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I told you this would happen, and now it has: the Alliance for Motion Picture and Television Producers representing the Big Media moguls finally acknowledged today that after 13 days the negotiations with SAG are at a stalemate with only 2 days left go. And, as I predicted, the AMPTP is blaming everything on the Screen Actors Guild. I can't help but admire how faithfully the Hollywood CEOs follow the scripts they write. Especially at a time when the movie studios have put into effect a de facto feature strike. (See my previous, FIRST NEWS ABOUT SAG-AMPTP TALKS)
The organization that speaks for the CEO clique running Hollywood issued a "Negotiations Update" that breaks its silence over the progress, or lack of it, in the talks with SAG:
"The AMPTP has been negotiating with SAG now for 13 days. Last week, we asked AFTRA to delay the start of its negotiations until May 5th so that we could give the SAG talks every opportunity to produce an agreement. Since the SAG negotiations are due to wrap up on Friday, May 2nd, today is a good time to let you know where things stand.
When we requested an extra week for the SAG negotiations, we told you that there were "significant gaps" between the parties. Candidly, we must offer the same assessment of the negotiations today, with just over two days to go. Although both parties have spent considerable time in the negotiating room, we are not yet close to an agreement. This is the case for two fundamental reasons:
First, SAG initially rejected the framework for new media that was established through the DGA, WGA and AFTRA Network Code negotiations. The Producers’ position has been that there is no valid reason to upend the new media framework that has already been accepted by writers, directors, and AFTRA Network Code. Last week, SAG indicated that it would be willing to live within the existing new media framework – but only with more than 70 changes to the framework, some of which would go a long way toward making the framework itself unworkable.
The second reason is this: SAG’s willingness to work with the
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It's yet another sign of the shifting fortunes of TV in general along with the downsizing in network pilots and upfronts etc. An insider tells me that editor Ian Birch and the two managing editors Lois Draegin and Steve Sonksy and several others, including the marketing department, got the word this morning they'd be exiting. I heard that Birch, an editor at Heat (that hot tabloid in the UK) didn't even come in to the building today, while publisher Scott Crystal and a Human Resources henchwoman were "running around handing out the news that TV Guide is getting gutted today." The timing couldn't be worse: TV Guide is holding its annual high-profile "Sexiest Stars" party in LA on Thursday. 
So the trial that would not end is finally ending with closing arguments. Not much of a Hollywood angle to report, except for the lawyer for LAPD Sgt Mark Arneson, who is accused of doing all those illegal law enforcement database investigations. I've been reading the coverage - anxiously awaiting the verdict on this end! "It makes no sense that Mr. Ovitz a pillar of the hollywood community would hire Mr. Pellicano to put a fish on a car of a reporter. If he had a problem with The New York Times, he would just call the editor."
"The problem facing Saunders was that he had to remind the jurors of each and every count – not only matching the alleged crimes to the names of victims, but also to whom, exactly, among the defendants, the counts pertained. Saunders also had to give a brief summary of the charges, which ran his argument to almost an hour past the trial’s ... 
She's booked all over CNN, ABC, and CBS (but not Fox News Channel because she chose not to go on there). And NBC? Well, one insider says she was booked on Keith Olberman and Morning Joe to talk about her tome -- and then unbooked. "These are shows that call her regularly to come on. And then the word came from on high that she had to be cancelled." Arianna's accolytes are pointing the finger at Tim Russert, well known to be ridiculously thin-skinned, for blackballing her internally at NBC and not permitting her on any of the NBC network or cable outlets. 
"The game business quantifies critical reviews and assigns scores. Metacritic.com, which also aggregates reviews for film, television, books, DVDs and music, is the game industry Q rating. The value of the property you are trying sell, as well as the ability to sell at all, is directly related to the Metacritic score of your last title. The Godfather is the only film with a perfect 100 on Metacritic. Today, GTA IV joins The Godfather in the 100 club (The 100 was for the PlayStation 3 version, the Xbox 360 scored slightly lower at 99). This is significant for a lot of reasons. First, GTA IV will have the critical praise of The Godfather, but it will have the box office of Titanic. While the direct relationship is not as unusual as film, it is still somewhat unusual in our business. In terms of the score, to 
But ultimately it's what's inside the trade paper that counts. "It all has a fresh-coat-of-paint-on-the-Titanic vibe to me," one THR source tells me. "I think the money could have been far better spent keeping bodies in the building that are now sorely, desperately needed."
the 2006 site redesign that was perceived as "botched" mostly by the newsroom and the new executives. (Feedback from actual readers and metrics then were generally good.) Most of the inside-the-trade complaints concerned navigation issues. The newsroom thought breaking news was buried or hard to find. The business development side wanted a permanent home for its advertorial issues to grow consumer traffic. And advertising wanted more prominent video to sell pre-rolls. So does the new site solve any of these?
After 2 straight years of 
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