US-ENTERTAINMENT Summary
Michael Jackson's glove sells for $350,000 at auction
NEW YORK - Michael Jackson's famous white glove sold for $350,000 at a memorabilia auction on Saturday, soaring far past pre-sale estimates, while a black jacket he wore during a 1989 world tour fetched $225,000. The Jackson memorabilia was the highlight of an auction of hundreds of rock'n'roll items, including many not associated with the "King of Pop," who died in June.
"Twilight" sequel sets new opening-day record
LOS ANGELES - "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" smashed the record for a single-day opening at the North American box office, and was on track to score one of the biggest weekend tallies of all time, according to preliminary data issued on Saturday. The vampire romance sequel earned $72.7 million across the United States and Canada on Friday, a figure that includes record-breaking midnight sales of $26.3 million, said the film's closely held distributor Summit Entertainment.
Singer Robbie Williams to court investors: report
LONDON deal, one of his managers was reported to say on Saturday. Managers for Williams, whose hits including "Angels" and "Let Me Entertain You," will court investors as a possible alternative to signing up with a record label, The Times newspaper said.
Michael Jackson's doctor says others gave him propofol
LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's personal physician told investigators he was not the first doctor to give the pop star propofol, the powerful anesthetic that was one of the drugs to cause his death, according to court papers unsealed on Friday. Dr. Conrad Murray, a target of the criminal probe into Jackson's death, recounted under questioning by a Los Angeles police detective that Jackson told him he was given propofol by two unnamed doctors in Germany, the affidavit states.
Taylor Swift's dream year brings out naysayers
LOS ANGELES - At what may be the height of her early career, teen sensation Taylor Swift finds herself facing the downside of stardom -- naysayers. The 19-year-old pop/country singer-songwriter heads in to Sunday's American Music Awards with a leading six nominations after a dream year of sold out concerts and the best-selling album in the United States.
"New Moon" rises to No. 1 at midnight box office
LOS ANGELES - Vampire romance movie "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" raked in $26.3 million at North American box offices in midnight showings, breaking the record set by "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," studio officials said on Friday. Box office analysts expect the widely anticipated "New Moon" to make around $100 million in its opening weekend, Friday through Sunday, including screenings from last night at midnight.
LA attorneys distance Polanski from French lawyer
PARIS/LOS ANGELES - A French attorney for Roman Polanski who said the film director would not return voluntarily to the United States to face child sex charges is not authorized to speak in the case, Polanski's U.S. attorneys said on Friday. Polanski, 76, is being held in a Swiss prison pending a decision on a U.S. extradition request. He fled the United States in 1978 while awaiting sentencing for having unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl, and he was arrested in September in Switzerland on a U.S. warrant.
Britney Spears' ex-boyfriend, photographer jailed
LOS ANGELES - A celebrity photographer who briefly dated Britney Spears at the height of her career meltdown was sentenced to 45 days in jail on Friday after clashing with an official trying to serve him a restraining order. Adnan Ghalib, 37, one of the paparazzi who trailed Spears night and day in 2007, was also ordered to complete an anger management program.
"Idol" wild child Adam Lambert readies first album
LOS ANGELES - Adam Lambert -- the man with the outsize personality who delivered an audacious octave-and-a-half sitar-tinged purr of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" on the most-watched TV show in the country, dodged sex toys thrown at him onstage during the "American Idol" tour and did it all without smearing his eyeliner -- is curled in the fetal position. Balled up in a patio chair on the 10th-story balcony at the offices of 19 Entertainment in Los Angeles, Lambert is the portrait of the goth as a young man -- black clothes and combat boots; dyed black hair and black nail polish; Egyptian-themed jewelry matching the Eye of Horus tattoo on his wrist.
Oprah Winfrey says ending TV show "feels right"
CHICAGO - Oprah Winfrey said on Friday that she will end her popular TV show in 2011 because it "feels right in her bones" after 25 years, and urged viewers not to believe rumors of why she's quitting. "This show has been my life and I love it enough to know when it's time to say goodbye. Twenty-five years feels right in my bones, and it feels right in my spirit. It's the perfect number, the exact right time," Winfrey said during Friday's show at her Chicago studio.