TV companies have a year to pipe down loud ads
LOS ANGELES — Shush, already. That’s the message the Federal Communications Commission is sending with new rules that force broadcast, cable and satellite companies to turn down the volume on blaring TV commercials.
On Tuesday, the FCC passed a set of regulations that will prevent commercials from being louder than the shows around them. It’s all part of the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation (or CALM) Act, which President Obama signed into law last December. The rules go into effect a year from now. Companies that don’t comply will face unspecified FCC action.
Thunderous television ads have annoyed viewers for years. The FCC says people have grumbled about the issue for at least a half century. But sin
Mad Money: Madonna signs $40 million record deal
Mad Money: Madonna signs record deal with Interscope: New disk, single coming 
Madonna waves to fans as she arrives for the premiere of her movie ‘W.E.’ in Venice in September. Film is due to open in the U.S. on Feb. 3.
It’s more money for Madge.
At 53, Madonna has just signed a three-album licensing and distribution deal with Interscope Records, valued at some $40 million, according to Deadline.com’s Nikki Finke.
Maddy’s latest haul arrives on top of the reported $100 million she banked three years ago in a contract with Live Nation Entertainment for concert tours, merchandizing, DVDs, TV specials, and certain elements of her recorded work.
The first album in the Interscope deal arrives in March, according to a joint press release from Live Nation and the label. The kick
Opera Review: Met’s ‘Rodelinda’
NEW YORK—Handel’s 42 operas can best be described as a relentless volley of wonderfully infectious arias, loosely put together by brief recitatives and complicated (and often slightly silly) plots about love and honor, war and betrayal, vice and virtue.
The themes are timeless, the characters well-written and human, yet stylized enough to make Handel’s operas very adaptable for endless scenic reinterpretation—and, of course, the music is absolutely gorgeous.
“Rodelinda” was one of Handel’s biggest hits, both in his own time and after the rediscovery of Handel as an important opera composer (which began in the 1920’s). The Met’s secon
Matt Passmore was second-time lucky
Matt Passmore stars in the TV series The Glades. Supplied by Austar. STV.
SOME Aussie actors spend years trying to break into the US market, but Matt Passmore was second-time lucky.
The McLeod’s Daughters favourite looked set to make his big break in Prison Break creator Paul Scheuring’s new series Masterwork back in 2009.
But when the pilot went nowhere the A&E channel snapped up the 37-year-old for the lead role in their new cop series The Glades.
The swamps of south Florida and Miami’s sprawling metropolis are a long way from Queensland, but the Brisbane native is enjoying his new home away from home.
“It’s very eclectic, beautiful, and very, very absurdly charming – not boring in the least,” he said.
“It’s one of those places you can eat at a different place every single night.
How Playboy’s Million-Dollar Lindsay Lohan Issue Was Scooped by Hacker
The December issue of Playboy magazine — featuring a nude Lindsay Lohan and due to hit newsstands next week — was leaked online Friday after copies of the photos were either hacked or stolen from the magazine and uploaded to a file-sharing website based in Russia, FoxNews.com has learned.
Playboy’s full Lohan article, including 10 nude photos and an interview, was available for purchase through a file-storage service via the website Worldmags.net, a digital magazine clearinghouse based out of the Ukraine.
In fact, the entire magazine was made available for download.