Creditors are forcing MGM to put itself up for sale for the fifth (I think) time by the end of the year, Variety, Business Week and various other publications are reporting. As I’ve written before, I think MGM is finis as a distributor (the “Fame” remake, a flop, was its only ’09 release) and I hope its (mostly non-MGM) library is sold to Warner Bros., which at this point has the strongest commitment to making catalogue titles available to consumers. (Fox, which currently distributes MGM’s DVDs, seems to have largely lost interest in this area in the past year). Warner is also MGM’s partner on “The Hobbit,” and I’d guess MGM part-owner Sony will end up with the James Bond franchise, having distributed the last two. MGM is “celebrating” its 85th anniversary this year (Metro, Goldwyn and Louis B. Mayer productions merged in 1924) and the studio announced earlier this year it was putting out commemorative gift sets devoted to various stars. Interestingly, when the sets finally arrived, the MGM logo was conspicuously absent from the front of the boxes — even though MGM has not been shy in the past about prominently placing its logo on old UA, Orion, AIP and Embassy releases. The anniversary isn’t mentioned on the back either, where there is a tiny MGM logo on the bottom along with Fox’s. Some recent MGM releases have carried 85th anniversary stickers, but these sets sport “4 Movies 1 Great Price” stickers. Considering each set includes four discs retailing for a total of $17.99 at Amazon, I can’t argue with that. Looks like a going out of business sale to me.