Late in the evening a frisson rippled through the upper lobby as Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi came up the stairs. No matter that the Australian media mogul gave former Nixon aide Roger Ailes a cable news network to play with, nor that he publishes the neo-con rantings of the Wall Street Journal's opinion pages, and the nauseating moralizing of Andrea Peysner in the New York Post. Murdoch was immediately surrounded by friends and sycophants.

Best moment: Maer Roshan dragged photographer Nikola Tamindzic over to capture a moment of pretend intimacy with the 77-year-old tycoon. The move had all the subtlety of a high-school girl who was still trying to make her ex-boyfriend jealous: the intended audience was Mort Zuckerman of the Daily News, who let Roshan's magazine run out of money before he found a new benefactor.

But by the time Roshan managed to tap Murdoch's shoulder and extract him from his group, Nikola was distracted by some pretty girl; by the time the Radar editor refocused the Serbian photographer on the task at hand, a friend of Murdoch, Tom Freston, came over to have a tycoony chat; and by the time a slightly embarrassed Roshan finally got his photo opportunity, Zuckerman was distracted by a gold-digging Julia Allison. "He's single, right?" she asked.

Hey girls! Mort Zuckerman — owner of the New York Daily News — is single.

Larry David — creator and star of Curb Your Enthusiasm — is single.

Star talking head Julia Allison — seen here talking with Business Week's Sarah Lacy — is dressing for her new target demographic.

Matt Nye, Jann Wenner's boyfriend, with spiritualist Kathy Freston. It's a hard life being the spouse of tycoon; nobody else understands that.

Julia Allison looks a little different. Ah yes, no hand on hip. Or maybe something else.

Charlie Rose and Mort Zuckerman can at least turn on the charm when they need to. Liberal pundit Eric Alterman has no mode but obnoxious.

The power picture: Charlie Rose, Mort Zuckerman, Arianna Huffington, Jann Wenner and Rupert Murdoch.

Jacob Bernstein, son of the Watergate investigator, is thinking about his flat-screen television at home.

Yes, Wendi Deng is indeed hot — and tall. Seen here with Lloyd Grove, the former gossip columnist.

No matter how much he begs, not a penny into that Radar magazine. Mogul to mogul, let me tell you: worst decision I ever made.

Something about George Bush's crimes against humanity, probably.

PBS's Charlie Rose.

What on earth is Mediabistro's Laurel Touby doing here? I didn't recognize her without the boa.

This man looks important, but I have no idea who he is.

Rich gay men make such good fathers. (Arianna Huffington, whose husband Michael turned out to be a political loser and "bisexual" — with Jann Wenner. The Rolling Stone author and his boyfriend had a baby with a surrogate mother.)

You know who this is, don't you? The hotel bellboy — must have been living on some blissful service industry planet without continuous cable talk shows — didn't. "Can I help you, miss?" he asked. "Where is the Huffington car?" she replied.

Photos by Nikola Tamindzic

• Edward H. Meyer, the former CEO of Grey Advertising, loves being retired, he told the New York Times last year.

  I no longer have clients who demand that I be at certain places at certain times, so I'm much more in control of my time. To suddenly wake up one morning and say, 'I can plot this day pretty much as I wish to do it, and if I want to take an hour off, just walk around the city, I can. that's what's exhilarating.

• John Chapple, the former CEO of Sprint Nextel subsidiary Nextel Partners, has watched his baby get swallowed up in one of tech's most destructive mergers.
• Tom Freston, the former CEO of Viacom, lost his job when Sumner Redstone replaced him with Philippe Dauman, a stiff corporate lawyer best known for having a really cool son who works at Google.
• Jaynie Studenmund was CEO of eHarmony. For two months.

• November 1996 Yahoo and MTV announce the creation of UnfURLed, "the ultimate guide to music on the Web." The site is promised to launch in January 1997.
• January 1997 UnfURLed does not launch.
• July 1997 UnfURLed launches, six months late. The site later disappears, forgotten.
• February 1999 Viacom acquires Imagine Radio, a service which lets users listen to preprogrammed music channels, or create their own. (If that sounds a lot like Last.fm or Pandora, that's because it was a lot like those sites.)
• May 1999 Viacom acquires SonicNet, an online music-news and information site.
• August 1999 Amid Internet fervor, Viacom creates the MTVi Group as a rollup of its Internet websites, hoping to take it public to cash in on the market for Internet stocks.
• August 2000With an IPO off the boards, Viacom reorganizes MTVi, giving control over websites like MTV.com and VH1.com back to their respective cable channels.
• 2001-2004 MTV does nothing interesting with Internet music for five years or so, as best we can tell.
• April 2005 MTV launches Overdrive, a broadband "channel." MTV later brags about how many "video streams" Overdrive serves, not noticing the complete apathy with which music fans greet it.
• July 2005 News Corp. swoops in and inks a deal to buy the parent company of MySpace. Viacom is widely reported to have been interested in buying MySpace, which gained popularity by embracing music on user profiles and getting bands to use the site to communicate with fans.
• January 2006 Microsoft and MTV launch Urge, an online music store.
• August 2006 Google and MTV announce an experimental deal to distribute videos over Google's AdSense network. The experiment, apparently a failure, dissolves quietly.
• September 2006 Viacom CEO Tom Freston, a longtime MTV exec, is fired, reportedly for missing the chance to buy MySpace. Later that month, Microsoft knifes MTV in the back by announcing its Zune player and companion store, rendering Urge pointless.
• August 2007 MTV merges Urge into RealNetworks' also-struggling Rhapsody music service.

Did I miss anything? Leave a comment below.

• WOLF OUT: I have no idea about the spell that consultants seem to be able to weave over senior executives. These guys (and girls) know absolutely nothing about the real world (or Road Rules for that matter), yet always frame themselves as the perfect hire. Everything they do is theoretical and can only succeed in a vacuum. The fact that Wolf bombed out is totally unsurprising. Give a consultant like him a spreadsheet and an organization chart and you're golden. Give him the rudder of your ship and expect to hit a reef.
  
• AFFILIATE SALES PEOPLE: Viacom's networks sell themselves. To pay someone what people like Nicole Browning made to sell those networks is abject foolishness. You could get a college sophomore to do what they do, and you wouldn't have to give them a fat expense account to do it.
  
• BEAN COUNTERS TO THE FRONT: Appointing someone like Eigendorff says to me that a lot of heads are going to roll, and soon. He's a bottom line guy, and people like that always think cutting costs is the best way to do that, even if that means sacrificing talent that could be reapplied. There is a ton of talent in that company, and when they're allowed some freedom the results are great (Ozzy's hit show was a producer's idea, as were many other successful concepts). With a bean counter at the helm, those people won't get opportunities, other than ones that involve updating their resumes.
  
• IN THE END: Freston and McGrath have the same understanding of new media as your average canasta playing senior in Boca Raton. Jason Hirschorn, the guy they banked on to lead them, and who golden parachuted his incredibly fortunate ass to SlingBox, was little more than a guy that parlayed a fan boy website into a job he couldn't handle. YouTube, Gawker, MySpace, etc. are the future, and MTV, etc. are the past because Viacom lacks vision.
  Viacom totally and completely fucked up their digital plays. Viacom needs to unleash a real paradigm shift in their business model, and perhaps these are the first moves in getting that done. But as long as the CEO is a 100-year-old curmudgeon, don't count on that happening anytime soon or in any sort of successful fashion. Ad dollars are heading to the web in droves, and Viacom is ill prepared to get many of them.
  
  Earlier: Gawker's coverage of MTV
  

Embargoed News
Hold until noon, December 21, 2006

Media and Lifestyle Leaders Invest in Plum

The Kraft Group and James Pallotta's The Raptor Fund Lead $20 Million
Round
Funding Growth of Local Communities Network

Chris Blackwell, Jimmy Buffett, Robert Pittman, Tom Freston,
Andy and Kate Spade, and Barry Sternlicht Among Investors

NEW YORK (December 21, 2006) - Plum, the network of local television
stations produced in, for and about some of America's most dynamic
communities, today announced major investments in the company to fund
expansion into new markets, including Sun Valley and Miami Beach, and
the development of new content offerings.

Private-equity investors The Kraft Group and legendary hedge-fund
manager James Pallotta's The Raptor Fund led the $20 million round of
funding. Ackerley Partners, a privately held media and entertainment
investment group, also participated. The Pilot Group, led by former AOL
president Robert Pittman, invested as well.

Robert Kraft, CEO of The Kraft Group, said, "From our work with the NFL
and other media properties we have a good sense of the value of unique
content and unique audiences. We've been impressed by Plum's ability
to develop both, and we think the company is poised to create a
tremendous amount of value."

Jonathan Kraft and David Kraft will join the Plum board of directors,
as will former music industry executive Kevin Law.

Leaders in lifestyle, media, music and resorts joined the round,
ensuring Plum has both the funding and marketplace expertise required
for rapid growth and sustained relevancy to consumers in Plum's
high-end lifestyle and resort markets. These investors include, among
others:
Chris Blackwell - Founder of Island Records (Bob Marley, U2); Founder
of Palm Pictures and owner of several luxury Jamaican resorts
Jimmy Buffett - World-renowned musician, author, film producer and
entrepreneur
Nick Buoniconti -Football Hall of Fame legend
Jason Flom - Chairman and CEO of Virgin Records U.S.; Founder of Lava
Records
Tom Freston - Former President and CEO of Viacom; Founding member of
MTV
Andy and Kate Spade - Founders of luxury and lifestyle fashion brands
Kate Spade and Jack Spade
Barry Sternlicht - Chairman and CEO of Starwood Capital Group;
Founder of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

— more —

Plum Investment / Add One

Tom Scott, founder and CEO of Plum, said, "It's an exciting time at
Plum. We're psyched that such an inspiring group of investors share our
vision for Plum and where it's going. It's amazing to have the
opportunity to be working with and learning from some of the best in
media, entertainment, sports, fashion, travel and finance. We've got a
great team of people at Plum who really care - that's irreplaceable."
Previously, Tom was the co-CEO and co-founder of Nantucket Nectars.

Plum will expand its local reach and content by using the new funding
to acquire additional stations in Sun Valley, Idaho and has secured
cable distribution for a new Plum channel in Miami Beach, Florida. Plum
has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the television
assets of E-Da-Hoe, Inc., including the KSVX and KSVT television
stations serving Sun Valley. The deal is contingent on FCC approval
that is expected in early 2007. These two new markets will join Plum's
current markets of Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, the Hamptons, Vail,
Aspen, and Telluride. More than 10 million of the nation's most
influential people visit these markets each year.

In addition to television programming in these markets, Plum has
entered into distribution agreements with AOL video and Tivo broadband.
Plum also is expanding online content at Plumtv.com, including local
events calendars, weather, video, photos, community news and real
estate listings unique to each market. Content uploading and sharing
capabilities, and interests in proprietary content development and
production are also underway.

Chris Glowacki, president of Plum, said, "Plum is developing two
complementary businesses. We have a very effective distribution
business that connects deeply with hard-to-reach influencers. And we
have a lifestyle content business that ensures both viewers and
advertisers find us compelling and relevant. This new investment and
the experts advising us help ensure we can grow both of these very
aggressively."

About Plum
Plum is a new type of media company. Produced in, for and about some of
America's most dynamic communities, Plum programming is honest,
authentic and optimistic. It celebrates the natural beauty and
character of its communities and spirit and intellect of the people who
live and visit there. Plum's current markets are Nantucket, Martha's
Vineyard, the Hamptons, Vail, Aspen and Telluride. Miami Beach and Sun
Valley will become operational Plum stations in the summer of 2007.
While the towns may be small, the reach and influence is not. Plum's
markets are destinations of choice for over 10 million of the nation's
most interesting and influential people each year. They are people who
define the culture in the media, business, arts and politics. They are
Plum's audience as well as its content. Increasingly, Plum is available
to a broader audience beyond its communities through video on demand
and the Inte

Viacom Holding Money Back to look good for Wall Street
Producers and talent are calling and complaining to MTV Networks about past due invoices. Ever since Tom Freston was ousted a few months back MTVN has tried to look healthy for Wall Street. With this in mind MTVN hasn't issued payments for 2 weeks and rumors are circulating that no payments will go out for the rest of the year. This might help MTVN look more successful at the end of a very difficult year (companies split and Freston fired). Employees have been told that if they tell those seeking payment that money is being held back that they will be fired.

American Tragedies, to Sell Trucks

Man Walks Into a Celebrity Lunch... and the Jokes Are All Written for Him [NYT]

Grey, who was speaking to a gathering of media and technology execs, said Par had considered two options when Cruise's producing pact came up for renewal.

The first was to "reduce the capital we were putting in so dramatically that it wouldn't have made sense for Tom to keep it," Grey said. Such a readjustment "would've changed the ceiling for all top talent deals."

The second option was not to reach an agreement. When it became clear, in late August, that the two parties would choose door No. 2, Redstone spilled the beans.

"Was it as elegant as I would've wanted it to be? No. Was it more personal? Yes," Grey said. "Sumner Redstone is Sumner Redstone. He's a maverick.

"Tom Cruise is my friend — my showbiz friend — and he is an extraordinary actor, and he will be wildly successful in the future," Grey said. "However, the economics have to make sense. You have to get value for the capital you're spending."

That's a good deal more than he's ever shared publicly about the incident, having until now offered only a sound-blip about how Paramount "should be defined by our pictures, not by our process." Clearly, some distance from the messy events—not to mention having survived the summer movie season with his neck intact—has freed Grey up to say what really was expressed in all those hushed tête-à-têtes, midnight board meetings, and countless paper-airplane-messages reading, "Let's shitcan that overpaid Martian!" that came sailing out from Redstone's office in the tense days leading up to the parting of the ways of the two longtime "showbiz friends."

• Tom toasted, Viacom roasted [Variety]

"I don't think there's anyone in this room today who feels Tom was treated fairly," News Corp. President Peter Chernin told a crowd that included media and entertainment bigs like Rupert Murdoch, Edgar Bronfman Jr., Doug Morris, Harvey Weinstein, Ahmet Ertegun and John Sykes. "There's no doubt in my mind that Tom's continued success will haunt Viacom for years to come."

Pause. "But enough about Tom Cruise," said Chernin, firing up the rotisserie. "We're here to talk about Tom Freston, and Tom Freston is an a-hole. ... How can you roast someone who's already toast?

"I can only imagine how tough it must have been for Tom to be screwed over by a guy [Redstone] so old that he had to take a little blue pill to do it."

Making note of Freston's corporate rival Les Moonves (who made nice with Freston at the lunch), Chernin added that MTV, the network Freston founded, "now officially stands for 'Moonves Takes Viacom.'"

Whoever writes Chernin's material, a tip of the hat: sounds like he killed. (By contrast, we don't know how Stephen Colbert's Spongebob Squarepants/cheese grater joke went over, but on paper...yeesh.) And while we have no doubt that Les Moonves will have his revenge—we all know he can't resist a good, public flogging—for now, he'll have to put the exact wording and venue of his inevitable verbal takedown on the backburner, and return to his regularly scheduled duties of applying massage oils to the Stegosaurus-like ridges of Redstone's back whilst whispering Iagoesque consultations into his corporate overlord's ear.

• Axed exec the roast of the town [NY Daily News]

Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone says he had originally offered Tom Freston the job of sole CEO of Viacom — before it split — but Freston declined.

Redstone asked Leslie Moonves. "Naturally, being Les, he grabbed it. Then Tom came back and said he wanted it and that created problems," Redstone said in an interview with Charlie Rose broadcast on PBS Wednesday.

The rest is history. Viacom split, with Freston and Moonves each getting their own company. Redstone fired Freston, his colleague of 20 years, last month.

Indeed, it's all history now. Freston was carried out of Viacom's headquarters on his shield by his adoring throng of ex-employees, leaving him $60 million to blow on his soul-searching trip to Burma. And as for Moonves, well, Redstone will learn the consequence of backing his second CEO choice when he awakens in the middle of the night, his attempted scream swallowed by the pillow being pressed against his face, and hears Moonves' unmistakable voice gently cooing, "It's your time, old man. Just let go."

• Sumner speaking out [Variety]
• Previously: Sumner Redstone Displeased By Moonves-Freston Slap-Fight [Defamer]

Mr. Moonves is too savvy a political player to show even a hint of schadenfreude over the ouster of Mr. Freston.

With a picture like that, why would he even need to? The self-satisfaction, the thrill of victory, the sheer level of triumph exuded; we wouldn't be surprised if he actually ate Freston right before they took the shot.

A Tortoise Savors the Lead

More pics after the jump.

Earlier: Gawker's Coverage of Tom Freston