Rush Limbaugh, the most listened-to voice on the radio dial bar none, has signed a $400 million deal that keeps him on the air through 2016, as Drudge breathlessly reports. This deal “SHATTERS BROADCAST RECORDS.”
THE COST OF CELEBRITY CULTURE “Jann Wenner is said to be quietly exploring a sale of celebrity magazine Us Weekly to Condé Nast and the price tag could hit $750 million.”
The casting of insanely hot Michaela McManus as Law & Order: SVU’s new assistant district attorney isn’t the franchise’s only major casting news. The spin-off Criminal Intent also has a roster change up — and it’s a doozy. Having cashed another decent pay day with Sex and the City and not liking the request to take a pay freeze instead of an increase, Chris Noth is ditching the TV show, where he plays Det. Mike Logan and has, since leaving the original Law & Order when it started 18 years ago before returning to CI, split his screen time with Vincent D’Onofrio, who swapped in every other episode. But Criminal Intent, whose ratings had NBC Universal moving the new episodes of the series off NBC proper and on to USA, isn’t moving to a standard format with only one set of regular detectives — Noth has a successor. And you might know him from a little movie called Jurassic Park.
‘THE SUPERMAN FOR EVERYONE’ “Barack Obama raised nearly $5 million Tuesday at a celebrity-packed fundraiser that was the equivalent of the entertainment industry’s coming-out party for the likely Democratic presidential nominee. ‘He’s my candidate, and I think you have to put your money where your mouth is,’ said actor Don Cheadle. Actor Dennis Quaid said Obama is ‘the Superman for everyone.’ … The guest list for the exclusive event, where top tickets cost more than $30,000, also included actor Jennifer Beals and boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard.”
WHEN LOVEMAKING GETS IN THE WAY OF MASS MURDER “Lawyers who sued the makers of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas profess to be shocked, simply shocked, that few people who bought the game were offended by sex scenes buried in its software. Any buyer upset about hidden sex in the violent game could file a claim under a settlement the lawyers struck with the game’s makers, Rockstar Games and its corporate parent, Take-Two Interactive. Of the millions of people who bought the San Andreas version after its release in 2004, exactly 2,676 filed claims.”
SELF-LOATHING ADDICT’S FAME ENDURES “Candid footage of Marilyn Monroe on the set of her last completed film brought in $60,000 at an auction of movie memorabilia Saturday. The two reels of silent, 8-millimeter color film shot on the set of ‘The Misfits’ had been expected to draw starting bids of between $10,000 and $20,000.”
PRINT PUBLICATIONS DIE LIKE THIS “For newspapers, the news has swiftly gone from bad to worse. This year is taking shape as their worst on record, with a double-digit drop in advertising revenue, raising serious questions about the survival of some papers and the solvency of their parent companies. … Executives at the Hearst Corporation say that one of their biggest papers, The San Francisco Chronicle, is losing $1 million a week. Over all, ad revenue fell almost 8 percent last year. This year, it is running about 12 percent below that dismal performance, and company reports issued last week suggested a 14 percent to 15 percent decline in May.”
APPLE TO SOON OWN YOU, YOUR FAMILY “Apple’s iTunes Store, the 800-pound gorilla in digital music sales, is starting to flex its muscles on the movie side. Studio execs said that iTunes movie sales and rentals — which the computer company said tops 50,000 daily — dominate the small but closely watched digital movie biz. Apple is now on track to sell or rent 18.25 million movies a year, or triple the number of last year, before it inked deals with all major studios for new-release rentals and sales.”
RISE OF THE MACHINES “The video game industry is expected to shoot from $41.9 billion in global sales last year to $68.3 billion in 2012, a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% and better than all other media sectors except for online advertising and access.”
Shiny cough syrup abuser Lil Wayne’s new record, Tha Carter III, has sold one million copies in its first week out. It’s the first album since 50 Cent’s 2005 LP The Massacre to move a million units in just seven days. This is also the quickest Lil Wayne has ever come into so much money for buying cocaine. Congrats on having a life sans consequences, Weezy.
DISNEY PREPARES A NEW YOUNG GIRL TO BE PIMPED “Disney is in the process of grooming a possible successor to cash cow ‘Hannah Montana’ star Miley Cyrus. Fifteen-year-old Texan, Demi Lovato will release her first solo album on Disney’s Hollywood Records label this fall. The company hopes that by then Lovato will already be a household name in the tween world, thanks to a multimedia blitz that is aggressive even by Disney standards, writes today’s Wall Street Journal. For Disney, there are few more crucial tasks than finding and developing talent that appeals to 8- to 12-year-olds and perpetuating the pipeline of clean-cut Disney Channel stars whose talents can translate across multiple platforms …”
STARVING ACTORS TO STARVE A LITTLE LESS “Moderate-income performers will likely benefit from a tax relief bill introduced in the Senate on Thursday. Bill will raise the current limit on adjusted gross income to allow deductions for work-related expenses. Currently, the U.S. tax code allows single performers to deduct business expenses only if they have an adjusted gross income below $16,000. The bill would raise that cap to $30,000.”
Jay-Z might make more money than his new wife, but, according to Forbes, Beyonce is far more powerful a celebrity. Sorry, Jay. Angelina Jolie also bested her significant other in the magazine’s new 100 most powerful celebrities list. Click through to see who made it to the top 10. A million imaginary dollars to the person who can guess No. 1 and No. 2.
At No. 11, Will Smith might not have made the top group, but we still love him.
MOVIE THEATERS WILL CONTINUE GOUGING THE SHIT OUT OF YOU “With 31% of the total 2008 US corn crop expected to be devoted to ethanol, the price of popcorn would already be increasing again next year. Now, the disastrous flooding in the Midwest has apparently destroyed a significant portion of next year’s crop. Ethanol production and heavy rains in America’s Corn Belt have created a ‘Perfect Storm’ that could result in $7+ for a large popcorn sometime next year.”
SICK IN MANY SENSES OF THE WORD “At its Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, [Apple] announced a new 3G version of the iPhone in a push to target mainstream consumers. But a strong undercurrent at the event focused on the emaciated appearance of co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs. While Jobs looked especially gaunt in his trademark black turtleneck and faded jeans, other Apple executives spent more time on the stage during his keynote address — a notable move for an executive who typically spends much of his speech rallying the Mac faithful and introducing many products himself. This created a dilemma of sorts for those of us in the business and technology press, but it is also not the first time his appearance has caused concern. In 2004, Jobs successfully battled pancreatic cancer, and since then, there has been occasional speculation about his health after one of his public appearances. … Henry Blodget at Silicon Alley Insider apologized upfront for bringing up the personal subject, before wondering if Jobs has had a recurrence of the cancer that he successfully fought but kept hidden from investors until after his surgery.”
CARTOON MOUSE TO MAKE MORE THAN ZIMBABWE’S GDP “Walt Disney Co. said on Tuesday it expects retail sales of licensed merchandise to top $30 billion worldwide in fiscal 2008, helped by its popular Disney Princess and High School Musical brands. Last year, the company said its sales of licensed Disney merchandise rose to $27 billion, more than doubling from five years earlier.”
LOHAN NOT COMING OUT TO ‘OK!’ “Lindsay Lohan has apparently passed on an offer by OK! magazine to say she’s gay. Insiders told Page Six that Lohan and OK! are in talks to do a cover where Lohan ‘comes out’ about her relationship with gal pal Samantha Ronson, and the mag has offered her ‘around $1 million to do the cover.’ One source said, ‘Lindsay really wants this to happen and she needs the money.’ Lohan’s rep denies there’s a deal, however, saying, ‘They sent offers and we passed.’” But wait: Passed because she’s not gay or because she’s not interested in coming out?
WHAT’S AMAZON’S TIME WORTH? “You expect it to happen to fund-strapped start-ups such as Twitter. But Amazon? The e-commerce site went down this afternoon around 1:30 EDT and stayed down for at least an hour. Attempts to access Amazon.com were met with the following message: ‘Http/1.1 Service Unavailable.’ It’s hard to know exactly how many dollars a minute Amazon loses in sales for every moment its site is down, but simple math pegs it at about $1.8 million an hour …”
Editor
