Carl Icahn and dissident Time Warner shareholders are hoping to enlist Ted Turner in their effort to overturn the current management of the company, Frank Biondi Jr, the former Viacom and Universal CEO said Wednesday. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Biondi, who has agreed to serve as interim CEO of Time Warner if Icahn is successful, said, "Ted has expressed his frustrations [with the current Time Warner management] in the past. Whether what we have proposed conforms to what he'd like to see we don't know because we haven't had a chance to talk to him yet. But we will." Biondi said that he expects to take over as CEO of the combined Time Warner if Icahn wins, then "migrate" to chairman of the "content" company -- that is, the company principally comprising Warner Bros. and the Turner Broadcasting Co. cable networks -- as soon as Time Warner Cable, Time Inc. publishing, and AOL are spun off.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reported Wednesday that second-quarter profits nearly tripled, thanks in great part to increased ad sales at its Fox News and FX cable networks. Net income soared to $1.08 billion from $386 million a year ago, the company said. It noted that FX's Nip/Tuck ended the quarter as the No. 2 cable television show (behind wrestling on the USA channel) and that Fox News Channel recorded a 24-percent increase in operating income.

Displaying a militant activism eschewed by their predecessors, the leaders of the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America led a protest over product-placement ads outside a conference on "branded entertainment" at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Wednesday. Both guild leaders claimed that they had been excluded from what was billed as an entertainment industry debate about product placement ads in movies and TV shows. In a statement, WGA President Patric Verrone said, "For actors and writers who are being forced to shoehorn products into their work whether they fit or not, there are critical issues of creative rights, consultation, and fair compensation. For the public there is the serious matter of disclosure - consumers, parents, and all viewers have the right to be told when we are being sold." Added SAG President Alan Rosenberg: "The fact that we must hold a demonstration to be heard on this key issue affecting artists is sad evidence that the industry continues to refuse to engage us. Rather than meeting alone behind the ivory walls of a five-star hotel, producers ought to embrace artists in a conversation on this issue of mutual concern."

Universal is planning to produce a movie that is likely to spark new debate over civil union legislation and domestic partner benefits. Daily Variety reported today (Thursday) that the studio is close to signing Adam Sandler and Kevin James to star in I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, about two straight firefighters in Philadelphia who pose as a gay married couple in order to qualify for domestic partner benefits. The script has passed through the hands of numerous script doctors over the past four years, and rumors about casting plans for the film have circulated broadly over that period. At one time it was expected that Will Smith and James Gandolfini would star (then Smith and Nicolas Cage) making it somewhat ironic that James, who costarred with Smith in Hitch, has now apparently landed the starring role in Chuck and Larry.

The 56th annual Berlin International Film Festival opens today (Thursday) with a screening of Snow Cake -- particularly appropriate since it is snowing in Berlin -- starring Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver, who are expected to be on hand for the screening at the Berlinale Palast. Among the 26 films participating in the Golden Bear competition are Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion and Sidney Lumet's Find Me Guilty. A vastly enlarged European Film Market is opening concurrently with the festival, with about 250 exhibitors -- up from 165 a year ago.

An online auction of props, costumes and autographed scripts from the original horror film Saw and its sequel, Saw II, has raked in $220,000 in its first day, Raybin Management, which is holding the auction on eBay, said Wednesday. In a statement, the company noted that $14,800 was paid for the venus fly trap prop seen in the opening scene of Saw II and that a spiked and bloody baseball bat used in the film brought in $4,100. Raybin Management President John Rabin said, "The best of the auction is coming in the next three weeks, timed to culminate with the DVD release of Saw II on February 14."

Faced with competition from ABC's Lost and Fox's American Idol, CBS' telecast of the Grammy Awards produced disappointing ratings for the second year in a row. According to Nielsen overnights, the awards telecast averaged an 11.9 rating and an 18 share in primetime, slightly better than the 11.0/17 it scored a year ago but well off the 15.3/24 of 2004 and the 14.7/23 of 2003. (Last year it did battle with ABC's Desperate Housewives on a Sunday night.) American Idol handily beat the Grammys in the 8:00 hour, registering a 16.1/24 to the Grammy's 9.9/15. But the awards show took a narrow lead in the 9:00 p.m. hour as it registered a 12.2/18 versus an 11.2/16 for ABC's Lost. Fox placed third with a 7.8/11 for Bones. CBS stayed in the lead at 10:00 p.m., pulling an 11.6/19 while NBC's Law & Order moved into second place with a 9.4/15.

CBS, often an also-ran when it comes to Daytime Emmy nominations, led the pack Wednesday as it tallied 59 nominations. Syndicated shows collected 46, while ABC and PBS, which generally dominate at nomination time, placed third and fourth, with 37 and 31 nods respectively. NBC was a distant fifth with 20. As usual, The Young and the Restless received the most nominations in the dramatic category, while The Ellen DeGeneres Show for the second year in a row was the favorite among talk shows, nailing 11 nominations. The awards will be presented on April 23.

With most American television networks and cable news networks refusing to show the controversial Danish cartoons depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed that have touched off riots abroad, a fierce debate has arisen in the mainstream media over the issue of self censorship. Fox News, one of the few television outlets to show one of the cartoons, in which the prophet Mohammed wears a turban shaped like a bomb, has defended its decision to do so. In an interview with USA Today (which has not published the cartoon), anchor Chris Wallace said, "My feeling was, if we're going to tell the story about people rioting and burning down embassies, it's part of the story to know what it is that has caused such outrage." ABC aired the cartoon in its initial coverage of the riots but decided not to do so afterwards. A spokeswoman told USA Today: "We understand the sensitivity of this issue, particularly among our Muslim viewers." In Iran, the newspaper Hamshahri has launched a contest to find the "best" cartoons about the Holocaust. "The Western papers printed these sacrilegious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let's see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons," graphics editor Farid Mortazavi said. In Wednesday's London Times, columnist Alan Coren, a former editor of the now defunct satirical magazine Punch, observed that he was on the receiving end of numerous complaints about cartoons the magazine ran during his tenure but said that he based his editorial decisions solely on whether they were funny. The Danish cartoons, he observed, were not. Then, in his own take on Looking for Humor in the Muslim World, Coren asked, "Suppose they had been funny? Not to us infidels, we don't matter, but to Muslims. I hardly dare ask -- not because I fear the tap on the door and the scimitar to the throat, only because I recognize my own ignorance on the issue -- whether, notwithstanding the sacrilege of any representation of Muhammad, there could conceivably be circumstances under which a gag about him was so terrific that even the devout couldn't suppress a grin. ... And since you ask, that cartoon published yesterday in an Islamic paper and designed to outrage in revenge -- it showed Hitler, in bed with Anne Frank, saying 'This is one for the diary' -- made me laugh. Don't write in, for God's sake."

Univision, the largest Spanish-language television network, is for sale. The company, controlled by Jerry Perenchio, a former talent agent whose clients once included Marlon Brando and Elizabeth Taylor, said that it has hired investment bank UBS "to explore strategic options, including a sale." Shares in the company soared nearly 12 percent Wednesday on the news as Wall Street analysts indicated that a buyer might pay as much as $40 a share for the company. It closed Wednesday at $34.20.

President Bush on Wednesday signed into law a bill that sets Feb. 17, 2009 as the last day that U.S. broadcasters can continue to transmit analog signals. The law sets aside $1.5 billion to help people buy settop converters if they do not own digital TV sets by then. The current analog broadcast spectrum will be auctioned to wireless broadband providers. The Consumer Electronics Assn. hailed the president's action as an "important milestone" and called for "all industries involved in this transition ... to educate consumers about this exciting new era in television."