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'Avatar' again flying high at box office

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- "Avatar" stood atop the weekend box office for the third week in a row, raking in $68.3 million in estimated receipts.

USA Today said the new figure was from Nielsen EDI. The film's receipts were down only 9 percent from last weekend.

The film was tracking in a similar way to Titanic, Cameron's last film, the highest-grossing film of all time with $600 million and 16 weeks as No. 1, the newspaper said.

Robert Downey Jr.'s "Sherlock Holmes" was third after falling more than a third at the box office to still draw $38.4 million; "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel" was third, dropping a fourth of last week's take at $36.6 million.

Meryl Streep's comedy, "It's Complicated," was fourth with $18.7 million. "The Blind Side" was fifth with $12.7 million.

Jonas pledges $25,000 to Dallas food bank

DALLAS, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Pop singer Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers said he will donate $25,000 from his family foundation to a Dallas food bank.

The Dallas Morning News said Sunday that Jonas, 17, made the pledge after touring the North Texas Food Bank in Dallas Saturday to the delight of 140 volunteers on hand.

After touring the facility, Jonas contacted his father, Kevin, before announcing the financial pledge to the non-profit site.

Saturday's visit was part of a joint venture involving the national food bank network, Feeding America, and the TV series "The Biggest Loser."

Food bank president Jan Pruitt applauded the pledge by Jonas, the youngest of the three Jonas Brothers members.

"This is our next generation of philanthropists," she said of the young pop singer. "His time here with these couple of hundred kids that are out here volunteering today -- they're going to find out, 'Well, (if) it's important to him, it should be important to me.'"

LeVox says mistakes helped Rascal Flatts

NASHVILLE, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Rascal Flatts lead singer Gary LeVox says the U.S. country music trio got better thanks to successes and mistakes during its 10 years together.

LeVox, along with guitarist Joe Don Rooney and bassist Jay DeMarcus, said performing alongside one another for the last decade has helped solidify Rascal Flatts as a band overall, The (Nashville) Tennessean reported Saturday.

"You have to make mistakes to get better and know not to do it again," LeVox told The Tennessean when asked if the band's members had any regrets.

"I think there were times we could have made better decisions, but the decision we made was good enough. I think sometimes that leads you into an even better position to be in," Rooney offered.

DeMarcus said the "Still Feels Good" trio is set to begin a 2010 tour filled with "big surprises."

"We're going to have a big brand-new tour in summer of 2010, and it's going to start the celebration of 10 years of Rascal Flatts," DeMarcus told The Tennessean. "We're going to have a lot of big surprises and do some old stuff that will throw some people off, and there will be some big surprises, and we're going to keep doing what we've done."

Fashion star Vuitton faces hunting scandal

PARIS, Jan. 3 (UPI) -- Fashion star Patrick-Louis Vuitton says members of his hunting party did not chase a pack of stags into a private lake in France to kill the animals.

The Sunday Times of London said Vuitton, a director with the luxury goods firm LVMH, was accused in court of having his hunters pursue several stags onto property owned by Laurence Dourdin without permission.

Dourdin alleged last week that Vuitton's hunting party caught up with the stags and fatally stabbed the animals.

Vuitton, a direct descendant to the Louis Vuitton who founded the luggage brand of the same name, admitted his hunters did kill the animals and infringing on Dourdin's property on two occasions.

Yet Vuitton insists he had the right to pursue the stags onto private property since the animals were cornered and about to be finished off, The Sunday Times reported.

"When the stag is at bay, I am its owner and therefore responsible," Vuitton maintains "I must finish it off as quickly as possible."