· Warner Brothers allows its options on the Justice League cast to lapse, putting the project on "indefinite hold," though the studio has assured its roster of mostly no-names that it still would eventually like to see what they all look like in their cute superhero costumes. [Variety]
· Like Monday's American Idol episode, last night's installment was down in the ratings from the show's 2007 season; still, the 30 million people who tuned in were more than enough to help Fox completely eviscerate its competition. [THR]
[After the jump: Hayden is a cheerleader 4ever, the DGA-deal waiting game, and WB layoffs begin!]

This is exactly why even a whispered mention of The Singing Competition That Shall Not Be Named triggers an instant pants-soiling reflex in rival network executives: After only two airings of American Idol, a largely hit-deficient Fox has already taken possession of first place in the current TV season, a lead they are unlikely to relinquish as Idol runs roughshod over its competitors' strike-hampered primetime schedules. [TVWeek.com]

As the early episodes of each American Idol season are nothing more than the televised, cattle-call slaughter of talentless attention-seekers anxious for twenty seconds of screen time (in a new twist, a jaded Simon Cowell has taken to dispatching the deranged and tone-deaf with a blast of an Anton Chigurh-style pneumatic cow-pulverizer before they even finish their first, off-key verse), there's hardly a shortage of material for "Look At How Crazy This Guy Was!" clips.

It was just a little over a year ago when then-NBC president Kevin Reilly, obviously depressed by the prospect of helplessly enduring another winter TV season in which all of his network's midweek offerings would be vaporized by Fox's Nielsen Death Star (obviously not to be confused with Hollywood's other destruction-dealing edifice), when he allowed himself this once delusional-seeming ray of hope at the TCAs: "Not to be shitty about it, but maybe they'll have a bad run. Nothing burns that bright forever. Some day it will be uncool to watch American Idol."

It's not often that we run tips from maids, but something about this e-mail from a woman who purports to be a cleaning lady temporarily employed at the manse of American Idol's muscle-shirted dream-douser Simon Cowell instantly caught our attention:

Everywhere we turn we see another network news anchorwoman sporting the exact same long-layered take on the post-Rachel Green do. Does Fox News have only the one style consultant? If you looked at the cable network's anchors (from l-r) Lis Wiehl, Dagen McDowell and Cheryl Casone, you might think so. Alycia Lane may not have abided by the CBS code of conduct, but she certainly toed the coiffure line. CNN Headline News anchor Linda Stouffer and colleague Carol Costello flaunt the style, along with CBS News' Hannah Storm and MSNBC's Contessa Brewer. Longer hair can make you look younger (what woman in TV news couldn't get behind that concept) and both focus groups and the men in them tend to appreciate lengthy locks (Case-in-point: Felicity's post-shearage ratings nosedive. What? You know you watched it once.) Still, when we flip on the tube, it's getting harder and harder to shake the feeling that we're catching the tail end of a Central Perk coffee klatch.

· With plenty of time on their hands these days to evaluate their relationships, studios have start dropping (and/or not renewing) first-look deals with partners with whom they've fallen out of love. Not even America's Sweetheart Reese Witherspoon (and her Type A shingle) has been immune from this recent caprice, though New Line was more than happy to climb into bed with her after a recent dumping. [Variety]
· A belt-tightening ICM is suspending several agents, who still will receive strike pay and benefits until the end of the labor war, and temporarily cutting some salaries. The silver lining: they're not laying off any assistants. (Yet.) [THR]

Early ratings for Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business Network have materialized, and the news isn't pretty. According to Nielsen Media Research, about 6,300 households on any given weekday are tuning in. Compare that to the 283,000 watching rival network CNBC. The number is so low you won't hear it officially from Nielsen researchers, because it doesn't meet their minimum standards for reporting. While it's still early going and Fox only reaches about 30 million households compared to CNBC's 90 million homes, the numbers aren't pretty.

Stubbornly refusing to do the easy thing and cancel all of its soon-to-debut scripted programming and switch to the all-American-Idol format that would guarantee that it dominate their strike-decimated competition in every available timeslot, Fox is shuffling around its midseason schedule in a series of moves that may or may not have been made by their network's brightest, currently bored assistants. The sad upshot: we're going to have to wait until summer for the premiere of eagerly anticipated gyno-dystopia reality series When Women Rule The World, in which Fox allows a dozen catfight-prone ladies to run a society based on the subjugation of male personal trainers trying to kick-start their acting careers. [Variety]

Courtesy of an executive still giddy from the staggering success of one of the box office's most critically reviled current releases, here's an insider's guide on How To Tell When You've Got A Monster Hit On Your Hands: "THE Nov. 11 test screening of "Alvin and the Chipmunks" was halfway over when the power in Westlake Village cut out. The emergency lights inside the Mann Village 8 came on, but most of preview guests still wouldn't leave their seats. After some 20 minutes in the near dark, 20th Century Fox canceled the screening — the last one possible before "Alvin" was locked and no more editing changes would be possible. As soon as the theater emptied, though, the power was restored, and the Fox executives were nearly trampled when the majority of the audience rushed back in. 'That was when I sort of said, "I think this movie is going to catch,"' said Elizabeth Gabler, whose Fox 2000 division joined with 20th Century Fox Animation to supervise production." [LAT]

· While the AMPTP's member companies insist that internet will remain a revenue-deficient wasteland in perpetuity, they seem to be doing quite well in their multiplex-based lines of business, as an unprecedented six major studios have crossed the $1 billion threshold in 2007. Fox joined Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, Sony, and Universal in the Billion Dollar Club behind this weekend's Alvin and the Chipmunks performance, while the 'Mount won the overall market share title thanks to DreamWorks-supplied Shrek and Transformers. Congratulations to all of the faceless corporate entities further enriched by the bad taste of the American moviegoing public! [Variety]
· We take back what we just said about ticket-buyers' poor taste, as instant classic and prohibitive Best Picture favorite National Treasure: Book of Secrets was rightly rewarded with another $55.4 million over the five-day holiday weekend. [THR]

As expected, Disney has signed a deal with Apple to provide digital movie rentals over iTunes. The terms are similar to last week's deal with Fox. While this isn't particularly surprising — Steve Jobs owns a huge chunk of Disney from when the company bought his Pixar animation studio — it is good news for Apple. Can you name any Fox movies off the top of your head? Neither can I. But I know a ton of Disney flicks that are worth watching. Among them, Pixar's small but universally brilliant library of family movies, which will help iTunes appeal to moms and dads. OK, so that's two studios down. What about the rest? Variety reports that Sony, Universal and Warner Bros. are unlikely to sign on for "various competitive reasons."

Also in Apple's movie rental deal yesterday with Fox: Apple will license its FairPlay copy-protection technology to the studio for DVD movie releases. This will allow DVD purchasers to easily — and legally — copy movies to their computers for playback on iPods and iPhones.

Famous YouTuber Noah Kalina writes on his blog that a Simpsons writer called to say using the soundtrack from Kalina's YouTube video without paying a royalty was a mistake. Whatever. Here's what we should have said the first time, instead of rambling on about fair use and copyright: Watch this awesome video of Homer Simpson parodying a famous YouTube video. [Noah Kalina. Blog.]

While most industry executives are content to let their assistants carry out their primary functions—lying to unwanted callers about their current whereabouts, caffeinated-beverage procurement, Blackberry target practice—without a second thought as to how they might be utilized in less brain-numbing tasks, progressive Fox scheduling guru Preston Beckman recently offered his underlings a chance to partake in the TV-magic-making process in a meaningful way. Briefly freeing the assistants from their chains, he invited his young staffers, who conveniently fell within the demographic sweet spot midseason sitcom Unhitched is targeting and wouldn't require the $50 stipend he'd otherwise have to waste on focus group cattle, to help him solve a problem.

The House of Murdoch celebrated Baby Jew Jesus' Birthday at the Angel Orensanz Center last night. A spy says: "The girls at the door were in waaaaaaaay over their heads, and were rudely denying people (who were supposed to be on the list) left and right! I witnessed them make people wait outside in the cold, while they frantically called their Fox Interactive contacts to get them in the door.... I heard the party was pretty fun from co-workers though. Samantha Ronson was DJing, but her ladyfriend L. Lohan wasn't there. The coat check was a clusterfuck, as people waited for ever to leave and the dirt-bags at Fox were waving money around in the coat-checkers faces trying to get ahead in line. Half my co-workers are still drunk!" IS THIS TRUE, FOX WORKERS?

Some 13 months after the theatrical release of Borat, Sacha Baron Cohen's mockumentary about an intellectually curious Kazakh journalist's travels across the U.S. and A to engage in cultural exchanges with as many litigious Americans as possible, one might think that any of comedian's on-camera victims who hadn't already filed lawsuits had grudgingly accepted their cinematic notoriety. Amazingly, legal papers are still being filed, with the latest coming from the driving instructor tasked with teaching the foreigner how to operate a non-mule-powered vehicle:

· Hoping to heal the emotional damage he once inflicted upon national treasure Steven Spielberg by declaring the director's possible departure from his corporate family "completely immaterial," Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman offered a conciliatory flurry of hugs, kisses and a vigorous foot massage to the icon he once offended, calling him "one of the great filmmakers of our time and actually of all time," and promising that "We're going to proceed with calm, with deliberateness, and our entire objective is to focus on making him happy doing what he's doing. Whatever makes him happy and makes us happy will be the way it works out" as they continue to try and salvage their relationship. [Variety]
· The strike clock, as always, is ticking: if things aren't settled "in the next few weeks," pilot season—and the booze-drenched upfronts parties TV reporters so look forward to each year—could be lost. [THR]

NBC and Apple have finally parted ways. All NBC Universal shows have been removed from iTunes completely after talks to renew their contract fell apart. Disagreements on pricing led the partnership, once hailed for saving NBC's The Office, to founder. But Apple found an unlikely replacement: News Corp.'s Fox studio, NBC's joint-venture partner in online-video site Hulu.

We have been fools to watch boring MSNBC for updates on the Clinton New Hampshire hostage crisis. Seriously. Turning the channel to Fox right now. [HuffPo]