In 1992, John Gray’s relationship book “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” gave self-help romance seekers everything they wanted to know about the opposite sex. The book became a huge best-seller. But really, all anybody with a desire for romance needed to do was look at who goes to movies on Valentine’s Day, and why, to see just exactly what the opposite sex wanted.

That’s right. This weekend is THE WEEKEND for affairs of the heart, date nights and dinner-and-a-movie outings as V-Day hits calendars on Sunday. And movie ticket seller Fandango.com has polled moviegoers to see just exactly what they will go see in theaters. The results? Forty-two (42) percent of women want to go see the new movie, “Valentine’s Day” while 39 percent of men picked action-packed “Avatar,” which takes place on the faraway moon, Pandora.

In the pool, 92 percent of men say they are “willing to let their dates pick the movie” (Gee, awfully nice fellas), and 94 percent of men say that they do, in fact, actually pay for the trip to the theater (Now, that’s more like it guys).  And while 32 percent of women polled picked Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling in the weepy romance “The Notebook” (2004) as their favorite onscreen couple, 20 percent of men chose Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana in “Avatar.”

We wonder: where does that leave one of the other new movies this week, “The Wolfman“? Well, only 10 percent of men and 7 percent of women want to see that horror show, according to Fandango.  … Maybe a little too much hair. Now, if it were a blue-haired wolfman…

(video by Marc Price)

Los Angeles prosecutors finally had their day in court on Monday, when Dr. Conrad Murray — better known as Michael Jackson’s personal physician — was charged with involuntary manslaughter in the pop star’s sudden death. You can read about the charges here.

If you don’t already know about the case, LA coroners have said Jackson died of acute intoxication of an anesthetic drug called propofol, which is used in surgery. Dr. Murray has admitted giving the singer propofol on the day he died, according to court documents, but he has also said other doctors gave Jackson numerous drugs. Indeed, the coroner’s report said several drugs, including the sedative Lorazepam, were in Jackson’s system. You can read about the drugs in his system here.

Proving the case against Murray will be difficult, legal experts say, but far from impossible. Prosecutors have to make jurors believe that Murray’s actions in treating the singer were grossly negligent. “You got to remember, by definition, ‘involuntary’ means there was no intent to cause death. Essentially, it is an accidental death that is so aggravated (by Murray’s actions) that it becomes a crime,” said McGregor Scott of San Francisco-based firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles prosecutors on Monday plan to file a criminal case in the death of Michael Jackson that is expected to include a charge of involuntary manslaughter against the singer’s doctor.

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said on Friday details of its case would be released on Monday, and gave no further details.

But sources close to the case said Dr. Conrad Murray, who has been under investigation for months, would be charged with the crime of unlawfully killing another person without malice or intent. If convicted, he faces up to four years in jail.

A criminal case against Murray was widely expected to be filed this week because he has been in Los Angeles meeting with his legal team, and his attorney Ed Chernoff said the Houston cardiologist would surrender himself voluntarily if charged.

LOS ANGELES, Feb 5 (Reuters) – Los Angeles prosecutors on Monday plan to file a criminal case in the death of Michael Jackson that is expected to include a charge of involuntary manslaughter against the singer’s doctor.

The Los Angeles District Attorney’s office said on Friday details of its case would be released on Monday, and gave no further details.

But sources close to the case said Dr. Conrad Murray, who has been under investigation for months, would be charged with the crime of unlawfully killing another person without malice or intent. If convicted, he faces up to four years in jail.

A criminal case against Murray was widely expected to be filed this week because he has been in Los Angeles meeting with his legal team, and his attorney Ed Chernoff said the Houston cardiologist would surrender himself voluntarily if charged.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Fantasy “Avatar” and war movie “The Hurt Locker” claimed nine Oscar nominations each on Tuesday, including best film, pitting the two against one another as front-runners for the world’s highest film honors.

The contrast between the two presents several intriguing elements. “Avatar” director James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, his ex-wife and director of “Hurt Locker,” will compete against each other in the category for best director.

“Avatar” is a big-budget science-fiction space adventure from major studio 20th Century Fox with a global box office haul over $2 billion. It is the highest-grossing movie of all time — eclipsing Cameron’s previous blockbuster “Titanic.”

“This has gone way above our wildest expectations. We were looking to make a good movie that entertained the masses,” said “Avatar” producer Jon Landau, calling it “a pinch-me moment.”

Back in June, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said it would expand its list of best film Oscar contenders to 10 from five, then Academy President Sid Ganis told reporters doing so would “cast our net wider, and it casting that net wider, who knows what will turn up.” (Read about that here). Essentially, what that meant was the Academy wanted more populist fare among its nominees after years of seeing its membership favor low-budget adult dramas over box office hits like Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”

Why is that important? The Academy knows that nominating popular movies helps boost the audience size for the Oscar telecast. Last year, when “Slumdog Millionaire” was on a roll at box offices ($141 million), more than 38 million people tuned in to the Oscars compared with 32 million the previous year when gritty drama “No Country For Old Men” ($74 million) won best film. 

Luckily for the Academy, this year it has a box office smash and a critical hit on its hands in “Avatar” — the highest grossing movie of all time. But the film that pundits say is right behind is low-budget, art house flick “The Hurt Locker.” And heading into Tuesday’s Oscar nominations (read about them here), if you asked Oscar pundits who the top five films would have been, the would have said: “Inglourious Basterds,” “Up in the Air” and ”Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.” The fifth slot may have been a toss-up. Then again, it generally always is.

The point is, all five of those films were nominated, and likely only the two — “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” — stand a chance at winning, pundits say. So, having 10 nominees may not have changed a thing. But that is what insiders think. You are the fans. What do you think? Did the 10 matter, and does it make for a more exciting show? Put another way, is having “District 9″ among the nominees, for instance, really going to change the thinking among the 6,000 or so Academy members? Maybe not. But how about “The Blind Side”? And do movies like those make you  any more, or less, willing to tune in to the show on March 7?

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Fantasy “Avatar” and war movie “The Hurt Locker” claimed nine Oscar nominations each on Tuesday, including best film, pitting the two against one another as front-runners for the world’s highest film honors.

The contrast between the two presents several intriguing elements. “Avatar” director James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, his ex-wife and director of “Hurt Locker,” will compete against each other in the category for best director.

“Avatar” is a big-budget science-fiction space adventure from major studio 20th Century Fox with a global box office haul over $2 billion. It is the highest-grossing movie of all time — eclipsing Cameron’s previous blockbuster “Titanic.”

“This has gone way above our wildest expectations. We were looking to make a good movie that entertained the masses,” said “Avatar” producer Jon Landau, calling it “a pinch-me moment.”

LOS ANGELES, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Fantasy “Avatar” and war movie “The Hurt Locker” claimed nine Oscar nominations each on Tuesday, including best film, pitting the two against one another as front-runners for the world’s highest film honors.

The contrast between the two presents several intriguing elements. “Avatar” director James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow, his ex-wife and director of “Hurt Locker,” will compete against each other in the category for best director.

“Avatar” is a big-budget science-fiction space adventure from major studio 20th Century Fox with a global box office haul over $2 billion. It is the highest-grossing movie of all time — eclipsing Cameron’s previous blockbuster “Titanic.”

“This has gone way above our wildest expectations. We were looking to make a good movie that entertained the masses,” said “Avatar” producer Jon Landau, calling it “a pinch-me moment.”

If you’ve been reading our coverage of the 2010 Sundance Film Festival (and we certainly hope so, otherwise our boss won’t pay for a return trip in 2011), you know by now that this year event organizers were promoting a return to a rebelliousness among independent filmmakers — those people making movies outside Hollywood’s major studios. The words “rebel,” “rework,” “rebirth,” and others figure prominently on Sundance posters, t-shirts, film trailers and the like. If you haven’t been reading about it, click here and here.

So the natural question all week has been, “do this year’s films exemplify a renewed indie spirit?” The answer depends on how you look at it. In the opening day press conference, even Sundance founder Robert Redford and festival director John Cooper seemed to disagree with Redford calling it a festival of rebirth for that independent spirit and Cooper thinking it was more a renewal of Sundance’s pledge to promote fresh, new voices in cinema. Rebirth or renewal? … TomAIto or TomAUto.

Here’s what we think. Sundance is first and foremost about films and filmmaking, say it’s organizers. So, what about the movies? Many are about the same, and a few will always be different — as different as the people who made them and how audiences perceive them. We ask: how was “Buried,” about a Iraq war contractor buried alive, any different from 2003’s “Open Water,” about a pair of scuba divers stranded in the middle of the ocean when their tourist boat leaves them? Both take us on horrific journeys that lead to personal introspection, but “Buried” also preys upon our feelings about the years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan. So that’s a little different, yes. Movie watching is subjective and, as Joseph Gordon-Levitt (you can call him Joe) told us, a new movie is often about taking an old idea and “putting your own, unique spin on it.” Read our Q&A with Joe here.

The marketplace for buying and selling movies here has changed, somewhat. Gone is the notion that the “indie” label could sell anything, and it has been replaced by a more pragmatic business sense. And, after a tough 2009 market, several movies including “Blue Valentine,” “happythankyoumoreplease,” “Hesher” and “Winter’s Bone” found distributors in the festival’s final days.  The investor money is out there to fuel the market, industry veterans here say, but the players at the table are making smarter decisions about how much to invest and where to put their money. Read about that here.

PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) – “Winter’s Bone,” a stark tale of a young woman trying to keep her family together, and Afghanistan war documentary “Restrepo” won top awards at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday,

“Winter’s Bone” earned two prizes, best drama film by the Sundance jury of industry professionals and screenwriting for co-writer and director Debra Granik at the top U.S. gathering for independent movies.

“Restrepo,” which tells of a year in the life of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, earned the jury prize for best documentary for filmmakers Sebastian Junger (author of “The Perfect Storm”) and Tim Hetherington.

“This country’s in a very painful moment, we’re in the middle of two wars,” Junger said on stage, accepting his award. “If our movie can help this country understand how to go forward, we would be incredibly honored by that.”