Latest posts
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The 2011 MTV VMAs record ratings — and the format lesson the Oscars eventually didn’t learn
By Cassidy Lee · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2011) · Wayback archive → In late August 2011 the MTV Video Music Awards posted their best ratings ever — a record that came with no host on stage, after Chelsea Handler had hosted the 2010 show. The original FishbowlLA framing suggested the VMA ratings might…
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Joseph Farrell, National Research Group founder, dies — December 2011 obit and the Hollywood test-screening legacy
By Cassidy Lee · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, December 2011 In early December 2011, Joseph Farrell — the founder of National Research Group (NRG) and the Hollywood marketing-research pioneer who substantially shaped modern test-screening practice — died from natural causes. His death was covered in the LA Times by…
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Nikki Finke partners with Paramount on a Deadline Hollywood game
By Sasha Park · Republished 2026-05-20 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, 2011 In July 2011 FishbowlLA reported one of the more unexpected line extensions in entertainment-news history: Nikki Finke’s Deadline.com was getting a Facebook game. Then Deadline.com, in partnership with Paramount Digital Entertainment and Liquid Entertainment, announced a Facebook game — one…
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Ed Chernoff’s January 2011 profile — life as Dr. Conrad Murray’s defense lawyer in the Michael Jackson trial media bubble
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, January 2011 In late January 2011, TexasLawyer.com staff reporter Miriam Rozen published a profile of Ed Chernoff — the Houston-based defense lawyer hired within 48 hours of Michael Jackson’s June 2009 death to represent Dr. Conrad Murray. The piece captured Chernoff’s…
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Adam Klugman’s January 2011 Treason workshop — and the Klugman family arc across LA’s broadcasting-and-theater history
By Sasha Park · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, January 2011 In late January 2011, Portland-based media strategist and progressive talk-radio host Adam Klugman — son of the late LA-based actor Jack Klugman — staged a workshop reading of his new play Treason at Portland’s Artists Repertory Theater. The original…
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Keith Olbermann’s first Current TV interview — and the $10M-with-equity deal
By Sasha Park · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer (2011) · Wayback archive → In June 2011 Marisa Guthrie landed Keith Olbermann’s first sit-down interview about his MSNBC exit and his move to Current TV. The Hollywood Reporter cover story disclosed the contract terms: $10 million a year, plus equity in the network that could…
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Jerry Bruckheimer’s 2011 THR Facebook takeover — when guest-editing a Facebook page was a thing
By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2011) · Wayback archive → In mid-May 2011 The Hollywood Reporter handed its Facebook fan page over to Jerry Bruckheimer for a day — timed to coincide with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. The publication’s first guest editor was the man…
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Finke vs THR over a Summit cover — what the 2011 access trade looked like
By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2011) · Wayback archive → In March 2011, Nikki Finke published a Deadline.com item alleging that The Hollywood Reporter had pulled material from an Alex Ben Block business story about Summit Entertainment in exchange for a Jodie Foster interview tied to The Beaver. The accusation was…
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When Deadline launched a Facebook game with Paramount — a 2011 cross-promo curio
By Owen Reyes · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2011) · Wayback archive → In July 2011 Deadline.com partnered with Paramount Digital Entertainment and Liquid Entertainment to launch a Facebook game letting players experience the equivalent of running a Hollywood studio. Then The pitch was a Facebook-platform game built around the studio-mogul fantasy genre —…
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Hailee Steinfeld at 14 — the True Grit launch and a career that has very much continued
By Cassidy Lee · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2010) · Wayback archive → In December 2010, fourteen-year-old Hailee Steinfeld — Thousand Oaks resident, newcomer star of the Coen brothers’ True Grit — was the awards-season story everyone in LA media was writing about. The FishbowlLA framing placed her in a small lineage: Keisha Castle-Hughes…