THE ONLY U.S. MEDIA LION awarded at Cannes this year went to Oprah for the much talked-about giveaway of more than 200 Pontiac G6 cars to Oprah Winfrey’s studio audience, engineered by GM’s media-planning agency, Publicis Groupe’s GM Planworks, Detroit. It was the only U.S. entry among more than 1,000 in the category to win a Lion.
ROGER EBERT’S STAR DEDICATION on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood Thursday was studded with stars, fellow movie columnists and friends of the critical icon. Ebert’s wife Chaz hosted a luncheon at the El Capitan restaurant with A-list guests. Among the Walk attendees were Andrew Davis, Jerry Kupcinet, Haskell Wexler, Irene Michaels and Joe Mantegna . A cocktail party at the Peninsula Hotel lavishly capped the day’s festivities.
A FILM WISCONSIN MEETING takes place June 28 at the Regency Suites Hotel, Green Bay, to keep the big mo’ going for a private version of the soon-defunct Wisconsin Film Office fading to black June 30. Scott Robbe reports that members are meeting with Hollywood movers and shakers like “Airplane” producer/directors Jerry and David Zucker to launch the new initiative with a big dose of L.A. business.
IFP AND ALLIANCE FRANCAISE have formed, well, an alliance to present French films to the community. The bi-weekly screenings at the Cine Club at Alliance Francaise, 810 N. Dearborn, officially start in August. Screenings will be free to IFP and Alliance Francaise members and a mere $5 donation for non-members.
ACCOUNT ACTION. Starcom Mediavest was awarded the whopping $3.2 billion General Motors media account … Bagby & Co. was being named one of three Sony agencies of record. The others are Fallon/Minneapolis; McKinney + Silver/Durham, N.C. … CNA Insurance went to Magnani Continuum Marketing … And Motorola selected FCBi to handle its interactive account.
CD JON WYVILLE rejoins Y&R and his former partner David Loew after Wyville’s year at Fallon/Minneapolis on the now-gone BMW account. The reunited Y&R team will oversee work on Miller and the Travel Channel ? New DDB senior producers on Anheuser-Busch are Brian Smego and Will St. Clair, formerly with Y&R and TBWA\Chiat\Day -L.A., respectively ? Upshot added Scott Fujii as VP/broadcast and print production, from CFM Direct.
YVONNE FURTH, president/coo of Draft Chicago was named 2005 Advertising Woman of the year by the Women’s Ad Club and the Chicago Ad Federation. Furth will be honored at a gala luncheon Sept. 14 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chicago.
NEW AT OMNICOM, DDB’s parent, is Unit 7, an agency marketing itself as a specialist in the behavioral and social sciences — such as linguistics, relationship psychology, and anthropology. The culture of Unit 7 is based on “collaborative invention of marrying the best of both worlds–database marketing and analytics with consumer insights, marketing research, and behavioral psychology,” said a spokesperson.
JOHN MALKOVICH went to Bosco Productions’ audio studio for ADR on three of his Mr. Mudd film company’s upcoming features: “Libertine,” “Art School Confidential,” and “Klimt.” Angelo Bosco reports that Paris-resident Malkovich was “a very nice, down-to-earth guy, and we’d be happy to have him back anytime.” Malkovich stars in “Drunk Boat,” currently filming in Chicago.
KUDOS TO JACK KLUES, CEO of Starcom MediaVest Group, the winner of the 2005 American Advertising Federation Silver Medal Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to advertising. Klues receives the award at a special event hosted by the Chicago Advertising Federation, Aug. 10 at Galleria Marchetti.
DEANNA SHOSS is the new president/CEO of the League of Chicago Theatres. She succeeds the very able Marj Halperin who leaves the League stronger than ever after eight years at the non-profit collective. Shoss, who assumes her new position July 5, leaves her job as director of promotions at the Chicago Dept. of Aviation.
GLOBAL VIDEO’S GEORGE MARTON doesn’t want to make his duplication company the biggest, only the best, he says. Towards that end, he’s added veterans Carl Birns and Joe Palese. Birns was with duplicators Allied Vaughn, and Palese was a co-owner of Cinema Video (now Network Century), which had one of the biggest labs and duplication departments in town. Global Video has a staff of 16.
JEREMY PIVEN comes to town July 15 for a sneak preview of an upcoming episode of “Entourage,” now in its second season on HBO, at the Leg Room. Piven, an Evanstonian, is a member of the Piven theatre family and school.
SOUNDS LIKE THE PERFECT MARRIAGE. The rollout of digital cinema is being facilitated by a strategic alliance of Kodak and Barco projectors. Kodak will provide digital cinema systems for preshow use, and Barco will sell is 2K DLP digital camera projection systems. As part of the agreement, Barco will use Kodak color science and image management to expand the capability and performance of its cinema projectors.
WE ERRED when we said Chicago was not visible in the AICP show last week in New York. Ogilvy and DDB commercials were on the reel: O&M for Dove soap, DDB for perennial favorite Budweiser, and Office Max, whose music was arranged by SPANK! Music. You can see the reel in November when the show comes to town.
PERA’S 2005 PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT RENTAL RESOURCE GUIDE is available for download at its Website, www.pera.ws. It includes three files: USA rental members; international rental members; vendor members. The files are designed for Adobe Acrobat 6.0 and above and can be downloaded via the link Download PERA files.
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