Movie news: Bits and pieces

Here's a bit of sad, gossipy schadenfreude for Boston movie lovers: Bo Smith, who ran the Museum of Fine Arts' film offerings for two decades before being wooed out west, is out of his job as executive director of the Denver Film Society after the group's board was forced to choose between him and a staff in full mutiny. Indiewire has been reporting on the events as they've evolved, as has the Denver Post. Twenty-one members of the festival's staff turned in their resignations last week, forcing the board's hand; festival director Britta Erickson has been named temporary exec director.

I'd been hearing rumblings about Bo's rocky landing back at Sundance in January, and a couple of folks with the festival have emailed me over the months saying, in effect, why didn't you warn us? Why did you people say such nice things about him when he left? Well, because he did a perfectly fine job in Boston, was well-respected, and built a terrific film program at the MFA over the years; why Denver didn't work out is a mystery to many of us here. (I could speculate, but not knowing the details and most of the players, I won't.)

You enjoyed "The Hangover," right? Thought Jon Lucas and Scott Moore wrote a pretty good script? As always in Hollywood, it's more complicated than that. Nikki Finke has the nitty-gritty, including the fact that the germ of the idea came from a movie producer's real bachelor party fiasco.

BOX OFFICE UPDATE, and a general note to self about treading lightly on Monday morning weekend estimate figures. Once the actual receipts were counted, it turns out that "Hangover" came in at No. 1 with $44.98 million, squeaking by the $44.14 million pulled in by "Up" in its second weekend. My bad (and everyone else's), and congratulations to "Hangover" for getting bragging rights.

And J.D. Salinger loves "Terminator Salvation." Or so says "The Onion."