The sudden bankruptcy declaration of Hollywood payroll services provider Axium International and the shutdown of its offices may have had devastating consequences for some smaller movie producers, the Los Angeles Times indicated today (Thursday). Several producers interviewed by the newspaper complained that they had deposited tens of thousands -- even hundreds of thousands -- of dollars that was frozen in their Axium payroll accounts. The newspaper also indicated that the company's collapse not only resulted in the loss of jobs for its 400 employees and executives but left numerous industry workers holding worthless paychecks. Howard Ehrenberg, the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee overseeing Axium's finances, told the Times that Axium's largest creditor, Golden Tree Asset Management, seized $22 million from company accounts after Axium defaulted on a $140-million loan.

The day may soon be approaching when consumers will be able to walk into a Blockbuster store and rent a movie by downloading it instantly onto their video iPod or similar device. "We think the ultimate solution is a kiosk in a Blockbuster store and outside of a Blockbuster store that ... will be able to distribute content to your portable device," Blockbuster Chairman James Keyes told a Citigroup investors conference in Phoenix Wednesday. He predicted that video discs will become a thing of the past and that most movies will be rented in digital form. Keyes also said that he expects Blockbuster will benefit from an extended writers' strike as people alter their viewing habits and turn to movie and TV rentals as an alternative to the networks' planned menu of reruns, reality shows, and news magazines.

Speculation continued to mount in Hollywood Wednesday about how the Oscars might be produced if the writers' strike is not settled by February 4. "We are going to do it," producer Gil Cates told the Associated Press Tuesday. "I can't elaborate on how we're going to do it, because I don't want anybody to deal with the elaboration in a way that might impact its success." Some speculated that the ceremonies could be produced in animation (writers of animated programs are not covered by the WGA contract). Others, that it could be produced by David Letterman's Worldwide Pants, which has signed an interim agreement with the WGA. And Britain's Guardian newspaper proposed a "Team America Oscars" in which puppets, like those used in Matt Stone and Trey Parker's Team America: World Police, would stand in for the stars. "At least an hour could be devoted to recreating the sex scenes between Tony Leung and Wei Tang in Lust, Caution," the newspaper said.

Despite the move by Warner Bros. into the Blu-ray high-definition video camp, Samsung said Wednesday that it still plans to go ahead with the launch of a second generation dual-format Blu-ray/HD DVD player this year. In an interview with the Gizmodo website, DongSoo Jun, head of Samsung's digital AV unit, said that while he agrees with those who say that all the major Hollywood studios will eventually adopt Blu-ray exclusively, there will nevertheless remain a market for dual-format players because of the strong foothold Microsoft and Toshiba will continue to hold in the PC market for high-definition recorders. (Microsoft's Xbox 360 also plays HD DVD disks.) Jun said he expects HD DVD to remain the choice for personal hi-def videos and Blu-ray, for professional videos.

Johnny Grant, the former Los Angeles disc jockey who became "honorary mayor of Hollywood" and boosted the area even as it turned to seed and then began to regrow, died Wednesday at his residence in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, a restored Hollywood landmark. He was 84. Grant had been on hand to host most of the (paid for) Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremonies in which marble slabs bearing celebrities' names are embedded in the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard.

NBC is being taken to task for its decision to reconstruct the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards show on Sunday as a news event that will include a two-hour Dateline documentary in which Matt Lauer will interview the nominees and a one-hour news conference during which the winners will be announced. Several former and current TV news correspondents depicted the night-long affair as an effort by the network's entertainment division to co-opt news programming. Former CBS and CNN correspondent Deborah Potter told the Los Angeles Times: "It's pretty clear there isn't much of a firewall between news and sales anymore, but my goodness, you don't want to bulldoze it." A former NBC News producer who did not want to be named told the newspaper, "Nobody believes the news division made the decision to carry it. ... It's serving the entertainment division's purpose. ... This is the way principles get chipped away, bit by bit." The Times said that the decision to move the Golden Globes from entertainment to news "was made at the highest levels of NBC Universal, in discussions led by CEO Jeff Zucker."

In an effort to make available more produced news material than ordinarily makes the cut for its nightly newscast, NBC News has announced plans to launch a new website Wednesday that will provide longer versions of stories and interviews seen on the TV broadcast as well as features that did not get on the newscast at all. The website will also sport a new video player providing bigger pictures and higher-quality video than previously, the network said. In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable Alex Wallace, executive producer of NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, said, "Hopefully, it will give us the ability in a visual and video-centric way to show you that NBC does have a lot more going on than you get in 22 minutes on Nightly." Wallace also said that she hopes to increase overseas coverage by putting it on the website.

Dan Rather said Wednesday that he was pleased with a New York judge's decision to allow pretrial discovery to continue while the judge decides whether to allow Rather's $70-million lawsuit against CBS to proceed. "Allowing the case to go forward with discovery will put us on the road to finding out what really happened involving big corporations and powerful interests in Washington and their intrusions into newsrooms, which is the reason I'm here," Rather told the Associated Press. "That is the red, beating heart of this case." The former CBS News anchor has said in the past that his lawsuit against CBS has less to do with the money than in shining a light on how outside interests intrude into the newsroom.

Golf Channel anchor Kelly Tilghman was suspended for two weeks Wednesday for quipping that the only way for young players to overtake Tiger Woods would be to "lynch him in a back alley." Although she and analyst Nick Faldo were laughing during the exchange in which the remark was made at the Mercedes-Benz Championship, video of it posted on the Internet and aired on CNN Headline News drew widespread criticism. The Rev. Al Sharpton declared that Tilghman ought to be fired immediately. "What she said is racist," he told CNN. (Tiger Woods' agent told the Association Press that he didn't think there was any ill intent.) In a statement, Golf Channel said, "There is simply no place on our network for offensive language like this."

The difficulties an advertising agency encounters in producing commercials for beer companies were illustrated in a New York Times article today (Thursday) about a contest being staged by Coors Brewing Co. in which consumers are being encouraged to submit video clips for a chance to win Super Bowl tickets. Contest rules, the Times observed, prohibit: any depiction of of Santa Claus because he appeals to those under the drinking age of 21; any famous person; references to football teams, players, coaches or owners; political themes; depictions of drinking while driving; drinking games; drinking excessively; religious references; gambling; explicit sexual activity; violence; any other beer brands; and dangerous situations. Commented Times advertising columnist Stuart Elliott: "Such is the price of a beer brand getting into user-generated content."