Archives: September 2007

Halo 3 might make a profit.

Tyra Banks takes a stand and declares Cycle 9 of ANTM a no-smoking zone. It’s more fun when everyone goes through withdrawal. Unlike the real world.

Indiana Jones is shooting right now, in Downey.

Phil Spector is free and the jury foreman is a neighbor; Joe Francis is in jail.

(photo by Anders Brownworth)

Gawker hit a new low, posting a hit piece about a 4-year-old this week. They called said 4-year-old “the worst,” declared they “hate” him and justified it all by explaining that he’s not a 4-year-old; he’s Neal Pollack’s 4-year-old.

Now, we’re no fans of Pollack, but this is out of line. And since 4 seems to be the median age of our readership, we feel the moral obligation to defend Elijah Pollack and the precocious spawn of self-absorbed writers everywhere.

Gawker, you either say sorry for hitting children right now, or you’re getting a time out.

Ovation TV premieres Art & the City, a cultural tourism series hosted by Los Angeles Times staffer David Keeps, best described as

a delirious cross between your favorite college professor and a wired Sister Wendy.

The series, produced by Jane Fitzgerald at World of Wonder, leads cultural tourists on discoveries of arts, architecture and design in the galleries, hotels, museums and artistic hot-spots of destinations throughout the US and Europe.

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The FCC has decided that this ad–for Unforgivable Woman–is too sexy for us, and in the UK, the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre gave it the OK to air–but only after 9 p.m.

Pat Saperstein and Denise Hamilton team up for a read ‘em and eat tour of Los Angeles. The pair drove around and ate at the places Eve Diamond, Hamilton’s journo/detective character, frequents. What a cool idea!

We can see that Esotouric might have some competition.

Kevin Crust reviews Trade, which looks pretty forgettable. Tactfuly, he mentions that the film is based on Peter Landesman’s NYT magazine cover story, but leaves out all the Blogitopia argle-bargle about the accuracy of the story, the threatened legal actions, and all the rest of it.

Frankly, that aftermath should have been woven into the movie. While movies about journalists range from the sublime (His Girl Friday) to the gripping (All The President’s Men) to the godawful (I Love Trouble) the great blog movie has yet to be made.

FBLA thinks that the part of Slate’s Jack Shafer could be played by Carson Daly.

George Clooney: Today must be our birthday. Thank you, LAT, for running this photo. There is even text to go with it!

Interesting LAT Paragraph of the Day: In this interview with Jason Schwartzman, the actor reveals that much of the filming of the Wes Anderson pic Darjeeling took place “in the crowded compartments of a moving train with weekends spent in his pajamas, watching movies in bed with Anderson.”

Three Is A Charm: Apparently what the world needs is a third cut of Blade Runner. Sometimes you just need more time resources experience to get it right.

Out of a couple of thousand (conservative estimate) unemployed film grads loitering around, the only one the John Edwards campaign could find is Rielle Hunter? They met in a bar, which sounds weird, but who knows? She sold him on the idea of webisodes to show the country the “real John Edwards”.

Sam Stein writes about the disappearance of the Hunter-Edwards oeuvre from the web. The Daily Kos readers are very upset with Stein and for good measure, Arianna.

The mini docs. cost the campaign a total of $100,000 and the only one remaining to view has Edwards telling us he’s not a “plastic Ken doll”. Money well spent!

Don’t forget, this is the guy who dumped bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan when things got too sticky.

Welcome to Mediabistro.com’s Morning Call Time, the podcast that not only gives you all your entertainment industry news, but tells you how the trades are reporting it… before you get your trades.

In today’s Morning Call Time, South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker take sides with Kenny and Spenny… Madonna faces off with John Cougar Mellencamp and the Beastie Boys… and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson formulates his game plan to defeat Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner.

Subscribe to Morning Call Time…

Peter Marchese of Playback Producers is inviting journalists to interview President Jimmy Carter, most likely because he has a new book, BEYOND THE WHITE HOUSE: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope, coming out next week. We thought about making a contest out of this, and giving the winner the phone number, but cooler heads prevailed.

As a press release, it’s a work of art.

INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITY: PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER

Tuesday, October 9, 3:15 -5 PM EST
Thursday, October 11, 3:15 – 4:45 PM EST

Since leaving the White House in 1981, Carter has achieved more in his post-presidential years than any other president in American history. He has received the Nobel Peace Prize, published more than twenty bestselling books, and spoken out boldly–and sometimes controversially–on many of the most important issues of our time. But the bulk of his work has been realized through The Carter Center which is devoted to achieving specific goals in the advancement of peace, health, and human rights around the globe. Along with dedicated experts from The Carter Center, he has led peace efforts on four continents, monitored more than sixty-five troubled elections, and cured or prevented terrible diseases that afflict tens of millions of the world’s most forgotten people. He chronicles all the excitement, challenge, unpredictability, adventure, and satisfaction of this work with The Carter Center in BEYOND THE WHITE HOUSE: Waging Peace, Fighting Disease, Building Hope.

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