The Morning Fix: Emmys! LeBron! Sun Valley! Conan! Disney loses ‘Millionaire’ case

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After the coffee. Before figuring out whom Ed O’Neil has to buy off to get some Emmy love.Emmy or bust! The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced the nominations for the 62nd Primetime Emmys this morning. Apparently, academy members like awkward moments because they nominated Conan O’Brien’s ‘Tonight Show.’ O’Brien, you may recall, lost his NBC show last winter and will have a new show on TBS this November. Oh, and the Emmys are airing on NBC in August. Should be fun. Otherwise, not a lot of surprises. Freshmen series ‘Glee,’ ‘Modern Family’ and ‘The Good Wife’ did well. FX’s ‘Sons of Anarchy’ got snubbed. HBO’s ‘The Pacific’ cleaned up, but not in the acting category, and ‘Treme’ was pretty much ignored by Emmy voters. More on who’s smiling and who’s frowning from the Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.

LeBron takes over ESPN. If LeBron James and whatever team he will be playing for next season can keep their mouths shut, ESPN will have a pretty big audience Thursday night when the basketball superstar announces his plans on the cable network. But ESPN’s deal with James has raised many eyebrows in the journalism community. To land James, the network is giving up not only all of its advertising inventory to the James camp to sell (and give the proceeds to charity), but ESPN also let James decide who would interview him. Analysis of ESPN’s pact with King James from the Los Angeles Times, New York Times and Advertising Age.

Is that your final verdict? A jury in Southern California sided with Celador Entertainment, creator of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ in its legal battle with Walt Disney Co. and its ABC network over profits from the hit game show. The jury ordered Disney to pay about $270 million. Disney is appealing the verdict. Details on the decision from the Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal. Don Johnson won a similar case against the producers of his old CBS drama ‘Nash Bridges.’ The Hollywood Reporter looks at the two verdicts and what it says about the studios.

Here we go again. Walt Disney Co. may be finally, really near a deal to sell Miramax. This time, it looks as if Ron Tutor, who has been in the Miramax hunt for a while, will cross the finish line with backing from private equity firm Colony Capital. The latest from the New York Times, Deadline Hollywood and Bloomberg.

Sun Valley shenanigans. Media moguls of the world have united for the 28th Allen & Co. gathering at Sun Valley in Idaho. The press is kept at bay, but that doesn’t stop obsessive tweeting about who is sitting together at a lunch or who passed whom on the way to the urinals. Some gossip on the conference from the Wrap.

Take a number. A new coalition has emerged to protest the proposed marriage between cable giant Comcast Corp. and NBC Universal. Members of the Coalition for Competition in Media include Bloomberg, the Writers Guild East and West and Free Press. Of course, all these groups are already protesting the deal, so this new entity probably allows them to save on postage and paper. More from Broadcasting & Cable.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: C.J Olivares, the general manager of the cable network Fuel, talks about how he keeps the channel humming. Adrien Brody makes the move to action.

-- Joe Flint

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