As business how-to books go, there are few as entertaining as Bill Roedy‘s “What Makes Business Rock.”
Roedy exited Viacom’s MTV Networks International, where he was president, late last year but still catches himself saying “we,” as he talks about his role planting the MTV flag in almost 200 countries during a nearly 30-year career.
While former colleague Judy McGrath, who recently stepped down as CEO of MTV Networks, is taking some time to contemplate the future, Roedy can’t stand still, working on his book, with more are in the works, and donating time to AIDS charities.
Roedy, who spent 11 years in the US military serving in the Vietnam War and several years at NATO nuclear missile bases in Italy, drew on those experiences to roll out MTV internationally.
The book is also full of celebrity gossip, and we loved the delightfully juicy pages about the hatred Christina Aguilera and Kelly Osbourne once shared for each other at a music awards event.
Roedy diffused a situation, which involved Kelly sobbing her heart out, by apologizing to her profusely even though he had no idea what was wrong.
Then to mom, Sharon. He was taken aback when Mrs. Ozzie Osbourne got on the phone and snarled she didn’t care who he was, but she was going to eat his b–s for upsetting her daughter.
When asked about his thoughts on the largely music-free MTV of today, he says Viacom changed its strategy as a business necessity to keep audiences around.
Claire Atkinson
Kid gloves
Movies based on successful children’s books have been hit-or-miss at the box office.
But when it comes to writing the screenplays, authors are usually treated like petulant children and sent to the corner.
That was something Sarah Siegel-Magness, producer of the upcoming big-screen adaptation of the best-selling “Judy Moody” book series, wanted to change.
“Frankly, there aren’t many producers who care to include the author at all in making the movie,” Magness said. “[But] I just felt, in my gut, that [the author] needed to be involved so that the film had the same voice.”
In addition to having author Megan McDonald co-write the screenplay for “Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer,” starring Heather Graham (pictured), Magness sought to include her in every aspect of the creation of the film, making her a co-producer and consulting with her on even the most minor details.
Taking on these additional roles has made McDonald feel “much more emotionally invested” in the film. But she also has a financial stake in how well the movie performs.
Magness made a deal with McDonald, giving the author access to revenues from the film that she might not have enjoyed if she’d merely licensed the books.
Hilary Lewis
15 sec of fame
He doesn’t call himself the “emperor of the social media network” for nothing.
When Shaquille O’Neal tweeted his retirement from basketball on Wednesday, 4 million of his Twitter followers got the news first. No press conference, no reporters.
The tweet contained a video link of O’Neal’s announcement, courtesy of Tout.com, a Web site that hosts 15-second videos. Turns out, though, that the 15-time All-Star may have been doing much more than tooting — make that touting — his own horn.
Reports say that O’Neal stumbled across the video site a few weeks ago, ap parently liked what he saw and negoti ated a deal through his agent with Tout.com’s CEO Michael Downing for a seat on the company’s advisory board as well as an undisclosed stake in the company in exchange for his seemingly random tweets.
Launched in the spring, Tout.com got 500,000 page views in the first three hours after the news. O’Neal later said, “Once a businessman, always a business man.”
Well, nothing new there. His net worth, estimated at $250 mil lion, has ballooned since 2009, when Forbes listed him at $135 million. His product endorse ments yield about $15 million a year, and his two sneaker brands, Shaq and Dunkman, have sold more than 80 million pairs to date.
Looks like Shaq won’t be miss ing that $20 million-a- year con tract anytime soon.
Angela Daidone
Stop the Web?
The Federal Communications Com mission hired a new policy wonk this week, which in itself is not that news worthy.
But what had us scratching our heads was the press release announcing that Harvard Law School Professor Jona than Zittrain was coming onboard to help FCC chief Julius Genachowski on 21st Century communi cations networks.
The announcement cites Zittrain’s awkwardly titled 2008 book, “The Fu ture of the Internet and How to Stop it.”
See, we do read some releases.
Claire Atkinson