• If you have a vagina, you probably enjoy reading about movie stars. [NYS]
• Analyst says Sumner Redstone should take Viacom private, stop showing repeats of MAD TV all damn day. [AdAge]
• TiVo wants to sell advertisers research on what commercials people watch. We're gonna save you a couple million bucks, Madison Avenue: it's the ones with tits or baby animals. You're welcome. [NYT]
• Steve Case, anyone who owned stock, sorry about AOL/Time merger. [Reuters]
• MySpace founder Tom Anderson, 13-year-olds whose parents just don't understand them, sorry about MySpace power outage. [CNET]
• Dude who plagiarized from Office Pirates, anyone who reads Office Pirates, sorry about Office Pirates. [Office Pirates]
• Realizing that the industry has little potential for growth and pays poorly, men are getting out of the TV news game. Why would you stay if you had penis and all? [WP]
• Fox's new Internet strategy involves sticking the word "My" on every single property they own. [B&C]
• Ya know those Steven and Emily billboards? Turns out they were actually advertising. We know, we're are shocked as you are. [NYT]
• Graydon Carter reveals mission statement: "Any criticism of me is absolutely ridiculous." [NYP]
• Katie Couric doesn't need to go to Iraq just to impress you. That's the president's job. [AH]
• Remember that crazy uncle who knew more about obscure Scottish watch-making techniques of the 1880s than anyone else in the world? Remember how he'd always buttonhole you at family gatherings, talking about lathes? Well, Greg Lindsay's kind of like that, except with airports. [FC]
Say hello to Ben Goldhirsh, son of the founder of Inc. magazine. Ben inherited a large chunk of change from his pop with the intention that he do something entrepreneurial. Ben's come up with Good, a magazine for rich kids who've inherited large chunks of change and need help in figuring out how to give it away. (Suggestion: Start a magazine.) Ben and his crew (Al Gore's son is involved) of twelve, all under thirty, "are people who give a damn. We are not do-gooders. We are not soft. We are hungry." Which may be why the magazine will be sold in Whole Foods, among other outlets. But Ben appears to be right. Look at these guys:
• Sure, Sumner Redstone is selling off Viacom shares, but it's all a formality. It's not like he's seen the new season of "Mencia" or anything. [NYT]
• No matter how many Viacom shares are floating around, Viacom is not buying The Onion. Also, Jon Fine is very disappointed in you, Arianna. [BW]
• When even the mouth-breathers who spend more time with "SportsCenter" than they do with their kids won't buy your phones, it's time to get out of the business. [THR]
Despite Joel Siegel's limited skills at writing movie reviews—they usually consist of glowing, pun-heavy superlatives, pre-encapsulated for your pullquoting convenience—he nevertheless remains one of America's best known film critics. So when he noisily walked out of a press screening of Kevin Smith's Clerks II, word quickly filtered back to the director, who responded with a vicious rebuttal on his MySpace page. Page Six approached Siegel to give his side of the story, in what has quickly escalated into The Affair of the Fuddy-Duddy Critic Vs. The Foulmouthed Auteur:
The web-enabled stalkerazzi at TMZ.com have posted some fascinating video to accompany their story about Paris Hilton initially fleeing, and eventually being pulled over by, a police officer curious about her possibly vodka-enhanced driving skills last night. (Hilton, you undoubtedly will be relieved to know, was let off with a warning, a wrist-slap that we're sure the cops would issue to anyone who responds to their cruiser's flashing lights by speeding away. Test this hypothesis next time you're out for a drink in Hollywood!)
• Fox News viewers more likely to believe Iraq war was worth it, Bush doing good job, Ann Coulter "moderate voice of reason," Jesus loves tax cuts. [SJSU]
• Disney ousts studio head as she sits in hospital with her newborn child; fires Elizabeth Vargas again for good measure. [LAT]
• Sarah Dickerson spends way too much time looking at the cover of Gourmet. [Slate]
• We didn't realize anyone gave this much of a shit about Vibe, even the people who work(ed) there. [HuffPo]
• Apparently it's Vogue Editor Anna Wintour's fault that rich folks aren't buying million dollar boats the way they used to. Well, her or Meryl Streep, it's hard to tell, since the premise of this article is so incredibly tenuous. [Reuters]
• Sunday Styles' "Modern Love" column now available for its natural audience: illiterates. [NYT]
• Yet another sluggish quarter for the newspaper industry. The excuse this time: rising newsprint costs. Sure, we'll buy it. [NYT]
• WSJ Managing Editor Paul Steiger will keep his job until he turns 65, according to Paul Gigot's source at the State Department. [NYP]
• Seriously, enough with fucking Shamu already. [HuffPo]
• The newsroom at the WSJ isn't exactly fond of the editorial page. Which may have to do with the fact that the editorial page is full of total raving loons. [HuffPo]
• If someone wants to tell us who actually leaked to Bob Novak, we're all ears. [The Nation]
• Of course Canada would have a media company called "Chum." Anyway, they're about to be purchased by Hosertech. [NYT]
• Is new Vibe president Ari Horowitz as much of a dick as Nicholas Boston makes him out to be? 'Cause, man, he makes him out to be a dick. [NYO]
• The Internet hasn't created any stars, says Chris Anderson. Boy, is he ever gonna have egg on his face when Amanda Congdon snags the lead role in Deuce Bigelow: Space Gigolo [Fortune]
• Fabien Basabe is at work on a novel. We expect a DeLilloan examination of the dangers of the modern world set against a flawed protagonist's need for love. [WWD]
You're smart and hip, right? The kind of person whom your friends ask about the latest restaurants, what movies to see, or how to invest their 401ks? Of course you are. Well, whether you know it or not, you're an "Opinion Driver," and there's a new online community for you! It's called HOTSOUP.com (notice how the all caps lend an extra sense of urgency), and it comes from a vast collection of "high-profile leaders from the worlds of politics, media, and technology." Who are these high-profile leaders? Well, there's some of the guys who almost got the vice president of one of last century's most successful administrations elected in his own right, but, uh, didn't. You've got some Bush ad people, who were responsible for that all-time classic commercial where wolves were going to eat your family if you voted for John Kerry. You've got a guy who advised the Kerry campaign, which means he actually got beat by the hungry wolves ad. And, on the tech side, you've got the president of some social networking site for ladies called sisterwoman.com (presumably because auntbroad.com was alreadytaken).
• Ailing humorist Art Buchwald stays alive long enough to make his 5 millionth Medicaid joke. [WP]
• No one at Time Warner has ever heard the phrase "throwing good money after bad." [WSJ]
• CJR finds a way to make even gossip boring. This essay will make you long for the sweet embrace of the grave. [CJR]
• Not only are contributors to The Times'Great Big Book Of Everything not getting paid, they're not even getting a copy of the book. It's class all the way over at 43rd Street. [WWD]
• Speaking of The Times, Republican lawmakers are taking a page out of Bob Dole's book. Presumably not the one where he pops a Viagra and bangs Liddy a new hole, but we wouldn't put anything past those guys. [NYS]
• The Boston Globe (owned by The New York Times, how do you like that for thematic consistency?) has informed its gay employees that they need to get married or they'll lose their domestic partner benefits. On the plus side, everyone who does tie the knot will get a copy of the new Times book as a wedding present. [Boston Herald]
• Is it sexist to call Nikki Finke crazy? Either way, we're about five minutes from a batshit rant in our inbox. [Cathy's World]
• All of alleged plagiarist Ann Coulter's alleged plagiarisms in one convenient spot. Ann Coulter is 45. [TPM Muckraker]
• New York Times writers: always wanting more. [E&P]
• Jon Friedman thinks bloggers are loudmouths who resort to name-calling just to be heard. Douchebag. [Marketwatch]
We're arriving to the burgeoning feud between The Movie Blog and Paramount in media res, but here's the short version of what's transpired between the warring factions: Blog publishes unauthorized advance photo of a robot from the Transformers movie; studio asks blog to take down photo; blog complies; without warning, studio has blog's host yank site over a complaint about a different photo; blog writes "angry" open letter to studio over comically ill-advised move; studio tries to head off bad publicity headed its way over botched attempt to crush blog. Got that? The Movie Blog updates what's transpired in their fight:
