FishbowlLA Exclusive: Fishburne, Sheik Conjure The Alchemist on Film [FishbowlLA]
FishbowlLA has learned that a financing package is fast coming together for Laurence Fishburne's The Alchemist thanks to Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates.

Soft Skull Goes Pop [Galleycat]
Soft Skull Press has unveiled a new publishing venture with PopMatters, an indie site devoted to pop culture reviews and other feature stories. The PopMatters Books imprint will take the site's tradition of strong-voiced cultural criticism and apply it to the print medium.

Eisner: "An Almost Insatiable Curiosity" & An "Incessant Questioner" [TVNewser]
CNBC president Mark Hoffman approached Michael Eisner with the idea for "Conversations" after seeing the former Disney exec fill in for Charlie Rose on PBS one night last October, the AP says.

FOUND: Soduku-playing WH Correspondent [FishbowlDC]
Not only does the Washington Times' Joe Curl play Sudoku, he's also got some choice words for those WH correspondents who said a collective "Wha?" at the mere mention of the game...

How to Get Your Self-Published Print-on-Demand Book into Barnes & Noble [MBToolbox]
Having published a small book with a small press, I've had good and bad experiences doing so. Ups: getting the finished product, procuring a review from Booklist. Downs: lots and lots of legwork that can yield some, but not lots and lots of results. This is not to say that I'm not proud of what I did. But I probably won't do it again.

He's a man, baby! Actually, two of them: The secret identity of Noah Tall [FishbowlNY]
It's Literary Unmasking Week! Yesterday, JT Leroy; today, Noah Tall, the mysterious and shadowy author of Blink parody Blank: The Power of Not Actually Thinking At All, first brought to you a month ago by FishbowlNY.