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‘Coach Carter’ scores No. 1 ranking at box office

Los Angeles (ap) — Samuel L. Jackson coached his latest movie to a box-office championship.

“Coach Carter,” stars Jackson as a real-life high-school basketball mentor who shuts down the program to focus on his players’ lagging academic education.

The film debuted as the top weekend movie with $23.6 million, studio estimates released Sunday show.

The blockbuster comedy “Meet the Fockers,” which had been No. 1 for three straight weekends, slipped to second place with $19 million, lifting its total domestic gross to $230.8 million.

The family film “Racing Stripes,” a live-action and computer-animation combo about a talking zebra that yearns to be a racehorse, opened at No. 3 with $14 million.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released today.

1. “Coach Carter,” $23.6 million.

2. “Meet the Fockers,” $19 million.

3. “Racing Stripes,” $14 million.

4. “In Good Company,” $13.9 million.

5. “Elektra,” $12.5 million.

6. “White Noise,” 12.2 million.

7. “The Aviator,” $4.8 million.

8. “Lemony Snicket’s a Series of Unfortunate Events,” $4 million.

9. “The Phantom of the Opera,” $3.55 million.

10. “Ocean’s Twelve,” $2.9 million.

Benefit tally awaited

Los Angeles — Organizers of a national benefit for tsunami victims on Sunday awaited the final fund-raising tally from the two-hour televised concert that featured a galaxy of movie and music stars.

NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks said Sunday that the network would need two days to complete a tally of money collected during the program, which aired on NBC Universal-owned stations. All donations went to the American Red Cross International Response Fund.

During the telethon, actors told stories about the tsunami, and NBC showed pictures of the effects of the devastating waves and the agony of children left behind.

Among the male heartthrobs answering phones and taking pledges in the NBC Universal studios in Los Angeles: Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck, Nicolas Cage, Johnny Depp, George Clooney, Tom Selleck and James Caan.

Besides NBC, the program was carried on CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo, Telemundo, Pax TV, Trio and the Sci-Fi Channel.

The very model of dullness

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Gisele Bundchen may be a leggy Brazilian supermodel, but she’s no Bond girl. In fact, she’s says, she’s kind of dull.

Bundchen, at a news conference Friday, denied rumors she had been invited to play the love interest in the next James Bond film.

“I never received that invitation,” she said. “You know what happens? I’m a very boring person. I work a lot, I go home from work, I eat dinner, sleep.

“I don’t take drugs, I’m not scandalous. So people have to start inventing things about me to publish in the columns,” she said.

Gibson no farmer

Greenwich, Conn. — Mel Gibson has lost his bid to have a portion of his Connecticut estate classified as a farm.

The director of “The Passion of the Christ” asked to have 17 of his 75.7 acres in Greenwich taxed as farm land, but town officials rejected the request.

“Anyone can have a few pigs in their back yard, but a viable farm is more than having something for personal use,” town Assessor John “Ted” Gwartney said. “It’s about producing a viable product.”

Gibson would have saved about $10,000 per year in property taxes on his $17.7 million estate if granted the exemption for owners of working farms. His annual property tax bill is about $137,000, the Greenwich Time reported Thursday.

Besides a 28-room mansion, pool, tennis court and two guest houses, the property includes a barn where Gibson has kept sheep, donkeys and possibly chickens, town officials said.