Hollywood is tapping a new source for movie ideas — blogs!  I have heard of other projects based on websites, but this latest one, being developed for Oscar-winning actress Reese Witherspoon, sounds like a real winner. Over on the deadline.com/New York site, Mike Fleming is reporting that Columbia Pictures has made a deal with blogger/author Ree Drummond for a romantic comedy, ”The Pioneer Woman.”

Drummond is known as ”The Pioneer Woman” who writes a popular blog with the same title,   http://thepioneerwoman.com/  The website description says she’s “plowing through life in the country  …one calf nut at a time.” Drummond is a self-confessed city girl who fell in love with a cowboy and is now making a lot of hay, ah, money writing and blogging about her life on a cattle ranch in Oklahoma. 

 Last year Drummond’s cookbook, “The Pioneer Woman Cooks, recipes from an accidential country girl,” came out and became a New York Times bestseller.

Next Valentine’s Day, William Morrow will release, “Black Heels to Tractor Wheels,” Drummond’s story of love and adventure in the country. On her website, Drummond describes the book as “… the complete saga (to date) of the rip-roaring true story of how I met my husband, Marlboro Man, and how I went from spoiled city girl to domestic ranch wife in the blink of an eye.”

Spec script season in full swing

Some interesting spec scripts making the rounds of the production companies and studios lately. Literary manager Kathy Muraviov is shopping, “The One” by Stan Evans, according to the Spec Chaser site. This is a romance about a woman who gets the ultimate choice: one week with her “soul mate” or a lifetime with a man she cares about, but who is not “the one.”  

Also, spec scripts are being snatched up and bought. On the Spec Chaser, the spec screenplay “Ruthless,” by Cooper Layne, is marked sold!

“Ruthless” is a crime thriller about an ex-con who shows up suddenly in a small Louisiana town and begins to cause havoc by exposing the secrets of the town folks. The script sold to Double Nickel Productions.

File Photo from March 2008: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Burbank City Council Member/Mayor Marsha Ramos 

Former Burbank Mayor Marsha Ramos is speaking out again about those allegations of misconduct against the Burbank Police Department. Ramos is interviewed in Today’s Burbank Leader about a deposition she gave last month to attorneys representing five Burbank Police officers, who filed a lawsuit against the department in May of 2009, alleging discrimination, racism, harassment, and other civil rights violations.  

The first time Ramos shared her concerns in the media about this lawsuit and the city “system” that produced it was last year on this blog: “I’m saddened, because I think this should have been avoided. Leadership is critical. That said, I recognize first hand, that hands are tied by a dysfunctional system that escalates conflicts to a point of no return.” More of Ramos’ comments published here on June 12, 2009.

In the Leader article, Ramos points an accusing finger at certain city officials for questionable handling of the allegations and for keeping city council members in the dark about problems in the city’s police department: “The amount of information that we, as a council, were given about police department issues was very, very limited.”

Also, Ramos blames a system that is broken:”What I really want is for the system to be improved, for the city to look at the hard issues raised through all of this and to fairly address the culture that created this.” 

Meanwhile over on Jim Carlile’s popular  blog, the depositions of Ramos and others have been discussed for several days now. In fact, Carlile published an interesting section from the transcripts of Ramos’ deposition showing the kind of pressure the former mayor/council member was getting from city officials. Details here. 

Ramos returned to private life on April 30, 2009, when her last term on the Burbank City Council ended. During two terms on the council, Ramos served as mayor twice. Before being elected to the city council, she served on numerous city boards and commissions.

Photo: FLLewis/A Writer’s Groove — Police and Fire Headquarters at 200 North Third Street in Burbank

In the Los Angeles Times print edition and on its website today an extensive report about the troubled Burbank Police Department. The report covers quite a bit of territory from the allegations of suspect beatings, racial discrimination, retaliation, harassment, and those federal investigations into possible misconduct in the Burbank PD.

The allegations, lawsuits, and scandal have taken a heavy toll on the department. The Times says, “The Burbank force has been so bitterly divided by the accusations that newly appointed interim Chief Scott LaChasse, who this year replaced Chief Tim Stehr, asked psychologists to help him sort through the morass and come up with a corrective plan.”

Also in the Times’ report, some new details surrounding the suicide of Burbank Police Sergeant Neil Thomas Gunn Sr. on October 29, 2009. Sgt. Gunn left two notes in his truck before taking his own life, according to the Times. One note from Gunn reportedly said, “This is absolutely work related.” Click here to read the story. 

On this blog, I have been covering the recent problems and controversies plaguing the Burbank Police Department since last spring. Click here for those posts.  

UPDATE: 3/15/10

Over on Jim Carlile’s blog today, a heated discussion about the Times’ article; among the topics, what was left out of the report and speculation the newspaper was pressured to water down its story.

Also, I’m hearing more media reports are in the works about the Burbank PD.