The D.C native said on his Twitter page that he was denied food service because of an expired driver’s license.

He Tweeted: “I was just refused food at “On The Border” at terminal 4 at LAX because my divers license expired. But the airline & security let’s me fly?”

Then: “DO NOT EAT @ ON THE BORDER PLEASE BOYCOTT !!!! THE EMPLOYEE ARE RACIST PLEASE RT…KEEP IT GOING !!!”

He specified that it was 8:30 in the morning and that he was not trying to consume alcohol, so his expired license should not have been an issue.

Alonzo played the Na’vi warrior Tsu’tey in James Cameron’s blockbuster, Avatar.

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The movie studio that produced the mega-blockbuster, “Avatar,” had no problem with the film’s alien race being blue — but it turns out they were initially concerned about the Na’vi being too green.

According to director James Cameron, 20th Century Fox had some initial apprehension that his $2 billion-dollar-baby delivered the wrong kind of message — the message of environmental conservation.

Cameron <a href="http://theenvelope.latimes.com/la-en-cameron10-2010feb10

2c1912811.story”>recollects the studio’s warning as being: “We really like the story. It’s great. But, well, is there a way to not have so much of this tree-hugging, ‘Ferngully’ stuff in it?”

The famously exacting director wasn’t going give up on the central point of the “Avatar” story. “I said, ‘Not with me making it,’” Cameron said. “Because that was my purpose in making the film. I wanted to make an environmentally conscious mainstream movie.”

“FernGully: The Last Rainforest” was a 1992 animated film — also released by 20th Century Fox — featuring the voice of Tim Curry as the villain who gains his power from pollution.

Instead of backing down, Cameron reveled in the environmental themes leading up to the climatic conclusion of “Avatar”.  “I think there’s something amazingly satisfying when the hammerheads come out of the forest and start mowing down all the bad security enforcers. Nature gets to fight back,” he said. “It’s ‘Death Wish’ for environmentalists. When did nature ever get to fight back in a movie?”

Cameron concedes that 20th Century Fox wouldn’t have been the only studio with concerns: “To be fair…any of the other studios would have said the same thing. Fox ended up being enormously supportive and wrote this huge check. But they would have been much more comfortable if I had eliminated what they called the ‘tree-hugging’ elements.”

James Cameron’s environmental concerns can be attributed to being a parent of three young children and the fact he would like them to have a world to grow up in: “I think there’s a way to live and raise your kids with a set of values that teaches them the importance of hard work, the importance of respecting other people and the importance of respecting nature. And that it’s not this consumer society where you buy something and then throw it away when you get the next new thing, filling up huge landfills with plastic and electronics.”

Cameron’s environmentally friendly message has not, as the studio was initially concerned, negatively affected box-office receipts. “Avatar” has so far grossed over $2.2 billion worldwide – which is well over a billion ahead of the ticket sales for its closest Best Picture Oscar rival, “The Hurt Locker.” That film (which also has an arguably controversial message in its coverage of soldiers in Iraq) was directed by his former wife, Kathryn Bigelow, and has only taken in $12.6 million in domestic box-office sales.

“Sherlock Holmes” was boss at the box office Christmas Day, according to Warner Brothers.  In fact,the movie set a record for Christmas Day receipts, raking in nearly 25-million dollars in its first day of release.  “Avatar” was number-two with more than 23-million dollars in sales.  “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel” opened at number-three with receipts exceeding 14-million dollars.

By: Joal Rayan

Hollywood’s most expensive movie ever launched with an estimated $73 million Friday-Sunday that fell short of 2009′s opening-weekend record, but, with awards season, word of mouth and less snow presumably primed to fuel weeks of ticket sales, set the James Cameron space epic on a course to potentially become one of Hollywood’s top money-makers of all time.

Elsewhere, if the question was Did You Hear About the Morgans?, the box-office answer was no. 

Running through the standings:

• Avatar‘s opening-weekend audience was mostly male (57 percent), over age 25 (62 percent), parked in a 3D theater (59 percent)—and pleased. Fox said moviegoers graded Cameron’s first dramatic film since Titanic an A. 

• Worldwide, Avatar grossed $232.2 million, the studio said, a record for a non-sequel, non-franchise film opening amid an East Coast blizzard.

• Avatar‘s ultimate success is TBD. Said Fox exec Chris Aronson: “We have always felt this movie is a marathon, not a sprint.”

• If the budget-buster keeps making money mid-week, if it stands down Sherlock Holmes next weekend, Avatar may be on its way to $300 million, Exhibitor Relations’ Jeff Bock said, a domestic take that would put it, more or less, among Hollywood’s top 30 films of all-time. 

• Here’s why it would be bad for Avatar to play out like New Moon: New Moon made more than half of its money in its first, crazy, record-setting 72 hours. If Avatar does that now—if it flames out fast—it’s sunk like Titanic, the maritime disaster. (Fast and furious was fine by New Moon, which cost a fraction of the who-knows-how-big-its-budget-was Avatar.)

• Among this year’s openers, Avatar‘s weekend ranks as the sixth-biggest, behind Star Trek, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, and, at No. 1, New Moon, which broke the bank with nearly $143 million. 

• Sure, the snowstorm hurt Avatar—the movie’s ticket sales on Saturday were down as much as 86 percent in slammed regions like Baltimore—but it apparently took out most of its wrath on Hugh Grant‘s and Sarah Jessica Parker‘s Did You Hear About the Morgans?, which opened in fourth place, with just $7 million.

• The Princess and the Frog, last weekend’s No. 1 film, fell to second, with a presumably snow-depressed $12.2 million.

• Among holdovers, Up in the Air ($3.1 million; $8.1 million overall) got a Golden Globes bounce; Invictus ($4.2 million; $15.8 million overall) didn’t.

• Peter Jackson‘s The Lovely Bones didn’t get great reviews, as might be expected, and isn’t getting awards-season buzz, as was expected. To make matters worse, it looks like it got taken out by the same Did You Hear About the Morgans? storm: $41,000 at three theaters, down 65 percent from last weekend.

• Among Oscar hopefuls bowing in limited release, Nine ($246,933 at four theaters) performed way better than its reviews. Everything else failed to match Avatar‘s $21,147 per-screen average, although Jeff Bridges‘ Crazy Heart ($82,204 at four theaters) came pretty close.

• 2012‘s Top 10 run ended after five weekends. Worldwide, the $200 million movie has made $733 million—yes, $733 million.

Here’s a look at the weekend’s top-grossing films based on Friday-Sunday estimates as compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Avatar, $73 million
2. The Princess and the Frog, $12.2 million
3. The Blind Side, $10 million
4. Did You Hear About the Morgans?, $7 million
5. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $4.4 million
6. Invictus, $4.2 million
7. Disney’s A Christmas Carol, $3.4 million
8. Up in the Air, $3.1 million
9. Brothers, $2.6 million
10. Old Dogs, $2.3 million

Source: cinematical.com

By: by Jenni Miller

Avatar isn’t being released until December 18th, but if you’re already sick of hearing about it, you better plug up your ears. The hype machine for James Cameron’s magnum opus has been hard at work leaking details, images, snippets, and trailers since way before this year’s San Diego Comic-Con or the extensive profile in October’s New Yorker. Cameron, who has never been one to bite his tongue, told Playboy, “We know from the exit polling that the response [to Avatar] was 95 percent ecstatic. Most of the five percent negative response is from the fanatic fans who imagined the movie in their minds but now have to deal with my movie.” Also, that when it comes to giving birth to a movie, he’s crowning. Yum!

Bon mots from Cameron aside, Avatar could be a real game-changer as far as 3D films go – and hell, it’s a refreshing change of pace from the sequels, prequels, remakes, and re-imaginings we’re forced to sit through. (Plus… giant blue cat people!!!). It’s definitely in the running for numerous Oscars. In fact, Oscar experts at In Contention currently have the film for consideration in eight categories, including Best Picture and Best Director.