VP Debate: Tina Fey's Job Just Got Harder

By Sarah Lai Stirland

It's a far cry from the universal admiration that Sarah Palin elicited after her debut at the Republican National Convention this summer, but Thursday night's performance during the vice presidential debate with Joe Biden allayed many conservatives' fear that Palin would bomb, and take down the campaign with her.

Republican tech strategist Jon Henke, part of the coveted youth demographic that the presidential candidates are trying to win over, voiced a common sentiment when he opined that Palin did well because "she didn't make any major mistakes."

Initial polls showed that Biden's performance appealed to those who haven't committed themselves to either camp. A CBS poll found that 46 percent thought Biden had performed the best while 21 percent thought Palin did. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll showed that just over half of those surveyed thought Biden had performed the best during the debate, while 36 percent thought Palin did.

Other than that, opinions in the blogosphere about Thursday evening's vice presidential debate were all over the map.

For his part, Henke spun it this way: "Face it, Biden did well. He was serious, fluent, he had gravitas. He didn't pull a Biden. And yet, Biden reinforced the real problem he represents for the Obama campaign: Whatever he may be, senator Biden is not 'Change.'"

Patrick Ruffini, a fellow blogger on the site, was more emphatic.

"Tonight, Sarah Palin was sharp, articulate, and connected with the middle class," he wrote. "The #1 political effect tonight will have is an important one for the McCain campaign: she shut the doubters up, and then some. In this important sense, she stopped the bleeding."

But Palin's folksy performance Thursday night didn't shut the doubters up at all.

In fact, one of Palin's most prominent doubters, conservative columnist Kathleen Parker of Townhall.com and the National Review, wrote in PostPartisan, a Washington Post blog, that she "experienced the uneasy feeling throughout that I was witnessing a data dump from a very appealing droid. Even the winks and jaw juts seemed slightly programmed. And the question remains: Is she ready to be president should the need arise?"

Last Friday, Parker made news when she had called for Palin to step aside because she was "out of her league."

Parker said that Palin's performances during her interviews with the networks television anchors had revealed that she didn't know much about anything. The columnist's most damning line: "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."

Over on the left, MyDD's Jonathan singer wrote that Palin's performance on Thursday didn't do much to change anything.

"While it may have staved off the hemorrhaging of support for the Republicans, it did little to nothing to swing the momentum back away from the Obama-Biden ticket," he wrote.

And Nate Silver, an Obama supporter, wrote on his blog FiveThirtyEight.com that he thought this was another missed opportunity for the McCain campaign.

He said that he thought Palin's scripted responses and lack of spontaneity allowed Biden to get in effective shots at John McCain.

In fact, that's probably the most interesting insight that emerged from the storm of opinion that poured forth on the web Thursday night, both on Twitter and on the blogs: That despite all the folksy charm, Palin fell short because her debate performance, like her television interviews, was so scripted and unengaging

"Sprphoto" said it on Twitter: "You know what bothered me most about Palin? She came off like a badly voiced cartoon character."

But she didn't make any obvious gaffes. So Tina Fey is just going to have to actually do some work next time around when she presents the world with her next Palin impersonation on Saturday Night Live.

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Astley shortlisted for MTV award

Rick Astley had a number one hit in 1987 with Never Gonna Give You Up Rick Astley: "It's a wind-up"

Eighties pop singer Rick Astley has become the surprise contender for best act ever at this year's MTV Europe Music Awards in Liverpool.

The star, who has never been nominated in the history of the event, is up against U2, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Green Day and Tokio Hotel.

The winner, chosen by fans online, will be unveiled at the show on 6 November.

Astley returned to prominence this year when internet users were "tricked" into watching the video of his biggest hit.

Sole nomination

A craze called "Rickrolling" saw web users unwittingly follow links to Astley's videos. It led to millions of plays of Astley's song Never Gonna Give You Up, which reached number one in the UK in 1987.

It went on to become a number one hit in 15 other countries.

"Rick's fans have obviously decided that he deserves recognition as a pop icon and no doubt they are determined to make sure he wins on the night," said the award show's producer Richard Godfrey.

Madonna is up for the video star category with 4 Minutes - the only nomination she has received this year.

The 50-year-old pop star will battle it out with 30 Seconds to Mars, Santogold, Weezer and Snoop Dogg, who hosted the ceremony last year.

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Coming to a theater near you: more 3-D

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Five Hollywood studios have agreed to help pay for a $1 billion-plus rollout of digital technology on about 20,000 movie screens in North America, a precursor to showing more movies in 3-D.

Hollywood will help bankroll a $1 billion-plus rollout of digital technology on some 20,000 movie screens.

Digital Cinema Implementation Partners, a consortium of major theater chains, announced the deal Wednesday. The rollout in the U.S. and Canada, covering about half of all screens, is planned to start early next year.

To help offset the costs -- about $70,000 per screen -- the studios plan to pay the consortium slightly under $1,000 per movie per screen, roughly the same amount it costs them to print and ship a celluloid film copy.

Adding digital equipment is the critical first step in the technological upgrade to being able to show 3-D movies.

More than 20 3-D movies are set to hit theaters through 2010, but only 873 locations in the U.S. and Canada, with 1,264 3-D screens, are available now, according to The Walt Disney Co., a signatory to the digital rollout.

Disney plans to release five 3-D movies next year, including a Jonas Brothers concert movie in February.

The digital expansion will help convert more screens to show 3-D movies, which have packed theaters and commanded higher ticket prices than their 2-D counterparts.

"It should ultimately improve the grosses," said Chuck Viane, president of domestic distribution for Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. "People will just fall in love with the medium."

Viane expected 1,500 to 2,000 locations, many with multiple screens, would be able to show 3-D movies by the end of 2009.

The studios in the deal include The Walt Disney Co., Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox, General Electric Co.'s Universal Pictures and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the Blackstone Group are leading the financing but will have to tap the turbulent credit markets in the fourth quarter, said consortium chief executive Travis Reid.

"We'll be needing to execute in the debt markets and we hope to do that during the fourth quarter," Reid said. "We don't believe that the markets will be closed forever."

Regal Entertainment Group, one of the consortium's founders, announced in May that it would outfit 1,500 more of its screens with 3-D technology from a company called RealD, contingent on their being equipped with digital projectors.

The technology uses a filter in front of a digital projector to polarize separate images for the left and right eyes, which viewers use polarized lenses to see.

"We ... consider this a major milestone in our ongoing digital conversion and strategy," said Regal Chief Executive Officer Mike Campbell, in a statement.

RealD, which is responsible for 97 percent of the 3-D add-on technology for the digital screens in the U.S., has a contract to install its equipment on another 1,500 Cinemark USA Inc. screens as the digital rollout progresses.

"This triples our footprint," said the company's chief executive, Michael Lewis. "We're trying to work with everyone to get as many RealD screens out there as fast as possible."

AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark and Regal Entertainment Group formed the original DCIP consortium in February 2007. The studios each negotiated separately with DCIP to pay for the rollout, which delayed a deal for many months.

Reid said the group hopes to sign several other studios by the end of the year, including Sony Corp.'s Sony Pictures, Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros., The Weinstein Co. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.

The rollout is expected to take more than three years.

Meanwhile, a group of independent theater owners operating some 8,000 screens is hoping not to miss the digital wave.

The National Association of Theatre Owners on Wednesday called on studios to sign a similar deal with smaller operators so that "independent exhibitors, often in small towns, are not left behind."

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