The very idea that tonight’s Emmy showcast on NBC was so scripted-in-stone that neither the network nor host Conan O’Brien could change a word of the broadcast opener, or decide not to show it altogether and substitute another skit crafted at the last minute, is absurd. After all, isn’t that the reason Hollywood pays…

We all know that Hollywood’s executive suites are populated by Hollywood’s Napoleons. Long on ego, short on stature. So now the latest working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that tall people are smarter than their height-challenged peers. “As early as age three — before schooling has had a…

Here’s yet one more reason why rival Hollywood studios are salivating to use the newly branded Brad Grey Wimp Factor to get a leg up on Paramount with talent. Newsweek just ensured that Paramount boss Brad Grey has no deniability in the Viacom vs Cruise cock-up. “Critics saw it as evidence that Paramount chairman Brad…

All of Hollywood had their eyes on the box office of popular hip hop group Outkast’s Idlewild from Universal this weekend since, historically, musicians who try to crossover into film rarely have luck although rap and hip hop artists have had a better time of it than most. (Eminem’s 8 Mile…) Playing in just 973…

SUNDAY UPDATE: U.S. moviegoers made sports films #1 and #2 at the box office this weekend. There’s nothing more predictable, as the NFL returns to television, than a movie about a down-on-his-luck guy who attempts an against-the-odds shot at making a pro football team. So I’m told Disney’s formulaic Invincible…

So this is the fab Republican “friend” whom Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Haim Saban and some other so-called Hollywood Democrats are financially and politically supporting in this November’s California gubernatorial election? Media reports today say Arnold Schwarzenegger has finally settled that lawsuit…

No, I didn’t write this: I received this in my email and found it amusing. In the interest of fairness, send me fake trade articles, emails or internal memos for CAA or ICM or Endeavor or United Talent, and I’ll post the best one for each agency. Labor Day lazy days, right? WMA To Open Dubai Office by Colom Asiseeum…

What a convenient time for Brian Grazer to be off vacationing with family and out of touch with his office and reporters. But not out of touch with his Hollywood pals, thankfully. I’m told that the Imagine uber-producer is disputing to friends ever “making a congratulatory call” to Viacom Inc Chairman Sumner Redstone…

Los Angeles subscribers to The New York Times still don’t realize they are missing the “money quote” from Tom Cruise’s attorney Bert Fields today in the newspaper’s coverage of the Viacom vs Cruise war of the words. In the edition they received, the article’s final paragraph has the actor’s co-producer Paula Wagner…

The Los Angeles Times had this angle today, but screenwriter/columnist Bruce Feirstein said it first and funnier on LAObserved.com: “As anyone who's ever worked in Hollywood will tell you, the basic social contract ("Local Law #1") is that nobody ever tells the truth, about anything…So after decades of polite lies, I…

Just thought I’d point out that Rogers & Cowan is having a helluva summer in terms of celeb crises. The PR agency represents not only Mel Gibson but also Tom Cruise. (Well, the good news for Gibson is that Cruise’s bad news gets Mel off media minds.) No wonder Tom’s latest flack Paul Bloch called around town yesterday…

OK, I’ve heard the stories about how cheap Michael Eisner is. How he asks for change back when he slips a fiver to the valet parking attendant. And so on, ad nauseum. Still, it came as a huge surprise to me when TMZ.com, the Internet gossip site, reported that the ex-Disney honcho and wife Jane flew Jet Blue from LA’s…