Big news across the top front of today's Times Arts section: NBC anchor Brian Williams has a blog. The paper is very excited about this, particularly about the window it opens on the inner workings of Nightly and the occasional self-criticism Williams delivers.

· Hollywood still fascinated with Hollywood: Christopher Guest shifts from mockumentary to a movie about making a bad indie movie that attracts awards buzz in For Your Consideration, and adds Ricky Gervais to his regular cast. [Variety]
· Keanu Reeves and CZJ are "circling" Lana-Turner-dead-boyfriend movie Stompanato. We note this only because a writer of Snakes on a Plane is involved in the project. [THR]
· Sony to pay Blackhawk Down writer Ken Nolan $3 million for a "script-ment" (longer than a treatment, not quite a script) of as-yet-unpublished alien sci-fi novel The Grays. Tomorrow, Sony hopes to announce a $2 million option of a rough crayon sketch of Will Smith shooting a stick figure on a CPK placemat. [Variety]
· Milos Forman will direct Natalie Portman and Javier Bardem in a biopic about Spanish painter Francisco de Goya. Will this project prove arty enough for Portman to finally go topless? Remember, that movie about Frida Kahlo finally got Salma Hayek to loosen up, even though we had to compromise on the eyebrows and mustache. [THR]
· NBC Universal Television Studios (NUTS) showers the Weitz Brothers in the cash of desperation, signing them to a two-year television deal potentially worth $4 million. [Variety]

· Angelina Jolie will star in Robert Zemeckis's "performance capture" (think Polar Express) adaptation of Beowulf, which will likely result in an impressively life-like, but creepily hollow-eyed, affair with one of her simulated co-stars. [Variety]
· After joining Commander in Chief with a recurring role, Natasha Henstridge signs a one-year holding deal with Touchstone TV. That should allow them more than enough time to figure out how to work Henstridge's signature nude work (come on, you've watched Species like a hundred times) onto network television. [THR]
· Against all odds, Renny Harlin continues to work. [Variety]
· Tommy Lee Goes to College came in second to Big Brother on Tuesday night, but "pasasable grades" give NBC a glimmer of hope. Paticularly poignant is the scene in which Lee explains to a professor that he learned to read by carefully studying groupies' tattoos. [Variety]
· Last and definitely not least, very sad news (really): Pixar story head Joe Ranft died in a car crash Tuesday. There's also a nice tribute to him over at Jim Hill Media. [THR]

· Paramount's Oliver Stone project now has competition to be the first to exploit 9/11 for fun and profit (we're calling even money that one studio will announce some kind of donation to charity, if they haven't already), as Universal announces its plans for Flight 93, the story of the heroic passengers who sacrificed their lives once they learned that their hijacked plane was being directed towards a crash in DC. Oh, the film is going for a "gritty feel" with improvisation and handheld cameras. Sounds like a hoot! [Variety]
· From the God We Wish We Were Making This Up Department: "With NBC Universal Television Group suffering through a fiscal downturn, the division's president, Jeff Zucker, is implementing cost-cutting measures affecting everything from travel expenses to the snacks served at meetings." Perhaps even greater savings could be realized if Zucker and Kevin Reilly, the people who oversaw last season's disastrous plummet to the Nielsen basement, had their salaries taken away for a year? Let the people have their fucking Pringles, Jeff! They're not the ones who tied their fortunes to Joey. [THR]
· The (relative) overseas success of domestic box office bed-shitter The Island proves yet again that studios can count on international audiences to bail them out for making crappy movies. [Variety]
· The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. locks out over 5,000 unionized employees in its Biggest. Workstoppage. Ever. We hope someone closes down the border before Hollywood is overrun with workers ready to politely steal our jobs. [THR]
· Following the success of last weekend's release of Four Brothers, Paramount renews producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura's first-look deal—and he didn't even have to take out an ad exploiting his cleavage to get it. [Variety]

One unhappy reader caught this promo for NBC's new Inconceivable, a primetime drama coming in the fall about doctors — sexy doctors, natch — working in a fertility clinic.

We know that NBC's Nielsen disaster of last season has caused some pretty profound self-esteem issues at the network (the "colonic" talk was a tip-off), but this plea for comedy scripts sounds a little like a recent divorcée slurring, "Boy, am I waaaaasted! I think if I do one more widdle shot, I might go home with anybody!" from the end of the bar:

· German movie theater chains protest the Shrinking Home Video window by boycotting Herbie: Fully Loaded, which is scheduled to appear on DVD an unacceptable four months after its theatrical debut. We can't approve of the Germans holding Lindsay Lohan hostage in their business drama. [Variety]
· We're not going to let ourselves get excited about this (Ed. note—Pleasepleaseplease let it be awesome], but there is now a Voltron movie in development. The nerd is us is "forming the sword" in our pants, but we're still ready to be withered by disappointment. [THR]
· Now that Daniel Battsek has been installed as president at the new-look Miramax, they're ready to get back into the acquisitions game. Sadly, we fear that the hobbled studio may never fully regain its ability to wildly overpay for festival movies. [Variety]
· After months of languishing in the limbo of untitledness, Steven Spielberg's upcoming movie about the 1972 Munich Olympics finally has a name: Munich. Sometimes inspiration is just waiting for you to give up and go with the obvious. (Trust us, we know.) [THR]
· NBC flinches first in game of chicken with Fox's celebrity American Idol, shelves its I'm a Celebrity But I Wanna Be A Pop Star. Even though he's not directly involved, we expect CBS's Les Moonves to release a statement calling NBC's Jeff Zucker a "pussy." [Variety]

How bleak are things at the publicly humbled, last place (UPN and The WB don't count) NBC? So bad that president Kevin Reilly had to conjure a rather unpleasant image to communicate his network's plight to the Television Critics Association:

David Bloom, NBC News correspondent and co-anchor of the weekend editions of the "Today" show, embedded with the U.S. Army s 3rd Infantry Division outside Baghdad died of a pulmonary embolism in Iraq.
NBC's David Bloom, 39, dies in Iraq [MSNBC]

Peter Arnett's "relationship with NBC" has been terminated because Arnett stated on Iraqi TV that the Bush war plan "had failed." Given that the war wasn't over yet, NBC apparently felt that declaring Baghdad victorious was perhaps a bit premature. Arnett still has his National Geographic gig, though. He may, however, be restricted to reporting stories that begin with "Deep, in the deserts of Iraq... the ferocious dromedary camel stalks its prey..."
NBC, MSNBC terminate Arnett [MSNBC]

Aaron Bailey notes that Renee Zellweger appeared to be snorting something just as NBC cut to a commercial break during the Golden Globes. Any confirmation?
Is it just me? [601am.com]

Andrew Lack, a man who ran NBC News but has no experience of the music business, is to take over Sony Music. We hope he, like his predecessor, keeps all to himself the personal elevator to the 32nd floor of Sony's Manhattan skyscraper. Moguls, as emblematic of Manhattan as lions are to the Serengeti, are becoming an endangered species.
NBC President to Take Over at Sony Music [NYT]