Carlyle goes to the movies
District-based investment firm The Carlyle Group is one of three investors that have agreed to buy Loews Cineplex Entertainment from Onex Corp. and Oaktree Capital Management for $1.46 billion.
The Loews chain owns 200 movie theaters. For those of you unfamiliar with the Carlyle Group, it's a $17-billion military industrial powerhouse with a lot of Saudi money backing it up. Bush Sr. was on the board and did a lot of schmoozing for the firm.
The company does a lot of synergy - for instance, in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, they bought the largest cigarette-manufacturing firm in Italy, positioning them to supply the troops and make a bundle. And it was a target in "Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11", for its involvment in linking Saudi money with the Bushes.
What would they want with movie theaters? Up until now the Rethuglicans have been able to work on their media mogul peers with the usual forms of pressure, blocking such things as the Reagan TV series on ABC and getting Disney to drop distribution of "Fahrenheit 9/11". But Moore did an end run, and got independent distribution. Solution? Buy up the theaters.
Is anyone else thinking about Howard Beale's sermons in the film "Network" at this point?
