VENICE, Italy — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez received a movie star welcome yesterday at the Venice Film Festival, where he walked the red carpet with director Oliver Stone for the premiere of the documentary "South of the Border."

Hundreds of admirers gathered outside of the Casino for the leader's arrival. A few held up Venezuelan flags and a banner in Spanish that read "Welcome, president."

Stone says "South of the Border," which premiered at the festival yesterday, is meant to illustrate "the sweeping changes" in South America in recent years as a direct counterpoint to what he sees as Chavez's depiction as a dictator by U.S. and European media.

MDA TELETHON RAKES IN NEARLY $60.5M

TUCSON, Ariz. — Despite the tough economy, officials with the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon say contributions and pledges from this year's Labor Day event totaled nearly $60.5 million.

Officials say the funds will allow the Muscular Dystrophy Association to continue funding worldwide research to find treatments and cures for muscular dystrophy and related diseases.

Jerry Lewis, the Tucson-based MDA's national chairman, thanked the American people for their generosity yesterday.

He said that even though the total was down from last year's record $65 million, it was an amazing accomplishment considering the state of the nation's economy.

TV PERSONALITY LOSES COURT BATTLE

BALTIMORE — Former CBS "Early Show" personality Mark McEwen is moving on with his life after a massive stroke nearly four years ago that abruptly ended his TV career.

But McEwen, 54, is now dealing with a fresh setback — the abrupt end to a court battle against the doctor who told him he had the stomach flu when he showed up at a Maryland hospital emergency room with strokelike symptoms.

Two days after that hospital visit, McEwen boarded a flight home to Orlando, Fla., and suffered a massive stroke. His attorneys claim the stroke could have been prevented if McEwen had been given drugs including aspirin and anti-coagulates.

But U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz disagreed, ruling last week that those drugs were not effective enough in the short term to have made a difference in McEwen's case.

'FINAL DESTINATION' STILL TOPS BOX OFFICE

LOS ANGELES — Movie audiences are continuing to visit "The Final Destination" as the fright flick took in $15.4 million over the four-day Labor Day weekend to remain the No. 1 box-office draw, according to studio estimates yesterday. Quentin Tarantino's World War II epic "Inglourious Basterds" ran a close second with $15 million from Friday to yesterday.

The Labor Day weekend is traditionally a slow one at theaters. But theaters did solid business over the holiday, with receipts for the top 12 movies at $102.6 million, up 10.5 percent from Labor Day weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.