Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel

Joe Escalante's weekly spelunk into the business end of showbiz. This Week: the Box Office is dominated by Wicked For Good, which everyone seemingly saw twice. Also, Now You See Me, No We Didn't is #2 (still haven't seen it... not sure we will). The sequel to Sisu came out, and landed at #6. Sam will probably push it up to #4 by himself next week... 

Larry Ellison is taking CNN at the White House, in the midst of Warner Bros. potential sale to Paramount. Joe talks about what this could mean for David Zazlov's legacy: was he the victim of a changing media landscape, or is he just the guy that killed a bunch of potentially huge projects (Batgirl) because he was afraid of diminishing their value. Time will tell there, for certain...

In Celebs Behaving Badly... Rebel Wilson is in potential legal problems, Joe gives his 2 cents on if there's a defamation case there. Former Backstreet Boy Nick Carter's defamation suit gets an update. And Usher planned a restaurant in Atlanta that didn't materialize. Joe discusses his favorite celeb-themed restaurants. Shout out to Kenny Rogers, Burt Reynolds, and...

ALAN HALE'S LOBSTER BARREL!!!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
And now it's time for Joe Escalante live from Hollywood.
If my Hollywood you mean Burbank across the street from
a meaner schnitzel that serves beer.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Joe, are you there?

Speaker 3 (00:36):
This is Joe Escalante live from Hollywood. We're trying to
get Joe Escalante connected here. He should be able to
talk down the line right now. Joe, can you hear me?
We're having some technical issues over here. Let me send
him a quick message to make sure he can hear
me over here. This is the next two hours, hopefully

(00:57):
of the latest from Hollywood producer Sam right now. Uh, Joe,
I can see you on your camera, but I am
not hearing you down your line right now. So uh
jump in whenever you can, and I'll be very happy
to have you on there.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
You're already potted up. Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
So, let's see so far in Hollywood. Let's yeah, I
live above. There we go, I got you. There you are,
Joe Escaltecome, I got a problem. Okay, we all got
a problem.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
No, it's just it's just it's just technical stuff. But
here we are. Can you hear me? Okay? Is everything?
Does this sound like kind of a radio show?

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
No, we got you it sounds good.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Oh doubt it, but we'll go anyway. Joe scant here.
This is live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood you mean
Burbank across the street from a Wiener Schnitzel that serves
beer and uh okay, So the big story this week,

(01:56):
this weekend. This this is a Sunday night recap really
of the weekends and the week's entertainment news business of Hollywood.
It's all about Wicked tonight, and Wicked is breaking records
right when it's needed. And meanwhile, back in the real

(02:19):
life department, Warner Brothers Discovery is on the auction block,
and the White House is somehow in the writer's room,
and in our legal round up later on, Rebel Wilson
Nick Carter both fighting off fresh defamation battles, because in Hollywood,
even the lawsuits have sequels. Hilarious, Joe, You're hilarious. Okay,

(02:42):
So let's go to Wicked, Sam, how many times have
you seen Wicked this weekend? I mean, it's only been
out for three days, but how many times have you
seen it?

Speaker 3 (02:50):
I have an excuse for having zero time seeing it.
My kid was at home with the fever, and I
had to take care of him because I'm a good dad.
But I'm going to have to make up for it
by being a good dad to my daughter and taking
her to see it at least three times this week
just because.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Okay, m yeah, the you know if you I'm sure
you must know what we're talking about if you're on
planet Earth. But Wicked for Good this is the follow
up sequel to the successful successful adaptation of the Broadway
show Wicket and At, debuted this weekend with an estimated
one hundred and fifty million in domestic ticket sales. That's

(03:28):
a lot of people seeing it several times because everyone
has to make up for me. Who I just can't
drag myself to the theater to see that. I saw
the first one and I don't regret it. But I
don't know. I didn't need to do that.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
My girlfriend saw it twice.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
The one already.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
Yeah okay, yes, said on successive successive days.

Speaker 3 (03:49):
She went and saw it. What Friday night when it opened,
and then yesterday or yeah, yesterday Saturday?

Speaker 4 (03:56):
Okay. She so she like, she said, it's good, she
gives a good report.

Speaker 3 (04:00):
She said, she's done for now. She doesn't need to
go and see it anymore. But she was very much entertained.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
She was. She gives it glowing reviews because I mean,
she's a woman, right, Okay.

Speaker 4 (04:12):
So one hundred and fifty million spread out around four
thousand plus theaters. It's about thirty six thousand dollars per
screen for the weekend, two hundred and twenty six million globally.
When you add the seventy six million in international markets,

(04:34):
they make it the largest opening ever for a Broadway
musical adaptation adaptation and one of the top you know
openings all year, that's for sure. It comes at a
time when the you know, US domestic box office is
down and high profile event films can you know, shows

(04:55):
that they can really drive ticket sales. So the movie
business is still something if you have the right ip
and you have one hundred million dollars to market it. So,
and it's a sequel that surpassed the opening of its
original film, which means this franchise has legs. But it
seems like this is the end of the sequels, I

(05:18):
guess because it's for good to me, that means that's
the end of it. But maybe they have more. I
don't know. They'd be smart to do something, So it's
good for everybody. You know. It just shows that, you know,
there's still people will still go to the movies if
you give them something they want to see. So you
just have to figure out how to get them there,
because it's not like they won't go. They will go.

(05:41):
It just has to be it has to be something
a little more than it used to be, because people
used to go just for something to do because they
had nothing else to do the problem with the movie
industry right now is kids have too many things to do.
And even though movies remain a good deal compared to
you know, maybe like going to Disneyland or not very
farm or drugs and alcohol, it's cheaper, but you know, uh,

(06:09):
hard to compete with the number one, the the video
games and the TikTok and the what's the worst of all,
sam is the five For five hundred dollars, you can
buy an eighty five inch TV screen at Costco or

(06:30):
you know, close to it at seventy five inch.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Yeah, no kidding, like those TVs. Every time I go
in there, I want one badly.

Speaker 4 (06:38):
Yeah, well they I mean so the big TVs is
a problem for the movie theaters.

Speaker 3 (06:44):
Projection screens Also I've got I've got a little projector
in my bedroom. My bedroom wall is my TV. I
watch my Laker games on there and it's amazing. I
watch I play video games on there. I watch movies
on there, and yeah, it's it's a past. This is
most viewing experiences when you can just lay on your
bed and watch something on your wall. But we'll have something.

Speaker 4 (07:08):
So where do you put your art? Is it in
like a warehouse somewhere like downtown? Your art collection? Is it?
How do you have that much wall space? Oh?

Speaker 2 (07:18):
I don't.

Speaker 3 (07:19):
I just got one of those really cheap ones, so
it's like one hundred and twenty dollars ones from WALMT.

Speaker 4 (07:22):
Now, but where are you hanging your art?

Speaker 2 (07:25):
My art? I don't have any minimal list.

Speaker 4 (07:28):
Oh okay, okay, good answer. All right, Well let's go
to the box office. And you know when am I'm
just trying to preach to people that you know, go
to the movie theaters. Otherwise they'll disappear and then you'll
be sorry. Now Wicked for good number one number two?
Now you see me? Now, you don't that magician thing
that I can't bring myself to see? Predator Badlines Number

(07:48):
three the running Man. We'll talk about that a little
more later. Rental Family number five. Then the rest of
it is.

Speaker 3 (07:56):
Just I'll give you this one of them you didn't
mention as a as. I will go see three times
this week in the theater to balance out all of
the stuff from Wicked. The sequel to see Sue.

Speaker 4 (08:10):
Yeah, see Sue is number six.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
Yeah, I'm so gonna see that one.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
Well, then two million, six hundred thousand, why don't you
tell us why we should see ce Sue? What's the
story being on that?

Speaker 3 (08:23):
Well, the first one was an amazing movie, came out
like two three years ago, set at the very tail
end of World War Two.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I believe.

Speaker 3 (08:31):
It's in Finland and they they the Nazis were on
their way out and this one guy who had just
finished killing a bunch of Russians found a bunch of
gold and the Nazis were trying to take it from him.
So it's him basically coming up with creative ways to
blow up every Nazi he sees without getting killed. And
it's phenomenal, And there's an adorable dog that chases him

(08:53):
all around and he only has one line in the
entire movie, and it's hilariously disarming.

Speaker 4 (09:01):
Okay, well, I remember you talking about this ce Sue
movie and I missed it in the theater, so maybe
i'll see it this time. Can I see ce Sue
Road to Revenge without seeing the original se Sue?

Speaker 2 (09:13):
I have no idea.

Speaker 3 (09:14):
I need to see this one to let you know,
but I am definitely excited about that one.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
All right, Well, let me know how that goes, because
I don't know if I can see two Ceasus, you know,
in a week, but I'll look into it for right now.
Let's take a break and check the traffic and come back.
Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood continues.

Speaker 2 (09:37):
All right, Joe, are you there, I'm here. Excellent, all right,
go for it.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
What would you like? You like radio program? Is that
what you're into?

Speaker 2 (09:47):
Yeah, yeah, a little bit. You know, Hey, that's what
we do.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
All right, Well, where did we leave it? We left
it off when we were talking about the the box
offic and you were talking about See Zoo. Maybe I'll
see See Zoo. Maybe I won't see se Zoo. And yah.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
The thing is the good thing about it is it
feels very apolitical because at the beginning he's fighting against
one side and at the end, he's fighting at the
other side. So the guy is known for killing, you know,
one side of soldiers, and then all the people that
are trying that he's trying to kill during this film
are people who are actively trying to take his gold.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
Now do you think it's I think I remember this
movie last time because I was like, okay, that's uh,
it's kind of low hagging through. It's like this guy
he does he start out as a Nazi and then
he turns into fighting the Nazis.

Speaker 1 (10:46):
Is that?

Speaker 4 (10:46):
What is that what you're saying?

Speaker 2 (10:47):
No, No, he was fighting.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
He was I believe from Finland and they were tired
of having Russians going in and attacking them, so he
fought against them, and he was known as a guy
who was like the one man army that just just
killed a ton of Russians. And then in this one
they were like they the Nazis just crossed pads with him,

(11:10):
found him because and he at that time happened to
be sporting a whole bunch of gold on him and
they were going to kill him and take his gold,
and he decided to you know, not let that happen.

Speaker 4 (11:21):
Okay, So then then what then what then, who is
he fighting for after that?

Speaker 3 (11:24):
Nobody for himself, for his goal? Okay, yeah, and the
dog that chases him around, and the dog is adorable.

Speaker 4 (11:34):
So you're saying, this guy the Nazis are trying to
are trying to steal his goal.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Yeah, Like World War two is over. They realized that
if once they go back to Germany, they're going to
be tried for war crimes. So they were like, let's
get what we can and get out, right, And so
they were trying to get what they could from him,
and he was not pleased.

Speaker 4 (11:58):
Okay, I'm I like that. I'm probably gonna see it.
But let me talk to Let me talk to you
about a movie that it did see. I did see
a movie called Running Man.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
All right.

Speaker 3 (12:15):
Now, we had talked about this one last week, and
I'm a big fan of the original.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
I know you haven't seen the original. What'd you feel
about this one?

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Well, I mean, you know, it was directed by my
favorite director living director, one of them at least, Edgar Wright.
And he's known for one of my favorite movies in
the last five years, which is Last Night in Soho.
And then he did a Sparks documentary and that's a

(12:47):
labor of love. You're doing a documentary, You're not going
to make any money. It did do well at went Awards,
it went into the festival circuit, but when you came
out of that, I'm thinking last Night so didn't make
any money. It was too good to make money. Then

(13:09):
the Sparks movie didn't make any money because it's a documentary,
so that at some point this guy's got to get
back to directing movies that make money. So what happened
was he took a job directing a sequel to a
movie from the eighties. Is that what this movie's from?

Speaker 3 (13:27):
Yeah, it was on nineteen eighty six, And honestly, there
was a lot of other ips that they could have
picked from from that era. And I mean, I'm happy
that they picked one of my favorites, but there's a
lot of them that were a little more popular than
The Running Man.

Speaker 4 (13:41):
Yeah, you know, I just think he just said when
someone said, hey, we're direct this is like a blockbuster
with Glenn Powell, who's now like a household name, just
about hosting Saturday Night Live and starring in the movie
that made Arnold Schwartzen, you're into such a big star

(14:02):
or helped, you know, sustain his status as a major
movie star, and so it's a lot of pressure, but
it's high profile. I just don't think he had enough
to work with thirty. I just don't think it was
that good. It was my least favorite Edgar Wright movie.
And I just, you know, at first, I'm on, this

(14:23):
is really cool, man. It's a lot of fun. There's
a lot of stuff going on here. Man. I see
the nods to Arnold Schwarzenegger's faces on the dollar bills
and in this dystopian society, and they're gonna have this
big game and everyone's gonna run around and try to
find this.

Speaker 2 (14:36):
Running Let's go to break.

Speaker 4 (14:38):
But I just didn't do it for me. Sam, all right,
cho what's goanting? Life? From Hollywood? I's by Hollywood? You
mee Bourbank? How's the audio right now? Sam?

Speaker 2 (14:48):
Can you sound get over here?

Speaker 4 (14:50):
Okay, let's see. I'm gonna be checking later because I
have my doubts about my setup right now, but for
right now, I'm gonna take your word for it. Okay,
So we're talking about the Running Man, I don't know.
I mean, I don't read Stephen King books, to be honest.

(15:14):
I can't read everything, so I just don't read them.
So it did twenty seven million domestically, about forty eight
million worldwide, on a budget of one hundred and ten millions.
Because this is a you know, a dystopian universe, so
they have to it's they have to do a lot

(15:37):
of special effects and a lot of big sets to
make the world and it like, you know, I guess
it's New York City. I guess it's it's it's a
They got to make it look like it's destroyed but
still livable, and so many extras people walking around in
the crowded world. And I got to tell you, it

(15:57):
looked a little cheap, even at one hundred and ten million.
At some points in the movie, and there was some
some writing, wasn't you know. Stellar didn't move me. But
at the beginning, I'm like, hey, running man, this is
gonna be great. You're right, all kinds of cool stuff's
gonna happen. Then it was about I think it was.

(16:19):
It was I was enjoying it, you know. But then
at about like maybe forty five minutes into the movie,
I'm like, I think this movie might be stupid. And
it's like at that point, you're like, bet something. You
better turn a corner. There better be something like, oh, okay,
this is why this is.

Speaker 3 (16:37):
You know, were there have well delivered one liners like
there were, like seriously, every single scene in the original film,
like every death scene was a lead up. Everything that
you saw was a setup to a in a Schwarzenegger
one liner.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
There has to be and they have.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
To answers no, the answer is no, And I'll tell
you it probably like that's probably Edgar Wright saying I
don't need that stuff. I'm an accomplished director. It's gonna
be a good movie because Running Man was probably not
a good movie and you were just too young to
know that that it sucked.

Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, no, it probably did.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
But I mean, yeah, there's still so many hilariously bad
one liners in that movie.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
No nobody wants to direct that movie. So Edgar Wright
tried to make the best movie he can make, and
Cash the check was the best that I think he
did that. I think he made the best movie he
could make, considering the script and the stupid, you know,
just tired topic of a of a of a dystopian

(17:46):
race death race. You know, I mean, we've already seen
it in Hunger Games, Hunger Games, and then the movie
that Hunger Games stole it from.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
The original Running Man.

Speaker 4 (17:59):
No, No, the no, the Battle Royale, which is the
movie the Japanese movie where Yeah, Hunger Games like literally
ripped off the whole plot. Yeah, or Battle from Battle Royale.
And I think the Hunger Games did a great job.
They took it to a new level for international audiences.

(18:20):
I'd much rather watch Hunger Games. I mean, I I
mean Battle Royale. I don't have time for this movie.
But Edgar right, I'm sure he did the best he could.
And the only thing that would have made it worse
is if he was trying to set up a bunch
of one liners. So I'll give him that. Because we
don't need to make this movie for you know, Sam

(18:41):
Zia thirty years from now. You got to make this
movie for today's audience, Like, hey, let's make this movie
that Sam's gonna like thirty years from now.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
No wonder why this movie sucked, then.

Speaker 4 (18:54):
Yeah it did. That's what they were doing. They were
making a movie for someone thirty years in the future. Okay,
But I got more serious stuff to talk about on
this show than this crappy movie. Oh it is it
sounds disappointing.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
I just need to I just need a moment to
reflect on how disappointed I am to hear that the
remake of The Running Man a movie. I mean, seriously,
it it really was like the guy that made Diehard
made The Running Man, and really it was like the
first movie of that kind where it was like that hardcore,
high action stuff that had great one liners and like

(19:36):
iconic moments from the eighties, and it was like the
first of that genre of eighties action movies. And to
hear it fall short for today's audience, it doesn't surprise me.
But at the same time, I'm a little sad.

Speaker 4 (19:49):
Yew In those days, I wasn't seeing these movies. I
was seeing like movies like I was at a little
I was in a snobby period of my movie going,
watching only movies like Tampopo or Hachi Ko, a lot
of Japanese movies.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
Oh those are.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Good though, Yeah, I mean, I mean movie snobbing. If
you're like there are plenty of worse ways you can
go if you're movie snob in it.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
Yeah, that's what I was doing. David Lynch movies and
uh Samurai movies, Hung Fu movies I wasn't watching. Oh,
I would go see blockbusters like The Killing Fields, but
I wouldn't. I wouldn't go see these these action movies

(20:39):
that kind you're speaking of. I just wouldn't so, and
you know, and I wasn't going to a lot of
movies because I'm so you know, it involved in like
punk rock, and like what am I missing if I
sit in a movie theater. So I didn't go to
all of them. But but if there's a movie like
Elephant Man directed by David Lynch, you know I'm gonna
be there on opening night, or a movie like I said,

(21:02):
Bill Murray movie where he plays an alcoholic clown shake
shakes the clown. Yeah, stuff like that.

Speaker 2 (21:09):
Yeah, that's those are great.

Speaker 4 (21:12):
And every once in a while a crazy movie like
Scanners or something. But so I don't know, these movies
aren't for me. I don't have any nostalgia farm I
don't have. I don't have any Dolph lungdern nostalgia. I
don't have any Arnold Schwarzenegger nostalgia. I don't have it.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
The thing that sustained them wasn't necessarily the theaters. I
don't remember seeing aside from like Terminator too. I don't
remember going to the theater to see any like anything
like The Running Man or anything like that. They were
sustained and they achieved their cult classic on HBO during
like the summer months when kids were home from school
and watching nothing, having nothing to do but watch HBO.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
I believe, I believe you're correct about that, and so
young places I would see these films, maybe while I'm
sitting in a barbershop waiting for my haircut, where the
barber's all got their illegal box and they're watching every
movie all day long. That's all they do. Someone should,
if if the if the copyright UH Department wants to

(22:15):
catch some people, go into any barbershop and then and
just just go to their TV set and see what,
see what is plugged into and just grab it and
throw everyone in jail. Everyone straight to jail, all these barbers. Okay,
let's get to the other big story that's going on
right now. Larry Ellison is the father of the Ellison

(22:41):
that bought Paramount. So his son, ah, it's his name,
call him Scooney.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Let's go with Scooney.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
Let's call them Moelison. I forgot his name. Uh, So
Ellison Junior, who made a really good name for himself
as a as a as a legitimate movie producer. Maybe
he used his dad's money, but he's good at it.
So he's uh owning Paramount. He owns Paramount and sky Dance.

(23:23):
Now and now they're talking about buying Warner Discovery. How
many years have we been talking about David Zaslov coming
in and taking over war like Warner it was a
Discovery president is David s Aslov. I used to work

(23:43):
for them and for a while and then so he
was the big boss where I When I was working
on the show called True Nightmares on Discovery, I d
and you know it was it was It was a
channel if they had seventeen channels and very cool cable business.
But it did so well they bought Warner Brothers and
so they and then David Zaslov is coming to town.

(24:06):
He buys the house that used to belong to the
movie Mogul. I'm the one that's from the kid in
the picture. I can't remember his name all the time,
but anyway, he just made a big splash coming here
and he's going to take over. Everything's gonna be in
a new genius he's and CNN, and he's the guy
that said, hey, batgirl, this movie sucks, let's put it

(24:28):
on the shelf.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
A lot of people were very unhappy with that, by
the way.

Speaker 4 (24:32):
Right, and then he said he did a lot of
things like that and bold moves. But I think those
people have the last laugh that we're mad about that
because now the fact that he's going to be taken over,
so you know, they're in a new phase of their
corporate future because entertaining acquisition offers, not just from Paramount

(24:58):
but whatever. You know, hey, make us a offer buy
this company. Why because whatever he did wasn't working. So
several media companies are exploring bids and the potential transaction
that if Paramount is the one that would create a

(25:20):
combined to two majors. I mean, you know how many
majors are. You got Warner Brothers, you got Universal, You've
got Paramount, and there he is, you got Sony. Now
you got Paramount buying Warner Brothers. Now there's no Now
that's like CBS would now own Discovery and HBO and

(25:42):
all that stuff. CBS Paramount, that's the same company. So
that's a big deal to consolidate the industry one more
time and eliminate one of the majors and now it's
just Paramount and they own Warner Discovery. Remember when Warner
Brothers sold themselves to AOL. They have a long hist
of just selling themselves to stupid people. But in any case,

(26:06):
it's a big deal, and it'll have to pass the
White House anti trust people, the Administration's Anti Trust department,
to make sure it doesn't create barriers to entry. For
a couple of things. In an anti trust case, you
want to prove that you're not price fixing, you're not
creating something that's so big that it can prevent other

(26:28):
people from from even entering the marketplace. That has to
be America is about free as a free market country,
and you have to be able to enter the marketplace
and compete because we thrive on competition. That's what drives
our capitalist system. But if you have something that's too big,

(26:50):
it can't and creates a lack of competition, it is
bad for consumers. We're gonna take a break, but I'll
just leave you with this one thought. Think about this.
We'll come back to this. But let's say I have
a milk company, Sam, and it's so big that I
move into a town and I start selling my milk
for a penny a bottle. What's going to happen to

(27:12):
all the competitors in that town.

Speaker 3 (27:14):
They're going to lower their prices and lose out a
bunch of money that they already have.

Speaker 4 (27:18):
Yes, and then and if maybe they normally charge a
dollar a bottle, okay, And then I come in and
I say, I'm going to sell milk for a penny
a bottle. And then all those people that sell it
for a dollar start lowering their price, loarning their price
until they go out of business. Now there's only one
guy left, the guy that sells it for a penny.
What does he do after they're all gone?

Speaker 2 (27:39):
Amps up?

Speaker 4 (27:40):
The price milk is now five dollars a bottle. Yep,
there's nothing anybody can do about it. This is the
original twirling of the mustache business precice. How dastardly it
is dastardly, And that's what the Anti Trust Department and
the Sherman Anti Trust Act, anti monopoly parts of the
government are there to protect. And it's important. And so

(28:03):
that's what this scrutiny. It will face scrutiny from these people.
This deal, however, but there is a very interesting thing
that that that's going on with Larry Ellison and his
son will call him David Ellison, Uh, going on right now,
And that's what we'll talk about when we come back
on Joe' scalante Life from Hollywood, All right, Joe Scalante
Life from Hollywood. By Hollywood, I mean Burbick, Sam, we're

(28:27):
talking about Zaslov And you said something about, you know,
just how little faith he had in one of his
most anticipated films, and that was Back Girl. Yeah, there
was another one. Do you cancel another one?

Speaker 2 (28:42):
I think so?

Speaker 3 (28:43):
But the really backrel was the one that everybody had
their eyes on, to the point that even uh Brendan
Fraser came out recently and said that he was so
disappointed in Warner Brothers for not releasing the Back Girl
film because it was real anticipated, could have really sparked
something for the company, and they were so afraid of

(29:06):
the of that ip being devalued by the release of
the film, Like how Superman and Batman and all the
other attempts that they had, and like the Justice Squad
and all of them, Like how all of them devalued
the and diminished the value of those ip When those
films came out, it was basically just showing how afraid

(29:30):
Zaslov was to actually take a chance and for him
to not or for him to walk away, or for
him to be you know, like potentially like taken out
of power and having got someone else take over. Could
be a good thing for Warner Brothers. It could be
a good thing for all of those ips. Maybe we'll
see a release now.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
They could bring them up. But that and you know what,
if they come out and they suck like they probably do,
don't blame David Zaslov. Yeah, he also canceled Coyote versus Acme,
which I'm way more upset about.

Speaker 3 (30:03):
Oh yeah, that one for me, significantly more frustrating hearing
that news.

Speaker 4 (30:09):
Yes, yes, and scub Holiday Han, that's that one I'd cancel.
In fact, I would just send the director to jail.
Scoob Holiday Hant no thanks. So. A key detail in
this possible takeover of Warner Brothers Discovery is that it

(30:35):
involves David Ellison's dad, Larry Ellison, who has reportedly spoken
with White House personnel about CNN, which is part of
the Warner Discovery group, and he was talking to someone

(30:55):
in the White House about changing potential changes to on
air talent if a takeover were to occur. Now, Paramount
already went to CBS News and put someone who was
very anti establishment media ahead as the head of CBS News,

(31:15):
Barry Weiss, and so yet to see what she's doing.
I don't know, I don't care, But is something similar
could happen with CNN you put something else, someone else
in charge, like you know, maybe you put Bill O'Reilly
in charge of CNN and then watch the sparks fly.
I don't know, But CNN it just seems so sad

(31:37):
because it has such wide distribution. It was in all
the airports, and nobody watches it, so that David Zaslov
didn't really do much about that got rid of some people,
but they they can't get anybody watch that channel, which
and it's such an iconic brand. Let me ask you,

(31:58):
sim why do you think nobody wild CNN?

Speaker 3 (32:01):
I think the people that they're trying to target with
their news consume news in other ways from sources that
they have more faith than independent sources.

Speaker 4 (32:10):
Yeah, but you could say that about MSNBC and they
and they have, you know, decent ratings depending on the
news cycle and stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
Yeah, but nothing compares to Fox News. I mean that
audience is consistent stable. It's you usually skews a little older,
and people who are more familiar, like they like going
to lot, much more familiar than.

Speaker 4 (32:29):
They can't operate the other sources of news. So that's
what what drives Fox News is. Yeah, success, So their
audience cannot operate YouTube and why why But CNN that's like,
you know, it's it's largely a left wing thing, and
it should skew younger and people should be like and
the old people should be respecting it. But nobody likes it.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
Well, they've I've noticed recently they've started to have younger
anchors on there and people who might appeal more towards
the younger audience. But even then, I'm not noticing any
of that stuff on CNN the TV channel. I'm noticing
that stuff on CNN through YouTube or like are just

(33:11):
random clips that I see, for example, on like some
other independent person's news feed or whatever. They'll usually show Hey,
here's a quick clip of this story from CNN. Let's
point and make fun of.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
Them for commentary. Yeah, yeah, okay, Well anyway, nobody watches it.
Zaslov didn't really do anything to turn that around, and
I wonder if Paramount will. But these news divisions are
only like, you know, maybe twelve percent of these of
the of the business of these studios, some low thing
like that. So but they are like a high profile

(33:46):
burden that they have to deal with. So it looks
like Larry Ellison, I think, is a trump guy. So
you're not gonna get it much scrutiny. People are saying
you're gonna get a favorable screwed from the Trumpet organization
for anything that the Ellisons want to do. They're not

(34:06):
gonna I would say that would be fair, and that
when you're saying that this deal can go forward, you
have to justify it, and you would justify it by saying, well,
in the declining market of television, these people are hemorrhaging money.
Everybody's losing money. CBS is losing money, Warner Brothers losing money.

(34:29):
If you don't let them combine, they'll both go out
of business and we'll have nothing. So let them combine
to make one healthy version of a studio. And that
will be the argument, and it may be hard to
argue against that Actually all right, Sam, I hear that music.
We are at the top of the hour, and when
we come back, we got a lot more. You got
some rebel Wilson trouble, some athletes in trouble, and Nick

(34:55):
Carter in trouble. Joscalante Life from Hollywood. Good evening, Live
from Hollywood. It's Joe Galante Life from Hollywood. And I
think my how's my levels? Now? I think my microphone's
a little too hot? How's that? Is that better for you?
I'm doing some mic leveling on this end.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
Yeah, no, I got you on this end, and I
can adjust on my end as well, So we're good.

Speaker 4 (35:17):
Okay, good?

Speaker 3 (35:18):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Well, this is the businessessn't of show business? Hour number two?
There we go. We were talking about I'm gonna do
a little bit more on Zaslov and the takeover Paramount's
takeover of Warner Brothers Discovery, because the big news this
week is that, well this is It's probably not even true,

(35:41):
but this is what people are reporting that Larry Ellison,
David Allison's dad, is talking to the White House and saying, hey,
you know what if that this is what they're trying
to insinuate. That is why I guarantee it's not true,
because this is the story they wanted. They want to
They want you to believe guaranteed not true. Else since
Dad is calling the White House and saying, if you

(36:03):
approve the steal, we will get rid of the nasty
piggies in the White House, in the White House Press
Corps that comes from CNN, no more.

Speaker 2 (36:17):
Piggies, so froggies from here on out.

Speaker 4 (36:22):
You could have a piggyless press corps. Think about that.
So there's a that's what they're trying to say that
the is happening. But I don't know. This is how
cynical I am. Because of the reporting, it probably not true,
and that's how that's what the media has done to me.

Speaker 3 (36:44):
Honestly, I would love to see the White House Press
Corps be replaced by the Muppets.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
Those two old men are just like all of.

Speaker 2 (36:52):
Them, like have everyone.

Speaker 3 (36:53):
The Muppets represent different at you know, news agencies, and
they can all duke it out the same way that
usual people would do it out. But it'll be it'll
be muppets.

Speaker 4 (37:03):
What a what a wonderful idea, Sam, More people should think.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
Like you, Yeah, I agree, But the world would be
a sillier place.

Speaker 4 (37:13):
Okay, Now, because this is up for sale, does it
mean that Zaslov has failed? He was the toast of
Hollywood and has he failed? Well, everyone will never let
this this go, and mainly because zaslavs was I think
viewed as as kind of a conservative and he got
he didn't like the me too movement. He got rid
of this you know woman batgirl thing. He probably thought,

(37:34):
this is like a DEI movie. I'm getting rid of it.
It's gone. It's not gonna make any money. I'm not
gonna lose money just for to be politically correct. I
think that's what people think. I don't know if it's true,
but so he never got a fair shake in Hollywood anyway,
and it looks like that he ah. If he sells,

(37:55):
there's two things could happen. In one sense, he'll be termed.
He'd be deemed a failure because the whole Warner Brothers
Discovery thing was designed around his leadership and that was
valued far higher when he took the job, and he
intended to remain independent. If he ends up being absorbed

(38:17):
by a rival, the narrative becomes well. His cost cutting
and cancelations and strategic resets didn't fix the company at all.
Even if the numbers make sense on paper, the Hollywood
legacy would be that Zaslov built a merger only to
sell it off. Instead of consolidating his industry, he got

(38:37):
consolidated Sam. Yeah, so that would be the legacy probably.
But in his defense, you could say the industry was
unstable anyway and over leveraged across the board in all
these different places. Everybody's got all this debt, got paramount
and everybody. So he did the best he could do.
It's a bright guy. He put in to affect these

(38:58):
methods that he thought would work, and it didn't. And
consolidation was inevitable because just the decline of all these
studios and the viewers and the business model. So it's
like YouTube that's skyrocketing, that's you know, you know who healthy,
you know, no industry no no hold, no studio owns YouTube,

(39:19):
you know, And so these studios have it just a
different business model. So his his argument could be that
this was inevitably they were going to be consolidated. So hey,
don't blame him, go ahead.

Speaker 3 (39:30):
His The one group that will definitely think that he
is a total success is his bank.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
Oh, because he'll end up with a buyout and a payout.

Speaker 3 (39:41):
Oh, he's going to go. There's a these golden parachutes.
I only see that them as failing up.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
Yeah, yeah, why many people say that. I mean, if
you want to get this guy though, if you want him,
you have to pay the going rate, and the other
the other studios will pay him and they'll give him
a golden parachute, so you have to. So there's really
not much. It's just good a good old fashioned capitalism.
And if you can get a golden parachute, get a

(40:10):
golden parachute, because if the company is gonna have to
pay for it, no matter what, you can't you can't go.
You can't go to your shareholders and say, you know
what we're gonna do. We're gonna have this whole multi
billion dollar industry run by a guy. He doesn't want
a golden parachute. Really, who is that guy? That's this
guy named Sam Zia. He doesn't care. Okay, who's he he?
He's an engineer on an AM radio station. Okay, that's

(40:34):
who we're hiring. Yeah, because we're gonna save that golden parachute.
That's not gonna fly either, I'm assuming.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
Pay me three hundred thousand dollars. I will fix that studio.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
Yeah, I've got a guy. He said he'll ru it
for three hundred thousand. I know we're paying this guy
one hundred and fifty million a year, but I've got
a guy who will do it for three hundred thousand.

Speaker 2 (40:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:54):
Oh really, Yeah, Okay, here's the deal. Whoever whoever makes
that decision is gonna get fired if they're wrong. But
if they make the decision to hire Zaslov and they
pay him a hundred and fifty million dollars and its
tanks and it doesn't give, It doesn't give the it
doesn't you know, it just doesn't work that whoever hired

(41:19):
him or made that decision, nothing's going to happen to
that person. So that that person, if they hire you,
they better win or they're fired to hires Zaslav. Whether
they win or lose, nothing happens to them.

Speaker 3 (41:33):
Yeah, but for the company, it's an expensive mistake. I
am inexpensive shot.

Speaker 4 (41:39):
Yeah, but you will the guy. I'm just telling you,
the guy will be fired. He'll be fired if you
don't work, if you don't perform. Yeah, but he can
but here's the other guy that he can hire this
guy and it doesn't matter if he performs, You're not
going to get fired. So what are you going to do?
That's why people in Hollywood buy programs, and they say, like,

(42:02):
you pitch a TV show idea to a development executive
and it sounds good to him, but you don't have
a track record. Now he can buy your great idea.
And then the next meeting he has is a mediocre idea.
But guess who's attached to it, Anna Taylor Joy, and

(42:22):
he's going, Wow, this is a winner. This lady is
a movie star and she's never done TV, or well,
maybe this kind whatever, this kind of TV. I got
a guaranteed winner here, but not really a guaranteed winner here.
The script isn't that good and it might be a failure.
Maybe I shouldn't. Maybe I should buy that other good
idea with a good script from the guy who's nobody. Well,

(42:43):
who they gonna buy? Buy who they from? Sam?

Speaker 3 (42:47):
I would hope they would make the wise choice and
the affordable choice.

Speaker 4 (42:52):
They're gonna they're gonna buy the Anna Taylor Joy project
because whether it does well, succeeds, or fail, they will
keep their job. But if they if they buy the
sam z Is project and it doesn't work, someone's gonna say,
who the hell hired this? But who about this? What about?

(43:14):
I thought it was good? Where did the guy come from?
Well he never done anything? Yeah, but then why'd you
buy it? Well I thought it was good. Well you're wrong,
it was bad. Now now we got Anna Taylor Joy
project and it fails, and you go it failed? Well
who knew Anna Tailor Joy? Who knew? Maybe we can
get our next project. And that's how Hollywood works. That's

(43:35):
why if you don't have someone famous attached your pro
project and you don't have any credits, don't don't bother
telling people that you have a television idea. Okay, unless
you're telling it to your best friend Ben Affleck. Okay,
So yeah, so he may Zaslov has a few excuses.

(43:56):
And if he gets a good price for it and
the shareholders are you know, could be like, hey, it
was the sinking ship. He got a good price and
we all came out with some money in our pocket.
We love the guy, but the Batgirl fans are never
gonna love that man. So it is a risky situation
for anybody who hires these guys, but you have to

(44:19):
hire the big name, and if it doesn't work, everybody
just throws up there. And it's like you said, it's
kind of like failing upwards. If he gets booted out
of this thing, where will David Zaslov go. Well, there's
other studios that will would love to hire him until

(44:41):
or he could you know, retire and play golf in
Denver for the rest of his life. I think that's
where he lives. Or he could become just a mega international,
big deal in the international media world. That's where I
think he'll end up. I think I'll bet my this

(45:03):
little insides I have no insights scood because I don't
know that it's true. I'll bet my stepbrother hires him.
That's all I'm gonna say. Interesting, No, I bet my stepbrother.

Speaker 3 (45:14):
It just reminds me of when I see people fail
up and consistently fail up. It reminds me of like
mechanics who when you take the car into the shop,
they'll like they'll fix a problem, but then magically cause
another problem, so you have to keep coming back. And
it just has that energy for me where it's like
these guys are not like they're every time everywhere they go,

(45:36):
they don't necessarily succeed, yet they keep getting another job,
getting paid huge amounts.

Speaker 4 (45:44):
Well, I have a solution for you. You should have your
car fixed exclusively by the Muppets. Yes, okay, yes, all right,
we take a break, come back with more of Joe
Scalante Live from Hollywood. Want Live from Hollywood by Hollywood?
You mean Verbon? How's it going? Sam?

Speaker 2 (46:06):
Good? Good? How you doing?

Speaker 4 (46:09):
Do you like Rebel Wolveson?

Speaker 2 (46:12):
Yeah, she's had some funny moments.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
I'm not I don't go out of my way to
pursue stuff she's in, but everything I've seen herund has
been entertaining.

Speaker 4 (46:20):
Yeah, I think she's she's really funny. I don't know
if she like it. When she was she was a
big girl. She was a plus sized comedian, right, can
we all say that to be honest?

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 4 (46:33):
And I thought it was just an amazing character, so good.
And then she got skinny. I don't know, ozmpic probably,
I guess, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (46:46):
And then the doctor told me I was I went
in for my physical and my doctor told me that
I was fat and offered me ozempic and I'm like, I'm.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Only like maybe ten pounds over my usual weigh.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
A time for a new doctor.

Speaker 2 (47:02):
I feel fat shamed.

Speaker 4 (47:04):
So you you, I mean, doctors aren't going to look
at your body mass index and go like, yah, you'r
eight pounds every weeighth or something like that. But for
a doctor to tell you you're fat and tell you
should inject yourself with some weird thing, uh so you
can get skinny and then it's something that you have
to keep injecting yourself with for the rest of your life.
Sounds like he's more of a salesman for the pharmaceutical industry.

(47:25):
To me, especially someone like you, You're not fat and
if you want to if you're if you're ten pounds overweight,
then you know you have the discipline. You've done amazing
things in your career, You're about to get a doctorate.
That's like, you can't take care of that yourself without
injecting yourself with some weird thing.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
Oh, I've I can handle it. I have no problem
with that, can handle it.

Speaker 4 (47:47):
That's something I just felt like.

Speaker 3 (47:49):
It felt like he can handle my love handles at
this moment, and I'm.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Not gonna lie. I am a little festively plump at
the moment.

Speaker 4 (47:58):
Yeah, you know, I would get a new doctor. Yeah,
the doctors are doing that for like a lot of
them are doing that, and you know, number wanted to
new what what? What is it gonna is? Is everybody
who take that gonna get cancer from it? Some kind
of cancer from it some day. We don't know. They
don't know if if you you know you're you're morbidly obese.

(48:26):
I guess you know, But I mean, I just don't
think it sends the right message to society that this
is what you're doing. Everybody does that. People even mad
at me. I just talked to a guy who said
he was taking it, and I'm like, if it was
a pill, I would say, Okay, take a pill, you know,
and doesn't seem to be dangerous on the surface. This

(48:47):
this these drugs, then great. But if you're injecting yourself,
how do you want to do that? Forever you on vacation,
you gotta bring needles.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
It would have been if I heard, you know, hey,
you might want to hit the gym and eat better,
you know, cut the salt out of your diet.

Speaker 4 (49:04):
Yeah, yeah, it was like that you should, you should
you should exercise more for your heart. And you know,
if you lose a few pounds, you would have like
I had this problem with this is now a health show.
I have this problem with h you call it when
you have heartburn. And I never had heartburn my whole life.

(49:26):
All of a sudden, I have heartburn. And then my
wife goes, I'll bet if you lost ten pounds, that
would go away. So I lost ten pounds and it
went away the end. How did I lose pounds? Ten pounds?
I avoided bread and sweets and alcohol and in ten

(49:46):
pounds in ten It's hard. It's easy for men to
do this. I think ten days, ten pounds came off. Okay,
it's done, and I you know, and two pounds come back,
two pounds go away. I'm gonna put any needles in
my body. I don't care. It's terrible, okay, But I
do put a weird stuff in my hair, Sam, so
I'm not completely innocent. I put I go to Target

(50:08):
and I get their like you know, hair growth stuff,
and I put it. You have to put that on
your head every day and if you take it off,
if you stop doing it, that your your your hair
will start to come out my hair only just like
slightly in the in the top had a little only god,
you can see there would be a balt spot coming in.
Took that stuff and went away. Lots of hair up there.
But maybe that's worse for me than than ozempic. I

(50:31):
don't know.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
Is it a topic or is it a pill?

Speaker 4 (50:34):
No, it's a topical thing.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
Okay, cool, because if it was a pill, I'd be
worried about where hair would be growing on other parts
of my body.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
Yeah, you don't want hair and your internal hairs. But yeah,
so I'm not like you know, I'm not. I'm not
a health addict, health not But okay, I don't know.
That's just I can't believe they did anyway. They did
it to someone did it to Rebel Wilson, and I
think it hurt her career. So anyway, she probably doesn't care.

(51:01):
She likes being thin, and she is directing a movie
called The deb Okay, it's an independent movie and she's
a director. O Hey, good for her. But what wegan
as some internal disagreements on the production has escalated into
public allegations, counter allegations, and several lawsuits involving producers and

(51:23):
cast we reported on this before, but it just keeps going.
Wilson has accused members of the production team of financial
mismanagement and conduct, including alleged embezzlement, improper handling of funds,
and abusive behavior during production. She describes herself as a whistleblower. Okay,

(51:46):
that's here, you don't you know, I'm not a bitch.
I'm a whistleblower, claiming she came forward to expose wrongdoing
behind the scenes of the project, and she has to
phrase it in certain ways because well, you'll find out.
The producer, in turn, have strongly denied her accusations and
have filed defamation claims against her, arguing that Wilson made

(52:07):
false and damaging statements that harm the film and their
professional reputations. So do you see why she's trying to
be careful, like I'm just a whistleblowery, I'm trying to
you know, I'm just calling balls and strikes because they're saying, yeah,
but if you say we're embezzling, that is defamatory. Sam,
does embezzling make you spit on the ground?

Speaker 3 (52:26):
Embezzlement, I wouldn't call it, I'd call it an accusation.
The accusation alone shouldn't be considered defamatory.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
But what if it's true.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
Well, that's the thing. If it's true, it's not.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
Then you spit on the ground. Well that's my I'm
trying to illustrate the grounds for a defamation lawsuit. It
has to be something that's so bad normal people would
spit on the ground when they heard about it. Embezzlement.
I would say that qualifies because you're stealing money from
innocent people in bezzler. Now it also has to be

(52:59):
not true. So she's saying that it is true, so
it satisfies the prong of the spin on the ground.
But then it has to be true, so Wilson has made.
In a further twist, one of the actresses connected to

(53:21):
the project has also filed a separate defamation suit against Wilson,
alleging that statements Wilson may publicly caused reputational and emotional
harm to her. So things are not going well. The
legal back and forth is now just a you know,
full blown scandal. Point one, Wilson says she is exposing

(53:44):
misconduct to protect the film and the people work. On
point two, the producer says she's spreading false accusations in
an attempt to control the project or shift blame for
production problems. So the very nature of this public is
keep dispute, including Wilson to gussing it in the televised
interview that she made, has added pressure to all parties

(54:05):
and raise these questions about the future commercial viability of
the dub of the deb I mean, who wants to
see this movie?

Speaker 2 (54:10):
Now?

Speaker 4 (54:11):
Maybe more people?

Speaker 3 (54:12):
Sam right, possibly, But I mean we saw similar accusations
take down Ellen, so it would you know, whenever anybody
makes an accusation like this, you got to pay attention.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
So that movie's called the deb we will look for
it and the results of all these lawsuits. Joe'scalante live
from Hollywood back after this. Oh it's like on a loop. Yeah,
that's that's yeah, all right, I get it. It's a

(54:46):
it's a it's a tight okay, all right. Well anyways,
Joe'scalante live from Hollywood by Hollywood you mek okay uh.
I want to make it clear about this rebel Wilson
movie The Dead and all the lawsuits going back and forth.
I know I've reported on it before, but the new
part is the part that this actress Charlotte mckeanes has

(55:10):
filed a defamation case against Rebel Wilson. On top of
everything else is going on, She's going after the producers.
Producers are going after her, and now this actress files
it a defamation claim against her because get this, she says,
you defamed me by publicly stating that this other woman

(55:34):
named Amanda Ghost sexually harassed me. I deny that I
was not sexually harassed by Amanda Ghost. I think is
an entertainment executive. So maybe she's working on the movie.
So don't say that I am sexually harassed becau. Then
it makes me look like I'm telling people I'm a victim.
I'm not a victim. I didn't do it. Oh she
didn't do it. Just mind your own beeswax. So now

(56:01):
she's got this suit again, and this is all Australian loss.
So does it really matter? Is it real? Maybe it
might even be more real because maybe they have maybe
they still use the guillotine over there. I don't know, okay,
And I'm looking at the pictures of Rebel Wilson. Now
it's just not the same, you know, it's not It's

(56:23):
not what I We need a new rebel Wilson is
what we need in this industry. And this rebel Wilson
is going to be a director.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Good for her, someone who's slightly more rebellious.

Speaker 4 (56:33):
Maybe, yeah, Nick Carter. Do you know him?

Speaker 3 (56:39):
He's suggesting Nick Carter to take that role. Sorry, I
was like, that's interesting.

Speaker 4 (56:46):
I'm not that interesting. Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys.
He's got a legal battle that is maybe we might
have covered this, but more stuff is happening. It's a
long standing sexual assault allegations that he's battling. And in
a new filing submitted on just recently as November thirteenth,
twenty twenty five, Carter asked a Nevada court for permission

(57:09):
to add a new defendant to the defamation and extortion
lawsuit because he suits somebody. Somebody is saying, oh, you
raped me or whatever, and he's saying, no, I didn't,
and you're trying to extort money out of me. And
now he's suing not only her but her mother, wow
and the horse she wrote in on According to Carter's filings,

(57:30):
the woman allegedly operated an anonymous Twitter account that posted
false statements about him, amplified, unverified accusations and coordinated with
what his legal team describes as an online harassment campaign.
Some people have a lot of time on their hands.
Carter claims this activity was designed to damage his reputation

(57:50):
by public pressure and support his daughter's civil claims against him.
So let's ruin his life if he doesn't give you
money for raping you, which he says, I didn't rape you.
So this move that he's doing, suing the mom is
the latest in this development in this case is going
to going back for several years. Carter originally filed defamation

(58:11):
and extortion lawsuits in twenty twenty three against multiple accusers,
arguing that the allegations made against him were fabricated and
motivated by financial gain. He has consistently denied all wrongdoing.
Carter's lawyers say they own the activity. The online activity
at the center of this latest filing caused significant harm
to his career, affecting touring opportunities, business partnerships, and Backstreet

(58:35):
Boys brand. Yeah, so that's what you have to do
if you're suing for defamation, you didn't. You have to
demonstrate damages, you know, otherwise your damages are a dollar?
You say, Okay, the judge might say we agree. That
the jury comes back and says, yeah, we agree, you
were you were, you were defamed, But what were the damages?
Did it really hurt Aaron Carter to have some little

(58:56):
pesky mosquito of a nothing that he raped her? So
he has to show, yeah it did. How did he
show it? Well? The court would want to see. Like
the best thing would be, like I have a promoter
like Irving Azov saying I have a gazillion dollars in
my pocket and I wanted to book Aaron Carter or

(59:17):
Nick Carter at the Acrosuer Arena, but I didn't do
it because of these wild allegations that I assume are true.
Because you know why, you have to believe the woman.
And then that if he had that letter, he would say, okay,
look how much would I have made at the Acrossure
Arena if I did a headline show there, I would

(59:38):
have made I don't know, five hundred and fifty thousand
dollars and that's my damages, thank you. And then she
would come back and say, would you really make five
hundred and fifty thousand dollars? Well, i've seen the production
of your things and I think your production would eat
up at least two hundred thousand to that, and then
you'd have to pay your agent and your business manager
and your lawyers, and so you really would end up

(01:00:01):
with probably, you know, thirty five percent of that five
hundred thousand dollars five I'm so, I'm gonna that's your
real damages. Stuff like that. That's that's what happens in
court on defamation cases.

Speaker 3 (01:00:14):
That was very fascinating. It was like a one man show. Yes,
like I just witnessed, like a one man courtroom drama.

Speaker 4 (01:00:23):
Yes, and one man court room drama.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
That was impressive.

Speaker 4 (01:00:26):
The jury comes back and they say, yeah, maybe one
hundred and ten. How's that. But he shouldn't have to
do that if it's if it's not true, you know,
if it's like so, But he does because they have
to come up with some amount. What did he lose, Well,

(01:00:47):
he had some other you know, any you're gonna come
up with a bunch of stuff, and the jury might think,
like if you really go to trial, the jury might
just think, this girl's disgusting. Let's punish her. They can
award a lot of money because they if they believe
she had bad faith and I think the more bad
faith they see, the less that Nick Carter has to prove,
although let's not forget she might be telling the truth.

(01:01:11):
And that's what it's like to be in the rock
star business. You have a bunch of money and people
just like they want to take it. Now here's sometimes
you don't get the money. You ever watched The Walking Dead?
For the Walking Dead?

Speaker 2 (01:01:31):
Yeah, yeah, I remember.

Speaker 3 (01:01:33):
I watched a few episodes of the original show Fear
the Walking Dead. I think they were filming get out
Here and they said it out Here. I didn't quite
watch that one as much.

Speaker 4 (01:01:43):
Well, they're always having problems with these Walking Dead things,
and the producers and their producer unpaid profits that they're
supposed to be getting and they never get them and
they have to go. So that's old school television at
its finest. In this case, Dave Erickson, best known as
the co creator and showrunner of Walking Dead, he had
to file lawsuit against the AMC Networks because he's looking

(01:02:03):
at his statements and even though we can all agree
that show is a commercial success, can we not?

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Sam I would say so, yeah, they've got toys.

Speaker 4 (01:02:14):
Yes, but according to the statements that they keep sending him.
There is no profits that have been reached. According to
the complaint, other participants to the show or finance franchise
have earned tens of millions. On he's talking about other participants,
it's probably AMC and who their parent company is and partners,

(01:02:35):
and one figure sighted is up to sixty seven million
dollars that people have earned while Ericson has got nothing
as the creator. The legal claim alleges that AMC designed
Ericson's contract so he could never break even. It accuses
the network of breach of contract, fraudulent misrepresentation, and violation
of the implied covenant of good faith and fair to

(01:02:55):
the In other words, he signed a contract, they followed
it by the letter of the law. And then now
he's not getting any money, and he's saying this is
a ripoff, but he signed the contract and so he
has to, uh, you know, he ans to sue to
get his money. His specific complaint is what is something

(01:03:18):
called the imputed license fee. And usually this is a
little too technical for me to explain on radio, but
I'm going to try to do it. Okay, here's how
these deals work. And because this is what I used
to do for a living Sam. You you you make
a deal with the writer and some basic things like

(01:03:39):
you're going to get let's say one hundred thousand dollars
for the pilot and fifty thousand dollars an episode. You're
the creator by b blah blah blah, and you're going
to get ten points. Oh you know, you're gonna get
five net points a net profit five percent of the
net profits. And then and guy and the lawyer or

(01:04:02):
the agent or whatever gets on the phone and they
start arguing with me like, how dare you? How dare you?
My client is worth twice that he wants ten of
the net profit points. Ten? Okay, ten? I tell you
I want to take one point less, and then I
say okay, And then then then I drop the deal.

(01:04:26):
Send it down to the law of department, a lot
of apartment, generates a big fat contract like thirty five
forty fifty pages, and sends it back up to me.
I look at it. Yeah, this is the deal. My
gal sends it over to the lawyer for the or
the agent for the writer, and then the lawyer calls
back to me and goes, okay, there's the ten in here. Yeah,

(01:04:51):
it's ten. I think I could squeeze fifteen out of you.
Come on, if you agree to ten, I've been knocking
around you fifteen Skanderds Fitzy, are you get fifteen? I'll
give you fifteen deals done signed over with, don't hear
about it forever. But if I really did go down
and and and do the profit model which I create

(01:05:12):
for the show, his fifteen points, his thirty points, his
fifty points is one hundred points. It's never going to
be anything because the guy is too lazy to negotiate
the profit definition. It's too thick, it's thirty pages. He
doesn't want to do it. You got to go through it,
and you got to look at specifically at these imputed
license fees, and you say, we don't. You can't just

(01:05:34):
decide what you're licensing it to to a company that
you are also owned. Oh, we licensed it to this
channel and they only gave us this much. Well no, no, no,
you that's because they they you own that channel. You
can write any number you want. You have to write
a number that's like it reflects what the marketplace is.
So right there, you're they're going to burn you on

(01:05:56):
that because they're going to say that we didn't that
we didn't make any money because we only got this
amount of money for licensing. Now that's where you're gonna
get burned. Another place you get burned is these are
net profits. Okay, you need gross profits. I would rather
have two percent of the gross profits than one hundred
percent of the net profits. It's because the net profit

(01:06:17):
definition is BS. You got to get out of that world.
You gotta have the gross profit definition. The gross profit
definition doesn't make you pay like distribution costs and fees.
By the time you pay distribution costs and fees, what
are those? They're whatever they make up? Oh, they cost
so much per episode to distribute this and reruns and

(01:06:38):
there's a distribution fee and a cost you look, go
look at the gross definition. They don't have to pay
those things. So all your costs and fees and everything
are adding up, and very little money is coming in
because of these imputed license fees in the net definition.
In the gross definition, they don't have any of that,
and they're earning money every quarter. So even though when

(01:07:00):
I found out about this and why this happened, it all,
it all rested on the lazy lawyers that were not
negotiating the right deals and then you know and then
like like twenty years down the road, you're gonna I'm
gonna get deposed or you know, one of my partners
or my associates in the in the network, and you
get deposed, and they're gonna say, well, why did you
do this? So I did this because you know this

(01:07:21):
is how we did things, and you know my boss
told me to do this, or just following on our orders.
And then they have to go with another thing like
this is just unconscionable and unjust en Richmond, and how
dear the big network do this? And then the guy
will get his money, and he should get his money,
but he should sue that lawyer from our practice for
being LAist. Anyway, that's a little seminar on monkey points

(01:07:44):
and real points and how something can be very very
successful but not generate any money. It's because the costs
and the fees and the interest on overhead. The overhead
on interest is it's all the stuff you have to
get out of these contracts and the imputed license fees.
You just have to have a good lawyer who is
not lazy, or tie your profit definitions to a big
star who is as a lawyer that's not lazy, and

(01:08:06):
then you're gonna have a good definition because you said,
I will only agree to the same profit definition that
the star of the show has or the writer that
has a powerful agent. All right, let's take a break
and we'll check traffic one last time. Joe Scalante Live
from Hollywood. Oh yes, Joe Scalante live from Hollywood. Business

(01:08:32):
end of show Business every Sunday from five to seven,
So our last segment of the evening. And uh, by
the way, many soon.

Speaker 3 (01:08:40):
It just occurred to me, I have not once referred
to you as the award winning Joe Steward.

Speaker 4 (01:08:46):
Winning, award winning Joe Scalante here every Sunday from five
to seven with the business end of show Business for you.
And I apologize for that last segment with a dry
profit definition stuff. But every once in a while I
feel the energy to do it. We're gonna end on

(01:09:08):
this topic. H celebrities opening restaurants. He does fried chicken
or something like that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
Yeah, something I remember he had like a roasted chicken
kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
Roasted chicken. Yeah. Well, Usher, the singer, former Los Angeles resident,
went to Buckley School here in town. I believe he's
suing investors to recover seven hundred thousand dollars. He lent
them to buy a property for a restaurant in Atlanta
that was going to be called Homage atl Would you

(01:09:43):
go to a restaurant called Homage one?

Speaker 3 (01:09:47):
It depends on what kind of food they're serving. What
is it an homage too?

Speaker 4 (01:09:51):
But general, in general, you got two restaurants, there are
all things being equal.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
No, I would not. I would know.

Speaker 3 (01:09:59):
Because I would ask was this an homage too? I'd
rather go there.

Speaker 4 (01:10:02):
Yeah, yeah, it's well it doesn't say they just like
the word. So anyway, well, anyways, we know that it failed, okay,
because we're talking about it. So maybe let's start right
there with the name of your restaurant, Homage atl No.
Uh the So anyways, Usher lent these guys one point

(01:10:28):
seven million dollars to start the restaurant. He didn't want
to be a partner in it, but he said he'd
lend him the money, So he lent him the money.
Nothing ever happened with the thing. It's in Atlanta and
something called the Buckhead neighborhood, and they this has just
recently happened. They just started this thing in twenty twenty four,
so he's I mean, it wasn't forever that he's waiting

(01:10:49):
for it. But at some point he said, I didn't
even money, but it calling in the loan and they
gave him a million dollars in August, but nothing since.
So he father lawsuit my seven hundred thousand dollars, pay up, sucker,
and will he get it? Do they have it? Why

(01:11:11):
didn't he want to be a part of it? Why
would he lend him the money? You know, I don't know.
Maybe he's got some lean on one of their properties
and he's going to get it. But in any case,
it just cost to mind. All the celebrity restaurants you
mentioned Kenny Rogers, Broasted Chicken. My favorite story is Burt
Reynolds his involvement with the Po Folks restaurant Ooh Yes,

(01:11:36):
and the chain filed at bankruptcy in nineteen eighty eight,
leading to the closure of many locations, including those Reynolds
invested in, and while his investment cost him millions, some
franchises continued operating under different names or his independent entities
until they eventually closed.

Speaker 2 (01:11:56):
Were they Smokey and the Bandit themed?

Speaker 4 (01:11:59):
They were Southern that kind of movie. He made a
million of movies like that chain. My favorite is is
White Lightning and then the sequel Gator. McCluskey, I think Gator.
Those are good movies. The Chang's original corporate entity sold
its assets after the bankruptcy, and Reynolds's personal investment was

(01:12:22):
a contributing factor to his later financial struggles. So he
had to file bankruptcy in nineteen ninety six. Now, and
it was because of this restaurant. Now, the reason why
I know about this is because I was working. He

(01:12:43):
was one of my actors on a show when I
was at CBS called Evening Shade. Evening Shade is a
CBS sitcom with Burt Reynolds starring. Now, I had to
give him money, and I had to give him money
all the time because he was he was bankrupt, So
he would want money in advance and he'd call me
because I made the deal, and then I would go
to the finance apartment. Today we got to give Burt

(01:13:03):
Reynolds some money. I'd go to my boss first and
he'd say, you better give Burt Renolds some money, and
we just get him in whatever money he needed, and
we got a lot of cool stories out of it,
and we always gave him his money and he always
came in and did his acting. And for Christmas, sam
I got an Evening Shade built book.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
Oh that's cool.

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
Yeah, I still have it, Okay. So the reason why
he went bankrupt because he wouldn't go along with the
bankruptcy that the corporation did. He said, wait, what are
you talking about bankrupt so we're not going to pay
our bills. They said, no, you don't have to pay
your bills. You're filing bankruptcy. And he says, that doesn't
sound right. What about all the people that trusted us? Hey,

(01:13:43):
you know that's how it goes. So he went back
and paid every single person, every person that was going
to get burned by the bankruptcy. He took his own
personal money and he paid all those people and went
bankrupt himself. And he would rather go bankrupt himself than
to cheat anybody. And that's the kind of person Burt
Reynolds was. And that's why I hope to be buried
next to him in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery someday. He's

(01:14:06):
got a statue there, a Sino taff I guess you
can see at anytime. It's over by the lake. And
if you have never been to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery,
really check it out. And we're about to be out
of time here, but I'll tell you about one last
favorite celebrity restaurant from my youth was Alan Hale's Lobster Barrel.
Do you know Alan Hale?

Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
Yeah, from Gilligan's Island.

Speaker 4 (01:14:29):
Yeah, Yes, known for his role as the Skipper on
Gilligan's Island. He seafood the sea, Yeah, seafood restaurant called
Allen Hale's Lobster Barrel eight twenty six Locienaga Boulevard, right
in the middle of a restaurant row. We used to go
there all the time as a kid. Whenever it was
my choice, where do you want to eat today, Little Joe,
I want to go to Allen Hale's Lobster Barrel. And

(01:14:50):
then he got out of it at some point. He
used to be there at meeting guests and stuff like that.
And then but then when he got out, then he
was there and it became it used to be a
real big celebrity hangout, and then it was just a
regular restaurant after he left, and eventually it went down
for a lot of reasons, but Alan Haile's a lobster
burrow all right, I guess we're out of here. I

(01:15:12):
now leave you with just a taste of the greatest
song ever written.