Culturite

Shrinking revenue is the reason that big U.S. newspapers are joining forces to ensure global coverage, per The Wall Street Journal. For example, Tribune–which owns the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune–is in talks with the Washington Post Co. to use its foreign and national coverage. Similarly, the New York Daily News has reached an agreement with start-up GlobalPost to use its network of part-time foreign correspondents. Such agreements would revamp foreign news ops at three of the nation’s 10 largest newspapers.

The former BART police officer accused of shooting and killing a Hayward man will soon return to California.

27-year-old Johannes Mehserle is expected to arrive back in the state by Friday. Wednesday morning, he waived extradition during a hearing in Nevada.

Investigators say he was taken into custody there Tuesday on homicide charges.

The arrest came 12 days after witnesses say he shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant on a BART train platform in Oakland.

Hundreds of people gathered at City Hall on Wednesday and marched to the Alameda County Courthouse, shouting, “We will march, we will chant, until there’s justice for Oscar Grant!” and “I am Oscar Grant!” Organizers also called for the resignation of county Dist. Atty. Tom Orloff, doubting his ability to successfully prosecute accused police officers. Police in riot gear were out in force.

Addressing the group on Oak Street between the courthouse and the county administration building, Grant’s grandfather rejoiced that “they got the man who killed my grandson.” Oscar Grant Sr. also beseeched the crowd to “keep peace.”

But despite his plea, the demonstration ended violently after a small group splintered off and damaged local businesses and several cars parked along the streets.

In videos that have been broadcast on television and viewed hundreds of thousands of times on the Internet, a uniformed officer later identified as Mehserle stands over a prostrate Grant, pulls his gun and fires point-blank into Grant’s back.

Although six of the officers involved in the incident gave statements shortly afterward, Mehserle contacted an attorney and refused to comment. Nearly a week after the shooting, he resigned from the BART police force and holed up at a family property near Lake Tahoe.

Continuing the trend of mainstream media integrating user-generated content into its programming, CBS has launched EyeMobile for iPhone, allowing its users to submit photos and videos to the company’s citizen journalism site: CBSEyeMobile.com. While several cable networks have launched similar efforts – CNN with iReport and FoxNews with uReport – CBS is the first of the “big three” broadcast networks to get into the game.

In addition to being able to upload content to EyeMobile, the app includes options for viewing content uploaded by others and leaving comments. As for the EyeMobile website, it is very YouTube-esque, allowing you to browse photos and videos by most recent, most viewed, and most commented. The site also allows you to copy and paste code to embed photos and videos elsewhere.

The CW is expanding the universe of the low-rated but much-buzzed-about drama “Gossip Girl.” An episode in May will take the form of a prequel, laying the groundwork for a spin-off that could debut as soon as the fall, the network confirmed.

The episode will chronicle the exploits of Lily Rhodes, whom the CW calls a “wildchild teenager in Los Angeles in the 1980s.” She grows up to be Lillian van der Woodsen, the mother of Serena, in the present-day “Gossip Girl” series, which chronicles the lives of ridiculously wealthy teenagers in Manhattan.

Amid ongoing speculation about a “Gossip Girl” spin-off, “we were adamant that it had to be the right time and the right idea,” the executive producers, Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage, said in a statement. By setting the prequel in California and introducing new actors, the producers said they would avoid diminishing the current series, which is in its second season.

The first portrait of President Obama has officially been released. It’s the first portrait of a President taken by a digital camera. The EXIF data says that the picture was taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II, probably one owned by the White House’s newly appointed photographer Pete Souza. The shot was taken on January 13th, 2009 at 5:38 pm with no flash, using a 105mm lens stopped to f/10 at a 1/125 exposure, with an ISO of 100.

The performer inductees are:
Jeff Beck
Little Anthony & the Imperials
Metallica
Run-D.M.C.
Bobby Womack

Early Influence Category Inductee:
Wanda Jackson

Sidemen Category Inductees:
Bill Black
DJ Fontana
Spooner Oldham

The 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performer inductees were chosen by the 600 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. Artists are eligible for inclusion in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twenty-five years after their first recording is released.

[Steve] Carell, who plays bumbling boss Michael Scott on the NBC sitcom ["The Office"], recently bought the Marshfield Hills General Store. The 45-year-old actor is a part-time resident of the town on Massachusetts’ south shore.

Johnny Depp and his girlfriend Vanessa Paradis are reportedly drawing plans to take their wedding vows in April.

It was recently suggested that the Pirates of the Caribbean actor was set to pop the question last month, after he was spotted shopping for an engagement ring in California.

And now, the couple, who have been seeing each other for 10 years and have two kids together, are reportedly set to say tie the knot in a chapel on their 1.25-million-dollar French property.

The alleged ceremony is expected to be attended by only 50 of the pair’s close friends and family, reports the China Daily.

LL Cool J, Akon, Mos Def, Young Jeezy and T.I.  are among the acts who will celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama in Washington D.C.  next week.

Russell Simmons, MC Lyte and Dave Chappelle will also attend the event entitled ‘Hip Hop Inaugural Ball’ which will take place at the Harman Center for the Arts in the capital on January 19.

The event is being presented by Simmons, Valeisha Butterfield, Dr. Benjamin Chavis and the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, which is the world’s largest coalition of hip-hop artists and entertainment industry executives.

Emily Blunt is rumored to play Black Widow, aka Natasha Romanoff, in Iron Man 2. In the comics, and correct me if I’m wrong, Black Widow is more or less a former Soviet spy who wears a tight-ass black suit and uses high-tech weaponry both against and on behalf of S.H.E.I.L.D. (after a whole bunch of inter-Avenger drama).

Jackson told me today that despite his cameo as the hard-bitten military man at the end of “Iron Man,” it now appears that “somebody else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won’t be in it” when it comes to “Iron Man 2,” “The First Avenger: Captain America” and “The Avengers,” the announced slate of Marvel Studios projects through 2011 that might have a natural spot for the character.