Sleepless in Cannes: Moguls Haunt the Majestic Hotel Bar

May, 20, 2013 7:57 pm | Comments On #Cannes, Harvey Weinstein, James Franco, Movies, nicolas winding-refn, terry press

Nobody sleeps in Cannes. At 1 a.m. in the bar at the Majestic Hotel, just across from the Palais de Festival, it’s not that hard to distinguish the Russian teenaged models from the actresses and toned wives of producers by the height of their heels. Where are the film financing billionaires? Out on their yachts across from the hotel.

Here at the bar there’s a disproportionately large number of Hollywood power players, temporarily taking the place of the Russian oligarchs. This year has a relatively low ratio of movie stars – although Zoe Saldana has just gone swanning through the space on the arm of a long-haired, open-shirted escort.

CBS Films Co-Presidents Terry Press and Wolfgang Hammer took over one corner of the bar, holding court with a half-dozen members of their team. They will be distributing “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the Coen...

Read More

What is Jewish Humor? Justin Timberlake ‘Smells a Trap’ for Coen Brothers in Cannes

May, 19, 2013 5:13 am | Comments On #Cannes, Movies

Justin Timberlake stepped in to save an awkward situation when directors Joel and Ethan Coen were asked at the Cannes Film Festival about Jewish humor by a German reporter on Sunday.

“I smell a trap,” quipped Timberlake at a news conference (left) for Joel and Ethan Coen’s sardonic drama about a folk singer, “Inside Llewyn Davis,” where a German reporter asked about the nature of “Jewish humor.”

See photos: The Scene at the Cannes Film Festival 2013 (Photos)

Timberlake has a...

Read More

Insider Charges HFPA With Racism After Golden Globe Voters Reject Black Applicant (Exclusive)

May, 16, 2013 3:04 pm | Comments On #Movies

A member of the Golden Globes’ Hollywood Foreign Press Association has leveled an ugly charge of racism against it for rejecting a rare application by a black journalist to join the 84-member group.

samantha ofole-princeSamantha Ofole-Prince (pictured left from her Twitter feed), described to me by the member as “a highly-experienced Los Angeles-based black U.K. journalist who writes for mainly African, Caribbean and black British press” lost, with just 33 votes.

The member declined to be identified for fear of retaliation.

The group admitted one new member: a Dane named Tina Johnk Christensen.

According to the insider present at the vote, Ofole...

Read More

What Does Activist Investor Dan Loeb Want With Hollywood? (Hint: Could It Be Yahoo?)

May, 15, 2013 7:12 pm | Comments On #Media

The news that activist shareholder Dan Loeb invited Sony to spin off its entertainment property had the entertainment industry buzzing this week: Who is Dan Loeb and what does he want with Hollywood?

The manager of the $12.9 billion hedge fund Third Point Ventures is smart, strategic and -- according to an individual close to the hedge fund manager -- he's not necessarily interested in entertainment per se.

He may, however, be interested in content.

Also read: Major Sony Shareholder Calls for Company to Spin Off Entertainment

"Hollywood is a small piece of business," said this individual, noting that Third Point owns about 5.3 percent of Yahoo and made its money this year trading Greek debt....

Read More

Angelina Jolie Double Mastectomy Disclosure Greeted With Flood of Support

May, 13, 2013 11:01 pm | Comments On #Media

A wave of supportive reaction greeted the surprising confession by Angelina Jolie on Monday night that she had had a double mastectomy earlier this year to lower her chances of cancer.

opedIn a striking opinion piece in the New York Times, Jolie wrote:

"My doctors estimated that I had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer, although the risk is different in the case of each woman.

Also read:...

Read More

Jay Penske Sues Former Variety Owner Reed Elsevier for $10 Million

May, 10, 2013 2:51 pm | Comments On #Media

The pile of lawsuits on Jay Penske’s desk just gets higher and higher.

After being sued and countersuing a marketing company over a joint venture last week, the new Variety owner has now sued the former owners of Variety, Reed Elsevier and Reed Business Information for $10 million over alleged breach of contract.

Read the lawsuit here, which was entered into the court record Friday....

Read More

Variety Owner Jay Penske Sued: The $500,000 Sponsorship That Crossed the Line

May, 08, 2013 6:12 pm | Comments On #Media

The lawyer in the case against Variety owner Jay Penske by a Beverly Hills marketing executive called to set me straight.

Lawyer Steven Morris said Penske refused to honor a joint venture signed last year between Variety and his client, Beverly Hills Media Group, before Penske bought the trade from Reed Elsevier. And so Penske just cancelled it, after first trying to negotiate different terms.

BHMG said: No can do. (Read it here)

BHMG sued Penske first, on April 30, for breach of contract. Penske countersued for fraud the next day, May 1, as the court documents confirm. Duly noted. (Our first story had the order wrong, as did Deadline.)

Also read:...

Read More

Insider: Legendary's Thomas Tull Not Near Decision to Leave Warner Bros

May, 07, 2013 8:56 pm | Comments On #Movies

Legendary Pictures CEO Thomas Tull is not close to deciding whether he will be leaving Warner Bros. at the end of the year when his contract is up, according to an individual familiar with the negotiations between the two sides.

Despite a media report to the contrary, the situation has changed little since Tull (pictured above right) let it be known in February that he was not happy at the studio. TheWrap first reported details of tension between the two, leading Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes to acknowledge that the two sides were in "problem solving" mode...

Read More

Who Will Run Al Jazeera America? Who’s In, Who’s Out, Who Passed (Exclusive)

May, 06, 2013 6:00 am | Comments On #Media

One of the biggest jobs in media is a new position and a high-risk opportunity: running Al Jazeera America.

The job running the Qatar-based network recently bought from Current TV has high visibility and no doubt a high salary attached. But it also bears the burden of building an audience in mainstream American with the name of a Middle Eastern brand unfamiliar to most U.S. viewers and probably off-putting to some.

TheWrap has learned of several of the candidates that Al Jazeera has contacted for a job that needs to start ASAP for the network to get on the air and running this year, as is planned. As it happens, there are a goodly number of experienced TV news professionals available at the moment. But who will it be?

...

Read More

Howard Kurtz's Mea Culpa Isn't Good Enough

May, 05, 2013 9:55 pm | Comments On #Media

I wish I could say that Howard Kurtz's mea culpa on “Reliable Sources" was convincing. But it wasn’t.

Here are all my disclosures right up top: Howie is a friend and colleague of two decades. I have been a guest on his show many times. I gave him advice when he and Lauren Ashburn were starting the Daily Download. (My impression at the time was not that he was a mere adviser, but I'll leave that to him.)

So you will understand how painful it is for me to observe that his apologies during his show on Sunday seemed unconvincing.

Also read: Howard Kurtz Apologizes for 'Sloppy' Jason Collins Mistake (Video)

At first it seemed that he was doing the right thing by being candid and...

Read More
Most Popular