A magical Valentine's Day to remember at Hong Kong Disneyland 

Ex-Disney boss coming for talkfest 

Disney launches global campaign for Winnie the Pooh's 80th anniversary 

Apology sought from filmmaker

A magical Valentine's Day to remember at Hong Kong Disneyland

 

Love is in the air at Hong Kong Disneyland this month as the park celebrates its first Valentine's Day with a host of magical gift ideas and a sumptuous menu for two that are sure to inspire romance amongst couples.

Guests looking for a special gift for their loved ones need look no further than Main Street USA, the park's premier shopping street - where romance comes alive in a whirl of heart-themed gifts featuring the world's most famous couple – Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse – and other Disney friends.

Guys are sure to impress the ladies with a plush Disney friend – Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale - holding a pink or red satin love heart.

For the self-professed sweet tooth a range of decadent chocolates with succulent fillings presented in traditional decorative tins will delight either him or her and are perfect for sharing. Additional gifts ideas include heart themed desk sets, pen sets and hand-painted figurines of Mickey and Minnie. Gifts are priced from HK$35 – HK$450.

Disney collectors will swoon over the special Valentine's Day pin set featuring five specially designed romance pins presented in a velvet heart shape box. Each pin depicts two loveable Disney friends including Mickey and Minnie, Donald Duck and Daisy Duck, Chip and Dale, Woody and Jessie from Toy Story and Lilo and Stitch. The limited edition Valentine's Day pin sets are available from February 10 and are priced at HK$150 per set. Only 300 sets are available. Single romance-inspired pins are also available priced at HK$45 each.

For the ultimate romantic evening, couples can indulge in a specially crafted menu for two at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel's signature Cantonese restaurant – Crystal Lotus. The Magical St. Valentine's Day set dinner features four sumptuous courses including Chinese delicacies such as double-boiled fish maw, winter melon and whole conpoy soup, wok-fried scallops, fresh lily bulbs and glazed walnuts, steamed shrimp mousse and asparagus folded in abalone wrap, and double-boiled whole pear infused with mandarin peel.

The set dinner will be served on February 14 and priced at HK$680 per person (plus 10% service charge). Guests are welcome to call 3510 6280 to reserve their romantic evening.

Ex-Disney boss coming for talkfest

 

After a bruising 21 years as head of the Magic Kingdom, former Disney chief Michael Eisner is joining former US president Bill Clinton in Australia this month to share his thoughts on business leadership.

It's a new life for the Hollywood veteran, who has swapped battles with former friends, boardroom purges and critical biographies for the calmer world of public speaking, writing letters to his three sons, hosting a bi-monthly chat show and writing fiction. (This was the first time he had mentioned the fiction, Mr Eisner told The Sunday Age.)

Mr Eisner hasn't mellowed. Of former partners Bob and Harvey Weinstein, whose edgy, independent Miramax Films helped Disney win much-needed street credibility, he said they had lost a creative spark. "I loved the movies they made but didn't at the end of the day like what they'd become."

Mr Eisner, 63, will speak on management and leadership in business.

Disney launches global campaign for Winnie the Pooh's 80th anniversary

Disney is marking Winnie the Pooh's 80th anniversary in 2005/2006 with an 18-month celebration to be commemorated with an exciting range of entertainment activities and special edition products across the Asia Pacific region.

HK Disneyland to improve admission arrangements 

Walt Disney World Resort Moves Mountains To Celebrate New Expedition Everest Attraction 

Discovering your hidden Mickey 

HK Disneyland learns the ways of Chinese tourists 

ABC Kids, Jetix, Toon Disney, and Disney Channel 2006-07 programming 

One Mighty Weekend 

Walt Disney Internships 

RUMOR: Disney to buy stake in Apple's iTunes Store, could be preface to iTunes Store IPO

Officials attend Achieving the Dream conference at Disney World

HK Disneyland to improve admission arrangements

 

Hong Kong Disneyland will improve its ticketing and admission arrangements, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Henry Tang said Thursday, adding the park is liaising with the tourism sector to see how to address visitor demand.

Speaking after meeting with the park's management, Tang said he was very concerned that paying guests were unable to enter the theme park during the Lunar New Year holidays.

Noting the government attaches great importance to the possible negative impact of the incident on Hong Kong's image, Tang said the park's ticketing and admission arrangements have been reviewed.

Describing the meeting as a constructive discussion, the secretary said both parties also spoke about improving arrangements in future peak seasons.

Tang said the park has learned a lesson and promised to implement a series of measures to avoid recurrence.

Walt Disney World Resort Moves Mountains To Celebrate New Expedition Everest Attraction

 

New York City's famed Times Square will be transformed into the legendary Mount Everest on Feb. 15-16 by Walt Disney World Resort. A 57-story spectacular brings the Himalayas to life, with powerful avalanche effects, daytime pyrotechnics and the ferocious roar of the yeti, plus world-renowned aerialist acrobats performing a never-seen-before display of vertical acrobatics.

While Sylvania is responsible for giving the yeti his eyes, Hip Cricket will control their stare. Thanks to technology provided by Hip Cricket, visitors to Times Square can use their wireless phones to interact directly and in real time with the yeti by texting the word DISNEY to the short code "4YETI", which will make the yeti's eyes flash at a specific time.

For anyone not able to view the spectacular show in person, AOL will feature the event. Visitors on AOL also can enter an online contest that will award 25 lucky visitors to the site a trip for four to Walt Disney World Resort to experience an exclusive tour of Expedition Everest.

About Project Bandaloop

Project Bandaloop honors nature, community and the human spirit through dance. Project Bandaloop's choreography draws on aerial, vertical and horizontal movement to craft dances, many site-specific. Under the artistic direction of Amelia Rudolph, the company hopes to enrich the quality of life with their performances, out-reach and ability to bring dance to new audiences.

About Expedition Everest

Expedition Everest is the newest addition to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Rising from the mythical Himalayan village of Serka Zong, this runaway train adventure combines roller coaster thrills with the excitement of a close encounter of the hairy kind -- the fearsome yeti, protector of the mountain. Reaching speeds up to 50 mph with spiral curves and an 80-foot plummet, the runaway train speeds through a darkened mountain cavern to escape the wrath of the yeti. Peaking nearly 200 feet high and occupying about 6.2 acres, Expedition Everest is one of the 18 mountain attractions created by Walt Disney Imagineering at Disney theme parks worldwide.

The new attraction at Disney's Animal Kingdom is part of the 18-month "Happiest Celebration on Earth" celebrating 50 years of Disney theme parks globally and commemorating the 1955 opening of Disneyland.

About Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney's Animal Kingdom is a 500-acre theme park where the exciting worlds of wild and whimsical creatures come to life on an authentic African safari, in an Asian rain forest, on a trip back in time to the age of the dinosaurs, and in other attractions and shows brimming with stories about animals and encounters with Disney characters.

Discovering your hidden Mickey

The white-gloved one is coming to Manhattan.

Mickey Mouse, America’s most recognizable icon, has acquired exclusive new digs on Fifth Avenue, where an art gallery has been established in his honor.

This mouse is a true artist, not hindered in the least by his extremely high-pitched libretto voice and the anatomical anomaly of having only three fingers on each hand. To celebrate his arrival in the Big Apple, the Art of Disney Gallery will host a gala champagne reception at 7 p.m. Feb. 24.

The gallery will offer high-quality art featuring Mickey Mouse and other famous Disney characters. This event should be particularly attractive to collectors: Among the items available for purchase are rare animation art and lithographs, as well as new, original art, three-dimensional objects d’art and figurines of classic characters.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the multitude of Disney collectors,” said Aaron Babcock, who handles product development for the Arts and Collectibles sector of the Disney Corporation and follows trends in collectible art. “Collectors tend to vary: Some are looking exclusively for Disney art that captures a moment in time, and others tend to just stick with a particular collection, be it Lenox, Swarovski, Walt Disney Classics, Armani or other well-known character pieces. But I can tell you from experience that while art collections tend to wax and wane in
terms of popularity, Disney art has remained highly sought-after over the years. It’s stood the test of time.”

Although Mickey Mouse made his artistic debut in the 1928 production of “Steamboat Willie” at the Colony Theatre in New York City, he remains forever young in the hearts and minds of children of all ages. But he has undergone a few cosmetic changes through the years: The 1939 animated film “The Pointer” presented an upgraded image of Mickey, with a more pear-shaped body and more expression to his face. In the 1940s, Disney animators decided to add a three-dimensional effect to his ears, but today, Mickey Mouse looks much like he did in 1939, with the exception of a costume change.

Walt Disney was the original voice of Mickey Mouse; today, voice-over master Wayne Allwine provides Mickey’s linguistic interpretation. Animators originally gave Mickey only three fingers to save time: In the early days of animation, frames were drawn by hand — an arduous process in comparison with today’s computer-generated images — and drawing a simpler design of a mouse with three fingers and little elaboration helped to speed up the production process.

“Mickey Mouse remains popular simply because he tells great stories,” Babcock said. “Walt Disney once said that the reason for Mickey’s success is that he is every man. He has problems that have
to be solved, and a circle of friends to support him, and people can relate to that. Mickey Mouse is able to speak to audiences on many levels.”

As part of the gala celebration, three artists who have been closely associated with Disney will be actively participating in the grand opening festivities. Eric Robinson, a freelance artist for Disney, will host the event and have his original art on display. Two other artists, Trevor Carlton and Stephen Reis, will collaborate in making “live art” throughout the evening. Reis, a former animation artist for “The Simpsons,” and Carlton are known for their own kind of animated
style.

“They’re the rock stars of painting,” said Darlene Dumas, event manager for Merchandising Special Events at Disney. “They paint to the rhythm of the music and it’s always an exciting time. It’s fast and loud and they produce magnificent art.”

The duo will also turn a blank canvas into a work of art in front of audience members. The art will be displayed in the window of the store, on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 55th St.

“This is a celebration that people will want to be a part of,” Babcock said.

Admission to the semi-formal champagne gala reception is $50 and includes a champagne reception, a private auction, commemorative gifts and the chance to bid on original art. Reservations can be made by visiting www.disneygallery.com or by calling (407) 827-7600 between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

HK Disneyland learns the ways of Chinese tourists

Li Zeng, a fourteen-year-old Chinese tourist, wandered Hong Kong Disneyland yesterday -- and left after two hours.

Mr. Li isn't that familiar with Mickey Mouse and his companions, and he and his father didn't take any rides, buy souvenirs, or eat food. "We don't understand this park," said the teenager, waiting for his tour bus. "We gave up looking at the map."

Five months after Walt Disney Co. opened its Hong Kong theme park in a bid to tap the booming Chinese market, the cultural divide that separates Mickey and Mr. Li is still a major challenge. It is one that the company is trying hard to bridge, though with mixed results.

The need to adapt was on display here last week. After Disney underestimated the number of people who would visit during mainland China's weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, vacationing crowds poured in, filling the park to its maximum capacity. Disney officials ordered the gates shut, and hundreds of angry guests from China who held valid tickets found themselves unable to enter. Some engaged in shouting matches with park staff, and at least one excluded family tried to pass a child over the park's wrought-iron fence.

Before last week, Disney's problem wasn't too many visitors, but the flak it was getting for having too few. It drew public rebuke over low attendance from local politicians, who questioned the wisdom of the Hong Kong government's 57% stake in the park. Local retailers said they didn't get the sales boost they were expecting from the new tourists Disneyland had promised to draw.

The company is "still learning" about Chinese culture, said the park's managing director, Bill Ernest, on Saturday during an emotional public apology for last week's ticket fiasco.

Jay Rasulo, the head of Disney's theme-park division, notes it is early days yet and stresses the need to put such criticism in "context." He says overall guest experiences at the park are "some of the best in the world," with over 90% of the visitors Disney interviewed last week saying they had a positive time. "Part of the way we make people happy is that we listen, learn and adjust as necessary," said Mr. Rasulo.

These lessons are crucial for Disney as Chief Executive Robert Iger holds what he calls "ongoing negotiations" to open another Asian park in Shanghai and seeks to build the company's consumer products, movie and television business in China.

Disney has trumpeted its attempts to accommodate Chinese culture, some of which later drew fire. Conservationists blasted the company for planning to serve environmentally unfriendly shark's fin soup, and Disney later decided to forgo the practice. Efforts to woo local celebrities backfired when some complained of mistreatment by visiting American Disney executives. Disney designed the park for Chinese tourists, who the company said preferred photo opportunities over roller coasters. Many visitors now criticize the park for being too small.

Chinese travel agencies also have noted some visitor befuddlement. "Many customers complain they do not know how to enjoy Disneyland," says Chen Mei, the international tours manager of the Ju Cheng agency, which brings groups to the park from the city of Zhongshan in southern China. Some mainland tourists show up at the park only to walk aimlessly around Main Street U.S.A. and snap a few photos with Marie the Cat -- a minor character from the 1970's film "The Aristocats." Marie is familiar to some from the movie's repeat showings in southern China. She also happens to look like another Asian favorite, Hello Kitty.

Even before last week's incident, Disney was changing the way it does business at the park. Disney invited in more Chinese celebrities and made sure they got VIP treatment. It cut the cost of tickets for local residents during a low period for tourists, and added a local promotion, artificial snow, to Hong Kong's subtropical climate. Disney also now produces marketing that includes the testimonials of real people who have visited the park, instead of just slick studio shots.

To help confused visitors, since November Disney has started producing special "one-day trip guides" in Chinese, beyond the basic maps, to explain in clear terms exactly how to enjoy Disneyland -- and why it is enjoyable. "You can get together with family to relax and improve communication and relationships with the people you love," reads the guide. Disney hands out the fliers inside the park, and at other Hong Kong tourist attractions.

Perhaps most significantly for park attendance, Hong Kong Disneyland is changing the way it works with Chinese travel agents.

Most mainland Chinese still take vacations through package tours, and they make up about 50% of the Chinese visitors to the park. The guides who direct these tours frequently select hotels, restaurants, shopping stops and even tour destinations based on where they share in the profits. Because of lucrative deals with tour operators, one Hong Kong transvestite cabaret brags that its five-times-a-day $20 show draws more Chinese tourists on a regular basis than Disneyland.

Mr. Ernest says Disney, which doesn't have much experience with such financial arrangements, now realizes that changing something as simple as how it offers dinners can make a big difference to the local travel industry. Many tour packages for visitors from China include pre-arranged dinners. Tour operators typically get a cut of the meal costs. Without group dinner deals and significant commissions, Disney wasn't offering guides much financial incentive to funnel tourists into the park. Now Mr. Ernest says he is considering starting a "dining with Disney" program. Special group breakfasts with Disney characters are another option, he says.

Disney is reaching out in other ways. When the Ju Cheng agency publicly threatened to sue over last week's ticket problem, Disney offered a conciliatory tone -- and refunds for people who couldn't come back on another day. "We are probably as critical on ourselves as anybody is with us," says Mr. Ernest.

To build relationships, Disney is giving Chinese travel agents a 50% personal discount if they come visit its park and hotels. The company also beefed up incentives for tour operators to build a Disneyland visit into packages by increasing the margin it offered them to about $2.50 per adult ticket. And it changed its sales packages to include open-ended instead of just fixed-date tickets so operators wouldn't have to eat the cost of returned tickets.

It was the old ticketing system combined with unexpected crowds, says Disney's Mr. Ernest, which created the overcrowding problems last week.

Disney declines to release specific attendance figures. When legislators in the Hong Kong government demanded some public accountability in late November, two months after the park's mid-September opening, Disney said that it had hosted more than one million guests. While that figure suggests that the park is behind its 5.6 million forecast for the opening year, Mr. Rasulo says the park still expects to reach that level.

In the wake of the changes, Disney officials say overall attendance is "ramping up," particularly among mainland Chinese tourists, whose attendance during the Lunar New Year period more than doubled compared with another weeklong Chinese holiday in October.

Understanding the peaks and troughs of attendance is another thing Disney concedes it has yet to master. Mr. Rasulo noted that Disney once suffered through some overcrowding at the EuroDisney park based in Paris: after the first summer in 1992, the park was inundated in September with locals who had been putting off their trips to avoid the early wave of tourists.

ABC Kids, Jetix, Toon Disney, and Disney Channel 2006-07 programming

Disney ABC Kids Networks today unveiled its programming slate for the 2006-07 television season, a powerful mix of live action and animated programming, reaching every segment of youth from kids and tweens to preschoolers, across its multiplex of television platforms – ABC Kids, Toon Disney, Jetix and Disney Channel. A total of 849 new episodes, 11 new series and 25 new movies including seven from the blockbuster Disney Channel Original Movie franchise, will debut during the season. Disney ABC Kids Networks also outlined its capability to marshal the strength of The Walt Disney Company's unparalleled connection with kids and families, by helping to deliver the perfect mix of audiences, extending across online, radio, print and more.

The announcement was made by Gary Marsh, President, Entertainment, Disney Channel Worldwide, and Tricia Wilber, Senior Vice President, Advertising Sales and Promotions, Disney ABC Cable Networks Group, during a presentation to advertisers.

(Editors please note: images are available for download at www.abccngpressinfo.com. Registration required.)

Marsh said, "As the momentum of our ratings success builds, we are committed to offering high-quality stories and characters that connect with kids and families. Our winning mix of programming across our cable channels and broadcast network allows us to reach diverse targeted audiences and deliver some of the biggest hits – and stars -- for kids."

Wilber said, "We've had a remarkable year of growth and through a unique multiplex approach, continue to provide our clients a broad reach, a diverse mix of kid viewers, the greatest variety of traditional and non-traditional environments in the marketplace, and quality and creativity for customized opportunities."

ABC KIDS

ABC Kids, the Saturday morning programming block on the ABC Television Network, is up 7% with Kids 6-11 and 21% with Boys 6-11, season-to-date. ABC Kids will add the original animated comedy "The Replacements" (also premiering in September on Disney Channel) and "Hannah Montana," a live-action comedy starring Miley Cyrus and her father Billy Ray Cyrus (debuting Friday, March 24 on Disney Channel). An hour block of the Jetix action/adventure hit "Power Rangers: Mystic Force," the 14th edition of the popular franchise, will be showcased on ABC Kids.

TOON DISNEY / JETIX

Toon Disney, the #1 co-viewing destination for Kids 6-11 and Adults 18-49, reaches over 51 million homes and continues to post impressive ratings growth. Season-to-date, its total day programming is up 8% and its weekday block (2:00-7:00 p.m.) is up 23% with Kids 6-11.

As of Fall 2006, Toon Disney will be the exclusive destination for Jetix programming. The popular block will feature more than 100 hours of comedic action/adventure each week.

Coming to the Jetix block is the new animated comedy/action/adventure "Yin Yang Yo," from Walt Disney Television Animation, and the 15th iteration of "Power Rangers," the international hit franchise. Several animated series also join the line-up including "Jackie Chan Adventures," "Oban Star-Racers," "Mon Colle Knights" and "NASCAR Racers."

This season, Toon Disney will also premiere three animated series also seen on Disney Channel: the comedy/adventure "American Dragon: Jake Long," the comedy/adventure "Lilo & Stitch: The Series" and the comedy "The Buzz on Maggie," each produced by Walt Disney Television Animation.

DISNEY CHANNEL

For 2005, the kid-driven, family inclusive Disney Channel raised the bar and reached new ratings milestones. Disney Channel primetime ranked as the #1 basic cable network among Kids 6-11 and Tweens 9-14 for the third consecutive year. It also averaged its highest ever yearly delivery of Households, Total Viewers/Persons 2+, Kids 6-11, Girls 6-11 and Tweens 9-14. 2005 also marked Disney Channel primetime's second highest rated year ever with Tweens 9-14. Season-to-date, Disney Channel's total day has delivered significant double-digit ratings gains, up 17% with Kids 2-11, up 28% with Kids 6-11 and up 20% with Tweens 9-14.

During the 2006-07 season, Disney Channel will introduce two new series and seven new Disney Channel Original Movies.

The new animated comedy "The Replacements" will debut in September 2006 on Disney Channel and ABC Kids. As previously announced, the live-action comedy "Hannah Montana" will debut on Friday, March 24.

On the heels of its record-breaking Disney Channel Original Movies "Twitches" and "High School Musical," the movie franchise will deliver the comedy/adventure "Cow Belles" starring sisters Alyson Michalka (Disney Channel's "Phil of the Future") and Amanda Michalka, also known as recording artists Aly & AJ. It premieres Friday, March 24 (8:00 p.m. ET/PT), along with "Hannah Montana." Other Disney Channel Original Movies premiering this season are the action/adventure "Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior" (working title), starring Brenda Song of "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody," "How My Personal Journal Became A Bestseller" (working title) starring Danielle and Kay Panabaker and "The Cheetah Girls 2," the sequel

to the original smash hit, starring kid and tween favorite Raven-Symoné ("That's So Raven"), Adrienne Bailon, Sabrina Bryan and Kiely Williams.

ABC Kids' 2006-07 program schedule and new series descriptions follow. Season premiere dates and complete season schedules for Toon Disney, Jetix and Disney Channel will be announced at a later date.

SATURDAYS

9:00 a.m., ET / 8:00 a.m., PT "The Emperor's New School"

9:30 a.m., ET / 8:30 a.m., PT "The Replacements" (new series)

10:00 a.m., ET / 9:00 a.m., PT "That's So Raven"

10:30 a.m., ET / 9:30 a.m., PT "That's So Raven"

11:00 a.m., ET / 10:00 a.m., PT "Hannah Montana" (new series)

11:30 a.m., ET / 10:30 a.m., PT "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody"

12:00 noon, ET / 11:00 a.m., PT "Power Rangers: Mystic Force"

12:30 p.m., ET / 11:30 a.m., PT "Power Rangers: Mystic Force"

"The Replacements" (coming to ABC Kids and Disney Channel in September 2006), is an animated comedy that chronicles Riley and her younger brother Todd, who were orphans until they answered an ad for Fleemco Replacement Parents and ordered two "cool" parents. Their new mom is Agent K, a British super-spy, and dad is renowned stuntman Dick Daring. Joined by CAR, Agent K's super-intelligent talking spy car, together they become a zany, unconventional family. The voice cast includes Nancy Cartwright ("The Simpsons," "Kim Possible") as Todd, Grey Delisle ("Fairly Odd Parents") as older sister Riley, Kath Soucie ("Pooh's Heffalump Movie") as Agent K, Bryan Cranston ("Malcolm in the Middle") as Dick Daring and David McCallum") as CAR. The series was created by acclaimed children's author and illustrator Dan Santat (The Guild of Geniuses). The executive producer is Jack Thomas ("Fairly Odd Parents") and Heather Martinez ("SpongeBob SquarePants," "Fairly Odd Parents") is the director. "The Replacements" is produced by Walt Disney Television Animation.

Disney Channel's upcoming "Hannah Montana," a live-action comedy premieres in Fall 2006 on ABC Kids. It follows a teen with a secret life as a world-famous pop star. At first glance, Miley Stewart is a typical tween who lives with her widowed dad (a songwriter) and older brother. But unbeknownst to her friends and classmates, Miley is also Hannah Montana. With a little creative costuming, Miley has discovered she can have the best of both worlds – the fame and fortune of a famous singer and the fun of middle school with her best friends Lilly and Oliver. That is until Lilly stumbles across Miley's secret. 13-year-old newcomer Miley Cyrus stars as Hannah Montana, 13-year-old Emily Osment and 14-year-old Mitchell Musso are her best friends, and teen actor Jason Earles plays her older brother.

Recording artist Billy Ray Cyrus (Miley's real-life father) stars as Miley Stewart's father, Robby. Michael Poryes ("That's So Raven," "Veronica's Closet") and Steve Petermen ("Murphy Brown," "Suddenly Susan") are the series' executive producers. "Hannah Montana" is from It's A Laugh Productions in association with Disney Channel.

New series joining the Toon Disney / Jetix schedule:

The animated comedy/adventure "Yin Yang Yo" introduces a Panda named Master Yo, the world's last teacher of the mystical art of Woo Foo, whose guidance will help two bunnies, Yin and Yang, overcome their sibling rivalry and work together to defeat the always evil and often hilarious forces of their strange and supernatural world. This unlikely team of one Panda and two bunnies is the world's only hope for survival. It is a production of Walt Disney Television Animation.

The live-action "Power Rangers" franchise delivers its 15th installment with an all-new theme, new culturally diverse characters and compelling stories of good triumphing over evil. "Power Rangers: Drive Force" (working title). It is a production of Ranger Productions Ltd.

"Jackie Chan Adventures," an animated series featuring the international superstar and underdog hero Jackie Chan, delivers his acrobatic style of action to the Jetix block in September 2006. The series celebrates Chinese culture as Jackie, an ancient artifact expert and special government agent, along with his feisty 11-year-old niece Jade and imperfect wizard Uncle, embarks on a global quest to recover powerful artifacts representing the Chinese zodiac, each capable of unleashing a dangerous massive power. The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television.

"Oban Star-Racers," an animated galactic adventure set in the year 2082, will premiere in June 2006 during Jetix on Toon Disney. The stories follow an alien spaceship that's arrived to collect Earth's fastest star-racing heroes for The Greatest Race of Oban, one that only takes place every 10,000 years. Rebellious teenager Molly joins Earth's racing team, along with Rick Thunderbolt, Jordan, Stan and Koji, for the thrilling adventures. The series is produced by Sav! the World Productions.

One Mighty Weekend

Johnny Chisholm, founder and producer of Orlando's legendary "One Mighty Weekend" events at Walt Disney World, today announced that the Elton John AIDS Foundation ( http://www.ejaf.org ) will be the beneficiary of the June 1-4 "One Mighty Weekend" ( http://www.onemightyweekend.com ) celebration. Since its inception 12 years ago, One Mighty Weekend has become the signature event for Orlando's annual gay and lesbian celebration, attracting visitors from 30 countries around the globe.

"One Mighty Weekend is bigger than one city or one country," Chisholm said. "That's why we selected a respected, nonprofit organization founded and chaired by Sir Elton John. In our twelfth year of this event, we are so proud to be able to support an organization that is effectively addressing one of the world's most serious public health problems."

One Mighty Weekend includes three days of events on Disney properties and other nearby locations that attract more than 135,000 people from all over the world. Performances by A-list entertainers, theme parties and park activities are the highlights of a weekend that organizers estimate will generate $150 million in revenue for the Orlando area.

"The Elton John AIDS Foundation is proud to be the beneficiary of this year's One Mighty Weekend celebration in Orlando," said EJAF Executive Director Scott Campbell. "The funds received from this event will help further the critical work of the Elton John AIDS Foundation in fighting AIDS across the U.S. and throughout the world."

Since its establishment in 1992 by Founder and Chairman Sir Elton John, the Elton John AIDS Foundation (EJAF) has raised over $80 million to support HIV/AIDS prevention and service programs in 55 countries around the globe. Today, EJAF is one of the world's leading nonprofit HIV/AIDS organizations. EJAF focuses on supporting community-based prevention education programs, harm reduction programs, and direct services to persons living with HIV/AIDS, especially populations with special needs. These efforts include HIV/AIDS- related physical and mental health services, HIV testing and counseling, street outreach and education, food distribution, assisted living services, social service coordination, and community volunteer recruitment and support.

Walt Disney Internships 

Walt Disney World College Program Recruiters are coming to the UNCG campus, Feb 21-22, in search of eager college kids looking to make money and earn college credit at the same time. This magical internship opportunity is open to all majors and all levels. It's an opportunity of a lifetime. Interested? See the presentation at UNCG.

Presentation is set for 4:00 pm both days in the Bryan Building, room 160. Attendance at the presentation is required in order to apply for the internship. However if you can't make it don't worry there will be more opportunites here on campus later in the semester.

You can find more information at the Disney college program Web site or you can contact your nearest Elon University Disney campus representative.

link: http://www.wdwcollegeprogram.com/sap/its/mimes/zh_wdwcp/apply/apply.html

RUMOR: Disney to buy stake in Apple's iTunes Store, could be preface to iTunes Store IPO

"We are hearing some chatter this morning about Apple Computer (AAPL) that we can't confirm, but found interesting nonetheless. The rumor is that Disney (DIS) could buy a stake in AAPL's iTunes, which could then be a first step towards an iTunes IPO. This is a new one to us, and this type of AAPL/DIS rumor could be motivated by the fact that Steve Jobs will be on the DIS board following its acquisition of PIXR. Some of the initial feedback we heard on this was skeptical, so again, just passing this one along," Briefing.com reports.

Officials attend Achieving the Dream conference at Disney World

Sixteen district officials attended the Achieving the Dream Strategy Institute 2006 at the Hilton in the Walt Disney World Resort Jan. 29-Feb. 1.

Jo-Carol Fabianke, the district’s Achieving the Dream director, said she hasn’t received the expenditure tallies from the four colleges but projects the price tag will inch toward $25,000. The total will be split between the district and the Lumina Foundation.

The initiative, designed by the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation, granted the Alamo Community College District $400,000 to ensure higher graduation rates among minority students. The district subsequently added $300,000.

As part of the agreement with the foundation, beginning in 2004, the district received $100,000 a year for four years.

The foundation requires representatives of the district and 34 other colleges to attend an annual meeting.

While other colleges were encouraged to bring four representatives, the district is the only entity with multiple colleges.

The institute’s agenda outlined the conference’s purpose to teach application of data gathered from the college’s first two years of research into potential solutions as well as to allow participants to compare plans to meet the initiative’s overall goals. Those goals are higher success rates in remedial classes, “gatekeeper” courses (core classes that are prerequisites for higher-level courses) and increasing the number of first-time-in-college students who maintain semester-to-semester persistence. But much of the conference was dedicated to getting students through remedial math.

Fabianke said she was impressed by one college’s efforts to usher students into college algebra. By offering a two-to-three-hour refresher course before placement tests, the college hopes to keep more students out of remedial math.

Though it makes sense to her, she isn’t calling for a district wide implementation.

Fabianke said her hotel was on the fringes of Disney World, but no one from the group ventured into the magic Kingdom. “We didn’t have time,” she said.

Animated Star Oswald the Lucky Rabbit returns to Disney 

Deal sends Al Michaels to NBC for lost cartoon character 

Japan Disneyland firm Oriental reports profit fall 

Disney denies park deal with Shanghai 

Disney announces finalists of 'Start Your story Contest' 

Reality Shapes Disney Garb 

Everest Update on soft openings 

Pixar Takes Over Making Toy Story 3 

Andy Fickman To Direct 'Daddy's Girl' 

Disney to Offer Full-Length Episodes on Broadband 

Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue Now Available for Nintendo DS 

Kingdom Hearts II gets North American release date 

ABC Undertakes Musical 'Operacion'

Animated Star Oswald the Lucky Rabbit returns to Disney

 

Disney President and Chief Executive Officer Robert A. Iger announced today the return of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit to The Walt Disney Company by agreement with NBC/Universal, the company that had previously owned the rights to Oswald since his theatrical debut in 1927.

In the deadly serious business of sports, a cartoon character from 1927 played a role in Al Michaels' hop from Monday Night Football to NBC.

The network traded rights to Ryder Cup matches, Olympics highlights, historic cartoon character Oswald the Rabbit and more to ESPN to acquire the services of Emmy-winner Michaels for its Sunday night games it was announced Thursday.

NBC takes over Sunday night next season from ESPN, which will broadcast Monday Night Football. John Madden, Michaels' partner for the last four seasons, agreed in June to a six-year contract with NBC.

Besides Madden and Michaels, NBC will have Bob Costas and Cris Collinsworth as co-hosts of the network's studio show.

"When we made the deal with the NFL this spring, there were four key stars I knew I wanted to build our football team around, but I wondered from the beginning, if I would be lucky enough to get them all," NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said in a statement Thursday.

To get the final piece of Ebersol's team, NBC gave ESPN broader access to the Olympics, Ryder Cup golf, Notre Dame football, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness.

NBC also returned Oswald the Rabbit to The Walt Disney Company almost 80 years after the character played a role in the development of Disney's signature icon.

Walt Disney produced 26 Oswald cartoons in 1927, but Universal distributed the series and owned the rights to the character, prompting Disney to develop Mickey Mouse.

Specifically, ESPN gets:

• Rights to broadcast live Friday coverage of the Ryder Cup golf championship between the United States and Europe in 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014, as well as the right to re-air NBC coverage and extended highlights.

• Expanded Olympics highlights from this year through 2012.

• Monday Night Football promotions during the NBC Sunday night through 2011.

• Expanded highlights from Notre Dame football, the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness through 2011.

When the Monday games move to ESPN next season, retired quarterback Joe Theismann, Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico will be in the ESPN booth.

Michaels had been with ABC since 1976 and had been the play-by-play voice of Monday Night Football since 1986, when he replaced Frank Gifford.

Japan Disneyland firm Oriental reports profit fall

Japan's Oriental Land Co. (4661.T), operator of the Tokyo Disney resorts, reported a 9 percent decline in nine-month net profit on Thursday, reflecting a fall in visitor numbers, but it kept its full-year outlook.

The company said its net profit totaled 16.54 billion yen ($139.6 million) in the April-December period, against 18.19 billion yen a year earlier. The company also said it was hurt by increased costs from offering special events for longer periods.

For the year to March, Oriental Land stood by its net profit forecast of 14.4 billion yen, in line with a consensus projection in a poll of seven analysts by Reuters Estimates.

The full-year outlook is lower than nine-month earnings because the Tokyo Disney resorts -- Disneyland and the adjacent DisneySea -- usually draw fewer visitors in the colder months of the fourth quarter.

Sales rose 0.6 percent to 257.85 billion yen, helped by the addition of a new hotel.

Shares in Oriental Land, which has a licensing pact with Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N), fell 8 percent in the nine months, underperforming a 28 percent rise in the Tokyo Stock Exchange's services sector sub index (.ISVCS.T).

Prior to the announcement, the stock closed down 1.32 percent at 6,720 yen, while the sub index ended up 0.61 percent. The Nikkei average <.N225> gained 1.03 percent. ($1=118.49 yen)

Disney denies park deal with Shanghai

Walt Disney Co yesterday moved to quell speculation that it is on the verge of reaching a deal with the government over a proposal for a Disneyland theme park in Shanghai.

Rumors of an impending agreement reached fever pitch on Tuesday after Robert Iger, Disney's president and CEO, was quoted on Hong Kong Cable TV as saying talks with the Chinese Government were "ongoing."

On Wall Street, Disney stock climbed almost 7 per cent by the market's close on Tuesday, its highest price in six months, but company spokeswoman Allanah Goss was quick to dispel any ideas that an agreement was imminent.

"There is nothing new to report on the progress of Shanghai discussions," she said. "The Walt Disney Co has not reached an agreement with Shanghai to build a second theme park in China. If we were to reach an agreement for a second park in China, it would not open before 2010.

"China is a priority for the entire company and we have a continuing dialogue about a variety of Disney initiatives, including television, motion pictures and consumer products, of which theme parks are only a part."

The Shanghai municipal government yesterday refused to comment on whether negotiations were taking place.

Although stories about a Shanghai Disneyland have been circulating since 2003, all sides have remained tight-lipped about concrete progress one reason Iger's comment sparked such a storm.

Since the opening of Disneyland Hong Kong last September, speculation on the company's plans for Shanghai has intensified, but both the company and Hong Kong's Economic Development and Labor Bureau agree that no rival Disneyland will open on the Chinese mainland until at least 2010.

At the time the Hong Kong park opened, China Radio International reported Shanghai Disneyland would open in 2012 and identified a 500-hectare site in Pudong's Chuansha Town as having been earmarked for the development.

Disney announces finalists of 'Start Your story Contest'

 

Disney Channel has named the 10 finalists for the final viewer's voting round of 'Start Your story Contest' presented by Microsoft XP. The first phase of the contest has triggered off a huge response with entries in excess of 25,000, making it a close fight for the top 10 slot.

Reality Shapes Disney Garb

 

Expanding waistlines, skin-cancer concerns and a diverse workforce mean a costume change for the theme parks' ‘cast members.'

 

It's not such a small world after all. As Disneyland celebrates its 50th birthday, the park is grappling with a harsh reality of middle age: Mickey Mouse's entourage has put on a few pounds.

To accommodate the ballooning bodies of American workers, the Magic Kingdom is redesigning some of its costumes for ride operators, shop clerks, waitresses and other employees.

A couple of decades ago, the park's wardrobe department stocked only a narrow range of sizes. Today, the uniforms for women extend from size 2 to 30. And men's trousers have stretched to 58-inch waists.

The super-sizing of costumes is the latest wrinkle in the park's unending quest to balance Walt Disney's storybook vision of perfection against real-world practicalities.

The demise of longtime bans on mustaches and cornrow hairstyles drew considerable publicity a few years ago. But the shift on weight escaped attention. Although employee contracts still require medical leaves for workers who are "unable to maintain their physical proportions," the clause is no longer enforced.

Disney officials downplay the issue, saying they're simply aiming for a more diverse workforce. But outside observers say a tight labor market for low-paying jobs has forced the company to loosen its strict personal-appearance standards.

"Disneyland can't be as picky as it used to be," said Jamie O'Boyle, a theme-park scholar at the Center for Cultural Studies & Analysis in Philadelphia.

Employers elsewhere are facing similar issues. In the airline industry, for example, a series of lawsuits wiped out weight limits for flight attendants. And some military officials consider obesity a threat to national security, warning of recruitment shortfalls unless weight standards are eased. Other employers are pressuring overweight workers to shed pounds to control soaring health insurance costs.

"Obesity is the issue du jour," said Bill O'Brien, a Minneapolis-based employment attorney. "It's everywhere you turn."

Behind Space Mountain, in a building filled with severed Goofy heads and seamstresses toiling over smashed Tigger tails, Disney's costume maestros direct the resort's massive clothing operation. It's their job to outfit the 14,000 humans and 700 audio-animatronic figures at Disneyland and California Adventure.

The first clue to Disney's costume makeover hangs in an upstairs hall: a photo montage of thin 1966 employees next to snapshots of more recent "cast members," who come in a smorgasbord of shapes and sizes.

Nearby, a conference room displays sketches of five new costumes. One shows a more chaste tour guide ensemble worn by a gray-haired woman in her 50s.

"You'd have never seen that 20 years ago," said David Koenig, author of "Mouse Tales," a behind-the-scenes history of the Magic Kingdom. Early tour guide slots were reserved for the prettiest young women, he said. Clad in jockey-style threads with velvet hats, riding crops and short plaid skirts, they escorted clusters of guests and VIPs around the park.

Today's guides include middle-aged women and senior citizens who "aren't as comfortable in a short skirt," so the costume is being overhauled for the first time in four decades, said Robbin Almand, director of entertainment services for Disneyland Resort.

The 2006 version, scheduled to debut this summer, features a longer hemline and looser jacket.

"Very few Americans in service industry jobs in the early 21st century have the figure to pull off uniforms with short skirts and form-fitted blouses,"  "The new costumes … feature cuts and styles that hide the figure rather than flatter it."

Rounder physiques aren't the only issue Disney designers must take into account these days.

"Sun protection is a big thing now," said Jess Neudauer, a costume production manager. Skin cancer anxieties spurred a mandate for 3-inch brims on all hats. It can be a challenge to design a hat that looks as if it's from a certain historical period but has a big brim for sun protection, he said.

Dressing Disney cast members isn't cheap. The hotel uniforms in the Tower of Terror ride at California Adventure cost more than $1,000 apiece, the priciest get-ups in the Disney empire. And park managers stock at least four backup costumes for each employee and robotic character, to stand in during repairs or laundering.

In the 1990s, to curb spiraling wardrobe budgets, Disney shifted toward generic attire. In Adventureland, for example, it seemed as if "cast members fell into a giant vat of khaki," Lutz said.

Everest Update on soft openings

Everest is now running most days in it's preview format. Remember, this doesn't mean the ride is guaranteed to be open when you visit. The official opening date still remains April 7 2006.

NOTE: Everest is not expected to be operating at all on Friday 10th February 2006.

Pixar Takes Over Making Toy Story 3

 

There's a bit of major news in a Bloomberg report today on Disney's quarterly earnings. Disney CEO Robert Iger reportedly stated that Pixar will now begin producing about two films a year (up from their previous goal of one every year) and Pixar will take over production on Toy Story 3.

Andy Fickman To Direct 'Daddy's Girl'

 

Andy Fickman has signed on to develop and direct Walt Disney Pictures Daddy's Girl, says the Hollywood Reporter.

The feature, which stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, follows an NFL quarterback living the bachelor lifestyle who discovers that he has a 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.

The script was written by Nichole Millard and Kathryn Price, and will be produced by Mark Ciardi and Gordon Gray.

Disney to Offer Full-Length Episodes on Broadband

The Disney Channel will begin offering full-length episodes of several of its series on DisneyChannel.com and Jetix.tv beginning this spring.

The series being offered via broadband include Kim Possible, Power Rangers and shows like Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, part of Jetix, the network's action adventure block.

Like other broadband services, such as Nickelodeon's TurboNick, Disney's shows will be available on-demand for free and ad-supported, with both streaming video ads and accompanying banner placements.

Unlike TurboNick, which features a wide variety of both current and older Nickelodeon series, Disney Channel's roster of shows will be limited to current series. There are no plans to preview episodes of shows prior to their appearance on cable, as has happened with TurboNick, according to Albert Chang, executive vp of digital media for the Disney ABC Television Group.

Already, The Disney Channel sells full-length episodes of its hits "That's So Raven" and "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" through Apple's iTunes Video Store. The network's strategy is about providing its young fans with content wherever they might want it, added Chang.

"Offering full episodes of our company's most popular kids' shows online not only creates a unique, interactive entertainment experience for our young viewers, but is further evidence of our continued dedication to utilize technology to provide consumers with choice," he said. "We want to ensure that consumers have the ability to connect with our content when, where and how they choose."

In addition to its series, DisneyChannel.com will also feature a variety of short-form content, including music videos and extras from Disney Channel movies. Content will be refreshed on a weekly basis.

Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue Now Available for Nintendo DS

THQ Inc., announced the release of Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue for Nintendo DS. Families will now be able to follow the new adventures of Nemo and The Tank Gang from the beloved Academy Award-winning film Finding Nemo. Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue is now available at retail outlets throughout North America.

The original Finding Nemo video game, which launched May 2003, continues to win the hearts of gamers both young and old, having earned best-seller status as a "Greatest Hit" on Sony PlayStation®2, a "Platinum Family Hit" on Microsoft Xbox(TM) and a "Players Choice" on Nintendo Game Cube(TM). In addition, THQ has shipped more than seven million units across multiple platforms in more than 40 international territories.

"The Finding Nemo video games have been a tremendous hit for THQ at retail, illustrating the success the company has had in working with both Disney and Pixar," said John Ardell, director of global brand marketing, THQ. "THQ is thrilled to offer a new handheld experience with Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue on Nintendo DS, extending the Finding Nemo franchise for both fans of the film and video games."

About Finding Nemo: Escape to the Big Blue

After years of aquarium life, the Tank Gang is finally ready to make a daring break for the deep blue sea. The beloved characters from the film including Nemo, Marlin and Dory lend a helping fin as their briny buddies dive deep into the unknown on an incredible journey to find a brand new home in the coral reef. The game utilizes the Nintendo DS touch screen to take players on an adventure through more than 20 mini-games. Players will also be able to utilize the Nintendo DS microphone and wireless capabilities for multiplayer mode.

Kingdom Hearts II gets North American release date

Since the introduction of the first edition of Kingdom Hearts --the vastly popular collaborative project of Disney and Square Enix--in 2002, players have been anxiously waiting for the sequel. To those players, you'll be pleased to know that your wait is almost over.

Kingdom Hearts 2 is set for release in a little more than one month, and--from what it appears--the long wait may have been worth it. Kingdom Hearts 2 will feature more than 100 Disney characters--some very old and some new--along with a mix of familiar characters from previous Sqaure Enix titles. Players will be able to discover the new worlds of "The Lion King," "Pirates of the Caribbean," and "Tron"--just to name few--in addition to some of the worlds visited from the first game. Kingdom Hearts 2 will also feature an all-star cast.

So, Kingdom Hearts fans, be patient a little while longer as Kingdom Hearts 2 finally comes to the PS2 on March 28, 2006.

ABC Undertakes Musical 'Operacion'

Disney CFO says U.S. bookings ahead vs. year ago 

Disney Likely To Continue Reducing Equity Capitalization 

Disney, Pixar shares up after Disney results 

ESPN unveils 'Monday Night' team 

Disney expects to release Pixar rat film in 2007 

Square Enix and Disney's Buena Vista Games Unveil All-Star Voice Cast for Kingdom Hearts II

Everest in the City 

Pittsburgh Steelers Receiver Hines Ward Takes 'The Bus' to Walt Disney World 

Trudy-Disney License Renewal 

Michaels out at 'Monday Night Football' 

Disney: Cautiously Optimistic 

Q&A with Michael Eisner 

Disney proud to shoot in New Orleans

Affleck & Damon to Reunite for Disney Drama

Disney CFO says U.S. bookings ahead vs. year ago

 

The Walt Disney Co. is seeing hotel bookings at its U.S. parks in its current quarter running ahead of the year-ago period, the company's chief financial officer said on Monday.

"Rooms on the books at our domestic parks for (the second quarter) are trending slightly ahead" of last year, said Thomas Staggs, Disney CFO, on a conference call with analysts to discuss its quarterly results.

He added that the later timing of Easter in 2006 will mean eight fewer vacation days in this current, second quarter for Disney than last year.

Advertising sales at Disney-owned television stations are pacing 8 percent ahead of the year-ago second quarter, Staggs said on the call.

Disney Likely To Continue Reducing Equity Capitalization

Prudential Equity Group analyst Katherine Styponias raised the target price on shares of The Walt Disney Company to $36 from $34 after the company announced results for the first quarter of fiscal 2006 that “soundly beat expectations.”

On Monday, Disney (nyse: DIS) reported first-quarter results of 35 cents per share, beating the consensus estimate and the analyst’s estimate of 30 cents. The results excluded a gain a 2 cents per share from sales of a cable television equity investment and magazine business.

The analyst reiterated a rating of “overweight” on Disney shares.

"We believe the company will continue to shrink its equity capitalization for a total of 6% to 7% over the next 12 months,” Styponias wrote in a recent note to investors.

Disney also announced yesterday the sale of its ABC Radio assets to Citadel Communications (nyse: CDL) for approximately $2.7 billion in cash and stock. Management said that Disney’s television assets, however, are far more strategic than radio, according to Styponias.

The analyst raised the fiscal 2006 earnings-per-share estimate on Disney to $1.50 from $1.43.

Disney, Pixar shares up after Disney results

Shares of Walt Disney Co. rose more than 7 percent on Tuesday, a day after the company reported a quarterly profit that beat Wall Street expectations on strong theme park attendance.

The world's No. 2 media conglomerate also won praise from analysts for merging some of its radio stations and ABC Radio Networks with Citadel Broadcasting Corp in a deal valued by Disney at $2.7 billion.

Shares of Pixar Animation Studios Inc., which has agreed to be acquired by Disney in an all-stock transaction, mirrored Disney's upward movement of about 7 percent.

CIBC World Markets increased its rating on Disney to "sector performer" from "sector underperformer" and raised its fiscal year earnings per share estimate to $1.44 from $1.33.

Disney reported first-quarter net income of $734 million, or 37 cents a share, compared with $686 million, or 33 cents a share, a year before. Excluding a one-time gain, Disney's profit of 35 cents a share exceeded analysts' average forecast of 30 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Deutsche Bank analyst Doug Mitchelson noted that Disney beat Street expectations with "impressive underlying operating momentum." He affirmed his "buy" rating on Disney but reduced his second-quarter earnings estimate by a penny to 26 cents per share due to revenue deferrals at the ESPN cable sports network and difficult comparisons at the company's movie studio.

Sanders Morris Harris analyst David Miller also reiterated his "buy" rating and $32 price target on Disney shares and raised his 2006 fiscal year earnings estimate to $1.44 per share from $1.40 per share.

"Once Disney can prove that recent problems at the studio are a foggy memory, which we believe will occur in the back half of the fiscal year, we are confident that Disney could see the low $30s within the next 12 months," Miller wrote in a note to investors on Tuesday.

Prudential Equity Group analyst Katherine Styponias also raised her fiscal year earnings estimate to $1.50 per share from $1.43 and bumped up her price target to $36 from $34 per share on the company's "stellar quarter."

Shares of Disney were trading up 7.3 percent or $1.81, at $26.77 on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday afternoon. Pixar shares were up 7.2 percent or $4.09 at $60.97 on Nasdaq.

ESPN unveils 'Monday Night' team

Last July, Al Michaels, who had done play-by-play for "Monday Night Football" since 1986, was named as the featured announcer for ESPN's version.

In recent weeks, there has been speculation that Michaels will move to NBC to join John Madden, who had been his partner on "MNF" in recent seasons, on that network's "Sunday Night Football" telecast starting in September. In April, NBC forged an agreement with the NFL to take over Sunday evening football telecasts from ESPN in 2006, under a $600 million deal that will run through 2011.

Tirico will be joined in the booth by analysts Joe Theismann and Tony Kornheiser.

Theismann, former quarterback for the Washington Redskins, was an analyst on ESPN's "Sunday Night Football" broadcast for many years, while Washington Post sports columnist Kornheiser has been co-host of ESPN's "Pardon The Interruption" talk show since 2001.

"This 'Monday Night Football' team enthusiastically embraces our vision for sports television's signature series," said John Skipper, executive vice president of content for ESPN, in a statement.

Last April, ESPN signed a $1.1 billion deal with the NFL to carry "Monday Night Football," including 17 regular season games and four preseason games per year. ABC had been losing about $150 million a year on the program, and Disney thought ESPN would be a better fit since it garners revenue from both advertising and fees paid by cable and satellite operators.

A three-man announcing team was employed for many years on "Monday Night Football" -- most notably during its heyday in the 1970s when it included play-by-play man Frank Gifford and analysts Don Meredith and Howard Cosell -- but was shortened to two for the last years of the program's ABC run.

Kornheiser will continue to co-host "Pardon the Interruption" with fellow Washington Post sports columnist Michael Wilbon, taking the program to the site of each NFL game on Mondays.

Suzy Kolber, who had served as a sideline reporter on "Sunday Night Football," be a sideline reporter on the Monday night telecast, along with Michele Tafoya, who has handled sideline chores on "Monday Night Football" for the past two seasons.

Disney shares closed up fractionally at $26.90 on the New York Stock Exchange.

Disney expects to release Pixar rat film in 2007

The Walt Disney Co. expects to release Pixar Animation Studios Inc.'s film, "Ratatouille" in the summer of 2007, Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said on Monday.

The film, about a rat that lives in a French restaurant, will follow Pixar's summer 2006 release "Cars." Disney has announced its intention to buy Pixar in a deal worth $7.4 billion.

Square Enix and Disney's Buena Vista Games Unveil All-Star Voice Cast for Kingdom Hearts II

Square Enix, Inc. (Square Enix), the publisher of Square Enix(TM) interactive entertainment products in North America, and Buena Vista Games, Inc. (BVG), the interactive entertainment arm of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) announced today the all-star voice cast and North American release date for KINGDOM HEARTS® II, the highly-anticipated action role-playing game (RPG) exclusively for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. KINGDOM HEARTS II is the sequel to KINGDOM HEARTS, one of the top 10 best-selling PlayStation 2 titles of all time in North America (Source: The NPD Group, Dec. 2005).

The all-star ensemble voice cast is led by Haley Joel Osment ("The Sixth Sense," "A.I. Artificial Intelligence") as the main character Sora and is joined by David Gallagher ("7th Heaven") as Riku, and Hayden Panettiere ("Racing Stripes," "Raising Helen") as Kairi. KINGDOM HEARTS II will also feature the voice talents of Jesse McCartney ("Summerland," Recording artist, "Beautiful Soul" CD) as the mysterious boy Roxas, Brittany Snow ("The Pacifier," "American Dreams") as Namine, Christopher Lee ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring") as Diz; Steve Burton ("The Last Castle," "Taken") as Cloud, Rachael Leigh Cook ("She's All That," "Josie And The Pussycats") as Tifa and Mena Suvari ("American Beauty," "Rumor Has It") as Aerith, all characters from FINAL FANTASY® VII; and Hedy Buress ("Boston Common," "If These Walls Could Talk"), Tara Strong ("Fairly OddParents: Shadow Showdown," "Teen Titans"), Gwendoline Yeo ("Desperate Housewives," "24") as the popular female-trio Yuna, Rikku, Paine from FINAL FANTASY X-2. In addition, many of the original Disney film star voice actors are reprising their role for this project, including Ming-Na ("ER," "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within") as Mulan, James Woods ("Be Cool"), returning as the villain Hades and Zach Braff ("Scrubs") as Chicken Little.

KINGDOM HEARTS II will ship to North American retailers on March 28, 2006. Since its release in September 2002, the original KINGDOM HEARTS for the PlayStation 2 has shipped more than 2.6 million units in North America. Bridging the gap between the original and the sequel, KINGDOM HEARTS: CHAIN OF MEMORIES® followed in December 2004 for the Nintendo® Game Boy Advance® system. With the release of the Japanese version of KINGDOM HEARTS II in December 2005 (1 million units shipped during only three days after the release date), the series has shipped in excess of 7.5 million units worldwide.

The world of KINGDOM HEARTS joins classic Disney characters and worlds together with a new story filled with new characters and environments created in the renowned Square Enix style. The result was one remarkable, innovative, original property that captured the attention of both gamers and critics alike. In KINGDOM HEARTS II, players will travel through the worlds of Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Mulan, Pirates of the Caribbean, Steamboat Willie and Tron as well as revisit worlds from the original, including Aladdin, Disney Castle, Hercules, The Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh and Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. The game features more than 100 Disney characters, and also introduces new, original characters such as Roxas, members of Organization XIII and the Nobodies, all designed by Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura, director and character designer of the KINGDOM HEARTS series. Nomura is best known for his creations in the top selling titles FINAL FANTASY VII, VIII, X and X-2. New Disney additions to the sequel include Chicken Little and Stitch from Disney's Lilo and Stitch as summons as well as one of Disney's favorite villains, Pete.

"We have enjoyed success with the Japanese release of KINGDOM HEARTS II this past December and cannot wait to roll out this title in March in North America -- North America is where KINGDOM HEARTS all began," said Tetsuya Nomura. "The entire team has been working day and night to perfect the North American version and we hope the gamers will find it even more exciting than the original."

"KINGDOM HEARTS is the perfect creative example of how BVG is growing and developing the Disney brand and relevance in video games worldwide," said Graham Hopper, senior vice president and general manager, Buena Vista Games. "Our excellent relationship with Square Enix has once again resulted in a game that sets the artistic benchmark in developing video games based on popular entertainment intellectual properties."

"The KINGDOM HEARTS series has given us the opportunity to showcase Square Enix's expertise in game design and development together with Disney's memorable worlds and characters. This collaborative project is a situation most can only dream of and we are fortunate to have had this opportunity," said Shinji Hashimoto, producer, Square Enix. "KINGDOM HEARTS II is packed with even more excitement and amazing adventures and we cannot wait for gamers to experience it for themselves."

KINGDOM HEARTS II follows Sora, Donald, and Goofy on their continuing quest, after the events of KINGDOM HEARTS. Sora is looking for his lost friend Riku, while Donald and Goofy are searching for their missing king. The story begins in Twilight Town, a quiet burg nestled between night and day. Sora and friends are joined by a vibrant new cast of characters, including the king himself. Together, they will encounter countless dangers in worlds both familiar and brand-new.

KINGDOM HEARTS II features a new and improved real-time battle system which provides an increased selection of commands, such as performing special attacks and cooperative attacks with members of your party, adding strategy to the gameplay. Players can also perform the "Drive" to transform main character Sora into his various forms, altering his skills and abilities. Examples include the Brave Form, where Sora absorbs the power of Goofy allowing him to use two Keyblades; the Wisdom Form, where Sora absorbs the power of Donald allowing him to increase his magic power; and the Master Form, where Sora absorbs the power of both Donald and Goofy and increases both his attack and magic powers. These new features bring additional challenges and excitement to the players and further enhance gameplay.

Japanese pop artist Utada Hikaru returns to sing the theme song for KINGDOM HEARTS II. The song titled "Sanctuary," the English version of its original Japanese release "Passion," was written specifically for KINGDOM HEARTS II. More information on the artist can be found at http://www.utada.com.

KINGDOM HEARTS II will be available at North American retailers for a suggested retail price of $49.99 (USD). Additional information can be found at http://www.kingdomhearts.com. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has rated the title "E10+" for ages 10 and up. For more information about the ESRB, visit http://www.esrb.org.

Everest in the City

On February 15 and 16, visitors to New York City will get a big surprise when they discover “Everest in the City” – a display of “mountainous” proportions – right in the middle of Times Square!

A huge display of Mount Everest, which will cover 57 stories on two buildings, will be the backdrop of the event. “Everest in the City” will combine daring mountain climbing and rappelling with the dramatics of an aerial dance.

Watch Good Morning America for coverage of this exciting event!

Disney this year worked with the NFL to create a retrospective of the game's heroes and 20 years of the "I'm going to Disney World" campaign, then projected the presentation onto a downtown Detroit skyscraper during evenings leading up to the Super Bowl. Accompanied by lively music celebrating the sport and Detroit's heritage, the dazzling visuals -- up to 150 feet high -- added to the fun of Detroit's Motown Winter Blast, a combination of hip and fun winter sports for the entire family to enjoy in Campus Martius Park.

Next came a 60-second commercial that aired during the pregame broadcast and at halftime of the game featuring players from both Super Bowl teams -- including Ward and Bettis -- practicing to deliver the iconic catchphrase "I'm going to Disney World."

Then, for the first time ever, Disney did a post-game reveal of a player to be featured in the "I'm going to Disney World" spot, projecting the image of Ward XL -- extra large -- onto the side of a building in Campus Martius Park Sunday night after the game.

Ward, with Bettis, joins a lineup of sports heroes such as Tom Brady, Emmitt Smith, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Joe Montana, John Elway, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Doug Williams, Magic Johnson and Patrick Roy who have been featured during the two decades of "I'm going to Disney World" commercials.

Trudy-Disney License Renewal

Trudy Corporation (OTC BB:TRDY.OB) executed a binding letter agreement with Disney Licensed Publishing, an imprint of Disney Children's Book Group, LLC, New York, for the renewal of its non-exclusive license to publish Disney properties in its book and audio CD formats, published by its Studio Mouse imprint. The Company and Disney are operating under this interim binding agreement which will be superseded by the final definitive agreement which is expected to be executed in the near future.

The license territory includes distribution into the United States, certain of its Possessions and Territories, Canada, and on a limited basis the United Kingdom, Russia, India, China and 30 other countries. The agreement includes a 3 year distribution period for an expanded line of novelty book and audio CD’s with an educational editorial platform. The licensed characters include core properties such as Disney Princess and Winnie the Pooh, selected Disney Channel shows, as well as feature films including Disney/Pixar-branded titles such as "Finding Nemo," and Disney's own releases such as "Chicken Little." The license also includes Spanish language and bilingual rights for distribution in North America. The license renewal is effective January 1, 2006, expires on December 31, 2008 and provides for an inventory sell-off period in early 2009.

In July, 2003, the Company launched its initial Disney license with publication of 12 titles featuring assorted Disney core properties, allowing the Company to significantly expand its presence in the mass market with distribution to major national retailers. The successful sell-through of these titles set the stage for the current license renewal.

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this press release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially. These forward-looking statements speak only to the date hereof; Trudy Corporation disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements. 

Michaels out at 'Monday Night Football'

Do you believe in switching networks? Yes! Al Michaels appears headed to NBC after ESPN hired former quarterback Joe Theismann, Washington Post columnist Tony Kornheiser and Mike Tirico as its Monday night broadcast crew

Michaels had been with ABC since 1976 and had been the play-by-play voice of "Monday Night Football" since 1986, when he replaced Frank Gifford. A four-time Emmy-Award winner, he is best known for exclaiming "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" when the United States upset the favored Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympic hockey tournament.

NBC takes over Sunday night games next season from ESPN. John Madden, Michaels' broadcast partner for the last four seasons, agreed in June to a six-year contract with NBC.

"Al was not comfortable and let us know he was not comfortable with our vision of where we are going," ESPN executive vice president John Skipper said after Wednesday's announcement. "Back in November he said it was the greatest job ever invented. So sometime between the last couple of weeks and November apparently he had a change of heart."

At a news conference July 26, Michaels said he would remain with "Monday Night Football" when it switched to ESPN after 36 seasons on ABC. He was to be paired with Theismann, who had broadcast Sunday night games on ESPN with Mike Patrick and Paul Maguire.

"I feel like I'm a creature of Monday night. I'm home and I'm staying home," Michaels said then. "The three words `Monday Night Football' resonate like no other."

Skipper was evasive when asked about specifics on Michaels, saying only a "satisfactory resolution" had been reached. Pat Gibbons, a marketing representative for Michaels, said he could not reach the broadcaster. NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol did not return a telephone message left with a spokesman.

Mike Breen will replace Michaels as the lead NBA play-by-play announcer on ABC/ESPN. He will be joined by former NBA coach Hubie Brown, hired in December 2004 as the analyst.

ESPN plans to use its various television and radio networks and Web sites for daylong buildups to the Monday night games, which will start at 8:40 p.m., about 25 earlier than previously. MNF has not had a three-man booth since Michaels was teamed with Dan Fouts and Dennis Miller in 2000-01.

Theismann was an NFL quarterback for 12 seasons and had worked on ESPN's Sunday night games since 1988. Kornheiser, who had auditioned for the MNF job Miller got, has written for the Post since 1979 and has co-hosted "Pardon the Interruption" on ESPN since September 2001 with Michael Wilbon, another Post writer.

"I've got about 27 gigs right now," Kornheiser said. "I've got radio, I've got television, I've got The Washington Post."

He thinks listeners do care about who broadcasts games, especially "if the telecast has a certain amount of sizzle."

"Roone Arledge and Howard Cosell, among others, sort of changed the viewing habits of America," he said.

He also must adjust his schedule.

"I live like a barn animal. I go to sleep at 9:30 and wake up at about 5," he said.

Tirico has been a "SportsCenter" host for ESPN and handled play-by-play of the last Orange Bowl. He has worked for ESPN and ABC since 1991.

"It's the best play-by-play chair in sports," Tirico said. "To be the next person to sit in it is humbling."

Michele Tafoya returns for her third season as a "Monday Night Football" sideline reporter, and Suzy Kolber was added as a second sideline reporter

Disney: Cautiously Optimistic

Disney (NYSE: DIS) reported earnings for its fiscal first quarter after Monday's market close. Many observers seem to be predicting that the magic is back, but I've heard that song and dance before; I'll read through this release and judge for myself.

Total revenues increased 2% to $8.85 billion. Operating income went up a percentage point, coming in at $1.38 billion. Net income rose 7% to $734 million, or $0.37 per diluted share. There was a benefit of $44 million in after-tax monies ($0.02 per share) related to asset sales, and a $13 million net benefit ($0.01 per share) in the year-ago quarter (due to a favorable tax element that was offset by charges related to the sale of The Disney Store asset). Backing those out, the increase in net earnings becomes about 2.5%.

But these middling increases are not the brightest aspects of the report. In the year-ago quarter, Disney used up only $191 million of free cash, as opposed to the $376 million which was generated this time around. The reversal of fortune was due to a sharp increase in cash from operations to $579 million. A better receivables schedule, less capital spending, and a reduction in film outlays trumped the accounts payable offset and other expenses.

Yet we still have a lopsided situation with Disney. Its ABC network asset continues to hold court, seeing an 87% expansion of operating income. Cable was weak this time around, seeing a 15% drop in profits, due to revenue deferrals at ESPN and marketing obligations at ABC Family. Even with The Chronicles of Narnia and Chicken Little doing well, shareholders will be disappointed to hear that the studio division saw a 60% drop in operating income due to a weaker sales scenario in home video. Consumer products brought in 17% more green this quarter, buoyed by its video game portfolio. And hey, can we have a hand for theme parks? That 50th Anniversary celebration scheme seems to be paying dividends, providing Disney with a 51% increase in income.

We know the big problem area: the studio segment. It needs some magic. It might get it with the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean sequel and, of course, Cars. Iger needs to make sure that the home entertainment division reduces its offsetting disappointments. After all, look what those disappointments did to the spectacular performance of Narnia and Little.

The major news is not so much in this past quarter's results. What's important to shareholders is the acquisition of Pixar (Nasdaq: PIXR). Although I didn't feel a pressing need for the company to buy this asset -- I felt Disney could go it alone if need be -- I will call myself an optimist and hope that the integration adds a ton of value over the long term. And hey, having Steve Jobs on board has to count for something. Let's just hope that he and Iger have a convivial relationship going forward and that they stay on the same page.

With Pixar under the Mouse's umbrella, the dividend rising, the divestiture of some radio assets, and free cash flow on the rise, Disney is on the right track. Will the stock climb in a sustainable manner? That, my friends, is a good question

Q&A with Michael Eisner

Michael Eisner transformed the Walt Disney Co. from a studio with a couple of theme parks to a global entertainment behemoth worth more than $50 billion, in his 21-year reign that ended last year. Under Eisner's leadership, the company became a major player in everything from television to baseball, book publishing, retailing and Broadway shows.

How did he transform Disney? Simply, by making decisions. During the 18 years between Walt Disney's death in 1966 and Eisner's ascension to Disney's top job, a simple question would arise with every possible move: "What would Walt do?"

It was not a recipe for strong decision making.
 
Eisner took over a moribund company in the shadow of its once-towering reputation. Its biggest problem was that Disney executives had no idea what "Walt" would do. It was a recipe for decision-making paralysis.

No one accused Eisner of paralysis. He set about changing the "old media dinosaur," at that point capitalized at just $2.8 billion. The year before he joined, it had made just three films. So Eisner brought in Jeffrey Katzenberg to run movies, and soon they were making 40 films a year culminating in animated classics like "The Lion King".

It led to one of the most sustained share price runs in U.S. corporate history, with annualized returns in excess of 25 percent. Eisner got his cut through share plans—at one point, his fortune was put at $630 million. But his iron grip on Disney made him enemies. In 2003,Walt's nephew, Roy Disney, resigned from the Disney board, accusing Eisner of turning Disney into a "rapacious, soulless" company. At various points, Eisner also fell out with Katzenberg and the legendary one-time Disney president, Michael Ovitz. Disney's campaign culminated in a shareholder revolt, and after initially resigning the chairmanship, Eisner severed all ties with the company in September 2005.

Nick Tabakoff of NEWSWEEK's partner publication in Australia, "The Bulletin," spoke with Michael Eisner about life after Disney, new media and old-fashioned Hollywood politics.

THE BULLETIN: Web-distribution companies like Google are making hundreds of millions of dollars on the content of entertainment companies like Disney. Does the emergence of new media pose a threat to the established media and entertainment groups?
Michael Eisner: Well, I think every platform is going to need content. As long as Disney, Warner Brothers and Paramount concentrate on creating great content, they will be the ultimate survivors. It's always been that way. The distribution chains come on, get a lot of power, press, money, and go away 20 or 30 years later and end up not being the winners. The winners are the content companies.

Your name is still synonymous with Disney. What do you see as your greatest achievement there, and your greatest regret?
I can't really give you a greatest achievement. We did everything from winning a baseball World Series to creating a whole new era of animation to many movies, Academy Award-winning movies; new theme parks in Florida, California, Japan, China and Europe; 30,000 hotel rooms; 80 new buildings; sports networks; broadcast networks. All these things feel like pretty good achievements. Setting up Broadway shows, watching the "Lion King." We had a good run on Broadway, we still do. But they're all part of the whole—which is to try to make really quality products to play around the world where there is an audience.

What about a greatest regret?
That it all goes so quick. I think I was in grade school about 10 minutes ago. I don't think I ever left grade school. I was actually in grade school 10 minutes ago.

How important are egos in Hollywood? And is there an upside of ego?
I think ego is important in Hollywood only to the degree that you write about it in the press. There is as much ego on a farm in Kansas as there is on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. It's just the media puts the spotlight on the process of making content because everyone's so interested in it. And that's a very big positive, it's a compliment. No one would be interested in our movies if everybody in the world was ego-less, passionless and completely and totally discreet. The world is the world, the people are the people. You know, Aeschylus didn't live on Rodeo Drive, and I'm sure he was dealing with his ego. 

I saw an article that commented on your relationships with some of the men you once clashed with as the head of Disney—(Michael) Ovitz and (Jeffrey) Katzenberg and Roy Disney. It said you're now friends with some of these guys. Are these clashes part of the rough and tumble of Hollywood politics? Is it like a soccer game—where at the end of it, you're mates again?
I'm still friendly with the guy in high school who stole my girlfriend. It's life. I mean, people are competitive, and people say and do stupid things, and life goes on. And if you're not a person that holds grudges, you move on.

So, do you find other people, like some of those names I've mentioned: do they hold grudges?
I wasn't really listening to the names you mentioned.

I mentioned Katzenberg and Roy Disney.
Well, Roy Disney, Roy Disney, the problem with him is he's not Walt Disney, so that's that.

Meaning that he has delusions of being Walt Disney?
Put any meaning into it you like.

On the Disney takeover of Pixar, it seems you weren't really keen to go ahead with it when you were Disney CEO.
I don't think there's anything about this acquisition that you can find me being quoted about. I really feel that it would be inappropriate. Bob Iger is CEO of the company, the board chose to make that deal, and I support it.

So there's no smoke?
Well, there's smoke, but I'm not going to tell you where the smoke's leading.

What do you mean by that?
Nothing.  

What about Rupert Murdoch? Do you think there's more he can do to secure his seat in the big time, or is he already there?
Well he's clearly in the big time, and the only fight he's going to have is his own age, because he's brilliant. I would say he is amongst the best, maybe the best, in the top two or three in the world.

In the media?
Just being a smart guy, understanding how the media works, and understanding the public, and having a gut.

Since leaving Disney, you've been keeping busy. You're said to be scouting the world for a variety of opportunities in content production. Can you tell me more?
There is no more. Scouting the world is a good way to put it, and I'm enjoying the opportunity of looking at every possible thing. And I have no idea where it ends up.

I read that you have a $630 million fortune, so what's the motivation for you now?
Well I have no idea if any of that is true. My motivation never has been about money, from the day I was an usher at NBC in New York. ... I don't care about the money. I care about the work. I like the creative process. I like the fun of it. It's like being at a party all the time. There are a lot of people who crash the party, and are too drunk at the party, but the party is still fun to be at. I want to be in the party. I want to be in the sober part.

I saw that you grew up going to Broadway shows. Given what you later achieved at Disney—and with Disney helping to transform Broadway—did that give you the impetus to become perhaps America's most successful showman?
Not that I was aware of. Growing up in New York, the thing you did every birthday—at least in my home environment—every birthday, every anniversary, every event, you went to a Broadway show. That was like today people go to movies or go to McDonald’s or whatever. So I saw probably every show from the time I was five years old till when I went away to school. However, I was a pre-med—I was going to medical school—what did I know about Broadway? So I guess when I got to college, and this girl in the theater department wouldn't date me, I wrote a play with her as the star, [so] she would date me and thought that would be an effective way to impress her. So I did, I wrote the play. I impressed her, she was in the play, the play did very well—and she still wouldn't date me. So that's how I got going.

What was the play called?
"To Stop a River." I don't know what happened to it. Forget it.

Was entertainment in your blood at that point?
I wasn't worried about my blood. I was worried about dating her. Actually, I haven't thought of her name—Barbara Eberhart—for I would say about four years.

So wanting to date Barbara Eberhart was ultimately what led you on a path to becoming head of Disney?
By the way, I can give you about a thousand other examples about how that part of one's life does drive a certain amount of momentum. If she had been less attractive, maybe I'd have been a doctor today. And not a good one, because I didn't like the sight of blood.

Disney proud to shoot in New Orleans

The Touchstone (aka Disney) film Deja Vu started shooting on location in New Orleans this week after delays caused by, well, a gigantic hurricane ripping apart and flooding most of the area. The Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film will not steer clear of the city's worst hurricane-ravaged sections. Instead, filmmakers reworked the storyline to set events in post-Katrina New Orleans, including the remnants of the lower Ninth Ward. During a press conference in New Orleans last Thursday, director Tony Scott said he felt the city was "a third character" in the movie. (Does that mean it will be paid as highly as its co-stars, Denzel Washington and Val Kilmer?)

Cinematical received a press release that stressed how proud the studio is to be part of the first narrative feature shot in New Orleans after the hurricane. The release claims that after the hurricane, "The filmmakers scouted many other U.S. locations ... but none compared with what New Orleans had to offer visually and logistically as a film location." In fact, the press release and Thursday's conference hint strongly that the film production is part of the recovery effort—which isn't untrue, considering how much the city needs the money and employment that the shoot will generate.

So the marketing strategy for Deja Vu is already focusing not on the star power or the storyline, but on its being the first feature film to shoot in post-Katrina New Orleans, even though filming is barely underway. Are they relying on audiences seeing the film to support the city and reward the goodwill of a studio that helped out, or on the train wreck mentality of audiences who want a big-screen look at some of the saddest parts of New Orleans? Or maybe it's simply a case of squeezing publicity out of any possible angle.

Affleck & Damon to Reunite for Disney Drama

Variety reports that old buddies Ben Affleck and Matt Damon will reunite to star in a Disney-backed "based on actual events" legal drama. And it's not a Kevin Smith flick!

"Disney's Touchstone has made a deal for a pic based on a true story that will star Ben Affleck and Matt Damon as lawyers who spent 15 years overturning a murder conviction.

Affleck will play Michael Banks and Damon will be J. Gordon Cooney, two lawyers at a Philadelphia firm that took on a pro bono appeal that turned into a 15-year crusade. The lawyers won nine stays of execution for death-row inmate John Thompson and finally got him exonerated of all charges."

Films that have included both Ben Affleck and Matt Damon include "School Ties," "Good Will Hunting," "Chasing Amy," "Dogma," "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back," and "Jersey Girl," if we're including jokey cameo appearances."

Disney admits talks over Shanghai park 

Disney Profit May Fall on Film Slump, Shows Need for Pixar Deal 

Travel agencies offer refunds for angry Disneyland tourists 

Citadel May Only See Limited Savings From Disney Deal 

ABC delivers worthy finale 

Disney: Cautiously Optimistic 

ESPN The Weekend, 2006 details 

Disney soars amid down day for media 

What Do Football Champs Do Next?

Bambi II The Grand Sequel to Walt's Timeless Classic 

Johnny Knoxville Stars In Daltry Calhoun 

The Award-Winning Film Festival Favorite The Best of Youth 

ABC Earns Super Ratings Sunday

Disney gaffe mars Eastern expansion 

Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts 1920s-1960s

Walt Disney Studios Welcomes Director Adamson on The Chronicles of Narnia

Disney admits talks over Shanghai park

 

In a sign that a deal may be imminent, Disney officials have for the first time admitted it's negotiating to build a theme park in Shanghai, shortly after disclosing that the Lantau park contributed to the California-based entertainment giant's stellar results in the quarter ended December.

 

In a sign that a deal may be imminent, Disney officials have for the first time admitted it's negotiating to build a theme park in Shanghai, shortly after disclosing that the Lantau park contributed to the California-based entertainment giant's stellar results in the quarter ended December.

But Hong Kong tourism officials rejected fears that a new park in the mainland would significantly hurt the six-month-old Penny's Bay attraction.

Speaking Tuesday after revealing the plan that has been widely rumored for years, Walt Disney chief executive Robert Iger said: "We have ongoing discussions - ongoing and ongoing and ongoing - with the Chinese government about a park in Shanghai."

Throughout last year, Hong Kong and mainland media reported Shanghai hopes to start construction of a Disneyland theme park in 2008. But neither Iger -who described Shanghai as attractive due to its high population and rapid economic development - nor city officials would comment on a timetable Tuesday.

A Shanghai city government spokesman said: "Since building a Disney theme park is an international project, we ultimately will have to get central government approval."

While noting that no deal has yet been inked between the two sides, a Hong Kong Disneyland spokeswoman reiterated that another Chinese park would not open before 2010.

Dismissing worries that the new park will trip up the Lantau attraction just as it is getting its footing, Hong Kong Association of Travel Agents chairman Michael Wu said: "Shanghai attracts mainland tourists, while Hong Kong's visitors are from Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and so on."

Democratic Party lawmaker Fred Li, a critic of the Lantau park, said: "Since Disney is planning to open another theme park in China, it must position us and Shanghai differently, otherwise this is stupid commercial behavior."

While less sanguine, Tourism Board public relations manager Lucinda Wong said: "A Disney theme park in Shanghai would not present a significant threat to the success of Hong Kong Disneyland. China is a huge market that can easily support more than one Disneyland."

At Tuesday's conference call, Iger expressed satisfaction with Hong Kong Disneyland, which had early trouble meeting its projections for ticket sales, but had four sold-out days last week.

Disney's latest results are for its first quarter in the 2005-2006 financial year and the first full quarter to include Hong Kong Disneyland.

While the company as a whole spurted up by 7 percent, its parks and resorts revenues rose by 13 percent to US$2.4 billion (HK$18.72 billion) and the segment's operating income rocketed 51 percent, to US$375 million.

Disney Profit May Fall on Film Slump, Shows Need for Pixar Deal

 

Walt Disney Co., the No. 2 U.S. media company, will probably report a drop in first-quarter profit after disappointing sales of "Herbie: Fully Loaded" and "Dark Water" home videos.

Profit excluding some costs fell to 31 cents a share, from 34 cents last year, according to Merrill Lynch's Jessica Reif Cohen, ranked the top media analyst by Institutional Investor magazine. Burbank, California-based Disney may say sales rose 4 percent to $9.03 billion, she said.

The movie unit's profit probably dropped 78 percent, helping show why Chief Executive Robert Iger decided to buy the Pixar animated film studio last month. Iger agreed to pay $7.4 billion to buy Pixar, gaining control of a company that gave Disney the hits ``The Incredibles'' and ``Finding Nemo.''

``Their film unit has been stale,'' said Elizabeth Miller, a money manager in New York at Trevor, Stewart, Burton & Jacobsen, which holds about 200,000 Disney shares. ``The Pixar purchase is an attempt to improve content in animation. It's a bold move to kick start things.''

Shares of Disney on Feb. 3 fell 9 cents to $25.01 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The shares fell 14 percent last year, compared with a 10 percent decline at Time Warner Inc., the world's biggest media company.

Disney spokesman David Caouette said Iger declined to comment for this story. Iger, who turns 55 this week, earned $11.7 million in the year ended Sept. 30. Reif Cohen's estimate excludes expenses for stock-based compensation.

Analysts on average are estimating Disney will post profit of 30 cents, based on the average estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Thomson declined to provide details of the estimates. Analysts predicted sales of $8.8 billion. Disney has beaten estimates in five of the past six quarters.

Disney Studios

Operating income at the film unit probably fell to $70 million from $323 million a year earlier, Reif Cohen wrote in a Jan. 20 note. Merrill Lynch defines operating profit at Disney as earnings before interest and tax.

Home video sales in the quarter fell 25 percent to about 65 million units, Lehman Brothers analyst Vijay Jayant said.

Some fees paid by cable operators for Disney's ESPN cable- sports network were deferred and higher costs to begin the ESPN branded mobile phone hurt results, Jayant said. Higher programming costs at the ABC Family channel also hurt results, causing operating income to drop 11 percent at the unit to $283 million, he said.

Disney's results were probably helped by higher ratings and ad sales at the ABC broadcast TV network as well as higher attendance at the company's theme parks, said Peter Goldman at Chicago Asset Management, which owns about 364,000 Disney shares among its $750 million.

Operating income at the company's broadcasting division, which includes ABC television, rose 60 percent to $200 million, Merrill Lynch's Reif Cohen, said in a note to investors.

Travel agencies offer refunds for angry Disneyland tourists

Local travel agencies promised yesterday that all the Shanghai tourists who were barred from entering Hong Kong Disneyland during the Spring Festival will get full ticket refunds.

Ctrip.com International Ltd has gone one step further, offering its 17 customers a free night stay at the Disney hotel in Hong Kong.

From February 1 to 3, Hong Kong Disneyland locked its gate after the number of guests reached the park's maximum capacity of 30,000. As a result, hundreds of visitors from the Chinese mainland couldn't enter the park including 50 Shanghai tourists.

Many of the mainland tourists had bought open date tickets that are good for six months, but couldn't use them. Mainland visitors made up about 70 percent of the park's attendance during the holiday.

"I arrived at 10am and was able to enter, but they closed the gate in an hour, as there were just too many people already in the park, and the park was too small," said Jin Jing, a Shanghai tourist.

Hong Kong Disneyland is the world's smallest Disney amusement park. Disneyland in Florida covers about 300 times the space.

The situation became so bad in Hong Kong last week that several disappointed travelers climbed to top of the gate and tried to jump in.

"No one told us the park would turn its back on us," said Bai Yun of China Travel International Ltd.

Bai said the agency had several phone calls from its customers complaining they couldn't get into Disneyland on February 1.

"Their schedule had to be put off for one day," said Bai. "These guests were let in the next morning at around 9am."

Tourists who had simply bought plane tickets, not Disney tickets, in advance weren't as lucky. Bai said two families called to say they couldn't get into the park.

However, local travel agencies said such problem might occur again if the Disney headquarter doesn't adjust its ticket policy on the Chinese mainland market.

Currently the company offers six-month open tickets to China's mainland, which is the major cause for the holiday chaos, said Wang Zhicheng, a spokesperson for the Shanghai Jingjiang International Travel.

Citadel May Only See Limited Savings From Disney Deal

Standard & Poor's Equity Research analyst Loran Braverman lowered the price target on Citadel Broadcasting to $14 from $16 anticipating dilution from the company's acquisition of the ABC radio assets from The Walt Disney Company.

Citadel (nyse: CDL) will buy most of Disney's ABC radio assets for $2.7 billion in a cash and stock deal structured as a reverse Morris Trust, said the analyst. Pending approvals, the deal with Disney (nyse: DIS) is expected to close in the fall of 2006, he said.

"While we see benefits from Citadel having a larger station base, we see limited cost savings opportunities," Braverman said.

The analyst reiterated an opinion of "buy" on Citadel shares.

ABC delivers worthy finale

ABC made a grand exit Sunday night, ending its 36-year NFL association with a polished, professional production of Super Bowl XL.

But this wasn't a completely praiseworthy day for the Disney networks. The ABC/ESPN decision to combine for an unprecedented 9 ½ hours of pregame shows proved to be the most egregious example of TV overkill in Super Bowl history.

Once the pregame babbling was over, Al Michaels and John Madden delivered a credible effort, though Madden should have offered stronger opinions on controversial calls. (In particular, it seemed odd that Madden didn't point out that replays left serious doubts about whether Ben Roethlisberger crossed the goal line on Pittsburgh's first touchdown).

The announcers were at their best late in the second quarter. After Madden alertly questioned Seattle for calling a time-consuming running play, Michaels called it ''stunning'' that a Mike Holmgren-coached team so badly mismanaged the clock in that situation. And the announcers justifiably ripped the Seahawks for similar inefficiency late in the game.

Madden doesn't just criticize. He says specifically what teams should do differently. He encouraged the Seahawks to run more in the second half -- which they did at times, and often successfully.

Madden missed on a prediction that Pittsburgh would pass on the play in which Roethlisberger scored. But Madden came up big when he predicted the Steelers would run a ''gadget play'' just a series before they scored on one in the fourth quarter.

PREGAME MUSINGS

More than 3 ½ hours into the pregame show that cured insomnia, ESPN's Stuart Scott delivered a warning: ``If you move, we'll rip your cable out.''

Don't worry, Stuart. I didn't have the energy to move, being as I was already in a boredom-induced trance from hearing Sean ''I have an opinion about everything'' Salisbury and Mike Ditka debate every topic short of the Bush administration's Middle East policy.

And that was even before ESPN gave us not one, but two, interviews with experts on FieldTurf, one of whom started babbling something about how they ''mixed the sand with the tires.'' By that point, reading the phone book seemed more appealing.

At times, the ESPN pregame resembled a Saturday Night Live parody, but the humor wasn't intentional (except for the mildly amusing segment in which Kenny Mayne spewed running commentary as Martha Stewart whipped up nachos).

Here was Sal Paolantonio, breaking in at 1:59 p.m., with this urgent report from Pittsburgh hotel headquarters: ''The team meal is over, the meeting is over. They're making final preparations to board'' the bus.

Paolantonio returned at 2:31 to assure us that the Steelers ``were ready to board.''

Ed Werder then broke in with the shocking news that Matt Hasselbeck had been spotted walking through the hotel lobby. And on it went, irrelevant information streaming endlessly from 24 correspondents.

So desperate to fill six hours, ESPN devoted entire segments to debates of such lame topics as: Which is the longer wait for players -- before you get to the stadium or after?

Between ABC and ESPN, 10 -- 10! -- commentators shared their opinions on the merits of Joey Porter's trash-talking. ESPN debated the issue twice within two hours, apparently hoping we didn't remember the first conversation.

Even Salisbury couldn't keep his concentration, referring to Scott as Trey (as in Trey Wingo, ESPN's overexuberant anchor).

ABC's 3 ½ hour pregame show was faster-paced and offered a more diverse mix of stories than ESPN's six hours.

Patriots coach and ABC guest analyst Bill Belichick -- not exactly Mr. Charisma -- was actually decent. He gave the pregame edge to Pittsburgh, noting they have ``more playmakers on defense.''

It was no surprise that the two best pieces of the TV marathon were delivered by Andrea Kremer, including a report on the nightclub fight that left Seahawks safety Ken Hamlin with a fractured skull and blood clot on the brain. (He implied he would play next season.)

She also interviewed ex-Raiders safety Jack Tatum, who revealed he has never spoken to former Patriots receiver Darryl Stingley since delivering the hit that left him paralyzed 27 years ago. Stingley told Kremer off camera that he wants an apology and blamed Tatum's ``foolish pride.''

RANDOM THOUGHTS

ABC's most poignant shot of the night was the close-up of Bill Cowher embracing his family as the game ended. . . . Nice touch by ABC to put a microphone on Jerome Bettis, who was heard giving sage advice to teammate Willie Parker, then calming his teammates late in the game by telling them, ''It's no different than Week 1.'' . . . Thankfully, ABC stays with the traditional camera angle on field goals -- not the disorienting low-level perspective that Fox uses.

Disney: Cautiously Optimistic

Disney (NYSE: DIS) reported earnings for its fiscal first quarter after Monday's market close. Many observers seem to be predicting that the magic is back, but I've heard that song and dance before; I'll read through this release and judge for myself.

Total revenues increased 2% to $8.85 billion. Operating income went up a percentage point, coming in at $1.38 billion. Net income rose 7% to $734 million, or $0.37 per diluted share. There was a benefit of $44 million in after-tax monies ($0.02 per share) related to asset sales, and a $13 million net benefit ($0.01 per share) in the year-ago quarter (due to a favorable tax element that was offset by charges related to the sale of The Disney Store asset). Backing those out, the increase in net earnings becomes about 2.5%.

But these middling increases are not the brightest aspects of the report. In the year-ago quarter, Disney used up only $191 million of free cash, as opposed to the $376 million which was generated this time around. The reversal of fortune was due to a sharp increase in cash from operations to $579 million. A better receivables schedule, less capital spending, and a reduction in film outlays trumped the accounts payable offset and other expenses.

Yet we still have a lopsided situation with Disney. Its ABC network asset continues to hold court, seeing an 87% expansion of operating income. Cable was weak this time around, seeing a 15% drop in profits, due to revenue deferrals at ESPN and marketing obligations at ABC Family. Even with The Chronicles of Narnia and Chicken Little doing well, shareholders will be disappointed to hear that the studio division saw a 60% drop in operating income due to a weaker sales scenario in home video. Consumer products brought in 17% more green this quarter, buoyed by its video game portfolio. And hey, can we have a hand for theme parks? That 50th Anniversary celebration scheme seems to be paying dividends, providing Disney with a 51% increase in income.

We know the big problem area: the studio segment. It needs some magic. It might get it with the upcoming Pirates of the Caribbean sequel and, of course, Cars. Iger needs to make sure that the home entertainment division reduces its offsetting disappointments. After all, look what those disappointments did to the spectacular performance of Narnia and Little.

The major news is not so much in this past quarter's results. What's important to shareholders is the acquisition of Pixar (Nasdaq: PIXR). Although I didn't feel a pressing need for the company to buy this asset -- I felt Disney could go it alone if need be -- I will call myself an optimist and hope that the integration adds a ton of value over the long term. And hey, having Steve Jobs on board has to count for something. Let's just hope that he and Iger have a convivial relationship going forward and that they stay on the same page.

With Pixar under the Mouse's umbrella, the dividend rising, the divestiture of some radio assets, and free cash flow on the rise, Disney is on the right track. Will the stock climb in a sustainable manner? That, my friends, is a good question.

ESPN The Weekend, 2006 details

ESPN and Walt Disney World Resort will again offer fans the opportunity to see and hear ESPN personalities and current and legendary athletes during "ESPN The Weekend Presented by Speed Stick® 24/7," a one-of-a-kind sports-themed special event at Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., March 3-5, 2006.

"Following successful events the past two years, ESPN and Walt Disney World Resort are once again pleased to serve sports fans by offering this unique, in-person experience," said Heather Campbell, vice president, brand integration and synergy, ESPN, Inc. " 'ESPN The Weekend' has become one of the most exciting opportunities throughout the year for fans, athletes and ESPN to connect with one another and celebrate sports."

"ESPN The Weekend" will feature on-site ESPN telecasts including SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight and Cold Pizza; star motorcades and Q&A sessions featuring athletes and ESPN personalities; sports shows in the ESPN Theater with ESPN commentators and athletes; a visit from ESPN The Truck; live ESPN Radio broadcasts; ESPN Deportes Fuera de Juego telecasts; the ESPN Sports Zone interactive area; and a special sports edition of the game show attraction "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-Play It!" Guests will also be able to enjoy all the popular shows and attractions, including the new "Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show."

LIVE ON-SITE ESPN TELECASTS

ESPN will present at least two live telecasts a day from a set in front of the Disney-MGM Studios Sorcerer's Hat on Hollywood Boulevard.

On-site programs include a special season preview edition of Baseball Tonight with host Karl Ravech and analysts Peter Gammons, John Kruk and Harold Reynolds. Major League Baseball Spring Training games get underway that weekend and the Baseball Tonight crew will put all the off-season moves in perspective and tell fans what to watch for during the spring.

In addition, ESPN will offer live telecasts of SportsCenter and Cold Pizza. Park guests will have a chance to appear on-air via crowd shots while watching the programming on in-park video screens.

ESPN Radio shows, including Mike and Mike in the Morning, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, the Dan Patrick Show and SportsBash with Eric Kuselias will be broadcast live from Disney-MGM Studios on Friday, March 3. A special edition of ESPN Radio's The Baseball Show will also be broadcast from the park on Saturday, March 4.

ESPN THEATER

Live shows will bring fans and guests behind the scenes of some of the network's most popular programs, including SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, Cold Pizza, NFL Live and more. The shows will provide an inside look at favorite athletes, teams and ESPN programs, as fans will get into the action themselves by asking questions directly to ESPN personalities and athletes.

SPECIAL SPORTS EDITION OF "WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE-PLAY IT!"

Guests will get a chance to jump in the famed "Hot Seat" and partner with an ESPN personality or sports star to test their sports knowledge in a special sports edition of the popular game show attraction "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-Play It!" The attraction is based on the television game show and allows theme park guests to play along from their studio audience seats.

STAR MOTORCADES AND CONVERSATIONS

Periodically, throughout the day, sports stars will motorcade down the park's Hollywood Boulevard to the stage at the base of the Sorcerer's Hat and join ESPN anchors for star conversations about their careers and Q&A sessions with park guests.

ESPN SPORTS ZONE INTERACTIVE AREA

The ESPN Sports Zone will give guests of all ages the opportunity to test their skills at everything from basketball games of H-O-R-S-E to racecar video games involving multiple drivers. Guests will even be able to learn how to cast a reel like a bass angler or have a golf swing evaluated by a Walt Disney World teaching pro. ESPN personalities and sports celebrities will make appearances in the interactive area throughout the weekend. Bands and in-park entertainers will also perform.

ESPN THE TRUCK

ESPN The Truck Presented by NFL Flag will be open for fans to sample the latest in sports television technology. Kiosks in the 53-foot trailer include: a replica SportsCenter desk, allowing fans to play sports anchor and take home their very own "Keep it Reel" audition DVD; ESPN The Magazine photo shoot area where fans can strike their cover pose and take home their picture of the mock cover; ESPN video games station; ESPN On-Air, where guests can select from a menu of ESPN video sources; and much more.

SPORTSCENTER AND PLAY-BY-PLAY ROLE PLAY

While visiting ESPN The Truck, guests can sit down at a replica of the SportsCenter desk and read the teleprompter as the highlights roll on the big game. In addition, guests will be able to test their play-by-play skills by calling some of the biggest moments in sports history.

The Walt Disney World innovative ticket pricing system "Magic Your Way" provides guests with the opportunity to customize their vacations, and Florida residents can save on tickets all year long.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For information on "ESPN The Weekend" at Walt Disney World Resort and to book travel, guests may visit www.espntheweekend.com.

Disney soars amid down day for media

Investors cheered Walt Disney Co. Tuesday following its release of strong fiscal first-quarter earnings and the news that it will divest ABC Radio, while most media and entertainment stocks declined.

Disney was up 7.2% at $26.74 in recent trading. The company reported net income of $734 million, or 37 cents a share, compared with $686 million, or 33 cents a share a year ago. Revenue climbed 2% to $8.85 billion from last year's level of $8.67 billion.

The company also said it would combine its 22 ABC radio stations and the ABC Radio Network with the assets of Citadel Broadcasting Corp. in a deal worth $2.7 billion.

Analyst Jessica Reif Cohen at Merrill Lynch reiterated her buy rating on Disney shares. "We are encouraged by both operating momentum of Disney's core assets and management's focus on increasing exposure to content," she said in a note to clients.

Among other diversified entertainment shares, Sony fell 1.6% to $48.07; while News Corp. shed less than 1% to $16.65.

Time Warner was down 1% at $18.39 ahead of a late afternoon presentation by billionaire financier Carl Icahn and Bruce Wasserstein, the chairman of Lazard. The two will present Lazard's plan to increase value for Time Warner shareholders on at the St. Regis Hotel in New York.

Sirius Satellite Radio shares up as much as 4.5% Monday, was up 5% at $5.76 Tuesday afternoon. The company announced that it would release quarterly results on Feb. 17.

What Do Football Champs Do Next?

Video of the traditional "What's Next?" that follows the Super Bowl. LINK

BAMBI II is the heartwarming, coming-of-age story of a son's courage and a father's love. Following the tragic loss of his mother, the young fawn reunites with his father, The Great Prince (voiced by Patrick Stewart, "X-Men" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation"), who must now teach Bambi (voiced by Alexander Gould, "Finding Nemo") the ways of the forest. Their adventure together helps them overcome their initially awkward relationship, and allows father and son to discover in each other something neither expected: family.

Also joining the forest's beloved cast of characters in BAMBI II are Thumper's rambunctious sisters, and Bambi's rival, Ronno. Original and new characters combine to forge an inspiring story filled with strong messages of family, discovery, faith, courage, trust and inner strength.

Animated in the breathtaking style of the original classic, BAMBI II also embraces its Disney heritage with captivating new songs performed by Martina McBride, recipient of five Country Music Association Awards including three consecutive "Female Vocalist of the Year" honors; multiple Grammy award winner Alison Krauss, and burgeoning new talent Anthony Callea.

DVD bonus materials include "The Legacy Continues" featurette on the making of the film; and games and activities including "Thumper's Hurry & Scurry," "Bambi Trivia Tracks," "Disney Sketch Pad," and DVD-ROM "Disney Sketch Pad" printables, where Disney animator Andreas Deja teaches you how to draw Thumper.

Produced by DisneyToon Studios this inspiring adventure will be available February 7, 2006 for $29.99 (SRP) on DVD and VHS.

Small towns like their heroes and Ducktown, Tennessee is no different. Their local hero is Daltry Calhoun, whose sod company helped build the economy of Ducktown. And Daltry's newest dream is to build a world-class golf course that will finally put Ducktown on the map. But Daltry's past catches up with him when his ex shows up on his doorstep with his estranged 14 year old daughter. Being a southern gentleman, Daltry welcomes them into his home and eventually into his heart. Just as his personal life gets better, his sod company flounders, and Daltry fears he'll be a disappointment to the locals of Ducktown. But sometimes, just one small seed can bloom into a field of dreams.

Bonus features are: feature commentary with executive producer Quentin Tarantino, producer Danielle Renfrew and writer/director Katrina Holden Bronson; deleted scenes (with optional commentary); blooper reel, "Hollywood comes to Tennessee" The Making of Daltry Calhoun;" "The B Team;" original theatrical trailer; blooper reel and Blue Mother Tupelo's "Put Your Head On My Shoulder" music video." Available for $29.99 (SRP) on DVD from Miramax Home Entertainment.

THE BEST OF YOUTH is the stunning family saga in the tradition of "The Godfather" that spans 40 years in the lives of two brothers, Nicola (Luigi Lo Cascio) and Matteo (Alessio Boni). From Italy's turbulent 1960's to the present, the brother's lives are buffeted by student demonstrations, terrorist attacks and revolution. Taking different paths, free-spirited Nicola travels the world before establishing himself as a successful psychiatrist while the idealist, Matteo, joins the police force in an effort to stop injustice.

ABC Earns Super Ratings Sunday

Fast National ratings for Sunday, Feb. 5, 2006

The Super Bowl once again lived up to its reputation as the biggest TV broadcast of the year, with early ratings showing ABC's broadcast slightly higher than last year's game.

ABC averaged a 34.6 rating/52 share in primetime Sunday -- with those numbers subject to change due to the live broadcast. CBS was the best of the rest at 4.1/6, followed by NBC at 3.5/5 and FOX at 2.7/4. The WB barely registered at 0.9/1.

Among adults 18-49, ABC scored a 28.7 rating, also a little better than last year. FOX managed to grab second in the demographic with a 2.1, with CBS in third at 1.6. NBC averaged 1.3 and The WB 0.6.

Super Bowl XL delivered a 39.3/60 at 7 p.m., ABC's best hour of the night. NBC's "Dateline" finished second for the hour with a 3.1/5, edging out the CBS news special "Superstars." An hour of "Simpsons" reruns averaged 1.9/3 for FOX. The WB trailed with the first of three "Beauty and the Geek" repeats.

At 8 p.m., the game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks averaged a 37.7/55. CBS moved up to second with a "Criminal Minds" rerun, 4.1/6. "The Simpsons," 3.1/4, and "Family Guy," 2.9/4, were third for FOX. NBC went with a "Crossing Jordan" repeat, which beat another "Geek" hour on The WB.

The game held steady at 9 p.m. with a 37.6/53 as the Steelers closed out a 21-10 win. "Cold Case" improved a little on its lead-in, averaging 4.8/7 for CBS. A second "Crossing Jordan" posted a 3.3/5 for NBC to top two more episodes of "Family Guy" on FOX. The third "Beauty and the Geek" averaged 1.1/2 for The WB.

The Super Bowl postgame show, 28.5/43, and the start of "Grey's Anatomy," 19.2/32, kept ABC in front at 10 p.m. NBC got a 5.2/9 from a "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" repeat, while CBS' "CSI: Miami" averaged 4.8/8.

Disney gaffe mars Eastern expansion

It wasn't quite the publicity that Disney had hoped for. Last weekend, local television stations repeatedly broadcast images of the hundreds of angry people barred from its new Hong Kong theme park.

As the celebrations for the Chinese Lunar New Year got into full swing, the company admitted it had underestimated the potential number of visitors, leaving many furiously waving their tickets and attempting to scale the gates that separated them from the Magic Kingdom. For them at least, it was hardly the Happiest Place on Earth.

For Disney, satisfaction that the $3 billion (£1.7 billion) park was at last attracting significant numbers of visitors was overshadowed by the PR blunder in precisely the part of the world the firm is targeting for future growth - another park is planned for Shanghai, with India expected to follow.

Nor is it just the theme parks. The firm is launching Toon Disney, the first 24-hour Tamil language children's channel in India, while in December, Disney announced it would produce its first Chinese film, The Secret of the Magic Gourd.

The ventures are crucial if Disney is to succeed in its vision of emulating the likes of Coca-Cola in seriously boosting the amount of revenues to come from overseas. For Coke, the figure is 70pc, compared with about 20pc for Disney.

Overseas expansion is just one of many issues at the top of Bob Iger's to-do list as he begins his first full year as chief executive of the world's second largest media company.

He has not been idle. Supporters credit the 55-year-old with having had a transformational effect on the company, which many thought was moribund.

He has trimmed the famously Byzantine internal management structure favoured by his disliked predecessor Michael Eisner - soon to begin a new career as a chat show host - and completed a number of deals he hopes will ensure the firm's future success.

Late last year, the company struck an agreement with Steve Job's Apple to get content from the ABC and ESPN networks on to the next generation of video iPods. Already the partnership is understood to have resulted in close to 1m downloads of favourites like Desperate Housewives and Lost.

That deal in turn paved the way for last month's acquisition by Disney of animation studio Pixar, also headed by Mr Jobs. The $7 billion deal should offer some fresh impetus to Disney's own animation, which has been short of success in recent years, as well as bringing Mr Jobs and his creative strength to the Disney board.

Pixar was the company responsible for Finding Nemo and The Incredibles, two films distributed by Disney which became among the most successful animated pictures of all time.

It was the risk of losing the distribution rights - a threat made very clear and very public by Mr Jobs - that prompted Mr Iger's swift action.

Perhaps more crucially though, it helped highlight Disney's future strategy as a content company. Following a period when media groups were keen to build distribution platforms alongside their content divisions, Disney now appears to be going in the opposite direction. The company is said to be very close to a deal to sell off its radio stations for around $2.7 billion.

How successful the strategy will be remains to be seen. Critics of the company insist its stock, like many in the underperforming media sector, offers no value and little growth.

However Jason Bazinet, analyst at Citigroup, remains a bull and said he expects double-digit profit growth through 2008.

Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts 1920s-1960s

While the previous Walt Disney Treasures sets focused on specific time periods, themes, or characters, Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts 1920s-1960s is more of a best-of compilation of shorts from the first half of the Walt Disney Studios' existence. Spanning nearly forty years of animation, this set has probably the widest breadth of any of the Walt Disney Treasures releases.

Disc2

• Pigs is Pigs
  
• Social Lion
  
• Hooked Bear
  
• Jack and Old Mac
  
• In the Bag
  
• A Cowboy Needs a Horse
  
• The Story of Anyburg, USA
  
• The Truth About Mother Goose
  
• Paul Bunyan
  
• Noah's Ark
  
• Goliath II
  
• The Saga of Windwagon Smith
  
• A Symposium on Popular Songs
  
• A Feather in His Collar

About a third of the set consists of the then-famous Alice's Wonderland shorts. Featuring a handful of different girls playing Alice, these innovative films mixed animation and live-action. Although a bit mundane and gimmicky in a post-Who Framed Roger Rabbit? world, this was really one of Disney's first huge franchises. 

While most viewers will be seeing the Alice's Wonderland shorts for the first time, many will remember Adventures in Music: Melody and Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom from its continual presence on Disney's music-based home videos. The same goes for Lambert, the Sheepish Lion, which I remember being played incessantly on the Disney Channel when I was younger. In fact, the Disney Rarities in the title is a bit of a misnomer - many of these shorts have retained their popularity to this day.

Although the shorts are listed in a generally chronological order, the beauty of them is that you don't have to watch them in order to appreciate them. Film-buffs will enjoy the progression of animation techniques and styles while families can pick and choose from their favorites without any difficulty.

Every one of these shorts is a gem. Some people might note that this set doesn't nearly contain all of the Alice's Wonderland and that many of the other shorts Disney later cut into their home video and cable releases are excluded - that's because they picked the best of the best. With the exception of the Alice shorts, each cartoon is vastly different from the others, a keen demonstration of the range and creativity of the Walt Disney animation studios throughout its first forty years. 
 
The Video
Rating the transfer of this disc is incredibly difficult because of the age difference of the shorts. The separation between the oldest and youngest shorts in the set is 38 years - a huge difference in filmmaking techniques, colorization, animation styles, and film preservation technology. Much like the previous sets, the older, black and white cartoons look pretty good. Whites and blacks are very clean and even subtle lines are clear on the screen. It's not perfect, but they're clean as they've ever been.

Disney Profit Rises 7 Percent as Parks, TV Unit Post Gains 

Disney profit rises, merging radio with Citadel 

Disney sells ABC Radio, reports 1Q growth 

Disney Dazzles Wall Street 

Long-Running Commercial Marks 20th Year 

Room to Relax: Carefully conceived cabins let families be together without overdoing the closeness 

"ESPN The Weekend" Returns to Walt Disney World Resort March 3-5, 2006 

Steelers, Iger's Disney Winners In Super Bowl XL

ABC has no ‘Satisfaction’ with Stones’ lyrics 

Bet on Disney and Goldman, not GM 

Deal making Disney on Deck 

Cisco invests in Disney's MovieBeam spinoff 

What If Disney's Prize Wasn't Pixar, but Jobs? 

Tower of Terror - 2007 or 2008?

Promotions, New Appointments at Disney Channel

Disney Profit Rises 7 Percent as Parks, TV Unit Post Gains

 

Walt Disney Co., the second-largest U.S. media company, said first-quarter profit rose 7 percent after the theme-parks business and television unit posted gains. Disney agreed to sell a 48 percent stake in its radio business to Citadel Broadcasting Corp.

Net income rose to $734 million, or 37 cents a share, from $686 million, or 33 cents, a year earlier, the Burbank, California-based company said today in a statement distributed by Business Wire. Profit beat the 31-cent estimate from Merrill Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen. Sales rose 2.2 percent to $8.85 billion.

Profit at the parks unit rose 51 percent to $375 million. More ad revenue and fees from cable operators helped drive higher earnings at Disney's cable-networks business. Disney Chief Executive Officer Robert Iger agreed to buy Pixar for $7.4 billion last month to rebuild the company's film unit, which dragged results in the quarter.

``The Disney parks have been very, very strong,'' Peter Goldman at Chicago Asset Management, which owns about 364,000 Disney shares among its $750 million, said before the announcement.

Shares of Disney fell 3 cents to $24.98 at 4: p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock fell 14 percent last year, compared with a 10 percent decline at Time Warner Inc., the world's biggest media company.

Disney's sale of the stake in the ABC Radio Network peels off a slower-growing business as advertisers and listeners flock to satellite-radio services. Disney held on to Radio Disney, a 24-hour music and talk format for children, and the ESPN sports radio network.

Estimates

Disney earnings beat the 30-cent a share average estimate from 18 analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial, which declined to say what items the estimate included.

Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31 fell short of $9.03 billion, the estimate from Reif Cohen, Institutional Investor's No.1-ranked entertainment analyst. Sales beat the $8.8 billion average estimate from 14 analysts surveyed by Thomson.

In the year-ago quarter, costs related to the sale of Disney's North American retail stores cut profit by 1 cent a share. Disney has forecast double-digit percentage earnings increases through 2008.

Disney set a holiday-season attendance record at its Walt Disney World resort, Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs said last month. Marketing and advertising to promote the 50th anniversary of Disneyland in Anaheim, California, helped draw visitors to the company's resorts. Staggs didn't disclose attendance figures.

The domestic resorts including Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland lured more visitors who spent more money.

Movies

Disney's ``The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,'' which opened Dec. 9 and took in $209 million in the quarter, was the company's top film last quarter. That gross and the $131.7 million from ``Chicken Little'' didn't measure up to last quarter's hits including ``The Incredibles,'' ``National Treasure'' and ``Ladder 49.''

Emeryville, California-based Pixar's ``The Incredibles'' went on to become the top-selling DVD last year with $285 million in sales after its March 2005 release, according to DVD Exclusive magazine. Disney's home video sales in the quarter fell 25 percent to about 65 million units, Lehman Brothers analyst Vijay Jayant said. Disney doesn't break out its home-video sales data.

Disney's acquisition of Pixar will succeed if Iger, who turns 55 this week, allows Pixar and its creative chief John Lasseter to remain autonomous, Benesch said.

Television

Disney's deferral of some fees paid by cable operators to broadcast the ESPN cable-sports network and higher costs to begin the ESPN-branded mobile phone hurt results, Jayant said. Higher programming costs at the ABC Family channel also trimmed profit, he said.

Disney began selling ESPN Mobile phones in Best Buy Co.'s stores yesterday, when the Super Bowl was broadcast on ABC.

Initiatives like ESPN Mobile and ABC's decision to sell shows on Apple Computer Inc.'s Ipods are part of Disney's effort to stay current with technology, Scott Benesch at U.S. Trust said.

``These are new digital platforms,'' he said. ``They're throwing them against the wall and they may stick.''

ABC tied as the most-watched network among younger viewers during the November ratings period as shows including ``Lost'' pushed the broadcaster to the No. 1 spot for the first time in more than five years.

Regaining first place cements Iger's push to rehabilitate ABC, which as recently as May 2004 was the lowest ranked of the four major networks during the November sweeps period used to set ad rates. Iger took over as CEO in October after Michael Eisner retired. Eisner also left Disney's board of directors.

``The return at ABC is underway,'' said Goldman. ``They've had a few back-to-back good seasons.''

Of the 24 analysts who follow Disney, 12 rate it ``buy,'' 11 rate it ``hold'' and one rates it ``sell.'' Disney has beaten profit estimates in five of the past six quarters.

(Disney will hold a conference call at 4:30 p.m. EST at (1)(800) 295-3991 or (1)(617) 614-3924 for international users using passcode #17138837 or http://www.disney.go.com/investors . A replay is available at (1)(888) 286-8010 and (1)(617) 801-6888 for international callers with passcode #94005309.)

Disney profit rises, merging radio with Citadel

The Walt Disney Co. on Monday posted a 7 percent rise in first-quarter profit as improved results at its theme park, television and consumer products units outweighed a weak performance at its movie studio.

The company also said its ABC Radio stations would merge with Citadel Broadcasting Corp. in a deal that Disney said was worth $2.7 billion and would give Disney shareholders control of 52 percent of a new company, Citadel Communications.

Disney shares rose just under 2 percent in after-hours trade.

Net income rose to $734 million, or 37 cents per share, in the first quarter, ended December 31, from $686 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $8.854 billion from $8.666 billion a year earlier.

Excluding a gain of $70 million, or 2 cents per share, related to sales of cable and magazine businesses, Disney posted earnings per share of 35 cents, ahead of the Wall Street consensus of 30 cents, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue lagged expectations of $8.84 billion for the quarter.

"From the standpoint of earnings, (Disney is) clearly outperforming," Rich Greenfield of Pali Research said. "The main place was in theme parks where clearly the 50th anniversary (of Disneyland), and the revenues and profits coming in from Asia made a difference in the quarter."

He said investors would want more details of the ABC radio deal.

During the quarter, Disney shares traded between $22.96 and $26.06. Disney shares traded on Monday at 17.7 times estimated 2006 earnings, compared with an average of 13.2 times earnings for companies comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> and 21 times earnings for Time Warner Inc. according to Reuters Estimates.

Disney announced earlier this month that it would buy Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion.

Disney shares rose 46 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $25.42 on Inet.

Disney sells ABC Radio, reports 1Q growth

Walt Disney Co. on Monday posted a higher quarterly profit, due to growth in its parks and resorts, media networks and consumer products units.

 

Disney also announced that its ABC Radio stations would merge with Citadel Broadcasting Corp.

Net income rose to $734 million, or 37 cents per share in the first quarter, ended December 31, from $686 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $8.854 billion from $8.666 billion a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, were expecting net earnings of 29 cents per share and revenue of $8.84 billion for the quarter, and adjusted earnings of 30 cents per share.

During the quarter, Disney shares traded between $22.96 and $26.06. Disney shares traded on Monday at 17.7 times estimated 2006 earnings, compared with an average of 13.2 times earnings for companies comprising the Dow Jones Industrial Average and 21 times earnings for Time Warner Inc.according to Reuters Estimates.

Disney announced earlier this month that it would buy Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for $7.4 billion.

Disney Dazzles Wall Street

Disney beat first-quarter earnings targets and confirmed it's selling its radio assets in a $2.7 billion deal.

For the first quarter ended Dec. 31, the Burbank, Calif., media giant made $734 million, or 37 cents a share, up from $686 million, or 33 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 2% from a year ago to $8.85 billion.

Latest-quarter results benefited from a 2-cent-a-share gain related to the sales of a cable television equity investment and of a magazine business. Excluding one-time items, latest-quarter earnings rose to 35 cents a share from 34 cents a year earlier. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were looking for a 30-cent profit on sales of $8.79 billion.

"I am encouraged by the solid momentum in our earnings and the financial and creative strengths that underpin these results," said CEO Robert Iger. "We continue to focus on our strategy of creating the finest content, embracing leading edge technologies, and strengthening our global presence and in doing so, we are confident in our ability to deliver long-term success across each of our businesses.

"Our recently announced plan to acquire Pixar advances our efforts against each aspect of that strategy," Iger said. "In addition, today's announcement of our proposed combination of the ABC Radio business with Citadel Broadcasting underscores our commitment to maximizing the value of our assets for our shareholders, while focusing our capital and management resources toward our core businesses."

The radio deal will combine Disney's ABC Radio, which includes 22 radio stations and the ABC Radio Networks, with Citadel Broadcasting. The newly combined company, to be named Citadel Communications, will be the third largest radio group in the United States, with a strong national footprint reaching more than 50 markets.

Long-Running Commercial Marks 20th Year

 

Wide receiver Hines Ward of the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night became the latest sports hero to pause in the afterglow of triumph and shout the famous phrase "I'm going to Disney World!" as part of the production for one of TV's most enduring and celebrated commercials. But this time, there was more: Veteran Pittsburgh running back Jerome "The Bus" Bettis joined in the commercial as Super Bowl MVP Ward added, "And I'm taking The Bus."

The pronouncement, captured on tape at Detroit's Ford Field just moments after Pittsburgh's 21-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL, became the latest episode of the "I'm going to Disney World" commercial produced over a 20-year span.

When the first of the series appeared in 1987 (featuring New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms following his team's triumph in Super Bowl XXI), the commercial was regarded as a groundbreaking concept -- a produced national commercial involving a current event, airing on major networks hours after the event. And this latest installment -- the 36th in the long-running series -- will follow a similar script, airing Feb. 6 -- the day after Super Bowl XL.

Also on Monday, Ward and Bettis were scheduled to go to Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., for a celebratory parade down Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom. The procession, also including football stars of the future from NFL Youth Football hosted by Emmitt Smith, the NFL's all-time leading rusher, was to cap Disney's most visible "I'm going to Disney World" presence in two decades of the TV spot.

Disney this year worked with the NFL to create a retrospective of the game's heroes and 20 years of the "I'm going to Disney World" campaign, then projected the presentation onto a downtown Detroit skyscraper during evening hours of the days leading up to the Super Bowl. Accompanied by lively music celebrating the sport and Detroit's heritage, the dazzling visuals -- up to 150 feet high -- added to the fun of Detroit's Motown Winter Blast, a combination of hip and fun winter sports for the entire family to enjoy in Campus Martius Park.

Next came a 60-second commercial that aired during the pregame broadcast and at halftime of the game featuring players from both Super Bowl teams -- including Ward and Bettis -- practicing to deliver the iconic catchphrase "I'm going to Disney World."

Then, for the first time ever, Disney did a post-game reveal of the players to be featured in the Feb. 6 "I'm going to Disney World" spot, projecting the image of Ward XL -- extra large -- onto the side of a building in Campus Martius Park Sunday night after the game.

Ward and Bettis join a lineup of sports heroes such as Tom Brady, Emmitt Smith, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Joe Montana, John Elway, Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Doug Williams, Magic Johnson and Patrick Roy who have been featured during the two decades of "I'm going to Disney World" commercials.

Room to Relax: Carefully conceived cabins let families be together without overdoing the closeness

 

David and Jill Craft's daughter Hailey, 5, loves princesses, so she really enjoyed the kid-friendly evening shows aboard the Disney Magic last month. Her parents enjoyed the cruise too, and one of the reasons was the stateroom they stayed in.

''Our daughter slept on a pull-out sofa in the sleeping alcove,'' said Craft, whose home is in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. ''It's curtained off, so I could read at night with the light on and it didn't disturb her.'' Another bonus: the cabins have dual water closets, one with toilet and sink, another with sink and bath.

The Crafts plugged in to a growing trend on cruise ships: cabins designed to keep families together but without tripping over each other or fighting nonstop over the bathroom.

While connecting rooms and triple and quad cabins have long been available for family cruisers, newer ships are offering new family options -- a necessity when more than 1 million passengers under 18 are cruising every year. The new-style cabins are ''fun for parents, fun for kids,'' said Lois Shore of Ensemble, an upscale travel consortium.

Disney's launch into cruising in 1998 may have spurred the family-cabin movement, but today's cruisers can find them on many lines, including Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, MSC Cruises and Royal Caribbean.

Though Disney offers these cabins on both its ships, most lines offer them only on their newest vessels. That tight supply means family cabins have to be booked early and don't come cheaply.

Some have curtained-off alcoves like the one the Crafts stayed in. Some have separate bedrooms. A few have two bathrooms -- a godsend for blended families and those who are rushing to get ready all at the same time.

And then there are a few really big suites with a living room and two or more bedrooms, which work well not only for families, but also for a set of friends.

In many cases, the pricing is also appealing. The Crafts thought of booking a suite, said David, ''but the difference in price (about $2,600) was too much.'' The deluxe family stateroom with veranda costs around $1,900 per adult, plus $900 per child aged 3-12.

''We got spoiled,'' admitted Sabrina Lowder, who sailed in a two-bedroom, two-bath suite with her husband and five children on a recent Royal Caribbean cruise. ``We loved the space. We had a living room, two bedrooms, two baths and a huge balcony.''

Family options include the following. Prices shown are regular brochure costs and may vary by sailing. Adult prices are per person, double occupancy; children's prices are based on having two adults in the room.

• Norwegian America's (sister to Norwegian Cruise Lines) new Pride of America tours Hawaiian waters with eight family balcony suites featuring a living room with sofa bed and entertainment center, separate den with a single sofa bed, and private bedroom with two twin beds. Prices start at $6,499 per adult, double occupancy; $1,499 for children.

  The ship also has four Deluxe Family Penthouses, each with living room, balcony, and two separate bedrooms, plus butler and concierge service. Price starts at $8,499 per adult, double, $1,499 for children.
  

• Norwegian Cruise Line's new Norwegian Jewel scored a hit with its Courtyard Villas, unique in cruising. These 10 two-bedroom villas share a private Balinese-style courtyard with swimming pool, Jacuzzi, small gym and private sun deck. Each have separate bedrooms for adults and children, two baths and living room. Price: $5,099-$5,299 per adult, $699 for children. The Jewel and the earlier Dawn also have two Garden Villas, enormous three-bedroom lodgings with large outside spaces. Prices starts at $15,999 per adult, 3rd-8th occupant, $699.
  
• All Royal Caribbean ships have up to four two-bedroom, two-bath Royal Family Suites that accommodate up to eight cruisers, priced at $4,099 per adult, double occupancy, plus $599 per child.

  The line's giant new Freedom of the Seas, coming on line in June, also offers several other options, including family staterooms with curtained sleeping alcove overlooking the sea or the interior arcade. Also inside, but windowless, will be two Inside Family Staterooms with curtained alcoves. Also available: One Accessible Family Stateroom with sleeping alcove, and for cruisers with deep pockets, big families or a lot of friends, a 14-person Presidential Suite.
  

• Princess Cruises' newer ships each have two Family Suites. These are actually two staterooms (a mini-suite and an inside room) joined together by an oversize living room. Each Family Suite has a large balcony and sleeps up to eight. Prices start at $2,699 per adult, double occupancy, plus $499 for children in suite.
  
• MSC Cruises' four newest ships carry two Family Suites, each with a separate room for children. Found on the Opera, Lirica, Sinfonia and Armonia, they range in size from 237 to 287 square feet. They do not have balconies. Prices start at $1,300 per adult, double occupancy, plus $525 for children under 12 in suite.
  
  Disney Cruise Line, with its preponderance of family passengers, made a point from the get-go of having plenty of family accommodations -- 80 deluxe family staterooms with verandas on each of its two ships starting at $1,899 per adult, double occupancy, plus $899 for children ages 3-12. ''We're also the only line with split baths [in all outside staterooms]. One has a tub/shower, vanity and sink, the other a toilet and vanity,'' said the line's Jason Lasecki. ``These were designed with families in mind. They're great for getting ready.''

FANCY DIGS

Every cruise line offers at least a couple of luxurious suites on each of its ships that can accommodate families, though they may have been intended for high-rollers. Such grand accommodations can be quite costly.

Connecting cabins, however, remain a favorite with many families, first because there are many more available, and second because they provide greater privacy, a second bathroom and more overall space.

On the other hand, the cost of two connecting cabins can be higher than a family cabin, and ship policy may require an adult occupant in each cabin, so parents may have to split up.

One cruiser with a family of four says she has tried different family-friendly accommodations on several cruises, among them an Owner's Suite, a Family Suite and connecting cabins.

''At this point,'' she wrote on an online cruise message board, 'we will likely stick with two connecting cabins on future cruises . . . We enjoyed the Family Suite, but the premium compared with the two connecting cabins isn't worth it for us -- we just don't use that many of the suite `perks.' '' She also noted that connecting cabins come in virtually all cabin grades, which allows more flexibility in choosing ship and travel dates.

Still another spin on cabins comes from Mary Schimmelann of Holland America Line. Rather than booking staterooms that connect, she said, ''We notice many families take an outside cabin for the parents and an inside cabin across the hall for the kids.'' That cuts costs while still leaving the balcony available to the whole family.

But don't delay making your choices, especially if you're thinking of cruising in the holidays. ''[Family] accommodations for next Christmas sailings are mostly sold out,'' noted Mike Driscoll of Cruise Week, a cruise industry newsletter.

"ESPN The Weekend" Returns to Walt Disney World Resort March 3-5, 2006

ESPN and Walt Disney World Resort will again offer fans the opportunity to see and hear ESPN personalities and current and legendary athletes during "ESPN The Weekend Presented by Speed Stick 24/7," a one-of-a-kind sports-themed special event at Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Fla., March 3-5, 2006.

"Following successful events the past two years, ESPN and Walt Disney World Resort are once again pleased to serve sports fans by offering this unique, in-person experience," said Heather Campbell, vice president, brand integration and synergy, ESPN, Inc. " 'ESPN The Weekend' has become one of the most exciting opportunities throughout the year for fans, athletes and ESPN to connect with one another and celebrate sports."

"ESPN The Weekend" will feature on-site ESPN telecasts including SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight and Cold Pizza; star motorcades and Q&A sessions featuring athletes and ESPN personalities; sports shows in the ESPN Theater with ESPN commentators and athletes; a visit from ESPN The Truck; live ESPN Radio broadcasts; ESPN Deportes Fuera de Juego telecasts; the ESPN Sports Zone interactive area; and a special sports edition of the game show attraction "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-Play It!" Guests will also be able to enjoy all the popular shows and attractions, including the new "Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show."

LIVE ON-SITE ESPN TELECASTS

ESPN will present at least two live telecasts a day from a set in front of the Disney-MGM Studios Sorcerer's Hat on Hollywood Boulevard.

On-site programs include a special season preview edition of Baseball Tonight with host Karl Ravech and analysts Peter Gammons, John Kruk and Harold Reynolds. Major League Baseball Spring Training games get underway that weekend and the Baseball Tonight crew will put all the off-season moves in perspective and tell fans what to watch for during the spring.

In addition, ESPN will offer live telecasts of SportsCenter and Cold Pizza. Park guests will have a chance to appear on-air via crowd shots while watching the programming on in-park video screens.

ESPN Radio shows, including Mike and Mike in the Morning, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, the Dan Patrick Show and SportsBash with Eric Kuselias will be broadcast live from Disney-MGM Studios on Friday, March 3. A special edition of ESPN Radio's The Baseball Show will also be broadcast from the park on Saturday, March 4.

ESPN THEATER

Live shows will bring fans and guests behind the scenes of some of the network's most popular programs, including SportsCenter, Baseball Tonight, Cold Pizza, NFL Live and more. The shows will provide an inside look at favorite athletes, teams and ESPN programs, as fans will get into the action themselves by asking questions directly to ESPN personalities and athletes.

SPECIAL SPORTS EDITION OF "WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE-PLAY IT!"

Guests will get a chance to jump in the famed "Hot Seat" and partner with an ESPN personality or sports star to test their sports knowledge in a special sports edition of the popular game show attraction "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire-Play It!" The attraction is based on the television game show and allows theme park guests to play along from their studio audience seats.

STAR MOTORCADES AND CONVERSATIONS

Periodically, throughout the day, sports stars will motorcade down the park's Hollywood Boulevard to the stage at the base of the Sorcerer's Hat and join ESPN anchors for star conversations about their careers and Q&A sessions with park guests.

ESPN SPORTS ZONE INTERACTIVE AREA

The ESPN Sports Zone will give guests of all ages the opportunity to test their skills at everything from basketball games of H-O-R-S-E to racecar video games involving multiple drivers. Guests will even be able to learn how to cast a reel like a bass angler or have a golf swing evaluated by a Walt Disney World teaching pro. ESPN personalities and sports celebrities will make appearances in the interactive area throughout the weekend. Bands and in-park entertainers will also perform.

ESPN THE TRUCK

ESPN The Truck Presented by NFL Flag will be open for fans to sample the latest in sports television technology. Kiosks in the 53-foot trailer include: a replica SportsCenter desk, allowing fans to play sports anchor and take home their very own "Keep it Reel" audition DVD; ESPN The Magazine photo shoot area where fans can strike their cover pose and take home their picture of the mock cover; ESPN video games station; ESPN On-Air, where guests can select from a menu of ESPN video sources; and much more.

SPORTSCENTER AND PLAY-BY-PLAY ROLE PLAY

While visiting ESPN The Truck, guests can sit down at a replica of the SportsCenter desk and read the teleprompter as the highlights roll on the big game. In addition, guests will be able to test their play-by-play skills by calling some of the biggest moments in sports history.

The Walt Disney World innovative ticket pricing system "Magic Your Way" provides guests with the opportunity to customize their vacations, and Florida residents can save on tickets all year long.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

For information on "ESPN The Weekend" at Walt Disney World Resort and to book travel, guests may visit www.espntheweekend.com.

"ESPN The Weekend" Commercials:

A pair of national advertising spots promoting "ESPN The Weekend" are now airing on the ESPN television networks with supporting materials in print and on ESPN Radio and ESPN.com. Created by The Concept Farm and ESPN Marketing, one spot features Chicago Bears linebacker Brian Urlacher at a face-painting kiosk inside the Disney theme parks, where he is applying traditional football "eye black" to the face of a young girl wearing mouse ears. ESPN's Linda Cohn also appears. Another 30-second commercial features NBA legend Julius "Dr. J" Erving and ESPN analysts Greg Anthony and Dee Brown in a pick-up basketball game with the Seven Dwarfs. Brown and Anthony pick their teams, and Dr. J is curiously the last player chosen. Both spots were recently filmed at Disney-MGM Studios.

Steelers, Iger's Disney Winners In Super Bowl XL

Chanting crowds. Overturned cars. Arson. International protests over a certain sacrilegious Danish newspaper cartoon? Nope: merely fans celebrating the Pittsburgh Steelers' 21-10 victory over the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XL in Detroit.

Pittsburgh wide receiver Hines Ward was named the big game's MVP, as the Steelers nailed a fifth Super Bowl ring. It's the foundry town's first Bowl win since 1980--tying them with the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys for most championships in NFL history.

Besides the Steelers, there were other champs--playing off the field. We refer firstly to Robert Iger, chief executive of The Walt Disney Co. (nyse: DIS) The CEO has already done what predecessor Michael Eisner couldn't: come to terms with Steve Jobs and acquire the latter's Pixar (nasdaq: PIXR). Iger's Disney also owns the ABC TV network that aired the NFL's big game. Which leads us to the second tier of winners and losers: The vaunted advertisers.

Rapper-entrepreneur P.Diddy co-starred with comedian Jay Mohr to hawk PepsiCo's (nyse: PEP) Diet line. Anheuser-Busch (nyse: BUD ) had a sweet spot featuring its iconic Clydesdales. Procter & Gamble's (nyse: PG) Gillette created shock and awe with its Fusion shaving "system." And GoDaddy.com presented a now-dated reference to a certain "wardrobe malfunction"--and if the ad fell short of the hype, blame News Corp.'s (nyse: NWS) Fox for blocking the Internet domain registry's outing last year. Forbidding the fruit only makes it seem sweeter.

Early viewer surveys find that Ameriquest and FedEx (nyse: FDX) had the cleverest spots, and Blockbuster (nyse: BBI) perhaps the most efficacious: Offering dozens of free movie rentals might actually give the firm some return on its marketing buck: an average $2.5 million per 30-second spot.

If you're one of the rare Americans--or Earthlings, thanks to globalizing game-carrier Sirius Satellite Radio (nasdaq: SIRI)--who missed the game, at least you can still watch the ads. Thanks to Iger's buddy Jobs, you can download them via the Apple Computer (nasdaq: AAPL ) iTunes service.

Which might be more exciting than the Rolling Stones' NFL-censored halftime show.

ABC has no ‘Satisfaction’ with Stones’ lyrics

They may not have flashed any body parts — except for Mick Jagger’s well-toned stomach — but the Rolling Stones made ABC glad editors were on duty for the Super Bowl halftime show.

Two sexually explicit lyrics were excised from the rock legends’ performance Sunday. The only song to avoid the editor was “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” a 41-year-old song about sexual frustration.

In “Start Me Up,” the show’s editors silenced one word, a reference to a woman’s sexual sway over a dead man. The lyrics for “Rough Justice” included a synonym for rooster that the network also deemed worth cutting out.

ABC was the first network to impose a five-second tape delay on the Super Bowl, although it said the changes to the Stones’ show were made by the NFL and its producers. The sensitivity no doubt reflects a lingering reaction to Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction two years ago.

The Stones probably didn’t mind, either. It brought a little rock ’n’ roll danger to the ultimate “safe” gig and — if they’re lucky — it distracted attention from their mediocre show.

Jagger, at age 62, is still a force of nature, strutting and dancing across a stage designed as a replica of their famed wagging tongue logo. The band’s performance felt ragged — they seemed just warming up during the opening “Start Me Up,” and a three-song set affords no such luxury.

The Stones chose three tough rockers, including the best song from their well-received recent album and one of their most enduring hits.

“Here’s one we could have done at Super Bowl I,” Jagger wryly said in introducing “Satisfaction.”

It was their best, most energetic effort, and ended with Jagger blowing a kiss to the audience. But unlike U2’s performance four years ago at the Super Bowl, their set was not an example of a band at its peak rising to the majesty of the event.

Some in Detroit felt the city’s rich musical history was snubbed when the Stones were selected, even if the Super Bowl had Motown-themed halftime shows twice in the past 25 years. This year’s Motown tribute came before the game.

Stevie Wonder was the centerpiece, singing a medley of his hits with the help of John Legend, Joss Stone and India.Arie.

It was a typical monument to excess, with a stage more crowded than a train station at rush hour, and was marred by microphones that occasionally malfunctioned. Brightly clad dancers hoofed it incongruously when Wonder sang a portion of his angry ghetto tale “Livin’ for the City,” at one point pretending to fight each other.

Most importantly, the medley format did a disservice to the musicians. They rushed through the songs as if at a fast-food service line. With hours of meaningless pregame hoopla, couldn’t they be given five minutes more to finish a few songs?

The National Anthem offered a particularly odd partnership — Aaron Neville and Dr. John (in a tribute to hurricane-ravaged New Orleans) with Detroit favorite Aretha Franklin. Neville sang half of the song in his feathery-soft voice, then was never heard from again when Franklin blew the dome’s roof off.

She barely needed a microphone.

Bet on Disney and Goldman, not GM

Disney is poised to move and Goldman Sachs is an attractive bet ... but GM remains moribund.

GM: So Big Wheels' board meets today and at stake is the dividend. GM pays out $1.1 billion in divies each year and can't really afford it. After all the company lost $8.6 billion last year! Its stock now yields 8.64 percent, or $2 a share, which if it sounds too good to be true, is. Look for the company to slash the dividend in half. Radical! Last time GM cut its dividend was in 1992. Now Kirk Kerkorian is all for this, even though he owns 56 million shares which means he stands to lose $56 million in dividends. Obviously he hopes he'll make up more in stock gains. Maybe he will, maybe he won't. But I wouldn't fish here. I say we have a dead auto company rolling here

DISNEY: Wow! Bob Iger has been a busy bee, hasn't he? He took over from Michael Eisner last fall and has shown the world pretty quickly how Eisner -- now a talk show host to be -- had boxed this company in. First Iger made peace with dissident shareholders, Roy Disney and Stanley Gold. Then he made a deal with Apple to put ABC shows up on iTunes, which set the stage for his deal to buy Pixar. Today, according to the Wall Street Journal, in a widely anticipated deal DIS will announce the sale of its radio business to Citadel for some $2.7 billion. Now we aren't talking Radio Disney or ESPN Radio, Disney keeps them. We're talking the old ABC radio stations. Media folks will tell you there isn't much synergy there, and the deal brings in much needed cash. Disney's stock hasn't really responded yet, but I think over time it will.

GOLDMAN SACHS: For the first time, Goldman Sachs is coining more coin from its asset management business than Morgan Stanley. Surprised? Maybe, maybe not. Morgan Stanley is much better known for its steady-Eddy asset management business than Goldman which is nowadays famous for its proprietary trading biz (or betting the firm's own money)---which is why some liken this blue chip house to a hedge fund. Proprietary trading is sexy and can produce huge gains, but it is also volatile. So it should please Goldman shareholders to know that Bloomberg is reporting that last year for the first time Goldman beat Morgan Stanley in asset management fees, $2.96 billion to $2.91 billion. GS is up more than 40 percent over the past 12 months. Still the stock only carries a P/E of 12. If you believe in the casino that is the U.S. equity market, then Goldman is like the house. Some folks are leery of brokerage stocks. I don't feel that way at all about this one.

Loose Change: I don't want to sound like a whiny-butt, (I really don't), and I WAS rooting for the Steelers, but didn't the Seahawks get ripped off all over the place last night? As in bad calls, ref! ... And I have an idea for a business. As Google gets more and more and more commercial, wouldn't it be cool if there was a search engine which instead of popping up sponsored sites first, always put the business or company you were looking for first. For instance, if you ever put the name of a hotel in Google, you get a million travel services, not the hotel's website. So in TrueSearch, (let's call it), you would always get the hotel's site first.

Deal making Disney on Deck

Disney can't stay out of the news lately.

After a brief transition phase in which new chief Bob Iger focused on moving past the painful end of the Michael Eisner era, the Burbank, Calif., media giant has spent the new year wheeling and dealing. Two weeks ago the company pulled the trigger on a $7.4 billion acquisition of animation powerhouse Pixar bolstering its movie studio and infusing fresh creative talent.

Now, come Monday afternoon, Disney is due to give Wall Street an update on the financial side of things -- along with possible news on the long-pending sale of its radio operations.

Disney's first-quarter results should be solid. Bright spots should include ongoing secular strength in its major TV franchises, steady performance at the theme parks and an uptick in filmed entertainment. Analysts will be looking for earnings of 30 cents a share, down from 34 cents a year ago, on $8.9 billion in revenue.

Iger, who took over last fall after Eisner hung on following a no-confidence vote from investors, has been credited with transforming Disney. He has trimmed Eisner's famously Byzantine internal management structure and put together savvy deals to get ABC and ESPN content on new platforms like the Apple iPod.

How much fruit those arrangements will yield down the road remains to be seen. But it is widely accepted that the Apple deal helped soften Pixar Chairman Steve Jobs to the Pixar deal, which in turn should help Disney by adding Jobs' famous entertainment-industry vision to Disney's often lackluster board.

Success has not been easily won when it comes to the company's share price, however. Since Iger took over last fall, Disney shares have risen 5%, while the big-cap S&P 500 is up 7%.

One dangling issue that could soon be tied up is the sale of Disney's radio properties. A deal with Citadel Broadcasting is in the works. Sources say the transaction could yield nearly $3 billion for assets that include radio stations in the nation's most-sought after markets.

Cisco invests in Disney's MovieBeam spinoff

Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO.O) said on Monday it has made an investment in MovieBeam Inc., the on-demand movie service that Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N) spun off in January.

Cisco, Disney and several venture capital firms including Intel Corp.'s (INTC.O) Intel Capital, Mayfield Fund, Norwest Venture Partners and Vantage Point Venture Partners invested $48.5 million in MovieBeam, according to MovieBeam spokeswoman Michelle Cox.

A Cisco spokeswoman declined to provide details of the company's interest in MovieBeam.

Cisco entered the digital video market with its acquisition of Danish firm KiSS Technology A/S, which makes a networked DVD player. It also is spending $6.9 billion to acquire cable set-top box maker Scientific-Atlanta Inc. (SFA.N).

Disney remains the chief investor in the company, said MovieBeam spokeswoman Michelle Cox, but she declined to say how much money the other companies invested.

Disney launched MovieBeam in 2003 in three test markets -- Spokane, Washington; Jacksonville, Florida; and Salt Lake City, Utah -- and suspended the service last year amid plans to upgrade the technology and launch it as a bigger service.

MovieBeam sold a television set-top box preloaded with 100 movies, and delivered 10 new movies a week, Cox said. Customers paid $8.99 a month to subscribe to the service, plus rental fees between $1.99 and $3.99 per movie, she said.

Cox declined to say when and where the company would restart the service.

Cisco shares edged down 21 cents, or about 1 percent, to $17.94 on Nasdaq shortly before the close. Disney rose 2 cents, or 0.08 percent, to $25.03 on the New York Stock Exchange.

What If Disney's Prize Wasn't Pixar, but Jobs?

I was wrong.

No, not about phone and wire-tapping -- more on that below -- but on the Disney-Pixar merger. What if, instead of having to accept the board presence of Steve Jobs as a cost of getting Pixar's animation talent and film library, Disney actually views the transaction as buying Pixar TO GET Steve Jobs and then gaining the animation bits as a bonus? If Disney CEO Robert Iger is really an exceptional leader, he'll see it exactly that way.

I am not a big Steve Jobs fan. No fawning here. I once called him a sociopath in a book that was translated into 18 languages, and I don't take it back now. But even a sociopath has his moments, and I am beginning to see that this moment belongs to Jobs.

What made me come to this understanding was reading an op-ed piece this week in the New York Times written by film historian Neal Gabler, who is just finishing a monumental book about Walt Disney. You'll find the essay among this week's links.

Assuming that Gabler knows what he is writing about, having spent several years getting inside the head of Walt Disney, then Disney and Jobs have a lot in common. Both were iconoclasts and loners, driven by creative visions and always a bit out of sync with their peers. Both were dreamers, but dreamers who for the most part realized their dreams. Both believed that the purpose of being in business was to create a unique product that came to define an experience for customers. Rod Canion and Michael Dell and Ted Waitt never talked about user experience, but Jobs and Disney did, right from the beginning of their careers.

What Jobs created at Pixar by allowing it to be (this is his only company, remember, where he stayed out of the day-to-day operations) is an environment where technology might have run, Tron-like, over character and creative sensibilities but somehow that didn't happen. At Pixar, technology drives character rather than characters being spray-painted on technology. What Disney gets from Pixar is, of course, the cancellation of most animated films in development or production, but that's balanced by a separate slate of films that will gross two, three or four times as much with all that now going to Disney. In this trade, Disney loses nothing and gains everything.

But Pixar and a trunkload of new theme park characters are the least of it. Disney is in the film, TV, sports, publishing, and hospitality industries, but none of its major competitors -- none -- are run by people who come to their positions with anything like an artistic drive or a real sense of what their customers want. Does Sumner Redstone understand MTV? Does GE have an artistic molecule in its "lop off the bottom 10 percent" corporate culture? Does Rupert Murdoch really understand his own success and its ultimate cost? Does ever-imploding Sony even know what to do with its music and movie empires? No, no, no, and no.

If Robert Iger creates a miracle at Disney, which I think he will, that miracle is Steve Jobs. We're in a new century with new realities, but we haven't yet found a new archetype for enlightened corporate power. Bill Gates? Give me a break! What we have are people in power who have no muse and wouldn't recognize one if they could even hear her. Steve Jobs knows his muse.

For the entertainment industries, the next 10 years will be the most revolutionary in a century. Broadcast TV as we knew it is going away, replaced by a Chinese entertainment menu of such complexity that even knowing what's "on" tonight will be beyond the abilities of most viewers. At some point, too, movies will be subsumed into television and recorded music will find its own new place with new rules. This will be Steve Jobs's world and we'll all just be visitors. It's obvious to me and, evidently, to Iger, too.

The trick here is in knowing how to get the best product for the least money. Jobs is not opposed to spending money, but he is determined to get more for his money than anyone else. Look at the books of Apple and Pixar to understand this concept. Against a century-old tradition of corporate bloat, Jobs successfully preaches (and proves) that smaller is really better. How else can Apple compete with Microsoft AND Dell and HP, and still have $8 billion in the bank? Because smaller is better and cheaper, too, when it comes to creative development.

I still don't like Steve Jobs. I've known too many people he has hurt. But this is clearly his time, maybe even his century. And what of Bill Gates? Bill Gates is a very successful philanthropist, but he's no Steve Jobs.

Nobody is.

Well, maybe Oprah.

Bill once told me that there was no way that Steve could win, so he wondered why Jobs was even still in the game?

Bill now knows why.

Now for a final word on wiretapping, the NSA, and you, which were the primary topics of my last two columns. This last thought comes from an old friend of mine who is conservative in the very best sense and knows what he is writing about:

"Traffic analysis, at the NSA? I'm tempted to be sarcastic, but I won't be. As you might know, I started a company a few years ago with a former NSA guy -- somebody who was a cryptographer and Russian linguist on those submarines that snuck into Soviet harbors to tap their phone lines -- and we applied traffic analysis to Internet discussion groups to identify opinion leaders, conversation trends and so forth. We used a lot of techniques that were developed or applied to law enforcement. And we didn't use anything that violated anybody's security clearances... really!

"(My company) was acquired by a business intelligence company funded by the CIA venture capital outfit. Apparently the stuff I invented is now in the hands of a couple of intelligence agencies, including Homeland Security.

"I'll tell you what I think the most troubling thing about all this is. It's easy to see whatever pattern you're looking for. It's like curve fitting in the stock market -- looks beautiful historically and maybe even in the short run, but it's a disaster in the making. So we have these guys running the country who saw a non-existent pattern in Iraq that justified a war ... and now we're going to give them software that will make it easy to create the illusion of patterns of conspiracy.

"Your friend from the NSA was right, but it's worse than he suggests. It's not just that social network analysis casts a wide net. It's that without oversight by people who really grasp the mathematics and have some distance from the whole thing, they're going to see patterns where there aren't any.

"They have a history of that."

Tower of Terror - 2007 or 2008?

Disneyland Paris - Since last year more and more sources add credibility to the ongoing rumor that the Tower of Terror may not open in 2008 but already during the Halloween season 2007. But the official wording has always been that the Tower will open in 2008. Now with the release of the 2005 Financial Report of Euro Disney S.C.A. a slight but important tweaking of this official line seems to have taken place: instead of "opening in 2008" the line now reads "scheduled to openin in fiscal year 2008"! Now, since the fiscal year of Euro Disney S.C.A. always starts on October 1st, an opening during Halloween 2007 would actually be in fiscal year 2008 already!!

But there is more interesting news - the "attraction program" which brought us already "Space Mountain - Mission 2" and is about to bring us "Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast" as well as the Toon Studios and the Tower according to the Management General Report is budgeted at approximately 240 million Euro to be spend in the fiscal years 2005 through 2009 (just for the record: at the end of fiscal year 2005 only 39 million Euro had been spent of this amount). With the Tower of Terror opening in fiscal year 2008 the question is: what is the mysterious attraction kept under wrap so far for 2009?

Promotions, New Appointments at Disney Channel

Disney Channel has promoted its key original series programming executive Adam Bonnett and development executive Jeff Brustrom, and has hired Emmy Award-winning animator Mike Moon.

Bonnett has been upped to senior VP of original series, reporting to Gary Marsh, Disney Channel Worldwide’s president of entertainment. He oversees all live-action and animated development and current series for Disney Channel's programming block for kids age 6-14 and for the Jetix branded action/adventure block for kids age 6-11.

Brustrom, reporting to Bonnett, is now VP of live-action series. Moon, also reporting to Bonnett, joins Disney Channel as VP of animated series.

Nervous ABC keeps delay on Super Bowl signal 

HK Disneyland Underestimates Chinese New Year Potential: Executive 

Storyline and more details about the Pirates of the Caribbean enhancements 

Disney chief praises film tax relief 

ABC's Westin Handles Second Crisis in Year 

Walt Disney Earnings Conference Call (Q1 2006) Tomorrow 

Adventures by Disney Launches May 2006 

Disney buy signals dawn of high-tech Hollywood 

Disney returns with ‘Keys to Excellence’ 

Disney World on the minds of some players in today's game

Disney has auditions to perform the national anthem at spring training

Nervous ABC keeps delay on Super Bowl signal

Two years after Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction," ABC is putting a five-second delay on its broadcast of the Super Bowl on Sunday.

The tape delay will apply for the game itself, plus the pre-game, half-time and post-game entertainment.

According to ABC, it is the first-ever delay in the 40-year history of the Super Bowl. Last year's game, broadcast on Fox, ran without any delay.

But ABC has had a five-second lag built into its Monday Night Football for the past two years to give programmers time to strip out inappropriate images.

In the 2004 half-time show, Jackson flashed a breast to astonished viewers, a move the singer claimed was an accident.

There were many complaints from viewers and CBS was fined $555,000 US under indecency laws. A congressional hearing following the incident led to tougher laws on television standards.

This year's half-time entertainment is from the Rolling Stones and Stevie Wonder.

ABC's decision drew praise from conservative watchdog group, the Parents Television Council.

"ABC has wisely decided to ensure that this year's Super Bowl is not hijacked by raunchy performers as it was in 2004," said Brent Bozell, PTC president. "Now, we hope that millions of families can safely watch this family program without the worry of seeing inappropriate sexual content or hearing vulgar language."

Short delays on live events became much more common in the aftermath of the Jackson affair.

Super Bowl audiences generally approach 90 million people, making it the largest U.S. television event of the year. The Super Bowl plays in Detroit Sunday evening.

It is ABC's last National Football League broadcast, as it is turning Monday night football over to ESPN.  Sunday night games move to NBC.

HK Disneyland Underestimates Chinese New Year Potential: Executive

 

Hong Kong Disneyland underestimated the market needs over the Chinese Lunar New Year, admitted the park's top executive Saturday, apologizing the third time for denying entry of visitors after sold-out in the holidays.

"This Chinese New Year...we have had record 'sell out' crowds," Bill Ernest, the park's executive vice president and managing director, told a press conference held here on Saturday.

"Because of the high demand, we were not able to accommodate everyone who came to the park," said Ernest, who had apologized for the same situation through written statement twice over the previous two days.

On Wednesday and Thursday, hundreds of visitors with tickets were shut out of the park, which closed its gate soon after opening for reaching its maximum reception capability of around 30,000 people.

Most of the stranded visitors came far away such as cities in China's mainland to fulfill their Disney dreams. They planned the trip several weeks or months ago, booked half-year-valid tickets, which allow them to visit the park on any day in half a year since the purchase.

Being refused entry when the park was full, the tourists grew furious, waving their tickets, arguing with the park staff, and a few scaled up the grills for entrance.

The above images repeatedly broadcast by local cable TV were not "what Disneyland's reputation is built on," said Ernest, while extending apology to "those who have been inconvenienced."

Promising reimbursement to people who couldn't get into the park, he reiterated that they are the theme park's first Chinese New Year holidays which end on Saturday in the mainland.

"Every market has unique dynamics that must be taken into consideration and must be learned over time," said he, stressing that the influx of tourists over the Chinese New Year holidays was "unprecedented."

Four months ago, the 3 billion U.S. dollar theme park received a lower number of visitors than expected in the "golden week," the first week of October when Chinese on the mainland celebrating the National Day.

Visitors to the park during the Chinese New Year holidays, however, doubled that of those in the "golden week" and were much more than the expectation of the management, said Ernest.

"We've never seen anything like this before," said he, declining to give any specific number.

Aiming to earn 19 billion U.S. dollars over 40 years, Hong Kong Disneyland planned to draw 5.6 million visitors in the first year starting from last September. One third of the 5.6 million people are expected to come from China's mainland.

Some 12.5 million people from the mainland visited Hong Kong in last year, totaling almost half of all visitors to the city in the whole year, according to data by the city's immigration authorities.

Storyline and more details about the Pirates of the Caribbean enhancements

A crew of plundering and pillaging pirates, now lead by Barbossa, attack a Caribbean seaport town and sets it ablaze in a wild night of revelry. We will also learn the motive behind the attack: They're in search of their old shipmate Captain Jack Sparrow, convinced he knows the location of a fabulous treasure.

In the enhanced attraction, Guest will come face-to-face with Captain Jack Sparrow and experience new special effects, including a ghostly apparition in a curtain of mist.

The attraction is scheduled to close March 1, 2006, with a tentative open date of July 7, 2006, just in time for the opening of the new second film "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" that opens in theatres nationwide.

Disney chief praises film tax relief

Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studios, said his company was ‘‘extremely pleased’’ with the announcement and that he was confident the move would attract more Hollywood pictures into Ireland.

‘‘I’m sure this tax incentive will bring many others to the country we know and admire so much,” said Cook, who presides over Disney’s movie operations. Cook told The Sunday Business Post that Ireland had always provided Disney with ‘‘a rich lush backdrop for the many films we have shot there’’ and that the ‘‘people of Ireland had always been extremely professional and gracious’’ to Disney.

Disney has spent hundreds of millions of euro making a number of films in Ireland in recent years, including Ring of Fire, Veronica Guerin and the €75 million blockbuster King Arthur, which starred Clive Owen and Keira Knightley.

The government’s decision to increase the film relief, announced in last week’s Finance Bill, was welcomed by the Irish movie industry, with predictions that the changes would result in more international companies choosing to film in the Republic. The bill has changed the rules so that 80 per cent of a film’s budget can be offset against tax. Previously, the relief stood at between 55 and 66 per cent, depending on the size of the movie.

In addition, the ceiling on qualifying expenditure for any film has been increased from €15 million to €35 million. The government said the changes would need European Commission approval.

Cook will be among the 300 guests attending the Oscar Wilde: Honoring Irish Writing in Film ceremony in Los Angeles on March 2. It is being organized by the US Ireland Alliance.

The event is sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Derek Quinlan’s firm Quinlan Private, American Airlines, the Irish Film Board and Tourism Ireland.

ABC's Westin Handles Second Crisis in Year

When the phone rang at 5 a.m. Sunday a week ago with news that anchor Bob Woodruff had been seriously hurt by a roadside bomb in Iraq, the feeling had to have been sickeningly familiar to ABC News President David Westin.

Only six months earlier Peter Jennings had lost his battle with cancer. Now one of Jennings' successors was clinging to life.

Westin immediately set to work trying to track down Woodruff's wife, Lee, who was with her children in Disney World, to tell her before ABC announced the news to a wider world a few hours later.

The news division chief has had to deal with a crushing set of circumstances over the past year - the loss of an icon and violent injury to a rising star, their worried families, the need to keep his organization afloat and cover the news while being part of the news himself.

Jennings' widow, Kayce, said she's been impressed with how Westin pulled together ABC News after the Iraq bombing.

"Aside from the emotional impact of this, he's got this burden of running a news division at a time when it was just getting back its footing," Kayce Jennings said. "His ability to do this while still doing everything he can for the family is just extraordinary."

Westin, 53, is now the dean of broadcast news division presidents. Yet as a corporate attorney appointed in 1997 to succeed TV legend Roone Arledge, he was initially regarded with suspicion by many at ABC News - including Jennings - for his non-news background.

He proved himself with a low-key, studious nature and was very close to Arledge when he died in 2002.

Westin has made missteps, like letting actor Leonardo DiCaprio interview President Clinton for ABC News, and was embarrassed when his Walt Disney Co. bosses tried to replace Ted Koppel with David Letterman behind his back. He installed the disastrous duo of Kevin Newman and Lisa McRee at "Good Morning America," but then helped revive the profitable morning newscast by persuading Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer to replace them.

It's too early to judge what will likely be the defining moves of his tenure - replacing Jennings on "World News Tonight" and Koppel on "Nightline."

The nightmarish year began last April, when Jennings announced he had lung cancer. He died in August.

"I think we were all taken aback by the impact that Peter's illness and death had on the broader organization," said Paul Slavin, ABC News senior vice president. "As much as we knew Peter was stitched into the fabric of ABC News, I don't think we understood the extent of it."

Kayce Jennings said Westin never wavered in his support for her husband and protection of the family's privacy. While Jennings was sick, he not only encouraged him to remain active in daily decisions about the newscast - the veteran anchor probably would have done that anyway - but stressed how important it was for the organization that he did so, she said.

Until Jennings died, Westin never let on publicly that he was thinking about anything other than the anchor's eventual return to "World News Tonight," even growing angry at any suggestion in print that a succession plan was being considered.

He had to balance compassion for the family, covering the news and keeping the organization together "and sometimes these are things that move in opposite directions," said Jon Banner, executive producer of "World News Tonight."

"When you think about the pressure he was under to set the right tone, I think he did a wonderful job," said a one-time competitor, former CBS News President Andrew Heyward.

Setting up the post-Jennings "World News Tonight" was another delicate operation. Westin decided he wanted a more mobile newscast with anchors frequently on the road, an afternoon Webcast and separate feeds for the West Coast. He concluded it was too much for one person.

Gibson, 62, was an obvious choice but Westin wanted to set up the lesser-known Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas as standard bearers who could lead ABC News for a couple of decades. Negotiations to include Gibson in the evening news mix for a short time broke down when Gibson wanted a longer tenure than Westin was prepared to promise.

Woodruff had only been in his job for four weeks before he was almost killed.

Westin's boss, Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney, praised his calm, focused manner and "tremendous compassion" after the Iraq explosion. Several people at ABC News said it was important that Westin sent frequent e-mails to the entire staff last Sunday whenever anything new was learned about what had happened to Woodruff.

"You can't talk enough," Slavin said. "You can't communicate enough. It makes people feel that Peter may be gone and Bob may be hurt, but there are managers who are still steering the ship. They want to know that the organization is not in free-fall."

Heyward said it's notable that Westin worries first about his personal responsibility to his colleagues before anything else.

That may actually have cost ABC News a scoop last Monday. Tom Brokaw, a Woodruff family friend, went on NBC's "Today" show and talked in detail about Woodruff's injuries at a time "Good Morning America" was being much more guarded about his condition.

"There are stories that you don't have to be first on," Slavin said. Westin was determined that Woodruff's family not learn anything from television that he hadn't already told them.

Westin, who was reluctant to talk about his actions, said the key thing for him in these crisis situations is to keep it simple. Deal with the person involved and his family first, then set priorities.

"You sort it out," he said. "It's like triage."

Columbia University professor Richard Wald, a former ABC News executive who left shortly after Westin took over, said he was impressed with how Westin has managed to keep the news division unified. News organizations are notoriously fractured, political places.

Wald said it was important that Westin didn't abandon his "World News Tonight" plans because of the tragedy, and it was a tribute to his leadership that Gibson and Sawyer agreed to be temporary fill-ins for Woodruff.

"He responded to a terrible set of emergencies with a great deal of aplomb and a great deal of dispatch," Wald said.

In the wake of Woodruff's injuries, ABC News received some criticism for sending anchors to hot spots. New York Daily News critic David Bianculli wrote that Woodruff and Vargas' importance to ABC News "is such that having them do dangerous duty, while serving as the faces of their network, is - or ought to be - too big a risk."

Westin has not second-guessed the decision, saying it is important to get out and cover the news.

The personal safety of people covering dangerous stories weighs most heavily on the mind of a news organization leader, said Wald, a former NBC News president.

"He has kept that mostly to himself," Banner said of Westin. "I know it has affected him. He's a very compassionate and genuine person and I can tell that it has affected him greatly."

Banner said Westin has a role now he could never have envisioned a year ago: "comforter-in-chief."

Walt Disney Earnings Conference Call (Q1 2006) Tomorrow

Walt Disney Earnings Conference Call (Q1 2006) Scheduled to start Mon, Feb 6, 2006, 4:30 pm Eastern. LINK 

Adventures by Disney Launches May 2006

After a test period in summer 2005, Adventures by Disney is set to officially launch in May 2006. In addition to the Wyoming and Hawaii adventures available during the test period, Adventures by Disney will be offering London & Paris, Costa Rica, Canadian Rockies and Italy Adventures. One other difference from the test period is that there will be two Hawaii adventures, one will include Oahu & Kauai, the other will include The Big Island & Oahu.

Disney buy signals dawn of high-tech Hollywood

As the co-founder and CEO of both Apple Computer Inc. and Pixar Animation Studios Inc., Steve Jobs has long bridged the sometimes wide gap between content creators in Hollywood and Silicon Valley technology companies.

With Walt Disney Co.'s $7.4 billion plan to purchase Pixar, Jobs will not only become a major Hollywood player but also a bigger force in determining how content is distributed. Under the deal, announced last week, Jobs will take a seat on Disney's board and become its biggest individual shareholder.

The computer pioneer is already credited with shaking up Hollywood with his landmark record licensing deals for music downloads and his more recent breakthrough deals to sell television content online, including shows from Disney's ABC network.

For a decade, Pixar has also dominated the world of animation with blockbuster films like "Finding Nemo," and partnering with Disney to distribute its computer-generated movies.

His technology roots, reputed power of persuasion and an uncanny ability to forecast consumer trends will be handy for the Magic Kingdom as it sheds old trappings and tries to reach tech-savvy customers and a new generation of connected youth.

"His biggest impact will be to help guide Disney into the digital age and be the mediator of this major media company's content to the world of next-generation digital content delivery," said Creative Strategies analyst Tim Bajarin.

The love-hate relationship between Silicon Valley and Hollywood has only recently become a flirtatious courtship.

Jobs' influence in bridging technology with all types of media is already evident.

Youngsters exclaim, "There's Nemo!" when they spot clown fish at aquariums. Apple's sleek iPod players are on most-wanted lists for music lovers and have spawned audio and car accessories, clothing and the audio genre of podcasts.

For Disney, analysts say, Jobs' Apple connection will almost certainly mean the Mouse House will be guaranteed distribution via Apple's iTunes store and iPod players.

As it is, Pixar's partnership with Disney helped Jobs win the landmark deal last October to sell hit shows from Disney's ABC on iTunes for $1.99 apiece.

And many expect Apple to further expand into the consumer electronics arena, pushing its computers and gadgets as the hubs of digital media and entertainment, both at home and on-the-go gadgets, including wireless phones.

Despite his newest position in Hollywood, many longtime observers think Jobs' heart and focus will remain in Silicon Valley, where the 50-year-old Northern California native has imbued Apple with his deep conviction that technology will change the world.

Still, Jobs' dedication to Apple doesn't necessarily mean he will sit quietly at Disney.

"I see him more as a king maker at Disney than a king," said analyst Rob Enderle of The Enderle Group. "However, he could easily become the power behind the throne, and I doubt he will let anyone forget that."

Jobs' legendary career started with his co-founding of Apple 30 years ago, but his reputation as a computer visionary and media mogul has as much to do with two risky ventures he started in the aftermath of his departure from Apple in 1985.

One of those businesses, NeXT Computer Inc., bled red ink, but its technology eventually was sold to Apple and led to his triumphant return in 1997.

The other firm, started in 1986 from the purchase of Lucasfilm's computer graphics division, was named Pixar.

Disney returns with ‘Keys to Excellence’

The mouse will be back in the house.

Last year’s overwhelming response to the Disney Institute’s professional development program, “The Disney Keys to Excellence,” prompted the Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce to ask the company to reprise the program.

“We were sold out with a waiting list last year,” said Christina Hitchcock, Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce business development specialist. “People insisted we bring it back.”

The daylong program includes four sessions on leadership, management, service,and loyalty. The lively programs incorporate music, computer presentations, video and interaction.

Last year’s presentation, held March 23, kept more than 90 percent of attendees in their seats as a late-season snowstorm raged outside, Ms. Hitchcock said.

Walt Disney Co. has long been recognized for its innovative management style. The company has offered retreats for executives at its resorts. Demand soon put the program on the road. The chamber’s community development arm, MetroAction Inc., is one of 45 partners — typically schools and economic development groups — to invite the road show to their towns.

David Price, president of PDQ Print Centers Inc., attended last year’s event. Though an operator of print shops in Scranton and Kingston, managers of the relatively small business learned a lot from the session.

“Whether you are in a sole proprietorship or a small company, you will take away valuable knowledge,” Mr. Price said. “The presenters are highly trained, sophisticated people who have been with Disney a long time.”

Many of the presentations focus on interpersonal communications, Mr. Price said, such as employees’ interaction with customers and management’s interaction with employees.

Mrs. Hitchcock said a second program was developed and that MetroAction would have them back in 2007.

What: The Disney Institute “Disney Keys to Excellence”

When: April 18, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Where: Hilton Scranton and Conference Center

How much: $396 or $376 for members of area chambers of commerce.

Contact: www.scranton chamber.com

Disney World on the minds of some players in today's game

On the night before his first Super Bowl appearance, Tampa Bay Buccaneers safety Dexter Jackson was holed up in a San Diego hotel room with three of his teammates.

Jackson, linebacker Nate Webster and backup quarterbacks Shaun King and Joe Hamilton were killing the time by playing with Webster's video camera and watching television. When an ESPN analyst brought up the topic of Super Bowl MVPs, Jackson - then an anonymous first-year starter - grabbed Webster's video camera and introduced himself.

"I stood up and said: 'Mark my words: I will be the MVP,'" Jackson recalled two days ago. "And it came up. I still have the tape where I predict that."

As Jackson proved upon intercepting two passes and winning the coveted award, not all Super Bowl MVPs have to be Bart Starr or Joe Montana.

"It's a game where the no-name guy or a backup guy can come out and make a name for himself," said Seahawks defensive tackle Craig Terrill. " ... I'm planning on having the best game of my life. You never know what can happen."

Plenty of Seattle Seahawks not named Shaun Alexander are gunning for the award.

"You always hear about the quarterbacks and running backs getting player of the game and all that stuff," defensive tackle Marcus Tubbs said last week. "But I just see it as: Those guys are very good, but I also have the athletic skills to go out and have one of my biggest games. If that's what happens, so be it. That would be awesome."

If the Seahawks win Super Bowl XL today, Alexander would seem the most logical candidate to go to Disney World. He could join six other players in NFL history who have won the league and Super Bowl MVP awards in the same season. St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner (1999) was the most recent, joining San Francisco's Steve Young (1994), Dallas's Emmitt Smith (1993), San Francisco's Montana (1989), Pittsburgh's Terry Bradshaw (1978) and Green Bay's Starr (1966).

While everyone knows those names, there are others - like Chuck Howley, Mark Rypien, Larry Brown, Deion Branch and Tampa Bay's Jackson - who weren't so well-known.

"To think that, in a game that meant as much as any game you've ever played, and to play your best, that's the ultimate prize," said Rypien, a Washington State University product who threw for 292 yards and two touchdowns in the Washington Redskins' 37-24 victory over Buffalo in Super Bowl XXVI.

Another unlikely Super Bowl MVP was Green Bay Packers return man Desmond Howard, who won a Heisman Trophy while at the University of Michigan but had a rather disappointing NFL career. Howard, who got cut by three teams in his NFL career, piled up 244 return yards in Super Bowl XXXI, helping clinch the 35-21 win over New England with a 99-yard kickoff return late in the third quarter.

He remembers feeling a certain confidence the morning of that Super Bowl.

"There was an unusual calm," he said last week. "I was very excited, but going into the stadium there was an unusual calm. I think it was a hint of confidence that we were going to get it done. But I would have never imagined that we would have the game that we did and I would play the way I played."

The Dexter Jacksons and Desmond Howards of the world give Seattle's lesser-known players hope. While Alexander and quarterback Matt Hasselbeck would be obvious candidates in the event of a Seahawks victory today, there are plenty of others who could burst onto the scene with the game of their lives.

"The thought has crossed my mind," said kickoff return man Josh Scobey. "There have to be some seriously special things to happen, like a return for a touchdown, maybe another, five tackles on special teams, forcing a turnover. But it's possible. You've got to think big to succeed big, so why not?"

Even backup cornerback Jimmy Williams, who was stripped of his punt-return duties three weeks ago after muffing one punt and fumbling away another, was dreaming of Super Bowl glory this week.

"As long as you have an opportunity to be in this game, you could make a big play and anything could happen," he said. "It's a reality that you could be that guy. It's something that I'm pushing for. I want to go to Disney World."

If Dexter Jackson made it there, why not Jimmy Williams?

Disney has auditions to perform the national anthem at spring training

One by one, they marched up to the microphone, planted their feet and belted out as many a cappella versions of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as there are octave ranges.

But forget images of TV's American Idol.

This live audition wasn't about stardom. It was more about patriotism -- and a chance to sing the national anthem at the start of one of the 17 Atlanta Braves spring training games in The Ballpark at Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex.

The Braves, 14-year champions of the National League East, will play, among others, the New York Mets, St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Cleveland Indians and New York Yankees from March 1-29.

The 50 warbling wannabes who turned out Saturday to hit the high notes for two judges from Disney's entertainment division ranged from high-school students to grandmothers, from amateurs to semiprofessionals.

Very good voices shared the stage with the not-so-good.

Aubrey Peeples, at 12 the youngest performer to audition, is already an old hand in the entertainment business. She has played lead roles in such musicals as Oliver! at Osceola Center for the Arts and Annie! at her school, Lake Mary Preparatory.

She's no slouch with the anthem, either. She said she was chosen to sing it last year at a Peter Frampton concert in Orlando.

"I just love singing," she said. "I want to make it my career. And to sing the national anthem is like representing the whole country."

Lorna Fleming of Clermont feels the same way.

"I've always wanted to sing the national anthem at a baseball game," said the 53-year-old grandmother, who works as an activities director for a golf community. "My sister said, 'Go do this,' but it is nerve-racking."

Not for Gissella Beteta, 18, who drove to Orlando from Ocala with her father and brother to try her luck Saturday.

A bilingual performer, she combined sultry looks with stage presence. Beteta, who is Cuban and Peruvian, said she regularly sings the anthem at basketball and football games at her Dunnellon high school.

"If you have a talent God gave you, why not use it?" she asked.

It's raw talent the judges are looking for.

"It's the best of the best," explained Cary Brandt, entertainment manager for the sports complex and Epcot. "This is our highbrow event of the year."

This year -- the fifth time the auditions have been held -- brought out fewer than last year's 120 performers, but more talent, Brandt said.

"We found close to a dozen we'll be using," he said after the auditions ended. "We'll be calling those who won toward the end of the week."

One of them, he said, could be the most impromptu performer of the day.

Marilyn Corbin of Louisville, Ky., and her 15-member school-dance team were trying out for a national University Dance Association competition at the sports complex Saturday when the group noticed the audition signs.

"They kept insisting I audition," said Marilyn, 17, who takes voice lessons and said she sings at her school's basketball games.

With her entourage listening, she sang a polished, spur-of-the-moment version of the anthem.

Quipped Disney judge Kendal Jolly: "This is the first time we've had an entire girls team in here."

But Marilyn's cheering squad might have been the charm. Brandt later called her "fantastic" and said her perfect pitch could qualify her to sing at one of the games.

"She came in cold and was very impressive," Brandt said. "She did very, very well."

Marilyn's reaction?

"Awesome! I'm very excited, but I'm not going to get my hopes up," she said. "It's the one thing I'm good at, but I don't want to get a big head."