With each passing day, local media coverage of Kobe Bryant‘s possible Italian sojourn during the current NBA lockout gets more hilarious. It’s one of the few bits of comic relief in an otherwise very serious situation.

Via LakersNation.com, we learn from Virtus Bologna communications manager Vicenzo Di Schiavia that “negotiations with Mr. Kobe Bryant have been very difficult. We will not make any comment for now.”

Over at ESPN.com, columnist Chris Broussard opines that if the Black Mamba can get the Italian team with the very tuneful homepage to fork over in the neighborhood of $2 million for a single game, “more power to him.” No kidding; transposed to a full NBA regular season schedule, that’s the equivalent of a $164 million annual salary.

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Last night at the Writers Guild Theater in Beverly Hills, Michael Moore kicked off the 16th year of long-running non-profit literary conversation series Writers Bloc Presents with a couple of great LA stories. He was there, along with journalist-moderator Anne Thompson and a pair of bodyguards, to promote and sign copies of his new book Here Comes Trouble.

Moore explained how, on the weekend of his Oscar win for 2002′s Bowling for Columbine, a casual invite from Tim Robbins turned into a hotel room full of Hollywood stars, each sharing their suggestions for his possible Best Documentary acceptance speech. Sean Penn pitched the idea of 45 seconds of stone-faced silence, while Robbins—with others like George Clooney and Eddie Veder looking on–thought perhaps that Moore could announce he was giving up the Academy Award statuette in honor of Lent.

But the real LA humdinger occurred the following year, 2004, when TIME magazine arranged for Moore and Mel Gibson to travel to LA for a photo shoot and sit-down interview in support of a shared “Person of the Year” cover:

“The night before, Mel went to his church in Malibu and had a revelation,” Moore explained. “Jesus, God, the Holy Ghost, who knows… Or as the lady in the front row here just said, St. Jack Daniels. But a voice told him, ‘You are NOT to appear on the cover of TIME magazine with the Devil.’”

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Veteran LA Times entertainment reporter John Horn has three pieces in this Sunday’s “Fall Sneaks” print edition Calendar section, covering Contagion, Tower Heist and the latest directorial effort from George Clooney, The Ides of March. On his way to Telluride for the picturesque Colorado film festival, Horn was kind enough to take time out to answer a few FishbowlLA questions via email.

Telluride has been very good to the reporter. The last two years, he was able to catch the first screening of that year’s eventual Best Picture winner, Slumdog Millionaire and The King’s Speech. This weekend, Horn has his eye on another film starring Clooney, The Descendants (Alexander Payne‘s first film since 2004′s Sideways), and says it’s always a pleasure to deal with the crown prince of Hollywood.

“He’s not full of himself. And he can speak in complete sentences,” notes Horn. “That’s actually saying a lot. Listen, you have to have some ego and even narcissism to be an actor. And any number of actors succeed more on good looks and dumb luck than talent.”

“But some of Hollywood’s most accomplished actors–I’m thinking of Sean Penn here–are not always articulate,” he adds. “Talking about acting is never easy, and it’s invariably a bit silly. Clooney does it better than many others. I think also because he didn’t become famous fast, he has some perspective–and appreciates the life and career he has.”

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Months before media outlets begin providing those printable Oscar ballots to help keep track of office pool tallies, the Hollywood Reporter has shared an equally intriguing scoresheet.

In a sidebar to this week’s print magazine article by Gregg Kilday and Kevin Gray about a high-level split at PR firm 42 West, there is a listing of leading Oscar publicists and the projects they likely will be tubthumping post-Telluride-Toronto-Venice.

Although not quite on the level of the main-article alleged friction between Leslee Dart and departing 42 West partner Cynthia Schwartz, FishbowlLA was struck by the specter of Michele Robertson vs. Dawn Taubin. Robertson could well be handling Warner Bros. titles J. Edgar, from perennial shoe-in Clint Eastwood, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, while that studio’s former head of marketing, Taubin, will be pushing early season favorite The Help.

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We know Hollywood is the place for dreamers and the high aspirational. But ten nominations for best picture seems greedy and self-congratulatory. “There’s just so much WONDERFUL, QUALITY work we just couldn’t chose.”

As we’ve seen with politics, twice the candidates doesn’t make them better choices. Just more.

The complete list of the noms:

Best picture

“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

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Some top actors are pleading with the Screen Actors Guild to not call for a vote on a strike next month.

From NYT:

In a petition, more than 130 well-known actors – including George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin and Sally Field – urged guild leaders to halt the strike authorization vote.

“We support our union and we support the issues we’re fighting for, but we do not believe in all good conscience that now is the time to be putting people out of work,” the petition stated.

Seriously, what other union is threatening to strike right now? Serious? We’re in the middle of an economic meltdown. In the middle. Not even done. Still melting as we speak. And SAG doesn’t feel like they’re getting a fair deal?!

Bed-wetters.

Nikki Finke has all the details (as usual) on DHD.

George Clooney reveals to the Brits that he was dying to direct “Frost/Nixon” but had abandon the idea because Ron Howard reared his head, Britain’s Daily Express reports.

Clooney apparently wanted to “kick ass” with this project, an approach that didn’t sit so well with Brit writer Peter Morgan, who penned the original play.

Milton Katselas, an acting teacher par excellence and founder of the Beverly Hills Playhouse acting school, has passed away from heart failure, AP says.

Katselas, whose students included Gene Hackman, Doris Roberts, George Clooney and Michelle Pfeiffer among scores of others, was 75.

The founder of the Beverly Hills Playhouse acting school was very much a disciple of the Scientology doctrine.

Former students have said that Katselas often used Scientology methodolgy in his study of acting.

Easy On The Top, Easy On The Sides And, Well, Just Easy: Steve Lopez increases his carbon footprint just to drive to Orange County and make fun of Republicans. People living up to their stereotypes are hi-sterical. Next week’s column: Lunch at Nate ‘n’ Al’s, where Lopez discovers Jews bicker a lot.

Police Academy: The LAPD wants production companies to start hiring off-duty active police officers (and not just guys in LAPD outfits) to work film sets. Hollywood is down on the idea, siting rising costs and red tape, but the real story here: Those guys who shut down freeway lanes and straddle their motorcycles in full cop regalia aren’t cops?! We’re so sneaking into George Clooney‘s dressing room.

Palin Deserves Privacy — And So Does The Rest Of America: Tim Rutten‘s column about Sarah Palin is a must-read. A snippet: “The point is that the Palins were able to make all these decisions according to the dictates of their own consciences, formed by their own religious convictions, within the privacy of their own family and according to its values and traditions. What they decided is nobody’s business but theirs; the fact that they were free to arrive at their own decision is everybody’s business.”

Per FBNY: Rupert Murdoch hired hackers to develop pirating software. They deny using it to penetrate the security system of a rival satellite television service. Uh-huh. We guess the media giant needed a hacker to get around paying his cable television charges.

Per wOw: Candice Bergen weighs in on Murdoch’s $580 million bid for Newsday.

Per Contact Music: George Clooney and Rupert Everett are still verbally sparring. When, oh when, will this war of words turn into a homo-erotic mud wrestling match? When?