“The Mariah-Nicki diva battle is exactly what Fox executives wanted all along,” says the source, who insists the two singers are in on the joke. “No one’s really worried. They know the parts they’re supposed to play.”[THR]

If Mariah Carey could get past her supposed rivalry with Whitney Houston and go on to befriend the late legend and even record a hit single with her, why can’t she do half as much with the rainbow-haired pop diva that is Nicki Minaj? Stories of the two diva hosts of American Idol getting into angry screaming matches on the FOX lot have been getting a lot of press lately, though many in the know claim that any tension between the two is purely to keep the show in the headlines and get music fans excited about the battle on the judges panel in addition to the singing contest. Some, however, are insisting that the two singers have a genuine disdain for one another and can’t stand to be on set at the same time for more than they absolutely have to.

What say you: is the Nicki-Mariah fight for real? Is it fun to pretend even if it isn’t? Or is this just old fashioned sexism?

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Many who wander into the cinemas this weekend will think of Frankenweenie as an attempt by Tim Burton to duplicate the success of the Halloween-Christmas hybrid classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Nightmare, alas, has the added benefit of being not only much beloved by audiences, but by a generation of critics that has long hailed it as the crowning masterpiece of Burton’s offbeat cinematic repertoire. Frankenweenie tries, in earnest, and occasionally approximates the brilliance of Burton’s best attempts to marry entertainment with the darker recesses of the human mind, but the overall effect is somewhat muted and jarring.

The story centers on the relationship between a young Victor Frankenstein and his dog Sparky. Sparky is the beloved family pet despite his predilection to love and be loved by all who encounter him on a second by second basis. Sparky ends up getting hit by a car and dies, which understandably devastates Victor. But, since this is Burtonland, death is only the beginning of the journey.

Victor learns from his wacky science teacher Mr. Rzykruski that dead frogs can be reanimated by electric shocks to their system. So what’s a recently devastated dog owner and science-minded young boy to do? Yup, he digs up the corpse of his dead dog and jolts him back to life. Soon, all the kids in class are doing the same thing with their dead pets. It all culminates in a feeding frenzy of zombie-esque animals that makes you glad Tim Burton isn’t God.

The movie works better for teens and older kids than it does for adults. Unlike Nightmare, this movie paints adulthood as the last reservoir of desperation and an autocratic opposition to all things fantastic and imaginative. Adults never get “it”, and kids always do, except when they don’t. And when the man-child we’re really dealing with is Tim Burton, well, then we never know what to make of it.