English Entertainment
Behind every great love is a great story!
MUMBAI: Love knows no boundaries – whether it is passion of youth or when showing that it is ageless. Featuring for the first time on Romedy NOW as ‘Romedy of the Month’ will be The Notebook which is a chronicle of romance and togetherness on 26 July 2014 at 9 pm.Starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel Adams, The Notebook is presented by Dove and powered by SMC.
Catch an elderly man, Duke in a modern day home for seniors reading a romantic tale from his notebook to his lady co-housemate suffering from dementia. Go back to the old world charm of the 1940s with a young and passionate farm boy Noah (played Ryan Gosling) falling in love with 17-year-old heiress Allie Hamilton (played by Rachel Adams) at a carnival. There is an idyllic romance, an ancient mansion that Noah dreams of owning, and a social class difference that nips the love affair in the bud.
Noah writes letters to Allie for a year but they are hidden by Allie’s mother and remain unanswered. As the two young lovers feel betrayed by the other, the World War II has Noah joining as a soldier while Allie becomes a nurse. A twist to the tale is when a charming, rich, and handsome soldier Lon Hammond Jr. enters Allie’s life as her fiancé.
Seven years later at her wedding gown trial, memories of love come gushing back as Allie sees a photograph of a now wealthy Noah who has bought the abandoned mansion in hopes of getting Allie back. Allie visits him in Seabrook and the flame of love rekindles. But will Allie sacrifice her love for commitment to Lon and lose true love for the second time or reclaim a love that was always hers? Meanwhile, figure out how their story is connected to Duke and his lady companion to make an eternal love story.
Whether one is lucky in love or just carries the love in one’s heart, fans are invited to share their own love story on Romedy NOW’s twitter page with #RememberWhen hashtag and the story. The sweetest one will be rewarded!
And then with the special ‘What would you Do?’ activity on Facebook fans can tell the path they would have would have chosen if they were in Allie and Noah’s shoes.
English Entertainment
Warner Bros. Discovery shareholders approve Paramount deal
Investors wave through a $111 billion megamerger but deliver a stinging, if toothless, rebuke over half-a-billion-dollar goodbye packages
NEW YORK: The shareholders said yes to the deal. They said no to the cheque. At a virtual special meeting on Thursday that lasted barely ten minutes, Warner Bros. Discovery investors voted overwhelmingly to approve Paramount Skydance’s $111 billion acquisition of the company — and then turned around and voted against the lavish exit pay packages lined up for chief executive David Zaslav and his fellow outgoing executives.
Not that it will make much difference. The compensation vote is purely advisory and non-binding. The Warner Bros. Discovery board can, and almost certainly will, pay out as planned.
But the symbolism stings. It is the second consecutive year that WBD shareholders have voted against the executive compensation packages, and this time they had good reason. Zaslav’s exit deal is, by any measure, extraordinary. Under the terms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he is set to receive $34.2 million in cash severance, $517.2 million in equity in the combined company, and $44,195 in continued health coverage — a total of at least $550 million. On top of that, Warner Bros. Discovery has agreed to reimburse Zaslav up to $335 million for taxes assessed by the Internal Revenue Service on his accelerated stock vesting, though the company says that figure will decline depending on when the deal closes. As of March 11, Zaslav also held $115.85 million in vested WBD stock awards — and last month sold a further $114 million worth of WBD shares.
Shareholder advisory firm ISS recommended voting against the compensation measure, citing “problematic” tax reimbursements to Zaslav and the full vesting of his stock awards.
Zaslav will be bound by a two-year non-competition covenant and a two-year non-solicitation of customers and employees after the deal closes.
His lieutenants are not walking away empty-handed either. J.B. Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and games, is in line for $142 million, comprising $18.2 million in cash severance and $123.9 million in equity. Bruce Campbell, chief revenue and strategy officer, will receive an estimated $121.5 million, including $18.8 million in severance and $102.7 million in equity. Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels is set for $120 million, made up of $6.6 million in cash severance and $113.1 million in equity. Gerhard Zeiler, president of international, will get $82.6 million, including $11.9 million in severance and $70.7 million in equity.
The deal itself, clinched in February after Netflix declined to raise its bid for Warner Bros., still needs regulatory clearance from the Justice Department and European authorities. Several state attorneys general are also weighing legal action to block it.
Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unsparing. “The Paramount-Warner Bros. merger isn’t a done deal,” she said after the shareholder vote. “State attorneys general across the country are stepping up to stop this antitrust disaster. We need to keep up this fight.”
If it does go through, the combined entity would be a formidable beast, bringing together Paramount Skydance’s stable — CBS, CBS News, Paramount Pictures, Paramount+, BET, MTV and Nickelodeon — with WBD’s portfolio of HBO, Max, Warner Bros. film and TV studios, DC, CNN, TBS, TNT, HGTV and Discovery+. Paramount has said it expects $6 billion in cost savings from the merger, which is Wall Street shorthand for mass layoffs on a significant scale.
The ten-minute meeting was presided over by chairman Samuel Di Piazza Jr., with Zaslav, Campbell, Wiedenfels and chief communications officer Robert Gibbs in virtual attendance. Di Piazza was bullish. “We appreciate the support and confidence our stockholders have placed in us to unlock the full value of our world-class entertainment portfolio,” he said. “With Paramount, we look forward to creating an exceptional combined company that will expand consumer choice and benefit the global creative talent community.”
Zaslav echoed the sentiment. “Over the past four years, our teams have transformed Warner Bros. Discovery and returned the company to industry leadership,” he said. “Today’s stockholder approval is another key milestone toward completing this historic transaction that will deliver exceptional value to our stockholders.”
Paramount Skydance struck a similar note. “Shareholder approval marks another important milestone towards completing our acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery,” it said in a statement, adding that it looked forward to “closing the transaction in the coming months.”
The shareholders have spoken on the merger. On the pay, they were ignored before the vote was even counted.
