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The head of HBO, Chris Albrecht, has taken a leave of absence and has entered AA after being arrested over the weekend in Las Vegas. Albrecht was arrested for allegedly assaulting his girlfriend outside the MGM Grand. He was there to watch to the fight that his network aired.
TV week has the memo that Albrecht sent out to his staff about his leave:
My colleagues and friends:
I am deeply sorry for what occured in Las Vegas this weekend and for any embarrasment it caused my family, the company I love, and myself.
While I am not at liberty to discuss the incident as the district attorney and my lawyer are still determining the facts, it is my hope to do so in the near future.
This weekend was a wake up call to me of a weakness I thought I had overcome long ago. I had been a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous for thirteen years. Two years ago, I decided that I could handle drinking again. Clearly, I was wrong. Given that truth, I have committed myself to sobriety. I intend to take a temporary leave of absence from HBO effective today, in order to go back to working with AA.
Leading this company is a great privilege and I pray that I can continue to do so in a manner that brings honor and pride to this remarkable organization and its remarkable people. Thank you for your understanding during these difficult hours, I will not let you down again.
Where are The Sopranos when you need them? It will be interesting to see if he will be allowed to return to his position as CEO and Chairman of HBO. With the end of The Sopranos and none of the new shows minus Entourage doing well, this could be HBO's easy way out.
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The producers of The Sopranos were denied a permit to film in this North Jersey town because the mayor and some City Council members say the acclaimed HBO series negatively depicts Italian-Americans. The owners of an old-fashioned ice cream parlor selected for the series' final scene, however, said such "personal feelings" shouldn't stand in the way. "He should do what's good for the town," Chris Carley, co-owner of Holsten's Brookdale Confectionary, said of Bloomfield Mayor Raymond McCarthy. Permits were approved last week. But after complaints, the council voted again on Monday and rejected them. Officials have agreed to reconsider the issue for a third time next week. The mayor, whose wife is Italian, said: "I don't think The Sopranos depicts the life of a typical Italian-American in a positive way and I still don't like the way people see New Jersey based upon The Sopranos series." He added that he plans to oppose filming again on Monday. "What the rest of the council does, that's their choice. I stand by my convictions." As a member of Unico, an Italian-American civic group, "I am pledged to honoring my commitment to its mission to speak out in defense of Italian-American dignity," McCarthy said. One council member, Peggy O'Boyle Dunigan, has changed her mind and now wants to allow the show to film here. She said she was given incorrect information that Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo disliked the show, and she has been since flooded with calls of support for Holsten's. "If you don't like the show, you can turn it off," she said. "It's hard enough to have a small business in town. I don't want to discourage them." On Wednesday, DiVincenzo visited the store to show his support and said he asked the Bloomfield mayor to reconsider. "Nobody is more proud to be an Italian-American than I am," said DiVincenzo. "I'm not offended by the show at all."
USA Today
I am not sure how I feel about this. It is easy for me to say so what, but I am not sure how I would feel if I were in the same boat as Bloomfield.
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