Source: Zap2It

ABC is bringing Oprah Winfrey to primetime during May sweeps, scheduling a special that looks back at the daytime TV titan’s “Legends Ball” last year.

The hour-long special, appropriately titled “Oprah Winfrey’s Legends Ball,” will feature footage from the 2005 event that brought together 25 African-American women for a three-day celebration of their lives and work. Among the honorees were Rosa Parks, Maya Angelou, Coretta Scot King, Aretha Franklin, Toni Morrison and Ruby Dee.

“These women, who have been meaningful to so many of us over the years, are legends who have been magnificent in their pioneering and advancing of African-American women,” Winfrey says. “It is because of their steps that our journey has no boundaries.”

The special is scheduled to air at 8 p.m. ET Monday, May 15, leading into the two-hour season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy.” It will feature interviews with some of the honorees and others who attended the ball, along with footage from the events of the weekend: a lunch for the honorees, a formal, white-tie ball and a gospel brunch that featured the likes of Patti LaBelle and Gladys Knight.

In addition to the honorees, among those in attendance at the weekend’s events were Halle Berry, Sidney Poitier, Angela Bassett, Tom Cruise, Barbra Streisand, Sen. Barack Obama, Maria Shriver and Quincy Jones.

Audiences hit the road with Robin Williams as his family-vacation romp RV opened at No. 1 with $16.4 million, while the acclaimed Sept. 11 drama United 93 debuted with $11.6 million.

Studio estimates Sunday had Universal Pictures’ United 93 in second place, just ahead of Disney’s sports comedy Stick It, which premiered with $11.3 million. Those rankings could change once final numbers are released Monday.

The weekend’s other new wide release, Lionsgate’s spelling-bee drama Akeelah and the Bee, was No. 8 with $6.25 million.

The 20th Century Fox release RV was expected to debut on top, but United 93 had been an unknown quantity, with Hollywood analysts wondering whether movie-goers were ready to relive the horrors of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“It’s not about the positioning of the film. It’s about the fact that the American public spoke out,” said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal Pictures. “This is a wonderful result. What they said was that it wasn’t too soon for a film about Sept. 11.”

Married couples accounted for just over half the United 93 audience, and 71 percent of viewers were 30 and older, according to Universal.

With painstaking authenticity, United 93 recounts the horrific end of passengers who fought back against their hijackers aboard one of the commandeered planes, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

Families of those killed aboard Flight 93 cooperated with director Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Supremacy, Bloody Sunday), who re-creates the experiences of passengers and air-traffic controllers in a documentary-style drama. United 93 earned widespread praise from critics.

Shot on a modest budget of $15 million, United 93 should easily turn a profit once theatrical, television and DVD revenues are tallied. Universal said it will donate 10 percent of the first weekend’s grosses to the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania.

Playing in 1,795 theaters, about half as many as RV, United 93 averaged a solid $6,462 a cinema, the best results among the top-10 movies.

“We can now kind of put to bed any idea that people are not ready to see this type of movie. The numbers speak for themselves,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Coming this August is Hollywood’s second Sept. 11 dramatization, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, starring Nicolas Cage in the story of two Port Authority policemen trapped in the rubble of the twin towers.

RV, starring Williams as a dad taking his family on a slapstick-filled vacation, debuted in 3,639 theaters and averaged $4,507. The gymnastics tale Stick It, starring Missy Peregrym and Jeff Bridges, averaged $5,523 in 2,038 theaters.

Overall business rose for the sixth straight weekend, with the top-12 movies taking in $90.7 million, up 12 percent from the same weekend last year. After a big slump in 2005, attendance is running 4 percent ahead of last year’s, with Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible III opening Friday and kicking off what is expected to be a huge summer at the movies.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. RV, $16.4 million.

2. United 93, $11.6 million.

3. Stick It, $11.3 million.

4. Silent Hill, $9.3 million.

5. Scary Movie 4, $7.8 million.

6. The Sentinel, $7.6 million.

7. Ice Age: The Meltdown, $7.05 million.

8. Akeelah and the Bee, $6.25 million.

9. The Wild, $4.7 million.

10. The Benchwarmers, $4.4 million.

He usually saves his beefs for other rappers; this time, 50 Cent is going after Oprah Winfrey.

In an interview with The Associated Press, he complained that Winfrey rarely invites rappers on her talk show. “I think she caters to older white women.”

“Oprah’s audience is my audience’s parents,” the 29-year-old said. “So, I could care less about Oprah or her show.”

He’s not alone in his resentment toward the media magnate.

Rapper-actor Ludacris, a.k.a. Chris Bridges, said in the May issue of GQ magazine that Winfrey was “unfair” during a show he appeared on in October with co-stars from “Crash.”

“She edited out a lot of my comments while keeping her own in,” he said. “Of course, it’s her show, but we were doing a show on racial discrimination, and she gave me a hard time as a rapper, when I came on there as an actor.”

Winfrey’s representative at her production company, Harpo, said Winfrey was unavailable for comment.

But, as 50 Cent acknowledged, Winfrey’s purported disapproval of rap might enhance his street cred.

“I’m actually better off having friction with her,” he said.

The forever compatible Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett reteam in this inspirational story of an inner-city middle school student Akeelah Anderson played by newcomer Keke Palmer that once encouraged by her teacher, principal, and older brother decides to try to get to the National Spelling Bee.

At first Akeelah is apprehensive, not only because she’s afraid of failing, but also because she doesn’t want her less capable peers to think of her as “braniac”, something other kids at school already label her and ridicule her for. She gets A’s on her tests without even studying and her teachers see a lot of potential in her (she even skipped a grade), but she skips school a lot and sometimes doesn’t even do her homework. In her impoverished “ghetto” neighborhood, being smart doesn’t exactly make you a rock star. Two girls who are obviously on Akeelah’s case a lot, even start bullying her to get her to do their English homework.

Once Akeelah’s principal pretty much blackmails her into entering the school spelling bee as the only alternative to detention for skipping class, they all realize just how incredibly talented she is, as she not only wins the bee against her notoriously dimwitted classmates, but when Dr. Larabee (Fishburne), a former UCLA professor who went to college with the principal, throws a few college level words at Akeelah, the room is shocked when Akeelah spits the words right back at him, spelling all of them perfectly in child prodigy fashion–all except the last.

Akeelah is embarassed and runs off, only to later be convinced by her older brother who tells her that their father (who was shot and killed when Akeelah was six) would want her to do it. Akeelah goes to the regional bee, despite her mother’s (Bassett) wishes that she not do the bee in order to focus on her school studies.

Akeelah has many people that help her along the way, including the people in her downtrodden community–from her brothers and sisters (even her other troubled brother who has been causing their mother grief by hanging out with gangbangers) to her friends (including a Spanish boy she meets at the regional bee played by J.R. Villarreal that provides a comic but tender aspect to the film) to random people in the community, eventually even her mother, and of course, Dr. Larabee.

Fishburne and charming child actor Palmer turn out Oscar worthy performances as we see the relationship between these two grow into one that near the end of the film provides a scene that will have you sobbing on the movie theater floor. The inherent good nature of Akeelah and her ultimate concern for doing what is right over winning is what makes the end to this movie so incredibly satisfying and has you standing up and cheering for not just Akeelah, but the entire community that she got to back her–even inspiring other students to enter spelling bees.

In an age where it seems like every movie that comes out is a remake, sequel or adaptation, it is refreshing to finally see a film–a family film, mind you–that truly inspires you to be a better person–the best person that you can possibly be. And a movie like this is necessary for young people in today’s society–particularly an audience like that of Akeelah’s peers in the film that don’t have many icons or idols other than rappers or drug dealers–sometimes both.

All of the performances in this movie are pitch perfect. Angela Bassett, brilliant as always, turns what could’ve been a flat character into someone three-dimensional and fully fleshed out–bringing life to Akeelah’s still grieving single mother. Laurence Fishburne proves once again why he is one of the best black actors that has ever lived, breathing heart and soul into Dr. Larabee, a character similar to that of the one he played in “Searching For Bobby Fischer“, but different and disctinct enough to be perfect for this film. The performances that will get the closest to your heart though, are that of the child actors Keke Palmer and J.R. Villarreal. Palmer infuses truth and genuineness into what other child actors might have left bland and predictable, and her co-star Villarreal has one of the most lighthearted, endearing performances I’ve ever seen from such a young actor.

Not since Bassett and Fishburne’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” and even earlier Fishburne’s “The Color Purple” have we seen such a well acted and inspirational movie with a black female lead as “Akeelah and the Bee” and a film like this is a perfect antidote to stereotype perpetuating movies like “Hustle & Flow” and “Get Rich or Die Trying” that negatively portray the black community to mainstream audiences.

This truly is a remarkable film. Take your families, take your children, your parents, friends, teachers–anyone.

Adrien Brody and Lindsay Lohan will star in the independent romantic comedy Speechless, reports Variety. Helmer Brian Dannelly (Saved) will direct the Sobini Films production, with shooting scheduled to start later this year.

The project, previously known as “The Guided Man,” is a modern Cyrano de Bergerac story about an introverted man (Brody) who is invited to give a speech at his childhood friend’s wedding and turns to a service that allows someone — played by Lohan – to speak through him.

The film is based on a story by L. Sprague De Camp from 1952.

Dannelly and writing partner Michael Urban are co-writing the script along with Steve Adams, who penned the original adaptation.

Source: Falls-Church News Press

In what could evolve into the biggest scandal hitting the figure skating world since the infamous results-fixing by the French judge in the 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympics, the U.S. skating world is now abuzz with leaked reports that broke into the New York Daily News last week concerning efforts by leading officials to “push aside” reigning and three-time U.S. men’s champion Johnny Weir.

After winning his third straight U.S. title in St. Louis in January, the flamboyant and outspoken Weir became a major “item” at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turino, Italy, in February for his brassy remarks and focus on fashion, which only heightened the anger of his critics when he fell from second to fifth in his competition and failed to bring home a medal.

Now, leaked accounts of a secret and subtle but concerted effort by U.S. skating officials to downplay his role and elevate that of one of his competitors, Evan Lysacek, surfaced when a web site and pamphlet promoting next January’s U.S. championships in January 2007 in Spokane, Washington, failed to display a single image or mention of Weir, despite his reigning championship status.

The reports were first mentioned on a popular on-line blog, Deadspin, which entitled a piece “The Johnny Weir Blackball” (www.deadspin.com/sports/olympics/the-johnny-weir-blackball-167122.php), on Friday, April 14, and raced like a prairie fire through the Internet, being picked up by the Daily News the very next day. By Monday, a small thumb-nail image of Weir had been pasted onto the home page of the web site and officials of the U.S. Figure Skating Association in Colorado Springs, Colorado, were in a highly-defensive mode, denying all.

Still, observers note that there have been more than a few indicators in recent months that could suggest Weir is being “blackballed.” Suffering from dwindling general interest and attendance at major events, the U.S. figure skating brass, they suggest, may be trying to “straighten up” the sport’s image, finding Weir too “out there“ and prone to criticism for his articulate, public expressions of a proud individuality and, among other things, public questions about his sexuality. This is despite the fact that Weir has won thousands of new fans with his fresh “pop star”-like image, as well as the quality of his skating, and could have something to do with political pressures, as well, especially given Weir’s “the establishment can’t handle me” remarks at the Olympics.

But as for image, officials of the sport have more to be concerned for its already-shaky one, tainted by just such allegations of subjective influence over what is supposed to be an objective competition, a problem that reached a breaking point in the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Since then, the sport has undergone an overhaul of its “scoring system” to address just such concerns, with the results far less than satisfactory to many followers of the sport. The new system now subjects every move of a skater to rigid point accumulation criteria.

Weir has complained of the new system, saying such things as, “It gives you points for being able to chew on your shoes,“ and it hurt him in Turino, because concern for artistic expression became so subordinated to a preoccupation with racking up points.

For example, one avid and knowledgeable fan noted in a letter to the News-Press following the Turino Olympics, “I watched every minute of the skating competitions and without a doubt Johnny Weir was the most emotional and creative skater. It was horrible watching (Evgeni) Plushenko (the eventual gold medal winner-ed.) in his free skate moving from jump to jump with no emotion, no creativity, just working for the big points on each jump. Maybe this new point system isn’t all that great.”

Responding to reports of the Weir “blackball” effort, observers go back to December, when U.S. organizers of the sport revamped the Campbell’s Challenge event in Boston to remove all “objectivity” and make the event into a version of “American Idol.” Instead of strict judging, the skaters were rated by a three-person panel that included some of the most deeply embedded insiders in the top levels of the sport’s establishment.

Following the opening and decisive round, these three “judges” all subjectively chose someone besides Weir, the two-time defending U.S. champ at the time, with two favoring Lysacek. But their efforts to influence the public perception was frustrated when viewers voting from home by text messaging and telephone calls still favored Weir, overwhelmingly.

For this next December, it has already been announced, there will be no public voting component to the Campbell’s event.

At the U.S. championships in January, Weir skated to his highest point total ever in the short program, and did a solid job in the free skate. But observers noted that the final outcome was far closer than might have seemed appropriate. It took a very long time for the final tabulations to be announced, and alleged hopes by some top brass that Weir might be deposed simply didn’t turn up in the final numbers, although it was very close.

Finally, at the Olympics in February, many have questioned the sudden nose dive in Weir’s results from second place after the short program all the way to fifth following the free skate. Weir’s was not a flawless free skate, they note, but neither were those of the other skaters, all except perhaps Plushenko.

But there is a mood in the Internet world now that is incensed at the very notion of powerful, vested self-interest establishment types trying to screw over those who don’t like to play by their rules, even if they have the talent to be the best. The very American notion of fair play and respect for individuality runs very deep in this land, and every bit as much for fans of figure skating.

Therefore, there is no mistaking the rumblings of an on-line organized boycott of U.S. figure skating events in the coming season short of credible assurances that the leaked reports are either not true, or that steps have been taken to correct the problem they exposed.

If they think Johnny Weir is too “out there,” figure skating officials should perhaps take a closer look at just who constitutes such a huge portion of their paying fans.

MTV talked to filmmaker Jean-Claude La Marre who says that Morgan Freeman and Halle Berry will star in his next project, the family Christmas film The Patient.

La Marre, who wrote the script and will direct, said, “It’s like ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest‘ meets ‘K-Pax.’… Freeman plays a mental patient at a Harlem hospital psychiatric ward who believes himself to be Santa Claus. And Halle Berry plays the psychiatrist who’s evaluating him.”

When Freeman’s character escapes the hospital and turns up at a Toys “R” Us, Berry wonders if the old man might just be telling the truth.

La Marre plans to begin shooting the film this summer and intends to have it in theaters for Christmas 2007.

IGN Filmforce has your first look at the new poster for Fox’s My Super Ex-Girlfriend, starring Uma Thurman, Luke Wilson, Anna Faris, Eddie Izzard, Rainn Wilson and Wanda Sykes.

In the Ivan Reitman comedy, Matt Saunders (Wilson) thinks he’s finally found the perfect girlfriend, the beautiful Jenny Johnson (Thurman) - who just so happens to be a superhero. When Jenny/G-Girl becomes overly possessive, Matt wants to call it quits – but how do you break up with a superhero? A scorned woman, Jenny/G-Girl unleashes on her ex the full fury of her super-powered wrath as she sets out on a no-holds-barred mission to bust up Matt’s budding romance with his co-worker Hannah (Faris).

My Super Ex-Girlfriend hits theaters on July 21.

Click here to see the poster.

According to USA Today, Teri Hatcher gets more family time in the upcoming “Desperate Housewives: The Complete Second Season - Extra Juicy Edition” DVD. The six-disc set (in stores July 29, $60) includes an unaired story line starring Hatcher’s character Susan Mayer, her mom (Lesley Ann Warren) and stepdad (Bob Newhart), as well as other deleted scenes and extras.

Also, “Grey’s Anatomy: The Complete Second Season - Uncut” (Sept. 12, $60) has three extended episodes with footage deemed too steamy for TV.

In addition to “lost,” unaired flashbacks, the seven-disc “Lost: The Complete Second Season - The Extended Edition” (Oct. 3, $60) promises an interactive matrix for exploring the connections between various characters and numbers.

Lionsgate’s Hostel slashed through the competition to take the top spot on the national DVD sales chart for the week ending April 23.

The Eli Roth-directed horror film also finished a strong second on the video rental chart for the week, earning an estimated $6.2 million, or 13.2% of its $47.3 million boxoffice take.

The only other new release on VideoScan’s First Alert DVD sales chart was Mrs. Henderson Presents, from Genius Products, which debuted at No. 8. The comedy was released theatrically by The Weinstein Company and earned $10.9 million.

Meanwhile, demand continued to be strong for second-ranked The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, from Buena Vista, which topped the sales chart for two consecutive weeks after its April 4 release.

Warner’s Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, too, is showing remarkably long legs; after seven weeks on the chart the fourth installment in the “Harry Potter” franchise is still among the top 10 DVD sellers, checking in at No. 7.

On Home Media Retailing’s video rental chart, Sony Pictures’ Fun With Dick and Jane narrowly beat Hostel to remain in the No. 1 spot for the second consecutive week, with rental earnings of $6.3 million.