Hollywood Digest

BIG BUCKS FOR NBC

NBC has wrapped up its upfront sales with a record bottom line -- close to $2.7 billion.

That's an increase of almost 25 percent over the $1.9 billion that the network took in last year during the upfronts -- when networks announce their fall schedules and give advertisers a break on ad rates for buying time early. NBC -- which won the 2001-02 Nielsen ratings race -- sold 83 percent of its commercial inventory for the coming season, at rates that averaged 7 percent to 9 percent more than last year's rates.

CBS was reported about 50 percent sold-out on Monday, but ABC and Fox are paying the price for ratings slumps in the primetime season that just ended -- with both networks recording lower or flat year-to-year upfront sales.

Overall, the major networks are projecting their aggregate upfront sales will come in at around $7.5 billion -- an increase of 8 percent over last year's take.

That's not enough to rival the record of $8 billion, recorded during the 2000 upfronts -- but with Wall Street worrying over corporate accounting procedures, rising oil prices and international conflict, the apparent rebound from last year's disastrous advertising slump should come as a big relief to network executives and media shareholders.

HOLLYWOOD AND POLITICS

According to a poll conducted for The Hollywood Reporter, a solid majority of Americans over 18 -- 76.5 percent -- don't like it when Oscar-winners use their acceptance speeches to make political points, but a majority is also interested in seeing Hollywood turn out movies with patriotic themes since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The poll, "Hollywood & Politics," was conducted in March by the firm E-Poll.

It found that the celebrities most admired for their public political positions are Charlton Heston (named by 11 percent), Rosie O'Donnell (8.7 percent), Arnold Schwarzenegger (7.7 percent), Oprah Winfrey and Bono (both at 4.4 percent).

Heston also showed up on the list of celebrities least admired for their politics. He pulled 10.8 percent on that score -- second only to Jane Fonda, who was least admired by 11.8 percent of those surveyed. Alec Baldwin finished third with 10.6 percent, followed by Barbra Streisand (10.5 percent) and O'Donnell (9.2 percent).

The poll showed a high interest -- 76.3 percent -- in seeing a movie "based on the heroism displayed by passengers" on planes that were hijacked on Sept. 11. There was also high interest in seeing movies about heroism at the world Trade Center and the Pentagon (73.2 percent), events leading up to the attacks (72 percent) and personal stories of survivors (67.1 percent).

Sixty percent said they wanted to see a movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and 55.1 percent said they were interested in a movie about "leaders in crisis."

DATE SET FOR RETURN OF 'SEX'

HBO has announced that the Emmy-winning comedy "Sex and the City" will have its fourth-season premiere on July 21.

The show had been set to begin its new season in June, but programmers had to scramble the schedule after series star Sarah Jessica Parker announced that she is pregnant, and production had to be stopped for several weeks.

Fans of the show will not be happy to know that this season will consist of just eight episodes -- not the 13 originally planned. The season finale is planned for Sept. 8.

CASTING NOTES

According to published reports in Hollywood, Natalie Portman is in talks to join Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renée Zellweger in the cast of "Cold Mountain" -- the upcoming movie based on Charles Frazier's best-selling novel about a wounded Confederate veteran who gets up from his hospital bed in the last months of the Civil War to begin the long trip back to his North Carolina home.

The picture is being directed by Anthony Minghella, who won the directing Oscar for "The English Patient."

BROSNAN WILL PRODUCE HIS NEXT MOVIE

Pierce Brosnan's production company, Irish Dreamtime Productions, has reached a deal to produce the actor's next movie -- the romantic comedy "Laws of Attraction" -- in cooperation with two other productions companies, Deep River Productions and Intermedia.

Brosnan will star in the story of two divorce lawyers who get married -- and experience the same kinds of difficulties that drive clients into their offices.