LOS ANGELES — The romantic comedy “It’s Complicated” arrived at the multiplex on Friday complete with an R rating, ranking it in the same category as “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Basic Instinct” in the eyes of the Motion Picture Association of America.

But there is no violence in “It’s Complicated,” and the bedroom scenes are decidedly tame by contemporary standards. Instead, the R rating — which experts say could limit the box-office potential of the Universal Pictures film — comes largely from a sequence in which Steve Martin and Meryl Streep smoke marijuana. Read the full story

Roy Edward Disney dies at 79; nephew of Walt helped revive animation

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For the past several years, Baby Einstein has been under attack by propaganda groups taking extreme positions that try to dictate what parents should do, say and buy. Our philosophy has always been to focus on creating products that parents and babies love, and to not get sidetracked and pulled down into their street fight.

Unfortunately, with Susan Linn’s latest stunt, we cannot be silent any longer. Linn’s obvious dislike for Baby Einstein has now turned into a sensational, headline-grabbing publicity campaign that seeks to twist and spin a simple, customer satisfaction action into a false admission of guilt. This is clearly not the case.

Linn’s moves are carefully crafted to prey on parental guilt and uncertainty. This time, she began by asking the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to go after Baby Einstein because, she said, we claimed that Baby Einstein was educational. But we do not make any such claim – and the FTC brought no action.

Not content to rely on the judgment of the federal government, her attacks continued and escalated despite the fact that her assertions have no merit.

That’s where we are today. However, we took a very different approach. We strongly believe that, unlike Linn, our consumers find value in our product, and rather than continue to fight with her, we decided it to leave it up to those consumers. That is why we extended a refund policy that was already in place. Although she would like to claim otherwise, there is nothing extraordinary about a company’s willingness to stand behind its product. To the contrary, it is the strongest possible show of confidence in it.

Baby Einstein announced this offer in a press release issued on September 4, 2009, which was largely ignored by the media. Linn’s latest public relations blitz simply distorts the facts and misleads the public. In the end, this smear campaign has everything to do with Linn trying to generate ink and funding for her cause, and not about the value that consumers find in our product.

Thank you for letting us set the record straight.

Sincerely,

Susan McLain
General Manager, The Baby Einstein Company

“Baby Einstein” Refund Program Expanded

UNDATED—Parents who purchased “Baby Einstein” videos hoping they would help make their children smarter can get a refund for the DVD’s.

This action follows complaints from a consumer group that claimed the videos overpromised their educational value.

The Walt Disney Company owns ‘Baby Einstein’ and has dropped the word “educational” from its ads.

In order to avoid a class-action lawsuit, Disney has agreed to refund the full purchase price to those who bought the videos from 2004 to 2009.

For more information, click the appropriate link below:

BabyEinstein.com/Refund

DVD Refund Info

Baby Einstein Refunds For Americans And Canadians

You bought a Baby Einstein DVD Collection  and Junior still has not transformed into little genius? Don’t worry, you can now request a refund from the Walt Disney Company.

The U.S. company recently announced it would reimburse Canadian and American parents dissatisfied who bought one or more videos in the collection between June 5, 2004 and September 4, 2009. It gives members and because of the campaign for a childhood without advertising have recently complained to the Commission Federal Trade to expose the pretensions of the educational product.

A DVD can not boost the IQ of a young baby, experts say. Although many babies are fascinated by the videos, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends not allowing children under two years of watching television. At this age, it is the interaction with the parent who should be privileged.

Baby Einstein, founded in 1997, was one of the first players in this market. Disney acquired it in 2001 and the company has grown. It now offers books, toys and clothing, in addition to DVDs such as Baby Mozart, Baby Shakespeare “and” Baby Galileo “. The videos feature music, puppets, colorful and very few words.

According to a study published in 2003, one third of all American infants six months to two years had at least one video “Baby Einstein”.

Although many babies are fascinated by the videos, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends not allowing children under two years of watching television.

Last year, lawyers threatened to start a class action lawsuit for deceptive practices unless Disney agreed to refund the purchase price of all videos sold since 2004.

Baby Einstein decided to pay a sum of $15.99 for a maximum of four Baby Einstein DVD per household. The videos must be purchased between June 5, 2004 and September 5, 2009 and be returned to the company.

Baby Einstein DVD refund – why television isn’t good for babies in the first two years of life

The Walt Disney Company is offering a full refund to people who purchased a Baby Einstein DVD between June 5, 2004 and September 4, 2009. No receipt is required and the offer is valid until March 2010. Click on this link for information on how to secure the Baby Einstein refund.

The Baby Einstein refund is different than the Baby Enstein recall, of Baby Einstein Discover & Play Color Blocks, which have been painted with lead paint.

Baby Einstein videos were marketed to parents of babies in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Prior to that DVD’s were not marketed to babies. The claim was that the Baby Einstein videos were “educational”, implying they would make babies smarter. The idea was  controversial at the time because many people, rightfully, did not buy into it.

Susan Linn, director of Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood said she sees the refund as an acknowledgement that babies do not benefit from watching television, a fact that has been supported by the research.

The American Academy of Pediatrics statement on babies and television

Babies need plenty of face to face contact and verbal interaction. This helps them bond emotionally and develop their emotional intelligence. They need a stimulating environment to encourage them to develop their motor skills and intellect. Sitting as a passive observer to something like a television show does not do much for babies. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under two years old not watch any television. The Academy has stated that, “…Babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers (eg, child care providers) for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills. Therefore, exposing such young children to television programs should be discouraged.”

The first year of life is, first and foremost, about human bonding. Difficulties in early bonding can delay physical and emotional development, and can sometimes lead to the development of personality disorders in the future.

Bonding and personality disorders

A personality disorder is “an enduring pattern of inner experience and behavior that deviates marketly from the expectations of the individual’s culture, is pervasive and inflexible, has an onset in adolescence or early adulthood, is stable over time, and leads to distress or impairment.” (American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnositc and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

Some of the more commonly-known personaltiy disorders are borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. There are eleven personality disorders in all.

Babies need to learn to associate contact with people with feeling good and having their needs met. This helps them to bond with others. They need to have regular interaction with a secure person who will tend to their needs. This helps babies learn that they can have some control over their environment, and that people can be trusted. It helps them know what to expect and this gives them a sense of security that frees them up to explore further.

The characteristics of a personality disorder usually develop in late adolescence and early adulthood. They are rarely diagnosed in children because children may exhibit certain of these symptoms during normal development and later outgrow them.

Photo: Doriana S., Sxc.hu

Disney Offers “Baby Einstein” Refunds

Disney will be offering refunds to parents who have purchased “Baby Einstein” videos. If a parent believes that their child was not made smarter by the video they can contact Disney for a refund.

The American Academy of Pediatrics threatened to send a class-action lawsuit Disney’s way for “Deceptive-Advertising” of their product.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under the age of 2 should not watch television screens for long periods of time because they may develop attention disorders.

Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet

. The inside story of the infamous “Amazon Chernobyl” case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking, exploring a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.

The landmark case takes place in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, pitting 30,000 indigenous and colonial rainforest dwellers against the U.S. oil giant Chevron. The plaintiffs claim that Texaco – which merged with Chevron in 2001 – spent three decades systematically contaminating one of the most biodiverse regions on Earth, poisoning the water, air and land. The plaintiffs allege that the pollution has created a “death zone” in an area the size of the Rhode Island, resulting in increased rates of cancer, leukemia, birth defects, and a multiplicity of other health ailments. They further allege that the oil operations in the region contributed to the destruction of indigenous peoples and irrevocably impacted their traditional way of life. Chevron vociferously fights the claims, charging that the case is a complete fabrication, perpetrated by “environmental con men” who are seeking to line their pockets with the company’s billions.

The case takes place not just in a courtroom, but in a series of field inspections at the alleged contamination sites, with the judge and attorneys for both sides trudging through the jungle to litigate. And the battleground has expanded far beyond the legal process. The cameras rolled as the conflict raged in and out of court, and the case drew attention from an array of celebrities, politicians and journalists, and landed on the cover of Vanity Fair. Some of the film’s subjects sparked further controversy as they won a CNN “Hero” award and the Goldman Award, the environmental equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

Shooting in dozens of locations on three continents and in multiple languages, Berlinger and his crew gained extraordinary access to players on all sides of the legal fight and beyond, capturing the drama as it unfolded while the case grew from a little-known legal story to an international cause célèbre. Crude is a ground-level view of one of the most extraordinary legal dramas of our time, one that has the potential of forever changing the way international business is conducted. While the environmental impact of the consumption of fossil fuels has been increasingly documented in recent years, Crude focuses on the human cost of our addiction to oil and the increasingly difficult task of holding a major corporation accountable for its past deeds. www.crudethemovie.com…

Although All Saints Day isn’t quite the same as the original classic, I would definitely recommend it to any movie-goers who enjoyed the original. The sequel has more of a humorous side to it than the first, but Sean Patrick Flanery hinted in our interview that the third (yes there will be a third, and no you won’t have to wait ten years for it) installment will follow the darker side set by the original movie. All Saints Day ranked 14th in box office sales for its premiere weekend in Houston (November 13 – 15) according to BoxOfficeMojo.

-R.T.

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