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Sideshow: Weekend box bigger than all the rest

With an estimated $278 million in total box office, Hollywood posted its biggest-ever weekend. Avatar, filmmaker James Cameron's 3-D epic, led the way by earning $75 million for 20th Century Fox, only a 3 percent drop from its opening-weekend total of $77

With an estimated $278 million in total box office, Hollywood posted its biggest-ever weekend.

Avatar

, filmmaker

James Cameron

's 3-D epic, led the way by earning $75 million for 20th Century Fox, only a 3 percent drop from its opening-weekend total of $77.4 million.

Sherlock Holmes

, with

Robert Downey Jr.

and

Jude Law

, followed with $65.4 million, setting a record Christmas debut of $24.9 million.

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

took in $50.2 million, followed by

It's Complicated

and

Up in the Air

. The previous weekend record was set in July 2008 when

The Dark Knight

was released.

Madea is coming

Madea, the sharp-tongued matriarch created by movie producer and actor

Tyler Perry

, will tour in the new year. On his Web site Saturday, Perry wrote that he had taken some time off in the last few months to "spend my mother's final days at her side." His mother, Willie Maxine Perry, 64, died Dec. 8. In a new play,

Madea's Big Happy Family,

Perry will portray the character on stage for the first time in five years.

Other people's kids

Apparently riled by children screaming and running up the aisle,

Ivana Trump

became belligerent and was escorted off a plane at Palm Beach (Fla.) International Airport. Authorities say she cussed at the children on a flight to New York.

She refused to leave the plane voluntarily and was escorted off by Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies.

Her spokeswoman did not immediately return a telephone message. Trump had not been charged in the incident as of yesterday.

Folk-rocker Chesnutt dies

Vic Chesnutt,

45, whose sometimes dark reflections on life were influenced in part by a car wreck that left him paralyzed, died on Christmas, his record label, Constellation Records, said on its Web site. The statement said, "Vic transformed our sense of what true character, grace, and determination are all about."

Chesnutt worked with artists including R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe and guitarist Guy Picciotto of the punk band Fugazi. Chesnutt said in a biography on his MySpace page that he had come to "a whole new understanding of music" after the 1983 crash.

'Plus 8' dad gets robbed

Jon Gosselin

spent Christmas in Pennsylvania with his eight children but returned to New York City on Saturday to find that his apartment had been burglarized.

Gosselin's lawyer says someone slashed, stole, and smashed furniture and other items and left a note "speared" to his bedroom dresser with a butcher knife.

He says electronics, pots, and dishes were stolen; a family-heirloom vase was shattered; and Gosselin's clothes and furnishings were cut.

Gosselin and his family starred on TLC's Jon & Kate Plus 8 before the couple split this year.

No peace this Christmas

Actor

Charlie Sheen

and his wife,

Brooke Mueller

, are planning to undergo counseling after a heated fight at a dinner party in Aspen, Colo., landed him in jail.

A source told People that the couple had been drinking.

Booked and released on bond Friday, Sheen, 44, is due in court Feb. 8 on charges of second-degree assault, menacing, and criminal mischief, according to the Pitkin County Sheriff's Office.