Etc...

SORRY, YOU'LL HAVE TO WAIT

You'd think a fellow who administers an $80 million-a-year budget for a public-health system would have no trouble being admitted to a hospital himself, right? Not if he's Tony Gardner. A senior executive with Britain's National Health Service, he arrived at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro at 8:30 p.m. seeking treatment for a minor ailment. By the time he finally was shown to a room, it was almost noon the next day – a wait of more than 14 hours. The experience, he admitted, was "eye-opening." But wasn't he angry? Apparently not. Gardner said he never revealed his professional role because "I did not want special treatment."

It is, says Jonah Peretti, "a parody of the dating scene ... [and] we don't necessarily agree with" the way people use it. Still, the New Yorker and his sister, Chelsea, are basking in the attention that their innovation has brought. The free, automated "Rejection Line" substitutes for one's home phone number and tells unwanted callers – in a nice way – to get lost. It already has been used at least a half-million times, although Peretti discourages talk of going national with it.

The first of the summer's major films, "Spider-Man," climbed above the box-office records set last fall by "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," netting $43.7 million Saturday and $114 million for the entire weekend, by studio estimates. The top-grossing releases May 4-6, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations Inc. (in millions):

1. "Spider-Man" $114.0

2. "The Scorpion King" 9.6

3. "Changing Lanes" 5.6

4. "Murder by Numbers" 3.8

5. "The Rookie" 3.3

(tie) "Life or Something Like It" 3.3

7. "Deuce's Wild" 2.7

8. "Ice Age" 2.5

9. "Jason X" 2.4

10. "Hollywood Ending" 2.2

– Financial Times