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thursday, may 1
Take Aim
Target Gets a New CEO
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Gregg Steinhafel takes over as Target CEO amid a retail slump, replacing retiring CEO Robert Ulrich, who hiked profits ninefold by blurring the line between polyester and posh. Steinhafel, 53, has a few things going for him: experience (he joined Target post B-school in 1979 as a paint buyer); retailing genes (his family owns Wisconsin's Steinhafels Furniture); and a rep as a merchandising Merlin. He'll need to work his magic. Sales have sagged, and designer Isaac Mizrahi recently quit to go to Liz Claiborne. -- Ellen Gibson

friday, may 2
Watch
Iron Man
Directed by Jon Favreau

Iron Man is the first flick that Marvel Entertainment is producing independently of a major studio (Paramount is handling only the promotion and the distribution). "The Iron Man movie is us," says Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor-in-chief. "We are the masters of our character." Those are bold words, and director Jon Favreau has done some bold casting. To play the title character -- billionaire industrialist, recovering alcoholic, and sometime superhero Tony Stark -- he has chosen the often enigmatic, now sober, and always entertaining Robert Downey Jr. By way of somewhat cryptic explanation, Quesada says, "Marvel is all about alter ego." We'll take that to mean life's complicated and so are these characters -- and of course there will be a sequel. -- Abe Lebovic