[WB marketing head Sue] Kroll will likely have to move quickly to rejigger the studio's current phase of the marketing campaign for "Dark Knight," focusing on Ledger's Joker character. This phase of the campaign had been set to run until March.

Knight isn't the first superhero blockbuster marketing campaign to suffer from unanticipated tragedy: Besides The Crow, we're reminded of that circa 9-11 Spider-Man teaser in which goalpost Twin Towers trapped a getaway chopper in the web-slung net suspended between them. But that was a standalone spot, easily pulled from theaters and the final cut without affecting the rest of the movie. Excising Ledger from the campaign, already aggressively positioned by the studio as the showy villain centerpiece of the Batman Begins sequel, would be a far dicier proposition. We can only hope director Christopher Nolan doesn't, in a moment of grief-induced panic, cave to the studio's suggestions that he write in an 11th hour Robin, then roll out a far less ominous second-phase campaign built entirely around re-shoots featuring Zac Efron in the iconic red, green, and yellow costume.

• Fate of Ledger's last films uncertain [Variety]

"The studio is stunned and devastated by this tragic news. The entertainment community has lost an enormous talent. Heath was a brilliant actor and an exceptional person. Our hearts go out to his family and friends."

The irony, of course, is that The Joker will be one of Heath's greatest, destined to be referenced first, along with Brokeback, as his legend grows. Still—if the performance wasn't nightmare-fuel before... (And it was. Just watch that trailer.) Expect an immediate repositioning in the Knight campaign, with Bale's Cowled Crusader ushered back to front and center, for the time being at least. We need heroes right now.

• The Dark Knight

will put out if u take me to see harry potter - 19

Date: 2007-07-11, 6:20PM PDT

I'm 19, 6'1''. a liitle extra weight..I wanna go see harry potter but i have no money...anyone wanna take me?...

While we salute the great lengths to which this determined Potterite is willing to go to experience the sexual awakening of his adolescent wizard hero, we wonder if it's perhaps a tad stingy of spirit to require anyone who makes it past the first elimination rounds to sign a fine-print-heavy Terms of Agreement, stating that it's a stadium-seating-only offer, and that purchase of a box of Dibbs and a large popcorn, while not compulsory, guarantees you'll be chasing the Golden Snitch by the end of the night.

• will put out if u take me to see harry potter - 19 [Craigslist]

• New 'Batman' names its Joker [THR]

So my friend W. lives in the Angeleno Heights house used on that show Charmed...they use an exterior shot of his house before cutting to some sound stage or whatever. So it's not uncommon for tourists to stop by and take a photo or two on his front lawn. The braver ones will even run up to his front door for a peek inside.

Well last monday morning W.'s in his kitchen making breakfast- It's still early so he's just wearing boxers and a smile, when he notices three cop cars parked in front of his house. Not an unfamiliar sight in Echo Park right. All of a sudden he hears this loud bagging at his kitchen door. Before he can answer a couple of cops bust in and grab him. They start shouting "wheres the girls, wheres the girls!". What girls he answers. They cuff him and drag him to a squad car while a bunch of cops search his house for "the girls".

UPDATE: Looks like we've been Charm'd. The real story (we think) after the jump.

Finally an officer tells him that they're investigating a kidnapping and W.'s the prime suspect. Something about a girl named Phoebe. W.'s incredulous and just keeps quite a for a while. Finally the cops start asking him about the three sister that live in the house and what happened to them. What fucking sisters , its my house! It's not long before the cops put it all together.

The story is a deranged fan came looking for the Halliwell sisters only to find a strange looking bearded man in his underwear - not a family of kindly witches. The fan freaks "Bearded warlock must have kidnapped the Halliwells"... and calls the police to report it. Police swoop in..etc. After apologizing to W. for detaining him for the kidnapping of three fictional sisters, the cops assured him that their computers would be updated to reflect his home's special status. God I fucking love this town.

UPDATE: Hollywood mystery solving is fun! Someone's who's shot at the Charmed house debunks the above story:

The house is owned by a crochety old jackass named Murray Burns, who actually owns three houses on that historic Victorian row in Echo Park (incidentally, it is called brewmeisters row to historians as, at the turn of the 20th century, one of Los Angeles' chief exports was beer, and the then jet set in town, prior to Hollywood galvanizing the Buddy Ackermans into said title, were the brew meisters who owned the downtown breweries.)

The house is an unoccupied "standing" set that is used exclusively for myriad shoots and productions.

The WB has a contract that guarantees them usage of the house annually (about $50k per annum) so that they have approval over what dates it can be used for other shoots. It should be noted that two of Murrays other houses are also "standing sets" rented exclusively to productions, as they are renovated victorian homes as well.

I know this all because we just shot there two weeks ago and I spent half of my 12 hour day talking to Murray.

The pilot episode of "The Bedford Diaries," which concerns a group of college students attending a class on human sexuality, had already been accepted by WB's standards department. After the F.C.C. decision last week to issue millions of dollars in fines against broadcast stations, the network's chairman, Garth Ancier, contacted Mr. Fontana and asked him to edit a number of specific scenes out of the show, including one that depicted two girls in a bar kissing on a dare and another of a girl unbuttoning her jeans.

"I said no," Mr. Fontana said in an interview Wednesday. "I told him I found the ruling incomprehensible. He said the censor would do the edit."

The decision, several network executives said yesterday, could represent a further step in the spread of alternative means for television programs to reach viewers, including iPods and computers. It could also increase the risk that network television will be seen as pass by some of its audience, especially younger viewers.

"The message here is that they'll be forced to go alternative ways of looking at shows if they want to see the real thing," Mr. Fontana said. "It's like they're telling people that broadcast television now has much less interesting stuff than you see on the Web or cable."

What is at stake is nothing less than the American public's right to watch on network television twentysomething actresses playing curious teenagers unconvincingly pressing together their lips in a fashion that will not reveal any intertwined tongues, thus ruining a broadcast-acceptable take. More importantly, the practice of presenting these "uncut" episodes on the Web threatens to taint the whole internet, that unspoiled bastion of true, unashamed, hot lesbian action. Let's keep Mischa Barton's clumsy, bi-curious experimentations where they belong and stop this madness before it's too late.

• WB Censors Its Own Drama for Fear of F.C.C. Fines [NY Times]
• Previously: 'Without A Trace's' $3.6 Million Teen Orgy Scene [Defamer]
• 'Without A Trace's' Teen Orgy Scene: The Totally Hot Full-Text Version [Defamer]