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Since July 28th when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art first announced that it would end its 4-decades-old film program in mid-October because of $1 million in losses over the last 10 years, an online protest has been growing. There are now over 2,100 signers of an online petition (including top-level movie critics, artists, dignitaries, and film-lovers from around the world), an active and vocal Facebook group, Twitter feeds, a Youtube video (search save film at lacma) and an email writing campaign. Marty Scorsese jumped into the fray with an open letter to LACMA director Michael Govan and the museum. Now the protest group http://savefilmatlacma.blogspot.com/ 
has confirmed it will meet with Govan on September 1st. "This so-called "popcorn summit" has as its stated goals to convey the critical importance of the LACMA film program for our community; help find ways to reinstate and enhance the museum's commitment to film; and present Michael Govan with our petition," the grassroots organization says. "The meeting location is still unconfirmed. Present at the meeting will be film scholars, movie critics, film lovers and others deeply affected by the museum's decision. We are pleased Mr. Govan committed to this meeting."
At the same time, SaveFilm@LACMA expresses puzzlement by LACMA's lack of response to Scorsese's passionate letter to preserve the film program and commit to film as an ... Read More »
I've since discovered that at least 14 agents have exited WMA since January 2007 -- Holly Baril, Louise Ward, Ken Freimann, Theresa Peters, Jack Tantleff, Caroline Michel, Ed Bicknell, Jeff Kolodny, Marc Provissierro, Marcus Wiley, Kenny Goodman, Phil Alberstat, Scott Lonker, Brian Stern, and more may be out the door (like Brian DePersia even though he just argued his way back in). "It wasn't intentional," the source said. And those numbers don't include the wholesale firings and hirings that have rocked WMA for years after Jim Wiatt and Dave Wirtschafter took over in 1999.
NBC Universal and Google entered into a multi-year partnership in which Google will broker TV advertising on some NBC cable channels. The deal, set to go into effect in coming months, covers advertising inventory through Google TV Ads service on Sci Fi, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC, Sleuth, and Chiller, and maybe more. Google and NBC will split the revenue and collaborate on marketing and research. The Google TV Ads service can report second-by-second TV usage data allowing more precise measurement of ad viewership. For NBC, this pact is a way to target ads at specific audiences and attract new advertisers. 
I love anything dealing with Hollywood history, so I enjoy Tom Rothman's historical monologue Fox Legacy on the Fox Film Channel. But, surprisingly, today's New York Times 
So does that mean Rothman uses the film research library, too? If so, sad that it won't be there much longer. Meanwhile, I've heard it costs between $750,000 to $1 million a year to keep the library open. Now let's get creative. Fox Legacy could embrace the facility and maybe even shoot the show there to help underwrite it. That's a win-win situation for all concerned.
Like there isn't enough media consolidation... News reports say NBC Universal and two partners have reached a deal to buy The Weather Channel from Landmark Communications, ending a long negotiation that had attracted several Big Media companies -- 
Time Warner and CBS and Comcast. The AP says the purchase price was $3.5 billion in cash. NBC Uni was joined in the deal by private equity firms The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. The entertainment company picks up The Weather Channel, seen by 97% of U.S. cable subscribers, weather services for newspapers and radio stations, and the widely used Web site Weather.com. 
EXCLUSIVE: I'm told Nicole Chabot is moving to BNC (Bragman, Nyman, Cafarelli) after six years at BWR (Baker Winokur Ryder). She'll be a director in media relations. The reason this is interesting is because it puts BNC into the hot young comic business bigtime, adding to the flackery's already heavyweight list. "This is potentially a significant shift in the personal PR business especially in the comedy marketplace," my insider tells me. Chabot at Beverly Hills-based BWR (a cog in the big wheel of Ogilvie PR Worldwide) helped handle Rainn Wilson, Chris Rock, Jason Segel, Rob Corddry, Danny McBride, Jason Biggs, Andy Richter, Nick Swardson, Robert Hoffman, Clarke Duke, Craig Robinson, Sean Avery, Jay Hernandez, Jody Hill, Michael Rosenbaum, Dan Fogler, Terry Crews, Diora Baird, JR Bourne and others.
I'm hearing that Rainn Wilson, Rob Corddry, Clarke Duke, Craig Robinson, Jay Hernandez, Diora Baird and Michael Rosenbaum are probably moving with her to the Interpublic-owned ghetto of flackeries inside West Hollywood's Green Whale. No word yet on the others, but more are expected to follow. BWR sent this statement to me this afternoon: "BWR wants to clarify that Nicole Chabot was assigned day-to-day to many clients as she was recently promoted from her junior publicist position last year. She did not sign, nor is she taking, Chris Rock, Jason Segel, Danny McBride, Jason Biggs, Jody Hill or Dan Fogler." 
But after a female phenomenal Friday opening of $26.9M, the pic plunged 34% to make only $17.7 million on Saturday. And Sunday estimates expect another 37% downturn for $11.1 million. So on both Saturday and Sunday, the romantic comedy will be beaten by Paramount's Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull which playing in 4,264 venues earned $12.2M on Friday, $19.8M Saturday and an estimated $13.9M Sun for a weekend total of $46M, which was -54% from its Memorial Weekend debut. But because of steady business, it's made a cumulative $216.8M. That's exactly what Hollywood pros had been warning about: that Sex And The City would be a one-day, and one-weekend, wonder with no legs. But it still opened as the biggest R-rated comedy motion picture (beating American Pie 2's $45.1M) and the 5th biggest R-rated film ever released (behind The Matrix, The Passion Of The Christ, 300, and Hannibal). The only female-driven movie to come close to SATC in box office was the Hannah Montana movie, but there's no comparable R-rated chick flick.
Within days of USA Network renewing Law & Order: Criminal Intent with an order for 16 episodes, the series has just lost its showrunner. I'm told Warren Leight has left to be the showrunner of HBO's In Treatment. It's a big blow to Bonnie Hammer, promoted two months ago to head the newly created NBCU Cable Entertainment & Cable Studio. The former USA Network/Sci Fi Channel boss had been in the midst of hammering out a new deal with Leight, under whose leadership CI was the top drama series in basic cable primetime for the fourth quarter, more than doubling USA's audience in the 10 p.m. Thursday slot from the same period the previous year. The first-run CI segments last fall averaged about 4.1 million viewers and about 2 million adults 18-49. By contrast, HBO's In Treatment has struggled to find an audience since its January 28th premiere tbombed with only 446,000 viewers. To drum up interest in the first time an HBO series has been stripped Monday-Friday, the pay channel has been putting full and free episodes on the Internet. So Leight will face quite an uphill battle. The Tony Award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and film director joined the staff of CI in its 2nd season on a tip from Theresa Rebeck to then executive producer Rene Balcer, who subsequently recommended Leight to takeover as the show's executive producer and head writer in 2006 when Balcer left at the end of ... 
It's hard not to root for a Depression era kiddie movie that costs under $9 million, showcases good clean fun for little girls, and stars Abigail Breslin, the Hayley Mills of her generation, as well as a great supporting cast of very funny adults like Wally Shawn, Jane Krakowski, Joan Cusak and Stanley Tucci. So it sucks that the studio for Kit Kittredge: An American Girl opening July 2 has now been killed off. Can Picturehouse successfully release a film when it’s shutting down? In this case, apparently yes thanks to Hollywood greed. Orphaned Kit Kittredge has been adopted by Warner Bros and supervised by New Line and groomed by HBO. But it's Warner Bros who now controls the American Girl franchise and is already developing the next one (as a musical set in the 1970s). So let's look back at all the people who have fought to parent this little pic.
for the network run jointly by Warner Bros and CBS. Then silence. The "explanation" making the rounds was that DiSanto, who's been a very big deal at MTV for more than a decade, was still negotiating his CW deal. Well, DiSanto this week had a puff piece written about him where he said he isn't leaving MTV. But today, this CW rumor went from a whisper to the talk of the town. So why? "Someone is really pushing this story hard," says a CBS insider. "But I believe the person who told me it's not happening." And the bigtime TV power-players also think it's smoke, not fire. Perhaps it's karma that DiSanto (EVP of series, development and animation for MTV and 
head of programming for MTV2), has to work overtime to dispel the chatter. After all, this is the guy responsible for some of the most-talked-about 
roduced by the media giant. Ben Grossman has been named editor of Broadcasting & Cable, overseeing both digital and print. The announcement was made today by Reed Television & Publishing Group president Jeff DeBalko and Television Group publisher Larry Dunn, who also announced that Mark Robichaux will assume the same position with Multichannel News. Grossman was formerly Los Angeles Bureau Chief for B&C. Robichaux led B&C since August, when he was promoted from executive editor. He was a 13-year veteran of the Wall Street Journal. 
"The reason they pushed 'TST' out is that he had really fought the sales guy Larry Dunn about giving it all up to advertisers and trying to pass off editorial that was really advertorial. TST is an old school principled guy and said, "You can't do this.' " Also, the moves reduce payroll even further. Both outlets are major trades in the TV business, although their differentiation has long been a 
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