English Entertainment
Romedy NOW presents a fun filled month
MUMBAI: Summer time’s in bloom and it brings with it three amazing summer surprises only on Romedy NOW, the exclusive destination for English General Entertainment. Let the heartthrob Hugh Grant steal your hearts all over again with a special property ‘Romedy Heartthrob’ powered by Maruti Swift, every Monday Night at 11pm throughout May. Watch the sweetest of his movies like Two Weeks Notice, Music and Lyrics, Did You Hear about the Morgans, and Nine Months.
What does it take for an immature, reckless and self-absorbed billionaire real estate tycoon to find true love? A hard working and devoted attorney who serves him a two weeks’ notice tired of his self-importance to make them both realize that they are more than boss and employee. Watch Hugh Grant as George Wade and Sandra Bullock as Lucy Kelson in the movie Two Weeks Notice.
It’s time for child psychologist Samuel Faulkner to let go of his fears of fatherhood and take responsibility of his soon-to-be-born son in Nine Months after an unplanned pregnancy with the love of his life a ballet teacher Rebecca Taylor (Julian Moore) throws him in a tizzy to be made worse by the boisterous daughters of an imperious couple and confusing advice from his single artist friend.
What’s romance without music? Indulge in music and love in Music and Lyrics, as Grant plays Alex a former pop sensation with a fading career in music. As he lacks inspiration to write a love song ‘Way back into love’ for a famed pop artist he seeks help from a creative writer Sophie Fisher (Drew Barrymore) who waters his plants and is overcoming a failed romance herself. The musical sojourn has more ‘aww’ moments than you can think about!
Running away from a contract killer after they witness a murder brings city slickers Paul Michael Morgan and his soon to be ex-wife Meryl to a small town of Ray in a witness protection program in Did you Hear about the Morgans. They rediscover love in the face of peril of escaping the contract killer and adjusting to country life, horse riding and fighting off bears and bulls. Enjoy the love and laughter in this one.
Too much love and laughter is never enough. It’s time to chill out with the most entertaining movies with a special property called ‘Hangout’ powered by Micro Max, Monday – Wednesday at 6pm all through May. Catch the foot-tapping penguin story in Happy Feet and the world of Emperor Penguins where a penguin cannot sing to find his partner but dance.
Spanglish has an honest Mexican domestic help Flor (Tea Leone) trying to get her teenage daughter Cristina stick to her roots and values while working in the household of a celebrated chef John (Adam Sandler) and his insecure wife. As the imperfect marriage and world of John crumbles down he finds companionship in Flor.
See humans get sued by a bee for eating all their honey in Bee Movie, two 11-year-olds falling in love in New York City in Little Manhattan, flooding an ant colony with his water gun has Lucas Nickle shrunk to insect size and work in the ruins in The Ant Bully. Watch more gems like Big, Chasing Liberty, Say Anything, Anastasia, and Aquamarine.
The feast does not end here! May is also the time for ‘Off the Shelves’ every Thursday night at 9 with some brilliant movies. Learn about the perils of misreading signs and falling in love with people who don’t love you back in the interconnecting stories in He’s Just not That Into You. Drool away watching Bradley Cooper, Scarlet Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, and more such scorchers in this ensemble cast.
The love story of a Parkinson’s patient and a medical rep working for Pfizer in Pittsburg in Love and Other Drugs. Love does not die as proved in PS I Love You where a young widow Holly Kennedy (Hilary Swank) is left 10 posthumous messages by her husband Gerry (Gerard Butler) to help her come to terms with the bereavement and move on. Not just these, enjoy movies like The Devil Wears Prada and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
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.
