George Clooney may have wanted to seek treatment in the E.R. over the weekend as he suffered a nasty beating at the box office. Although Leatherheads, the film he directed and starred in, had been expected to earn $15-20 million and thereby win the box office contest, it instead wound up with just 13.5 million and had to settle for second place, according to studio estimates, with some analysts predicting it will actually come in third when Sunday receipts are finally tallied. Sony/Columbia's 21, which surprisingly came in at No. 1 last week, surprisingly came in at No. 1 for the second week in a row with ticket sales of $15.1 million. The Jodie Foster family film Nim's Island from 20th Century Fox came in third with $13.3 million. A third newcomer, the fright film The Ruins placed fifth with $7.8 million. In limited release, Martin Scorsese's documentary concert film Shine a Light, featuring a performance by The Rolling Stones, opened solidly with $1.5 million from 276 theaters, 93 of them giant IMAX venues. Overall, the box office fell 23 percent compared to the same weekend a year ago. Some analysts blamed television's coverage of the NCAA basketball championships, which in particular may have drawn audiences away from the sports-themed Leatherheads.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Media by Numbers: 1. 21, $15.1 million; 2. Leatherheads, $13.5 million; 3. Nim's Island, $13.3 million; 4. Horton Hears a Who!, $9.1 million; 5. The Ruins, $7.8 million; 6. Superhero Movie, $5.4 million; 7. Meet the Browns, $3.51 million; 8. Drillbit Taylor, $3.5 million; 9. Shutter, $2.9 million; 10. 10, 000 B.C., $2.8 million.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will have its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, costar John Hurt has told a British talk show host. Appearing on the BBC's Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Hurt, who won Oscar nods for his roles in Midnight Express and The Elephant Man, described Harrison Ford's work in the film at age 65 as "brilliant," adding, "I have nothing but good things to say about him. He understands that whole franchise. He is that franchise."

Overseas, Horton Hears a Who! came in first for the second straight weekend, earning $11.7 million. Ticket sales remained slow, with the French hit Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, which is playing only in French-speaking areas of Europe, one of the few films continuing to pile up giant revenue.

A full 16 months before the current contract between the studios and the Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees is due to expire, the two sides are due to begin negotiations today (Monday) on a new contract. Daily Variety predicted that the talks will be wrapped up by Wednesday. Far more contentious talks are due to begin on April 15 between the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The speaker of the Iranian parliament has called on Muslim nations to "avoid buying" all products produced in the Netherlands in response to Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders's film Fitna, which argues that the Koran is the inspiration for terrorism, anti-Semitism and hate. Any country that allows its citizens to "insult Islam," Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said in a statement quoted by Iran's state radio Sunday, would likely reconsider "once they see their economies are in danger." Meanwhile about 40 students staged a peaceful demonstration outside the Dutch embassy in Tehran on Saturday to protest against Wilders's film. In Pakistan, however, more than 25,000 people gathered Sunday to demonstrate against the film. Meanwhile, earlier today, a Dutch court in The Hague declined to ban Fitna citing the country's laws protecting freedom of speech.

Charlton Heston, whose movie career spanned the Hollywood era when epic films boasted that they featured "a cast of thousands," died Saturday night at the age of 84. His films included such extravaganzas as Ben-Hur and The Ten Commandments. But he was just as well known for his roles in sci-fi movies like Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green. He also served as president of the Screen Actors Guild and in later years as president of the National Rifle Association.

Although Saturday night is often regarded as a dumping ground for the television networks, with most of the shows drawing the lowest ratings of the week, CBS had no problem attracting a massive audience for its coverage of the NCAA basketball Final Four Doubleheader. The telecast opened at 8:00 with 13.48 million viewers tuning in and although dipping a fraction in subsequent half hours, it came back strongly at 10:30 p.m. with 13.81 million viewers.

Jericho, the CBS television series that was canceled because of low ratings, then revived following protests from fans, then canceled again because of low ratings, may be revived a second time, the New York Times reported today (Monday). The newspaper said that CBS may follow NBC's recent example with Friday Night Lights in which it sold the DirecTV satellite service the right to air the series before it goes on network TV. The Times said that CBS is considering a similar option in negotiations with cable provider Comcast. Meanwhile, although DirecTV executives have expressed confidence that the Friday Night Lights deal could drive new subscribers to their service, some analysts are expressing skepticism about its ability to do so and forecasting that the DirecTV episodes will wind up being pirated on the Internet.

With ratings for National Hockey League games continuing to melt away, the league is snazzing up its website with a new video player that can play archived highlight clips going back three years. The clips can be retrieved by typing in either the name of the player or the date in a search box. The website coincides with the start of the Stanley Cup playoffs on Wednesday. The website PaidContent.com reported Sunday that numerous interactive features are being rolled out for the NHL website, including one that, by clicking "more" after watching a game's highlights, viewers can see a list of goals and click on any specific one. (They can then view a list of goals scored by the same player in other games.)

Katie Couric continues to be upbeat about the CBS Evening News even as it remains firmly stuck in third place with few if any audience gains month to month. "I've never really judged my worth by ratings," Couric told today's (Monday) Washington Post. It was good to be number one on the Today show, but to me it was more important to do a good show. "Our broadcast, I think, is of really good quality. Hopefully more people will come to it." Couric also said that she can identify with Hillary Clinton: "I'm sensitive to coverage that can be very subtly stacked against her, maybe a headline that has a little more snarkiness about her. ... I understand that kind of coverage because I've experienced it myself."

Lachlan Murdoch's plan to launch his own media empire by taking Australia's Consolidated Media Holdings private with his long-time friend and onetime business partner James Packer has come undone. The $3.2-billion deal reportedly began to unravel after the private equity firm Providence Equity Partners said it was not prepared to pay the original price for Consolidated after the company's shares fell on the Sydney Stock Exchange. Consolidated Media's holdings include stakes in the Nine Network and the pay TV operator Foxtel. Murdoch said early today that his investment company, Illyria, was "not in a position to proceed with the indicative proposal due to material changes in the overall transaction terms." The collapse of the deal was viewed as a stunning setback for the younger Murdoch, who in 2005 left News Corp, his father's media empire, to return to Australia, start his own business, and "be my own man."

Tom Brokaw, who fronts a two-hour documentary about Martin Luther King on the History Channel this month (it debuted Sunday night), has acknowledged that it is difficult to get people -- especially young people -- to tune in to long-form documentaries these days. Interviewed by Forbes magazine, Brokaw said, "It's tough. It's the same thing as trying to get them to read a long-form magazine and newspaper pieces. Everyone wants to do YouTube and Match.com." Brokaw, the former anchor of NBC Nightly News, said that developing an evening newscast is "a struggle." Recalling a visit to MIT last week, he said, "There were about 15 students in the room with me, and I asked how many of them read a newspaper on a daily basis. Two hands went up. Then I asked how many watched the evening news on a nightly basis. No hands went up. And then I asked how many spend a lot of time during the day going to their PDA or computer to find out what's going on, and every hand went up."

Saying that it is "long past time" for Fox Broadcasting to pay its fines for airing allegedly indecent material during the 2003 reality series Married by America, the FCC has handed the case to the Justice Department to collect the money. The Justice Department quickly filed lawsuits against eight stations owned by Fox and Sinclair broadcasting companies in federal courts in Washington, D.C.; Iowa; West Virginia and Tennessee. For its part, Fox said that it welcomed "the opportunity to present the full factual and legal argument in the 'Married by America' case to an impartial and open court of law." The FCC's action grew out of an episode of the show in which scenes featuring "pixilated" naked bodies of strippers appeared at a bachelor party.