How long before TV Guide Magazine ends its print issue?

TV Guide Magazine printed its first issue in April 1953. But after more than 69 years and multiple recent owners, the publication appears to be struggling.
Its annual Fall Preview issue used to be one of TV Guide’s largest issues. But this year’s edition, the 70th annual Fall Preview issue, had just 72 pages. Last year’s issue was 92 pages.
Magazine publisher NTVB Media bought TV Guide Magazine in 2015. But the online brand is now controlled by Fandom, which bought the digital assets of TV Guide as well as review aggregator Metacritic and other entertainment properties earlier this month. (See Wall Street Journal article.)
If production costs are cheap enough, TV Guide Magazine could limp along for some time. But the future of publications is online not print. It’s only a matter of time before the storied magazine prints its last issue. But I’ve been saying that for years.

Forget ad-supported streaming, Netflix should have focused on pay-per-view

For years, Netflix executives rejected the idea of offering a cheaper, advertising-subsidized service level. But when subscriber growth hit a ceiling and started to decline, they changed their minds.
Wall Street analysts applauded the move, but I think it was a mistake. Netflix should have focused on cost-cutting and finding other ways to lower the cost of its service to consumers. It also is right to crack down on rampant password-sharing on the service.
But an ad-supported service level? No. It should have stayed a commercial-free, premium service like Apple TV+. No one likes ads and offering both ad-supported and ad-free service levels complicates the business and muddies the message for consumers.
Netflix also is wasting money trying to make a large video game service for its subscribers. That never made sense to me.
Netflix is about video content – movies, TV series, documentaries and more. It should stick to its core business.
That said, Netflix is missing an opportunity in the transactional, pay-per-view realm. It has ceded that business mostly to rival Amazon.
When Netflix only ran a DVD-by-mail service, it offered every conceivable movie and TV series. Back then, practically everything Hollywood produced was sold as packaged media and thus available from Netflix. But once streaming took over, the availability of movies splintered across numerous subscription services – Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock and more.
By adding a pay-per-view service, Netflix could return to offering every theatrical movie release available on one platform. Right now, subscribers must switch platforms to do that.
Transactional video rentals isn’t as large an addressable market as advertising, but it doesn’t sully the brand like ads do either.
And as subscription services reduce the size of the content libraries they offer, as HBO Max is now doing, transactional pay-per-view provides a way for consumers to still access those titles.

Photo: Netflix celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2022.

Sexy Halloween costumes 2022: Top Gun costumes are hot this year

The United States of America, the greatest country on Earth, gave the world sexy Halloween costumes. Just take any profession and add sexy to it – sexy nurses, sexy teachers, sexy police officers, you name it.
So, what’s new in sexy Halloween costumes for Halloween 2022?
Sexy Top Gun pilots, that’s what. The hit Tom Cruise movie “Top Gun: Maverick” spawned a wide array of sexy flight suits from Yandy.
And it wouldn’t be a Yandy Halloween without at least one ripped-from-the-headlines costume.
This year’s entry is the Con Heiress costume, a sexy take on Anna Sorokin, a con artist and fraudster who posed as a wealthy German heiress to access the upper echelons of the New York social and art scenes from 2013 to 2017. She was the subject of the 2022 Netflix miniseries “Inventing Anna.”

How soon before CES haters try to derail the show with unfounded Covid fears?

Registration for CES 2023 began on Sept. 13, starting the countdown to one of the world’s largest technology conferences. The show is scheduled to run Jan. 5-8 in Las Vegas, with preshow media events starting on Jan. 3.
The 2022 show went ahead despite calls from a small but vocal group of perpetual CES haters on Twitter who demanded that it be canceled because of the omicron wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Organizers ended up shortening CES 2022 by a day but kept the in-person event. The previous year’s show was an all-digital affair because of the pandemic.
While CES malcontents and fearmongers couldn’t get the 2022 show canceled, they did convince numerous major companies not to exhibit, leading to a much smaller conference.
With Covid infections likely to pick up in the winter, the CES haters probably will resume their calls to cancel or boycott the show.
But Covid is less of a concern now, given the widespread acceptance of Covid vaccinations, which boost the immune system and lessen the severity of the illness.
Also, many other large conferences have gone on without problems this year. So, the world is back to business as usual.
On Sept. 14, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said that the end of the pandemic was finally near. “We are not there yet, but the end is in sight,” he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden went a step further. “The pandemic is over,” he told CBS’ “60 Minutes.” (See article by CNN.)
At CES 2022, attendees were required to be vaccinated and wear a mask, among other precautions. Despite some anecdotal reports of people coming down with Covid during the show, the disease was not a problem at CES 2022.
“We had very few cases reported directly to us,” Jamie Kaplan, vice president of communications at the Consumer Technology Association, owner of CES, told me Sept. 16.
“We had very good survey results coming out of the show,” she said. “Attendees said they were satisfied with the health and safety measures.”
The current plans for CES 2023 include no health mandates for attendees, she said. Instead, attendees will be strongly encouraged to get vaxxed and boosted for Covid and get a flu shot. Masks also will be optional, she said.
The Consumer Technology Association currently is forecasting over 100,000 attendees for CES 2023. That compares with 44,400 at the 2022 show. It also expects over 2,000 exhibitors, which would be close to the prior year’s 2,279 exhibitors.
“The industry wants to move forward,” Kaplan said. “Brands are looking to make big announcements at the show.”

Photos: Scenes from CES 2022. (Consumer Technology Association)

Actresses who have portrayed Marilyn Monroe

Ana de Armas plays Marilyn Monroe in the upcoming Netflix movie “Blonde.” But she’s far from the first actress to portray the Hollywood legend.
What follows is a list of actresses who have played the sexy starlet in movies and TV shows (in chronological order).

Misty Rowe, “Goodbye, Norma Jean” (1976)
Catherine Hicks, “Marilyn: The Untold Story” (1980)
Constance Forslund, “This Year’s Blonde” (1980)
Theresa Russell, “Insignificance” (1985)
Paula Lane, “Goodnight, Sweet Marilyn” (1989)
Susan Griffiths, “Marilyn and Me” (1991)
Melody Anderson, “Marilyn & Bobby: Her Final Affair” (1993)
Ashley Judd, “Norma Jean & Marilyn” (1996)
Mira Sorvino, “Norma Jean & Marilyn” (1996)
Barbara Niven, “The Rat Pack” (1998)
Poppy Montgomery, “Blonde” (2001)
Suzie Kennedy, “Me and Marilyn” (2009)
Michelle Williams, “My Week with Marilyn” (2011)
Charlotte Sullivan, “The Kennedys” (2011)
Kelli Garner, “The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe” (2015)
Alisha Soper, “Feud” (2017)
Ana de Armas, “Blonde” (2022)

Photos: Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in “Blonde” (Netflix) and assorted movie posters.

Lying clickbait never sleeps

Clickbait purveyors will do just about anything to get you to click on a sponsored article. That includes lying.
Often, they will use a photo of a sexy woman that is unrelated to the article being promoted.
For instance, a recent sponsored article titled “These Woodstock photos went a bit too far,” used a photo that’s obviously not from the famous 1969 concert in Bethel, N.Y.
Judging from the red mud in the original photo, the woman looks like she’s at the Redneck Games in East Dublin, Georgia. (See Sports Illustrated photos from 2011 Redneck Games.)

Some website called GotGravy has been running sponsored articles with the title “The most iconic photo ever published in Life magazine.” The photos are interesting but far from “the most iconic photo ever.”
One shows Swedish high jumper Gunhild Larking from the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. (See Sports Illustrated pictorial about Gunhild Larking from the games.)

Another shows the cast of the 1969 British film “Three,” starring Charlotte Rampling, Robie Porter and Sam Waterston.

Lying clickbait firms also like to spread lies about celebrities.
One article implied that actor Robby Benson is now a woman. It had the headline “Remember Robby Benson: This is her now.”

Another made actress Courteney Cox look way older than she is. It used a photo that had been altered with a photo app called FaceApp. It carried the headline “Courteney Cox, 57, takes off makeup, leaves us with no words.”

Finally, lying clickbait purveyors love to alarm TV fans with articles that imply that their favorite shows have been canceled.
Here are two examples for hit series “Yellowstone.”

Song of Summer 2022: “As It Was” by Harry Styles

The Song of Summer for 2022 was “As It Was” by Harry Styles. It dominated the Billboard music chart. It has been No. 1 for 13 weeks so far.
It’s a great song, very well produced. I agree with the popular opinion this year.
Styles also is my pick for the music artist of summer 2022. I’ve been picking the breakout or dominating music artist of summer for the past five years. In addition to “As It Was,” Styles had a hit with “Late Night Talking.”
An honorable mention goes to Kate Bush, whose song “Running Up That Hill” from 1985 returned to the top of the charts thanks to its use on hit TV series “Stranger Things.”
While Billboard crowned “As It Was” the song of summer, others had different choices.
Spotify said its most-streamed music track in the U.S. this summer was “Running Up That Hill.” However, worldwide the No. 1 song for the period was “As It Was.”
The MTV Video Music Awards honor for Song Of The Summer went to Jack Harlow for “First Class.”
In addition to “As It Was,” here are some of my other favorite songs from summer 2022:

• “About Damn Time” by Lizzo
• “Bam Bam” by Camila Cabello ft. Ed Sheeran
• “Used to Know Me” by Charli XCX
• “Big Energy” by Latto
• “Woman” by Doja Cat

Recent songs of summer

2008   “I Kissed A Girl” by Katy Perry
2009   “I Gotta Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas
2010   “California Gurls” by Katy Perry feat. Snoop Dogg
2011   “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO feat. Lauren Bennett & GoonRock
2012   “Call Me Maybe” by Carly Rae Jepsen
2013   “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke feat. T.I. + Pharrell
2014   “Fancy” by Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX
2015   “Cheerleader” by OMI
2016   “One Dance” by Drake feat. WizKid & Kyla
2017   “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee (feat. Justin Bieber)
2018   “In My Feelings” by Drake
2019   “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus
2020   “Rockstar” by DaBaby featuring Roddy Ricch
2021   “Good 4 U” by Olivia Rodrigo
2022   “As It Was” by Harry Styles

Music artist of summer

2018   Cardi B
2019   Billie Eilish
2020   Doja Cat
2021   Olivia Rodrigo
2022   Harry Styles

Photo: Cover art for “As It Was” single.