Entertainment

Watching Sarah Jessica Parker widen her eyes and discuss the unsettling discovery that one of her ancestors was accused of witchcraft during the Salem witch trials, it's difficult not to giggle and wonder where all this gravity was when she was prancing around with Bette Midler in "Hocus Pocus."(film) But then that's the risk when you base a television show on the genealogical searches of our "most beloved stars" -- it's no longer enough that we know the brand of stroller that Parker and husband Matthew Broderick (who will be featured later)

Western civilization comes just a littler closer to its final collapse Sunday with the premiere of "Pretty Wild," the latest hot-chicks reality series from E!, already home to "The Girls Next Door," "Kendra" and "Keeping Up With the Kardashians." At some point in its development this would have been sold as the story of a former (but still hot) Playboy model and her three hot daughters, but it has since become the story of a former Playboy model, one of whose hot daughters is an alleged member of the so-called Bling Ring, the gang of junior sneak thieves who lifted some $3 million of stuff from the homes of younger-set Hollywood celebrities in 2008 and 2009.

Disney ended up picking just the right moment to jump down the 3-D rabbit hole. As "Avatar" comes to the end of a historic three-month run, Walt Disney Studios' "Alice in Wonderland" took most of the 3-D screens and opened to an eye-popping $210.3 million worldwide. Much like director James Cameron's mega-hit, Tim Burton's adaptation of the classic tale, starring Johnny Depp, generated about 70% of its opening weekend business from theaters with 3-D screens. It easily beat the premiere of "Avatar" and set a record for the biggest winter opening, even accounting for ticket price inflation, selling a studio-estimated $116.

Radio and TV host Glenn Beck likes to talk about the potential collapse of the American economy. He also likes to talk about buying gold as a hedge against the unknown. The proximity of those ideas, the plethora of gold ads around his Fox program and Beck's work as a paid pitchman for one gold firm have some in the media wondering whether the conservative commentator has a conflict of interest. Since conflicts are in the eye of the beholder, Beck should consider himself lucky if the public doesn't judge him by the where-there's-smoke-there's-fire standard he uses to condemn his own adversaries.

There's a powerful symmetry at work in "Crazy Heart" that's impossible to resist. It's a parallel between protagonist Bad Blake, a country singer whose entire life has led him to a nadir of disintegration, and star Jeff Bridges, whose exceptional film choices have put him at the height of his powers just in time to make Mr. Blake the capstone role of his career. It's a mark of how fine a performance Bridges gives that it succeeds beautifully even though the besotted, bedeviled country singer has been an overly familiar popular culture staple (Rip Torn in "Payday," Robert Duvall in "Tender Mercies," Hank Williams and Merle Haggard in their own lives)

It was inevitable after the popular and critical success of their 2001 World War II miniseries "Band of Brothers," which told the story of the drive to conquer Hitler and Mussolini, that executive producers Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg would return to finish the job. "The Pacific," which tells the story of the war against Japan, is here -- it begins Sunday on HBO -- and is its forerunner's equal in emotive strength, weird poetry and technical bravura;...

Every day brings something new to report about the weather conditions of planet Earth. Scientists call it climate change, and they are studying it very closely. World leaders are discussing it. Students and teachers are learning about it. If weather conditions are going to change the Earth in a big way, then we want to know about it! We hear about glaciers and ice sheets melting. And we hear about the sea level rising higher and higher all over the Earth. For now, let's just talk about sea level rise.

In May 2007, deep into her time as a stealth member of Jerry Falwell's Lynchburg, Va., congregation, Gina Welch had become unsettled about her comfort level there. The most recent alarming development: Falwell -- fundamentalist preacher, Moral Majority founder, bête noire of the American left -- had just died, and Welch, a Berkeley native and lifelong atheist, was sad about it. Grief, however, was not the reason she stood a few days later in the crowd of mourners near the entrance to Falwell's mega-church, a "Jesus first" pin adorning her chest.

Mel Gibson took a deep breath, shook his head and stared down at his palms. "I just can't do this. You've got me at a disadvantage." The movie star, his voice a croak, was a mere 19 minutes into an interview, but it was clear there was no way he was going to make it to 20. "I'm coming rapidly to the conclusion that right now, today, my brain cannot function. Honestly? I'm six days off the cigarette. You're looking at someone who's having a pretty bad withdrawal from a 45-year habit."