W. VA SENATOR WANTS MTV TO YANK BUCKWILD

If MTV producers had hoped to stir up the same sort of controversy for Buckwild that accompanied the debut of Jersey Shore in 2009, they apparently have succeeded. One month before the new reality series debuts, on-air promos have already angered some residents of West Virginia, where it is set, and prompted the state’s junior […]

MORE WALKOUTS AT SCREENINGS OF COMPLIANCE

Director Craig Zobel is bracing for another critical reception for his movie Compliance, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, then had a limited domestic release in August. Now, it’s due to be screened at the London Film festival next month, and today’s (Wednesday) London Independent indicates that it is likely to provoke […]

CONTROVERSY GROWS OVER SPIELBERG’S TINTIN

It doesn’t open in Europe until October 26, and it won’t be seen in the U.S. until December, but Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn is already drawing much criticism from fans of the original Hergé comic strip and those who have accused the Belgian writer/artist of racism, antisemitism, and […]

CONTROVERSY SWIRLS AROUND THE HELP

As The Help continued to amaze box-office pundits by coming from behind and taking over first place for two consecutive weeks, controversy over its plot began percolating on the Internet. Actor Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Treme) posted a series of tweets charging that the filmmakers had watered down the actual misery in which blacks lived […]

CHINESE CRITICS BLAST KUNG FU PANDA

Despite efforts by DreamWorks Animation to ensure that Chinese culture was treated with no disrespect in Kung Fu Panda 2, the film is already drawing condemnation on the Chinese mainland. Leading the critics is fashion designer Zhao Bandi, who sued DreamWorks Animation in 2008 for conspiring to undermine China’s national treasure. In an open letter […]

CONTROVERSIES ALREADY SIMMERING AT CANNES

The menu of films at the Cannes Film Festival is never complete without the added spice of controversy — and this year’s lineup is no exception. There is Scotish director Lynn Ramsay’s We Need to Talk about Kevin, which explores the aftermath of a Columbine-type school shooting through the eyes of the parents of the […]

THE KENNEDYS IS A HIT

Reaffirming the argument that there is no more effective publicity than controversy, the debut of The Kennedys miniseries on ReelzChannel on Sunday produced the biggest audience in the channel’s existence. The miniseries, which was reportedly rejected by the History Channel after it received complaints from members of the Kennedy family and close associates and found […]

CONTROVERSY FAILS TO BOOST RATINGS FOR MTV’S SKINS

All of that controversy over MTV’s racy new teen drama Skins did not translate into a big ratings surge for its second episode on Monday. In fact, ratings dropped by more than 50 percent — to 1.6 million from 3.26 million for its premiere. On Tuesday, the Parents Television Council, which had organized a protest […]

BRITAIN’S X FACTOR PULLS BIG RATINGS, BIG CONTROVERSY

The season finale of Britain’s The X Factor may have produced record ratings for commercial network ITV, but the London Daily Mirror is reporting that the show has drawn thousands of complaints from viewers that the Simon Cowell-produced show featured too many racy productions that were inappropriate for a time period when many children were […]