Lowe's Will not Reinstate Advertisements on All-American Muslim After Ending up in Petitioners

Lowe's Lowe's is waiting its decision to drag advertisements from TLC's All-American Muslim despite a petition using more than 200,000 signatures advocating the organization to reinstate the advertisements, The Charlotte now Observer reviews.Lowe's faces backlash after tugging advertisements from TLC's All-American MuslimOn Tuesday, ministers and reps in the interfaith Mecklenburg Ministries presented the petition at Lowe's headquarters in Mooresville, N.C., asking the house-improvement giant to apologize and reinstate the advertisements. Lowe's professionals met using the reps in excess of an hour or so - much towards the petitioners' surprise - but ultimately refused their request. "There's a method to participate in responsible dialogue, even if we believe there exists a deep disagreement," Rev. James Leach stated, adding he appreciated time the organization required to talk with them.Lowe's received fire a week ago if this withdrew its spots in the reality series, which follows the Muslim community in Dearborn, Mich. The move coincided having a protest through the Florida Family Association, a conservative group, which considered this program as "propaganda that riskily hides the Islamic agenda's obvious and offer danger to American protections and traditional values."Lowe's speaker Chris Ahearn declines that Lowe's felt pressure in the FFA to withdraw the advertisements, labeling the option like a routine business decision.Watch clips all-American MuslimAccording Ahearn, the business's first ad-operate on 12 ,. 4 was a part of a bulk ad buy on TLC and professionals were conscious that All-American Muslim might be among the shows throughout that the advertisements would air, but weren't concerned. The following morning, Ahearn stated they made the decision to drag the advertisements after their social networking team stated negative comments concerning the show. That mid-day, Lowe's received an e-mail in the FFA about All-American Muslim, that the organization authored back stating that its advertisements happen to be drawn, Ahearn stated.Ahearn stated Lowe's withdraws advertisements from shows considered questionable possibly eight to 10 occasions annually, but she didn't title any shows.

Anchor Bay accumulates 'Justice'

Anchor Bay Films has acquired the U.S. privileges towards the Nicolas Cage thriller "Seeking Justice," formerly entitled "The Hungry Rabbit Jumps," and hang a March 16 theatrical release. The Roger Donaldson-directed film co-stars The month of january Johnson and Guy Pearce. "Justice" was created by Endgame Entertainment's James D. Stern together with Ram Bergman and Material Entertainment's Tobey Maguire and Jenno Topping. Bill Clark, leader of Anchor Bay Entertainment, made the announcement Wednesday. Cage stars like a devoted inner-city senior high school teacher happily married for an accomplished music performer (described by Johnson). They like an appropriate existence before the wife's extremely attacked -- leading Cage's character to simply accept a deal from the guy to dispense immediate justice. He's then drawn into an subterranean vigilante organization. Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com

NFL TV rights deals extended through '22

CBS, Fox and NBC have officially extended their rights deals with the NFL through 2022. The new contracts, believed to have a combined value of more than $3 billion annually (Variety, Dec. 6), run for nine years beginning in 2014 -- the longest agreements ever between the league and its broadcast partners. Earlier this season, the NFL and ESPN reached an eight-year extension to keep "Monday Night Football" on ESPN through the 2021 season. As expected, one byproduct of the new deals is that they will enable the NFL to expand its Thursday night package of games on the NFL Network, to an undetermined number. The nine Super Bowls under the deal have been split evenly between CBS, NBC and Fox. Super Bowl L, coming in 2016, goes to CBS. NBC will add a Thanksgiving night game to its sked beginning in 2012, two years before the new contracts take effect, giving the Peacock 19 regular-season night games (including 17 Sundays and the season-opening Thursday). The network will also have the option to show its games on Spanish-language net Telemundo, and will replace one of its two wild-card games with a divisional playoff game. Additionally, NBC Sports Network will launch a Sunday morning pregame show beginning in 2014. CBS retains the American Football Conference package that it acquired in 1998, while Fox will stay with the National Football Conference package it has held since 1994. The deals also begin to expand an aspect of flexible scheduling that began quietly this season: the trading of games between CBS and Fox, when there's an imbalance between the two. On Dec. 4, CBS allowed Fox to televise a game between Denver at Minnesota. Specifics on flexible scheduling are still being hammered out. Contact Jon Weisman at jon.weisman@variety.com

The X Factor's Astro: I Had Been Happy I Acquired Told To Go Home

Astro Astro, The X Factor's casualty a week ago, informs TVGuide.com that, because it works out, he was pleased to be told to go home. "It might seem strange but needing to do one song per week and needing to perform with ballroom dancers ... that isn't the kind of artist I'm. I had been really uncomfortable." We talked using the 15-year-old ambitious rapper from Brooklyn native by what he's within the works (a combination-tape, movies, a real possibility show and clothing lines, to title a couple of), and who he thinks will win your competition. Browse the interview:

M. Night Shyamalan Joins Twitter: What's The Twist?

Better late than never? Perhaps encouraged by his daughters, M. Night Shyamalan has finally taken a seat on the Twitter train (hes now on Facebook, too). His first tweet, on November 25th, was a characteristic homage to his childhood hero: I was thirteen years old when I tried to call Steven Spielberg. I made my mom call and pretend she was my assistant. He didn't take my call. To commemorate this auspicious occasion, we present to you a collection of bold predictions: the five ways M. Night Shyamalan will reinvent Twitter. 1. Every tweet will include an appearance by Bruce Willis, Joaquin Phoenix or Bryce Dallas Howard. 2. Every tweet will have at least one game-changing twist. 3. Every tweet will contain no more or less than 106 characters (dont bother counting characters in the above tweet; this reinvention, like the others here, will come you just have to believe). 4. Every TwitPic will be shot in or around Philadelphia and will feature a cameo by Night himself. 5. His first few tweets will be brilliant and well-received, but they will soon be chided by the masses as nearly nonsensical disappointments. However, we believe that he will keep tweeting until he redeems himself and recaptures the magic that made him great. Will you follow M. Night Shyamalan on Twitter? Tell us what you think in the comments section and on -- you guessed it -- Twitter!

Contemporary directors: Stylists or shape-shifters?

Chris Weitz went from the 'New Moon' undead to 'A Better Life.''Moneyball' marked a shift for 'Capote' director Bennett Miller.Woody Allen ("Midnight in Paris") likes therapeutically confessional tete-a-tetes laced with jokes. David Fincher ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo") favors a crisply beautiful visual and purposeful camera moves. Steven Spielberg ("War Horse," "The Adventures of Tintin") choreographs onscreen action like no one else.These directors -- along with many others in the running for Golden Globes this year -- could be said to have identifiable styles, even when the subject matters and locations change, as when Allen traded NY for Europe, and Fincher swapped serial killers last year for computer nerds.Other Oscar contenders, however, are harder to pin down.There are filmmakers like Stephen Daldry, who's vaulted from a dancing English lad ("Billy Eliott") to a couple of time-hopping literary adaptations ("The Hours," "The Reader"), and now has a post-9/11 childlike adventure set in NY ("Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"). Is he a chameleon?What about Bennett Miller, who's gone from the rarefied world of a mid-20th century literary icon ("Capote") to Major League Baseball as it's played today ("Moneyball"). Does he have a stylistic thumbprint? Or will he turn out to be a shape-shifter?"It's hard to know yet," says Vogue film critic John Powers about Miller's work. "They're both brilliant outsider movies, shot with more detachment than you normally expect. There's careful framing, and they're both rather quiet."Director Chris Weitz, who shifted gears from a massive franchise sequel (2009's "The Twilight Saga: New Moon") to this year's smaller father/son drama "A Better Life," is an example of a filmmaker who would prefer to never make the same movie twice."I never want to get pigeonholed," says Weitz, who loved going from a heavily storyboarded, CGI-rich world like "New Moon" to something small, location-dependent -- "A Better Life" utilized 69 locations around Los Angeles -- and contingent on a realistic depiction of urban life."In a way, it's a disadvantage, career-wise, because people like to associate you with one thing, or a particular style. But I just try to suit myself to whatever the material is at hand. I don't have a single unifying theme that I'm always obsessed with fleshing out."He does admit one visual tic, though. "I like turning the camera upside down, for some reason," Weitz adds, with a laugh. "I don't know why."Daldry, meanwhile, attributes his body of work so far to self-described Catholic tastes. "I'm drawn to a whole variety of different stories," he says. "I think it's intentional. I never like to pigeonhole myself. It's about the passions and enthusiasms that I discover."It means that the material ultimately dictates the style used, Daldry notes. "Form always follows content.""J. Edgar" helmer Clint Eastwood, on the other hand, has a classically unvarnished directorial style that could have fit right in during the studio system era."The way he composes shots is very old-fashioned," says Powers. "His sense of rhythm is slightly pokier than modern. His stuff often breathes and has the emotions of an old-fashioned movie. I think it's one of his virtues."It stems from a belief in never pandering to an audience, according to Eastwood's longtime cinematographer, Tom Stern. The director's fondness for a sometimes overpoweringly dark lighting scheme of shadows and blacks, for example, is not only a stylistic choice, but a way of "empowering the audience's imagination," says Stern."Especially in the Hoover picture, where you've got somebody who isn't really black and white, it just felt extremely appropriate," Stern says. "Sometimes, if it's real dark, I'll say 'Is this OK?' And (Eastwood) will say, 'We're in reel three of the film; they know who it is.' And he's absolutely correct. If you meet the silhouette in reel one, then he becomes the silhouette in reel three."All in all, Weitz looks at directors' styles as growing out of how they got into filmmaking. Did other interests -- like theater or writing -- come first? Or were they cinephiles from early on?"There are independent artists who came at it because they were thinking about movies since they were 12, who really have a stylistic thing they've sorted out in their minds," he says. "For me, I've been learning since my first day on a film set. But I think most other people want to make a body of work that exemplifies who they are."GOLDEN GLOBE UPDATE Nixing the hijinx jinx | Contemporary directors: Stylists or shape-shifters? | Stateside sitcoms mixed overseas | Awards aren't goal of HFPA giving | TV biz buys into backseat Globes role | Memorable moments at the Globes Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com