NEWS: Hollywood and Silicon Valley Try Again to Bridge Their Divide

Short term view: “They talked about the transaction — ‘What am I getting paid today?’ ” he said of Mr. Ferrell and his agents. “The big thing with Funny or Die was we said, ‘Let’s build a company. We are not just going to write you a check.’ ”

Dis-intermediation: “I don’t know if they feel they don’t need us or are going directly to the talent,” he said. “There are always going to be huge cultural differences between us because the interests are different. On their side they are fundamentally interested in technology and, on our side, we are interested in the content.”

Can't fail: “If a successful director has a flop, his peers and colleagues question whether he has lost his touch,” Mr. Kvamme said. “By contrast, in the Valley, if you have a failure, that usually means that you have learned something. There are very few successful serial entrepreneurs. Failure is almost a rite of passage."

Wealth: Which, of course, leads to the ultimate measure of might in any corporate culture and one easiest to calculate: who has the fatter wallet. The highest-ranking media chief can earn $20 million in salaries and stock options, too. But that looks like lunch money compared with what a 22-year-old Stanford graduate can earn if the right idea strikes.

Ed: Star power matters.