Word: eisner
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...decade ago, the buildings that resulted were often derided as cartoonish exercises in kitschy nostalgia. Disneyesque became a standard pejorative applied to the work of such post-Modernists as Michael Graves and Robert A.M. Stern. Now, rather suddenly, the figure of speech is biting back: under chairman Michael Eisner, Disney has become the premiere patron of architecture of the late 20th century, commissioning major works by a majority of the world's most celebrated architects...
...Eisner's rationale for hiring practically every famous architect on earth is complicated: part corporate imagemaking, part personal enthusiasm and part a natural extension of the new Disney self-confident show-biz relentlessness. And there is some enlightened despotism thrown in. "It costs the same to do well as badly," Eisner claims. "It's exactly the same price if you build 1,200 ugly rooms...
Directors may lack the gumption to cut salaries and cash bonuses, but the luxuriant stock grants they hand out to top executives should provide strong incentives to improve a company's health. Sometimes it works. Walt Disney CEO Michael Eisner, for example, has become one of the world's highest paid executives partly through massive stock options. As Disney's share price has risen, from a split-adjusted value of $14 in 1984, when Eisner took over, to $120.75 recently, Eisner's wealth has exploded. But with stock appreciation like that, you won't hear many shareholders complaining...
Detractors complain that the thick Calendar section, which chronicles L.A.'s giant entertainment industry, too often contains adoring, uncritical reporting of Tinseltown's stars and moguls. Some staffers charge that Coffey, who is friendly with Hollywood heavies like Disney's Michael Eisner, holds or softens stories that might damage his connections. A story about film executive Jerry Weintraub's financial troubles and alleged drug use, for instance, languished in the Times's computer and ran only after the Wall Street Journal published its own version...
...delays were one more obstacle in Stein's Sisyphean journey to realize his dream park. He had first proposed the idea two decades ago. In 1980 he pitched a partnership to Paramount, where Eisner was president before taking over Disney. (Eisner says he was not at the meeting.) Last year Cineplex Odeon backed out as co-sponsor. And still Stein pursued his vision, like the Jaws shark searching for fresh kill. In the weeks before the opening, he walked dozens of journalists through the unfinished attractions. So beguiling was Stein's spiel that some reporters obligingly described the experience...