Paramount Buys Dreamworks; The Beverly Hills Building Boom; Laguna Beach’s Measure A; Tookie’s Fate; Opus Dei
Paramount Buys Dreamworks
Paramount Pictures has agreed to buy Dreamworks SKG, the independent film studio created by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Paramount is paying $775 million in cash for Dreamworks and will also assume $825 million in debt and other obligations. Larry talks with Bloomberg News and Call Sheet contributor, Katie Harris, about the significance of the acquisition.
The Beverly Hills Building Boom
Many new upscale, high-density development projects are being planned in the Beverly Hills/Century City area. The newest proposal is an environmentally-friendly, luxury, residential complex designed by Getty Center architect Richard Meier, to built on the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Blvd. Larry Mantle talks with David Margulies, CEO of New Pacific Realty, the company developing the Robinsons May site, Beverly Hills Director of Community Development Mahdi Aluzri and Victor Bardak of the North Beverly Hills Homeowners Association about what these new developments will bring to the area, and what they will take away.
Laguna Beach’s Measure A
On December 13th, Laguna Beach residents will go to the polls to decide on a six-year, half-cent sales tax increase. The proceeds would help refill city coffers that have been drained to pay for landslide repairs. It would also create an emergency fund to be used for future disasters. Larry Mantle talks with Laguna Beach City Manager Ken Frank, and Measure A opponent Gary Alstot.
Tookie’s Fate
Larry Mantle talks with Mandalit Del Barco, NPR reporter, and Laurie Levinson, Profesoor of Law at Loyola Law School about the latest on Tookie Williams.
Opus Dei
Its notoriety escalated with the publication of the runaway bestseller The Da Vinci Code and John Paul II's recent, much-debated canonization of it's founder. Vatican correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, John Allen offers the first serious journalistic investigation of the highly secretive, controversial organization Opus Dei (literally“the work of God”), providing insight about the wild rumors surrounding it and disclosing its significant influence in the Vatican and on the politics of the Catholic Church.