If a DVD "extras" feature is included in the home-video release of Guess Who, it may reveal how many scenes dealing with the issue of race and religion were deleted from the film. According to the online Electronic Urban Report (EUR), the studio, with the consent of director Kevin Rodney Sullivan, removed all references to racial issues from the trailer and TV commercials for the movie. Sullivan told EUR: "Ultimately, the movie is more about love than it is about race. So for me to have a television spot out there that doesn't have race as a component is absolutely appropriate." Star Ashton Kutcher said that Sullivan shot down his suggestion that his character be Jewish "just to have another difference" between his character and co-star Bernie Mac,'s and that every Jewish reference that he made was axed. "I didn't want it to be about Christians and Jews" Sullivan responded. "We tried a couple things, and I cut them out."

Paramount made it official Wednesday: Gail Berman, president of Fox Entertainment, will succeed Donald De Line as president of Paramount. She plans to take over the job in May, tying up loose ends at Fox in the meanwhile. Responding to many critics who have noted that she has virtually no experience in the motion picture business, Berman told today's (Thursday) New York Times,"I approach the new job with a great deal of humility, knowing that I haven't worked in the feature business before. ... But many, many filmmakers are crossing over into the television world these days, and I've had the opportunity to work with many of them. And I look forward to getting to know those that I haven't met that do business at the studio."

Matt Damon, who is arguably Massachusetts' biggest movie star, has chastised state lawmakers for refusing to match the kind of tax incentives that other states have offered the movie industry. In a telephone interview with the Boston Globe, Damon said, "Entertainment-wise, we're like Third World on the state level. We just don't get it." Damon is costarring in Martin Scorsese's upcoming The Departed, which, although set in Boston, is being filmed mostly in New York in order to take advantage of that state's 15 percent tax credit. Damon also took aim at the current battle between Robin Dawson, head of the Massachusetts Film Bureau and Mark Drago, head of the state-backed Massachusetts Sports and Entertainment Commission. The Boston Herald on Wednesday quoted Dawson as accusing Drago of bullying movie producers and leaking details of a Tom Hanks film about John Adams, the second U.S. president, who represented Massachusetts in the Continental Congress. "I mean, it's a John Adams movie and we're losing it," Damon told the Globe. He gave his complete backing to Dawson, saying "I don't even know the other guy [Drago]. My personal opinion is you stick with somebody who knows the business and knows the people, somebody who's worked with all the A-list directors who've come in in the last eight or nine years. That's who everyone in [Hollywood] knows to call."

In an unusual promotion, DreamWorks will include a "Madagascar Activity Disc" and a ticket to see the new animated feature in its packaging for the Shrek 2 DVD beginning May 17. Madagascar, which features the voices of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, Jada Pinkett-Smith and David Schwimmer, is scheduled to be released on May 27. Meanwhile, DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg showed about 15 minutes of clips from Madagascar at a Banc of America Securities conference in New York on Wednesday. Daily Variety reported that a table occupied by executives of rival Pixar Animation "rolled with genuine laughter" at the clips.

Movies.com, a unit of the Walt Disney Co., has added a feature called "Parents Preview" that grades films on sexual content, violence and language, providing more information than the MPAA's ratings system. In an interview with today's (Thursday) Los Angeles Daily News, Rod Gustafson, president of Parents Preview, said, "We're not just counting the number of gunshots or sex scenes." Movies.com exec Dan Sherlock told the newspaper, "This is going to reach out to segments we maybe weren't reaching. Hopefully we will see a boost in (site traffic) as a result."

The European Union has approved Sony Corporation's $2.9-billion acquisition of MGM, the companies said Wednesday, requiring no changes in the deal in order to pass antitrust regulations. The commission concluded that the merger "would neither create nor strengthen a dominant position or otherwise impede effective competition." The approval permits the combined company to operate in Europe.

Dan Rather's hope of boosting the ratings of 60 Minutes Wednesday to a level that would assure the news magazine of renewal was dealt a blow Wednesday when it was pummeled in the ratings by ABC's drama Lost. The ABC hit garnered a 10.7 rating and a 17 share, while 60 Minutes, featuring Rather's interview with former G.E. chief Jack Welch, finished a distant second with a 6.5/10. The top show of the night was again Fox's American Idol, which scored a 14.7/22. ABC's new drama Eyes, which critics described as promising, debuted with disappointing numbers, recording only a 5.7/10 in the 10:00 p.m. hour, behind NBC's Law & Order (9.1/15) and a rerun of CBS's CSI: NY (6.2/10).

NBC had a tough night at The Office Tuesday as its imported sitcom, which had shown promise with a strong debut last Thursday, virtually collapsed in its regular Tuesday-night slot. The sitcom, which received generally positive reviews, came in dead last in the ratings with a 4.1/6, losing to Fox's House, MD, which scored an 11.3/17 (and appears to be a genuine surprise hit for the network), CBS's Amazing Race, which garnered a 7.9/12, and even ABC's lackluster Rodney, which drew a 5.4/8. The top-rated show of the night once again was American Idol, which posted a 15.5/24. Together with House, Idol gave Fox a huge lead over its rivals Tuesday night.

With cable companies having reached peak saturation among individual households, they are now fiercely fighting to sign up condominiums, apartment buildings, and housing developments, the New York Times reported today (Thursday). The newspaper noted that Comcast alone spent $133 million last year to sign up landlords of multidwelling units. Some residents, however, have begun to balk at the mandatory cable fees that are now included in their maintenance bills, the Times said. The resident of one West Palm Beach, FL golf community, who subscribes to several sports packages offered by DirecTV, told the Times that he hardly ever watches anything on cable, for which he must pay $31 a month. "I would pull it if I could," he said. The cable fee is also a sore point for residents who watch little or no TV at all or who would be content with free broadcast channels. However, the bulk deals allow regular cable-TV users at the complexes to receive a basic package for about a third of what they would ordinarily pay.

Despite receiving a warm critical reception as anchor of the CBS Evening News, Bob Schieffer continues to insist that he does not expect the job to last more than a few months. "I'm not going to eliminate or close off anything, but as of right now, I have no reason to believe they're going to ask me to go full time," he told today's (Thursday) Philadelphia Inquirer. Separately, he told the Associated Press, "I have no reason to believe it's going to be longer than three months. I'll tell you the truth, if they came to me and said we want you to do it for a while, I don't know what I would say." Jim Murphy, the program's exec producer, was quoted in the Inquirer as saying, "If the audience shows up, we'd be foolish not to consider extending Bob's mission." Nevertheless, the program remains a distant third in the ratings behind NBC Nightly News and ABC World News Tonight.

Time Warner Cable is negotiating with the U.S. TV networks to allow it to proceed with a new service that will allow viewers to watch any television show from the beginning regardless of when they tune in. The service, called "Start Over," was described at a Banc of America Securities conference in New York on Wednesday. The service's CEO, Glenn Britt, told the conferences that some networks had already signed up. He did not name them.

CBS plans to assemble all of its websites into a single Internet unit headed by Larry S. Kramer, who created CBS MarketWatch, the financial website that Dow Jones acquired last year following a bidding battle with CBS. "We didn't get the asset," said CBS Chairman Les Moonves, told today's (Thursday) New York Times. "Maybe more important, we got the guy." Kramer is expected to bundle CBS's principal websites, including SportsLine.com, CBS.com, CBSNews.com and UPN.com, so that they can be sold to advertisers as a single package.

CNSNews.com, a unit of the conservative Media Research Center, has accused the major TV networks of playing down the Terri Schiavo story Wednesday night, in particular, accusing NBC of relegating the story to an "update" by anchor Brian Williams without so much as a single report from the field. "Why are the media elites in New York so cool to the Terri Schiavo story? Perhaps it's not pleasant to cover the first court-sanctioned effort to starve to death a U.S. citizen," the news service commented. Meanwhile, today's (Thursday) Village Voice, the liberal New York weekly, front-pages a commentary by veteran columnist Nat Hentoff also condemning the court's rulings in the Schiavo case, describing them as "judicial murder" and "the longest public execution in history." He added: "The American system of justice would not slake her thirst as she, on television, was dying in front of us all." Schiavo died this morning.

Christopher Eccleston, the star of the revival of a hit British TV series Doctor Who, has quit the show after Saturday's first episode drew more than 10 million viewers. "He saves the world and BBC, then Dr. Who quits," headlined today's (Thursday) London Times. Eccleston is due to remain in the series through the rest of the year. In a statement, he said, "The audience's response for the new Doctor Who has been incredible and I am really proud to be part of it, and I hope viewers continue to enjoy the series." Eccleston is the ninth actor to portray Dr. Who on the series which British fans remember as the one that debuted on the day John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.