The longer-than-anyone-expected-or-even-thought-remotely-possible reign of Ben Stein's anti-evolution screed Expelled: No Intelligence Required atop the year's documentary box office is nearing its end, we hear. And naturally, it's the heathens knocking it down: After outlasting withering reviews and a desperate legal broadside by Yoko Ono, Expelled's $7.6 million gross is expected to succumb this weekend to Bill Maher's godless hit Religulous — itself a $7 million earner in two weeks of release. But while Expelled may lose the ticket battle, is it still the winner in the culture war?You could make an argument either way (and believe us — people are), but Lionsgate never left much doubt that it would obtain the top-doc spot sooner or later. Yet while it's never been on more than half as many screens as Expelled — 568 to 1,062 — Religulous had the compounded advantages of a Toronto Film Fest launch, Maher tearing up Sherri Shepherd and anyone who would sit still for him on national TV, aggressive, conspicuous marketing, and a furtive NYC/LA residency to help qualify for its forthcoming Oscar nod. In the end, all that topping Expelled means this weekend is that Lionsgate's $3 million diatribe might break even earlier than expected. Expelled's budget was about the same, but stunned observers by finishing in the top 10 its opening weekend with little more than a grassroots push by the marketers who brought you The Passion of the Christ and other Christian-themed hits. Among them, Kirk Cameron's Fireproof carried the baton into fall with $17.2 million in less than three weeks. All due respect to Maher and Co., but that might be the long-term business to be in during bleak industry patches like this. Just avoid chihuahuas — you can't lose.

· The lines between hard news and whatever it is CNN is doing continue to blur: D.L. Hughley will host a "news-driven comedy" show on Saturday nights that will offer a "skewering take on news and events." Let's sample the material: "There have been six movies with a black man as the president, and in all those movies, the world was coming to an end. If this election isn't art imitating life, I don't know what is." Yeah. Fuck off. [Variety] · NBC has beaten out ABC in the race to nab David E. Kelley's new series, described as "a father-daughter drama." [THR] After the jump: Which Funniest Woman Alive is making a return to series TV?· Mark Burnett is shooting the pilot for Rouletter—a complicated game show that involves a roulette wheel covered in letters—in South America. They are currently on the hunt for contestants who won't respond to the host's enthusiastic opener, "So, are YOU ready to play Rouletter?!" with a quizzical, "¿Qué?" [Variety] · Amy Sedaris has signed a deal with 20th Century Fox TV to write and star in a new single-camera sitcom, which she'll co-create with Strangers With Candy's Paul Dinello. Fuck yeah. [THR] · Comedy Central is producing its first "fantasy comedy" (if you don't count Imaginationland). Krod Mandoon and the Flaming Sword of Firea will star Little Britain's Matt Lucas and Meet the Spartans's Sean Maguire. [THR]

Tina Fey may be locked in for a few more Sarah Palin impersonations on Saturday Night Live (though if she is, somebody had better tell her), but her cameos come with a strict stop date of November 5, at which point she will either return to 30 Rock full-time or begin a new, exciting life orbiting the rings of Saturn. Fortunately for Fey, a McCain/Palin victory is looking increasingly unlikely, but should the Republican ticket make it into the White House, SNL creator Lorne Michaels has a backup plan:

Click to viewBoomp3.com Law enforcement-lover Seth Green took a moment out of his busy schedule to show his love for the girls and boys in blue in the Big Apple. The Sex Drive star has been a fan of the coppers ever since they found his missing bicycle a few months back. Green said, “I was already to go on Craigslist to look for a replacement, but then there was a knock on my door. I opened the door and there was Officer Smith holding my cherished Huffy ten speed. I was pretty down about it, but then like a ray of sunshine, Officer Smith warmed me up. We even busted some kids for skateboarding together.” [Photo Credit: Splash Pics] *A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.

Having ended her relationship with Justin Long to pursue newer, more streamlined Macbooks, beloved Hollywood good-times gal Kirsten Dunst and friends partied Monday night away at La Poubelle—which, despite its name, Angelenos will recognize as a non-trashy hot spot on that little stretch of Franklin that mimics the look, pace, and feel of living in an actual city. With one flaccid ciggie dangling from her lips, the Spider-Man star and former Cirque Lodge resident appears to have overcome her sadness addiction, and is ready to tackle the world—and any impending, reluctantly embarked-upon tentpole sequel productions—one gin fizzie at a time. More partying photos after the junst!

So Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie are finally getting divorced. It's a very shocking thing, since earlier this summer, when reports of a pending divorce surfaced, Madonna's flack assured the world that the couple had "no divorce plans." Could it be that the flack, Liz Rosenberg—a charter member of our list of lying flacks—told something less than the full truth? After the jump, Liz's side of the story, and then the other, more accurate side: We asked Liz Rosenberg about this discrepancy between what she said earlier, and what's happening now. Her answer: "there was no pending divorce earlier this year." So, we asked, does that mean that, for example, the Sun's report that Madonna "initially planned to move back to the US with their three children in July" is false? "yes," Rosenberg replied. Well, how credible is Liz Rosenberg? She told the world in 2006 that Madonna was not adopting a baby in Malawi. Although, of course, Madonna did adopt a baby in Malawi. What else do we know about Rosenberg?

We swear we didn't mean to throw a bucket of gas on the smoldering crash site where Werner Herzog collided a while back with Abel Ferrara, leaving the legendary auteurs fighting for their lives over Herzog's plans to remake Ferraras's 1992 masterpiece Bad Lieutenant with Nicolas Cage. But thanks in part to our revealing audience with Herzog last summer, the fire is back to uncontained levels today as Ferrara picks off his Bavarian contemporary one vicious shot at a time in Filmmaker Magazine:

It's been too long since we've stopped by our old friends at Gallery of the Absurd, who bring us this exclusive image of the new Angelina Jolie twin-spouting fountain installed at "the Mall of America's Enchanted Food Court." After thumbing yesterday through Brad Pitt's portfolio of almost too naturalistic Jolie poses, it's a relief to see another artist has done justice to her maternal majesty. Click to view it in its full glory.

It's Official: The AP is reporting that the Madonna's publicist has confirmed the singer's rumored split from Guy Ritchie: "A statement e-mailed to The Associated Press from Madonna spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg says the couple has agreed to divorce, and asks the media to respect their privacy." Especially this week in Boston, where excellent seats are still available for tomorrow's Madonna concert at the TD Banknorth Garden. Seriously, people — back off! [CNN]

If ever there were a show created for the broad swath of red-state America pejoratively known as "flyover country," Two and a Half Men would be it. The top-rated sitcom is square enough to have landed a slot on Gawker's list of the most conservative shows on TV (not to mention the fact that 40% of its titular men were sighted at a recent McCain rally). However, Raw Story brings word that Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre is sneaking liberal, Fox News-bashing messages into his other CBS sitcom, The Big Bang Theory, via near-subliminal vanity cards like this:

Nikki Finke ran a story yesterday about a controversial portrait hung in UTA's new 4th floor gallery. The project is the brainchild of partner Jeremy Zimmer—whom, she points out, has courted controversy before, back in the days when he'd ignore "the complaints of women...when he used to urinate out the window of UTA's old offices." (Is that an issue? We've never heard a peep out of the smog-test facility guys beneath Defamer HQ.) The photograph in question, "Dayaba Usman With The Monkey Clear, Nigeria 2005" (pictured above), was taken by a South African photographer of some renown, Pieter Hugo. Some staffers were offended, and demanded it come down:

Let's face it: As well-intentioned celebrity spats go, Jenny McCarthy vs. Amanda Peet was a total disappointment in its attempt to bring awareness to the cause and treatment of autism. What it needed was less born-again book-tour proselytizing and more substantive debate about nature, nurture and science itself. In other words, it needed the radical authority of a medical professional like Denis Leary, who, in his own new book, tastefully settles the problem of autism once and for all:

So the Sun, England's most tasteful, reputable daily tabloid, sent word around late Tuesday that Madonna and Guy Ritchie will officially divorce by the end of the year. ("They can't bear the pretence!") We unpacked our grain of salt while sorting through the months of rumors preceding this one, but with everyone from the AP to Time hitching on and the singer's exasperated rep admitting, "We're not going to know anything until the US wakes up," all public signs indicate this is finally it. After the jump, a quick recap of how we got here, and what's likely next.While split talk had jammed the tabloids essentially since the day they were married in 2000, with Madonna publicly grumbling for years now about her unfulfilled sex needs, the gossip was all so much noise until the fantastic Madgerod Cynthavitz controversy that exploded over the summer. The scandal placed Madonna in Yankees slugger/"fucking soulmate, dude" Alex Rodriguez's comforting, Kabbalah-friendly arms, while A-Rod's wife Cynthia retreated to Paris for an extended stay in an apartment owned by Lenny Kravitz. "Nothing to see here," said Kravitz, who urged calm while Madonna's flack denied that A-Rod had ever charged her client's mound. Fine, then. Except the Rodriguezes divorced soon after, and as recently as two weeks ago Madonna and A-Rod were reportedly spotted dining together again in New York. This while Ritchie fled the spotlight, tapering off press for his new film RockNRolla and jetting back to England to commence shooting Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr.. So last night's announcement seems ideally timed for both him and Madge, who is five shows into her Sticky & Sweet world tour, where nearly half of her 25 American dates have yet to sell out. Oh — and her new own directorial debut, Filth and Wisdom, opens in New York and LA this Friday. Convenient! Not so convenient: The economy of Splitsville. The London Times reports today that the couple didn't have a pre-nup, thus encouraging Madonna to file for divorce in the States, where she'd likely earn a more favorable take from her and Ritchie's $600 million fortune. If Ritchie fights for a London divorce, the legal saga could play out for upward of a year. We don't buy for a second that these details aren't already arranged between the two, but the Times adds that still doesn't guarantee an official split by Christmas, as Madge reportedly hopes for. Certainly there's more to follow, which we'll report as it happens. In the meantime, don't look so down! We'll always have Swept Away.

(ED NOTE: When she’s not busy fetching us the coffee and trucker pills necessary to keep you people entertained, our own Intern Emmy is hard at work on the world’s first Pop Culture Cookbook, which I guess is a catalog for recipes that you can’t eat, but are still great for entertaining. Anyway, she’ll be dropping in from time to time to share them with us.)Ingredients 1 gallon MILF 1 gallon DILF 1 weekend that will change their lives forever You Will Also Need: 1 soaring rock ballad. SOARING. 1 mid-life crisis 1 cup escapism Tissues Cooking Directions 1. Suspend disbelief and combine ingredients 2. Simmer over well-kindled romantic flame 3. Try not to think about your parents doing it 4. Demand refund (photo via Getty)

• ALL THAT NO ONE WANTS: Ace Of Base will release a new album in 2009, along with a Greatest Hits compilation and a world tour. Now with the Backstreet Boys' comeback, the New Kids' comeback, and this album, 1990-2010 will be a palindrome. (Dlisted)

Two questions from readers hit the InBox. If you have info, please leave a response in the comments or you may email us at la@curbed.com. Answers posted on Thursday.

LAX may not be the most exciting airport by any means, but small steps help. Tomorrow is the ribbon cutting for two locally based companies, Baja Fresh and La Brea Bakery, in Terminal 7 where an express version of Wolfgang Puck's has already been located for years. La Brea has been at the airport for a couple months now, offering a limited menu of sandwiches, paninis, salads, soups and homeade pastries.

"dairy stop" Photo by somenoise via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr

MID-CITY: Just when everyone's tightening their wallets, white truffle season is here. Donato Poto supplies some fun facts in the Providence newsletter: 2004 was one of the best recent years due to the right amount of rain and sun, but 2007 was one of the worst year for truffles and reached almost $4000 a pound at one point because of low yields; they usually run $2000 to $2500 a pound; Italy“hardly any truffles from Alba are sold to other countries.” Cost to add the white truffles to any plate at Providence: $95. Available through November. [EaterWire]

The Jim Henson Co has begun to develop a puppet film noir detective comedy titled Happytime Murders. If we knew nothing else about this project, I would still spend $10 on a movie ticket. The story follows a puppet detective who is hired to solve a string of murders around a popular children’s television show called the Happytime Gang. The film will be populated with a mixture of human and puppet characters (to clarify, not “muppets”), and will be released under an alternative label “for content created specifically and exclusively for adult audiences.” Sounds promising. But here are two reasons why the film could suck: