According to the documents, Mr. Iger's total compensation for 2007 was valued at $27.7 million for his second year as the company's chief executive. That is up from a total value of $25.9 million in fiscal 2006.

Mr. Iger's $2 million salary remained the same as in 2006. Mr. Iger's $13.7 million bonus was a slight decrease from the $15 million bonus he received in 2006.

Also in the 2007 pay package are stock awards totaling $7.9 million; options awards valued at $2.2 million; and roughly $739,800 to cover personal air travel, security and a car benefit, according to the proxy filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 2006, Mr. Iger received long-term incentive pay of $4.3 million, stock options valued at $2.9 million and $666,000 to cover additional costs.

For the year ended Sept. 29, 2007, Disney reported net income of $4.7 billion on $35.5 billion in sales, a 38% increase in profit over the prior year. Disney's shares rose 11% during fiscal 2007. The company saw gains from the sale of its interests in E! Entertainment and Us Weekly magazine

In the proxy, Disney's board said, "Mr. Iger continued his leadership and execution against a strategic plan that yielded outstanding economic results for the year, including record net income, record segment operating income and record earnings per share."

Guests Say Bed Bugs Found In Disney Hotels

WFtv - Bed bugs are infesting some high-end, Orange County resorts and some of the most well-known hotels are paying customers to stay quiet about it.

The Orange County Health Department has given three main reasons why more and more bed bug sitings are occurring: 1) certain pesticides and cleaners have been banned, 2) there are more international travelers, and 3) an unseasonable warm winter means fewer of the bugs are being killed.

Like a nightmare, the creepy creatures come while you sleep, but their bites last long after you are awake. The Orange County Health Department said it has seen a spike in bed bugs at area hotels, apartments and homes.

"Our inspectors are saying in recent months, even the last year, we've been seeing more complaints of bed bugs in our area," said Dain Weister of the Orange County Health Department.

Even the most popular hotels are not immune. One family said they were bitten by the bugs at the Disney All-Star Movie Resort. They backed out of an interview after they said Disney offered them $5,000 and a free trip to keep quiet.

Hotels go to great lengths to keep the bugs at bay. Disney said it has trained entomologists or "bug experts" on staff. Other hotels hire bug sniffing dogs.

One of the animals is based in Tampa, but makes frequent trips to inspect hotels in the Orlando area.

"It's not necessarily about cleanliness. It's not necessarily that one place has an issue. It's just that these bugs can get in your luggage, in your clothes and they can travel. If they get into your bags they can also infest your home," Weister said.

Joyce Bajac from Cleveland never even thought about bed bugs until now.

"Now I'm going back to check my room," Bajac said.

A good idea. While the insects don't carry disease, they can be an annoying problem.

"At the headboard, look between the mattress and the box spring at the headboard. If you see a lot of black dots, that could be bed bugs," Weister added.

Rays To Play 3-Game Series At Disney Again

Tampa Tribune - Sometime soon, the Rays would like their home games to be in enough demand that moving regular-season contests elsewhere won't be a consideration, but they aren't there yet.

For the second consecutive season, the Rays plan to leave Tropicana Field for three days and play a home series at Disney's Wide World of Sports. The team officially announced the long-expected move Friday, asking the St. Petersburg City Council to approve the shift of the Rays' April 22-24 series against the Toronto Blue Jays to Disney.

The council will consider the request at its Jan. 24 meeting. According to an agenda posted on the city's Web site, city administrators have recommended approval of the resolution, which includes various compensatory measures offered up by the Rays.

Among them:

•The city will be compensated for its share of ticket revenues for the three games based on the average attendance for Monday through Thursday games played at Tropicana Field last season.

•The city will receive 20 field box seats and six suite level seats for each game at Disney, along with one parking pass for every two tickets.

•The city will get use of Progress Energy Park at no cost during the 2008 and 2009 Grand Prix of St. Petersburg races.

In a letter addressed to St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker, Rays president Matt Silverman emphasized that the team's aim in moving another series to Disney was to continue to expand its fan base beyond the Tampa Bay area and "has absolutely no connection with the proposals currently under discussion regarding the construction of a new ballpark in downtown St. Petersburg and the redevelopment of the Tropicana Field site."

A few other entities, such as the Florida State League, still must officially sign off on the move, but the Rays don't expect any trouble there. The Blue Jays already are on board with the plan.

As was the case last season, when the Rays moved a three-game midweek series against the Texas Rangers in May to Disney, season-ticket holders will be able to purchase roughly equivalent seats for the relocated games or choose between compensation in "Rays dollars" for use at concession stands and a credit to their account.

The Rangers series last year drew an average of 8,806 fans, peaking with a crowd of 9,635 in the final game. Tampa Bay won all three games, sealing the sweep with a walk-off home run by Delmon Young in the 10th inning of the finale. The Rays hope last year's experience will help bring better crowds to this year's games.

Dear Fellow Shareholder,

I am pleased to invite you to our 2008 Annual Meeting of shareholders, which will be held on Thursday, March 6, 2008, at 10 a.m. at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

At the meeting, we will be electing all 12 members of our Board of Directors, as well as considering ratification of the selection of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP as our independent registered public accountants, an amendment to our stock incentive plan and approval of terms of our executive performance plan.

You may vote your shares using the Internet or the telephone by following the instructions on the enclosed proxy card or voting instruction form. Of course, you may also vote by returning the enclosed proxy card or voting instruction form.

If you wish to attend the meeting in person, you will need to request an admission ticket in advance. You can request a ticket by following the instructions set forth on page 68 of the proxy statement. If you cannot attend the meeting, you can still listen to the meeting, which will be webcast and available on our Investor Relations website.

Thank you very much for your continued interest in The Walt Disney Company.

Sincerely,

Robert A. Iger

Disney for dreamers, not daydreamers

Washington Times Herald - Nine is awfully young to be cynical. Nine-year-olds should be dreamers. Silly, magic believing dreamers, who see the whole world opening up before them.

Therefore you can understand my concern when at Disney World last week my 9-year-old granddaughter informed me the theme, “Disney’s Year of a Million Dreams,” was cruel. She said you can’t believe in dreams because look at all the children standing in line that weren’t going to get fast passes to all the rides, or a night in Cinderella’s castle or to be grand marshal of a Disney parade. She said it was just mean and children shouldn’t believe that kind of stuff will happen to them.

So as we made our way through the Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Animal Kingdom and finally Disney’s MGM studios, my little cynic would enjoy the rides and performances, but didn’t expect anything truly magical to happen.

That is until our last full day of vacation when we were in MGM. I decided to take in the animation show first thing while the rest of the family rode a roller coaster (something I’m not that fond of). While standing in line, a nice young man came out and talked about Disney’s year of a million dreams and then gave out special necklaces that allowed those wearing them to enter all the fast pass lanes to the big rides and shows for that day.

Thinking of that unbelieving granddaughter, I told the man that I was with family and they were on another ride. He gave me a necklace for each family member.

When we reunited, it was the 9-year-old who was the most astonished that out of the thousands of people in the MGM park that day, we were among those who had a dream come true. We spent the rest of the day riding to our heart’s content and I’m not worried about that little cynic anymore.

As for her 4-year-old brother, we bonded at Disney, as all the rides he was too short for were rides I wasn’t that interested in trying. We (my grandson and I) spent those times in Toon Town, the Fossil dig, the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground or Innovations.

Innovations is Epcot’s answer to a playground, with computer games, a fire house, fire engine and all kinds of things for those big and small.

It was in Innovations that I lost my grandson. Yes, I turned my back to put my coat on our cart and when I turned back he was gone.

After a quick search around the fire truck we were standing in front of, I enlisted the help of Disney personnel, who asked what he was wearing and if I had a current picture. Thank goodness my digital camera had a picture of him as I was not carrying my purse with family photos inside.

It took about three of the longest minutes of my life for them to find Gabe happily playing a video game on the other side of the building. The nice young lady that found him explained to him that if “Grandma” ever gets lost again he should look for people in green with the special Disney badge on and they would help him. Of course, he didn’t even realize “Grandma” had been lost.

All I could think of was all those people whose children are snatched. They all say, “I just turned my head for an instant.” Well that’s exactly what I did and in that instant he was gone.

It was a very scary few minutes and I aged several years. From that time on, I always knew where Gabe was and he checked on me quite a bit.

As I live in the UK it’s a shame as the service looks really good, with last year Mashable saying that it’s a “MySpace equivalent website for pre-teens, complete with widgets, games and videos, called Disney Xtreme Digital (XD)”.

They also went on to say that “All content available on the site is Disney-related, and there’s plenty to choose from. The widgets can be rearranged on the page, acting similar to a pre-loaded, Disney-themed start page for kids. Users an create their own channels, earn points from playing trivia games, watch movie trailers, and choose characters with which to customize their page”.

The theme park's popular Disney Dreams On Parade was suspended after a 660-pound steel pillar adorned with colorful planets tumbled from a Buzz Lightyear float Tuesday night.

Nobody was injured when Buzz _ the hero from the 1995 Disney movie "Toy Story" _ crashed to the ground just feet away from children lined up to watch the show.

The park's operator, Oriental Land Co., said in a statement Friday it has inspected the floats and will resume the parade Saturday afternoon.

The company said the cause of the accident is still under investigation.

"To help speed the transition from Hannah to Miley, there is a production element during the performance of 'We Got the Party' incorporating a body double for Miley," Cyus' camp told the Los Angeles Times, responding to rumors about the teen star using a body double.

Though a body double is used, her camp said the singing is all Miley.

"After Hannah has completed the featured verse on the duet with the Jonas Brothers, a body double appears approximately one to two minutes prior to the end of the song in order to allow Miley to remove the Hannah wig and costume and transform into Miley for her solo set.

Billboard - They hail from New Jersey, but right about now we’re guessing that the Jonas Brothers’ favorite state is Montana.

The curly-topped siblings have had front-row seats to the hottest tour of the year as the opening act on the ‘‘Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Tour,’’ which has had parents across the country selling family heirlooms for tickets.

But now the Jonas Brothers are stepping out on their own — and scheduling a tour that hits many of the same arena-sized venues Miley/Hannah has been playing.

Live Nation today announced a Jonas Brothers national tour, including a stop Feb. 22 at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont.

Tickets are $29.50-49.50, available at the Allstate Arena box office and all Ticketmaster outlets; call (312) 559-1212 or visit www.ticketmaster.com.

The boys got major exposure on the hit Disney Channel series, “Hannah Montana,” and riding the Mouse train is paying off for Kevin, 20, Joe, 18, and Nick, 15. Their Disney Channel original movie, ‘‘Camp Rock,’’ premieres next summer, and their rock-stars-as-undercover-spies series, ‘‘J.O.N.A.S.,’’ will follow in the fall, depending on the status of the writer’s strike.

Nick chatted by phone from Cincinnati recently while still on the Hannah tour:

Q. What’s the best perk of being on the hottest tour of the year?

A. There’s the obvious boost in record sales, that always helps [laughs]. It’s a sold-out arena tour, which is most people’s dream when they think of being in a band, and the fact that we’re living the dream is amazing for us.

Q. The sound on your records is vintage power-pop and classic rock that predates your birth. Where do you draw your inspiration from?

A. I think we have a lot of different influences. Big ones are Johnny Cash, Prince, Stevie Wonder, the Animals, the Rascals, the Steve Miller Band and the Beatles, obviously.

Q. In terms of longevity, teen pop bands don’t have the best track record. What’s your long-term plan?

A. I think we definitely are going to expand our horizons, not only do music but possibly produce for other artists. We’re definitely going to write for other artists, and also acting’s a big thing in our future. I think the really important thing is that you write your own songs and play your own instruments. That will really help us in the future, and we’re very confident about that.

Q. With all of this quick success, what do you do to stay grounded?

As we've previously reported, word of a Blu-ray release for the $100 million sleeper smash first emerged last month when Disney outlined plans for a Easter-timed arrival for 'Enchanted,' though the studio stopped short of issuing an actual street date at that time.

Now, as a capper to this year's CES, the studio has confirmed that the Amy Adams-starrer will hit Blu-ray on March 18, day-and-date with the standard DVD.

Extras announced so far include a suite of three making-of featurettes, deleted scenes and outtakes. Exclusive to the next-gen version will be the interactive BD-Java game "D-Files."

Tech specs have yet to be revealed, but Disney tells us that the full press release is due in the coming days. We'll keep you posted.

Unveiling of the program is scheduled for later this month during the Las Vegas World Market event.

The line derives its design inspiration from Walt Disney’s Walt Disney Signature home program, which takes its cues from Disney’s classic films like “Fantasia,” “Cinderella,” “Dumbo” and “Peter Pan.” Each rug is hand-crafted of 100% premium New Zealand wool and accented with silk-like viscose.

The rugs complement Signature’s furniture line by Drexel Heritage and lighting line by Minka.

Now Menken's musical masterpiece, "The Little Mermaid" is making its Broadway debut Thursday.

The play doesn't only feature such classics as "Kiss the Girl" and "Under the Sea," it includes 10 new songs composed by Menken for the production. That has fans of the show crossing their fingers that he was able to re-create the musical magic from the movie - this time without longtime lyricist and collaborator Howard Ashman.

But the eight-time Academy Award-nominated composer, who lives in upstate New York, says the work he had to do wasn't as hard as creating the magic of the sea floor on a stage in Times Square.

"Look, it was harder for them to physically bring the 'Little Mermaid' to the stage. For me, I just had to add a greater depth to the score. I had scored the movie and all those moments that were already scored in between the big songs.

"I had to deepen the characters of Prince Eric and the King, and I had to find a way to complete a more developed dramatic arc," Menken said as he sat down to a piano and started plinking out bars of "Part of Your World."

"You know this song almost didn't make it into the movie. I remember arguing to keep it in, but the producers didn't think kids would sit through a ballad," he reminisced during the refrain.

The producers were obviously wrong on that note, because a slew of little ladies now under the age of 40 probably are able to not only recite the lyrics of "Part of Your World," but belt them out with bravado.

Menken went back to the drawing board for the Broadway production of "Mermaid" without Ashman, who worked on that movie and numerous others with Menken. Ashman died of complications from AIDS in 1991. This time, Menken collaborated with lyricist Glenn Slater. "The souls of the characters Howard created work well through Glenn," Menken said.

Of course Menken has done this before, bulking up his original movie scores for "Aladdin" and "Beauty and the Beast" for the stage. Of all the classics he has composed over the years, he can't recall a favorite, but he always gets complimented on one he can't take credit for.