December 7, 2025 • 43 mins
Joe Escalante's weekly digital insertion into the business end of showbiz. This week: The latest from the Box Office: Five Night's at Freddy's 2 takes the lead over Zootopia 2, and an Anime is #4... Animated films are making a big splash during the holidays. Joe watched a Netflix documentary on Selena, called Selena y Los Dinos, and highly recommends it. He also saw the Netflix documentary, The Stringer: The Man who Took the Photo, about the truth behind the most famous picture taken during the Vietnam War.
We're talking a lot of Netflix today... Joe discusses the details behind Netflix's proposed purchase of Warner Bros (and a bunch of other companies), and the impact it can have on an already struggling Hollywood Film industry.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
And now it's time for Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood.
If by Hollywood you mean Burbie across the street promo
meaners it's a little that serves beer.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
All right, we got a big one for you today, Sam.
Can you hear me? Everything good?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yep, We're good.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Super?
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Let me turn my mic up a little more t
yell into it. There you go, How you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm good. Just returned from a two day little mini
tour of the for the Vandals Christmas shows. We played
at Papi and Harriet's last night, and then Phoenix or
Chandler Arizona actually last night, and Pappy and Harriet's on Friday.
Have you been to Papi and Harriet's, Sam.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I have not been to Papi and Harriet's.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Heard about it.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I have not heard.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
About Pappy and Harriets. I'm trying to think it's a
happy on Harriets or Pappy.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And Harriets, Pappy and Harriet. Oh like like Ozzie and Harriet,
but in this instead of an idyllic family in the
nineteen fifties, it's two people that converted what's basically movie
sets built by old cowboy stars out and in like
(01:29):
Joshua Tree Landers, maybe it's the actual city and they
you know, it's just an old cowboy set type place
with some you know, Western buildings out in the desert,
but it has it's since become a legendary for its
concerts because of course, you know, you got your country
(01:51):
music out there or whatever. And but then I don't
know how this happened, but over time, just like you know,
bigger and bigger acts started playing there, just kind of
for fun, until it just reached a fever pitch a
couple of years ago with Paul McCartney playing there. Wow, yeah,
think about that.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
That's like beyond fever pitch.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, that's that's number one that it doesn't get any better.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
We put it on our list of like, yeah, I
just talked to my agent and I said, hey, why
don't we played this Pappy in Herriot's place. It's good
enough for Paul McCartney, it's good enough for the Vandals.
So we do a Christmas show every year. This show
sell out, sold out in minutes. It's only an indoor
small it's like a restaurant. We did our sound check
in front of people eating ribs and then they you know,
(02:46):
they eventually clear them out and they let the ticket
buyers in and it was just, you know, it's like
the Blues Brothers. You know, there's everything except for the fence,
chicken wire fence in front of the band. And the
food is as good as it gets in a barbecue,
(03:07):
you know, joint. It's so good. So anytime you can
get out to Pappy and Harriet's out in Landers, you should.
And if they're having a show, you check their calendar.
You're gonna have a great time. But you better get
your tickets early because it's small and everything, you know,
pretty much sells out early. And we had a great time.
And then we went to Phoenix or Chandler in Arizona
(03:28):
to play a punk rock Christmas festival with MEMXPX, Face
to Face, the Vandals, Authority Zero, some of the bands.
Oh they're oh, man, how about this. There's a band,
a punk band called You're a Thane and they yeah, okay.
So they have a celebrity guitarist named Steve Cavaliero, one
(03:52):
of the most legendary skateboarders in the industry, and they
the only reason why people, you know, go see this
band because Steve Caballero's in it. Other than that's pretty
you know, generic situation and the only people, the only
reason people book the band is because Steve Caballero's in it.
And then Steve Caballero wrote something sympathetic. I guess I
(04:14):
didn't see it about Charlie Kirk, and so the band
kicked him out. Wow, yeah, so you're a thane. I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I heard about a lot of people getting fired for
their comments about Charlie Kirk, but not like that.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, guy just supporting and saying it's not like he
he just it was a mild, you know, sympathetic statement
about because the guy got murdered. And then I don't
know where these guys think they're going in their career
after that. But Steve Cabalirera's a legend. It was really
(04:54):
sad to not see him there at the show. But
in any case, a couple of days in the tour
of US with the guys and the vandals, it's super fun.
Now I'm back and ready to go. And there are
some big news in Hollywood. Netflix has announced a seventy
two billion dollar deal SAM to buy Warner brother Discovery's
(05:18):
studio The streaming business in what would be one of
the biggest mergers in Hollywood history. This is breaking news,
So that means what for the layman out there, that means, Hey,
Netflix is buying HBO.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
So now what Netflix is buying everything?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Well, they want to, but they can't. And we'll talk
about it a little bit later. Let's go to the
box office and then we'll get into whether this can
even happen and what it means for consumers and if
it runs a foul of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Okay,
movies Number one at the box office, we bought a
(06:02):
Zootopia too. Number two Wicked. There were Wicked hoodies in
truck stop that I went to this morning at about
two am. I was like, Hey, look at these Wicked hoodies.
And they were literally wicked hoodies. I don't know how
many truckers are buying them, but they had them.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Hey, you know that it's transcendent. There are truckers out
there who are really into that stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, God help us. Jiu Jitsu cottson execution number three
at the box office, bringing in ten million American dollars.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Anime is at like over the last three four years,
is proving to be a money maker.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
You're probably going to be seeing a lot more.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
In the theaters too. It's yeah cool, yeah, pretty cool.
I love it, okay.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
And anything you can, like you say, anything you can
do to keep people coming into the theaters. Young people
in the theaters is a good thing.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Even if they're throwing popcorn at each other and at me.
I don't care, okay. Number five, Now you see me?
Now you don't? Still strong this magician caper. That's the
most surprising thing to me of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Now you see me, No, we haven't.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Now you see me? Now you don't just just I mean,
everything about it repels me. But kill Bill. The whole
Bloody Affair four hour movie dragged in three point two
million dollars. It's the Price of a House in Palm
(07:42):
Springs Eternity. Number seven. That's a movie where you see
the poster and it says like you just get it already. Okay.
There's a guy and a girl and another guy or
another someone goes. Someone dies and they go to heaven,
and then in heaven is their childhood sweetheart. And then
(08:04):
what happens when the wife dies eventually and he's got
two girls to choose from. Oh, no, I suppose it
could happen. That's doing strong, Hamnet still doing okay, doing
pretty good. I didn't like it. My wife did Predator,
(08:25):
bad Lands, hanging in there, Running Man, didn't like it.
Rental family. Should have seen that when I went to
see Hamnet. But it's the Oscar Seasons or some movies
that aren't going to make a lot of money, but
they're going to be mostly, you know, at least worth seeing.
Sometimes they're maybe offensive to family people that think Hollywood
(08:46):
and the Oscars have gone off the rails culturally, but
you know, this is the way you see the good filmmaking,
and so it's always a good time of year. The
sad part is the Screen Actors Guild, which is not
affiliated with the Film Actors Guild, has changed the name
of their awards program to the Actors Awards, Sam, what
(09:08):
do you think about that? No, no, it's not even
Actor's Wards. It's the Actor Awards. Oh, actor Awards. Okay,
the Actor Awards. Okay, that doesn't throw me.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
I mean cool, Okay, you guys felt you guys needed
to make a brand change on something that people already
didn't necessarily care about because there's still the.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Oscars exactly the screen like talk about making it even
less sexy to me, okay, everybody, I don't know. I
think people know what the Screen Actors Guilled is SAG.
You know, it's kind of part it's part of our vernacular, like, oh,
this person got a SAG card. This is SAG is
going on strike or I mean, it's so famous that
(09:56):
the Screen Actors Guild was was parodied by.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
In the American Team America and they called it the
Film Actor Skilled Fag.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
It was hilarious, It was funny. I used to say
it all the time. But then you know, got old
actor awards that why don't we change the name of
the Oscars to the Movie Awards? Sounds like a kid
made it up.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I'm waiting for the Award Awards where we give awards
to the best award shows.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
At this point, that's one hundred dollars idea, Sam.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, we can give away the awards at the award
winners at Disney's California Adventure.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
What a great idea.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And and let's not forget your host is an award
winning writer. Now, because the Harvard Chronicles won the audience
Award at the Newport Film Festival.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
We will be screening this film at the Culver City
Film Festival coming up, yeah, this week. So if you
want to see the Harbor Chronicles about the world's oldest
surf shop in the world of the world, Harbor Surf
here in Seal Beach, it is playing in Culver City,
(11:18):
and it's one of your last times to see it
for a while.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I think we're going to go to break and we're
going to come back, and we're going to talk about
this monumental deal. Netflix buys HBO and the whole Warner
Brothers studio, but they didn't buy some things, and we'll
talk about that too when we come back. Joe'scalante Live
from Hollywood. All right, Joe'scalante Live from Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
We are back.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We are heard every Sunday here on KiB eleven fifty
on your AM dial and worldwide all the time on
iHeart Radio. We've got the iHeart Radio app. Sure you do,
all right? If regulators signed, oh wait, no, we got,
we got. We had a little emission last segment because
(12:11):
my printer was off and I forgot to announce the
number one movie number two as we bought a Zootopia
number one. Five Nights at freddy Sam, Yeah, The.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Who's five Nights at Freddy's.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Two Oh Friday Nights at Freddy's. Two The Search from
Curly's Gold. You I understand you saw this film? Can
you can you tell us about it?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I can tell you about it. I went and saw
it with my kid.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
It was the kind of movie like you know you
saw with the Minecraft movie, where the crowd really got
into just being able to talk and having more of
a conversation and interacting with the movie. Because the movie
isn't necessarily that great. It's a it's a horror movie
that's targeting young teens.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Uh, and it's it's.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Interesting, it has you know, nice mild horror moments to it,
but it's in general not that great of a movie.
But it's not targeting me. So for me, I don't care.
I was just happy to see my kid get into it.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
So you took your kid to a crappy movie and
you're all excited about it.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah, right, Well, No, it was about it was about
how the audience was interacting with the film. It really chanced,
Like you, I think we're starting to see the birth
of new traditions being built into films like you would
see at like Rocky Horror or that you would see
at the room, like you're seeing kids creating film interaction
(13:40):
moments and.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You're they throwing stuff at the screen. What was going on?
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Popcorn?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Usually?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
I mean, that's usually what happens.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
It's not like, you know, with the room where you're
throwing spoons.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Okay, so you recommend.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
It, ah, if you have kids. If not, then don't worry.
It's not yours.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
So when I'm like, you know, wondering what's going on?
What's this all about? You know, since it's all confusing,
it's like chuck E cheese horror movie. I don't know
what it is, but I think, well maybe I better
see it.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
It's based off of a video game.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
A lot of things that are now becoming pop culture,
like phenomena are usually cheesy, independently created video games, and
that's what this was. And the characters connected because the
game had was had some horror moments to it because
it was a scary meant to be a scary game.
But the characters in it that are the scary characters
(14:35):
are animatronics that you would find similar to Chuck E Cheese.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
So it made it so that it's you.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Know, like a lot of the you know how like
people are afraid of clowns, a lot of people are
probably have a similar kind of fear of animatronics coming
to life and wreaking havoc.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And that's what this movie is about.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
You know that is not real fear or it's something
that people that freaks people out, just like clowns freak
people out. So I get it. And then it directed
by Emma Tammy who directed the original, and she's just
a Blumhouse, you know, horror director that they like at Blumhouse,
and Bumhouse is the only thing I think that Netflix
(15:16):
doesn't own if I'm if I'm correct looking on it,
And then we're going to get to so let's go
because that's cool. You saw it and everything. I saw
a couple of movies but they weren't in the theaters
and briefly go over them before we get to this
monumental deal. Well, in general, the box office, uh did okay?
(15:45):
Zouotopia two? Is? I mean these movies Zootopia two, Thanksgiving
week post Thanksgiving weekend horror and the Oscar stuff is
keeping the box office alive, but there is something, something
on the horizon that is threatening the box office once
again and again. I will get to that, but I
(16:06):
will tell you what I saw and maybe can recommend
to you on Netflix, which is Selena Elos Dinos. This
is about Selena, my lady. You might know her. It's
just you know, at first you think this is another
documentary on Selena and her tragic death, but this one
is about her life, so much unseen footage of her
(16:31):
family life. You really get to know her, and it's
just more and more sad as you watch it, because
you're just like, what a loss, what a tragic murder?
Senseless and you know, we all know she was killed
by somebody that was like president of her fan club
and then worked at her dress shops. They didn't really
(16:51):
She was mentioned in news stories that they that they
showed clips from, but they didn't talk about her. They
never showed her face, the murderer that is. And it
seems like it was directed by like you know, family friends,
executive produced by family members, and they just put all
their scrap took out their scrap books, put it together,
interviewed the family and you got a good idea of
(17:14):
what it was like back then. Really really fun documentary
to watch. It's not fancy, doesn't have like, you know,
big bells and whistles, animation or anything like that, but
it's worth watching. The other thing I watched was The
Stringer Sam. I think you might like this one. It's
a new documentary that re examines the origins of one
of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War. Maybe
(17:37):
remember Napalm Girl.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, that's the immediate image that came into my head
when you mentioned a photo about the Vietnam War.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, her name was fon Ti Kim Fuck and she's
They show her running naked from a napalm attack, and
the film investigates whether this photo was truly taken by
the fretographer Nick Out, as long believed, or by an
uncredited Vietnamese stringer, which is like a freelance photo guy
(18:09):
named Nunntanae whose work may have been reassigned at the
time to this other guy.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
The documentary includes forensic analysis, archival material, and testimony from
people involved at the time. It's pretty cool, like these guys,
you know, they're all about a certain age who were
young photographers back then. Vietnam. They're just trying to recall
what happened, and it's just what a what an amazing,
you know time to be a photo journalist really, and
(18:40):
and the and the holy grail was to get to
Vietnam and to you know, be in in the s
h I t as they would call it, and get
these amazing photos. Nick Ut was the guy who was credited.
And it seems like there was like a h irascid
bowl editor at the AP Associated Press headquarters in Psychone,
(19:08):
and he just said when the photo came in and said,
this is it, we're running it. First of all, people
say we can't run a picture of a naked girl.
And then the guy said, we're running it. This is it.
And the you know, the the journalists are looking to
put an end to the war and they're just looking
for something. This might be it, and maybe it was it.
(19:31):
So and then but then the guy said, yeah, give
nik Ut credit for this, like put Nick Goot's name
on it. But it was unclear that nick really took
it the photo, and I guess for some reason he
wanted to give this guy credit. And then the guy
went on and just collected ward after award after award,
just ceremonies, hob nobbing with dignitaries, and then some guy says,
(19:56):
who was in the room at the time, who hated
that boss? After the boss dies, this guy comes forward
and goes, hey, I have to I have something heavy
on my heart. NICKO didn't take this photo, and we're
not really sure who did, but I know he didn't.
And so the film follows the journey of trying to
(20:17):
find out who did take the photo. Then they isolate
the guy and the guys you know, sitting somewhere in
what looks like stantone here in Orange County, and they
find him and they do all their you know, forensic
a lot of forensic laboratory work, and they looking at
(20:39):
all the photos of that time, because there were cameras everywhere.
Who was there? Could this guy have been even in
a position to take that photo? And they're like, no, no,
he was over here. You can't take that picture when
he's over here. Picture comes from this angle. He's over
here right right now. You can see pictures that he
did take them away far away, all this stuff, and
you're and for the most part, I'm just going like,
why just let this guy, you know, live out his
(21:03):
life or what. I'm just well, that's going to undo
a lot of stuff. It's really but then they find
the guy and then you feel sorry for that guy
and you're like, oh, I guess he should but how
do you know? But that's why the documentary is so interesting.
Do you believe it's nick oot or Nia? And I
went to have some fun the other night and I
(21:23):
just wanted to ask the waitress, are you Nick out
or fat or Nie? What are you so? Anyways, that's
the stringer on Netflix. Highly recommend it and we'll come back.
It's all about Netflix buying HBO and other things and
what they are not buying. Joe'scalante Live from Hollywood, Joe's
(21:48):
Goalante Live from Hollywood. We are bound and Okay, Netflix,
this is crazy. We we knew that Warner Brothers or
Warner Discovery. Warner Discovery was putting the Oneted wanted us
get out of the Warner Brothers business that they bought
and they were selling it. They have David Zaslav who's
(22:11):
ahead of Discovery, and then he became ahead of all
of it. It didn't go that well. I think he's
a he's a very good executive, but he it didn't.
I don't know what they thought I was going to
do with it, whatever it was. It you know, they
thought like combining this giant collection of cable channels uh
(22:33):
with HBO and Warner Brothers would just a weird thing.
It didn't really, you know, they got naming HBO uh uh,
just calling it Max and changing it back to HBO Max.
It was one of those It was one of those things.
It just didn't really. It never clicked. It never, it
never really hit its stride. And then the stock was
(22:55):
going down and then they go, Okay, maybe we'll sell
this thing, Discovery saying, and then the stock goes up,
all right, and then they start looking for buyers and
Paramount wants to buy it. The Paramount owned CBS, so
then all of a sudden, you know, Paramount is one
of the only major studios left and they're going to
buy one of our others, and then that's one less studio.
(23:16):
So what we're worried about is consolidation in the industry,
less competition, and the regulators have to okay these deals.
So other people were interested in buying them, and then
this was you know, everybody always wonders what will Netflix
buy or what will Apple buy? They all have so
(23:37):
much money they can buy anything. So Netflix says we're
going to buy it, and the deal is accepted. So
that's the big news. The deal has been accepted, and
if regulators sign off, Netflix would control not only it's
stream owned streaming service, but also HBO, HBO Max Plus,
Warner Brothers Television, the Warner Brothers Motion Picture Group, and
DC Studios. Now, what's Warner Brothers Television the WB Well
(24:07):
not just that, but like the like catalog stuff, like
it's huge Friends. Okay, so now Netflix owns Friends. If
this goes through, they own The Big Bang Theory, they
own Two and a Half Men, they owned Full House,
Growing Pains, The Fresh Prints, Er West Wing, Gilmour Girls, Supernatural,
(24:29):
there's your CW jog or not, you know, Smallville, The Flash,
all this stuff, Batman and then all that like Abbott Elementary,
although we associate that with CBS, it's it's produced by
(24:49):
Warner Brothers. It just happens beyond CBS. Oh man, It's
just it's it's it's a huge thing. And then the
movies they own, you know, it's a major, it's Warner Brothers,
you know, Bugs, Bunny, yeah, but what are they not
going to buy. They're not buying CNN, They're not buying
Discovery Channel, TNT Sports. These are the so CNN, Discovery
(25:13):
Channel and T ANDT Sports will be spun off into
a separate company called Discovery Global. They love that word
over there, Discovery Global. The transaction is structured as a
cash and stock deal. Valued it's twenty seven dollars and
seventy five cents per Warner share, giving the studio side
an enterprise value of over eighty two billion dollars including debt.
(25:37):
And then I'm not going to get into this how
you how you acquire all this debt and what that
means to the shareholders because I'm not that smart. Expected
to close if it closes in the next twelve to
eighteen months after Warners completes the split of their cable operations,
which they were planning to do anyway. But you know,
anti trust regulators are already under pressure from the left
(26:00):
and the right, with critics warning that putting the top
streamer together with HBO will create a goliath that squeezes
out competitors, cuts jobs, and further weakens theatrical exhibition. And
that's what we're interested in here. Of course, Sam is
what happens to the theaters? What does this mean? Netflix
(26:21):
notoriously thinks theaters are stupid. The theater owner group Cinema
United is warning of theater closures, arguing that Netflix's business
model doesn't support robust theatrical runs well. And the Writer's
Guild and the Producers Guild so say this deal must
be blocked or heavily conditioned to protect workers and preserve
(26:43):
theatrical distribution. And there's also a strategic question for consumers.
Netflix hasn't said whether HBO Max will be a separate
service or if it will be bundled. Now, if it's
bundled into some mega platform, prices will probably go down
for people that had both. So that's like one good
(27:04):
thing here, like, oh it may.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Be they may be, But that's well thing.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
If they're the only ones that are in charge of it,
they can charge whatever they want.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yes, And this is how answer trust works. I know
I've usually this examined this this example before, but here
it is. Let's say you come in and you you
you want to break into the milk business, and milk
is a dollar a gallon in Dallas, and so you
come in and you offer I'm going to offer milk
for a penny a gallon, and then everyone buys your milk.
And then for a while you're losing a lot of money.
But pretty soon you drive everyone else out of business,
(27:35):
and after they're all out of business, you raise the
price of milk to five million to five dollars a
gallon or five million dollars a gallon, whatever you want
to do, because you're the only player in town. So
that's where the government, the Sherman Antitrust Act was designed
to prevent and to protect consumers and the economy in general.
(27:56):
So yes, they will, it'll probably go down, but then
they after a while, they can charge whatever they want,
and uh, it's it's scary. Okay, here's your here's your
big studios. You have Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Brothers.
Now Warner Brothers goes to Netflix. And that's just some
(28:17):
weird it's not it's a it's just it's a I
don't blame Netflix for wanting to do it. Yeah. Yeah,
and they're only buying.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
They're the ones who are benefiting from all of this
potentially potentially.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yes, So yeah, so they're they're not buying the traditional
cable network, So the cable channels like CNN, T and T, TBS,
Discovery Channel, HGTV Food Network, and T and T Sports
are going to be split off. As I said, the
spin offs also required so Warner can legally sell the
(28:54):
studio to Netflix without triggering the restrictive tax rules. So
that's one of the issues. One separated Disney Discovery Global
will operate independently with its own leadership, its own debt,
and no connection to Netflix. And I guess z Aslov
would run that and then everything else goes to Ted
(29:16):
Sarando's at Netflix.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Okay, so pros and cons. As we said the pros
it does stabilize Warner's studio business. Warner Brothers has been
struggling with debt and underperforming streaming growth, and now a
well capitalized buyer like Netflix could restore consistent investment, keeping
the franchises alive, and prevent a studio collapse. That might
(29:42):
reduce competition even more. And that's what they go to
the government and say, like, hey, we're going out of
business here and we're competing against you know, more than
what you think. And this gives these HBO and the
Warner Brothers and all that stuff, stronger competition against Disney, Amazon,
and the regulators do consider that global competition. Netflix, combining
(30:06):
with Warner's deep library and HBO's prestige content, could create
a company strong enough to compete long term with Disney, Amazon,
Prime Video, and Apple, all of which have deep pockets
outside of entertainment. So it's kind of not fair that
Warner Brothers has to compete with these people that have
unlimited pockets. How are your unlimited pockets doing these days?
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Not very well, They've become limited.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
They so anyways, a lot of restrictions.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
They've added restrictions.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Okay, they've a lot of efficiencies. It's very attractive for these,
you know, business people to do this. But here's the
cons major anti trust red flags. Netflix is already the
largest streamer in the world. If they absorb HBO and
Warner Brothers, it gives it unpreceded It gives it gives
it unpreceded control over premium TV, Blockbuster films, talent pipelines.
(31:02):
Regulators could argue that this creates a dominant gatekeeper, that's
what you're worried about, making it harder for smaller streamers
and independence studios to survive. It's like those are called
barriers to entry. Does it create barriers to entry? I mean,
I mean, who's going to start a new streaming service anyways?
(31:22):
But I Fox did, Fox recently did, and you can
see my TV shows Monsters Across America and Alien Abductions
with Abbie Hornisick on that Fox new Fox network that
they started. I hope it survives because I'm sick of
my shows only being on Fox Nation. I think they're
still on Fox Nation, but you just can access it
(31:43):
easier through that. Anyway, You've got to take a break
and we'll come back with more of the cons and
the concerns about this blockbuster merger between HBO and our
Warner Brothers Netflix. Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood. Joe Asante, Yes,
(32:20):
Joe's Gomante. He's your lawyer. Hey, Hey, Sam, we were
talking about my TV shows and they're on. My shows
are great. I wouldn't promote him, like I'm not sitting
here promoting all my albums. Some of my albums are good,
some they're not. I don't know. I mean, there's some
good stuff on all of them or whatever, but I'm
(32:40):
not But I will tell you my TV shows Monsters
Across America and Alien Abductions with Abby Hornyseck are excellent.
They're all a half hour. They're all paranormal investigations going
around America. Both my hosts are beautiful. Casey Hosmer, wife
of Eric Hosmer, the Padres you might know him, and
(33:02):
Abby Horniseck, the daughter of Jeff Hornisack, the Utah Jazz
Basketball Hall of Famer. I don't know why these girls
both have connections to major sports, but they do. And
the shows are great, and you can only see him
on Fox Nation. You can access Fox Nation through you know,
(33:26):
Roku or the new Fox streaming series. But you know
how much Netflix not Netflix? You know how much the
Fox Nation costs Sam a month? How much take a.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Guess, ninety nine cents.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
I think you could get an introductory date a month
for ninety nine cents or something. Anyway, the standard price,
the standard price for a Fox Nation is two dollars
and ninety nine cents.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
I knew it was a ninety nine cents somewhere in
there that month.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
You did call that you nailed that one, yeah, nin
or Fox Nation, And that's where my shows are you know,
I wish more people could see them. They should be
on YouTube so that you pay a dollar ninety nine
for my shows or ninety nine cents or just you know,
(34:17):
whatever you want.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I wish more people could see them because they're really good.
But they're stuck on Fox Nations. So anyway, some good
stuff on Fox Nations. But it's just it's not for everybody.
We all know. Okay, we're going through the cons of
the Warner Brothers acquisition by Netflix, and you know the
(34:40):
major anti trust rate flags, but the harm to theatrical
exhibition is the most concerning because they have never prioritized
why theatrical releases. Now, what if Warner Brothers does that too, Oh,
let's just streaming first. Theater chains get a couple of
weeks just we can qualify for oscars, and then we
(35:03):
put it on our streaming services. That is horrible. So
I'm not saying they should block this, Sam, not that
they're gonna call me. They never do. But there has
to be a lot of conditions, you know, yeah too,
because there's a lot of jobs and a lot of
I mean, we talk about it every week, how important
(35:24):
the theaters are for everybody and there we need to
do something to make sure they don't go away. And
this is, you know, another step towards perhaps them going
away unless there's conditions like I don't know how you
could do that, say like, you guys can do this,
but you have to put your movies in the theaters.
(35:46):
I mean, I don't know how you can enforce that,
but maybe they can, because if they wander, the titles
shift towards streaming. First, theater chains are worried about fewer
big movies to exhibit, and that's devastating reduced box office
revenue and greater volatility because sure you have these big
(36:11):
like Paramount will release a top gun or something and
it gets huge or a demon slayer hunter, but then
then it goes back to nothing and then it's just volatile,
lower wages for a lot of people, that kind of stuff.
So this is what the regulators will look at. Fewer
independent platforms, fewer competitors setting prices, so only the big couple,
(36:34):
big fat cats are setting prices. This is a monopoly
I mean, think of monopoly Man. What does monopoly man
do when he's not on your when you're not playing
that game, he goes into a smoke filled room and
he engages in price fixing and to line his money
bags pockets.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
So the closest thing I've seen to this was released
recently was the when Microsoft acquired Activision in the video
game world, and you saw and there was a lot
of people who were concerned that there were certain properties
like Call of Duty that are huge on multiple platforms
(37:12):
become exclusively on Microsoft and Xbox, and that part of
the deal was that they had to guarantee that that,
you know, the games that are you know, popular cross
platform would have to be have conditions around it to
make sure that they wouldn't be just set up as
exclusives for Xbox.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
It's saying the non exclusive exclusive. That's pretty easy to
take a condition. Yeah, but it sounds this is more complicated.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
It sounds like this is a lot more complicated because
this involves significantly more money and a lot more companies
at play.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah, just like you have to put your movies in theaters, Like,
how do you make a rule that says you have
to put a movie in a theater, especially if you
have these stupid ones that Netflix makes, you know, you know,
cares about those, or do you have to have a
certain percentage in theaters. It's just scary. So we'll see.
So I don't think it'll get blocked. I think there'll
(38:10):
be a lot of conditions, and maybe there'll be phony
conditions because of a lot of corruption around town. Here's
a corruption I don't even have the guy's name, but
the ticket company associated with Live Nation, Irving Azof and
the partner, the president of the thing. He got caught
in a big bribery kickback scam on concerts, and Trump
(38:32):
just pardoned him.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
That seems to be going around.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yeah, I mean, that's just like I don't know who's
got his ear, But come on, that guy's a villain.
You shouldn't be pardoning him. You should be going deeper
into that company and putting them all in jail. This
guy's just going to get out of jail free. So
I'm not happy about that. But let's go on to
something else. The la PD have a arrested one of
(39:01):
your guys, Sam thirty two year old rapper and social
media influencer Clinton Adams, otherwise known as Clinton Lord. Who
you well he's been I'm glad you're not associated with
him and not a fan anymore because He's got to
rest on multiple rape and assault charges after accusations from
(39:22):
two women. Authorities say Adam met the women on separate occasions,
so it's a pattern. Sam. He lures them into a
home in the Palisades, claiming it's his, and it's like,
you know, burn fire, damaged, oh damn. And then what
does he do when he's in there, He sexually assaults them. Sam. Yeah,
both victims identified him by name, and detexts are now
(39:46):
urging anyone else who may have been lured into a
burnt up Palisades house with a disgusting rapper to contact police.
He's in custody now waiting further court proceedings. But when
you see Clinton Lord on Instagram or maybe you can
look at him, he just looks gross. That's the thing,
what he looks like. He looks like a rapist.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
I don't doubt you.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
The thing that I've noticed with influencers versus like this
now new influencer pot like society that we now have,
it's like an influencer driven economy almost where you're seeing
people like if you have normal celebrities, they have to
work with other people routinely before they reach that level
(40:28):
of celebrities, so they actually show that they can play
well with each others.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
They do well with each others.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
There's not a lot of rapes, yeah, for the most part,
for the most part.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
But then you get the influencers coming in and there's
zero vetting process. They just strike gold because they do
or say something stupid online and then they get a
following for it. And now you're starting to see a
bunch of them going and becoming famous for being irritating,
for being annoying, for being pests.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Well, they all have one thing in common. They don't
want to work for a living, and they don't and
they and they don't want to hit the pavement or
get the ten thousand hours of you know, expertise. They
they're just out there blabbering, all right, But there is guy.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
There's no vetting process with them. So you're going to
see more and more like influencers who are fake celebrities
getting busted doing stuff like this because they may be
able to say something once and get us of small
following and then all of a sudden, their real demons
show up real quick. And those are the kind of
things that Hollywood tends to vet out real fast.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Well, speaking of demons, there is a doc on Netflix
also called The Reckoning Sean Combs four Parts. That's big
if they're doing four parts on a documentary, because all
the documentaries now are ninety minutes. You may have noticed.
It examines the rise and fall of Sean did He Combs,
you know, Arkyle, footage, interviews, the whole thing. But the
(42:05):
interesting thing about this one it's executive produced by Didty
Cent and the documentary has already sparked a backlash from
Combs and his representatives who call it a shameful hit
piece and instead of a fluff piece that he thought
he was going to get. And they argue that some
of the footage, some of the footage was used without
authorization producers and system material is legally obtained and say
(42:28):
that series is meant to examine the power and accountability
in the music industry and not settle personal scores.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Fifty hates did He So this is definitely one to watch.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
This is definitely settling a personal score. And Combs, as
you know, is serving time on prostitution transport convictions. He
said he did not authorize the use, but that's what
people do when they say, like this is outrageous. I'm
suing you and blah blah blah because some of that
footage was not authorized. And you know, I'm sure Netflix
(43:03):
is not worried about that. I'm sure you're not worried
about it either.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Nope.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
All right, that's it for now, and make sure you
get your tickets for the Vandals Christmas shows in Anaheim
House of Blues on the twentieth and Venture Theater on
the nineteenth. All right, only one more weekend of these
Uile Tide celebrations, and now leave you with just a
(43:34):
taste of the greatest song ever written.
And now it's time for Joe Escalante Live from Hollywood.
If by Hollywood you mean Burbie across the street promo
meaners it's a little that serves beer.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
All right, we got a big one for you today, Sam.
Can you hear me? Everything good?
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yep, We're good.
Speaker 4 (00:30):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:32):
Super?
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Let me turn my mic up a little more t
yell into it. There you go, How you doing?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
I'm good. Just returned from a two day little mini
tour of the for the Vandals Christmas shows. We played
at Papi and Harriet's last night, and then Phoenix or
Chandler Arizona actually last night, and Pappy and Harriet's on Friday.
Have you been to Papi and Harriet's, Sam.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
I have not been to Papi and Harriet's.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Heard about it.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
I have not heard.
Speaker 3 (01:01):
About Pappy and Harriets. I'm trying to think it's a
happy on Harriets or Pappy.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
And Harriets, Pappy and Harriet. Oh like like Ozzie and Harriet,
but in this instead of an idyllic family in the
nineteen fifties, it's two people that converted what's basically movie
sets built by old cowboy stars out and in like
(01:29):
Joshua Tree Landers, maybe it's the actual city and they
you know, it's just an old cowboy set type place
with some you know, Western buildings out in the desert,
but it has it's since become a legendary for its
concerts because of course, you know, you got your country
(01:51):
music out there or whatever. And but then I don't
know how this happened, but over time, just like you know,
bigger and bigger acts started playing there, just kind of
for fun, until it just reached a fever pitch a
couple of years ago with Paul McCartney playing there. Wow, yeah,
think about that.
Speaker 4 (02:12):
That's like beyond fever pitch.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, that's that's number one that it doesn't get any better.
Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah, so.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
We put it on our list of like, yeah, I
just talked to my agent and I said, hey, why
don't we played this Pappy in Herriot's place. It's good
enough for Paul McCartney, it's good enough for the Vandals.
So we do a Christmas show every year. This show
sell out, sold out in minutes. It's only an indoor
small it's like a restaurant. We did our sound check
in front of people eating ribs and then they you know,
(02:46):
they eventually clear them out and they let the ticket
buyers in and it was just, you know, it's like
the Blues Brothers. You know, there's everything except for the fence,
chicken wire fence in front of the band. And the
food is as good as it gets in a barbecue,
(03:07):
you know, joint. It's so good. So anytime you can
get out to Pappy and Harriet's out in Landers, you should.
And if they're having a show, you check their calendar.
You're gonna have a great time. But you better get
your tickets early because it's small and everything, you know,
pretty much sells out early. And we had a great time.
And then we went to Phoenix or Chandler in Arizona
(03:28):
to play a punk rock Christmas festival with MEMXPX, Face
to Face, the Vandals, Authority Zero, some of the bands.
Oh they're oh, man, how about this. There's a band,
a punk band called You're a Thane and they yeah, okay.
So they have a celebrity guitarist named Steve Cavaliero, one
(03:52):
of the most legendary skateboarders in the industry, and they
the only reason why people, you know, go see this
band because Steve Caballero's in it. Other than that's pretty
you know, generic situation and the only people, the only
reason people book the band is because Steve Caballero's in it.
And then Steve Caballero wrote something sympathetic. I guess I
(04:14):
didn't see it about Charlie Kirk, and so the band
kicked him out. Wow, yeah, so you're a thane. I
don't know.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I heard about a lot of people getting fired for
their comments about Charlie Kirk, but not like that.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, guy just supporting and saying it's not like he
he just it was a mild, you know, sympathetic statement
about because the guy got murdered. And then I don't
know where these guys think they're going in their career
after that. But Steve Cabalirera's a legend. It was really
(04:54):
sad to not see him there at the show. But
in any case, a couple of days in the tour
of US with the guys and the vandals, it's super fun.
Now I'm back and ready to go. And there are
some big news in Hollywood. Netflix has announced a seventy
two billion dollar deal SAM to buy Warner brother Discovery's
(05:18):
studio The streaming business in what would be one of
the biggest mergers in Hollywood history. This is breaking news,
So that means what for the layman out there, that means, Hey,
Netflix is buying HBO.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
So now what Netflix is buying everything?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Well, they want to, but they can't. And we'll talk
about it a little bit later. Let's go to the
box office and then we'll get into whether this can
even happen and what it means for consumers and if
it runs a foul of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Okay,
movies Number one at the box office, we bought a
(06:02):
Zootopia too. Number two Wicked. There were Wicked hoodies in
truck stop that I went to this morning at about
two am. I was like, Hey, look at these Wicked hoodies.
And they were literally wicked hoodies. I don't know how
many truckers are buying them, but they had them.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
Hey, you know that it's transcendent. There are truckers out
there who are really into that stuff.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Well, God help us. Jiu Jitsu cottson execution number three
at the box office, bringing in ten million American dollars.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Anime is at like over the last three four years,
is proving to be a money maker.
Speaker 4 (06:46):
You're probably going to be seeing a lot more.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
In the theaters too. It's yeah cool, yeah, pretty cool.
I love it, okay.
Speaker 3 (06:52):
And anything you can, like you say, anything you can
do to keep people coming into the theaters. Young people
in the theaters is a good thing.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Even if they're throwing popcorn at each other and at me.
I don't care, okay. Number five, Now you see me?
Now you don't? Still strong this magician caper. That's the
most surprising thing to me of the fourth quarter.
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Now you see me, No, we haven't.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Now you see me? Now you don't just just I mean,
everything about it repels me. But kill Bill. The whole
Bloody Affair four hour movie dragged in three point two
million dollars. It's the Price of a House in Palm
(07:42):
Springs Eternity. Number seven. That's a movie where you see
the poster and it says like you just get it already. Okay.
There's a guy and a girl and another guy or
another someone goes. Someone dies and they go to heaven,
and then in heaven is their childhood sweetheart. And then
(08:04):
what happens when the wife dies eventually and he's got
two girls to choose from. Oh, no, I suppose it
could happen. That's doing strong, Hamnet still doing okay, doing
pretty good. I didn't like it. My wife did Predator,
(08:25):
bad Lands, hanging in there, Running Man, didn't like it.
Rental family. Should have seen that when I went to
see Hamnet. But it's the Oscar Seasons or some movies
that aren't going to make a lot of money, but
they're going to be mostly, you know, at least worth seeing.
Sometimes they're maybe offensive to family people that think Hollywood
(08:46):
and the Oscars have gone off the rails culturally, but
you know, this is the way you see the good filmmaking,
and so it's always a good time of year. The
sad part is the Screen Actors Guild, which is not
affiliated with the Film Actors Guild, has changed the name
of their awards program to the Actors Awards, Sam, what
(09:08):
do you think about that? No, no, it's not even
Actor's Wards. It's the Actor Awards. Oh, actor Awards. Okay,
the Actor Awards. Okay, that doesn't throw me.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
I mean cool, Okay, you guys felt you guys needed
to make a brand change on something that people already
didn't necessarily care about because there's still the.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Oscars exactly the screen like talk about making it even
less sexy to me, okay, everybody, I don't know. I
think people know what the Screen Actors Guilled is SAG.
You know, it's kind of part it's part of our vernacular, like, oh,
this person got a SAG card. This is SAG is
going on strike or I mean, it's so famous that
(09:56):
the Screen Actors Guild was was parodied by.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
In the American Team America and they called it the
Film Actor Skilled Fag.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
It was hilarious, It was funny. I used to say
it all the time. But then you know, got old
actor awards that why don't we change the name of
the Oscars to the Movie Awards? Sounds like a kid
made it up.
Speaker 3 (10:26):
I'm waiting for the Award Awards where we give awards
to the best award shows.
Speaker 2 (10:31):
At this point, that's one hundred dollars idea, Sam.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, we can give away the awards at the award
winners at Disney's California Adventure.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
What a great idea.
Speaker 4 (10:43):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And and let's not forget your host is an award
winning writer. Now, because the Harvard Chronicles won the audience
Award at the Newport Film Festival.
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Excellent.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
We will be screening this film at the Culver City
Film Festival coming up, yeah, this week. So if you
want to see the Harbor Chronicles about the world's oldest
surf shop in the world of the world, Harbor Surf
here in Seal Beach, it is playing in Culver City,
(11:18):
and it's one of your last times to see it
for a while.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Let's go.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
I think we're going to go to break and we're
going to come back, and we're going to talk about
this monumental deal. Netflix buys HBO and the whole Warner
Brothers studio, but they didn't buy some things, and we'll
talk about that too when we come back. Joe'scalante Live
from Hollywood. All right, Joe'scalante Live from Hollywood.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
We are back.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
We are heard every Sunday here on KiB eleven fifty
on your AM dial and worldwide all the time on
iHeart Radio. We've got the iHeart Radio app. Sure you do,
all right? If regulators signed, oh wait, no, we got,
we got. We had a little emission last segment because
(12:11):
my printer was off and I forgot to announce the
number one movie number two as we bought a Zootopia
number one. Five Nights at freddy Sam, Yeah, The.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
Who's five Nights at Freddy's.
Speaker 2 (12:25):
Two Oh Friday Nights at Freddy's. Two The Search from
Curly's Gold. You I understand you saw this film? Can
you can you tell us about it?
Speaker 4 (12:33):
I can tell you about it. I went and saw
it with my kid.
Speaker 3 (12:36):
It was the kind of movie like you know you
saw with the Minecraft movie, where the crowd really got
into just being able to talk and having more of
a conversation and interacting with the movie. Because the movie
isn't necessarily that great. It's a it's a horror movie
that's targeting young teens.
Speaker 4 (12:57):
Uh, and it's it's.
Speaker 3 (12:58):
Interesting, it has you know, nice mild horror moments to it,
but it's in general not that great of a movie.
But it's not targeting me. So for me, I don't care.
I was just happy to see my kid get into it.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
So you took your kid to a crappy movie and
you're all excited about it.
Speaker 3 (13:19):
Yeah, right, Well, No, it was about it was about
how the audience was interacting with the film. It really chanced,
Like you, I think we're starting to see the birth
of new traditions being built into films like you would
see at like Rocky Horror or that you would see
at the room, like you're seeing kids creating film interaction
(13:40):
moments and.
Speaker 2 (13:43):
You're they throwing stuff at the screen. What was going on?
Speaker 4 (13:45):
Popcorn?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
Usually?
Speaker 4 (13:46):
I mean, that's usually what happens.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
It's not like, you know, with the room where you're
throwing spoons.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Okay, so you recommend.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
It, ah, if you have kids. If not, then don't worry.
It's not yours.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
So when I'm like, you know, wondering what's going on?
What's this all about? You know, since it's all confusing,
it's like chuck E cheese horror movie. I don't know
what it is, but I think, well maybe I better
see it.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
It's based off of a video game.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
A lot of things that are now becoming pop culture,
like phenomena are usually cheesy, independently created video games, and
that's what this was. And the characters connected because the
game had was had some horror moments to it because
it was a scary meant to be a scary game.
But the characters in it that are the scary characters
(14:35):
are animatronics that you would find similar to Chuck E Cheese.
Speaker 4 (14:39):
So it made it so that it's you.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Know, like a lot of the you know how like
people are afraid of clowns, a lot of people are
probably have a similar kind of fear of animatronics coming
to life and wreaking havoc.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
And that's what this movie is about.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
You know that is not real fear or it's something
that people that freaks people out, just like clowns freak
people out. So I get it. And then it directed
by Emma Tammy who directed the original, and she's just
a Blumhouse, you know, horror director that they like at Blumhouse,
and Bumhouse is the only thing I think that Netflix
(15:16):
doesn't own if I'm if I'm correct looking on it,
And then we're going to get to so let's go
because that's cool. You saw it and everything. I saw
a couple of movies but they weren't in the theaters
and briefly go over them before we get to this
monumental deal. Well, in general, the box office, uh did okay?
(15:45):
Zouotopia two? Is? I mean these movies Zootopia two, Thanksgiving
week post Thanksgiving weekend horror and the Oscar stuff is
keeping the box office alive, but there is something, something
on the horizon that is threatening the box office once
again and again. I will get to that, but I
(16:06):
will tell you what I saw and maybe can recommend
to you on Netflix, which is Selena Elos Dinos. This
is about Selena, my lady. You might know her. It's
just you know, at first you think this is another
documentary on Selena and her tragic death, but this one
is about her life, so much unseen footage of her
(16:31):
family life. You really get to know her, and it's
just more and more sad as you watch it, because
you're just like, what a loss, what a tragic murder?
Senseless and you know, we all know she was killed
by somebody that was like president of her fan club
and then worked at her dress shops. They didn't really
(16:51):
She was mentioned in news stories that they that they
showed clips from, but they didn't talk about her. They
never showed her face, the murderer that is. And it
seems like it was directed by like you know, family friends,
executive produced by family members, and they just put all
their scrap took out their scrap books, put it together,
interviewed the family and you got a good idea of
(17:14):
what it was like back then. Really really fun documentary
to watch. It's not fancy, doesn't have like, you know,
big bells and whistles, animation or anything like that, but
it's worth watching. The other thing I watched was The
Stringer Sam. I think you might like this one. It's
a new documentary that re examines the origins of one
of the most famous photographs of the Vietnam War. Maybe
(17:37):
remember Napalm Girl.
Speaker 3 (17:39):
Yeah, that's the immediate image that came into my head
when you mentioned a photo about the Vietnam War.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
Well, her name was fon Ti Kim Fuck and she's
They show her running naked from a napalm attack, and
the film investigates whether this photo was truly taken by
the fretographer Nick Out, as long believed, or by an
uncredited Vietnamese stringer, which is like a freelance photo guy
(18:09):
named Nunntanae whose work may have been reassigned at the
time to this other guy.
Speaker 5 (18:19):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (18:19):
The documentary includes forensic analysis, archival material, and testimony from
people involved at the time. It's pretty cool, like these guys,
you know, they're all about a certain age who were
young photographers back then. Vietnam. They're just trying to recall
what happened, and it's just what a what an amazing,
you know time to be a photo journalist really, and
(18:40):
and the and the holy grail was to get to
Vietnam and to you know, be in in the s
h I t as they would call it, and get
these amazing photos. Nick Ut was the guy who was credited.
And it seems like there was like a h irascid
bowl editor at the AP Associated Press headquarters in Psychone,
(19:08):
and he just said when the photo came in and said,
this is it, we're running it. First of all, people
say we can't run a picture of a naked girl.
And then the guy said, we're running it. This is it.
And the you know, the the journalists are looking to
put an end to the war and they're just looking
for something. This might be it, and maybe it was it.
(19:31):
So and then but then the guy said, yeah, give
nik Ut credit for this, like put Nick Goot's name
on it. But it was unclear that nick really took
it the photo, and I guess for some reason he
wanted to give this guy credit. And then the guy
went on and just collected ward after award after award,
just ceremonies, hob nobbing with dignitaries, and then some guy says,
(19:56):
who was in the room at the time, who hated
that boss? After the boss dies, this guy comes forward
and goes, hey, I have to I have something heavy
on my heart. NICKO didn't take this photo, and we're
not really sure who did, but I know he didn't.
And so the film follows the journey of trying to
(20:17):
find out who did take the photo. Then they isolate
the guy and the guys you know, sitting somewhere in
what looks like stantone here in Orange County, and they
find him and they do all their you know, forensic
a lot of forensic laboratory work, and they looking at
(20:39):
all the photos of that time, because there were cameras everywhere.
Who was there? Could this guy have been even in
a position to take that photo? And they're like, no, no,
he was over here. You can't take that picture when
he's over here. Picture comes from this angle. He's over
here right right now. You can see pictures that he
did take them away far away, all this stuff, and
you're and for the most part, I'm just going like,
why just let this guy, you know, live out his
(21:03):
life or what. I'm just well, that's going to undo
a lot of stuff. It's really but then they find
the guy and then you feel sorry for that guy
and you're like, oh, I guess he should but how
do you know? But that's why the documentary is so interesting.
Do you believe it's nick oot or Nia? And I
went to have some fun the other night and I
(21:23):
just wanted to ask the waitress, are you Nick out
or fat or Nie? What are you so? Anyways, that's
the stringer on Netflix. Highly recommend it and we'll come back.
It's all about Netflix buying HBO and other things and
what they are not buying. Joe'scalante Live from Hollywood, Joe's
(21:48):
Goalante Live from Hollywood. We are bound and Okay, Netflix,
this is crazy. We we knew that Warner Brothers or
Warner Discovery. Warner Discovery was putting the Oneted wanted us
get out of the Warner Brothers business that they bought
and they were selling it. They have David Zaslav who's
(22:11):
ahead of Discovery, and then he became ahead of all
of it. It didn't go that well. I think he's
a he's a very good executive, but he it didn't.
I don't know what they thought I was going to
do with it, whatever it was. It you know, they
thought like combining this giant collection of cable channels uh
(22:33):
with HBO and Warner Brothers would just a weird thing.
It didn't really, you know, they got naming HBO uh uh,
just calling it Max and changing it back to HBO Max.
It was one of those It was one of those things.
It just didn't really. It never clicked. It never, it
never really hit its stride. And then the stock was
(22:55):
going down and then they go, Okay, maybe we'll sell
this thing, Discovery saying, and then the stock goes up,
all right, and then they start looking for buyers and
Paramount wants to buy it. The Paramount owned CBS, so
then all of a sudden, you know, Paramount is one
of the only major studios left and they're going to
buy one of our others, and then that's one less studio.
(23:16):
So what we're worried about is consolidation in the industry,
less competition, and the regulators have to okay these deals.
So other people were interested in buying them, and then
this was you know, everybody always wonders what will Netflix
buy or what will Apple buy? They all have so
(23:37):
much money they can buy anything. So Netflix says we're
going to buy it, and the deal is accepted. So
that's the big news. The deal has been accepted, and
if regulators sign off, Netflix would control not only it's
stream owned streaming service, but also HBO, HBO Max Plus,
Warner Brothers Television, the Warner Brothers Motion Picture Group, and
DC Studios. Now, what's Warner Brothers Television the WB Well
(24:07):
not just that, but like the like catalog stuff, like
it's huge Friends. Okay, so now Netflix owns Friends. If
this goes through, they own The Big Bang Theory, they
own Two and a Half Men, they owned Full House,
Growing Pains, The Fresh Prints, Er West Wing, Gilmour Girls, Supernatural,
(24:29):
there's your CW jog or not, you know, Smallville, The Flash,
all this stuff, Batman and then all that like Abbott Elementary,
although we associate that with CBS, it's it's produced by
(24:49):
Warner Brothers. It just happens beyond CBS. Oh man, It's
just it's it's it's a huge thing. And then the
movies they own, you know, it's a major, it's Warner Brothers,
you know, Bugs, Bunny, yeah, but what are they not
going to buy. They're not buying CNN, They're not buying
Discovery Channel, TNT Sports. These are the so CNN, Discovery
(25:13):
Channel and T ANDT Sports will be spun off into
a separate company called Discovery Global. They love that word
over there, Discovery Global. The transaction is structured as a
cash and stock deal. Valued it's twenty seven dollars and
seventy five cents per Warner share, giving the studio side
an enterprise value of over eighty two billion dollars including debt.
(25:37):
And then I'm not going to get into this how
you how you acquire all this debt and what that
means to the shareholders because I'm not that smart. Expected
to close if it closes in the next twelve to
eighteen months after Warners completes the split of their cable operations,
which they were planning to do anyway. But you know,
anti trust regulators are already under pressure from the left
(26:00):
and the right, with critics warning that putting the top
streamer together with HBO will create a goliath that squeezes
out competitors, cuts jobs, and further weakens theatrical exhibition. And
that's what we're interested in here. Of course, Sam is
what happens to the theaters? What does this mean? Netflix
(26:21):
notoriously thinks theaters are stupid. The theater owner group Cinema
United is warning of theater closures, arguing that Netflix's business
model doesn't support robust theatrical runs well. And the Writer's
Guild and the Producers Guild so say this deal must
be blocked or heavily conditioned to protect workers and preserve
(26:43):
theatrical distribution. And there's also a strategic question for consumers.
Netflix hasn't said whether HBO Max will be a separate
service or if it will be bundled. Now, if it's
bundled into some mega platform, prices will probably go down
for people that had both. So that's like one good
(27:04):
thing here, like, oh it may.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
Be they may be, But that's well thing.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
If they're the only ones that are in charge of it,
they can charge whatever they want.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yes, And this is how answer trust works. I know
I've usually this examined this this example before, but here
it is. Let's say you come in and you you
you want to break into the milk business, and milk
is a dollar a gallon in Dallas, and so you
come in and you offer I'm going to offer milk
for a penny a gallon, and then everyone buys your milk.
And then for a while you're losing a lot of money.
But pretty soon you drive everyone else out of business,
(27:35):
and after they're all out of business, you raise the
price of milk to five million to five dollars a
gallon or five million dollars a gallon, whatever you want
to do, because you're the only player in town. So
that's where the government, the Sherman Antitrust Act was designed
to prevent and to protect consumers and the economy in general.
(27:56):
So yes, they will, it'll probably go down, but then
they after a while, they can charge whatever they want,
and uh, it's it's scary. Okay, here's your here's your
big studios. You have Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Brothers.
Now Warner Brothers goes to Netflix. And that's just some
(28:17):
weird it's not it's a it's just it's a I
don't blame Netflix for wanting to do it. Yeah. Yeah,
and they're only buying.
Speaker 3 (28:28):
They're the ones who are benefiting from all of this
potentially potentially.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yes, So yeah, so they're they're not buying the traditional
cable network, So the cable channels like CNN, T and T, TBS,
Discovery Channel, HGTV Food Network, and T and T Sports
are going to be split off. As I said, the
spin offs also required so Warner can legally sell the
(28:54):
studio to Netflix without triggering the restrictive tax rules. So
that's one of the issues. One separated Disney Discovery Global
will operate independently with its own leadership, its own debt,
and no connection to Netflix. And I guess z Aslov
would run that and then everything else goes to Ted
(29:16):
Sarando's at Netflix.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Okay, so pros and cons. As we said the pros
it does stabilize Warner's studio business. Warner Brothers has been
struggling with debt and underperforming streaming growth, and now a
well capitalized buyer like Netflix could restore consistent investment, keeping
the franchises alive, and prevent a studio collapse. That might
(29:42):
reduce competition even more. And that's what they go to
the government and say, like, hey, we're going out of
business here and we're competing against you know, more than
what you think. And this gives these HBO and the
Warner Brothers and all that stuff, stronger competition against Disney, Amazon,
and the regulators do consider that global competition. Netflix, combining
(30:06):
with Warner's deep library and HBO's prestige content, could create
a company strong enough to compete long term with Disney, Amazon,
Prime Video, and Apple, all of which have deep pockets
outside of entertainment. So it's kind of not fair that
Warner Brothers has to compete with these people that have
unlimited pockets. How are your unlimited pockets doing these days?
Speaker 4 (30:30):
Not very well, They've become limited.
Speaker 2 (30:34):
They so anyways, a lot of restrictions.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
They've added restrictions.
Speaker 2 (30:38):
Okay, they've a lot of efficiencies. It's very attractive for these,
you know, business people to do this. But here's the
cons major anti trust red flags. Netflix is already the
largest streamer in the world. If they absorb HBO and
Warner Brothers, it gives it unpreceded It gives it gives
it unpreceded control over premium TV, Blockbuster films, talent pipelines.
(31:02):
Regulators could argue that this creates a dominant gatekeeper, that's
what you're worried about, making it harder for smaller streamers
and independence studios to survive. It's like those are called
barriers to entry. Does it create barriers to entry? I mean,
I mean, who's going to start a new streaming service anyways?
(31:22):
But I Fox did, Fox recently did, and you can
see my TV shows Monsters Across America and Alien Abductions
with Abbie Hornisick on that Fox new Fox network that
they started. I hope it survives because I'm sick of
my shows only being on Fox Nation. I think they're
still on Fox Nation, but you just can access it
(31:43):
easier through that. Anyway, You've got to take a break
and we'll come back with more of the cons and
the concerns about this blockbuster merger between HBO and our
Warner Brothers Netflix. Joe Ascalante Live from Hollywood. Joe Asante, Yes,
(32:20):
Joe's Gomante. He's your lawyer. Hey, Hey, Sam, we were
talking about my TV shows and they're on. My shows
are great. I wouldn't promote him, like I'm not sitting
here promoting all my albums. Some of my albums are good,
some they're not. I don't know. I mean, there's some
good stuff on all of them or whatever, but I'm
(32:40):
not But I will tell you my TV shows Monsters
Across America and Alien Abductions with Abby Hornyseck are excellent.
They're all a half hour. They're all paranormal investigations going
around America. Both my hosts are beautiful. Casey Hosmer, wife
of Eric Hosmer, the Padres you might know him, and
(33:02):
Abby Horniseck, the daughter of Jeff Hornisack, the Utah Jazz
Basketball Hall of Famer. I don't know why these girls
both have connections to major sports, but they do. And
the shows are great, and you can only see him
on Fox Nation. You can access Fox Nation through you know,
(33:26):
Roku or the new Fox streaming series. But you know
how much Netflix not Netflix? You know how much the
Fox Nation costs Sam a month? How much take a.
Speaker 4 (33:38):
Guess, ninety nine cents.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
I think you could get an introductory date a month
for ninety nine cents or something. Anyway, the standard price,
the standard price for a Fox Nation is two dollars
and ninety nine cents.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
I knew it was a ninety nine cents somewhere in
there that month.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
You did call that you nailed that one, yeah, nin
or Fox Nation, And that's where my shows are you know,
I wish more people could see them. They should be
on YouTube so that you pay a dollar ninety nine
for my shows or ninety nine cents or just you know,
(34:17):
whatever you want.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
I wish more people could see them because they're really good.
But they're stuck on Fox Nations. So anyway, some good
stuff on Fox Nations. But it's just it's not for everybody.
We all know. Okay, we're going through the cons of
the Warner Brothers acquisition by Netflix, and you know the
(34:40):
major anti trust rate flags, but the harm to theatrical
exhibition is the most concerning because they have never prioritized
why theatrical releases. Now, what if Warner Brothers does that too, Oh,
let's just streaming first. Theater chains get a couple of
weeks just we can qualify for oscars, and then we
(35:03):
put it on our streaming services. That is horrible. So
I'm not saying they should block this, Sam, not that
they're gonna call me. They never do. But there has
to be a lot of conditions, you know, yeah too,
because there's a lot of jobs and a lot of
I mean, we talk about it every week, how important
(35:24):
the theaters are for everybody and there we need to
do something to make sure they don't go away. And
this is, you know, another step towards perhaps them going
away unless there's conditions like I don't know how you
could do that, say like, you guys can do this,
but you have to put your movies in the theaters.
(35:46):
I mean, I don't know how you can enforce that,
but maybe they can, because if they wander, the titles
shift towards streaming. First, theater chains are worried about fewer
big movies to exhibit, and that's devastating reduced box office
revenue and greater volatility because sure you have these big
(36:11):
like Paramount will release a top gun or something and
it gets huge or a demon slayer hunter, but then
then it goes back to nothing and then it's just volatile,
lower wages for a lot of people, that kind of stuff.
So this is what the regulators will look at. Fewer
independent platforms, fewer competitors setting prices, so only the big couple,
(36:34):
big fat cats are setting prices. This is a monopoly
I mean, think of monopoly Man. What does monopoly man
do when he's not on your when you're not playing
that game, he goes into a smoke filled room and
he engages in price fixing and to line his money
bags pockets.
Speaker 3 (36:52):
So the closest thing I've seen to this was released
recently was the when Microsoft acquired Activision in the video
game world, and you saw and there was a lot
of people who were concerned that there were certain properties
like Call of Duty that are huge on multiple platforms
(37:12):
become exclusively on Microsoft and Xbox, and that part of
the deal was that they had to guarantee that that,
you know, the games that are you know, popular cross
platform would have to be have conditions around it to
make sure that they wouldn't be just set up as
exclusives for Xbox.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
It's saying the non exclusive exclusive. That's pretty easy to
take a condition. Yeah, but it sounds this is more complicated.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
It sounds like this is a lot more complicated because
this involves significantly more money and a lot more companies
at play.
Speaker 2 (37:48):
Yeah, just like you have to put your movies in theaters, Like,
how do you make a rule that says you have
to put a movie in a theater, especially if you
have these stupid ones that Netflix makes, you know, you know,
cares about those, or do you have to have a
certain percentage in theaters. It's just scary. So we'll see.
So I don't think it'll get blocked. I think there'll
(38:10):
be a lot of conditions, and maybe there'll be phony
conditions because of a lot of corruption around town. Here's
a corruption I don't even have the guy's name, but
the ticket company associated with Live Nation, Irving Azof and
the partner, the president of the thing. He got caught
in a big bribery kickback scam on concerts, and Trump
(38:32):
just pardoned him.
Speaker 4 (38:34):
That seems to be going around.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
Yeah, I mean, that's just like I don't know who's
got his ear, But come on, that guy's a villain.
You shouldn't be pardoning him. You should be going deeper
into that company and putting them all in jail. This
guy's just going to get out of jail free. So
I'm not happy about that. But let's go on to
something else. The la PD have a arrested one of
(39:01):
your guys, Sam thirty two year old rapper and social
media influencer Clinton Adams, otherwise known as Clinton Lord. Who
you well he's been I'm glad you're not associated with
him and not a fan anymore because He's got to
rest on multiple rape and assault charges after accusations from
(39:22):
two women. Authorities say Adam met the women on separate occasions,
so it's a pattern. Sam. He lures them into a
home in the Palisades, claiming it's his, and it's like,
you know, burn fire, damaged, oh damn. And then what
does he do when he's in there, He sexually assaults them. Sam. Yeah,
both victims identified him by name, and detexts are now
(39:46):
urging anyone else who may have been lured into a
burnt up Palisades house with a disgusting rapper to contact police.
He's in custody now waiting further court proceedings. But when
you see Clinton Lord on Instagram or maybe you can
look at him, he just looks gross. That's the thing,
what he looks like. He looks like a rapist.
Speaker 4 (40:07):
I don't doubt you.
Speaker 3 (40:08):
The thing that I've noticed with influencers versus like this
now new influencer pot like society that we now have,
it's like an influencer driven economy almost where you're seeing
people like if you have normal celebrities, they have to
work with other people routinely before they reach that level
(40:28):
of celebrities, so they actually show that they can play
well with each others.
Speaker 4 (40:32):
They do well with each others.
Speaker 2 (40:34):
There's not a lot of rapes, yeah, for the most part,
for the most part.
Speaker 3 (40:38):
But then you get the influencers coming in and there's
zero vetting process. They just strike gold because they do
or say something stupid online and then they get a
following for it. And now you're starting to see a
bunch of them going and becoming famous for being irritating,
for being annoying, for being pests.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
Well, they all have one thing in common. They don't
want to work for a living, and they don't and
they and they don't want to hit the pavement or
get the ten thousand hours of you know, expertise. They
they're just out there blabbering, all right, But there is guy.
Speaker 3 (41:21):
There's no vetting process with them. So you're going to
see more and more like influencers who are fake celebrities
getting busted doing stuff like this because they may be
able to say something once and get us of small
following and then all of a sudden, their real demons
show up real quick. And those are the kind of
things that Hollywood tends to vet out real fast.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Well, speaking of demons, there is a doc on Netflix
also called The Reckoning Sean Combs four Parts. That's big
if they're doing four parts on a documentary, because all
the documentaries now are ninety minutes. You may have noticed.
It examines the rise and fall of Sean did He Combs,
you know, Arkyle, footage, interviews, the whole thing. But the
(42:05):
interesting thing about this one it's executive produced by Didty
Cent and the documentary has already sparked a backlash from
Combs and his representatives who call it a shameful hit
piece and instead of a fluff piece that he thought
he was going to get. And they argue that some
of the footage, some of the footage was used without
authorization producers and system material is legally obtained and say
(42:28):
that series is meant to examine the power and accountability
in the music industry and not settle personal scores.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
Fifty hates did He So this is definitely one to watch.
Speaker 2 (42:41):
This is definitely settling a personal score. And Combs, as
you know, is serving time on prostitution transport convictions. He
said he did not authorize the use, but that's what
people do when they say, like this is outrageous. I'm
suing you and blah blah blah because some of that
footage was not authorized. And you know, I'm sure Netflix
(43:03):
is not worried about that. I'm sure you're not worried
about it either.
Speaker 4 (43:10):
Nope.
Speaker 2 (43:11):
All right, that's it for now, and make sure you
get your tickets for the Vandals Christmas shows in Anaheim
House of Blues on the twentieth and Venture Theater on
the nineteenth. All right, only one more weekend of these
Uile Tide celebrations, and now leave you with just a
(43:34):
taste of the greatest song ever written.
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.