To resume October 10.
Nikki Finke’s Deadline calls a time out
Amid talk that the ownership of Deadline.com is on the verge of buying Variety, Nikki Finke announced on Deadline.com that her staff will be too busy next week on some unstated business to post breaking news nuggets. “The Deadline Team won’t provide 24/7 news coverage for at least the next week. One of the reasons is DH business affecting the entire staff in LA, NY, and Europe,” Finke posted. “As a result, we’ll probably miss some breaking stories and delay monitoring some comments, emails, and phonecalls. Please cut us some slack for the duration.”
Could this be the worst nightmare for the Variety staffers who have stuck it out at the fading trade this long? If there’s a bright side for the Variety types, Deadline has some solid journalists including film editor Michael Fleming, who spent two decades at Variety, and TV editor Nellie Andreeva, who worked at The Hollywood Reporter for ten years.
The buyer, based on reports, would be Jay Penske’s PMC in partnership with private equity fund Shamrock Capital Advisors.
Some links on the subject:
LA Times: “Deadline owner Penske likely to buy Variety”
Anne Thompson, IndieWire: “The question is what Penske plans to do with Variety, a hidebound institution that until now has kept its distance from the kind of traffic-chasing economics that Penske lives by…The economies of scale that Finke lives by are one reason she is so successful. Variety has no clue how to function the way she does.”
David Poland, Movie City News: “Who runs Variety if Nikki doesn’t try to do so? Who is willing to be put in that position? I don’t know that anyone can turn down a paycheck these days… but many people have either left Deadline or refused to take lucrative offers from Deadline for one reason only. Nikki Finke.”
LA Observed photo
via LA Observed http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/09/nikki_finkes_deadline_cal.php
President Obama Gets in On The Debate Expectations-Lowering Game
“Governor Romney is a good debater. I’m just okay,†Obama told a crowd of 11,200 in Las Vegas on Sunday night. “Folks in the media are already speculating on who is going to have the best zingers, who is going to put the most points on the board,†he added, saying that he’s more interested in giving “serious” answers to policy questions. Either he’s given up on his strategy of not boring the American people, or he wants us to be surprised when Wednesday night’s debate takes the tone of a Friars Club roast.
Read more posts by Margaret Hartmann
Filed Under:
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via Daily Intel http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2012/09/obama-lowers-debate-expectations.html
Moscow court to hear jailed punk band’s appeal
A Russian court is set to hear an appeal filed by three jailed members of an all-female rock band, who have been sentenced to two years for performing a “punk prayer” against President Putin at Moscow’s main cathedral.
via Yahoo! News – Latest News & Headlines http://news.yahoo.com/moscow-court-hear-pussy-riot-appeal-040244470.html
Connie Bruck: Billionaire Ron Burkle’s quest to conquer Hollywood.
Inside the towering iron gates of Green Acres, a Beverly Hills estate built in the nineteen-twenties by the silent-film actor Harold Lloyd, a narrow road climbs through eight acres of lawns and gardens to a mansion modelled on the Villa Palmieri, the Florentine palazzo where Boccaccio set the . . . (Subscription required.)
via The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/08/121008fa_fact_bruck
Ken Auletta: Why India’s newspaper industry is thriving.
The square that borders the Dadar Railway Station is the largest of sixty-five newspaper-delivery depots in Mumbai. At 4 A.M., forty trucks and vans packed with newspapers and magazines have parked and slid open their back doors; the trash-strewn streets are otherwise deserted, and the loudest noise . . . (Subscription required.)
via The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2012/10/08/121008fa_fact_auletta
Lizzie Widdicombe: Jake Gyllenhaal, on patrol.
There’s a certain way that actors behave when they put on police uniforms: their bearing stiffens, they furrow their brows. “It’s, like, cops,†Jake Gyllenhaal said the other day. “I see a lot of actors wear the uniform, like they feel different. To . . . (Subscription required.)
via The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2012/10/08/121008ta_talk_widdicombe
Gavin Newsom on watch for photogs during Mexican eco-spa vacation
Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California, was worried about being recognized while at Rancho Pescadero, a remote eco-spa in the Baja Peninsula of Mexico…
via NY Post: Page Six http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/newsom_gets_shy_y4p3hMc2ifb944HHErtdxH?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Page%20Six
Hollywood heavyweight Brian Grazer lands giant book deal
Hollywood uber-producer Brian Grazer has landed a hefty book deal to write about curiosity. We’re told the Oscar winner got a six-figure deal with…
via NY Post: Page Six http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/curious_subject_2YEhNV00g4Vk8SjESRNMoI?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Page%20Six
A secret tale from Brooke Astor’s $18.8 million estate
A hand-carved mouse auctioned off as part of Sotheby’s recent $18.8 million auction of Brooke Astor’s estate had a secret tale. “Whenever…
via NY Post: Page Six http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/valuable_vermin_with_secret_MRRATRLcAvytthv3koraNM?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=%20%20%20%20%20%20Page%20Six