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The fall box office sure fell all right.

After a $4 billion-grossing summer, Hollywood slogged through its worst weekend of the year, per studio estimates compiled today by Exhibitor Relations. 

The weekend was distinguished, if not defined, by Bangkok Dangerous, the new Nicolas Cage action movie, which finished first with the lowest gross for a No. 1 movie in five years ($7.8 million).

If estimates hold, the $45 million Bangkok Dangerous will barely have had enough fire power to outgross the debuts of 2008 bombs such as Mad Money ($7.7 million) and Space Chimps ($7.2 million).

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The stars came out tonight with hopes of brightening the way for years to come.

Halle Berry, Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Aniston, Salma Hayek, Ellen DeGeneres, Keanu Reeves, Billy Crystal, Scarlett Johansson, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Casey Affleck, America Ferrera, Fran Drescher, Forest Whitaker, John Krasinski, Christina Applegate, Josh Brolin and Masi Oka are just some of the A-listers who participated Friday in the Stand Up to Cancer telethon, benefiting cancer research, at Hollywood's Kodak Theatre.

Meryl Streep, Charlize Theron, the stars of Lost, Lance Armstrong, Tina Fey and some fellow 30 Rockers, Carson Daly and Tom Green also spoke up via video.

But despite a roster of names that wouldn't have seemed out of place at the Oscars, it was sobering to see how many of the event's participants' lives have been affected by cancer, including Applegate, who, after being diagnosed with breast cancer this year, underwent a preventative double mastectomy, and Katie Couric, whose husband, Jay Monahan, died of colon cancer in 1998.

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Barack Obama spoke in a football stadium. John McCain spoke after a football game.

Ratings-wise, both moves were good. But McCain's was bigger.

Last night's McCain speech at the Republican National Convention was watched by nearly 39 million people, Nielsen Media Research said today.

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Quentin Tarantino is entering Tom Cruise territory.

A script of the director's star-studded, soon-to-film World War II epic Inglorious Bastards was leaked to the German press this week, drawing ire from the nation's media and kicking up a controversy that could reach Valkyrie-level proportions.

The backlash primarily concerns scenes showing Jewish-American soldiers scalping, shooting, strangling and otherwise gorily dispatching Nazi soldiers.

"All the German historians and critics who were left gasping for breath by Tom Cruise and his worthy attempts will be so shocked by Inglorious Bastards that they will savage it on the spot," opines Tobias Kneibe, film editor of Germany's Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, of the film that stars Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Simon Pegg and Mike Myers.

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The star of Greek may be in for a bit of a hazing by the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office.

Scott Michael Foster, who plays Cappie on the ABC Family show, has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence stemming from his bust earlier this summer.

The 23-year-old small-screen frat boy was arrested in the early hours of July 21 after failing a field sobriety test issued during a routine traffic stop. He was charged with driving under the influence and driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or above.

He was released after several hours on $5,000 bail and headed straight to the Greek set, where he was quick to issue mea culpas to his fellow cast and crew.

He's clearly got some school spirit. Time will tell if he's also got a good defense.

A pretrial hearing has been set for Sept. 22.

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Newly minted veep wannabe Sarah Palin's acceptance speech may have drawn impressive ratings at the Republican National Convention, but don't look for her hopping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch anytime soon.

Despite a Drudge Report story this morning claiming a political battle was brewing behind the scenes of Winfrey's daytime talk show, with staff members pushing for the big O to invite Palin to Chicago for sit-down, Winfrey herself has issued a speedy denial.

"This item in today's Drudge Report is categorically untrue," she said in a statement. "There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show."

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Well, Kanye West certainly came out swinging. He just needs to work on his follow-through.

Despite a year-old vow to any media outlet that would listen that he would never again show his face on the backstabbing airwaves of MTV—a proclamation made after being relegated to a small stage and shut out despite five nominations at last year's Video Music Awards—West has apparently forgiven and forgotten and signed on to perform at this Sunday's show.

West will join Britney Spears (whom the rapper previously claimed was exploited by the network at last year's wingding) in book-ending the 25th anniversary edition of the VMAs do, with the hip-hop star set to close the night's censor-ready proceedings.

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Apparently there's nothing like a good killing spree to get Tom Cruise going.

The actor and his United Artists have snapped up the rights to The Monster of Florence as a potential starring vehicle, according to Variety.

Based on the true-crime thriller by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, the book chronicles a three-decade spate of serial murders in the cradle of the Renaissance that served as the inspiration to another big-screen bloodbath, Hannibal.

Preston and Spezi are quoted in the Italian daily Corriere della Sera saying Christopher McQuarrie (who wrote Cruise's forthcoming Valkyrie) will adapt and that Cruise will decide whether to star after giving the script a once-over.

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Ann and Nancy Wilson are hoping the Republicans change their tune—and aren't planning on waiting until November to find out.

The sisterly duo known as Heart sent a cease-and-desist notice to the McCain-Palin campaign Thursday afternoon after their hit "Barracuda" was used—twice—without permission as the official rallying cry for the vice presidential candidate after her nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

The song was chosen as a would-be cute tie-in to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's past—"Barracuda" was her high school nickname.

Only problem, campaign officials failed to ask either the group, Universal Music Publishing or Sony BMG whether the song was fair game to use. It wasn't.

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If all goes well for Hollywood, Shia LaBeouf and Zac Efron will be the new Reese Witherspoon.

The fall movie season begins today. Running through Halloween weekend, the next two months will boast plenty of stars, a good number of Oscar contenders, including Oliver Stone's W., but possibly few, if any, box-office blockbusters.

It's been six years, in fact, since any film released in September grossed more than $100 million, Exhibitor Relations reported this week. The last movie to do so was the Witherspoon comedy Sweet Home Alabama.

"If any film [this] September has a chance to break $100 million," says Exhibitor Relations' Jeff Bock, "it's Eagle Eye and Shia LaBeouf."

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The guy accused of stealing a bunch of stuff from Kirsten Dunst is paying for it in spades.

Jarrod Beinerman, 33, was sentenced to four and a half years in jail after pleading guilty to attempted burglary in connection with the theft of a $13,000 Balenciaga bag, an iPod and various other goodies from Dunst's suite last year at the Soho Grand Hotel in Manhattan.

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