UPDATED: Do NOT mess with the power of the blogging community.

It looks like John Campea at The Movie Blog has found some common ground with Paramount. Like a lot of Hollywood issues, a panicky, “please don’t stop loving me” phone call from a studio bigshot has saved the day. Aw, gee – does that mean we have to start talking about that silly damn movie again?

Speaking of the power of the blogging community – holy ham-fisted segue, Batman! – I’d invite you to zip over to Movie Marketing Madness, where Chris has posted a story about the building of his own Viral Community of like-minded blogs. He was kind enough to include a profile of Burbanked, for which I’m very grateful. If you’ve been fighting that compulsive, nagging obsession to know more about me, take a look through Chris’s community and feed that crazy Burbanked monkey on your back.

If you visit many movie sites, you already know about the big nasty rumpus that has erupted at The Movie Blog. In short: the site’s owner John Campea complied when Paramount asked him to take down a picture he’d posted from their upcoming Michael Bay overexpenditure movie Transformers.

Only that wasn’t good enough for Paramount. Annoyed that John didn’t remove another picture from the film that the studio didn’t even ask him about, Paramount threatened his site’s service provider, which scaredy-cattedly shut The Movie Blog down for the better part of a day. It’s a fine example of short-sighted, moronic foot-stomping at its best, and you should read more about the story from John.

John and I have chatted through comments on his site, and he’s a kind, complimentary fellow. Likewise for Chris at Movie Marketing Madness who has decided to stand with John and not post any future stories – and therefore free and copious publicity – about Transformers on his site. I’m happy to jump on the boycott bandwagon, although my protest carries slightly less weight because 1) the Burbanked readership numbers just slightly less than those of my blogging brothers and 2) Unlike my learned colleagues, I’m not in any way excited about the idea of a Michael Bay Transformers movie – and I’ve not been terribly shy about telling you so.

But still. It’s pretty important for big, slow-witted behemoths like Paramount to get clued in that sites like TMB and MMM actually DO make a difference and actually DO sell tickets. And oh, yeah – these sites are all connected in communities and these stories spread like righteous wildfire! Good thinking, Paramount – what year are we living in again?