Saturday, September 21, 2024
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Warner Music’s Biggest Problem: No Hits

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Really, you can fire everyone and cut back all use of paper clips, but if you want to have a successful record company, you’ve got to have hits.

In the five years of Edgar Bronfman and Lyor Cohen’s reign over Warner Music, they’ve had few hits. Almost none, in fact. They relied on acts already signed to the company, such as Linkin Park, Green Day, Josh Groban and Nickelback.

The WMG stock has sunk to all-time lows, then revived very slightly based on completely strange reports from stock analysts.

Now the cows have come home to roost: massive losses posted yesterday.

How sad it must be for the remaining WMG staff and shareholders that as this news is released, the company’s biggest-selling album is No. 20 on the charts, with 27,000 copies sold for the week. It’s the Zac Brown Band. Ever hear them? Are you humming a Zac Brown song now? I didn’t think so.

It’s summer. The time when kids buy and listen to music, and WMG has, really, nothing.’ This is obviously not’the Warner Music of “Rumours,” or even “Smoke From a Distant Fire.” There is nothing to hum along to except stories of Bronfman and Cohen buying new, more expensive homes.

But Zac Brown is on WMG’s Atlantic Records, run by Craig Kallman. If it weren’t for Atlantic, WMG wouldn’t exist at all. Somehow Kallman and his staff’have kept the whole enterprise running despite WMG’s penchant for failure. If’Kallman had real support beyond his label, then Rob Thomas’s “Cradle Song” and the single “Someday” would be No. 1 on their respective charts. Instead, the excellent CD is struggling.

WMG reported a third quarter loss of $37 million, compared to $9 million same time last year. Come on, are we kidding? That’s with the release of the Green Day album, which, of course, was a disappointment. In the U.S., revenue fell 10%. Bronfman’s usual plea is that the release schedule is “backloaded” to the fall. If Warner doesn’t come up with a single hit this fall, or Christmas, then what? This party is over. If there really are shareholders somewhere, they should be storming the doors in Rockefeller Center.

WMG stock opened at $5.59 yesterday and closed at $5.28.

Network Soap Operas: Has the Endgame Begun?

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Has the end game begun to remove soap operas from the network airwaves? It sure looks like it.

Today, ABC announced it was moving “All My Children” from New York to Los Angeles in January. The given reason? Cheaper to produce because of space. But that doesn’t really wash. New York, if given the opportunity, could have made ABC a great deal to keep the soap in the city where it’s always been produced.

Yesterday, CBS’s Nina Tassler pretty much threatened “As the World Turns” with extinction in the press. The 53-year-old soap is the last remaining show owned by Procter & Gamble. The company once had many soaps, but whittled itself down to two when it cut “Another World” in 1999 from NBC. Next month they’re bringing “Guiding Light” to an end on CBS after 60-plus years.

At NBC, the network is down to just “Days of Our Lives,” the 2009 edition of which is a plastic replica of its original.

The networks don’t realize the value of the soaps, and they never have. For one thing, they’ve been a tremendous breeding ground for young actors. Dozens and dozens of stars have gotten their start on the shows.

But megamanical executive producers and truly terrible writers have conspired to create a perfect storm here. At “World Turns” the writing was on the wall in early 2008 when the network did nothing to prevent P&G from booting Emmy winner and demo-perfect star Martha Byrne. The show has never recovered. Ratings dropped and dropped. No one seemed to care. That was a sign and a signal to the cast that anything could happen.

At ABC, for some reason “All My Children” — which was a cult favorite years ago among stars like Carol Burnett and Rosie O’Donnell — has been treated very badly. For a few years now they’ve broadcast the show not on tape but on some kind of unwatchable stock that was said to be for HDTV. It seemed like was being acted in slow motion or under’a coating’of cough medicine. Little attention was paid to continuity or storylines. On the internet, where soap fans are vehement in their postings, ABC Daytime chief Brian Frons is reviled.

Moving “All My Children” to L.A. should be its death knell. Almost all the actors and crew live in New York. East Coast casting always tends to a more realistic kind of show. “AMC,” set in mainline Philadelphia, certainly won’t look or feel the same staffed with plastic west coast types.

Soaps never made much sense, and they were beautifully lampooned in the movie “Soapdish” some years ago. The plots were always outrageous, but recently on “AMC” an aborted fetus turned up after 20-odd years as a grown man. On “ATWT” one character just had to head to toe plastic surgery so he could fool everyone in town. What the soaps’ producers don’t get is that the viewers aren’t stupid, and don’t want to be patronized. What a soap could get away with in 1990 isn’t possible now.

And there are so many good stories to tell that people who do watch TV during the day — or tape it or TiVo it — could relate to: Family life in this economy, the struggle to make it, or just keeping one’s head above water — plus a little fantasy — should be enough to hook viewers.

But amnesia, surprise paternity, or maternity, and people rising from the dead — all of these plot twists have worn out their welcome. Just as the networks should be realizing the worth of the shows, the soaps are going to have make drastic changes if they want to stay on the air.

Two things worth remembering: Keep your stars front and center, and focus the stories on families.

Tom Cruise ‘Family’ Infiltrates Fox

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cruise tom 200x300 Tom Cruise Family Infiltrates FoxTom Cruise’s extended family is slowly but surely infiltrating the world of Rupert Murdoch.

First came the news last spring that Cruise would make Jim Mangold’s “Wichita” at 20th Century Fox with Cameron Diaz. It’s the only film that he’s reasonably counting on for a 2010 release.

Then came Katie Holmes’ recent appearance on Fox TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance.” She’s not exactly Shirley Maclaine, and there wasn’t much reason to have her, but it got some publicity for everyone involved.

Now comes the news that Victoria Beckham, wife of Cruise disciple and constant work-in-progress David Beckham, is in “talks” to replace Paula Abdul on Fox’s “American Idol.” It was reported today in the Sun, a News Corp. tabloid in Britain, so you know this is one time that rag has gotten anything right.

If the Beckham news is right — and why shouldn’t it be, she has nothing else to do — it would seem like the fix was in for Abdul right from the start.

All that’s left now is David Beckham getting his own project. And then the Cruise and Fox families will be completely intertwined. Well played, as everyone says lately.

Adam Sandler Can’t Be Taken Serious(ly)

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sandler adam 200x300 Adam Sandler Cant Be Taken Serious(ly)“Funny People” may be the last time anyone will take Adam Sandler serious(ly).

The Judd Apatow-directed non-comedy took in a paltry $23.4 million this weekend, and got terrible reviews to boot.

It follows a trend for Sandler, who audiences apparently just don’t buy as anything but an overgrown child on screen. His other “serious” flops include “Punch Drunk Love,” “Spanglish,” and “Reign Over Me.”

The former “Saturday Night Live” star was always hilarious doing Opera Man or the Chanukah Song. In films, he had his moment entertaining a generation with “Wedding Singer” and “Happy Gilmore.”

In 2007-2008, Sandler proved that being an idiot on screen was profitable. He had three $100 million plus films–”I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, “You Don’t Mess with the Zohan,” and “Bedtime Stories.” Each was a successful capturing of the lowest common denominator, which is nothing to be sneezed at these days. But there weren’t even Golden Globes coming for those, forget about real golden statues.

“Funny People” is no laughing matter. Kudos to Universal for trying it, but this should spell the end of Sandler as anything more than a congenial buffoon.

Remembering Sid Zion

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I was sorry to read this morning about the passing of the great Sidney Zion, lawyer, writer and journalist, at age 75.

There’s a very good obit in the New York Times today of Sid. I knew him mostly from Elaine’s, where he was a regular presence, full of terrific stories and lots of laugh.

But Sid was also on top of everything. I will never forget his help back in April 2000, on the night we discovered Rudy Giuliani was on a “date” with his then mistress, Judith Nathan. Sid wore a full brimmed hat, like someone from a 1950s movie’and in my memory of it, as I zipped out Elaine’s front door to go see Rudy and Judy over at Cronie’s bar, having a midnight supper, it was Sid’jumping up, putting on the hat, coming over to confirm the story.

With four decades of writing for newspapers, he knew it was the hot story. He was my backup that night, coming back from Cronie’s to confirm what we’d seen’a married mayor, one day from an announcement he had prostate cancer, publicly wooing his next wife without informing his current one.

Sid, you will be missed. I hope the gang at Elaine’s raises a glass to you tonight.

Jacko Kids Guardianship: Permanent for Now

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Debbie Rowe is just fine with the ruling yesterday that Katherine Jackson is the permanent guardian of her children.

Michael Jackson’s ex knew that his mother would be named the adult in charge of raising Prince Michael and Paris Katherine (as well as now orphaned “Blanket”).

The idea behind the arrangement was to let the kids stay where they’re comfortable until they get to know Rowe’a woman they met maybe once, four years ago.

Insiders who know about the custody agreement put it this way: “Katherine is 79 years old. Permnanent guardianship? Debbie will have a relationship with those kids long before Katherine dies.”

Rowe and Katherine Jackson should meet this week, followed by the first meeting of Rowe with the kids and a psychologist. Eventually it’s hoped that the children, even Blanket, will go to live with Rowe outside the glare of the Jackson spotlight in Encino.

Meantime, it’s interesting to note who showed up in the courtroom yesterday with Katherine from the Jackson family’just Randy, LaToya, and Rebbie, aka the “stable” Jackson. There was no sign of Janet, who various websites and blogs went crazy speculating as a possible guardian. And as I noted over the weekend, Joseph Jackson is now totally out of the picture, as per the agreement with Debbie Rowe.

Jacko Doctor Klein Bans Debbie Rowe From Office

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Dr. Arnold Klein, Michael Jackson’s longtime dermatologist, currently under investigation, has banned his former nurse from his office.

Klein, sources say, has decreed that Debbie Rowe is not allowed in his office when he’s present. Last week, Rowe accompanied a friend to see one of Klein’s partners for an office visit. “Klein went nuts,” a source says.

Klein should be worried about Rowe. “She knows where all the bodies are buried,” an insider tells me. It’s possible that investigators, in fact, have already talked to Rowe about Klein’s involvement with Jackson.

It’s ironic too because for the last couple of weeks, various gossip sites and magazines (US Weekly) declared Klein the biological’father of Rowe’s children with Jackson. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A friend of Rowe’s laughed, telling me: “When Debbie heard that, she said it made her skin crawl.”

Meantime all the doctors in the Michael Jackson saga should start worrying: a hidden deadline is drawing near.

I’m told that LAPD Police Commissioner William Bratton returns from vacation tomorrow, August 5th, to hear a complete update about the various investigations.

Bratton, sources say, didn’t want anything to happen while he was away. But once he’s back in town, look for Bratton to push the start button on what ever arrests are to be made. This could be as early as tomorrow but more likely at the end of the week.

The doctors involved could be Dr. Conrad Murray, who stayed overnight with Jackson in his rented Holmby Hills estate and may have given him anesthesia to let him sleep; as well as the aforementioned Dr.’ Klein. As I reported here a few weeks ago, Jackson was visiting Klein’s office three times a week minimum just to be put to sleep for a few hours every afternoon. That’s why rehearsals were starting so late.

TMZ to be Sued by Two Jackson Players

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Two players in the Michael Jackson saga are getting ready to sue website TMZ. The accusation: that Harvey Levin’s information gatherers obtained a ‘scoop’ from stolen materials found in the files of the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department.

Debbie Rowe, the mother of Michael Jackson’s two eldest children, and Marc Schaffel, Jackson’s former business partner, have already had several email exchanges with the TMZ lawyers through their attorney, Howard King.

The issue: a video clip that TMZ posted on July 20th of Rowe from outtakes of an interview Schaffel produced in early 2003.

Among the issues: whether or not TMZ, which has paid for interview materials in the past, bought the clip from the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department.

King sent a strongly worded letter to the Sheriff’s Department on July 27th that was the culmination of a week of frustration determining where the clip had come from and how it had been obtained.

King’s letter demands an investigation. ‘We can conceive of absolutely no reason for the County Sheriff or the District Attorney to have made the video available to the news media and to have permitted copying of the same.’

He also wrote: ‘One can only surmise that a government official was compensated to alert TMZ to the existence of video still in the possession of the County Sheriff”

The problems began just three days earlier, on July 24th, when TMZ’s attorney,’Jason Beckerman, admitted in an email to King that the video clip had indeed been obtained from the Sheriff’s Department. He wrote in an email to King that the clip was simply found in ‘the publicly accessible files of the Sheriff’s Department,’ and that no one directed TMZ to it or helped them find it.

Six days later, Beckerman changed his mind. He wrote to King in a second email on July 30th: ‘My earlier comments on this subject were inaccurate. TMZ did not, in fact, obtain the DVD in question from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff Department’s files.’

Following Jackson’s acquittal, all those materials that formed the evidence from the child molestation trial were supposed to have been returned to the people from which they taken, or destroyed.

The video clip has since been removed from the TMZ website.

King tells me: ‘When TMZ ran the outtake from Marc’s interview of Debbie, we immediately accused them of copyright infringement and publication of clearly stolen materials. They agreed to remove the item and identify the source so as to assure me they had not illegally obtained the footage, in exchange for me not suing. After I agreed, they identified the source as the sheriff. But then, TMZ retracted and told me they got the tape from another source that they would not identify. The only other sources would be the lawyers in the molestation case, who would have had access to all fruits of search warrants, under strict obligations not to disclose.’

King says after an investigation, Rowe and Schaffel will sue TMZ for, among other things, copyright infringement and misappropriation of Rowe’s name and likeness without consent.

And there are other issues still to come in such an investigation since there may be other materials thought only to have been obtained in the Sheriff’s Department investigations of Jackson that may have turned up in the media. As for TMZ, they’re part of the Time Warner empire through its syndication arm, Telepictures, and not subject to the same journalistic rules applied to Time Warner’s magazines such as Time or People.

Jacko Custody Deal: Joe Moves Out

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When the custody deal for Michael Jackson’s kids is filed tomorrow in Los Angeles Family Court, it will spell the end of Joseph Jackson living at the family’s home.

Part of the deal made by Debbie Rowe, the mother of the two eldest children, is that Joseph is gone for good from the Hayvenhurst Avenue, Encino, compound that he bought in the 1970s.

Rowe’as noted before’will allow Katherine Jackson to be the official guardian of the children for the time being. It was’Rowe who suggested that a psychologist be involved in her meetings with the kids, Prince’whom she calls Michael’and Paris, while she gets to know them.

Rowe, who has a degree in psychology, is concerned, her friends say, that the kids not be manipulated or’”spun” after their meetings.

Rowe, they say, hopes to meet with Katherine Jackson immediately this week, and perhaps schedule the first the session with the kids before the end of this week.

It’s interesting to’note that in’the three years she was married to Michael Jackson, stayed at Neverland, and gave birth to two children whom his parents believed were his, Rowe never met Katherine or’most of Michael’s siblings.

Rowe, by the way, receives no remuneration’no more money’from Jackson’s estate other than existing agreements from 2006.

She’ll have several things in her favor with the kids, who are of an age to understand a lot. Rowe has only been supportive and complimentary of Michael Jackson in interviews and statements. She came to his aid twice in the child molestation case, literally saving him in her testimony in 2005. She’s never sold an interview (except about her horses), or cashed in on Jackson’s scandals.

As for Joe Jackson, Rowe’s lawyers made his absence from the children a non-negotiable part of the custody arrangement. There will be no more talk of Joe the manager trotting out his grandkids as “the Jackson Three” or anything else like that.

Jacko Nanny: Stop TV Sale of Interview

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Michael Jackson’s infamous nanny has flown to London to try and stop the sale of her TV interview.

Grace Rwaramba, sources say, is begging international pay-for-play TV packager Daphne Barak from selling the interview they did two days before Jackson died.

Barak is famous for landing big “scoops” by allowing her subjects to participate in the lucrative TV sales of her interviews.’On May 29,’Rwaramba announced that she was starting a charity to help ‘ vaguely ‘ people in need around the world. Presumably, whatever money she made from the interview would help launch World Accountability for Humanity, with offices in the center of high-priced Beverly Hills.

Rwaramba was fired by Jackson a few weeks before he died. She did several interviews with Barak, all showing her bitterness about the situation. In the process, she sold out her employer of 15 years. If Jackson had lived to see the interviews, he would have been devastated by this last act of disloyalty.

Pieces of the interviews are up on Barak’s website.

But now Rwaramba has had a change of heart. Since Jackson’s death she’s worked her way into his parents’ home in Encino, and re-enlisted herself as the nanny. She’s disavowed the Barak interviews, and, insiders say, convinced Katherine Jackson she was somehow used by Barak.

The reality, however, is that Barak now has international buyers for the full interview, and the whole thing will be shown on TV soon. Barak has never had trouble selling to American TV ‘ her pieces have turned up on all three major networks and Fox ‘ so the chances are we’ll be seeing it soon.

For Rwaramba, the truth of her complicity in’Michael Jackson’s downfall should come as a shock to the Jackson family. As I reported here yesterday, plenty of witnesses saw that during the 2005 child molestation trial she had a cot at the foot of Michael’s bed in Neverland. There was also IV equipment in the room. Jackson appeared in court nearly every day to be out of it or stoned, certainly subdued. He was often late for court and twice went to the hospital instead of showing up.

By the way, on Barak’s website she’s placed an email message she received from Rwaramba after they completed their talks.

“Daphne, I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I will say it again, Thank you from my heart. Am so humbled and greatful [sic] for the opportunity to get a way and breathe nd clear my mind. I count this as a blessing thank you. for allowing God to use you to bless me. This is an answer to my prays. I pray that god will show me a way to make you understand my gratetude.”