Celebenomics With Jo Piazza

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How HBO Made the Most Expensive Mini-Series of All Time
Posted Aug 27th 2010 at 06:00 AM by Jo Piazza
Budgets over $200 million are usually reserved for the likes of Jerry Bruckheimer and James Cameron. That kind of budget buys a lot of explosions, car chases, 3-D effects and big-time stars. Well, $217 million is what HBO spent to produce it's Emmy nominated World War II miniseries 'The Pacific.' They spent an additional $10 million on an aggressive marketing campaign, according to a story in ...
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Will Justin Bieber's Fame Equal Box Office Success?
Posted Aug 7th 2010 at 09:40 PM by Jo Piazza
The big news out of Hollywood this past week is that Justin Bieber, he of the flash Bieber mobs, he of the delightfully tousled bangs, he who is constantly being searched on Google by legions of lovesick teenage girls is going to be coming soon to a movie theater near you....in 3-D. The film will be a concert biopic with behind the scenes footage of Bieber's life. Millions upon millions of ...
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A Few Surprising Celebrity Tweeters With Clout
Posted Aug 3rd 2010 at 08:00 PM by Jo Piazza
We've all heard about Kim Kardashian being paid $10,000 to send out a tweet on some product or company's behalf and of Ashton Kutcher's successful campaigns for brands who want to raise their social media profiles. (Have you seen the mad love he is giving to PopChips lately?) Those two are practically tweet royalty, and are also big enough celebrities that we aren't too surprised at their level ...
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Chelsea Clinton Wedding Cost Estimates Out of Control
Posted Jul 30th 2010 at 04:30 PM by Jo Piazza
Everyone loves to speculate on the costs of celebrity weddings. And in the case of Chelsea Clinton, a girl America has watched grow up and blossom into a beautiful young woman (those 'SNL' skits be damned), her upcoming wedding is the closest thing we get to a royal wedding of sorts. So, of course, everyone is trying to price out her upstate New York nuptials to fiance Marc Mezvinsky going ...
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'Inception' Confusion Will Boost Its Box Office Tally
Posted Jul 23rd 2010 at 05:15 PM by Jo Piazza
Entertainment Weekly's movie critic, Owen Gleiberman, lamented in his column that he feels like he is the only one who just "doesn't get" this week's No. 1 box office smash, the sci-fi action thriller 'Inception.' It's just not true, Owen. You're not alone in being dazzled by Christopher Nolan's special effects, plot filled with trickery and Marion Cotillard's soporific French accent, but still ...
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Lindsay Lohan Celebrity Stock Watch
Posted Jul 21st 2010 at 12:15 PM by Jo Piazza
This is it for Lindsay Lohan. Heading to jail represents a make-or-break moment for the troubled starlet -- from here, she can capitalize on a redemption narrative and ride the public's sympathy back into the spotlight or she can throw it all away and waste the last chance America is giving her to salvage her career. It's a tightrope-balancing act for Linds. Her celebrity stock is going to rise ...
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Kim's Trumping Paris in the Celebutante Wars
Posted Jul 18th 2010 at 09:00 AM by Jo Piazza
We saw a picture of Paris Hilton accompanying an article about her faux drug bust in South Africa and almost thought, Paris who? Not really. Paris Hilton is certainly unforgettable in almost every way, but it did make us think about how Hilton has dropped off of our celebrity radar lately and how she has most certainly been usurped in the celebutante market by her former friend and assistant, and ...
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Jake and Vienna's Fifteen Minutes Are Up, And It's Their Own Faults
Posted Jul 10th 2010 at 01:00 PM by Jo Piazza
We want to take a moment and write Jake Pavelka and Vienna Girardi a quick memo on fame whoring. In order to be a successful fame whore, the kind of fame whore that can ultimately take that whoring to a new level and turn it into a career (i.e. Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, Kate Gosselin, Kendra Wilkinson), you have to find a way to make yourself likable. Because with likability comes ...
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The 'Eat, Pray, Love' Merchandising Train Keeps Spewing More Feel Good Products
Posted Jul 3rd 2010 at 12:00 PM by Jo Piazza
Marketers are apparently banking on the fact that the target audience for the upcoming Julia Roberts vehicle 'Eat, Pray, Love,' single women of a certain age who are unhappy with their lives, are willing to whip out their credit cards to make themselves happier. Back in April, we wrote about Los Angeles-based jewelry company Dogeared, maker of pretty trinkets like "karma" and "chakra," inking ...
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How 'Glee' Is Kicking Butt on Top of the Charts
Posted Jun 20th 2010 at 09:00 AM by Jo Piazza
There's just no stopping the success of the 'Glee' albums! The show's latest set, 'Journey to Regionals,' edged out 'The Twilight Saga: Eclipse' soundtrack by 8,000 copies on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. Gleeks: 1 Twi-hards: 0. Oh yeah, they also beat out Christina Aguilera and a little-known tween whose name rhymes with Dweeber. It's hard to believe it has been less than a year since ...
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Clay Aiken's Summer Plans: Touring and a New Album
Posted May 30th 2010 at 09:22 AM by Jo Piazza
Clay Aiken has a busy summer in front of him. The former American Idol has grown up a lot since he was the runner up on the second season of the show. Two years ago, Clay's whole world changed when he became a father for the first time. In June, he will launch his first tour since his son Parker's August 2008 birth: a co-headlining jaunt with good friend (another former Idol) Ruben Studdard. ...
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'Sex and the City' and the Tourism in Abu Dhabi
Posted May 29th 2010 at 07:00 PM by Jo Piazza
More than 50% of 'Sex and the City 2' is set in the desert oasis of Abu Dhabi, a beautiful and exotic locale where every wish and command of the four ladies is met by a team of charming Middle Eastern butlers. Well, not every wish. Samantha is detained for inappropriate sexual behavior on a beach, and the women consistently feel stifled by the mores of the religious country, often making a joke ...
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Taylor Hicks Is Laughing All The Way to the Bank
Posted May 23rd 2010 at 01:00 PM by Jo Piazza
Now that 'American Idol' is once again down to the top two, we'll be seeing a lot of those 'Idol' lists. Most successful 'Idols,' most album sales, fan favorites. There's only so many times we can read about Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, no? Well 'Idol' success comes in lots of shapes and sizes. You have the Carrie and Kelly set. They've each sold over 10 million albums and reached ...
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Will Kendra Wilkinson's Sex Tape Sell?
Posted May 22nd 2010 at 09:00 AM by Jo Piazza
Now that Kendra Wilkinson stands to gain 50% of the profits from sales of an old sex tape being released by Vivid Entertainment, folks are buzzing that she could make millions of dollars off of the illicit tape. And by the looks of the early pre-sale numbers, Kendra might be rolling in dough soon enough. TMZ reports that Kendra's sex tape has the highest pre-sale numbers of any celebrity tape ...
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From Golden Girl To It Girl: Betty White Has Become Marketing Magic
Posted May 11th 2010 at 10:00 AM by Jo Piazza
It's time to coin the term the "Betty White Effect." Sure, it might not be up there just yet with the kind of one-two punch that Oprah can lend to a product or program, but it seems that nothing is hotter than Betty White right now, and that means a lot of people want to capitalize by using this golden girl as their golden ticket. A source close to Betty tells me her phone has been ringing off ...
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