Vivi Zigler, the woman who brought you (the marketing for) Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Celebrity Poker, has been promoted yet again within NBC Universal, where she has worked for more than 10 years.

Congratulations, Vivi!

Press release:

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InkStainedRetch at TellZell thinks a protest is a good idea.

“It’s clear that Sam Zell wants a world without journalists. So, for a day, let’s give him his wish. On July 9, I encourage all Tribune employees to call in sick to protest his destruction of our newspapers. If any reporter, photographer or other journalist cannot do that, then use the July 10 edition for a byline, cutline or masthead strike.

I refuse to let serious journalism die without a fight.”

We don’t want to hear the LAT death rattle. We’ll take the war cries over that.

Tonight at 12:01 AM, the SAG contract expires. So today, all the major newspapers have to cover what’s going on with SAG. The Washington Post runs a piece by staff writer William Booth that is a Q&A:

Wait — actors vs. actors. Sounds hot. What show are you talking about?

He clearly doesn’t have to spend any time around talent. We think maybe he was thinking ‘actresses’. But it’s still WaPo and kind of creepy.

LAT covers the SAG AFTRA rift. NYPost is reporting about the SAG prez. And NYT gets into the plight of the non-famous actors.

Okay actors – now you’ve gotten enough attention and you don’t need to strike.

We were trolling FailBlog and came across this picture of our own local anchor Marc Brown.

Have a good weekend everyone!

From Variety (with some additional info by guest Fishie Dan Cox):

Howard Brandy, a publicist in film and music over a career spanning nearly five decades and known as the model for the cartoon character Dudley Do-Right, died last Monday after a long illness. He was 79.

In the 1950s, Brandy represented teen heartthrobs Fabian and Frankie Avalon before going on to work with Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sam Cooke, the Fifth Dimension, Lionel Richie, Captain & Tennille and the Monkees. He also headed publicity for A&M records, Uni Records and Motown.

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Orange County’s second-best former columnist (kisses) Rebecca Schoenkopf done written her book already (man, that was fast!), and she’s coming to Book Soup to read from it.

Schoenkopf, aka Commie Girl, is a laugh-riot and a great story teller. So come out and support her. Saturday, 5 p.m. 8818 Sunset Blvd., W. Hollywood.

From the blurb:

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Yes, we’re dusting off all our best ‘virgin’ material and heading to San Diego for the annual nerd Saturnalia.

As is Fox, so we hear.

We’re planning on a little live blogging, maybe some videos. We’re already aware of a couple of our readers that will be there. Will you? Send us an email.

If you haven’t checked out Cassette From My Ex, yet – now is your chance.

Jason Bitner co-creator of Found Magazine set up a site where writers give him their old mix tapes. They tell the tale of how this tape came into being. And Bitner makes an MP3 of the tape to listen to on the site.

This week’s writer is David Nadelberg, creator of Mortified.

Watch it here.

Sam Zell – mogul? Real estate tycoon? Cartoon character? Hmm….

The girl in the Mini-Me Sex Tape has been named – and it’s still not Mayrav. Her name is Ranae Shrider and uhm we hope the two are very happy together. And uhm…yeah…that…