People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, has denounced Steven Spielberg's decision to withdraw as artistic consultant to the Olympic Games over China's policies regarding Darfur and the Sudan. Using far harsher language than that expressed by Chinese officials last week, the newspaper said in an editorial that Spielberg, whom it referred to only as "a certain Western director," had been "childish" and "naïve" with "an over-the-top act that defies common sense. Perhaps that's just the special temperament of Hollywood figures." The blast at Spielberg came one day after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said that he is working with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to find ways to help resolve the Darfur issue. He pointed out that his country was the first nation outside of Africa to send peacekeepers to Darfur. He criticized Western countries for doing little to encourage leaders of rebel groups in Sudan to participate in peace negotiations -- pointing out that many of them live in exile abroad, particularly in Paris. He suggested that "unbridled pressure" from critics would only complicate the situation, thereby encouraging the rebel leaders to stay away from the conference table. For his part, Brown praised China for its efforts in resolving the issue and condemned calls for an Olympics boycott. Over the weekend Guangming Daily said in an editorial that Spielberg had broken a promise to contribute to the Olympics and "knows nothing about the great efforts the Chinese government has made on Darfur."

Only hours after Toshiba tossed in the towel in its battle with Sony over consumer high-definition video systems, Universal announced that it will begin releasing both new and catalog titles in the Blu-ray format. Universal and Paramount/DreamWorks had been the last-ditch holdouts in the format war, having committed themselves to Toshiba's HD DVD technology. "The path for widespread adoption of the next-generation platform has finally become clear," Universal said in a statement. "While Universal values the close partnership we have shared with Toshiba, it is time to turn our focus to releasing new and catalog titles on Blu-ray." The decision apparently clears the way for both hold-out studios to begin releasing films by Steven Spielberg, who has insisted that they be released only in the Blu-ray format. Paramount has yet to issue a statement regarding Toshiba's decision.

Dr. Richard Daines, the New York State Health Commissioner, has called on movie studios to ban smoking in films that have G, PG and PG-13 ratings. In a letter to the heads of the six major studios, published as a full-page ad in Tuesday's Wall St. Journal and the New York Times, Daines wrote that most smokers take up the habit during adolescence and that images of smokers in movies are "the single most powerful pro-tobacco influence on children, accounting for the recruitment of half of new adolescent smokers." Daines also urged that anti-smoking messages be run before every film that shows characters smoking.

The top ten films over the four-day Presidents Day holiday, according to final figures compiled by Media by Numbers (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Jumper, 20th Century Fox, $32,092,991, one week, ($38,718,006); 2. The Spiderwick Chronicles, Paramount, $24,740,537, one wk. ($27,116,417); 3. Step Up 2 the Streets, Disney, $22,125,429, one wk. ($28,725,889); 4. Fool's Gold, Warner Bros., $14,885,386, two wks., ($43,810,073); 5. Definitely, Maybe, Universal, $11,472,255, one wk. ($14,591,460); 6. Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins, Universal, $9,942,740, two wks ($30,183,630); 7. Juno, Fox Searchlight, $5,582,865, 11 wks., ($125,047,654); 8. The Bucket List, Warner Bros., $4,674,489, nine wks. ($81,654,211); 9. Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert, Disney, $4,386,852, three weeks ($59,514,414); 10. 27 Dresses, 20th Century Fox, $3,887,914, five wks, ($70,649,785).

A two-hour edition of American Idol on Fox drew more viewers than all of the other networks combined Tuesday night. The talent contest, which went into its semifinal rounds, averaged a 16.7 rating and a 25 share in the Nielsen overnights (28.84 million viewers), peaking in the final half hour with a 17.5/26. By comparison, the competing show with the biggest ratings was the appropriately titled The Biggest Loser on NBC, which averaged a 5.3/8 during the same two-hour (8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.) time period. Critics later commented that two contestants have emerged as obvious favorites, Michael Johns and David Archuleta. On Tuesday night's show, judge Simon Cowell said of Archuleta's performance of the 60s' hit "Shop Around," "That was by a country mile the best performance of the night." But Judge Randy Jackson told Johns: "You are the most consistent contestant we have."

Aftereffects from the recent writers' strike will likely linger throughout the remainder of the year, particularly for the network television industry, according to Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. In his annual Economic Forecast Report for the county and surrounding areas, Kyser said that the strike had already cost $2.5 billion in lost wages and income to support services. But the pain, he said, did not end when the strike was settled. "Some new TV shows will be canceled and others will not resume full production until the fall season," he observed. Moreover, he indicated, new economic storms may be on the horizon. Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild, he said, "are talking tough. So there is growing concern that they will go on strike despite settlements by the two other guilds [the Writers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America]."

NBC said Tuesday that it intends to depart from tradition by presenting its schedule in a series of unveilings, rather than during a single "upfront" presentation in May. NBC chief Jeff Zucker said in a statement that an outline of the network's schedule over an entire year will be presented to advertisers in April during one-on-one client meetings in the country's three advertising hubs, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago. That will be followed on May 12th by what Zucker called a "spotlight event" in which advertising opportunities on all of NBC-Universal's properties, including NBC, Telemundo, and cable channels such as MSNBC and CNBC, will be showcased. In reporting on NBC's plans, the New York Times commented today (Wednesday), "It soon may be time to retire the phrase 'fall television season.'"

Rejecting their appeal, the FCC ordered some 40 ABC affiliates to pay fines of $27,500 apiece by Thursday for airing a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue in which an actress's bare backside was shown. It canceled fines for about 12 other stations because of legal technicalities. The commission ruled that "the depiction of an adult woman's naked buttocks was sufficiently graphic and explicit to support an indecency finding." It added that the scene was "patently offensive under contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, notwithstanding any artistic or social merit and the presence of a parental advisory and rating. Therefore, it is actionably indecent." Responding to ABC's claim that a naked buttocks was not a sexual or excretory organ, the commission said that if the network's argument won out, "the airwaves could be filled with naked buttocks and breasts during daytime and prime time hours because they would be outside the scope of indecency regulation."

Not only will the FCC have to give its attention to scenes showing the naked backsides of women on television, but it must now also consider the flight paths of migratory birds when issuing transmitter permits. A federal appeals court in Washington ruled Tuesday that the commission must study whether communications towers pose a danger to the birds. In a lawsuit environmental groups had cited studies by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that concluded that millions of birds die each year because the lights atop the towers disorient them. In bad weather, the USFWS said, they often circle the towers continuously, sometimes crashing into them or the wires supporting them, or simply collapse from exhaustion.

BBC television programs became available for downloading from Apple's iTunes website in the U.K. today (Wednesday), priced at nearly $4.00 per episode -- or nearly twice what Apple charges in the U.S. to download an American TV show. The shows can be viewed on PCs or Macs as they are being downloaded or viewed later on a video iPod or iPhone (although immediate viewing via the iPhone is expected to be added in March or April). On Monday the BBC said that its own iPlayer had become a surprise hit, with more than 500,000 downloads occurring each day. For some shows, it noted, online viewing already represents 10 percent of the total audience.