Little has changed in a month away from the daily journo-whoredom grind.
This afternoon, La Finke is SCREECHING about Variety's Michael Fleming "scooping" her on the official closing of Fox Atomic... but she knew... she just didn't tell... because even though she runs true and false gossip on a regular basis, she is a virgin media princess when someone else beats her to it.
Stupider even... Fox Atomic has been all but officially shut down for a year already. The division of the division has had their name on product for three years... and released just six movies, including a whopping total of ZERO last year. Woo Hoo!!!
Was there hope that the Peter Rice perk division (for not going to Paramount) might turn itself around under Debbie Liebling? Sure. Then Miss March made under $5 million and 12 Rounds did $11.3m. Game over. (Did you think that a mid-September release for Jennifer's Body was a sign of belief in the product? Did it occur to you that Juno started its run at film fests in August '07, five months after production ended... and that Jennifer's Body finished shooting more than 11 months ago? Should I mention that I Love You Beth Cooper finished shooting over a year ago as well... and that the Heroes phenomenon is over, making a Hayden Pants sell brutal on any outlet other than Perez Hilton?)
Fox Atomic has been a walking corpse, much as Paramount Vantage now is, for well over a year... and this fighting over who gets to pronounce the corpse dead first - and Fleming did a nice job of making it sound a lot better a situation than it has been - is pathetic... especially from someone whose primary ability to "scoop" is based on running rumors of who is being fired next and then squealing "Toldja" like the pig (moral, not physical) she is.
And those of you in the talent community that think she is your friend, does it bother you at all that she slams the work of people who write, direct, and act in movies... that she hasn't even seen? Fake journalism... not even good gossip.
Maybe we should ask Patrick Goldstein what the kids in his neighborhood think? Or even better... maybe Slate can hire some freelancer to extol the virtues of media piracy because that's what he wants.
My city screams...
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2009/04/battle_of_the_g.html