· Official word out of Paramount: The DreamWorks deal is complete, Black Wednesday layoffs included 50 people from DreamWorks and 25 from Paramount, and the expected personnel toll is 240, 120 from each side. Have a happy Thursday! [Variety]
· Japanese conglomerate Matsushita (owner of Panasonic) bails out of its ownership of Universal, wishing to get back to the core business of producing the increasingly tiny, ultra-portable electronics that make pirating Hollywood's intellectual property such a breeze. [THR]
· The "experimental" Weinstein Co. horror Dream Team project Grind, featuring a zombie story by Robert Rodriguez and a slasher flick by Quentin Tarantino, is close to beginning production. Tarantino seems preoccupied with making a trailer for the fake exploitation movie Cowgirls in Sweden (which will run in the intermission between the two director's tales), and is planning a special sex-tour through Scandinavia to get the details right. [Variety]
· Time to gape at the Idol numbers: About 30 million people tuned in to watch that pricky waiter brag about how much the ladies love him, then get voted through to Hollywood. [THR]
· Universal-based producers Scott Stuber and Mary Parent buy the rights to the memoir Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman with an eye towards turning it into a fictionalized look at the pharmaceutical industry calle, we hope, Boner Pill: The Movie. [Variety]

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