Hollywood appears to be cuckoo for coconuts.
Vita Coco, the coconut water company based here, has attracted a second round of Tinseltown dollars.
Last year, Madonna, her manager Guy Oseary and pals Matthew McConaughey, Demi Moore Anthony Kiedis put a total of $10 million into the company. Since The Post exclusively reported on Madonna’s investment, Vita Coco’s valuation has risen to $200 million, up 40 percent, according to industry analysts.
Well, the same celebs are said to be bellying up to the bar for a second sip of the private firm. According to sources at the water fountain, this same group has just sank another $14 million into the fruity drink company.
Vita Coco competes with other coconut water brands, including Zico and ONE.
Vita Coco co-founder Michael Kirban plans to use the investors’ cash to expand production, infrastructure and marketing. Vita Coco has six flavors and will launch a new “tropical punch” flavor, as well as new packaging, this year.
New Yorkers are going through 750,000 units a month, according to the company, and is the biggest market in the US for coconut water.
Vita Coco will be backstage at the Oscars tonight. Oscar winners Halle Berry, Anna Paquin and Gwyneth Paltrow have all extolled their love for coconut water, as has Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal. Julie Earle-Levine
Oscar, Oscar…
Speaking of the Academy Awards, according to insiders, Hollywood’s top movie makers are all partied out and may take a pass on tonight’s festivities.
As scores of awards have already been handed out in the run-up to the biggest ceremony of the year, several top executives say they’ve given up their tickets.
The execs say there is no business done tonight. “It’s a made-for-TV event,” one movie producer told On The Money.
“It really isn’t that much fun.”
Another Tinseltown studio executive said, “I’ve been to so many awards, I just can’t take any more small talk.”
Adding to the lack of enthusiasm is the feeling that the top awards have already been locked up. And according to insiders, no one is dying to see Anne Hathaway as host.
All Academy Award winners are kept in the dark until the envelope is opened.
Oscar voters must mail in their votes because the Academy just couldn’t be sure that the results will be kept secret if online voting were introduced.
“What if Wikileaks got hold of the winners? Then no one would watch the show,” one Oscar voter told us.
Claire Atkinson
$lam dunk
Knicks fans dug into their wallets in welcoming Brooklyn native Carmelo Anthony home.
The star forward’s game jerseys, T-shirts and other merchandise have flown off the racks at the shops at Madison Square Garden since his arrival Wednesday evening.
Reported sales at MSG and the team’s online shop, nyknicksstore.com, for Anthony merchandise totaled more than 3,500 units.
Prices vary from $24.95 to $250, depending on the item, which includes authentic game jerseys for the die-hard fan to replica and T-shirt models easier on your budget. Joseph Barracato
TalentTube
Google’s plan to start bribing celebs to create YouTube channels has pi qued interest in all quarters of Hollywood, not least at the talent agencies.
Ad splits on $40 CPMs weren’t entic ing anyone, said business manag ers, since most YouTube videos don’t carry more than one or two ads, but the $5 million has drawn attention of the haves and have- nots.
Google has started a $100 mil lion fund that the search giant will split among 20 lucky traffic generators for the fledgling movie site. You Tube plans to offer a Netflix- like experience in Europe soon, with a rollout here to follow.
Sources say pudgy political pundit Keith Olbermann is in talks about a potential You Tube channel of his own, as are several Hollywood TV creators.
Seems Google might have found a crack in the door.
Cold, hard, cash works so much better than simple file-sharing. Claire Atkinson
Ginger.ly
Until Feb. 15, Twitter users who rely on bit.ly to shorten their Internet links didn’t give much thought to what the “ly” stands for. Turns out the “ly” means the domain is registered in Libya, where dictator Colonel Moammar Khadafy restricted In ternet access in the wake of unrest.
Bit.ly CEO John Borthwick took to the Q&A site Quora to assure users that, “Should Libya block In ternet traffic, as Egypt did, it will not affect http://bit.ly or any .ly do main.”
For problems to occur in .ly do mains, all five .ly root servers would have to be offline, he wrote. Of the five, two are in Libya, two are in Oregon and one is in the Netherlands.
Post staff