Bravo! That was FishbowlLA’s immediate reaction when we read Movieline west coast editor Jen Yamato‘s account of a rip-roaring talk given this week at the Savannah Film Festival by Universal Pictures president and COO Ron Meyer.

It’s one thing to label Will Ferrell‘s Land of the Lost as “crap.” But it’s quite another for the former CAA partner to call out a marquee mess made by Comic-con darling Jon Favreau with help from James Bond and Indiana Jones. On Wednesday, Meyer nailed it:

“Forget all the smart people involved in Cowboys & Aliens, it wasn’t good enough. All those little creatures bouncing around were crappy. I think it was a mediocre movie, and we all did a mediocre job with it.”

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When UCLA law professor Adam Winkler first began to promote his new book, Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America, he spoke to a booking agent about appearing on television news programs.

“So which side are you on,” the agent asked, “far-right or far-left?” Winkler explained that neither he nor his book came down hard on either side of the gun debate, to which the agent replied incredulously, “Have you ever seen a TV news show?” Nuance, it seems, doesn’t get booked on FOX or MSNBC. So without an extremist stance, Winkler’s career as a talking head was over before it began.

This anecdote was shared with guests by the author at his book party in Beverly Hills Thursday night, held at the home of his parents, Irwin and Margo Winkler, and co-hosted by Arianna Huffington and Ron and Kelly Meyer. But the history of guns in America, Winkler explained, doesn’t correspond neatly with extreme ideologies.

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Thursday afternoon, The Daily Beast‘s Peter Lauria posted a very blunt, mightier-than-thou “Facebook Exclusive” take-down of a Claude Brodesser-Akner November 3rd item on New York Magazine’s Vulture blog. West coast editor Brodesser-Akner (pictured) had suggested after speaking to his sources that Universal President and COO Ron Meyer‘s days may be numbered now that Comcast is coming into the NBCUni kingdom.

Responded Lauria:

The lengthy post surmised that Meyer, the longest-tenured CEO in Hollywood, may be pushed out of Universal Studios by new owner Comcast once the takeover is complete. Too bad the story is a steaming pile of poo. According to three sources—all insiders at Comcast or Universal—Meyer’s position under the Comcast regime is secure…

The truth is that Comcast isn’t sure what to do with Universal right now. But sources say that until Comcast can dig into the business it would prefer to keep Universal’s executive team stable and give them a chance to prove themselves.

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Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

Universal Studios CEO Ron Meyer was standing with NBCU head Jeff Zucker, waiting for Zucker’s kids coming out of the Chocolate Foundry. Both were upbeat about the Sun Valley conference.

Meyer gave kudos to colleague Jeff Katzenberg, the DreamWorks partner who had a presentation on 3-D this morning.

“It was good,” Meyer said, “a great display of the technolgy.” Katzenberg gave a presentation about the uses of 3-D in film and TV and reportedly showed an “incredible” visual display of the possibilities.

Nike chairman Philip Knight was also exuberant about the display. “It’s where we’re headed. It’s the future,” he said.

Zucker, meanwhile, denied a newspaper report of NBC possibly unloading assets at the Sun Valley conference.

“No, there’s nothing like that,” Zucker said. “I’m just here watching.”

Former American Express chairman James Robinson III said he was only here out of a long-standing friendship with host Herb Allen.

But Robinson said that Katzenberg’s speech, like other technology-driven segments, was fascinating and will be of great use to companies like Amex and others. Robinson now runs RRE Ventsures, which deals in applied technology and its utilization.

Former Microsoft chair and founder Bill Gates unexpectedly showed up last night was hovering around the morning presentations. Asked if he had any comment on the pending Microsoft/Yahoo! discussions, he said: “No thank you. No.”

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

As studio chairmen and agency heads all attempt to escape the jowls of Hollywood and its labor problems, the Screen Actors Guild has a bright marketing executive. SAG bought an full-page ad in the local paper for Sun Valley, the Idaho Mountain Express, that said simply: “We Want a Deal.”

It was aimed at the studio heads up here, including Universal’s Ron Meyer, DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg, Sony’s Sir Howard Stringer, Disney’s Robert Iger and agency senior executives like ICM’s Jeff Berg, CAA’s Richard Lovett and Bryan Lourd, UTA’s Jim Berkus and William Morris Agency’s Jim Wiatt.

Unfortunately for SAG, as Sony chairman Stringer told mediabistro: “Unfortunately for the Screen Actors Guild, we don’t see that newspaper up here. It’s not delivered to us.”

Also seen in the valley: IAC chairman and CEO Barry Diller who had to stop riding his bike after almost running into Wendi Deng, wife to billionaire media mogul Rupert.

“Where are you going, Wendi,” Diller asks.
“I’m going to get some Yoga pants,” she replies.
“What are yogurt pants?” Diller persists.
“No, yoga pants, you know to do yoga in.”
“Yogurt pants?”

Hubby Rupert was later cornered by an AP reporter who asked about the markets. Murdoch’s simple yet eloquent reply: “I’m a bear.”

Dan Cox, on special assignment for FishbowlLA, covering the 2008 Sun Valley Media Conference.

As Hollywood mavens drifted into Sun Valley, a few were eager to talk.

Universal Studios COO and President Ron Meyer, asked whether Hollywood was making too many movies, said: “I’m part of that Hollywood, so I’d be criticizing myself.”

Meyer, a regular at Sun Valley, said he’s just staying for a couple of days this time. While holding court before about a dozen reporters and photographers, Meyer smiled when CAA agents Bryan Lourd and Richard Lovett complained that he was blocking there way as they exited the Sun Valley Lodge driveway.

“Ronnie, get out of the way,” Lourd yelled.

Asked for a comment himself, Lourd said: “Why would you ever want to talk to me? There are much more important people here.”

Lourd is one of a handful of Hollywood agents, including William Morris Agency’s Jim Wiatt, United Talent Agency’s Jim Berkus and ICM agent Jeff Berg.

Wiatt was the first to introduce former Viacom chief Tom Freston to the assembled media. “We rode in on the plane together,” Wiatt said.

• In the strange bedfellows department, the New York Times and the New York Post, always bitter enemies in the news arena, ended up splitting the cost of a Sun Valley Lodge suite for Times reporter Tim Arango and his girlfriend, Post photographer Victoria Will. The couple, who ironically met at Sun Valley four years ago, have been dating ever since.

A Little Welcome Wagon: Tom Cruise and Will Smith will team up to throw the Beckhams a welcome-to-LA bash on Sunday for 600 of their closest friends, including Oprah Winfrey, George Clooney, Jim Carrey, Anjelica Huston, Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Brian Grazer, Warner Bros. President Alan Horn and Universal Pictures chief Ron Meyer. And other neighbors.

Emmy Noms Are In: And Ugly Betty is sitting pretty with 11 nods. The Envelope has more.

What’s Gotten Into Those Clowns? Has LAT replaced its copy editors with the creators of Bum Fights? Story after story about Michael Vick’s indictment on graphic allegations of animal cruelty, is preceded with astoundingly inappropriate pun-ny headlines. Including, from the site’s homepage: “A Dog-gone Mess.” Seriously?

Parties, parties, parties–and the Motion Picture and Television Fund rakes in the cash, funding the industry’s foremost resource for help and care–Taking Care of Our Own is their motto.

Martin Scorsese will direct Brian Selznick’s children’s mystery The Invention of Hugo Cabret. He’s also slated to direct Silence, about two 17th century Jesuit priests who witness the hardships of spreading Christianity in Japan. Light-hearted entertainment–that’s Marty!

Yahoo! is launching Odd News Underground, with a singing anchor. Lloyd Braun and David Katz left just in time.

Rev. Jesse Jackson met with Universal Studios president Ron Meyer to urge increased industry diversity. He’s also concerned about the Academy:

The Academy needs to reflect America itself, and this is an archaic arrangement.

Surely the Academy should reflect a better-looking America?