Thompson on Hollywood

Media Watch: Ralph Lauren Takes Over New York Times App, CNN Buys iPad Aggregator Zite

Ralph Lauren has purchased solo sponsorship of New York Times iPad app for the month of September to celebrate his Fashion Week runway show September 15. Polo will provide free access to five sections (Fashion & Style, Travel, Home & Garden, T Magazine, and Sports) in order to run ads, including live video of the runway show. According to AdWeek, this is the first time that a single marketer has bought out the app, which usually holds space for six advertisers, or a buyer has been able to suspend the pay meter. This is part of a long history of Ralph Lauren making splashy advertisements with the NYT.

By Maggie Lange
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August 31, 2011 3:36 AM
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Media Watch: Which Apps Make Bank, HuffPost Relaunches Fashion Site, James Murdoch Rumored to Leave

Huffington Post has relaunched its fashion site, StyleList. The digital glossy will be run by Anya Strzemien, the original Style editor. Stylelist will be run as a separate fashion website, with blogs from fashion hotshots Rachel Roy, Heidi Klum, and Jason Wu.

By Maggie Lange
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August 19, 2011 4:30 AM
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Media Watch: LATimes.com Traffic Rises, Facebook Hides Google+ Invites, Netflix targets Kids & Asia

Netflix is creating a Just-for-Kids streaming option, the company reported yesterday. Aimed at the 12-and-unders, it offers content like Dora the Explorer or SpongeBob SquarePants, and groups its elements into categories that operate with total child-logic: "Dinosaurs," "Girl Power," "Princesses," and "Superheroes." Meanwhile, Netflix is also aiming to distribute in select Asian locations, like Japan or South Korea, by the end of 2012.

By Maggie Lange
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August 17, 2011 11:45 AM
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Sundance Institute Pushes Deeper Into Digital Distribution Alternatives--Analysis

Festivals

Two things pop from this week's announcement from Robert Redford's Sundance Institute about their "Artists Services Initiative." First, who it's for--Sundance Institute filmmakers only--and second, how it contrasts with Robert De Niro's for-profit New York-based Tribeca Films, which picks up films to release, some of them from its own festival.

By Anne Thompson
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July 29, 2011 8:51 AM
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Media Watch: Facebook Feedback Council, Hulu to Sell, Tablet Users Double by 2012, Salon Chief Out

-As Facebook looks to generate more ad revenues, the social networking hub is forming a twelve-member client council composed of leaders in the advertising world as well as Facebook’s largest clients, reports Ad Age. The group will rotate yearly, allowing a large mix of companies to participate. The first dozen include Nick Brien, CEO of McCann Worldgroup and Wendy Clark, Coca-Cola’s head of integrated marketing.

By Maggie Lange
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June 23, 2011 6:13 AM
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News Wrap: Abrams Opens Up on Super 8 Secrets, Apple Threatens Cable, Boondock Saints Web Sequel

During production on Super 8, director J. J. Abrams was notably secretive--as producer Steven Spielberg likes to be as well, preserving the mystery, hiding the alien. Now that the film has delivered a strong $35.5 million opening weekend, he is being less tight-lipped. [SPOILER ALERT] In an interview with MTV, Abrams was open about the many-limbed, mysterious monster in the film. He noted that Neville Page, the same man who created the monster in his 2008 film, Cloverfield, designed the creature for Super 8, but there was no “same-universe” connection. “They actually look very different,” he said, “but they both have two eyes, a nose and a mouth. So, in that regard, it also looks a lot like Laurence Olivier!" He said creating the creature was a balance; the alien needed to be scary, but also relatable, something that could be “full of rage and also could be emotional and nuanced.” (The bar for scary/relatable alien design was really set by District 9.)

By Maggie Lange
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June 15, 2011 3:58 AM
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Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group Buys Flixster, Rotten Tomatoes

Marking another major studio move into the digital entertainment space, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group has acquired movie discovery and recommendation site Flixster, which owns film review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. Warners insists--repeatedly, given that a studio is owning a review site-- that the company will continue to operate independently, and will serve as a "consumer-facing platform for Warner Bros. initiatives to drive digital content ownership."

By Anne Thompson
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May 4, 2011 2:20 AM
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True Grit iPad App: Through The Lens of Jeff Bridges, The Dude Abides

True Grit has an iPad app, Through The Lens of Jeff Bridges. Not only does this cowboy love to sing and play guitar, but he's a shutter-bug who has been taking on-set photos for years.

By Anne Thompson
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January 21, 2011 1:11 AM
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Be a Douchebag With Your iPhone

Drake Doremus' low-brow Sundance comedy Douchebag, which opened in New York over the weekend, is about two brothers, one on the verge of marriage, who go on a wild goose chase to find the other's fifth grade girlfriend. While some big studio films (Tron: Legacy comes to mind) have developed iPhone apps, this is one of the first little-known indies to try to build a following with a free iTunes iPhone app, available for free download at the Apple app store. (Let us know if there are others.)

By Sophia Savage
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October 4, 2010 6:36 AM
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New Living Room: from Netflix Streaming to Google TV

At book group last night, we not only picked David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas (in development with the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer), but debated the relative merits of TiVo and Roku, the best way to get Netflix streaming on TV and the breadth of the Netflix catalogue of free-stream titles. I use my PS3 and a disc to get my Netflix "watch-instantly" queue to pop up on my TV. The other night on a whim, I clicked play and watched the enjoyable Anna Wintour doc The September Issue. More pleasures await me, but I do find it frustrating that many (even older) titles that are in my DVD queue aren't yet available.