Dave Broder, 1929-2011

How it's done:

Maralee Schwartz, who edited Mr. Broder at The Post for more than a decade, recalled in a telephone interview that in 2003, when the House of Representatives passed a measure to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare after a contentious debate that resulted in an all-night session, Mr. Broder, then 74, was virtually the only reporter who stayed to the bitter end.

“Then he wrote a tick-tock the next day,” Ms. Schwartz said, using newspaper lingo for the kind of story that describes, minute by minute, the progress of a significant event. “That was David. He believed you had to be there.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/10/us/politics/10broder.html?pagewanted=2&src=recg

Chuck Lorre

I am trying to figure out how Hollywood really works. Take this as speculative observation in which I am feeling out for the dynamic.

( Roseanne fired Chuck Lorre.... )

Here Alec Baldwin describes the suits and how they work and gives Sheen some good advice.

( How the suits screw actors.... )

The way actors screw suits is believing, as Sheen does, that it is he who brings the fans and the money, without whom the enterprise would die. When the actor can write scripts, as Roseanne could, this is true. One scene in her book is how Matt Williams bogarted her standup character and became the "creator" of Roseanne. One day he insisted Roseanne say a line she felt was a male POV line and she refused. All the suits came in and said you're in breach of contract, say this line or else. She called her husband, Pentland, and they decided they'd been poor before and they could do it again. She called their bluff. And went on for 9 seasons. Another time Williams went to her co-stars, when Roseanne was ill for an episode or two, and asked Metcalf/Goodman if they'd like to do the series without Roseanne. They told Roseanne about this and earned her undying loyalty and syndication rights and so forth. Roseanne got rid of Williams; I note he is still credited as the "creator" of Roseanne in the early eps I'm watching now.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/07/17/1995_07_17_044_TNY_CARDS_000369657

So actors with creative chops, like the standups, actually can screw the suits. Charlie Sheen has no high school diploma and no street wisdom as the pampered movie colony son who pretty much never really got a job on his own. Imagine Sheen saying, with Roseanne and her OG husband, Pentland, I've been poor and I can do it again. Never happen. The sharks will zero right in on that and do the Lutfi/Calamaro thing, whereby grinding up pills and putting them in Britney's cheeseburgers is the way to isolate her from her entire family and professional staff and gain complete control of her.

Lorre's rep in LA, lashing out against his mother, women, critics and lack of awards.
http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1567715,00.html

Brett Butler on Lorre/Sheen and dope.
http://www.tvguide.com/News/Brett-Butler-Addiction-1030325.aspx

Cybill Shepherd is a notorious ahole, without the talent of Roseanne, so there's little material on her dispute with Lorre, who was fired from Cybill after 5 eps.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/chuck-lorre-s-tv-battles-164986
http://becksmithhollywood.com/?p=3369

( Lorre sues Brett Butler producers for profits, alleging sexual harassment by Butler. )

Dharma and Greg cast and crew sue Lorre for gouging their profits.
In April, Judge Joseph Biderman ruled that the studio's Modified Adjusted Gross Receipts payments to Lorre's Meshuggenah Prods and Dartland's 4 to 6 Foot Prods should not have been deducted becuase they were advances against net profits, and the plaintiffs' agreements with Fox allowed deduction of any backend participations except net profits.

"Despite the parties' labeling the payments as MAGR payments, they were in fact Advance Net Profit payments in the form of MAGR," Biderman wrote.

The judge then set a hearing to determine the specific damages owed, with lawyers for the plaintiffs claiming more than $15 million in damages and interest.
http://reporter.blogs.com/thresq/2009/05/dharma-greg-lawsuit.html