I can't believe UTA is making yet another big hire in the past six months. (Are Berkus and Zimmer and Sures et al printing money in the basement of their Beverly Hills offices?) Rena Ronson is highly regarded in indie film finance circles (in fact, people were really surprised when she and Cassian Elwes, who together ran WMA's formidable independent division, were not asked to stay after the Endeavor takeover). This could give a big boost to UTA's film finance and foreign sales business which have been run by motion picture lit partner Rich Klubeck who himself has been doing double duty repping many of the agency's big name filmmakers and corporate clients. It's interesting that UTA would bring on a high profile indie person like Ronson during a time when the business is getting tougher and tougher every day. (Look at what just happened to Miramax which used to be the industry's flagship specialty division). But UTA insiders tell me that this area is a big priority for the agency which has always championed independent filmmaking, and especially now as it get harder to get films financed. I hear that Ronson's first move for the agency will be traveling to the Abu Dhabi Circle Conference that begins today where she will represent her new agency to the international film community.

UPDATES More From Universal Town Hall Meeting

It's annoying when Universal Pictures mouthpieces don't think it's important what its top execs say about the studio's movie slate plans, even when asked by journalists, who help inform shareholders of parent company GE. So, instead of having the PR-bots "interpret" what was said at Uni's town hall meeting this week, I finally pressured the flacks to watch the video and tell me exactly what was said:

"Ron Meyer (in response to a question asked about possible new ownership of NBC Universal) "I don't think they are going to shrink us in half, or that we're going to make five films instead of 16 films. I don't believe that would be the case."

Donna Langley (in response to a moderator asking if Uni will make the same number of films): "I think that the number of films that we will make will probably be an average number, of what we've been doing for the last eight, eight years. Probably somewhere in the range of, you know, 13-15, seems appropriate. Looks about where we are headed at the moment. That means there is a lot for everybody to do."

The flacks stress that Donna was talking about Universal productions only, which include Working Title but not Focus Features, nor Rogue, nor any other acquisitions the studio makes.

He died on Sunday. The head business honcho at Paramount for many years, he mentored some of the top studio and entertainment lawyers around Hollywood. "He created the Paramount business affairs system that then got imported to Disney, then DreamWorks, then Fox," one protégé told me. "Everyone over 40 knew or knew of him. He was a very big deal."

These things are so pro forma. For instance, no one stood up and asked, "Hey, I read about Marc Shmuger, and why didn't you fire him months ago?" Instead, Ron Meyer and the new regime were gracious about him. Though one questioner did say he'd been reading "how we're doing everything wrong" to which Meyer replied, "Yes, but we're doing a lot right, too." (Or words to that effect.) Meyer also was asked, "Are you making less movies?" and replied, "No, we have no plans to make less movies." So the studio is sticking to its 15-18 pics a year.