Movie critics and commentators who originally questioned whether a romantic film about two gay cowboys would be able to attract a mainstream audience are now wondering whether it will doom the Oscar telecast. Brokeback Mountain, which appears to have a lock on the best-picture Oscar, may have defied industry predictions and become profitable, but it has not been seen by a mass audience, the way Titanic and the Lord of the Rings movies were before they helped draw big ratings for the Oscars. Indeed, as several writers have observed, virtually all of the films in the top categories are small low-budget films, none of which has risen to blockbuster status. Los Angeles Times entertainment writer Jim Bates observed today (Wednesday): "All you need to know about how hard it will be to get people to watch the Oscars is that a nominated documentary about penguins has been watched by more moviegoers than any of the five best picture contenders. Or that four out of five people tuning into the broadcast will not have seen any of those movies in a theater." And New York Post entertainment writer Don Kaplan observed today, "ABC may be staring down the barrel of one of the lowest-rated Oscar telecasts in recent memory."

Steven Spielberg's Munich , which has drawn strong criticism from several Israeli officials and Jewish leaders in the U.S., opened in first place at the Israeli box office last weekend, Daily Variety reported today (Wednesday), noting that it drew 25,000 ticket buyers, more than twice that of the No. 2 film. Israeli film critics also blasted the film, the trade paper said, including the critic for Haaretz, who called Spielberg's directorial work "slovenly." Nevertheless, he defended the director's right to present his point of view, remarking, "Cinema has no obligation to chronicle history, even if by its very existence the film becomes part of history, often representing it or even replacing it in our memories."

Sony Pictures has confirmed that it has been notified by the Chinese government that a planned Feb. 9 release of Memoirs of a Geisha has been canceled, the New York Times reported today (Wednesday). The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television reportedly gave no explanation, but numerous earlier reports had indicated that authorities were concerned about possible protests over some of China's top actresses appearing in Japanese roles in the movie. Sony spokesman Jim Kennedy told the Times. "We were pleased by their acceptance of the film in November, and we're disappointed by this decision." It is the second disappointment for the studio this week. The film, which was expected to be a contender in top Oscar categories, received only six technical nominations.

The Constant Gardener has won the prestigious Evening Standard British Film Award for best film of 2005. The awards ceremony recognizes outstanding achievement in British film. Ralph Fiennes was named best actor for his performance in Gardener. Natasha Richardson received the best actress award for Asylum.

While Paramount Home Video has successfully marketed DVD packages of I Love Lucy, Warner Bros. Home Video is now getting into the act with a package that includes the only two feature films Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz starred in together, The Long, Long Trailer in 1954 and Forever, Darling, in 1955. A third movie, Too Many Girls, produced in 1940, stars Ball in the leading role and Arnaz in a bit part. The two reportedly met on the set of the film, fell in love, and married a few weeks afterwards.

An investment firm backed by the government of Dubai has announced that it plans to acquire a stake in Time Warner and engage Carl Icahn as an adviser. Icahn is seeking to take control of the board of the media giant, replace its chairman, and force the company to spin off AOL and the Time Warner cable company. The Wall Street Journal said that the investment firm, Istithmar PJSC, has capital of about $2 billion, with half of it invested in various companies.

American Idol attracted near-record ratings last week, with the Tuesday edition placing first and the Wednesday, second. And while they were enough to give Fox a win among all the younger demographic groups, CBS won the week among overall households for the 17th time of the 19-week-old season with an 8.7 rating and a 14 share. Fox, in fact, was significantly behind with an average 7.6/12, followed by ABC with a 7.0/11 and NBC with a 5.4/9. CBS also debuted a new Monday-night sitcom, Courting Alex, which performed strongly, placing 13th on the Nielsen list with a 9.6/14. (The show slipped to an 8.8/13 in its second outing this week.) Meanwhile, the NBC Universal-owned USA Network boasted Monday that it was not only the highest-rated cable network during January but also that it drew its biggest audience since January 2000, thanks primarily to the wrestling show WWE Raw and the comedy detective series Monk.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. American Idol (Tuesday), Fox, 19.6/29; 2. American Idol (Wednesday), Fox, 18.2/28; 3. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, CBS, 16.2/24; 4. Without a Trace, CBS, 14.5/24; 5. CSI: Miami, CBS, 12.6/20; 6. Dancing With the Stars, ABC, 12.5/19; 7. Grey's Anatomy, ABC, 11.8/19; 8. Lost, ABC, 11.2/16; 9. NCIS, CBS, 10.8/16; 10. Two and a Half Men, CBS, 10.7/15.

ABC World News Tonight co-anchor Bob Woodruff was flown back to the U.S. Tuesday and was being treated at Bethesda's National Naval Medical Center for the injuries he received when he was hit by shrapnel from a roadside bomb in Iraq. Although Woodruff remained unconscious, ABC News President David Westin said in a statement that his doctors were "encouraged by the continued progress he made overnight." The statement did not provide details of Woodruff's progress, and Westin cautioned that "it will likely be some time before we have a complete sense of the injuries." Meanwhile, UPI reported that U.S. servicemen in Iraq were expressing indignation over the amount of media attention Woodruff's case has drawn. It quoted an unnamed officer stationed in Baqubah as remarking, "You'd think we lost the entire 1st Marine Division or something. There's a lot of grumbling from guys at all ranks about it. That's a really impolite and impolitic thing to say ... but it's what you would hear over here." On Monday night, World News Tonight recorded a rare ratings win over NBC Nightly News as news watchers tuned in to learn about Woodruff's condition.

Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson will take turns co-anchoring ABC's World News Tonight with Elizabeth Vargas while Bob Woodruff recovers from his injuries, the New York Times and the Washington Post reported today (Wednesday), citing unnamed sources. The newspaper indicated that other ABC journalists may also be called upon to spell Sawyer and Gibson, who also co-host Good Morning America. Complicating matters is the fact that ABC recently decided to air an all-new, live West Coast edition of World News Tonight, which is produced at 10:00 p.m. on the East Coast. Sawyer and Gibson must rise several hours before the 7:00 a.m. start of GMA.On Tuesday night, Vargas, Sawyer and Gibson appeared together for the first time as ABC's co-anchors of President Bush's State of the Union address.

The Fox broadcast network, which has no nightly newscast and airs only an occasional news special produced by its sibling Fox News cable network, drew the biggest audience of all the networks for its coverage of President Bush's State of the Union Address Tuesday night. It was presumably all due to the lead-in -- American Idol, which delivered a 16.2 rating and a 24 share for Fox in the 8:00 p.m. hour. The rating, significantly off from last week's 19.6/29, was nevertheless good enough to give Fox a hefty win for the night as it averaged a 9.0/14 versus a 5.6/9 for second-place CBS.

The News Corp-controlled BSkyB satellite service headed by Rupert Murdoch's son James, today (Wednesday) reported an 8.9 percent boost in second-quarter profit to $238 million, as it noted that it signed up more subscribers during the quarter than it had in any other quarter for the past three years. The number of subscribers opting out of the service (the "churn" rate) declined to 10.6 percent from 11.7 percent.

NBC has decided to resurrect its controversial The Book of Daniel on the Internet. According to MediaPost, the network is planning to allow viewers to watch the four unaired episodes online -- presumably for free. The episode that would have aired last Friday has already been posted without comment on NBC.com. Fans have apparently not discovered it there yet. A fan blog associated with the Daniel site was last updated a week ago. Meanwhile, Daniel creator Jack Kenny has lambasted NBC for its decision to cancel the show. "I think pretty soon we're all going to have to be sitting in a room with these bigots and have to get their approval before a network will sign on to do anything," he said in an interview with the website afterelton.com. Kenny blamed the Rev. Don Wildmon's American Family Association for launching the campaign that resulted in Daniel's cancellation. "I feel badly for NBC because they were put in an untenable position. They were behind me 100-percent the whole way. ... Yet they were being cornered by advertisers, who were being cornered by emails. Advertisers don't want emails of any kind. The more emails they get ... the more they want to run from it." On his website, Wildmon told his supporters, "People like Kenny don't want people like you to have a voice. They want to deny you the right to get involved. You are supposed to sit back and take the trash. And when you do speak up they call you names."