Quick Takes: Justin Bieber creates a furor in Australia
Bieber frenzy in Oz
Thousands of frenzied teenagers, who spent the night camped out by Sydney Harbor awaiting a concert by pop star Justin Bieber, surged toward the venue Monday morning, sending at least eight girls to the hospital and injuring several more.
Police canceled the performance after the swarm, which may have begun when rumors spread that the 16-year-old Canadian heartthrob had arrived early. In the crush, at least 10 girls fainted, according to Australia’s Network Seven, which was planning to broadcast the open-air concert. Of the eight sent to the hospital, one fractured her kneecap, though most had hyperventilated.
Police said the TV station was well prepared, but that the frenzy of 5,000 fans got out of control.
—Associated Press
TNT renews ‘Southland’
Cable network TNT has signed on for a third season of “Southland,” the police drama that NBC cut loose late last year.
TNT, which had acquired the rights to “Southland’s” first season and the six episodes for Season 2 that NBC passed on, said Monday it has ordered 10 new episodes from executive producer John Wells and Warner Bros. The episodes will begin airing in January.
A renewal of “Southland” by TNT was no guarantee, and it’s even a little surprising because the audience for the show is much smaller than for other TNT originals. According to Nielsen, the six original episodes for “Southland” averaged about 2.7 million viewers. “The Closer” is TNT’s biggest hit, with almost 8 million viewers, while “Men of a Certain Age” and “Hawthorne” both average more than 4 million viewers.
—Joe Flint
Bret Michaels undergoes tests
Doctors plan further testing to help pinpoint the source of the brain hemorrhage that is keeping Bret Michaels in intensive care, according to a post Monday on the rocker’s website.
A report from doctors is expected this week. The website didn’t say where the 47-year-old former Poison frontman is hospitalized.
His publicist, Joann Mignano, on Friday confirmed a report on People magazine’s website that said Michaels was rushed to intensive care late Thursday after a severe headache. Doctors discovered bleeding at the base of his brain stem, the report said.
—Associated Press
Michael Oher to tell his side
The football star whose life inspired the book and movie “The Blind Side” is now telling his own story.
Gotham Books announced Monday that Michael Oher’s “I Beat the Odds” will be published in February 2011.
Oher rose from poverty in Memphis to fame as an offensive lineman for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. His story became a bestselling book by Michael Lewis and a popular movie starring Sandra Bullock as Leigh Anne Tuohy, Oher’s foster mother.
Tuohy and her husband, Sean, also are working on a memoir, due this summer.
—Associated Press
‘Avatar’ soars on DVD
James Cameron didn’t need 3-D to break this record.
Just four days after debuting on store shelves, “Avatar” has sold 2.7 million Blu-ray discs to consumers in the United States and Canada, according to 20th Century Fox — more Blu-rays than any previous movie has sold. The previous record-holder, “The Dark Knight,” has sold 2.5 million Blu-rays since its debut 16 months ago.
Fox also sold 4 million standard-definition DVDs. The combined total makes “Avatar” the biggest DVD launch of the year, breaking a previous mark of 4 million Blu-ray and DVDs by “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” on its first weekend in March.
—Ben Fritz
Finally
Film festival: The first TCM Classic Film Festival hadn’t even concluded in Hollywood this weekend before Turner Classic Movies announced that it would present another edition in the spring of 2011.
In demand: The tributes to Betty White keep coming. The 88-year-old actress will be honored by the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn. at a fundraising event on June 19.
