5 Reasons We Love To The Peanuts Gang

Happy Year, Charlie Brown As Chuck and Co. gather to obtain their "Auld Lang Syne" on in Happy Year, Charlie Brown, tonight's adorable finish-of-the-year special from 1986, you want to consider a cupful of kindness and count lower the key reason why these old acquaintances will not be forgotten. 1. They rock the holidays. The Emmy-winning It's a Charlie Brown Christmas has trained decades the actual concept of year, so when you have not joked about "acquiring a rock" while trick-or-coping with, it's possible you was elevated living under one. 2. Snoopy! Since his debut on October 4, 1950, Daisy Hill Puppy Farm's top graduate has stolen our hearts just like a The Very First World War flying ace, a author and, clearly, Charlie Brown's four-legged nearest friend. No real surprise the boy and also the dog needed no. 8 perfect TV Guide Magazine's report on the 50 Finest Cartoon Figures ever. 3. From Scrubs to Robot Chicken to Saturday Evening Live to Because Of Due To Jimmy Kimmel Live, they have inspired numerous TV's sharpest spoofs. Our fave? The Simpsons' place-on parody of It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. 4. They're total fashion symbols. Chuck's zigzag. Lucy's little blue dress. Peppermint Patty's sandals. Project Runway might be lucky to achieve looks that timeless. And don't even get us started around the dancing capabilities! 5. They've continued to be gold. Debuting in 1947 as Li'l Folks inside the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the kids have ongoing to become a wonderful reflection in the innocence, optimism and often melancholy charm of creator Charles Schulz. Guess you are able to say happiness gets pals like these. Happy Year, Charlie Brown airs tonight at 8/7c on ABC. Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

Andrew Master journeys 'North'

WalkerAndrew Master, who lately co-starred on Lifetime's "From the Wall," has became a member of the cast of Dimension Films' thriller "Penthouse North." Frederick Ruben directs the genre pic starring Michelle Monaghan like a blind photojournalist who will get swept up in a game title of cat-and-mouse having a sadistic criminal, performed by Michael Keaton. Master, repped by ICM and Thruline Entertainment, will have Monaghan's boyfriend. Contact Shaun Sneider at shaun.sneider@variety.com

The Dark Knight Rises viral campaign continues

More viral goodness to bring you this morning from The Dark Knight Rises, with the release of a new Bane t-shirt, and more interestingly, a map of Gotham listing various "strike zones".The new info comes courtesy of Superhero Hype, who were sent a package containing a t-shirt emblazoned with Bane's image and bearing the motto "Fire Rises". Pretty neat on its own merits, but more interesting was the packaging it came in.Attached to the cylindrical tube in which the t-shirt was delivered was a map of Gotham detailing a number of "strike zones", presumably a list of targets for Bane's terrorist uprising.The map makes reference to a series of "rally points" (one of which is presumably Gotham's mirror-image of Wall Street) as well as noting the potential response time for the Gotham City Police Department.Looks as though Bane's got quite the plan in mind for Gotham, with the League Of Shadows' plan to raze the city to the ground seemingly back up and running. We'll let you know as soon as the next viral nugget tells us more...

Howard Stern Joins NBC's 'America's Got Talent'

Fox Searchlight Pictures"The Descendants" Earlier this morning, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) announced the nominees for the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards -- which will take place in Hollywood on Sunday, Jan. 15 -- and there were numerous noteworthy surprises and snubs. Here's my best attempt to make sense of it all.our editor recommends'The Artist' Tops Golden Globe Nominations Golden Globe Awards Nominations: The Complete ListGolden Globe Awards Nominations: The Nominees' Reactions COMPLETE LIST: 2012 Golden Globe Awards Nominees NOTEWORTHY FACTOIDS The Artist, a black-and-white silent movie, garnered a field-leading six nominations: the film for best picture (musical or comedy), Michel Hazanavicius for best director, Jean Dujardin for best actor (musical or comedy), Berenice Bejo for best supporting actress, Hazanavicius for best screenplay and Ludovic Bource for best original score. Close behind on the nominations leaderboard are The Descendants with five; The Help, The Ides of March, Midnight in Paris and Moneyball with four; and Hugo with three. NOTEWORTHY INCLUSIONS The HFPA is famous for nominating famous actors and actresses for performances at which others scoff, and while last year's public chiding from host Ricky Gervais may have kept them a bit more in-line this year than in others -- indeed, there was no nod for Johnny Depp for The Rum Diary or Anne Hathaway for One Day -- they still couldn't resist making a few egregiously inappropriate nominations: Carnage has been pilloried by critics and audiences alike and no one associated with it has been nominated or honored by any other awards group, but Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet both managed to score best actress (musical or comedy) Globe nods. The HFPA really likes George Clooney and Ryan Gosling, so they doubled-down on them this year: Clooney was nominated for best actor (drama) for The Descendants, which is perfectly legitimate, and for best director for The Ides of March, which is surprising but justifiable, since they apparently liked the film enough to nominate it for best picture (drama). Gosling, meanwhile, was nominated for Ides for best actor (drama) and also for Crazy Stupid Love for best actor (musical or comedy). The HFPA also has some odd loyalties. For whatever reason(s), they seem to love Brendan Gleeson a lot more than any other awards group, having nominated him for best actor (musical or comedy) for In Bruges three years ago and now for The Guard, another little film that no one else is talking about. All things being equal, the HFPA will usually award a performance in a commercial studio film over a performance in a little indie, and this year was no exception. Among their selections this year: Jessica Chastain (for The Help rather than The Tree of Life) for best supporting actress, Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) for best actress (drama), and Jonah Hill (Moneyball) for best supporting actor. To their credit, they also managed to fit in a few standout perfs given by actors' actors in smaller movies, including: Tilda Swinton (We Need to Talk About Kevin) for best actress (drama), Viggo Mortensen (A Dangerous Method) for best supporting actor, and Janet McTeer (Albert Nobbs) for best supporting actress. NOTEWORTHY SNUBS Somewhat surprisingly, the HFPA completely snubbed a handful of star-studded films, including Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, for which they could have nominated Tom Hanks for best supporting actor and/or Sandra Bullock for best supporting actress; We Bought a Zoo, for which they could have nominated Matt Damon for best actor (musical or comedy) and/or Scarlett Johansson for best supporting actress; Margin Call, for which they could have nominated Kevin Spacey and/or Jeremy Irons for best supporting actor; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, for which they could have nominated Gary Oldman for best actor and Colin Firth for best supporting actor; Melancholia, for which they could have nominated Kirsten Dunst for best actress (drama); and The Tree of Life, for which they could have nominated Brad Pitt for best supporting actor -- not to worry, though, they took care of him for Moneyball! The HFPA also completely ignored a handful of critically-acclaimed indies that do not feature A-list stars, including Martha Marcy May Marlene, for which they could have nominated Elizabeth Olsen for best actress (drama) and/or John Hawkes for best supporting actor; Like Crazy, for which they could have nominated Felicity Jones for best actress (drama); Take Shelter, for which they could have nominated Michael Shannon for best actor (drama); and Coriolanus, for which they could have nominated Ralph Fiennes for best actor (drama) and/or Vanessa Redgrave for best supporting actress. Rather bizarrely, SAG, which is generally more conservative in its choices, nominated Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids), the year's most unlikely breakthrough star, for best supporting actress, but the HFPA did not, despite liking her film enough to nominate it for best picture (musical or comedy) and her costar Kristen Wiig for best actress (musical or comedy). Others who were nominated yesterday by SAG but not today by the HFPA: best actor nominee Demian Bichir (A Better Life) and best supporting actor nominees Armie Hammer (J. Edgar) and Nick Nolte (Warrior). Because there are only five slots in the best director category, the HFPA could not accomodate A-listers like Steven Spielberg (War Horse), David Fincher (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), and Clint Eastwood (J. Edgar), to say nothing of the lesser-known directors of their best picture (drama) nominees The Help (Tate Taylor) and Moneyball (Bennett Miller). PHOTO GALLERY: View Gallery 8 Possible Hollywood Targets for Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes Golden Globes Golden Globes 2012

Difficulties Talks Bond

Promises Skyfall much better than QuantumSome people enjoy Quantum Of Solace, however the consensus is of course against us. Maybe the aim point-of-view is the fact that it is a better action movie than a Bond film, as well as on that score, it may sound like Difficulties is within agreement, getting just accepted to Break that Quantum was fatally jeopardized through the 2008 writers' strike.Skyfall, he promises, will improve.InchOn Quantum, i was fucked," states Craig, succinctly. "We'd the simplistic of the script after which there is the strike and there is nothing we're able to do. We could not use a author to complete it. You swear you may never try shit like this, after which it takes place!Inch Craig even discloses he wound up writing a few of the moments themself, together with director Marc Forster. "Along with a author I'm not...InchSkyfall's apparent decision to place aside the Quantum plot thread running using that film and it is predecessor Casino Royale, now will work better within the light of Craig's acknowledging "[Quantum] never was intended to be because a follow up because it maybe it was just wound up being one, beginning in which the 4g iphone finished. Personally, on an amount of feeling satisfied, I may wish to fare better the next time. That's vital in my experience.InchBut when he was disappointed in the second Bond outing, he appears looking forward to his third. "I truly think that one is much better even thanCasino Royale", Craig enthuses. "[Director] Mike Mendes has resided with Bond all his existence, and that he was raised with Bond in the same manner Used to do. We've the identical reference points, both of us such as the same Bond movies, and that we both such as the same bits within the same Bond movies we love to. We sitting lower and that we just rabbited for hrs about Live And Let Die or From Russia With Love, and spoken about little moments that people understood from their store. That's the way we began speaking about this. That is what we attempted to teach the script. He's been working his arse off and away to tie each one of these things together so that they seem sensible... inside a Bond way!"Skyfall is presently shooting, as proven by regular photographs of clapperboards around the official Facepage. We'll next see Craig on-screen in David Fincher's The Lady Using The Dragon Tattoo, that is in the United kingdom on December 26.

Condition

'Condition'A Synchronicity Films production. Produced by Amir Naderi. Directed, written by Andrei Severny.With: Jessica Kaye, Antonella Lentini, Steve Mosher.Part video installation, part earnest science tract, novice helmer Andrei Severny's "Condition" has moments of interest but seems uncertain what kind of film it wants to be. Taking place following an unspecified national emergency that could be a terrorist attack, the pic follows a sound therapist and her traumatized charge as they escape from Gotham into the Maine hinterland. Severny is intrigued by the science of sound and its uses in treating PTSD but this fascination hampers his ability to construct a tight feature. Producer and co-editor Amir Naderi's name should help "Condition" get bookings at indie-centric fests. "Sound to me is like touch at a distance," states sound researcher Mary Taggert (Jessica Kaye), traveling north with her patient Alaska (Antonella Lentini). Following a disaster, possibly in NY (the specter of 9/11, though not specified, is never far away), therapists were instructed to take a patient and drive to safety, but empty gas stations have forced Taggert to stop along a barren stretch of Maine coastline. Alaska, mute, is coping not merely with the current emergency but with something more personally harrowing in her past. Severny withholds details in order, one suspects, to universalize the trauma, yet it's impossible to escape the feeling that he's using 9/11 as the benchmark, reinforced by shots of a generic skyscraper with the camera racing up its side. A montage of images featuring cars, flames and sirens, superimposed onto Alaska's face, plays against the helmer's desire for subtlety, though it's possible to imagine this and other sequences projected on a gallery wall. Similarly, scenes of Alaska lying down in a white laboratory, listening to various sounds played for their therapeutic value, could be fascinating in a museum space with a superb stereo system, but here the sequences simply don't feel involving. Severny is a proselytizer for the psychology of sound (the production notes are full of solemn discussions of the science behind the pic's concept), yet the theme needed to be more strongly wedded to a solid story or divorced from narrative altogether. Alaska's initial obsessive reworking of a rope with knots is quickly dropped, only to reappear at the end, and her very name is unfortunate, likely to induce titters when Taggert shouts "Alaska!" across the Maine wilderness. Generally soft-edged visuals are so robbed of tonalities as to appear almost monochrome, further pushing the sense of a "serious work" treating a "serious topic."Camera (color, widescreen, HD), Severny; editors, Amir Naderi, Severny; production designer, Doug Fitch; sound, Richard Garet; associate producers, Dar Meshi, Irene Del Campo; assistant director, Chris Federico. Reviewed at Turin Film Festival (A Movable Feast), Nov. 27, 2011. Running time: 69 MIN. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Michael Bay Still Undecided on Transformers 4

Don’t believe the hype — yet, anyway: “Studio’s [sic] are passing rumors but I’m not sure what I’m doing? I know I’m going to do Pain and Gain early spring but that’s it for right now. I’m leaving all my options on the table. I’ve got several Studio meetings in the next two weeks.” [Shoot For the Edit]

Fate of internet rests on Dodgers

The survival of the entire cable funnel effectively is dependent around the disposition of future TV privileges from the La Dodgers, reflecting how abruptly sports TV fortunes can go up and down. When 2011 started, the very best two sports franchises in La, the Dodgers and also the Opposing team, were silently clicking off another year with Fox Sports his or her primary cable home. With 2012 beckoning, the Opposing team happen to be pried away by Time Warner Cable, and Fox is within lawsuit to preserve its hang on the Dodgers. The stakes are high for media titans. Time Warner is pressurized to create lucrative its multibillion-dollar resolve for British- and The spanish language-language systems devoted towards the Opposing team -- keeping individuals systems thriving throughout the nice and cozy-weather several weeks without regular-season National basketball association games -- while Fox might have to collapse among its two La-centric sports cable channels (either Fox Sports West or Prime Ticket) whether it manages to lose the Dodgers. "There is no doubt, because basically (Fox could be) left towards the Angels and hockey and lesser qualities," Sports Business Journal baseball and digital media author Eric Fisher stated. "The legal papers have previously recommended as a result that Prime Ticket's future is unquestionably threatened." Should Fox Sports West and Prime Ticket be consolidated into one network, the revenue loss to Fox could be within the 100s of millions. "Basically you are not just losing the advertising, but you are losing a few of the carriage costs too,Inch Fisher stated. Further complicating matters in your area is yet another 2011 development: the Off-shore 12 Conference's bold intend to debut its very own number of proprietary systems in August 2012, that will pry still more content from Fox Sports. Time Warner also designed a significant, although more compact-stakes, raid on Fox Sports content by inking an offer in November for 10 years' price of TV privileges towards the Major League Soccer champion La Universe beginning the coming year. Fox Sports maintains privileges to MLB's Angels, the NBA's Clippers and also the NHL's Nobleman and Ducks, however the stability of distributing them over two channels is restricted -- particularly with the Angels because the only summer season attraction. "Considering the fact that Time Warner gets the Universe and there is some a summer time foothold, I'd say Fox and Prime Ticket would be the more desperate party (for that Dodgers)," Fisher stated. Whomever will get dibs around the Dodgers pays very much for that privilege. Because of increasing values, the Dodgers figure to cost their next TV home a minimum of $150 million each year, possibly a lot more when the putting in a bid gets hotter. The Lakers' 20-year cope with Time Warner is thought to become worth roughly $200 million each year. The Dodgers' linchpin role for Los Angeles cable systems is certainly not new. When Fox acquired the Dodgers in the O'Malley family in 1998, it had been with track of getting a focal point that may launch that second all-sports cable network in La and forestall ESPN from entering the territory. Theoretically, Fox's hang on the Dodgers should not presently maintain risk. Their current deal runs through 2013, having a clause that through November gives Fox exclusive settling privileges to some publish-'13 extension, including an opportunity to match competing offers. However the ongoing legal drama surrounding outgoing Dodger owner Frank McCourt has put Fox's exclusivity around the ropes. Using the Dodgers still in personal bankruptcy court since their filing in June, lawyers for McCourt have asked for permission to instantly open the purchase of future media privileges to any or all comers to be able to maximize value for creditors. Settlement talks are happening, having a hearing around the matter scheduled for later this month. Mere several weeks ago, before becoming legal combatants, Fox and McCourt were allies. The media giant, which assisted finance McCourt's highly utilized acquisition of the Dodgers in 2004 and without doubt was searching to strengthen his dependence, made an unsecured loan in April towards the McCourt to keep his embattled possession dreams alive. Two several weeks later, a June deal between Fox and McCourt to increase Dodger broadcasting privileges through 2030 was declined by Major league baseball commissioner Bud Selig around the theory it offered the lengthy-term way forward for the Dodgers. If Fox does comes away using the Dodgers for that lengthy-term future, Fisher thought, "You might have a scenario where Prime Ticket will get amalgamated to some more front-and-center Dodger branding." Contact Jon Weisman at jon.weisman@variety.com

Edgar Bronfman Jr. to ankle as WMG chair

BronfmanEdgar Bronfman, Jr., is stepping down as chairman of Warner Music Group, effective Jan. 31, 2012. He will remain a director of the company.Bronfman announced the move in an internal memo to WMG employees on Monday morning.A WMG spokesman had no comment.It is expected that the company will formally announce Bronfman's relinquishing of the chairmanship during its earnings conference call on Thursday.In his communique to staffers, Bronfman said, "My other obligations are beginning to take an inordinate amount of time." He is a general partner in the private equity firm Accretive, executive chairman of Global Thermostat and chairman of Endeavor Global.Bronfman moved from CEO to chairman at WMG in August, in an exchange of roles with Stephen F. Cooper (Daily Variety, Aug. 20). At that point, the music firm was actively in the hunt for the assets of EMI Music, which was being auctioned by Citigroup. Cooper is a close associate of Len Blavatnik, whose Access Industries purchased WMG for $3.3 billion in July (Daily Variety, July 21).Bronfman, who spearheaded the acquisition of WMG from Time Warner by a group of private investors in 2004, had long coveted EMI. His exit from the executive suite was seen as inevitable by many after WMG backed away from negotiations to buy EMI, which was split up and sold to Universal Music Group and Sony Corp. of America in November in a deal totaling $4.1 billion (Daily Variety, Nov. 12).In his e-mail to staff, Bronfman said, "I am so proud of everything that the people of WMG have accomplished. I'm so appreciative of your willingness to embrace new ideas, and the constant energy you dedicated to transforming this company, year-after-year. In fact, Warner Music will always be a very special place for me, and my time as CEO is one of the fondest experiences I've ever had and one that I will always cherish."He added, "With an ownership group that is positioned to take a long-term view of the company's growth strategy and artists' careers, I have no doubt there are exciting opportunities that lie ahead."In his own note to employees, Blavatnik said, "When I joined WMG's Board in 2004, I watched Edgar take a neglected division of Time Warner and turn it into a paradigm of how a traditional media company could redefine itself for the digital age with a culture celebrating innovation and collaboration."It was his vision in transforming WMG into a progressive, modern music company that made WMG so attractive to Access. Given that vision and his years of expertise in the industry, as a director at WMG, he will continue to be an important part of our leadership and I look forward to his many future contributions." Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com