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Charlie Sheen spoofs himself in a new online video (AP)

NEW YORK – Charlie Sheen is spoofing his famous "20/20" appearance in a new online video. Uploaded to YouTube over the weekend, the seven-minute parody intercuts his newly taped responses with questions posed by ABC News correspondent Andrea Canning in the widely viewed interview that aired last month.

As Canning is seen repeatedly asking Sheen if he's on drugs and when he last used them, the former "Two and a Half Men" star makes fun of his various catch phrases, his many slogan-embossed T-shirts and his nicotine habit. At one point, he poses with cigarettes jamming his nostrils and both ears.

The wacky video had been viewed more than 140,000 times by Monday afternoon.

Sheen began a multi-city concert tour Saturday. He'll appear in Cleveland on Tuesday.

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Charlie Sheen merchandise clampdown has begun (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Now that Charlie Sheen is going on tour and selling merchandise bearing his famous slogans, his reps are clamping down on vendors selling goods that trade off the much-followed Sheen saga.

FEA Merchandising, a subsidiary of Live Nation, has been busy in the past 48 hours, sending takedown notices and cease-and-desist letters in an attempt to own the exclusive market on Charlie Sheen merchandise. In the process, the company has stepped on the toes of a woman's rights group protesting the Sheen saga with a charitable endeavor.

As we reported Thursday, a number of companies and individuals have already beaten Sheen to the trademark office, registering such catch-phrases as "winning," "tiger blood," and "Adonis DNA." Without a firm trademark stake over these marks, FEA has been exploiting a different protection maneuver -- claiming that products that bear Sheen's words violate his publicity rights.

For example, Kate Durkin says she was horrified by the reception that Charlie Sheen has been receiving in the media and among people on Twitter. So she, along with several others, set up an organization called Unfollow Charlie, intending to sell the t-shirt design bearing that slogan and donating the proceeds to the charity RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network).

After setting up shop at Zazzle.com, an online retailer that allows users to upload images and create their own merchandise, Durkin was notified that the design would be taken down as the result of infringement. She got an e-mail that stated:

"Unfortunately, your product was removed because it featured a design that does not meet Zazzle Acceptable Content Guidelines. Specifically, your product contained content that violates Charlie Sheen's rights of celebrity/publicity. Charlie Sheen's name and likeness are protected by rights of celebrity/publicity and may not be used on Zazzle products without permission."

Durkin followed up, questioning whether her product was removed because her group was critical of Sheen's following.

FEA doesn't seem overly concerned with Sheen's image, however, as much as attempting to lock down the market.

Another Zazzle retailer who was attempting to sell a t-shirt with "#winning" emblazoned on the front reports also being subject to a takedown notice over Sheen's publicity rights.

The use of publicity rights to protect slogans is extremely rare but not unprecedented. Nearly thirty years ago, for instance, Johnny Carson sued a toilet manufacturer who attempted to sell portable toilets bearing the phrase, "Here's Johnny," supposedly inspired by the late night talk show host's introduction each night on his program. Carson was successful in the lawsuit.

More recently, in a lawsuit that involved publicity rights in merchandise, FEA and Live Nation sued Rolling Stone magazine for slapping its famous cover images of musicians on t-shirts, tote bags and other items. The publication asserted in a summary judgment motion that it had a First Amendment right to the merchandise, which a judge declined to grant without seeing more evidence. Before the case got to trial, however, the dispute was settled.

The big issue in FEA's claims is whether it is overstepping its authority. Is a term like "Unfollow Charlie" evocative of Sheen's "personality" to the extent a judge would see it as unfair commercial exploitation of the actor? Does a charity organization attempting to express a viewpoint deserve free speech protections?

FEA hasn't responded yet to our inquiries.

(Editing by Zorianna Kit)

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Have TV viewers seen last of Charlie Sheen? (AP)

NEW YORK – As Charlie Sheen continued to rant on, his bosses at "Two and a Half Men" seemed prepared Friday to move on. The network's decision to stop production of television's most popular sitcom this season — and maybe for good — has multimillion-dollar implications for CBS and producer Warner Bros. Television, but it's hardly fatal.

The remaining four episodes were scrapped Thursday after Sheen called the show's executive producer Chuck Lorre a "contaminated little maggot." Sheen's remarks were made on a radio program and in a letter posted on the TMZ website. He kept it up Friday, calling Lorre a clown and loser in text messages to ABC's "Good Morning America" and vowing to show up for work next week.

However, there won't be any work for him to do, as Sheen's erratic personal life may finally have killed a job that reportedly pays him $1.8 million an episode. He's been hospitalized three times in three months, with the production put on hold in January after his most recent hospital stay following a night of frenzied partying. Taping was to resume next week, a plan that blew up Thursday.

"There comes a time when you say, `Enough,'" Jeffrey Stepakoff, a veteran television writer and author of "Billion Dollar Kiss: The Kiss That Saved Dawson's Creek and Other Adventures in TV Writing," said Friday.

The last original episode of "Two and a Half Men" aired Feb. 14.

Sheen plays a hard-partying playboy in the series, which has been a durable performer for CBS for eight seasons. It has averaged 14.6 million viewers this season, down 4 percent from last year, the Nielsen Co. said. The show has fluctuated little in audience, with the 16.5 million viewer average in 2004-05 its highest and 13.8 million in 2007-08 the lowest, Nielsen said.

"It's very hard to get rid of a show that is successful and popular and has served as a launching pad for other comedies," said Brad Adgate, a television analyst for Horizon Media. "This is still a hit-driven business and it's hard to get a hit like that."

Sheen, in an interview Friday with Pat O'Brien on Fox radio's "Loose Cannons" show, said he would fight any effort to not pay him for the balance of his contract, which runs through next season.

He questioned whether he would go back for a ninth season or not, calling it a "toxic environment."

"If they want to roll back to season nine, I gave them my word I would do that but not with the turds that are currently in place. It's impossible ... it would go bad quickly," he said.

Canceling the show outright would eliminate the anchor series on CBS' popular Monday night lineup, with its 9 p.m. replacement likely getting lower ratings. However, since "Two and a Half Men" is a long-running hit with a highly paid cast and staff, CBS will almost certainly replace it with a show that's cheaper to put on, perhaps making up for the lost ad revenue, analysts say.

It's been widely thought that next season would be its last. It would have brought "Two and a Half Men" up to around 200 episodes in its life span, considered optimal for a long life in syndication. There are 177 episodes now.

Unlike NBC, which is looking to continue "The Office" even though star Steve Carell is leaving after this season, it seems unlikely that CBS or Warners would want to continue the show without Sheen or choose another actor to replace him.

CBS is in a strong position as the top-rated broadcast network. Last week, for example, Fox's two editions of "American Idol" were the most-watched prime-time shows on television, and the next 16 on the Nielsen Co.'s popularity list were all on CBS.

"CBS, of anybody, can absorb an issue like this, because they have bench strength," said Don Seamen, vice president and communications analysis for MPG North America. "They have other shows that can fill the slot. If it was NBC, they would be more willing to look the other way."

Can Lorre look the other way at insulting, even borderline anti-Semitic remarks sent his way by the actor he cast in his series? If "Two and a Half Men" ends, it's hardly the end for Lorre, already one of the most successful producers in TV whose other shows include the CBS hits "The Big Bang Theory" and "Mike & Molly."

"Chuck Lorre might just say, `I can't work with this guy anymore,' and nobody would blame him," Seamen said.

Still, stranger things have happened in television.

"I'd like to think anyone could kiss and make up. Laverne and Shirley did," said Drew Carey, who starred in and co-created "The Drew Carey Show." He referred to the oft-rumored feud between stars Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams on the hit sitcom that debuted in 1976.

Producers can also bring in someone to replace Sheen, Carey said, acknowledging it's a risk with viewers.

"I'd put a million bucks on the table that they're discussing this" and weighing possible replacements for Sheen, said Carey, host of "The Price Is Right" game show.

"Two and a Half Men" already airs in syndication, and has deals locked up with stations that represent roughly 95 percent of the country to keep the reruns on the air through 2020, said Bill Carroll, an expert in the syndication market for Katz Media.

Sheen's troubles haven't hurt the show's popularity in this market; if anything, the opposite may be true, Carroll said. Two weeks ago, it was the third most popular syndicated show on TV after "Wheel of Fortune" and "Jeopardy," he said. This season it has been the most popular sitcom in reruns, beating out "Family Guy," "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "Seinfeld," he said.

Syndication is where a producer such as Warner Bros. and others involved in TV shows make their real money. For example, the FX cable network licensed rights to the 177 "Two and a Half Men" episodes for a reported $750,000 each, he said. A less popular show, "Family Guy," sold rights to its reruns in New York for $68,000 a week — and that's just one of more than 200 markets across the country.

Add in the fact that Warners gets to sell some advertising time on the "Two and a Half Men" episodes, and it's an astronomical amount of revenue with little expense; the shows are already filmed. Warners would take a financial hit if the show ended now, but not until after 2020, Carroll said.

"It's not inconsequential," he said. "But it's not tragic."

Warners has already prepared for the possibility: even before the latest Sheen episode, it had sent contingency notices to stations that had bought rights to the show for what would happen to their contracts if there's no ninth season.

CBS said Friday that the show's slot will be filled with reruns for the time being. It would not be a surprise if CBS airs some of its other comedies in the slot before the season ends, as a test to see how they might do.

"Mike & Molly," averaging 11.9 million viewers in its freshman season in Monday's 9:30 p.m. time slot, could be a candidate to move up. Less risky might be the more established "How I Met Your Mother," although that show is considered near the end of its run.

CBS moved "The Big Bang Theory" from Monday to Thursdays this season and it has done quite well, lessening the likelihood the network would want to move it back.

___

Associated Press Television Writer Lynn Elber and AP writer Robert Jablon contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://www.cbs.com

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Charlie Sheen denies anti-Semitism in TV row (AFP)

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Troubled actor Charlie Sheen denied Friday being anti-Semitic in an attack on the producer of hit TV series "Two and a Half Men," which has been canceled for the season due to Sheen's latest outburst.

Sheen also insisted he is sober and plans to turn up for work next week for the top-rated TV series, in which he stars. Four shows remain to be filmed this season.

CBS and Warner Brothers announced the cancelation on Thursday after Sheen, who was briefly hospitalized last month following his latest reported booze and drugs-fueled partying mishap, denounced the show's co-creator Chuck Lorre.

In a series of statements to radio and the TMZ celebrity website in the last few days, Sheen railed against Lorre, referring to him as Chaim Levine, the Hebrew translation of the TV producer's name.

"There's something this side of deplorable that a certain Chaim Levine -- yeah, that's Chuck's real name -- mistook this rock star for his own selfish exit strategy, bro," he said, apparently referring to himself.

"Last I checked, Chaim, I spent close to the last decade effortlessly and magically converting your tin cans into pure gold. And the gratitude I get is this charlatan chose not to do his job, which is to write," he added.

After the TV series was canceled Thursday, he added: "I wish him nothing but pain in his silly travels, especially if they wind up in my octagon. Clearly, I have defeated this earthworm with my words.

"Imagine what I would have done with my fire-breathing fists."

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti Defamation League lobby group, condemned Sheen's comments.

"By invoking television producer Chuck Lorre's Jewish name in the context of an angry tirade against him, Charlie Sheen left the impression that another reason for his dislike of Mr. Lorre is his Jewishness," he said in a statement.

"This fact has no relevance to Mr. Sheen's complaint or disagreement, and his words are at best bizarre, and at worst, borderline anti-Semitism," he added in a statement.

But speaking from the Bahamas, where he is reportedly vacationing with a new girlfriend, Sheen denied Friday being anti-Semitic.

"I was referring to Chuck by his real name, because I wanted to address the man, not the b (expletive) TV persona," he told TMZ, which said Lorre's birth name is Charles Levine.

Sheen, whose birth name is Carlos Estevez, added: "So you're telling me, anytime someone calls me Carlos Estevez, I can claim they are anti-Latino?"

Separately, ABC television cited text messages from Sheen insisting he plans to go to work next week on "Two and a Half Men," despite its cancelation announced Thursday by producers Warner Bros and CBS.

The TV series about hedonistic jingle writer Charlie Harper -- played by Sheen -- has been a hit since it was launched in 2003 and has been nominated for numerous awards, including nods for Sheen at the Emmys and Golden Globes.

The Nielsen ratings agency listed it in fifth place in its latest TV shows survey, with 14.5 million viewers for its last aired episode.

Sheen was reported as saying that he was close to signing a deal with Home Box Office for a new series called "Sheen's Corner," but an HBO spokesman denied there was a deal in place.

The star filed for divorce from his wife of two years in November, days after being taken to hospital following a reported drunken incident at a luxury New York hotel involving another porn star.

In addition to his reported substance abuse, Sheen had several run-ins with the law in the 1990s in cases related to drugs, domestic violence and prostitution.

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