Is it time to sing again?

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), May 10, 2001

CANNES, France (AP) -- Baz Luhrmann is betting the movie musical's time has come again. Luhrmann's exuberant Moulin Rouge, starring Nicole Kidman and Ewan McGregor (a scene shown at right), premiered Wednesday night, opening the Cannes Film Festival and testing appetites for a genre that's been out of favor for decades.

Lavish musicals such as Meet Me in St. Louis and Singin' in the Rain, once a Hollywood mainstay, have become rarities.Even while West Side Story, My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Oliver! packed theaters and won best-picture Oscars in the 1960s, musicals were fading because of high production costs and a move toward cinematic naturalism.

But Luhrmann thinks his movie -- and others such as last year's Dancer in the Dark and the upcoming Hedwig and the Angry Inch -- are at the vanguard of a musical revival. "We've come through a period of extreme naturalism in film based on how convincing an illusion of reality one can make, and the musical didn't fit that," said the Australian director, whose credits include William Shakespeare's Romeo Juliet and Strictly Ballroom. "But audiences today are so aware of cinematic manipulation that they recognize that that illusion of reality is just another form of manipulation."

The upshot, says Luhrmann: Screen characters bursting into song is an artifice movie audiences once again want to accept.

"This is a movie that has to build a relationship with the audience, and using familiar tunes in unexpected ways is one of the ways we do that," said Marius DeVries, music director for Moulin Rouge. The movie opens in limited release in the United States next week and expands nationwide June 1.

All the world's a stage

NEW YORK (AP) -- Today is the 130th day of 2001. There are 235 days left in the year. Here are some business and legal highlights from this date in history:

In 1775, Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys captured the British-held fortress at Ticonderoga, N.Y.

In 1865, Union forces captured Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Irwinville, Ga.

In 1869, a golden spike was driven at Promontory, Utah, marking the completion of the first transcontinental railroad in the United States.

In 1924, J. Edgar Hoover was given the job of FBI director.

In 1940, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned, and Winston Churchill formed a new government.

In 1968, preliminary Vietnam peace talks began in Paris.

Who says irritating ads don't work?

CERRITOS, Calif. (AP) -- No lie: A resurrected Joe Isuzu is being credited by his client carmaker for a record jump in April U.S. sales. A 1980s advertising icon, Joe -- with his smarmy smile and exaggeration prone personality (played by actor David Leisure) -- was retooled into a reformed gentleman and brought back to television in February after a 12-year hiatus. At the time, Isuzu's chief operating officer for its American unit admitted that name recognition was hovering near an all-time low since the brand debuted in this country in the late 1970s. Sales for the year 2000 had been the third-lowest in a decade. But on Tuesday, Isuzu said that sales for the VehiCross, a cross between an SUV and a sports car, had their highest April-to- April increase: 128 percent. Other models also saw big increases: 73 percent for the Rodeo and 46 percent for the Trooper. Overall SUV sales shot up 64 percent.

Isuzu Senior Vice President Duke Hale credited Joe for the uptick in sales. "Joe is definitely working," Hale said. "If you look at our traffic in our top 21 markets where we are running the Joe ad campaign, traffic in those markets, since Joe has come on board, has increased 30 to 40 percent."

Even after his long hiatus, Joe is still considered one of the most recognized commercial characters ever. Three new Joe Isuzu commercials are shooting this week to air next week, company executives said. Executives said they plan to use Joe indefinitely and will be developing his character in future spots.

Bracing for an ad slump

NEW YORK (AP) -- Every spring, the television world gears up for an intricate and high-stakes mating ritual: the pre-season advertising marketplace. After weeks of preening up their ratings, networks make lavish presentations to advertisers in mid-May to unveil their fall lineups. When the "upfront" is over a few weeks later, huge sums of money have changed hands and nearly 80 percent of prime time advertising for the coming season has been sold.

The annual upfront market, which begins this year on May 14, is always given close scrutiny by TV insiders. But this time it's taking on a greater importance as an indicator of just how bad the current advertising slowdown might be for other media. Following years of big gains, broadcasters are certain to lose the upper hand this year as advertisers cut back on their budgets because of the slowing economy. The looming threat of an actors' strike isn't helping, either.

Advertising is already slumping at newspapers, radio and magazines. But given the large sums involved in the upfront, the results should provide forecasters with an important measure of advertisers' appetite for spending.