Fate of 'Wild Things' fuzzy as 'Paranormal' and 'Law Abiding Citizen' shine

Audiences came out to the movies in droves this weekend, sending ticket sales up 41% from last year, but the future of the No. 1 movie is still unclear.

"Where the Wild Things Are" sold a healthy $32.5 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada, according to studio estimates, leading a weekend that saw stronger-than-expected performances from other new and expanding films including "Law Abiding Citizen," "Paranormal Activity" and "The Stepfather."

Although $32.5 million is a good start for a movie that cost $80 million after foreign tax incentives, "Wild Things" played to a diverse crowd and didn't demonstrate particular strength among families. Despite the movie's PG rating and basis in a popular children's book, only 40% of ticket buyers were families with children under 12, reflecting the consensus amongst critics that it was too sad for most youngsters. An additional 14% were teenagers, and 43% were adults without children in tow.

That's a mixed blessing for Warner Bros., which distributed the film and co-financed it with Village Roadshow Entertainment, which paid for 50% of the budget, and Legendary Entertainment, which covered 25%. The older crowds meant "Wild Things" had much stronger midnight shows on its opening day than is usual for a PG movie. But matinees on Saturday and, the studio projected, Sunday weren't particularly big. Perhaps most important, family movies tend to play for a long time at the box office, as "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" has demonstrated recently.

Audiences gave "Wild Things" an overall grade of B-plus, according to market research firm CinemaScore, and those under 18 gave it an A-minus. If the movie ends up with good buzz among families, it could still surpass $100 million in domestic ticket sales and end up a hit, but as Warner Bros. domestic distribution chief Dan Fellman said, "It's going to take another week until we figure it all out."

There's nothing to figure out for Paramount, which has a genuine indie hit on its hands with "Paranormal Activity." The studio expanded its micro-budgeted horror flick to 760 locations and grossed a fantastic $20.2 million. Its per-theater average take of $26,530 is the second-highest ever for a movie playing at fewer than 800 venues, behind only the 3-D concert movie "Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds."

After four weeks, two of which it played only midnight shows in a fewcities, "Paranormal" has collected a total of $33.7 million.This Friday it will expand to more than 1,800 locations nationwide, potentially creating problems for Lionsgate's horror movie "Saw VI," which launches the same day.

"Paranormal Activity" just missed out on landing at No. 2 for the weekend and came in behind "Law Abiding Citizen." The thriller distributed by Overture Films for financier the Film Department grossed $21.3 million, a solid start given its $50-million production budget. Despite polling that indicated it would play primarily to older males, audiences were very diverse, giving the movie better-than-expected commercial traction.

Sony Pictures was concerned about the fate of the horror film "The Stepfather," with "Paranormal Activity" sucking up so much of the oxygen from interest in the genre this weekend, but its film ended up with a decent $12.3 million. The remake from the studio's Screen Gems label cost just under $20 million to produce.

In limited release, Focus Features' "A Serious Man" and Sony Pictures Classics' "An Education" continue to play fairly well as they expanded this weekend, collecting $860,257 at 82 theaters and $266,044 at 19, respectively.

Here are the top 10 films at the domestic box office according to studio estimates and Hollywood.com:

1. "Where the Wild Things Are" (Warner Bros./Village Roadshow/Legendary): Opened to $32.5 million.

2. "Law Abiding Citizen" (Overture/Film Department): $21.3 million on its first weekend.

3. "Paranormal Activity" (Paramount): Expanded to 760 theaters and grossed $20.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $33.7 million.

4. "Couples Retreat" (Universal/Relativity): Declined 48% on its second weekend to $17.9 million. Total U.S. and Canadian ticket sales so far: $63.3 million.

5. "The Stepfather" (Sony): A $12.3-million debut.

6. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" (Sony): Fell 30% to $8.1 million. Domestic total: $108.3 million.

7. "Zombieland" (Sony/Relativity): Dropped 47% on its third weekend to $7.8 million, bringing its total domestic gross to $60.8 million.

8. "Toy Story & Toy Story 2 3-D" (Disney): $3 million, off 61% on its third weekend. Total ticket sales thus far for the re-release: $28.6 million.. 

9. "Surrogates" (Disney): Dropped 55% to $1.9 million on its fourth weekend. Domestic total: $36.3 million.

10. "The Invention of Lying" (Warner Bros./Radar/MRC): $1.9 million, down 43%. $15.5 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales.

-- Ben Fritz

Top photo: Max Records and monsters in "Where the Wild Things Are." Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.

Bottom photo: Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler in "Law Abiding Citizen." Credit: John Baer / Overture Films.

Gilmore Artist Award winner Ingrid Fliter will perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Symphony Silicon Valley
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Wanted: Professional Pot Critic

Voters in the state elected to legalize medical marijuana almost a decade ago. But this year, there has been a boom in the number of dispensaries. Now, the Denver alternative-weekly newspaper, Westword, is seeking a freelance pot critic. Host Liane Hansen speaks to Westword editor Patricia Calhoun about the alternative weekly's search for a medical marijuana critic.

Setting the pace in Kalenjin music
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Taut and volatile 'Groundswell,' explodes at San Jose Repertory
'GROUNDSWELL.' The destinies of three lonely men collide with fateful consequences in this haunting new post-Apartheid drama
One Battle Ensured U.S. Return To Iraq, Author Says

On a single day in Feb. 1991, an American Army squadron defeated an elite Iraqi brigade almost twice as large in what is now regarded as the largest U.S. Army tank battle since World War II. To history buffs, the "Battle of 73 Easting" is legendary. To the man who led the squadron, the battle was a omen of things to come.

Nielsen meets with big clients to discuss Internet measurement

Nielsen Co. has wrapped an important meeting with 80 clients from companies that included CBS, NBC, ABC, Microsoft, Time Warner, Comcast and Hulu where the topic was how best to move ahead with developing a single-source system that will measure both television and Internet media consumption in the home.

The push from some clients is to get such a system up and running by late 2010. Nielsen has been pushing for the middle of 2011. Putting the squeeze on to move up the timeline are cable giants Comcast and Time Warner Cable, according to a person at the meeting. Both are pushing new online viewing services and have lined up several major cable networks to provide content.

Currently, Nielsen has people meters in about 18,000 homes. It'sthose meters that provide the ratings responsible for billions ofdollars' worth of ad sales. As more and more people start to watchcontent online on sites such as Hulu or YouTube, content providers and distributors wantsolid numbers to sell advertising. Nielsen has been testing measuringfor both TV and Internet viewing in about 395 homes. Nielsen measuresonline usage in a separate sample that tracks about 200,000 people. Ifyou are wondering, like I was, why the Internet sample is so big,that's because while Nielsen only tracks about 100 channels, it follows20,000 websites.

There was a "broad agreement" of adding Internet measurement in the households that already have people meters," said Sara Erichson, Nielsen's president of Media Client Services, who ran the get-together at the Harvard Club in midtown Manhattan.

The challenge, Erichson said, is finding homes that will allow for both the people meter and the software that goes inside the computer to measure Web watching.

"Tens of billions of dollars are transacted off of these numbers; we want to make sure that by asking people to do both, you don't have fewer people saying yes," she said. "Can we do it faster without negatively impacting quality" is the issue, she added.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: Nielsen's Sara Erichson. Credit: Nielsen Co.

Think of the 'Children'! Let's talk about last night's 'Supernatural'

The following episode discusses "I Believe the Children Are Our Future," last night's "Supernatural" episode.

Before I get to my thoughts on the episode, some housekeeping:

1. Next week the CW airs a repeat of the season premiere, so obviously, I won't be reviewing that again. If you want to know what's coming up in some of the episodes after that, look here. That post has pictures and episode summaries from the next two episodes, as well as a "Coming Soon" video clip. (All my other "Supernatural" stories and reviews are here.)

2. I'll be out of town Oct. 29 and unable to do my usual review.

3. I've thought a lot about how to make commenting on this site something that doesn't melt my brain. Now, don't get me wrong, the vast majority of "Supernatural" fans are intelligent, thoughtful, insightful and respectful of my views and the views of their fellow commenters. But some people make me a little crazy (or crazier, depending on your view).

So before you think about commenting here, keep the following guidelines in mind.

And I've wavered on this, but I've come to this conclusion: If you can't follow the common-sense guidelines below, you will be banned from commenting on this site. You won't get a second chance, you won't get a warning. I know, it sounds harsh. Maybe it is harsh.

But this site functions according to Mo's Grand Theory of Commenting, which is: The environment here should be so accepting, so calm and so non-screechy that most timid lurker should feel it's safe to comment. I simply won't let angry, vicious, annoying or repetitive people hijack the comment areas.

The upshot? Don't tick me off. I'll ban you. Or turn you into an action figure.

So, here are the common-sense guidelines:

Be nice. To further quote from Alan Sepinwall's Rules for Commenting: "This is an opinion blog, and a place where people can and should argue passionately for their point of view. But there's a difference between arguing with passion and arguing with hostility. If you can't find a way to express your viewpoint without insulting other commenters, or getting strident and self-righteous -- say, equating your opinion with fact, and deriding other people for not seeing the truth of your words -- then either tone down your words until they're more respectful to other people, or don't comment." Seriously. Read the whole thing. Those rules apply here. Take them to heart.   Absolutely no Samgirl-Deangirl fangirl nonsense. I'm not going to explain what this is. We all know what it is. It's possible to critique individual episodes in an intelligent fashion without becoming hysterical about how the writers have ruined Sam, Dean, the show and/or Western Civilization. Alice Jester's post on Sam and Dean, their Infamous Apologies and the nature of family squabbling says it all. READ THIS. Seriously. As a fan, if you're not coming from the place that Alice is, or someplace in that neighborhood, go elsewhere to rant. No comments over 500 words. Please, please don't mention any spoilers. Don't repeat something that other people have already said multiple times. Please only share your thoughts if you have new ideas to add or want to respond to what other commenters have said. Enjoy this. I know, everything I wrote above sounds so strict and uptight! And I'm sorry for that (and again, it's aimed at the few people who don't already abide by these guidelines instinctively). But if we can't make this commenting atmosphere enjoyable, then there's no point in doing it. Some other relevant info: I read and approve all comments before they are posted. Since commenting typically continues over the weekend, you may see a lag time between when you add your comment and when you see it posted here, as I attempt to have a life outside of writing about TV (Heresy! I know!). If things get ugly this time around or if my weak brain just gets tired, I may shut down comments on Saturday or so. Not out of angst or whatever, but just so I don't have comment approval hanging over my head all weekend.

OK, on to the main event -- if anyone is still reading, that is!

I thought it was especially important to go over the commenting rules before starting this review, because, in my view, "I Believe the Children Are Our Future" had some significant weak spots. If I were a teacher, I'd give the student a C, or maybe a B- if I were feeling charitable, and I'd write this in the margin of the paper: "I know you can do better."

So I'll try to abide by my own rules and go through my issues with "Children" respectfully and with a minimum of snark (ha).

Last week's episode, as many of us remarked, didn't do a great job of tying the brothers' story to the monster-of-the-week plot. The two elements of that episode seemed disjointed.

"Children," I thought, had the opposite problem. The story of whether Jesse would "make the right choice" and the way that element was tied into Sam's history was about as subtle as an anvil to the cranium.

Actually, I found the writing for both brothers somewhat simplistic. Dean was portrayed at times as an immature chucklehead and Sam was obsessed with guilt over the choices he'd made. If we didn't understand Sam's first speech about making good choices, we got almost the same speech from him a few minutes later. Really? Ouch. That anvil hurts when it lands on my head. 

The most interesting part of the episode had to do with the nature of truth and lies, and whether the truth, in some cases, a harsh truth is kinder than a well-intentioned lie. But there seemed to be a bit of a mishmash in "Children" -- it started out exploring the idea of belief making things real but then segued into whether telling the truth is better than lying. These ideas are related, of course, but they could have been tackled a bit more subtly. For instance, the conversation at the end -- the attempt to tie the brothers' story to Jesse's plight -- felt tacked-on.

And I wouldn't have minded the juvenile humor (Dean's hairy palm? Cas on a whoopie cushion?) if it was just one element of an otherwise solid episode. But "Children" had some problematic plotting.

There was too much of the "what's happening in this town?" introductory material, in my view. Now, part of the problem there may just be my problem -- I had known since Comic-Con that "Supernatural" would be doing an anti-Christ episode. So the first couple of acts were fairly anti-climactic for me, given that I knew where they were leading. But then I asked my husband, who is never aware of spoilers, what he thought of that aspect of "Children," and he said the beginning dragged a bit for him as well.

Your mileage may vary, but for my money, the first couple of acts recalled (or simply swiped elements from) superior episodes such as "Playthings" and "Bedtime Stories" without really introducing anything new or compelling.

Once we got to Jesse and his mother, things improved. I thought Gattlin Griffith, the actor playing Jesse, was great -- he had a kind of presence that child actors often don't have. I could completely buy Jesse as a very evolved, very powerful being inside the body of a smart, independent child. And Ever Carradine, who played Julia, the woman/demon who gave birth to him, did a great job in that role (but my God, the extreme closeups on her face this week were almost as annoying as the Random ShakyCam last week).

The premise of a powerful child who doesn't even know the true extent of his own powers and isn't intrinsically evil but could become evil -- it's an exceptionally tantalizing idea. Seeing Jesse discover what he was capable of was interesting, and the suspense of the episode derived from not knowing whether he would side with his demon!Mom or the Winchesters.

The outcome had to do with respect, in the end. Julia was telling Jesse the "truth," but she was spinning it to her own ends. When the Winchesters finally told Jesse what was really going on, they left the decision about what to do up to him. They respected him enough to let him make his own choice, and hence he didn't kill them or turn them into action figures (sidebar: Cas action figure! Pretty cool!) 


But I was left with a lot of questions about this kid, which the mother's exposition didn't fully explain. How did a virgin birth come about in a demon? What, if anything, did Lucifer and his henchmen have to do with the birth of Jesse? Why is a human-demon hybrid so powerful? How is it that no demon ever figured out that finding the adoption records could have helped in the quest to find Jesse? His powers kept him disguised? Huh?

Sam, of course, somehow got hold of the adoption records with no problem (normally I buy pretty much anything about the show's "investigations" if most of the plot points have been earned honestly, but this was just one more "huh?" moment for me).

And after giving up this child and "running," the mother helpfully gave the adoption authorities her new address -- and then never left that place? I know we saw that the demon who had been inside her watched her for 11 years, waiting for her to supply a clue about the kid's whereabouts. But we were told several times that there were multiple demons who wanted to figure out where Jesse was. Are we to understand that not one demon was smart enough to look into birth-records angle and try to find Jesse that way?

And finally, wasn't it convenient that demon!Julia showed up by herself to Jesse's house? Jesse could have probably overpowered a demon army, but why not bring backup or at least tell her superiors where Jesse was? Because the plot required her not to, that's why.

All in all, the things I liked best about the episode were the performances of Gattlin Griffith as Jesse and Ever Carradine as Julia, as well as the tortured look on Castiel's face as he attempted to kill the child. The last few scenes in Jesse's house, as the boys were explaining what was going on and later, as Jesse trudged up the stairs to take a final look at his parents -- all that was poignant. For some reason, the image of Jesse flopping on his bed -- a tired kid unable to completely understand why he had to leave home -- was the most effective moment for me. 

Still, while it had a few good moments and scenes, elements of "Children" seemed rushed or sloppy. It felt as though corners had been cut in a few too many places. When it comes down to it, I judge an episode of "Supernatural" by how much I want to watch it again. I wasn't in any great rush to watch "Children" again, but I did watch it twice, to make sure that I was judging it as fairly and as honestly as I could.

I hope we see Jesse again; he clearly looks like he could be a player later in the season. And perhaps at that point we'll get some more information and/or clarity about his origins and how he fits into the bigger picture.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't expect "Children" to fully supply all of that information this time around. But I think this fitfully interesting, occasionally quite frustrating episode could have done a better job of explaining who and what he is and how he came to be.

Review: In 'A Serious Man,' the Coen brothers go to their roots
In 'A Serious Man,' the Coen brothers offer a dark and delicious homage to their roots.
R. Crumb's Awesome, Affecting Take On 'Genesis'

The godfather of cartoon counterculture takes on the Bible in his new comic, The Book of Genesis Illustrated. Reviewer Susan Jane Gilman says R. Crumb's latest effort is serious — and brilliant.

Q&A: Africans Won’t Just Be on Receiving End of Arts and Culture
CE TOWN, Oct 15 (IPS)Global initiatives have in recent years stressed the contribution that arts and culture can make to development. This has led African and European artists, bureaucrats and policy makers to increasingly confront the unequal relations in North-South cultural and artistic exchanges.

Top artistes converge in Nairobi for common good

Paramount fills long-empty home entertainment slot

After five months without a president of worldwide home entertainment, Paramount has promoted Dennis Maguire, who previously oversaw DVD sales overseas, to the post.

Maguire became president of Paramount Home Entertainment International in 2006 after holding the same post at Walt Disney Studios, where he worked for 23 years.

He replaces Kelley Avery, who unexpectedly left the job in May. Avery had previously overseen home entertainment for DreamWorks and took the job at Paramount when it acquired her former employer in 2006.

Maguire takes the job at a time when DVD sales, which have been a cash cow for movie studios for the last decade, are rapidly declining and studios are determining how to handle fast-growing but less profitable rental businesses such as Redbox and Netflix, as well as attempting to boost sales of high-definition Blu-ray discs.

"There are a lot of challenges in home entertainment, and it's good to have someone in the job I'm comfortable with and know well," said Paramount vice chairman Rob Moore, to whom Maguire reports. "He feels ready to take on bigger challenges."

Maguire worked with Moore to negotiate the studio's unique deal with controversial DVD kiosk company Redbox, under which the studio is studying its effect on sales this fall before potentially triggering a five-year, $575-million deal at the end of the year.

Moore has been directly overseeing Paramount's domestic DVD business since Avery's departure in May.

--Ben Fritz

Photo: Dennis Maguire. Credit: Paramount Pictures.

What's coming up on 'Supernatural': Video goodness and episode summaries

"Supernatural" fans, there are some goodies below for you.

Look below for summaries of the next three episodes of the CW show, including Thursday's installment, as well as the killer "Coming Soon" video clip that aired at the end of last week's epidoe.

The "Coming Soon" clip is a compilation of moments from the episodes listed below.

Spoilers ahoy.

The photos on this post are from the Oct. 29 episode. The summaries below are from the CW. 

“I Believe the Children Are Our Future,” airs Thursday: "A series of strange and seemingly unexplainable deaths in a small town lead Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) to the home of a young local boy, whose true identity has Castiel (Misha Collins) bent on his immediate destruction.  Guest stars Ever Carradine as ‘Julia’ and Gattlin Griffith as ‘Jesse.’  Written by Andrew Dabb & Dan Loflin and directed by Charles Beeson."

For photos from "I Believe the Children Are Our Future," look here.

The show broadcasts a repeat of the Season 5 premiere on Oct. 22.

“The Curious Case of Dean Winchester,” airs Oct. 29: "When a 25-year-old man drops dead of old age and a 60-something man goes missing, only to turn up young and extremely healthy, the Winchesters investigate and discover a backroom poker game where players gamble to win or lose years of their lives.  Guest stars Jim Beaver as ‘Bobby Singer,’ Chad Everett as ‘Older Dean,’ Hal Ozsan as ‘Patrick’ and Pascale Hutton as ‘Lia.’  Sera Gamble wrote the teleplay for 'The Curious Case of Dean Winchester' based on a story by Sera Gamble & Jenny Klein."

Note: Jim Beaver talks a bit about Bobby's story line in "The Curious Case of Dean Winchester" in this interview.

“Changing Channels,” airs Nov. 5: "When Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) find themselves living their lives on what appear to be TV shows, it makes for a whole new style of reality television and they wonder if the Trickster (guest star Richard Speight, Jr.) is to blame.  From a sitcom to a soapy hospital drama to a Japanese game show to a crime procedural, each new experience they encounter is more bizarre than the next and they want out.  But is the Trickster really the mastermind behind the madness?  Also starring Misha Collins as ‘Castiel.’  'Changing Channels' was written by Jeremy Carver and directed by Charles Beeson."

One final note about the episode that airs Nov. 19: It's called "Abandon All Hope..." and it was written by Ben Edlund. It's the final episode of 2009 for "Supernatural," which returns with new episodes in early 2010. To find out who guest stars in the episode, look at the end of this post. For more "Supernatural" spoilers, check out the Twitter feed of the SuperWiki -- there are links aplenty!

Come back here Friday for a review of Thursday's episode. All my other far-too-numerous "Supernatural" stories are here.

Photos: Jensen Ackles; guest star Chad Everett, Jared Padalecki, Ackles; Jim Beaver and Ackles; Ackles and guest star Hal Ozsan.

Sponsored Link: Amazon's Supernatural Store

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'Food Beware': Vive La (Local Food) Revolution!

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Q&A: Africans Won’t Just Be on Receiving End of Arts and Culture
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Fox shutting down reality cable channel

Fox shutting down reality cable channel

Reality as a genre may still be hot, but it's not enough to sustain a cable channel.

News Corp. is shuttering its 4-year-old Fox Reality Channel (what, you mean you didn't know there was a Fox Reality Channel?). The channel, which was available in about 50 million homes, never really established itself in the ratings but did provide a home for reality reruns such as "The Amazing Race" and "Beauty and the Geek." It had a handful of original shows as well. News of the decision was broken by The Wrap.

Although the channel will go away next March, Fox is keeping the real estate and will look to launch a new channel in its place, possibly with an outside partner, per The Wrap. After all, you don't just walk away from 50 million homes. Because of the leverage Fox has with its stronger cable networks, including FX, it was able to get a decent license fee of about 9 cents per subscriber for Fox Reality even though its ratings didn't really merit that cost, according to Kagan Media. 

A Fox spokesman said, "With the changing cable landscape we've made a strategic decision to shift some resources and refocus on emerging channels. However, Fox Reality Channel will remain on on our lineup for at least the next several months."

If Fox Reality wasn't emerging and it sure wasn't established, then what was it?

Guess we'll never know.

-- Joe Flint

Charismatic wrestler, manager Captain Lou Albano dies
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Leonardo fingerprint reveals $150 million artwork

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Digital Domain, whose backers include Michael Bay, is opening a Florida branch

Digital Domain, the Venice-based visual effects house partly owned by director Michael Bay, is expanding -- outside of Southern California.

The company best known for creating digital effects for movies including "Transformers" and "Titanic" announced today that it would develop a digital production studio in Florida dedicated to producing animated movies and video games.

Digital Domain has long sought to transform itself from being a work-for-hire movie and commercial effects house into a full-blown production studio. The Academy Award-winning company had planned a initial public stock offering last year to help finance that conversion, but later scrapped the IPO after a tepid response from investors.

The Florida studio is being financed with a $50-million investment by Wyndcrest Holdings, a Florida-based technology investor whose principals acquired Digital Domain in 2006. The project also is supported by a grant from the state of Florida's Office of Tourism, Trade and Economic Development and various incentives administered by the city of Port St. Lucie and St. Lucie County.

"Developing original content has always been a key part of our strategy, and a natural extension of the artistic and creative talent that the company has developed over the last fifteen years,'' Digital Domain Chief Executive Cliff Plumer said in a statement.

The company also recently announced that it was opening a new visual effects studio in Vancouver, Canada, which offers film tax breaks to production companies.

-- Richard Verrier

Photo: Michael Bay on the set of "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." Credit: Paramount Pictures

The 'Games' afoot: HBO's 'Game of Thrones' gears up

HBO says the official start date of production on the pilot of "Game of Thrones," one of the network's most hotly anticipated projects, is Oct. 24.

Principal photography begins in earnest the following week in Northern Ireland. Other filming locations reportedly include Scotland and Morocco (HBO has not confirmed those locations, but George R.R. Martin, the author of the book series on which "Thrones" is based, has said he plans to go to Morocco for the filming of part of the pilot). 

The network also confirmed that Isaac Hempstead-Wright has been cast in the key role of Bran Stark, the son of Edward Stark, a powerful lord. Bran is a child as the epic "Thrones" book series begins, but his role becomes increasingly important to the story as it progresses.

HBO's "Thrones" pilot, which has not yet been picked up as a series, is based on the first book of Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" series of novels.

I reported in September that Lena Headey has been cast as Cersei Lannister, a member of a powerful family in the "Thrones" saga. Other cast members include Peter Dinklage as Cersei's brother Tyrion, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau asCersei's twin, Jaime, Sean Bean as the aristocrat Ned Stark, Jennifer Ehleas his wife Catelyn Stark and Mark Addy as King Robert. 

An HBO representative said that the role of Khal Drogo, another key role in the book series, has not yet been cast.

The Twitter page of actor Jamie Campbell Bower ("Twilight New Moon," AMC's "The Prisoner") says that he's headed to Belfast, and fan speculation has him cast as "Thrones'" Waymar Royce, but that has not yet been officially confirmed by HBO (if I get confirmation, I'll update this post).

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'Bright-Sided': When Happiness Doesn't Help

When author Barbara Ehrenreich was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was bombarded with wildly optimistic, inspirational phrases. But a cheerful outlook, she argues, does not cure cancer. In her new book, Bright-Sided, Ehrenreich explores the negative effects of positive thinking.

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Ralph Nader's New Project: Novels

Exit laughing: Lauren Corrao leaves Comedy Central

Lauren Corrao, the longtime Comedy Central head of programming and development more recently responsible for ushering in "The Sarah Silverman Program," is leaving the cable channel.

In a memo sent to staffers Monday, MTV Networks Entertainment Group President Doug Herzog said he and Comedy Central President Michele Ganeless would use the next few months to find a replacement. Corrao's direct-reports are Senior Vice President Jim Sharp and newly hired Lisa Leingang, but sources said an external hire is more likely. Corrao will stay at the Viacom-owned cable network through the end of hercontract, which expires in December, and will thereafter segue intoproducing.

Herzog credited Corrao, who has been at the network for seven years, with the rise of hits like the short-lived "Chappelle's Show," "Drawn Together" and "Reno 911!" More recently, she signed comedian Demetri Martin to his own series ("Important Things with Demetri Martin").

But lately, the network has struggled to find new hits. Among the more recent high-profile launches that didn't click are "Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire" and the David Alan Grier news show "Chocolate News," both of which flopped. A renewal for "Michael & Michael Have Issues" is also unlikely.

In a statement, Corrao said, "I feel that this is exactly the right time in this ever changing world of television to personally create, produce and own content. I am very much looking forward to the new and exciting challenges in the next chapter of my career."

Before joining Comedy Central, Lauren was a programming executive at Fox.

-- Denise Martin

Photo credit: Comedy Central

'CSI' sends Ray Langston on a three-city, crossover odyssey

CBS is planning a "CSI" extravaganza for November sweeps -- star Laurence Fishburne (Dr. Raymond Langston) will appear in all three scene-of-the-crime shows in one week, and the whole thing wraps up on the flagship "CSI" on Nov. 12. Mild spoilers about the episodes follow.

Langston will first visit "CSI: Miami" on Nov. 9; he travels south in an episode titled "Bone Voyage" to investigate a case with ties to Las Vegas. Fishburne and "CSI: Miami" star David Caruso are pictured at left; perhaps Langston and Horatio Caine are talking about cool sunglasses, which Langston is still sporting when he arrives in New York on Nov. 11 (Fishburne and "CSI: NY" star Gary Sinise are pictured at right).

In that "CSI: NY" episode, "Hammer Down," according to CBS, "a big-rig accident results in the discovery of an interstate truckingring that specializes in human cargo and black-market organ harvesting, and sets off a race against time to save a hostage."

The three-part crossover concludes on Nov. 12 on "CSI." In that episode, viewers will learn more about what Langston is investigating: "a nationwide human trafficking network that abducts young girls forces them into prostitution," according to David Weddle, who penned the episode with his writing partner, Bradley Thompson.

Ubiquitious guest star Mark Sheppard, who played Romo Lampkin on "Battlestar Galactica" (a character who knew a thing or two about shades), has a guest role in that Nov. 12 "CSI" episode. Sheppard, who has a credit list as long as your arm and apparently by law must appear on every scripted show in existence, also appears on USA's new show "White Collar" Oct. 23 and "Supernatural" on Nov. 19.

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