'Idol' voting strained nerves, nation's telephone systems
A week after Fox received a record 24 million calls from American Idol viewers choosing the fate of Ruben Studdard and Clay Aiken, fans are still debating the accuracy of the final vote. Studdard's margin of victory was only 134,400 votes.
The confusion over the voting totals in Wednesday's live broadcast was fueled by conflicting figures read by Idol host Ryan Seacrest. A spokesman for the show says Seacrest is not to blame. The first incorrect figure — 13,000 — was displayed on the teleprompter. The second — 1,335 — was written on a card given to Seacrest.
Many people received busy signals during the final three hours of voting on Tuesday, causing some to suspect that, in shades of the 2000 Bush vs. Gore presidential contest, the lost votes might have produced a different result.
But like a radio call-in contest, phone networks can handle only so many calls at one time. The Idol finale was like a local radio contest magnified many times, featuring two popular contestants, millions of fans and two phone numbers with equal capacity. All this adds up to a virtual deadlock.
"My daughter dialed more than a hundred times and couldn't get through," says Cynthia McGinnes of Chestertown, Md. "This is a show we all watch as a family, and I guarantee you we will never watch again. My daughter was in tears."
But many opted for different technology. Dana Goldstein, 15, turned to her cell phone's text-messaging option instead.
The Manhattan Beach, Calif., teen couldn't get through by phone, so she switched to text voting. "It's a lot easier, because you get through every time."
AT&T, which supplied the text-messaging option for its 21 million subscribers at 10 cents a pop, supplied 2.5 million votes, or about 10% of the total. "And not a single message got rejected," AT&T's Andre Dahan says. AT&T did not provide a breakdown of votes, but text messaging could have made the difference.
Verizon, the nation's largest phone company, says call volume was up on Tuesday by 116 million calls. "So many called, the network was flooded," Verizon's Daniel Diaz Zapata says. "It doesn't mean the network was faulty, just everybody was trying to dial in at the same time."
SBC, which operates in 13 states, says it received 115 million additional calls. "Our network engineers found that if people waited a half-hour after the voting started, they had a much better chance of getting through," SBC's Suzy Henderson says.
For all the griping about people not being able to connect with their potential votes, "24 million did get through," Fox's Scott Grogin says. "The system worked like it was supposed to."
Last summer's Idol produced 18 million votes, and Grogin says Fox talked about new voting procedures this time, such as using the Internet, but nothing came of it.
The Internet was used for CBS' Star Search, which made its debut in January. That show used a similar system of celebrity judges and viewer votes. Instead of phone calls, CBS opted for online votes, but the show was live, so only viewers in the Eastern time zone could vote. CBS hasn't said how many votes have been counted.
Will Fox try the Net, or alternative methods, in January for the next Idol? Fox isn't saying. "We have seven months for that," Grogin says. "It's a long ways away."
Still, "getting 24 million phone calls into one narrow, short period of time is not an insignificant number," AT&T's Dahan says. Text messaging, however, can handle bigger volumes more easily, because the messages are queued up and stamped with the time, he says. "It will be delayed momentarily, but it gets through and still counts."
Christopher Saunders of the Instant Messaging Planet newsletter says that although Fox should look into instant messaging and the Internet as alternatives, its best bet is continuing with text messaging, because it can pay for itself.
"In Europe, where text messaging is more widespread, many shows charge 50 cents to use the system, and they get a lot of calls. And they always get through."
'Bruce Almighty' Topples 'The Matrix'
LOS ANGELES - The Jim Carrey comedy "Bruce Almighty" reigned at the box office in its opening weekend, taking in $86.4 million and easily surpassing "The Matrix Reloaded" as the No. 1 movie of the Memorial Day weekend.
"The Matrix" sequel earned $45.6 million to place a distant No. 2 in its second week of release, according to studio estimates Monday.
Attendance for "The Matrix Reloaded," which has collected $209.5 million since its powerhouse debut May 14, shrunk by 60 percent — suggesting "The Matrix" is unloading quickly.
Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co., characterized the performance of "Bruce Almighty" as a "definite surprise."
The comedy stars Carrey as a regular guy who receives the powers of God (played by Morgan Freeman) after complaining too much about life. Before getting his comeuppance, Bruce uses the abilities to look up women's dresses, torment his work rival and teach his dog to use the toilet.
"We all thought this would be a big weekend, but the question was — would "Bruce Almighty' top 'The Matrix?'" Dergarabedian said. "Jim Carrey in a broad comedy like this is pretty much unstoppable."
The only other new film in wide release was the Michael Douglas-Albert Brooks remake of "The In-Laws," about a wild secret agent and meek doctor whose children are marrying. The comedy, based on a 1979 film starring Peter Falk and Alan Arkin, collected $9.1 million.
"The Matrix Reloaded," a sequel to the 1999 film about a computer hacker trying to unravel a parallel reality devised by machines, faced high expectations after its huge debut — but early success may have shortened its long-term prospects.
"So many people saw that movie so quickly that it's very difficult to maintain for a second weekend," Dergarabedian said.
But the 60 percent plunge in attendance was steeper than other blockbusters, including last year's "Spider-Man" and "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones," which saw second-weekend ticket sales fall by only 38 percent and 40 percent, respectively.
But "Spider-Man" was rated PG-13 and "Clones" was PG. The R-rating for "Reloaded," Warner Bros. executives said, curtailed its audience by restricting most unchaperoned moviegoers under 17-years-old.
"You can't compare an R-rated movie over a holiday period with movies that appeal to a broad family audience. We have a different kind of movie," said Dan Fellman, Warner Bros. head of U.S. distribution.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Monday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Tuesday.
1. "Bruce Almighty," $86.4 million.
2. "The Matrix Reloaded," $45.6 million.
3. "Daddy Day Care," $18 million.
4. "X2: X-Men United," $13 million.
5. "The In-Laws," $9.1 million
6. "Down With Love." $5.1 million.
7. "The Lizzie McGuire Movie," $4 million.
8. "Holes," $3 million.
9. "Identity," $2.6 million.
10. "Anger Management," $2.4 million.
McCartney Serenades Putin, Rocks Red Square
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Paul McCartney has become the first Beatle to sing inside the Kremlin walls, treating President Vladimir Putin to an impromptu version of "Let it Be" before singing to thousands of Russians on Red Square.
Putin, who confessed to being a Beatles fan in his youth, told McCartney Saturday the band had been an inspiration during Soviet times, despite Kremlin efforts to discourage Western music.
"It was very popular, more than popular," Putin said when asked whether he had listened to the Beatles when contacts with foreign music were discouraged. "It was like a breath of fresh air, like a window on the outside world."
McCartney met Putin in the Kremlin for tea and a guided tour, hours before the first Russian show in the musician's 40-year career.
Putin told McCartney he knew of his plans to play in Russia in the 1980s -- ultimately quashed by Soviet authorities.
"It was considered propaganda of an alien ideology," Putin, a former KGB officer, said of Beatles' hits.
Although not banned in Soviet times, Beatles music was hard to obtain. Some albums were locally manufactured and many fans heard songs on the Voice of America and BBC radio.
"The Beatles did make a lot of changes. We didn't set out to make changes, but we did," McCartney said later.
McCartney, on a 14-month world tour, is not the first Beatle to sing in Russia; Ringo Starr traveled to Moscow in 1998. But he is the only member of the band and one of a handful of artists to be given permission to perform in Red Square.
"(Putin) seemed to be a really nice guy," McCartney told hundreds of reporters in the square. "I sang him a song -- he couldn't come to the concert tonight."
He said later he had sung "Let It Be."
Ahead of Saturday's open-air show a group of nationalist Russian deputies objected to plans to stage a pop concert meters from the graves of Soviet leaders Lenin, Stalin and dozens of other communist-era heavyweights.
Thousands flocked to the concert. Tickets sold for hundreds of dollars in a country where monthly wages are below $100.
McCartney, thronged by fans since arriving in Russia, said he would treat 20,000 spectators to three hours of hits, including "Back in the USSR."
Strolling through the Kremlin grounds, McCartney said his trip to Russia had dispelled many notions he had held, including what he might have thought when he wrote that song.
"I didn't know anything about it then," he said. "It was a mystical land then. It's nice to see the reality. I always suspected that people had big hearts. Now I know that's true."
'Simpsons' Creator Wins Best Cartoonist
SAN FRANCISCO - Matt Groening, creator of North America's favorite animated family, "The Simpsons," was named Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year at the 2003 Reuben Awards.
Darby Conley won best newspaper comic for his strip, "Get Fuzzy," which details the adventures of Rob Wilco, a single ad executive, and his temperamental cat Buckeye and gentle dog Satchel.
The 57th annual award ceremony was held Saturday at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. It featured presenters and past Reuben winners such as "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams, "Doonesbury" creator Gary Trudeau, and Cathy Guisewite, creator of "Cathy".
The National Cartoonists Society was founded in 1946 and is headquartered in New York City. Today it includes more than 600 members.
Van Sant Wins Top Cannes Award for 'Elephant'
CANNES, France (Reuters) - Gus Van Sant won the Cannes film festival's coveted Palme d'Or award Sunday for "Elephant," a film that tracks the lives of actual U.S. students to see how they cope with shootings and violence at school.
The prize was a long-awaited triumph for the U.S. director who has won plaudits in Hollywood with films like "Good Will Hunting" and "To Die For," but had yet to win over the arthouse-loving critics of the French Riviera.
Van Sant was also awarded the prize for best direction.
"I thought I was finished," an emotional Van Sant told the star-studded awards ceremony, as he was called back up to the stage for the top prize. "I've been trying to get my films to Cannes for years. To win is miraculous and fortunate and lucky."
"Elephant" uses non-actor children from Van Sant's home town of Portland, Oregon, and improvised lines to paint an impressionistic picture of everyday high school life that turns to tragedy when two students go on a shooting spree.
It comes a year after Michael Moore was lauded at Cannes for his probing documentary "Bowling for Columbine," which also examines America's gun culture and high-school shootings.
"I don't think of it as an anti-American movie. It's made from the viewpoint of my life in the U.S.," Van Sant said.
Festival watchers, who had their money on Lars von Trier's film "Dogville" winning the top award, were surprised when the maverick Dane and his leading lady Nicole Kidman won nothing.
The news will be a blow to Von Trier's production team which reportedly spent half a million dollars on Kidman's trip to Cannes, where she stayed in the priciest hotel around.
CANADA, TURKEY HONORED
Another film touted as a top winner was French-Canadian "The Barbarian Invasions," which ended up winning best screenplay and best actress for Marie-Josee Croze, who plays a drug addict who supplies the dying hero with heroin to ease his pain.
"It's always nice to get a prize," said the grinning writer, Denys Arcand, whose moving tale of a middle-aged professor's estranged wife, son and mistresses gathering around his deathbed provoked roars of laughter and sobs in Cannes -- as well as during shooting.
With so many awards going to north America, Cannes retained its reputation for favoring intellectual world cinema by giving two awards to Turkish film "Uzak" (Distant), a moving study of how a man's home life is upset when a jobless cousin moves in.
Director Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the runner-up Grand Prix and amateur players Muzaffer Ozdemir and Mehmet Emin Toprak jointly won best actor, an honor that goes posthumously to Toprak, Ceylan's cousin, after he died in a car accident the day after learning "Uzak" was shortlisted for Cannes.
World cinema gets invaluable exposure at Cannes, primarily a showcase for arty films that otherwise risk being overlooked.
That said, critics this year complained that the line-up of 20 feature films was the shoddiest in years.
Jury head Patrice Chereau said the nine-member panel managed to remain on good terms during 10 days of lengthy discussion, and actress Isabelle Huppert said it was important to keep things in perspective given "all the unhappiness in the world."
Iranian director Samira Makhmalbaf, just 23, received her second Jury Award in three years for "Five in the Afternoon," her portrayal of life in Afghanistan since the Taliban fell.