Thursday morning headlines

High price of Hollywood: The average cost of producing and marketing a movie last year was $100.6 million, a 6 percent increase from 2006. The domestic box office reached $9.6 billion, up 5.4 percent, though admissions were flat, with moviegoers buying 1.4 billion theater tickets in 2007. These and many more factoids were included in the annual report by the Motion Picture Association of America. (Variety)

Pellicano jury in place: It didn't take long to impanel an eight-man, four-woman jury for the trial of L.A. detective Anthony Pellicano. There's still lots of confusion about which witnesses will be called. Prosecutors released a list of more than 120 names, which include actors Sylvester Stallone, Chris Rock and Farrah Fawcett. Pellicano, who is representing himself, hinted to jurors that he might offer some surprises about the real-life world of private eyes. (LAT)

Northrop holds it breath: Boeing is really ticked off at losing that big contract for fueling tankers to the team of Northrop and the European Aeronautics Defense and Space Co. - you know, ’dem ferners. And when Boeing gets mad, Congress tries to get even. So lawmakers on the House Appropriations Committee threatened to kill the multibillion-dollar contract if the Pentagon did not adequately explain why it gave the deal to... y'know, ’dem ferners. Thing is, the Air Force has laid out the rationale for its decision - and in each of the five main categories, the Northrop/EADS team bests Boeing. Of course, there are other factors here besides the better team. From the NYT:

Rep. John Murtha and other House Democrats also attacked Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential candidate, for his role in scuttling a previous deal to let Boeing supply the tankers. Mr. McCain has boasted of those efforts, saying he prevented wasteful spending, but the Democrats on Wednesday said it was his fault that military industry jobs were going overseas. “Having made sure that Iraq gets new schools, roads, bridges and dams that we deny America, now we are making sure that France gets the jobs that Americans used to have,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel, Democrat of Illinois. “We are sending the jobs overseas, all because John McCain demanded it.”

Liquidation fears: The publicly traded investment fund of private equity giant Carlyle Group missed four of seven margin calls, which basically means it was unable to come up with extra collateral to cover its market positions. Carlyle Capital, which invests in mortgage-backed securities, said it received one default notice from one of its banks and expects at least one more. We're talking about a relatively paltry $37 million, which has Wall Street in semi-panic mode. "You may see a further reaction in the market to this statement," Jeroen Van Den Broek, head of credit strategy at ING, told Reuters. "The whole illiquidity of the market and pricing problems in the high-rated mortgage backed securities segment is a problem and not just for this one case but it is fairly widespread."

KB CEO gets $24.4 million: And yes, that seems like a lot of money for the head of the L.A.-based homebuilder whose stock plummeted 60 percent in 2007. Nevertheless, Jeffrey Mezger's compensation package includes an annual base salary of $1 million, a cash bonus of $6 million, and $16 million in restricted stock and "phantom" shares granted in 2007. From Reuters:

Shareholders at the annual stockholders meeting on April 3 will be asked to vote on two shareholder-initiated proposals that address compensation. The first, proposed by the Massachusetts Laborers' Pension Fund, calls for the adoption of a "Pay for Superior Performance Principle," which would set compensation targets for annual and long-term incentive components. The other, proposed by Trowel Trades S&P 500 Index Fund, would require shareholders to approve future severance agreements that exceed 2.99 times the executive's base salary plus bonus.

Swiss bank moves to drop suit: Bank Julius Baer had accused the Web site Wikileaks of displaying stolen documents revealing confidential information about the accounts of the bank’s clients. The bank last month obtained an order from a federal judge in SF to turn off the domain name, but that prompted a barrage of filings by media and other organizations arguing that the order violated the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment. After a hearing on Friday, the judge withdrew that order. (NYT)

New inspectors at ports: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission will have folks at the Port of Long Beach, where they will work with U.S. Customs in examining imported electronics, toys, fireworks and other goods. The new inspection unit will be able to place a hold on any shipments deemed hazardous. (Daily Breeze)