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A CBS producer was arrested Saturday after deputies say he attempted to arrange sex with 11-year-old girl by communicating with undercover investigators posing as the fictitious girl's father, authorities said. Daniel J. Barron, 56, a 15-year producer with CBS News who lives in New Jersey, allegedly told an undercover St. Lucie County Sheriff's Office detective to bring his 11-year-old daughter to the Fort Lauderdale hotel where he was staying while in town to cover Sunday's Miami Dolphins game, according to an arrest report. Barron allegedly told the undercover detective, whom he met Saturday afternoon in an America Online chat room...

NEW YORK (AP) _ A former Emmy-winning television producer who worked with Tom Brokaw at NBC News died Monday after falling from his apartment building, police said. Police initially reported that the producer, Eric R. Wishnie, was hit by a vehicle that fled the scene, but later they said they had located a witness who saw him as he fell from an adjacent building. The medical examiner's office said it had scheduled an autopsy. NBC News President Steve Capus said in a statement that Wishnie, 44, was "an enormously talented former senior producer at NBC News, who had a hand...

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Call it a Hollywood shocker: Mel's Apocalypto will have a bigger weekend opening than his Braveheart. Despite scandal, an R-rating, subtitles because of an ancient dialect, no stars, and direct competition from movieland AAA-listers Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz, Gibson's Mayan epic won Friday's matinees and evenings, I'm told. At first, box office gurus were warning me that the weekend victor among three very competitive films all opening against each other would be too close to call. cameron_jude.jpgBut now I've learned it looks certain that Apocalypto will win the weekend -- bearing out my reporting back on December 1st when...

Hatch helps spring Austin from Dubai jailBy The Associated Press Sat Jul 8, 5:50 PM ET Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, sits at a piano in his Capitol Hill office in this May 6, 1997 file photo. Hatch, a musician in his own right, helped secure the release of Atlanta R&B producer Dallas Austin from a Dubai jail after a drug conviction, his office confirmed Saturday July 8, 2006. (AP Photo/Cameron Craig, File) SALT LAKE CITY - U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, a musician in his own right, helped secure the release of Atlanta R&B producer Dallas Austin from a...

A Hollywood producer has agreed to plead guilty to income tax evasion and conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with an alleged scam that bilked millions of dollars from people who thought they were investing in a television series about the Department of Homeland Security, according to a report published Tuesday. Joseph Medawar, 44, faces up to 10 years in prison and $9 million in fines under the plea agreement, which is set to come before a federal judge on Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing federal court documents filed Monday. He also would pay $3.4 million in...

After coming up dry on such costly movie flops as "Around the World in 80 Days" and "Sahara," Hollywood's highest-rolling wildcatter is looking for his first gusher. And once again, Philip Anschutz is risking big. The Denver-based multibillionaire, who made a fortune in oil, natural gas, railroads, telecommunications and real estate, has spent $90 million — half the film's $180-million budget — to produce the screen adaptation of the children's classic "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." But whether the movie, which opens Friday, will produce the lucrative family-oriented franchise that Anschutz hopes for depends...

MORENO VALLEY, Calif. - Herbert L. Strock, a television producer and director who directed such B-movies as "I Was a Teenage Frankenstein," "How to Make a Monster" and "The Crawling Hand," has died. He was 87. Strock died Wednesday of heart failure at Riverside County Regional Medical Center in Moreno Valley following a car accident, according to his daughter, Leslie Mitchner. In a television career that began in the 1940s, Strock worked on series including "Highway Patrol," "Sky King," "Sea Hunt," "Maverick" and "77 Sunset Strip." His creature features included "Blood of Dracula" and "Gog," shot in 3-D. "He was...

I just finished reading another amazing novel by Dean Koontz, "Cold Fire". The afterword ... is hilarious: "Then, as is often the case when life is good, someone said, 'Hey, let's make a movie!' and life got strange, dark, and scary. "By this I do not mean to imply - although I can't stop you from inferring - that a lot of movie-industry executives are as brainless, voracious, and destructive as the flesh-eating bacteria ... I've met smart, fair, creative executives over the years...although I've noticed their kind either eventually get fired," (NOTE TO SELF: KELLY GOODE!!!) ... He goes...

...I wanted to address the Lifetime series of "The Dirty Girls Social Club" again. First, I should let you all know I haven't heard a peep from anyone at the network since I last posted. I have talked to my co-executive producer, Nely Galan, who talked to an exec at the network who, I am told, told her that they have no problem with me at the repitch meeting. Rather, they just want to meet with everyone but me in order to "bond". Okay. ... Basically, there's a thing that happens in Hollywood. Moneylust. They all want to make money,...

"CBS News and I have reached an amicable resolution, and I have resigned my position," Murphy said in a statement. She said she wished "my good colleagues well" and looked forward to moving on in her career. Murphy and "60 Minutes Wednesday" executive producer Josh Howard were asked to resign after an independent panel found they rushed the Bush report to the air without proper checks. CBS News senior vice president Betsy West also was asked to give up her job. Murphy, Howard's top deputy, worked at CBS News for more than 17 years and was head of the political...

Israel and the Palestinian Authority were engaged in intensive efforts Monday night to bring about the release of an Israeli Druze employee of CNN who was kidnapped by armed Palestinians in Gaza on Monday. The kidnapping occurred at approximately 6:30 P.M., just outside CNN's offices in Gaza City. Riad Ali, who works for the television station as a producer and translator, was standing and chatting with two other employees, a reporter and a cameraman, both American. According to the reporter, Ben Wedeman, a white Peugeot stopped nearby and five armed Palestinians, all in their twenties, jumped out. Some carried pistols,...

GAZA CITY (CNN) -- A group of armed men abducted a CNN producer in Gaza City on Monday. There has been no claim of responsibility for the abduction of CNN producer Riad Ali, and the militant group Hamas condemned it.

My daughter is set as the producer for the election night news coverage of the Presidential race on her Emmy winning High School cable station.

Date: Mon Jun 14, 2004 1:25 pm Subject: CBS News/60 Minutes Seeking to talk with Military Families From: "Chante Wolf" Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 12:50 PM Subject: Fw: CBS News/60 Minutes Seeking to talk withMilitary Families, Soldiers\ about recruiting, re-enlisting Dear Military Families, We received the email below from Michael Bronner, a producer for 60 Minutes, and spoke with him as well. He is looking to speak with families who have concerns about recruiting practices (for new recruits) AND re-enlistment schemes/pressures in the military. If you would like to email or speak with him, his contact information is below....

LOS ANGELES, April 2, 2004—Jody Eldred Productions today announced it has just completed filming and is in the final stages of production on an inspirational documentary called, “Changed Lives: Miracles of The Passion,” which will air nationwide Easter weekend. With rave reviews from Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America” and Joe Scarborough on MSNBC’s “Scarborough Country,” this one-hour T.V. special was shot in High Definition and documents the true stories of people whose lives have been forever changed by Mel Gibson’s incredible motion picture “The Passion of The Christ.” “I knew instantly that people’s lives were going to be...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) Sam Phillips, who discovered Elvis Presley and helped usher in the rock 'n' roll revolution, died Wednesday. He was 80. Phillips died at St. Francis Hospital, spokeswoman Gwendolyn McClain said. No details were immediately available about the cause of death or how long he had been hospitalized. Phillips founded Sun Records in Memphis in 1952 and helped launch the career of Presley, then a young singer who had moved from Tupelo, Miss. He produced Presley's first record, the 1954 single that featured ``That's All Right, Mama'' and ``Blue Moon of Kentucky.'' ``God only knows that we didn't...

Denver Postcommentary Hollywood goes paranoid TV's closed-mouth conservatism surfaces in firing of 'Hitler' producer By Joanne OstrowDenver Post TV/Radio Critic Sunday, May 18, 2003 - This is much more insidious than the Dixie Chicks incident: The executive producer of this week's CBS miniseries, "Hitler: The Rise of Evil," was fired for publicly likening the climate in America in advance of the invasion of Iraq to the climate in pre-war Germany that allowed the rise of the Third Reich. Ed Gernon lost his job for drawing an analogy. Imagine being axed for expressing an opinion about a period in history...

Oscar Producer Calls Moore "Paranoid" HOLLYWOOD, March 31, 2003 -- In his first print interview since Oscar night, filmmaker Michael Moore told the San Jose Mercury News that despite his controversial speech that elicited both cheers and jeers, he hasn't sensed any hostility from the Hollywood community. "As uncomfortable as it might have been for some people to hear, I said things that needed to be said," the filmmaker told the paper. Moore, whose documentary Bowling for Columbine won the best documentary award, added that the Oscar night boos came from Kodak Theater stagehands and were oddly "amplified." "I heard...

<p>LOS ANGELES(AP) - Phil Spector will contend the shooting death of an actress at his suburban mansion last week was accidental, a close friend of the legendary music producer said.</p> <p>"I believe his defense will be that this was a tragic accident," said Marvin Mitchelson, a prominent Los Angeles attorney who has been friends with Spector for about 12 years and has traveled extensively with him.</p>

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ A producer has sued Ozzy Osbourne and the rock musician's wife, claiming the couple stole the idea for their hit MTV reality series ``The Osbournes'' from him. Plaintiff Gary Binkow said he met on several occasions with the couple and executives from Miramax TV between 1999 and 2000 to discuss ``a real-life docu-sitcom'' about their family, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The court papers include what Binkow said was a copy of his original treatment of the proposed series from January 2000, registered with the Writers Guild of America, The...

I just heard a radio report that music producer Daniel Lanois was killed in an auto accident on the highway between Birmingham, AL and Atlanta, GA. Any updated news or links is appreciated.