***Apparently resigned to the idea that Evan Almighty can never recoup its costs and is basically the biggest tax write-off ever, Universal has scrapped plans to release the picture in Japan. The studio declined to state a specific reason, but Variety speculates that Steve Carell’s lack of international star power might be part of the problem. Oh, and the fact that Americans didn’t want to see it either.

***Consumer home video spending is down almost five percent, and studios are blaming themselves for releasing so much crap during the first half of the year.

***Sony, which bought online video portal Grouper last year, has changed the site’s name to Crackle as part of an effort to re-brand the property as a vehicle for Sony-produced content, as well as a launching pad for new video stars. Contests in place at launch tempt user participation by offering pitch meetings with Sony execs as a grand prize–as if kids who are getting millions of page views on YouTube would give it all up for a conference call.