Although it earned some $2 million less over the weekend than Disney had estimated, the studio's Sweet Home Alabama, starring Reese Witherspoon, nevertheless took in an astonishing $35.6 million, a record for a September opener. Another comedy, Jackie Chan's The Tuxedo from DreamWorks, opened in second place with $15 million. MGM's Barbershop, which had held the top spot during the previous two weeks, dropped to third place with $10 million, while IFC's My Big Fat Greek Wedding, in its 24th week, dropped only 3 percent to $9.4 million to take the fourth spot. With Fox Searchlight's The Banger Sisters placing fifth, the box office was in the unusual position of sporting comedies in each of the five top spots. In an interview with today's (Tuesday) Los Angeles Daily News, Exhibitor Relations chief Paul Dergarabedian observed, "Most films in the top five are there for a short time, then they leave. What is happening here is that among the top five, there are two movies [Barbershop and Wedding] that just won't leave, and they are really bolstering the comedy dominance."

The top ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Sweet Home Alabama, Disney, $35,648,740, (New); 2. The Tuxedo, DreamWorks, $15,051,028, (New); 3. Barbershop, MGM, $10,007,996, 3 Wks. ($51,312,650); 4. My Big Fat Greek Wedding, IFC Films, $9,434,602, 24 Wks. ($136,628,662); 5. The Banger Sisters, Fox Searchlight, $5,426,857, 2 Wks. ($18,821,609); 6. The Four Feathers, Paramount, $3,556,687, 2 Wks. ($12,377,402); 7. One Hour Photo, Fox Searchlight, $3,021,854, 6 Wks. ($26,107,155); 8. Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever, Warner Bros., $2,738,311, 2 Wks. ($11,589,220); 9. Signs, Disney, $2,363,791, 9 Wks. ($221,155,028); 10. Swimfan, 20th Century Fox, $1,554,112, 4 Wks. ($26,676,405).

Following complaints from movie-related websites that studios have planted phony rave reviews on message boards, Universal Studios Vice Chairman Marc Schmuger has countered that while his studio may have recruited fans to post the reviews, they were not employees but unpaid volunteers. "It's aggressive marketing, but it is not deceptive marketing," he told today's (Tuesday) Los Angeles Times. "This is a technique used everywhere in corporate America -- it's no different from the girls who go into bars to tout cell phones and vodka. However inept these postings were, they were unpaid volunteers expressing their unscripted enthusiasm. They were not posing as fans; they were fans." A spokeswoman for Paramount, which also has been accused of planting phony fans on the sites, maintained that the studio never has done so. "We don't do anything without full disclosure," she said. Nevertheless, the Times observed that "it is widely believed" that studios plant positive reviews of their films on Harry Knowles' Ain't It Cool News website -- and even negative reviews of competitors' movies.

Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki said Monday that he will boycott the New York Film Festival after learning that the U.S. has refused to grant a visa to Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami to allow him to attend the festival. Both directors have films that are scheduled to be shown at the festival. In a statement reported by today's (Tuesday) New York Times, Kaurismaki remarked: "If international cultural exchange is prevented, what is left? The exchange of arms?"

Director George Hickenlooper says he was just ten days away from starting production of The Man from Elysian Fields when he finally heard from Mick Jagger, whom he had hoped to cast in a leading role. As reported in today's (Tuesday) Newsday, Hickenlooper recalled, "Mick finally called me and said, 'Let's have dinner on Saturday in Venice to talk about it.'" Hickenlooper related that, since he was then in Los Angeles, he had assumed that Jagger was talking about Venice, California, the L.A. beach suburb. "But it turned out, he meant Venice, Italy. ... I've been to Europe many times before, but never just for dinner." In the end, however, the dinner paid off. Jagger accepted the role. (He stars with Andy Garcia, Julianna Margulies, James Coburn, Olivia Williams and Anjelica Huston.) The film, a favorite at Sundance, opens in limited release on Friday.

Today's (Tuesday) "Page Six" column in the New York Times includes quotes from Chevy Chase's roast at the Friars Club in New York Saturday night, including the remembrance by former SNL colleague Laraine Newman of the time that Chase announced he was leaving the show "to pursue a dream he had since he was a little boy: to make s****y movies and the worst talk show in history. We knew he could do it."

In a new scheduling ploy, NBC is planning to add an additional one or two minutes to its hit series Friends during the season, the Washington Post reported today (Tuesday). The newspaper observed that last week's Friends ran two minutes over its scheduled half-hour length. Asked whether the additional minutes were tacked on so that NBC could sell additional spots in the show, an NBC spokesperson told the Post, "Friends did run long creatively and it will run long creatively this season." Asked how the network already knew that the show would run long, the NBC spokesperson replied, "Maybe they need extra time to do the story." Commented the Post: "And how nice for NBC if this excess flow of creative juices on the part of the Friends producers will keep down the ratings on CBS's Thursday reality series Survivor for, say, an extra two minutes all season?"

Even as he begins to disengage himself from 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace is expressing concern about the future of the venerated news program. Appearing on a panel at the University of Michigan, Wallace said that he hears more talk about the profitability and costs of the program than he does about the editorial content. As reported by the Ann Arbor News, Wallace also remarked that as the audience for 60 Minutes has grown older and as the show itself has dropped in ratings, he hears more and more talk around him about how to reach younger viewers. For example, he said, that demographic group is not interested in foreign stories -- the very ones that are the most expensive to produce. The simple solution by budget-minded execs: cut them out.

Taking advantage of Vivendi Universal's desperate straits, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has purchased the company's Italian pay-TV company Telepiu for 470 million euros ($464 million) and has assumed about 423 million euros in debt. Telecom Italia is also partnered in the deal, contributing 20 percent of the cash. Murdoch made the official announcement of the deal at a Goldman Sachs conference in Paris this morning (Tuesday). Strapped financially and having to stave off bankruptcy, Vivendi Universal was in a poor bargaining position. Only last June, Murdoch had agreed to pay three times as much for Telepiu, which he is expected to merge with his own similar service, Stream SpA.

The fact that Rob Lowe was not included in recent NBC promos for the new season of The West Wing had nothing to do with the pay dispute Lowe has been having with the network and the show's producers, Warner Brothers Television, said TV Guide on its website today (Tuesday). "Unfortunately, due to a scheduling conflict, Rob was unable to attend NBC's big promo shoot that occurs once at the beginning of each [season]," an NBC spokeswoman told the publication. Lowe reportedly has been filming a TV movie, The Christmas Shoes, in Nova Scotia.

The Catholic League, the nation's largest organization of lay Catholics, has registered its complaint over a sketch on last Saturday's episode of Fox's MADtv lampooning gay priests. "This is the way a sizable segment of our cultural elites (sic) think," said Catholic League president William Donohue in a statement. "And they pride themselves on being tolerant, compassionate and inclusive. Except when it comes to priests. Now if only they thought of priests the way they do imams, the bigotry would end."

Although analysts have expressed skepticism about AOL and Disney's ability to unload their sports teams, the Associated Press reported today (Tuesday) that Disney may in fact already have a buyer -- Mexican billionaire Carlos Peralta -- who would be willing to pay $170 million to $200 million for the Anaheim Angels. Angels spokeswoman Trish Penny confirmed that negotiations between Disney and Peralta are underway. "We've only had a few potential buyers like this one," Penny told the AP. "With the playoffs and everything we are trying to keep this low key." On the other hand, spokespersons for AOL Time Warner denied Monday that the company intends to unload the Atlanta Braves and Hawks.

Underscoring ABC's recent missteps, Boston Globe writer Christopher Muther, noting that a local theater is screening last year's Mulholland Drive, which won a best director Oscar nomination for David Lynch, recalls in today's editions that it was originally filmed as a pilot for an ABC series. Muther writes: "ABC says 'No way, ' then hires Ben Affleck to create a Lynch knockoff called Push, Nevada. Hello, anyone home, ABC? Why settle for Filet-O-Fish when you could have had filet mignon?"