Madonna shows 'the biggest in Israeli history'...

Sep 1, 2009 4:44


Madonna shows 'the biggest in Israeli history'


By BRIAN BLONDY


Madonna's shows in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and Wednesday will be the "biggest and most expensive concert in Israeli history," organizers told reporters at the Hayarkon Park venue on Monday.


Tuesday's show is sold out, but tickets are still available for Wednesday's, the final of her "Sticky and Sweet" tour.


Production director Chris Lamb, who has worked with Madonna for 23 years and managed the set construction for the entire tour, said that

"this is not a rock concert, it's a show."


Concert-goers should expect a theatrical type production, he said.


While Lamb would not divulge any secrets, he indicated that fans should expect a spectacular event with the estimated $30 million production set of rotating scenes.


Everyone will have a good view, regardless of their location at the venue, because of the massive 10-meter-wide screens on both sides of the stage.


On Monday evening, Madonna dined with opposition leader Tzipi Livni at Tel Aviv restaurant.


Late Sunday night, the 51-year-old singer travelled to Jerusalem's Old City, where she walked through the Western Wall tunnel under the Muslim Quarter.


She declined to speak to reporters during her half hour tour.


Madonna fans throughout the country will be converging on Tel Aviv over the next two days.


Anna Ellinge, from Tel Aviv, will attend the opening night show and hopes to hear her favorite Madonna song, "Vogue."


Whether or not Madonna plays the song, Ellinge expects "a really good atmosphere and a performance of the highest possible class, since Madonna is a legend."


Hila Cohen, from Rishon Lezion, who will be at Wednesday's show, "thinks the second night will be better than the first night."


Police expect traffic in the concert's vicinity to be at a near standstill, hours before and after the performances, which begin at 8 p.m.


Police recommend using the Fairgrounds and the Park Hayarkon's adjacent parking if needed.


Otherwise, walking to the venue via the park is the best option.


AP contributed to this report.

Madonna performs for 50,000 in TEL AVIV...

Madonna performs for 50,000 in TA

By DAVID BRINN

Hayarkon Park was transformed into a lavish Las Vegas showroom Tuesday night, as Madonna brought her Sticky&Sweet show to Tel Aviv for the first of two concerts marking the end of her world tour.


"Get up out of your seats," she commanded the crowd in the opening song, "Candy Shop," and the sold-out audience of 50,000 happily complied.

At one point in the show, Madonna said, "It's been 16 years since I played in Israel.

I'm sorry about that, I shouldn't have stayed away so long."

"Israel is the energy capital of the world," she continued.

"If we can live together in harmony in this place, we can live in peace all over the world."

During the electrifying finale, "Give It 2 Me," Madonna grabbed an Israeli flag out of the crowd and paraded with it on stage.

By early in the afternoon the area surrounding the park had begun to take on a festive atmosphere, as hundreds of fans of the American icon waited outside the gate for the 5:30 p.m opening, in order to nab prime standing room.


"We are going to run straight to the stage," said Uriel, 26, from Ra'anana, who was waiting with a friend.

"I didn't sleep last night at all. I'm so excited."

Orit, 32, from Holon, brought a pillow with her to ease the burden of the long wait.

"We'll stand as long as we have to," she said.

It turned out the fans had to wait until 9:22 p.m., when Madonna and crew hit the stage to a sea of lit cellphones, following an innocuous 45-minute electro-dance mashup by DJ Paul Oakenfield.

Tour production manager Chris Lamb was right when he told reporters on Monday that Madonna didn't put on a rock concert, she put on a show.

Forget the Kabbala, the paparazzi subterfuge, the dinners with politicians and all the other trappings that have dominated her visit here so far.

Madonna presented a dazzling display of Broadway-worthy spectacle, with choreography, props and stunning visuals, all creating a sensory explosion.

A selection of career peaks led by a sinewy "Vogue," a funked-up "Into the Groove" and a booming "Holiday" put the crowd into the master artist's hands like putty.

Despite speculation that he would appear, Justin Timberlake did not duet with Madonna on their hit song "4 Minutes."

She proved during her show that she has lost nary a step.

In fact, she's gotten even better.

Madonna wraps up her worldwide tour with a final concert at Hayarkon Park on Wednesday night.

The 51-year-old entertainer claims a special bond with the Jewish state.

She's been dabbling in Kabbala for more than a decade and has taken on a Hebrew name, Esther.

She's come on private pilgrimages in 2004 and 2007, and has visited the Western Wall since arriving on Sunday.

Local radio stations played Madonna songs through Tuesday.

On Army Radio, a DJ interrupted a song briefly to quip that "tonight, Aunt Esther is playing at Hayarkon Park."

Late on Monday, the diva dined with Kadima leader Tzipi Livni, at Madonna's request, Livni spokesman Gil Messing said.

Livni "was very impressed with Madonna and found her to be a very interesting person," said Messing, adding that the two decided to keep the content of their conversation private.

The opposition leader was one of the many VIPs to attend Madonna's concert last night.

Others included British actor Sasha Baron Cohen and Israeli pop star Ninet Tayeb.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is to host Madonna at his Jerusalem residence on Friday.

Madonna's previous two stops on the current tour, in Romania and Bulgaria, were marred by controversy.

In Bulgaria, Orthodox Church officials accused the singer of showing disrespect for Christianity.

In Romania, she was booed during her concert for criticizing widespread discrimination against Eastern Europe's Gypsies, also known as Roma.

Madonna's performances are a sign that Israel is becoming more attractive as a concert venue.

The Pet Shop Boys played Israel in July, pop sensation Lady Gaga was here last month, the rock band Faith No More is playing Tel Aviv on Tuesday night, and the iconic songwriter Leonard Cohen is to perform later this month.

If you bill it, they will come.....ISRAEL getting ready for Big Name concerts....

If you bill it, they will come

By DAVID BRINN

You've found a babysitter, spent an hour in traffic jams, overpaid to park the car and waited a half hour in line to get into the park.

But, finally, the lights go down, the crowd surges and cheers and the entertainer you and your spouse have paid more than NIS 1,000 to see walks onto the stage.

The hours of preparation and frustration have melted away.

But, off on the side, you may see one man, still biting his nails and pacing nervously.

He's the promoter, and while your hassles have spanned the last few hours, his have been taking place for months.

If you've been perusing the back pages of the Hebrew dailies on the weekend for the upcoming pop music shows coming here, you'd be excused for thinking you'd mistakenly stumbled on the listings for Los Angeles or London.

Within a little more than a month, here are some of the international acts that have and will be touching down on our shores.

Deep breath... Madonna, Leonard Cohen,

pop sensation Lady Gaga,

Brit pop heroes the Kaiser Chiefs, Latin balladeer Julio Iglesias and indie favorites Dinosaur Jr, Calexico, Faith No More, Luciano and MGMT - and the list goes on.

Let's not forget the artists who have already graced our stages in recent months, including Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Macy Gray, Suzanne Vega and Steve Vai.

And then there are the ongoing rumors of attempts to bring other first-liners here like Coldplay, The Rolling Stones, The Killers and Green Day.

It's a far cry from earlier in the decade, when Palestinian terror in the guise of suicide attacks, bus bombings and restaurant explosions all but curtailed the influx of international talent.

Back then, we were lucky to get a hard-rock nostalgia act like Uriah Heep to appear, and we were grateful for it.

What has changed to suddenly transform Israel from a musical ghost town into a concertgoer's delight and a performer's paradise?

Has just one year of relative quiet in the region caused everyone to forget they used to be afraid to come here?

Or, perhaps it's a consequence of today's dicey economic climate:

international artists have slowly become aware of the fact that promoters here are willing to pay top dollar and provide the highest caliber of technical specifications and emotional support to ensure that everybody involved in the show - from audience to artist to performer - walks away happy.


The people who may have the answers are those characters behind the scenes, who, months before ticket holders swing through the turnstiles with hearts pounding and expectations peaking, are busy grinding out the minute details of logistics and crunching the numbers of financial viability.

They're the promoters - or as they prefer to be called, the risk takers.

And depending upon the fickle whims of you, the public, at the end of one of their shows, they could either be whistling a happy tune or shedding tears on their bank loan applications.

However, despite the risks involved, after the lean times of the intifada, when they couldn't entice anybody to land at Ben-Gurion Airport, they're more than willing to reap the potential benefits of a gentler, friendlier attitude among artists and their managers and agents to perform here.

UNLESS YOU'RE a music business insider, chances are you've never heard of names like Shuki Weiss, Dudu Zarzevsky and Zev Isaacs, or even lower-profile colleagues like Yuri Leshev and Carmi Wurtman.

They're the handful of daring entrepreneurs who compete with each other to bring almost all of the major international concerts here.

"At the end of the day, there's only five or six people who are involved with bringing artists to Israel, and they're talking to the same 60 offices abroad," says Hillel Wachs, who for the last two years has partnered with Wurtman and his company 2bVibes to bring artists like the Black Eyed Peas, Macy Gray and Joe Cocker.

Wachs indicated that while promoters aren't necessarily best friends, they do maintain contact with one another for mutual benefit.

"The promoters look for a niche and try not to step on each other's toes.

They may say otherwise, but there's more communication there than people realize," he says.

"I think everyone is being smart this summer.

Just about every show is targeting a different market.

Suzanne Vega is part of the same market as Leonard Cohen, and to a lesser extent, Madonna.

Madonna has a little overlap with Lady Gaga, but Lady Gaga is appealing to the pop fans.

And the Kaiser Chiefs are totally separate and going for the indie crowd."

Another reason for at least a minimal amount of communication among the promoters is to prevent a bidding war for a particular artist, which ultimately raises the price for the consumer.

"There are bidding wars between the promoters.

And now that the situation is good, everyone wants to capitalize on getting the best artists.

It can get a little cutthroat," says Zarzevsky, whose highest profile show has been Paul McCartney's concert in Tel Aviv last year.

And anyone who's bought a ticket for that show or one of the big concerts this year like Depeche Mode, Cohen or Madonna knows that there's been a huge jump in prices, with stadium shows generally beginning at NIS 450 and soaring all the way to the thousands for VIP seating.

However, that hasn't dissuaded local audiences from buying tickets. Cohen's September 24 show at Ramat Gan Stadium sold 47,000 tickets in only 16 hours, and Madonna added a second date on September 2 to her 45,000-plus sold out September 1 show at Hayarkon Park.

Even veteran Iglesias added a second show on September 9 at Tel Aviv's Nokia Center after his September 8 show sold out.

"From what I hear, every show this summer is selling nicely," says Yuri Leshev, who has been promoting shows since 2000 in conjunction with the Hadran Ticket Agency in Tel Aviv.

"This is really amazing if you think about it.

It can only mean that people are not spending their money on something else, like restaurants or other leisure activity.

It can't be that people are just buying more tickets without something else getting sacrificed."

Music fan Miri Louzon, 45, of Rishon Lezion, spent NIS 450 for a Madonna ticket, and attempted to get tickets for Cohen, but was shut out.

For her, it's an opportunity too rare to pass up, even if she doesn't have the money.

"To see someone like Madonna or Leonard Cohen or Paul McCartney is really only a once-or-twice-a-year event.

I got tickets for Madonna because we just happened to have the money then.

If they went on sale now, I wouldn't have been able to buy them.

I tried to get a Leonard Cohen ticket but wasn't able to, which is good because I need money for food and clothing," says Louzon.

"Of course if a ticket opened up, I'd grab it.

I've heard from so many people that seeing him is a spiritual experience, and of course, you want to have as many spiritual experiences as you can."

Despite enthusiastic music lovers like Louzon, there's no guarantee for a promoter that a show is going to be successful or make money.

"You never know," says Zarzevsky, nursing a cold drink at a local Tel Aviv coffee shop.

The slim, youthful-looking promoter's soft-spoken manner belies the fact that he was involved in the high stakes multimillion-dollar gamble of bringing former Beatle McCartney here last September.

"We sold 50,000 tickets to McCartney, but we could have sold 62,000," he says ruefully.

"That was the difference between making money and breaking even."


The men (and there aren't any large-scale female promoters out there yet) at the center of the storm are generally not going to talk about their financial balances.

But according to one veteran promoter, Zarzevsky likely got his money back, "but there wasn't any fat around it.

Paul McCartney walked away with a lot of money, but the people here made very little."

To lessen the potential financial risk in bringing over huge stadium attractions like McCartney, many promoters turn to corporate sponsors.

For the Leonard Cohen show for example, a deal was struck between French-Israeli promoter Marcel Avraham and Israel Discount Bank.

"One of the main issues here is risk management," says Wachs.

"Music has found itself in a place previously only occupied by sports - whereby if a company attaches its name to an event, it can improve its image, attract new clients and build loyalty among existing clients.

By getting a corporate sponsor to come on board, you're managing your risk and limiting your potential losses up front.

"Bank Discount is paying a lot of money to get exposure and a positive association among its target audience - the older, more affluent class who are investing money and opening accounts.

That's opposed to a show that would appeal to a younger audience that it wouldn't sponsor."

Corporate sponsorship can make or break the financial viability of a show.

However, one promoter explains that once a third party like a sponsor is brought in and the promoter is subject to their call, they minimize their risks but it's on a completely noncommercial basis.

"Ticket prices are determined by the sponsor, who may want to give them away to clients.

But if you can cut a good deal with the sponsor, there's still room for all sides to profit," he says.

According to the promoter, the whole nature of bidding for an artist has changed, due to the wild card of sponsorship.

"Twenty years ago, you bid on an act according to what you thought would be the income versus the expenses and the fee.

The fee was determined by how you saw the potential income.

If you know the expenses are NIS 10, and you think you can bring in NIS 100, so you have NIS 90 left - then you determine how much you are going to offer the artist," he says.

"Nowadays you try to get the sponsorship money and then you make an offer based on how much you'll get from the sponsorship and from ticket sales as well.

Therefore, sometimes the artist is given more than is economically viable, if it had been left only on the basis of ticket sales.

But if the sponsor suddenly disappears, you wind up falling into a big hole, which is basically what happened with McCartney and the concert's original sponsor Orange."

The promoter was talking about last year's McCartney show, which was almost canceled when original sponsor Orange backed out.

At the last minute, businessman Yakir Sha'ashua stepped in to provide the capital Zarzevsky needed to enable the concert to take place.

EVEN WITH a corporate sponsor, however, many times the costs are still insurmountable for a huge stadium show on the level of McCartney or Madonna.

Yuri Leshev says that while a sponsor may give NIS 1 million in sponsorship, it's often a drop in the bucket.

"The Madonna show is probably costing between NIS 15 million and NIS 20m. overall to produce.

A sponsor may give NIS 1m. in sponsorship, not in money, but to pay expenses and advertising.

It cuts down on the outlay, but not by a lot - you still need to sell a lot of tickets," he says.

"The first show I did was Uriah Heep in 2000.

It was a disaster," laughs Leshev.

The jovial Russian-born promoter is sitting in an office at the Hadran Ticket Agency in Tel Aviv, where he spends most of his days scouring touring lists and making bids on acts.

Recent shows have included hard rock guitarist Steve Vai, classic rockers Jethro Tull, the soft pop Air Supply and '70s piano man Gilbert O'Sullivan.

"I was so inexperienced. I made every mistake possible.

Show-wise, it was fine, but financially it was really a mess.

I didn't know how to negotiate and haggle, not necessarily with the band, but with all the suppliers, like lights, sound, security.

It was okay though, because when I did my next show, I had all the lessons learned.

It was an expensive lesson though," he says.

"The money came out of my pocket.

That's the really terrible part of the job.

If you don't have a sufficient capital - and I don't know of any promoter who sits on a capital of a couple million dollars like a protective shield - if you lose money, you lose.

You have to borrow, go to the bank and ask them to extend your credit, to ask your suppliers to reschedule your debts.

"I know of cases where promoters have essentially had to run away and leave the country.

There was a guy in the '80s who did a rock festival in Ramat Gan Stadium.

He was in the pub business and didn't really have a clue how to promote a show.

So he booked bands like Marillion and UFO, good bands but not big enough to fill a stadium.

In the end he had to flee his debts and leave the country.

From what I hear, he's now in Poland under a different name."

Leshev calculates that a promoter who produces a dozen shows a year needs to profit from 60 percent to 70% of them to cover the losses of the others.

If he has a good relationship with the suppliers, he can try to renegotiate the deal if a show does very poorly.

"You can go to your suppliers and say, look I lost on this one so can I get a discount?

It doesn't always work - a supplier is doing his job.

It's like a stockbroker.

He gets his commission whether you make or lose money.

"Losing money is depressing.

Even though it's business, it's business connected to art, so you tend to have more sensitive people involved.

So it can be upsetting.

You end up thinking 'I lost my lucky touch…' then you go ahead with another show."

According to Leshev, a promoter should never trust his own tastes when deciding whom to bid for.

"Having an inner feeling is very important when choosing an artist.

But utmost is never to book something based on what you like personally.

It could end up fine, but the rule is not to trust your own sympathies," says Leshev, whose personal predilection runs toward Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull.


"My most successful acts, for the most part, have been the artists I don't listen to.

Look at Air Supply - they're like a punch line to cruel jokes.

But the show did very well.

They were extremely nice and friendly people and totally professional.

It was a pleasure."

ONCE YOU have the "inner feeling" about an artist who's on tour and decide to place an offer, that's only the beginning of the ride.

Many artists book their tours a year or two in advance with no option for adding dates.

And despite the world economic crisis, the concert business is evidently one industry that hasn't been significantly affected yet.

According to Leonard Cohen's manager, Robert Kory, who's overseen Cohen's world tour, the concert industry is healthy indeed.

"The concert business is surprisingly strong.

People might not be eating out or flying or taking vacations as much, but they're still buying concert tickets," he says on the phone from his office in Los Angeles.

Promoter Zarzevsky, who in addition to bringing McCartney, has produced shows by Lauren Hill, as well as the annual Eilat Jazz Festival and the Tamar Festival, agrees that artists certainly aren't hurting for bookings.

"I'm looking at touring sites constantly, exploring opportunities to bring artists to Israel, and I don't see any economic downturns.

I see artists fully booked - sometimes through 2011," says Zarzevsky, who adds that there's no connection between the increase in shows here and a hurting global economy.

"People are coming here because they are getting very good money."

With Israel gradually being added to the radar screens of agents who are routing tours through Europe, along with the growing perception that it has developed into a market which can pay top dollar, and is currently a "safe" place to visit, the result is that an increasing pool of talent is eager and willing to play here.

According to Kory, there's even a word of mouth circuit in the industry based on artists' touring experiences, that can influence another artist's willingness to perform in Israel.

"There's definitely communication among managers and artists' agents.

When an artist plays somewhere and has a successful show and enthusiastic audience, other people hear about it," says Kory.

According to Zev Isaacs, an Australian immigrant who produced some of the country's biggest shows in the 1990s - like U2, Madonna, Elton John and Peter Gabriel - and today owns and runs the Hangar 11 club in the Tel Aviv Port, the country has seen a 180-degree turnaround in the last year.

But it still needs to be seen in perspective.

"We've had a bad stretch for a long time, especially around 2002-2005, when there was very little international exchange of culture," says the wiry Isaacs in his office on the floor above the cavernous Hangar.

"From our subjective point of view in Israel, we see increase from zero to 20 acts, and you think, 'What a wonderful situation.'

From an overseas perspective, that may be a positive change, but in reality Israel is still such a low priority on the international scene that it hasn't caused any sort of wave.

People aren't clamoring to come here.

"We still have to drag the artist to come here usually - we're not on the regular agenda when planning tours.

A couple of things make it more viable for them to come here now.

Certainly the political change is a little bit better.

But the two main reasons why major acts come here is either they're paid very well, much more than they would be elsewhere.

Or alternatively, they specifically want to play in Israel.

With Madonna, she determined that she wanted to play here, and not her handlers."

According to 2bVibes's Hillel Wachs, one reason why artists are generally paid more money here than in other countries is due to the exorbitant costs of bringing in equipment and crew, all of which must be done by plane or ship.

"When someone comes here, they lose performance days.

They can't play the day before or the day after somewhere else.

It's not like taking a train from Italy to France and moving the equipment by truck," he says.

"That's why the artist gets paid more here, sometimes double.

It's looked upon as a one-off deal."

Once the logistic issues are squared away, there remains the less tangible, but just as prominent, issue of personal security.

Cohen's manager Kory admits that it was a natural reaction for an artist to be wary about his security if he agrees to come to Israel, and says that the perception of the situation here ebbs and flows along with the news.

"There are periods when things seem to be more stable and there's less security concern.

It does seem to be a bit more dangerous place than most - it's the nature of the function of the ongoing conflict," says Kory.

For some promoters, the security card can mean the potential loss of a lot of money - the Red Hot Chili Peppers got intifada fever in 2001, and Depeche Mode bailed in 2006 ahead of the Second Lebanon War.

In fact, they chose to open their world tour here in May to make amends for that cancellation.

"The bigger the name, the higher risk of cancellation," says Hadran's Leshev.

"Depeche Mode cancelled their next show after Ramat Gan, in Istanbul, due to illness.

"You're bound to lose a lot of money, even if all the fees that were going to the band are returned.

If you're lucky, the venue may not charge you 100% of the rent," he says.

"But at the end of the day, you still lose $100,000 just paying for the insurance."

Even in today's relative quiet, thanks to the volatile reputation that Israel is saddled with, artists and their management need constant reassurance that they're not going to get shot at leaving their hotel.

Isaacs describes his experience with the New York musical sci-fi theater group Blue Man Group who performed a string of shows at the Tel Aviv Exhibition Grounds in June.

The group was originally scheduled to appear in March, but Isaacs postponed the shows due to Operation Cast Lead.


"I would get daily phone calls from them in January saying the rockets have fallen 17 kilometers from Tel Aviv, and asking what my security precautions were?

They used to actually sit on Google Maps and draw the radius of the gunfire from the Palestinian side to see how close it was from the venue," says Isaacs.

"Then about two weeks before they landed here in June, the matter was raised again.

They wanted to know how many armed security personnel were going to be on each bus from the airport, how many will be on each floor of the hotel, what security arrangements are there at the venue?

"Of course, as soon as they got here, and witnessed the reality of Tel Aviv, everybody went off to restaurants and bars, and they didn't ask for security from that moment on."

Yuri Leshev recalls that it took more than a year of discussion, phone calls and e-mail with Steve Vai to convince the guitarist to come to stage his Alien Guitar Workshop.

"He told me point blank that he was scared.

When I asked him why, he said, 'Because when look at CNN, and see what's happening in the area, you think, why do I need to risk myself?'

Even when he got back home, he heard from a lot of people, mostly his Jewish friends by the way, who asked him, 'Why did you risk your safety by going there?'" says Leshev.

Leshev admits that promoters take a big responsibility when ensuring an artist's safety, especially when they themselves aren't quite sure it's safe.

He recalls a 2003 performance by Uriah Heep in Haifa - the same band he lost a bundle on in 2000 - which took place only two weeks after the October Maxim restaurant terror attack outside the city which killed 21 people.

"They sent me an e-mail questioning the wisdom of coming, for security reasons.

It took a long, very detailed letter, with all the security precautions clearly detailed.

I felt really bad - you're telling people that it's okay to come, it's going to be fine, and in reality things aren't fine," he says.

"Things are happening on a daily basis, buses exploding, coffee shops being attacked - we were all at risk.

But life went on.

Entertainment doesn't have to disappear - otherwise we'll be badly gripped by fear, become a paralyzed society.

And I'm forever grateful to Uriah Heep that they eventually agreed to return and perform at that time.

It was a nice gesture from them at a time when nobody else was willing to come and play here."

Even taking away the security wild card, some promoters encounter artists who don't want to perform here just because it's Israel.

"Many artists still have a problem coming to Israel.

They think it's not politically 'in' to come here," says Isaacs, without elaborating.

Wachs adds that in two years of negotiating with artists, he's only encountered one artist - Sinead O'Connor - who insisted she wouldn't perform in Israel for political reasons.

According to Zarzevsky, despite repeated attempts to book a show, Bruce Springsteen has shown no interest in performing here, but he isn't sure whether it was due to political or simply security reasons.

He also recalls that the Paul McCartney concert only crystallized due to the politically-charged cancellation by the original artist for that date - George Michael.

"We had worked on a George Michael concert for months.

We had all the details worked out and were just about ready to send him a deposit, and sign the agreement.

He was getting a very good price and everything was set," says Zarzevsky.

"The agent didn't check one little thing, though - whether Michael would play here.

And his response was unequivocally, 'No way. I'm not going to Tel Aviv.'

The broker was very apologetic and they promised they would find us an even better artist to come - and that turned out to be Paul McCartney."

ONCE AN artist has been assured that it's safe, that it's financially viable despite the extra costs and that he's not politically averse to performing here, it all comes down to the visit.

And here too, the country is gaining a reputation for putting out all the red carpets.

"We host them - I'm talking about me and all of my colleagues - with the best conditions and treatment," says Zarzevsky.

"For McCartney, it was unbelievable - open bars, three chefs.

Every day a special car would drive the chefs to the shouk to buy raw ingredients."

Wachs suggested that it was the opposite treatment which endears the artists to the country.

"I think that artists like having the Israel informal experience.

Abroad, and at home, they're usually treated with reverence and separated from the public.

Here, they're treated with respect, but treated like people," he says.

"I looked at the MySpace comments of Macy Gray's band after their show here.

There were things like, 'This was the best show of my life.'

'What a country, the people are so nice.'

We tend to not treat them like superstars, and more importantly, we treat the band members the same as the star.

"Often, band members are used to running from town to town and being treated like meat.

There's a musical director who hires them, and there's not a lot of interaction between them and the star.

Here, they're all treated like kings.

We always try to take them around, a trip to the Dead Sea or Jerusalem.

"Here, they can let their guard down;

Israelis tend to give them their distance instead of clamoring for autographs.

When you talk to them like a human being, they respect that and it's really what they want."

Things have evidently changed from the days, only 16 years ago, that Elton John, due to shoddy treatment at the airport and paparazzi on his trail, fled the country hours after his arrival.

"Yes, I think we're a little bit more sophisticated in our approach today," says Isaacs, who bore the brunt of the John fiasco.

Leshev offers all of his artists personal tours of Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and other attractions which they would not normally get to see from a Tel Aviv hotel window.

"I like Israel myself very much, and I like when people appreciate the place where I've made my home.

I've had many great discussions with people like Steve Vai and Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson about history while we were touring Jerusalem," he says.

"And in many cases, they go back home and tell their friends - 'Look we just played Israel, it's such a fantastic place and you have to go there.'"

Ultimately, despite the hassles, frayed nerves and last-minute nightmares, most of the shows presented here go off without a hitch.

And when those lights go down, and roaring crowd stands, the promoter breathes a sigh of relief.

According to Zarzevsky, despite the financial turmoil and endless demands, he would have still promoted the McCartney show.

Because, in the end, like those in the audience, he is a fan.

"It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

The night before the show, Paul got up and did a sound check at the venue.

I was standing on the side watching him, and I began to cry.

After all that went into getting it ready, seeing him up there singing a Beatles song was just overwhelming."

Viacom hoping the Beatles will change its money-losing ways in video games

Viacom hoping the Beatles will change its money-losing ways in video games

After spending over $325 million, Viacom is ready to start making money on video games.

That's exactly what the conglomerate will start doing, executives say, with this fall's the Beatles:

Rock Band, a pricey and high-profile addition to the genre dominated by Activision's Guitar Hero.

As a story in today's Times explains, Viacom has guaranteed the various Beatles rights holders around $10 million and will likely dish out $40 million or more in rights payments.

That's not even counting the tens of millions spent to produce the game.

It's a costly gambit, right in the middle of a recession, that the biggest rock band in history will draw new players to a genre that has been declining this year.

Viacom bought Harmonix Music Systems, the developers of Rock Band games who originally created Guitar Hero, for $175 million in 2006.

This year it awarded the studio's owners an additional $150 million in bonus payments.

That's a huge amount of money, particularly given that the Rock Band games have lost money and been a consistent drag on the earnings of Viacom's MTV Networks.

But the conglomerate has a new approach to the Beatles:

Rock Band that focuses on more profitable software and music downloads over instrument controllers and is confident its marketing blitz, as well as the publicity around a newly remastered reissue of the band's music, will draw both avid video game players and casual Beatles fans.

By the fourth quarter, MTV Games General Manager Scott Guthrie told The Times, Viacom's video games operation should finally start making money.

To find out how, and just what's at stake in the Beatles Rock Band and the highly competitive music video games space this fall, read the story in today's Times.

-- Ben Fritz

Photo: Image from the Beatles: Rock Band. Credit: MTV Games.

Is It Too Late for Whitney's Comeback?

Despite topping the charts her first day out, the actual prospects don't look good for a returning superstar.

By Dominic Patten

Published: August 31, 2009

On her new “I Look to You” album, Whitney Houston asks fans to "love me like I never left."

The lyric, from Houston’s duet with Akon, can resonate as both a request and plea -- especially from a singer who released her last studio album in 2002.

Because one of the truths for the already troubled recording industry is that being a superstar just ain’t what it used to be.

Released on Monday -- a day earlier than CD Tuesdays, to qualify it for a Grammy -- the album was well reviewed and topped both the Amazon and iTunes sales charts on day one.

Over the past two years, under the personal guidance of long-time Houston mentor and industry executive Clive Davis,

it has been the beneficiary of huge investment and high hopes with an A-team of producers and songwriters such as Alicia Keys, another Davis protégé,

Diane Warren,

David Foster,

R. Kelly and

Akon

assembled to help the singer hit all the right notes and demographics.

And while no plans have been announced for a tour, an extensive marketing campaign has been rolled out, including a Tuesday live appearance for Houston on “Good Morning America” Tuesday and an interview with Oprah on Sept. 14.

But it’s unlikely to recapture even a sliver of the glory days of Whitney’s 1985 debut, which sold over 13 million copies, or her soundtrack to “The Bodyguard,” which sold a blockbusting 44 million copies worldwide

One industry insider told TheWrap that he thinks Houston’s new album will continue having a great first week -- and then suffer a quick drop-off in sales.

“Whitney hasn’t been Whitney for a long time,” the industry insider said, noting that Houston's last studio album “Just Whitney,” has sold less than 750,000 copies in the U.S. since its release almost seven years ago.

“Her last album was the worst selling record of her career, and the last compilation

(2007’s “The Ultimate Collection”) the label put out was a non-entity.”

“Things have changed,” says entertainment and music business lawyer Allen Lenard.

“You can't depend on the high level artists to carry the industry any more.

Whitney Houston and other artists didn't shrink -- the world did.”

With sales of recorded music declining in the double digits year after year in the last decade, the digital revolution and consumer tastes shifting from albums to individual songs, the industry has seen expectations and profits fall.

Especially with comeback albums, it seems the days when groups like the Eagles could reunite and top the charts.

Much anticipated comeback records from the likes of Guns’N’Roses, whose “Chinese Democracy” was 13 years in the making, to Eminem have stalled or crashed right out of the gate.

Released on November 23 2008, “Chinese Democracy” has sold barely 3.2 million copies worldwide, a far cry from the 28 million copies sold of GNR’s 1987 “Appetite for Destruction” debut.

Eminem’s “Relapse,” the first new studio album by the Detroit rapper since 2004, has only sold just over 1.3 million copies in the U.S. since it came on May 15, 2009 --

less than the 1.7 million his “The Marshall Mathers LP” sold in just its first week of release in 2000.

The sputtering of singles by Mariah Carey, whose upcoming “Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel” album has been extensively underwritten by sponsorship deals her label organized,

has some speculating that the singer could see a repeat performance this year of her 2001 “Glitter” debacle.

And while not a comeback album, superstars U2’s “No Line On the Horizon” has sold less than a million copies since its release last year.

Indeed, releases from country ingénue Taylor Swift, whose 2008 “Fearless” has sold almost 4 million copies in the U.S. ,and Coldplay, whose Grammy wining “Vida la Vida,” which came out in November 2008 and has sold almost 8 million copies worldwide, are proving the exception to the superstar rule.

“In today’s market,” lawyer Lenard told TheWrap,

“you have to create a system that works from the bottom up because one of the fundamental flaw of the record industry is that they don't have any idea who their audience is.”

On “Salute,” the last song on “I Look to You, “Whitney Houston, sounding a lot like LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out” from 1990, sings “Don’t call it a comeback/No, I’ve been here for years.”

That just might be the superstar’s best and worst hope.

RTL behind Michael Jackson video hoax...Broadcaster spread misinformation for Web experiment

RTL behind Michael Jackson video hoax

Broadcaster spread misinformation for Web experiment

Associated Press

Sept 1, 2009, 03:49 PM ET

BERLIN --


A hoax video purportedly showing Michael Jackson emerging from a coroner's van was an experiment aimed at showing how quickly misinformation and conspiracy theories can race across the Internet, German broadcaster RTL said Tuesday.


The video was posted by RTL on YouTube for a single day a week ago and received


880,000 hits.


The broadcaster has since removed the video from YouTube, but it has been picked up by other Web sites around the world.


"We wanted to show how easily users can be manipulated on the Internet with hoax videos,


" spokesman Heike Schultz of Cologne-based RTL told the Associated Press.


"Therefore, we created this video of Michael Jackson being alive, even though everybody knows by now that he is dead -- and the response was breathtaking."


Jackson died June 25 in Los Angeles.


The video -- posted under an "anonymous source" -- shows a coroner's van entering what seems like a parking garage and the King of Pop getting out of the back with another person.


The lighting is bad, the sound muffled and the footage appears amateurish.


"Unfortunately, many people believed it was true," Schultz said.


"Even though we tried to create the video in a way that every normal user can see right away that it is a fake."


He said the video was shot near Cologne -- "definitely not in the U.S."


The van in the video had the word "CORONER" printed in English, suggesting it had been recorded in America.


RTL admitted to the hoax in an Aug. 26 report on its daily news show Explosiv.


Hoaxes and rumors commonly spread like wildfire on the Internet.


Videos of flying saucers and impossible stunts routinely are among the most-viewed on video-sharing sites, though purported evidence of the deceased being alive is less common than false rumors of someone's death.


The rise of Twitter and its real-time microblogging has quickened the pace.


American actor Patrick Swayze, who is battling pancreatic cancer, had to declare that he is still alive this year after thousands of Twitter users spread news that he was dead.


Actor Jeff Goldblum had to do the same.


The RTL spokesman said some Jackson fans were upset by the German broadcaster's actions.


"We didn't want to dishonor Michael Jackson, but we needed a strong name to get this experiment going," Schultz said.


"Had we used Britney Spears, then the fans of Britney would have complained."


Vivendi first-half revenue up 17%


Huge growth seen at Activision Blizzard games arm


By Rebecca Leffler


Sept 1, 2009, 11:00 AM ET

PARIS --

French media powerhouse Vivendi managed to weather the global economic storm during the first half of 2009, but still suffered dips in profit across the board, Europe's largest entertainment group said Tuesday.

Vivendi posted a 6.6% rise in second-quarter net profit and revenue reached €13.2 billion ($18.89 billion) in the first half of the year, up 17% compared to the first half of 2008.

The colossal success of the group's games division Activision Blizzard offset losses at Universal music and Gallic mobile group SFR.

Activision Blizzard, which Vivendi bought up in 2007, boasted two of the top five best-selling titles in the U.S. and Europe during the first six months of the year, namely "Guitar Hero World Tour" and "Call of Duty: World at War."

"Vivendi achieved a very solid first half 2009 in a difficult environment," Vivendi's CEO Jean-Bernard Levy said in a statement, adding:

"The group is successfully weathering the current economic slowdown, which is having a real, but limited impact.

"Meanwhile, French pay TV group Canal Plus increased its subscriptions, boosting the group's revenue to €2.2 billion ($3.15 billion) at the end of June.



Disney hires Wodtke for biz dev

Asia Pac VP will report to Gilby

September 01, 2009

By Patrick Frater

HONG KONG --

Industry veteran Nicholas Wodtke has been hired as Disney-ABC International Television's Asia Pacific vice president of business strategy and development and new media.

Wodtke was previously CEO of producer and distributor Snap TV.

Before that he was senior vice president of interactive television at Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment and before that he held roles at Taiwan cable channel Super Television, Sony's AXN and at Sony Pictures' Motion Picture Finance group structuring joint venture financing for Columbia Pictures' movie slate.

Based in Hong Kong, he will report to Rob Gilby, Disney TV's Asia Pacific senior vice president and managing director.

"We see amazing growth potential and new business opportunities across the region fueled by the rapid evolution of digital technologies.

We are aggressively pursuing digital media opportunities," Gilby said.

63 year old LIZA MINELLI rocks the Hollywood Bowl...

Review: Liza Minnelli at the Hollywood Bowl

August 30, 2009 12:01 pm


Liza Minnelli played the Hollywood Bowl this weekend, and the incessant gigglers in the audience were clearly nervous about which Minnelli was going to show up.

Would it be the one whose latest Broadway outing, “Liza’s at the Palace,” won a Tony or the erratic Minnelli of “Minnelli on Minnelli,” the show in honor of her director father, Vincente Minnelli, in which she tried to make another one of her comebacks before she was theatrically fit?

The answer turned out to be both.

This two-night engagement, straightforwardly titled “An Evening With Liza Minnelli” and featuring pianist and musical director Billy Stritch, a sumptuous-sounding orchestra conducted by drummer Mike Berkowitz and a heat wave that had Minnelli worried she might wilt, flaunted some of the best and the worst of its inimitable star.

Her belter’s voice was unreliable on Friday night, booming one moment then reduced to a croak the next.

Her acting had a bizarre, otherworldly quality, as though she were tuning into a subtext that only she could comprehend.

There was a dithering aspect to her stage presence, with her signature anxious laugh cropping up when it seemed least called for.

Her dancing was curtailed to a few gestures, such as pounding her fists on her hips or turning her back in dramatic flourishes.

And her stamina was weakened on this hot evening to the point that she resorted to her chair after just a handful of songs.

In short, the only thing that remained intact was her singular genius for being "Liza."

And that was more than enough to galvanize the vast majority of the Bowl's audience, who cheered her on in the knowledge that this diva’s act is a two-way street — the more audible the adulation, the more likely she’ll rise to some semblance of her former greatness.

In that regard, you can say that Minnelli takes the encore principle to a new level, insisting the crowd enthuse not just for its nightcap but also for its main course and dessert.

Yet there’s nothing overbearing about Minnelli's persona.

In fact, she wears her aching vulnerability on her sequined sleeve, turning the audience into her collective caretaker, if not her enabler.

“Most of my family has joined the choir,” she awkwardly quipped when a person shouted out some affection during a rocky patch in the first half.

“So I guess you’re my family now."

The incomparable Sammy Davis and Liza ( above )

Her devoted following erupted in glee.

But the love fest couldn’t undo the shock of Minnelli's careening unsteadiness during her first two numbers, “Teach Me Tonight” and “I Would Never Leave You.”

It brought to mind Peggy Lee at the end of her career, being carried out on a kind of throne and flubbing lyrics, and Rosemary Clooney, gasping for oxygen midsong in her later years.

Both of those legends somehow found ways to resurrect the old magic when I caught them at the twilight of their talents.

Would Minnelli similarly be able to redeem herself ?

She seemed to exhaust her cardio endurance with a fun if incoherently antic version of “If You Hadn’t but You Did” and a lively though ultimately cryptic interpretation of “What Makes a Man a Man.”

There was some breathless patter about her bum romantic luck that invoked ex-husband David Gest and ignited some awkward tittering in the audience.

But when she settled into her chair for “Maybe This Time,” she connected her own fragile journey through stardom to the wish for love in a way that lifted the number’s poignancy out of the music like a fireworks display.

In the second act, she brought some effervescent jazz to “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “My Mammy.”

“Liza With a Z” may have been just a pale copy of the cute novelty number it once was, but her handling of “Cabaret,” scratchier than in her Oscar-winning turn, would probably have jibed better with Christopher Isherwood’s original conception of Sally Bowles.

And this performer could talk "New York, New York" and tempt you to hop a plane.

Vocally, Minnelli could never hold a candle to her mother, Judy Garland, a truth reconfirmed by her nonetheless rousing “Palace Medley.”

But triple-threat icons who have been at it for more than half a century no longer have to prove their worthiness night after night.

Basking in her presence is all that’s needed to beckon the ghosts of a more glamorous theatrical past.

Which brings to mind an indisputable truth:

If Minnelli didn’t exist, show queens would have to invent her.

Long may her razzle-dazzle, fabulous even when faded, live on.

-- Charles McNulty

Photos: Liza Minnelli at the Hollywood Bowl.

Credit: Stefano Paltera / For The Times

LBN-BRUTAL FACT:

The word dad entered the English language in the sixteenth century and is believed to have originated from the Welsh word tad, meaning father.

The word father comes from the Old English term faeder and was first used in the 1500s.

LBN-MEDIA INSIDER:

***U.S. magazine circulation fell 1.2% in the first half, led by declines at TV Guide and Playboy, says the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

Even Cosmopolitan, the largest newsstand seller, posted a drop.

The declines may make it harder for magazines to attract advertisers, analysts say.

***Hollywood Reporter top editor Elizabeth Guider to be the next guest of honor at the Beverly Hills Media Tea on Tuesday September 29th poolside at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

LBN-A DIFFERENT VIEW:

....Sade.....

LBN-OVERHEARD:

*** After struggling through a weekend show, Travis Barkers band Blink 182 pulled out of a Saratoga, N.Y., concert Monday, citing the circumstances surrounding the unfortunate and untimely passing of our dear friend Adam DJ AM Goldstein.

*** Country music singer Shania Twain is slowly stepping back into the spotlight after the break up of her marriage to Robert Mutt Lange in May 2008.

*** Whitney Houston's self-imposed 7-year hiatus officially ends today with the release of I Look To You, her sixth full-length studio album.

The album is getting mostly strong reviews so far from critics, and now the singer has begun her media blitz, opening up first to Ebony magazine.

Kylie the top Aussie personal brand....

Kylie the top Aussie personal brand

Australian Associated Press

I think what makes Kylie number one is overall she appeals to a broad stream of people.
Mark Richardson from Talent Inc!

She was once labelled the singing budgie, but Kylie Minogue has beaten sports stars, media moguls and even the prime minister in a survey of Australia's most powerful personal brands.

Some 400 people in the marketing/entertainment industry were asked to rate famous Australians according to how well developed their brand and brand awareness are.

Minogue topped the Talent Inc! Personal Brand survey, with a brand based on her music and acting, her perfume and underwear ventures, and her good looks and integrity.

"I think what makes Kylie number one is overall she appeals to a broad stream of people," Mark Richardson from Talent Inc! told AAP."

Although she's had ups and downs in terms of her albums, and especially in her ... love life and her health, she's always managed those things with grace and integrity.

"Over a period of time it's given her brand a real strength and value."

Coming in at second place is supermodel Elle Macpherson (above ), who has her own lingerie label and skincare products.

Cricketer Shane Warne, personality Dame Edna Everage and golfer Greg Norman rounded out the top five.

Richardson said Warne was one of many sports people who made the list for their reputation off the field and as well as on.

"Because of his extraordinary genius on the pitch, he will always be revered," Richardson said.

"The indiscretions he had are kind of idiotic, they're kind of stupid, not malicious.

Ben Cousins' indiscretions are far more damaging than Shane's.

"Steve Irwin, Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman also ranked in the top 10, while Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and entrepreneur Dick Smith came in at number nine and 10.

Despite being our highest paid entertainers, The Wiggles only ranked at 18, while Aussie icon Ned Kelly came in at 34.

Richardson said among the survey's general findings were that if you're a man you don't have to be attractive to have a powerful personal brand, but being a good looking as a woman helps.

Being famous internationally also seemed to boost your ranking.Richardson said many of the people with the most powerful personal brands were involved in a range of activities, such as Elle MacPherson and Greg Norman.

"It's important that there's balance there and they're seen as well-rounded," he said.

"But more importantly that there's some integrity there."

LBN-HOLLYWOOD INSIDER:

The Walt Disney Co. says it is acquiring Marvel Entertainment Inc. for $4 billion in cash and stock, bringing characters like Iron Man and Spider-Man into the Disney family.

***A fifth installment in Sylvester Stallone's "Rambo" franchise has received a green light from Nu Image/Millennium Films.

Stallone will star in and direct as he did 2008's "Rambo" which grossed $42 million domestically and $113 million overseas.

***The box-office tallies through this weekend have determined the 18 weekend summer revenue total of $4.26 billion, and by the slimmest of margins; a victory over last year's record of $4.2 billion

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By SALVADOR DALI:

What is an elegant woman?

An elegant woman is a woman who despises you and who has no hair under her arms. (1942 )


New life overseas for Jackson special

Several international deals closed for 2001 CBS show

By Elizabeth Guider

Aug 31, 2009

"Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration"TV distributor Alfred Haber has closed a number of international deals for the 2001 CBS special "Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration," which was produced by David Gest.

New licensing deals have been inked with Channel 5 in the U.K., NHK in Japan, Televisa in Mexico, A&E Mundo in Latin America, NRK in Norway, e.tv in South Africa, ABS-CBN in the Philippines and RCTI in Indonesia.

No financial details were available.

The two-hour special, owned by Gest's World Events, is one of the highest-rated musical specials in TV history.

No word on whether CBS plans its own rerun.

At the time of its 2001 broadcast, the show repped the King of Pop's first live U.S. performance in 11 years and the first reunion with his brothers in 17.

According to Nielsen Media Research, 45 million people watched all or part of the special.

Jackson performed solo hits including "Billie Jean," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Never Can Say Goodbye" and "Beat It."

Guest performers included Whitney Houston, Destiny's Child, Luther Vandross and Marc Anthony.

Forty-year-old Haber Distribution specializes in licensing variety and award shows like the Grammys and musical specials.

Bertelsmann records $476 million loss

German media giant takes hits across all its divisions

By Scott Roxborough

Aug 31, 2009, 12:48 PM ET

COLOGNE, Germany --

German media giant Bertelsmann booked a €333 million ($476 million) loss in the first half of 2009, hit hard by the global advertising downturn.

Revenue was also down at €7.2 billion ($10.3 billion) against €7.7 billion a year earlier.

Bertelsmann's broadcast division RTL Group, Europe's largest TV and radio operator, was clobbered by the combination of the ad drop, major write-offs on its Brit channel Five and start-up costs for new Greek operation Alpha Media.

Revenues at RTL slipped 9.6% to €2.6 billion euros ($3.72 billion) in the first half and profits fell to €296 million ($423 million) from €674 million in H1 2008.

But no unit at Bertelsmann escaped unscathed, as book publisher Random House, magazine division Gruner + Jahr, services operation Arvato and direct-to-customer operation Direct Group all took hits.

Bertelsmann execs however said that belt-tightening, introduced across the conglomerate before the worst of the crisis, has cushioned the blow and that second half figures will be significantly improved.

"Our strict cost discipline is beginning to have a significant positive financial impact," said Bertelsmann CEO Hartmut Ostrowski.

"The packages of measures that were put together as part of this program are extremely wide ranging and varied and will save us over €900 million ($1.3 billion) this year alone."

Net debt climbed to €6.8 billion ($9.7 billion), a €200 million jump, but Bertelsmann CFO Thomas Rabe insisted Bertelsmann was on safe financial ground.

"Our solid financial management has paid off in the first half: we have good liquidity and adequate credit lines available to us," he said.

Despite the optimistic tone, Bertelsmann is still forecasting a drop in revenues and operating profit for the year.

LBN-LYRICS OF LIFE By BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN:


We swore we'd travel darlin' side by side.


We'd help each other stay in stride.


But each lover's steps fall so differently.


But I'll wait for you.


And if I should fall behind.


Wait for me.


LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By COCO CHANEL:


I love luxury.


And luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity.


Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language.


I stay in the game to fight it. (1943)



LBN-QUOTE:


"He was not perfect, but my father believed in redemption.


And he never surrendered."


-EDWARD M. KENNEDY Jr., at his fathers funeral.



CALL FOR REFORM:


At a private service for Senator Edward Kennedy, prominent politicians used his death as a rallying cry for health reform while also sharing personal memories of the senator.


Senator John Kerry and Kennedy's nephew, Rep. Joe Kennedy, vowed to carry on Kennedy's fight.


"Don't ever, ever, ever, ever give up," Joe Kennedy said to applause.

BILL WOULD GIVE PRESIDENT EMERGENCY CONTROL OF INTERNET:


Internet companies and civil liberties groups were alarmed this spring when a U.S. Senate bill proposed handing the White House the power to disconnect private-sector computers from the Internet.


They're not much happier about a revised version that aides to Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, have spent months drafting behind closed doors.


CNET News has obtained a copy of the 55-page draft of S.773 (excerpt), which still appears to permit the president to seize temporary control of private-sector networks during a so-called cybersecurity emergency.


The new version would allow the president to "declare a cybersecurity emergency" relating to "non-governmental" computer networks and do what's necessary to respond to the threat



LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY

By FREDDIE MERCURY:


You can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man.


And that is the most bitter type of loneliness, success has brought me world idolization and millions of pounds.


But it's prevented me from having the one thing we all need:


A loving, ongoing relationship. (1986)


LBN-COMMENTARY By LEON HOFFMAN:


Sigmund Freud arrived in Hoboken, N.J., 100 years ago today on his first and only visit to the United States.


He came to lecture on psychoanalysis and to receive an honorary degree from Clark University, in Worcester, Mass.


It was, he said, an honorable call, a mark of his academic success.


Freud was then 53 and had been practicing for 23 years.


At the time, most doctors here and in Europe still considered mental illness to be caused by degeneration of the brain.


They assumed that there was little to be done for it beyond physical treatments like diet, exercise, drugs, rest and massage.


But a growing awareness that the mind could influence bodily functions was giving rise to debates about the nature of the unconscious mind.

LBN-HISTORICAL COMMENTARY By JAMES DEAN:

I think there is only one form of greatness for man.

If a man can bridge the gap between life and death.

I mean, if he can live on after he has died, then maybe he was a great man.

To me the only success, the only greatness, is immortality. (1953)

LBN-HISTORY:

In 1963, 200,000 people participated in a peaceful civil rights rally in Washington, D.C., where

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial.

LBN-COMMENTARY By HUGH HEFNER (Founder, Playboy Magazine):


One of the things I find really curious is when people say I've lived an amoral life.


From my perspective, it's quite the contrary.


I feel I've lived a very moral life.


I've been on the side of angels from the beginning.