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                                                                                 Probe: No intentional
       in          brief                                                         bias on Election Night
                                                                                 By Craig Linder                        Night projections.
                                                                                                                          The hearing will fulfill a vow
   "Workin' " named Best in SHO                                                     WASHINGTON -- A con-                made by Tauzin in November to
      "Hardly Workin' " by Paul Marino and The ILL Clan in the Experimental      gressional investigation into the      investigate what he then called
   Category won the "Best SHO" Grand Prize in the first alt.SHO.com Alterna-     television networks' botched           the "rather biased reporting sys-
   tive Media Festival on Thursday night at the MTV Studios. Alt.SHO.com is      Election Night predictions failed      tem" used by the networks. Next
   Showtime's newest online entertainment destination, and the festival is an    to turn up evidence of intentional     week's hearings also come on the
   event that encourages innovative new media content creation by offering a     bias by the news operations, the       heels of several harsh internal
   high-profile viewing venue for animators, directors, and online entertain-    congressman leading the inquiry        reviews of the networks' Election
   ment enthusiasts to debut their work. In addition to the grand prize, eight   said Thursday.                         Night coverage.                 s
   other awards were handed out. Winners received a crystal award as well           Rep. W.J. "Billy" Tauzin, R-
   as a $10,000 check. An additional $20,000 was awarded for grand prize.        La., said problems with the Elec-
                                                                                 tion Night coverage were instead
                                                                                                                        `Heart' murmur:
   ShoWest honor for WB's Wayne                                                  largely a result of flawed data col-
                                                                                 lection and outmoded statistical
                                                                                                                        CBS pilot puts
       Joel Wayne, the veteran Warner Bros. Pictures advertising executive
   responsible for campaigns for films ranging from                              models used by Voter News Ser-
                                                                                 vice, the consortium that devel-
                                                                                                                        Huffman on call
   "The Matrix" to "Driving Miss Daisy," will be hon-




                                                                                                                                                                    NEWS & BRIEFS
   ored at ShoWest 2001 next month with the event's                              ops the exit poll data on which        By Nellie Andreeva
   inaugural achievement in motion picture advertising                           the networks' projections are
   award. Wayne said Thursday that news of the                                   based.                                    Felicity
   award came as a complete surprise and is espe-                                   "There appears to be clear evi-     H u f f m a n
   cially meaningful because it comes from theater                               dence of a statistical, though         ( " S p o r t s
   owners. Other honorees: Emmy-winning writer-                                  unintentional, bias in the models      Night") is in
   producer Paul Haggis ("Family Law") will be this                              used by VNS," he said.                 final negotia-
   year's recipient of the WGA West's Valentine Davies                              On Election Night, all of the       tions to join
   Award, given each year to a writer who has "con-                              broadcast and cable news opera-        Tony Shalhoub
   tributed to the entertainment industry as well as the Wayne                   tions initially projected a Florida    as the female
   community at large and who has brought dignity and honor to the pro-          victory for Al Gore, only to retract   lead in the CBS
   fession of writing everywhere" ... British actress Charlotte Rampling,        that call as the numbers tightened.    drama      pilot
   French director Agnes Varda and French actor Darry Cowl are to receive        Much later that night, the net-        " H e a r t
   honorary Cesar Awards at France's top film awards Feb. 24.                    works projected a Florida victory      Department," Huffman
                                                                                 for George W. Bush, which, if          produced by Columbia TriStar
                                                                                 accurate, would have awarded           Television and created and exec-
   Emmys get reality check                                                       him the presidency. The networks       utive produced by Chris Keyser
      Bowing to the new reality of primetime television, the Academy of          later retracted that call, too.        and Amy Lippman.
   Television Arts & Sciences has created two new Primetime Emmy                    The House Commerce Com-                Huffman will play a cardiolo-
   Awards categories to recognize reality shows and other nonfiction pro-        mittee will grill the top executives   gist who is invited by Shalhoub's
   grams. Both categories -- outstanding nonfiction programming (reality)        of ABC News, the Associated Press,     character, a psychiatrist, to join
   and outstanding nonfiction programming (special class) -- are so-called       CBS News, CNN, Fox News, NBC           him at a university hospital in
   area awards, wherein the nominees and final winners are selected by           News and VNS on Wednesday Feb.         Berkeley, Calif., after she breaks
   the 370 members of ATAS' nonfiction programming peer group.                   14 at a hearing into those Election    up with her boyfriend.          s
                          Spiegel upped to vp at SPE
                             Karen Spiegel has been promoted to vp corporate
                          communications at Sony Pictures Entertainment,         NAACP keeps eye on film biz
                          where she will continue to handle SPE's internal and                                                               television cam-
                          external communications. Spiegel will continue to      By Borys Kit
                                                                                                                                             eras.       Those
                          report to Susan Tick, who was recently promoted to        NAACP president Kweisi                                   attacks resulted
                          senior vp corporate communications. Other promo-       Mfume said Thursday that his                                in several agree-
                          tions: Jack Sussman has been upped to senior vp        organization has been quietly                               ments            to
                          specials from vp at CBS Entertainment. Sussman         assessing data on the film industry.                        increase diversi-
                          will be responsible for developing and overseeing         "We are amassing huge                                    ty on all levels of
     Spiegel              production of all CBS primetime specials.              amounts of data on the industry                             the networks'
                                                                                 so that we're able to discern                               operations.
   5 first-timers get DGA docu noms                                              where that industry is relative to                             Now,        the
      For a third consecutive year, the Directors Guild of America has nomi-     where we think they ought to be,                            NAACP             is
   nated five first-time contenders for the guild's outstanding directorial      in terms of opportunities that are                          turning        the
                                                                                                                        Mfume
   achievement in documentaries nod. The nominees are Charles Braver-            being made available," he told                              same attention
   man for "High School Boot Camp," Laurie Collyer for her Puerto Rican          The Hollywood Reporter during          to the film industry, he said.
   family study "Nuyorican Dream," David deVries for "The True Story of the      the second annual NAACP Image             "We're doing a quiet assessment
   Bridge on the River Kwai," Mark T. Lewis for "The Natural History of the      Awards luncheon at the St. Regis       ... collecting data on the motion
   Chicken" and Michael Mierendorf for his look at child abuse, "Broken          Hotel in Century City.                 picture industry," he said.
   Child."                                                                          The NAACP has been highly              Mfume also noted that while
                                                                                 and publicly critical of the lack of   some progress has been made in
                                                                                 minorities in front of and behind      television, it wasn't enough.         s

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