newsmakers

July 31, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

newsmakers

‘I Gotta Feeling’ hits 6M download mark

NEW YORK

The Black Eyed Peas have more proof of the ubiquity of “I Gotta Feeling.” Their No. 1 hit has become the first song to reach the 6 million mark in digital downloads.

The milestone was announced Friday and confirmed by Nielsen SoundScan. For the group’s leader, will.i.am, the moment is about much more than the song.

“We came out in ’98, and our career, if you would look at it on chart, there’s no dips in it,” he said in a phone interview Thursday. “For our career to still be healthy and vibrant and doing things like 6 million downloads, it’s pretty significant.”

It’s also significant, he said, in a time when illegal downloading is the norm.

“That means that they chose to support the group, support the art,” he said. “God knows how many people listened to it online and didn’t buy it, downloaded it for free and didn’t think about it.”

Branagh: Shakespeare heroes are like ‘Thor’

SAN DIEGO

Kenneth Branagh is directing “Thor” for Marvel Studios, and some think it’s a stretch for him to take on a superhero movie. He’s more Shakespearean, having adapted several of the Bard’s films for the big screen. But the 49-year-old actor-director says Shakespeare’s characters aren’t unlike today’s superheroes.

Shakespeare wrote about Henry V centuries after his reign and turned the king into a sort of superhero who could do no wrong, Branagh says.

“We know that we’re interested in superheroes, kings, gods, because of their sort of humanlike failings. So it seemed to me not as much of a stretch as some people might think,” Branagh said at last week’s Comic-Con, where he presented footage from the film. “The stretch part of it is embracing the whole world of digital effects. That’s been something I’ve just loved because it’s — if you can think it, they can do it. And that’s exciting.”

Griffith’s new role: pitching new law

WASHINGTON

Actor Andy Griffith has a new role: pitching President Barack Obama’s health-care law to seniors in a cable television ad paid for by Medicare. The TV star — whose role as sheriff of Mayberry made him an enduring symbol of small-town American values — tells seniors that “good things are coming” under the health-care overhaul, including free preventive checkups and lower-cost prescriptions for Medicare recipients.

Polls show that seniors are more skeptical of the health-care law than are younger people because Medicare cuts provide much of the financing to expand coverage for the uninsured. That could be a problem for Democrats in the fall congressional elections, because seniors vote in large numbers.

Medicare says the national ad is not political but part of its outreach to educate seniors about new benefits available next year. The ad is slated to run on channels seniors watch, such as the Weather Channel, CNN, Hallmark and Lifetime, at an initial cost of $700,000. Griffith is 84.

Vindicator wire services