createpositivechange

Category: Entertainment

  • Elvis, John Lennon and other top-earning dead people

    MAP HINTS:

    Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.

    View full screen version of map | View large version of map

    PUT THIS MAP ON YOUR BLOG
    Putting a MuckeyMap on your web site is easy. Copy the code below and paste it into your blog or web page.
    [Interactive Map Embed Code]
    Click here for help putting maps on your site.

    When Forbes published its list of the year’s top-earning dead celebrities, we set ourselves a challenge.

    If everyone is separated by six degrees (or less), shouldn’t it be possible to link every name on the list?

    The ranking, headed by Elvis Presley, includes 13 people – musicians, actors, a cartoonist, a children’s author, an artist and a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. All 13 appear in the map above.

    Here’s the Forbes list of beyond-the-grave moneymakers for the past 12 months:

    The easiest link was between George Harrison and John Lennon. The Beatles connect to Elvis Presley and James Brown by way of Michael Jackson, former husband of Lisa Marie Presley and part-owner of the rights to Apple Records. Jackson also named Brown as his “greatest inspiration” when he spoke at his funeral.

    Andy Warhol’s celebrity-centric art links him to Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley and Albert Einstein, whom he painted. Another famous subject of Warhol’s was Elizabeth Taylor, who co-starred with James Dean in the 1956 film Giant.

    Einstein, Charles Shulz, and Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss), share the same publisher: Random House.

    Bob Marley and Eric Clapton both recorded the song I Shot the Sheriff. Clapton’s ex-girlfriend Sheryl Crow found inspiration in actor Steve McQueen, and penned a song named for him.

    Finally, Tupac Shakur makes his way into the map by way of Elton John, whose sample the rapper used on his track Ghetto Gospel. Elton John’s famous song, Candle In The Wind, was written about Marilyn Monroe. It was later re-released as a tribute to Princess Diana, who is also on the map because her ex and Paul McCartney had the same divorce attorney.

  • Colbert Vote Skyrockets

    This post was archived from createpositivechange.org/. View the original on the Wayback Machine.

  • Cablevision’s James Dolan has string of losses

    As the chairman of Madison Square Garden, the company that owns the hapless New York Knicks, James L. Dolan should have already known a lot about losing.

    But Dolan, 51, who is also a blues/rock singer, has learned even more about embarrassing defeats during the last few weeks.

    Already vilified in the New York press as a rich kid whose dad gave him the Knicks as a plaything, Dolan is now depicted as a boss who tolerates bad behavior and bad language in the office.

    In addition, a Dolan family plan to make Cablevision Systems Corp. a private company has been rejected by shareholders.

    Cablevision, a dominant player in the New York City area, owns Madison Square Garden, which, in turn, owns the Knicks, the MSG Network, hockey’s New York Rangers, the New York Liberty of the Womens National Basketball Association and Radio City Music Hall.

    All in all, Dolan may be finding new wisdom in the first lines of one of his bands’ songs: “Who told you life would be easy? Who said you would smile every day?”

    On Oct. 2, a federal jury in Manhattan found that Madison Square Garden and Knicks coach Isiah Thomas had sexually discriminated against one of its executives.

    The verdict came after a trial that made the Knicks front office seem like a locker room where boys were, alas, boys.

    The Garden was ordered to pay $8.6 million to the executive, Anucha Browne Sanders. The jury found that the company had created a hostile work environment and that it fired Browne Sanders in retaliation for her complaints about inappropriate language and advances.

    The jury ordered Dolan, president and chief executive officer of Cablevision Systems, to pay Browne Sanders $3 million for the retaliatory firing.

    His father, Charles F. Dolan, the founder of HBO, is Cablevision’s chairman and founder.

    Several Dolan family members also serve on the company’s board. Among them is Lawrence Dolan, Charles’ brother and the owner of the Cleveland Indians.

    On Wednesday, shareholders rejected a $10.6 billion bid by the Dolan family to take Cablevision private. The Dolans had offered $36.26 a share. Some major shareholders said the price was too low.

    Charles and James Dolan, who have sometimes feuded, put the best face they could on the rejection, saying in a joint press release:

    “We see today’s outcome as a vote of confidence in the prospects of Cablevision, its management team, its 20,000 employees and the industry’s future.”

    James Dolan’s total compensation for 2006 was $8.71 million, Forbes magazine reported.

    Some of his earnings, over $300,000, have gone to political candidates, mostly Democrats. This year he has given to the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

    Dolan is also the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of JD & the Straight Shot.

    According the band’s website, mixing business and music gives Dolan “a sense of balance in his life.”

    The Rocky Mountain News in Denver described the band’s first album, as getting “grudgingly good reviews.”

    The grudging praise sometimes comes from Knicks fans. The team has not had a winning season since 2000-2001, despite a high payroll.

    After 2005-2006 losing season, the club found itself in a soap opera feud with its coach of one year, Larry Brown. The melodrama ended with the Knicks buying out Brown’s contract for $18.5 million.

    Last season, the team won 33 games and lost 49, certainly enough to make Dolan sing the blues.

  • Dui is a Death Sentence for Lost Cast Members

    This post was archived from createpositivechange.org/. View the original on the Wayback Machine.

  • Dreamworks and Paramount Headed for Splitsville

    This post was archived from createpositivechange.org/. View the original on the Wayback Machine.

  • The Beckhams Move West

    This post was archived from createpositivechange.org/. View the original on the Wayback Machine.

  • Lost but linked – Relationship Map for the TV show Lost

    All is not what it seems on the island.

    MAP HINTS: Click expands a name. Control+Click centers map on a name. Solid lines are current relations. Dotted lines are former relations. For advanced tools choose Tools > Options from the menu at top. More help. Not seeing the maps? Please go here to check for the latest version of Java.

    See large version of map | See full screen version of map | Put this map on your blog

    The survivors of the crash of Ocean Flight 815 have untold connections that viewers of the hit ABC Lost glimpse in strobe-like flashbacks.

    The astute viewer (addict would be more appropriate) knows more than the characters. Jack and Claire, for example, have no idea that they’re step-siblings. Nor has Jack learned that Shannon’s father was in a car accident with Sarah, Jack’s future wife. Jack, the physician on duty, chose to save Sarah but not Shannon’s father.

    And Hurley has yet to discover that Libby gave Desmond her sailboat, or that John Lock worked for his box company.

    Sometimes, though, even these lost souls figure things out. Sawyer did tell Jack that he had a long conversation with Jack’s father shortly before his death.

    On the web
    Official Lost Web site (ABC.com)

  • Lost but linked – Relationship Map for the TV show Lost

    All is not what it seems on the island.

    The survivors of the crash of Ocean Flight 815 have untold connections that viewers of the hit ABC Lost glimpse in strobe-like flashbacks.

    The astute viewer (addict would be more appropriate) knows more than the characters. Jack and Claire, for example, have no idea that they’re step-siblings. Nor has Jack learned that Shannon’s father was in a car accident with Sarah, Jack’s future wife. Jack, the physician on duty, chose to save Sarah but not Shannon’s father.

    And Hurley has yet to discover that Libby gave Desmond her sailboat, or that John Lock worked for his box company.

    Sometimes, though, even these lost souls figure things out. Sawyer did tell Jack that he had a long conversation with Jack’s father shortly before his death.

  • Anthony Pellicano: Hollywood undercover

    The ongoing federal investigation of private eye Anthony Pellicano is revealing connections that many Hollywood celebs would prefer to keep quiet.

    More than a dozen people have been arrested, and Pellicano is in jail, awaiting trial on charges of bribery, conspiracy, racketeering and illegal wiretapping.

    Entertainment moguls and other elites have sought Pellicano’s skills over the years. His client list included former Disney chief Michael Ovitz, rock star Courtney Love and attorney Bert Fields.

    It remains to be seen whether this case will establish itself as one of Tinseltown’s great scandals. A federal judge recently postponed Pellicano’s trial until 2008.

    On the web
    In Court Files, Hollywoodís Mr. Fix-It at Work – New York Times
    The Pellicano Case – Los Angeles Times

  • Smoke gets in Bono’s eyes


    Click here for help putting maps on your site.