Follow LA Observed on Twitter here
Very slow morning, what with all the 9/11 coverage. Speaking of which:
Money angles: It's pretty tough to get away from five-year anniversary stuff this morning, although there's little you haven't heard before. Beth Barrett in the Daily News does a nice job in reporting on a lack of local government oversight in spending those millions of anti-terrorism dollars. In its P1 lead position, the LAT concludes that the local ports remain a vulnerable target, citing the Rand study that got lots of play a few weeks back. (An anonymous bomb threat this morning turned out to be a hoax.) In the biz section, there's a piece about video meetings not taking since the attacks.
No news at H-P: When you're covering a big story about boardroom leaks, don't expect much leaking during a pivotal boardroom meeting that will determine the fate of Hewlett-Packard Chairwoman Patricia Dunn. Sunday's emergency's session was adjourned without resolution and will be resumed today. None of this morning's stories offer a clue as to what's going on, although the role of CEO Mark Hurd seems to be getting more attention. Here's the latest Bloomberg story. Update: The U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California has begun looking into the leaking, according to an H-P filing this morning.
Sony animation: The studio tries its hand at big-budget animation with the Sept. 29 release of "Open Season" (or haven't you seen the billboards yet?). Timing may be off - Sony enters a very crowded animation arena (around 30 will be released between 2006 and 2008), and for months there's been talk of a glut. Sony has its own in-house operation.
Sexy video: Warner Music Group and Atlantic Records have been accused of helping coerce a 16-year-old girl into making sex-laced rock videos. According to a lawsuit filed in Superior Court, the girl was apparently among the fans who showed up at a Hollywood nightspot after the band Buckcherry advertised for extras on MySpace. The music companies and the band say they didn't do anything wrong.
Not that you care...: Vanityfair.com registered 4.3 million page views the first day it had the photos of Suri Cruise on its Web site. That's three times more than the previous record (the b-roll of Keira Knightley and Scarlett Johansson from Tom Ford's Hollywood issue). VF also signed up 4,000 subscriptions on Wednesday, its largest one-day total. Women's Wear Daily has the details.
Told you it was a slow morning.
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.