Who Is David Stein? A Strange Hollywood Republican Outs Himself as Holocaust Denier David Cole
May, 04, 2013 2:55 pm | Comments On #MediaFrom the annals of Weird Hollywood comes the unmasking of a leading Hollywood Republican I’ve never heard of named David Stein. The news is that it turns out he’s actually David Cole, a Jewish Holocaust denier (above) who fell off the right-wing map in the 1990s.
You don’t often get to say “Jewish Holocaust denier,” so let’s take a moment.
According to media reports, especially a lengthy, breathless piece in The Guardian, David Stein has been a fixture in right-wing Hollywood circles in recent years, bringing together “right-wing congressmen, celebrities, writers and entertainment industry figures …for shindigs, closed to outsiders, where they could scorn liberals and proclaim their true beliefs....
Read MoreCNN: Howard Kurtz and ‘Reliable Sources’ Under Review
May, 02, 2013 3:05 pm | Comments On #MediaHoward Kurtz and his weekly “Reliable Sources” media talk show are under review after his firing from The Daily Beast over erroneous reporting, a CNN spokeswoman told TheWrap on Thursday.
"We are reviewing it," the spokeswoman told TheWrap.
Kurtz has long been one of the most respected media critics in the country. He spent 29 years at the Washington Post before being lured to run the Daily Beast’s Washington bureau. CNN has aired the show on media since 1992 and Kurtz has hosted it since 1998.
But the show has had its critics, and Kurtz is vulnerable after erroneously reporting in the Beast that gay basketball player Jason Collins "didn't come clean" about the fact that he had been engaged, and later amended his post to say that Collins "downplayed" the engagement.
Also read:...
Read MoreJay Penske Accused of Business Misconduct, Alleges Fraud by Former Variety Executive
April, 30, 2013 11:36 pm | Comments On #Media
New Variety owner Jay Penske is embroiled in a legal mess in which he accuses a former top executive at Variety of committing fraud in an alleged kickback scheme during his purchase of the trade last year, TheWrap has learned.
Meanwhile the defendant in that case filed a counter-suit on Tuesday, alleging that Penske ignored a joint venture that existed before he bought the trade and cut them out of millions of dollars of sponsorship business.
TheWrap obtained a copy of the Penske lawsuit, dated April 29, 2013, against the Beverly Hills Media Group and its CEO Bert Bedrosian and marked for L.A. Superior Court.
Also read:...
Read MoreJournalist Agnes Taile, Fighting Corruption in Cameroon, Tells of Abduction
April, 27, 2013 3:51 pm | Comments On #Agnes Taile, MediaCameroon, I learned this week, is one of the most corrupt places on earth. And Agnes Taile, a journalist who has recorded the scope and impact of that corruption since she was a teenager, is a one-woman army against it.
Taile fights the corruption by running a Cameroon newspaper, Le Septentrion Info, based in Central West Africa, that tells stories about people’s daily lives. But she lives in upstate New York because she cannot live safely in her own country.
Also read: When Women Journalists Risk Their Lives - a Shred of Reward
She was in Los Angeles this week to speak at a conference about women’s leadership held by the Greenberg Traurig law firm, and I was...
Read MorePolitico Takedown of NYT's Jill Abramson: Same Old Sexism? Or a Real B----?
April, 24, 2013 4:53 pm | Comments On #MediaA takedown of New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson by Politico’s Dylan Byers on Wednesday is shocking in its depth and virulence.
According to the piece, Abramson – the first woman to be chief editor at the Gray Lady -- is arrogant and aloof. She is absent and dismissive. And that voice!
OK, they’re right about the voice.
But the attack on Abramson is vicious and to all appearances the worst group teardown of a New York Times editor since Howell Raines lost his footing in the wake of the Jayson Blair scandal.
In this case there’s been no scandal to fuel the public lashing. It’s just a lashing. After recounting a contretemps with managing editor Dean Baquet in which he stormed out in a self-described "...
Read MoreNia Vardalos: Why I Quit Acting To Adopt A Foster Child
April, 23, 2013 2:07 pm | Comments On #Movies, Nia VardalosNia Vardalos of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" dropped out of acting to focus on adopting a baby from the American foster system. At first she hid her experience like the growth on her cousin Nick's neck in the movie. But then she decided to write a book about it. "Instant Mom" has rocketed its way onto the New York Times bestseller list, and Vardalos got grilled by Wrap editor Sharon Waxman.
The book has a confessional tone to it. How does it feel to let it out, your struggles with infertility, the painful process of trying to become a parent?
I reluctantly put it in the book. Even though now I would describe it as perhaps cathartic to have written it, while I was writing it was a protracted and difficult process. I kept telling myself, 'There's no way I keep this in the book.'
No way did I set out to write a book...
Read MoreKoch Brothers, Right-Wing Ideologues, Serious About Tribune, L.A. Times Bid
April, 21, 2013 2:48 pm | Comments On #david koch, Los Angeles Times, Media, tribune
Hey Los Angeles, pay attention: Charles and David Koch are serious about buying the Tribune newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times, according to the New York Times.
In a front-page...
Read MoreCinemaCon: Will ‘Pacific Rim,’ Superhero Movies Work in Europe?
April, 17, 2013 7:16 am | Comments On #CinemaCon, Movies, Pacific Rim, SuperheroesI bellied up to the bar at a Caesar’s Palace nightclub in Las Vegas to drink some unremarkable red wine and talk about the movie previews we’d been watching all day at the CinemaCon annual convention. A couple of Europeans loitered nearby, speaking in animated tones in a language I did not.
What movies were they excited about, I asked? The two gentlemen were with Publicitas Cinecom, which sells advertising in movie theaters across the Continent. They’ve been doing it a long time and have a strong sense of what sells and what doesn’t.

“Fast and Furious” looked good, said Christian Wittmer, who according to his business card is a Geschaftsfuhrer, which as "managing...
Read MoreLed Zeppelin Digital-Book Author Neal Preston: 'It's Right Up the Vein' (Exclusive)
April, 15, 2013 12:07 pm | Comments On #culture, Led Zeppelin, led zeppelin digital book, Media, music, neal preston
Led Zeppelin, that band that wrote the book on heavy rock, is now helping to rewrite the book on digital publications.
Acclaimed rock photographer Neal Preston’s new e-book breaks ground for the genre with interactive video, 80 contact sheets and photos never previously published.
Also read: Led Zeppelin 'Sound and Fury' eBook: Exclusive Pics (Photos)
Preston followed the band throughout the '70s and opened up his vast archive to create a rich, intimate experience with the world of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
Sharon Waxman grilled...
Read MoreMTV's Van Toffler on 'Buckwild': We Have to Be Honest With Our Audience (Exclusive)
April, 10, 2013 2:57 pm | Comments On #buckwild, MTelevision, shain gandee, TelevisionVan Toffler, president of the MTV Viacom Music and Logo Group, said in an exclusive interview with TheWrap on Wednesday that he did not hesitate to cancel “Buckwild” after the death of its 21-year-old star Shain Gandee, who was found dead in West Virginia last week of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning.
Van Toffler: Shain was such a sweet kid. He was the heart and soul of the show, in many ways. So we have to deal with that emotionally. So we do our own personal soul searching and then we also, as we always do, look at what’s going on in social media, we talk to our audience, and they felt the way we did in that - how can the show go on with this spectre of a tragedy hanging over it? This guy was the rabble rouser and he was the one who instigated a lot of the fun and we shot three or four...
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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.

