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Monkey to Host a Celebrity Talk Show

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"Once in England, I was playing golf," anchor Johnny di Palma tells his guest, prominent Russian screenwriter Viktor Merezhko. "Two Russians walked up to me. They turned out to be [Vladimir] Gusinsky and [Boris] Berezovsky. And Boris says: Come to Russia, give us humanitarian aid, teach us how to make good television."

Di Palma, whose talk show "Natural Selection" premieres Saturday evening on the M1 channel, has all the makings of a TV icon. His voice is deep and clear, his smile reveals a row of impeccable white teeth, and he puckers his lips with subtle sophistication. Dressed in a natty white shirt with cuff links, a yellow tie and gray vest, he gestures elegantly and cites William Shakespeare, Alexander Pushkin and Boris Pasternak seemingly without effort.

Liberal politician Irina Khakamada, who is due to appear on di Palma?€™s show next Saturday, described him in a preview as "the man of my dreams, with the body of [Arnold] Schwarzenegger, the intellect of [Albert] Einstein and the dignity of Don Quixote."

In praising his assets, Khakamada neglected to mention his opposable thumbs.

Di Palma?€™s other claim to fame is that he is a chimpanzee.

True to its reputation for offbeat experimentation in TV programming ?€” with original shows that often seem poised on the brink of bad taste and happily turn news and public affairs into pure entertainment ?€” second-tier M1 proudly previewed the new show, and its anthropoid host, on Friday.

The channel, which is broadcast in only 60 percent of Moscow and most of the Moscow region, is transmitted on UHF channel 31 and is distributed primarily by the capital?€™s cable systems. M1 is best known for its program "Naked Truth," which features a female newscaster who strips while delivering an earnest reading of the week?€™s news.

So if a topless "reporter" can interview State Duma Agrarian faction leader Nikolai Kharitonov, as once happened on "Naked Truth," it stands to reason that a chimpanzee can hold his own in televised conversations with celebrities on "Natural Selection."

"We are a crazy channel, somewhat on the mad side," general director Sergei Moskvin said Friday in presenting the new season?€™s programs. The event, marking the company?€™s first anniversary, was aimed at boosting the channel?€™s image in the aftermath of the Ostankino television tower in late August, when the channel was left without a signal for more than a month ?€” significantly longer than the city?€™s other channels.

"This is not even an experiment, this is something totally new in the genre of talk show," Merezhko, himself a TV host, said Friday.

Neither Johnny nor his owners ?€” who, according to producers, keep the 5-year-old monkey in a Moscow apartment ?€” were available for personal interviews on Friday. But in the screened preview pilot, the chimpanzee, speaking in the voice of actor Vladislav Malenko, said that the new program "takes us to a new level in television?€™s evolution."

"This is a program about you and us, about good and evil, about macro-hmm-economics and mmm, geopolitics," he said, mumbling in a scholarly manner.

He goes on to describe himself as "an aristocrat whose kind live all over the globe." It was not clear if his name was meant to imply the chimpanzee is Italian.

The program, which will air at 7:45 p.m. Saturday, looks to be a parody of Russia?€™s growing crop of self-important cultural figures who have been there and done that.

In the preview, Di Palma and Merezhko discuss the relative merits of action movies and show what is described as a clip from the monkey?€™s recent Hollywood-produced film on Pushkin, which had supposedly raked in $90 million on the first weekend alone. A cartoon featuring a monkey-like Russian poet is shown, but the discussion echoes ?€” and mocks ?€” the current debate in the Russian press about the newly released Russian movie "Russky Bunt," which has been criticized as a Hollywood-ish version of Pushkin.

There is a room for political satire in the show, too. Halfway through the program, a voice resembling former President Boris Yeltsin?€™s calls in seeking a "second" meeting with the famous monkey. "Your movie has revealed a new Pushkin for me," the voice says. "I would very much like to see you again but I am afraid that, recalling our last meeting, my family would not let me go. You understand."

Later in the program, Johnny heads to a bar to drink cognac and flirt with a voluptuous bartender ?€” only to receive another call from "Yeltsin" on his mobile phone at the height of his lusty overtures.

Producer Vasily Mishchenko said the topic for next week?€™s program with Khakamada is "truth and lies." Another future guest, politician Konstantin Borovoi, is scheduled to spend his time on the air with di Palma "discussing women."

Mishchenko, who is an actor at the Sovremennik Theater in addition to producing "Natural Selection," said he had originally tried to sell a pilot of his concept to the major television channels.

"But at ORT, NTV and TV6, they didn?€™t have time for us," he said. The show on M1 is produced by a team of four people and takes meticulous preparation.

To create a realistic impression of the chimpanzee talking, the monkey is shot for hours at various angles as he opens and closes his mouth, makes gestures and delivers a variety of looks.

Several long shots are then taken with the guest and the audience in the studio. A real discussion takes place in the studio between the guest and actor Malenko. Post-production is no less important, with Malenko dubbing Johnny?€™s lines while editor Lyasya Volkova chooses appropriate footage to match.

"The monkey ?€?speaks?€™ so well that sometimes when I watch the footage and write the time codes, I can hear his phrases," Volkova said Friday.

M1 claims to have an average share in Moscow of more than 6 percent. With some shows, it even gets higher ratings than TV Center or Ren-TV, Moskvin said.

The channel is owned by Teleexpress Co. but the identity of the owners is unclear. Although Vremya MN newspaper had reported last year that LUKoil is the principal owner of the channel, Moskvin has denied that and said the company has five shareholders, none of which has a controlling share.

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