Variety to Lead Old Media Back to Pay Wall Ghetto
Variety, the Hollywood trade newspaper with its only secret language based on words like "ankle" and "boffo" into its copy, has confirmed that it plans to put most or all of its web site behind a paywall.
Time's New Cover, Twitter's Value & Ernie's F-Bomb
• Glenn Beck is Time magazine's cover boy this week, sadly. [Time, HuffPo]
• Spike Lee and Robert De Niro are teaming up with Showtime "to develop a drama series about Manhattan's Alphabet City." [THR]
• Twitter is now worth $1 billion, believe it or not. [TechCrunch]
• Nikki Finke hears that Variety is planning to…
We Still Don't Know Whether Inglourious Basterds is Going to Suck or Not
We're Tarantino fans for sure, but a WWII movie about Nazi-killing Jews? We're a little skeptical, and the critics aren't helping our confusion.
David Mamet to Put His Copious Words in Anne Frank's Mouth
Disney and David Mamet are working on a new film version of ninth grade staple The Diary of Anne Frank. We only pray there will be no cursing riffs, animated mice, or musical numbers. [Variety]
Is Judd Apatow's Funny People Ha-Ha Funny, Or Awkward Turtle "Funny?"
Yesterday, the first reviews of Judd Apatow's Funny People started to trickle out from the major film critics. How'd it do? Well...
Layoffs at Variety, Parent Company
Updated After longtime Variety editor Peter Bart was eased out of power last week, the conventional wisdom was that major staff changes could be in store. And here they come, at the entire company. Layoffs!
Shake Up at Variety, The Boston Globe Rallies
• Boston Globe staffers are still reacting to the news that the New York Times Co. may shutter the paper in 30 days if certain pay concessions aren't met. The paper announced it plans to raise newsstand prices, and a small group of staffers staged a rally last night in support of the paper. [E&P, WCVB]
• Peter Bart is…
Peter Bart and Variety's Future
Longtime Variety editor Peter Bart was finally replaced last weekend—a move that we (and others) interpreted as Bart being, essentially, stripped of his power to make way for new blood. Not true, he says!
Peter Bart Kicked Upstairs at Variety
After 20 years as Variety's editor in chief, Peter Bart was replaced with his deputy. Now the question is what the trade's cost-cutting corporate overlords will do to the paper.
Anne Thompson Among Shocking 'Variety' Staff Cuts
The pink-slip printer had been whirring loudly all day over at Variety. And moments ago, as it produced actual names, it took on the blood-curdling tone of a meat grinder.
Sara Nelson Out, Sharon Waxman In
In your sobering Monday media column: Publishers Weekly editor laid off, scrounging for dollars and cougars, former New York Times Hollywood reporter Sharon Waxman's web site cometh, and more!
LA Times Makes Fun of Variety for Losing Oscar Ads They Covet
LA Times columnist Patrick Goldstein used his blog yesterday for the entertaining purpose of viciously mocking Variety and its Hollywood fixture editor, Peter Bart. Mocking them for being poor! This column is awesome for the following reasons: because media outlets don't usually air their dirty laundry like this;…
Happy 75th, Variety! Defamer wishes the best of anniversaries to Daily Variety, which today celebrates 75 years in business — albeit a month late, as is customary with so many of its biggest stories, but in a festive, infectious spirit nonetheless. Not to mention surprising as well, according to the blurb featured on…
Harsh 'Variety' Editors Take Official Stand on Natalie Portman's Acting Skills
All she wanted to do was direct, and now look: The gang at Variety all but scoffed today at Natalie Portman's forthcoming feature helming debut, scare-quoting an implicit vote of no confidence in the job she has now. But she'll show the "trade paper" yet, with her short-film bow on the the way in the omnibus New…
Entire Internet Calls Bullshit as Peter Bart Goes to War For 'Valkyrie'
An insomniac browse last night at PeterBart.com revealed that the Variety editor's spirited studio defenses have made a remarkably speedy, seamless transition to the blogosphere. Readers seem to be enjoying it as well, alleging stolen stories about DreamWorks on one hand and launching a fascist-tastic comment…
Curmudgeonly 'Variety' Editor's New Blog Makes Blog-Hating Easier Than Ever
OK, everybody! Raise a glass and extend a warm blogospheric welcome to Peter Bart, the notoriously blogophobic Variety editor in chief who finally succumbed to the medium yesterday at PeterBart.com. We're not sure why he decided to jump in on a summer Sunday of all days, but thankfully, as bloggers, we're free to…
The Strange Case Of Nikki Finke, CAA and Defamer's 'Exceptional Smear Campaign'
Our item yesterday about the rumored C-word contretemps between CAA agent Dan Aloni and Fox Atomic exec Debbie Liebling — which we heard led to a unilateral CAA ban from the Fox lot — drew quite a bit of interest from all involved. Make that "everyone but CAA," rather, which had Nikki Finke do its dirty work for…
Cannes Hell Wrap-Up: What Does 'Variety' Have Against 'Che,' Anyway?
The Cannes Film Festival wound down Sunday pretty much where we left it Friday: Lindsay Lohan still digs girls, distributors mostly kept their checkbooks closed with one or two exceptions, and Sean Penn and his competition jury putatively fulfilled their social mandate by awarding the French schoolroom drama Entre…
Steven Spielberg Is Working On A Social Network For Crackpots
Director Steven Spielberg is going to launch a social network this year for people who've seen ghosts and aliens, according to TechCrunch. (This reminds me of my Baptist-school teacher who thought Spielberg's role on earth was to prepare humanity to accept a demon invasion through Spielberg's alien fiction.) This…
