These days it's clearer than ever: loyalty and Hollywood go together like boxing gloves and telephones.
Now that we in the Western World are eating fish skeletons out of the garbage like the Heathcliff of world powers, too poor to lavish celebrities with sufficient amounts of money and gifts, our disappointed stars are turning their rhinoplastied noses eastward, to the mysterious, exciting, oil-rich Orient. In Dubai, where oil barons mingle with Russian gangsters in $1,500 shoes, the money flows as plentifully as the region's largest export. And just like that, our celebrities are taking their balls and going to the UAE!
It's about time we all started flashing out money around a little bit more noticeably, it's not like it's going anywhere, right? Or at least, so the logic goes over in Dubai, that city on a cloud that's made out of sand, dreams, and oil money.
Those kookie developers, not content to have merely a five-star hotel shaped like a sailboat, or extra islands dredged up from the ocean floor, are trying to lure our most valuable resource, Paris Hilton, to their native lands by promising her a hotel named in her honor. Although that probably means they are just after her daddy's development money and think that naming something "The Hilton" will confuse all of those middle class American tourists looking to save a buck or two when traveling to the world's richest emirate.
With everyone feeling the crunch of the market lately, why didn't media execs hit upon the idea sooner that the answer to all their problems lay in the Mecca of the East? The shining city on the hill of Industry, Abu Dahbi represents what a lot of overspenders with a lot of money can do: be the best next best thing to Dubai, without all the George Saunders freak outs and Brave New World overtones. So that explains why big media companies like CNN and the BBC are pouring resources into the UAE state, snapping up space in the the Abu Dhabi Media Zone, a 200,000-square-meter campus that might as well have its own indoor ski slope.
But does Abu Dhabi offer the press a Catch-22? That is, if Thomson Reuters or HarperCollins' set up shop in a government-assisted facility, will Abu Dahbi expect quid pro quo and be looking for a promotional slant towards the city? CONTINUED »
Hey as long as we are outsourcing Disney to the Middle East, can we send Miley Cyrus to Afghanistan?
Disney is in advanced negotiations with Lebanese helmer Chadi Zeneddine to finance and produce "The Last of the Storytellers."
The Mouse House's first feature in Arabic will mark the start of an expansion drive by Disney execs into the region.
Disney has big plans for the Middle East. The Arab world has a population of some 300 million people, and with two-thirds under age 30, the market is a natural for family-friendly Disney fare. Disney expects to announce two more Arabic-language features in time for the fifth edition of the Dubai Film Festival, which unspools in December.
Well, Dubai is already like a giant Disneyworld for the super rich and famous, but what about the rest of the Middle East? "The market is a natural for family-friendly Disney fare?" Which countries are we talking about here, exactly?
Oh, the ones with all the money that America no longer has. Mickey Goes to Iraq it is!
In the United States, the only Fashion Week that top editors concern themselves with is New York's. Sure, there is the lighter fare in Los Angeles, the resort and swim collections in Miami, and yes, even the two-year-old Chicago stunt. But that is America. In Dubai, there is another incarnation all together: Children's Fashion Week. And it looks like something straight out of JonBenĂ©t Ramsey's closet. CONTINUED »
For $825 million, United Arab Emirates gets the chance to slap its man-made palm tree islands on a $300 tee.
Editorial Director
