Showbiz Sandbox 439: Fox Suffers “Bones” Shaking Legal Defeat
March 4, 2019
Fox lost a blockbuster lawsuit to the stars and creative talent behind their smash television series “Bones.” An independent arbitrator used scathing language to describe 21st Century Fox executives, calling them out for lying, cheating and “reprehensible” studio fraud.
Though Fox says the will appeal the ruling, it could have a big impact on sweetheart deals between studios, their own networks, their own cable channels and their own streamers. There’s no bones about it.
Meanwhile book publishers and the National Writers Union, along with many others, are decrying the practice of Controlled Digital Lending, or CDL. As publishers restrict e-book access and raise their prices, libraries that own a physical copy of a book are making a digital PDF available for loans to patrons. When a digital PDF is borrowed, the physical copy is removed from circulation until the digital copy is returned. So what’s the problem?
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including why a hologram of Amy Winehouse will not be going on tour, why the movie theater chain Cineworld dumped BAFTA and box office in China is down 5% this year despite rosier forecasts.
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Showbiz Sandbox 303: Film Critics Disagree On The Best Movies of 2015
December 7, 2015
The National Board Of Review, the New York Film Critics Circle and the Los Angeles Film Critics have all weighed in on the best movies and performances of 2015. We said it was a wide-open awards race and perhaps for the first time in history, none of them agree. On anything.
On the other hand, the Grammy Award nominations seem to have come to a consensus with just about everyone agreeing Kendrick Lamar released one of the best albums of the year. We’ll fill you in on some of the other musicians who racked up Grammy nominations this year.
During Inside Baseball we once again turn to the world of television where new studies are reporting that ad sales are edging downward as advertisers begin to increase their campaign spends on digital media outlets.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment news including how Adele’s latest release became the only album to ever sell more than one million copies during two different weeks, Jerry Seinfeld agrees to a long term residency at New York’s Beacon Theatre and Morrissey wins a dubious award for his first novel.
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Showbiz Sandbox 184: How Authors Rig The Bestseller Lists
March 4, 2013
When Soren Kaplan’s “Leapfrogging” was published last summer it immediately appeared on the Wall Street Journal’s list of best-selling business books, a position that would be maintained for only a week. That was more than enough time for Kaplan to cement his status as a best-selling author which, in-turn, helps him land lucrative speaking and consulting gigs.
That is precisely why Kaplan hired a marketing firm to purchase copies of the book upon publication to assure it would appear on bestseller lists. During an interview with the Journal, Kaplan reveals how authors buying their way onto the bestseller list is a dirty little secret the publishing industry would prefer you not know about.
Dreamworks Animation is not being completely honest either. They took huge write-downs on their most recent release “Rise of the Guardians” and faulted the film’s weak performance as the reason for laying of 400 employees. However many question whether the company’s decision to move some of their production to China may have more to do with it.
Of course we also cover the week’s top entertainment headlines including the best yearly music sales since 1999, the end of Daily Variety and whether NBC is looking to part ways with Jay Leno (again).
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