Could a legal victory banish Superman to Hollywood's phantom zone?

That's a possibility after a recent court ruling gave the heirs of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel a share of the U.S. copyright to the character. The lawsuit also means the studio will potentially have to pay the family millions in profits from 2006's Superman Returns.

Siegel sold the superhero for a paltry $130 to DC Comics in the 1930s. Decades later, around the time of the Christopher Reeve movies, Siegel and co-creator Joe Shuster were compensated for their work, but those payments still paled in comparison to the true value of the character. Siegel died in 1996.

Presumably, the ruling could give Warners pause about revisiting the comic-book icon in either a sequel to Superman Returns or a Justice League movie.

Of course, even before the decision, the studio hadn't settled on which Superman filmgoers would see next: Brandon Routh's version or a fresh face in League.

"I hear they're talking about script ideas for a sequel (to Returns)," says Kevin Spacey, who would return as Lex Luthor.

Adds his co-star Kate Bosworth a.k.a. Lois Lane, "We're always the last to hear."

Asked about this nerd-tastic news, rapper-turned-actor Common, who is signed to play Green Lantern in Justice League, will only say that, "I can't really talk about that situation, to be honest. I wish I could."

PEOPLE POWER: Opening Friday, Smart People stars Dennis Quaid as an uptight intellect who romances a doctor played by Sarah Jessica Parker.

Both roles mark departures for the characteristically macho Quaid and glamorous Parker. Naturally, this was the idea, says director Noam Murro.

"It's really nice to take someone known for one thing and do something different. It's true for Dennis; it's true for Sarah. Here's a comic superstar so well known, you could probably ask anybody in the world or go to India and find a billboard of Carrie Bradshaw."

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE: When you're 11-years-old, it's one thing to play opposite stars such as Mel Gibson and Jodie Foster. It's another to play opposite seals and lizards.

The seemingly ubiquitous child-actor Abigail Breslin (Signs, Little Miss Sunshine, Definitely, Maybe and this week's Nim's Island with Jodie Foster) told us she learned more playing a girl who lives on a South Pacific island with her dad than in any of her other movies.

"I learned all about sea lions and lizards and pelicans," she says of her Bindi, the Jungle Girl-like role with wild-animal pets. "I learned that pelicans actually have their nose in their mouth, and I learned that bearded dragons, when they get excited, their beard puffs out and turns black."

That's definitely more than most actors learn about anything.

Look for Breslin this summer starring in the Depression-era comedy-drama Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, directed by Canuck Patricia Rozema and co-starring Willow Smith (daughter of some guy named Will).