I'm pleased to report that things are back to status quo. Last week's top stories were relatively free of "Twilight" news but we're back on track this week thanks to the barrage of images and news that emerged. We'll get to that in a minute though. First let's wrap up the weekly box office poll.

There was a big voter turnout this week, though nearly all of your votes went to one of the two horror releases: "Halloween II" and "The Final Destination." Rob Zombie's flick edged out "Destination," with 60% of the vote compared to the other's 38%. The remaining 2% is spread across the rest of the choices, with no clear leader among them. Now that that's out of the way, let's see what your clicks favored... Read more...

1. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" ($56.2 million)
2. "Julie & Julia" ($20.1 million)
3. "G-Force" ($9.8 million)
4. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" ($8.9 million)
5. "Funny People" ($7.9 million)

Don't ever let anybody tell you that fighting for freedom wherever there's trouble is easy. Despite becoming the fourth biggest August debut of all time thanks to a strong $22.3 million Friday opening, "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" only earned $18 million on Saturday, a 16% drop from its opening day figures. The result is a projected $56.2 million opening weekend according to studio number-crunchers. Read more...

1. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" ($22 million)
2. "Julie & Julia" ($7.5 million)
3. "G-Force" ($2.8 million)
4. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" ($2.4 million)
5. "Funny People" ($2.4 million)

With blue and red lasers a-blazing, "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" stormed the box office on Friday to a $22 million dollar opening, on track to earn a respectable $55 million this weekend. The success might surprise the readers following our Box Office Poll -- after questionable trailers, some potentially damaging rumors about the director and other signs of failure, many of you expected "Rise of Cobra" to sink. Now we know -- remember kids: knowing is half the battle -- and it's not just ticket sales that the real American heroes are making bank on. Read more...

These days, Judd Apatow and friends are exploring deeper, more meaningful issues than most Hollywood comedies dare -– and they’re doing it at the top of the box-office. One of the film’s stars, Seth Rogen, is in the process of re-defining his career. Superhero flick "The Green Hornet" starts shooting soon and the comedy/drama “I’m With Cancer” will come after that.

So when we had the chance to catch up with the funnyman recently, we had to ask whether he spent his time on the “Funny People” set taking notes on how to successfully balance those tender issues of life, death and laughter.

“It’s funny, actually,” Rogen answered. “'I’m with Cancer’ existed as a script before ‘Funny People,’ but they were written around the same time.” Read more...

History isn't typically a laughing matter, but in the case of famed director-producer-writer James L. Brooks, it usually is. Brooks, whose credits include "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "Taxi" and "The Simpsons," has a long and esteemed history in the movie and television business, though his hasn't always been an easy road. Still, it's also not a unique road; the path that Brooks traversed has been walked before, and it's certainly being walked again.

Look no further than "Funny People" director Judd Apatow, whose career is starting to mirror that of James L. Brooks. Sure, the two have wandered down different forks in the road at times, but Apatow's trajectory is nonetheless similar to Brooks' own in some very meaningful ways. Read more...

Any "Star Wars" fan planning a trip to Tokyo soon should look no further than Warwick Davis' Twitter account for advice. He served it up to his "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" co-star Tom Felton today, and you will definitely want to read his recommendation.

In addition to travel advice, Twitter-Wood has proven itself once again to be a great source of Monday celebrity micro-reviews. The most popular film to see in the feed this weekend was definitely "Funny People," and I've rounded up commentary by Shannon Elizabeth, Jon Favreau, and a couple of others who sounded of today. All of those and one of Emmy Rossum's simple daily frustrations are assembled for you below. But first, for the consideration of Twitter-Wood readers everywhere, I present my pick for Twitter Pic of the Day -- courtesy of Mr. John Stamos. Read more...

1. "Funny People" ($23.4 million)
2. "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" ($17.7 million)
3. "G-Force" ($17.1 million)
4. "The Ugly Truth" ($13 million)
5. "Aliens in the Attic" ($7.8 million)

Moviegoers continued to flock to "Funny People" on Saturday, helping to boost the film to $23.4 million and putting it squarely in the middle of some studio controversy. Nikke Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily is crowing that this is the first "soft" weekend of the summer, and that the comedy is yet another flop for the troubled Universal Studios. Read more...

1. "Funny People" ($8.6 million)
2. G-Force" ($5.8 million)
3. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" ($5.4 million)
4. The Ugly Truth" ($4.4 million)
5. Aliens in the Attic" ($2.8 million)

Friday audiences were flocking to spend some time with "Funny People," as Judd Apatow's latest currently hold the #1 box office spot with $8.6 million, a slightly bigger opening than Apatow's previous hits "Knocked Up" and "The 40 Year Old Virgin." "Funny" isn't racing out of the gate as a big Sandler blockbuster, but it's actually the biggest R-rated opening the former "Saturday Night Live" star has ever had. Read more...

Fame is a tricky beast. Once everyone gets used to seeing your face everywhere, that newfound notoriety makes people forget your early work. It sucks for you because you want your audience to recognize the effort you’ve made to get where you are. The audience gets a treat from their forgetfulness however: DVD night at home becomes a game of, “He was in THIS?!”

If anyone out there hasn’t caught on yet, I’m talking about and to Seth Rogen. That dude is everywhere and it isn’t just because his new flick “Funny People” comes out today. For the past two years, it’s been hard to hit the theater and not see Rogen, in either a starring role or in one of his myriad co-starring roles and cameos. He’s been lurking about the silver screen for close to a decade, frequently in peculiar places. Here are five random Seth Rogen appearances in film. I guarantee you say “Seriously, he was in that?” at least once. Read more...

The feud-starting dialogue in a recent episode of “Entourage” pointed out the all too obvious: “Knocked Up” is insanely unrealistic. People get pregnant all the time and romance usually starts in the most unusual of places, true. But no way in hell does Katherine Heigl look across a crowded nightclub, see Seth Rogen and decide then and there, “Yep, that’s the dude I’m hooking up with tonight.” Frankly, the entire scenario is absurd.

Then again, it isn’t. Seth Rogen’s a good looking dude, even under the scruffy costume of "Knocked Up"'s Ben Stone, and while Katherine Heigl is a stunning beauty under any circumstances, she isn’t some fictional goddess under the precise make-up and dress of movie production. Of course these two people could end up together. Attraction, and life in general, are unpredictable like that. Capturing that randomness convincingly on film, harnessing just a hint of reality on top of the fiction, is Judd Apatow’s greatest strength as a filmmaker. Read more...