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Sumner Redstone
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sumner redstone
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 »
viacom
Sumner Redstone Not A People Person
Hey, Happy 85th Birthday Sumner Redstone! Sure, you don't turn 85 until next month, but the Times already has a gift in the form of a long story on how much you suck at relating to other human beings and are a crazy old man who should probably think about retiring. It has your feud with movie star Tom Cruise (reportedly patched up, not that they mention that); the thing where you fired Viacom CEO Tom Freston and badmouthed him on Charlie Rose; some nephew who is after his share of your empire and your daughter Shari, non-executive vice chairman at Viacom, who is fighting with you over corporate governance and who you are still trash talking, according to the Times:More »
feuds
Hollywood Insiders Laugh With Tom Cruise, Not At Him
A studio lot full of Hollywood "agents, managers, publicists and reporters" found Scientology messiah Tom Cruise hilarious Tuesday night, the Times reported, not because the actor is certifiably insane but because he did a mean impression of Sumner Redstone, the Viacom and Paramount boss who cut ties with Cruise two years ago. The crowd was watching a screening of Paramount comedy Tropic Thunder, which includes a performance by Cruise as a redheaded, pudgy studio executive with lots of chest hair and a penchant for cussing and dirty dancing — a ringer for Redstone. Cruise's performance killed among insiders primed for Hollywood in-jokes and long accustomed to Cruise's unbalanced personality, but it's unlikely the rest of the moviegoing public will be as tickled, and weird that the chummy screening got any notice at all in the Times, even if the paper was trying to make up for missing the story of Cruise's make-up lunch with Redstone last week. After the jump, a side-by-side comparison of Cruise, made up for his character, and Redstone. More »
gossip roundup
Scientology's Glamorous New Friends
- Game over, Scientology wins, they have Pete Doherty and Sumner Redstone. Viacom chairman Redstone hasn't actually converted but did have lunch with Scientology bigshot Tom Cruise, probably canceling in his area a personal and business rift with the actor and paving the way for more sweet Mission Impossible money. Doherty has been reading up on the religion and shacking up with a Scientologist DJ who probably hasn't yet mentioned the religion's stance on psychoactive drugs.
- Accidental gay porno fan (and singer) John Mayer posted a long rambly blog "about a young guy who maintains a celebrity blog... who has wrestled with a lifelong battle for acceptance as a gay man." Then, mercifully, "I'm going quiet now." [JohnMayer.com]
- Star overlord Bonnie Fuller said singer Britney Spears' parents are "pimps" who treat their daughters like "cash registers" and "bank machines." To back this up, the American Media editorial director has both an anonymous quote and a book-plugging psychiatrist. Air. Tight. [HuffPo]
- There's talk of a Hills movie. Well, of course there is. The question is, have they stockpiled enough stares. [MTV]
- Hills stars Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt "work on their relationship" by going to Vegas and staying in different rooms, in different hotels and barely talking. Actually, that is seriously a dream vacation for some couples. [People]
- Atress Lindsay Lohan will play a member of the Manson family. [E! Online]
- She's supposedly jetting off to rehab soon, but singer Amy Winehouse still can't manage to get to the jail on time to visit her husband. [Sun]
Sumner Redstone
Anyone have a clip from the video tribute to the 84-year-old mogul, played at last night's benefit at the Waldorf-Astoria? So much high-powered insincerity: it's just got to be a classic.
Anyone have a clip from the video tribute to the 84-year-old mogul, played at last night's benefit at the Waldorf-Astoria? So much high-powered insincerity: it's just got to be a classic.
oped
Why Microsoft-Yahoo Would Be Bad News For Media
In internet land, everybody's very excited about the Redmond software giant's bid for Jerry Yang's languishing internet directory. Where would a combination leave AOL? (Answer: without an obvious acquirer or partner.) What about the challenge to Google? (Finally, a competitor, financed by Microsoft's profits from its bloated operating system and office applications.) Most of the commentary is overblown. Fusing two mediocre internet units, Microsoft's MSN and Yahoo, will not magically produce a dynamic challenger to Google; merely, if business precedent is any guide, mediocrity on a greater scale. Unfortunately, the petrified traditional media companies don't know that. (They don't know anything really.) And that's why the creation of another internet behemoth would be so pernicious. More »
herogram
Michael Hirschorn of VH1
One of the most talented producers in television, Michael Hirschorn, may or may not be leaving VH1, the entertainment channel he revived with shows like Best Week Ever, Flavor of Love, and I Love New York. The New York Post says the Viacom exec is in discussions with a number of rival networks, but he might just move into another role at Viacom, the company that owns VH-1. So, why should you care? 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 »
Have Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone and daughter Shari resolved this summer's feud? Maybe not! "[A]ccording to several people close to the two, relations between father and daughter are anything but lovey-dovey, and their conflict appears very much alive." [LAT]
Last week Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman, anticipating the departure of Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg from their deal with Paramount, suggested that if the DreamWorks pair left that it would have no effect on the company's bottom line. Yesterday, the pair slapped back at Sumner Redstone's company, naming Tom Freston, who was Dauman's predecessor at Viacom, to the board of DreamWorks Animation. It's more a symbolic gesture than anything else—what's Freston going to do, not buy Facebook for DreamWorks?—but still, every now and then it's nice to see a big fat "fuck you" played out in public. [Variety]
"Will Sumner Redstone ever get over being bested by Rupert Murdoch in the bidding for MySpace two years ago? Maybe. Fortune has learned of two stealth projects that Redstone's company, Viacom, has in the works for its MTV Networks unit. One is a twist on social networking called Flux, the other involves an investment in upcoming online video site VBS.tv, and both suggest that Redstone's company may actually be on to something." [Fortune]
"Sources tell me that the 84-year-old Redstone wants out of his four-year-old marriage to 44-year-old schoolteacher Paula Fortunato. 'He's asked her to leave the Beverly Park house, and she won't leave. It's a Mexican standoff,' an insider explained to me. I'm told she signed one of those iron-clad prenups and would only get $1 million if the marriage breaks up." [Nikki Finke]
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]
After reporting the company's second quarter earnings this morning, "a giddy Sumner Redstone, CBS's chairman, gushed about the performance of CBS and raved about the company's CEO Leslie Moonves. Redstone called Moonves 'the best executive in the media industry' and raved about the 'smart strategic moves' that CBS made to 'position itself in the digital landscape'..." Then he fired him. [CNN]
Now that Sumner Redstone has seen off all his family members, CEO Philippe Dauman is rumored to be first in line to succeed the Viacom chairman if he ever dies. Sources suggest that this can only bode poorly for Dauman, but Redstone demures: "It is absurd to think I will turn on Philippe Dauman. Philippe is one of the wisest and most capable business men I ever met. I've always admired him, and I will admire him to the end." Start updating that resume, Phil! [NYP]
No matter how many would-be successors he sees off, Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone needs to realize that he will, in fact, eventually die. [Marketwatch]
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