Let the claws come out! Twentieth Century Fox has announced that they will launch a new in-house writers program, bringing on a group of emerging writers to generate original work, reports Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood. Quoting a statement released from the studio, Finke writes: "'The goal for this enterprise is to create a place where original ideas are generated and where new writers can feel supported to do their best work,' [president of production Emma] Watts said." more ›

Dan Clark was a brutal force on the football field and in the Gladiator arena. In his book Gladiator: A True Story of 'Roids, Rage and Redemption, which he will be signing copies of tonight at Book Soup, the man better known to many as Nitro, gives a brutally honest account of his life and 20 year love affair with steroids. more ›

The Guardian has an irritating blog post about LA writers. The gist: LA poet and novelist Rob Woodard wonders where all the good novelists in LA have gone. He points to the well-known "great" LA writers (Chandler, Nathaniel West, John Fante, Bukowski) and a few others, then deems LA literature mostly dead for the past thirty years. more ›