This is the time of year when Hollywood dumps the worst it has to offer on multiplexes, confident that not many people will visit them anyway. Judging from critics' reviews, this year is no exception. Take, for example, Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert's assessment of one of this weekend's new releases, Good Luck Chuck, which, he calls "the dirty movie of the year, slimy and scummy," and which "layers a creaky plot device on top of countless excuses to show breasts, sometimes three at a time, and is potty-mouthed and brain-damaged." A.O. Scott in the New York Times says that the movie, which stars Jessica Alba, is "a must-see for young men with a subscription to Maxim but no access to the Internet." To Michael Sragow in the Baltimore Sun, it's "a comedy about breasts made by boobs." Then there's Kyle Smith in the New York Post who describes Good Luck Chuck as "a fungal little sex comedy [that] doesn't need a review. It needs a tube of ointment and a shot of penicillin." And Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune figures that the film must be "some sort of humor-deprivation experiment."

Opening for the art-house set and for possible Oscar consideration is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, a title that will certainly not fit on the marquee of even a conventional movie house. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times describes the movie this way: "Hugely ambitious and not without moments of success, this indulgent 2 hour and 40 minute epic ends up as unwieldy as its elongated title." Manohla Dargis in the New York Times is also unimpressed, saying that it merely "adds another gauzy chapter to the overtaxed James myth, if not much rhyme or reason, heart or soul." Although Brad Pitt, who plays Jesse James, won a best-actor award for the role at the recent Venice Film Festival, he receives few plaudits from critics. Liam Lacey in the Toronto Globe and Mail calls the award "a bit of a head-scratcher." But Bob Strauss in the Los Angeles Daily News describes the performances of Pitt and co-star Casey Affleck (as Ford) as "masterful and multifaceted, totally naturalistic yet bursting with magnetic star quality."

Sydney White, described as a contemporary retelling of Snow White, starring Amanda Bynes, is receiving some grumpy reviews. In fact, Ty Burr in the Boston Globe spends the first paragraph of his review focusing on Bynes tan (he returns to it at the end, too), writing, "The star's skin tone is a dark orange fake-and-bake marvel not found anywhere in or near nature. Did they take Bynes out back and lacquer it on? Did she suffer an accident in a Cheetos factory? ... Doesn't matter: It's mesmerizing, and one of the worst makeup jobs ever seen in a studio film." (So much for "the fairest of them all.") And Walter Addiego in the San Francisco Chronicle doesn't bother much with the plot of the movie or the performances, either, focusing on the title. "The picture was going to be called Sydney White and the Seven Dorks, which at least suggests a takeoff on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," he writes. "Maybe the studio thought 'dorks' would turn off some potential ticket buyers, but the new, shrunken title conveys nothing." A few critics do bother to comment on the film, mostly dismissively. Like Ann Hornaday in the Washington Post who describes it as a "completely ersatz movie that flattens everything, including its star, with a generic look and assembly-line sensibility."

Resident Evil: Extinction (based on the video game) was not screened for critics, but the Dallas Morning News printed a review by Matt Weitz, a "special contributor," who had attended a preview. Weitz concludes: "Like the joystick arena it draws power from, this film is a momentary diversion, a distraction of monsters, cloven flesh and bullet-blown spray patterns. No one expects, or even wants, every film to be Philadelphia. But this latest -- and supposedly last (yeah, right) -- installment of the franchise is the dark side of the gamers' dream. It leaves you exactly where you started, an hour and a half older."

An examination by the New York Times of the actual transcript of Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman's recent remarks about the possibility of Steven Spielberg leaving DreamWorks at the end of his contract next year suggests that Dauman may not have been as dismissive of Spielberg's value to the company as originally reported. In capsulizing Dauman's remarks to an investors' conference in New York on Tuesday, Daily Variety and other publications focused on his comment that if Spielberg left DreamWorks, "the financial impact to Paramount first and especially to Viacom over all would be completely immaterial." However, the Times observed, Dauman was using the term "immaterial" in the Wall Street sense -- meaning impact on reported earnings. The newspaper commented that Dauman's intended meaning "was perhaps lost in translation when the phrase hit Hollywood ears." The Times further pointed out that earlier in his remarks, Dauman had noted that Spielberg was currently directing the new Indiana Jones film and emphasized that it was being produced and released under the Paramount banner. He added: "We're doing everything possible to make him happy." On Thursday, Paramount Chairman Brad Grey told the Times: "I have the greatest respect for the creativity of Steven Spielberg and the entire DreamWorks team, as well as the immense entrepreneurial business skills of David Geffen. ... On behalf of Viacom and Paramount, I hope we're all in business for a very long time." (Separately, he told the Los Angeles Times: "It would always be better to have Steven and DreamWorks with us, but of course we'll be OK [if they leave].") And even if Spielberg does decide to ditch DreamWorks next year, the New York Times observed, it "would also probably maintain business ties with Mr. Spielberg for years to come without an executive contract, because it has acquired years' worth of projects in which he has a creative interest."

Setting the stage for Internet download services to sell movies that can be burned onto a DVD and played on conventional TV sets, the DVD Copy Control Association on Thursday approved new security software that permits content to be burned on a single disk but no more. (The content can not be viewed on a computer or on a portable video player, essentially pushing Apple's iPod Store out of the download-to-disk business.) Disks that can be used for such downloading will come preprinted with the codes necessary to prevent copying. Movie downloading services promptly hailed the approval, although it was uncertain when such disks will become available or how much they will cost. News reports indicated that a royalty payment will go the the group that developed the security technology.

Alan Rosenberg has won a second term as president of the Screen Actors Guild, narrowly defeating veteran actor Seymour Cassel. Rosenberg won with 47 percent of the vote to Cassel's 44 percent. In reporting the outcome, Daily Variety commented that "Cassel's strong showing also reflects a significant level of member dissatisfaction with Rosenberg's performance as president." Cassel had been urging the union to take a harder line with producers on DVD residuals and Internet fees. The election came as the guild prepared to enter into negotiations on a new contract; the current one expires on June 30.

George Lucas says that his upcoming animated series The Clone Wars is so far removed from typical animated TV fare that "we're still trying to figure out how to put it on the air." In an interview with the online edition of TV Guide, Lucas said that the series would be rated PG-13 if it were a movie. "Everybody's got the same conundrums -- 'How do we program it? Where does it live? Where can we put something like this?' You know, it has to go [on the air] after 9:00 p.m. and it can't be on a kiddie channel." But while the series doesn't fit into a convenient "niche" for advertisers and programmers, Lucas said, "It's Star Wars and it's really good, so I'm sure somehow or another, people will also start thinking outside the box and it will find its home." Lucas indicated that he is independently financing 100 episodes of the animated series as well as 100 episodes of a live-action Star Wars-based series that has not yet begun shooting. "We're just doing them on the faith that we're going to [sell them]," he told TV Guide. "But I have enough confidence that this is good, and I'll make it really good, so I'm not too worried about that part of it."

In an apparent effort to steer clear of the original controversy over Kid Nation, which included charges that the network and the show's producers had skirted child-labor laws, advertisers may have shunned the show's season premiere, resulting in the opening segment running 38 minutes without a single commercial. Reporting on the dearth of ads, Advertising Age asked, "Did CBS sell enough ads for the first episode of Kid Nation to warrant giving out a $20,000 gold star to one of the program's young participants?" A CBS spokeswoman responded that the network has debuted other programs with a light commercial load in the past and that Kid Nation will contain a "regular and full" commercial load when the second episode airs next week.

Unlike Don Imus, Dan Rather insists he will "absolutely not" settle his lawsuit against CBS. Appearing on CNN's Larry King Live, Rather said Thursday that he primary reason for his litigation is to expose what actually happened behind the scenes at CBS after his discredited report about President Bush's National Guard service aired on 60 Minutes II in 2004. If any money is awarded to him as a result of the suit, he said, he would donate the bulk of it to organizations that defend investigative journalists. In his own case, Rather told King, CBS "sacrificed support for independent journalism for corporate financial gain, and in so doing, I think they undermined a lot at CBS News." Commenting on Rather's lawsuit, Mary Mapes, the producer of the segment who was fired by CBS for her role in what became known as Rathergate, observed that it "gives him that delicious power of discovery. Who knows what might shake loose." And James Moore, a veteran Texas TV reporter who had begun investigating President Bush's National Guard history before CBS had pounced on it, noted Thursday that every relevant document concerning it is probably filed at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. "Any historian, journalist, or amateur researcher could have access to the truth if the president simply signed a release allowing those pages to be printed and distributed," he wrote. (On the CBS Evening News Thursday, Katie Couric devoted less than 20 seconds to a report on the Rather lawsuit.)

Newly reelected Writers Guild of America West President Patric Verrone has called for an FCC rule that would require TV networks to disclose when advertisements are integrated into a script. Speaking at an FCC hearing media ownership in Chicago, Verrone said, "When writers are told that we must incorporate a commercial product into the story lines we've written, we cease to be creators; we become advertisers ourselves. ... The FCC should require a crawl to run at the bottom of the screen during the integration that would identify the product, its promoter and the fact that the writers and actors do not personally endorse the product's use." During the so-called Golden Age of Radio, it was commonplace for writers to be paid directly by advertisers to integrate plugs for their products in radio shows, a practice that was then winked at by networks and advertisers, who often produced the shows. (Sample from the Jack Benny radio show after Benny's ancient Maxwell car fails to start: Benny's valet and driver Rochester: "Mr. Benny, why don't you get a new Hudson -- 'The Car You Step Down Into'?" Benny: "I can step down into my Maxwell." Rochester: "But a Hudson has a floor!")

The audio track of CBS's 60 Minutes will be available free at Apple's iTunes Store and the CBS News website from 11:00 p.m. on the day of the telecast beginning next Sunday, the network announced Thursday. 60 Minutes executive producer Jeff Fager told Broadcasting & Cable: "60 Minutes is perfect for this kind of audio podcasting. Our broadcast has always been built on solid story telling, with or without the pictures." He noted that the program has been simulcast by numerous CBS Radio affiliates for years.