Let me see if I've got this right. The guys with the big cigars in Hollywood think that I'll go out and buy the DVD of "Drag Me To Hell" if they keep it away from Netflix and Redbox for a couple of extra weeks. Sure. Why not. Makes sense that I'd spend $18.49 --factoring in my 35% discount on Amazon -- after having refused to shell out $11 for a ticket at the Bijou to get a few weeks jump on viewing it as part of my $8.99 monthly subscription to Netflix. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says …

Barnes & Noble unveiled its Nook e-reader to much fanfare this week but Scott Anthony says it's too early to say that it's a "Kindle killer," as some overeager commentators have suggested. Maybe it is and maybe it isn't, he says, but let's not forget three things (and a few other possibilities). The first is what should be a mantra chanted by all marketers upon waking in the morning: "No one knows what consumers will do until they actually do it." The second is the eminently sane observation that no one device is likely to "end" the e-reader battles …

Rebecca Mead sat down for lunch at chef Daniel Boulud's trendy DB Bistro http://www.danielnyc.com/dbbistro.html with Michael Silverstein, a senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group, recently. Between some heavyweight name dropping and comparison of Bikram-yoga studios in key consulting hubs across the U.S., they chatted about one of our favorite topics: "What do women want?" Silverstein, who has just written Women Want More: How to Capture Your Share of the World's Largest, Fastest-Growing Market with Kate Sayre, says that women want to be Swedish, Mead concludes. That's because there is virtually no gender discrimination …

The key to wide public acceptance of more expensive plug-in and electric cars is making them "fun," automotive industry insiders and outsiders seem to agree at the three-day "Business of Plugging In" conference in Detroit about the future of hybrids, Sharon Silke Carty reports. Ford chairman Bill Ford also pointed out shifting expectations. Four years ago, hydrogen was going to save the day (and environment). Then it was ethanol. Now it's electric cars and plug-in hybrids. "The question is: Will the customers want these vehicles?" Ford asks. "The short answer is: It depends on how many trade-offs they …

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and two Democratic co-sponsors have introduced legislation (S. 1763) to disallow the federal tax deduction for all advertising and marketing expenses for prescription drugs. The American Advertising Federation estimates that disallowing the advertising tax deduction would increase the costs of advertising and marketing for affected companies by up to 35%. There are rumors that Franken and co-sponsors Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) may offer the legislation as an amendment when the full Senate considers the health-care reform legislation bill, Rich Thomaselli reports. If so, that would seem to jeopardize a …

Advance reviews for Microsoft's Window 7 operating system have trended positive, Dan Fost reports, and if it sells as well as expected, one big reason may be an effort by Jonathan Wiedemann, the former managing director of a film company that produced groundbreaking MTV videos as well as films such as "Madonna: Truth or Dare." For the last three years, Wiedemann -- who also once modeled for Richard Avedon and was married to actress Isabella Rossellini -- has been leading a team responsible for efforts to improve the user experience on the new OS after Microsoft's …