Big Spring Herald 2B Life Weekend Edition, July 31-August 1, 2021 Scarlett Johansson sues Disney over ‘Black Widow’ release By LINDSEY BAHR and ANDREW from realizing the full benefit of her bargain with Once taboo, hybrid theatrical and streaming re- DALTON Marvel.” leases have become more normal for many of the Associated Press Disney said the lawsuit has “no merit whatso- biggest studios during the pandemic, with each LOS ANGELES (AP) — Scarlett Johansson is su- ever.” adopting its own unique strategy. This weekend, ing the Walt Disney Co. over its streaming release “The lawsuit is especially sad and distressing in Disney is employing the same strategy with “Jun- of “Black Widow,” which she said breached her its callous disregard for the horrific and prolonged gle Cruise,” and next weekend Warner Bros. big contract and deprived her of potential earnings. global effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Disney budget “The Suicide Squad” opens both in theaters In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Supe- said in a statement. "Disney has fully complied and on HBO Max. rior Court, the “Black Widow” star and executive with Ms. Johansson’s contract and furthermore, The revised hybrid release strategies over the 16 producer said her contract guaranteed an exclu- the release of Black Widow on Disney+ with Pre- months have occasionally led to public spats from sive theatrical release. The Wall Street Journal mier Access has significantly enhanced her ability not just theater owners, but stars, filmmakers and first reported the news of the lawsuit. to earn additional compensation on top of the $20M financiers who are unhappy with the potential lost Johansson’s potential earnings were tied to the she has received to date.” revenues and the alleged unilateral decision-mak- box office performance of the film, which the com- After its release was delayed more than a year ing involved. pany released simultaneously in theaters and on because of COVID-19, “Black Widow” debuted to The WSJ said Warner Media, for instance, paid its streaming service Disney+ for a $30 rental. a pandemic-best of $80 million in North America over $200 million in “amended agreements” with “In the months leading up to this lawsuit, Ms. Jo- and $78 million from international theaters three talent over its decision to release its entire 2021 hansson gave Disney and Marvel every opportuni- weeks ago, but theatrical grosses declined sharply slate simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max. ty to right their wrong and make good on Marvel’s after that. In its second weekend in release, the Na- But none have been as public as Johansson’s law- promise,” the lawsuit said. “Disney intentionally tional Association of Theater Owners issued a rare suit. The actor, who has been in nine Marvel mov- induced Marvel’s breach of the Agreement, with- statement criticizing the strategy asserting that si- ies going back to 2010’s “Iron Man 2,” quickly be- out justification, in order to prevent Ms. Johansson multaneous release lends itself only to lost profits came a trending topic on Twitter on Thursday after and higher quality piracy. news of the lawsuit broke. Ron Popeil was the sizzle of American ingenuity, personified By TED ANTHONY “Bass-O-Matic” commercial parody, Popeil realized it was free publicity, just AP National Writer as he did when “Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a parody song. Years later, Po- Come, young ones: Gather around the glow of the smartphone's screen for a peil guest-starred as himself on various TV shows from “The X Files” to the tale of a distant time when we watched TV on big boxy machines, and switched animated “The Simpsons” and “King of the Hill.” channels when we were bored. Most prominently, though, he cheerfully gave away his infomercial content There were commercials — several of them — between the segments of TV to moviemakers looking for something to be playing on TV in the background shows. What's more, in the distant era before streaming, you had to watch of their films. In this way did he extend his reputation for ubiquity — and his them all — or, if you had time, run to the kitchen or the bathroom. You couldn't growing wink-nudge pop-culture brand — for free, with no effort at all. Others pause, or fast forward, or take the screen with you. did the work, and he got the eyeballs. And in the darkest, wee-est hours, when all the real programming ran out, Even after success, bankruptcy and a second chapter of success, Popeil in- the night creatures emerged — beasts called infomercials that were entire TV sisted that his drive to invent was more than mercantile; it was, he said, a programs about people selling products that might be useful to you but that bit obsessive. “I have enough money today,” he told this reporter for a 1997 you probably didn't know you wanted. Associated Press profile. “But I can’t stop. If there’s a need for these things, I These immediate forebears of home-shopping channels and, beyond them, can’t help myself.” the content marketing techniques of the 21st century were where Ron Popeil, In that profile, Popeil demonstrated how “GLH-9” was doing on the bald spot an American original who gave the world the word “Ronco” and died Wednes- on the back of his scalp after several hours, some of them under a shopping day at 86, thrived. channel's blistering lights. What didn't make it into the story was that Popeil America has always been smitten by both high-spirited inventors and yarn- exhorted the visiting journalist: “Touch it! It even feels real.” The journalist spinning salesmen. Popeil was both, amplified by the airwaves into millions did, and it did — sort of. of homes. He was a gadget innovator like his father, yes, but a popularizer as Interludes like that — in-person interactions that felt like moments in an well, a man who intuited consumers' common-sense needs, then found acces- infomercial — help explain the reverse: moments in his infomercials that felt sible ways to entice them into making purchases. like in-person interactions. Those were Popeil's stock in trade. The best per- He titled his 1996 memoir “Salesman of the Century,” and he was a 20th-cen- formers — and that cohort includes the best salespeople — can make you feel tury man to the core, a cultural descendant of both Thomas Edison and P.T. as if they're not performing at all. Barnum. He was a guy whose “As Seen On TV” commercials in the 1970s, from So in the 1970s, you believed that a Mr. Microphone could open the door to all the astonishingly wireless Mr. Microphone to the Popeil Pocket Fisherman sorts of ways to impress the opposite sex. In the 1990s, you completely bought to the Rhinestone & Stud Setter, became pop-culture touchstones — because the notion that if Ron Popeil could stand there, on the set of his infomercial, he managed to both come up with them and become their public face for the and make a delectable sausage of fresh salmon, dill, soy and crushed red pep- television-soaked generation we now call X. per in two minutes, that somehow you could too. He was CEO, sales rep and user-in-chief rolled into one. Be it the Showtime You believed. Which has always been the underpinning of good sales. And Rotisserie ("Set it and forget it"), the Food Dehydrator or aerosol cans of GLH-9 you believed, too, that this guy — this garrulous man who was both nationally (“GLH” being short for “great-looking hair”), he was right there, barking out recognizable and RIGHT its virtues to us in the 1980s and 1990s as we laid in our beds and contemplated THERE in your room at BIG SPRING STATE HOSPITAL turning off the TV. He edited his own infomercials, scrawled out his own cue 2 a.m., talking obviously cards, wrote the copy for his “operators standing by." to only you — would, to- ANNOUNCING INCREASED SALARIES He would call his babies by affectionate names (The Popeil Electric Pasta- morrow and next month Sausage Maker became, simply, “Pasta-Sausage”), and he was known to say and next year, keep visit- LVN up to $4072.01 per month DOE things like, “I created the jerky category.” Now and then he would drift into ing you late at night with RN’s up to $5755 per month DOE Shatner-style staccato to make his points: “A child! Can make! Homemade things you never, ever sausages!" he was found shouting on QVC one night in 1997. knew you needed. PNA’s starting at $2312.85 per month But wait — there's more. As 20th century as he was — a Chicago open-mar- Or, as Popeil himself ket barker who used TV to propel himself toward success — he also saw the loved to say, wait — PART TIME POSITIONS NOW AVAILABLE possibilities that were just ahead and are now playing out in the fragmented there's more. For Ron For more information on jobs and salaries: 21st century, an era when all media blends into one big glop and advertising Popeil, his feet planted becomes content, then becomes advertising again. squarely at the intersec- CALL Paula at (432) 268-7674 or One reason for Popeil's ubiquity became evident when people poked fun at tion of Barnum and Edi- Submit a resume to him — because he chose, craftily and strategically, to always be in on the joke. son, there always was. [email protected] When Dan Aykroyd sent him up on “Saturday Night Live” in 1976 with the for initial screening; application process will be initiated at a later time. 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