There will be no tie in the Supreme Court battle of Aereo vs. the broadcasters.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito, who previously had recused himself from participating in the case, will take part in it after all, according to SCOTUS Blog, which tracks the Supreme Court. Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for next week.

Alito had given no reason for recusing himself from the case, but one possible reason is that a justice or his family has stock in some of the companies involved in the dispute.

Launched in 2012, Aereo is a start-up company that transmits the signals of local TV...

So much for team loyalty.

Ratings for the Los Angeles Lakers on SportsNet have taken a dramatic tumble this season, along with the team's win-loss record.

According to Nielsen, Lakers games have averaged a 2.15 household rating on Time Warner Cable's SportsNet this season. That translates to 122,000 households and is a 54% drop from the previous season and is believed to be a new low for the franchise. The team's season ends tonight in San Antonio against the Spurs.

PHOTOS: Behind the scenes of movies and TV

The previous low for Lakers games was a 2.71 rating for the 2004-05 season, when the...

If you're on your way to or from the sun-baked Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival this weekend and get the urge to become a hotel owner, you may be in luck -- as long as you have at least $10,000 to spend. 

Hard Rock Hotel Palm Springs is seeking at least $1.5 million in online crowdfunding from individuals to bring new acts to the hotel, make improvements to its Rock Spa and maybe add a nightclub.

Perks for investors will include free use of the hotel-owner poolside cabana, 25% discounts on room rates and free room upgrades.

FACES TO WATCH 2014: Digital media

Naturally, this isn't quite...

Left-leaning political talk show host Cenk Uygur has raised $4 million to expand his digital video company the Young Turks Network, and the money comes from a seemingly unlikely source: Republican Buddy Roemer, the former governor of Louisiana.

Roemer's private equity fund, Roemer, Robinson, Melville & Co., is providing $4 million in seed financing with an option to go up to $8 million, which the network plans to use to expand its reach through Internet streaming, local television and international syndication deals.

Uygur lost his cable talk show "The Young Turks" last year when Current TV...

The union representing Hollywood crew members has expressed dismay over plans by the producers of "Midnight Rider" to resume production of the film in Los Angeles, a few months after a train accident in Georgia killed a camera assistant.

Michael Miller, international vice president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, told colleagues in an email this week that Unclaimed Freight Productions, the Pasadena-based producer of "Midnight Rider," informed the union that it would resume production of the movie in L.A. in June.

"We have expressed our obvious concerns regarding...

Former White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers has been named head of Warner Bros. corporate communications, replacing longtime studio executive Sue Fleishman. 

Myers, who served as White House press secretary during President Clinton's first term, will begin work at Burbank-based Warner Bros. on Sept. 2. 

Fleishman, who had worked at Warner Bros. for nine years, stepped down from her post this week. She oversaw communications for Warner Bros. during a two-year corporate succession race that ended in January 2013 with the announcement that Kevin Tsujihara would succeed Barry Meyer as chief...

ABC's "Celebrity Wife Swap" probably wishes it could trade in the ratings for its third season premiere.

According to early numbers from Nielsen, the Tuesday 10 p.m. reality show earned a rating of 1.0 among key 18- to- 49-year-olds and 3.1 million viewers overall for the episode that featured a spouse-switch between Daniel Baldwin and Jermaine Jackson.

In the advertiser-coveted demographic, it was down by more than half from last year's season opener (which aired at 8 p.m.) for the lowest "Wife Swap" or "Celebrity Wife Swap" premiere rating ever.  

The better news for ABC came from "Marvel's...

After the coffee. Before losing the jet lag.

The Skinny: I've watched the first four episodes of FX's "Fargo" and can recommend it. Now I want to see the movie again. Seems like Tuesday was light on hard news but we scraped together a Fix for you nonetheless. Today's stories include the latest on L.A. film production and NBC's efforts to build a digital programming space. Also, Oliver North gets to put his experience to work for FX's Cold War drama "The Americans."

Daily Dose:The Washington Post said Comcast's acquisition of Time Warner Cable should be approved by regulators. "The...

MBS Media Campus, formerly known as Manhattan Beach Studios, evacuated its staff Tuesday morning after receiving a bomb threat, a spokesman for the studio said.

Mike Newport, a spokesman for MBS Media Campus, said the Manhattan Beach studio evacuated its staff as a precaution after receiving a bomb threat.

Law enforcement officials set up a perimeter around the 1600 block of Rosecrans Avenue as they investigated the incident, according to CBS LA.

ON LOCATION: Where the cameras roll

Manhattan Beach Studios, formerly the headquarters of Marvel Studios, has been the site of numerous big Hollywood...

Pop held the top radio ratings spot as March brought little change from the previous month. 

Clear Channel stations KIIS-FM (102.7), KOST-FM (103.5) and KBIG-FM (104.3) were again Nos. 1, 2 and 3 in the Los Angeles market, according to numbers released this week by Nielsen Audio.  

KIIS, known for pop hits from the likes of Lorde, John Legend and Pharrell Williams, accounted for 5.1% of radio listening in Los Angeles for the period that ended March 26. The channel drew 3.9 million listeners for at least five minutes each week. 

Soft-rocker KOST was just barely behind, accounting for 5% of...

Despite the migration of film production from Southern California, the Los Angeles region saw double-digit percentage gains in feature-film production in the first three months of this year.

Feature films generated 1,588 production days in the first quarter, a 24% increase over the same period last year, according to figures released Tuesday by FilmL.A. Inc., the nonprofit group that handles film permits for the city and county.

The category outperformed its five-year quarterly average by nearly 40%, although the figures were still well below peak levels in the late 1990s.  Additionally, the...

ABC's "Dancing With the Stars" grooved its way to the top as the most watched TV program on Monday, making ABC the most watched network of the night.

With 14.2 million viewers, the reality show, which increased its viewership 5% from last week, was No. 1 for the fifth week in a row, according to early numbers from Nielson.

NBC's "The Voice," which was second in overall viewership, nabbed the No. 1 spot among the key 18-to-49-year-old viewers with a rating of 3.3. In 18-49, a ratings point equals roughly 1.3 million viewers.

The "Dancing With the Stars" episode, which celebrated the music of...

National Geographic Channels, a joint venture between 21st Century Fox and the National Geographic Society, is being overhauled.

Out are Chief Executive David Lyle and President Howard Owens. In their place, veteran Fox executive David Hill has been named chairman and Courteney Monroe, chief marketing officer for National Geographic's U.S. network, has been promoted to chief executive.

For Hill, this is his second stint as chairman of National Geographic Channels. He oversaw the partnership several years ago before turning the day-to-day job over to Lyle while keeping a seat on the board of...

After the coffee. Before hopping a plane back to L.A. 

The Skinny: I'm on the East Coast right now so the blood moon happened past my bedtime. The pictures looked cool though. I survived my Seder. Now I just need to burn off the meal and hope the rain doesn't mess with my flight. Today's headlines include a look at Turner Broadcasting as it begins an executive overhaul. Also, looks like David Fincher won't direct a Steve Jobs biopic for Sony Pictures. Finally, will CBS'  carrying prime-time football keep commercial rates for ESPN and NBC's football coverage from rising?

Daily Dose:Former...

SHREVEPORT, La.— A woodsy stretch of Willow Lake Farm, just outside this city, has been painstakingly built to look like a 17^th century New England village, filled with shops and houses with steep-pitched roofs and drab clapboard exteriors.

Milling about nearby are women in elaborate capes and cinched dresses, and men clad in peasant shirts and heavy coats.

It's all textbook quaint — until you see the towering gallows at the center of town.

This is the setting for "Salem," the new TV series from Tribune Co.'s WGN America set in the Massachusetts village that was the scene of...

As the ties between Hollywood and China continue to deepen, organizers plan to bring a first-of-its-kind entertainment industry convention to Los Angeles this fall.

The U.S. China Film

China Film Co. Ltd., the largest film distributor in China, has invested in two forthcoming movies from Legendary Entertainment, the Burbank-based film finance and production company.

Legendary East, an affiliated company of Legendary Entertainment, said on Monday afternoon that China Film Co. made "an over eight figure equity investment" in the films "Seventh Son" and "Warcraft."

If the pictures are approved for release in China, China Film Co. will distribute them there.

FULL COVERAGE: Reel China

Universal Pictures, with whom Legendary Entertainment has a distribution and marketing pact,...

Maker Studios said on Monday that its deal to be acquired by the Walt Disney Co. has already been approved, throwing cold water on a last-minute offer from Relativity Media worth up to $1.1 billion. 

"As per the announcement made on March 24, Maker Studios has entered into a merger agreement with The Walt Disney Company," a Maker spokesperson said in an emailed statement. "The agreement has been approved by Maker Studios’ Board of Directors and the majority of its shareholders and is expected to close in the next few weeks, subject to regulatory approval." 

Relativity, a Beverly Hills-...

Turner Broadcasting is getting a makeover.

For years, the parent company of cable channels TBS, CNN, TNT, Cartoon Network, HLN and TruTV was one of the more stable and low-key units of Time Warner Inc. Based in Atlanta, Turner seldom gets as much attention as Time Warner's Warner Bros. and HBO, despite being a cash cow that last year had operating profit of $3.5 billion and revenue of almost $10 billion.

But the new leaders at Turner -- Chief Executive John Martin and President David Levy are shaking things up. There have been several high-profile departures this year -- some voluntary and...

Following a predictable script, female film writers continue to lag behind their male counterparts when it comes to earnings and employment, according to a new survey.

In the film sector, women writers fell further behind their white male counterparts in 2012, accounting for just 15% of sector employment, down from 17% in 2009. Overall, women remained underrepresented by a factor of more than 3 to 1 among screenwriters, concludes the 2014 Hollywood Writers Report from the Writers Guild of America, West.

The report also found a widening gender gap between the earnings of female and male film...