[Updated Wed, March 10, 1:15pm ET]

Item 1: I Never Said That

Driving late on a Sunday night in Washington, D.C., passing the Pentagon, listening to C-SPAN Radio (one of the delights of living in this area). C-SPAN Radio is playing a tape of President Lyndon Johnson speaking on the phone in 1968 with Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen (R-IL).

Much of the conversation between the two old-boy politicians centers on the President’s displeasure with a Republican presidential candidate’s comments to the press that LBJ hasn’t been keeping him abreast of developments in Vietnam. A very tired-sounding Johnson (who had already announced he would not seek re-election) essentially tells Dirksen to stifle the Republican hopeful, a fellow by the name of Richard M. Nixon. LBJ tells Dirksen forcefully: When I have something to tell [Nixon], I will. Dirksen accepts this and assures the President he will deliver the message.

Then LBJ tells Dirksen not to mention to the press that he (Dirksen) is doing this job for the President. I understand, Dirksen says, adding, “This phone call never took place.”

Oh, but it did. And we just heard proof of it on C-SPAN Radio. It makes one think of several things: with all the digital technology that exists today, will there come a time when public figures or even ordinary citizens will be able to do anything that won’t be recorded and replayed at a later date? And are there things we do today that years from now we will say never happened? The first thing I think of is the illegal downloading of cable shows, which seems to be the norm with so many people.

Item 2: HBO’s Fighting Words

Is there any way to be 100% certain that your content is protected? Last summer, when Mad Men creator Matt Weiner wanted to protect the AMC series’ season 3 finale last year, he eschewed sending an advance screener to critics and television writers. On the other hand, he wrote a disarming note explaining his decision.

HBO seems to have taken the most clear steps to protect its content. Burned into the screeners that it sends critics is a security code. It’s been doing this for years. (AMC has just begun to do so, as have other networks.) HBO also is one of the few cable nets that asks critics to return screeners.

For the upcoming miniseries The Pacific, HBO went even further. In a letter to critics, HBO EVP Quentin Schaffer gave recipients several more options. For example, Schaffer said critics could shred or break the discs after viewing them. “Should you choose to return them to HBO, please email us…and we will send you an airbill or postage-paid envelope for your convenience in doing so.”

The letter goes on to tell us that “each DVD has been watermarked with a unique identifier that allows us to identify you as the source of any unauthorized copies.”

Finally, “in the event any of the above is unacceptable to you, please hold the DVDs and email us at … so that we may arrange for their return. These DVDs may not be lent, copied, sold, given away, or otherwise transferred, to any third party for any reason.”

I’m wondering if I tell HBO that I want to shred or break my discs whether or not they will send me sharp knives or a blunt instrument?

Item 3: The Devil is in the Details at Showtime

In marketing, if you got it, flaunt it. Subtlety is not appreciated, right? Not so. We can’t help but be amused by Showtime’s campaign for season 2 of Nurse Jackie, the Edie Falco vehicle that returns March 22.

The press kit features a half-smiling Falco, who plays a drug-addicted nurse, surrounded by a bevy of pills, needles, eye droppers and syringes. The kit itself is shaped like a capsule. The tag line is “Holy Shift.” (Falco’s character works in a hospital run by a religious group.) Fine, obvious fun.

The really good stuff, though, is contained on and around the screener. First, the screener is an egg-white color and the word “Aspirin” is printed across the top. And then, where you’d expect it to say “episodes 1-7″ it says “doses 1-7.” Cute, but how many critics are going to bother to look? And there’s more fun on the back cover of the kit where the Showtime logo sits. Beneath that logo is the logo for the series’ producer Lionsgate, which resides on a bandage affixed to the page. Again, subtle, cute and appreciated by a few of us.

Item IV: Prison Life

Is there no space that’s safe from advertising? What appeared to be a friendly reminder for tonight’s Washington, DC, gala touting Discovery Channel’s epic nature documentary Life had a secondary objective.

Just below the lines reminding guests of the time, place and parking situation for the evening’s gala at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, we see the following, looking like another line of information for the event: “For better or worse, for richer or poorer, America’s leading investigation network, Investigation Discovery, presents PRISON WIVES on Wednesdays at 10 PM. This captivating new hit series profiles men and women who have fallen in love despite the fact that one spouse is serving time behind bars.”

The cover story of this month’s National Geographic Magazine appears to poke some fun at Valentine’s Day. The cover shot shows a thin, elderly man in a cowboy hat, surrounded by what appear to be roughly 50 people. The headline: Polygamy in America. The subhead: One Man, Five Wives, 46 Children.

Yet in terms of sheer numbers, National Geographic Channel will best its parent’s magazine cover subject with a special Valentine’s Day edition of its investigative series Inside (6pm; Wed, Feb 17, 5pm). This week’s focus on Inside is the polygamy of Winston Blackmore, who lives just over the U.S. border in Bountiful, British Columbia, with his 25 or so wives and some 100 children. Yes, old Winnie estimates when it comes to his wives and offspring. “It’s a best guess, as he won’t confirm the exact number,” Nat Geo’s narrator tells us.

For fans of HBO’s series about a polygamist family, Big Love, this special will be especially important viewing. The parallels between the lives of the Blackmores and the Henricksons, the fictional polygamists on Big Love, are fascinating. This special will be interesting viewing for others, too. That’s because beyond the obfuscation about exact numbers of wives and kids, Blackmore might be the perfect polygamist for the media. He’s photogenic, articulate, approachable, seemingly honest and, most important, very willing to allow his lifestyle to be recorded by National Geographic’s cameras.

Indeed the access Nat Geo gained during its 4-month stint in bucolic southern Canada, where chez Blackmore is located (well, there’s not one Blackmore home; it actually takes 10 abodes to house Winston’s wives and children), is fantastic. To its credit Nat Geo plays it down the middle, reporting how Blackmore and his family live, but not judging them.

In addition to Winston’s hefty immediate family, there are another 400 or so people living in Bountiful; most are either directly related to him or are followers who may or may not practice polygamy. Not only is Winston the family patriarch, he’s the community’s spiritual leader.

Winston even allowed Nat Geo to show viewers an evening of song and mirth he staged for the community. And Winston was the target of one of the jokes told on stage that night. He also allowed a slew of polygamy jokes to be told. A slim 30-something woman named Elise, who’s one of Winston’s wives, had the crowd rolling. ‘You know you come from a big family when a man walks into the school and half the kids say ‘hi, Dad’ and the other half say, ‘hi, Grandpa.’

Perhaps the biggest difference between the Blackmores and the Henricksons (besides the size of their immediate family) is the way the two clans live. Unlike HBO’s fictitious group, Winston and the Blackmore family live openly on a gorgeous tract of land in Canada. The Henricksons exist covertly as polygamists in a Utah suburb. While polygamy is unlawful in Canada, the Canadian government for years had turned a blind eye, unwilling to prosecute people for their religious practices. That changed last year when Winston was charged with practicing polygamy.

Winston, a bespectacled, avuncular man who seems to be in his mid to late 50s, isn’t done practicing. At the outset of the special we meet a woman who appears to be in her 30s named Zelpha. She, like one of her sisters, married Winston on the same day. Unlike her sister (wife #10), Zelpha is expecting. “Eight. For some reason I’ve always wanted 8 children,” Zelpha tells us with a laugh as she prepares lunch in what appears to be a school cafeteria. It’s actually a kitchen in the home she shares with 3 other of Winston’s wives and their 23 children. Later we see Zelpha holding her newborn. The narrator mentions that Winston was there for the birth, but now an hour later, he’s gone, leaving Zelpha and the baby to the care of his other wives.

“The compound” of HBO’s series, where nearly all the polygamists involved in the story live, was ruled by an autocratic “prophet.” It features dirty-looking children and only mildly cleaner rank and file adults living in old, broken-down houses in a dust bowl environment. By contrast, Winston laughs at suggestions that he’s a prophet. The Blackmore kids appear clean, healthy and happy; the physical plant they live in seems clean and new. While there is financial pressure on Winston (several of his wives are subsidized by Canada and Zelpha is shown harvesting crops just 2 months before she gives birth), the Blackmores businesses, including lumber and transportation, brought in revenue of $2 million during the past 5 years. Many facets of Big Love’s plot involve Bill Henrickson’s business dealings, which include owning a large home improvement store.

Like their father, the Blackmore kids seem honest. Mary, a gorgeous girl with piercing blue eyes who appears to be in her late 20s, admits she might not have had “a ton of time with” her father Winston, but when he did spend time “with us it was very special.”

While the modesty of their upbringing forbids Winston’s wives from discussing how they share Winston as a sexual partner. Some polygamist men sleep with their wives based on the ovulation cycle, figuring it’s the best time to produce children, a key goal in their lives and a cornerstone of what’s called “the principle.” While a few of Winston’s wives tell Nat Geo’s cameras that sharing a husband and other household chores is the best way to live, at least one admits there’s sometimes an element of jealousy between wives. Yet as Zelpha says, “in a plural [marriage] situation, you have to work together [with the other wives] as a team…you can’t do the bitching…” Anyone who’s seen Big Love should be very knowledgeable about issues of sexual sharing and jealousy.

There’s still another parallel with HBO’s Big Love. In the series, the Henricksons have broken away from the compound and its tyrannical leader, the self-professed prophet Roman Grant. As we said, the Henricksons live in the middle of a Utah suburb, keeping their polygamist existence a secret from neighbors. Winston’s family, too, has left the establishment, splitting from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) in 2002. Until not too long ago, FLDS, a “highly secretive organization,” the narrator says, was led by a dictatorial prophet, Warren Jeffs. From its main temple in Texas, it once controlled “scores of FLDS enclaves in the US and Canada, including the satellite community in Bountiful,” the narrator tells us.

Winston admits he was a bishop in FLDS. He’s less up front about the number of underage wives Jeffs appropriated to him. Nat Geo says an investigation revealed “4 girls were younger than 16 and 6 were younger than 18 when they married Winston.” In his defense, Winston says Jeffs forced him to marry these women. “He was as much a victim of FLDS control as anyone,” according to his family, the narrator says. In fact, refusing a wife could have meant excommunication by the prophet Jeffs. Worse, the prophet could have condemned Winston to hell for eternity and reassigned Winston’s family to other men.

Winston claims he left FLDS when he refused to join Jeffs in killing an underage girl who refused an arranged marriage. Although there are several versions of the girl’s story told in the special, it appears Winston gave the girl, a Utah native, refuge in Bountiful. In Big Love, the Henricksons, too, have been involved in sheltering a young girl from the compound.

Jeffs, who also predicted the world would end in April 2001 (Nat Geo could have made an entire show about how the Blackmore clan, who were with FLDS at the time, prepared for this), is serving several life sentences in the U.S. for an array of offenses, including marrying underage girls. He’s also under 24/7 suicide watch.

Once Winston split with Jeffs and the FLDS, he sat down with his wives in his office and asked them to either stay with him “in peace” or leave “in peace.” While Winston’s community now numbers about 500, some of his siblings and other Bountiful folk refused to leave the FLDS. Winston hasn’t seen these people since as the FLDS refuses to allow its members to fraternize with the breakaway Blackmores. Ironically, Winston and his followers still live alongside the FLDS properties he used to control. And Winston’s flock openly comments on the terror of life under Jeffs. They are some of the most outspoken parts of this documentary.

Similar to the Henrickson’s dilemma with their children, at least 2 of Winston’s married children aren’t practicing polygamy. Mary, the pretty daughter of Winston mentioned above, has been married for several years to a man who came from a polygamist family. They’ve got children but are not polygamists. Unusually, they’ve also been living outside of Bountiful, although they’re shown returning, to build a house with a fabulous view of the mountains. Mary’s husband, somewhat sloppily dressed, says you never say never, but “at this time, I’d say I’ll never” have multiple wives. Winston goes on the record during this segment and says he won’t force his offspring to accept his faith. Interestingly earlier in the film one of his wives hints that Winston usually gets what he wants.

Nat Geo was permitted to film what looks to be a traditional wedding ceremony, with ushers, bridesmaids, flowers and a large crowd. The occasion is that one of Winston’s sons, aged 24, is marrying a woman whom he met outside Bountiful, which is unusual, since most Blackmores don’t leave Bountiful for extended periods. The couple dated for a while, also unusual when arranged marriages are the norm. The bride, from Utah, also comes from a polygamist family. She seems nice, Winston says, although he admits he doesn’t know her well. The couple isn’t certain they’ll be polygamists. In fact, the narrator says, since the couple is signing a marriage certificate, chances are they won’t be polygamists. Such a certificate could be held against them in court of law, the narrator says.

There’s something else unusual about this wedding. Often polygamist marriages are small, attended by a few witnesses and presided over by the prophet or spiritual leader; thus, they are illegal by standard definition. Unusually, the wedding shown in Nat Geo’s documentary is run by a justice of the peace and Winston is nowhere to be found. After being charged with practicing polygamy, Winston ultimately was released. But there were conditions. He’s no longer allowed to preside over or even attend weddings. Even his son’s.
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Although you might blanch at the premise of A Traveler’s Guide to the Planets, which begins with Saturn on Valentine’s Day, at 9p, the 3-night mini-series is one of the best pieces about the planets that I’ve seen in years.

Oh, yes, the premise. It’s exactly as it sounds—the gimmick is that if people could travel to the planets as tourists, what would they line up to see first? Fortunately this hokey-sounding hook leads Nat Geo to line up a slew of enthusiastic planetary scientists, many of whom have fantasized about inter galactic journeys. Their passion for a close look at the rings of Saturn, or to be able to listen to a sea of liquid methane flowing through parts of the planet or to snap a photo for the family of the huge geysers on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, is not only perfectly in line with Valentine’s Day but is infectious. Yes, these scientists are geeks and dreamers, but they’re easy to identify with and make the first episode on Saturn down right fun.

And not to worry that this is a light-weight series. There’s plenty of good science here since most of the talking heads are involved in the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, which reached the planet in 2004, after a trip of 7 years.

On the other hand, Saturn, which could swallow more than 700 Earths, is a lightweight. Its low density would allow it to float on water. Of course, you’d have to find a body of water large enough to accommodate it.

Michael Grebb in Cable’s Iconic Journey is right. With ratings and buzz climbing and celebrities increasingly interested in working in cable, the chiefs of cable networks are ensconced in heady but also head-achy times. They must balance the urge to grab viewers and press with high-priced, big-name talent with the exigencies of running a business.

Put yourself in the shoes of a cable network head. Do you endure the difficulties of working with prima donnas and divas (of both sexes) for the payoff of ratings, which ultimately can lead to higher ad revenue and perhaps a bonus for you? Or do you save money and headaches and try to develop your network with homegrown talent (also known as nobodys).

It’s a lot like being the owner of a baseball franchise. Assuming you have it, do you shell out cash for high-priced athletes who can bring quick results or do you depend on your farm system?

Oh, but the superstars in baseball and show biz sometimes bring headaches. As one network official recently confided, working with some (but not all) big-name celebrities can be trying (the official was being discrete). Getting top stars to cooperate with you to promote series on press tours, in the community or to advertisers can be difficult, the official said (discretely again). You literally have to fetch them from their homes and/or hotel rooms to get them to appointments, several officials said. As Mike Grebb remarked recently, it’s a miracle that so few celebrities miss press tour appointments. Credit goes to the cable PR personnel, I guess.

It’s probably small consolation to cable networks that difficult behavior by top-name stars is hardly a new phenomenon. The good news is that in some cases managing around superstars can bring a positive outcome. It is said that the baroque composer Georg Frederick Handel wrote his now-famous oratorio Messiah in part to avoid high-priced, temperamental soloists. Messiah, whose Hallelujah chorus has become a holiday staple, raises the importance of the chorus as opposed to the soloists, who are preeminent in opera. Handel had good reason to downplay soloists. He was fed up with quarrels he’d had with soloists and fights soloists had with each other (one such battle came to blows on stage during a 1727 opera performance, and this was between two female soloists).

But back to today and our cable network chiefs. As in Handel’s day, sometimes the results are excellent when big stars are shunned in favor of journeyman actors. Mike’s blog post brings up the example of AMC’s use of nobodies to people its Mad Men cast. While some of the thinking at AMC might have been financial, Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner purposely wanted a non-star ensemble. He’d seen it work before. Weiner spent many seasons writing for David Chase on HBO’s The Sopranos, which also began without big-name stars. Of course, there were some headaches with that strategy, too. While actor Jon Hamm seems born to play nefarious ad man Don Draper, he had to audition multiple times to get the part, largely because officials were wary of an unknown being the series’ star.

Thing is, after cable nets create stars from talented but relative nobodies, some of them begin to demand more money. Evidence: Emeril at Food Network and, yes, members of The Sopranos cast at HBO.

In Food’s case, Scripps let Emeril go at the height of his stature. Fortunately, Food has been able to survive and even thrive without him by creating new stars and relying on reality series, whose superstar quotient by definition is low.

At Disney Channel, Hilary Duff reportedly left Lizzie McGuire in a huff, although both sides made nice in public.

After several seasons of success, James Gandolfini and other cast members of The Sopranos were able to force HBO to pay salaries that had been unheard of in cable. Reportedly Gandolfini and company, unlike their Sopranos characters, did not resort to strong-arm tactics, however.

Ultimately a cable network, hoping to use star power for ratings and buzz, can follow one of several strategies:

A. Deploy Unknowns: This could hurt in terms of buzz, ratings or press attention, especially at the outset. (We were able to snag Jon Hamm for an exclusive interview during the CableFAX 100 festivities three years back, when nobody knew him. Getting him today, well, let’s see: Oprah, Letterman or The CableFAX 100? Which one would you choose?) Still, for the budget-conscious network, this is sometimes the only way to go. And remember, there’s no guarantee that star power will bring success. Remember Chevy Chase’s numerous television debacles after Saturday Night Live. Or think of the after-Seinfeld careers of Jason Alexander or Michael Richards or the post-Frasier mishaps of Kelsey Grammer.

B. Hybrid Strategy 1: Employ just one big-name star and surround him or her with unknowns. This can be good for budgets and headache quotients, but sometimes is bad for a series, especially if the big-name star really is as fine an actor as his/her reputation promises. The risk is that viewers might lose interest in a series when the star is off screen and the less-than-talented nobodies are getting screen time.

C. Hybrid Strategy 2: Use less costly aging stars (see Hallmark Channel original movies) or stars whose days have come and gone (see the bevy of reality series on MTV and especially the Dr Drew rehab series on VH1). Heck, at Bravo the entire premise of Kathy Griffin’s popular series is that she’s on the D list.

D. Hybrid Strategy 3: Employ stars from foreign lands and hope their star power translates to American screens. Ironically, Starz is the chief exponent of this strategy. Its new take on Spartacus is chocked full of good-looking unknowns (on these shores at least). Of course one of the creators of Spartacus claims he cast actors with English and Australian accents because that’s how Americans think of ancient Romans talking. So far it’s working well for Starz, whose Spartacus has garnered better than average reviews.

While viewers and the press inevitably are drawn to star power, when an actor, star or not, has excellent material to work with, the chances of success are higher. The Sopranos, Mad Men and countless other series prove that.

You have to love AMC. Sitting atop the media world, or pretty near close to it, with its record 3 Golden Globes for Best Drama for Mad Men and 2 consecutive Emmy wins for Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston, the network is feeling plucky. How else to explain its ad campaign for the new season of Breaking Bad at New York’s Times Square?

Below at left you’ll see the controversial ad that features a photo of the country’s Commander in Chief wearing a Weatherproof coat at the Great Wall of China. Apparently the White House didn’t sanction this endorsement, but the coat is, in fact, a Weatherproof.

Responding to the ad, AMC installed the billboard you see on the right side of this photo for AMC by Jason de Crow, featuring Cranston, as covert meth cooker Walter White, also standing at the Great Wall in a jacket (probably not a Weatherproof offering, not on a chemistry teacher’s salary), with the clever accompanying verbiage YOUGOTNOPROOF. Below that, ‘Getting Away With It Since 2008′ and then ‘A Dealer in Style.’

For those who know Breaking Bad, the jokes are on several levels. In Breaking Bad, which began in 2008, Cranston’s Walter White is a mild-mannered high-school chem teacher, husband and father who turns his knowledge of compounds into a lucrative sidelight as a producer of extremely potent crystal meth. He’s also totally lacking in sartorial style. Frustrated by the inability of dealers to move his ‘product,’ Walt dabbles in dealing, too. One of the series’ tensions is that White must hide his activities (and resulting cash rewards) from his intelligent wife (played by the beautiful Anna Gunn), teen son and brother in law, who happens to be a DEA agent on the trail of White’s powerful blue meth.

AMC chief Charlie Collier said, “This was an irresistible opportunity to get attention for an incredibly critically acclaimed and award winning series.” In this increasingly button-down corporate world that cable has become, it’s refreshing to see evidence of the spunk that was present at cable’s birth. Breaking Bad, season 3, begins March 21, 10pm.

Reports of snail mail going the way of the abacus are greatly exaggerated. And in a related item, it looks like Peter Liguori means business.

The new Discovery COO told us at TCA that his top priority was getting the word out for the Life series, an 11-part doc venture with BBC that debuts March 21 on Discovery.

Liguori said anyone “with a heartbeat” will want to see this series. Indeed, even if the clips shown to writers at the recent Television Critics Association winter tour in Pasadena were not projected onto a huge HD screen, they would have been a visual feast. Discovery showered TCA reporters with breathtaking stills and video of animals and plants that will be featured in Life.

But back to our story. We know about Save The Date cards. With the digital age of course, people even have the ability to send reminders about parties or events automatically, through applications like Evite.

Yesterday Discovery Communications took digital poking a step further. It sent a press alert telling reporters to expect a Life press kit today in the mail.

In the letter about the press kit, written by Discovery VP Katherine Nelson, told reporters what to expect: 5 different behind-the-scenes video clips; DVDs of 2 full eps featuring Oprah Winfrey’s narration; and “remarkable” photography available for download. (As an aside, I’d like the kit to include photography, remarkable or not, of Oprah, whose Harpo Production’s press department guards head shots of her as if they were priceless objects. Even Discovery PR execs can’t pry head shots of the Queen of Daytime TV out of Harpo. But I digress.)

The Nelson letter also provided some soft pitches: “Life is the 11-part follow up to Planet Earth, the most successful natural history documentary of all time;” it took “over 4 years to produce and was filmed on every continent;” and that while production of Planet Earth and Life overlapped, “every minute of footage in Life is new.”

Oh, and each time Ms. Nelson used the word “Life” it was written in green and in all caps.

Yes, some might call sending a press release about a press kit, especially one that reminds you to look in your mailbox, an exercise in overkill. After all, the Life press kit, which I expect is fully biodegradable, weighs 3 pounds and comes special delivery—not an item that’s easily lost in the clutter.

On the other hand, didn’t someone say that the best way to give a speech is to begin by telling them what you’re going to be telling them; tell them; and close by reminding them what you’ve just told them? That “someone” supposedly was a fairly bright fellow by the name of Aristotle. Discovery is in good company.

***
Excuse us for talking about broadcast TV, but Sunday’s ratings for football bear repeating, especially in light of talk that labor problems might derail the 2011 football season and that the NFL’s case about its being considered a single business entity is being reviewed by the Supreme Court. Should the Court agree with the NFL’s argument, the consequences for players, fans and cable could be substantial.

But back to the ratings. The NFC championship game, which began on Fox at 6:30pm ET and ended around 10:30pm ET, averaged 57.9 million viewers, up 40% since last season’s game, Nielsen said. It was the most-watched, non-Super Bowl program on TV since the Seinfeld finale in 1998, which had 76.3 million viewers.

The AFC game, which began at 3pm ET, didn’t fare badly either, pulling in 46.9 million viewers total, the best numbers for an AFC championship match in more than 20 years.

I can’t speak for my colleague Michael Grebb, but my whole night was made, nay, my whole week, when actor Jon Hamm remembered us. OK, I’ll kick caution to the curb and say the incident validated roughly 10 years of my adult life.

It occurred the other night as Mike and I were sipping beverages (Moet for me, hard liquor for Mike) and attempting to prove to myriad celebrities, a horde of assistants, agents and Hollywood wannabes that we belonged at HBO’s excellent post-Golden Globes party. It was not an easy task.

Yes, I realize the fantasy of many of us in cable is to be invited to cool Hollywood parties. The larger question, though, is: What do you do when you get there? We ordinary folks just don’t fit in. The Hollywood crowd (at least the female half of it) is inevitably thinner, better dressed and possessed of impeccable hair and makeup.

Often when a cable network wants to introduce a show and its cast to critics and TV reporters, the network will host a party at a chic Hollywood venue. While it’s not exactly like mixing oil and water, it’s close. The writers, admittedly a sometimes scruffy bunch, appear out of place next to the far healthier and better tanned actors. In fact, it’s almost inevitable that by evening’s end the actors are on one side of the room, the press is in the opposite corner.

There are rare times when members of each side are indistinguishable from the other—Monk star Tony Shalhoub dresses like a college professor. Moreover he, unlike most stars, actually makes it a point to engage in conversation with TV reporters. He’ll walk up to you, put out his hand and somewhat shyly introduce himself. There’s not a whiff of celebrity about Mr. Shalhoub, but he’s the exception.

Now back to the scene at the HBO Golden Globes party. Screwing up our courage, Mike and I are camped in the corner, pretending very hard that we belong (heck, we actually were invited to this party, whose security was tighter than many of the world’s airports). We’re hanging near the entry of the party where HBO has set up a red carpet. When actors of a certain stature and their spouses or dates arrive, they are photographed by the paparazzi. They then fall into the friendly arms of HBO reporters and videographers, who interview them for an HBO Buzz interstitial. For me and Mike, it’s the perfect spot to practice the fine art of celebrity gazing.

The Hilton’s poolside bar and restaurant are, appropriately, clothed in gold, the color scheme of HBO’s party (can you imagine, people get paid to think up ways to redecorate a perfectly well-decorated venue?). Of course, you can barely see gold with so many celebrities crowded into the area. The packing is more intense than last year since the rain, which has been falling for 2 days, has made any uncovered areas verboten for stars worrying about their hair and makeup—and we’re talking mostly about the male stars.

We’re nearly nose to nose with talent like Big Love’s Ginnifer Goodwin, who looks gorgeous in a blue dress (that costs what Mike and I make in 6 months), and Chloe Sevigny, clutching her Golden Globe and wearing a black crepe Christian Lacroix that looked like it was borrowed from Lilly Munster. The cream-colored gown she began the night in tore when she made her Globes acceptance speech—man, a spare outfit, now that’s class. Amanda Seyfried, who plays rebellious teen Sarah, is schmoozing with Sevigny. Serbian-born Branka Katic, who plays Serbian-born Ana (the waitress who briefly married into Bill Henrickson’s family) on Big Love, is standing with friends nearby, nearly unrecognized by the crowd.

There’s the gang from Entourage: Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) is here solo; on the other side of the room is Jeremy Piven; I nearly shout “Lloyd!” when I spot Rex Lee scooting by; over there is the gorgeous and skinny Emmanuelle Chriqui, who plays Sloan, and has just been voted the most desirable woman of ’10 (she does have, er, an entourage around her). Ironically, walking by, or sashaying really, is Alexis Dziena, whose young and nutty character Ashley vied with Sloan for E’s heart. You can see the attraction; she’s pretty, petite and moves like a graceful jaguar. Closer to where we’re standing Entourage star Adrian Grenier has to jostle like everyone else to get to the crowded bar. He gets his drink and then quickly leaves the party.

Of course cast members from the newest series at HBO, True Blood, are out in full force, many of them experiencing their first Golden Globes party. Sure, Blood stars Anna Paquin, looking great in a gold Stella McCarthy, and her on-screen and real-life beau, Stephen Moyer, walk HBO’s red carpet, stop for pictures and interviews and then depart. But supporting cast like Sam Trammel (who plays Sam Merlotte), Ryan Kwanten (Jason Stackhouse) and Nelsan Ellis (Lafayette Reynolds), who all seem smaller than I had imagined, are eating this up and are going nowhere. Then there’s Deborah Ann Woll, who plays teen vampire Jessica Hamby on the show. She’s a bit larger than she appears on HBO, but she’s gorgeous. (For some reason she eventually left the party right behind me and Mike and more strangely, she also boarded the shuttle with us and countless other nobody’s to return to the parking structure, about 1 mile away from The Beverly Hilton. As a vampire shouldn’t she be able to fly to her destination?)

Anyhow, among the stars who are shining this night are prominent members of other networks like Rose Byrne and Tate Donovan from FX’s Damages, making this the hot party, an HBO exec tells us, accurately.

In a heavy beard (probably for one of the movies he’s doing) Mad Men lead and Golden Globe winner Jon Hamm heads toward us. Mike grabs him and begins to tell him that he’s met us before. Hamm looks at us and then shouts, “Oh, yeah, you’re the guys from CableFAX!” Very proud of himself he rocks back on his heels and pointing to his head with both hands (and that shock of black hair), he again shouts, “Mind like a steel trap!” We exchange pleasantries and congratulate him on Mad Men’s 3rd Golden Globe for Best Drama. He schmoozes with us for a moment and then politely excuses himself to get a drink for his long-time mate Jennifer Westfeldt.

Needless to say, Mike and I are in celebrity heaven. We’ve been recognized by Don Draper himself. So what if Harrison Ford walks by us without stopping to say hello (he looks great, by the way); or Mrs Draper, January Jones, reacts coolly to Mike’s wishes of congratulations; or that the Kessler brothers, who created FX’s Damages, regard us strangely when we compliment them on their TCA panel, which we attended earlier that day. Hey, we schmoozed with Jon Hamm and (after some light prompting) he recognized us. That’s gotta count for something.

(Pasadena) As we know too well, times are still tough in economic terms. The days of heavy promotional spending are gone, perhaps never to return. That’s why we appreciate even more the creativity of marketers during this TCA.

First up was MTV Networks’ cleverly crafted surprise guest at the end of its 3-hour-long morning session Friday. Once the last panel was finished an official urged critics to remain seated for a special guest. Up on the screen was a tender video showing 3 familiar characters lip syncing Blowing in the Wind with great mock sensitivity. It was none other than Sarah Silverman and her gay neighbors, actors Brian Posehn and Steve Agee.

When the lights went up there was Silverman, in jeans and carrying a backpack, on a naked stage, doing her schtick, being awkwardly funny and quickly introducing clips from the 3rd season of The Sarah Silverman Program (debut Feb 4, 10:30pm, Comedy Central). Although she didn’t do a formal Q&A on stage, Silverman later sat outside the ballroom, surrounded by reporters and critics, answering questions. This 3rd season means more to her, the cast and the crew, she said, because the series was nearly canceled.

Next, National Geographic Channel transformed what could have been a staid working lunch. Its session touted, among other things, the launch of Nat Geo Wild, the new animal-based channel, and the 25th anniversary of Explorer, the stellar series that’s grabbed 60 Emmys. Proving again that the devil is in the details, Nat Geo festooned a room at the Langham Hotel & Spa with light-up globes on each table; appropriately, the room’s lights were dimmed to contrast the lighted globes.

More than that, over the various countries and bodies of water shown on the globes were pictures of animals indigenous to those parts of the world. Smaller versions of those globes were scattered about the room and proved to be must-have items for a slew of critics who said they were taking them for their kids (a likely story).

Nat Geo’s team wasn’t through. On the tables was dessert: plates piled high with colorful cookies shaped like zebras, lions and elephants and delicious-looking cupcakes with animals, in frosting, on top.
[For the record, we don’t want to exclude a similar nice touch by TV Guide Channel on Day 1, serving red cake cupcakes at its lunch to celebrate its upcoming Red Carpet coverage of the Golden Globes.]
And for those who looked closely, lion, tiger, elephant and zebra finger puppets were scattered about the tables.

Perhaps the nicest touch, though, was including the critics in a 25th anniversary toast to Explorer. At the session’s end waiters brought glasses of champagne to critics’ tables and Lisa Ling, who’ll host a special 2-hour look at the series (Apr 18), called for 25 more years of Explorer. Cheers, indeed.

BBC America’s original publicity exec, Jo Petherbridge, joyfully remains in the saddle to this day, some 12 years since the network was launched. She’s been one of the most creative events people in the business, always injecting some sort of fun into BBC America’s TCA presentations, whether it was a rustic party, complete with costumed actors, to celebrate Robin Hood, or nearly naked actors (male and female) passing out fake Viagra at a cocktail party to tout the series Manchild, which was about sexually active 50-something men who preferred younger women.

What would Petherbridge do to shake things up in these austere times? When BBC A’s final panel ended, pushing a series called The Choir, its star, the enthusiastic young choir master, Gareth Malone, who’s become a big hit in the U.K. cajoled a slew of critics to come on stage and sing.

The best part, besides getting a 5-minute singing lesson from the classically trained singer, was that BBC America’s talent from a previous Survivors panel, actors Julie Graham and Paterson Joseph, and BBC SVP Programming Richard De Croce were the first to hit the stage.

With a bit of effort the actors, De Croce and of course Malone had more than 50 crusty critics (and your blogger) on stage. With just a few minutes of practice, Malone’s theory—that literally anyone can sing—was proven. A decent rendition of the Beach Boys’ Ba-Ba-Baran (Barbara Ann), in 2-part harmony, floated from the mouths of the slightly amazed critics. For your blogger, exhaustively still on East Coast time, it was an exhilarating way to end the work day.

If there’s an issue that’s tailor made to receive help from media it’s stalking.

A subset of domestic violence, stalking largely is a misunderstood crime by the public and—hard to believe—by legal authorities. Stalking is not just something that happens to celebrities. Far from it.

And it’s a crime that’s vastly ignored by its victims as a crime. Let’s repeat that. About 60% of stalking victims don’t report incidents of stalking to local police, the Dept of Justice estimates. One of the reasons is that most victims don’t know help is available, Catherine Pierce, acting director of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women, says. Another reason is that often they aren’t taken seriously by authorities. When they report repeated incidents as a crime, sometimes it’s too late.

It was too late for Kristin Lardner, a college student who eventually was killed by her stalker in 1992. Lardner’s stalker started out well. Michael Cartier was cute, she once said, and she dated him. When he beat her, she broke up with the man who’d eventually kill her.

This pattern is familiar. Some 76% of intimate partner femicide victims were stalked by their partner. 67% had been physically abused by their partner. This is another reason why stalking isn’t reported much. Victims don’t want to believe that their former partners are dangerous, so they tolerate actions that legally constitute stalking. The stalkers also mix their crime with pleasantries. Not long before he killed her, Cartier sent roses to Kristin and promised to leave her alone.

Kristin’s story is well known in the D.C. area. Her father, the former Washington Post journalist George Lardner, has written extensively about his daughter’s death and stalking.

Ironically one of the major hurdles in tracking down stalkers is the legal system itself. “Judges want to see blood…evidence of damages” or they won’t convict someone of stalking, says Mark Wynn, a former police officer who’s trained police, prosecutors, judges, legislators, health care officials and victim advocates in all 50 states. Wynn spoke at a Town Hall meeting at Justice to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act.

Lardner agrees with Wynn’s assessment. In many cases, he says, “judges are the worst of the lot…and they act like it.” Judicial bias against taking stalking seriously is “rampant,” he says. In Kristin’s case her stalker, Cartier, had been able to slip through the system, despite having a rap sheet “as long as my arm,” Lardner says. At the time of Kristin’s murder there was an outstanding warrant for Cartier’s arrest and he had violated his probation. He should have been in jail.

In Cartier’s case and in countless others, the judicial system mistakenly thinks “it’s too expensive to be tough” with stalkers “at the outset,” Lardner believes. The end result is that too many stalkers are allowed back out on the streets.

But judges—and certainly the majority are good ones, who take stalking seriously, Wynn says—are not the only group needing education. All legal authorities, police and even some victims need to recognize what constitutes stalking and how it can be combated, a panel of experts said during the Town Hall meeting.

That’s where cable comes in, specifically Investigation Discovery (ID). Following in the footsteps of Lifetime’s excellent work against violence aimed at women, ID has pledged to “shine a Klieg light on the misunderstood problem” of stalking, ID’s chief Henry Schleiff tells us.

Schleiff attended the Town Hall and ID’s Paula Zahn moderated the session. The two later met with Attorney General Eric Holder and other domestic violence officials at the White House to discuss the issue. “We are actively creating more opportunities to elevate the national conversation [on stalking] and we…look forward to involving our cable affiliate partners in similarly related events this year,” Schleiff says.

Indeed, the Town Hall pointed out education and awareness programs that are making a difference. Even Lardner admits he’s not as pessimistic as he was. “All 50 states have stalking laws now,” as opposed to the 20 that had them when Kristin was killed, he says.

Needless to say, with the digital age comes more tools for the stalker: mobile phones, email. Stalkers have even been known to hook up GPS devices to victim’s cars in order to follow them. Fortunately, these devices leave footprints of a digital nature. “There’s always a digital trail,” says Cindy Southworth, director of the Safety Net Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence.

Wynn, the trainer, had an idea for ID’s programming on the subject. “If you highlight successful” [education programs on stalking] you can shame other localities into doing more, starting their own programs, he said. “You’ll empower advocates to say ‘if they can do it there, why can’t we do it here?’”

If ID’s efforts can get just one local authority to fund stalking awareness training for judges, police and the public and it helps one victim, perhaps even saves one life, it will have been worthwhile.

Since it’s the new year many things are brand new: accounts of companies and organizations working on a calendar fiscal year; television seasons; college semesters. It’s a time for renewal and being upbeat about the future.

At first glance it seems odd then that Mark Cuban and Magnolia Films decided this is the time to release Wonderful World, particularly since Matthew Broderick’s protagonist Ben Singer is described by the film’s writer Josh Goldin as “the most negative guy in the world.” The film debuts on HDNet Movies tonight at 8pm ET, with replays at 9:35 and 11:15. It reaches theaters Jan 8.

Almost immediately we learn nearly all we need to know about Ben. He’s indeed negative, slamming “The Man,” advocates of positive thinking, money grubbers and those who put soda machines in schools. In truth, Ben’s railing at capitalism and capitalist society at every chance.

He’s also unshaven, drives a tiny car and works as a proofreader with people half his age. These young people, who view the gig as temporary, marvel at Ben’s 8-year tenure “working for The Man” as a proofreader.

To complete the picture, Ben’s divorced and was once a popular singer and writer of songs for kids. His young daughter (Jodelle Ferland) and ex (Ally Walker of Sons of Anarchy) live in a huge house with the ex’s new husband. Contrast that with Ben, who lives humbly and must share a small apartment with a roommate.

But it’s the roommate, a Senegalese immigrant named Ibou (Michael Kenneth Williams from The Wire), who’s both a counter to Ben (he’s upbeat, neat and sees magic in mundane aspects of life) and a friend. It’s Ben’s largely hidden humanity that allows the two single men to become friends as well as roommates and play chess together.

The film takes a turn when Ibou gets sick and his sister Khadi (Sanaa Latham) comes to America to visit him. We won’t give away too many more details of what occurs next except to say that if Cuban’s subscribers have seen The Visitor, they’ll know much of what follows in Wonderful World.

While the film’s script isn’t at the level of The Visitor—Ben’s pot-induced conversations with “The Man” detract from the pace and reality of Wonderful World—and Broderick’s work doesn’t eclipse Richard Jenkins’ Oscar-nominated performance in The Visitor, there’s plenty to recommend this film.

It might be Broderick’s finest film work in years, largely for its discipline—he barely cracks a smile here. And Lathan turns in a convincing performance, mixing the fascination of an immigrant visiting America for the first time with Senegalese dignity and smoky sexuality.

And from the art-imitating-life-imitating-art department, Dan Zane, a former rocker who has a following as a singer of child-friendly songs, has a cameo in the film. He also wrote a tune that Broderick performs in the film.

And getting back to why Cuban decided to release Wonderful World now. The film’s ending isn’t what Hollywood would have ordered, but it’s somewhat upbeat. For many in these difficult times, that’s a good enough approximation of a wonderful world.

Odds and ends to conclude the year and look ahead to 2010.

Holiday Gifts: General kudos to cable’s programmers this month. It’s usually a hit or miss situation when it comes to receiving preview tapes from networks prior to the January TV critics tour. With TCA arriving so close to the holidays, it’s understandable that the task of distributing preview tapes to critics of next year’s shows sometimes slips. Not this year.

TNT sent out the critically acclaimed police series Southland weeks ago. Just the other day Investigation Discovery delivered its Valentine’s Day special, Prison Wives. Earlier, HBO, which is always reliable in terms of sending screeners, posted us parts of its much anticipated Hanks-Spielberg 10-night mini The Pacific.

So, how were the tapes we received?

Before that let’s look at the schedule. Remember that Southland is a series Turner Entertainment chief Steve Koonin grabbed for TNT after its cancellation by NBC. Beginning Jan 12 at 10pm, TNT plans to present 13 eps of Southland, including 7 that aired previously on NBC; the new eps will commence on TNT March 2.

The eps TNT sent us recently included an extended pilot—there is some 6 minutes of material here that NBC deleted when the pilot debuted originally. Even better, TNT will show this longer pilot commercial free on Jan 12.

OK, so how’s the quality of Southland? Koonin, one of cable’s most pleasant execs, can keep smiling. The critics weren’t wrong about Southland. It’s a gritty police drama based in Los Angeles and it’s largely believable. Much of the pilot’s time is spent with rank-and-file officers Cooper (Michael Cudlitz), a hard-nosed veteran, and Sherman (Ben McKenzie), a green rookie who’s assigned to train with Cooper. While Cooper and Sherman’s adventures largely are predictable and the other characters are more traditional than TNT’s original police dramas The Closer and Saving Grace, Southland is solid. The larger question will be whether TNT orders new episodes after this season. Should it do so, will Southland retain its broadcast network (read more expensive than cable) look and feel?

Interestingly The Pacific reminds me of how good the concept of another series was. History’s WWII in HD, which premiered in November, really was a misnomer. Yes, the digitized and colorized footage was impressive, but the real stars of that fine series were the men and women who told their WWII stories. After introducing their stories, they gave way to actors who voiced their words. Eventually their narratives were woven into History’s telling of the war.

Similarly The Pacific begins in documentary style, with real Marine Corps veterans Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge and John Basilone telling their stories. The subsequent drama is well told and finally puts stories from the Pacific theater on screen. The usual problem with war dramas—keeping track of multiple male characters—is augmented by HBO’s decision to create a realistic haze of war. As a result it’s difficult to see what’s going on during several evening combat engagements. This is a problem that makes the series more realistic (much of the combat at Guadalcanal was done by night), albeit a test for viewers.

In look and feel The Pacific is reminiscent of HBO’s excellent Band of Brothers, which chronicled a unit deployed in the European theater. Indeed eps 4 and 6 of The Pacific are directed by Brothers’ alums Graham Yost and Tony To. Our guess is that The Pacific will be received similarly to Band of Brothers. That is to say with awards, syndication and strong DVD sales. Certainly like Band of Brothers it will appeal to an older demo, although we can hope that young people will be drawn to it since most of its characters are youngsters. Moreover that most of these young people are caught in a situation (WWII) not of their own making should resonate with viewers young and old. Perhaps the best reason to watch is that it accomplishes the difficult combination of education and entertainment.

I will review Prison Wives in a subsequent blog.

Somewhat Mad Man: As one involved in preparing yearly lists, I can attest these are difficult exercises. Even with a list of 100+ people like the CableFAX 100, we always wish we had more room to honor a worthy candidate.

That said, and admitting my bias toward AMC’s Mad Men (see my weekly in-season blog), I was saddened to find my CableFAX Daily colleagues failed to include Mad Men winning the best drama Emmy for 2 consecutive years in their Top Stories of 2009 list today. It should be noted that AMC’s win back in 2008 was the first time a basic cable network had won the coveted best drama Emmy. Winning it 2 years in a row, well, that’s important news.

To be fair I can’t argue much with their choices for the year’s top stories: the NBCU-Comcast merger, Obama’s FCC, TV Everywhere, network news (Fox Reality Channel closing to become Nat Geo Wild, Fine Living re-launching as Cooking, Oprah quitting broadcast TV to spend time on Discovery’s OWN) and Cable Connection Weeks). Admittedly little has occurred at the FCC to warrant its inclusion on CableFAX’s list, but the potential of Julius Genachowski to make major policy shifts is the point of its place as the year’s 3rd biggest story.

Other news items CableFAX mentions today include the shuttering of Cable Positive, the death of Bill Bresnan, the AETN-Lifetime merger, the flaring of retrans disputes and Disney’s acquisition of Marvel. All good choices, for sure.

Still, if CableFAX felt Mad Men grabbing the drama Emmy 2 years in a row wasn’t enough of a story, they could have augmented the importance of the story by adding that Bryan Cranston of AMC’s Breaking Bad and Glenn Close of FX’s Damages each took home best actor Emmys for a second consecutive year. Packaging all that news together surely rates a place on CableFAX’s list, right? In any event, it was quite a night for cable.

On the other hand, if CableFAX Daily is intimating that by not placing this item on its Top Stories list it’s become routine for cable to be treated like broadcast TV at Emmy time, well, I’m fine with that. I guess it wasn’t too long ago that cable was excluded totally from the Emmys, was it?