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'Spider-Man 2' hauls in $180-million in six days

LOS ANGELES - Spider-Man 2 pulled in a record $180-million in its first six days and obliterated other box-office highs over the long Fourth of July weekend.

The Spider-Man 2 haul was well above the previous best six-day opening of $146.7-million set last year by The Matrix Reloaded.

"I think our hope was to go into the heart of the summer and grab the biggest six days possible. That's pretty much what happened," Jeff Blake, vice chairman for Spider-Man 2 distributor Sony, said Monday.

Last weekend's top film, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, fell to second place with $21-million over the four-day weekend, raising its total to $60.1-million. The film, Moore's assault on President Bush's response to the Sept. 11 attacks, could become the first documentary to top $100-million.

Doubling its theater count to 1,725, Fahrenheit 9/11 held up strongly despite the onslaught of Spider-Man 2, which debuted in 4,152 cinemas.

Hollywood had a record Fourth of July weekend, with the top 12 movies taking in $158.5-million from Friday to Sunday, beating 2002's previous high of $139-million.

Spider-Man 2 took in $115.8-million from Friday to Monday, according to Sony estimates. That put it far ahead of the previous best four-day holiday gross of $95.6-million set by Shrek 2 over Memorial Day weekend this year.

MIAMI - The Miami Herald fired an arts and culture critic after discovering he had copied substantially from articles he had written for other newspapers.

Octavio Roca was dismissed June 28. He joined the Herald last year.

Roca "produced several articles for the Herald that had been copied substantially from those he had written for newspapers where he had previously worked," executive editor Tom Fiedler wrote in a column Sunday.

Fiedler wrote that it broke faith with readers "who expect that the articles in the Herald are fresh and timely unless it's otherwise made clear."

The replicated work was brought to the paper's attention about two weeks ago, Fiedler said, and a staff librarian discovered more than a half-dozen articles that were similar to Roca's previous work.

Fiedler said most of the articles first appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, where Roca was a dance critic before coming to the Herald.

LOS ANGELES - Velvet Revolver lead singer Scott Weiland pleaded no contest Friday to a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence.

His sentencing was set for Thursday.

The 36-year-old singer was ordered in January to return to a live-in drug detoxification center after he left earlier than he was authorized to.

Weiland has had several drug-related arrests and was jailed in 1999 for violating probation on a previous drug arrest and failing to complete a rehabilitation program.

Weiland was formerly the lead singer for Stone Temple Pilots, a Grammy-winning band that had five Billboard Top 10 albums from 1992 to 2001.

Velvet Revolver's first album debuted at No. 1 last month on the Billboard sales charts.

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