Two days after the Universal Studios fire, there are a lot of rumors going around as to the extent of the damage. A FishbowlLA tipster from a revival house in Alabama fed the blog an email that they say came directly from Universal, warning that “nearly 100% of the archive prints kept” on the lot went up in flames, and as a result, the studio “will be unable to honor any film bookings of prints that were set to ship from here.” The tragic details after the jump.

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• Oh, the sad irony: the Universal Studios fire, which destroyed the New York Street section of the backlot, was “caused by sparks from a blowtorch used to repair” that set. The theme park tram tour continued as scheduled yesterday, with visitors able to see the damaged facades (which will be rebuilt) up close.
• Brad Pitt is “part of a team of consultants designing an 800-room, five-star hotel” in Dubai. “You can expect something that is not only stunning to look at but will also be an incredible attraction to visit or stay at,” Pitt promised in a statement. Or, somebody did––I can’t imagine that sentence coming out of Brad Pitt’s mouth.
• Deepak Chopra says Hindus shouldn’t be mad about Mike Myers’ The Love Guru. This is the first I’ve heard about Hindus being mad about The Love Guru. Did this happen while I was in Cannes, or is the noise level on Love Guru news really that low?

• We’d like to extend a hearty, totally sincere “welcome to the blogosphere, dude!” to Variety editor-in-chief/known blog skeptic Peter Bart, who has launched his own bloggy shingle. The first person to send in a Photoshop mockup of Bart wearing typing whilst pajamas and/or in bed and/or in a basement wins a free Spout t-shirt. Via Anne Thompson.
• Attendees of the Book Expo of America were greeted with a giant banner bearing a picture of Michael Moore and the phrase, “He’s Back!” According to FishbowlLA, Michael Moore didn’t actually show up.
• This headline on a story about the Universal Studios fire at The Playlist sent us to YouTube, looking for the Public Enemy video for “Burn, Hollywood, Burn,” which we’ve always like a lot. Instead, we found the above clip, described as “A music video for D.W. Griffith’s repellently racist 1915 film, The Birth of a Nation, set to Public Enemy’s “Burn, Hollywood, Burn!”

A fire hit the Universal Studios backlot on Sunday morning, destroying a video library as well as a number of notable sets and the King Kong “ride” from the tram tour. Contrary to internet hysteria, the Back to the Future clock tower (as in, “Save the Clock Tower! SAVE the Clock Tower!!!”) was damaged but remains standing, although the courthouse facade adjacent to it was destroyed, as was all of New York Street. There are tons of camcorder tourist videos of the King Kong thing on YouTube; the one embedded above is not only the best quality I could find, it also includes a shot at the end of the concrete lions that marked the entrance to the gated community in which the McFly family lived in Improved 1985. After the jump: the magic of the Clock Tower in action.
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