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Movie City News says that Focus Features was the first distributor to get free screeners into eager Hollywood hands this morning, using FedEx to deliver copies of Lost In Translation, 21 Grams and Sylvia. A federal judge slapped an injunction against the screener ban yesterday. Roger Simon predicts that Academy voters will reward Miramax for Harvey Weinstein's testimony in the case.
Meanwhile, actually going to an L.A. movie house just got better. The Los Angeles Business Journal says the Times is discontinuing those more-than-a-bit embarrassing "movie magic" ads that have run for years before the preview trailers. The current ad promoting a special effects house has run for so many months that even the featured company wants it to stop: "We don’t want people to start hissing at the screen." (updated 5:20 p.m.)