By MARCUS ERRICO
E! Online
For a while Dear Diary looked like the latest in a string of DreamWorks disappointments. ABC had shown some interest in the sitcom-to-be starring Bebe Neuwirth ("Lilith" on Cheers and Frasier), but decided not to pick it up for the fall season and never aired the pilot.
DreamWorks thought the show was too good to be ignored. The studio adopted a "we'll show 'em" attitude and released the pilot in a limited theatrical run in Los Angeles, ostensibly to qualify for an Academy Award nomination for best short. "Dear Diary is a film that's worthy of notice," said distribution head Jim Tharp.
Thus, Dear Diary went from DreamWorks' first failed sitcom to DreamWorks' first film release. And, lo and behold, on Tuesday, the film notched the studio's first-ever Oscar nomination. "We're batting 1.000!" said giddy spokesman Mitch Kreindel.
The sitcom-turned-film tells the story of a New York magazine art director, played by Neuwirth, coping with life at 40 by tracking her comic adventures in her diary.
The studio hopes this isn't the only dream that works. Indeed, the nomination might mean a turn in fortune for a company that bowed to great fanfare in 1994, but has yet to live up to the promise of founders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen.
So far, DreamWorks has finished only one feature-length film, The Peacemaker, a thriller starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. That movie is one of three scheduled to be released in 1997. Spielberg is also preparing to shoot his first DreamWorks production, a slave ship drama titled Amistad.
Its TV record has been spotty, with one modest hit (Spin City), two middling shows (Ink, High Incident) and one bomb (Champs, canceled after a half-season). The music division has yet to find a breakout artist.
The studio doesn't even have a home yet--its off-again, on-again campus planned for Los Angeles wetlands has been plagued by a financially troubled developer and zealous environmentalists, one of whom started a hunger strike at the site today.