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In Conclusion, HBO Honchos Stand Up for Chase's Final Shot

Maybe not going to happen.

It depends on whether David Milch's other HBO show, "John From Cincinnati," is picked up for a second season, the suits said, in which case he'd have to go right back to work writing that show.

That was then: "Sopranos" creator David Chase and star James Gandolfini in 1999. (By Jill Connelly -- Associated Press)

Or not.

Right now, Milch is exhausted from working on "Cincinnati," Lombardo said.

HBO hasn't had the conversation with Milch about the movies, he also said.

"It's complicated," he also said.

"Of course, it's possible. . . . It's doable, but it will be daunting," he also said.

"If David's game for this, then we will figure it out," he added.

Asked to put odds on the movies' ever happening, Plepler and Lombardo said they were not betting men. Pressed -- and the press really pressed -- they finally put the odds at 50-50.

Both men are firmly in favor of a "Sex and the City" movie. And, in response to suggestions the pay-cable network hasn't really had a chick show since "Sex" went off the air in 2004, they directed the reporters to "Big Love," the show in which three women married to the same guy lead wrist-slittingly depressing lives.

* * *

Sending TV critics DVDs of Ken Burns's documentary "The War" that do not include the added interviews with Hispanic World War II vets marginalizes their stories, University of Texas journalism professor Maggie Rivas-Rodriguez told The TV Column.

Not inviting Hector Galan, the Hispanic producer who was brought in to work with Burns on the additional material, to join Burns onstage for Wednesday's Q&A with critics, is just another slap to the Hispanic community, said Rivas-Rodriguez, who earlier this year galvanized the Hispanic community in protest of the documentary, which originally did not include interviews with any Hispanic soldiers.

In advance of the Burns Q&A, PBS sent reporters copies of the original documentary, completed more than a year ago. After Hispanic groups protested the lack of interviews with Hispanic soldiers, Burns agreed to shoot more material; Wednesday he detailed his plans to add interviews with two Hispanic soldiers and one Native American soldier at the end of three of the seven episodes. TV critics and journalists were told the completed product, as it will air on PBS, will be sent to them in time to re-watch the documentary before its debut on Sept. 23.

Rivas-Rodriguez thinks PBS is being disingenuous. "If it is an important and integral part of the documentary, I don't see how they could not have" the additional footage in the DVDs, she said.

"If it was considered such an important part of the overall documentary, why not have Hector Galan on this press conference? All these things make me feel like they say one thing to shut up the Latino community" but say another to the TV critics, she said.

In response, PBS spokeswoman Lea Sloan told The TV Column Thursday, "I do understand for someone not a television critic nor in the television industry why the press tour would be a confusing event, and they may not understand why a network needs to get material to the press whether it's in for-air form or not.

"I wish the product were a fast-food restaurant where you can call in your order and pick it up at the window five minutes later. Ken is a perfectionist."

With regard to Galan not being included in the Q&A session with Burns and his producing partner, Lynn Novick, Sloan said, "Ken and Lynn are the producers of this film and they have been touring the country promoting it. Hector made a valuable contribution, but he is not a co-producer of the entire film."

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