Why scandal-tinged Berlusconi still beloved of many Italians

ROME (Reuters) - They call themselves "the club". A doctor, a business-owner, pensioners and engineers - united by their support for one of Europe's most controversial politicians, Silvio Berlusconi.
"We are all Berlusconiani. We do not want Monti. We don't want someone who takes orders from Brussels," said teacher Annalisa Lillo, 49, in the Rome antiques shop where the club meets to discuss politics in the evenings.
Outsiders might struggle to understand the continued appeal of the four-time, scandal-ridden prime minister, driven from office a year ago at the height of Italy's economic crisis.
But while support for his People of Freedom party is half what it once was, it still commands 16.5 percent and remains a formidable player as Italy prepares for elections in February.
Fuelled by cake and glasses of sparkling wine, members lobby politicians, attend pro-Berlusconi rallies and scrub off anti-Berlusconi graffiti in the neighborhood where they meet.
On one evening, about 20 men and women between 25 and 75 sat in a circle on assorted antique furniture discussing Berlusconi's return to the leadership of the PDL.
"He knows the pulse of Italians," said 39-year old engineer Alessio Brugnoli. "Berlusconi is the obligatory choice."
THAT OLD MAGIC
One poll showed PDL support rose three points in the week after he announced his candidacy, proving there is life in the old man yet and it would be rash to underestimate him.
"Berlusconi is an unusual politician. He's a businessman. He's not in politics to claim expenses and get an official car. He lives, works to help businesses," pensioner Augusto Senesi said. "You cannot say he damaged the country."
The media mogul's campaign began in earnest this week when he rallied his ample resources to fill the airwaves with the time-worn tenets of his sales pitch: anti-tax, pro-business, and anti-communist.
He is making the most of the fact that on Monday, Italians had to pay a hated property tax re-introduced by Monti's government. Berlusconi has promised to cancel it.
He illustrated what he sees as a communist threat in an interview on Sunday with a story about a Soviet Union family massacred to force them to reveal the whereabouts of a bishop.
This might seem odd to those outside Italy but it emphasized the Marxist origins of much of the country's political left and deftly played on old fears among his conservative voters.
His enormous media control ensures that his point of view - for example, that the many court cases against him stem from a left-wing judicial conspiracy - get substantial airing.
But, as it did in the Arab Spring protests, new media are becoming an unfettered forum for alternative views in Italy.
After a microphone picked up Berlusconi instructing his interviewer what question to ask next, thousands of mocking Tweets kept the journalist's name trending on Twitter.
CONSPIRACIES
On one issue the club is unanimous: that the replacement of Berlusconi with the Monti government was a coup d'etat by nebulous forces in Brussels and possibly orchestrated with the deliberate collusion of financial markets.
"Berlusconi was democratically elected. This has been a dark phase of democracy. Twelve months of horror. Europe set us up," said 34-year-old engineer Marco Ajello.
Berlusconi insists he supports a strong pan-European foreign policy, but he intersperses those claims with tirades against "German-imposed austerity" and the "rigging" of the European Union to favor northern member countries.
"Look, if you add it up, over the last 10 years Italy has lost out from the euro," engineer Ajello said.
Berlusconi had said he would withdraw to support Monti if he ran at the head of coalition of the centre-right and moderates.
Yet this thought horrifies the club, who believe the PDL lost support because it cooperated with Monti - the darling of the international financial community - for too long.
As Italy awaits Monti's decision on whether he will run, expected this weekend, polls show he commands much more support among leftist voters than on the right.
He could split the main centre-left Democratic Party's (PD) dominant voting bloc of more than 30 percent, says James Walston, politics professor at the American University of Rome.
Berlusconi is now on trial on charges of paying for sex with an minor during one of the so-called "Bunga Bunga" parties at his plush residences.
He has denied any wrongdoing in that case and in others where he has been accused of corruption and tax fraud, decrying what he says is a politically motivated war against him by leftist magistrates.
Many Italians do not believe him. But as far as the zealots of "the club" are concerned, he is preaching to the converted.

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South Africa's soothing Ramaphosa leads ANC charm offensive

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling ANC put its new No. 2 Cyril Ramaphosa at the head of a charm offensive on Friday as it sought to reassure both investors and a restless public it would tackle economic inequality without recourse to wholescale nationalization.
Days after his appointment as party deputy to President Jacob Zuma, who was re-elected ANC chief this week, the anti-apartheid hero and businessman laid out the party's strategic priorities.
Appearing at a business breakfast with Zuma and other ANC leaders elected at a conference in Bloemfontein, Ramaphosa stressed the ruling party backed a mixed economy model.
But he added the state would intervene to ensure the country's wealth was better shared.
"Within a mixed economy, the state has a role to play. It intervenes and the private sector also has a role," Ramaphosa said, wearing like Zuma a red tie with his dark business suit.
The return of Ramaphosa to the ANC leadership will allow the party to capitalize on his experience and reputation for integrity. His popularity rests on both his history as an anti-apartheid mineworkers' champion in the 1980s and his current pro-business credentials as South Africa's second wealthiest black entrepreneur.
The ANC had its 100th anniversary this year. But Nelson Mandela's liberation movement has been split by feuding and has faced a groundswell of popular anger against graft, cronyism and widespread poverty and unemployment in Africa's biggest economy.
Deadly strikes swept the mines this year in the worst labor violence since the end of apartheid in 1994. It led to damaging credit downgrades for South Africa and questions whether 70-year-old Zuma, who has faced a slew of corruption and personal scandals, can effectively lead the party and country.
Ramaphosa warmed to his new role on Friday as he finessed the ANC's main economic policy takeaway from Bloemfontein. This was a decision to shun "classic, wholesale nationalization" but for the state to intervene selectively in the economy where necessary in key areas such as mining and infrastructure.
Rejecting charges the ANC was "confused" on nationalization, whose defenders at the conference were soundly defeated, Ramaphosa invoked the party's 1955 Freedom Charter that declares "the people shall share in the wealth of the country".
"Now the ANC's duty is to make sure that is fulfilled, and fulfilling that would mean that in certain areas the state intervenes," he said, giving the examples of a state mining company set up by the government and intervention to ensure that prices of drugs for HIV/AIDS sufferers remain affordably low.
Ramaphosa's elevation was welcomed in business circles.
Moody's, which with another credit rating agency has punished South Africa for its mining and leadership woes, said the ANC platform looked "more investor- and business-friendly than had generally been anticipated prior to the conference".
South Africa's Business Day newspaper said in an editorial: "Mr. Ramaphosa's re-entry into party politics represents a victory for those dealing and negotiating in the real world, rather than in the world of ideological illusion."
WANTED: A PROSPEROUS SOUTH AFRICA
But the Chamber of Mines and Moody's said questions remained about how the government would intervene in the mining sector, and what additional taxes it might levy there. The ANC has also raised the idea of export curbs on minerals.
It also remained to be seen whether Ramaphosa, who has maintained a wealthy lifestyle in recent years far from his origins in the anti-apartheid workers' struggle, can connect with the mass of voters who are poor and unemployed.
His comeback puts him in line for a possible future bid for the South African presidency currently held by Zuma who, if he remains the party candidate, is virtually assured of re-election as head of state in the next national vote in 2014.
At this week's ANC conference, Zuma crushed a half-hearted leadership bid from Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, whose challenge grouped a loose alliance of opponents of the Zuma presidency. This included advocates of more radical policies such as nationalization and seizure of white-owned farm land.
Asked about the ANC's future ideological direction, Zuma replied: "Ideologically, we want a prosperous South Africa."
He also made clear he would not immediately replace Deputy President Motlanthe with Ramaphosa in the cabinet.
Zuma, who took the party leadership from former President Thabo Mbeki at a 2007 ANC conference, acknowledged one of the party's biggest tasks was to address the popular clamor for better services, improved livelihoods and more jobs.
"There's a huge backlog there we have to deal with," he said.
Although Zuma denied any internal purge of top figures who had opposed him, some of these, such as Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, were dropped from the new ANC National Executive Committee (NEC).
Re-elected ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe made clear the party took a dim view of attempts to divide it, for example from expelled former Youth League leader Julius Malema. "If you mess up the ANC, the ANC messes you up," he said.

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S.Africa's soothing Ramaphosa leads ANC charm offensive

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling ANC put its new No. 2 Cyril Ramaphosa at the head of a charm offensive on Friday as it sought to reassure both investors and a restless public it would tackle economic inequality without recourse to wholescale nationalisation.
Days after his appointment as party deputy to President Jacob Zuma, who was re-elected ANC chief this week, the anti-apartheid hero and businessman laid out the party's strategic priorities.
Appearing at a business breakfast with Zuma and other ANC leaders elected at a conference in Bloemfontein, Ramaphosa stressed the ruling party backed a mixed economy model.
But he added the state would intervene to ensure the country's wealth was better shared.
"Within a mixed economy, the state has a role to play. It intervenes and the private sector also has a role," Ramaphosa said, wearing like Zuma a red tie with his dark business suit.
The return of Ramaphosa to the ANC leadership will allow the party to capitalise on his experience and reputation for integrity. His popularity rests on both his history as an anti-apartheid mineworkers' champion in the 1980s and his current pro-business credentials as South Africa's second wealthiest black entrepreneur.
The ANC had its 100th anniversary this year. But Nelson Mandela's liberation movement has been split by feuding and has faced a groundswell of popular anger against graft, cronyism and widespread poverty and unemployment in Africa's biggest economy.
Deadly strikes swept the mines this year in the worst labour violence since the end of apartheid in 1994. It led to damaging credit downgrades for South Africa and questions whether 70-year-old Zuma, who has faced a slew of corruption and personal scandals, can effectively lead the party and country.
Ramaphosa warmed to his new role on Friday as he finessed the ANC's main economic policy takeaway from Bloemfontein. This was a decision to shun "classic, wholesale nationalisation" but for the state to intervene selectively in the economy where necessary in key areas such as mining and infrastructure.
Rejecting charges the ANC was "confused" on nationalisation, whose defenders at the conference were soundly defeated, Ramaphosa invoked the party's 1955 Freedom Charter that declares "the people shall share in the wealth of the country".
"Now the ANC's duty is to make sure that is fulfilled, and fulfilling that would mean that in certain areas the state intervenes," he said, giving the examples of a state mining company set up by the government and intervention to ensure that prices of drugs for HIV/AIDS sufferers remain affordably low.
Ramaphosa's elevation was welcomed in business circles.
Moody's, which with another credit rating agency has punished South Africa for its mining and leadership woes, said the ANC platform looked "more investor- and business-friendly than had generally been anticipated prior to the conference".
South Africa's Business Day newspaper said in an editorial: "Mr. Ramaphosa's re-entry into party politics represents a victory for those dealing and negotiating in the real world, rather than in the world of ideological illusion."
WANTED: A PROSPEROUS SOUTH AFRICA
But the Chamber of Mines and Moody's said questions remained about how the government would intervene in the mining sector, and what additional taxes it might levy there. The ANC has also raised the idea of export curbs on minerals.
It also remained to be seen whether Ramaphosa, who has maintained a wealthy lifestyle in recent years far from his origins in the anti-apartheid workers' struggle, can connect with the mass of voters who are poor and unemployed.
His comeback puts him in line for a possible future bid for the South African presidency currently held by Zuma who, if he remains the party candidate, is virtually assured of re-election as head of state in the next national vote in 2014.
At this week's ANC conference, Zuma crushed a half-hearted leadership bid from Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, whose challenge grouped a loose alliance of opponents of the Zuma presidency. This included advocates of more radical policies such as nationalisation and seizure of white-owned farm land.
Asked about the ANC's future ideological direction, Zuma replied: "Ideologically, we want a prosperous South Africa."
He also made clear he would not immediately replace Deputy President Motlanthe with Ramaphosa in the cabinet.
Zuma, who took the party leadership from former President Thabo Mbeki at a 2007 ANC conference, acknowledged one of the party's biggest tasks was to address the popular clamour for better services, improved livelihoods and more jobs.
"There's a huge backlog there we have to deal with," he said.
Although Zuma denied any internal purge of top figures who had opposed him, some of these, such as Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale and Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula, were dropped from the new ANC National Executive Committee (NEC).
Re-elected ANC Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe made clear the party took a dim view of attempts to divide it, for example from expelled former Youth League leader Julius Malema. "If you mess up the ANC, the ANC messes you up," he said.

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Fiscal cliff setback rattles shares, euro

LONDON (Reuters) - Global stock markets weakened on Friday and both the euro and gold slipped, as a new setback in talks to avert a U.S. fiscal crisis and evidence of Europe's ongoing economic difficulties stoked investor nerves.

A proposal from Republican leader John Boehner to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff failed to get support from his party on Thursday, casting fresh uncertainty over talks to avoid across-the-board tax hikes and spending cuts that could push the U.S. economy into recession in 2013.

Anxiety was exacerbated by weaker-than-expected data from key corners of Europe, as German consumer morale dropped to its lowest level in more than a year, Britain revised down growth figures and Sweden slashed its economic forecasts.

The combined worries prompted widespread selling in most major stock markets and saw investors head for traditional safe-haven assets.

The dollar and yen and U.S. and German Government bonds all rose as falls on London <.ftse>, Paris <.fchi> and Frankfurt <.gdaxi> equity markets compounded tumbles in Asia to leave MSCI's global index <.miwd00000pus> down 0.4 percent.

Futures prices also pointed to sharp falls when trading resumes on Wall Street later, with the S&P 500 Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 all seen losing around 1.4 percent.

Nevertheless, European and global share indices remain on course for their fifth straight week of gains. In the U.S., the S&P 500 is up about 1.8 percent so far this week and 14.8 percent on the year.

"Risk assets look vulnerable over the holiday trading period. The recent performance of key benchmarks has priced in a satisfactory outcome to the U.S. fiscal discussions, which is far from a done deal," said Peel Hunt strategist Ian Williams.

Boehner will hold a news conference at 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), likely to focus on the budget wrangling.

Bickering U.S. politicians have only 10 days left to resolve their differences and prevent automatic tax hikes and spending cuts worth around $600 billion kicking in in the new year.

Most observers are still assuming the two sides will avert disaster but tensions are likely to intensify over the normally quiet Christmas period as the deadline draws near.

"The markets are likely to interpret this as signaling even tougher negotiations in coming days," Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive of bond giant PIMCO, told Reuters.

CLIFF HANGER

Oil and gold were also caught up in the U.S. disappointment. Brent crude oil fell more than $1 per barrel before clawing back some ground. Bullion pared earlier losses but remained on track for its steepest weekly drop since June.

"The market volume is thin amidst all these uncertainties, and the year is coming to an end. Many of the investors prefer to take profits and just leave the market," said Brian Lan, managing director of GoldSilver Central Pte Ltd in Singapore.

In currency markets, strengthening appetite for safe-haven assets saw the yen firm and the highly liquid U.S. dollar <.dxy> climb 0.2 percent against a basket of key currencies.

At the same time, concerns over the U.S. impasse dented demand for so-called high-beta currencies that tend to rise or fall with the global growth outlook, such as the Australian dollar and euro.

Weaker German data, which saw consumer confidence unexpectedly drop for a fourth month running, kept downward pressure on the euro which retreated further from a 8-1/2 month high hit earlier in the week, to stand at $1.3200.

"This is a classic risk-off trading environment where the yen did best, followed by the dollar, and higher-beta currencies underperformed," said Audrey Childe-Freeman, head of FX strategy at BMO Capital Markets.

"We have had a very good run in the euro and what we are seeing at the moment is a little bit of profit-taking triggered by disappointment in the fiscal cliff discussions."

CAUTION

Caution also prevailed in Europe's bond markets, where German government bonds climbed at the expense of recently resurgent euro zone periphery debt.

Other safe-haven bonds followed the trend, with U.S. 10-year Treasury yields dipping from an 8-week high hit this week to 1.74 percent and 10-year Japanese yields inching down 0.765 percent.

Jim Barnes, senior fixed income manager at National Penn Investors Trust Co. in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, saw Treasuries continuing to gain once U.S. markets open later, but expected a correction by the end of the day.

"Treasury yields will likely fall Friday morning and will begin to reverse course in the afternoon as investors become more optimistic a deal will be reached," Barnes said.

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UK data point to meager growth, public finances worsen

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's dominant services sector posted meager growth in October, which may be just enough for the economy as a whole to avoid contraction in the last three months of 2012.
However, public borrowing figures also released on Friday showed that finance minister George Osborne has a lot of catching up to do to meet updated forecasts published earlier this month given the poor economic outlook.
The Office for National Statistics said services output grew 0.1 percent on the month in October, recovering from a 0.6 percent drop in September.
However, this is far behind the 1.2 percent growth that the sector enjoyed in the third quarter, which helped drive an overall 0.9 percent expansion in the economy as a whole in the three months to the end of September.
"It's not a great number but it is positive and it is better than the decline that had been expected," Ross Walker, an economist at Royal Bank of Scotland, said about October's services number.
"On the basis of all the published data it looks like the fourth quarter will be broadly flat, rather than negative."
Revised ONS figures published on Friday confirmed that third-quarter gross domestic product growth was the strongest since the third quarter of 2007. But much of that reflected a one-off boost from the London Olympics and a rebound from the second quarter when an extra public holiday dented output.
GDP in the third quarter was unchanged on the year, a small revision from the fall that the ONS had previously estimated.
The Bank of England and the government's forecasting body, the Office for Budget Responsibility, have both said a small quarterly contraction in the fourth quarter is likely.
Britain suffered its second recession since the financial crisis between late 2011 and mid-2012, and overall has recovered much more slowly since 2009 than most other big economies.
The BoE and other forecasters expect little in the way of a pick-up in the immediate future, given the weak global economy, government spending cuts and relatively high inflation.
"The economy faces a difficult-looking 2013 and we suspect it will only manage to eke out growth of 1.1 percent," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight.
Recent ONS data has shown contraction in the retail and industrial sectors in the first part of the fourth quarter, though construction - which has been a major drag on GDP - appears to be stabilizing.
A GfK consumer confidence survey released earlier on Friday showed an unexpectedly sharp fall in morale.
Friday's GDP figures showed that the household savings ratio rose to 7.7 percent, its highest since the third quarter of 2009, suggesting an unwillingness to spend and a desire to pay down debts.
TRADE GAP NARROWS
One bright spot was third-quarter current account data, which showed Britain's deficit with the rest of the world narrowed more than expected to 12.8 billion pounds, equivalent to 3.3 percent of GDP, from 17.4 billion in the second quarter.
But Britain's government borrowed more than expected in November as government spending rose while a weak economy meant tax receipts fell compared to a year earlier.
Public sector net borrowing excluding financial sector interventions - the government's preferred measure - rose last month to 17.5 billion pounds from 16.3 billion in November 2011.
This was above economists' average forecast for 16.0 billion pounds and took borrowing in the fiscal year to date to 92.7 billion pounds, excluding the transfer of Royal Mail pension assets, up from 84.4 billion at the same point in 2011.
The OBR forecast earlier this month that the borrowing measure would reach 108.5 billion pounds this financial year, equivalent to 6.9 percent of GDP.
To meet this forecast, the deficit would have to fall 10.8 percent on the year, but so far in 2012, it is 9.9 percent higher than last year.
When the government came to power in 2010, it planned to largely eliminate the budget deficit by 2015 with spending cuts and tax rises. But a weak economy has since forced it to extend austerity until 2018.

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Naomi Watts pulls off "The Impossible" to critical acclaim

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Days after the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, actress Naomi Watts took part in a fundraising telethon spearheaded by George Clooney to help the region's hundreds of thousands of people in 14 nations whose lives were shattered.

Little did Watts know that eight years later she would be starring in "The Impossible," out in the U.S. movie theaters on Friday, about a real family's experience in Thailand. The tsunami and earthquake killed more than 5,000 people, and resulted in 2,800 missing in that country alone.

Yet when the actress was first approached to star in the film, directed by Spanish filmmaker Juan Antonio Bayona, she hesitated.

"I thought, how do you make a movie about a tsunami without it becoming some sort of spectacular disaster movie?" Watts, 44, told Reuters. "That would be so wrong."

However once Watts read the script, she said was moved by the story based on the real-life Spanish family of Maria Belon, her husband Enrique Alvarez - played by Ewan McGregor in the movie - and their three sons.

Belon's family were spending their Christmas holiday in Thailand when the tsunami hit. The film follows their struggle to survive, injured and separated, in the aftermath and their perseverance in finding each other amidst the chaos.

"I felt a huge amount of pressure because of the responsibility to Maria's story," said Watts. "And on her back, she carries the stories of everybody else because hers is connected to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. I felt a sense of responsibility."

PLAUDITS FOR WATTS' PERFORMANCE

The British-born, Australian actress delivered, despite her fears. So far, her performance has earned Watts best actress nominations from the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

The New York Observer wrote in its review that "Watts seems almost spiritually committed to her role" while The Hollywood Reporter said she "packs a huge charge of emotion as the battered, ever-weakening Maria whose tears of pain and fear never appear fake or idealized."

Watts credits the real Maria Belon for being "an open book" when it came to recalling her personal experience during that harrowing time.

The two met before shooting began, and Belon was on the film set. Belon, a physician in Spain, also wrote detailed letters chronicling her experience, including taking refuge in a tree and the Thai villagers who discovered her weak and injured body.

One of the more challenging aspects of the shoot was recreating the tsunami, a 10-minute sequence in the film that Watts said took six weeks to shoot on location in Spain. Rather than creating the tidal wave digitally, actors were anchored in water tanks with the current pushing at them and "debris being chucked at you."

Watts said that while the challenge of shooting the sequence was incomparable to the suffering of those who went through the ordeal in 2004, it was "physically the most demanding thing I've ever done."

There was much more dialogue scripted during that sequence but "you were struggling to breathe and we quickly learned that once you open your mouth, water is going in and nothing is coming out.

"Though it was difficult, I'm grateful we got that kind of level of fear and intensity," she added.

What offset the intensity during the shoot was having her sons Sasha, 5, and Sammy, 4, visiting Watts on the set. "We had them paint stuff on themselves like scars and wounds, then rub them off so they could see it wasn't real," recalled Watts.

It's a far cry from the way she used to approach her work before having kids, such as her Oscar-nominated performance as a grief-stricken mother the 2003 film "21 Grams."

"I was taking everything home with me, staying up all hours, writing, thinking, researching ... just living with torment," Watts recalled of that time. "I can't live like that at this point in my life with little ones. I am a mom of two small kids and once I put the key in the door, it's my duty to be totally present."

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"Zero Dark Thirty" won't be "Hurt Locker" at the Box Office

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden manhunt thriller "Zero Dark Thirty" hits theaters Wednesday, and when it comes to the box office, this isn't going to be "Hurt Locker."

That was Bigelow's last film, a gritty Iraq war drama that upset "Avatar" for Oscar's Best Picture in 2009 but took in just $17 million domestically. "Zero Dark Thirty" could well top $100 million, say industry analysts - and if the awards season breaks the right way for the Oscar Best Picture front-runner, it could go higher than that.

"ZDT" and this year's winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, "Amour," are making limited debuts Wednesday, while the Barbra Streisand-Seth Rogen comedy "Guilt Trip" and a 3D re-release of "Monsters Inc." go into wide release.

Six more movies will roll out on Friday, including Judd Apatow's "This Is 40" and the Tom Cruise starrer "Jack Reacher," in what Hollywood is hoping will be a very busy pre-holiday week at the box office.

In the course of detailing the killing of Bin Laden, "ZDT" is an examination of the nation's war on terror, its prosecution and its effect on America's collective psyche, and that will help, not hurt, the film at the box office, Exhibitor Relations Senior analyst Jeff Bock told TheWrap.

"This movie is about the biggest American war story since Pearl Harbor," Bock said. "The American people are at a place now where they are ready to look back and really think about what we've been through.

"This movie, particularly if it keeps getting awards buzz, is going to be talked about everywhere, and if you want to have an opinion, you're going to have to see it."

Despite all the newcomers arriving Wednesday and Friday, Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" is expected to continue dominating. It took in about $7 million Monday - on the heels of its $85 million debut weekend - and should cross the $100 million mark Tuesday

Sony Classic is rolling out "Amour," Michael Haneke's dark and unsparing look at old age and death, at two theaters in New York and one in L.A. The French-language film was recently named the best film of 2012 by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, giving it an important boost during a season in which its chances outside the Oscar foreign-language category hinge on getting Academy voters to see it.

That honor stopped an awards run by "Zero Dark Thirty," which Sony is rolling out on five screens. The intense tale had won the top award with the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, the Boston Film Critics Society and the New York Film Critics Online.

"ZDT" was produced by Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures for about $45 million.

Sony's plan is to go wide with it release on January 11 after the Academy Award nominations.

Beside the film itself and director Bigelow, her producing partner Mark Boal is a good bet for an Best Adapted Screenplay nomination, as is Jessica Chastain in the Best Actress category. All of those earned Golden Globes nominations in those categories.

The gritty and gripping tale is a critical favorite - it has a 97.7 percent rating at Movie Review Intelligence - but a lightning rod for political criticism, from both the left and right of the political spectrum. Some critics have charged the film is an apology for U.S. interrogation tactics that included waterboarding, while others say it's intended to boost the image of President Obama.

"Our agenda isn't a partisan agenda - it's an agenda of trying to look behind the scenes at what went down," screenwriter Boal told TheWrap earlier. "Hopefully art or cinema can present a point of view that's a little above the political fray, but that doesn't mean the political narrative doesn't try to assert itself and pull you back in."

"Amour" is a co-production between companies in Austria, France and Germany. It is Austria's entry and a favorite in Oscar's Best Foreign Language category, and it has a shot at a Best Picture nomination, too.

Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva star as Anne and George, an elderly couple who are retired music teachers and have a daughter (Isabelle Huppert) living abroad. The story, which Haneke wrote and directed based on a similar experience in his own family, focuses on what happens when Anne suffers a stroke.

It was nominated in six categories at the recent European Film Awards and won four, including Best Film and Best Director. The L.A. Film Critics named the 85-year-old Riva co-Best Actress (with Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook"), and she has an outside shot an Oscar nomination in that category.

"Guilt Trip" is Streisand's first film foray since "Little Fockers," which debuted around the same time of year in 2010 for Universal - and her first starring role since 1996's "The Mirror Has Two Faces."

"Little Fockers," a sequel to "Meet the Fockers," opened to $30 million and went on to make $148 million. Distributor Paramount will be happy if the PG13-rated "Guilt Trip," which will be on about 2,300 screens, can match half that debut." The analysts are looking for it to wind up around $12 million.

It's one of three Paramount releases this week; the Tom Cruise thriller "Jack Reacher" and concert film "Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away" debut Friday.

"They all play to distinctly different demographics, Paramount's head of distribution Don Harris told TheWrap, "so other than being really busy, we don't have any problem with these three all in the marketplace."

What could provide some tough competition is Judd Apatow's R-rated comedy "This Is 40," which Universal is rolling out on roughly 2,900 screens Friday.

Disney will have its 3D version of its 2001 animated hit "Monsters Inc." in 2,400 theaters. It will be the third 3D re-release of a Disney film this year. The first two did unspectacular but solid business, particularly when you consider the only cost to the studio is the 3D conversion and marketing.

A 3D version of "Beauty and the Beast" debuted to $17 million in July and went on to make $47 million. In September, a converted "Finding Nemo" took in $16 million in its first week and wound up at $41 million.

Between "The Hobbit," the holdover kids holiday film "Rise of the "Monsters Inc." and a very crowded marketplace, "Monster Inc." will have a tough time matching those numbers.

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Jonathan Groff to voice mountain man in Disney's "Frozen"

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Jonathan Groff, who has taken his pristine pipes for a walk on "Glee," will voice a mountain man in "Frozen."

The animated comedy adventure will hit the big screen on November 27, 2013, courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios. He joins Idina Menzel in the loose adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen."

The story centers on a girl who travels across an icy land to reverse a curse that has been cast on her by an evil queen. Groff's outdoorsman and his one-antlered reindeer help her on her quest.

Groff also appeared on Broadway in "Spring Awakening" and in the Public Theater's revival of "Hair."

Other credits include Ang Lee's "Taking Woodstock" and recurring roles on Starz's "Boss" and CBS' "The Good Wife."

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"Breakfast at Tiffany's," "Dirty Harry" among U.S. film treasures

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. National Film Registry on Wednesday named 25 films to be preserved as cultural treasures, ranging from Audrey Hepburn's 1961 classic "Breakfast at Tiffany's" to Clint Eastwood's "Dirty Harry" and the sci-fi action movie "The Matrix."

The film list also includes the 1992 female ensemble comedy drama, "A League of Their Own," directed by Penny Marshall, and "Born Yesterday," which starred Judy Holliday and was released in 1950, and the 1983 holiday classic "A Christmas Story."

The list includes Hollywood classics, documentaries, early films, and independent and experimental motion pictures spanning the years 1897-1999.

It goes back as far "The Corbett-Fitzsimmons Title Fight" - independently produced motion picture recordings of famous boxing contests from 1897 - and to 1914, when "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "The Wishing Ring; An Idyll of Old England" were released.

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"Les Miserables" Star Samantha Barks in Talks for 'Walking on Sunshine'

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "Les Misérables" star Samantha Barks is in talks to join the cast of "Walking on Sunshine," a musical comedy set to 1980s pop songs, a person with knowledge of the situation has told TheWrap.

The 22-year-old actress made her big-screen debut in Tom Hooper's screen version of "Les Miz," playing Eponine, repeating the role she played on stage in London's West End.

"Walking on Sunshine" will star Kylie Minogue and is set to be directed by Max Giwa and Dania Pasquini, whose previous credits include "StreetDance 3D." Vertigo Films is producing. IM Global is handling sales of the film.

"Walking on Sunshine" tells the story of a mother and daughter who fall in love with the same man in Spain. John O'Connell ("Moulin Rouge") will serve as the musical choreographer.

Barks trained at the Arts Educational school in her native Britain, before entering a BBC talent search for Cameron Mackintosh's "Oliver!" Her television credits include Zoe in the Disney TV series "Groove High."

She is represented by WME, which declined to comment.

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