A quick note to readers: You'll probably notice that TheWrap looks different this morning.

Welcome to our new and improved site, version 2.0, with thanks to our chief technical and design wizard, Rich Robinson and our COO Kevin Davis.

In this new design, we tried to respond to readers' comments and requests, particularly with the 'news river' below the fold, which gives you a quick look at the very latest articles, blog posts, columns and links that have been posted.

Updated Thursday 1pm:

Bill Richert, the lead plaintiff in the class action against the Writers Guild, writes to say that indeed, TheWrap's publication of Mial's testimony played a role in Tuesday's settlement.

The word comes from inside MGM that the new restructuring guru, Stephen Cooper - who replaces ousted Harry Sloan - has both confused and scared the staff.

At a company-wide meeting on Wednesday morning at an AMC theater, Cooper presented a three-part plan "to make MGM solvent," says one attendee.

The attendee went on:

" None of it made sense. He explained that the first part of the plan is now in effect and the second part of the plan will begin around the end of the month 10/1 (quarter begin).  

Here comes still more interesting, exclusive reading from the  secret files of the just-settled class action lawsuit between screenwriter William Richert and the Writers Guild of America west.

Last time, you may remember, we brought you the secret deposition of Terri Mial, the whistleblower whose job it was to administer residual and foreign levy payments. Mial testified that she was instructed not to pay out the checks that came in, and to shred the check lists.

Latest news from Paramount, Patricia Rockenwagner will be leaving as the chief of corporate communications.

No replacement has been named, here's the announcement from Brad Grey:

TO:                         Paramount Senior Executives

FR:                         Brad Grey

It was the “No Recession Here” party at HBO after the Emmys, the pay network’s annual blow-out at the Pacific Design Center that puts every other Hollywood party to shame. One year it was giant buddhas. Another year it was cloisonee dragonflies everywhere .

The circumstances of Dick Cook’s sudden ouster from the Walt Disney Company  continues to preoccupy Hollywood as many wonder both privately and publicly: Who made a misstep?

Was it Bob Iger? Or Dick Cook?

When it seemed as if “The Diary of Anne Frank” was going to be remade, that sounded like it could be a Disney movie.

But when adapted by provocateur playwright and filmmaker David Mamet as a pro-Israel exploration of anti-Semitism movie set in contemporary times – the project became less likely to be made by the Walt Disney Company.

Lessons learned this summer on the Paramount lot? Make lots of franchises.

After the big numbers posted this summer by “Star Trek”  ($257 m) and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” ($401 m) and even “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” ($294 m), the studio is hunkered down making fewer movies for less money that are franchises and thus likely to keep spinning off money, according to executives who run the place.

Updated Saturday at 4 pm: 

It's all coming down to the subterranean parking lot. We've now confirmed with parties close to the affair that WME co-CEO Ari Emanuel has indeed  backed out of the lease for the not-yet-completed William Morris Endeavor building on Beverly Drive.

Either that, or he is in the midst of doing so.

As we reported previously, Emanuel thought the building was too expensive, and he found a clause in the contract - the one guaranteeing exclusivity to a theatrical agency - that gave him room to wiggle out.