THE PURPOSE OF THE TRADEVINE IS TO ENCOURAGE THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY TO READ THEIR TRADES: VARIETY, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, BACK STAGE, ETC. ENJOY LEARNING ABOUT YOUR INDUSTRY.

EACH FRIDAY, THE TRADEVINE SEEKS OUT A FEW OF THE INFORMATIVE TRADE ARTICLES YOU MAY HAVE MISSED. VISIT THE TRADE, ITSELF, FOR THE ENTIRE ARTICLE.

Hello everybody, I’m Mary Jo Gruber of the Actors Reporter and welcome to the TradeVine. It might be April Fools Day, but we didn’t fool around while searching out the articles for this week. We looked for the best, most informative, and interesting articles, and we did it all for you. As always, our goal here at the TradeVine is to help you stay informed and to keep up with the trades, such as The Hollywood Reporter, Daily Variety, and Backstage.

Back Stage, March 24th-30th. The article is entitled, “When right is wrong,” by Simi Horwitz. In a left-leaning business, conservative actors feel marginalized for their beliefs. There are well-known conservative actors including Gary Sinise, Tom Selleck, James Woods, Robert Davi, James Belushi, Dennis Miller, and Sylvester Stallone. But their numbers are far fewer than those in the left-wing campand, more important, they simply don’t have the clout. For example, Stallone can’t get the same press as George Clooney. Clooney is a media darling. If he says something he’s taken seriously. Id Stallone says something, the media doesn’t take it seriously. It’s a double standard among industry insiders. Democrats can be liberal, moderate, or centrist, whereas a Republican is by definition in sync with the rich, greedy bastards out there with whom the industry has no connection. According to Dale Morris, a West Coast actor and playwright, he is a Republican in his basic beliefs. He believes that people should help themselves, neighborhoods should help each other, and government should stay out of our lives as much as possible. Being a conservative in the entertainment industry can be equal to being a leper to some of the left-leaning people.

Daily Variety, Tuesday, March 29th. “A Social Agenda,” by Marc Graser. Is the Warner Brothers Facebook strategy a gamechanger? For Warner Brothers, Facebook has become a friend and ally. With plans to rent more movies via the social-networking site and nearing a deal to pony up around 90 million dollars, Warner is making an aggressive push to take back control of its home video biz. Should the strategy work, it could provide the ammo that rival studios and independents are looking for to build out their own in-house online rental operations. As it is, “Inception,” “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” and “Yogi Bear” are a few of the films that Facebook now streams for 3 dollars. The first was the “Dark Knight,” which so far has tallied more than 100,000 users for its app. Yes, it seems like it will be a gamechanger, a new way to rent movies from now on.

Hollywood Reporter, April 1st, 2011. “Assault on American Idol,” by Shirley Halperin. American Idol’s dominance in the talent-show sphere has been, for the most part, unchallenged. But now, Mark Burnett is hoping to change that this month, April 2011, or at least dent it a bit, when NBC premieres “The Voice.” The series’ premise is basically the same, a natural talent gets a chance to be heard and discovered, but the process of finding that talent has been fine tuned. Rather than cattle-call-style auditions at 20,000 seat arenas, an A&R team for the show was developed with a very specific singing star in mind. The Voice is looking for individual singers that are artists, preferably no singer-songwriters or divas. Chirstina Aguilera, Cee-Lo Green, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine have signed on as celebrity coaches.

Well, that’s it for the TradeVine this week. I’m Mary Jo Gruber. Thank you very much for watching. And remember, You heard it through the Tradevine!