Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Mary Tyler Moore: Wins Lifetime Achievement Award from Screen Actors Guild

Sweet.  Mary Tyler Moore, who hit it big co-starring with Dick Van Dyke as the wife an ad executive, was handed the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award by Van Dyke.

From there she went on to even greater fame as Mary Richards, a single career girl in the big city.  At that time that was a pioneering persona when most women were portrayed as married or loose. 

Meanwhile Van Dyke had iconic roles in films, ranging from Chimney Sweeps to drunks.  Moore's most memorable film role was that of the cold wife in "Ordinary People."

"The Good Wife" - Will gets off, for now

It's obvious.  Alicia still cares about Will.  Maybe even in a romantic way.  As he went through his ordeal before the Grand Jury, she was there for him.  Fortunately, he got off the hook, at least for now.  There was no indictment. 

But a miffed Wendy Scott Carpenter won't give up.  She is referring the case to the Illinois Bar Association.  In the coming attractions we see that Will is suspended or maybe worse.  Diane asks him, "What will you do now?"  Like Diane, Will has no real life outside the law.

Meanwhile, Peter is outraged that Carpenter called in his wife to testify at the Grand Jury.  She was asked if she had had a sexual relationship with Will and if that relationship led to special treatment at the law firm. Alicia walked out of the hearing. 

On this one, Peter and Alicia are on the same side.  Will it bring them back together?

AOL & Huffington Post: Not marriage made in page views

A year ago, AOL chief executive officer Tim Armstrong eagerly waited on the altar for his bride Arianna Huffington.  Her dowry was Huffington Post.  He courted her with a $315 million pay-out.  Few brides, even celebrity ones, have had the deal sealed with such big numbers.  At the time, AOL's unique visitors totaled 78.9 million.

Today, a year after, reports the NEW YORK NEWSand linked to by the influential Mediabistro.com, the total is down to 73.6 million (Source: Nielsen).  This is being released just before AOL announces its earning on February 1 and the investment community's eyes will be on it. 

There is also another constituency who should be mighty interested in the health and welfare of AOL.  That's the writer.  Some writers such as Lisa Belkin left prestigious positions at Establishment media.  At THE NEW YORK TIMES, Belkin had been authoring the Mommy blog "Motherlode."  She was doing well enough in that role to attract the attention of Huffington Post.  The rest is history and one lawsuit by THE NEW YORK TIMES against Huffington Post et al. for naming its own new blog "Parentlode." The suit was settled.  Huffington Post dropped the name "Parentlode." Belkin is blogging.  But we wonder for how much longer. 

The situation could be fragile for many of the writers hired by Huffington Post.  For example, the corporation could be purchased by a private equity firm which implements a new strategy. That might not include so much original content.  The business model could be that of an aggregator like the wildly successful and enduring Drudge Report.

A purge could add to the glut of the content providers already out here and finally getting on our feet after the twin assaults of technology and widescale layoffs in journalism.  For this reason, we writers wish AOL well.

Full disclosure.  I had been a contract blogger for AOL.  Recently, Huffington Post linked to a feature I published with INDIE READER on how to promote books via ecommerce.

Fatal Christmas Fire, Stamford, CT - Mother Madonna Badger attempts suicide

Many asked how the ad executive Madonna Badger, who had lost her three young daughters and parents in a fatal Christmas house fire in Stamford, Connecticut, could endure the loss.  They now have their answer: Badger couldn't. 

The NEW YORK NEWS reports that Badger attempted suicide.  She had been rushed to the hospital and is now in a "safe house."  Her lawyer refused to provide any comment to the media.

This blog wishes this mother and daughter the strength to bear her grief.

Geezer Cool

How do you know geezers are cool?  We live the power of now.  In fact, we are very much like Generation Flux FAST COMPANY describes in its current issue.   Generation Flux embraces that business is chaotic, careers come and go, and that's the way it is. Geezer cool embeds those same values and behaviors.

Who are the cool Geezers?  Clint Eastwood, Hillary Clinton, Betty White and my new BFF who is designing jewelry which a brandname retailer is negotiating to buy.  Some days but not all I exude Geezer cool.  On those, I talk about how some underpaid boring assignment can be leveraged to a premium paying exciting assignment happening in Brazil.  On uncool days I, like Captain Ahab, talk aloud about those who supposedly had done me wrong, from 20,30, 40, even 50 years ago. 

Reflection: Will cool win out over uncool in my struggle to exit the drama of the past?

Talbots: Remember when we Hillary Clinton pants suit mid-level professionals shopped there?

Retailer Talbots had cast a spell on us Baby Boomer women.  We were the first generation to climb the corporate ladder.  And shopping here for professional clothes and the casual outfits we needed for those company retreats was always mistake-proof. 

I went to pitch in my Talbots navy blue pants suit and the midlevel female executive in charge of that account told me that she had the same pants suit in black.  Yeah, back then we were Hillary Clinton kind of women.

Then Talbots lost its way.  I deconstruct what happened in my post today for financial information powerhouse Motley Fool.   Here you can read all about it.

Mass Market: Don Draper would be writing SuperBowl ads today

There is a mass market.  It comes together for sports.  It surges for the SuperBowl. 

BUSINESS INSIDER reports that, on the average, 30-second spots sold for SuperBowl 2012 @$3.5 million each, which was up from last year.  When Don Draper of "Mad Men" was writing the ads for it - that was the first SuperBowl in 1967 - air time had cost $40,000.

But the mass market is shrinking for the President's State of the Union, where the drama is predictable.  The camera tracks the big political names coming in, listening, and beaming or frowning, depending on their party affiliation.  According to Nielsen, reports "Media Decoder" in THE NEW YORK TIMES, the audience for this year's address was about 37.8 million, down from 42.8 million last year, and 52.3 million the year before.

In addition to stale performance art, the State of the Union in this presidential campaign year carried too much sales baggage.  Watching it was much like sitting through an infomercial.

 

"Criminal Minds" - Prentiss has to mourn her own death

Time has passed since Prentiss was almost killed and then she went into hiding.  The team assumed she had died.  She seems to be functioning well but Hotchner and the therapist aren't too sure. 

The therapist tells her she hasn't as yet mourned her own death.  Hotchner details to her how she is overcompensating, primarily to run from accepting the trauma as having happened, processing the pain, and then going on.  Finally Prentiss falls apart or, as she puts it to Hotchner, is having a bad day.

This crisis is generated by the Piano Man case they are working on.  A real nut job he rapes them and then rapes them again.  He enjoys having them live in fear.  The new twist is that he has started to kill them.  He killed one and is moving on to the second, Regina.  She connects the dots and kidnaps him.  She is ready to kill him when the team arrives.  When she is supposed to be debriefed by Prentiss, she turns the table on her.  All those memories of Doyle returning to kill her and almost getting that done flood Prentiss with feelings.

Does Prentiss have the strength to get on the other side of this emotional upheaval?  That's what we will find out in the next couple of weeks.

State of the Union: On-demand Facebook makes waiting for professional commentators yesterday

Web and mobile technology might not only be eating the jobs of those well-paid Establishment journalists.  A social network like Facebook might also be putting out to pasture those even better paid television political commentators who deconstruct public addresses after they are over.

As Jennifer Moore reports in ALL FACEBOOK, commentary about the State of the Union were posted on Facebook in real time.  And that's exactly how human beings experience the world: in the moment.

Think about it.  Does an employer wait until after interviewing an applicant to collect and process impressions about suitability?  Of course not.  Fox News leader Roger Ailes hit his first big communications homerun in noting and broadcasting that first and lasting impressions are made in real time in the first few minutes, or even moments.

Diane Sawyer: Little Miss Perfect gets spanked by meteorologist

 In the career jungle of television, Diane Sawyer has remained Little Miss Perfect.  She didn't even age in a way that demanded a face lift like some TV personalities and if she did get one, well, it was perfect.

Perfectly she took on the role of the first female news anchor who succeeded.  Perfectly she does the right affect without ever over-doing it.

Well Little Miss Perfect got spanked by a man of science.  He is James Spann, a meteorologist.  He took Sawyer to task for describing with her usual her earnestness that the tornado hit Alabama "without warning."  He disagreed.  He pointed out that there had been days of warning that the twister was on its way and about 20 to 30 minutes warning that it would be in town very shortly.

Given that Spann is making this an issue, it's unlikely it will go away without a hit to the Sawyer brand.