Reuters reports that Disney is shutting down one of their animation facilities; they also report that the former chairman of Universal Studios may be allowed out of her contract sooner than she would have so she can run Dreamworks. These stories both illustrate why if you take a showbiz job you shouldn’t buy on credit.

Ken Dychtwald of the San Francisco-based consulting firm Age Wave is warning of the coming sea change in buying power. At a breakfast yesterday sponsored by TV Land, he essentially told advertisers that advertising, like youth itself, is wasted on the young.
Ever since the sixties, when the baby boomer generation flooded onto the scene, advertisers devoted [...]

Box Office Weekly #007 (MP3 - 7.9MB - 23 min)
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On todays show we look the boxoffice for the weekend – Natalie Portman is in another science-fiction action hit, but this one has balls! We’ll also peruse today’s news – a surprising amount of it involves cartoon characters – read the TV ratings, [...]

Jerry Lewis, clown prince of… screw it, whatever. He’s got the French Legion of Honor Medal. It was presented to him on his 80th birthday. This confirms something that for years I thought was a myth - the French people love and respect Jerry Lewis.
For years I have been wracking my brains over this, a [...]

My poem, based both on “Kublai Kahn” and a news story that Neverland may be closing.    
In Neverland the King of Pop
A stately theme park did decree
Where circus animals would run
And pale boys lay in the sun
Mike put them up for free.  
Walls kept the tabloid folk at bay
Stopped at Encino’s Journalist café
And paparazzi begged for just [...]

Viacom has made a deal to sell the Dreamworks film library, after acquiring the studio last December. The buyer is said to be an investment group led by George Soros. Any movie released before September 15 of last year is part of the deal, which is valued at $900 million dollars. Properties include Gladiator, Chicken [...]

Here are the weeklies ending 3/12/06. Number is ratings/share.

American Idol (Wed) — 17.2/27.0
American Idol (Tue) — 16.7/25.0
CSI — 16.6/25.0
American Idol (Thu) — 15.4/24.0
Grey’s Anatomy —13.9/22.0
Desperate Housewives — 13.6/20.0
Without a Trace — 13.6/20.0
House — 12.5/19.0
CSI: Miami — 12.3/20.0
The Unit — 11.6/17.0

Only 3 reality shows in the top ten - and they’re all the same show! The [...]

This article in Slate Magazine explains, in excruciating detail, why the plagerism lawsuit against Random House should be worthless. The Da Vinci Code should have been able to take every single idea in Holy Blood, Holy Grail and still not be liable for it. Here’s why.  HBHG was published as non-fiction.

MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman, speaking at Showest in Las Vegas yesterday, begged exhibitors to join with distributors in the fight against film piracy. With attendance down 8% last year despite a slate of sure fire hits like King Kong and The Island, the manicured finger of the industry is pointing at unauthorized intellectual property theft as [...]

Box Office Weekly #006 (MP3 - 9.4MB - 28 min)
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On today’s show Failure to Launch fails to fail, Johnny Rotten spits on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 10 percent less of the entire world watches the Oscars than last year and in tonight’s commentary we look at movies and [...]