In addition to my own postings about DreamWorks moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg in Malibu during the fires here and here and here, I've just combed other news stories and culled this showbiz-related coverage:

Perhaps the hardest-hit entertainment company was Sony Online Entertainment, maker of computer games, which closed its 600-worker office in the Miramar area of fire-affected San Diego.

Fox's hot TV series 24 was scheduled to shoot Monday and Tuesday at a shuttered Naval air station in the Orange County city of Irvine but was forced to retreat because smoky conditions made filming impossible. The cast and crew returned to the studio.

ABC's new series Big Shots had to reschedule a shoot planned for Tuesday in the Angeles National Forest as well as a cycling sequence in Malibu.

CBS' Cold Case had a set in Simi Valley that high winds leveled.

Production on CBS' NCIS had a few crew members unable to make it to work because of fire concerns. Otherwise, there was minimal disruption even though the series shoots at a Santa Clarita studio near the so-called Magic Fire in northern Los Angeles County.

Warner Bros finance executive Tony Rodriguez and his wife returned to their house on a hill above Malibu on Wednesday knowing they would find nothing. The couple were evacuated at 5 am Sunday along with their two dogs. They were watching TV when they saw their newly renovated home go up in flames. The home’s new addition cost $800,000 and was not insured. Rodriguez credits one of his dogs with waking him and his wife during the night as the flames surged through Malibu.

At 6 am Sunday, ex-Warner Bros co-chairman Bob Daly made like Noah's Ark and evacuated a menagerie of more than 200 birds and animals to safety from his 25-acre ranch on the Malibu-Calabasas border. Three hours later, the critters -- 50 chickens, 10 ducks, 150 pigeons, 10 sheep, 10 goats, plus another one who just had two babies, two donkeys and one miniature horse -- were safely encamped at Daly's 5-acre mansion in Bel-Air across the street from the country club. He used a fenced-off sports practive area at the back of his property as a petting zoo. The neighborhood kids were thrilled, including four grandchildren of ex-Universal Studios CEO Frank Biondi Jr. On Wednesday Daly brought the barnyard back to Malibu.

Entertainment litigator Bert Fields took turns with his housekeeper hosing down his roof while his wife prayed.

ICM agent Chris Smith was in the middle of closing a deal for a client to star in a pilot when the TV executive he was negotiating with sent him a message on his BlackBerry: "Fire’s hitting. Gotta Go. Might be a few days."

Will Smith saw flames from a canyon not far away out of his windows on Sunday, but stayed safe at home for a 60 Minutes interview.

Actor Costas Mandylor injured his back while attempting to save a friend's home on Monday in Malibu.

Sitcom star Kelsey Grammer was among those evacuated from Malibu and made light of the evacuation for the sake of his 6-year-old daughter who was nervous at first. He told her to relax and assured her it would be fun. His family and dogs all got out safely and his house remained untouched Tuesday.

Actress Jane Seymour was on stage Monday at ABC's Dancing with the Stars while her husband, actor-director James Keach, protected their Malibu house. The fire was close by and, despite a mandatory evacuation, her husband stayed to fight the fire. Somehow  Seymour stayed focused on her performance. The couple's home was undamaged and didn't appear to be in any imminent danger by Tuesday.

Oxygen's Reality TV stars Tori Spelling and her husband Dean McDermott had a San Diego County bed and breakfast featured on their show. They learned Monday that the nearby small town of Fallbrook had been evacuated because of the fires.

With only seconds to flee the flames in her Malibu castle, Lilly Lawrence grabbed Elvis Presley's Army uniform. It was part of a large collection of Elvis memorabilia she owned -- most of which was destroyed. Her inventory list of gone items include Elvis' red Ford Fairlane, nearly 3 dozen of Elvis' personal movie scripts that had his notes in the margins, also original Presley song sheets for Heartbreak Hotel and American Trilogy, and Graceland souvenirs. Lawrence bought about 50 lots worth of Elvis memorabilia when Priscilla and Lisa Marie put them up for auction.

More news from Deal Beach, aka Billionaires Beach. David Geffen, whose Malibu Beach Inn recently underwent a major renovation, has opened the landmark hotel to evacuees for free as well as to firefighters who sleep there in shifts during the inferno. "Why be empty? I'd rather it go to good use," managing director Alan Goldschneider told Reuters. "They try to throw down money and their credit cards, but we're not charging a soul. They're saving our houses." What a deal, since Geffen shelled out a reported $29 million, or $617,000 for each of the 47 rooms on Pacific Coast Highway. The hotel's website informs that, despite TV and web reports, "the Malibu Beach Inn was never in danger during the recent wildfires in the city and, thus, sustained no damage. We appreciate your phone calls of concern. The hotel is currently open but priority is given to firefighters and emergency personnel fighting the Malibu Canyon fires." Meanwhile, I hear David is nervous as hell about whether his own Malibu Cape Cod-style mansion on Carbon Beach will be safe from the flames. His DreamWorks partner Jeffrey Katzenberg, whose home is also on Carbon Beach, is feeling much the same way here.

Well, I certainly had a good laugh today at Universal's expense. How in the world can the studio expect truthfulness from a just greenlighted Kurt Cobain biopic when Courtney Love will exec produce with attorney Howard Weitzman? You know, and I know, but they don't seem to care, that this movie is gonna get crucified by critics, audiences and Nirvana fans just by involving Courtney, who owns her dead hubbie's life rights. The very idea that Weitzman has weaseled his way onto this project to "protect" his client Courtney's interests is a guffaw. It's really rare for a lawyer to snag such a credit. Then again, he's a good pal of Ron Meyer and was his exec vp after Meyer took over at MCA/Universal Studios in 1995. But my opinion of Weitzman is that wherever he goes, a foul odor follows (worse than teen spirit or studio flopsweat). That is certainly how Nirvana devotees view Love as well. The film is ostensibly based on the biography Heavier Than Heaven, and conspiracy theorists have had a field day speculating about the conditions under which Courtney gave author Charles Cross extensive interviews as well as exclusive access to Kurt's unpublished diaries. What I hate seeing here is yet another minefield of a biopic likely to blow up in everyone's faces (attached is screenwriter David Benioff of the Oscar-touted The Kite Runner). Tonight, a studio source told me: "I understand that it's a messy and complicated background, but don't prejudge it."

 

MONDAY AM: George Clooney's Michael Clayton only placed 4th after Sunday.

SUNDAY AM: Everyone knew Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married would do well at the box office this weekend. But certainly not $21.5 million, well enough to double the gross receipts of Triple-A List star George Clooney's adult legal drama Michael Clayton. How abundantly clear that Clooney's domestic popularity as an actor isn't what the media or Hollywood thinks it is. After all, his Warner movie is one of the best reviewed this early fall (90% on Rotten Tomatoes). But except for his ensemble movies -- the franchise Ocean's 11, 12 & 13 or A Perfect Storm or Batman & Robin-- not one George Clooney-starring movie has ever opened big at the domestic box office despite plenty of hype. But he keeps getting hired as the top salaried star of pics especially at Warner because he's considered a big name. Such is the decision making of Hollywood.

Producer-director-writer-actor Perry's appeal to African American audiences went from solid to spectacular as the Lionsgate adaptation of his stage play was the No. 1 U.S. movie with the best per screen average ($4,550 Saturday) in its 2,011 theaters. Perry is now one of Hollywood's most reliable box office brands, again able to tap into a deep reservoir of comedic mayhem and melodrama that his moviegoers love seeing. This weekend, he was critic-proof, with reviewers generally rejecting his PG-13 film.

Disney's family fare, The Game Plan started the weekend in 4th place. But The Rock in his 3rd weekend in release overheated Saturday matinees and overtook both Clooney and Phoenix and Wahlberg. The Game Plan's weekend gross was $11.5 million from 3,128 venues, bringing its cume to $59.4 million.

My box office analysts expected Warner's R-rated Michael Clayton, which expanded into 2,511 theaters this weekend, to be the No. 1 film. Instead, this full-frills studio movie with its expensive ad campaign was only #3 (and even #4, according to some studio estimates) after making $11 million from 2,511 runs. 

Neck and neck with it was the R-rated We Own The Night, which Sony at Cannes paid a bargain $11 million for the domestic rights from Mark Cuban's 2929 Productions. This thriller starring Joaquin Phoenix and Mark Wahlberg finished #4 with $11 mil from 2,362 plays. Reviews of the pic were mixed, and awareness so-so despite a sharp ad campaign. I'm told 51% of the audience was male, and 58% were under 30.

After a disappointing debut last weekend, DreamWorks / Paramount's The Heartbreak Kid managed 5th place. The Ben Stiller starrer eked out $7.4 million this weekend from 3,233 dates, down 47%. Its new cume is $26 mill.

In only 6th place, Universal's PG-13 Elizabeth: The Golden Age opened amid media attention and Oscar buzz since Cate Blanchett is one of Hollywood's most celebrated actresses now. The costume drama's opening box office of $6.1 million from 2,001 dates was lower than the studio would have liked but similar to Pride And Prejudice. It attracted an older audience with 2/3 over age 35.

As for the rest of the Top 10, Universal's war thriller The Kingdom with Jamie Foxx placed 7th, entering its 3rd weekend in release taking in $4.5 million from 2,836 theaters for a new cume of $39.9 mil. At No. 8 was Sony / Revolution's Across The Universe, directed by Julie Taymor and featuring The Beatles hit songs (since Sony controls that music catalogue). Thanks to teenage girls seeing the romantic pic, it started its 5th week in release squeezing out another $4 million from just 954 venues for a new cume of $12.9 mil. Resident Evil 3 from Sony / Screen Gems snagged the 9th spot starting its 4th week in release. With a new cume of $48 mil, the sci-fi pic scraped together $2.6 million from 2,249 dates. Fox/Walden's underperforming kiddie fantasy holdover The Seeker climbed up to No. 10 after Saturday matinees to take in $2.1 million from 3,173 theaters for a new cume of only $7.1 million.

Among newscomers, Yari Film Group's The Final Season made $665K from 1,011 runs, Sony Picture Classics' Sleuth took in $50K from 9 dates, and MGM's Lars And The Real Girl ended the weekend with $85K in 7 theaters in 7 venues.

New Info Throughout: It's always an event when she comes out with a film, since she's one of the few Hollywood actresses still consistently able to open a pic these days. But can Jodie Foster do it again with The Brave One which received only mixed reviews? Problem is, this is a dark R-rated morality tale / revenge pic and not the wider appeal PG-13 thriller Flightplan was. I say The Brave One's box office prospects are more on the order of Foster's similarly feminist themed The Accused from 1988. Worse is the way The Brave One has been promoted: producer Joel Silver has taken to calling it a “muscular chick flick” which I think is a huge mistake. Not only are chick flicks failing at the box office, unless they're of the lite variety like The Devil Wears Prada, Warner Bros still can't market anything except big bloated blockbusters. All of the above is why my box office gurus expect The Brave One to finish the weekend No. 1, but, while some see a $20 mil domestic gross from 2,755 theaters, others expect only high teens ($17 mil). That's still enough to put Foster head and shoulders above that other Oscarwinner Nicole Kidman box office-wise. The analysts say Lionsgate's 3:10 To Yuma in 2,667 dates should keep a good -40% hold on its audience for #2. In the third spot should sit yet another new bomb from New Line, the PG-13 horribly reviewed Mr. Woodcock with Billy Bob Thornton, lucky to reach $10 mil from 2,231 venues though one of my analysts thinks it won't get past $6 mil. "This is a huge disaster since I udnerstand that the film had major reshoots and ended up costing around $45 million," he told me. "Given the genre and cast it won't do anything in foreign so it's a big writedown for New Line." (And, I have to ask, why in the world is Oscarwinner Susan Sarandon in this piece of crap?) Sony's Superbad should take 4th place starting its 5th week in release in fewer dates, only 2,910. But it could have competition from Dragon Wars optimistically projected to make $4.5 mil in 2,269 venues.

Promising newcomers whose performance is worth watching are Focus Features' well-received Eastern Promises starring Naomi Watts and Viggo Mortensen under the direction of David Cronenberg playing in only 14 theaters, and Paul Haggis' Oscar touted In The Valley Of Elah, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron, which Warner Independent is platforming in 9 runs. Meanwhile, there's the expected mixed reception to Julie Taymor's Across The Universe romantic musical told through Beatles songs (since Sony controls that catalogue) which opens in 23 theaters this weekend. Much was made of the pre-release brawling between Taymor, producer Joe Roth of Revolution Studios, and distributor Sony over the length and content of the pic. (See my own story about it, Across An Alternate Universe.) As one insider told me, "She only cut four minutes. So everybody lost." Finally, The Hunting Party starring Richard Gere is only widening to 40 theatres this weekend. I'm told it was supposed to go to 600 "but given last week's opening it appears that The Weinstein Co is dumping the film," an analyst tells me.

So you're a mogul, and you and the wife have split. She stays in the big Brentwood or Beverly Hills home with the kids. You could bunk at the Malibu manse but that's an awfully long commute from Broad Beach or Point Dume. So if you're Paramount boss Brad Grey, United Talent Agency chairman Jim Berkus, actor / writer Larry David, music producer David Foster, and manager / producer on hiatus Brian Medavoy, you move into Santa Monica's Pad-O-Moguls, better known as The Hollywood Halfway House. That white building on Ocean Avenue right near Wilshire Blvd -- I'm withholding the exact address -- is an apartment house specializing in short-term rentals. Short-term because these guys are recently separated or divorced and have put off buying a new house. "It's just a bunch of rich guys walking around a very expensive, well-run place right on the ocean," one of them tells me. "We don't hang out. I wish I could say we even do a lot of business together, but I don't see a lot of them. I go in and up the elevator straight to my apartment." There aren't wild and crazy parties even though NBC Universal Entertainment co-chairman Ben Silverman, who's famously single, also lives there. "I must not live next door to Ben. I don't hear the water gurgling from his bong," one of them told me. Meanwhile, I'm told that when Larry David moved in after splitting with his environmental activist wife Laurie, "he went to all the rooms and turned on all the lights."

 

News reports say early Nielsens show that Friday's premiere of The Disney Channel's made for TV High School Musical 2 was the most-watched basic cable television program of all time. With 17.2 million viewers, it was also the most-watched basic cable movie of all time, the highest-rated television program ever for children age 6 to 11 and the second-highest-rated television program of all time (behind only the 2004 Super Bowl) for viewers age 9 to 14. It also was the most-viewed Friday television telecast, cable or broadcast, in the past five years. Now the $7 million musical sequel will be shown in 100 countries. All this shows that TV viewers will respond to good, clean, energetic fun. (As Time magazine reviewed, "It's a raging bacchanal of hand holding, milk drinking and explicit thespianism!") The pic's phenomenal success clearly means that not everything in entertainment has to be edgy. Could Hollywood suddenly be hungry for clean-cut? The pic's star, tween hearthrob Zac Efron (the 19 year old with pipes known for his blue eyes and bowl haircut), is now taking meetings with Francis Ford Coppola.

The sequel repeated Saturday night and tonight there's a sing-along. (Fans are supposed to download song lyrics off the Internet.) Just think about it: the little $4.2 million Kenny Ortega directed and choreographed original movie urging kids to be true to their dreams has been seen by more than 160 million people around the world. Most importantly to the Walt Disney Co, it has morphed into a $100-million-plus bonanza for all divisions of the company. It has sold more than 6.5 million DVDs, it was the No. 1-selling CD of 2006, its series of books about the characters sold 4.5 million copies, its stars sold out a 42-city national tour, it even spawned an ice show. TV analysts say the High School Musical franchise also has meant a triple jump in revenue for the Disney Channel. There's an upcoming promotion with Wal-Mart, and about 300 licensed products will reach stores by the end of the year.

Here were all his unfinished projects: Merv Griffin Entertainment, The Merv Griffin Ranch racing stable, TeleView Racing Patrol, Worldwide Real Estate, Inc., The Griffin Ranch Development, Griff Yacht, St. Cleran’s Manor (Ireland), Coconut Productions. In fact, Merv's latest game show Crosswords premieres September 10th: the half-hour syndicated daytime strip from the mastermind of Jeopardy and Wheel Of Fortune had already cleared network affiliates and major independents in 28 of the "Top 30", and 45 of the "Top 50", U.S. markets. It will also be seen in Canada. Merv was one of 60 million American crossword puzzlers and used to do four of them each morning before starting his day. His other TV show, Lisa Williams: Life Among The Dead, was picked up by Lifetime for a second season starting October 12th.

I've just been emailed the column that Los Angeles Times Hollywood writer Patrick Goldstein wrote for today. But it didn't run. The paper killed it -- actually John Montorio, newly promoted from associate editor to manaing editor for features, axed it -- then offered the lame excuse that Goldstein was on assignment. 

UPDATE: Patrick Goldstein just gave me a statement: "Obviously no columnist is ever very happy about having their column killed. But I'm much more disappointed that the column that was killed was full of ideas about how to help my newspaper. I love working at a newspaper, especially this one, but if we don't start embracing change in a big way, there won't be great jobs like the one I have much longer. I'm constantly writing about how all the studios and big media companies are radically reinventing themselves. It's time we did the same."

Also, the Times announced today that Montorio was named managing editor for features while John Arthur, presently the paper's page one editor, will be managing editor for news. I don't get it: didn't anyone inform Times editor in chief Jim O'Shea that Montorio is really hated by almost all the Calendar staff? Or is that a prerequisite?

Goldstein argued in favor of the Times aping that British newspaper stunt distributing free Prince Planet Earth CDs and start partnering with other rock stars to give away music. "It’s time we embraced change instead of always worrying if some brash new idea — like giving away music — would tarnish our sober minded image. When businesses are faced with radical change, they are usually forced to ask — is it a threat or an opportunity? Guess which choice is the right answer." Yes, the music industry hated the Mail On Sunday's publicity stunt. But why in the world Times management found Goldstein's column so subversive escapes me, especially since his is an informed opinion since he used to be one of the Times' top rock writers before moving to the movie biz. Besides, the paper has plenty of places to present the other side. "It was all Montorio," an LATer tells me. "Patrick's editors didn't have a problem with the column. Everyone was surprised, shocked, stunned. The theory is that Montorio has a very low opinion of all suggestions how to reinvent the Times,  much less from a columnist." 

More to the point, the Times should be working harder to keep talents like Goldstein, who is the best thing about its Hollywood coverage, not stifling them. My sources inside the paper told me not long ago that management was trying to push Goldstein to write more frequent and shorter pieces rather than his thoughtful once a week long forms, and he resisted understandably. My view is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Now there's this morale killer aimed at a staffer who has repeatedly demonstrated his loyalty to the Times by turning down many jobs from rival newspapers and magazines over the decades. All I can say is, can you imagine what the Times would do if Goldstein tackled a really burning media issue -- like why the studios barely advertise in newsosaurs anymore?

SUNDAY AM: A PG-13 spoof about two firefighters posing as gay lovers so they can be friends with benefits tickled U.S. funny bones on Date Night as Universal's I Now Pronounce You Chuck And Larry beat magic and music and became the No. 1 movie in the U.S. and Canada. The pic, which the studio made in consultation with gay rights groups so it didn't offend, opened to $34.8 mil this weekend at 3,495 dates. The laugher was  also the top finisher Friday with $12.6 mil and Saturday with $11.9 mil. With a B+ Cinemascore despite poor reviews, the pic was given 90% A's or B+'s, skewing higher among younger audiences, both male and female. The studio said both Adam Sandler and Jessica Biel were big draws, but the real reason people went to see Chuck And Larry was the prospect of a light summer comedy. (There just haven't been enough of them.) Internationally, the film starts releasing next weekend and rolls out through September. After a slow start, Universal now has three comedies in the Top 10, including Evan Almighty and Knocked Up. (For more background, see my previous, Weekend Predictions For Sandler vs Travolta.)

New Line's heavily and expensively marketed Hairspray, with John Travolta in drag, dropped down to No. 3 after a weaker Saturday ($9.2 mil) than Friday ($11 mil) from 3,121 theaters for what was a $27.2 mill weekend. Interestingly, the per screen averages for Hairspray and Chuck were nearly identical Friday (in the $3,500 range) but widened by Sunday. As expected, one week out Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix moved up to No. 2 after another round of Saturday kiddie matinees. On Friday, the Warner fivequel took in $10.4 million from 4,285 venues and $12.2 mil Saturday for a $33.2 mil weekend (-57%). Its hot new North American cume is already $208.5 million. There'd been speculation whether the new Harry Potter book would cut into the franchise's movie ticket sales. Nah!

With three popular movies topping the Top 10, it's no surprise that the weekend already is up 7% over same time last year. The trio also stole some momentum from the No. 4 film, DreamWorks and Paramount coproduction Transformers, which made $20.5 mil this weekend -- a drop of only 45% -- from 3,762 runs. Its domestic cume is now a gigantic $262.9 mil. No. 5 Disney / Pixar's Ratatouille has a big new cume already of $165.6 mil starting its 4th week in release. It made $11 mil this weekend from 3,402 theaters.

The bottom half of the Top 10 is struggling to catch a break. Beginning 4 weeks out, Fox's Live Free Or Die Hard starring Bruce Willis took in another $7.2 mil this weekend from 2,727 venues for 6th place. Its new cume is $116.3 mil. No. 7 went to Warner's License To Wed, which eked out $3.7 mil Friday from 2,525 runs. Its cume is $38.6 mil. The Weinstein Co / MGM's horror pic 1408 starring John Cusack from Stephen King took 8th place, struggling with $2.4 mil this weekend from 1,451 dates, for a new cume of $67.5 mil. Universal's family comedy Evan Almighty, #9, made $2.4 mil this weekend from 1,779 theaters for a new cume of $93.4 mil on its 5th weekend. And rounding out the Top 10), the studio's R-rated laugher Knocked Up took in another $2.3 mil this weekend from 1,288 venues for a new cume of $142.7 mil on its 8th weekend. (Co-star Katherine Heigl just got nominated for an Emmy).

Here's the Top 10 chart:

1. 1. Chuck And Larry $12.6M Fri, $11.9M Sat, and est $9.1M Sun. (cume $34.8M)
2. 2. Harry Potter Phoenix $10.4M Fri, $12.3M Sat, and est $9.8M Sun. ($208.5M)
3. 3. Hairspray $11M Fri, $9.2M Sat, and est $7M Sun. ($27.2M)
4. 4. Transformers $6.1M Fri, $7.9M Sat, and est $6M Sun. ($262.9M)
5. 5. Ratatouille $3.5M Fri, $4.2M Sat, and est $3.4M Sun. ($165.6M)
6. 6. Live Free Or Die Hard $2.1M Fri, $2.8M Sat, and est $2M Sun. ($116.1M)
7. 7. License To Wed $1.2M Fri, $1.5M Sat, and est $1.1M Sun. ($38.7M)
8. 8. 1408 $825K Fri, $1M Sat, and est $715K Sun. ($67.5M)
9. 9. Evan Almighty $801K Fri, $961K Sat, and est $700K Sun. ($93.4M)
10. 10. Knocked Up $702K Fri, $914K Sat, and est $650K Sun. ($142.7M)

As promised, here is the breakdown of TV/Movie/Music industry giving to the 2008 presidential candidates after six months of fundraising. Of the $265 million total, $4.4 million has come from Hollywood through July 15th. No surprise that the overwhelming majority of green is going to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Among Republicans, it's to John McCain and Rudy Guiliani. These new numbers are based on Federal Election Commission data and compiled by the Center For Responsive Politics: 

TV/Movies/Music

After six months of fundraising, the 2008 presidential candidates have already raised more than $265 million. No White House money chase has ever started so quickly. Tomorrow, I'll have updated figures on moolah coming from the TV/Movie/Music industry sector based on Federal Election Commission data through July 15th. Here are the amounts through May 9th, according to the Center For Responsive Politics:

Which is more surprising: that Woody Allen will be working in Los Angeles, or that he'll be directing an opera? Allen said today: "I have no idea what I am doing. But incompetence has never prevented me from plunging in with enthusiasm." It will happen in September 2008, according to Placido Domingo, the Los Angeles Opera general director who spent four years pursuing Woody to do it. Allen is scheduled to helm the medieval Gianni Schicchi, Puccini's only comedy and part of the Il Trittico trio of one-act operas. Allen is following in the footsteps of The Exorcist and The French Connection director Billy Friedkin who has been directing operas for some time now with great success and will helm the two other operas in the trio. Woody, of course, has amply demonstrated a love of music. He plays the clarinet many Monday nights at a nightclub in Manhattan. For years he has worked with musical director Dick Hyman to adapt classic American songs and jazz for his films. And after completing his first musical, Everyone Says I Love You (1996), Woody said he'd like to do another. 

With his continuing poor coverage of the Pellicano scandal, Chuck Philips of the Los Angeles Times just keeps embarrassing that Pulitzer he won years ago. His latest story again carries water for Pellicano's defense attorneys: he reports how they're trying to free the thug P.I. on technicalities and that the entire case is overblown. That's a legitimate article, but only if he were looking at this from both sides -- which he's not. (Whereas The New York Times' reporting duo of David Halbfinger and Allison Hope Weiner have done a better job writing pro and con.) Remember that, in 2005, Philips came under fire from an exhaustive 14,000-word Rolling Stone magazine examination of the coverage of the Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls murders and trials. The article accused Philips of one-sided legal reporting, and cherry-picking information to discredit the authorities' case, as well as being corrupted by access to music industry names. Interesting that, in the Pellicano scandal, no journalist has been discrediting the government's case more than Philips, and no journalist has had more access to the thug P.I. Also, when Anthony and ex-wife Kat Pellicano, who divorced in 2002, recently re-married in magistrate’s court, I reported: “Philips who is the guy Pellicano calls every time he sneezes was not only there but the ONLY journalist there not taking notes. In fact, Philips and Pellicano saluted and smiled to each other.”  

Believe me, I was skeptical in the beginning about the Pellicano case. But over time I've also heard many first-person accounts about the secret and sickening things Anthony did. But many of these alleged transgressions are well past the statute of limitations and so off-limits to the feds. I can't comprehend how Philips can continue to downplay the scandal yet keep his journalistic eyes closed to all the facts to the contrary staring him in the face. Isn't it time that the newspaper assign this story to someone else?