Given the fact that nothing at all seems to be happening in the world of Apple right now (what, is everybody too scared of embedded rogue telnet links to make any news these days?), we thought we'd take this opportunity to pop back in on that whole crazy flap involving Steve Jobs's other company, what with that whole Pixar-bailing-on-Disney thing and Steve wanting Michael Eisner out as CEO, disgraced before his peers, and dead in a ditch somewhere, all that stuff. C'mon-- Apple's not going anywhere, and some Hollywood drama might make for a nice change of pace, right?

Of course, there's some irony here, in that the new development in the Disney-Pixar saga is that there are, um, no new developments in the Disney-Pixar saga. But bear with us, because the lack of developments is significant. We promise!

You remember, of course, when Steve summarily ended negotiations between Pixar and Disney, whose contract expires next year? Well, we weren't the only ones who suspected that Steve timed the Pixar split just right so that Eisner would be left holding the bag just prior to Disney's annual shareholders' meeting-- at which a whopping 45% of Disney investors withheld their votes to reelect Eisner, presumably in part because they blamed him for dropping the very lucrative Pixar ball. See, Steve's monumental dislike for Eisner is no secret, and plus the guys trying to get Eisner tossed out have mentioned on numerous occasions that they think Steve's the perfect man for the job. Between better Pixar licensing terms, a potential job offer, and wanting to see Eisner stuffed and mounted in a local museum's Hall of Dumbasses exhibit, we're talking about motive so thick you can eat it with a fork.

Which brings us back to the "significant lack of development" we mentioned earlier: if Steve broke off negotiations so early in hopes of getting Eisner tossed out, it's entirely possible that he always planned to reopen negotiations once Disney was being run by someone less objectionable; after all, the current contract won't end until New Year's of 2007, so there's plenty of time. Now, get this: faithful viewer fabian tipped us off to a New York Times article which mentions that other potential distribution partners have been falling all over themselves to sign a deal with Pixar, but Steve's response has been lukewarm at best. Sony invited him over for a chat two months ago; "he has yet to make the trip." Steve and the head of Warner Bros. regularly swap phone calls, "but little more." MGM requested a meeting and was actually turned down.

Now, we fully admit that we aren't Big Business types, and we know even less about the finer points of contract negotiations strategy than we do about how to pad material on a slow news day (which, as it should be painfully obvious by now, isn't bloody much). But it seems to us that if Steve was serious about signing Pixar with a different distributor, the optimal time to negotiate would have been at the very height of the Finding Nemo hysteria-- and certainly before Shrek 2 stomped all over Nemo's record for biggest opening for an animated feature. So is Steve's bluff showing? Because it's really starting to look to us like he has no intention of leaving Disney at all-- and considering that Eisner still hasn't been fired, this is probably the wrong time to be sending that message.

On the plus side, of course, this ought to foster all sorts of future conflict, which we'll gladly exploit in upcoming episodes-- probably on a day as slow as this one. Geez, people, get up and do something, willya?!