It's a short month this month as we are off on holiday. So as I seem to have loads of posters still left to post I've decided to continue poster month. With all new posters of the cast from around the World.
Now for some very exciting news from our Italian friends. Plans are in place for another Fame reunion to take place in Parma in Italy on 5th December this year. They are hoping to make this the biggest and best Fame reunion show that they have ever put on. Also it is likely to be the last event.
So far Erica Gimpel, Carlo Imperato, Cynthia Gibb, Jesse Borrego and Nia Peeples are confirmed. However if they can raise more money then there are hopes to bring other cast members over from America too with Valerie Landsburg being next on the list, followed by Lee Curreri.
A Facebook page is due to be launched later this month to promote the event and we'll bring you all the details when we have them. Kids From Fame Media is planning to attend the event which will include a charity concert and a party. We've looking forward to meeting all you Fame Fans in person, so please come over and say hello to us!
Janet Jackson's "Unbreakable World tour kicked off in Vancouver on August 31st and the new album is scheduled for released in October.
Here's a behind the scenes look at the Album cover photo shoot.
Janet has also released a snippet of a new song titled "The Great Forever" which is believed to be the 2nd single from her new album which is provisionally titled "Unbreakable".
Michael Cerveris stars in a new film called "Detours" where he also provides 3 songs for the soundtrack. Here's a trailer for the movie.
For More information on the film go to the Detours website.
Michael is also working on a new Studio album which he hopes will be out by the end of the year.
Eric Pierpoint's latest novel "The Secret Mission of William Tuck" is available this month.
Buy on Amazon U.S.
Buy on Amazon U.K.
Tabloid Reports started circulating last month that Nia Peeples and her husband of nearly 8 years Sam George were divorcing. The reports also stated that Nia was making unfair demands regarding the Malibu trailer home they shared.
Nia took to Twitter to set the record straight:
"The part about divorce is true. The part about demanding the trailer is not. All is amicable. There is no demanding."
"You know tabloids. Got 2make a story of everything. We agreed to keep what we each paid for."
Later she tweeted:
"No need 4sorrow. Nothing is permanent. Everything is in a state of growth or decline. We are growing. And so we are happy."
Our Love and Best Wishes go out to Nia and to Sam.
Season 12 of "Grey's Anatomy" will start on ABC at 8.00pm on 24th September. This season Debbie Allen will not only continue to be a regular guest star and director she will be an Executive Producer.
Debbie Allen also directed, choreographed and briefly features in a Fame style video called "Dream It Do It!" Debbie stated:
"It was such an honor to direct DREAM IT! DO IT! an AMAZING new video celebrating the power of Arts Education in Los Angeles featuring a new partnership between the Debbie Allen Dance Academy and Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts! We hope you enjoy it!"
A message from Valerie Landsburg:
"Hello Friends & Supporters of Offer&Compromi$e,
WE DID IT!...and we could not have done it without you.
We completed principle photography on June 26th. Our incredible final cast was amazing. Check them out at www.
The next step is me and Timothy Snell, our amazing editor, sitting for hours and hours in the editing room putting all the great work together.
We can't wait to share the movie with you! In the meantime, stay tuned for more updates...we'll be sharing videos and pictures along the way.
Thank you so much again, we're forever grateful!
Val, Tani & team"
My Fame Episodes Channel on You Tube has been targeted by MGM for breaches of Copyright. The whole of Seasons 1 and 2 plus the Spanish dubbed Season 1 episodes have been removed. Also some Season 4 episodes have had the audio removed. This has resulted in 2 strikes against the channel and It seems that it's only a matter of time before the whole Channel is completely removed. One more strike and it'll be gone!
This is all very upsetting and annoying as a lot of time and effort went into that channel. The videos were there to link into this Blog and also my episode guide site. My dream was to make the episode guide site the ultimate resource for each episode.
While I understand the whole MGM own the copyright issue it is frustrating that they won't make the episodes available. Okay if they don't want my Fame Episodes channel they could do their own. Even if it was a pay for view channel like some other companies have done. At least it would be making the episodes available.
They complain about loss of revenue, well they can't make any money if they don't release the show in the first place for people to buy. So therefore can't lose any revenue. If every episode, including the concerts and reunions was out on DVD with no edits then there would be no need for my channel but sadly MGM have continually let the fans down. There would be no show without the fans and MGM would never have made any money out of it in the first place! I wish they would remember that sometimes.
The whole concept of Kids From Fame Media was to try and bridge the gap and let fans enjoy episodes and MP3s that MGM have never released. Kids From Fame Media does not make any money of any kind from sharing this material. We post it for the sole purpose of keeping Fame alive for the fans.
MGM don't seem to realise that we promote their product including things like the 2009 remake movie and the official DVDS on our site for free. Many people who have watched the episodes on my Youtube channel have contacted me to say some of the episodes were never aired in their Country and are desperate to know where to buy the DVDs. So come on MGM get your act together and give the fans what we've been waiting for, for so long!
Until such a time comes I will continue to search for new ways to share the Fame episodes.
Check out my Daily Motion channel where I've started to add the season 1 epiosdes and some of the others affected by copyright issues on You Tube. It's going to take some time as Daily Motion only allows me to upload 1 episode per day but eventually they will all be there.
If anyone has any other ideas for making the episodes available online then please contact me.
Have a great Month,
Mark
It's great that they're choosing Italy again for their biggest - though probably last? is that true? - reunion. Italy has always loved the series and its characters so much. And I'm not only talking about people like me, who grew up with Fame (I was 16 when the show first aired here...the same age as the kids were, I mean their characters of course).
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I've been a little taken aback by the ex-Fame stars lately. I recently joined Twitter, and was sad to find out that Valerie's page had not been updated for months - but I tweeted to Erica, Lee and Debbie, along with following them. I didn't have many hopes about Debbie even noticing me, what with her follower count, but I though Erica and Lee would at least make the time to say thank you, or to favourite my tweet. Especially Lee, who has a history of being responsive to fans. Sadly, the two of them didn't seem to notice me at all. Which make me wonder what's the point in joining Twitter if you're not interested/don't have the time to get involved with other people, especially fans. It would be sad if Twitter accounts would only amount to free publicity (I'm being naive, I know). A website could do the same for you without hurting other people's feelings...
You're so right about the whole YouTube/MGM thing. They don't release any Fame products, so it's their fault if they don't make money out of them. And when they do, they cut and dub stuff from the original episodes. I understand the whole music rights issue, but really, is there anything that can be done about it? Only a couple of songs for episodes, they shouldn't cost that much...Am I being naive again?
Thank you Mark for keeping Fame alive!
Your Italian friend :)
Hi Roberta,
ReplyDeleteI am in contact with the Italian guys who are organising the event and they are saying this will be the last one. Basically the Fame cast don't take any money for the performance but they do have their flights and accommodation paid for, which my contacts pay out of their own money. Any money raised by the event all goes to charity. So my friends are saying they probably won't be able to afford to pay for another event after this one.
The issue with music rights as far as I understand is that that the people issuing the DVDs don't want to pay anything to use the music in the episodes. So if the people who own the rights want paying to use something that's when it gets cut from an episode on the DVDs. It's not just the songs but also the background music and the music they are dancing to or performing in music class. Some of that can be replaced by other music but some of it is referred to in the scripts and cutting it would affect the episodes. Plus it can be time consuming to go through the process of getting permission to use the music. I'm not sure there's anything we can do and are at the mercy of MGM and the DVD companies.
I'm sorry to hear about your experience on Twitter. I know Lee is currently on holiday in Italy so may not be checking his account. Valerie has been busy directing her film so hasn't been on social media very much at all. Lee is certainly active on Facebook but I don't know how much he uses Twitter. I think like a lot of people, myself included we set up these accounts and then end up rarely using them. I very rarely log into Twitter. I'm not sure about Erica either, although she has embraced social media less than some of the other cast members.
Best Wishes and I hope to meet you in person in December if you're going to the event,
Mark.
Hi Mark,
ReplyDeleteI actually tweeted to Debbie, Erica and Lee a few months ago, and I did see them on the site immediately after my messages were sent. It's my understanding that their accounts are mostly geared to promoting their activity (at least Debbie's and Erica's are), or maybe they aren't that interested in being complimented for something they did more than 30 years ago anymore...*sighs*
The music issue is a real shame. I mean on MGM/DVD companies' part, of course. C'mon, they want the music for FREE? In this day and age? Get real.
I hope you'll have a great time in Italy :). I won't be able to attend the event, and like I said, I'm a little disillusioned with a few ex-Fame stars, so maybe I'd have passed anyway. On the other hand, it's great that they're raising money.
Best wishes to you as well!