By BETSY PICKLE, Scripps Howard News Service

British television writer-director-producer-comedian-actor Ricky Gervais is such a favorite around the office -- for creating "The Office" and "Extras" and for his hilarious appearances on talk shows -- and he's become such a darling of the media over the past few years that it didn't occur to me that there still were Americans who didn't know who he is.

To put it kindly, writer-director Tyler Perry needs a vacation. The man works too hard. He gives too much.To be frank, Perry is burned out. His funny bone is sprained. His melodrama is drowning in soap-opera suds.

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino probably still have enough fans to get respectable box-office numbers for the opening weekend of "Righteous Kill." But very soon, their fans will speak of their poorly thought-out pairing in this halfhearted cop thriller in hushed tones, as though their idols were ill when they agreed to make it and are still recuperating.

Red, white and blue run wild throughout "Proud American," but viewing this rah-rah patchwork quilt of American life will leave most people feeling green around the gills.

No one could blame the Coen brothers for wanting to lighten up after making "No Country for Old Men." But "Burn After Reading," a farce about dimwitted, self-absorbed people linked by adultery and ersatz political intrigue, merely flickers with humor before being extinguished by frenetic and pointless plotting.

"Traitor" achieves something that would seem impossible. It presents Muslim characters in a positive light while raising the paranoia level of non-Muslim viewers about the followers of Islam.Talk about can't win for losing.

In 1976, America's bicentennial year, the wine world was rocked by a blind tasting in which California wines were rated higher than French ones. It was a small revolution, but a potent one in certain circles.

Last year brought us a really bad comedy called "The Comebacks," about a worthless college football team and its loser coach. The title of "The Longshots" is enough to raise the specter of that previous horror, but the only thing the two films have in common is football.

From the earliest scenes in "Henry Poole Is Here," it doesn't take a psychic, a psychiatrist or a graffiti artist to figure out what's going to happen. It doesn't even take a priest.It might, however, require a bit of indulgence from viewers to make it through this predictable but sweet film about embracing life.

Keke Palmer turns 15 next Tuesday, and she's psyched."I'm so excited, I don't know what to do," says Palmer.She says she's changed a lot during her first two years as a teen-ager.