Weekend, 27-28 May 2000

NEWS BY THE NUMBERS

The next edition of The Hot Button will arrive on Tuesday, May 30.

10. Ain't it Irritating: I was rather amazed to get word that an Ain't It Cool Talk Back poster had his post removed and his account banned when he dared to post the "Just Wondering" from Friday's Hot Button. One thing I never expected was for these guys to censor their Talk Back posters. The irony is that Harry's regulars have been outright abusive to the poor guy re: his Craig Kilborne appearance. Even before he appeared. I would never do that. But I would like Ain't It Cool to be honest with its readers. It was born on the premise of exposing the lies. And instead, it is becoming what it once beheld from a distance. There is no entertainment outlet, with the exceptions of People, US, Entertainment Weekly and Premiere, that are more inside the system than Ain't It Cool. And none of the 4 magazines mentioned are as editorially corrupt as AIC. It's time to start telling the truth, Harry. It's not that hard. You used to do it all the time.

9. It's Alive, ALIVE!: Every once in a while you get a screenplay that just keep trying to get made, no matter what obstacles it hits. Such a screenplay is Darryl Quarles' Black Knight, a comedy about a modern Black man thrust into the Middle Ages. The film has had a parade of attached directors, followed by a Chris Tucker attachment that lingered for months as Tucker couldn't get the salary he was after, during which F. Gary Gray hooked on to direct, followed by Tucker's abandonment, followed by Gray's. So, who's next? Martin Lawrence. At least, Fox hopes Martin Lawrence. The studio is expecting good things from Big Momma's House and, despite all kinds of delays in production, they would like Martin to stay in the Fox family. The wild card in all of this is another knight movie, The Visitors, which is a remake of a huge French hit about a knight and his moronic squire coming to modern day and running right into their progeny. As far as I know, The Visitors doesn't have a set release date yet. But we're just one more knight movie away from an Entertainment Weekly sidebar.

8. Tat For Tit: You can do a lot of things to the Scott brothers, but don't embarrass them in an international union dispute. I guess that's the lesson learned by Marcus Nispel and two other former employees of the Scott's RSA USA commercial production company. Just a week ago, I was writing about the remarkable degree of sensitivity attached to Nispel's insensitivity in running an anti-SAG ad in a hip ad trade mag that featured a pair of sagging breasts. (The breasts happened to be Black or rather, African Non-American. Don't want to get angry mail.) The ad led to a couple of protests in front of RSA USA's L.A. HQ. The Scotts gave up. P.C. wins again.

7. And Invest in Longjohns Too: Marvel must like News by the Numbers, because here they are for the third straight weekend. This week, Individual Investor's Craig Schneider opines on the future of the company. It seems that the company is carrying $250 million in debt, and cash from X-Men toy sales won't hit until late this year. Plus, the company is spending extra money to initiate the Web presence discussed last week. (You know, the one that won't be replacing comic books.) Plus, one of the company's big investors, Value Partners, is said to be dumping shares to fill cash needs of its own. Still, Schneider rates Marvel Enterprises a "buy," even if the expected big time cash flow from Spider-Man: The Movie is 18 months away or more. And unless the company tanks, he is probably right. The stock has dropped more than a third in value since December and unless everything tanks, Marvel, Avi Arad and all, is probably an excellent long-term (at least 2 years) investment for believers in X-Men, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider and Blade.

6. A Beauty of a Fight: Also returning to News by the Numbers is the American Beauty/Blockbuster Video controversy. It turns out that American Beauty topped the rental charts in its first weekend despite the "don't ask, don't tell" tactics of Blockbuster. The film moved into second place in its second weekend thanks to James Bond, who also dominated the sell-thru market. The question of what DreamWorks has won, long-term, remains. The Hollywood Reporter attributes the film's success at rental counters to the fight between the studio and the video giant, but I see no evidence of that. I see a great, Oscar® -winning film that people wanted to see and were willing to go out of their way to rent. I imagine the studio won't be sticking to that strategy with The Road to El Dorado. Though we could see it again on Gladiator. Hmmm.

5. Heeee-larious!: Boy, this Internet short business is really entertaining the world! (Note the sarcastic drip) Entertaindom, which many are spelling with an "umb," has invested in a 10-minute spoof of Mission: Impossible called Mission: Imp, starring Verne Troyer as Ethan Runt. Runt! Get it?! He's short! The film debuts on June 12, which suggests that someone doesn't know how to use a calendar. Given that M: I-2 is a sequel, shouldn't the spoof have appeared even before the new movie, using the heat from the big buzz? Oh well, I guess when you have millions to throw away, it's still hard to make a deadline. And if you don't feel like watching the spoof in pixelvision, head to any Warner Bros. Studio Store, where the spoof will be appearing on the big screen.

4. Inside Out: It's been up for three weeks and I still haven't seen a story on Inside.com worth writing about in this column. And that's too bad. If you don't know the name, Inside is the brainchild of Kurt Anderson (Spy, New York) and Michael Hirschorn (Spin, Esquire). The duo promised a revolutionary look at media, hiring a staff of 72 of America's best media reporters. Frankly, I was worried. First, they hadn't asked me to be a part of it. But more to the point, would these guys make The Hot Button obsolete? After all, their intention was to cover much of the same ground I cover here and in much of the same way. With their extended staff, they were looking to break news, which hasn't really happened yet. They put the "Friends" news up on their site first, maybe. But it wasn't a secret. It was just trigger-pulling time. But more to the point, their team was supposed to show the kind of insider insight that would make little ol' me seem like a piker. Instead, they have gotten good reporters who are doing almost exactly what they did at all the outlets they were hired away from in the first place. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But for a company that claims that it will be a subscriber based service, there is ultimately little that can't be gotten in a lot of other places for free. Nonetheless, you will thank me for sending you in the site's direction. Definitely worth checking out. And apparently, a much better site for people who are really into print media. But for me, the best site for that is still Jim Romenesko's MediaNews at www.poynter.org/medianews.

"The Top 3 & ROTDs On China And M: I-2"