BK wrote last night: "The cynic in me believes this has been planned for weeks and that it was drawn out like this (announcing that there would be an announcement, and then endlessly leaking information) so they could get as much publicity as they could, because, let's face it, sales were dropping every week, publicity had dwindled because people were so tired of hearing about it, and this was the perfect way to jack up interest again."
Well, of course, this had to be known for several weeks. The name of the new writer has been talked about for weeks now. But the negotiation-out of Julie Taymor's involvement had to have been a complex, prolonged negotiation. Of course, the removal of someone like julie Taymor from a show she's worked on for all these years would be several weeks at least -- but all the while, until papers were signed, exit agreements finalized, etc, with the knowledge that it could potentially not be finally agreed upon.
(Not to make light, but heck, a recent negotiation we as ordinary people were involved in for the underlying rights to a novel took about six or seven weeks, maybe more, and what a relatively simplel deal that was, for a four-page document, one in which there was no contention.)
Also, in every case, the news breaks first from someone who spoke to the newspapers against the producer's wishes on condition of anonymity. Then , the story gets covered again when the producers reveal what actually happened. Blame the press for the double-coverage of every single thing here, and the press must be sensing that the public wants to read it from clicks on their sites, etc, or they wouldn't be doing it.
