Darren Michaels/Columbia Pictures, Stephen Vaughan/DC Comics

The summer box office continued to cook yesterday, with The Dark Knight express well on its way to blow by E.T., and Pineapple Express off to an unexpectedly fast start.

Having passed Spider-Man for seventh on the list of all-time grossers on Tuesday, the Batman movie took in an estimated $5 million Wednesday, Exhibitor Relations said, bringing its overall domestic total to about $410 million.

By the end of the weekend, the box-office tracking firm said, The Dark Knight  "should be up to at least No. 4" on the all-time list, meaning it would have passed E.T., currently in fourth with $435 million, and positioned itself to take down Shrek 2, currently in third with $441 million.

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Wayne Isham/ Jive Records

"Britney to Play Lesbian Killer in Quentin Tarantino Film," blared London's Daily Telegraph.

The tab claimed the songbird of dubious acting talent (Crossroads, anyone?) was being stalked by the Pulp Fiction filmmaker to headline a remake of the 1965 Russ Meyer exploitation flick Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

The story got credulous play all over the Interwebs yesterday, including Daily Variety ("If true, she would be purrrrfect.") and the Los Angeles Times ("Hey, it kinda makes sense.").

And, of course, it's bunk.

E! News has definitively learned that Spears and Tarantino aren't hooking up.

"It's just a silly rumor," says a source close to Tarantino. "A funny rumor. But it's false."

There you have it, pussycat. Another London tab story killed, killed.

Sci Fi

Get ready for a Battlestar Galactica of frakkin' supersized proportions.

Fresh off the announcement that the upcoming 10-episode swan-song season of Battlestar Galactica will include even longer episodes than usual, the Sci Fi Channel has announced that the cult fave will live on a tiny bit longer in the form of a two-hour movie set to air on the cable channel after the series concludes.

The stand-alone special, set in the time period immediately before the Cylons' catastrophic attack on Caprica, will be directed by Edward James Olmos and star series regulars Michael Trucco, Aaron Douglas and Dean Stockwell.

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Merie Weismiller W, Dreamworks Pictures

There's not much room for Tom Cruise on the posters for Tropic Thunder, with Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. in the way. But he steals the movie with his surprising turn as a fat, bald studio executive. Stiller, who also directed, gives Cruise full credit for shedding his studly image.

"His idea was for this character, and he had read the script," says Stiller. "He said, 'I want really big hands playing this guy.' I said, 'Really? Big hands?' He had these hands made, and then I said, 'Well, it'd be really cool if you were bald too.' Then we did this makeup test where he got bald."

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Shark Pix/ZumaPress.com, ZumaPress.com, AP Photo/Peter Kramer

CBS is investigating a replacement for its lead CSI.

While Grissom is, for all intents and purposes, a goner, the Hollywood Reporter claims that the more than capable Laurence Fishburne is currently in talks for prime-time's cushiest gig, succeeding William Petersen in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Neither CBS nor Paramount, which produces the show, has commented on the possible casting.

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Paramount Pictures

Before Iron Man, Robert Downey Jr. was a punch line for any celebrity rehab story. Now he's considered the mastermind of the greatest comic-book movie ever. Well, for a couple months until The Dark Knight opened.

Going into Iron Man 2, Downey is playing the humble card. "I also have to let go, because there's an aspect, particularly after the success of things, I noticed my narcissism got dialed up," said Downey while promoting his latest film, Tropic Thunder.

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The Weinstein Company

Now anyone (albeit some with a parent or guardian) can see Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

Kevin Smith has successfully appealed the Motion Picture Association of America's initial NC-17 rating for his upcoming salacious-sounding comedy, which stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as financially strapped roommates who try to dig themselves out of debt by making a homemade skin flick.

Smith reedited the film twice, each time receiving another NC-17, the box-office kiss of death that means no one under 17 is allowed in the theater.

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Warner Brothers

Eighteen days.

That's all it took for The Dark Knight to break $400 million.

The Batman movie grossed another $6.3 million on Monday, per final numbers from Exhibitor Relations, bringing its overall domestic total to $400,038,494 and setting yet another land-speed record.

The fastest film to $100 million, $200 million and $300 million is now the fastest film to $400 million. By a lot.

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Victor Bello/TWC 2008

She sings. She cracks jokes. She makes guys pant. No wonder director Woody Allen says Scarlett Johansson "can do anything."

And Johansson doesn’t exactly disagree.

"You're always, as an actor, becoming, like, an expert at something in two weeks," Scarlett said in a press roundtable Monday. “I remember, for The Man Who Wasn't There, I had to learn to play a Beethoven sonata. I was like, 'Aaaah! Ooookay! I've never touched this thing before!' "

Then there were the riding lessons for The Horse Whisperer...

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