First, the Good News:

— America deserves props for soundly rejecting Paris Hilton's The Hottie and the Nottie. The bombola made a shockingly low-rent $234 per screen. So much for Hilton family loyalty. Just to keep Paris out of pout mode, the family could have bought out the 111 locations where Hottie was a definite nottie.

— In Bruges, the only literate movie to open this week, took in $16,829 per screen. Pinch me, I must be dreaming.

Now, the Bad:

— Just as I feared, America voted the horrendous and horrendously reviewed Fool's Gold the top box-office winner. That means ticketbuyers thought it was worth $22 million to watch Kate Hudson eyeballing Matthew McConaughey with his shirt off.

Grammy News: The recording industry had its chance to reward Eddie Vedder for "Guaranteed," the great song he wrote for Into the Wild. And what did the honchos do? Their choice for movie song of the year was the forgettable "Love You I Do" from Dreamgirls. I'm tempted to give up, but bitching is better.

The Brit Oscars: Choosing Atonement for Best Picture over No Country for Old Men was no surprise since Atonement is a British production. But the wins for Marion Cotillard as Best Actress for La Vie en Rose and Tilda Swinton as Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton could add a little spice to those races. Or maybe the Brits just don't like us Yanks.

Writers Strike News: It's over! Does that mean the Oscar show, scheduled for Feb. 24th, now has time to prepare those wretched musical numbers and write dull ad-libs for stars who can't talk for themselves?