DT Fine Art

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Will and Kate were just the warm-up for the true wedding of the century.

After years of cohabitation, six kids and countless tabloid headlines, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie made it official: They plan to make it official.

If you thought the media circus involving the worlds most glamorous couple was on overdrive before, just wait. Now that Brangelina are officially engaged, expect endless speculation about where and when theyll wed, what theyll wear, what their kids roles will be, and who might get to attend the celebration.

This is really a state wedding, said Stephen Galloway, executive editor of features at The Hollywood Reporter. This is Americas equivalent to Prince William and Kate Middleton.

He called the Brangelina wedding the media event of the new century.

Pitts manager confirmed the couples engagement Friday after Jolie was spotted wearing a diamond ring on her wedding finger. Jeweler Robert Procop said he spent a year working with Pitt to design the ring.

The prominent engagement ring is giving the world a warning, Galloway said. It says look out, get ready.

But Bradley Jacobs, a senior editor at Us Weekly, sees things differently. He anticipates the wedding will be a private, even low-key affair.

I dont think youre going to see a bunch of fanfare, he said. Its certainly not going to be a Kim Kardashian-style wedding… Its going to be very subdued.

Still, expect massive media coverage either way: We will not rest until we know when and where and how and whos going to be there, Jacobs said.

Entire magazine issues could be devoted to each stars wedding-day outfits and hairdos.

Every single designer on the planet will be pursuing Angelina for the dress, Galloway said. Its literally worth millions of dollars in business.

Jolies wedding dress is a career-making outfit for the winning designer.

Even Pitts look leaves room for ample speculation: Long hair or short? Facial scruff or clean shaven? A classic tuxedo? And designed by whom?

Then theres the guest list. Who will be the best man and maid of honor? Will Jolies father, Jon Voight, attend? Will George Clooney be in the house? Jolie has said she doesnt have many close friends.

This is going to be a map of the inner state of their private life, Galloway said. This is like Kremlinology. Youll be able to read all sorts of things into this wedding.

Unless, of course, the two elope.

The timing of the engagement and the wedding are also fodder for editorial exploration. The couple long maintained that they wouldnt marry until the right to do so was extended to all Americans, but when Galloway interviewed Pitt for a February cover story, the 48-year-old actor said he didnt think theyd be able to hold out that long.

It means so much to my kids, and they ask about it, Pitt said at the time. And it means something to me, too, to make that kind of commitment.

But days later, he backtracked, saying hed spoken too soon.

Theres a certain mystery in these contradictory statements made in the weeks leading up to this (engagement news), Galloway said. People whove been together a long time get married when things are great or when you want to shore up things that are not so great.

The A-listers have been partners since they began a relationship in 2005 while working on the film Mr. amp; Mrs. Smith.

Already megawatt superstars in their own right, the romantic pairing of Pitt and Jolie instantly made them Hollywoods most glamorous and photographed couple. The fact that Pitt was still married to Jennifer Anniston when he met Jolie only fueled the tabloid fire; Pitt and Aniston divorced in 2005 after five years of marriage.

Jolie was previously married to Billy Bob Thornton and British actor Jonny Lee Miller.

Regardless of the size of the celebration or where it takes place, the Jolie-Pitt wedding has major economic implications. Journalists from all over the world will swarm to the wedding location; the designers of each nuptial element will see their businesses boom; the rights to the photos and footage will be haggled over by publishers and broadcasters with deep pockets.

Galloway predicts the bidding has already begun.

A mini-industry in itself will be created as a result, he said. The money generated by the wedding in direct fees to them and indirect income to other people will be more than the equivalent of everything the two of them have earned in their career. Youre talking about two empires meeting.

Some of that revenue will, of course, be in magazine sales.

After the rash of celebrity divorces last year, Brangelina fans will be happy to see them affirm their relationship and what they mean to each other, Jacobs said.

And they might be just as eager to read accounts of why the wedding is not to be. Galloway speculates that between now and whenever the wedding takes place, there will be at least a dozen stories that say its off; Brangelina call it quits.

___

AP Entertainment Writer Sandy Cohen is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/APSandy .

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Will and Kate were just the warm-up for the true wedding of the century.

After years of cohabitation, six kids and countless tabloid headlines, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie made it official: They plan to make it official.

If you thought the media circus involving the worlds most glamorous couple was on overdrive before, just wait. Now that Brangelina are officially engaged, expect endless speculation about where and when theyll wed, what theyll wear, what their kids roles will be, and who might get to attend the celebration.

The story began on woopig.net, with much help from hoggrad, whose new handle should be Woodward or Bernstein.

Were in a different place, folks. Thats because new media have created a slew of investigative reporters among average citizens through personal blogs, Twitter, YouTube, talk-show radio, cellphone cameras and recorders, Facebook and fan websites.

As a result, those who run professional sports teams have combined with athletics directors on the collegiate level to use a new approach regarding highly successful coaches, managers and others involved with scandalous situations: They whack them.

Not only that, they whack them immediately, before their franchise or university gets embarrassed by several more waves of comments at the end of somebodys Internet post.

Petrino fired as Arkansas head football coach

All of this (instant reporting of scandal) in regards to how it relates to the electronic media has certainly heightened the information and interest and lessened tolerance, said Georgia Tech athletics director Dan Radakovich, who has worked for big-time intercollegiate athletic programs for nearly three decades. He also is on the executive committee of the Division 1A Athletic Directors Association.

These intentional and unintentional scoops by nonjournalists go beyond college sports. Its just that the Petrino situation and others have placed those on campuses in the forefront of it all.

(Electronic media) certainly has sped up the process. Before, it may have taken a lot longer to make a decision (on whether to fire somebody). You had to talk to a number of different people before you felt like — or the organization felt like — they had gathered enough information to be able to make a reasonable or rational decision, Radakovich added. Now I think that all comes a lot quicker. And, in some ways, theres an expectation that the decision should come quicker. I just hope that in these circumstances that the gathering continues to be thorough and that all sides of the issue are being reviewed.

No problem there.

In January 2003, everybody saw many sides of Larry Eustachy, and it wasnt pretty. The Des Moines Register ran a photo of the former Iowa State basketball coach drinking beer and kissing women at a party near the campus of the University of Missouri after an Iowa State loss.

The Eustachy photo was the first in a string of high-profile sports scandals broken by a random person.

Facebooks acquisition of photo sharing social network Instagram serves as further evidence that the medium of imagery is increasing in importance according to PR, search and social media agency Punch Communications.

London, UK (PRWEB) April 15, 2012

Facebooks acquisition of photo sharing social network Instagram serves as further evidence that the medium of imagery is increasing in importance, according to PR, search and social media agency Punch Communications.

Imagery has become far more prevalent across social media over the past 12 months. Instagram alone boasted over 32 million users prior to its acquisition by Facebook, whilst Pinterest is now the third most visited social network in the US and is growing at a rapid rate.

Facebook only recently updated its functionality around imagery, now displaying higher resolution images in a separate window, whereas Google+ has made imagery one of its USPs. In addition, Twitter recently updated its own functionality to better support the use of imagery in Tweets, whilst Pinterest has also started a revolution in the way that people share pictures around the web.

Instagram has been a leading photography sharing application for around 18 months, making use of the instant and spontaneous advantages of smartphone applications and combining it with basic image filter functionality, allowing users to customise and share their images with their network in an instant. It is likely that Facebook found this functionality attractive, as well as seeing acquisition as an opportunity to add more users to Facebook.

Philip Keightley, account director at online PR company Punch Communications, said: The rate at which social networkers interact with content has increased significantly over the past few years, meaning that sometimes images get a message across more efficiently than words. Images can be much more personal and can tell a story more effectively in social media.

Technologically, smartphones have revolutionised digital image consumption, in terms of the sharing process and also ease of access from the internet. This is predominantly achieved through social media, so Facebook is clearly looking to improve its image offering in order to be better placed to compete with Google+ in that area.

Punch Communications is an integrated PR, social media and SEO agency. Having grown from founders Pete and Emma Goold in 2003 into a team of more than 20 consultants, Punch is continuing to expand, and encourages any candidates interested in PR, search or social media jobs to get in touch.

For more information, please call 01858 411 600, or visit www.punchcomms.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/4/prweb9400388.htm

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President Barack Obama said the
media often ignores progress made at international summits in
favor of more “flashy” news, as the Summit of the Americas was
overshadowed by allegations of misconduct by his Secret Service
agents.

“Oftentimes in the press the attention for summits like
this ends up focusing on, where are the controversies?” the
president said during a meeting with executives of US and
South American companies on the sidelines of the summit in
Cartagena, Colombia. “Sometimes those controversies date back
to before I was born.”

The president didn’t mention the Secret Service agents who
were sent home from Cartagena after allegations of behavior that
the Associated Press reported included drinking and prostitutes.
Instead he referred to disputes dating back to the Cold War.

While the summit’s official focus is on trade and improving
infrastructure in South America, discussions were also expected
to include the debate in South America over the legalization of
drugs and increasing communist Cuba’s participation in regional
affairs.

The summit has been overshadowed by allegations, made
public yesterday, of behavior by US Secret Service agents
including at least one having involvement with prostitutes, the
Washington Post reported, citing Jon Adler, president of the
Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. A dozen agents
were involved, the Associated Press reported, citing an
unidentified US official.

Allegations of Misconduct

“There have been allegations of misconduct made against
Secret Service personnel in Cartagena, Colombia, prior to the
president’s trip,” Special Agent Edwin Donovan said in an e-
mailed statement yesterday. “The Secret Service takes all
allegations of misconduct seriously. This entire matter has been
turned over to our Office of Professional Responsibility, which
serves as the agency’s internal affairs component.”

The White House had no comment and referred all questions
to the Secret Service. Donovan didn’t disclose the nature of the
misconduct or the number of agents involved and has no further
updates today.

Obama said, alongside summit host Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, that South
American governments must work to increase the size of middle
class in their countries and increase transparency.

“The days when we could think of each of our economies in
isolation, those days are long gone,” the US president said.
“How can we make sure that globalization and that integration
is benefiting a broad base of people?”

Colombia Trade Agreement

Obama said the US-Colombia free trade agreement is an
example of a “win-win” agreement that “benefits both sides.”

The agreement which is still being negotiated between the
US and Colombia would add as much as $1.1 billion in exports
to the $14.3 billion in sales posted in 2011, the administration
said, creating thousands of jobs.

Total US exports in the Americas amount to about $700
billion a year out of $1.5 trillion worldwide, according to
Commerce Department figures.

Obama said more cooperation is needed among the Americas
on energy and education, such as exchanges on science and
engineering and computer sciences.

“We’ve got to up our game,” he said. “We’ve never felt
more excited about prospects of working as equal partners with
our brothers and sisters in Latin America and the Caribbean.”

The more than 330 business executives that were scheduled
to attend included Rollin Ford, executive vice president and
chief administrative officer at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT); Luis
Montoya, president of Latin America Beverages for PepsiCo Inc.;
Rocky Becker, vice president of the Americas for Exxon Mobil
Corp. (XOM), and Luis Carlos Villegas, president of ANDI, Colombia’s
largest business association.

Colombia is South America’s second-largest economy. Brazil
is the second largest economy in the hemisphere and the sixth
largest in the world.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Kate Andersen Brower in Cartagena, Colombia at
1973 or kandersen7@bloomberg.net;
Roger Runningen in Cartagena, Colombia at
Or rrunningen@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Steven Komarow at
skomarow1@bloomberg.net

CBS Leslie Moonves tops media pay scale at $69.9 million

Company credits a 42% surge in stock price for a compensation package that is larger than those for media executives at Viacom, Disney and Time Warner.

Posted at 07:08 PM ET, 04/14/2012

TheWashingtonPost

Titanic 100th anniversary: This week in oversaturated media coverage
By Maura Judkis

The story of the unsinkable ship was utterly unavoidable this week.

We’ve heard about everything from the deck chairs to the dogs aboard the Titanic. With the exception of the ship itself, nothing escaped a thorough dredging-up from the annals of history. That media frenzy will culminate April 14-15, the 100th anniversary of the ship striking an iceberg and sinking in the cold Atlantic near Halifax, Nova Scotia.

View Photo Gallery: The 100th anniversary of the ill-fated voyage has reignited the world’s fascination with the disaster, with many of its photographs and artifacts on display.

So why has the passage of 100 years only increased our fascination with the ill-fated vessel? The movie certainly helped (we’ll get to that later). But our love affair isn’t with the fictional Jack and Rose of James Cameron’s epic film — it’s with the ship itself, and all of the humanity, heroism and hubris that its story embodies.

Joel Achenbach talked to historians about why this tragedy has a particular place in our hearts:

“It’s a delimited area and time, there are a lot of human stories, and they involve choice,” said Stephen Cox, a literature professor at the University of California at San Diego and author of “The Titanic Story: Hard Choices, Dangerous Decisions.” He compares the two hours and 40 minutes between impact with the iceberg and the sinking at 2:20 a.m. April 15 to the length of a play.

“I don’t think a myth can develop unless you have a choice that could be very unfortunate or tragic,” he said.

Some of the coverage this week has attempted to relieve the blame from those choices — such as the decision to speed up through those treacherous waters, making it difficult to avoid the iceberg. One theory posits that cold-air mirages may have been to blame for the disaster, not avoidable human error.

But that’s not the only surprising thing we learned this week, as every Titanic scholar and pop culture expert revealed additional insight into the sinking and the stories that followed. Other things we learned (or relearned) this week:

• The men of the Titanic, long lauded as heroes, may not have been so chivalrous after all.

• But the Washingtonians aboard the Titanic weren’t among the cowards. Michael Ruane writes about Archie Gracie, the only local to survive the disaster. He went into the water with the ship.

• Just as the story itself was stranger than fiction, the women aboard had more compelling stories than the fictional ones of the movie.

• Belfast, the city that built the Titanic, is no longer reluctant to flout that association: They’ve opened up a $150 million tourist center on the slipway where the Titanic was built from 1909 to 1911.

• One of the first things that the passengers on a Titanic Memorial Cruise did was try on their life jackets. Many were dressed in Edwardian attire.

View Photo Gallery: A 5,500-piece collection of artifacts recovered from the wreck, as well as photos and intellectual property, is up for auction through Guernsey’s in New York, and will be announced on April 11, the 100th anniversary of the ocean liner’s voyage. According to a court order, the items must be sold in a complete lot, not piece by piece, and the winning bidder will have to properly maintain the pieces and have them available for public display.

• But the cruise, while not as ill-fated as its predecessor, has become the butt of jokes when it, too, met with some misfortune: Bad weather and a medical evacuation have caused delays.

• Also, in an idiom come to life, they are literally rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic (well, on the Titanic Memorial Cruise).

• In terms of Titanic media, no movie is ever going to top James Cameron’s. TV critic Hank Stuever doesn’t have kind words for ABC’s “Titanic” miniseries, from the creator of “Downton Abbey”

• Not everyone will agree, though. What did you think of the movie “Titanic”? Art or junk?

• Remember Leomania? Remember “My Heart Will Go On?” Kate Winslet would rather not.

View Photo Gallery: “Titanic” vaulted young Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet to superstardom. Take a look at the film’s cast 15 years ago and now, as the film is re-released in 3-D for the 100th anniversary of the disaster.

• Seeing that the CGI-created stars in “Titanic” were inaccurate, astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson persuaded James Cameron to change the starfield for the 3D re-release.

• But the 3D does nothing for the movie, says film critic Ann Hornaday.

• No one has had a busier month than Robert Ballard, the man who found the Titanic wreck. He told the Reliable Source that, as of April 10, he had done 154 interviews in the last month — a number that’s surely grown over the weekend.

See more Titanic videos

What do you think of the Titanic coverage this week? Was it more than the anniversary deserved? Let us know in the comments.

By Maura Judkis
 | 
07:08 PM ET, 04/14/2012

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Jonathan Frid, ‘the original Edward Cullen,’ dies

The .RADIO TLD will usher in a new media paradigm in Online Innovation, Branding and Creativity!

San Francisco CA (PRWEB) April 13, 2012

BRS Media Inc., a diverse and growing media e-commerce firm that helps traditional and interactive media companies build and brand on the power of the Web, today announced that earlier this week it submitted an extensive, comprehensive and detailed application for the New Top-Level Domain .RADIO to ICANNs New gTLD program.

BRS Media pioneered Industry Specific Domains, launching multimedia based TLDs .FM amp; .AM over 15 years ago, and has increasingly attracted premier social media ventures, streaming entrepreneurs and traditional broadcasters. As the first domain registry to introduce a top-level domain to a targeted Industry, the company is well positioned and understands how to manage, operate and market, a new Top-Level-Domain name for a diverse On Air and Online Radio community.

We look forward to moving ahead into the next phase of .RADIO. We are ecstatic and thrilled to have the opportunity to establish a new Top-Level-Domain, and envision great possibilities in creativity and innovation in the .RADIO namespace, remarked George T. Bundy, Chairman amp; CEO of BRS Media Inc. Our depth of experience and understanding in the market demonstrates our commitment to administer the .RADIO top-level domain in a professional, reliable, secure and all-inclusive way, while at the same time encouraging innovation and openness in the .RADIO domain space. Our current registrant list includes some of the most recognizable and innovative brands in streaming media and social entertainment today. Our comprehensive portfolio of clientele represents both the on-air and online media community.

BRS Media announced, in early 2009 that Minds amp; Machines, a leading registry services provider for new Top-Level Domains (TLDs), will provide critical registry services for the .RADIO TLD. M+M has been delivering similar critical registry services for the .FM TLD, for over two years. Additional clients of Minds amp; Machines include .MIAMI, .KIWI [New Zealand], .NRW [North Rhine-Westphalia] and recently announced .LONDON New Top-Level Domains.

BRS Media will provide a brief presentation about existing Industry Specific Domains and .RADIO this weekend, at RAIN Summit West 2012 Conference on April 15, 2012, at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino (formerly the Las Vegas Hilton). The Internet Radio Summit is a Co-Located Event of the NAB Show in Las Vegas NV, the Worlds largest electronic media show.

About BRS Media Inc:

Based in the South of Market district (SoMa) of San Francisco CA, BRS Media (http://brsmedia.fm) is a member of the National Association of Broadcasters, the International Webcasting Association and the Webcaster Alliance. Listed as one of the fastest growing privately held companies by the SF Business Times and Inc. Magazine, its portfolio of Online properties includes: dotFM amp; dotAM, Brand Registry Services for media based .FM and .AM domains; dotRadiotrade;, the new .RADIO top-level domain – an Innovative New Way to Tune In the Net; iDotz.Net domain registrar of all gTLD domains (.com .net amp; .org), as well as, boutique domains (.tv .co .me .la amp; .im); @Radio.FM amp; @Radio.AM, free Web based email services and the ever-popular Web-Radio, the leading portal for tuning in Radio on the Internet. dotFM, dotAM and dotRadio are either registered trademarks or trademarks of BRS Media, Inc.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/4/prweb9395978.htm

For more than a month as this case has been on the national front burner, weve been subjected to a barrage of vehement assertions and implacable conclusions offered up by pundits and politicians deeply confused about the distinction between assumption and fact.

They cried for justice, which to them demanded Zimmermans immediate arrest even though they knew only the sketchiest outlines of the tragic incident and were given to filling in the blanks with falsehoods, such as the fact that Zimmerman outweighed Martin by 100 pounds.

In fact, what justice demanded was a dispassionate, independent review and further investigation, followed by a scrupulous application of Florida law. And significant credit goes to the activists and others who brought the noise nationwide that prompted just such a review.

But that same noise was unfortunately distorted with static the notion that unless the special prosecutor came to the same conclusion as the staff provocateurs at MSNBC, justice would be denied.

Whats been missing from too much of the commentary and rabble-rousing in this case has been frequent reminders of how much we, the public, dont know about what happened between Zimmerman and Martin. What do the forensic reports suggest? What can we learn from all the accounts of those who heard or saw part of what happened that night?

Also missing: reminders that prosecutors, when in doubt, dont charge someone with a serious crime simply in order to have a trial so they can figure out what really happened. They must know what happened be convinced of a suspects guilt to a near certainty before dragging him in front of a judge and jury.

The idea that mere suspicion or widespread outrage is enough to toss someone into the gears of the justice system is poisonous, a version of the same rash presumption that apparently prompted Zimmerman to consider Martin a real suspicious guy and begin tailing him.

Before special prosecutor Angela Corey announced charges Wednesday, Id feared that the media, particularly my friends on the chattering left, had not adequately laid the groundwork for public understanding of a decision to absolve Zimmerman, if that came.

Ive now replaced that with fears that the media will not adequately prepare the public for those charges to be dismissed before trial based on Floridas capacious definition of self defense based on its stand your ground law, or for Zimmerman to be found not guilty by a judge or jury.

Im not predicting either of these outcomes, nor am I asserting what justice ought to look like other than a fair trial. I have no idea what exactly the evidentiary files show to support the aggressive second-degree murder charge, but Im willing to wait and see.

Prosecutors have a heavy burden at trial, particularly in cases in which all hell has suddenly broken loose and witnesses are scarce. They cant invent scenarios to connect the dots, ignore inconvenient laws and assume their way to a conviction because it just feels right or fits their social outlook.

The media have a similar burden before trial. And they must meticulously lay the groundwork for the system to do its work free from the influence of the loudest, angriest voices.

So far, key members have failed to meet this burden. Their second chance begins now.

Discuss this column at chicagotribune.com/zorn