TeleChimp

The race for the No. 1 slot this weekend was a close one, but Date Night is claiming victory with an estimated $27.1 million gross over Clash of the Titans‘ $26.8 million take (although that could all change by tomorrow morning when the true numbers are reported). Date Night, which marks a new box office opening weekend record for Tina Fey, scored a B with audiences, according to exit pollster Cinemascore. The PG-13 rated comedy about a married couple caught up in a case of mistaken identity is not a career high for Fey’s co-star Steve Carell. That honor goes to 2008’s Get Smart, which opened to $38 million on its way to $130 million. Carell’s box office prowess will be tested again shortly when Dinner for Schmucks, where he plays opposite Paul Rudd, debuts in July. Clash’s numbers represent a 56 percent drop at the box office, quite steep for the swords and sandals epic starring Sam Worthington. The film has now grossed $110 million after two weekends of release, with its 3-D theaters accounting for approximately 43 percent of the gross.

Third place went to the animated kid flick How to Train Your Dragon. While the Dreamworks Animated film opened below many expectations, it has held on quite well in the subsequent weeks. Grossing $25.3 million with a remarkably small 13 percent drop, the Jay Baruchel-voiced flick has now earned $133.9 million after three weekends in theaters. Spot four goes to Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too, which is also in a horse race for the frame against Miley Cyrus’ romance Last Song. Estimates give the advantage to Perry, with Lionsgate reporting an $11 million gross. That figure represents a steep 62 percent fall for the Janet Jackson-starring sequel, putting its two-week take at $48.5 million. Cyrus walked away with another $10 million for her second weekend in theaters. The PG-rated film, based on the Nicholas Sparks novel, fell only 37 percent, putting its cume at $42.4 million in two weekends in theaters.

Alice in Wonderland continues to perform solidly. The film may be in its sixth weekend in release, but with a scant 32 percent drop, it managed to hold onto a sixth slot in the top 10 rankings with another $5.6 million. The Tim Burton-directed fantasy has now grossed $319 million since bowing in March. Spot seven went to MGM’s Hot Tub Time Machine. The 1980s nostalgia fest fell only 33 percent since last weekend, earning an additional $5.4 million. The John Cusack-starrer has now grossed close to $37 million since it bowed three weekends ago. The Bounty Hunter took the eighth spot for the frame, grossing another $4.3 million for a four-weekend gross of $56 million. Ninth place belonged to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which fell 23 percent its fourth weekend in theaters. The PG-rated kid flick grossed an additional $4.1 million and has now earned $$53.7 million.

Spot 10 was the only other surprise of the frame. It belonged to the Christian-themed Letters to God, which only opened in 895 theaters. Still, the film managed to land in the top 10, with a weekend take of $1.1 million. The overall box office was down a bit compared to last year at this time, when Miley Cyrus dominated Easter weekend with her feature film Hannah Montana. Stay tuned for next weekend, when Kick-Ass comes storming into theaters.

Popularity: 16% [?]

Diane Lane will star in HBO’s upcoming film “Cinema Verite,” the behind-the-scenes look at the making of the groundbreaking documentary “An American Family.”

Lane will play Pat Loud, the mother and main character of the documentary, which chronicled an intimate look at a Santa Barbara family.

Popularity: 12% [?]

I’m officially getting old. I know this because Holly Marie Combs has just been cast as the mother of a teenager!

Sources confirm to me exclusively that the ex-Charmed one is joining ABC Family’s upcoming drama, Pretty Little Liars, as the mother of Lucy Hale’s Aria.

Liars, based on the popular series of young adult novels from Alloy (which is producing the series), follows four teen girls — Aria (Hale), Emily (Shay Mitchell), Hanna (Ashley Benson), and Spencer (Troian Bellisario) — who have been hiding a deep, dark secret since the sixth grade.

Chad Lowe was recently tapped to play Aria’s father (and Combs’ TV hubby). The cast also includes Laura Leighton and Bianca Lawson.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Cable TV is larded with food, cooking, and eating shows. They can range from Food Network’s Ten Dollar Dinners With Melissa d’Arabian to Travel Channel’s Man v. Food, productions that center on cheap shopping or cheap gastronomic thrills. The class act in the televised food genre was thought to be Bravo’s Top Chef, but in recent seasons, it’s become a showcase for expletive-spewing tattoo victims more familiar with truculence than truffles.

These are all reasons to welcome back Top Chef Masters, now in its second season. It inverts the usual reality-TV competition show. Instead of desperate amateurs or semipros trying to establish themselves as fascinating television personalities, these are well-established professionals who tend not to be needy for camera fame. Instead, they want to beat the molasses out of their peers. What I’m saying is, Top Chef Masters is that rarity: It’s mature reality TV.

But mature doesn’t mean not fun. In the very first episode of the second season, one of my favorite Quickfire Challenges asks the chefs to make a good meal from food purchased solely from a gas-station quickie mart. I got to feel superior to the chef team that didn’t know the difference between a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and regular Cheetos (hey, I take my small victories where I can find them), and took pleasure in the fact that the judges that first week were the rock band the Bravery — which was nicely random. (Their qualification? Their touring schedule compels them to spend a lot of time at gas stations.)

The series isn’t perfect, of course. Host Kelly Choi is both cheesy and grating: a cheese grater who seems even less interested in eating the food set before her than Top Chef’s Padma Lakshmi, the queen of tiny bites. Of course, Choi can’t help but come off as wan when placed beside cooking television’s most amusing bunch of judges, including Jay Rayner, who possesses that effortless British glibness; James Oseland, who smiles broadly but doesn’t mind making cutting comments; and the divine Gael Greene, who’s never met a meal over which she couldn’t sprinkle some amusing babble

Popularity: 14% [?]

Wow! 1980’s star Boy George met 2010 pop star Lady Gaga backstage at one of her chaotic concerts. And the overly eccentric singer actually equested a signed autograph… on her private parts!

“It was very brief when I met her, there were a lot of people in the room, it was all a bit chaotic,” he told The Mirror in the U.K. “I haven’t been around that kind of circus in years! I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ You know, I’ve been that woman! So it was very interesting to be on the outside looking in. She was very sweet. She asked me to sign her vagina.”

George shyly denied her request and signed her hat instead. This classic encounter left a positive impact on Boy George and he states “underneath all the drama” Lady Gaga is still a talented artist. Wouldn’t a collaboration between these two be crazy?

While backstage at ‘The Tonight Show’ with Joy Behar, Jay Leno confessed his true feelings about the late-night shake-up at NBC, in which he reclaimed his position as the ‘Tonight’ host.

Leno candidly admits on camera that he and Conan O’Brien were both “treated terribly” by NBC. “Conan got screwed. I got screwed. This is TV. The reason show business pays a lot of money is so when you get screwed you’ve got something left over,” Leno said (via CNN.)

Lending his support, Leno believes O’Brien will actually come back bigger than ever. “I think Conan will come back and he’ll be strong,” Leno said to Behar. “And we’ll all compete against one another. It should be me against [David] Letterman, against Conan, against [Jimmy] Kimmel — and then you see who wins.”
O’Brien is bringing a “half-assed” live comedy show to cities across the U.S. while rumors continue to swirl about his alleged late-night gig at FOX. His manager Gavin Polone said the show is far from a done deal because NBC’s $40 million contract buyout stipulates that O’Brien can’t appear on television until September.

Since the late-night showdown, Leno has continued to stress how Conan — who many feel took the brunt NBC’s decision making — was a class act.

“Through all of this, Conan O’Brien has been a gentleman. He’s a good guy. I have no animosity towards him. This is all business. If you don’t get the ratings, they take you off the air. I think you know this town, you can do almost anything. You get ratings they keep you. I don’t get ratings, he wants. That was NBC’s solution. It didn’t work so we might have an answer for you tomorrow. So, we’ll see. That’s basically where it is,” Jay said during his show in January.

The rumors of animosity aren’t keeping Leno down though. “All comics are friends, [but] when you go on stage your job is to blow the other guys off the stage,” he told Behar. “I get it. That’s the way it works. You don’t impede somebody else’s opportunity, but when you go out there that’s what you do.”

Popularity: 16% [?]

New evidence was released Thursday in the Casey Anthony murder case, including the amount of money she received from a television network, as well as conversations she had with other inmates.

Anthony's defense team told Judge Stan Strickland that she no longer has funds to pay for the trial. Her attorney testified ABC News paid Casey Anthony $200,000, but that those funds are now gone.

Strickland is deciding whether to approve the declaration of Anthony being indigent, which would make the state pay for her defense.

A transcript of conversations Anthony had with a fellow inmate was also released, stating that "an Orange County Corrections officer may have facilitated the communication once the friendship had begun."

Casey Anthony remains jailed on a charge of first-degree murder in the death of her daughter, Caylee, who was last seen in June of 2008. Caylee was not reported missing until a month later. The little girl's remains were found in a wooded area near the family's home on December 11, 2008. Investigators say the toddler's body was found with duct tape over her mouth.

Kate Gosselin narrowly escape elimination on ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Tuesday night, but fans may be in for a lot more drama next week. Gosselin tells E! News that her new dance routine will be a slight reenactment of her tabloid troubles. “It’s my story over the past two years,” Gosselin said of her upcoming dance routine. “We’re very, very excited.”

Even her dance partner, Tony Dovolani, agrees that there will be “lots of drama” as he channels Gosselin’s ex-husband, Jon.

Gosselin and Dovolani had problems of their own during this week’s episode, with the pair clashing during rehearsals. Dovolani walked out on Gosselin after she questioned his technique — over and over again. On-set sources told PopEater’s Rob Shuter that Gosselin tried to get Dovolani booted from the show after the big blow up. For now, the two are moving forward and saving all the drama for the dance floor.
Both threatened to quit the show, but pulled though and danced the Jive. Unfortunately, it only scored a five from each of the judges, for a total of 15 out of 30 points. But the audience’s votes kept Gosselin in the running — sending actress Shannen Doherty packing her bags.

“The frustrating thing for me is, I can do it so well in practice that even I’m like, ‘Wow! Did I just do that?’ Then, I come out here and I’m like, ‘Whaaa!’” Gosselin added. “My dancing has a lot of work to do, and I’m the first to admit it. I’m not a quitter; I won’t quit on this. I want to finish the dance.”

Popularity: 11% [?]

Avatar the Movie went 3D. The Grammys went 3D. Now Mrs. G TV & Appliances in Lawrenceville is going 3D! On Wednesday March 24, 2010 at 10am, Suzanne Kantra, the founder of Techlicious.com will be speaking about 3D TVs and how to set up a 3D home theater system at the third generation women owned appliance superstore.

The presentation is part of CEO Debbie Schaeffer's VIB (Very Important Blogger) Series in which local and regional bloggers and professionals interested in social media gather for discussions on relevant topics and use the opportunity to network with each other.Suzanne Kantra has been on the pulse of science and technology issues for nearly 20 years. Before starting Techlicious, she was Technology Editor of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia and Popular Science Magazine. She has also been featured on CNN, CBS and NBC

Oh should I say portable All-in-One Viera TV, indeed Panasonic’s latest 10.1” α-Si TFT TVs (1024×600), the DMP-BV200 and DMP-HV100, push the boundaries of being simple portable TVs. Capable of being used to watch not only TV but Blu-Ray and DVD as well (DMP-BV200 only), our TVs also allow you to watch any kind of AVCHD Video from a SD, SDHC or SDX card (MEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC/H.264 AVCHD, ISDBT Mobile…) plus DivX files (DMP-BV200 only), Jpeg, Mp3 via USB or on SD cards…

If you also happen to own a full Panasonic Viera Home Theater and DVR you can, once your DMP-BV200 or DMP-HV100 connected to your wireless network via a WiFi dongle (DY-WL10), receive streaming video or watch videos stored on your Panasonic DVR from the comfort of your room or in your balcony. With such Wireless setting, Panasonic also offers you the possibility of accessing YouTube and enjoying any kind of video that is available online.