Barbara Streisand

Barbra Streisand (born Barbara Joan Streisand, April 24, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, filmmaker and actress. She has won two Academy Awards, eight Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, an American Film Institute award, and a Peabody Award.

She is one of the most commercially and critically successful female entertainers in modern entertainment history and one of the best-selling solo recording artists with more than 71 million albums shipped in the United States and 140 million albums sold worldwide. She is the best selling female artist on the Recording Industry Association of America's (RIAA) Top Selling Artists list and the only female recording artist in the top ten. Along with Frank Sinatra, Cher, Jamie Foxx and Shirley Jones, she shares the distinction of being awarded an Oscar for a leading role and also recording on a #1 pop single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart.

According to the RIAA, Streisand holds the record for the most Top 10 albums of any female recording artist; a total of 31 to her credit since 1963. Streisand also has the widest span (46 years) between first and latest Top 10 albums of any female recording artist. With her 2009 album, Love Is the Answer, she became the only artist to achieve number 1 albums in five consecutive decades. Her RIAA tally shows she has released 51 Gold albums, 30 Platinum albums, and 13 Multi-Platinum albums in the United States.

Streisand was born to a Jewish family, Emmanuel and Diana (née Rosen), on April 24, 1942, in Brooklyn, New York. She was the second of two children. Fifteen months later, Emmanuel died of a cerebral hemorrhage and the family went into near-poverty. She attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn. Soon Streisand became a nightclub singer while in her teens. She originally wanted to be an actress and appeared in summer stock and in a number of Off-Off-Broadway productions, including Driftwood (1959), with the then-unknown Joan Rivers. (In her autobiography, Rivers wrote that she played a lesbian with a crush on Barbra's character, but this was later refuted by the play's author.) Driftwood ran for only six weeks. When her boyfriend, Barry Dennen, helped her create a club act—first performed in The Lion, a gay bar in Manhattan's Greenwich Village in 1960—she achieved success as a singer. One early appearance outside of New York City was at Enrico Banducci’s hungry i nightclub in San Francisco. In 1961, Streisand appeared at the Town and Country nightclub in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but her appearance was cut short; audiences did not understand her revolutionary singing style.

In 1962, after several appearances on PM East/PM West, Streisand first appeared on Broadway, in the small but star-making role of Miss Marmelstein in the musical I Can Get It for You Wholesale. Her first album, The Barbra Streisand Album, won two Grammy Awards in 1963. Following her success in I Can Get It for You Wholesale, Streisand made several appearances on The Tonight Show in 1962. Topics covered in her interviews with host Johnny Carson included the empire-waisted dresses that she bought wholesale, to her “crazy” reputation at Erasmus Hall High School, soon enough she got engaged.

Streisand has recorded 35 studio albums, almost all with the Columbia Records label. Her early works in the 1960s are considered classic renditions of theater and cabaret standards, including her slow version of the normally uptempo Happy Days Are Here Again. She performed this in a duet on The Judy Garland Show. Garland referred to her on the air as one of the last great belters. They also sang There's No Business Like Show Business with Ethel Merman joining them.

Beginning with My Name Is Barbra, her early albums were often medley-filled keepsakes of her television specials. Starting in 1969, she began attempting more contemporary material, but like many talented singers of the day, she found herself out of her element with rock. Her vocal talents prevailed, and she gained newfound success with the pop and ballad-oriented Richard Perry-produced album Stoney End in 1971. The title track, written by Laura Nyro, was a major hit for Streisand.

As the 1970s ended, Streisand was named the most successful female singer in the U.S.—only Elvis Presley and The Beatles had sold more albums. In 1980, she released her best-selling effort to date, the Barry Gibb-produced Guilty. The album contained the hits Woman In Love (which spent several weeks atop the pop charts in the Fall of 1980), Guilty, and What Kind of Fool.

After years of largely ignoring Broadway and traditional pop music in favor of more contemporary material, Streisand returned to her musical-theater roots with 1985's The Broadway Album, which was unexpectedly successful, holding the coveted #1 Billboard position for three straight weeks, and being certified quadruple Platinum. The album featured tunes by Rodgers & Hammerstein, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Stephen Sondheim, who was persuaded to rework some of his songs especially for this recording. The Broadway Album was met with acclaim, including a nomination for Album of the Year and, ultimately, handed Streisand her eighth Grammy as Best Female Vocalist. After releasing the live album One Voice in 1986, Streisand was set to take another musical journey along the Great White Way in 1988. She recorded several cuts for the album under the direction of Rupert Holmes, including On My Own (from Les Misérables), a medley of How Are Things in Glocca Morra? and Heather on the Hill (from Finian's Rainbow and Brigadoon, respectively), All I Ask of You (from Phantom of the Opera), Warm All Over (from The Most Happy Fella) and an unusual solo version of Make Our Garden Grow (from Candide). Streisand was not happy with the direction of the project and it was ultimately scrapped. Only Warm All Over and a reworked, Lite FM-friendly version of All I Ask of You were ever released—the latter appearing on Streisand's 1988 effort, Till I Loved You.

In September 1993, Streisand announced her first public concert appearances in 27 years. What began as a two-night New Year's event at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas eventually led to a multi-city tour in the summer of 1994. Tickets to the tour were sold out in under one hour. Streisand also appeared on the covers of major magazines in anticipation of what Time magazine named "The Music Event of the Century". The tour was one of the biggest all-media merchandise parlays in history. Ticket prices ranged from US$50 to US$1,500 - making Streisand the highest paid concert performer in history. Barbra Streisand: The Concert went on to be the top grossing concert of the year, earned five Emmy Awards and the Peabody Award, and the taped broadcast on HBO is, to date, the highest rated concert special in HBO's 30 year history.

On New Year's Eve 1999, Streisand returned to the concert stage, giving the highest grossing single concert in Las Vegas history to date.^{[citation needed]} At the end of the millennium, she was the number one female singer in the U.S., with at least two #1 albums in each decade since she began performing. A 2-disc live album of the concert entitled Timeless: Live in Concert was released in 2000. Streisand performed versions of the "Timeless" concert in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia in early 2000.

In advance of four concerts (two each in Los Angeles and New York) in September 2000, Streisand announced she was retiring from future paying public concerts. Her performance of the song People was broadcast on the Internet via America Online.

Streisand's most recent albums have been Christmas Memories (2001), a somewhat somber collection of holiday songs (which felt entirely—albeit unintentionally—appropriate in the early post-9/11 days), and The Movie Album (2003), featuring famous movie themes and backed by a large symphony orchestra. Guilty Pleasures (called Guilty Too in the UK), a collaboration with Barry Gibb and a sequel to their previous Guilty, was released worldwide in 2005.

Streisand's 20-concert tour set record box-office numbers. At the age of 64, well past the prime of most performers, she grossed US$92,457,062 and set house gross records in 14 of the 16 arenas played on the tour. She set the third-place record for her October 9, 2006 show at Madison Square Garden, the first- and second-place records of which are held by her two shows in September 2000. She set the second-place record at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, with her December 31, 1999 show being the house record and the highest grossing concert of all time. This led many people to openly criticize Streisand for price gouging, as many tickets sold for upwards of US$1,000.

A collection of performances culled from different stops on this tour, Live in Concert 2006, debuted at #7 on the Billboard 200, making it Streisand's 29th Top 10 album. In the summer of 2007, Streisand gave concerts for the first time in continental Europe. Tickets for the London dates cost between £100.00 and GB£1,500.00 and for the Ireland date between €118 and €500. The tour included a 58-piece orchestra.

In February 2008, Forbes Magazine listed Streisand as the #2 top-earning female musician, between June 2006 and June 2007, with earnings of about US$60 million. Although Streisand's range has changed with time and her voice has become deeper over the years, her vocal prowess has remained remarkably secure for a singer whose career has endured for nearly half a century.

On February 1, 2010, Streisand joined over 80 other artists in recording a new version of the 1985 charity single "We Are the World". Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie planned to release the new version to mark the 25th anniversary of its original recording. These plans changed, however, in view of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12, 2010, and on February 12, the song, now called "We Are the World 25 for Haiti", made its debut as a charity single to support relief aid for the beleaguered island nation.Streisand, like fellow divas Bette Midler and Celine Dion, was offered a $100 Million contract to perform in Las Vegas. Under the contract, Barbra would have been slated to perform for 3 years. She turned them down, while an insider said she has plans to tour in the Summer 2010.

Her first film was a reprise of her Broadway hit, Funny Girl (1968), an artistic and commercial success directed by Hollywood veteran William Wyler, for which she won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actress, sharing it with Katharine Hepburn (The Lion in Winter), the first (and only) time there was a tie in this Oscar category. Her next two movies were also based on musicals, Jerry Herman's Hello, Dolly! directed by Gene Kelly (1969) and Alan Jay Lerner's and Burton Lane's On a Clear Day You Can See Forever directed by Vincente Minnelli (1970), while her fourth film was based on the Broadway play The Owl and the Pussycat (1970).

During the 1970s, Streisand starred in several screwball comedies, including What's Up, Doc? (1972) and The Main Event (1979), both co-starring Ryan O'Neal, and For Pete's Sake (1974) with Michael Sarrazin. One of her most famous roles during this period was in the drama The Way We Were (1973) with Robert Redford, for which she received an Academy Award nomination as Best Actress. She earned her second Academy Award for Best Original Song as composer (together with lyricist Paul Williams) for the song "Evergreen", from A Star Is Born in 1976; this was the first time a woman had received this award.

Along with Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier, Streisand formed First Artists Production Company in 1969 so the actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves. Streisand's initial outing with First Artists was Up the Sandbox (1972).

In 2004, Streisand made a return to film acting, after an eight-year hiatus, in the comedy Meet the Fockers (a sequel to Meet the Parents), playing opposite Dustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller, Blythe Danner and Robert De Niro.

Streisand has long been an active supporter of the Democratic Party and many of their causes. Streisand said, "The Democrats have always been the party of working people and minorities. I've always identified with the minorities." Streisand has personally raised $15 million for organizations through her live performances. The Streisand Foundation, established in 1986, has contributed over $16 million through its grants to "national organizations working on preservation of the environment, voter education, the protection of civil liberties and civil rights, women’s issues and nuclear disarmament." In 2006, Streisand donated $1 million to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation in support of President Bill Clinton’s climate change initiative.

In 2000, Barbra Streisand was awarded the National Medal of Arts and she has been nominated for over 56 Grammy Awards, of which she won 15. She's been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame three times.

Barbra Joan Streisand (Brooklyn, New York, USA, 1942.) amerikai színésznő, énekesnő, zeneszerző, rendező, forgatókönyvíró, producer.
New Yorkban, Brooklynban született ortodox zsidó családban. Édesapja korán meghalt, és Barbra-nak nagyon hiányzott édesapja. Ez adott indíttatást első rendezéséhez (Yentl). Anyja nem nézte jó szemmel lánya színészi álmait, és folyton becsmérelte Barbra külsejét. Sidney Poitier-vel és Paul Newmannal az első sztárok között volt az 1970-es években, akik saját produkciós irodát alapítottak.

Szerepeiben főként akaratos, elszánt asszonyokat alakít, drámai és komikus szerepek megformálásában egyaránt élen jár. A legtehetségesebb amerikai énekesnők egyike.

1997-ben eljegyezte magát a másodvonalbeli filmek sztárjával, James Brolin-nal, akivel kapcsolatban nem titkolja, hogy a hiányzó apafigurát is pótolja számára. Egyetlen vágya, hogy partnerével a lehető legtöbb időt töltse együtt.

Hollywood leggazdagabb üzletasszonyai közé tartozik, egyes becslések szerint 180 millió dolláros vagyonnal rendelkezik.

Rendszerint együtt ünnepli születésnapját barátnőjével, Shirley MacLaine-nel, akivel egy napon született. Közeli barátnője Donna Karan, divattervező. Elliot Gouldhoz fűződő kapcsolatából született egy fia, Jason, akiről azt állítják, hogy homoszexuális. Állandó munkatársa koncertjei karmestere és filmjei zeneszerzője, Marvin Hamlisch.

Franz and Eduard Sacher

Franz Sacher (1816 - 1907) was an Austrian-Jewish confectioner, best known as the inventor of the world-famous chocolate cake, the Sachertorte.

In 1832 Austria's minister of foreign affairs, Prince Metternich, ordered his court's kitchen to create a special dessert for a dinner to be attended by high-ranking guests. Dass er mir aber keine Schand' macht, heut' Abend! ("Let there be no shame on me tonight!"), he is reported to have declared. Unfortunately, on the day of the dinner the chief cook of Metternich's household was taken ill, and the task of preparing the dessert had to be passed to Franz Sacher, then in his second-year of apprenticeship at the palace. The result was the magnificent chocolate cake devised on the spot by the 16-year-old trainee.

Franz Sacher was born in Vienna and died in Baden bei Wien. In 1876 his son, Eduard, opened the Hotel Sacher, near the State Opera House in Vienna, and the Sachertorte, the (still secret) recipe of which he had inherited, played no small part in spreading the fame of the hotel.

Franz Sacher ((Bécs, 1816 – Baden, 1907) osztrák cukrász, a híres Sacher-torta feltalálója.

Bécsben született 1816-ban. Metternich herceg bécsi palotájában volt szakácsinas. Konyhafőnöke betegsége idején, 16 évesen alkotta a meg a róla elnevezett és azóta védetté vált Sacher-tortát. Pár évvel később a mesterlevelét megszerezte és az Esterházy család szolgálatába állt. A magyar arisztokrata család zselízi birtokán (ma: Zeliezovce Szlovákia) született meg fia Eduard Sacher,

a szállodaalapító, aki később a császárvárosban, az operaház mellett 1876-ban nyitotta meg szállodájával együtt előkelő cukrászdáját. A Sacher család gróf Széchenyi István hívására előbb az akkori magyar fővárosba, Pozsonyba (ma: Bratislava) ment, ahol a csalédfő tiszti vendéglőnek számító „Úri Kaszinó" konyháját vezette. A Pozsonyban kikötő dunai gőzösöket is ő látt a el élelemmel, mint a mai „cateringesek” korai előfutára. Később a Pesti Vigadó konyhafőnöke lett, és az Dunagőzhajózási Társaság éttermeinek vezetését vette át. Az 1848-as forradalmat követően végleg hazatért Bécsbe. 1881-ben családjával a Bécs melletti alsó-ausztriai Badenbe költözött, ahol 1907-ben bekövetkezett haláláig élt.

Isaac Merritt Singer and his famous Machine

Isaac Merritt Singer was born in the hamlet of Johnsonville, in the town of Pittstown, Rensselaer County, NY, on 27 October 1811. He was the youngest son of Adam SINGER and his first wife, Ruth BENSON. Adam SINGER is said to have been a German immigrant from Saxony whose birth name was Adam REISINGER. One German source says that Reisinger was a Jewish family. It is not known how many children Adam Singer and Ruth Benson had, but there were at least two sons and a daughter; the daughter's name was Elizabeth.

Isaac was married for the first time in 1830, to Catharine Maria Haley. Then, they moved to New York City, probably in 1831. They seem to have lived there with her parents for a time. By the summer of 1833 they had again moved, this time to Otsego County, New York. Isaac had worked in his older brother's machine shop before marriage and learnt the machinists trade there; in Otsego in the village of Fly Creek Isaac was again working in a machine shop, this time owned by George Pomeroy.

Isaac had two children by Catharine: William, born in 1834, and Lillian, born in 1837. In 1835 he moved with Catherine and their young son William to New York City, working in a press shop. In 1836, he left the city as an agent for a company of players, touring through Baltimore, where he met Mary Ann Sponsler, to whom he proposed marriage. He returned with Mary Ann to New York in 1837. That year Isaac had two children born: his wife Catherine gave him Lillian, and Mary Ann gave him a son. His domestic life with Catharine did not prosper after this, but they were not officially divorced until 1860.

After Mary Ann arrived in New York and found out that Singer was already married, she and Singer returned to Baltimore, presenting themselves as a married couple.

By 1850, when Singer saw his first sewing machine, it had been "invented" four times. All sewing machines before Walter Hunt's produced a chain stitch, which had the disadvantage of easily unravelling. Hunt's machine produced a lock stitch, as did all subsequent machines including Lerow and Blodgett's, which Singer in turn improved in Phelps's shop. Elias Howe independently developed a sewing machine and obtained a patent on September 10, 1846.

War broke out between Howe and Singer, with each claiming patent primacy. Singer set out to discover that Howe's improvements had been reinventions of existing technology, and found one of Hunt's old machines, which indeed created a lock-stitch with a shuttle. Hunt applied in 1853 for a patent, claiming priority to Howe's patent, issued some seven years earlier. A lawsuit, Hunt v. Howe, came to trial in 1854, and was resolved in Howe's favor. Howe then brought suit to stop Singer from selling Singer machines, and protracted litigation ensued.

In 1856, manufacturers Grover, Baker, Singer, Wheeler, and Wilson, all accusing the others of patent infringement, met in Albany, New York to pursue their suits. Orlando B. Potter, a lawyer and president of the Grover and Baker Company, proposed that, rather than sue their profits out of existence, they pool their patents. This was the first patent pool, a process which enables production of complicated machines without legal battles over patent rights. They agreed to form the Sewing Machine Combination, but for this to be of any use they had to secure the cooperation of Elias Howe, who still held certain vital uncontested patents which meant he received a royalty on every sewing machine manufactured by any company. Terms were arranged, and Howe joined on. Sewing machines began to be mass produced: I. M. Singer & Co manufactured 2,564 machines in 1856, and 13,000 in 1860 at a new shop on Mott Street in New York.

Sewing machines had until now been industrial machines, made for tailors, but smaller machines began to be marketed for home use. I. M. Singer expanded into the European market, establishing a factory in Clydebank, near Glasgow, controlled by the parent company, becoming one of the first American-based multinational corporations, with agencies in Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

The financial success gave Singer the ability to buy a mansion on Fifth Avenue, into which he moved his second family. In 1860, he divorced Catherine, on the basis of her adultery with Stephen Kent. He continued to live with Mary Ann, until she spotted him driving down Fifth Avenue seated beside one Mary McGonigal, an employee, about whom Mary Ann had well-founded suspicions, for by this time Mary McGonigal had borne Isaac Singer five children. The surname Matthews was used for this family. Mary Ann (still calling herself Mrs. I. M. Singer) had her husband arrested for bigamy. Singer was let out on bond and, disgraced, fled to London in 1862, taking Mary McGonigal with him. In the aftermath, another of Isaac's families was discovered: he had a "wife" Mary Eastwood Walters and daughter Alice Eastwood in Lower Manhattan, who both adopted the surname "Merritt". By 1860, Isaac had fathered and recognized eighteen children (sixteen of them remaining alive), by four women.

In 1863, I. M. Singer & Co. was dissolved by mutual consent, with the business continued as "The Singer Manufacturing Company," enabling the reorganization of financial and management responsibilities. Singer no longer actively participated in the firm's day-to-day management, but served as a member of the Board of Trustees (even though he now lived in Europe) and was a major stockholder.

He now began to increase his new family: he would eventually have six children with his wife Isabella. Unable, probably because of Isaac's chequered marital past, to enter New York society, the family emigrated to Paris, never to return to the United States. Fleeing the Franco-Prussian War, they resided first in London, then in Paignton, (near Torquay) on the Devon coast where he built a large house, Oldway Mansion. He brought some of his other children to live there. Nine days after the wedding of his daughter Alice Merritt to William Alonso Paul La Grove, Isaac Singer died of "an affection of the heart and inflammation of the wind-pipe." He was interred in Torquay cemetery.

Singer left an, leaving some out for various reasons. Suits followed, with Mary Anne claiming to be the legitimate "Mrs. Singer". In the end Isabella was declared the legal widow. Isabella remarried in 1879 with Dutch musician Victor Reubsaet and settled in Paris. After his death in 1887, she remarried in 1891 with Paul Sohège.

Isaac's 18th child Winnaretta Singer married Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard in 1887, when she was 22. After annulment of this marriage in 1891, she married Prince Edmond de Polignac in 1893. She would become a prominent patron of French avant-garde music, e.g., Erik Satie composed his Socrate as one of her commissions (1918). As a lesbian she became involved with Violet Trefusis from 1923 on. Another of Isaac's daughters, Isabelle-Blanche (born 1869) married Jean, duc Decazes (Daisy Fellowes was their daughter). Isabelle committed suicide in 1896. A brother to Winnaretta and Isabelle, Paris Singer, had a child by Isadora Duncan. Another brother, Washington Singer, became a substantial donor to the University College of the southwest of England, which later became the University of Exeter; one of the university's buildings is named in his honour.

Isaac M. Singer 1811-ben született az amerikai Pittstownban, a varrógép legsikeresebb fejlesztője.
Singer színésznek ugyan nem volt kiemelkedő tehetség, viszont félelmetes érzéke volt mindenféle műszaki dologhoz. Sok találmánya és sok szabadalma volt, de a balszerencse is üldözte, így negyven éves koráig csak tengődött. 1851-ben azonban egy elromlott varrógép javításával bízták meg, ő pedig Howe masinája alapján 11 nap alatt kifejlesztett egy sokkal hatékonyabb, folyamatos varrásra is alkalmas eszközt. A szabadalom miatt hosszú éveken át pereskedett Howe-val, viszont a procedúrának köszönhetően találkozott az ügyvéd Edward Clarkkal, akit felvett cégéhez. A családcentrikus, becsületes Clark tökéletes ellentéte volt a bohém, csapodár Singernek. Magánemberként nem jöttek ki jól, de üzletileg remekül kiegészítették egymást. Clark reklámkampányainak és üzleti érzékének köszönhetően 1865-re a vállalatnak 29 országban voltak gyárai, Singer tehetségéből pedig 20 szabadalmaztatott találmányra futotta. Nagyjából 15 millió dolláros vagyonát halála után 23 gyermeke között osztották fel.

Donna Karan

Donna Karan (born October 2, 1948 as Donna Ivy Faske) is the fashion designer and the creator of the DKNY (Donna Karan New York) clothing label.

She was born Donna Ivy Faske on October 2, 1948 in Forest Hills, Queens.^[1] She grew up in Woodmere, Long Island with her stepfather, a tailor, and her mother, a model. Karan started selling clothing on Cedarhurst, New York's Central Avenue at age 14.^[2] She graduated from Hewlett High School in 1966 and then went on to Parsons The New School for Design for two years. She left to work for Anne Klein. Eventually she became head of the Anne Klein design-team and remained in this position until 1989. At that time, she launched the Essentials line, and her legendary "Seven Easy Pieces." She married Mark Karan in the early 1970s.

The European DKNY business was damaged in the early 1990s by poor quality and flawed logistics which resulted in the creation of a European supply center in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The company later announced to show their collection at the Milan fashion week in 1996 but later backed out again.

Karan is the founder of many charities including, most recently, the Urban Zen initiative. On March 14 and 15 2008, Karan organized a huge sale of her personal belongings and vintage company samples at her late husband's studio to benefit the cause. In October 2008, a foundation run by Karan donated $850,000 to New York's Beth Israel Medical Center. The grant will be used for testing whether yoga, meditation and aromatherapy can enhance the traditional cancer treatments of chemotherapy and radiation.[1]

She lives in Lawrence, Nassau County, New York. She studies Kabbalah.

In mid-1997 Donna Karan quit as CEO of the company but has officially remained chairwoman and designer in charge of the Donna Karan line. Actually, the line these days is designed by Peter Speliopoulos, a talented former Cerruti designer, with Karan contributing little subtleties or even entire new creations. The DKNY line is entirely designed by Jane Chung, a Karan employee since the days at Anne Klein. Most merchandise is licensed. Liz Claiborne markets the DKNY Jeans and Active brands lines, and Estée Lauder is in charge for the cosmetics business. In 1997, Donna Karan signed licensing deals with Wacoal America for men's and women's DKNY intimate apparel, Esprit for DKNY children's apparel, Phillips Van Heusen for DKNY men's dress shirts, Mallory & Church for DKNY men's ties and hosiery, Peerless Clothing for DKNY suits and sport coats, and Max Leather for belts and small leather goods.

In 1998, things had turned for DKNY: a men's dress shirt sells now for up to $125 while a Calvin Klein sportswear dress shirt is almost half. The couture Donna Karan Signature line for men, which was comparable to the men's line of Calvin Klein Collection, has been pulled from the market.

In November 2001, LVMH (Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy) fashion giant completes the acquisition of DKNY Inc. in a $243 million deal.

As of October 2006, Mark Weber is CEO of Donna Karan International.

In August 2008, Donna Karan relaunched her discontinued fragrance line from the 1990s. These include DK Fuel for Men, Signature, Chaos, and Black Cashmere. They are available exclusively in the United States at Bergdorf Goodman New York and in England at Harrods Knightsbridge.

The first DKNY flagship store opened in 1999 at Madison Avenue and 60th in New York. According to the company's web site there are Donna Karan stores in New York, Manhasset, Boston, Costa Mesa, London, Singapore, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Las Vegas and Dubai. The Donna Karan store in Berlin was closed in December 2001. The DKNY label has its own stores, located predominantly in retail shopping malls. Apart from DKNY stores in New York, Costa Mesa, Short Hills, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, there are international outlets in London, Antwerp, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai, Tel Aviv and Montreal, as well as Cancún, Barcelona, Ankara, Manchester, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Beirut, and Athens among others. In addition, there are so-called Donna Karan Company stores, predominantly located within outlet malls, which sell the merchandise at reduced prices.

Since 2005, Donna Karan has offered online shopping of its DKNY and associated lines at the label's web site. Products range from DKNY and DKNY Jeans womenswear, accessories, underwear, shoes, baby clothing, the PURE collection to DKNY menswear. The latter was available up until the spring 2007 season. Since then only the DKNY Jeans label, underwear, eyewear and watches have been offered online for men.

The company maintains design studios, showrooms and offices at 550 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan) (headquarters) and 240 W. 40th St. in New York City.

Donna Ivy Faske 1948. október 2-án született New Yorkban. Szabó édesapja 3 éves korában meghalt, így szintén a divatiparban tevékenykedő mostohaapja és modell édesanyja nevelte Long Island Hewlett városában. Az ottani gimnáziumban érettségizett 1966-ban, majd a Parson's School of Design-ban tanult tovább.

Az iskolában töltött két év után nyári munkára vették fel, majd a diploma megszerzése után főállásban csatlakozott Anne Klein csapatához, akinek a halála után a tervező részleg fejévé vált. 1982-ben megalkotta az Anne Klein II kollekciót, a divatház kifejezésmódjának megfelelő ruhákkal, de már saját stílusjegyeit is láttatni engedte. 1984-ig maradt a pozíciójában, mert saját kollekciója megvalósítása mellett döntött, amit egy évvel később a nappalijában mutatott be, és nem várt sikert aratott vele.

Számtalanszor jutalmazták, többek között: 1977-ben megnyerte a Coty American Fashion Critics díját, amit 1982-ben ismét neki ítéltek. Két évvel később - szintén a Coty - szerepeltette az év legjobbjai listáján; bevezették a Coty Hall of Fame-be. 1990-ben a Divattervezők tanácsa az év nőiruha-, majd rá két évre az év férfiruha tervezőjének nevezte. 1996-ban megint a női kollekciójáért jutalmazták, és életműdíjat kapott 2004-ben.

Donna Karant a divatvilágban az elasztikus ruhái, valamint az Essentials vonala tette híressé. Utóbbi hét darabból álló, egymással könnyedén kombinálható, egységes öltözeteket jelentett. Ahogy egyre több amerikai nő vetette meg a lábát az üzleti életben, keresetté váltak az elegáns, kifinomult darabok, főként feketében, fehérben és szürkében. Olyan ruhákat tervez, amelyeket ő maga is hordana. A pletykák szerint nem enged ki egyetlen darabot sem műhelyeiből, amíg fel nem próbálta őket, és nézte meg, hogy neki jól állnak-e. Ruháit nem modellekre, hanem igazi, mindennapi nőkre tervezi, akik kényelmes, ugyanakkor stílusos darabokat szeretnének.1973-ban ment feleségül Mark Karan butiktulajdonoshoz, akitől egy lánya, Gabrielle született. Donna Karan New York nevű kollekcióját lánya tinédzserré válásakor ötölte ki; úgy döntött, a fiatalabb generációnak is tervezni akar. A DKNY kollekció darabjai olcsóbbak és fiatalosabbak, ugyanakkor stílusosak és exkluzívak.

Válása után Stephan Weiss szobrásszal házasodott össze; két gyerekük született. Weiss annak idején a cégalapításban, valamint az üzleti teendőkben is sokat segített. A férfi 1995-ben vonult vissza, hogy életét és energiáit teljesen a szobrászatnak szentelhesse.

1987-ben egykori iskolája díszdoktorrá avatta, és az igazgatótanács tagjává választotta.

Kötelességének érzi, hogy ismertségét jótékony célokra fordítsa, így pl. alapítványt hozott létre az AIDS elleni figyelemfelkeltés oktatására, többek között pedig egy rákellenes alapítványt is támogat.

Gedeon Richter

Gedeon Richter (Ecséd, 1872. september 23. – Budapest, 1944. december 30.), the introducer of large-scale Hungarian pharmaceutical production was born in Ecséd. At the medical faculty of the Royal Hungarian University of Sciences in Budapest he obtained a diploma of pharmaceutics. After the university he underwent a lengthy West-European study-tour. He returned to Hungary and bought a pharmacy in Budapest there he commenced experimenting with and preparing pharmaceutical products. They were initially comprised of products prepared from animal parts through organotherapy.

In 1907 he started the first Hungarian pharmaceutical factory called Richter Gedeon Chemical Factory that became very famous in the continent. The equipment of the factory was up to the contemporary technical standard, analysing and research laboratories were also attached to the plants. Richter and his collaborators prepared a series of new medicaments and manufacturing processes. At the beginning the organotherapical preparations distributed with the brand name Hormogland-Richter were significant, later standard galenic preparations and synthetic products as well as vitamins appeared on the scale of products. Among the galenic materials the most significant ones were the digitalis extracts applied in cardiology and the ergot extracts important in obstetrics.

One of the factory's first significant success was the pill "Kalmopyrin" patented in 1912, and an other pill called "Hyperol" was in great demand during World War I.

In the 1920's Gedeon Richter organised the first Hungarian biological laboratory which had important role in standardising active ingredients and in checking their quality. In a new research laboratory set up in the 1930's they worked out the semisynthetic production of steroid hormones isolated earlier from natural materials. In 1941 they solved the production of the first synthetic oestrogenic hormone, the silbestrol.

Richter realised soon that the industrial production of pharmaceuticals in a small country can only be viable, if it is supported by considerable export. In a short time he established a network of agents covering five continents and founded ten foreign affiliated firms.

During World War II Gedeon Richter had to renounce his ownership rights because of the laws of antisemitic politics, moreover he was banned from his factory from 1942. On December 30th, 1944 he was dragged away by a Hungarian nazi detachment and killed on the bank of the Danube.Richter Gedeon (Ecséd, 1872. szeptember 23. – Budapest, 1944. december 30.), a modern hazai gyógyszeripar megteremtője. Õ volt a modern hazai gyógyszeripar megteremtõje. Századunk elején az elsõk között ismerte fel hazánkban, hogy a gyógyszertári gyógyszerkészítés ideje lejárt, és csak a nagyüzemi gyógyszergyártásnak van jövõje.

1872 szeptember 23-án, Ecséden született. Szülei halála miatt 1873-tól árva gyerekként Gyöngyösön nevelkedett, ahol 1890-től gyógyszerészgyakornok volt. 1895-ben a Budapesti Tudományegyetemen gyógyszerész oklevelet szerzett kitűnő minősítéssel. 1897-ben külföldre utazott és több nagy, fõként német, olasz, angol és francia gyógyszertárban, gyógyszervegyészeti laboratóriumban és gyógyszergyárban tanulmányozta a nagyipari gyógyszergyártás módszereit. E tanulmányútja során figyelt fel az akkoriban kibontakozó hormonkutatásra és az új organo- és kemoterápiás gyógyszerekre.

Hazatérve, 1901-ben, atyai örökségbõl megvásárolta Budapesten az Üllõi út és a Márton utca sarkán a -- ma is meglévõ -- Sashoz címzett patikát. Ott gyógyszervegyészeti laboratóriumot rendezett be, s állati szervekbõl ún. organoterápiás gyógyszereket állított elõ. Ez nemzetközi viszonylatban is úttörő tevékenység volt, mert akkoriban a külföldi gyárak még kizárólag növényi kivonatokból állították elõ készítményeiket. Richter elsõ organoterápiás készítményét, a vérnyomást növelõ mellékvesekéreg-hormon kivonatát (adrenalin), a Tonogen suprarenalét még ma is használják a gyógyászatban. Richter még abban az évben két másik belsõ elválasztású hormont tartalmazó szert is elõállított: a pajzsmirigy hatóanyagát tartalmazó Thyrecidát, és a petefészek hatóanyagát tartalmazó Ovarium nevû készítményt.

Richter készítményei iránt olyannyira megnõtt az érdeklõdés, hogy az igényeket az Üllõi úti Sas-patika gyógyszervegyészeti üzeme nem tudta kielégíteni. Ezért 1906-ban Kõbányán, a Cserkesz utcában egy év alatt felépítette az első korszerű hazai gyógyszergyárat. Az agyalapi mirigy hátsó lebenyének - a hipofízisnek - kivonatát tartalmazó, anyaméh-összehúzó hatású hormonális készítménye, a Glandutrin már az új gyárban készült.

A gyár elsõ nagy sikere az 1912-ben szabadalmaztatott Kalmopyrin volt, a Hyperol nevű fertőtlenítő tabletta pedig az I. világháborúban kapott jelentõs szerepet. A Richter-gyárnak az elsõ világháború kitörésekor már 24 gyógyszerszabadalma volt, a második világháború elején pedig már öt világrészre kiterjedő képviseleti hálózattal és 10 leányvállalattal rendelkezett a cég. Ezekben az években a Richter Gedeon Vegyészeti Gyár az egyik legjobban szervezett és elismert magyar külkereskedelmi nagyvállalat volt.

1942-ben zsidó törvények miatt megfosztották vezérigazgatói tisztségétől, majd a gyárból is kitiltották. 1942-től bizalmas munkatársai útján otthonából illegálisan irányította a céget. 1944 őszén a gyár tevékenysége szinte teljesen megbénult, még Svájcba távozhatott volna, de nem akarta elhagyni vállalatát. Decemberben Richter Gedeont kivégezték a nyilasok, sokakkal együtt a Dunába lőtték. A világháború után az újjáépült Richter gyár Kőbányai Gyógyszerárugyár néven működött. 1972-ben Richter Gedeon születésének 100. évfordulóján Richter-emlékérmet alapítottak és a volt Üllői úti Sas gyógyszertárat emléktáblával jelölték meg.

Barry Diller

Barry Diller (born 2 February 1942) is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp and the media executive responsible for the creation of Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting.
Barry Diller was born February 2, 1942 in San Francisco, California, where he was raised and began his career through a family connection in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency after dropping out of UCLA after one semester. In 2001 he married fashion designer Diane von Fürstenberg. He is a life-long Democrat and supporter of progressive causes.
He was hired by ABC in 1966 and was soon placed in charge of negotiating broadcast rights to feature films. He was promoted to vice president in charge of feature films and program development in 1969. In this position, Diller created the ABC Movie of the Week, pioneering the concept of the made-for-television movie through a regular series of 90-minute films produced exclusively for television.
Diller served for ten years as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Paramount Pictures Corporation starting in 1974. With Diller at the helm, the studio produced hit television programs such as Laverne & Shirley (1976), Taxi (1978), and Cheers (1982) and films ranging from Saturday Night Fever (1977), and Grease (1978) to Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and its sequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) to Terms of Endearment (1983) and Beverly Hills Cop (1984).
From October 1984 to April 1992, he held the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fox Inc, parent company of Fox Broadcasting Company and 20th Century Fox, where he greenlighted hits like The Simpsons. Diller quit 20th Century-Fox in 1992 and purchased a $25 million stake in QVC teleshopping network. Diller resigned from QVC in 1995.
In 1997, Diller acquired the assets of Silver King Broadcasting, the collective group of over-the-air TV stations owned by then Bud Paxson's Home Shopping Network as well as the Home Shopping Network itself. Along with this acquisition, Diller also purchased the rights to the USA Network from the Bronfman family. Due to Home Shopping getting more notoriety on the cable networks from his former dealings with the QVC Network, Diller sought to repurpose the broadcast stations into independent, locally-run stations as part of a station group dubbed USA Broadcasting of which the flagship station was WAMI-TV in Miami Beach, FL. The purpose of the network was to have the flagship, WAMI, produce sports and news programming while testing general interest programming for the other stations in the group, of which the general interest programming would be locally produced by the other stations in the group. Due to the high costs involved with producing and acquiring talent for shows outside the typical areas of New York, NY and Los Angeles, CA, plus the significantly low ratings such shows received in Miami Beach, the remaining shows were moved to Los Angeles to regain traction, but never did. Diller eventually sold the TV assets to Univision after rejecting a bid from The Walt Disney Company. The USA Network and its assets were later sold off to Vivendi. Diller retained the assets of the Home Shopping Network and the subsequent Internet assets he acquired later to bolster the HSN Online stable that later became IAC/InterActiveCorp.

Diller is currently the Chairman of Expedia and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp, an interactive commerce conglomerate and the parent of companies including ServiceMagic, Home Shopping Network, Ticketmaster, Match.com, Citysearch, LendingTree and Connected Ventures, home of Vimeo and CollegeHumor. In 2005, IAC/InterActiveCorp acquired Ask.com, marking a strategic move into the Internet search category. Diller has been on the board of The Coca-Cola Company since 2002. The new headquarters of IAC/InterActiveCorp was designed by Frank Gehry and opened in 2007 at 18th Street and the West Side Highway in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, an epicenter of the city's gay community. The western half of the block is dedicated to the building which stands several stories taller than the massive Chelsea Piers Sporting complex just across the West Side Highway. The extra floors guarantee a panoramic Hudson River view from Diller's sixth-floor office.

In 2001, Diller married fashion designer and longtime friend Diane von Fürstenberg.

In 2003, on the PBS TV program NOW with Bill Moyers, Diller vocalized a strong warning against media consolidation. In the interview he referred to media ownership by a few big corporations as an oligarchy, saying the concentration strangles new ideas.

Barry Diller was "the highest-paid executive [of 2005 fiscal year]" according to a report by The New York Times on Thursday, October 26, 2006 with a total compensation package in excess of $295 million.^[4] In an opinion article in the New York Times of Nov 7, 2006, Nicholas D. Kristof awarded him his annual Michael Eisner Award, consisting of a $5 shower curtain, for corporate rapacity and laziness.
Diller is responsible for what the media dubs "The Killer Dillers" – people whom Diller mentored and who later became big-time media executives in their own right. Examples include Michael Eisner (who was President & COO of Paramount Pictures while Diller was Chairman & CEO of Paramount Pictures, who went on to become Chairman & CEO of The Walt Disney Company), Dawn Steel (future head of Columbia Pictures and the first woman to run a movie studio, who worked under Diller at Paramount), Jeffrey Katzenberg (head of PDI/DreamWorks Animation, principal of DreamWorks SKG, former head of Walt Disney Studios, and a head of production of Paramount under Diller), Garth Ancier, President of BBC America, and Don Simpson, who was President of Production at Paramount under Diller and Eisner, was also included – he later went on to run a production company based on the Disney lot with Jerry Bruckheimer. Diller also had a well known heated working relationship with the controversial TV executive, Stephen Chao, whom he worked with at Fox Television and later hired as President of Programming and Marketing at USA Network.
Barry Diller is the owner of the sailing yacht EOS; at 93 metres it is the largest sailing yacht in the world.

Szövetségesei és ellenségei ódákat zengenek intelligenciájáról, emberismeretéről, tárgyalási technikáiról, kisugárzásáról és arról a képességéről, ahogyan a maga malmára képes hajtani a vállalati intrikák hullámait. Nem tartozik a sztárként kezelt médiamogulok közé, pedig kevesen bírnak annyi tapasztalattal, mint ő, aki bejárta a szórakoztatóipar és a médiavilág minden szegletét. A televíziózásban korszakalkotó formulákat talált ki (a hét filmje, a négyrészes mini-sorozat); 30 évesen mindenfajta idevágó gyakorlat nélkül lett hollywoodi stúdiófőnök (felturbósította a gyengélkedő Paramountot, majd a Foxot); dolgozott keménykezű tulajdonosoknak (Rupert Murdoch, John Malone); önállósult, felfejlesztette cégét, egy vagyonért adott túl rajta (a USA Networks 10,8 milliárd dollárt kóstált); a Forbes listáján a 400 leggazdagabb üzletember között szerepelt. Miután a nyáron nem sikerült megszereznie az eladósodott Vivendit, most az internetre kacsingat. Napóleon és Machiavelli keveréke nem az a típus, aki feladja.

Szülei ingatlanfejlesztők voltak, Beverly Hillsben nevelkedett fel, 19 évesen otthagyta az egyetemet (a rangos UCLA-t), és a William Morris ügynökség kifutófiújaként kezdte az ipart, majd családi kapcsolatok révén került az ABC programigazgatóságára. Későbbi fontos kollégája, Michael Eisner (jelenleg a Disney elnöke) így eleveníti fel könyvében első találkozásukat az ABC-nél: "Megdöbbentett, hogy a feje már akkor erősen kopaszodott. Bekísért az irodájába, anélkül, hogy bemutatkozott volna. Az állásinterjú alatt, amely húsz percig tartott, mindvégig udvarias volt, de látszott, hogy nem sokat törődik velem. Valahányszor kigyulladt egy gomb a telefonon, felkapott egy fülhallgatót, egy percig hallgatott, aztán folytatta a beszélgetésünket." Eisner ezután vacsorázni ment azzal a férfivel, aki beajánlotta őt az ABC-hez. "Azt mondtam a férfiról, hogy elég alacsony. "Nem az." Megemlítettem, hogy kopaszodik. "Ez sem igaz." A viselkedése kapkodó és kizárólag üzletre vonatkozik. "Ez lehetséges, de mindazok alapján, amit elmondtál, szerintem az asszisztensével találkoztál. Barry Dillerrel." Eisner később tudta meg: az ABC-s asszisztensek körében bevett gyakorlat volt, hogy belehallgattak főnökeik telefonbeszélgetéseibe, hogy lépést tartsanak az eseményekkel.

Dillert 1968-ban 26 tévéfilm gyártásával bízták meg. A másfél órás alkotásokat egyenként 450 ezer dollárból kellett elkészíteni, ami a fele volt annak, amit akkoriban az NBC költött hasonló dramatikus programokra. Senki sem vállalkozott a gyártásukra. A filmstúdiók nem akartak ilyen olcsón gyártani, főleg nem a mozivászon riválisa számára. Diller független producerekhez fordult, akik éhesek voltak a munkára; így találta meg Aaron Spellinget, a Starsky és Hutch, a T. J. Hooker, a Melrose Place későbbi producerét. 1970-ben Los Angelesbe helyezték át, nemcsak azért, mert a filmkészítés ott összpontosult, hanem mert felettese a távolban szerette volna látni az eredményesen dolgozó, de olykor kezelhetetlen Dillert. Néhány éven belül az ABC esti főműsoridejét heti három nap az ő programjai töltötték ki. Élen járt az olcsó, ám társadalmi témájukkal annál nagyobb érdeklődésre számot tartó doku-drámák gyártásában (homoszexualitás, vietnami háború, drogok), és ő indította el a Gyökerek című sorozatot is. 1973-ban honosította meg a négyrészes mini-széria formuláját (ma a televíziózás alapvető panelje), amikor 12 órás verziót rendelt Irwin Shaw Rich Man, Poor Man című könyvéből. A baljóslatú vélekedések ellenére a sorozat nagy siker aratott, amikor 1976-ben képernyőre került. Programjai ugyan sikeresek voltak, de az ABC évről-évre utolsó helyen végzett a csatornák nézettségi összesítésében.

"Diller felfelé bukott" - jegyezte meg a Variety, amikor a Paramountot birtokló Gulf & Western feje, Charles Bluhdorn őt kérte fel a stúdió társelnökévé, Frank Yablans mellé - annak ellenére, hogy Diller alkalmazottként sose tette be a lábát egyetlen filmstúdióba, nemhogy vezetőként. 32 éves volt ekkor. Lecserélte banánnak tetsző, sárga Jaguárját, és fejest ugrott a feladatba. Apa-fiú kapcsolat alakult ki Bluhdorn és Diller között, a főnök gyakran vendégül látta a Dominikai Köztársaságban álló birtokán, ahol Henry Kissinger-féle nagyságok fordultak meg rendszeresen, és már Diller "kiházasításán" törte a fejét, hogy ne csak remek vezetőt, de apát faragjon belőle (ami nem vált valóra).
"Bluhdorn azt remélte, hogy a két férfi közötti versengés helyre teszi Yablans elharapózó egóját, és mindkettejükből a legjobb munkát hozza ki. Csodálta azt a ravaszságot, amellyel Diller az üzleteket kötötte és a beosztottjait kezelte" - írja könyvében Peter Bart. Diller bevetette az általa "folyamatos kirúgás"-nak nevezett módszert: elszigetelni valakit az eseményektől, ellehetetleníteni őt az információk visszatartásával. Vetélytársa, Yablans hat hét múltán feladta, és kilépett! Miután gyorsan megvált az előző rezsimtől, maga mellé hívta ABC-s kollégáját, Michael Eisnert társelnöknek. Ő is filmes munkatapasztalat nélkül érkezett a posztra, 34 évesen.

Az elkövetkező tíz évben Hollywood óriásai közé hozták fel a sereghajtó stúdiót. 1977 és 1982 között megháromszorozták a forgalmat, és a profitot 13 millióról több mint 100 millióra tornázták fel! Sikerük lényege az úgynevezett "high concept" volt, ami elvetette a nyolcvanas évek popkultúrájába beágyazott filmiparának magjait: ha van egy világos, egyszerű ötleted, ami egy film alapja lehet, és ezt el tudod mondani egy-két mondatban, akkor nagy az esélyed, hogy ebből sikerfilm lesz. Az a film, amely nem egy érthető ötleten vagy történeten alapul, csak rétegfilm lehet, mert a nagyközönség nem fogja azzal fárasztani magát, hogy megértse. Ebből nőtt ki a mai folytatásokra és franchise-lehetőségekre koncentráló, kockázatkerülő filmipar. Elvégre Diller irányítása alatt készültek az első Star Trek- és Indiana Jones-mozifilmek. Ellenségei ezért jegyezik meg, hogy sosem tartozott az ágazat kreatív figurái közé: "Neki a filmek mindig termékek voltak. Ezért árul most trikókat a Home Shopping-nál", mondta egy megfigyelő a kilencvenes évek végén. A high concept szellemében fogtak bele forgatókönyvek fejlesztésébe, és nem vártak az ügynökségek javaslataira, az úgynevezett packagingre, amely a rendezőt, írót/könyvet, színészt együtt kínáló, ügynökségi jutalékkal megfejelt "csomagokat" jelenti. Nem mentek bele a népszerű könyvek filmes jogaira utazó stúdiós licitálásokba sem - mindabba, ami mára elengedhetetlenné vált a hollywoodi versenyben. A Paramount égisze alatt olyan filmek születtek, mint a Beverly Hills-i zsaru, a Flashdance, a Footlose, a Szombat esti láz, a Grease, az American Gigolo, a Benjamin közlegény, az Airplane!, meg művészfilmek, mint az Átlagemberek, a Becéző szavak, a Vörösök, az Atlantic City, a Mennyei napok, az Elefántember.

Diller és Eisner a stúdió pénzügyi stabilitását tartották elsődlegesnek. Az iparági átlag alatt tartották filmjeik költségvetését, és ahol nem bíztak a sikerben, még a forgatás során partnereket hoztak be, hogy minimalizálják a stúdió lehetséges veszteségét. Így ment a váratlanul nagyot durranó Flashdance profitja stúdión kívüli zsebekbe, vagy a Vörösök - Oscar-díjainak köszönhető - szerény nyeresége a Barclay's Bank kasszájába. Máskor már a finanszírozást is külső résztvevőkkel oldották meg, az amerikai adókedvezmények révén chicagói, New York-i fogorvosok és ügyvédek adták össze a filmek költségvetését, a jogszabály-módosítások után pedig az angol adótörvényeket kihasználva szereztek brit támogatókat. Elsőként kezdték el lábon eladni gyártás előtt álló filmjeiket (pre-sale) a tévécsatornáknak.

Bluhdorn halála után az új tulajdonos azzal próbálta magához láncolni a stúdió vezéreit, hogy megfosztotta őket hűséges középvezetőiktől. Így került szorításba Eisner is. Diller eleinte palástolta a veszélyt, de aztán - hamarosan lejáró szerződése tudatában - már csak másfelé kacsingatott. 1984. szeptember 12-én a lejtmenetbe került Foxhoz szerződött, hogy fellendítse a bizniszt. Tíz nappal később Eisnert a Disney - ismét egy szebb napokat látott birodalom - elnöke lett.
Még alig ült le a székébe a Foxnál, 1985-ben tulajdonosváltás történt a stúdió felett, és a hiperkonzervatív Rupert Murdoch lett Diller új főnöke. A két mogul ambíciói találkoztak: Diller valóra válthatta nagy álmát, hogy létrehozza a "nagy három" (NBC, ABC, CBS) vetélytársát. Kétmilliárd (!) dollárért megvett egy hálózatot, amely az USA nyolc nagyvárosában működő csatornát fogott egybe, és a lakosság 23 százalékát érte el. Erre építette rá a negyedik országos tévécsatornát, a Fox Broadcastingot, amely eleinte csak hetente két este sugárzott programot. Három évbe telt, míg teljes műsoridejű csatornává vált, főként olyan sikerekkel, mint a Simpson család vagy később a Power Rangers. A filmstúdióról sem feledkezett el, 1989-ben a magyar származású Joe Rothot nevezte ki az élére, aki olyan családi mozik bevételeivel járult hozzá a News Corp. mérlegéhez, mint a Reszkessetek, betörők! és a Mrs. Doubtfire.

Dillernek az évek során egyre inkább elege lett abból, hogy a más birodalmát építi. Ötvenéves korára elmondhatta, hogy három médiakonszernt vezetett, és mindet nyereségesen. Eredményein felbuzdulva Murdoch-kal egyenrangú pozícióra törekedett, ám ez nem volt az ausztrál mogul ínyére. 1992-ben nyilvánosan kijelentette, hogy még egyszer nem fog másnak dolgozni - és önállósította magát...

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Forrás: Hullámvadász Médiaportál