Tuesday morning headlines

KB takes big hit: The L.A.-based homebuilder reported a $772.7 million fourth-quarter loss, compared with a $50 million loss a year earlier - and way worse than what analysts had expected. KB Home also took a $514.2 million charge on the loss of deferred tax assets. The new year might not be so terrific either - the company's backlog of orders for new homes fell 40 percent during the quarter. CEO Jeffrey Mezger said last fall that he expects things to stay rough in the housing market "for quite some time." (AP)

Measuring impact of Globes cancellation: Once again, Hollywood is seeking to dramatize its relatively small strike-related losses – this time what it will cost by not having the Golden Globes ceremony. The biggest loser will be NBC, which will still generate some ad revenue by having its ridiculous “press conference” announcing the winners, but far short of what's usually taken in. Also, a number of movie companies are cancelling their after-show parties (another blow to civilization as we know it). And the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will lose the license fee NBC usually pays, which with any luck might end up killing off that whole sorry group. (Variety)

Directors not budging: Their pre-bargaining confabs with the networks and studios have not yielded enough progress to warrant formal negotiations (the two sides are apparently far apart on some key issues). As usual, the story is coming out in bits and pieces, so it's hard to know whether the talks are going badly or just slowly. The Directors Guild had been expected to cut a quick deal with the media companies. (Variety)

Paramount dumping HD DVD: There's apparently a clause in the studio's contract with Toshiba that would allow it to switch sides in the event of Warner choosing Sony’s Blu-ray technology, which is what happened. Paramount and DreamWorks Animation came out in support of HD DVD last summer (Universal is the only other studio siding with HD DVD). Sony CEO Howard Stringer, sounding a lot like Barack Obama, says the company would be "open to dialogue" with the HD DVD camp to "grow the market." (FT)

Countrywide "recreated" letters: The documents claimed that a Pennsylvania borrower owed the company $4,700 because of discrepancies in escrow deductions. “These letters are a smoking gun that something is not right in Denmark,” said federal bankruptcy judge Thomas Agresti. The phony documents might raise more questions about the way that Countrywide conducts business. But a company spokesman said that the company does not fabricate documents and that the ones at issue were generated "as an efficient way to convey the dates the escrow analyses were done and the calculations of the payments as a result of the analyses." (NYT)

Judge sanctions Qualcomm lawyers: This involves the alleged mishandling of evidence in the big patent case against OC-based Broadcom Corp. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Major referred the conduct of the six lawyers to the California State Bar Association for an investigation into possible ethical violations. Also, five in-house Qualcomm attorneys were ordered to take part in a "comprehensive" review of the company's procedures associated with producing evidence. Qualcomm had failed to produce thousands of pages of documents that had been requested by the chip maker Broadcom. (WSJ)

Pension's time bomb: We're talking about liabilities of $118 billion or more that California state and local governments are facing over the next 30 years. A commission report concludes that those growing liabilities require governments to begin building up a permanent fund - an unlikely prospect given that the state already faces a $14 billion budget deficit, not to mention a possible recession. "I think the worst case is that our children and grandchildren will be saddled with this bill," said commission Chairman Gerald Parsky. (Daily News)

Susan Lyne not leaving: The CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia told employees in a memo that she's staying on, denying a Jan. 2 NY Post report that she was looking around. Er, today is Jan. 8. What took her so long to deny the story? (Reuters)

Lacter on radio: This morning's business chat with KPCC's Steve Julian covers the latest housing numbers, how the writers strike is turning into a free-for-all, and the sale of a locally based online dating service that includes JDate.