The romantic comedy Made of Honor will be the only new film opening wide against Iron Man (which opened Thursday night) this weekend. Some critics seem to agree that it represents effective counter-programming. The New York Times's Stephen Holden remarks that the movie "adds tart satirical flavors to a cotton-candy formula without sabotaging the sugar rush." Roger Moore in the Orlando Sentinel comments that "fortunately ... [the movie] earns enough goodwill in a clever and sexy opening act to carry it through" to the end. Most other critics, however, suggest that it's merely another rendering of the 1997 film My Best Friend's Wedding, with a gender reversal, and one even compares it, unfavorably, with the classic The Philadelphia Story. He is the Toronto Star's Philip Marchand, who remarks that the audience is not likely to show much interest in the principal character, played by Patrick Dempsey. "Somewhere in the shades of Hollywood, the ghost of Cary Grant is shaking his head," Marchand writes. Kyle Smith in the New York Post calls Dempsey's character "a preening yet uptight jerk," and says that the outcome of the movie -- which character will wind up with whom? -- is never in doubt. "Still," he writes, "there was a certain amount of suspense in the air at the screening of Made of Honor: Would Tom and Hannah realize they're perfect for each other at the altar, or would I burn down the theater first?" Desson Thomson frames his review as if he were writing about a freeway accident. "Actors Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan are trapped in the wreckage of a bad romantic comedy. Observers suggest the vehicle in which they were riding was poorly engineered and believed to be constructed of cheap, recycled material. The severity of their injuries is unclear at this time."

Sylvester Stallone has given his endorsement to the British film Son of Rambow [sic], which opens today (Friday) in five theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The film concerns two boys in the 1980s who discover a video of First Blood and go about making their own version of the movie. Stallone told today's Los Angeles Times that when he first heard about Rambow he "assumed it was going to be a very broad and stylized joke-a-minute comedy at Rambo's expense." But he thought otherwise after he saw it. "The fact that it was so heartwarming is the result of brilliant filmmaking by its creators," Stallone said. Nevertheless writer-director Garth Jennings and producer Nick Goldsmith disclosed that it took an extraordinary amount of time to obtain the necessary permission to use clips from the Stallone movie in theirs. They said they used the delay as an opportunity to preview the film at film festivals, where "it wasn't being judged on whether it was doing anything at the box office, it was purely whether we made a film that worked. I can't tell you how satisfying that was," Jennings said. Initial reviews have been positive if not enthusiastic. Manohla Dargis in the New York Times calls it "a likable, lightly sticky valentine to childhood." To Carina Chocano in the Los Angeles Times, it's "a dewy-eyed, plaintive, unafraid-to-be-adorable exercise in stylish nostalgia." And Claudia Puig in USA Today describes it as "surprisingly charming."

The head of the leading company tracking box-office performance has expressed doubt that this year's blockbusters will reach the heights of those a year ago. Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media by Numbers, is predicting that ticket sales are likely to drop around 5.6 percent from last summer, when studios raked $4.18 billion, largely on revenue from sequels of previous hits, like Spider-Man, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Shrek. "To get to that level is going to be tough," Dergarabedian told Bloomberg News. Some hint of what lies in store will come following this weekend, when results for Paramount's Iron Man are tallied. Although many box-office forecasters are predicting that the movie will take in a huge $70-80 million, that will only be around half of what Spider-Man 3 wound up with last year when it debuted with $151 million. Today's (Friday) Los Angeles Times suggested that after receiving glowing reviews, which typically are read by older moviegoers, Iron Man could surprise analysts. "The giddiest box-office analysts predict an opening of $100 million for Iron Man," the Times observed. The newspaper described as "harebrained" widespread theorizing that the release of the videogame Grand Theft Auto IV will result in movie audiences staying home to play it. "There's no evidence that those consumers are incapable of doing more than one thing in a single weekend," the Times commented.

Apple will be paying Hollywood's leading film studios $16.00 for every movie that it sells online for a dollar less, the Wall Street Journal reported today (Friday), following Apple's announcement that it will begin selling new films on its iTunes store that can be downloaded on the same day they are released on DVD for $14.99. The price disparity was described as a "loss leader" -- an effort by Apple to entice consumers to buy more of its video iPods and its Apple TV, a device that beams movies from a personal computer to a TV set wirelessly. "This is a game changer," Universal Studios Home Entertainment President Craig Kornblau told the Journal. "For all the studios to offer all their movies [on the same date] as DVD, with the most influential marketing company in the digital space, is a very exciting development." (Ironically, Universal's corporate sibling, NBC, recently removed its television shows from the iTunes store.)

Just days after one of Sumner Redstone's media companies, CBS, surprised analysts by reporting a 14-percent jump in profits for the first quarter despite the writers' strike, his other major media company, Viacom, reported a 33-percent jump. The company said that its profits rose to $270 million from $203 million a year ago. Overall revenue rose 15 percent to $3.12 billion, far ahead of analysts' estimates, who credited the results primarily to strong performances by Nickelodeon and MTV. They noted that the two networks were beneficiaries of the audience exodus from broadcast television that occurred during the strike. CBS also attributed its solid performance to the effects of the strike, saying that while it resulted in lower ratings and lower advertising receipts, the losses were more than offset by lower content costs.

Thus far during the May sweeps, network executives and ad buyers are undoubtedly asking, "Where has the audience gone and how are we going to get it back?" At the end of the first full week of the sweeps, CBS has seen 21 percent of its audience depart since the first week of the May 2007 sweeps; NBC has lost 20 percent of its audience; ABC is off 19 percent; Fox, 16 percent. Fox remains in the lead, thanks to American Idol, but even that show's numbers are lower than at any time since 2003.

The former president of CBS News has expressed anger over recent revelations by the New York Times that military analysts hired by the networks to present unbiased observations about the conduct of the war in Iraq had undisclosed ties to the Pentagon and/or military contractors. "There was a deliberate attempt to deceive the public," Andrew Heyward, who served as president of CBS News from 1996 to 2005, told National Public Radio. "Analysts whose real allegiance was to the Pentagon and who apparently were given at least special access for that allegiance were presented as analysts whose allegiance was to the networks and, therefore, the public." Former Army Maj. Gen John Batiste, who eventually became critical of the war and was not invited to the Pentagon for briefings as some of his colleagues were, told NPR that there was "a very deliberate attempt on the part of the administration to shape public opinion" about the war and that it seemed to him that most military analysts appearing on the broadcast networks and cable news channels "were parroting administration talking points." Nevertheless, on his blog, The Daily Nightly, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams insisted that the two principal military analysts employed by NBC News, the late former Gen. Wayne Downing and former Gen. Barry McCaffrey "never gave what I considered to be the party line. ...At no time did our analysts, on my watch or to my knowledge, attempt to push a rosy Pentagon agenda before our viewers."

A Sudanese-born television news cameraman who was captured by the U.S. military while working for the al-Jazeera Arab news network in Afghanistan in 2001 and imprisoned at Guantánamo Bay, has been released, the network said Thursday. A Pentagon official told Reuters, "He's not being released. He's being transferred to the Sudanese government." But the wire service also quoted Sudan's justice minister, Abdel Basit Sabderat, as saying that Washington had already had enough time to produce any evidence against Sami Haj and that his country has no plans to hold him. In New York, Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said: "His detention for six years, without the most basic due process, is a grave injustice and represents a threat to all journalists working in conflict areas." Al-Jazeera's director general, Wadah Khanfar, flew to Khartoum to welcome Haj and said that Haj will continue working for the network. Appearing on al-Jazeera's English-language network, Khanfar said, "We are concerned about the way the Americans dealt with Sami, and we are concerned about the way they could deal with others as well."

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has concluded half a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, with the union's membership approving a new three-year contract covering most reality, game, and news shows as well as afternoon syndicated fare and soap operas. The two sides are scheduled to begin talks on Monday on sitcoms and dramas shot in TV studios.