FOLLOW me on my popular Twitter feed. Just click this photo! @hbbtruth - David - Common sense on #Politics #PublicPolicy #Sports #PopCulture in USA, Great Britain, Sweden and France, via my life in #Texas #Memphis #Miami #IU #Chicago #DC #FL 🛫🌍📺📽️🏈. Photo is of Elvis and Joan Blackman in 'Blue Hawaii'
Beautiful Stockholm at night, looking west towards Gamla Stan
We applaud TheWrap's Sharon Waxman for adroitly performing a LIVE autopsy on curious recent Washington Post and N.Y. Times moves -WaPo booting Ombudsman position while NYT's "T" Mag curiously goes into a Time Machine and then bows and genuflects to NY society grande dame Lee Radziwill
TheWrap WaxWord blog Washington Post May Cut Ombudsman; New York Times Shills for Lee Radziwill By Sharon Waxman Published: February 17, 2013 @ 3:52 pm
The Washington Post is about to cut its ombudsman, according to its ombudsman.
In the latest, lamentable sign of the diminishing of America’s great daily newspapers, Patrick Pexton wrote this weekend that he is likely to be the last reader representative for the paper when his two-year term ends on Feb. 28.
This afternoon while I was writing some emails and drafts of some future blog posts that you'll soon be seeing here, I received the Breaking News about Disney's purchase of Lucsafilms via an email from Sharon Waxman'sTheWrap, our daily entertainment must-read. A few minutes later I listened to the entire conference call and heard analysts try to alternately pry and parry some good intel out of Jay Rasulo, Disney's CFO, that he didn't want to share, particularly as it involves valuation.
Much of the video above spoken by Disney CEO Robert Iger, better known to some of you as the husband of TV news personality Willow Bay, was later heard in the conference call that I listened to in its entirety. You can listen to the entire conference call here: http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/c2nj5j33/lan/en%20%20 In particular, they didn't want to talk in much detail about what the story is with Fox's distribution contract for prior Star Wars films and Paramount's deal for the Indiana Jones films. As you listen, while you probably have already heard the big news that a new Star Wars film is slated for release in 2015, Episode 7, make sure you don't sleep on the news that Disney wants to bring Star Wars and its huge cast of characters and narratives to TV in some new fashion, geared towards kids, and to amusement parks. TheWrap WaxWord blog Will the Force Be With Disney’s $4B 'Star Wars' Gamble? By Sharon Waxman Published: October 30, 2012 @ 7:58 pm
In buying Lucasfilm for a stunning $4.05 billion on Tuesday, Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger has made yet another bold gamble for the future of his media company, betting on a beloved but dusty franchise in need of a radical reimagining for a new generation.
starwars YouTube Channel: George Lucas and Kathleen Kennedy discuss the future of Star Wars movies at Disney. Uploaded October 30, 2012. http://youtu.be/YyqlTi7lkhY
Reason Magazine editor-in-chief Matt Welch discusses the symbol-laden presidency of Barack Obama with Fox Business Channel's Stuart Varney. http://youtu.be/b5W6KYFWN_Y
The blog post below is easily among the best things I've read, heard or seen all year, and I'm especially pleased that longtime HBB favorite Sharon Waxman is the one sharing the scoop with us via her blog on the website she created.
If you've read this blog for any period of time, you will know exactly why I feel this way, and just to give you a sense of the devastating and penetrating comments made by former Los Angles Times Assistant Editorial Page editor Matt Welch, now Editor-in-chief at Reason magazine, which he gave to Sharon on the telephone -wish I had the audio to play here!- take a look at this:
The paper is “blaming customers, blaming competition, blaming technology, instead of more forthrightly recognizing that the economics (of newspapers) got a lot worse,” he said. “If we don’t confront our own organizational pathologies, we’re in trouble.”
The Wrap WaxWord blog Former L.A. Times Editor Slams Paper For 'Blaming Customers, Competition, Technology' By Sharon Waxman Published: April 3, 2012 @ 2:58 pm,
How badly does former Los Angeles Times editor Matt Welch think the paper is doing?
Its “attitude is killing the host,” he tweeted last weekend.
For those of us like yours truly -and most of you reading this- far from The Left Coast who don't get the LA Times tossed into our front yard every morning, the costs under the LA Times: Digital Unlimited plan is 99 cents for the first four weeks, which includes unrestricted 24/7 access to latimes.com, plus special membership privileges, and then continues at $3.99 a week after promotional period, which comes out to roughly $196 for the year for digital access.
This post of Sharon's on Tuesday regarding the Tribune Company-owned Times actually follows by a few days an email I sent out last week about the decision of the Tribune'sSouth Florida Sun-Sentinel to erect a paywall next week, and why I think that in their particular case -as opposed to the Chicago Tribune or even the Baltimore Sun, both of which are MUCH BETTER value-added newspapers- is positively a suicidal roll of the dice.
I will post that email of mine online very soon.
And since many of you reading this probably never saw it the first time, I'll also include links to my critical and fact-filled email -and subsequent blog posts here- to Miami Herald President and Publisher David Landsberg, with cc's to Herald executive editor Aminda Marques and managing editor Rick Hirschregarding the Herald's continuing unsatisfactory news coverage of Broward County, which so often is either invisible when it should be anything but, or obtuse and condescending when it should be penetrating and hard-hitting. As I said at the time, neither is acceptable.
The future of the "24" film; Kiefer Sutherland interview on BBC Radio 1's Chris Moyles Show re "24," the "24" Movie, and his new Fox-TV series, "TOUCH."
This is a bit of a follow-up to my last post about Kiefer Sutherland and his wonderful new Fox-TV drama, "TOUCH," which I wrote about here right before the Super Bowl, on January 28th, 2012 titled, Kiefer Sutherland talks about his remarkable new hit Fox-TV drama, "TOUCH," and reminisces about "Stand By Me" and how much he still misses River Phoenix http://hallandalebeachblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/kiefer-sutherland-talks-about-his.html
TOUCH World Premiere is on Monday March 19th at 9 p.m. Eastern. When it was given a sneak preview in January, the first episode won its time-slot.
Amongst my friends and I, especially the ones still up in the Washington, D.C. area, Kiefer Sutherland remains one of the most compelling actors on the scene today, and those cynics who doubt that a sufficient number of movie goers would plunk down $10 to see a film version of 24 in a theater, esp. when considering the raft of plain awful comedies, shallow dramas and insipid rom-coms with Jennifer Anniston already coming out of Hollywood, is clearly not aware of the depth of support he, the show and its creators continue to have.
Around 2:24 p.m. Tuesday my time in Miami, Sharon Waxman, founder of TheWrap, your inside look at "Entertainment Industry Analysis, Breaking Hollywood News," had an exclusive about the looming financial problems facing the 24 film on her own blog,WaxWord, and it was a post that like to send a shiver down the back of every 24 fan who has already been waiting patiently for what seems like forever for this long-promised venture to finally be made.
TheWrap
WaxWord blog
Kiefer Sutherland Furious as Fox Pulls Plug on '24' Movie (Exclusive)
By Sharon Waxman
Published: March 14, 2012 @ 11:06 am
Kiefer Sutherland is furious at 20th Century Fox, which has called a halt to the movie version of his hit television show, “24,” over budget and star salary issues, TheWrap has learned.
The movie based on the conspiracy-terrorism-action show was in pre-production and set to start shooting next month, but has now ground to a halt because Fox will greenlight a budget no higher than $30 million, while Sutherland and producer Brian Grazer feel the budget needs to be in the low $40s at its tightest.
Since the Hurricanes play Kansas State on Saturday afternoon and the Dolphins play in Cleveland on Sunday afternoon against the Browns, I'll necessarily be seeing this film I've been waiting for for years -since first reading the Michael Lewis book "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game" in hardback- later today at the AMC Aventura 24 down the street at the Aventura Mall.
See also:
The Washington Post
Celebritology blog
‘Moneyball’: Why it’s this year’s ‘Social Network’
Moneyball is being billed as a sports drama, but really it's a mystery.
The first question I couldn't figure out is: Why was it even made in the first place? When the book was released in 2003 it was polarizing but it was interesting and helped casual baseball fans gain acceptance and understanding of advanced statistics.
Through no fault of its own, the book (written by Michael Lewis and published in 2003) hasn't aged well and the story just doesn't translate to the screen. The Moneyball concept has become trite and misunderstood over the years and this movie will only continue to make things worse.
Read the rest of the review with lots of good points about the finer points being dummied down for movie-goers:
FYI: In my opinion, actress Tammy Blanchard, who plays Scott Hatteberg's (Chris Pratt's) wife in the film, is an amazing mega-talent who ought to be starring in a a lot more big films than she is. Ten years ago, she won an Emmy Award for playing a young Judy Garland in a TV film titled "A Life with Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows," which was only one of the best things I've ever seen on American TV. It was stupendous.
If you have never seen it and see it advertised on cable, watch it -you won't be disappointed!
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Given the media contretemps that has surrounded Brad Pitt the past ten days since his comments to the Parade magazine Sunday newspaper supplement about ex-wife Jennifer Anniston, and his subsequent attempts to clarify them and undo any misperceptions, I wish that someone could explain to me just when and why it was decided that one of the unwritten job responsibilities of the American news media in the 21st century was being a suck-up for Anniston, and defending her from any and all criticism, no matter how valid.
It's unprofessional, and seems to especially be an epidemic among female journalists.
And it's equally true of their treatment of Julia Roberts.
Anniston is NOTKatharine Hepurn or Audrey Hepburn or Ingrid Bergman or Elizabeth Taylor.
She's NOT even Faye Dunaway, Jennifer Connelly or Natalie Portman.
Not be any stretch of the imagination.
Jennifer Anniston is famous for what she looks like, what she's wearing -or barely wearing- and whom she's dating.
There's room for that in an entertainment-consumed society, of course, but is her life in particular really so fascinating that it's deserving of the out-of-proportione attention she nets among the non-entertainment media?
That's just it -she's NOT that interesting.
And while no serious well-informed person who closely follows contemporary entertainment or the real inner working of 'Show Biz' harbors any illusions about what Entertainment Tonight is now compared to what it once was or at least aspired to be, with serious reporting in the 1980's on what was happening behind-the-scenes at the Hollywood studios, their over-the-top coverage of Pitt's comments seem very sexist and parochial in a way that is hard to fathom in the year 2011.
As he stated himself to NBC-TV'sMatt Lauer, can't he just be happy he is with Angelina Jolie?
Does everyone immediately have to jump to Zero Sum theory and say that it's a reflection on Anniston?
He was unhappy, unfulfilled and didn't want to be married to Anniston anymore.
Can't you cut the guy some slack?
Besides, it's always been clear to me that he wanted to have a family sooner than Anniston and that cleavage created the same sorts of difficulties for them that it does for millions and millions of married couples with a lot less resources than Pitt and Anniston.
As I've stated her previously, Sharon Waxman'sTheWrap has made a name for itself in Hollywood in part because it refuses to play the role of talent-friendly, hand-holding media stooge.
Months ago, she wrote a great blog column about actor Rupert Everett attacking the liberal Hollywood studios for their politically naivete and for defending and promoting stars like Anniston no matter how poorly her films do at the box office.
(You could throw-in Sarah Jessica Parker to that mix as well.)
I strongly suggest you read it.
TheWrap
Rupert Everett Lashes Hollywood as Homophobic, Jennifer Aniston as Protected
Published: January 01, 2011 @ 10:42 pm
By Sharon Waxman
Rupert Everett has given scorched earth interviews before, but none like the one he gave the BBC this week, criticizing Hollywood and its “powers that be” for shutting out homosexuals like himself and protecting favored movie stars like Jennifer Aniston.
PBS NewsHour video: New York Times Names First Woman to Executive Editor Job. Jill Abramson speaks to NewHour host Jim Lehrer about her new position starting in September. June 3, 2011.
Page One: Inside the New York Times hits theaters June 24th, 2011
TheWrap'sEditor in Chief Sharon Waxman adroitly sizes-up Jill Abramson's selection as new executive editor of the New York Times -a fine choice, it's just not particularly inspired, or inspiring.
More thoughts of my own are below Sharon's last two posts that connect-the-dots on the Abramson story that lots of people I know will be watching VERY closely -like me.
For the record, I've been reading the NY Times daily continuously for over thirty-five years, starting when I was at JFK Junior High in North Miami Beach, circa 1974 and continuing when I got next door at NMBHS.
Every morning as I walked to school from our family's home on N.E. 159th Street & 14th Avenue in NMB, I picked up a copy of the paper next to the then-Wolfie's Restaurant on the south side of the 163rd Street Shopping Center, often getting a Black & White cookie, before walking thru the shopping center, back before it had the fabric roof installed, as the two schools were just north of it.
(The sugar from those cookies came in handy at NMB since I was on the early shift and had Spanish with Mrs. Adderly at 7 a.m.!)
No matter where I've ever lived in the United States, when I wasn't subscribing to it, I've always known every single nearby location where aNYT could be purchased, whether at a news stand or a vending machine. And I do mean EVERY one, too.
My stack of NY Times Sunday Magazineswhile in high school at North Miami Beach came in handy more times than I could tell you here, and I can still remember certain key stories or fashion essays, which is how I knew who Carrie Donovan and William Safire were long before I got up to Bloomington and IU.
There and then later in Evanston and Arlington County, my stash in banker's boxes was, if not symbols of upper-ward mobility or conspicuous consumption, at least signs of organized affinity hoarding.
The information cache in Arlington, 99% of it anyway, eventually wound-up in the hands of the Friends of the Arlington County Library to sell when I had to return to South Florida in late 2003.
My treasure trove of magazines and journals were referred to by some friends, "The National Archives Annex." Usually good-naturedly, though NOT always.
Something they didn't have on the cover of the Timesmagazine when I was in Junior High in the 1970's -this kind of amazing photography and color composition.
Above, The Self-Manufacture of Megan Fox by Lynn Hirshberg, How America's leading starlet made herself up for the multimedia age, NYT 2009-11-11, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for The New York Times
Jill Abramson’s Twitter Account, and a Vision for the New York Times
By Sharon Waxman
published June 3, 2011, 6:29 am
It would be more interesting that Jill Abramson was named executive editor of The New York Times if the paper was not on such a knife’s edge for survival.
Much respected, Abramson can only be considered dynamic when compared to her predecessor, the bloodless Bill Keller. Keller is so laconic that his own wife has commonly disparaged him as a cocktail party killer.
Before reading my comments, see this intriguing insight into Abramson that was in the Wall Street Journal'sBest of the Web column by James Tarnato, a column I've been reading -and occasionally contributing items to- since I was living in Arlington County.
Specifically, read the opening piece titled, All the News That's Fit to Scrub "Absolute truth"? At the New York Times, it's more like Minitrue which includes some great pithy observational comments from Tarantoandblogger Ann Althouse, and a nice tweaking of
Now you know why I said to pay attention to the video at the top, no?
In my opinion, Sharon Waxman's Friday column was MUCH more incisive than anyone else's analysis I've read -and I've read a lot- on not just the well-known and generally understood problems at the Times and it's odd mixture of both high-minded sense of duty and the more immediate need to make (and keep) a buck in the digital age, but also on Abramson's laconic personality and whether that will prove helpful or hurtful to making some necessary changes there, laconic NOT being a synonym for inspiring or motivating.
And, of course, her well-deserved tweaking -but not Tweets- of Bill Keller's well-known social media myopia, even though Times readers are MUCH more likely than other newspaper subscribers to not only have a Twitter account, but actually have something worth saying and reading!
It seems counter-intuitive that someone like Keller, at the nexus of so much useful information and insight, someone who always says the right measured thing on his appearances on The Charlie Rose Show, should be the one who actually thinks they're going to tell/lecture society -and his own readers- that they're engaged in folly.
(In that respect, Keller's myopia is akin to the Miami Herald's/McClatchy's current management keeping their head firmly in the sand when there's a million compelling stories down here in South Florida that they are consciously ignoring, but which a real energetic and properly-motivated newspaper would be doing amazing things with, a point that I've made here many times in the past with specific examples of stories they slept on.
They even bury their own reader blogs that they launched and triumphantly hailed but two short years ago -of which mine was among the originals, to my own surprise, since they never contacted me- but have now ignored them to the point that they "promote" them with nary a graphic or icon on the page but merely the word, South Florida Blogs.
At the very bottom of their web page.
I even forget they exist -and I'm listed.
in the year 2011, despite the fact that many smaller newspapers or niche online publications have them -and have had them for years- the Herald still doesn't even have a simple widget that websites or blogs can post to run their stories about sports or South Florida news or... to send readers their way.
In many respects, to me, the current Herald is like a mediocre college newspaper circa 1992 -their whole world is about to change drastically, but instead of having faculty advisors who are prescient, they have ones who think this Internet thing will have little relevancy for them, so they keep ordering nothing but more barrels of ink.)
I last wrote a lot about the Times here on the blog in April, when I just wanted to unburden myself of some tidbits and random thoughts from my time spending lots of time in and near their Washington bureau, though there was a LOT that I intentionally left out.That post was Memories of D.C. bureau of N.Y. Times; Cool stuff from NYT Graphics: Key states for Obama in 2012; 2010 Census interactive map
Eye Street trivia -I shared this with Rick Berke himself many years ago -Separated at Birth:NYT'sRick Berke and ESPN'sbaseball analyst Tim Kurkjian.
Another take on the whole Bill Keller conundrum is at Forbes' online media blog
Forbes Magazine
Media blog
NY Times Editor Bill Keller: The Exit Interview
By Jeff Bercovici
June 2 2011 - 8:00 pm
Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, caught media watchers off guard today when he announced that he’ll step down in September, with managing editor Jill Abramson replacing him. After eight years of leading a 1,200 person newsroom through wars, recessions, elections and political sex scandals, he’s returning to being a full-time writer. I caught up with Keller, who told me what made him decide to walk away now, what he finds “damned annoying” about Arianna Huffington, and why he’s hoping the next three months will be filled with worldwide chaos.
A March 21st post of Alan's titled,A shock video to keep news execs up at night
highlighted this video below, and I agree; check it out and think about how different the Miami Herald would be today if someone like this was in charge:
