- Big names or not, crappy romantic comedies about New Year’s Eve in Manhattan don’t appear to be what the people want. With Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert DeNiro, Halle Berry, Common, Jessica Biel, Seth Meyers, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Sofia Vergara, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michele and Sarah Jessica Parker all on board, Warner Bros.’ New Year’s Eve still opened with a whimper despite winning the weekend box office earnings race. The film garnered $13.7 million in its debut, enough to beat out fellow newcomer The Sitter for first place. Sitter finished second as Jonah Hill led the film to a $10 million effort. Both movies did enough to wrest the top spot from the arms of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1, which fell out of the No. 1 position for the first time since its release. Twilight did make an additional $7.9 million and has earned $259.5 million domestically in four weeks. The Muppets snagged fourth place despite a 36-percent decline in earnings from last weekend, adding $7 million to the film’s coffers and boosting its cumulative tally to $65.8 million. Arthur Christmas completed the top five films of the weekend with a modest $6.6 million effort and has earned just $33.4 million thus far. Hugo kicked off the bottom half of the top 10 list, not far behind with $6.1 million and $33.5 million in cumulative domestic earnings. George Clooney’s much-celebrated project The Descendents ranked seventh for the weekend even though it is still showing in less than 1,000 theaters nationwide. The film did add 302 new theaters for the frame and managed to score $4.8 million. That makes its four-week haul $23.6 million in extremely limited release. Happy Feet Two finished eighth for the frame with $3.8 million and in one month of release, its earnings stand at $56.9 million. Amazingly terrible Adam Sandler comedy Jack and Jill was ninth by virtue of its $3.2 million effort and has somehow churned out $68.6 million through five weeks. Immortals snagged the No. 10 spot by making $2.4 million, while Tower Heist (No. 11) and Puss in Boots (No. 12) dropping out of the top 10………..


- In case the world runs out of chintzy, subpar tablet computers at any point in the next year, help is on the way. Despite vowing to get out of the computer business and focus on its other products, HP has doubled back and now says it could return to webOS to make new tablets in 2013 and use the freshly open-sourced platform for larger mobile devices even though it has no plans to produce smartphones. HP CEO Meg Whitman announced that webOS will be an open-source platform moving forward but said there are no immediate plans for new webOS devices. Tablets could still be a possibility, but only after the company’s Windows 8 push. HP has previously hinted that Windows 8 based tablets might reach the market soon and that those tablets would utilize Microsoft’s freshly updated platform with its finger-friendly Metro UI. Why look to rev up its tablet offerings now? Because the new OS is directly compatible with HP’s laptop and desktop hardware and thus could be appealing to a consumer market looking for iPad/Android tablet alternatives……from a company that has long made the worst computers known to man. According to its open-source FAQ for webOS, HP is open to “explore the viability of putting webOS on devices,” although that doesn’t automatically mean a commercial release is guaranteed. Instead, the company says it “plans to remain active in the development and support of webOS” while acknowledging that “making webOS open source will accelerate the development of the webOS platform and application ecosystem.” HP also has its own in-house webOS team, but still has no hardware of its own on which to use the system. For now, partnering with Microsoft is HP’s primary focus and it is “merely considering the possibility of webOS devices as we do for other leading operating systems.” Given its struggles selling webOS tablets and phones, it is difficult to be too critical of HP for not wanting to venture back out into the market just yet. Nurture webOS for now and hope it grows enough to challenge Windows, Android and iOS. If not, it isn't as if HP’s reputation can sink much lower…………


- Know when everyone can tell that your movement for change is tired, played and has jumped the oh, so clichéd shark? Allow the Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York City to demonstrate. There is no show that has overstayed its welcome on television quite like “Law & Order.” The series and its many incarnations have lingered on the air for two decades now and aside from being fodder for sketches on comedy shows and other programs who want an easy joke about clichéd police/legal dramas, “Law & Order” isn't exactly lighting up the world with chatter about its high level of performance. Yet there were the Occupy kooks, storming the New York set of television crime drama "Law & Order: SVU" early Friday, only to be ejected by police an hour later. Perhaps the protestors were merely confused or lost because they had been evicted from their home base in Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park and the set of the show at the time of the invasion was designed to look like Zuccotti Park for an episode based on the ongoing movement. The invasion occurred shortly after midnight and within an hour, NYPD officers arrived and cleared the set of all the riff-raff. "Law & Order: SVU" is well-known for creating plots taken from real-life headlines, but giving any more notoriety to the Occupy knobs probably is not one of the show’s wiser decisions. Protestors didn’t explain why they decided to ambush the production, which was scheduled to begin filming Friday morning. The set was empty at the time, much like the thin logic offered by the organizer of the mini-protest. "It was both kind of cathartic and nostalgic, and kind of mind-bending as well," said organizer Jake Begroot of Queens. "It was a real occupation of a fake, set up occupation. It was a mock-upation." And the point was? That’s what we thought, kooks…………


- The relationship between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Roger Goodell should be getting much better in the near future. Numerous Steelers have been fined and reprimanded by the commissioner since the league began its crackdown on dangerous and excessively violent hits last year to the point that many within their locker room have theorized that the league is targeting them for such discipline. No player has been in Goodell’s crosshairs more than Steelers linebacker James Harrison, who was fined $125,000 for illegal hits last season. A defiant Harrison appeared on the cover of Men’s Journal magazine posing shirtless while displaying some of his handguns in obvious defiance of what he perceives as the commission’s attempts to rein him in. Along the way, Harrison has also threatened to retire rather than live in the new-look NFL before vowing to return but continue playing his game the way he wants to play it. His defiance was on display for all to see during Thursday night’s nationally televised game against Cleveland in which Harrison leveled Browns quarterback Colt McCoy with a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit that left McCoy concussed. McCoy rolled out to pass, got rid of the ball and was belted by Harrison. The hit left McCoy motionless on the field, although he later returned. He was later diagnosed with a concussion and his father quickly ripped the Browns for allowing McCoy back into the game. As for Harrison, a league source confirmed Sunday that Goodell is considering suspending Harrison for one or two games for his hit. No decision is expected before Monday, but at a minimum he will be hit with a significant fine. If Goodell does ban him for a game or two, Harrison would be the first player suspended under the NFL's enhanced enforcement on player safety violations. The ever-defiant linebacker didn’t back down on Friday when asked about the hit. "From what I understand, once the quarterback leaves the pocket, he's considered a runner," Harrison said. "All the defenseless(ness) and liberties that a quarterback has in the pocket are gone and you can tackle him just as he's a running back. The hit wasn't late, so I really don't understand why it was called." Why? Because McCoy had already thrown the ball prior to the hit and by rule was a defenseless player……………


- When riot tourism is on your bucket list, think Egypt. That and other creative slogans are on the way now that the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) – the political arm of the influential Muslim Brotherhood – is making a concerted effort to bring visitors to the war-torn, uprising-ravaged nation. Al-Nur, the ultraconservative party representing followers of the fundamentalist Salafi brand of Islam, said it was launching a conference to promote the industry in the Egyptian southern city of Aswan. With more than 15 million holiday travelers visiting the country last year to see its ancient sites and visit its Red Sea beach resorts, the industry is a key earner and source of foreign currency. However, folks are typically reluctant to visit a nation in upheaval on the off chance they might end up in the middle of an angry revolt against whomever happens to be running the country at any given time. Hopes for tourism industry growth appeared to take a hit last week when Islamist parties won a crushing victory in the first stage of parliamentary elections over fears they might impose strict Islamic law that could scare off Western visitors. To offset those fears, some Islamist candidates and religious scholars have advocated destroying ancient monuments viewed as a form of idol worshipping and lifting bans on alcohol, mixed-sex beaches, gambling and revealing beachwear. To further fuel the tourism push, the Muslim Brotherhood posted a picture on its Facebook page Sunday (yes, it has one) showing Supreme Guide (actual title) Mohammed Badie shaking hands with foreign visitors as he toured the historic city of Luxor. Members of the FJP also visited the ancient Pyramids of Giza on Sunday to demonstrate the "Brotherhood's support for tourism," the Facebook page stated. Al-Nur hyped its conference, touting it as a chance to bring together representatives from tourism chambers, hotels and tour operators "in a bid to support the industry" and its earning potential. "We do not want to ban tourism. On the contrary, we want revenue from tourism to multiply," spokesman Nader Bakkar said. However, Bakkar did remind everyone that Al-Nur is not in favor of something truly radical, i.e. men and women being allowed to use the same bech at the same time. "The Al-Nur party does not want to ban beach tourism. But we do want to see a type of Halal tourism ... such as segregation of beaches," Bakkar continued. And that (along with being a nation in political turmoil) is why there is grave concern about your tourism industry………