Crossover stars shouldn’t be products

This weekend, the writer behind “Mean Girls” and “30 Rock” and the recent winner of the SAG and Golden Globe awards for best comedic actress is going head-to-head with two stoners and Neil Patrick Harris. Tina Fey tackles her first leading lady role in “Baby Mama,” out this Friday along with “Harold and Kumar 2.”

It is unclear whether Fey, formerly from “Saturday Night Live,” and her former co-star Amy Poehler will claim the top box office spot come Sunday, but at least they can say they put up a good fight.

Fey and company have been on countless magazine covers, TV commercials and bus posters. But then again, Universal Pictures isn’t just hoping to make a quick buck off “Baby Mama.”

It seems NBC Universal wants to further the Tina Fey “brand” that has helped their company many times already.

Fey has helped the company gain ratings as the head writer for “Saturday Night Live” and as one of the stars of Weekend Update.

She’s also won accolades left and right for her current show, “30 Rock.” If “Baby Mama” brings enough viewers to theaters, NBC Universal sees these tentative millions as new “30 Rock” fans to help the critically applauded show finally make it to the top of the Nielsen TV ratings.

In a profile on Fey last week in Entertainment Weekly, the author elaborated on NBC Universal’s dual interest in “Baby Mama’s” success, explaining that almost three years ago, Universal released a little movie called “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and soon enough, Steve Carell’s TV show “The Office” experienced much-improved ratings that have remained since.

In a society where conglomerates are the only game in town, it seems every studio has its hand firmly double-dipping in the small-screen world.

Fulfilling this trend are NBC and Universal, Paramount and CBS, Walt Disney and ABC, and Twentieth Century Fox and Fox. The list even extends to these networks’ cable acquisitions such as CBS and MTV, NBC and USA, ABC and ESPN, and Fox and FX.

The list of crossover stars such as Fey and Carell extends much longer as well. Take Carell’s “Office” co-star John Krasinski, whose first two major movies, “License to Wed” and “Leatherheads,” were released by Warner Bros. Pictures and Universal Pictures, respectively.

Then there was “Grey’s Anatomy’s” Patrick Dempsey’s recent turn as the leading man in Walt Disney’s “Enchanted.”

Going through this list in my head, I just have to wonder how many of these stars won their big-screen parts the easy way versus the hard way.

Hollywood has come a long way from the star system of the first half of the twentieth century, when stars were kept on short leashes by whichever studio they were signed to.

However, as much as I dream about marrying Jim Halpert one day and becoming the next Tina Fey, someone has to stand up for what’s right.

Hollywood isn’t usually comparable to Wall Street, but in this case the analogy seems clear. In placing their most profitable stars in the projects with the most promise and potential, whether they be hunky TV doctors hoping to turn into Prince Charmings or goofball office employees trying to become the next Clooney, aren’t they playing their own game of insider trading?

“30 Rock” may be one of my favorite shows, but I would rather NBC try and boost the show’s ratings the (semi”‘) old-fashioned way: running constant repeats with pretty much every show they have, like NBC-owned Bravo does.

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