The Morning Fix: 3-D game worries for kids. OWN is only hours away! Kathy Griffin threatens to ruin Dick Clark’s New Years Eve.

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After the coffee. Before telling my bosses they can find someone else to do this for the rest of the year. What? Oh, never mind.

The Skinny: We delivered on our promise of an Oprah story every day of the week. It’s that kind of service that we know you’ve come to expect from us folks here at the Morning Fix. In other news, Nintendo slapped a warning on its new 3-D game console. Also, the ins and outs of Oscar lobbying and Kathy Griffin’s threat to ruin Dick Clark’s New Year’s Eve. Have a great New Year’s Eve and don’t do anything stupid out there. See you in 2011.

And I thought 3-D was just hazardous to your wallet. Nintendo has a new 3-D game console coming out and is warning parents that little kids shouldn’t be allowed to use it. The warning was posted on the company’s website. The Wall Street Journal noted that ‘effects such as dizziness and nausea have been reported among some users since the arrival in the 1950s of the first 3-D movies, which required viewers to wear paper glasses with colored filters.’

Oprah’s ready. We’re about 24 hours away from the launch of Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications’ OWN cable network. No word yet if the president is planning to change the name of New Year’s Day to New Oprah Day. As promised, here is your Oprah story of the day, and it comes from our own Los Angeles Times: Winfrey, anticipating the negative waves that will no doubt come her way in the channel’s early days, says she’s ‘really prepared for all of the criticism, all of the snarky ‘could’ve’ and ‘should’ves.’ But that doesn’t matter. This launch is the birthing of my baby, it’s not the raising of the baby, and that’s the important part.”

Because one Oprah story isn’t enough, here’s two more. The New York Times, which had a 3,000 word piece on OWN a couple of Sundays ago, comes back to the media world’s favorite subject with a follow-up on the network. This one looks at the expectations for the channel as well as the cult-of-personality factor. Wonder if anyone has landed the book deal chronicling the birth of OWN? I’m only half-joking. Curious about what will be on OWN? Here’s a rundown from Entertainment Weekly.

He could be back. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is days away from being unemployed, talks with Variety about his future plans, which could include a return to the big screen. ‘It is like bicycling, or like skiing,’ he said. ‘You get on it and you feel like there is no time lapse there at all.’

Oscar spin 101. Hot Blog’s Dave Poland offers a crash course in phase one of Oscar hype, which is laying down the back story for how a movie got made and why it was a world-changing event. ‘The Narratives are the big perspective ideas, almost always instigated by someone with an ax to grind or a bonus to earn,’ Poland explains, adding that the narrative ‘should not be confused with Dirty Pool, which is when some personal or oddball issue comes to the forefront for no other reason than to tear this film or that film down.’

Speaking of Oscar. The Wrap tells us five things we didn’t know about the Oscar ballots that have been mailed out. Did you know they come postage due? Neither did I. It wouldn’t be Oscar season if some writer or producer or director didn’t screw up by violating the rules about campaigning for an award. Entertainment Weekly and Deadline Hollywood on ‘Buried’ writer Chris Sparling’s antics.

Fasten your seat belts. Comedian Kathy Griffin, who last New Year’s Eve made headlines by swearing on CNN’s coverage of the big night, isn’t going to clean it up this time around. She tells the Hollywood Reporter that if CNN boots her, she’ll hustle over to ABC and give Dick Clark a lap dance. Does Clark really need all the wonderful memories he has of New Year’s Eve tarnished by that?

The Grinch who took your channels. As 2011 approaches, there are several disputes going on between programmers and distributors that could result in consumers losing channels after deals expire when the clock strikes midnight. Coverage of the spats from Reuters and the Los Angeles Times.

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Before Los Angeles worries about getting a football team, the city should get its act together on designing a new stadium, says architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne. Your list of the top moments in scripted TV.

-- Joe Flint

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