The 22-year-old wife of tennis star Andy Roddick said being chosen for the front is “the news of a lifetime.”

The cover photo of Decker smiling in a yellow bikini is a departure from the more sultry look that SI had gone for the past few years, she said. She compared it to covers from the 1980s or ’90s, when Elle Macpherson won her covers with a friendly, sun-loving look.

SI keeps the cover photo a secret – even from the models – until less than 24 hours before it’s revealed. Decker said now the mad dash was on to find outfits for TV appearances that will come with the gig. (Her closet of swimsuits wasn’t right for winter, she joked.)

As for Roddick? He’s relieved the five-time SI Swimsuit model can check the cover-girl box and won’t be as nervous next February when the next edition comes out.

Decker says she is an avid sports fan, and, as a teenager in North Carolina, ran hurdles for the track team, played soccer and participated in competitive cheerleading. She has no great diet or exercise secret, she said, other than to be active and eat sensibly.

“I still don’t know the formula for the cover,” she added. “It’s luck, the perfect suit and perfect storm to get it.”

Decker said, though, that because Sports Illustrated encourages a natural look – less makeup, toned muscles, curvy shape – it’s easier to get a great photograph. “This celebrates the girls and their personalities. I think it’s why they get such beautiful pictures.”

Dr. Conrad Murray pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of involuntary manslaughter and a judge released him on $75,000 bail.

Superior Court Judge Keith Schwartz ordered Murray to turn in his passport and said he could travel within the U.S., but not to any foreign country. The prosecutor had suggested he might flee to his native Grenada or to Trinidad where he has a child.

Murray was ordered to return April 5 to have another date set for his preliminary hearing. That proceeding, a virtual minitrial, will disclose the evidence prosecutors maintain will demonstrate Murray’s “gross negligence.”

Murray is accused of giving Jackson a fatal dose of an anesthetic to help him sleep. Jackson died June 25. If convicted, the doctor could face up to four years in prison.

Schwartz told Murray he was restricting his practice of medicine, barring him from using any anesthetic agent, specifically the drug propofol that a coroner’s report found was the cause of Jackson’s death with other drugs as contributing factors.

“I don’t want you sedating people,” the judge said.

Immediately after the hearing, LaToya Jackson issued a statement saying she believed her brother had been murdered and that others besides Murray were involved in his death.

“I will continue to fight until all of the proper individuals are brought forth and justice is served,” LaToya said. She was in court along with siblings including Jermaine, Tito, Jackie and Randy.

Her father, Joe Jackson, expressed the same views Monday night in an interview on “Larry King Live” and claimed that his son believed he was going to be murdered. He did not elaborate.

As he left the courtroom, the family patriarch said, “We need justice.”

Outside the Los Angeles airport area courthouse, about 50 Michael Jackson fans carried large photographs of the superstar and signs urging, “Justice for Michael.” Many were the same fans who had stood vigil during the 2005 trial at which Jackson was acquitted of child molestation. Some shouted “murderer” when Murray was brought to court.

Murray recently reopened his office in Houston after months of waiting to be charged while his bills piled up.

A representative of the state attorney general’s office said the California Medical Board would be filing a motion to revoke Murray’s medical license to practice in California while he awaits trial.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren tried to persuade the judge to impose a high bail of $300,000. He said in his motion that although Murray has no criminal record, he has violated court orders involving child support payments and “leads an irresponsible and financially unstable life.”

Murray’s lead lawyer, Ed Chernoff, objected that Murray should not be penalized for not having money. The judge said he believed $75,000 – triple the bail in ordinary cases of this nature – would be enough to ensure he does not flee. The bail was posted shortly after the hearing and Murray was released.

Jackson, 50, hired Murray in May to be his personal physician as he prepared for a strenuous series of comeback performances.

The single felony count of involuntary manslaughter alleges that Murray “did unlawfully and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson.”

To prove an involuntary manslaughter charge, prosecutors must either show that Jackson died while Murray was carrying out an unlawful act, or that his standard of care was so bad that it was grossly negligent.

The charge alleges he acted “without due caution and circumspection.”

Known as “milk of amnesia,” propofol is only supposed to be administered by an anesthesia professional in a medical setting because it depresses breathing and heart rate while lowering blood pressure.

At the same time the charge was filed Monday, the coroner’s office released its autopsy report on Jackson. The document, previously obtained by The Associated Press, found the singer was in relatively good health and died from acute propofol intoxication.

Dr. Selma Calmes, an anesthesiologist who reviewed the report at the coroner’s request, said the level of propofol in Jackson’s body was akin to what would be given for major surgery. After such a dose, a patient normally would have a tube inserted in the airway to help with breathing and be ventilated by an anesthesiologist.

“The standard of care for administering propofol was not met,” she wrote.

Miley Cyrus has organized an online auction to benefit the relief effort in Haiti, and Britney Spears, Hugh Jackman, Ellen DeGeneres, Julianne Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Demi Lovato and others will donate items and experiences.

Cyrus is donating several items, including the Herve Leger dress she wore to the 2010 Grammy Awards. Fans can also bid on Spears’ 2008 MTV Video Music Awards dress, a set visit to Jackman’s new film, Lovato’s tour wardrobe and other items.

The auction runs from 7 p.m. PST on Monday through 7 p.m. PST on Feb. 18. All proceeds go to the American Red Cross.

You can find the auction at www.ebay.com/miley.

Compelling story lines involving the city of New Orleans and its ongoing recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the attempt at a second Super Bowl ring for Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning propelled the viewership. Football ratings have been strong all season.

“It was one of those magical moments that you don’t often see in sports,” said Sean McManus, president of CBS News and Sports.

Nielsen estimated Monday that 106.5 million people watched Sunday’s Super Bowl. The “M-A-S-H” record was 105.97 million.

The viewership estimate obliterated the previous record viewership for a Super Bowl — last year’s game between Arizona and Pittsburgh. That game was seen by 98.7 million people, Nielsen said.

The “M-A-S-H” record has proven as durable and meaningful in television as Babe Ruth’s record of 714 home runs was in baseball until topped by Hank Aaron. Ultimately, it may be hard to tell which program was really watched by more people. There’s a margin for error in such numbers, and Nielsen’s Monday estimate was preliminary, and could change with a more thorough look at data due Tuesday.

“It’s significant for all of the members of the broadcasting community,” said Leslie Moonves, CBS Corp. CEO. “For anyone who wants to write that broadcasting is dead, 106 million people watched this program. You can’t find that anywhere else.”

Moonves predicted CBS will earn more in advertising revenue than in any other Super Bowl. The good ratings for the game and football in general also set CBS and other football broadcasters up well when selling advertising for next season, he said.

The Nielsen estimate also drew some congratulations from Alan Alda, the star of “M-A-S-H,” and the slugger whose record was beaten.

“If the ‘M-A-S-H’ audience was eclipsed, it was probably due in large part to the fact that the whole country is rooting for New Orleans to triumph in every way possible,” Alda said. “I am, too, and I couldn’t be happier for them. I love that city.”

There are more American homes with television sets now (114.9 million) than there were in 1983 (83.3 million). An estimated 77 percent of homes with TVs on were watching “M-A-S-H” in 1983, compared with the audience share of 68 for the Super Bowl.

Nielsen also measures only the United States, and it’s possible some World Cup soccer games were seen more worldwide. Accurate measurement of television audiences outside the United States is spotty at best.

Alda also wondered whether the numbers were too close to declare a new champion. He thinks Nielsen didn’t take into account large numbers of people watching “M-A-S-H” communally, which is often the case for football games, too.

“Not to say I’m competitive, but in part we are talking about sports,” he said. “And I actually AM competitive.”

McManus didn’t want to jinx it, but the abnormally strong viewership for football this year left him hoping for a record. The NFC and AFC championship games both had their biggest audiences since the 1980s. The growth of high-definition television and its appeal to sports fans has also helped.

A competitive game until the final minutes sealed it. McManus acknowledged some nervousness when Indianapolis jumped out to a 10-0 lead — a Super Bowl rout often makes people turn away from the game — but New Orleans roared back.

The Mid-Atlantic blizzard also helped CBS. After New Orleans, the highest-rated market was snowbound Washington, Nielsen said. More people watched the game from their homes in that area instead of going to parties or bars, and Nielsen does a much better job counting viewers in homes than outside of them.

“Bad weather in the Northeast and good weather in Florida was a good combination for us,” McManus said.

The Super Bowl also proved a strong launching pad for the new CBS series “Undercover Boss” that premiered after the game. An estimated 38.6 million people watched the first edition of a series about corporate honchos working secretly as low-level employees in their own companies, Nielsen said. That’s third only to a 1996 “Friends” and 2001 “Survivor” as the most-watched program after the Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, Dorito’s was a big winner in a measurement of interest in the commercials played during the Super Bowl. TiVo Inc. said the snack company’s ad featuring a boy telling a man to keep his hands off his chips and his mom was stopped and played back in 15 percent of homes with the digital video recorder.

The secretly filmed CBS promo with David Letterman, Jay Leno and Oprah Winfrey came in second, followed by the Snicker’s ad with Betty White and Abe Vigoda flattened in a football game.

In general, however, TiVo found less interest in the commercials than it has in previous years, judged by how many people paused live action to see them, said Todd Juenger, general manager of TiVo’s research department.

Dr. Conrad Murray is led into the Los Angeles Airport Courthouse by L.A. County Sheriff's Deputies. (AP)

See the criminal complaint against Dr. Conrad Murray

Michael Jackson’s doctor pleaded not guilty Monday to involuntary manslaughter in the death of the pop star at a brief hearing that had all the trappings of another sensational celebrity courtroom drama.

Dr. Conrad Murray appeared in court in a gray suit as Jackson’s father Joe, mother Katherine, and siblings LaToya, Jermaine, Tito, Jackie and Randy watched from courtroom seats behind prosecutors.

Neither Murray nor the Jacksons showed much emotion as Murray entered his plea through his attorney Ed Chernoff.

“We need justice,” Joe Jackson said outside court.

Earlier, several people shouted “murderer” as Murray walked past a crowd of hundreds of reporters and Jackson fans on his way to a courthouse adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport.

Murray, 56, a Houston cardiologist who was with Jackson when he died June 25, entered his plea just hours after he was charged.

Superior Court Judge Keith L. Schwartz set bail at $75,000, three times more than the amount most people face after being charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors had been seeking $300,000 bail for Murray, who was taken into custody by deputies but not handcuffed in public. He was expected to be released later in the day.

The judge told Murray he could travel throughout the United States after posting bail but must surrender his passport and not leave the country.

It appeared authorities were taking extra steps to ensure the arraignment did not become a media circus.

Lines were formed to gain admission to the courtroom, and the Jackson family was escorted in separately and seated before anyone else arrived.

Despite the precautions, the upcoming proceedings promise to be the focus of widespread attention.

Jackson, 50, hired Murray in May to be his personal physician as he prepared for a strenuous series of comeback performances.

Officials said the singer died in Los Angeles after Murray administered the powerful general anesthetic propofol and two other sedatives to get the chronic insomniac to sleep.

Murray is accused of the single felony count in a five-page complaint that said he “did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson” by acting “without due caution and circumspection.”

The complaint contains no details on Jackson’s death, but authorities have said the singer died after Murray administered the anesthetic and other drugs. Murray has said he did nothing that should have caused Jackson to die.

If convicted, the doctor could face up to four years in prison.

“We’ll make bail, we’ll plead not guilty and we’ll fight like hell,” Chernoff said before the charge was filed.

Known as “milk of amnesia,” propofol is only supposed to be administered by an anesthesia professional in a medical setting because it depresses breathing and heart rate while lowering blood pressure.

The American Society of Anesthesiologists warned in 2004 that a doctor using propofol should have education and training to manage anesthesia complications, be physically present throughout sedation and monitor patients “without interruption” for signs of trouble. Rescue equipment “must be immediately available,” it said.

Los Angeles investigators were methodical in building a case against Murray, wary of repeating missteps that have plagued some other high-profile celebrity cases, most notably against O.J. Simpson and actor Robert Blake, both of whom were acquitted of murder.

After reviewing toxicology findings, the coroner ruled Jackson’s death a homicide caused by acute intoxication of propofol, with other sedatives a contributing factor.

Murray appears to have obtained the drug legally and its use is not in itself a crime. To show the doctor was negligent in his care, detectives spoke to more than 10 medical experts to see if his behavior fell outside the bounds of reasonable medical practice.

Court documents state Murray told police he administered propofol just before 11 a.m. then stepped out of the room to go to the bathroom.

There is some dispute about what happened next. According to court filings, Murray told police that upon his return from the bathroom, he saw Jackson was not breathing and began trying to revive him.

But an ambulance was not called until 12:21 p.m. and Murray spent much of the intervening time making non-emergency cell phone calls, police say. The nature of the calls, which lasted 47 minutes, is not known.

Murray’s lawyer has said investigators got confused about what Murray had told them, and that the doctor found his patient unresponsive around noon.

A large number of witnesses have been interviewed by police, including those who were present during Jackson’s last days, those who worked with him in preparation for his series of comeback concerts, “This Is It,” and members of his personal entourage, including his security guard and personal assistant.

The comeback concerts sold out in anticipation of Jackson’s return as the “King of Pop” after years of odd behavior, trial and acquittal on molestation charges and self-imposed isolation that overshadowed a lifetime in music that reached superstardom with the 1982 album “Thriller” and such hits as “Beat It” and “Billie Jean.”

At the time of his death, Jackson was in relatively good health and had no illegal drugs in his system, according to the autopsy report obtained by The Associated Press. Jackson had a strong heart and his kidneys and most other major organs were normal, according to the autopsy.

Jackson’s most serious problem was a chronic inflammation of the lungs that reduced capacity and may have left him short of breath. But the autopsy said it would not have been a direct or contributing cause of death.

Legal experts said the autopsy findings bolstered the case for prosecution and would block a potential defense that Jackson hid serious conditions that increased risk of death from drugs he willingly took.

Ty Burrell stars as Phil Dunphy, a dad who often tries too hard, in ABC's 'Modern Family.' (AP)

A young man arrived at Ty Burrell’s hotel room to stock the minibar and immediately recognized the co-star of the ABC comedy “Modern Family.”

He loved the show.

Thanks, Burrell replied. The man went on to quietly describe how his family gathered each week to watch “Modern Family” together, and because of those group viewings, he was getting to know his younger siblings better.

“I know we’re not curing cancer,” said Burrell, who portrays the earnest goofball dad Phil Dunphy, “but it feels nice to see people affected by the show.”

“Modern Family” is the most critically acclaimed and popular new comedy of the TV season, the centerpiece of ABC’s Wednesday lineup and already renewed for a second season. Not only does it fulfill a comedy’s central mission — provide genuine laughs — it nudges preconceptions and isn’t afraid to show some heart amid a sea of snark and irony on television.

More than heart was on display one recent evening when “Modern Family” commandeered a Los Angeles hotel lobby to shoot some scenes. Hoots and hollers from crew members alerted those whose heads were turned the wrong way that they had missed actress Julie Bowen streaking across a room clad only in a bodysuit.

Bowen, who portrays Claire Dunphy, was about to film a scene in which she’s supposed to be naked underneath a trench coat. You’ll just have to watch the episode that airs Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST to find out why.

The production team of Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd is behind “Modern Family.” Besides working together on “Frasier,” they have credits that include “Wings,” “Just Shoot Me” and “The Wonder Years.”

Following the failure of “Back to You” on Fox — a sore subject — the team and their writers were kicking around ideas for new series. To break the monotony, they’d sit around and tell stories about the odd and amusing things their families had done.

They eventually realized that these stories were funnier than anything they were making up. Some are already familiar to “Modern Family” viewers: the wife “busted” for dressing up to impress the firefighters taking her husband to the hospital; the writer who was once an ice dancing partner with his older sister. Levitan had given his son an air-soft gun and told him if he ever shot someone, he’d be shot himself; that made it into the show’s pilot.

Everyone on the writing staff has a family, Levitan said.

“It’s almost a requirement,” he said. “Only parents come into these situations where the stories come easily.”

Levitan and Lloyd decided to tell the story of three different families: a traditional mom and dad with three kids; an older man and younger wife, both on second marriages; and a gay couple adopting a baby. They wanted each family to be unique but able to interact with the others, so they made the older man the father of one partner in each of the other two couples.

“That was the magic idea that made it not just an idea but a real series,” Lloyd said.

The series was originally called “My American Family,” told from the perspective of a Dutch documentary maker revisiting the family he knew as an exchange student. But the producers thought having another character behind a camera lens was too cumbersome. They ditched the Dutch filmmaker, but kept the faux documentary style, familiar to fans of “The Office.”

While deciding to make a family comedy is one thing, avoiding cliches is another thing entirely. The producers’ success at this is revealed each week as more layers are peeled back on the characters.

Patriarch Jay Pritchett (portrayed by Ed O’Neill) may seem like the typical older man who married a trophy wife (Sofia Vergara). But it’s intriguing to watch him build a relationship with his new wife’s son and learn how Vergara’s character needs not a sugar daddy, but someone dependable in ways her first husband was not.

The gay couple Mitchell and Cameron try to meld their contrasting personalities at a time when they’re hyper-nervous about being new parents.

“We wanted to do a gay couple that was not sort of finger-snappy and fabulous,” Lloyd said. “These guys are a little bit nerdy, like college professors who are a little anti-social. They care about their kid, and over think things. That’s kind of winning to America, especially an America that might be a tiny bit hesitant about a gay couple.”

Bowen, 39, plays Dunphy with the hyper-energy she has in real life, knowing all too well the tricks her television children can play because mom was doing them herself only a short time ago.

She puts up with Phil (Burrell), one of those characters who isn’t quite as hip as he believes.

“Modern Family” has increased ratings in its time slot among young viewers by 12 percent. And with characters that are rich, diverse and numerous, there’s enough to fill several years of story lines.

News crews began setting up operations at dawn Monday at the Los Angeles International Airport Courthouse, placing cameras along the entire entrance.

Meanwhile, Dr. Conrad Murray’s lawyer posted a brief statement on his Web site, saying the physician planned to surrender to authorities at the courthouse at 1:30 p.m. PST.

Murray’s lawyers have said they expect the doctor to be charged with a single count of involuntary manslaughter for administering a powerful anesthetic to Jackson before he died.

Twilight star Taylor Lautner has signed on to play Stretch Armstrong in a new film about the Hasbro toy.

? Take the quiz!

The 17-year-old teen heartthrob will play the rubbery hero in a 3D film set for release in 2012, according to MSNBC. “In the past two years, Taylor has emerged as a real star at the global box office. He brings the perfect balance of energy and athleticism to the role of an unlikely super hero with a fantastic super power,” Universal Pictures co-chairman Donna Langley said. “We couldn’t be more pleased that he has agreed to be our Stretch.”

Take a peek at celebrity paychecks

Lautner, who is also set to star as the title character in Max Steel, is one of the highest-paid teen actors in the world. He will earn $7.5 million for his role in the upcoming Tom Cruise flick Northern Lights, which tells the story of a young pilot at odds with his overbearing, billionaire father. He can next be seen among an all-star cast in the romantic comedy Valentine’s Day, due out in February.

Bill Murray might well be up for Ghostbusters 3. But apparently, he won’t be in it for long — at least, not the way he has been in the first two movies.

Murray revealed in that he would do the film, but only if they kill off his character, Peter Venkman, right away:

I said to them, ‘I’ll do it if you kill me off in the first reel.’ So now they are going to have me as a ghost in the film.

Murray also talks about his golf game — one thing he’s never shy about discussing — and the fact that having the reputation of being a difficult actor isn’t bad at all:

At work I’m just nothing but trouble with anything I don’t want to do. And I fired my agents. I said I didn’t ever want to speak to them again, and I never did. It saved me money but mostly it stopped the irritation of the endless phone calls.

Sci-fi site will begin filming this summer.

Inspector Wexford is older now, and, to his dismay, wider, but The Monster in the Box is no lighthearted farewell to a beloved detective.

Wexford is haunted by his very first case, in the middle of Sussex where he is still working. It was a strangling, for which a man was caught and sentenced, but Wexford has never believed they got the right man. He knows who the right man was, and he also has a gut feeling that the same man has strangled several other people years apart.

He first saw the man the night Elsie Carroll was murdered. The man was walking his dog, who was relieving himself against a tree. Most people will look away at policemen doing their grim jobs, but this man just stared at the young Wexford.

And then he nodded. It was the nod that convinced Wexford he was the murderer, that and the smug satisfaction in his face as he watched the police come and go during the investigation of that murder.

The man was named Targo. He loves animals and hates people, has a crab-shaped birthmark on his neck and cheek that he covers up with a procession of scarves.

All this backstory is communicated via long, mezmerizing monologues from Wexford, as he tells a colleague the story. Targo was never prosecuted because there was no evidence. Wexford knows he’s right, but he also knows he can’t prove anything and, in any case, it was all so long ago.

“The man began to take on the aspect of a character in a recurring dream, someone who has no existence in life but only in the dream, where he is vivid enough and haunting enough.”

And then, more than 30 years later, there is another strangling, and Wexford realizes that Targo is back, and very close indeed — taunting Wexford by murdering Wexford’s gardener, just to show that he can.

Rendell backs up this A story, which is totally compelling, with a B story that isn’t anywhere near as interesting. Given her great skill, there’s no doubt that the two stories will converge, but it takes a bit too long, although when the narratives do come together it’s in a surprising way, followed by a lovely surprise and appropriately chilly, major-chord ending.

Ruth Rendell remains among the three or four best mystery novelists alive — procedurals in layers, written through a deep knowledge of character and the endless human capacity for perversity. Wexford has been the protagonist of more than 20 of Rendell’s 50-odd novels. He’s an intellectual of sorts, but he’s a bulldog when it comes to his business.

This dogged, admirable character has the leaping instincts of Holmes combined with the resolution and decency of Watson — an Englishman straight and true, created by a modern master.

But that’s not to say that one key question won’t remain: Will Cuddy and House ever get beyond the sexual tension and have a relationship? Parade.com’s Jeanne Wolf found out that Edelstein is hedging her bets.

Finally, turning the spotlight on Cuddy.
“As an audience member, when you see this episode you can never watch the series again without knowing what her world is like and how House disrupts it. Some viewers have complained that people don’t think that Cuddy is very good at her job. I don’t really think they’ve known what her job is. You get a real glimpse into what it means to run a hospital. Now, maybe they’ll understand.”

? Take the quiz!

What is was like.
“I’m in every scene and I’ve never had that opportunity. I think that everyone kind of waits to see how you’re gonna handle the pressure, but it’s not like someone’s gonna tell you how. I knew I could do it because I love working and I love being asked to run with it.”

Exclusive photos of Hugh Laurie

She wasn’t always like that.
“I was pretty shy when I was young, but you get self confidence. I think it just builds over time. I’ve always thrown myself into different kinds of experiences, sometimes into really bad things. But, you grow up. You become more of a woman and you know yourself. I think knowing yourself is a wonderful thing especially when you’re in your 40’s and you’re kind of in your skin. Life is not so confusing anymore.”

So will she and House get together?
“I don’t know because the writers don’t tell me, so I would hate to guess. I think sometimes you just want to be in the relationship that looks good on paper, like what she has with Lucas. But I’m not sure that really works. So if it doesn’t work, I guess what Cuddy would do is really take a shot at the thing that excites her most. But that’s going to sound like a spoiler, and it actually isn’t because I haven’t the faintest idea what’s going to happen.”

Inside Hugh Laurie’s ‘Odd’ Mind

What shaped her expectations of relationships.
“I don’t think I’m different from anybody else. We get it from Hollywood, we get it from books and movies, and that’s unfortunate because it’s really not what it’s like. I think a lot of people have to spend a lot of time recovering from make-believe. In real life, coming to terms with a human being as a human being who isn’t a fantasy object can be both disappointing and remarkably rewarding, but it’s an extra step that we all have to take.”

Her own take.
“I don’t think just because people are together that they’re happy. I don’t think relationships necessarily make people happy. You just are happy or you’re not happy. So I think if Cuddy and House ever to get together, there would be no loss of whatever personal misery they might be going through.”

Playing a single mom.
“Life has changed for Cuddy since she became a foster parent. I don’t think that anyone can prepare for raising a child. I think it’s one of those jobs that is far more overwhelming than you could ever expect and far more satisfying than you can ever expect. For me, just being how old I am, I know I don’t want to be a single mom. I really would rather make it a two-person job. But I’ve also come to terms with not being a mother at all. I’m actually really good with either direction that my life can take as being a valid experience. But as Cuddy, I feel I’m representing single working moms and I feel they’re unsung heroines.”

What’s driving her.
“You can’t do things unexpected in life if you’re not willing to take a risk, and it’s easier to risk your own life than it is for your parent to watch you take risks. It’s very, very hard for parents to see children doing things that aren’t a solid path. I’ve been through that.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A sci-fi love story has given way to an earthbound romance at the box office, livening up typically slow times at theaters over Super Bowl weekend.

Released by Sony’s Screen Gems banner, “Dear John” debuted as the No. 1 movie with $32.4 million, knocking off “Avatar” after seven weekends in first place, according to studio estimates Sunday.

“It is very cool to know that it was our movie that audiences just totally embraced and made No. 1 for the weekend,” said Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony. As for runaway blockbuster “Avatar,” he quipped, “I think they’re going to be fine in the long run.”

“Avatar” slipped to No. 2 with $23.6 million, raising its domestic total to $630.1 million. Directed by James Cameron, 20th Century Fox’s “Avatar” surpassed his own “Titanic,” which had held the domestic revenue record at $600.8 million.

With a record $2.2 billion worldwide, “Avatar” also has soared past the $1.8 billion “Titanic” took in globally.

Factoring in today’s higher admission prices, however, “Avatar” has sold fewer tickets than “Titanic.”

“Avatar” had been No. 1 domestically longer than any movie since 1997’s “Titanic,” which held on at first place for 15 weekends. The studio was unconcerned that “Avatar” finally fell out of the top spot.

“It had to happen sometime,” said 20th Century Fox distribution executive Bert Livingston. “There’s nothing that could disappoint me with this movie.”

By the eighth weekend, most Hollywood movies have long since dropped out of the top 10 rankings.

“Avatar” still is going strong after eight weeks, with the added luster of a monthlong buildup to the Academy Awards on March 7. Following the example of Oscar champ “Titanic,” ”Avatar” tied for the lead at the Academy Awards with nine nominations and is a front-runner to win best picture.

Fox executives would not speculate what number “Avatar” eventually might hit at the box office.

“Who knows what that is? It just keeps on going,” Livingston said.

The weekend’s other new wide release, Lionsgate’s spy story “From Paris With Love,” opened at No. 3 with $8.1 million. The movie stars John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as CIA men trying to crack a terrorist plot.

Fox Searchlight’s acclaimed country-music tale “Crazy Heart” expanded from narrow release and broke into the top 10, coming in at No. 8 with $3.7 million. Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal have acting Oscar nominations for the film, which follows a boozy country star trying to turn his life around.

While “Avatar” features a human-alien romance light-years away, “Dear John” centers on a long-distance love story between a soldier (Channing Tatum) and his sweetheart (Amanda Seyfried) back home.

“Dear John” had a record opening for Super Bowl weekend, topping the $31.1 million debut for “Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert” in 2008.

The movie was based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, whose Hollywood adaptations such as “The Notebook” and “A Walk to Remember” have been steady draws for women. Female crowds made up 84 percent of the audience for “Dear John,” according to Sony.

Sparks “creates these stories that really pull at your heartstrings, and certainly that may be first and foremost for women rather than men, though I think a few of us have hearts, too,” Bruer said. “But his stories really resonate and are very compelling for women.”

That bodes well for the movie over Valentine’s Day weekend, said Geoffrey Ammer, head of marketing for Relativity Media, which produced “Dear John.” Valentine’s weekend draws big date crowds, with women often picking which film to see.

Business on Sunday was predictably slow as football fans watched the Super Bowl instead of going to the movies. But “Dear John” already exceeded industry expectations with $26.2 million on Friday and Saturday.

“Super Bowl weekend isn’t about men. It’s about women,” said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. “This counter-programming strategy just absolutely works, the female audience propelling a movie to unprecedented heights.”

Hollywood could use more fresh hits like “Dear John” if it hopes to match 2009’s record box office pace. The first couple of weeks this year, “Avatar” had revenue and attendance running well ahead of last year.

But revenues have now declined for four straight weekends. So far in 2010, domestic revenues are at $1.2 billion, 1.5 percent ahead of last year’s, according to Hollywood.com.

Factoring in higher ticket prices this year, though, movie attendance is down 0.5 percent.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. “Dear John,” $32.4 million.

2. “Avatar,” $23.6 million.

3. “From Paris With Love,” $8.1 million.

4. “Edge of Darkness,” $7 million.

5. “The Tooth Fairy,” $6.5 million.

6. “When in Rome,” $5.5 million.

7. “The Book of Eli,” $4.8 million.

8. “Crazy Heart,” $3.7 million.

9. “Legion,” $3.4 million.

10. “Sherlock Holmes,” $2.6 million.

___

On the Net:

http://www.hollywood.com/boxoffice

___

Universal Pictures and Focus Features are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co.; Sony Pictures, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount and Paramount Vantage are divisions of Viacom Inc.; Disney’s parent is The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is a division of The Walt Disney Co.; 20th Century Fox, Fox Searchlight Pictures and Fox Atomic are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a consortium of Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group, Sony Corp., Comcast Corp., DLJ Merchant Banking Partners and Quadrangle Group; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC Films is owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corp.; Rogue Pictures is owned by Relativity Media LLC; Overture Films is a subsidiary of Liberty Media Corp.

April is shaping up to be a busy month for concerts, especially for the Fillmore Miami Beach.

British rockers Arctic Monkeys lead off the month with a show at the South Beach venue on April 1, while psychedelic/glam band Of Montreal come in on April 9, blues pounders Black Keys arrive on April 18 and indie heroes Band of Horses play on Aug. 28.

Arctic Monkeys, who arrived on the music scene with Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not to massive hype, backlash and finally respect, will open their American leg of their world tour at the Fillmore. They are touring in support of their third album, Humbug, and exemplify their tireless work ethic with their travel plans: The Fillmore show comes just five days after a show at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

Of Montreal, which furthered its reputation as an incredibly inventive, wild live act on its last tour, will likely be introducing songs from the upcoming LP False Priest.

Black Keys is also releasing a new album this year. The band reconvened after guitarist Dan Auerbach’s well-received solo album Keep It Hid and subsequent live dates.

Band of Horses extended its tour into Florida to warm up for the New Orleans Jazzfest. There’s a new album in this band’s immediate future as well — last summer, lead singer Ben Bridwell referred to the band’s new LP, Night Rainbow, coming soon.

Pompano Beach also announced a show, as rap/pop act 3OH!3 and quick-rising pop-rockers Cobra Starship will play the Pompano Beach Amphitheater on June 8.

Tickets for Black Keys, Of Montreal, Band of Horses and 3OH!3/Cobra Starship go on sale this weekend, while Arctic Monkeys tickets are on sale on Feb. 19.

The golden days of postwar American letters never looked quite so good as in this collection of snapshots of Vidal — who poses with studied aplomb — with Tennessee Williams, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Jack Kennedy, Mick Jagger and dozens of others. The scenes are parties and beaches in New York, California, Florida, the Hamptons, Rome, Amalfi — wherever the beautiful people congregate.

Also on view is correspondence, including a letter from Tennessee Williams whose salutation reads “Fruit of Eden!” Paul Newman turns out to have been a witty correspondent, and Vidal himself can still turn a phrase: “One significant thing we had in common was being the same age. This meant that when I was 17 I enlisted in the U.S. Army, and when Paul was 17 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and that’s how we won the war, or somebody did.”

Vidal, who has unwillingly entered what he calls “The Cedars-Sinai years,” remains a model of erudite intellectual languor.
A similarly scathing wit can be found in Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker (Scribner), “lost” being defined as poems that Parker published in various periodicals but didn’t collect in any of her three books of poetry. Parker mean is much better than Parker sentimental, and sometimes the combination is particularly poignant, not to mention perennially apt : “Oh, I shall be, till Gabriel’s trump/Nostalgic for some distant dump/And never doomed to weep me dry/For some lost mediocre guy.”

Mike Browning’s Word of the Week…

halieutics: an article or book about fish or fishing.

Tim McGraw kicks off the Country MegaTicket at Cruzan Amphitheatre on May 8.

Following some incredibly satisfying entertainment at the South Florida Fair — I saw Luke Bryan, David Nail and Chris Young — we have a brand new festival at Cruzan and the South Florida Fairgrounds.

The first- even WIRK Rib Round-Up kicks off the season on March 6, promising sweet and spicy ribs and extra-tasty entertainment.

Billy Currington is the biggest name on the bill. His second Billboard No. 1, People Are Crazy, topped the chart last summer. Also performing: Vero Beach’s Jake Owen, Darryl Worley, American Idol’s Josh Gracin and newcomer Josh Thompson.

Taylor Swift’s concert at BankAtlantic is the following night (March 7). You’re lucky if you already snatched up tickets for this show, unless you plan to pay a few hundred dollars for them.

Next up is the Country Rat Pack at Sunrise Theatre in Fort Pierce on April 3. Tracy Lawrence, for my money one of the best singer/songwriters in the business, Tracy Byrd (Watermelon Crawl, Keeper of the Stars) and Richie McDonald, the former lead singer of Lonestar, combine for a night of classic country music.

The Acreage Music Festival and Chili Cookoff is back again the weekend of April 24-25, bringing back David Nail, the Eli Young Band and Halfway to Hazard.

On May 8, the Country MegaTicket kicks off with Tim McGraw and hot group Lady Antebellum. Lady A performed at the South Florida Fair last year, pretty much playing their way through their debut album. This year, we’ll surely hear lots of stuff from their sophomore disk, which has already seen its debut single go straight to No. 1.

Montgomery Gentry headline the Country Throwdown Tour, coming to Cruzan Amphitheatre on May 15. (AP)

On May 15, the Country Throwdown Tour, an all-day country music festival, brings Montgomery Gentry, Little Big Town, Jamey Johnson, Jack Ingram and more to suburban West Palm Beach. Emily West, an adorable down-to-earth singer from Iowa, also performs.

Brooks & Dunn’s final tour stops at Cruzan on June 12, with opening act Jason Aldean (who is also headlining his own tour this year.)

On July 17, Rascal Flatts returns to Cruzan for their annual show. Still don’t know why these guys pick July to come to South Florida, but I’m glad they do! Sexy siren Kellie Pickler joins the guys.

Brad Paisley with opener Darius Rucker show up on Aug. 14.

Toby Keith kicks off Labor Day weekend with his show on Sept. 4. No opening act has been announced.

Oct. 14, Sugarland performs.

2010 TIRE KINGDOM COUNTRY MEGATICKETs are available online through livenation.com or charge by phone at (877) 598-8698, beginning Friday. But if you bought a MegaTicket last year, you can purchase tickets for this year’s shows today with the presale password that was emailed to you. This special presale ends tomorrow at 10 a.m. Go to www.megaticket.com or call (877) 598-8703

The details: Sony has issued an arresting collection of B movies under the umbrella title of Bad Girls of Film Noir. There are two volumes, four films per volume. By all odds the best movie overall is on Volume 2: The Glass Wall, with Vittoria Gassman and the devastating Gloria Grahame — the original suicide blonde.

It’s the story of a displaced person who jumps ship in New York harbor and goes on a hunt through the Times Square area to find a musician he helped during the war and who can protect him from deportation.

The film is passionately written and performed, if clunkily directed, but the night photography of Times Square and New York by cameraman Joe Biroc gives the film a dynamic charge unusual for 1953. All this, and musical performances by guest stars Jack Teagarden and Shorty Rodgers as well! The Glass Wall — the title refers to the United Nations building, the site of the film’s climax — is a savage little comment on post-war American hostility toward immigrants and remains relevant.

Also on Part 2 is Bad for Each Other, a not-bad movie with Charlton Heston and Lizabeth Scott that, despite being written by Horace McCoy, of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? fame, has absolutely nothing to do with film noir. It is, rather, a rewrite of Arrowsmith, as Heston plays a young doctor from a coal town who becomes a society doctor catering to rich alcoholics, with a corresponding loss of self-respect. Filling out Volume 2 are The Killer That Stalked New York, a tight little thriller with Evelyn Keyes and Two of a Kind, an indifferent crime movie with Lizabeth Scott again, and Edmund O’Brien.

Volume 1 is much less interesting and features three films with Cleo Moore, a nearly-forgotten Marilyn Monroe imitator, and Night Editor, with William Gargan and Janis Carter.

Both volumes features trailers and a couple of TV episodes that follow in the general Bad Girls of Film Noir line. Your best bet is to stick with Volume 2.

For the rest of the folks, who followed the Dead and have unsuccessfully tried to fill that small void in their life for the last 15 years, the party ain’t over yet.

No one will ever replace Jerry, but by bringing John Kadlecik to the mix, Phil Lesh and Bob Weir have added the missing link – the man who sounds so much like Jerry in every way.

Furthur, the new incarnation of the Dead starts with Phil and Bobby, but it’s Kadlecik that could make this the best post-Jerry experience.

Think of Kadlecik like the guy from the movie Rock Star, who spends his life in the cover band of his favorite group, only to get called up to the big leagues.

After 12 years fronting Dark Star Orchestra, a fantastic group that covers Dead shows to a T, Kadleick gives Lesh and Weir a 40-year-old in his prime that bring a burst of youth to Furthur.

Lesh is just a month away from his 70th birthday and Weir — once the Dead’s youth — is 62.

Kadleick, at 40, is the same age Garcia was in 1982.

But Friday’s show at Miami’s Bayfront Park Ampitheater showed that Furthur isn’t just trying to bring Jerry back in a Dark Star sort of way — they’re moving further, and in this case, that meant going back.

Yes, the under-30 crowd will revel at the opportunity to experience a Dead show, but for the earlier Deadheads, Furthur is busting out tunes long stored in the vault.

On a rainy night in downtown Miami, the band opened with “Born Cross-Eyed”, a song the Dead played nine times in 1968, and none after that.

It’s a wonder why the Dead played “The Golden Road To Unlimited Devotion” throughout 1967, and then dropped it from its repertiore. It’s a fun sing-a-long that Furthur busted out after a lively “Ramble on Rose”.

And how about the “Throwin’ Stones/Viola Lee Blues/Mason’s Children/Viola” jam? Talk about taking it back. “Viola” was a staple in the earliest of Dead shows, and a great blues classic to bring back to the mix.

“Mason’s Children”, played 15 times between 1969-70, resurfaced for an energetic Miami crowd that didn’t seem to mind intermintent rain.

Phil had high praise for the Miami crowd, acknowledging that the boys don’t make it down enough, but might have to start performing regular South Florida gigs.

There were still plenty of empty seats in the 10,000-capacity amphitheater, and you have to wonder if some of the traveling fans were sitting out this tour opener and waiting to join Furthur in Orlando? It would make sense since hotel rooms were impossible to come by on Super Bowl weekend.

With Phil’s announcement that there’s more Miami left in him, it’s a sign that he’s not winding down, an amazing feat not only because he underwent a liver transplant a decade ago, but because he’s turning 70.

As we enter the ’10s, many of the ’60s rockers are hitting 70.

Lesh’s inspired performance at Bayfront Park, complete with his funky bass illuminated by blue lights, shows that these artists will continue to awe us long after we expected them to hang it up.

It didn’t hurt to add some youth to the band. With 33-year-old Joe Russo (of the Benevento/Russo Duo) and 45-year-old Jay Lane (of Primus) on drums, and 41-year-old Jeff Chimenti (Ratdog) on keyboard, it’s old meets new.

Phil Lesh and Bob Weir might be the only Grateful Dead members in Furthur, but if they want to continue spreading the Dead’s word throughout the 2010s, Furthur is the perfect outlet.

A judge has modified a protective order allowing actor Charlie Sheen and his wife, Brooke, to see each other as Sheen faces domestic violence allegations.

Prosecutors filed charges of felony menacing, third-degree assault and criminal mischief against Sheen stemming from his arrest Dec. 25 at his Aspen home. He faces up to three years in prison on the menacing charge.

He did not enter a plea Monday. Further proceedings are scheduled March 15.

Brooke Sheen sat in the front row of the gallery during the hearing.

The couple hugged after the hearing and left the courthouse in separate vehicles.

Brooke Sheen’s attorney, Yale Galanter, said the couple will head back to Los Angeles on the same plane.

Townshend and bandmate Roger Daltrey performed a medley of some of their most famous songs on entertainment’s biggest stage Sunday, including “Won’t Get Fooled Again” during a 12-minute set that included a laser-lit stage and plenty of fireworks.

While the crowd was involved, and some held up their cell phones to illuminate the night as instructed by the stadium announcers, they were somewhat subdued, and was clear it was not a Who event.

Backstage after their show, Townshend laughed and said: “You know, you could kind of tell from the stage the crowd is really here for the game.”

“It was nice for that reason. It was nice to feel a part of something and not having it all to be about us,” he added. When it was mentioned that most rock stars want everything to revolve around them, he joked and said: “We’re too far gone to care I think.”

It was the first football game Townshend and Daltrey, both Brits, ever saw (Daltrey went after his performance to watch the game, which the New Orleans Saints won over the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17). Townshend said he was awed by the spectacle, and the sheer work of putting together the event.

“It’s extraordinary,” said Townshend. “You forget how big sport is and how every week it happens … I’m not trying to be humble but we felt like a very small piece of a huge team.”

The Super Bowl also saw the debut of a new remix of “My Generation” by will.i.am and Slash. It is available for sale on Amazon.com, will.i.am’s dipdive.com and the Who’s Web site, and proceeds will go to aid Haiti after the earthquake there.

Townshend said he was impressed with the remix: “It’s actually very elegant, it’s not gangsta,” he said of will.i.am’s rap on the song.

Townshend called his entire Super Bowl experience a success, despite protests by some children’s rights advocates about his presence in the Super Bowl.

Townshend was arrested in 2003 in Britain as part of a child pornography sting but later cleared. He accessed a Web site containing child pornography but said it was for research for his own campaign against child porn. He was required to register as a sex offender, despite being cleared. Townshend said he has been a children’s advocate for years and was abused himself as a child.

He had to address the controversy at the Who’s Super Bowl news conference, and though he feels like the protests were “a bit of a cheap shot,” he said it was “dealt with fairly elegantly in the press conference.”

“I think if people don’t believe, they fall on that side of the line, there’s little I can do, but most people have been very kind, very understanding, and I know I did nothing wrong,” he said.

Appearing early in the CBS-aired game Sunday, the ad depicted Letterman and Leno glumly sharing a couch watching the Super Bowl, with Winfrey seated between them trying to make peace.

Letterman grumbles, “This is the worst Super Bowl party ever.”

“Now, Dave, be nice,” Winfrey urges.

A disgruntled Leno replies that Letterman is only complaining “because I’m here.”

In a whiny high voice, Dave mocks what Jay has just said.

Oprah shakes her head and sighs.

That’s it. The spot only lasts 15 seconds.

It revisited a promo from the 2007 Super Bowl with Letterman and Winfrey watching the big game. But with the surprise addition of Leno, the 2010 version addresses in compact form the talk-show turmoil at NBC, and the soon-to-be-rekindled competition between Letterman and Leno when he reclaims NBC’s “The Tonight Show” on March 1.

In the age of “Avatar,” some viewers might have thought that getting Jay and Dave, plus the super-busy Oprah, together in the same frame was probably accomplished through sophisticated computer-graphic imagery.

But no, the spot was produced the old-fashioned way, according to Rob Burnett, executive producer of “Late Show with David Letterman.”

And it was put together quickly. And very hush-hush.

According to Burnett, CBS offered “Late Show” a slot for a promo to air during the Super Bowl.

“Dave had this idea, ‘What about getting Jay and Oprah together with me?’ and he wrote it,” Burnett explained by phone shortly after the spot had its single airing Sunday. (It is posted on the CBS Web site.)

“We said, ‘This is too funny to pass up.’ First we called Oprah.” Then Leno was approached, and he, too, signed on. That was two weeks ago.

Arrangements had to be made to get the Los Angeles-based Leno and the Chicago-based Winfrey to New York for filming – and do it without word getting out.

“Security was a big priority for us,” Burnett said. “We really wanted to keep this under wraps. There were a lot of internal logistical conversations about how to even get Jay and Oprah into our building secretly.”

Filming took place last Tuesday at the Ed Sullivan Theatre, home of “Late Show.” According to Burnett, Leno arrived in disguise: hooded sweatshirt, dark glasses and fake mustache. (Viewers might recall that, last Tuesday, NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” was extended by an hour, pre-empting Leno’s soon-to-end “Jay Leno Show” and enabling his round-trip dash to New York.)

Filming took less than a half-hour, Burnett said.

“It was quick, it was easy,” he said. “The attitude was professional and cordial. Dave and Jay were fine with each other.”

Maybe so. But that very funny, very startling promo has neatly paved the way for a late-night battle between rivals that will resume in just weeks.

Career Builder: Casual Friday

To see and rate more commercials, check out http://www.youtube.com/adblitz and feel the incredibly expensive promotional love!

6 p.m.

So this isn’t a commercial, but the Jay-Z intro is pretty impressive, because drum beats = drama, and have that lovely orchestral backing that scream “Important sports documentary moment.” And it doesn’t involve Diddy, which everything seemed to about five years ago, so all the better.

You know what’s not a Super Bowl commercial but that I love anyway? Those surreally cheesy Bedding Barn ads with the weird dude in the cape and the women in the costumes playing drums and the big red barn they’ve been using since 1987. It’s the most consistent “What that higgity was that?” moment in advertising, and it’s so awful you gotta love it.

6:06

— Hyundai, starring the Dude’s voice, for the Tuscon. Umm, OK? Is this new? Are they not doing anything new until kick-off?

— AT&T with Luke Wilson and the postcards. Not new or exciting. AT&T must have a lot of money, because he can’t be cheap.

— The Ritz Crackers “Let’s Groove Tonight” with the marching band and Tiki barreling through the tailgate. I’ve seen this a lot today. Great song. Tiki looks sorta goofy, but it’s about crackers. It’s not the Oscars.

— Freida Pinto cleaning her face with Loreal Skin Care. She’s very pretty, huh?

— NFL Play 60 – Players giving back. That’s nice. Good for them.

— Undercover Boss preview…I wonder what would happen if my boss, Entertainment Editor Larry Aydlette, delivered papers? He could do it, but he’d get into a discussion about “The Big Lebowski” with the customers, and then the papers would never get there.

And I know that this is not about commercials, but I must add a correction about what the title on the screen with the Colts entered said. It read “Indianapolis: Fourth Super Bowl Appearance.” Technically, that’s not true. The Colts franchise has been to the big game four times, but two of them were when the team was in Baltimore. This is Indianapolis’ second. Sorry. Had to.

6:14 p.m.

OK..the new ads must be happening after kick-off. Right now, it’s Pizza Hut, the Geico gekko, and Quilted Northern. And the Dude is back, with more Hyundai info. Good for him.

An ad for the Walter Payton award. Oh, Sweetness. I know a few Chicago fans who literally wept when he died. He seemed like a class act.

6:23 p.m.

M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Last Airbender”. Doesn’t inspire me to see it much.

E-Trade- Doesn’t inspire me to want to do E-Trade.

Rogaine Foam: If I had hair loss, it might want to make me want to buy it. Then again, I might want to without the commercial.

Callaway Driver:  Go golf! Way to stay in the public eye in a good way!

LeBron/ Dwight Howard for McDonalds- Wow! They’re doing the Bet like Bird and Michael Jordan-  Love it! A nice throwback. And Larry Bird! “Who’s that?”  ”I have no idea! But he took our lunch!”

Nurse Jackie: Doesn’t make me want to get Showtime.

CSI. Pump those ads, CBS!

6:42: p.m.

Bud Light: “There’s Bud Light in a fridge made of Bud Light!” Well, that was awesome! That’s like a dream house in these parts.

Snickers: “You’re playing like Betty White!” And you know Betty White could take a hit. Also…Abe Vigoda is a lot more sprightly that I imagined. I think I thought he might be dead, actually. Nice to see

Focus on The Family: That’s very fuzzy. That’s all I’m saying about that – there are other Posters talking about it in more depth. Also, Tebow’s mom can take a hit like Betty White!

Survivor Heroes And Villains: I. Can’t. Wait.

Boost Mobile:  Super Bowl Shuffle — That’s great! The spray tan was a special touch. The Boz looks good. I do miss Sweetness. But Ditka with the headset was the crowning glory. Good show!

Doritos: Anti-bark collar. That’s a sadistic dog.

6:51 p.m.

“Robin Hood”: Crowe! Cate! Holding down Sherwood Forest! And their accents are real! Of course, they’re Australian accents. But…it’s a start. And they can do British. (No disrespect, KCost. Not much, anyway.)

Doritos: “Keep you hands off my momma, keep your hands off my Doritos.” I love that kid. He should run the national defense.

Bud Light Doomsday Nerds: Mildly amusing. Pretty expected.

NCIS Head Slap: You gotta hand it to the Tiffany network. If the world is coming to your party, make sure you serve ‘em your brand-name snacks. They’re promoting the mess out of their shows, and that’s what anyone would do.

7:04 p.m.

Coke: Mr. Burns is broke? I would feel sorry for him…if he wasn’t evil. But he’s overcome with the kindness of Apu and an ice-cold Coke. And Millhouse runs into the Coke and apologizes. I sort of expected some irony, but it was sweet…Hey, is that Spider Pig?

Go Daddy- Oh, Danica. I…Oh, that was predictable. The minute you saw that non-acting blonde, you knew her robe was coming off. Not the target audience, I guess. Apparently, there are un-censored versions online. Have fun! Please forget to tell me about it! I know these target dudes, but does a hot girl make one want to sign up for Web hosting? Are hot girls better at Web hosting? Has there been some government study on this?

7:09 p.m.

Doritos in the casket. Now, that was funny.

Bud Light:  Auto Tune is very 2009, but T Pain singing about guacamole is priceless.

Monster: Is that a hedgehog? It’s gross that he’s in a hot tub with the bikini girl. It’s a hedgehog. Does that speak to the power of Monster to make you a winner or the lack of taste of a girl who hot tub dives with a hedgehog? Or beaver. Or whatever he is.

Wolfman: Convincing! Convincing me not to go see that movie!

Bridgestone: Now that was a bachelor party. Oh, a “Hangover” rip-off. Obvious. But I loved the whale.

Cars.com: That was a long way to go for that payoff. And not worth the ride.

7:18 p.m.

Bud: The town pulls together to save the Bud delivery truck. And a brave dog leads them all. That wasn’t nearly as funny as I expected it to be. Maybe it’s because the idea of a beer truck running over my back makes it spasm. No beer is that good.

Mark Sanchez: He makes me want to get my heart checked.

The Late Show: Oprah! Dave! And…Leno? NBC let him promote his competition? What was the logic behind that? Cute ad though.

Amazing Race: I can’t wait to see the former Teen Miss South Carolina, the one whose speech mentioned “The Iraq,” try to find her way around the world. Please be smart. Please be smart…or don’t. Whatever is funnier.

Career Builder: Casual Friday. Oh, my eyes. That’s pretty funny!

Dockers: Why are there all these people in their underwear? My eye still hurt from “Casual Friday!”  And now I’m singing “I wear no pants!” Infernal catchy jingle that doesn’t relate to my life!

Hyundai: Old Favre! That’s more like it! No offense, Voice of Jeff Bridges.

7:36 p.m.

Dodge Charger: “A man’s last stand.” Fine, drive it. But do put your underwear in the basket.

Teleflora: Those dried flowers in the box are MENACING. Nice way to push live, brilliant flowers, because if flowers insulted me, I would have to change jobs.

Papa John’s: That dude is so rich.

“Alice In Wonderland”: Tim Burton is an evil genius.

Dr. Pepper Cherry: Kiss. Kiss of Cherry. Little kiss. Yawn. I was hoping for Adam Lambert in there somewhere.

Tru Tv: I will never get that Puxatawny Polamalu ad out of my head. No one with a ‘fro wants to imagine being yanked out of a tree stump. It’s wrong.

“CSI Miami” in space: Can we send Caruso? And not bring him back?

7:44 p.m.

Harry Potter world at Universal Orlando: Intriguing.

Flo TV: Is it just me, or are there more than a few “Be a man” commercials, where the theme is “Take your manhood back from your girlfriend?” It was amusing the first time. But don’t they know women watch these games, too, and that after a while, the joke about getting ones stones back gets tired and a little offensive? If you need a tiny TV to hide from your girlfriend to be a man and stand up for yourself…are you really standing up? You wanna start something, stay home and watch the game, Stumpy.

7:49 p.m.

Intel: I laughed out loud. Poot Jeffrey, the sad robot! He’s more pitiful than the toy robot in those Totinos’ Party Pizza ads!

7:51 p.m.

Flo Tv: The Who! “My Generation!” Will.I.Am. Good stuff. Better than the other one!

Acura: Was that Alec Baldwin?

Metro PCS: Surreal.

CarMax: The Dramatic Chipmunk! And Cockatoo! Those Dramatic Chipmunk spoofs are way old. But for some reason, it never stops cracking me up.

8 p.m.: Find my Who blog later on tonight!

8:14 p.m.

March Madness: Are all the good commercials for CBS shows? Have you noticed this?

“Miami Medical”: Hope it’s better than “Three Rivers!” Remember that? Of course you don’t.

More CBS commercials. Whatever.

“The Back-Up Plan”: I have no interest in seeing that movie, because falling in someone’s birthing pool is not my idea of a good time. Hope it’s not yours, either.

Toyota commercial: Way to be positive, Toyota! Am I the only one going “Wonder how the brakes are?” No, I’m not. And I drive a Toyota product.

8:20 p.m.:  A recap of the Rihanna/Jay-Z intro. That was pretty cool. Liked it better this go-round, and it was pretty classy the first time.

8:28 p.m.

“Prince of Persia”: I dunno. The effects seem great, but is there anything else there?

Motorola: Megan Fox in bathtub, wreaking havoc with her emailed photos.. As she would.

Volkswagon: PUNCHBUGGY! (punches unsuspecting Super Bowl guest) No punch back! And that Stevie Wonder cameo punching Tracy Morgan? Priceless. Like the Dramatic Chipmunk, Stevie Wonder  bits where he spoofs himself never get old…to me.

Denny’s: “A great day to be an American. A bad day to be a chicken.” This is what it sounds like when chickens scream.

“How I Met Your Mother”: Can’t NPH replace Simon Cowell on “American Idol?”

8:39 p.m.

Michelob Ultra: Go Lance! I’ve seen that before though.

HomeAway.com: The Griswolds! Look kids! Big Ben! Parliament!

Bridgestone: “Your tires or your life!” LAME.

KGB: Sumo. Weird.  My friend Lisa just IM’d me that she loved it. Did I miss something?

Coke: The pay-off, that would would sleep walk across the dangerous plain for a Coke, was a little let-down, but it was breatktaking getting there.

ETrade Baby: I liked the other baby better. Is that bad to say? “Milkawhat?” OK, that’s my favorite. I take it all back, New Baby.

8:45 p.m.

The Census: Big stars. Boring, confusing ad.

Google: Moving. Sweet. A relationship, in Google time. I actually “Aww’d!” when the last search read “How to assemble a crib.”

8:53 p.m.

Kia Sorrento: Go, Sock Monkey! Go, Sock Monkey!

Select 55: Eh.

9:06 p.m.

Vizio: I know it was supposed to show everything available on the Net, but it was too distracting and made my head hurt.

Emerald Nuts and Pop Secret: Awesome plus awesome equals an awesomely surreal piece of work. Love it.

9:15 p.m.

Dante’s Inferno: Bill Withers meets medieval hell. No thanks!

Budweiser: The Clydesdale and the bull. Why do I want to sing that to the tune of “Chico and The Man”?

9:20: Honda Cross Tour: The world’s most industrious squirrel, set to a jazz beat. Niiiice.

Denny’s: More screaming chickens. That could get old, but it hasn’t yet.

9:26 p.m.

Audi TDI: The Green Police! How clever! And singable!

Taco Bell: Sir Charles. Again.

9:30 p.m.

Doritos: OK, I take it back. Doritos scored a funny one. When that dude got a Dorito stuck in his neck…what a delicious death.

9:32 p.m.

Bud Light: Book club. Predictable.

E*Trade: Where’s the Milkawhat girl?

9:37 p.m.

GoDaddy: Seriously?

Denny’s: The poultry assault continues. And it’s eggs-elent. You know you were thinking it. Don’t judge me, Judgey.

9:47 p.m.

ETrade: Getting tired of that baby now. Bring back the chickens, man.

Pace Picante: So you can’t ever cook with salsa? It’s delicious! Stop running my life, commercial.

CarMax: And now, it’s a dramatic monkey. And dramatic dog. He’s mighty cute.

Part puzzle-maker, part fabulist architect, part anatomist of his own imagination, Escher began by looking backward as well as forward in his art. But, as is evident in a retrospective of his work now at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, he ended up out of his time, the lithographic equivalent of a Möbius strip — no beginning, no end, just eternity.

Maurits Cornelis Escher — his friends called him “Mauk” — was Dutch. He was born in 1898, died in 1972. One wife, three sons. Outwardly he lived a bourgeois existence, although he was hemmed in by financial pressures until the 1960s, when his work became popular, for, he believed, all the wrong reasons.

For instance: In 1969, Escher received a letter from Mick Jagger that began “Dear Maurits.” Jagger wanted to use an Escher image for the cover of a Rolling Stones album. Escher wrote back refusing to license his work, and closed with, “By the way, please tell Mr. Jagger I am no Maurits to him, but Very Sincerely, M.C. Escher.”

The expansive collection of his work on view at the museum encompasses all phases of Escher’s life, from early Italian landscapes to his somewhat unsettling interest in ominous insects that can’t help but suggest biblical plagues, to the optically complex work of his later years that helped inspire op art, a novelty that happily ran its course.

Cumulatively, they give the viewer a taste of how a serious man does serious work, even if the world doesn’t always take it seriously. (Head shops sold bootlegged blacklight versions of some of Escher’s work, which are showcased in a room at the museum that might have been better left unopened; the lurid colors vulgarize Escher’s finely graded black and white, and inevitably recall bad acid trips.)

What the exhibit shows is that Escher could always draw — forms rather than figures, in which he seems to have had no interest — but his earlier work is stark, stripped down compared with the arabesque flourishes he employed later. Always present is superb craftsmanship; Escher had the craft of the artisan as well as the vision of an artist.

The exhibit begins with works like San Gimagnano and San Pietro, pleasing woodcuts of Italian hill towns with occasional grace notes — the trees in the former piece swirl like van Gogh’s stars. By 1935 and Inside St. Peter’s, Escher has begun his trademark play with perspective, sharpening and foreshortening for vertiginous effect.

Around the same time he did a series of woodcuts titled Nocturnal Rome, where there’s nary a cat on the streets, let alone a person. By studiously removing the human element from nature and buildings, Escher is nudging his way toward stylization.

Surrealism enters the picture with Dream, also from 1935, which unsettlingly depicts a sleeping bishop — it could be a medieval tomb, or it could be an actual person — with a huge locust perched on top of him. You can take it as brutal anti-clericalism, or an image from a very ugly dream.

As Escher aged, he moved steadily from observations of objective reality toward the reproduction of images that existed only in his head. The transition pieces are a series of reversed images, reflections in mirrors or glass balls that are mostly physical impossibilities.

By 1951, Escher was becoming increasingly surreal, as in House of Stairs, which depicts a conglomeration of stairs covered with slug-like newts climbing up and down — a disturbing image out of a latter-day horror film. All of these images are riveting and bizarre, but not particularly self-conscious — more like surreal reportage.

In his later portion of his life, Escher’s work gravitated toward geometric designs that grew out of his fascination with the Moorish art of the Alhambra and Seville. Escher saw that the Spanish designs, which for religious reasons avoided depiction of human or animal forms, could be extended to suggest infinity, and much of his later work was occupied with this obsessively painstaking but slightly dry inquiry.

For me, Escher reaches his height with Drawing Hands from 1948, the famous image of disembodied hands drawing each other. (I wonder if he ever saw the German silent film Hands of Orlac, the story of a pair of severed hands that take on a life of their own, or the American variants Mad Love or The Beast With Five Fingers?) Outside of the purity of the idea of the innate nature of the creative impulse, the hands are rendered with a delicacy that Durer would have envied.

Escher was not a capacious artist, but rather an intensely focused, limited one; nevertheless, in many ways he was prophetic, a Kafka of the image, who foresaw the altered perceptions of the late 20th century. His reality became ours.

Anyone who harbors any doubts about the future of bravura pianism should have been in the DeSantis Family Chapel of Palm Beach Atlantic University on Thursday evening. Three young pianists gave stunning performances of three piano concertos: Piano Concerto No. 9 in E Flat, K. 271 by W.A. Mozart, Piano Concerto in A Minor, Opus 16 by Edvard Grieg and Piano Concerto No. 1 in E Flat by Franz Liszt. These were not tentative, youthful performances but mature, intelligent and artistic.

The pianists were accompanied by the Palm Beach Symphony Orchestra; Philippe Entremont conducted the Mozart concerto, and David Jacobs conducted those by Grieg and Liszt. Because the space available in the chapel for the orchestra is limited, the number of strings was reduced. This put the strings at a disadvantage when trying to balance with the winds, especially when the horns were playing out. This issue aside, the orchestra was well disciplined and provided a sensitive accompaniment.

Click here for more about the concert.

When I first read that comedian and writer Carol Leifer had written a memoir, I remember thinking "Yes! A book about a celebrity whose life story and body of work actually justify text longer than ‘And then I did something dumb, and then I was in a tabloid, and then I did something else dumb, and then I wrote this book.’ "

Leifer, after all, has one heck of a résumé — stand-up, writer for Seinfeld, Saturday Night Live and The Larry Sanders Show, frequent late night talk show guest and, coming soon, a stint as a would-be acolyte of The Donald on NBC’s Celebrity Apprentice.

And then there’s her personal life, which, as you know, is where most stand-ups get their best stuff — divorced and having dated men for most of her life, she met and fell for a woman and renewed her commitment to Judaism with a Bat Mitzvah in her 40s, adopted a son with her partner, Lori, in her 50s, and became a vegan.

The funny/sad/moving/beautifully resonate result is When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win, which Leifer will talk about over cocktails and Greek munchies at an event Monday at Ouzo Blue in PGA Commons, sponsored by the Jewish Community Centers of the Palm Beaches.

"What I love about doing the book tour is that the Jewish Book Council approved my book, and for a Jewish girl from Long Island, besides writing for Seinfeld, there is no bigger stamp of approval," Leifer told me.

Leifer covers many topics in When You Lie About Your Age, but one of the constants is her relationship with her father, Seymour, who died a few weeks before her Bat Mitzvah. Some of my favorite parts of the book are Leifer’s remembrance of how he was her first comic idol, how he sometimes blurted out insensitive comments without thinking, and about how her search for her true Jewish self seemed to inform a similar search for him at the end of his life. It’s hard not to tear up a little reading it.

"The first essay was about when my dad passed away, and how he wasn’t around for me to send him a gift," she says. "I started performing (pieces from the book) around town at this little dinky theater that holds 75 people, and we had over 30 requests for the piece. I love that this piece makes me think about my dad. It’s cathartic for me ."

Part of that connection, Leifer says, is a "no holds barred" policy between her and her audience, mining her life and her considerable humor, which makes her story all the more identifiable.

"There’s a lot of bad essay writing out there, that’s very self-indulgent, and you’re like ‘Why is this person telling me this? That’s really personal! I don’t care to know this!’ " she says. "But when you’re exploring a deeper subject, you’re exploring depths of your soul (more than when you’re) coming up with a sketch on SNL. It was really fun to write this kind of book."

Being that candid about your life means you’re also being candid about the people who share your life. Leifer says that her partner, Lori Wolf, "has gotten used to it. It’s kind of an occupational hazard of being with a writer. Your personal life is really your canvas that you draw on. The upside of revealing yourself is that we just went to the gift suites at the Golden Globes (where attendees are showered with freebies), so there’s a yin and yang."

Another upside of being a celebrity? Being on The Celebrity Apprentice’s upcoming third season, where Leifer competes with contestants such as singer Cyndi Lauper, Sharon Osbourne, disgraced former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and athletes Summer Sanders, Michael Johnson and Daryl Strawberry.

While being on the show is as "insane" as it appears to be from watching it, Leifer says the actual experience was "30 times harder than I thought it would be. It really is, mentally and physically. They really work you. You’re working till midnight and then you’re up at 5 in the morning. "

Speaking of camp — Leifer says that, without giving away too much, her biggest personal surprise among the contestants was Poison lead singer Bret Michaels, star of the surrealistically trashy VH1 "dating" show Rock of Love. It seems that the man who brought us “Talk Dirty to Me” is more than the sum of his bandana-loving parts — "I kinda pictured him as a bubble-headed rock star, but he couldn’t be a more down-to-earth, nicer guy," she says.

Of course, some of life’s best realizations are surprises, and Leifer says that the point of her book is that getting older, "which for women is such a scary process," has turned out to be rewarding in ways she could never had imagined.

"I remember as a kid — and everybody did this — I would think about the year 2000 and think ‘How old will I be? 43!,’" she says. "The image of 43, then, was ‘Oh, God, I’ll have one foot in the grave! I’ll be an old lady!’ But so much of the message of the book is that the best part of my life has happened since I’m 40. You really are comfortable in your own skin. You appreciate life on a different level. I don’t think women hear that a lot at all. People are really fearful about getting older, and not just women. But it can be the greatest part of life."

Part puzzle-maker, part fabulist architect, part anatomist of his own imagination, Escher began by looking backward as well as forward in his art. But, as is evident in a retrospective of his work now at the Boca Raton Museum of Art, he ended up out of his time, the lithographic equivalent of a Möbius strip — no beginning, no end, just eternity.

Maurits Cornelis Escher — his friends called him “Mauk” — was Dutch. He was born in 1898, died in 1972. One wife, three sons. Outwardly he lived a bourgeois existence, although he was hemmed in by financial pressures until the 1960s, when his work became popular, for, he believed, all the wrong reasons.

For instance: In 1969, Escher received a letter from Mick Jagger that began “Dear Maurits.” Jagger wanted to use an Escher image for the cover of a Rolling Stones album. Escher wrote back refusing to license his work, and closed with, “By the way, please tell Mr. Jagger I am no Maurits to him, but Very Sincerely, M.C. Escher.”

The expansive collection of his work on view at the museum encompasses all phases of Escher’s life, from early Italian landscapes to his somewhat unsettling interest in ominous insects that can’t help but suggest biblical plagues, to the optically complex work of his later years that helped inspire op art, a novelty that happily ran its course.

Cumulatively, they give the viewer a taste of how a serious man does serious work, even if the world doesn’t always take it seriously. (Head shops sold bootlegged blacklight versions of some of Escher’s work, which are showcased in a room at the museum that might have been better left unopened; the lurid colors vulgarize Escher’s finely graded black and white, and inevitably recall bad acid trips.)

What the exhibit shows is that Escher could always draw — forms rather than figures, in which he seems to have had no interest — but his earlier work is stark, stripped down compared with the arabesque flourishes he employed later. Always present is superb craftsmanship; Escher had the craft of the artisan as well as the vision of an artist.

The exhibit begins with works like San Gimagnano and San Pietro, pleasing woodcuts of Italian hill towns with occasional grace notes — the trees in the former piece swirl like van Gogh’s stars. By 1935 and Inside St. Peter’s, Escher has begun his trademark play with perspective, sharpening and foreshortening for vertiginous effect.

Around the same time he did a series of woodcuts titled Nocturnal Rome, where there’s nary a cat on the streets, let alone a person. By studiously removing the human element from nature and buildings, Escher is nudging his way toward stylization.
Surrealism enters the picture with Dream, also from 1935, which unsettlingly depicts a sleeping bishop — it could be a medieval tomb, or it could be an actual person — with a huge locust perched on top of him. You can take it as brutal anti-clericalism, or an image from a very ugly dream.

As Escher aged, he moved steadily from observations of objective reality toward the reproduction of images that existed only in his head. The transition pieces are a series of reversed images, reflections in mirrors or glass balls that are mostly physical impossibilities.

By 1951, Escher was becoming increasingly surreal, as in House of Stairs, which depicts a conglomeration of stairs covered with slug-like newts climbing up and down — a disturbing image out of a latter-day horror film. All of these images are riveting and bizarre, but not particularly self-conscious — more like surreal reportage.

In his later portion of his life, Escher’s work gravitated toward geometric designs that grew out of his fascination with the Moorish art of the Alhambra and Seville. Escher saw that the Spanish designs, which for religious reasons avoided depiction of human or animal forms, could be extended to suggest infinity, and much of his later work was occupied with this obsessively painstaking but slightly dry inquiry.

For me, Escher reaches his height with Drawing Hands from 1948, the famous image of disembodied hands drawing each other. (I wonder if he ever saw the German silent film Hands of Orlac, the story of a pair of severed hands that take on a life of their own, or the American variants Mad Love or The Beast With Five Fingers?) Outside of the purity of the idea of the innate nature of the creative impulse, the hands are rendered with a delicacy that Durer would have envied.

Escher was not a capacious artist, but rather an intensely focused, limited one; nevertheless, in many ways he was prophetic, a Kafka of the image, who foresaw the altered perceptions of the late 20th century. His reality became ours.

‘The Magical World of M.C. Escher’:

At the Boca Raton Museum of Art through April 11. 501 Plaza Real, Mizner Park, Boca Raton.

Info: (561)-392-2500