TV Networks, Paramount Digital Entertainment and Dickhouse Productions have launched Jackassworld.com as a global destination for all Jackass content.

The international roll out follows the success of the US site and will now be available in more than 30 languages and launches in UK, Italy and Spain from today, with Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands and the Nordic territories to follow.

Enter Movies Rock, a custom publishing supplement that will be mailed to about 16 million subscribers of 14 Conde Nast magazines -- such as Vanity Fair, Vogue and GQ -- beginning Nov. 1. Concocted by Vanity Fair Editor Graydon Carter as a counterpart to an earlier Conde Nast advertorial effort, Fashion Rocks (which, as its title suggests, encompasses haute couture and rock stardom), Movies Rock functions as eye candy for the coffee table and a kind of behind-the-music and behind-the-scenes compendium for iPod listeners and cineastes alike.

Edited by Mitch Glazer, a successful freelance writer turned movie scribe ("Scrooged," "The Recruit"), the glossy annual is intended as a reflection of what's hot in popular culture.

"This year going into next, you've got 'La Vie en Rose,' 'Sweeney Todd,' 'El Cantante,' 'I'm Not There,' 'August Rush,' 'Once' -- it's definitely of the moment," Glazer said, naming a number of high-profile music-driven films. "So Graydon's idea was to do a 13th issue of Vanity Fair devoted to the place where movies and music meet."

Bill Murray, extravagantly kitted out in a rhinestone-studded jumpsuit and shiny pompadour, poses as Elvis on the cover. Inside, familiar Vanity Fair photographers -- Mark Seliger, Jean Baptiste Mondino and Bruce Weber -- have snapped a who's who of musicians and actors who somehow straddle the movie-music divide: Kanye West, Nelly, Billy Bob Thornton, Eve, Freddie Highmore, Chris Brown and Zooey Deschanel among them.

Ten hours of bargaining presided over by a federal mediator failed to close a deal before a strike deadline set last Friday by the Writers Guild of America, which has sought a greater share of DVD and Internet revenues for its members.

The initial impact of a strike for most of the public will be felt on television. Popular late-night talk shows such as NBC's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" and CBS' "Late Show With David Letterman," which are produced on a day-to-day basis and depend on a steady supply of topical jokes and sketches, were expected to go into immediate reruns.

Prime-time comedies such as the CBS hit "Two and a Half Men" and Kelsey Grammer's new Fox sitcom "Back to You" also are expected to be knocked out of production because they depend on a substantial amount of last-minute script rewrites.

The effect on movies will be less obvious since the major studios' screenplay pipeline is well-stocked through 2008.

A strike would destabilize Southern California's signature industry and mark the first time in two decades that writers had walked off the job.

Thursday night's rally of more than 2,000 film and TV writers occurred a day after talks on a new three-year contract with their employers broke down amid disputes over DVD residuals and pay for shows distributed over the Internet.

The union's board of directors will formally ratify the strike plans at a meeting Friday at 10 a.m. at the guild's West Coast headquarters in the Fairfax district.

Until now, online game players have frequented special gaming sites such as Yahoo Inc.'s Yahoo! Games, which drew 21 million unique visitors in January, according to comScore Media Metrics. Most media properties, in contrast, offered little in the way of games. One exception was Hearst's teen titles, CosmoGIRL! and Seventeen, which for the past couple of years have offered generic board, arcade and card games. The publisher noticed that these games were drawing between 5% and 10% of the traffic to the sites. With Hearst in the middle of redesigning its Web sites -- many of which had been run until recently by the female-targeted Web concern iVillage -- it decided to add gaming across the board.

"It's a growing source of time for people online. ... Gaming is one of the things you can do in the Web environment that you can't do offline," says Chuck Cordray, vice president and general manager for Hearst Magazines Digital Media.

Arkadium is starting with the teen magazines -- adding games tailored to the specific sites. Seventeen's site, for instance, will have a game called "Editor's Assistant," where users play the role of an assistant to Seventeen's editor in chief and have to complete certain tasks to win. In coming months, the developer will move to Hearst's adult-skewing titles. Cosmopolitan's "Boy Toy" allows players to control a virtual "boy toy" and try to keep his girlfriend satisfied. The game ends when the girlfriend breaks up with her boyfriend or stays in the relationship for one year.

Arkadium hasn't finalized the games for the other titles, but each magazine will add games targeted to its audience. Good Housekeeping -- whose readership has a median age of 50.7 -- might host customized word games popular with that age group, for instance.

The company, which also publishes Car and Driver, Elle and other magazines, said in a statement late Monday that the April edition of Premiere, which is on newsstands until April 16, will be the last for the U.S. edition. The international editions will continue.

Hachette said that Premiere's Web site would continue and will be revamped later in the year. The company had also shut the print edition of Elle Girl but kept its Web site going, a move that Time Warner Inc.'s Time Inc. unit did with Teen People last year.

Premiere was a monthly magazine but faced competition from weekly rivals such as Time Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly and others. Last year Premiere's paid ad pages declined 25 percent, according to the Publishers Information Bureau.

For years Disney's Web sites, which include the popular ESPN.com, ABC.com and Disney.com, have been among the Internet's most visited. In November, the company overall ranked No. 9 among sites visited at home and work, according to Nielsen Netratings, which tracks online traffic.

But critics of the Disney.com, the homepage for a lot of the company's online offerings, say it looks amateurish and is hard to navigate. Disney recently showed off the revamped Web site at a company meeting at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla.

Some executives who saw it said it was much improved, with video and interactive features, and was much sleeker than its clumsy predecessor.

"This new relationship with Boxoffice Magazine gives NATO members the benefit of Boxoffice Magazine's comprehensive coverage of the industry, and permits us to concentrate on other members services, confident that Boxoffice will keep our members well informed in this competitive industry," said John Fithian, president and CEO of NATO.

"We are gratified by NATO's vote of confidence," said Peter Cane, president of Boxoffice Media LP, which acquired Boxoffice Magazine and boxoffice.com earlier this year. "We made a major commitment to the film and the exhibition industry when we began our strategic expansion of Boxoffice during 2006, and our new relationship with NATO validates that commitment."

The National Association of Theatre Owners is the largest exhibition trade organization in the world, representing more than 29,000 movie screens in all 50 states, and additional cinemas in more than 40 countries worldwide. NATO's membership includes the largest cinema chains in the world as well as hundreds of independent theatre owners.

Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told investors and news reporters on a conference call following news of the deal that YouTube will be "one of many investments" Google plans to make in the video field.

Schmidt said that Google will run YouTube as an independent company but also preserve its own Google Video as a separate operation. He described YouTube as the "clear winner in networking and the social side of video" for the way the site encourages its users to share videos with their friends.

The home-video division of Twentieth Century Fox said Tuesday it will acquire as many as a dozen family-friendly movies a year and market them under the FoxFaith banner.

With budgets of less than US$5 million each, the films will be aimed at the same Christian audiences that helped boost box-office receipts for such films as "The Passion of the Christ" and "The Chronicles of Narnia."

The studio said last year it was forming the FoxFaith unit as part of a broader effort to reach audiences seeking family-friendly films. Tuesday's announcement brought specific details.

FoxFaith could be successful if it concentrates on the home-video market rather than theatrical releases, which cost more to market and carry more risk, media analyst Harold Vogel said.

Atom is one of the more popular—though perhaps under-the-radar—entertainment brands to have sprung up on the Web in recent years. Its properties claim a total of 17 million unique monthly users, according to officials. The company owns Shockwave.com, an online hub for a wide variety of free ad-supported games, ranging from classic puzzle and card games to action titles like 4 Wheel Fury. Sister site AddictingGames.com is also included in the deal.

In addition to gaming, Atom also runs both AtomFilms.com and AddictingClips.com, both outlets for short films and user-generated viral videos that generally appeal to a younger, MTV-like demographic.

"Atom Entertainment is a best-in-class and dynamic property, with brands that have dedicated, passionate followers and content that resonates with our global audience," said MTV Networks chairman and CEO Judy McGrath in a statement. "This acquisition is in line with our business strategy of being a leader in the digital space and connecting with consumers on every platform and device they use."

The site has since agreed to start filtering copyright and obscene content and institute tougher security measures after talks with the Motion Picture Association of America, a group that represents Hollywood studios.

In May, Warner Bros. agreed to start selling its movies and shows using peer-to-peer technology developed by BitTorrent Inc., which has been used to trade pirated copies of movies.

Both deals are aimed at appealing to younger consumers who watch shows on computers or portable devices.

"Kids in the dorm rooms don't own TVs," said Tom McInerney, co-founder and chief executive of Guba. "They've got computers and that's their source of entertainment."

While Mr. Jobs is getting resistance from some studios, they are more open to the idea since most now offer their television shows on iTunes. "Steve wants to get this done, and the studios want to reach an agreement, too," said one person apprised of the negotiations.

But people involved in the negotiations said there were several potential snags, including fears about piracy and Mr. Jobs's proposal to charge a flat price of $9.99 for movies already sold on DVD.

Studios are concerned about preserving relationships with traditional partners, including theaters and retailers. In particular, one person involved said, a price of $9.99 for a movie would undercut the price Wal-Mart charges for DVD's.

Under Mr. Jobs's proposed plan, there will be several prices for movies, depending on when they have their debut on iTunes. The prices have not yet been determined, but some studios are worried about releasing movies too close to their theatrical release dates. The current window for a DVD release is four months after a movie hits theaters.

Almost two months after most Hollywood studios started selling movies via online download, The Walt Disney Co.'s Buena Vista division has entered into an agreement with online distributor CinemaNow to do the same.

Beginning today, CinemaNow users will be able to choose from 30 Disney titles, including National Treasure, The Pirates of the Caribbean and Chicken Little; the studio will also begin selling online downloads "day and date" with their DVD releases, beginning with the June 6 release of Glory Road. The deal does not include movies from Pixar, the animated movie studio Disney acquired earlier this year.

The agreement is yet another sign that Hollywood studios are willing to tinker with the profitable DVD distribution channel they have relied on since the late 1990s by selling movies directly to consumers. Last month, both Movielink and CinemaNow, which had previously only allowed customers to rent movies via the Internet, began letting customers buy and download permanent copies of the movies to their PCs.

The service will begin sometime this summer, with prices beginning at about $1 for some television programs and increasing to about the price of a DVD or video rental for full-length movies.

The initial offerings will include movies like "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," "Rumor Has It" and "Natural Born Killers." The television shows will include older fare like "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Babylon 5."

To use the service, consumers will visit www.bittorrent.com, download the software and then browse the selections on the Web site. They will be prevented from copying and distributing files they purchase through two mechanisms: one that requires them to enter a password before watching a file, and another that allows the file to be viewed only on the computer to which it was downloaded.

Online piracy has become increasingly vexing for Hollywood studio executives as faster Internet connections have made it easier to copy large movie files. A study commissioned by the Motion Picture Association of America concluded that piracy cost the studios about $2.3 billion in revenue in 2005.

Films will be available to download the same day the DVD is released. Consumers will get the film in three formats: two digital files available for instant download -- one for a PC or laptop and one for a portable device -- and a DVD copy sent by mail.

Initially, 35 Universal films will be available, including "Pride And Prejudice," "The Bourne Supremacy," "Love Actually," "Nanny McPhee" and "Bridget Jones."

They will be priced from £19.99 ($35) for the latest releases to £9.99 ($17.50) for older films. Downloading a film will take between 40 minutes and an hour.

"The time is only 12-18 months away when you will be able to put the kettle on, get the kids ready and then have a great movie ready to watch," Lovefilm chief executive Mark Livingstone told PA.

First came the songs, then music videos and TV shows, and now Apple may be bringing movies to your home computer or video iPod.

Apple took the first step today by making the Disney Channel original film "High School Musical" available for a $9.99 download price. The made-for-TV movie is already widely popular among the "tween" set. The music soundtrack is highly sought-after on the iTunes site -- one of its songs is currently listed as the second most popular download in the soundtrack category.

"It shows how fast digital media technology is moving. The iTunes moniker is already wrong," said Phil Leigh, a senior analyst for Inside Digital Media Inc. "It's moving more quickly than Steve Jobs and Apple anticipated."

Early this morning the first full length movie of was spotted on Apple's iTunes Music Store.

The iTunes link to High School Musical was accessible and offered a 1 hour 39 minute Disney Channel original TV movie. This 487MB file represents the first full length movie content that has appeared on iTunes. The movie was originally available for only $1.99 which was the same price as most iTunes Video content.

This content may have been posted prematurely, as the movie became inaccessible shortly after the original news item was posted. It has reappeared, but is now priced at $9.99.

Amazon.com is in talks with three Hollywood studios about starting a service that would allow consumers to download movies and TV shows for a fee and burn them onto DVD's, according to three people briefed on the discussions.

If the advanced negotiations are successfully concluded, Amazon's service would position itself in the media world alongside rivals like Apple Computer's iTunes as a place where people go not just to order goods to be sent by mail, but to instantly enjoy digital wares as well.

So far, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios and Warner Brothers are engaged in the talks, said one person close to the talks who, like the others, asked not to be identified because the negotiations are continuing.

Although it is not clear when it might begin, an Amazon downloading service would be sure to send waves through both the media and retail worlds. Players in both industries are racing to offer new ways to give technology-savvy audiences instant access to their favorite shows and songs, in a field crowded with potential rivals using Internet and on-demand technologies.

The deal with Katalyst Films Inc., co-owned by "That '70s Show" actor Ashton Kutcher and producer Jason Goldberg, calls for the creation of five programs with at least 20 episodes per program.

In a phone interview, Goldberg was cagey about the shows' details, saying only that it would be comedy-based. The shows will debut later this year and feature largely unknown actors.

"The programming is going to have a severe attitude behind it," Goldberg said. "There might be hurt feelings."

The move is part of the online division of Time Warner Inc.'s focus to add more free programming to its site to boost online advertising revenue. Some 43 million users send and receive messages on the AIM service, the company said.

So imagine the tempest ClickStar will brew. Its 10 Items or Less will be a major-league movie — exactly the kind that would normally lure consumers to theaters its opening weekend. Except no one will have to go to a theater to see it or even drive to a Wal-Mart to buy the DVD. You could start watching it on your Internet-connected HDTV -- which, OK, you're not likely to own now but probably will in coming years -- within 30 seconds after clicking "buy" on the ClickStar site.

The movie industry makes almost all its money from theater tickets and DVD sales, and basically no money from Internet sales. So ClickStar scares Hollywood. That's why Freeman is doing it.

"This kid came up with Napster, and before that, none of us thought of content protection," Freeman says. Hollywood has a window of time to find a way to avoid getting Napstered. Pirates haven't yet succeeded in stealing movies on the scale they steal songs, because movies are such huge files. But that barrier will fall. Then the only way to get ahead of the Napstering, Morgan believes, is for the movie industry to create its own, superior marketplace first, before file-sharing of pirated movies takes hold.

Once upon a time, you checked your local newspaper's film critic for advice about what to see on any given weekend. Or maybe you read the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly or the New Yorker, or checked out TV critics with national clout such as Roger Ebert or Gene Shalit.

Not anymore. With the advent of the Internet, geography is history. Today, more than 90% of the target moviegoer demographic ages 13-34 go online to get their movie information, New Line Cinema executive vp integrated marketing Gordon Paddison says.

Two movie sites changing the relationship between moviegoers and critics are RottenTomatoes.com and Metacritic.com, where a click brings you the best-reviewed movies in release. Recent Oscar nominees "Capote" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" have a "fresh" ranking of 92% and 94%, respectively, at RottenTomatoes. They get Metascores of 88 and 80, respectively, at the more streamlined Metacritic.

"Far more people are reading reviews on the Internet than they are in print," Paddison says. "This has a huge impact on cinephiles and any review-based demographic."

If Disney acquires Pixar, Jobs would join the company's board of directors, own the largest individual stake and become, by far, the most recognizable face on the company's corporate roster — potentially overshadowing Chief Executive Robert Iger.

At present, "Disney doesn't have a guy who shakes the walls, a larger-than-life character like Walt," said Jeffrey S. Young, co-author of the Jobs biography "iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business."

Jobs, a co-founder of Apple Computer Inc., has the brash confidence to assume that role. But if he does so, the man who once shaved his head and begged for alms in his search for enlightenment stands to inherit more than the mantle of the company's lionized founder.

People who know Jobs and analysts who have tracked his companies for years say the potential deal is notable less for what it would mean for Disney than for how it would expand the cult of Jobs.