Whoville scored a massive victory at the box-office over the weekend as the G-rated Horton Hears a Who! hauled in an estimated $45.1 million, making it the best opening so far this year. Some analysts predicted that the actual take will turn out to be even higher when receipts from morning and matinee screenings for kids on Sunday are tallied. With spring break hitting many cities this week, the film is also expected to perform strongly through next weekend, which includes the Easter holiday. Also opening this week, Summit Entertainment's Never Back Down performed about as expected as it took in about $8.6 million to place third, but Universal's Doomsday appeared doomed to failure as it debuted in seventh place with just $4.7 million. Last weekend's winner, 10,000 B.C., came closer to extinction when it dropped 54 percent to earn $16.4 percent, raising its gross to $61.2 million.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. Horton Hears a Who!, $45.1 million; 2. 10,000 B.C., $16.4 million; 3. Never Back Down, $8.6 million; 4. College Road Trip, $7.9 million; 5. Vantage Point, $5.4 million; 6. The Bank Job, $4.9 million; 7. Doomsday, $4.7 million; 8. Semi-Pro, $3 million; 9. The Other Boleyn Girl, $2.9 million; 10. The Spiderwick Chronicles, $2.4 million.

Paramount has reportedly agreed to screen its forthcoming Mike Myers comedy The Love Guru to a group of Hindu leaders in the U.S. in an apparent effort to quell growing criticism of the movie among Hindu organizations in the U.S. and India, Indian newspapers reported. Over the weekend, Lila D. Sharma, president of the India Heritage Panel in Chandigarh, India, said in a statement, "Hollywood is trying to make money by laughing at our holy men and in the process creating a stereotype." The Indian news website Merinews.com said in an editorial, "With all the ridicule showered at our holy men and women in the film The Love Guru, we should not only brace ourselves against Hollywood comedian Mike Myers, but also assert our rights to not let aliens poke fun at us when we revere our revered ones!" In the U.S., Raja Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said that the trailer for the movie "appears to be lampooning Hinduism. ... It perpetuates stereotypes of Hindus." Paramount spokesperson Jessica Rovins responded, "It is our full intention to screen the film for Rajan Zed and other Hindu leaders in the U.S. once we have a finished print." The movie, she added, "is a comedy and the purpose is to entertain, and we are not making this movie to offend anybody."

College administrators say that MPAA-backed legislation tying federal financial-aid programs to a requirement that the schools institute anti-piracy programs could wind up increasing student tuition. Steve Worona, director of policy and networking for the nonprofit Educause, told the Los Angeles Times that the vast majority of piracy occurs off-campus and that the new mandate would be ineffective in reducing it. "More than 80 percent of students live off-campus and use commercial networks," he said. Educause Vice President Mark Luker added that the House-passed legislation was spurred by the MPAA's initial claims that 44 percent of the industry's losses due to piracy were caused by students using college networks. However, in late January the organization, citing "human error," acknowledged that the percentage was about 15 percent. However, the Times reported, some studies indicate that the actual percentage of students using peer-to-peer networks on campus is much lower still, around 3 percent.

Buxom blonde Angelyne, star of Los Angeles billboards, is among the front-runners for the post of Honorary Mayor of Hollywood, according to the Los Angeles Times. Two others are also vying for the post left empty by the death of Johnny Grant on January 9 -- announcer Gary Owens and former game-show host Monty Hall, the newspaper said. The honorary mayor mostly presides over Walk of Fame ceremonies, at which celebrities are honored with a star embedded in the sidewalk of Hollywood Boulevard. "I'd definitely promote Hollywood in a much brighter light," Angelyne told the Times."It needs more flash -- pink flash."

The British box office set a record in 2007 with ticket sales rising 7.7 percent and admissions gaining 3.7 percent, according to figures released over the weekend by the Film Distributors' Association and reported today (Monday) by Britain's Guardian newspaper. The group also predicted that this year's box office will build on last year's success, despite predictions of an overall downturn in the British economy. "Given the lineup, we do not foresee a downturn this year at all -- quite the reverse," Mark Batey, the FDA's CEO, told the Guardian.

George Lucas is working on a new live-action Star Wars series for television that is being described as Deadwood meets The Sopranos in outer space, the New York Post reported today (Monday), citing a report that appeared on the sci-fi website collider.com. Lucas's primary Star Wars characters, including Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Darth Vader, will not appear in the series, the newspaper said. The Post said that Lucas has held talks with HBO about carrying the series and has also approached at least one broadcast network, but he has yet to make a deal. The newspaper did not explain the reasons for the broadcast and cable networks' reluctance, especially since the Star Wars movies represent the most successful film franchise in history. Lucas is also working on an animated TV series, The Clone Wars, which is also based on the Star Wars tales.

Katie Couric may moderate a presidential-candidate debate after all. Weekend reports indicated that CBS is close to finalizing plans to air a debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in North Carolina in April -- an actual date and time have not been firmed up -- ahead of the May 6 primary in that state. Couric is the only network anchor who has not moderated a presidential debate this year. She had been set to do so in Los Angeles last December, but that debate was called off after the Writers Guild of America threatened to picket it. Some reports indicated that Couric would preside over the North Carolina debate along with Washington bureau chief Bob Schieffer, her CBS Evening News predecessor.

NBC continued to pay former Dateline co-anchor Maria Shriver hundreds of thousands of dollars annually after she left the program following her husband's victory in the 2003 gubernatorial election, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Monday). The newspaper cited information about Shriver's "golden parachute" included in statements of economic interest that her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is required to file. The payments, the newspaper said, were part of an exit agreement Shriver and NBC negotiated after network executives became uncomfortable with her working as a journalist for the news division while simultaneously serving as the state's first lady. "There is absolutely nothing unusual about her exit agreement with NBC," Daniel Zingale, Shriver's chief of staff, told the Times.

The news divisions of ABC, CBS and NBC cut their staffs an average of 7 percent in 2007 from their levels a year earlier, including a reduction of 24 percent in the number of producers, according to a report by the Project for Excellence in Journalism. In its "State of the News Media 2008," the PEJ also observed that during the past year the networks virtually halted coverage of the war in Iraq. During the first 10 weeks of this year, it observed, coverage of the war represented just 3 percent of news stories covered on network television (1 percent on cable) versus 23 percent for the same period a year ago. "The fact that it went down didn't surprise me," Tom Rosenstiel, the project's director, told the Associated Press. "But the fact that it almost disappeared is something I didn't expect."

With U.S. television shows failing to attract the huge audiences they once did, British network Channel 4 plans to cut its spending for U.S. TV productions by 20 percent over the next two years and use the savings -- about $70 million -- for home-grown product, the BBC reported over the weekend. Kevin Lygo, the network's director of content, said that it intends to be more discerning in selecting U.S. television productions in the future. "We will reduce both the volume we acquire and the amount we will spend," he said.

Telemundo, the Spanish-language corporate sibling of NBC, has reached a deal with the Mexican network Televisa to provide its programming to Televisa-owned broadcast, cable and satellite outlets in Mexico, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times reported today (Monday), citing people familiar with the situation. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal presumably marks the end of Telemundo's efforts to launch a third broadcast network in Mexico that would challenge Televisa and rival TV Azteca. In its report, the Journal observed, "By allowing a U.S. broadcaster onto its networks, the deal may also help Televisa deflect criticism in the U.S. and Mexico that it squashes competition."

In the latest effort by a government to block critical videos posted on YouTube, China on Sunday prevented access to the video site after videos showing protest demonstrations in Tibet appeared. The videos were mostly clips from Western newscasts and included scenes of demonstrations in support of the Tibetan protesters in other countries.