weed or worse on air.

Mr. Silveman, who is assumed by some to be the basis for B.J. Novak's temp-turned-ambitious executive on The Office, will probably not be toking any weed on HBO after Esquire"s Matthew Belloni  read more »

Nikki Finke, The Observer's 2007 Media Mensch of the Year, has a bone to pick with Defamer.  read more »

Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily brings news that Frank Rich has been hired as a consultant for HBO.  read more »

Today's Page Six features an unusual phrase rarely seen in its home paper: "The Post regrets the error."

The normally biting gossip column regrets its report from March 25 that Cashmere Mafia creator Darren Star had "swiped" the premise for his ABC show from his former Sex and the City collaborator (and Observer alum) Candace Bushnell, who was developing her book Lipstick Jungle into a very similar show for NBC. (The March 25th item is cached here.) Today, the Post says:

WE reported on March 25 that TV producer Darren Star swiped the idea for "Cashmere Mafia" from Candace Bushnell, producer of "Lipstick Jungle." In fact, we were mistaken. Star was approached with the idea by ABC. The two shows were conceived independently.  read more »

On Friday, March 28, the journalist Nikki Finke, a household name in Hollywood since her blog Deadline Hollywood became a must-read during the Writers Guild of America strike, posted an item about veteran actor Jack Klugman suing NBC Universal over residuals from his hit 1970  read more »