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Officials in a Polish town (Tuszyn) have opposed a proposition to name a playground after Winnie-the-Pooh due to the bear’s unclear gender and immodest clothing. […] Voice recordings of the meeting were leaked to the media in which officials complained that Pooh Bear is immodestly dressed and also lacks a clear gender. One called the bear a “hermaphrodite.” …

Sure, kids love him. But he's made everyone close to him miserable. Just ask Disney, which is locked in a billion-dollar battle over his rights FORTUNE Monday, January 6, 2003 By Devin Leonard Nobody loves Winnie the Pooh more than Shirley Slesinger Lasswell. The 79-year-old widow wears Pooh pajamas, Pooh watches, and Pooh polo shirts. A Pooh waves at other drivers from the rear window of her Mercedes as she is chauffeured around Beverly Hills. But these days, some of her most treasured Pooh merchandise languishes in boxes in her lawyer's office. It breaks Shirley's heart. "I never wanted Winnie...

Pity the person who attempts to update an icon—particularly if that icon is charming, ageless, fuzzy and embraced by children all over the world. Last week, Dutton Children's Books released "Return to the Hundred Acre Wood," the first authorized sequel to A.A. Milne's beloved Winnie-the-Pooh stories, which were first published in the 1920s. Over the years the Pooh Properties Trust has received many unsolicited proposals for a sequel, but it only recently approved British writer David Benedictus as the author of the first new Pooh book in nearly 80 years. In Milne's original stories, "The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh" and "The House...

Winnie the Pooh, one of the world's best loved characters, is celebrating his 80th birthday. Pooh - based on the bedtime stories by Alan Alexander (AA) Milne - first appeared in the London Evening News on Christmas Eve 1925 in a story called The Wrong Sort of Bees. The honey-loving bear's many adventures - along with his friends Tigger, Piglet and Eeyore - have since been translated into more than 40 languages. Walt Disney, which owns the rights to Winnie the Pooh, is planning a year of celebrations, beginning early in the new year. Before he created Pooh, Milne was...

A unexpected new character is coming to the Hundred Acre Wood. Disney is working on a new Winnie the Pooh TV series, to come out in 2007, that will replace Christopher Robin with a 6-year-old girl. Its new animated series, My Friends Tigger and Pooh, will have the same gentle spirit as the much-loved A.A. Milne classic, Disney says. But Disney hopes to attract an older audience by introducing a six-year-old tomboy as friend to Tigger, Pooh the bear and tiny Piglet. The Disneyfied characters also will have a new look. Though the stories will still emphasize trust, friendship and...

After 80 years in Hundred Acre Wood Winnie the Pooh is to get a female friend, replacing Christopher Robin, according to reports. The Walt Disney Company has decided to pair Pooh up with a red-haired six-year-old tomboy for its 2007 series, newspaper USA Today reported. Disney said My Friends Tigger and Pooh will keep the "trust, friendship and happiness" of AA Milne's stories. Pooh is being re-branded as part of its 80th anniversary celebrations. Active side "We got raised eyebrows even in-house at first, but the feeling was these timeless characters really needed a breath of fresh air that only...

Winnie the Pooh’s owner just attractive enough, so Disney turned him into a 6-year-old girl POOR Christopher Robin. For 80 years there has been an enchanted place on the top of the forest where a little boy and his bear would always be playing. But though Winnie the Pooh became a hugely successful brand, Christopher Robin just wouldn’t sell. “There’s only one thing to be done,” said the executives at Disney, and replaced him with a six-year-old girl. Among the frantic merchandising activities laid on to mark the 80th anniversary of Hundred Acre Wood, Disney has commissioned an animated series...

U.S. judge rules against Milne heir in Pooh case Friday May 9, 8:06 pm ET By Gina Keating LOS ANGELES, May 9 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday denied a bid by the granddaughter of Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne to reclaim the copyright to the classic children's books, dealing a setback to her partner, The Walt Disney Co. Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles said that Clare Milne could not use changes in U.S. copyright law to reclaim rights to the honey-loving bear that her grandfather sold to literary agent Stephen Slesinger...