Bob Dylan to blow out birthday candles with St. John's gig
Music legend Bob Dylan will celebrate his next birthday with a little salt water nearby.
Dylan, who turns 67 on May 24, will perform that evening at Mile One Centre in St. John's.
Tickets for the concert go on sale Saturday morning.
Dylan, who has sold nearly 100 million albums throughout his career, continues to tour around the world.
His recording career is as strong as ever. His latest release — 2006's Modern Times — was one of the best-reviewed albums of the year and topped some musical sales charts.
Dylan will also perform in Saint John, N.B., Moncton and Halifax in a Canadian tour beginning May 19.
Dylan is not the only music icon playing St. John's that week. Leonard Cohen, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame earlier this month, will play three dates May 26-28.
Dr Pepper Sweetens Pot For 'Chinese Democracy'
Many have tried, but so far nobody has been able to pry the decade-in-the-works Guns N' Roses album "Chinese Democracy" from the hands of lone remaining original member Axl Rose.
Now, Dr Pepper thinks it's up to the challenge. The soft drink company says it will give a free can of Dr Pepper to "everyone in America" (excluding ex-GNR members Slash and Buckethead) if "Chinese Democracy" arrives anytime during the calendar year 2008.
"It took a little patience to perfect Dr Pepper's special mix of 23 ingredients, which our fans have come to know and love," Dr Pepper director of marketing Jaxie Alt says. "So we completely understand and empathize with Axl's quest for perfection -- for something more than the average album. We know once it's released, people will refer to it as 'Dr Pepper for the ears' because it will be such a refreshing blend of rich, bold sounds - an instant classic."
Dr Pepper has also launched a blog in conjunction with its offer. GNR's label, Interscope, was unavailable for comment at deadline.
"Chinese Democracy" was most recently scheduled for release on March 6, 2007, but promptly vanished from the schedule without a new date being set. It will be the first Guns N' Roses album since the 1993 covers collection "The Spaghetti Incident"; in the ensuing decade, the group has burned through a reported $13 million in recording expenses.
"Bucket List" lived life to fullest at box office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Multiplication matters, especially when it comes to how movies perform at the box office. Week in and week out, the media spotlight shines on those movies that crack the top 10. And as soon as movies slip out of the top spots, they are quickly forgotten.
But those opening-weekend numbers tell only part of the story. Consider December's slate of releases, which are winding down their runs.
The crude rule of thumb is that a movie will go on to gross a multiple of 2.5 times its opening weekend. That, for example, was the case with New Line's "The Golden Compass." Although it opened in the top spot for the weekend of December 7, it captured a disappointing $25.8 million and so went on to a domestic take of just $70.1 million -- a multiple of 2.7.
Hit movies usually do better than that, of course. Warner Bros.' "I Am Legend," the dominant player during the past holiday season, opened to a commanding $77.2 million on its way to $256.1 million. In its case, it achieved a solid 3.3 multiple.
But the real stories prove to be those movies that command even higher multiples, hanging in there week after week. These days, movies with family appeal often show the longest staying power. Although Fox's live-action/animated "Alvin and the Chipmunks" opened in second place -- overshadowed by the debut of "Legend" -- it proved to be one of the Christmas season's powerhouses. With an opening of $44.3 million, it eventually grossed $215.3 million, achieving an enviable multiple of 4.86. Disney's sequel "National Treasure: Book of Secrets" followed a remarkably similar trajectory. After a $44.8 million opening, it climbed to a domestic gross of $217.2 million. That translated to a 4.85 multiple.
But viewed in terms of multiples, the biggest surprise among the year-end releases proved to be Warners' "The Bucket List," starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman as two old codgers who refuse to gently go into that good night.
Initially released on just 16 screens on Christmas Day, it was the movie that could get no respect. Critics were dismissive, it scored a below-average 40% rating on RottenTomatoes.com, and it struck out in a quixotic bid for awards attention.
The film then went wide during its third weekend, fanning out to 2,911 theaters when it suddenly shot up to No. 1 with a $19.4 million gross. The rule of the multiple suggested that it was heading for a gross of about $50 million.
But "Bucket List" defied expectations. During the first half of its wide release, it rarely dropped by more than 25% each weekend, displaying tenacious holding power. As it now winds down, "Bucket List" has taken in $91 million domestically after 13 weeks in wide release. And that computes to a multiple of 4.69, which puts it right up there with "Alvin" and the "Treasure" sequel in terms of drawing power. Produced for about $45 million, it is well on its way to profitability. (As a rough rule of thumb, movie theaters usually keep about half the gross.)
What makes its success all the more impressive is that "Bucket List" is just the sort of midrange movie that finds it tough going in the overcrowded market. And though Warners often has been criticized for failing to support such titles, in this case it beat the odds by using a limited opening to platform the film before its wide release and then by nurturing it through an extended run.
In the end, by appealing to older audiences -- who don't rush the box office on opening weekend but do manage to get in there in their own sweet time -- "Bucket List" maximized its multiple.
Richard Widmark dies at 93
HARTFORD, Conn. - Richard Widmark, who made a sensational film debut as the giggling killer in "Kiss of Death" and became a leading man in "Broken Lance," "Two Rode Together" and 40 other films, died at his home in Roxbury after a long illness. He was 93.
Widmark's wife, Susan Blanchard, said he died Monday. She would not provide details of his illness and said funeral arrangements are private.
"It was a big shock, but he was 93," Blanchard said.
Widmark earned an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actor for his role in the 1947 thriller "Kiss of Death." He played Tommy Udo, who delighted in pushing an old lady in a wheelchair down a flight of stairs to her death. It was his only Oscar nomination.
"That damned laugh of mine!" he told a reporter in 1961. "For two years after that picture, you couldn't get me to smile. I played the part the way I did because the script struck me as funny and the part I played made me laugh. The guy was such a ridiculous beast."
Actress Shirley Jones, who appeared with Widmark and James Stewart in "Two Rode Together" and became a good friend, said she was devastated about Widmark's death.
"He was a down-to-earth guy, and I respected him for that," Jones said in a phone interview from Los Angeles. "He was a real guy, but he was such a wonderful actor."
A.C. Lyles, a producer with Paramount Pictures, worked with Widmark on the 1975 western "The Last Day."
"Dick was just one of the nicest guys I ever worked with: very, very professional, very, very prepared and he couldn't have been more cooperative," Lyles said.
"He would have little comments to make during rehearsal about a scene and it was never a suggestion that would enhance him," he said. "It was always to enhance someone else in the scene and I thought that was very courageous of him."
A quiet, inordinately shy man, Widmark often portrayed killers, cops and Western gunslingers. But he said he hated guns.
"I know I've made kind of a half-assed career out of violence, but I abhor violence," he remarked in a 1976 Associated Press interview. "I am an ardent supporter of gun control. It seems incredible to me that we are the only civilized nation that does not put some effective control on guns."
Widmark was born Dec. 26, 1914, in Sunrise, Minn., where his father ran a general store, then became a traveling salesman. The family moved to Sioux Falls, S.D., Henry, Ill., and Chillicothe, Mo., before settling in Princeton, Ill.
"Like most small-town boys, I had the urge to get to the big city and make a name for myself," he recalled in a 1954 interview.
"I was a movie nut from the age of 3, but I don't recall having any interest in acting," he said.
But at Lake Forest College, he became a protege of the drama teacher and met his first wife, drama student Ora Jean Hazelwood. Their daughter, Ann, became the wife of baseball immortal Sandy Koufax.
Two years out of college, Widmark reached New York in 1938 during the heyday of radio drama. His mellow Midwest voice made him a favorite in soap operas, and he found himself racing from one studio to another.
Rejected by the Army because of a punctured eardrum, Widmark began appearing in Broadway plays in 1943. His first was a comedy hit "Kiss and Tell." He was appearing in the Chicago company of "Dream Girl" with June Havoc when 20th Century Fox signed him to a seven-year contract. He almost missed out on the "Kiss of Death" role.
"The director, Henry Hathaway, didn't want me," the actor recalled. "I have a high forehead; he thought I looked too intellectual." The director was overruled by studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck, and Hathaway "gave me kind of a bad time."
An immediate star, Widmark appeared in 20 Fox films from 1957 to 1964. Among them: "The Street with No Name," "Road House," "Yellow Sky," "Down to the Sea in Ships," "Slattery's Hurricane," "Panic in the Streets," "No Way Out," "The Halls of Montezuma," "The Frogmen," "Red Skies of Montana," "My Pal Gus" and the Samuel Fuller film noir "Pickup on South Street."
In 1952, Widmark starred in "Don't Bother to Knock" with Marilyn Monroe. He told an interviewer in later years:
"She wanted to be this great star but acting just scared the hell out of her. That's why she was always late — couldn't get her on the set. She had trouble remembering lines."
"But none of it mattered. With a very few special people, something happens between the lens and the film that is pure magic. ... And she really had it."
After leaving Fox, Widmark's career continued to flourish. He starred (as Jim Bowie) with John Wayne in "The Alamo," with James Stewart in John Ford's "Two Rode Together," as the U.S. prosecutor in "Judgment at Nuremberg," and with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas in "The Way West." Also: "St. Joan" (as the Dauphin), "How the West Was Won," "Death of a Gunfighter," "Murder on the Orient Express," "Midas Run" and "Coma."
"Madigan," a 1968 film with Widmark as a loner detective, was converted to television and lasted one season in 1972-73. It was Widmark's only TV series.
He also was in some TV films, including "Cold Sassy Tree" and "Once Upon a Texas Train."
In later years, Widmark appeared sparingly in films and TV. He explained to Parade magazine in 1987: "I've discovered in my dotage that I now find the whole moviemaking process irritating. I don't have the patience anymore. I've got a few more years to live, and I don't want to spend them sitting around a movie set for 12 hours to do two minutes of film."
Hazelwood died in 1997 and Widmark married Blanchard in 1999.