Word: hollywood
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Less than three months after Tom Cruise suffered an ugly brushoff from his long-time studio home Paramount Pictures, the sidelined star has done what any self-respecting, really, really, really rich and famous guy would do - he got his own movie studio, and one with a storied Hollywood pedigree at that. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. (MGM) has announced a deal with Cruise and his production partner, Paula Wagner, to relaunch the United Artists studio (UA), the company founded by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith in 1919 and responsible for such iconic film franchises as James...
...years, three generations of Robert Blue's family have operated a luggage store at Hollywood and Vine, along the brass-starred Walk of Fame. Lucille Ball bought her suitcases there. The neighborhood fell into disrepair in recent years, though, with homeless people camping out on trash-strewn streets. Blue's shop was looking shabby too, its window displays outmoded, its linoleum worn. But when the City of Los Angeles moved to condemn his building--not to build a school or a fire station but to make way for a glitzy $500 million private hotel and condo complex--Blue...
...Robert Blue, back on Hollywood and Vine, the issue is fairness, whether the government seizes land or merely passes a law affecting the value of a home or business. "If you make an investment and the rules change," he says, "you should be compensated." It's up to his fellow taxpayers in California and the three other states to decide whether they are ready...
...What tends to scare people the most is the unexpected; the coffin in the middle of the room with a quivering lid catches your attention, while an actor lurks behind a draped archway off to the side. Though Hollywood-ish special affects and props can wow the crowd with goosebumps, it's the actors that turn the scream volume up. "People know the other stuff isn't real - the pop-up head or severed hand - but actors are real," explains Pickel. Plus, an actor can strike just at the right time to startle. "They know where the chickens hide," says...
...Most everyone, Christian or not, acknowledged these traditions. Jewish merchants decked the stores with trees and Santas, while Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley helped define the Christmas feeling with movies and music. "White Christmas," "A Christmas Song," "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" - who wrote these songs? The same people responsible for most of the great pop music of the early and mid-20th century: Jews. In 1964, when Phil Spector produced a great album of seasonal tunes sung by his house performers (the Crystals, the Ronettes, etc.), he didn't call it the Holiday Album. It was A Christmas...