Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

A31
PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 21 February 2019
Ego, publicity at stake when stars and TV critics meet

By LYNN ELBER
DAVID BAUDER
Associated Press
PASADENA, Calif. (AP)
— Jerrod Carmichael, la-
menting what he called the
“terrible” state of TV com-
edy, asked his audience if
they’d seen some of it. Star-
ing back at the comedian
was a hotel ballroom filled
with journalists whose job it
is to cover television.
“I think they see all of it,”
helpfully offered Ramy
Youssef, his fellow producer
and star of their new Hulu
sitcom.
“Poor y’all,” Carmichael
said, a sympathetic coda
to a semiannual event
in which broadcast net-
works, cable channels and
streaming platforms pa-
rade the shows and stars
they hope will get attention
from the 250 members of
the Television Critics Associ-
ation and, in turn, viewers.
The group, TCA for short,
has been meeting twice a
year, winter and summer,
since it was founded in In this Feb. 11, 2019 file photo, Jerrod Carmichael, from left, Ramy Youssef and Bridget Bedard participate in the “Ramy” panel
1978. TV producers, actors during the Hulu presentation at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif.
and sometimes executives Associated Press
trek to a hotel — or more we were in a flop,” he said, Sometimes the questions on PBS’ upcoming “Nova” Networks offered reporters
accurately, limo there, and which drew zero response can be downright rude. series about the planets, three full days of round-ta-
mostly within upscale L.A.- from the room and more Jon Bon Jovi discovered in which a scientist on the ble interviews with industry
adjacent areas — to an- from Hoffman: “I don’t that when he was invited to Mars Rover expedition was figures and wooed them
swer questions about their even get a laugh for that.” the stage by Fox — for rea- asked if it was true that with splashy entertainment
shows and mingle with re- There’s further uneasiness to sons still unclear — during stars twinkle but planets featuring such stars as Gar-
porters at cocktail parties be had. With every reporter the network’s promotion don’t, and commanded ry Shandling, recalled Fred
for more questions. now online — whether they of a new season of “Ameri- by another reporter to “talk Rothenberg, who covered
The stars are easy to spot: work for a newspaper or can Idol.” about Mars.” TV for The Associated Press
they’re well-dressed. Re- a website — their stories, The first reporter given a Whether the questions from 1981-86 and later be-
porters, not so much, but tweets and blogs are post- microphone asked him, were uniformly better back came a network producer.
they have the upper hand ed as soon as a celebrity “What are you doing in the day, the TCA meet- Broadcasters had “a lot of
and a microphone dur- offers up a remark bearing here?” ings nicknamed “press money back in the ‘80s,”
ing the Q&A sessions that a hint of news. That means Not the rock star adulation tours” — for no apparent he said, and the big spend-
are the core of the roughly a roomful of reporters mak- he’s accustomed to. But reason, since touring isn’t ing paid off for everyone
two-week-long event. Ad- ing more eye contact with HBO’s session for “Big Little involved — belonged to a involved.
herence to the journalistic their laptops than with the Lies” last week was an ex- very different universe, a “Most of the TV critics had
maxim of “no cheering in panelists, who in turn are ample of press tour at its pre-digital version. a vacation,” Rothenberg
the press box” means ce- left staring at rows of Mac best. “Without any question, the said, stockpiling interviews
lebrities face the unnerv- logos. It was packed with star internet and the imme- for feature stories to be
ing sound of silence as “I wish I’d bought Apple power you’d rarely see diacy of this event have written and published later,
they step out on an ad hoc stock before coming out gathered together in front changed completely. It’s a when a show aired. There
stage. here,” is an oft-repeated of the media — Meryl different creature,” said the were also occasional flur-
“They can’t applaud?” a wisecrack, said TCA Presi- Streep, Nicole Kidman, Re- TCA’s Fienberg. ries of stories when execu-
puzzled Ruth Westheimer, dent Daniel Feinberg. Then ese Witherspoon, Laura In the late ‘70s, with cable tives such as then-NBC
aka sex expert Dr. Ruth there’s the similarly familiar Dern and Zoe Kravitz — dis- TV on the cusp of expan- chief executive Grant Tin-
and the subject of a new response from actors asked playing an easy camara- sion and Netflix not yet a ker took part and made
documentary, said at this about plot twists in spoiler- derie as they gave smart noun, ABC, CBS and NBC newsier comments.
month’s just-ended meet- inclined shows: “I’d tell you, answers to smart ques- defined television. TCA Networks still field TCA pan-
ing at the Langham Hun- but I’d have to kill you.” tions. They offered priceless members came from the els, but they’ve cut back
tington hotel. “The number of drinking quips, like Witherspoon’s daily newspapers that had to one day or even less as
Dustin Hoffman, touting the games that you could play mock gripe that she’s al- plenty of pages to give to the critical darlings of ca-
short-lived series “Luck” in associated with your typi- ways left with the tab when TV features, with scribes ble and streaming, such as
2012, felt likewise. cal TCA (meeting) is myr- they go out, along with in- from the Philadelphia En- HBO’s Game of Thrones”
“That was the thinnest ap- iad,” said Feinberg, chief sights about the upcoming quirer, Houston Chronicle and Hulu’s “The Hand-
plause I’ve ever heard. If it TV critic for The Hollywood second season. and Boston Globe among maid’s Tale,” increasingly
was a play, we would know Reporter. Less stellar was the session the group’s first officers. distract journalists.q