Shelly Palmer has posted a variety of interesting tidbits in his blog since publication of his book, Television Disrupted and I couldn't help but think of his "Bootlegging the Bootleggers" post as I read David Carr's article "Deciding Eligibility for Oscar" in the New York Times. The idea that there would be dispute about which of a film's producers would be eligible to receive a statue in the event a nominated work actually wins the best picture Oscar points to the producer glut of recent years.
To fight “producer bloat,” where credits were being handed out as favors to actors, agents and financiers, the academy ruled that generally only three producers would be eligible for a film.
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Peter Dekom, an entertainment lawyer, said that some retuning needed to be done. “In the independent world, it takes a variety of people to get a film done,” he said.
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One of the dirty secrets of this time of year is that the money that is spent on the Oscars — hundreds of millions of dollars on television and trade ads, parties, and shipping DVDs to academy members — can never be recouped even by the most spectacular post-awards bounce.
For those involved in video/film production, the
David Mamet decries a similar trend in sty