6C | MAY 10 — 16, 2012 | SOUTH FLORIDA TIMES | SFLTIMES.COM | SoFlo LIVE
tv & technology By KIMBERLY GRANT Special to South Florida Times Can Shonda Rhimes do no wrong? It seems that Rhimes creates a new television show for ABC every few years. And every few years Rhimes hands ABC a stellar drama — although many people complained about Private Practice. Not so with Rhimes’ and Betsy Beers’ latest drama foray, Scandal, which premiered on April 5 as a midseason series of seven episodes. Loosely based on former President George H.W. Bush’s administration press aide, Judy Smith, the ABC Studios Production stars an emotional Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope. Pope is the leader of Pope & Associates, a crisis management firm of lawyers who “solve” cases in very quick, very methodical ways. The similarities between Pope and Smith, who is a co-executive producer on the show, lie in the fact that they are both former press aides for the White House who now own their own crisis management firms. In Scandal, viewers are treated to a more salacious version of Smith. As Washington put it during an interview on E! News Now, Smith never had an affair with the president of the United States (POTUS). THE CHARACTERS Pope’s team consists of Huck (Guillermo Diaz), a former black-ops
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were really good. “They all start with ‘S’,” said Joshua Malina, who plays assistant district attorney David Rosen. “It’s sexy. It’s sassy. It’s suspenseful. It’s Shonda-rific.” MOVING TELEVISION
Kerry Washington
Shonda Rhimes
Judy Smith
Got a ‘Scandal’? Get a fixer Latest Shonda Rhimes ensemble cast is fine viewing specialist; Stephen (Henry Ian Cusick), a former shark lawyer who is also a former lady’s man; Harrison (Columbus Short); a former insider trader who has magnificent hearing and refers to himself and his team as “gladiators in suits”; Abby (Darby Stanchfield), the angry, distrusting member of the group; and Quinn (Katie Lowes), the new girl on the scene with a hidden past. Rhimes has always been one to put a lot of effort into character development. So the current roster of Olivia’s team can be quite
entertaining in their own right. Olivia Pope herself is still a bit of a mystery. From the first two episodes we find out, from the team, the things that Olivia doesn’t do and doesn’t like. She doesn’t cry. She doesn’t like to hear “I don’t know.” And, she doesn’t like the word “lose.” Yet Washington’s Pope, who is supposed to be a robot, always manages to show a full range of emotion, often communicated solely with her eyes and her lips. Pope also has such a soft spot for the POTUS (Tony Goldwyn) that she’s cried for him. From the beginning the
precedent is set that Olivia is not only good at what she does, she’s also feared by those who dare cross her — except for POTUS, President Fitzgerald Grant, and his chief of staff, Cyrus (Jeff Perry). While President Grant is Olivia’s kryptonite, Cyrus is the thorn in her side. The plot thickens. THE ‘S’ FACTOR But why should viewers watch? In a marketing effort ABC put a camera into Lowes’ hands to ask that question of her co-stars. Two answers
Rhimes didn’t need to slip Malina a $20 for that last comment because he was telling the truth. Rhimes is great at producing dramas that showcase a wide range of stories, starring a wide range of ethnic representation via an ensemble cast — a welcome sight in television. It’s also a welcome sight to see a woman of color at the helm of a popular new drama with early, impressive ratings of 7.5 million viewers and climbing. Stanchfield added about Scandal: “You will probably cry, at least, once. You will definitely laugh and you will be on the edge of your seat.” Stanchfield was not exaggerating. From the first scene of each episode, the storylines and characters keep Scandal’s plot moving at all times. You can’t have a show created by Shonda Rhimes that’s not fast-paced. The rapid-fire speech and dramatic twists are a Rhimes staple. And that’s just fine for viewers. Who wouldn’t like a television series called Scandal, about scandal, that solves scandals, and is an ode to the phenomenon that, no matter what the time period, scandal is scandal? KAliciaG@aol.com facebook.com/fashgirl83
Facebook looking at all-time top Internet IPO
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook, the company that turned the social Web into a cultural and business phenomenon, is worth as much as $95 billion, according to the price range for its upcoming initial public offering of stock. The IPO, expected in a couple of weeks, would be the biggest ever for an Internet company. In a regulatory filing Facebook set a price range of $28-$35 per share for its initial public offering. At the high end, Facebook and its current shareholders could raise as much as $13.58 billion — far more than the $1.9 billion raised in the
2004 offering for current Internet IPO record-holder Google Inc. The IPO valued the company at $23 billion. Google is now worth about ZUCKERBERG $200 billion. Facebook Inc.'s IPO has been highly anticipated, not just because of how much money it will raise but because Facebook itself is so popular. The world's largest online social network has 900 million users. CEO Mark Zuckerberg,
who turns 28 this month, has emerged as a wunderkind leader who’s guided Facebook through unprecedented growth from its scrappy start as an online hangout for Harvard students. Facebook's offering values the company at $76 billion to $95 billion, based on the expected number of Facebook shares following the IPO. That's about 2.74 billion, according to Renaissance Capital, an IPO investment adviser. The value is set by multiplying the number of shares by the expected stock price.
Facebook's next step is an “IPO road show,” where executives talk to potential investors about why they should invest in the stock. Despite the frenzy surrounding Facebooks offering, not all IPO watchers are impressed. Francis Gaskins president of IPOdesktop.com, said Facebook's growth is “obviously slowing down. “The company is entering a maturation process,” Gaskins said. “I think their core business slowed more than they thought for the past four months.” Zuckerberg, who founded Facebook in his dorm room in
2004, will keep tight control over the company even after the IPO. He will control 57.3 percent of the company's voting power. Zuckerberg will likely own about 31.5 percent of Facebook's outstanding stock after the IPO. At the high end of the expected IPO price range, his holdings will be worth $17.6 billion. The top 10 Internet IPOs, according to Renaissance: Google Inc., IPO on Aug. 18, 2004, $1.67 billion raised. Yandex N.V., IPO on May 23, 2011, $1.3 billion raised. Infonet Services Corp. (now part of BT Group PLC), IPO on Dec. 15, 1999, $1.08
billion raised. Shanda Games Ltd., IPO on Sept. 24, 2009, $1.04 billion raised. Zynga Inc., IPO on Dec. 15, 2011, $1 billion raised. Giant Interactive Group Inc., IPO on Oct. 31, 2007, $887 million raised. Renren Inc., IPO on May 3, 2011, $743 million raised. Groupon Inc., IPO on Nov. 3, 2011, $700 million raised. Orbitz Worldwide Inc., IPO on July 19, 2007, $510 million raised. barnesandnoble.com (now part of Barnes & Noble Inc.), IPO on May 24, 1999, $450 million raised.