Thursday, 19 April 2001

YAHOO SEMEL-IRIOUS: I’d say that this is the story of the year in the entertainment business, with far longer lasting effects than the potential strikes out there.  The AOL/Time-Warner merger defined the insanity of the internet gold rush and along with Mark Cuban’s $5.7 billion sale of Broadcast.com, stands as one of the two great inflated internet valuation thefts of that era. 

Ironically enough, it is the sale of Broadcast.com to Yahoo! that has been one of the big symbols of that company’s march to this moment.  The purchase of Broadcast.com was one of Yahoo!’s rare concessions to the idea of creating content instead of simply aggregating everything they could.  Their primary competitor in the eyeball game, AOL, not only went into the content business, they bought one of the world’s largest content businesses, by which they will soon be, if they have not already been, superceded. 

And so now, Terry Semel brings a fresh pair of eyes to a company that is clearly about to make a massive change in their worldview.  Can you see GE’s NBC unit becoming part of Yahoo?  How about an overall merger?  What about Sony, the only major Hollywood studio without a permanent network affiliation, cable or broadcast?  What about Vivendi, which has the cash flow and the international reach?

Of course, the big difference between the AOL/T-W deal and anything Yahoo! tries to do is that Yahoo! no longer has the over-inflated market capitalization to be the 800 pound gorilla that AOL was when approaching Time-Warner, ready to do a hostile takeover if a merger didn’t work.  Semel won’t have any rufies to stick in a potential merger candidate’s drink?  When the marriage happens - and make no mistake, Semel is not there to just grow a stand-alone company - it will be consensual and maybe even a little romantic. 

Of course, the first thing for Semel to do, if he’s smart, is to buy VoicesOfHollywood.com for a measly $2.3 billion. 

ALSO ABOUT ME:  Many of you noticed more than the usual ennui in my writing lately.  Well, the May Pledge Drive should improve that outlook and I’ll be able to focus completely on making the best Hot Button for y’all.  But Wednesday night, I was walking around with a buddy, discussing my personal agonies and how I’m regaining my joy.  And in my 50^th minute of rambling, I say, "You know, I’m not a mean guy!"   And we turn a corner and there’s Kevin Smith.  Geez!  How about that for a sign from above?  Someone I actually felt I’ve been mean to on occasion ... and there he is! 

Kevin and I have sat together.  He knows who I am.  I could see as our eyes meet that he didn’t want to say, "Hi."  My fault.  And so, in the name of karma (not dogma), a big "Hey ho howdy" to Kevin and his gorgeous wife.  And a promise to keep telling the truth, but to try not to be mean in the future. 

TOO MUCH ROUGE:  You know, I understand that it’s a really slow news time right now for movie reporters and gossips alike.   All anyone wants to do is to whine about is the job they just got laid off from or worry aloud about the job they are about to lose in between conversations about the strike and whether it will or will not happen.  It’s enough to drive a columnist to distraction.

And so, when Fox decided to pull the late-week Los Angeles junket for Moulin Rouge, some people decided that there was a story worth slathering over.  Come on! 

Some of you have written in to suggest that I went a little overboard by comparing Baz Luhrmann to Vincente Minnelli based on an 11 minute clip reel and two full musical scenes.  You have your opinion, I’ll keep mine.  One From The Heart is a flawed movie, but I still listen to the soundtrack regularly almost 20 years later.  And there are images for the film that still stand among the most beautiful that film has produced.  I don’t know whether Moulin Rouge is going to be a great film or not.  I haven’t seen the whole thing.  But I know that it will be an important landmark in film history, whether it all comes together or not.

Now, throw that comment at Jeannette Walls and she might say, "See!  It could be an important landmark - like Heaven’s Gate!"  So allow me to clarify.  Moulin Rouge will be the first legitimate large-scale movie musical attempted since Martin Scorsese’s New York, New York.  And this one is a REAL musical, not a straight drama with great musical scenes.   Anyone who loves the form should be actively rooting for this film.  And the quality of this film will be determined by the film, not by audiences.  As I’ve written before, none of Stanley Kubricks’ post-Hollywood films got a good reception from audiences.  Every one of them is now considered a classic by either mass consensus or by a significant group of critics.  (Yes, even Eyes Wide Shut.)

All that said, let’s get back to the gossip of the moment.

PAGE TWO:  Let Me Count The Rouge & ROTD Sees Stars