NEWSMAKERS

October 21, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

NEWSMAKERS

Sara Bareilles to open for Obama in Vegas

LAS VEGAS

Grammy nominee Sara Bareilles, singer of the pop hit “Love Song,” will open for President Barack Obama at a Las Vegas rally designed to rouse Democratic voters before the midterm elections.

Bareilles performs Friday at a Las Vegas middle school, where Obama will host his latest “Moving America Forward” rally.

Nevada is prime battleground for Democrats, who face losing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid if Republican Sharron Angle’s tea party bid is successful. Republicans have painted Reid as the face of Obama’s sweeping social and economic policies, including the federal health care law and the $787 billion stimulus.

Bareilles is a White House favorite. She performed before world leaders at the G-20 summit in 2009 and during the First Family’s 2010 Easter Egg Roll.

New opening scene

LOS ANGELES

James Cameron is giving “Avatar” a fresh start.

Cameron unveiled a new opening scene Tuesday for an extended cut of his sci-fi blockbuster due out Nov. 16 on DVD and Blu-ray disc, the sequence offering a glimpse of life on crowded, polluted 22nd-century Earth, where city dwellers are bombarded by digital ads and wear masks for protection from the foul air.

The sequence Cameron showed reporters depicts the dreary existence of his hero, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), before he’s invited to join the Avatar program on the distant moon Pandora.

An ex-Marine now in a wheelchair, Jake lives in a tiny, seedy room and hangs around boozing it up at a bar, where he starts a fight — but for a good cause. Jake takes on a guy who had been slapping a woman around.

Ex-Playmate charged

LOS ANGELES

A former Playboy Playmate of the Year who appeared in the horror movie “Rosemary’s Baby” has been charged with shooting her boyfriend at their Hollywood apartment.

The district attorney’s office says 66-year-old Victoria Rathgeb pleaded not guilty to attempted murder Tuesday. She remains jailed Wednesday with bail set at $1.5 million and could face up to life in prison if convicted.

Police say that she shot her boyfriend during a domestic dispute Saturday evening. Los Angeles police spokeswoman Norma Eisenman says the man, whose identity wasn’t released, remains in critical condition.

Rathgeb was 1968’s Playmate of the Year under the name Angela Dorian. She had TV and movie roles in the 1960s and 1970s.

Associated Press