Reports: Farrah Fawcett hospitalized
Cancer-stricken actress Farrah Fawcett has been admitted to hospital in a critical condition, according to reports.
The former Charlie's Angels star, 62, is said to be unconscious but stable after checking into a medical centre in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to People.com.
Her long-term partner Ryan O'Neal is at her bedside, as well as their 24-year-old son Redmond, who quit his stint in a California rehab centre on Wednesday after allegedly failing a drugs test.
Fawcett, who was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006, recently returned from undergoing experimental stem-cell treatment in Germany.
Paul McCartney and Ringo Star reunite on stage
NEW YORK – An all-star concert on meditation brought Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr together for their first performance together in seven years.
The reunion of McCartney and Starr, the surviving members of the Beatles, was the highlight of the "Change Begins Within" concert on Saturday night. The event was held at Radio City Music Hall to benefit the David Lynch Foundation, which aims to teach at-risk youth meditation techniques.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Shears," McCartney told the crowd, referring to the fictional character on the classic Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," as Starr emerged and immediately launched into his part in the Beatles' classic "With a Little Help from My Friends."
McCartney and Starr last performed together in 2002 at the Concert for George, which honored former Beatles George Harrison at London's Royal Albert Hall a year after Harrison's death.
Saturday's concert, which also featured Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, Donovan and others, ran for about four hours. But McCartney had thousand of fans on their feet as he hit the stage near the show's end. Opening with a spirited version of "Drive My Car," he went through a generous selection of Beatles and Wings classics, from "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Let It Be" to "Jet" and "Band on the Run."
McCartney remembered John Lennon by playing "Here Today," a song he wrote for the former Beatle, slain in 1980.
For the encore, McCartney was joined on stage by Donovan, Crow, Mike Love (of the Beach Boys), Vedder, Paul Horn, and of course, Starr on drums. After an epic version of "Cosmically Conscious," he launched into the crowd-pleasing "I Saw Her Standing There."
Other key moments of the night included an energetic cover of Queen's "Under Pressure" by Vedder and Ben Harper, while Crow paid tribute to Harrison with a harmonious version of his "My Sweet Lord."
Between the music, the night's stars talked about the power of meditation to overcome problems. Howard Stern said he has meditated for 37 years, told the crowd that he credits meditation for saving his mother from depression.
He was followed by Starr's three-song set. Starr introduced the Beatles song "Boys" by saying: "I've been playing this next song longer than Howard Stern has meditated."
Metallica and RUN-D.M.C. inducted into Hall of Fame
CLEVELAND - Metallica shoved the mosh pit into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Heavy metal's heaviest hitters, whose menacing, monstrous sound has banged heads around the globe for decades, were inducted into rock's shrine on Saturday night, capping a star-studded ceremony that felt much more like a concert than an awards show.
For the first time, the no-holds-barred show, back in Cleveland following a 12-year holdover in New York's Waldorf-Astoria ballroom, was open to the public.
And nearly 5,000 fans partied in the balconies inside renovated Public Auditorium as 1,200 VIPs dined below at tables costing as much US$50,000 each.
Many of the came to pay homage to Metallica, which earned top billing in an eclectic 2009 class that included rap pioneers Run-DMC, virtuoso guitarist Jeff Beck, soul singer Bobby Womack and rhythm and blues vocal group Little Anthony and the Imperials.
Metallica's members have survived some of the dark themes - death, destruction and desolation - that threads through its music, and their induction was a chance to celebrate their legacy as perhaps the hardest band to ever walk the earth. The event also served as a reunion as bassist Jason Newsted, who left the group in 2001, joined his former bandmates on stage for searing versions of "Master of Puppets" and "Enter Sandman."
"Whatever the intangibles elements are that make a band the best, Metallica has them," said Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, who delivered a heartfelt speech in presenting the band. He recalled being on tour and hearing Metallica on the radio for the first time.
"My mind was blown. It wasn't punk rock. It wasn't heavy metal. It just stood by itself," he said. "I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was a mighty thing."
In accepting their awards, Metallica's members were joined by Ray Burton, the father of original bassist Cliff Burton, who died tragically in 1986 when the band's tour bus skidded off an icy road in Sweden.
"Dream big and dare to fail, because this is living proof that it is possible to make a dream come true," said frontman-guitarist James Hetfield, who then rattled off a long list of hard-rocking bands he feels deserve induction.
"Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Rush, Kiss, Ted Nugent, Iron Maiden, Motorhead. We'd like to invite them through the door," said Hetfield, who concluded his remarks by wrapping Ulrich in a bear hug.
The evening ended with a jam for the ages as Metallica, Beck, Jimmy Page, Aerosmith's Joe Tyler and Flea brought the house down with a performance of the Yardbirds' "Train Kept A Rollin."
A guitar virtuoso, Beck, who was previously inducted in 1992 with the Yardbirds, was put in for his solo work. Although best known for his rock accomplishments, Beck's career has wandered a fretboard of genres ranging from blues to jazz to electronica.
"Jeff's style is totally unorthodox to the way anyone was taught," said Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who presented his longtime friend. "He keeps getting better and better and better."
Beck, wearing all white, was joined on stage by Page, a fellow guitar god, who played bass during a searing rendition of Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."
With two turntables and a microphone, Run-DMC broke down the barriers between rock and rap. With sparse, stripped-down lyrics above pounding beats, the trio of Joseph "DJ Run" Simmons, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels and Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell changed rap in the 1980s by taking the realities of the streets to the suburbs.
"They broke away from the pack by being the pack," said rapper Eminem, looking like the band's lost member by sporting the group's trademark black fedora and black leather jacket. "They were the baddest of the bad and the coolest of the cool. Run-DMC changed my life."
"There's three of them and if you grew up with hip hop like I did, they were the Beatles."
Their remake and collaboration with Aerosmith on the rock band's "Walk This Way" changed modern music.
"We were young guys with a new music that people thought was a fad, but we knew the culture was a way of life and we just lived it," McDaniels said. "The music that we made then didn't just impact friends, it impacted a generation. So I guess that's what rock and roll does."
Any chance of a Run reunion ended with Mizell's death in 2002, when he was shot to death outside his studio. His murder remains unsolved.
Mizell's mother, Connie, accepted the award on his behalf.
"My baby is still doing it for me," she said.
Simmons cited "so many smart people and so much help" several times during his speech. He also thanked Mrs. Mizell, who allowed the group to set up their equipment in her Hollis, Queens, living room.
"She never told us to turn the music down once," Simmons said, turning to his late friend's mom. "I'd like to thank you for that."
Cleveland's Womack, the son of a steelworker, is best known for his soulful voice, but he had far greater musical range as a talented songwriter and guitarist.
He also branched into gospel, returning to the roots that got him his start with a family group, the Valentinos. He later played guitar for Sam Cooke.
Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones introduced Womack as "the voice that has always killed me. He brings me to tears." Wood then recalled a night in New York when he and Womack hid as some Hells Angels gang members were roughing up Wilson Pickett.
Little Anthony and the Imperials, who began their career singing on street corners in Brooklyn, N.Y., opened the program with a gorgeous medley of hits "Tears on My Pillow," "Hurt So Bad," and "I'm Alright." Many in the crowd mouthed the familiar tracks as lead singer Anthony "Little Anthony" Gourdine's falsetto filled the room.
Longtime friend Smokey Robinson presented the doo-wop group, calling their induction "long overdue."
Gourdine thanked his music teacher, "wherever you are" during his induction speech.
"We've been in this now for 50 years, and when we were kids we never imagined in our wildest dreams we'd ever be here," he said. "Now that it's here, the one thing we can look at and say is nobody can ever take this away from us."
Dubbed the "Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice," the 71-year-old Jackson got her start as a country singer. She was a flamboyant dresser, and her choice of skirts and high heels rankled some hard-core fans. It was Elvis Presley, whom she toured with the 1950s, who persuaded her to sing rock songs.
"She could really rock and still kept her femininity intact," said presenter Roseanne Cash. "She's the prototype for so many of us."
Drummer DJ Fontana and the late bassist Bill Black - both of Elvis Presley's backup band - and keyboardist Spooner Oldham made it in the sidemen category.
'Fast & Furious' accelerates to $72.5M opening
LOS ANGELES – "Fast & Furious" left the competition in the dust with a $72.5 million opening weekend, the best so far this year.
That topped last weekend's $59.3 million debut for DreamWorks Animation's "Monsters vs. Aliens," which slipped to second place with $33.5 million, raising its 10-day total to $105.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Universal's "Fast & Furious" also raced to a record for April debuts, easily passing the previous best of $42.2 million set in 2003 by "Anger Management."
It was a blockbuster opening more customary to summer. But Hollywood has been extending its busy season more and more by placing summer-style flicks earlier in the year.
"It's summer time in April," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers. "We've seen the summer season stretch from what used to be Memorial Day through Labor Day, then the first of May through Labor Day. Now maybe with `Fast & Furious,' it's going to be early April as the beginning of summer."
The weekend's other new wide release, Miramax's 1980s nostalgia comedy "Adventureland," debuted at No. 6 with $6 million. The movie stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart as summer workers at a second-rate theme park in the late '80s.
The fourth installment of the "Fast and the Furious" street-racing franchise brings back the four stars of the 2001 original — Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster. The new movie has Diesel's fugitive driver and Walker's undercover cop reteaming for more illegal races as they take on a murderous drug lord.
The reunion paid off for distributor Universal, which also pulled in $30.1 million in 32 other countries where "Fast & Furious" was playing.
The original was a surprise hit, but the franchise was slowly running out of gas after the sequel "2 Fast 2 Furious," which starred Walker. Part three, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," had a new cast and took in a solid but unremarkable $62.5 million over its entire run.
But "Tokyo Drift" ended with a cameo by Diesel, sparking interest in reviving the series with the "Fast & Furious" reunion.
"The marketing campaign let everyone know it's not what you've seen before. It's the original cast," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "For the audience, the first main reason to see the movie was the action, then the car racing, then Vin Diesel."
"Fast & Furious" paced Hollywood to another huge weekend, with overall revenues at $160 million, up 68 percent from the same period last year.
For the year, domestic revenues are running at a record pace of $2.57 billion, up 14.5 percent from 2008's, according to Media By Numbers. Factoring in 2009's higher ticket prices, movie attendance is running 12.8 percent ahead of last year's.
"The title of this movie perfectly describes the box office year of 2009. Fast and furious," Dergarabedian said.
Here are the 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. "Fast & Furious," $72.5 million.
2. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $33.5 million.
3. "The Haunting in Connecticut," $9.6 million.
4. "Knowing," $8.1 million.
5. "I Love You, Man," $7.9 million.
6. "Adventureland," $6 million.
7. "Duplicity," $4.3 million.
8. "Race to Witch Mountain," $3.4 million.
9. "12 Rounds," $2.3 million.
10. "Sunshine Cleaning," $1.9 million.