Dish deal cookin’

Dish Network and Cablevision appear to be in talks to settle their long-running legal spat over the cable operator's defunct Voom TV service.

The court calendar entry yesterday was entitled, "Poss. Settlement," suggesting the two warring parties could be close to a deal.

Both companies are due back at Manhattan state court on Monday.

After an nypost.com report and other stories surfaced, the entry was changed "adj. for briefing."

Cablevision has sued Dish for $2.4 billion for dropping its Voom HD channel lineup from its satellite-TV service before their 15-year contract was up.

Daniel Shapiro

Dish Network's Charlie Ergen (above) and Chuck Dolan of Cablevision are trying to settle their Voom dispute out of court.

That claim could rise if Dish doesn't have any good answers for Cablevision lawyers who, after an audit of Dish's books last weekend, found that Dish had 3 million more HD customers than previously disclosed.

Dish could pay anywhere between $200 million and $1 billion to settle the case, according to a report from Barclays analyst Anthony DiClemente, though any settlement would likely include a renewed carriage deal for AMC Networks, which is absent from Dish's service.

Should any award be made, it would flow to the Voom legal entity, which is still 20 percent-owned by Dish.

The remaining 80 percent of any award would then be split 50-50 between AMC Networks and Cablevision, which housed the entity before a public spin-off.

One large hedge fund, Paulson & Co., which has a major position in AMC, has had a representative present throughout the trial.

Dish has suffered a number of setbacks in the case and has been blasted by the judge for using delaying tactics, as well as failing to produce documents and evidence in the case.

Dish boss Charlie Ergen is scheduled to testify at the trial before Judge Richard Lowe as soon as next week.

Reps for Cablevision and Dish declined to comment.

catkinson@nypost.com

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Google goof-up

Google CEO Larry Page probably wishes he still couldn't talk.

Making his first appearance before a Wall Street crowd since a springtime ailment caused him to lose his voice, Page yesterday was confronted with a botched earnings release, a YouTube site that crashed for about 20 minutes and tepid third-quarter results that prompted investors to race for the exits. Google shares fell 8 percent to $695.

The hoarse CEO tried to calm antsy investors rattled by the early release of surprisingly weak results, dragged down by mobile ad pains and the acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

AFP/Getty Images

Google CEO Larry Page's day went from bizarre to black yesterday when a financial printer submitted earnings documents prematurely — lacking a quote from Page (above) — that showed the tech darling is losing some of its mojo.

Google reported a 20 percent dive in net income to $2.18 billion. Excluding certain items, it earned $9.03 a share, vastly underperforming the $10.65 analysts had expected.

The amount advertisers paid per ad click-through, a barometer of Google's success, fell 15 percent from last year — the result of lower fees on mobile platforms.

Page tried to put the best face on Google's results. In a late afternoon call, he said he was "really excited about the progress we're making creating a beautifully simple, intuitive Google experience across all devices."

By that time, investors had pushed down Google shares by nearly 10 percent — after the Mountain View, Calif., search giant surprised the world by accidently releasing its results at about 12:30 p.m. They were supposed to be released after 4 p.m.

Google blamed the early release on R.R. Donnelly, its printer. There was no doubt that the press release wasn't ready because it contained a placeholder for a comment from Page.

Google halted trading in its shares for roughly two-and-a-half hours following the mishap (see story below).

Despite the confusion around the timing of yesterday's earnings release, one things is clear: Last year's $12.5 billion deal to buy Motorola Mobility has tied Google to a business that is losing money.

Motorola acted as a millstone on Google, losing $527 million. The mobile hardware maker is losing money faster than Google can cut costs, said analyst Colin Gillis of BGC Partners.

Page tried, at times, to play it light. When discussing the company surpassing $14 billion in total sales for the first time — coming as it turned 14 — he joked: "Not bad for a teenager."

Google reported net revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, of $11.3 billion for the quarter, below expectations for about $11.9 billion.

Google's travails spread beyond mobile: Growth in its core desktop search business is slowing.

Analysts yesterday asked if this is the new normal for old-fashioned search.

Page said the Street was asking the "wrong question." He pointed to the future of search as not tethered to the desktop, but instead jumping from mobile to laptop to tablet, giving Google the chance to offer advertisers new opportunities across all screens.

Google is on track to generate $8 billion in annual mobile revenues, up from $2.5 billion a year ago, as the company makes more money on ads and through media and app sales in its Play store.

gsloane@nypost.com

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ready, willing & disabled

Lou Lumenick

Blog: Movies

MOVIE REVIEW

THE SESSIONS
Running time: 95 minutes. Rated R (graphic nudity and sexuality, profanity). At the Lincoln Plaza and the Angelika.

To call Ben Lewin's inspiring and Oscar-baiting "The Sessions'' a cross between "My Left Foot'' and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin'' may be somewhat flip, but it's not entirely inaccurate.

Mark O'Brien, the real-life poet-journalist played by John Hawkes in a tour de force, spends most of his day confined to an iron lung because of polio contracted when he was a child. He can use a stick in his mouth to dial a phone or turn the pages of a book.

At age 38, Mark's determined to lose his virginity — and so he turns to Cheryl Cohen, a professional sex surrogate played with great warmth and humor by a sometimes very naked Helen Hunt.

Oscar buzz surrounds John Hawkes and Helen Hunt for their work as a paralyzed writer and the sex therapist he hires to deflower him.

The setting is Berkeley, Calif., in 1988. Though USC grad Mark can't move anything from the neck down, he does feel sensation — particularly when a beautiful caregiver begins giving him baths.

His impulsive marriage proposal is politely rejected, and the young woman leaves. But more than Mark's curiosity is aroused when he accepts an assignment to write an article about sex for the disabled (on which this film is based).

The very Catholic but witty Mark ("I believe in a God with a sense of humor'') seeks the blessing of his surprised new parish priest (a very funny William H. Macy) to experience sex outside marriage because he's "probably getting close to my due date.''

"I know in my heart that God will give you a free pass on this one,'' says the longhaired Father Brendan, who will later bring Mark a beer to celebrate.

So Mark's compassionate but hip attendant Vera (Moon Bloodgood) wheels him on a gurney for his first appointment.

Surrogate Cheryl — also a very practical soccer mom — explains, before getting down to business, that there can be no more than six sessions: "Unlike a prostitute, I don't want your return business.''

The very sex-positive "The Sessions'' treats intimacy with an explicitness and honesty that's very rare in movies. It may be the first film that doesn't turn premature ejaculation into a punch line.

The bigger problem in reaching Mark's ambitious goal — full penetration — is his growing feelings for Cheryl, whose husband (Adam Arkin) is upset when he intercepts a love poem that Mark has sent his wife.

Writer-director Lewin — a 66-year-old veteran filmmaker who himself had polio as a child and walks using braces — treats Mark and his sexuality without condescension or schmaltz. His pitch-perfect script explores this unusual subject with great sensitivity and lots of character-driven humor.

Hunt's nude scenes are explicit but tasteful — but Hawkes doesn't get to show the full monty because of the movie rating board's double standard, which demands that any film with an aroused male automatically gets slapped with a financially ruinous NC-17 rating.

In her first major screen role in several years, at age 49, Oscar winner Hunt (for "As Good as It Gets'') aces a tricky role, putting across Cheryl's kindness and self-deprecating humor.

Playing a character 15 years younger than his actual age of 53, Oscar nominee Hawkes ("Winter's Bone'') again demonstrates his versatility as a compelling screen presence and actor's actor — he and Hunt are likely to be acknowledged when Oscar season rolls around.

Here Hawkes has to convey Mark's complicated feelings entirely through his face and voice while lying down and replicating the character's contorted posture.

I fell in love with "The Sessions'' when it premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival under a better title, "The Surrogate.'' If you give this unusual, charming and surprisingly entertaining movie a chance, I'm sure you will, too.

lou.lumenick@nypost.com

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

‘Cross’ silly cop thriller off your list

Sara Stewart

MOVIE REVIEW

ALEX CROSS
Madea goes Rambo. Running time: 102 minutes. Rated PG-13 (violence, disturbing images, language, drugs, sex). At the Union Square, the 34th Street, others.

Tyler Perry takes off his director's cap and his housedress to play the alpha-male lead in this cop thriller, which also reveals that Matthew Fox has totally missed his calling. Who knew the sensitive guy from "Lost" was so in touch with his inner psycho? (Perhaps the female bus driver he allegedly crotch-punched in real life last year knows.)

Aside from these curious role reversals, though, "Alex Cross" is a mess. Drawing on every conceivable '80s B-movie action cliché and treating its beleaguered female characters like pieces of meat (literally, in one scene of butchery), director Rob Cohen ("The Fast and the Furious") squanders a surprisingly recognizable cast on a half-baked plot adapted from James Patterson's series of novels.

Tyler Perry (left) doesn't cut it as a superhuman police detective who always gets his man (with help from partner Ed Burns, right).

Alex Cross (Perry), we quickly learn, is a superhuman police detective who always gets his man, fights for the underdog, loves his family and "can tell you had scrambled eggs for breakfast at 100 yards!" raves his partner Tommy (Ed Burns). This latter-day Sherlock Holmes also uses his freakish powers of deduction to inform his wife (Carmen Ejogo) that "you had a latte," as he points to a cartoonish dollop of foam resting on her lapel. No wonder the Detroit P.D. is paying him the big bucks.

Alex and Tommy are tracking a killer (Fox) they call Picasso, after his practice of leaving surrealist charcoal drawings at the scene of his latest brutality. The bare-headed, tattooed Fox seems to have simultaneously slimmed down and bulked up for the role, and stayed awake for about two weeks straight. This patented Christian Bale shtick works pretty well for him. It's too bad he spends most of the film having petulant cellphone conversations with Perry, who'll eventually go rogue after the killer targets his loved ones, and start threatening to "meet [him] at the gates of hell."

Perry's not a terrible actor, but he lacks the brimstone-summoning gravitas of Morgan Freeman, who played Cross in previous Patterson adaptations "Kiss the Girls" and "Along Came a Spider." He's really at his best when bantering with his co-workers, Burns, Rachel Nichols — totally, confoundingly forgotten in the movie's third act — and police chief John C. McGinley ("Scrubs"), whose presence constantly made me feel the film was about to acknowledge its own silliness. (It doesn't.)

Also look for enjoyably typecast appearances by Cicely Tyson as Cross' no-BS mother, Jean Reno as a rich French dude, Giancarlo Esposito as a drug lord and German actor Werner Daehn (you'll recognize him as Evil Foreign Guy from other movies), who gets to utter my favorite of many howlers: "Nonsense!" he sputters when told he's in danger. "Zees building ees impenetrable!" As is the logic of the MPAA: This violent, torture-happy film is rated a mere PG-13. If you're squeamish, consider yourself warned.

sstewart@nypost.com

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

A win for the good guys

The FBI and the NYPD have once again teamed up to protect the city from terror — without so much as a by-your-leave from the Associated Press.

Imagine that.

Early yesterday, officials say, a self-professed al Qaeda associate from Bangladesh, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, tried to explode what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb at the Federal Reserve Bank in Lower Manhattan.

His goal: to "destroy America," he wrote.

"We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom," Nafis said on a video he planned to release along with his attack.

But law-enforcement officials were in on the plot from early on. Nafis had no idea the bomb he tried to detonate was fake.

REUTERS

Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis in court

After failing repeatedly to set off inert materials supplied by an undercover agent, he was nabbed and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and lend "material support" to al Qaeda.

Just 21, Nafis — who officials say came to America specifically to wage jihad — faces life imprisonment if convicted.

The arrest wasn't just a case of good luck.

The sting was an effort by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, involving FBI and NYPD agents working cooperatively. Indeed, it took careful planning, prolonged vigilance — and, notably, an abundance of surveillance — to take down this jihadist.

The system worked precisely as it should — even if it did involve undercover work of the sort that causes the AP no end of agita.

The press agency — and its soul-mates at The New York Times — work tirelessly to weaken terror-monitoring programs, particularly those run by New York's Finest.

The AP even won a Pulitzer Prize for its exertions (which says much more about the state of modern American journalism than it does about the NYPD).

If nothing else, yesterday's foiled plot was yet another reminder that it's not enough for Americans to merely wish an end to the War on Terror, even 11 years post-9/11. Rather, the jihadists must be defeated.

And that takes resolve.

"Vigilance is our watchword now and into the foreseeable future," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "That's why we have over 1,000 NYPD officers assigned to counterterrorism duties every day."

Real New Yorkers appreciate that.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Candy’s not dandy

Media bias is more often sensed than seen, but America got its faced rubbed in it Tuesday night — by debate "moderator" Candy Crowley.

CNN's Crowley selected both questions and questioners — both of which largely skewed left. She let President Obama dominate, giving him 4 minutes and 18 seconds more speaking time.

She interrupted Obama nine times, but she squelched Mitt Romney fully 28 times — repeatedly cutting him off just as he was scoring points. Once she told him to shut up, telling him: "See all these people? They've been waiting for you. Make it short."

AP

Candy Crowley

She never did that to Obama.

She flat-out ordered: "If I could have you sit down, Gov. Romney" — but never asked the equally aggressive Obama to sit.

When Romney tried to respond at several points, she cut him off, saying "it doesn't quite work like that" and promising to "give you a chance" later on.

Needless to say, she never did.

But the most blatant evidence of bias was her instant "fact checking" of Romney's quite correct insistence that Obama took weeks to call the Benghazi debacle a terrorist attack. She jumped to Obama's defense, saying "he did call it an act of terror."

But she was flat-out wrong.

Which is why a grinning Obama urged: "Can you say that a little louder, Candy?"

But Obama's reference was to generic "acts of terror" and framed in the context of the 9/11 attacks of 2001— and not the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi atrocity.

Not until 17 days later — after endless administration distortions — did Obama acknowledge that it was a planned attack.

Yesterday, Crowley belatedly acknowledged, "The president did not say it was . . . an act of terror." But the damage was done.

Ironically, though, not so much to Romney — even the most casual observer long knew the facts — but to Crowley herself.

And to the media.

It has long had its thumb on the scale — but rarely so publicly, nor so shamelessly.

Way to go, Ms. Crowley.

Have an opinion on this Post editorial? Send it in to LETTERS@NYPOST.COM!

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

How Nora changed my life — or, at least, my hair

Life is short — and my hair is long, thick and frizzy, as if I'm trapped in my own cumulonimbus cloud. Yet until recently, I reserved the only remedy — a blowout — for special events: weddings, opening night at the Met, appearances on "Theater Talk."

Then Nora Ephron died, and amid the tributes came a tantalizing tidbit: For years, she enjoyed twice-weekly blowouts. "It's cheaper by far than psychoanalysis," she reasoned, "and much more uplifting." A light bulb went off over my frizzy cloud: Hadn't I quit therapy? Didn't I just get a raise (a little one)? And what better to blow it on? Now, once a week, I hit Jean Louis David's Midtown shop where, for $25 plus tip, a strong-armed woman named Rosa whips my locks into submission. Friends who've never complimented me before say I look swell, now that I've let my sleek flag fly. Thanks, Nora!

Elizabeth Lippman

Post arts editor Barbara Hoffman cites Nora Ephron (above) as her blowout inspiration.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

I'm a blowout junkie

Clad in an animal-print fur coat and clutching a Céline bag, Gabby Fraenkel has a sleek attitude to match her silky new 'do. She gives herself a once-over in the mirror — and heads confidently toward the register.

"I've been getting three to four blowouts a week for as long as I can remember," says the perfectly coiffed recent college grad from Gramercy Park, sitting in Drybar salon last Monday morning.

"[It's] something I do for 'me' to feel good inside and out," says Fraenkel, a 23-year-old strategist for an aviation company.

Her addiction doesn't come cheap: Fraenkel spends more than 15 percent of her $50,000 salary on biweekly $40-per-visit appointments plus house calls from a hairstylist who charges $65 to cure New York women's "frizz emergencies."

Astrid Stawiarz

Gabby Fraenkel plays it straight with stylist Adam Bailey at Drybar salon. She spends about $8,000 a year on the curl-killing regimen.

She's not alone. Though exclusive stylist Oscar Blandi was straightening the hair of his wealthy, high-flying clients 20 years ago, an explosion of New York "blowout bars," which exclusively wash and blow-dry hair, has led to a current surge in women on ordinary salaries getting hooked on the habit.

The chic Drybar debuted in September 2011 in the Flatiron District and has seen a 28.5 percent boost in blowouts over the past year. Another outpost at Le Parker Meridien opened this year: The two NYC locations, along with 14 others nationwide, provide more than 40,000 blowouts a month.

And next month, celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe will debut the new DreamDry in the Flatiron District, while three more Drybar locations will open in Manhattan by year's end.

When blowouts were first popularized in the '90s, the aesthetic was stick straight, with no tolerance for flyaways, in the style of Anna Wintour's unforgiving bob. This A-list look dominated for nearly a decade with stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston becoming archetypes of the 'do. Fashion lightened up on harsh hair in the early aughts when waves and curls returned to the spotlight.

Today's blowout is more natural and relaxed with body and even (whisper it) a few curls, á la Kate Middleton, whose silky strands are rumored to be blown out three times a week at London's Richard Ward Salon. Today even women who don't wear crowns on their heads say it's a necessary luxury.

"I feel powerful and beautiful when I leave here," says the Chelsea-based blow-dry addict Kate Herman, 29, who works in advertising.

Up to twice a week for the past decade, she visits Arsen Gurgov, star stylist at the Louis Licari Salon who charges $85 a pop (tip not included) — amounting to tens of thousands of dollars over the years.

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

With Bam’s poor record, dems have to Mitt-pick

The Issue: The performance of both candidates in the second presidential debate on Tuesday night.

***

Again, Mitt Romney clearly won the debate against President Obama, hitting him hard on his record ("Mitt, on Points," Editorial, Oct. 17).

The best moment came when he mentioned the "Fast and Furious" scandal and that Obama is more interested in fund-raisers and campaigning than the Americans killed in Libya.

Romney is the clear choice this November.

Melissa Robinson

Hampton Bays

Since Obama has nothing but a disastrous four years to run on, with unfulfilled promises and failures stemming from corruption and incompetence, it makes sense for his team to misquote and criticize Romney's words as a part of their mudslinging strategy.

Mitt Romney

First it was the accusations that Romney did not pay his taxes, and now it's the "binders of women."

The real problems stalking America, like Obama's failing economy, a second recession on the horizon and record-high gas prices under his watch, remain off limits and swept under the rug by the mainstream media.

If "hope and change" did not work, what makes anyone think "forward" will improve America?Alice White

Flushing

I disagree with The Post. I give Obama a win by TKO. To paraphrase a great American, Obama floated like a butterfly, but stung like a bee.

Al Burns

Far Rockaway

Obama's continued defensive position over Benghazi during the second debate only further proves the failure of his administration's foreign policy.

From placing the blame on intelligence agencies and the State Department to countering that Romney has politicized the attack, the buck has been passed more times than Joe Biden's fits of laughter.

The opportunity to admit his administration's oversight of security details was clearly presented.

All Obama made clear was that he found Romney's statements on Benghazi offensive, even if Romney was just stating the facts and looking for an admission of responsibility.

In order to move forward, you must admit your mistakes.

Chris Siemsen

Massapequa

It really does not matter who the sitting president is or his party affiliation, the office must be respected. This was anything but the case in Tuesday's presidential debate.

Romney was totally disrespectful toward Obama in demeanor and attitude, continually cutting him off and trying to intimidate.

He was like a schoolyard bully trying to pick on a weaker child. And although this turned out not to be the case, as Obama held his own, it showed a character flaw in Romney that is anything but presidential.

Paul Kastner

Woodstock

Romney clearly has a better plan for our future. What's frustrating to on-the-fence voters like me is his clunky delivery and his habit of never finishing with a flourish.

He said "We can't afford another four more years like the last four years" when he should've said, "four years of failure."

I know it's a subtle difference, but at this stage of the game, Romney needs to add a bit more style to his substance.

Michael Sanchez

Manhattan

Obama kept repeating his old mantra but had nothing to offer for the future.

Romney left himself open by asking questions that allowed the president to steal some of Romney's time.

Romney was strong and did not back off, but he missed some great opportunities on Libya and the administration's misinformation.

He did exceptionally well on attacking Obama on the economy.

However, many are still unwilling or unable to admit that it is time for a change.

Romney has proved to my satisfaction that he can be presidential.

My vote, which won't matter much in New York, is going to him.

Ignatius Giorgio

Brooklyn

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More

Business briefs

A123 Ch. 11

A123 Systems, the electric car battery maker that received a $249.1 million federal grant, filed for bankruptcy in Delaware and said it would sell its automotive business assets to Johnson Controls.

Clear the air

Sprint Nextel, which agreed to sell a 70 percent stake to Softbank for $20.1 billion, has no immediate plans to take over Clearwire, said people with direct knowledge of the situation.

Target prices

Target stores will match the online prices of retailers including Amazon.com, Walmart and Best Buy during the holiday season as it works to stem the loss of sales to rivals' websites.

Bigger Blue

IBM reported third-quarter revenue of $24.7 billion and net earnings of $3.9 billion as demand for its software services and tight cost control offset the effect of a stronger dollar on the tech and consulting firm.

Street talk

Goldman Sachs earned $1.5 billion, or $2.85 per share, in the third quarter, compared with a year-earlier loss of $428 million, or 84 cents per share.

StuyTown sale

Tenants of Stuyvesant Town-Peter Cooper Village are asking bondholders of the defaulted mortgage to pursue a sale of the property, bypassing the company working out the loan.

Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters. Click For Restrictions

10.46 | 0 komentar | Read More