In like a lion

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Apr 4, 2001

HOLLYWOOD (NYT) -- The MGM lion has not roared in a while. So studio officials are more than a little delighted that with Hannibal and Heartbreakers, the Sigourney Weaver-Jennifer Love Hewitt comedy that was released last week, two MGM movies in a row have opened No. 1 at the box office for the first time since 1995.

"We always thought the year 2000 was a year of transition for us," said Gerry Rich, MGM's president for worldwide marketing. A new management team led by the company's chairman, Alex Yemenidjian, took control of the studio a couple of years ago and vowed to return it to at least a shade of its former glory. But it was a promise that Hollywood had heard before as MGM went through a series of sometimes disastrous ownership changes over the last decade and saw its profile dip lower and lower among the major studios.

"It takes a while to build a full slate, and we felt that 2001 would be the year that our work finally began to bear fruit," Rich said.

MGM plans to release 20 movies this year, including several less expensive and independent-minded films under its United Artists banner, up from only 8 movies in 2000. This year's larger and more mixed slate -- including an early summer comedy starring Martin Lawrence, What's the Worst That Could Happen?; a midsummer remake of the science-fiction thriller Rollerball and end-of-year Oscar bait like John Woo's Windtalkers, starring Nicolas Cage -- is more representative of what MGM will be like in the future, said Larry Gleason, president for worldwide distribution.

If it weren't for the successive No. 1 openings, all this, of course, would be merely more promises from a studio that in recent years has had trouble keeping them. Ridley Scott's Hannibal has earned more than $160 million since its release eight weeks ago and David Mirkin's Heartbreakers earned $11.8 million in its first weekend after opening. Heartbreakers had a less-than-sizzling per theater average, $4,291, though it was strong enough to give MGM its first back-to-back No. 1 films since Get Shorty and Goldeneye in 1995. Now, Rich said, MGM needs to maintain the momentum, which studio officials say they are convinced it is in a position to do. "We want to make sure this happens more often than once every five years," he said.

The mouse and the cheese

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The other mouse, the one with the cape and super strength, is putting his power behind cheese. Mighty Mouse, whose famous words "Here I come to save the day!" has been pulled out of retirement to promote the cheese industry. In the "Ahh, the power of Cheese" television commercial debuting April 9, the invincible superhero Mighty Mouse "caves to the crave" for cheese before saving the day. Print ads follow later this month.

Isadore Klein created the cartoon superhero for Terrytoons in 1942. That was followed four years later by Mighty Mouse comic books and the Mighty Mouse TV cartoons in 1955. The rodent retired in 1971 when Terrytoons shut its doors.

Getting paid to get dressed...

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) -- Employees of Walt Disney World should be paid for the time it takes to get dressed as Mickey Mouse or Goofy, a federal mediator has ruled, opening the door to back pay for thousands.

Arbitrator J. Chumley's decision stems from a complaint filed last year with the National Labor Relations Board by the Service Trades Council, which represents six unions at Disney World. The complaint alleged that in the fall of 1999, Disney unfairly stopped paying workers for time spent changing into or out of a costume or uniform, and for the time spent wearing a uniform before reaching a worksite. About 3,000 employees at Epcot, the Magic Kingdom and Fort Wilderness Lodge were affected. Chumley's March 19 ruling did not specify how much Disney would have to pay.

Employees are allowed to take their uniforms home and dress before coming to work, but many still have to walk long distances or take a bus to their work areas, union officials say. Disney spokesman Bill Warren said the decision will be appealed through the federal courts.

In a similar settlement reached last November, Disneyland in California was ordered to pay more than $1.7 million to thousands of former and current workers.

Fakes pulled for resale fears

SAN FRANCISCO (NYT) -- The faux Jackson Pollock paintings created for the movie Pollock, exhibited recently in "Not Pollock Not Krasner" at Pollock House on Long Island and scheduled to be shown at a Manhattan gallery, have been pulled abruptly from the show. Elliot Cuker, who runs the Cooper Classics' Collection, which he says shows "contemporary art and photography mixed with classic cars," wanted to display the works as part of a "Celebration of Art in Cinema" show. He says he got permission "from everybody at Sony all the way down," but officials at the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in New York thought the false Pollocks were "getting too much attention." Cuker wasn't planning to sell the paintings, but Cuker says the foundation was worried about their somehow diluting the value of the real paintings.