Berton blog

Globes producer says company is reason show a hit

The longtime producer of the Golden Globe Awards has asked a federal judge to uphold its broadcast deal with NBC, arguing that it helped restore the show's reputation after a scandal in the early 1980s.

Dick Clark Productions and the show's organizers, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, are locked in a federal lawsuit over who owns broadcast rights to the glitzy awards show, which draws in millions of viewers each year. The HFPA sued the production company last year claiming that it sold the broadcast rights to the show through 2018 without proper permission.

Attorneys for Dick Clark Productions, also known as dcp, however claim they have rights to produce the show as long as it airs on NBC.

They wrote in a filing Monday that the production company spent years restoring the reputation of the show after controversy about whether an award was improperly bestowed knocked the Globes off major networks for a decade. CBS canceled its broadcasts of the show after the HFPA awarded Pia Zadora a best newcomer award allegedly after intense lobbying by her husband.

The filing references the Zadora controversy and claims the HFPA is attempting to cut the producers out of its share of profits now that it "has built the Golden Globe Awards show into a highly lucrative production generating millions of dollars annually for the HFPA."

A federal judge will determine who owns the broadcast rights during a trial scheduled to begin in September. The association has said it needs the issue decided with enough time to solicit a new producer and broadcaster if it wins.

"Simply stated, those facts are that dcp licensed NBC seven years of television broadcast rights to the Golden Globe Awards Show that dcp did not have," HFPA attorney Linda J. Smith wrote in a statement in response to the filing.

She wrote that the only way the production company could have licensed the show to NBC would have been with the association's permission and that had not been granted. The HFPA has claimed the NBC deal is worth far less than the true value of the broadcast.

After the CBS cancellation, the Golden Globes were taped for several years and eventually returned to a live broadcast on cable network TBS. It has aired on NBC since 1993, which dcp claims is a result of its work and reputation to restore the show's luster.

This year, 17 million people watched the ceremony according to the Nielsen Co.

The HFPA is comprised of about 90 members and has been repeatedly accused of handing out nominations and awards to court Hollywood stars — claims the association denies.

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NBC is controlled by Comcast Corp.

Portugal PM resigns as parliament rejects austerity

Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates resigned Wednesday and warned of grave consequences for the country after parliament rejected his government's latest austerity measures aimed at avoiding a bailout.

The move threw Portugal into uncertain political terrain after months of battling against growing investor concerns over its ability to tame its public finances and avoid following Greece and Ireland to seek international aid.

"This political crisis has very grave consequences for the confidence Portugal needs from institutions and the financial markets," Socrates said.

Socrates presented his resignation to President Anibal Cavaco da Silva.

The president said in a statement that he would hold meetings with all political parties Friday and that the government would retain full powers at least until then. That leaves Socrates' government in place for the duration of a European summit in Brussels Thursday and Friday.

The main opposition Social Democrats, who have previously backed austerity, said they want an election, hoping that the center-right party's lead in opinion polls will bring it to power.

"I am convinced that the road we will follow, the normal road of democracy, is the path of giving the word back to the Portuguese so as to choose a new, stronger government with more confidence to beat the crisis," Social Democrat leader Pedro Passos Coelho said. "And that is what I'll tell the president."

The events in Portugal prompted the euro to extend losses against the dollar after trading lower all Wednesday on wariness before the Portuguese vote and on news of a delay in increasing a euro zone bailout fund. Portuguese stocks fell and bond yields shot up.

The euro slipped to $1.4103 after the news from about $1.4117 just before parliament voted and was down about 0.7 percent on the day.

All opposition parties voted against the measures in the 230-seat parliament, where the Socialists have 97 seats.

The government had hoped to obtain support for its plan before Thursday's EU summit, to reduce market pressure on Portugal's sovereign debt.

The EU leaders, however, look set to disappoint investors by delaying any approval of a beefed-up euro zone rescue fund till June.

Investors concerns could now grow as the country faces at least several weeks of political uncertainty.

Socrates said he would remain in power in a caretaker capacity.

"The country will not be without a government. The government will continue to fulfill all its duties as a caretaker government," Socrates said.

BOND YIELD UP

The Portuguese benchmark 10-year bond yield rose to 7.82 percent Wednesday from Tuesday's 7.68 percent and the spread over safer German Bunds rose 16 basis points to 459 bps. Many economists see borrowing costs above 7 percent as unsustainable and say Portugal will have to resort to the rescue mechanism.

Shorter-dated bonds were harder hit, with Portugal's five-year bond yield at a euro lifetime high of 8.3 percent ahead of the vote.

"The prospect of a bailout has risen drastically and is now enormous," said Filipe Garcia, head of Informacao de Mercados Financeiros consultants in Porto, adding that Portugal has over 9 billion euros of maturing bonds through June.

The constitution stipulates that the country can hold a snap election no sooner than 55 days after the president calls one.

"My worry is the period of inaction before a new government takes over," said Silvio Peruzzo, an economist at RBS in London.

Political analyst Antonio Costa Pinto said a caretaker government would have its hands tied.

"Although a caretaker government cannot take major autonomous initiatives, it could take a decision on resorting to aid if it is backed by parliament," Costa Pinto said.

Whatever the outcome, opposition to austerity may increase as the Portuguese face lower wages and higher taxes, and the country returns to recession.

Large protests have been held against austerity on the past two weekends and Wednesday train drivers went on strike to demand higher wages, creating traffic chaos around Lisbon as commuters were forced to take their cars to work.

(Additional reporting by Shrikesh Laxmidas, Elisabete Tavares, Andrei Khalip, Filipa Lima and Sergio Goncalves; writing by Axel Bugge; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Rep. Michele Bachmann v. Michelle Obama on breastfeeding

Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota on Tuesday blasted the First Lady's support for breastfeeding as evidence of a "nanny state" mentality.

"This is very consistent with where the hard left is coming from," Bachmann , according to widespread reports. "For them, government is the answer to every problem."

"I've given birth to five babies, and I've breastfed every single one of these babies," Bachmann said. "To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump for my babies, I mean, you wanna talk about the nanny state I think you just got the new definition of the nanny state."

Last week, the IRS ruled that , a move pushed by the Obama administration along with more flexible work rules related to breastfeeding. These changes come amid reports that Michelle Obama , especially among African-Americans, as a way to help combat childhood obesity--the focus of the First Lady's "Let's Move" campaign.

This isn't the first time the "Let's Move" campaign has been the target of "nanny state" attacks.

Sarah Palin has repeatedly criticized the campaign: Palin"Sarah Palin's Alaska," in December saying the dish "is in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert." Palin criticized the campaign on Ingraham's show the month prior.

Bachmann, a star among conservatives--especially those affiliated with the tea party--is considered a potential candidate for president in 2012.

(Photo of Bachmann: Alex Brandon/AP)

Lawyers: No plan yet to go after Chevron money

NEW YORK – Lawyers for Ecuadoreans who won a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron Corp. for decades-old damage to the country's rain forest said Tuesday that they won't try to collect the award until the oil giant completes the appeals process.

The Monday ruling by Ecuadorean Judge Nicolas Zambrano against the U.S. oil company was expected and Chevron has vowed to appeal in Ecuador. The ruling says the award can be doubled within two weeks if Chevron does not apologize. Oil analysts in the U.S. have said they doubt Chevron will pay anywhere near the amount awarded, but the company was so worried that the plaintiffs would try to persuade multiple countries to seize its assets worldwide that a week ago it convinced a New York judge to ban any attempt to collect for nearly a month. On Tuesday it pressed its case to get a more permanent ban on attempts to collect the award.

Pablo Fajardo, the lead Ecuadorian attorney, said in a conference call with journalists Tuesday that Ecuador's legal system bars the collection of an award until Chevron completes its appeal.

"The only time we will try to enforce (the judgment) will be when Chevron has had every opportunity to defend themselves in all the processes our laws provide for them," Fajardo said, according to a translation of his Spanish provided by Juan Pablo Saenz, another member of the Ecuadorean plaintiffs' legal team.

Once that happens, "we'll use every strategy, every manner we have at our disposal," to try to make Chevron pay, Fajardo said. The lawyer said it might take a year or more to complete the appeals process because of "the magnitude of the case." A three-judge panel in Lago Agrio, Ecuador was to hear the initial appeal.

"This is not a final triumph," Fajardo said. "But what has been obtained is important."

Fajardo said once the Chevron litigation was completed, the plaintiffs also plan to sue Ecuador's state-owned oil company for damages for polluting the environment.

"We are not against oil companies. We are against the criminal and perverse manner in which they often act, putting economic interests above human life and the environment," Fajardo said.

Chevron has said it has no intention of honoring the award outlined in a 187-page judgment that disappointed some plaintiffs. The lawsuit was originally brought 17 years ago in New York. It was moved to Ecuador in 2003.

Chevron, which has never operated in Ecuador, found itself immersed in the litigation after acquiring Texaco in 2001. It has maintained that a 1998 agreement Texaco signed with Ecuador after a $40 million cleanup absolves it of liability. The plaintiffs say the cleanup was a sham and didn't exempt third-party claims.

Company spokesman James Craig asserted that the trial and the sentence are "the product of fraud and contrary to legitimate scientific evidence."

The decision Monday came less than a week after U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in Manhattan ruled that no Ecuadorean award can be enforced for at least 28 days. He is scheduled to hear arguments Friday on a request for a permanent order banning collection of the award.

Saenz said Tuesday that Kaplan's order will not stop the Ecuadoreans from trying to collect from Chevron around the world.

"Judge Kaplan has absolutely no jurisdiction in Ecuador," he said.

Chevron lawyer Randy Mastro disagreed, saying it "would be a brazen act of contempt for any such attempts to be made."

Chevron protested the Ecuadorean judgment in papers it filed late Tuesday with Kaplan, saying the "audacity and swiftness of this response provide stunning confirmation of the systemic corruption in Ecuador." Saying "injustice is swift in Ecuador," Chevron warned the New York judge that a more permanent ban on enforcing the Ecuadorean ruling was "more urgent than ever."

In court last week, Kaplan had noted that court documents showed the plaintiffs had planned to try to collect against Chevron in countries including the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Angola, Canada, Chad, China, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Belgium, Indonesia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Trinidad, Tobago and the United Kingdom.

He said it appeared the plaintiffs planned "to use the multiplicity and multiplication of legal proceedings all over the world to exert pressure above and beyond the inherent merits of the lawsuit."

Kaplan said Chevron was likely to suffer irreparable harm from an effort to "force Chevron to respond to five, 15, 25, a hundred countries around the world and have shiploads of oil or gasoline attached all over the place."

Meanwhile, Wall Street has shrugged at the ruling. Analysts agreed that Chevron likely will pay something, but probably much less than the judgment and not for years.

"Based on the rhetoric we have seen on both sides in this case, we do not expect the matter to be settled for several years," Argus Research analyst Phil Weiss said in a research note. "The shares hardly reacted to the ruling."

Whatever the amount, it "won't be much in proportion to Chevron's size," said Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Fadel Gheit, noting that Chevron's market value is $193 billion. "Ecuador is a fly in the room. It's going to annoy the hell out of you, but it won't do very much damage."

Investors remain enamored with Chevron's global petroleum operation, which includes a heavy amount of crude production. Weiss noted that for six consecutive quarters, Chevron has outperformed other major oil companies in profits at $18.90 per barrel. Analysts surveyed by FactSet have set an average price target of $107.94 per share for Chevron's stock. It closed Tuesday down 61 cents at $96.34 per share.

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Associated Press writer Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador and AP Energy Writer Chris Kahn contributed to this report.

JPMorgan CEO: I'm staying put, and bank is growing

NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said his bank will not be "goaded into doing something dumb" with its capital, even as it prepares an aggressive expansion in consumer and private banking over the next five years.

Speaking at the bank's annual investor day, Dimon said the bank is prepared to withstand any phasing out of mortgage financiers Fannie Mae (FNMA.OB) and Freddie Mac (FMCC.OB), despite being one of the nation's largest home loan providers.

This is in part because it expects 2011 to be a year of growth for the bank, primarily through existing businesses but especially in Latin America and Asia, he said.

Dimon, a Democrat, also downplayed persistent speculation he might leave the second-largest U.S. bank by assets to go into the political arena.

"I'm not going into politics and I'm not opening a restaurant. I love what I do. I want to be here. I want to stay," he said.

Dimon added: "There are people here who can take my spot."

BRANCH BANKING GROWTH

JPMorgan plans to will add at least 1,000 branches in the next three years and could add up to 2,000 within five years, said retail financial services Chief Executive Charlie Scharf.

The bank said it expects "aggressive growth" in California and Florida in particular. It ended September with 5,172 U.S. branches, trailing Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) roughly 6,500 and the nearly 6,000 that Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) operates.

Scharf said branch expansion will largely be in areas where Chase operates now. He also said there were few attractive opportunities for Chase to grow by buying another bank.

"When you look at our existing footprint, we know exactly who we'd be interested in and not interested in, and we know the same for out-of-footprint and it's not a long list of names," he said. "A lot of the smaller transactions that you see for us don't seem to make a whole lot of sense."

JPMorgan significantly boosted its branch network in 2008 when it bought the banking business of Washington Mutual Inc, the largest U.S. bank or thrift to fail.

CONCERNS

Despite beating analyst estimates for fourth-quarter earnings, JPMorgan faces questions about declining trading volumes, its long-time ties to imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, its foreclosure practices and pending financial regulation, which could crimp profits.

Scharf addressed part of the regulation issue, saying JPMorgan stood to lose $1.3 billion of revenue from new regulations on debit card processing fees.

Shares of JPMorgan closed up 28 cents, or 0.6 percent, at $46.82, compared with a 0.3 percent decline in the KBW Bank Index (.BKX).

Two months after investor days, shares of a bank have historically risen an average of 15 percent, according to a Barclays Capital research note published last week.

(Writing by Ben Berkowitz and Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Gunna Dickson and Steve Orlofsky)