Poor Rupert Murdoch's Free Speech Repressed In Ex Soviet Union [News Corp.]

All he did was maybe help try to overthrow the government, and they took his broadcast rights away. "Georgia’s pro-Western authorities have steered clear of publicly suggesting that Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation, had any role in the coup plot, but have contacted him about the closing of Imedi." [Times]

Knicks May Or May Not Stop Roughing Up Reporters [Reporting Hell]

The new president of the New York Knicks, Donnie Walsh, promised to be more open to journalists, perhaps improving what is widely regarded as one of the more miserable reporting beats in the city. Most recently, a Post reporter was manhandled by Knicks security for daring to try and talk to another reporter. Walsh isn't saying exactly how he'll improve the situation, only that he thinks it is important to provide more access. Everything is very vague. Apparently a policy against physical confrontation with reporters, or ripping off their press passes, is too much to ask at this early stage. It's not like Walsh has much of a mandate from the man who hired him, Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan, who backed many of the Knicks' tight media controls in the first place:

Walsh said he was aware of problems between the Knicks and the news media, “but I didn’t really know because, let’s face it, New York has such a large group of media that I thought maybe it was necessary for that.” But in recent days, he said, “it just seemed to be a bigger problem” and when he mentioned the policy to Dolan during their contract negotiations, he said Dolan told him, “Fine, then you take it over.”

Times: Knicks Try New Tack: Better Ties to Media

Hollywood Insiders Laugh With Tom Cruise, Not At Him [Feuds]

A studio lot full of Hollywood "agents, managers, publicists and reporters" found Scientology messiah Tom Cruise hilarious Tuesday night, the Times reported, not because the actor is certifiably insane but because he did a mean impression of Sumner Redstone, the Viacom and Paramount boss who cut ties with Cruise two years ago. The crowd was watching a screening of Paramount comedy Tropic Thunder, which includes a performance by Cruise as a redheaded, pudgy studio executive with lots of chest hair and a penchant for cussing and dirty dancing — a ringer for Redstone. Cruise's performance killed among insiders primed for Hollywood in-jokes and long accustomed to Cruise's unbalanced personality, but it's unlikely the rest of the moviegoing public will be as tickled, and weird that the chummy screening got any notice at all in the Times, even if the paper was trying to make up for missing the story of Cruise's make-up lunch with Redstone last week. After the jump, a side-by-side comparison of Cruise, made up for his character, and Redstone.

What Celebrity Had No One Ever Better Fuck With? [Open Thread]

I'm listening to Johnny Cash today, and suddenly I feel like I don't entirely like this guy. Thankfully I realize I just don't care for his early work as much as his later stuff, because if I honestly didn't like Johnny Cash, who would ever sympathize with me? You can't criticize the man in public. Even the Beatles aren't that unassailable. So I wonder, who's the most unassailable modern celebrity, someone almost everyone genuinely loves? Cash? Jon Stewart? Meryl Streep? Mr. Rogers? Judi Dench? [Photo by Shredcity]

Jay-Z's $150 Million Concert Deal Changes Nothing, Probably [Music]

The Times reported that rapper Jay-Z is about to close a $150 million deal with concert promoter Live Nation, and said, in its headline, that the deal is a "New Model For Ailing Business." Really? Because the whole thing sounds awfully familiar.

A ridiculous amount of money spread over a ridiculously long contract (10 years), check. A star who seems to have peaked, at least for this celebrity cycle, check. A vanity record label, check (granted, Jay-Z has actually helmed a record label, so the level of vanity is debatable).

This whole thing would be straight out of the 1990s, when many such deals were signed only to later go sour, if the artist were signing with a record label instead of a concert company. But even that wrinkle isn't fresh since Madonna got there first.

Props to Jay-Z for signing a mammoth deal before such arrangements become extinct forever, but the future of music is probably going to look a lot less blingy than this. Picture hundreds of thousands of smaller acts making modest coin of iTunes sales and small concerts.

Anyway, here's a look at all the big record deals that came before Jay-Z's, and that now look a bit less impressive:

Via this ABC News gallery:

• Madonna, $120 million over 10 years with Live Nation. October 2007.
• Michael Jackson, $108 million for six albums. 1991.
• Janet Jackson, $80 million for for records. 1996.
• Mariah Carey, $80 million for four albums, 2001.
• Barbara Streisand, $80 million. 1992.
• REM, $80 million for five records, 1996.
• Metallica, $60 million. 1995.
• Prince, $100 million. 1992.
• Whitney Houston, $100 million. 2001.

Times: In Rapper’s $150 Million Deal, New Model for Ailing Business