Drawing the Line at Disney

It reads a little like an essay on why my homework is late.

But Disney Chairman Michael D. Eisner, in a stream-of-consciousness letter to stockholders in the company’s annual report, apologizes for getting a late start on the message:

“But, honestly,” he says, “my delay has been caused by the numerous ice hockey games in which my 14-year-old son last played over the last two weeks . . . plus college interview time in four cities for my 17-year-old high school senior.

“I now have no excuses,” Eisner says in the letter, written in December on a flight to Los Angeles.

“I am over the middle of our country looking down upon cornfields and thinking about the idea of Dick Nunis (our president of Walt Disney Attractions) and Jack Lindquist (our executive vice president of creative marketing concepts) renting a large field and cutting the crop to create the face of Mickey so that every person who flies over will be reminded about Mickey’s 60th birthday.”

But even Eisner seemed to stop at that. “Jack, I don’t think so!”

See, there are limits.

She’ll Do It His Way

Los Angeles may be the world’s entertainment capital, but, until this month, public relations giant Burson-Marsteller did not have a Los Angeles division to handle entertainment marketing.

It does now. And in forming that unit last month, the company hired a woman who, for the past eight years, has been the spokeswoman for Frank Sinatra. Susan Reynolds, a former account executive at Solters Roskin Friedman Inc., is Burson’s vice president of entertainment marketing.

Reynolds’ first assignment is to publicize the upcoming reunion concert tour of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., which kicks off in mid-March. “You never know what happens when these guys get together,” said Reynolds. For example, she said, at a recent Sinatra concert in Las Vegas, Martin surprised Ol’ Blue Eyes when he waltzed on stage in his pajamas and complained, “Your singing is waking me up.” Martin then left the stage without another word.

New Old Name in Wine

Sebastiani may not be a common name, except, perhaps, in the world of wine.

There’s Sebastiani Vineyards in Sonoma, whose labels include August Sebastiani and whose president, Don Sebastiani, produces Cecchetti-Sebastiani Cellar.

Then there’s Don’s elder brother, Sam, who, along with wife, Vicky, started bottling fine wines under the Sam J. Sebastiani label in 1986--only to find restaurateurs, wine merchants and consumers alike failing to distinguish among the various Sebastianis.

So he and Vicky put their names together and have renamed their enterprise Viansa . They have announced plans to begin construction this year on a $3-million winery in southern Sonoma County’s Carneros district.

From Earl Grey to Green Tea

Here’s one for the snappy retort department:

When California First Bank, an affiliate of Bank of Tokyo, announced that it was acquiring Union Bank in Los Angeles, an unidentified female official at Union Bank joked sarcastically, “We’ve taken off our shoes and we’re learning how to make tea.”

The day the remark appeared in The Times, Larry Boggs, Cal First’s chief spokesman, telephoned his counterpart at Union, Patricia Sisley.

“I thought you would have learned how to make tea a long time ago,” Boggs said.

Union has been owned by Britain’s Standard Chartered since 1979.