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DreamWorks Studios announced today that they are in the final stages of salary negotiations with Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank for their new Looney Tunes Bugs Bunny movie. Frank is slated to play Elmer Fudd in the five hundred million dollar, two part, six hour movie epic. The Congressman expressed interest in the role when he heard that Bugs Bunny was going to be played by an actor who has expressed conservative political views in the past. We talked with Congressman Frank over brunch in the West Village where he was visiting a friend. “It was wight before our summer wecess,”...

A DreamWorks animator pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of animal cruelty Thursday after allegedly beating a neighbor's 16-month-old German shepherd to death with a hammer. Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20058656-504083.html#ixzz1KxytdIaW

November 24, 2009 Glamour and Taste: Obama Tent Feast To Curry Favour With India Giles Whittell in Washington The Obamas' first state dinner is in honour of an abstemious vegetarian There will be music from the composer of the Slumdog Millionaire theme, food from an Ethiopian-born Swedish chef and cedar chips sprinkled on the roofs of the portable lavatories. There may also be the faint patter of drizzle on canvas. The first state dinner of the Obama era, held tonight in a tent village on the South Lawn of the White House, will honour an Indian Prime Minister described by...

Steven Spielberg has committed to his next film, and it will be an adaptation of the Mary Chase Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Harvey,” which will be done as a co-production between 20th Century Fox and DreamWorks. It is the story of an amiable eccentric, Elwood P. Dowd, and his friendship with a six and one-half foot tall invisible rabbit, and how it affects every member of his family and community. The play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1944, and was previously turned into the 1950 Universal film that starred Jimmy Stewart and Josephine Hull. While DreamWorks has several pictures that Spielberg...

David Geffen, the former record executive who made an offer for the Los Angeles Times two years ago, now wants to buy the New York Times, according to people close to the situation.

Obama's Billionaires Claire Obusan President-elect Barack Obama has had a slew of billionaire backers with him on his journey to the White House--plutocrats who provide economic and political advice and help to raise money. Lots of money. Obama's Billionaire Buddies Obama's national finance chairwoman during his presidential campaign was Penny Pritzker, one of 11 members of the famous Chicago family that appear on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans (combined net worth as of September: $21.6 billion). As of Nov. 24, 2008, Obama's campaign had raised a record-breaking $742 million during the election, according to the Center for...

WASHINGTON, July 22, 2008 – After matching servicemembers re-entering the civilian work force with military friendly employers, “Hire a Hero” is stepping outside its box and trying some matchmaking of a different kind. The troop-support organization has teamed with Dreamworks Television and Mark Burnett Productions to help two deserving military couples have their dream weddings. The gesture is a thank you for their service and commitment to the country, according to the Hire a Hero Web site. “Providing something like this is just great,” said Rob Barr, a Hire a Hero representative. “It’s showing support for the troops, and...

DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. has chosen Intel Corp. to supply chips and other technology for its big computer-animation operations, a shift that will cost Advanced Micro Devices Inc. one of its most prestigious customers. The pact is expected to replace the studio's computing hardware -- which now includes 1,500 Hewlett-Packard Co. server systems and 1,000 workstations that use AMD microprocessors -- with new H-P systems that use Intel chips. DreamWorks Animation said the resulting increase in computing power would substantially shorten the time needed for many computing chores and aid the studio's planned shift next year to 3-D animation. "For...

Stars take the shine off Hillary's bidLeading Hollywood liberals are sniping at the former First Lady over her strong support for the Iraq war. Paul Harris reports Paul Harris in Washington Sunday April 9, 2006The [UK] Observer With its liberal politics and radical attitudes, Hollywood should be one place in America where Hillary Clinton can count on fervent and loyal support. But as the former First Lady gears up for a run at the White House her nascent campaign has hit an unexpected roadblock. A lengthening list of top Hollywood celebrities have publicly criticised her ambitions. From George Clooney...

NEW YORK -- Entertainment company Viacom Inc. said Friday it agreed to sell the film library of the recently acquired DreamWorks studio to an investment group led by financier George Soros in a deal that values the library at $900 million. The 59 films in the library include "Gladiator," "American Beauty" and "Saving Private Ryan." Viacom, which recently split off its broadcasting and publishing assets into separately traded CBS Corp., said the deal will complete the second stage of its acquisition of DreamWorks SKG Inc., the studio founded by director Steven Spielberg, producer David Geffen and former Walt Disney Co....

2005 has been a tough year for major movie studios, certainly. But it’s been a dreadful year for independent studios. There were no runaway hits, like “The Passion of the Christ,” “Farenheit 911,” “My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding,” or “The Blair Witch Project.” Nor were there any "art-house" films which ran away into major movies. Time Warner had a hit with “March of the Penguins,” but that can be considered “independent” only through a marketing decision to release it from Warner Independent Productions, instead of Warner Brothers. The biggest disaster was Miramax. Long ago bought out by Disney, the curtains...

NEWS AT A GLANCE Paramount makes a deal Paramount Pictures Corp. announced it is buying DreamWorks SKG, the movie studio founded by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Jeffrey Katzenberg. Paramount plans to offset the $1.6-billion cost by selling a 59-film DreamWorks library that includes Oscar winners American Beauty and Gladiator. Paramount swooped in at the last-minute after a DreamWorks deal with NBC Universal stalled. "I can't stress how transforming an event this is," said Paramount Chairman Brad Gray. (Los Angeles Times, free registration required) Conoco goes shopping ConocoPhillips is negotiating to buy oil and gas producer Burlington Resources for more...

Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures has forged a deal to acquire DreamWorks SKG after the live-action movie company ended negotiations with rival bidder General Electric Co., according to people familiar with the situation. DreamWorks executives have informed officials at NBC Universal that they will not pursue that studio's bid, the people said. DreamWorks has been in on-and-off talks with Universal for several months, but of late the two sides have faced disagreements on various issues. Paramount won approval from the board of its parent company, Viacom, to make an offer for DreamWorks and hopes to announce a deal shortly, the people...

A candy man and a couple of randy men handily squelched a weak attack of the clones, though overall business suffered. The year-to-year down trend returned as the top 12 pictures generated an estimated $128.9 million, down seven percent from the comparable frame last year. Intended as a summer tent-pole, DreamWorks' The Island transplanted a meager estimated $12.1 million from 3,122 theaters. Director Michael Bay's $122 million clone thriller, co-produced by DreamWorks and Warner Bros., earned a fraction of such similar summer science fiction events as I, Robot and Minority Report and stands as a massive misfire along the lines...

DreamWorks hit by SEC probe Movie studio forecasts a loss for the 2Q on lower-than-expected DVD sales; stock tumbles. July 11, 2005: 3:19 PM EDT By Krysten Crawford, CNN/Money staff writer NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - For at least two months now DreamWorks Animation chief executive Jeffrey Katzenberg has been scratching his head over a new and worrisome question: Why isn't the most popular animation film ever released in theaters, "Shrek 2," flying off video store shelves? According to Katzenberg, teams from DreamWorks and its distribution partner, Universal Studios Home Video, have been working hard to find the answer ever since...

NEW YORK (AP) - DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA) on Monday warned of a loss in the second quarter, cut its full-year outlook and said federal regulators are investigating trading of its stock and its first-quarter results, sending shares tumbling more than 13 percent to a new low. Additionally, DreamWorks, the creator of animated hits "Shrek" and "Shark Tale," said its principal shareholders postponed a planned $500 million offering of common stock, but did not indicate when they would reconsider the sale. The company blamed the weakened earnings forecast on waning demand for home videos, citing a review of current...

Church of Scientology worshipper Tom Cruise expressing himself to Oprah Winfrey on her May 23 show. Cruise jumped around the set, hopped onto a couch, fell rapturously to one knee and repeatedly professed his love for his new girlfriend, the actress Katie Holmes.

BUDAPEST- US director Steven Spielberg is to begin shooting a movie on the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games, Spielberg's spokesman said, adding that filming would take place in Hungary. The film will be called "Vengeance" in reference to the subsequent operation by Israeli intelligence agents to track down and kill several of the murder suspects, Spielberg spokesman Marvin Levy told the national MTI news agency. On September 5, 1972, eight gunmen from a Palestinian group calling themselves Black September burst into the apartment block of the athletes' village housing the Israeli team, shot two men...

Just felt a shaker - a bed rattler quake. Rapid shaking, very noticeable but nothing broken, nothing knocked down. But it got us up. Magnitude 4.3 Date-Time Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at 08:10:46 (UTC) = Coordinated Universal Time Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at 12:10:46 AM = local time at epicenter Location 33.952°N, 116.395°W Depth 7.8 km (4.8 miles) Region SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Distances 11 km (6 miles) E (95°) from Desert Hot Springs, CA 15 km (9 miles) N (357°) from Thousand Palms, CA 17 km (11 miles) NNE (22°) from Cathedral City, CA 19 km (12 miles) NE (41°) from...

Hello. For those fans of the Ghost in the Shell anime/manga sagas, I should warn you, DO NOT buy the new Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocences DVD released by Dreamworks. The DVD is messed up. Not only did Dreamwork not included a English dub to it, but the English subtitle to the movie itself is in 'closed caption' ONLY (white text in black bars) and instead if it being in the at the bottom of the screen in the bottom black bar (GitS2:I is widescreen) it is near the center in the animation picture itself in large font no...

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama, the U.S. Senate candidate from Chicago who has become the Democratic Party's latest rising star, is drawing enough support from the entertainment industry to put on his own variety show. From comedian Chris Rock to singer Barbra Streisand to musician Herbert Hancock, entertainers have written out checks of $1,000 or $2,000 to help the 42-year-old Illinois state senator win the seat being vacated by retiring GOP Sen. Peter Fitzgerald. Film directors Rob Reiner ("The American President") and Edward Zwick ("The Last Samurai" and "Courage Under Fire") both contributed in the past three months, according to Obama's...

Tough-guy actor Robert Duvall is blasting “presumptuous” Steven Spielberg for meeting with Fidel Castro in Cuba over a year ago. “Spielberg went down there recently and said, ‘The best seven hours I ever spent was actually with Fidel Castro,’” Duvall tells Charlie Rose on tonight’s “60 Minutes II,” alluding to Spielberg’s November ’02 sojourn to Havana to screen eight of his movies there. “Now, what I want to ask him – and I know he’s going to get p***ed off – ‘Would you consider building a little annex on the Holocaust museum or at least across the street to honor...

Dona DeSanctis is fine with the occasional Mafia movie or, as she puts it, a TV ad "where a big, fat Italian woman is doing somersaults in a field just because the spaghetti sauce comes in a jar." But DeSanctis, deputy executive director of the Order Sons of Italy in Washington, D.C., finds nothing funny about "Shark Tale," a DreamWorks animated feature set for release in October. DeSanctis' organization is collaborating with Italian-American activists in Chicago and across the nation who are angered by the movie's sharks -- big-nosed, brutish-looking wiseguys with names such as "Don Brizzi" and "Don Lino."...

LOS ANGELES — Vivendi, the world's largest record label, has reached deal to buy DreamWorks Records, the companies said Tuesday in a joint statement.

They’re seriously PO’d out there, friends. "You will see NO significant change in Cuba until Castro's DEATH!" snarled one spokesman. Must be more crackpot blather from that "Miami Mafia," right? Must be those Cuban-American terrorist groups hell-bent on speeding the process, right? I’m afraid not. In fact, it’s Castro groupies themselves speaking. The above quote came from one of the most smitten, too: the Cuba Policy Foundation, as it closed down shop in a huff. Ms. Sally Grooms Cowal was one of the big wheels in this "Cuba Policy Foundation." This charming Beltway socialite gained fame three years ago by...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX THU MARCH 27, 2003 10:03:25 ET XXXXX DREAMWORKS EXECS TO ROCK: NO BUSH BASHING **Exclusive** Comedian Chris Rock has been strongly advised not to engage in any Bush-bashing during the promotion of his new film HEAD OF STATE, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned. Rock once said of Bush: "He's not stupid, he's just drunk," adding, "All the black people who voted for Bush are both on his cabinet." MORE DREAMWORKS is preparing to release the comedy wide on Friday. There are deep concerns that Rock may unleash a fresh diatribe on President Bush and the Iraq...

Three years ago, when it appeared that nothing could get worse at Disney -- fleeing executives, share-price collapse (and this was during the boom), dismal results at ABC, and a CEO involved in a bitter, costly, and very public lawsuit with a former subordinate -- I wrote that "Michael Eisner's extraordinary reign" at Disney was "coming to an end." Two weeks ago, some media bigs I know were out for a little retreat at Herb Allen's place in Sun Valley and, over drinks, put together a friendly pool about whether Michael would last the year. When I dismissed Eisner, I...