In the news
'The Reagans' will air Sunday after Thanksgiving
By wire services
Published November 18, 2003
It turns out you won't have to wait till "sometime next year" to see the controversial TV movie The Reagans, pulled by CBS for apparently failing to present a fair and balanced portrait of Ronnie, Nancy and Company.
Showtime will air the film at 8 p.m. Nov. 30. The Sony Pictures Television production stars James Brolin and Judy Davis as President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy.
"We just thought it didn't make sense to prolong this and bring it on next year," said Robert Greenblatt, Showtime entertainment president. "I'm just tired of people making judgments on this when they haven't seen it. Let them see it."
Directed by Robert Allan Ackerman (Tennessee Williams' The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone), The Reagans script is based in part on First Ladies, a book by Carl Anthony, a former speechwriter for Mrs. Reagan.
The film takes a look at the 40th president and his family.
Fans of Reagan, accusing CBS of distorting his legacy while he's sick with Alzheimer's disease, had mounted a furious protest. CBS denied it was bowing to pressure in handing off the project to Showtime, but said producers made a film that crossed the line into advocacy.
"The Producers' breaks box office records - again
NEW YORK - The Producers broke its own Broadway box office record the day tickets went on sale for the limited-run return of Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick to the show.
Sales on Sunday totaled $3.5-million as of 10 p.m. - the highest one-day take in Broadway history, according to Monday editions of the New York Times.
Tickets went on sale at noon Sunday at the St. James Theatre, by telephone and on the Internet. Prices ranged from $30 to $100.
More than 39,000 tickets had been sold by the time the St. James box office closed at 10 p.m., the show's producers said. Internet and telephone orders were still being taken after that time.
The musical - based on Mel Brooks' 1968 movie of the same name - also set the previous one-day record for Broadway sales, scoring more than $3-million the day after it opened in April 2001.
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