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:
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Paul Newman: 1925-2008
A giant passes. I was sure he was immortal. A native of my hometown, Cleveland, Ohio, Newman brought us romance, intelligence, wit and the epitome of leading man sex appeal. As he aged, he never lost those qualities. Sadly, there’s not a soul like him on screen today. Rest in Peace, Paul Newman. New York…
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Financial Turmoil Will Not Stop the “Dreamgirls” Oscars
Folks, I’ve been away all week building The Wrap News, now playing catch-up on the actual news. From what I hear, the financial markets are a mess. Billions on the line for the banks, credit impossible to get for the average business, new banks about to crumble. Something about McCain, and a debate. Never fear:…
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Does SAG Have Your Money? $25 Mill in Unclaimed Cash (Part I)
Michael Douglas, do you know where your money is? Twenty-five million dollars. That’s the sum the Screen Actors Guild says it owes you, and thousands of your fellow actors. In answer to questions from Waxword, the guild acknowledged last week that it is holding millions of dollars in unclaimed residual payments owed to actors, both…
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HBO Sets Another Record: 13 Emmys
In the course of human events, the Emmy awards have come to be a franchise mostly owned by HBO. Every year for the past decade and maybe more, the pay cable network has come to dominate the annual television awards, whether with “The Sopranos,” which won year after year, or “Six Feet Under,” or their…
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DreamWorks and Reliance Close their Deal: Hollywood Faces a Sea Change
It’s official. The DreamWorks dream team is leaving Paramount and has signed a deal to make movies over the next several years with the huge Indian media conglomerate, Reliance. The deal ends an acrimonious three-year relationship with Paramount. Predictably, this has been the focus of the media coverage: the tit-for-tat, ego-centric, who-won-and-who-lost scorecard. Did Paramount…
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Box Office Down by 10 Percent
The Box Office has been looking peaked all summer, and now that it’s fall, it’s not picking up perceptibly. The early estimates for this weekend put the total box office figure down by at least 10 percent from last year, and down significantly from last week. The early numbers indicate that “Lakeview Terrace,” with Samuel…
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SAG Election Results: Amy Brenneman and Morgan Fairchild Make the Grade; so does Sacha Baron-Cohen’s brother!
The election results for the Screen Actors Guild are in. Here’s the list from the SAG website: Board members elected from the Hollywood Division: Amy Brenneman, Adam Arkin, JoBeth Williams, Scott Bakula, Ken Howard, Lainie Kazan, Kate Walsh, Keith Carradine, Joely Fisher, Morgan Fairchild and Pamela Reed (all three-year terms.) Joe Bologna, Marcia Wallace, Dule…
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SAG Poll: Keep Negotiating. AMPTP: Your Poll’s No Good
A self-selecting poll by the Screen Actors Guild of 10,298 its members came up with fairly predictable results: 87 percent favor continuing to negotiate. Another 12.7 percent would like to accept the $250 million package offered by the studios and producing companies, represented by the AMPTP. The AMPTP took about five minutes to reject the…
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Obama on the Cheap: Pierce Brosnan – Magic Johnson???
Still, apologies to all those who emptied their checkbooks and were not acknowledged. Earlier: Obama is not about to forget this soon. When the going got rough, some people in Hollywood reached deep and handed over… $250? Only some of the rich and famous in Hollywood went to the Obama fund-raising dinner last night in…
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The L.A. Times Sues Itself
In an astonishing turn in the sad saga of the Los Angeles Times, a group of ex-reporters have filed a lawsuit against Sam Zell and the Tribune Company. A federal, class-action lawsuit, no less. I will comment on this down the line, but for the moment, have a look at Kevin Roderick’s account of this…
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Meet Hollywood’s Newest Billionaire Player: The Abu Dhabi Media Company
Hollywood has a new player and he’s in Abu Dhabi. Edward Borgerding, CEO of the Abu Dhabi Media Company (ADMC), will spend $1 billion making movies over the next five years. Last week at the Toronto Film Festival, he revealed his first partner to be Participant Media, representing $125 million of that investment. In a…
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Wall Street Jitters in Hollywood
The turmoil in Wall Street banking is having a palpable ripple effect in Hollywood. My phone is ringing with executives sounding nervous for themselves and their business. As credit has dried up for the movie industry, the failure of more banking institutions does not bode well for the industry, which has taken to financing its…
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Now There’s Nine: Anand Jon Trial Opens
“I am my own God. I can get whatever I want.” Thus did deputy district attorney Frances Young quote the target of her prosecution, former designer Anand Jon, whose trial on multiple rape charges opened on Friday. The prosecutor used a power point presentation, with the previous quote as one of the slides, to paint…
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The Chatsworth Train Tragedy, by Alcorn
This gripping image by Jonathan Alcorn is from the tragic train wreck in Chatsworth, California, which as of now has claimed 23 lives. It is expected to claim more before the search is through. No clear word yet as to the cause, but it appears that the commuter train missed a red signal, placing it…
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Finally, Box Office Perky: Tyler Perry Rules, $19 Million for “Burn After Reading”?
I want to be in the Tyler Perry business. This guy just can’t miss. His latest film, "The Family that Preys Together," which has been completely off the general admission radar, but is clearly anticipated in his niche audience, is estimated to nab the top spot at the box office this weekend, according to my…