MBN, Monte Bubbles Network

Contrary to the poor reviews the film has gotten it is a nice little film that does exactly what it is supposed to do, entertain those it was aimed at.

Certainly it is a little more then Old Disney but no more then Splash and new Disney.

Perhaps if those reviewing films made for a younger audience where actually the age of the audience rather that of their grand parents they might truly understand and better review this film.

It is nothing more then it was meant to be.

AQUAMARINE is the story of Claire (EMMA ROBERTS) and Hailey (JOANNA

“JOJO” LEVESQUE), two 13-year-old best friends who embark on the adventure of their lives when they discover a mermaid (SARA PAXTON) named Aquamarine in a swimming pool.

Aquamarine had washed ashore after a big storm battered the small town Florida beach club where Claire lives with her grandparents. Claire and Hailey are trying to come to terms with Hailey’s impending departure: She’s moving to Australia with her marine biologist mother after this last weekend of the summer.

The beautiful, blue-haired, 18-year-old mermaid swam away from home just before her

arranged marriage, in search of real love. If she can prove to her father that love is not a myth, he’ll let her out of the underwater wedding, but he’s only giving her three days. Aqua enlists the help of Claire and Hailey, who are self-styled relationship experts—educated from the pages of magazines that they read and quote daily.

Aqua sets her sights on the Capri Club’s lifeguard, Raymond Calder (JAKE

McDORMAN). And when Aqua promises to grant Claire and Hailey the wish of their choice if they help her reel in Ray, the girls jump at the opportunity – because unless something magical happens, Hailey will be moving.

Prepping Aquamarine on the finer points of attracting a man is easier said than done.

And with mere days until the Capri Club’s Last Splash end-of-summer celebration, at which Raymond must profess his love for Aquamarine or no one will get their wish, the girls pool their knowledge and give Aquamarine a crash course in terrestrial romance. This includes such surefire techniques as “The Laugh and Pass,” and “The Fluff and Retreat.” Then there’s a hair makeover and a new wardrobe for Aqua – and dealing with the machinations of Cecilia, Aqua’s chief competition for Raymond.

The girls hope that as long as Aquamarine can keep her land legs and avoid sprouting her massive, mythological tail, everyone will see their wishes come true. More importantly, they learn some important lessons about the power of friendship, the true magic of love – and the importance of standing on your own two feet.

FOX 2000 PICTURES Presents

A STOREFRONT PICTURES Production

EMMA ROBERTS JOANNA ‘JOJO’ LEVESQUE SARA PAXTON

JAKE McDORMAN ARIELLE KEBBEL CLAUDIA KARVAN

BRUCE SPENCE TAMMIN SURSOK ROY BILLING

JULIA BLAKE SHAUN MICALLEF

Directed by......................ELIZABETH ALLEN

RELEASED BY TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX

Max Factor, the cosmetics brand that once glowed from the cheeks of cinema starlets from Rita Hayworth to Marilyn Monroe, has been reduced to a house brand for the decidedly unglamorous Wal-Mart.

The 97-year-old brand -- with $400 million in global sales -- created by the famed Hollywood makeup artist has just been delisted from Walgreens, CVS and Rite
Aid as well as Target. That cuts distribution from 26,000 to 10,000 stores -- more than a quarter of them Wal-Marts.

Having a cosmetics brand at only about 7,000 mostly small drug and grocery outlets beyond Bentonville means “you keep the production line going another four minutes after you’re done with the run for Wal-Mart,” said Don Pettit, a former executive with P&G and Estee Lauder cosmetics businesses and now principal of Bingo Brand Solutions, Baltimore.

Factor owner Procter & Gamble Co. put its best face on the situation. “We’ve right-sized the brand for our most productive doors,” said a spokeswoman, pursuing a “niche strategy” in the U.S. But in truth, no amount of lipstick—or euphemistic marketing speak—can hide what’s happening to the aging ingénue.

The brand had roughly $170 million in U.S. sales last year, according to Information Resources Inc. data and Ad Age estimates for Wal-Mart. Max Factor’s shares last year fell 0.7 points to 2.1% in eye makeup, 0.3 points to 2.1% in face makeup and 0.7 points to 5.7% in lipstick, according to IRI data.

The delistings come despite heroic efforts to resuscitate Max Factor under Marc Pritchard, president-global cosmetics and hair colorants, who has the unenviable task of running P&G’s two most embattled beauty businesses.

In 2004, P&G hired Pat McGrath (a prominent designer, not the prominent former head of the P&G ad agency formerly known as Jordan McGrath) to give Max Factor a new look. His first fruits are emerging with this year’s product line. Ads from WPP Group’s Grey Global Group, New York, featuring Carmen Electra as the new face of Max Factor, broke last month. P&G named Grey, which also handles P&G’s bigger Cover Girl, to handle Max Factor last year, replacing Publicis Groupe’s Leo Burnett, London.

Even though cosmetics is the lowest priority in P&G’s beauty portfolio, said one analyst, another discontinuation would be embarrassing, particularly after P&G pulled the plug on Clarion in the early 1990s and Olay cosmetics in 2001.

It would also be costly. Officially discontinuing Max Factor would trigger P&G’s “unsaleables” policy with retailers, under which the company agrees to support closeout activity for a year. Olay’s demise became a fiasco in which P&G actually shipped and sold more product the year of the closeout than the year before as retailers took advantage of the policy to make it a low-priced value brand. The result was expensive, though accounting rules meant it fueled top-line momentum for P&G at the time.

In any event, Max Factor would remain a global brand—it gets 60% of its business outside the U.S. already, said a former executive. But he believes its strength in such markets as the U.K. and Japan could also encourage P&G to keep it around in the U.S.

Can Max Factor be saved?

Mr. Pettit isn’t sure Ms. Electra will do the trick, but said P&G is right to try a dramatically different approach. “The beauty of Wal-Mart is it’s big enough to run programs. … But you may not be able to do it with mass-media advertising.”

Here I think Mr. Pettit is both right and wrong. Ms Electra probably does not carry enough clout to make the product work but a horrible advertising situation at Max Factor is what has led to the problems they are now in.

They simply grew old and stale while the competition was thinking of the future and beating them over their heads with their campaigns.

You can sell manure to a manure salesman if you good at what you do.

AMERICANS ARE RECEIVING MORE TV channels than ever before, but they're many more, especially those from broadcasters. Those are the top line conclusions from an important annual benchmark study on the way people watch TV released late last week by Nielsen Media Research. The report, which comes as Nielsen holds its annual client meetings in Orlando this week, shows that the average household received 96.4 channels during 2005, an increase of nearly four channels from 92.6 in 2004.

However, the average number of channels tuned barely changed rising to 15.4 from 15.0 in 2004. The data appears to support a fundamental principle of rising media choice: That given an unlimited number of media options, the average person will still opt to use a relatively small number.

What makes the principle especially interesting for TV, is that Americans are spending more time watching TV than ever before. During 2005, the average household was tuned to their TV 57 hours and 17 minutes per week, a huge jump over 2004 when the average household was tuned to TV 56 hours and seven minutes per week. That's up from an average of 43 hours and 42 minutes per week in 1975, the benchmark year in the Nielsen report.

Not surprisingly, Americans appear to be spending more of their time with cable and satellite TV channels than those from broadcasters. The number of broadcast TV channels tuned by the average TV household actually declined from 16.4 in 2004 to 16.3 in 2005, the first time Nielsen has reported a drop in broadcast channels tuned since it began benchmarking the data.

Four U.S. servicemembers were killed today in an improvised explosive device attack in Afghanistan. The servicemembers were traveling in an up-armored Humvee in the Pech valley in Kunar province when the incident occurred. The patrol was conducting route-clearance operations to keep the road open to civilian and military traffic. No further details were available. The names of the deceased are being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Marine dies

A Multinational Division Baghdad soldier and a Marine assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, are the latest U.S. casualties in Iraq, military officials reported today. The soldier was killed today by a roadside bomb eastern Baghdad, officials said. The Marine died today of wounds suffered yesterday during enemy action in Iraq's Anbar province. Their names are being withheld pending notification of next of kin

DoD Identifies Marine Casualty

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a Marine who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. Lance Cpl. Bunny Long, 22, of Modesto, Calif., died March 10 from a suicide, vehicle-borne, improvised explosive device in Al Anbar province, Iraq.  He was assigned to Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, NC.

A U.S. service member died today

A U.S. service member died today from injuries suffered when the Humvee in which he was riding rolled over during offensive operations in the Torkham district of Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, military officials reported. Although the cause of the accident remains under investigation, enemy activity was not a factor, officials said, noting that heavy rains last night may have weakened the road on which the accident occurred. "Our hearts and prayers go out to the comrades and family of our fallen comrade," said Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin C. Freakley, commanding general of the coalition's Combined Joint Task Force 76. "Our loss today in this tragic accident steels our resolve to make Afghanistan a safer place. I would like his family to know they are in our prayers." The general noted that coalition partners and nongovernmental organizations are involved in dozens of projects across Afghanistan to improve existing roads and build new ones. The servicemember was evacuated to a medical facility here, where he died upon arrival. The name of the servicemember is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In related news from Iraq

U.S. soldiers discovered four weapons caches in a four-day period in areas outside of Baghdad, officials said. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, discovered a weapons cache March 8 near the Euphrates River, south of Baghdad. Army Pfc. Jason Chambers, of B Company, was occupying an observation post when he noticed something out of place in the distance.

After carefully inspecting the area, he and another soldier discovered the cache, consisting of roadside bomb-making materials. Chambers and the soldier moved away a safe distance, notified their chain of command, and provided security until help arrived. Soldiers from B Company cordoned off the area. Communications equipment, enemy propaganda, pre-made bomb detonation initiators, and various roadside bomb components were found. EOD technicians estimated the seizure took 637 roadside bombs from terrorists' hands.

Elsewhere, soldiers from Multinational Division Baghdad uncovered three weapons caches in three separate events yesterday. - Soldiers from 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, received a tip from a local resident that led them to a terrorist safe house east of Baghdad.

The soldiers captured six suspected terrorists, five AK-47 rifles, 15 AK-47 magazines, 400 AK-47 rounds of ammunition, knives, grenades, 23 propaganda discs, and various bomb-making equipment. - Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, discovered a small cache in northern Baghdad. The cache comprised two 122 mm rounds and four 130 mm artillery rounds. - West of Baghdad, soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, located a cache consisting of 35 pounds of C-4 explosives, two grenades, dynamite and blasting caps. In other news, an Iraqi explosive ordnance disposal team helped make a route east of Baghdad safer yesterday by ridding it of a roadside bomb found by Multinational Division Baghdad soldiers.

Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 61st Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, found a hollowed-out tree trunk containing wires, a 152 mm round, and a remote control base while they were on patrol. The disposal team responded to the scene and secured the round.

Maureen Stapleton, an Oscar-winning character actress whose subtle vulnerability and down-to-earth toughness earned her dramatic and comedic roles on stage, screen, and television, died Monday. She was 80

She won her won an Academy Award in 1981 for her supporting role as anarchist-writer Emma Goldman in Warren Beatty’s "Reds," about a left-wing American journalist who journeys to Russia to cover the Bolshevik Revolution.

At age 24, she became a success as Serafina Delle Rose in Tennessee Williams' Broadway hit "The Rose Tattoo," and won a Tony Award. She appeared in numerous other stage productions, including Lillian Hellman's "Toys in the Attic" and Neil Simon's "The Gingerbread Lady," for which she won her second Tony in 1971.

She led a chaotic personal life, which her autobiography candidly described as including two failed marriages, numerous affairs, years of alcohol abuse and erratic parenting for her two children.

Cable giant Comcast Corp. is in talks to buy the remaining stake it doesn’t own in E! Entertainment Television from partner Walt Disney Corp., according to people familiar with the deal.

The purchase would bolster Comcast’s growing position in cable programming, which is composed primarily of smaller networks outside of Nielsen’s top 30 channels. With 80 million subscribers, E! is the biggest of Comcast’s holdings, programmed with a fluffy mix of entertainment news, celebrity reality shows and clip shows (101 Incredible Celebrity Slimdowns!).

The network is probably best-known for its red-carpet coverage of TV- and movie-awards shows, such as the Oscars, Emmys and Golden Globes.Ratings have been mixed lately, but E! President Ted Harbert has pushed them into an upswing in recent weeks, with the average prime time audience up 11% in February. One big driver is the recent acquisition of reruns of Fox reality show The Simple Life, featuring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie.

A sale probably wouldn’t trigger dramatic changes at E! or sibling channel Style Network, because Comcast already manages the operation. Since 1997, Comcast and Disney have been in a partnership in which Disney initially put up all the cash but still gave the cable operator authority over day-to-day operations.

The partnership—Comcast Entertainment Holdings—owns 79.2% of E! and Style. Comcast owns an additional 20.8% outside of the partnership. The relationship got rocky when Comcast launched an attack to take over Disney, but industry executives say there have been no particular problems between the partners in recent months.

The deal that formed the E! partnership valued the network at $548 million. Merrill Lynch media analyst Jessica Reif Cohen estimates that, today, E! is worth around $2.5 billion. So buying out Disney would cost Comcast around $1 billion.

The E! sale is part of long-running negotiations to settle a number of programming issues between Comcast and Disney. Those include Comcast’s carriage of Disney’s cable networks (ESPN, The Disney Channel and ABC Family); retransmission consent for ABC owned-and-operated broadcast stations; and access to Disney shows and movies on Comcast’s video-on-demand systems.

Spokesmen for Comcast, Disney and E! would not comment on the discussions. However, Disney Senior Executive VP and CFO Tom Staggs told an investor conference that the company is open to restructuring ownership of some of its cable-network partnerships (which also include ESPN, Lifetime and A&E).

Says Staggs, "The strategic direction for us would be toward rationalization of that ownership so we can leverage those properties better, but I can’t tell you that’s going to happen anytime soon."

The McClatchy Co. agreed to buy Knight Ridder

The McClatchy Co., a publisher well-regarded by both journalists and Wall Street, today said it agreed to buy Knight Ridder for $4.5 billion in cash and stock and the assumption of $2 billion of debt, but immediately added that it will sell 12 of Knight Ridder's papers.

McClatchy, which publishes 12 daily and 17 non-daily newspapers, will find itself much transformed when the deal closes, not least because the much larger Knight Ridder publishes 32 daily newspapers.

"Opportunities like this come perhaps once in a company's lifetime, and we're thrilled to have this chance to extend McClatchy journalism and our proven newspaper operations to 20 high-quality newspapers in high-growth markets," said Gary Pruitt, chairman-CEO, McClatchy.

But the end of the auction, which began in November when Knight Ridder's three largest shareholders urged a sale, seemed to immediately open new fronts of contention.

The 12 papers McClatchy wants to sell include the Philadelphia Inquirer, San Jose Mercury News, Philadelphia Daily News and Akron Beacon Journal. "These are terrific publications but simply do not fit with our long-standing acquisition and operating strategies," Mr. Pruitt said.

By 9:30 a.m., a letter from "Knight Ridder alums" posted on the journalism-business Web site Romenesko expressed displeasure.

"We're pleased that Knight Ridder chose McClatchy as the successful bidder for the company, but dismayed that McClatchy has said it will put growth markets ahead of community responsibility," it said. "McClatchy's reputation would be enhanced by retaining newspapers which may not produce margins as high as McClatchy historically has produced but which are vital to their communities."

The sale revives the newspaper guild's hopes, however, of buying some Knight Ridder papers. Knight Ridder refused to consider selling the company in pieces during the auction -- but pieces are now what's left in play.

In a research note, Merrill Lynch analyst Lauren Rich Fine wrote that the McClatchy deal represents "one of the better outcomes" for Knight Ridder employees. The other reported bidder was a partnership of private equity firms including Thomas H. Lee Partners and the Texas Pacific Group, whose focus on returns and lack of journalism bona fides made some Knight Ridder reporters nervous.

The upshot for newspaper investors may be less encouraging, Ms. Fine wrote. "The fact that a strategic buyer was interested is good news, but the multiple paid represents a discount to the historical private multiple of [12 to 13 times] and will likely cap multiples in the group for some time unless fundamentals improve," she wrote.

And it was investor unrest that forced the sale in the first place. In making its demand for Knight Ridder to solicit bids, Private Capital Management said there was "limited growth across the newspaper industry," "continuing consolidation among the traditional sources of print-advertising revenue" and "the redirection of advertising dollars to other media."

If the McClatchy deal goes through, Private Capital will extricate itself fully from Knight Ridder -- but be left holding some McClatchy shares.

Warners makes deal with AMC

A STATION OR NETWORK GIVING up advertising time to get programming isn't a new idea. But in this new age of on-demand programming one would think studios wouldn't be looking to foster that activity--that is, get cash, and only cash.

That is unless there simply little cash to get in todays world. AMC really couldn't afford Warner Bros.' $80 million price tag for a package of almost two-dozen movies sold to AMC last June. So Warner took some advertising time in other movies running on the network instead to lower the price. CALLED BARTERING FOLKS.

Why other movies? There wasn't any reason offered, but one could imagine that giving up older, well-played movie inventory gives AMC fresher inventory to sell.

Still, there remains a conflict: AMC could be selling the same national advertising time to the same sellers as Warner Bros for its network movies. That is if they were able to sell the time which they probably couldn’t. Things have been going downward since they changed formats

Creating different packages is how this already works in cable and syndication when a TV producer comes calling. This is the way it works for, say, a Warner Bros. and cable network, TBS, that both sell national advertising time in "Friends." TBS just sells national cable inventory; Warner Bros. sells national cable inventory in a package of "Friends" syndication airings.

For years TV producers and networks or stations have found other ways to split the pie. For instance, some producers offer a TV show with an advertiser already attached--say, with an exclusive arrangement with a Coca-Cola, or a Verizon Wireless, or a General Motors. Still others try to split media agencies that are targeted.

The bad news is this means a network or station won't be selling that show to a soft drink, a telecommunication, or auto company or certain media agencies. Typically that is a restricting activity. But for a cash-strapped network or station, there are no alternatives.

It's good to know TV executives are expanding their old-fashioned advertising TV alternatives in a world seemingly dominated by brand entertainment and on-demand personalized TV offerings.

Some new advertising alternatives always seem to favor media sellers, not the media buyers. It's another puzzle for media agencies to solve.

Luke Donald earned his second PGA Tour victory in the 113th start of his career. Victory comes at the age of 28 years, 3 months and 5 days, 2002 Southern Farm Bureau Classic, 2006 Honda Classic. This win comes in his third trip to The Honda Classic.

He tied for 21st in 2004 and tied for 30th in 2002. He becomes the sixth foreign-born winner in the tournament’s history, including last year’s winner Padraig Harrington (Ireland). The other foreign-born winners were Nick Price/1994 (South Africa), Stuart Appleby/1997 (Australia), Vijay Singh/1999 (Fiji) and Jesper Parnevik/2001 (Sweden

The check for $990,000 is the largest of his career, surpassing his check for $597,333 with his tied for second finish at the 2005 THE PLAYERS Championship. Surpasses $1 million in career earnings for the third consecutive season and the fourth time in the last five years. He has now earned $1,409,603 in 2006. The $990,000 check pushes him over the $7-million mark in career earnings ($7,410,505). The 1999 NCAA Individual champion while playing at Northwestern and a three-time All-American for the Wildcats. He won the Jack Nicklaus Award as the nation’s top collegiate golfer. Born in Hempstead, England and currently resides in Chicago.

The Board of Directors of The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE: PG) declared an increase in the quarterly dividend on its Common Stock and on its Series A and Series B ESOP Convertible Class A Preferred Stock from $0.28 to $0.31 per share, payable on or after May 15, 2006 to shareholders of record at the close of business on April 21, 2006.

P&G has been paying dividends without interruption since incorporation in 1890. Clayt Daley, P&G's chief financial officer, said, "This is the 50th consecutive fiscal year that P&G has increased dividends and reflects the Board's confidence in P&G's ability to generate strong, profitable growth in line with our long term objectives. Over the past 50 years, compound annual dividend growth has exceeded nine percent."

P&G also confirmed previously announced guidance for sales growth and earnings per share for the January to March quarter. The company narrowed its EPS guidance range to $0.59 to $0.61 per share including $0.07 to $0.10 per share of Gillette dilution and added that sales growth for the quarter is currently trending toward the mid-point of its previous 20% to 23% range.

P&G said it now expects organic sales growth, which excludes the impacts of acquisitions, divestitures and foreign exchange, of five to six percent based on current quarter trends -- at the upper-end of the company's annual organic sales growth target of three to five percent. This compares to the earlier third quarter organic sales growth outlook of five to seven percent. The company said market share is growing in businesses representing about two- thirds of global sales and that the revised organic sales growth range reflects recent customer inventory reductions and tempered outlooks for Asia and Eastern Europe for the quarter.

P&G added that the contribution to sales growth from the Gillette acquisition is in line with previous expectations as strong results of the new Fusion razor in the U.S. are offsetting high base period comparisons in international markets. In total, acquisitions and divestitures are expected to add 17 percent to 18 percent to sales growth for the quarter. The company also noted that it still expects pricing and mix to add one percent to sales growth and foreign exchange to reduce sales growth by two percent.