In the wake of this weekend’s highly shared New York Times piece about the Koch brothers’ interest in Tribune Co. newspapers, Forbes blogger Jeff Bercovici handicaps the overall billionaire odds. Because the Kochs have an alleged interest in the entire Tribune Co. print slate, he places them at the top of the list as an even-money bet.

Less convincing is Bercovici’s stubborn inclusion of David Geffen at 20:1. It seems pretty clear that the one-time suitor has lost all interest in the LA Times, but let the record show that if Geffen does indeed reveal he was putting forth a poker face, Bercovici wasn’t fooled.

At the bottom of Bercovici’s list is Warren Buffett:

Odds he’ll get it: 50:1. The Times just doesn’t fit the profile at all of the type of newspaper Buffett’s been buying. He’s looking to roll up papers in small, semi-isolated cities and towns that have a quasi-monopoly on local news. It would be shocking if he didn’t sit this one out.

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Born in Cuba and educated in Canada, Ismael Cala considers Larry King to be a model of broadcasting excellence. So it was extra special for the host of Cala, a one-hour talk show airing weekdays at 9 p.m. on CNN en Español and Channel 63′s new nightly SoCal block CNN Latino, to have King as his first guest during last week’s LA visit. That conversation is set to air Monday March 25.

“I have a very special connection with Larry,” Cala tells FishbowlLA. “When I first talked to management at CNN about starting Cala [launched in November of 2010], we always referred back to him. For me, doing the interview was kind of like a master class because we talked about how to listen, how to be a great communicator. Things that not only apply for a journalist but can also be applied in real life, for everybody.”

The King interview was conducted in English and is being dubbed into Spanish by CNN en Español staff. Although Cala is sometimes dubbed by others for these types of  translated broadcasts, in the case King and the other LA shows, Cala – as he also often does- is dubbing himself.

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Timing is everything. Just a few days before this week’s LA Weekly article “Who Will Buy the LA Times?” by Hillel Aron, CNBC broke the news that JPMorgan and Evercore will be handling the sale of the paper and other Tribune Co. assets.

That context gives the piece some extra urgency, and from this excellent bit of work by Aron, we were most struck by the following:

Richest Man in LA vs. Richest Man in the World: Aron references Patrick Soon-Shiong (pictured) in connection with former mayoral candidate Austin Beutner’s effort to put together a stealth group of combined LAT buyers. Surprisingly (at least to us), nowhere in the article does Carlos Slim come up, the man responsible for the relaunch of Larry King and much more. Aron confirms to FishbowlLA that it was not a case of being edited out; “no one ever mentioned Slim,” the writer says.

Two Shades of WSJ: The article characterizes Rupert Murdoch as the man who could potentially outbid everyone, with media expert Ken Doctor telling Aron the Wall Street Journal owner remains the odds-on favorite to acquire the newspaper. Doctor also thinks the two publications’ editorial and ad operations could be streamlined in a number of intriguing ways.

Which is perhaps ironic, because Aron also reminds that Times publisher and Tribune Co. CEO Eddie Hartenstein took a lot of flack internally for his decision to allow the Journal to print at the LAT, bumping the paper’s daily schedule down and “ruining its time-zone advantage over east coast papers.”

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Although the biggest news to come out of Guggenheim Digital Media CEO Ross Levinsohn‘s chat at NATPE in Miami Beach today with Larry King is the imminent announcement of UK-Australia distribution for the talk show host’s ambitious endeavor Larry King Now, we were struck by the idea that even for someone like King, it’s who you know.

Per a report by THR‘s Alex Ben Block, King explained just how casually the whole Ora TV opportunity came about. It must be nice when things like this can happen at your dinner table:

He said that he met the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim when he went to Mexico for a charity event. Later Slim came to his home in Los Angeles for dinner and asked what King wanted to do next. King’s wife suggested he do a new talk show on the Internet, and Slim agreed to provide financing.

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As per usual, Entertainment Weekly senior writer Anthony Breznican has the exclusive scoop on who will be participating in filmmaker Jason Reitman’s next “Live Read” event at LACMA. For a script indelibly stamped by Reitman’s dad Ivan.

Standing in on Thursday for the Ghostbusters trio of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis will be, respectively, Seth Rogen, Jack Black and Rainn Wilson. The only problem is that a lot of Murray’s best lines as Dr. Peter Venkman were not on the page, so Reitman had to combine the original script with a transcript of the finished film. Per Breznican’s report:

“While almost all of the dialogue in the original screenplay is echoed on screen, the Venkman character is completely improvised,” Reitman tells EW. “It’s as if Bill Murray was given a mumblecore-style essay about each scene and then permitted to say whatever he wanted as long as he got the point across.”

“He slimed me” is in the script, but not the follow-up line: “I feel so funky.”

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There was probably no stranger election panelist intro on Tuesday than the one given by Ora TV’s Larry King for comedian Jon Lovitz. The rejuvenated talk show host explained that he had just watched, the night before, a crazy Kevin Costner-Elvis movie, 3000 Miles to Graceland, that features his guest getting killed.

Lovitz started out by revisiting, in very articulate fashion, the reasons for his recent (and now-infamous) “anti-Obama” rant about one-percenters supposedly not paying their fair share of taxes. The actor emphasized that in addition to a 35% federal tax rate, he is subject to a lowered but still-there capital gains tax on any stock-market reinvestment earnings.

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KTLA reporter David Begnaud knew he was taking a risk when he left the confines of traditional TV reporting to join Larry King’s new home, Ora TV. But already, he says he is basking in the ability of the online network’s second show NewsBreaker to report on news as it happens.

This morning happens to coincide with Begnaud’s first exclusive. After hearing about an open letter written by Special Olympics ambassador John Franklin Stephens to Ann Coulter in response to the latter’s now infamous Obama R-word tweet, he tracked the gentleman down and got him to read his letter on camera.

“I said to my team, ‘It’s one thing to read the open letter but it’s much more powerful to see him read it,” Begnaud tells FishbowlLA via telephone. “It’s sort of personal for me, because I grew up in Louisiana with a mentally handicapped aunt and my mother has a company that takes care of the developmentally disabled.”

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In our review of the first week of broadcasts of Larry King’s Internet talk show, we noted how strange and unusual it was to watch the suspender-ed one gabbing from the comfort of his Beverly Hills home. No longer.

Per an interview in the LA Times, the ora.tv/Hulu weekday program has been relocated to new studio facilities in Glendale, with paint colors picked out by wife Shawn. For people living in the Jewel City, this is a big deal. First came the Americana at Brand; now follows SoCal’s closest active, broadcast brand-equivalent to that term (excepting, by King’s own admission, Vin Scully):

King’s plan is to keep asking questions and continue Larry King NOW for another seven years — until 2020, or until he dies.

“I think that’s the way it’s going to end,” King said. “I will fall over. And Shawn will emcee the funeral, but she’ll be late. She’ll be home doing her hair.”

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In support of Daniel Miller’s splashy cover story and Ed Desser’s team media rights sidebar in the August 17 print issue of The Hollywood Reporter, Janice Min’s operation has opted for four different hard-copy covers. They depict (left to right, below): Cy Young winning pitcher Clayton Kershaw; minority stakeholders Magic Johnson and Peter Guber; Tommy Lasorda alongside current manager Don Mattingly; and marquee stars Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier.

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The most surprising element of Monday’s inaugural Ora TV episode of Larry King Now (available the next day on Hulu) is the backdrop. The host’s chat with Family Guy and Ted instigator Seth MacFarlane takes place not in some fancy new 21st century studio but rather in the den of King’s Beverly Hills home.

The sight of a King Emmy statuette on the shelf and a stack of framed paintings leaning against a wall behind King definitely give the proceedings a homier feel than the 78-year-old broadcaster’s former CNN address. But MacFarlane being who he is, there is also the story about Thanksgiving, his mom, a dog named Butch and some experimental “jacking off” that would never have made it to TV air. The same goes for guest #1′s crack about necrophilia, made during a discussion of King’s interest in cryogenics.

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