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For an industry often referred to as a "dream factory," it makes sense that what constitutes a success or a failure in the film business is based largely on perception. This is because the necessary facts in judging a film's financial performance are rarely available for outsiders to peruse. As detailed in the showbiz nonfiction classic "Fatal Subtraction: How Hollywood Really Does Business" by Pierce O'Donnell and Dennis McDougal, studios go to great lengths to conceal their "creative" accounting practices — which, in this case, allowed Paramount to use the profits from the Eddie Murphy blockbuster "Coming to America" to cover the company's overall losses.

Still, some movies are such obvious flops there's no way they're actually, despite their lousy box office performance, secret hits, right?

Ask anyone with a general sense of film history to name a film that epitomizes...

The story of Giancarlo Parretti, the flamboyant Italian waiter-turned-financier who bought MGM in 1990 and was ousted and indicted when his takeover deal for the Hollywood studio collapsed, is in early stages of getting the big screen treatment.

Independent Los-Angeles-based film producer Niels Juul has tracked down Parretti, now 82, and living in the lap of luxury in a palazzo in his native Orvieto. Juul is at the Venice Film Festival shopping a screenplay for the Parretti biopic titled “The Lion of Orvieto.”

The “Lion of Orvieto” is penned by TV comedy writer Michael O’Rourke, who has worked with Sacha Baron Cohen on “Da Ali G Show” but has also written several unproduced dramas. “Lion” is based on extensive research and an unpublished book containing in-depth interviews with Parretti.

Raised in an orphanage before being adopted at the age of 6, Parretti’s ascent into high-stakes financial wheeling and dealing started when he...

“The transition will be seamless.”

Those words usually accompany an announcement of a corporate takeover and, of course, it never works out that way. And it likely won’t for Paramount 2024.

Consider history: When MGM found it had become a corporate conquest in the mid-1960s, not only was the studio staff fired but three major movies were canceled mid-production. The executive guillotine was also in action at Warner Bros a year later, when the production team was decimated by its new proprietor and even Looney Tunes was dropped.

Paramount’s “transition” in 1966 was even more lethal: Not only did the new studio owner cancel existing shoots but he also greenlit three of the biggest flops in Hollywood history – earning renown as “Bluhdorn’s Bombs” (see below).

History may not automatically repeat itself in the deal now unfolding behind the filigreed Paramount gates, but the “seamless transition” already sounds problematic:...

“More stars than there are in heaven” was once the slogan for Hollywood’s largest studio. Larger-than-life celebrities like Judy Garland, Clark Gable, Fred Astaire, Katharine Hepburn, Jean Harlow and Gene Kelly were common fixtures at MGM. Today, MGM is an IP outpost purchased by Amazon for $8.5 billion in 2022, but in its day, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer had the biggest lot in Hollywood and produced some of the most extravagant films. Located in Culver City, MGM’s famously sprawling lot began as it grew from the 40 acres owned by Samuel Goldwyn. The legendary MGM property was 3 miles long and housed more than 45 buildings and 14 stages, in addition to numerous outdoor sets that would be built over the years.

MGM was home to countless classic films, and in 1939 alone, the studio backed the timeless fantasy The Wizard of Oz and distributed the Oscar-winning Gone With the Wind, the Ernst Lubitsch/Greta Garbo comedy Ninotchka,...

It had all the elements of a good action movie – jeopardy, revenge, a mega budget – with even some casualties thrown in (albeit corporate).

The Bob Iger vs Nelson Peltz (who?) war is over now and Iger has won. But some filmmakers and ticket buyers might wonder: Did any of it matter? Would a modest change on the Disney board of directors have had any impact on the future of entertainment? (Peltz himself runs a hedge fund called Trian Partners and has no background in entertainment.)

To be sure, it’s been a good show, albeit a throwback to an era when Hollywood was run by Big Personalities, not monoliths like Amazon or Apple. The battles of that era were ego wars, not proxy wars — Redstone vs Diller or Murdoch vs Ted Turner, with bewildered stars and their reps huddled in the middle.

But now Iger has won – again. The onetime...

Priscilla Presley’s Dating History(Photo Credit –Instagram/IMDb/wikimedia)

Priscilla Ann Presley, the former wife of Elvis Presley, is a famous personality in the showbiz. Priscilla met the King of Rock n Roll when she was just 14 years old and he was twenty-four. They got married in 1967 and parted ways in 1973. Priscilla never married after her divorce from Elvis; however, she did date some renowned personalities. Today, we bring you a list of celebs, she dated after the demise of her ex-husband.

Priscilla reportedly was interested in modeling and modeled for a local store once. She appeared in movies like The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!, The Adventures of Ford Fairlane and more. Priscilla also did the popular soap opera Dallas for a few years; however, Elvis allegedly did not want her to have a career. Scroll below to get the deets.

After separating from Elvis,...

“How did I become Tom Joad? I used to write for a living.”

Tom Joad was the hapless farmer in The Grapes of Wrath who fled the Dust Bowl to find a better life in California. The man who cited him this week is a successful screenwriter who’s been walking the picket line and asked that I not use his name.

While the cast of pickets might not mirror John Steinbeck’s characters in his great novel, still “the rhetoric of this strike has taken on a ‘rich against the poor’ obsession,” in the words of one studio CEO.

The bargaining jargon once focused on residuals, but now it’s about “land barons” and “tone-deaf greedy bosses” (the words of SAG-AFTRA’s Fran Drescher). Little wonder polling shows only 7% of the public siding with the “bosses.” The “class warfare” has passed the 100-day mark, with L.A. city workers joining in Tuesday.

From the outset, Sumner Redstone was a curiosity.

A cluster of power players 50 years ago were suddenly bidding for control of Hollywood’s revered movie studios. Competition was intense but most of the bidders were not even “movie” people. In fact, they’d rarely seen a movie.

Related Story Les Moonves Lies, Shari Pushes, Philippe Dauman Falls, Sumner Steals His Grandson’s Girlfriend And Other Tales In New Book On The Redstones Related Story 'Scream VI' Headed To Franchise Record Opening At Box Office Related Story 'Dungeons & Dragons' John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein's GoldDay Inks First Look With Paramount Pictures

The exception was a cantankerous lawyer from Boston who’d inherited a small chain of theaters. Unlike characters like Steve Ross (funeral business), Kirk Kerkorian (airplanes) or Rupert Murdoch (newspapers), Redstone was passionate about film. He wanted to champion filmmaking and build a media conglomerate around that zeal.

HBO Max and Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav can't seem to keep their names out of the headlines recently, tied exclusively to baffling business decisions like canning the highly-anticipated release of "Batgirl" or absolutely obliterating the streaming platform's animated offerings. Zaslav made it known during the Q2 earnings call that he had hoped to cut 3 billion from HBO Max's operating budget before the inevitable streaming merger with discovery+, which apparently meant annihilating the relationships HBO Max had with Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network.

Learning that your life's work is being wiped out with complete disregard for the artistry or the lives of those that crafted it is difficult enough, but as "Infinity Train" creator Owen Dennis shared, Zaslav and the Discovery team couldn't even have the common courtesy to inform the creators of their decision to throw away their years of work like expired takeout. As Twitter user @sapphyreblayze rightfully pointed out,...

Most noted for its troubled production background, this hospital-set murder thriller turns a doctor into a detective: James Coburn’s medico undertakes an amateur investigation of a crime involving an illegal abortion, and the cover-up thereof. Although tangled up in the crazy James Aubrey-Kirk Kerkorian regime at MGM, Blake Edwards’ film can boast a strong supporting cast: Jennifer O’Neill, Pat Hingle, Elizabeth Allan, Dan O’Herlihy, James Hong, Michael Blodgett, Regis Toomey and John Hillerman.

The Carey Treatment

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 101 min. / Available at Amazon.com / General site Wac-Amazon / Street Date May 10, 2022 / 21.99

Starring: James Coburn, Jennifer O’Neill, Pat Hingle, Skye Aubrey, Elizabeth Allan, Dan O’Herlihy, James Hong, Michael Blodgett, Regis Toomey, Jennifer Edwards, John Hillerman, Alex Drier, Robert Mandan, Melissa Tormé-March.

Cinematography: Frank Stanley

Art Director: Alfred Sweeney

Film Editor: Ralph E. Winters

Original Music: Roy Budd

Screenplay by “James P. Bonner” and...

In his first non-fiction book, literary-agent-turned-producer Charles Elton takes on a major topic: the first biography of “critically acclaimed then critically derided filmmaker Michael Cimino.” In “Cimino: The Deer Hunter, Heaven’s Gate, and The Price of a Vision,” Elton explores Cimino’s fraught legacy — including his two best known films, “The Deer Hunter” and “Heaven’s Gate” — and uses extensive interviews with Cimino’s peers, collaborators, enemies, and friends to explore and reevaluate a number of sprawling Hollywood myths.

In an excerpt below — available exclusively on IndieWire — Elton unpacks the real truth behind the persistent belief that Cimino’s epic (both in scale and in terms of financial failure) “Heaven’s Gate” led to the end of United Artists. The book is out today.

Michael Cimino’s epic Western, “Heaven’s Gate,” his first film since the Oscar-winning “The Deer Hunter,” was shown to the New York press on November 19, 1980. The next morning,...

David Zaslav, who is famously gregarious and high-energy, has been oddly quiet lately with an absence of media interviews or social events on his schedule. Even his regular booth at the Polo Lounge has been somnolent.

That’s about to change: Zaslav arrived back in Hollywood yesterday and the industry has been forcefully reminded that “the deal” is real.

As federal regulators and other random bureaucrats remove their barriers, the long-awaited entity called Warner Bros. Discovery becomes a functioning reality in four short weeks.

There are high expectations of imminent moves that will impact the power structures spanning television, movies and news.

For over a year the managements of Warner Bros, CNN, HBO and beyond have labored in a bureaucratic cloud, with executives implementing policies they knew were likely evanescent.

So now starts the guessing game. Who will be anointed to fill the $43 billion power vacuum? Barred from occupying offices...

Los Angeles-based physician and producer Eric Esrailian, who recently received a medal from Pope Francis for his philanthropic activity around awareness of the Armenian Genocide, is developing a TV series entitled “Ceasefire” about the Northern Ireland peace process.

Oscar-winning Irish writer-director Terry George (“In the Name of the Father”) is attached to direct.

“Ceasefire” is to depict the dynamics and diplomacy that facilitated the historic Good Friday peace agreement of April 1998, which helped transform Northern Ireland after decades of bitter conflict, in hopes that it can help similar political situations.

“You look at the events around the world and you say: ‘Where has there been a successful brokering of peace between two hostile opposing forces?'” Esrailian said, citing other political flashpoints such as the Israel–Palestine conflict and the civil war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

“If you read more about the ceasefire between Loyalists and republicans in Northern...

Two decades ago, Edgar Bronfman Jr., having just acquired control of Universal, took me on a tour of his studio. Pointing to the black tower, he told me: “I hate black buildings. That one will soon be white.”

It’s still black. I remember his faux promise as a sort of metaphor for why Hollywood always greets corporate takeovers with a yawn. Dealmakers may boast of their deals, but history tells us that nothing ever changes.

Except history may be about to change its mind. The massive maneuvers newly engineered by Discovery and Amazon will substantially transform the cultures of their respective companies. They will also trigger further mega-deals that will reshape the industry, sharply changing content offered audiences and the technology of its delivery.

Given their resources and ambitious visions, David Zaslav and Jeff Bezos will not conveniently disappear like the wannabe moguls of the past. Zaslov will reign...

As both a tentpole and an artifact, the new James Bond movie now belongs to the increasingly voracious Jeff Bezos. Most of it, anyway.

In acquiring MGM for $8.45 billion, Amazon can claim proprietorship of No Time to Die, which opens October 8, but some insiders argue it’s a mixed blessing. A $300 million theatrical release, the latest Bond represents a tangle of rights agreements dating back 60 years that reflect the legalistic compromises of the past rather than the slick streamer dealmaking of the present. Sequel prospects also lack a pre-geriatric star. Some ticket buyers may also see its plot as a creaky reminder of white-bread misogyny.

Nonetheless, the Bond franchise has accounted for many hundreds of millions of dollars in box office muscle, and Bezos, as the world’s richest man, covets muscle. Amazon’s meek presence in Hollywood has always annoyed its boss, as Brad Stone...

Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer said Thursday that two media merger deals in as many weeks are “resounding affirmation of the value of content, IP and brands,” but that the company wants to keep its head down and “not get distracted by this concept of scale.”

“Obviously we will talk to everyone, we listen to everything,” he said on a conference call following strong quarterly earnings — even as Lionsgate is considered the most likely to be scooped up next if, or, more likely, as, a wave of consolidation in the sector continues.

The company’s shares reflect that, as well as solid growth in Starz subscribers and across its portfolio. The stock’s risen steadily since AT&T announced plans to shed WarnerMedia in a $43 billion deal with Discovery and through yesterday’s news that Amazon will acquire MGM for $8.45 billion. Lionsgate shares closed today up 1.3% at $18.66 and gained another 2% or so...

With its $8.45 billion deal to buy MGM, Amazon will stock Prime Video with the studio’s cache of 4,000 movies and 17,000 hours of television. It’s a huge library, but notably absent are some of MGM’s most iconic films, including “The Wizard of Oz,” “Singin’ in the Rain,” and “Gone With the Wind.” Those titles — and all other MGM movies made before 1986 — belong to WarnerMedia.

In 1986, Ted Turner made a series of deals that resulted in Turner Broadcasting taking ownership of all prior MGM films. Not unlike Amazon, he wanted the films for programming his growing cable empire and the library became one of the pillars that built Turner Classic Movies. Today, WarnerMedia owns both TCM and Turner’s MGM library. Many titles, including “The Wizard of Oz,” are available to stream on HBO Max.

Today, the public is more likely to chatter about the latest program that happens to...

Hollywood’s great re-awakening seems at hand. Sort of.

The cameras are rolling, the theaters are opening, the wannabe blockbusters have nailed new playdates. Even Bob Iger last week revealed his exit date, marking his kingdom’s new era.

But when the curtains rise, will the audience applaud?

Paradoxically, I was reading a new book this week that posed a metaphor for the Hollywood moment. Titled Shooting Midnight Cowboy, the book by Glenn Frankel portrayed the shadow of doom hovering over a movie about to start shooting 50 years ago. Its young director, John Schlesinger, was semi-suicidal because the critics had just savaged his latest picture. With Cowboy, had he again chosen the wrong cast and the wrong setting?

His studio seemed to share the young Brit’s paranoia. Fearful of its gay subtext and potential “X” rating, United Artists had cut his budget and reduced his pay to $100,000. His young star,...

His credentials seemed impeccable. He was 60, a Yale graduate, a former studio chief, a gifted dealmaker and now a newly named company president. But there were a few clouds: He was also a convicted embezzler, a compulsive gambler and his Yale degree was bogus.

This was 1981 and David Begelman, the new boss of MGM, was in many ways representative of the executives who were running Hollywood in that period – men who compulsively operated on the margin.

The cast of characters of that generation would not have been comfortable in the same room with the corporate soldiers who are presently taking their seats at the CEO table – Jason Kilar (WarnerMedia), Bob Chapek (Disney), Jeff Shell (NBCUniversal), et al. All came armed with Harvard MBAs and have already proved their management skills at various corporate levels: Kiler built Hulu. Chapek ran the world’s biggest theme parks. Shell built a giant global distribution machine.

From the outset, the interview seemed to be going off course. While most Hollywood CEOs wallow in self-congratulation, the individual I was meeting with was both candid and self-effacing: He promptly volunteered his “disappointment” with one of his Disney studio’s major releases. He further confessed that he was angry with himself for “wasting time” by backing political candidates. “I’m letting too many things pile up on me,” he acknowledged, shaking his head in frustration.

No, this was not an interview with Bob Iger, but rather with the mythic founder, Walt Disney. I was never clear why Disney had agreed to a rare sit-down interview with me in December 1965, but, sitting across from him at the Disney commissary, I enjoyed his grumpy self-admonitions. I was also bemused that this Hollywood icon, who’d bought entertainment to millions, seemed by nature both dour and intensely conservative.

This week, at a...

Hollywood endured a big setback this month, and it had nothing to do with the Oscars. A major studio, 20th Century Fox, officially disappeared into the mist, instantly transforming a once robustly competitive industry into a Disney oligopoly. The ultimate cost in jobs could range as high as 10,000, but the real cost will be in opportunity and competitive zeal.

I took the demise of Fox personally because it was the second studio loss I had witnessed. Years ago I had been a production chief at MGM when Kirk Kerkorian decided to pull the plug. Ironically, he and Rupert Murdoch had been trading offers for years for Fox and MGM, with Kerkorian foolishly snubbing him (MGM continued to stagger along for some years without serious funding commitments).

Fox’s history, like MGM’s, has wallowed in melodramatic triumphs and scandals –the corporate intrigues of Warner Bros and its corporate parents (At&T...

Deadline’s annual film revenue tournaments have celebrated the triumphs of each year’s most profitable films. This year, we decided to look at the films on the opposite end of the spectrum. The big budget misfires that bled red ink and reminded everyone from the artists to the executives and studio executives that big swings don’t always clear the fences. These included passion projects, a blatant play for the movie going audience in China, while others were flat-out misfires. Some in the latter category included Justice League, The Mummy, Valerian and Blade Runner 2049. But guess what? They didn’t crack the Top Five. Here are the movies our experts said posted the worst losses.

King Arthur: Legend Of The Sword

Warner Bros./Village Roadshow

The Film

Warner Bros has been fixated on the Camelot legend for years, developing several projects that included a remake of John Boorman’s Excalibur.

It must have seemed like a good idea at the time for director Joe Berlinger to tie his documentary about the Armenian Genocide with a behind-the-scenes account of the making of The Promise, Terry George's dramatic film about the same subject. Unfortunately, that $100 million would-be cinematic epic starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac sank like a stone upon its premiere last spring, attracting critical brickbats and going virtually unseen. That the film bankrolled by Armenian-American businessman Kirk Kerkorian was a box-office disaster lends an unfortunate aspect to the otherwise excellent and informative Intent to Destroy.

The documentary, divided into...

The late Kirk Kerkorian's parting gift to Hollywood was The Promise, a big-budget epic about the Armenian genocide.

Starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac, the movie opened to a mere $4.1 million at the North American box office over the weekend. At that rate, the film stands to lose $80 million or more unless it overperforms overseas and in ancillary markets, according to box-office experts.

The Promise cost $90 million to $100 million to make before marketing costs and a distribution fee paid to Open Road Films in North America. Kerkorian, who died in 2015 and was of Armenian descent,...

While good news could be just around the corner with “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” two weeks away, this weekend it’s hard to find much to cheer about. Combined, five new wide openings could barely muster $17 million, while the second weekend of “The Fate of the Furious” saw a 61 percent drop.

The grim details, as well as some positive news, after the Top Ten.

The Top Ten

1. The Fate of the Furious (Universal) Week 2 – Last weekend #1

$38,682,000 (-61%) in 4,329 theaters (+19); PTA (per theater average): $8,936; Cumulative: $163,578,000

2. The Boss Baby (20th Century Fox) Week 4 – Last weekend #2

$12,750,000 (-20%) in 3,697 theaters (-46); PTA: $3,449; Cumulative: $136,992,000

3. Beauty and the Beast (Disney) Week 6 – Last weekend #3

$9,773,000 (-27%) in 3,315 theaters (-277); PTA: $3,008; Cumulative: $471,097

4. Born in China (Disney) New – Cinemascore: A-; Metacritic: 58; Est. budget: unknown

$5,147,000 in 1,508 theaters; PTA: $3,413; Cumulative: $5,147,000

5. Going in Style (Warner Bros.) Week 3 – Last weekend #5

$5,005,000 (-20%) in 3,038 theaters (-38); PTA: $1,647; Cumulative: $31,766,000

6. Smurfs: The Lost Village (Sony...

This weekend marks the moment of truth for “The Promise,” when Open Road Films’ $100 million love story set against the Armenian genocide of World War I will open on 2,000 screens. Directed by Terry George, best known for directing 2004’s “Hotel Rwanda,” the film follows a romantic triangle between an Armenian medical student (Oscar Isaac), an Armenian artist (Charlotte Le Bon) and an American photojournalist (Christian Bale).

Read More: Gilbert Gottfried On Getting Fired and Feeling ‘Miserable’ About Life — Tribeca 2017

Early critics’ reviews of the film have been very mixed, and in the seven months since the movie’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, a campaign of Armenian genocide deniers have attacked the movie by voting down its scores on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes. While online ratings can reflect honest opinion, more than 60,000 online accounts gave “The Promise” the lowest possible score on IMDb the day after its Toronto...

In theaters April 21. By Peter Belsito

My good friend Producer Mahyad Tousi brought this wonderful new film to me, about to be released here in the U.S. this Friday April 21 by Open Road wide on 2200+ screens. International sales by “Sierra Affinity.”

It is the first big-budget, star-driven film about the Armenian Genocide.

Charlotte Le Bon with children

The Armenian Genocide, also known as the Armenian Holocaust, was the Ottoman (now Turkey) government’s systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly Ottoman citizens within the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey.

Christian Bale

The starting date is conventionally held to be 24 April 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities rounded up, arrested, and deported 235 to 270 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders from Constantinople to the region of Ankara, the majority of whom were eventually murdered. The genocide was carried out during and after World War I.

Oscar Isaac

This is...

There are two movies fighting for control of Terry George's attempt at a "topical" historical epic. The first, a scalding dramatization of the Ottoman Empire's 1915 genocidal annihilation of its Armenian citizens, is everything you expect from the heartfelt committed director behind films like Hotel Rwanda and Some Mother's Son. The second – the one that reduces the promise of The Promise to an old-fashioned, overblown Hollywood melodrama – is the fictional love triangle that trivializes a profound subject and drowns it in a tide of hokey sentiment.

Credit the producers, including...

The Promise, a historical romance set against the backdrop of the Armenian genocide and starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac, to reach the screen. Producers always knew it would be controversial: Descendants of the 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottoman Empire shortly after the onset of World War I have long pressed for the episode to be recognized as a genocide despite the Turkish government's insistence the deaths were not...

Exclusive: What a fitting legacy for Kirk Kerkorian. Because of the late Armenian mogul, the first mainstream film about the genocide of Armenians at the hand of the Turks has finally been produced in Hollywood. Terry George’s The Promise starring A-list talent including Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale had its its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday night and screens again tomorrow. The filmmakers are currently in conversations with possible…...

The Promise, which stars Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac, has been acquired by Open Road Films.

The Promise charts the course of a love triangle during the First World War between a medical student (Isaac), a journalist (Bale) and a worldly Parisian (Charlotte Le Bon).

Hotel Rwanda director Terry George helmed the project, which he co-wrote with Robin Swicord.

Open Road Films plans for an April 28, 2017, wide release for the film, which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in September.

Eric Esrailian, Mike Medavoy and William Horberg produced the project. Kirk Kerkorian, Ralph Winter, Denise O'Dell, Mark Albela, Anthony Mandekic,...

Entertainment moguls Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Sumner Redstone have been named among the 10 richest people in Los Angeles.

Dreamworks partners Geffen and Spielberg make the Los Angeles Business Journal top 50 list at four and nine respectively, while Viacom boss Redstone's estimated $7 billion (GBP3.5 billion) net worth and the $8.4 billion (GBP4.2 billion) he made in 2007 put him in second place behind investment tycoon Kirk Kerkorian.

Geffen and Spielberg's Dreamworks co-founder, Jeffrey Katzenberg comes in at 36 on the new list, producer Stephen Bing at 38 and former Disney boss Michael Eisner and current studio chief Roy Disney hold up the countdown at 49 and 50 respectively.

Entertainment attorney Terry Christensen's hopes of being tried separately from former celebrity sleuth Anthony Pellicano could be dashed.

On Monday, Pellicano and the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a stipulation agreeing that the former private eye should be tried with Christensen when Pellicano's current trial on racketeering and wiretapping charges concludes.

Christensen and Pellicano have been charged with conspiracy to intercept and interception of wire communications in connection with the alleged wiretapping from March to May 2002 of Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, the ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian. Christensen represented Kirk Kerkorian in a child-custody dispute with his ex. Both men have pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In February, as the trial against Pellicano, Christensen and four others inched closer to a start date, the Los Angeles lawyer won his bid to be tried separately. U.S. District Court Judge Dale Fischer agreed with Christensen that the evidence against him, if correct, involved only two of the 111 counts charged in the government's indictment.

Fischer ordered that Christensen's trial start 30-45 days after Pellicano's current trial is over.

Frank Rosenfelt, an MGM general counsel who rose to chairman and CEO when Kirk Kerkorian acquired the studio in 1972, has died in Los Angeles.

Rosenfelt, who died Thursday, was 85.

His accomplishments at MGM included acquiring film rights to the book "Dr. Zhivago". Rosenfelt oversaw hundreds of films during his time at MGM, and in 1981 he guided Kerkorian's $380 million purchase of United Artists from Transamerica.

Rosenfelt resigned as CEO for personal reasons in 1982 and was named board vice chairman, based in London. He was a member of the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

A World War II veteran, Rosenfelt attended Cornell University and joined RKO's legal department upon graduating Cornell Law School. After five years at RKO, he moved to MGM in 1955 and was named general counsel in 1969.

Rosenfelt is survived by his wife, Judith; sons Fred and Peter; daughter Karen Rosenfelt, a film producer; three grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and two brothers.

A grand jury indicted prominent Hollywood attorney Terry Christensen on Wednesday for allegedly hiring investigator Anthony Pellicano to wiretap Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, the ex-wife of billionaire and former MGM owner Kirk Kerkorian. Christensen is accused of paying Pellicano at least $100,000 to illegally eavesdrop on Bonder Kerkorian's conversations with her attorney, a court mediator and others to gain a tactical advantage in a legal dispute. Kirk Kerkorian is not implicated in the indictment, though sources said the underlying case involved a child support battle over Bonder Kerkorian's daughter, who Kirk Kerkorian was accused of fathering.

A grand jury indicted prominent Hollywood attorney Terry Christensen on Wednesday for allegedly hiring investigator Anthony Pellicano to wiretap Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, the ex-wife of billionaire and former MGM owner Kirk Kerkorian. Christensen is accused of paying Pellicano at least $100,000 to illegally eavesdrop on Bonder Kerkorian's conversations with her attorney, a court mediator and others to gain a tactical advantage in a legal dispute. Kirk Kerkorian is not implicated in the indictment, though sources said the underlying case involved a child support battle over Bonder Kerkorian's daughter, who Kirk Kerkorian was accused of fathering.

Marking the true end of an era, MGM will cease to be a stand-alone studio this year once its purchase by a Sony-led consortium is completed. After years during which majority owner Kirk Kerkorian put the studio on and off the block -- and months of uncertainty during which both Sony and Time Warner circled the studio -- CEO Alex Yemenidjian and chief operating officer Chris McGurk closed out a year in which MGM did not leave a major impact at the boxoffice. But, ironically, they managed to put in place what they consider one of the strongest upcoming slates in recent studio history. Amid all the question marks about the company's future, the fact that MGM's staff remained focused on the product was an accomplishment in itself. While MGM celebrated its history when the Cole Porter biopic De-Lovely played as the closing-night attraction at the Festival de Cannes, back in the United States, Barbershop 2: Back in Business established itself as an urban hit. "We had a great year," McGurk says. "We are handing over one of the strongest slates in memory. We have tripled the value of the library and home video. There have been some great innovations in ideas to using the library, and this has all been key to the transaction."...

Three months after Sony and its co-investors outbid Time Warner for MGM, MGM will hold a shareholders vote on the proposal at its Century City headquarters this morning. Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 69% of MGM, won't be there, but he and his holding companies have agreed to approve the $12-a-share deal -- so the meeting is expected to be brief. The real significance of the vote is that it should cap a highly successful and, according to analysts who have supported the stock, underappreciated run for MGM management. "I would say the stock has easily outperformed its peers and the market," said analyst David Miller of Sanders Morris Harris, who added that his firm was the only one to rate MGM "buy" last year. Miller said that this year alone, MGM stock is up 31% when one takes into account the hefty one-time dividend of $8 per share it paid out to shareholders in May.

In a quiet coda to an often suspenseful monthslong bidding process, MGM shareholders as expected Friday approved the takeover proposal of $12 per share offered by Sony Corp. and its investment partners in September. About 130 people, about half of them MGM employees, attended the 10-minute meeting in a small theater in the MGM tower lobby Friday morning. Among the attendees were board members Priscilla Presley and Frank Mancuso, the latter of whom headed MGM in the 1990s. There was little doubt the deal would be overwhelmingly approved because Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 73% of MGM's shares either directly or through holding companies, had already agreed to the pact. Still, a chuckle rose from the audience when senior executive vp and secretary Bill Jones announced the preliminary results: 99.8% of the shares were voted in favor of the deal. CEO Alex Yemenidjian and chief operating officer Chris McGurk, both of whom arrived at MGM in April 1999, took the opportunity to thank MGM's employees for their hard work over the past several years. Yemenidjian particularly thanked McGurk for "sometimes tolerating, sometimes agreeing with" his decisions, as both men smiled.

In a quiet coda to an often suspenseful monthslong bidding process, MGM shareholders as expected Friday approved the takeover proposal of $12 per share offered by Sony Corp. and its investment partners in September. About 130 people, about half of them MGM employees, attended the 10-minute meeting in a small theater in the MGM tower lobby Friday morning. Among the attendees were board members Priscilla Presley and Frank Mancuso, the latter of whom headed MGM in the 1990s. There was little doubt the deal would be overwhelmingly approved because Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 73% of MGM's shares either directly or through holding companies, had already agreed to the pact. Still, a chuckle rose from the audience when senior executive vp and secretary Bill Jones announced the preliminary results: 99.8% of the shares were voted in favor of the deal. CEO Alex Yemenidjian and chief operating officer Chris McGurk, both of whom arrived at MGM in April 1999, took the opportunity to thank MGM's employees for their hard work over the past several years. Yemenidjian particularly thanked McGurk for "sometimes tolerating, sometimes agreeing with" his decisions, as both men smiled.

Three months after Sony and its co-investors outbid Time Warner for MGM, MGM will hold a shareholders vote on the proposal at its Century City headquarters this morning. Billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, who owns 69% of MGM, won't be there, but he and his holding companies have agreed to approve the $12-a-share deal -- so the meeting is expected to be brief. The real significance of the vote is that it should cap a highly successful and, according to analysts who have supported the stock, underappreciated run for MGM management. "I would say the stock has easily outperformed its peers and the market," said analyst David Miller of Sanders Morris Harris, who added that his firm was the only one to rate MGM "buy" last year. Miller said that this year alone, MGM stock is up 31% when one takes into account the hefty one-time dividend of $8 per share it paid out to shareholders in May.

Buzz of a Time Warner takeover of MGM continued to escalate Wednesday, a day after reports surfaced of an imminent deal between the two (HR 9/1). After rising more than 6% for the day on sale talk, MGM shares dropped back in after-hours trading following MGM's release of a statement calling press reports that it could sell for as high as $5 billion "inaccurate." An MGM spokesman declined further comment on the statement, issued after the market's close. The announcement would seem to indicate that MGM will not fetch quite as high a price as majority owner Kirk Kerkorian had originally hoped; a $5 billion price tag had been widely discussed for several months. Late Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site that Time Warner had prepared an all-cash offer of $4.5 billion-$4.6 billion. That represents a departure from the potential Time Warner bid sources had previously discussed, which would have had the media conglomerate giving Kerkorian a stock deal rather than cash.

The bidding war for MGM looks like it's finally coming to a long-awaited conclusion. While no one close to the deal believes that anything will be announced before the Labor Day weekend, sources near the negotiations believe that Time Warner will prevail as the new owner of the lion. A source close to Time Warner said a group of key employees were told Tuesday not to trade any MGM stock. The Hollywood Reporter obtained an MGM internal memo dated Friday informing employees that the trading window for buying and selling MGM common stock was closed and would remain so until further notice. While this might mean a deal is imminent, some MGM employees have cautioned that the company's trading window is often closed to employees on a quarterly basis to prevent any insider trading charges surrounding the company's earnings reports. An MGM spokesperson declined comment. It has become clear that Time Warner has taken the lead over fellow bidder Sony Corp. According to one source, Time Warner is interested in offering MGM's controlling shareholder Kirk Kerkorian a complex stock deal whereby his shares would be paid out in Time Warner stock, saving Time Warner a high valuation and Kerkorian a huge capital gains tax bill. According to the source, the remainder of the shareholders would receive cash for their shares. Time Warner reps were unavailable for comment. In contrast, the slower-moving deal from Sony Corp. seems to have hit a philosophical roadblock. According to a source, Sony wants to control the assets, but the majority of the funding is coming from Sony's partners, private equity players Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners. Sony wants to move slowly in integrating the two operations, but the private financiers need the cost savings to be realized quickly in order for the banks to finance the deal. Sony reps weren't available for comment at press time.

The bidding war for MGM looks like it's finally coming to a long-awaited conclusion. While no one close to the deal believes that anything will be announced before the Labor Day weekend, sources near the negotiations believe that Time Warner will prevail as the new owner of the lion. A source close to Time Warner said a group of key employees were told Tuesday not to trade any MGM stock. The Hollywood Reporter obtained an MGM internal memo dated Friday informing employees that the trading window for buying and selling MGM common stock was closed and would remain so until further notice. While this might mean a deal is imminent, some MGM employees have cautioned that the company's trading window is often closed to employees on a quarterly basis to prevent any insider trading charges surrounding the company's earnings reports. An MGM spokesperson declined comment. It has become clear that Time Warner has taken the lead over fellow bidder Sony Corp. According to one source, Time Warner is interested in offering MGM's controlling shareholder Kirk Kerkorian a complex stock deal whereby his shares would be paid out in Time Warner stock, saving Time Warner a high valuation and Kerkorian a huge capital gains tax bill. According to the source, the remainder of the shareholders would receive cash for their shares. Time Warner reps were unavailable for comment. In contrast, the slower-moving deal from Sony Corp. seems to have hit a philosophical roadblock. According to a source, Sony wants to control the assets, but the majority of the funding is coming from Sony's partners, private equity players Texas Pacific Group and Providence Equity Partners. Sony wants to move slowly in integrating the two operations, but the private financiers need the cost savings to be realized quickly in order for the banks to finance the deal. Sony reps weren't available for comment at press time.

Buzz of a Time Warner takeover of MGM continued to escalate Wednesday, a day after reports surfaced of an imminent deal between the two (HR 9/1). After rising more than 6% for the day on sale talk, MGM shares dropped back in after-hours trading following MGM's release of a statement calling press reports that it could sell for as high as $5 billion "inaccurate." An MGM spokesman declined further comment on the statement, issued after the market's close. The announcement would seem to indicate that MGM will not fetch quite as high a price as majority owner Kirk Kerkorian had originally hoped; a $5 billion price tag had been widely discussed for several months. Late Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site that Time Warner had prepared an all-cash offer of $4.5 billion-$4.6 billion. That represents a departure from the potential Time Warner bid sources had previously discussed, which would have had the media conglomerate giving Kerkorian a stock deal rather than cash.

Buzz of a Time Warner takeover of MGM continued to escalate Wednesday, a day after reports surfaced of an imminent deal between the two (HR 9/1). After rising more than 6% for the day on sale talk, MGM shares dropped back in after-hours trading following MGM's release of a statement calling press reports that it could sell for as high as $5 billion "inaccurate." An MGM spokesman declined further comment on the statement, issued after the market's close. The announcement would seem to indicate that MGM will not fetch quite as high a price as majority owner Kirk Kerkorian had originally hoped; a $5 billion price tag had been widely discussed for several months. Late Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site that Time Warner had prepared an all-cash offer of $4.5 billion-$4.6 billion. That represents a departure from the potential Time Warner bid sources had previously discussed, which would have had the media conglomerate giving Kerkorian a stock deal rather than cash.

Another week ended Friday with no deal materializing between MGM and its once-exclusive suitor, Sony. However, the week ended eventfully for MGM majority shareholder Kirk Kerkorian on another front, as his MGM Mirage announced a $7.65 billion offer for rival Las Vegas casino owner Mandalay Resort Group. Although MGM and Sony continued to decline comment Friday, sources said MGM has apparently decided to consider dating others if Sony isn't ready to make a commitment and has received preliminary exploratory calls from potential buyers Time Warner and NBC since Sony's period of exclusivity ran out May 27. A Time Warner spokesperson declined comment Friday. A spokesperson for NBC could not be reached, but the company has previously declined comment on speculation that it might be interested in MGM.

MGM is considering paying a one-time dividend to shareholders of $6-$9 per share as early as next month, according to sources familiar with the situation. If it comes about, the plan could grant as much as about $2 billion to shareholders -- 74% of that to majority owner Kirk Kerkorian -- and total more than MGM's 2003 annual revenue of $1.8 billion. The story was first reported by Reuters shortly after the market's close Monday. MGM stock shot up more than 15% in after-hours trading, reaching a two-year high of 18.65 by early evening. The news comes after months of top executives saying that the company was considering ways to reward shareholders because the company has strong free cash flow and is virtually debt-free. Some analysts expressed disappointment over a "Dutch auction" tender offer earlier this year, saying that was not what they were expecting in terms of a shareholder reward.

Although both companies continued to decline comment, insiders confirmed reports Thursday that Time Warner was in early merger talks with MGM. Meanwhile, observers stressed that there are a number of other possible suitors as MGM is "talking to everybody," one Wall Street source said. MGM has continually crowed in recent months about its healthy, debt-free balance sheet and high rate of return on its film slate. Because of conservative financing arrangements like split-rights deals, the company claims a 22% return on investment in its film division during the past 18 months. Kirk Kerkorian, controlling shareholder of MGM through his Tracinda Corp., is notoriously tight-lipped with the press. But he has a history of selling his MGM stock when the price is right, and observers say he is currently focused on other things, such as his Las Vegas holdings and his ongoing lawsuit against DaimlerChrysler. MGM's shares have recently been trading at the upper end of their 52-week range, and the stock closed up about 5% on Thursday on the merger reports.

Sony Corp. said Monday that it has priced ¥250 billion ($2.3 billion) in convertible bonds. The company will use the proceeds for a recently announced corporate restructuring and Sony's growth strategy. The Euro Yen Zero Coupon Convertible Bonds are due in 2008 ... Video rental firm Hollywood Entertainment on Monday warned that its fourth-quarter and full-year 2003 earnings will fall below expectations ... Urban broadcaster Radio One has agreed to acquire radio station WSNJ-FM, which is moving its operations to the Philadelphia area, from New Jersey Radio Partners for about $35 million ... MGM controlling shareholder Kirk Kerkorian and his investment vehicle Tracinda Corp. accused former German car giant Daimler-Benz and its executives of fraud in their positioning of the 1998 merger with U.S. firm Chrysler as a marriage of equals.