Relativity ups Tooley to co-prexy

TooleyRelativity Media has upped Tucker Tooley to co-president, while Robbie Brenner has been promoted to his prior position of production prexy. Tooley will oversee day-to-day operations alongside current president and CFO Steve Bertram as he continues to oversee Relativity's film slate. He'll report directly to Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh. Brenner, who most recently served as exec VP of production, will continue to report directly to Tooley. Since 2007, Tooley has been instrumental in helping Kavanaugh turn Relativity into a full-fledged studio, and he oversaw production for Tarsem Singh's 3D epic "Immortals," which will bow in November as Relativity's most expensive film to date. Tooley recently worked on Steven Soderbergh's "Haywire," the comedy "21 and Over" and Singh's untitled Snow White film. He also exec produced box office hit "Limitless" and prestige pic "The Fighter." As president of production, Brenner will continue to shepherd Relativity's homegrown productions including "Immortals," "21 and Over" and the Snow White project. She previously worked on "The Fighter" and "Dear John," and was integral in helping Relativity acquire "Catfish." The studio is currently in pre-production on "The Crow," "Safe Haven" and Scott Cooper's "Out of the Furnace." "Tucker has been the backbone of Relativity since he joined us, and will be vital to our growth moving forward," said Kavanaugh. "As Tucker's role evolves, there is no better person to guide our production team than Robbie Brenner." "It's been my pleasure serving as President of Production at Relativity. What we've accomplished in this short time has been incredibly rewarding and I'm very proud of it," said Tooley. "I look forward to working closely with Ryan and Steve as we continue to grow in the years to come. Robbie will be a fantastic President Of Production and I'm thrilled to have her continue to shape our slate and step into this new role." "I'm honored to step into this role at Relativity, where our diverse slate of films continues to expand," added Brenner. "I know our talented production team can cement our place as a distributor in the years ahead." Prior to Relativity, Tooley served as CEO of Tooley Prods., where he independently-produced TV shows and feature films for over a decade including Lee Daniels' "Shadowboxer" and Ric Roman Waugh's "Felon." Tooley previously was a producing partner at Newman/Tooley Films and a creative exec at Interlight Pictures. After attending NYU Film School, Brenner worked at Miramax Films for nine years, where she cultivated great relationships with filmmakers. She then went on to work at 20th Century Fox as senior VP of production. Later, Brenner ran the classics division of Davis Entertainment. Prior to joining Relativity, Brenner produced such films as "Haven," "Deception," "A Perfect Getaway" and most recently, Marc Forster's "Machine Gun Preacher." Contact Jeff Sneider at jeff.sneider@variety.com

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SPC nabs rights to 'Where Do We Go Now?'

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all US rights to Nadine Labaki's "Where Do We Go Now?" from Path International. The pic, Lebanon's entry for the Oscars this year, is set in a remote village where the church and the mosque stand side by side and follows the antics of the town's women to keep their blowhard men from starting a religious war. Produced by Anne-Dominque Toussaint of Les Films des Tournelles, "Where Do We Go Now?" premiered in the "Un Certain Regard" section at Cannes this year, then won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and Best European Film at the San Sebastian Film Festival. Labaki's "Caramel" was Lebanon's entry for the 2007 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Contact Dave McNary at dave.mcnary@variety.com

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Roman Polanski: A Movie Memoir Is Surprise Addition To Zurich Film Festival

Roman Polanski Attending Zurich Film Festival There’s one more reason Roman Polanski has came back towards the Zurich Film Festival, where he was arrested 2 yrs ago by government bodies who attempted unsuccessfully to create him to the U.S. to manage a 1977 legal rape charge. Following the festival presented its lifetime achievement award around the Oscar-winning director Tuesday evening, it offered in the surprise world premiere from the documentary Roman Polanski: A Movie Memoir, by which Polanski foretells friend and producer Andrew Braunsberg about his career, the murder of his wife Sharon Tate and the recent arrest.Laurent Bouzereau directed the feature-length docu. It had been in the 2009 Swiss festival, where Polanski was initially to to get the lifetime recognition, he was arrested — he never managed to get towards the fest, getting stopped in the airport terminal. He offered amount of time in jail and was under house arrest until he effectively fought against off extradition towards the U.S., making today’s return trip possible. (UPDATE: Polanski thanked everyone else after accepting his award Tuesday evening: “Better late than never,” he stated in the speech, based on Reuters. “It’s an unusual anniversary for me personally, 2 yrs, day for day. … Song from it I’d rather forget, however i’m pleased to be around. It's a very moving moment for me personally so not expect any speeches.”)

FBI makes arrest in Sony hacking case

The FBI arrested a Phoenix man on Thursday suspected of hacking into the computer systems at Sony Pictures Entertainment.Cody Kretsinger, 23, of Phoenix, is accused of being a member of the LulzSec hacking group that claimed credit for hacking into the Sony computer systems from May 27 to June 2. Kretsinger is known by the moniker "recursion." A grand jury indicted him on Sept. 2 on charges of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer, but it was kept under seal until his arrest.The FBI alleges that Kretsinger carried out the attack by sending a proxy server to mask his IP address. He and other hackers obtained confidential information from Sony computers using an "SQL injection" attack against its website, which is used by hackers to seize on a computer system's vulnerabilities. At the time, LulzSec, affiliated with the international hackers known as Anonymous, bragged about how easy it was to break into the Sony system.The FBI also claims that Kretsinger and others posted the stolen info on the LulzSec website, and then announced it on Twitter.Kretsinger was to make his first court appearance in Phoenix on Thursday, but the FBI plans to request that he be moved to Los Angeles. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison. Contact Ted Johnson at ted.johnson@variety.com

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Generate An Income Met Your Mother Casts Katie Holmes Because the Infamous Slutty Pumpkin

Katie Holmes It is the great slutty pumpkin, Charlie Brown! Generate An Income Met Your Mother has cast Katie Holmes because the oft-recommended but never-seen character, Vulture reviews. The 32-year-old former Dawson's Creek star (and Mrs. Tom Cruise) will guest-star inside a special Halloween episode from the CBS comedy, set to air the following month. Take a look at all of the familiar faces coming back to TV this season As die-hard Mother fans know, the Slutty Pumpkin is really a lady pointed out at the start of the series' first season who Ted (Josh Radnor) once met in a Hallow's eve but later lost touch with. "Katie is really a lovely and gifted actress, and that's why we have saved on her possibly probably the most classily named character within our show's history," co-creator and executive producer Craig Thomas told the website, observing the role was "literally six seasons within the making." Holmes last made an appearance around the small screen within the miniseries The Kennedys. She'll next come in the Adam Sandler film, Jack and Jill. Do you consider Holmes is the best choice to experience the Slutty Pumpkin?

Fox's 'X-Factor' opens to 12 million

Primetime's latest singing competition series, Fox's "The X-Factor," bowed to solid but unspectacular numbers Wednesday, a night that saw ABC close strong with series highs for "Modern Family" - the night's No. 1 show in demos - and a good start for drama "Revenge." According to preliminary national estimates from Nielsen, the Simon Cowell-fronted "X-Factor" opened with a two-hour episode that averaged a 4.2 rating/12 share in adults 18-49 and 12.1 million viewers overall - below the 5.1 demo score that NBC's "The Voice" notched with its premiere in late April, and less than one-half the 9.8 that Fox's "American Idol" opened with in mid-January. While very good fall premiere numbers for any other new show, expectations industrywide were that "X-Factor" would come out of the gate quite a bit stronger.It was beaten in the 9 o'clock hour by ABC's hourlong "Modern Family" (6.0/15 in 18-49, 14.3 million viewers overall) and also was only slightly ahead in demos over CBS' potent "Criminal Minds" (4.1/10 in 18-49, 14.1 million viewers overall), which beat "X-Factor" in total viewers. "Modern Family" was up 18% vs. its year-ago premiere, while lead-in "The Middle," whose hourlong premiere featured guest star Ray Romano, also hit series highs (3.0/9 in 18-49, 9.6 million viewers overall).Despite facing "X-Factor" and a stronger "Modern Family," CBS vet "Criminal Minds" was impressively up 2% in 18-49 vs. last year, while "CSI" was a 7% improvement over last year's premiere of "The Defenders" at 10 o'clock. Earlier, "Survivor" (3.1/9 in 18-49, 10.4 million viewers overall) withstood the "X-Factor" bow reasonably well, dipping 9% below last week's season premiere but coming in about 20% below last year's second episode.ABC used the hourlong "Modern Family" to lead into its new 10 p.m. drama "Revenge," which won its hour in 18-49 (3.4/9) while drawing 10.1 million viewers overall. "Revenge" will have to do without a "Modern Family" lead-in next week as "Happy Endings" takes over the 9:30 p.m. slot, but it's already clear that the new soapy drama is an improvement over last year's dud "The Whole Truth," which opened to a mere 1.5 demo score.Transplanted CBS vet "CSI" (3.1/8 in 18-49, 12.6 million viewers overall) led the 10 p.m. hour in total viewers as expected with its first original episode on Wednesday and was neck-and-neck with "Revenge" for the hour's lead among adults 25-54.It was a tough night for NBC, though leadoff comedy "Up All Night," which drew solid numbers with its special preview last Wednesday, showed some life (2.3/7 in 18-49, 6.0 million viewers overall) -up over last year's "Undercovers" and the best performance for a regular show in the timeslot for the net since December. Auds quickly turned elsewhere at 8:30 p.m., however, as "Free Agents" had a meek time-period bow (1.3/4 in 18-49, 3.9 million viewers overall). Things stayed quiet at 9 o'clock for the Peacock with the second-season premiere of "Harry's Law" (1.2/3 in 18-49, 7.3 million viewers overall), whose low numbers made life difficult for "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (2.3/6 in 18-49, 7.6 million viewers overall), which ran a distant third at 10 o'clock and was down sharply from last year. And the CW barely registered with "Hater" (0.4/1 in 18-49, 1.1 million viewers overall) and the once-vital "America's Next Top Model" (0.7/2 in 18-49, 1.6 million viewers overall). Preliminary 18-49 averages for the night: Fox, 4.2/12; ABC, 4.1/11; CBS, 3.5/9; NBC, 1.8/5; Univision, 1.7/4; CW, 0.6/2.In total viewers: CBS, 12.3 million; Fox, 12.1 million; ABC, 11.4 million; NBC, 6.6 million; Univision, 3.7 million; CW, 1.3 million. Contact Rick Kissell at rick.kissell@variety.com

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Happy 61st Birthday, Bill Murray! What's His Most Underrated Moment?

Though I like arguing on behalf of underrated performers (Melanie Griffith, for example), sometimes it’s more fun to commemorate our indisputably great actors. Bill Murray is the ne plus ultra of deadpan comic delivery — salty as the Dead Sea, dry as Death Valley, and great in almost everything. He’s 61 today, which means it’s our duty to shine light upon his more underrated moments in movies. What’s your pick? I can’t limit myself to just one, so here are two that immediately sprang to mind: In Tootsie, Murray delivers great, bastardly rants. Jessica Lange should give about a 1/4 of that Oscar to him. In Get Low, a cute but inconsequential movie from last year where Murray plays an old-timey funeral parlor director, he bemoans the lack of fresh corpses in town. It’s fun to hear him reference Chicago in a familiar way here, too. Second City forever! What are your picks, dear readers? Feel free to wow me with your Kingpin comprehension.

Cenk Uygur joins Current TV

Open former MSNBC commentator Cenk Uygur has showed up a completely new gig right alongside another open former MSNBC commentator. The pundit's "The Youthful Turks" will work on Current TV at 7 p.m. just like a lead-straight into "Countdown With Keith Olbermann." Uygur moored 6 p.m. show "MSNBC Live" in the month of the month of january of the season until June, when he was attracted within the slot. Uygur left MSNBC, telling Pacifica Radio's left-wing news show "Democracy Now!" he happen to be chastised for his tone by network brass. A representative for MSNBC, however, mentioned the cabler was simply searching to move Uygur to a different timeslot. Al Sharpton has already established inside the net's 6 p.m. hour. The move gives Current two open former cable bloggers around which to create its schedule. The little network is rebranding itself in the original user-created mandate with a 24-hour news and commentary funnel, with Olbermann becasue it is public face. Contact Mike Thielman at mike.thielman@variety.com

All My Children Alum Mary Fickett Dies at 83

Mary Fickett All My Children star Mary Fickett died Thursday, according to The Associated Press. She was 83. Fickett, who won an Emmy for her portrayal of nurse Ruth Martin, was an original castmember on the ABC soap, which premiered in 1970. Fickett retired from All My Children in 2000. See other celebrities who have died this year "We at ABC were very saddened tolearn about the passing of one of All My Children's original cast members," the network said in a statement."As we honor All My Children's 41 years on ABC,we cannothelp but recognize and remember Mary's wonderfuldepiction of Pine Valley's revered Ruth. Ruth's marriage to chief of staff Dr.Joe Martin provided the bedrock upon which the town ofPine Valley was built. Their marriage was always a stabilizing force that represented 'home' for many." Before All My Children, Fickett starred alongside Bing Crosby in Man on Fire. She was also nominated for a Tony for her turn as Eleanor Roosevelt in Sunrise at Campobello. Susan Lucci on early Erica Kane, All My Children without Agnes and Sarah Michelle Gellar Fickett is survived by a daughter, a son, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. ABC plans to dedicate the Wednesday, Sept. 21 episode to Fickett. The final episode of All My Children on daytime airs two days later.

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Keck's Exclusives: Hot in Cleveland Stages a Just Shoot Me Reunion

Wendie Malick, Laura San Giacomo After reuniting Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves and Betty White with their former sitcom co-stars, TV Land's Hot in Cleveland is finally giving some reunion love to Wendie Malick. In its third season, the series will bring Wendie back together with her Just Shoot Me! co-star Laura San Giacomo. The ladies worked side by side on the NBC sitcom from 1997-2003, with Laura's Maya often butting heads with Wendie's Nina Van Horn.Laura will share most of her Cleveland scenes with Valerie's Melanie Moretti. "Laura is playing Melanie's lesbian sister, Caroline," reveals executive producer Todd Milliner. "We've wanted to have Laura on for a long time but wanted to make it a role distant from her character on Just Shoot Me!"It seems there has been some distance between the sisters. "Melanie and Caroline haven't talked in a while," adds Milliner. "We're hoping they can reestablish their sibling relationship."Frasier alum John Mahoney will also be back for at least three episodes as Elka's friend. And Milliner is actively trying to lure both David Hyde Pierce and Kelsey Grammer to come play with Jane.Season Three of Hot in Cleveland premieres November 30 at 10/9c; Laura's episode airdate is still TBD.Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

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Chinese B.O. increases 77%

BEIJING -- Chinese B.O. totaled 4.1 billion yuan ($640 million) in June, This summer and August, up 77% on this past year. Foreign photos centered the marketplace. The outcomes would be the latest proof of the boom within the Chinese biz, that has spurred the eye of numerous Hollywood companies, and it has seen the kind of Legendary and Relativity sign co-operation deals in recent days. However the domination from the B.O. by overseas movies will prompt further soul searching among Chinese government bodies and orgs attempting to concurrently safeguard and raise the local biz. From the 60 movies proven throughout the 3-month period, the very best 10 entertainers required 80% from the box office, based on data from Entgroup, which compiles B.O. data in China. Of those 10, five were Chinese movies, while five foreign films paid for for 70% of B.O. Transformers: Dark from the Moon" was the very best carrying out pic within the quarter, consuming $170 million, "Kung Fu Panda 2" required $69 million, and "Harry Potter and also the Deathly Hallows: Part 2" required $64 million. The very best carrying out Chinese movie throughout the summer time was the propaganda epic concerning the founding from the Communist Party 90 years back, "The Founding of the Party," with $63 million. The Hollywood photos arrived included in the quota system operated through the Chinese government that enables roughly 20 foreign movies annually into China on the revenue discussing basis. The B.O. target for 2011, set by the government's official "Blue Book" cultural set of the entertainment industry, is placed at $2 billion, also it looks likely that a number of foreign films will take into account the majority of this figure. Pressure will probably increase to make certain that local method is also strongly symbolized. The quarterly B.O. figure means auds close to 115 million. This past year, B.O. between June and August was $360 million, with auds of 68.two million. Data in the Condition Administration of Radio, Film and tv (SARFT) demonstrated that within the first half of the season, local films required in $450 million, a rise of 38% within the same period this past year, while foreign films made $430 million, up 1.6%, within the first six several weeks. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com

Report: Carol Bartz Out As Yahoo Boss

Carol Bartz continues to be changed as Boss of Yahoo, based on a study about the tech site Everything Digital, whose sources say CFO Tim Morse continues to be hired towards the publish with an interim basis after the organization’s board of company directors — including chairman Roy Bostock and co-founder Jerry Yang — made a decision which was performed today. Yahoo had apparently started to lose its way before Bartz required over for Yang in The month of january 2009, and the organization continues to be thinking about all its options, from generating purchases to splitting itself into parts — and making Yahoo a mind-scratcher for traders. The organization’s stock cost was up 5.3% after hrs today. More because this story evolves.