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Even Hollywooders Need Savvy Business

Hollywood Not Living Happily Ever After?

It’s not always a case of happy ever after, even for those in Hollywood. Although the industry is making tons of money still, it has been deeply criticized for its inability to market itself, according to Hollywood’s newly appointed chief lobbyist, Christopher Dodd. While it knows how to sell movies, it needs to work on self-marketing, he said.

It’s all about image; according to The Hollywood Reporter, it’s no good that Washington views Hollywood as “red carpets and tuxedos,” as opposed to the thriving industry it is.

Hollywood Getting A Bad Rep

And in other news in Hollywood, it seems Beyonce may be in need of a bit of therapy to discuss her familial woes. The artist has split with Music World Entertainment, owned by her father Mathew Knowles, but there is said to be no bitterness or resentment on the part of either daughter or dad. According to senior Knowles, “I love my daughter and am very proud of who she is and all that she has achieved. I look forward to her continued great success.”

What is more important to Mr. Knowles these days is the gospel/inspirational genre of music his company is now making investments in as well as new artists including Britan Courtney Wilson and Vanessa Bell Armstrong.

In Hollywood it’s often here today and gone tomorrow. That can be good for business in the fast-paced changing world but vis-à-vis it’s credibility nationwide, the industry might be well-advised to employ a good marketing company.

World Cup Dirty Tricks

It seems that nothing can remain untouched these days. It’s all about money and that doesn’t change with the India- Pakistan cricket World Cup semifinal scheduled for 2 days’ time. Indeed there have already been three arrests by the Chandigarh police for attempts being made to “black-market” tickets for the event. The mark-up was somewhat absurd; on a ticket of Rs.250 and Rs.500, sales were pitched at Rs.56,000!

It was a little much. The police set up a trap to catch them and it worked. Now there is an interrogation taking place to determine exactly what happened and to make an example out of these people to perhaps deter people from trying this trick in the future.

Making Money on the Winning Team

These money-seekers might have tried to make their dough in a more traditional way, as has been done since time immemorial with hedging bets on which team will win. Is this so easy to do? Well, if you look at what has happened in the past between the two teams you will find that from the 199 matches played between the two in world cup matches, India has a 4-0 lead over Pakistan. While this makes for seemingly good news for those who want to place bets, you can never really tell and that is what makes such a gamble so exciting as it could go either way.

Whatever happens on Wednesday, let’s hope no one else gets arrested and greed doesn’t get in the way too much of what is ultimately meant to be a lot of good, sporting fun and no match-fixing occurs which is, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal, a fear of Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik, due to what some players from his country did last year in what became known as the “spot-fixing” scandal.

Olympics 2012 at £2,012?

You’ve got to be kidding. It can’t really be true that Olympic tickets will be sold for a staggering £2,012. Can it? Apparently so; and people are waiting for these tickets. It’s like they can’t get them quick enough. There are after all, 500 days left until the big event and sales have already begun. But no need to panic if you don’t have that kind of money; it really does depend which event you want tickets for. Even the frugal Olympic supporters can still get a ticket…the lower end ones begin at £20. And there’s no need to rush out since there are approximately 6.6 million tickets available over the next six weeks.

There are going to be no special favors on how tickets are allocated; all applicants will be treated the same with oversubscribed events being determined by a ballot. Chairman of London 2012 Lord Coe said, “”If you look at the way we have put the price points together I think we’ve done that in a really smart way. I think those prices are affordable.”

Ticket Advertising Campaign Could Fund Japan’s Recovery

It still seems somewhat over-the-top that the London ticket advertising campaign is going to be costing quite a few million pounds sterling. The campaign’s theme is “the greatest tickets on earth.” That maybe, but what about putting some of that money into helping the recent disaster of fellow Olympians, like the Japanese? Well, apparently this too may be happening. American Olympic Committee leaders have “reached out” to those in Japan, offering help following the earthquake. USCO CEO Scott Blackmun wrote to the leader of Japan’s Olympic organizing committee to offer help but has yet to receive a response.

Because of what’s been going on in the country, Tokyo has been forced to cancel the figure skating world championships scheduled for next Monday. America is an extending a helping hand by offering to move the venue there, but apparently the Japanese have not responded. In any event, ISU executives were set to go to Japan for a “relationship-building trip” next month but it just might be that the Japanese now have somewhat other larger matters with which to contend.

Locog Advertising

So maybe after all it shouldn’t be so shunned that Locog has been working so hard – with so many resources – on their campaign. To date, there have been 13 different adverts. Chris Townsend, the commercial director said “the launch of Olympic tickets is an important milestone for us, and a key part of our commercial program.” It seems like the public is getting very excited about this too which is the prime part of the advertising campaign. Seb Coe London 2012 Chairman said, “We want this to be the greatest show on earth,” so it makes sense that they are investing so much money into it.

And why not? With so many world disasters (like Japan) and personal tragedies, isn’t the Olympics just a great, fun, safe and positive way to try to escape it all for a while? It sure will make for feel-good sentiments around the London area already 500 days prior to its commencement and will invariably be good for the British economy which has to somehow impact the global economy and thus in its own indirect way, have an effect on the Japanese recovery.

Former SAC Partner Brian Cohn forms Archeroak Capital Management

SAC Capital PartnersFormer president of SAC Capital Partners, Brian Cohn is starting a new hedge fund firm called  Archeroak Capital Management. According to sources, Brian Cohn’s firm is set to employ several veterans of the hedge fund industry including Jeff Messina and Christina Kim. Messina is from Level Global Investors LP and Kim worked at Andor Capital Management LLC.

Cohn left SAC Capital in 2008 after 11 years with the firm. His new firm Archeroak Capital Management LP is headquartered in Greenwich, CT and will be focused on trading equities.