Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday Morning Mailbox
Julianne Hough donned a Rami Kashou gown for her performance during TNT's "Christmas in Washington 2008" at the National Building Museum on December 14, 2008 in Washington, DC. "Christmas in Washington 2008" airs on TNT December 17 at 8pm.
Sixty-nine percent of you said NO to Britney Spears as a Project Runway Finale judge. Click here to see the final tally.
Adweek.com has nicely summed up Project Courtroom for us in one end-of-the-year paragraph.
Runaway 'Runway'
The Weinstein Co. CEO Harvey Weinstein thought he was in the catbird seat early this year when he cut a deal to move the hit clothing-design show Project Runway to Lifetime from NBC Universal's Bravo. Just one little problem: NBC says it had a right of first refusal that Weinstein ignored. Runway's future has been in limbo since NBC filed suit in April. While Weinstein claims that NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker is a good friend, he seems to feel that Lauren Zalaznick, who oversees Bravo and a bevy of other female-skewing cable and online services for NBCU, decidedly is not. Weinstein feels Bravo ripped off the Runway concept with look-alike shows such as Shear Genius, diluting the franchise. Meanwhile, a New York State judge granted NBCU an injunction in September barring TWC from moving the show until after NBC's claims are tried. Lifetime then added a new wrinkle and filed suit to have the case moved to federal court, claiming that its signed and copyrighted deal for new episodes trump NBC's right of first refusal claims. The big question now is will viewers still care by the time the legal mess is sorted out? -Steve McClellan