Vince Welnick
Vince Welnick, the Grateful Dead's last keyboard player, died Friday of undisclosed causes, according to the group's longtime publicist.
Various sources give his age as 51 or 55, the Associated Press reports. Welnick, who also played in bands including the Tubes and Missing Man Formation, lived in the northern California town of Forestville.
The Sonoma County coroner's office said an autopsy would be performed next week. "The big thing about Vince was that he had that fearlessness to be able to go and just jump into our madness and just operate on it like it was a normal, everyday procedure," Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart recalled Saturday. "A lot of people can play, but with us they just don't know how to navigate. Our music is different."
The band, which was formed in 1965 and joined by Welnick in 1990, retired the name Grateful Dead and quit touring after singer and lead guitarist Jerry Garcia died of a heart attack in 1995. The death of the group's unofficial leader was said to have hit Welnick particularly hard.
In the years following Garcia's death, Welnick, who formed his own group, Missing Man Formation, occasionally went on tour and had been scheduled to perform later this month, according to his Web site.
He is survived by his wife, Lori.
Source
Newton-John's Missing Boyfriend Spotted
McDermott and Newton-John
Three separate witnesses in Mexico have spotted Olivia Newton-John's missing boyfriend, who was thought to have fallen overboard during a deep-sea fishing trip nearly a year ago, Australia's Daily Telegraph reports.
Patrick McDermott, 48, a cameraman whom Newton-John met in 1996, disappeared on June 30, 2005, while on an overnight fishing trip out of San Pedro, Calif. Subsequent news reports revealed that he had amassed a mountain of debts and faced possible jail time over thousands of dollars in child support he owed his ex-wife, actress Yvette Nipar.
But according to a story on Monday in the Daily Telegraph – which says that McDermott is now suspected of faking his death – he has been seen in Mexico's Baja Peninsula over the past three months, and as recently as 10 days ago.
Manuel Valdez, owner of a bar north of the Mexican resort town
of Cabo San Lucas, tells the paper he saw McDermott three months ago and was struck by McDermott's mood, saying "it was one of those situations where you don't know if the person is on drugs or normally quiet."
Newton-John, 57, was at a health retreat she owns in Australia when she learned of McDermott's disappearance, and returned to the U.S. at the end of last July.
In October she told the hosts of The View that her initial reaction to hearing about McDermott was utter shock. "I was just kind of frozen. … But you have to move on. I didn't think I was going to sing again, but I am singing again." Newton-John and McDermott met a decade ago while filming a commercial, shortly after Newton-John divorced her husband of 11 years, Matt Lattanzi.
At the time that McDermott's disappearance became apparent, a spokesman for Newton-John told PEOPLE that the singer "is in close and frequent contact with his family and other friends, as well as with officials who are assisting in this matter."
Source
'Break-Up' Tops 'X-Men' at Box Office
Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn's "The Break-Up"
Supported by real-life romantic splits and hookups, Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn's "The Break-Up" pulled an upset over the mutant world of the "X-Men."
"The Break-Up" debuted more strongly than expected with $38.1 million to take over as the No. 1 weekend movie from "X-Men: The Last Stand," which slipped to second place with $34.35 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Aniston's split from Brad Pitt last year and her reported romance that began with Vaughn while filming "The Break-Up" helped keep the movie in the public eye.
"They're always in the press," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, which released "The Break-Up." "Every time you turn around, somebody's talking about Jennifer, or Jennifer and Brad, or Jennifer and Vince. It's not why we made the movie, though."
"The Break-Up" pulled in about $10 million more than Rocco had expected.
After putting in a record four-day debut of $122.9 million over Memorial Day weekend, 20th Century Fox's third "X-Men" movie tumbled. The movie's domestic gross dropped a steep 67 percent from its Friday-Sunday haul the first weekend.Still, "X-Men" raised its total to a whopping $175.7 million in just 10 days, a mark it took "X2: X-Men United" 18 days to reach. Bruce Snyder, head of distribution for Fox, said the film should top out at $240 million to $250 million, beating the $157 million take for the first "X-Men" and the $215 million return for "X2."
The huge decline in the second weekend was typical given how many people saw the movie over the holiday weekend, Snyder said.
"I'm not shocked at that drop," Snyder said.
DreamWorks Animation's cartoon comedy "Over the Hedge" held up well, placing third with $20.6 million for a three-week total of $112.4 million.
Sony's "The Da Vinci Code" was No. 4 with $19.3 million, lifting its three-week domestic gross to $172.7 million. Worldwide, the Tom Hanks film adapted from Dan Brown's best-seller has grossed $581 million and should hit at least $750 million globally, said Rory Bruer, Sony head of distribution.
In its second weekend, the Al Gore documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" went into wider release and broke into the top 10 with $1.33 million, even though it was playing in just 77 theaters.
Released by Paramount Classics, the film averaged an impressive $17,292 a theater, compared to $12,410 in 3,070 cinemas for "The Break-Up."
Chronicling the former vice president's campaign to educate people about the perils of global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth" expands to more theaters over the next two weekends.
"It's breakups and global warming that I think really are interesting people now," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
Overall business rose slightly, with the top 12 movies taking in $128.9 million, up 1.6 percent from the same weekend last year.
After an 8 percent drop in movie attendance last year, Hollywood is positioned for a solid summer. Attendance is running about 1 percent ahead of last year's, with what looks like a solid crop of blockbusters still to come, including this Friday's animated comedy "Cars," from Disney and Pixar, and the Warner Bros. adventure "Superman Returns" on June 30.
Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "The Break-Up," $38.1 million.
2. "X-Men: The Last Stand," $34.35 million.
3. "Over the Hedge," $20.6 million.
4. "The Da Vinci Code," $19.3 million.
5. "Mission: Impossible III," $4.67 million.
6. "Poseidon," $3.4 million.
7. "RV," $3.3 million.
8. "See No Evil," $2 million.
9. "An Inconvenient Truth," $1.33 million.
10. "Just My Luck," $825,000.
Source
Sylvester Stallone Turns 60 in Las Vegas
Sylvester Stallone
It was a Hollywood and a Planet Hollywood reunion in Las Vegas Sunday night as Sylvester Stallone celebrated his 60th birthday.
The "Rocky" and "Rambo" star was joined by fellow Planet Hollywood founders Bruce Willis and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for the bash at Stallone's soon-to-open Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.
Stallone's wife Jennifer threw the party, which included disco dancing and a birthday serenade from Tom Jones.
Other celebrities in attendance included John Travolta and wife Kelly Preston, David Spade and James Caan.
Stallone is scheduled to dust off both the "Rocky" and "Rambo" franchises soon.
He is writing and directing "Rocky Balboa," the sixth "Rocky" film, slated for a Christmas release. After that he is scheduled to play Vietnam vet John Rambo once more in "Rambo IV," tentatively scheduled for a 2007 release. The franchise began with "First Blood" in 1982.
Source
No comments:
Post a Comment