Stories here and here. I'm a little saddened by the news. I do prefer Scott's writing, but I also much prefer Mitchell to the Times' Stephen Holden. Oh well. I don't think either article mentions where Mitchell plans to go from here, but I may have overlooked it.

An interesting update from The New York Post:

BIDDING WAR HEATS UP FOR PRYOR BOOK
June 11, 2004 -- Elvis Mitchell, former New York Times reporter, has landed in the middle of a book auction. His proposal for a book about the comedian Richard Pryor is currently on the desks of several prominent New York editors.
The proposal is "unusual," says one editor who has seen it. It is nonlinear and suggests that the book will be part cultural history of America, part tour of the comedy world, part dishy anecdotes about Pryor — including one in which the comedian's scatological language made New Yorker writer Lillian Ross not just blush, but faint.

David Black, best known as the agent who shepherded Mitch Albom's books, "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," to fame and fortune, sent the proposal to a handful of editors last Friday.

He also arranged for Mitchell to call editors and pitch the book on the phone. There have been several offers, including one from Knopf and one from a Penguin Group imprint.

The bidding is now in the low six figures, but one industry observer predicts that the book — which Mitchell promises to deliver in two years — will ultimately go for around $500,000.

This seems like our most Elvis-specific thread ...

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What Is a Film Critic Doing with $12,000 Cash?
Er, what does John Edwards have to do with this story, much less race? Mitchell seems awfully eager to change the subject. Question: do you believe Mitchell when he says that he brought the money into Canada and out again? If he inadvertently brought the money into Canada, then by the time he left Canada he would have known he had the cash on hand. Yet he did not tell the border guards this. He declared he had $80 in cash.
Page Six notes that Mitchell was in Toronto to attend a documentary film festival. But he didn’t just attend it: he was one of the judges there. Interesting that he had a large amount of cash that he sought to hide from authorities immediately thereafter. Mitchell was one of only three people on the jury that awarded three valuable prizes.
Kyle Smith, August 14

Crossing from Canada to Detroit, eh? Maybe he was just making a delivery for the mayor.

Feds agree to return some cash to film critic
A film critic who entered the United States without declaring thousands of dollars in a cigar box is getting some money back.
Federal prosecutors have agreed to return $5,880 to Elvis Mitchell, nearly half the $12,000 seized by border agents in April. A judge signed the deal this week.
Associated Press, September 25