Ron Burkle, Richard Beckman Form 3 Lions Branded Entertainment
March, 25, 2013 2:36 pm | Comments On #Media, Richard Beckman, Ron Burkle, three lions entertainmentBillionaire Ron Burkle and former Hollywood Reporter CEO Richard Beckman have joined forces to create a new branded entertainment company, Three Lions Entertainment, they announced on Monday.
Joel Katz, global chairman of Greenberg Traurig’s international media and entertainment practice, will be a minority partner and have a seat on the board. Three Lions Entertainment's first TV specials will revive "Fashion Rocks" and "Movies Rock" that were previously made with Conde Nast.
Beckman left Prometheus, then-parent of the Reporter, last year. He had been CEO, and previously had been a senior executive at Conde Nast. The new company will be based in New York City and its offices will open in April.
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Read MoreTom Cruise Lawyer on 'In Touch' Lawsuit: There Won't Be a Settlement (Exclusive)
March, 25, 2013 1:58 pm | Comments On #In Touch, magazine, Media, Movies, Tom CruiseTom Cruise is planning on a courtroom confrontation with the publishers of “In Touch” and “Life & Style” magazine despite ongoing private mediation, his attorney exclusively told TheWrap.
“I don’t expect there will be a settlement,” attorney Bert Fields told TheWrap, after reports that the case had gone to private mediation. “This isn’t just about money. We would want the record made absolutely clear with some prominence that their story was not true. They’d have to say it on the cover, and there would have to be some financial amount.”
Also read: ...
Read MoreTMZ’s Harvey Levin Makes Way For Variety Editor Josh Dickey
March, 23, 2013 5:28 pm | Comments On #Harvey Levin, Josh Dickey, Media, tmz, Variety
TMZ founder Harvey Levin is handing his former managing editor title to Josh Dickey (left), who has just resigned as Variety’s film editor to take on the position, Levin exclusively told TheWrap on Saturday. Dickey will take on daily newsroom duties of the tabloid news site to allow Levin and other senior staff to pursue new verticals and television ventures.
"We haven’t had a managing editor in four years," Levin told TheWrap. "We’ve been looking. We wanted to make sure we got it right." Levin, the site's founder, was formerly its managing editor and is now executive producer.
Among the new projects in the works at TMZ include a broadcast...
Read MoreIs CNN Soft on Rapists? Steubenville Coverage Sparks Debate
March, 19, 2013 7:04 pm | Comments On #CNN, crime, Media, rape, social media, steubenvilleA chorus of online critics has taken aim at CNN for its allegedly sympathetic coverage of two convicted rapists in Steubenville, Ohio. But the controversy raises a broader question over how to cover teenage rapists and a teenage victim in the age of social media.
By Tuesday afternoon, a petition demanding that CNN apologize for its coverage of the rape conviction of Steubenville football stars Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, and Trent Mays, 17, had mushroomed to 200,000 signatories.
“Your coverage of the … verdict Sunday morning was a complete disgrace and a breach of journalistic ethics,” the petition, launched by Gabriel Garcia of Knoxville, Tenn., at Change.org reads. “I request that you apologize on-air, several times...
Read MoreStreaming Confusion: What's a Movie-Lover To Do?
March, 17, 2013 10:37 pm | Comments On #Hulu, Movies, Netflix, streaming, TelevisionThis whole streaming conversation started when I found myself explaining apartheid to my 15-year-old (how he missed this aspect of modern history is another matter) and went looking to get “Cry Freedom” so we could watch it together.
I wanted to watch it that day, a Sunday, which turned out to be the mission from hell. I don’t use iTunes, could not find it on Netflix and when I finally found it on Amazon it was for the DVD not for streaming, and that would take several days to arrive. (I ordered it, and it never did come.)
I actually got in the car and drove to the one remaining Blockbuster left in Santa Monica to see if by some crazy chance they had the 1987 movie about Steve Biko, starring Denzel Washington and Kevin Kline. Fat chance. I felt like I had stepped into a time warp; the Blockbuster on Wilshire Boulevard is a sad place with faded movie...
Read MoreHey Thanks! SPJ-LA Says I’m Distinguished in New Media
March, 17, 2013 4:07 pm | Comments On #Awards, distinguished, Jeff Fager, Media, new media, Sharon Waxman, SPJ, SPJ-LA, thewrap
The Society of Professional Journalists Los Angeles chapter gave me their award last Thursday for Distinguished Work in New Media. Why, thank you very much.
It’s fun to hang around other journalists, and we don’t do it in Los Angeles a whole lot, probably because everything is so far-flung. So that made it especially rewarding to be in a room where the core values of fact-checking, accountability and fairness and the sheer adrenaline rush of getting-the-damn-story-out were shared at every table.
Jeff Fager (pictured), the chairman of CBS News, was the keynote speaker. He took the opportunity to laud old-fashioned journalistic values which include, at least at “60 Minutes," the...
Read MoreAngola Movie Financier Rui Costa Reis Explains 'Phantom' Flop (Video)
March, 13, 2013 8:17 am | Comments On #Angola, financier, indies, Movies, Phantom, RCR Media Group, Rui Costa ReisAngola movie producer Rui Costa Reis sat down with TheWrap to discuss his new movie "Phantom," a submarine thriller starring Ed Harris and David Duchovny which opened to just $750,000 in early March.
But he is not daunted. A newcomer to the movie business, Costa Reis explained his strategy for growing an independent movie production and distribution company, as the chairman of RCR Media Group. Eliad Josephson, to his right, is the CEO. "It was a very good experience since the first day of shooting this movie, and releasing it to the market," he says.
Read the complete story of 'Phantom' here: Angola Mogul Takes on Hollywood, But His ‘Phantom’ Flops
Video by Rebecca Rosenberg
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Read MoreAngola Mogul Takes on Hollywood, But His ‘Phantom’ Flops
March, 12, 2013 6:38 pm | Comments On #Angola, Movies, Phantom, Rui Costa ReisHow did an Angolan multimillionaire end up taking a bath at the box office with the Ed Harris submarine thriller "Phantom"?
It’s a long story.
Rui Costa Reis, chairman of independent production company RCR Media Group, is a relative newcomer to Hollywood. But he has jumped into the deep end of the movie business by fully financing and distributing the $18 million thriller, “Phantom,” starring Harris and David Duchovny, from his own pocket.
In the film, Harris and Duchovny play Russians aboard a Soviet submarine who go rogue at a moment of heightened Cold War tensions.
Also read:...
Read MoreThe Sheryl Sandberg Debate: Outrage, Inspiration - But How About Some Child Care?
March, 11, 2013 8:06 am | Comments On #culture, lean in, maureen dowd, Media, Sheryl SandbergA debate continues to rage among women alternately inspired or incensed by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who in a new book is exhorts women to “lean in” to leadership jobs.
Mostly incensed.
The Maureen Dowds of the world weighed in with a vengeance two weeks ago, pillorying Sandberg for having “co-opted the vocabulary and romance of a social movement not to sell a cause, but herself.”
The clamor has not gotten any better since then, with others arguing that Sandberg speaks from a place of privilege that is out of touch with the real lives of working women.
On Sunday night, a defensive Sandberg went on "60 Minutes" to explain herself, telling Norah O'Donnell: “I am saying we need to help...
Read MoreIndie Filmmakers Debate Post-Sundance: 'Where Is Harvey?' (Video)
March, 08, 2013 4:06 pm | Comments On #independent film, indies, Jill Soloway, john nein, Jonathan Schwartz, Movies, Ondi Timoner, video, whitewaterChange continues to buffet the independent film industry, and about 100 writers, directors and producers got together on Thursday to talk about it, courtesy of Rick Rosenthal’s Whitewater Films.
Over Mexican food and under Rosenthal’s white umbrellas, a distinguished panel of experts talked about their experiences. Josh Leonard, an actor-writer-director who has been in “Humpday” and more than 30 other films, noted the frustration of making good films that don’t hit the coveted jackpot.
“We’re all going for that bulls-eye -- the ‘Like Crazy,’ the ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild,’” he said. “But quality -- I don’t think -- mitigates potential failure.”
Jill Soloway, director of the acclaimed “Afternoon Delight,” which is considering offers after screening at Sundance...
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Description
Sharon Waxman's take on life on the left coast, high culture, low culture and the business of entertainment and media.
Follow me on Twitter @sharonwaxman and follow TheWrap @thewrap!
Sharon is also the author of two books, Rebels on the Back Lot and Loot.
