Lost director-producer Stephen Williams has inked a new two-year deal with ABC Studios, where he will continue to direct multiple episodes of the drama as well as get promoted to co-executive producer.... Not about to be one-upped by Valerie Bertinelli, Letterman sidekick Paul Shaffer is penning a memoir filled with "anecdotes that have been accumulating in my mind for the past three-plus decades," the musician tells the AP. Expect the tome, due out in '09, to set a record for occurrences of the word "nutty".... Shooter last week repeated as the DVD sales- and rental-charts topper. Blood Diamond was the No. 1 HD DVD seller.
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Those who said Mel Gibson would never eat lunch in Hollywood again were wrong: His Apocalypto debuted at the top of the box office this weekend with a haul of $14.2 million. That said, the self-destructive director may be having that lunch at Burger King rather than Chez Fancypants, seeing as his last hard-sell flick, The Passion of the Christ, took in $83.8 million in its opening weekend. Rounding out the top five were the Cameron Diaz/Jude Law (or Kate Winslet/Jack Black, if you prefer) date movie The Holiday (opening with $13.5 million), then Happy Feet ($12.7 mil), Casino Royale ($8.8 mil) and Leo DiCaprio's Blood Diamond (debuting with $8.5 mil).Monday's Today's News was written by Ben Katner.
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