Funny, I mistook him for the voice of Willie

Click click click:

• Ellen Gray has the amusing story behind Felicity Huffman's upcoming guest appearance on the "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson." Ferguson met Huffman at a party and got her to agree to appear on his show -- only to realize later that the "Desperate Housewives" star had mistaken him for Jon Stewart's booker.  At this rate, Craig and Conan are not just going to be jousting for ratings the next several years, but for the distinction of which late-night host can play the biggest loser. (Link: Philadelphia Daily News | Felicity, meet Craig. Remember, your kansascity.com login will work there.)
• We have an answer to the Pat Robertson question posed in the next item down. Max Robins, then at TV Guide, now the top editor at Broadcasting & Cable, told the program "On the Media" in 2001 -- which was the last time something incendiary said on "The 700 Club" was picked up by wider media -- that Robertson's sale agreement to Fox included the stipulation that Fox would have to include "The 700 Club" in any future sales agreements. Reader Andy Rose, who found the transcript, notes: "I assume that cycle can't go on forever.  Furthermore, I wonder if Disney might use this as a way to get out of the deal to run the show. After all, they might be able to argue to a judge that they were mislead into the purchase... assuming they were inheriting an innocuous religious show, but instead getting a political soapbox that makes them look bad and devalues the property."
• This Salon article provides a heartbreaking postscript to the 2003 documentary "Lost Boys of Sudan," noting that a number of the 4,000 Sudanese refugees to the U.S., known as the "lost boys," have spiraled into substance abuse and suicidal behavior. An expert says many are suffering the clear effects of PTSD, which I don't doubt, given what they witnessed in Sudan and the terrible emotional strain that being separated from family (or knowing that you don't really have a family back home anymore) must take on at least some of them. Deep in the article there is a reference to the film, which is now on DVD, and it does not echo the upbeat account of other news reports at the time. As I noted in my review when "Lost Boys" aired on PBS last year,

Part of the film's appeal no doubt rests in our endless fascination with how immigrants can restart their lives in America. But "Lost Boys of Sudan" isn't really about that. Rather, it's about the slow yet inexorable way in which two young men pull away from the loved ones they have left behind in Africa, without forming equally strong bonds in their new home. Indeed, the Hobbesian struggle of American life leaves them so little time.

"Lost Boys of Sudan," made by two white, middle-class Americans, is less sweeping than a similar PBS series, "The New Americans," that aired earlier this year. Because of its slower pace and the age and nationality of the two boys, this is almost a coming-of-age film, only with subtitles and a loss of innocence that is felt halfway around the world.

Comments

[Wes McGee]

So this is sorta like the old DC Comics-Wonder Woman contract where DC had to publish a set number of WW comics or lose the rights to the character. I believe in DC's case, they eventually came up with dollar amount big enough to buy themselves out of that clause. I doubt that will work against Robertson. I can see him stubbornly refuse any amount of money, just so he can keep the show on ABC Fam.

Given that Disney hasn't tried to just dump the show outright, I'd imagine that if they did, either the ownership of the network reverts back to CBN, or there is a prohibitively high penalty (and maybe legal procedings as well). If my musings are accurate, I think it's only a matter of time before Pat says something so stupid, Disney will just walk away from that network, and maybe try to launch a new, clean network.

But I'm just speculating...