The PR folks at Disney sent this up to our folks in Cupertino and I happened to come across it while scanning through Katie Cotton’s email inbox. Graybearded sodomite Nick Denton has struck again. This time he’s snarking on a video startup called Veoh which has Michael Eisner on its board and is offering up a pirated version of Shrek 3, which Scoop Denton attributes to “Disney Studios.” And Disney, you see, is where Michael Eisner used to work. Geddit? Michael Eisner is on the board of a company that’s distributing pirated Disney movies. Hoo-eey! Score another snarky scoop for that deeply wired-in Valleywag team. Just the kind of snicker-snicker insidery stuff that’s made Valleywag a must-read in the Valley.
Just one problem. Shrek 3 was made by DreamWorks, Disney’s rival. D’oh! Several commenters pointed this out, so Scoop Denton went back in and removed the line where he originally claimed Shrek 3 came “from Disney Studios.” You can see his cleaned-up version and the comments here. For the original you’ll have to contact the guy who screen-grabbed it and sent it to us. Much love, Pyotr Dmitrovich.
Apparently the PR flacks at Disney are laughing their asses off over this one, having been savaged more than once by Denton & Co. Not saying the Disney people planted the fake tip, but I’m not saying they didn’t either. Apparently this has become a new pastime for bored PR flacks, not just in the Valley but also in L.A. and New York. The game involves finding ways to make those oh-so-hip and oh-so-snarky Gawker sites print dumb stuff and look like idiots. It’s just as easy to do as you’d imagine. They’ll print practically anything you send them. No really. They will. Try it.
CORRECTION: Dick Spenton writes in to complain about our description of him as a “graybearded sodomite.” He insists his beard is not gray. FSJ regrets the error.
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