"The new consolidated structure allows both Paramount and Paramount Vantage to leverage the strengths and resources of a combined talent base, while minimizing redundancies and optimizing efficiencies," Rob Moore, Vice Chairman, Paramount Pictures.

Those who didn't quite make the efficiency-optimizing grade: Vantage distribution executive vp Rob Schulze, plus two other executives, one of whom worked for Paramount proper. So why is the studio, enjoying the heartiest summer crop in ages, eating its own? A Defamer operative suggests their in-house reaper's scythe-swinging has just begun, with the re-organization providing a nice opportunity for big Paramount to clean out their theatrical marketing department. The moral of the story? Don't equate a Best Picture Oscar or thirteen-figure opening with job security: For every success, there's an A Mighty Heart or Love Guru that means your ass on a platter.

• Paramount Pictures and Vantage unit to combine operations [LAT]

Lindsay in the true life crime film was to play the dramatic part of Nancy Pitman, a pampered surfer girl who became enthralled with Charlie Manson. But insiders explain that Lohan quickly became more of a deficit than an asset when they discovered that they couldn't find any name actresses who wanted to co-star with her.

(And even some name actors...) So now Lindsay is off the pic. Let this be a lesson... Behaving badly may get you on the covers of celebrity-obsessed mags and tabloids. But Hollywood won't tolerate your shit and shouldn't.

What Lohan's starlet non grata status means for her other current projects is still too soon to say. Certainly, everything seemed to be hunky dory on the set of Ugly Betty, which saw the actress returning to vintage, Mean Girls-era Lohan for a schoolyard bullying sequence which may or may not involve beating up Christian Siriano. As for Ye Olde Times, a Jack Black comedy set in a Medieval Times-style restaurant, we have yet to hear anything about producers having second thoughts about their choice to put the troubled actress in the small but pivotal role of Busty Serving Wench #2, a good sign that at least some in Hollywood are still fully prepared to tolerate Lindsay's shit.

• Lindsay Lohan Now Hollywood Pariah... [deadlinehollywooddaily.com]

In the case of Dourdan, an insider at the show insists that he and CSI execs "mutually agreed" to part ways for "creative reasons." However, a CBS mole claims the 41-year-old actor was essentially fired, adding that producers are trying to be "as supportive and protective" of him as possible by portraying the departure as mutual. That same mole wasn't willing to share the specific reason for Dourdan's ouster, except to say that it involves an "ongoing problem personal to Dourdan." [...]

Over at SVU, the situation surrounding Neal has become equally suspicious. On Tuesday, a show spokesperson confirmed to me exclusively that the actress would be vacating her role as ADA Casey Novak in what appeared to be a mutual decision. However, shortly after I posted that story, a show insider says an emotional Neal gathered the crew together on the set and informed them that she had just been fired.

Of course, more definite clues could arise once we get a better look at how the show's writers choose to dispatch their series regulars. We're reminded of a similarly acrimonious parting of Prison Break's Sarah Wayne Callies, whose gruesome demise involved the discovery of her character Sara's decapitated head in a box. Should we tune in to the season finale of CSI to find Marg Helgenberger running a black light over Dourdan's battered, limp body to get a better look at the tell-tale semen stains left after his fatal gang-raping, we'll know producers were not entirely broken up about the actor's departure.

• Exclusive: Were Dourdan and Neal (Gulp) Fired [TVGuide.com]

More than 25 staffers have been let go — including Kim Fleary, the CW's exec VP of comedy development, and her No. 2, senior VP of comedy Steve Veisel.

While the comedy department was eliminated, the CW has merged its remaining drama and current programming units into one scripted series department.

In deference to the fallen department, surviving staffers have mounted a silent protest, closing all official e-mail correspondences today with a single, frowning emoticon. The sad-face symbol is a simple yet potent reminder of all the single-camera, half-hour projects that will forever go undeveloped, the script notes never given, and all due to the avarice of corporate higher-ups who'd sooner let the laughter die if it meant guaranteeing 155 more cycles of weave-tugging, appointment Top Model TV.

• Strike, ratings slip lead to CW layoffs [Variety]

[T]he network confirm for me that this week it fired 9 Last Call employees, including 3 of the four writers whose contracts ran out during the strike. (The one scribe kept on still has 4 weeks remaining on his pact. The other 6 employees trimmed worked in other departments.)

NBC sources insist that the Last Call budget cuts weren't done because of the strike and would have made regardless of the WGA labor action. This, after the network threatened to cancel the 5-year-old show altogether unless Carson went back to work.

Certainly, Daly has proven that even with zero writers, he's capable of carrying an solid hour of insomnitainment, and this setback is hardly going to stop him dutifully hoisting his head up from his desk at every applause cue to introduce the next riveting installment of "People Who Still Work For Me Theater presents Gina the receptionist listing the Presidents of the United States in reverse alphabetical order! What's that? Oh. I'm informed Gina packed her desk up earlier this afternoon and was escorted off the premises by two NBC Universal security guards. Anyone know any jokes?"

• Carson Daly's 'Last Call' Hosed By NBC [DHD]

Camacho had been the sidekick to Kevin Huvane at CAA on the team that spent months making Oprah's deal with Discovery Communications to create an Oprah-branded TV network. "I love this kid. People really trusted him," an insider explained to me.

"But then he went and pitched her to run the whole thing. And then lied about it to Kevin." And CAA felt it had no choice but to let him go. That said, I hear CAA is trying to place Camacho into a company or help him start up his own.

Of course, every deal, no matter how large, requires a certain amount of finessing, and if it was truly Camacho's ambition to take over operations of Oprah's cable pulpit, there were certainly less jarring ways to nominate himself than having a house-sized gift basket containing 75,000 Perfect Endings cupcakes delivered to Harpo studios, along with an 7-foot-tall card reading, "Oprah: You are America's TV Queen. Let me be your King. Together we can rule the Universe. Love, Michael."

• CAA Fires TV Agent Over Oprah Intrigue [deadlinehollywooddaily.com]