Recession or not, the 'FT' is bringing its magazine for the ultra-wealthy to the U.S.

The rich have it bad, too, in this economy. But you'd hardly know it from skimming the likes of Robb Report and Prestige New York, just a couple of the magazines aimed at the ultra-wealthy. While they seem to downplay the downturn, the Financial Times's glossy lifestyle magazine, FT Wealth, is out front with the troubles facing its target audience. Its most recent issue for Europe/Asia readers (pictured) includes pieces on the "turbulent times" for the yachting industry and protecting one's image and privacy from angry hordes stirred up by the financial crisis. Now, the FT is importing FT Wealth to its U.S. subscribers, who will get the benefit of stories on the credit crunch's impact on currency values and how the downturn is hurting America's rich kids (poor dears). The magazine is set to publish quarterly. It remains to be seen whether advertisers will want to be associated with the FT's dose of reality, however. The publication is talking to auto, financial and luxury clients but would not confirm any advertisers by name.

—Posted by Lucia Moses

'Twilight' sequel trailer posting huge Web views, challenging Susan Boyle

Bella and Edward are no Susan Boyle, but they're close. Michael Jackson can't touch Soulja Boy, at least not yet. But both the dreamy duo from Twilight and the King of Pop have become Web video phenomena this summer. According to the video analytics firm Visible Measures, the trailer for this November's release Twilight Saga: New Moon has generated a massive 220 million views in the past two months alone. That clip, which features a pale vampire and some girl gazing at each other intensely several times, is exhibiting growth not seen since the great Susan Boyle, the Les Miserables-crooning singer seen on Britain's Got Talent earlier this year. Boyle's performance was streamed 261 million times during the same time period, and over 286 million times overall. But Visible Measures officials believe that Moon could easily surpass that threshold by the time the movie is released. Yet for some inexplicable reason, the trailer for Blacula has not proven to be nearly as popular. Meanwhile, since Jackson's death, his classic video Thriller has added over 80 million views since July, placing the clip in third place all time with 299 million total views. Yet Jackson has a ways to go to reach the top spot, which is owned by Soulja Boy's Crank Dat. That clip has been streamed an incredible 487 million times to date, per Visible Measures.

—Posted by Mike Shields

Fight over Glenn Beck hits the Web hard

Some Facebook and Twitter users are starting to rally in support of Fox News’ Glenn Beck, who has seen several big name advertisers flee from his highly rated program. Some of the Twitter chatter is angry about health care reform and the media coverage, but most are touting Beck’s continued on air success despite the ongoing ad revolt. Check out the 'houstonmom' tweet. Like most Beck-defenders found on social networking platform, houstonmom points folks to DefendGlenn.com, a site that has sprung up in recent weeks that urges fans to contact the advertisers that have pulled spending from Beck’s show—a group the site labels The Turncoat List. Besides calling out brands like Geico and Sargento, the fan site is also tough on MSNBC for its coverage of the recent health care town halls (and says advertisers like Clorox should also pull their ads from that network, unless they want to risk being accused of having a double standard). So far the group Defend Glenn Beck Against Thug-Inspired Boycott on Facebook has 1,397 followers (Beck himself has 290,775 fans on the site). The group Fire Glenn Beck From Fox News has just 15 members.

—Posted by Mike Shields

Spike TV and Nickelodeon aren't exactly lifting our spirits these days

For those who like their leisure-time TV light and frothy, I wouldn't suggest the following programs: Spike TV's Surviving Disaster and an episode of Nickelodeon's Nick News called "Stressed Out! The Economic Crisis and You." The former will use "realistic simulations" of airplane hijackings, bio-chemical attacks, mall shootings and home-invasion robberies. (See, viewer, it's like you're really there!) The latter will feature adorable children like David, age 12, who feels terrible for his folks because their house is going into foreclosure. "We're losing our home, and there's nothing I can do about it," says the tween. What is this, Trauma TV? Shows like this send me diving under the covers, though maybe some tips from a Navy Seal named Cade Courtley could toughen me up a bit. Not sure I can get past the "catastrophic scenarios" in every episode of Surviving Disaster, premiering Sept. 1, but the guys who watch Spike dig this kind of thing. Here's how Courtley promotes the new show: "You can be a survivor or a statistic." Can't we just go for a round of paintball? And I certainly can't be expected to listen to economic tales of woe from newly homeless kids without coming unglued. In fairness, "Stressed Out!" comes with award-winning pedigree in host Linda Ellerbee, who has a track record of deft treatment of sensitive subjects. It airs Sept. 6. Both shows promise to have uplifting moments (you lived through hell, but you lived!), but it's a slog to get there. Bring on the Housewives!

—Posted by T.L. Stanley

MySpace snaps up iLike, which happens to be the top music app on Facebook

Search for "music" on Facebook, and what's the first thing that comes up? The application called Music, powered by iLike, which lets users create and share personalized playlists and discover new artists. More than 9.6 million people use the Facebook app alone (and 50 million-plus on the Web overall). In its description, the app says iLike "is the fastest-growing social music-discovery site on the Web, and the most popular music service on Facebook." Well, as of Wednesday, iLike is owned by MySpace. In the social-networking world, Facebook has lapped MySpace in terms of popularity and buzz, and MySpace is suffering as a result. Even for the Web, where frememies thrive and strange bedfellows are the norm, this partnership feels kind of weird. Sure, if MySpace can somehow earn revenue, either from advertising or sharing in music sales on Facebook's back, one might suppose, why not, right? Still, many digital industry insiders are already speculating that Facebook might turn off its iLike support at some point next year, impose some kind of restriction or fee, or even launch its own proprietary music app. Stay tuned.

—Posted by Mike Shields

Documentary about Wintour's 'Vogue' is juicy but out of sync with the times

There are many juicy tidbits in The September Issue, the just-released film by R.J. Cutler that documents the making of Vogue's September 2007 magazine. There are the twinge-inducing moments when diva editrix Anna Wintour's clipped criticisms drive subordinates back to the drawing board, deflated, and the YSL designer into nervous spasms. And it reveals plenty of tension between Wintour and longtime creative director, Grace Coddington, who steals the show with her frank displays of emotion when Wintour tosses out her photos. The movie doesn't try to refute the notion that Wintour is the most powerful woman in the fashion world. Still, it seems dated, with its portrayal of a free-spending culture that seems a long time ago now. Vogue's current September issue, with 427 ad pages, is down 36.7 percent from last year. And Wintour, now in her 21st year as editor, won't be around forever. But while it's foreseeable that her successor might be just as powerful, it's hard to imagine she'll be nearly as interesting.

—Posted by Lucia Moses

'Mad Men,' but with a present-day spin

Dear AMC: Following on the runaway success of Mad Men, I'd like to propose a companion show for your consideration. It takes place at a modern-day Madison Avenue not-so-hot shop. The clients have cut their budgets to the bone, so the execs axe most of the staff and spend their time trying to "figure out social media." Since the interns have also been let go, management struggles to compress their thoughts into 140 characters but fail miserably and submit the resulting manuscripts to HarperCollins in the hope of landing book deals and "escaping this lousy racket once and for all." They smoke, drink and scheme how to a) Bill their remaining accounts for junkets to Cannes next year, and b) Come up with some excuse to skip the annual Advertising Week industry event in New York "without the 4A's throwing a hissy fit." These agency leaders are slightly over the hill but surgically enhanced, world-weary metrosexual types who spend most of the pilot in court fending off sexual-harassment suits. Their big campaign culminates in a Super Bowl spot for Apple (product-placement opportunity!) that employs themes from Orwell's 1984. When informed that such an ad has been done before, they insist theirs is original because "this is a different Super Bowl." I call the show Sad Men. Have I mentioned that it's a reality series?

—Posted by David Gianatasio

With Tom DeLay on board, who else can ABC get for 'Dancing With the Stars'?

OK, even for those who've never watched Dancing With the Stars, your curiosity had to be piqued on Monday when ABC announced that former Republican majority leader Tom DeLay is joining the cast for this season. That's a coup for the network, as DeLay's first dance has suddenly become the early must-watch moment this fall. The former congressmen was quoted as saying, "Conservatives can have fun too." We already know this, of course, based on the singing career of former attorney general John Ashcroft. According to The New York Times, DWTS producers have an even loftier goal: Getting Bill Clinton to jump in. We at MediaFreak don't see this as a good idea at all. Can you imaging throwing Bubba in with former Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover girl Kathy Ireland? Or Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin? Not a good idea. We think DWTS should go more global in its quest for dancing politicians. Say, Boris Yelstin? Oops, Yelstin died in 2007. Well, we do know that the most recent leader of the free world doesn't have that much to do, and he loves to get down.

—Posted by Mike Shields

Host of Brazilian crime show accused of murdering to boost his ratings

In a bizarre and tragic commentary on our times, a Brazilian television host is accused of killing drug traffickers, among other offenses, in order to be the first to report the misdeeds and boost his show's ratings. According to local police: "Crimes were committed in order to create news for the group and for the program." There are plenty of ironic, nearly too-good-to-be-true plot points here that should have Hollywood screenwriters salivating. The guy's a former cop, and as a legislator in the Brazil's Amazonas region, he has immunity from prosecution. He's even got a boffo catchphrase, ready-made for movie trailers: "Nowadays everyone is killing."

—Posted by David Gianatasio

Charlie the Tuna is back, and still has an uncontrollable desire to be destroyed

Talk about burying the lede. Only after wading through 500-plus words of a press release touting StarKist's Tuna Creations (marinated albacore that comes in a pouch, like fishy Big League Chew) do we learn that the canned-fish purveyor is bringing back spokesfish Charlie the Tuna after a two-decade hiatus. Children of the '70s will remember Charlie as the StarKist mascot who wore a snappy red beret and chunky-framed Charles Nelson Reilly glasses—a cool, downtown type who was forever trying to get hooked by one of StarKist's trawlers. While the notion of a hipster fish with a death wish was always a bit jarring—Charlie's outlook was a bit myopic, given what awaited him at the cannery—an appetite for self-destruction is SOP for animals in ads. (Check out the Suicide Food blog for ample examples, and this SNL bit starring the late Phil Hartman and a plucky pullet is a gross-out classic.) Charlie will swim back into America's hearts in a supporting role, appearing at the tail end of StarKist's TV spots. But for many pop-culture enthusiasts, the scaly Daddio never really went away. In his latest paean to paranoia, Inherent Vice, author Thomas Pynchon devotes an entire page to a stoner's deconstruction of the piscine pitchman's death wish. According to Pynchon's wigged-out doper, Charlie's plight reflects America's "suicidal brand loyalty, man, a deep parable of consumer capitalism. … It's no coincidence that he has the same name as Charles Manson." Sorry, Charlie.

—Posted by Anthony Crupi