Beverly Hills Chihuahua

All of the new DVD releases hit stores (and Netflix) on Tuesdays. So each week in What to Netflix: New DVD Tuesday, I sort through the best of the batch and tell you what to add to your queue. In addition to my picks below, you can now watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua as many times as you'd like.

Australia
In my mind, there are many reasons to bring home Baz Luhrmann's Australia. There's Hugh Jackman, the costumes, a lot of cool scenery, and did I mention Hugh Jackman? He's just so gorgeous and manly as an outback cowboy. . . . Anyway, I'm just saying that I enjoyed his performance.

The story follows Kidman's character, Sarah Ashley, who gains sudden control of a cattle station in Australia called Faraway Downs. She relies on a rather motley crew to help her out there, including the sexy, no-nonsense Drover (Jackman) and a mixed-race Aboriginal child, Nullah. Things are grueling enough in the outback for these folks but then the war also engulfs their country, making for a very dramatic and epic cinematic journey. Special features include deleted scenes.

One more up next, so read more

We knew High School Musical was a huge television hit but now it's a bona fide silver screen success. The third installment of the perky Disney musical bonanza scored the top spot at the box office over the weekend, earning an estimated $42 million.

Meanwhile, Saw V did excellent business over the weekend as well, earning an estimated $30.5 million in the No. 2 spot. Variety notes that both titles were record breakers:

The top two films each entered record territory. Disney’s High School is by far the biggest musical bow ever, besting Mamma Mia! Lionsgate’s Saw franchise is within $2 million of eclipsing Friday the 13th to become the top-grossing horror series ever.

Max Payne and Beverly Hills Chihuahua came in at No. 3 and No. 4 respectively, with the top five being rounded out by the Ed Norton cop thriller Pride & Glory.

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

Mark Wahlberg had a good weekend. His movie Max Payne was No. 1 at the box office, with an estimated $18 million. Plus, it looks like he made nice with Andy Samberg, after things got tense last week.

Second place turned out to be what Variety calls a "photo finish" between those dancing dogs and The Secret Life of Bees. Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua just barely eked out a second place finish its third weekend in theaters with an estimated $11.2 million with Bees close behind with about $11.1 million.

Oliver Stone's biopic W also did well, coming in at No. 4 with an estimated $10.6 million its first weekend out followed by Eagle Eye at No. 5.

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Fox

• Beverly Hills Chihuahua came in at the top spot in the box office for a second weekend in a row with Quarantine behind it. Body of Lies placed below expectations at No. 3. — BuzzSugar
• Lisa Marie Presley and her husband Michael Lockwood welcomed twin baby girls last Tuesday afternoon and are now home. The names of the newborns have not been released. — Us Weekly
• John McCain will make an appearance on The Late Show this Thursday, facing David Letterman for the first time since canceling on him last month. — E! Online
• Travis Barker blogged a thank you to everyone for their support since the plane crash and mentioned he hasn't seen his ex-wife Shanna Moakler since the first week he checked in, despite reports to the contrary. — Travis Barker's MySpace
• Tim Robbins received his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Friday with Susan Sarandon, and Jack Black attended the ceremony. — AP

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

If the photo below were a Caption It contest based on this weekend's box office results, my entry would go something like: "Well Leo, there's no easy way to say this so I'm just going to come out with it. We got beat by the little talking dogs. Beat bad."

That's right, Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua was No. 1 for the second weekend in a row followed by the horror flick Quarantine. Ridley Scott's Body of Lies, which came in third, was expected to do much better "based on its star power alone" but the combination of mediocre reviews and the fact that audiences continue to eschew Iraq War-related movies probably worked against a successful opening weekend. Eagle Eye and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist rounded out the top five respectively.

The new sports film The Express came in at No. 6 followed by Nights in Rodanthe, Appaloosa, The Duchess, and City of Ember at No. 10.

Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

I totally enjoyed Beverly Hills Chihuahua (did you?) – so here's a tail-waggingly good tale about one of the film's heroes, the lovable and macho Papi. The bat-eared Chihuahua mix named Rusco was rescued for the part from the Moreno Valley Animal Shelter by a trainer who's now the pup's proud parent, too.The lil guy was a fast learner (just like another rescue-turned-star pooch I remember) able to quickly acclimate to a role in front of lights, cameras and action. His fave rewards during the learning process . . . steak and a stuffed, squeaky flower named "Daisy May." Ahh, tough life.

Find out about the furry costars of Rusco . . . errrr, Papi . . . when you read more

• Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky, who have been together for more than eight years, were married at Le Cirque in NYC on Friday night with guests like Donald Trump, Jimmy Kimmel, Sarah Silverman, and Billy Joel in attendance. — Us Weekly
• Beverly Hills Chihuahua won the top spot at the box office this weekend, earning $29 million. Eagle Eye came in second place, with Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist in third. — BuzzSugar
• Matt Damon made a surprise appearance at the Escape to Miami Triathlon on Sunday morning, running 6.2 miles in a last-minute addition to a relay team with his stepfather and a family friend. — Miami Herald
• Tina Fey signed a book deal with publishing company Little, Brown and Co. to write a collection of humorous essays. — New York Observer
• Dancing With the Stars contestant Misty May-Treanor badly injured her ankle on Friday and may be off the show. Rumor has it Kim Kardashian could come in to replace her. — NY Post
• American Idol's LaKisha Jones married financial adviser Larry Davis at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on Sunday, and her castmates, including Sanjaya and Melinda Doolittle, were there to support her. — AP
• Janet Jackson continues to be sick and has canceled three more shows on her tour because of her unknown illness that led to her hospitalization last week. — E! Online

Splash News Online

You know, the reviews for Disney's Beverly Hills Chihuahua were not as bad as I thought they might be, so that coupled with the fact that it's a family film meant that the movie about little talking dogs took the No. 1 spot at the box office over the weekend. The top dogs brought in a seriously impressive $29 million. That's about the same amount that Eagle Eye earned last weekend. This weekend, the Shia LaBeouf action-thriller came in second place.

Meanwhile, some smaller movies (a.k.a. "specialty films") also did well. Both Bill Maher's documentary Religulous and Anne Hathaway's Rachel Getting Married had terrific opening weekends. This was especially striking as "three of the new wide releases didn’t even crack the top 10 chart," including Flash of Genius, Blindness, and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People.

Finally, both Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Appaloosa enjoyed solid debuts, coming in third and fifth respectively. Lots of options this weekend! Which one did you see? (And come on, you can admit it if it was the chihuahua movie — this is a safe place.)

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Pictures

While several of the pups of Beverly Hills Chihuahua sported fashions I recognized from doggie couture label Little Lily, for most of her clothed scenes, star pup Chloe wore handmade outfits of sleek and chic materials imported from Europe . . . all to give her a look modeled after Chanel, Valentino, and the like.

Costume designer Mariestela Fernández designed 30 dresses to fit a prototype of the canine actress (named Angel) and worked with the star's animal coordinator over three fittings to select the final 17 outfits used in the film. From nightgowns to ball gowns, most outfits featured specially created booties meant to stay on her paws (well, most of the time . . . wink wink to those of you who've seen the film already).

Curious about that diamond collar (and to see photos from the film!) read more