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But Who Will Finance The Next Love Guru? "A $450 million film-financing deal between Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures and Deutsche Bank AG has fallen through, the latest sign that the credit crisis on Wall Street has roiled Hollywood... The studio had been working for months... to fund as many as 30 films." [WSJ]

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feuds

New Movie Channel "Royally Screwed" Les Moonves

CBS honcho Les Moonves had a week from hell. It started with a Times highlighting how his salary keeps going up while revenues at his beleaguered company keep going down. Then he had to answer to news department staff about leaks that made Katie Couric look like a lame duck in the anchor chair at CBS Evening News. Now he's said by Nikki Finke's sources to be "royally screwed" after fumbling negotiations with Viacom, a sibling company in the Sumner Redstone media empire. Moonves had been trying to cut the amount CBS' Showtime was paying for Paramount movies, but Paramount said "screw this" and decided to form its own cable channel along with studios MGM and Lionsgate. Here's why the whole situation is especially awkward, according to the Times: More »

1:35 AM on Mon Apr 21 2008
By Ryan Tate
992 views, 4 comments

Latest by arirang: But he's got a hot wife to come home to. Sometimes, it's the only thing that can keep a person's more »

youtube

Why Paramount's New "Dollar Per Clip" Business Will Fail (Hint: YouTube)

Paramount plans to sell old movie clips for a buck each, says the Post. "Hollywood's answer to the ringtone" is available on Facebook and a virtual world called "there" (no, seriously) but Paramount plans to offer the clips as "video ringtones." That's a stupid idea as I'll explain below, but first let's go down the list of films Paramount is selling clips from, by showing clips already available on YouTube. More »

11:03 PM on Thu Apr 10 2008
By Nick Douglas
1,848 views, 10 comments

Latest by In Other News...: @donmiguel: I feel the need... the need... for speed. I feel the need... the need... for speed. I feel the need... the need... more »

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David Geffen, Machiavellian Media Master v. Sumner Redstone, Nude Hot Tub-Shaving Senior Citizen

Lots of fun and crazy items of interest in Bryan Burrough's December Vanity Fair piece about the ongoing nastiness between Viacom and CBS billionaire Sumner Redstone and his Paramount-owned studio Dreamworks SKG. 82-year-old Redstone, not exactly known for his soothing managerial style (although at least just yesterday he sorta reconciled with his estranged daughter), acquired the "Shrek" studio four years ago. Much to his irritation, we're sure, David Geffen came with the place. The two have been thorns in each other's sides ever since. Here's our bullet-pointed breakdown! More »

4:55 PM on Thu Nov 8 2007
By Maggie
2,959 views, 7 comments

Latest by Joe Clark: How can one be a "tub-shaving" anything, let alone one who is hot and/or nude? more »

Paramount—the brightest light in Viacom's recent earnings report— saw profits rise on ticket and DVD sales by 20 percent. So Cindy Adams is pretty sure Chairman Sumner Redstone is gonna sell the whole thing off. It's one of those weird cases where it's hard to decide if Cindy's just crazy, or she's that special kind of crazy that can understand and anticipate Redstone's crazy. Meanwhile, the mogul and his recently deposed daughter Shari had dinner together at Il Postino on Wednesday. The staff called Redstone "extremely cheap." [NYP]

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barry diller

Flashback: Barry Diller

A reader, ruminating on New Economy euphoria circa 1993 recalls a scene from Senate hearings on Barry Diller's attempted takeover of Paramount: "Diller was being interviewed outside the hearing room by a reporter, and while he was talking, the Capitol Police closed the huge, oaken door to the room. I was also outside the room, so I saw what happened next: when Diller was finished with the interview, he smiled and began striding toward the door without really looking where he was going, ran right into the door ad fell right on his ass. The TV reporter got it all on camera—and panicked. 'Don't worry...we won't use that...don't worry, Mr. Diller. We won't! We won't!'" Ah, 1993! When the corporate raiders got so excited about making piles and piles of money, they were running into walls! Or doors.

3:09 PM on Thu May 1 2003
By Gawker
55 views, Comment