In “Sput Car – Part 2″  (part 1 is here), Flora and Fawna hit Melrose to test drive the latest eco trend in the hopes of being noticed by A-list celebrities.  Will their attention-getting plans succeed…or will they backfire with ghastly results?

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Two more webisodes to come!   Stay tuned for Gasbags Part 1 and Part 2. (more…)

In their debut webisode, BFFs Flora and Fawna meet at the crack of noon at their fave hangout, the Fatuity Cafe, to concoct their latest scheme to one-up the biggest publicity whores in town. After their weekly colon cleanse, they happen upon a dealership that sells Sput Cars, the hottest new eco craze. Rushing to be the first in town to own one, the girls neglect to read the fine print in the test-drive contract and may just end up being the kinda “green” that pushes up daisies.

**CAUTION FOR SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES:  ‘FLORA & FAWNA’ IS RAUNCHY

Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion, next week.  More webisodes to come! (more…)

Although America is suffering through its worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, there is no recession in the movie business. Led by the Warner Bros reboot of Friday the Thirteenth and a couple of surprisingly strong chick flicks, Hollywood’s top twelve grossing movies may grab a combined $201.5M over the long President’s Day weekend holiday, which marks an all-time best for the annual 4-day movie-going bonanza.

TOP GROSSING PRESIDENT’S WEEKENDS FOR HOLLYWOOD
- combined gross of top 12 films -
1. 2009 – $201.5M (estimated)
2. 2007 – $167.8M
3. 2008 – $141.1M
4. 2003 – $141M
5. 2005 – $137.1M

Director Marcus Nispel (2003’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) and the Platinum Dunes production company have gotten the all-new Friday the Thirteenth off to a spectacular $19.3M opening day. That could translate to a well-above-expectations $47M by Tuesday morning. The new Jason restart quickly follows the Platinum Dunes success of The Unborn, released on January 9 to a $19.8M 3-day take. That David D. Goyer written and directed genre pic was made for just $16M, and The Unborn has generated an estimated $42M in the US.

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I saw “Gran Torino” finally and it put me in a mood. I see where Paris Hilton says she’s only slept with “a couple of people;” but I’m guessing it’s because the rest of them told her to leave right after.

My only 2009 resolution is to lose weight, so I ordered the paperback version of “The Best Life Diet,” which is by Oprah Winfrey’s trainer Bob Greene. The bad news is the shipping weight was somewhere between 140 and 320 pounds. (more…)

Steve Mason is on Facebook and now also on Twitter.

SUNDAY MORNING: Dog lovers everywhere united to make Fox’s Marley & Me the #1 Christmas weekend movie with an expected $51.18M in the Thursday-thru-Sunday period for a Per Theatre Average of $14,888. Pre-opening industry tracking pointed to a clear win for Bedtime Stories (Disney), but it was the lovable lab who finished on top.

As an aside, all of us who read John Grogan’s extraordinarily well-written novel should have seen this coming. The book is a joy, and anyone who has a dog, or has ever had a dog, could easily identify with the struggles and pleasures of having a 4-legged member of the family.

The success of Marley slightly mitigates a disastrous year for Fox. Its year started out well enough riding the huge success of 2007 release Alvin & the Chipmunks into January ($70M of Alvin’s gross landed in this calendar year). The January 18 release of chick-flick 27 Dresses scored for Katherine Heigl ($76.8M in the US), then Jumper was a good solid February hit, topping $80M, followed by the wildly successful Horton Hears a Who ($154.5M domestic). Little did Fox know that when the Ashton Kutcher-Cameron Diaz comedy What Happens in Vegas played solidly to the tune of $80.2M domestic starting in May, it would be its last legit hit until Christmas’ Marley & Me. This is a huge, redemptive win for Fox, and its sentimental tear-jerker of a dog movie could near $100M domestic by Sunday.

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