FishbowlLA - LA Media News, Unspooled

Meg Whitman is Having Press Problems Already

6a00d8341cc90353ef0111690f3130970c.jpgFormer eBay CEO current billionaire Meg Whitman is campaigning for the Republican nomination for governor of California. Her ads proclaiming the problem with California is a "crisis of confidence" have been running nonstop for months, even though she's the only one in the world who's ever thought Californians lacked confidence about anything.

Anyway, she's having some press issues according to the SF Chronicle. She invited the media to cover her at Union Pacific Railroad's office, then barred them from any questions:

Instead, reporters were herded into a holding room while Whitman toured the facility. Sarah Pompei, the candidate's spokeswoman, said they were not allowed to accompany the former eBay executive on the tour because Union Pacific officials "did not want that to happen" and had barred the media.

A Union Pacific spokesman, Aaron Hunt, appeared to contradict Pompei - telling The Chronicle that the company had always expected media to attend Whitman's tour - and in fact, welcomed coverage.

Hm. Train wreck? Anyone?

She's already been compared to Sarah Palin, this will not help.

Also related: Jerry Brown supporters have launched a site called Level The Playing Field, a WikiMeg, it appears to be trying to crowdsource dirt/info on the press shy candidate. Although since there are no real reporters or anyone with investigative chops or credibility, it's all Glenn Beckish.

Upcoming mediabistro.com event

Freemium Summit: March 26 in San Francisco

Free sells. It may seem counterintuitive, but the media world is capitalizing on business models that combine free offerings with a premium, paid ones. This hybrid approach is referred to as the Freemium business model and is one of the most exciting areas in media today.

Learn about the business of free from leading practitioners including Pandora, YouSendIt, MailChimp, ngmoco, Evernote, and Automattic (WordPress) at mediabistro.com's Freemium Summit. View the full program and register.

Hey, The Wrap, If Everybody is an Icon Then No One Is

haimicon.png

A famous person's death is sad, we're not debating that. Someone dying of a drug overdose at 38 is sad. Someone dying at 38 is sad. So no need to be hyperbolic. Corey Haim was an actor and maybe a teen star, but there's no way he was an "icon." Nope. Michael Jackson was an icon. Patrick Swayze was an icon. Corey Haim was an actor.

Update: Walmart is Selling Capitalism in Stores

wtfwalmart.jpg334200.jpgYesterday filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted that the DVD of his movie Capitalism: A Love Story was not being sold in Walmart stores, only online. Then he was sent photographs from people all over the country showing that Walmart was in fact carrying the DVD. Crowdsourcing! So the Walmart site was incorrect.

In a funny twist to this whole saga:
Moore released his last documentary Sicko online for free. So the movie not about the corruption of making money at any price - didn't have a price.

Moore writes on his blog:

The fact that Wal-Mart is carrying this movie -- a movie that specifically exposes Wal-Mart's past practice of taking out secret "dead peasant" life insurance policies on its employees and naming itself as the lone beneficiary should the employee meet an "untimely" early death -- well, my friends, need you any further proof that Corporate America is so secure in its position as the ruler of our country, so sure of its infallible power that, yes, they can even sell a movie that attacks them because it poses absolutely no threat to them?

continued...

Trade Talk: 3/10/2010

  • David Letterman's "sextortionist" gets six months in the pokey -- The Wrap

  • NCAA "March Madness" tournament going 3-D -- Variety

  • "Logorama" directors to shoot 20 minute live-action film for new "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon" videogame -- The Hollywood Reporter

  • Is Simon Cowell's televised karaoke empire collapsing? -- The Daily Beast

  • "Dolphin" Oscar flasher so successful he nearly crashes his non-profit's server -- TMZ

  • 'Lost Boy' Corey Haim Dead at 38

    52662704-10052609.jpg
    Corey Haim, 80's teen heart throb died in Burbank this morning. The details of his death are still unclear, AP is reporting an overdose. Haim struggled with drug addiction for his entire adult life. We won't even mention his A&E reality show career. We'll just say that in the 80's he was the cuter of the two Coreys, starring in The Lost Boys and License to Drive.

    AP story is here with updates. LAT is here.

    Our condolences to his friends and family.

    Photo credit KTLA.

    'Avatar' Sued by Vancouver Restaurant Owner

    It was only a matter of time before someone went after Avatar's $2 billion pie. Vancouver restaurant owner Emil Malak has filed a suit against James Cameron, Lightstorm and Twentieth Century Fox in British Columbia Supreme Court, claiming Avatar bears an uncanny resemblance to his own 1998 screenplay "Terra Incognita."

    THR, Esq. has the story:

    In Malak's story, a tree is a focal point of a community of indigenous people and contains their collective memories. His characters are odd-looking creatures, some with braided hair and others with tails. They are protecting their home planet from militaristic human intruders who want to mine precious minerals...

    Malak says that in October 2002, he sent the script and some graphic designs to about 20 movie studios, including Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment. He never got a response.

    Check out the point-by-point comparison of the two films.

    In response to news of the suit, Fox told THR, Esq. Cameron wrote Avatar two years before Malak claims to have finished Terra Incognita.

    Jon Stewart on the Oscars

    The Oscars Big Moment
    www.thedailyshow.com

    2008 Oscar host Jon Stewart gives his take on Sunday's awards -- including the evening's most bizarre moment, when Oscar winner Roger Ross Williams appeared to be interrupted by Grimace during his acceptance speech.

    More Daily Show Oscar parody after the jump.

    continued...

    Ebert Gives Variety Downsizing the Old 'Thumbs Down'

    Many across the media and entertainment spectrum were shocked at this week's announcement that Variety had laid off its chief film critic Todd McCarthy after 31 years at the paper. Roger Ebert summoned a more appropriate emotion -- he was pissed.

    I flew home from the Oscars to find half a dozen e-mails awaiting with the same unbelievable message: Variety had fired its chief film critic, Todd McCarthy. Its spokesman was hopeful Todd and its chief theater critic, David Rooney, who was also fired, could continue to review for the paper on a free lance basis. In other words, Variety was hopeful that without a regular pay check, McCarthy would put his life on hold to do a full-time job on a piecemeal basis.

    Todd McCarthy reviewed films for Variety for 31 years. He was the ideal critic for the paper -- better, we now realize, than it deserved.

    continued...

    Mediabistro Blog-Family Roundup

    mediabistro_logo.jpg

  • NY Times Punks Gothamist With Ginormous Ad - FishbowlNY

  • David Foster Wallace Archive Finds a Home - GalleyCat

  • Facebook Developers Invading Austin for SxSW - WebNewser

  • Slate Readers, Editors and Experts to Convene at House of Sweden - FishbowlDC

  • The Good Wife: CBS Learned About Twitter so Now They Have a Show About it - AgencySpy

  • Howard Stern Hates On Gabourey Sidibe

    "Everyone is pretending she's a part of show business... and she's never gonna be in another movie... it's so sad... you just want to say to her, listen honey, now you got a little money in the bank, go get yourself thin."

    Of course, fat actors have been working in Hollywood since the film industry began. But they're usually white and male, the sort of folks Stern prefers.

    Walmart Isn't Selling 'Capitalism' in Stores

    capitalism.png
    Michael Moore's documentary Capitalism: A Love Story is released today on DVD. And the filmmaker just reported via Twitter that it's only available at the world's largest retailer online.

    Moore writes:

    Orange alert! Wal-Mart retaliates? They just put "Not sold in stores" up on their site: http://tr.im/RcUM Wow. That didn't take long.

    Wait - is that a list price of $29.98?! Is that American? Jeepers.

    Moore followed up with:

    Just asked 1 insider why WalMart is saying "Not sold in stores" but still selling it online. Reply: "Because they hate Amazon more than u!"

    UPDATE: Walmart IS selling the DVD in their stores.

    Will Micropayments Save Media?

    Flattr? We like that it sounds like a verb and it means money. Here's the website.

    It's an interesting idea. Nice analogy of cake for starving content creators. Ahem.

    David Lidsky, editor at Fast Company alerted us to this via his Twitter feed:

    Interesting, skeptical it'll work. Seems too passive. Just another button to ignore.

    Cake!

    next page next page

    LA Media News, Unspooled

    FishbowlLA in Your Inbox
    Our Blog Network

    WebNewser

    TVNewser

    PRNewser

    MediaJobsDaily

    GalleyCat

    eBookNewser

    UnBeige

    MobileContentToday

    AgencySpy

    FishbowlNY

    FishbowlDC

    FishbowlLA

    FishbowlLA Editors

    Tina Dupuy

    Matthew Fleischer

    Pandora Young

    quesm.jpg About FishbowlLA

    Twit.gif Follow FishbowlLA

    Topics

    About

    About Us - Modules

    About Us - Subheader Module

    Armchair Sociology

    Awards Mania

    Blogistan

    Box Office

    Contest

    Courses

    Daily Grind

    Darwin was right

    Documentary

    Festivity

    Foreign legion

    Free Weekly Roundup

    Geekdom

    General

    Guild Wars

    Idiot Box

    In N Out

    Indie Film

    Interesting LA Times Paragraph of the Day

    iPod Friendly

    Jobs

    Journos

    Let's make a deal...

    Lit 101

    Magazines

    Media Beat

    Mo'guls, mo' problems

    My Social Life

    Newspaper Deathwatch

    Newspapers

    Old School

    Our Town

    Podcasts

    Poli Sci

    Radio-dispatched

    Season of Giving

    Show Business

    So Sue Me...

    So, What Do You Read?

    Studio film

    Stuff To Do

    Tangled Web

    Techno

    Trades

    Underlying rights

    Video games

    Working the Room

    Zell Watch

    Links

    mb Newsfeed

    A Socialite's Life
    Anne Thompson
    BoingBoing
    Buddy TV
    Curbed LA
    Dandyism
    Deadline Hollywood Daily
    Defamer
    Eastsider LA
    Eater LA
    Eating LA--Pat Saperstein
    Franklin Avenue
    Girls Talkin' Smack
    Go Fug Yourself
    Gold Derby
    IMDB
    Jezebel
    LAist
    LA magazine
    LA Observed
    LA Times
    LA Weekly
    Mixed Media
    Page Six
    Past Deadline
    Pink is the New Blog
    Radar
    Romenesko
    Slate
    Sardonic Sideshow
    Salon
    Script Notes
    Tabloid Baby
    The Evil Beet
    The Wrap
    TMZ.com
    YouTube
    WOW Report
    944

    Archives

    March 2010

    February 2010

    January 2010

    December 2009

    more...

    Jobs in L.A.

    Featured Listings

    Interactive Producer
    Creative Circle
    Los Angeles, CA

    Consumer Marketing and Fulfillment Specialist
    BowTie Inc.
    Irvine, CA

    Editorial Assistant (Part-time)
    Springer Science + Business Media
    Dana Point, CA

    Reader Service Assistant - Bon Appetit
    Conde Nast
    Los Angeles, CA

    ADVERTISEMENT


    mediabistro.com l Member Benefits l Jobs l Freelance Marketplace l Courses l Events l Forums l Content
    mediabistro Blogs: Media News l TVNewser l GalleyCat l UnBeige l FishbowlNY l FishbowlLA l FishbowlDC l PRNewser l AgencySpy
    MobileContentToday l WebNewser l MediaJobsDaily l mbToolbox
    Site Map l Advertising/Sponsorships l Partners l About Us l Contact Us/Help

    WebMediaBrands
    mediabistro learnnetwork freelanceconnect SemanticWeb
    Jobs | Events | News
    Copyright 2010 WebMediaBrands Inc. All rights reserved.
    Advertise | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy