Oh, That Moody Shari!
The new media sport around Paramount
Welcome to the Jamboree, my weekly series of quick(ish) takes on the industry’s passing parade.
This Week’s Jamboree Playlist
Paramountapalooza
Now do you believe me that the place is cursed?
How do you tell the story of Paramount over the past couple decades as anything but the plaything for a vengeful god, with supernatural forces stepping in to poison every possible turn?
Of all the trade press’ many biases, it’s “pro-deal” bent is the strongest of all. They never met a deal they didn’t like at the time — the bigger, the better. If the deal turns out to be a disaster down the line, well, there’s plenty of time to turn against it later.
Of late, the Skydance deal seemed to me the best of some very tough possible outcomes. But that didn’t make it good. When someone is in a good position to buy a studio and be an okay steward of it, the deal tends to be relatively straightforward, give or take 20 percent of fine print.
When the deal is so convoluted that even after four of five walkthroughs, it still doesn’t make sense, you don’t tend to think that what it’s hiding is lots of extra goodies for all the viewers and the employees.
And when the deal is so great that you don’t want to risk its greatness by letting shareholders vote on it . . . then you know that this isn’t the deal of a lifetime.
Still . . .
