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Post-Eisner, Disney Board Roars (Fortune)
Under a new contract clause, if Bob Iger stonewalls an investigation (like, say, former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg) or pleads the Fifth, the board can send him packing without his golden parachute. Radar: Michael Eisner is looking for a new day job.

Judy-Culpa a Hash (NYO)
As the paper rushed to cover its own crisis, editors did not know whether their own reporter would be on board. Miller agreed to cooperate and publish her own story only after considerable pressure by Bill Keller. AP via WaPo: Miller and Justice Department are at odds again. VV: At wounded Times, fallout from the Miller saga. Slate: Democrats should take no comfort in the Plame case, writes Jacob Weisberg

Court Has Its Fill of Times Hatfill Appeal (NYT)
A federal appeals court yesterday declined to reconsider a ruling that allowed a former Army bioterrorism expert to proceed with a defamation suit against The New York Times Company.

Ashton/Demi Sold as Sitcom (LAT)
The latest celebrity to spin his backstage life into a TV script, Kutcher has sold Fox an idea for a comedy series called 30-Year-Old Grandpa.

Two Times Reporters' War Reporting Under Fire (NY Sun)
Two Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, Judy Miller and William Laurence, are under scrutiny for their involvement in top-secret military missions that critics say compromised their reporting during a time of war.

Atoosa's Bonanza? (NYO)
Seventeen editor Atoosa Rubenstein appreciates the fact that young people will often resort to Machiavellian or downright appalling behavior when placed in a house full of video cameras. WWD: "The most compelling thing about the show is reasons they're eliminated," said Rubenstein. "There's a lot of fighting, there's a lot of gossiping. Sometimes you're just dying watching the house, because you can see them all turn on one girl."

Viacom Moves Up Split Date (Marketwatch)
Viacom Inc. now expects to complete its split into two public entities by the end of 2005, rather than by the end of the first quarter of 2006, as it had previously predicted.

AOL Popular Again? (WaPo)
Losing subscribers, the company has radically altered its personality, re-creating itself as a network of free Web sites with an audience of 112 million users that is second in size to only Yahoo.

Era of Omniscience Is Over (PressThink)
Andrew Heyward: The digital journalist, if he or she were being honest, would say something like "That's some of what we did our best to find out today."

60 Minutes of Ads for Philips (WSJ)
This week's edition of the CBS current-affairs program will run longer news segments as a result of a deal with Philips Electronics, which is paying about $2 million to be the sole national sponsor of the program.

Time Out (Folio:)
Dylan Stableford: Outgoing EIC Norman Pearlstine on his 11-year run at Time Inc., the controversy surrounding his decision to turn over notes in the Valerie Plame case and his corporate future.

Media Sociologist Leo Bogart Dead (NYT)
Dr. Bogart, who studied marketing, advertising and public opinion and wrote nearly a dozen books, argued that market forces should not be the sole determinant of media content.

CostCo Goes Glossy (NYP)
Costco is said to be close to a deal to begin selling magazines at its warehouse stores across the United States, according to several sources at the annual American Magazine Conference.

Peacock Goes Dark? (Page Six)
Struggling NBC has quietly turned to writer/director Paul Haggis, who was behind such dark dramas as Crash and Million Dollar Baby, to create a hard-boiled series called The Black Donnellys.

Media Make Crime Pay? (Grade the News)
John McManus: Like hyenas our intrepid news corps has converged near the East Bay mansion of celebrity attorney Daniel Horowitz, feeding on his fame and the bludgeoned body of his wife.

Dead On (CJR)
Paul McLeary: Since taking over the obit helm at the New York Sun, Steve Miller has carved out a place for himself as one of the nation's most talented—and iconoclastic—obituary writers.

Biographer Digging for Dirt on Cruise (NYDN)
Andrew Morton—who scaled the best-seller lists with books about Princess Diana, Madonna and Monica Lewinsky—is digging for fresh bits about the diminutive box-office Goliath.

John McCain's '08 Media Strategy (Marketwatch)
The Republican from Arizona widely considered to be a good bet to run for president in 2008, gave a glimpse of his strategy for winning over the media during the American Magazine Conference.

—David S. Hirschman

IN YESTERDAY'S MB BLOGS:

Network No Longer Outlandish [TVNewser]
From Brian Williams's blog: "Watching a handwriting analyst examine the signature of Harriett Miers on MSNBC as I write this reminds me: I was told recently that a prominent figure in Hollywood screened a copy of the film Network for a group of students, and was amazed at the LACK of reaction from the group.

Examiner Challenges the Sun [FishbowlDC]
The Sun's Nick Madigan seems to be spending a lot of his time these days writing about the challenges facing his own paper--never an easy position to be in. Today he writes up the announced arrival of Philip F. Anschutz's Examiner paper to the Baltimore region.

40 ASME-Kicking Covers [FishbowlNY]
Wow, they were busy in Puerto Rico! Not only were they busily squeezing the American Society of Magazine Editors advertising guidelines into an easy-to-skirt one-page document, they were also announcing the to 40 magazine covers of the past 40 years, creating quite a lot of press over an exercise that was essentially arbitrarily timed, though definitely fun.

Has anyone optioned the Judith Miller story yet? (And other media-movie synergy musings) [FishbowlLA]
Seriously, I think it would be a great vehicle for Diane Keaton. Paul Giamatti as Matt Cooper. Meanwhile, we have Encyclopedia Brown to look forward to, maybe.

Moody: It's a Good List [GalleyCat]
"I've got Halloween balls if anybody wants them," Rick Moody called out from behind the microphone at Housing Works Café last night, dangling an orange mesh bag filled with chocolate. He was there to read from his new novel, The Diviners (a.k.a. "the one that had its cover fixed"), after giving props to his co-star, Julia (Carnivore Diet) Slavin, and a shout-out to "America's greatest living short story writer," Amy Hempel, who was sitting in one of the back rows.

Dude, It's Just, Like, So Ambient In Here, You Know? [UnBeige]
Last night's activity calendar brought more of The OC and with it the
travails of a rolling-her-face-off Harbor student named Jess. Whose "omg Marissa you are soooo beautiful" put us in a totally reminiscing totally ambient mood. It seemed a-contextually nostalgic until, this morning, we found this MoCoLoCo interview with rock-lock designer Peter Saville about his new ambience.

Playing Around [mbToolbox]
So, you're a writer. And a really fine one, you have to admit. But you want to stretch your creative boundaries, and you think playwriting might be the next territory to explore. How to begin?