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Tag: Celebs
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Actors’ unions split on contract talks
After the disruption of the 100-day writers strike, Hollywood is growing uneasy because of the actors’ pending contract negotiations.
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AFTRA represents over 70,000 artists, while SAG boasts almost 120,000 members.
AFTRA made the move to end joint negotiations with SAG. AFTRA president Roberta Reardon explained the organization’s decision to separate from SAG in a letter to AFTRA members posted on their website on March 29.
The split was caused in part by one particular incident, involving the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.
Reardon wrote that some of the leaders of SAG have encouraged cast members of The Bold and the Beautiful to decertify AFTRA as their union.
She says, “The people leading this drive apparently believe that decertifying AFTRA would further the goal of having one union for all actors. In fact, it would do the opposite … This situation is sadly not surprising given SAG Hollywood leadership’s ongoing campaign of misinformation to disparage AFTRA.”
Reardon adds, “How could we sit beside SAG at the bargaining table at the same time that its leaders in Hollywood are conspiring to undermine the gains we’ve achieved for all performers?”
Alan Rosenberg, the president of SAG, has called AFTRA’s decision “calculated, cynical, and may serve the interests of their institution, but not its members.”
The unions will negotiate separately with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. Contracts for both expire on June 30.
Both unions are scrambling to be the first to negotiate with the AMPTP.
AFTRA has said it is ready to begin talks as soon as possible, on its own. Rosenburg told the New York Times, “We have to move much more quickly than we wanted to.”
Rosenberg told the Hollywood Reporter, “It’s only right that we’re the ones to go to the table first … They have no movies and three TV shows. It’s not right that they set the standard.”
The Hollywood Reporter also reports that Reardon spoke yesterday with AMPTP president Nick Counter, telling him “AFTRA is taking a sane approach to these negotiations…It’s not about hysteria and emotion, it’s about getting what’s right for the members.”
The unions haven’t separated entirely. CeCe Dubois, Frances Fisher, Maureen Donnelly, Sumi Haru and Suzanne Burkhead currently serve as directors for both AFTRA and SAG.
Related posts on the Muckety Maps in the news blog- Friendships may help bring end to writers strike – February 8, 2008
- Winners and losers swap roles on American Idol – January 15, 2008
This post is tagged with: AFTRA, Alan Rosenberg, Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, AMPTP, CeCe Dubois, Frances Fisher, Maureen Donnelly, Nicholas Counter, Roberta Reardon, SAG, Screen Actors Guild, Sumi Haru, Suzanne Burkhead, The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, The Bold and the Beautiful, writers strikeRead related stories: Entertainment
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Congressional showdown with televangelists
The aptly-named Creflo Dollar Jr. flies a Lear jet between his million-dollar mansion Atlanta and church services in New York City, where he also keeps a $2.5 million apartment.
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David and Joyce Meyer spent $23,000 on a marble topped toilet, $30,000 for a conference table and $11,219 for a French clock for the Fenton, Mo. headquarters of their not-for-profit an tax-exempt mission headquarters.
Such are the earthly rewards of preaching the so-called prosperity gospel, a controversial iteration of Christianity which holds that God rewards the faithful with material, as well as spiritual wealth.
But now the shepherds themselves are facing a reckoning. Dollar, White and the Meyers are among a half dozen TV evangelists being probed by Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, for possible misuse of donor funds and their tax-exempt status as religious organizations. The other targets are faith healer Benny Hinn of Grapevine, Texas; prosperity preacher Kenneth Copeland of Newark, Texas and Bishop Eddie Long of Lithonia, Ga.
Yesterday was a showdown of sorts – the deadline in the four-month inquiry to voluntarily submit information to Congress. Four of the six ministries indicated they would cooperate, even if they did not hand over the requested material; Dollar and Copeland, however, were defiant in their refusals.
Through an attorney, Dollar, a former board member of Oral Roberts University, called the inquiry an “unprecedented inquiry into the religious activities of a church.”
Copeland, also a former Oral Roberts board member, said through a representative that only the IRS had jurisdiction to question his ministry about finances.
A leader of the prosperity gospel movement, Copeland is close to former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee who appeared on his national television show last fall “for six days of frank discussion on the Biblical perspective of character.”
When Huckabee’s campaign struggled for cash, Copeland invited him to attend a national ministers meeting at his west Texas headquarters in January. The candidate, a Southern Baptist minister, raised $111,000 in contributions and another million dollars in pledges there, according to the Tulsa World. Copeland denied the appearance was a political endorsement, saying that Huckabee’s campaign simply rented a room, and Kenneth Copeland Ministries did not make a contribution.
Grassley sent a particularly extensive questionnaire to Copeland, requesting credit card records and information on offshore banking accounts; receipts for planes, and information about whether the ministry used its mineral rights to capitalize a for-profit company. ( The Ft. Worth Star Telegram reports that FAA records show Copeland owns three planes and his ministry has several more).
But it looks as if the Iowa Republican may have to issue subpoenas if he is going to succeed at forcing the church to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.
A spokeswoman for Grassley said yesterday that the inquiry is a “step-by-step process,” and no decisions have been made about congressional hearings or subpoenas. Grassley has defended the probe, saying he is investigating whether tax-exempt organizations are accountable to their donors, not their religious practice.
“The allegations involve governing boards that aren’t independent and allow generous salaries and housing allowances and amenities such as private jets and Rolls Royces,” he said when he announced the probe last November. “. . . I have an obligation to donors and the taxpayers to find out more.”
Kenneth Behr, president of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability, an accreditation agency for Christian ministries, called the inquiry “a very big deal,” in an interview with the Tampa Tribune. He said he is not aware of a high-ranking lawmaker ever undertaking such an extensive investigation. “I think he’s picking a fight,” Behr said. “He is not just asking them to come in and talk, he is asking them for everything.”
Related posts on the Muckety Maps in the news blog- Oral Roberts University tries to regroup – November 28, 2007
- Ted Turner softens stance on religion – April 2, 2008
- Tom Cruise bio puts spotlight on Scientology – January 15, 2008
- Blackwater’s protective web – September 22, 2007
- Did Spitzer get a little help in hanging himself? – March 12, 2008
- VECO corruption trial begins – October 23, 2007
- Saying goodbye to a grande dame – August 16, 2007
- A star-studded presidential campaign – January 10, 2008
- Kay Bailey Hutchison protects oil interests – October 29, 2007
- Obama pastor part of rabble-rousing tradition – March 19, 2008
This post is tagged with: Bennie Hinn, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Creflo A. Dollar Jr., David and Joyce Meyer, Eddie Long, Grassley, Kenneth Copeland, Mike Huckabee, News, Paula White, Religion, WealthRead related stories: News · Religion
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Jesus,hear my plea ,take these hypocrites vulgar gains and place them in chains. I don’t know if you have that power or your father “God” but surely “Senator Grassley” and the “Senate Finance Committee” do.
The only people who received prosperity are those “Bible Pimps” by using Jesus and the big Kahuna “God” as their cohorts to steal from these poor blind sheep. They got these bible thumping fools in a suffocating religious illusion so much so, that if these heathens are sent up the river the government better have the army protect them from themselves because they are so mind controlleded the KOOL AID might come flying off the shelf. -
This article tells us much more about Mike Huckabee, our best hope for the future of the country than it does these tv evangelists. If Mike Huckabee wanted riches and fame, he could certainly have it. He is the most articulate, best motivator, most charismatic figure out there now for conservatives. He could certainly land a big time tv spot and live comfortably much like Gore, basking in the limelight. But Huckabee is running on principles and the sincere desire to make a better country for the future generations. He wants to make a difference and his religious foundation is important only in that it grounds him, making him consistent, strong, calm and collected. Conventional wisdom would have said that Huckabee should have dropped out, like Romney when he realized the odds were not in his favor. But Huckabee was running for the people who supported him and the principles he believed in more than the favor of the GOP elite. THAT is the kind of president we need and deserve!!! As Huckabee often says, “he would rather lose an election than lose the principles that got him into politics in the first place”. May we only hope and PRAY we have another chance to put this man in the White House!!
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Kansas Jayhawks have big
Advice to anyone who wants to become a successful (and rich) men’s college basketball coach: Connect to Kansas.
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And their Kansas influences can be stretched back rather easily to the invention of basketball itself.
But for starters, here are the current Kansas connections:
The first is obvious, as Kansas is one the four teams left.
It’s coached by Bill Self who took over the team in 2003, replacing Roy Williams, who had coached at Kansas for 15 seasons.
Williams left Kansas for the University of North Carolina, which is also one of the Final Four teams.
So while Self and Williams have the strongest links to Kansas, John Calipari, the coach of the University of Memphis, another one of the four teams, also has a tie to the school in Lawrence, Kansas. He was an assistant coach there from 1982 to 1985.
Coincidentally, when Calipari left in 1985 to go to the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant coach, his assistant’s position at Kansas was taken over by Self.
The fourth Final Four coach, Ben Howland of UCLA, doesn’t have a Kansas line on his resume.
However, he was at Pittsburgh after Calipari left, serving as the head coach from 1999 to 2003 before he departed for UCLA.
The Kansas connection can be traced in another way, by looking at the career and influence of Dean Smith, the North Carolina coach from 1961 to 1997.
Born in Kansas, Smith played for the University of Kansas in the early 1950s.
His coach was Phog Allen, who in turn, had been coached at Kansas by James Naismith, the inventor of basketball in 1891.
Consequently, anyone who played for Smith or coached with him can claim to be only two steps removed from basketball’s origins.
Williams can cite a double influence in this regard as he played junior varsity basketball at North Carolina during the time Smith was coaching there.
He also was an assistant coach for Smith from 1978 to 1988 before he went to Kansas.
There’s another connector, as well – Larry Brown, the much-traveled college and professional basketball coach.
Brown played for Smith at North Carolina and was briefly an assistant coach for him, as well.
Brown was later the head coach at Kansas from 1983 to 1988. Both Self and Calipari served as his assistants.
Calipari was also an assistant under Brown during the 1999-2000 season when Brown coached the professional Philadelphia 76ers.
And though they didn’t overlap, Brown and Howland have this in common: They’ve both coached UCLA.
Related posts on the Muckety Maps in the news blog- Torre should have looked over the fence – November 3, 2007
- Knoblauch talks to Congress – February 3, 2008
- Jane Mendillo taking charge of Harvard endowment – March 29, 2008
- Andre Agassi Foundation names Miller CEO – January 16, 2008
- Cablevision’s James Dolan has string of losses – October 26, 2007
- Agassi & Graf: A new business empire – November 24, 2007
- Out of the park and into politics – October 13, 2007
- Lies led Marion Jones to prison – January 14, 2008
- Roger Clemens sues former trainer – January 7, 2008
- Candidates and baseball owners cover political bases – October 10, 2007
This post is tagged with: basketball, Ben Howland, Bill Self, Colleges, Dean Smith, Final Four, James Naismith, Jayhawks, John Calipari, NCAA, Phog Allen, Sports, UCLA, University of Kansas, University of Memphis, University of North CarolinaRead related stories: Colleges · Sports
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Hat, rather than debauchery, blocks Horsley entry to US
Hats off to Sebastian Horsley, the British writer and self-described “dandy,” who may have been barred from the U.S. for wearing a hat.
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That’s believable, as Horsley has fashioned a career out of chronicling his own enthusiastic (former, he says) use of drugs.
He’s also eagerly open about his time as a male escort and his frequenting of prostitutes. Indeed, he claims to have spent the equivalent of $200,000 in purchasing sex from 1,000 prostitutes.
He also insists his memoir is true, which, if so, would separate it from a recent line of true memoirs that have proven to be false.
“I’m not a politician, I’m an artist,” Horsley told the New York Times a day after his eviction. “Depravity is part of the job description.”
But the Times reported Sunday that Horsley is now saying that the real reason for his being sent home after landing at Newark International Airport was his trademark stovepipe hat.
“They asked my girlfriend, ‘Why is he wearing that hat?’” he told Times staffer David Colman. “And she told them, ‘Because it wouldn’t fit in his suitcase.’”
It was downhill from there. After eight hours of questioning, Horsley was gone.
Expulsion on moral grounds from the land of Eliot Spitzer and Larry Craig is an author’s dream if his book, Dandy in the Underworld: an Authorized Autobiography, is now available in the U.S. in paperback and in need of promotion.
Americans who won’t be able to see Horsley and his hat on book tour, can go to his MySpace.com page for blurbs on the volume that London’s Sunday Times calls, “One of the strangest, funniest and most revolting memoirs ever written.”
Not surprisingly, Horsley uses his MySpace page to rant about his forced departure from Newark.
Sample: “God Bless America, land of the free, but sadly not home of the depraved.”
On his own behalf, he also links to a supportive London Independent editorial. It suggests that Horsley, who once had himself crucified in the Philippines for no apparent reason, could have had better timing, as he came to American during Easter week.
“Although he has no religious pretensions other than ardent self-worship – far from dying for the sins of others, he lives for his own – such behavior tends to go down rather badly in America, particularly among immigration officials,” the Independent wrote.
Horsley, 45, was born to wealth and family dysfunction.
His father, the late Nicholas Horsley, was the millionaire chairman of England’s Northern Foods.
“A self-confessed champagne socialist, he enjoyed gambling and drinking and parties,” The London Times wrote upon Nicholas Horsley’s death in 2004.
In an interview with The Sunday Times last year, Nicholas Horsley’s first wife, Valerie, said that she and her husband drank continually, even during her pregnancies.
“I was not a great mother to Sebastian,” she said. “I’m not being hard on myself, or even reveling in guilt. It’s just true.”
Sebastian’s brother, Jake Horsley, is a film critic.
Related posts on the Muckety Maps in the news blog- The people behind the X Prize – September 15, 2007
- Italian murder draws worldwide attention – January 12, 2008
- Benazir Bhutto’s American support network – December 31, 2007
- Congressional showdown with televangelists – April 1, 2008
- Friendships may help bring end to writers strike – February 8, 2008
- Spitzer’s fate lies with opposing legal teams – March 16, 2008
- Murdoch’s Daughter Throws Obama Bash – April 2, 2008
- Environmental alliance has big hitters and big bucks – October 14, 2007
- Paterson will become New York’s first black governor – March 12, 2008
- Gambino family caught in mob sweep – February 7, 2008
Read related stories: News
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Sale of Blixseths’ Yellowstone Club falls through
Recent weeks have brought financial upheaval to Tim Blixseth.
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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.Robert Frank of the Wall Street Journal reports today the collapse of a deal to Yellowstone Club, the exclusive resort developed by Blixseth and his wife. CrossHarbor Capital Partners of Boston sent a letter March 26 saying it was pulling out of an agreement to buy the club for $450 million.
Blixseth informed club members on Saturday that the club is no longer on the market.
The Associated Press reported yesterday that Blixseth had sold a 160-parcel at the club, where he once planned to build the world’s most expensive home.
And Bloomberg reported earlier this month that Blixseth missed a $20 million payment to champion cyclist Greg LeMond and three other Yellowstone investors. Blixseth said then that he couldn’t pay the sum, which settled a lawsuit over Yellowstone holdings, until he sold the club.
In addition to the expensive lawsuit, Blixseth is in the midst of a divorce from his wife, Edra. The split started as a friendly one, so friendly that Frank wrote about it. “Their peaceable parting marks a triumph of hope over history, and reason over money,” he wrote. “Most wealthy spouses follow the greed principle: The more stuff you have, the more there is to fight over.”
Over time, hope and reason apparently fell victim to history and money. The Blixseths wound up in court and the club they had built together went on the market.
Members of the private golf and ski area include Bill Gates and former vice president Dan Quayle.
(Note: This item was first posted on Sunday, March 30, and updated Monday, March 31, 2008.)
Related posts on the Muckety Maps in the news blog- Rubbing elbows at the Yellowstone Club – July 13, 2007
- Yucaipa may pay Bill Clinton $20M – January 24, 2008
- Darwin Deason at loggerheads with ACS directors – November 6, 2007
- Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg unbound – December 3, 2007
- Send all lawyer jokes to Marc Andreessen – September 23, 2007
- SEC chairman defends record – June 27, 2007
- Bill Gates enjoyed biggest payday of 2007 – March 7, 2008
- Countrywide’s self-made men – July 27, 2007
- Ben Stein, renaissance man – December 6, 2007
- Bear’s Cayne holds cards close to vest – November 1, 2007
This post is tagged with: Business, Edra Blixseth, Greg LeMond, Real Estate, Robert Frank, Tim Blixseth, Yellowstone ClubRead related stories: Business
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Is this all you have time to do in your life? Have you asked those individuals and their families if they want their names on your diagram? Your information is incorrect. I would encourage you to spend your time and money productively instead of writing damaging gossip columns. Perhaps you could go out and make a fortune, and then others can write about you.
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Bear Stearns bid would mean $100M to Joe Lewis
Things are looking up, but only slightly, for Bahama billionaire Joe Lewis.
Hint: Click in map to explore connectionsStory continues below interactive mapMAP 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.JPMorgan Chase today upped its offer for Bear Stearns from the bargain-basement price of $2 a share to $10 share. The increase amounts to an additional $97 million for Lewis, who holds 8.35% of the company stock.
Yet even at the higher price, Lewis will lose mightily. Over the past year, he has bought up Bear Stearns shares at an average price of $104. At $10 per share, his losses would exceed $1 billion.
Like many stockholders, Lewis was outraged by the initial deal. In documents filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he promised that his companies would “take whatever action that they deem necessary and appropriate to protect the value of their investment.”
The Bear Stearns bailout and the resulting shareholder outcry have combined to bring unwanted attention to Lewis and his financial empire. As his daughter Vivienne once explained, “He doesn’t like to talk to people. It aggravates him.”
Lewis started building his fortune as a teenager, when he left school to work for his father’s London catering firm. He made millions when he sold the business in 1979, then moved to the Bahamas, where he made millions more in currency trading. He oversees a complex of companies centered around a holding company, the Tavistock Group.
His interests include land development, life sciences, energy, restaurants such as the Napa Valley Grille and the Alcatraz Brewing Company, and sports, including the Tottenham Hotspur soccer team. His company organizes the annual Tavistock Cup golf tournament, scheduled to be played today and tomorrow, with his friend Tiger Woods among the competitors.
Lewis hasn’t yet publicly responded to JPMorgan’s revised offer, and the SEC listed no new filings from him by the close of the business day. Maybe he chose to spend the day concentrating on golf.
Related Stories on Muckety- Cayne reported leaving CEO job at Bear Stearns – January 8, 2008
- NY Fed bails out Bear Stearns – March 15, 2008
- The charity work of Bear Stearns’ Alan Schwartz – January 9, 2008
- Mortgage mess sinks Wall Street exec – August 6, 2007
- Bear’s Cayne holds cards close to vest – November 1, 2007
- SEC chairman defends record – June 27, 2007
- Bearish on Mr. Brooks – June 28, 2007
- ‘Free’ tutoring is big business for Sylvan – November 2, 2007
- Meyerson leaves Accredited – August 31, 2007
- Yucaipa may pay Bill Clinton $20M – January 24, 2008
This post is tagged with: Bear Stearns, Business, Joe Lewis, JPMorgan Chase, Tavistock Cup, Tavistock Group, Tiger Woods, Tottenham Hotspur soccer team
Read related stories: Business
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