Saturday, November 3, 2007
Paris Hilton Goes On Poster-Ripping Rampage After Discovering Porn Shop Isn’t Moving Enough Of Her Sex Tape Product
9:00AM Defamer Hollywood | During one of the surprise quality-control checks Paris Hilton conducts at all retail outlets stocking highly successful adult-video brand-extension One Night in Paris, the heiress became enraged when she discovered that a Toronto porn emporium had completely ignored her meticulously crafted guidelines for the proper promotion and display of her blockbuster product. More »
Letterman Prepares His Viewers For The Writers Strike
8:45AM Defamer Hollywood | As nearly every article we’ve read to date on the possible impact of the writers strike has pointed out, the first victims of the walkout will be late-night talk shows; without the script lead-times enjoyed by sitcom and drama productions, their hosts will immediately be pushed in front of the cameras without material produced by their absentee writing staffs, forced to read from cue cards offering no more detailed commentary on the day’s events than [NEXT THREE MINUTES: RIFF UNCOMFORTABLY ON HOW YOU HAVE NO ONE TO WRITE JOKES ABOUT WHATEVER IT WAS THAT BRITNEY SPEARS/GEORGE BUSH/HILLARY CLINTON DID TODAY.] More »Jon Stewart Savours His Last Pre-Strike Moments Of Having ‘Words’ To Use
8:30AM Defamer Hollywood | A commenter on our post about David Letterman’s writers strike segment on last night’s episode of The Late Show recommended that we go back to check out Jon Stewart’s comments on the same topic on The Daily Show (the program we’re going to miss most of all), in which he let viewers know that they could watch reruns during any strike-related hiatus for free on their fancy new website, a.gift made possible by the generosity of advertisers unafraid to throw their money away on a medium likely never to generate enough profits to share with the employees who come up with all those “words” he’s fond of reading. We followed the reader’s helpful advice and found the clip. Enjoy. The Daily Show [thedailyshow.com] Previously: Letterman Prepares His Viewers For The Writers Strike [Defamer] Categories/Tags: Clips, Jon Stewart, long goodbyes, The Daily Show More »
Scabs
8:00AM Defamer Hollywood | Now that the studios and networks have an official start date for the strike, executives looking to beat the scab-staffing rush can get a jump-start on their creative needs by hitting Craigslist, online home to the town’s most eager, brightest nonunion talent: Scab for Hire Email me Monday when your employees walk out. I have a degree in Journalism and Philosophy. I work super cheap as my experience is low. I’ll write/re-write anything, for art’s sake or money’s. [Craigslist] More »
Britney Spears, Cop-Foot Killer
7:45AM Defamer Hollywood | Leaving yet another of those custody hearings in which Commissioner Scott Gordon places life-sized cardboard cut-outs of Britney and K-Fed on either sides of the room, plops both children dead center, and renders his verdict based on which lesser-of- two-evil- parent-standees the boys end up crawling to, the singer once again rolled over a bystander’s foot with her car as she peeled away from the proceedings. Only this time, that foot belonged to a cop: Law enforcement sources tell TMZ the LAPD is conducting an investigation into a traffic mishap Friday, when Britney Spears ran over an L.A. County Sheriff deputy’s foot. Sources tell TMZ that the victim has no broken bones but is hobbling around the courthouse on crutches and has been reassigned to light duty. More »
Trade Roundup: In Denial About The Coming Labour Apocalypse, Hollywood Keeps Announcing New Projects Like Nothing’s Wrong
7:30AM Defamer Hollywood | In a badly timed announcement of blockbuster-derived profits, Viacom crows about the “phenomenal success” of “new global brand Transformers” that helped lift their net income by 80 per cent, forgetting to transfer the revenues to a balance-sheet loss column and publicly lament that “there’s no money to be made in this dying business of ours.” [Variety] · Knowing that TV is, like film, a financial dead end (see bullet point above), Oprah is launching her own channel on the YouTubes. If that venture proves as successful as the media mogul hopes, the purchase of the entire internet could quickly follow. [THR] · Warner Bros. is so pleased with Wedding Crashers director David Dobkin’s work on Fred Claus that they’ve signed him to a three-year deal, during which he will produce and helm a variety of projects that may or may not involve Vince Vaughn. [THR] More »
UPDATE: WGA Declares Monday “Bring Your Picket Signs And Red T-Shirts To Work Day”
7:15AM Defamer Hollywood | As expected, the WGA took the enthusiastic shouts of the 3,000 or so writers who showed up last night’s meeting as a sign that now would be a pretty good time for a walkout, officially announcing moments ago that the picket-line-walking and slogan-singalong fun will begin Monday at the gates of every studio in town. The LAT has the e-mail that went out to the membership: Subject: Important Contract 2007 Development IT’S OFFICIAL – This afternoon, the WGAE Council and WGAW Board unanimously voted to call a strike. The Writers Guilds will go on strike Monday, November 5th at 12:01 AM. At that time, all Guild-covered work under the MBA must cease. We will be sending more detailed information over the weekend. More »
‘Indiana Jones 4′ Thief Gets Two Years In Jail For Crimes Against The Most-Anticipated Sequel Of Our Time
7:00AM Defamer Hollywood | Rather than take matters into his own omnipotent hands by calling down a bolt of righteous lightning from the Southern California skies to smite the man who recently plundered his treasure trove of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull secrets and tried to sell them on the internet black market, Hollywood deity Steven Spielberg allowed the local justice system to punish the thief, who pleaded guilty yesterday to his crimes against cinematic archaeology Roderick Davis, 37, of Cerritos pleaded guilty Thursday to receiving stolen property and commercial burglary. As part of his plea deal, he will serve two years and four months in state prison. More »
Short Ends: On Going Fast
6:50AM Defamer Hollywood | Just when we thought there was nothing that could possibly make us smile on this long, depressing day, we flipped back through our copy of Digital Variety, finding Go Fast. For the moment, at least, everything seems right with the world. Speaking Truth to Senile Power Dept: You know who isn’t especially charmed by Larry King’s patented “zero research” interviewing technique? Jerry Seinfeld. Don’t you know who he is, Larry? 75 million fucking viewers, Larry! EW.com’s readers may not realise that the term “of all time” includes the period before Prison Break debuted. One clear beneficiary of the writers strike: NaNoWriMo. We know we’ve already been there once this week, but now, more than ever, we think we need a little unicorn magic in our lives. More »
