HELP ME, WANDA

The latest rumor has Chinese firm Dalian Wanda Goup as the frontrunner to purchase Todd Boehly's Billboard-THR-dcp media empire, despite earlier reports that WME was the top suitor. The Fortune 500 company, led by Wang Jianlin ("China's richest man," per Reuters) and founded in 1988, is China's largest commercial property company and the world's largest movie-chain operator; it recently acquired a controlling stake in Thomas Tull's enormously successful Legendary Pictures, reportedly plans to purchase two more Hollywood film entities valued at $1 billion apiece and was in talks with Viacom to acquire Paramount Studios.

While he has said he wants to bring Hollywood moviemaking technology and expertise to China (and any major studio will do if Paramount doesn't work out), it's not clear how the Boehly media properties would fit into Wang's agenda. Though if Chinese consumers are dying to know which pop stars are rocking sweater vests this season, they'll be all over the bible. Some insiders at Boehly's Eldridge Industries say the rumor is bullshit.