Not to say "I told you so," but, I told you so. Not that anyone was disagreeing with me. Not even in theaters a week and already the Twilight sequel New Moon has gotten the green light. And this when it hasn't even made $150 million yet (though director Catherine Hardwicke said it's on track to, which I guess is just as good). And while this may come as great news for fans (not that anyone was surprised, really), it comes as even greater news for the film's stars, who will each make $12 million dollars apiece working on it. Quite a salary hike, considering they each made only $2 million on the first film.

I don't know how many of you hit the stores on Black Friday for the crazy deals and even crazier lines (personally, I can't get past the parking lot mayhem), but for movie lovers, even in this crap economy, this Friday may be the day you want to show up at Best Buy at 5 a.m. and get that Blu-ray player for $150 or whatever they're going for. It was just announced today that Japan's Panasonic Corporation has submitted a proposal to the Blu-ray Disc Association (the body that oversees the format's standardization, etc.) to create a "Blu-ray Disc standard to store three-dimensional imagery formed of left-/right-eye two-channel full-High Definition images (1920x1080 pixels)." And what does that mean for you? 3-D on Blu-ray, baby!

Perhaps the intoxicating knowledge that they're working in a fairly recession-proof industry has gone to the heads of those actors at the top of the Screen Actors Guild hierarchy. It's the only thing that could explain why now, when the economy has reached the "crisis" stage and is in the proverbial crapper, would SAG decide to put a strike authorization to vote. Yes, now. Awesome idea, guys!

Since the news cycle is still pretty clogged with election results and stories (even Variety has an electoral map on their home page) and the rest of the world -- including Hollywood -- can't seem to get much of a word in edge-wise, I'm going to follow Odie's lead and report on a politics-movie tie-in. Over at The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog, Steven Zeitchik explored the possibility of whether or not Republican Presidents are bad for movies. It turns out they kind of are.

If you didn't already know the trivia that the human head weighs eight pounds before you watched Jerry Maguire, then the cuteness seared into your brain by the adorable delivery of said fact by a kindergarten-bound Jonathan Lipnicki pretty much ensures that you do now. Hell, anyone who saw the trailer for the movie could easily answer the Jeopardy question. The fact that that clip alone will probably be akin to Lipnicki's epitaph no matter how successful he ever becomes makes me feel bad for the kid. That, and the fact that he looked like Cousin Oliver with spikey hair. The young actor has worked quite a bit since, but I for one can't remember a single part without having to think about it for several minutes, and then only because I happened to attend a screening of The Little Vampire at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2000 and got a free TLV T-shirt. (The movie name on the shirt was glow-in-the-dark. It was otherwise unremarkable.) But it turns out Lipnicki is still getting acting work, his latest part a starring turn in the upcoming psychological thriller The Other Side of Innocence.

Remember those poor Japanese kids who went into convulsions while watching the constant flashing on Pokémon? Their parents had better keep them away from the current crop of action movies. These films are being edited to within an inch of their lives as of late, making Tony Scott's hackwork look like slow motion by comparison. It's gotten so bad that it's nearly impossible to see who's doing what to whom and where they're doing it. Numerous people have complained about the Bourne series, but I think they're edited far better than most recent actioners. The Guardian feels my pain, complaining about Quantum of Solace's herky-jerky editing. That's the least of that lousy film's problems, however.

From the perspective of someone who works in an industry where most of the professionals couldn't tell you where their next job is coming from, most people in Hollywood are probably sitting around the dinner table tonight discussing how Robert Downey Jr. is like, totally set for life. The Iron Man actor has signed on to play Tony Stark in three more films. With Iron Man being, well, let's face it, the second-biggest movie of the summer, Marvel Studios nevertheless has about five hundred and seventy eight million ($!) reasons to get him back for a sequel. And while reports aren't out yet as to just how much of that juicy box-office gross they used to lure RDJ back, they got him, and not just for one sequel, but two. Oh, and also what could technically be called a spinoff.

Almost everyone is feeling the effects of the economic downturn (to put it mildly), and we all know it's had its effects on the movie industry, what with changes in spending habits and budgets -- not to mention the writers' strike and the possible actors' strike. But there has been another side effect of the economy on Hollywood: how to schedule, release, and market movies about the economy, Wall Street, or frivolous spending.

It's been awhile since we last told you that nothing had happened in the negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild and the studios. And now we're back to tell you that something is about to happen. We think. On Sunday, the actors union took two major steps forward in the process toward resolution (we hope) or a strike (we fear). First, the SAG board voted to have a federal mediator brought in to try to revive negotiations that stalled in June. SAG's board also has authorized a vote by all members on whether to strike if the mediation doesn't work.

Mark Wahlberg's videogame adaptation Max Payne managed to unseat Beverly Hills Chihuahua after the talking-dog movie had been at the top of the weekend box office for two weeks in a row. But no other new release did better than a third helping of Chihuahua. I'm starting to wonder if there's something wrong with me for not thinking that movie could possibly be good. But I'm going to stick with what I said last week: The problem lies with America.