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Hollywood Glams Up 'Judith Miller Movie' (WaPo)
In the movie Judith Miller is no longer Judith Miller of The New York Times, but Rachel Armstrong of the "Washington Capital Sun." And while the real Judith Miller may be remembered as a stylish, slightly scary reporter of 59, headed off to jail in a quilted black jacket and tortoise-frame sunglasses, in the movie she is a sizzling Kate Beckinsale, 34, dressed in a, shall we say, form-fitting skirt.

Microsoft Buys Stake in Facebook (NYT)
Microsoft has won a high-profile technology industry battle with Google and Yahoo to invest in the social networking upstart Facebook. The two companies said on Wednesday that Microsoft would pay $240 million for a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook. The investment values Facebook, which is three and a half years old and will bring in about $150 million in revenue this year, at $15 billion. LAT: The investment should make it easier for Facebook to recruit staff, buy smaller companies, or sell shares to the public.

Baghdad Diarist Was on Guard When Questioned by Editors (WaPo)
The soldier, whose New Republic article about military cruelty in Iraq was labeled false by Army investigators, refused to defend his accusations when questioned by the magazine, even after being told that the editors could no longer support him unless he cooperated. The writer, Pvt. Scott Thomas Beauchamp, said that the controversy had "spun out of control" and had become "insane."

Woodruff Recovering From Injury, Returning to TV, Speaking for the Wounded (NYT)
While ABC's Bob Woodruff is not yet comfortable reporting live — he still struggles to find the right word at times, or he substitutes one (like syllable) when he means another (synonym) — he has traveled an unimaginable distance from those dark, early days last year, when he would look at a picture of scissors and be unable to say what it was.

Portfolio.com ME Chris Jones Resigns (FBNY)
A well-placed source informed FishbowlNY today that Condé Nast Portfolio managing editor Christopher Jones is leaving the magazine. Jones, the former programming director of Yahoo! Finance and editorial director of About.com, was responsible for managing Portfolio.com's online staff. WWD: Still, more changes may be afoot: high-level discussion is said to be under way about divesting Lipman of oversight of the Web site.

Maria Shriver Won't Return to NBC News (AP via USAT)
Maria Shriver said she won't resume her TV news career and the late Anna Nicole Smith is the reason why. Shriver said the media circus surrounding Smith's accidental drug overdose death last February led to her decision. "It was then that I knew that the TV news business had changed and so had I," Shriver said. "I called NBC News and told them I'm not coming back."

Old School Thinking Flunks With Disney's Iger (Hollywood Reporter)
In a wide-ranging presentation Wednesday, Robert Iger said the best way to fight digital piracy is to go on the offensive and that big media companies are undervalued on Wall Street. The Disney CEO even took time to swipe at the Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety.

Strike!: The Writers Want It, the Moguls Want It ... What a Bunch of Idiots (LA Weekly)
Nikki Finke: Every three years, the writers and producers who occupy the same pen known as Hollywood act like monkeys flinging their feces against the walls. Both sides make menacing noises to indicate they're going to bite the hands that feed them. They don't care that the last WGA strike, in 1988, dragged on for 22 weeks and dragged down the industry by a half-billion bucks.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum Gets Philly Inky Column (E&P)
A press conference was held at 1:30 this afternoon at the Philadelphia Inquirer to announce that it has added former Sen. Rick Santorum to its stable of columnists. Also hired is George Curry, the former editor of Emerge. They will alternate the weekly Thursday spot. Santorium's column will be called "The Elephant in the Room." He said it would not focus that much on politics.

Tribune Profit Falls Less Than Expected (Bloomberg via LAT)
The Tribune Co. reported third-quarter profit that fell less than analysts estimated, easing investor concern that Sam Zell will have trouble financing an $8.2 billion buyout of the media company that publishes the Los Angeles Times. Tribune shares rose after the company said profit excluding some items was 38 cents a share, beating the 26-cent average of analysts' estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Chauncey Bailey Project Unites Bay Area Media — Except the Chronicle and the Express (SF Weekly)
The project, named for the Oakland Post editor shot on Aug. 2, comprises an impressive array of talent joining forces to investigate the circumstances around Bailey's killing. But the spirit of collaboration has been sullied somewhat by the refusal of the region's biggest daily to participate, and also by the failure of project organizers to invite a local newsweekly that was first to investigate the group Bailey was writing about. SFBG: The latest from the Chauncey Bailey Project.

Dr. Phil Spinoff Clears Half of U.S. (TV Week)
Upcoming CBS Television Distribution series and Dr. Phil spinoff The Doctors has cleared half the country, including all of the top 10 markets and 18 of the top 20. The series, to launch in fall 2008, has snagged deals with stations owned by CBS, Gannett, Cox, Scripps Howard, Belo, and Post-Newsweek, among others.

TasteBook Launches With Lots of Help From Condé Nast (TechCrunch)
TasteBook is a service that lets users take their favorite recipes from partner sites (starting with Epicurious) and create printed cookbooks that are delivered to them and/or friends. Users can add their own recipes as well and customize the book with their name and other information. A book with 100 recipes costs $35.

From Old to New Media: Blog Begets Publishing House (Wired)
Against market trends, Dzanc Books is a small publisher poised to succeed, hiring staff and expanding quickly. And that may be because it sprouted from a blog rather than a traditional printing press. Since its launch in 2006, Dzanc Books has acquired other presses, signed numerous authors, launched an education program, and started an award to encourage writers to undertake community literacy projects.

Media's Wartime Complicity (Salon)
Sidney Blumenthal: In an atmosphere rife with intimidation, key reporters and editorial writers for major newspapers also became cheerleaders for the neoconservative project. In the case of the Times, editors' avid desire for scoops initially overwhelmed all else — and put the newspaper in the forefront in publishing falsehoods, on its front page, about Iraq's supposed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.