Michael Eisner Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

A push for a Disneyland in Australia began almost 50 years ago when a private company tried to entice the Walt Disney Corporation to start the construction progress on a new park in the Gold Coast suburb of Coomera. RELATED || The 10 best movies o

The minutes are ticking down to the close of Disney’s bitter proxy fight with Nelson Peltz, whose attempt to scale the board is a direct challenge to CEO Bob Iger.

Proxy advisor Egan-Jones on Wednesday became the second independent firm to support activist Nelson Peltz‘s effort to secure seats on the Disney board.

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Michael Eisner, the former Disney CEO who exited the company in 2005, is the latest member of the extended Disneyverse to weigh in with support for current chief exec Bob Iger, who’s facing a proxy fight with activist investors including Nelson Peltz in a vote for board candidates at Disney’s April 3 annual shareholders meeting. “[I]n 1983, Disney was under attack by corporate raiders trying to take over the company,” Eisner wrote in a post on X, referring to the unsuccessful attempt by financier Saul Steinberg to stage a hostile takeover of the company.

Gerald Levin, known to many as Jerry, wasn’t flamboyant. He wasn’t characterized, as were many of his media business contemporaries, by extravagant hobbies, odd peccadillos, inspiring speeches or a spicy personal life. He could be testy, but he didn’t engage in public brawls beloved by – and between – Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch.

After skidding to multi-year lows in late-2023, Disney stock has rebounded more than 20% thus far in 2024 as two activist investment firms have launched a proxy fight.

EXCLUSIVE: Kristin Jones is leaving The North Road Company, we can reveal.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Herman “Hy” Levine, a 48-year veteran of the film industry who rose through the marketing ranks at Universal and Disney, died Dec. 27 in Rockville, Md. after suffering from pancreatic cancer.

Shrek have been reacting in shock to a clip of a NSFW joke from the film that has been circulating on social media.The scene from the original 2001 film, featuring the antagonist character Lord Farquaad (voiced by John Lithgow), has been viewed over 2million times, and has been causing fans to question their love for the family classic.In the scene, Farquaad asks his magic mirror to show him an image of his bride-to-be, Princess Fiona. The mirror conjures a picture of her looking through the window of her castle, causing Farquaad to sigh.As TikTok user @kathy_martinez05’s viral video seems to indicate, shortly afterwards, a small bump appears from underneath Farquaad’s sheets, and the character shoots an awkward look towards the ‘camera’.Several users on TikTok have reacted to the video, with one saying, “I hate that they added that detail”.Another said, “If this is real, no longer my favorite movie.”One YouTube commenter noted: “This makes me never wanna see shrek next to my parents ever again”.Another said: “I really wish I could have been a fly on the wall the day the animators were working on this scene, as they tried out just how much “under-cover” willy-movement wouldn’t be “too much of a good thing”.”Created by DreamWorks Animation, the mainline Shrek film series spans four films in total, with the last being 2010’s Shrek Forever After.

Julia Ormond is wielding a massive lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein for sexual assault, and she’s also pointing the courtroom finger at the CAA, The Walt Disney Company and Miramax for allegedly enabling his behaviour.

Elizabeth Wagmeister Chief Correspondent Julia Ormond, the English actress best known for her roles in ’90s films such as “Legends of the Fall,” “First Knight” and “Smilla’s Sense of Snow,” is suing Harvey Weinstein for sexual battery. Ormond is additionally suing CAA, The Walt Disney Company and Miramax.

Disney, CAA and Miramax are being sued by Julia Ormond over an alleged sexual assault by Harvey Weinstein in 1995.

EXCLUSIVE: Airplane! writer-directors David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker are teaming up with a cast of celebrities and industry figures to chronicle the making of the influential hit 1980 comedy.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer During a labor negotiation, management almost never speaks publicly. The current negotiations with the Writers Guild of America are no exception. The studio chiefs have said almost nothing, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has limited itself to a few prepared statements. But Jeff Ruthizer is talking. Ruthizer retired in 2009 as senior vice president of labor relations at ABC. Over a 40-year career, he worked for ABC, NBC, RKO and then ABC again. He negotiated hundreds of contracts and went through numerous strikes, several of them involving NABET, the broadcast technicians’ union.

Walt Disney Imagineering, the secretive unit responsible for Disney theme parks, cruise ships and shopping experiences, has reclaimed one of its own: Bruce Vaughn, who left the company in 2016, will return to Disney. Vaughn will be installed as chief creative officer, working alongside Barbara Bouza, president of Walt Disney Imagineering.

It was bound to happen, sooner or later. On Monday, the Walt Disney Co.’s corporate privilege in Florida finally succumbed to its Democracy Problem.

George Newall, who was an advertising agency creative director in the early 1970s when he helped create what would become one of TV’s most beloved and educational children’s titles with Schoolhouse Rock!, died Nov. 30 at a hospital near his home in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y. He was 88.

If the opening of “Clerks III” this week has you feeling nostalgic about the earlier films of writer/director Kevin Smith, you’ll hit a dead-end when searching for one of his greatest accomplishments – 1999’s religious satire “Dogma.”“Dogma,” which stars Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Alan Rickman and Chris Rock, is currently not available to stream anywhere or buy digitally, and the out-of-print Blu-ray frequently sells for around $100 on the secondary market. While religious groups were bent out of shape by the movie, it was warmly received by critics (Roger Ebert gave it three-and-a-half out of four stars) and made $44 million at the box office (it only cost $10 million).

“I don’t think all streamers are created equal, “ Bob Iger bluntly said today at the 2022 Code Conference. “I don’t think they’ll all make it.”

Ted Johnson Senior EditorBertram “Bert” Fields, the larger-than-life entertainment lawyer whose roster of star clients and studios spoke to a penchant for doling out legal threats with a rhetorical flourish, along with a capacity for winning lucrative settlements, has died at his Malibu home, his rep confirmed to Variety. He was 93.Fields thrived on the notion that he never lost a trial, and even if the Perry Mason-like reputation wasn’t exactly true, he was a relentless litigator who defined some of the industry’s most heralded cases of the 1980s and ’90s, with clients that included Warren Beatty, Tom Cruise, the Beatles, Edward G.

Disney once attempted to sign Dr. Dre, according to the rap giant’s attorney.During the latest edition of the Connection Is Magic podcast, Peter Paterno – who has also represented Pharrell, Metallica and Guns N’ Roses – recalled the period following the release of Dre’s seminal debut album, 1992’s ‘The Chronic’.“The first album that I was actually involved in was [1999’s] ‘2001’,” Paterno told host Samson Shulman.

has finally announced some details, chiefly that the attraction’s new name will be Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and that it will open at Walt Disney World and Disneyland in late 2024. If you want to take one last trip to the Laughin’ Place, you might want to do it soon …Announced today during Essence Fest in New Orleans (where the film and new attraction will be set), Disney also announced the first concrete details of the attraction’s storyline: “Picking up where the film left off, guests will join Princess Tiana, Naveen and jazz-loving alligator Louis on an adventure through the bayou as they prepare to host a one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras celebration where everyone is welcome.

Digital sports firm Fanatics has hired former Dick Clark Productions chief Mike Mahan in the newly created role of CEO of its trading cards and collectibles business.

Today on Crew Call, The Afterparty architects Phil Lord and Christopher Miller discuss how they took what was a feature concept at TriStar over ten years ago and turned into a Rashomon comedy series for AppleTV+.

first reported news of this listing.What’s more: a sale at that sky-high sum would also mark one of the priciest residential transactions in the world.Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and his wife, Laura Arrillaga-Andreessen, set the current California record in late 2021 with the $177 million purchase of fashion tycoon Serge Azria’s Malibu compound. The Journal notes that the couple has since bought at least two more properties in Malibu since that record-breaking buy.The Eisner estate, Mediterranean in style with nine structures on approximately 5 acres, packs a real punch.

Pre-Oscar week always spells angst for Hollywood, but will voters feel better if a “feel good” movie is crowned Best Picture?

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterThe race for mayor of Los Angeles has hardly begun, but Karen Bass has already taken a commanding lead among Hollywood donors.Candidates filed their contribution reports on Monday, when showed that Bass has spent much of the last few months winning over the creative community.Donors to her campaign include stars like Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman, and Jennifer Garner. They include Hollywood’s most profligate political benefactors, like Jeffrey and Marilyn Katzenberg, J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath, Alan and Cindy Horn, and Damon and Heidi Lindelof.

Michael Eisner, the former Walt Disney chief who currently runs holding company Tornante, was upbeat on his two successors at the Mouse, Bob Iger and Bob Chapek. The former officially left the hallowed halls as of Dec. 31 and the latter, in place for almost a year, is firing up.

Claudia Eller Co-Editor-in-ChiefAs I mention in my cover interview with Bob Iger in this week’s issue, when you look back at his impressive 15-year run as CEO, it’s funny to think about how many people in the industry and the media — myself included — underestimated him. For the decade that Iger worked under then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, leading up to his run to succeed him in 2005, people frequently used the term “empty suit” when referring to Iger.

Struum, a streaming aggregator created by former Disney and Discovery executives and backed by former Disney CEO Michael Eisner, has closed a $7 million Series A funding round.

When Netflix lured Larry Tanz from Michael Eisner’s digital studio Vuguru in 2014 to head up its content acquisition in Europe, the streamer’s regional presence was no more than a little townhouse on a canal in Amsterdam. Seven years and one pandemic later, the exec, who is now VP of Original Series for EMEA, is making shows in 20 different countries, with people on the ground in London, Madrid, Berlin, Rome and Paris to name a few.

Former Disney chief Michael Eisner has found his next deal. Eisner will take the trading card and collectibles company Topps public through a deal with the Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC)Mudrick Capital Acquisition Corporation II.

Thirty-five years ago, before L.A.'s homelessness epidemic exploded into a humanitarian crisis, the vast divide separating the city's haves from its have-nots was skewered in a very progressive studio comedy. In 1984, just a few days after taking over as CEO of the then-floundering Disney, former Paramount chief Michael Eisner got a call from ICM's Sam Cohn on behalf of his client, director Paul Mazursky (Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice).

“It has been a very trying year. The most difficult we’ve had in recent memory, if ever,” said Bob Iger, first up Tuesday at the company’s virtual annual shareholders meeting. Sounding moved, he noted that it would be his last as he prepares to exit after 16 years as CEO and, more recently, executive chairman, and well over 40 years at the company.

Former senior Disney and Discovery streaming and tech execs Thursday announced a new venture called Struum backed by a multi-million dollar investment from former Disney CEO Michael Eisner through his Tornante Company.

By Cynthia Littleton