Author: Ryan Nakashima
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MySpace to cut 300 positions, close offices
LOS ANGELES – Social-networking site MySpace said Tuesday it plans to cut 300 jobs, or two-thirds of its overseas work force, in an effort to rein in costs and focus on countries where it has many users and better business opportunities. The move comes a week after the News Corp. unit said it would cut…
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Actors ratify 2-year Hollywood movie, TV contract
LOS ANGELES – After a year of nasty infighting, members of the Screen Actors Guild decided by a large margin that the show must go on. The Guild said Tuesday that 78 percent of voting members decided to ratify a two-year contract covering movies and prime-time TV shows made by the major Hollywood studios. It…
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More reality TV coming to you, on a cheaper budget
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. • Here’s a new economic indicator: the diminishing level of glamour on Paris Hilton’s reality-TV show. Contestants in the second season of “Paris Hilton’s My New BFF” are living in a mansion that costs half as much as the home the show rented last season. Trips to New York and Tokyo are…
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Boom in music video games helps artists
LOS ANGELES – “This song is dedicated to Debbie Harry,” flinty-eyed Lisa Hsuan purrs into a microphone on the red-lit stage of Hyperion Tavern. It’s a cozy dive where patrons drink Coke and beer from bottles and a fading chandelier dangles overhead. Her tribute is intentionally ludicrous: The 30-year-old veterinarian is about to belt out…
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Colbert, Dora may be off air in some areas
LOS ANGELES • A spat between Time Warner Cable Inc. and Viacom Inc. over how much the cable company pays to carry channels such as MTV and Comedy Central headed down to the wire on New Year’s Eve – and a blackout appeared likely to begin a minute past midnight. Time Warner, the nation’s second-largest…
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No more lawsuits, recording industry says
LOS ANGELES • The group representing the U.S. recording industry said Friday it has abandoned its policy of suing people for sharing songs protected by copyright and will work with Internet service providers to cut abusers’ access if they ignore repeated warnings. The move ends a controversial program that saw the Recording Industry Association of…