As one former Variety staffer joins the morphing Hollywood Reporter, so leaves another: it was announced today by THR that editor Elizabeth Guider is departing the trade publication for personal reasons. Hopefully, on her way out the revolving door, Guider will have the chance to say hi-bye to new incoming chief film critic Todd McCarthy.

Via brief, boiler plate item on its website this morning, THR indicates that Guider “will continue to contribute” in a way that is more commensurate with her book writing efforts and trips to visit out-of-state relatives. Whether that means angry letters to the (new) editor about her severance package or something else at this point remains unclear.

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Page 6 was piling on the Hollywood Reporter today because the Rupert Murdoch-owned New York Post thought it could get away with it. The Post tried to say the Reporter is so dead broke the paper isn’t even sending anyone to the Sundance Film Festival next month.

But HP Editor Elizabeth Guider said the Post couldn’t be further from the truth. What a surprise!

“As The Hollywood Reporter does every year, we are sending two of our full-time film reporters to cover the news at Sundance as well as our chief film reviewer Kirk Honeycutt and three of our regular, longtime film critic outside contributors. In addition THR will field a small, 3-to-5-person video and digital team as we are increasingly interested in boosting our online offerings at important events like key film festivals.

Like most publishers these days we are having to be leaner and meaner, but also hopefully smarter in our coverage. That said, we have every intention of covering key industry gatherings of importance to our readership, and Sundance is certainly one of them.

And yes you can quote me.”

The Reporter doesn’t deserve to deal with that kind of nonsense.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s Annual 100 Most Powerful Women List came out today with none other than, no surprise, Oprah at the top of the heap.

She was followed by some of the usual female subjects, including DreamWorks Stacey Snider, Sony’s Amy Pascal, CBS’s Nancy Tellem and MGM’s Mary Parent.

The girls are all breakfasting at the Beverly Hills Hotel this morning. No doubt eating power bars.

While Paramount and Universal have both caught the dreaded layoff bug, the most personalized trauma for FBLA might be the Hollywood Reporter‘s of departures of long-serving managing editor Harley Lond, lead TV critic Barry Garron, Hy Hollinger, a veteran editor in the international department and New York-based features editor Randee Dawn Cohen.

The film department bore the brunt of the layoffs among reporters. Film and tech writer Carolyn Giardina and film reporter Leslie Simmons were among those let go, along with New York-based film reporter Gregg Goldstein and television reporter Kimberly Nordyke.

HP Editor Elizabeth Guider, still in her first year, has been agonizing over the layoffs.

* Correction: Kimberly Nordyke was not laid off as the post above indicates, and is, as of August 9, 2012, still very much employed by The Hollywood Reporter.

Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski may have to thank L.A.-based indie documentary-maker Marina Zenovich if he’s able to overturn his sexual misconduct charges and return to the U.S. again after 30 years.

Zenovich, who is an old pal of FBLA, had been working on the doc “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” for more than a decade. After finding partial financing, she had been doggedly at it for years. Even when she got close, Polanski still denied any interviews. When she finally finished it, HBO swept in and championed the film.

Now, it looks like Polanski will take another stab at coming to the U.S. The “Chinatown” and “Rosemary’s Baby” director, through new attorneys, has filed a petition to have the charges dropped.

The lawyers, in their complaint, cited Zenovich’s film and the smoking gun evidence that the sitting judge may have overstepped his bounds.

“The release of the documentary film ‘Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired’ and its aftermath have revealed a pattern of misconduct and improper communications between the Superior Court and the District Attorney’s Office, in violation of the rule of law and without the knowledge of the defendant or his counsel,” the lawyers said. “This case serves as a classic example of how our justice system can be abused, and defendants’ rights trampled, by an unholy alliance between courts and criminal prosecutors.”

The Hollywood Reporter said its position for several years has been “if Mr. Polanski wants to resolve this matter, he must appear in person. Should he do so, he would be taken to Dept. 100 for sentencing – which is where this all left off. At that point, his attorneys would be free to pursue whatever legal strategy they choose.”

Polanski resides in Paris and is a French citizen. He won the best director Oscar in 2002 for “The Pianist.” Unable to attend the ceremony, Polanski received his statue at the Deauville Film Festival where it was presented to him by his “Frantic” star, Harrison Ford.

If I were Polanski, I wouldn’t trust ‘em.

The Hollywood Reporter held court, so to speak, with the 100 attorneys it had named for its Power Lawyers issue this morning at the Peninsula Hotel. Organizer and HP managing editor of features Matthew Belloni said the event went off without hitch this morning, though he didn’t bother to tell whether they were eating raw snails (as lawyers are wont to do) or just bagels and coffee.
Belloni did bother to talk about the key award-winner, Disney executive VP of business affairs Bernadine Brandes and why they chose her: “Because she has been behind most of the major movie deals that Disney has had, including Jerry Bruckheimer, Robert Zemeckis and Tim Burton.”
Most of Hollywood’s legal power elite made it out of bed for an 8:30 a.m. start, including Tom Hansen, Linda Lichter, Skip Brittenham, Melanie Cook, Cliff Gilbert-Lurie, Alan Hergott, Harold Brown, Jay Cooper and Patti Felker, among others.
Belloni conceded that one of Hollywood’s most powerful attorneys was a no-show. Jake Bloom had no interest. “He never shows up for things like this and if he does, he doesn’t say anything,” he moaned.

FBLA wishes a speedy recovery to the Hollywood Reporter scribe who dislocated his shoulder at last night’s screening of Beowulf at Universal City. The poor soul apparently slipped in the lobby of the theater and fell. An ambulance rushed him away before the opening credits rolled on the 3D Imax showing.

We enjoyed the film immensely, but we felt a little guilty cheering at a scene in which Beowulf tears Grendel’s arm off. Too soon, we thought. Too soon.

Variety

Scott Rudin has offered one of his former development guys, Craig Perry, a first-look deal, thus gaining an opportunity to “generate mainstream comedies and family films.” Perry produced the American Pie and Final Destination movies.

Sidney Sheldon, the prolific author and producer, has died. During his extensive career he wrote several Broadway musicals, screenplays and televisions series, in addition to a multitude of novels. His television career included producer of The Patty Duke Show, I Dream of Jeannie, and Hart to Hart, in addition to a number of his novels produced as made-for TV movies including Rage of Angels, Bloodline and Memories of Midnight. His career awards included a Tony for Best Musical: Redhead in 1959, an Oscar for his original screenplay of The Bachelor and the Bobbysoxer starring Cary Grant, two WGA awards for Easter Parade and Annie Get Your Gun, and an Emmy for I Dream of Jeannie.

Hollywood Reporter

Television is the new feature, according to a CBS development exec. Pilot orders are running towards nighttimee soaps and high-cncept dramas, while the networks are avoiding open-ended serials–Lost being the only hit out of the current crop. Big name directors, like Spike Lee, Brett Ratner, Guy Ritchie, and Barry Sonnenfeld are directing pilots.

The Police will perform at the Grammys in February. Sting had hinted at this during the TCAs, where he was promoting his PBS project, a collection of 16th-century classical music called Songs From the Labyrinth, as the 30th anniversary of the band was approaching. THe group will open the show on CBS.

Wired magazine is perhaps the most positive, life-affirming publication on the planet. If someone threw a rock at their window, someone there would write a cover story about how shards of glass will save humanity.

So it’s a bit amazing to hear Wired editor Chris Anderson declare that “the age of the blockbuster is over.”

Anderson pronounced his hypothesis while pimping his book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, at NATPE‘s 2007 Conference & Exhibition in Las Vegas.

He says that media outlets have become so fragmented, no one can truly strike gold anymore. One glimmering exception: YouTube.

Per the Hollywood Reporter:

Anderson also noted the success of user-generated site YouTube, saying that Barry Diller was wrong when he said that “people with talent won’t be displaced by 18 million people producing stuff they think will have appeal.” In fact, Anderson said, videos on YouTube are generating “network-sized audiences for the kind of content that TV isn’t making. … There’s going to be a battle between these two markets.”

Unabashedly breathless enthusiasm for the questionably successful? That’s the Anderson we know and love.