ANALYST: AEREO WILL PREVAIL

BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield is predicting that a New York appeals court will uphold a district court decision denying a request by broadcasters for a preliminary injunction to halt Barry Diller’s Aereo service. In a note to clients posted today (Thursday) Greenfield writes that he attended the appeals court hearing on Friday and expressed his […]

A KILLER RATING FOR KILLER JOE?

The MPAA’s ratings appeals board has upheld the NC-17 rating meted out to William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, starring Matthew McConaughey and Gina Gershon. The board cited “graphic aberrant content” including violence and sexuality. Reviews of the film mention scenes in which Gershon appears nude below the waist. (Somewhat ironically, Gershon disclosed on Wednesday that she […]

WEINSTEIN LOSES BATTLE WITH MPAA OVER BULLY

Harvey Weinstein is so furious with the decision by the MPAA’s appeals board to uphold the R rating for The Weinstein Co.’s documentary Bully that he’s threatening not to deal with the MPAA “for the foreseeable future.” The MPAA released a statement quoting Joan Graves, who heads the organization’s ratings group, as acknowledging that “Bully […]

WEINSTEIN TO APPEAL RATING FOR BULLY DOC

Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Co., plans to fight the R rating meted out to the Lee Hirsch documentary Bully, which deals with what the filmmaker calls the bullying crisis in American schools that has scarred the lives of countless children and resulted in numerous suicides. The film purportedly includes several utterances of profanity […]

GOOGLE ASKS COURT TO REJECT VIACOM’S YOUTUBE APPEAL

Viacom repeatedly posted its own videos on Google-owned YouTube, then sent notices to YouTube demanding that they be taken down, Google claimed in a filing last week. The statement was filed in connection with Viacom’s appeal of 2010 ruling that YouTube cannot be held responsible for illegal videos posted on its site if they are […]

WEINSTEIN WINS BATTLE WITH MPAA RATINGS BOARD

Harvey Weinstein emerged victorious Wednesday after successfully appealing the NC-17 rating meted out by the MPAA ratings board to Blue Valentine, which is due to open on Dec. 31. The 14-member appeals board agreed to reduce the movie to an R after receiving what the Los Angeles Times described as “a 200-page dossier of letters […]

PRODUCERS WIN RATING APPEAL OVER ROBERTS STARRER

In a rare decision to remove an R rating from a movie and replace it with a PG-13 — without forcing edits in the film — the MPAA’s classification and ratings appeals board has bowed to Columbia Pictures executives’ arguments on behalf of the Julia Roberts starrer Eat Pray Love. Writer-director Ryan Murphy and producer […]