Oprah is finally taking OWNership of her fledgling TV channel.

The Oprah Winfrey Network (aka OWN) announced today that its namesake founder is stepping up to CEO and chief creative officer, effective this fall, in addition to her current role as chairman.

Erik Logan and Sheri Salata, current presidents of Harpo Studios, the television arm of Winfrey's Harpo Productions, will assume co- presidency of OWN, effective immediately, in a clear signal that Harpo will now focus all production on OWN, while Winfrey will now focus her energies on the Discovery-backed cable channel.

"I am ready to dedicate my full creative energy and focus as the full time CEO of OWN," said Winfrey. "By aligning the mission, talent and leadership of Erik, Sheri, the OWN team, the Harpo team, along with expertise of (Discovery Communications CEO) David Zaslav, Peter (Liguori, OWN's interim CEO) and all of Discovery behind us, we can unleash the full potential of the network."Continue reading...

As a Marine, what's the best way to get a date with a hot celebrity to the Marine Corps Ball? Apparently all you have to do is just ask.

The above video, posted on a YouTube channel dubbed GoWithMeMila on June 7th, and attracting more over 800,000 views already, is going viral. It features Sgt Scott Moore from the 3rd Battalion 2nd Marines in Musa Qala, Afghanistan, with a proposal for That 70's Show TV star turned movie actress Mila Kunis.

Wearing all the gear he could get his hands on, and with a suave style, he asks Mila to the Marine Corp Ball on November 18th, in Greenville NC. Does she accept?Continue reading...

The UK is clearly still grappling with its new product placement rules, with a new arena now causing consternation: TV stars' off-air product mentions.

Case in point: The long-running British soap opera Coronation Street, which has been on the telly for more than 7,600 episodes and has a fiercely loyal fan base. That’s one of the reasons show producers reportedly got their knickers in a twist when some of the cast members mentioned particular brand names on their Twitter accounts.

One in particular, the show's socially chatty 19-year-old actress Brooke Vincent, who has more than 77,000 followers, has mentioned a number of brands in her tweets about what's she's up to with her mates, including hitting McDonald’s (above), Domino’s pizza, and Sienna X fake tan, according to the Daily Mail.Continue reading...

Without apologies that may have been due one of his favorite Tea Party Republicans, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh has dug up the whole Paul Revere thing again.

Only this time, instead of backstopping Palin’s arcane understanding of Revolutionary War history, the conservative-talk-show giant is launching his own iced-tea line — with a Reverian twist.Continue reading...

And in other New Zealand news today...

At one point in broadcaster Richard Long’s run from 1988-2003 with Television New Zealand, the network tried to move him from his weekday 6 p.m. slot to the weekends. Public outcry was so loud that he was moved back to the evening edition.

Since retired, Long’s name has been coming up a lot lately in the halls of New Zealand government. He was hired as a spokesman to promote Hanover Finance a few years back, a company that ended up collapsing. 3News of New Zealand reports that the collapse left “16,000 New Zealanders half a billion dollars out of pocket.” (Long, claiming he suffered too with a $50,000 loss, announced he was "really sorry.")Continue reading...

Kim Kardashian is getting married — and it’s causing a minor rift with her mother. Not because Ma doesn’t like the fellow, New Jersey Nets forward Kris Humphries. And it’s not because of the wedding preparations for the reality TV star’s big summer event. No, it’s because 30-year-old Kim Kardashian plans to lose her last name, the golden family brand, and become Kim Humphries.

“I don’t think she should take his name and be Kim Humphries,” her mom, the 55-year-old Kris Jenner, reportedly said. “I think she needs to be Kim Kardashian because she’s worked so hard to get where she is.”

Of course Jenner ditched the last name of Kardashian, too, when she married Olympic legend Bruce Jenner. But her daughters — the K-named trio that is Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney — have made their names household ones since Keeping Up With The Kardashians debuted on the E! Network back in October of 2007.Continue reading...

During the season finale of American Idol last week, host Ryan Seacrest hit one of the few sour notes of his ten-year tenure on the show. In a segment in which Seacrest announced the giveaway of Ford vehicles to finalists Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, as well as to each singer’s favorite hometown educator, Seacrest couldn’t resist calling his  guests “hot teachers.” And he also said something about the ladies primping themselves for being on the show.

But that was a little thing and understandable for a host who almost always has been light on his feet and dead-on in tone despite many verbal tangles with Simon Cowell and others’ jokes about Seacrest’s less-than-towering stature.

And it’s about the only thing Seacrest has done wrong lately, judging by the one-man entertainment conglomerate that he has become.Continue reading...

Proving her hand at comedy in the "Liquorville" sketch and other funny bits this past weekend on Saturday Night Live with Justin Timberlake and Lady Gaga was just one of the highlights of the season finale of the venerable NBC comedy series – and one more jewel in the crown for the New York-born pop, whose cultural influence is matched only by her business acumen.

This week's release of her second album, Born This Way, is certainly one for the record books, as much for a potentially record-breaking run to one million sales in its first week, as for the unprecedented, well-oiled promotional machine surrounding it.Continue reading...