Hollywood's TOP Executives Earners...?

Hollywood Execs Rake It In Despite Recession


With the recession in full swing, Bob Iger and Les Moonves should take a lesson from the far more austere salaries of their new media counterparts.



By Devin Leonard


There is a well-known Los Angeles company that has been battered by the recession.



Its stock price has tumbled.



Its profits aren’t what they used to be.



Recently, it offered buyouts to hundreds of executives.



Yet the same company just disclosed that it paid its CEO $30 million in 2008, an 11 percent increase over the previous year.



The generous employer happens to be the Walt Disney Company.



The lucky CEO is Bob Iger.



Most people would say Iger has done a perfectly good job since he replaced the mercurial and polarizing Michael Eisner in 2005.



Iger is also shrewd enough to know that this isn’t the best time for the head of a public company to be pocketing huge sums of money.



Indeed, Disney said its CEO decided to forgo an additional bonus of $2.4 million as a gesture of good will.



That is admirable.



But Iger is still making extraordinary amounts of money.



He’s not the only media company chief taking home eight figures at a time when restraint might be more appropriate.



The future of big media companies like Disney is uncertain at best.



They are being whipsawed by the recession and by the inexorable migration of customers and advertisers to the Internet.



But top executives are still being compensated as if it is 1999 when content, as they used to say, was king, and their companies’ shares were buoyed by mergers and acquisitions, many of which turned out to be disastrous for their stockholders and employees.



Bob Iger isn’t the most extreme example.



In 2007, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves was awarded a compensation package worth $36.8 million.



Moonves is a gifted network television programmer.



But it’s been rough sledding at CBS lately.



Recently, Bernstein Research predicted ad revenues at the company’s local stations would fall by 26 percent in 2008.



It warned that CBS might have to slash its dividend to keep a healthy credit rating.



Moonves may soon need to make a goodwill gesture himself to keep investors happy.



News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch and the company’s COO, Peter Chernin, are two more of the media industry’s highest paid executives.



Murdoch made $27 million in 2007.



His deputy made $28 million.



This is nearly $4 million less than they each made in 2006.



But News Corporation’s stock has been in a tailspin for the last two years.



Still, there must be plenty of shareholders who would argue that Murdoch and Chernin deserved to give up a little more.



Time Warner’s top executives haven’t raked in nearly as much.



They are hardly in a position to protest.



Their famously dysfunctional company has yet to recover from its failed 2000 merger with AOL.



Richard Parsons, Time Warner’s former chairman and CEO, received $18 million in 2007.



(Earlier this year, he departed for Citigroup.)



Parsons’ successor, Jeff Bewkes, made $19 million.



The change in the executive suite has done nothing to revive the company’s moribund stock prices.



Neither has the latest round of layoffs at Time Inc. and Warner Brothers.



(Full disclosure: I worked for Time Inc.’s Fortune for almost nine years.)



Then there is Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz.



She walks in the door with total compensation package valued at more than $19 million.



Bartz’s salary is $1 million.



That’s a half of what Iger is getting and a third of Iger’s salary.



The rest of Bartz’s compensation comes in stock options.



Fair enough.



In the last 12 months, Yahoo shares have tumbled 57 percent.



Then again, she imposed a salary freeze at the company.



Hopefully, her new underlings have some options, too.



Otherwise, they won’t benefit financially if Yahoo recovers.



Of course, there are many people in the media business who are getting by on considerably less.



Dreamworks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg’s total compensation was $11 million in 2007.



Lions Gate CEO Jon Feltheimer made $6.4 million.



Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr.’s compensation was $3.4 million.



Bronfman’s recorded music chairman Lyor Cohen actually makes over $1 million more than his boss.



Should these underpaid executives apply for a job at CBS?



They really know how to pay a CEO at the Tiffany network.



Maybe Disney is hiring too.



Aren’t you supposed to make big bucks in the media business?



But here’s another way to think about it.



Disney and Time Warner were hot companies in the nineties.



Now they are being overshadowed by newer ones like Amazon and Google.



Part of the reason is that those companies have a better idea where the media business is headed in the digital age.



How much are their CEOs paid?



Nowhere close to the old media guys.



Amazon’s Jeff Bezos made $1.3 million in 2007 His salary is a mere $81,840.



The rest of his compensation, according to Amazon’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, “represents the approximate incremental cost of security arrangements for Mr. Bezos in addition to security arrangements provided at business facilities and for business travel.



The Company believes that all Company-incurred security costs are reasonable.



Google paid Eric Schmidt $480,561.



The company says $474,662 of that amount is for personal security and approximately $4,000 paid by Google on Eric’s behalf for aggregate incremental costs related to aircraft chartered for Google business on which family and friends flew.



”Yet Schmidt and Bezos are obviously enjoying their power and influence.



Could it be that money isn’t everything in business?



Maybe someone should tell that to Bob Iger

If Super Agents earn this much...?

SUPER SALARIES OF


LA AGENTS:

A confidential memo leaked from inside one of Hollywood's top talent shops has shed light on just how much some of the industry's leading agents rake in.


The memo, which appears to be written by William Morris CFO Irv Weintraub and was obtained by Hollywood news site The Wrap, shows the personal salaries and stock apportioning of the agency's top agents, executives and board members from 2007.


William Morris was recently acquired by Endeavor, run by uber-agent Ari Emanuel.

According to the memo -- faxed from John Fogelman, who co-heads the agency's movie department --

Jim Wiatt, the William Morris head who was unceremoniously pushed out after the merger, made $7 million in 2007, while president Dave Wirtschafter, who serves as co-chief executive of the new firm along with Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell, took in $6 million.

Old-timer Norman Brokaw took in $4.25 million.


"While there's plenty of gossip about who makes how much at the talent agencies, these are all privately owned companies, and these numbers never become public," Web site editor Sharon Waxman says.

"I'm guessing that more than a few of William Morris' clients are scrutinizing this memo and thinking about whether their representatives are worth what they're paid."

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER:


***Josef Adalian, the television editor at Variety for nine years until jumping last year to TV Week as deputy editor, is moving again.


This time he is going to The Wrap as television editor.


The website started by Sharon Waxman recently added former Variety executive editor Michael Speier as a top editor and ex-Variety publisher Charlie Koones as a member of the board.


***Fox News bowed to pressure from Kelly Preston, Tom Cruise and other members of the Church of Scientology when it fired columnist Roger Friedman, the entertainment journo is expected to charge in a wrongful termination lawsuit this week.

***Super-attorney Tom Girardi will be the guest of honor at the L.A. Media RoundTable dinner Tuesday night at The Palm.


***Hollywood publicist Michael Levine, who has spoken recently at Oxford University and the Harvard Business School (despite never attending college), will be headline a Special LIVE "Question and Answer" dialogue on success this Saturday at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw364sVIh4g


Tickets are free but you must have a reservation - e-mail: HollywoodEvents2009@gmail.com

***Among U.S. magazines on Facebook, Hearst's Cosmopolitan has secured 296,080 friends;

Wenner Media's Us Weekly is the only title with a sponsored page, by State Farm; and Conde Nast's Wired, more than most magazines, makes much of the material from its site available.

***Rupert Murdoch paid just $580 million for MySpace in 2005.

Now, MySpace is losing traffic and layoffs are rumored. Some observers say that while Murdoch had the vision to grab MySpace, he didn't know what to do with it. "It may be that Rupert is ultimately a newspaper guy."

***Forbes magazine, long a synonym for riches, has fallen on hard times.


The publisher has laid off about 100 staffers since November.


After the recent shutdown of Conde Nast's Portfolio, industry experts expect that another business magazine will be felled by the current recession.


***Sharon Waxman, the one-time Hollywood beat reporter for the New York Times who raised $1 million to launch TheWrap.com, is starting to break news and hire staffers.

The industry trades Hollywood Reporter and Variety are not "viable anymore," she says.

Their time "is over."

***The TV Guide Channel is laying off 38 staffers, including presenters John Fugelsang and Teresa Strasser, as part of a downgrade of three existing series by the network's new owners.


The weekly talk show "TV Watercooler," featuring Fugelsang and Strasser, is going off the air starting June 22.


***Freelancers and others on unconventional assignments for start-up news organizations may find fewer resources to help them when they are in danger.


LBN-QUOTE:

"We will be ready in a future peace agreement to reach a solution where a demilitarized Palestinian state exists alongside the Jewish state."

-BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, the prime minister of Israel.


LBN HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By OSAMA BIN LADEN:

Acquiring weapons for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty.

If I have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to do so.

And if I seek to acquire these weapons, I am carrying out a duty.

It would be a sin for Muslims not to try to possess the weapons that would prevent the infidels from inflicting harm on Muslims. ( 1998).


Kris, Adam, Allison all sign record deals,

but not Danny;

Archuleta working on Christmas record

Three of the top four American Idol 8 finalists have signed with 19 Recordings and have record contracts with major labels that will release their first albums this fall.

The exception is early front-runner Danny Gokey, who has signed nothing.

Kris Allen and Allison Iraheta’s albums will be out this fall on Jive Records, and Kris says says his will be “definitely in the pop/rock genre.”

Adam Lambert’s first album will be released on RCA Records, and is “going to be ridiculous,” he says in his press release.

The fall release dates mean they’ll be working while on tour this summer.

release, by the way, is far more glowing than Kris’; Simon Fuller calls Adam a “unique and unforgettable and a certain star of tomorrow” while RCA’s Barry Weiss says “he is one of those rare, future global stars.”

In Kris’ press release, Weiss calls him “a super-talented singer and all-around gifted musician” and Simon Fuller says he has a “soulful voice, good looks and gracious demeanor.”

In far more entertaining Idol record news, David Archuleta and his creepy dad are working on a Christmas album.

US News reports that “Jeff, who did not appear any bit of the ogre he was said to be behind the Idol curtain, is a coproducer” and “said the album will include traditional songs like ‘Silent Night’ and up to three written just for David.”

I think there’s a joke somewhere in that but I’m too far removed from Christmas to connect it to David Archuleta.

19 Recordings Has Signed the American Idol Season 8 Winner, 19 Recordings Has Signed the American Idol Season 8 Runner-Up, and Allison Iraheta Signs to 19 Recordings [RCA and Jive press releases]

US $ 1/2 BILLION FOR A MOVIE, SOON?

James and the not-so-giant reach
Focus Features topper talks 'Away We Go'

NEW YORK --

The studios' annual Trauma Time is at the halfway point and they're breathing a sigh of relief.

Well, not really.

Trauma Time consists of the summer movie season when the studios roll out their tent-pole hits -- the ones that supposedly give the bankers a sense of security.

But while the box office numbers this year have been strong, the potential profit margins look lean.

"My faith in the tentpole business is on the wane," one moneyman told me last week after surveying the soaring costs of making and marketing several of the big summer movies.

A total tab north of $400 million is no longer surreal.

Suddenly the business model of a midrange picture like "The Hangover," which opened to $45 million, looks downright delicious.

Given the high tension levels around the studios these days, I decided to have a coffee with James Schamus, whose Focus Features doggedly limits its budgets to the $20 million arena and whose view of the business is considerably more relaxed.

Typically, Schamus just finished delivering an academic paper to colleagues at Columbia U. as a warm-up to a marketing meeting for the new Focus slate.

In Schamus' world view, the economics of the specialty film business still makes solid sense -- provided it's a world view.

Focus' worldwide slate for the coming year consists of some 30 movies, of which only eight to 12 are aimed for the domestic market.

The rest are co-productions for foreign consumption.

"And I am more optimistic than ever about our prospects around the world," he says.

Two of the new Focus films aimed at the U.S., "Taking Woodstock" and "Away We Go," have had a bouncy ride with the critics, but Schamus is unbowed.

"They're entertainments," he insists.

"The reaction to 'Woodstock' overseas has been outstanding.

In this country, the critics seemed to want us to shoot the music festival.

This isn't a music festival movie.

" Consistent with his multi-tasking ethic, Schamus wrote the script for the Ang Lee film.

Sofia Coppola starts shooting her new movie for Focus this week titled "More Somewhere," a story about an actor and his 11-year-old kid who live at the Chateau Marmont.

Other films from Kevin McDonald and Noah Baumbach (the latter starring Ben Stiller) are imminent.

Still other movies are gearing up in Germany, Mexico and South Korea.

And Focus has started a new branding campaign, replete with elegant drawings and imaginative copy on the web and in print media.

"This may sound pretentious, but our aim is to put artists and audiences together -- to facilitate a new relationship between the communities," says Schamus, donning his professorial demeanor.

And he feels there's good money to be made in the process.

The tentpole business this year may become even more demanding because the majors won't have as much money at their disposal to foster the giant enterprises, he points out.

And the hedge funds are in retreat.

In this environment, suddenly specialty films may seem to be an intriguing business once again. Plus it's one sector of the movie industry where artists can still play.

One of Schamus' movies coming up this year is a full-length feature about four babies.

Yes, babies -- a sort of "Angels & Demons" minus the demons.

Without dialogue.

It may not qualify as a tentpole, but Jim Schamus seems confident about its worldwide appeal.

KIM kardashian- short hair / CHER "new" Son

CHER'S DAUGHTER

CHASTITY BONO

IS CHANGING GENDER FROM FEMALE TO MALE:




Cher is about to get a new son.




Chastity Bono, the celebrity offspring of the singer and late husband Sonny Bono, is changing gender from female to male, her publicist told the Daily News on Thursday.


The 40-year-old, known to family and friends as Chaz, came out as a lesbian nearly two decades ago.


Bono intends to make the transition from woman to man, publicist Howard Bragman said.


"Chaz, after many years of consideration, has made the courageous decision to honor his true identity," Bragman said.

Kim Kardashian Wigs Out -- Again!

posted by anne - Thu Jun 11 2009, 1:57 AM PD

Kim Kardashian debuted a sleek new 'do ... er, wig ... on her website the other day.

Apparently, the reality star was photographed wearing the stylish hairpiece for an upcoming spread in Oprah's mag, 0.

"I can't give away the concept just yet but it involves other reality stars," she writes on her blog.

"Trista from 'The Bachelorette,' was there, 'American Idol' judge Kara [DioGuardi], and a bunch more."

Although Kim has rocked wigs in the past (remember when everyone thought she went blond back in April?), the shoot was the first time she's ever gotten to work with hair stylist to the stars, Ken Paves.

"He completely transformed my hair!" she exclaims

GAY GROUPS GROWING CONCERN OVER 'BRUNO':

After an exhaustive and controversial production process, Sacha Baron Cohen and Universal are finally set to unleash BRUNO onto the multiplex -- and gay groups are reacting with "deeply mixed" emotions!

"Some people in our community may like this movie, but many are not going to be OK with it," Rashad Robinson, senior director for the gay and lesbian alliance against defamation, tells the New York Times in a planned Sunday expose.

"Sacha Baron Cohen's well-meaning attempt at satire is problematic in many places and outright offensive in others."

Brad Luna, a spokesman for human rights campaign, warns the movie should come with disclaimer:

"We strongly feel that Sacha Baron Cohen and Universal Pictures have a responsibility to remind the viewing public right there in the theater that this is intended to expose homophobia."

Billed as an encore to the blockbuster Borat, with a twist, the film is set for July 10.

It's delivered R-rated and ready to shock.

In one scene Bruno appears on a talk show holding a baby who is wearing a T-shirt reading "Gayby.

" The sequence flashes to Bruno having sex in a hot tub while the baby sits nearby.

He then boasts to the outraged studio audience that the baby is a man magnet.

"You're going to burn in hell for that one!" shouts an unknowing audience member.

Elton John blushed and balked when Cohen asked if he could play "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" for a scene in which Bruno, participating in a cage-fighting match in Arkansas, pulls down his opponent's pants and kisses him on the mouth, prompting a horrified crowd to throw garbage at him.

[Elton does make a cameo later in the movie.]

Cohen's favorite BRUNO scene is said involve the comic strutting around ultra-orthodox streets of Jerusalem in short-shorts and Hasidic black hat.

The New York Times's Brooks Barnes is planning to go thousands of words on the societal implications of it all, newsroom sources tell the Drudge Report.

LBN-BOOK NEWS:

***Divorce will never have looked better on a woman than it will tonight at Mr. Chow in TriBeCa in NYC, where novelist and screenwriter Gigi Levangie Grazer is celebrating the release of her fourth book, "Queen Takes King."

The statuesque redhead, whose divorce from "Da Vinci Code" producer Brian Grazer was finalized in May, netting her $13 million, will also have a party on Satur day at the Southampton home of Rita Schrager, ex-wife of hotelier Ian Schrager.

***Mica Ertegun found herself temporarily cashless at the party at Elaine's in NYC for the publication of "Hound Dog:

The Leiber & Stoller Autobiography," and had to borrow $60 from Elaine Kaufman to buy two copies of the book by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, composers of such hits as "Jailhouse Rock" and "On Broadway."

The widow of Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun -- who worked with the songwriters going back to the '50s -- paid Elaine back when her driver returned.

Other guests included Kenny Vance of "Jay and the Americans," movie director Stanley Donen ("Singin' in the Rain"), producer Ken Waissman ("Grease"), Anne Slater, author Bruce Jay Friedman and Leslie Uggams, who recorded Lieber and Stoller's "Is That All There Is" before Peggy Lee made it a No. 1 hit.

***Guy Lalibert is furious about the new biography we reported on last month in which the Cirque du Soleil creator is portrayed as a bed-hopping scoundrel.

Yesterday, he sent a letter to Transit Publishing demanding all copies of Ian Halperin's "Guy Lalibert: The Fabulous Story of the Creator of the Cirque du Soleil" be yanked from stores in the next 24 hours or he'll sue.

But a defiant Halperin told us, "We intend to fight this vigorously and take this as a gross infringement on freedom of the press.

Everything in my book is true and can easily be proven.

If he continues to ha rass me . . . I will launch a slander suit."

***Bookstore sales fell 2.6% in April, to $969 million, according to preliminary estimates released this morning by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Bookstore sales have fallen every month this year and the April decline was slightly higher than the 1.4% drop reported in March.

Through the first four months of 2009, bookstore sales declined 3.8%, to $5.21 billion.

For the entire retail segment, sales were down 4.0% in April and 9.9% for the four-month period.

LBN-DID YOU KNOW:

***People that use mobile phones are 2.5 times more likely to develop cancer in areas of the brain that are adjacent to the ear they use to talk on the mobile phone.

***Over 90% of diseases are cause or complicated by stress. ***Over 436,000 U.S. Troops were exposed to depleted uranium during the first Gulf war.

LBN-QUOTE:

"I would trust a citizen journalist as much as I would trust a citizen surgeon."-----Morley Safer, 60 Minutes.

PHIL SPECTOR - Walled

PHIL SPECTOR'S PRISON MUG SHOTS


Former music producer Phil Spector's new home is North Kern State Prison in Delano known in prison system jargon as NKSP.


His stay may be temporary, as NKSP functions mostly as an inmate reception center.


The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation posted his arrival mug shots.


Produced By Conference 2009:


Are Boomers Abandoning Movies?

At the Produced By conference on the Sony lot last weekend, which was organized by Gale Ann Hurd and the Producers Guild, some of the best and brightest in the profession complained that nobody wants to fund movies for grown-ups these days.


At Peter Bart's panel, Who Does What?, while producers Kathleen Kennedy and producing partners Lucy Fisher and Doug Wick talked about massaging tender egos, movies made to fill studio slots, fractious shoots turning out better movies than happy ones, and on-set disasters, they also complained that they can't make the films they'd like to make.


While big-budget high-concept four-quadrant movies get more care and feeding, "you've entered the business of making movies by committee," Kennedy admitted.


"It's a challenge, once every department and the studio are weighing in, to protect the creative process."


She described embarking on a $100-200 million studio tentpole as building a business from scratch:


"You start a company, build it, hire everybody, create a commodity, market and distribute it, and you disband the company, even if it is successful.


It's a ludicrous business model."


"It's what we do," sighed Fisher, who encouragingly suggested that with fewer companies making fewer movies these days, the studios are actually more powerful than the agencies, who no longer dictate or ram things down execs' throats.


Wick admitted that everyone is making less money--when movies that once cost $70 now cost $55 million, states like Michigan now look like viable places to shoot.


As long as the talent you want is still willing to make the movie, that's okay.


The studios are employing indie financing formulas and trying to apply them to talent, he said.


The current climate of fear causes less risk-taking and variation, said Kennedy.


"They're all looking for the same thing.


Tentpoles costing $150 to 200 million, formula pictures aimed at moviegoers 16 to 24, who are the movie-going demo.


That's what's working.


It's frustrating as a filmmaker.


I've been in the business 20 years.


My taste changes, evolves.


Yet the baby boom generation is not going to the movies anymore.


Few movies work in that demographic.


I realize if I'm going to stay active and get movies made, I have to focus on what the studios want.


They don't want movies that fall in the mid-range right now.


They want big movies."


(Here's EW's feature on adult films not working at the b.o.)


And these movies have to score right away, because three to four weeks later, they're gone.


"We've entered the business of sports," said Kennedy.


"Everybody's keeping track.


Nobody talks about whether the movie is about, whether it's good, or the acting.


That's changed a lot."


It had gotten too easy to get too many movies made, the producers admitted.


And they insisted that as difficult as things are now, it's still possible to make a movie out of a really great script.


Fisher holds on to the hope that we're in the midst of a cycle that will eventually give way to creative rebirth, while Kennedy finds that working with foreign partners is a positive thing, as she did with Diving Bell and the Butterfly and Persepolis.








Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's TinTin will open overseas two months before it comes stateside.






The negative of working with foreign sales companies, said Wick, is "the weird board game you play" of picking actors from column A and column B who may or may not be right for the part, just because they are bankable in certain territories.


Even Clint Eastwood, who participated in his own panel with producing partner Rob Lorenz, was able to push and cajole and raise indie money to get two movies made that no studio wanted:


Mystic River and best picture Oscar-winner Million Dollar Baby.


"You're always having to sell, it's never easy, you always expect someone up there you're going to have to cross guns with," Eastwood said.


"I've gotten to the point where I've made pictures that were successful without catering to the 'core,' teenage kids.


I don't want to make pictures for teenage kids, but it's great if kids come to see Gran Torino or Iwo Jima.


I like to get the adults to come out.


It's a challenge to make subject matter the whole family can see."

The Malpaso way, which is Eastwood's way, is lean, quiet, streamlined, actor-friendly--as long as they're willing to deliver in just a few takes.


When Kevin Costner didn't show up on time for a scene during Perfect World, Eastwood just shot over the shoulder of his stunt double and was ready to shoot his face too when Costner turned up, shocked.


"I'm paid to shoot film, that's what I'm here for," Eastwood told the star.


Producer-director-actor Eastwood resists taking a proprietary credit on a film.


"When I watch production credits go to people who have nothing to do with producing the film, it agitates me," said Eastwood.


"I like to see credit go to people who actually do work, not somebody's brother-in-law or agent.


I hire smart people who try to make me look good."


Typically, Eastwood's latest, the South African drama Invictus, which Morgan Freeman brought to Eastwood, who in turn brought in Warner Bros., came in under its $50 million budget and four or five days shy of its 55 day schedule.


"They bought it right away," said Eastwood.


"It was an easy sell.


Nelson Mandela is noble subject matter."


At age 79, will Eastwood keep making movies at his current pace?


"That's the plan," he said.


And westerns?


No other script has spoken to him as a wrap-up of the old west as Unforgiven did.


"It doesn't seem as if many people are writing them these days," he said.



LBN-COMMENTARY By KIM MASTERS:


Hollywood hasnt had a real strongman since Michael Ovitz built up the Creative Artists Agency in the 1980s and called the shots from his sleek I.M. Pei-designed headquarters in Beverly Hills.


Theres been such a long gap since he took a fatal step by accepting the No. 2 job at Disney in 1995 that a person had to wonder whether nature really did abhor this particular vacuum.


But in the past few weeks, agent Ari Emanuel is looking to some like a contender.


His agency, Endeavor, snapped up the far larger William Morris Agency, then, with the speed of what was lurking in the waters in Jaws, dispatched top man Jim Wiatt to that nether region where Ovitz now resides.


Can you hear that scary music?


Hollywood certainly does.

Eva and King of Hollywood, ARI emanuel

Ovitz Redux: Emanuel is Hollywood Chief-of-Staff

As someone who has been on the receiving end of this agent's charm, bragging prowess on behalf of his clients and wrath--

yes, I survived being yelled at by Ari Emanuel--I commend to you Kim Masters' report on the man running the new WME combine.

Masters makes the inevitable comparison between uber-agent on the rise Ari Emanuel and the last Hollywood Samurai, Mike Ovitz (whose Bible was The Art of War).

But while Emanuel can be manipulative, this power-agent is more impressive than Ovitz was in his prime.

Ovitz played mind games; I never believed a word that he said.

On the other hand, Masters suggests that Ovitz's CAA filled a Hollywood power vacuum that no longer exists.

CAA still dominates the agency field, and the WMA/Endeavor merger had to happen because the economy sucks.

Masters reports that at Fox:

Emanuel held up renewal of a major deal with Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, while demanding that his agency receive a mutimillion-dollar fee for “packaging” the show.

Studios routinely pay those fees when an agency puts together key elements in a program—say a writer and an actor.

What’s extraordinary in this case is that the show had been on the air since 1999.

Fox was staggered that Endeavor demanded the fees—outgoing News Corp. President and COO Peter Chernin is said to have described Emanuel’s demand as “extortion.”

But the show had a break from 2002 until 2005, when it returned thanks to strong ratings in re-runs and big DVD sales, so Endeavor argued that it was entitled to the money, and Fox, normally one of the toughest customers in the business, caved.

And a few years back, the model for Ari Gold in Entourage and then-partner Marty Adelstein:

...calculated how many average minutes they were on network television thanks to their floor seats at Laker games.

Then they contacted NetJets, a company that provides ownership stakes in those coveted private jets.

They offered to wear NetJets T-shirts or hats at those games in exchange for access to the G-V of their dreams.

NetJets passed and the two wound up with an unsolicited offer from Captain Morgan’s Rum—with the condition that the Captain sit with them at games.

They passed.

Actors ratify Hollywood movie & TV contract, give up fight for better Web compensation for now

Ryan Nakashima, AP Business Writer

On Tuesday June 9, 2009, 10:29 pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Members of the Screen Actors Guild voted overwhelmingly to ratify a two-year contract covering movies and prime-time TV shows made by the major Hollywood studios, the union announced Tuesday.

Some 78 percent of those who voted were in favor of the deal, a show of unity following a bitter dispute that saw Guild members fighting among themselves and left them further behind than where they started.

About 110,000 SAG members were sent ballots and more than 35 percent cast votes.

The new contract immediately raises actors' minimum pay by 3 percent and grants another 3.5 percent raise in the second year of the deal, which along with better pension benefits and some Internet compensation gives them $105 million in overall gains, the union said.

But it does not improve upon the Internet terms that other unions have already accepted.

Negotiators replaced in January had sought more lucrative Web compensation.

SAG fought alone for better terms than were secured by writers, directors and another actors union called AFTRA, but the battle ended up hurting it as TV studios like ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS sent most of their new work AFTRA's way.

SAG maintains exclusive jurisdiction over feature films.

The deal comes nearly a year after the last contract expired, meaning SAG actors lost out on proposed raises over the past year that the studios estimated totaled nearly $80 million.

"We were behind the eight ball to some extent with the amount of time we had been working without a contract at all," said Adam Arkin, an actor who was elected to the Guild's board last fall.

"Whatever gains are to be made in the future are going to have to start with us not going down the road of this level of fracture within the community of SAG."

The new contract takes effect after midnight and expires on June 30, 2011, about the same time as those of other unions, allowing SAG to maintain the future threat of a joint strike.

That expiration date had been one of the final points of contention.

The past year's infighting came to a head in January when recently elected moderates staged a boardroom coup, ousting the Guild's national executive director, Doug Allen, and muzzling President Alan Rosenberg.

That set a new tone as Interim Executive Director David White worked to salvage a deal in back-door talks with executives such as Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger and Warner Bros.

Chief Executive Barry Meyer. Warner Bros. is a subsidiary of Time Warner Inc.

A tentative deal was reached in April, about a year after talks first began.

White said in a statement that work on the next round of negotiations "begins now," adding that he would also begin to repair damaged relations with other unions.

SAG and AFTRA split acrimoniously last year and decided to negotiate deals with the studios separately for the first time in three decades.

Rosenberg acknowledged Tuesday that actors did not agree with his executive team's hard stance.

But he said he would run for a third term as president in the fall and hope to be part of the contract talks in two years.

"Our point of view was rejected for now. I don't think it was because they said necessarily we're wrong," he said.

"You need solidarity.

We weren't able to build that this time."

Every major segment of SAG voted for the deal, with 71 percent of voting Hollywood actors, 86 percent in New York and 89 percent in other U.S. regions voting in favor.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Artists, the coalition of major studios, on Tuesday called the ratification "good news for the entertainment industry."

The directors' guild and AFTRA also issued congratulatory statements.

CHEAPER I PHONES ?

c

Who's minding moguls' moolah?

Legislation could force Hollywood to disclose pay

There's a rebellion brewing around the world against what The Economist labels "the corporate gravy train" of executive compensation, but Hollywood until now has managed to elude the rebels.

That may soon be changing.

New legislation as well as new SEC rules could force studios and networks for the first time to disclose the paychecks of senior executives and star dealmakers --

disclosures that may fuel further resentment in the creative community over the shrinking salaries being allotted to actors, writers and other artisans.

"I keep explaining to my clients that they have to lower their expectations," one senior TV agent told me last week, "but some of the corporate guys who are crunching me just got pay raises."

The SEC plans to propose rules requiring companies to reveal details about the pay of middle-management executives -- not just the top five -- and Sen. Charles Schumer introduced a bill recently that would not only force more transparency on pay but would also require shareholder voting on executive compensation.

All this reflects a worldwide movement to clamp down on corporate perks stemming from the realization that, in many cases, the structure of executive compensation plans has encouraged irresponsible risk-taking, especially in the financial sector.

Given their equity-based bonus plans, top bankers were motivated to launch potentially catastrophic initiatives even if their companies ended up in TARP hell.

No direct parallel exists in the entertainment industry, but some Wall Streeters worry about what is arguably an imbalance between performance and compensation.

Companies in the entertainment sector have taken a battering both in terms of earnings and stock prices, but the pay levels of some top executives have attracted wide attention:

The total compensation packages of three of the industry's top execs -- Bob Iger of Disney, Les Moonves of CBS and Peter Chernin, the now-departed chief operating officer of News Corp. -- hovered around $30 million each last year , and Chase Carey's return looks to bring him a payday commensurate with Chernin's.

One agent who represents mainly filmmakers asks: "If the studio guys are still making the big bucks, why are my clients being compromised?"

These comments are reflective of a sort of unspoken class warfare that has broken out in Hollywood.

There's a mounting sense that the global conglomerates are rewriting the values of the talent business and that talent is the loser.

Hollywood's battles are minor, however, relative to the global outrage against corporate greed that is resulting in the firing of top corporate hierarchs.

In France a fat payoff to a departing auto executive produced a public rebuke from France's prime minister, Francois Fillon, who said compensation policies "put our entire economic system at risk."

The Economist reports that a majority of shareholders of Royal Dutch Shell surprisingly rejected a pay deal for the company's senior executives.

Warren Buffet last month denounced the system whereby chief executives are allowed to choose members of their compensation committees and came out in favor of "say on pay" policies for shareholders.

Mary Schapiro, the new SEC chairman, is leading the government inquiry into corporate pay structures that may require more data beyond just the five highest paid execs.

The Wall Street Journal noted that movie studios as well as financial firms could be impacted because they all have "superstar" traders or dealmakers whose pay far exceeds normal executive pay.

The theme underlying all this:

It is clearly crunch time around the world, and even corporate hierarchs may no longer be immune.

June 8

Apple unveils new iPhones, cuts prices

The iPhone just got a lot cheaper - and a lot stronger

Apple today cut the price on the iPhone 3G to $99, effective immediately.

The company also unveiled the iPhone 3GS, an advanced version of the popular smart phone that will go on sale June 19.

The one-two punch comes a day after Palm launched its eagerly anticipated Pre, which analysts estimate sold between 50,000 to 60,000 units in its opening weekend.

$99 is considered a magic price point and could double demand for the iPhone.

It also could move the company into a neck and neck race with Research in Motion for the second place spot in worldwide Smartphone sales within the next year.

(Nokia remains far and away the segment leader.)

Apple claims the iPhone 3GS is two- to three-times faster than existing models.

The 32GB model will sell for $299, while a 16GB model will go for $199.

LBN-BOOK NEWS:

***Hollywood, you're not off the hook yet.

Producer Jon Peters is still determined to publish his tell-all, according to his ghostwriter Bill Stadiem -- even if Peters has to publish it himself.

Last month, Peters handed back a reported $700,000 advance to HarperCollins for his autobiography, "Studio Hit," after Page Six published details of the book proposal.

In a May 22 letter to HarperCollins, Peters wrote, "I have been besieged by lawsuits and threatened litigation by some of the most important figures in show business."

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER:

***After playing doomed spouses in "Brokeback Mountain," Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway are in negotiations to reteam for "Love and Other Drugs" at Fox 2000/New Regency.

Ed Zwick is directing the project which Charles Randolph adapted from Jamie Reidy's nonfiction book "Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman."

***Following his Tony hosting gig last night, Neil Patrick Harris is in the news today with two new feature projects.

The "How I Met Your Mother" star will take a role in indie farce "The Best and the Brightest" and a supporting part in CBS Films' "Beastly," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

***Stephen Colbert is taping four episodes of his Comedy Central show in Baghdad this week.

***After Comedy Central and the Sci Fi Channel, Sharon Levy is out to refocus the channel with a reputation as a sort of Maxim magazine for television.

***CAA has signed Tommy Lee Jones, who exited WMA after its merger with Endeavor.

Jones is starring in John Wells-directed drama "The Company Men."

He is also in the process of talking to financiers for "Islands in the Stream," an adaptation of the Ernest Hemingway tale that Jones wrote and hopes to direct, star in and produce through his Javelina Film Co. banner.

***Director-producer Brian Robbins has also inked with UTA after exiting the newly formed WME.

Robbins returns to his longtime UTA rep Jeremy Zimmer after spending about a year at WMA.

Robbins, who most recently helmed Norbit and Meet Dave, is in post-production on DreamWorks A Thousand Words, which marks his third straight comedy with Eddie Murphy.

***Ghost Whisperer exec producer-showrunners Kim Moses and Ian Sander have inked with UTA. Moses and Sander, who are heading into their fifth season of Ghost Whisperer, made the move to UTA after their longtime WMA agent Aaron Kaplan left the percentery to form a management company.

***Arthur Canton, an influential PR and marketing exec who was the father of producers Neil and Mark Canton, died June 3 in Los Angeles following a brief illness.

He was 88.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER:

***Sirius XM Radio has seen its stock fall 95% since Howard Stern's first satellite radio show. U.S. auto sales are dropping, and Sirius XM is feeling the impact as fewer vehicles with satellite radios are sold.

The company has lost more than $300 million in the past two quarters.

***The New York Observer is laying off a significant number of employees, including as much as a third of its editorial staff.

The salmon-colored weekly newspaper owned by Jared Kushner says in a statement that it is "not immune to the economic pressures being felt industry-wide."

***A one-time charge of $527 million tied mainly to a write-down of goodwill resulted in an operating loss of $535.9 million at Readers Digest for the third quarter ended March 31, compared to a loss of $8.2 million in the third period of fiscal 2008, the company said in a filing with the SEC.

Total revenue fell 16.7%, to $479.1 million.

Sales were off in all three operation segments, dropping 10.3% in the Readers Digest U.S. division, to $162.2 million, as most of the units affinity groups were hurt by the recession.

Among the areas that had soft sales were childrens publishing and certain direct mail titles in the food and entertainment group.

International sales fell 23.6%, to $298.4 million, with results hurt by the change in currency translation and a decline in most of its major markets.

Sales in the school & education group fell 3.5%, to $24.5 million.

***At 24, producer and actor Jordan Yale Levine has already executive-produced nine feature films.

Hes currently wrapping up on "Wreckage", directed by John Asher and starring Aaron Paul and Cameron Richardson.

Next month, Jordan is going into production as an actor and producer on "The Land of the Astronauts", directed by Cal Colpaert.

LBN-COMMENTARY By PASTOR BOB (Founder of the First Fundamental Church of the Bible):

Don't wait for six strong men to take you to church.

It used to be Ouija boards.

Now Satan is using Harry Potter books to suck kids into witchcraft.

It was dead wrong for that lunatic to shoot the abortion doctor in Kansas.

Instead, the abortionist should have been tried for his crimes as a baby killer.

If you are watching sports all day on Sunday instead of going to worship, you are an idolater.

In Bible times, women like Amy Whorehouse, Madonna, and Britney were not called pop stars, they were called prostitutes.

I'm praying for Britney Spears...and I'm praying for you.

***To reply directly to Pastor Bob e-mail LBNElert@TimeWire.net.

(Please Note: The opinions expressed by Pastor Bob are those of his alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the LBN E-lert or its staff.)

SASHA "BRUNO" BARON COHEN

***Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie isn't in theaters yet, but it's already producing the same sort of buzz and legal backlash that his last hit, "Borat," created.

Richelle Olson sued the 37-year-old actor and NBC Universal on May 22, claiming an incident at a charity bingo tournament that was filmed for the upcoming "Bruno" left her disabled.

Olson claims she was severely injured after struggling with Cohen and his film crew at the event, held in Palmdale, Calif., two years ago.

The lawsuit states she now needs a wheelchair or cane to move around.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages of more than $25,000.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER:

***For the first time in 15 years, James Cameron has agency representation.

Variety reports that the "Titanic" director has signed with CAA.

The move comes just as Cameron returns to dramatic filmmaking with Fox's upcoming "Avatar."

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER:

***The music industry publication Radio and Records shut down today, costing thirty jobs says The Wrap.

Visitors to the website are re-directed to Billboard.biz.

Also, The Hollywood Reporter eliminates another ten positions, including the one filled by associate publisher Rose Einstein.

***L.A Mayor Villaraigosa said today his relationship with TV reporter Lu Parker won't affect his decision on whether to run for governor.

***It's not entirely clear who's leaving who here, but this much I know.

Martin Berg, who was replaced abruptly last December as editor of the Los Angeles Daily Journal and redeployed as a columnist, has left the building.

His column job has been eliminated

***In a study on social networking trends, Nielsen said the amount of time people in the U.S. spend on social networking sites has increased by 83 percent over the past year.

According to the study, Facebook users in the United States collectively spent 13.9 billion minutes on Facebook in April 2009.

That's up 700 percent from the 1.7 billion minutes they were spending in April 2008.

LBN-DID YOU KNOW:

***Emergency medical personnel recommend performing CPR chest compressions in time to Stayin Alive. Its 103-beats-a-minute rhythm is close to the ideal 100.

***The New York Times reports that 17% of inked Americans regret their tattoos.

***$200 an hours is the price for a drug-sniffing dog from the company Sniff Dogs.

The keen canines can detect pot, heroin, coke and meth- in case your roommate is holding out on you.

LBN-QUOTE:

A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him.

-David Brinkley.

LBN-HISTORY:

On June 4, 1989, Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square in Beijing to crush the pro-democracy movement; hundreds - possibly thousands - of people died.

In the worst quarter in modern history for American newspapers, advertising sales fell by an unprecedented 28.3% in the first three months of 2009, plunging sales by more than $2.6 billion from the prior year.

Statistics posted without publicity on the website of the Newspaper Association of America show that print ad sales fell by a historic 29.7% to $5.9 billion in the first period of this year and that online sales fell a record 13.4% to $696.3 million.

Music's Best Kept Secret - Producer ROSLAN AZIZ, exclusive and very rare interview....

WILL AMY WINEHOUSE LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO MAKE ANOTHER ALBUM?

HER LAST-DITCH CARIBBEAN DETOX HAS GONE NIGHTMARISHLY WRONG:

Wednesday, about 9am, at the Cotton Bay Village resort in St Lucia and Amy Winehouse is at the bar drinking her second shot of tequila of the day.

'I think I'm doing very well,' she chirrups.

'I'd normally have had six shots by now.

Today I've only had two.'

LBN-COMMENTARY By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN:

During a telephone interview Tuesday with President Obama about his speech to Arabs and Muslims in Cairo on Thursday, I got to tell the president my favorite Middle East joke.

It gave him a good laugh.

It goes like this:

There is this very pious Jew named Goldberg who always dreamed of winning the lottery.

Every Sabbath, hed go to synagogue and pray:

God, I have been such a pious Jew all my life.

What would be so bad if I won the lottery?

But the lottery would come and Goldberg wouldnt win.

Week after week, Goldberg would pray to win the lottery, but the lottery would come and Goldberg wouldnt win.

Finally, one Sabbath, Goldberg wails to the heavens and says:

God, I have been so pious for so long, what do I have to do to win the lottery?

And the heavens parted and the voice of God came down:

Goldberg, give me a chance!

Buy a ticket!

I told the president that joke because in reading the Arab and Israeli press this week, everyone seemed to be telling him what he needed to do and say in Cairo, but nobody was indicating how they were going to step up and do something different.

Everyone wants peace, but nobody wants to buy a ticket.

LBN-MUSIC INSIDER:

***Cher is filing a lawsuit against Universal Music, claiming that the label's "creative" accounting has shortchanged her and the heirs of her late ex-husband Sonny Bono some $5 million.

Universal is toying with "one of the most popular and iconic artists of all time," says Cher's lawyer.

***Edgar Bronfman, the billionaire heir to the Seagram fortune and CEO of Warner Music, is leaving his native New York for a home in Kensington, West London, with his wife, Clarissa, and four young children.

He plans to run Warner Music from both London and New York.

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER:

***Jack Nicholson is close to finalizing a deal that would reteam him with his "As Good As It Gets" director James L. Brooks for an untitled romantic comedy at Columbia.

The ensemble project has already cast Paul Rudd, Reese Witherspoon and Owen Wilson.

Nicholson would replace Bill Murray who had been in talks but whose interest in the project has since waned, reports Variety.

***Senior WMA agents Ramses IsHak and Mike Sheresky have joined the lit department of United Talent Agency.

The two were pink slipped following WMA's merger with Endeavor.

The agents, who both began in the WMA mailroom, were initially not invited to join WME but were told they would be beached for the duration of their contracts.

After a short standoff, they became free agents.

They had several offers from major agencies and committed to UTA Monday night.

***Hollywood publicist Michael Levine returns to speak at the Fine Arts Theatre in Beverly Hills on June 20th, just prior to the theatres permanent closing.

The event will be a "Part 2" to last years sold out speech at the theatre and will be done completely in Question and Answer format.

The event is free but R.S.V.P.'s are essential - E-mail HollywoodEvents2009@gmail.com.

LBN HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By NELSON MANDELA:

I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists.

I tell them that I was also a terrorist yesterday, but, today, I am admired by the very people who said I was one.

LARRY KING LIVE - MAY 16, 2000

Music's Best Kept Secret

---Producer Roslan Aziz

Go to the link for his Exclusive and very very Rare Interview...

http://www.facebook.com/l/;http://www.aamarna.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=71:roslan-aziz&catid=39:teteatete&Itemid=57

WILLIAM MORRIS ENDEAVOR

Agency takeover stirs Hollywood fears

Issues arise from WMA-Endeavor merger

It was Pablo Picasso who famously said, "I like to live like a poor man -- but with lots of money."

Talent agents are the mirror opposites. They like to live like rich men -- but without lots of money.

Their "money" stems from the prospective earnings of their clients.

All this comes to mind as a result of the Big Deal that will take effect this coming week.

The "deal" in question is the merger of the William Morris Agency with Endeavor, or rather Endeavor's confiscation of William Morris, which is the way insiders prefer to describe it

Though the surviving entity, WME Entertainment, is only now taking its first breath, Hollywood is still struggling to figure out how the deal came about and what its implications may be.

Several issues continue to resonate:

In Hollywood, there's a pervasive desire to "follow the money," and in this case the "money" consists of roughly $143 million.

That's the presumed amount the William Morris Agency elicited from the sale of its three buildings in Beverly Hills.

The big question: How many people shared in that largesse -- and how many lawsuits will ultimately be filed as a result?

The individual who theoretically was master-minding the process was Jim Wiatt, a man considered to be both savvy and shrewd.

These talents notwithstanding, Wiatt clearly lost control of the process and ended up getting voted off the island, apparently without even knowing it.

Was Wiatt, too, "following the money"?

Talk to the heads of rival agencies, and you quickly sense both an appetite and a dread.

The two mega-agencies, WME and CAA, now loom large in the marketplace, but competitors are convinced that clusters of agents will break away from the monoliths.

And many working artisans will find themselves without an agent.

When talent agencies purge their client lists, they inevitably surrender their "research and development" function -- veterans of the agency business remember how Freddie Fields of the old CMA discarded a young agent named Sandy Bresler along with his client, Jack Nicholson.

The upshot of all this is that everyone involved feels the pressure.

CAA and WME must persuade clients that they won't get lost in the new mega-structures - a special problem for WME since its management structure is yet to prove itself on the battlefield.

And given the inevitable defections, agents at ICM and UTA feel pressure to evaluate and sign agents and clients who are torn loose amid the melee.

Agents and clients alike realize that the balance of power in Hollywood today favors the big conglomerates, not the talent.

The long-standing expectation in show business was that the deals kept getting fatter; that's not the case any more.

Hence some important clients already are telling their agents, "you guys are cooking big deals for yourselves, now do it for me."

They have a point.

The wheeling and dealing of the past two weeks has triggered some amazing paydays for an inner circle of talent agents.

Their clients have been watching avidly.

Jim Wiatt presumably was part of that circle.

On the other hand, he's also out of a job.

The last major agent who got a big payday along with his exit visa was Michael Ovitz.

He has not gone on to a distinguished post-agenting career.

Jim Wiatt would doubtless like to do better.