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Michael Moore; his agent, Ari Emanuel; director Terry George; Jeff Daniels; and Malcolm McDowell, got together in a panel discussion for a week on what is wrong in the movie industry.

Terry George said, "I believe that selling movies is like selling corn flakes to the studio, quite often, there's nothing in the box at all."

Moore offered that Hollywood is pushing mediocre, "cookie-cutter" movies.

The huge salaries of actors was considered one of the major problems of the industry according to Malcolm McDowell, citing Tom Cruise and Tom Hanks specifically.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that ABC television, owned by the Walt Disney Co. (DIS), has dropped a Gibson miniseries project based upon the Holocaust. Evidently the official story from ABC was that the project had been going on... Continue Reading

Blue Shield of California has been picked by the Motion Picture Industry Health Plan to provide coverage of its over 95,000 participants. Don't think of the big stars when considering this as they won't be covered. Janet Widmann, Blue Shield's vice... Continue Reading

Metallica, along with Led Zeppelin and the Beatles, is one of the few remaining bands that hadn't given in to, in their words on the Web site in reference to the iTunes Music Store, "a Cupertino, CA based upstart outfit,... Continue Reading

Low budget films that have actors and directors deferring their salaries for a share in the profits, are one way that people are able to make movies with big stars. When the film ends up being a huge success, like... Continue Reading

With the coming major branding change, along with its name, the Outdoor Life Network or OLN, has hired Taxi, New York, to take over its rebranding efforts this fall as the National Hockey League season gets ready to begin. Bill... Continue Reading

Handleman Company (HDL), a category manager and distributor of prerecorded music and video game hardware, to the North American and UK retail markets, announced today that John W. Beeder has been retained as President and Chief Operating Officer. He comes... Continue Reading

The Walt Disney Company (DIS) has announced that it's in an agreement to buy Hungama TV, one of the top rated children's channels in India. Andy Bird, President, Walt Disney International commented, "India is a long-term strategic priority for The... Continue Reading

Fantasia Barrino a Between the middle of this September through the middle of November, "American Idol" contestants are scheduled to release a total of eight albums. Three of last season's stars are releasing on the same day: Nov. 14.    ... Continue Reading

In a recent consumer survey, it was revealed that celebrity endorsements are no long considered trustworthy. They are considered to be only a little more trustworthy than leaflets left on your door. This doesn't bode well for advertising agencies as... Continue Reading

Motor Trend today announced that XM Satellite Radio (XMSR) will begin broadcasting Motor Trend Radio starting on Saturday, July 22, extending its national audience by over 6 million listeners. It will be available every Saturday on XM Satellite Radio's America... Continue Reading

Toyota (TM) and NBC reached an agreement today that for the first time will guarantee "a specific level of viewer engagement for its television programs." In contrast to traditional size-of-audience metrics, impact is measured through the ability of the viewing... Continue Reading

Coty Inc., the largest fragrance company in the world, revealed that it has signed international pop star Kylie Minogue to an "exclusive licensing deal to develop and market a line of fragrances and ancillary products. Minogue is one of those stars... Continue Reading

MPTV.net photo Forbidden Planet, which is one of the most popular and influential science fiction films before Star Wars, is scheduled for a special DVD release on November 14 by Warner Home Video. It will be offered in a... Continue Reading

Harvey Keitel Photo Credit: ABC a The upcoming two-part miniseries "Path to 9/11" will be shown with few commercial interruptions according to a report by Ad Age. The series will start on Sept. 10, and conclude the next evening. It... Continue Reading

Movielink, one of the companies that offers movie download on the Internet, may be close to taking care of one of the biggest problems that is holding it back from really becoming an effective service. Up until this time Hollywood... Continue Reading

Frederick Huntsberry, Shaun Robinson and Nancy O'Dellcr. Chris Haston a Frederick Huntsberry, who has worked for General Electric Co. (GE), serving in executive postions at Universal Pictures and NBC Universal, was named Paramount's Chief Operating Officer. Huntsberry will report directly... Continue Reading

With the surprise appointment of Dan Abrams to MSNBC's general manager, has come a flurry of moves. Some of those moves included moving Tucker Carlson's show to the late afternoon to be inserted in Abram's former time slot. It has... Continue Reading

This is great news from a business point of view that stars are being forced to take pay cuts so that their income can start to get in line with reality and the market. After decades of throwing money away,... Continue Reading

A pending lawsuit by Frank Maggio owner of the new upstart interactive TV network ReacTV and erinMedia, gives an interesting look at how companies can use a lawsuit for marketing efforts. Maggio first used his company ReacTV to sue Nielsen... Continue Reading