Commentary: Hollywood feeling money crunch

September 11, 2008 There's a huge sucking noise out there, and it's not the sound effects in "Iron Man" or "The Dark Knight": It's the sound of money being siphoned out of the U.S. stock market, and more quietly out of the maw of the Hollywood movie machine. Wall Street is awash in its own woes -- add Freddie and Fannie, Lehman Bros. and AIG to the growing list of companies that are, well, in another sense listing -- not to mention a Category 3 hurricane now taking aim at oil rigs in the Gulf, and you have an idea of just how rattled and fragile the broader economy is. Not even a much belabored and long-in-the-making merger between satellite radio behemoths Sirius and XM could inject any energy into their combined share price, which now languishes at 2003 levels.

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