• geek love

    Michael Arrington pounding his MySpace source

    When TechCrunch, the blog for startup fetishists, published leaked screengrabs of MySpace's just-launched music service, Michael Arrington wrote: "We’ve been pounding our sources for screenshots of the new service for weeks without any luck." Now we know what he meant. A tipster tells us, and another source confirms, that Arrington's been dating Dani Dudeck, MySpace's VP of global communications, for months. More »

    12:00 PM on Fri Sep 26 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    11,098 views, 26 comments

    Most discussed Rachel Marsden: Also, people who use "wait for it" as a splicer should be stood up against the nearest wall and shot. more »

  • geek love

    Terry Semel spawn Courtenay dating MySpace star Tila Tequila

    Plasticly popular MySpace personality Tila Tequila and Courtenay Semel, the daughter of ex-Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, attended a premiere together last night in Los Angeles. There, the pair confirmed a more successful merger than Semel senior ever managed. “I’d seen the show [A Shot at Love] and just needed to meet her and it just happened,” Semel told People magazine. “It’s true what they say about lesbians," said Tequila. "You meet and then the next day you move in together, because I can’t get rid of her. She pretty much lives at my house.” We think this is the only Yahoo-MySpace deal we'll see happen. (Photo by AP/Steinberg)

    1:00 PM on Tue Aug 12 2008
    By Nicholas Carlson
    8,227 views, 31 comments

    Latest by Migrant Blogger: 30 comments on a VW story ... isn't this a record? more »

  • 23andme

    Google cofounder funnels money to wife's startup through Michael J. Fox charity

    Google employees must avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest, according to the company's code of conduct. But Sergey Brin is exempt from such bureaucratic trifles. The cofounder skirted ethical lines when he loaned money to 23andMe, a genetic-testing startup cofounded by his wife, Anne Wojcicki, and later had Google repay that loan in the course of investing in that company. The Google board's audit committee and CEO Eric Schmidt blithely signed off on the deal, however. Now, Brin has found a new way to route money to 23andMe, this time through a charity — thereby boosting, at least notionally, the value of Google's investment and his wife's net worth. Brin can claim it's all for a good cause, but the deal stinks to high heaven. More »

    Feature

    11:20 AM on Wed Jul 16 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    10,146 views, 23 comments

    Latest by WagCurious: @drury: Wow, you people are wildly ignorant of federal tax law. Remind me to never let you prepare my tax more »

  • double standards

    How Google could humiliate Viacom in YouTube lawsuit

    Worried that your obsessive kitten-video viewing records on YouTube would be exposed in Viacom's copyright lawsuit against YouTube? You can relax. Google and Viacom lawyers have reached an agreement to anonymize records of usernames and IP addresses in YouTube's video-viewing logs, which Viacom wants to examine to show patterns of willful copyright infringement on the site. The accounts of employees of both companies, however, aren't included in the deal. And that suggests a negotiating tactic for Google. More »

    12:40 PM on Tue Jul 15 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    3,246 views, 3 comments

    Latest by internetlawattorney: I am still amazed that the judge approved the original order requiring the personally identifiable information of google's users. Viacom more »

  • caption contest

    The first rule of Hair Club is you do not talk about Hair Club

    Hollywood star Edward Norton gleefully shakes hands with San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom at a hearing on green building practices today before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming on Capitol Hill. Write your own caption, and the winner becomes the new headline. Yesterday's contest drew no winning entries, so do try harder, won't you? (Photo by AP/Lawrence Jackson)

    4:00 PM on Wed May 14 2008
    By Jackson West
    3,071 views, 39 comments

    Latest by wdr1: "I'd stand up as well, but I don't actually respect you." more »

  • geek love

    Steve Wozniak and Kathy Griffin all broken up

    Speaking to an Us Magazine reporter on Saturday, comedienne Kathy Griffin declared that she and billionaire Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak have moved to Splitsville, population: Them.
    "As a matter of fact," she added, "I got an email last week from him, and he is going to marry someone else... I think he might be married. I don't really know that for sure, though."
    Wow, with Wozniak's marital status up in the air even while dating, it sure comes as a surprise that the two couldn't see eye-to-eye in the relationship. It couldn't have helped that rumors suggested the notoriously flaky Woz may have held up production of episodes of Griffin's reality show "My LIfe on the D List" slated to air on Bravo. Still, they'll always have Sunnyvale. (Photo AP/Danny Moloshok)

    11:40 AM on Mon Apr 28 2008
    By Jackson West
    21,098 views, 6 comments

    Latest by drinkwater: No!!!! I really wanted them to work out. If THEY could make it happen then it meant that any sassy, more »

  • online video

    Hollywood talent leery of stock-option deals, but agencies enthusiastic

    Cash money, not equity, is what powers the entertainment industry. Especially when it comes to talent. In a possibly apocryphal but illustrative anecdote, legendary bluesman Albert King reportedly refused to leave the stage until he had cash in hand from the concert promoter, presumably because he'd been cheated out of so many deals in the past. Studio accounting has an only slightly better reputation than that of the music industry when it comes to being, ahem, creative. Hence it's no surprise that when negotiating venture funding for Funny Or Die, Will Ferrell reportedly wanted to know what his upfront payout would be, according to Sequoia Capital's Mark Kvamme in comments to the New York Times. Which is one reason why private equity efforts to fund traditional film and television production have yet to pan out. Better to get your money upfront and walk away in case the project is a disaster. So how is Valley money changing Hollywood business models? More »

    Feature

    5:00 PM on Wed Apr 16 2008
    By Jackson West
    2,030 views, 9 comments

    Latest by FiveStarEggRoll: @bbucy: A la Ben Stiller? Well, I guess he still directs (a lot of crap)...Sandler too. Seeing a big SNL more »

  • mythbusting

    Why online video hasn't reinvented Hollywood

    LOS ANGELES — I'm the first to admit that I wanted to see the Web kill Hollywood. It just ain't happening. It's finally dawned on the studios that you can now pay artists even less to produce content, and pay YouTube absolutely nothing to distribute it. The problem is you have to sell your own ads — but the studios and networks, unlike indie content creators and Valley startups, have armies of ad sales people still at their command. And it's still a hits-based business. So while it's great to have all the creative freedom in the world, you're still going to have to wait tables and get coffee for producers while working, unpaid, on your own projects and pray to the ghost of Mae West that something ends up with mass appeal. What does success look like in the wake of the online video revolution? More »

    Feature

    8:00 AM on Fri Apr 11 2008
    By Jackson West
    7,308 views, 21 comments

    Latest by chimimimusic: you have to dig a little deeper to get a better sense of what's going on. Hollywood's basic business model is more »

  • deathwatch

    Ashton Kutcher-backed startup Ooma is falling apart

    Hold the phone: Voice-over-Internet startup Ooma is flailing, despite — or perhaps because of — a viral-video marketing campaign directed by Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher. Ooma launched its product, a $400 device which offers unlimited phone calls, last year, with a splash of press. Starstruck tech bloggers like TechCrunch's Michael Arrington gave away Ooma gadgets to readers in exchange for some facetime with Kutcher — and asked few questions about its nonsensical business model, which had it charging high upfront prices for hardware and giving away phone service. Now, we're told, its high-school-dropout CEO, Andrew Frame, has seen a host of executives leave. More »

    12:20 PM on Wed Apr 9 2008
    By Owen Thomas
    9,499 views, 18 comments

    Latest by SuprabhaNoppit: Looks like there's some additional people leaving and layoffs at ooma. ooma has decided to terminate their entire more »

  • startups

    Jessica Alba helps promote Baron Davis's startup iBeatYou

    If you're going to waste time at work on a social network, why lavish it on the proles of Facebook? You could instead luxuriate it on the wildly attractive Jessica Alba and NBA All-Star Baron "Bulletproof" Davis of our hometown Golden State Warriors. Davis and old friend Cash Warren, Alba's paramour, cofounded Alba's favored social network, iBeatYou. The basic premise: One interacts through friendly contests like Best Beard. But the "differentiator," in Valleyspeak, is Alba and Davis's celebrity draw. It kind of reminds me of the now-defunct Consumating, except with playful jocks instead of indie rock hipsters. After the jump, NewTeeVee's Liz Gannes captured a moment with the effusive Davis. More »

    5:00 PM on Tue Mar 25 2008
    By Jackson West
    8,437 views, 10 comments

    Latest by Moonshine Mike: @Dweezil: These are all great and also the Rod Benson blog on Yahoo on playing in the NBA D-league is more »