Hollywood Reporter senior writer Marisa Guthrie landed a big exclusive interview with Keith Olbermann for this week’s cover story (subscription required). Until now, Olbermann hadn’t spoken in depth to the press about his contentious exit from MSNBC and his move to Current TV.  Among other tidbits we learn that Olbermann is making $10 mil a year at Current– a $3 million pay bump from his MSNBC days. He also has an equity stake in the company which could earn him $100 mil.

We also learn that Olbermann has brought in his former MSNBC colleague David Shuster–who was suspended from the network for taping a pilot for CNN–to serve as his substitute anchor. FishbowlLA favorite Matt Taibbi will apparently have a role on the show as well as a paid contributor, as will Michael Moore and Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas.

Read more

James Cameron and his production company Lightstorm Entertainment will be moving the production of the next two Avatar flicks to Orange County the South Bay. Manhattan Beach’s MBS Media Campus will be the site of Cameron’s blockbuster sequels, which also houses the headquarters of Marvel Studios. MBS bills itself as eco-friendly, but Cameron is apparently footing the bill to install solar panels to handle the making of the films.

Interestingly, MBS Media Campus is owned by the Carlyle Group, and is managed by Raleigh Studios, whose president is named Michael Moore. Fahrenheit 9/11 irony much?

And in other film news, Chewbacca reads the newspaper.

*Post altered for fairly major geographical brain fart. We’ve lived in Southern California off and on since 2002, but we’ve only been to the South Bay twice in our entire life. Give us a break.

Peter Guber may soon have a Hollywood hardwood doppelganger. Joining the Golden State Warriors co-owner within the NBA team owner ranks will soon be, by all accounts, Platinum Equity billionaire Tom Gores (pictured).

In honor of today’s second biggest sports story (behind the forced retirement of Manny Ramirez), the Detroit Free Press has republished a February 13th profile of Gores by sports reporter Vince Ellis. It offers some interesting hints as to how the LA magnate may be perceived in Motown as proprietor of the Pistons:

Maybe you’ve never heard of potential Pistons buyer Tom Gores. But if you think he would be one of those anonymous business owners who never, ever make news, think again: he bankrolled a slasher film starring Lindsay Lohan.

Read more

Will he show? Won’t he? So far, no one has created more intrigue for this year’s Academy Awards than street artist and documentary filmmaker Bansky. Earlier this week, the artist was told by the Academy that he won’t be allowed to accept his award--should he win in the Best Documentary category for his film Exit Through the Gift Shop–if he shows up masked. The artist never shows his face in public, and typically attends events wearing a monkey mask. An agreement was subsequently reached that producer Jaimie D’Cruz will accept the award on stage if the film wins. But that doesn’t mean Banksy won’t show up to the shindig. And who knows what kind of glorious stunt he’ll pull if he does attend?

The artist failed to show up to a panel discussion earlier this morning that included his fellow documentary nominees. But this week has shown he does have a heightened sense of theatrics. We can only hope he does something to top Michael Moore‘s “fictitious” tirade of 2003.

Read more

Wow. Michael Moore has filed suit against film moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein, alleging that the brothers used “bogus accounting methods” to hide huge sums of money the filmmaker was due from his film Fahrenheit 9/11. TMZ got a hold of the suit, which was filed today in LA Superior Court. Among Moore’s juicier charges: one Weinstein brother secretively took a private jet to Europe on Moore’s dime.

Moore is asking for $2.7 million.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is the top grossing documentary of all-time, earning a whopping $220 million-plus at the box office.

Keith Olbermann and Michael Moore recently found themselves at the center of a controversy over statements made about the sexual assault charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange. Last week on MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Moore dismissed the sexual assault charges against Assange as “a bunch of hooey” and suggested Assange was the victim of a politically motivated smear campaign. Moore said, inaccurately, that the charge against Assange was that “his condom broke during consensual sex.”

The charges are a bit more serious than that, as you can read here. That respected media professionals would perpetuate misinformation and dismiss rape allegations got under some people’s skin. And so, a Twitter activist campaign was born. Using the hashtag #MooreandMe, twitterers expressed their frustration with Moore and Olbermann.

Read more

Michael Moore went on Keith Olbermann‘s show last night to explain why he put up $20,000 in bail money for WikiLeak’s Julian Assange–who’s currently in custody in London on sexual assault allegations. Moore dismissed the allegations against Assange, noting “there are no charges, they only want to talk to him.”

Read more

Documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald and team continue to quietly build his Charlie Rose iteration, posting conversations that can be accessed on a sliding scale subscription basis. Last week, interview subjects included filmmaker Oliver Stone and Andy Bichlbaum, co-director of a documentary described as “Bruno meets Michael Moore.” He spoke with Greenwald colleague Christopher Sprinkle.

Read more

Didn’t hear much from Michael Moore in the run up to the recent mid-term elections. But he’s back now, reminding Democrats that they still control the Senate and the presidency and to stop acting like such sad sacks. Moore went on The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell yesterday to float a petition warning the Democrats to push an actual agenda in the next two years, instead of running to the center to save their asses.

Read more

Yesterday filmmaker Michael Moore tweeted that the DVD of his movie Capitalism: A Love Story was not being sold in Walmart stores, only online. Then he was sent photographs from people all over the country showing that Walmart was in fact carrying the DVD. Crowdsourcing! So the Walmart site was incorrect.

In a funny twist to this whole saga:
Moore released his last documentary Sicko online for free. So the movie not about the corruption of making money at any price – didn’t have a price.

Moore writes on his blog:

The fact that Wal-Mart is carrying this movie — a movie that specifically exposes Wal-Mart’s past practice of taking out secret “dead peasant” life insurance policies on its employees and naming itself as the lone beneficiary should the employee meet an “untimely” early death — well, my friends, need you any further proof that Corporate America is so secure in its position as the ruler of our country, so sure of its infallible power that, yes, they can even sell a movie that attacks them because it poses absolutely no threat to them?

Read more