• Sundance was a lower-key affair this year thanks to the economy. [WWD]
• Layoffs: Rumor has it The Weinstein Co. cut as many as 30 staffers today. And a big round of layoffs could come to CBS next week. [Gawker, LAT]
• The Vancouver Olympics could cost NBC as much as $250 million. [THR]
• Keith Olbermann's ratings…
David Byrne Buys Chelsea Penthouse
• Musician David Byrne has picked up a new condo in Chelsea. The former frontman of the Talking Heads paid $3.875 million for a four-bedroom penthouse at 231 Tenth Avenue, which first went on the market for $5.2 million back in 2008. [Cityfile]
• After more than a year and a half of price cuts, Karen and David…
Stephanopoulos: "My Mistake"
George Stephanopoulos acknowledges that he should've pressed Rudy Giuliani on his insane comments this morning.
• The epic mess at NBC continues: The last-place network is now thinking above moving Jay Leno to a 11:35pm-12:05am time slot and then having Conan O'Brien follow him for a full hour. But no deal has been reached, and there's still a possibility that Conan will abandon ship. [NYT, LAT, BN, NYT]
• Rudy Giuliani is…
Rudy Giuliani Forgets About 9/11
You can watch the entire miserable segment here, if you are in too good a mood this morning! George just lets Rudy babble on and on and on, without bothering to correct or challenge him, on anything. Like, for example, in addition to 9/11, some other guy did the exact same thing as this underwear bomber did, in…
• Is NBC shutting down Jay Leno's 10pm show and moving him back to late night? Is Conan O'Brien out of a job? NBC isn't denying that a schedule change has been discussed, but it's not saying much more than that for now. [NYT]
• ABC News is reportedly in negotiations with Ted Koppel to bring him back to the network as…
Stop the Presses! Kate Gosselin Has a New Hairdo, and It Looks OK
It took 20 hours to get Kate's hair to a socially acceptable state. LiLo gets kicked off a private jet and a commercial airplane. Gary Coleman has a seizure. Political relevance infiltrates Page Six, and it's not okay: Thursday gossip.
• Closures: Design magazine I.D. is shutting down. And while Editor & Publisher revealed last week it's folding, there's now a small chance it'll survive. [E&P]
• More bad news: The New Republic laid off some staff today. [Politico]
• Diane Sawyer's farewell to GMA last week and George Stephanopoulos's debut on Monday…
The New GMA and the Hazing of George Stephanopoulos
Today was George Stephanopoulos' first day as Good Morning America's new co-anchor. Let's take a look at Georgie's best moments replacing the slurring, World News Tonight-bound Diane Sawyer!
• Nielsen has concluded a deal to sell handful of trade titles like The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard to a consortium of investors that includes Jimmy Finkelstein and Guggenheim Partners. Rupert Murdoch's son Lachlan was once part of the investor group, but ended up dropping out. [AdWeek, NYP, LAT]
• Nielsen also…
Choir Boy to Power Player to Morning Host: George Stephanopoulos' Career in Eight Steps
George Stephanopoulos is reinventing himself for the third time. He's been a smug political hack, a penitent political memoirist, an earnest political journalist, and now he's going to host ABC News' wacky morning show. Let's look at his past transformations.
Taylor Lautner and Taylor Swift are a Reasonable Solution to an Unreasonable Issue
Taylor² (Lautner and Swift) are awesome, and even Kings of Leon say so. Amy Adams: having a baby, and this too, is awesome. Naomi Campbell, Julia Roberts, and George Stephanopoulos give me 90s nostalgia. Presenting your Saturday Morning Gossip Roundup.
• ABC has offered George Stephanopoulos the job of Good Morning America co-host and "intensive negotiations" are now reportedly underway. [WP]
• More on how the deal to hand over control of NBC to Comcast came together; and more on how the deal will be viewed by regulators in Washington.
• Oprah won't be hosting her…
Zombie-Like Porn Star Beseeches Carrie Prejean to Sell the Stupid Tape, Already
Carrie Prejean is horrifed by Shauna Sand's attempt to inspire her; Bijou Phillips' incest movie was a lot less creepy before Mackenzie wrote that book; 50 Cent has some tattoos removed. Et voila, Wednesday's gossip!
• George Stephanopoulos will probably replace Diane Sawyer on GMA. [TDB]
• Now that Bloomberg LP is talking over BusinessWeek, columnists Maria Bartiromo and Jack Welch are both parting ways with the mag. [NYP]
• CNN is laying off four of its web anchors since it no longer plans to produce live video on CNN.com. The…
George Stephanopoulos' New Career Path
In your spirited Wednesday media column: George Stephanopoulos should listen to his kids, Conde Nast forswears frequency cuts, France has a wacky newspaper scheme, and we have the menu for GQ's dinner tonight.
• It's Tuesday, which means fresh job cuts at Condé Nast have been revealed. In addition to the dozen Glamour staffers laid off yesterday, Style.com will cut Candy Pratts Price. And 200+ more layoffs could be ahead. [WWD, NYP, FWD]
• Maybe Condé Nast's fancy iPhone application, which was announced today, will stem the…
Behold the Power of Alan Greenspan
ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos scored higher ratings than NBC's Meet the Press for the first time since 1999 this past weekend. Stephanopoulos' guests on the show were Alan Greenspan, Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers. [Yahoo]
Jeff Goldblum and Harrison Ford Are Not Dead Yet
Rumors of the Goldblum/Ford deaths were greatly exaggerated, David Gregory throws a hissy over Joe Scarborough, Kate Gosselin sports a bikini in the driveway, Kim Kardashian lusts for Megan Fox and Chris Brown and Rihanna want to touch.
