Minnie Mouse in Lanvin.

There's been much to-do over the Barneys holiday windows that were unveiled this week. While last year's amazing and somewhat controversial Lady Gaga collaboration pushed the envelope, this year, for some baffling reason, the retailer decided to partner with Disney.

Luis Fernandez, senior vice president of creative for Disney Consumer Products, had said that concept behind this collaboration made total sense from a retail perspective. "We thought, ‘A huge force in fashion and a huge force in animation," he said in a recent interview. "What better than for these two companies to get together and do something for the holidays?'"

But controversy began to swirl like a wintry storm back in August, when images from the five-minute "Electric Holiday" short now playing in a constant loop in Barneys windows appeared on WWD. The pictures showed a tall, lithe Minnie Mouse wearing Lanvin, which served as an immediate call to arms from plus-size advocates and celebrities, who slammed the "Skinny Minnie." Dancer Ragen Chastain circulated a petition trying to get Barneys to "Leave Minnie Mouse Alone!"

http://youtu.be/jU01jBw9HB4

However, there were no protests, nor a drop of mouse blood thrown during the unveiling of the windows last Wednesday night. Sarah Jessica Parker, who makes a cameo in the video, presided, and all was quiet, including the windows themselves. Not a figure was stirring, not even the world's second most famous mouse.

There were no Gaga-esque light shows, nor intricately animated puppets performing a Christmas tableau. No animals riding animals, no snowflakes, no animatronics.

Instead, passersby were treated to the above video of Minnie imagining herself at France's Fashion Week-- alongside other famed fashion (real and imagined), including Suzy Menkes, Linda Evangelista, Cruella DeVille, Juergen Teller, Anna Dello Russo, Captain Hook, and the Chesire Cat.

The Disney-Barneys collaboration is a far cry from Barneys' usual holiday fare. Last year's Gaga Workshop resembled a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-by-way-of-Madonna explosion of exhibits and interactive amusements. You could purchase chocolate shoes! Disco stick lollipops! One window was just filled with hair as a tribute to the musical. Another had Gaga sitting astride a giant unicorn in a semi-digitized wonderland. The collaboration even extended to a micro-site, the 12 Days of Gaga. (The site is currently being used to house the "Electric Holiday" video.)

"You know, Barneys always does funky stuff," said a town car driver leaning against his ride, watching the display while waiting for pickup. "That Lady Gaga window last year was wild. This is ..." He paused. "This is fine."

When we passed by the following night, a guy was taking a video of the entire movie with his iPhone. A woman in Chanel glasses hung back on the sidewalk with a friend. We asked her what she thought.

"Oh, it's good," she said, shrugging. "I just don't know who that person is supposed to be." She was pointing to a shot from the runway scene, where a cartoonified version of fashion blogger BryanBoy wearing Mickey Mouse ears watched Minnie strut her stuff.

Fears that the movie would incite cases of a Minnie-related eating disorder seemed unfounded, as two European tourists attempting to interest their daughter in the video were ignored. She pulled them along, remaining uninterested in Skinny Minnie.

Ultimately, the Barneys holiday windows hardly seemed different from the video displays littering Times Square, except for the fact that the luxury store was working on a much smaller scale. It was, we surmised, as far from "high couture" as you could get.

We decided to get a reaction directly from the source. For the first time in our lives, we actually went looking for one of those overly confrontational suit-wearing characters in Times Square, and spent 20 minutes thrust in a world of life-size Woodys, and Hello Kittys, and one guy dressed as Batman.

Finally, we ran into Minnie Mouse, with Mickey trailing behind her. We stuffed two dollars into her damp, synthetic fur paw and asked her, "How do you feel about Barneys making you into an anorexic model, Minnie?"

She responded with a pose, her dead, lifeless eyes boring into our souls:

Well, if she didn't seem to mind, neither would we.

If you weren't aware, Warner Bros. claimed that the new film couldn't make the Wicked Witch green, since that was something specific to their film, and not L. Frank Baum's children's books. So instead we get a Glinda-riffic Michelle Williams all in white, a fashionably red Mila Kunis, and a darkly chic Rachel Weisz (channeling Charlize Theron in Snow White and the Huntsman) as the hottest witchy witches since Idina Menzel took the stage as Elpheba in Wicked.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yclgHQaAEJU

Oz centers on James Franco as a much younger wizard, who, as it appears in the previews, somehow lands in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (maybe the producers had some say in which way the wind blew), and befriends a red queen witch and a white queen witch. Though we haven't seen the film, we're hoping the rest of the plot revolves around the Wizard convincing his new friend to put on a magical art show at the Emerald City's Film Festival, culminating in a Marina Abramovic-style performance piece where a house falls on one--or preferably all--of them.

Also starring Zach Braff.

Jordan, center, leads the Newsboy Strike. (Deen van Meer)

From their vast catalog of whimsical mermaids, flying nannies, royal lions, talking cars, sleeping beauties and singing teapots, the folks at Disney have plucked another gang of family-friendly folk heroes and landed them on Broadway, and if the performance I saw of Newsies the Musical is any evidence, the Disney marketing geniuses will make it a solid success. There wasn’t one available seat, not even in the men’s room, and the Nederlander Theatre was packed like a jar of maraschino cherries with school groups, parents, teachers and ticket buyers young and old, desperate for good old-fashioned entertainment. They left with sore throats and callouses on their hands from screaming so loud and applauding so long. They got their money’s worth, and so will you.

This is all the more surprising since the lively new musical with more bounce to the ounce about the 1899 newsboy strike that humbled Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst is based on real tabloid history (never a show business lure—just ask Bonnie and Clyde) as well as a flop 1992 movie with Christian Bale, Ann-Margret and Robert Duvall. Those boys at Disney really know how to recycle. They drafted Harvey Fierstein to polish the book, Alan Menken and Jack Feldman to pen a dozen or so songs (not counting reprises), Christopher Gattelli to map out the choreography that never stops sailing, stomping and strutting, and Jeff Calhoun to direct a cast that looks (and sounds) like the entire population of Hoboken, N.J. They all do a splendid job of bringing to life a period New York as grim as city slums and graky as skin-blackening rub-off newspaper ink. It was an ugly time, near the turn of the century, of gaseous trolleys, polluted air, nonexistent laws protecting child labor, oppression, poverty and rampant crime. The “newsies” were typical of the children who toiled in factories, sweatshops and slaughterhouses of the day—waifs, ragamuffins and street urchins, mostly orphans and homeless immigrants, who lived in everything from cheap lodging houses with one toilet to whiskey barrels. They dodged the cops, the muggers and the bullies from Brooklyn, ever in danger of being sent to a jail for kids out of the pages of Charles Dickens. The plot, such as it is, hinges on the strike that was perceived as a threat to New York’s shaky economic troubles (or, in Joseph Pulitzer’s interpretation, as a menace to his own self-serving economic profits). At the root of the headlines was the greed and apathy of the moguls who charged the newsies six cents for each 10-cent paper and refused to take back unsold copies, then jacked up the costs, forcing them to sell more papers to make a miniscule profit. The narrow conflict involves the ways the disenfranchised newsies turned the tables on management by forming their own union and going on strike (like the garment workers in The Pajama Game). Their leader was a tough, uncrackable nut named Jack Kelly (played by the ferociously exuberant Jeremy Jordan, the multitalented star of the recent, underrated Bonnie and Clyde). Historical documents differ on the success of the newsboy strike, but there’s no doubt that it cut deeply into the circulation and advertising dollars of both the World (which later became the World-Telegram) and the Journal (which morphed into the Journal-American) and brought Pulitzer, Hearst and even New York’s governor, Theodore Roosevelt, to the front lines, making concessions they never dreamed possible. The show takes numerous liberties. Roosevelt was never involved in the disputes, Pulitzer was out of town and the romance between Jack Kelly and Pulitzer’s daughter—a reporter for the New York Sun who exposes her own father’s sins, disgraces him by falling in love with a lowly newsie and ends up, when the strike is over, launching Jack’s respectable new career as a newspaper illustrator and artist—is pure invention. When a scruffy band of kids with holes in their socks and air in their pockets take on the most powerful newspaper moguls in journalism to improve their meager income by a few pennies and gain respect for their rights in life, it doesn’t diminish the solid entertainment value of the show one bit. In fact, you find yourself cheering. Who cares about facts when you’re having so much fun?

Played out against the ladders, stairs and fire escapes of Lower East Side scaffolding, the show never stops moving, not even when it pauses for a corny line like “Don’t ever say I didn’t give you nothin’—and before you think water is nothin’, just ask a fish in the desert.” Mr. Fierstein’s dialogue is not always convincing and the thrust of his book gives you the strike details, but you don’t learn much about the kids who are doing the striking. Newsies named Crutchie, Race, Romeo and Mush were real people who vanished when the strike faded into history, but they register less as members of a union than as members of a chorus. The big nonstop thrills come from the production numbers themselves. The newsies dance with brooms and duel with spoons and tap in unison for an audience that goes mad with joy. (They could all replace the cast of Anything Goes tomorrow.) Much applause is lavished on the choreography by Christopher Gattelli (South Pacific). It’s so dynamic that I guess it doesn’t matter if it is somewhat less than original. One undeniably happy musical moment arrives when the newsies dance on their discarded newspapers, split them in half, then dance on the strips of paper with both feet. Never mind that in 1950, Gene Kelly did the same thing in the MGM musical Summer Stock. To the kids in the audience who never heard of Gene Kelly, it’s still enthralling. The dancers are so young and appealing and exploding with libidinous vitality that I was exhilarated even by things I’ve seen before. They walk on their hands. They do double back flips. The energy is overwhelming.

The singing and dancing chorus is the real focus here, but the actors in lead speaking roles are very good, too. This is my fourth exposure to the dynamic Jeremy Jordan after he starred in West Side Story and Bonnie and Clyde and played Dolly Parton’s son in the rocking movie musical Joyful Noise. He just gets better every time. As the newsie with leadership power who daydreams of escaping his hardscrabble past for the wide-open spaces in a wistful ballad called “Santa Fe,” then urges his followers to “Seize the Day” (“Minute by minute, that’s the way to win it”), he acts with sincerity, sings with exuberance and passion, and does splits in mid-air. Kara Lindsay, as the pretty girl reporter looking for a scoop that will get her out of the society pages and fluffy features on flower shows, is perfect and sings like a dream. Capathia Jenkins is a jolly burlesque queen with a robust musical voice as Medda Larkin, the role Ann-Margret played in the film, and John Dossett as an almost fictitious Joseph Pulitzer could be the twin brother of John Slattery, the silver-haired fox on Mad Men. Cheers to them all. The athletic zest of Newsies the Musical sends you away exhausted, but happy.

rreed@observer.com

Hulu.com has expanded its space at 276 Fifth Avenue, adding 4,710 square feet on the fifth floor, the Commercial Observer has learned. The on-demand streaming video service will take control of the space on November 1^st. Hulu.com, a joint venture among NBC Universal, Fox and Disney, is one of many technology clients grabbing space in the the neighborhood north of Madison Square Park that New York Magazine dubbed NoMad in 2010.

The building, at 30^th street, has a number of law firm tenants, a marketing firm and some medical tenants. The asking rent was $45 per square foot. Elliot Klein of Winoker Realty represented the landlord in-house and Jason Frazier of CB Richard Ellis represented the tenant. - Guelda Voien

Though ESPN's testorone-fueled hub at the base of 4 Times Square shuttered last spring, Disney has been using the space. It became available in January, and Durst has begun quietly showing it to prospective tenants. 

With three full floors and 185 feet of street frontage in the hottest retail neighborhood in the city, the Durst folks seem confident the space will generate some buzz. "If you're an international brand, this is where you want to be," in-house broker John Grotto told The Observer. "It's the crossroads of the world," he added. You've heard that one before--but with a location smackdab at 42nd and Broadway, he might just be right.

If the ESPN signage is anything to go by, the location also offers plenty of ways to make a statement. "It may not be the Conde Nast building just by force of this iconic imagery," said a spokesman.   

Mr. Grotto said they are looking for one tenant to take the entire 45,000-square-foot space, though they're also open to logical divisions. He wouldn't disclose the asking rent, but both asking and taking rents on similar spaces in the area have soared to about $1,000 a square foot. It sounds like clothing, not greasy grub, is on the menu for Durst. That leaves us speculating (wildly, since Mr. Grotto couldn't comment) on potential tenants: H&M, Zara and Uniqlo all have successful (or soon to be successful) Fifth Avenue locations, but nothing so far in the neon scissor. 

Durst plans to launch the space at a bash at the Aureole in Las Vegas during the world's biggest retail trade show, hosted by ICSC in May. They did the same thing the last time the site was available, in 1998. 

lkusisto@observer.com 

Herewith, a guide to the MOST ILL-BEHAVED DISNEY STARS.>>

The New York Post and The Wrap are both reporting that Google could buy the digital rights to over 700 films at some point after Disney wraps up the company's sale to Ron Tutor, which it expects to do by Dec. 10. Tutor's Filmyard Holding purchased the indie-minded studio for $660 million in July, and last month announced that former News Corp. executive Mike Lang would be taking over as CEO.

By hiring former Netflix executive Robert Kyncl in September, Google made it clear that its TV service would be gunning for the rival digital movie rental company. And adding the archives of films developed by Bob and Harvey Weinstein over the last 31 year would be a big win for Google. Who could say no to the service with all the Tarantino films?

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234

So the news today that Gowalla has signed a major deal with Disney could be seen as a sign that the Austin-based service is a growing threat to one of NY's hottest startups.

But the partnership is actually very limited in scope. The fun of location-based apps, after all, is that they help users discover new places and activites.

The Gowalla-Disney deal only works in the very limited and prescribed setting of Disney Parks. It certainly might win some new, more mainstream users this way, but it doesn't really change the dynamic between the two companies.

Reaching a critical mass of users and local businesses is what will win this sector in the long run, and Foursquare is ten times larger than Gowalla with better growth.

Huff Post Divorce will launch on Monday. There are currently over 20 special sections on the Huffington Post about a wide variety of topics including College, Books, and Technology. The new divorce page will include legal and financial advice, forums for readers dealing with crumbling marriages, and news on celebrity splits.

Bay oversaw the development of Huff Post Divorce. She told the New York Times that the site has a wide variety of planned contributors.

"We have some lawyers lined up, dads who are new to the single dad thing, even a rabbi," Bay said.

Bay is a senior editor at HuffPo who has worked as an on-air contributor for Lifetime, NBC News, "Good Morning America," and MSNBC. She was the face of Estee Lauder from 1983 to 1989. Bay married Iger in 1995 in Bridgehampton.

Writer Nora Ephron is also helping with the Huff Post Divorce rollout. In 1983, Ephron wrote the novel Heartburn, a fictionalized account of her marriage and subsequent divorce to Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein. The Huff Post Divorce launch will feature an excerpt of Ephron's new book, I Remember Nothing. 

Iger and Bay's marriage may not be in trouble, but if they do ever split, she's going to be an expert on alimony proceedings. Looks like Iger better be on his best spousal behavior from now on.  

During his time at News Corp., Lang rose to an executive vice president role and was instrumental in acquiring Myspace and Hulu. 

Miramax Films was founded in 1979 by Bob and Harvey Weinstein. It has a long history of supporting independent filmmakers and releasing movies deemed unmarketable by major studios. 

nfreeman [at] observer.com | @nfreeman1234