Beaulieu ordered to pay

Quebec Superior Court Justice Bernard Gratton has ordered prominent teleroman writer Victor-Levy Beaulieu to pay $25,000 in libel damages to fellow writer Lise Payette. Last spring, Beaulieu, author of the Radio-Canada series Montreal, P.Q., publicly accused both Payette and Richard Martin, director of Payette’s Montreal, ville ouvert, of plagiarism and a ‘lack of ethics.’

Payette had said she would drop the charges if Beaulieu consented to make a public apology, but he refused. Payette originally claimed $175,000 in damages. The court awarded Martin $20,000. Beaulieu has 30 days to file an appeal.

Scoop scores

scoop, the racy Productions sda newsroom drama on Radio-Canada, has become the second Quebec-produced drama to top the three million mark this season, according to a Sondages bbm report for the week of Feb. 10-16. Blanche, the Cite-Amerique historical drama, drew 3.2 million viewers earlier this season on Radio-Canada.

Scoop ranked number one for the period, ahead of the Cleo 24 produced teleroman, Chambres en ville, with 2.2 million viewers on the TVA Television Network, and La petite vie, an Avanti Cine Video sitcom at two million on Radio-Canada.

According to bbm, 16 shows in the period attracted audiences of over one million, eight for both tva and Radio-Canada.

Television Quatre Saisons’ top show was Guerre des clans with 957,000 viewers while Radio-Quebec’s was the Verseau International teen drama series Zap, at 292,000.