The effect that “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” will have won’t end when the curtain falls or the box office banks its profits.

Chapel Hill actor Augustus Cho, who plays a North Korean leader in the movie, is spearheading a star-studded benefit Saturday for the USO of North Carolina and the U.S. Veterans Corps, a nonprofit community service group.

Cho also has released a public service announcement to raise awareness of the USO’s work and promote the fund-raising event - http://youtu.be/WZk39Ybr8mA.

“Paramount has really, really come through on this. They were very generous to give us this kind of support. This is highly unusual,” Cho said.

The Military Appreciation Day event will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at The Streets at Southpoint in Durham.

Connie Inggs, director of the USO-NC’s Raleigh-Durham International Airport Center, said she expects the event to have a major impact. The nonprofit organization relied on donations to serve 651,000 service members and families last year.

“There is a great burden on us right now to do operations, and we need community support,” she said.

If a movie night is in your weekend plans, Blockbuster Express has released a new code good for a double feature.

Use the code: AUGUSTDVDS

Good through Sunday, Aug. 19, the code will take $1 off the price of two one-night movie rentals.

If you're looking for cheap entertainment, how does a free movie sound?

N.C. State's Campus Cinema, located in the Witherspoon Student Center, shows free and extraordinarily cheap movies on a regular basis.

And you don't have to be a student or faculty member to take advantage of the freebies.

Right now, the theater has several free showings of "The Hunger Games" scheduled:

The Walltown Park Recreation Center a "community day" this Saturday -- its first since the facility has been renovated.

The event is free, open to the public and will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Walltown Center, located at 1308 West Club Blvd.

The event will feature food, games, and entertainment for the entire family. The Mt. Olive Dancers, Fierce Eclipse All-star Cheerleading Dancers, Walltown Wildcat Cheerleaders, Walltown Baton Twirlers and various step teams will be among the many performances at the event.

For more details contact Pam Sellars at 560-4296, ext. 27421.

Ticketmaster is teaming up with Walmart to offer consumers another outlet to buy tickets for concerts and other events.

Ticketmaster has installed touch-screen kiosks in the electronic departments of 42 Walmarts across North Carolina, as part of a nationwide partnership. That includes about a dozen in the Triangle.

Walmart employees will assist customers buying and printing tickets.

For the retailer, the arrangement could help increase traffic as Walmart seeks to boost its electronics business. And it allows Ticketmaster to provide consumers another choice if they don't want to buy tickets online.

Customers still pay the dreaded "convenience" fees. But they don't pay order-processing or delivery fees, said Ticketmaster spokeswoman Jacqueline Peterson.

The Durham Bulls won't ditch their team bus.

Just in time for next week's season-opening games, the minor league baseball team announced today that Delta Air Lines will be their official airline for the 2011 and 2012 seasons.

The partnership reinforces Delta's interest in the Raleigh-Durham market, said airline vice president Jeff Robertson.

Delta will install advertising on signs and scoreboards at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, and airline employees at RDU will wear Bulls hats and logos.

The Durham Performing Arts Center finished 2010 with 59 of its 151 performances being sellouts.

The events drew a total of 307,000 guests to the center, which finished its second year in operation.

DPAC begins its 2011 schedule on Tuesday with Disney's The Lion King, which will run through Jan. 30.

DPAC's 2010 sellouts included: Vince Gill, Harry Connick Jr., Hairspray, Moody Blues, Wilco, Experience Hendrix, David Gray, Wicked, Chicago, Beauty & the Beast, Ringo Starr, Norah Jones, Lyle Lovett, Lewis Black, Vince Gill/Amy Grant, Cedric the Entertainer and the Moscow Ballet.

Time Warner Cable this morning characterized its business partner, Sinclair Broadcasting, as a liar and scoundrel in an escalating public brawl over programming fees.

The show-stopper behind the nasty rhetoric is a contract dispute over how much Time Warner should pay to carry Sinclair's CW22 and MyRDC signals in 2011. Popular shows include "Gossip Girl," "Nikita" and "Vampire Diaries."

Sinclair has threatened to pull its programs at midnight tonight if it can't renew its contract with Time Warner. For its part, Time Warner says that it would be forced to raise its customers' rates to cover Sinclair's proposed price hikes.

"Sinclair is threatening to take its stations off the air if Time Warner Cable does not agree to its demands for larger fees," the cable company said in a press release.

Time Warner Cable rejected the latest offer from Sinclair Broadcasting, and is refusing further negotiations, Sinclair officials said today.

The escalating feud over programming fees will mean that Time Warner Cable customers could lose the CW22 and MyRDC signals as of midnight Friday. Popular CW shows include "Gossip Girl," "Nikita" and "Vampire Diaries."

Sinclair proposed a fee increase that averaged about 10 cents per subscriber, but officials said today that Time Warner "refused to provide a financial counter-proposal, effectively ending negotiations."

Time Warner responded that Sinclair's statement is false.

"Time Warner Cable has at no time told Sinclair that we were terminating negotiations," Time Warner wrote in its own statement today. "We remain open and willing to negotiate a reasonable agreement for our customers and have no intention of declaring negotiations to be at an end, even in the event that Sinclair decides to pull their signals from Time Warner Cable on December 31st."

Among the signs of a new year: a ball (or acorn) dropping, champagne popping and TV titans fighting.

Television broadcasters and pay-TV providers are increasingly at odds over programming fees. With many contracts tied to the calendar year, those disputes tend to flare up as Jan. 1 approaches.

This year's edition pits Time Warner Cable, the Triangle's dominant pay-TV provider, against Sinclair Broadcasting, which owns WLFL, or CW22, and WRDC, or MyRDC. Both sides are warning customers of blackouts when their contract expires at midnight on Dec. 31.

An extended blackout could disrupt fans of popular CW shows such as the Vampire Diaries, Nikita, 90210 and Gossip Girl, left.