Senin, 06 Juli 2009

'Warehouse 13' gives the 'X-Files' formula a light twist

Allen & Co. gears up for annual invasion of Sun Valley

Kobe Bryant may have four championship rings, but it's the Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James who wrangled an invitation to hobnob with billionaire moguls at this week's Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley, Idaho.

James, who already has ties to the New York-based investment bank and is busy building his own empire, will be in good company. One would think with the economy in tatters and layoffs and cost-cutting everywhere, attendance at what's been described as "summer camp for billionaires" would be down.

JamesApparently there's still some petty cash lying around as more than 260 old and new media chieftains, investment bankers, venture capitalists, politicians, agents and academics have been invited to participate in the five-day schmooze-fest. Among those expected are Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Jeff Bewkes, Sumner Redstone, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. Maybe Booker's going to try to lure big media to New Jersey since New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg appears to be skipping the confab this year.

The Murdochs are having a mini-family reunion, with oldest son Lachlan expected to pop in to visit with his father, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch, and younger brother and latest heir apparent, James. In fact, News Corp. may be the most well-represented company at the conference. Besides Rupert and James Murdoch, new Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey is also on the list, as is Jonathan Miller, new chairman and chief executive of the company's digital media units, and Owen Van Natta, chief executive of MySpace. Ex-COO Peter Chernin is also expected to be on the grounds, albeit as a mere producer nowadays.

All four major sports pro commissioners are usually there as well. Excuse NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, though, if he appears a little tired. He's scheduled to arrive in Sun Valley after finishing a climb up Mt. Ranier.

In between rafting, knitting, yoga, chess and bridge (Buffett's a big bridge player), big deals are known to have been hatched during the conference's 26-year history. The most famous marriage with roots in Sun Valley was Disney's deal to buy Capital Cities/ABC in 1995, which came out of a random meeting in the parking lot between then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner; CapCities board member Buffett; and the company's CEO, Tom Murphy.

The gathering of the uberclass and the media who stalk it overwhelms Sun Valley and the neighboring town of Ketchum. If you are looking to rent a bike there this week, forget it; Allen & Co. has snagged them all. Tiny Friedman Memorial Airport will be overrun with private jets and the streets will be filled with town cars. Ironically the name of the main street into the Sun Valley Inn, a resort which for the week houses a good chunk of the Forbes richest list, is Dollar Road.

Like "Fight Club," the first rule of the Allen & Co. conference is you don't talk about the Allen & Co. conference. The event is closed to press and attendees are discouraged from even acknowledging whether they're attending and talking about the conference. Even the agenda is clouded in mystery, with the preliminary schedule that went out to attendees late last week providing scant details on which companies are making presentations. The conference isn't cheap to stage. Allen & Co. has been known to spend as much as $10 million on the festivities in the past.

The secrecy fuels media attention and helps the conference keeps its cachet as the place to be seen. In its early years, the event might draw a few big-city scribes who would use it as an opportunity for some after-hours sourcing. Now CNBC and Fox Business Network have their cameras parked outside the lodge where most of the meetings take place.

Executives often hold court on the grounds in between sessions. Allen & Co. can't stop gabby executives from talking with the press -- but, interestingly, they do ask that if the moguls do talk, they do so on the record (perhaps so they don't get into hot water with regulators in a post Sarbanes-Oxley world). The whole place has been wired with Wi-Fi clearing the way for reporters to blog and tweet the day away.

Photographers are at the ready to take less-than-flattering shots of executives dressed down in their summer clothes. Apparently, many a mogul has forgotten the fashion rule famously passed on to Tony Soprano that a don doesn't wear shorts.

While Allen & Co. tries to discourage media scrutiny, the firm isn't above using big-name journalists to jazz up the program. Among the more famous scribes and TV personalities invited to take part this time around are the New Yorker's Ken Auletta, the New York Times' Thomas Friedman, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius and CNBC's Erin Burnett. For a few years, celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz would shoot the event for Vanity Fair.

The conference is still relatively short on women. The highest profile female attendees are Susan Decker, the ex-Yahoo president, Hearst Magazines chief Cathie Black and fashionista Diane von Furstenburg (Mrs. Barry Diller).

And they're really short on basketball players. LeBron will be challenged to put together a good pick-up game out there.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: LeBron James. Credit: Matt Sayles / Associated Press


'Warehouse 13' gives the 'X-Files' formula a light twist

Though it sticks quite closely to a formula, “Warehouse 13” (8 p.m. Central Tuesday, Syfy; three stars) is surprisingly satisfying, especially if you’re in the mood for a light procedural with a dash of “X-Files” spookiness.

Formulas exist for a reason: They tend to work. A rascally, wisecracking cop paired with a by-the-book partnerâ€"we’ve seen that  a million times (it certainly worked for "The X-Files" until that show wore out its welcome). But if the jokes are reasonably funny and the conventional cop a good enough straight man or woman, then the case is duly cracked and there are some yuks along the way.

As for the forgetful scientist who just happens to be a genius? Yep, we’ve all seen that guy a couple of million times (there are a number of them on “Eureka,” a Syfy show that returns Friday). Yet the success of CBS’ “Big Bang Theory” proves that when a socially inept genius is played by a talented actor, as is also the case in “Warehouse 13,” even that geeky stereotype can be pleasing.

Those two formulasâ€"loopy genius and mismatched copsâ€"are smushed together in “Warehouse 13,” yet the whole enterprise is executed with competency and humor, so despite a wobble here or there, the show ends up working. If the premise and the characters are fleshed out with a modicum of wit and creativityâ€"and that’s a reasonably large “if”â€"“Warehouse 13” could be a welcome addition to summer TV.



The male half of the show’s unlikely law-enforcement duo, Pete Lattimer (played by  Eddie McClintock), is the more intuitive of the pair; he “gets vibes,” as he tells his strait-laced co-worker, Myka Bering (Joanne Kelly), a rising star in the Secret Service. Well, she was a rising star until some strange things occur at a presidential reception. After those mildly otherworldly events, Myka finds herself stuck in dusty South Dakota with Lattimer on an assignment that certainly feels like a demotion.

In a very funny episode of FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia," the show's characters talked about the classic character types that populate many successful TV shows: Looks, brains, wild card. I couldn't help but think of that discussion during the "Warehouse 13" pilot, which shows Myka wearing her hair in a severe style and issuing orders to her partner, who is, of course, a handsome man and catnip to the ladies.

Looks, check; brains, check. McClintock and Kelly ably fill their limited roles and do the bickering-bantering thing reasonably well. But Saul Rubinek, a wily character actor who has appeared on everything from “Frasier” to “Star Trek,” gets to play the “wild card” here, and he genially steals every scene he’s in.

Saul Rubinek’s character, Artie Nelson, is one of the Secret Service’s more unconventional agents (his unkempt attire and the gleam in his eye suggest "lone gunman theorist," not "law-enforcement guy"). He is the keeper of the secrets at Warehouse 13, a government storage facility for strange and powerful objects.

Myka and Pete are supposed to go around the country collecting these weird objects, which cause mayhem wherever they turn up, and bring them back to the South Dakota warehouse. Artie helps out by doing research with his whizbang computer (in a nice touch, his computer keyboard has keys harvested from antique typewriters), and he tries to keep the warehouse's thousands of items under control. That's not an easy task when some of these objects literally have minds of their own.

The trio's boss is the mysterious Mrs. Frederic (she's so mysterious that she doesn't share her first name), a role that one hopes is quickly expanded beyond occasional scenes full of cryptic dialogue, not least because the character is played by the wonderful and versatile C.C.H. Pounder ("The Shield").
 
Smart, thoughtful character development is really the necessary key for “Warehouse 13.” "The X-Files," "Supernatural," "Buffy" and shows in that genre-tinged realm only developed passionate audiences when the characters got interesting personal arcs and the shows delved into ongoing mythologies that gave the weekly stories about killer critters more heft and depth. With any luck, the trio prowling Warehouse 13’s vast aisles will come to matter more than the possessed bric-a-brac they collect. 

The following Syfy press release lists the show's upcoming guest stars, who include Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan and Mark Sheppard, all of whom have been on "Battlestar Galactica," as well as Joe Morton, Joe Flanigan and Ivan Sergei.

From the network (which as of Tuesday, changes its name to Syfy):

SCI FI's new one-hour dramedy adventure series Warehouse 13 hasconfirmed an all-star lineup set to make guest appearances throughoutthe first season including Battlestar Galactica's Tricia Helfer,Michael Hogan and Mark Sheppard; Gossip Girl's James Naughton; RogerRees of Cheers; Eureka's Joe Morton, Erica Cerra and Niall Matter;Stargate Atlantis' Joe Flanigan and Ivan Sergei from Crossing Jordan.

The new original one-hour series stars Eddie McClintock, JoanneKelly, Saul Rubinek, Allison Scagliotti and previously announced gueststar CCH Pounder. Produced by Universal Cable Productions, the seriesis currently in production in Toronto. Warehouse 13 will premiereTuesday, July 7 with the 2-hour pilot from 911PM ET/PT.

Warehouse 13 follows two Secret Service agents who find themselvesabruptly transferred to a massive, top-secret storage facility inwindswept South Dakota which houses every strange artifact, mysteriousrelic, fantastical object and supernatural souvenir ever collected bythe U.S. government. The Warehouse's caretaker Artie (Rubinek) chargesPete (McClintock) and Myka (Kelly) with chasing down reports ofsupernatural and paranormal activity in search of new objects to cacheat the Warehouse, as well as helping him to control the warehouseitself.

Guest Stars Include:

Ivan Sergei (Crossing Jordan, Charmed) is "Ross" an EMT fromUnionville, New York. Ross and some of the other townspeople begin todisplay bizarre behavioral symptoms -- involuntary (and potentiallydangerous) expressions of their subconscious desires.

Triciaw13 Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galactica, Burn Notice) stars as FBIAgent "Bonnie Belski" who clashes with Pete and Myka when theyinterfere with a case on her Chicago turf. But after the thirdinexplicable bank takeover, she finds herself willing to make use oftheir expertise.

Joe Flanigan (Stargate Atlantis, First Monday) portrays thehandsome, wealthy "Jeff Weaver" whose charm captures Myka's interest,but he finds himself under Pete and Myka's scrutiny when a sculpture onwhich he bid, vanishes in an impossible heist.

James Naughton (Ally McBeal, Gossip Girl) is "Gilbert Radburn," thewell-tailored, Trump-esque high-profile entrepreneur. When a competitorthreatens his intended acquisition, Radburn's suspicious behaviorbrings him under Pete and Myka's scrutiny.

Roger Rees (Cheers, The West Wing) is "MacPherson" one of Artie'sformer Warehouse colleagues, who has gone rogue and is now competingwith the team to gather dangerous and powerful objects for his own use.

Erica Cerra (Eureka, The L Word) and Niall Matter (Eureka, The BestYears) portray "Jillian and Gary Whitman," small-time thieves on theLas Vegas strip, whose fortunes, twisted by the strange power ofluck-inducing artifact, take a fantastic turn.

Joe Morton (Eureka, Terminator 2) stars as "John HIll" acharismatic prison inmate and an extremist religious leader in aFlorida prison.

Mark Sheppard (24, Battlestar Galactica) is "Mr. Valda" theenigmatic representative of the Regents, the mysterious organizationthat controls Warehouse 13. He disapproves of Artie's methods as theteam leader of the Warehouse, and isn't afraid to let him know it.

Michael Hogan (Battlestar Galactica, The L Word) portrays Myka'sfather "Warren Bering," who receives a dangerous object anonymously inthe mail which puts his life in jeopardy.


Slide Show: Michael Jackson fans prepare for memorial service
Michael Jackson fans prepare for memorial service in L.A.
How Much Is Jackson's Share of ATV Worth?

Huge crowds are expected for Michael Jackson's memorial service in Los Angeles Tuesday. When he died on June 25th, Jackson left behind a tangled web of assets and a mountain of debt. The most valuable asset is considered Jackson's share of ATV Music Publishing. It has the rights to more than 4,000 songs including most of the Beatles catalogue.


EAST TIMOR: Disabled Athletes Shine With Pride
DILI, Jul 6 (IPS)Getting around isn’t easy for Jose Noronha. With minimal use of his legs, he has opted for a red wheelchair-bicycle hybrid that he pedals with his hands, a common sight in Dili, East Timor’s capital.

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