Wednesday morning headlines

Sleepy stocks: Kraft raised its full-year profit forecast - again - but otherwise it's pretty quiet. Guess everyone is watching the bankers tap dance in D.C. Dow is down a couple of points in early trading.

Bankers testify: Wall Street Pooh-Bahs Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase are among those defending themselves before a bipartisan commission formed by Congress (and led by former state treasurer Phil Angelides) to examine the causes of the financial crisis. From the NYT:

It was not long before Mr. Angelides had begun intense questioning of the bankers. He pushed Mr. Blankfein to identify two instances of "negligent and improper behavior." Mr. Blankfein stopped short of adopting Mr. Angelides' language, but he acknowledged there had been "too much leverage" in mergers and acquisitions transactions. "I think those were very typical behaviors in the context that we were in," Mr. Blankfein said.

Latest on Conan: Lots of fur flying back and forth on whether O'Brien was guaranteed an 11:35 start time (his contract apparently does not spell it out). Sounds like this is quickly heading towards a settlement and a Conan departure. (TMZ, Deadline.com)

Variety for sale: Owner Reed Business Information has been quietly shopping around the trade mag, according to The Wrap. Reed put Variety up for sale almost two years ago, but then took it off the block.

RBI's British/Dutch parent, Reed Elsevier, is under pressure to sell its magazines to get out from under a huge debt load. But when RBI announced in July that it would sell off its magazines piece-by-piece, it said it was planning to keep Variety, its crown jewel. Reed Elsevier has since changed CEOs.

Magazines in 2009: Not a pretty picture - total ad pages were down 25.6 percent (58,340 pages!) and revenues were down 18.1 percent. Biz mags took a real drubbing. The fourth quarter, however, is said to have perked up. (Folio)

Behind Oren Aviv's ouster: The departure of Disney's studio president clears the slate for Rich Ross, who took over from long-time head Dick Cook and has been cleaning house. From The Wrap:

This is especially dangerous this year, when Disney has a huge release slate, one that will require tremendous resources and skill to bring to market -- Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland," "Prince of Persia" and the big-budget "Tron: Legacy" at the end of the year. According to those who have worked with Ross so far, his Achilles heel, if he has one, may be that he projects the attitude of knowing how to "do everybody's job better than they do it," as one insider put it, using the marketing department as an example.

"Modern Warfare" passes $1b mark: Activision Blizzard is said to have sold close to 15 million units since its launch in early November. The rest of the industry, however, is in the tank. (LAT)

Downtown hotels almost ready: Owners of the 54-story Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott, the last piece of L.A. Live, will be putting on a $100,000 lightshow tonight to celebrate the completion of the high rise. (LAT)