Sundance Takes a Hike With Screenings Around U.S.

Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival is going on the road for one night next winter.

The independent-film showcase is sending eight films playing at the festival for screenings in eight cities around the country on Jan. 28.

One film will go to each of the following cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Brooklyn, N.Y., Nashville, Tenn., Madison, Wis., Ann Arbor, Mich., and Brookline, Mass.

The directors of each film will travel along to introduce their work and answer audience questions afterward. The films will be announced after the festival releases its lineup in December.

The screenings will allow audiences around the country a taste of the festival that runs Jan. 21-31 in Park City, Utah.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

Tag Teaming the Oscars Next Year

“Saturday Night Live’s” two most frequent guests will host the Oscars together.

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are teaming-up for jokes: dry, silly and in-between for the next Oscars, March 7. This will be Baldwin’s first time as host of the Oscars and Martin’s third.

Both Baldwin and Martin know what it’s like to be in the audience of an awards show, waiting to hear if they’ve won. Baldwin has two Emmys for “30 Rock,” plus nominations for a Tony and for an Oscar. Martin has an Emmy for writing, along with several nominations. He’s won two Grammys for comedy and another for playing the banjo on an Earl Scruggs album.

It’s unusual to have more than one person hosting the Oscars show.

But, it’s been done before.

If you go way back to the first Oscars in 1929, Douglas Fairbanks and William DeMille hosted together.

At the time, they were the president and vice president of the motion picture academy.

The last time there was more than a single host was in 1987 when Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn and Paul Hogan worked the room together.

(pic from Reuters, text from AP)

No Sale on Crypt Above Marilyn Monroe

 MSNBC

No new neighbor for Marilyn Monroe. At least not yet.

There were no bids during the second auction of the marble mausoleum crypt above Monroe.

A previous $4.6 million bid for the space fell through in August.

The crypt above Monroe’s is owned by Elsie Poncher. Her husband’s interred there but she’ll move him and sell off the crypt to bring in some cash.

The auctioneer says several people were preapproved to bid on the crypt, but no one did during the 10-day auction.

He says the Poncher family is now “weighing their options.”

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

U2’s Set-List for the Rose Bowl

Today, I came across the set-list from U2’s show at the Rose Bowl. I could have sworn they played more than what’s listed below!

U2 Rose Bowl Set-List, Pasadena, CA Sunday October 25, 2009

Breathe
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Beautiful Day (with a few lines from In God’s Country)
I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, with coda of Stand By Me,
Stuck In A Moment (acoustic guitar version)
No Line On The Horizon,
Elevation,
In A Little While (last verse spoken by an astronaut in the International Space Station),
Unknown Caller,
Until the End of the World
The Unforgettable Fire
City of Blinding Lights,
Vertigo,
I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
Sunday Bloody Sunday ,
MLK (Martin Luther King tribute),
Walk On (Aung San Suu Kyi tribute) with Never Walk Alone snippet

Desmond Tutu recorded message

Encore:

One
Amazing Grace
Where the Streets Have No Name
Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
With or Without You
Moment of Surrender

(via The Spaghetti Incident)

The mentioned website above also states that Danny Devito, Stewart Copeland, Paris Hilton, Dave Stewart, Alyssa Milano, Cindy Crawford, Buzz Aldrin and Pierce Brosnan attended the same show. I also saw a picture of Demi Moore on the ground through Twitter.

I wouldn’t doubt all those people were there. More than 97,000 concert goers shared the same space. To put that in perspective, the city I grew up in only has about 91,000. And that’s only after a few decades of major growth.

U2’s Rose Bowl Show Breaks Attendance Record

It took 22 years but U2 has broken its own attendance record for the best-attended single concert performance at a U.S. venue by one headliner.

The band’s 360 Tour played the Pasadena, Calif. Rose Bowl on Oct. 25 to a sellout crowd of 97,014 — the highest attendance on record for one U.S. show by a single headliner based on box office totals reported to Billboard.

The old record was set on Sept. 25, 1987 at the now-demolished John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia with a crowd of 86,145 in attendance for the band’s Joshua Tree Tour. This year’s Rose Bowl performance grossed more than $9.9 million, considerably more than the 1987 Philly show which brought in a mere $1.5 million in ticket sales.

Among the top five single-concert attendances on record in the U.S., the top three are all U2 performances. The third-highest attendance is also from the band’s current tour at its Sept. 29 sellout at the FedExField in Landover, Md with 84,754. Pink Floyd’s May 29, 1994 show at the Ohio State University football stadium is in fourth place with 75,250. The Backstreet Boys round out the top five with a sold-out show at the Georgia Dome on Feb. 19, 2000. 73,337 fans filled the Atlanta stadium to see the pop group’s Into the Millennium Tour.

U2’s Rose Bowl show excelled in gross ticket sales as well as attendance. With $9.96 million grossed, it is the second highest-grossing single U.S. concert by a solo headliner. The concert is second only to the Three Tenors‘ July 20, 1996 sold-out show at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The Rolling Stones make up the rest of this top five list with a Giants Stadium concert of its own on Sept. 15, 2005, a sold-out benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall on March 14, 2006 and an outdoor show at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Sept. 10, 2005.

Top Attendance at a U.S. concert by a single headliner:

1. U2 – Rose Bowl; Pasadena, Calif. (Oct. 25, 2009)
Attendance: 97,014
Gross: $9,960,036

2. U2 – John F. Kennedy Stadium, Philadelphia (Sept. 25, 1987)
Attendance: 86,145
Gross: $1,593,683

3. U2 – FedExField; Landover, Md. (Sept. 29, 2009)
Attendance: 84,754
Gross: $6,718,315

4. Pink Floyd – Ohio State University Stadium; Columbus, Ohio (May 29, 1994)
Attendance: 75,250
Gross: $2,406,920

5. Backstreet Boys – Georgia Dome, Atlanta (Feb. 19, 2000)
Attendance: 73,337
Gross: $2,787,098

Top Gross at a U.S. concert by a single headliner:

1. The Three Tenors – Giants Stadium; East Rutherford, N.J. (July 20, 1996)
Gross: $13,404,350
Attendance: 58,491

2. U2 – Rose Bowl; Pasadena, Calif. (Oct. 25, 2009)
Gross: $9,960,036
Attendance: 97,014

3. The Rolling Stones – Giants Stadium; East Rutherford, N.J. (Sept. 15,
2005)
Gross: $8,692,788
Attendance: 59,184

4. The Rolling Stones – Radio City Music Hall, New York (March 14, 2006)
Gross: $8,625,590
Attendance: 5,800

5. The Rolling Stones – Soldier Field, Chicago (Sept. 10, 2005)
Gross: $7,231,427
Attendance: 55,046

(Found this through Twitter which credited Google news, so I’m not totally sure of the source.)

LOL Cat Halloween Style

Just found this so I thought I’d share. Too cute.

 

Never Thought I’d See the Day

Wayne Newton thinks 50 years in Las Vegas may be enough.

He just opened a new show this week there, but he’s hinting he may retire after the show ends in April.

Newton says he’s been working since he was 4 and he doesn’t remember a time where he wasn’t working.

His new show, “Once Before I Go,” is a personal account of his life that he expects will be emotional to tell every night.

He says if he still feels like he has something to give after the show’s run, then maybe he’ll work a little less, but if he doesn’t feel that way, he’ll “probably hang it up.”

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

U2 Concert is YouTube’s Largest Streaming Event

 Reuters

 Reuters

 Reuters

 AP

 Reuters

YouTube’s webcast of a U2 concert was watched by nearly 10 million people, the video site’s largest streaming event ever.

The Google Inc.-owned site said that the concert was watched around the world. It was shown live from the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. on Sunday.

Chris Maxcy, head of music partnerships at YouTube, called the event “a big win” for the site.

The full 2 1/2-hour concert is available on YouTube. The rebroadcast video has been watched by more than 1.1 million viewers.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Is ‘This is It’ Oscar-Worthy?

“This Is It” has missed the deadline for a documentary Oscar, but there are those who think it could be nominated for best picture.

Variety’s executive editor Steven Gaydos says with the best picture category expanded to 10 films this year, Michael Jackson’s concert movie could be a contender. He says Kenny Ortega could also be nominated for best director.

Ortega says an Oscar would be a fitting cap to Jackson’s career. He says Jackson “deserves one. Come on, people.”

 

Michael Jackson’s concert film is off to a record start. “This Is It” made more than $7 million in its first day, which Sony says is the most a movie’s ever made on a Wednesday in October.

The movie has made a total of more than $20 million worldwide, which makes it the second-biggest concert film in history, just ahead of the Jonas Brothers 3D film.

The all-time top-grossing concert film is “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds,” which made more than $65 million.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

National Cat Day Today! Yes, Today!

For those who corrected me, I found the website, or at least what looks to be the ‘official’ website for the day.

And you’ll notice it has the correct date on it. The best part of today? My two kitties could still care less. Twitballs.