The Morning Fix: Waters makes waves for Comcast and NBC. What’s Jake Gyllenhaal to do now? Coco gets some Emmy love.

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After the coffee. Before figuring out this box-office slowdown thing.

Muddy waters. Proposed marriage partners Comcast and NBC Universal got beat up pretty bad during a field hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) not-so-subtly suggested Comcast tried to buy her support (the cable giant said no way). One witness called Comcast a plantation while another said a combination of NBC and Comcast could lead to a BP-like situation in the entertainment industry. Oh and one congressman needed to have an NBC executive explain to him what the title of the network’s new sitcom “Friends with Benefits” meant. Good times! More on the hearing from the Los Angeles Times.

Career advice. Veteran Hollywood journalist Anne Thompson offers some analysis of Jake Gyllenhaal’s career in the wake of the “Prince of Persia” debacle. (Is debacle too strong? How about disappointment?) Thompson says “Prince of Persia” “didn’t change the popular perception of Gyllenhaal as a likable leading man best suited to naturalistic dramas. There’s still a sizable gap between the rising star’s acting bona fides and his ability to put butts in seats.” One valid point Thompson makes is that Gyllenhaal’s appeal is more to women than men so action movies might not be his strong suit. Guess he’ll just have to go back to making thoughtful dramas.

Hope it’s better than ‘Rocky IV.’ Apple boss Steve Jobs unveiled the newest iPhone, which includes capacity for video chats, which personally scares me. Since I know a bunch of you will be running out to buy this thing, here’s the Wall Street Journal’s take on it.

“Beastly” delay. CBS Films (still getting used to typing that one), said it is delaying the debut of its Vanessa Hudgens film “Beastly” so the movie can steer clear of Universal’s “Charlie St. Cloud” starring Hudgen’s boyfriend Zac Effron (or so the tabloids say, I don’t really know). The push of “Beastly” from this summer to next year means CBS Films has only one more release for 2010. More from the Hollywood Reporter.

What do they know that we don’t know? Training camp hasn’t even started yet and Fox has sold about 80% of its commercial inventory for next season’s Super Bowl, according to Advertising Age. That is way ahead of the usual pace so the question for me is, does this mean the economy is really strong or does Fox want to grab the money while it’s there because another downturn could be ahead? I’m going with take the money now.

For your consideration. TBS apparently really wants to make sure Conan O’Brien feels loved. Even though O’Brien’s show won’t make its debut until November, the cable network is launching an Emmy campaign for O’Brien as best late night host. Well, the odds are NBC wasn’t going to step up to the plate on that one. The nominations will be unveiled next month. Details from the New York Times.
Inside the Los Angeles Times: Technicolor, the film processing company and world’s biggest producer of DVDs, is going to start making cartoons for TV. Patrick Goldstein on the June gloom at the box office. Our local sports franchises took a financial beating last year.

-- Joe Flint

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