Sounds like some Hollywood agents were working over the holiday weekend. A couple of pieces of casting news have emerged today, and now that we're all emerging from our tryptophan hangovers we can get back to business, too. First up, Shia LaBeouf has signed on to star in the film adaptation of the new John Grisham thriller The Associate for Paramount. The novel, which will be published in January by Random House, tells the story of a Yale Law student (LaBeouf) who is manipulated into accepting a job at a prestigious law firm and given privileged information about a multi-billion dollar lawsuit. Being a Grisham novel, one would assume for nefarious purposes and with lots of running. The film will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who got the book while shooting the Transformers sequel with LaBeouf in the Middle East, and who, I feel I must note, produced both A Time to Kill and The Client, two movies I will watch whenever they are on TV, at any time.

Johnny Depp' s production company, Infinitum Nihil (do you think he' d sue me if I named my production company "Nihilistic Infinity?") has acquired the rights to the Nick Tosches novel In the Hand of Dante and the announcement has people talking. And what everyone is saying is: Johnny Depp has a production company? While not exactly confidential, the company, founded in 2004, hasn' t gotten a lot of press until this latest announcement in Variety, and is described on Wikipedia as "Depp' s best kept secret." I read the trades nearly every day, and I have to say, "Johnny Depp has a production company?" was my first thought, too. Followed immediately by "Geez, ' Infinitum Nihil' has more 'I' s' than 'Mississippi.' "

The cast of remake of '80s dance flick Fame was announced today, and there's clearly a divide -- by age, of course, but also, coincidentally enough, by fame.

There are the students, of course, played by virtual unknowns Paul Iacono, Paul McGill, Naturi Naughton and Kay Panabaker; and at least one actual unknown, Kristy Flores.

One would assume that among the decisions Steve Guttenberg regrets would be choosing to return for too many lame Police Academy movies and making that sequel to Three Men and a Baby, right? I mean, one too many bad movies has to be what killed his career back in the '90s. But Guttenberg doesn't regret returning for sequels; what he regrets is not returning for enough of them.

Which canceled TV series would you most expect to be getting theatrical movie buzz? (Other than Arrested Development, obviously.) Buffy, maybe? Or Angel? How about Veronica Mars? Nope, nope and nope. Um, Firefly again? Not even close. Friends? Try harder.

The International Press Academy announced its award nominees on Sunday, and no one bothered to notice. See, the few of you who thought I was talking about the Golden Globes would be wrong (that's the Hollywood Foreign Press, and they'll announce their nominees on Dec. 11. No, the International Press Academy gives out the Satellite Awards (and has for 12 years). If you haven't heard of them, there's a reason: Their awards show isn't televised, and if there's anything I've learned in life, it's that if it's not on TV, it didn't happen.