Here’s a suggestion for TMZ. When the next need-for-verification Church of Scientology-tinged item comes along, like this Friday afternoon EXCLUSIVE speculating that a pair of wee-hour motorcycle riders were Tom Cruise and girlfriend, check with Tony Ortega first.

The former Village Voice editor-in-chief works tirelessly at the helm of his must-read Scientology blog The Underground Bunker. No one knows more about CoS celebrity members past, present and near future-than this guy. If TMZ had checked with Ortega, they could have easily avoided this Saturday morning admonition:

This isn’t the first time that ex-Scientologist Tiziano Lugli has been mistaken for Tom Cruise zipping around Hollywood on his Ducati motorcycle.

But TMZ? You’d think Harvey Levin’s outfit would want a bit more confirmation before deciding that a video of Tiziano and his wife Jamie is Tom Cruise and his “Rebound Chick.”

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On May 15, Echo Park-Silver Lake Patch editor Anthea Raymond was enlisted to do what many in the hyper-local network have been recently: front for an adjacent geographical hub. She welcomed Beverly Hills Patch readers to the new site design, touting a spiffy Opinion board, Announcements board and more.

Exactly a week later, Raymond – a veteran LA journalist with many years of service at KCRW and in college classrooms – had a different message to share via her Patch site’s Facebook page:

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The novel For the Term of His Natural Life by Marcus Clarke has remained in active print since it was first published Down Under in 1874. It has also been sourced along the way for a 1908 Australian short, 1927 silent feature, 1983 Australian miniseries and, this month, updated $13.99 iPad App.

Watching over the tablet incarnations is Patricia Payne. Originally from Australia and currently based in Los Angeles, she produced and co-wrote the aforementioned miniseries starring Anthony Perkins, Patrick Macnee and Samantha Eggar. From this week’s announcement:

In addition to introducing a condensed 300-page version of Clarke’s classic novel, the App also offers over 40 interactive footnotes, 19 video notes, bios as well as more than 100 photos, maps, a bonus song and historical documents. Eighteen video clips from the miniseries and highlights from the 1927 silent film are also interwoven.

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What’s a better term for a press release full of good news about a TV weatherman? There are many possibilities, but for the purposes of this item, FishbowlLA is going to opt for “hot PR front.”

The news was delivered at the beginning of the week, alerting LA Story star Steve Martin, we journalists and everyone else in SoCal that FOX 11 is wisely sticking with weatherman Pablo Pereira. He joined the station in September 2011 and has now been officially confirmed as the full-time meteorologist for KTTV FOX 11 and KCOP Channel 13. As such, Pereira will continue to provide weather forecasts for Studio 11 L.A., FOX 11 News at 10 PM, KCOP My13 News at 7PM and KCOP My13 News. From the hot PR front:

“This is my dream job,” said Pereira. “Getting the opportunity to work alongside such a talented team is truly a great honor and thrill. I look forward to continuing to provide accurate and informative weather forecasts to KTTV/KCOP viewers.”

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There is no shortage of speculative coverage about whether Lakers center Dwight Howard will return to the purple and gold in 2013-14. It’s fuel for the [f]ire known as sports talk radio, Internet blog Web and newspaper sports sections.

Just like Oscar season, just like who might buy the LA Times, the Howard huzzah started immediately and has not stopped. Even though there’s nothing much new and tangible to base it all on. Here’s how Mark Medina contextualized the matter for the Los Angeles Daily News:

A source familiar with Howard’s thinking says he plans to test free agency and has considered the Lakers, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Golden State…

The source added Howard’s main concern involves “what team he feels has the best chance to win championships, has the best team and system around him.” The source also stressed Howard has not and will not ask the Lakers to make any moves on his behalf… Either way, Howard can’t officially re-sign until July 10 when a moratorium on NBA business is lifted.

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Nine paragraphs in, AP TV writer Lynn Elber shares a rather explosive accusation made by Tavis Smiley,  who celebrates his 2,000th Tavis Smiley episode on PBS tonight.

The logical assumption is that a prominent black media figure like Smiley would be welcomed with open arms by the White House. But according to Smiley, who has also previously talked a lot about his lack of Barack Obama interview access, it’s not just Conservatives, Liberals and some African-Americans who are upset with his pointed views:

Smiley contends that members of the Obama administration, whom he didn’t identify, have pressured sponsors to drop their support of his projects, including his anti-poverty initiatives. The White House had no comment, said a spokesman, Kevin Lewis…

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Local artist Daniel Edwards has for some time now been celebrating the “beauty of celebrity pregnancy.” In 2006, he kicked off his Celebrity Baby Boomer series with “Monument to Pro-Life,” which featured a likeness of Britney Spears, nude, giving birth on a bearskin rug.

Next month, Edwards will be adding to the series with a work that is sure to draw lots of vehicles to the parking meters on South La Brea Ave. It’s called “L.A. Fertility”, and will be available starting Wednesday June 5 for touching-viewing at LAB ART Gallery. From today’s announcement:

The life-size full-figured nude Kim Kardashian stands curvaceous and proud, with lactiferous breasts, protruding navel and legs akimbo, and features a voluminous belly designed to entice visitors to give a respectful rub for good luck and success.

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Obama: Leak Investigations ‘May Chill Investigative Journalism’ (HuffPost / The Backstory)
President Obama said Thursday that he is “troubled by the possibility that leak investigations may chill the investigative journalism that holds government accountable.” In a major speech on national security, Obama said that the “Justice Department’s investigation of national security leaks offers a recent example of the challenges involved in striking the right balance between our security and our open society.” TPM / LiveWire President Obama reiterated his support for a new media shield law to “guard against government over-reach” and has directed attorney general Eric Holder to review the Justice Department’s guidelines with reporters. The Washington Times The president’s comments came as NBC News reported that Holder signed off on at least one of the controversial search warrants that identified a Fox News reporter as a “possible co-conspirator.” TVNewser During President Obama’s speech to the National Defense University, he was interrupted a handful of times by a protester who called for him to shut down the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As so often happens when there is a heckler, news coverage of the speech spent some time talking about the heckler rather than the meat of the speech itself.The Washington Post / Leonard Downie Jr. But the Obama administration’s steadily escalating war on leaks, the most militant I have seen since the Nixon administration, has disregarded the First Amendment and intimidated a growing number of government sources of information — most of which would not be classified — that is vital for journalists to hold leaders accountable.

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For geeky followers of the Hollywood trades, it doesn’t get much more Memorial fun than this. In Nieman Storyboard’s latest “Annotation Tuesday!”, The Awl’s Elon Green and reporter Amy Wallace line-item annotate her famous September 2001 Los Angeles magazine profile of then-Variety editor Peter Bart.

It says something about the wily Hollywood industry skills outlined by Wallace in her cover story that today, improbably, Bart has weathered a storm of change at Variety and cranks out a weekly column alongside three new editors-in-chief. Green asks at one point how the celebrated Los Angeles magazine piece feels to its author 12 years later. Wallace’s answer:

The main way that the piece has become utterly dated is that the trades are no longer as powerful as they were then. Variety is trying to reboot at the moment and The Hollywood Reporter is a glossy vehicle for luxury advertising (that actually caters brilliantly to this same insecurity I describe here, by celebrating power brokers and putting their pictures on high-quality paper).

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Heading into the holiday weekend, this is a magazine article many will be talking about and numerous sites, like us and the Daily Mail, picking up on.

The Mother Jones feature starts out with Bryan Schatz (pictured) taking receipt in the desert near Los Angeles of the parts needed to put together an untraceable AK-47 assault rifle. It then moves on to the fun of a so-called “build party:”

Among those ready to get going (none of whom wanted their names used) are a father-son duo getting in some bonding time and a well-bellied sixtysomething with a white Fu Manchu who “loves” the click-ack! sound of a round being chambered. Assembling a Romanian variant is a builder wearing a camouflage jacket and a hat embroidered with an AR-15 rifle above the legend “Come and take it.” His knuckle tattoos read “PRAY HARD.”

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