 By Silvio Pietroluongo and Jonathan Cohen NEW YORK (Billboard) - The rap triumvirate of Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent soared 77 places to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart on Thursday, setting a new first-week record for download sales. "Crack a Bottle" sold 418,000 downloads, surpassing the prior record of 335,000 downloads shifted last October by T.I.'s "Live Your Life" featuring Rihanna. Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent, each with highly anticipated albums on the way, previously collaborated on "Encore," which peaked at No. 25 on the Hot 100 in January 2005. |
 By Ray Waddell NASHVILLE (Billboard) - If anyone had any doubt that touring is where the money is in today's music business, a look at Billboard's top moneymakers of 2008 should hammer the point home. Regardless of genre, retail sales or radio play, each of the 20 acts on the moneymakers list toured last year. For almost all of them, touring generated the most revenue. And in a year when recorded-music sales declined yet again, many earned more at the box office than ever before. Madonna was No. 1 on the list with $242.2 million. She had the 50th-best-selling album i ... Read more » |
 By Scott Bowles Nothing serves Hollywood better than a world on the brink. Look at the year in film. War and a full-blown recession haven't stopped moviegoers from plunking down $10 a ticket. Brisk business over the Christmas weekend pushed 2008 ticket sales to $9.5 billion — within striking distance of the record set last year of $9.6 billion. Of course, rising ticket prices means that attendance remains relatively flat, and it could dip slightly from last year.
TOP 100: See which movies made the list
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 BY Nancy Dillon A pretty blond Ohio woman used as a decoy for Jamie Lynn Spears in a ham-handed switcheroo to fool paparazzi wants Los Angeles airport police to pay for duping her, too. Adessa Eskridge, 27, has filed a claim seeking more than $100,000 from the city over the bungled hoax at LAX in September, her Houston-based lawyer Chuck Vernon said. He said a group of six to eight uniformed cops plucked Eskridge from Jamie Lynn's fli ... Read more » |
Actress checks into Promises Treatment Center for undisclosed addiction Reid, 33, checked herself in on Tuesday (Dec. 9) for an undisclosed addiction. Despite acting credits that include the Coen brothers "The Big Lebowski" and Robert Altman's "Dr. T and the Women," is more known for her party girl ... Read more » |
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No freshman network show is recognized, but HBO's 'In Treatment' and 'True Blood' get nods.
By Matea Gold Reporting from New York -- A raft of familiar names in the television industry were nominated for Golden Globes on Thursday, underscoring the difficulty new shows have had gaining traction this season. Among the series nominated for the awards, which recognize the best programming in 2008, there was not a single freshman show that debuted on broadcast television this fall. The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. ignored "The Mentalist," the one significant hit of the season, as well as programs like "Fringe" and "Life on Mars" that were launched with high expectations. Instead of crowning hot new shows, the organization focused largely on returning programs such as "House," "30 Rock" and "Brothers & Sisters." The actors singled out for recognition included many past nominees such as Tony Shalhoub, Sally Field, Kyra Sedgwick, Alec Baldwin and Steve ... Read more » |
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By Iain Blair Keanu Reeves admits to being a big science fiction fan, so when offered the chance to play an alien for new movie "The Day the Earth Stood Still," Reeves said he jumped at it. But before his fans think the "Matrix" star has signed on for just another big-budget space flick that is long on action but has little to say, Reeves wants them to know this remake of a 1951 cult classic speaks to today's audiences. The movie is released in U.S. theaters on Friday. "It's about the world we live in and the destructive nature of man, so it gives you a lot to think about," Reeves told Reuters. "It's very timely." Growing up in the 1970s, the Canadian-born Reeves, 44, said he loved the "Stars Wars" movies and read books like "1984" and ... Read more » |
Chris Baker, Travis Barker's assistant, died after a September plane crash. The widow of Chris Baker, Travis Barker's assistant who was killed in a September plane crash, has slapped a tire and aviation company with a wrongful death lawsuit. Otilia Villar Baker and her son Sebastian claim that the pilots "negligently decided to abort and/or reject the takeoff," TMZ.com reports, meaning that they knew the tires were faulty but went ahead with the flight anyway. L.A. County Superior Courts will rule on the suit, which asserts that Baker suffered "severe pre and post-im ... Read more » |
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As if the "The Dark Knight" needs any more cash in its coffers; reportedly, it's already taken in ... Read more » |
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Tom Cruise, publicly maligned for over-the-top behavior in two TV interviews, has admitted to People magazine he could have "handled things better" and even joked about his couch-jumping antics on Oprah Winfrey's talk show. Cruise's admission comes three years after he leapt onto a couch on Winfrey's daytime chat show in front of millions of viewers and proclaimed his love for then-girlfriend Katie Holmes. In a separate incident, Cruise got into a testy exchange over psychiatry with Matt Lauer on "The Today Show." "I think I could have handled things better," Cruise told the magazine in an interview for its December 22 issue. Cruise called the incident on Winfrey's show, "My year of jumping dangerously," in a comedic reference to "The Year of Living Dangerously," a novel turned into a 1982 movie. ... Read more » |
