If you’re planning on staying home tonight (and have DIRECTV), one of the very best ways to kick off your weekend is available via the satellite cabler’s Audience Network channel 239. At 10 p.m. PT, the live concert series Guitar Center Sessions returns.

Unusually, this weekend’s episode featuring The Smashing Pumpkins and next Friday’s performance by Frank Turner were taped at SXSW in Austin. But after that, all the way through to the program’s 50th episode on July 26 featuring Dhani Harrison’s THENEWNO2, it’s back to the chain’s flagship location in Hollywood:

“Today, more than ever before, any artist, established or up and coming, is working within a new convoluted paradigm full of challenges,” says show host and backstage interviewer Nic Harcourt via recent press release. “The new episodes of Guitar Center Sessions feature a truly diverse group of artists, all sharing the ups and downs of their careers in the interviews and delivering blistering performances on stage.”

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Although KABC 790 AM host Peter Tilden will be at the center of it, he’s wrangled some major TV-side reinforcements.

Acting as grand marshal for this Sunday’s motorcycle ride raising money for the MS Hope Foundation is Sons of Anarchy star Ron Perlman. And once the group makes its way from Gladstone’s in Malibu to The Canyon club in Agoura Hills, they will be entertained by John Corbett (NCIS) with his band and Grammy-winning Hawaiian steel guitarist Ken Emerson.

Tickets for the 10 a.m. ride and noon Canyon celebration are $25 if purchased beforehand and $35 the day of. There are two earlier 8 a.m. starting points – Glendale Harley on San Fernando Road in Glendale and California Harley Dealership on the PCH in Harbor City.

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No, we’re not talking about Justin Chang and Peter Debruge. That would be huge and… somewhat nonsensical.

Still, for Hollywood trade watchers, the defection from Variety to The Hollywood Reporter of international freelance reviewers Jonathan Holland (based in Madrid) and Boyd van Hoiej (Paris, Luxembourg) would seem to suggest that there’s concern on their part about the future of their beat. A rep for THR tells us that van Hoiej is already at Cannes, and that both will immediately start contributing to the efforts crowned of course by another Variety alum, Todd McCarthy.

Holland, who focuses mainly on Spanish and Latin American films, has also written for The Guardian and Conde Nast’s Traveller. He separately penned the 1994 novel The Escape Artist.

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Way down the list of Tiger Woods’ concerns this weekend in Las Vegas, right next to say waiting a little too long for the valet to bring around his shiny new car, is the idea that a local celebrity journalist is grousing about the lack of interview access. Nevertheless, ahead of the golfer’s series of big weekend charity events in Sin City, that is Robin Leach’s beef:

No questions, thus no answers to any subject. Nothing about his current game. Nothing about old loves and new ones. Nothing about anything. A tough assignment for us who are used to big stars sitting down for one-on-one conversations.

Photographers will get the slightly better run of things during this weekend’s 15th annual Tiger Jam, allowed access at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and later Saturday night for the Kid Rock-Uncle Kracker concert. Tonight, as part of a whole series of poker tournaments culminating May 24, Woods has a $10,000 buy-in event.

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One can only imagine the great radio tales Paul Drew regaled fellow residents with at Victor Royale Assisted Living, an airy facility in the south end of Glendale just a few blocks away from Forest Lawn. Per an obit in Billboard by Gail Mitchell, this early architect of the top-40 format knew many of the great ones:

Drew worked with and/or mentored a diverse array of radio personalities, programmers, consultants and industry writers. That list includes consultants Jerry Clifton and Guy Zapoleon, writers Gerry Cagle (Network 40), Walt “Baby” Love (Radio & Records) and Jerry Del Colliano (Inside Radio), as well as air personalities Rick Dees, Dr. Don Rose, Jay Thomas and Charlie Van Dyke.

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Yahoo! in Talks to Acquire Tumblr: Deal Could Reach As High As $1 Billion (Adweek)
Is Marissa Mayer about to make a game-changing acquisition? It appears so. Yahoo! is in serious talks with Tumblr to acquire the social blogging site, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks. While its revenue is modest, Tumblr has positioned itself as one of the few players in the digital ad world that is well-suited for brand advertising. And Tumblr is also the domain of the young, cool and creative crowd — not currently a Yahoo! sweet spot. AllThingsD Earlier this week, Yahoo! CFO Ken Goldman spoke at JPMorgan’s Global Technology conference and underscored the need for the aging Silicon Valley Internet giant to attract more users from the coveted 18-to-24-years-old age bracket. Along with more marketing, he explicitly said Yahoo! needed to be “cool again.” The Verge Since taking control of Yahoo!, Mayer has pursued a string of acquisitions, including Summly, Astrid, Jybe and others. In addition to the failed Dailymotion acquisition, the company has also been rumored to be looking at Hulu, although Mayer has previously said that the company is shopping for smaller targets valued in the $100 million range.

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It wasn’t that long ago that we were writing about Stephanie Elam’s move from CNN New York to NBC Southern California. Less than a year later, the Howard University grad and former CNN business reporter has straight-reversed that career direction, heading back to the closer confines of CNN’s LA office.

Those who follow Elam’s Twitter feed have known about this latest career move for upwards of a week. This afternoon, CNN has made it official:

During her tenure at KNBC, Elam’s reporting centered around emergency awareness, empowering Southern Californians with information to be earthquake ready, water safety and informed about money matters. She covered the release of John Smith, a man jailed 18 years for a crime he did not commit; the 2012 Golden Globes red carpet; and she anchored KNBC ‘s breaking news coverage of the Seal Beach murders.

“Stephanie is an excellent communicator and tenacious reporter, and we are pleased to have her back as a part of the CNN family,” said Terence Burke, vp of newsgathering for CNN U.S.

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The bigger picture here is that Deadline fudged some previously published information. They are certainly not alone on the Internet in that regard. But a trade that consistently likes to trumpet its superiority should, we think, be opting for sweeter correction music (redlining, a footnote,…).

The following sentence is no longer part of Pete Hammond‘s May 15 Deadline coverage of the opening night party at the Cannes Film Festival for The Great Gatsby. It was shortened, rewritten and made parenthetical not long after the item went live with this:

Clearly there seems to be a group of pseudo-critics who like to try and take down a movie, and this [The Great Gatsby] was a target, even though some of them (I am talking about you, The Wrap) obviously had never read the book.

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Not long ago on Twitter, KFI AM 640 newscaster Aron Bender was singing the praises of Katherine Timpf, a one-time intern at the station making a big splash at Fox News with her exclusive coverage of some Facebook foolery. Today, a separate KFI-to-FOX success story continues.

Araksya Karapetyan (pictured), who started out during her college years interning at both KFI and KABC-TV, has been promoted to full-time anchor with the FOX 11 Morning News.* She joined the station last year as a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor, where she had been contributing to the 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. weekday newscasts as well as Studio 11 LA.

The Newhouse School grad will anchor weekday newscasts from 4:30 to 7:00 a.m. and again from 10:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., as well as continue to contribute to Good Day LA. From today’s announcement:

“Araksya’s smart and in-depth reporting is matched by her exceptional commitment to the community,” said Kingsley Smith, FOX 11 vp and news director. “She has an extraordinary work ethic and has quickly made a name for herself in this area as a reporter who tells compelling stories about everyday people.”

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How’s this for a super-cool field trip? As part of the festivities at the Anatolian Cultures and Food Festival 2013, taking place today through Sunday in Costa Mesa, area students grades K through 12 will be getting to meet the world’s tallest man.

Sultan Kosen is a staggering eight feet, three inches tall. He hails from the Turkish town of Mardin and, as part of the weekend festival, will be installed at an exhibit celebrating his city and its famous hillside stone houses. Event organizers have created a replica of one such a home for attendees to check out and pose at.

Kosen swung through San Diego on his way up to the OC, accompanied by interpreter Atilla Kahveci of LA’s Pacifica Institute. From a Channel 10 report:

Kosen told San Diego mayor Bob Filner he realized at the age of 10 that he would be very tall, since he was already six feet. He said a tumor in his pituitary gland fueled his growth and limited his vision, which he said is 90 percent in one eye and 60 percent in the other. It took multiple surgeries to remove the tumor, he said.

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