Business of Media
Disney agrees to US$43m deal to settle class action over women’s pay
Disney will pay US$43.25 million to settle a class action from roughly 9,000 female employees in California accusing the company of pay discrimination, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Under the deal, Disney will retain experts to address “significant pay differences” using a model commissioned by lawyers representing the women, they said in a statement.
The lawsuit, filed in 2019, centred on claims from female workers employed by Disney since 2015, who said they’re being paid less than their male counterparts for substantially similar work. It was brought by LaRonda Rasmussen, a longtime product development manager at Walt Disney Studios, and Karen Moore, who has spent over two decades as a senior copyright administrator for Disney’s Hollywood Records. At the time, Disney denied allegations of pay bias across numerous corporate divisions in the class action seeking up to $300 million.
Zempilas’ campaign manager facilitated leadership poll for mystery businessman
Basil Zempilas’ mayoral campaign manager Cam Sinclair facilitated polling that spruiked the Perth Lord Mayor and Liberal candidate for Churchlands as an electoral saviour for the party at the 2025 election, reports Nine Publishing’s Hamish Hastie.
Sinclair is a longtime Liberal party member and runs Perth agency Ammo Marketing, which helped build both Zempilas’ Churchlands campaign website and Liberal leader Libby Mettam’s website.
He confirmed to WAtoday that his agency was behind the Sodali & Co polling but that it was commissioned by an Ammo Marketing client and was provided only to them – not Zempilas.
“We outsourced to Sodali on behalf of our client,” he said.
“We do work for a range of conservative groups around WA and need to respect client expectations to keep their work confidential. Just as any professional firm would.”
The polling, leaked to Seven West Media’s The West Australian, triggered a failed challenge of Mettam on Tuesday.
Zempilas emphatically denied that he knew about the poll and that he only found out about its existence a week ago by reading about it. Zempilas deferred questions to Sinclair.
Speaking after the leadership challenge on Tuesday afternoon, Zempilas said he had been told a name but that it was not his information to share.
Newsbrands
UK foodie quits The Observer as departing editor slams planned sale by Guardian owner
Jay Rayner, one of The Observer’s most prominent writers, is leaving the newsbrand as controversy surrounds its proposed sale to Tortoise Media, reports Press Gazette.
The news was announced on the same day that Paul Webster, who was editor of The Observer until earlier this month, wrote a lengthy denunciation of the proposed sale, which he said was based on “two false premises”: that the newspaper’s operation poses a financial risk to The Guardian and that Tortoise Media could sustain the brand in print.
A Guardian and Observer staff strike over the proposed sale is set for early next month.
Rayner, who has reviewed restaurants for The Observer for 25 years, said last month that he had been shortlisted for columnist of the year in the BSME Awards “in the same month that The Guardian has told me they will terminate all our contracts if they can sell The Observer to Tortoise”.
Tortoise and Guardian News and Media have previously assured Observer staff that their jobs will be safe if the sale goes ahead.
Radio
‘No one knows who you are:’ Kyle’s jab at Sammy J as feud boils over
A war of words has broken out between breakfast radio foes Kyle Sandilands and Sammy J, reports News Corp’s Jackie Epstein.
In an unlikely feud, the tension between the under pressure KIIS FM host and soon to depart ABC host has boiled over.
Sammy J poked the bear so to speak when he had a little dig after the latest radio ratings, saying that he’d “beat Kyle again”.
Sandilands said: “There’s some guy at the ABC in Melbourne who quit, but he was saying some weird shit like: ‘I beat Kyle Sandilands’ and ‘I’m the first thing he thinks about’.
“I have never even heard of him and he thinks that he is in my mind. What a deluded flog. I don’t know who you are dog … Bro no one knows who you are.”
On Tuesday morning Sammy J posted to his socials, addressing the matter.
“I’m getting so many calls from the media that I thought it would be best to put this out there — won’t be making further comment,’’ he wrote.
“To describe this as a “feud” is incorrect and offensive to both myself and Mr Sandilands. He and I both agree on facts:
“I will have better ratings than him for all eternity
“He can’t stop thinking about me
“He needs music and ads plus multiple co-presenters to prop him up but I can host a radio show all on my own cos I’m a big boy
“I trust this settles the matter.
Fear and favour at the court of King Jones: A producer remembers
One time, when I was the executive producer for the 2GB afternoon show, I was sent to Canberra for a week. It was me, the host I was working with, the breakfast producers and their host, Alan Jones, writes Stephanie Coombes in The Australian.
We were a small group and had a few obligatory social events with clients. If I was conspicuous, it was because I was the only woman on that trip, and the only producer not working on breakfast.
Despite this – and to my immense amusement – Jones introduced himself to me no less than four times in just three days.
Every interaction went the same way. Jones, thinking I was a client or perhaps a fan, would go to shake my hand. He was smiling then, full of charm. I would take his hand and tell him, again, that I was from 2GB. In an instant, the beatific expression fell from his face like a meat pie dropped on concrete. Suddenly all jowls and scorn, he’d walk away without another word.
For Alan Jones, women – especially young women – were completely below his notice. I could never muster any energy to be offended. I found these interactions to be funny, so I filed them away as fodder for future dinner parties. In fact, if I felt anything towards Jones at that time, it was pity.
Television
How the world’s most popular TV show is made
For the most successful show in Netflix’s history, there is a lot in Squid Game that flies completely over anyone watching outside of where it comes from, South Korea.
Nevertheless, when Squid Game was released on September 17, 2021, it became an instant worldwide phenomenon. The story of a divorced gambling addict called Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae), who enters a secret contest with 455 other hapless players for the chance of winning a 45.6 billion won ($50.4 million) prize, struck a collective human nerve. It is dark, gripping, violent and an unapologetic portrayal of the lengths people would go to escape their class struggle.
Indeed, Squid Game altered the course of people’s lives. The manager who greenlit the show now leads Netflix content for all Asia (excluding India). In 2023, Netflix pledged to spend $US2.5 billion in Korea over four years, double the amount it had spent in the seven years before that. Weeks out from the premiere of the hugely anticipated second season on December 26, can the man who is its writer, director and producer do it again?
Aussies miss out at International Emmy Awards 2024 as Timothy Spall wins
Aussies have missed out on awards at the International Emmy Awards, held in New York City, reports TV Tonight.
ABC’s The Newsreader and iview short Kweens of the Queer Underground, Nine’s The Summit and Prime Video’s Deadloch were all nominated, but all were overshadowed by other wins.
The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences presented Emmys to television creators and performers from 10 countries at the 52nd International Emmy Awards. The Gala was attended by television professionals from around the world and hosted by stand-up comedian and actor Vir Das.
The Founders Emmy was presented to David E. Kelley, the prolific writer and producer behind iconic shows such as Ally McBeal, L.A. Law and Big Little Lies by Michael Pressman, co-executive producer of Kelley’s shows Picket Fences and Chicago Hope.
Timothy Spall from The Sixth Commandment took home the award for Best Performance by an Actor. Drops of God from France won best Drama Series.
Nugget is Dead – and so is the comedy in this half-baked Christmas caper
Search for “Christmas” on Stan and you’ll get about 150 titles, including such staples as Love, Actually, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and Elf, writes Nine Publishing’s Karl Quinn.
You’ll also find the handful of Australian Christmas movies which Stan has turned out annually since 2020.
It would be nice to report that Nugget is Dead, which is written by and stars Vic Zerbst and Jenna Owen – who first broke through with their comedy-current affairs skits on SBS’s The Feed – is a hilarious addition to the fold. But despite the echoes of Muriel’s Wedding and The Castle, it never quite gets there.