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show tunes
Meet Randi Jayne Zuckerberg Tworetzky, Facebook's rep in Tinseltown, who scored No. 45 on The Hollywood Reporter's list of digital power players. The newlywed, Mark's older sister, was a surprising choice — an infuriating one, to some of our tipsters — but she got the props for brokering content deals with ABC and Comcast, no small feat. Still, we're less interested in Randi Tworetzky's business dealings than in Randi Jayne's musical stylings. (If Hollywood had any sense, they would, to.) Which makes this lip dub of her singing "Going to the Chapel" utterly frustrating. Randi, we don't want to watch you mouth the words. Girl, sing out! (Video by Julia Allison) More »
Hollywood power player Randi Zuckerberg struts her stuff
Meet Randi Jayne Zuckerberg Tworetzky, Facebook's rep in Tinseltown, who scored No. 45 on The Hollywood Reporter's list of digital power players. The newlywed, Mark's older sister, was a surprising choice — an infuriating one, to some of our tipsters — but she got the props for brokering content deals with ABC and Comcast, no small feat. Still, we're less interested in Randi Tworetzky's business dealings than in Randi Jayne's musical stylings. (If Hollywood had any sense, they would, to.) Which makes this lip dub of her singing "Going to the Chapel" utterly frustrating. Randi, we don't want to watch you mouth the words. Girl, sing out! (Video by Julia Allison) More »
movies
Razorfish Landshark afloat amidst 2001's dot-bomb. Androgynous rock legend David Bowie even has a cameo as an investor trying to wrest control of the company from the founders. Never have term sheets and board meetings been so exciting! More surprising? Andre Royo, best known for his gritty portrayal of the junkie with a heart of gold Bubbles on HBO's The Wire has a supporting role. And that, more than than the action-packed, fast-paced trailer, actually makes me want to see it.
Josh Hartnett stars as dot-com entrepreneur in "August"
Hollywood's taking a stab at bringing sexy back to the world of the Valley in August, which posits Tom Sterling (Josh Hartnett) and brother Joshua (Adam Scott) as founders trying to keep their fictional Silicon Alley startup
online video
Obscene iTunes profit margins finally win Hollywood's heart
Steve Jobs has finally wooed all the major studios, including Fox, Warner Bros., Sony, Paramount and Universal, to sell movie downloads on the day DVDs are released. On Friday, you'll be able to wait a while as American Gangster downloads over your crappy American broadband connection for $14.99. And it will be delivered in lower quality than standard DVDs, without any of those annoying extra features. But it will have Apple's DRM installed with every copy! What finally brought Hollywood to the table? More »
online video
Hollywood talent leery of stock-option deals, but agencies enthusiastic
Cash money, not equity, is what powers the entertainment industry. Especially when it comes to talent. In a possibly apocryphal but illustrative anecdote, legendary bluesman Albert King reportedly refused to leave the stage until he had cash in hand from the concert promoter, presumably because he'd been cheated out of so many deals in the past. Studio accounting has an only slightly better reputation than that of the music industry when it comes to being, ahem, creative. Hence it's no surprise that when negotiating venture funding for Funny Or Die, Will Ferrell reportedly wanted to know what his upfront payout would be, according to Sequoia Capital's Mark Kvamme in comments to the New York Times. Which is one reason why private equity efforts to fund traditional film and television production have yet to pan out. Better to get your money upfront and walk away in case the project is a disaster. So how is Valley money changing Hollywood business models? More »
5:00 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
By Jackson West
1,964 views,
9 comments
Latest by FiveStarEggRoll: @bbucy: A la Ben Stiller? Well, I guess he still directs (a lot of crap)...Sandler too. Seeing a big SNL trend here. Is Chase directing these days? Harry "wonders what Ackroyd is up to" Wang more »
silicon valley users guide
How to be a public figure the Hollywood way
Mark Zuckerberg dodged a bullet. His mug got featured on TMZ next to a picture of his secret mistress, and luckily she happened to be his actual girlfriend. Michael Arrington kicks Valleywag out of a party, giving our party report far more attention than it probably deserved. And Robert Scoble strikes a Roman Polanski-esque pose with an underage tech-starlet in his lap. As a captain of online industry, a hack covering the beat and a publicity-hungry B-lister, all three share one thing in common — they want the good stuff that comes with being public figures (free publicity, adoring fans, access to wealth) without the bad (salacious press, limited privacy and expensive hangers-on). The world, of course, doesn't work that way. So here's eight tips from the entertainment industry that might help them navigate the nascent perils of Internet fame. More »
5:00 PM on Mon Apr 14 2008
By Jackson West
1,298 views,
4 comments
Latest by raincoaster: @Scobleizer: Owen's paid well to keep those offline. more »
fashion
Valleywag goes native in Hollywood with Patricia Handschiegel
Sure, I might have spotted an atypically incognito Jeremy Piven, who panders to Hollywood agent stereotypes as Ari Gold on Entourage, hopping into his Land Rover on Sunset and Vine. I might have seen the paps hounding prettyboy Apple pitchman Justin Long walking past the Belmont on La Cienega with his arm around Drew Barrymore. But getting kidnapped after brunch at Toast for an afternoon of browsing boutiques on Third Street in West Hollywood with successful online entrepreneur Patricia Handschiegel as she did her rounds for StyleDiary was when I was finally seduced, if just a bit. Here we model frilly bras at Polkadots and Moonbeams. I think the pink really compliments my sun-kissed complexion, don't you?
mythbusting
Why online video hasn't reinvented Hollywood
LOS ANGELES — I'm the first to admit that I wanted to see the Web kill Hollywood. It just ain't happening. It's finally dawned on the studios that you can now pay artists even less to produce content, and pay YouTube absolutely nothing to distribute it. The problem is you have to sell your own ads — but the studios and networks, unlike indie content creators and Valley startups, have armies of ad sales people still at their command. And it's still a hits-based business. So while it's great to have all the creative freedom in the world, you're still going to have to wait tables and get coffee for producers while working, unpaid, on your own projects and pray to the ghost of Mae West that something ends up with mass appeal. What does success look like in the wake of the online video revolution? More »
8:00 AM on Fri Apr 11 2008
By Jackson West
7,134 views,
21 comments
Latest by n/a: you have to dig a little deeper to get a better sense of what's going on. Hollywood's basic business model is to monetize "windows" of opportunity to view its catalog. This only works in a world where distribution can be controlled(think more »
hollywood
Ask a Ninja creators land "Killer Tomatoes" movie deal
Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine will write the script for a remake of 1978's Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! The pair are best known for the campy Web video series Ask a Ninja. Their latest episode and a clip from the 1978 film, below. More »
hollywood
Michael Eisner fantasizes about end to writer's strike on CNBC
On CNBC today, he declared an end to the writers' strike. Not so, say our Hollywood sources. The strike will be over soon, they predict, but it's not done yet. Leave aside that question: Should we in the tech industry ever have cared about the strike in the first place? More »
hollywood
Terry Semel eyes a return to Hollywood
Former Yahoo CEO and Warner Bros. cochairman Terry Semel wants another job in Hollywood, Deadline Hollywood Daily reports. New Line Cinema is Semel's most likely destination; he's already met with the studio's Time Warner bosses. But the site says Semel is telling friends, "I'm looking at everything." Sounds like about a 1,000 other soon-to-be ex-Yahoos we know! Only, you know, they aren't going to make it out with $528 million, like Semel did.
hollywood
Heath Ledger's death won't end Joker's Web antics
Studio execs confirm in the WSJ that Heath Ledger's death won't stop a clever Web marketing campaign built around the Joker, Ledger's character in an upcoming Batman movie. The campaign, built around sites such as TheGothamTimes.com and the corresponding TheHaHaHaTimes.com, heavily features the Joker's antics. So does the movie. Don't let that stop you from enjoying either. In interviews before his death, Ledger said the role was challenging, but the most fun he's ever had.
hollywood
Man behind Nokia N-Gage debacle now wants your money for Michael Eisner biopic
After the success of former PayPal COO David Sacks's Thank You for Smoking, Hollywood has renewed its efforts to tap the swollen bank accounts of Silicon Valley's newly wealthy entrepreneurs. But the come-on I've just received is more unusual than most such attempts. The movie in question? A film adaptation of James B. Stewart's DisneyWar, a savage portrait of former Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Eisner drew many enemies in the Valley during his reign at the media company, so there might plausibly be some willing to fund a cinematic poke at him. More »
oscars
If a rat can do it, so can San Carlos mayor Brad Lewis
In Los Angeles, everyone goes to the Oscars. But Silicon Valley remains so starstruck that a local dignitary's attendance at the ceremony makes news. Brad Lewis, San Carlos's newly installed mayor, is going to the Academy Awards. When not out furthering his political career, Lewis moonlights as a Hollywood producer. His most recent flick, Pixar's Ratatouille, is up for four awards, including best animated film. At last, he can regain the dignity he lost while working as "a dancing monster" in the national stage production of Sesame Street Live!
videogames
Did Halo 3 kill the box office?
Hollywood and the videogame industry have long engaged in a war for consumer attention span (and dollars), but movie analysts are now using the game phenom Halo 3 as a scapegoat for poor box office performance. Ben Stiller's new comedy, The Heartbreak Kid, snagged a mere $14 million opening weekend, half of what was expected.. Total movie-ticket sales for Halo's opening weekend took a 27 percent nosedive compared to last year. Conversely, Halo 3 broke all sorts of sales records with its $300 million week. Analysts blame youth's obsession with games for the lack of moviegoing. Really? It has nothing to do with the Heartbreak Kid's rotten reviews and the generally poor quality of films opening that weekend?
separated at birth
Pirates of Silicon Valley II: Our Candidates for the Cast
NICK DOUGLAS — While dust gathers on our old VHS copies of Pirates of Silicon Valley (for us, Noah Wyle's career hit its high point with his role as Steve Jobs), it's time to cast the sequel. Starring the Daily Show's Demetri Martin as Digg founder Kevin Rose, Jason Bateman as Diggnation co-host Alex Albrecht and Rush Limbaugh as John C. Dvorak, the show also includes stars playing Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Merlin Mann, and Google's Marissa Mayer. More »
david ellison
Children of the rich and famous: Ellison's flyboy
In case you haven't seen the promotional interviews yet ("Actor David Ellison is no stranger to flying"), the 23-year-old son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison stars in the period flick Flyboys, an indie film partially funded by Larry and wife Melanie Craft. More »
hollywood
