Word: disneyized
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...that all there is?" singer Peggy Lee crooned in one of her biggest hits. Well, no. A Los Angeles jury last week awarded Lee at least $2.3 million of the profits Walt Disney Co. has racked up on videocassettes of its 1955 classic, Lady and the Tramp. Lee, 70, who sang four parts and co-wrote six songs for the animated film, sought $50 million under a contract that barred Disney from making "transcriptions" of her work without her consent. Lee had received just $3,500 for her contributions to the film...
...Disney executives can expect to whistle while they work, since the deal is already showing handsome returns. The firm is putting up only $160 million in equity. Investors stepped forward with an additional $1.2 billion, and banks and the government lent $2.6 billion. When the gates open, Disney will take 10% of admission revenues and 5% of food and merchandise receipts. It will also receive 49% of all profits. Estimated annual gross receipts for the first year: about $1.12 billion...
...subject of the French bureaucracy, Disney executives sound decidedly less bullish. For example, when Disney executives requested an extension of local water service to their park area, they had to seek about a dozen official approvals and clearances. To help navigate this sensitive thicket, Disney hired local consultants familiar with the rules of the game. Says Euro Disneyland president Robert Fitzpatrick: "Form is very important in France, much more so than in the U.S. You have to be sure you contact the right person and don't overlook someone...
...coming months, Disney will be hiring more and more employees, known in the corporate lingo as "cast members." They will have to abide by the company's strict appearance codes: men cannot have mustaches, beards or exposed tattoos, nor can they wear jeans. Women cannot wear any obtrusive jewelry or have "unusually colored" hair or long fingernails. "We're after a conservative, professional look," says Disney vice president Thorolf Degelmann. The company is looking for multilingual men and women from all over Europe who will be able to communicate with the non-French Europeans who are expected to visit...
French applicants will most likely oblige Disney's notions of a clean-cut appearance. But will their acquiescence spell the beginning of the end of French culture as we know it? Only the most virulent cultural chauvinists think so. Says Christian Cardon, head of the interministerial government delegation that is supervising the Disney project: "French culture cannot be threatened by Disney. Just because an amusement park will open, university students are not going to stop studying Sartre...