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Stephen Chao’s sense of humor is little appreciated at USA Networks, where he is president of the cable division. At a recent company-wide meeting in New York, the hilarity was less than universal when Chao referred to minority staffers as "token" employees. Bombing even worse was his attempt to appropriate a line from an Eddie Murphy movie, "I’m your worst nightmare—a nigger with a badge." Though Chao says he intended the quote to be a humorous comment on his own presidency, plenty of his colleagues failed to see the humor. Chao’s jokes have gotten him in trouble before, notably when he included a male stripper in a presentation before Fox corporate executives including Rupert Murdoch. That stunt got him fired as president of Fox TV Stations.
Move over Sam Donaldson, Leo's here
Just how off-the-cuff was Leonardo DiCaprio’s interview with President Clinton? DiCaprio, the 25-year-old star of "Titanic" and "The Beach," visited the White House last Friday and conducted a 15-minute interview with Clinton for an upcoming ABC News special on environmental issues. ABC spokespersons insist that they had been expecting Clinton to conduct DiCaprio on a walking tour of the White House and engage him in an informal chat until Clinton, on the day of the visit, agreed to make it a sit-down interview. The White House dismisses this scenario, though, saying that the network had been petitioning for an interview for weeks, and had sent a crew the day before to set up their equipment in the room where the interview took place.
Judge denies Darva a quickie annulment
Darva Conger is finding that tying the knot is a lot easier than severing it. The bride from "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" was denied her request for a summary annulment by a Las Vegas judge. Instead, she’ll have to show up in court today and establish exactly why she shouldn’t have to remain bound in holy matrimony to Rick Rockwell—or at least why they shouldn’t have to get a divorce like everyone else. Apparently, her argument that she never thought she’d be chosen wasn’t enough to convince the judge to dispense with the formalities. Conger also said that she married Rockwell under false pretenses, alleging that his concealment of his violence against a former girlfriend amounted to fraud. If the judge is still unmoved after today’s hearing, maybe Conger and Rockwell will return to television in an appearance on "Divorce Court."
B'Ball bombs big-time for CBS
Were you busy watching The Rock perfect his suplex while Michigan State was mopping the hardwood with Florida Monday night? You’re not alone. The NCAA men’s basketball championship game suffered its worst ratings ever in primetime, plunging 18 percent from last year’s tallies, which were themselves the worst ever. The game pulled a 14.1/23—good enough to win the night in both households and adults 18-49. The latter measure, however, at 8.2/21, was down a full 25 percent from last year’s ratings. The Monday night pro-wrestling fests on cable are thought to be partially at fault, drawing a lot of the same boys and young men who would otherwise be watching college basketball.
WB offers up Friday afternoons for kids
The WB has announced a new Friday afternoon lineup for next season designed to lure an equal mix of boys and girls. The network’s "Kids’ WB" programming has so far been overwhelmingly boy-friendly, with such action-filled Saturday morning mainstays as "Batman Beyond" and "Men in Black." New to Friday will be "Generation O!," about the adventures of an eight-year-old pop singer, and "Card Captors," a Japanese import a la "Pokemon." Returning will be "Cubix," about a town full of robots, and, of course, "Pokemon."
Primedia teams with Sony for web soapfest
Primedia Inc. and Sony Corp. are joining forces on the web to become the leading provider of soap opera-related content. Primedia’s SoapDigest.com web site will merge with Sony’s SoapCity.com in a deal in which Sony will own a 60 percent stake in the venture and Primedia 40 percent. Sony is behind two of daytime TV’s most popular shows, "The Young and the Restless" and "Days of our Lives," while Primedia puts out checkout line page-turners Soap Opera Digest and Soap Opera Weekly.
