Since Variety relaunched on a new server and platform (sans a paywall), so too has the destination for this blog. I've been slowly diverting traffic to the new site and my new page there, which you will see with a new look and, hopefully, improved content.

Here's the new link and the new URL, http://variety.com/author/ted-johnson/. We're still building in the look, so there is more to come. And all the archived content of Wilshire and Washington will soon here there as well.

Federal regulators say that theater owners are doing a much better job of turning away minors from R-rated movies, a piece of news that will help bolster the industry's case as lawmakers scrutinize media violence.

The Federal Trade Commission said that in its latest undercover shopper survey, only 24% of underage moviegoers were able to buy a ticket to an R-rated feature, a drop from 31% in 2010. It is also the lowest since the FTC started its "mystery shopper" program in 2000, as studios came under fire for the way that restricted movies were marketed to minors.

The part of the industry with the best record for self enforcement was video games, with 13% of the undercover teens able to buy M-rated titles. That is unchanged from its last survey in 2010, and may be particularly important as federal and state lawmakers focus on violence in video games and whether it is a factor in real-life mayhem.

Also showing improvement were retailers of R-rated and unrated DVDs, as well as sellers of music CDs with parental advisory labels. Some 47% of underage shoppers were able to buy such music, the worst record of all categories, but an improvement from 64% in 2010.

The best theater chain for enforcement was AMC Entertainment, which just 5% of minors slipping through, and the worst at self-policing were Carmike Theaters and Hollywood Theaters, each above 40%.

The complete results are here.

Not part of any study is the extent to which minors are able to access content via streaming, which are usually just a click or two around any adult-content warnings.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W. Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, on Monday hosted a roundtable on video game violence in Martinsburg, W. Va., with representatives from the gaming industry, as well as child health experts and reps from Common Sense Media.

While Rockefeller is calling for improved ratings, he's also determined to launch a comprehensive study on the impact of video game violence, with legislation in which the National Academy of Sciences would be tasked to lead such a probe. His bill not only singles out video games but video programming, a description that could include the Internet. He seems to be fairly certain that a study will find a link, telling the roundtable that exposure to such images "damages the thinking and the instincts and the aggressions of young people."

In the deadpan tone inherited from his father, Rob Reiner calls himself a member of the “gay adjacent community” — a riff, but as he and others showed at the Human Rights Campaign dinner on March 23, there’s a lot of value in location, location, location.

More here.

The run up to Tuesday and Wednesday’s historic Supreme Court hearings on same-sex marriage is being greeted by an array of up-close-and-personal profiles of plaintiffs, change-of-opinion reversals from political leaders and polling that underscores a relatively rapid shift toward approval.

That swing of public opinion is a contrast to the much slower timing of past civil rights struggles, and explanations are open for debate. But more than a few have attributed the acceptance to entertainment, or the idea that the thruline of primetime shows, from “Ellen” to “Will & Grace” to “Modern Family,” brought gay characters and then same-sex relationships.

More here.

When FCC chairman Julius Genachowski announced today that he was stepping down, he left little doubt that the agency's future lies in pushing along Internet broadband as the country's communications future.

My story here.

Yoko Ono tweeted a photo of late husband John Lennon’s bloody glasses, in a series of messages calling for gun control.

"Over 1,057,000 people have been killed by guns in the USA since John Lennon was shot and killed on 8 Dec 1980," she said, with the photo of the glasses below. In one message she added the Twitter handles of Piers Morgan and Michael Moore, two of the most visible gun control advocates.

She added in another tweet, “31,537 people are killed by guns in the USA every year. We are turning this beautiful country into war zone.”

The momentum for congressional action on significant measures, like an assault weapons ban, seems to have slowed, even as many advocates in social media have expressed dismay.

I hadn’t heard much about Michelle Shocked since the grunge era and when cast members of “Twin Peaks” were getting feature leads, but she surfaced again this week for making anti-gay remarks at a San Francisco club. Among them was a suggestion that if Prop 8 gets reinstated, and “preachers are held at gunpoint and forced to marry the homosexuals,” “it will be the signal for Jesus to come on back.” As audio of her Sunday appearance indicates, reaction was immediate, as some in the crowd heckled and a manager cuts the performance short. Since news of her remarks surfaced, other clubs have canceled gigs.

The singer has been taking to her Twitter account to push back against the outcry, claiming that the remarks have been misinterpreted. Today, she issued a statement, “I'm very sorry. I don't always express myself as clearly as I should. My view of homosexuality has changed not one iota. I judge not. And my statement equating repeal of Prop 8 with the coming of the End Times was neither literal nor ironic: it was a description of how some folks – not me – feel about gay marriage.'”

While this will lend fodder to supporters of limiting marriage to a man and a woman, as indicative of the pushback that when they open their mouths and express their point of view, it’s also an example of how anti-gay rhetoric, even if it is misinterpreted, is rising to the level of blowback that happens when a celebrity or other public figure makes racist or sexist comments. As I wrote about this week, there has been a misreading of the First Amendment and what it is: It protects speech, but it doesn’t give protection of others from speaking out, boycotting and petitioning in consequence.

The oral arguments in the eagerly awaited same-sex marriage cases take place next week in the Supreme Court, but the proceedings, as always, will be limited to the 250 or so spectators that can fit in the chambers. No cameras are expected to be allowed; none ever have.

But the high court today did throw a bone to widespread media coverage. It said that audio of the oral arguments would be released just hours after each day’s proceedings, at 1 p.m. on March 26 and 27, a departure from the custom of releasing recordings at week’s end. The first day is being devoted to arguments over the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage in the state. The second is over the constitutionality of key provisions of the Defense of Marriage Act, which restricts same-sex couples from receiving federal benefits.

The audio will not be live, but there will be plenty of activity going on outside. The National Organization for Marriage is planning a march in Washington on the first day of arguments. Supporters of same-sex marriage, meanwhile, have benefited from a series of events this week that convey the shift in public opinion and the increasing number of politicians coming out in support of gay nuptials. Hillary Clinton did on Monday, and Rob Portman did last week. This weekend, the plaintiffs in the Prop 8 case are taking part in an annual Los Angeles dinner for the Human Rights Campaign, where Rob Reiner, one of the major backers of the case, is scheduled to speak.

Ratings are in for CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper," an indicator of the direction that new network chief Jeff Zucker plans to take the network, and the numbers are so-so. It averaged 400,000 in its debut, according to Variety's Rick Kissell.

But the reviews for "The Lead" are better. Variety's Brian Lowry writes that "CNN could do a whole lot worse than using “The Lead” as a blueprint for the network, mixing in a variety of issues without pandering or posturing."

The show signals a shift away from the intense focus on any and all things D.C. Beltway and on to a wider spectrum of stories, even if the debut had its fare share of politics.