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From the BBC | A Dali watercolour of a reclining nude that once hung in Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s bedroom has fetched $266,500 at a New York auction. The nude, featured in a 1967 issues of Playboy and not expected to get more $150,000, was among 125 artworks owned by the magazine to go under the hammer at Christie’s.
Wednesday’s sale included 80 photos and 24 cartoons, a fraction of the magazine’s archives stored in a warehouse in Chicago. Get the full story>>
Former Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder, who spent a year blogging for Chicago Public Media before quitting last month, is moving his media commentary to Time Out Chicago magazine’s Web site, effective Jan. 3.
Shipments of LCD flat-panel TVs will fall this year from the year before, the first such decline since the popularity of such TVs took off in 2006, according to a research firm. Get the full story »
Federal regulators will explore whether they can do more to protect consumers from losing their television signals because of disputes over the fees that subscription-video providers pay broadcasters for their programming. Get the full story »
The company that runs Blockbuster Express kiosks is testing whether people will pay more to rent DVDs and Blu-ray discs of new movies 28 days before they are available from other vending machines. Get the full story »
Oprah Winfrey’s visit to Sydney — or “Operation Oprah,” as they’re calling it — sounds a bit like a bio-hazard, rather than a visiting TV show from Chicago. But maybe that’s because of the way Australia’s Ten News correspondent reports it.
There is to be a maritime exclusion zone, a no-fly zone, road closures and re-routed public transport in the “operational footprint.”
The Oprah Winfrey cable network, set to launch in a few weeks, is still trying to line-up subscriber fees from cable and satellite operators, David Zaslav, chief executive of the network’s part-owner Discovery Communications Inc., said Monday.
The new network — which is a 50-50 joint venture between Discovery and Winfrey, is set to replace Discovery Health network in about 80 million homes on Jan 1. Discovery Health, which is not widely watched, receives no per-household subscription fee in the “majority of cases,” said Zaslav during remarks at the UBS Global Media and Communications conference in Manhattan. Get the full story »
The judge in Tribune Co.’s contentious bankruptcy case signaled his approval Monday to send four competing restructuring plans out for vote by the Chicago-based media company’s creditors.
If he issues the formal order by Wednesday, which will mark the two-year anniversary of the case, solicitation packages containing disclosure documents explaining the four plans will likely be mailed on Dec. 22, said a Tribune Co. lawyer.
Creditors will then have until Jan. 28 to cast their votes and the judge will use those results to gauge support for the various plans ahead of a five-day confirmation hearing set for early March. Get the full story »
Hedge fund manager William Ackman is raising his wager on bookseller Borders Group Inc, offering to help it buy larger rival Barnes & Noble Inc for $963.7 million. Get the full story »
AT&T’s customer satisfaction rating tumbled this year, ranking dead last among U.S. wireless carriers, according to a Consumer Reports survey released on Monday.
The nation’s second largest wireless network received the worst possible rating in eight of the nine categories the magazine studied, including overall value, voice service, data service, phone service, staff knowledge, and resolution of issues, among others. Get the full story »
Talk queen Oprah Winfrey will announce her latest book selection on her show today, and her choice, according to the Orlando Sentinel, is actually two books: “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens.
In September, Winfrey chose Jonathan Franzen’s book “Freedom” as the first selection for the 25th and final season of her talk show. She announced that month that despite rumors, her famed book club would continue. “I will have book selections coming all season long and when I move over to OWN, my new network, the book club is coming with me,” she told her audience.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did not rule out further purchases of Treasury bonds beyond the $600 billion program announced last month, CBS television reported Bernanke as saying in an interview on the show “60 Minutes”. Get the full story »
"The Super Bowl Shuffle" by the Chicago Bears Shufflin' Crew in 1985. Left to right: Mike Richardson (27), Gary Fencik (45), Willie Gault (83), William Perry (72), Walter Payton (34), Richard Dent (95), Jim McMahon (9), Otis Wilson (55), Steve Fuller (4), Mike Singletary (50). (Tribune file photo)
The owner of a beloved ditty by the 1985 Chicago Bears is preparing to shuffle on down to federal court to take on a media conglomerate.
“Super Bowl Shuffle” owner Julia Meyer filed a lawsuit in Chicago this week alleging Viacom used the video on MTV and VH1 without permission. Get the full story »
