It was the year Mike and Mike...

It was the year Mike and Mike split, the Cable Guy’s reception was fuzzy and the Mouth from the South had a lot to say, especially about the media baron from Australia.

How much do you remember from the past year in entertainment? Here’s a Company Town quiz to help remember . . .

1) What does “$735 million” represent?

a) The approximate domestic and international box-office gross for “Independence Day.”

b) The amount of money former Walt Disney Studios Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg wants Disney Chairman Michael Eisner to pay him.

c) The potential amount of severance money Michael Ovitz stands to gain from leaving Disney after 14 months as president.

2) What does the number “20 million” represent?

a) The number of dollars Jim Carrey was paid to star in “The Cable Guy.”

b) The number of producers, executive producers, associate producers and co-producers listed in the credits of a typical Hollywood movie.

c) The number of stuffed Quasimodo dolls from “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” marked down to 50% off the original price.

3) The phrase “50/50” represents which of the following:

a) The odds DreamWorks SKG will build a studio at Playa Vista.

b) The odds NBC on any given Thursday night will air a new “ER” episode instead of a rerun.

c) The odds Quentin Tarantino will direct a movie in the near future.

4) Identify the following people:

a) Junior Miles

b) Sam Roman

c) Edgar Bronfman Jr.

5) Name the heir apparent to the following moguls:

a) News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch

b) Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone

c) Disney Chairman Michael Eisner

6) Which of the following best describes the typical senior TV network executive today?:

a) Comes highly educated with a degree from a top university.

b) Aspires to have a lasting impact on the future of television.

c) Was in grade school when “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” originally aired.

7) True or False:

a) Sony Pictures bought the home of former Chairman Peter Guber for $5.5 million, then resold it for $2 million.

b) Viacom Inc. agreed to reimburse fired Chief Executive Frank Biondi $4,325 for a security system at his Martha’s Vineyard vacation home.

c) Disney bought a Gulfstream 3 jet from Creative Artists Agency after hiring CAA’s Michael Ovitz as president.

8) Match the insult:

a) “The antichrist”

b) “Hanoi Jane”

c) “The late Fuhrer”

d) “Scumbag”

e) “A pretty slimy character”

1) NBC West Coast chief Don Ohlmeyer on Michael Ovitz.

2) Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post on Ted Turner’s wife, Jane Fonda.

3) Ted Turner on Rupert Murdoch

4) Ted Turner on Rupert Murdoch

5) Ted Turner on Rupert Murdoch

9) Who said the following, Part I?

a) “Michael Ovitz is a great guy to work for--to work with.”

b) “It’s ludicrous.”

c) “Alan Levine continues to be responsible for the future direction and management of Sony Pictures Entertainment.”

10) Who said the following, Part II?

a) “I’m gizmoed out.”

b) “I’ve gone as far as I’m going to in this lifetime.”

c) “I would like to see him get what he deserves in the end . . . selling newspapers on the corner.”

11) The stock price for Time Warner Inc., the world’s largest media company, has been languishing below $40 a share for about three years. Where is it today?

12) Which of the following was the most commonly heard phrase in Hollywood in 1996?:

a) “Jim Carrey in a $40-million movie can’t miss.”

b) “It was a great film, but the marketplace is too crowded.”

c) “Sure the movie was a disappointment domestically, but Stallone is big in foreign.”

d) “Our contract says we don’t have to distribute every Interscope record.”

e) “I hear Ovitz is going to work at Sony.”

f) “I used to be an executive at Sony.”

Answers

1) a

2) a

3) Any of the above

4) a) Aspiring songwriter who co-wrote “When Love Goes” and “The Man Who Loves You.”

b) Aspiring songwriter who co-wrote “Whenever There is Love,” the title song for the Universal Studios Inc. film “Daylight.”

c) CEO of Universal Studios parent Seagram Co. and aspiring songwriter who writes under the pen names Junior Miles and Sam Roman.

5) a) not applicable

b) not applicable

c) not applicable

6) c

7) a) true

b) true

c) true

8) a-1

b-2

c-3

d-4

e-5

9) a) Former Walt Disney Chief Financial Officer Stephen Bollenbach upon leaving Disney to run Hilton Hotels. Bollenbach later openly trashed Ovitz in a Vanity Fair story.

b) Disney Chairman Michael Eisner, denying in September that there were tensions with Ovitz as president of Disney. Less than three months later, Ovitz agreed to leave, saying, “It is important to recognize when something is not working.”

c) Sony Corp. executives in a statement in August, two months before Levine was forced out.

10) a) Ted Turner

b) Ted Turner

c) Ted Turner (re: Murdoch)

11) Still languishing below $40 a share.

12) All of the above

One Down, Two to Go

Sunday’s Business section will include a quiz on the top business stories of 1996, and on Jan. 2, we test your knowledge of investment and finance in the year gone by.