Trade Round-Up: Disney And Miramax Might Finally Divorce
· The FCC wants to fine Fox $1.2 million for their reality show Married by America, which featured "strippers and partyers in sexual situations, including scenes where a pair of strippers 'playfully spank' a man in his underwear and partygoers lick whipped cream off the strippers' bodies." Maybe if Fox head Gail Berman sends a case of Redi-Whip and a couple of escorts over to Michael Powell at the FCC, this might all blow over. And they might get another show out of it, to boot. [THR]
· Danny DeVito and Kathy Bates sign on to star as Ron Livingston's DNA donors in the uptight-guy-hunts-for-wacky-biological-parents comedy Relative Strangers. Yup, still sounds like Flirting With Disaster. [THR]
· The Disney and Miramax divorce now seems all but official. Disney's supposedly sent Harvey and Bob Weinstein a Dear John letter, but the brothers are still pretending that they never got it. Watch for Harvey to downsize the mailroom in retaliation. [Variety, sub. req'd.]
· Disney acquires Stick It, a comedy about a rebel in the uptight world of gymnastics. We can't wait for the scene where the plucky little gymnast demands the right to menstruate like other girls. [THR]
· John Singleton will direct the revenge drama Four Brothers, in which, um, four brothers dramatically try to get revenge for their mother's death. Mark Wahlberg is in talks to star. Let's hope Paramount goes all the way and signs up Donnie and the rest of the clan for the added verisimilitude that only stunt-casting can afford. [THR]