SUNDAY UPDATE: Sony's animated kiddie fare Open Season kicked butt this weekend for No. 1. It was an embarrassing loss for Ashton Kutcher and Kevin Costner despite Disney's heavy promotion of their Coast Guard action/adventure The Guardian. (So what did we learn? That Costner's career is definitely toast, while Kutcher's appeal is limited.) Opening in 3,833 theaters, Sony's "when the hunted become the hunters", starring a domesticated grizzly bear and a scrawny mule deer, earned $23 million this weekend thanks to an expected rug rats' Saturday bump. It was Sony's 11th No. 1 opening this year, and Sony's 10th film of the year to open to more than $20M -- a gargantuan feat of marketing muscle. By contrast, The Guardian, in 3,241 theaters, made only $17.8 million its debut weekend. The two movies sucked the life out of the rest of this weekend's box office. The third-place movie, Jackass 2, took in $14 mil for a $51.4 cume. Meanwhile, the AP reported that a small-town Illinois theater owner shut down for two weeks rather than show Jackass 2 or other new releases that he calls "drivel." The Lorraine Theatre in downtown Hoopeston reopened Friday showing Disney's football biopic Invincible. The owner said he'll shut down again if faced with a similar batch of films, even though contractual issues with the studios -- such as guarantees on first-week receipts -- sometimes limit his options. "I just didn't think I should use my high-quality facilities to show people vomiting on screen," he noted. No. 4 was The Weinstein Co/MGM's School for Scoundrels, which opened in 3,004 theaters for an anemic $8.5 mil weekend. (Remember when star Billy Bob Thornton used to appear in important pics instead of teen drivel?) Finally, in fifth place, holdover Jet Li's Fearless from Rogue/Focus Pictures added $4.8 mil for a $17.9 mil cume.

My latest  column, Baquet's Billionaire Boys' Club, examines whether the Los Angeles Times editor, "Dean of Arc", is playing a dangerous game with the newspaper's integrity. Here's how it begins:

"Not long after Dean Baquet became editor of the Los Angeles Times, influential entertainment mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg sought a meet-and-greet. It was during this lunch that Katzenberg purposefully let slip big news: His DreamWorks partner David Geffen really wanted to buy the newspaper. Baquet was shocked. “How’s he going to feel the first time we review a movie or music produced by a friend of his?” Baquet asked. Katzenberg just laughed. That was a year ago, and, since then, Geffen’s pursuit of the Tribune Co.’s troubled outpost not only hasn’t flagged, it has fired up, and not just because the paper’s 20 percent profit margin is so much better than the 6 percent earned on bonds. I’m told he’s “very serious” and “pretty confident” about purchasing it someday soon. “He believes that he’s going to be the owner,” an insider explains. That, even though there’s a growing list of fat-cat Angelenos lining up, including Eli Broad and Ron Burkle. But anyone familiar with Hollywood knows how relentless Geffen can be: What David wants, David gets. Says another source: “He has never stopped doing anything until he’s done.” ... Baquet, meanwhile, has never met Geffen. “But if David Geffen called me up tomorrow and said, ‘I want to have lunch,’ I’d probably have lunch with him,” Baquet was overheard saying. “After all, I’m the editor of the L.A. Times.” That’s exactly why this is all such an ethical dilemma, too.

...The Times’ most pressing problem isn’t whether Geffen or someone else buys it, or Tribune sells it, or Baquet gets fired. Instead, the widespread media coverage has ignored the dangerous game being played with the paper’s integrity between this billionaire boys’ club and Baquet or his surrogates behind closed doors. I’ve even looked into accusations that the Times buried an investigation into one of the potential buyers. It’s all so unseemly: There, in August, was the Times’ own West magazine’s Power Issue giving high placement to every past and present rich guy who’s ever expressed interest in owning the paper: Eli Broad (No. 2, fortune valued at $5.6 billion, photo right), Philip Anschutz (No. 6, $6.4 billion), Haim Saban (No. 10, $3.1 billion), Ron Burkle (“who just missed our Top 10,” $2.5 billion), David Geffen (“another enormous name who barely fell out of our Top 10 list,” $4.6 billion) and even Peter Ueberroth (the poorest of the bunch, worth only $50 million). To top it off, Baquet’s name was included on that exclusive roster, thus giving the disturbing impression that he’s playing on their polo field. Yet it’s a fact that he’s hanging with them at their exclusive business clubs...

...Even more troubling has been what are described to me as ongoing “secret” talks between rich-and-powerful Angelenos and one of Baquet’s two handpicked managing editors, Leo Wolinsky. True, his duties include the thankless task of outreach to the readership to stop the newspaper’s circulation nosedive. But I’m told that Wolinsky increasingly has acted as Baquet’s surrogate to drum up local support for a local buyer of the Times. That was certainly the deliberate topic of Wolinsky’s recent meeting with Richard Riordan, the ex-mayor (worth $100 million), who has expressed interest over the years in owning an L.A. newspaper (not just the Times, but even one started from scratch that never got off the ground). Yet here’s Riordan being quoted prominently, and often, in the Times’ own accounts of the Showdown on Spring Street: “It would be in the best interests of Tribune and the best interests of Los Angeles if a sale was completed.” The Times’ newsroom is abuzz with other boldface names supposedly being courted by Wolinsky, including many who signed that letter of protest. But Wolinsky himself refused to confirm or deny or even discuss the meetings with me. Not only is it strange that while Baquet is making such a big deal about recusing himself from such discussions, Wolinsky isn’t. But also it’s bizarre that they’re both so blind to the obvious need for transparency here. Wolinsky has been overheard saying there’s no reason for him to “put up a red flag” when his conversations turn toward the Times’ purchase. But my info shows that he’s the one playing Twister....

...Inside and outside the paper, Baquet has been renamed Dean of Arc, and he’s clearly enjoying the meaning behind that moniker as well as his newly national reputation for standing up against editorial cuts. Even if it’s only partially true that he and his surrogates are playing a tawdry game of footsie with the power elite in Los Angeles, then he’s putting himself and the paper in the terrible position of owing favors to the most thin-skinned men on Earth. A lot of people in the Times newsroom don’t want to believe it. They think Baquet and his cause are righteous. But even if innocent in this matter, he’s laid himself open to criticism anytime a billionaire on that list of past or present would-be buyers gets a break from the Times. Case in point: A Times investigation of grocery magnate and gossip magnet Ron Burkle that began in April, shortly after his involvement in that Page Six scandal became known. (The feds were brought in when Burkle -- left corner photo above -- accused print gossip Jared Paul Stern of trying to shake him down. No charges have yet been filed.) It ended up back-burnered — coincidentally? — after Burkle’s name surfaced as one of the paper’s billionaire suitors. I’ve obtained some of the e-mail exchanges between the staff writer, veteran investigative reporter Ted Rohrlich, and one of his sources... Read column

Previous: Top LAT Editors Loyal To Baquet Have A 'Suicide Pact', David Geffen/LA Times Update,

Don't get me wrong: I like this show. But the primary problem with NBC's expensive but struggling Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip isn't the Aaron Sorkin (right) inside-the-bubble flourishes, or the smarty-pants staccato scripts, or the high-priced/high-profile cast. It's the truly awful scheduling. Granted, ABC last spring threw that monkey wrench into NBC's plans to air Studio 60 on Thursday nights when Grey's Anatomy was moved there (instead of Monday nights). But Monday nights are a lousy time slot for Studio 60 when Sunday night at 10 pm would have been so right. After all, Grey's Anatomy premiered on March 27, 2005, in the same Sunday slot, and that was a winning strategy. So I don't understand why NBC didn't wait to debut Studio 60 in mid-season after football ended. As it stands now, ESPN's Monday Night Football is eating into its audience. And it can't move to Sunday until it can replace NBC Sunday Night Football. Of course, others might argue that Studio 60's woes go deeper than scheduling, since during premiere week too many Deal Or No Deal viewers turned off the new series within 30 minutes. But it's obvious that Deal and Studio 60 attract very different demos and a game show was the wrong lead-in. Its first week out, Studio 60 wasn't even in the Nielsen Top 20, and its second episode following lead-in Heroes attracted even fewer eyeballs. Now NBC is in a quandary: If Studio 60 gets moved to Sunday nights or even stays Monday nights and continues airing shows in order, then newcomers will feel lost. And if the network repeats those earlier shows, then existing fans will get bored. It's a dilemma I can't help but think 'King O' The Grids' scheduling guru Preston Beckman would never have let NBC confront. 

I've written before in LA Weekly about Beckman. There's no more controversial executive occupying a corporate network job than this guy who brought his "kill and win" style of guerrilla scheduling from NBC to Fox Broadcasting in June 2000 as executive vice president for strategic program planning and research. His so-called genius (only in the lunacy of network television does doing so little often mean so much) was to construct a midseason schedule that spread American Idol and Joe Millionaire over Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to put some heat behind the network's scripted shows. Idol jump-started That '70s Show and Bernie Mac and 24 while Joe helped ignite Boston Public. The result was that, including the Sunday-night success The Simpsons, Fox solidly won four nights. And that's when NBC's nightmares began, falling eventually to 4th place. Conan O'Brien fans may recognize Beckman's name from his Late Night comedy bits. The Parents Television Council says Beckman singlehandedly dismantled the 8 p.m. "Family Hour" by scheduling adult series like Friends and Mad About You in the sacrosanct time slot. And Just Shoot Me! viewers should recall a former mental patient named Preston Beckman in the 1997 "My Dinner With Woody" episode -- which was executive producer Steven Levitan's way of getting back at the NBC scheduling guru for not just hating the show's pilot but also giving it the Wednesday, 9:30 p.m. time slot, which was then NBC's equivalent of dead air.

But was Bob Wright (right) outFoxed? Beckman was former NBC entertainment president Warren Littlefield's Mini-Me (although some saw it as the other way around, saying Beckman talked Littlefield into that one-time disastrous schedule of 18 sitcoms over four nights). Both red-headed, both bearded, both "not one of those TV guys" (that is, Les Moonves, Ted Harbert and Jon Feltheimer who played golf together at the Riviera), they were an inseparable team. Until the day they talked themselves into thinking they could actually replace then NBC West Coast head Don Ohlmeyer. Littlefield was pushed out not long after the attempted palace coup. Ohlmeyer, too, left. Replacement Scott Sassa, asked by a friend how long before Beckman would be fired, said, 'Even I have to have my assholes.'" Beckman left NBC when his contract ran out in June 2000. Some say he was pushed before he jumped. But it's sure looking like a mistake to lose him now that, year after year, NBC's primetime fortunes have sunk lower and lower.

This afternoon, the jury in the Joann Wiggan perjury trial returned verdicts acquitting the former SBC phone employee of four of the five counts. The jury split 6-6 on the third count, and U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer declared a mistrial on that count. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel A. Saunders issued this statement through a spokesman: "We are disappointed by the verdict, but of course we accept the jury's decision. We will consider the evidence related to the unresolved count and will decide in the next few days whether to proceed with the case." The feds emphasized that the loss of this case has no bearing on the upcoming racketeering and wiretapping trial February 13th against celebrity P.I. thug Anthony Pellicano and others. "The charges against Ms. Wiggan are completely different from those contained in the separate indictment against Anthony Pellicano," Saunders said. "Today's verdict does not impact the prosecution or the ongoing investigation of Mr. Pellicano and his associates."

The verdict comes after Wiggan testified that she did not intentionally lie to a federal grand jury about having contact with a phone company colleague who's now under indictment for allegedly providing confidential information to Pellicano. The prosecution related to a five-count indictment of Wiggan last February stemming from her grand jury testimony about her contact with SBC field technician Rayford Turner, who's charged with helping Pellicano place wiretaps. Turner has been indicted with Pellicano on racketeering and wiretapping charges for illegally obtaining confidential SBC customer information.. Two former SBC employees, Teresa Wright and Michele Malkin, have admitted improperly providing confidential SBC information to Turner. But Wiggan has not been charged in the Pellicano wiretapping investigation. Still, SBC fired her after the perjury allegations surfaced. She insisted in court last week that she forgot about accessing her company voice mail or talking to Turner. According to Drew Combs of the Los Angeles Daily Journal, this trial "has included a parade of telephone company employees and FBI special agents and has provided a glimpse into the government's case against Pellicano."

Previous: Pellicano Wiretap Scandal Update: Phone Employee's Perjury Trial

I've learned that both Time and Newsweek want to put Mel Gibson's Apocalpto on their covers timed to its Dec. 8th opening. This happened with Gibson's The Passion of the Christ: Newsweek made it the cover before the film's release, and Time after the movie was in theaters. It's quite a coup for any Hollywood pic to make the covers of both newsmagazines. "There are a lot of media offers on the table competing for this movie," an insider told me. This may happen without any actual interview of Gibson, too. Any interview would be problematic for Mel's publicity push since it would necessarily dwell on Gibson's alcoholism relapse and drunken rantings against Jews. Because of that, it's still up in the air if there'll be a big network (or even cable) TV one-on-one. But the real issue, now that the Disney movie is starting to garner raves from its sneak screenings, is whether Oscar voters can, or will, judge Mel's film fairly. Members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are known to hold grudges for a myriad reasons, and Gibson's anti-Semitic remarks over the summer provide ample fuel. Then again, the voters are supposed to judge the merits of the film and not the man behind it. The question is: can that be possible? I certainly don't have an answer yet since it's too early in the process -- most voters won't even start seeing the film until December -- but I can look to the past. After all, they ignored Gibson's Passion for the big noms (Best Actor, Best Director, Best Picture) because of the anti-Semitic overtones some saw in its portrayal of the events surrounding the death of Jesus. And, last year, I reported that hetero Oscar voters were unwilling to screen Brokeback Mountain because of their own anti-gay prejudices. But Mel's film is becoming known as the 'Mexican Braveheart' -- and everyone knows Braveheart won a ton of Oscars. What is interesting, also, is how Gibson seems to be positioning Apocalypto: the Hollywood Reporter, which had a stringer in Austin, noted that at one weekend screening Gibson drew a parallel between the Mayan civilization on the brink of collapse and America. "What's human sacrifice," he asked, "if not sending guys off to Iraq for no reason?" (Gibson has been increasingly critical of the Bush administration over the war.) Meanwhile, I'm told that Gibson's alcoholism rehab is going well. 

Following up on the Sept. 15th release of the movie's first trailer, Gibson went to the Southwest this weekend to personally host sneak screenings of his forthcoming Apocalypto to Native-American groups in Oklahoma and Texas (as well as to Ain't-It-Cool-News.com's Harry Knowles in Austin). First, Gibson went to Oklahoma, because I'm told that's where the Native-American lead of his film hails from. Rudy Youngblood, the newcomer who plays Jaguar Paw, is a Comanche-Cree-Yaqui Indian who lived near Ada, Ok., before moving to Los Angeles last year to try his hand at acting. Four months later, he was cast by Gibson in Apocalypto's lead role. (I'm told that, as part of Youngblood's audition, he had to run around the conference room where Gibson was casting -- because the last part of the movie is an edge-of-your-seat foot chase through the rain forest.) "Mel was supporting his lead actor. This was a bigger thing going on than the movie," an insider told me. So Gibson travelled to Goldsby, OK, on Friday for screenings for several dozen people, mostly American Indian, including officials of the Chickasaw Nations Industry. Some screenings were held at the Riverwind Casino south of Norman, OK, and some at Cameron University in Lawton, OK. Gibson wore a mask and wig to enter the campus building without being noticed. According to media reports, the action/adventure thriller set in the last days of the Mayan civilization in Mexico, was well received in Oklahoma.

So, too, in Austin, Texas, where the film was presented Saturday as part of Fantastic Fest 2006 with Gibson and Youngblood in attendance. Just prior to that, Gibson held a private screening for Harry Knowles and for the Native American Pow Wow Association of Austin. Though not quite finished -- some visual effects and sound design aren't in place -- Apocalypto is "a film of immense power [that] unfolds unflinchingly," Knowles reviews. "The Native Americans gathered at this screening seemed to love it. What I saw today was a very rough jewel, when I see it again, I trust I will see an immaculate jewel. This could very well be the best film Mel has made when he's done with it." The film received a standing ovation from the Fantastic Fest audience. In a Q-and-A after the private screening, one member of the native American audience asked Gibson if the movie was saying that the decay of the Mayan empire was solely from within (rather than from the influence of European invaders). Gibson replied that he has always felt that the seeds for different civilizations' demise always start from within, as a healthy society can repel any foreign invader. "He does see the film as a metaphor for where we are today," Knowles posted.

Again, moviegoers sought mindless entertainment as Johnny Knoxville's stupid stunt pic Jackass Number Two delivered a knockout punch at the box office for No. 1. The flick took in a bruising $11.9 million Friday and $10 million Saturday at 3,059 theaters Friday for what was a huge $29.2 million opening weekend. Hit-starved Paramount brass will be thrilled, although the idea for turning the MTV series into a movie pre-dates current management of the studio. Jet Li's martial arts Fearless limped into No. 2 by comparison for Rogue/Focus Pictures, opening in 1,806 theaters Friday with only $3.6 mil Friday and $4.2 mil Saturday for what was a $10.8 mil weekend. Sony's Gridiron Gang, starring The Rock, came in #3 its second weekend out, earning $2.9 mil Friday and $4.3 mil Saturday for what was an additional $9.7 mil to its cume of $27.2 mil to date. Electric Entertainment/MGM's Flyboys seemed an exact replica of the old pic Memphis Belle -- and it failed to fly with moviegoers now as in 1990; the No. 4 James Franco starrer was grounded with a $1.8 mil opening Friday and $2.4 mil Saturday for what was only a $5.5 mil weekend. Another holdover, Universal's The Black Dahlia, finished in 5th place with only $1.3 mil Friday and $1.9 mil Saturday, so it will probably add only another $4.5 mil to its cume of $17.3 mil to date. Among other movies opening this weekend, Sony's remake of All the King's Men starring Sean Penn (who's becoming known as box office poison) and Anthony Hopkins, was a flop. It finished #6 by eking out only $1.2 million Friday and $1.5 mil in 1,514 theaters for what should be a feeble $3.8 mil total. One problem was the studio's decision not to use the film's New Orleans setting in the pic's trailers out of fear it would be seen, sources told me, as exploiting the post-Katrina news value of the city. Fortunately for Sony, it had a financial partner on the film, which limits its exposure, and received production incentives from filming in Lousiana pre-Katrina. (All weekend figures include Sunday estimates.) 

The Tribune Co., which has an all-important board meeting today where the crisis at its Los Angeles Times will be front and center, may have a bigger problem than even the corporate owners realize with the paper's top editorial management. I'm told there's even a name for it inside the LA Times newsroom -- "The Suicide Pact" -- and it involves the highest-ranking editors. I've learned from insiders that, if Dean Baquet gets fired as editor and executive vice president by his Chicago bosses, then his trusted senior lieutenants have agreed to quit on the spot: Doug Frantz, Leo Wolinsky, and John Montorio.

All three men were promoted by Baquet in October 2005, so they must feel that they owe him this rather extreme display of their loyalty. Frantz had been the paper's Istanbul bureau chief, and then was made managing editor along with Wolinsky, upped from deputy managing editor. They replaced Baquet, who had held the managing editor title before ascending to editor when John Carroll quarrelled with Tribune management and exited the paper. Wolinsky, an LAT veteran since 1977, was given more responsibility first by Carroll and then successor Baquet. Features czar Montorio was promoted from deputy managing editor to associate editor. 

At the time, Baquet was quoted as saying this about Frantz and Wolinsky sharing the No. 2 job: "I wanted an aggressive way to address the issue of declining readership, to have someone focus on it. And I wanted someone to run the newsroom day to day. For a newspaper of our scope and complexity, this would be enough work for more than one person." Here's how the LAT itself has described what the three guys do: Frantz has been overseeing the paper's major news operations, including coverage of foreign, national, California, business, sports and science news. Wolinsky continued to run the paper's front-page operation and assumes responsibility for efforts to attract more readers and gain circulation. His job description entailed working with the entire LAT organization to expand readership and oversee newsroom resources, including staffing and budgeting. As for Montorio, he was given the additional charge of a variety of special news projects, including the development of more profiles in the main news section and improved coverage of trends. All three editors report to Baquet. Frantz, 57, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of several books, worked as a LAT staff writer during the late 1980s and early 1990s before leaving for The New York Times, where he held several positions including investigations editor and reporter. Frantz returned to the LAT in early 2003. Wolinsky, 57, joined the LAT as a staff writer and has held several editing positions, including executive editor, managing editor of news and deputy managing editor. During the 1990s, Wolinsky headed the Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Los Angeles riots and the Northridge earthquake. Montorio, 58, followed Baquet to the LAT in 2001 after 15 years at the NYT, and has launched the LAT's Home and Outdoors sections and overhauled the Calendar, Food and Health sections.

The latest news from LAT vs Tribune frontlines (see LAObserved.com updates) is that LAT publisher Jeff Johnson just returned from Chicago claiming he had reached "an understanding" with Tribune bosses, including a commitment to strong journalism and other blather no underlings at the paper really believe. Like all newsrooms, wry cracks behind the backs of the Suicide Pacters have begun to spread among the LAT worker-bee journalists, along the lines of: Hey, if Baquet does get fired, how many of the three editors under him really need replacing?

See my July 2005  column: Baquet Begins

My latest  column, Cash and Carrey, explores the Entourage-like exploits behind-the-scenes of what was once known as Team Carrey: actor Jim Carrey, his managers Gold/Miller, and his agent, UTA's Nick Stevens, in even more detail, with more surprises, than I've previously reported here. Oy vey. But it's a fascinating look inside the frantic phone calls, fractured relationships and film fortunes of showbiz, if I say so myself. As I had anticipated, after firing Stevens, Carrey did indeed take meetings with Endeavor (because partner Ari Emanuel is tight with Jimmy Miller, and gave Sacha Baron Cohen to him) and CAA (which exclusively reps Eric Gold as a movie producer and reps most of Miller's clients). As I predicted, Carrey has gone to CAA. UPDATE: *Carrey called in to CAA's Wednesday AM motion picture staff meeting and was put on speakerphone. Naturally, all the agents went orgasmic -- uh, make that, showed as much emotion as bloodless robotic clones are capable of.* Here's an excerpt from the new column:

"Carrey once rewarded his team with spankin’ new Porsche 911 Carrera convertibles. But on September 13, Carrey phoned Stevens and said, “I’ve never met with another agency. But I’m feeling like it’s time.” The two haven’t talked since. The next day, Stevens had that Porsche towed and sold. “I could never sit in it again after that,” the agent was overheard to say. The shocking and unexpected firing of the top agent by the top actor left Hollywood agog. Naturally, none of this “he said/they said” badmouthing behind the scenes has surfaced in the trades, because that’s how Hollywood works: The media rarely know about such disputes, much less report them. And the principals won’t talk to journalists publicly about any of this. But I’ve dug deep for details, first on DeadlineHollywoodDaily.com and now in L.A. Weekly, because they’re juicier than any episode of Entourage. I found out Carrey’s managers claim that Stevens wasn’t cutting it as a rep anymore, had become distracted by a summer home in Martha’s Vineyard and golf rounds at L.A.’s Riviera Country Club, and was “rageful and resentful,” alienating not just them but the star. I also learned that Stevens accuses the managers of a cash-and-Carrey conflict of interest by “manipulating” the comic’s exit from UTA in order to further their own, now separate, producing careers at another agency they think will put their financial interests ahead of their star’s. Jeez, the parallels to HBO’s Entourage are startling, since Season 3 ended with Vince firing Ari. But real-life Hollywood is even more blood-and-guts than any of the agent and manager characters (and caricatures) on that show... Read the full column here

FYI, I checked with the Southern California Golf Association where handicap players record each of their rounds. Nick Stevens was playing only about once a month all year. And, irony of ironies, Eric Gold was playing a lot more than that in 2005 (but hardly at all in 2006 because of personal reasons). So go figure. 

Previous: Jim Carrey Fires Long-Time UTA and Long-Loyal Nick Stevens   

UPDATE: *A day after my original posting, the Los Angeles Times internal memo making the announcement finally went out today.* It's not been announced yet, but I'm told the Los Angeles Times did select its replacement for Amy Wallace, the talented Deputy Business Editor in charge of entertainment/Big Media/technology industry coverage who jumped to Conde Nast's just started Portfolio biz magazine. Drumroll, please: It's Sallie Hofmeister, the paper's long-time business reporter who's had her share of TV, cable and satellite industry scoops over the years. Actually, I'm told she's been doing the job since mid-July. So why no announcement? She became an assistant business editor in April, and before joining the LAT, was an editor at The New York Times, "where she improved the copy of a host of reporters including some
guy named Baquet," said today's memo from Business Editor Russ Stanton. Before that, she was a staff writer at Venture magazine and a 1980 graduate of Kansas State University. (No "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" jokes, puh-leeze!) And since memos like this are not complete with some huh? comment, Stanton adds that her attributes "are exceeded only by her arsenal of fashionable glasses and spiffy shoes." OK, Hollywood, the sucking-up starts now! 

OK, so now we know what ex-studio moguls do: they blog on HuffPo. If Sherry Lansing's doing it, can ousted Viacomer Tom Freston be far behind? Sherry opines about turning 60. But there are some interesting Hollywood revelations as well. "I've always had this great fear that time would run out and life would have passed me by. I realized that I didn't want to die at my desk. I wanted to do something else and began to wonder: Am I defined by my job and if so, what kind of a person am I? Is this really what I want to say with my life? Of course, I loved the movies and the movie business. I ran Fox for over three and a half years, produced movies for ten years, and then ran Paramount Pictures for over twelve years. I loved my job, but at a certain point it became repetitive. The highs weren't as high, and the lows weren't as low. So I asked myself: What is it that really gives me pleasure? The answer is giving back." She claims she "retired" from the entertainment business and committed herself to a career in philanthropy. In 2005, she formed The Sherry Lansing Foundation dedicated to cancer research and education. She serves on the board of the Jimmy Carter Center and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which disburses $3 billion in funds for stem cell research. She's a regent of the University of California and chair of its Health Services Committee. With a partner, Civic Ventures, she's starting a movement, Primetime, for those sixty and older to retire and give something back to the community. "The funny thing is that I'm busier than I've ever been. I honestly can tell you that this is the happiest time of my life. It doesn't take anything away from what I was before; I still love movies, I still love my old friends. But now I have so many new friends, and I'm constantly learning new things. The big difference is that I control my own days and set my own agenda; I don't do anything that I don't want to." Turns out Sherry's blogging is an excerpt from Arianna Huffington's new book, On Becoming Fearless.

In case you didn't know: This photo shows the new Hannibal Lecter. Thomas Harris' just-delivered prequel, "Hannibal Rising", is coming to bookstores Dec. 5. The author also penned the screenplay for the hush-hush movie version, Young Hannibal: Behind the Mask, which will be released in theaters two months later. Even though very little has been written about this forthcoming flick and it's still not announced on the film company's website, this could be that big score which The Weinstein Company has been waiting for. (HollywoodWiretap.com updates TWC, What's Happened To Harvey?). For one thing, there'll be a closely timed tie-in between the book's release Dec. 5 and the film's distribution by MGM in February 2007. The book and movie look at what transformed Hannibal into a sadistic killer. Anthony Hopkins is not expected to appear in the new movie but he supposedly narrates it. The film follows Lecter's life in three phases: from early childhood in Lithuania, to his years in France, and then America before he is captured by FBI agent Will Graham (who's appeared before in the movies Red Dragon and Manhunter). The new film was shot mostly in Prague.

I love the idea, and irony, that Harvey finally met his match pairing with wheeler dealer Dino De Laurentiis, who just turned 87 and is the official film producer of the Hannibal character. Because it's said about both Harv and Dino that negotiating with them is more painful than a root canal. This was a speedy delivery of "Hannibal Rising" for author Harris, only 7 years, compared to the 10 years it took him to turn in its predecessor Hannibal. (Before that, Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs.) And Dino produced them all. Though Universal made Hannibal, Harvey snatched up the prequel, which has great franchise value. The 21-year-old French star, Gaspard Ulliel, is best known for playing Audrey Tatou's lover in the 2004 WWI drama A Very Long Engagement. His performance was rewarded with a Cesar as Best Newcomer in 2005. Young Hannibal is directed by Peter Webber (2003's Girl with the Pearl Earring). “Usually, even the best-selling books have an eight-week excitement cycle,” Bantam publisher Irwyn Applebaum told The New York Times. “But for this book, the movie excitement will hopefully be at its height just as the book goes through that cycle, so it’s a very good opportunity for this book to have an extended hardcover life.” 

From the previous novels, readers know that Lecter saw his entire family killed during World War II in Eastern Europe. The new novel covers the character from age 6 through 20. A minimum of 1.5 million copies of "Hannibal Rising” will be printed. (Its 1999 predecessor sold nearly that many copies in hardcover, and about 4 million copies in paperback.) Because Harris is a notoriously slow writer, De Laurentiis was canny enough to send his personal pasta chef to Miami to cook for the author, presumably to help him finish "Hannibal" faster. A Byzantine series of back-room maneuvers dating back years has enabled De Laurentiis to retain the rights to the character Hannibal Lecter. (The tortuous history behind "Hannibal," drafted by the Century City law firm Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger, took 10 pages to sum up. Even so, the confidential document was incomprehensible even to those people involved from the very beginning.) Universal leveraged first negotiation and last refusal rights from De Laurentiis for any "Silence of the Lambs" sequel written by Harris. That didn't stop both sides from going to court on the matter until a settlement was reached. Then, a $10 million payment put De Laurentiis first in line for the "Hannibal" film rights. This time around, Dino came with the package. Among my favorite De Laurentiis/Hannibal nuggets is that, after lobbying for weeks to drop Jodie Foster from the Hannibal project because she'd cost too much, he insisted on calling the double Oscar-winner "Judy."

For more history on the Hannibal Lecter movies, read my 1999 articles for Salon: Yes, Sir, That's My Cannibal and Will Hannibal the Cannibal Eat Hollywood?

It's been a while since I've provided a Pellicano scandal update. So here goes:

• Today is the start of SBC telephone employee Joann Wiggan's perjury trial before U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer -- important because it's one of the first cases relating to the racketeering and wiretapping (of celebrities, VIPs and journalists) and racketeering charges against imprisoned Hollywood P.I. thug Anthony Pellicano. And these perjury cases serve as warnings to those in and around the scandal to tell the truth to the feds -- or else. According to the prosecutors' trial memorandum filed with the court, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles expects to call 6-10 winesses over two days relating to its five-count indictment of Wiggan, indicted last February for allegedly committing perjury in her testimony to the grand jury about her contact with SBC field technician Rayford Turner, who's charged with helping Pellicano place the taps. Turner has been indicted with Pellicano on RICO and other charges relating to wiretapping and illegally obtaining confidential SBC customer information in U.S. v Pellicano. 
• The feds found that many of these calls occurred after Turner’s retirement from SBC in December 2001, and many occurred on the same dates as Turner’s calls to forner SBC employees Teresa Wright and Michele Malkin, both of whom have admitted improperly providing confidential SBC information to Turner. But in an interview with the FBI in October 2004, Wiggan acknowledged knowing Turner and stated that no one but her used her SBC voice-mail account. She denied having provided Turner with any SBC proprietary information, or having received requests from defendant for such information, since they last worked at the same facility in 1990. She further stated that she had not spoken with Turner in five or six years. When told that Turner’s telephone records showed multiple calls to her voice-mail number in 2002, Wiggan had no explanation for those calls.
• Worse, on October 26, 2005, she was subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury where she acknowledged being “friends” or “acquaintances” with Ray Turner, but testified that she had had no contact with him between 1990 and 2000, that she had maybe 10 conversations with him in 2000, and that she had had no contact with him (including any messages left by him) since December 2000. When confronted with toll records showing over 100 calls from Ray Turner to her SBC voice-mail number from December 1999 to December 2002, Wiggan continued to deny having ever received messages from Turner. And so on.
• In case you didn't know, the racketeering and wiretapping trial of Pellicano and six others has been postponed from next month until February 2007 because the defense needed more time to prepare.
• A key journalist has exited the Pellicano beat: John Hanusz of the Los Angeles Daily Journal. A lawyer, he joined the Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles as an investigator in the habeas unit, work similar to what he did in Georgia before moving out here, because he missed advocacy. Taking over the Pellicano beat is Drew Combs, a lawyer as well, who's touted as a conscientious reporter. He's been with the DJ for a year covering law firms.
• Finally, the feds are still trying at this late date to convince Pellicano to rat out his clients, but he keeps resisting, I've learned. That's what Anthony is telling his pals in letters from prison.
• Publishing sources tell me that New York Times beat reporters David Halbfinger and Allison Hope Weiner were running a non-fiction Pellicano book proposal past key NYC book publishers. Vanity Fair contributor John Connolly already has that Pellicano book contract with the Atria imprint at Simon & Schuster.

For years, I have been "brainwashed" by the GOP into believing that Bruce Willis is a diehard Republican. Maybe that's because he has voiced support for the war in Iraq, accused the media of ignoring "success stories" there, backed George W. Bush for president in 2000, and appeared at the White House with Dubya. (And see photo below left showing Bruce joining a conversation with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bush 1 after journeying to Houston to help the then ex-Prez and Barbara Bush celebrate their 75th and 74th respective birthdays.) On the other hand, it is true that an FEC search finds little evidence that Willis has given to GOP causes. But the media hating actor uncharacteristically wanted a gossip columnist to report that he's bipartisan. "Please write this," Willis told the NY Daily News' Lloyd Grove,  "I'm always being accused of being a Hollywood Republican — but I'm not! I have just as many Democratic ideas as Republican ones," he insisted. "If they could build three fewer bombs every month and give the money to foster care, that would be great." That's because Willis' cause celebre is finding more federal money for foster care, and none other than George W. Bush made him national spokesman for children-in-foster care in 2002. (Willis has even called himself "apolitical," claiming, "I'm a Republican only as far as I want a smaller government") Bruce told Lloyd: "This is not something for the private sector to solve. This is a problem for the federal government." He said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has been helping on the issue. As for another foster care proponent, ex-House Majority leader Tom DeLay, now facing criminal corruption charges. Willis joked: "He needs somebody to adopt him!"

Brad Grey's people finally tell me it's "nonsense" that Tom Cruise dispatched goons from the Church of Scientology to intimidate him. That's why I waited to comment on last week's assertion by the newly revived Radar Online citing "a high-ranking media executive." The report claims Grey, during his negotiations with Cruise over Mission: Impossible 3, was walking to his car in the Paramount lot when suddenly he found himself surrounded by more than a dozen Scientologists. Supposedly, they pressured him to ease up on the actor. After a terse exchange, Grey got in his car and left. "But the message was clear... He was unnerved by the incident." Gee, and Hollywood types thought Brad's posse had leaked this just to get some sympathy on his side.