The major TV networks, facing the prospect of paying back millions of dollars in advertisers for not being able to deliver the audiences they had promised, are stepping up their attack on Nielsen Research and stepping up their plans to develop their own ratings system, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Friday). However, Nielsen executives are denying network charges that its decision to enlarge its audience sample and other relatively new methods to measure audience size and demographics are responsible for the lower network ratings. Nielsen president John Dimling told the WSJ: "I don't know of any other sample used in syndicated research that is as good as the Nielsen sample." Barry Cook, another Nielsen exec, called the lower network ratings, "a social change, not a Nielsen change."

Legal experts appear divided over whether any government ban on TV liquor advertising would withstand scrutiny by the courts, the Associated Press reported today (Friday). Scott Bullock of the conservative Institute for Justice told the wire service that he thinks it is unlikely that such a ban would hold up "especially when you have wine and beer ads on the air." But Cornell law professor Steven Shiffrin observed that he believes that the court's would rule that a ban on liquor ads would be allowable because it reflects "a substantial public interest the public health."

Fox has ordered nine more episodes of Millennium, and despite the fact that the show's ratings have fallen sharply since its debut, the network pointed out Thursday that it is outdrawing the first season of The X-Files, which was created by Millennium producer Chris Carter.

Although several TV critics have faulted The Drew Carey Show producers for the "music videos" being appended to the show, last Wednesday's episode, which featured a choreographed dance number that producer Bruce Helford had said cost "in the six figures" to film, helped win the night for ABC. The episode was the top-rated show of the night, scoring a 13.3 rating and a 21 share.

Adding to the woes connected to Sony's U.S. entertainment investments, Sony Music announced Tuesday that overall revenue for the first half plunged 49 percent to $40 million from $81 million during the same period a year ago. The company blamed delays and cancellations in album releases and increased spending on advertising and promotion.

In a 2-1 ruling, a federal appeals court in San Francisco Tuesday found that legislation limiting funding by the NEA to works that uphold "general standards of decency and respect" is unconstitutional, violating the First and Fifth amendments. The decision held that the provision, enacted after controversy arose over the funding of a homoerotic display by artist Robert Mapplethorpe, "violated due process because no standard of conduct was specified at all." Georgetown law professor David Cole, who argued the case, told today's (Wednesday) Washington Post that the decision would not only allow artists greater freedom, but also "provide the NEA protection from Congress. It insulates the NEA from political pressure." However, the NEA, which faces a possible loss of all federal funding next year, declined to comment on the decision.

CHINA ATTACKS DISNEY ON DALAI LAMA FILM The Chinese government has warned the Walt Disney Co. that if it remains associated with Martin Scorsese's Kundun, dealing with the life of Tibet's exiled Dalai Lama, it risks jeopardizing its plans to expand in China. An official of the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television told a London Financial Times correspondent in Beijing today (Friday) that the government "resolutely opposes" the production. "So far as we know, the film is going to be anti-China," the official said. Although the Financial Times noted that a Disney spokesman denied that the company had any connection with the film, Disney's Buena Vista Pictures Marketing unit announced on Aug. 26 that production of the film had begun in Morocco. It quoted Scorsese as saying, "What interests me is how a young man who lives in a society which is totally based on the spirit finds himself face to face with a society that happens to be one of the most anti-spiritual ever formed, the Maoist government of the Chinese communists."

WARNER'S SWEET RESULTS FROM JAM Last weekend's $27.5 million opening of Warner's Space Jam, starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes characters, represented the fourth-biggest premiere of an animated feature in history -- behind Disney's The Lion King, Pocahontas and Toy Story, Warner Bros. said Monday. The studio, apparently attempting to point out that the movie appeals to all age groups, noted that its demographics studies indicated that while 34 percent of the audience was between 12 and 24, 42 percent was older. (Presumably, the remaining 24 percent was younger than 12.)

In their efforts to turn Sony Pictures around, the company's new execs are likely to focus on TriStar's planned Summer 1998 release, Godzilla from ID4 producers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the Los Angeles Times observed today (Friday). "It's the kind of movie with which you can create a worldwide event," a Sony source told the newspaper.

Pulp Fiction director Quentin Tarantino and the Directors Guild of America are apparently on a collision course following Tarantino's refusal to join the Guild after being granted a waiver last year to direct an episode of E.R., published reports said Thursday. Today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times quoted a Tarantino spokesperson as saying that the director still has no plans to join the DGA. His refusal reportedly may prompt the Guild to deny his application for a second waiver that would allow him to direct a forthcoming episode of Fox's X-Files.

The idea of an anonymous remailer is to protect the confidentiality of its users' identities. When a piece of e-mail was sent to anon.penet.fi, its identifying information was stripped off and a code number was substituted. The message was then forwarded to the individual, mailing list or discussion group for which it was intended.disc.

Seagram Co. intends to bring MCA/Universal chiefs together for an executive retreat in December at which a new logo and name for the company will be unveiled, Daily Variety reported today (Friday). The entertainment company will officially be called Universal Studios, the trade paper said.

Anjelica Huston and Alicia Silverstone will star as mother-and-daughter con artists in Breakers for United Artists. The studio said Thursday that production is expected to begin in Palm Beach, FL in April.

Paul and Linda McCartney are reportedly producing a new film in which still photographs that Linda took of the Beatles between 1967 and 1970 will be converted into moving images by a new type of computer technology, Daily Variety reported today (Friday).

As part of the consolidation of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting companies, Jean MacCurdy, president of Warner Bros. Television Animation, has been given the additional responsibility of overseeing the Hanna-Barbera animation studio, which had been owned by Turner.

ROSEANNE TANKS; TITANIC SINKS Clearly displaying disapproval of Roseanne fantasy sequences showing the title character envisioning herself in classic TV and film roles, audiences abandoned the show in record numbers Tuesday night, according to overnight Nielsens. The episode, in which the character imagined herself in a Steven Seagal action flick -- with Seagal guest starring -- posted an 8.2 rating and a 13 share on ABC, its lowest rating ever for an original episode. The time period was won by NBC's Mad About You with a 12.7/20, Meanwhile, Fox's Tuesday night movie, Speed, posted a strong 9.8/15. CBS sank to fourth with Pt. 2 of Titanic (9.5/15). The wilting of ABC's Tuesday centerpiece took the bloom off other offerings from the network for the night -- Home Improvement excepted -- allowing NBC to claim overall victory for the second Tuesday in a row. (Even NBC's Dateline bested NYPD Blue.) In the apparent hope of boosting Roseanne's ratings, the star has been telling interviewers recently that a regular member of the cast will "come out of the closet" on next week's episode.

Fox, NBC and the NFL have each written Nielsen Research, charging that ratings of football games, which reflect a 10-percent decline at Fox and a 3-percent slide at NBC this season, are inaccurate and are the result of a recent change in the sample of viewer households, the Los Angeles Times reported today. Giles Lundberg, who tracks ratings for Fox, told the newspaper that Nielsen's "flawed numbers are having a serious impact on a franchise we paid $1 billion for."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has sued CBS for using its trademarked Oscar statuette in a commercial for Ink without permission. The Academy rigorously guards against use of the statue for such purposes. The suit seeks unspecified damages. CBS had no immediate comment.

E! Entertainment channel has decided to expand its hour-long reenactments of the O.J. Simpson civil trial to 90 minutes beginning Tuesday to coincide with the anticipated appearance of Simpson himself on the witness stand on Monday. Simpson is being played by actor Stephen Wayne.

As production costs of TV series escalate, studios increasingly are deciding not to proceed with production of iffy shows, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Thursday). Producer Tony Thomas of Witt-Thomas told the newspaper, "It's just not financially responsible to keep making a show if the network says, 'We don't have faith in you.' ... When you're going to spend $300,000 a week in deficits and there's no future, you have to move on.

Former Disney motion picture group president Chris McGurk has been appointed to the newly created post of COO of MCA/Universal's motion picture group. Separately, UIP, the European distribution company formed by MCA, MGM and Paramount, named Paul Oneile, managing director of an Australian exhibitor, Greater Union Org., president.

Michael Eisner personally had to intervene to placate Elton John after one of John's songs was cut from the forthcoming rock-opera production of Aida, which Disney plans to stage on Broadway. Today's (Thursday) New York Daily News quotes an unnamed insider as saying, "Not having written musicals before, Elton may not understand that some songs need to be cut for dramatic purposes." A Disney spokesman declined comment.

At least four persons who allegedly videotaped scenes on the set of Batman & Robin and sold the tapes to Inside Edition have been arrested following a complaint by Warner Bros. Three persons involved in the alleged taping were arraigned in Burbank Monday on charges of burglary, trespassing and receiving stolen property.

The Writers Guild of America East has announced that it will now register scripts, synopses, outlines, ideas, treatments and scenarios that are submitted to it via e-mail. Fees are identical to those for mail-in registration: $10.00 for members of either West- or East-Coast branches -- with a schedule of various rates for students and non-members (posted at the Guild's Internet site: http://www.wga.org).