Sharon Waxman, is the founder, CEO and Editor in Chief of TheWrap. She is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author, and was a Hollywood correspondent for The New York Times. Twitter: @sharonwaxman
Experience:
-
Weinsteins Sell ‘Basterds’ to the Masses — Cool!
Say what you like about Harvey Weinstein. But when it came to marketing “Inglourious Basterds,” he hit it out of the park. The movie beat even the highest box office projections by more than $10 million. That’s worth a closer look. Here are the raw elements: A period film. Mainly in French and German. With…
-
New AMPAS Chief Grilled on Fixing Oscar
“If we don’t change, we will be like a dinosaur. We’re trying to do that … make the show work.”
-
Exclusive: WGA Whistleblower Terri Mial’s Testimony
this post was updated and corrected at 6:45 pm: Here’s an explosive update on those nasty foreign levy lawsuits that nobody wants to talk about. Bill Richert, the screenwriter who is leading a class action lawsuit against the Writers Guid of America, has written to object that I called him a "loose cannon" in a…
-
Who Messed up Bandslam?
There are pained looks and tiptoeing assistants inside the halls of Summit after the debacle of “Bandslam” this past weekend (a $2.3 million take), followed by the embarrassing slam from an insider who accused the studio of botching the movie’s marketing. “Death by marketing,” accuses the letter, posted on DHD. “Rob Friedman (sic) and Summit…
-
Kavanaugh’s Takeover Plot Thickens at MGM
The news that turnaround expert Stephen Cooper has been brought in to replace Harry Sloan at MGM has apparently put a new glint in the eye of hungry Hollywood dealmaker Ryan Kavanaugh. Waxword reported previously that Relativity Media’s backer Elliott Associates had been quietly buying up bonds from debtholders in an attempt to orchestrate…
-
The Weinsteins Write Their Own Epitaph
Is it all over but the shouting?? Leave it to the New York Times to take 5,000 words to give us a small amount of new information about the ailing Weinstein Company, which David Segal (um, who?) does in Sunday’s business section just weeks after one of the paper’s Hollywood correspondents weighed in on the…
-
Finke Squeezes $7.5M Out of E-Trade, $80K for Her
The clock is ticking for a court to approve a settlement that will pay blogger Nikki Finke $80,000 and Hollywood lawyer Neville Johnson $1.8 million for the lucky mistake of having a telephone conversation between Finke and an E-Trade employee recorded without telling her. The pain to the online stock trading company is far worse…
-
Hmmm: Who Will Be New NYT Culture Editor? (updated)
Updated Thursday 9:30 am: A good lesson in peddling rumors. Hall writes again to say that Bill Keller was indeed in her office yesterday, but they were discussing Sifton’s new position as restaurant critic, not giving her a new job. Sounds like it’s safe to say that what I heard ain’t happening, and that the…
-
Hotel Bel-Air to Close for Major Renovation
Famed Hollywood hideaway will shutter for almost two years.
-
Reality Shows Under Scrutiny — Who’s Accountable?
It seems reality shows are finally coming under scrutiny. After TheWrap’s recent investigative series on suicides and emotional trauma and child endangerment related to reality shows, now comes a convincing piece of reporting in Sunday’s New York Times that suggests that reality shows are Hollywood’s new “sweatshop.” “Long workdays and communication blackouts are largely the…
-
Top Universal Film Execs Under Scrutiny
Marc Shmuger, David Linde are feeling the heat after summer slate fizzles.
-
Hey, Nikki: How’s That About Relativity and MGM?
Maybe Nikki’s off her game because she’s on vacation. But I wish for her sake she’d stop embarrassing herself by tsk-tsking others without having the facts to back it up. Today she decided that TheWrap’s exclusive story in May that Relativity was eyeing a plan to take over MGM — which she couldn’t match, and…
-
New Consensus: People Will Pay for Quality Content
A consensus is emerging among the leaders of the digital media industry, and it’s an encouraging thing. At conferences — which seem to have spread like some upper class disease across the land (when does anyone do work anymore?) — in Palo Alto venture capital conversations, around the pools in Malibu…a light seems to…
-
Haim Saban Sued, Accused of $150M Tax Dodge
Hollywood billionaire calls former financial guru’s lawsuit “frivolous.”
