Word: disneyized
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Bankers are quick to defend the trend, noting that new- and old-economy industries are colliding as the world goes online. Disney buying Infoseek isn't cross industry, they argue. It's all media. Ditto AOL and Time Warner. O.K., but broadening the definition hasn't helped Disney execs better understand the Internet company it bought for $1.6 billion. The Mouse refocused its prize acquisition yet again last week. And while AT&T and its recent quarry, cable operator MediaOne, are both in the data-transmission business, it is a leap to believe the phone guys can manage cable assets...
...there synergies? One hopes so. But these deals are less about the obvious benefits of economies of scale and more about positioning for a future that no one can clearly see. Maybe Disney's move is a good one. Prosperity in the new economy probably hinges on bolder strategies than cost cutting. But such deals--and the stocks behind them--are a gamble. Take the bet if you're so inclined. I'd keep at least some chips in this area. Meanwhile, there are plenty of companies still focused on keeping down costs, and those are the nearest thing...
...major studios created classroom epics: Disney's 1946 cartoon The Story of Menstruation (no, Minnie's not in it) and Warner's 1962 poli-scare film Red Nightmare. You'll see a teenage Dick York (the first Darren on TV's Bewitched) as a "shy guy" who wins friends by sharing his radio-building expertise, and young Jack Lemmon, in Once Too Often, as a smug suburbanite headed for a sickening car crash. Sex Hygiene, a 1942 VD film with gross-out closeups of pustulant penises and bizarre soaping rituals, was directed for the Navy by no less than John...
...Elian has regularly been trotted out for display in spotlights such as Disney World, and last month was put on a Spanish-language radio station in Miami to declare how much he wanted U.S. citizenship. Last week his Cuban father charged in a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno that the boy is being "unscrupulously manipulated." The Miami family's lawyer, Spencer Eig, says they might listen to AltaVista's idea, but "so far they've turned down" commercial offers. If so, it's a rare example of restraint in this more than two-month-long frenzy...
...half time of Super Bowl XXXIV in Atlanta, the NFL and Disney will unveil "Tapestry of Nations," a global-diversity play narrated by Edward James Olmos and featuring aerial dancers, puppets, a multigenerational choir, a symphony orchestra, and music by Phil Collins, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton and Christina Aguilera. Too much? Perhaps, though the quality of the Super Bowl's 10-min. themed extravaganzas may actually be improving. Some historical evidence...