Relations between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists turned increasingly frosty Tuesday when AFTRA President Robert Reardon dispatched a letter to SAG President Alan Rosenberg demanding to know by next Monday whether SAG will agreed to participate in contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers by the end of the month. Reardon made it clear that AFTRA will do so with or without SAG negotiators in the room. Meanwhile, following a report that some independent producers were unable to get completion bonds because of insurers' fears of a strike, SAG said it would offer contracts to some indie producers guaranteeing that actors would continue working on their films even if a strike is called following the expiration of the actors' contract on June 30. The guarantee would apply only to films that are not financed or distributed by a company represented by the AMPTP.

Jury selection was expected to begin today (Wednesday) in the trial of former "private eye to the stars" Anthony Pellicano on racketeering charges. While numerous Hollywood figures have been alerted that they may be called to testify in the trial, it was still not known who the actual witnesses will be. Reporting on the upcoming trial, the New York Times commented today, "While Mr. Pellicano has consistently vowed to refuse any deals and take his secrets to his grave, there remains a school of thought that he could drop the bravado if faced with a lengthy sentence and could cooperate in exchange for leniency. A more popular line of thinking, however, is that Mr. Pellicano -- always the grandstander -- is hankering for his moment in the sun."

Leonard Rosenman, one of Hollywood's most prolific film and TV composers, who won Oscars for Barry Lyndon and Bound for Glory, died Tuesday in Woodland Hills, CA at age 83. Beginning in 1955 with the James Dean film East of Eden, Rosenman scored nearly 50 feature films and wrote the theme music and/or background scores for countless TV series. His list of credits on the IMDb website includes 100 movies and TV series.

The victory of the Blu-ray high definition format may be shortlived if a Vancouver, BC-based company has anything to say about the matter. Internet Media Technologies has announced that it plans to install 1,000 satellite-linked kiosks in September at which consumers will be able to connect flash drives or MP3 devices and quickly download any of 3,000-5,000 movies to rent. Users will also be able to download music and TV shows instantaneously. "DVDs and CDs are going the way of Beta and VHS tapes," company CEO Romeo Prescott told Home Media magazine.

According to a new survey, 24 percent of residents of the U.K. say they will watch movies and TV shows distributed on Blu-ray discs over the next six months. By comparison 7 percent said that they would watch such programs downloaded or streamed over the Internet (2 percent said they would watch pirated versions). Of 1,608 adults surveyed, nearly 40 percent said that they currently own or have access to a high-definition TV set.

Some 4.4 million French moviegoers paid $39.7 million to watch the comedy Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis (Welcome to the land of the Ch'tis) during its first week in theaters, setting a record, its distributor Pathé said Tuesday. The previous record was held by the 2006 comedy Les Bronzes 3: Amis pour la vie, which took in $27.8 million in its first week. Reporting on the results, the French news agency Agence France Press observed that the film "looks set to be the movie of the year" in France. It cost $18 million to produce. By Tuesday, the wire service observed, the film's total box office had already exceeded that for Asterix at the Olympic Games, which debuted in January -- France's most expensive film ever.

In a comment that surprised his New York audience Tuesday, Barry Diller conceded that he may lose his InterActive Corp. to John Malone's Liberty Corp. when a Delaware judge rules on his dispute with Malone next week. "It's very odd that two people who don't want to give up control of anything are giving control to a judge in Delaware," Diller said at a media conference sponsored by Variety. "The wonderful thing about Delaware is ... they make a decision quickly." Malone and Diller, once close friends and collaborators, have been feuding over Diller's decision to spin off four companies that IAC owns. Diller was also critical of the recent strike by the Writers Guild of America, insisting that the WGA suffered lasting injury as a result. "It was like they shot off a rocket and ran to where the rocket was going to land," he said.

Thanks largely to three episodes of American Idol, Fox scored its eighth straight weekly victory last week. With each of the Idol shows drawing nearly 30 million viewers, the shows that followed them were also able to claim solid numbers even with fewer than half the audience of the Idol lead-ins. ABC was also a big winner last week with 15.7 million viewers tuning in to Oprah's Big Give on Sunday night and 12.7 million watching the TV movie A Raisin in the Sun the previous Monday. CBS held up adequately with a steady diet of reruns in the wake of the writers' strike, drawing its biggest numbers (12.5 million) for 60 Minutes and Survivor, two of the few original shows it currently airs. With the exception of ABC's TV movie and its hit drama Lost, all of the other top-ten programs were shows produced without WGA or SAG employees.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 16.0/24; 2. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 15.7/24; 3. American Idol (Thursday), Fox, 14.9/23; 4. Oprah's Big Give, ABC, 9.5/15; 5. Deal or No Deal (Monday), NBC, 9.2/14; 6. ABC Premiere Event: A Raisin in the Sun, ABC, 8.6/13; 7. Don't Forget the Lyrics, Fox, 8.4/13; 7. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, ABC, 8.4/13; 9. 60 Minutes, CBS, 8.1/13; 10. Law and Order, NBC, 7.7/13; 10. Lost, ABC, 7.7/12.

In the nightly news ratings, the "old guy" drew most of the younger viewers and the "young guy" drew most of the older ones last week. With growing interest in the national elections, ratings were up for the news programs of all three networks, with NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams coming out on top with 9.17 million viewers. ABC's World News with Charles Gibson drew 9.01 million, while the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric remained far behind (but with a solid increase) with 6.98 million viewers. Among adults 25-54, however, the Gibson newscast led with 2.90 million viewers. The Williams newscast drew 2.72 million, and Couric's 2.23 million.

Tuesday night's ratings for American Idol once again outpaced the ratings for all of its competition together. The show scored a 15.9 rating and a 24 share for Fox. The huge total also helped get Fox's new sci-fi cop drama New Amsterdam off to a solid, if unspectacular, start with an 8.3/12. It came in well ahead of second-place The Biggest Loser on NBC, which recorded a 6.5/10.

The latest controversy to hit American Idol involves a contestant who reportedly worked as a stripper at a gay nightclub in Phoenix, where he allegedly performed lap dances for male customers. Producers of the show shrugged off the reports. In an interview with the online edition of TV Guide, executive producer Ken Warwick said, "We're never judgmental about people who do things like that. If it were some sort of heavy porn, then maybe we'd have to take action. But certainly not on this." The Idol show manages to become embroiled in similar controversies almost every year. In 2003 a top contender, Frenchie Davis, was dropped from the show after it was revealed that she had appeared topless on a pornographic website.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has acceded to a request by the two Democratic FCC commissioners to look into allegations that an Alabama CBS affiliate may have deliberately censored a 60 Minutes program about former Governor Don Siegelman. The program alleged that Siegelman's prosecution for bribery and obstruction of justice was politically motivated; he is currently serving a seven-year sentence. On Feb. 24, Huntsville station WHNT-TV interrupted the 60 Minutes program at the beginning of the feature about Siegelman but returned as it was ending. The station later blamed the outage on technical problems.