Monday morning headlines

Pretexting illegal: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that makes it unlawful to get at phone records through fraud or deceit - otherwise known as pretexting. The measure had been working its way through the legislature well before the Hewlett-Packard boardroom spy scandal erupted. Congress is considering similar legislation. HP performance: NY Post financial columnist Chris Byron didn't think much of last week's testimony by ousted H-P Chairwoman Patricia Dunn. "Just as any American leader is expected to do these days, Ms. Dunn tried to wriggle out of responsibility for the corporate-spying scandal that has engulfed her company, adopting what we have all come to know as the Great American 'I guess I'm just stupid' defense," he writes.

NBC helps GE: The network, part of NBC Universal, is only a small slice of General Electric Co., but Wall Street watches it a lot. So this fall's promising lineup, which includes "30 Rock," "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," "Heroes" and Sunday night football, could help GE's struggling stock price, according to the WSJ. Of course, this is the fickle world of TV - "Studio 60" ratings fell 12 percent in its second week, not a great sign. High-priced TV: A full season of a television drama now costs $62 million, on average, which is about as much as the average feature film. But as with movies, a big budget doesn't guarantee big success. "The business just doesn't sustain this kind of growth in production costs," Gary Newman, president of 20th Century Fox Television, tells the LAT.

Too close for comfort: Washington Mutual moved tellers out from behind counters to encourage friendlier customer service, but it's led to a lawsuit by a Lancaster real estate agent. Jaime Quiroz Sanchez claims he was mugged outside the Palmdale branch by a man who had seen his cash at one of WaMu's new teller kiosks. In a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court in August, Sanchez accused Washington Mutual of negligence and reckless misconduct.

Your mattress is freeee: Larry (You're killing me!) Miller, who stars in the ad campaign for Sit 'n Sleep, tells the Daily Breeze about how his Gardena-based business had been on the verge of bankruptcy before those silly but effective commercials. "Being able to be a little more successful takes the heat away a bit," said Miller. "I was more high-strung when I was in debt." He started advertising on KABC-AM, but Miller complained that the announcer reading the ad copy was "really low energy, not very interesting."

"And he said why don't you do it?" Miller recalled. "(The ad rep) talked me into reading the ad." Miller's first try at reading the ad went poorly because of a panic attack that took hold of him. "I tried and I tried and I tried and I kept on messing it up," Miller said. "I heard the engineer say, 'Get this guy out of here. He sucks.' " Miller kept at it and eventually hit his stride with the ads, "goofing" with the on-air material he wrote.

Blinks ads: Clear Channel is selling commercials lasting only two and five seconds. One-second ads - sometimes called "blinks" - are also being offered but there are no takers so far. It's part of a broader effort to revive radio ad sales, according to the WSJ, though one media-buyer called it "the dumbest thing I have ever heard."

Clear Channel is pricing the five-second spots, called "adlets," at 18% to 21% of a standard 60-second ad, which in a top-10 station in a major market can go for about $800, media buyers say. Two-second ads cost even less -- 10% of a 60-second ad, or roughly $80. So far, Clear Channel has sold adlets to about 12 national advertisers, along with a slew of local marketers. Among them is General Electric Co.'s NBC, which recently bought five-second spots to hype its new drama "Heroes," about humans with superpowers. "I think I can fly," says a man. A voice-over immediately chimes in, "Heroes on NBC.

Population boom: KPCC takes an extended look at how the area's population growth is impacting everybody's lives. The staion will air reports today and tomorrow during "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered," as well as features on "AirTalk" at 10 a.m. and "Patt Morrison" at 2 p.m.