Susan Sarandon's Big Chill
Mon Apr 21, 6:30 PM ET Add Entertainment - E! Online to My Yahoo!
By Lia Haberman
Brrr. In another setback to Hollywood's antiwar activists, TV audiences gave Susan Sarandon's polar biopic a frosty reception last night.
• News: Hall sorry for Bull bashing
• News: Baseball unloads Bull Durham
• News: No place like home for Dixie Chicks
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Sarandon's CBS TV movie Ice Bound was slaughtered by practically everything last night, including ABC's Easter Sunday four-hour broadcast of Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments, starring Charlton Heston (chalk one up for the gun-toting right).
DeMille's 1956 classic drew an average 10.6 million viewers during prime time. Apparently the biblical epic doesn't get old--this is the 23rd telecast since 1973.
Over on the Peacock, NBC honored another old fogey (and noted troop-loving good citizen) with its 100 Years of Hope and Humor tribute to Bob Hope, which drew an average 12.5 million well-wishers during its 7-9 p.m. broadcast, while Law & Order: Criminal Intent captured 14.4 million viewers in its 9 p.m. timeslot opposite Ice Bound.
CBS might covet those numbers, considering Ice Bound, the real-life story of stranded cancer survivor Dr. Jerri Nielsen, placed last in overnight ratings with an average 8.9 million viewers and lost close to 40 percent of audience levels from the Eye network's ratings last Sunday.
Of course, there's no way to tell if the ratings crash stems from anti-Sarandon sentiment or the telepic's sobering subject of a doctor suffering from breast cancer (news - web sites) who must perform her own biopsy--rescuers had to wait four months before approaching the forbidding South Pole surroundings to bring her back to civilization.
Whatever the reasons, it's been a tough couple of months for Sarandon, who recently found herself nixed as a keynote speaker at a United Way charity event in Florida after organizers received complaints about her politics. A more public spiking came from the Baseball Hall of Fame, which snubbed Sarandon and longtime partner Tim Robbins when it canceled a Bull Durham anniversary celebration because of their outspoken antiwar stance.
Since then, Hall prez Dale Petroskey has issued an apology of sorts admitting he "should have handled the matter differently"--especially after the Cooperstown shrine was deluged with a reported 28,000 phone calls, letters and emails. Per the Hall, sentiment was running slightly against the cancellation. Talk about a bad call.
Meanwhile, it's anybody's guess if fellow embattled entertainers the Dixie Chicks (news - web sites) will issue an apology to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue when they tell their side of the Bush-bashing story Friday night during a special ABC Primetime interview with Diane Sawyer.
Lead singer Natalie Maines' controversial comments about the president, shame and loathing in Texas, and the war in Iraq (news - web sites) (made during a concert in London) resulted in a flood of criticism and a backlash that has included a boycott of their music and subsequent nose-diving album sales.
However, the band's agent Rob Light says the hullabaloo hasn't affected sales for the Chicks' upcoming arena tour, which kicks off May 1 in South Carolina. "To be brutally honest, there has been no effect, other than the odd phone call to a building inquiring about a refund. There's a lot more noise than action," he told Billboard magazine. "Actually, the buildings are getting more [people] asking, if there are refunds, can they buy the tickets," he concluded.
One definite casualty of the current conflict is the military feature Buffalo Soldier. On Monday, Miramax postponed the dark comedy's release for a fifth time, citing concerns that the movie's subject matter would be about as welcome as Maines appearing at a Republican pep rally (in effigy, maybe).
At issue is the movie's portrayal of a group of U.S. soldiers, as drug-dealing deadbeats and psychos, stationed in Germany just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The movie debuted at the Toronto Film Festival just days before September 11, which then effectively court-martialed the Joaquin Phoenix flick.
Test screenings in New York in January and December 2002 and an appearance at this year's Sundance Film Festival (news - web sites) have done little to help the studio conquer its release jitters (an audience member reportedly tossed a bottle at the director's head at the screening in Park City). War in Iraq only served to sidetrack the film further. Just this year, the movie has moved from March to May to July 25 on Miramax's slate.
"We don't want this film to be misinterpreted, and we want to be sensitive to the current situation in the world," Miramax's CEO Rick Sands told the Los Angeles Times on Monday.
Barring any geo-political conflicts, terrorist attacks or angry army supporters, audiences in New York and Los Angeles will be able to catch the feature this summer.
