powerlineblog--2019-08-08--Civil War as Entertainment

Civil War as Entertainment

Universal Pictures has produced a film called The Hunt (originally titled Red State vs. Blue State), which begins with rich liberals capturing “deplorables” from red states to hunt down and murder. If you lived in Dayton, Ohio, you might consider this a realistic premise, although I don’t think that is what the filmmakers had in mind. This is the trailer; if I interpret it correctly, the “deplorables” fight back and win what looks like a civil war. In that respect, one might say that the film is realistic.  Hollywood Reporter headlines: “Ads Pulled for Gory Universal Thriller ‘The Hunt’ in Wake of Mass Shootings.”  In the wake of a trio of deadly massacres, the studio is evaluating its strategy for the R-rated Blumhouse satire in which elites stalk “deplorables.” “Did anyone see what our ratfucker-in-chief just did?” one character asks early in the screenplay for The Hunt, a Universal Pictures thriller set to open Sept. 27. Another responds: “At least The Hunt’s coming up. Nothing better than going out to the Manor and slaughtering a dozen deplorables.”  Hollywood Reporter repeatedly refers to the film as a “satire.” Apparently standards for satire have slipped over the years. More:  In the aftermath of mass shootings within days of one another that shocked and traumatized the nation, Universal is re-evaluating its strategy for the certain-to-be-controversial satire. The violent, R-rated film from producer Jason Blum’s Blumhouse follows a dozen MAGA types who wake up in a clearing and realize they are being stalked for sport by elite liberals. Over the Aug. 3 weekend, ESPN pulled an ad for the film that it had previously cleared, while AMC ran the spot during the season premiere of its drama The Preacher. It’s unclear whether the ads were identical, but the one yanked by ESPN opened with a sound resembling an emergency broadcast signal. A rep for ESPN parent Disney declined to comment on the move, but an ESPN source says no spots for the film will appear on the network in the coming weeks. The Hunt stars Betty Gilpin from GLOW and Hilary Swank, representing opposite sides of the political divide. It features guns blazing along with other ultra-violent killings as the elites pick off their prey. The script from Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter revolves around third-rail political themes.  It is hard to say these days what “third-rail political themes” might be. Many on Twitter and other social media, along with mobs assembled–for example–on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s front lawn, are demanding that conservatives be murdered. Does echoing such homicidal intent in a movie constitute “satire”?  Hollywood Reporter points out that the track record of films analogous to The Hunt is not promising:  From a business perspective, The Hunt presents a gamble for Universal in these divided times. The satire Assassination Nation, which also pitted the woke versus the unwoke in uber-violent fashion, represented the top sale at Sundance 2018 at $10 million. But the film fizzled upon its release later that year, earning just $2 million with no international rollout. Says one person involved with that film, “We thought people would get the joke.”  Joke? What joke? Back to The Hunt:  The script for The Hunt features the red-state characters wearing trucker hats and cowboy shirts, with one bragging about owning seven guns because it’s his constitutional right. The blue-state characters — some equally adept with firearms — explain that they picked their targets because they expressed anti-choice positions or used the N-word on Twitter. “War is war,” says one character after shoving a stiletto heel through the eye of a denim-clad hillbilly. “Employees in different departments were questioning the wisdom of making such a movie in these times,” says one filmmaker with ties to Universal. “In light of the horrific [recent shootings], is this not the most craven, irresponsible, dangerous exploitation?”  Heh. I suppose it is. But when has that ever stopped Hollywood? I just hope that my reading of the trailer is correct, and the “deplorables” go from hunted to hunter.


prepareforchange--2019-06-14--The Satanic Entertainment Industry

The Satanic Entertainment Industry

If you believe that the music and entertainment industry is there simply to entertain us and make money in the process for its artists, promoters and producers, please think again.  Popular music especially and its highly-paid exponents are merely pawns of the Elite and are there in order to further manipulate our minds – especially those of impressionable youth and now even young children.  There is a long history of manipulation in the music industry, going back many, many years.  The music ‘business’ itself has actually been around since medieval times, but can only be referred to as a true ‘industry’ since the early nineteenth century with the simultaneous developments of the orchestra, the employment of conductors and certain publishing and printing innovations that allowed music to be easily transcribed, passed-on from person to person and to be sold as sheet music.  In the early eighteenth century, there is recorded to have been around 8500 composers of music in Europe alone and yet around 8400 of them, despite the fact that their music may have been brilliant or innovative, have never had their music extensively published or played, other than in small, localised concert halls and much of it is today now long-forgotten, lost or deliberately buried.  Why should this be?  Mainly because, as today, the music industry then had its favourites and certain personalities including the likes of Mozart, who whilst feted as a celebrity of his time, probably did not compose much of the music attributed to him then and since.  Mozart was simply a manufactured ‘focal point’ in effect, upon which the money-interests of the music business of the time could focus and from whom it could derive its profits, as was Beethoven.  This may well sound cynical and possibly unbelievable, but I can assure you that it is true.  How similar to today then?  Today’s music industry is rife with such characters, people who have been chosen and indeed ‘created’ to be focal points and the personalities, celebrities if you will, who carry the burden of providing profits for an intensely money-focussed industry, ultimately regardless of the degree of talent they may or may not possess.  Musical history does not wish us to be aware of this fact; it just wishes to continue to promote the popular icons of the day, focussing on an artificially generated, elite group of composers who with the passage of time have been placed on pedestals and thus made immortal, just as many famous rock stars have been made the ‘saints’ of the new religion that is music, today.  The involvement of occultists in the creation of the ‘superstars’ of their day, such as Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn, cannot be ignored.  Indeed the occult influence in music has always been a factor and today is absolutely rife throughout the whole of the music industry.  There is also a long history of connectivity from music to mind control going back to the 1950s when ‘pop music’ in its present form was first pushed upon an unsuspecting world by the mass-manipulators of the Frankfurt School and the Tavistock Institute and many performers, singers and members of bands are manipulated into promoting a satanic agenda by recording labels and producers who are also ‘up to their eyes’ in the deadly scheme.  Is it at all artistic for people to sing about pain, suffering, death, sadness and despair in such quantities and who would want to taint the formerly beautiful art of music with such things?  It is actually an essential aspect of the latter-day degeneration of music and the lowering of consciousness.  This works in the same vein as film and television programmes that seem to have now evolved into excessively depressing and/or violent experiences for the viewer, even for very young children who are being increasingly exposed to overt sex and violence and when those few who still actually care about such things complain or point it out they are often labelled as a ‘prude’ or ‘old-fashioned’.  Often today music is excessively depressing, replete with songs contain lyrics extolling the virtues of extreme selfishness, greed, violence, death, suicide and murder.  And this is not just in heavy metal (the previous chief culprit) any longer but has now been expanded to all forms of modern music even the ‘middle of the road’ ballads aimed at the younger, more impressionable generation.  Even fun ‘children’s’ pop music, the likes of which our children and grandchildren listen to all the time, is not immune and is often riddled with overt, sexually explicit and satanic and occult lyrics.  Interestingly, a huge number of artists have commented publicly and even composed songs about literally ‘selling their souls’ to the devil to further their musical careers.  Many well-known rock artists are well-versed in the occult and are aware that spiritual entities and multidimensional ‘demons’ can manifest themself through music of a lower vibrational nature.  They have admitted that they use rock music and the rhythms, the lower guttural tones, and their insidious lyrics to lower the vibrational levels of concerts and thus their attendees.  They have also even admitted countless times that they are possessed by their own music and have little control over where these vibrations lead them.  This is typical of almost any satanic ‘ritual’ or practice; the lowering of consciousness and allowing lower vibrational entities to control a person.  These practices often lead to complete loss of control and it was well known to the people at the last Woodstock anniversary concert that a form of ‘bad energy’ had manifested itself throughout the huge audience following many hours and days of extremely heavy, depressive and violent songs.  This information emanates from many sources; there have been many books written and several films made on the subject and many well-known artists have been exposed and even admitted themselves that this is taking place.  However, the idea that rock music is a tool of the ‘devil’ has been pushed so relentlessly by religious leaders and evangelists that people are now more often likely to laugh at or mock the idea, rather than take it seriously.  Nevertheless, well-known musicians are often reported as admitting to the practice of Satanism and their friends or colleagues will often mention that they have multiple personalities and that ‘what you see on the stage is not really that person’.  Unfortunately, rock and pop music has become mostly a grossly degenerative art form.  Some musicians are exempt from this tag, but the music industry contributes to this view generally by actually enhancing and promoting the popularity of the ‘heaviest’ bands or the most emotionally depressing artists.  The rock music of today is several magnitudes darker and more depressing than Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and other well-known ‘devil-rockers’ of past decades and at the time these bands were considered the very epitome of evil by the deeply religious.  Heavy metal music has now become almost completely demonic per se and many performers revel in this fact, openly flaunting it.  It is devolution of society and the art of music for the purpose of lowering the vibration of the consciousness in order to manipulate the youth of today into fulfilling the purposes of the Elite.  It is, in short the next baby-step on the road to the complete undermining of human society and the human psyche in order to exert control over minds.  As I say, many artists are aware of this and some became aware of the fact that they have been manipulated by the music industry or began to recollect memories of their brainwashing, either through the military or through ‘handlers’ who often happen to be their manager.  These are often the artists we know to have so famously died by ‘drug overdose’ or have suffered other strange deaths.  Many of these artists have either confided before their deaths in individuals who would later relay this information to those behind the scenes in the music industry or indeed may even ‘go public’ with their knowledge as did Michael Jackson shortly before his untimely demise at the hands of his ‘doctor’.  Jackson had been telling anyone and everyone during the period prior to his death that the CEO of Sony, Tommy Mottola (who by the way virtually owned Jackson body and soul, if not actually literally) was ‘the devil incarnate’.  A metaphor or figure of speech?  Maybe, maybe not.  The deeper that one delves into this murky pit, the more one realises that the ‘musical greats’ are often occultists with exceptional talent and who are intentionally using that talent to manipulate the consciousness of listeners.  However, I also believe that many of the ‘household-name’ musicians early in their careers are lured into a subtle trap baited with money and fame but then once their handlers in the recording companies completely sink their claws and teeth into them, they realise that they are caught, with no possible escape route and thus are condemned to continue with their charade for the rest of their careers, which often ends prematurely for one reason or another.  The premature end to musical careers can and does occur for several reasons.  Obviously, there are some genuine cases of accidental drug overdoses, but I am equally sure that some of these are murders and some suicides.  But in any case we should also then ask the question as to why drug overdose and suicide (murder?) is so prevalent among this group of people?  There is so much information on this topic that could be included, that to do it justice would really justify a book in its own right.  The number of examples of the satanic nature of the entertainment business is truly staggering and so we will concentrate on a few specific examples and events, but please bear in mind that this is only the tiniest sliver of ice on top of the very tip of an extremely large iceberg.  Premature death seems to be an occupational hazard amongst so-called celebrities in all fields.  Again there are many reasons for this, some of them even genuine ones, but there are also many suspicious ones, some of them extremely suspicious bordering on the blatantly obvious.  As stated above, Michael Jackson would fall neatly into that particular category, as would Whitney Houston who died shortly before my writing of this article in early 2012 and as the most recent incidents tend to be the ones that are freshest in the mind, let us concentrate on that particular one.  “It’s a very predictable pattern that happens with all famous artists. They become valuable commodities.  If they were shares, you would see Bay Street buying them up and fundamentally, it’s the realisation that it’s the end of the artist’s productivity, that they won’t produce anything more that sparks the buying frenzy.”  Theo Peridis, professor of strategic management at York University  Regarding Whitney Houston’s sad demise (11th February 2012) and as with any other recently deceased ‘megastar’, it is a fact that the record company stood to gain massively in terms of vastly increased sales, albeit short-term.  However how much better for them to have a short, one-off major boost than a long, lingering virtually profit-less demise to any artist’s career?  The 2012 Grammy Awards took place shortly after the sudden, mysterious death of Whitney Houston.  As the old tradition would have it, the show went on nevertheless, but not without an abundance of strange symbolism and ritualism that made it extremely clear that there is a definite ‘dark side’ to the entertainment business.  Upon retrospective analysis of the facts surrounding Whitney Houston’s death coupled with the symbolic elements of the 2012 Grammy awards, the entire event has the look and feel of an occult ritual, complete with a blood sacrifice, a celebration and even a ‘re-birth’.  Some of the things described below were pre-planned, while others were possibly just odd coincidences.  Let us now examine the most significant events that happened during the fateful weekend of Houston’s death.  Whitney Houston’s untimely death is strikingly similar to many other celebrity ‘sacrifices’.  Accounts of strange events before the death, the bizarre behaviour of the so-called authorities when the death was discovered, conflicting reports, the vagueness surrounding the cause of the death and last but not least, a typical response from the music industry via the Grammys ‘ceremony’.  Her case indeed followed the same pattern as several other celebrity deaths that were blamed on drug excesses, despite much conflicting, albeit circumstantial evidence to the contrary.  As was the case for other celebrities, the controlled media almost immediately began a campaign depicting Whitney as a hopeless drug addict.  Maybe she was a drug addict, but if so, that is probably just a convenient side-issue, a symptom of the true killer of Whitney, ie. the much vaunted entertainment industry itself.  As with the recent cases of Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy and many others too numerous to mention, going back through the years, bizarre events both preceded and followed the death of Whitney Houston and after even a cursory examination of those events, it is impossible not to ponder as to whether her death (and the others) was truly an accident or a deliberate ‘sacrifice’ planned and undertaken by hidden hands?  The majority of mainstream media sources have emphasised the drugs connection ad nauseum but several, more reliable sources have revealed other details that may provide evidence for an alternative view of the situation.  At the Beverley Hilton where Whitney Houston died, in the ballroom several floors below her suite of rooms at the time of her death, there was a ‘pre-Grammys’ party in full-swing.  As the news broke regarding her death, Whitney was still lying there in her room in her fourth floor suite.  She had been discovered dead in her bath, but it is unclear exactly by whom as there were several people in her suite at that time (3.50pm local time).  Her body was not moved out until shortly before the party ended around midnight.  What has not been made public (at least in the mainstream) is that at around 11pm, paramedics were called again and security services and police also rushed to the scene and a medical-type wheelchair with restraints was also wheeled-in as Whitney’s daughter Bobbi Kristina had become hysterical and paramedics were on the point of removing her to the hospital.  Why should this happen, at least seven hours after Whitney’s death?  Very strange indeed.  Also, at 2.30am during the night immediately preceding Whitney’s death, a man in a 3rd floor room immediately beneath her suite complained that water was cascading into his room from above.  This was no mere trickle this was a full-blown gushing of water.  He called security and accompanied them upstairs to see for himself what on earth was going-on.  According to this man, it was the bathtub that was overflowing but he noticed that a large-screen television had also been smashed.  Significant or not, neither of these incidents were reported by the mainstream media at the time or as far as I know, since the event and from an organisation that usually picks-up on the most trivial of incidents and blows them out of all proportion, I have to say I find that fact more than a little strange, to say the least.  So as it turned-out then, there was a party in full-swing going on three floors below Whitney’s body whilst it just lay there for hours on end.  Is this not more than a little distasteful especially given the fact that many of the attendees were Whitney’s close colleagues and friends and acquaintances in the music business?  Why was it not simply cancelled out of respect for her death or was there some kind of warped thrill to be had in partying-on below the dead body?  Could it even have been part of some sick ritual or ceremony?  It would not surprise me in the least, given the track record of these people.  Immediately before Whitney’s death, in another strange occurrence, she had been seen fraternising with a person who had also been hanging around Michael Jackson through his last few months alive and in the hours leading up to his death.  This man goes by the name of Raffles van Exel (a pseudonym if ever I heard one).  He apparently is from Amsterdam in Holland and has also been known to use the aliases of Raffles Dawson and Raffles Benson.  He was present in Whitney’s suite of rooms at the time of her demise and apparently appeared downstairs in the hotel lobby shortly thereafter wearing aviator-type sunglasses and ostentatiously weeping and wailing.  His usual entourage was there with him, including Quinton Aaron, a Hollywood B-grade movie actor and despite his terrible shock at Whitney’s death he still somehow managed to force himself to attend the party in the ballroom.  He was bearing Whitney’s entry ticket in his hand when he entered the room to what was apparently an outpouring of sympathy, but obviously not enough sympathy to actually halt the party.  A security guard confirmed that Exel had been hanging around Whitney for a few days and was actually pictured standing behind her as she emerged from a nightclub earlier that week, looking confused and disorientated.  So who really is this Exel character?  He apparently was to be seen hanging around Michael Jackson and his family and friends during Jackson’s child molestation trial also.  No-one really seems to know who he is for sure, but he is often seen and pictured around celebrities.  Exel claims to own several companies including Raffles Entertainment and also claims to be the manager of Chaka Khan.  There are a multitude of photos of him on the Internet posing with almost everyone who is anyone.  He apparently does not respond to any emails or phone messages to his published contact points and thus very much remains the archetypal ‘mystery man’.  So, was Exel an instrumental part in Whitney’s death in any way and had she become persona non gratis to the Elite’s music industry in some way?  Was she becoming ‘out of control’ or ‘losing’ her programming perhaps?  It has been reported that she had had premonitions about her own demise (where have we heard this before?) and shortly before her death she allegedly passed a note to her friend, the singer, Brandy who flatly refused to reveal its contents, other than to ambiguously state that ‘Whitney meant everything to me.  She’s the reason that I sing’.  There is also an occult/numerology connection to Houston’s death, in this case a connection with the number 11.  In occult rites the number 11 is a master number as it cannot be reduced and because it exceeds the number 10 (regarded as perfection) by 1, it is also linked to black magic and ‘bad vibrations’.  Kabbalists tend to associate this number with transgression of the law, sorcery and possibly significantly, martyrdom.  It is also linked to sacrifice. For example, 9/11, the twin towers looked like a large number 11 and Remembrance/Veterans Day the 11/11 at the 11th hour.  There is yet another link to consider and that is concerning Lady Gaga (another mind-controlled MK Ultra slave) and previous Grammy awards ceremonies.  Gaga had close links to the fashion designer, Alexander MacQueen who was strongly involved with the occult and mind control and who himself died on the 11th February 2010, exactly two years to the day before Houston.  Could it also be significant that Whitney Houston’s room number the day that she died, was 434 which in numerology equates to 4+3+4 =11.  Again, certainly food for thought.  At the Grammy awards ceremony in 2011, Lady Gaga said, “I need to thank Whitney Houston.  I wanted to thank Whitney, because when I wrote ‘Born this Way’, I imagined she was singing it because I wasn’t secure enough in myself to imagine I was a superstar.  So, Whitney, I imagined you were singing ‘Born This Way’ when I wrote it.”  ‘Born this Way’, surprise of surprises was released on the 11th February 2011, exactly one year to the day before Whitney’s death.  Significant?  Most certainly, I would venture to suggest.  It is highly likely that Gaga (or more likely her controllers) in conjunction with Houston’s, planned it all very carefully.  Gaga’s outfit for the 2012 awards was all-black, possibly symbolically signifying death?  Celine Dion was extraordinarily quick in apportioning the blame for Whitney’s death.  During a TV interview shortly after the event, she blamed the bad influence of the industry and even stated the need to be ‘afraid’ of it and its over-reaching influence.  “It’s just really unfortunate that drugs, bad people or bad influence took over.  It took over her dreams.  It took over her love and motherhood.  When you think about Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse, to get into drugs like that, for whatever reason, is it because of the stress and bad influence?  What happens when you have everything? What happens when you have love, support, the family, motherhood?  You have responsibilities of a mother and then something happens and it destroys everything.  That’s why I don’t do parties and I don’t hang out.  That’s why I’m not part of show business.  We have to be afraid.  I’ve always said you have to have fun and do music and you can never be part of show business because you don’t know what it’s going to get you into.  You have to do your work and get out of there.”  Celine Dion  “I think we all, as artists, because we’re highly sensitive people and this machine around us, this so-called ‘music industry,’ is such a demonic thing.  It sacrifices people’s lives and their essences at the drop of a dime … I had a manager once say to me, ‘You know you’re worth more money dead than alive’.”  Chaka Khan  Are Chaka Khan’s references to ‘demonic’ and ‘sacrifices’, to be taken literally?  Judging by the symbolism at the Grammy awards and the strangeness surrounding Whitney Houston’s death and that of many others down the years, it would certainly appear so.  Please understand however that the above events are just one example and one tiny pinprick on the finger-tip of the very large body of evidence linking show business to the satanic arts.  Many, many artistes are said to be involved in this whole charade, many knowingly but nevertheless unable to escape its clutches for fear of the Michael Jackson / Whitney Houston experience befalling them and many unknowingly through subtle mind-control techniques as described previously in this book.  The presence of occult, satanic and Illuminati/freemasonic symbolism throughout the whole entertainment industry is rife, to say the very least.  During the 1950s and 60s, occult practices were slowly but surely absorbed into popular music and today the industry literally thrives by using an outward spectacle of occult and satanic rituals and symbolism.  The entire music and entertainment industry is an important indoctrination tool used by and for the Elite and many musicians are introduced to Satanism and occultism.  Today, the most popular musicians, such as for example, Lady Gaga and Britney Spears are totally controlled by the occult and the music industry and Hollywood are fixated by Black Magic and Witchcraft.  Music has always been associated with the occult and can be effectively used as a tool for programming minds.  Satanism and the occult are also known to specifically extract energy from humans who are manipulated into trances.  Throughout the twentieth century and now into the twenty-first, music has been manipulated from its initial state of innocence, goodness and wholesomeness to become in many cases, downright vile and nasty.  Throughout the world many people, especially the 10-30 age range are listening to vacuous, emotionally-numbing and trance-inducing negatively-vibrational music and demonic lyrics, which at one time were uniquely present within heavy metal rock, but now seem to emanate from and be present in all genres.  ‘Rock and Roll’ originally emerged as a defined musical style in the United States in the early to mid-1950s.  It is descended directly from the rhythm and blues music of the 1940s, which itself developed from earlier blues, jazz and swing music and was also influenced by gospel, country and western and traditional folk music.  Rock and Roll in turn gave birth to ‘rock music’ in general and over the last fifty years the individual musical genres have expanded greatly, presumably in order to cater for everyone’s individual tastes and ensure that no-one escapes the net.  It is extremely important to identify which types of music are harmful to the human psyche and which are negative.  The vast majority of pre-1950s music calibrates in our consciousness as positive and positive consciousness in turn creates high levels of confidence and a healthy self-esteem.   This cannot be said however of a vast majority of post 1950s music, especially from the 1980s onwards.  Its insidious influence on our psyches has no doubt left its mark on us all to a greater or lesser degree and there is no doubt that certain songs, artists and lyrics contribute in some way, however large or small, to the huge increase in suicide among the under 25 age groups, which stands at record levels and is no doubt welcomed enthusiastically by the Elite in line with their stated policy of huge population reduction.  Indeed, music has a very strong, very definite physiological and psychological effect on people, especially the more impressionable among us.  Disharmonic, discordant and cacophonic music engenders a number of negative behaviours, although those affected are often unaware of the extreme effect it is having upon them.  When Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones wrote the song ‘Sympathy for the Devil’, in the 1960s, this was one of the first examples of Satanism in rock music.  To many observers, the occult and Satanism began to expand its influence through such bands as Led Zeppelin and even the Eagles a band which is generally regarded as being ‘soft’ rock oriented.  And so the Elite now performs its satanic rituals upon us all, via our favourite musicians and through all the dozens of pop music TV channels that exist today and also their contrived, highly ritualistic awards ceremonies in front of millions of deluded viewers.  The American researcher and author, David McGowan in his serialised Internet story, ‘The Strange Story of Laurel Canyon’, relates how most of the popular musicians and entertainers in the 1960s had some connection to the American military and thus to the myriad of intelligence networks.  He tells the totally credible story of how these artists were ‘artificially’ brought to prominence at this time and describes the strange goings-on around the music scene in those days and the insidious influence that these people and their suspect connections had on the music of that period and henceforward from that time.  In 1985, the New Solidarity newspaper, which has since been closed-down by the US federal government, conducted an interview with Hezekiah Ben Aaron, who at the time was the third-ranking member of the Church of Satan.  In this interview, Aaron revealed that it was his ‘Church’ that started such heavy-metal genre rock groups as Black Sabbath, The Blue Oyster Cult and many others.  The Church of Satan was then headed by its high priest, Anton LaVey but many people believe that LaVey, was just a front man for the real high priest, Kenneth Anger, the man who had been responsible for introducing the Rolling Stones to the occult.  It is a fact that the human brain thinks at a rate of approximately eight thoughts per second and that the eyes see 20 to 30 separate actions per second, but the brain only uses eight of these to send to the conscious mind.  The subconscious absorbs the rest, subliminally and indiscriminately.  However, most live musical performances incorporate video screens with their music at 30 frames per second at the standard American television resolution but they colour eight of the 30 frames differently.  They choose which ones we think consciously about and which are just subconsciously absorbed as programming.  Hollywood has used this trick, invented originally by Disney, for many years.  It is now illegal in television commercials and regarded as subliminal advertising, which, as most people know is an extremely powerful conditioning tool.  The ‘eight per second’ frequency is also used by bass tones or bass drums or lights or all together, in a concert or live-show setting and this has the same effect upon the brain as does hypnosis.  That is it fragments analytical thoughts so that certain mispronounced or difficult to understand lyrics are immediately absorbed by the subconscious mind.  If we then add in a mix of illegal drugs and fake (or even real) sacrificial blood, create a circle with a pentagram using the stage lights and positions of the musicians within it, place large speakers in strategic positions for 13 separate points of origin of musical sound, altogether this constitutes a bona fide ‘Black Mass’ replete with ‘sacred geometry’.  So we have now seen how pop culture is filled with occult and masonic symbolism.  The Illuminati symbolism apparent in Gaga’s stage and TV appearances is utterly blatant and is becoming so transparent that analyses almost become a simple statement of the obvious.  Her whole persona, whether it is an act or not, is a tribute to mind control, freemasonry and the occult where being vacuous, compliant, incoherent and simply absent-minded is manipulated into being a ‘fashionable’, desirable state.  Incorporated in the videos, photos and shows of Lady Gaga and many other pop icons, is symbolism that refers explicitly to the Elite and to mind control.  This symbolism is deep, esoteric and even pseudo-spiritual and whilst millions of young people imitate Gaga’s gestures, her act is part of a much bigger picture that includes many other ‘stars’ displaying and promoting the same overt symbolism.   ‘Lady Gaga’ is in fact a fake persona, a manufactured Illuminati puppet, created to unduly influence the impressionable youth of today and to indoctrinate them into the insidious ways of the Elite.  In this she is not alone, by far the vast majority of the mainstream music industry is also under their deceptive spell.  Disclaimer: We at Prepare for Change (PFC) bring you information that is not offered by the mainstream news, and therefore may seem controversial. The opinions, views, statements, and/or information we present are not necessarily promoted, endorsed, espoused, or agreed to by Prepare for Change, its leadership Council, members, those who work with PFC, or those who read its content. However, they are hopefully provocative. Please use discernment! Use logical thinking, your own intuition and your own connection with Source, Spirit and Natural Laws to help you determine what is true and what is not. By sharing information and seeding dialogue, it is our goal to raise consciousness and awareness of higher truths to free us from enslavement of the matrix in this material realm.


prepareforchange--2019-06-23--THE GOAL OF HOLLYWOOD AND THE ENTIRE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IS TO NORMALIZE SATANISM AND THAT MISSIO

THE GOAL OF HOLLYWOOD AND THE ENTIRE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IS TO NORMALIZE SATANISM AND THAT MISSION IS NOW NEARLY COMPLETE

In 1988, I left my parent’s home in New Jersey and headed west to California. In A very short period of time I found work as an actor, became a stand-in and double for then-stars like Richard Gere and Matt Dillon, acting in dozens of commercials and enjoyed small roles on many of the popular shows of the day. I was a card-carrying member of SAG and AFTRA for 18 years. From what I personally saw during the 6 years I was actively involved, before the Lord called me out of it in 1994, it was not an overly wholesome place. Many crazy things were done behind closed doors. But in 2019, not only are those things now done openly, you can also see that Hollywood, the music industry, and even formerly family friendly companies like Disney are working to normalize the occult in general and satanism in particular.  “…but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Luke 22:53 (KJV)  Never before has the influence of mass culture and the media been so predominant or so powerful. 24 hours per day, we are bombarded by ads, videos, sound bytes, music, billboards, with our every move being tracked on our mobile phones. People are shocked to find that after they had a conversation in the living room with a friend about buying a new Chevy, the next time they use their computer or mobile device, there’s an ad for the exact car they were just discussing. How can this be? Simple, your phones are listening to you, even when turned off, and ads are sent to you based on what you were talking about. It happens to me multiple times per week.  “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Mark 8:36 (KJV)  This article is not going to contain a lot of words, because words will not be nearly as effective as the videos you are about to see. And after you watch them, if you can watch them all the way through, you will no longer be under the illusion of America being a “godly nation” or about Americans being “one people under God” because we are not under God. These videos will show you that America is firmly in the grip of the occult and satanism to a degree that you never thought possible. And it gets worse every day.  “And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.” 1 John 5:19 (KJV)  Nearly every Hollywood and music superstar now claims association with the Illuminati, Freemasonry, OTO or the Church of Satan. They flash occult signs and symbols in all their music videos, and we the same in nearly all films and movies. But it is useless for me to spend overly many words telling you when I can show you.  “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:” Ephesians 2:2 (KJV)  GRAPHIC WARNING: The images you will see in these videos are beyond disturbing, and the language at times equally so. Please pray before watching any of them. I would say to not let your children watch them, but guess what? They have probably been seeing them for years as well as buying their occult-themed music. Jay-Z just became a billionaire because millions and millions of people buy his music. People like your kids, people like you maybe, too.  “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” Revelation 12:9 (KJV)  People, we are losing this battle, and maybe from a biblical point of view these things cannot be stopped. But what can be stopped is you and I being a part of it. After you watch these videos, you will see how pervasive satanism in America truly is, and shockingly, you will see how perhaps you have been a part of it because it is just so deeply ingrained in our culture by this point.  This first video is an excellent overview proving beyond the shadow of any doubt that the music and entertainment industry is controlled by Satan. So you think you listen to “clean” rock music, do you? You like your favorite “christian” heavy metal band, yes? No such thing as you will see here.  Everywhere you look in movies and on television, we see the same themes of the occult and satanism being played out over and over again. If you think that people are famous because of their talent, you won’t after you watch this.  Hollywood hates God and the Bible, and you will see here in this video. Watch how easily they can mock Him, mock Jesus Christ and mock Christianity. Only devils could produce a ‘comedy’ skit like this one.  These are the popular YouTube influencers our youth is watching – James Charles & Bretman Rock. Hide your kids from the internet…  Why does nearly every famous person, at some point, take photos of themselves or engage in photoshoots where they cover one eye? In this video you will learn about the ancient Babylonian mystery religions where formed the basis of the Illuminati.  This is a 5-part series on the satanism in Hollywood, and it show real celebrities doing what they do, and it is very hard to watch.  VICE’s Charlet Duboc travels to Little Rock Arkansas to meet with Lucien Greaves and the members of the Satanic Temple to find out why they’re trying to install a statue of Baphomet in protest of religious freedom on the Capitol’s lawn.  If you have watched some of all of these videos, then by now you know the true state of America, our culture, and who it is that is running it. God has given me this amazing platform of NTEB, this ‘pulpit’ if you will, that allows me to reach deeply into the whole world. I am using it to warn you in the hopes you will start disconnecting from Hollywood, from the music industry, even from organized sports. These things are being used to program us, to control us, to accept as normal things that are perversely abnormal.  What do you think Pride Month is, anyway? It is a celebration of the normalization of everything that hates God and hates the Bible. Why are transgenders being pushed so heavily now? The symbol of Baphomet in satanism has both male and female genitalia, it is transgender. Do you get it now, are you starting to see what I am talking about? It is everywhere you look, in everything you purchase, and in everything that comes over the airwaves or the wifi.  “He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.” Job 41:34 (KJV)  I will leave you with this last thought. Stop making excuses as to why you can’t witness for the Lord Jesus, turn off the television set, get some gospel tracts and get busy. Because as you can see in this article, things are getting ready to ‘wrap up’ soon, with you or without you. Make a stand or be forever on the sidelines, the choice is yours. You have free will, use it. But know this. While you’re sitting back praying “Lord, make me willing to be willing” and all the rest of that Laodicean junk, people are dying and going to Hell. 151,000 minimum per day every day. Tick, tock.  Disclaimer: We at Prepare for Change (PFC) bring you information that is not offered by the mainstream news, and therefore may seem controversial. The opinions, views, statements, and/or information we present are not necessarily promoted, endorsed, espoused, or agreed to by Prepare for Change, its leadership Council, members, those who work with PFC, or those who read its content. However, they are hopefully provocative. Please use discernment! Use logical thinking, your own intuition and your own connection with Source, Spirit and Natural Laws to help you determine what is true and what is not. By sharing information and seeding dialogue, it is our goal to raise consciousness and awareness of higher truths to free us from enslavement of the matrix in this material realm.


redstate--2019-04-10--Foxs Last Man Standing and Conservative Entertainment Reaches a Milestone

Fox’s ‘Last Man Standing’ – and Conservative Entertainment – Reaches a Milestone

It’s not just a show victory; it’s a conservative one.  On May 10th, 2017, after six successful seasons — and despite being the second-most-watched ABC sitcom during the 2016-17 season — the Tim Allen hit Last Man Standing was abruptly canceled.  Did parent company Disney just not like money? Why else would the show have gotten the ax?  Tim had an idea, expressed on Norm Macdonald LIve:  Aside from the “danger” of his conservative bent, Tim was at a loss:  “I have no idea why they did what they did. … Second biggest show, [ABC] hadn’t won a Friday night in 15 years. They put us out to pasture on Friday and we won Friday. Big night for us. Big night for them. I would have put Roseanne after us. Use us just to launch shows, if nothing else.”  A year later, a television miracle happened: after much protest over the inexplicable canning, Fox revived the show.  “Team LMS was in the sixth inning, ahead by four runs, stands were packed and then for no reason, they call off the game. It leaves you sitting in the dugout, holding a bat and puzzled. Now we get the news from Fox that it’s time to get back out on that diamond – hell yes, I’m excited!  When I heard the offer to create more episodes of Last Man Standing, I did a fist pump so hard I threw my back out. I could not be more grateful for the fans who wrote petitions and kept up the passion and incredible support for the show.”  As of October, the comedy was killin’ it in the ratings, averaging 8 million viewers on Friday nights (see my coverage here).  In January, it was still going strong, as reported by Deadline:  So how’s it doing now?  The sitcom centered around a Republican dad and husband is set to return April 19th — for its milestone 150th episode.  Congratulations to Tim and the crew, and to those of us supporting a true act of diversity in Hollywood network programming.  BY THE WAY: I HEARTILY RECOMMEND TIM’S BOOK, DON’T STAND TOO CLOSE TO A NAKED MAN.  See 3 more pieces from me: Superman & Lois, a Christmas miracle, and saving yourself.  And please follow Alex Parker on Twitter and Facebook.  Thank you for reading! Please sound off in the Comments section below. For iPhone instructions, see the bottom of this page.  If you have an iPhone and want to comment, select the box with the upward arrow at the bottom of your screen; swipe left and choose “Request Desktop Site.” If it fails to automatically refresh, manually reload the page. Scroll down to the red horizontal bar that says “Show Comments.”


redstate--2019-07-21--By Fundraising With Scooter Braun Is Kamala Harris Standing Up for Women in Entertainment

By Fundraising With Scooter Braun, Is Kamala Harris Standing Up for Women in Entertainment?

Music mogul Scooter Braun, recently in the news regarding his business dealings with Taylor Swift, hosted a “fireside chat” fundraiser for Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) Saturday night at his Brentwood mansion.  Katy Perry, Ariana Grande and Demi Lovato were among the Hollywood heavyweights who turned up for a fireside chat with the Democratic hopeful in Brentwood. The cozy gathering took place at the $20 million compound of starmaker Scooter Braun, who has helped guide the careers of A-listers including Justin Bieber, Kanye West and supermodel Karlie Kloss.  Taylor Swift (and her fans) have a very different view of Braun.  That’s because Braun recently acquired Big Machine Label Group, Taylor’s former label, and with it, her complete catalog of recordings to date.  “Since Swift signed with Big Machine Records at 15, the label owns her master recordings “for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.” The contract essentially shackles Swift to the label forever, with very few legally permissible ways to escape. Conceivably, Big Machine Records could transfer from owner to owner, and any star must continue to follow the label as it changes hands.”  And, according to Taylor, he’s bullied her for years and encouraged some of his clients (Kanye West, Justin Bieber) to bully her as well. She wrote on her Tumblr page:  I learned about Scooter Braun’s purchase of my masters as it was announced to the world. All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it. This is my worst case scenario. This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept. And when that man says ‘Music has value’, he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.  By associating herself with Braun, Kamala Harris’ commitment to standing up for women can certainly be called into question. Sunday morning Harris posted a video to Twitter aimed at President Trump, saying that “real strength is building people up” and not using a position of power to demean them.  As yet, Taylor Swift hasn’t commented on the irony.  Jennifer Van Laar is RedState’s Deputy Managing Editor. Follow her on Twitter @jenvanlaar, or on Facebook.


redstate--2019-10-08--Blizzard Entertainment Suspends Player from Championships After He Voices Support for Hong Kong Prot

Blizzard Entertainment Suspends Player from Championships After He Voices Support for Hong Kong Protests

If you grew up playing games like World of Warcraft or Diablo, or have even enjoyed more recent games like Overwatch or Hearthstone, then you’ve been playing Blizzard games.  But Blizzard has apparently sunk down to the level of appeasing China like many other American businesses have done, and suspended a player from their Hearthstone championships after the player had conducted a post-victory interview wearing goggles and a gas mask, which has become something of a symbol for the Hong Kong protests.  The player also said “Libertate Hong Kong, revolution of our age!”  In response, Blizzard suspended the player for a month and removed any prize money he may have accumulated in the process. Blizzard posted a statement on their website detailing their decision:  During the Asia-Pacific Grandmasters broadcast over the weekend there was a competition rule violation during a post-match interview, involving Blitzchung and two casters, which resulted in the removal of the match VOD replay. Upon further review we have found the action has violated the 2019 Hearthstone Grandmasters Official Competition Rules section 6.1 (o) and is individual behavior which does not represent Blizzard or Hearthstone Esports. 6.1 (o) is found below.  Blizzard posted the rule that was violated in full:  It’s likely that Blizzard was operating on the “offends a portion or group of the public” part of their rules.  Why is this important?  Because it’s one more company that is caving to China as quickly as it can, joining other companies like the NBA and Disney when it comes to kissing Chinese boots in order to stay in its market.  Recently, Houston Rockets coach Daryl Morey tweeted out his support for the Hong Kong protests and was immediately denounced by the NBA and the owner of the Houston Rockets, Tilman Fertitta  As I covered earlier, China banned any mention of the show South Park from its internet after the show creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker wrote an entire episode dedicated to slamming this very thing. Chinese censorship has made companies alter its product so it can sell in its market, effectively censoring our content here in America.  The only people who seemed to understand that and not cave to the Chinese are Stone and Parker, who wrote their brand of an “apology” to China.  Blizzard acted fast in order to stay afloat in the Chinese market. While I understand that a good chunk of cash comes from China, companies are effectively sacrificing the principles of free speech and freedom in order to make money.  This would be better bitten in the rear now than later, and people should make sure these companies understand that they’re American, not Chinese. That they’re better off embracing American values, not those of totalitarians.


sputnik--2019-07-29--Five Million Britons Tune in But is Love Island Opium of the People or Light Entertainment

Five Million Britons Tune in, But is Love Island ‘Opium of the People’ or ‘Light Entertainment’?

The latest series of hit TV show Love Island finishes in the UK on Monday evening and Tommy Fury - brother of boxer Tyson Fury - and his girlfriend Molly-Mae Hague are the hot favourites to win the £50,000 prize.  ITV’s chief executive Carolyn McCall said last week Love Island was the most profitable show on the channel, and UberEats reportedly paid £5 million to sponsor the series, which gets five million viewers per episode, most of them aged between 16 and 34.  The current series, which is due to end on Monday, 29 July, is filmed in Majorca but next year ITV plans to add a second winter series, which will be filmed in South Africa.  Two former contestants - Mike Thalassitis and Sophie Gradon - have committed suicide in the last year but Ms McCall said it had been almost two years since they appeared on the show and it was misleading and “strange” to link their deaths to Love Island.  Love Island is fairly cheap to make and the format has proved popular in Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Australia and is set to be rolled out later this year in Hungary, Poland, New Zealand, Poland and the United States.  H. N. Lloyd, an author and social commentator, has said he felt Love Island and other reality TV shows were part of the “slow dumbing down of TV and society in general.”  “Karl Marx said religion was the opium of the people, well know the opium of the people is watching people with all the charm, wit and sophistication of a plate of mince rutting in a Spanish villa. We’ve turned people with no discernible talent or personality into heroes and figures to aspire to be like.”  Naomi Watson, a teacher from London, disagreed: “I watch Love Island and I enjoy the fact that it’s light-hearted after a long, hard day at work. It’s a nice way to unwind, to watch something that doesn’t require much mental power. There is something quite comforting in watching other people’s drama. In 2019 there are lots of different things to watch on TV. It’s about choice and variety. They are making it because there is an audience for it. If people want to watch documentaries they can watch them on the History Channel or Netflix.”  Her friend, Eloisa Fitzgerald, who is also a teacher in London, said: “I watch it because it’s a way to de-stress. I find it funny. It’s not serious. It’s just temporary, a short experience that people are having and you can see how relationships develop and learn about people’s values.”  She said: “It’s not dumbing down TV. It’s just the way the world is moving. There are a lot of reality programmes and people love watching things like Gogglebox, which is hilarious.”  Ms Fitzgerald said she was a bit “concerned” about the influence Love Island might have on children and she said parents should not let them watch it under a certain age.  “Too many parents don’t keep an eye on what their kids watch,” she said.  Mr Lloyd said: “What really annoys me about Love Island and these other shows is we live in a country where people should be really, really angry. We’ve got one of the most incompetent governments ever, where a fifth of the populace live in poverty. Schools, the police and the NHS are massively under-funded. The masses should be angry as Hell and out on the streets protesting. Instead they’re sat at home, their minds numbed by reality TV and the latest flavour of Pringles.”  Mr Lloyd said he felt Love Island was “damaging” not just to the viewers but also to the contestants.  “They get their five minutes of fame and then are left to cope in the real world. The Mental Health Foundation has said that Love Island gives young people unrealistic expectations of body image, wrapped up as being aspirational,” said Mr Lloyd.  He said: “People watch it and think ‘I want to be like that. I want to be like them. I want that lifestyle’. Yet they have no talent or discernible way of becoming famous. They think fame just comes to them without having to put the graft in.”  Ms Watson again disagrees: “You can actually use it as a talking point to discuss with young people about unrealistic body goals and some schools are using it in PHSE (Personal Social Health and Economic education) lessons to debate body image and mindfulness.”  She said: “It’s just light entertainment and people should not take it too seriously. I certainly don’t aspire to be like some of the contestants. But I imagine some viewers may have an unhealthy relationship with them.”  Mr Lloyd accused other shows, like The X Factor, of deliberately mocking people with mental health issues and “getting them on the show so that viewers can laugh at and mock them like a sad and tawdry 21st century Victorian freak show.”  Ms Watson and Ms Fitzgerald were both concerned about how black women in particular struggle to succeed in Love Island.  This year Yewande Biala, a scientist from Dublin, crashed out of this year’s show early as did Samira Mighty last year.  Ms Fitzgerald said: “Black contestants find it difficult to get into the final. This year it was Yewande - who was very intelligent and attractive - and last year Samira, so it highlights the challenges particularly black women have in forming relationships with men.”  Ms Watson said: “In that micro-habitat it amplifies everything and especially attitudes men have towards women. Samira was comparing herself to Megan (Barton-Hanson) who was fake. She was built in a factory.”  Last month Samira told the Mail on Sunday the producers of Love Island were failing when it comes to diversity.  She said Love Island would have “token” black women contestants but she claimed they were failing to select men who wanted women who were not “blonde with big boobs.”  Views and opinions, expressed in the article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.


sputnik--2019-08-05--Nevada Erotic Entertainment Firm Vows to Bring Strippers to Storm Area 51 Flash Mob

Nevada Erotic Entertainment Firm Vows to Bring Strippers to ‘Storm Area 51’ Flash Mob

Déjà Vu Services, Inc., a Las Vegas-based company operating strip clubs and adult theatres, has jumped on the Storm Area 51 bandwagon and promised to bring strippers to the event.  “Come September 20, we’ll be there,” the company’s director of operations, Ryan Carlson, said in a press release. “We know that most Americans know: that strippers make any event better, and this one will be no exception.”  He added: “We don’t know if there are aliens at Area 51, but if there are, they’ll be entertained upon their rescue, along with any party-goers that attend. After all, if an iconic institution like the American strip club isn’t a way to welcome our extraterrestrial friends, then we don’t know what is.”  The company is ready to entertain earthlings and aliens alike, if they find any, with a dozen strippers and a strip club on wheels called the Strippermobile.  In the same tongue-in-cheek manner as the Area-51 Facebook event, the strippers participation is being billed as the “Ultimate Alien Tailgate Party”.  Area 51 is a US air force facility which has ostensibly been used to test top-secret American aircraft, such as the U-2 spy plane and the B-2 stealth bomber, along with aviation technologies.  However, the overall secrecy surrounding the base and multiple reported UFO sightings in the area, have lead many alien enthusiasts to believe that this is where US military is hiding secrets about alien encounters (or even keeping aliens themselves).  Yet-unfounded claims by a physicist named Bob Lazar that he has been reverse-engineering recovered alien spacecraft in the closely-guarded Nevada desert barracks have only fueled conspiracy theories, and Area 51 has left a massive footprint in American pop culture, as well as movies and video games.  It could become just another legend, along with the likes of Loch Nessie and the Bermuda Triangle, but a Facebook user has created a parody event calling on people to raid the facility and “see them, aliens”.  Over 2 million people have signed up for the prank, planned for 20 September. Regardless of whether most netizens signed up in jest, the military has issued a warning against breaking into the base.  Earlier this year, a man was shot dead after driving into the adjacent Nevada National Security Site – a former nuclear test site – and failing to respond to officers’ commands.


sputnik--2019-10-18--Sex and the City: Berlin Hosts Massive Adult Entertainment Fair

The Venus Erotic Trade Fair, which is probably the world’s largest the world’s adult entertainment trade show, kicked off in Berlin on 17 October.  The four-day event, scheduled to end on 20 October, is being hosted at the Messe Berlin exhibition grounds, offering the attendees an opportunity to learn about new erotic products and partake in what joys adult entertainment has to offer.  The fair also offers an opportunity to obtain autographs from adult entertainment stars and starlets, and to attend seminars hosted by industry experts.  Other attractions include a cam girl hall, an area dedicated to BDSM and even “fashion shows in the field of latex clothing from well-known labels.”


sputnik--2019-10-19--Stan Lee Entertainment Sues Marvel Creator's Daughter - Reports

The company Stan Lee founded is now battling the late Marvel legend's daughter and sole heir for the rights to his extremely valuable name, likeness, and ideas, according to TMZ on Friday.  Stan Lee Entertainment (SLE) claims that it is suing Joan Celia Lee for trying to capitalise on her father's legacy without the legal right to do so, despite being the only heir to his fortune, claiming she has failed to protect SLE's legal hold on its right to Stan's intellectual property.  The company also accused POW! Entertainment, another media production company partly set up by Lee, for "interloping" or attempting to "loot SLE's intellectual property."  The company claims that as a trustee for the Lee Family Survivor's Trust, Joan has a "duty to vindicate the rights" of SLE against organisations like POW! trying to steal her father's ideas.  SLE are asking the court to force Joan to uphold her signatory to the trust and defend SLE against POW! and other entities as well as a declaration that SLE is the rightful owner of Stan's creations.  The company Stan Lee founded in 1998, which is an animation publishing and entertainment company, was given full legal rights to his name, likeness, ideas, characters, stories, logos, and more, effectively rendering the entirety of Lee's legacy, even his ideas, to SLE.  After her father's death, Joan began a lawsuit against POW! Entertainment in September of this year following reports of elder abuse by Lee's former manager, Keya Morgan, who has since been arrested on the charge.  The complaint states "By this lawsuit, Stan Lee's heir and Estate seek to perform the covenant Stan Lee made with his namesake company and remedy the wrongs inflicted by trusted business associates over the last two decades."  "It is intended to restore the rights he assigned to the namesake company he founded when he was liberated from a 60-year career with Marvel Comics, the comic book company he founded and creatively directed to become the preeminent Superhero entertainment company in the world."  The suit continues to accuse Gill Champion and Arthur Lieberman for allegedly "misleading" Lee into reassigning rights "on no less than 6 occasions."  "When Stan Lee died in November 2017, his daughter, as his only heir and Trustee of his Estate, gathered a forensic team of lawyers and accountants to investigate the facts surrounding the actions of Stan Lee's supposed partners with whom Lee had stopped communicating during the last year of his life."  "In so doing, it was learned the extent to which the rights to Stan Lee's intellectual property had been looted, muddied and entangled by POW! and a range of bad actors enabled by POW!"  The Marvel comics creator had himself dropped a $1 billion lawsuit against POW! for using his name and likeness before he passed away in November 2018 at the age of 95.  Lee also entered into a legal battle with Stan Lee Entertainment for the rights to iconic superheroes such as Iron Man and Thor in 2011, after numerous bi-coastal lawsuits throughout which the company claimed it had been assigned Stan Lee's intellectual property in 1998, months before his deal with Marvel Entertainment.


sputnik--2019-11-21--BigHit Entertainment to Sue Cosmetic Brand for Using Same Abbreviation as K-Pop Stars BTS

On 20 November, BigHit Entertainment, BTS' home-label, started a trademark invalidation lawsuit against the cosmetics company Dreams Korea, which owns the rights to the trademark “B.T.S.” with dots in between the letters in the logo. Despite the registered trademark with dots, the company in Hong Kong, Australia, Poland, Thailand, Vietnam, and China sells cosmetics such as perfumes and BB cushions under the brand "Back to Sixteen", abbreviated "BTS" without dots on the packages, which could obviously be associated with the K-pop boy band.  Earlier, in 2018, Big Hit submitted more than 180 products under the trademark "BTS", but among them some positions were rejected for registration because they had the same trademark as Dreams Korea. Thus, the company filed a patent lawsuit against the cosmetics brand. The group's label also appeals to the fact that the Dreams Korea trademark application was issued in October 2014, while the boys debuted in 2013.  In relation to this situation, the cosmetics company said, "The brand existed regardless of BTS", and stated that "Big Hit sued trademark rights after BTS became famous".


sputnik--2019-11-24--Losing its Backbone? Legendary K-Pop Girl Band 2NE1 Not a Part of YG Entertainment Anymore

Fans of the legendary K-pop girl group on 22 November noticed that the profile of 2NE1 had disappeared without any notices from the official website of the label YG Entertainment, one out the biggest entertainment agencies in South Korea.  In addition to deleting the 2NE1 profile page, it also became known that one of the members of the group, Dara, who held the position of PR director at YG, left her position after the disbandment of the group, but resigned her contract as a solo artist.  Dara confirmed this in a Twitter thread in a reply to a fan who was asking whether she was still working at YG as a public relations director. The singer replied herself from her official account that it is not true.  Earlier this month, the former leader of the band, CL, officially parted ways with YG Entertainment and made her own YouTube channel with Dara's support on Instagram, asking fans to subscribe.  2NE1 was a South Korean girl group composed of Bom, CL, Dara, and Minzy, formed by YG Entertainment in 2009. 2NE1 was one of the most popular and selling girl groups in South Korea - and of all time. Billboard magazine ranked 2NE1 as one of the best K-pop girl groups of the past decade.  Sandara Park, known as Dara, is a South Korean singer, actress, and MC, as well as an ex-member of 2NE1. Not only has she had an impact on music over the course of the past decade, but she is also considered to be the woman with the most iconic and memorable styles in the Korean music industry.


theblaze--2019-08-26--Entertainment lawyer and one-time record label exec shares what success really looks like Most of

Entertainment lawyer and one-time record label exec shares what 'success' really looks like. Most of modern culture won't understand it.  Don't use other people; serve them instead


theblaze--2019-10-08--Major video game studio Blizzard Entertainment becomes the latest American company to kowtow to Chin

Major video game studio Blizzard Entertainment becomes the latest American company to kowtow to Chinese censorship demands


thedailybeast--2019-03-11--Scouted Target Is Cutting an Extra 15 Off Already Discounted TV Stands and Entertainment Centers

Scouted: Target Is Cutting an Extra 15% Off Already Discounted TV Stands and Entertainment Centers

A good entertainment center can handle both housing the various electronics you’re forced to set up and aesthetically enriching your living or TV room. If you’re looking to upgrade yours, you’ll find them on sale for up to 25% off at Target for the next two days — and you’ll also get an extra 15% off on your purchase with code SWISH.  There are styles for everyone in this sale — rustic, industrial, mid-century modern — so you should be able to find something to match your taste. The Amherst mid-century modern TV stand is designed to hold up to 60 inches of television and features both open and closed shelves — all told, you can get it for $175 (down from $275). When all you want is less, the minimalist Saracina Home console could be your way there, packing in open shelves and openings for power cords for your electronics — this’ll run you $115 total (down from $170). Finally, for the rustic-minded is another Saracina Home model: Able to support a 70-inch TV, this TV stand gives you adjustable shelves and the choice of eight dark color options — buy it before Wednesday for $190 (down from $280).  Whether you’re looking to step up your living room furniture or get some inspiration from the in-house product photos, we definitely recommend you scroll through this Target sale before it ends.  Scouted is internet shopping with a pulse. Follow us on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter for even more recommendations and exclusive content. Please note that if you buy something featured in one of our posts, The Daily Beast may collect a share of sales.


thedailycaller--2019-07-01--Taylor Swift Is Feuding With Entertainment Mogul Scooter Braun

Taylor Swift is in a massive feud with entertainment mogul Scooter Braun.  According to Variety on Sunday, Braun acquired Big Machine Records, which owns all of the Taylor Swift content through 2017. The singing superstar called it her “worst case scenario” and sounds like she’s ready to engage in war over the decision. In case you didn’t know, Swift really seems to dislike Braun, who works with several major entertainment figures. (SLIDESHOW: These Women On Instagram Hate Wearing Clothes)  Swift wrote the following in part when explaining her anger about the situation and her dislike for Braun:  All I could think about was the incessant, manipulative bullying I’ve received at his hands for years. Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. (See photo) Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.  Justin Bieber also rushed to Instagram in an attempt to defend Braun, who he’s done business with for as long as he’s been famous. He wrote in part, “I’m sure Scooter and i would love to talk to you and resolve any conflict, pain or or any feelings that need to be addressed. Neither scooter or i have anything negative to say about you we truly want the best for you. I usually don’t rebuttal things like this but when you try and deface someone i loves character thats crossing a line..”  You can read his whole post below.  Bieber wasn’t the only one to get in on the action. Erik Logan, who is on the board of directors for Big Machine, said Swift’s “power is fading,” according to TMZ.  The whole thing might be off the rails, but you’re an idiot if you think Swift’s power is fading or that she’s losing ground.  She might be the most famous woman on the planet.  I’m so pro-Taylor Swift on this one that it’s not even funny. I find it extremely hard to believe that she could fake the anger and emotion in her Tumblr post.  She seems pissed as all hell, and that’s the kind of content I’m here for. We all know Swift is much better when she’s on edge.  When she feels backed into a corner, that’s when she really thrives with her content.  If there is a “Game of Thrones”-style war brewing, then you can count on me defending Swift on 100 different fronts in 100 different wars, if necessary.  I don’t know Scooter Braun at all. He could be a wonderful guy. I have no idea. What I do know for sure is that if Swift is preparing for battle, then sides must be chosen.  Trust me, I’m riding with the former country star.  While I’m usually for de-escalating tense situations, I’m willing to make an exception here. Let’s get this cranked up to 100!


thedailyecho--2019-10-04--When the biggest name in entertainment came to Southampton

HE was the highest paid entertainer of his time; a pianist, singer and actor with such flamboyance he became known as Mr Showmanship.  About 40 women and girls gave 35-year-old American artist Lee Liberace a hysterical welcome as he arrived in Southampton on board the 81,000-ton Queen Mary.  The welcome on September 25, 1956, was the largest given to a member of the entertainment world at the port since the North Atlantic service was reconvened after the Second World War.  When Liberace appeared, accompanied by his mother and violinist brother George, the fans went wild. They surrounded the performer shrieking with joy as he made his way to his special six-coach train.  The welcome continued after Liberace boarded the train. He sat with a beaming smile as the welcoming party surrounded his coach. Many of the ecstatic girls pressed kisses on the glass, others put their hands through the coach window in an attempt to touch their hero.  Dock workers enjoying the scene added to the excitement with shouts of “Swoon.”  In the welcoming party were Eastleigh residents Sheila Dean and her daughter Eileen.  “We both like Liberace and his playing very much,” said Sheila. “We have seen him on the films, we love listening to his records, and we keep all the press clippings about him.”  Extra British Transport Commission police were on duty on the Terminal platform to keep the welcome under control.  Before coming ashore, Liberace spent nearly an hour on the Queen Mary’s sun deck posing for the press with his mother and brother.  He told the reporters of how he wanted to be a typical American tourist in England, getting into the back roads, seeing the countryside and meeting the people there and in the suburbs.  “I understand you’ve had a rather unpleasant summer here,” he said. “Perhaps we will bring a little sunshine into it.”  As well as being in the United Kingdom to take in the sites, Liberace delivered eight concerts - three in London and the rest in Leicester, Croydon, Manchester, Sheffield and Dublin.  As these pictures from the time show, the star wore a black and white pebble heather two-piece suit with black tie and black shoes. He explained to the press that he dressed in somewhat flamboyant style because he was a member of a glamorous world - the entertainment world.  Liberace brought his concert grand piano over on the ship which was sent to London by road.  At Waterloo a large crowd cheered wildly as the star’s train arrived at 12.25pm.  Boos could also be heard coming from a group of students who marched in carrying a banner declaring “We hate Liberace. Charlie Kunz forever.”


thedailymirror--2019-01-03--Video games now account for more than 50 of UK entertainment sales

Video games now account for more than 50% of UK entertainment sales

The video games sector now accounts for more than half of the entertainment market, according to new figures.  The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) said the gaming market's value rose to £3.864 billion, more than double what it was worth in 2007.  It now makes gaming a larger market than video and music combined for the first time.  The figures show three games - Fifa 19, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 - each sold more than one million physical units in the UK across games consoles during 2018.  ERA chief executive Kim Bayley said: "The games industry has been incredibly effective in taking advantage of the potential of digital technology to offer new and compelling forms of entertainment. Despite being the youngest of our three sectors, it is now by far the biggest."  The figures also do not take into account digital game sales as well as mobile and free games downloaded and played, the most notable of which is Fortnite - the free-to-play battle royale game which now has more than 200 million players globally.  The ERA said despite physical unit sales shrinking by about 2.8% in 2018 and digital growth categorised as a "modest" 12.5%, the industry now accounts for 51.3% of the total entertainment market.  Overall, the entertainment market grew to an all-time high of £7.537 billion, the ERA said, driven by the growth of digital streaming services such as Spotify and Netflix, with revenue from such services accounting for more than three quarters (76.1%) of total sales.


thedailymirror--2019-06-02--BGTs Marc Spelmann said show made mockery of entertainment in scathing Twitter rant

BGT's Marc Spelmann said show 'made mockery of entertainment' in scathing Twitter rant

Britain's Got Talent star Marc Spelmann declared the show "made a mockery of entertainment" in a scathing Twitter rant before he returned as mystery magician X.  The illusionist was on the reality show last year, but returned for the 2019 series in a mask performing under the name X.  Last year, he was embroiled in controversy as he got caught slamming the show in a series of blistering tweets, sent before his first audition.  In unearthed tweets from 2013 - the year shadow theatre act Attraction won - the magician blasted BGT, calling it a "mockery of entertainment" and urging his followers to switch off.  One tweet referred to the musician who left her seat to egg show boss Simon Cowell during the live final of the series.  It stated: "#bgt #eggattack musician chucking eggs at Simon. Wonder if it was truly random or a publicity stunt to detract from poor final..??"  Another unearthed by The Sun  fumed: "This is the last I'll say I promise. #bgt is a mockery of entertainment. It's a joke. Simon is laughing at the deluded public. Do not vote!"  Spelmann told Mirror Online: "I've changed rather a lot in the last six years and the off-hand tweets I made about Britain's Got Talent many years ago in no way reflect my thoughts and feelings on the show now."  The tweets shocked BGT fans as the news came after his performance on last year's show left viewers in tears.  He tugged at heartstrings as he opened up about his wife's struggle with IVF and battle with cancer while pregnant in the middle of his performance.  "Oh god it's emotional," wailed Ant as tears streamed down his face as he watched from the sidelines with buddy Dec Donnelly, who was also crying.  After getting a standing ovation from the audience, Marc also received a hug from teary Ant, who said: "You had me in tears man."  Spelmann returned to the show for the 2019 series and kept his true identity under wraps as he performed as X during the audition phase and the semi-final this week and hadn't even spoken on stage before tonight.  The talented illusionist finally took off the creepy white mask to show who was hiding beneath - and the judges' jaws were left on the desk when they saw who it was.  He said: "It was always about hope. I’m never giving up. It’s been an honour sharing X with you. I’m X."  The reveal was made using a powerful montage of his previous performances which ended with Ant repeating: "Imagine at the end he take it off and it's someone we know?"

mirrornews@mirror.co.uk (Vicki Newman, Louise Randell)


thedailyrecord--2019-03-14--Castle Douglas High School organises entertainment evening to raise funds

Castle Douglas High is hosting an evening of entertainment at 7pm on March 28 to raise funds for the school.  The event will feature a fashion show from Wilkie’s spring collection and include music and dancing from pupils.  Janice Craig, a member of the organising committee, said: “Mr Ray Jackson, store manager from Wilkie’s, and his staff have been very supportive towards the event and with generous raffle donations from local businesses we are looking forward to a fun and enjoyable evening.”  Everyone is encouraged to go along and support the event. Tickets cost £6 and include a glass of prosecco or a soft drink. One lucky ticket will win a prize.  Tickets are available from the post office and Heart of Galloway in Castle Douglas.


thedailyrecord--2019-08-02--Enjoy a feast of entertainment in West Lothian this month

There’s entertainment to suit all ages and tastes in West Lothian to keep everyone happy.  Held in the famous and historic setting of the Linlithgow Palace Courtyard, you can dance to live music from great Scottish bands.  You don’t need to know the dances, the ‘caller’ will talk you through all the routines and make sure you have a memorable experience.  Scotch Hop is an unforgettable experience attracting people from across the world each year so go along and join in.  Scotch Hop runs every Wednesday at 7.30pm until August 14.  Tickets are available at the door and include tea and shortbread.  Budding paleontologists can take part in the the dino-hunt around The Centre. Pick up your explorer booklet from the customer service desk, find the missing letters around the centre and guess the word for your chance to win a £50 gift card. All participants will receive a certificate and sticker for taking part.  Little ones can also take part in a dinosaur egg hunt, and spot 10 dinosaur eggs hiding in store windows.  The professor will be visiting The Centre every Thursday from 12 pm until 4pm, until Thursday, August 15.  There will also be dinosaur-themed arts and crafts every Monday and Friday from until August 16 from 12pm until 4pm.  Or why not join the tribe for daring daily adventures exploring some of the wildest and most remote corners of the Almond Valley with outdoor den-building. Become an expert explorer, learn how to build shelters and survive in the wilderness with our hands-on interactive sessions throughout summer.  Get your wellies on and get ready to experience a day where you can get muddy, forage for food, keep a look out for wild animals and learn how to survive in the walk for at least half an hour. This runs until Tuesday, August 20, at Almond Valley Heritage Cente in Livingston.


thedailyrecord--2019-08-19--Music and entertainment festival that raises money for charity is returning to Livingston next month

A music and entertainment festival that raises money for Marie Curie is returning to Livingston next month.  Livi Live Aid takes on extra poignance this year due to one of the founding members, Linda Tierney, passing away earlier in the year after a long battle with cancer.  Despite being told in 2017 that she only had months to live Linda decided to fundraise and for over two years her pals - Catherine Dray, Kevin Henderson and Wullie Langdon - helped her to raise thousands of pounds for Marie Curie.  This is the third year the festival has taken place and because of circumstances Catherine Dray is faced with the task of organising the event alone but it is not something she is daunted by.  She said: “It is a lot of work but it helps me too and gives me a purpose. I had breast cancer and had to give up my work so this has kept me going in the past three years and this year my friend Debbie Logue is helping me out a lot too.  “The original committee was just a few of Linda’s pals who all had personal experience with cancer and we just wanted to do something for the local community. Nothing has changed and everything we do is geared toward working hand and hand with the local community.  “The Livi Live Aid platform is simply to showcase local talents whilst also at the same time raising money for charity.”  As usual this year an abundance of local acts will all be playing, including DopeSickFly, Flash Back, Gary Burns, Screaming Target, The Super Moons, Megan Black and Gary Johnston.  The event will take place on September 27 at the New Almondvale Suite at Livingston Football Stadium. Tickets can be bought here: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Livingston/Livingston-Football-Club/Livi-Aid-Live-2019-/13587494/


thedenverpost--2019-03-20--Disney closes 71B deal for Fox entertainment assets

Disney closes $71B deal for Fox entertainment assets

Disney has closed its $71 billion acquisition of Fox’s entertainment business, putting “Cinderella,” “The Simpsons,” “Star Wars” and “Dr. Strange” under one corporate roof.  The deal is likely to shake up the media landscape. Among other things, it paves the way for Disney to launch its streaming service, Disney Plus, due out later this year. It will also likely lead to layoffs in the thousands, thanks to duplication in Fox and Disney film-production staff.  By buying the studios behind “The Simpsons” and X-Men, Disney aims to better compete with technology companies such as Amazon and Netflix for viewers’ attention – and dollars.  Disney needs compelling TV shows and movies to persuade viewers to sign up and pay for yet another streaming service. It already has classic Disney cartoons, “Star Wars,” Pixar, the Muppets and some of the Marvel characters. With Fox, Disney could add Marvel’s X-Men and Deadpool, along with programs shown on such Fox channels as FX Networks and National Geographic. Fox’s productions also include “The Americans,” ”This Is Us” and “Modern Family.”  The deal helps Disney further control TV shows and movies from start to finish – from creating the programs to distributing them though television channels, movie theaters, streaming services and other ways people watch entertainment. Disney would get valuable data on customers and their entertainment-viewing habits, which it can then use to sell advertising.  Disney CEO Bob Iger said in an earnings call in February that Disney Plus and other direct-to-consumer businesses are Disney’s “No. 1 priority.”  Cable and telecom companies have been buying the companies that make TV shows and movies to compete in a changing media landscape. Although internet providers like AT&T and Comcast directly control their customers’ access to the internet in a way that Amazon, YouTube and Netflix do not, they still face threats as those streaming services gain in popularity.  AT&T bought Time Warner last year for $81 billion and has already launched its own streaming service, Watch TV, with Time Warner channels such as TBS and TNT, among other networks, for $15 a month.  In addition to boosting the Disney streaming service, expected to debut next year, the deal paves the way for Marvel’s X-Men and the Avengers to reunite in future movies. Though Disney owns Marvel Studios, some characters including the X-Men had already been licensed to Fox.  Disney also gets a controlling stake in the existing streaming service Hulu, which it plans to keep operating as a home for more general programming. Family-friendly shows and movies will head to Disney Plus.  No pricing has been disclosed for Disney Plus. The streaming service will feature five categories of material: Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars and National Geographic. Disney charges $5 a month for ESPN Plus, a service that offers programming distinct from the ESPN cable channel.  Meanwhile, Fox Corp. — the parts of 21st Century Fox that are not part of the deal, including Fox News, Fox Sports and Fox Broadcasting — started trading on the Nasdaq under the “FOX” and “FOXA” tickers on Tuesday.


theguardianuk--2019-01-04--Beyonces Parkwood Entertainment sued over website accessibility

Beyoncé's Parkwood Entertainment sued over website accessibility

A class action lawsuit claims that Beyoncé’s official website violates the Americans With Disabilities Act (1990) by denying visually impaired users equal access to its products and services, according to the Hollywood Reporter.  Web accessibility requires photos to be coded with alt-text so that screen-readers used by visually impaired users can speak the alternative text. Dan Shaked, attorney for plaintiff Mary Conner, said: “There are many important pictures on beyonce.com that lack a text equivalent … As a result, Plaintiff and blind beyonce.com customers are unable to determine what is on the website, browse the website or investigate and/or make purchases.”  The Guardian has contacted representatives for Beyoncé for comment.  Conner is described in the suit as having “no vision whatsoever”. Shaked describes music as “the one and only form of entertainment that truly presents an even playing field between the visually impaired and the sighted”. Conner’s hopes of attending a Beyoncé concert were restricted by her lack of access to the website, the suit claims.  The complaint lists further issues including the lack of accessible drop-down menus and navigation links, and the inability to navigate using a keyboard instead of a mouse.  The proposed lawsuit includes “all legally blind individuals in the United States who have attempted to access Beyonce.com and as a result have been denied access to the enjoyment of goods and services offered by Beyonce.com, during the relevant statutory period.”  Conner seeks a court injunction that would require Beyoncé’s company to make the site accessible to blind and visually impaired customers in accordance with ADA rules, and is pursuing damages for those who have “been subject to unlawful discrimination”.


theguardianuk--2019-05-30--Its entertainment Love Island attempts to justify lack of body diversity

‘It’s entertainment’: Love Island attempts to justify lack of body diversity

Love Island’s creative director, Richard Cowles, has sought to justify the lack of body diversity on the hit reality TV programme, explaining that contestants need “to be attracted to one another” for the show to work.  The programme, which has become one of ITV’s most high-profile shows, returns to screens next month amid growing scrutiny on the impact that reality television has on those that take part.  Critics such as actor Jameela Jamil have called on the show to feature more plus-size participants to reflect the wider population, rather than simply selecting skinny individuals to lounge around the pool in a Spanish villa.  But in remarks that quickly came under fire from body image campaigners, Cowles said the show’s aim was to provide entertaining programming rather than set an example.  “First and foremost, it’s an entertainment show and it’s about people wanting to watch who you’ve got on screen falling in love with one another,” he said, according to Radio Times.  “Yes, we want to be as representative as possible but we also want them to be attracted to one another.  “Also, we’re not saying that everyone that’s in there is how you’re supposed to look. We’re saying here’s a group of people that we want to watch for eight weeks, and we want to watch them fall in love. That’s not at the front of our mind, but we do want to be as diverse as possible.”  Love Island has already instituted new measures to ensure participants are looked after by the production team for more than a year after they take part in the programme, following multiple suicides by former contestants and the cancellation of the Jeremy Kyle show.  The programme is also set to be examined as part of a House of Commons select committee into reality programming, while Ofcom has raised concerns about the show’s use of lie detector tests.  In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org.


theguardianuk--2019-06-28--Lego consortium buys Merlin Entertainments theme parks for 59bn

Lego consortium buys Merlin Entertainments theme parks for £5.9bn

A consortium led by the family that controls the Lego toymaking empire has agreed a £5.9bn takeover of Merlin Entertainments, the theme park operator which runs the Legoland attraction.  Merlin, which also counts waxworks Madame Tussauds and the London Eye among its attractions, had come under pressure from an activist investor to find a private buyer after struggling in recent months.  The consortium taking over the company is 50% owned by Kirkbi, the private investment company of the family of Kirk Kristiansen, the inheritor of the Lego fortune who is said by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of $5.7bn (£4.5bn). The other half is owned by private equity buyer Blackstone and CPPIB, the Canadian pension fund.  The bid values Merlin’s shares at £4.8bn, plus a further £1.1bn in debt. The 455p per share terms represent a 15% premium to the closing price of 395p on Thursday evening, although it is a 37% premium to the price before US investor ValueAct wrote a public letter urging the Merlin board to find a buyer.  However, the offer price remains significantly lower than the company’s value two years ago, when shares traded as high as 537p.  Sir John Sunderland, chairman of Merlin’s board, said multiple fatal terrorist attacks, particularly in Westminster, London Bridge and Manchester, had had long-lasting effects on people’s willingness to visit city centre attractions.  “The markets were in a different place at that time [in 2017] and it was prior to the series of terrible events in our capital city,” he said. “This is a very attractive offer for our shareholders.”  Sunderland said he had turned down four inadequate offers for the business from the consortium. The first offer came in at 425p per share two days before ValueAct published its letter.  The deal is not expected to affect the vast majority of the company’s 28,000 employees, although some jobs relating to public company reporting requirements may be redundant, Sunderland said.  The acquirers said they recognised the need for “significant long-term investment” in Merlin’s attractions.  Kirkbi has owned a stake in Merlin since 2005 and holds 29.6% of shares.  Søren Thorup Sørensen, Kirkbi chief executive, emphasised Lego’s close relationship with Merlin’s Legoland attractions. He said the investors were committed to “Legoland and the other activities of Merlin”.  The acquisition would also represent a coup for ValueAct. The San Francisco-based activist investor’s chief investment officer, Mason Morfit, and partner Jake Welch in May wrote: “Simply put: Merlin has struggled as a public company.  “Private ownership is simply better placed than current public shareholders to underwrite the investments Merlin must make and to align employee incentives appropriately.”  ValueAct owns 9.3% of shares, while other major owners include US hedge fund Marathon Asset Management and the Wellcome Trust’s investment arm.  Sunderland said Merlin, which made profits of £230m from revenues of £1.7bn in 2018, would not be significantly affected by political and macroeconomic uncertainty in the UK as the second scheduled Brexit date approaches.  He said: “Clearly there is a degree of uncertainty about the future. In my experience people still want to enjoy themselves.”