Box office from Wednesday: Barbra Streisand once sang she had nothing to be guilty of, and that’s still true. “The Guilt Trip,” a mild comedy with Seth Rogen, did fine on its opening day. In wide release “The Guilt Trip” did over $1 million, and finished second to “The Hobbit.” No one ever thought the comedy about a mother son road trip would be doing “Skyfall” like numbers.

As the season progresses, “The Guilt Trip” should skew older and find a nice audience among those who don’t want to see snipers (“Jack Reacher”), insane comic  violence (“Django Unchained”), or waterboarding (“Zero Dark Thirty”).

Meantime, the lure of waterboarding–not water skiing or surfboarding– and lots of nutty criticism fueled the first day for Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty.” It made $125,000 on 5 screens. That’s very strong but not the bonanza discussed elsewhere. I’m rooting for this film because it’s so well made, not because of its faux controversies.

Otherwise, Oscar balloting continues apace and so does the campaigning and celebrating. On Tuesday, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter hosted a classy lunch at his Monkey Bar for Richard Gere, a Golden Globe nominee for Best Actor in “Arbitrage.” Director Nick Jarecki was there, so was Mrs Gere aka Carey Lowell, and plenty of society types and celebs. Carter makes a cameo in the very clever film produced by Laura Bickford. “Arbitrage” is ‘the little movie that could’. It’s had a decent box office run worldwide, and excellent on demand video sales. It’s well crafted, with solid stars like Gere and Susan Sarandon. Bravo!

Last night there was a reception for Robert DeNiro and “Silver Linings Playbook,” the sleeper film of the season and the one most people I talk to say they “loved” unequivocally. This film has a little less press because its main players, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, are shooting films right now. But don’t worry–this beauty of a dramedy is making a big impact with Academy voters. It may surprise everyone.

On the plane out to Los Angeles today, I went on YouTube and watched all the versions of the “Les Miz” songs from the past, including the essential and marvelous Lea Salonga. I must say the movie versions hold their own nicely, surprisingly. All the praise for Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, and Eddie Redmayne, among others, is deserved. I think when “Les Miz” finally is seen by regular audiences, people are going to go nuts for it.

Jon Hamm has made his move. The award winning star of “Mad Men” has signed with Creative Artists Agency after his long time talent agent, Carol Bodie, was dropped from ICM Partners. In a change that will sting for a long time, Hamm “ankled” ICM yesterday for CAA. Now that he’s filming the penultimate season of “Mad Men,” Hamm has got to make preparations for his big screen movie career. And trust me, he will have one. If anyone in a TV series was set for movie stardom, it’s Hamm. He’s already done a ton of extra curricular work to get ready, from movies like “The Town” to constant work with “30 Rock,” “Saturday Night Live,” Tina Fey, and Kristen Wiig. In the last year, Hamm co-starred in girlfriend Jennifer Westfeldt’s terrific comedy, “Friends with Kids.” He recently finished playing Larry David’s nemesis in David’s HBO movie, as well. By the time “Mad Men” finishes in 2014, Hamm will have made a smooth transition from Don Draper to work as a leading man.

“Bowling for Columbine,” the anti-gun documentary that put Michael Moore on the map for good, has been posted all over the internet for free. Moore has placed it on YouTube, with NetFlix and on Current TV’s website for free so anyone can see it. In light of the Newtown, Connecticut tragedy. “Bowling for Columbine” comes off as more prescient and genius like than ever before.

The film can be seen in its entirety in our video player at the bottom of our home page. Also, here’s the YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fAouWXzi-1Q

“Bowling for Columbine” won the Academy Award, the Broadcast Critics Award, the 55th anniversary prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and ever other award except the Golden Globe in 2002-2003.

Also, if you’re in Traverse City, Michigan on Thursday. Moore and wife Kathleen Glynn are screening “Bowling for Columbine” for free at 6:30pm at the State Theater.

Meantime. Moore writes on his website, www.michaelmoore.com:

“I am truly beside myself this time. I tried to ring a warning bell about this a decade ago. The disease has only gotten worse.

But…you feel something different in the air across America tonight, don’t you? People have had it and the outrage is loud and visible. I’m convinced the majority of Americans will now back strong gun control laws. And a better mental health care system. And perhaps a few are willing to look at the deeper issue of how this country officially sanctions violence as a means to an end.

The NRA, for the first time ever, has gone silent. They’ve taken their Facebook page down. They know they can’t show up in Newtown next week and stick it to the people there, like they usually do after one of these mass killings. Let’s face it, the gun lobby tonight is on the ropes. Now is the time to act. We can’t let this sad moment pass without a true response and a president willing to be a strong leader.

I’ll send some more thoughts tomorrow, but for now I thought I’d share with you what I’ve been sending out over Twitter this weekend. (If you’re not on Twitter, please consider it. I know – not one more social media stop, please! But I’ve found it to be a quick and easy way to communicate with millions. Please give it a try. I send things out on it every day and I’d like you not to miss them.)”

Yes, believe it or not: Robert DeNiro, age 69, is training for a boxing match with Sylvester Stallone, age 66. It will be “Raging Bull” vs. Rocky when the two actors each won Oscars years ago for playing famous or fictitious boxers meet and sock it out for the first and only time. This is all for a movie called “Grudge Match,” directer by Peter Segal and just about to shoot. And yes, it’s a real boxing match and DeNiro has been training like crazy while shooting “Last Vegas”–which just wrapped– and promoting his Oscar-bound supporting role in “Silver Linings Playbook.”

Last night DeNiro and “SLP” director David Russell were toasted at a final pre-Christmas celebration at the very posh Le Cirque restaurant in the Bloomberg building following a Q&A for the Screen Actors Guild. DeNiro told me he’s been working with a trainer– he does look very fit–and he’s excited about working with Stallone.

Meantime, the guests at the party ranged from Barry Levinson (“Rain Man”) to Stephen Daldry (“Billy Elliott”) who had never met before and were thrilled to to be introduced. DeNiro had a reunion with famed character actress Rutanya Alda, who appeared with him years ago in his first two films. Bob Balaban, Robert Wuhl, Bob Dishy, John Gabriel, Giancarlo Esposito, filmmaker Barbara Kopple, and playwright Israel Horovitz were among the guests at the party hosted by Dr, Mehmet Oz– Dr Oz himself, featured this month on the cover of Oprah’s O Magazine– the first time ever a man has graced the cover with Oprah.

DeNiro was so excited to have his picture taken with Le Cirque’s legendary Sirio Maccione he emailed it directly to wife Grace Hightower, who was home with their son, Elliott, from his phone.

He was also excited because he’s received his first ever Screen Actors Guild SAG nomination for acting with “SLP.”

That was fast. The tracks from the “12-12-12” concert are up on iTunes and there’s a list of songs that will be available soon on a physical CD. (No word on a DVD yet, but that involves editing of film, etc.) Strangely, the online album has no tracks or evidence of a performance by Kanye West, who was only one of two black artists featured on the show. (The other was Alicia Keys.) Kanye has been excised entirely, even  though he executed 11 of his, uh, songs including “GoldDigga,” his biggest hit. It’s unclear what happened, whether Kanye was snubbed or didn’t want to be on there by his own choice.

Also missing from the offering is most of Paul McCartney’s set. Only his opening number, “Helter Skelter” is on the iTunes album. The rest of his extremely lively performance–remarkable especially for the late hour is MIA including “Live and Let Die,” “Blackbird,” “I Got a Feeling,” and his collaboration with Nirvana on “Cut Me Some Slack.” All the other artists are represented by two or three tracks each including the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, The Who, Alicia Keys. Eric Clapton, and Roger Waters. But missing are the two Springsteen-Bon Jovi duets.

Technically, the entire show could be on iTunes since there’s no space or time limit. The CD’s, of course, would have to be shorter. The album is available through Columbia Records.

Don’t get excited just yet. I have been told by a very good source that Prospect Park Productions has contacted Susan Lucci, aka Erica Kane, about a revival of “All My Children” online and maybe on cable. There have been reports in the last couple of days that Prospect Park, whose license with ABC on “All My Children” and “One Life to Live,” is trying to re-activate the much-missed soap operas. A friend of Lucci told me yesterday: “There have been some talks, but the word wasn’t supposed to get out yet.” Hmmmm….

Prospect Park — run by controversial manager Jeff Kwatinetz, late of the Firm, and Rich Frank, late of Disney–had gotten a license from ABC to put the canceled shows online. At the 11th hour, however, everything fell apart. If the deals had gone through, Prospect Park would have had the shows up and running last January 2012. “OLTL” went off the air then, and some of its characters, its executive producer and head writer, transferred to ABC’s “General Hospital.”

Lucci was at a loss by then. There had been talks with Prospect Park in 2011 prior to the September conclusion of “All My Children,” but they mysteriously stopped, she told me. Lucci more than any other actor from either show would have to be included or it simply wouldn’t be worth it. She and “OLTL” star Erika Slezak are linchpins of their respective shows.

Another key “OLTL” player, Robert S. Woods, told me yesterday that he’d heard rumblings about Prospect Park’s renewed interest, but that he had not been contacted yet. “They may not know how to find me,” said Woods, who’s been kicking back in upstate New York after 30 something years of service to “OLTL” as leading hero Bo Buchanan.

There have been reports, though, that Prospect Park has finally made deals with SAG-AFTRA and may be closing deals with the other guilds.

Reviving the shows could be done, but it’s tricky. Pieces of  “OLTL” live in “General Hospital,” which is having a ratings surge. For “All My Children,” it’s harder. Lucci has made other deals since “AMC’ ended. Plus, that show was in tatters thanks to ABC’s mismanagement of it for years. In either case, creator-writer Agnes Nixon would have to be brought back as well, since she has the secret sauce recipe that made the shows a success.

And then again, it’s possible Prospect Park is just faking it to extend their license arrangement. ABC might like the shows back now considering their alternative programming has failed. “General Hospital” is booming. And really, the only thing network execs know is success. Soaps, which they trashed for years, are looking good again. If Procter and Gamble were smart, they’d look to a revival of their own shows, “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light.”

We’ll wait and see if this is just another cliffhanger with no pay off…

The times, they are a changing. Remember when the best directors were Robert Altman. Alan Pakula, Hal Ashby, Francis Ford Coppola, Sidney Lumet, and Sydney Pollack? Now the vets are Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and George Lucas. But it’s the new generation that’s taken over. This year’s crop of Best Directors, aside from Spielberg, are all recent Oscar winners or nominees.

Tom Hooper just won Best Director two years ago with The King’s Speech,” and comes with his masterful version of “Les Miseables.” David O. Russell–whose “Three Kings” is a oft-forgotten gem–made his mark with “The Fighter.” Now he’s got “Silver Linings Playbook” lined up for victory. Kathryn Bigelow was the first female Oscar winning director with “The Hurt Locker.” Her “Zero Dark Thirty” is powerful and controversial. Ben Affleck won accolades for “The Town” and “Gone Baby Gone.” Now “Argo” is  name on everyone’s lists. Paul Thomas Anderson has “The Master” after “There Will Be Blood” put him on the map for good.

Quentin Tarantino? He’s a young old timer, dating back to 1992 with “Reservoir Dogs.” He and the Coen Brothers, Spike Lee, make the bridge from the vets to the newcomers.

These are the new generation of directors who will take us into the next episode of the Oscars. We still have Woody, Marty, Steven. But this new group is formidable.

Hooper is really the upstart. He first won major Emmys for landmark HBO series “John Adams” and “Elizabeth I.” A Brit, Hooper sometimes seems aloof. He’s not. He’s just tired. Hooper delivered a wet print of “Les Miz” to New York on Friday, November 23rd and never looked back. He’s criss crossed the US without sleep several times. This week he’s in Australia helping Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe launch the film in their country. He may spend the holidays in the UK with his family. For a minute. Then back to the US for awards season.

And “Les Miz” hasn’t even opened yet. And Hooper, who looks 30, has only just–finally– turned 40.

It’s a lot of pressure. “Les Miz” has only been seen in the industry so far. We’re still a few days off from its exposure to audiences who are chomping at the bit.

I do think Hooper has done the impossible–he’s taken a three-dimensional stage experience and reinvented it as a film, a piece of cinema that humanizes history and focuses very specifically on the main characters. He turns them all –from Jean Valjean to Cossette to little Gavroche– into guides through a mesmerizing experience. I think even Robert Altman would be impressed how he’s woven it all together!

David Chase is basking in the glow right now of his first ever feature film, “Not Fade Away.” The coming of age story about a young New Jersey musician in the 1960s is his labor love. If you dig music from the British Invasion, from the Beatles to the Rolling Stones (Paramount really ponied up for the soundtrack) then “Not Fade Away” is going to reel you in.

But I asked Chase last night about his future plans at the “Not Fade Away” after party at Brasserie 8 1/2. What about a “Sopranos” movie, I asked. “No, unh uh,” he said, shaking his head, and his wife even agreed. I did try to slip in–‘those people are dead’–but Chase refuses to say what happened to Tony, Carmella, Meadow and AJ.

He did tell me that there’s been talk at HBO of a “Sopranos” prequel. “It would be with Tony’s father, and Uncle Junior, and Livia–Tony’s mother long before any of the other characters we know now.” Great idea. But Chase has some other ideas. He has a series in mind with HBO about the silent film era. He also would like to make a psychological thriller. At 67, Chase is a newcomer to films, but a welcome one.

The “Not Fade Away” premiere boasted at least one former Soprano–“Paulie Walnuts” aka Tony Sirico, who just came as a guest. But James Gandolfini who stars in the film was there, too, along with the very gifted Molly Price, who plays Gandolfini’s hilarious wife and the mother of an aspiring rock star. Bobby Cannavale stopped by after getting off work on Broadway in “Glengarry Glen Ross.” And I was thrilled to see the beautiful as ever Annabella Sciorra.  She and Cannavale may reprise their roles in “The Mother-f- with the Hat’ in Los Angeles this winter, she told me.

Meantime, “Not Fade Away” boasts a talented young cast who will get launched from here including John Magaro, Bella Heathcote, Dominique McElligot, Meg Guzulescu, and the always stunning Jack Huston–nephew of Anjelica, but quite a success already and expecting his first child in three months. Another Huston for the Hollywood dynasty!

And the “Not Fade Away” music: soundtrack meticulously curated by Steve van Zandt, who included the Rascals, ‘natch. Steve is producing the Rascals don’t miss reunion shows this weekend in Port Chester, New York at the Capitol Theater. http://www.showbiz411.com/2012/12/14/the-rascals-reunite-triumphantly-after-40-years-of-feuding

Just in time for the holidays, two stars of about to be released Oscar movies–Anne Hathaway (“Les Miz”) and Samuel L. Jackson (“Django Unchained”) duke it out over which movie is “saddest” for the season. Very amusing. “Nothing says Christmas like slaves and hoes.” Indeed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hs_FPlu_cg8

Tom Cruise really owes one to David Letterman. On last night’s show, Cruise appeared in three segments to promote “Jack Reacher.” This what was discussed: almost nothing. Indeed, Letterman was forced to talk at length about his young son, Harry, to make a connection with Cruise. Tom chatted for most of the show about his son, Connor, who’s 17, a deejay and an “actor.” (There’s never a mention about graduating from high school or going to college.)

There was a discussion of muscle cars, and a short clip from the movie showing a car chase. No talk of the movie’s actual content, premieres being cancelled, Cruise’s other children, his life, or anything beyond some tremendous guffawing. In fact it was the most guffawing since the days of Ed McMahon.

Tom used the word ‘analog’ twice–once to describe Jack Reacher, the other to describe the car chase. Even though it was all digital. ‘Analog’ is the word of the week. If he’d been on with Groucho Marx, there would have been a prize.

Hey: maybe they don’t need much publicity. “Jack Reacher” is at 80% this morning on rottentomatoes.com. Cruise hits Jimmy Fallon tonight for more laughs. And then “Jack Reacher” is in the hands of the gods.