In a cheap move to make even more money Warner Bros. is rereleasing The Dark Knight into theaters this weekend -- because $997 million worldwide box office gross apparently just isn't enough.


Actually, I think their bigger plan is to unseat Titanic as the domestic box office champion. And that just ticks me off!!

Sorry Dark Knight, you're no Titanic! I'll admit it's a well done film and yeah, I love me some Batman, but never, ever mess with my Jack Dawson!

The Dark Knight's been out on DVD for over a month, so greed can be the only factor in rereleasing it into theaters now. Hell, it didn't even get nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, so really, there's no other excuse.



Released in 1997, Titanic became the first ever film to gross a billion dollars worldwide and for good reason. The film is a masterpiece! I personally paid to see it 19 times in the theater, and not just because of some fangirl crush on Leonardo DiCaprio.

The story was heartbreaking and the effects were like nothing we had ever seen before. Hell, I even bought a big screen TV when it was released on VHS (yeah, those were the early days of DVD), because my 27-inch set just wasn't BIG enough for this HUGE flick!

It went on to win 11 Academy Awards, tying All About Eve for nominations (14) and Ben Hur for wins. It's worldwide gross stands at $1.8 billion dollars and it's closest competition is Lord of the Rings: Return of the King as somewhere around $1.2 billion. Yeah, I know my Titanic film trivia ...

So Cheers to Titanic (my all time fave film, in case you hadn't guessed) and Jeers to Warner Bros.' greed for rereleasing The Dark Knight into theaters.

According to www.movieweb.com, Titanic's final domestic gross stands at $600,788,188, while The Dark Knight grossed $529,143,070 during its first run. Yeah, that's right "first run." So WB, even if by some miracle it would top Titanic, at this point, James Cameron's massive box office behemoth would still be the highest grossing single-run film!

TAKE THAT!!

Sorry guys, had to get that off my chest!

Fey as Palin
The funniest thing by far that I saw on TV this weekend had to be Saturday Night Live's opening sketch. Once again, it featured former SNL writer and regular Tina Fey as VP hopeful Sarah Palin. And, of course, it was a send-up of the recent VP debate (which I didn't watch). Queen Latifah was on hand to portray the debate moderator PBS's Gwen Ifill and SNL cast member Jason Sudeikis was dead-on as Democratic VP nom Joe Biden.This was the third appearance by Fey as Palin in the last four weeks and her guest shots have garnered higher ratings for the NBC show and increased traffic on its Web site. So those of you who couldn't stay up or just missed it (because, let's face it, SNL hasn't been too great the last couple of seasons) can visit and watch what everyone else is talking about! Check it out here http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/

A major Jeer to TNT!!! Saturday night's interruption of the final half hour of TITANIC was bad enough, but then they did it again yesterday!! I don't know if someone fell asleep in the control room, but about 30 minutes before the ending (you know, right about when the ship was breaking apart and crashing into the people floating below) the film was abruptly pre-empted by the MLB game that was already airing on sister-station TBS! And it went on for about 10 minutes. I guess that's why I should just get the DVD out from now on ...

And if my Sunday viewing schedule wasn't already tight enough, the football game had to run about half an hour late over on CBS ... thus preempting 60 minutes, which ran half an hour into the Amazing Race, and so on, and so on ... http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race/
So that meant a major decision was to be made regarding whether to finish the race or tape Desparate Housewives http://abc.go.com/primetime/desperate/index?pn=index ... the Race won, so I missed the first half of DH (no big loss, not into this season so far). Because, of course, I was over on HBO catching up with the bloodsuckers on True Blood.

Kimora Lee Simmons
I thought I had gotten a little ahead last week when I discovered that Showtime on Demand had the second episode of Californication already up to preview. So I didn't need to watch that last night. However, over on E! I found out just in time that the second season was premiering for Kimora Lee Simmons: Life in the Fab Lane. (Just what I need, another Sunday night show.) Sorry, file this in my I-just-can't-turn-it-off file. I mean, really, so you're fabulous, separated from mega-music mogul Russell Simmons, dating Djimon Hounsou, have your own clothing line (Baby Phat) and oodles, and oodles of money to spend ... you can catch an encore of last night's show at 9 p.m. tonight or visit http://www.eonline.com/on/shows/kimora/index.jsp

Dexter's just going to have to wait. This is where my cable's On Demand services work against me. See, Dexter and True Blood are on at the same time, but both are also On Demand ... after last week's TB I decided to make that my main 9 p.m. Sunday show and I would catch up on Dexter later in the week ... bad news for Dexter: I'm still trying to make time to catch up on Season 2 of Showtime's wildly popular The Tudors (season 2 ended last April). Anyone else feeling the On Demand or DVR guilt?

And I've decided to give up on AMC's Mad Men. Anyone else? I devoured the first season of this formerly great show over the summer on DVD. What the hell happened? Good thing they won the Emmy this year ... see season 2 for yourself at http://www.amctv.com/originals/madmen/

So many shows, so little time ...

And no, I didn't actually "watch" Cartoon Network's Star Wars: Clone Wars or Sci-Fi's new show Sanctuary either from Friday night. Both are saved for my future viewing ... and after looking at this week's schedule, I can see I'm gonna have a hard time penciling in time for that.

But at least I don't have to waste time watching Dancing with the Stars anymore. According to Access Hollywood, Olympic medalist Misty May-Treanor suffered a show-stopping injury Friday and is out for the rest of the season. Not that I'm a big Misty fan, I am, however, a HUGE fan of her hot, hot, hot partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy (both turned up on E!'s Soup this week)! Damn, that means he's out too ... and if we didn't need any more bad news it seems that producers will bring their first Dancing sex-tape star Kim Kardashian back to take Misty's place in the line-up (until, hopefully she gets voted out again this week). For info visit
http://abc.go.com/primetime/dancingwiththestars/index?pn=index

Maksim

Well, for tonight at least I can turn on over to AMC at 8 p.m. for a rebroadcast of 2004's ultra beef-cake flick Troy - Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean - do I have to go on?It's like Baywatch for women!

Men of Troy: Bean, Bana, Bloom and Pitt

And then there's always the LOST marathon continuing over on the Sci-Fi channel from 7-11 p.m. Tonight's episodes include "Hearts and Minds," "Special," "Homecoming" and "Outlaws." We're still in season one.

For more beef-cake: Our favorite Gladiator Russell Crowe chats up David Letterman tonight about his new flick with Leo DiCaprio, Body of Lies. While over on Jay Leno's couch will be the equally beefy Gerard Butler, who's plugging Guy Ritchie's latest film RocknRolla - but to me he will always be King Leonidas, leader of the 300 Spartans, who were so strong that all they needed were their red capes, shields and tiny loin cloths ... hmmm

King Leonidas (center) "Tonight We Dine in Hell!"

OK, the game was definitely on last night on Survivor: Gabon. Last night saw the Fang tribe rise to the challenges, winning both reward and immunity. But things still aren't rosy at camp, with Randy calling youngster GC, "The cancer of the tribe."
The reward challenge was pretty barbaric, with two designated warriors from each tribe prying the other tribe's member off a pole and literally dragging them across the finish line for points. Fang's Olympic medalist Crystal made short work out of Kota's tiny Paloma. The pint-sized pixie was no match for the strong athlete and didn't last long at all. Which, of course, set up Paloma as the weakest link in the "pretty" tribe.
Fang won reward of bedding and quickly sent Kota's pin-up model Sugar to Exile Island. Sugar went on to find all the clues and the immunity necklace, ensuring her at least one reprieve at Tribal Council (if she's smart enough to use it) in the future.

Kota Tribe
Next up, the Immunity Challenge was the customary swimming event, followed by puzzle solving. I was sure that Kota had this one sewn up when they designated physics professor Bob to solve their numbers-related puzzle. However, Fang's professional videogamer Ken could not be counted out! If we've learned anything from Survivor's controversial race-divided previous season, Asians are gangbusters when it comes to solving puzzles! After two bungled tries, Bob lost to Ken and Fang was safe from Tribal Council.
The usual shenanagins played out before the vote, with annoying faux-Brit Ace and the weak Paloma being set up as the targets for elimination. However, the onion alliance proved strong and Kota decided to rid themselves of the weakest link. Paloma went home in a 7-2 vote.
For more info or to watch this episode vist http://www.cbs.com/primetime/survivor/

Bye, Bye Paloma

Weekend Watch: Tonight I'm most looking forward to the Sci-Fi channel's new series premiere of Sanctuary. According to their site: There are creatures that live among us, abnormal offshoots of evolution that live in the fringes, unseen by most. Some are dangerous, but most are benign, becoming violent only because they are threatened by an ever-encroaching world. Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) and her team have dedicated themselves to tracking these mysterious creatures: harboring the benign ones, and protecting the world from the dangerous ones. Using their unique combination of instinct, medicine and cutting edge technology, this eclectic team must take on the creatures that lurk in the corners of our civilization. Sanctuary has its 2-hr. premiere at 9 p.m. tonight. For info visit http://www.scifi.com/sanctuary/home.html

Over on CBS at 9 p.m. is their much-heralded premiere of The Ex List, starring former Grey's Anatomy guester Elizabeth Reaser. Reaser stars as Bella, a young woman who learns from a psychic that she has already met and dated the man she is destined to marry. But she has to reconnect with him within a year, or it's a one-way ticket to Spinsterville.
Although critics' reviews have been positive, I've already decided to pass on this one. And my sole reason is because I so despised her whiny character on Grey's (Rebecca), that I really can't give this show a fair shot!The only thing I can find redeeming about Reaser is that she will be appearing on the big screen as the vampire family matriarch Esme Cullen in the film adapation of the wildly successful book Twilight! I hope I can get past "Rebecca" for that one ...
For info on The Ex List visit http://www.cbs.com/primetime/the_ex_list/?source=Gfall
For info on the Twilight movie visit http://www.twilightthemovie.com/

The Cullens, Emmett, Rosalie, Esme, Edward, Carlisle, Alice and Jasper

Of course, for all my fellow Sci-Fi geaks, tonight on the Cartoon Network is the series premiere of Star Wars: Clone Wars (9-10 p.m.)! It will actually be two half-hour episodes and is not simply a TV-airing of the recently released movie. I'm not sure where this fits in the Star Wars chronological chain, but I'll be tuning in just the same!
For info or to watch visit http://theclonewars.cartoonnetwork.com/?cid=swtcw_search


Guilty Pleasure Alert: On Saturday over at CMT at 9 p.m. is the second season premiere of Tom Arnold's My Big Fat Redneck Wedding. It's like Bridezillas for Rednecks. And if you've been reading this blog, you know I can't resist a trainwreck show and this one measures right at the top of the list! Plus it's only a half hour, so it doesn't require a big commitment. Try it just for laughs ... visit http://www.cmt.com/shows/dyn/my-big-redneck-wedding/series.jhtml


And stay tuned, because afterwards at 9:30 p.m. is the third season premiere of Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team. I love this show, and apparently it's one of those shows you can watch with your significant other, and he'll enjoy it too, for obvious reasons.
So, I'll admit it, long ago I once dreamed of becoming a member of the DCC. I guess I love this show because I can live vicariously thru it. It chronicles from day one of try-outs all the way to the first football game exactly what it takes to be on the most prestigious cheerleading squad in the world! And it entails a LOT more than you think. Good thing I never actually tried out, I would've made an ass of myself!
For info visit http://www.cmt.com/shows/dyn/dallas_cowboys_cheerleaders/series.jhtml



Of course, I'll spend a good eight hours this weekend indulging in my favorite guilty pleasure of all time - TITANIC!!

Yes, the greatest movie ever made will be shown on TNT, twice this weekend, at 7:30 p.m. Saturday and again at 4 p.m. Sunday. Of course, I can watch the DVD whenever I want, but when it's on TV, I can put it on every set in my house and get the whole place cleaned while listening to the saga of the most infamous ocean liner in history.
And as long as I'm admitting my DCC fantasy, why not let you all in on the fact that I actually paid to see James Cameron's masterpiece 19 times in the theater back in 1998 (well, twice in 1997). When it finally came out on VHS (yes, those were the early years of DVD and it came out in VHS format first), I actually bought a bigger television because I didn't think my measely 27-inch set would do it justice! (I also have the J. Peterman official replica of the Heart of the Ocean)


Titanic went on (with my help) to gross $1.8 billion worldwide and, 11 years later, is still the all-time box office champion! Take that Dark Night!