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More than 2,000 people (LAT; AP says "hundreds") viewed the body of executed murderer Tookie Williams Monday at a mortuary on South Vermont. Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan and Snoop Dog are expected at today's funeral. Also...
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♦ Steven Spielberg has approached the head of Israel's Mossad about screening Munich to head off more controversy, Variety's Gabriel Snyder and Marc Daugherty report. The Israeli consul general in Los Angeles recently blasted the film for being "superficial" about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
♦ The controversial suicide of a suspended member reduces to 85 the number of B-list journalists who call themselves the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and vote on the Golden Globes, today's New York Times reports. Viewership of this year's Globes show on NBC was down 40%. Will the L.A. Times website, which is heavily invested in promoting the Globes as a big Hollywood event, question the validity of the hype?
♦ Looks like twenty-two of L.A.'s 86 neighborhood councils have voted to join the citywide Congress of Neighborhood Councils. The LAT's Patrick McGreevy takes a look at what it could mean.
♦ Britney Spears sued Us Weekly for libel and misappropriating her name to sell magazines over a story saying that she and husband Kevin Federline made a sex tape and were worried about its release. She's seeking $20 million in damages in the L.A. Superior Court case.
After the jump: Mixed reviews for the Writers Guild, Steve Kmetko returns, a Times gaffe (maybe two), scouting Garciaparra and respect for the Clippers—plus one L.A. event for the day and more.
♦ Christmas bonus for Univision: Nielsen will start including its Spanish-language shows in the national TV ratings.
♦ Mixed reviews for the new more aggressive Writers Guild, Richard Verrier says in the Times.
♦ Steve Kmetko, dropped as co-host of E! News several iterations ago, will resurface in January as anchor of the QTN World News, BoifromTroy reports.
♦ Franklin Avenue noticed and blogged that the Times re-ran Saturday's color comics on the children's page Monday, and that the Times-owned Glendale News-Press ran a letter to the editor about Christian Science under a headline about Scientology.
♦ Speaking of Scientology, LosAnjealous blogs that a Microsoft ad placed alongside the recent Times story on the church and Tom Cruise featured Xenu-like giant lizards.
♦ CBS SportsLine asked five baseball scouts where they would play new Dodger Nomar Garciparra. They thought he might make it as an outfielder or 1B if the team can sacrifice defense, but none consider him an everyday player. Two had darker views: "He's not the guy for me anymore. There are too many questions...I wouldn't sign him," said one. The other: "I'm not sure he can play anymore."
♦ New respect for the Clippers, the top NBA team in town. So when will the Times' Lakers blog expand to include the other guys?
♦ Wilshire Boulevard: Grand Concourse of Los Angeles is the number one-selling non-fiction hardcover at the Barnes & Noble on (naturally) Wilshire in Santa Monica, the store says. Nice to hear.
♦ In L.A. today: At 6:30 pm on KCET's Life & Times, Toni Guinyard looks at some of the five hundred children who live on Skid Row, including the teenager who borrowed a camera and made a documentary called "We're Not Bad Kids."