After I got over the emotional experience of seeing America embrace an African American as its president, I found myself wondering: Did this election really represent a huge cultural triumph as well as a political mandate? That was a big reason why I spent Friday night with "Soul Men" producer David Friendly, watching him do what producers often do on their film's opening night, traveling around to local theaters to see whether their movie has any juice at the box office.

"Soul Men" isn't just any movie. It's a comedy starring two prominent African Americans, Sam Jackson and the late Bernie Mac, playing '70s-era backup singers who reluctantly reunite three decades later to play at a memorial concert for their old frontman. So it was an intriguing cultural test case: Would white audiences come out to watch an R-rated comedy with two black actors engaging in uproarious, but often barbed and profane insult humor? The box-office results provided a simple answer: No.

And here we were thinking that audiences just didn't want to see this movie! In fact, later in the piece, Goldstein admits that theaters at the Magic Johnson complex were only half-full for Soul Men's first 10:15 screening, suggesting that even black audiences weren't moved to see a film where the only surviving member of the main cast has a terrible, terrible goatee-type thing. Patrick, dump the politics-cum-pop analysis (we're still trying to shake off "Secret Life of Bees Buries the 'Bradley Effect'") and stick to what you do best: going out to lunch with producers you know, and occasionally basing an entire film's box office outlook on what a Brentwood nine-year-old had to say about it.

• 'Soul Men' delivers mixed verdict on Obama victory [LAT via Brendan Nyhan]

WHAT'S NEW: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa revives the DreamWorks zoo-animal-on-the-loose franchise this weekend in the hopes of pulling down as much as $60 million — which it might manage, considering High School Musical 3's slowed box-office pace in its third week. Universal deftly counterprogrammed David Wain's R-rated comedy Role Models, featuring Paul Rudd and Seann William Scott as would-be mentors to McLovin and a black kid whose best jokes you've probably already seen in the commercials. That shouldn't stop it from pulling down around $12.6 million while the screeching Madagascar throngs tear down the multiplex around it.

Also opening:Stranded: I've Come From a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains, the reenactment-heavy doc about cannibal survivors of a 1972 plane crash in the Andes; the Holocaust drama The Boy in the Striped Pajamas; and the goth horror-musical Repo! The Genetic Opera.

THE BIG LOSER: Maybe "loser" is too harsh an estimation of Soul Men's fate, but let's face it: If it weren't the final entry in both Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes's filmographies, it wouldn't likely fare in the top five on any weekend outside the dumping grounds of January or August. But as cynical, posthumous curios go, it'll draw, coaxing up to $9.5 million and possibly cracking the top three. Whatever sells, we suppose.

THE UNDERDOG: The documentary Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father defies conventional review, if only to preserve the mystery that makes it one of the year's most gripping and extraordinary films. The less you know about it, the better, but: Director Kurt Kuenne originally set out to chronicle the legacy of his childhood friend Andrew Bagby, who was murdered in 2001 by his ex-girlfriend Shirley Turner. When Turner fled to her native Newfoundland, pregnant with Bagby's child, Kuenne's personal film suddenly inherited a true-crime narrative laced with extradition battles, custody haggles and, ultimately, unbelievable tragedy. That it must be believed (and reckoned with, if you can) makes Dear Zachary an infuriating, devastating, graceful and utterly essential theatrical experience. Bring Kleenex.

FOR SHUT-INS: If you've managed to plow through last week's box-set bounty, reward yourself with last summer's Get Smart updating, Waterworld: The Extended Edition (!!!) or another complete-series windfall: The Wild Wild West, The Outer Limits, I Dream of Jeannie and/or Batman: The Complete Animated Series.

So after you check out Dear Zachary, what's next? Is anyone actually contemplating going, ahem, 2 Africa? Are you paying final, $10 respects to Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes? Or are you the one American in the market for an extended edition of Waterworld? Go ahead, be honest — we're all friends here.

"She was so freaked out, her eyes welled up, and she actually bit her nails at one point," says the spy. "When someone pretended to dump Estelle Getty's ashes on [30 Rock star] Jack McBrayer's head, Brooke got up and walked offstage."

"She watched the rest of the show from behind a curtain backstage, with a grimace."

Shields' spokesman said she left to talk to the writers before she was about to go on.

Content that her concerns were heard, Shields returned to the panel, only to once again storm off when a simple improv exercise solicited the suggestion of, "You're a frequent narrator! And you're in a 1997 Nissan Maxima!"

• Brooke Shields balks at 'dead' gag [NY Daily News]

Strange how many Billy Bob Thornton co-stars have died prematurely (Ritter, Bernie Mac, J.T. Walsh, Heath Ledger). Thank goodness Morgan Freeman (Levity) and Shia (Eagle Eye) survived their crashes and Patrick Swayze (Waking Up in Reno) is coming back from cancer or we'd be talking about the Billy Bob Curse. Not trying to make light, just think it's eerie.

And don't forget Jim Varney, whose final role before dying at 50 was Thornton's film Daddy and Them. Eerie, indeed — and we're not afraid to call it the curse that it is. So please see above for Defamer's unsettling reference to doomed and/or endangered Thornton castmates. And be careful, Hollywood!

• Bernie's Out [Hollywood Elsewhere]

• Bernie Mac dies at 50 [Chicago Tribune]
• Bernie Mac- Bad Ass Kids [YouTube]

"Christina Applegate was diagnosed with an early form of breast cancer. Benefiting from early detection through a doctor ordered MRI, the cancer is not life threatening."

The rep added: "Christina is following the recommended treatment of her doctors and will have a full recovery. No further statement will be issued at this time."

Meanwhile, TV Guide details how Mac was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia — though early rumors spread about a much worse fate for the actor:

Bernie Mac (Ocean's Eleven, The Bernie Mac Show) is responding well to treatment and should be released soon after being admitted Friday to a Chicago hospital with pneumonia. That said, a spokesperson for the comedian had to shoot down as "absolutely untrue" an early rumor that Mac in fact had passed on.

Mac, 50, has sarcoidosis (a chronic disease that can inflame tissue), but it has been in remission for years and is unrelated to the pneumonia.

The two television stars are currently enjoying a career renaissance: Applegate, with her Emmy-nominated role on Samantha Who, and Mac, who is currently working on his upcoming sitcom Starting Under. Good luck to both — now is it too much to ask for the celebrity maladies to let up for a little while?

[Photo Credit: AP]

• Christina Applegate Diagnosed with Breast Cancer [People]
• Bernie Mac "Responding Well" to Pneumonia Treatment [TV Guide]

· Fox is trying to retain the services of Mark Wahlberg for a feature adaptation of the video game Max Payne, hoping that the star will be able to out-act his grizzled digital counterpart. [Variety]
· In a fun bit of trivia, new Fox/Bernie Mac project Starting Under was the final TV pilot deal made before the strike began on Monday, slipping in under the wire late Friday. Where we you when the Last Pilot Ever was purchased? [Variety]