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In the news
Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times, Moviegoers are still hungry for dinosaurs. Jurassic Park III took the biggest bite of a strong weekend box office, earning $50.3-million from Friday through Sunday, according to studio estimates. America's Sweethearts, starring Julia Roberts, earned an estimated $31-million and came in second. It was only the second time two films opening on the same weekend both surpassed $30-million, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., which tracks box office receipts. The first was when The World is Not Enough and Sleepy Hollow opened on the same weekend in 1999. Last weekend's top film, the Reese Witherspoon comedy Legally Blonde, slipped to third place, earning an estimated $11.05-million. The third edition of Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park series opened Wednesday, earning a total of $80.9-million over five days. 'Sopranos' maid beaten upThe actor who plays Tony Soprano's maid on the hit mob drama The Sopranos was beaten up and tossed down a flight of stairs, Jersey City, N.J., police said. Katalin Pota, who plays Soprano maid Lilliana Wosilius on the HBO show, was beaten around the face, legs and torso before being thrown down the stairs July 5, police said Friday. Her arm was also broken. Police arrested Andre Doumler, 40, of Jersey City, on Friday and charged him with aggravated assault. Doumler, a Russian national, was in custody at the Hudson County Correctional Facility. His arraignment had not yet been scheduled. Condemning the violenceBono and Bob Geldof condemned anti-capitalist violence on the streets of Genoa, Italy, on Saturday, saying it distracted attention from their four-year campaign to wipe out debts for the world's poorest nations. But the Irish rock stars told Group of Eight leaders they could not retreat forever behind bunker security at their summit, plunged into gloom by the death of a protester during riots Friday. "I don't think violence is ever right, but anger is understandable when facing the obscenity of the ever widening gap of inequality on the planet between the haves and the have nots," Bono said. Geldof suggested the pomp and security surrounding such summits left the world's most powerful elected leaders looking cut off from the poor. "Change the way you do it and start discussing things that bring the people out on the streets," Geldof challenged the leaders from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States and Russia. NotesOasis hopes to complete its next studio album before the end of the year, guitarist Noel Gallagher told BBC's Radio 1. ... Usually reclusive R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe is allowing his experiences to be used for a character on a new MTV sitcom. The untitled series will focus on a 22-year-old male rock star and his best friend, Variety says. No word on an air date. Also, REM's taping of MTV Unplugged has been rescheduled for Aug. 9 on MTV2. Its MTV premiere will be Aug. 22. ... The Practice star Lara Flynn Boyle was hired as Men in Black 2 lead villainess Serleena after Famke Janssen quit one day into filming because of a family illness. ... Taye Diggs is negotiating to play opposite The Best Man co-star Sanaa Lathan in Brown Sugar, described as a black When Harry Met Sally.
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From the wire |
