In addition to his duties as an author and freelance film writer, Stephen Farber has a new gig: president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Assocation (LAFCA). He took over in late July from Brent Simon and tells FishbowlLA he has just begun working on the logistics of the group’s annual awards dinner.

Farber recently wrote a quartet of reviews for The Hollywood Reporter from Telluride and says that by year’s end, he will have written somewhere between two and three dozen critiques for the publication. He also contributes interviews and critical essays to outlets such as The Daily Beast and the LA Times.

“As an example, I did a piece for The Daily Beast before The Artist won Best Picture,” Farber recalls. “I was writing that if it did win, it would be the first time that a movie about movies or about Hollywood had won that prize, even though many such pictures have been made and, in some cases, been nominated.”

A problem in recent years with the Oscars telecast is that the winning performers have previously won the same prize at several other major awards shows, rendering their acceptances speeches moot. For example, Lincoln’s Daniel Day-Lewis could possibly run the table in 2012.

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Celebuzz editor-in-chief Dylan Howard has been keeping tabs on the Hollywood high-stakes poker circuit story from day one. In late June 2011, he was the first reporter to detail A-list aspects of the ring via a Star magazine cover story (pictured). This morning, he’s got an exclusive and explosive rundown of a 206-page deposition given this spring by Brad Ruderman, the convicted hedge fund Ponzi scheme operator who was a regular player (and loser) alongside the likes of Tobey Maguire, Ben Affleck and Leonardo DiCaprio.

“When all the celebrities in this secret street circuit settled their suits, I didn’t think we’d ever hear from Ruderman – in his own words,” Howard tells FishbowlLA. “With that, I think it would be fair to say a slew of famous names breathed a sigh of relief: they did not have to appear in court, the inner-workings of the ring were therefore saved a public hearing. That is why obtaining Ruderman’s deposition, made before the [May 2012] settlement, was so important in shining a light on this story.”

Howard’s article opens with an explanation of just how instrumental Maguire was in securing Ruderman’s attendance at the bi-weekly matches beginning in 2006. From there, his latest piece about the $50,000 buy-in, no-limit Texas Hold ‘Em games takes on the sheen of a Vanity Fair-like expose:

Some Hollywood heavy hitters were invited, but rebuffed the group – like Jeffery Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation and the former chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. “There were people that didn’t want to play in this game because they were concerned about that [the commissioned organization of the home games by Molly Bloom].” He was instructed to name names, under oath. “I’d rather not say, but they’re very, very prominent people,” said Ruderman.“I’m going to request that you answer the question,” a lawyer said. He finally relented. “Was this person’s name brought up at the table?” a lawyer asked.“Did I bring it up? ” he responded. “No. But was Jeffery Katzenberg’s name brought up? Yes.”

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The highly competitive rivalry between Deadline’s Mike Fleming and the film reporting crew at Variety has taken a contentious new turn. Reacting on Wednesday to a variety.com item by Jeff Sneider and Justin Kroll (with help from Marc Graser) about Warner Bros.’ pursuit of Ben Affleck as a possible director for a Justice League movie, Fleming lost it:

I’ve been reading a lot of stuff lately that has been of questionable substance, and I’m calling bullshit on this big Variety scoop today that implies Warner Bros. will get Ben Affleck as director of its Justice League film. This is a story I checked out days ago, and didn’t run when Affleck’s reps stated that it was not going to happen with him…

Just because the studio wants Affleck doesn’t mean he will do the movie, and several sources tell me he might take a meeting, but that’s it.

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Orem, Utah celebrity fan Scott Jessop has already triumphed in a way that Sundance Film Festival cognoscenti can appreciate: he was the star of his very own indie documentary. But that was 2010 and this is now.

Tomorrow, Jessop, a.k.a. “Sundance Skippy,” will descend on Park City to begin his eighth year of attempting to be photographed alongside as many celebrities as possible. He hopes one day to turn the hanging-with-famous-people thing into a full-time journalism career, and tells a student reporter at Brigham Young University he boned up for 2012 via an unlikely source:

When asked how he is able to spot the celebrities so well, Jessop said he watches a lot of TV and watches TMZ every day. He also suggests going through the [Sundance] film guide and knowing what celebrities are going to be there so one can keep a lookout for them.

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Although Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke (pictured) is not invited to this weekend’s other royal wedding – the marriage of casino titan Steve Wynn to British gal Andrea Hissom – he takes the opportunity to muse about some run-ins with higher ups.

In 1999, the Hard Rock Hotel took a hard line against Clarke after he wrote about Ben Affleck‘s $660,000 winnings and six-figure tipping of waiters and dealers. Then there was the time, as coordinator of Associated Press coverage of the LA Summer Olympics, that Clarke was tasked with covering a $1,000-a-plate fundraiser for the British Olympic Committee.

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The great character actor Pete Postlewaite has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 64. Postlethwaite broke into Hollywood in 1993, starring alongside Daniel Day-Lewis in “In the Name of the Father.” Postlethwaite was nominated for an Academy Award for “best supporting actor” for his performance. He also appeared in the “The Usual Suspects” and was once called “probably the best actor in the world” by Steven Spielberg.

Postlethwaite was most recently in the much-acclaimed Christopher Nolan movie “Inception,” as well as Ben Affleck‘s “The Town.”

Not bad, sir.

Postlethwaite was one of the few actors out there who could actually pull off playing working class characters. No tattoos necessary. The guy was legit.

The Huffington Post Pre-Inaugural Ball was held at the Newseum where This Week with George Stephanopoulos is filmed. Snort.

The picture above is an exhibit of journalists who have died in the line duty. It’s massive. It’s chilling.

And yes, while Ben Affleck was schmoozing at the bar and there were a million fabulous people swirling about – counting down the last few minutes of the Bush Administration, we were looking at museum installations because we’re that big of dorks.

We were at the Huffington Post Pre-Inaugural Ball at the Newseum. Late in the evening we were chatting with some Clinton (Bill) staffers and then from off in the distance (we’re near sighted) was the Oracle of the 2008 election Nate Silver.

How was it meeting him? It was good for us – probably weird for him.

So at a party where Ben Affleck was hanging out at the bar all night, our highlight was meeting a blogger?

Yep. A blogger with a super big ol’ brain. So, we’re cool with that.

Kevin Smith, everyone’s favorite oddball indie director, challenged the MPAA rating system for his new pic, “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” and won a reduction from NC-17 to R.

The director of such hits as “Clerks,” “Jersey Girl,” “Dogma” and “Chasing Amy,” is no stranger to taking on the MPAA.
When “Clerks” first came out it, too, was given and NC-17 rating that Smith was able to alter to an R. And his Ben Affleck film “Jersey Girl” was shifted from an R to a PG-13.

With “Zack and Miri…,” Smith cast Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as roommates who decide to make a porn film to get themselves out of debt.

“We didn’t set out to make an NC-17 film. That’s just commercial suicide,” Smith told The Associated Press.
The original rating would prohibit anyone under the age of 17 from ever seeing the film.

Now, teens can go with a parent — if the parent dares.

The Weinstein brothers are putting it out under their eponymous label, which is not only separated from the Weinstein’s original Miramax label, but is luckily no longer tied to Disney, which would no doubt love to be behind a porn film.

Co-star Katie Morgan, who has some fairly graphic sex scenes with Jason Mewes, is a well-known porn star.
The MPAA revised the rating after its appeals board viewed the film and decided it wasn’t as dirty as an NC-17 rating might convey.

“They felt it was rather sexually graphic. My point is, it was comically graphic. All the sex in the movie with the exception of one scene is very cartoonish, very campy,” Smith said. “It wasn’t designed to titillate.”

The appeals board, a separate panel from the ratings board, viewed the movie Tuesday, and Smith presented his arguments.
See the Associated Press story below:

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The Hollywood Trades: While the Reporter and Variety battle to the death (the Reporter’s death, that is), LAT is maybe kinda sorta upping its Hollywood coverage. A John Horn piece proclaims that in the recent agency swapping, “Endeavor was … the biggest net winner by a wide margin, while UTA was seen as taking the toughest hit to its much-heralded comedy business. No one believes CAA has lost its grip as the town’s dominant deal maker.”

Unemployed Actors Still Get A Say: SAG rejected a petition by A-listers like Kevin Bacon, Glenn Close and Ben Affleck that would allow only working actors to vote in upcoming contract negotiations. Most of the guild’s 120,000 members don’t work regularly. Unless you count Bennigan’s as work. And we do.

Britney Spears In A Fender-Bender On The 101: But, then, you knew that already.