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Hollywood Deal
Sumner Redstone, at 84, is still thinking out loud about how he guides his media empire. This week it was his pro-Cruise comment from a South Korean conference. Some days before, he slapped the CBS side of his operation with the news that Viacom's Paramount will no longer output its feature films to TV through Showtime ...
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With the collapse of talks between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the stage was set for SAG's kindred--but often competing-- union, AFTRA, to step in and make a deal SAG may not want to buy into ...
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The government's case against Anthony Pellicano co-defendant Mark Arneson was looking strong after prosecutor Dan Saunders had worked him over on the stand last week. Suddenly on Friday came revelations of fraud on the part of a key prosecution witness against him, and the possibility of a mistrial now looms ...
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The eighth week of the trial of former private investigator Anthony Pellicano saw the efforts by some of his co-defendants to wriggle out of the government charges. Their lawyers were not always deft, their alibis not always convincing. But one witness thought Judge Dale Fischer's courtroom was a lot more impressive than that of TV's Judge Judy ...
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Former L.A.P.D. Sergeant Mark Arneson moved for a mistrial because the government briefly had a tape of protected testimony he gave to internal affairs investigators. The judge denied it, leaving him open to further cross-examination and setting the stage for Bert Fields to testify ...
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The much-awaited arrival of Mike Ovitz and Anita Busch in the Pellicano trial provided a look at an unrepentant former power broker and an emotionally wounded reporter, as the wreckage of other peoples' lives around the freewheeling Anthony Pellicano continued to pile up. The former p.i. did his usual botched job of cross-examination as the government finishes off its case and the defense prepares for their turn ...
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Charlton Heston's death at 84 this past Saturday closed out a long and distinguished acting career, and brought back memories of rousing moments at rallies on both sides of the political fence ...
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Kimberly Peirce's Stop-Loss got enough rave reviews to back up a studio campaign that pushed its accessible aspects--so why is this passionately-made story of a soldier caught in the Iraq war vise meeting the same box-office fate as the films that tanked before it? ...
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The fourth week of the Anthony Pellicano racketeering trial seemed to tiptoe around the ills done to Hollywood big shots like CAA's Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane, but the human cost to the humbler folks swept up in the investigator's schemes was quite evident in their testimony. Security consultant Richard DiSabatino, invoked by Pellicano, reminisces here here about the "compartmentalized" private eye he knew ...
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Paramount Pictures Chairman and C.E.O. Brad Grey was an unflappable (and uncharged) witness as he fenced calmly with federal prosecutors about being a client, via lawyer Bert Fields, of disgraced p.i. Anthony Pellicano, but the Feds still seem curious as to what Grey knew and when he knew it around a particular day in 2001. Meanwhile, Fields asserted Tuesday he won't take the Fifth if called to the stand ...
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The deaths in quick succession of director Anthony Minghella and futurist/author Arthur C. Clarke reminded the U.S. film community how much we owe England. Together they represent the kind of global recognition that can, class and geographical biases notwithstanding, find its origins in provincial English towns ...
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The relatively limited box office of the Oscar pack shouldn't obscure the generally healthy 2007 slates that gave Warner Bros. and Universal record years. They bragged on that, and especially on their upcoming `08 releases, to the exhibitors at ShoWest. It's a forum in which Universal marketing president Adam Fogelson excels ...
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Director Ben Stiller and co-star Robert Downey, Jr. did a killer stand-up routine to introduce their Vietnam-film spoof Tropic Thunder, then later almost spoiled the fun with a
post-show love fest. Also carrying the day at ShoWest for Paramount was a well-received screening of DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda, which, like Tropic Thunder, boasts a strong performance from Jack Black ...
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The South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas is known for nurturing the indie films that can't quite run the Sundance rapids, including the movement some call Mumblecore. The sale of "Nights and Weekends" to IFC based on its world premiere there this year makes for a landmark in both the festival and the genre's history ...
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Jailed private eye Anthony Pellicano, defending himself against 111 counts of a Federal racketeering case, stumblingly confronted his prosecutors and investigators and watched star government witness Matt Williams testify regarding a tape on which the p.i. touts a plan to tape Wiliams' apparently straying wife ...
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The trial of private eye Anthony Pellicano finally swings into high gear with Thursday's opening argument from the government prosecution team. Many showbiz types are on call to testify, which prospect might make them less nervous if they could be sure their interrogator, Pelliicano, will guard their secrets even when they're part of his defense ...
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