Latest posts
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Jay Penske puts Michelle Sobrino-Stearns in charge at Variety — October 2012
By Jordan Vega · Originally reported by Richard Horgan (2012) · Wayback archive → In mid-October 2012 — barely a week after PMC’s acquisition of Variety from Reed Elsevier had closed — Jay Penske announced that Michelle Sobrino-Stearns was taking over as Variety’s publisher, replacing Brian Gott. Then Sobrino-Stearns came in with substantial trade-publication background.…
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November 2012: Tribune Company set to receive critical FCC cross-ownership waivers
By Maya Trent · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, November 2012 In mid-November 2012, FishbowlLA picked up an LA Times report by DC reporter Jim Puzzanghera: the FCC was set to grant the Tribune Company a set of critical media-cross-ownership waivers — letting Tribune emerge from bankruptcy with its newspaper-and-television…
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When Sam Rubin’s Twitter got hacked — July 2012, KTLA, and the Gawker pile-on
By Cassidy Lee · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Matthew Fleischer on FishbowlLA, July 2012 In early July 2012, KTLA entertainment reporter Sam Rubin’s Twitter account was hacked over a weekend — and the situation produced an unusual secondary story when Gawker’s Louis Peitzman read something darker into Rubin’s hacked feed even after Rubin…
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October 2012: Deadline pulls an Ari Emanuel lawsuit item, and Nikki Finke posts a rare apology
By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, October 2012 In mid-October 2012, Deadline.com reporter Dominic Patten filed an item about an Ari Emanuel lawsuit. The item was quickly pulled, and Nikki Finke posted what the original FishbowlLA framing called “the diametrical opposite of a TOLDJA!” — a rare…
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Miles Corwin’s second Ash Levine novel — May 2012, the crime reporter turned LAPD novelist
By Jordan Vega · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, May 2012 In late May 2012, FishbowlLA tracked an Orange County Register write-up of Miles Corwin’s new novel Midnight Alley — the second in his Ash Levine detective series. Corwin, a former longtime LA Times crime reporter who had become a…
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Mike Fleming’s Playboy Interview sideline — May 2012, two decades of long-form Q&As
By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, May 2012 In late May 2012, FishbowlLA noted that Deadline.com’s Mike Fleming — despite the relentless pace of his Hollywood-scoop reporting — had continued one longstanding freelance tradition: the Playboy Interview. The original framing documented that Fleming had contributed roughly two…
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August 2012: the THR Kristen Stewart ‘Snow White’ sequel scoop and Marc Malkin’s dispute
By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, August 2012 In mid-August 2012, The Hollywood Reporter’s Kim Masters and Borys Kit filed a story indicating Kristen Stewart had been dropped from Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman sequel plans. E! News’s Marc Malkin publicly disputed the THR item. Then…
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August 2012: the LA Times promotes Joy Press to Books and Culture editor
By Maya Trent · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, August 2012 In early August 2012, FishbowlLA covered the LA Times’s promotion of Joy Press to Books and Culture editor, succeeding Jon Thurber. The original framing noted the LA-journalism-couple angle: Press and her husband Simon Reynolds were “still going strong” as…
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Nikki Finke’s August 2012 Oscar-host TOLDJA — and the Fallon-or-not 2013 ceremony question
By Owen Reyes · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, August 2012 In mid-August 2012, FishbowlLA tracked a Nikki Finke “TOLDJA!” on the question of who would host the 2013 Academy Awards. An LA Times report had Jimmy Fallon in talks to host with Lorne Michaels producing. Then Nikki Finke had…
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Harrison Cheung’s Christian Bale biography — July 2012, the Manhattan Beach Barnes & Noble homecoming
By Cassidy Lee · Republished 2026-05-16 · Originally reported by Richard Horgan on FishbowlLA, July 2012 In mid-July 2012, FishbowlLA covered Harrison Cheung’s return to his Manhattan Beach stomping grounds for a Barnes & Noble appearance promoting his Christian Bale biography. Cheung had spent 1992 to 2002 working closely with Bale’s pre-Batman career. Then Harrison…