Norman Lear: If I Were to Tweet, I'd Ask...

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If I were to tweet, I'd ask...

Why did Tom Cruise elect to fly to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to praise Wal-Mart at its annual shareholders' meeting? It might not occur to me to wonder if Mr. Cruise had been paid for his appearance, but the Times specifically said he was not. Clearly, Tom was there because he cared, and that fills me with wonder. With all there is to care about in this world, why does a star of Tom Cruise's magnitude choose to hie off to a remote land to say nice things about a group of stores he isn't likely to be caught alive in? With all there is to care about in this world, why do I care enough to raise the question?

If I were to tweet as I react to the news I read every morning, my daily tweet would provide the answer: "Beats the shit out of me."

View the original article at Huffington Post / Celebrity

Discovery and Oprah ax OWN CEO Norman (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Discovery Communications Inc and Oprah Winfrey on Friday pushed out Christina Norman as chief executive of OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, after a tough start for the five-month old cable network.

Discovery Chief Operating Officer Peter Ligouri will take over from Norman on an interim basis in addition to his current role.

OWN, which launched January 1, has struggled to win any ratings traction in its first five months.

A joint venture between Discovery and Oprah Winfrey's production company, OWN launched in the United States early this year as a largely female-oriented network with a combination of lifestyle, advice and uplifting shows.

Winfrey, regarded as the most influential woman on U.S. television, is expected to devote more energy to OWN in the coming months after the last original episode of her popular syndicated TV show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show," airs on May 25 on Walt Disney Co's ABC.

Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav said on a conference call last month the new channel's ratings had been "below our expectations". "We have been digging in. We are focused on what does the audience want from OWN. We are fully committed to the brand."

Discovery has said it will probably invest more in OWN in addition to the $215 million that it used to fund the joint venture through the first quarter. Executives have said that additional investment will depend on the progress of ratings through the next several quarters. Ligouri said Discovery intends to produce around 400 hours of prime time original programing from then until the end of the year

Winfrey said in a statement that she intends to be more hands-on with her network as she comes to the end of her run of her show. She also said she will work with Ligouri to find a replacement for Norman over the remainder of the year.

The exit of Norman, a former MTV executive, has already sparked speculation Discovery might turn to another former MTV executive, Judy McGrath, some 24 hours after she stepped down as CEO of MTV Networks, a unit of Viacom.

(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke, editing by Gerald E. McCormick, Dave Zimmerman)

Yahoo! News

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