newsmakers

newsmakers

‘Brave’ shows mettle with $66.7M debut

LOS ANGELES

A new Disney princess has ascended to the box-office throne with a No. 1 debut for Pixar Animation’s “Brave.”

The latest from the makers of “WALL-E,” “Finding Nemo” and the “Toy Story” movies opened with $66.7 million domestically, according to studio estimates Sunday. “Brave” added $13.5 million in 10 overseas markets for a worldwide start of $80.2 million.

Featuring a feisty Scottish princess, “Brave” was the first of Disney’s Pixar animations with a female protagonist. And it left American hero Abraham Lincoln in the dust.

The 20th Century Fox action tale “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” opened far back at No. 3 with $16.5 million, behind “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted.”

DreamWorks Animation’s animated “Madagascar” sequel had been No. 1 for two weekends and added $20.2 million to raise its domestic total to $157.6 million.

“Brave” is the 13th-straight Pixar release to open at No. 1 since “Toy Story” launched Hollywood’s age of computer animation in 1995.

The weekend’s other new wide release, Steve Carell and Keira Knightley’s apocalyptic romance “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World,” misfired with just $3.8 million, debuting at No. 10.

The Focus Features film, playing in much narrower release than other top-10 movies, stars Carell and Knightley as heartbroken neighbors on a road trip as a killer asteroid hurtles toward Earth.

‘Jeopardy!’ host Trebek suffers heart attack

NEW YORK

“Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek is in a Los Angeles hospital recovering from a mild heart attack.

Sony Television spokeswoman Paula Askanas said Sunday that Trebek was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on Saturday. She says the 71-year-old Trebek is expected to recover fully and be back giving answers when “Jeopardy!” resumes production on a new season next month.

While he was in the hospital Saturday, “Jeopardy!” won a Daytime Emmy award for best game show.

Trebek has been hosting “Jeopardy!” for 28 years.

Russo’s new work pays tribute to printed books

CAMDEN, Maine

Author Richard Russo says readers can’t survive on e-books alone.

The Maine writer’s latest work, “Interventions,” serves as a tribute to the printed book while taking a backhanded jab at electronic books and online bookselling.

“Interventions” is a collection of four separate volumes that are packaged in a slipcase, each work coming with a postcard-sized color print of a painting by Russo’s daughter, Kate. The collection, three short stories and a novella, is published on high-quality sustainably harvested paper.

And in this age when e-book sales are booming, it’s not for sale in electronic version.

Russo, who lives in Camden, says printed books are good for readers, for independent bookstores and new emerging authors.

Associated Press