Titanic Stars Square Off at the Box Office

Dec. 8, 2006 — -- I got very excited. I thought "The Holiday" was a remake of the great 1930s Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn classic. Uh-uh. That was "Holiday." This is titled "The Holiday" because "The Ordeal" must have been taken.

Cameron Diaz is a highly paid, overworked, underloved Los Angeles film executive. Kate Winslet is a highly paid, overworked, underloved English publishing executive.

Christmas is coming. What will they do? Why not exchange their highly paid, overworked, underloved lives?

Cameron ends up in a cottage outside London, where she meets Kate's brother, Jude Law. Not bad.

Kate is right at home, too, with Christmas in Los Angeles. Other than driving on the wrong side of the street, it's the same story for both of them. Really. Both completely predictable. Neither very good.

Nine years ago, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet sailed on the "Titanic" in what would become the biggest motion picture of all time, grossing more than $600 million in the United States.

They've both become stars, excellent actors and there's Oscar buzz for both this year.

I was very moved by "Blood Diamond," a tale of the brutality in Africa's diamond trade, where young children are transformed into terrorists. With each discovery, Africans suffer terribly. Let's hope they don't find oil, one old man tells us.

Djimon Hounsou is "Blood Diamond's" beating heart. He discovers a 100 carat gem. He hides it. He risks not only his life for it. The price? The smugglers have his son.

Like Leonardo says in the film, "In America it's 'bling-bling,' but there it's 'bling-bang.'"