Sideshow | Turtles win weekend ticket race

The ninja turtles are back, and they're winning. TMNT, the computer-animated update of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, cartoons and '90s live-action movies, debuted as the top weekend flick, selling $25.5 million in tickets, according to studio estimates.

TMNT's studio, Warner Bros., also had the second-place movie with the gory epic 300, which had been No. 1 the previous two weekends. The battle film set in ancient Greece took in $20.5 million, lifting its total to $162.4 million.

Shooter, starring Mark Wahlberg as an ex-Marine sniper framed for a presidential assassination, led the runners-up, opening at No. 3 with $14.5 million. It was followed by the John Travolta-starring boomers-on-bikes road-trip movie Wild Hogs, with $14.4 million, and the family fantasy The Last Mimzy, with $10.2 million.

Pride, the true-life Philadelphia sports tale of swimming coach Jim Ellis, starring Terrence Howard and Bernie Mac, came in ninth, with $4 million.

- Associated Press

Actor

Sidney Poitier

, former Polish president

Aleksander Kwasniewski

, journalist

Cokie Roberts

and British novelist

Ian McEwan

are this year's Common Wealth Awards winners, according to a trust committee member. The awards, created by a Delaware businessman, recognize people who demonstrate excellence in their fields and serve as an inspiration, said

Connie Bond Stuart

, a committee member and PNC Bank Delaware president. Recipients, who each get $50,000, will be honored at an April 28 dinner.

Past winners include 11 Nobel laureates, among them Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Henry Kissinger and Toni Morrison.

- A.P.

Emma Watson

, a.k.a. Hermione in the Harry Potter films, has signed on for the final two movies, as have

Daniel Radcliffe

(as Harry) and

Rupert Grint

(as Ron Weasley). There had been recent news reports and speculation that Watson was talking about leaving the series to do something else. Worldwide the four Potter films released so far have sold $3.5 billion in tickets. The fifth,

Harry Potter and Order of the Phoenix

, is expected to open July 13.

The murky circumstances surrounding

Anna Nicole Smith

's death could become clearer today, when authorities are expected to release the results of the former pinup's autopsy. The anticipated disclosure of what killed Smith comes more than six weeks after she was found unresponsive at her hotel suite in Hollywood, Fla. The Broward County medical examiner,

Joshua Perper

, said initial tests found no evidence, either in Smith's stomach or her bloodstream, that she had taken large amounts of prescription medication.

- A.P.