English Entertainment
Wipe away your Monday blues with great Peter Sellers movies this February only on PIX
MUMBAI: PIX, the Premium English Movies channel brings you the Best of Peter Sellers every Monday throughout the month of February, on Perfect 10. Watch out for movies The Pink Panther and its sequel, A Shot in the Dark on 5th and 12th February respectively, The Party, on 19th February and rounding off is What’s New Pussycat? on 26th February.
Read Below to catch some interesting trivia on these movies soon to come on PIX…
The Pink Panther
The role of Inspector Clouseau was originally offered to Peter Ustinov. Despite being relatively unknown internationally, Peter Sellers was offered the part, and was paid 90,000 pounds
The film was intended to have The Phantom, Sir Charles Lytton’s character as the main character. However, this film and the sequels focused on the Character of Inspector Clouseau as Peter Sellers’ portrayal of the same was extremely loved by the crew and the audience
An animated Pink Panther was created for the opening credits because writer and director Blake Edwards felt that the credits would benefit from some kind of cartoon character. The Pink Panther character was chosen from over a hundred alternative panther sketches. The Pink Panther introduced in the opening credits became a popular film and television character in his own right.
A Shot in the Dark
The movie was completed before The Pink Panther (1963), but shelved because the studio didn’t think it was any good. The success of the first film made the executives decide to release the shelved film. This also explains the short time span between the release of the first film and this one.
This was the only official Clouseau film not to use the name “Pink Panther” nor use that cartoon character in the opening credits.
Peter Sellers was the first ever male to appear on the cover of Playboy magazine, in April 1964.
The Party
The only Blake Edwards -Peter Sellers collaboration that was not a Pink Panther film.
During the scene in which Peter Sellers wrecks the upstairs bathroom, the band downstairs can be heard playing “It Had Better Be Tonight,” which was originally written and used both as a vocal and as an instrumental score in the first “Pink Panther” film.
This was said to be Elvis Presley’s favorite movie.
What’s New Pussy Cat?
The scene where Woody Allen’s character celebrates his birthday on the wharf was filmed on December 1, 1964 – Woody’s 29th birthday
Banned in Norway because of a scene where Peter Sellers tries to commit suicide by burning himself wrapped in a Norwegian flag.
When Woody Allen turned in his script it did not have a title. It stayed this way until one day he overheard Warren Beatty, talking to one of the hundreds of gorgeous women he was seeing at the time. His usual greeting of “What’s new, pussycat?” was heard by Allen who screamed out “title!”
Get ready to rediscover Peter Sellers and fall in love with the best collection of his great comedies every Monday night on Perfect 10.
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.
