Elizabeth Banks

The country might be in the midst of the worst recession in ages, but things are looking positively Clintonian at the box office. Last weekend High School Musical 3 and Saw V grossed a combined $73 million. Yowsers! While there are only three wide releases coming to theaters this weekend (one being Changeling, which opened here in New York last week), expect the surge to continue. Here's a handy guide to the weekends new releases.

The Haunting of Molly Hartley

What's the story: Just in time for Halloween comes the tale of a teenage girl who finds out that her parents sold her soul to the Devil.  read more »

The ubiquitous ad campaign for the new Kevin Smith movie Zack and Miri Make a Porno, opening Oct. 31, is coy, to say the least. Calling to mind the hilariously austere campaign for Woody Allen’s 1972 film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask, the giant posters feature a plain white backdrop and two stick figures. Above them it reads: “Seth Rogen & Elizabeth Banks made a movie so titillating that we can only show you this drawing.”

The film, which is about two best friends and roommates named Zack and Miri, is, in fact, about the pair making a homemade porno after their debt spirals out of control.  read more »

As the Daily Transom walked up 54th Street towards the Ziegfeld Theater Tuesday evening, we silently congratulated the PR firm handling the premiere of Oliver Stone's W. on the little spectacle they'd created for our benefit--the rows of black SUVs lining the sidewalk, the suited "Secret Service" officers, the "snipers" installed on the roof of the neighboring building. Taking our place among the waiting press, we noticed an enterprising television anchor showing off something he had captured on his digital camera. "Bristol Palin," he was saying. "I got her on tape--she was just walking around!"

In a coincidence--one that will surely get someone fired and someone promoted--the McCain and Palin families were in New York for a fundraiser and the final debate and had been installed at the Hilton directly across the street from the entrance to the theater. Their motorcades took off right as the actors began to arrive. From her car, the reliably well-programmed Cindy McCain smiled broadly and waved goodbye to the assembled press--not to mention massive posters of Josh Brolin posing as George W. Bush that lined the red carpet.   read more »

"I don't know anything about what's happening at my magazine!" exclaimed Domino editor in chief Deborah Needleman Wednesday night at a party she was hosting for the magazine's fashion issue at socialite and contributing editor Alison Sarofim's West Village townhouse.

Ah, Fashion Week. "I'm hoping it will still be there next week," she sighed.

Ms. Needleman called Ms. Sarofim's house "the prettiest house I know. I can't figure out how to top it." Her own Tribeca loft, which she shares with hubby Jacob Weisberg of Slate, has been featured in New York magazine.  read more »