Evel Knievel dies at age 69.

Martin Scorsese’s newest film: La Clave Reserva

Just in time for the holidays! KOST fires Kim Amidon, after 22 years. via Franklin Ave.

Hollywood Bitchslap has an Oscar tote board up. Sasha Stone as well with better commentary but less useful visuals.

EW lists the 50 Smartest People in Hollywood, which is insane as well as inane. They can’t mean book smart, as Spielberg is notorious for never reading anything. They can’t mean career smarts, as Ben Stiller just made another stinker. So what do they mean?

Nikki Finke is now known as Sista Toldja.

Writers Balk in Talks or Talks Hit Pause Button. A little birdie told us that Variety writers are really tired of the emails accusing them of bias. Really, really tired.

Katie Holmes and a little dear and a little deer.

And Gawker has some openings.

FRIDAY 11.30.07
WHAT: Free movies
WHO: Cinefamily
WHEN: Check listings
WHERE: 611 N. Fairfax Ave.
WHY: For the duration of the writers’ strike the good people at Cinefamily are offering WGA members free entry to the movies (special events not included).

SATURDAY 12.01.07
WHAT: A Very Grand Guignol Christmas
WHO: the demented Laboratory of Hallucinations by Andre de Lorde
WHEN: 8:30 p.m.
WHERE: Art/Works Performance Space
WHY: From the ad: “blood * absinthe * naughty puppets. It’s like The Nutcracker. Literally.” More info here.

MONDAY 12.03.07
WHAT: New York Meets Los Angeles reading series.
WHO: Writers Janet Fitch and Jennifer Egan, moderated by Jonathan Kirsch.
WHEN: 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Geffen Playhouse Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater
WHY: You do all your holiday shopping online anyway. Why not avoid the malls and do something good for your brain? $20.

Sundance got 3,624 features submitted this year, with 51 first-time filmmakers. There’s got to be a pony in there somewhere.

Documentaries are personal, which is the polite way of saying dismal.

Katrina Browne’s Traces of the Trade: A Story From the Deep North explores her New England family’s history as slave traders. Should be big with Unitarians who feel guilty.

Nerakhoon (the Betrayal) directed by the cinematographer Ellen Kuras, a young Laotian man confronts both his father’s work for the C.I.A. designating bombing targets during the Vietnam War and the havoc it wreaked on his family after the Communist takeover of Laos.

Veteran director Lisa F. Jackson’s Greatest Silence: Rape in the Congo, in which she interviews rape victims and draws on her own experience as the survivor of a gang rape.

In Prison My Whole Life Colin Firth’s the EP and his wife the producer of yet another examination of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

And a rejected Mike Garibaldi-Frick muses on his loss.

The Osbourne auction is up and running. Sharon and Ozzy don’t have terrible taste, but the stuff is way over-priced. Cheapest item is a guitar lamp for $20 and the most expensive is a 2006 Bentley for $160,000.

You can bid online.

While the thought of buying Kelly’s old clothes makes us squirm, it could be good fun to win Sharon’s wig and red cardie.

A portion of the proceeds are being donated to benefit The Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

After Elton lists the Top 25 Gay Characters on TV, but has to resort to buying into a stereotype to get Law & Order’s Dr. Huang on to the list. Besides Huang’s “soft spoken manner”, he’s played by out actor B D Wong. And everyone knows gay actors can’t play straight.

Everyone else selected was on some soap opera, Will and Grace or Queer as Folk.

LA Times hell-hound Patterico invites all interested parties, (as it’s a rainy Friday, that’s everyone) to submit comments at the LA Times Readers’ Representative blog.

And why should you do so? Because, Patterico is pretty sure that the blog comments are very carefully screened, so that only happy talk can appear. The site’s disclaimer states:

All comments will be read and forwarded to the appropriate Times staffers. Those that touch on topics of wide interest or raise new aspects of the conversation will be posted.

Thus, Jamie Gold can figure that comments asking why Tim Rutten is still employed or who’s at fault for a screw-up will be considered not new enough for publication. She might represent the readers, but she’s paid by the LA Times.

The San Francisco Chronicle has been roundly criticized for a tricky little software maneuver that deletes critical comments, but allows the commenter think otherwise. Clear your cookies!

Carson Daly sneaks into NBC, but Nina Bargiel caught him, the scamp.

And the AMPTP offers a roll-back. Last 3 weeks? Never happened. Bryan Lourd stamps his tiny foot in frustration.

Conan O’Brien will pay the salaries of his non-writing staff members of his show for the immediate future. David Letterman’s doing the same through his production company Worldwide Pants. Staffers at NBC’s The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, however, will be laid off as of today.

A location on Sunset, just east of Sunset Junction, attracted a picket line yesterday afternoon. Tell us about it, via the Tip Box.

In today’s NYT, Dan Levin has an interesting story about how Jeremy Blake’s unfinished art work was pieced together for the show at the Corcoran:

Jonathan P. Binstock, the curator of the Corcoran exhibition, and Lance Kinz, a director of Kinz, Tillou & Feigen, decided to incorporate “Glitterbest” into their exhibitions in its incomplete state out of deference to Mr. Blake, who had approved inclusion of some of the images in the Corcoran exhibition catalog and advance announcements for the New York show. They hoped the unfinished work would give viewers insight into his creative process and provide a glimmer of what the video might have become.

It would be uncharitable–accurate, but uncharitable–to suggest that Blake’s indebtness to his dealer may have been a compelling reason for that dealer to want as much material as possible in the show.

David Sigal, who’s described as “a documentary filmmaker and videographer” was recruited to finesse the files into some sort of order. Sigal also turned to the internet to try to get some sense of Blake’s last days and found the slough of conspiracy sites, which must have been wrenching.

Alas, there’s no reaction from the not-known-for-his -reticence Malcolm McLaren about the finished portrait.

We Weren’t Wasting Time. We Were Doing Research: Need convincing that Deborah Netburn and Patrick Day have the easiest jobs at the paper? Read what they get paid to do.

End In Sight? After four days of silence, the AMPTP put out a press release announcing it has offered new proposals for digital revenue. The WGA has asked for time to examine the proposals. Both sides agreed to meet again beginning Dec. 4.

A Cheat-Sheet For Your Office Pool: Reporter Josh Friedman kicks off a new weekly feature that predicts weekend box office take. No word on how many shots Friedman has to take each time he’s wrong.

In today’s Morning Call Time, the WGA and AMPTP finally have something to talk about, Peter Sarsgaard and Vera Farmiga get orphaned, and Jessica Alba and Hayden Christensen attempt to wake up the box office.

Click here to subscribe to Morning Call Time…