A mere two decades after John Grisham’s The Firm became an international bestseller and a hit movie starring Tom Cruise, NBC is negotiating a deal to bring the story to serialized television.

A TV version of the book has been making the rounds for years and was once set up at CBS. The original story follows an ambitious young attorney who’s unwittingly hired by a crime organization’s legal outfit.

Grishman is on board as a non-writing executive producer, with former Law & Order producer Lukas Reiter as showrunner… If it closes, the straight-to-series order will be for 22 episodes. [Inside TV]

I’d like to pooh-pooh this and call it a waste of everyone’s time, but the story line from the book is actually pretty cool. At one point the evil bosses pay a top-shelf hooker to seduce the married protagonist, and then they take pictures of them having sex to blackmail him. And while that’s a total bummer about his marriage, it’s also a pretty AWESOME thing for your bosses to do. “Whoa, you got me a hooker? And I don’t have to pay? AND there are pictures?!?!? Wow, look at these. Are these airbrushed or something? My ass really looks GREAT! Mind if I keep a few copies?”

(Photoshop by Vince)

Oh man, I love this commercial. It’s a spot for Judith Marsh, a Bay Area lawyer specializing in traffic cases. Because she’s a woman, this commercial targets women, who are of course constantly getting into car accidents when they use the rearview mirror to check their lipstick or are otherwise distracted by shiny things.

“But wait,” you ask, “can Judith possibly be as tough as one a them hifalutin MAN lawyers?” Well sister, Judith can give birth, can’t she? That’s the kind of toughness *I* need from a lawyer: VAGINAL TOUGHNESS! High-five! You go, girl! Traveling pants!

[BuzzFeed]

DANGER ZONE! DG here. Matt’s ducking out early, so I’m driving the ol’ WG bus into the weekend. Don’t worry, I’m a great driver. (*takes sip of peppermint Schnapps, squirts chocolate syrup into mouth, shakes head violently, pounds accelerator into floor, throws empty bottle out window*)

As a law student, I’ve long told people that my legal inspiration is Lionel Hutz of “The Simpsons.”  I could quote him for days… and have… in class.  I’ve learned so many important things about the law from him: how to negotiate, how to handle a difficult jury, how to properly execute a will, and the legal ethics of attorney-dumpster confidentiality.  Well, no more.  He’s been surpassed by Steve Miller.

This commercial pleases me on two important levels.  First of all, it’s hilarious.  He had me at, “If you and your spouse hate each other like poison.”  Everything else (“the illiterate boob at the courthouse,” “getting rid of that vermin you call a spouse,” etc.) is gravy.  I mean, let’s be honest – I wouldn’t let this guy represent me if his services were free and his dad was the judge.  But it is funny.

Second of all, lawyer commercials like this give me hope.  You see, I have to take the bar exam next summer. So when I see that borderline retarded people like Steve Miller (or this guy, or this guy) have become practicing attorneys, it makes me realize it can’t possibly be that hard.  All you have to do is take it seriously, do the work, and not spend all day screwing around on the Internet, looking for clips of Lionel Hutz or stupid lawyer commercials, or sexy pics of Emmanuelle Chriqui for the next po – ummm, uh oh.

Final note: you know that website he talks about in the commercial?  The one he called “a work of art”?  Um, yeah.  The URL of it is www.DivorceDeli.com.  MORE LIKE WORK OF FART, AMIRITE QUESTIONMARKEXCLAMATIONPOINT

via Urlesque

    What me, emote?

Jim Belushi tragically survived a plane crash recently to get involved in one of the least believable pitches I’ve ever heard:

Jim Belushi has teamed with Diane English and Barry Levinson for a prospective TV drama that would cast Belushi as a defense attorney character based on the lawyer and TV commentator Mickey Sherman.
ICM is in the process of packaging the series and hasn’t brought it yet to studios and networks, but it would mark a switch for Belushi to drama after his long run in the ABC sitcom “According to Jim.” [...]
Sherman penned the memoir “How Can You Defend Those People?,” and the idea is for Belushi to play a likable lawyer who defends the guilty and the innocent with equal vigor. [Variety]

I just need to see hidden video footage of the pitch meeting for this.  “Settle in, gents.  I have a humdinger for you.  Picture . . . Jim Belushi . . . as a likable defense attorney. Ta da!”  And then the pitch maker was hired to the board of directors at Fox, which is what we do with these people.

A man claims that he wrote a 121-page script for ABC called “Lost” that was rejected three times before the network developed a show with the same title and premise without giving him any credit or payment.  As you can imagine, he’s suing.

Anthony Spinner — a producer on “Baretta” and “Babes in Toyland” — says back in 1977 he was paid $30,000 to write a TV pilot, which eventually became a 121-page script called “Lost.”  Spinner is now suing ABC and Touchstone Television, claiming the network passed on the show in ’77, ’91 and ’94 … then suddenly created an exact replica with Touchstone in 2004.

Spinner lists a ton of similarities in his suit — which was filed on July 10 — notably an “airplane headed to Los Angeles [that] crashes into a tropical jungle-like environment.” [...] Spinner tried to sue a few years ago, but it was dismissed for procedural reasons. [TMZ]

You can check out the .pdf here.  While some of the supposed rip-offs are questionable (“Killing off of a lead” — no one’s ever done that before!), it’s pretty hard to argue that a script called “Lost” about plane crash survivors on a tropical island that the network had in its possession didn’t influence a show called “Lost” about plane crash survivors on a tropical island.  If Spinner can’t at least win a settlement, then ABC’s lawyers are straight gangsta.  Or possibly the smoke monster.