Wednesday, December 31, 2014

12/31 LARRY LIPSON, SUSAN ZIRINSKY, 48 HOURS, CBS, STEVE EVANS


LARRY LIPSON – AFFORDABLE WINE REPORT

For fifty years Larry Lipson was the food critic for the Los Angeles Daily News and now reports from Florida weekly with his thoughts and favorite picks for Food & Wine.  His lovely Wife Lillian is also on hand at the Lipson Institute for advanced wine studies.



SUSAN ZIRINSKY – EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, 48 HOURS (CBS) 

"48 Hours" Live to Tell: A young girl plays dead to live through a shooting that destroyed her family. She describes her remarkable story of survival. Correspondent Erin Moriarty reportS Saturday, Jan. 3 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS.

ABOUT SUSAN:
Susan Zirinsky, an award-winning journalist and producer, is the senior executive producer of "48 Hours".

In addition to leading the team behind the critically acclaimed "48 Hours", Zirinsky serves as the senior executive producer for breaking news specials for CBS News and specials for CBS Entertainment.

Zirinsky and her "48 Hours" team won an Emmy for their primetime special on the Boston Marathon Bombing in April 2013, "48 Hours": Caught". Zirinsky was the senior executive producer of two CBS prime time specials in December 2013: "Mandela: Father of a Nation" and in November 2013: "As it Happened: John F. Kennedy: 50 Years". In May of 2013, Zirinsky was the senior executive producer of a new six part documentary series for CBS, "Brooklyn DA", which followed the men and women of the Kings County District Attorney's Office. The series also won an Emmy for editing.

Zirinsky and her team's primetime special, "Tragedy in Newtown" were part of CBS' award winning coverage winning the prestigious Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia Award for excellence in broadcast journalism awarded in January 2014. She also produced two prime time specials for CBS on the movie theatre shootings in Aurora, Colorado.

Zirinsky was the co-executive producer of two "Person to Person" interview specials for CBS in 2012. In March 2013, she produced "The Grammys Will Go On: A Death in the Family", a documentary about the Grammys and the night Whitney Houston died, and "Vanity Fair's Hollywood", celebrating the 20th anniversary of the magazine's exclusive Oscar party.

She produced CBS's 2011 prime time special "The Royal Wedding: Modern Majesty". Zirinsky also produced the critically acclaimed documentary series in January for ID Discovery, "The Injustice Files," working with the FBI on cold cases from the civil rights era.

Zirinsky was the executive producer of a documentary with Oscar-nominated filmmakers Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, "The Lord's Boot Camp", in 2008. Also in 2008, she expanded the "48 Hours" brand with the launch of "Crimesider", a crime blog for CBSNews.com. Zirinsky was one of the executive producers of a documentary for CBS Entertainment with Emmy Award-winning filmmakers Jules and Gedeon Naudet, "In God's Name", in 2007.

Zirinsky was executive producer of the critically acclaimed documentary "Flashpoint", in May 2007, which told the story of one bomb, three journalists and the Army's 4th Infantry Division. In May 2006, Also in 2006, Zirinsky was executive producer of a new web series for CBS Entertainment called "Countdown", , an online companion to the CBS series "Jericho".

She was executive producer for a documentary for CBS Entertainment, "Elvis by the Presleys" in 2005, as well as executive producer of two specials for Tyra Banks' "America's Next Top Model."

Zirinsky was executive producer of the critically acclaimed Emmy nominated documentary, "Three Days in September", for Showtime in 2005, which told the story of a school taken hostage in Beslan, Russia. The film, narrated by Julia Roberts, was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival. Showtime reran the documentary the week of Sept. 6, 2014, on the 10-year anniversary of the tragedy.

Previously, she was an executive producer of CBS News' award-winning broadcast "9/11" - a documentary on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that included the only footage of the first plane going into the north tower of the World Trade Center and of activity inside the Trade Center before the towers fell. The documentary won an Emmy, a George Foster Peabody award, the Edward R. Murrow Award for Excellence, a Christopher Award and a Writers Guild of America award. The documentary was first broadcast in 2002, was updated for the fifth anniversary of the attacks was updated again to mark the 10th anniversary in 2011.

Since joining CBS News as a part-time production clerk in 1972, Zirinsky has worked for a variety of CBS News broadcasts and covered national and global news, several presidents, wars, international conflicts, the Olympics and the world of fashion.
Before joining "48 Hours" in 1996, she was executive producer of Campaign '96 (1995-96), managing the daily operations of CBS News' election-year political coverage, and of the primetime CBS News magazine, "Eye to Eye" (1994-95), after having served as the broadcast's senior broadcast producer and senior producer (1993-94).

Zirinsky was the director of CBS News' 1992 political reporting, responsible for coordinating coverage of candidates, issues and events for all CBS News broadcasts, including the presidential election. During that period, she was CBS News' senior producer at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France, where she oversaw the CBS News and Sports news desk for the network.

Earlier, Zirinsky served in several capacities for the "CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" in New York and Washington, D.C. In New York, she was its senior broadcast producer (1991-92) and senior producer (1989-91). In Washington, she managed all feature stories and oversaw editorial content of daily hard-news events (1986-89). She first joined the "CBS Evening News" as a producer in 1979.

She also worked on other CBS News broadcasts, including the "CBS Morning News" and "CBS Evening News" weekend editions. Zirinsky worked the Democratic and Republican National Conventions from 1976 through 1988 as a floor producer for Dan Rather, Lesley Stahl, Ed Bradley and Mike Wallace. In 1992 she was senior producer for all coverage at both conventions.

Zirinsky's international news experience is extensive. She traveled overseas with presidents Carter and Reagan. Her assignments have taken her to Russia, China, Japan, Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. In 1989, Zirinsky ran CBS News' operations out of Panama during the United States invasion of that country and was in charge of CBS News' operation in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square student uprising and military crackdown. Earlier that year, she was lead producer for CBS News' coverage from Japan of Emperor Hirohito's funeral. She was the senior producer responsible for setting up and overseeing the Network's news operation in Kuwait while covering the first Persian Gulf War, and it was under her stewardship that CBS News was the first network to enter Kuwait, just behind the Allied forces.

Zirinsky was technical advisor/associate producer for writer/director James L. Brooks on the film "Broadcast News," starring Holly Hunter as a Washington network news producer.

In 2013, she was presented the Lifetime Achievement Award by the New York Festivals International Television & Film Awards.

Zirinsky was graduated cum laude from American University in Washington, D.C. She is married to Joe Peyronnin and they have one daughter, Zoe Peyronnin.


STEVE EVANS - "THE MOVIE GUY"

GREAT MOVIES OPENING THIS WEEKEND AND BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS AND HOPES. FIND OUT WHAT MOVIES ARE WORTH YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY. GET SET FOR THE WEEKEND.