'I Can Do Bad' does fine at box office

In a year when movies led by Will Ferrell, Julia Roberts, Russell Crowe, Jack Black and Adam Sandler have all foundered at the box office, Hollywood got a dose of reliable star power this weekend.

Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All by Myself" sold a studio-estimated $24 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada this weekend, making it the seventh consecutive low-cost movie that the actor-writer-director has opened successfully for Lions Gate Entertainment since early 2006.

Focus Features' quirky animated film "9" got off to a healthy start, meanwhile, while thriller "Whiteout" and horror film "Sorority Row" both opened poorly.

Perry's movies consistently cost less than $20 million to produce, with a significant chunk going to the filmmaker himself. In a highly unreliable industry, they have provided a steady profit stream for the independent studio.

"Tyler Perry is one of the most eminently bankable stars in the business," said Lions Gate Vice Chairman Michael Burns.

Perry's films appeal primarily to black women, an audience group to whom not many movies in Hollywood are specifically targeted. "I Can Do Bad" followed that pattern, with 75% of ticket buyers female and 80% African American, according to exit polls.

After 2006's "Madea's Family Reunion," Perry has made two movies a year for the last three years. He has two more in the works for next year.

There are no signs of audience fatigue with Perry or his filmmaking formula, however. "I Can Do Bad" grossed 38% more than the writer-director's "The Family That Preys" on the same weekend last year. Moviegoers gave it an average grade of A, according to market research firm CinemaScore.

Although "Madea Goes to Jail" and "Madea's Family Reunion" remain his two biggest launches, this weekend's picture is Perry's most successful that didn't feature his popular "Madea" character in the title.

"The really nice thing about is that his franchise still continues to build after all of these films and all of this exposure," Burns said.

"9" marks Focus' second offbeat animated film this year, after February's "Coraline," and it had a solid if not stellar $10.9-million opening weekend. Combined with the $4.4 million that it collected Wednesday and Thursday after opening on 9/9/09 as a marketing ploy, the movie has grossed $15.3 million domestically, along with $2.7 million from Russia, the Ukraine and Estonia.

The picture cost only $24 million to produce, meaning that it should be a financial success for Universal Pictures' indie films unit if it holds up well in coming weeks. Given its PG-13 rating, however, "9" will rely to a larger extent than most animated pictures on young adults, who made up a sizable chunk of its initial audience. Twenty percent of moviegoers this weekend were ages 9 to 12, but holding the family audience will be challenging as Sony Pictures opens its PG-rated cartoon "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" on Friday.

"The Wednesday, Friday and Saturday business was consistently strong, and if word-of-mouth was bad you wouldn't have seen that," Focus distribution President Jack Foley said. "I think it's in for a fairly decent run over the next few weeks despite the competition."

Summit Entertainment's horror film "Sorority Row" sold $5.3 million worth of tickets over the weekend, while Dark Castle Entertainment's thriller "Whiteout," which starred Kate Beckinsale and was distributed by Warner Bros., grossed $5.1 million.

Both films were disappointments, although the news was worse for Dark Castle because "Whiteout" cost $35 million to produce. "Sorority Row" cost only $12.5 million.

"Inglourious Basterds" continues to be one of the season's biggest hits, coming in No. 3 on its third weekend with $6.5 million domestically, down a relatively modest 44%. Overseas, the movie grossed $9.4 million and brought its foreign total to $99 million, with several major territories including Italy, Spain, Brazil and Mexico left to go.

On a worldwide basis, the $70-million production from Weinstein Co. and Universal has sold more than $203 million worth of tickets.

Studios typically receive about half of box office receipts, meaning "Basterds" has already recouped its production costs and a sizable chunk of its marketing expenses before finishing its theatrical run and earning money from DVD or television.

Warner Bros.' horror movie "The Final Destination" collected $17.3 million from international markets this weekend, bringing its foreign total to $55.3 million and worldwide ticket sales after less than three weeks to an impressive $113.5 million. The movie cost $40 million to produce.

Not all 3G wireless networks are created equal

Because independent research on these networks is very hard to come by, PC World took a single-day, real-world snapshot of the performance of the three biggest 3G networks in the U.S. — Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint — using industry-accepted testing technology and techniques. If there’s a smart phone in your future, we hope to give you some idea of the wireless service that may be in store for you, beyond the anecdotal information you hear from other users, on the web and in the media, and aside from the claims made by the wireless service providers themselves.

Now for an important note before we start reviewing our results. Wireless signal, by its nature, is extremely variable; that is, many things, such as obstruction by fixed objects (buildings, trees, etc.), weather, network load, cell tower locations, and time of day, can affect the quality of the signal. These factors can cause service from a single wireless service to vary widely from day to day and from neighborhood to neighborhood. Our results, taken together, provide a snapshot of the performance of the largest 3G networks in 13 major markets during March and early April. But they are by no means exhaustive, and your own connection speeds may differ from ours.

During March and early April, our testing partner, Novarum Inc., used Ixia ixChariot testing software to measure network performance from more than twenty fixed locations in each of the following cities: Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Orleans, New York City, Orlando (Florida), Phoenix, Portland (Oregon), San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle. In all, our testing partner ran 5443 individual tests from 283 testing locations. At each location, Novarum measured download speed, upload speed, and reliability for each provider's 3G service. (See "How We Tested and What the Ratings Mean.")

Testing results in a nutshell
In Novarum's tests for us, Verizon Wireless demonstrated a good mix of speed and reliability. Across more than 20 testing locations in each of the 13 cities we tested, Verizon had an average download speed of 951 kbps. Verizon demonstrated good reliability, too; the network was available at a reasonable and uninterrupted speed in 89.8 percent of our tests.

Sprint's 3G network delivered a solid connection in 90.5 percent of our 13-city tests. Sprint's average download speed of 808 kbps across 13 cities wasn't flashy (at that speed, a 1MB file downloads in 10 seconds), but dependability is an important asset. The Sprint network performed especially well, both in speed and in reliability, in our test cities in the western part of the United States.

 

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The AT&T network's 13-city average download speed in our tests was 812 kbps. Its average upload speed was 660 kbps. Reliability was an issue in our experience of the AT&T system: Our testers were able to make a connection at a reasonable, uninterrupted speed in only 68 percent of their tests.

Somewhat surprisingly, our testers also found that the "bars of service" readings on their phones were rarely an accurate predictor of the quality of the ensuing connection. In most places and with most wireless providers, the "bars" did little more than indicate whether the phone had access to some service or to no service.

cartoon

The word cartoon has various meanings, based on several very different forms of visual art and illustration. The term has evolved over time.

The original meaning was in fine art, and there cartoon meant a preparatory drawing for a piece of art such as a painting or tapestry.

The somewhat more modern meaning was that of humorous illustrations in magazines and newspapers. Even more recently there are now several contemporary meanings, including creative visual work for print media, for electronic media, and even animated films and animated digital media.

When the word cartoon is applied to print media, it most often refers to a humorous single-panel drawing or gag cartoon, most of which have captions and do not use speech balloons. The word cartoon is sometimes used to refer to a comic strip.

The artists who draw cartoons are known as cartoonists.

jean shorts are not so good

The jeans short "was popular in the mid-to-late '90s," says Wayne Klebe, a senior designer for Parisian stores. "Some men get stuck on an item they like and refuse to move away from that particular item." The jeans short, he adds, "is one of those caught-in-a-time-warp-items similar to Warner Bros. or Disney cartoon ties, MC Hammer pants or Oakley sunglasses."

Gregg Andrews, a fashion director for Nordstrom, says, "Some things shouldn't be messed with. If you're going to wear jeans, wear jeans. Five-pocket jeans are iconic, and when you start altering their length, it's like disrespecting the flag."

So what should men wear instead?

Trim-fitting, but not tight, plaid, khaki or seersucker shorts that hit just above the knee.

"The must-have shorts for men are plaid, Bermuda-length," says Andrews. "We're seeing everything from very traditional plaids -- navy, red, white; brown, cream -- to brighter colors that give it a little bit more of a modern take."

What's different about men's shorts this season is that they are less baggy -- take notice, hip-hoppers -- than the shorts of years past.

"Men's shorts are starting to take on a more polished and dressed-up look," says Andrews.

Some helpful hints for pulling off the look:

• DO embrace your inner prepster and pair your Bermudas with a classic shirt such as a polo.

• DO wear understated footwear such as classic Stan Smith tennis shoes. Jacked-up Nikes do not work well with the preppy Bermuda look.

• DO know that most men look best in shorts that hit right above the knee, falling straight from the hip line. Unless you're modeling for International Male, there's no reason to wear short shorts -- ever.

• DO know that cargo shorts are here to stay for a while though, like other shorts, this year's silhouette is slimmer.

• DON'T fall for pleats. Go for flat fronts.

• DON'T wear your shorts below your belly. "What I run across is the guy's stomach is so big, he wears the shorts underneath," says Steven Ross, owner of Serman's, a menswear store in Detroit. "It looks horrible."

• DON'T wear a tucked-in shirt with cargos. Untucked gives you a more casual feel; remember, cargos are casual shorts. Feel free to tuck in with other shorts, though.

And ladies, no matter what, DON'T allow the men in your life to wear jeans shorts.

Consider it a public service.

Ethics Complaint on Governor's Apparel Dismissed

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin today welcomed news that another ethics complaint has been dismissed. This is the 14th ethics complaint filed against the governor or her staff that has been resolved with no finding of a violation of the Executive Branch Ethics Act. Those complaints contain 22 separate allegations, all of which have been found to be without merit.

The complaint, filed by Linda Kellen Biegel, a blogger designated by the 2008 Democratic National Convention to represent Alaska bloggers, alleged that the governor violated the ethics act when she acted as the official starter of the Iron Dog snow machine race in February while wearing a north face jackets jacket with the name Team Arctic, a logo of the Arctic Cat Company. The complaint accused the governor of using her position and state resources to serve her personal financial interests. The complaint also alleged that the governor used state resources to promote a personal interest.

Thomas Daniel, the independent investigator for the State Personnel Board, concluded there is no evidence establishing probable cause to believe that Governor Palin used her position for personal gain by wearing a Team Arctic jacket at the start and finish of the 2009 Iron Dog race.

"My investigation has uncovered no evidence that the governor or her husband received anything of value in exchange for the governor wearing the Team Arctic jacket when she acted as the official starter of the 2009 Iron Dog," Daniel wrote in the report dismissing Kellen Biegel's complaint.

Daniel went on to write, "I also note that most jackets worn by Alaskans have a company name or logo on them. It is common to see jackets with logos of North Face, Patagonia, Eddie Bauer, Marmot, Cabella's, L.L. Bean and others. Indeed, it is more likely than not that any jacket that an Alaskan wears will have a company logo on it. So the fact that a person wears a jacket with a company logo on it is not evidence that the person is receiving a financial benefit as a result. To the contrary, it is the company that is receiving the benefit in the form of free advertising."

"This complaint cost the governor personally, and the State of Alaska, thousands of dollars to address," said Thomas Van Flein, the governor's attorney. "It is regrettable that the ethics process has been diverted for partisan purposes by some, but it is also commendable that the board remains focused on the law."

 from:http://www.sitnews.us/0609/060309/060309_dismissed.html