In grown-up journalism, when you make a mistake, you issue a correction. Same when you're nicked by a hoax: Take your lumps, share a laugh with the peanut gallery and move on.

But over at Deadline, where infallibility and omniscience are written into the job descriptions, admitting that you're wrong -- or have been had -- doesn't fit the narrative. The Emperor wears clothes, period. TOLDJA he did! Etc.

The latest example, wherein Mike Fleming was clealry conned into posting an April Fool's prank about James Cameron's supposed interest in directing a PROMETHEUS sequel, was well-chronicled earlier today by Fishbowl. Click over for details, or have a read of the post (screenshot below).

The best part is the huffy "Insiders tell me" update, as if Cameron, Ridley Scott and Tom Rothman hastily organized a conference call to clear things up. And no update to mention that The Guardian -- the source of this post -- admitted it was April Fooled?

What Fishbowl missed was this unintentionally hilarious follow-up post from Deadline interntational editor Nancy Tartaglione, which -- a mere 24 hours later -- calls out the unwashed blogosphere for biting on the weekend's other April Fool's prank, a fake list of Cannes entries. (Underlining for emphasis ours):

We especially love how Tartaglione calls her debunking -- which every single media outlet that covers Cannes did independently -- a Deadline EXCLUSIVE. (Dear Nancy: Next time you debunk something totally whack, it's much easier to just tweet it, or not write about it at all. That's what we all did! Love, The Rest of Journalism).

Of course, there's a rich history of backtracking, hypocrisy and utterly preposterous claims of exclusivity at the most powerful woman in Hollywood's blog, these recent examples notwithstanding. Why, just yesterday Deadline threw up a post at 11:03 p.m. Pacific time (screenshot below) claiming EXCLUSIVE, despite that it read very closely to the Oscilloscope Laboratories press release that shipped several minutes earlier at 10:56 a.m.:

Again, our favorite part is the fake-in-the-know construction "I'm told it will I (sic) be released ...," as if to suggest that Oscilloscope founder and Beastie Boy Adam Yauch himself bolted out of Fleming's guest room, ran down to his basement office and whispered this important detail in his ear. It was clearly stated in that press release, of course. All part of the illusion of omniscience, folks.

Indulge us this last example, easily the richest of the past few weeks: On March 21, Variety first reported that David O. Russell was in talks to direct AMERICAN BULLSHIT (irony alert; wait for it). Fleming, who apparently wants us all to know he was tracking this development, couldn't help but send up a barb when Russell's publicist denied that it was true:

Wait -- it gets better. A quick update of the post (below) not only inserts the word "yesterday" (to make sure you know, gentle reader, that Fleming inquired before he was scooped), but acknowledges "trade reports" (plural) standing firm against his debunking:

But he wasn't done. One more update (again, below; skip down to the very last line).

A hot steaming dukey is exactly BLOGDOGGER's response to all of the above.

Yesterday we exposed Deadline Hollywood Daily's increasing use of the EXCLUSIVE tag in cases when they didn't break the story (see previous post). They must've really enjoyed the publicity, because they've done it again today -- twice:

Posted by Variety at 3:06 p.m. PDT:

... aaaand posted by Deadline at 3:08 PDT:

And this one, posted by Variety at 3:46 p.m. PDT:

... followed by Deadline at 3:51 p.m. PDT (it's since been changed to "BREAKING," but here's the screenshot of how it posted):

Notice that in neither case did Variety claim "EXCLUSIVE," despite being first. The reason? Editors here knew that the information was going around multiple outlets. To claim an exclusive for typing faster (or cutting and pasting press releases faster, as is the case with Deadline) is not in the spirit of the scoops game -- it's cynical at best, and dishonest at worst.

You won't see that here.

Deadline Hollywood Daily has complained loudly, publicly and frequently over the past couple of years about other outlets "stealing" their scoops, casting its special brand aspersion on the ancient journalistic practice of "following" (which Deadline now does daily -- there's ample proof of that). But that nonstarter of a hypocritical grievance doesn't hold a milkbone to the more recent habit that DHD has developed: claiming EXCLUSIVE on stories very clearly broken elsewhere.

Now, we're all guilty of posting an "exclusive" that someone else got to first -- it happens. The noble thing is to take the tag off, tip your cap and move on. But even when DHD editors learn they've been scooped, they've lately been leaving the dubious EXCLUSIVE tag on their posts.

It started as an anomaly (see sundry blogdogger posts previous) but it's become an irritating pattern, as these three recent examples (below) illustrate. Apparently the pain of extending a simple professional courtesy is just too much to bear?

See for yourself:

This Variety scoop from this morning:

Followed an hour later by:

And this Variety scoop from last week:

Followed 35 minutes later by this (at some point they removed the EXCLUSIVE in favor of BREAKING, but that was only after the Gyllenhaal deal fell apart the following day):

And finally this Variety scoop, from Feb. 29:

Followed by this, more than 40 minutes later:

  VS.

When it rains film news, it pours film news.

Last week (Monday, Feb. 6 through Friday, Feb. 10, to be specific) was the Hollywood trades' busiest news week -- in terms of volume of exclusive film-related stories -- in at least 14 months (Blogdogger started keeping track in January 2010).

Throughout the week, Variety broke 45 stories, including castings, project announcements, Berlin Film Festival sales and more (see links below). That was a new record for our master, whose previous high in that span was 27 (and who has broken more news than anyone in town for several months running now).

Meanwhile, Deadline posted 34 exclusives last week, 10 more than its previous high in our recorded history. (As it usually does, The Hollywood Reporter got its share in edgewise, though not enough to rank here).

So what happened?

Theories around the water dish range from a total fluke to "lots of projects ramping up for a Spring start." The Berlinale certainly helped both sides pad the stats, but even without Variety's 13 stories aus Berlin, 32 newsbreaks woudl've been a record-shatterer. None of them moved the earth; both reports were a mish-mash of minor to strong-but-middling scoops. And here they are:

VARIETY:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050011.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 REBECCA remake
Sullivan Stapleton to star in '300' follow-up
http://www.showblitz.com/2012/02/exclusive-with-production-on-man-of-steel-wrapping-up-henry-cavill-is-eyeing-his-first-post-superman-pic-thesp-is-in-nego.html
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050092 Will Ferrell in FLAMINGO THIEF
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049975.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Participant's first foreign fi
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049798.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&ref=vertfilm Fancy Nancy
http://www.showblitz.com/2012/02/o-rensemee-cullen-the-horror.html
http://t.co/i982obFV  Phillip Seymour Hoffman in MOST WANTED MAN
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049847 GAME OF THRONES' Kit Harington cast
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049856.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Fandango
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049850.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Interpol
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049852 Karate Kid
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050029 Energy Independent launches
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050014 Opposition to SAG merger
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050005 Carreras joins APA
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050013 Fremes joins Nu Image
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049950 Warren Files castings (McFarland, Caswell)
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049936 SyFy buys Day 38
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049938 SAG-AFTRA union would ease future combos
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049855 Jetsons rewrite
http://www.showblitz.com/2012/02/ronan-slotted-in-order.html
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050091.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Pucci in EVIL DEAD
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050055.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Ty Burrell
http://links.email.variety.com/ctt?kn=17&ms=MzUxMzgyNwS2&r=MTYyNTc5NDc3NgS2
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049972.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Oscar/Kodak
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049969.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Susan Bier
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049962.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 China film funding
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049926.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Justin Long
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049906.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 John Goodman CURVE
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050007?refCatId=13 SUPREMACY
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049977.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Scott Eastwood
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049891.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Jaime Alexander
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049881.html?categoryid=13&cs=1 Maya’s US
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050061 Salt secures a raft of pre-sales in Berlinhttp://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050052 Voltage rounds out sales for "Hours"
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118050027 Studiocanal teaming on "I Give It a Year."
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049989  Voltage locks sales for BELLE ISLE
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049899 K5 pre-sells VEHICLE 19
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118049980 Exclusive shopping int'l sales to THERESE
SBS snags pre-sales on 'Passion', 2/9/2012
Team sets magical 'Mariah', 2/9/2012
Canana launches genre pic franchise 2/9/2012
Magnolia nabs U.S. rights to 'Emergo' 2/9/2012
Argentine faves get redosSighvatsson options English-lingo remake
EuropaCorp laughs with 'Love'Company rolls out sales on laffer
Full House seals deals at Berlin'7 Days,' '11 Flowers' rack up worldwide sales

DEADLINE:
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/hot-bidding-battle-aftershock-chilean-earthquake-genre-thriller-starring-eli-roth/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/warner-bros-re-ups-todd-phillips-first-look-deal-and-sets-his-next-four-films/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/filmdistrict-partners-with-sierraaffinity-on-wer-next-film-by-the-devil-inside-team/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/river-road-acquires-apocalyptic-novel-the-age-of-miracles
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/another-deadline-hatched-career-wme-spoof-helmer-geoff-latulippe-gets-par-deal/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/fox-delays-this-means-war-release/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/johnny-depps-infinitum-nihil-options-forthcoming-memoir-by-west-memphis-threes-damien-echols/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/joseph-gordon-levitt-to-make-feature-helming-debut-will-co-star-with-scarlett-johansson/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/robbie-pickering-to-direct-the-kitchen-sink/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/sundance-sales-continue-image-collars-`-for-u-s/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/denzel-washington-in-talks-to-star-in-2-guns-with-mark-wahlberg-for-universal/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/stephanie-langhoff-to-spearhead-duplass-brothers-productions/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/up-in-the-air-producer-launches-the-allegiance-shingle-with-im-global-funded-money-monster/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/weinstein-company-names-new-shingle-radius-and-acquires-edgy-sundance-comedy-bachelorette/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/twilights-angela-sarafyan-joins-lowlife/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/glees-jane-lynch-joins-indie-film-a-c-o-d/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/universal-revives-dracula-year-zero/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/exclusive-summits-erik-feig-to-be-named-president-of-production-of-lionsgate-motion-picture-group/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/john-cusack-and-evan-peters-join-emma-roberts-in-adult-world/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/paradise-lost-scrapped-by-legendary-pictures/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/morgan-freeman-joins-tom-cruise-in-post-apocalyptic-oblivion-for-universal/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/sean-combs-joining-oscar-docu-undefeated-as-exec-producer/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/stark-sands-cast-in-coen-brothers-inside-llewyn-davis/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/haley-joel-osment-set-for-ill-follow-you-down/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/daily-shows-jason-jones-joins-heist-comedy-the-black-marks/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/indomina-acquiring-2012-sundance-film-luv/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/cohen-media-group-acquires-berlin-fest-opener-farewell-my-queen-for-u-s/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/ryan-kavanaughs-relativity-media-sued-today-for-44m-one-of-the-greatest-heist-stories-ever-told-in-the-movie-business/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/harry-potters-tom-felton-joins-elizabeth-olsen-and-glenn-close-in-therese-raquin/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/natalie-portman-sets-first-post-oscar-roles-back-to-back-terrence-malick-films-berlin/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/disney-acquiring-black-list-script-saving-mr-banks-on-making-mary-poppins/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/haley-bennett-starring-in-deep-powder-and-ella-walks-the-beach/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/michael-c-hall-kyra-sedgwick-jennifer-jason-leigh-ben-foster-join-kill-your-darlings-berlin/
http://www.deadline.com/2012/02/evan-parke-joins-cast-of-tarantinos-django-unchained/

It's a game of minutes, really ... even if it's just one minute.

Filed at 4:15 p.m. PDT ...

And one minute later, at 4:16 (provided it doesn't change) ...

We sure hate to point out other people's mistakes, but Deadline reporter Mike Fleming's continued claiming of EXCLUSIVE on Fox Searchlight's acquisition of "The Surrogate" at Sundance on Monday night has got our hackles up. That's because our Variety masters clearly broke the story at 7:37 p.m., well before anyone else:

Coming in a close second was Steven Zeitchik at The Los Angeles Times, who posted at 7:47 p.m. (without crediting Variety, of course -- GRRRR, Steve). The bronze medal belongs to The Hollywood Reporter at 8:13 p.m.

And just when you thought the dust had settled on what's guaranteed to be the biggest acquisition of the 2012 fest (and arguably its consensus best film), Deadline came in with the EXCLUSIVE, which blogdogger first observed at 8:40 p.m., though it carries a THR-matching 8:13 p.m. timestamp (it's OK, we're used to seeing Deadline's infamous time-travel trick by now.)

Nothing about the post was new -- not the buyer, not the price, nothing -- and yet he claimed EXCLUSIVE because ... why? We heard the Sundance crew tried to contact Fleming and Finke to remove the offending tag, but the only response they got was from Finke herself, whose HOW DARE YOU CONTACT ME response defended the tag only by saying internal timestamps proved that Fleming "had been working on the story for a while." Not sure how that makes it EXCLUSIVE, but ... OK.

So despite being asked (politely) to remove a misleading, inaccurate and -- as a result, clearly cynical -- claim of exclusivity, Nikki and Mike continue to display it on their post. Which probably says a lot about how they feel about getting beat on the biggest scoop out of Park City this year.

Blogdogger was surfing the web late last night when we noticed Rachel Abrams' scoop on Variety.com -- timestamped for 3:00 a.m. PST -- that Michael Diliberti’s “Little White Corvette,” starring Emma Stone, was driving from MRC over to GK Films. We sniffed around to see if anyone else had the news and, even several minutes later, no one had -- including Deadline. But when we awoke this morning, lo and behold, Deadline had a story up, mysteriously time-stamped at exactly 3:00 a.m. PST as well. No one outside of Variety was told that the story was to post at that exact moment at such a wee hour, and the news was definitely not a coordinated break. Coincidence? Or Deadline exercising its now-industry-standard flexible time-stamp privileges? Blogdogger knows which it is.

 BLOGDOGGER has just learned that Nikki Finke will not be conducting Q&As via teleconference this weekend at THE  CONTENDERS, her inaugural awards-season event designed for Academy voters who, uh ... need more studio spin to make up their minds? We were never sure.

Whatever the purpose, Nikki's disembodied voice won't be the main attraction as promised -- news that's sure to disappoint the Academy and guild members who are submitting to a 10 a.m. "Security Clearance" (her words) both on Saturday and Sunday, followed by seven hours of dog-and-pony show. (We're told she's flying in reporter Mike Fleming to handle the Q&A duties alongside Pete Hammond -- though Nikki just might make an "appearance" after reading this, just to prove us wrong).

While the event was originally touted as a one-stop-shop for voters who didn't want to sit through movies with the Great Unwashed, BLOGDOGGER is still scratching its head -- for something called THE CONTENDERS, there sure are a lot of key contenders that won't be represented.

Notable omissions, in alphabetical order, are below (with the actual schedule of events at bottom): 

BEGINNERS; A DANGEROUS METHOD; THE DESCENDANTS; DRIVE; EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE; MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE; MIDNIGHT IN PARIS; RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES; SHAME; TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY; WE BOUGHT A ZOO

Maybe she should've called it ... SOME OF THE CONTENDERS?

We trade jockeys are all scrambling after the same scoops and exclusive content, and it's BLOGDOGGER's belief that the bulk of these result from good ol' shoe-leather reporting. But yes, some items are spoon-fed by studios and publicists who cherrypick the outlet they think will give them the most favorable treatment.

Here's the thing, though: When a studio drops an EXCLUSIVE in your lap, you gotta play it a little bit cool, so it doesn't read like an obsequious OH THANK YOU!!! -- or worse, a backroom favor repaid. Which is why BLOGDOGGER got the heebie-jeebies when we read the text that followed this video on the Hollywood Reporter's THE RACE:

Highlights from what THR awards blogger Scott Feinberg wrote to wrap this gift from Fox Searchlight include:

... Because of the sheer number of 2011 films in which Chastain has done fine work, many in the industry feel that she is more than deserving of an Oscar nomination ...

... So, hypothetically, if The Help does not offer Chastain her best shot at a nod, which of her other four films does? I believe -- and Fox Searchlight is working hard to make everyone else believe -- that the answer is The Tree of Life. ... In recent weeks, the film has started to re-enter the awards discussion in a big way ...

... Consequently, Searchlight will be re-releasing the film this Friday ... and will be circulating the featurette about Chastain that we are exclusively premiering at the top of this post ... with the hope that they can be the studio that manages to beat the odds and get Chastain a well-deserved ticket to February's Academy Awards.

Gee whiz, Searchlight and THR -- get a room, would ya?

When Nikki Finke announced her Deadline Hollywood game for Facebook back in July, her press release made no bones about the involvement of Paramount Digital Entertainment, which helped develop it. Now it looks like the division between it and Paramount Pictures has blurred -- the movie division is helping promote the game through its 147,000-plus follower Twitter page. 

Gotta hand it to those two; though the symbiotic relationship between Paramount and Finke is the worst-kept secret in Hollywood journalism, it takes real balls to make it this obvious: