There's another election next month for a Hollywood guild that's getting far less attention that SAG. It's on September 22nd for the 2008 board of directors of the Writer's Guild of America West, and on September 18th for the 2008 Council of the Writer's Guild of America East. 

The WGAW has announced the final list of 19 candidates nominated to run for eight open seats: Aaron Mendelsohn (incumbent), Mark Gunn (inc), Howard Michael Gould, Tim Day, Timothy J. Lea, Bernard Lechowick, David A. Goodman (inc), John F. Bowman (inc), Kathy Kiernan (inc), Aaron Solomon, Mick Betancourt, Karen Harris, Kat Smith, Howard Kuperberg, Kevin Droney, Ashley Gable, Dwayne Johnson-Cochran, Katherine Fugate, Luvh Rakhe. No previously-announced candidates withdrew their candidacies, and no additional candidates were added to the initial roster. (WGA internal rules require candidates to be announced in an order determined by lot.)
 
The WGAW will host its annual Candidates Night town hall forum, at which Guild members may to meet the candidates and get answers to their questions on Wednesday, September 3, at WGAW headquarters in Los Angeles. Guild members will receive candidate and non-candidate statements and rebuttal statements, if any, with their ballots prior to the election. Candidates may also mail additional campaign materials at their own expense. Members may vote by mail or in person at the WGAW’s annual membership meeting on September 22. Ballots will be counted on September 23.

Meanwhile, the WGAE has announced the 14 nominees for its 10 open Council seats that serve two-year terms. The candidates for the 6 open Freelance seats are: Jerry Coopersmith, Madeline Amgott, Mark St. Germain, Julian Sheppard, Jeremy Pikser, Bobby Spillane, David Steven Cohen, Rob Kutner (withdrawn), Kirk Simon, Walter Bernstein, Tom Kelly, John Auerbach, Henry Bean, and Gina Gionfriddo. And the 12 candidates for the four open Staff seats are:  Leon Colvin, Art Daley, Matt Nelko, Tanya Mills, Cath Twohill, Dave Mock, Andy Meppen, Tom Phillips, Jason Levine, Liz Turrell, Jay Pedinoff, and Marianne Pryor. (The order of listing candidates is also determined by lot.) WGAE members may vote by mail or in person at the Annual Membership meeting on September 18. 

George Clooney this afternoon just responded to published reports that he is phoning and texting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on everything from the Middle East to body language. FOXNews.com today posted an account by the London Daily Mail claiming Clooney and Obama regularly chat by email and text message, speak by phone at least twice a week, and have "struck up this amazing affinity". The paper also claimed the actor is informally advising the candidate on Middle East issues, including advocating unconditional withdrawal from Iraq should Obama win office. In recent days, Republican presidential candidate has been trying to use Obama's "celebrity" status against him in a series of TV ads aimed at getting the most media exposure possible. And they have.

But Clooney just issued this statement through his publicist denying all the claims: "I have never texted or emailed Senator Obama. And I'll offer a million dollars to anyone who could prove otherwise. In fact, I've only talked to the Senator once in the last year and a half....on the phone. I've spent more time with Senator McCain (he did my TV show) then I have with Senator Obama. I would hope that my friend John McCain would join me in condemning this kind of politics. Although I support Senator Obama, I would never be dumb enough to offer policy advice to either candidate. They seem to be doing fine without me."

The two photos of Clooney and Obama (shown above) were taken on April 27, 2006, as they arrived for a National Press Club program and prss conference in Washington DC to discuss the situation in Darfur.

EXCLUSIVE: I'm told it was decided Friday that Chris Albrecht would exit IMG and the settlement was negotiated over the weekend and concluded today. So what happened 11 months after he went there with such fanfare after being axed from HBO in disgrace after his Las Vegas arrest for assaulting his girlfriend that unearthed a long-ago sexual harassment scandal? Albrecht in September 2007 was made head of the global media unit at IMG, the marketing and management giant owned by Teddy Forstmann. Albrecht was also made a special limited partner in Forstmann Little, and Chris and Teddy were to raise a $250 million fund for investments in media and entertainment content. But my insiders tell me that Forstmann Little in these financially tightfisted times wasn't able to raise the money talked about. Secondly, Forstmann didn't like Albrecht, and Albrecht didn't like Forstmann. Thirdly, Albrecht's nose was out of joint when Teddy went after the purchase of reality czar Mark Burnett's company in the spring without involving Chris. (By the way, I heard that contemplated IMG-Burnett $500 million deal fell on hard times this summer and may be dead.) And finally, Albrecht was offered a very good settlement to walk away. There should be a news release from Forstmann Little coming tomorrow today. 

IMG speeded up its announcement after I scooped the news. It said the parting was amicable. "While Albrecht acknowledges that IMG has world-class media production and distribution businesses in both sports and entertainment, when he joined the company in September 2007 the parties intended to raise substantial funds to augment and expand IMG's media and entertainment business," the statement said. "However, market conditions intervened to frustrate that goal." IMG called the separation "amicable." IMG said Albrecht will now relaunch his Foresee Entertainment, an independent content creation, development and distribution company he founded in 2007 before joining IMG.

1. Mark Burnett "Seriously" Talking To IMG
2. Chris Albrecht Lands Big Deal to Become Big Deal At IMG
3. Now Rumors Begin What Chris'll Do Next
4. HKO'ed! Scandal-Plagued Chris Albrecht Dumped Before TW Shareholders Meeting
5. Chris Albrecht Blames Alcohol & Takes Leave From HBO After Las Vegas Arrest
6. What Happens In HBO, Stays In HBO... But Should It? 

So Aaron Sorkin has met with HBO's Sue Naegle and they're trying to come up with a series. But the intriguing news from a brief GQ interview with him is what Sorkin had to say about his behind-the-scenes activity during the writers strike. And it closes out something that has stuck in my craw all these months. To refresh your memory, I'd reported January 2nd about a secret meeting of some top screenwriters and TV showrunners banding together to make a powerful coalition that would force the WGA leadership to accept whatever deal the DGA makes with the AMPTP. Their hush-hush activity was to weigh their options about how to best exert pressure for the strike to be settled. Well, I was excoriated for posting this info, with some Internet loudmouths even claiming this group didn't exist. And on February 4th I elaborated further that the leaders of different dissident factions within the WGA ("some made up of very powerful TV showrunners and feature film writers") had approached the guild toppers with an ultimatum that they would no longer be silent if a deal weren't done within 48 hours. So now Sorkin confirms this to GQ:

What did you do during the Hollywood writers’ strike? Guilt-free vacation?
I had a play in previews on Broadway.

Right, The Farnsworth Invention.
For three and a half weeks I was in the unique position of being on strike and being struck against at the same time.

Yes, the Broadway stagehands went on strike.
This was about three weeks before Charlie Wilson’s War was opening. I thought, If the projectionists go on strike, that’ll fill out my bingo card. I’ll have to ask my parents for my allowance again. Anyway, I spent most of the time during the writers’ strike in New York with the play. Once that was over and I’d come back to L.A., I did participate in something that should have happened months earlier. Paul Attanasio—

The guy who produces House?
Yes—invited about seven or eight or nine of us over to his house for dinner. All screenwriters you would know. We all agreed that we had been irresponsible and that, in an effort not to seem elitist, we had remained quiet during this strike. We hadn’t voiced our objections. We hadn’t put pressure on Patric Verrone and the other heads of the union to end this thing. It wasn’t a strike we were passionate about. The fact of the matter is that people we all work with every day—and I’m talking about the 120 or so people on a movie set or a TV set, who are all the principal wage earners for their families—don’t have the kind of bank accounts that can weather a strike like this. We’d been wrong.

What was the dinner like?
The Directors Guild had reached an agreement the day before. We, that night, called the leadership of the Writers Guild. I know it sounds like a bunch of revolutionaries getting together to do the right thing, but you should know the dinner was catered. It’s not like the old days. This isn’t a Clifford Odets Waiting for Lefty thing, okay? Everybody showed up in a German car. And this is exactly why we didn’t want to voice our objections to the strike. We thought, We’re going to get killed. However, here’s what we told our leadership at the Guild: that we feel strongly that the DGA deal is fair, That we should accept from the studios and networks what they’ve given to the DGA. We named who we were in the room and said that if we didn’t see fast action over the next forty-eight hours, that we would have to make our feelings public.

And?
I have no idea if it worked or not. I know that the strike ended. It could have been for entirely different reasons.

Will the last person to leave United Artists please turn out the lights? I've just learned that veteran studio executive and film/TV producer Jeff Kleeman has left his position as EVP of production at UA after only 11 months to work with David Dobkin (Wedding Crashers, Shanghai Noon) who just signed a first-look deal at Warner Bros. Kleeman will be helping Dobkin develop and produce film and TV projects. (This was Kleeman's second go-round at UA...)

So now with Kleeman's departure, and that of prez of worldwide marketing and publicity Dennis Rice in mid-July, UA is populated by only Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner, Don Granger and a few junior execs. Sources tell me that not long ago Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner almost parted ways inside the company, but they got back on good terms. However, the studio once again is virtually moribund, which is heartbreaking considering that big fat credit line UA has in these tightfisted times. "If anything, there's frustration inside and outside UA that, in an economy where it's so difficult to come by money, what's there is just not being spent," a source tells me. "Do the UA people even know how to develop in an appropriate or effective manner?"

I'm told the problem seems to be Wagner, not Cruise. Sources tell me she doesn't pull the trigger. Just look at her history: Paula had unlimited ability to develop projects under C/W at Paramount and still got only two or so movies done all those years that didn't involve Tom. She squandered an incredible opportunity. Like she's doing now.

So what's in store for UA's future? As one source tells me, "Paula calls it a day, or the company implodes on its own, or a gun is put to Wagner's head by financiers and she greenlights things and then trusts in luck..."

EXCLUSIVE: That's what my sources are telling me about the talented though underutilized actor/director/writer who is still at the tenpercentery but perhaps not for much longer. (What a crazy agency day. So much news!) One very reliable insider just emailed me to clarify Tim Robbins' current status at CAA: "Your information is incredibly accurate and incredibly early. He hasn’t fired them yet. I was surprised to read it in your column, but in a few days you’ll be able to say 'Toldja!'" Unless of course your early warning spurns them into action... Though from what I hear there’re a lot of holes to be plugged up at that place."

EXCLUSIVE: I'm told the tween/teen movie and TV star made the rounds of Hollywood agencies with her dentist father and interviewed with Paradigm, Endeavor and ICM before choosing WMA's Theresa Peters who also reps hit James McAvoy, Kirsten Dunst, Rachel Bilson, Mandy Moore. Bynes was previously at UTA, then left for CAA and recently decided to switch tenpercenteries again.

UPDATE: UTA's Michael Camacho is now also repping newly exiting CBS reality czar Ghen Maynard. (See my CBS Reality Guru Exiting Executive Ranks.)

EXCLUSIVE: That phrase, "Don't get mad, get even" is nowhere as apropos as in Hollywood. I just heard that United Talent's Michael Camacho took back his big deal client Mike Fleiss, The Bachelor reality kingpin, from CAA. As I reported back in February, Camacho was fired as head of CAA's Alternative TV department over a bit of Oprah intrigue and took a lot of clients with him to UTA, gutting that unscripted division. "It's literally the final nail in the coffin there," one insider tells me. But Fleiss stayed behind. That's because I'm told Richard Lovett and Bryan Lourd put on "a full court press" promising him the sun, the moon and the stars (and even film financing), none of which materialized in the months Fleiss remained at CAA. So now Fleiss -- the mastermind behind The Bachelorette and High School Reunion who also has a lot of feature projects in development -- is back with Camacho as is Tom Forman (Extreme Home Makeover, Kid Nation), Alison Grodner (Big Brother), Jay Blumenfeld and Tony Marsh (Newlyweds, High School Musical: Get Into The Picture), R.J. Cutler (Flip That House, Greatest American Dog). Camacho also sold Cris Abrego's production company to Endemol for $200 million in March. But I'm told Bertram van Munster, the co-creator/exec producer and director of The Amazing Race stayed at CAA.

It was big news in Hollywood when 15-year-veteran Camacho was axed by CAA after he spent months making Oprah's deal with Discovery Communications for her new Oprah-branded cable TV network, then secretly manuevered to run her company Harpo. CAA tried to outplace Camacho into a company or help him start up his own rather than have him compete from another tenpercentery. But Camacho's lawyer shopped him around and UTA hired him.

1. CAA Agent Axed Over Oprah Lands At UTA
2. CAA Fires TV Agent Over Oprah Intrigue

As I keep writing again and again, the William Morris Agency is becoming best known as a big fat music agency. In a joint venture with music visionary Pete Tong, the tenpercentery has formed William Morris Electronic to focus on the electronic music market. This will be Tong’s first foray into the agency rep business. And as part of this expansion, agent Joel Zimmerman has joined WMA to head WME.

The announcement today noted: "Tong gained international recognition as host to BBC Radio 1’s Friday night Essential Selection & Essential Mix radio shows, which are the most highly-rated dance & electronic programs in the UK and garner a worldwide following via the internet/satellite (Sirius) & terrestrial syndication. Additionally Tong is respected as one of the world's premier live DJs, regularly performing in venues spanning the globe. WME and Tong will collaborate in signing, developing, and representing electronic artists, as well as creating and programming electronic music properties." The WME group will consist of music agents across WMA's offices, led by Tong's agent (in the London office) David Levy, Zimmerman and Sam Kirby (in the New York office), and Marc Geiger (in the Beverly Hills office). "This is an important next step to ensure that William Morris covers all facets of the music business around the globe,” said Peter Grosslight, WMA’s Worldwide Head of Music.

Founder of the leading electronic artist agency Division One, Zimmerman has been involved with booking electronic acts for the past eight years. More recently, Zimmerman worked in conjunction with WMA to service its electronic roster of clients which include electronic superstars Fatboy Slim, Groove Armada, Pendulum, The Crystal Method, LCD Soundsystem, and Basement Jaxx. Added Zimmerman. “Through WMA’s diverse professional organization, WME will be able to deliver new financial and creative opportunities to the artists who are responsible for building the dance community to where it is today.” In addition, Zimmerman is bringing with him a roster including Steve Lawler, James Zabiela, Booka Shade, Erol Alkan, Deadmau5, Lee Burridge, M.A.N.D.Y., Dieselboy, and Hercules and Love Affair.

William Morris Agency Expands Board To Include Younger Agents And More Music

Nielsen Business Media today announced that Bill Werde, the executive editor of Billboard, has been upped to Editorial Director for the brand, effective immediately. According to the press statement, he takes responsibility for "editorial strategy and vision" for the Billboard brand, which includes the weekly publication, websites (Billboard.com and Billboard.biz) and other digital content offerings, as well as industry-leading conferences and events. Werde is based in Billboard’s New York office and will oversee the brand’s staff of 20 editors and reporters worldwide. He reports to Billboard Publisher Howard Appelbaum. Werde succeeds Tamara Conniff, the previous Editorial Director of Billboard, who recently left the company to join Front Line Management Group as prez of music services.

Remember that bombshell ABC Studios memo leaked to me that was a blatant blueprint for ripping off foreign format ideas? Well, now UK television producers and executives are slamming it and also investigating it. The Guardian newspaper today reported that the UK producers' trade body "Pact" was "looking into it". Giving me a shout-out, the paper said the memo is being circulated around UK independent producers who fear it may signal a shift in the "modus operandi" between producers and broadcasters. The paper noted that UK producers, such as BBC Worldwide and RDF Media, do huge amounts of business with ABC, with shows like Supernanny, Wife Swap and Dancing With The Stars all airing on the network. (See my previous, Bombshell ABC Studios Memo Is Blatant Blueprint To Rip Off Foreign TV Series.)

UPDATE: I just heard that the doors will be opening at 5:30 PM because as many as 1,000 people are expected. 

I've been asked to post the following information since so many in Hollywood want to pay their last respects: the memorial for Bernie Brillstein is today at 6:00 p.m. at UCLA’s Royce Hall. There will be a reception immediately following. Please know that Royce Drive will be closed to traffic, so vehicles must enter from Sunset Blvd at Westwood Plaza and proceed straight ahead to Parking Structure 4. Bernie’s family has asked that in lieu of flowers, donations of any kind may be made to: Barlow Respiratory Research Center, 2000 Stadium Way, Los Angeles, CA 90026, Att: Meg Stearn Hassinpflug. (See my previous, R.I.P. Bernie Brillstein.)

EXCLUSIVE: The question is whether this is a really smart or really stupid decision by The CW's boss Dawn Ostroff. I'm told a contract controversy is preventing Tori Spelling from joining that so-called "edgy, contemporary spin-off" of the '90s hit 90210 on the network this fall as planned. Insiders tell me that Tori was hired to reprise her role as fashion boutique owner Donna Martin for just "$10,000-$20,000" per episode. But then Jennie Garth and Shannen Doherty were signed for "$35,000-$50,000" a show. When Tori found out her former co-stars were getting paid way more than she was, she got pissed and demanded equal pay. But the network suits have refused. So now my sources tell me that Tori has pulled out of the series, which premieres with a 2-hour special on September 2nd. "She thought she deserved parity, and she's got a point," an insider explained to me. (UPDATE: The CW has confirmed today that it has no deal with Tori, despite mentioning Donna Martin's name in its initial press release.)

That's because, for some bizarre reason, Tori is a reality show ratings hit by Oxygen's low standards. (Last Tuesday's Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood was the most watched telecast in the history of that execrable women's cable channel as 1.4 million viewers saw the episode where Tori gave birth to her 2nd child.) And Spelling wrote a bestselling book besides. Showing once again that it doesn't pay to underestimate the terrible taste of the American public... 

As for Tori, she has told the media only that the timing didn't work out for her to appear in the 90210 pilot because she was giving birth. "So we'll see what happens later in the season," she said last week on CBS' The Early Show. One insider tells me it wouldn't be surprising if Tori and the show eventually agree to bring her onto 90210 as a November sweeps stunt. Hmm.

You may remember that, back on May 29th, I wrote that the talk of Hollywood was when, not if, The CW's Dawn Ostroff would be fired. After all, she got her job by the skin of her teeth after programming as badly as she could at the old UPN and brown-nosing Les Moonves who was making a power-play move on Warner Bros' Barry Meyer. Well, I recently learned that Ostroff managed to buy herself more time on the back of 90210. Insiders tell me that her future, and the entire future of the fledgling network, rests on the teen show's fall ratings. As a source explained, "Since Gossip Girl opened with a 3.1 for women 18-to-34 and still can't get ratings, then 90210 has got to open with a '4' in front of it for women 18-to-34 if The CW and Dawn are going to survive into 2009."

1. Who's Gonna Be The Boss Of 'Gossip Girl'?
2. Primetime Pilot Panic: CW Sked
3. Primetime Pilot Panic: SAY IT AIN'T SO! Tori Spelling In '90210'?
4. Finke/LA Weekly: The CW Network -- Screwing The TV Viewers

I just heard that CBS is quietly confirming my news from yesterday that one of TV's most high-profile execs Ghen Maynard, EVP for alternative programming and entertainment content for new media at CBS Paramount Network Entertainment Group, is out. See my previous, CBS Reality Guru Exiting Executive Ranks.

SUNDAY AM: Warner Bros' The Dark Knight is still smoking hot at the box office, winning its 4th straight weekend after taking in $26 million from 4,025 North American venues. The last film to do this was 2003's Lord Of The Rings: Return Of The King. Sony's stoner comedy Pineapple Express was in 2nd place with $22.4 million from 3,072 runs. The Batman installment's win was fueled by Friday's $7.5M and Saturday's $10.3M (+37% gross compared to Friday's), while the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen laugher earned $7.9M Friday but fell -3% for Saturday's $7.7M. The two pics fought for U.S. and Canadian supremacy all weekend, with Hollywood exec emails flying fast and furiously to me as Sony claimed victory for Friday while Warner Bros touted its better Saturday and weekend totals. The Chris Nolan-directed comic book caper starring Christian Bale and the late Heath Ledger Dark Knight has taken in a staggering $441.5 million domestic gross in less than a month and is now the 3rd highest grossing film of all-time for North America -- and climbing. The incredible repeat business for Batman is mostly the work of fanboys who want their fave pic to keep setting movie records. But it's still a long way behind Titanic's best-ever $600.7M.

As for the well-reviewed Pineapple Express, it was hampered at the box office by debuting on Wednesday (earning a surprisingly good $12.1 million) which cut into its opening weekend figures. And it's also R-rated. Still, Sony was more than pleased with its 5-day debut of $40.4 million -- especially considering the film's negative cost is only $27M. "The executives at Sony are as high as the characters in the movie over the strong opening for the film," one studio insider quipped. Exit polling showed the opening weekend audience was 58%/42% male-female.

It's unclear what effect the Beijing Olympics will have on moviegoing for the next two weeks. Total box office looks to be down 17% from last year, but that may be due to two Wednesday openings rather than any Olympics impact. The No. 3 movie was Universal's Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor which did $16.1M from 3,780 plays, down 60% from its debut a week ago. Its new cume is $70.6M. Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2 opened Wednesday and managed 4th place for Friday-through Sunday with $10.7M from 2,707 runs and a 5-day cume of $19.7M. Sony's other R-rated comedy was No. 5, the Will Ferrell laugher Step Brothers made $8.9M this weekend for a new $80.9M cume. 

Universal's Mamma Mia! came in #6 with $8M this weekend and passing the $100M marker for a new cume of $104M. The 7th spot went to Warner Bros's Journey To The Center Of The Earth 3D with a $4.8M weekend and new $81.7M cume. Sony's Will Smith starrer Hancock was No. 8 with $3.3M for the weekend and a $221.7M new cume. The 9th spot went to Disney's Swing Vote with a $3.1M weekend and paltry new cume of $12M. And, rounding out the Top 10, Pixar/Disney's Wall-E amade $3M over the weekend for a new cume of $210.1M.

1. 'Pineapple Express' Wins Friday: 'Dark Knight' Too Smoking Hot For Weekend
2. Wed Opening: 'Pineapple Express' $12.1M

EXCLUSIVE: Reliable sources tell me that one of TV's most high-profile execs Ghen Maynard, EVP for alternative programming and entertainment content for new media at CBS Paramount Network Entertainment Group, is about to undergo a major career change. The CBS reality guru will exit his big deal gig and segue into a production deal. No word on who will replace him. Back when he was the Eye network's head of alternative series, Maynard convinced boss Les Moonves to take a chance on Survivor, which changed the landscape of unscripted content and product placement on TV, and helped CBS achieve its turnaround. He also had a hand in launching other longest-running reality skeins like The Amazing Race, Big Brother, and America's Next Top Model (on UPN). But, more recently, Maynard put on the execrable Search For The Next Pussycat Doll and its Girlicious sequel (both on CW) and the hokey Greatest American Dogs this summer. Nowadays CBS reality lacks innovation or creativity, while CW unscripted is just tits and ass. Maynard also gave CBS a black eye when that scandal erupted last fall over the treatment of the children on Kid Nation, the ill-advised series that not only garnered low ratings but which Moonves deeply regretted ever airing because of all the bad publicity. (All Maynard kept saying was that the network hadn't broken any laws...)

Maynard in his career often found himself going back and forth between scripted and unscripted TV fare. He joined CBS in 1997 as manager of drama development exec, helping to put shows like CSI, and Judging Amy, That's Life and The District on the air. Then, he became the Eye's first reality chief as SVP of alternative programming and creative strategies in June 2000.

But in May 2004, newly promoted NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly shocked the industry by hiring Maynard as the No. 2 programming exec to oversee all NBC's comedy and drama development and unscripted fare as EVP for primetime development. (Interestingly, Reilly and Maynard had known each for 10 years ever since Maynard, a Harvard social psych grad who became a twentysomething in the publishing biz, wrote cold contacted many Hollywood execs, and Reilly responded immediately. At the time it was rare for the Eye's execs to leave, and Moonves had been Maynard's mentor. At NBC, he was credited with overseeing then lone hit My Name Is Earl. But after 18 months, Maynard was fired in a shakeup. Moonves offered him a ticket back to CBS in June 2006 with added duties beyond reality to include original programming for online and wireless platforms.

What a shocker. People who worked with this incredibly talented TV and film crossover comedian are reeling after he died in a Chicago hospital early today from complications due to pneumonia. Said Oceans Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen co-star George Clooney through a publicist: "The world just got a little less funny. He will be dearly missed." Bernie Mac was only 50 years old. A publicist says the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated actor suffered from the inflammatory lung disease sarcoidosis but it had gone into remission in 2005. Mac also had memorable co-starring roles in Bad Santa, Guess Who, Mr. 3000, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and Transformers. But he was best known for starring in and producing his Fox television series The Bernie Mac Show which aired from 2001 to 2006. This past truncated pilot season due to the Hollywood writers strike, he was starring in/producing another TV offering to Fox, Starting Under, from Bruce Helford and Warner Bros. What a sad day to lose this comedy original.

SATURDAY PM UPDATE: 'Dark Knight' Wins 4th Weekend In A Row With $26M vs 'Pineapple Express' $22M 

SATURDAY AM: Friday's box office was a nailbiter, but Sony's Pineapple Express won the day with $7.8 million from 3,072. Warner Bros' The Dark Knight was close behind at $7.5 million from 4,025 venues. Oh, this is going to be a fun weekend at the two pics fight for domestic gross supremacy, and Hollywood emails are flying fast and furiously!

But the latest Batman installment should have a better Saturday and therefore take the No. 1 spot for its 4th straight weekend with around $25M, while the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen stoner comedy should end up with $23M. But Sony tells me that's a great outcome considering that Pineapple Express is R-rated with a negative cost of $27M and a 5-day total of $41M (after opening on Wednesday with a surprisingly hefty $12.1M). Meanwhile, Dark Knight can expect a gigantic domestic cume of $440+M by end of Sunday.

It's unclear what effect the Beijing Olympics will have on moviegoing for the next two weeks. Total box office looks to be down 20% from last year, but that may be due to the Wednesday opening of Pineapple Express and The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2 putting in $27M gross on Wednesday/Thursday rather than any Olympics impact. The No. 3 movie Friday was Universal's Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor which did $4.8M from 3,780 plays, down 68% from a week ago. It should finish the weekend with $15.7M and a $70M cume. Sisterhood 2 was in 4th place with $3.9M Friday from 2,707 runs for what could be an $11M FSS and a 5-day cume of $20.5M. And in the 5th spot, Sony's Will Ferrell laugher Step Brothers made $2.7M Friday for probably a $9M weekend. Universal's Mamma Mia! was No. 6 with $2.4M Friday for what should be an $8M weekend.

FRIDAY 6 PM:  Wow, this weekend's domestic box office is going to be closer than first thought. Now I'm hearing from Warner Bros sources that The Dark Knight's matinees today were ahead of those for Pineapple Express which Sony insiders still think may best Batman. Given how movies these days get toppled from first place week after week, it's unreal if TDK can win its 4th weekend in a row.

FRIDAY 2 PM: When there's a Wednesday opening, I'm writing the same box office news over and over until Sunday. Oh joy. So this'll be a quickie. Sony Pictures is hoping the Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen stoner comedy Pineapple Express can finish this weekend in the high $20sM for Friday-to-Sunday and mid-$40sM for the five-day total. The R-rated pic is expected to finally knock off Warner Bros' uber-blockbuster The Dark Knight, which should earn $25M during this weekend. Meanwhile, Warner Bros' The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants 2, which also debuted Wednesday, should take in $15M for this weekend and mid-$20sM for the five-day total from 2,667 venues. Meanwhile, Sony was truly shocked that Pineapple Express is doing so well -- a surprising $12.1M Wednesday and another $6M Thursday from 3,072 theaters in North America. Guess they underestimated how well bongs and edgy comedy go together. (And the next time you movie execs or film agents partake of weed in the office, and a lot of you do, just say you're doing research.)

Forgetting all that Paris Hilton/Britney Spears political nonsense, it's also that time every four years when Hollywood comes under scrutiny for its mega-fundraising on behalf of the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. The Wall Street Journal today identifies the political "bundlers" who have each raised at least $500,000 from relatives, associates and employees for the campaigns of Barack Obama or John McCain. Needless to say, several of the 98 names are well-known in entertainment. According to WSJ research: Obama's bundlers include Charlie Rivkin, the LA-based CEO of Wild Brain Inc; David Geffen, the billionaire investor and bicoastal DreamWorks partner; Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of DreamWorks Animation; Nicole Avant, the LA-based music publisher of Interior Music. That's it. Yes, I, too, was surprised there weren't more Hollywood names on the list. For McCain, there's Jerry Perenchio, the LA-based billionaire investor and chairman of Chartwell Partners; Greg Maffei, the Colorado-based prez/CEO of Liberty Media; and Terry Lanni, the Las Vegas-based chairman of the MGM Mirage. Also, according to Federal Election Commission data as of July 28th, Obama has received $4.7 million in donations and McCain $815K from the TV/movie/music industry -- not a leading sector donation-wise for either candidate.

Obama Hardly A "Hollywood Candidate" -- And Not Necessarily Sumner Redstone's

The 77-year-old Hollywood manager and movie/TV producer died tonight from complications when his kidneys failed after a long illness stemming from heart disease. Bernie Brillstein's longtime partner Brad Grey and his longtime client Lorne Michaels made arrangements for a memorial service Monday at 6 PM at UCLA. I'm told his funeral will be private. Like most everyone in Hollywood, I loved Bernie. Because he was that rarity in showbiz, an astute student of Hollywood history who also learned from it. And he understood the proper use of power in this town, as opposed to the abuse of power, in a way most did not.

Though his father was in the millinery business in New York, Brillstein majored in advertising and marketing in college. He scored two interviews at Madison Avenue agencies thanks to the influence of his uncle, Jack Pearl, an ex-Ziegfield Follies comedian who had become a radio star doing the voice of Baron Munchausen. But in the 1950s advertising was notoriously non-Jewish and the agencies gently hinted that to Brillstein. “They said, ‘Bernie, you’re terrific. But this is no place for you to be,’” Brillstein once said to me. “I loved them for being honest.” Instead, Brillstein landed a job in the mailroom at the William Morris office on Broadway.

After just three months, Brillstein was placed in the Morris publicity department, where his job consisted of writing bios for the agency’s biggest stars and canvassing the nightclub owners and TV bookers with flyers. When the department head retired, Brillstein, not yet out of his twenties, was put in charge. “Working in publicity in an agency is like being in charge of valet at a parapalegic camp,” Brillstein quipped to me. He was moved into commercials. So Brillstein began cold-calling the commercial bookers and pushing Morris clients for ad spots on radio and TV. With an easy laugh and honed sense of humor, Brillstein was a born “people person,” the kind strangers and colleagues alike felt they could trust the first time they met him. He easily established relationships within his new world, befriending one of his new clients, Edward R. Murrow. Brillstein personally pushed the journalist’s pioneering TV show, Person to Person. Thanks to smart decisions like that, Brillstein built his department, generally considered a loser, into a $2.5 million a year business. His success caught the eye of Morris’ powerful head of TV packaging, Wally Jordan, who brought Brillstein into the TV department to build on the connections with managers he’d forged in the commercials department. Bernie even managed to sign two clients away from then No. 1 agency MCA. The signings caught the attention of Marty Kummer, a former top agent with Wasserman at MCA who had opened a management firm with his biggest client, Jack Paar and offered Bernie a job. Brillstein liked the idea of advising and guiding a star’s career, so in 1963 Brillstein left Morris for Martin Kummer Associates. (When the two brought aboard manager Jerry Weintraub some years later, the firm’s name was changed to Management 3).

At Morris, a colleague asked Brillstein to meet with a little-known puppeteer, Jim Henson, whose acts included Kermit the Frog and Rowlf the Dog. Brillstein signed him immediately and then booked him on the Jimmy Dean Show. Two months after Brillstein left Morris, Jim Henson called and said, “I need you.” Over the next decade, Brillstein made a fortune representing not only Henson but also the producing team of John Aylesworth and Frank Peppiatt. The producers came up with an idea for a corn-pone version of Laugh-In for the country-western set called Hee Haw and, in 1969, Brillstein helped package the show to CBS. Though the network cancelled the show in 1971, Hee Haw was sold into syndication, where it ran for another 23 years, becoming one of the longest-running shows in TV history, pulling in millions of dollars in licensing fees and making Brillstein a rich man.

In 1970, Brillstein left Management 3 and moved to Los Angeles, where he decided to go it alone. He built up a list of top comedy writers, including The Bob Newhart Show’s Tom Patchett and Jay Tarses and comedy writers Lorne Michaels and Alan Zweibel, and he packaged them all into new TV shows for the networks. By 1975, Brillstein was one of the hottest personal managers and TV packagers in the entertainment business. In that year alone, he sold both The Muppet Show, brainchild of puppeteer Jim Henson, and Saturday Night Live, created by Lorne Michaels. The story behind SNL is now legendary, but it bears repeating: when Michaels and Brillstein came to pitch the idea of SNL to NBC, the network executives simply stared at the men. “They said, ‘Who are these Jews from California?’ They absolutely hated us,” Brillstein remarked. When SNL's first show generated 200 complaints, NBC wanted to pull the plug. It was Brillstein who fought to keep it on the air. “You idiots,” Brillstein told them. “Don’t you realize you have a hit here?”

As SNL grew in the ratings, so did the popularity of its cast, and almost overnight the show produced break-out stars in Second City alumni John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Gilda Radner, who all relied solely on Brillstein’s managerial advice and support. The first time Brillstein met John Belushi was 15 minutes before the first taping of Saturday Night Live. Two days earlier, NBC’s legal department had sent Belushi an interim employment agreement. The actor was worried about a small clause that said NBC had the right to cancel his contract if the comedian were “disfigured.” Now, with the cameras ready to roll, the actor still hadn’t signed. An NBC executive was desperately pleading with him to sign the agreement when Belushi leaned over to Brillstein and asked, “Would you sign this contract?”

“I designed the fucking contract,” Brillstein replied. “And you can always break it.”

It was the beginning of a long and close friendship, almost like father and son. Brillstein was fiercely protective of the troubled comedian, defensive when people complained about his work habits, his unreliability and, more critically, his growing drug use. Brillstein understood obsessive behavior. During the 1970s, Brillstein had beat a gambling problem. He also liked to eat, and his weight problems had forced him into perennial attire of baggy sweaters. (Client Richard Dreyfuss called him “Shelley Winters with a beard.”)

By 1980, Belushi and Aykroyd had left SNL to become the hottest comedic actors in Hollywood. Brillstein loved making deals for them over breakfast at the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel. But Brillstein had made most of his money in TV. He had only dabbled in feature films and, frankly, been skewered almost every time out. He had secured a $35,000 contract for Belushi to appear in 1978’s National Lampoon’s Animal House, an enormous sum given the fact that Belushi had no film experience. Aykroyd, too, could have had a part but declined in order to keep on writing for Saturday Night Live. But like most performers, Belushi was impatient for success. He felt the fast track lay in Hollywood films. He had been in three minutes of the 1977 Jack Nicholson vehicle Goin’ South. Now Belushi and Aykroyd felt there was a future in their April 1978 SNL characters of Joliet Jake and his silent brother, Elwood. They asked Brillstein to convince Atlantic Records to produce an album for $125,000, Briefcase Full of Blues, which was released in December 1978. Then Brillstein booked the Blues Brothers to appear as the opening act in a 9-night engagement that comedian Steve Martin had scheduled at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles the next fall.

Over the next months Aykroyd expanded the act into a full-length Blues Brothers movie. By then, Animal House was the No. 1 movie in the country. That summer, Belushi phoned then Universal exec Sean Daniels about Blues Brothers, and Daniels bit. Brillstein was thrilled how it was all turning out. But he resisted Steven Spielberg's coaxing Belushi to take a part in 1941 for $350,000. Brillstein liked the money but argued against the project on the grounds that Spielberg had never done comedy and the script was not really that funny. But Belushi told Brillstein, “I can’t turn down Spielberg.” 

Meanwhile, Brillstein was fighting with Universal for a bigger piece of the Animal House pie -- $60 million so far on Uni's negative cost of $2.7 million -- for Belushi and himself. Thom Mount, then head of Universal, was trying to make a 3-picture deal for Belushi. Ok, Brillstein said, but a discussion of the future might begin with the past. Why not agree to give Belushi some retroactive percentage of the Animal House profits? But Universal wouldn’t budge. In the end, Mount would only offer a $250,000 bonus for Belushi if he signed the deal -- take it or leave it. Brillstein left the office and called Belushi, who had only one demand: Get the check today. Brillstein and Belushi signed the 3-picture deal: $350,000 for 1941, $500,000 for The Blues Brothers and $750,000 for a third movie Continental Divide. But Brillstein's take of the Blues Brothers was only $150,000 -- peanuts, as far as he was concerned. So, in 1980, Brillstein signed with CAA's Michael Ovitz. Except for Jim Henson, Brillstein’s clients signed with CAA as well. The relationship paid off immediately: Ovitz did a deal for Neighbors guaranteeing Belushi $1.25 million, and Brillstein $400,000. “I nearly shit,” Brillstein recalled.

Managers traditionally charged 15% of a client’s salary. But Brillstein had long ago found a much more profitable way of generating income as a TV packager. Using his stable of A-list writer-producers  to create projects, Brillstein would load as many of his own writers onto a show as he could, generating even more fees, and then attach himself as executive producer and sell it to a network. As executive producer, Brillstein not only collected a producer’s fee but also profit sharing and backend participation. With syndication and licensing fees, a hit show could bring in millions upon millions. Now Bernie was packaging himself into Belushi's and Aykroyd's movies as well. But unlike TV, an executive producer on a movie was for the most part an empty title. Usually it was given to someone who was in control of a project at one point and then lost it, but was still bound to the project contractually. Other times it was a quid pro quo, for example, a payback for delivering the rights to some material. In Brillstein’s case, to put it bluntly, it was a “bribe,” the price the studio had to pay him to deliver his stars. A manager putting himself in business with his own clients was, to say the least, a gray area. It could be argued that the arrangement was better for the client because it saved him paying the manager's commission. But it was also a conflict of interest. No matter how straight a manager played it, the fact that such questions could even be raised was troubling for many. But seemingly such matters did not concern Brillstein or Brillstein’s clients.

By now Bernie was having a tough time keeping Belushi’s drug problems from careening the comedian's career. Belushi by 1982 was living in a bungalow at the Chateau Marmont and hounding Brillstein for cash. The day before he died of an overdose in Bungalow 3, Belushi told Brillstein he loved him. Bernie was called when Belushi's body was found on March 5th. The ambulance rushed the actor to Cedars-Sinai. While Brillstein waited, he received the one call he had always dreaded. He dropped the receiver. He would never see his friend and client again. The remorse was overwhelming. Followed by anger over first investigative journalist Bob Woodward's book Wired blaming Brillstein and the rest of Belushi's entourage for not doing enough to help the comedian's drug addiction, and then the movie.

Aykroyd and Brillstein sold Ghostbusters with both of them attached. Brillstein had bought the rights to the screeplay from his client for $1. But surprisingly, the studios were reluctant to bite once the script went out. The screenplay relied heavily on silly slapstick and oneliners and not everybody got it. And Aykroyd, who would star, had yet to prove he could carry a movie without his Blues Brothers sidekick. “Universal had it first and passed; John Landis passed; a lot of people passed on it,” Brillstein told me. “But we owned it and I was instrumental in keeping it alive.” So was Ovitz who helped structure a difficult deal with Columbia. Released in 1984, Ghostbusters quickly became the highest grossing comedy of all time. 

By 1986, Brillstein had never been hotter in TV, packaging Buffalo Bill, Open All Night, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd and The Gary Shandling Show. Brillstein had a commitment to NBC for another show and thought puppeteer Paul Fusco's and writer-client Tom Patchett's Alf might be the perfect project. Fusco, Brillstein and Patchett all met in Brandon Tartikoff’s office to present their pitch. But the presentation, as Brillstein put it, was going in the “crapper.” Then suddenly Fusco reached into a bag and pulled out Alf, who promptly exploded in a huge sneeze, then wiped his nose on Tartikoff’s arm. Stunned, the NBC executive laughed hysterically. Tartikoff grasped the marketing and licensing potential immediately and bought the series on the spot. Alf immediately shot to the top of the ratings and soon there were Alf plush toys everywhere. Brillstein had added another cash cow.

But then Brillstein's luck changed. He became embroiled in a long-running feud with Michael Ovitz and CAA. He took an ill-fated job as head of Lorimar Entertainment's new movie studio thinking it would give him the stature in Hollywood he had long deserved. But Bernie also knew the moment he gave up his management company he would lose all his clients and his power base. At the time, The Brillstein Company guided the careers of such in-front-of-the-camera talents as Dabney Coleman, Richard Dreyfuss, Peter Falk, Garry Shandling, Bronson Pinchot, Gilda Radner, Jim Belushi, Geena Davis, Andy Williams, Norm Crosby, Thelma Hopkins, Marsha Mason and George Wendt. His writer clients included Jim Henson, Pat Lee, John Moffitt, Alan Rafkind, Jay Tarses, Dave Thomas, Alan Zweibel, Sheldon Keller, Buzz Kohan, Marty Pasetta, Perry Rosemont, Kenny Solms and Barry Sand. In addition, Brillstein was the executive director of five network TV series -- Alf, It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, The Slap Maxwell Story, and The Nell Carter Show.

But Brillstein, as always, had a solution: why didn’t Adelson purchase Brillstein’s company? Brillstein not only sold his management company to Lorimar for $26 million but retained control of the firm as well. To avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest even though one certainly existed, Brillstein agreed to take a salary of only $1 a year for his new position as CEO of Lorimar Film Entertainment. As Variety noted, the deal created “one heaping big show business macher.” 

But soon Brillstein's representation of Aykroyd ended. Then Merv Adelson, without warning, agreed to sell Lorimar-Telepictures and all its holdings, including the movie company and Brillstein’s management company, to Warner Bros. The studio quickly folded Lorimar into Warners, and Bernie found himself out of a job. He was forced to start all over again. Brillstein took his golden parachute and decided to go back into the management business. He also took a very young Brad Grey under his wing. Together, the two were able to sign back many of Bernie’s former clients and start the careers of many new hot young ones. Slowly Grey took over the running of the company, named Brillstein-Grey Entertainment by 1991, until 2005 when Brad left to become chairman/CEO of the Paramount Motion Picture Group.

It was an incredible testament to Brillstein's legacy that, when Brillstein-Grey decided in June 2007 to rebrand itself, the talent management and movie/TV production entity paid homage to its founder and mentor by renaming itself Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Said Brillstein in the press release, “It’s been a pleasure seeing this company evolve over the past 38 years.”

And it was a pleasure to know you, Bernie.