BILLY CRYSTAL WILL HOST THE OSCARS AGAIN

Acting with fast-forward speed, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has struck a deal with Billy Crystal to bring him back for a ninth time to host the Oscars. “Am doing the Oscars so the young woman in the pharmacy will stop asking my name when I pick up my prescriptions. Looking forward […]

WILL ACADEMY FIRE OSCAR CO-PRODUCER BRETT RATNER? (Updated)

UPDATE: Late today (Tuesday) Ratner resigned as co-producer of the Oscar telecast. After apologizing (a second time) for his offending remark about gays, Ratner said: “As difficult as the last few days have been for me, they cannot compare to the experience of any young man or woman who has been the target of offensive […]

FINKE-WAXMAN FEUD MAY BE HEADING TO COURT

The long-simmering feud between Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com and Sharon Waxman’s TheWrap.com appeared to be heading toward litigation as TheWrap’s attorney fired off a letter to Deadline’s corporate parent accusing it of violating antitrust laws and engaging in unfair competition and “trade libel.” The letter from famed entertainment attorney Bert Fields came in response to a […]

NIKKI FINKE SENDS “CEASE AND DESIST” DEMAND TO SHARON WAXMAN

The ongoing rivalry between Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com and Sharon Waxman’s TheWrap.com for the eyes of Hollywood’s cognoscenti took a new turn Wednesday as Mail.com Media Corporation, owner of Finke’s website, fired off a “cease and desist” notice to TheWrap.com, accusing it of engaging in a “continuous pattern of misappropriating content from Deadline.com.” In a separate […]

ABU DHABI’S IMAGENATION LOSES $100 MILLION IN TWO YEARS

Abu Dhabi’s 2009 decision to plunge into the movie business when it launched its Imagenation film finance fund “appears to be in meltdown,” Sharon Waxman reported on her TheWrap.com website on Wednesday. A week after it was reported that Ed Borgerding, the CEO of Abu Dhabi Media Company, and Imagenation had decided to leave the […]

EX-PUBLICIST CALLS GOLDEN GLOBES A FRAUD

Throughout its existence, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which stages the annual Golden Globes awards ceremony has been dogged by allegations that members sell their votes to studios, accept lavish gifts from them and engage in other unethical conduct. For the past 17 years, questions about those allegations have been fielded by the organization’s chief […]

SHEEN’S ANTICS WORRY CBS, WARNER BROS.

While Charlie Sheen’s reported Las Vegas binge with at least two porn stars over the weekend was fueling gossip websites and scandal tabloids, they were also raising concerns among CBS executives about its impact on the network’s top-rated comedy show, Two and a Half Men, in which Sheen stars. Sheen failed to show up on […]

YELLOW BRICK ROAD: A DEAD END?

The rival entertainment industry news blogs, Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com and Sharon Waxman’s TheWrap.com, are continuing to fact-check each other. On Tuesday, Deadline ran an item that was picked up by numerous other entertainment-related websites (including this one) claiming that Robert Zemeckis was in talks with Warner Bros about directing a remake of The Wizard of […]

PARAMOUNT, RELATIVITY FIGHT OVER THE FIGHTER

Taking a cue perhaps from the characters in their movie, The Fighter, RelativityMedia chief Ryan Kavanaugh and Paramount COO Rob Moore are engaging in a full-fledged internecine brawl following Paramount’s sneak screening of The Fighter at the AFI Festival in Hollywood Tuesday, TheWrap.com reported on Wednesday. Relativity, which is partnered in the movie with Paramount, […]

A “NO” VOTE FOR MORGAN ON CNN?

A popular celebrity website, HollywoodLife.com, run by Bonnie Fuller (Star, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Us Weekly), posted an article on Wednesday claiming that Piers Morgan had denied that he would be replacing Larry King at CNN. The website quoted Morgan as saying, “That’s quite a big job to do. … It’s the biggest news organization in the […]

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