Newmark's Door

The economic difficulties of (some) celebrities

The L.A. Times writes about the financial difficulties of five celebrities, focusing on Ed McMahon. Their problems are sad, but the article advances two entertaining excuses for them:

When the work is coming, so are the perks, which may be part of the reason many celebrities have a hard time understanding the actual costs of their high standard of living. While they are employed, most top stars can go for weeks without having to pay for much more than breath mints. Movie studios cover their hotel, food and transportation bills; designers shower them with free clothes; and gift baskets come jammed with complimentary cellphones, jewelry and other goodies.

That swanky lifestyle soon becomes addictive -- even after some third party has stopped underwriting it. And Hollywood can be as cruel as it is kind with compensation, and the once-hot actress who was making $10 million a few years ago might be forced to scrape by with just $5 million now. If her cost of living has grown to match those better-off days, she might suddenly find herself millions in the hole.

. . .

Almost every performer retains a talent agent, whose fees average 10% of the gross returns, and many also use a personal manager, who typically takes 15% more. A business manager will charge an additional 5% and attorneys can add the same fee. Then there's the publicist, who can cost as much as $5,000 a month. So a hypothetical $100,000 acting job would net about $60,000, and state and federal taxes would trim that amount even more.

(Question: why do the talent agent, personal manager, business manager, and attorney all get a piece of the gross, but the publicist doesn't?) 
   

How iconic is she?

An indication that Erin Andrews has reached a new level of icon-hood (icon-ness?): former Cubs pitcher, now broadcaster, Rick Sutcliffe, about to have additional surgery for cancer, jokes that he's "more worried" about Ms. Andrews's skirt.

"If you think it's butter, but it's not, it's Chiffon"

People of my generation will almost certainly remember a clever ad for Chiffon margarine featuring the line "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature".

The same could be said about the gods of a competitive marketplace. For many years the United Auto Workers tricked them.

Not any more.

Better with age

For young people who may be unhappy with their looks: things can get better with age (and, presumably, money).

Case in point: Jennifer Aniston's high school prom pictures.

They get the Chuckster

If you haven't seen it yet, here's Charles Barkley being well and truly pranked.

A few laughs, but the list is flawed

Nerve Magazine presents "The 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches of All Time".

No Church Lady? No Hans and Franz? No "It is better to look good than to feel good, and you, you look maaahvelous!"

Maybe they were trying to avoid just an SNL greatest hits list.

End-of-semester Friday video lollapalooza

And now for something different . . . .

Andy Garcia imitates Al Pacino.

Robin Williams pays tribute to Al Pacino.

Tracey Ullman pays tribute to Meryl Streep.

Nora Ephron--at the absolute top of her form--pays tribute to Meryl Streep.

Jim Carrey--ditto--pays tribute to Meryl Streep.

Singing "Superman" together, Willie Nelson and Snoop Dogg.

In a last performance before his tragically early death, Otis Redding, "Try a Little Tenderness".

An ad for Quendleton State U. "If we were a good university, we wouldn't have a commercial."

A nine-minute recounting of the Boston Celtics' 1969 NBA championship. The last few seconds--of Bill Russell absolutely speechless with joy--is not something you see much of these days.

Finally, one of the greatest commercials ever--and not only because of its subject--"Just me and Cindy, O.K.? I think you hear me knocking, Richard, and I think I'm coming in, and I got a box full of Eskimo Pies with me." Denis Leary appeals for "Cindy TV".

Pathbreaking Star Trek research

Finally, it's confirmed: wearing a red shirt on the original Star Trek really was the kiss of death. (Link via Kottke.)

Related: an all-but-definitive compilation of McCoy saying, "He's dead, Jim."

The original and still the best

CBS is making the original, mid-60s "classic" Star Trek episodes available online, free.

Some really fine memories for me there. Watch "The Trouble With Tribbles". At the end when Scotty says, ". . . they'll be no tribble at all!" and everybody laughs and the fanfare starts . . . it'll make you glad to be alive.

He made it look easy

Esquire piece about a post-retirement Johnny Carson.

David Letterman:

Everything about the show was smooth and effortless. No yelling, no gimmicks. His retirement (perhaps premature--only Johnny knows) was handled flawlessly. When you see tapes of his show, you realize how regrettable his absence is. I really miss that guy. Television will never see the wit, grace, and greatness of a man like Johnny Carson again!

Jay Leno:

People say that he had no competition. That's not true. They put everything against Johnny Carson, and he beat them all with class: Joey Bishop, Merv, Cavett, Jerry Lewis. He is an extreme gentleman. And he always brought such joy to introducing new comedians to his stage. Doing your first Tonight Show was like your first girlfriend: You weren't very good, it was over pretty quickly, but you knew you wanted to do it again. Johnny is the best there ever was. Other people might have their names on the trophy, but Johnny is the America's Cup. We're all pretenders to the throne.

A better weather report

I love this country, but a few things could be better here. Look at how they do the weather in Italy.

Another network.

(Link via Listgasm.)

Your federal tax dollars at work

The FCC wants to fine 52 TV stations a total of $1.43 million for airing an episode of NYPD Blue that showed a woman in "full dorsal nudity, and the side of one breast is shown".

Understand, if the stations had aired the program at 10:00 p.m., it would have been A-OK. But since they showed it at--I'm guessing--9:00 p.m., it's really, really bad.

In a time in which any eight-year-old can find far racier stuff on the Net in thirty seconds, who does the government think it's kidding? 

Some very good ones listed

A list--unfortunately, no links to video--of the top 50 Saturday Night Live impressions.

Number one is Billy Crystal's Sammy Davis, Jr. Hard to disagree with that. Two is Dana Carvey's Ross Perot. Ditto.

It's been easy to ignore SNL for the last few years, but it still has some fabulous moments. "The Top Ten Contestants on SNL Celebrity Jeopardy".

YesButNoButYes continues its superb public service work by looking at what's happened to the actors who played the Other Seinfeld Characters (you know, Babu, Jackie Chiles, the Soup Nazi . . .).

The holiday shopping season is soon upon us. Two ideas you may not have seen elsewhere:

Seinfeld - The Complete Series (all 9 seasons and then some). $206.

Time Tunnel: all 30 episodes for only $1.99 each or $20 for the DVD. I watched Time Tunnel with my mom as a ten-year-old. Except toward the very end, when they apparently ran out of ideas, they were just great. You got a reasonable dose of history, some good acting (as well as some great camp), and Lee Meriweather in her prime. What more would any red-blooded 10-year-old boy need?

Video of the "Top Ten Things Never Said Before on the Sopranos".

One underappreciated benefit of the Net: finding out that there are other people asking the same questions as you are. "Why do bars, restaurants, clothing stores and shoe stores play such loud music?"

Not much in the way of convincing answers, but just knowing other people are noticing is pleasing.

Here's another one: "Why is there never anything good on TV? More specifically, why is there not a movie channel that shows 3, 4, and 5 star movies 24-7? I have HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc. etc. and most of the time all of the movies are shiite."

Some of the cleverest ads on television are the ads for ESPN's SportsCenter. Here's one blogger's list of the "Top 10 Sportscenter Commercials of All-Time". (With video.)

"15 TV Sensations Whose Popularity Faded Fast."

Jay Leno arranges for Claire Danes to meet someone she admires.

The Boss and the E Street Band, Paris, 1985: "Ramrod". ("Ain't it all right, now?!")

The new economics of the music industry

An article that explains something students in my "Economics of the Internet" course will have heard: the recorded music industry is never going to be, even approach, what it once was. Musicians will make most of their money on what can't be easily pirated: the experience of live concerts.

(And that makes for an interesting parallel to the movies. First television and then tapes and DVDs were supposed to be the death of movies. But there is still a significant demand to go "out", to have the live experience.)

Even usually stern-visaged TV anchorpeople find some things funny.

Clip of Kevin Spacey doing his thing.

Kevin Pollack doing his.

William Shatner doing his.

I always knew the food on TV ads looked too good to be true. Here's photographic evidence.

Apropos of Monday's Japanese game show post, here's a video clip of Saturday Night Live's Mike Myers and Chirs Farley satirizing Japanese game shows. (Thanks to Ken Hirsch for the link.)

Video clip of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog covering the recent Tony Awards.

Very offensive. If you don't like that sort of thing, don't click.

It's video-clip week here at the Door. Throughout the week I'll be helping you use your bandwidth by linking to some video clips I've found interesting.

The first one . . . you are not ready for this. No, really. Clip of Japanese game show; they hit 'em where it hurts.

Robin Williams does his thing on the Letterman show.

Three opportunities to use all that mad crazy bandwidth you have:

"Nike's 20 Greatest Commercials". #2 is better than #1, but it's close enough.

"Top Ten 'Shit's About to Hit the Fan' Moments in Movies". Fine, fine list.

The infamous event Robin Williams described as "a battle of wits against an unarmed woman": Madonna on Letterman, 3/31/94.

Some of Tina Fey's greatest bits (video).

Yet another sign that I've become an old fogey is my increasing irritation at how stupid many TV ads have become. Apparently, there's a specific agency to blame: Crispin Porter & Bogusky, "the hottest ad agency in the country".

Last Sunday was the start of the final season of The Sopranos. The show's fans all want to know: what happens to Tony in the end?

But for one thing I would predict that someone close to Tony--probably his daughter, Meadow--gets terribly hurt or killed. The one thing is that's the way Godfather III ended, and I think the show's creator, David Chase, will not want to be accused of imitation.

So I don't know.

On a tangentially related matter, an economics professor is charged with fraud, and, apparently, tries the Junior Soprano defense.

Remind yourself of how different the Japanese view of the world is from the American: look at "History's 100 Most Influential People" as selected by a national survey of the Japanese.

Or, watch a little of what's claimed to be a Japanese TV show that deals with mokkori. (Extremely unsafe for work.)

An article in the Telegraph argues that "[t]o understand the duality of Japanese society" you need to understand honne and tatemae.

A bit of support for the claim that "there's no question that has an answer, whose answer can't be found on the Net": Cecil at The Straight Dope addresses whether there was any meaning to Star Trek's "star dates".

As a public service, the Door links to some of what you're missing by not being able to watch ads on Australian TV (possibly NSFW).

An interesting first-hand account of becoming a successful actor.

Still more fine public service from YesButNoButYes: "Where Are They Now--The White Shadow".

Back when there were actually things to watch on free TV: part of the Dean Martin Roast of Frank Sinatra.

A lot of lousy, depressing news lately. You have to look hard to find some upbeat stories. Fortunately, the Door is at your service:

James Hamilton argues that the confusing economic numbers we're seeing make sense if the markets believe that a soft landing is coming.

Mr. T is coming back.

Despite the recent problem with fresh spinach, food-borne illnesses in this country are dropping significantly.

Yale's endowment is making money: it's supposedly averaging 16% per year over the last 21 years.

At least some bloggers are making money: here are eight supposedly making at least five figures per month, just from Google ads.

And finally, how bad could things be if "In 2005, 33% of new homes built in the Western states had three-car garages . . ."

Economics chutzpah award

Even though we still have a quarter of the year remaining, I think we can already select the 2006 winner of the Economics Chutzpah Award (Non-Political Division): Robert Wright, chair of NBC. From the online Hollywood Reporter (link via Biz of Showbiz):

In a speech Friday titled "A Time of Reckoning" before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Wright said the threat piracy poses to the country's economic security was nearly equivalent to the threat terrorism poses to the nation's physical security.

"Five years ago we learned, tragically, that our physical security is under attack," he told the audience at the chamber's symposium on counterfeiting and piracy. "Since then, we've been a nation at war, with immense resources mobilized to fight a difficult struggle against an elusive enemy. Today, I want to suggest that the second pillar, our economic security, is also being challenged."

Even a brief review of the relevant history should have persuaded Mr. Wright to be more cautious in predicting imminent Doom. Drawing on the work of economist Hal Varian, I note:

1. High speed photocopying was once supposed to be the death of the publishing industry.

2. Television was once thought to be the death of the movie industry.

3. Jack Valenti once testified before Congress that video cassettes would kill the movie industry.

4. Musicians once feared that records would be the end of live concerts.

5. Radio was once thought to be the death of the music industry.

6. Audio cassettes were once thought to be the death of the music industry.

And yes, there are reasonable arguments that today's threat to intellectual property rights is different. But history should still give one pause.

And I would also note that we should, once again, be thankful that blogging has not yet driven out of business all our diligent, skilled professional journalists and editors. Like the ones at the Hollywood Reporter who report that Mr. Wright alluded to a loss of tax revenue from piracy of 837 billion dollars. The report Mr. Wright referred to, readily available here, claims a loss of 837 million dollars.

Oops.

Lad mag Maxim rates "TV's Sexiest News Anchors". Number 1 choice here. Their #1 choice was noted on the blog you're reading more than a year ago, before almost anybody in America had heard of her.

The Door: Still Ahead of the Curve (TM).

Jeremy Piven, superb in HBO's Entourage, gives a brief but memorable "red carpet" interview.

Ron Rosenbaum scores high on the Unintentional Comedy (TM, Bill Simmons) scale by arguing that the best thing about HBO's Entourage is Johnny Drama. Even funnier, Rosenbaum asserts that Drama is so good because of his "appealing" irritability.

Last month I linked to "Where Are They Now?--Babes of the Eighties". The author has kindly extended this fine public service so we now have "Where Are They Now--Babes of the Eighties, Part Two".

Another fine public service from YesButNoButYes: "Where Are They Now--Babes of the Eighties".

Free speech is not completely dead on campus: Seth MacFarlane, creator of Family Guy, gives the 2006 Harvard Class Day speech.

Q & A with actor Robert Wuhl.

The Sopranos returned last Sunday. I hadn't been optimistic: it seemed like the writers were out of ideas. But the season opener was surprisingly strong. Here's the LA Times's take; here's the New York Times's.

Dream of being a professional sports broadcaster? For a price, Bonnie Bernstein will help. (Link via TMQ.)

There were several Seinfeld episodes in which Jerry would break up with someone for what seemed like a trivial reason. But apparently, art is still no match for life.

For those who loved the original Star Trek--or even the second version, with Picard--this should make you laugh: "Top Ten Things I Hate About Star Trek".

6.Seatbelts.
	Yeah, I know this one is overdone, but you'd think that the first time an explosion caused the guy at the nav station to fly over the captain's head with a good 8 feet of clearance, someone would say, "You know, we might think of inventing some futuristic restraining device to prevent that from happening."

Jill Wagner, the young woman in the Mercury commercials, has a business management degree from NC State. (Thanks to Ted Frank for the pointer.)

Forthcoming playground for economists?

FCC chair suggests that cable companies should move toward "a la carte" pricing. If they do, will the typical customer pay more, or less? Will customer surplus increase? Will cable companies go broke?

Guarantee you can take to the bank: there will be a lot of studies by economists.

"Best Ads on TV".

Paramount Pictures is being sued by some net profit participants who wonder how it's possible for Frazier to run 11 seasons and gross 1.5 billion dollars and still be unprofitable.

This really puzzles me. It's been known for at least 25 years--and widely publicized--that "net profit" participation in Hollywood is worth about as much as an option to buy the Brooklyn Bridge. Who are the idiots that keep signing up for it?

A very much needed service: Where Are They Now? So far, entries include The White Shadow, Mary Poppins, The Bad News Bears, and . . . Debbie Does Dallas. (Link via Metafilter.)

If I may borrow a phrase from U.S. News & World Report: Here's "news you can use", part one.

A listing of all 5081 TV shows that have been released on DVD.

Find out how many calories you need to support your basal metabolism.

Forbes Magazine's picks for best blogs.

I think Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy, is one of the most entertaining sportwriters ever. The columns in which he answers reader mail are always great. In the latest one he lists the top five all-time best performances by a guest host in a Saturday Night LIve skit. #1 is letter perfect.

UPDATE: Link now fixed. Thanks, David!

The ever-popular "Pictures of Famous People as Kids". Demi Moore--if that really is her--should inspire unattactive little kids everywhere. (Link via Metafilter.)

Also on the celebrity tip: Celebrity Blogs.

I've missed out almost completely on the reality TV craze. But watching Bob Knight select one of sixteen walk-ons for a spot on the Texas Tech basketball team could well be . . . interesting.

The Hoover Institution has transcripts from all of William F. Buckley's Firing Line shows. Hillsdale College will have WFB's complete writings.

At the Golden Globes this year the TV-star women were much better dressed than the movie-star women. I didn't pay attention in previous years; I wonder if this is usually the case?

IMHO Teri Hatcher, 40, looked best.

KenJen finally got beat. But he takes away three big gains:

1) $2.5 million.

2) Free lifetime services from the grateful-for-the-huge-free-advertising H & R Block.

3) A library book that he hopes will help him avoid the fate of other big windfall winners. The book's author and title are not mentioned but Jennings says it told him "that three-quarters of all people who have some big windfall are out of money within two to five years."

(Can that be right? If so, it's amazing.)

Very interesting article on how digital distribution is--and will--change the entertainment industry: "The Long Tail". A few bits:

Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it in service after service, from DVDs at Netflix to music videos on Yahoo! Launch to songs in the iTunes Music Store and Rhapsody. People are going deep into the catalog, down the long, long list of available titles, far past what's available at Blockbuster Video, Tower Records, and Barnes & Noble. . . .

What's really amazing about the Long Tail is the sheer size of it. Combine enough nonhits on the Long Tail and you've got a market bigger than the hits. Take books: The average Barnes & Noble carries 130,000 titles. Yet more than half of Amazon's book sales come from outside its top 130,000 titles. Consider the implication: If the Amazon statistics are any guide, the market for books that are not even sold in the average bookstore is larger than the market for those that are. . . .

As a result, almost anything is worth offering on the off chance it will find a buyer. This is the opposite of the way the entertainment industry now thinks. Today, the decision about whether or when to release an old film on DVD is based on estimates of demand, availability of extras such as commentary and additional material, and marketing opportunities such as anniversaries, awards, and generational windows (Disney briefly rereleases its classics every 10 years or so as a new wave of kids come of age). It's a high bar, which is why only a fraction of movies ever made are available on DVD.

For an academic estimate of the value being created, see Eric Brynjolfsson, et. al., "Consumer Surplus in the Digital Economy: Estimating the Value of Increased Product Variety at Online Booksellers". (.pdf file)

Reel-Style: "Hollywood Fashion @Your Fingertips".

Time Warner chair and CEO tries to explain why his company doesn't offer more cable channels a la carte. But he does a lousy job of it.

This Sunday the season's final episode of The Sopranos will air. It's been an interesting season, better than the last two and almost as good as the first.

Tony is besieged on all sides. Many folks think that when the series winds up--there is one last season to come, with only ten episodes--Tony will die.

I don't think so. I predict that at the end Tony will either be in jail or on the run but still very much alive. I further predict that the last scene will be a meeting between Tony and Meadow. Will Meadow escape her family's morals and destiny, or not? The scene will be unclear so as to foster endless debate among the show's devoted followers.

The last season supposedly won't air until 2006. If I'm wrong, no one will remember this prediction. But if I'm right, I'll link back and remind you.

More and more Big News Media look like dead men walking. Instapundit fires a fine shot. Ann Coulter takes on, in her inimitable fashion, the LA Times. A writer for National Review Online points to Sy Hersh's questionable recent record. Mark Steyn acidly notes some problems with Abu Ghraib coverage. And the Belmont Club reveals how coverage of the alleged wedding massacre evolved. (Update here.)

For all the kids who get most of their news from Jon Stewart and SNL, there's help: Footnote TV.

My colleague, Walt Wessels, offers the following puzzle. According to the Washington Post, "No U.S. cable or satellite company offers what are called 'a la carte' plans." (Presumably this means that some non-premium channels are not offered a la carte. Time-Warner offers, at least the last time I looked, a few channels this way.) (If the Post link breaks, try this Reuters story.)

But Canadian cable companies do. Each channel seems to be offered separately and there are also make-your-own-bundles such as "any five channels for $7.95/month." Here's an Ontario firm; here's a British Columbia firm.

Why the difference? Comments welcome.

NC State students punk News 14's storm closings ticker. (Link via Metafilter.)

I had wondered why Seinfeld hadn't come out on DVD. This is apparently the answer.

Craig Henry makes a spot-on observation about the new Miller High Life ads.

For all your Van Morrison needs: The Van Morrison Website.

For all your Seinfeld needs: Seinfeld Blog.

If you want to buy

If you want to buy a really big TV, you might want to wait. Sounds like they'll be much cheaper in a couple of years.

Slayage: the online international journal of Buffy studies.

Funny: Top 10 Things I Hate About Star Trek. (Via Instapundit.)