Disney's stock is down amidst rumors that Comcast is dropping their bid for the company. And rumors that the company's board is about to oust CEO/struggling imagineer Michael Eisner can't be helping, either.
With just six days left before the expiration of the Writers Guild of America contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, the Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) has just increased its dues partly to prepare for a potential strike of their own in the Fall. This, as one hilarious Reuters stringer quips, is "bad news for many waiters in Los Angeles." We prefer to put our own patented, optimistic spin on it and think of it as a boon to restaurant management everywhere.
Now it looks like Time Warner is trying to get in the game to buy MGM, according to Reuters. The interest is in response to Sony's $5 billion bid for the studio earlier this week.
In a bit of unexpected fallout from the coming NBC-Universal merger, Variety reports that NBC Enterprises chief Ed Wilson has left his position.
Is Sony trying to gobble up MGM? Reuters reports that advanced talks are under way.
The Federal Trade Commission has cleared the way for NBC's acquistion of Vivendi Universal. The FTC won't oppose the merger, which is expected to be completed in early or mid May. NBC was the last major network without a movie studio. Now, all their evil plans to cross-promote Will & Grace and Connie and Carla can come to delicious, neutered-gay fruition!
Susan Lyne is out as president of ABC Entertainment, Daily Variety is reporting. Touchstone TV head Stephen McPherson is expected to take over. ABC is planning on making an annoucement later today about the changes in their executive corp, so we'll know more about who's going to announce the latest Bachelorette installment for the Fall season.
The New York Times' Sharon Waxman takes a look at the boatloads of money movie studios are making on DVDs, which often subsidize a box office failure by recouping losses in the video market. Take Kill Bill, everyone's favorite multipart, splatterfest epic:
Variety reports that 73% of participants in the Disney 401(k) plan voted against retainnig CEO Michael Eisner on the Disney board. The results are widely viewed as a no-confidence vote for Eisner's leadership of the company that's recently given us Home on the Range and The Alamo.
