Saturday 23 January 2010

What's next for Conan as the curtain comes down?


Conan O'Brien departs NBC tonight after a 17-year career and a mere seven months in his dream job, hosting its Tonight Show. But even before Jay Leno reclaims Tonight's chair on March 1, the courtship ritual has begun for O'Brien's next gig

Under terms of a settlement reached early Thursday, NBC will pay the host $33 million — the balance of his three-year contract. An additional $12 million goes to laid-off producers and staff. (Conan's Tonight Show will be in reruns until the Olympics.)

Until Sept. 1, he can't work elsewhere; for a shorter period of time, he can't disparage NBC, appear on other talk shows or do interviews. His signature comedy bits will die with his career at NBC, which owns them.

On Thursday's show, O'Brien joked that among the terms of his exit, "I am prohibited from coming within 500 yards of 11:30" and he must "watch at least one NBC show every weeknight in order to double ratings."

O'Brien's representatives say they've already heard from several networks expressing interest in him. Fox is most interested in a nightly talk show, though it must first arm-twist stations to give up their profitable late-night reruns.

"He actually has a TV tonality more appropriate for Fox than he did for NBC," says John Rash of ad firm Campbell Mithun.

NBC Universal TV chief Jeff Gaspin says Leno's prime-time failure, and losses at the suddenly lower-rated Tonight Show estimated at $20 million, left the network unable to wait for O'Brien's audience to grow.

"We thought it was possible he'd understand the difficult situation we were in" by agreeing to move his show a half-hour later, to 12:05 ET/PT, Gaspin says. But O'Brien refused, expressing "enormous personal disappointment" and vowing he wouldn't "participate in what I honestly believe is (Tonight's) destruction."

That triggered 10 days of legal wrangling, scathing jokes and sharply higher ratings for Tonight. Supportive rivals David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel traded barbs with Leno, whom Gaspin gave a semi-ringing endorsement. "We hope and expect he will be part of Tonight as long as he wants to be (and) as long as it's working for us," he says. "People form habits, and we shook things up. But over time, Jay will be the late-night leader again."

He also expects improvement at 10 with shows that replace Leno March 1, and put on ice any new low-cost ploys. "We now have the ability to start rebuilding NBC in a more traditional way," he says. "At a later date, after we have more strength, we can try new models again."

Friday 15 January 2010

'Heroes' actor contacts parents in Haiti


(CNN) -- On Thursday, Jimmy Jean-Louis finally received the phone call he had longed for: He spoke with his mother in Haiti.

"I got a phone call from my sister who said she was able to reach home," the Haitian native and "Heroes" cast member said. " So I picked up the phone and my mom answered. The first reaction from both of us was simply to cry."

The actor had been searching for his elderly parents in Haiti after a powerful earthquake struck his homeland. Adding to his desperation to find them was the knowledge that the house he had grown up in had collapsed during the disaster, killing several of his relatives.

Now he knows that his parents are safe physically, although they are sleeping outdoors for fear that their damaged home is not safe. While they are whole in body, emotionally and mentally his parents are in rough shape, Jean-Louis said.

"They don't understand what's going on," Jean-Louis said. "It's almost like saying 'Why [are we] living?' Shock is an understatement."

"Apparently they have not stopped crying ever since the earthquake happened," he said, his voice breaking.

Jean-Louis was born in Petionville, Haiti Video, where he grew up without electricity or running water before moving to Paris, France, when he was 12 to pursue a modeling career. He has supported his parents by sending money home since he started acting nearly 20 years ago.

The actor, who is best known as "The Haitian" on the NBC series "Heroes," returned from Haiti only a couple of weeks ago after spending the holidays with his parents. He was planning to return this month but will now be traveling much sooner to provide relief aid.

Jean-Louis said there is still no word on the many relatives and friends he has in Haiti. And while he is anxious not only to reunite with his family, he also wants to lend his support to his fellow Haitians.

He is the founder of Hollywood Unites for Haiti, a nonprofit organization whose original mission was to provide sports and cultural education to underprivileged youth on the island. Now he says their mission is to mobilize and offer whatever aid they can for earthquake survival.

He expressed gratitude for the many people of all nations who have come together to support his country in its desperate hour of need.

"I am very, very happy that there is unity," he said. "Only through unity will we be able to overcome the catastrophe."

Solar Eclipse Today January 15, 2010


Today, January 15, 2010, there will be another Solar Eclipse that will be visible in various countries around the world. The Solar Eclipse that will happen today is an annular eclipse of the Sun with a magnitude of 0.9190.

A “normal” solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth’s view of the Sun. However, an annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon’s apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun’s light. An annular eclipse will appear as partial eclipse over a region thousands of miles wide.

The Solar Eclipse that will happen today will be one of the longest annular solar eclipse of the millennium, and the longest until December 23, 3043, with a maximum length of 11 mins and 7.7 seconds.

The Solar Eclipse will be visible as a partial eclipse in much of Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East and Asia. It is seen as annular within a narrow stretch of 300 km (190 mi) width across Central Africa, Maldives, South Kerala (India), South Tamil Nadu (India), North Sri Lanka, parts of Burma and parts of China.

Do you want to view the Solar Eclipse that will happen today? According to some reports, the Solar eclipse starts at the Central African Republic, traverses Camaroon, Congo and Uganda, passes through Nairobi, Kenya, and enters the Indian Ocean and reachest greatest eclipse.

After that, the Solar Eclipse enters Maldives, where it would be the longest on land with 10.8 minutes of viewing. This makes the tiny islands of Maldives the best spot for viewing this Solar eclipse from land. The annular Eclipse at Male’, the capital city of Maldives starts at 12:20:20 hrs and ends 12:30:06 hrs Maldives local time (UTC+5). This is also the longest duration of any city having an international airport in the eclipse track.

In India, the Solar Eclipse will be visible from 11:00 am to 3:30pm. At approx 13:20 IST, the annular solar eclipse enters India at Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), Kerala and exits India at Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu. The eclipse is viewable for 10.4 minutes in India. After Rameswaram, Solar Eclipse enters Sri Lanka at Delft Island, exits at Jaffna in Sri Lanka, cross Bay of Bengal and ends in Burma – China border.
 

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