Time to call the branding firms?
Folks at Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios are noodling the idea of changing its name.
On the Money’s snoops tell us that they’re sick of it getting mixed up with Jeffrey Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation. A new name would coincide with the arrival of a new CEO, Michael Wright, who officially joins in the new year.
Wright, the former Turner programming chief, is set to develop a raft of new projects for the Reliance-backed company now that Stacey Snider is headed to 21st Century Fox.
The company is scheduled to begin work on the adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “The BFG” starring Mark Rylance.
Sources say DreamWorks Studios is tired of all the negative news surrounding DreamWorks Animation’s failed merger talks.
Amblin, the brand name most closely associated Spielberg, could be the new brand for the company, though it’s also notably the name of Spielberg’s own TV entity Amblin TV.
Insiders say there’s no truth to the gossip and that there’s no plan for a name change. DreamWorks Studios’ officials declined comment.
Other folks who might want to consider new corporate names: Time Warner, Time Warner Cable, Time Inc. and Warner Music.
Hail to the Chiefs
What do the rich want for the holidays? Dinner with a CEO.
Coppy Holzman, the founder and CEO of Charitybuzz.com, a Web site that runs auctions for nonprofit groups, told our Julie Earle-Levine that the harder the access, the more desirable the financial exec.
Holzman says he sees finance types raking in big bucks for charities, even outdoing celebrities.
Case in point: Michael Bloomberg got $185K for the Humane Society at the same auction a lunch with heartthrob George Clooney raised only $58K.
It’s the chance to meet with a CEO to get business or investment advice that lures bidders, he said. In the past year, “experiences” with CEOs have raised nearly 30 percent more than celebrity experiences at auction on Charitybuzz.
Among recent sales at big auctions: A four-week summer internship with Cantor Fitzgerald Chairman and CEO Howard Lutnick got $36,000; touring See’s Candies with Warren Buffett pulled in $156K; and lunch with Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf drew $28,500.
Coffee with CEO Tim Cook at Apple headquarters took the top prize at $610,000, while lunch with Yahoo!’s Marissa Mayer (photo) raised $91K. Starbucks’ chief, Howard Schulz, got $25,900 for a one-hour meeting, and a meeting with Whole Foods co-founder and co-CEO John Mackey got $13K.
Blue Woman
New York Women in Film and TV’s Muse Awards luncheon ran so long over schedule the producers may be tapped for the next Oscars.
The event, M.C.’d by hilarious actress Judy Gold, began with cocktails at noon and by 2:30 p.m. was only halfway through the honors.
Gold had the crowd in stitches sharing her audition for a medical gel product that involved her playing the part of a talking vagina. The honorees included Condé Nast Entertainment’s Dawn Ostroff, (pictured), who brought her whole family, including her mom and 11-year-old daughter, to celebrate.
Ostroff took to the podium and joked that she hoped her daughter would get over the trauma of Gold’s barrage of blue jokes.
Ostroff — who’s got a first-look deal for Condé Nast projects with 21st Century Fox and movie deals all over Hollywood, including one with Warner Bros. for a project on technology executive John McAfee — said her mom told her she could do anything growing up. The former boss of both The CW network and Lifetime said it’s a message she’s passing along to her own daughter.
Golden Apple
In 1976, Apple co-founder Ron Wayne sold his 10 percent stake in the company for $800 and has no regrets.
Before auctioning off some early Apple artifacts this week, he told Bloomberg that the first purchase will be gold.
“Security for the future,” Wayne said. “My savings are in gold for the last 40 years.”
Let’s take a look at how gold has performed against Apple’s stock.
If Wayne put his $800 into a handful of gold bars in 1980 when Apple Computer went public, they’d be worth about $1,750. If he’d held onto his Apple stock, he’d have billions of dollars today.
At 80, Wayne is now retired and lives off his Social Security checks.
“If I had stayed with Apple, I probably would have wound up the richest man in the cemetery,” Wayne said.