The Golden Globes after-parties at the Beverly Hills Hilton were overcrowded like a Tokyo subway car, but that didn't stop the crack security staff at the Miramax party from preventing an incursion by an evil impostor:

Newsweek has an "exit interview" with outgoing, trailblazing Paramount head Sherry Lansing, and after Lansing assures us that she's leaving to open a new chapter in her life, not forced out by her Viacom overlords, interviewer Sean Smith gets right down to some dirty business:

· Fox entertainment president Gail Berman knows that her network is really taking it on the chin with its year-round programming schedule, but pledges that they're still committed to having their ass kicked in the name of being revolutionary. Luckily, American Idol is right around the corner to cover up some of the Nielsen bruises. [THR]
· Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh pony up some of their precious Lord of the Rings coin to buy the rights to Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones, which will keep the studio development monkeys from flinging their feces on the project at least until the script is finished.[Variety]
· Universal outbids several studios for a chance to produce The Break Up (plot top secret!), shelling out $2.25 million for the script written by Jeremy Garelick and Jay Lavender with a story by Vince Vaughn. Since no one's buying Vaughn's brain, he's attached to star in the film. [THR]
· Disney plans to go ahead with an idea for the Pixar-less Toy Story 3 idea pitched by a writer in their animation story development program. The studio has yet to decide whether to let the precocious kid write the script or crush his dreams by bringing in some high-priced talent. [THR]
· Though the Housewives themselves were at the Golden Globes, America much preferred seeing them in character on another channel, as ABC's powerhouse Sunday night demolished the awards show's ratings. [Variety]

The LAT reports that Disney president Robert Iger has the inside track to succeed CEO Michael Eisner as Rat King of the Magic Kingdom. (Assuming, of course, that Eisner doesn't decide to fill his pockets with C-4 and take his management team for "one last ride" on Space Mountain.) Iger seems to have the support of Wall Street, but some are worried that he's spent too much time servicing Eisner:

· The WGA recognizes the Oscar favorites, but throws in a couple of curveballs by nominating Zach Braff for Garden State and Tina Fey for Mean Girls. Never doubt the appeal of Lindsay Lohan's breasts to a bunch of people who sit in front of their computers all day. [Variety]
· Anthony Minghella will direct Breaking and Entering for Miramax, "a contemporary story about theft, both emotional and criminal." We'll let him get a little artsy if he promises to throw in a scene where the thing they want to steal is surrounded by laser beams. [THR]
· Les Moonves' remarriage can't stop him from extending his evil partnership with Jerry Bruckheimer, as CBS greenlights the Bruck's American Crime pilot. If it ever gets to air, expect a "CSI" to be appended to the front.
[THR]
· Kiefer Sutherland continues to carve out a nice little career playing government agents, signing on to play a Secret Service guy in The Sentinel, with Michael Douglas. [Variety]
· Edward Norton attempts to make the heat on his career reappear by playing a magician in The Illusionist. [Variety]

The LAT reports that the Weinstein brothers are close to finalizing their divorce with Disney, but exactly how close they are predictably depends on which side you listen to. The Miramaxies say it's all over except for the lawyer papers, but Michael Eisner's minions sound like they're not quite ready for the break-up sex:

· In about three weeks, the home video rights for Alexander will probably sell for less than its soundtrack promo at Amoeba.
· Behold, another strange intersection of Jeffrey Katzenberg and the porn industry.
· We're almost ready to officially recognize the Curse of the Entertainment Weekly Must List
· If you haven't seen this by now, you haven't been properly utilizing the power of the interweb.
· It's a cliché to use this formulation, and we've never been afraid of beating a dead horse, so here goes: Slate's Movie Club is for pussies. Bloggers do it better at The Conversation
· Should we be offended that Brad will only talk about his life with the Japanese?
· Based on this one segment alone, it seems that there's no way that the new season of Ali G will be less than amazing.

Fox is ready to roll out another new series tomorrow night, and we all know what that means: the inevitable cross-promotional theme menu at the on-lot Fox News Cafe. This time around, the network's crack marketing team had to tie the Cafe's offerings to Jonny Zero (tagline: "Now the city's toughest ex-con is helping those who can't help themselves"), a show that's likely to have the shelf-life of their Zero Guilt Salad. Some of the names smack of laziness. We assume a Personal "Jonny Calvo"ne is a calzone, but what does Fresh Outta Prison have to do with pizza? It's enough to make you put down your I Had To Befriend The Mobbed-Up Italians So That The Aryan Brotherhood Wouldn't Rape Me In The Shower Panini and send the PA out to fetch some Chinese food.

· News Corp., in good financial shape, looks to start buying everything in sight just for shits and giggles. [THR]
· If 74-year-olds keep scoring seven-figure deals like the one Alvin Sargent just signed to write Spider-man 3, older, out-of-work writers are going to have a hell of a time suing studios for age discrimination. [Variety*]
· Afraid of the possibility that the God of the Old Testament might smite them for their sin, ABC will produce their Ten Commandments miniseries without a singing Val Kilmer. [THR]
· Hollywood Out Of Ideas, We Were Just Ahead Of Our Time Edition: Disney signs up writers Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal for a Tron remake. [Variety*]
· Sean William Scott joins Billy Bob Thornton in the cast of the New Line comedy Mr. Woodcock. Enjoy the movie's title before it gets changed to something more palatable to red state theatregoers. [THR]

While Lindsay Lohan is partying in New Orleans during downtime from shooting Just My Luck, her publicist captions this photo for us: "She was just there with some castmates checking out the local scene. There was no 'partying.' She had one cranberry and soda."

· Steven Spielberg is finally moving ahead with his Abraham Lincoln biopic, entering into talks with Liam Neeson to star. Hey, he may not be American, but he's tall and he's already comfortable with the gay stuff after doing Kinsey. [Variety, sub. req'd.]
· ABC co-savior J.J. Abrams can do it all (except make us care about Alias). He'll direct The Good Sailor, about the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, for Universal. [THR]
· Co-head of CAA motion picture lit department Josh Donen bolts CAA to set up a production company with Sam Raimi at Sony. It's always a little sad when an agent gives up "the life." [THR]
· Billionaire producer Steve Bing buys his way into the director's chair, setting up a gig directing Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins in Harry and the Butler. Once you've had Nicole Kidman and Liz Hurley, you think you can do anything. [Variety]
· Cinematographers nominate The Passion of the Christ for their yearly awards, regonizing the film's achievement of making Christ's beatings look absolutely breathtaking. [THR]

While the expected divorce of Harvey and Bob Weinstein from Disney lacks the tabloid-friendly heat of The Big Brad and Jen Break-Up, we're all still waiting for an announcement about the split. The NYT says that the separation "could come soon" (thanks for the update, guys), but things are always more complicated when kids are involved:

Audience response to the season finale of Nip/Tuck was so good that creator Ryan Murphy, who had one foot out the door to start a career in directing features, was suddenly filled with more stories:

A little birdie told us that DreamWorks Animation head Jeffrey Katzenberg requested a table at the party thrown by porn distributor Pure Play Media's party at the Hard Rock in Vegas last Thursday night, right in the thick of the AVN awards. Granted, there were a lot of "mainstream" entertainment types there, but we're not sure what the top executive of a family-friendly animation studio would do at a party thrown by the company that sells titles like Anal Surprise Party and Undressed and Oversexed. Maybe he was performing due diligence for a possible new direction for the Shrek franchise. Shrek 3: White Chicks Love Green Cock would be an instant smash hit.

· SAG celebrates the actorly arts by recognizing the casts of The Aviator, Sideways, Million Dollar Baby, Finding Neverland, and Ray with their award nominations. [THR]
· Shades of Wooderson? Matthew McConaughey signs on for the Scott Rudin project Failure to Launch, as a thirtysomething guy whose parents fix him up to get him out of their house. [THR]
· What the hell, cast everyone! Danny DeVito, Kim Basinger, Carla Gugino, Nick Cannon, Forest Whitaker, Jay Mohr, Kelsey Grammer, and Ray Liotta sign on (or will soon) for the Mark Rydell-directed indie drama Jump Shot. [Variety, sub req'd.]
· NBC wins Monday night with Medium, despite competition from the premiere of The Bachelorette and a second night of 24 doubleheaders. [THR]
· Bill Condon, now the musical go-to-guy after adapting Chicago, will follow up Kinsey by directing a movie version of the Broadway musical Dreamgirls for DreamWorks. [Variety]

With the Hollywood Trial of the Century resuming for its final week, we're reminded how inhospitable the quaint Delaware town that's hosting the proceedings is to fancy Hollywood outsiders:

While many of us have been selfishly fretting about how we'll find a way to make it through Brad and Jen's separation and eventual divorce, has anyone stepped back from their personal misery to ask, "What's going to happen to the children?" Not real children, mind you; they were considerate enough not to procreate. We're referring to Plan B, their vanity production company with Warner Bros. In the chaos surrounding Friday's announcement, we'd heard that they were going to abandon the company, but now the official party line is that Plan B will go on, with Pitt and Aniston remaining business partners. They wouldn't want to orphan Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or their other projects in development.

· News Corp. offers to buy what we thought it already owned. Who can makes sense of these multimedia conglomerates? [THR]
· The ink is dry on his new deal, so let the naysaying begin: Can the experience-impaired, TV veteran "outsider" Brad Grey hack it at Paramount? Who knows, but it's giving people ample opportunity to rationalize about "transferable skills." [THR, Variety, sub. req'd.]
· SAG and producers unions take an indefinite break from contract negotiations. Stall all you want, actors, you still ain't getting any more DVD money. [THR]
· Nearly every cable network but the Food Network is desperate to pay through the nose for watered-down Sopranos reruns. The bidding starts at $1.8 million per episode. [Variety, sub. req'd.]
· Dan Rather's 60 Minutes Wednesday Memogate results in at least four heads rolling at CBS. [THR]
· National Film Critics fall under Clint Eastwood's lockjawed spell, choosing Million Dollar Baby as the year's best. [THR]

How does Universal keeping wringing box office gold out of movies like Meet the Fockers and Along Came Polly? Hint: It isn't Ben Stiller. The secret ingredient is Uni head Stacey Snider's incredibly developed understanding of the craft of comedy:

Did anyone else notice that last night's season premiere of 24 featured a terrorist named "Tomas Sherak"? (It was a little hard to miss, since the name was mentioned about a dozen times during the episode.) The real-life Tom Sherak, of course, is a partner at Revolution Studios and the former chairman of Fox's film division. Naming a terrorist after a studio exec really lacks the shout-out cachet of, say, the writers of The O.C. slipping their agents' names into their show.