The Business

Using Tax Day as a very weak hook, we talk to the man who helped clear Wesley Snipes of tax fraud conspiracy charges. The question: what are the special challenges of representing a celebrity in court?

Hollywood's actors' unions file for an untimely divorce. Then, what happens when a novice TV writer gets her own show?

In a town where actors are more likely to wait tables than wait in the wings, how do you define a working actor?  That's the central question in our lively conversation with two actors. How SAG answers that question may determine if there's a strike. Plus, this year's ShoWest movie exhibitors' conference.

Jim Keyes was the former CEO of 7-11 stores.  Now he's applying the lessons of the Big Gulp to the small screen at the troubled video-rental giant Blockbuster. Plus, Variety game reviewer Ben Fritz asks, "Why are hardcore video gamers so sensitive?"  And good agentry with writer and producer Rob Long .

Video games are an $18 billion business in the US, and they just keep growing. Will Hollywood studios get in on some of that interactive action? Plus, will TV's increasingly pilotless way of making shows crash and burn?

What happens when a studio executive comes out from behind his desk to direct a major motion picture? We talk to Kent Alterman , formerly New Line Cinema's EVP of Production and now the Director of Semi-Pro . Plus, we say goodbye to HD-DVD.

The venerable Hollywood trade paper, Variety, is up for sale.  What will a new owner mean to the business? We'll have a lively conversation with blogger extraordinaire Nikki Finke and PR veteran Howard Bragman .  Plus, which Oscar prognosticators predicted with paramount precision?

The divide between movies that make money and movies that get awards has been growing in the last few years. Why? And what does that say about how Hollywood is changing? Plus, the 1967 Oscars signaled a coming cinematic revolution. Is this year's crop of best picture nominees the harbinger of another?

The writers' strike has meant reruns, reality and rankor. So how will things change now that the strike is over? Plus, when will the digital pie that the writers want a piece of actually be out of the oven?

TV was already getting more and more into unscripted fare before the strike.  Now, there's so much reality programming it's unreal! We get the lay of the unscripted landscape with Joel McHale of E! Entertainment's show The Soup . Plus, while most of the industry suffers, video games rock on (redux).

The directors seem to have made a deal with producers. Will the writers follow suit? Should they? We're live today with TV writer/producer David Milch and Oscar-winning filmmaker Paul Haggis to answer these questions and more. First, what exactly did the DGA agree to? Joe Adalian has been one of the team of reporters covering the strike for Variety. NOTE: Today's special LIVE edition of The Busine...

Steve Samuels is the third generation of successful Boston-based real estate developers.  He's also one of many outsiders who've brought their fat wallet to Hollywood. Will he get his pocket picked or make the show business sit? (National broadcast)

The big four record labels are finally offering some music free of copyright protection. Is it too little too late? And, no Globes, no Oscars = no box office? Plus, swag--Hollywood's silent scourge.

From scandals to the strike to the surprise success of mega-sequels it's the Hollywood year that was! We get ready for the year ahead with our annual look at the stories of year just ended with Cynthia Littleton of Variety and Carl Diorio of the Hollywood Reporter.

This week, it's the Best of The Business .  The strike will put a gaggle of TV shows "on the bubble," and we're not talking about being drunk on champagne. So today, between Dove products and the producers of a remake of the 1939 classic film The Women , we revisit our conversation with the producers of Scrubs and Jericho , shows that came back from the brink of extinction earlier this year.

This week we present the best of The Business . In honor of the writers' strike and celebrating his hit new movie, I Am Legend, we revisit our conversation with Oscar-winning scribe Akiva Goldsman about the vital and disposable Hollywood writer. Then, 'tis the season for Hollywood gifting.

There's been a surge in Iraq and a surge of Iraq movies here at home. It might be working in Baghdad but it's tanking at the local cineplex. We talk to the director of In the Valley of Elah , Paul Haggis . Plus, the strike promises a not-very-happy new year or winter or spring for Hollywood.

A new report paints a bleak picture for Hollywood if it doesn't quit spending money like a drunken sailor on shore leave. We speak with Roger R. Smith , the author of Do Movies Make Money ?

What's it like to negotiate during a strike? We talk with the man who led talks for employees during the acrimonious 1994 supermarket walkout. Plus, will the writers' strike be another nail in the coffin of once wildly profitable daytime soap operas? Note : This edition of The Business will not air live at its usual time slot on KCRW as it will be pre-empted by special holiday programming. It will...

To understand the current writers' strike, you need to understand the long and contentious relationship between screenwriters and the people who write their checks. This week, Part II of our conversation with Oscar-winning scribe Marc Norman about his new book, What Happens Next : A History of American Screenwriting . Plus, while the writers strike, video games rock on - literally.

To understand the current writers' strike, you need to understand the long and contentious relationship between screenwriters and the people who write their checks. We put that relationship in the therapist's chair with Oscar-winning scribe Marc Norman , author of a fascinating new book called What Happens Next: A History of American Screenwriting .

The writers' strike will effect everyone in Hollywood, but it's broadcast television that has the most to fear. We get strike analysis from executives who lived through the last one.

What does a producer do? We talk to two producers-turned-studio-execs about what they did then and what they do now. Plus, a chat with Hollywood's man in Washington, MPAA CEO Dan Glickman .

The musical Wicked is a global phenomenon that's made scary profits for Universal Studios. We talk to producer Marc Platt about Hollywood's all-time most successful film--that isn't yet a film.

The UPN and the WB lived but a short decade, but they changed television forever. Now, the former president of entertainment at the WB and a veteran TV journalist have written a compelling and cautionary tale for anyone thinking about starting a new network. Plus, get out your calculators—it's the tax-incentive derby.