English Entertainment
Ugly Betty bags two Globes in its first season
Mumbai : The stars rained down on the 64th Annual Golden
Globe awards as Hollywood turned out in full force to cheer the best in television and motion pictures held at the Bevery Hilton Hotel. Glittering in diamonds and driving the media frenzy were actors like Drew Barrymore, George Clooney, Cameron Diaz, Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Hugh Grant Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hanks, Salma Hayek, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Dustin Hoffman, Eva Longoria, Jennifer Lopez, Steven Spielberg, Sharon Stone, Hilary Swank, Reese Witherspoon and Renee Zellweger amongst others. Over 50 Hollywood presenters were selected by the HFA and Golden Globe including Leonardo Di Caprio nominated for Blood Diamond and The Departed and Meryl Streep a 6 time Golden Globe winner who won the best actress in a comedy for her role of a wicked fashion editor in The Devil Wears Prada.
While Hollywood star power takes centre stage at the ceremony the Golden Globe awards is also a time for the best in television entertainment to be honored.And the top honours went to ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy for best television series (drama).
Kyra Sedgwick won the best actress award in a television series (drama) for her role in TNT’s Closer while Hugh Laurie took home the Golden Globe for the best actor performance in Fox’s House in the same category.
Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives both highly watched series on ABC were pitted against each other in the best televisions series musical or comedy. Ugly Betty originally a hit Spanish-language telenovela brought to the United States and shown on ABC, won for best musical or comedy series and its star, America Ferrera, was best actress in a comedy. NBC’s 30 Rock won Alec Baldwin a globe for his performance as the best actor in a comedy.And HBO ensured itself a hatrick of awards with its mini series. Helen Mirren as best actress, Jeremy Irons as best supporting actor and the best mini series was bagged by Elizabeth I.
Helen Mirren has had an exceptionally brilliant run as she was a triple nominee for Monday’s Golden Globe for The Queen and Elizabeth I as well as the television film Prime Suspect: The Final Act.She won best actress awards for playing two Queen Elizabeths: one for the television mini-series Elizabeth I and the second for portraying Elizabeth II in the film The Queen. BBC with its mini series Gideon’s Daughter won Bill Nighy the best actor and Emily Blunt the best supporting actress in a mini series awards.
Tom Hanks presented actor Warren Beatty with this year’s Cecil B. DeMille Award from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for his outstanding contribution to the entertainment field. The Cecil B. DeMille award winners are chosen by the HFPA board of directors and presented each year.
The Disney-Pixar film Cars won best animated feature in the debut category for animation at the Globes.
The 64th Annual Golden Globe Awards is telecast across 150 countries worldwide and is one of the few awards ceremonies to span both television and motion picture achievements.
Each year HFPA members interview more than 250 actors, directors, writers and producers, as well as reporting from film sets and seeing more than 300 films.
Hollywood stars have a special reason to be seen at the Golden Globes.The awards, which are voted on by nearly 90 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are a major stop on the road to the 25 February Academy Awards because winners here often go on to compete for Oscars — the film industry’s top awards.
The top honours in motion picture category were picked up by Babel for best motion picture drama while Martin Scorsese won the best director for his film The Departed giving it a shot in the arm for the Oscars as well.The Academy award has deluded the director despite repeated nominations.
Dream Girls picked up a host of awards including awards for Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy. The comedy Borat won Sacha Cohen a best actor in a motion picture comedy and could throw up some surprises even at the Oscars.
The Oscar nominations will be announced on the evening of 23 January and the awards will be given out at the star studded event on 25 February.
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.
