Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

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Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 12:29pm

I searched and didn't see any threads on this subject, which surprised me.

WAR has broken out between Broadway producer Scott Rudin and the New York Times. At issue is the advertising campaign for Rudin's show "The Year of Magical Thinking," starring Vanessa Redgrave.

While the play was still in previews, the Times, on its Web site, encouraged readers to "write a review."

Rudin didn't think that was fair.

So on March 30, the day the show opened, he turned the tables on the paper, quoting, in ads in the Times and the Post, a reader who said: "An evening of magical theater. Get yourself a ticket to the Booth Theatre."

Rudin attributed the quote to "The New York Times Online."

That's when the battle began.
Producer vs. Times

"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."

The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 12:40pm

i think this is ingenious! :)

gotta love Riedel for having the balls to publish the letters too

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:12pm

this is as good as a soap opera! So far, I'm in Rudin's corner...

"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:26pm

Sometimes I very much love Michael Riedel. Roll on the next round of this battle please! XD

Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:28pm

Yea, this is gonna be good! I'm with Rudin too so far.

....but the world goes 'round

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:31pm

I posted about this when it was first mentioned (I believe in the Daily News). Love to see the escalation of the argument.

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:31pm

This is great. Extremely entertaining. I give it 5 STARS, and you can quote ME Scott.

RUDIN! RUDIN! RUDIN!

It's incredible how much credibility the NY Times has lost over the years.

"If you've got something to say, say it, and think well of yourself while you're learning to say it better." - David Mamet

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:35pm

I don't think the NYTimes has really lost credibility...

While I have no problem with readers reviews and I think they are a good thing, I'm with Rudin here.

It's very David Merrick of him, if any of you recall the time when he tracked down men who had the same exact names as Clive Barnes, Brooks Atkinson, etc. and posted THEIR reviews, rather than the actual critics reviews. Genius.

"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy." -Charlie Manson

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:38pm

"It's very David Merrick of him, if any of you recall the time when he tracked down men who had the same exact names as Clive Barnes, Brooks Atkinson, etc. and posted THEIR reviews, rather than the actual critics reviews. Genius."

LOVE IT.

-Benjamin
--http://www.benjaminadgate.com/

#10

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:38pm

i agree. The Times hasn't lost any crdedibility. Rudin just got smarter than The Times.

#11

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 1:40pm

And just when I thought I couldn't love Rudin more! That's hilarious. XD

Notes from the Earlham Street Gutter

#12

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 2:00pm

Ethics aside, I love the fact that the NY Times has been called out the way they have. Did I read the Riedel article correctly, did the Times find the use of the quote offensive/unethical when the ad ran in the Post and not the Times? Rudin 1 Times 0

Updated On: 4/20/07 at 02:00 PM

#13

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 2:09pm

Thanks whoever for the "third party" leak...this was enjoyable.

"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#14

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 2:24pm

i can see the Times point of view too, however. Newspapers everywhere are fighting a losing battle against the instant news of TV, radio and now the internet. In putting readers' reviews online they're acting no differently from this site and other similar ones, and thereby attempting to keep some of the readership that is more at home on the net than buying a paper. I know there's a good argument to be made against reviewing previews, but that hasn't stopped a great many people here from doing it anyway.

If I'm reading correctly, I don't think the Times would care about the quotes being used if they were labelled less ambiguously. In this case they're looking out for the consumer as much as themselves. It will obviously matter to most theatergoers if a rave turns out to be from a Times reader rather than a Times critic.

#15

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 2:24pm

A few weeks ago I heard Terrence McNally interviewed by Seth Rudetsky.

He told a story about asking composers for audition songs for Ragtime.

The Ahrens and Flaherty tape included "Wheels of a Dream". When the show opened, an article in the New York Times claimed that Ford Motors required the inclusion of a song about the Ford Model T in the show since they were using the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. McNally wrote to the Times and said they were wrong since he had the audition tape which was dated prior to the Ford Center ever entering the scene. According to McNally, the Times wrote back that they "stood by their story"

So good for you, Scott Rudin, don't let those arrogant sob's push you around.

Perhaps it was not a dream.

#16

re: Scott Rudin and The New York Times Battle over Quote

Posted: 4/20/07 at 7:12pm

yea, this is all tasty fun -- i mean, bring on the koi pond! -- but at the end of the day, i think the Times is right. rudin's action misleads -- any reasonable person would conclude that the quote represents a view expressed BY the NYT, not a view expressed IN the NYT.

"You, sir, are a moron." (PlayItAgain)

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