Brad Pitt

It will be a jungle out there at the box office this weekend, as one of Hollywood's leading lions faces off against a couple of formidable foes from the animal kingdom. Brad Pitt's new baseball drama, "Moneyball," will fight for the No. 1 spot against last weekend's surprise winner, the 3-D version of "The Lion King," and a new family film, "Dolphin Tale. " Each movie could launch with between $18 million and $20 million, according to people who have seen pre-release audience surveys.

In "Moneyball," the sad-sack Oakland A's defy conventional wisdom by setting records and making the playoffs despite one of the lowest payrolls in Major League Baseball. As the adaptation of Michael Lewis' bestselling book hits theaters this weekend, Sony Pictures is hoping to buck the Hollywood wisdom that star-driven sports dramas have limited appeal in this country and do virtually no business overseas. Only a handful of movies about baseball have been hits in the U.S. — including "A League of Their Own," "The Rookie," "Field of Dreams" and "Bull Durham" — and none have generated more than a pittance of ticket sales abroad.

Winning isn't everything, voracious Vince Lombardi used to say, it's the only thing. But what if Lombardi was wrong? What if other things mean more, last longer, have more significance than victories, not only in life but also in the particular lives of the people who play the games? This is the heretical premise of the thoughtful and entertaining "Moneyball," based on the equally iconoclastic bestseller by Michael Lewis. Starring Brad Pitt in top movie star form, it's a film that's impressive and surprising.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Friday: Brad Pitt says his comments about his marriage to Jennifer Aniston were misinterpreted: He was the dull one, not her. ( Reuters ) The 3-D version of "The Lion King" is expected to rule the box office this weekend. ( Los Angeles Times ) Taylor Lautner talks steamy kisses with Lily Collins in "Abduction. " ( MTV ) Is Diablo Cody the inspiration for Olivia Wilde's stripper role in Toronto film fest hit "Butter"?

Brad Pitt has listed his gated Malibu beach house for $13.75 million. The view home he shares with actress Angelina Jolie sits on 1.26 blufftop acres with a tennis court, a lap pool and access to the beach. Features include walls of glass doors, a walk-in refrigerator/freezer and three fireplaces. The house has four bedrooms and four bathrooms in more than 4,000 square feet. The pair are reported to live mostly in France but do own houses in Los Feliz and New Orleans.

Terrence Malick's coming-of-age epic "The Tree of Life" has been shrouded in mystery since news of it surfaced in 2005. So it's fitting that the first thing cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki says about the film is that, well, there's not much he can say about the film. "It's very hard to talk about this movie because almost anything I say will reduce it and make it seem prosaic and simplistic," he said. But then the veteran cinematographer, whose credits include "Children of Men" and "Ali" and who collaborated with Malick on his "The New World," goes on to say plenty, comparing the May 27 release to, among other things, a symphony and a novel.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are donating $2 million to the Namibian sanctuary where they spent Christmas with their kids. The donation to the Naankuse Lodge and Wildlife Sanctuary was made through the Jolie-Pitt Foundation in the name of their daughter Shiloh, who was born in Namibia. Dara Barrett, head of finance at the Naankuse sanctuary, told the Associated Press that the money would be used primarily to benefit the community of San bushmen on the farm and surrounding areas.

For months, Angelina Jolie's face has been looking out from billboards alongside a single question: "Who is Salt?" The tagline refers to the new thriller, "Salt," about a CIA agent suspected of being a Russian spy (the movie has an identity crisis of its own, the main character was originally cast as a male). But the genius in the marketing, of course, is that we're asking the same thing about the actress herself. Enter "Angelina," the unauthorized biography by Andrew Morton, who has penned celebrity biographies of Tom Cruise, Monica Lewinsky and Princess Diana.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie -- who still aren't breaking up -- on Thursday won their privacy claim against News of the World, the British tabloid that in January reported they'd visited a divorce attorney and negotiated an agreement to split. The News of the World, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., has agreed to publish an apology, as well as pay an undisclosed sum to cover the couple's costs and damages, the BBC reports. The money will be donated to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, the actors' charity.