Spitzer Hooker Pitches Music Labels

Lessons from a tiny Swedish firm that's raked in $10M

(NEWSER) - As the music industry navigates a path for the digital era, a tiny Swedish label has proven itself an excellent guide. Though it has just 43 employees, X5 Music Group topped the classical charts last year, its sales on par with Universal, the biggest label there is. Its strategy is a novel one: With no CDs, no contracts with artists, and no new music to offer, it focuses its efforts entirely on the Internet, the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

CNN gets substance and a potential ratings grabber

(NEWSER) - CNN's choice of Eliot Spitzer to co-host an 8pm nightly show is a risky one given how many people are repulsed by him, but it makes sense, write Felix Gillette and Reid Pillifant at the New York Observer . CNN "built itself on substance but now finds itself chasing ratings. The disgraced former governor is the rare package potentially offering both," they write. More»

You know, just in case CNN gig falls through

(NEWSER) - Eliot Spitzer is rumored to be a possible replacement for Campbell Brown on CNN , and in case he doesn’t get that job, Olivia Allin of The Frisky suggests 10 alternatives:

• Britney Spears’ assistant: “The logic here would be that since he’s apparently attracted to sexual young women, Britney could scare him off of that addiction”—and he could help her regain control of her life in the process.
• Unpaid prostitute: “Wouldn’t it be cool if Spitzer were forced to sleep with people he wasn’t attracted to?”

Hooker not interviewed over editorial control spat

(AP) - A much-anticipated "mostly finished" documentary about former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival last night, though Spitzer himself was absent. Director Alex Gibney, whose Taxi to the Dark Side won the 2007 documentary Oscar, interviewed Spitzer four times over the two years he spent making the film. He made the film in tandem with author Peter Elkind, whose book Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer was recently released; the Washington Post reviews it here . More»

Ex-governor will attend premiere of sex scandal documentary

(NEWSER) - The debut of Alex Gibney's untitled Eliot Spitzer documentary this weekend could be kind of awkward—Spitzer's going to be there, and the movie, though sympathetic, doesn't pull any punches when it comes to the Client No. 9 scandal. But Spitzer is embracing it, Politico reports, as a strategic move to shut the door on the call-girl scandal and mount what he now openly admits is an attempt at a political comeback. More»