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Hayden Panettiere is the poster girl of hit television show Heroes. The plot of the series about ordinary people who suddenly discover they’ve got superpowers could almost work as a metaphor for the life of the 18-year-old. Overnight she was thrown into the global limelight by the phenomenal success of the show. Every word and action of this girl from upstate New York became newsworthy, including her wardrobe, the men on her arm and, perhaps more surprisingly, her politics.
In Heroes, which returns to BBC2 tonight, Panettiere (pronounced Pah-nuh-tee-air-ay, like the Italian for “baker”) plays Claire Bennet, a 15-year-old cheerleader, who, in the first episode, discovered that she could heal instantly from any injury. The indestructible high-school student is forced to hide her ability from her peers and maintain a relationship with her father, a man who is keenly interested in people with special powers.
The first series won plaudits and awards but the start of the second series was met with a backlash when it aired in the US. Fans complained that the show had become lacklustre, the new characters were uninteresting, the trademark episode cliffhangers were noticeable by their absence and the story was unfolding too slowly. Show creator Tim Kring even went on record to apologise for the mis-steps and just as the season got back on track, the writers’ strike ensured that the second series only had 11 episodes rather than the expected 24. Arguably it was a blessing in disguise.
However, just as interest in the show was beginning to wane, media interest in Panettiere went into overdrive as it emerged that she was dating her co-star Milo Ventimiglia. The news was met with consternation among her fans, with a consensus that the 12-year age gap between the pair was too large.
The blonde teenager has complained about the judgmental attitude of the criticism, but believes that she is now mature enough to handle it. One of the reasons for this is a holiday to Europe that she took with Ventimiglia and fellow cast members Jack Coleman and Adrian Pasdar: “About five days after I turned 18 [in August 2007] I took off to Europe with them. It was the first time that my mother hasn’t travelled with me and we went to Munich, Paris and London. It was such a different experience being on your own and it just changed me dramatically. My mom says that one person walked on that plane and another person walked off.”

independent.co.uk

CW is set to announce that it is turning over its Sunday-night air to Media Rights Capital, an independent company that finances TV programs and movies, according to people familiar with the situation.
The maneuver illustrates the difficult situation being faced by the fledgling network, which is jointly owned by Time Warner Inc. and CBS Corp. While CW reaches a consumer demographic that is notoriously hard to find — teens and young people — its ratings have been abysmal in its second full season on the air.
A CW spokesman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Media Rights Capital was not able to offer an immediate comment.
As of May 4, the network’s rating among households have fallen 22%, while its ratings among audiences between the ages of 18 and 49 have tumbled 24%, according to research from Wachovia broadcasting analyst Marci Ryvicker.
While the network’s flagship program, “Gossip Girl,” has generated a lot of buzz, and its ad executives have devised innovative experimental formats for broadcast TV, ratings have remained lackluster.
In a telling move, CW announced it would take the last five episodes of this season’s run of “Gossip Girl” off the web, and not allow consumers to stream it. Instead, it is running promotions designed to entice fans to watch the episodes on TV first and foremost.
CW was already airing repeats on Sunday nights, so turning the time over to an independent firm might generate new viewership. What remains unclear, however, is how Media Rights Capital would present its ideas for Sunday night to advertisers.
With just days left before its upfront presentation next Tuesday evening, the network is expected to pitch itself as a great place to reach younger viewers, particularly female ones. It’s not clear whether MRC would go after the same demographic, or something entirely different — or whether media buyers and advertisers would welcome its programming.

tvweek.com

I’ve always loved Dolly Parton. There’s the voice, the face, old and new (before all the plastic surgery it was beautiful, now it’s fascinating), the strength, the outlandish outfits, the glitz and the glamour, the cartoon body, invisible husband, rumoured affairs, intelligence, the giddy laugh like a yelping pup, and that bizarre mix of downright dirty talk and god-fearing wholesomeness.
And, of course, there are her songs. Like all the true country greats, Parton can sum up situations and emotions with brilliant economy. Take Jolene, one of her classics and a staple of any karaoke night. “Please don’t take him, just because you can,” the singer pleads to her rival in love, Jolene. Eight words, and you have everything - the desperation, the sense of inferiority, the appeal to Jolene’s better nature, or possibly even to her sense of sisterhood. Jolene is a beautifully crafted short story; one that could have been written by Carson McCullers. The song is a hymn to her rival’s beauty (the ivory skin, the flaming locks, the smile like a breath of spring), a humiliating confession (”He talks about you in his sleep/There’s nothing I can do to keep/From crying when he calls your name”) and, ultimately, a plea for compassion addressed straight to Jolene. At a first listening, the song may appear to be about a weak woman, but her honesty, her fighting spirit, the power of her love and her words make her anything but a victim.
Parton often turns traditional country on its head. The title and melancholia of I Will Always Love You suggests a woman clinging to her man, but, in fact, it’s about a woman walking away. She sings, “I will always love you”, not as a wail of grief but as parting solace to the weeping man she leaves behind. Typically, her songs, with their ecstatic crescendos, extol the positive - domestic idylls, the work ethic, God and self-assertion. She can be horribly saccharine, cheesy as Brie, but her powers of description are awesome. By the end of My Tennessee Mountain Home, you can see not only the junebugs and glowing fireflies, but you can hear the crickets and smell the honeysuckle of her childhood, too.

music.guardian.co.uk

Dear Eliot Spitzer, Gosh, what a week it’s been. You step out your door and see those damned TV satellite trucks lining Fifth Avenue: Once, they raised you up; now they cut you down. You pick up the Times and find they’ve sent a hockey team’s worth of reporters to bodycheck you out of the game. Gawker won’t stop squawking. Your favourite 22-year-old - you called her "Kristen," didn’t you? - flaunts her lovely wares from the front pages of the Post and the News.
© Copyright 2008 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.
globeandmail.com and The Globe and Mail are divisions of CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc., 444 Front St.

theglobeandmail.com

Rikki Lynn Triana, 10, was beaten on an eastside playground by two other young girls, suffering a broken hip in the attack. Triana is in Hamot Medical Center recovering from surgery to repair the right hip joint. (Greg Wohlford / Erie Times-News)
Rikki Triana said the assault on her was brutal.
The 10-year-old said she was dragged from the monkey bars at the playground at Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School.
“They started stomping on my head and legs,” she said from her hospital bed at Hamot Medical Center. “I couldn’t do anything.”
The attack was so severe that her hip was broken in several places.
The extent of her injuries was shocking enough.
Then came the arrest of the suspects.
Erie police are accusing two girls, 10 and 11, in the beating, leaving law enforcement and other officials at a loss as to how such a vicious attack could have happened at the hands of children.
“I don’t remember ever having a case where kids this young did so much damage,” Erie police Lt. Dan Spizarny said.
The girls have been accused of grown-up crimes. They face prosecution in Juvenile Court on the charges of aggravated assault, simple assault and conspiracy. The police will formally charge them at a detention hearing today.
The two are being held at the Edmund L. Thomas Juvenile Detention Center, 4728 Lake Pleasant Road. Authorities are not releasing their names because of their ages.
“I’ve not seen anything of this magnitude allegedly happening before,” Erie County District Attorney Brad Foulk said. “We’ve seen cases of bullying, but if these allegations are true, it goes way beyond anything I’ve ever seen.
“It’s very, very, very troubling.”
The attack happened shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday at the playground at Pfeiffer-Burleigh Elementary School, 235 E. 11th St., police said. Spizarny said the two detained girls are students there.

goerie.com

Whose Conduct Was More Reprehensible: Clinton’s or Spitzer’s?
By Hugh Hewitt
First, limit the question to what is known beyond reasonable doubt: Eliot Spitzer’s serial assignations with call girls and Bill Clinton’s affair with Monica Lewinsky combined with his perjury about that affair.
Set aside Spitzer’s bullying prosecutions and his abuse of his office as governor. Try and forget the allegations against Bill Clinton from other women. Stick just to what is widely understood to be undeniable facts.
So, whose conduct is worse?
Callers to my radio show went 60-40 to proclaim Clinton the bigger heel. The reasons were two: He abused his position of power over an intern and he clung to power even after his guilt was exposed.
Those who blasted Spitzer pointed to his hypocrisy in having prosecuted others for the very conduct he is accused of engaging in, but others saluted his eventual decision to resign.
Many callers threw up their hands and declared a tie: Both guys were skunks.
There are fair arguments on all sides, but the discussion raises one key question: Given that Spitzer is being hounded from office as a result of his conduct, why is Bill Clinton still being celebrated on the campaign trail and honored far and wide? When did the absolution get conferred? When did the statute of limitations run on holding his repulsive conduct against him?

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ALBANY, N.Y. - On Saturday night, Gov. Eliot Spitzer was at the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, where President Bush serenaded reporters with a funny song about leaving office. By then the governor knew full well he could be leaving first.
A day earlier, federal prosecutors had told the governor he had been snared in a prostitution operation, according to senior Spitzer aides who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
He initially kept it to himself, so when his aides’ cell phones went crazy with a New York Times reporter’s calls the night of the dinner, they didn’t know why. Neither Spitzer nor the reporter let on.
So began a days-long political drama that ended Wednesday with Spitzer’s resignation. Still to come are decisions on whether the stunning indiscretions by the hard-charging, crusading ex-prosecutor will lead to criminal charges or disbarment.
Aides said the first person Spitzer told about the allegations was his wife, Silda. He told her Sunday in their Manhattan home; his state police driver had taken him there after bad weather canceled his flight.
After several excruciating hours, the couple told their three daughters, the aides said. By Sunday evening Spitzer had called top advisers, personal friends and loyalists. The little band huddled in the apartment until midnight.

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Associated Press - March 12, 2008 8:13 PM ET
NEW YORK (AP) - New details are emerging about the call girl at the center of the prostitution scandal engulfing New York’s governor.
A newspaper report identifies her as a 22-year-old aspiring musician from Manhattan. The New York Times reports the real name of the prostitute — identified as “Kristen” in court papers — is Ashley Alexandra Dupre.
Authorities allege that Governor Eliot Spitzer paid more than $4,000 for her services.
New York attorney Don Buchwald confirms that he represents Dupre, the same woman in the Times story, but that’s all he’ll say.
Dupre briefly spoke to the Times about the Spitzer scandal. She told the paper she doesn’t “want to be thought of as a monster.” She says, “This has been a very difficult time. It’s complicated.”
Dupre declined to comment when asked by the Times when she first met Spitzer and how many times they had been together.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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