In the wake of Michael Jackson's death nearly two weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of people have suddenly realized that the last time they purchased any of Michael Jackson's albums was back in the era when everyone listened to music on cassette tapes. So, quite naturally, they flocked to record stores, looking to make the upgrade to compact discs for easier listening. The only problem was, most retailers had sold out of whatever MJ stock they had on hand, so a number of consumers initially walked away empty-handed. However, in a totally surprising twist, once Sony finally got around to shipping out fresh copies of MJ's catalog to stores, people not only returned to the record stores, but they bought an astronomical 800,000 copies (!) of his CDs last week. That's an increase of nearly 90 percent from his impressive sales figures the week prior, with the lion's share of the sales (roughly 656K) being purchased from physical outlets (as opposed to, say, the iTunes record store). Jackson's Number Ones greatest-hits package sold 339,000 copies, while Thriller moved some 187,000 units. And while we're quite positive that this short-term boost to the record industry isn't sustainable, it's good to see that people are still willing to shell out their hard-earned money to buy the music they love.

Michael Jackson Music Dominates Billboard Charts, 800K Albums Sold [Billboard]

Has George Clooney finally found a way to stop robbing casinos to support his passion projects? Maybe! Earlier this week, the Daily Beast's Kim Masters reported that he had expressed an interest in portraying Jack Ryan, should Paramount ever decide to revive the Tom Clancy character "for some commercial maintenance." Now, according to Anne Thompson, the studio and the producer, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, are currently expecting a script from writer Hossein Amini (Killshot) with the working title Untitled Tom Clancy Project (hey, it's catchier than A Clear and Present Danger).

We wish we knew! As we sat back last night, reviewing the events of yesterday, one of the things that began to gnaw at us was the list of notable no-shows. While we would've loved to have seen longtime MJ confidants Diana Ross and Elizabeth Taylor at the ceremony, we respect their decision not to attend the memorial service. However, we have heard nary a peep from Justin Timberlake, whom MTV confirmed as part of the lineup for the Michael Jackson tribute as recently as 10:19 a.m. yesterday. So why wasn't he there? We can safely assume that it wasn't an issue related to travel delays, as he and his lady friend, Jessica Biel, were spotted out on a double date with Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen in Los Angeles over the weekend. And considering that the ceremony ran pretty long, we're also fairly certain that he wasn't cut for time reasons. So until we find out for sure, we're just going to assume it had something to do with an innate fear of being upstaged by Corey Feldman.

Last night, Sacha Baron Cohen closed out the Brüno publicity tour with a rare out-of-character appearance on Letterman (see video here). Which was nice, since we were beginning to get a little tired of the limited arsenal of one-liners he’s been deploying over and over again as Brüno on talk shows and in print interviews. Sure, we liked his new movie, but we find it slightly ironic that Cohen is able to get away with scripting his own Q&As when his shtick on film depends so much on the off-the-cuff utterances of everyday people being interviewed under false pretenses. But, hey, since they’re funny, we’ve collected his most frequently used jokes and noted the multiple interviews in which he’s repeated them.

Vicky ... : Incredibly enough, a MacGruber film has been announced, with Will Forte and Kristen Wiig reprising their roles from the SNL skits. There’s already a script, too! In it, MacGruber is brought out of retirement as a monk in Ecuador by an army colonel who needs his help to bring down the evil Cunth (Val Kilmer), who long ago was responsible for the death of MacGruber’s wife. Ryan Philippe is onboard as well, as Piper, an Army officer assisting MacGruber. Jorma Taccone (the non–Andy Samberg guy from the “Jizz in My Pants” video), who created the character, will direct. [HR]

It’s All in the ... : Tobey Maguire will star in The Details, an indie comedy directed by Jacob Estes. Alongside Elizabeth Banks, Maguire plays one half of a troubled couple dealing with raccoons in their backyard. In the process, all kinds of weird, outlandish things happen, some of them involving fellow cast members Ray Liotta, Dennis Haysbert, Anna Friel, and Laura Linney. You know what would also work with that title? A movie-length slideshow of Details magazine–type cover photos featuring Maguire set to some soothing tunes. Yeah, we’d pay for that. [Variety]