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The Morning Fix: MGM’s big shakeup; AMPAS elects Sherak sheriff; Redbox sues Warner Bros. and takes fight to the streets

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After the coffee. Before deciding if Brett Favre should just hang it up.

MGM’s new lions. Harry Sloan is out as CEO of MGM, the struggling studio that hasn’t released a movie since December’s ‘Valkyrie’ and is trying to manage a heavy debt load. Replacing Sloan are production chief Mary Parent, CFO Bedi Singh and turnaround expert Stephen Cooper in a newly created office of the chief executive. Sloan, who stays on as non-executive chairman, had been brought in four years ago to fix MGM by its owners Sony, Comcast, Providence Equity and Texas Pacific. Cooper, who restructured Krispy Kreme, is the one to cozy up to, if you are wondering. Analysis, gossip and speculation from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, and Variety

Sherak is new AMPAS president. Late Tuesday night veteran industry executive Tom Sherak was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, replacing Sid Ganis. Details from The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and Deadline Hollywood Daily, which has some pretty strong thoughts on the winner.

Redbox sues Warner Bros, and takes battle to front lines. DVD kiosk operator Redbox filed suit against Warner Bros. late Tuesday over the studio’s new distribution terms that would keep its movies away from the company for 28 days. Redbox is also taking its fight with the big movie studios to the masses with a new website and a Twitter feed. In the meantime, its antitrust suit against Universal Studios lives on. More from the Los Angeles Times and Variety.

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Authentication nation. The push to have consumers authenticate that they pay for a cable or satellite service before being able to watch TV content online could hit critical mass in as little as three years, predicted several industry executives, including CBS’ Quincy Smith and Major League Baseball’s Bob Bowman on a panel hosted by Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News.

Twitter officially uncool as the FCC gets a feed. The Federal Communications Commission is launching a blog and its own Twitter feed, reports USA Today. Can monitoring tweets for indecency be far behind? Just kidding!

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Controversial Philadelphia TV anchor Alycia Lane, whose life made many headlines, has joined KNBC. Rachel Abramowitz on the return of the boy toy. Sony slashes prices on PlayStation 3.

-- Joe Flint

Follow me on Twitter.

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