CBS pulled the season finale of Mike & Molly, in the wake of a deadly tornado that hit Oklahoma. The plot of the episode, which was set to air Monday night, involved a tornado approaching Chicago. A CBS spokesperson said the network will air the episode at an appropriate date.
Disney’s makeover of heroine Merida from its animated film Brave provoked outrage from fans and a Change.org petition decrying her sexier image. The filmmaker behind the movie, Brenda Chapman, called the new look “a blatantly sexist marketing move based on money.” What do you think of Disney’s decision to make over Merida?
‘Cause I wouldn’t change a thing. This is a record meant to be FAR from easy listening. But fun. Like life. Have a ball, ya’ll. love- brad
— Brad Paisley (@BradPaisley) April 9, 2013
Country singer Brad Paisley took to Twitter to defend his duet with rapper LL Cool J called “Accidental Racist.” The song addressing racism has drawn backlash on social media. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Paisley said, “I’m doing it because it just feels more relevant than it even did a few years ago. I think that we’re going through an adolescence in America when it comes to race. You know, it’s like we’re almost grown up.”
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Cohn & Wolfe Atlanta MD Stephen Brown, who once exchanged letters with Roger Ebert, shared ten guiding principles marketers can learn from the late film critic.
PS - This week is our Open House, which means everything on prweekus.com is free to access. Enjoy!
Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) has tapped MWW to promote its new “Zumba Fitness Dance Party” album. MWW is the PR AOR for Zumba Fitness. The project marks the first time Zumba Fitness has teamed up with UMe to create a music compilation of Zumba instructors and enthusiasts’ favorite tracks. The campaign will focus on driving awareness for the album launch through traditional and social media strategies.
Film critic Roger Ebert announced Tuesday that he is reducing his workload after recently suffering a hip fracture as a result of cancer. Ebert, who reviews more than 200 films a year, said that he’s “not going away.”
“I’ll be able at last to do what I’ve always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review,” Ebert wrote on his blog.
Update: Ebert’s long-time employer The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Ebert passed away Thursday, April 4. He was 70 years old.
Jay Leno and Jimmy Fallon addressed rumors of a Tonight Show shake-up in song. The late night show hosts, who have not spoken publicly about the potential changing of the guard, poked fun at the situation and sang a parody duet of “Tonight” from West Side Story.
While celebrity work remains an entertainment PR staple, content and branding also play key roles, as highlighted by industry leaders who joined Gideon Fidelzeid in Los Angeles for this PMK-BNC hosted roundtable. Read more, including a Q&A with Grammy Awards CMO Evan Greene, in this month’s roundtable.
PRWeek consumer reporter Lindsay Stein speaks with Allison Rawlings, DreamWorks Animation’s head of PR, to discuss her new role and branding for the studio’s latest animated feature The Croods.
Late Night host Jimmy Fallon will succeed Jay Leno as the host of The Tonight Show by 2014, according to reports by The New York Times and The Hollywood Reporter. Sources also say that NBC will move the show back to New York where it began in 1954.
