Alec Baldwin is going to skip out on the Emmys tonight, after Fox axed his joke about Rupert Murdoch that might have hit too close to home. Baldwin was slated to use his low-talking charms to play a fictional TV executive in the opening video for the Emmys tonight. But News Corp-owned Fox didn't like his joke about the company's phone-hacking scandal, according to Deadline Hollywood. more ›

The first arrest of a U.S.-based journalist in the phone-hacking scandal that is rocking Rupert Murdoch's empire has happened, and the person hauled in is based in Los Angeles. James Desborough, 38, served as the U.S. editor of the News of the World, and he was hauled in today in London, according to Reuters. more ›

Behind every media mogul is an even stronger baronness. Meet Wendi Deng, Rupert Murdoch's third and current wife. Earlier Tuesday she took down an attacker who snuck up behind her husband and stuffed a plate of shaving cream in his face during the hearing. more ›

Our friends at Radar are celebrating the recent launch of News Corp's Fox Business Network with a challenging quiz: Fox News Anchor or Porn Star?. We got 7 out of 10, but hey, when it comes to skankiness on the tube, Rupe, O'Reilly, Hannity, et al may really be the ones missing the plot. Mark at the News Corpse blog takes this notion even further, alleging that Murdoch's use of "soft-core titillation and America’s... more ›

Photo by Alex Kehr via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr more ›

Do you want to get screwed? I know this sell-out whore who will screw anybody for five billion dollars. All you gotta do is call this number: 1-800-JOURNAL (1-800-568-7623). Just ask for Dow Jones, or Wall Street Journal, as that sell-out whore is known as on the street. But be careful because Dow Jones is crazy and could turn on you at any time. Everyone says that Down Jones used to be pretty honest... more ›

In like a fox and out with a yodel? Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo for $50 billion. Many have speculated that Microsoft would eventually spring for big Y, as a marriage with the online media giant increasingly appears to be the most viable option to compete with Google in the great war of search and online advertising. Always a fun rumor to kick around, but today it's being corroborated by the WSJ, and considering... more ›

To promote their new series "Drive", Fox is giving away free gasoline at the Unocal 76 at the corner of Beverly Glen and Santa Monica Blvd. near the mall in Century City. Don't get fooled by the old Google satellite image that shows SM Blvd. before they improved the roads. This is the 76 across the street from the Walgreens (formerly the charming Santa Glen Market) and two blocks away from the McDonald's. LAist... more ›

Apparently the book didn't fit either. When even Bill O'Reilly said that the fictitious book and made-for-tv interview were in bad taste you knew there was trouble in sleezadise. Today Rupert Murdoch himself, a man so old he could drive a Buick through a serene Farmers Market crowd and get away with murder, canceled plans to publish the fiction by ReganBooks called "If I Did It", and the subsequent two-part interview of O.J. Simpson... more ›

Last summer Fox's Rupert Murdoch bought LA Internet start-up MySpace for $600 million; now, almost a year later, Fox execs are speculating that the social networking phenomenom is worth about five times that, according to the British site The Observer, which wrote two stories today about the media giant.

MySpace is one of those online places where young people hang out - though 'swarm' might be a more accurate term for the kind of 'social networking' that goes on there. It is fantastically popular with teenagers, who use it to link up with online 'friends'. And it has been growing at internet speed. When Murdoch bought it last July, it had 16 million visitors. By the end of 2005 it had 29 million and currently claims to have 55 million registered users. more ›

Thora Birch turns 24 today. She was great in American Beauty, but perfect as the movie version of Enid in Ghost World. more ›

The Daily News tunes in to Howard Stern's premiere satellite radio broadcast, counts the number of times he uses the f-word. more ›

Santa Monica-based MySpace.com announced its plans to create its own label dubbed "MySpace Records" that will be manufactured by Universal Music Group's Interscope Records and distributed by Universal's indie Fontana Distribution. Earlier this year, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. purchased MySpace's parent company, Intermix Media for approximately $580 million. more ›