The latest creation in the Ass-Covering Studio Excuses R&D Dept. is the "Twitter Effect." Movies aren't making money, you see, because too many people are learning, 140 characters at a time, how bad they are.

The movie about drunks and their drunken ways keeps hitting the big time. As does the movie about white people in the jungle. Meanwhile, Eddie Murphy and John Travolta have both seen better days.

In the latest battle of the box office comedy wars, trusted institution Will Ferrell was trounced by three drunken men and a baby. What happened, exactly? And what, if anything, does it say about How We Laugh Now?

· On America's Got Talent last night, David Hasselhoff was refreshingly candid about the stirrings in his loins elicited by Drag Britney. [AGT] · Step! Two, Three, Ball, Step, Ball, Reverse, Change! Watch out stars—Lance means business! [Mollygood] · In this new promotional shot from Land of the Lost, Will Ferrell stands next to the kind of Sleestak you might imagine posing for pictures at Disneyland. [First Showing] · Mmmm...Hannah Montana Sweet & Sour Gummi Cocks. [BWE.tv] · And last but not least, it's Paul Reubens's birthday today. In his honor, enjoy the entire Pee-wee's Playhouse Christmas Special. Happy birthday, Pee-wee! Mm...Birthday cakey. [YouTube, YouTube, YouTube, YouTube]

If your last glimpse of Universal's Land of the Lost movie—featuring Will Ferrell smoking a butt by the La Brea Tar Pits—left you a little underwhelmed, we think this official first leaked image should help ease concerns that a beloved Saturday morning memory of your youth is about to be gang-raped by Hollywood. In it, the part-reptilian/part-insectoid/all-badass Sleestaks of the original are shown to have made the transition to big-screen Ferrell buffoonery largely intact. Director Brad Siberling explains why:

JFXOnline gives us the first glimpses from the set of Land of the Lost, Will Ferrell's next big screen foray, based on the beloved Sid and Marty Krofft Saturday morning sci-fi adventure. Originally conceived as a huge budget adventure comedy, the disappointing™ performance of Semi-Pro has led jittery Universal execs to cut some budgetary corners wherever possible. That means plans for spectacular soundstage sets and expensive CGI sequences will be replaced with location shooting, sending the actors and crew on an L.A. scavenger hunt that brought them to the Page Museum at the La Brea Tar Pits (above), the terrariums of Santa Monica's Water Garden, and the Apple Store at the Grove, which stood in nicely for the Pylons and matrix tables.

We must hand it to Will Ferrell. Having just delivered another homerun performance as Chaz Bobby Burgundy the Tank in Semi-Pro, the actor is already thinking ahead to his next project, promoting the just -started -filming Land of the Lost adaptation by wearing this Enik- the- Sleestak- inspired smocksuit to last night's premiere. For purists worried that their beloved, Saturday morning memories of the Marshalls, Cha-Ka, and the rest of the Lost gang might be tainted by crass Hollywood cynicism, fear not: The delightful premise, in which Ferrell stars as an arrogant, womanizing movie star cast in a remake of the Sid and Marty Krofft series, only to discover that real Sleestaks (Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller) exist among us, is post-modern self-referential hilarity at its finest!

· According to Nielsen's preliminary overnight ratings, a record number of Super Bowl viewers tuned in to watch the Giants shock the world™ by upsetting the heavily favored, once-unbeatable-seeming Patriots, with 97.5 million people tuning in (and 105.9 million at its peak) for the game. The telecast may also finish as the second-most-watched event of all time, behind MASH's 1983 finale. [THR]
· Rewarding him for his ability to profitably resurrect the Rambo franchise, Nu Image/Millenium Films signs new international political icon Sylvester Stallone to write and direct two more action flicks; blogging convention dictates that we must identify these next projects as long-awaited sequels to films from his back catalog, like Cobras and Over the Top 2: Back Over the Top. [THR]

· The Weinstein Co. (with help from their besties at Lionsgate) will release Michael Moore's documentary Sicko on July 29th, which should do for America's health care system what Bowling for Columbine did for a senile-seeming, rifle-loving Charlton Heston. [Variety]
· Hollywood Out Of Ideas, Even In The Prehistoric Past And Distant Future Edition: Robert Rodriguez is in talks to direct a live-action feature adaptation of The Jetsons, and has also met with Universal about Will Ferrell's adaptation of Land of the Lost. [THR]
· Universal lands its second Serious Actor for its The Incredible Hulk project, as Tim Roth is in negotiations to play Hulk antagonist Abomination and spend long hours discussing how best to portray the emotional torment of gamma-wave-poisoning sufferers in the context of a superhero film. [Variety]
· FX may pay up to $40 million for the TV rights to Spider-Man 3 for five years, but only once it completes it pay-cable run on Starz. [THR]
· Var TV critic and Entourage nemesis Brian Lowry is amused that his HBO stand-in, who'll be harassed by an aggrieved Johnny Drama in an upcomnig episode shot in the paper's offices, has an assistant. [Variety]