NEW YORK - Matt Damon is Hollywood’s best investment, says Forbes. com.
For every dollar he was paid for his last three roles, Damon brought in $29 of gross income, the site calculated.
That put the 36-year-old “Bourne” star atop a Forbes list of 22 film heavyweights, ranked by the same financial formula.
The first two “Bourne” movies grossed an estimated $850 million at the box office and in DVD sales, Forbes said. The third installment, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” opened last weekend and raked in $70.2 million at the box office. It was the biggest August film opening ever.
Brad Pitt took second place on the list, with a gross income return of $24 for each dollar of his pay, and Vince Vaughn tied with Johnny Depp for third with $21.
Pitt’s ex-wife, Jennifer Aniston, is the most profitable actress with a gross income return of $17. Pitt’s current significant other, Angelina Jolie, ranked sixth with $15.
“The biggest stars in Hollywood are not the actors that deliver the biggest returns,” Forbes senior editor Michael Ozanian said in a statement Monday.
Russell Crowe is at the bottom of the list. His last three films - “A Good Year,” “Cinderella Man” and “Master and Commander” - averaged just $5 in gross income for every dollar spent on the Oscar winner, Forbes said.
Movies starring the two Toms - Hanks and Cruise - averaged $12 and $11 of gross income, respectively. Will Smith and Denzel Washington each brought in $10.
On the comedic front, Adam Sandler brought in $9 per dollar earned, Will Ferrell and Jim Carrey $8 each).
By MIKE ROBINSON
The Associated Press
from The Washington Post
CHICAGO — A federal jury convicted fallen media tycoon Conrad Black and three of his former executives at Hollinger International Inc. Friday of illegally pocketing money that should have gone to stockholders.
Black, 62, was convicted of three counts of mail fraud and one count of obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of 35 years in prison for the offenses, plus a maximum penalty of $1 million.
He was acquitted of nine other counts, including racketeering and misuse of corporate perks, such as taking the company plane on a vacation to Bora Bora and billing shareholders $40,000 for his wife’s birthday party.
Black, sitting at a table with his attorneys, did not show any emotion when the verdict was read. After U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve briefly adjourned the court, his wife, Barbara Amiel Black, and his daughter, Alana, leaned over to console him.
While the verdict was mixed, the conviction signaled an increasing trend of aggressive U.S. government pursuit of senior corporate executives, following the Enron, Tyco and WorldCom scandals, and to hold top executives personally accountable for their companies’ actions.
Black’s three co-defendants were all found guilty of three counts of mail fraud. They are former Hollinger International vice presidents John Boultbee, 64, of Vancouver and Peter Y. Atkinson, 60, of Toronto and attorney Mark Kipnis, 59, of Chicago. They face up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000.
I’ve seen so many of these “hack” attention whores who actually try to get themselves in trouble for publicity. It’s idiotic and one days, if it hasn’t happened already, one of these morons is going to get killed. - JS
Radio fireworks stunt snuffed out
TAMPA, Fla. (UPI) — Police and fire crews stopped an early-morning stunt by a Tampa, Florida radio personality after a listener called 911.
The crew of the MJ Morning Show planned to place dozens of fireworks into a hot oven in the parking lot of the studio at the Clear Channel Broadcast Center, the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times reported Tuesday. But Tampa fire crews and police swarmed the parking lot, stopping the stunt before it began.
According to the show’s Web site, Clear Channel management also ordered the event canceled.
When asked if the event was a legitimate public service, MJ, whose real name is Todd Schnitt, said, “Oh absolutely. It’s about fireworks safety.”
“I don’t know what their goal was,” said Tampa Fire Rescue spokesman Bill Wade. “But the bottom line is that Tampa municipal code states that if you are going to do a public display of fireworks within the city limits, you have to have a permit.”
By DAVID GERMAIN, AP Movie Writer from YAHOO! NEWS
LOS ANGELES - Disney has put a rodent on top of the box office, though not the studio’s venerable mascot, Mickey Mouse.
“Ratatouille,” an animated comedy about a gourmet rat that gets a chance to cook in a French restaurant, debuted as the No. 1 weekend movie with $47.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
20th Century Fox’s action thriller “Live Free or Die Hard,” Bruce Willis’s return as unstoppable cop John McClane, opened in second-place with $33.15 million. Since opening Wednesday, the movie has grossed $48.2 million.
In narrower release, Michael Moore’s health care documentary “Sicko,” released by the Weinstein Co. and Lionsgate, took in $4.5 million in its nationwide debut to finish at No. 9. The movie opened in one New York City theater a week earlier.
Focus Features’ family drama “Evening,” with an all’star cast that includes Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave, Glenn Close and Claire Danes, opened at No. 10 with $3.5 million.
The previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, Universal’s “Evan Almighty,” fell to No. 3 with $15.1 million, raising its 10-day total to $60.6 million. The movie’s sharp 52 percent fall from opening weekend dims the studio’s prospects for recouping the enormous $175 million production budget for the film.
NEW YORK (AP) - Joel Siegel, a longtime movie critic for WABC-TV and “Good Morning America” who racked up five New York Emmy Awards for his insightful work, died Friday, the television station said. He was 63.
The station said Siegel, who was famous for his weekly reviews, had been battling colon cancer.
“Joel was an important part of ABC News and we will miss him,” ABC News President David Westin said in a release. “He was a brilliant reviewer and a great reporter. But much more, he was our dear friend and colleague. Our thoughts and prayers are with Joel’s family.”
Siegel was known for his sense of humor, movie acumen and sharp judgment. He never let an actor off the hook if the performance was lackluster.
“The appeal of Matthew McConaughey has long evaded me both as a pinup and as an actor,” Siegel opined in his review of “We Are Marshall,” a 2006 film. “His constant ticks, bad hair and strained syntax as a coach fumble what should have been the tragic and inspirational story of the rebuilding of Marshall University’s football team after a devastating plane crash.”
Dave Davis, president and general manager of WABC-TV, said Siegel loved to poke fun at uninspiring movies.
“No one had more fun writing about a bad movie than Joel,” Davis said.
ABC anchor Charles Gibson said Siegel knew how to tell a story.
“He had an inexhaustible supply of stories-most funny, many poignant, all with a point or a punch line,” Gibson said.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. “Evan Almighty,” $32.1 million.
2. “1408,” $20.175 million.
3. “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” $20.15 million.
4. “Ocean’s Thirteen,” $11.3 million.
5. “Knocked Up,” $10.6 million.
6. “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End,” $7.2 million.
NEW YORK, June 14 (UPI) — The head of Sirius Satellite Radio is talking with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission about its proposed merger with XM Radio.
Variety reported Wednesday that Sirius President Mel Karmazin recently suggested several new pricing structures to FCC officials in an attempt to gain support of the radio merger.
“We’ve had a number of meetings since we announced the deal,” Karmazin said. “We hope we can draft an offering that will be something the commissioners will see is in the public interest.”
The FCC recently opened the public comment period regarding the proposed merger in an effort to determine the level of support the business deal has nationwide.
Karmazin has been attempting to convince opponents of the measure that combining the two radio networks would not create a monopoly in the industry, Variety said.
As part of the government’s analysis of the merger, the Justice Department will investigate the move during the next few weeks to determine what would be included in the merger.
KALISPELL, Mont., June 14 (UPI) — An escaped convict once accused of planning the abduction of talk show host David Letterman’s son was recaptured Wednesday by police in Montana.
The Web site of “America’s Most Wanted” said authorities now have Kelly Frank in custody, a day after he and fellow escaped convict William Willcut were spotted in Montana’s Flathead National Forest by federal workers.
Frank and Wilcutt escaped from the Montana State Prison ranch Friday and were able to avoid authorities until they were apprehended separately in the Swan Lake area Wednesday.
Frank had been serving time at the prison ranch for three charges linked to actions the 45-year-old took against Letterman.
While Frank ultimately avoided charges for his alleged scheme to kidnap the popular talk show host’s son, he pleaded guilty to charges including obstruction of justice and felony theft.
“America’s Most Wanted” said Frank was serving his 10-year sentence when he and Willcut fled the Montana facility.
WASHINGTON - America may spew more greenhouse gases than any other country, but some states are astonishingly more prolific polluters than others - and it’s not always the ones you might expect.
The Associated Press analyzed state-by’state emissions of carbon dioxide from 2003, the latest U.S. Energy Department numbers available. The review shows startling differences in states’ contribution to climate change.
The biggest reason? The burning of high-carbon coal to produce cheap electricity.
_Wyoming’s coal-fired power plants produce more carbon dioxide in just eight hours than the power generators of more populous Vermont do in a year.
_Texas, the leader in emitting this greenhouse gas, cranks out more than the next two biggest producers combined, California and Pennsylvania, which together have twice Texas’ population.
_In sparsely populated Alaska, the carbon dioxide produced per person by all the flying and driving is six times the per capita amount generated by travelers in New York state.
“There’s no question that some states have made choices to be greener than others,” said former top Energy Department official Joseph Romm, author of the new book “Hell and High Water” and executive director of a nonprofit energy conservation group.
The disparity in carbon dioxide emissions is one of the reasons there is no strong national effort to reduce global warming gases, some experts say. National emissions dipped ever so slightly last year, but that was mostly because of mild weather, according to the Energy Department.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - White-armored storm troopers, robed Jedi knights and bun-haired Princess Leia look-alikes roamed the Los Angeles Convention Center on Friday to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the “Star Wars” film phenomenon.
The sprawling event, billed as the world’s biggest “Star Wars” party, opened to the general public as thousands of fans young and old shopped for memorabilia, posed for photographs and generally immersed themselves in ways of “the Force.”
“This can be one’stop shopping for fans to experience everything they would want in the ‘Star Wars’ world,” said John Singh, a spokesman for “Star Wars” creator George Lucas‘ production company, Lucasfilm, a sponsor of the event.
Special activities included “Star Wars” laser tag, “Slave Leia” belly-dancing lessons, a storm trooper Olympics, R2-D2 android racing, a costume workshop and an appearance by Carrie Fisher, who starred as Princess Leia.
The U.S. Postal Service on Friday used the event to dedicate its first stamps commemorating the 30th anniversary of the movie that revolutionized special-effects filmmaking.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The big voice overwhelmed the beatbox Wednesday night as Jordin Sparks was crowned the newest and youngest ”American Idol.” Sparks, 17, of Glendale, Ariz., prevailed over beatboxer Blake Lewis, 25, of Bothell, Wash., after a triumphant performance Tuesday that wowed the show’s judges and the viewers who gave her a majority of the record 74 million votes cast.
”Mom, Dad, I love you,” Sparks, the daughter of retired NFL player Phillippi Sparks, said tearfully after a bearhug from Lewis.
BlueHerald Image
The contest came down to either the stronger singer, Sparks, or the better entertainer, Lewis. Sparks delivered her songs simply and powerfully; Lewis’ flourishes included his sound effects and sharp dance moves.
Even the famous were gushing over Sparks.
”She is an awesome singer,” finale performer Smokey Robinson said backstage. ”She sings so good, it’s hard to believe she’s 17. To sing like that you would have to have lived for a long time. She’s an old soul.”
The finale pulled out the stops and the stars, with Gwen Stefani, Tony Bennett, Bette Midler, Green Day and more singing.
The two-hour show opened with Lewis and Sparks dueting on the Beatles ”I Saw Her Standing There,” followed quickly by a touring Stefani singing ”4 in the Morning” via satellite from Massachusetts.
CANNES, France (Reuters) - Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, two heavyweight actors of world cinema, will team up for only the second time on movie screens in a new film called “Righteous Kill,” the film’s producers said on Friday.
Details were scarce as the deal to put the two stars together was sealed late Thursday, but Los Angeles-based independent producer Millennium Films said the long-time friends play police detectives tracking down a serial killer.
Oscar winners De Niro and Pacino have worked together once before in 1995’s widely-touted “Heat” from director Michael Mann, and while both starred in “The Godfather Part II” they did not share any scenes on screen.
“You see those two icons on screen together for virtually the whole film,” Millennium chief Avi Lerner told showbusiness newspaper The Hollywood Reporter about “Righteous Kill.”
De Niro, 63, and Pacino, 67, are considered two of the greatest U.S. actors of their generation. De Niro has won two Oscars for acting in 1980’s “Raging Bull” and 1974’s “The Godfather Part II.” Pacino won one acting Oscar for 1992’s “Scent of a Woman.”
The new film is expected to begin shooting in August in Connecticut and New York.
When “Sgt. Pepper” appeared, it was as if a massive block party had appeared outside your window. I was nearly 12 years old at the time and when one of my four older brothers came home with the highly anticipated new Beatles record, we listened to it over and over, marveling at the sheer audacity of songwriters John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Doug, overwhelmed by enthusiasm and hyperbole, declared, matter-of-factly, “The band has changed its name forever and rock ‘n’ roll will never be the same.”
And it wasn’t just the music. The album cover itself was breathtaking, a puzzling and colorful collage by Peter Blake that showed the band, in gaudy mock-military costumes, presiding over the burial of the “old” Beatles, with scattered mug shots of high and low cultural icons hovering in the background. You’d go cross-eyed trying to figure out just how many notables were depicted — a mass of pop art that included Marilyn Monroe, Karl Marx, Aldous Huxley, Marlene Dietrich, Sonny Liston, Laurel and Hardy, Oscar Wilde, Marlon Brando, Leo Gorcey, Bob Dylan, Lenny Bruce and Mae West.
The presentation was a triumph of packaging, and included for the first time the printing of lyrics on the back cover. That the group had reached this point a mere three years after the first rush of “Beatlemania” was astonishing, and the songs simply ratcheted up the sense of momentousness provided by the record sleeve.
Relieved from the pressure of performing live, the Beatles were able to record songs that were, even in a relatively primitive studio, filled with overdubs, backward tape loops, snippets of orchestral crescendos, a cowbell here, a tin horn there, creating a sound and style that was quickly, for better or worse, aped by the band’s peers and imitators. Aside from the technical innovations, the 13 songs ushered in yet another phase for the Beatles, one that was far more introspective, grandiose and certainly informed by their recreational use of drugs.
Forty years later, it’s easy to dismiss such lyrically slight songs as Mr. McCartney’s “When I’m Sixty-Four” or George Harrison’s meandering, sitar-driven “Within You Without You,” but the bulk of “Sgt. Pepper” stands the test of time. For example, John Lennon’s “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” is about an evening vaudeville romp where “Henry the Horse dances the waltz” and men leap through “a hogshead of real fire!” Another standout is Mr. McCartney’s “Fixing a Hole,” a dreamy and druggy meditation about fame and drudgery. He sings about “filling the cracks” in his door that “kept [his] mind from wandering,” and chastises those who “disagree and never win and wonder why they don’t get in my door.”
It’s been a while since John Anderson, one of Country Music’s most familiar voices, has had chart and record sales success.
The Florida native, best known for his 1980’s smash hit “Swingin’” has returned, and in a big way, with his new RAYBAW Records release “Easy Money”.
Anderson teamed up with Big and Rich’s John Rich, who produced the new CD, to bring an exciting new album of great Country songs, both traditional and modern.
The “Easy Money” CD contains a wide emotional range, with plenty of heartbreak, humor and rugged warmth. Anderson is in top form, putting all he has into every vocal arrangement. It’s safe to say that Anderson “is back”, even though he’s never really gone away.
“John Anderson is officially my honky tonk hero,” stated John Rich. “I don’t think that even John can comprehend what an influence he is. There’s a hole in Country Music where he used to be, and I’m hell-bent on filling it back up.”
The two met about 10 years ago, when Rich, then singing lead with Lonestar, knocked on the door of Anderson’s tour bus. They stayed in touch and, years later, hooked up for a co-writing date which led to an invitation to come onboard for a week during a Big & Rich tour. For Anderson, the experience was at once a flashback and a premonition.
“It was like old times,” he said, smiling. “John, Kenny, James Otto, Shiny [Shannon] Lawson, we were all on the bus, passing the guitar, singing and writing songs. Then John asked me what I wanted. I told him I’d take a decent record deal but if we could just write some good songs together, that would be like icing on the cake, because I was thinking,” he said with a sly wink and a laugh, “‘Man, I’m going to get me some Big & Rich cuts!’”
He got more than that: an offer to sign with Raybaw. By the time they hit the studio, Anderson and Rich were armed with a bunch of songs, about half of which they had written together, the rest a combination of things they hatched on their own or brought in from other writers, with highlights including a tear-it-up drinking song (”Brown Liquor”); a romantic ballad (”You Already Know My Love”); a slapstick rocker with a punch-line hook (”If Her Lovin’ Don’t Kill Me”); the heartfelt (”Bonnie Blue”); and fist-pumping (”Funky Country”) tributes to Dixie, the de rigueur dig at the business side of Country (”Easy Money”); and a musically ambitious, Celtic influenced tour de force (”Weeds”).
BOSTON (Reuters) - A fistfight in the balcony stopped the music on opening night at the Boston Pops, drawing gasps from hundreds of well-heeled guests at one of the country’s oldest and best-known city orchestras.
Famous for light classical music and family pop tunes from decades past, the orchestra briefly halted its performance on Wednesday evening as two men wrestled in the side balcony of the 107-year-old Symphony Hall.
Concert-goers looked up after a woman’s scream interrupted a rendition of the Hollywood musical “Gigi” about 20 minutes into the performance.
Shortly afterward, conductor Keith Lockhart stopped the orchestra with a motion of his hand as the murmuring crowd turned to watch the scuffle, apparently caused after one man told another guest to be quiet.
One of the men could be seen with his button-down shirt ripped open as a security guard pulled the two apart, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene. A man had his arm wrapped around another’s neck, pulling him backward.
“House security and Boston police stopped the fight, and the audience members were escorted out of the hall,” the Boston Symphony Orchestra said in a statement on Thursday. “The concert resumed and ended with cheers and a standing ovation.”
No charges were filed against the men.
The Pops, comprised of the Boston Symphony minus its principal players, is perhaps best known for July 4th concerts along Boston’s Charles River that began in 1974 and include fireworks accompanying Tchaikovsky’s “1812 Overture.”
Its concert hall is considered among the best in the world.
That put the 36-year-old “Bourne” star atop a Forbes list of 22 film heavyweights, ranked by the same financial formula.
20th Century Fox’s action thriller “Live Free or Die Hard,” Bruce Willis’s return as unstoppable cop John McClane, opened in second-place with $33.15 million. Since opening Wednesday, the movie has grossed $48.2 million.
