Archives: October 2006

Loral Langemeier, author of the best-selling The Millionaire Maker will be printing money again with her new book, The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Wealth Cycle Investing.

The book comes out next week, and Langemeier will be in Southern California then to promote it — including a two-day intensive wealth building workshop (for $1,495) on Nov. 10-11 at the Marriott Suites in Garden Grove.

In the meantime, though, she agreed to lend us a little investment advice. And $20. Here it is:

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Is there a chilling effect in the world of documentary film? Alec Baldwin wants Running With Arnold‘s producer Mike Gabrawy and director Dan Cox to scrap his voice-over tracks, and get someone else. Baldwin, writing in the Huffington Post admitted that he agreed to narrate, based on the script, but didn’t see the film before he arrived in the studio. Once he saw some of the Nazi stock footage images used, he didn’t like what he saw, but finished the session and then called his lawyers. He wrote:

I asked that my voice and name be removed from the film and I returned the fee I was paid, which was earmarked to be donated to charity, and I had an attorney issue a cease and desist order against the filmmakers so that they would comply with my demands. The filmmakers have thus far refused to accommodate my requests and have claimed that they have delivery deadlines for distribution that prohibit them from granting them.

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Advertising Age’s Stephanie Thompson writes about a new selling tool–scent. A number of national brands think people smell their products, have some brain ganglia stimulated, and buy like there’s no tomorrow. We can almost see this with chocolate, or black cherry-vanilla Pepsi, but then there’s this bright idea:

Pedigree dog-food-scented stickers in front of supermarkets.

FBLA is virtually certain that no portion of the human brain responds favorably to the scent of this:

Ground Corn, Meat and Bone Meal, Rice, Wheat Mill Run, Animal Fat, Natural Poultry Flavor, Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Whole Peas, Poultry By-Product Meal, et al.

Does Pedigree think dogs shop by themselves? We love our schnauzer, but he’s not getting our AmEx.

Big Love: Sometimes the stars align in a particular way, and we get stuck with two movies about magicians or 300 badly scripted talking animal movies at once. But we can’t recall ever facing two head-to-head TV shows featuring little people love interests. How do these things happen? We have a theory. We’re not ready to share it, but suffice to say it involves Anthony Pellicano, Reader’s Digest and a bunch of penguins.

Ryan and Reese to Split: The happy couple is <a href="“>no longer so happy. This is news? We have an idea for a reality game show: Celebrity Breeding. Since Hollywood couples can’t seem to make marriage work, why not just allow an audience to pick a celeb’s next mate? Winning couples will be the ones that create the cutest, most unusually named offspring. Mark Burnett, call us.

Better Than Craigs List: Got a bunch of your friend’s junk lying around your house? Don’t know how you’re going to get rid of it? Don’t call Salvation Army just yet. If you wait long enough, maybe they’ll start making movies about your pal and you can auction his trash at Bonhams for a nice profit (which you’ll then, of course, donate to pet-related charities).
Earlier:
Truman Capote vs. Swifty Lazar — When the LA Times Ran Gossip
FBLA Sends Locals on Field Trips

FBLA was eagerly awaiting the new features in the LA Times Sunday Calendar section. We’d had a little fun when these goodies were announced, and now, we’re checking to see how close we came.

The Performance
We predicted: inky tongue bath.
Nice piece on Hiro Nakamura.
FBLA = 0, LAT = 1

The Monitor
We predicted: imitation TWOP recap.
Dull, over-long analysis of The O.C.
FBLA = 1, LAT = 1

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Before all our readers run amok tonight, FBLA wants you to heed the warnings:

No Silly String.

No Starting Early.

No Logos on the Pumpkin.

No Beating the Meat.

No Staying Home.

MySpace just got a whole lot less fun. FOX is going to comb through the files to find sites using copywrite music. Repeat offenders will be barred from the site.

FOX licensed technology from Gracenote which compares
music on individual pages with Gracenote’s database of copyright material and can block uploads without proper rights. And so many 15 year olds think of synch rights when building a page in honor of Horse.

FBLA wonders FOX didn’t think of this sooner.

Variety has another story about more potential suitors for the LAT and/or Tribune Corp.

But as LA Observed notes, people aren’t reading our local paper anymore. We’d like to think the 8% drop in circulation is due to FBLA’s witty and carefully crafted LAT in 90 Seconds feature, a spectacular public service that renders reading the actual paper unnecessary.

So maybe all those investment firms and billionares should stop humping the Trib Towers and throw a little love (and money) our way.

Just a thought.

Earlier:
LA Times Circulation Falls, NY Post Gains: Can Gossip Make the Difference?

Remember Ralph? Oh, you remember him. One of the “members” of the gang in Judy Blume’s Forever? C’mon, you remember him — just think about it a little longer. Ralph. OH FOR CHRISSAKE HE’S THE PENIS, REMEMBER?!

There. We knew you remembered.

Like many young things, FBLA got its virgin, um, feet wet by reading Judy Blume’s instructional tales of awkward teenage sexuality.

Well, if Borders has anything to do with, young adults these days are going to have to rely on our old pages-stuck-together Blume books to get their vicarious freak on. Jessa Crispin reveals that Borders won’t carry Aury Wallington’s debut novel, Pop! — and perhaps other YA books that contain sexual content.

Wallington is particularly bummed — not just because this will greatly hurt her sales, but because, she says, “There are so many contemporary young-adult novels that trivialize teen sex, where the characters are so glib and sophisticated that sexual intimacy seems like no big deal, and sex has few or no physical or emotional consequences, as opposed to the awkward, confusing struggle that most real teenagers go through, which I tried to capture honestly in my book.”

If you can’t do anything about the fact that Wallington’s been banned while Borders sells Truly Tasteless Jokes Vol. 1-10 (we’re not making that up, one of us went out and checked during lunch), at least you could offer Wallington condolences in person at the book party mediabistro’s throwing her at the Geisha House on Nov. 6.

Money is such a drag. As soon as YouTube got its first Big Boy paycheck, we knew the fun was over.

Comedy Central has asked YouTube purge copyrighted material, including clips of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report and South Park.

According to the NYT: “A week earlier, nearly 30,000 clips of TV shows, movies and music videos were taken down after the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, Composers and Publishers cited copyright infringement.”

And worse, playing the part of stuffed suits too well, YouTube didn’t return reporters’ calls requesting comment.

Well, kids, it was fun while it lasted.