The Walt Disney Co. will no longer produce direct-to-video sequels of its animated features, according to Disney watcher Jim Hill. Hill, who has had a hit-and-miss record in reporting on inside decisions at the company, said that Sharon Morrill, president of DisneyToon Studios, has been forced to step down as part of the decision to shut down the group that produces the DVD sequels. Prior to Disney's acquisition of Pixar, Pixar executives Steve Jobs and John Lasseter had publicly complained about the quality of the sequels, maintaining that they undercut the value of the original features. Disney executives had responded that the sequels had proved to be enormously successful for the studio. According to Hill, Lasseter made the decision to halt further production of the DVD sequels and fire Morrill after viewing a "work-in-progress version" of The Tinkerbell Movie, which Hill described as "an awful mess." Hill said that Lasseter complained to Disney chief Robert Iger that the movie was "virtually unwatchable." As a direct result of that meeting, Hill wrote, "some $30 million worth of animation had to be scrapped."

Michael Moore's Sicko had been downloaded about 4,000 times from peer-to-peer websites PirateBay and Mininova as of Wednesday, according to figures posted on the sites. Clips from the film were also viewed over 1,000 times on YouTube and Google Video before they were yanked following protests by the Weinstein Company, which produced the health-care documentary. (Trailers and interviews with Moore remain.) Moore has said that the piracy appeared to be an "inside job," given the fact that a perfect digital print was posted on the file-sharing sites. CNET News writer Greg Sandoval commented Wednesday that he doubted that the online piracy will hurt the film at the box office. "First," he wrote, "the controversy ... generated plenty of headlines for Sicko. Nobody associated with the movie is going to be distressed about that. On the sites where the bootlegs appeared scores of comments were posted and that's the kind of word-of-mouth promotion marketers love."

The American Film Institute has again named the 1941 Orson Welles classic Citizen Kane the best film of all time. Many other films listed in the Institute's original "AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies" ten years ago have changed rankings or have been eliminated, the AFI disclosed during a CBS special that aired Wednesday. For example, Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull moved to No. 4 from No. 24. Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo jumped to No. 9 from No. 61. The second- and third-place films switched position, with The Godfather moving up one place and Casablanca moving down. Others in the top ten were also rearranged. For example, Singin' in the Rain jumped to No. 5 from No. 10; Gone With the Wind dropped to No. 6 from No. 4; Lawrence of Arabia fell to No. 7 from No. 5. Only four films that were released since the original was compiled in 1997 made the new list: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring at No. 50; Saving Private Ryan at No. 71; Titanic at No. 83; and The Sixth Sense at No. 89. The AFI special drew decent ratings, coming in a close second to Fox's hit So You Think You Can Dance in both the 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. hours.

A hacker claims to have been able to break into a computer at Bloomsbury Publishing in London, where he downloaded a copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. He in turn posted the copy on the website InSecure.org, saying "We make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring." The authenticity of the manuscript has not been confirmed. The book is scheduled to be published on July 21, ten days after the next Harry Potter movie, The Order of the Phoenix, is due to be released in theaters. Some Warner Bros. executives had reportedly questioned the timing, expressing private concern that the expected revelation in the final book that at least one of the primary characters will die could affect ticket sales.

Crucial Paradigm, an Australian-based Web host, pulled the plug Wednesday on gossip Perez Hilton's popular website Wednesday following the latest complaints that he featured copyrighted photographs. Daily Variety reported today (Thursday) that Hilton, whose real name is Mario Lavandeira, was able to get most of his site back on line in a few hours. However, François Navarre, who claims that Hilton has been using photos from his X17 agency, told Variety: "It's a precedent that's huge. When we were talking to Crucial Paradigm they were saying they were not responsible, dragging their feet. We had to threaten them and show them they were liable."

The Nicolas Cage comic-book mutation Ghost Rider, a surprise megahit at the box office last February when it opened with $52 million and went on to earn $116 million domestically, had an equally successful debut in the video stores last week. The movie topped both the DVD sales and rental charts, according to Home Media Magazine. The Eddie Murphy comedy Norbit, which headed both lists last week, dropped to fourth place.

CBS's soap operas, Guiding Light and As the World Turns, both of which debuted on radio 70 years ago and are celebrating the half-century mark on television this year, have moved on to the Internet. On Wednesday, full episodes of the two soaps, together with those for The Young and the Restless, a relative newcomer (having debuted in 1973), were made available on CBS.com and on the recent CBS Audience Network, which includes AOL, Microsoft, CNET Networks, Veoh, and others. In a break from the past, however, the online episodes are being sponsored by Gerber, the baby food company, not by a detergent manufacturer, although both Guiding Light and As the World Turns continue to be produced by Procter and Gamble, whose soap products include Dawn, Dreft, Era, Ivory Snow, and Tide.

Worries about the slow start of upfront (advance) sales for the fall season appeared to have been dispelled Wednesday as published reports indicated that the networks are posting significant increases over last year. In particular, Fox, thanks to demand for ads on American Idol and House, saw its upfront sales grow to $1.9 million, up more than 5 percent over a year ago. ABC, which has seen its evening news program rise above its rivals and has posted increasingly higher ratings for Good Morning America and its daytime programs, also saw a 5 percent boost in upfront revenue to $2.4 billion. (ABC, CBS, and NBC each airs an evening newscast and 22 hours of primetime programming a week; Fox does not air an evening newscast and offers only 15 hours of primetime programming.) CBS topped its rivals with $2.5 billion in upfront sales, while NBC, last year's last-place network, reported deals worth about $1.9 billion.

The New York Times has launched what the New York Observer has called "a major investigation" into Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. The Observer said that it had received an e-mail from Managing Editor Jill Abramson, in which she said that executive editor Bill Keller had asked her "to lead an investigative project for the next month. ... It involves a group of domestic and foreign reporters, but I obviously can't tell you what it is." Abramson said that she will be working on the project from her home, where she is recovering from injuries sustained in a traffic accident last month. The Observer said that among those working on the piece are media reporter Richard Siklos, investigative editor Matt Purdy, and reporters Jo Becker in New York, Jane Pelez in London and Joseph Kahn in Beijing.

The editor of the CBS News blog Public Eye has expressed relief over reports that Judge Larry Seidlin has signed a deal with the syndication arm of CBS to preside over a daytime court show. "The good news," Montopoli wrote, is that Seidlin "is not coming to The Early Show." Earlier this year, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that an Early Show producer had asked Seidlin to preside over a "semi-regular segment" in which he would discuss legal questions sent in by viewers, an invitation that was denounced by CBS News legal analyst Andrew Cohen, who called Seidlin's presentation of his verdict in the Anna Nicole Smith case "unseemly." (Seidlin wept while haltingly delivering it.) "The bad news," Montopoli continued, is that Seidlin "is still going to earn 'relative' status" as a member of the CBS family. He did not indicate whether the invitation to Seidlin to appear on The Early Show had been withdrawn. (Meredith Vieira appears on both the NBC Today show and the syndicated Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.) In an interview with Miami TV station WTVJ, Seidlin declined to confirm reports of the CBS offer, saying only, "I hope to be in a position where I can help people in a more global setting."