Chicago wore a wonderful crown as the best musical or comedy movie of 2002, while The Hours chimed in with a victory of its own as the best dramatic film of the year at Sunday night's 60th annual Golden Globes awards. Chicago was the bigger winner, capturing three awards. (Its two stars, Renée Zellweger and Richard Gere won the best actress and best actor trophies.) But the biggest winner may have been Miramax Studios which produced or co-produced Chicago, The Hours, Gangs of New York, and Frida, which together accounted for six major awards.

The winners in the film categories were: Drama: The Hours; Director: Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York; Actor, Drama: Jack Nicholson, About Schmidt; Actress, Drama: Nicole Kidman, The Hours; Musical or Comedy: Chicago; Actor, Musical or Comedy: Richard Gere, Chicago; Actress, Musical or Comedy: Renée Zellweger, Chicago; Supporting Actor: Chris Cooper, Adaptation; Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep, Adaptation; Foreign Language Film: Talk to Her, Spain; Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, About Schmidt; Score: Elliot Goldenthal, Frida; Original Song: U2, "The Hands That Built America" from Gangs of New York.

Three films that were generally loathed by the critics, nevertheless, wound up at the top of the box office over the weekend, with Kangaroo Jack hopping toward the top with an estimated $17.7 million. The Martin Lawrence-Steve Zahn movie National Security debuted in second place with about $15.7 million. Last week's big winner, Just Married, starring Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher, dropped to third place with an estimated $12.5 million. All three films are expected to enlarge their take significantly today (Monday), the Martin Luther King holiday.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations: 1. Kangaroo Jack, $17.7 million; 2. National Security, $15.7 million; 3. Just Married, $12.5 million; 4. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, $11.4 million; 5. Catch Me If You Can, $11.3 million; 6. Chicago, $8 million; 7. A Guy Thing, $7.1 million; 8. About Schmidt, $6.3 million; 9. The Hours, $4.7 million; 10. Two Weeks Notice, $4.1 million.

Comedian Billy Crystal and film producer Lynda Obst (Hello, He Lied: And Other Truths from the Hollywood Trenches) are among the contributors to the prototype issue of the Los Angeles Examiner, the new Los Angeles weekly being launched by former L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported today (Monday). The prototype, which apparently will emphasize news of particular interest to entertainment-industry workers in Southern California, is due to be printed next week, with regular distribution coming in June. Ken Layne a member of the paper's editorial staff, told the L.A. Business Journal that the Examiner's goal is to offer commentary from well-known political writers and Hollywood insiders. It was not clear whether Crystal and Obst had agreed to become regular contributors. The newspaper takes its name from the flagship Hearst paper for the area that was first published in 1903, merged with Hearst's Herald in 1961, then folded in 1989.

Two Los Angeles city councilmen, Eric Garcetti, and his predecessor, Jackie Goldberg, demanded that filmmakers make donations of as much as $10,000 in exchange for their support for closing parts of an L.A. freeway in 1998 and 2000, the Los Angeles Times disclosed today (Monday). Goldberg, now a member of the Assembly, acknowledged that she had asked movie companies in a handful of cases to make a donation to a charity on which she serves as a member of an advisory in return for her support, but said that she was supporting community interests. Producer Lance O'Connor told the Times that he had originally been asked to contribute $10,000 to one of Goldberg's charities, but, he asked, "Why should I be paying contributions to anybody when ... I already have to pay a fortune for permit fees?" David Thornsberry, location manager for Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, said that the request for payment surprised him. "If we didn't pay, I wasn't going to get [the permit]," Thornsberry said.

A hitch has developed in the production of The Alamo in Austin, TX, where the film company has had difficulty finding 6,000 Hispanics to fit into uniforms to play the Mexican soldiers who attacked the old Spanish mission in 1836, syndicated columnist Liz Smith reported today (Monday). She observed that the men "must look as if they had just been force-marched from Mexico city to San Antonio in rain and hard conditions." But a casting coordinator told Smith that a lot of the men who have shown up for work "are simply huge." So far, Smith says, only about 500 Hispanics have been cast to play Santa Ana's men.

Veteran actor Richard Crenna, whose career as a film actor began when he was credited as "Dicky Crenna" and was featured as a regular on the Our Miss Brooks radio and TV shows as the hapless teenager Walter Denton, and most recently appeared as Tyne Daly's romantic interest in CBS's Judging Amy, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 76. One hundred fifteen film and TV titles are included in Crenna's credit list on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).

With the exception of a best actress award to Jennifer Aniston for her performance as a member of NBC's Friends, all of the top Golden Globe awards in the TV categories Sunday night went to cable networks. The winners were: Drama Series: The Shield, FX; Actor, Drama: Michael Chiklis, The Shield, FX; Actress, Drama: Edie Falco, The Sopranos, HBO; Musical or Comedy Series: Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO; Actor, Musical or Comedy Series: Tony Shalhoub, Monk, USA; Actress, Musical or Comedy Series: Jennifer Aniston, Friends, NBC; Miniseries or Movie Made for Television: The Gathering Storm, HBO; Actor, Miniseries or Movie Made for Television: Albert Finney, The Gathering Storm, HBO; Actress, Miniseries or Movie Made for Television: Uma Thurman, Hysterical Blindness, HBO; Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie Made for Television: Donald Sutherland, Path to War, HBO.

Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone has made it clear that he does not intend to reinstate the "superpowers" of President and COO Mel Karmazin under Karmazin's new contract, the Los Angeles Times reported today (Monday). Under the previous contract that Karmazin negotiated when he sold CBS to Viacom in 2000, Karmazin cannot be fired by Redstone without a two-thirds vote of the board. He also has authority to hire and fire execs without Redstone's approval. In an interview with the Times, Redstone said, "I made a sacrifice to get CBS. ... I gave up a lot of power and I didn't like it. Why would I? I built the company from nothing." [In a separate interview with the Wall Street Journal Redstone said that at the time the merger deal was closed, Karmazin knew that he would not give up his powers "forever."] Moreover, the Times suggested, Redstone appears confident that Karmazin will remain, even after losing some power. "Most of his fortune is tied up in Viacom," Redstone said. "The friction was always overstated. We're good friends.... Besides, there's no room for him at AOL or Disney."

Hoping to make an impact with new shows while its rivals are still in reruns, Fox Broadcasting plans to launch most of them during the summer instead of fall, Fox Television Entertainment Chairman Sandy Grushow said Saturday. Speaking to TV critics, Grushow acknowledged that his strategy of introducing new programs last September, then pulling them in October for the baseball playoffs and World Series, was not successful. However, pointing to the success of such reality shows as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Survivor, and American Idol, Grushow remarked: "One of the lessons that reality television has taught us is that summer is a really good time to launch big franchises. ... It's a better time than all six networks launching within the same week or two in late September."

Perhaps signaling the start of numerous expected changes at CNN under new top management, CNN Headline News will begin expanding its live programing and switching to two-anchors starting today (Monday). As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Headline channel will originate live from 6:00 a.m. to midnight within two weeks, an increase of eight hours per day. Rolando Santos, who took over as executive vice president and general manager of CNN Headline News last year, told the AJC that his aim is to provide "more information at a faster pace" on the channel.

Once again raising questions about the propriety of journalists sharing information that they have gleaned from their sources with law enforcement personnel, former ABC newsman John Miller was sworn in Friday as head of the Los Angeles Police Department's anti-terrorism and intelligence unit. Until becoming co-host (with Barbara Walters) of ABC's 20/20 magazine feature, Miller had specialized in reporting for the network on terrorism, had co-written a book about it (The Cell), and had been one of the few journalists to interview Osama bin Laden. In swearing in Miller, LAPD Police Chief William Bratton said that he wanted to bring in "a person who is networked" to head up the unit. However, journalists, in attempting to cultivate sources in the Middle East, have long had to contend with propaganda that they are acting as spies for intelligence operations.

Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw, who covered the last Gulf War from Baghdad, has expressed concern about the recent announcement by the Pentagon that journalists will be allowed to "embed with military units at the front" in case of renewed war with Iraq. "This idea of the U.S. military welcoming journalists into its ranks bothers me mightily," Shaw remarked during a discussion program on CNN. "I believe that the moment journalists agree to be taken in tow, the military would then have the ability to control their movements and, yes, even when those journalists could file their stories. Another thing that bothers me, as a former Marine, is that the people in uniform ought not be concerned about the safety of journalists."

NBC Entertainment chief Jeff Zucker told TV critics on Friday that the next season of Friends will positively be the last. "The door is not open after that," Zucker announced. He also indicated that he will not attempt to reopen the door for another season of Providence. However, he suggested, that the drama might return in the form of a TV movie occasionally. On the other hand, Zucker said that he will bring Hunter, starring Fred Dryer and Stepfanie Kramer, back for another season staring April 12. The show, which ran from 1984 to 1991 has occasionally been revived as a TV movie in recent years.

Describing it as a "ridiculous but fascinating" special, NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker disclosed Friday that the network's thrice-weekly magazine show Dateline is planning to air a feature about Michael Jackson's cosmetic transfiguration over the years during a special set to air on Feb. 17. Titled "Michael Jackson Unmasked," the special will be presented as "the inside story as told by some of the people who knew him best," according to a network statement. Presumably, Jackson himself was not interviewed for the feature.