Now that Disney has completely gutted Miramax, the once-dominant name in the independent film business – does the studio really still need the name?

Disney's progress toward building a theme park in Shanghai took a step forward with the Chinese government's approval of the company's application to build, the company announced on Tuesday.

The Project Application Report was for a Disney theme park in the Pudong district of Shanghai, and was approved by relevant authorities of the central government of China.

IATSE, one of Hollywood's largest unions, has called off the dogs in its dispute with the American Film Institute and an agreement has been struck, the union said on Wednesday.

The guild had called for a boycott of AFI events because, it said, the institute was conducting anti-organizing activities at its Silver Spring, Maryland facility. 

In their new book “The Curse of the Mogul,” a trio of academics take aim at the business of Hollywood and big media. Their conclusion: It’s the moguls’ fault. It’s their fault that media companies are inefficient, that executives are overpaid, that they fail to increase shareholder value -- and that their acquisitions are ego-boosting destroyers of value that achieve no real synergies. “The shocking, evident, persistent and oddly ignored fact is that the financial returns of media companies significantly and r

If content isn’t king, then we’re all in trouble.

But that’s one of several conventional wisdoms that Columbia Business School economists Bruce Greenwald and Jonathan Knee, along with media consultant Ava Seave, seek to puncture in their new book, “The Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong With the World’s Leading Media Companies.” (see part I)

He’s curved and white-haired, and he talks a little funny. But Kirk Douglas, at 93, stole the show at the Britannia Awards on Thursday night. It was the first black tie event of the awards season and hopefully not the last Hollywood will see of the star of “Spartacus.”

Update Monday: 

Lopez lawyer Jay Lavely must refile his paperwork, the hearing was postponed. Stay tuned.

J-Lo to Ojani: It's on!

Lawyers for Jennifer Lopez are going to court on Monday to try to stop the sale and release of home videos of the singing and acting star when she was married oh-so-briefly to Cuban waiter and model Ojani Noa.

Esquire magazine seems to have discovered the Internet, and the wonders of interactivity.

What they haven't discovered, apparently, is what constitutes barriers to clickability.

So here's their exciting new interactive adventure for the movie, "Sherlock Holmes," starring Robert Downey Jr. who apparently "pops to life," in ways that will astound you! It's a new Esquire! An augmented Robert Downey! Click here -- well, no wait a minute.

First you have to do a couple of things.

The Hollywood Reporter and several other Nielsen entertainment titles are set to be sold to James Finkelstein’s News Communications Inc., owner of  “Who’s Who” publications and the Washington, D.C.-based trade, The Hill, according to an individual with knowledge of the negotiations.

In a week heralding major change at Disney, new studio chairman Rich Ross upended his management structure and aggressively set the frame for a new way of doing business at one of Hollywood’s most old-style studios.