It earned just $7.2 million last weekend, but that was good enough for Whole Nine Yards, The (2000) to become the top draw at the nation's box office for the third straight week. With few films appealing to the dating crowd, many theaters were virtually deserted, with total ticket sales down 17 percent from the same weekend a year ago. The number-two film was the Madonna starrer Next Best Thing, The (2000), which earned $5.87 million, about $7000 more than the number-tree film, My Dog Skip (2000).

The top-ten films over the weekend, according to final figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations (figures in parentheses represent total gross to date): 1. Whole Nine Yards, The (2000), Warner Bros., $7, 174, 183, ($38, 334, 645); 2. Next Best Thing, The (2000), Paramount, $5, 870, 387, (New); 3. My Dog Skip (2000), Warner Bros., $5, 863, 545, ($6, 585, 669); 4. Drowning Mona (2000), Destination, $5, 802, 229, (New); 5. Pitch Black (2000), USA, $5, 066, 884, ($29, 707, 222); 6. Snow Day (2000), Paramount, $4, 804, 112, ($49, 014, 953); 7. Reindeer Games (2000), Dimension, $4, 757, 095, ($15, 081, 249); 8. Wonder Boys (2000), Paramount, $4, 053, 266, ($11, 372, 006); 9. American Beauty (1999), DreamWorks, $4, 030, 713, ($93, 014, 479); 10. Cider House Rules, The (1999), Miramax, $4, 018, 764, ($37, 220, 816).

Some 4, 000 of the 5, 000 Oscar ballots that the Motion Picture Academy sent out last week have turned up missing, Daily Variety reported today (Tuesday). Academy spokesman John Pavlik told the trade paper that although the organization has "lit a fire" under the Postal Service, no trace of the missing ballots have been found. He said that if they don't turn up today (Tuesday), new ones will be sent out on Wednesday. Pavlik said that the 4, 000 ballots had been dropped off at the Beverly Hills post office on Wednesday; another 1, 000 ballots had been sent from there the day before and were promptly delivered.

Micheline Charest and Ronald Weinberg, who, as husband and wife, founded and acted as co-CEOs of the Canadian family film company Cinar Corporation, resigned Monday amid growing accusations of financial irregularities involving the company. In its announcement, Cinar said that $122 million of its money had been invested without board approval. Recently, the company was also accused of substituting the names of Canadians for Americans on scripts so that it could qualify for tax credits from the Canadian government.

Sweetening his previous bid to $6.4 billion, MGM owner Kirk Kerkorian has bought Steve Wynn's Mirage Resorts for $6.4 billion in cash and the assumption of $2 billion in debt. CBS MarketWatch reported Monday that Wynn will not become part of the merged company. Today's (Tuesday) Wall Street Journal observed that investors and analysts were stunned by Wynn's decision to sell. It quoted Donald Trump, a longtime rival of both Wynn and Kerkorian in the casino business, as saying, "I'm very surprised by the deal. ... Steve has a fantastic imagination, and I seriously doubt that you've heard the last of him."

Mike Myers will join the ranks of $20-million-per-film actors when he stars in Sprockets for Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment, the Hollywood Reporter reported today (Tuesday). Myers will be reviving his Saturday Night Live character Dieter, the German talk-show host with a monkey for a sidekick who frequently tells his guests, "Your conversation has become tiresome."

In another movie deal, Eddie Murphy has agreed to star in The Incredible Shrinking Man for Universal and Imagine Entertainment.

The decision of Britain's most successful publisher last year to purchase 13 million copies of the book based on the latest Star Wars movie may bring about the company's collapse. Today's (Tuesday) London Daily Express reports that the publisher, Dorling Kindersley, was able to sell only 3 million copies of the book, resulting in a loss of some $40 million. An unnamed worker at the company told the Express that founder and chairman Peter Kindersley has "fallen victim to a terrible error of judgment."

Thai environmentalists are planning a protest timed to coincide with the premiere of Beach, The (2000) in Bangkok today (Tuesday). The BBC reported Monday that the protesters intend to burn Leonardo DiCaprio in effigy and picket theaters where the movie is being screened. They claim that 20th Century Fox destroyed Maya Beach on Phi Phi island, where much of the movie was shot. Coincidentally, a hearing is set to resume today on a lawsuit brought against Fox and others by environmentalists in connection with the alleged damage to the beach.

The German company that bought the Jim Henson Company, EM.TV, is planning to revive The Muppet Show, the syndicated variety series that mated the Muppet characters with human celebrities between 1976 and 1981. Although it was never a big hit in the U.S., it was regarded as the most widely viewed TV program in the world during its original run. Today's (Tuesday) Los Angeles Times reported that one of the show's original creators, Frank Oz, who created the characters of Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and Animal for the the original show, will become a part of the new Muppets team.

Charging that the major network news programs are biased in favor of Democrats and virtually ignored the recent conviction of Maria Hsia for arranging more than $100, 000 in illegal contributions to the Gore campaign, the Republican National Committee pulled out the stops to retaliate Monday. It urged Republicans to call network anchors to protest the light coverage of the conviction and gave out the anchors' office telephone numbers. "How do you solve a problem like Maria Hsia?" RNC chairman Jim Nicholson asked in a statement. "If you're a network anchor, you make like a Buddhist nun and take a vow of silence." Meanwhile, appearing on Larry King Live on CNN Monday, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, while not commenting directly on the Hsia coverage, nevertheless remarked, "I really don't think that reporters are biased. I think that most of us are registered, as I am, which is decline to state or as independents. I never have revealed who I've ever voted for, but I can tell you it crosses back and forth between party lines."

George Clooney apparently went ballistic when he learned that the cable channel Turner Classic Movies was planning to air the 1964 movie Fail-Safe on April 9, the same day that CBS is planning to air a live TV version of the Cold War classic starring Clooney. The New York Daily News quotes Clooney spokesman Stan Rosenfield as saying, "When he heard about it, yes, he was upset. Logic dictates that if you're going to put on the old movie, you do it afterwards, not before." Both the TCM cable network and Warner Bros. TV, which is producing the drama, are units of Time Warner. The cable network promptly rescheduled the movie for the following morning.

Bowing to political pressure, the producers of the German version of Big Brother have agreed to create a camera-free room in the house where nine contestant-residents are living in full view of a TV and Internet audience 24 hours a day. The contestants -- strangers when they entered the house -- are required to spend 100 days with no television, phones or any other interaction with the outside world. German politicians have been attacking Big Brother as an affront to human dignity and have mounted a campaign to have the show, which airs on the RTL II network, banned. TV regulators said Monday that they would postpone a decision on shutting it down until March 14.

The effort by some gay activists to shut down Dr. Laura Schlessinger's upcoming TV talk show before it ever begins has produced a rift in the gay and lesbian community, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported today (Monday). Among those opposing the effort, the newspaper reported, are Bill Dobbs, a New York City lawyer who is a member of Queer Watch and Singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge. Dobbs told the Inquirer, "We all have an impulse to want to shut up that which we disagree with, but once you've silenced someone, you leave us bereft of any opinion or forum to discuss these issues." Etheridge added that Schlessinger "has her own opinion. If people want to listen to it, it's fine. ... I don't believe in shutting anybody up."

ABC's Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and the Fox special Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire? received more coverage on primetime, morning and syndicated TV shows in February than any other subject, according to a study by the NewsTV Report newsletter. It counted 80 segments devoted to the two shows.

A federal appeals court in Portland, Maine reversed a verdict in a defamation case against NBC and overturned a $525, 000 damage award stemming from a Dateline NBC program that aired in 1995. At the original trial Classic Carriers and driver Peter Kennedy had claimed that NBC had promised a positive story about the trucking industry but instead aired a report on the dangers of truckers who drive without sufficient sleep.

Father Ellwood Kieser who heads up Paulist Productions and acts as a consultant on the upcoming animated sitcom God, the Devil and Bob has decried decisions by two NBC affiliates in Salt Lake City and Pocatello, Idaho not to carry the show. In an interview appearing in today's (Tuesday) Washington Post, Kieser said, "I found the show delightfully human and funny and yet theologically very perceptive. ... There's all this clamor for family entertainment, and all the studies indicate there's a sizable audience for shows that a family can sit down and watch together and then discuss. Part of the popularity of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is that the family can watch it together. This is the same thing in a religious, God-centered context."

Richard Crenna has signed to appear in two upcoming episodes of Judging Amy, playing the love interest of the character portrayed by Tyne Daly, the New York Post reported today (Tuesday).