The talk about MGM being in desperate financial condition and on its last legs has been going on for so many months that today’s news about Harry Sloan having surrendered his CEO position is almost a “yeah, so?” The reins will now be held by motion picture group chief Mary Parent and chief financial officer Bedi Singh. Sloan will continue as ceremonial chairman. I don’t even know why I’m posting this. Strictly Nikki Finke/Sharon Waxman/Kim Masters/Anne Thompson territory.

“Sloan, who was named to the CEO post in October 2005, was a disaster after inheriting MGM’s killer $3.7B debt and couldn’t tell the truth about how bad the studio’s situation really was,” Finke wrote this morning. “I hear he was naturally upset about being fired as CEO ‘but has come to terms with his removal.’ Parent and Singh, meanwhile, have kept MGM afloat by making a slate of movies with financial partners. I hear Mary Parent could have had walked out the door with her contract paid off. But she decided to stay and keep her fingers crossed. ‘Everyone’s linked arms and we’re full steam ahead,’ an MGM insider tells me. ‘We’ve got a fighting chance.'”