This image was lost some time after publication.

The LA Weekly's Nikki Finke updates her story on the NYT's recent raiding of the LAT's newsroom, which included the hiring away of star film critic Manohla Dargis. LA Observed points out this quote from the column, indicating that the LAT's entertainment writers are unhappy that their work is kept under a for-pay lock on the Calendar Live site:

However, the Calendar staff is known to be peeved about the “let’s-try-to-make-a-buck” decision to change online viewing of Calendar’s articles and reviews from free to subscription. LAT sources say Ouroussoff nagged bitterly and repeatedly about it. As for Dargis, in the words of one colleague, “She was very aware of being cut off from the world because Web sites that compile reviews would not have access to her work. And in the current environment out there, the Internet is where reviews are really bandied about.”

We don't know if the recent defections to the NYT gave the LAT brass a much-needed shock to the privates, but we very recently heard from someone close to the situation that the content on the unnavigable Calendar Live soon will be made free to all readers—probably by the end of the month. We'll never have to get up from the computer to ignore the LAT's entertainment coverage again!