Looks like Miley Cyrus is wrapping up the Hannah Montana show. While some Disney execs seem to be out of the loop, there has been confirmation that this is the show’s last season.

Miley turns 18 on November 23, 2010. She may be looking to move into adulthood through another entertainment venue, probably the movies. She is still in the Disney stable, at least until she takes after many of the women that preceded her and fall apart with drugs, lesbian affairs and a career in the toilet.

A two-man team from MTV’s “Real World” program spent a week at Joint Security Station Saydiyah here filming the final portions of a follow-up story on one of the show’s former participants.

Army Spc. Ryan Conklin of the North Carolina National Guard’s Company B, 252nd Combined Arms Battalion, 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team, starred in the Brooklyn edition of the show and received notice of his deployment during filming.

MTV followed the Gettysburg, Pa., native through part of his mobilization and pre-deployment training, and is filming the final portion, his deployment to Iraq, for the follow-up story.

At the end of June and early this month, photography director Jason Williams and producer Matt Ruecker covered Conklin patrolling Baghdad’s Saydiyah neighborhood and participating in everyday life at this small base.

The “Real World” program involves moving a handful of people into a house together and covering their daily interactions.

“It is an examination of these people and the way they deal with these things in their lives, and this is just an extension of that,” Ruecker said.

During the show, Conklin received a call from his brother, notifying him that he’d been recalled to active duty. Ruecker and Williams were there when Conklin received the call, and have since followed him to Iraq.

“It’s not just a news story, it’s deeper than that” Ruecker said. “Being the first people from MTV [in Iraq], I think that hopefully, we’re going to provide a story that is not typical that is coming out of this region.”

“And not typical to MTV,” Williams added.

Conklin said he hopes the MTV coverage will help to open eyes among younger American viewers.

“I hope something positive comes out of it,” he said, “even if it’s just a slight introduction to just what things look like, or who’s over here, or a face to soldiers. I think that would be pretty good.”

“It’s been a life experience that neither one of us will ever forget,” Ruecker said.

DVIDS
By Army Pfc. Kelly LeCompte
Multi-National Division – Baghdad
North Carolina National Guard’s 30th Heavy Brigade Combat Team public affairs office

The first episode for season 3 of the television drama Saving Grace just blew the lovely wife and me away. Talk about kicking it up a notch. The first episode for season 3 is the one that ought to be on the Emmy reel, and on the resume of every actor that appeared.

Christina Ricci is Grace’s temporary partner, a street cop looking to move up. It is inspired casting. Ricci plays the character well, and Holly Hunter and Ricci combine to create a feminine powerhouse at the core of the show. IMDB shows Ricci as in only three episodes, but I truly hope she is scheduled for more.

Holly Hunter does her usual fantastic job as Grace. Bailey Chase and Kenny Johnson as newly partnered detectives Butch Ada and Ham Dewey play the awkwardness of a new arrangement well, stepping on eachother’s questions and trying to adapt.

Leon Rippy as Earl, the last chance angel, and Bookeem Woodbine as Leon Cooley, the man on death row, have a moving scene when Cooley cries silently as Earl talks about his son.

The actress who play’s Grace’s sister, Paige – Jessica Tuck , adds a comedic touch to the show by insisting on staying with Grace while the serial killer is on the loose. Never mind that, as Grace tries to point out, the sister does not match the killer’s profile.

The final scene of the episode shows how Grace responds to having killed her first man, the serial killer. As she stands at the scene of the shooting, partner Ricci shows up to lend support, and to help her smoke cigars. It was a moment where the events that the two characters had shared brought them closer as partners.

Channel 8, local CBS affiliate, did something very cool with their home page yesterday. They had what they called a live “blog” running. It was actually more of a Twitter stream, but it worked whatever you call it.

Folks could comment on the weather, send in photos and converse in a way that is not the usual interaction between television and consumers. I was a part of it for a while and I enjoyed it greatly.

Also spent some time on Twitter, talking with folks locally and from Channel 13 and Channel 8.

At Channel 8 I was able to chat with on air weathermen, producers, the assignment desk and their web guru. They updated us with official statements and reports they received from other sources. We updated them with snow depths, wind and visibility reports, traffic conditions and photos.

The station used an application from Cover It Live.

CoveritLive’s web based software takes your next live blog to a new level. Your commentary publishes in real time like an instant message. Our ‘one-click’ publishing lets you drop polls, videos, pictures, ads and audio clips as soon as they come to mind. Comments and questions from your readers instantly appear but you control what gets published.

The Chicago Sun Times folks on Twitter told me this:

We’ve used it quite a bit for politics and Bears coverage. Has strengths – community input – and weaknesses – hard to manage large group.

The app is free. I am going to give it some serious thought for this site.

The deputy commissioner of police argued that the terrorists, who were holed up in two major hotels and became involved in floor-by-floor firefights with police, were gaining tactical information from TV. Using powers under Section 19 of the country’s Cable Television Networks Act, he ordered a blackout of TV news channels.

“Transmission of various clippings/live relay/coverage of the actions being taken by the police against the terrorists in South Mumbai is causing impediment in the police action … thereby endangering the lives of the police personnel as also of the hostages,” the order stated.

Cable and satellite channels went off air for nearly half an hour before the order was rescinded.

Media chiefs present at a meeting between the MIB, the Indian Broadcasting Federation and News Broadcasting Assn. hit back by accusing the government information departments and ministerial interfaces of failing to keep up with developments in the media industry.

They said it was unclear which officials had authority to speak to the media, that government and media had never agreed to procedures for coverage of national emergencies, and that the Press Information Bureau is set up to handle print rather than broadcast and online media.

Through blogs, file-sharing and social networking functions on the Internet, dozens of eyewitness reports, some coming from within the two besieged hotels, delivered information faster than conventional media and challenged some of its reporting. Twitter, a user-generated service that delivers text message-sized “tweets,” for instance, reported that there was still gunfire inside the Taj Mahal long after Indian media had said it was finished. Others transcribed lists of casualties from the hospitals faster than mainstream media could access it.

Variety
By PATRICK FRATER