Canadian acts headline Olympic victory shows
Hedley, Nelly Furtado and Barenaked Ladies are among the headline artists — mostly Canadian — announced for a series of concerts to pay tribute to medal-winners at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
The ceremonies will feature a concert every night for 12 days to celebrate as athletes receive their medals in speed skating, snowboarding, freestyle skiing and other winter sports.
Each evening will be devoted to one of Canada's provinces or territories.
VANOC chief executive John Furlong says British Columbia will be the focus of the first concert on Feb. 14, featuring Furtado, who grew up in Victoria.
"On each day ... you'll come to the stadium and the first 30 minutes will be very sort of local, cultural local to the area of the country," Furlong told CBC News.
"Then you'll have the celebration and the re-living of the moments of the day and the medals will be presented and then you'll have a show which is intended to cap it all off and give everybody a great experience. Most of these shows are ... we're expecting every one of them to be sold out."
Tickets for the events, at Vancouver's BC Place, range from $22 to $50.
Other artists scheduled to play:
Country singer Paul Brandt.
Vancouver's Theory of a Deadman.
Stereophonics.
Trooper and Loverboy.
Billy Talent.
INXS.
Burton Cummings.
Great Big Sea.
The concerts also will air nightly on MuchMusic. The victory parties will be held Feb. 14 to 26 during the Winter Games.
Another lineup of performers is planned for celebrations at Whistler, B.C.
Decade's best: Eminem tops in sales; Beatles get No. '1' album
The race to dominate the decade in music has come down to Eminem and The Beatles in the stretch. The winner?
Both. The rapper emerges as the top-selling artist of the past 10 years, and the Fab Four have bragging rights to the best-selling album.
With 32.2 million copies sold, Eminem leads the pack in overall album sales, followed by The Beatles with 30 million, according to Nielsen SoundScan, which releases its decade tabulations today. Data were tallied through Nov. 1, and though figures could rise through Dec. 31, they won't alter the rankings.
The Beatles' hits compilation 1 sold 11.5 million, edging 'N Sync's No Strings Attached, with 11.1 million. Eminem has two titles among the top 10 albums, 2000's The Marshall Mathers LP at No. 4 with 10.2 million and 2002's The Eminem Show at No. 5 with 9.8 million.
An early and roaring start paid off for The Beatles and 'N Sync. Released Nov. 13, 2000, 1 sold 595,000 its first week, 662,000 the next and 1.3 million during Christmas week. It spent eight weeks atop the chart. No Strings, issued March 21, 2000, sold 2.4 million its first seven days, the biggest week in SoundScan history.
"When you get toward 11 million units, it has to be more than early momentum," says Eric Weinberg, president of Nielsen Entertainment. "It needs to be good. What's amazing about this industry is that we really never know what the numbers are going to be."
Case in point: the unexpected mainstream success of St. Louis rapper Nelly, whose hit-laden 2000 debut Country Grammar is the 10th best-selling album, with 8.5 million copies. Norah Jones' 2002 debut, Come Away With Me, was another surprise hit, boosted by five Grammys. It lands at No. 3 with 10.5 million.
'Family Ties' actor arrested after Colo. assault
BOULDER, Colo. – Police say a former cast member of the 1980s television show "Family Ties" has been arrested for investigation of assault in Colorado.
Police said Monday that 28-year-old Brian Bonsall got into a fight at an apartment on Saturday and hit a friend with part of a broken wooden stool.
Bonsall allegedly told officers he had been drinking and didn't remember what happened.
Bonsall played Michael J. Fox's little brother Andy Keaton on the sitcom.
He is being held in the Boulder County Jail and was due in court Wednesday. Jail records didn't indicate his lawyer's name.
Authorities say Bonsall was sentenced to probation in 2007 for assaulting his girlfriend. He was later accused of probation violations.
The former child actor lives in Westminster, Colo., about 20 miles south of Boulder.
CBS cancels another daytime drama
NEW YORK – CBS is canceling the soap opera "As the World Turns" after more than a half-century on the air.
CBS says the final episode will air next September, in its 54th year. Daytime dramas have been in a long-term ratings decline, and CBS ended the daytime soap "Guiding Light" earlier this year.
Through the years, actors Marisa Tomei, Meg Ryan, Parker Posey and James Earl Jones have appeared on the show.
The cancellation will leave CBS with only two daytime dramas: "The Young and the Restless" and "Bold and Beautiful."