UPDATE 1-Editor at L.A. Times quits over film producer flap

(Adds statement from Times publisher, paragraphs 6 and 7)

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES, March 22 (Reuters) - The editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times abruptly quit on Thursday after the paper killed a special edition of its opinion section that had been edited by a Hollywood producer with ties to his girlfriend.

Andres Martinez, in an angry note posted on his Times blog, said the paper's decision to scrap the section edited by movie producer Brian Grazer and planned for publication on Sunday "amounts to a vote of no confidence in my continued leadership."

Critics accused the paper of a conflict of interest after word surfaced that Martinez's girlfriend, Kelly Mullens, works for the public relations firm representing Grazer and his Imagine Entertainment.

Grazer, the producer of "A Beautiful Mind" and partner of filmmaker Ron Howard, was picked by Martinez to be the first in a series of guest editors for the Sunday opinion section, called Current.

According to a story on the Times Web site, publisher David Hiller announced to the staff on Thursday that he would not publish the Current section edited by Grazer.

Hiller said in a written statement that in the paper's opinion Martinez's relationship with Mullens "did not influence the selection of Brian as guest editor" but that he was canceling publication of the section to avoid any appearance of a conflict.

"I want to underscore that nothing in this situation is, in any way, a reflection on Brian Grazer, who has been honorable and generous throughout," Hiller said. "I'm sorry that he and the wonderful group of contributors he had assembled have been put through this."

The Times story said Hiller had only learned in the last few days that Grazer was represented by Martinez's girlfriend. An earlier Times story had said that reporters and editors at the paper had been critical of the arrangement.

"David Hiller's decision to kill the Brian Grazer section this Sunday makes my continued tenure as Los Angeles Times editorial page editor untenable," Martinez wrote in his blog on the Times Web site.

"The person in this job needs to have unimpeachable integrity and Hiller's decision amounts to a vote of no confidence in my continued leadership" he wrote.

Martinez said the paper was overreacting because Mullens had no influence in his selection of Grazer.

He also delivered a blistering rebuke to his critics in the newsroom and suggested that some of the paper's reporters and editors were guilty of their own ethical lapses.

"I accept my share of the responsibility for placing the Times in this predicament," Martinez wrote. "But I will not be lectured on ethics by some ostensibly objective news reporters and editors who lobby for editorials to be written on certain subjects or who have suggested that our editorial page coordinate more closely with the newsroom's agenda ..."

The Times is owned by media group Tribune Co. TRB.N, which has been entertaining takeover offers. A recent editor of the paper, Dean Baquet, quit in November over management demands for staff cuts.