• Does the fact that you're screening Tropic Thunder for a bunch of local tech reporters rather than the usual film critics suggest that you're not particularly confident in the film's critical reception?
• How will the lost $450 million financing deal for a slate of movies that would have included Tropic Thunder affect your Paramount movie studio?
• Why do you keep making poor Jeremy Zweig tell reporters that your lawyers didn't ask for YouTube users' personal information when you did, in fact, ask for their usernames and IP addresses — information most Internet users would consider personal? And what's he supposed to say now that you've agreed to mask them?
• Isn't Viacom's investment in social network Flux at best an irrelevancy and at worst a mess?
• Why is Viacom's MTV, after 13 years of trying, incapable of running an online music service anyone wants to use?

As Defamer points out:

Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes cited a 60%-70% profit margin during a VOD trial for Warner Bros. films on cable — more than twice the return on Time Warner DVD rentals.

The good news: You can wait and watch Made of Honor on your iPod in about three months! The bad news: It'll cost you $14.99 to download it. (Or $9.99 three months after that.) And for digital media that costs exactly nothing to reproduce, package or distribute, we think that amounts to little more than information highway robbery. And just in time for the studios to stonewall SAG on new-media revenues!

Or maybe they're not quite connected — yet. Conceding it would get paid for new media when studios got paid, the WGA settled its strike in February by negotiating for roughly 2% of studios' online grosses each year through 2011. But in an earnings call yesterday, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes cited a 60%-70% profit margin during a VOD trial for Warner Bros. films on cable — more than twice the return on Time Warner DVD rentals. It's anyone's guess how that shakes out in terms of purchases, but with DVD sales last quarter at $3.5 billion, and with a fairly clear break between online and traditional media consumers, even a tenth of that revenue online would be enough for SAG president/time-bomb Alan Rosenberg to reinforce the hard line as the first round of negotiations come to a close Friday.

Moreover, as an observant tipster pointed out to us this morning, the markup on these downloads is pretty obscene, maybe even illegal. After piracy concerns were allayed in the last year, pricing was the only remaining sticking point for Apple — which wanted to keep purchases at $10 — and studios, which compromised at $15. Albums on iTunes cost an average of 40% less than their CD counterparts; but with online retailers and box stores pressuring DVD prices below $20, why should they get away with a difference as little as 15% in some markets — especially with no extra features or deluxe packaging? The courts have even addressed this before, but it usually applies to manufacturers complaining about suppliers, not the other way around. Someone! Get the FTC on the line!

• Purchase New Movies on iTunes [Apple]

One analyst said "Fox and potentially other studios are coming around to the idea that there is nobody out there to challenge iTunes." The rumor mill pegged Sony, Paramount and Warner Bros. as having talks with Apple about movie rentals, but this is the first concrete evidence of a deal. With Apple getting into millions of homes as a result of increased Mac sales and millions of video-savvy iPods and iPhones sold this holiday, the service could get off the ground much faster than competing services from Amazon or Netflix, which have foundered. We mentioned the possibility of Apple setting up a movie rental service back in November.

More: Fox to allow DVD copying on Apple's iTunes

"I think TV/features and Web shorts are two different animals," Van Veen told me. "Creating a 44-minute episode of Lost and a 2-minute short like Hand Vagina definitely require different skill sets."

In fact, Van Veen says the writers strike is hurting College Humor. Or at least its brand. Viacom's Paramount studio bought the rights to a CollegeHumor film a couple years back and signed on Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg, writers from The Office. But, Van Veen said, "The project is on pause because of the strike."

The stunt, as explained by execs at MTV and Paramount, is to prove that digital distribution is a viable business model for long-form entertainment. If so, it only proves this much: Junk distribution channels attract junk content. Instead of going direct to DVD, producers are now saving their worst efforts for the Web. The only difference between Jackass 2.5 and Michael Eisner's Prom Queen is the length of time it takes to bore us.

Bay later explained that his rant was spurred by a dinner conversation with a few "Blu-ray owners" who were upset over the announcement. He "over reacted [sic]." He then sat down and watched 300 on HD-DVD and declared himself a convert. Good news. He's back on the Paramount bandwagon, spouting something about $200 HD players and that he "liked what he heard." Was it the sound of money? Cause he's reconsidering his rash decision about Transformers 2 as well.

Money was definitely a motivator for the Viacom-owned studio, Paramount's CTO has confessed. Though perhaps not in the way some think. Alan Bell praised HD-DVD's cheapness, which he attributes to the fact that the HD-DVD standard is more settled, making it less expensive to produce both discs and players. He also claimed Paramount liked various technical features in HD-DVD. Of course, the $150 million in marketing dollars Paramount received from a consortium of HD-DVD supporters doesn't look that cheap.

Paramount studio exec Rob Moore's argument that HD-DVDs are cheaper and therefore more appealing to consumers is moot. Consumers willing to drop $400 on a standalone Blu-ray player aren't going to be swayed by a few dollars. What is going to influence them is the number of movies offered in each format. The dueling HD disc types are already both hindered by a "why upgrade?" mentality. Consumers, by and large, are waiting to see which format will die before committing. Prolonging the battle may temporarily line Paramount's pockets, but ultimately, the stalemate just gives digital distribution of movies more time to catch up.