Winter debut chills Perry

'Tyler Perrys Good Deeds' offered in the helmers second-cheapest opening-weekend domestic B.O. Tyler Perry's latest offering, "Good Deeds," battled in the late Feb debut weekend, a slot that's outdoors from the filmmaker's typical Easter time weekend launchpad. The Lionsgate pic gained $15.six million locally within the February. 24-26 frame, the 2nd-cheapest debut for that helmer and just the 4th time certainly one of his films has opened up to under $20 million throughout its inaugural weekend. Perry's Madea photos are often his most effective: "Madea Would go to Jail" bowed to north of $40 million in '09, then 2006's "Madea's Family Reunion," having a $$ 30 million opening. Perry's dramas are usually slated as fall releases, for example 2010's "For Colored Women," which opened up to $19.5 million. Still, "Deeds" is not even close to done. The pic, which toplines Perry, Thandie Newton and Gabrielle Union, saw the greatest Friday-to-Saturday uptick associated with a Perry opening, up 25%. This is a particularly significant improvement because of the pic's solid "A" CinemaScore rating. Women ranked the film very best in exit polls, that could also mean great news, as femme auds often be put off by opening weekend. Males gave the pic a b- evaluation. Perry does not have lengthy to hold back to prove themself again. His next film, "The Marrige Counselor," launches Stateside on This summer 27 via Lionsgate -- the director's first summer time opening. Contact Andrew Stewart at andrew.stewart@variety.com

Exclusive: This Must Be The Place Clip

Sean Penn hits the roadAt first glance this clip of Sean Penn's kooky rock star in This Must Be The Place looks like Robert Smith's take on The Straight Story. Which isn't too far from the truth. Any resemblance to the Cure frontman is purely deliberate in Penn's performance - Smith was a conscious jumping-off point for the radically tousled ex-rocker Cheyenne - but the road trip he's embarking on here owes even more to The Boys From Brazil.Directed by Paolo Sorrentino, whose political thriller Il Divo won him a stack of plaudits in 2009, This Must Be The Place sees Cheyenne tap into his inner Expendable to hunt down the Nazi who killed his father. Helping in his unlikely quest is the ever-wonderful Judd Hirsch as a Simon Wiesenthal-alike Nazi hunter and the also-ever-wonderful Frances McDormand as Cheyenne's long-suffering wife. Moments of Lynchian weirdness sit cheek-by-jowl with a poignant exploration of a troubled soul. If you're a fan of the leftfield end of the arthouse spectrum, Sean Penn's bold choices or just have a soft spot for his Hair Bear hair, this is definitely for you. Click on the new poster below for a closer look.{This Must Be The Place poster}This Must Be The Place is out via Trinity Films on April 6.

Bill Maher Makes $millions of Obama Donation

According to his longtime publicist Sarah Bigger, this happened tonight within the finish of Bill Maher’s comedy specialCrazyStupidPolitics: Live from Plastic Valley which streamed survive Yahoo. Maher presented an inspection and pledged a person donation of $millions of dollars to Obamas SuperPAC, Points of interest USA Action. According to Bigger, he referred to that obtaining a rustic governed by Obama rather than the Republican candidates might be worth huge amount of money and mentioned this really is really the very best investment In my opinion I really could make. More youthful crowd advised other wealthy liberals like themselves to accomplish the identical.Maher’s pledge comes at any time when Hollywood financial support for Leader Obama’s re-election remains ebbing rather than flowing. Maher’s longrunning Cinemax show, Real-time With Bill Maher, is presently within the tenth season. Though his liberal sights are very known, Maher tried to provide panel site visitors of several political persuasions to voice a spectrum of sights.Within the nearly 2 decades hosting political talk shows, Maher has acquired 27 Emmy nominations but has not won in what is the longest such losing streak on record.Maher also provides written 5 political bestsellers.He alsoperforms no less than 50 dates yearly in Las vegas too as with offered-out theaters all nationwide. Therefore I guess all this suggests that Maher needs to produce good on his political donation pledge. What this might to his ratings will probably be another story. However Cinemax doesn’t depend on advertising.

Safe House Director's Previous Feature Finally Hitting Theaters

It's only taken a few years, but the success of director Daniel Espinosa's Safe House means that Harvey Weinstein is finally ready to let the filmmaker's Swedish-language hit Easy Money -- ne Snabba Cash -- off his shelf on July 27. The distributor cited the eventual Stateside publication of the film's source novel (as opposed to Safe House's $83 million-and-counting domestic haul) as his motivation: We love the movie, but we needed the book to be out here, he told the LAT. Right. As always with Harvey, all release dates are subject to change and/or revocation at any time, so remember to mark your calendars in pencil. [LAT]

Prez pumps H'w'd for renewed support

Despite his rising poll numbers and signs of disarray among potential rivals, President Obama warned hundreds of donors at a posh Holmby Hills estate Wednesday night that this year's presidential campaign "is not going to be easier this time, it's going to be harder this time.""I'm going to need you," he said. "You're going to carry this thing like you did in 2008."Obama spoke for nearly a half an hour outside the home of producers Colleen and Bradley Bell, best known for "The Bold and the Beautiful." With tickets starting at $250 per person, the fund-raiser took on the air of a rally, with thesps Jack Black and Rashida Jones giving remarks and the Foo Fighters performing songs like "Hero," "Walk" and "Learn to Fly." Dave Grohl performed a solo of the song "Everlong.""Love the Foo Fighters," Obama said of the recent Grammy winners. "They were tired of winning so many awards, so they said, let's do something else tonight."Obama later attended a $35,800-per-person dinner for about 80 people in a giant dining room in the Bells' home, with George Clooney, Jim Belushi, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Nicole Avant, former ambassador to the Bahamas, among the guests. Will Ferrell was listed among the co-hosts, but could not make it because he was in production.According to a pool report, Obama's speech did not address an issue that has, by and large, pitted Hollywood against Silicon Valley: a pair of anti-piracy bills in Congress that were sidelined after White House criticism and a storm of protest from the netroots.In fact, as his campaign seeks to deploy celebrity surrogates as a way to boost enthusiasm, the starry introduction for Obama seemed to belie studio chiefs' unhappiness over the way that the White House staked out its position.Instead, Obama focused a great deal on the economy -- "We're starting to see the economy rebound," he said -- and he spoke to the frustrations of the sputtering recovery.He told the crowd, "We did not realize how long it was going to take. We didn't realize how profound the nature of the crisis was. ... We did not fully comprehend how deep this crisis would be. ... But don't underestimate the nature of the change we've made."Obama was to travel to Orange County on Thursday morning for more fund-raising, and to San Francisco for a trio of events that were expected to draw donors from Silicon Valley.Earlier on Wednesday, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that the Obama campaign expected to continue to enjoy support from both the showbiz and tech communities, and are "absolutely committed to working to find solutions to the problem of copyright infringement and intellectual property rights infringement, but we need to do it in a way that doesn't restrict Internet freedom. We believe that it's a both/and, not and either/or proposition." Contact Ted Johnson at ted.johnson@variety.com

Netflix Debuts First Original Series Lilyhammer

Steven Van Zandt Netflix has released its first original series Lilyhammer. Netflix and Kevin Spacey on deck with House of Cards The eight-episode season stars The Sopranos' Steven Van Zandt as ex-gangster Frank Tagliano, who makes its way into the witness protection program and should proceed to Norwegian. Obviously, it does not take lengthy before Frank strays from following your rules. Lilyhammer may be the to begin many projects Netlix has planned. House of Cards, starring Kevin Spacey, is striving to have an finish-the-year start.

Cheers & Jeers: Jimmy Fallon Rocks Indiana

Tim Tebow and Jimmy Fallon Cheers to Jimmy Fallon for beginning off a great quantity of shows in Indiana. Want more Cheers & Jeers? Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine. The host of NBC's Late Evening needed his show on the road to the web site of Sunday's Super Bowl and acquired large laughs along with his old SNL friend Tracy Morgan - who amusingly states his biological father is ex-Dallas Cowboy Came Pearson - and Nfl celebrity Tim Tebow, who taunted Fallon that his performance as "Tim Tebowie" was "somewhat pitchy. "Fallon's comedy was on key, however, whether he was creating the Roots (with special site visitors the Indiana Symphony) to accomplish freestyle raps about audience people or kidnapping Bob Costas inside the killer bit "Mind Swap." With three more shows to go to from Indiana - plus a postgame special Sunday - Jimmy is NBC's late-evening MVP. What can you consider Late Evening in Indiana? Subscribe to TV Guide Magazine now!

White Collar Exclusive Sneak Peek: How Can Peter Save Elizabeth Without the [Spoiler]?!

Matt Bomer Where is Elizabeth Burke? That became the burning question on the minds of White Collar fans everywhere after Mrs. Suit was kidnapped by Keller in the midseason finale. When White Collar returns, there's one big problem keeping Peter (Tim DeKay), Neal (Matt Bomer) and the rest of the FBI from giving Keller the treasure and saving Elizabeth: the treasure is gone! Catch up on full episodes of White Collar In this exclusive clip from the midseason premiere, airing Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 10/9c on USA, Neal takes Peter to the treasure only to learn that Mozzie (Willie Garson) has already run off with the multimillion-dollar loot. "He's not talking to me. We had a falling out," Neal explains. "I didn't think he'd move it this fast." Watch the clip here and see Peter reach his breaking point: Are you excited for White Collar to return?

Yahoo taps Thompson as CEO

Yahoo has named Scott Thompson, prexy of eBay's PayPal division, as its new CEO, the fourth one in less than five years for the struggling Internet company. Yahoo, which announced its choice Wednesday, has been without a permanent CEO since early September. It fired Carol Bartz after losing patience with her attempts to turn around the company during her 2 1/2 years on the job. Tim Morse, Yahoo's chief financial officer, has been interim CEO since Bartz's ouster. Thompson has served as prexy of PayPal, eBay's online payment service, since January 2008. He previously served as PayPal's senior VP and chief technology officer. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Yahoo said Thompson's new job starts on Jan. 9. Morse will return to his CFO post. Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock said Thompson's track record of building on existing resources "to reignite innovation and drive growth" is "precisely the formula we need at Yahoo." It will be a big task. Yahoo has been losing ground in the fast-growing Internet advertising market to Google and Facebook for years. Mainly for this reason, its stock price has not topped $20 for the past three years. Yahoo's board has been reviewing a possible sale of all or part of the company since Bartz's ouster last fall. There are several potential suitors, including China's Alibaba Group, which may join up with private equity firms in a joint bid. Bartz, too, was hired to help turn Yahoo around but she had no experience in Internet advertising -- Yahoo's main revenue source. This immediately raised doubts about her qualifications. Yahoo shares fell 30 cents, or 1.9%, to $15.98 in morning trading. Shares of eBay, meanwhile, dropped $1.14, or 3.6%, to $30.20. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com