It's only about 70 people out of workforce of 2000-plus, but Universal corporate executives Mark Shmuger and David Linde told employees via an email that the force would be reduced. Universal confirmed the layoffs.

Below is the note:

continued...

Americans don't care about recessions; they're much more inclined to keep going to the movies.

Regal Entertainment CEO Mike Campbell told Reuters that movies are still the best bargain out there.

"It is still the most affordable out of home entertainment option," Campbell said.

At $10 per, it's a bargain. Even the upscaled $12 tix are still a reasonable price for entertainment. But Campbell doesn't seem to allow for the incursion of TV and the Internet.

"Frost/Nixon," Ron Howard's paean to politics, was screened for international journalists last night in L.A. and all those foreign journos were bowled over by Frank Langella's unexpected spectacular turn as Tricky Dick.

Based on a play about the Frost/Nixon interviews in the late '70s, the film actually finds a dramatic theme to a series of four one-on-one interviews for a playboy British talk show host and the disgraced former President.

The play was written by Peter Morgan, but director Howard is the one who should be lauded. Howard, whose films are usually dramatic but successful fluff, has tapped into a gold mine of political and historical proportions. Michael Sheen, who played Frost in the West End version, returns on film.

Said one screening-goer, "I didn't think he had it in him."

We think he meant Howard, not Langella.

Either way, the film was so good, it made you want to go on YouTube and find the originals, which are all listed. But a company called Liberation Entertainment has taken them off the free market. Alas, as always, it comes down to the dollar.

Yesterday we had a story about the Make-A-Wish recipient 17 year old Max Ritvo, whose wish is to be a published author.

Today because a couple of you guys wanted to read it - is his short story, Alexander and the Moon.

Read file

A report in E&P suggests that there may be a sharp decline in local newspapers in the next few years...maybe even months. The report goes as far as to say that several cities will have no dailies at all.

Chicago Newspaper and newspaper groups are likely to default on their debt and go out of business next year -- leaving "several cities" with no daily newspaper at all, Fitch Ratings says in a report on media released Wednesday.

"Fitch believes more newspapers and newspaper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009 and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010," the Chicago-based credit ratings firm said in a report on the outlook for U.S. media and entertainment.

FBLA talked to our favorite Newsroom Angel of Death Erica Smith what she thought of the story. She told us, "If this report is true -- if several cities will not have a daily paper in 2 years -- then the "local, local, local" mantra and philosophy is failing. That seems to be what newspapers are banking on at this point.

FBLA is an online media partner with the Make-A-Wish foundation. We will be bringing you stories throughout the season.

Last night was 17 year old Max Ritvo's turn. Max's wish is to become a published author. So he had a reading last night at Borders at Westfield Century City and the foundation is currently working with a publishing house in order to grant Max's wish.

KTTV's video of the event is here.

Get your kleenex out all you jaded scribes...

Vivendi has decided to abandon its sale of its 20% stake in NBC Universal, the Hollywood Reporter said.

One source told the Reporter that it may not be the right time to sell, but Vivendi is very pleased with NBC/Uni's oversight.

That certainly wasn't always the case. But now Vivendi has gone out of its way to praise NBC/Uni chair Jeff Zucker.

The media and telecom conglomerate has an annual option window that ends Friday. During that period, it can trigger a sale by notifying GE, which controls 80% of NBC Uni. The industrial conglomerate in turn can opt to buy those shares or let Vivendi sell up to $4 billion of them in the public market the following year.

George Clooney reveals to the Brits that he was dying to direct "Frost/Nixon" but had abandon the idea because Ron Howard reared his head, Britain's Daily Express reports.

Clooney apparently wanted to "kick ass" with this project, an approach that didn't sit so well with Brit writer Peter Morgan, who penned the original play.

As we reported yesterday, the LAT Homicide Blog is on hiatus as of November 13th.

And their readers are pissed.

We were under the impression that this blog - particularly this one - would be a group effort. That staffers would all pitch in to make sure that all homicides were covered in some capacity.

An LAT staffer sent us this note, "Well, Jill [Jill Leovy] is on book leave and Ruben [Ruben Vives] is a Metpro, but I thought we were still doing it with everyone chipping in."

Guess not.

Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski may have to thank L.A.-based indie documentary-maker Marina Zenovich if he's able to overturn his sexual misconduct charges and return to the U.S. again after 30 years.

Zenovich, who is an old pal of FBLA, had been working on the doc "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired" for more than a decade. After finding partial financing, she had been doggedly at it for years. Even when she got close, Polanski still denied any interviews. When she finally finished it, HBO swept in and championed the film.

Now, it looks like Polanski will take another stab at coming to the U.S. The "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby" director, through new attorneys, has filed a petition to have the charges dropped.

The lawyers, in their complaint, cited Zenovich's film and the smoking gun evidence that the sitting judge may have overstepped his bounds.

"The release of the documentary film 'Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired' and its aftermath have revealed a pattern of misconduct and improper communications between the Superior Court and the District Attorney's Office, in violation of the rule of law and without the knowledge of the defendant or his counsel," the lawyers said. "This case serves as a classic example of how our justice system can be abused, and defendants' rights trampled, by an unholy alliance between courts and criminal prosecutors."

The Hollywood Reporter said its position for several years has been "if Mr. Polanski wants to resolve this matter, he must appear in person. Should he do so, he would be taken to Dept. 100 for sentencing - which is where this all left off. At that point, his attorneys would be free to pursue whatever legal strategy they choose."

Polanski resides in Paris and is a French citizen. He won the best director Oscar in 2002 for "The Pianist." Unable to attend the ceremony, Polanski received his statue at the Deauville Film Festival where it was presented to him by his "Frantic" star, Harrison Ford.

If I were Polanski, I wouldn't trust 'em.

Composer Marc Shaiman, director Adam Shankman present John C. Reilly, Allison Janney, Margaret Cho, Andy Richter, Maya Rudolph, Jack Black and Neil Patrick Harris in a musical of biblical proportions...

"Marriage will save the economy..."

We like how if there is a religious zealot on television, film or the internet Allison Janney is playing it.

We here at FBLA don't want to tread on blogger territory too harshly, but we only bring up Gawker's "scoop" on Anna Wintour's departure from Vogue as good example of listening to the wrong people -- and then reporting it.

When Wintour herself declines any comment and Conde Nast Chairman S.I. Newhouse openly proclaims: "This is the silliest rumor I ever heard," it makes you take pause.

Now, far be it from us to complain of the sorry standards for editing or regulation concerning blogs in the U.S. But we think some attention must be paid to outright mistakes that crop on blogs in general. For all of us writers on papers and mags out there, this was usually left to these nocturnal creatures called Copy Editors.

But in this Wild West universe of the blog, it falls on the writers to police themselves. That's a dangerous precedent and it's one that needs minding. We may not have the right answer, but we know it needs to be considered.

In fact the only reason we here on the Left Coast are even writing about it is the uncanny parallel to the successful indie film, "The Devil Wears Prada."

We actually thought if it actually were true, then life would truly be imitating art. And maybe that's a good thing.

The Golden Globes announced its nominations and the biggest splash seems to be best supporting noms for Dev Patel, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Kate Winslet as well as the shift of Oliver Stone's "W" from comedy to drama.

FBLA is trying not to comment, but doesn't George Bush's presidency incur a certain sense of the dramatic?

The 24th Annual Independent Spirit Awards nominations were announced and include the usual Hollywood indie suspects, Variety reports.

Jonathan Demme's stellar indie film "Rachel Getting Married," Woody Allen's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and Gus Van Sant's "Milk" and most of their stars dominated the noms.

Spirit Awards are set for Feb. 21, 2009, the day before the Oscars are handed out.

Yes, layoffs are not just for newspaper scribes anymore. New media. New big - recognizable name - media is cutting back. Gawker, Gizmodo and Jezebel have laid off employees.

Our sister blog FishbowlNY has all the details. You might want to check it - just in case someone you don't like over there is suddenly unemployed or cut down to part-time.