Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will officially open today (Wednesday) in 4,285 theaters in North America, the widest release in history for a Warner Bros. movie. (Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End holds the industry record: 4,362 theaters.) The movie is also opening in 44 other countries. Warner Bros. said Tuesday that it is shipping 22,000 prints globally, which will cost the company roughly $9 million. The film will also open on about 100 IMAX 3-D screens. The last reel of the film has been converted digitally into 3-D for those screenings.

Michael Moore, whose documentary Sicko, attacks the U.S. health care and health insurance systems, defended the film against a recent attack by CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta on CNN's Larry King Live Tuesday night. Moore said that his staffers sent Gupta an email message backing up claims made in the movie that Gupta questioned in an earlier broadcast -- but that Gupta ignored the message. Gupta denied Moore's charges, accusing the filmmaker of "cherry-picking data from different reports." In the end, however, Gupta acknowledged that overall the movie "strikes at the irrefutable fact -- [the U.S. health system] is broken." Gupta, who continues to practice medicine, was asked by Moore whether he himself didn't find the current health-insurance system cumbersome. The surgeon replied, "It's a shameful system, especially when I'm dealing with some of my patients." Moore's film is due to expand into 756 theaters on Friday.

Charles Lane, a character actor who first appeared in films in 1931 and eventually made more than 300 movies and TV shows, died Monday in Santa Monica, CA at age 102. He had roles in such classics as It's a Wonderful Life, Arsenic and Old Lace, Call Northside 777, You Can't Take It With You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. He made frequent appearances in different roles on the I Love Lucy TV show, including the episode that drew virtually the entire nation -- when Lucy gave birth to a boy. (He played the role of the expectant father waiting with Ricky in the hospital waiting room.) Lane remained active until the end. His final credit was as narrator of last year's The Night Before Christmas. He reportedly is the subject of an unfinished documentary, You Know the Face.

Ending a contest that involved 14 U.S. towns and cities named Springfield, the Vermont town by that name (population 9,300) was officially proclaimed the hometown of TV's (and soon the movies') the Simpsons and was chosen to host the premiere of The Simpsons Movie on July 26. In the promotional video the town put together for the contest, a local talk-show host, playing a real-life Homer, chases a giant, pink doughnut through the streets. In a statement, Gov. Jim Douglas said, "This is an exciting, exhilarating moment for Vermonters. ... Perhaps more importantly, it proves there's really nothing a giant doughnut can't do." The Vermont town did have the edge on the other Springfields -- it has a nuclear power plant down the road, commuting distance for Homer.

Warner Bros. and Sony Pictures are in talks with a major real-estate operator in India to build a network of multiplexes throughout the country, the Indian Express reported Tuesday. The two film companies are reportedly working with DLF Group, the country's leading real estate firm. The Indian newspaper said that it "could not be ascertained what the nature of the tie-up between DLF and the global [film companies] would be."

The Toronto Film Festival announced Tuesday that Michael Clayton, starring George Clooney, will receive a "gala presentation" at this year's festival, marking the Warner Bros. film's world premiere. The festival also plans a gala presentation for Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, and Alan Arkin. The festival opens on September 6 and runs through the 15th.

While network ratings for the 4th of July week have traditionally been lower than they are at any time of the year, last week's numbers were the lowest ever. CBS won the week with an average of just 6.27 million viewers. That translated to an average 4.3 rating and an 8 share for the week. NBC placed second with an average 3.3/6. Fox followed with a 3.0/6, while ABC could only produce a 2.8/5. Nevertheless, among adults 18-49, Fox emerged for the 22nd straight week as the No. 1 network.

The top ten shows of the week according to Nielsen Research: 1. CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (10:00 p.m.), CBS, 6.3/11; 2. CSI: Miami, CBS, 5.9/10; 4. 60 Minutes, CBS, 5.5/11; 5. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (9:00 p.m.), Fox, 5.4/9; 6. NCIS, CBS, 5.1/10; 7. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (8:00 p.m.), Fox, 4.9/9; 7. Without a Trace, CBS, 4.9/8; 9. 48 Hours Mystery, CBS, 4.8/9; 9. Big Brother (Thursday), CBS, 4.8/9; 9. Hell's Kitchen, Fox, 4.8/8.

Among the nightly newscasts, World News With Charles Gibson expanded its lead over NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams last week as it drew 7.5 million viewers to NBC's 6.8 million. It was the widest lead yet for the ABC newscast since the two anchors began going head-to-head. The CBS Evening News With Katie Couric attracted just 5.6 million viewers.

Conservative criticism of the Live Earth coverage on Saturday by NBC and its sibling cable networks began rising Tuesday, with many commentators describing it as free political propaganda for Al Gore. In an editorial, Investor's Business Daily suggested that the Live Earth broadcasts might have represented "the largest in-kind political contribution." The newspaper also suggested that NBC's parent, General Electric, might have its own ulterior motives for boosting the Live Earth message on global warming. GE, it said, "stands to make a wad of cash from selling alternative energy products from wind turbines to solar panels to those compact fluorescent bulbs containing mercury. So when Gore prances on stage to demand we stop building coal-fired plants, that's music to GE's corporate ears." The conservative Media Research Center railed at NBC reporter Ann Curry for asking Gore whether he would run for president, "if you become convinced that without you there will not be the political will in the White House to fight global warming to the level that is required." On the NewsBusters blog, Lynn Davidson commented, "There should be more questions about Gore-apalooza and the problems involved with a network literally giving a stage to an issue that, despite the shrill desperate claims otherwise, is one which is both political and not settled." And in the Washington Post, even media columnist Howard Kurtz, who could hardly be pegged as a conservative, asked, "Wasn't NBC, whose news division covers the debate over climate change, providing a huge platform for advocates on one side of a contentious issue? And isn't the network helping a prominent Democrat ... raise money?"

ABC News, which had trumpeted the fact that it had obtained the telephone records of "DC Madam" Deborah Palfrey, but ended up naming only two persons on her client list last month, said Tuesday that it was not aware that Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana was also on the list. ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider told the website Raw Story that the network had only about 80 percent of Palfrey's records for the years 2002-2006. Last week Palfrey released all of her phone records over 13 years. Said Schneider: "The senator's number must have been on one of those years we didn't have." Still, given ABC's extraordinary attention to Palfrey's phone records, it was unclear how Hustler magazine got a beat on the story and was able to twit ABC for failing to reveal Vitter's (now-admitted) tie with Palfrey. "[Publisher Larry] Flynt's team found what ABC News has so far been unable to ferret out," a statement by the magazine boasted.

Logo, Viacom's cable outlet targeting gay and lesbian viewers, plans to air a Democratic presidential debate on August 9, in which candidates will be asked about their views on gay issues by singer Melissa Etheridge, who is openly gay. So far, candidates Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama have agreed to participate, according to the channel.

A glitch in Nielsen¹s overnight ratings report presumably resulted in incomplete figures for Tuesday night's Major League Baseball All-Star game, carried by Fox. Ordinarily Fox does not air network programming during the 10:00 p.m. hour -- a fact that may explain why Nielsen issued ratings for the game during only the 8:00 and 9:00 p.m. hours. Those hours averaged a 7.4 rating and a 13 share -- well below the 9.3/16 registered by the (entire) 2006 All-Star game. (West Coast figures for the live broadcast were also not included in the overnights.)