Question: Does the Slumdog Millionaire team have a big enough mantel for all these awards? The DGA says its Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally served as “a near-perfect barometer” for the Academy Award for Best Director. Only 6 times since the DGA Award’s inception in 1948…

OPEN BOARD MEETING When: Monday, February 2, 2009 6 p.m. – 9 p.m. (Light meal will be served beginning at 5:30 p.m.) Where: James Cagney Boardroom 5757 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036 The Hollywood Division board will open its February 2, 2009 meeting to members-at-large for observation. This is part of the…

Good for the geeks! I’m told that movie sites dedicated to comic book heroes, Star Trek sequels, and everything else sci-fi, action-oriented, and gory are promising to boycott all promotion of this year’s Academy Awards because The Dark Knight wasn’t nominated for Best Picture. Why, they’re even refusing to display…

NBC announced on the eve of the Super Bowl that it has sold the last two of the 67 advertising spots for the game and now 32 advertisers will be represented, pushing total ad revenue for the event to a precedent-setting $206 million. The ads sold for between $2.4M and $3M per 30-second slot this year. Ad revenue for…

Pursuant to the Screen Actors Guild Constitution, Article V, Section 1. (J.) (4.), the following actions are hereby authorized through written assent by a majority of the members of the SAG National Board of Directors.I. Effective immediately, Doug Allen is terminated as an employee of Screen Actors Guild. Upon…

As you are aware, late last year, the SAG and AFTRA National Boards both approved in principle the terms of an agreement concerning the conditions for negotiating the commercials contracts under the Phase One Agreement (the “Commercials Contracts Agreement”). The Commercials Contracts Agreement has now been finalized…

I hear 2 agents — one lit, one marketing — and 10 assistants gone in one fell swoop.

This year, Telepictures did a pilot for former ANC sitcom star George Lopez in his own late night talker. But the syndication arm of Warner Bros couldn’t sell it. Now I’m told that a deal is about to close for the Lopez talker to air at either 11PM or 11:30PM on TBS. My source says to expect an announcement…

So the folks returning from NATPE are telling me that “this will be the last year of NATPE as we know it”. Because they say NATPE couldn’t fill the floor space so the powers-that-be will eliminate it next year. Once upon a time, that floor space had quite a storied tradition when independents like King World and…

According to an internal memo from new publisher Eddy Hartenstein, the Los Angeles Times Business section beginning March 2nd will be “enhanced by bringing back the ‘Company Town’ feature, which will serve as the anchor for our ‘business of entertainment’ coverage”. And it’s now official that Calendar’s “deadlines to…

First, I should explain that someone close to the star of TNT’s The Closer clarified to me that “her team is completely intact except for Gersh. She has the same manager, same lawyer, same publicist, same assistant. Everything’s the same but Gersh.” And, further, that her rethinking her agency “has nothing to do with…

So this was a hot book but it’s been a cold movie in development at Paramount. Two years ago, Brad Pitt wanted the project for his Plan B production company. Then a year ago, Julia Roberts attached herself to play the lead and develop it. And most recently, Ryan Murphy came on to direct. But now Paramount is about to…