Thursday morning headlines

Economy barely moving: First-quarter economic growth was a measly 0.6 percent, way down from the government's original estimate of 1.3 percent. That's the worst three-month showing in over four years, going back to when the economy was recovering from a recession. Still no hint that there's a new recession around the corner - and indeed many economists expect growth to pick up throughout the year. Stocks are up a touch in early trading. AP

Disney firm sell magazines: That's the Roy E. Disney investment firm - aka Shamrock Capital Partners - and the LAT reports that it's unloading L.A.-based Modern Luxury Media for $250 million. The buyer? Who else - private equity. Locally-based Clarity Partners will be purchasing a controlling interest in the company, which publishes San Francisco, Angeleno and Riviera magazines. In case you haven't noticed, these high-end magazines do very well because, well, the high end is doing very well. Plus, advertisers can target the rich folk (free magazines are sent to affluent ZIP Codes) instead of having to mess around with the hoi polloi.

Jobs vs. Gates: Talk about your yawners. Last night's much-anticipated face-off between the tech industry's two giants (er, that's Steve Jobs and Bill Gates) turned out to be more of a love-fest. At the least it was a respect-fest. With George Lucas, Martha Stewart and Steve Case in the audience (you sure this thing wasn't on pay per view?), the two titans did the mutual admiration thing for a while. Jobs: "He built the first software company before anybody in our industry knew what a software company was." Gates: "What Steve's done is quite phenomenal." About the only area for irritation were those Apple commercials that have the cool Mac user and the nerdy PC user squaring off. San Jose Mercury News

Lohan blacklisted?: Not officially and I would bet not permanently, but Hollywood's most talented bad girl (I know, it's a pretty small pool) is being put on the Do Not Call list by producers and studios. The last straw, of course, was last weekend's drunk driving arrest on Sunset Boulevard - punctuated by a paparazzi shot of the young actress passed out in a car and sprawled across the passenger seat. On Monday she checked into Promises, the Malibu rehab facility that seems to spend as much time promoting itself as it does treating rich, spoiled celebrities. (Lohan's estranged father says she suffers from multiple addictions, including alcohol and the painkiller OxyContin, according to E! Online.) Lohan was supposed to start a new movie this week with Shirley MacLaine, but that's now on hold. From the NYT's Sharon Waxman:

So sad, everyone said, such a waste: so pretty, so talented — so uninsurable. Like Britney Spears before her, and Marilyn Monroe too, the spectacle of a young woman’s self-destruction seemed to demand expressions of sympathy along with the requisite scorn. But hard reality was also quickly setting in. Across this close-knit town, decision makers were mentally wiping Ms. Lohan from their short lists. One studio chief who has worked with Ms. Lohan said that he would not hire her until she proved herself healthy and reliable. (Confident at least of this possibility, he would only comment anonymously.)

New U.S. Attorney?: The Daily Journal is reporting that Thomas O'Brien has been selected to be the top U.S. prosecutor in Los Angeles, replacing Debra Wong Yang, who resigned in November to join Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. O'Brien has been chief of the criminal division for the U.S. attorney's office here. LAO has a little more on the story (alas, DJ material is not available online).

Irwin Jacobs wants retraction: The financier says allegations about him cutting sweetheart deals with Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott are "totally off the wall." The allegations were made by Wal-Mart ad executive Julie Roehm, who was fired amid accusations that she had an affair with a subordinate, accepted gifts from suppliers and angled to get jobs at an ad agency that handled Wal-Mart's account. Jacobs sent a letter to Roehm and her attorneys giving them until the close of business today to agree to a retraction. He said he will sue is she doesn't. No word yet from Roehm's attorneys. As we reported last week, L.A.’s Mike Sitrick is crisis-managing Roehm. NY Post

News Corp.'s Internet buys: The MySpace parent is picking up Photobucket Inc., where users can view and store billions of digital photographs, videos and slideshows, and Flektor, which offers free tools for editing and displaying online videos. This is all about beefing up Fox Interactive's arsenal, which revolves around MySpace. The two purchases were for a combined $270 million, the lion's share going to Denver-based Photobucket (Flektor is in Culver City). From the LAT:

Gartner Inc. analyst Mike McGuire said the Flektor tools could help fuel political expression. A citizen commentator could take a video clip from a debate and add his or her own thoughts, then post the combination to MySpace or Google Inc.'s YouTube. McGuire said that News Corp. now appeared to be doing the best job of any old-media company in staying abreast, or even ahead, of what consumers want to do with videos and photos. "Consumers are now in absolute control of how they want to access media and program media," McGuire said. "Having these properties on top of MySpace, which we can almost view as a platform, is very smart."

Albrecht's replacement at HBO?: Variety says it could be replacement(s). One scenario would split the job in two, with separate executives for the business and programming sides - as was done this week at NBC (and going back to how HBO used to do it). The paper says that HBO is leaning towards candidates on the inside - among them executive VP Richard Plepler, COO Bill Nelson, sales and marketing head Eric Kessler, and general counsel Hal Akselrad. Meanwhile, we've lost sight of Albrecht, who was forced out after admitting to "unlawful grabbing" of his girlfriend in the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel parking lot. At last check, he said he would re-devote himself to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Supermarket update: What on earth is happening with those contract talks? There continues to be a media blackout, although the union is selectively grousing about this or that proposal by Vons, Ralphs and Albertsons. Much of the grousing involves health care: The United Food and Commercial Workers says the major chains want to cut their employer contributions to a health care fund to $80 a week from $152 - a move that the grocer's union say would bankrupt the fund. A spokeswoman for the chains denies the charge. Daily News