‘Fast & Furious’ to stay on top. Carey and Minaj exit ‘Idol.’

After the coffee. Before trying to enjoy the last day of May.

The Skinny: You know you’re getting old when the idea of getting yet another box to make watching TV and finding content online easy just sounds like a lot of work. Friday’s headlines include a preview of the weekend box office and reviews of “After Earth” and “The East.” Also starting today, Company Town offers a few laughs for you courtesy of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist David Horsey. His take will appear on Fridays. Finally, if you are interested in receiving an email alert when the Morning Fix is live please send me a note.

Daily Dose: Reporters who headed out to CBS on Thursday for a preview of its big summer series “Under the Dome” also got to see Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer and Xbox Entertainment Studios President Nancy Tellem heading into the network for a meeting. Tellem, of course, is a former CBS Entertainment president. Odds are she wasn’t there just to give Ballmer a tour of her old offices, but they probably did say hi to her old boss Les Moonves, the CEO of CBS. Naturally, this being the digital age, the sighting was quickly tweeted by TV Guide’s Michael Schneider.

Still furious. “Fast & Furious 6” is expected to keep its pedal to the metal this weekend at the box office. According to industry projections, “F&F6;” should take in $40 million and perhaps as much as $50 million this weekend. Last weekend it made nearly $120 million. Coming in second will be “After Earth,” a science-fiction movie starring Will Smith and his son Jaden. Critics didn’t get to screen the movie until earlier this week and that’s never a good sign. Sony thinks “After Earth” could come in around $40 million, but other pundits think the movie will barely crack $30 million. Box-office previews from the Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter.

PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments

Tough sell. Sony Chief Executive Kazuo Hirai said the company will give some thought to investor Daniel Loeb’s pitch that the consumer electronics and entertainment giant should spin off a portion of its movie and TV businesses. However, Hirai indicated in an interview that he thinks the company is fine now and that a breakup would hinder it. More on Hirai’s remarks from the Wall Street Journal.

Maybe they’ll go on tour together. Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj both said they are leaving “American Idol” after just one season on the musical talent show. The departures had been expected and follow the exits of fellow judge Randy Jackson and Mike Darnell, the Fox TV executive who oversaw the show for the network. Should we bet on whether Keith Urban leaves this week or next week? The Associated Press on the departures.

Not written in stone. The broadcast networks have presented fall schedules to advertisers and have sent pilots of the new shows to the media. Next up is the annual ritual of recasting roles. This happens for lots of reasons. An actor who wasn’t available when the pilot was being made is suddenly free because their new show didn’t get picked up. Perhaps testing showed that the audience didn’t like the freckles on the woman playing the best friend. It can be totally random and probably drives the talent community crazy. It’s like being told, “It’s not you, it’s me.” Variety columnist Brian Lowry on the cruel world of recasting.

PHOTOS: ‘American Idols’ -- where are they now?

Inside the Los Angeles Times: Jon Healy on Fanhattan’s new TV receiver that looks to make navigating television easier. Betsy Sharkey on “After Earth” and “The East.”

[For the Record, 8:21 a.m. PDT May 31: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Davis Horsey as Chris Horsey.]

Follow me on Twitter. I’m the cure for June gloom. @JBFlint.

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