Jennifer Lopez has spent most of her singing career at Sony Music Epic Records. The bland version of what happened, I’m told, is that the contract period had ended and that Lopez had fulfilled it with her last two singles, and that Lopez and Stringer decided together not to move forward with an album. Others insist the Sony label dropped her. There also is disagreement on how finished her upcoming album was before it was canceled. Internet reports say her 7th studio album, titled "Love?", was supposed to come out in April and featured production from Danja, Jim Jonsin, Darkchild, Chris n Teeb from Dropzone, and The Neptunes among others. A song from it titled "Fresh Out The Oven" surfaced online in October 2009 as a buzz single and reached #1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Songs chart. But the official lead single, "Louboutins", had its radio debut on November 23 following the song's premiere and performance at the 2009 American Music Awards went to #31 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. UPDATE:*The song was the Power Pick of the week twice, and rose to #13 on that chart.*
Lopez insiders claim to me the album was "by no means done" and everyone was "only a few songs into it" and "unlike movie dates, street dates rarely hold in the music biz". But that album was real enough to delay the release of her upcoming CBS ... Read More »
So the liberal talk radio network Air America -- home of Rachel Maddow, Randi Rhodes, and Al Franken before he ran for the U.S. Senate -- is ceasing operations after 5 years, saying it will file for bankruptcy and halt live programming operations this afternoon. Charlie Kireker, chair of Air America Media, issued this statement:
It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.
The very difficult economic environment has had a significant impact on Air America's business. This past year has seen a "perfect storm" in the media industry generally. National and local advertising revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to fold or seek bankruptcy protection. From large to small, recent bankruptcies like Citadel Broadcasting and closures like that of the industry's long-time trade publication Radio and Records have signaled that these are very difficult and rapidly changing times.
By Nikki Finke | Thursday November 19, 2009 @ 12:03pm PST
You know I'm a shameless whore when it comes to videos mentioning me... But the 8th annual Junior Hollywood Radio and Television Society Holiday Party benefitting Feeding America on December 3rd is a good cause. The past two years have seen big increases in the JHRTS membership base, and the connectivity between assistants and coordinators working in television. It has started a mentoring program, and expanded its Panel/Roundtable events, and begun working on an in-depth tracking board. [Also, I'm looking to post the best of all your showbiz company video Holiday Greetings, the more inventive the better!]
By Nikki Finke | Wednesday December 10, 2008 @ 5:14pm PST
Today's massive layoffs at National Public Radio is Hollywood correspondent Kim Masters who has specialized in the entertainment biz for Morning Edition and All Things Considered since 2003.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Agents | Tuesday September 9, 2008 @ 5:18pm PST
Sandy Litvack used to be one of Michael Eisner's most trusted advisers at the Walt Disney Co. He's now one of the U.S. government's. That's because the Justice Department has hired the Century City lawyer with Hogan & Hartson as an outside consultant on a possible federal antitrust challenge to Google's proposed partnership with Yahoo. (Among other things, there are fears it could drive up ad rates.) Litvack was antitrust boss under President Jimmy Carter, then in 1991 joined Disney where his principal job after the death of Frank Wells was to follow Eisner around with a shovel. After leaving Disney when Eisner did, Litvack headed a commission created by Congress to consider changes to U.S. antitrust law. In 2004, Litvack found himself a star witness in that lawsuit brought by shareholders against Disney and Michael Ovitz over the ex-agent's brief but disastrous tenure. But Litvack's absurdist trial testimony defending Eisner and Ovitz stretched the truth by alot. It's too bad that what happens in Hollywood stays in Hollywood.
By Nikki Finke | Category: Indie | Monday September 8, 2008 @ 3:23pm PST
Inexplicable why it took until today for this lawsuit to be filed in Manhattan federal court because it was a total "duh". Here's the backstory: the Sheldon Abend Revocable Trust holds the copyright to the short story by Cornell Woolrich which is the basis for the 1954 suspense classic Rear Window after Alfred Hitchcock and actor James Stewart obtained the movie rights. The lawsuit argues that Disturbia's maker DreamWorks, its parent company Viacom, Steven Spielberg and others should have done the same to avoid copyright infringement. (I'm told that 1998 TV remake of Rear Window, starring Christopher Reeve, obtained the Trust's permission.)
By Nikki Finke | Category: Indie | Wednesday August 27, 2008 @ 11:29am PST
The conspiracy and wiretapping case against ex-Hollywood P.I. Anthony Pellicano and Terry Christensen, the managing partner of the powerhouse entertainment law firm Christensen, Glaser, Fink, Jacobs, Weil & Shapiro, will be in the hands of the jury after federal prosecutor Dan Saunders ends his closing argument this morning. Patty Glaser, Christensen's law partner who's also defending him, spoke for 3 hours yesterday. According to the Los Angeles legal newspaper Daily Journal's Robert Iafolla (the only reporter providing daily coverage of the 5-week-old trial), both closing arguments focused on the contents of Cristensen's and Pellicano's 34 recorded conversations. "With each side playing the same tape during closing arguments Tuesday, they again offered jurors radically different interpretations. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Saunders, that first recorded conversation was 'the birth of a criminal conspiracy' between two men with 'an insatiable need to win' without regards to their methods. In their initial talk they forged a secret pact to wiretap a litigation opponent, a 'shocking display of greed, corruption and arrogance' memorialized on more than six hours of recordings, Saunders argued.
"But lead defense attorney Patricia Glaser asserted that first conversation had nothing to do with a wiretapping plot. Instead, Glaser argued Christensen hired Pellicano to discover the paternity of a child born in 1997, not to supply intelligence about litigation ... Read More »
There's more bad news for the movie studio part-owned by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner with MGM. Last summer, 11 extras dressed in Nazi army uniforms fell out of the back of a World War II-era troop carrier truck as it swung around a corner in central in Berlin during the filming of Tom Cruise's biopic Valkyrie, sending the actors to the hospital with injuries. Now, the actors are suing Cruise's United Artists for $11 million, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel. Itreports that the extras' lawyer claims United Artists knew the trucks used in the filming were not entirely safe because there was an internal studio memo about the rickety railings.
By Nikki Finke | Tuesday August 12, 2008 @ 3:30pm PST
EXCLUSIVE: I'm told it was decided Friday that Chris Albrecht would exit IMG and the settlement was negotiated over the weekend and concluded today. So what happened 11 months after he went there with such fanfare after being axed from HBO in disgrace after his Las Vegas arrest for assaulting his girlfriend that unearthed a long-ago sexual harassment scandal? Albrecht in September 2007 was made head of the global media unit at IMG, the marketing and management giant owned by Teddy Forstmann. Albrecht was also made a special limited partner in Forstmann Little, and Chris and Teddy were to raise a $250 million fund for investments in media and entertainment content. But my insiders tell me that Forstmann Little in these financially tightfisted times wasn't able to raise the money talked about. Secondly, Forstmann didn't like Albrecht, and Albrecht didn't like Forstmann. Thirdly, Albrecht's nose was out of joint when Teddy went after the purchase of reality czar Mark Burnett's company in the spring without involving Chris. (By the way, I heard that contemplated IMG-Burnett $500 million deal fell on hard times this summer and may be dead.) And finally, Albrecht was offered a very good settlement to walk away. There should be a news release from Forstmann Little coming tomorrowtoday.
IMG speeded up its announcement after I scooped the news. It said the parting was amicable. "While Albrecht acknowledges that IMG has world-class media production and distribution businesses in both sports and entertainment, when he joined the company in September 2007 the parties intended to ... Read More »
Los Angeles super-lawyer Pierce O'Donnell, whom Forbes once called the Perry Mason Of Hollywood, used to go after the sleazy practices of Big Media companies. He represented Art Buchwald in the Coming To America case against Paramount (described in his book Fatal Subtraction about phony studio accounting), me against Disney and News Corp (because I did my job as a journalist), and others. So what does O'Donnell do for a second act? As lead counsel for the 350,000 Hurricane Katrina victims, he goes after the U.S. government and the Army Corps of Engineers for the catastrophic flooding of New Orleans. To keep people informed about the progress of the federal case, O'Donnell has set up this website for breaking news and analysis.
EXCLUSIVE: Entertainment uber-lawyer Skip Brittenham is negotiating a first-look producing deal with Warner Brothers for axed New Line founders Bob Shaye's and Michael Lynne's new production company. I'm told they're only going to get the "ex-studio president's special -- like Mark Platt and Casey Silver". Updating my report yesterday, I can confirm that Mark Kaufman is on board and will be based in New York. And right now both Shaye and Lynne are in town interviewing candidates to be based in Los Angeles. Also, Toby Emmerich has agreed to find some New Line projects that Bob and Michael could be attached to. But at the same time Toby is trying to distance himself from his former bosses. Oy.
Right now, the new company has no name. How about "Old Line"?
A lawsuit was filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court by Boston-based Allied Advertising Ltd alleging breach of contract, fraud and deceit, and unfair business practices against David Bergstein and his ThinkFilm movie distribution company. It seeks more than $4.1 million in unpaid bills and contracts, plus damages, interest and a 5% penalty for all sums not paid in full within 30 days of a demand for payment. It is yet the latest twist and turn in what is obviously becoming a financial meltdown in Bergstein's film production and distribution empire which includes ThinkFilm and Capitol Films. (See my previous, Capitol Films Cash Crunch: SAG Demands Meeting With Owner David Bergstein).
The lawsuit follows Bergstein's reported yacht trip to the Cannes Film Festival , included in the complaint: "Between January and May 2008, while most of the ThinkFilm debt to Allied was outstanding, defendants have gone on a lavish film licensing buying spree at various film festivals around the world, including a film about director Roman Polanski scheduled for release on the Home Box Office cable channel later in 2008."
The facts claimed in the lawsuit point to a business deal gone sour for Allied Advertising, which is in the business of placing advertising and promotion for feature motion pictures owned, licensed or distributed by client production companies or distributors. On June 21st, 2004, Allied ... Read More »
The jury in the federal trial of Hollywood P.I. Anthony Pellicano and 4 co-defendants still hasn't reached a decision after its first full week of deliberating. In the meantime, I thought you'd want to see this letter about Bert Fields (left, arriving at Roybal building read to testify; photo by Jim Stevenson for DHD) sent by his longtime pal and Greenberg Glusker law partner Bonnie Eskenazi to Arianna Huffington complaining about HuffPo's trial coverage and commentary by Allison Hope Weiner. Eskenazi used to be Fields' right-hand woman on most of his big cases. And Eskenazi also worked with Weiner (who's a lawyer) eons ago at the old Wyman Bautzer firm. I doubt there'll be a reunion party anytime soon. That said, I'm well aware that many of you will strenuously disagree with this letter, and many of you will vigorously defend it. Remember, I'm just the messenger:
I have read Allison Hope Weiner’s May 1, 2008 rant on the Huffington Post (“Pellicano Trial: The Jury Has The Case”) about how the “rich and powerful” people escaped the Pellicano case “without a scratch,” while the poor folks were prosecuted.
With no supporting facts at all, Ms. Weiner suggests in her agitated blog that the rich and powerful were guilty and should have been indicted,
Here is DHD/LA Weekly trial correspondent Steven Mikulan's wrap-up: "Prosecutor Daniel Saunders got the last word in during the government rebuttal argument. Saunders, who’d been lumbered during his closing argument by the need to enumerate most of the 78 counts involved in the RICO case, got to unload on the five defendants and their attorneys. He upbraided the defense for diverting attention away from the accused to the case’s many unindicted or plea-bargained witnesses, noting that to try to fix the crimes’ responsibility on such lesser actors was “like going after the johns and not the prostitutes, the junkies and not the dealers.” After 90 minutes, Saunders concluded by declaring, “This case is not about Hollywood. It’s not about Sylvester Stallone or Keith Carradine. It’s not even about Brad Grey or Michael Ovitz . . . This is a case about people who believed the justice system could be bought with a $25,000 nonrefundable retainer.”
So the trial that would not end is finally ending with closing arguments. Not much of a Hollywood angle to report, except for the lawyer for LAPD Sgt Mark Arneson, who is accused of doing all those illegal law enforcement database investigations. I've been reading the coverage - anxiously awaiting the verdict on this end! "It makes no sense that Mr. Ovitz a pillar of the hollywood community would hire Mr. Pellicano to put a fish on a car of a reporter. If he had a problem with The New York Times, he would just call the editor."
Meanwhile, jailed Hollywood P.I. Anthony Pellicano, who is defending himself, spoke for a mere 16 minutes -- and mostly rambled.
About Pellicano's closing argument, DHD/LA Weekly trial correspondent Steven Mikulan wrote: "Pellicano had told Judge Dale Fischer that he needed somewhere between an hour to an hour and a half to complete his speech to the jury, but he gave himself the hook after only 16 minutes. Appearing relaxed, affable and confident, Pellicano nevertheless gave a rambling dissertation on the roles of the jury and prosecutor. Jurors stared at him alertly but with opaque expressions.
"Pellicano has made much of how he detests snitches and 'rats', and certainly the government’s dance card was packed with witnesses who were either cooperating with prosecutors for lesser sentences in cases related to Pellicano’s, or who had completely dodged indictments in exchange for their testimony about Pellicano’s alleged wiretapping activities.
U.S. District Court Judge Dale Fischer nixed Pellicano co-defendant LAPD Sgt Mark Arneson's motion for a mistrial. If only this trial would end... and it will soon. The case goes to the jury this week.
Today the retired FBI agent who led the Pellicano investigation testified that he believed Ovitz's hiring of the Hollywood private-eye led to that June 2002 fish-rose-&-note warning left on Anita Busch's Audi. But Stan Ornellas stopped short of saying Ovitz specifically ordered the June 2002 threat against the freelance journalist who had co-written with staff writer Bernie Weinraub a series of stories exposing trouble within Ovitz's management and production company AMG that spring. And, on cross-examination, the attorney for LAPD Sgt Mark Arneson asked: "Is it possible Mr. Ovitz hired Mr. Pellicano ... but had nothing to do with the threats?'' To which Ornellas replied, "Yes."
Ornellas also testified that he interviewed Ovitz after Pellicano's arrest in November 2002, and that Ovitz mentioned Busch's name. The G-man also testified that the FBI retrieved a recorded telephone call of Pellicano speaking with Meyer after the FBI raided the P.I.'s West Hollywood office on Nov. 21, 2002. According to Ornellas, Pellicano said on the recording that Ovitz was at the heart of his legal problems. Ornellas also testified that Pellicano demanded $20,000 per month from Ovitz. Ovitz has not been charged with any wrongdoing in the Pellicano trial. (See my previous: Ovitz Testifies Busch/Weinraub NYT Articles "Wildly Embarrassing")
The entertainment uber-litigator just confirmed to me that he was formally notified today. The lawyer for Pellicano trial co-defendant LAPD Sgt Mark Arneson had intended to put Fields on the witness stand. So Bert spent two days down at the Roybal federal building cooling his heels. Federal prosecutor Daniel Saunders had vowed to grill Fields for a minimum four hours during cross-examination if he testified. It sure looks as if Arneson's attorney backed down. Fields vs Saunders: now that would have been a real-life court drama.
So Hollywood's uber-litigator Bert Fields keeps getting bumped, and bumped again, so the earliest he could take the witness stand in the Pellicano federal trial is Friday, according to my colleague Steven Mikulan who's reporting on it for DHD and LA Weekly. Tomorrow, lawyers on both sides will discuss jury instructions with the judge as the trial winds down. (Photo of Fields outside the Roybal federal building taken by Jim Stevenson exclusively for DHD)
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Jennifer Lopez has spent most of her singing career at Sony Music Epic Records. The bland version of what happened, I’m told, is that the contract period had ended and that Lopez had fulfilled it with her last two singles, and that Lopez and Stringer decided together not to move forward with an album. Others insist the Sony label dropped her. There also is disagreement on how finished her upcoming album was before it was canceled. Internet reports say her 7th studio album, titled "Love?", was supposed to come out in April and featured production from Danja, Jim Jonsin, Darkchild, Chris n Teeb from Dropzone, and The Neptunes among others. A song from it titled "Fresh Out The Oven" surfaced online in October 2009 as a buzz single and reached #1 on the U.S. Hot Dance Club Songs chart. But the official lead single, "Louboutins", had its radio debut on November 23 following the song's premiere and performance at the 2009 American Music Awards went to #31 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. UPDATE: *The song was the Power Pick of the week twice, and rose to #13 on that chart.*
It is with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business.
Sandy Litvack used to be one of Michael Eisner's most trusted advisers at the Walt Disney Co. He's now one of the U.S. government's. That's because the Justice Department has hired the Century City lawyer with Hogan & Hartson as an outside consultant on a possible federal antitrust challenge to Google's proposed partnership with Yahoo. (Among other things, there are fears it could drive up ad rates.) Litvack was antitrust boss under President Jimmy Carter, then in 1991 joined Disney where his principal job after the death of Frank Wells was to follow Eisner around with a shovel. After leaving Disney when Eisner did, Litvack headed a commission created by Congress to consider changes to U.S. antitrust law. In 2004, Litvack found himself a star witness in that lawsuit brought by shareholders against Disney and Michael Ovitz over the ex-agent's brief but disastrous tenure. But Litvack's absurdist trial testimony defending Eisner and Ovitz stretched the truth by alot. It's too bad that what happens in Hollywood stays in Hollywood. 
There's more bad news for the movie studio part-owned by Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner with MGM. Last summer, 11 extras dressed in Nazi army uniforms fell out of the back of a World War II-era troop carrier truck as it swung around a corner in central in Berlin during the filming of Tom Cruise's biopic Valkyrie, sending the actors to the hospital with injuries. Now, the actors are suing Cruise's United Artists for $11 million, according to the German magazine Der Spiegel. It 
EXCLUSIVE: I'm told it was decided Friday that Chris Albrecht would exit IMG and the settlement was negotiated over the weekend and concluded today. So what happened 11 months after he went there with such fanfare after being axed from HBO in disgrace after his Las Vegas arrest for assaulting his girlfriend that unearthed a long-ago sexual harassment scandal? Albrecht in September 2007 was made head of the global media unit at IMG, the marketing and management giant owned by Teddy Forstmann. Albrecht was also made a special limited partner in Forstmann Little, and Chris and Teddy were to raise a $250 million fund for investments in media and entertainment content. But my insiders tell me that Forstmann Little in these financially tightfisted times wasn't able to raise the money talked about. Secondly, Forstmann didn't like Albrecht, and Albrecht didn't like Forstmann. Thirdly, Albrecht's nose was out of joint when Teddy went after the purchase of reality czar Mark Burnett's company in the spring without involving Chris. (By the way, I heard that contemplated IMG-Burnett $500 million deal fell on hard times this summer and may be dead.) And finally, Albrecht was offered a very good settlement to walk away. There should be a news release from Forstmann Little coming tomorrow today. 
Los Angeles super-lawyer Pierce O'Donnell, whom Forbes once called the Perry Mason Of Hollywood, used to go after the sleazy practices of Big Media companies. He represented Art Buchwald in the Coming To America case against Paramount (described in his book Fatal Subtraction about phony studio accounting), me against Disney and News Corp (because I did my 
It seeks more than $4.1 million in unpaid bills and contracts, plus damages, interest and a 5% penalty for all sums not paid in full within 30 days of a demand for payment. It is yet the latest twist and turn in what is obviously becoming a financial meltdown in Bergstein's film production and distribution empire which includes ThinkFilm and Capitol Films. (See my previous, 
The jury in the federal trial of Hollywood P.I. Anthony Pellicano and 4 co-defendants still hasn't reached a decision after its first full week of deliberating. In the meantime, I thought you'd want to see this letter about Bert Fields (left, arriving at Roybal building read to testify; photo by Jim Stevenson for DHD) sent by his longtime pal and Greenberg Glusker law partner Bonnie Eskenazi to Arianna Huffington complaining about HuffPo's trial coverage and commentary by Allison Hope Weiner. Eskenazi used to be Fields' right-hand woman on most of his big cases. And Eskenazi also worked with Weiner (who's a lawyer) eons ago at the old Wyman Bautzer firm. I doubt there'll be a reunion party anytime soon. That said, I'm well aware that many of you will strenuously disagree with this letter, and many of you will vigorously defend it. Remember, I'm just the messenger:
So the trial that would not end is finally ending with closing arguments. Not much of a Hollywood angle to report, except for the lawyer for LAPD Sgt Mark Arneson, who is accused of doing all those illegal law enforcement database investigations. I've been reading the coverage - anxiously awaiting the verdict on this end! "It makes no sense that Mr. Ovitz a pillar of the hollywood community would hire Mr. Pellicano to put a fish on a car of a reporter. If he had a problem with The New York Times, he would just call the editor."
Ornellas also testified that he interviewed Ovitz after Pellicano's arrest in November 2002, and that Ovitz mentioned Busch's name. The G-man also testified that the FBI retrieved a recorded telephone call of Pellicano speaking with Meyer after the FBI raided the P.I.'s West Hollywood office on Nov. 21, 2002. According to Ornellas, Pellicano said on the recording that Ovitz was at the heart of his legal problems. Ornellas also testified that Pellicano demanded $20,000 per month from Ovitz. Ovitz has not been charged with any wrongdoing in the Pellicano trial. (See my previous: 
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