The Bewilderness

The 'plug and play' show

Iain Martin of the WSJ welcomed the exit of Jonathan Ross, the chat-show 'character' with his own show. Martin rightly points out that the chat-whores have now been captured by the 'cult of celebrity', that manufactory of dreams and despair, democratised under the entrepreneurial eye of Simon Cowell.

With the current horde of hosts, eccentricity, character, 'comedy' and self-promotion have moved centre-stage. Instead of a self-effacing host, whose mild mannerisms bring forth the qualities (or lack of) in guests, we have collaborators who can 'plug and play' in the televised USB port that is Wossy, Alan Carr, etc..

The chat-show is dead. We have comedy shows, with occasional guests.

Watchmen outfoxed

Watchmen may about to enter development hell ....again. Now, you would imagine that any company ensures copyright is owned before spending millions of dollars on a blockbuster. Seems that Warner has been outfoxed:

In a surprise ruling, a federal judge in Los Angeles said he intended to grant 20th Century Fox’s claim that it owns a copyright interest in the “Watchmen,” a movie shot by Warner Brothers and Legendary Pictures and set for release in March.

Hat-tip: Slashdot