SUNDAY AM ANALYSIS: The Golden Globes broadcast last Monday did exactly what it's supposed to: help the winning films. While the Hollywood Foreign Press Association behind the show is meaningless, the awards are a powerful marketing tool for the studios. So Dreamworks / Paramount's Dreamgirls went up 4% after six weeks at the box office, and should pass $100 mil in future weeks, which is exceptional box office for a musical. Also enjoying a small but sassy Golden Globes bounce is Paramount's Brad Pitt starrer Babel, up 451% after 13 weeks (in 889 theaters, new cume $23.6 mil) and Miramax's Helen Mirren showcase The Queen, jumped into the Top 10 by expanding its post-Globes release to 1,586 venues after 17 weeks in release (up 213%, new cume $35.6 mil). Also up 310% was Clint Eastwood's Letters From Iwo Jima, from Dreamworks / Warner Bros after expanding into 360 theaters five weeks in release for a new cume of $2.5 mil. Meanwhile, Screen Gems/Sony's Stomp The Yard continues to step on rivals as No. 1 its second week out with a new cume of $41.5 million. The Hitcher from Focus Features opened weakly in 4th place. And Picturehouse's wondrous Pan's Labyrinth, which is Oscar-touted, upped its theater count to 609 theaters and popped up #7 in its 4th week of release. 

Stomp, playing in 2,051 venues, made $3.7 mil Friday and $6.1 mil Saturday for was a $13.3 mil weekend. Woo-hoo: After only five weeks in release, Fox's four-quadrant hit Night At The Museum passed the major marker of $200 mil this weekend. Its cume stands at $205.8 million domestically after taking in another $3.1 mil Fri and $6.1 Sat from 3,483 playdates for a $13 mil Fri-Sat-Sun (estimated). Dreamgirls was a strong #3 with a $8.7 mil weekend after adding another $2.2 mil Fri and $4 mil Sat for a new cume of $78.1 mil. No. 4 Hitcher, with a 2,831 theater count, opened with $2.8 mil Fri and $3.4 mil Sat for an $8.3 mil weekend. No. 5, Sony's The Pursuit Of Happyness, should shoot past $150 mil by the end of this month after raking in another $3 mil Fri and $3.1 mil Sat its sixth week out for a $6.7 mil weekend and new cume of $146.5 mil. Paramount's Freedom Writers, whose new cume is $22.9 mil, eked out another $1.6 mil Friday from 2,286 theaters for 6th place and an anticipated $6 mil weekend. Pan's Labyrinth, #7, enjoyed a 107% bump in wider release and earned $1.4 mil Fri and $1.9 mil Sat for a $4.5 mil weekend and new cume of $9.9 mil. No. 8 is Universal's Children Of Men, which took in $1.1 mil from 1,100 venues Fri and $1.7 mil Sat for a $3.8 mil weekend and new cume of $27.6 mil after four weeks in release. And The Queen, upping its theater count to 1,586, finished #9 making $930K Fri and $1.5 mil Sat for a $3.4 mil weekend. Weinstein / MGM's disappointing Arthur And The Invisibles, in 2,248 playdates, slipped into 10th place with $630K Fri and $1.5 mil Sat for a $3.1 mil weekend and new cume of $9.2 mil. Finally, Universal's critically panned Alpha Dog, starring Justin Timberlake, its second week out fell out of the Top 10 after only a $2.9 mil weekend and a dismal new cume of $11.6 mil.

I'm busy on a project, but I thought I'd pass along this in the meantime: Los Angeles freelance journalist Ross Johnson who now and then covered the Hollywood beat has gone to work for Sitrick & Co. A while ago, he used to work for the Los Angeles Daily Journal legal newspaper, and in recent years he's done the occasional piece for The New York Times. Last March, he started a blog about the Pellicano scandal and posted intermittently. From what I can tell, his final freelance article, about publisher Wendy McCaw, was for LA Weekly before moving into flackery. In response to my query, Johnson replied by email: "As usual, Nikki's sources are damn good!" (Hmm, is he suddenly trying to flatter me because he's now in PR? As if that's gonna work... ) 

Wow, was the Tribune Co. punked, or what? That was some lousy auction since none of the bidders offered to pay a premium to swallow the company whole. Broad/Burkle have put in a bid, and so have the Chandler family, who own 20% already. (Supposedly, a third bidder weighed in: a private equity firm just interested in the TV group.) But, first, here's some behind-the-scenes info. If Los Angeles billionaire bidding pair, Eli Broad and Ron Burkle, are successful in their Trib bid, they now want to keep the TV group as well as the newspapers. (After all, Frank Biondi, the ex-Viacom and ex-Universal mogul, is advising them, and he knows the long-term value of those 23 stations, plus cable channel Superstation WGN, etc.) The pair already have sat down and had a heart-to-heart with the LAT's current publisher David Hiller. "The meeting went very well. They found him impressive," a source told me. Meanwhile, the LAT editor whom Hiller fired, Dean Baquet, is indeed waiting to see who buys the paper. Yes, The New York Times wants him, which executive editor Bill Keller recently confirmed. But so, apparently, do Broad and Burkle who submitted their joint bid just a day after Baquet was forced out of his job and have been talking with him since. "Everybody liked him. There were lots of meetings," the insider told me. Regarding David Geffen's $2 billion cash bid for the LA Times, the resulting tax consequences remain a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to his getting ownership anytime soon. An insider warned me: "No one's selling the paper with such a big tax bill in the way." By contrast, although the Broad/Burkle offer is disappointing in its structure, Tribune could avoid the tax issues that would arise from a sale of individual assets because, although the rich guys would become co-chairmen of Tribune Co., they'd keep current management. Regarding the duo, their advisers call them "Da Boys" and, by all accounts, they get along. "They're pretty cordial when they're together. No tensions get in the way," one source explained. OK, now back to the deal.

First let me say that, in order to understand the Broad/Burkle bid for Tribune Co., string-puller of its puppet Los Angeles Times and owner of 11 leading daily newspapers and other assets, you need to be an MBA from Harvard Business School. (Sorry, but it's my niece who's there right now, not me.) With phrases like "stub equity" and "leveraged recapitalization" being used by my sources, I'll try to put them into laymen's terms so you have a clue what's going on. Initially, Broad/Burkle felt comfortable only owning substantially all of Tribune Co.'s newspaper group, not the TV stations. But, hey, those stations can be a license to print money, if run right. So, after kicking it around with advisers, they convinced themselves to try to keep the stations and look at improving the cash flow of the TV group -- then make a decision what to do with it (realizing that it'll take several years out to fix). But keeping the TV group brings in the FCC and the need to secure its approval anytime TV stations change hands.

Here's how it would go down. Broad/Burkle invest $500 million cash in Tribune Co. for what's initially a 19.9% stake in the company and eventually 5 seats on the corporate board. But Da Boys also secured financing (proposals were circulated among five different banks) so the corporation could take on a substantial debt load --about $10.5 billion worth -- on a new layer of equity. This is what's known as a "leveraged recapitalization." Woo-hoo, that chunk of change then allows the Tribune Co. to pay out an enormous dividend of $27 a share -- 90% of the share price -- to the existing stockholders immediately (something like 45 days). So then, after the dividend, the Tribune Co. stock will trade for around $7. This is what Wall Street calls a stub: it's stock in a company that is over-leveraged as a result of recapitalization. (Stub equity is considered speculative and risky. On the other hand, stub stock's advantage over junk bonds is that it has unlimited potential if the company turns things around.) So, figured altogether, the Broad/Burkle offer is worth $34 a share.

Until this point, FCC approval isn't needed because Broad/Burkle's stake in Tribune Co. is still under 20%. But the idea is for them to eventually take over the company, and now their stake rises to 33%+. That triggers the FCC to do its thing. So everything grinds to a halt for months and months. After that regulatory hurdle is cleared, Broad/Burkle have the luxury of time. I'm told they'll probably make some small asset sales at the beginning. Then they'll improve the broadcast and newspaper and Internet operations. As for how Broad/Burkle see the LA Times: "They think the paper runs very well as a business. Eli's issue is the positioning of the paper," my insider says.

The Chandler family's offer came in late after my sources had gone home. According to the Wall Street Journal, it's seen "as a last-ditch effort to rescue the value of its stake in the company. Under the proposal, which hadn't been finalized, the Chandlers and private-equity partners would buy the newspapers, while Tribune would spin off its TV stations. The family's advisers have received a commitment from one private-equity firm for half of the money needed for the deal, according to people familiar with the proposal, but are trying to find additional investors. The Chandlers envision holding 51% of the newspapers, while partners would hold the remainder."

My latest  column, Brad Grey's Performance Less Than Golden, examines what people were saying about the Paramount honcho's behavior at the Globes, and in recent weeks during this awards season, involving Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, table-hopping, the press room, the Dreamgirls' premieres, Stacey Snider, the late Steve Ross, and more. As I point out, "it may all sound terribly petty, and make no mistake about it — it is. But all this b.s. is what Hollywood uses as the yardstick to measure the character of its moguls." Here's how my column begins:

"In front of the cameras, this week’s Golden Globes awards broadcast was its usual sycophantic, self-congratulatory schmooze fest. But behind the scenes at the dinner tables, as the Hollywood insiders cut into their free-range chicken, Alaskan cod and marinated tenderloin of beef in the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton, the sharpest knives were being reserved for one of their own, studio boss Brad Grey. The Paramount Motion Picture Group chairman/CEO should have emerged the object of envy when not one but two of his studio’s films, DreamWorks’ Dreamgirls and Vantage’s Babel, won. But instead, Grey was an object of scorn. It started with the place cards on the two Paramount tables, both positioned prominently, one populated by Dreamgirls’ talent and executives, the other by Babel’s. Place cards? No one could remember a time when they saw this peculiarity at the Golden Globes. But they existed to obviously establish the pecking order of the people attending. “Brad seems very concerned at all occasions exactly where he sits,” one studio insider said to me by way of explanation...Continued.

Now that CAA has finally made the move to its new office digs at 2000 Avenue Of the Stars -- known as the "hole" building -- in Century City (sorry, but I don't think I can be funnier about this than my pal Mark Lisanti at Defamer), something horrible has happened: CAA has lost its "310" area code. Its new phone number is (424)288-2000. What the fuck is "424"? (Actually, I looked it up on the Internet, and Wikipedia says it's the new area code overlay for the Westside of the Los Angeles Metropolitan area, and the first non-mobile area code overlay in Southern California, and became effective on August 26th. Sucks.) You mean to tell me that, with all its supposed power and influence, CAA couldn't convince anyone to let it keep its "310" area code? Who's gonna remember "424"? Turns out (310)288-2000 is a fax line somewhere. But fear not: for at least a while, CAA is still answering the phone at its old (310)288-4545 number. So stop screaming at your assistant.

Also, CAA will still be stuck paying rent to Mike Ovitz/Ron Meyer/Bill Haber on its old I.M Pei digs for some time to come. I hear Ovitz really, really, wants to eventually move back into the building that was his architectural pride and joy in his heyday. But what in the world would he do with all that space? Besides, I doubt his ex-partners would let him have it. After all, they hate him. By the way, you may not recall that, when the CAA former headquarters was being constructed, recording everything with a 16mm movie camera was a film school student hired specifically for the occasion. That raw footage, according to Ovitz’s direction, was to be mixed with the sequences from a time-lapse camera which CAA had mounted in the parking lot of Budget-Rent-a-Car directly across the street from the building site. The plan was to monitor, using time-lapse photography, the step-by-step progress of the CAA headquarters and make a movie of the building’s birth. One of CAA’s directors, Joel Schumacher, even agreed to direct with famed Billy Weber to edit and no less than John Williams to score. When news of the film project swept through the entertainment community shortly before CAA was to move into the building that July 1989, the jokes came fast and furious. So did the jibes, the most brutal of which was that, by building Ovitz’s monument to power, I.M. Pei had unwittingly become “the Albert Speer of Hollywood.” The movie idea was dropped.

Also, the date of ICM's move to Century City is set for February 20th.

Who woulda thought? Denzel Washington was the No. 1 movie star for 2006, (after dropping off the Top 10 list in 2005), according to the annual Harris Poll which I've managed to put my hands on today. The annual survey of 1,147 U.S. adults contacted nationwide online between December 12-18th asked "Who is your favorite movie star" and received unprompted responses. It showed Tom Hanks, despite the success of his The Da Vinci Code, dropped a notch after topping the list three times. The late John Wayne maintained his third-place position from the previous year. And Clint Eastwood rose two spots to No. 4. Will Smith made his debut on the list in 5th place, explaining the success of his The Pursuit of Happyness. He tied with Julia Roberts, who sat out 2006 movie-wise. Pirates of the Caribbean franchise star Johnny Depp was 7th. But the real shocker was that, despite his drunken anti-Semitic rantings this summer, Mel Gibson still managed to tie with Depp for 7th. George Clooney fell a notch to only 9th place. And Harrison Ford, set for another Indiana Jones go-round, was down at #10 after placing third last year. Both Sean Connery and Sandra Bullock didn't make the Top 10 this year.

Make up your mind, Anthony. First, he and Kat Pellicano divorced in 2002 after an 18-year marriage. Now I'm told they're going to re-marry. When I phoned Kat today, she declined at this time to confirm or deny my report of her pending nuptials. If you recall, Kat Pellicano mixed it up with Vanity Fair over John Connolly's use of her interviews in his coverage of the Pellicano scandal back in April. She was also looking for a publisher for a book about her ex-husband. The FBI leaned on her to talk about Pellicano's business and surveillance methods, but she refused. She has been quite vocal with her opposition to Anthony remaining in prison pending his trial (scheduled to begin in August). Meanwhile, Kat, with Pellicano's other family and friends, essentially staged an "intervention" where they successfully impressed upon the one-time Hollywood P.I. the need for a skilled lawyer at trial, reports Drew Combs in the Los Angeles Daily Journal. So, a week after receiving permission to represent himself against charges of racketeering and wiretapping, Pellicano reversed course and will allow trained counsel to argue his case, the legal newspaper says. San Francisco-based Steven Gruel returns to the defense team and will be joined by Los Angeles attorney Michael H. Artan, according to the report. Both Gruel and Artan are offering their services pro bono. We already know Gruel, but newcomer Artan is described as "thorough, tenacious and liked by juries. He is everything you want as a criminal defense attorney."  

Back in April, I wrote extensively about the vultures at CAA circling the sports management business by hiring some top sports agents repping football and baseball stars. And I also reported how this was CAA prez Richard Lovett's idea because of his hero worship of the late Mark McCormack and his "100% market share" model for IMG, the famed sports management company. Today, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that "CAA is expected to finalize a deal to acquire the sports representation business of Leon Rose, an attorney and agent now working for a Philadelphia area law firm." Rose reps NBA superstars LeBron James and Allen Iverson, among others. "The expected pact with Mr. Rose would significantly deepen CAA's bench of heavy-hitting sports agents and establish a solid foothold in yet another league sport, basketball," the paper gushes. Unlike the 10% Hollywood commissions, pro sports players unions typically cap agent fees at 5% or less, so money is made on lucrative endorsement contracts -- but they're hard to come by. Look at CAA's representation so far of USC quarterback star Matt Leinart after they stole him from Leigh Steinberg, the famed Newport Beach sports agent. It's been a disaster, in many respects. Not only did Leinart only go double-digit in the draft and left millions of dollars off the table by not signing with a high-profile team, but then he pissed off the Arizona Cardinals and its fans with a long sit-out, and then capped it off by fathering an illegitimate child. Oh, and he also dated skanky Paris Hilton. Not exactly the best way to seduce advertisers into parading his movie-star handsome looks -- so now it's Matt Who? The WSJ points out that, in the case of LeBron James, "it isn't necessarily clear what CAA will get out in the near term. To be sure, scoring Mr. James, a Cleveland Cavaliers forward and one of the biggest names in basketball, would be a huge coup. But Mr. James last summer extended his current contract for up to four years and an estimated $60 million -- meaning new commissions for CAA could be several years away at least. And while the 22-year-old prodigy has signed significant endorsement deals with a variety of retailers and consumer goods companies, including a seven-year agreement with Nike Inc. valued at $90 million, his marketing ventures are handled not by his agent, but by business manager Maverick Carter and other longtime friends." Maybe this sports biz ain't at easy as CAA tries to make it look.

At the 64th annual Golden Globes. First came the surprise arrival of Jack Nicholson, who'd been ill. Then the awards show began and, right now....

...there's the start of a Dreamgirls near-sweep of the Picture, Musical or Comedy category with both Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy winning Supporting Actor/Actress. And the pic's producer David Geffen -- who took the show from Broadway 25 years later to Hollywood-- is getting more thanks than God or mothers.

Already there's been a glitch: musician Prince missed his moment to accept for Best Song ("Song Of The Heart" from Happy Feet), so Justin Timberlake did it on his behalf. (Later, Hugh Grant explained that Prince had been stuck in traffic, and then asked him to take a bow -- no doubt, because the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and NBC didn't want to miss having that celeb face time.) 

Meryl Streep of The Devil Wears Prada won her Actress, Musical or Comedy category. Best Animated Film was Cars. Peter Morgan won Movie Screenplay for Disney/Miramax's The Queen, and reminded in his speech that "You have to believe that public protests count for something. What are we going to have to do it when it's really important." Jamie Foxx introduced the Dreamgirls clip by noting the the movie was "only in 800 theaters... you do the math." Indeed, it was a controversial decision by DreamWorks / Paramount to keep the musical in only 852 theaters for week after week after week until January 12th -- even though audiences were cheering and clapping the film during every screening. Both Clint Eastwood and Steven Spielberg went up to accept best Foreign Language Film for Letters From Iwo Jima -- and Clint, too, thanked David Geffen. Why? Because Geffen is a partner in DreamWorks who produced both Letters and Clint's other 2006 war movie, Flags Of Our Father. This is Geffen's last hurrah: he wants out of the movie biz.

Then came Tom Hanks to introduce Warren Beatty, who receives the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Cecil B. DeMille Award at the NBC's awards show. "You will all agree with me when I say: What balls this man has," Hanks gushed. Funny was when Hanks asked for a show of hands among "Ladies" in the audience regarding Warren's irrestistable charms. "Guys?" Hanks asked afterwards. After beginning well ("It isn't easy being humble when you're married to Annette Bening), Beatty went on to give a rambling speech for nearly for 10 minutes. Warren semi-seriously lectured Clint for making such wonderful movies back to back to back -- "and you do the score? How do you think that makes me feel?" And, to Jack, Warren said, "You just can't resist it. You've got to be great." Beatty couldn't help injecting politics into his speech. "I asked Arnold to become a Democrat. He did what I said." Beatty campaigned against Scharzenegger's gubernatorial candidacy in California's recall election and then Arnold's controversial referendum initiatives. Schwarzenegger then did an about-face, sounding more like a Democrat than a Republican during his successful run for re-election.) Beatty also pledged to make another movie. (He hasn't directed since 1998's Bulworth nor starred in a film since the disastrous 2001's Town & Country. Beatty is in a legal fight for the rights to make a sequel to his 1990 Dick Tracy.) "By the time I make another movie, you might consider making just me the most promising newcomer in Hollywood -- again," Beatty joked. later, Dustin Hoffman came on and said he'd noticed that Ishtar was included in the movie montage "for only 0.5 seconds" and announced there would be an Ishtar 2. (Though not in his lifetime since it was a humiliating flop for both stars.)

When Marty Scorsese won the Director category for The Departed, he received a standing ovation. (Scorsese has won the Globe in this category before, for Gangs Of New York. But he has yet to win a Best Directing Oscar, and is refusing to campaign for it this Academy Award season.)

Barely recognizable not in character as Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen won movie Actor, in a Musical or Comedy. Then the British comedian proceeded to tell three minutes' worth of genitalia and fart jokes; Mark Wahlberg (The Departed) had tears running down his face because he was laughing so hard at Cohen's acceptance speech. "Thank you to every American who has not sued me so far," Cohen ended.

Dreamgirls won best Picture, Musical or Comedy, and the camera immediately went to David Geffen seated next to Paramount chairman/CEO Brad Grey, who acquired the movie when he acquired DreamWorks. But Geffen didn't accept the award: his long-time friend, the film's producer Laurence "Larry" Mark did, and was cut off after just a few words. In reference to Jamie Foxx's comment above, I always thought Paramount waited for the pic to go wide only when it could enjoy a Golden Globes bounce at the box office. So I heard for months that the studio was romancing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

In these last moments of the Golden Globes broadcast, the big winners are being given only 30-seconds apiece and then rushed offstage, partly because Warren Beatty spoke for so long. Hellen Mirren snagged a second Golden Globe for Actress, Drama, for her bravura performance in The Queen, as expected. Also anticipated was Forest Whitaker's Actor, Drama, win for his portrayal of dictator Idi Amin in The Last King Of Scotland. (Both Mirren and Whitaker are expected shoo-ins for the Oscars.) Stunned that his name was called, Whitaker's expression, and especially his stammering "Thank you's" and moments of silence, were moving.

Arnold Schwarzenegger presented the best Picture, Drama, award. And the winner was ... Babel. You could see the jaws drop in the audience, but Paramount and its indieprod division Paramount vantage campaigned long and hard for awards for this Brad Pitt / Cate Blanchett starrer directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, a Mexican native who turned to Schwarzenegger and said, "I swear I have my papers in order, Governor, I swear." Babel received good critical reviews but has not been a box office favorite since it opened October 27th; its cumulative gross is only $23.1 million at U.S. theaters through today. On the other hand, the HFPA award meant that mega-stars Brangelina were assured of attending the broadcast. (I've always heard from celebrity and studio publicists that the press organization -- which doesn't include correspondents for major newspapers like Le Monde and the Daily Mail despite its misleading moniker -- tips off the celebrities in advance if they're winners.)

In the end, the movie awards were dominated by Paramount -- a studio flack even emailed me "All Paramount Grand Prix" (and to a lesser extent Fox and Disney's Miramax). But it's the rule rather than the exception for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to be susceptible to studio campaigning (all that attention, all that money, all those perks and freebies, showered on only 85 people who can barely call themselves legitimate journalists). Still, the HFPA wanted to spread around the awards to as many Big Names as possible to glam up the show and NBC's ratings.

In the TV categories, wins for TV Actress/Actor in a Drama went to Kyra Sedgwick for TNT's The Closer and Hugh Laurie for Fox's House. There was low laughter when Laurie thanked Jeff Zucker, the NBC Universal honcho. But that's because, even though the series airs on Fox, it's actually produced by NBC Universal, so clearly all the audience of insiders didn't know that. Helen Mirren won Actress/TV Miniseries or TV Movie, joined later by Jeremy Irons in the Supporting Actor in the winner's corner, for HBO's Elizabeth I, which also won best TV Miniseries or TV Movie. Big surprise was when Alec Baldwin won Actor, TV Musical or TV Comedy, for NBC's 30 Rock. (Then again, there usually is a HFPA sop to NBC because it broadcasts the awards show.) He thanked the foreign press 'for remembering your old pal in the autumn of my career here." Adorable is the only word to describe America Ferrera's acceptance speech for Actress, TV Musical or TV Comedy, for ABC's Ugly Betty. She praised "this character who is trying to bring a new face to TV. I hear from young girls on a regular basis who thank me." Expectedly, best Series, TV Musical or Comedy went to ABC's Ugly Betty and best Series, TV Drama, to ABC's Grey's Anatomy. The entire Grey's cast went onstage -- more star wattage for the HFPA and NBC since this is America's favorite show -- while exec producer & creator Shonda Rhimes shouted into the microphone, "I'm staring at Jack Nicholson. This is surreal!"

ARRIVALS: Jack Nicholson showed up at the Golden Globes (he's a 7-time Globe winner, and was nominated again tonight but did not win) despite reports that he's been sick for months. But his pals "hope the worst is over," I'm told, and he's shooting the Bucket List with Morgan Freeman, so he must be all better. Best, he was photographed on the red carpet standing alongside his daughter Lorraine, Miss Golden Globes 2007. The 69-year-old Nicholson has been very tight-lipped about his illness, even to his friends. Back in mid-September, a news report had him checked into a Los Angeles-area hospital with "an infection." Since then, he's cancelled many personal dates and publicity events. He's nominated by the Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, as well touted as an Oscar nominee, for his role as the gangland paterfamilias in Marty Scorsese's The Departed. Tonight, at the Golden Globes, he has the best seat at the dinner and is next to Warren Beatty, who receives the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Cecil B. DeMille Award at NBC's awards show. But Tom Hanks, not best friend Jack, is slated to present the Globe to Warren.

Jack Nicholson showed up at the Golden Globes (he's a 7-time Globe winner, and was nominated again tonight but did not win) despite reports that he's been sick for months. But his pals "hope the worst is over", I'm told, and he's shooting the Bucket List with Morgan Freeman, so he must be all better. Still, he was photographed standing alongside his daughter Lorraine, Miss Golden Globes 2007 so he must be much better. The 69-year-old Nicholson has been very tight-lipped about his illness, even to his friends. Back in mid-September, a news report had him checked into a Los Angeles-area hospital with "an infection." Since then, he's cancelled many personal dates and publicity events. He's nominated by this year's Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture, as well touted as an Oscar nominee, for his role as the gangland paterfamilias in Marty Scorsese's The Departed. Tonight, at the Golden Globes, he has the best seat at the dinner and is next to Warren Beatty, who receives the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Cecil B. DeMille Award at NBC's awards show. But Tom Hanks, not best friend Jack, is slated to present the Globe to Warren.

No one still knows anything about the future of the Los Angeles Times. But Hollywood will remember Frank Biondi (photo below), the ex-Viacom and Universal mogul who it turns out is helping advise the Broad / Burkle duo. (Biondi's Big Media bonafides also aided Carl Icahn in his attack on Time Warner.) With Tribune Co. bids due Wednesday and the auction set to end this week, The New York Times publishes tomorrow this front-page piece: "They seem an unlikely pair: Eli Broad, the straight-talking billionaire whose expansive art collection and philanthropic efforts to revitalize downtown Los Angeles have put him happily in the public eye, and Ron Burkle, the supermarket mogul, Democratic fundraiser and FOB (friend of Bill Clinton) who tries -- usually unsuccessfully -- to avoid publicity. This week, the two men will decide whether their unlikely partnership should go forward with a serious bid for the Tribune Co." There's also a business section story. Says the NYT: “You could make the case that trying to sell now is like selling condos in Miami,” said a Tribune investor who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he did not want to criticize management. “Nobody wants to bid now because everyone thinks the price will be lower next week.” Broad/Burkle only would bid to return Chicago puppet Los Angeles Times to local ownership. And what about David Geffen's chances after offering $2 bil just for the LA Times? The NYT bears out my own reporting that "several reporters have said privately that they prefer the idea of [David] Geffen as the ultimate owner." Meanwhile, today, the Los Angeles Times weighed in about the frustration of Tribune's largest stockholders, the Chandler family, with 20% of the company's shares. LAT reports that "the most consistent interest in a deal has been expressed by a group composed of three private equity firms — Madison Dearborn Partners of Chicago, Apollo Management of New York and Providence Equity Partners of Rhode Island. The consortium has long been viewed as a contender for Tribune because of Madison Dearborn's Chicago roots and its reported interest in hometown assets such as the Cubs and WGN-TV." Madison Dearborn and Providence Equity have media experience: they joined with three other investment firms last year in the $12.3-billion proposed purchase of Univision. Providence also owns a piece of Freedom Communications Inc., which publishes the Orange County Register. "But the holdings also could become a stumbling block because of federal regulations limiting companies from owning too many media properties in a single locale," the LAT conjectured.

Network suits may say they love all their shows, but they really do have favorites. I'm told that CBS Paramount Network TV Entertainment Group prez Nancy Tellem's pet pilot is the one about 1970s suburban swingers. Produced by CBS Paramount Network TV, it fits into the edgier creative direction Tellem wants to take this development season. Swingtown is from writer / executive producer Mike Kelley (The O.C.) and will be directed by Six Feet Under exec producer Alan Poul: it "explores the concept of open marriages and couple-swapping practiced by suburban couples in '70s." And I'm told that ABC Entertainment prez Steve McPherson is fondest of what people in the industry are calling his Desperate Husbands -- an hour-long corporate soap about CEOs gone wild. This untitled project gone to pilot follows the boardroom and bedroom antics of four dysfunctional but lovable high-powered execs. John Feldman (co-creator, Reunion) is writing and exec producing for Warner Bros TV.

I love that ABC Entertainment prez Steve McPherson suffered major heartburn when the Lost executive producers announced an end game to the TV Critics Association (TCA). Saying that X Files is their "cautionary tale" of a series that ran too long, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof took on McPherson by announcing a pull-the-plug date of four seasons plus one mini-season. In the hallway after the panel, Lindelof said he’d cap the series at 100 episodes: since it's now in its 3rd season, that's 5 total. But is this just a negotiating ploy? The show's actor contracts continue through the 7th season. There's been a lot of fan anger this year because Lost keeps coming, and going, and coming, and going, on the ABC schedule. Apparently, McPherson was having lunch when he first heard about the producers' comments -- and admitted he didn't know they were coming.

After turning to politics when his Hollywood career tanked, Arnold Schwarzenegger finagled to get free national TV face time by presenting the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Picture tonight. But far more interesting is what I have here: this email exchange between Karen Pomer, founder of the Los Angeles-based Rainbow Sisters Project for Rape Survivors, and Andres Martinez, head of the editorial and opinion section of the Los Angeles Times, over the LAT's Sunday editorial urging that Schwarzenegger be allowed to run for U.S. president. (He can't because he's not a "natural born citizen".) What's astonishing to me is how the LAT editorial board didn't bother to do its research -- it didn't even know that Schwarzenegger holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Austria. Pomer wrote a Letter To The Editor protesting the paper's convenient amnesia about the sexual harrassment allegations against Scharzenegger that the LAT itself raised in a 2003 investigation -- ironically, with Pomer's help. But, remember, that the paper's management who OK'ed that probe is gone, and replaced by new LAT publisher, David Hiller, who oversees editorials as a card-carrying Republican, Rumsfeld friend and architect of the Reagan administration's controversial U.S. immigration policy calling for concentration camps.
   Pomer's letter says:
   "What's insulting is that Arnold Schwarzenegger, the subject of an Los Angeles Times investigative series published in 2003, which included interviews with 17 women accusing him of attempted rape, sexual battery, and/or sexual harassment, is now deemed worthy of a Times campaign championing him as a Presidential candidate. The Times Editorial Board needs re-read the series to refresh their selective memories. For example: One woman recounted a frightening story to Times reporters about an incident while working on the movie Predator in 1986. She said Schwarzenegger followed her into a bathroom on a studio lot and grabbed her from behind, "He clamped his right hand over my boob and was wrestling with me... He wouldn't let go. I fought him. The size of his biceps coming across my chest, they were enormous. I couldn't get away from him... Any time you make a woman feel that vulnerable or that overpowered, it changes you forever." Enough said."
   Andres Martinez writes back:
   "Thanks, Karen, for your note. Your point is well taken, although slightly unrelated to editorial.  We think it is important for the constitution to be amended for naturalized citizens to qualify for the presidency. This view doesn't stem from our liking or disliking the prospect of a Schwarzengger candidacy, even though his situation does raise the issue. The issues you raise would be appropriate for voters to consider if he were a candidate, but they don't strike me as a reason to change our views on whether naturalized citizens -- and not just Arnold -- should be eligible for the nation's highest office."
   Then Pomer replies:
   "Thank-you for answering my letter so promptly. Will the letter I sent you, meant to draw attention to the hypocrisy and disgraceful position the LA Times now finds itself in, be published on your pages? Who knows better than the editors of the LA Times about the disturbing details of the accusations against Schwarzengger by 17 women who bravely spoke to your reporters even though they feared reprisals. You deemed these women credible at time or else you would not have devoted the time and resources of several of your top reporters, including at least one with a Pulitzer for his investigative work. (Full Disclosure: As the founder of a rape survivors group, I assisted the Times team in locating several of these women to find out if they were willing to repeat their stories to the Times and be identified. Speaking to a number of these women, I know first hand how terrified they were about coming forward. Additionally, I was motivated by a revealing and unsettling encounter with his wife Maria Shriver, when interviewed by her about my own rape for Dateline NBC.) So, what makes the Times not only give Schwarzengger a pass endorsing him for re-election as Governor and now promoting him as Presidential material? On the issue of should the constitution be amended for naturalized citizens to qualify for the presidency: As the daughter of two naturalized American citizens, it concerns me that there is no mention in your editorial that Schwarzengger has maintains a dual-citizenship with Austria all these years he has lived in the US.. (This very relevant fact is relatively unknown to your readers. My father voluntarily gave up his dual-citizenship with Canada when he joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1940 as a Flight Surgeon.) Why not call for our Governor to give up his before you tout him as President? In any case, Schwarzenegger's alleged criminal behavior would earn a lesser movie-star a spot on Megan's List or as a roommate in re-hab with [U.S. Rep Mark] Foley, not a place in the White House. Best."

In NYC and Hollywood, NBC execs better stockpile the Maalox. Because Fox's 24 looks to steal Monday night's ratings from NBC's Golden Globes b'cast. For weeks, people connected with Fox's returning 24 show (two-parter tonight & tomorrow night) have been tipping this season's plot revolving around suitcase nukes. But Monday night's 24 episode is killer. Under the headline, "Is Fox set to blow the nukes on 24?", the Drudge Report has been promo'ing the episode. I don't want to spoil anyone's fun with a synopisis...

Box Office: January 12-14: Screen Gems/Sony's Stomp The Yard kicked off the holiday weekend with an appeal way beyond African-American youth and scored a surprise #1. Fox's four-quadrant hit Night At the Museum moved down to #2 for the first time since it opened four weeks ago. For Top 10 analysis/numbers see: 'Stomp The Yard' Steps Up to Surprise #1; Justin Timberlake's #8 'Alpha Dog' Yelps
Also, here are weekend total for some other Oscar-buzzed films:
Blood Diamond $2.5 mil (cume $47.8 mil)
Pan's Labyrinth $2 mil (cume $4.2 mil)
Happy Feet $2 mil (cume $188.2 mil)
Notes on a Scandal $1.6 mil (cume $4.1 mil)
The Queen $1.1 mil (cume $31.5 mil)
Letters From Iwo Jima $375K (cume $884K)

SUNDAY UPDATE: The Beckhams have arrived in Los Angeles. No, TomKat did not meet them at the airport. Creative Artists Agency first introduced them two years ago. Then they and their wives became pals. Now Tom Cruise convinced David Beckham to move to Los Angeles and accept the Galaxy's $250 mil, 5-year deal (as if that kind of money for a washed-up soccer player isn't reason enough). Beckham specifically said yesterday at a news conference that two late-night phone chats with Cruise helped seal his decision to move here. ''I phoned him and said there might be an announcement,'' Beckham said yesterday in a satellite link-up from Madrid. ''Obviously, I'd asked him for his advice as well because he's a very wise man; he's a very good friend of mine.''To have his experience and to have him explain some things to me to be prepared for, that's a big favor But he couldn't speak any higher than what he was saying about LA. And that's going to be a big help for us, to have friends actually when we arrive in LA.'' (There's also all sorts of Scientology speculation out there, but I'll leave that to others. I'm not even sure why I posted any of this at all, but I found it mildly interesting.)

Sony/MGM's Casino Royale passed $540 million Friday night and officially passed Die Another Day globally as the biggest Bond ever. In the United States, the new Daniel Craig as 007 logged $161.2 mil cumulative U.S. gross receipts as of Friday. As of Sunday, the new Bond's estimate is $553.3 mil globally (int'l $390.7 mil and domestic $162.5 mil). But the really big bucks have been coming from international theaters where the spy pic stayed #1 for weeks and weeks in 50+ countries. This was one of the movies that helped power Sony to a record-breaking 2006. The studio execs had estimated all along that Daniel Craig could blow past the biggest grosser in the Pierce Brosnan series, 2002's Die Another Day, and its $432 mil global take. The studio expects Casino Royale to end up with as much as $575 mil theatrically worldwide.

SUNDAY AM: Two pics aimed at interracial teen and twentysomething audiences -- both the targets of attempted boycotts, bans and injunctions -- opened this Martin Luther King weekend. One of them was a surprise No. 1 at the box office  -- the pic not starring pretty boy music idol Justin Timberlake in his first major movie role. Screen Gems/Sony's Stomp The Yard kicked off the holiday weekend with an appeal way beyond African-American youth: it raked in a phenomenal $7.2 million from 2,051 theaters Friday and $8.6 mil Saturday and estimated $6.1 mil Sunday. That's $22 mil for Fri-Sat-Sun and an estimated $26.5 mil for the 4-day holiday. Exit polls showed the Stomp audience was 59% Female and 41% male, with 62% over 18 and 65% African-American. But not even Justin's stardom could help Universal's Alpha Dog written and directed by Nick Cassavetes (the son of the famed film director John Cassavetes). It dropped from 4th ($2.3 mil from 1,286 theaters) to 8th place Saturday ($2.1 mil). Estimated to earn $1.5 mil Sunday, it made $6.0 mil over the three-day weekend and should make $7.7 mil for the four-day holiday. While Timberlake received some decent reviews for his performance, critics generally savaged this true-crime story about 20-year-old James Hollywood, a wannabe marijuana kingpin, who allegedly ordered the kidnapping and murder of a 15-year-old whose half-brother owed a $1,500 dope debt. The New York Times' Manohla Dargis was especially scathing: "The cretins rule in Alpha Dog, which has much the same entertainment value you get watching monkeys fling scat at one another in a zoo." James Hollywood unsuccessfuly sought an injunction to block the film's January release until his client's death penalty case was over. (Maybe that would have been merciful, given the reviews) As for Stomp The Yard, one Illinois theater owner initially said he wouldn't screen the movie because of fear of gang violence -- even though the film's subject is black fraternities and "stepping." Sony quickly diffused the situation. Before that, the frat depicted in the movie, Alpha Phi Alpha, forcede the filmmakers to digitally remove all symbols and references to the brotherhood and even urged a member boycott. meanwhile, the studio announced today it is contributing a portion of this holiday weekend's grosses to the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial Project Foundation which is developing a monument in Washington to honor the slain civil rights leader.

Fox's four-quadrant hit Night At the Museum moved down to #2 for the first time since it opened four weeks ago, earning $4.1 mil from 3,612 venues Friday, $7.3 mil Saturday and an estimated $5.5 mil Sunday, for what was a $17 mil weekend and a $23.5 mil long holiday. New cume is $185.7 mil. Another surprise was Will Smith beating Dreamgirls despite the musical's expanded theater count. Even 5 weeks out, Sony's The Pursuit of Happyness was 3rd, taking in $2.5 mil Friday from 3,169 playdates, $3.7 mil Saturday and an estimated $$2.8 mil Sunday for a $9.1 mil weekend and a $11.1 mil long holiday. New cume is $136.5 mil. Meanwhile, Pursuit opened its first two international markets, and scored big #1s. A lot of people wondered if this rags to riches story would translate outside the U.S. the answer, clearly is yes. It earned $5 mil in the UK, dislodging Night at the Museum from the top spot, and $1.7 mil in Australia. Dreamworks / Paramount's Dreamgirls more than doubled its theater count to 1,907 and raked in $2.1 mil Friday, $3.4 mil Saturday and an estimated $2.5 mil Sunday for 4th place and a new cume of $65 mil. The studio believes Jennifer Hudson et al are on their way to make over $100 mil, the first musical to do that since Chicago. It had an $8.2 mil weekend and should have a $10+ mil long holiday. Paramount's holdover Freedom Writers came in 5th, earning $2.1 mil Friday, $3.9 mil Saturday and an estimated $2.1 mil Sunday for a $7.2 mil weekend. (It should have a $7.7 mil long holiday). New cume is $18.5 mil. No. 6 was Universal's Children of Men, in its 3rd week of release, earning $1.9 mil Friday and $2.5 mil Saturday and an estimated $2 mil Sunday for a $6.5 mil weekend (and an expected $7.2 mil long holiday). New cume is $21.4 mil. Touchstone/Buena Vista's horror pic Primeval opened 7th for the weekend. On date night, it took in $2.2 mil from 2,444 theaters, but only $2.1 mil saturday and an estimated $1.6 mil Sunday for a $6.1 mil weekend (and $8 mil for the long holiday). Finding its way into the Top 10 for the first time was #9, Weinstein/MGM's Arthur And The Invisibles, the only rug rat movie in the bunch. It eked out only $925K Friday from 2,247 theaters but got a decent kiddie bounce Saturday to double to $1.8 mil. With Sunday estimated at $1.5 mil, Arthur had a $4.3 mil weekend (and maybe a $6.7 mil long holiday). Universal's The Good Shepherd hung onto #10 in its fourth week of release for a new cume of $54.2 mil, earning $1 mil Friday, $1.5 mil Saturday and an estimated $1.1 mil Sunday for a $3.8 mil weekend and predicted $4.3 mil long holiday). However, Paramount said its Charlotte's Web finished 10th. Playing in 2,513 theaters, its 3-day estimate is $3.7 mil, new cume $72.1 mil.

In other movie news, Sony/MGM's Casino Royale passed $540 million Friday night and officially passed Die Another Day globally as the biggest Bond ever.

Disney dumbly doubled Teflon Bob's pay to $24.9 million last year. To me, that's a shitload of money to give someone who hated Desperate Housewives and Lost, the two shows that finally turned around ABC after 10 years of failure. According to a regulatory filing today, the Walt Disney Co. forked over to CEO Iger $2 million in salary, a $15 million bonus, $2.92 million in options, long-term pay of $4.3 million and $666,000 in other compensation. Back when he was prez, Iger made $12.7 million. OK, I guess factored into the new pay is that Disney profit rose 33% last year and its stock price reached a new 52-week high today of $35.21, a 46% increase since Iger was upped in October 2005. In that time, Disney fixed ABC, had some movie hits, bought Pixar, and began selling TV shows and films on Apple's iTunes. (On the other hand, Iger still has Mickey Mouse's Karl Rove -- she-devil Zenia Mucha -- working for him.) So how does Iger's pay stack up against other overpaid Big Media CEOs? Dick Parsons/Time Warner: $16 million in 2005. Philippe Dauman/Viacom: $21 million. In case you were wondering, Eisner made $10.3 mil in his last year as CEO after years and years of stuffing his pockets with Disney über-compensation.

HBO has added a surprise 9th episode to the eight episodes of what's billed as The Sopranos final season this spring. Premiere date just set: April 9th. For me, the show will suck without Gay Vito. Entourage also returns that night, wrapping up its third season with eight episodes. (HBO has OKed a fourth season.) Hmm, so what will Ari do to get Vince back as a client: take the meeting this time with Patrick Whitesell? 

Bravo announced today that Queer Eye will end its run this summer with the fifth and final season. Considering that this cable channel these days is all gay all the time, the once groundbreaking series that showed straight guys getting over their "ick" factor having homosexuals hug them is no longer a big deal. But, in its time, there was something fabulous about the disconnect between audiences loving the Queer Eye guys while the Bush administration tried to demonize homosexuals. Don't cry for the boys, though: Ted Allen, Kyan Douglas, Thom Filicia, Carson Kressley and Jai Rodriguez are all over sitcoms, dramas and other Reality TV shows, and should stay around, for a long time. "The unforgettable Fab Five have taken Bravo and viewers worldwide for an eye and mind-opening ride since they made their fabulous debut," says Frances Berwick, Bravo's head of programming and production. "We proudly watched as viewers embraced the series that really helped open the closet doors on gays and their presence on television and in popular culture." Amen. 

No, it's not a professional divorce, or anything even remotely like that. But after two decades working virtually side-by-side with Jeffrey Katzenberg in a showbiz marriage, veteran Terry Press is leaving DreamWorks to start a marketing company. With her contract up in December, she'll stay loosely tied to DreamWorks Animation for two films. There isn't a movie mogul, filmmaker or journalist who doesn't have a priceless Press story. I'd tell you some myself, but she'd skin me alive since the juiciest were off-the-record. The weirdest time for her had to be when Katzenberg left Disney with such animosity towards Eisner that the lawsuit was filed, and Press stayed behind to keep working at Disney because DreamWorks hadn't been formed yet. Now that was a recipe for disaster: any lesser exec would have died from that heartburn stew. To me, she was like Xena the Warrior Princess, always doing battle with Hollywood's worst warloads, from Harvey Weinstein (butting heads at Oscar time and culminating in that Saving Private Ryan vs Shakespeare In Love slugfest) to FrankenEisner (in the Antz vs Bugs days when Disney and DreamWorks went head to head). Terry never took any shit from anyone, and, conversely, she rarely piled it on without a wink and a nod. I know this sounds too much like a eulogy, and Terry ain't dead. But I see this news as the end of an era of loyalty and friendship, two virtues rarely visible in today's shark-infested showbiz waters, when people like Terry followed moguls like Jeffrey, and Jeffrey let Terry know he couldn't do without her. (Paula and Tom are the most visible biz duo left.) None of this import, of course, is captured in the pedestrian Variety story.  

Monday night, Warren Beatty receives the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's Cecil B. DeMille Award at NBC's Golden Globes show. So I thought I'd share with you my absolute favorite Warren Beatty story, which has never been published:  It was the beginning of his acting career, and those were the days when showbiz veterans on both coasts kept an eye out for the promising nobodies. A lot would depend not just on the up-and-coming actor's talent, but those other indefinable qualities like charisma and personality. So it was no surprise that Warren Beatty, living in NYC, had almost every woman working in entertainment there wrapped around his little finger. Still, he was just stumbling along until talent spotter Eleanor Kilgallen decided to send him to Hollywood in 1959 to read for a Playhouse 90 part just perfect for him. When the production wouldn't pay his way, Kilgallen, who was making one of her annual Academy Awards pilgramages to the West Coast, personally bought Beatty a coach ticket on the same plane she was flying first class. The next issue was finding Beatty somewhere to stay. Kilgallen always bunked at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and she decided to sneak Beatty into her hotel room. Complicating the situation was that Kilgallen was married, and happily, and her husband was already in Beverly Hills attending a convention. When Beatty arrived at the hotel with Kilgallen, he went into the bathroom, washed his only good white shirt, and hung it up to dry along with his pants and suit jacket. Then Beatty and Kilgallen left for a couple of hours. During their absence, Kilgallen's husband came back to the room -- to see a man's clothes hanging in his wife's hotel bathroom. "He was not pleased. Not at all," Kilgallen recalled for me. When it became clear that Beatty would have to remain in Los Angeles for some time to go on auditions, Kilgallen decided to impose on Ina Bernstein, one of MCA's West Coast women talent agents, who had a tiny one-bedroom apartment to herself on Doheny Drive. But Beatty didn't know that Bernstein's place was located right across the grass courtyard from her parents' home, so close that the family members could practically stare into each other's windows. When Bernstein dutifully told her dad that she was going to stash a young New York actor in her L.A. apartment with her, he posed only one question to his daughter about the arrangement. "Where's the kid going to stay?" "On the couch," she replied. Now, Bernstein was a nice Jewish girl. Single. And, of course, a virgin. And she knew Beatty's reputation with women. So she was prepared when he tried to sleep with her. And try he did. Throughout his stay, Warren kept pounding on her bedroom door at all hours of the night, begging to be let into her bed. "Aw, come on, Ina," he would say. "What's the big deal?" (When he wasn't chasing her, Beatty would sit in the middle of her living room obsessively polishing his shoes for hours.) Bernstein claimed to me she never succumbed to Beatty's infamous charm. "But I struggled," she admitted, laughing.

I've always been fascinated by rumors among Disney fans about this weird club hidden away somewhere in Walt's theme parks where celebrities and moguls like Shaq, Kobe, John Lassiter, Michael Eisner and Bob Iger hobnob. It all sounded like an urban myth. Now a new website uncovers the truth about Club 33, the ultra-exclusive secret place that serves alcohol, costs big bucks to join, and offers special privileges to its cardholders. There are two Club 33's in existence to date: the original in Disneyland Anaheim and the second in Tokyo. In California, the elegant club and its 5-star restaurant is located discreetly above the Blue Bayou in New Orleans Square. Providing photographs, menus, and all sorts of trivia, the website says that, years ago, Walt Disney felt that a special place was needed where he could entertain visiting dignitaries and others in a serene atmosphere with superb cuisine and distinctive decor. After years of planning, Club 33 became a reality in May 1967. (But he never saw it finished because of his death five months earlier.) Club 33, so named after its address on 33 Rue Royale Street, is comprised of two dining rooms, a French lift and several adjoining areas. All have a wide array of antiques and original works of art. Interestingly, the website says that members have been seen there dining in shorts, Mickey Mouse shirts, and sandals, as well as three-piece suits, sport coats, and cocktail dresses. Weird gets weirder.