SUNDAY 8 AM UPDATE: This over-hyped movie ended up being more trick than treat. Sources tell me the domestic numbers for Michael Jackson’s This Is It underperformed even more than Sony expected. And that the concert rehearsal footage pic took in just $20.7M this weekend and only $31.9M for the first five days it…

The Obama administration did a Friday afternoon news dump of the names of 500 visitors to the White House spanning the time period from January 20 to July 31, 2009. And almost no one from Hollywood showed up to meet the president or his family or his aides. Weird, especially since so much of Hollywood was supporting…

October 29th, Variety: No Oscars For Jackman: “While speculation is running high on who'll host the Oscarcast, it won't be Hugh Jackman. Jackman, who's currently starring on Broadway with Daniel Craig in the drama "A Steady Rain," quietly turned down the job within the past several weeks, sources said.” October 16th…

3RD UPDATE: Here’s Miramax Films president Daniel Battsek’s email to staff: Dear All- After further reflection and discussion about the change in direction for Miramax, Rich Ross and I have agreed that I will step down as President of Miramax, effective the end of January, 2010. With this decision, we have also agreed…

Hollywood already knows what a powerful marketing tool Twitter has become. But now Twitter subscribers are using that power to promote film piracy. Someone is promoting a web page that offers a full-length digital video of Paranormal Activity. Does Paramount Pictures know about this? UPDATE: The studio tells me, “It’s…

…”DB” who submitted: A: "I hope this Douchebag can make me richer." S: "I hope this Douchebag can make me richer." WEDNESDAY PM UPDATE: I’m being picky about which captions I let through. WEDNESDAY: Rose Palmisano of the Orange County Register took this photo of Ari Emanuel and Sacha Baron Cohen “enjoying” the Lakers…

UPDATE: Mike Sitrick just confirmed to me that he has sold his “Crisis PR” company. Well, this is a surprise! According to the PRNewswire, Resources Global Professionals, a consultancy spinoff from Deloitte & Touche and a multinational operating subsidiary of Resources Connection Inc (RECN), will hold a conference…

Fox Releases New ‘Avatar’ Trailer Clearly Fox is going all out for the male audience for Jim Cameron’s game-changing 3-D oeuvre Avatar opening December 18th. The studio announced today it’s arranging the biggest live trailer viewing on one of the biggest sports days of the year (with key NFL match-ups + Game 4 of the…

THURSDAY NOON: Hollywood is predicting that Sony’s This Is It will have trouble making its expected $50 million in 5 days domestically based on Wednesday’s $7.4 million opening including $2.2M from Tuesday night. Today will probably come in at the $4M range. And estimates now are for $20+M for Fri/Sat/Sun. So that…

Six writers won the 24th annual Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Each writer or writing team will receive the first installment of a $30,000 prize at a gala dinner in Beverly Hills on November 12. This year’s winners are (listed…

EXCLUSIVE: This is how Epix is launching as it bills itself as the “next generation” premium entertainment service from Viacom, Paramount Pictures, Lionsgate, MGM/UA, Samuel Goldwyn Films, and Roadside Attractions. For the more than one million people invited to experience the free weekend previews starting…