Wouldn't be a Wednesday without a Disney actor suing his legal guardian for some sort of bad parenting.

Many were confounded by the character of Zach on Heroes, the cheerleader's best friend who seemed to be inching out of the closet, but who abruptly disappeared from the series without ever uttering the magic words. After Elton then elicited an official statement from NBC saying he was "not gay," leaving the world scratching their heads at what straight guy would list Priscilla Queen of the Desert as his favorite movie on his fake MySpace page, to say nothing of accompanying the homecoming queen to prom without once ever trying to get all up in her taffeta. Talking to the PopGurls blog, co-EP Bryan Fuller explains the behind-the-scenes power struggle that led to the last minute straightwashing of the popular character:

Today's Variety reports that New Gay Mafia (remember, the "mirth-making," not David Geffen, kind!) dons Jimmy Miller and Eric Gold, who manage seemingly every comedy star in Hollywood, are splitting up their management/production company. As with any divorce, we are concerned primarily with the fate of the children of their longtime union, custody of whom will be divvied up thusly:

James Frey bashing has quickly evolved into America's favorite new pastime, with millions gathering around the bean dip to catch its Super Bowl equivalent: a 60-minute Oprah inculpation so grisly, it might as well have been dubbed The Passion of the Frey. But once your tall-tale substance abuse memoir has been likened to Holocaust denial on national television, as America's Opinion Maker Oprah Winfrey nods her large, regal head in accord, is there really anywhere else this sport can go? Of course there is! Frey could be dropped by his "people" namely, his Brillstein-Grey literary manager Kassie Evashevski, who explained her logic to Publisher's Weekly:

Lately, it's seemed like The Firm's been shedding high-level managers and talent like skin at a leper colony backscratching contest (big names recently out the door include Natalie Portman, Orlando Bloom, Laura Linney, Brittany Murphy*, SMGFPJ, and others), but "allies" of the management company play the departures as more of a goldbricker-purge by CEO Jeff Kwatinetz than rats instinctually abandoning a sinking ship. The NY Times runs The Firm through the inevitable spin/countspin cycle that comes with a Hollywood player losing its heat:

The LAT reports that a mere five months after assuming the crown at The New Pararmount™, Brad Grey has finally sold off Brillstein-Grey, his management company, to former co-workers Cynthia Pett-Dante and Jon Liebman. ("Longtime lieutenant" Marc Gurvitz is sitting this round out, as he's going through a divorce and that might get complicated.) Not that anyone was going to start passing around a hat for Grey now that he's solely Paramount's property, but he's still got a thumb in some of B-G's biggest pies:

The NY Times uses the recent lawsuit claiming that Entourage's Kevin Connolly dumped his management (after he found out HBO had picked up the show, naturally) to examine a larger problem in Hollywood: Working actors opportunistically kicking their managers curbward at the first blush of success.

· Rick Sands, the Miramax COO hardened by years of Harvey Weinstein's cat o' nine tails, assumes the title of president and CEO of DreamWorks. He'll report to David Geffen, whom we expect will issue a totally different kind of daily beating than the ones Sands grew accustomed to at The Max. [Variety, sub. req'd.]
· You hardly needed this told to you: Shrek 2 was the highest selling home video title in 2004. DreamWorks Animation's Jeffrey Katzenberg can now flush entire stacks of hundred dollar bills down the toilet, whereas before he had to peel them off one by one. [THR]
· Just because there's nothing to do in the first week of the year but count the piles of money: Sony wins the year in North American box office thanks to Spider-man 2, while Warner Bros. takes the international box office crown [THR, Variety]
· Paramount execs were taken by surprise by the stories that Brad Grey has been anointed as the next studio head, feeling they weren't consulted. Hmm, maybe they weren't told because they're all about to get fired? [Variety]
· Jerry Bruckheimer gets two drama pilot pickups, including E-Ring for NBC, a supposed West Wing in the Pentagon. Maybe it's time he gets his own channel. Jerry's Steaming Pile of Derivative Shit TV has kind of a nice sound to it. [THR]

This The Apprentice-parodying holiday card from management/production company Benderspink displays both the highly-attuned comic sensibility and red-hot trendspotting savvy that allowed the firm to shepherd cinematic delights like American Pie 2, American Wedding, and The Butterfly Effect into movie theaters. Next up: a feature-length adaptation of this card starring Seann William Scott as J.C. Spink (center, Trump wig) and Jason Biggs as Chris Bender (dressed as Raj, we think). You can click the image to see a larger version.