To celebrate the video release of Enchanted, Disney has issued some side-by-sides of the (thousands, they say!) visual nods to other scenes from their animated classics. Pictured, Amy Adams and McDreamy enjoy some pizza pie in a tableau meant to directly hearken back to Lady and the Tramp's classic alley-side spaghetti preparation, though sharp-eyed Enchanted viewers may have already realized that when Princess Giselle starts scratching behind her ear with her foot. [comingsoon.net, Cinematical]

· The Dracula: The Puppet Musical sequence in Forgetting Sarah Marshall so impressed the Jim Henson Co., who produced the puppets, that they've hired Jason Segel and Nick Stoller to write and direct the next Muppet movie. They're hoping the whole Apatowian raunch-with-heart formula will lend itself nicely to a story about Miss Piggy's accidental knocking-up by Kermit's unambitious stoner character, which will result in a mutant frig baby that both will love despite its freakishly beflippered snout. [Variety]
· As we noted yesterday, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (that's the one where everyone except Draco Malfoy dies at the end. Kidding! Never read it.) is so expansive, Warner Bros. had no choice but to split it into two, billion-dollar-earning blockbusters instead of the regular one. Consider this a coup for everyone involved—particularly fans of post-jailbait-aged Emma Watson. [Variety]

What would happen if The Devil Wears Prada knocked up Sex and The City: The Movie and they had five kids? Besides the birth of our worst nightmare, that is? Well, Disney's upcoming Confessions of a Shopaholic franchise will be sashaying from its likely pink carpet premiere to a theater near you (sorry) next Valentine's Day. The British books, penned by Sophie Kinsella, starred a clumsy heroine who manages to be even less likable than Bridget Jones. Pictures from the set of the film have just starting rolling in, and while we want to believe Isla Fisher can save the movies from being chick flick throwaways, the sight of her in this over-the-top (even for the Brits) bridesmaid dress doesn't exactly put our minds at ease. [Just Jared]

Step Up, the "you got your hip-hop chocolate in my classically trained ballet peanut butter!" teen dance movie, and its sequel, Step Up 2: The Streets, have both done brisk business at the box office, so its not surprising that another sequel should already be in the works. But while we feared that their choice to go the alphanumeric pun-title route would perhaps limit the third installment creatively (a lively spitballing session from our beloved commenters threw out such possibilities as Step Up 3 Men and a Little Lady and Step Up 3 Days of the Condor), never once did the most obvious possibility occur to us: Step Up 3-D!

Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers advisers have CEO Jerry Yang and the Yahoo board of directors talking a merger with AOL, according to the Times of London. Last week, new Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes announced plans to formally split AOL from its ISP business, in a move that he said would "increase AOL's strategic options." The Times also reports Yang and company plan to test interest from Disney.

Disney reported a 9 percent increase in revenues year-over-year but a 20 percent drop in earnings per share in the most recent quarter. In a strong showing, Disney's cable and broadcasting division — which includes ABC and ESPN — showed a 28 percent rise in profit, making $908 million on $4.2 billion in sales. Nope, TV isn't dead yet.Disney press release]

Since the MPAA tried to ban screeners of Oscar-nominated films over piracy fears in 2003, the risk of those screeners leaking to the Internet has actually fallen, according to research by journalist/programmer/dot-com founder Andy Baio. But a month before the ceremony, all but six of this year's 34 nominated films have been leaked online. Below, how movie studios' fear of piracy (okay, "stealing") was the best thing that happened to pirates. Plus, how a studio's fear of piracy kills a movie's Oscar chances.

Always eager to oblige a reader request, we threw together this side-by-side of Judah Friedlander and Alice in Wonderland's Walrus that we suggested earlier for the Disney Dream Portrait seres. As we suspected, it was an inspired casting choice, as the two bear an uncanny physical resemblance. With that settled, now all we need is to determine who'll play his companion, The Carpenter. Our vote is for Seth Green. [Defamer]

· As a disappointing™ Sundance limps towards the finish line, buyers are proving immune to the charms of Big Name Stars like Robert DeNiro and Tom Hanks, whose films (What Just Happened and The Great Buck Howard) have "held all of the appeal of three-day-old fish." [Variety]
· Sundance? More like Stunned'dance, quips the Reporter as the sound of a rimshot slowly fades into the eerie quiet of Park City's Main Street. Are we right, ladies? [THR]
· Universal signs Atonement's Joe Wright, red-hot from seven Oscar nominations (though not one for directing; thanks, Jason Reitman!) to a two-picture deal. [Variety]
[After the jump: Marvel and the WGA make nice on an interim basis; Disney tries to squeeze even more money out of the Toy Story franchise.]

Hey, you remember those Annie Leibovitz Disney Dream Portraits featuring your favorite stars in classic scenes from Disney animated movies? Well, there's a whole new batch of them, including JLo and March Anthony as Princess Jasmine and Aladdin, Jessica Biehl as Pocahontas, Tiny Fey as Tinker Bell, and Judah Friedlander as the Walrus from Alice in Wonderland! OK, maybe not that last one. [Just Jared]

In Los Angeles, everyone goes to the Oscars. But Silicon Valley remains so starstruck that a local dignitary's attendance at the ceremony makes news. Brad Lewis, San Carlos's newly installed mayor, is going to the Academy Awards. When not out furthering his political career, Lewis moonlights as a Hollywood producer. His most recent flick, Pixar's Ratatouille, is up for four awards, including best animated film. At last, he can regain the dignity he lost while working as "a dancing monster" in the national stage production of Sesame Street Live!

Disney is pitching a mobile phone service (Disney web sites, games, videos and ring tones on phones covered with the Mickey Mouse head) to Japanese women, says the WSJ, a year after the entertainment company shut down a similar U.S. service. More has changed than the target demographic; the new program gives more of the grunt work to carrier Softbank Mobile than Disney's failed partnership with Sprint. But Disney is also encouraged by its popularity among women over 20; the Journal notes that 75% of Disney sites' subscribers are this demographic, and that Tokyo Disney is popular for dates. What will the Japanese schoolgirls do to set themselves apart from their older sisters?

According to a new book titled The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company, excerpted today in the New York Post, Apple CEO and Pixar founder Steve Jobs didn't want his studio to make Toy Story 3. His reluctance stemmed from a distrust of Pixar partner Disney and its CEO Michael Eisner. In the book, Jobs says he felt "sick about Disney doing sequels [to Pixar films] because if you look at the quality of their sequels, like The Lion King 1 1/2 and their Peter Pan sequels and stuff, it's pretty embarrassing."

Noting that Disney head Bob Iger's salary rose 7% this year to $27.7 million dollars, Reuters then runs through the point-by-point breakdown: "Disney paid Iger a $2 million base salary, plus a $13.7 million bonus. The company expensed $7.9 million in stock awards and $2.2 million in option awards for Iger during the fiscal year ended September 30." According to our calculations, that adds up to $25.8 million. So where's the missing $1.9 million coming from? Hannah Montana black-market-ticket brokerage fees? We open the commenting floor to your own suggestions. [Reuters]

In a story that tidily summed up the Spirit of the Holidays™, a Texas girls' clothing chain offering four seats and a flight to see Miley Cyrus's solidly sold-out concert tour chose as the winner of its essay contest the six-year-old who began her entry, "My daddy died this year in Iraq." Trouble was, her daddy had never been to Iraq, and was alive and well living in the next town over. To listen to her mother, who orchestrated the entire thing, go on at length with a TV reporter about how she was never once told the "essay had to be true" and thus took offense at being labeled a liar, is to truly catch a chilling glimpse into the dark heart of a Hannah Montana concert-ticket-seeking parent's soul. But that would prove to be the lesser of two weekend controversies for the Disney Channel star:

Virtual worlds and big tobacco hold one strategy in common: hook 'em young. It's estimated some 20 million kids will congregate in virtual playgrounds by 2011. To capitalize on their addiction, a growing percentage of virtual architects are focusing on kiddie fare modeled after Webkinz and Club Penguin. Disney, Warner Bros., Viacom's Nickelodeon, as well as Lego, Mattel, and Hasbro are milking cartoon and toy franchises for the stuff of kids' virtual dreams. Disney's launching Pixie Hollow, a fairy-themed world, in time for the release of Tinker Bell this fall. Disney, we have the perfect beta tester for you.

As expected, Disney has signed a deal with Apple to provide digital movie rentals over iTunes. The terms are similar to last week's deal with Fox. While this isn't particularly surprising — Steve Jobs owns a huge chunk of Disney from when the company bought his Pixar animation studio — it is good news for Apple. Can you name any Fox movies off the top of your head? Neither can I. But I know a ton of Disney flicks that are worth watching. Among them, Pixar's small but universally brilliant library of family movies, which will help iTunes appeal to moms and dads. OK, so that's two studios down. What about the rest? Variety reports that Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. are unlikely to sign on for "various competitive reasons."

We hear that Google has discontinued its traditional midwinter Googler ski vacation. No more mandatory trips to Squaw Valley and all-night parties with '80s cover bands. Instead? Look forward to a company trip to the Happiest Place on Earth. (No, not Tijuana.)

Walt Disney's monument to international culture and technology, Epcot, was stunningly advanced when it opened in 1982, but many of its original attractions became horribly dated over the last quarter-century. Particularly its centerpiece, Spaceship Earth. The ride within the iconic, giant silver golf ball documents the advances of human communications and technology. Recent renovations have brought Spaceship Earth into the Internet age, but when it emerged that the ride would include only one Steve toiling away in a garage to create the historic first Apple computer, controversy ensued. Which Steve?

1 down, 19 to go. Last week, Disney execs Leigh Zarelli and Matt Pillar promised they'd acquire 20 startups in the consumer space over the next 24 months. Today the House of Mouse announced it had acquired iParenting Media, an advice and community site for parents and soon-to-be parents. What can loyal users expect?