The Show Must Go On: In a thumbsucker about the after-effects of the Tom Cruise Affair, Claire Hoffman (who is still our hero) writes that the whole Paramount/CAA conflict will likely result in a lot of nothing. The studio needs the talent agency as much as the talent agency needs the studio -- so don't expect Brad Pitt and other CAA stars to refrain from doing business with Paramount out of some sort of actorly solidarity with Cruise.

One juicy morsel in the piece is buried toward the end:

"At the same time, Spielberg [who is both a CAA client and a Paramount employee] reportedly had been miffed by Cruise's bombastic behavior during the promotion for War of the Worlds. Once the celebrated director became part of the Paramount family, he may have made his disapproval of Cruise known, which may have factored into the studio's decision to cut the star loose, insiders speculate."

Interestinger and interestinger...

He Said, He Said: In an empassioned piece, Tom O'Neil rebuts the Emmys night criticisms of Paul Brownfield and Scott Collins.

O'Neil's one-man crusade to get anyone to care about the Emmys and support the new voting system has, officially, jumped the shark. To wit:

Brownfield: "By the end of the evening, I had lost total faith in the idea of an Emmy."

Rebuttal: "By the end of the evening, my faith in the Emmy was greatly enhanced."

Music Man:
Lyor Cohen may be "morally reprehensible," but he's also responsible for helping to turn Warner Music Group around and make it the only music company to increase its US market share in 2006. The LAT does a Q&A with the guy.

A sample:

Q: Last August, you were criticized for ousting Atlantic Records co-Chairman Jason Flom, who now heads EMI Group's Virgin Records. Why did you do it?

A: You can't talk the talk unless you walk the walk. Here we had brought clarity to this organization by firing a large number of people because they did the same jobs, and then we had two people running Atlantic. It was talking out of both sides of our mouths. To be credible, we had to show the same discipline among the top ranks that we had shown throughout the company.