The slasher movie Valentine came within striking distance of debuting in first place at the box office last weekend. The Warner Bros. movie earned $10 million, just behind the $10.6 million taken in by Sony/Columbia's The Wedding Planner. Twentieth Century Fox's Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks was in third place with $7.5 million, to bring its gross past the $200-million mark to $203 million after seven weeks. Paramount's Save the Last Dance fell to fourth place from second with $7.2 million, while Sony Pictures Classics' Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon moved up to fifth with $6.8 million. (The Chinese-language film has now grossed $53 million after nine weeks and should pass the record for a foreign-language film of $56 million set in 1999 by Life Is Beautiful. In an interview with the Associated Press, Exhibitor Relations chief Paul Dergarabedian remarked, "It's really unprecedented for a film like Crouching Tiger to do this kind of business. ... It's an arthouse movie with subtitles, but it has a lot of really intense action, a really unique visual style. It's an action picture but with a love story and strong female characters, so there's crossover appeal to women.")

The Christian action movie Left Behind, starring former Growing Pains actor Kirk Cameron, from Cloud Ten Pictures and Namesake Entertainment, opened in 17th place with $2.2 million. The poorly reviewed film (the Los Angeles Daily News critic Glenn Whipp commented that the film "is so awful that even true believers will have difficulty staying awake.") had been watched as a possible indicator of how Christian-themed films, promoted largely among church groups and other religious organizations, might perform at the box office among mainstream audiences. Peter Lalonde CEO of Cloud Ten told the online entertainment magazine Inside ''The film was sold out in the markets where we had good ground support, but didn't perform as well in some of the other areas."

The Wedding Planner, Sony, $10, 605, 542, ($27, 763, 988); 2. Valentine, Warner Bros., $10, 024, 648, (New); 3. Cast Away, 20th Century Fox, $7, 469, 464, ($203, 010, 647); 4. Save The Last Dance, Paramount, $7, 172, 510, ($68, 506, 814); 5. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Sony Classics, $6, 816, 527, ($52, 982, 874); 6. Traffic, USA, $6, 303, 110, ($64, 784, 672); 7. Head Over Heels, Universal, $4, 804, 595, (New); 8. Finding Forrester, Sony, $4, 213, 168, ($41, 277, 446); 9. Snatch, Sony, $4, 006, 923, ($21, 748, 080); 10. Chocolat, Miramax, $3, 649, 243, ($22, 409, 992).

Blaming "the difficulties inherent in divergent careers which constantly keep them apart, " Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman announced Monday that they are separating after more than ten years. Their announcement -- and the stated reason for the split -- appeared to surprise many Hollywood insiders, who have observed that the couple have gone out of their way to remain together while pursuing their individual careers. Only recently they collaborated on The Others, filmed in Spain, in which Kidman starred and Cruise served as executive producer. (They have co-starred in three films.) Even their publicist, Pat Kingsley who made the announcement, appeared shocked by the couple's decision. "It blew me away, " Kingsley told New York Daily News columnist Mitchell Fink. "I had come to think of Tom and Nicole as the Holy Grail of marriages. I'm very sad about this." Several entertainment columnists decribed the announcement as a "bombshell."

Controversy has erupted in New Zealand following the revelation that the country's Defense Force, the combined army, navy and air force, was paid only $91, 000 for the use of 15-250 men, mostly as extras, each day during the filming of Lord of the Rings. The figure breaks down to $8.83 per man per day. A spokesman for the political party New Zealand First, which has been pushing for an increase in pay for military personnel, told the NZPA news service, "If we are going to insist the Defense Force operate in a business-like manner ... then pay it what (the personnel) are worth. ... I'd now ask the Prime Minister to transfer funds from allocations to the film industry to compensate the army for the loss of its resources and its time." However, a spokesman for Defense Minister Mark Burton said that the money was meant only to cover expenses such as meals. "Personnel involved were already on the Defense Force's payroll, so there was no requirement to recover their salaries, " he said.

Confirming last week's prediction by an Internet sleuth, Disney announced Monday that soap opera star Kelly Ripa would be Regis Philbin's permanent co-host on his daytime talk show. The announcement came following last Thursday's report by Oakland, CA-based Trevor Rieger, who operates the TVTalkShows.com site, that Disney Enterprises had registered the Internet domain name livewithregisandkelly.com. (On his Web site Monday, Rieger proposed this Millionaire question for Philbin: "What Website First Discovered that Kelly Ripa Was Going to Be My New Co-host? (A) New York Post (B) Hollywood Reporter (C) Access Hollywood (D) TVTalkShows.com; Answer: (D) ) Ripa, who was referred to as a Kathie Lee Gifford "look-alike" by several writers, reportedly plans to continue her role on the ABC soap All My Children after joining Live.

UPN's first XFL football telecast on Sunday scored a 4.2 rating and a 5 share Sunday representing twice the usual audience for a UPN telecast. Media buyers told Bloomberg News that the results for Sunday's telecast as well as those for Saturday's on NBC far surpassed their expectations. "They've got great numbers, " Andy Donchin of media buyers Carat USA told Bloomberg. "I can't remember a sports event having this much hype and buildup." A survey by Harris Interactive said that 75 percent of those who watched Saturday's NBC telecast regard themselves as wrestling fans. Forty-five percent were under 18 years old, 22 percent between 18 and 24. (A spokesman for Air Force recruiting, under criticism for sponsoring the XFL games, told today's New York Times that the telecast reached its target group.) Perhaps most tellingly, 55 percent said that the XFL game was worse than they had expected.

Sunday's NHL All-Star Game on ABC produced ratings that were only about half those for the XFL on UPN. The game, which included recently un-retired Mario Lemieux of the Pittsburgh Penguins, produced a 2.3 rating somewhat better than 1999's 2.2, the lowest-rated All-Star Game in history.

Stacey Stillman one of the original Survivor contestants, has sued CBS and Survivor producer Mark Burnett, claiming that Burnett manipulated a vote by persuading two other contestants, Dirk Been and Sean Kenniff, to eliminate her instead of Rudy Boesch Burnett told today's (Tuesday) New York Times, "I'm 100 percent certain when the evidence is examined all these charges will be proven false." In an interview with today's New York Daily News, Keniff backed Burnett. "In my opinion, there was no coercion and no suggestion ever to control my vote, " he said. However Been was noncommittal, telling the Times, "Burnett himself doesn't call it reality TV. He calls it reality drama. You can take what you want from that."

Disney reported today (Tuesday) higher-than-expected earnings in its first quarter, as revenue from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and its theme parks offset steep losses in its Internet opeations. The company reported a profit of $341 million versus $278 million a year ago, a 23-percent advance. In early NYSE trading, Disney rose to $32, up nearly 5 percent.

German media giant Bertelsmann is buying a controlling stake in RTL Group, Europe's largest TV broadcaster in a stock-swap deal. When completed, the deal will give Bertelsmann a 67-percent stake in RTL, while Groupe Bruxelles Lambert, owner of RTL, will hold a 25.1-percent stake in Bertelsmann. The deal was seen as a first step prior to Bertelsmann, privately held for a hundred years, going public.