Gorilla Nation Media, the online ad-placement firm founded by two former entertainment attorneys, is becoming a heavyweight in online ad placement for movies.

The Marina del Rey company got its start with movie-oriented sites and remains a powerhouse in the sector, though it has since expanded into music, food, gaming, comics and other areas.

Last year, the company led worldwide online ad placement for films, placing advertisements for more than 300 movies on the Internet.

The firm works closely with the six major studios and about 40 of the independent studios, and sells advertising on 500 independent Web sites in 30 categories 20 percent of which are entertainment properties, such as BoxOfficeMojo.com, Ain’tItCoolNews.com, RogerEbert.com and MonstersandCritics.com. Gorilla Nation’s revenues from online film, DVD and TV ads represent about 40 percent of the company’s total revenues.

In the immediate future, Gorilla Nation will be handling online ads for “Hairspray,” and “Rush Hour 3.”

The company aggregates traffic across mid-sized sites and then sells the package to national brand advertisers. In a typical month, its sites attract more than 60 million unique visitors, or more than one-third of the total U.S. online universe. The average size of a media buy through Gorilla Nation is $50,000.

According to Frank Simonelli, Gorilla Nation’s vice president of marketing, online film advertising accounted for 5 percent to 6 percent of the studios’ total ad spend last year; this year it’s more like 8 percent.

“Network TV and outdoor ads are still the lion’s share of the budget but the reason studios like the Web more and more is that they have to introduce and create a connection with the audience every three weeks to generate ticket sales,” Simonelli said. “Media planners know on a big blockbuster if they buy two of the four big portals, they will get the numbers. But they come to us to fill in with the mid-sized Web sites, and that’s a good bit of the market. We are committed to L.A. because this is where the entertainment money is.”

According to the Internet Advertising Bureau 2006 Internet Ad Revenue report, online entertainment ad spending increased from 8 percent of total internet ad revenue in the second quarter of 2005 to 10 percent in the second quarter of 2006 the largest increase of the top 5 consumer categories. Retail and automotive increased by 1 percent each (from 47 to 48 percent and 21 to 22 percent respectively), and Leisure and Packaged goods decreased by one and two percent, respectively).

Minorities Stuck

There was disappointing news last week for minority and female writers trying to make it in Hollywood: Men and women of color still account for less than 10 percent of employed television writers.

Neither group has made much progress recently in terms of employment and earnings in Hollywood entertainment, according to findings in a report commissioned by WGA West that was released last week.

Darnell Hunt, a professor of sociology at UCLA, authored “2007 Hollywood Writers Report Whose Stories Are We Telling?” Hunt produced a similar survey for the guild in 2005.

Hunt cited the merger of TV networks UPN and the WB which combined into the existing CW network as a factor in the disparity.

“These numbers will likely get worse before they get better because of the recent merger of UPN and the WB into the new CW Network, which resulted in the cancellation of several minority-themed situation comedies that employed a disproportionate share of minority television writers,” Hunt wrote.

There was a bright spot for female TV writers. Their median income rose to more than $90,000 per year, virtually comparable to their male counterparts’ earnings.

The report also documented an earnings gap for minority writers in television that increased by more than $6,000 between 2004 and 2005. The overall median income for minority TV writers in 2005 was $78,107, while white writers earned $97,956.

Mintz Meeting

Paris and Elliot are back together for now.

With Paris Hilton heading for the slammer for driving with a suspended license, her publicist, Elliot Mintz, parted company with the hotel-chain heiress and then quickly reunited with her. His attempt to take the blame for her probation violation wasn’t enough to dissuade the judge from giving the heiress 45 days.

The former L.A. radio host and friend to John Lennon has been a fixture in the entertainment business for decades. Before moving into the publicity business, Mintz repped Yoko Ono, Bob Dylan and David Crosby, among others.

Mintz’s recent client list has been filled with problem cases. For Paris’ sister Nicky Hilton, Mintz put the best face on a short marriage to a family friend; he handled press relations for Janet Jones in the wake of a 2006 gambling scandal that engulfed the actress and wife of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky; and he also played image defense for “celebutante” party girl Kimberly Stewart.

It appears that a new sort of rep is evolving, a sort of celebrity publicist-crisis management hybrid.

“Celebrity PR is one of the most thankless areas,” said former PR executive John Stodder, a former Fleishman-Hillard executive who is no stranger to high-profile trouble with the law. Stodder was earlier this year sentenced to 15 months in jail for his role in an over-billing scandal involving the Department of Water and Power.

“Typically you are underpaid and on call all the time, but Mintz was a celebrity publicist who really became a one-man crisis counselor because of the kind of trouble (Paris) got herself into,” Stodder continued. “This could be the start of a new field.”

Longtime celebrity spokesman and PR fixture Michael Levine, was rumored to be Mintz’s replacement in several blogs. But Levine said he was not offered the position, and if he had been, would have declined.

“I can think of easier ways of working for a living,” said Levine. “Like bull fighting. I am certainly not afraid of a celebrity challenge having represented everyone from Michael Jackson to Barbra Streisand, but I have learned to sense massive self-destruction over the years.”

Staff reporter Anne Riley-Katz can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225, or at

[email protected]