Lombard Street In San Francisco

Fox Business Network had some business advice for Tobin Smith today: Find work elsewhere. The investment manager and author who has been a familiar face on Fox News confirmed his sacking to the Wall Street Journal, which reported earlier in the day that Smith was in hot water over “sponsored investment research.” His NBT Equities Research collects checks to tout the stocks of small companies via such paid research, which the businesses count on to boost their share price and volume. And last week, Smith – a regular panelist on Fox News’ Bulls & Bears – sent out an email and ad flier via his new Next Big Thing newsletter touting Petrosonic Energy. The campaign came with a disclaimer saying it was paid advertising, for which NBT banked $50,000, and he did not mention Petrosonic on the air at Fox News. But some investors who bought into the company based on Smith’s recommendation contacted WSJ‘s Market Watch blog, apparently not having read the disclaimer. Market Watch alerted its News Corp sibling Fox News and was told that was the first it had heard of the matter. The network has a rule that “no Contributor to FBN, nor his/her firm, and/or family members are allowed to accept financial consideration of any kind whatsoever to issue research, advertisements, or to otherwise promote individual stocks or securities.” The blog quoted a network spokesman ... Read More »

EXCLUSIVE: Jonah Hill has taken on management. He has signed with LBI Entertainment, where he will be repped by a team headed by Ian Montone and Rick Yorn. They will rep him in all areas, along with WME and attorney Karl Austen. Hill continues to surprise as he evolves from the fro-headed kid in Superbad to a lead in ribald stoner comedies like This Is The End, to serious roles like his Oscar nominated turn in Moneyball, and the upcoming Martin Scorsese-directed The Wolf Of Wall Street. In the Rupert Gould-directed Plan B-produced True Story, Hill next plays disgraced New York Times reporter Michael Finkel, who was sacked just as a suspected killer on the FBI’s Most Wanted List who was using his name got caught, and would only talk to the journo at a time his life was crashing down around him. James Franco plays the killer. Hill also has a 21 Jump Street sequel after getting story credit on the original hit he starred in with Channing Tatum. And let’s not forget his other pivotal recent screen credit, Bag Head #2, in Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained.