newsmakers

newsmakers

‘Mockingjay’ tops ‘Penguins,’ ‘Horrible Bosses’

LOS ANGELES

Moviegoers wanted another helping of “The Hunger Games.”

“The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part One” ruled the Thanksgiving box office for a second weekend in a row with $56.9 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The total haul for the latest installment of the Lionsgate dystopian series starring Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen stands at $225.7 million domestically and $254.4 million internationally.

“Penguins of Madagascar” opened in second place with a chilly $25.8 million. The animated spin-off centers on the penguin characters from DreamWorks Animation’s “Madagascar” franchise. “Penguins” fared better overseas, where the film earned an additional $36 million.

Disney’s animated romp “Big Hero 6” and Paramount’s space-time saga “Interstellar” respectively held onto the third and fourth positions with $18.7 million and $15.8 million in their fourth weekend at the box office. The domestic total for “Big Hero 6” has ballooned to $167.2 million, while filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” is orbiting $147 million.

The Warner Bros. comedy sequel “Horrible Bosses 2” with Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day reprising their roles from the original 2011 movie debuted in fifth place with $15.7 million.

‘Snooki’ ties the knot in New Jersey

EAST HANOVER, N.J.

Snooki has officially tied the knot.

Former “Jersey Shore” star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi married boyfriend Jionni LaValle in a church ceremony Saturday in East Hanover, about 15 miles west of New York City.

The Record reports that among the guests were “Jersey Shore” castmates Sammi Giancola and Deena Cortese and Jenni Farley. Polizzi currently stars with Farley in MTV’s “Snooki and JWOWW.”

A few dozen onlookers waited outside the church.

Seventeen groomsmen and 15 bridesmaids attended the ceremony, which had a “Great Gatsby” theme.

Polizzi and LaValle have two children, age 2 and 2 months.

Mark Strand, prize-winning poet, dies

NEW YORK

Mark Strand, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate widely praised for his concentrated, elegiac verse, has died. He was 80.

Strand, whose works were translated into more than 30 languages, died Saturday morning at his daughter’s New York home from liposarcoma that had spread throughout his body, just weeks after entering hospice care, said his daughter, Jessica Strand.

“He was a funny, elegant, generous and brilliant man,” she said of her father. “A man who lived to work and to be with his friends and the people he loved.”

A distinctive presence even at the end of his life, with his lean build, white hair and round glasses, Strand received numerous honors, including the Pulitzer in 1999 for “Blizzard of One,” a gold medal from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a National Book Award nomination this fall for “Collected Poems.” He was appointed poet laureate for 1990-91, although he did not count his time in Washington among his great achievements.

“It’s too close to the government. It’s too official. I don’t believe that poetry should be official,” he told The Associated Press in 2011. “There are poets who aspire to such positions; I never did.”

Associated Press