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Did Elisabeth Murdoch Just Get Conned?
2:16AM Ryan Tate | It seems Joanna Shields has found another mark. Barely 18 months ago, she sold her also-ran social network Bebo to AOL for $US850 million. The disastrous deal still haunts AOL. Now she’s charmed Rupert Murdoch’s daughter into bankrolling her. How? More »
Live From Just For Laughs: The Defamer Kathy Griffin Interview
2:24AM Seth | Lured as much by its illustrious roster of Hollywood comedy power-players as we were by Quebec’s notoriously lax champagne-room laws and the promise of a poutine stand on every corner, Defamer dispatched editor Seth Abramovitch to Montreal to take in a few days of the 2008 Just For Laughs Festival. Now a quarter-century old, Just For Laughs has grown into the largest comedy festival—two weeks of stand-up, sketch comedy, movie screenings, and street performances. Tonight we’ll be front and centre for the much-hyped Apatow For Destruction, billed as “a unique night of stand-up comedy as writer/director/producer Judd Apatow assembles a veritable all-star team with one of Canada’s biggest exports, Seth Rogen, Craig Robinson, Russell Brand and a line-up of some of the most buzzed about film and TV stars in comedy.”
Terry Semel Woos Dubai’s Billions in Planned Return to Moguldom
3:45AM Defamer Hollywood | While DreamWorks, Lionsgate and even Cash-Machine Manoj all have Indian capital to thank for their varying degrees of independence, Terry Semel is apparently courting a few billion dollars from Dubai as he nears a deal to acquire the management giant (and burgeoning media player) IMG. The ex-Warner Bros./Yahoo! kingpin has had his eye on Teddy Forstmann’s hobby since at least June, when it was rumoured Semel was knocking on a few gilded doors around the Middle East, hat in hand. More »
CAA, Ashlee Simpson Survive Brief Brush with Wikipedia Terrorist
5:45AM Defamer Hollywood | An eagle-eyed Defamer operative caught a wonderful if short-lived revision at CAA’s Wikipedia page this morning, when, for 30 precious minutes, the agency’s storied history of talent relations included colluding with Joe and Ashlee Simpson to rip off her song “My Model”: More »
Why Don’t We Feel Better About All These New Movies on ITunes?
5:30AM Defamer Hollywood | The inevitable grouping of the major studios under the iTunes roof finally occurred today, when Apple officially announced it had reached agreements with Universal, Paramount, Fox, Warner Bros., Sony and Lionsgate (along with previous bedfellow Disney) on day-and-date downloads of their new DVD titles. The studios had made most releases available for rental since earlier this year (with catalog titles for sale before that), but this marks the first time users can buy and download new releases on their DVD street dates. More »
