The ReelzChannel television network says it scheduled a pro-Sarah Palin documentary on the same weekend as HBO’s “Game Change” debut strictly for business considerations, not political ones.
“The Undefeated,” a Palin documentary by conservative filmmaker Stephen K. Bannon, will have its television premiere Sunday. It will come 23 hours after HBO debuts “Game Change,” based on the 2008 campaign book by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, and starring Julianne Moore as Mrs. Palin.
Stan Hubbard, ReelzChannel CEO, told the Associated Press he licensed “The Undefeated” for the same reason his network aired “The Kennedys” miniseries last spring after it was dropped by History Channel — to draw attention to a nearly 6-year-old network with a low public profile. ReelzChannel is in 62 million homes, a little more than half the country.
“For a young network, public relations is important to us, which is why we hunt for opportunistic things,” Mr. Hubbard said.
Mr. Hubbard said he found the former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate a fascinating figure, but he wasn’t trying to lionize her.
“If HBO wanted to swap movies this weekend, I’d do that in a second,” he said.
Mrs. Palin’s supporters have attacked “Game Change,” although it’s unclear whether any of them have seen it in advance. Mr. Bannon called it a “fictionalized hit-piece” and has praised ReelzChannel’s “courageous” decision to air his movie.
The writer and director of “Game Change” both welcomed “The Undefeated” onto TV.
Writer Danny Strong said he was happy for Mr. Bannon: “It’s hard for a documentary to get any kind of play. I’m not concerned at all about comparisons to our piece. I just think it’s another story, another element of her life.”
Director Jay Roach said that any time a film can add to the conversation it’s good. “I’m happy that the two films might stir it up a little bit,” he said.
Since ReelzChannel announced last month that it would air “The Undefeated,” Mr. Hubbard said he has received about an equal number of letters from people thanking him for the decision or saying they’d never watch ReelzChannel again.
McCreery records song to serenade ’Idol’ castoffs
Scotty McCreery has snagged a new role on “American Idol” as the voice of the so-called “voted-off song,” which serenades teary-eyed castoffs after they hear the bad news from Ryan Seacrest.
The baritone twang of last season’s winner will be heard on a cover of Tim McGraw’s “Please Remember Me” starting Thursday on “Idol’s” results show. Wednesday night features performances by the top 13 finalists, one of whom is slated for elimination.
“I was ecstatic and I’m glad to get to be on there. It’s cool to still be connected to the show every week,” Mr. McCreery told USA Today.
Besides Mr. McCreery, past “Idol” stars who have recorded the voted-off song include Chris Daughtry, Carrie Underwood, David Cook and Ruben Studdard.
TV offers hearty helping of cookbook tie-ins
Andy Griffith always saved room for Aunt Bee’s rhubarb pie. The Brady bunch couldn’t wait for Alice’s meatloaf. It’s not Sunday in Tony Soprano’s house without gravy. And everyone knows that Don Draper enjoys an old fashioned now and then.
What you probably didn’t know is just how robust an industry has been cooked up around helping fans eat like their favorite TV characters.
Because for about as long as viewers have been sucked into the lives of the Bradys, the Sopranos, and the will-they-won’t-they ups and downs of Rachel and Ross, a surprising number of them also have hankered for the characters’ on-screen eats. And cookbook publishers have been happy to oblige.
Fans have responded. Ken Beck’s 1991 “Aunt Bee’s Mayberry Cookbook” has sold 900,000 copies. Michele Scicolone says her 2002 book, “The Sopranos Family Cookbook,” has sold 10 times as many copies as her other cookbooks. Publisher John Wiley and Sons’ 2007 Sesame Street branded “C is for Cooking” flew off the shelves.
For context, publishers today often consider a cookbook modestly successful if it sells 20,000 to 30,000 copies.
“Those books do really well for us, especially during holiday season,” said Jessica Goodman, associate publisher at Wiley, which offers several TV tie-ins, including “SpongeBob’s Kitchen Mission” and “Dora and Diego Let’s Cook.”
The genre of television-inspired cookbooks likely traces itself back to movies. Tie-in books have been around at least since the Pebeco Toothpaste company published the “Gone With the Wind Cook Book” in 1940.
Some TV-inspired cookbooks feature well-thought-out recipes created by experienced culinary professionals, such as Miss Scicolone (who is better known for cookbooks dedicated to Italian home cooking). Others are essentially community cookbooks that are untested or barely tested. But none of that seems to matter to fans.
“A lot of good people are brought on to produce them from time to time, but people buy them because it’s a lark,” said Matt Sartwell, manager of the New York cookbook store Kitchen Arts and Letters. “Most of the time people don’t even think about the recipes. Most people understand we’re talking about fictional characters.”
Some of the books, such as the recently released “The Unofficial Mad Men Cookbook,” border on culinary anthropology. Just in time for the long-awaited start of the show’s fifth season (March 25), the cookbook offers an exhaustive history of New York dining in the 1960s, right down to the actual recipes used in Draper haunts such as Sardi’s and the Grand Central Oyster Bar.
Other books are intended primarily as fan documents.
“We were just fans of the ’Andy Griffith Show,’ ” said Mr. Beck, who wrote “Aunt Bee’s Mayberry Cookbook” with Jim Clark. “We knew how we loved the show and we knew how fans felt. We filled it with photos and dialogue from scenes around food. We gave all the recipes names based on Mayberry characters.”
• Compiled from Web and wire service reports.
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