The LA Times' Patrick Goldstein reports that to cheer up the agency, pertually reeling from wave after wave of media bad news, Emanuel distributed to his team copies of a 1970 Life Magazine featuring a cover story entitled, "Goodby to the Glory Days: Hollywood puts its past up for sale." The story focused on Paramount's CEO at the time, the legendary maniacal wheeler-dealer Charles Bludhorn and his attempts to cut costs and rid his studio of its his big-ticket talent contracts.

Emanuel's message in passing this issue out to his fellow agents was of course, you see, the fools have tried to cut costs before, but the march of eternally-spiraling salaries (and the agency's cut) is a force of nature that nothing, not man, nor beast, nor robber baron, nor multinational corporation can contain.

After the late 60's near meltdown of the industry, Hollywood was saved by a new generation of blockbuster makers coming out of film schools who eventually learned to apply their serious study of cinematic history and theory to making zillion dollar versions of B-serials. What similar brave leap forward
lies over the horizon we can only dare to dream.

According to a tipster, a meeting was called on Monday at the New York offices of William Morris Endeavor where Cara Stein, COO of WME-NY, informed agency assistants, most of whom came from William Morris in the merger with Endeavor, that their salaries are being slashed drastically, some down to $10 an hour. A rumor that such a thing might be happening was floated last month. Now it's been confirmed.

Calling the move a "cost-cutting measure to keep costs under control," Stein laid out the new pre-tax, seniority-based compensation rates for agent's assistants:

Employed at WME less than 1 year - $10/hr

Employed at WME 1-2 years - $11/hr

Employed at WME 2-3 years - $12/hr

Employed at WME 3 years or more - capped at $14 hour.

We're told that prior to the merger with Endeavor, newly hired assistants at William Morris were making $13 an hour and up. Additionally, Stein informed the assistants that they'll be forced to work a mandatory 50 hour work week from here on out. No word on whether or not the firm will set up a "good assistant" bonus prize ala Conde Nast.

Not receiving pay cuts: Assistants in the music and personal appearance departments. Our tipster speculates that Ari Emanuel doesn't want to do anything to ruffle the feathers of the heads of these departments as they're generating tremendous revenue for the company at this point.

Speaking of Ari, we wonder if he and his WME co-CEOs, Patrick Whitesell and Dave Wirtschafter, will be taking pay cuts like the little people to help the company's bottom line. If you've any insight into this, feel free to pass it along to us. Your confidentiality will be held sacred.

Now that Emanuel has successfully merged Endeavor, the agency he co-founded, with the venerable William Morris Agency, he has the opportunity to "fuck CAA," something that's been rumored to motivate him to get out of bed each morning. How will Emanuel do it? By controlling everything.

Ari Emanuel has made a bold calculation: in order to survive, talent firms are going to have to do more. They must stop being simple deal-makers, become "mega-agencies" – vast, multi-faceted companies with marketing departments, events divisions, and new media offshoots which help clients to leverage income from a wide variety of sources.

Agents will also have to take a more pro-active role in the actual creation of films, making them more likely to be called upon to "package" a production: attaching directors, producers, and actors from their own stable to a particular project, before selling it to the studios.

In such a business, larger firms boast a huge competitive advantage. CAA recently announced it will move into new territory financing new films. Taken to its natural conclusion, this could dramatically alter the sort of films that make it to cinemas.

Optimists, which Hollywood is never short of, believe that this represents the potential to produce a new "golden age" of film-making, where power is returned to creatives, instead of being stifled by studios. "Ari created his new firm because he knew he had to be big to be at the level where he could successfully do that," says a former colleague of Emanuel's. "It's a gamble, frankly, but if anyone can pull it off, he can."

Whether or not "packaging" and the ever-growing power of Hollywood talent management firms is a good or bad thing is open to debate, and frankly we're kind of torn on the matter, but for anyone to suggest, as the anonymous "optimists" cited in the article do, that the industry's progression toward mega-agencies is even remotely rooted in an idealistic desire to revitalize its level of artistic integrity is, well, just plain stupid.

The types of people who become agents are almost universally motivated by one thing—Money. And sex, but mostly money. Even more so than the people who work in studios, agents are driven by greed. Just ask anyone who's ever had an agent in Hollywood and we're pretty sure that they'll confirm that. Not that's there's anything all too necessarily wrong with that, we just felt compelled to address that ridiculous fantasy here and now.

Finally, with all this hype going around about Ari Emanuel, we're kind of eager to see how his inevitable downfall will play out. Will some renegade screenwriter step up to be the Joe Eszterhas to Ari's Mike Ovitz? Regardless, we give Ari's reign of terror somewhere between five and ten years, depending on how long his brother is working in the White House. Hollywood may be a town full of pricks, but it's a town with a history of taking down any one prick that dares to swell too much bigger than any of the others.

Ari Emanuel: 21st Century Hollywood Mogul [Independent]

Likable workhorse actor Clifton Collins Jr. has joined the cast of that weirdos doing experiments movie The Experiment. He'll star with other weirdos Forest Whitaker, Elijah Wood, and Adrien Brody. They'll be doing experiments. [Variety]

Gosh, Adam Sandler is so nice. He just keeps casting his old friends. The latest is the beleaguered Tim Meadows, who is joining the reunion comedy Grown Ups. Also in the flick? Once-wases like Norm Macdonald, Colin Quinn, Rob Schneider, and David Spade. Somewhere, Ellen Cleghorne extends a weary hand and plaintively whispers "Me too...?" [THR]

Charlize Theron has signed on with the big boy. She's switched over to the mega-agency poised to take over the world, William Morris Endeavor, where she'll be repped by none other than the golden cussing boy himself Ari Emanuel. What does Vince think about this? [Variety]

Because that Tim Roth show Lie to Me has inexplicably high ratings, they're bringing back two popular guest stars from last season for longer arcs. Once budding movie star turned TV stalwart Mekhi Phifer will be back, as will, well... once budding movie star turned TV stalwart Jennifer Beals. Mekhi is going to be a cast member, whereas Beals will just be that nebulous thing known as a recurring. [THR]

Nimrod Atal, the unfortunately-named director of the way-better-than-decent horror/thriller Vacancy, will helm the upcoming fifth installment in the Predator series. Predators will be about the Predator monster, only there will be plural of them. [Variety]

Very funny regular guy Jason Sudeikis has been quietly racking up a bunch of work. He's slated to next appear in the Justin Long/Drew Barrymore romancer Going the Distance. Sudeikis will play a character named Box. Heh. See? Already funny! [THR]

Whee! Charlie Murphy will be in a new movie, the bizarrely cast comedy Family Wedding. He's joining Forest Whitaker, America Ferrara, and Carlos Mencia. Charlie, we wish we could tell you we're going to see this, but, uh... [Variety]

Ari "has emerged in the last six weeks as the pre-eminent power player in a Hollywood that has often bemoaned the sunset of colorful moguls from an older generation...." What has he done in those six weeks, exactly? He merged his agency with William Morris and then fired everyone at William Morris.

But we all know that Ari is relentlessly ambitious and cutthroat—in fact we know this is true of the entire Emanuel family, even the doctor one. So what is really different? Why does it matter that Ari is threatening the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment "with personal ruin"? Surely he's done that a million times before?

"Nobody wants to be on the wrong side of Ari Emanuel, especially now that his brother is running the White House," said one television executive, who asked for anonymity to preserve harmony with him.

Oh, hah. Of course! Rahm is the most second-most powerful man in the country now, so all of show business belongs to his brother.

[Photo: Getty]

After a string of smash successes like The Hills Have Eyes II, The Rocker, and Turistas, Fox has decided to shutter its genre label Fox Atomic. The two-year-old shingle has some higher-profile stuff like I Love You, Beth Cooper and Jennifer's Body set to bow this summer, but I guess it wasn't enough. Head exec Debbie Liebling will return to regular Fox, while the other Atomic suits are awaiting word of their fate. [Variety]

Oh dear. Columbia has begun pre-pre-production on The Lost Symbol the as-yet-unpublished Fear Street: For Religion! novel by hackity hack hack Dan Brown. So that's good. Angels & Demons hasn't even come out in theaters yet, but we can already predict that sweaty dollars will be exchanged hand over grubby fist. It's the only financial prediction that makes any damn sense anymore! [Variety]

Among the buzzed-about TV pilots for next season: Eastwick, Cougar Town, Happy Town, Flash Forward, and Human Target. Probably one of them will last past week three. [THR]

WMA and Endeavor have basically merged into one seething agency monster, with Ari Emmanuel likely to reign as CEO of the amalgamated war machine. [THR]

Idris Elba, Zoe Saldana, Jeffery Dean Morgan, and Columbus Short are all set to star in an action movie together. The sad, telling title? The Losers. [THR]

Not exactly from a trade, but: Richard Jenkins to play sexy-pex Brazilian opposite Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love? Heh. [P6]

Oh yikes. Sit Down, Shut Up, the new Fox animated series created by Mitch Hurwitz and starring the voice talents of many a funnyman (e.g. Wills Arnett and Forte) lost almost 25% of its Simpsons lead-in last night. Which, you know, the Simpsons lead-in isn't even that big to begin with these days. [THR]

From their report:

[T]alks have heated up between upstart Endeavor and venerable William Morris to the point where I'm being told the odds are "70/30" that the two agencies will do a merger deal...I hear Ari Emanuel may run the combined agency as long as Jim Wiatt gets a fancy title and an uber-lucrative contract.

A stumbling economy can make for strange bedfellows, for as recently as six months ago WMA would likely have never even entertained Emanuel's offer of a $300 gas card and unlimited Netflix subscription in exchange for their reality-show-packaging contract clearinghouse. The consolidation of the William Morris mailroom with the Endeavor kitchen supply closet will provide Hollywood with one agent-launching hotbed, producing a baby-gobbling army estimable enough to finally defeat the evil CAA Death Star. Their ability to offer no interruption in their parking validation service will be but the final coup de grâce.

• IT'S FOR REAL: Endeavor And William Morris Talking About Teaming Up [Deadline Hollywood Daily]

Unlike so many other Hollywood stars, parents approve of these upstanding young men, who wear their good intentions right on their heads in the form of Purity Yarmulkes. Catch them next in The Emanuel Brothers: The 3-D Experience, the poster of which features the boys clutching Fendi bags on the steps of Air Force One as they jet off to play a command performance at President Elect Barack Obama's Inauguration. [Thanks to NOTFAIL blog for a Photoshop we really wish we'd thought of ourselves.]

• Previously: Rahm Emanuel Fun-Fact Addendum: Probably Loathes Andy Samberg [Defamer]

And how did the ubiquitous hipster documentarian penetrate the inner sanctum of Hollywood's Wormhole to the White House™? We're not entirely sure, but we know partner Tom Strickler signed off on it, and even answered some interview questions left for him on a whiteboard. (Cobrasnake: "What is the best advice you can offer someone starting in the mail room at Endeavor?" Strickler: "Work work work work work work.") There's also some great shots of life behind the scenes at the Hollywood power-brokerage—everything from 189-line telephones to bedraggled assistants to Strickler and his team of hardworking baby-devourers themselves. Ari Emanuel, however, is nowhere to be found. Nice work, Cobrasnake! Now put some pants on.

More photos:

[Photo credits: Mark "The Cobrasnake" Hunter]
[Except the one of Lloyd. That's just a joke.]

• Endeavor [The Selby]

1. Their father is an Israel-born pediatrician, their mother a former X-ray technician, a onetime rock club owner, and a civil rights activist. She would take her sons along on the demonstrations if they were peaceful.
2. They grew up poor, leaving one apartment because it was rat-infested, and another because neighbors complained that the three Emanuel boys were too rambunctious.
3. He lost half of his right middle finger after a meat-slicer accident while working at Arby's as a teenager. It happened on prom night, and led to a bone and blood infection that nearly took his life. His fever went as high as 106.

4. Rahm is the inspiration for Bradley Whitford's character Josh Lyman on The West Wing.
5. He was encouraged to take ballet lessons as a boy, and he excelled at it so much, he eventually won a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet. He turned it down to attend Sarah Lawrence College.
6. He worked on Paul Simon's 1984 Senate bid.
7. He volunteered in Israel during the Gulf War, and was assigned to rust-proof breaks at an army base.
8. The same year, he convinced Bill Clinton to put off campaigning in New Hampshire to raise funds instead. It was a strategy credited with winning Clinton the election.
9. He acted as a senior advisor in the Clinton regime from 1993 to 1998, but was demoted one year after Clinton took office. After the '96 election, he planned on quitting, but Clinton gave him George Stephanopoulos's post as senior advisor for policy and strategy.
10. During his 1992 run for Congress, Edward Moskal, president of the Polish American Congress, called him a "millionaire carpetbagger who knows nothing [about] our heritage." He also falsely claimed that Rahm was a dual Israeli citizen and fought in their army.
11. He was named DCCC chairman in 2005, and butted heads with DNC chair Howard Dean over Dean's "50-state" strategy—in one heated exchange, Rahm even lobbed an F-bomb and stormed out of the room.
12. Torn over who to support in a Presidential bid between longtime friend Hillary and home-state senator Barack, Rahm said, "I'm hiding under the desk. I'm very far under the desk, and I'm bringing my paper and my phone."
13. He practices Orthodox Judaism with his wife, Amy Rule, and their three children, Zacharias, Ilana, and Leah.
14. He's a triathlete.
15. His name means "high" in Hebrew.
16. He doesn't recommend that colleagues appear on The Colbert Report, though he himself has appeared numerous times on The Daily Show.
17. His date of birth is November 29th, 1959.
18. He has photos of sunsets in his office and David Gray on his iPod.
19. He's quick with a zinger. Example: On the Clinton Days: “Back then, stimulus and package had a whole different meaning.” ”I’ve spent more alone time with Bill than Hillary.” On Fred Thompson: “He had an interesting take on No Child Left Behind. He married one.”
20. His nickname is Rahmbo. Even his mother uses it.

This installment's sightings include Kim Kardashian, Kiefer Sutherland, Pierce Brosnan, Farrah Fawcett, Marilyn Manson, Ari Emanuel, Marcia Cross, Isla Fisher, Jon Hamm, Larry Flynt, Chris Robinson, Peter Graves, Shenae Grimes, Dustin Milligan, Lisa Rinna, Bill Walton, William Baldwin, Chynna Phillips, Linda Evans, Gunnar Nelson (!) and more.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 4

· Walking through the hallways of a building deep in the heart of Toluca Lake is FARRAH FAWCETT. Farrah raised her head to look me in the eye with a a look that said, "Yes I am Farrah Fawcett and don't talk to me." Farrah had heavy duty perfume situation going on that wafted in the hallway well after she left the building. Christie Brinkley is about the same age as her but Farrah looks like she has been through the ringer and had a rough, rough, hard-drinking, hard-partying, heavy-tanning life. Use sunscreen kids. Use sunscreen.

· Tuesday night's Bob Dylan concert at the Santa Monica Civic was ripe with celebrities, and I do mean ripe. NBA legend and Laker dad BILL WALTON couldn't get a reserved seat, he actually got tossed out of his first one that he just bogarted and was forced to stand against the wall, until someone recognized him and gave him a different reserved seat. Fellow Irishmen COLM MEANEY and PIERCE BROSNAN were spotted separately briefly. Anything but standing room only for TV's and former funnyman RICHARD LEWIS. And finally, one of the NELSON BROTHERS, most likely GUNNAR.

· I don't know if this counts, but I was having lunch at Porta Via and I spotted SWEET P (Project Runway, season 4) and a friend (boy? husband?). She walked by my table and was stunned when I called her name and that someone recognized her. She is sweet in person. I then had to explain Project Runway to my visiting co-worker from London. He remains confused.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 6

· Air Canada flight 744 from LAX to Toronto ... A very laid back and un-made-up MARILYN MANSON (or "Mr. Warner" to the attendants) and Endeavor's ARI EMANUEL (in gym shorts and crocs) in business class, film festival-bound.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 7

· Sunday afternoon, Silverlake - walked straight past KIEFER SUTHERLAND and a blonde woman in the Vons supermarket parking lot on Sunset / Hollywood / Virgil / Hillhurst / Sunset Drive. He was carrying the shopping bags (like a gentleman), no doubt stocking up on Haagen-Dazs to watch Britney's big comeback at the VMAs that night. More importantly, what is up with that K-hole of a junction?

· ISLA FISHER and baby OLIVE were at the Grove on Sunday between 3:30 and 4:30. Isla was wearing an orange, off the shoulder, embroidered hippie-ish cotton dress (the type popular at Anthropology last year), and little Olive was wearing a mini version of the same thing in white. Her hair was in a loose braid. I saw her first walking through Anthropology (she was disappointed her hippie dresses went out of style) and then later walking into Nordstrom. I was not stalking her; she was stalking me. I am worried Isla does not has any friends in LA— what celebrity goes shopping by herself (babies don't count), at The Grove, on a Sunday? Don't judge me for being at the Grove; sometimes you just wind up there. I'm hopeful she'll have a new posse following her around after her new movie comes out. Either way, she has Sacha Baron Cohen.

MONDAY, SEPT. 8

· I was walking my dog when I noticed Topanga from Boy Meets World (DANIELLE FISHEL) at Callender's Grill on Wilshire. She was sitting outside on the patio and in deep discussion with an older woman I didn't recognize. She had on really heavy eyeliner!

TUESDAY, SEPT. 9

· Oh poor LARRY FLYNT the Porn King. Saw him at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills. Sweaty, quite icky looking and dazed. That's all I've got to say about that.

· St. Louis to LAX Tuesday morning, JON HAMM was in first class. We talked to him at baggage claim, and he was ridiculously nice. The man is also really ridiculously good looking. I can't believe Sterling Cooper allows its employees to fly the friendly skies with American Airlines.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 10

· Montecito, the lush, obscenely wealthly Santa Barbara enclave is a great little getaway, especially if you go off season as to avoid the onslaught of Hollywood- from Oprah to Cameron Diaz. (I just shuddered.) Ordering a late breakfast at Xanadu when I saw that 2 feet away, WILLIAM BALDWIN and wife CHYNNA PHILLIPS are at a table waiting for their grub. Did not even recognize her. She looked beat- a skeletor-long raggedy hair, in a floor length white totally weird Hare Krishna getup.

Not until Billy opened his sexy mouth to call her back inside to eat did I inwardly sigh upon hearing that famous Baldwin voice. Oh that dulcet, mellifluous voice! He looks good. My husband said "Has he done anything since Backdraft? ... Chynna was screeching into her cell; so obnoxious, looking for attention of which she got none, and finally for those of us eating outside, she succumbed to that Baldwin Brother siren-call and went back to her table. Yes sir, that is one good looking guy with a voice that makes my knees buckle. Yum Yum Yummy. Not the omelet, the Baldwin.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 11

· One for the ages, PETER GRAVES, looking great for 82, in business class on my flight today from JFK to LAX. Like a dork, I smiled and said “Hi” as I trudged back to coach with the masses. I saw him doing a morning show yesterday (they all blend), some sort of “reunion” with Robert Hayes et. al, and there he was, on my airplane, on September 11th, making me feel better about flying.

· MARCIA CROSS, one of TV's Desperate Housewives is sitting with me in AA ECONOMY from STL to LAX right now! How continental.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 14

· Saw that guy who plays Ethan (DUSTIN MILLIGAN) and that girl who plays Silver (JESSICA STROUP) on the new version of 90210 having lunch together at Mani's on Fairfax. In this case, lunch meaning that he was eating while she watched.

· The place: The Rose Bowl Flea Market. I'd always heard that lots of celebs frequented this, but in almost two years of faithful attendance, I'd never actually seen one. ... But today, I saw CHRIS ROBINSON of the Black Crowes (and ex-Kate Hudson husband), who appeared to be accompanied by a very comely lass. And that's the difference between a rock star and me (an accountant): Chris Robinson gets willowy, hot chicks, and i get girls who look like Chris Robinson. Conclusion: I have taken a severely wrong career path and am in the wrong profession. That is all.

MONDAY, SEPT. 15

· Saw the new Brenda (SHENAE GRIMES) and Naomi (ANNALYNNE MCCORD, who incidentally makes me ache for Tori's acting chops) last night at the Belmont. New Brenda is as shockingly adorable in person as on TV but was completely sans trademark smile and actually appeared pouty and pissed at times. She and the even-less-beautiful-in-person Naomi (the new Emily Valentine?), who has overgelled 90's hair and is clearly skinnier than her own body type would prefer, were feverishly chain smoking. They were also HARDcore flirting with their waiter, the only guy there more interested in them than the cowboys and eagles. Between packs of cigarettes the girls were, yep, drinking. I'll save you the trouble of looking it up: New Brenda's only 18. Oooooo! I hope new Jim and Aunt Becky don't find out, new 90210 is boring enough without old 90210's lesson-learned moralizing.

TUESDAY, SEPT. 16

· So about an hour ago, 3:15 or so Wednesday afternoon, I'm going for a run along Beverly Blvd. I'm just E of Fairfax on the S side of the street when there's a pretty bad car wreck right in front of me. A westbound car turned left into the CBS gate, and a small car was gunning it eastbound in the lane closest to the sidewalk and didn't see them.

So the security guard goes to one car, I tell another car to call 911. No one is critically hurt, but we help the guy who's bleeding pretty bad onto the sidewalk. I go out into the street to stand there and let people know they have to get over cuz one of the mangled cars is sitting in the middle of the intersection.

After 5-10 minutes, I see a tow truck and a fire truck coming our way from around Fairfax, but traffic is now pretty jacked so it's slow. The tow truck is all set to come down the emergency lane when this giant black tinted Escalade looking thing cuts in front of it to pass the stalled traffic. Keep in mind the tow truck has flashers on. As the Escalade gets closer, I'm waving my hands to tell it to get over, but it won't. Then I notice the chick driving is on her cell, holding it up to her ear. I walk up to her car now, hit the passenger side door and say "get over - there's a tow truck and a fire truck behind you - there's been a bad accident."

At this point, she rolls down the window to reveal her KIM KARDASHIAN self [...] who tells me "Don't you touch my car." I thought, "Are you fucking kidding me?! there's a guy on the sidewalk with his head bleeding." I then screamed at her "Are you fucking kidding me?! There's a guy on the sidewalk with his head bleeding!!" to which she responds "I know, but don't touch my car." She finally merges into the other lane and jams it through the yellow light to make the intersection.

She said "I know?" I KNOW that I'm holding up rescue in my tinted-ass Escalade looking thing and on my cell, but the only thing I care about is not to hit my car.

I hate humanity.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 17

· Saw LINDA EVANS at the Intercontinental bar last night. Fortunately she left before I had my third martini — otherwise I would've hummed the Dynasty theme to her.

TODAY

· LISA RINNA working out at Fitness Factory with her trainer. Her face looked like the clay pot in the movie Ghost after Patrick Swayze fucked it up.

In April 2002, an agent named Sandra Epstein sued Endeavor, alleging, among other things, sexual harassment and pointing out that at one point she had been the lone woman among a dozen male agents. ...

Mr. Emanuel, the filings said, allowed a friend to operate a pornographic Web site out of the agency’s quarters. Also, according to Ms. Epstein’s filings, Mr. Emanuel made antigay and racist remarks — accusations he disputed at the time.

Ms. Epstein said Mr. Emanuel blocked her from sending a script about the Navy Seals to the actor Wesley Snipes. “That is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” the agent was reported in the papers to have said. “Everyone knows that blacks don’t swim.”

It's all good now, reports the Times's Michael Cieply, and thank God: We'd hate to see CAA get too far ahead when it comes to classiness.

• Agents Replaying a Hollywood Drama [NYT]

Clients like Aaron Sorkin—whose tragically short-lived observational masterwork, Studio 60, managed in one short season to get Americans thinking as much about blacklisted WGA veterans and U.S. foreign policy in Afghanistan as it did about the serious-minded process of unfunny-sketch-show mounting. But while Emanuel is quick to deflect his accomplishments in favor of those of his higher-profile clients, we'd suggest no one has affected more positive change than Ari himself, his battered Prius the pace-car for the entire Hollywood conscience derby.

• A discussion about healthcare with Ezekiel, Ari, and Rahm Emanuel [Charlie Rose]

While still simmering about the Berg incident, Emmanuel [sic] arrived at the executive dining room at Universal, where he was to have lunch with film studio chairman Marc Shmuger. As fate would have it, Shmuger's boss—Universal Studios chief Ron Meyer—was meeting Silverman there that day. In fact, the two couples were in adjoining booths. When Emmanuel [sic] spied Silverman, he delivered a tongue-lashing, touching on Silverman's lifestyle and its impact on NBC-Universal's business. He didn't whisper. ...

At the lunch, the almost-always-affable Ron Meyer tried to keep out of the line of fire. But we're told that afterward he advised Silverman to mend fences with Emmanuel. [sic] Eventually, the two met and at least nominally made up.

Great! Now that that's resolved, it's on to Slate's copy editors. Here's hoping the resolution is as swift and serene, if perhaps more permanent; Masters also reports that Silverman was back to talking shit by the end of the day. Kids these days, seriously.

• Hugging It Out [Slate]

Where I work I heard a rumor about Jodie's new gf. It's not Cynthia Mort. Allegedly it's a 20something year old agent at Endeavor. Anyone else hear this?

Could the enduring star and glass-panic-room-dweller have found love in the assistant-lined halls of Endeavor, right beneath the approvingly paternal gaze of agent-swap mascot Ari Emanuel (whom we've outfitted with a stylish-yet- easy-to -manage hairdo and sassy new attitude to befit the occasion)? Our lines our open.

• Homewrecking Spy In Jodie Foster's House Of Love Revealed! [Defamer]

My prediction about Dick Cheney is one step closer to coming true. My clock gives it three weeks before his resignation letter lands on Bush's desk. What does your clock say?

As we assume that both Emanuel's original prediction and unflatteringly braggy follow-up were thoroughly vetted by an assistant in Congressman brother Rahm's office, we'll happily accept his clock, confident that in three week's time we'll return to his cozy corner of the HuffPo and be able to read all about Cheney's resignation and Rice's promotion in a post humbly titled "I Fucking Told You So."

• The Clock is Ticking on Cheney [HuffPo]