MSN has grabbed exclusive distribution rights to reruns of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. That’s MSN.com, not MSNBC. Yeah, on your computer.
The critically-loved and little-watched-by-people series ran for three seasons, which is a little light for normal syndication. Contrast with EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND or SEINFELD, which can run two episodes a day in some markets and still not [...]

HARRY POTTER ACTOR TO APPEAR NAKED ON STAGE
Yes, there is a tiny lightning-bolt scar on it. Now shut up and watch the play.
ENTERTAINMENT COMPANIES SETTLE KAZAA FILE-SHARING LAWSUITS FOR MILLIONS
It will take them forever to collect, though, because the money is only available from one source, and they’re offline almost all the time.
PRINCE’S 2ND WIFE [...]

Periodically I wreck the iTunes syndication feed with my reckeless use of ampersands. Ampersands are a typographical symbol which means “and” but I can’t show you one because it will knock us off iTunes again. It looks like the treble clef in music notation. Yeah, that symbol. I thought I’d taken care of it by [...]

Sharman Networks, the company which created and distributed Kazaa file-sharing software, has settled all it’s entertainment company lawsuits around the world, to the pirated tune of $115 million. According to anonymous or lazily-sourced entities the majority of the money went to litigious music concerns, with the rest going to lawsuit-happy movie companies.
Kazaa, like Napster, had [...]

Response to the Steely Dan Letter in Salon

Box Office Weekly #025 (MP3 - 17.2 MB - 25min)
In today’s show: Disney isn’t against ALL piracy… Netflix doesn’t beat enough bad predictions… and in my commentary I examine the unkindest cut of all: The Director’s cut. All this and Steely Dan vows to destroy Owen Wilson, today on Box Office Weekly.
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You have money to invest in talent - who do you put your money in? Businessweek put together a project to find the star who gives the best return on investment. Harrison Ford, whom I used as an example in my podcast last week, is not the one. He usually means a lot of money [...]

I’m of two minds about commentary tracks.
As Cameron knows, I’m an enormous fan of Mad Max. The first one. It’s a beautifully executed, visually rich and a deeply twisted revenge story. And it has been my favorite for years, even though when I first saw it in the late seventies it was dubbed! Yes, for [...]

In the HD-DVD race, Sony’s Blu-Ray format seems to have stumbled coming out of the gate. Now from Ultimate AV Magazine, another sign that it just needs to be put down.
The magazine reports that Samsung’s BD-P1000 Blu-Ray player has a flaw in the noise reduction chip, which is resulting in an un-sharp picture. In fact, [...]

DISNEY LAYS OFF 650 EMPLOYEES
Go ahead, stick your arms out on the Haunted Mansion ride… there is no one there to see you.
HUGH JACKMAN’S JEANS AUCTION FOR OVER $23,000
“What the hell is this? I thought I was buying genes!”
SENATE APPROVES FILMED-SEX BILL
It requires additional paperwork on love scene shoots. Great… the movies are one step [...]