Regarded as a liberal landmark in its day, Stanley Kramer's 1967 movie, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, gets a racial twist in the new comedy Guess Who, which topped the US box-office this week, writes Michael Dwyer

The original featured Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy (in their ninth and final film together) as a couple whose progressive values are tested when their only daughter (Katharine Houghton) introduces them to her black fiance (Sidney Poitier). The movie earned Hepburn the second of her four Oscars as best actress and took the Oscar for best screenplay.

The new version, which seems unlikely to figure in next year's awards, stars Bernie Mac as the doting father wistfully imagining that his daughter (Zoe Saldana) is bringing home a boyfriend who is a cross between Denzel Washington, Colin Powell and Tiger Woods, only to discover that the young man (Ashton Kutcher) is, as the father puts it, "pigment challenged".

In another racial spin, Kojak has returned to US TV screens, with the late Telly Savalas replaced as the eponymous detective by Ving Rhames - who does share his predecessor's penchant for sucking lollipops.