It's time to play everyone's guessing favorite game -- "What will General Electric do with NBC Universal?"
Ever since GE bought NBC parent RCA in 1986 for $6.5 billion, analysts and industry observers have made a career out of speculating when (it's never if) GE will unload NBC. GE, though, keeps messing up the game by letting NBC acquire more entertainment assets, rather selling them. Now NBC's a leading candidate to buy the Travel Channel from Cox Communications, which would be a nice fit with the Weather Channel -- after all, you always want to know what the weather is like where you're traveling, ergo, media "synergy."
The reasons people think GE should unload NBC haven't changed in 23 years. The entertainment giant, whose holdings include NBC, cable networks USA, Syfy, Bravo, CNBC and MSNBC and movie studio Universal Pictures, really isn't a fit with the rest of industrial conglomerate's assets, such as jet engines, light bulbs and MRI machines.
In a report issued earlier this week, J.P. Morgan analyst Stephen Tusa valued NBC Universal at between $30 billion and $35 billion and added that the unit "is commanding no value in the GE stock price." (That value, by the way, is off from $44 billion in his April 2008 report). Tusa speculated that Disney's recent $4 billion deal for Marvel suggests that "major media companies still see value in content." For its part, GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt hasn't given any indications of looking to unload NBC and, as Broadcasting & Cable's Claire Atkinson reminds us in her analysis of the NBC situation, he even said in last year's annual report that selling the entertainment unit "doesn't make sense."
Furthering the latest round of speculation is Vivendi, the French company that has a 20% stake in NBC. Vivendi's annual option to keep its stake, sell it back to GE or, if GE passes on that, spin it off to the public, is up for renewal in December. In a previous interview, Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Levy sent mixed signals about his intentions. He told our Meg James earlier this year that the company is pleased with NBC and is a fan of its CEO Jeff Zucker, but at the same time noted "we are not long-term owners" and added he'd rather be in the "driver's seat" of its investments. That sounds like a big, fat when to us, and not an if.
Let's take Immelt with a grain of salt for a moment and assume that maybe GE is thinking of unloading NBC sooner or later. The likeliest suspect to buy it is cash-flush Time Warner, which would certainly like those cable networks. But one has to think that regulators might be a little wary of a deal that would place so many powerful networks in the hands of one company. The same dilemma could face cable giant Comcast. While its programming holdings are pretty slim, it is the country's largest cable operator -- it has a wire hooked up to one out of every five household's in the U.S. -- and if it suddenly also became the biggest programmer, that could raise eyebrows in Washington.
An even tougher sell would be NBC itself and the studio. Here's a crazy, fun, never-would-happen idea. Viacom buys NBC and then partners again with CBS. Yes, broadcast television is a fading business, but owning two big networks is not a bad hand to have. And the meetings between Zucker and CBS CEO Leslie Moonves would be priceless.
-- Joe Flint
Photos: Top right: Jeffrey Immelt. Credit: Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg. Bottom left: Jean-Bernard Levy. Credit: Francois Mori / Associated Press.
Katey Sagal talks about Gemma's difficult journey on 'Sons of Anarchy'
"I think she knows everything."
That's Katey Sagal's take on Gemma Teller Morrow, her character on FX's "Sons of Anarchy," which returned with a strong new season on Tuesday (my review is here).
Within the world of the Sons of Anarchy motorcycle club, which rules the small California town of Charming, Gemma is a force to be reckoned with. She's married to club president Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman), who co-founded the Sons with Gemma's late first husband, John Teller. And the rest of the men in the club respect her role as not just Clay's wife but as a no-nonsense leader and someone who's been there from the start.
"They’re a little bit Peter Pan-ish, all of the [men in the club]," Sagal said in a recent phone interview. "They all need a strong mom. I think she kind of is the matriarch of all of them in a weird way. In the mythology of the club, she’s been there since the beginning. So she has probably seen these guys when they first got there. So they look to her as some sort of, I don’t want to say a moral compass, but she’s got a strong point of view."
As Season 2 began, tensions were rising between Clay and Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam), Gemma's son and a powerful force within the club. A white-supremacist gang had come to Charming with the stated intent of shutting down the club's illicit gun sales.
All the tensions, all the problems, all the money -- Gemma sees all of it.
"She may not know specific details day-to-day," Sagal said. "But this is where I think she’s sort of different than possibly an organized-crime wife. They seem to have more of the see no evil [approach] -- they just don’t look. I think that Gemma is very involved in what’s going on."
But Gemma's central role within the club had unexpected and disturbing consequences in the Season 2 premiere of the show.
The following Q&A with Sagal discusses the character of Gemma and Season 2 of "Sons of Anarchy" in a general, non-spoilery way. The second half of the interview addresses in more depth what happened to Gemma in Tuesday's "Sons of Anarchy" season premiere. It's best if you read that second section after you've seen that episode.
MR: There’s a lot of conflict between Jax and Clay, and as it plays out over the course of the second season it’s becoming more and more pronounced. Obviously, Gemma is very strongly bound to both of these men. Where would she come down, though, if it it's a case of choosing one of them over the other? Does she have a plan in place or is she more instinctual than that?
KS: I don’t think there’s a plan in place. I think that her hope is once again that things will remain united. To me, she’s a person who lives in a lot of necessary denial. I think she just kind of wants things to be the way she sees them. I think she also just sort of deals with stuff as it comes up. If it ever comes down to that -- I don’t think she has thought that far ahead, is what I’m saying. That would be a horrible choice to have to make.
MR: How much does she know about what the club does? She’s a very smart woman and I don’t think a lot gets by her. How much does she choose to not see and how much does she really not know? Or do you think she knows everything?
KS: I think she knows everything. I mean -- she may not know specific details day-to-day. But this is where I think she’s sort of different than possibly an organized-crime wife. They seem to have more of the see no evil [approach] -- they just don’t look. I think that Gemma is very involved in what’s going on.
MR: There's this theme throughout the show, the whole idea that John had a different vision for the club and a really idealistic one in a way. Obviously things went in a different direction. How much was Gemma a part of that and do you think that she thinks that John’s original vision for the club is dangerous and that it should just be forgotten about?
KS: I think that she thinks that John Teller lost his way. The mythology is that Jax had a younger brother, Thomas. And that when Thomas died, John Teller sort of changed and was not as motivated to keep the business running. There’s a lot of sort of questioning that she sees in her own son. He is more the philosopher.
She has a reaction to the fact that Jax has been reading that manuscript [that John wrote about the early days of the club]. She knows he’s been reading it. She’s just kind of observing his behavior. A lot of the conflict that’s in Season 2, between Jax and Clay, is surrounding Donna’s death [at the end of Season 1]. It kind of feeds into the whole, “This is not what we thought this was going to be,†but on the surface it's about Donna’s death. I think the underlying thing is Jax’s questioning, "Is this really what this is meant to be?"
I think Gemma, once again, is all about keeping the system going. Anything that threatens her life falling apart [is dangerous to her]. If the club fell apart, her lifestyle would change -- [it's] all she’s ever really known since she was a kid.
If she loses her son, that’s a horrible thing. So that’s why Abel, the grandson, is so, so very important to her as well. Because that’s sort of another piece of glue that can keep everybody together.
MR: So her focus is protecting what she has and the status quo?
KS: Oh, yeah. Yeah and I think that [in her view,] John started to veer from the plan. She didn’t like that.
MR: But I guess Jax thinks that the club veered from John’s plan.
KS: Yes.
MR: It is kind of an interesting world to live in or to see because the club really just doesn't want to have to deal with the outside world. It’s almost this closed society. It’s a little bit narrow. Like, this is the only thing that they want to see and deal with.
KS: Well, and you know what? That’s kind of how it is. It really is based on true situations. That community is very self-sufficient.
MR: I know that some of the other actors have talked about meeting people in the clubs and people who live this lifestyle. Is that something that you’ve pursued? Have you met some women that live a life approaching Gemma’s?
KS: Well, not the women so much. I try to find research on the women and it’s a pretty misogynistic culture, so there is not a lot about that. Gemma is a bit creative license. I think that any of the women that have been around this for 20, 30 years, probably have the position of Gemma but I don’t know intricately involved they are. So I think Gemma is sort of hybrid, really.
MR: To me, so much of "Sons of Anarchy" is about loyalty and what the limits of that can be. What would you like to say about where Season 2 goes in terms of not just your character but the show in general?
KS: It’s about the undoing of lots of characters. Everybody kind of comes up against themselves, that's really what you see. They’re forced to make choices in terms of loyalty to the club and whether or not it’s going to be for the good of all.
MR: I wanted to ask you a little bit in terms of how much influence you’ve had on shaping Gemma or her journey or just even small things like hair and wardrobe. Do you give a lot of feedback in that regard?
KS: Well, I don’t give him a lot of feedback, writing-wise, because he does such a great job and I haven’t felt any lack -- I mean, it’s all very interesting to me. The input for Gemma really -- from the beginning I was the one who said, “Let’s put big blonde streaks in her hair.†I wear these very long fingernails which is not something I do. I kind of help with the wardrobe and even though Kelly, our wardrobe girl, is just amazing, but I sort of helped at the beginning in getting that right look, which is just a typical biker look. Except she’s not really -- she’s kind of the royalty. So she gets to wear a little more upscale.
MR: She really is the queen of the club in a sense. Is that kind of how you see her?
KS: Yeah, well, you know, they’re a little bit Peter Pan-ish, all of the [men in the club]. They all need a strong mom. I think she kind of is the matriarch of all of them in a weird way. In the mythology of the club, she’s been there since the beginning. So she has seen probably these guys when they first got there. So they look to her as some sort of, I don’t want to say a moral compass, but she’s got a strong point of view.
MR: Did you know Ron before? You and he have such chemistry in those Gemma-Clay scenes.
KS: No. I think I had met him in passing. But no, they brought him in to read. He had to read for the network and I read with him and we always had that -- it was right away. You can always tell. I had it with Ed O’Neill [on "Married With Children"], too, where it was like, when we all auditioned there were a bunch of different people and I just always knew that guy and I would get along great.
MR: Right. Yeah, you know, regarding what you said -- it’s a very male show. I’m glad there are strong women in this show too.
KS: I hear you. TV Guide just called us the "manliest man show."
MR: Exactly. But what’s it like to be on that set, where it’s you and 40 biker dudes? That very male world. Is it kind of fun to be one of the few women or is it kind of like, “Oh, my God. These guys...�
KS: It’s a little of both. Maggie and I, this season, have a lot of time kind of away from them. So we have sort of some [scenes] where it’s just us. But the days when it’s everybody, it’s really, really fun actually. Because they’re a great bunch of guys and they’re very colorful personalities. There is a lot of joking around and there’s a lot of camaraderie. Then after about 10 hours, you’re like ready to go home. We’re ready to go and have a cup of tea. Do something really girly.
MR: Do you ride?
KS: I don’t. I can ride on the back, but I don’t actually ride a motorcycle.
MR: It seems like it’d be really hard.
KS: Yeah. I think so, too. I’m a little intimidated by them, actually.
MR: Yeah. I think that’s the point, in a way.
KS: Yeah, I’m sure.
The next part of the interview addresses what happened to Gemma in Episode 1 of Season 2 and talks, in general ways, about how she responds to that event.
MR: It just seems like it would be seems incredibly scary to kind of steel yourself for that first episode.
KS: Yeah, this whole job has been a lot of those [situations] where I’ve walked through things and thought, “Well I’ve never done that.†Then you kind of do it and it just makes you better at what you do. So I have felt -- I have embraced the challenge. It couldn’t be a more loving, safe atmosphere where we work because everybody’s very vulnerable and it’s risky and there’s a lot of physical stuff. It’s just a really good environment for that. The way we did that first episode was very choreographed and timed. It was respectful. We just got through it, you know what I mean?
MR: The rape of Gemma is clearly a pivotal moment for the club, I think, and for obviously for your character.
KS: Yeah.
MR: I was just reviewing [the transcript from a July press event] and you talked about how difficult a process that was for you -- that it was weeks of difficulty. Can you talk a little bit more about that?
KS: Well you know, it’s always sort of the job of the actor to make real make-belief circumstance. In this particular case, it required me to visit some pretty dark places but just seemed to hang around with me after I left work.
You know, it’s hard sometimes to just detach yourself from what you’re doing. Most times it’s not; most times it’s okay, but in this particular case …
The timeline of our show is very [compact]. Most of the events take place within a week. So it’s not like from episode to episode there’s weeks of time [passing for the characters]. Those first five [episodes cover about a three week period and then] she starts to finally pull herself together a little bit. But those first two or three episodes take place [for Gemma] over a course of two or three days.
Then the process of filming took about a month, a month and half to do the [first] four of them. Before you know it, you’re kind of visiting these places over and over again on a regular basis. Yeah, that was definitely kind of hard to shake.
MR: I really thought the storytelling respected Gemma’s experience. It’s not like, the next week...
KS: ...she’s all better.
MR: Right. I think it’s really realistic. Was that something that you felt the need to research or that you discussed a lot with [the show's creator and Sagal's husband, Kurt Sutter]?
KS: Well I used my imagination a lot. I’ve never been in that circumstance but I’ve certainly experienced sudden, devastating things in my life. I’ve certainly experienced physical pain in my life. So, you know, I just kind of drum it up.
But yeah I thought that -- what happens to Gemma in the first episode for the season kind of sets up the arc the entire season. It really was an important story point to tell [the right way] as it was going along.
MR: As we see in those first episodes, Gemma doesn’t want to tell Clay or anyone about the attack, and it seems like there are a variety of reasons. How much of that is simple fear of going to that dark place again and letting that stuff kind of wash over her? How much of it comes from the fact that, obviously, the club would exact a vengeance very quickly?
KS: Well, to me, Gemma’s No. 1 priority in her life is to protect her family. I think that these are people that cling to that unit because they’re kind of displaced in the rest of the world. That’s the way I always thought of it. So this [Sons of Anarchy] family unit is her son and then the rest of the guys. She’ll go to any lengths to protect it and she really realizes that these are violent men. If that information is given to them, they’re going to seek revenge and there’ll be a war and you know it puts them in major danger. Her prime motivation for keeping the secret is to keep her family safe.
Then coupled with -- there’s a lot of shame that comes from that experience. I think that Gemma is a woman who always sort of leads with her sexuality; she’s confident, she’s strong. This takes it to another place. In my imagination this may have been something that happened to Gemma as a kid. She may have been one of those kinds of kids. I sort of threw that in the mix that -- this is reminiscent of a bad time as well.
MR: Yeah, she’s such a powerful person and such a powerful personality. As you say, her power is, to some degree, in her sexuality and in her strength. It seems like both of those are kind of under attack; she’s wavering in every way.
KS: She’s been undone.
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LeVar Burton On The End Of 'Reading Rainbow'
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BRAZIL: From Learning Circle to Flights of Artistic Imagination
ARAÇUAÃ, Brazil, Sep 9 (IPS)Slender, small and long-haired, 11-year-old Higor Fonseca sounds much older when he talks. He has a great deal to tell, in spite of living in this small, sleepy town in the interior of Brazil, where most workers are employed as seasonal migrant labourers in other parts of the country.
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