Waxword

Sharon Waxman

Sharon Waxman On the Business of Entertainment

The founder and editor of TheWrap’s take on life on the left coast, high culture, low culture and the business of entertainment and media. Waxman writes frequently on the inside doings of Hollywood, and is is also the author of two books, Rebels on the Back Lot and Loot

  • Payback’s a Bitch

    This story fell to me yesterday, as the resident celebrity writer Left Coaster. I’d been following the duelling sagas of Paris and Lindsay for the past couple of weeks. Which drama would hit the front page first? It was Paris, by a nose: "The national obsession with celebrity collided head-on with the more serious issue…

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  • The Most Fun Ever, in High School

    Yes, that’s Jackson Browne at the mike, and a grandfatherly David Crosby looking on, at one of the most fun times I’ve had recently, a fund-raising concert for arts programs at Santa Monica high school on Saturday night. This was a fantastic gathering of music-loving friends of the musicians and local parents and fans (director…

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  • Book Leave!

    As anyone who has been reading this space knows, I have been working on a book on antiquities, and will be taking a leave from my Hollywood job to work on it full-time. This has now been reported elsewhere with the breathless excitement attached to actual news, which it isn’t really. So, to those keeping…

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  • Pirates: The Shot Heard Round the World

    Yes, Disney will make a lot of money on this film. If you want the details, here are a few: "’Pirates 3” — with a 2-hour-47-minute running time and a reported $300 million budget — took in $245 million outside of North America, far surpassing the $156 million that the film took in domestically since…

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  • Journalism’s Death Rattle

    A sad and touching post by Nancy Cleeland, a labor reporter and colleague I’ve never met, who explains on HuffPost why she’s taking a buy-out and leaving the Los Angeles Times. She writes: "It’s awkward to criticize an old friend, which I still consider the Times to be, but I think the question of how…

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  • Memorial Day Memoires

    Where the heck have I been? A valid question, I grant you. I have been where the Internet lines are shaky and the sunshine-dappled cafes entirely more enticing than fighting a losing battle with technology. I’ve been in Paris, conducting interviews for "Stealing with the Pharaohs," and making sure the City of Light still merits…

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  • Hollywood’s Brave New World

    Folks, I’m massively behind in keeping you up to date with my world. First of all, those of you who missed it need to know about Tori and Dean’s trip-up by the facts by – yes – your intrepid reporter, keeping those celebrities honest. I’m not going to tell you about it, you’re going to…

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  • Aphrodite Moves

    This is Aphrodite, they think. She is the Getty Museum’s most prized classical sculpture, the only example in this country of a cult statue, meaning the figure that stood in the midst of a temple in ancient times, worshipped as the deity herself. But she, just like a heartstopping gold wreath that just went back…

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  • Ouch!

    Chris Albrecht, the chairman of HBO, has temporarily stepped down from his post, in the wake of his arrest in Las Vegas over the weekend. He was charged with assaulting his girlfriend in the parking lot of the Las Vegas hotel where he’d gone to watch a championship boxing match on Saturday night. Albrecht, 54, …

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  • Spidey Rules

    "Spiderman 3" smashed a half-dozen box office records in its opening weekend, taking in $375 million worldwide. I give you chapter and verse in tomorrow’s paper. The summer is looking good for Hollywood and, hopefully, for moviegoers.

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  • A Schlub is Born, too

    If I say so myself, I loved writing about this topic – the American man-child, as seen through the prism of the Judd Apatow comedy machine. The article is in Sunday’s summer preview section, and observes: "In the world of “Knocked Up,” the latest big-ticket comedy to take on American mating rituals, the formula is…

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  • A Yenta is Born

    Here’s one matchmaker. And there’s another one. In Sunday’s Styles section, I uncover the intriguing news-let that high-profile celebrities are now hiring matchmakers to fix them up, since they’re tired of dating on the Hollywood merry-go-round, and are afraid to approach a girl in the bar on their own. Said Barbie (who will take your…

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  • Valenti Passes

    Jack Valenti, my friend and sometime-adversary, has passed away. He was 85. Here’s the Times’ lovely obituary by my colleague David Halbfinger. We made peace, finally, despite his being ever-peeved at a magazine story I wrote about him many years ago. The magazine, George, no longer exists. (But it was a very fun article, I…

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  • Women in Hollywood

    I’m already getting lots of mail from readers in Hollywood and elsewhere, weighing in today’s story on the dearth of women executives at the top of the moviemaking power structure, and its effect on the movies. To me, the most remarkable fact I learned in reporting this piece is that only 15 percent of those…

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  • Alec’s Rant

    I tried hard to ignore the sordid affair of the leak into the public domain of Alec Baldwin’s private rant to his daughter on a phone message. Alas, reporters don’t always get to choose what is newsworthy. Here’s my take on the brave new world we’re now in, published in today’s Styles section: "Did anybody…

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