MSNBC, Consumer Confidence, Sydney Pollack Death and Indy 4 Box Office

Sydney Pollack Dead at 73 - Director and actor Sydney Pollack died from cancer at his home on Monday. He directed film such as Out of Africa, Tootsie, Havana, and Three Days of the Condor. He also acted in many films, with his last role being this years "Maid of Honor" and recently produced HBO's "Recount" which is probably a shoo-in for multiple Emmys.

MSNBC Wins Demo After 6 Years - In a sign that MSNBC's decision to be the anti-Fox is working; the station won the key A25-54 in prime time for the first time in 6 years. The last victory occurred on Halloween 2001. The plan is pretty simple, counter Fox's faux "fair and balanced" with their reporting. The result is a feud between Fox and MSNBC made amusing by Fox pretending they don't matter but spending a lot of time trying to counter the network and clearly that isn't working.

May Consumer Confidence at 16 Year Low - With news of recessions, companies planning and cutting back accordingly, the high cost of energy, growing inflation, the decreasing value of the dollar and the hard hit housing industry, its probably no surprise that consumers are hunkering down for the worse rather then spending. It doesn't help that Bush's trickle down plans never trickled down so the result is the middle class has shrunk over the last 8 years and they counted for the majority of the consumer spending that drives the economy. Bush now hasn't just rolled back the Clinton years; he is now working on his father's.

Indiana 4 Box Office - The movie that took 19 to years to come didn't tire out fans who turned out in huge numbers world-wide. Its US haul was $126 million; the rest of the world did $160 bringing its Memorial Day weekend total to $286 which pretty much means the movie will hit profitability by the end of the week.