Entertainment Industry

When the upcoming comedy "The Hangover Part III" wrapped production in January, Warner Bros. was left with tons of used plywood, joists, furniture, faux brick and other materials from the film set. But instead of hauling the leftovers to the landfill, the studio donated the items - enough to fill 10 truckloads - to the charitable organization Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, to be sold in Habitat's stores in Gardena and Norwalk....

When the upcoming comedy "The Hangover Part III" wrapped production in January, Warner Bros. was left with tons of used plywood, joists, furniture, faux brick and other materials from the film set. But instead of hauling the leftovers to the landfill, the studio donated the items - enough to fill 10 truckloads - to the charitable organization Habitat for Humanity of Greater Los Angeles, to be sold in Habitat's stores in Gardena and Norwalk....

Will Virgin Interactive ever go public? For the last two years, the Irvine computer game company has steadily bled money. In a recent regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Virgin's parent company--Spelling Entertainment Group--said the game company lost $49.5 million for the nine months ended Sept. 30. Last spring, Spelling Entertainment announced plans to spin off the game maker to the public by the year's end, even though Spelling estimated it will cost about $139.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court gave foreign buyers of books, video discs and other copyrighted works a right to resell them in the U.S. without permission of the copyright owner, giving discount retailers a victory and the entertainment industry a setback. The 6-3 decision Tuesday came in the case of Supap Kirtsaeng, a USC graduate student from Thailand who figured he could earn money for his education by buying low-cost textbooks in his native country and reselling them in the United States.

Worried by the worsening economy, Kristen Olson decided she'd better start saving money. She tallied her expenses and was walloped by sticker shock: She and her roommates were spending $900 a year for cable TV. "I'm not watching $900 worth of cable," said the 25-year-old advertising account coordinator, who lives in North Hollywood. She's trying to persuade her roommates to drop the service.

Dan Glickman, the former congressman and Agriculture secretary who was named Hollywood's chief lobbyist Thursday, will probably be compared with Jack Valenti for years. But he will never be mistaken for him. Valenti, in his 38 years as president and chief executive of the Motion Picture Assn. of America, became synonymous with the movie industry. In 1965, when Valenti went Hollywood, he was already one of the most inside of Washington insiders as one of President Johnson's closest aides.

Take a Hollywood plot, sprinkle in cheesy song-and-dance numbers and pour in a gallon of melodrama. Shake well, and you've got a Bollywood movie. But Bollywood, which churns out some 800 movies annually, may be forced to alter its recipe after bestselling novelist Barbara Taylor Bradford persuaded India's Supreme Court last month to ban a 260-part TV series that she claimed stole heavily from her novels.

He's a middle-aged black porn actor who had wanted to be a policeman. Known for his conscientiousness, he'd ask costars to refrain from smoking even as they were having unprotected group sex. She's a white French Canadian stripper with waif-like eyes and a history of depression. Her dream was to open her own escort service. Or become a fashion designer. Or cut a rap CD with Missy Elliott.

The Hollywood jobs picture continued to improve last year. Employment in Los Angeles' entertainment industry climbed nearly 4% in 2012, reflecting an upswing in feature film production in the fourth quarter and a surge in commercial shoots, which climbed to a record level last year as major brands spent more money on campaigns to promote their products. The so-called motion picture and sound recording category - including those who work at the major film studios, music labels and post-production houses - employed an average of 129,675 people in 2012, up 3.7% from the average employment in 2011, according to the state Employment Development Department.

Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., recently spoke with The Times about a new report on the entertainment industry's effect on the L.A. County economy. What was the purpose of the study? We know that the entertainment industry looms large on the world stage and that L.A. is the entertainment capital of the world. We said, 'Okay, how big is this industry?' This study was an effort to evaluate the size of the entertainment industry and to measure its impact on the L.A. economy in terms of jobs, income and taxes.

Mark Saylor, a former Los Angeles Times editor who oversaw a Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles on corruption in the entertainment industry, died Friday of cancer at his Pasadena home, his wife said. He was 58. Saylor, who was also a nationally ranked chess master, was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer last spring, said his wife, Nora Zamichow, a former Times staff writer. In 1998, as entertainment editor for The Times' business section, Saylor worked with reporters Chuck Philips and Michael A. Hiltzik on three major projects over one year: fundraising by the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences that netted only pennies for its charity; a resurgence of radio station "payola," or illicit payoffs, for airplay of new recordings; and the preponderance of untested luxury detox programs for wealthy celebrities.

"We need to buy a movie studio. " Amid the conferences, panels, meetings and informal conversations in the wake of the presidential election, this idea has been a near constant among conservatives who feel like the country is slipping through their fingers. Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee combined raised just more than $1 billion, and all we got are these lousy T-shirts. Since conservatives are losing the culture, goes the argument, which in turn leads to losing at politics, maybe that money could be better spent on producing some cultural ammo of our own?

The Hollywood jobs picture continued to improve last year. Employment in Los Angeles' entertainment industry climbed nearly 4% in 2012, reflecting an upswing in feature film production in the fourth quarter and a surge in commercial shoots, which climbed to a record level last year as major brands spent more money on campaigns to promote their products. The so-called motion picture and sound recording category - including those who work at the major film studios, music labels and post-production houses - employed an average of 129,675 people in 2012, up 3.7% from the average employment in 2011, according to the state Employment Development Department.

Film and television industry groups that met with the White House on Thursday evening vowed to engage in a "dialogue" over the issue of gun violence in America.                                                           "The entertainment community appreciates being included in the dialogue around the administration's efforts to confront the complex challenge of gun violence in America," said a statement from the Directors...

What's the future of L.A.'s economy? That's a question that should be at the center of this year's mayoral campaign. Key to that discussion should be recognition that Los Angeles, despite all its economic problems, is an increasingly prominent home to the next generation of technology companies that will drive the digital revolution in the 21st century. Los Angeles' tech awakening is unfolding in a slice of territory - dubbed "Silicon Beach," which initially referred to Venice and Santa Monica and then expanded to Hollywood and downtown - where established giants such as Google and Apple have opened offices and where some 500 newcomer ventures have taken root.

Tribune Co. is expected to emerge from bankruptcy protection Monday with a new board of directors composed largely of entertainment-industry veterans. Exiting bankruptcy would mark a milestone for Tribune, the parent of the Los Angeles Times and other newspaper and television properties. Tribune sought Bankruptcy Court protection in December 2008 after a leveraged buyout by real estate magnate Sam Zell saddled the company with $12.9 billion in debt just as advertising revenue was collapsing.

A new report on Los Angeles' creative economy shows the entertainment industry emerging from its recession-induced slump, with modest job gains in 2011 hinting at the early stages of a recovery. The entertainment industry employed about 120,400 people in Los Angeles County last year -- off about 7% from the peak in 2006, but an improvement over 2010, according to the Otis Report on the Creative Economy of the Los Angeles Region released Tuesday. Motion picture and video production accounted for the greatest number of job losses in the entertainment sector from 2006 to 2011.

David Tillman, the beleaguered head of the Motion Picture & Television Fund, has resigned, capping a yearlong feud with residents of Hollywood's oldest nursing home and their families. The fund, which operates the nursing home and hospital for entertainment industry workers that are slated to close, said that board member Bob Beitcher, a former chief executive of Panavision, would replace Tillman as chief executive on an interim basis until a successor could be found. Tillman headed the fund for a decade but came under sharp criticism over his handling of the board's controversial decision a year ago to close the Woodland Hills facilities that have been a fixture of the entertainment industry for more than half a century.

A new report on Los Angeles' creative economy shows the entertainment industry emerging from its recession-induced slump, with modest job gains in 2011 hinting at the early stages of a recovery. The entertainment industry employed about 120,400 people in Los Angeles County last year -- off about 7% from the peak in 2006, but an improvement over 2010, according to the Otis Report on the Creative Economy of the Los Angeles Region released Tuesday. Motion picture and video production accounted for the greatest number of job losses in the entertainment sector from 2006 to 2011.

Robert Kleinhenz, chief economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., recently spoke with The Times about a new report on the entertainment industry's effect on the L.A. County economy. What was the purpose of the study? We know that the entertainment industry looms large on the world stage and that L.A. is the entertainment capital of the world. We said, 'Okay, how big is this industry?' This study was an effort to evaluate the size of the entertainment industry and to measure its impact on the L.A. economy in terms of jobs, income and taxes.