Lights, camera, Carl
Icahn pitched Kavanaugh for studio takeover
ACTIVIST investor Carl Icahn and his son Brett made a lastminute approach to Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh before the company’s Thursday bankruptcy filing, sources tell On the Money.
Icahn — who has previously held stakes in both MGM and Lions Gate — is rumored to be looking to install his son at the head of a studio, and Relativity may provide a possible director’s chair.
Icahn is believed to have held talks as late as last week.
But Kavanaugh wasn’t going for it. The money involved likely was not enough to change the murky financial picture at the Beverly Hillsbased operation. Relativity laid off 75 staffers last week.
On Thursday, Relativity and its lenders filed for Chapter 11 and will move toward an auction process due to end by October.
Sources believe Icahn will be among those circling that auction price, hoping to do better than the one offered by “RM Bidder LLC,” a group likely composed of Relativity’s biggest debtholders.
Icahn most recently was a big stakeholder in Netflix and made up to $2 billion in profit after selling out.
Tinseltown spies wonder if Netflix’s Reed Hastings will be among those eyeing the 11yearold ministudio.
Even while in bankruptcy court, Relativity is expected to continue operating its film and TV business.
Icahn’s office did not return several calls for comment.
New kid on the block
A tech startup is aiming to deliver New Yorkers news stories about the block they’re on — wherever they go in the city. The company, Blockfeed, is a venture of a former Bloomberg engineer, Philip Perkins, and a former MTV producer, Ben Goldman, and it’s running on shoestring funds.
The free application measures already pro duced news content from thousands of New York City news sources based on spikes in socialmedia scores, and then surfaces the most geographically relevant articles to users who can opt to allow tracking or manually pinpoint their locale.
On Wednesday, the most popular topic on the New York Citybased app was the closure of secondhand clothing store Trash and Vaudeville.
The Blockfeed founders are currently presenting to venturecapital firms for additional funds.
“New Yorkers like weird stories,” says Goldman. “Groping does well, and stories about bums urinating,” a topic well documented by The Post.
“It’s amazing to see the trends. New York has the most vibrant local journalism. It’s maybe the best in thee world.”
The app is available in Apple’s App store and is coming to Android this week.
Dick’s pics
Forget sports equipment and sneakers. Dick’s Sporting Goods is focusing on the human drama of athletic competition through movies these days.
Via its foundation, which focuses on youth sports, the retailer is generating a lot of buzz.
Its documentary from last year, “We Could Be King,” about two rivalval Philadelphia highschool football teams, wonon an Emmy and was presented at the Tribeca Film Festival.
The retailer has two more documentaries queued up, one about a girls lacrosse team from upstate New York and the other about threetime beach volleyball gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings (pictured). Both are slated to air on ESPN.
“This unlocks a lot of new territory to push the brand and businesss through emotional storytelling,” said Ryan Eckel, vice president of brand marketing.
Out of game
ForFormer NYC top cop Ray Kelly is expectexpected to return as the impartial umpire aat the annual Artists & Writers softball gamgame in East Hampton on Aug. 15. But one reregular will not be there. Mort Zuckerman, , wwho is having trouble finding a buyer for his beleaguered Daily News — where the print circulation has tumbled 30 percent over the past year — is going to skip the annual charity fundraiser, our Keith J. Kelly rreports.
Zuckerman, who was the starting pitcher in a losing effort for the Writers last year, is expected to take a pass to go ssailing on his yacht instead, sosources said. “I will be out of the country traveling with my family, but will be at the Artists and Writers softball game in spirit, especially with the pitchers,” he said in a statement released by his officoffice.
It iis believed to be only the secondond ttime since he took over the teeteringtering tabloid in 1993 that he has skipped the charity softball game.
In aaddition to putting the Daily News on the block in February, Zuckerman stepped back to nonexecutivetive chairmanch of his real estate empire, Boston Properties, in Decem Ne New Yorker writer Ken Auletta, cocaptain of the Writers, is not too worried about the loss of the 77yearold arm. He plans to go with a youth movement, which in this game means someone without an AARP membership card. “I have plenty of pitchers,” AulettaA said. Sag Harbor Expressp writer Benito Vila is expe pected to replace Zuckerman as the starting pitcher.