IP Democracy: Eisner is Back: Deal with MySpace for "Prom Queen"

Two years after his high-profile and bitter departure from Disney, Michael Eisner is firmly back in the saddle, hosting his own TV show and spearheading a web video company called Vuguru, disproving F. Scott Fitzgerald’s statement that there are no second acts in American lives. The Financial Times today reports that Eisner has struck a big-time deal with News Corp.’s MySpace for Vuguru’s original professionally developed online video series “Prom Queen.”

NewTeeVee’s Liz Gannes has this recent interview with Eisner, which is notable for what seems to be modesty or downplaying on the part of the former Hollywood superpower, who had a reputation for egotism and despotism. Note that Eisner, who spent 40 years atop the broadcast TV and Hollywood worlds, characterizes himself as a “semi-professional” in the entertainment business, and portrays himself merely as a theater/English major applying his skills to the web.

If I was doing it in 1964 it would be user-generated content, but I have 40 years of semi-professional work in this field. So now we just put a new noun against me, which is professional, rather than user. I mean, there’s no difference except I’m taking my training as an English and theater major onto the internet.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on March 29, 2007 2:22 PM to IP Democracy