Variety Entertainment Group announced a new job — and a former hire. Former Associate Publisher of Variety, Madelyn Hammond, has been plucked to become Variety’s Chief Marketing Officer, a position the company has never had.

The press release explains it all:

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“The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” jumps into the serious news fray a bit with a report next week from Iraq-based correspondent Rob Riggle, reports THR. Though Riggle and crew had contact with a USO-Multi National Corps comedy sketch tour, the story says the team was primarily with troops under “military protection.”

Variety‘s Michael Fleming writes about the end of agency-gate 2007 with veteran ICM agent Ed Limato taking his act – and his A-list Denzel Washington, Mel Gibson, Richard Gere and Steve Martin – along with him to rival agency WMA.

It was a topsy turvy day for MGM/UA with the studio losing financing deal with Goldman Sachs for MGM while gaining a $500 million fund with Merrill Lynch for specialty label UA. Obviously the Variety story was good news for Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner who co-own the UA label following a bitter split with Paramount Pictures last year.

Scarlett Johansson proves in THR that she’s the workhorse of the starlet set, signing on to star in three new movies including the big-screen version of the “Sex and the City” cultural phenom, “He’s Just Not Into You.”

REVIEWS: THR takes on “High School Musical 2″ (calling it a soon-to-be smash) while Variety says “Superbad” is actually verygood, dubbing it another “ultra-raunchy and commercial sex comedy” from Judd Apatow.

– CHRIS GARDNER