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i>BOURNE TO CHASE SIMPSONS The reign of the Simpsons at the box office is likely to be shortlived as Matt Damon arrives with The Bourne Ultimatumthis weekend. Most analysts are predicting that the thriller will wind up with about $60 million, while The Simpsons Movie will slip to second place with $35-40 million. (It crossed the $100-million mark on Thursday.) Three other films will be making their debut this weekend, including Disney’s Underdog, which was not screened for critics (“a sure sign that the movie is a dog,” remarked Kyle Smith in the New York Post)....

HALLOWEEN ARRIVES EARLY If Labor Day is a holiday that produces about as much additional business at the box office as Flag Day, maybe an early arrival of Halloweencould set things right. Box-office analysts are predicting that the R-rated remake of the 1978 slasher flick will do about $20 million at the box office – not bad for the holiday that occurs just as school vacation ends. The film is expected to lift morale at The Weinstein Co....

SAG DISSENTERS MAY OUST NEGOTIATORS Dissension within the Screen Actors Guild over the bargaining strategy of its leaders has reached the point that an effort has been launched to remove the entire negotiating committee and replace the members with a less obstreperous group, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Wednesday). At a board meeting on January 12, members of the dissident group are expected to call for disbanding the negotiating committee, then jump-starting negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers the Timessaid, probably by abandoning the union’s demand for higher new media payments in exchange for additional pay increases....

MISS UNIVERSE SETS NEW RATINGS LOW Donald Trump’s Miss Universe contest slumped to a new record ratings low Sunday night, registering a 5.6 rating and a 9 share in the 9:00 p.m. hour and a 6.4/11 in the 10:00 p.m. hour. Its previous ratings low was set last year, its first on NBC after it was dumped by CBS, when the contest averaged a 6.9/11. The contest was won by 18-year-old Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza of Puerto Rico who has said that she dreams of becoming a movie actress....

LIBERTY MEDIA TO LAUNCH NEW HOLLYWOOD STUDIO Liberty Media chief John Malone has decided to invest $500 million in a new motion picture studio to be called Overture Films and headed by former MGM COO Chris McGurk and former United Artists President Danny Rosett, the Los Angeles Timesreported today (Monday). The newspaper quoted S. Mark Young, an entertainment professor at the USC Marshall School of Business, as saying: “A major company like Liberty backing a successful executive like Chris McGurk bodes well for success....

NAMES ON NO STRIKE PETITION SOAR Wednesday’s announcement by the leaders of the Screen Actors Guild that they will conduct a strike authorization vote next month – raising the possibility of a strike as early as January – has had the unintended effect of swelling the signature count on the “No SAG Strike” petition being circulated online. Six days after the petition was posted at http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?DealNow, it contained 14,790 signatures as of 10:00 this morning....

MCMANUS APPOINTMENT AN EYE-OPENER AT CBS NEWSWednesday’s appointment of Sean McManus, president of CBS Sports, to replace Andrew Heyward as president of CBS News was greeted with “palpable relief” by employees of the news division, the New York Timesobserved today (Thursday). John Roberts, the network’s chief White House correspondent and often mentioned as a possible successor to Dan Rather on the CBS Evening News, told the newspaper: “If there was going to be a change, and it appears inevitable there was going to be a change, I think people are glad it’s this change....

KATHY LEE RETURNS TO MORNING TV Kathy Lee Gifford will return to morning television as co-host of the fourth hour of NBC’s Today show, the network confirmed today (Monday). Appearing on the show this morning (which featured highlights from her years with Regis Philbin on the syndicated ABC morning program Live With Regis and Kathy Lee), Gifford said that she was persuaded to return to the morning grind by Hoda Kotb, with whom she’ll be sharing hosting duties on Todaybeginning April 7....

REPORTS: COMCAST-GE DEAL FOR NBC CLOSEMoving another step closer toward a deal that would turn over control of NBC Universal to Comcast, General Electric and Comcast have agreed to value the entertainment company at $30 billion, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing a source familiar with the matter. Setting a value on the company is particularly important as the two sides determine exit provisions for GE, which is likely to face continued pressure from shareholders to dispose of its interests in NBC Universal altogether....

WORLD SERIES A WINNER FOR FOX Fox’s coverage of The World Series may have seen a 25-percent ratings drop from last year, but it was good enough to give the network a lead among adults 18-49 last week and also give it its best numbers since the last edition of American Idol ended in May. The four games between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Tampa Bay Rays all wound up among the top ten among the younger demographic most desired by advertisers, but only two landed in the top-ten among overall households....

Taurean Blacque, known for playing streetwise Detective Neal Washington on the critically acclaimed cop show Hill Street Blues, died on Thursday in Atlanta following a brief illness. He was 82. Blacque starred alongside Daniel J. Travanti, Michael Warren, Charles Haid, Bruce Weitz, Barbara Bosson and Veronica Hamel on the NBC show for all seven seasons. From 1989 to 1999, he played family patriarch Henry Marshall on the NBC daytime soap opera Generations and starring alongside Vivica A....

Ted Lasso’s third season is eagerly awaited by fans. The Apple TV+ show started shooting season three in March 2022, so the next season of AFC Richmond’s soccer journey will probably arrive later this year. With seven Emmy wins and 20 nominations, Jason Sudeikis’ comedy was deeply appreciated not only by the fans, but also the critics. He won two Golden Globes for his role as the American coach who didn’t know anything about soccer (and still hardly does) but nonetheless becomes one of the most beloved and impressive coaches in the Premier League....

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) tonight announced the winners of the 2010 Writers Guild Awards for outstanding achievement in writing for screen, television, radio, news, promotional, and videogame writing at simultaneous ceremonies at the Hudson Theatre at the Millennium Broadway Hotel in New York City and the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Susie Essman of Curb Your Enthusiasm hosted the East Coast show, which was executive produced by Craig Shemin, who was also the head writer....

MTV Splash Page recently spoke with Jeremy Renner, who was promoting his new movie The Town, and he gave the site a few updates on The Avengers. He will play Hawkeye in the new movie and here’s an excerpt from the site where he addresses the Hawkeye costume: Renner also hinted at a possible relationship between his Hawkeye character and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow: “I think it’s going to be a little more reality-based....

Matt Reeves’ The Batman, which introduced the world to a whole new interaction of Gotham’s caped crusader in the form of Robert Pattinson, has crossed another box-office milestone. After a successful run through its fourth week of theatrical run, the film has grossed a total of $710.5 million worldwide. According to box-office figures for the week (via Collider), the film added $13.4M internationally, totaling its international earnings to $361.5M. The film also ended the weekend at $10....

The Batman received its World Premiere in London and stars Robert Pattinson, Paul Dano, Andy Serkis, Jeffrey Wright and Zoe Kravitz stunned fans on the red carpet. But director Matt Reeves also made waves when he noted they “have started talking” about a sequel. Of course, the movie does not go on general release until March 4th, but with two spin-off series already in the works, Warner Bros. doesn’t want to let the grass grow under their feet on this one....

Claire Danes has mastered playing strong women with a seemingly innocent disposition. Danes started acting when she was just six years old, and her love of acting enabled her to continue studying the art for a long time; she was only 15 when she first earned Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations (for My So-Called Life). By the time Danes started landing bigger roles she was already a magnificent actor due to her lifetime of practice....

Horror, superhero, magic, or western– it seems that film director Sam Raimi has done it all with ease, making such memorable classics as Spider-Man 2, The Evil Dead, and The Quick and the Dead. Raimi went to Michigan State University where he pursued a degree in English. He would eventually leave the college to film his future cult classic The Evil Dead. The director would earn greater recognition when he made the commercially successful Spider-Man series from 2002-2007....

20th Century has just released a burger-flipping trailer for The Bob’s Burgers Movie. In gestation for seemingly forever and finally set to hit the big screen in May, the movie brings the Belchers to the theaters where they’ll face the biggest challenge to the family restaurant yet. The brand new trailer, which you can watch below, begins innocuously enough by posing as a fast food commercial before the animated Belchers come in to tease what’s to come....

The Boys dominated all competitors at the inaugural Critics’ Choice Super Awards, Airing on The CW on Sunday, the special event sought to honor the most popular movies and shows for specific genre-based categories including Superhero, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Horror, Action, and Animation. With four big wins at the event, The Boys took home more awards than any other title, proving that the show is just as popular with critics as it is with viewers of the popular series....