Earlier this year, actress Angelina Jolie underwent a preventative double mastectomy after genetic testing revealed she had a high probability of developing breast cancer.

The actress candidly discussed the elective procedure in a column for today’s New York Times titled “My Medical Choice.” Jolie’s mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of breast cancer in 2007 at the age of 56 after battling the disease for nearly a decade. The loss of her mother strongly influenced her decision to have the procedure.

Husband Brad Pitt was there “for every minute of the surgeries,” Jolie notes, and said the experience has brought the couple closer together.

Jolie’s role as a sex symbol lends the narrative a special resonance, given how devastating the procedure can be for women’s self-image. “I do not feel any less of a woman,” she writes. “I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.”

Jolie opted for reconstructive surgeries and implants following the mastectomies. “There have been many advances in this procedure in the last few years, and the results can be beautiful.”

Jolie says she was able to carry on with her work during the three months of medical procedures. She’ll next be appearing on the big screen as the title character in Disney’s Maleficent. The film is set for a summer release in 2014.

Solid profile of Shonda Rhimes by Meghan Casserly in the May 27 issue of Forbes. The 43-year-old single mother of two is Walt Disney Co.’s top network drama earner, per these rather staggering numbers:

Together, Scandal and Grey’s Anatomy pull in more than $13 million in advertising for ABC each week – just shy of $300 million a season, or about 5% of the network’s total revenue. That’s not counting tens of millions more for Grey’s syndication or licensing in other countries, which Disney shares with Rhimes’ production company, ShondaLand (Forbes estimates she earned $12 million this year).

But those numbers vastly understate her importance…

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After moving to LA at the age of 23 with hopes of becoming a music producer, Tracey Edmonds went on to produce hit films like Soul Food  and several reality shows on BET and TV One. Through it all, she told Mediabistro, it was her race more than her gender that complicated her pursuit of producing.

“I think the biggest problem is still the issue of color. There are still only a few slots on the entire release schedule for African-Americans,” she said. “Tyler Perry has maybe three films in that block, and that leaves the rest of us to kind of vie for those other spots.”

That’s not to say that women have it easy in Hollywood. Edmonds, who recently founded the online venture Alright TV, suggested that aspiring female producers develop a stiff upper lip. “I encourage young women to be empowered and independent and not rely on other people to fulfill their dreams.”

Read more in So What Do You Do, Tracey Edmonds, Award-Winning TV and Film Producer?

– Nicholas Braun

Today’s Kathy Lee Gifford blunder isn’t the only Today Show gaffe in the news. It’s quite possible that if executives from Julien’s Auctions in Beverly HIlls had not chatted last Friday with Matt Lauer about their company’s planned sale of 54 Hollywood audition tapes this coming weekend, none of the the following would have happened.

The duo’s March 29 appearance sparked some angry tweets by casting directors and a solid bit of reporting yesterday from Backstage executive editor Daniel Holloway. The article exposed the identity of the sellers and also included a scathing condemnation of the auction by Casting Society of America president Richard Hicks.

Today, per a statement from SAG-AFTRA and a second item by Holloway, Janet Hirshenson and Jane Jenkins have wisely redirected these artifacts to the Academy. From today’s Backstage item:

“I got an email this morning from Janet and Jane saying that there’s a big hoopla over this and that they’re going to give it to the Academy,” said Darryl Marshak of Marshak/Zachary management company. “The Academy now is the keeper of the tapes, and anyone in there can go in and look at them. They’re for the whole world to see once they’re at the Academy library.”

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The rapid return of one-time ICM chief Jeff Berg to the Hollywood talent agency business underpins this week’s oddest LA media coincidence.

On the front page of today’s LA Times Calendar section, there is an article about Berg’s new agency Resolution by Daniel Miller. And inside this week’s Hollywood Reporter print magazine, Miller’s former THR colleague Stephen Galloway shares a longer, deeper feature about the very same topic. Galloway got to speak with the 65-year-old Berg at the latter’s new 23rd-story Century City offices; Miller’s request for an interview was declined.

Whether Berg’s Resolution will be good for the Hollywood community as a whole has yet to be determined. But per Galloway’s piece, it’s already been very good for talent agents:

Rivals criticize Berg for overpaying, noting most [Resolution agents] are getting well above the $200,000 to $300,000 they might expect elsewhere and some as much as seven figures. “He is making deals just because they are possible to make,” one rival grouses.

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Oh my! George Takei clearly wins Twitter for the night. There will no doubt be 8,000 “Draft George Takei” Facebook pages by this time tomorrow.

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When it comes to public hijinks, Will Ferrell is second to none… Well, second to Bill Murray actually. Still, pretty damn funny.

Ferrell was at last night’s Lakers game against the Suns dressed as an usher named Ted Vagina.  Lest you think Ferrell was just having fun, he was apparently there to promote his new movie. Shaq will apparently be featured in this film, because Ferrell angrily escorted him out of his courtside seats at one point during the game. If Shaq is going to show up at a Lakers game of his own volition, no way it’s going to be against a team as terrible as the Suns.

H/T Deadspin

Laker great and sometimes columnist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hadn’t written a piece for Huffington Post in over three years. After blogging fairly regularly during the 2008 election, Kareem sat 2012 out. Today, however, he broke out of his slumber to randomly weigh in on the racial politics of HBO’s Girls–now well into its second season.

Last season the show was criticized for being too white. Watching a full season could leave a viewer snow blind. This season that white ghetto was breached by a black character who is introduced as some jungle fever lover, with just enough screen time to have sex and mutter a couple of lines about wanting more of a relationship. A black dildo would have sufficed and cost less.

Ha! Glad you woke up Kareem.

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TMZ reports that porn legend Ron Jeremy drove himself to the hospital yesterday after suffering severe chest pains, whereupon doctors discovered an aneurysm near his heart. The pop culture icon is in critical condition at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. Jeremy’s manager Mike Esterman says his client’s condition is worsening. Surgery appears eminent imminent.

Here’s hoping the subject of the 2001 documentary Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy pulls through.

This is fascinating stuff. Variety film editor Josh Dickey got a first-hand look at a social media intelligence tool of a kind that we will be hearing a lot more about in the coming months and years.

CastTyper comes from the good folks at Fizziology, a leading entertainment market research firm. It goes a little deeper by categorizing info shared about actors on social media into the groupings of “physical appearance, emotional resonance, intellectual prowess and power of personality.” Of the four examples Dickey was shown, he says the one that resonated most involved Brad Pitt‘s Moneyball co-star:

Fizziology found that as audiences focused on Jonah Hill‘s weight loss and dramatic acting chops, they lost sight of his lovable personality… Some fans even openly complained about Hill’s weight loss, saying it would make him less funny and lovable; others felt offput by watching a skinny Hill promote Moneyball, in which he was still seen as overweight.

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