Today a fire ripped through the Universal Studios lot destroying a set from “Back to the Future,” a “King Kong” exhibit and a streetscape seen frequently in movies and TV shows.

It was the second fire on the lot in two decades, leveling facades, hollowing out buildings and creating the kind of catastrophe filmmakers relish re-creating. This time around, thousands of videos chronicling Universal’s movie and TV shows were destroyed in the blaze.

Universal officials said that they were thankful no one was seriously injured at the theme park and that the damaged footage (40,000 reels of film and video)
can be replaced.

Ron Meyer, NBC Universal’s CEO said:

“We have duplicates of everything. Nothing is lost forever.”

The fiery blaze broke out on a sound stage featuring New York brownstone facades around 4:30 a.m. at the 400-acre lot. The fire was contained to the lot and 400 firefighters were still trying to put it out several hours later.

The cause of the fire is under investigation. Damage was expected to be in the millions of dollars.

In 1990 another fire damaged and destroyed up to $25 million in damages and was started by a security guard who was then sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to arson.

The fire will not affect tonight’s broadcast of the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, which is to broadcast live from the Gibson Amphitheatre in the adjacent Universal CityWalk.

We’re not saying we would do much better (actually we could…,) but come on People Magazine.  The picks this year for the 50 “Most Beautiful People” of 2008 are truly dissapointing:

 (We hope you enjoy our side commentary in Italics)

• Jessica Alba = pregnant + fat
• Jennifer Aniston = ugly hands
• Drew Barrymore = fat + annoying
• Mischa Barton = cankles
• David Beckham = talks like an English chipmunk
• Halle Berry = pregnant + fat
• Orlando Bloom = English pussy boy
• Penelope Cruz = so hot
• Patrick Dempsey = you shit on my house!
• Johnny Depp = Buy a Mach 3!
• Hilary Duff = huge head, small body
• Sara Evans = hot, white trash
• Colin Farrell = Eurotrash
• Jamie Foxx = playa
• Tim Green = who?
• Mariska Hargitay = Bet you can’t say that five times fast!• Tyler Hilton - mega douche
• Josh Holloway = Haircut as soon as you get off the island…
• Scarlett Johansson = boobies!
• Angelina Jolie = fat + pregnant (with twins)
• Juanes = Fabio + Ricky Martin
• Alicia Keys = pear shaped body
• Heidi Klum = hot momma!
• Jude Law = pimp
• Lindsay Lohan = freckle face + fire crotch lesbo
• Sophie Okonedo = Wegot jungle fever
• Clive Owen = I’m fucking Clive Owen mate and she’s minging!
• Eva Longoria = midget• Jennifer Lopez = fat
• Ann-Margret = granny
• Matthew McConaughey = male bimbo
• Eva Mendes = rehab
• Jesse Metcalfe = dickhead + douchebag
• Sienna Miller = hot
• Catalina Sandino Moreno = hot
• Sandra Oh = dykish
• Tyler Perry = cross-dresser
• Brad Pitt = acne scars
• Julia Roberts = losing it
• Seal = have you seen his face? you’re kidding me right?
• Maria Sharapova = I’d hit it…
• Jessica Simpson = I’d hit it (with a gag over her mouth)
• Elizabeth Smart = this moron (Mormon) was kidnapped by her next door neighbors 2 blocks from home and couldn’t escape?
• Martha Stewart = old + scary + mannish
• Hilary Swank = mannish
• Usher = dildo
• Dwyane Wade = playa
• Oprah Winfrey = fat
• Kate Winslet = fat but I’d hit it
• Ziyi Zhang = hot

WEEKEND STUDIO ESTIMATES:

May 16 -18, 2008
1. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Disney) $56.6M
2. Iron Man (Paramount) $31.2M
3. What Happens in Vegas (Fox) $13.9M
4. Speed Racer(Warner Bros.) $7.6M
5. Baby Mama (Universal) $4.59M
6. Made of Honor (Sony) $4.5M
7. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Universal) $2.5M
8. Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (New Line) $600K
9. Forbidden Kingdom(Lionsgate) $1M
10. The Visitor $690K

Hey look! Hollywood Reporter’s gone all Web 2.0!

The website still loads slower than me after ten whiskies and one dollop too much of the Last-A-Lot ointment, but I commend them for trying to stay hip and fresh and 2006. What’s next, a Facebook ap?

Per their own press release on the subject, The Hollywood Reporter – or THR as they’d now like to be known – has this to say:

“The Hollywood Reporter Monday completed a wholesale overhaul of its iconic brand, including a redesigned look and format for its print and digital publications, a revised editorial approach, expanded range of coverage and analysis and new industry data exclusive to THR-parent The Nielsen Company.

More than a cosmetic change, the transformation is devised to uniquely position THR to super serve a wider range of today’s global entertainment markets, which are increasingly technology-savvy and data-driven, with a more readable, insightful and actionable business resource across all platforms.”

Did you catch that? “Actionable.” Thus a new douche-bag buzzword has entered the lexicon. Expect to hear the word “actionable” coming out of your boss’ mouth at least 3 times an hour for the next two years. Anyway, they changed their layout and their design elements and they’ve added a bunch of blogs and video crap, but it’s still hard to navigate and slower than my grandma without her walker due to all the media on the front page, and lacks any usable RSS feeds. But kudos for trying. The internet! It’s not just for Stark Trek nerds and pedophiles anymore.