Viacom Inc.'s Sumner Redstone files for divorce (Dinosaur Media DeathWatch™)

Los Angeles Times ^ | October 22, 2008 | Claudia Eller and Meg James

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Sumner Redstone has filed for divorce from his wife of five years, Paula Fortunato, citing irreconcilable differences. The court papers were submitted Friday, Oct. 17, in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The two were married in April 2003. The couple's prenuptial agreement stipulates that the 46-year-old Fortunato will receive at least $5 million, or $1 million for each year that she has been wed to the media mogul, according to people who are familiar with terms of the couple's agreement.

Redstone, 85, has been telling friends for weeks that his marriage to Fortunato, 46, was ending. But despite the divorce filing on Friday, the troubled couple continued to socialize together through the weekend with several current and former Paramount executives, including the studio's current chairman, Brad Grey. Paula Redstone has since left their mansion in the gated private enclave of Beverly Park that sits high above Beverly Hills to visit family in New York and New Jersey.

Any divorce settlement would come out of Sumner Redstone’s own pocket, and not his family's Boston-based business, National Amusements Inc., said two people close to the firm. National Amusements is caught in a credit squeeze and Redstone's daughter, Shari Redstone, who runs the company, is trying to restructure its nearly $1.6-billion debt load, including an $800-million bank loan that is due in mid-December. Sumner Redstone controls 80% of National Amusements; his daughter holds the remaining 20%. If National Amusements is unable to come to an agreement with bankers, it might have to sell off more shares of Viacom Inc. or CBS Corp., two publicly traded companies that Redstone controls, to pay down the debt.

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Trouble in Hollywoodland.

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ping

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http://www.nypost.com/seven/10222008/news/regionalnews/sumner_squash__nups_kaput_134730.htm
SUMNER SQUASH: NUPS KAPUT

http://www.nypost.com/seven/10222008/business/burned_by_marts_134747.htm
‘BURNED’ BY MARTS
LIONSGATE BIG FORCED TO SELL 25% OF STAKE

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122464375134757547.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Redstones File to Obtain a Divorce

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ib59b5b9afcb9854bc2aa3d78373d68a9
Sumner Redstone files for divorce

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article4988401.ece
Sumner Redstone faces a battle to hold on to Viacom

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/
Sumner Redstone’s Divorce Filing Public

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http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/
Fat newspaper profits are history

http://www.gannettblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/stock-sinking-dubow-said-raising_18.html
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Stock sinking, Dubow said raising specter of layoffs
Less than a week before management reports to Wall Street, Gannett’s shares have sunk to fresh lows — swinging the spotlight on CEO Craig Dubow, after he reportedly disclosed plans yesterday for more layoffs in as little as 10 weeks.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122459770239554007.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo
McClatchy’s Advertising Woes Mount

[andyandval]

Well, this made me curious about what kind of hottie a zillionaire like Redstone would marry at the age of 80.

Whatevs...

[Past Your Eyes]

There’s no fool like an old fool. Looks like there were two of them there.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122463689465557035.html

* OCTOBER 22, 2008

Network Audience Keeps Eroding
Upswing in Delayed Viewing on DVRs Isn’t Likely to Offset Prime-Time Declines
By SAM SCHECHNER

This fall, broadcast-TV shows such as NBC’s “The Office” and Fox’s “Fringe” are seeing their audiences jump by more than a third when counting people who record the shows and watch them later on digital-video recorders.

But the rise in delayed viewing isn’t enough to offset a broader trend: Fewer people are watching the big broadcast networks.

During the first two weeks of the TV season, an average of nine million people watched prime-time programming on the top five English-language broadcast networks, according to Nielsen Media Research, including an average of 1.5 million who watched recorded shows within seven days on DVRs. The total was down 6.6% from a year earlier.

“It’s not pretty,” says Jason Kanefsky, a media buyer at Havas’s MPG. “No matter what the broadcast networks do, they need to find a hit.”

The delayed-viewing numbers, which Nielsen publishes two weeks after data on viewers who watch the night of a broadcast, are important because they give a fuller snapshot of the prime-time TV audience.

About 24.4% of American households with TV sets now have DVRs, up from about 18.6% at the beginning of last season, Nielsen says. Counting only same-day viewing, broadcast networks are averaging 11.3% fewer viewers over the first four weeks of the season, compared with the previous season.

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[shibumi]

"Sumner Redstone has filed for divorce from his wife of five years, Paula Fortunato, citing irreconcilable differences."


Like what? She's fully alive and he's not quite dead yet?

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But some people see bigger issues ahead, including the growing popularity of broadcast TV shows on Internet services like Apple's iTunes. "If you train the audience to believe there's no urgency in watching anything," says Preston Beckman, Fox's head of scheduling and research, "then sometimes you never watch it at all."

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"By the end of this decade or shortly thereafter, television networks as we know them today will cease to exist. They will be just another url on the world wide web competing against millions of others."

"Network evening newscasts will go dark after the '08 elections and their news divisions disbanded."

Walter Abbott, (b. 1950), Media observer and commentator

[billorites]

National Amusements Inc...

$1 million for each year that she has been wed

Redstone, 85...

troubled firm...

[djf]

Sumner is a town in Washington state, not a mans name.

I know cause I live there.

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Somewhere Tom Cruise is having a schadenfreude moment.

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24532216-15803,00.html

Tough times in Tinseltown
Michael Bodey | October 22, 2008

THE bloated salaries of $US20 million ($28.7 million) and up commanded by the Leonardo DiCaprios and Jim Carreys of this world would appear to be a thing of the past.

The pay structure of the biggest and best is under more scrutiny after the poor box-office performance of Ridley Scott’s thriller Body of Lies, starring DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. The CIA action film cost more than $US100 million, not including marketing costs, and has earned a mere $US24million in North America thus far. Its studio, Warner Bros, says the actors received less than $US20million each although that hasn’t stopped the US entertainment media from pointing out the film’s return wouldn’t have been so bad if it had been made for a reasonable budget. But then come rumours that Johnny Depp will be paid up to $US55 million for the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film. Generally, though, studios are tightening their belts.

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[Tax-chick]

Good lord. Not even for 5 million dollars. He looks like Joe Biden.

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http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=13658

Date/Time: 10/22/2008 7:18:53 AM
Title: How AP’s Goldman got his Levi Johnston scoop
Posted By: Jim Romenesko

From AP Senior Managing Editor Mike Silverman’s “Beat of the Week” memo to AP staff:

Tracking down Levi Johnston, the 18-year-old father of Bristol Palin’s baby, and getting him to talk was no easy thing.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s campaign had advised Johnston to avoid the media, and he hadn’t given any interviews since mother-in-law-to-be Sarah Palin was chosen to be McCain’s running mate.

In the meantime, rumors swirled. Johnston had been held against his will on the campaign trail. He was forced into a shotgun wedding with Palin’s 17-year-old daughter.

Adam Goldman, a reporter in the New York City bureau on assignment in Anchorage, set out to get Johnston’s story. First, though, he had to find him.

Johnston was spending most of his time at the Palin compound. But that was protected by the Secret Service, so the place was off limits.

Goldman repeatedly went to Johnston’s home in Wasilla. No luck.

He identified the homes of Johnston’s buddies and went there. No luck.

He pulled speeding and hunting tickets, learned the make and model of Johnston’s truck and went back to the house in Wasilla. Still not there.

Then, as Goldman left the neighborhood, he spotted the truck, quickly went back to the house and found Johnston in his driveway.

Finally, he agreed to talk. He said he wanted to set the record straight. He said he was only joking when he wrote on his MySpace page that “I don’t want kids.” He said he and Bristol had planned to get married “a long time ago with or without the kid.” He described his reaction to impending fatherhood and the possibility the baby will be a boy _ “I’m looking forward to having him. I’m going to take him hunting and fishing. He’ll be everywhere with me.” — and gave a few details about plans for next summer’s wedding.

It was all just in time for the AP’s purposes. Johnston also revealed that he had dropped out of high school and was leaving in a few hours for the remote North Slope oil fields for a three-week apprenticeship as an electrician. No other media would be able to reach him until after the election.

For his dogged pursuit of an exclusive interview with one of the most elusive personalities of this presidential campaign, Adam wins this week’s $500 prize.

[ConservativeMind]

Why is the AP doing primary research? Aren’t they supposed to get everything from their member newspapers?

I can’t understand how a member newspaper can’t see the AP as a competitor they are forced to pay homage to via money.

[Doctor Raoul]

The two were married in April 2003. The couple's prenuptial agreement stipulates that the 46-year-old Fortunato will receive at least $5 million, or $1 million for each year that she has been wed to the media mogul, according to people who are familiar with terms of the couple's agreement.

What that per vertical mile?

[BurbankKarl]

He just lost a quarter billion in the stock market....ooopsie....margin calls are a bitch!