Weinsteins Want Miramax Name Back 
'Saw 3D' vs 'Paranormal Activity 2' Battle … 
TV TUG OF WAR: It's Ellen vs Simon, And … 
Robert De Niro Returns To CAA From WME; Jane … 
Fox Wins Studio War For Robert Rodriguez' … 
Weinstein Co Gets "New Lease On Life"? 
Nicole Kidman Hires Angelina's Manager 
So What Are The Hot Films At Sundance? 
Huge $70M Settlement In TV Writers Age … 
TOLDJA! Momoa Chosen 'Conan' Barbarian 
Oscar Campaign Badmouthing Has Begun! 
When you think about it, what went down with the Tribune Co. and Sam Zell is not unlike an episode of The Sopranos. Or maybe I just have Tony on the brain because the series begins its death rattle this Sunday. After all, the Chicago real estate tycoon didn't give himself the nickname "Grave Dancer' for nuttin', right? (Specifically, for buying up assets that others had given last rites.) This morning, Tribune Co. chairman Dennis J. FitzSimons sent an email around to employees telling them about Trib's choice of Zell to buy the company. That's basically the equivalent of Tony's errand boy making calls to his mob from his Escalade on the way to the social club. If any of the Trib workers had any hope left that L.A. billionaires Ron Burkle and Eli Broad were still in the running, or believed all those articles and updates that the duo's bid was being taken seriously, fuhgeddaboutit. The Broad/Burkle offer slept with the fishes a long, long time ago because Broad had done so much bad-mouthing of the LAT's Chicago bosses in concert with editor Dean Baquet. ("The Trib guys hated Eli Broad," I'm told by an insider. "They thought he was a piece of shit.") Then, later today, FitzSimons followed up the email with a video hook-up where he answered questions from the worker ants. 
Someone asked FitzSimons what's "the vision" for the Trib's newspapers under Zell. "Basically, we ... Read More »
Zell/Trib Analysis: Be Afraid. Very Afraid.
Is This Guy The Newest Big Media Prince?
UPDATE: Eli Broad and Ron Burkle look to be back in this endless bidding. Tribune Co. has responded to a request for additional financial information from the two Los Angeles billionaires.
There've been lots of reports that multimedia corporation Tribune Co. is close to accepting real estate tycoon Sam Zell's $8 billion takeover offer that will load up the company with debt. Owner of a TV stations group, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Cubs among many infotainment holdings, Trib will probably seal the deal by the end of the week, according to Bloomberg News. This jibes with Trib's self-imposed deadline of March 31. Zell's offer of $33 a share is 6.8% above yesterday's stock price, which has been sinking while the sale drags on, and on. Zell's offer was competing with the company's own plan to reorganize, and seems to have beaten offers from the Chandler family and from Los Angeles billionaires Ron Burkle and Eli Broad. But that duo is charging that Trib didn't treat them fairly during the auction process. They claim that Zell was given info they weren't. Zell, a Chicago native, said this month he plans to keep the company's television stations and newspapers intact, along with other holdings. Zell proposed creating an employee stock ownership plan to help finance billions of dollars of debt for the acquisition. The structure would shield the company from a large tax bill. Zell altered the mix of debt and ... Read More »
Finke/LA Weekly: Jeer, Not Cheer, Ganis
My new 
column, Bearing the Scars of Oscars, starts out: "At this year’s post-Oscars Governor’s Ball, Sid Ganis should have been reviled and even exiled. Instead, the president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which produces the ABC telecast, was the man of the hour, congratulated profusely by the assembled moguls and talent. It’s no wonder, then, that this loopy show fails year after year, because smug Hollywood just keeps self-medicating..." Continued
Want Superbowl XLI Tickets? Ask CAA*
*Since CAA's IMG-acquired sports agents Tom Condon and Ken Kremer rep Peyton Manning, the Indianapolis Colts quarterback who's headed to Miami to play the Chicago Bears. 
It was the largest comeback in AFC and NFC championship game history. In terms of endorsement moolah, most of his current deals -- including DirecTV, Reebock, Gatorade, MasterCard, Sprint and Sony -- pre-date his agents' April arrival at CAA. So those commissions go to IMG, I'm told. Even though his inability to win "the big games" has haunted his career -- he's been compared to tennis' Anna Kournikova -- his likeability quotient has made him a darling on Madison Avenue. That's why Manning ranked No. 1 as the most marketable player in today's NFL, according to a recent survey of 56 sports marketing and media execs conducted by Sports Business Daily. Since the major diss on Peyton is his choker label and lack of a Super Bowl title, if he wins on February 4th, his marketability goes sky-high. Unless he's over-exposed by then.
Link to LA Weekly's Daily Sundance Blog
I highly recommend the Sundance blog being kept by my LA Weekly colleague, film critic Scott Foundas. Check out his opener stories, and stay tuned for his daily insights. As for me being there, sorry, but I don't do cold. Unless I'm paid to.
CAA Vultures Circling Basketball Stars
Back in April, I wrote extensively about the vultures at CAA circling the sports management business by hiring some top sports agents repping football and baseball stars. And I also reported how this was CAA prez Richard Lovett's idea because of his hero worship of the late Mark McCormack and his "100% market share" model for IMG, the famed sports management company. Today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that "CAA is expected to finalize a deal to acquire the sports representation business of Leon Rose, an attorney and agent now working for a Philadelphia area law firm." Rose reps NBA superstars LeBron James and Allen Iverson, among others. "The expected pact with Mr. Rose would significantly deepen CAA's bench of heavy-hitting sports agents and establish a solid foothold in yet another league sport, basketball," the paper gushes. 
Unlike the 10% Hollywood commissions, pro sports players unions typically cap agent fees at 5% or less, so money is made on lucrative endorsement contracts -- but they're hard to come by. Look at CAA's representation so far of USC quarterback star Matt Leinart after they stole him from Leigh Steinberg, the famed Newport Beach sports agent. It's been a disaster, in many respects. Not only did Leinart only go double-digit in the draft and left millions of dollars off the table by not signing with a high-profile ... Read More »
David Beckham's & Tom Cruise's Phoners
SUNDAY UPDATE: The Beckhams have arrived in Los Angeles. No, TomKat did not meet them at the airport. Creative Artists Agency first introduced them two years ago. Then they and their wives became pals. Now Tom Cruise convinced David Beckham to move to Los Angeles and accept the Galaxy's $250 mil, 5-year deal (as if that kind of money for a washed-up soccer player isn't reason enough). Beckham specifically said yesterday at a news conference that two late-night phone chats with Cruise helped seal his decision to move here. ''I phoned him and said there might be an announcement,'' Beckham said yesterday in a satellite link-up from Madrid. ''Obviously, I'd asked him for his advice as well because he's a very wise man; he's a very good friend of mine.''To have his experience and to have him explain some things to me to be prepared for, that's a big favor But he couldn't speak any higher than what he was saying about LA. And that's going to be a big help for us, to have friends actually when we arrive in LA.'' (There's also all sorts of Scientology speculation out there, but I'll leave that to others. I'm not even sure why I posted any of this at all, but I found it mildly interesting.)
Why Beckham Unlikely To Be U.S. Celeb
I know and care little about soccer. But the lengths that occasional movie mogul Phil Anschutz went to lure David Beckham to his Los Angeles Galaxy team ($250 mil contract, $1 mil a week) caught my attention. Can Beckham and Posh Spice really become big U.S. celebs? Is the fact that they already have TomKat as pals a promising or pathetic start? Anyway, my LA Weekly colleague, deputy editor Joe Donnelly, went to Colgate on a soccer scholarship, so here are his informed thoughts: "All excited about David Beckham's deal with the Galaxy? Yeah, me neither. If you're old enough, you've seen this story play out before. Aging international star is lured to America in hopes of hoisting the world's most popular sport onto the national stage here in the U.S. Last time it was the mid-70s and the hopes of the struggling North American Soccer League were hoisted onto Brazilian star Pelé's shoulders. Sure, Pelé was basically retired and enjoying the good life in Rio, but big bucks and NYC's bright lights lured him to the U.S. It worked for awhile. The NY Cosmos had a brief period of fame and success, winning titles throughout the late 70s and soccer here in America sold out stadiums for awhile. But then it faded away, like it always does and likely always will. Beckham's not likely to succeed where Pelé ultimately couldn't either -- getting soccer to play ... Read More »
FCC vs CBS: No To Janet's Super Nudity
The FCC late today defended its decision to fine 20 CBS owned and operated television stations $550,000 for airing that Janet Jackson boob shot. According to Reuters, the agency said in a brief filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit it rejected CBS's argument that her role in the 2004 Superbowl halftime show didn't violate decency standards. I, for one, still can't believe CBS' lawyers are trying to claim it didn't know about this in advance when MTV's website was promo-ing the "shocking" nature of the Justin/Janet duet. It seems a long time ago that the FCC ruled CBS broke its b'cast indecency rules "willfully" and justified the huge fine. U.S. TV network and radio b'casters are supposed to keep it clean between 6 AM and 10 PM, when children are likely to be watching. CBS apologized and paid the fine, $27,500 for each of the 20 stations it owns, but said it was not clued in ahead of time about the stunt and in July appealed the decision. The network contended that, in the past, the FCC had not taken action against fleeting instances of nudity and profanity. The agency denied that its standards for such incidents was subjective.
Finke/LA Weekly: 2007 Orgy of Sequels
My latest column, Orgy Of Sequels Climaxing In 2007, takes a snarky look at next year's knock-offs. Will the public get off? Or is it just studio masturbation? (Yes, I saw today's Los Angeles Times' marathon piece about 2006's sequel fever. Great minds may think alike, but at least I think ahead.)
Here are excerpts from mine:
"It’s official: Hollywood has run out of original ideas. If you thought 2006 was bad, just wait. In 2007, the studios will give up on birthing blockbusters and concentrate instead on cloning them to knock off lame sequel after lamer sequel after lamest sequel. Familiar titles (see Spidey 3 trailer here) will be followed by so many numbers that filmgoers looking for a Friday-night flick will need a calculator just to figure out which of the threequels (Shrek 3 trailer here) and fourquels they want to see — if any at all. Oh, and if the year of living sequentially doesn’t destroy the movie biz, then the expected labor strike (also a sequel) will. Yes, in 2007, the very idea of original screenplays will become increasingly quaint, like real butter poured on popcorn. (Good timing, because the writers will be camped out on picket lines anyway.) There will be a few nonsequel movies, but those are mostly remakes, biopics or book adaptations. (At least we can all be ... Read More »
NASCAR MOVIE NATION: Talladega Nights' $47 Mil Victory Lap for No. 1; Opening Is Will Ferrell's Biggest Ever
SUNDAY/SATURDAY/FRIDAY: I'm told Sony's good-natured NASCAR spoof, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby First, victory lapped every movie at the box office for No. 1 passing $18 million Friday and $16 million Saturday for a fast-paced $47 million weekend. This is comic Will Ferrell's biggest opening ever, exceeding his previous best Elf ($31 mil), and the 2nd biggest original comedy opening of all time behind Bruce Almighty. After decades of Hollywood looking down its collective nose at this 75-million-strong sporting phenomenon, Sony now becomes the second studio this summer to successfully tap into the NASCAR craze across America: Disney's Cars was first (with $236 mil to date in grosses). This is Sony's 8th Number One opening this year, and Talladega Nights will be the 7th best opening of the year among all product (behind sequels of Pirates, X Men, Ice Age, and Superman Returns and behind originals Cars and Da Vinci Code). Tracking on the generally well-reviewed pic showed a solid opening initially in the $30s (as in millions), so it did better-than-expected this weekend. (Weekend figures include Sunday estimates)
Other movies opening this weekend were Paramount's kiddie fare Barnyard which was No. 2 with $5.4 mil on Friday and $5.5 on Saturday to finish the weekend with at least $15 mil. And Lionsgate's The Descent (whose disgusting marketing campaign boasted it had more blood and gore than its previous horror film Saw) could only muster $8.5 mil for 5th place. Meanwhile, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest ... Read More »
Finke/LA Weekly: Too Fast & Too Furious
My latest column, Too Fast And Too Furious, applies not just to Mel Gibson, but sanctimonious Hollywood, too. Many may think I hold a controversial opinion about this, but it's mine and I'm entitled to it. And you're entitled to disagree. Here's how it starts out:
"Where is the Hollywood outrage? Where is the industrywide condemnation? No, I’m not talking about Mel Gibson’s drunken anti-Semitic slurs. I’m talking about the Lionsgate scandal. Its ads for its slasher flick opening this weekend set a new low by boasting — yes, boasting — about how this movie is way more disgusting than anything the studio has previously brought to the big screen. “People are concerned that the amount of blood and gore in horror films goes too far,” the deep-voiced announcer intones, barely heard above the barrage of shrieks and moans. “On August 4, the studio that brought you Saw and Hostel goes over the edge. The Descent, rated R.”
"Instead, the movie biz is consumed by the scandal of a dwarfish über-Catholic bigot with a fondness for blonde fans. Why, I haven’t witnessed so many power players this quick to kick a confessed alcoholic when he’s down and out, since, well, never. A guy who relapsed and drove near 90 miles an hour because he felt suicidal and wanted to wrap himself around a telephone pole (or so one of his intimates ... Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: Jake Gyllenhaal Wants To Play Lance Armstrong in Sony Bio-Pic
Yes it's true -- I'm told Jake Gyllenhaal and Lance Armstrong are hanging at the Tour De France together because the actor is the leading contender to play the cyclist in a Sony bio pic being quietly developed. On Sunday, the two sat in a Paris hotel together with friends as American Floyd Landis stood on the podium after winning the 2006 Tour de France. Needless to say, the European press went into a speculation frenzy when the Lance and Jake first showed up together . As Saturday's all-important Individual Time Trial began, Jake joined the seven-time TdF winner in the Discovery team car for a ride-along as Lance protégé Yaroslav Popovych pedalled away. (Lance's Discovery team faltered without him this TdF, but Landis of Phonak took the yellow jersey and eventually won the overall race). Earlier in the day, Lance met with the Tour de France organizers to lessen the tension. Armstrong, his agent Bill Stapleton, Discovery sports manager Johan Bruyneel, and Tour de France Directors Jean Marie Blanc and Christian Prudhomme had what insiders called "a heart-to-heart discussion" aboard the Discovery bus. "The meeting went well," Bill Stapleton said later. "Everyone left with a feeling of mutual respect." Obviously the Tour's assistance, while not required, would be helpful to the bio-pic. Gyllenhaal and Armstrong have become pals during Jake's method process to get to know the sports legend. The actor of Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead fame is even a long-time cyclist and has begun ... Read More »
Finke/LA Weekly: Moguls Will Be Moguls
My latest column fleshes out Allen & Co.'s annual Sun Valley confab starting July 10th. (I also posted the schedule here). The headline is, Moguls Will Be Moguls at Camp Allen: Shareholders get burned around the Big Media campfire. My conclusion? "To be honest, nobody talks about it anymore, nobody cares about it anymore and nobody wants it anymore. Attending it now is a chore..."
Other excerpts:
"Others take great pains to show the proper Camp Allen spirit. I remember when Sony COO Nobuyuki Idei arrived virtually arm in arm with new employee Howard Stringer at Allen’s dinner wearing ebony Men in Black Tees over their standard-issue Camp Allen polo shirts. (Nattered one attendee, “Don’t those guys realize that they’ve fired everyone involved with that movie?”)
"Sometimes the veneer of überpoliteness breaks down. I recall when David Geffen participated in a digital-barbarians-at-the-gate discussion that was slickly moderated by then–Intel Corp. chairman Andy Grove. “What am I doing on this panel? I don’t know anything about technology,” Geffen griped, seated alongside Idei, Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller, Edgar Bronfman Jr., and departed FCC chairman Reed Hundt. Or the time Diller began a sentence with “My intuition...” and Grove sputtered, “Don’t let the facts get in the way of your grand intuition, Barry.” This stuff might sound polite, but in that rarefied air it’s the equivalent of farting in public.... Read More »
Best Wishes & Get Well, Roger Ebert
I'm sure Hollywood is wishing Roger Ebert thumbs up for a speedy recovery. Today, he's in serious condition at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital after emergency surgery to repair complications from an earlier cancer surgery. I grew fond of the 64-year-old Chicago Sun-Times/Ebert & Roeper film critic when we sparred in a spirited discussion over Brokeback Mountain vs Crash for Oscar and ended up liking one another. My LA Weekly column, How Gay Will Oscar Go, kicked it off, then I elaborated with What Did I Tell You?. Ebert took issue, then I responded with Roger Ebert: Naif?. Then Ebert Got the Last Word.
Wolcott vs Finke: Diss For Dissing George
You can't please all of the people all of the time. Though Vanity Fair columnist James Wolcott has praised me in the recent past, he defends George Clooney and disses me in the July issue (not online). Branding me an "egotist" for my audacious claim that George sans ensemble is box office poison, Jim writes: "On Oscar night, entertainment-biz reporter Nikki Finke, liveblogging the event at Deadline Hollywood Daily, joined ... the ranks of the unimpressed. 'This red carpet frenzy over George Clooney is inexplicable. Truth time: the only movie he's starred in that's been successful at the box office was an ensemble piece (Ocean's Eleven, its sequel Ocean's Twelve). The $$$ total from his Oscar films barely equals what he spends on tooth floss. Good Night, and Good Luck was historically inaccurate. And he's not aging gracefully, to put it mildly. (He hasn't lost that baby weight yet.)' By baby weight, I assume she meant the paunch he put on to play the Bob Baer protagonist in Syriana, and I got the impression that most viewers thought he looked pretty damned good in his tux. Finke's comment was evidence that Clooney's non-fans were losing their grip on reality and reaching for reasons to gripe."
Jeez, Jim, if that semi-inocuous celeb insult offended ... Read More »
1st Place: 2006 AltWeekly Media Reporting/Criticism Award
The winners of the 2006 AltWeekly Awards were announced yesterday in Little Rock, Ark., at a luncheon held as part of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' annual convention. First-place articles/columns will be collected in a book, Best AltWeekly Writing and Design. I'm pleased to announce:
Media Reporting/Criticism
Circulation >50,000
First Place: L.A. Weekly, Nikki Finke, Deadline Hollywood
For these three columns: They Shoot News Anchors, Don't They?: Media moguls, not looters, killed Katrina’s truth tellers; and The Michael Kinsley Experiment Ends: Why he was the wrong guy for the Los Angeles Times; and Requiem for Anita Busch: Pellicano charges are vindication for the former Hollywood reporter, but we’ve already buried her.
Finke/LA Weekly: The Passion of the Cash
Here's my latest column, The Passion of the Cash: Da Vinci Cannes the World, about how I've seen the future of Hollywood, and it is foreign, as demonstrated by the craptastic Da Vinci Code. This time, I'll tease you with the ending (and, by the way, if we can have a Gay Vito, why not a Gay Superman?):
"So what can we expect from the rest of the summer, here and foreign-wise? 20th’s X-Men 3 will fare well, though Brett Ratner’s violent, Hard-R direction was ridiculously given a PG-13 rating. Not even Universal thinks The Breakup is funny, despite Vince Vaughn’s best efforts. (Please, can we accept once and for all that Jennifer Aniston is a movie stiff?) Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest is gonna kill both here and overseas. Warner Bros.’ Superman Returns, now a metrosexual in Metropolis, will bring more than respectable returns. Paramount's World Trade Center will be box-office challenged, despite Oliver Stone’s international luster, because of its 9/11 subject matter. And the anticipation is that M. Night Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water from Warner Bros. will drown, and, pity, not even near a topless beach in Cannes."
Toldja! Hiltzik Returns to LAT in Sports
Per my April 30th info: Los Angeles Times staffer Michael Hiltzik today is back in the paper on the sports beat (with investigative pieces to follow) after the brass determined he violated its ethics rules, stripped him of both his blog and his Golden State column, and suspended him for a bit.
Previous: Suspended LAT Columnist to Probe Sports
Finke/LA Weekly: Promiscuous TV Bitches
It's not every morning I wake up to an excited phone call telling me, "You're in Maureen Dowd today!" The New York Times columnist mentioned me and my interview with Grey's Anatomy creator/exec producer/head writer Shonda Rhimes (Here's the DHD excerpt, Grey's Producer Had Disney "Hard Times" ).
It's also my latest column: TV's Promiscuous Bitches. "Up-front week is when the networks unveil their fall TV schedules to advertisers at fancy New York City venues, then attempt to mask the stink of failure at even more lavish parties in even fancier venues. In other words, it’s all a big con. The alphabets pretend that they still have an audience, and advertisers feign that they don’t have other media options. Meanwhile, a new poll finds that almost 80 percent of teens can’t name the big-four broadcasters and prefer the Web to TV anyway....contd."
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