Call it a practical joke or the best ad campaign in the history of small market beer, Will Ferrell's strange spots for Old Milwaukee beer are just getting weirder.

After years of shooting ads for incredibly small markets like Davenport, Iowa, or that one Super Bowl spot that only aired in North Platte, Nebraska, Ferrell has gotten more exotic with his locations — Sweden. 

Ferrell, who is married to a Swede, shot four new Old Milwaukee ads in Sweden for a Swedish television market. One is more ridiculous than the other:

1. Will Ferrell is on a boat. And according to Slate, that's not Swedish-sounding gibberish that he's spouting but actual Swedish. Ferrell says: "This is my boat. This is my woman. And this is my beer. Old Milwaukee. It's all right."

2. Ferrell laughing at a Swedish sign that reads Infart for 30 seconds:

3. Ferrell smiling on a bicycle. That's about it.

4. This might be our favorite. Ferrell's film-noir internal monologue to Stockholm:

Strange as they may be, these ads aren't totally out of the blue. Swedish pride runs deep in the Ferrell household: The actor and his wife Viveca Paulin were bestowed "The 2007 Viking Prize" by the Swedish School of Los Angeles.

Furthermore, this classic 1991 Old Milwaukee ad shows that the beer company has been fascinated by Swedes ... or at least a Swedish bikini team ... for decades:

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Newsweek announced that it will cease production of its print publication at the end of this year.

The magazine will be moving to an all-digital format with a publication called Newsweek Global, marking the end of an era that started back in 1933.

The weekly has had a lively history, and is known for award-winning coverage of the most momentous events of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

But the magazine will probably be most remembered for its provocative covers.

First Edition: February 17, 1933

Einstein: April 4, 1938

Albania: April 17, 1939

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A few months ago, I suggested that the TV industry might be starting to collapse.

My argument was based on the observation that television viewing behavior had begun to change radically, even as television industry revenues and profits continued to go up, up, up.

This situation reminded me of what has happened to the newspaper business over the past 15 years: Reader attention gradually shifted to digital, but warnings of doom were met with snickering and guffawing from the newspaper industry as revenue and profits continued to rise.

But then, suddenly, in the period of only a few years, newspaper advertising revenue collapsed (see chart).

What's currently happening in TV is reminiscent of the first stage of the newspaper industry's collapse: Viewing behavior is changing, but, for now, the TV industry continues to coin money.

For understandable reasons, many TV executives continue to dismiss the digital threat out of hand, pointing out that people still spend 5 hours a day in front of their boob tubes and arguing that the TV habit is so entrenched that satellite-cable-telco-network juggernauts will be able to maintain their chokehold and profits forever.

And maybe they will.

But, more likely, the explosion of options for digital entertainment--some of which, importantly, are viewed or otherwise consumed on TV screens--will gradually bleed away the attention that was once devoted exclusively to traditional TV.

At some point, just as it has with newspapers, this dwindling attention will be noticed by the folks who pay all those massive TV industry bills--advertisers and consumers.

And many of those advertisers and consumers will stop paying those bills--or at least radically reduce the amount they are paying.

At which point the TV industry as we know it will collapse.

Importantly, what I mean by this is NOT that people will stop watching TV content. They'll keep watching it--some of it, anyway--just the way they're still reading newspaper content. They'll just get the TV content they watch in different ways (Netflix, iTunes, YouTube, Hulu). And, unlike today, they won't get it in a way that supports the production of vast amounts of excess TV content (100s of channels) and steers humongous profits into the pockets of TV executives and shareholders.

This change in behavior and spending will eventually lead to TV industry restructurings and consolidation, just as we've seen in the newspaper industry.

It won't be a disaster, so you don't need to worry about it (unless you're getting paid millions to do very little in the TV industry). In fact, in the end, it will just lead to greater choices and flexibility for consumers and more efficiency for the economy and advertisers.

One Thing That Cannot Be Denied: Behavior Is Changing

There are several reasons why the business of television is more protected than the business of newspapers, starting with the fact that TV networks don't generate most of their profit from evaporating classified ads. But if network viewership declines, network advertising revenue will eventually follow. And if pay-TV subscriber viewing declines, pay-TV subscribers will eventually refuse to continually pay more for pay-TV.

So viewership is important.

In my "TV May Be Starting To Collapse" post, I outlined the ways TV viewership has changed in my household (radically). I won't repeat that here. Instead, let's look at some results of a new study by research firm GfK.

GfK compared the viewing habits of ~265 households in 2008 and 2012. It found some modest but important changes, especially among younger, more digitally savvy viewers (in other words, the would-be TV audience of the future).

You can click on any of these charts to make them bigger. And you can download these charts and others at GfK's site here.

First, let's look at device ownership by year. As you can see, TVs have gotten fancier (HD), but many new devices have now begun to horn in on eyeball time. Smartphones and tablets, for example.

Next, let's look at share of total media time by device. There's good news for TV here. Although TV's share of total media time has declined (along with print), the total time spent using TVs is the same.

But here's where the bad news starts. People use their TVs differently than they did in the past. Specifically, they spend less time watching traditional "TV" and more time watching streaming video, watching time-shifted video (DVR), and playing video games.

These changing viewing habits, moreover, are very pronounced in the younger generation. "Gen Y" viewers watch a lot less traditional TV than they used to.

Also, even when we're watching TV these days, we give the TV less attention than we used to.  The use of smartphones, tablets, and the Internet while watching TV has exploded in the past four years. Increasingly, in some households, TV is just something that's "on" in the background while you do other things online.

Among those who don't use TV screens, meanwhile (a small minority of people), the Internet is becoming an increasingly attractive way to spend time.

The bottom line is this:

1. Traditional TV viewership is changing.
2. None of the changes are good for the traditional TV industry.
3. Someday, if attention keeps shifting, the money will follow.

SEE ALSO: Don't Mean To Be Alarmist But The TV Business May Be Starting To Collapse

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William Morris Endeavor talent superagent Ari Emanuel and his wife, Sarah, filed a $2 million lawsuit Thursday against Mark and Jill Freeman—owners of upscale Los Angeles boutiques, Jill Roberts—after the Hollywood broker claims the clothing couple misused a $600,000 investment.

Emanuel—who famously was the inspiration for the "Ari Gold" character on "Entourage" and whose clients include Michael Douglas, Sacha Baron Cohen and Aaron Sorkin—is now claiming he is the victim of "major fraud" after the Freemans used the Emanuel's loan "as if it were their own personal piggy bank.”

It all started in 2010 when the Freemans allegedly asked the Emanuels to invest in Seaton—a "California cool" clothing store they planned to open.

According to the lawsuit, the Emanuels invested $200,000 for a 50 percent interest in Seaton. They also agreed to loan Seaton $200,000 initially, and later agreed to a second $200,000 loan in order “to help finance . . . business operations.”

But in September, the Freemans told the Emanuels that the Seaton endeavor “simply was not profitable,” the store would be closed at the end of 2012, and their investment lost.

Emanuel then ordered an audit of Seaton’s books and “uncovered extensive evidence that the Freemans perpetrated a major fraud,” according to the suit, which also states, “The Freemans engaged in numerous acts of deceit, concealment, embezzlement, misappropriation, self-dealing and unlawful competition.”

Instead of using the Emanuel's loan for authorized business expenses, the suit claims that the Freemans "operated Seaton as if it were their own personal piggy bank" by using the money to take trips to Europe and selling “large volumes” of Seaton merchandise at below market value to Jill Freeman's other clothing boutique, Jill Roberts.

"As a result of the Freemans' fraudulent, unlawful and malicious actions, Plaintiffs have been deprived of their investment and of the profits they would have received from their investment if not for the Freemans' wrongdoing," the lawsuit states.

And no use in trying to buy anything off the Seaton website, either, as it appears to now only be a homepage with no working links.

SEE ALSO: Here's how much the top 15 media CEOs spend on private jets >

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A new action-packed trailer for the next Bond film, "Skyfall," was released this morning.

In it, we get a better idea about the film's plot (it looks like M, the Head of Secret Intelligence Service, is the reason Bond gets shot at during the much-teased train fight). Plus, there's a hefty bit of dialogue from villain Raoul Silva, played by Javier Bardem.

"Skyfall" comes to theaters November 9, with IMAX releases the day before.

Watch the trailer below:

SEE ALSO: The first plot synopsis for "Iron Man 3" >

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13.6 million viewers tuned in to see Miley Cyrus' guest appearance last night on "Two and a Half" men.

The number was a 14 percent rise from last week's 11.4 million, making it the tenth season's highest-rated episode so far.

Cyrus played an irksome 19-year-old "southern chatterbox"–a description which sounds eerily similar to her earlier "Hannah Montana" character–who comes to visit Ashton Kutcher's character Walden. 

Housemaid Bertha (Conchata Ferrell) described Cyrus' character as, "what you get when hillbillies have unprotected sex with hummingbirds."

Though none of CBS' clips really do what we're speaking of justice, the first minute of this clip with Miley will give you an idea of her character:

SEE ALSO: The latest Bond trailer for "Skyfall" >

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If you live in New York or Los Angeles, as of tonight, you can hit theaters to watch actress Helen Hunt take the virginity of a 38-year-old man afflicted with polio in the new movie "The Sessions."

The film, based on the autobiographical writings of California-based journalist and poet Mark O'Brien, played by actor John Hawkes, tells the story of a man confined to an iron lung who is determined to lose his virginity.

With the help of his therapists and the guidance of his priest, expertly played by William H. Macy, he sets out to make his dream a reality.

Hunt, who completely strips down in the film, portrays real life sex surrogate Cheryl Cohen-Greene, who worked with the polio-stricken O'Brien in real life. A sex surrogate is "a professional substitute trained to help patients overcome inhibitions"—essentially a prostitute but with a limited number of sessions.

O'Brien passed away in 1999, but Cohen-Greene, who worked with Hunt to master the role, is currently out helping promote the film by talking about her real-life sexploits.

The film was also a special project for its screenwriter, Polish-born Ben Lewin, who himself is a polio survivor.

"The Sessions," released today in New York and Los Angeles, won audience and jury awards at Sundance and was immediately picked up by Fox Searchlight. And it's already getting Oscar buzz.

 Watch the trailer below:

SEE ALSO: Will the multi-million dollar budget on "The Hobbit" pay off?

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First, Disney gave "The Little Mermaid" some plastic surgery, then they made a light-haired, blue-eyed Latina princess, and now, three vital Disney characters have been placed on a serious diet in the name of fashion.

Minnie Mouse, Daffy Duck and Goofy have been elongated and slimmed down for a new Barneys campaign called "Electric Holiday," featuring a 3-D film with the iconic characters as supermodels.

But casting and creating Disney models was no easy fete.

Barneys Creative Director Dennis Freedman explained to Women's Wear Daily:

“The animator and I sat next to each other and went over every detail of the clothes — how they’re made, what material, how they would move — to get them as accurate as we possibly could. When we got to the moment when all Disney characters walk on the runway, there was a discussion. The standard Minnie Mouse will not look so good in a Lanvin dress. There was a real moment of silence, because these characters don’t change. I said, ‘If we’re going to make this work, we have to have a 5-foot-11 Minnie,’ and they agreed. When you see Goofy, Minnie and Mickey, they are runway models.

Freedman even took a model to meetings in Glendale, Calif., 'to walk the hallways of Disney, and they studied how she walked. I said, ‘You can’t make the film without understanding every detail of how she walks, what her facial expression is, and how she stares ahead.’”

To see the entire campaign, click here. To get a feel for what Disney looks like on a designer diet, see below:

Minnie Mouse in Alber Elbaz for Lanvin:

Daisy Duck in Dolce & Gabbana:

Goofy in Olivier Rousteing for Balmain:

Disney's collaboration with Barneys will be unveiled to the public on Nov. 14 at the high end department store's Madison Avenue flagship, where buyers can also find collectible Vinylmation figures designed by Paul Smith and Diane von Furstenberg, and Mickey Mouse ears from Rag & Bone and L’Wren Scott.

Barneys will donate 25 percent of sales from Electric Holiday products to a charity it will disclose at a later date.

SEE ALSO: Disney's first Latina princess has fair skin and blue eyes >

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In 2005, indie film screenwriter Kenny Golde's finances were in nothing short of mint condition.

"I had less than $10,000 in credit card debt, more than $100,000 in unused lines of credit, a FICO score over 800, and about $100,000 in savings even after the downpayment on my home," he says. "I even adopted a dog." 

Then the bottom fell out. Within a year, a perfect storm of financial and professional mishaps would carry him down a seemingly never-ending rabbit's hole of debt. 

By his fortieth birthday, he had amassed a staggering $220,000 in credit debt and spent his days sparring with debt collectors, dodging lawsuits and doing all he could to keep bankruptcy at bay. 

That was until an attorney steered him toward a path he never thought he'd travel: Debt settlement––essentially negotiating his debt directly with lenders. 

"The journey took me about a year and a half," Golde writes in his book,
"The Do-It-Yourself Bailout." Now "I have reduced my debt ... to zero.  I have done this legally, at a fraction of the cost of the debt itself, and I saved just under $150,000." 

Screenwriter Kenny Golde paid $170,000 in 2008 to finance a movie

Golde struggled for 11 years to secure financing for an independent film, he found his savior in a 70-year-old investor named Gabe. 

Gabe pumped $560,000 into the project, but "it quickly became clear that we were under-financed," Golde writes. "I called Gabe in Los Angeles to gain his support in going [$170,000] over budget, only to learn that he had been hospitalized." 

Within weeks, Gabe passed away. Golde was left to foot the bill himself. 

Meanwhile the Writers Guild strike left him out of a job

To cover the project, Golde took out seven new lines of business and personal credit at six different banks. 

"I was carrying around $3,600 per month in minimum credit card payments in addition to my mortgage and regular monthly expenses," he writes. "I was scared."

He was also out of work. The Writers Guild of America and Screen Actors Guild were both in the thick of wage strikes at the time and the job market in film had tanked. Within six months, his savings would be depleted. 

It was such a sudden and drastic lifestyle change that Golde says it was all he could do not to succumb to depression.

"In addition to my sense of failure, I was self-judgmental," he writes. "How could I be 40 years old and looking at bankruptcy?" 

$220,000 in debt, Golde had two options: filing bankruptcy or fighting off the lenders himself

His personal life in tatters––Golde blames his financial funk on the demise of his love life at the time––he took his family and friends' advice to meet with a bankruptcy attorney.

"I call it a context change," he writes. "I changed my context from depressed and emotional to 'This is the mountain I'm on and I'm going to ski it as best I can.'"

He was ready to file bankruptcy, but the attorney had another idea: debt settlement. As Golde learned, banks were willing to settle debts for a fraction of their total value if consumers are unable to make payments.That's because it's more lucrative to them than selling the account off to debt collectors, which pay as little as 5 percent of the balance. 

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At the age of 20, Kate Upton has already been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. She also has a couple of Vogue pictorials and YouTube hits under her belt. 

But Upton's real dream is to join the ranks of supermodels like Cindy Crawford, Gisele Bundchen or Kate Moss. She aspires to walk runways and do a "big, glamorous ad campaign," she told Vogue. 

So far, Upton has been snubbed by much of the industry. 

She has never walked the runway at New York Fashion Week, a fact that seems absurd considering that she's been on the cover of so many magazines. 

With Upton's curves, you'd think she'd be perfect for Victoria's Secret.

But the lingerie giant's casting director, Sophia Neophitou, said in February that she'd never walk their runway. 

"She's like a Page 3 girl," Neophitou said, referring to the scantily clad voluptuous women featured in The Sun, a London tabloid. "She's like a footballer's wife, with the too-blond hair and that kind of face that anyone with enough money can go out and buy."

So why haven't more people in the industry rushed to work with Upton?

Our theory is that like Kim Kardashian, the industry is shunning Upton because it prefers waifish models to voluptuous, overtly sexy women. 

But Upton has Vogue on her side, and her great looks. Taking her career to the next level will be difficult, but it's definitely possible. 

DON'T MISS: Paul McCartney's Daughter Is A Huge Hit In Her Own Right >

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After five years of dating, Justin Timberlake, 31, and Jessica Biel, 30, tied the knot Friday at the Borgo Egnazia resort in the southern Italian city of Fasano.

"It's great to be married, the ceremony was beautiful and it was so special to be surrounded by our family and friends," the couple confirmed in a statement to People.

But the ceremony five years in the making was no small — or cheap — affair.

E! Online is reporting that the overseas wedding could have put the Hollywood couple back over $6.5 million.

If the reported figure is real, "it's definitely a lot," Bridal Bar founder Harmony Walton tells E! Online. "Especially if this is an intimate affair, which it is rumored to be. However, with celebrity destination weddings in places like Italy, there are things that come into play that can jump a wedding budget dramatically."

"If they've booked out a whole hotel — and chances are, they have — they're probably footing the bill for all of their guests," Walton explains. "And if those guests are there for five to seven days, that could be a million alone, depending on the hotel."

A standard rate for a regular room at the Borgo Egnazia resort, where the Timberlake's held their affair, costs €310/night.

It's also common for stars to spend "as much on a rehearsal dinner as they do on a wedding," Walton notes.

Timberlake and Biel's guests had no idea they were heading to Italy. "Guests flew out on Monday and landed in Frankfurt with no further instructions,” a source told Celebuzz. “Upon their arrival, they were all given itineraries and tickets to the south of Italy, where the wedding festivities will take place.”

"The celebrations began earlier this week, with an evening bash at the beachfront resort of Riva Dei Ginepri. During the soiree, partygoers — which included guests like Saturday Night Live alum Andy Samberg and Biel’s former 7th Heaven co-star, Beverly Mitchell — soon took in the majestic Southern Italy scenery, traditional Neapolitan music and a dazzling 10-minute fireworks display," reports Celebuzz.

"Events leading up to a destination wedding tend to be experiential," Walton continued to E! Online. "Maybe they're renting vintage cars for 75 of their closest friends so they can do a car rally up the coast of Italy. If they're getting helicopter tours for their guests to take tours of the neighboring islands, that's going to cost."

But Timberlake and Biel aren't the first celebs to drop the big bucks on their wedding. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes spent a reported $2 million on their Italian affair, while former couples Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston and Madonna and Guy Ritchie both dropped around $1.5 million for their nuptials.

Here's to hoping the newlyweds have better luck than their pricey party predecessors.

SEE ALSO: Inside Justin Timberlake's ex-girlfriend Britney Spears' $32M conservatorship >

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A match made in power-couple heaven: The Obamas and Jay-Z and Beyoncé.

President Obama recently dished eon his and Michelle's friendship with the musicians during an interview on a Cleveland radio show, saying he has a very normal friendship with the couple.

"They're obviously unbelievably successful, but they really are down-to-earth folks," said the President. "We talk about the same things I talk about with all my friends. We talk about kids, you know, they just had a new baby."

The POTUS also said he's offered new father Jay-Z some parenting advice.

"I made sure Jay Z was helping Beyonce out, and not leaving it all with mom and the mother-in-law," he said, adding "Beyoncé could not be sweeter to Michelle and the girls."

Listen to the full interview here: (skip to 6.32)

SEE ALSO: Celebrity Twitter reactions to this week's debate >

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File under Things That Actually Happened: On September 30, 1990, British Satellite Broadcasting aired a single episode of "Heil Honey I’m Home," a Nazi-themed sitcom featuring fictionalized versions of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.

The couple inexplicably live in a Berlin apartment building, across the hall from the Jewish couple Arny and Rosa Goldenstein, whose goofy antics infuriate the Führer, leading to weirdly unfunny 1950s-style sitcom setups.

In this patently offensive parallel comedy universe, the Hitlers are a typical urban couple, and their biggest challenges are making dinner for British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and surviving the antics of their neighbors. (There is some attention paid to the Munich Agreement referenced in Chamberlain’s visit, but solely as a framing device to feed the boss-is-coming-to-dinner style plot.)

“I gotta think nice thoughts: Poland, the Sudetenland…” – TV Adolf Hitler. Seriously, folks—how did this make it to air?

The show ends about five minutes into this next clip. If you stay tuned afterwards, you’ll see a few 1990 BSB TV commercials, which are roughly as unfunny as the show itself. The clip ends with an intro to an interview with Salman Rushdie—leading me, yet again, to wonder who was in charge of this programming lineup.

For more deep thoughts on this travesty, check out SplitSider’s detailed review. I agree with their central thesis: This show fails because it’s not satire—it’s just a crappy parody of 1950s sitcoms…with friggin’ Hitler as the protagonist. It’s just not funny, largely because it fails to comment on its own protagonist’s unique position in history. Future TV writers and executives, take note.

Network Awesome also covered this show and pointed out an interesting bit of trivia: Interestingly, the date "Heil Honey I’m Home" aired is the same date that the Munich Agreement was signed and Prime Minister Chamberlain went to Hitler before his “peace in our time” address – September 30. Coincidence?

SEE ALSO: The 10 Commandments of 21st century franchise production >

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Back in 2005, a Harvard freshman filling out a profile for an on-campus recruiting program listed Jay-Z as her business role-model.

Chanequa Campbell was promptly called into the Office of Career Services and told to name someone else.

"It's not appropriate. I don't think people will respond well to this," the career counselor told her.

Campbell, who grew up seven blocks from Jay-Z in Brooklyn and idolized the drug-dealer turned rapper turned entrepreneur, refused to name someone else. She argued with the career counselor awhile longer, finally offering as a small concession to use her role model's given name, Sean Carter.

***

Seven years later Campbell, who ended up getting kicked out of Harvard, still gets upset telling how Harvard didn't respect the businessman from her community.

If it wasn't clear back then, it's clear now that Jay-Z is a damn good business role model.

"I know his resume," Campbell told me. "He made most of his major respect—Wall Street respect—since '04."

But he was a businessman from the start.

"Hov [another nickname for Carter] started as an independent artist with Reasonable Doubt in 1996. Even though he wasn't going platinum, at the beginning he was making money because he owned his own label, he was his own business," Campbell said.

Then he got big. Fourteen Grammy's and over 50 million album sales were just the start. Jay-Z invested in all kinds of ventures—including the Brooklyn Nets, ad firm Translation, cosmetics company Carol's Daughter, Rocawear, and the newly revamped 40/40 Club—earning a networth around half a billion dollars.

Still he never changed who he was.

"To be successful and never change who he is, that's the important thing for me," says Campbell. "It's rare he's ever lost his cool. He never lets a situation bring himself out of character. He's someone who can articulate any position he has."

He's a good role model too.

"Most of Jay-Z's songs, if you understand his vernacular, he's telling you how to be cool, how to be good at life," Campbell says. "He's promoting things of content, things to aspire to. He mentions Warhol, he mentions Basquiat. He mentions people you've never heard of. He brings this light to our normal conversation."

And he's still getting bigger.

Campbell repeats from memory a great Jay-Z quote from a couple of years ago. Here's what Jay-Z said after meeting Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov at the Four Season: "I'd been staying there for 10 years, and I always thought I was at the top level. But when I met Prokhorov, they took me up to this extra, extra room that I had never even heard of before. Now there's something else to shoot for. There's always an extra level you don't know about."

Jay-Z trails only Sean "Diddy" Combs on the Forbes' list of Future Hip-Hop Billionaires. If either makes the cut, he will join the short list of currently only five black billionaires in the word.

As Jay-Z says: "I'm not a businessman, I'm a business, man."

So yeah, we think Harvard got it wrong. Meanwhile Campbell has bounced back from her legal troubles and is teaching in New York City. She's thinking about working at a think tank and is also writing a memoir.

"That's why I love Hov," Campbell says. "He's a prime example of how they can't hold the past against you."

Now Check Out Financial Wisdom From Jay-Z's Two Best Albums >

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Film is perhaps America’s greatest cultural export. That said, not every American film title translates well into other languages. To bridge the gap, foreign marketers take some very intriguing creative liberties.

Many of the best mangled film titles come from China, where they are downright magical at jazzing up boring old English titles.

Step Up – Sexy Dance (France)

Pretty Woman – I Will Marry a Prostitute to Save Money (China)

No Strings Attached – Sex Friends (France)

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If you grew up in the pre-MP3 era, chances are you had at least one go-round as a member of Columbia House’s mail-order music club. Who could turn down the allure of eight compact discs (or 11 record albums or cassette tapes) for just a penny? It would be stupid not to join! A few months of automatic shipments later, you probably ended up like a lot of members did: as a no-income 14-year-old who owed Columbia House $47 for unwanted Sir Mix-a-Lot CDs. Let’s take a look at a few lingering questions about the music club.

How did the Columbia House business model work?

The underlying model for Columbia House was a pretty simple setup known as negative option billing. Basically, once you sign up for a membership in a club or service, you start getting monthly shipments unless you expressly tell the club you don’t want them. Of course, you also get the bill.

Negative option billing has actually been illegal in Ontario since 2005, but it’s still legal in the United States. There are a few caveats, though. The Federal Trade Commission requires that any club or service offering a negative option plan must clearly and conspicuously indicate minimum purchase obligations, cancellation procedures, the frequency with which members must reject shipments, and how to eventually cancel a membership when they enroll new members.

The FTC really drops the hammer on any company that doesn’t comply with these regulations. In 2009 it reached a $1 million settlement with the online company Commerce Planet, which had been offering a “free” online auction kit while also signing customers up for a recurring $59.95 “online supplier” program.

How did Columbia House make any money while giving away so much music?

Columbia House and competitor BMG brought in a tons of gross revenue — as late as 2000, the two companies were grossing $1.5 billion a year. But even with negative option billing bringing in cash from club members who forgot to return their rejection forms, Columbia House operated on a seemingly tight margin.

Columbia House and BMG had some fairly clever ways to save cash, though. Until 2006, the record companies had never actually secured written licenses to distribute the records it sent to club members. Instead, the clubs saved the hassle (and the expense) by paying most publishers 75% of the standard royalties set by copyright law. The clubs argued that since the publishers were cashing their discounted checks, they were submitting to “implied” licenses.

Music publishers didn’t love this arrangement, but for decades it was pretty tough to fight back against the mail-order clubs. As some of the biggest pre-Internet retailers, the clubs held enormous power over the music market. According to a 2006 Billboard article, if a publisher complained, the clubs would simply stop carrying their records.

On top of that, the clubs generally weren’t buying their records from labels and then selling them. Instead, the clubs would acquire the master tapes of records and press their own copies on the cheap. Moreover, remember those “bonus” or “free” records you got for signing up for the clubs? The clubs generally didn’t pay any royalties at all on those, which further slashed their costs.

In the end, all these little factors saved a ton of money. In his 2004 book The Recording Industry, Geoffrey P. Hull took a look at the economics of the clubs. He estimated that the cost to the clubs of a “free” disc was only around $1.50, while a disc sold at full price cost the club anywhere from $3.20 to $5.50. Hull did the math and realized that even if only one of every three discs a club distributed sold at the $16 list price, the club would still end up making a margin of around $7.20 on each sold disc. Hull explains that retail stores were hard pressed to make a margin of even $6.50 per sold disc, so it’s easy to see how the clubs stayed afloat even with their massive marketing and advertising costs.

Did anyone really, really take advantage of those introductory offers?

Joseph Parvin of Lawrenceville, NJ, was undoubtedly the patron saint of anyone who ever wanted to stick it to a music club for receiving an unwanted record.

In March 2000, the 60-year-old Parvin admitted that he had used 16 post office boxes and his own home address to fleece Columbia House and BMG out of 26,554 discs during a five-year span in the ’90s. He pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud.

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Most people can't imagine James Bond drinking anything other than his signature vodka martini (shaken not stirred). But the international man of mystery is going to be sipping Heineken, again, in the upcoming Bond flick "Skyfall."

While some fans cry "sacrilege," this isn't the first time Bond has strayed from martinis.

In the very first Bond movie, "Dr. No," Bond perched at a bar beside a Red Stripe. He's also imbibed various brands of vodka, sodas, and other prominently labeled beverages.

For "Skyfall," Bond will be seen with a mall full of different brands, covering everything from Coke Zero, to Sony Vaio. The Heineken tie-in is one of the largest product placement packages in history.

To give you a sense of just how big of a deal product placement is for James Bond, we put together a short history of product placement throughout the lifespan of the movie franchise.

Bond opted for a Red Stripe rather than his signature vodka martini during his first flick in 1962. Pan Am and Smirnoff also made appearances in "Dr. No."

Pan Am product placements occurred throughout the Bond franchise. In fact, Bond nonsensically flew from London to Istanbul on the US-based airline in "From Russia With Love" (1963).

Bond is known for his cars, but the franchise also pioneered auto placements in movies, starting with "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974).

American Motors made a historic $5 million deal to have Bond drive its cars, exclusively ... even in Thailand, which didn't sell the brand and would require steering wheels to be on the opposite side of the car.

Watch Bond perform a famous stunt in the AMC below:

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Cablevision and AMC have finally settled their $2.4 billion lawsuit against Dish after the satellite provider dropped the network, and other VOOM channels, in June.

"Dish will pay a settlement of $700 million to Cablevision and AMC Networks, $80 million of which will go for the purchase of Cablevision's multichannel video and distribution licenses in 45 U.S. metropolitan areas," reports The Wrap.

Dish resumed broadcast of the AMC channel on Sunday--just in time for the broadcast of the popular "The Walking Dead."

Other networks, including AMC, IFC, Sundance Channel and WE TV, will be available to Dish customers starting November 1.

After today's cease fire in what has been a very dramatic cable war, it seems there are no hard feelings between the cable channel and its on-again-off-again satellite provider.

Dave Shull, senior vice president of programming at Dish, states, "We are glad to have settled the case and reestablished our long-term relationships with AMC Networks and Cablevision. This multi-year deal delivers a fair value for both parties and includes digital expansion opportunities for AMC Networks’ programming.”

Cablevision, too, is playing nice, with AMC Networks President and CEO Josh Sapan saying "We are glad to partner again with DISH Network and are delighted to bring back our popular channels and programming to their customers."

The settlement comes after a "mistake" note was posted on the New York State Supreme Court website Thursday that said there would be a “possible settlement” when the trial resumed.

As the trial proceded in New York Court last week, things looked increasingly bad for Dish as deleted emails were uncovered that would hurt their case "in a big way" while AMC's "The Walking Dead" premiere last week earned huge, better-than-broadcast ratings--proving AMC’s status as one of the top basic cable networks.

Related:

• Ceasefire In Dish v. AMC War Is Either A 'Possible Settlement' Or A 'Mistake' >

•  New emails hurt Dish 'in a big way' in battle against AMC >

• A history of Dish & AMC's colorful cable war >

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On Sunday, fans unlocked a 15 second teaser for the "Iron Man 3" trailer on Facebook that will debut on Apple tomorrow.

There's not much here, but what you do see is Pepper Potts in a panic, the Iron Man suit in action, and a small shot of Ben Kingsley as the villain.

Check out the teaser below:

SEE ALSO: The latest "Skyfall" trailer >

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