Disney/Star Wars Weirdness

Story HERE

Disney buys Marvel

Acquisition highlights Disney's strategic focus on quality branded content, technological innovation and international expansion to build long-term shareholder value

Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company (DIS) has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (MVL) in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

Under the terms of the agreement and based on the closing price of Disney on August 28, 2009, Marvel shareholders would receive a total of $30 per share in cash plus approximately 0.745 Disney shares for each Marvel share they own. At closing, the amount of cash and stock will be adjusted if necessary so that the total value of the Disney stock issued as merger consideration based on its trading value at that time is not less than 40% of the total merger consideration.

Based on the closing price of Disney stock on Friday, August 28, the transaction value is $50 per Marvel share or approximately $4 billion.

"This transaction combines Marvel's strong global brand and world-renowned library of characters including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor with Disney's creative skills, unparalleled global portfolio of entertainment properties, and a business structure that maximizes the value of creative properties across multiple platforms and territories," said Robert A. Iger, President and Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company. "Ike Perlmutter and his team have done an impressive job of nurturing these properties and have created significant value. We are pleased to bring this talent and these great assets to Disney."

"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," Iger said.

"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's Chief Executive Officer. "This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world."

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters. Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney's global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel's properties.

The Boards of Directors of Disney and Marvel have each approved the transaction, which is subject to clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, certain non-United States merger control regulations, effectiveness of a registration statement with respect to Disney shares issued in the transaction and other customary closing conditions. The agreement will require the approval of Marvel shareholders. Marvel was advised on the transaction by BofA Merrill Lynch.

The Coverage

Here's how the networks and cable will cover the Michael Jackson service, via TVNewser:

• ABC: Charlie Gibson will anchor live coverage "Remembering Michael Jackson" at 1pmET, joined by "Nightline" anchor Martin Bashir. Some updates: Diane Sawyer, in NY, and Barbara Walters, at the Staples Center, will co-anchor a special edition of "20/20" at 9pmET. Sawyer and Elizabeth Vargas will also co-anchor "Primetime: Family Secrets," a report on Michael Jackson's children at 10pmET. Cynthia McFadden will also anchor "Nightline" from the Staples Center.
• CBS: Maggie Rodriguez and Harry Smith will anchor the "Early Show" from the Staples Center tomorrow. Katie Couric will anchor special coverage of the memorial at 1pmET and the CBS "Evening News" from the Staples Center. Couric will also do "48 Hours" at 10pmET.
• NBC/MSNBC: NBC will televise the memorial service at 1pmET, anchored by Brian Williams. Chris Jansing will anchor MSNBC's live coverage. Meredith Vieira will broadcast live tomorrow at the Staples Center for "Today" and Williams will anchor "Nightly News" from LA Tuesday.
• CNN: Anderson Cooper, Larry King, Don Lemon and Soledad O'Brien will host coverage live from LA, with Campbell Brown and Roland Martin anchoring live from New York, starting at NoonET on CNN and simulcast on CNN International.
• HLN: Robin Meade, A.J. Hammer and Jane Velez-Mitchell will anchor live coverage for HLN.
• Fox: Shepard Smith will anchor live coverage of the memorial service on Fox News starting at 1pmET. Megyn Kelly will anchor live coverage of the memorial on FOX broadcast also beginning at 1pmET. Greta Van Susteren will also be in LA on Tuesday, and will host her show from there Tuesday night.

No word if the Home Shopping Network, the Disney Channel, QVC or Nickelodeon will be breaking from their regular broadcast schedules yet...

Basically it'll be the opposite of the Billy Mays coverage...

Obamatronic

He looks like President Barack Obama, speaks like him, and even gestures like him, but he is not exactly the president of the United States.
This president is an audio-animatronic Obama surrounded by the 42 other U.S. presidents at Walt Disney World's newly revamped Hall of Presidents in Orlando, Florida.
CNN report w/video HERE

Mickey Mouse Mask

The United States Army Chemical Museum has a very special gas mask. It looks like Mickey Mouse!! This mask was produced early in 1942 to protect children in case of a chemical attack on the United States.
more HERE

Shaming Cyrus for Being Sexy

Miley Cyrus, the Disney teen-star, has come in for criticism after posing for provocative photographs for a third time.
more HERE and HERE

Ashley Tisdale Humps For Obama

Did Ashley Tisdale Give 'Obama' A Lapdance?
The answer to that question Ashley Tisdale fans is a big, fat, slutty yes!
Ashley was a guest on "El Hormiguero" when talked turned to President Obama. The "High School Musical" star said that she adores Obama and would love to rub her new nose all over him.
That's when a shy impersonator was dragged on stage and placed in a chair for Ashley to grind on.
more HERE

Preplexing Texting

After the tears (and there were tears), texts and frantic thumb work, Kate Moore, 15 years old, came from behind to win the best-of-three finals round of LG’s U.S. National Texting Championships Tuesday.
Ms. Moore, from Des Moines, Iowa, beat Morgan Dynda, 14 years old, for the $50,000 prize by being first to text an error-free modified chorus from “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” (from the fabled and censored racially charged Disney film Song of the South).
Wall Street Journal report HERE

...rewards for dexterity/carpel tunnel, poor spelling, introverted social interaction? ...top it off with a song related to racial discrimination...we're all doomed!

Voice of Mickey Mouse, Wayne Allwine Dies

Veteran Disney voiceover talent Wayne Allwine, who provided the voice of Mickey Mouse for the past 32 years, died May 18 in Los Angeles from complications to diabetes. He was 62.
He first lent his voice to Disney's world-renowned cartoon mouse in 1977 for animated segments of "The New Mickey Mouse Club." He went on to provide Mickey's voice for such toons as "Mickey's Christmas Carol" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit."
Allwine and his wife, Russi Taylor, longtime voice of Minnie Mouse, both received the Disney Legend kudo in 2008.
more HERE
IMDB HERE

Carrey as Scrooge

Jim Carrey and director Robert Zemeckis brought a bit of holiday cheer to the Cannes Film Festival on Monday with a sneak peak of "Disney's A Christmas Carol," a new slant on the Charles Dickens classic in which the actor plays skinflint Ebenezer Scrooge and several other characters.
more HERE

Earth Day 2009

Have you done your Earth Day shopping yet? Between greeting cards, jewelry, mugs, and teddy bears commemorating the day, its roots in environmental activism have all but been forgotten. Now corporations use Earth Day to sell us on the belief that we can buy our way into ecological sustainability. We can't.
more HERE

Related:
President Obama official schedule and guidance, April 22, 2009.
Earth Day Network
U.S. Government Earth Day Events & Information
Explore, Search and Discover on Google Earth
Disney film 'Earth' opens on Earth Day

No Porn For U

Students at the University of Maryland will have to entertain themselves this weekend by doing something other than watching the most expensive pornographic movie ever made.
Digital Playground promotes its XXX porn film "Pirates II" on college campuses. Bowing to pressure from a local lawmaker, the University of Maryland canceled a screening of the film scheduled for Saturday.
"Pirates II" cost some $10 million to make, according to Digital Playground. The two-and-a-half hour sexy send-up of Walt Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" incorporates computer-generated special effects -- including animated skeleton pirates and six XXX-rated sex scenes.
With free high-speed Internet connections in most college dorms, students have easy access to free -- often pirated -- pornography. By providing free screening copies of the film to colleges, Digital Playground hopes to encourage students to buy their films, rather than download free pornography.
ABC News report HERE
DVD available HERE

here's the trailer...

Metaphor en Memoriam

click the pic

...ahhh, very artistic...yet, does the artist remember that the apple was poison? ...what's really been done here?

Who's the Heartthrob Now?

Muddying up America’s heartthrob isn’t such a dirty job after all. Twenty-year-old model Edita Vilkeviciute rolled around with Zac Efron for Interview magazine's cover shoot this past January. On the day of the shoot, the Lithuanian-born beauty admitted to the Disney star that she had no idea who he was.
As it was partly her job to transform the High School Musical star from a kiddie crush to a full-on sex object, Vilkeviciute (a year Efron’s junior) leveled the playing field straight off the bat. “Zac finally admitted to me that this was his first real fashion shoot,” she said.
more HERE

...of course, Disney has been pimping the cast of HSM for some time...the Vanessa scandal...the Ashley nip slip...the Elle magazine threesome shoot...gotta hand it to sex savvy Disney...

Jonas Brothers Get Into Girls Pants

So: the Jonas Brothers clothing line is based on three young men who really have nothing to do with the clothing other than the branding, for young girls, to retail at department stores across America. Or maybe the bros are simply coming out with their cross-dressing tendencies...
the Jonas Brothers clothing line is finally going to arrive at luxe retailers Wal-Mart, Kmart, Sears, and JCPenney, just in time for tween girls to buy them for school and just in time for the premiere of their new show on Disney.
more HERE

Disney Eggs?

Winnie the Pooh Arrested

What is Winnie the Pooh up to these days? According to Japanese police, it appears that our favorite winsome little bear is committing assault and armed robbery. Unlike most fairy tales, this one does not have a happy ending.
In August Tokyo police arrested Masayuki Ishikawa, a 20 year-old man who attacked and robbed two people because they had the nerve to stare at his Winnie-the-Pooh costume.
At the time of his arrest, he was in the company of two costumed friends; one a panther and the other a mouse. Apparently the threesome had donned the costumes because they ran out of clean clothes.
Police told reporters that “It’s uncommon to see people dressed up like this, so the victims were watching them. Then the perpetrator came up and said, ‘What are you staring at?’”
In true Winnie-the Unpooh-like fashion, Ishikawa and his two cohorts beat up the two unfortunates and stole 160 dollars from them.

Mickey Mouse Turns 80

Mickey Mouse turns 80 years old today.
Sure, Mickey hasn't had a movie in two years (his last one went direct-to-video), but his cheerful face remains one of the most recognizable images in the world, even beating out Santa Claus.
The first two Mickey shorts drew no attention, but then came Steamboat Willie, the first animation to feature synchronized music and sound effects, hit the screen. The film premiered in New York on Nov. 18, 1928 and was an instant hit.
TIME article HERE

Disney's Hoaxing Whore

...attention seeking whore

Cheetah Girl and former 3LW star Adrienne Bailon is reportedly close to inking a deal with Playboy, this after 'nude' photos of the singer hit the net earlier this week.
In a deal documented by Page Six, Bailon will receive $100,000 if she poses for the magazine in what Hugh Hefner would call "stylish photos with full nudity in sufficient quantity and quality."
News of Bailon's deal surfaces just after the reported 'thief', Jonathan Jaxson, who allegedly stole her laptop and posted the photos, confessed that the whole thing was a publicity stunt.
more HERE

Another Naked Disney Girl

Obviously seeing the public slamming that Vanessa Hudgens and Miley Cyrus experienced when their steamy snaps were stolen and exposed wasn’t enough of a warning for Adrienne Bailon to keep her clothes on.
The 25-year-old Disney slut (who has porno sex with Robert Kardashian, the younger brother of fellow sex-scandal starlet Kim Kardashian). Yes, those Kardashians.
Plus: Adrienne Bailon's ass is just about as big as Kim Kardashian's ass, and they even look alike in the face. How wrong is that!?
more HERE