'Pee-wee' opens up about sex scandal
Pee-wee Herman creator Paul Reubens still maintains he's innocent of the public indecency charges levelled at him in 1991 - and would have won had the case gone to trial.
The funnyman pleaded no contest to accusations he had been caught masturbating in a Florida porn theatre, because he couldn't bear the thought of being a public punchline for the duration of a trial - but he insists the officers who arrested him had their facts all wrong.
In a rare interview about the 19-year-old scandal, Reubens tells Playboy he had witnesses and experts lined up who would have proved his innocence.
He says, "Had we gone to trial, we had ready and expert from the Masters & Johnson Institute who was going to testify that in 30 years of research on masturbation the institute had never found one person who masturbated with his or her non-dominant hand.
"I'm right-handed, and the police report said I was jerking off with my left hand. That would have been the end of the case right there, proof it couldn't have been me.
"(But) did I want to have all that revealed in court and then to listed to Jay (Leno) and Arsenio (Hall) and others for another two weeks? So I pleaded no contest and all I got was community service."
The scandal sent Reubens to therapy and he is now an expert on shock recovery: "I was in shock. There was a feeling like, 'You're going to wake up from this and it's going to turn out to be a bad dream...' As a result, I now know everything there is to know about scandal and shock - how you move through the first 12 hours, the first 24 hours, the first six weeks... and so on. I know how to navigate all this hideous, s-----, horrible stuff you go through."
Reubens admits his therapy sessions came in handy when he was hit with another scandal in 2001 - the funnyman was wrongly accused of possessing child pornography.
Bristol Palin and Hasselhoff join "Dancing With the Stars"
NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) Bristol Palin, daughter of conservative powerbroker Sarah Palin, will test her dance moves against former "Baywatch" star David Hasselhoff and R&B singer Brandy in the new season of "Dancing with the Stars."
The lineup for the 11th season of the TV dancing contest, set to premiere on September 20, will also include crooner Michael Bolton, reality TV star Mike Sorrentino, and actress Jennifer Grey, who twirled to fame in the film "Dirty Dancing."
Palin, 19, a single mom, is following in the reality TV footsteps of her former fiance, Levi Johnston, whose small-screen adventures involve running for political office in Alaska -- and whose off-screen adventures have put him at odds with her mother.
She said she hoped her mother, the former Alaska governor and U.S. vice presidential candidate, would be on hand to watch her pair up with a professional dancer on the ballroom floor and compete against other celebrity/dancer couples.
"She's excited for me. She knows this is going to be hard work," Palin said as the lineup for the show was announced on ABC on Monday.
Since giving birth to a son Tripp in December 2008, Palin has featured in entertainment shows, magazines, and made her acting debut on a U.S. TV show centered around teenage pregnancy. Her ex- fiance has appeared in "Playgirl" and on various TV shows.
"Dancing with the Stars" was the second-biggest show on TV last season, behind "American Idol," averaging 20 million viewers. Reigning champ is Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger who teamed with dancer Derek Hough.
For the 11th season, Palin will be joined by a host of well-known names, including Hasselhoff, who quit his job as a judge on "America's Got Talent" earlier this year after four years and a public struggle with alcohol abuse.
From the reality TV world, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino from "Jersey Shore" will enhance his growing profile along with actress Audrina Patridge from "The Hills."
Fans of the TV family sitcom "The Brady Brunch" will be able to watch actress and TV talk show host Florence Henderson, 76, who played Carol Brady in the popular 1970s show.
Fellow contestant Jennifer Grey said at the announcement she doubted she would have an advantage from her dance training opposite the late Patrick Swayze in the 1987 film.
"I'm 50. It's been a lot of years since then," she said.
Former NFL quarterback Kurt Warner, retired basketball player Rick Fox, comedian Margaret Cho and teen U.S. actor Kyle Massey from Disney show "Cory in the House" completed the lineup.
Sammy Hagar on Sharing Chickenfoot Drummer with Chili Peppers,
Chickenfoot is four songs and "seven pieces of new music" into its second album, according to frontman Sammy Hagar. But he acknowledges there's some concern about keeping that not-so-old gang of theirs together.
The challenge is drummer Chad Smith and his regular gig with the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are currently writing for the follow-up to 2006's "Stadium Arcadium." "Once they start recording, Chad's never going to be able to get a break," Hagar tells Billboard.com. "If he does, he'll get a couple weeks here, a couple days there, which is not really enough to devote to Chickenfoot. And when they're done with [the album] they're gonna go on the road for a year and a half. So we either have to get a new drummer or wait for Chad...which is unfair to Chickenfoot. It's too good a band."
But Hagar says he, Smith and rest of Chickenfoot -- guitarist Joe Satriani and founding Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony -- are not frustrated by the situation. "We care, but at the same time [Chickenfoot] is not mandatory," Hagar explains. "It's not like we feel like, 'Hey, this is our only chance in life.' Everyone's already been there, done that. Chickenfoot is not our bread and butter, and I think that's really important."
Chickenfoot will play together again on Sept. 10 in Indio, Calif., and Sept. 11 in Stateline, Nev. Hagar says the group had plans to hit the studio after that but things are "kind of up in the air."
However, the frontman is stoked by the material he and Satriani are writing, including the four songs Chickenfoot has already worked on as a quartet. "We probably have a record ready to go," Hagar reports. "It's just waiting for when we can all get together to do it" -- a process also complicated by the Oct. 5 release of Satriani's next album, "Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards," and a three-plus month world tour that starts Oct. 16 in Ireland and comes to North America in December.
Meanwhile, Hagar and his band the Wabos are currently supporting Aerosmith. He has no recording plans of his own at the moment but is working on an autobiography, "Red," with San Francisco music journalist Joel Selvin that he promises will be "really revealing, right down to just about everything you'd want to know" -- including his tenures in Montrose and Van Halen.
"I figure there's only one shot at an autobiography, and you've got to tell the story, as much as it may be painful," says Hagar, who has made two previous attempts at his memoirs. "I really believe there's a lot of people out there that really have no idea where I came from and who I really am. I've never been a press junkie, and I think that's a good thing. So I think the book is going to blow people's minds."
'SNL' is adding 3 new stooges
"Saturday Night Live" is adding three new cast members this year -- suggesting some of the comedy show's best-known players won't be back.
Taran Killam, a refugee from the cast of the long-running sitcom "Scrubs," and two young comedians from Chicago -- Paul Brittain and Vanessa Bayer -- have been signed to the cast, according to several reports over the weekend.
News of the signings came just a day after it was announced Will Forte, who's been on "SNL" for eight years and was perhaps best know for his "McGruber" take-off, was leaving the show.
Lorne Michaels, the show's creator and longtime producer, always creates a stir just before the beginning of each season because he refuses to tell the cast who will be coming back.
Regulars such as "Weekend Update" anchor Seth Meyers, Andy Samberg, Jason Sudeikis and Kenan Thompson are among those who have not yet said if they are being re-hired, according to reports.
Michaels has been sighted in Chicago a bunch of times this summer, scouting new talent in the city famous for its improv comedy companies.
Among the new cast members, Killam, 28, is by far the best known.
He is the longtime boyfriend of "How I Met Your Mother" star Cobie Smulders and the father of a 1-year-old baby with her.
He became free when the proposed series he'd been working on -- the Arianna Huffington-produced comedy called "Freshman," about three first-term congressmen living together in the same D.C. apartment -- was not picked up by ABC.
Brittain and Bayer are little known outside Chicago, where they have starred in stage comedies and done stand-up.
The connection between Chicago comedians and "SNL" dates back to the earliest days of the show.
John Belushi, Bill Murray, John Candy, Gilda Radner, Mike Myers, Chris Farley and Tina Fey were all recruited out of the ranks of Windy City comics, especially the famous Second City improv troupe.
"SNL" starts the new season -- its 36th -- in late September.
Summer movie winners & losers
HOLLYWOOD -- Back at the beginning of May we surveyed a bunch of movies going into the summer season with something to prove -- in most cases, where their stars were concerned.
With the Labour Day finish line just around the corner, it's time to find out if the end results of their respective labours did the trick, or were merely laboured.
Here's a hint: There were more losers than winners.
Let's start with the May 14 arrival of MacGruber, the most recent Saturday Night Live sketch deemed worthy of a 90-minute running time.
While a number of respected critics conceded that it was better than some of the past SNL feature output (not exactly a ringing endorsement), Will Forte's bumbling special op was unable to diffuse this $8.5 million-grossing bomb, one of the worst in SNL history.
That same weekend Robin Hood rode into theatres, with Russell Crowe dispensing with the tights and the traditional dashing demeanour in favour of a darker, tougher rendition.
After lacklustre results from State of Play and Body of Lies, Crowe needed a hit, and although the $200-million production only made back about half that amount in North American theatres, it tended to attract larger audiences overseas.
The verdict: Call it a DRAW.
When Prince of Persia blew into the megaplexes at the end of May, considerable hope (along with a ton of special effects) was riding on audiences buying Jake Gyllenhaal as an action hero.
After all the sand cleared, the $200-million Jerry Bruckheimer production made a decidedly less than boffo $90 million, domestically, meaning Robert Downey Jr. isn't going to have to watch his back anytime soon.
The verdict: LOSER.
The third week of June was a crucial one for Tom Cruise, who was looking to reignite the old b.o. mojo with Knight and Day, a try-too-hard action-comedy pairing him with Cameron Diaz.
Following in the on-the-run heels of The Bounty Hunter and Killers, the intended romp opened on a Wednesday and went nowhere fast, taking in even less money than Cruise's Valkyrie.
The verdict: LOSER.
Discovering that acting his age didn't make for hit movies, Adam Sandler swapped recent, more grown-up efforts such as Funny People and Reign Over Me for goofing off in the reunion comedy, Grown Ups.
It didn't matter whether it was any good -- it wasn't -- the major factor was that it looked like it could be fun, and the fandlers responded by pushing the Grown Ups over the $160 million mark, taking on Big Daddy as Sandler's all-time top movie.
The verdict: WINNER.
So, in a summer filled with underachievers, who was the season's biggest loser?
That would be producer Bruckheimer, who, just a few months earlier was given the full-on red carpet treatment for a career-spanning Cinematic Celebration of Jerry Bruckheimer evening.
Good thing the big fete took place before the box office results for Prince of Persia, which, when combined with the returns for Bruckheimer's not-so-magical The Sorcerer's Apprentice, left the Disney studio about $200 million in the hole, give or take.
He's likely counting on Captain Jack Sparrow to get him back on course when Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides sails into theatres next May.
Savvy?
'Mad Men,' `Modern Family' win top Emmy Awards
LOS ANGELES The darkly intimate 1960s-era drama "Mad Men" and the comedy romp "Modern Family" were the top honorees at Sunday's Emmy Awards as American life past and present proved a winning formula.
"To our fans, we are so grateful, we are so thrilled that families are sitting down together to watch a television show, and we're so happy that you have let us into your families," said Steven Levitan, "Modern Family" executive producer.
The best comedy series award was the first for the freshman sitcom, which also captured an acting award for Eric Stonestreet and a best writing trophy.
"Mad Men" earned its third consecutive best drama series trophy. Series creator Matthew Weiner seemed to take the night in stride.
"I knew one day I would run somewhere and win a trophy," Weiner joked earlier in the ceremony when he dashed to the stage to claim the Emmy for best drama series writing with Erin Levy.
"Glee," the musical-comedy that started the night as the most-nominated series, earned an acting trophy for Jane Lynch and a directing award for creator Ryan Murphy.
Bryan Cranston's portrayal of a meth dealer in "Breaking Bad" and Kyra Sedgwick's role as a brassy deputy police chief in "The Closer" earned the pair top drama series acting awards.
Cranston's honor was his third trophy for playing a high school chemistry teacher gone wrong, while his co-star, Aaron Paul, earned his first award as best supporting actor for playing his partner-in-crime.
"During the time it took me to walk up here, I venture there were 200 text messages to the other nominees saying, `You were robbed.' I cannot argue with that," Cranston said.
Archie Panjabi of "The Good Wife" was honored as best supporting actress in a drama for her part as a law-firm's in-house private investigator, as Emmy voters spread the riches widely among veterans and fresh faces.
Edie Falco of "Nurse Jackie" and Jim Parsons of "The Big Bang Theory" were honored for their comedy series lead roles.
Falco's trophy for playing a tough but troubled nurse came after her hallmark turn as a mob boss' wife in "The Sopranos," for which she won three best drama actress Emmys.
"Oh, this is the most ridiculous thing that has ever, ever happened in the history of this lovely awards show. I'm not funny!" Falco said.
Parsons won for his portrayal of a scientist as nerdy as he is brilliant. He ended fellow nominee Alec Baldwin's two-year winning streak for "30 Rock" and beat out other heavyweights including Tony Shalhoub, nominated for the final season of "Monk" and a three-time winner, and Steve Carell of "The Office."
"Now I know how much I didn't think this was going to happen. Some of you apparently voted for me. That was very sweet," Parsons told the theater audience.
Stonestreet of "Modern Family" and Lynch of "Glee" were honored for their comedy-series supporting roles.
"All I wanted to be was a clown in the circus when I was a kid growing up," said Stonestreet, who plays a boisterous gay dad and partner. He thanked his parents for their support and promised to send his trophy home with them.
Lynch also thanked her folks along with her wife, Lara Embry. The pair married in Massachusetts in May.
"This is outlandish. ... I want to thank my lord and creator, Ryan Murphy, for creating his role," Lynch said, paying tribute to the "Glee" executive producer.
"Top Chef" won best reality series, ending the seven-year winning streak of "The Amazing Race."
Jon Stewart's "The Daily Show" won its eighth consecutive Emmy Award for best variety, music or comedy series. The victory kept Conan O'Brien from claiming an Emmy for his short-lived stint as "Tonight" host.
George Clooney accepted the Bob Hope Humanitarian Award from his former "ER" co-star, Julianna Margulies, who lauded his fundraising efforts for victims of this year's earthquake in Haiti, the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Clooney, recalling evenings spent with Bob and Dolores Hope at the home of his aunt, singer Rosemary Clooney, said he was inspired by the late comedian and his wife, now 101.
"If you look at everything they accomplished in their lives ... They're the best version of the term `celebrity,'" Clooney said.
Jewel sang her song "Hole in My Heart" during a memorial tribute to prominent TV figures, including Robert Culp, Soupy Sales, Dixie Carter, Gary Coleman, John Forsythe and "Roots" producer David L. Wolper.
"Temple Grandin," based on the life of the gifted, autistic animal sciences expert, was honored as best TV movie and earned Emmys for its star, Claire Danes, and supporting acting trophies for Julia Ormond and David Strathairn. The film's director, Mick Jackson, also was honored.
Al Pacino was honored as best lead actor in a miniseries or movie for "You Don't Know Jack," about euthanasia advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian, who was in the audience and stood, smiling, at Pacino's request. The controversial physician received scattered applause.
Host Jimmy Fallon opened the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards on a musical note, performing a song-and-dance number with the cast of "Glee" and a wildly mismatched group of celebrities including Betty White, Jon Hamm, Kate Gosselin and Randy Jackson.
Much of the group ended up on the Nokia Theatre stage to kick off the awards with a high-energy version of "Born to Run," with Fallon on guitar.
"Tonight we're going to celebrate your work," Fallon told the audience. "So let's have some fun tonight."
Last year's host, Neil Patrick Harris, was a presenter Sunday and took the time to rib Fallon.
"I want to thank the (TV) academy for allowing a gay man to host the Emmys two years in a row. Congratulations, Jimmy, you're doing a good job," Harris said, smiling.
The public had a hand in writing some of Fallon's material through Twitter for the ceremony, which aired live on the West Coat for the first time in three decades.
HBO came into the ceremony as the kingpin after claiming 17 awards at the Aug. 21 creative arts Emmys, followed by ABC with 15 and Fox with nine. CBS, NBC and PBS each claimed seven.
On Sunday, HBO again was on top with eight trophies. AMC received four, ABC and CBS had three and Fox and Showtime had two. NBC, Comedy Central, Bravo and TNT earned one award each.
"The Pacific," the World War II drama produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, received the best miniseries award in a category it shared with one other nominee, "Return to Cranford." "The Pacific" was the was the top nominee with 24 bids and captured a leading seven creative arts awards, which recognize technical and other achievements.
Ratings for the awards have increased importance: The TV academy's contract is up for renewal with the four major networks that had been airing the show in rotation for eight years, and the academy hopes last year's 8 percent audience increase is a trend after an all-time low in 2008.
The show's live nationwide broadcast and scheduling could be factors. The Emmys typically have aired immediately before TV's mid-September kickoff, but NBC pushed up the awards telecast to avoid a conflict with its Sunday night National Football League games that begin Sept. 12.
But fewer people tend to watch summertime TV, and the 5 p.m. PDT pre-primetime slot for the Emmys on the West Coast also tends to draw a smaller audience.
Emmy's attempts at interactivity fall flat
Few places in broadcasting are more likely to exhibit an awkward relationship with social media than award shows. They have all tried various gimmicks, and those trotted out Sunday night by the Emmys fell flat.
There was reason to have hoped for better this time.
Hosting was Jimmy Fallon, an avid Twitter user with nearly 2.8 million followers and whose "Late Night" show has successfully embraced social media.
Award shows, too, have become thoroughly aware of the importance of social media. Ratings for award shows in the past year the Oscars, the Grammys, the Golden Globes have been up, and some have attributed the boost in viewership to the Internet. Many viewers follow the chatter online while watching the broadcast.
But while the initial reviews for the 62nd annual Emmy Awards have been mostly positive, the low point, some say, was the clunky insertion of Twitter to the NBC broadcast. Fallon gathered submissions from Twitter for introductions to Emmy presenters like Stephen Colbert and Jon Hamm.
One example, as read by Fallon: "Tina Fey: I'd hit that."
On Twitter where one might have expected celebration the reaction was largely negative.
"I feel like these tweets are selected with the intention of making Fallon look much funnier in comparison," wrote Lauren Angeline.
TV producer Tom Costello wrote: "Was the thought process behind the whole `Fallon reads tweets' idea that he would only read the dumbest ones submitted?"
Critics agreed. Chicago Tribune media columnist Phil Rosenthal wondered if Fallon's tweet reading was "NBC's contribution to an otherwise excellent show." New York Times critic Mike Hale went even further, pondering whether it was "proving something about the ultimate incompatibility of television and the Internet."
The Emmys other promoted attempt at interactivity was a backstage broadcast that aired at Emmys.com, NBC.com and Ustream.com. Cameras were positioned in places like the green room (where presenters wait before going on stage), the control room and the producer's table.
The results largely consisted of watching people watch the TV broadcast. You could see little more than Matthew Perry sitting and watching a monitor, or Tina Fey getting her hair done.
Previous award shows especially MTV's Video Music Awards and Movie Awards have experimented with something like this, but they're unlikely to provide much entertainment until an award show devotes itself to full transparency and that's not likely to ever happen. Right now, any online bells and whistles are designed to merely funnel viewers to the broadcast.
The Emmys also employed a backstage "Thank You Cam" that doubles as online enticement and a bit of guilt relief for producers who quickly usher winners off the stage. The Academy Awards have done this, too, but the effect is slight.
Winners are mostly too dazed to even fathom the meaning of a "Thank You Cam," let alone gather their thoughts for a second acceptance speech. After accepting the award for best supporting actress in a comedy ("Glee"), Jane Lynch told the camera: "I just won the Emmy for ... what did I win it for?"
The "Breaking Bad" winning actors, Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, took to the "Thank You Cam" together and treated it with little respect.
Cranston: "Do you have anything to be thankful of?"
Paul: "Your love, really."
Cranston, with mock sheepishness: "Not now."
As usual, the most effective Emmy interactivity came not from these official channels but the less-controlled instant commentary across social media, which continues to add another layer to the viewing experience.
Fallon and John Hodgman (who served as the broadcast announcer) tweeted before and during the show, frequently revealing candid and comical insight: a video documenting pre-show jitters, a photo of a Ricky Gervais' stand-in, and, of course, wise observations like this tweet from Hodgman: "That Tom Hanks is a nice gentleman."
Next Series to be transmitted in two halves
Speaking at the Edinburgh International Television Festival, Steven Moffat has announced that the next series of Doctor Who will be split in two with a 'gamechanging' cliffhanger in episode 7.
"The split series is hugely exciting because viewers will be treated to two premieres, two finales and more event episodes. For the kids it will never be more than a few months to the next Doctor Who! Easter, Autumn, Christmas!!"
The BBC press office describe the split transmission as the result of a request from Steven Moffat to write a new Doctor Who story arc which involves a big plot twist in the middle of the series. "By splitting the series Moffat plans to give viewers one of the most exciting Doctor Who cliffhangers and plot twists ever, leaving them waiting, on the edge of their seats, until the autumn to find out what happens."
10 Things You Gotta Know About Emmy Night
Jimmy Fallon. Tons o' stars. Tonight.
Hey, those are three pretty key things right there about the prime-time awards bashand we haven't even gotten to the actual informational list we prepared for your Emmys enjoyment! So, when do we get our trophy? After you get briefed. Here goes:
1. If you're on the West Coast, pay attention: NBC is airing the festivities live, coast to coast, at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT. If you're all-around curious, power up: Emmys.com and NBC.com jointly will be offering a live, backstage simulcast.
2. The Pacific is already ahead, having won seven awards last weekend at the Creative Arts Emmys. Modern Family is on top of all series, with four.
3. If it cleans up, Modern Family could tie the record for most Emmys by a show in its first season (nine). If it freakishly cleans up (i.e., all of its remaining nominated actors win via ties), it could smash the record.
4. 30 Rock is on a three-year winning streak in the Comedy Series category; Mad Men is on a two-year roll in Drama Series. The consensus is that Mad Men will repeat again, and 30 Rock won't.
5. Surprises? Glee in Comedy Series, Breaking Bad in Drama Series and Friday Night Lights' Kyle Chandler in Lead Drama Series Actor.
6. The Conan O'Brien acceptance speech (should there be one) will be the night's moment to watch for (unless it's not). Stupid lawyers.
7. In the event stupid lawyers stifle and/or ruin O'Brien, then we'll have to make do with George Clooney (humanitarian-award recipient) and Betty White (presenter, Creative Arts winner and the only being hotter than Clooney).
8. Fallon is farming out the writing on his presenter intros to the Twitterverse, meaning someone else besides the host has the task of coming up with something less awkward then, "On CSI, he knows all about the strip. In real life, er Well, here's Laurence Fishburne!"
9. If you're a J.J. Abrams aficionado, you're all over Gugu Mbatha-Raw. If you're not, you may wonder why one Gugu Mbatha-Raw is presenting, so we'll tell you: Because (a) she's in Abrams' new fall series, Undercovers, which'll air on (b) NBC, just like the Emmys. Television works in obvious ways.
10. Steve Carell (zero wins, eight nominations as of tonight) is a lucky man compared to Larry David, who has yet to convert any of his 10 career nominations for Curb Your Enthusiam into even a single statuette. And if you tell us David shouldn't feel bad since he previously won twice for Seinfeld, then we'll tell you Carell shouldn't feel bad since Angela Lansbury, who's not in the game this year, has lost 18 freakin' times for everything she's ever been up for. So, no, no sympathy here, either, for Hugh Laurie (zero wins, six noms), Jon Hamm (zero wins, five noms) and Kyra Sedgwick (zero wins, five noms).
'Exorcism' has slim box-office lead over 'Takers'
LOS ANGELES The fright flick "The Last Exorcism" and the heist thriller "Takers" were in a photo finish for the top spot at the weekend box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Lionsgate's "The Last Exorcism" had a thin lead with a $21.3 million debut, closely followed by Sony's "Takers" with a $21 million opening. They were close enough that rankings could change after final numbers are released Monday.
After two weekends in the No. 1 spot, Lionsgate's action romp "The Expendables" slipped to third place with $9.5 million, raising its total to $82 million.
Playing in narrower release, a 3-D special edition of "Avatar" pulled in $4 million, lifting the sci-fi sensation's domestic total to $753.8 million. The new version of the 20th Century Fox blockbuster adds nine minutes of footage.
Both "The Last Exorcism" and "Takers" debuted well above studio expectations, though the openings were modest compared with most big summer debuts.
Overall revenues came in at $115 million, down 8 percent compared with the same weekend last year, when the horror tale "The Final Destination" opened on top with $27.4 million, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
"We've had two weeks of films being all stacked up very closely to one another, and that's a really tight margin between these two," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "But it's sort of a battle in a marketplace that really isn't setting the world on fire."
With summer blockbuster season generally over, late August often is a solid time to release scary movies such as "The Final Destination" and "Halloween II," which opened over the same weekend last year.
"You don't see many low-budget genre films released in June or July or even early August," said David Spitz, head of distribution for Lionsgate. "You don't want to put 'The Last Exorcism' up against 'Inception' or these big blockbuster films."
"The Last Exorcism," about an exorcist trying to cast out a demon from a teenager, cost just $2 million to produce, and Lionsgate bought domestic distribution rights for less than $1 million.
"Takers," which cost a modest $32 million to make, features Matt Dillon, Hayden Christensen, Paul Walker and Idris Elba in a thriller about bank robbers pursued by a tough cop.
Rory Bruer, Sony head of distribution, said he expected "Takers" to remain in second place, slightly behind "The Last Exorcism," once final figures are released Monday. Yet the two movies were pacing Hollywood to a strong finish to the summer season, he said.
"I do think both pictures were pretty terrific for ending summer with," Bruer said. "To have two pictures at $20-plus million at the end of August is a good thing."
The extended version of James Cameron's "Avatar" played in just 812 theaters, compared with 2,874 for "The Last Exorcism" and 2,206 for "Takers."
Besides $4 million domestically, the "Avatar" special edition added $4.3 million overseas. The extra revenue is mere icing for the biggest modern blockbuster, whose initial release took in $2.7 billion worldwide.
"There is no unhappy attached to 'Avatar,' because it's the greatest. It's always done business. It's the biggest picture in history," said Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston. "People bought tickets everywhere this weekend. There's no bad."
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Last Exorcism," $21.3 million.
2. "Takers," $21 million.
3. "The Expendables," $9.5 million.
4. "Eat Pray Love," $7 million.
5. "The Other Guys," $6.6 million.
6. "Vampires Suck," $5.3 million.
7. "Inception," $5.1 million.
8. "Nanny McPhee Returns," $4.74 million
9. "The Switch," $4.7 million.
10. "Piranha 3D," $4.3 million.