It was a busy weekend at the box office. The Memorial Day holiday period is a time when studios try to set a good financial tone for their summer slates.

And it looks like News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) is the winner. The media company's Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian project, starring Ben Stiller, grossed an estimated $53 million at domestic multiplexes over the past three days according to Boxofficemojo. That was a good performance. The first Night at the Museum took in $30 million in its first three days of release back in Christmas 2006.

I was surprised that News Corp. came out on top. Did anyone out there think that Terminator Salvation, from Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), wouldn't be number one?

Former eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) Chief Executive Meg Whitman reportedly is quitting the board of the online auctioneer along with Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), and Dreamworks Animation SKG Inc. (NYSE: DWA) to run for governor of California.

The news -- first reported by the Wall Street Journal -- should not warm the hearts of Californians. Under Whitman, eBay morphed from one of the leaders on the information superhighway to roadkill left on the side of the road. The company's high growth days are behind it.

Since leaving eBay last year, she has immersed herself in Republican politics, backing the campaigns of her old friend Mitt Romney and John McCain. Interestingly, her contemporary Carly Fiorina, ex head of Hewlett-Packard Co. (NASDAQ: HPQ), also backed the GOP.

Should Whitman take the plunge, the odds are against her. For one thing, no one outside of stock geeks and disgruntled eBay sellers knows her name. Of course, several million dollars worth of television advertising will take care of that.

California's problems are enormous. The state, which has been hit especially hard by the subprime mortgage crisis, faces a $42 billion budget deficit. State officials are threatening to pay their bills with IOUS. It's a situation that is trying the superhuman strength of the governator Arnold Schwarzenegger.

What makes Whitman believe she can do better?

This post is part of our feature on Money Winners of 2008. See all 20.

Johnny Depp is one quirky thespian. Whether he's playing a Gothic mutant with scissors for hands, a sadistic throat-slitting barber, or one wacked-out pirate who sounds a lot like a drunken guitarist from one of the greatest rock 'n roll bands of all time, Depp works overtime to extract as much weirdness from a part as he conceivably can so he can present a compelling performance to paying audiences at the local multiplex. And he gets paid pretty well for his services.

In fact, he's set to earn multiple millions of dollars to appear in a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie. That's right, if you thought Disney (NYSE: DIS) was thinking of stopping at the third one (like maybe it should), then you turned out to be wrong. It's difficult to say exactly how much Depp will make from the next Pirates adventure. The Movie Blog claims that the number is as high as $75 million. I've read other reports that confirm this figure, but I've also read speculation that the value relates more to the potential of his earnings power in terms of gross participation, merchandise, etc. In other words, it might be reasonable to assume that Depp will earn as high as $75 million if Pirates 4 is a huge box-office hit on the level of its predecessors. He may, however, receive a lesser amount upfront. I believe the latter to most likely be the case based on the way Hollywood works. We unfortunately will never know the specific details because the SEC does not require public media companies to report talent compensation (in my opinion, they should). No matter what, though, he'll be grossing a lot of bucks when he returns as Captain Jack Sparrow.

It's a market and an economy that's offering few bright spots, so you take them where you can get them.

One bright spot occurred late Wednesday in the credit markets. California increased the amount of bonds/short-term notes the state had planned to sell to avoid a cash shortage, after bond demand proved to be solid, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.

California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said he's increasing the note sale by $500 million to $4.5 billion while also lowering the yield range, or interest rate, to a maximum of 4.25%, Bloomberg News reported.

'I wish they all could be California...bonds'

California is the largest borrower in the municipal bond market and no small barometer of lending and economic activity. If ranked as a country, California would have the ninth largest economy in the world as ranked by GDP.

Economist David H. Wang told BloggingStocks Thursday the solid demand for California's bonds should be viewed as incremental progress in public officials' efforts to unfreeze credit markets.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has sent a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson indicating that the state may need up to a $7 billion loan from the federal government within weeks, because the state is having increasing difficulty funding day-to-day operations and accessing short-term loans, The Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

California routinely accesses short-term loans to remain solvent, but the state, like corporations and other businesses / organizations, is having trouble accessing funds from the bond market due to the credit crunch, The Times reported.

Lay-offs could follow

If the state is unable to access cash, payments to schools and other government agencies could quickly be suspended and state employees could be laid off, The Times reported.

Economist David H. Wang, although qualifying his comments by adding that he has not yet reviewed California's credit profile and cash flow, said Gov. Schwarzenegger's letter is another sign that the "financial crisis is affecting organizations and governments large and small."

"Corporations are scaling back bond sales or seeking other funding sources, bond sales by state governments are being put off, and lines of credit are being renewed at higher interest rates. These are all signs of increased apprehension by banks and other lenders," Wang said. "The financial crisis is getting worse, and we need to put measures in place to address it."

Wang said the U.S. House of Representatives' passage of the rescue package is a necessary step toward that goal. The U.S. House is expected to vote on the rescue bill today, following approval in the U.S Senate Wednesday, 74-25. "The House vote will reduce anxiety in the credit markets. There's a saying that 'a financial crisis is 30% reality and 70% worrying about the other reality.' Well, the rescue bill will address that 'other reality.' "

If you have been following the alternative energy saga alongside ridiculous oil prices going from rising to high to astronomical, you've run across the name Tesla Motors. Tesla is a venture capital and privately funded auto maker that produces a high performance electric powered sports car.

The Tesla Roadster and soon to be sedan are now both now going to be manufactured in California, or so a report in the San Francisco Chronicle and elsewhere are noting. Governor Schwarzenegger included some incentives that have kept the electric auto maker from moving manufacturing to New Mexico (besides the Governator ordering one unit for himself). But it appears that the State of California is giving it more than mere tax incentives.

It appears that this is going to get equipment leases from the state, as well as additional grants. What is interesting here is that this gets the company even further on the map. There have been recent reports that Tesla was in the market for another huge financing. Whether or not that comes about now is not certain. Other reports show that the company may even supply battery units to Daimler or other car manufacturers.

What is becoming fairly certain is that Wall Street expects to see Tesla file for an initial public offering. As capital intensive as these businesses are, the company needs to have a steady vehicle (no pun intended) to be able to raise the capital it needs.

Think of the good news.... At least one US auto manufacturer will be considered cool.