The Walt Disney Company

The lure of green screens and worldwide box office success has finally gone to Johnny Depp's head. Disney announced yesterday that one of the world's most brooding actors will star in a trio of films for the company: In a fourth (fourth!) Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Mr. Depp shall reprise his role as Captain Jack Sparrow; in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, a motion capture spectacle that will surly feel like an acid trip, he'll play the Mad Hatter; and in the Jerry Bruckheimer produced Lone Ranger, Mr. Depp will take the role of sidekick Tonto (natch).

What's going on here? Call us crazy, but we remember a time when Johnny Depp actually made movies, and not just giant gimmicky FX spectacles based on theme park rides and television shows.  read more »

Remember way back in April when everyone went flying into a tizzy over those Vanity Fair photos of little ol’ Miley Cyrus hugging a bed sheet to her naked, 15-year-old chest? Consider this a minor addendum to that controversy. Disney—the same globo-corp that complained Annie Leibovitz had manipulated their star into those provocative poses—now gives us “Concert Candy,” a product tailor-made to elicit dirty thoughts in the minds of helpless sweet-tooths.  read more »

Monday: Notorious
Some say Rear Window. Others, Vertigo. We say Notorious when asked to name our favorite Hitchcock film. Ingrid Bergman plays a boozy, sad beauty who must redeem herself—and her family name—by turning spy for government agent Cary Grant. The action takes place in 40s Rio de Janiero, where Bergman must marry a suspicious German in order to turn up secrets for Grant, who is both in love with her, and repulsed by her unladylike behaviors (which we found, for the record, totally awesome). [TCM, 8 p.m.]  read more »

Weinstein Books, the publishing imprint of Bob and Harvey Weinstein’s production company, has officially cut ties with Miramax Books, Weinstein Books president Rob Weisbach told The Observer today. The imprint has been part of Hyperion—Disney’s publishing arm—ever since the Weinstein brothers split from Disney two years ago.

The brothers agreed to temporarily retain some oversight of the Miramax imprint when they left Disney in 2005, in order to properly follow through on all the books they’d signed up before they left.

According to Weinstein Books president Rob Weisbach, he and his staff moved out of Miramax’s offices at 99 Hudson Street on September 30th and are now operating out of a new location at Cortlandt and Church Sreets.

Meet George Jetson; Jane, his wife.    read more »

On the desk in Shelley Ross’s soon-to-be former office—room 911, not incidentally, at ABC headqu  read more »

Rockefeller Center has long been a haven for staid bank branches, airline ticket offices and other d  read more »

On the desk in Shelley Ross’s soon-to-be former office—room 911, not incidentally, at AB  read more »

I thought it would be a good idea to take a child with me to see Mary Poppins. Fair’s fair.  read more »

Walt Disney was a wretched businessman.    read more »

Walt Disney was a wretched businessman.  read more »

• Five Times Square has attracted Ernst & Young (plus Disney and wonderful Red Lobster) since it was built four years ago. And now the place is being sold for $1.3 billion, which is likely the highest price-per-foot tag for any US office building. (NY Sun)
• It's billionaire week at The Post: George Soros has paid his ex-wife $24 million for their old 16-room duplex at 1060 Fifth Avenue. Meanwhile, oilboy Len Blavatnik had co-op board trouble at the San Remo and 927 Fifth. He eventually triumphed at 998 Fifth, and it only cost him $27.5 million. (NY Post)
• Everything you always wanted to know about the awesomeness of Aby Rosen and his awesome friends, and his awesome art and the "high-cachet chits" he called in for 980 Madison. (The New York Times)
• If you're the merchandising president of Martha Stewart Living, you get $48,000 for annual Manhattan rent money. And if you're Ms. Stewart herself, you get $99,000 for a home fence, plus $177,000 for phones and home computers. Laptops for the whole family! (Bloomberg News/NYDN)
• The Timothy Robbins Self Declaration Trust has closed on a $1.351 million house steps below Brooklyn's beloved Old Fulton Street. Will Mr. Mystic River become the next outer borough star? Or maybe that Self Declaration belongs to another Tim Robbins. (Brooklyn Record)
- Max Abelson  read more »
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What do you do for a second act when your first novel spent more than a year on the best-seller list  read more »

We first saw them one February, scampering around the kitchen, venturing shyly into the living room,  read more »

As vacation time nears, it is safe to say that no matter how rotten things get on the big screen dur  read more »

As vacation time nears, it is safe to say that no matter how rotten things get on the big screen dur  read more »

It was with mixed results that Gabriel Brewer, of Robert A.M. Stern Architects, quoted Philip Johnson: "I am a whore and I am paid very well for high rise buildings," the line attributed to the late, great Johnson goes.

Brewer, whose firm has had its hand in projects commissioned by Disney, Rice University and Harvard, was speaking at a panel discussion at the Dahesh Museum of Art on Friday on the topic of architecture and patronage; Steven W. Semes, an architect in his own practice since 1999 and author of The Architecture of the Classical Interior, moderated.

The question, as Semes put it, was: “How do you cultivate a good patron?”

But it started to sound as though the question was really, “are today’s patrons cultivated enough to choose good architects?”  read more »

The “enlightened patron,” Brewer said, is one who chooses an architect other than Frank Gehry or Richard Meier, who are already marketing points in New York real estate.

It might seem fair to say that Rich Conaty slips into a time warp every Sunday night from 8 p.m.  read more »

The name Ayelet, as in Ayelet Waldman, has become something of an epithet on the fabulously acerbic,  read more »

Randalls Island may soon be brimming with slides, lagoons and over-caffeinated children. The Franchise and Concession Review Committee will today hear a proposal for a $168 million theme park, set to be financed by the Aquatic Development Group of Disney and Six Flags fame. The plan was first pitched in 1999 under the Giuliani administration at a delicate 12 acres, and while city officials hope to open by picnic-happy Memorial Day in 2007, others are not so eager about the now super-sized scheme. (Daily News) - Riva Froymovich  read more »

When the Weinstein brothers broke ties with Disney last April, there were a few matters that needed to be addressed, including real estate. As part of their settlement agreement, The Weinstein Company recently purchased a 3rd floor office at 375 Greenwich Street for $2.2 million, according to public records. Conveniently, the 6,930-square-foot office had been home to Miramax for several years. While Harvey and Bob might have to toss out the Mickey Mouse stationary, they can keep their hip, Tribeca digs. The Tribeca Film Center offices and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Grill are located in the same building.

Now that they’ve avoided being tossed on the street with a cardboard box full of Oscars, the Weinstein brothers can continue gathering billionaire and celebrity investors for their post-Miramax filmmaking venture.  read more »

A Weinstein Company spokesperson declined to comment about the purchase.

-Michael Calderone

Even before the results are in, one of the questions coming out of the Bloomberg campaign is: Whither Kevin Sheekey?

Nobody who knows Mike's closest political advisor expects him to move back over to the Government payroll. And despite occasional rumors, I don't think he's likely to be running Mike's '08 Presidential campaign.

Sheekey could pull a Zenia Mucha, take a glamorous, behind-the-scenes corporate job (Mucha, Pataki's advisor, is at Disney), and keep an informal advisory role with Bloomberg.

But I'm not sure the guy behind two Mayoral victories and a Republican National Convention -- all of them, by the way, efforts on the scale of a presidential campaign, with budgets at least in the high eight digits -- will be on the sidelines in 2008.  read more »

And there's one campaign that, for a number of reasons, makes particular sense along these lines: John McCain's.

Just speculation. Sheekey emails that he's too superstitious to talk about this stuff today.

Tim Burton and Mike Johnson’s Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, from a screenplay by John August, Pamel  read more »

Tim Burton and Mike Johnson’s Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride, from a screenplay by John Augus  read more »

The July 7 London bombings were followed by the failed bombings of July 21, and who knows what other  read more »

Author: Ken Krimstein Page: 5PQ: 'But one thing: What are records?'  read more »

Is that really it?  read more »

"We started the whole thing.  read more »

DisneyWar, by James B. Stewart.  read more »

"This is the kind of stuff I did for fun, whether it's organizing closets or cooking or decorating m  read more »

So I'm sitting in a film producer's office in Los Angeles, overlooking Sunset Strip, on one of the f  read more »

Questions, questions, questions.  read more »

It's too late to complain about winter, too early to ridicule the annual deluge of Hamptons real-est  read more »

When December comes, can The Nutcracker be far behind?  read more »

George C.  read more »

Why is the one thing we remember about Pinocchio that his nose grows longer whenever he tells a lie?  read more »

Displaying a rare degree of unanimity last week, the chief executives of the Walt Disney Company, AO  read more »

All is not lost, my friends-so long as we have a stirring musical about a mythical place where it's  read more »

If you haven't witnessed it yourself, someone has surely told you about the scene in DreamWorks SKG'  read more »

I spent Memorial Day weekend catching up on Shrek (directed by Andrew Adamson andVicky Jenson, from  read more »

Two days before what threatened to be the biggest Memorial Day box-office weekend ever-bigger than t  read more »

Pearl WisdomSometimes a great motion picture arrives and, for whatever reason, the public doesn't ta  read more »

Last week, it was revealed that for $750,000 an hour, you can hire the gorgeous actress-singer Jenni  read more »

Not so long ago, I asked you who–off the top off your head, taking a wild shot in the dark–would  read more »

Dear Rudy G: Hey, long time, no talk.  read more »

Aida , the new Disney musical ("suggested by the opera") with music by the Liberace of Rock, Elton J  read more »

Wednesday, Mar.  read more »

Bob Iger, the handsome, gleaming, departing head of ABC, sat at a center table in the vast Waldorf-A  read more »

This time last year, I was having wine and flowers delivered to my producer and agent in Los Angeles  read more »

ORLANDO, Fla.-The personal finance revolution certainly makes things easier for cranks, curmudgeons  read more »