Disney Studios Passes $1B Domestic In 2011

On Saturday, The Walt Disney Studios crossed the $1 billion plateau at the domestic box office for the 6th consecutive year. The studio says it has reached this milestone 15 of the last 18 years. This year’s total was helped by Pirates Of The Caribbean 4: On Stranger Tides, Cars 2, The Help, Gnomeo And Juliet, and The Lion King 3D.

CBS moves 'Gentleman' to Saturdays

CBS will replace fighting Thursday comedy "How to be a Gentleman" with "Rules of Engagement." By March. 20, the veteran half-hour starring David Spade will trade its Saturday 8 p.m. time slot with rookie "Gentleman," which not successful to keep onto its Thursday 8 p.m. lead-in, "Large Bang Theory." "Gentleman" will go to Saturday on March. 15. "Gentleman" essentially signaled its departure within the plum slot when Thursday's episode sank to 7.8 million total audiences, a precipitous plunge within the 13.6 000 0000 who up-to-date in "Theory." Although not the cancellation some may have expected after two woeful ratings performances so far, moving "Gentleman" might be the very first rejiggering CBS is doing towards the fall schedule, which has otherwise seen some impressive starts from "2 Broke Women" and "Memorable." Contact Andrew Wallenstein at andrew.wallenstein@variety.com

Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark: Book Review

For a film critic, it's a new sensation to read a biography of another film critic. I don't believe there has ever been one before, at least in English (James Agee doesn't count, due to the wide-ranging nature of his career). By and large, critics of any sort don't lead notably adventuresome lives; they're reactors more than actors, writers known for their opinions of others' work rather than having created anything of their own.our editor recommendsHow Pauline Kael Might Vote: No on 'Social Network,' Maybe on 'Black Swan'Pauline Kael's Editor: 'She'd Laugh at 'Black Swan,' Vote for 'The Fighter' PHOTOS: Netflix's 10 Most-Rented Movies of All Time But while it's possible to regard the subtitle of Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark as subtly snide, author Brian Kellow strongly suggests that Pauline, as she was called by everyone and is invariably referred to in these pages, lived most intensely in a darkened theater. As a film critic for The NYer from 1967 to 1991, she responded to movies with an unmediated emotion that was perhaps absent from her personal life (she is never described as having been in love with anyone after college), and her reactions could even be physical; one friend swears Pauline levitated at one screening, and her companion at Last Tango in Paris, about which she wrote her most famous review, said she was "drenched" afterward, unable to talk. PHOTOS: 10 Billion Dollar Babies: Movies That Crossed the 10-Figure Mark Pauline is very fortunate in her biographer. Kellow, an erudite movie lover, features editor at Opera News and author of a book about another formidable woman, Ethel Merman, writes beautifully and dexterously interweaves the story of a career long-thwarted with a sensitive reading of his subject's youthful enthusiasm and intellectual growth. To an impressive degree, he gets inside the head of a precocious, fearsomely smart young woman from small-town California and is able to describe what drove her, which authors turned her on (James, Hawthorne, Dostoyevsky, Melville, Woolf, Proust), her love of jazz and her distaste for aesthetic, religious and political dogma. So thoroughly does he portray the development of Pauline's character and passionate engagement with matters aesthetic that it comes as no surprise she was able to burst onto the scene, at the relatively advanced age of 48, as one of the most dynamic cultural arbiters of the past century. PHOTOS: 'The Avengers': New Photos From Marvel's Superhero Film Even to close friends, Pauline revealed little about her early family life. Many did not even know she was Jewish, so it's fascinating to learn that her hometown of Petaluma, a chicken-farming community 35 miles north of San Francisco, was a hotbed of the Labor Zionist movement and Progressive-era left-wing politics when she was a little girl in the early 1920s. As a child she was immersed in a world of literature, issues and argument and remained so her entire life. The youngest of five children of Polish emigres, Pauline couldn't stand her mother but adored her father, a self-confident ladies' man she once likened to Paul Newman's Hud, which provides plausible insight into her later attraction to macho Westerners like Sam Peckinpah and Robert Altman. At university at Berkeley, she continued to read ravenously and was fatally attracted to poets, bright and sensitive young men who were essentially gay but either not quite ready to admit it or willing to try the alternative with Pauline. These fraught relationships never worked out, but with one of these fellows, Robert Horan, she moved to NY in 1941. Within days, Horan became the kept man of famous composers Samuel Barber and Gian Carlo Menotti, leaving a penniless Pauline to scramble for work and lodgings. Struggling all the while, she spent the war years developing a pronounced and permanent aversion to "NY artistic circles" and the publishing field she so keenly wished to enter, populated as it was by shiny blond Smith and Wellesley graduates willing to work for $25 a week. Returning to the Bay Area with her tail between her legs in 1945, Pauline became involved with the incredibly effeminate avant-garde filmmaker James Broughton. He managed to impregnate Pauline but threw her out as soon as she told him, whereupon she moved to Santa Barbara to give birth to her daughter, Gina, in 1948 and quietly raise her for a while. For anyone interested in Pauline, the intellectual climate of the period and the slim prospects even for ultra-smart and ambitious young women of the time, Kellow's account of these early years makes for fascinating reading. The author is able to document Pauline's youthful taste in movies and stars -- she loved I Am a Fugitive From a Chain Gang, Grand Illusion, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck and the Ritz Brothers but disliked The Grapes of Wrath, Mrs. Miniver, Chaplin and Norma Shearer. She also started following film critics, becoming partial to Agee, Graham Greene, Manny Farber and Otis Ferguson while developing a strong aversion to "saphead" Bosley Crowther of The NY Times. Finally, in the 1950s, Pauline began to generate a bit of traction as a critical voice in small magazines, as an unpaid film critic on Berkeley's KPFA-FM and by writing program notes for the city's pioneering twin art house, the Cinema Guild, run by Ed Landberg, a remote, difficult man to whom she was married for about a year. The review continues on the next page.

A 'Dirty' road movie

Jeremy Dozier, Rachel Cohen, Juno Temple, Abe Sylvia and Jana Edelbaum party at Cinema Society. "A lot of people have their own version of what a 'dirty girl' is," Juno Temple said at Monday's Gotham preem. "For me it meant a very liberal, free-spirited, outspoken firecracker of a girl.""Dirty Girl" opened at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, and the daughter of director Julien Temple turned out to be pretty liberal herself, if not somewhat more sophisticated than her Okie character in the Weinstein Co. road comedy. "I was 4 when my dad showed me 'La Belle et la bete' by Jean Cocteau and I wanted to do anything in my power to be a part of that," she said of acting. Pic's Tim McGraw showed up with wife Faith Hill. He also likes acting. But, "I'm not going to quit my day job," said the country star.

Denzel Washington's 'Flight' Is 12 Years Within The Making

Although we are just engaging in talks and tests with this year's Oscar bait movies, it's rarely too soon to begin speaking about next year's likely challengers, could it be? Because Robert Zemeckis and Denzel Washington's "Flight" is sounding many a lot more like it will likely be someone to be careful for the coming year. When MTV News swept up with film writer John Gatins lately, he says production starts in a few days which it's taken him greater than a decade to find the project off the floor. "Oh guy, we start filming in a few days. This movie for me personally continues to be 12 years dealing with the screen. It required me forever also it really required Robert Zemeckis developing, getting Denzel to complete the film, its just like a fever dream for me personally because Ive anxiously waited such a long time," he told us in the premiere of his latest movie, "Real Steel." So what is the story about? "Its a film a good alcoholic commercial air travel pilot," he stated, adding the tone is adult and a little old-fashioned. "Its an R-ranked drama, its just like a movie in the '70s the galleries dont really make any longer, so its an incredible election of confidence on Paramounts part to create the film.Inch So for individuals thinking this is a Hollywood version of hero pilot Sully Sullenberger's story, reconsider. Other sights are the truth that the film marks Zemeckis' go back to live action, and has a cast of other A-listers additionally to Washington: John Goodman, Don Cheadle and Melissa Leo. Are you searching for "Flight"? Inform us within the comments or on Twitter!

Access Hollywood Live: Rocco DiSpiritos Flash Fried Chicken Nuggets With Slaw

First Published: October 5, 2011 2:30 PM EDT Credit: Access Hollywood Caption Billy Bush, Kit Hoover and Rocco DiSpirito heat up the kitchen on Access Hollywood Live on October 5, 2011LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Flash Fried Chicken Nuggets With School Time Slaw Here is a version of fried chicken and coleslaw the way it should be, good vegetables not drowned with commercial mayonnaise and sugar. It is actually good for you! Use this slaw to go with any of your favorite foods like, burgers, sandwiches, flash fried chicken, grilled pork etc. Fat Grams 11.5, Calories 282 Yield 4 servings Ingredients: 2 quarts grapeseed or corn oil 4 tablespoons Roccos Magnificent Mayonnaise 4 tablespoons no added sugar ketchup 1.3 cup green cabbage, cut into fine strips 1.3 cup carrots, grated on large side of box grater 1.3 cup broccoli, grated on large side of box grater .25 cup dill pickles, chopped .25 cup of fresh cilantro, chopped 16 ounces chicken thighs, boneless and skinless 3.25 tablespoons adobo powder, Goya or similar 2 egg whites 2.5 tablespoons sweet Hungarian paprika .25 cup fine ground yellow cornmeal .75 cup whole wheat flour Salt and fresh ground black pepper - In a large mixing bowl, mix the mayonnaise, ketchup and pickles to form a smooth dressing. - Add the cabbage, carrots, broccoli and cilantro and mix well to coat the vegetables evenly. Season with salt and black pepper. This can be stored chilled in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. - Pour the oil into a large heavy pot that has at least a 6 quart capacity. Heat the oil over medium high heat on the stove to 400 F. Meanwhile place a chicken thigh on the cutting board and cut into 4 to 5 even sized chunky pieces and repeat until all thighs are done. Lay out all of the chicken chunks on a microwave safe plate and season both sides with .25 tablespoon of adobo powder as well as salt and pepper. Place the plate in the microwave and cook on high for 1 minute and 30 seconds. Remove the plate and turn each piece of chicken over and microwave again on high until the chunks are just cooked though, about another 1 minute and 30 seconds to 2 minutes depending on your microwave. Let the chicken cool to room temperature. - Meanwhile place the egg whites into a bowl and beat with a fork until very foamy, about 2 minutes. In a separate wide and shallow bowl or cake pan, mix the remaining 3 tablespoons of adobo powder and paprika with the cornmeal and whole wheat flour. Submerge the cooked chicken pieces in the eggwhites and toss to coat well with a fork, then move the chicken to the shallow bowl with the seasoned whole wheat flour and cornmeal mix. Toss the chicken to coat well. - In four separate even sized batches, fry the chicken for 12 seconds per batch then remove the chicken from the oil to a plate with either a wire rack on top or paper towels to drain off any excess oil. Turn the stove off immediately under the hot oil after your last batch. - Spoon out slaw evenly in four bowls and then arrange evenly on top of each bowl. Nutrionals: Before: 64 grams fat, 1160 calories After: 11.59 grams fat, 281.67 calories Copyright 2011 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Watch The Hangover 2 2011

Turkey's 'Once' in Oscar bid

TEL AVIV -- Helmer Nuri Bilge Ceylan's "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia," Turkey's submission for foreign-lingo Oscar, is an intense and slow-moving drama about the search for a corpse in the grasslands of Turkish Anatolia. A doctor, a public prosecutor, a police chief and a murder suspect together comb the region's vast steppes in what becomes a critique on bureaucracy and a meditation on guilt and responsibility. Pic, co-winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes, is Ceylan's second selection for the Oscar pool. In 2009, Turkey submitted his "Three Monkeys," which made it to the Academy's nine-film shortlist but was not nominated. Turkey's Committee of Artistic Activities, an independent body of film professionals, chose "Once Upon a Time in Anatolia." This year the committee, known by its Turkish acronym SEK, included director Semih Kaplanoglu and actress Meltem Combul. The 84th Academy Awards will be held Feb. 26 at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com