Friday June 29
ANTICIPATING
AI: The most carefully watched-for movie of the season, after
Pearl Harbor, is probably A.I., which has just opened.
It began as a Stanley Kubrick project and was finished after his
death by Steven Spielberg. Early reviews are mixed on the effectiveness
of the collaboration: it's "fascinating
but cold," "a movie
at war with itself," "uneven
and ultimately rather silly," or "the best fairy tale
Mr. Spielberg has made." Toronto
Star (AP), Los Angeles Times, Boston Herald, Washington Post,
New York Times 06/29/01
Thursday June 28
HELP
WANTED. WIMPS NEED NOT APPLY: Somewhat in defiance of his
own name, Sir Christopher Bland says that whoever succeeds him
as chairman of the BBC will have to be controversial. If not,
"you have appointed the wrong man or woman. There are difficulties
attached to any real people and this is a job that deserves and
needs a real person." The
Guardian (UK) 06/27/01
IS DISNEY CHEAPING OUT? With its recently released Atlantis, Disney has racked
up another animated dud. Indeed, it's been some time since the
studio produced a quality animated picture. Some say Disney has
lost its creative edge, and, struggling with trying to balance
its budget, that Disney has gone cheap in its production values.
New York Observer 06/27/01
Wednesday June 27
PUNISHING
THE MESSENGER: The Cincinnati movie theatre that cut a movie
without telling patrons or the film's owners has banned the reporter
who reported the action from its theatres. The ban comes a week
after Steve Ramos reported the operator had illicitly altered
a film, and led the film's distributor to withdraw it from the
theatre, prompting widespread media coverage. Cincinnati
City Beat 06/26/01
CRACKING
DOWN: The Screen Actors Guild is taking a new hard line against
members who ignore union calls for strikes and other labor action.
Several prominent actors casually crossed the picket lines in
last year's action against advertisers, and SAG wants to make
sure that the same thing could not happen in a strike against
the major Hollywood studios. BBC 06/27/01
POLS
AGAINST SEX/VIOLENCE: Crusading against violence and sex on
TV and in movies is popular with some US politicians. But "the
main reason these bills are likely to fail, like so many similar
ones in the past, is not the political influence of the entertainment
industry, though the influence is formidable. Television, movie
and music companies gave a total of $13.7 million to candidates
for federal office last year, more than the oil and gas industry,
banks or drug companies. The New York
Times 06/27/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
RIDING
THE LIGHT: High speed fibre-optic data transfer was supposed
to revolutionize the way we live."We all were supposed to
be sitting back now, watching interactive sports programs on TV
and DVD-quality movies on demand; we were all supposed to be buying
shirts and spice, pizza and pears with our remote control."
But the promise has fizzled, "and a hapless communications
industry is having embarrassing and endless difficulty making
the service work for those who do want it." Sydney
Morning Herald 06/27/01
EMBRACING
THE FORCE: Australian Star Wars fans want to have the
Jedi philosophy counted as an official religion, and will mark
it on upcoming census forms. "We have submitted a written proposal
to have the Jedi Faith entered into the, already substantial,
Religions Database. If this is approved, the Jedi figures (on
the census forms) will be recorded." The
Age (Melbourne) 06/27/01
Tuesday June 26
LOOKING
FOR ART ON TV: Why aren't there more arts on TV? "Mainstream
channels lazily assume we are a philistine nation made up largely
of home-improving cooks. Don't they know more people go to the
theatre than to soccer matches? Haven't they clocked the astonishing
attendance figures for Tate Modern? Terrestrial TV's treatment
of the arts is a shabby disgrace." Thank god for the new
Artsworld channel. The Guardian (UK)
06/26/01
THE
TV BECKETT: For the first time, 19 Beckett plays are being
broadcast on TV in the UK, produced by all-star talent. The playwright
was known to not want his plays on the tube, since he felt they
didn't work there. Nonetheless, the project was "given the
go-ahead by the Beckett Estate, notoriously zealous in its clampdowns
on those perceived to have flouted the author's wishes. The directors
nonetheless operated under strict conditions. Not a word could
be cut, nor a bar of music added. Such newfound freedom as there
was resided in the lens." The
Telegraph (UK) 06/26/01
PAYING
FOR THE WEST WING: Even the lowest-paid youngest writer
on a hit American TV drama earns $100,000-$120,000 a season. But
The West Wing is looking to cut costs from its $2 million/show
budget, and so, even though the show's writers were due to get
raises after the recent Writers Guild contract agreement, the
show is declining to grant them. The
New York Times 06/26/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
Sunday June 24
NOW
THAT'S MARKETING: Quick: who is Jeanine Salla? If you answered,
"I don't know, but she's got something to do with that new
Spielberg flick," you're half right. The truth is, Jeanine
Salla is a nonexistent creation of Warner Brothers' marketing
department, a fictional scientist specializing in robotic intelligence
who supposedly consulted on "A.I.," expected to be this
summer's hottest movie. Salla has her own website, and, incredibly,
her own plotline, completely independent of the film. New
York Post 06/24/01
- HOLLYWOOD
ETHICS - AN OXYMORON? Okay, so Sony got caught trying to
pass off PR blurbs as independent reviews, and several other
studios have copped to similar stunts. Hollywood must have some
folks left with a sense of right and wrong, right? Right? Um,
hello? Anybody? Los Angeles Times
06/24/01
REALITY
IS BORING: For as long as filmmakers have been making movies
about classical music, musicologists have been complaining about
the lack of historical accuracy. But now, a historically perfect
film about music has arrived, and it is so boring that no one
cares how truthful it is. Is there a middle ground, or are these
musical biopics doomed to be exercises in either fantasy or monotony?
Minneapolis Star Tribune 06/24/01
COMEDY
CLUB OF THE MIND: Radio long ago surrendered to television
in the war for the hearts and minds of the public, and retreated
into the limited world of drive-time music blocks, stock market
updates, and shrieking talk show hosts. But in the UK, radio seems
to be making a stab at returning to the days when the best comedy
on the air was aural, not visual. "While every mediocre stand-up
appears to be given a TV series on the strength of a couple of
years on the circuit and a reasonably well-reviewed Edinburgh
Fringe show, Radio 4 attracts less egotistical, less pushy talents."
The Telegraph (London) 06/23/01
NEW
HOPE FOR ROOTS MUSIC? This summer, a film called "Songcatcher"
will have industry experts on the edge of their trend-chasing
seats, but they could care less whether the movie itself is a
success. "[T]hey are watching to see how the Vanguard soundtrack
does, believing its success may reveal whether ''O Brother, Wher
Art Thou'' which has sold more than 1.2 million CDs and spent
nine weeks at No. 1 on the country chart (longer than any other
CD this year), is a fluke or the bellwether of a trend toward
American roots music." Boston
Globe 06/24/01
Friday June 22
INDIA
WANTS TO GO GLOBAL: India's Bollywood film industry is by
far the largest in the world, producing about 800 feature movies
a year (compared to the 100 or so made in Hollywood). But Indian
filmmakers "desperately want to increase their market share
of $3.5 billion in a $300 billion global industry. There are just
12 cinemas per million people in Indian compared to 116 per million
in America." BBC 06/21/01
SURVIVING
CHINA: China is producing its own TV version of Survivor.
"Contestants will be let loose in the uninhabited area with
10 matches and enough food for 10 days. What is perhaps surprising
is that there is room for a survival program in a country where
physical survival is a day-to-day reality for about 200 million
Chinese estimated to be living in absolute poverty. More than
200,000 people aged between 12 and 70 have signed up in a bid
to be among the 18 finalists chosen." The
Age (Melbourne) 06/22/01
WAITING
FOR DIGITAL: One in three U.K. households now has digital
television, with at least five years to go before analog signals
are switched off permanently. But although Britons appear to be
ahead of (ahem) certain other countries in preparing for
the transition to digital, concerns remain about how to get the
entire country switched over in time. BBC
06/22/01
- NOT
BUYING IT: In Canada, where dozens of digital cable channels
are slated for launch this fall, a new survey has ominous news
for the industry: only 10% of Canadians are even considering
signing on for the "digital tier" when it becomes
available. If accurate, those numbers could spell doom for a
large number of the new channels. Ottawa
Citizen (CP) 06/22/01
NO,
YOU CAN'T SIT IN HIS CHAIR NOW: If ever anyone managed to
elevate the lowly sitcom to the level of high art, it was Carroll
O'Connor, whose portrayal of lovable bigot Archie Bunker in Norman
Lear's All in the Family pushed the TV envelope like nothing
that had come before. O'Connor died Thursday of an apparent heart
attack. He was 76. The New York Times
06/22/01 (one-time registration
required for access)
Thursday June 21
SORT-OF
FREE SPEECH? The US Congress will consider legislation that
will sic the Federal Trade Commission on entertainment producers
who are accused of marketing adult entertainment to children.
Meanwhile a watchdog group is calling for a common rating system
for TV and movies. Washington Post
06/21/01
DEFINITION
OF A FAILURE? It's already earned more than $120 million at
the box office, and is expected to bring in $250 million worldwide,
but analysts are saying that Peral Harbor is a failure. Why? Because
it cost $140 million to make, and expectations were so high. Nando
Times (AP) 06/21/01
- SOMEBODY
HAS TO PAY: Disney Studios chief Peter Schneider is leaving
the company after the Pearl Harbor disappointment.
Inside.com 06/21/01
- BACK
ON BROADWAY: Schneider will form his own Broadway theatre
production company. Theatre.com
06/21/01
CAN'T
TRUST THE BUZZ: A few weeks ago Sony got caught inventing
a critic to say nice things abut its movies. Then the studio admitted
it had used actors to pose as movie-goers raving about what they
had seen in "coming-out-of-the-theatre" commercials.
Now other studios say they too use actors for such commercials.
Dallas Morning News (AP) 06/21/01
Wednesday June 20
CBC
CUTS JOBS: Canada's public broadcaster CBC yesterday announced
the elimination of 50 jobs, "mostly in the arts and entertainment
production section of CBC TV." Ottawa
Citizen 06/20/01
- CBC
WANTS MORE: Over the past decade the Canadian government
has slashed the budget of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
by $400 million. This year it restored $60 million of those
cuts in a one-time programming boost. Now CBC president Robert
Rabinovich says the increase should be permanently renewed."Iif
tomorrow the money disappeared, we'd be in a deep hole. We'd
be in a very serious programming problem."
The Globe & Mail (Canada) 06/20/01
Tuesday June 19
SONY
FESSES UP AGAIN: "About two weeks ago, Sony's Columbia
Pictures admitted inventing a fake critic named David Manning
to pump several films in print advertisements. . . Now the studio
has copped to using two of its employees, pretending to be unbiased
moviegoers, in televised testimonials for Mel Gibson's 2000 Revolutionary
War epic, 'The Patriot.' With some African-Americans critical
about how the film overlooked slavery in colonial times, Columbia
plucked two of its black employees. . . to crow about how the
film was the 'perfect date movie.'" Boston
Globe 06/19/01
IGNORING
DIVERSITY: Apparently, the six major U.S. broadcast TV networks
are not frightened of the NAACP and it's influential head man,
Kweisi Mfume. A few short months after promising Mfume and his
organization that they would do everything possible to increase
diversity on network television, all six networks have unveiled
fall lineups that are as white as a poodle in a snowstorm, seemingly
challenging the NAACP to make good on its boycott threats. The
Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 06/19/01
SAG/AFTRA
STRIKE IMPROBABLE: "The prospect of a summer walkout
by two of America's largest actors' unions is beginning to look
increasingly unlikely." BBC
06/19/01
A
LAUGHMASTER HANGS IT UP: How to explain to non-Canadians what
John Morgan's retirement means to fans of the CBC's Royal Canadian
Air Farce? It's like Dana Carvey leaving Saturday Night
Live or John Cleese departing Monty Python. Morgan,
who has been writing and performing comedy for the CBC since 1967,
is retiring at the age of 70. Two of his fellow cast members offer
some memories and thoughts on what made the man so funny. The
Globe & Mail (Toronto) 06/19/01
Monday June 18
NOT
MUCH LEFT OVER AFTER $20 MILLION: One of the big issues in
current negotiations between actors and producers is pay for mid-tier
actors. "With $20-million paydays for major box office stars,
the working men and women of the film and television industry,
those actors not always in the spotlight, are being squeezed."
The New York Times 06/18/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
Sunday June 17
DO
VIEWERS WANT MORE? Is Super Tempting Millionaire Survivor
Island the only thing TV viewers want to watch? A group of
activists thinks not and is trying to "take back the airwaves."
One such group is going out, taking video and recording events
such as last year's World Trade Organization conference in Seattle.
"If you document the abuses, the perpetrators can no longer hide.
We're talking about video as a deterrent.'' Toronto
Star 06/15/01
PSYCHOANALYZING
THE MOVIES: Psychoanalysis and the movies are closely linked
- those images you see up on the screen play on our subconscious.
"At least since the Seventies, film theorists have used psychoanalysis
to interpret movies, applying its tools to both content and form.
The First European Psychoanalytic Film Festival will bring together
psychoanalysts, filmmakers and film historians from different
countries." The Observer (UK)
06/17/01
Friday June 15
HAS
POP CULTURE LOST ITS BUZZ? Have the US TV networks lost touch
with their audiences so profoundly that they're collectively unable
to come up with a single new concept in which any significant
number of viewers are interested? Is Viewer Apathy the cultural
equivalent of Voter Apathy? More to the point, is what we see
reflected in the mirror of popular culture a representation of
who we really are these days, or just an image of who they think
we are, or require us to be?" The
Guardian (UK) 06/15/01
A
CHICKEN/EGG THING: Does Hollywood's fare lead us down the
path to brain rot? Or do we get the movies we want/deserve? "In
short, are we living in a lively age of motion-picture pleasures
- or are we witnessing what some critics call the dumbing down
of American cinema?" Christian
Science Monitor 06/15/01
TRUTH
ABOUT BLURBS: So who cares about Sony's made-up movie critic?
Movie pr types do much worse every day. "The simplest trick
in the ad man’s book is the one word quote. 'Astonishing!' 'Brilliant!'
'Thrilling!' 'Beautiful!' Invariably you are meant to assume that
the ripe adjective is describing the movie itself. But it’s just
as likely that it was the star’s shoes that were 'beautiful,'
the book the movie was based on that was 'brilliant,' a single
sequence that was 'thrilling' and a particularly egregious bit
of miscasting that the critic found 'astonishing.' A good rule
of thumb: any word preceded by … and followed by … is no more
to be trusted than a campaign promise by our current president."
MSNBC (Newsweek) 06/14/01
WEB
DREAMS: With online publications going out of business or
cutting back, Salon's David Talbot has high hopes for his site's
new subscription service. By next year, he says, "most of the
stuff will be by subscription. There is even a school of thought
within Salon management that we should go there sooner. It would
be a shock to the system and a huge risk, but if we were to shut
the gates entirely, even this year we could probably get at the
very least ... 300,000 people to sign up. At $30 a piece, that's
$9 million, which is really close to break-even." Wired
06/15/01
TO BE FOLLOWED, NO
DOUBT, BY MCVEIGH: THE MUSICAL: "CBS has optioned
the rights to turn the book, American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh
and the Oklahoma City Bombing into a miniseries that could
air as soon as next year." New
York Post 06/15/01
Thursday June 14
THE
ABC MESS: The Australian Broadcasting Company is in turmoil,
and the blame is being laid on embattled director Jonathan Shier.
Rightly so, says one critic. But who hired him? And why was someone
with so little experience tapped for the job? Audiences are down,
programming is a shambles and staff are deserting. Where's the
ABC board, and the government that oversees everything?
Sydney Morning Herald 06/14/01
LANDMARK
BACK ON TRACK? San Francisco's Landmark Theatres, the Bay
Area's largest collection of moviehouses showing independent films,
appears to be on its way back from bankruptcy, under the guidance
of a new owner and two managers from the old days. San
Francisco Chronicle 06/14/01
Wednesday June 13
AUSSIE
RADIO STRIKE: Staff at ABC Radio National in Sydney went out
on strike for 24 hours yesterday after the sacking of Radio National
arts editor Ros Cheney. Sydney
Morning Herald 06/13/01
- Previously: ABC
TO AX ARTS EDITOR: The Australian Broadcasting Company radio
network is axing its arts editor as part of a "restructuring."
But the current editor hasn't yet been officially told; she
"returned from a four-week break overseas last Thursday
to receive a telephone call from a colleague warning that her
job had been made redundant." Sydney
Morning Herald 06/12/01
Tuesday June 12
ABC
TO AX ARTS EDITOR: The Australian Broadcasting Company radio
network is axing its arts editor as part of a "restructuring."
But the current editor hasn't yet been officially told; she "returned
from a four-week break overseas last Thursday to receive a telephone
call from a colleague warning that her job had been made redundant."
Sydney Morning Herald 06/12/01
HOLLYWOOD
NORTH: Toronto is awash in movie productions. "The influx
of television and film production from the United States because
of tax incentives and the cheap dollar has plainly altered the
city's hotels and restaurants and served as an economic boon to
the city of 2.5 million. But some people see a downside to the
boom and wonder whether Toronto hasn't overextended itself to
accommodate film and television production companies." The
New York Times 06/12/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
MEMO
TO SPIELBERG, CAMERON, ET AL: How much time do you need to
develop a story line, assemble a cast and crew, shoot and edit
film, and have the final product ready for the critics? Five days.
Really. And as for budget... you won't believe the budget.
Nando Times (AP) 06/11/01
THE LIMBO
OF FAILED TV PILOTS: Among them, the six TV broadcast networks
- yep, there are six - introduced 29 new shows this year. But
they made pilots for about a hundred. What happens to the other
seventy? "Despite a $40 million investment per network, not
much." Inside.com 06/11/01
JUST
SHOW THEM THE MONEY: "When local television stations
assemble their daily schedules, the idea in theory is to put together
a lineup that will be most attractive to viewers within their
community. Yet increasingly, stations appear to be falling back
on a somewhat different equation, one based not on what will garner
the most eyeballs but who will pay the most money."
Los Angeles Times 06/12/01
Monday June 11
SEATTLE
SCREENS: What's America's largest film festival? Sundance?
New York? No - it's Seattle, and "this year’s festival of
250 films from 50 countries will be seen by 150,000 film fans
at a half-dozen venues. MSNBC
06/11/01
CRUEL
CUTS: Cincinnati's Esquire Theatre is known for showing challenging
movies. So patrons were shocked to find out that scenes from a
Wayne Wang erotic drama The Center of the World were cut
"without telling ticket-buyers or the film's distributor.
'If an artist can't even trust that their material is going to
be presented in its intended form ... then who can you trust other
than yourself to be distributing your material?' "
Cincinnati Enquirer 06/08/01
Sunday June 10
BLACKLISTING
THE AGED: "The latest Writers Guild statistics—compiled
in 1998—find that out of the 122 prime-time TV series, 77 of them
did not employ a single writer older than 50. Five years earlier,
only 19 of them didn't. Over-50 writers make up one-third of guild
membership, but only 5% of those writing on episodic comedies.
Three years later, it can only be worse." So the over-50s
are suing. Los Angeles Times 06/10/01
THE
CANNES OF TV: The international TV world is gathering in Banff,
Canada. "Founded in 1979 after a decade of struggle to put
in place the building blocks for a viable industry, the Banff
Television Festival emerged as the place for innovation, excellence
and opportunity." The Globe &
Mail (Canada) 06/09/01
Friday June 8
PBS
MAKES AN EFFORT: America's Public Broadcasting Service announced
what it called a major programming shake-up for the coming fall
season. Changes include a new free-flowing documentary program
which sounds an awful lot like public radio's "This American
Life," and a slot for some vaguely defined "reality
TV." Even with the changes, however, PBS still isn't taking
any serious chances to attract new viewers. Nando
Times (AP) 06/08/01
MOVIE
FANS SUE SONY: Sony has now repeatedly apologized for creating
a ficticious blurbmesiter to hype Sony movies. But that's not
good enough for two movie fans, who are suing Sony for "deceptive,
unfair and unlawful business practices." YThey mean to hurt
Sony. Inside.com 06/08/02
- SONY
FINDS SCAPEGOATS: "Sony Pictures has reprimanded and
suspended two of its advertising executives for their roles
in the creation of a fake film critic. The employees have been
told to stay away from work for 30 days without pay. Sony would
not confirm their names." BBC
06/08/01
- BOY,
IS THEIR FACE, UM, ROUGED: "In another embarrassment
for Hollywood studio marketing efforts, ads for 20th Century
Fox's "Moulin Rouge" attributed a positive comment about the
film to the trade publication the Hollywood Reporter when the
critic is actually employed by an online entertainment site."
Los Angeles Times 06/08/01
Thursday June 7
SALMAN
RUSHDIE ON THE EVILS OF REALITY TV: "The television set,
once so idealistically thought of as our window on the world,
has become a $2-shop mirror instead. Who needs images of the world's
rich otherness, when you can watch these half-familiar avatars
of yourself - these half-attractive half-persons - enacting ordinary
life under weird conditions? Who needs talent, when the unashamed
self-display of the talentless is constantly on offer?"
The Age (Melbourne) 06/07/01
"MANNING"
SPEAKS OUT: Recently, Sony Pictures was forced to admit that
several glowing quotes being used to market its movies came from
"David Manning," a nonexistent critic. A Boston journalist
has tracked Manning down in the zen ether, however, and finds
out that "you're better off not existing. You think Roger
Ebert exists? At this point, he's just a concatenation of pixels."
Boston Herald 06/07/01
Wednesday June 6
THE
CASE OF THE FAKE BLURBS: Just why would Sony make up blurbs
by a fake critic to hype its movies? And why such lame blurbs
at that? Does anyone really pay attention to those unfailingly
positive snippets from critics published in movie ads? Critics
know the worth of their opinions don't they? MSNBC
06/06/01
Tuesday June 5
RUNNING
IN PLACE: Is the Australian Broadcasting Company sinking?
Management is deserting, and "ratings have dropped by 20
per cent since the start of the year, and the national broadcaster
now has a low 13 per cent share of the audience in five capital
cities, down from an all-time high of 24 per cent." Why?
ABC's schedule is essentially the same as it was five years ago.
The Age (Melbourne) 06/04/01
GOING
PUBLIC IN L.A.: If it's true that Los Angeles lags in public
broadcasting, that may be "about to change. Minnesota Public
Radio, a growing national programmer with deep pockets, showed
up in town last year to take out a long-term lease on Pasadena
City College station KPCC, then acquired Marketplace while
vowing to 'establish Los Angeles as a new creative center for
the development of public radio broadcasting'."
Los Angeles Times 06/04/01
Monday June 4
"R"
- KISS OF DEATH: A new study says that movies receding an
"R" rating "can lose as much as 40 percent of potential
opening-weekend earnings because of stricter compliance with the
R rating's ban on viewers under 17 who aren't accompanied by a
parent or guardian." Boston Herald
(AP) 06/04/01
TRAILER
WARS: One of the best ways to hype a movie is to get the film's
trailer played as often as possible. "In the past, the fierce
competition for trailer placement has been one of the best-kept
secrets in the movie business. But that all changed last week.
That's when the news broke that Sony Pictures had quietly made
a deal paying four major theater chains to guarantee they would
play a trailer for the studio's upcoming Rob Schneider comedy,
The Animal, before showing The Mummy Returns."
The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) 06/04/01
ABC
MANAGEMENT TURMOIL: A third member of the Australian Broadcasting
Company has resigned, renewing questions about ABC chief Jonathan
Shier's ability to lead the public broadcaster. The
Age (Melbourne) 06/04/01
A
VERY BIG BOMB: Pearl Harbor might have received bad
reviews, but evidently everyone still wants to see it. The movie
took in $30 million its second weekend out, bringing its 10-day
total to $120 million. Meanwhile, it looks like Shrek is
on its way to being the highest-grossing animated movie of all
time. Los Angeles Times 06/04/01
Sunday June 3
LAUNCHING
PUBLIC RADIO: Jay Allison got the idea that Cape Cod, Martha's
Vineyard and Nantucket ought to have their own public radio station.
So he raised some money, convinced the FCC to grant a license
and... The New York Times 06/03/01
(one-time registration required for access)
NATIONAL
EXPOSURE: Why does Los Angeles' public television station
produce so little national programming? "Sitting in the nation's
film and television production capital, not to mention its second-largest
TV market, KCET contributes relatively little original programming
to PBS's national schedule. Its 45 hours in fiscal 1999 were approximately
one-fifth of what PBS's top producer, WNET in New York, provided."
The New York Times 06/03/01 (one-time
registration required for access)
SPECTACULAR!
BRILLIANT! NON-EXISTENT! David Manning had a tendency to love
films - but only Sony films. Turns out someone at Sony pictures
invented Manning as a blurbmeister touting the company's movies
in ads. Houston Chronicle (AP) 06/03/01
Friday June 1
SOME
OLD TIME COPYRIGHT: Napster is in legal difficulty again.
The copyright owner of some old time radio shows charges that
the Napster system illegally "allows users to swap copies
of Fibber McGee and Abbott and Costello radio shows."
The Age (AFP) 06/01/01
RIEFENSTAHL'S
LEGACY: So who is the most influential filmmaker of the last
hundred years? Spielberg? Nah. Hitchcock, Eisenstein, or Disney?
Not a chance. "If the defining modes of the modern blockbuster
are the romance of power and technology, and if its primary purpose
is to overwhelm our senses into a state of rapturous submission
to spectacle, no filmmaker laid more groundwork, nor groundwork
that was more enduringly fertile, than the woman Adolf Hitler
once engaged as his personal propagandist." Toronto
Star 06/01/01
FROM
BAD TO WORSE: "Offering more bad news in the wake of
failed merger talks, the head of German media giant Bertelsmann
AG's music unit said his division wouldn't post a profit this
year... Earlier this month, merger talks between BMG and British
rival EMI Group PLC fell through, with EMI citing insurmountable
regulatory hurdles thrown in the way by European and U.S. antitrust
authorities." Nando Times (AP)
05/31/01
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