The Morning Fix: Job openings at Disney and Yahoo. Ashton talks.
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After the coffee. Before going for the Yahoo CEO job.
The Skinny: It’s already Wednesday! I love short weeks. Headlines include executive shifts at Walt Disney Co. and Yahoo. Lifetime tries to get some traction by buying ‘America’s Most Wanted’ and Eddie Murphy being tapped to host the Oscar telecast is generating a lot of attention.
License to sell turned in. Andy Mooney, who built Disney’s consumer products division into a powerhouse, abruptly resigned Tuesday, saying he is seeking ‘a leadership role with another organization.’ Mooney, who was with Disney for a dozen years, launched several new successful products and will stay through September. No successor was named. More from the Los Angeles Times.
Nothing to yodel about. Carol Bartz was ousted as chief executive of Yahoo, the Internet portal that once ruled the Web but now is often an afterthought to Google and Facebook. Yahoo’s stock has been flat for the last few years amid speculation that the company could be for sale. Efforts to make inroads into entertainment have also fallen short. Analysis of Bartz’s tenure from the Wall Street Journal.
America’s most desperate? Lifetime, once one of the most popular cable networks on the dial, has acquired the rights to Fox’s canceled ‘America’s Most Wanted.’ The move comes after the flop of just about every show the new executive team at Lifetime has tried. Still, it’s hard to see how ‘America’s Most Wanted’ fits into Lifetime’s target audience of young women. The channel is no doubt hoping that it can build some audience circulation with ‘America’s Most Wanted,’ but it is clearly not a decision being made because everything at Lifetime is going splendidly. Details from the Associated Press.
Throwing stones. Apparently having red hair is all it takes to have your career belittled. The Daily Beast says Emma Stone has a Lindsay Lohan problem. See, it turns out we’re only seeing those movies starring Stone because we secretly miss Lohan. The piece goes on to say that Stone has ‘essentially landed the career that Lindsay Lohan was supposed to have, back when she was a rising Disney star’ before concluding with some shots at Stone for not being edgy enough. Look, we all know that the weeks around Labor Day can be incredibly slow in terms of real news, and that any story that mentions the L word will get traffic, but this is a reach. Check back in three years when Lohan will likely be interviewing with Dr. Drew and Stone will be collecting an Oscar.
Charlie who? Ashton Kutcher, the new star of CBS’s hit ‘Two and a Half Men’ talks with TV Guide about joining the hit sitcom and trying to fill the shoes of departed star Charlie Sheen. Chuck Lorre, the show’s co-creator, also chats for the first time in months although he doesn’t appear to revisit what the last few months with Sheen were like.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: Patrick Goldstein on the choice of Eddie Murphy to host the Oscars.
-- Joe Flint
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