Fresh meat pumps up Broadway B.O.

Broadway recovered in a big way after Week 23's decline, with seven shows posting sales of more than $1 million in Week 24 (Nov. 7-13), including 12% jumps in overall receipts and attendance. "Lysistrata Jones" ($35,916), a musical comedy combining basketball and Greek mythology, and the revival of "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever" ($298,553), toplined by Harry Connick Jr., began previews, while "Bonnie and Clyde" ($415,841) and "Private Lives" ($363,805) expanded to a full eight previews. Even more than the increase in B.O., the health of Broadway can be seen in the attendance numbers posted by almost every show. Only "Follies" ($797,116) and "Relatively Speaking" ($689,420) drew fewer people than in the previous seshes, and only "Follies," "Man and Boy" and the recently opened and still-catching-on "Chinglish" ($376,837) played to auds of less than 70% of capacity. "Wicked" ($1,646,583) returned to the top of the chart, while "The Book of Mormon" ($1,355,672) continued to be the hottest ticket on the Main Stem, with a seat at the Eugene O'Neill running $154.90 on average. The Rialto total represents a gain of more than $1.2 million over last year despite six fewer productions on the boards. B.O. should continue to rise with continued pleasant weather, as "Godspell," "Venus in Fur" and "Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway" do away with comps and preview pricing, and "Lysistrata" and "On a Clear Day" expand to full schedules.The 23 musicals grossed $19,125,544 for 80.4% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 199,973 and an average paid admission of $95.64.The nine plays grossed $4,676,475 for 19.6% of the Broadway total, with attendance of 57,778 and an average paid admission of $80.94. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com

Sharon Stone Announces 2 New Roles

La (AP) Sharon Stone is dealing with two completely different roles: One out of a Linda Lovelace biopic, and the other online to welcome coming back troops.The 53-year-old actress states she'll play Lovelace's mother in "Lovelace." Before filming begins, the "Fundamental Instinct" star has another mission: She's taking her steps into the field of social networking having a Facebook page that welcomes coming back military personnel home from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.Stone states her page will function as a community bulletin board where people cannot only thank the troops for his or her service, but offer them jobs, discount rates, a bit of support along with a warm welcome."It is extremely essential that people realize that their country is in it,Inch Stone stated within an interview. "Wonderful this negative chatter within the governmental races, we have to have our actual country say the things they feel in loving, really vocal terms."Stone stated by using 38,000 military personnel heading home within the coming days, she hopes her We Welcome Home Our Troops page is going to be an optimistic place where troops will find support."Let me see like large stores like Kmart and Target offer 30 % off for veterans," she stated. She hopes companies seeking employees may also publish around the page, together with "plenty of thoughtful, understanding messages" from everyday people.Stone stated she's likely to hold contests for veterans to go to movie premieres along with other Hollywood occasions, "and I am wishing that other celebs is going to do exactly the same.InchUp next for that actress? She'll be filming "The Mule," a thriller set around the U.S.-Mexico border, before dealing with the Lovelace story.Copyright 2011 Connected Press. All privileges reserved. These components might not be released, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Exclusive: Meredith Baxter to Guest-Star on Switched at Birth

Meredith Baxter Meredith Baxter will guest-star on ABC Family's Switched at Birth, TVGuide.com has learned solely. Baxter will have Bonnie Tamblyn Dixon, mom to Jum Thompson's character Kathryn and biological grandmother to Daphne (Katie LeClerc). Sparks fly and tension arrisses when she arrives for any family visit. ABC Family sets return dates for Pretty Little Liars, Laying Game and much more The guest place also marks a reunion between a couple of Michael J. Fox's imaginary moms Baxter was his mother on Family Ties while Thompson performed his mother at the spine towards the Future. Baxter can look in a single episode once the show returns Tuesday, Jan. 3 at 8/7c.

Turners Phil Kent Keynote To Start NATPE

Turner Broadcasting System chairman and Boss Phil Kent remains attracted onto supply the keynote address on day one of NATPEContent First, the annual global content industry for customers and merchants that's set to use The month of the month of january 23-25 in Miami. The first sort CAA TV packaging agent runs CNN/U.S., CNN Worldwide, CNN.com and HLN The very best spinner's, TNT, Turner Classic Movies and truTV Cartoon Network, and Adult Frolic in the water and Turner Sports. “Because of all the content that Turner produces and distributes here and across the world, Phil is at a unique position out of which to begin to see the present as well as the future,” mentioned NATPE leader and Boss Ron Feldman, who made the announcement today. “He can speak with the creative and business challenges and could also speak with the large global, multiplatform options which are considerably changing our business. Below can be a possible primer for Kent’s keynote: He and Warner Bros Worldwide Television leader Jeffrey Schlesinger handled the topic for future years of television within a panel within the just-wrapped Monaco Media Forum in Monte Carlo:

Hammond: An Emotional Governors Awards

At Saturday night’s3rd annual Governors Awards, Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody (Juno)was seated next to meand before the show unexpectedly saidof being in the room with Oprah: “This is extreme for me. I am an Oprah worshipper.”Afterthis year’s recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award earned a trio ofstanding ovations andended her emotional acceptance speech tobring thebig night to a close,Cody concluded, “I feel like I have just freebased Oprah”. Indeedit was Oprah’s night in this room. But it also belonged to the other honorary Oscar winners, too –makeup legend Dick Smith and actor James Earl Jones, who accepted his awardfrom London’s Wyndham stagein a segment taped earlier in the day after a matinee performance of Driving Miss Daisy in which he is appearing alongside Vanessa Redgrave. So far I have been to all three Governors Awards ceremonies and I would say this seemed the most emotional of them all with both Winfrey and Jones referencing their long journey from Mississippi to this Hollywood moment. One attendee told me afterwards, “I was really moved by this more than any other year”. If only the speeches could be this good on the Oscar show itself. Thenthe Academy wouldn’t have to worry about who hosts or produces the show. Academy President Tom Sherak made his entrance in a Darth Vader uniform (in tribute to Jones) and opened with the same line he used to introduce a screening of the Jones film, The Great White Hope on Friday night: “How was your week?” It was an obvious reference to the tumultuous events surrounding this year’s Oscar show. But that was the only time the week’s events came up all evening. This was a night for the honorees and they all made the most of it. Before dinner a stirring reel was shown highlighting the entire 84-year history of honorary Oscar winners, followed by a touching tribute to past Oscar show producers Laura Ziskin and Gil Cates who both died this year. Alec Baldwin got the show rolling after dinner by honoring his The Hunt For Red October co-star Jones saying, “Unlike many actors, James Earl Jones never had to get his career back because he never lost it. He is one of the greatest actors in history”. Glenn Close came out to praise him by referencing his Broadway triumph Fences. “He is the only actor who has broken me apart and transformed me until I was a screaming slobbering mess. James Earl Jones is indeed a world treasure.”Redgrave via tapesurprised her co-star by bringing on Sir Ben Kingsley with an Oscar to present to Jones.”You achieve what every actor is striving for. You are always so damn good,” Kingsley praised. Jones was genuinely taken aback. “If an actor’s nightmare is being onstage butt-naked and not knowing his lines, then what the hell is this?” he laughed.”This is an actor’s wet dream. I amgobsmacked at this improbable moment in my life. You cannot be an actor like I am and not have been in some of the worst movies like I have. But I stand before you deeply honored, mighty grateful, and just plain godsmacked.” The room then turned into a lovefest for veteran makeup wizard Dick Smith, the legend behind such remarkable transformations as Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man, Marlon Brando in The Godfather, Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver, F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus, and Linda Blair in The Exorcist who told the crowd: “I was supposed to be the next Disney girl but then I got this movie and Dick Smith turned me into the ugliest, sickest, scariest monster ever.” Director J.J. Abrams gave a tip of the hat to Smith in his filmSuper 8 and got the biggest laugh of the nightwith a story about how when he was a kid back in 1981 he was obsessed with Smith and wrote him a fan letter. “One day a box arrived from Dick Smith with a note to me that said ‘Dear J.J. Here’s an old but clean tongue from The Exorcist - and it was signed Dick. My mother was very concerned about who this man was and why he was sending me tongues.” Seven-time Oscar winner and fellow makeup genius Rick Baker presentedSmith with his Oscar (it’sDick’s second, having won in 1984 for Amadeus) and called him “my idol, mentor, and friend for over 40 years, the greatest makeup artist of all time”.Smith teared up andbecame almost speechless but managed to say,”When I watch the wonderful films they just showed, I thought, ‘What a wonderful career this fellow has had.’ I have loved being a makeup artist. To have had so much kindness is just too much.” Among those tributing Winfreywere her good friends John Travolta and producer Larry Gordon (with a hilarious story involving lots of shared tequila), and Maria Shriver who explained, “I am standing here because this woman has stood by me for 34 years. I’m also standing here because so many people want to love Oprah.”To present the Oscar,a young Harlem girl stepped up to the podium:Ayanna Hall who received a scholarship from the Oprah Winfrey Foundation and said she was one of 65,000 other students whom Oprah has sent to college. Visibly overwhelmed, Winfreyclaimedshe had not prepared a speech. “I just wanted to feel what this is… It is unimaginable if you were not a black’colored girl’ in Mississippi in 1954 to know what this means. When I saw The Help and read the bookm it was my story. My grandmother was a maid, her mother was a maid, her mother before her was a slave, my mother was a maid. This is unimaginable… I will keep this Oscar on my desk to remind me to use our lives in service of one another. For me this Oscar will represent love from all of you.” As is now the custom, the Governors Awardsisan opportune moment for prospective Oscarnominees to mix and mingle with Academy voters. All the studios buy tables and invite some of their hopefuls. Working the Red Carpet, theyeven get their photos taken with the big Oscar statues.So the room was full of contenders. Here’s a partial list:Glenn Close and Janet McTeer from Albert Nobbs, Demian Bichir and director Chris Weitz from A Better Life, Jean DuJardin and director Michel Hazanavicious from The Artist, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer and director Tate Taylor from The Help, Michael Fassbender and director Steve McQueen from Shame, Shailene Woodley and Robert Forster from The Descendants, director Gore Verbinski from Rango, Evan Rachel Wood from The Ides of March, Gary Oldman from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Patton Oswalt from Young Adult, Director Bennett Miller from Moneyball, Woody Harrelson fromRampart, Tilda Swinton from We Need To Talk About Kevin, Ellen Barkin and director Sam Levinson from Another Happy Day, screenwriter Dustin Lance Black from J. Edgar,Melissa McCarthyfrom Bridesmaids. Walt Disney Studios’ Rich Ross, DreamWorks’ Stacey Snider, Fox Searchlight’s Nancy Utley, Roadside Attraction’s Howard Cohen and Eric D’Abeloff,Summit Entertainment’s Rob Friedman and Fox Filmed Entertainment’s Jim Gianopulos (the latter two both Academy board members) were all thereamong many other moguls and producers and talent. Missing were The Weinstein Company’sHarvey Weinstein who was inLondon to see the nearly finished cut of The Iron Lady (December 30) for whichMeryl Streep is a shoo-in for another Best Actress nomination.

RATINGS RAT RACE: Grimm Slips, Blue Bloods Hits Season Highs, Chuck Slides

Following its surprisingly strong debut against Game 7 of the World Series last week, NBC’s new fairytale-themed drama Grimm (1.8/5 in 18-49, 5.92 million viewers) dropped a modest 14% in its second airing. It won the 9 PM hour in the demo and ranked as the second highest rated program of the night behind the CBS drama Blue Bloods. Things looked much gloomier for NBC’s departing dramedy Chuck (0.8/3, 3.1 million), which was the lowest-rated and least watched program on the Big 4, down 20% in the demo from its season premiere last week. Dateline (1.2/4, 4.1 million) closed out the night for NBC, down a tenth from last week. Grimm seems to be hurting CSI:NY in the 9 PM slot. The veteran CBS crime drama (1.6/5, 9.7 million) was down 11% in 18-49 from its last original 2 weeks. Blue Bloods (2.1/6, 12.6 million) posted season highs, up a big 24% from the fast national for its last original. (Blue Bloods is usually adjusted up in the finals.) This was the cop family drama’s second best 18-49 and total viewer result behind the series’ September 2010 premiere. Blue Bloods was the top program of the night and helped CBS (1.6/5, 10.2 million) win the night despite another soft outing by rookie A Gifted Man (1.2/4, even, 8.4 million), which didn’t make a strong case for a back order. (But may get a partial one anyway.) Fox’s Kitchen Nightmares (1.5/5) and Fringe (1.3/4) were both up a tenth from their most recent episodes. ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition rebounded from having to face the conclusion of the World Series last week. The 8 PM episode (1.2/4) was up 20%, the 9 PM one (1.4/4) up 27%. At 10 PM, 20/20 (1.1/3) was down a tenth. The CW’s Nikita and Supernatural held steady.