Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check

The President at play:

   Several weeks ago, the president was summoned to appear for jury duty at a southwest suburban courthouse outside Chicago. Had he been able to make it, he would've begun serving yesterday. The jury duty summons arrived at the Obama house in the Windy City, but the president notified the Cook County Circuit Court that he would be unable to serve. Instead, the LA Times reported that his official schedule for the day "calls for a meet-and-greet with the Los Angeles Lakers, the reigning NBA champions."
   According to a website called Politics Daily, it was reported in the Christian Science Monitor that no sitting president has sat on a jury in a modern court. BILL CLINTON was willing to serve when he was summoned in 2003, but the judge dismissed him from the case.
   Editor's note: Musta been a sexual harassment case.
   --I can see it now: OBAMA SHIRKS CIVIC RESPONSIBILITIES! IS HE REALLY AN AMERICAN? (Maiman)

Guilty Pleasures:

No winner in Friday night's drawing for the Mega Millions Lottery. That means tonight's drawing is valued at $121 million ($75.2 million cash value). Mega Millions is played in 12 states: CA, GA, IL, MD, MA, MI, NJ, NY, OH, TX, VA, WA. Chances of winning the big prize are 1 in 175.7 million.

Apple: "most profitable quarter in history":

Apple announced its quarterly numbers yesterday, and the company said they sold double the number of iPhones that it sold for the first quarter last year --8.7 million.
   However, the sales of iPods fell 8% to 21 million units. Nevertheless, overall, Apple shares zoomed up more than four percent yesterday; that number could go higher with the unveiling of the company's "major new product" tomorrow.

Broadcast, cable and video news:

Big ratings for the Minnesota Vikings /New Orleans Saints playoff game --the 57.9 million viewers will easily be the best numbers for the week, but the best numbers for any show since the final "Seinfeld's" show in 1998, which pulled in 76.3 million.
   Over on CBS, the NY Jets /Indianapolis Colts game was also a big ratings winner, pulling down the highest rating for an AFC championship game in 16 years.
In comparison, new figures show 83 million people tuned in Friday night for at least a portion of the Hope for Haiti Now telethon, which aired on dozens of networks.

The Reel Deal:

It's official: "Avatar" is now the highest-grossing film of all time, beating "Titanic." That's worldwide, where so far the film has made $1.292 billion, according to the distributor.
   Here in the US-of-A, "Avatar" made $551.7 million thru last weekend, still $49 million south of "Titanic's" record $600.8 million. The big reason for that is China and Russia, two countries that were not significant box office factors when "Titanic" played overseas.
   And let's roll in inflation. If you account for that, "Gone With the Wind," which grossed $400 million worldwide in 1939, is now worth at least $6 billion in today's dollars [a 1939 dollar being worth $15.43 today].

Are you depressed after seeing the movie "Avatar"? You're not the only one. Us Weekly reports that people are leaving the movie feeling that way after they realize that the utopian world Pandora that is portrayed is unattainable. (Myers)
   Editor's note: So is this a way of saying that Avatar makes people feel kinda blue? Har.
   --Never mind coming out. Depressing is a guy going in who thought the reason you couldn't get a movie date before was because you kept asking women to go see all those "Star Trek" films.
   FYI: More on "Avatar" in Boonies, below.