The saga of Paramount Vantage arrived at its bloody conclusion this morning, when Rob Moore and John Lesher sent a memo announcing the termination of 60 jobs at the specialty label. The paring down follows the earlier absorption of Vantage into the 'Mount mother ship, where Lesher graduated earlier this year, Amy Israel hit the eject button and which will keep a handful of staffers on as part of the catchily titled Paramount Worldwide Acquisitions Group announced a few days ago.

If there was any doubt that the Paramount Vantage you know and love or maybe just really like — the art-house darling responsible for An Inconvenient Truth, Babel, Margot at the Wedding, There Will Be Blood and No Country For Old Men (the latter two co-produced by Miramax) — was done for, please direct your sad eyes toward the front door. There you'll find Amy Israel, handing over her ID badge before fleeing her post as VP of production and acquisitions.

With the one-year anniversary of former Endeavor agent John Lesher's takeover of Paramount Vantage (n e Classics) approaching, today's LAT looks at how he's quickly built the studio's specialty unit into an operation that's already competing with the "independent film" arms controlled by other huge multimedia conglomerates like Fox and NBC Universal. The Times solicits some anecdotes from Lesher's current filmmaking associates, demonstrating that the "idiosyncratic" executive (whom "detractors say...can be a cocky snob") hasn't lost his old agent's touch for sensing what others need from him, whether that be some good-naturedly melodramatic groveling or a the simple, pure enthusiasm of a fourth-grader first discovering a love of film:

· The Most Uncomfortable Embrace of the Week Award was won going away by Paramount Classics/Vantage head John Lesher at the Nacho Libre premiere, who couldn't even be bothered to put down his cellphone, Mexican-wrestler-head-on-a-stick, and an unidentified piece of paper while awkwardly clenching Paramount president Gail Berman. A truly disappointing effort from the industry's onetime Master of Hugs.
· Celebrities: They just can't stop reproducing!
· Reuters will certainly be hearing from Scary Hollywood Lawyer Bert Fields about this highly inappropriate, suggestive headline: Tom Cruise to take the bullet train — all of it. Filthy, just filthy.
· Sharon Stone is better at getting naked than producing, according to grumpy Kids director Larry Clark.
· Angelina Jolie discovers that actually giving birth is much more frightening than just picking up a refugee at the orphan store.