May 5, 2024 • 38 mins
Joe Escalante's weekly spelunking into the business end of showbiz. This week: buying TV networks and mingling with stars (somewhere in all of this is Les Moonves)... Also, the latest box office numbers, and the best way to make it into Hollywood (here's a hint... LEARN TO WRITE!!!), and Joe flexes some legal muscle, talking about the new non-compete laws. Some people think it'll help people in the long run. Joe thinks companies will figure out ways around it. FASCINATING!
Also, "Quiet on the Set" has Nickelodeon on its heels. Everyone is distancing themselves from the fallout of the child s@x abuse allegations made in the documentary. Joe gives his two cents...
Also, "Quiet on the Set" has Nickelodeon on its heels. Everyone is distancing themselves from the fallout of the child s@x abuse allegations made in the documentary. Joe gives his two cents...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:07):
Joe Escalante live from Hollywood. Ifby Hollywood you mean Burbank. This is
two hours of the business, endof show business coming to live on a
Sinco de Mayo. All right,Sinko to Mayo. What do you like?
Sinko to Mayo. You like thebeers, You like the chips and
salsa. Do you ever see thething on Instagram where they take the someone
takes a few chips and they linethem up and make a tortilla out of
(00:32):
them, like on your table,and you look at it. It just
tastes like four of these chips tomake a tortilla, and then it says,
congratulations, you just ate thirty eighttortillas before your dinner came. Sometimes
we do it. So anyway,we're gonna talk about the movies and the
TVs and the music and a littlesports today on the show. And let's
(00:57):
start with the changing of of televisionright now. There's a lot of changes
going on and we're seeing it kindof. Someone called it at the Ankler
they called it the Death of Paramountand slow motion, like right before our
eyes were watching the Death of aStudio Paramount, part of the Viacom CBS
(01:21):
thing. I was pretty complicated.You probably don't want to hear all the
details. But I'm a little bitinterested in it because I worked for CBS.
That was my first grown up jobat the network on Television City in
the nineties. And when I gotthere, it was owned by like Westinghouse
or something. All these studios arealways owned by people that want to get
into the sexy entertainment industry and theygo, hey, we got a lot
(01:42):
of money, Like General Electric buysNBC, like, hey, we've got
a lot of money, let's buya TV network and start mingling with stars.
So it was like Westinghouse, whowas making like nuclear components back then
and appliances, and they were ourfirst Bob, And then it was the
Tish family from New York owned it, and then it was sold to Viacom
(02:12):
and Viacom that's the Nickelodeon MTV family. And then it's still number one in
viewers a lot still like the TiffanyNetwork is what its reputation is. It's
still making movies like Top Gun.It's one of the biggest movies in the
last you know, many years.But just I guess mismanagement, a lot
(02:39):
of people trying to bleed money outof it and for their you know,
stock options and executive payouts, andthen suddenly they have just an enormous amount
of debt and the income isn't asmuch as you think it would be.
So there was a guy named PhilipDowman that that managed to pull like five
(03:01):
hundred million dollars out of it forand kind of fooling Summer Redstone. You've
seen Secession, right, Okay,Secession. People say it's about the Murdoch
family that owns Fox, but it'salso a little bit of the Summer Redstone
(03:23):
true life episodes are thrown in theretoo. And guy was really old and
he was running it. You hadgirlfriends and people were just stealing them blind.
And then his daughter took over,Sherry Redstone, and she was having
a fight with less moonvest who didn'tlike what she was doing. Like they
(03:49):
combined the companies via com and CBS, then they separated the companies and then
all these kinds. Then they recombinedthe companies and all this stuff was affecting
less moon vested stock, and sohe didn't want to happen. So he
started fighting the board of directors andSherry to have things done. His way,
and then he was pretty stupid becauseor just arrogant because he had so
(04:14):
much me too baggage that that wasevident eventually his downfall. And he was
a great executive. He lost likeone hundred and fifty two hundred million dollars
in compensation by that he could havehad by fighting that. And then finally
the me too thing caught up withhim, so that didn't help anything.
(04:35):
And then so lately it's been runby a guy named Bob Backish. The
big news today is Bob Backish hasbeen fired. So they got rid of
him. Bob Backish was not avery flamboyant leader, but they thought Sherry
Redstone thought he was the guy thatwould listen to her, and you know,
(04:55):
just it just starts losing value.And so he's gone, But don't
it's so bad for him. Fiftyone million dollar golden parachute and and he's
out of there. Now. Theygot like a trio of guys that are
running it. You know, it'sweird when they go, well, who
are going to get to run thiscompany? How about two co presidents?
(05:16):
You hear that all the time andyou're like, how does that work?
How about three? This time.Now they have three CEOs. One of
them is George Cheeks. It's theonly one I'm familiar with. But it
just shows you there is no bigmogul executive anymore. Maybe Tom Roffman at
(05:36):
Sea at Sony. Everyone loves him, but they don't have a Streamer,
so they're not like they're just kindof a you know their studio, Bob
Eiger. You know what's going ona Disney. A lot of people are
not impressed. So Warner Brothers,Zaslov running Zaslov, David Zaslov over there,
(05:57):
that he built up Discovery to somethingthat don't like twenty Networks, and
then he bought Warner Brothers and WarnerBrothers, I mean, let's it was
a mess, but it was ita mess because of him. No,
it's a mess because AT and Tbought it. And then remember when they
just merged with AOL. What wasthat about? They merged in like every
single employee of Warner Brothers, insteadof being compensated in stock, were compensated
(06:21):
in AOL installation discs. That wasa tragedy according to Neil Hamburger, and
that's what happened. But anyway,so that company just starts, you know,
losing its luster, losing its itsstock value, and debt is increasing.
(06:42):
Zaslov takes over it, and HBOhad already been kind of ruined because
the AT and T guys ruined it. And then so Zaslov's looking at what
am I gonna do. I gottacut costs, I gotta I gotta CNN
is stupid, I gotta chain it. And then he gets then that's when
his problems started. Wait, you'regonna change CNN because they know that Zaslov
(07:08):
and these guys that are big billionairesand they live in Denver and they're in
the cable business. They know they'renot lefties. These are conservatives. They
watch Fox Business all that stuff,and so they looking at it and going,
man, CNN is a mess,it's stupid. All they do is
like this. It's like talking aboutDonald Trump all day. So they make
changes over there, and then allof a sudden he's hated. So I
(07:30):
think he's a very good executive,but he's got uphill battle because not only
does he have all this debt andthe business is hard, and you buy
Warner Brothers, where Warner Brothers hasjust been ruined by AT and t and
you got all of Hollywood against you. You know that's rough. So CBS,
(07:51):
what are they going to do.They're going to sell themselves to one
of two suitors that are looking athim right now now and well, we'll
get more into that when a salehappened. I don't want to talk about
the competing suitors for paramount CBS.But I kind of sad. You know,
(08:13):
when I got my job at CBS, I just thought I'm going to
be here forever. I got itright out of law school. I'm working
at Television City, got an officeas secretary. I thought I'd be there
forever. Less Moonvis came in,he changed things around, didn't make it
that great for me. I kindof peaked too early, so I left
and sought my fortune in the musicbusiness and then back to TV and now
(08:37):
I'm back in the music business.But kind of sad. I think maybe
I should have stayed there, right, Maybe I had stayed there, none
of this would have happened. Let'sjust go with that, all right.
Let's take a break, and we'regonna come back and talk about some scandals
in Hollywood, as you know wedo, and we'll check the box office
Joe Ascalante Life from Hollywood. Weare back, Joel Scilante Live from the
(09:01):
Hollywood. All right, sorry Idepressed you about the television business. Let's
go to the box office. Boxoffice is doing something can't stop. Every
every day I meet someone and Iand like, like, like a waitress
at my club, Mike, Igot two clubs. So the one club,
(09:28):
the old Ranch Club in Seal Beach. I talking to the waitress there.
I eat there by myself a lot, because that's what you do at
a club. You go to aclub and you buy yourself. It doesn't
matter. They all know you.So I'm talking to the waitress. She
goes, what's your big plans forthe day or something? Well, I'm
(09:50):
going to the movies later. Okay, what are you going to see?
I'm gonna go see the Ministry ofUngentlemanly Warfare. Oh I've never heard of
it, you know. And thewhere I'm going with this conversation is people
are telling me they don't even knowwhat movies are playing because the you know,
the marketing is so fractured. Youused to read the calendar section in
(10:11):
lay every Sunday or whatever kind ofyou know, weekly source. You had
same with music. Nobody knows what'sgoing on. Nobody knows what's playing at
all these places. Nobody knows thesemovies. I'm telling her about a movie
because that sounds really good. I'dreally like to see that movie. Well,
go to the movies. Oh Ilove going to the movies, but
I never go. I go whatare you going to do when the movie
theaters are all closed? Oh?I would hate that. Well, then
(10:37):
go to the movies. Okay,you've heard it from me before. Number
one in the box office this weekendwas Amazon's The Challengers. That one,
it's tennis. You know I lovetennis. I'm gonna go see it,
(11:01):
but I didn't. Unsung Hero fromLionsgate. That's a little sappy for me.
I think it's kind of a seemslike kind of a Christian movie.
But oh, maybe I'll get toit. Godzilla versus Kong. I just
saw Godzilla movie. I don't needto see another one. I loved the
last Godzilla movie, but I justbut I'll probably see it when my wife's
not looking. Civil War number four. That was a great movie from A
(11:26):
twenty four. The people that makeall the great movies that everybody loves now
They even have their own section inlike the Max app or the Netflix Ada.
I saw recently the A twenty fourExperience when You're on your Appy.
What a success, the A twentyfour company Abigail from Universal. It's a
horror, I believe. I don'tknow. I don't see it. The
(11:48):
Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare did see it. Number seven, Kung Fu Panda number
eight, Ghostbusters saw that pretty good. June two, still in the top
ten, pretty good. Number ten. Boy Kills World haven't seen it.
So what can I recommend? Icould recommend Civil War, that's for sure.
It's a movie that you think islike, is this what side of
(12:11):
these these people taking in this?It's like there's a civil war, and
you know, right now in thiscountry that seems very real because the country
is divided. Right there are peoplein Washington running things, and they're running
them for a tiny portion of thecountry, like mainly the people that live
(12:33):
in the cities and people that liveout in the rural areas, the people
that grow our food and stuff likethat. They they look at these people
in the cities and the people inWashington are going, what are you doing?
I mean, I'm not smart enoughto say whether these people in Washington
are ruining our country, but thesepeople think they are. And then these
(12:54):
people also want to take the gunsaway from the people. They want to
take away their trucks, they wantto take away their appliances. Now,
after a while, you push themso far, what are they going to
do? So in this movie,somebody pushed somebody too far, and there's
(13:16):
a civil war. But I reallylike the way they did it because they
didn't there wasn't a lot of judginggoing on. And the movie centers on
these journalists that are trying to gointerview the president, but it's very hard
to get there because there's a civilwar going on, and they and there's
a lot of heinous atrocities going on, and they have to turn the other
(13:37):
way because they are impartial journalists,and they shows kind of how they struggle
with that and how they they youknow, the ragtag group of independent journalists
on their journey to Washington d C. Very good movie. So I can
recommend that if you're only going tosee one movie this week, I would
(13:58):
probably see that one. And theother one I saw was The Ministry of
Ungentlemanly Warfare. This is a GuyRitchie movie. But if you watch it,
you think and you would swear you'rewatching a Tarantino movie. So I
think he got burned out in hisown style, and he kind of said,
you're not gonna make a Tarantino movie. Why not? He made a
(14:22):
a Disney movie, the Aladdin,the last Aladdin movie. He made that,
So the live action one he madethat. Anyway, Guy Richie's awesome,
but so is Tarantino. So thisis a Tarantino movie that you know.
That's like it's like a franchise ofa Tarantino thing. And I know
that. Like if Guy Richie heardme say that, he'd say, you're
(14:45):
an a hole. But I sayit in a nice way. It's a
good movie, and it's a truestory. It's so outlandish I thought for
sure. It's like taking lockstock intwo smoking barrels and saying, oh,
this is a true st and atthe end, we're going to show you
the real people that would blow yourmind. Right, Well, this kind
of blows your mind in the sameway, or if you said, kill
(15:07):
Bill is a true story. Andat the end they showed the pictures of
all the people, Oh, thoseare the real people, and kill Bill.
It's that kind of a thrill.I don't want to oversell it,
but it's pretty good. And alot of people are watching Dune too,
and on airplanes and in hotels,and I feel sorry for you because you
should have watched it in the IMAXor the cinemak XD like I told you
(15:31):
to right now. In the streamingworld, this kind of ties into the
box office because I was watching thesetrue crime right now. I'm just kind
of only watching true crime stuff onHBO and Netflix, and I watched one
(16:00):
on Waco, you know Waco,the Texas standoff between the the at F
and David Koresh and the branch Davidiansor the one on Netflix. It's Netflix.
If I say Netflix and it's HBO, I'm sorry, or Max,
(16:21):
I'm sorry that one. Yeah,it's incredible. I mean, you've seen
the story. I've seen a lotof these documentaries, one based on just
the phone calls and the tapes.But the one that's running on Netflix right
now is it's pretty good. Andit's just such a sad story of the
government freaking out because these people haveguns, and that seems to be the
(16:44):
only thing we have heard. Theyhave guns in their abusing children. Okay,
when we're talking about religions, yougotta you know what kind of abuse
you know is it? Do youhave proof of sexual abuse? Or are
you just saying they're not treating thesekids the way I would treat them and
(17:06):
why my religion would treat them.And I think these kids should be rescued
and put into nice families where theycould practice my religion or no religion,
because I don't think they belong there. And you know, and their parents
are crazy if they believe this stuff. Okay, well that's when you're starting
to tell people they have to changereligions. You're making a big mistake,
(17:32):
kind of like when people tell me, like, eat Joe, you shouldn't
eat meat because it's cruel to animals. And I'm like, well, Jesus
ate fish. Jesus killed fish,Jesus fried them up. I mean,
this is what we do on thisplanet, kill animals, We eat them.
(17:56):
So is Jesus was he wrong?And fish is way crueler than any
other kind of you know, beefindustry or whatever. You putting a hook
and a fish or letting suffocate onin a net. So you're telling me
Jesus was bad or or neglected totell me this is wrong or going to
be wrong in the future. Andthat's when you get to the point where
(18:18):
you're telling someone that they have tochange their religion in order to be enlightened,
et cetera. And that's when that'sa really hard argument to make.
So so I don't listened to it. And yeah, so that you start,
well, we're gonna take a break. We'll talk about Waco when we
come back, and then we'll getinto the bombing of the Oklahoma City Building.
(18:42):
Joe'scalante Live from Hollywood. Joe Scalante, Live from Hollywood. If by
Hollywood you mean Burbank across the streetfrom a Wienerschnitz, it sells beer.
Hey, uh So, anyway,I watched the Waco thing, and you
know, it's a lot like CivilWar because you know, it's it's this
it's a big country. Some peoplelive in these parts where they're like,
(19:06):
I like to hunt, I liketo fish, I like to drive a
four wheel drive, and I liketo have a gun photoget practice. I
like to shoot millons. I liketo buy a bigger and bigger, bigger
gun and shoot melons. And thenthey've got these people. They're saying you
should not have a gun, youshould not eat animals, you should not
(19:30):
have a four wheel drive car,and then you got a problem. So
anyway, or your religion's wrong.So anyways, when I'm watching the Waco
thing, I'm you see it fromanother perspective, because when I saw it
on TV, I go, thesepeople are nuts. Get in there and
save those children. But obviously,you know so many people died in that
(19:56):
raid. You know, you know, you can look at it in hindsight
and say that's terrible. It justis another way like leam alone. If
you've got some evidence about kids,go in there and talk to them and
reason with them. If you freakedout about their guns, what do you
(20:17):
think they're gonna do. What arethese Waco people gonna do with their guns?
What's the worst case scenario. They'regonna charge out and take over the
rest of Texas. It's not gonnahappen. So anyway, someone blew it
on that. But then you getto the the other Netflix. Oh no,
(20:41):
this is HBO. I'm pretty surethat I watched an American bobbin,
an American bombing. That one isabout the Federal building in uh, in
Oklahoma City. Now, this guythat did the bombing in this case,
(21:11):
he was over at Waco. Hewas over there, like passing out leaflets
and stuff. He's one of thoseguys you know, like that go to
he's in the military. And thenthen he disillusioned and got you know,
he's got a screw loose, that'sfor sure, and he starts hatching a
(21:33):
plan to blow up the federal buildingbecause of what they did in Waco.
So and then you push these guystoo far. That's like the Civil War
movie. Someone pushed these guys andthen you have a civil war. The
plan involves him and a couple otherpeople. And I don't know if you
(21:53):
remember this. This is nineteen ninetyfive. It was April nineteenth, nineteen
ninety five. I think it's onthe anniversary of the Waco thing. And
he blows up that building using manureand something to ignite the manure, and
man, wow, did he blowup this building. I was actually on
(22:17):
tour. I was on tour withno doubt when this happened. Or Offspring,
Yeah, it was Offspring and wewere playing in Oklahoma City, and
so it was that. The thingwas it just happened right after we got
there, all right before we gotthere, and that was awkward. He
wanted to take a selfie, butyou don't. But here's what I did.
(22:38):
I go, you take pictures ofthe carnage, not the carnage,
but the destruction. Here's my camera. You take pictures, and if I'm
in one of those pictures, there'snothing I can do about it. But
that was before the age of selfiesticks and selfies and stuff, so it
was just like, you know,everyone's taking pictures. You want to see
mine, probably not gonna happen.So this thing on HBO definitely worth watching
(23:03):
an American bombing, and you geta little insight into how far this guy
was pushed. So I guess thelesson here is don't push people. Try
to figure it out. And Ijust think if you're if you've got something
that's controversial, like like let's say, letting boys go in you know,
(23:33):
the dress like girls go into thegirl's bathroom, and you go, that's
well, we got to take careof these boys that are dressed like girls
because we just have to. Okay, but you got some things are just
so controversial you just go, youknow, we can't do that because it's
going to freak people out. Andthen if your answer is, well,
they've they've got to learn because thisis how society is. Now. Wow,
(23:57):
you gotta slow down with that stuff. And sometimes I think these movies
can help us realize that, well, movies and TV. How do we
learn about this stuff? If itwasn't for the movies and the TVs and
now the podcast, well, Iforget. Have you ever listened to a
podcast called The Rest is History?Let me recommend that to you. The
Rest is History. It's all youneed to know. And my recommendation to
(24:19):
you is to pay to have thecommercials removed and you will have something.
There's so many episodes done of this. It's two guys too, British historians
tackling one subject at a time.Sometimes it's a multi part episode, sometimes
it's a single episode. But wow, is that worth it? It's kind
(24:42):
of life changing because when I wakeup and I can't sleep, I put
that on. I go back tosleep in twenty seconds, and then I
have to like listen to it inmy car because I'm missing like ninety percent
of every episode that I start whenI wake up. Okay, no one
cares about your sleep patterns, Joe, Okay, what do you care about?
Well, if you want to makeit in Hollywood, the best thing
(25:03):
to do is become a writer.If you can write, write, If
you can't write, there's other jobs, there's a lot of good ones.
But if you can write, yougot to write. That's always been the
advice because if you write, youmake a ton of money, and you're
the boss in television. So whenI learned this, it was a little
(25:26):
too late, and I was alreadyin business affairs at CBS, but I
was in charge of paying all thewriters and it was just enormous amounts of
money. Now, the money gotbigger and bigger and bigger, and you
hear about this writer strike, Butthat's because the guys at the top were
making so much money there wasn't enoughmoney left for the guys at the bottom,
so they had to address that.But what happens at the top is
(25:48):
these things called overall deals. Anoverall deal is something to where it's just
like an exclusive talent hold where you'resaying to this writer, you can only
make shows for me, and I'mgoing to give you six million dollars and
you're going to work it off,and that that number is not an exaggeration,
that's a normal overall deal. I'llgive you six million dollars, you
work it off, you pay,you write these pilots, and we and
(26:11):
we go out and try to getthem sold to networks. And if one
gets sold, then we're going tocharge that money off from your overall deal.
But you don't care because you gotyour six million dollars already. If
you make so much money that it'smore than six million in your fees add
up to more than six million,you will start giving you that. But
(26:33):
in the meantime, we're going totake it all because we gave you six
million dollars and we prevented you fromworking for another studio. And that's the
idea behind these Well, the conventionalwisdom is that these overall deals are a
thing of the past. So whatI'm telling you is there's not a giant
(26:53):
overall deal for you in the future, like the kind that Ryan Murphy or
Shonda Rhymes would get. But itdoesn't mean you can't make money as a
writer, and doesn't can't doesn't meanyou can't make a lot of money in
the writer. But this, thisgiant overall deal thing is they're saying is
gone. They're renegotiating them, They'rethey're not giving them out anymore. I
(27:17):
mean there's a few that that willalways happen because you know, agent says,
hey, you want you want DarrenStarr did Sex in the City and
nine O two one zero. Youwant him to go to the other networks.
Now you don't. You want himto stay here at Universal are the
other studios, These are studio thingsyou want. You don't want him to
(27:37):
go, So keep keep up theoverall deal and then he won't go and
so those are gone. That's anotherchanging part of television. It's a little
career advice for you. Let's takea break and come back with more on
Joe Scalante Live from Hollywood. Yeah, h h, Joe askant, here's
(28:18):
my lawyer. You don't want JoeScalante live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood
you mean Burbank two hours of theBusiness Endo Show Business every Sunday on k
E I B eleven fifty on youram dial. I got some bad Okay,
let's go back to We'll keep itthe TV deals. In the career
advice, there's been a ban onnon compete clauses uh or language in contracts
(28:45):
that that that is affecting Hollywood.Now, if you a noncompete clause would
be like if we're going to hireyou as an executive and then you're gonna
be a part of our team.And if if you leave, you can't
leave and go to another competing network, like we're going to put you under
(29:08):
contract. If you leave, youcan go somewhere else, but you can't
go compete, can't go to anyonethat competes with us, and that prevents
people from taking company secrets. Basically, so the FCC has decided, the
FTC Federal Trade Commission has decided theywant to make these illegal, and of
(29:29):
course the studios and other companies wantpeople to have a freedom of contract.
So basically that's what this is.It comes down to freedom of contract to
the government saying well, we wantto protect you from any deals you might
make that we think would hurt youin the long run, and we don't
(29:52):
want to give companies the idea thatthey can just keep making these deals.
Now, I'm not for this bandbecause I think people should have a right
to contract. Because when you likewhen I made a deal at CBS.
I got a lot of money becauseI told them I won't compete. If
I leave and tell a certain amountof time, it prevents them from going
(30:12):
like someone come in poaching you.Now, if someone comproach you, they're
not going to pay you as much. So I'm trying to get as much
money as i can. So I'llsign the thing that says I'm not going
to compete because I want this moneyand I want to get highly paid for
at this place. I want tobe here, and now they're not allowed
to offer me that deal, sothey're going to offer me less money.
(30:33):
That's how I look at it.There's not even a choice because you can
always say I'm not going to signa noncompete. You can always say that,
Why do I need them to tellme I can't sign a non compete?
What if that's the best option.What if they say, if you
sign the non compete, we'll payyou four hundred thousand a year, but
if you don't sign it, we'rejust going to pay you one hundred and
twenty five. And your wife's sittingthere going like, take the four hundred.
(30:56):
What are you going to compete for? Just take the four hundred let's
we need to where kids are goingto college. Well, I don't know,
it could be bad for me andother people in the long run.
So I'm I'm opposed to these noncompetes. So I'm going to work for
one hundred and twenty five a year. Oh my gosh, do you really
want that. It's just ridiculous theseand then they say it'll it'll, it
(31:17):
will help people in the long run. This is something that that will you
know, Uh, there are alternativesto non competes, and the and the
companies will figure them out. It'skind of the same logic where they said,
you know, bail, we don'tneed to have bail to prevent crimes.
We we we got to have alternativesto bail because bail, you know,
(31:45):
people putting up money. They shouldjust be let out of jail and
then we'll wait for their they canwait for their trial. Why do they
have to put up all this money? You got to find out some alternatives
to bail. And then we heardthat and we fell for it, and
then you know, chaos in thestreets. So it's the same thing.
It's a government person. It's goingto tell me what kind of contracts I'm
(32:06):
gonna sign I don't like it.Let's keep going here. I'm on a
roll, am I am I not? I think I might have some bad
celebrities playing behaving badly news. Iknow you like that. This guy's Dan
Schneider. He's suing the guys whomade a documentary. Have you seen this
(32:30):
documentary? It's called Quiet on theSet. It's about the abuse of kids
on sets at Nickelodeon. Now,Dan Schneider was featured in this thing.
No one said he abused any children, but there was a an abuser on
(32:57):
staff, I guess, and thatguy went to jail. So they make
a documentary and they just made himlook like he was a bad boss.
And he did, like say thathe apologized. He made a video apologizing
for like sexualized content and his behavioron the set. So I guess he's
apologizing. But he said, youdidn't have to defame me and make me
(33:20):
seem like a pedophile. And sonow I got to deal with that.
So this will be very interesting.Did they go so far as to make
him look like he did something that'snot true, because if they if it's
something that makes you spit on theground, remember pedo files, And if
it's not true, but they saidit, and the and they always have
(33:46):
to have the public figure part ofit, so there has to be actual
malice. If he's a public figure, I'd say this guy's a public figure.
He's a famous TV producer. Ithink he was a star then Stefan.
If it's not true, it makesyou split on the ground. But
it's kind of implied in this movie. He's saying, you made me look
(34:06):
like you falsely painted me as achild sexual abuser. So you don't have
to go to trial and the jurywould say did they go too far to
paint this guy as something that he'snot. Did they make But usually you
need assertive treatments that they say,like I mean statements. You need someone
to say this man is a pedophile, this man abused this kid. But
(34:29):
if you're just saying, you know, he fostered an environment that allowed unsupervised
kids to be abused, and thenyou could even imply that you didn't like
what he was doing and maybe hewas an abuser to maybe someone could say,
it's my opinion, who would dothis but an abuser. I haven't
(34:50):
seen the thing. I'll see itand i'll report to you. But This
will be very interesting. How fardid they go? Did they go so
far as to ruin this guy's life? And do they owe some money in
the music world. TikTok has nowmade a deal with Universal. You probably
heard about this. They took alltheir music off of TikTok, like officially,
some people could sneak the music on, but they took it all off,
(35:14):
and then they said they weren't gettingpaid enough. Then magically they made
a new deal. When Taylor Swiftalready got an exception to it, people
were mad about that. It's becauseshe had a new album to drop.
She goes, I can't. Igot to drop the album you need TikTok.
I can't. It's bad timing forme. All this, you know,
talk about making more money for musicians, starving musicians. I got an
(35:38):
album to drop and I need recordnumbers. So that didn't help the fight.
And then the government is now tryingto pass a law that says TikTok
has to divest, has to sellitself to a to Americans. Basically,
if you want to do business inAmerica, you got to sell your company
(35:58):
to Americans. And that's going on. So this Universal TikTok fight over more
money, didn't really didn't really havea chance, so they settled. That's
good. It's good for me,it's good for Sublime. It was a
universal artist. Hear about this one. Lincoln Park is considering a twenty twenty
(36:21):
five reunion with a female vocalist becauseyou know, Chester Bennington, they're iconic
singer died and so they broke upthinking about coming back with the girl singer.
I think that's kind of genius becausethere'll be less comparisons. It's a
little bit woke, and you're givingsomeone a chance and it's just a new
(36:45):
thing. So very interesting, veryinteresting take. I wish them luck.
I've played with them before and Iwish him luck. Is it my kind
of music? Man? Not really? How's this one? Let's leave with
this. David Busters is going toallow customers to bet on arcade games.
(37:08):
Is that legal? Well, theygot an app and it's going to allow
you to like make a friendly fivedollar wager on the hot Shots basketball game,
or bet on a ski ball competitionor in another arcade game. And
I think they're very clever not tocall it betting. They call it something
else, like you know, challengingand competition and like and games of skill
(37:37):
are different than games of luck.So if you're having a wager on a
game of skill, I think that'sdifferent. The law is different, game
of luck. You're in the gamblingworld. Game of skill a little bit
different. But David Busters amazing.That's smart. You know, if things
are going bad, throw gambling intoit. And that's a growing industry.
(38:00):
What it's done for you know,sports and sports ratings because you know all
that gambling needs people watch the gamesbecause they got money on the life.
So we'll see what it can dofor David Busters, which otherwise is pretty
damn stupid. All right, JoeScalante live from Hollywood. That's about it.
I will now leave you with justa taste of the greatest song ever
written, and we'll see you later.
Joe Escalante live from Hollywood. Ifby Hollywood you mean Burbank. This is
two hours of the business, endof show business coming to live on a
Sinco de Mayo. All right,Sinko to Mayo. What do you like?
Sinko to Mayo. You like thebeers, You like the chips and
salsa. Do you ever see thething on Instagram where they take the someone
takes a few chips and they linethem up and make a tortilla out of
(00:32):
them, like on your table,and you look at it. It just
tastes like four of these chips tomake a tortilla, and then it says,
congratulations, you just ate thirty eighttortillas before your dinner came. Sometimes
we do it. So anyway,we're gonna talk about the movies and the
TVs and the music and a littlesports today on the show. And let's
(00:57):
start with the changing of of televisionright now. There's a lot of changes
going on and we're seeing it kindof. Someone called it at the Ankler
they called it the Death of Paramountand slow motion, like right before our
eyes were watching the Death of aStudio Paramount, part of the Viacom CBS
(01:21):
thing. I was pretty complicated.You probably don't want to hear all the
details. But I'm a little bitinterested in it because I worked for CBS.
That was my first grown up jobat the network on Television City in
the nineties. And when I gotthere, it was owned by like Westinghouse
or something. All these studios arealways owned by people that want to get
into the sexy entertainment industry and theygo, hey, we got a lot
(01:42):
of money, Like General Electric buysNBC, like, hey, we've got
a lot of money, let's buya TV network and start mingling with stars.
So it was like Westinghouse, whowas making like nuclear components back then
and appliances, and they were ourfirst Bob, And then it was the
Tish family from New York owned it, and then it was sold to Viacom
(02:12):
and Viacom that's the Nickelodeon MTV family. And then it's still number one in
viewers a lot still like the TiffanyNetwork is what its reputation is. It's
still making movies like Top Gun.It's one of the biggest movies in the
last you know, many years.But just I guess mismanagement, a lot
(02:39):
of people trying to bleed money outof it and for their you know,
stock options and executive payouts, andthen suddenly they have just an enormous amount
of debt and the income isn't asmuch as you think it would be.
So there was a guy named PhilipDowman that that managed to pull like five
(03:01):
hundred million dollars out of it forand kind of fooling Summer Redstone. You've
seen Secession, right, Okay,Secession. People say it's about the Murdoch
family that owns Fox, but it'salso a little bit of the Summer Redstone
(03:23):
true life episodes are thrown in theretoo. And guy was really old and
he was running it. You hadgirlfriends and people were just stealing them blind.
And then his daughter took over,Sherry Redstone, and she was having
a fight with less moonvest who didn'tlike what she was doing. Like they
(03:49):
combined the companies via com and CBS, then they separated the companies and then
all these kinds. Then they recombinedthe companies and all this stuff was affecting
less moon vested stock, and sohe didn't want to happen. So he
started fighting the board of directors andSherry to have things done. His way,
and then he was pretty stupid becauseor just arrogant because he had so
(04:14):
much me too baggage that that wasevident eventually his downfall. And he was
a great executive. He lost likeone hundred and fifty two hundred million dollars
in compensation by that he could havehad by fighting that. And then finally
the me too thing caught up withhim, so that didn't help anything.
(04:35):
And then so lately it's been runby a guy named Bob Backish. The
big news today is Bob Backish hasbeen fired. So they got rid of
him. Bob Backish was not avery flamboyant leader, but they thought Sherry
Redstone thought he was the guy thatwould listen to her, and you know,
(04:55):
just it just starts losing value.And so he's gone, But don't
it's so bad for him. Fiftyone million dollar golden parachute and and he's
out of there. Now. Theygot like a trio of guys that are
running it. You know, it'sweird when they go, well, who
are going to get to run thiscompany? How about two co presidents?
(05:16):
You hear that all the time andyou're like, how does that work?
How about three? This time.Now they have three CEOs. One of
them is George Cheeks. It's theonly one I'm familiar with. But it
just shows you there is no bigmogul executive anymore. Maybe Tom Roffman at
(05:36):
Sea at Sony. Everyone loves him, but they don't have a Streamer,
so they're not like they're just kindof a you know their studio, Bob
Eiger. You know what's going ona Disney. A lot of people are
not impressed. So Warner Brothers,Zaslov running Zaslov, David Zaslov over there,
(05:57):
that he built up Discovery to somethingthat don't like twenty Networks, and
then he bought Warner Brothers and WarnerBrothers, I mean, let's it was
a mess, but it was ita mess because of him. No,
it's a mess because AT and Tbought it. And then remember when they
just merged with AOL. What wasthat about? They merged in like every
single employee of Warner Brothers, insteadof being compensated in stock, were compensated
(06:21):
in AOL installation discs. That wasa tragedy according to Neil Hamburger, and
that's what happened. But anyway,so that company just starts, you know,
losing its luster, losing its itsstock value, and debt is increasing.
(06:42):
Zaslov takes over it, and HBOhad already been kind of ruined because
the AT and T guys ruined it. And then so Zaslov's looking at what
am I gonna do. I gottacut costs, I gotta I gotta CNN
is stupid, I gotta chain it. And then he gets then that's when
his problems started. Wait, you'regonna change CNN because they know that Zaslov
(07:08):
and these guys that are big billionairesand they live in Denver and they're in
the cable business. They know they'renot lefties. These are conservatives. They
watch Fox Business all that stuff,and so they looking at it and going,
man, CNN is a mess,it's stupid. All they do is
like this. It's like talking aboutDonald Trump all day. So they make
changes over there, and then allof a sudden he's hated. So I
(07:30):
think he's a very good executive,but he's got uphill battle because not only
does he have all this debt andthe business is hard, and you buy
Warner Brothers, where Warner Brothers hasjust been ruined by AT and t and
you got all of Hollywood against you. You know that's rough. So CBS,
(07:51):
what are they going to do.They're going to sell themselves to one
of two suitors that are looking athim right now now and well, we'll
get more into that when a salehappened. I don't want to talk about
the competing suitors for paramount CBS.But I kind of sad. You know,
(08:13):
when I got my job at CBS, I just thought I'm going to
be here forever. I got itright out of law school. I'm working
at Television City, got an officeas secretary. I thought I'd be there
forever. Less Moonvis came in,he changed things around, didn't make it
that great for me. I kindof peaked too early, so I left
and sought my fortune in the musicbusiness and then back to TV and now
(08:37):
I'm back in the music business.But kind of sad. I think maybe
I should have stayed there, right, Maybe I had stayed there, none
of this would have happened. Let'sjust go with that, all right.
Let's take a break, and we'regonna come back and talk about some scandals
in Hollywood, as you know wedo, and we'll check the box office
Joe Ascalante Life from Hollywood. Weare back, Joel Scilante Live from the
(09:01):
Hollywood. All right, sorry Idepressed you about the television business. Let's
go to the box office. Boxoffice is doing something can't stop. Every
every day I meet someone and Iand like, like, like a waitress
at my club, Mike, Igot two clubs. So the one club,
(09:28):
the old Ranch Club in Seal Beach. I talking to the waitress there.
I eat there by myself a lot, because that's what you do at
a club. You go to aclub and you buy yourself. It doesn't
matter. They all know you.So I'm talking to the waitress. She
goes, what's your big plans forthe day or something? Well, I'm
(09:50):
going to the movies later. Okay, what are you going to see?
I'm gonna go see the Ministry ofUngentlemanly Warfare. Oh I've never heard of
it, you know. And thewhere I'm going with this conversation is people
are telling me they don't even knowwhat movies are playing because the you know,
the marketing is so fractured. Youused to read the calendar section in
(10:11):
lay every Sunday or whatever kind ofyou know, weekly source. You had
same with music. Nobody knows what'sgoing on. Nobody knows what's playing at
all these places. Nobody knows thesemovies. I'm telling her about a movie
because that sounds really good. I'dreally like to see that movie. Well,
go to the movies. Oh Ilove going to the movies, but
I never go. I go whatare you going to do when the movie
theaters are all closed? Oh?I would hate that. Well, then
(10:37):
go to the movies. Okay,you've heard it from me before. Number
one in the box office this weekendwas Amazon's The Challengers. That one,
it's tennis. You know I lovetennis. I'm gonna go see it,
(11:01):
but I didn't. Unsung Hero fromLionsgate. That's a little sappy for me.
I think it's kind of a seemslike kind of a Christian movie.
But oh, maybe I'll get toit. Godzilla versus Kong. I just
saw Godzilla movie. I don't needto see another one. I loved the
last Godzilla movie, but I justbut I'll probably see it when my wife's
not looking. Civil War number four. That was a great movie from A
(11:26):
twenty four. The people that makeall the great movies that everybody loves now
They even have their own section inlike the Max app or the Netflix Ada.
I saw recently the A twenty fourExperience when You're on your Appy.
What a success, the A twentyfour company Abigail from Universal. It's a
horror, I believe. I don'tknow. I don't see it. The
(11:48):
Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare did see it. Number seven, Kung Fu Panda number
eight, Ghostbusters saw that pretty good. June two, still in the top
ten, pretty good. Number ten. Boy Kills World haven't seen it.
So what can I recommend? Icould recommend Civil War, that's for sure.
It's a movie that you think islike, is this what side of
(12:11):
these these people taking in this?It's like there's a civil war, and
you know, right now in thiscountry that seems very real because the country
is divided. Right there are peoplein Washington running things, and they're running
them for a tiny portion of thecountry, like mainly the people that live
(12:33):
in the cities and people that liveout in the rural areas, the people
that grow our food and stuff likethat. They they look at these people
in the cities and the people inWashington are going, what are you doing?
I mean, I'm not smart enoughto say whether these people in Washington
are ruining our country, but thesepeople think they are. And then these
(12:54):
people also want to take the gunsaway from the people. They want to
take away their trucks, they wantto take away their appliances. Now,
after a while, you push themso far, what are they going to
do? So in this movie,somebody pushed somebody too far, and there's
(13:16):
a civil war. But I reallylike the way they did it because they
didn't there wasn't a lot of judginggoing on. And the movie centers on
these journalists that are trying to gointerview the president, but it's very hard
to get there because there's a civilwar going on, and they and there's
a lot of heinous atrocities going on, and they have to turn the other
(13:37):
way because they are impartial journalists,and they shows kind of how they struggle
with that and how they they youknow, the ragtag group of independent journalists
on their journey to Washington d C. Very good movie. So I can
recommend that if you're only going tosee one movie this week, I would
(13:58):
probably see that one. And theother one I saw was The Ministry of
Ungentlemanly Warfare. This is a GuyRitchie movie. But if you watch it,
you think and you would swear you'rewatching a Tarantino movie. So I
think he got burned out in hisown style, and he kind of said,
you're not gonna make a Tarantino movie. Why not? He made a
(14:22):
a Disney movie, the Aladdin,the last Aladdin movie. He made that,
So the live action one he madethat. Anyway, Guy Richie's awesome,
but so is Tarantino. So thisis a Tarantino movie that you know.
That's like it's like a franchise ofa Tarantino thing. And I know
that. Like if Guy Richie heardme say that, he'd say, you're
(14:45):
an a hole. But I sayit in a nice way. It's a
good movie, and it's a truestory. It's so outlandish I thought for
sure. It's like taking lockstock intwo smoking barrels and saying, oh,
this is a true st and atthe end, we're going to show you
the real people that would blow yourmind. Right, Well, this kind
of blows your mind in the sameway, or if you said, kill
(15:07):
Bill is a true story. Andat the end they showed the pictures of
all the people, Oh, thoseare the real people, and kill Bill.
It's that kind of a thrill.I don't want to oversell it,
but it's pretty good. And alot of people are watching Dune too,
and on airplanes and in hotels,and I feel sorry for you because you
should have watched it in the IMAXor the cinemak XD like I told you
(15:31):
to right now. In the streamingworld, this kind of ties into the
box office because I was watching thesetrue crime right now. I'm just kind
of only watching true crime stuff onHBO and Netflix, and I watched one
(16:00):
on Waco, you know Waco,the Texas standoff between the the at F
and David Koresh and the branch Davidiansor the one on Netflix. It's Netflix.
If I say Netflix and it's HBO, I'm sorry, or Max,
(16:21):
I'm sorry that one. Yeah,it's incredible. I mean, you've seen
the story. I've seen a lotof these documentaries, one based on just
the phone calls and the tapes.But the one that's running on Netflix right
now is it's pretty good. Andit's just such a sad story of the
government freaking out because these people haveguns, and that seems to be the
(16:44):
only thing we have heard. Theyhave guns in their abusing children. Okay,
when we're talking about religions, yougotta you know what kind of abuse
you know is it? Do youhave proof of sexual abuse? Or are
you just saying they're not treating thesekids the way I would treat them and
(17:06):
why my religion would treat them.And I think these kids should be rescued
and put into nice families where theycould practice my religion or no religion,
because I don't think they belong there. And you know, and their parents
are crazy if they believe this stuff. Okay, well that's when you're starting
to tell people they have to changereligions. You're making a big mistake,
(17:32):
kind of like when people tell me, like, eat Joe, you shouldn't
eat meat because it's cruel to animals. And I'm like, well, Jesus
ate fish. Jesus killed fish,Jesus fried them up. I mean,
this is what we do on thisplanet, kill animals, We eat them.
(17:56):
So is Jesus was he wrong?And fish is way crueler than any
other kind of you know, beefindustry or whatever. You putting a hook
and a fish or letting suffocate onin a net. So you're telling me
Jesus was bad or or neglected totell me this is wrong or going to
be wrong in the future. Andthat's when you get to the point where
(18:18):
you're telling someone that they have tochange their religion in order to be enlightened,
et cetera. And that's when that'sa really hard argument to make.
So so I don't listened to it. And yeah, so that you start,
well, we're gonna take a break. We'll talk about Waco when we
come back, and then we'll getinto the bombing of the Oklahoma City Building.
(18:42):
Joe'scalante Live from Hollywood. Joe Scalante, Live from Hollywood. If by
Hollywood you mean Burbank across the streetfrom a Wienerschnitz, it sells beer.
Hey, uh So, anyway,I watched the Waco thing, and you
know, it's a lot like CivilWar because you know, it's it's this
it's a big country. Some peoplelive in these parts where they're like,
(19:06):
I like to hunt, I liketo fish, I like to drive a
four wheel drive, and I liketo have a gun photoget practice. I
like to shoot millons. I liketo buy a bigger and bigger, bigger
gun and shoot melons. And thenthey've got these people. They're saying you
should not have a gun, youshould not eat animals, you should not
(19:30):
have a four wheel drive car,and then you got a problem. So
anyway, or your religion's wrong.So anyways, when I'm watching the Waco
thing, I'm you see it fromanother perspective, because when I saw it
on TV, I go, thesepeople are nuts. Get in there and
save those children. But obviously,you know so many people died in that
(19:56):
raid. You know, you know, you can look at it in hindsight
and say that's terrible. It justis another way like leam alone. If
you've got some evidence about kids,go in there and talk to them and
reason with them. If you freakedout about their guns, what do you
(20:17):
think they're gonna do. What arethese Waco people gonna do with their guns?
What's the worst case scenario. They'regonna charge out and take over the
rest of Texas. It's not gonnahappen. So anyway, someone blew it
on that. But then you getto the the other Netflix. Oh no,
(20:41):
this is HBO. I'm pretty surethat I watched an American bobbin,
an American bombing. That one isabout the Federal building in uh, in
Oklahoma City. Now, this guythat did the bombing in this case,
(21:11):
he was over at Waco. Hewas over there, like passing out leaflets
and stuff. He's one of thoseguys you know, like that go to
he's in the military. And thenthen he disillusioned and got you know,
he's got a screw loose, that'sfor sure, and he starts hatching a
(21:33):
plan to blow up the federal buildingbecause of what they did in Waco.
So and then you push these guystoo far. That's like the Civil War
movie. Someone pushed these guys andthen you have a civil war. The
plan involves him and a couple otherpeople. And I don't know if you
(21:53):
remember this. This is nineteen ninetyfive. It was April nineteenth, nineteen
ninety five. I think it's onthe anniversary of the Waco thing. And
he blows up that building using manureand something to ignite the manure, and
man, wow, did he blowup this building. I was actually on
(22:17):
tour. I was on tour withno doubt when this happened. Or Offspring,
Yeah, it was Offspring and wewere playing in Oklahoma City, and
so it was that. The thingwas it just happened right after we got
there, all right before we gotthere, and that was awkward. He
wanted to take a selfie, butyou don't. But here's what I did.
(22:38):
I go, you take pictures ofthe carnage, not the carnage,
but the destruction. Here's my camera. You take pictures, and if I'm
in one of those pictures, there'snothing I can do about it. But
that was before the age of selfiesticks and selfies and stuff, so it
was just like, you know,everyone's taking pictures. You want to see
mine, probably not gonna happen.So this thing on HBO definitely worth watching
(23:03):
an American bombing, and you geta little insight into how far this guy
was pushed. So I guess thelesson here is don't push people. Try
to figure it out. And Ijust think if you're if you've got something
that's controversial, like like let's say, letting boys go in you know,
(23:33):
the dress like girls go into thegirl's bathroom, and you go, that's
well, we got to take careof these boys that are dressed like girls
because we just have to. Okay, but you got some things are just
so controversial you just go, youknow, we can't do that because it's
going to freak people out. Andthen if your answer is, well,
they've they've got to learn because thisis how society is. Now. Wow,
(23:57):
you gotta slow down with that stuff. And sometimes I think these movies
can help us realize that, well, movies and TV. How do we
learn about this stuff? If itwasn't for the movies and the TVs and
now the podcast, well, Iforget. Have you ever listened to a
podcast called The Rest is History?Let me recommend that to you. The
Rest is History. It's all youneed to know. And my recommendation to
(24:19):
you is to pay to have thecommercials removed and you will have something.
There's so many episodes done of this. It's two guys too, British historians
tackling one subject at a time.Sometimes it's a multi part episode, sometimes
it's a single episode. But wow, is that worth it? It's kind
(24:42):
of life changing because when I wakeup and I can't sleep, I put
that on. I go back tosleep in twenty seconds, and then I
have to like listen to it inmy car because I'm missing like ninety percent
of every episode that I start whenI wake up. Okay, no one
cares about your sleep patterns, Joe, Okay, what do you care about?
Well, if you want to makeit in Hollywood, the best thing
(25:03):
to do is become a writer.If you can write, write, If
you can't write, there's other jobs, there's a lot of good ones.
But if you can write, yougot to write. That's always been the
advice because if you write, youmake a ton of money, and you're
the boss in television. So whenI learned this, it was a little
(25:26):
too late, and I was alreadyin business affairs at CBS, but I
was in charge of paying all thewriters and it was just enormous amounts of
money. Now, the money gotbigger and bigger and bigger, and you
hear about this writer strike, Butthat's because the guys at the top were
making so much money there wasn't enoughmoney left for the guys at the bottom,
so they had to address that.But what happens at the top is
(25:48):
these things called overall deals. Anoverall deal is something to where it's just
like an exclusive talent hold where you'resaying to this writer, you can only
make shows for me, and I'mgoing to give you six million dollars and
you're going to work it off,and that that number is not an exaggeration,
that's a normal overall deal. I'llgive you six million dollars, you
work it off, you pay,you write these pilots, and we and
(26:11):
we go out and try to getthem sold to networks. And if one
gets sold, then we're going tocharge that money off from your overall deal.
But you don't care because you gotyour six million dollars already. If
you make so much money that it'smore than six million in your fees add
up to more than six million,you will start giving you that. But
(26:33):
in the meantime, we're going totake it all because we gave you six
million dollars and we prevented you fromworking for another studio. And that's the
idea behind these Well, the conventionalwisdom is that these overall deals are a
thing of the past. So whatI'm telling you is there's not a giant
(26:53):
overall deal for you in the future, like the kind that Ryan Murphy or
Shonda Rhymes would get. But itdoesn't mean you can't make money as a
writer, and doesn't can't doesn't meanyou can't make a lot of money in
the writer. But this, thisgiant overall deal thing is they're saying is
gone. They're renegotiating them, They'rethey're not giving them out anymore. I
(27:17):
mean there's a few that that willalways happen because you know, agent says,
hey, you want you want DarrenStarr did Sex in the City and
nine O two one zero. Youwant him to go to the other networks.
Now you don't. You want himto stay here at Universal are the
other studios, These are studio thingsyou want. You don't want him to
(27:37):
go, So keep keep up theoverall deal and then he won't go and
so those are gone. That's anotherchanging part of television. It's a little
career advice for you. Let's takea break and come back with more on
Joe Scalante Live from Hollywood. Yeah, h h, Joe askant, here's
(28:18):
my lawyer. You don't want JoeScalante live from Hollywood. If by Hollywood
you mean Burbank two hours of theBusiness Endo Show Business every Sunday on k
E I B eleven fifty on youram dial. I got some bad Okay,
let's go back to We'll keep itthe TV deals. In the career
advice, there's been a ban onnon compete clauses uh or language in contracts
(28:45):
that that that is affecting Hollywood.Now, if you a noncompete clause would
be like if we're going to hireyou as an executive and then you're gonna
be a part of our team.And if if you leave, you can't
leave and go to another competing network, like we're going to put you under
(29:08):
contract. If you leave, youcan go somewhere else, but you can't
go compete, can't go to anyonethat competes with us, and that prevents
people from taking company secrets. Basically, so the FCC has decided, the
FTC Federal Trade Commission has decided theywant to make these illegal, and of
(29:29):
course the studios and other companies wantpeople to have a freedom of contract.
So basically that's what this is.It comes down to freedom of contract to
the government saying well, we wantto protect you from any deals you might
make that we think would hurt youin the long run, and we don't
(29:52):
want to give companies the idea thatthey can just keep making these deals.
Now, I'm not for this bandbecause I think people should have a right
to contract. Because when you likewhen I made a deal at CBS.
I got a lot of money becauseI told them I won't compete. If
I leave and tell a certain amountof time, it prevents them from going
(30:12):
like someone come in poaching you.Now, if someone comproach you, they're
not going to pay you as much. So I'm trying to get as much
money as i can. So I'llsign the thing that says I'm not going
to compete because I want this moneyand I want to get highly paid for
at this place. I want tobe here, and now they're not allowed
to offer me that deal, sothey're going to offer me less money.
(30:33):
That's how I look at it.There's not even a choice because you can
always say I'm not going to signa noncompete. You can always say that,
Why do I need them to tellme I can't sign a non compete?
What if that's the best option.What if they say, if you
sign the non compete, we'll payyou four hundred thousand a year, but
if you don't sign it, we'rejust going to pay you one hundred and
twenty five. And your wife's sittingthere going like, take the four hundred.
(30:56):
What are you going to compete for? Just take the four hundred let's
we need to where kids are goingto college. Well, I don't know,
it could be bad for me andother people in the long run.
So I'm I'm opposed to these noncompetes. So I'm going to work for
one hundred and twenty five a year. Oh my gosh, do you really
want that. It's just ridiculous theseand then they say it'll it'll, it
(31:17):
will help people in the long run. This is something that that will you
know, Uh, there are alternativesto non competes, and the and the
companies will figure them out. It'skind of the same logic where they said,
you know, bail, we don'tneed to have bail to prevent crimes.
We we we got to have alternativesto bail because bail, you know,
(31:45):
people putting up money. They shouldjust be let out of jail and
then we'll wait for their they canwait for their trial. Why do they
have to put up all this money? You got to find out some alternatives
to bail. And then we heardthat and we fell for it, and
then you know, chaos in thestreets. So it's the same thing.
It's a government person. It's goingto tell me what kind of contracts I'm
(32:06):
gonna sign I don't like it.Let's keep going here. I'm on a
roll, am I am I not? I think I might have some bad
celebrities playing behaving badly news. Iknow you like that. This guy's Dan
Schneider. He's suing the guys whomade a documentary. Have you seen this
(32:30):
documentary? It's called Quiet on theSet. It's about the abuse of kids
on sets at Nickelodeon. Now,Dan Schneider was featured in this thing.
No one said he abused any children, but there was a an abuser on
(32:57):
staff, I guess, and thatguy went to jail. So they make
a documentary and they just made himlook like he was a bad boss.
And he did, like say thathe apologized. He made a video apologizing
for like sexualized content and his behavioron the set. So I guess he's
apologizing. But he said, youdidn't have to defame me and make me
(33:20):
seem like a pedophile. And sonow I got to deal with that.
So this will be very interesting.Did they go so far as to make
him look like he did something that'snot true, because if they if it's
something that makes you spit on theground, remember pedo files, And if
it's not true, but they saidit, and the and they always have
(33:46):
to have the public figure part ofit, so there has to be actual
malice. If he's a public figure, I'd say this guy's a public figure.
He's a famous TV producer. Ithink he was a star then Stefan.
If it's not true, it makesyou split on the ground. But
it's kind of implied in this movie. He's saying, you made me look
(34:06):
like you falsely painted me as achild sexual abuser. So you don't have
to go to trial and the jurywould say did they go too far to
paint this guy as something that he'snot. Did they make But usually you
need assertive treatments that they say,like I mean statements. You need someone
to say this man is a pedophile, this man abused this kid. But
(34:29):
if you're just saying, you know, he fostered an environment that allowed unsupervised
kids to be abused, and thenyou could even imply that you didn't like
what he was doing and maybe hewas an abuser to maybe someone could say,
it's my opinion, who would dothis but an abuser. I haven't
(34:50):
seen the thing. I'll see itand i'll report to you. But This
will be very interesting. How fardid they go? Did they go so
far as to ruin this guy's life? And do they owe some money in
the music world. TikTok has nowmade a deal with Universal. You probably
heard about this. They took alltheir music off of TikTok, like officially,
some people could sneak the music on, but they took it all off,
(35:14):
and then they said they weren't gettingpaid enough. Then magically they made
a new deal. When Taylor Swiftalready got an exception to it, people
were mad about that. It's becauseshe had a new album to drop.
She goes, I can't. Igot to drop the album you need TikTok.
I can't. It's bad timing forme. All this, you know,
talk about making more money for musicians, starving musicians. I got an
(35:38):
album to drop and I need recordnumbers. So that didn't help the fight.
And then the government is now tryingto pass a law that says TikTok
has to divest, has to sellitself to a to Americans. Basically,
if you want to do business inAmerica, you got to sell your company
(35:58):
to Americans. And that's going on. So this Universal TikTok fight over more
money, didn't really didn't really havea chance, so they settled. That's
good. It's good for me,it's good for Sublime. It was a
universal artist. Hear about this one. Lincoln Park is considering a twenty twenty
(36:21):
five reunion with a female vocalist becauseyou know, Chester Bennington, they're iconic
singer died and so they broke upthinking about coming back with the girl singer.
I think that's kind of genius becausethere'll be less comparisons. It's a
little bit woke, and you're givingsomeone a chance and it's just a new
(36:45):
thing. So very interesting, veryinteresting take. I wish them luck.
I've played with them before and Iwish him luck. Is it my kind
of music? Man? Not really? How's this one? Let's leave with
this. David Busters is going toallow customers to bet on arcade games.
(37:08):
Is that legal? Well, theygot an app and it's going to allow
you to like make a friendly fivedollar wager on the hot Shots basketball game,
or bet on a ski ball competitionor in another arcade game. And
I think they're very clever not tocall it betting. They call it something
else, like you know, challengingand competition and like and games of skill
(37:37):
are different than games of luck.So if you're having a wager on a
game of skill, I think that'sdifferent. The law is different, game
of luck. You're in the gamblingworld. Game of skill a little bit
different. But David Busters amazing.That's smart. You know, if things
are going bad, throw gambling intoit. And that's a growing industry.
(38:00):
What it's done for you know,sports and sports ratings because you know all
that gambling needs people watch the gamesbecause they got money on the life.
So we'll see what it can dofor David Busters, which otherwise is pretty
damn stupid. All right, JoeScalante live from Hollywood. That's about it.
I will now leave you with justa taste of the greatest song ever
written, and we'll see you later.
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