According to Nikki Finke tonight, Geoff Boucher – quarterback of the popular “Hero Complex” blogs and column (pictured) – is on his way out the LAT door.

Boucher has been with the paper since 1991. He would neither confirm or deny Finke’s sourced tip, but as she writes, this would if true complete a huge double-whammy loss for the paper:

Boucher’s exit follows editor Davan Maharaj’s arrival and then a new entertainment editorial team announced June 20th. That was like moving deck chairs on the Titanic given that the newspaper has become lazy and irrelevant and its showbiz ads have fallen 25% every year as studio and theater chains abandon the publication. Seriously, folks, no Boucher and no [Patrick] Goldstein = no showbiz readers.

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The LA Times Hero Complex blog is getting its own show on YouTube. Hosted by Times pop culture writer Geoff Boucher, Hero Complex: The Show will run on Nerdist’s soon-to-be-launched YouTube channel and will feature interviews on all things geek and/or nerd. Among other guests, Ridley Scott will be on the show to talk about Prometheus and Leonard Nimoy will also make an appearance to discuss long life and prosperity.

The Nerdist Channel makes its YouTube debut on April 2, while Hero Complex: The Show will premiere the week of April 9.

Press release after the jump:

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For FishbowlLA, this was easily the most surprising take-away from Geoff Boucher‘s excellent weekend profile of the returning Van Halen frontman. That the colorful rock’n'roll and radio survivor currently resides in the vicinity of flower petal floats, stately Craftsman homes and the state’s oldest highway.

Boucher in fact for this story paid a visit to David Lee Roth not long after this year’s Rose Parade:

Earlier this month, on a crisp, sunny morning in Pasadena, Roth, now 57, welcomed a visitor to his 20-room, Italianate mansion to talk about Van Halen past, present and future.

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A year after Jon Favreau explained to Geoff Boucher just how important the iconography of Walt Disney was to him growing up, he returned to the pages of Hero Complex late last week to pen a guest essay about the Magic Kingdom maestro.

Although Favreau glosses over Walt’s live action catalog, he does put forth the intriguing idea that Disney had three perfect creative moments: Steamboat Willie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Disneyland. He also recalls one of the many moments in his life when the theme park loomed large:

My 1988 cross-country trip on motorcycle culminated with my Sportster padlocked in front of the happiest place on Earth. It was this month-long adventure that ultimately inspired me to leave New York and try to make it in showbiz. My first screenplay, Swingers, was rife with Disneyland references. Even now, with my own three children, I make the pilgrimage several times a year.

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During a recent visit to Los Angeles, director Terry Gilliam took the time to chat with LA Times “Hero Complex” main man Geoff Boucher. The beleaguered filmmaker (who turned 71 last week)  was in town for an American Cinematheque sponsored screening of Brazil and his latest project, the Italian-made short The Wholly Family.

Much like Orson Welles, Gilliam has spent a large portion of his career battling Hollywood execs and chasing after film financing. That remains the case today, with his decade-old project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote still languishing and likely never to be finished. But it is all by choice, thanks to a decision made decades ago in the San Fernando Valley:

“Look, the last proper job I had was [in the 1960s] at the Chevrolet assembly plant in Van Nuys. It was the night shift, and when I quit I said I would never work for money again. I believe in the things I make. The fact that God doesn’t want me to make them is beside the point.”

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We like Sasha Stone‘s way of thinking. In reaction to the latest wave of media speculation about Billy Crystal returning for a ninth turn as Oscar show host, the AwardsDaily.com maven instead has her money on another, younger, more logical star:

Somehow I doubt if they’re going to all the trouble to hire the presumed “young and hip” Brett Ratner to produce, it seems unlikely they will veer off that path and head into more traditional waters with Crystal.  More likely, Ben Stiller is the one they’ll get to host.  Stiller is starring in Ratner’s upcoming Tower Heist.  I have my money on Stiller hosting.

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More names from yesterday’s layoffs at the LA Times have come out. Assistant Travel editor Jane Engle was let go. LA Observed has her goodbye memo. Sports columnist Jerry Crowe was also cut.

Perhaps the most interesting thing to come out of yesterday’s horrible news was that the website of  the Times took some serious hits too. Blog editor Tony Pierce was let go as was web producer Kelsey Ramos-Conroy.

Much to the disappointment of Media Matters, we’re sure, Pierce’s pal Andrew Malcolm is still around.

LA Observed beat us to it, but we too got a hold of Pierce’s goodbye letter.

Posted after the jump:

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As of yesterday, the LA version of GeekChicDaily.com’s daily email newsletter is up and blasting. The company — backed by such heavyweights as Peter Guber, Bob Pittman, and Joe Roth — also threw itself a little shindig Thursday night at Meltdown Comics on Sunset Boulevard.

In today’s mirrored website posting, the LA folks ponder potential Fantastic Four kill-off scenarios. For Jessica Alba‘s character, they suggest “forcing Sue Storm’s alter-ego to sit through a screening of The Love Guru. Death by embarrassment.”

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Ever wonder who all those people are flying out of Van Nuys Airport on private aircraft? Per Geoff Boucher‘s rip-roaring LA Times article, one recent such take-off was winging Jon Favreau and his Cowboys & Aliens producer Ron Howard down to Austin, Texas for a critical rough footage preview of the Universal Pictures summer release at an Alamo Drafthouse event organized by Harry Knowles.

The beauty of the piece is the way it contrasts Favreau’s deft management of the new rules of “early fan engagement” with Howard’s clear admission that dealing with Twitter, Facebook and blog buzz is still a relatively new and scary process. Explains Howard:

“There’s a conversation now with fans and it starts a long time before the movie is even finished. The frightening thing for me is if somehow the wrong story gets out there and your film is misunderstood in some way… you need to shape the message, really. But Jon is the expert at this stuff.”

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In 2003, it was New Zealander Keisha Castle-Hughes; in 2007, Canadian actress Ellen Page. But in 2010, the emerging young female star of awards season is from our very own backyard.

Fourteen-year-old True Grit newcomer Hailee Steinfeld, who calls Thousand Oaks home, is being showered with praise by reporters and co-stars. In yesterday’s LA Times profile piece by Amy Kaufman and Geoff Boucher, for example, Matt Damon was extremely complimentary when comparing her to other young actors he has recently worked with.

Via MSN.com, Steinfeld tells LA freelance journalist James Rocchi how haphazardly her path to beating out 15,000 other hopefuls began:

“I heard about the audition from my second cousin. Her mom had just learned how to use [online casting service] Actor’s Access, that’s how she heard about the True Grit audition… She passed it onto my mom and then we called my agents out on it and said, ‘Why aren’t I going out on this?’…”

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