City hopes to keep 'Lights' burning
AUSTIN, Texas, March 20 (UPI) -- The city of Austin, Texas, hoping to pick up a fresh set of downs, is prepared to offer NBC incentives to keep filming "Friday Night Lights" in Texas.
A City Council proposal on Thursday's agenda would give NBC Universal Inc. about $40,000 for each of the two seasons the show is filmed in the Austin area -- but only after the network picks it up for a second season, the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman said Tuesday. The deal could be extended if filming continues for subsequent seasons.
Other states, such as Louisiana and New Mexico, are offering financial incentives as well. City economic development officials said they are in negotiations and could not comment.
Austin Mayor Will Wynn said the offer, while modest, sends the message "to NBC and 'Friday Night Lights' that we really, really like them being here."
Wynn said the city is lobbying the Legislature to create a state fund that could be used as incentives for films, TV series and commercials.
NBC is expected to announce its fall schedule in mid-May.
Nothing on TV with 104 channels? Oh, sure
NEW YORK, March 20 (UPI) -- The average U.S. household gets 104 television channels but the average TV viewer watches a paltry 16, a Nielsen Media Research survey showed.
Those figures are up from an average of 96 channels per home in 2005, when about 15 of them were watched with any degree of regularity, the New York Daily News said Tuesday.
An estimated 47 percent of all U.S. homes with televisions had more than 100 channels, according to the New York researcher.
But as the number of channels increased over the last three years, the number of channels watched remained in the 15-to-16 range, meaning more options didn't necessarily translate into more channels being watched, researchers said.
For comparison, in 1985, the average home got about 19 channels, although Nielsen did not provide a figure on how many channels were watched.
Nielsen estimates about 111.4 million homes have television sets in the United States with each having an average of three sets.
More sex charges filed against designer
LOS ANGELES, March 20 (UPI) -- Los Angeles prosecutors filed additional felony charges against Indian designer Anand Jon as four more women leveled charges of sexual assault.
Prosecutors charged Jon, 33, with another 15 felonies and five misdemeanor counts involving the additional four alleged sexual assault victims, including a 17-year-old, The Los Angeles Times said Tuesday.
The fashion designer was in Los Angeles to unveil a new line during L.A. Fashion Week when he was originally charged earlier this month.
"He lured these girls to be models and once here sexually assaulted them," Jane Robison, a Los Angeles County district attorney's office spokeswoman said when the new charges were filed Monday. "This is an ongoing investigation and we believe there may be numerous additional victims."
New York authorities also are investigating into whether Jon assaulted women there, Robison said.
Jon was charged March 13 with seven counts, including forcible rape, lewd acts upon a child, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sexual battery by restraint and attempted forcible oral copulation. Those charges involved three alleged victims, including a 15-year-old.
Jon's attorney, Ronald Richards, said women sought to exploit their relationship with his client because of his celebrity status.
Johansson, Allen have a professional thing
NEW YORK, March 20 (UPI) -- Actress Scarlett Johansson and fabled U.S. actor-director Woody Allen have a mutual adoration society, the actress said in the April issue of Vogue.
"I'd sew the hems of his pants if he asked me to," Johansson, 22, said in the Vogue interview, USA Today reported Tuesday.
For his part, Allen, 71, called his "Match Point" star "criminally sexy" in an e-mail to Vogue.
"She is unlike anyone who has come before her, and while she is a much stronger actress in every way, there is a tiny bit of Marilyn Monroe in her zaftig humidity," he wrote.
The Johansson-Allen attraction is purely professional, she said, telling told Vogue she works to keep her romantic life private.
But Johansson said reports last month that she and singer Justin Timberlake were an item were "not true" and when asked about "Black Dahlia" co-star Josh Hartnett, she offered, "I'd rather not comment on my personal life in that way."
Johansson's next film, "The Nanny Diaries," opens April 20.
