The Morning Fix: Studios talk backroom DVD deal; Clooney to Culver City; Pascal on `Moneyball’

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After the coffee. Before putting the rent check in the mail.

Getting together in the backroom. Viacom’s Paramount Pictures is in talks with both Sony and News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox to merge backroom operations of their home entertainment units -- primarily production and distribution of DVDs. Talks come at a time when DVD business is has tailed off dramatically for the studios. Coverage from The Financial Times and The Los Angeles Times.

But don’t chuck those DVDs yet. Netflix chief Reed Hastings thinks the DVD biz still has some life in it. He tells USA Today he still sees DVDs as a ‘growth product.’

Clooney leaves Burbank for Culver City. George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions is moving from Warner Bros. to Sony, according to The New York Times. The move ends the actor’s long association with the studio going back to he ‘ER’ days.

Here come’s the bride. Cablevision’s programming arm Rainbow is launching a channel devoted to weddings and all that goes into making them happen, says Broadcasting and Cable. The channel will be a spin-off of We, which already has several shows about walking the aisle.

Syfy or Sci-Fi? The rebranding of the Sci Fi Channel to Syfy still has a ways to go, says The Wrap.

Boys of summer on the couch. This has nothing to do with entertainment but makes for good reading. More athletes are being treated for anxiety with three baseball players on the disabled list for it this season alone. The Wall Street Journal.

In today’s Los Angeles Times: Patrick Goldstein talks to Sony’s Amy Pascal about pulling the plug on ‘Moneyball.’ Fired gossip columnist Roger Friedman’s suit against News Corp. makes for interesting reading. Global Gaming Factory is buying Pirate Bay.

-- Joe Flint