Hollywood Digest

$1 BILLION HERE, $1 BILLION THERE ...

Box-office analysts said Disney's movie distribution arm, Buena Vista, would likely top the $1 billion mark at the U.S. box office with Wednesday's receipts.

The new Tim Allen family comedy "The Santa Clause 2" put Buena Vista in striking distance of the milestone when it opened with $29 million last weekend. The company will join Sony as the only two distributors to top $1 billion so far in 2002 -- and will make history by pulling in more than $1 billion in seven of the last nine years.

Warner Bros. is positioned to top the $1 billion mark for the year as well. If that happens, it will be the first time that three distributors grossed more than $1 billion each at the U.S. box office. With major holiday releases lined up and ready to roll, analysts are wondering if the U.S. box office will hit the $10 billion mark for the first time.

The major titles on the schedule through the end of the year include "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," "8 Mile," "Die Another Day, " "Analyze That," "Gangs of New York," "Catch Me if You Can" and "Chicago."

NO MORE FOR SHARON AFTER THIS SEASON

Sharon Osbourne told ABC's Barbara Walters she has had enough of doing the hit reality show "The Osbournes" on MTV, and the show's upcoming second season will be its last.

In an interview scheduled to air Wednesday night, the 50-year-old Sharon Osbourne said allowing cameras to film her family's life has had a negative effect in the family -- particularly on her husband, rocker Ozzy Osbourne.

"It's had a tremendous effect on Ozzy," she said. "Ozzy's been hitting the bottle again and the cameras are here all the time."

Sharon Osbourne -- who was diagnosed earlier this year with colon cancer -- said lack of privacy was also a problem for her.

"You know when you're sick, you want to be on your own?" she said. "And I can't throw up on my own and Ozzy can't get drunk on his own."

MTV has announced that the second season of "The Osbournes" will premiere on Nov. 26.

In its first season, the breakout reality hit played as a comedy. In its second season, it is likely to feature more drama -- given Sharon Osbourne's health. She is expected to be receiving chemotherapy until March -- meaning she will be in treatment throughout the entire 10 episodes of the new season, which is scheduled to shoot through February.

In its first season, "The Osbournes" won the Emmy for outstanding reality non-fiction program.

FILM DIRECTORS HEAD FOR SMALL SCREEN

Feature film producer-directors Ridley Scott ("Hannibal," "Gladiator") and Tony Scott ("Spy Game," "Top Gun") are developing three series projects for CBS at their production company, Scott Free Productions.

One show -- "Flying Hospital" -- draws on true-life for stories of first-response medical specialists who travel to hostile environments on urgent medical business. A second project, called "T.I.M.E.," is described as a fact-based mystery-adventure combining elements of "The X-Files" with "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and other classic action shows.

The third project is envisioned as the story of a lawyer who travels abroad to work on cases, and encounters political and culture clashes along the way.

HBO, BOCHCO WILL BE 'BED' FELLOWS

HBO and Steven Bochco invite you to attend their "Marriage" -- a drama series scheduled to premiere in 2004 about a couple encountering problems after five years of marriage.

All the dramatic action is to be set in the couple's most personal living quarters -- the bedroom, bathroom and closet.

It will be Bochco's first crack at cable TV. He is best known for pushing the envelope on adult content in such landmark TV dramas as "Hill Street Blues," "L.A. Law" and "NYPD Blue."

Bochco told Daily Variety that other characters will occasionally enter the couple's inner sanctum, but the camera will never leave.

"If you purposely frame the action of your story inside the confines of that limited space, it really forces an intimate, sometimes intense, very honest relationship to play out," Bochco said. "It's almost voyeuristic."

Bochco said the couple will have a "fundamentally loving marriage" with "its tensions and its crises and its chronic disappointments." But he said it would be "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" -- Edward Albee's Tony-winning play about the caustic relationship between the long-married George and Martha.