Two top movies -- "Baby Mama" and "Harold and Kumar 2: Escape From Guantanamo Bay" -- make two things perfectly clear: Americans are desperate for a good laugh, and we'd better be very careful about who's running for vice president this year because sidekicks now officially rule the world.

In "Redbelt," acclaimed playwright/filmmaker David Mamet attempts a thinking-man's martial arts movie.

A gleaming, six-ton steel bank vault door built into the entryway is the first clue. Then follow strings of faceted crystals, suggestive of diamond necklaces, suspended from the dining room's soaring two-story ceiling; yards of polished stone and custom fabrics, including the sumptuous silken upholstery of deep banquettes; dramatic modern sculptures backlit in the copper and green of money.

Somewhere, two copywriters from R&R Partners (the ad agency responsible for the initial promotion) are laughing -- all the way to the bank.

In the Wings:News about Theater of the American South's Lee Smith stage adaptation, a new Charles Mee adaptation, director Karen Dacons-Brock and DSI Comedy Theater.

The puppets of Broadway's Tony-winning "Avenue Q" may look like "Sesame Street" Muppets, but they don't act like them. They curse, drink, surf for Web porn and have one-night stands. The irreverent but tender show is in Raleigh through Sunday.

Sunday night is getting less steamy.

Nielsens:The May "sweeps" is precisely the wrong time to hit low marks in the ratings. But several big shows did last week.

The latest releases.

A book about the rise and stunning decline of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer is being published by Penguin Group (USA).

On the same page in Barbara Walters' big, bean-spilling memoir there are photographs of Walters, the undisputed queen of the television interview, and Cha Cha Walters, her dog.

The challenge was to come up with an idea that can transform public education, particularly in poor communities. The winner: an educator with a passion for making school fun.

Cuban musicians, family and friends remembered the island's most famous conga drummer, Tata Guines, as he was buried outside Havana today after a six decade career that helped popularize Afro-Cuban rhythms worldwide.