Royal wedding guests face strict security sweeps

AP, LONDON, April 28: It's not the type of welcome most wedding guests expect before they get into church — background checks, ID verification and a security sweep.

But then again, Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding on Friday is no ordinary affair.

Britain hasn't seen a royal wedding of this size since Prince Charles married Diana in 1981 — there were actually 200 more police on duty for that wedding, which had a longer procession route and a guest list of some 3,500 people, including foreign royals and heads of state.

Friday's wedding will offer much of the same pomp and circumstance with its 1,900 invited guests, but it also presents a modern security nightmare for the 5,000 U.K. police officers on duty. Police will be on the look-out for Irish dissident terrorists, Muslim extremists, anti-monarchists and protesters.

Scotland Yard Police Commander Christine Jones said Wednesday there has been no new terror threat but considerable Internet chatter.

"Our operation has been meticulously planned, and we have thought through and planned for a huge range of contingencies," she said.

Anxious crowds wrapped in Union Jack flags watched late Wednesday afternoon as a convoy of cars arrived at Westminster Abbey. Seconds after, the soon-to-be royal couple arrived at the cathedral for a final wedding rehearsal. Middleton's parents and Prince Harry, the best man, also attended, St. James Palace said.

A wide range of police will be on patrol for as the couple ties the knot Friday: officers on motorcycles, escort specialists, dog handlers, search officers, mounted police, protection officers and firearms units, although only a fraction of Britain's police officers are armed.

Thousands of people are expected along the parade route Friday, a snaking path of less than a mile from Westminster Abbey — an iconic cathedral near London's Big Ben and Parliament buildings — to Buckingham Palace, where the new royal couple will appear on the balcony for the anticipated kiss.

Britain has seen several major terror attacks and plots since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in 2001. The deadliest came in 2005, when homegrown terrorists killed 52 commuters during London's rush hour — Europe's first suicide bombing. In 2006, terrorists in Britain tried to down several trans-Atlantic airliners using liquid explosives. The following year, two major terror plots were thwarted outside a London nightclub and at an airport in Scotland.

London has also seen large protests recently against the Conservative-led government's austerity plans, which aim to cut 310,000 government jobs and raise university tuition fees. Prince Charles and his wife Camilla were shaken up when their car was attacked in December when a student protest turned violent.

A group called Muslims Against Crusades said they wouldn't protest the wedding but urged Muslims to stay away from central London and public transport because of the possibility of an attack. Leader Asad Ullah said the warning was general and not based on any intelligence.

Many Muslims have voiced anger over Britain's involvement in the Iraq war. Prince William's younger brother Harry also served in Afghanistan.

British police have special stop-and-search powers now if they think people in the crowds are carrying something suspicious. Some 60 people have already been banned from the parade route Friday and both uniformed and undercover officers will be in the crowds or on rooftops.

The wedding guests — kings and queens, sports and entertainment celebrities, charity workers and friends and family of the royals — will have their identification checked and go through a security screening before entering the abbey. Some of the guests have also gone through cursory background checks.

"They will go through a significant search regime," Commander Jones said.

Although Britain's security threat level remains the same, there has been an increased threat from Irish Republican Army splinter groups opposed to the peace process. A masked man from the Real IRA said Monday the queen was wanted for war crimes and his group would oppose her visit next month.

He made no specific threat to disrupt the royal wedding.

Police said security around London's subway network will be boosted, while policing at Heathrow, Europe's busiest airport, will be as normal.

In October, the U.S. State Department advised Americans to be wary amid reports that terrorists were planning a Mumbai-style attack on a European city. More than 160 people were killed in that 2008 attack, when gunmen fired on crowds in a shooting spree that paralyzed India's business capital for days.

But a U.S. State Department official said the threat expires on Saturday — the day after the wedding. U.S. travel advisories have set expiration dates unless a threat is still considered active.

"We do not plan to renew it," the U.S. official said suggesting that the Mumbai-style threat was no longer considered active or credible. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

Another western intelligence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work, said threads of the threat were still being investigated but he added there was "no intelligence to suggest a highly organized threat to the royal wedding."

Forecasters predict a 70 percent chance of rain Friday for London. The Meteorological Office says there will be a mix of showers and dry spells, a cool breeze and temperatures in the high teens Celsius (mid-60s Fahrenheit). 

'Rio' stays perched atop foreign box office chart

AP, LOS ANGELES, April 28: "Rio" topped the international box office chart for the third consecutive weekend with $32.1 million in 41 territories and a worldwide total of $239.3 million, but "Fast Five" is coming on quickly with a tally of $12.6 million in just three territories in advance of its turbocharged U.S. debut this weekend.

As the most action-packed and visually stunning film of the "Fast" franchise, look for Vin Diesel and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to dominate the worldwide market in the weeks to come.

Moving up to third place overseas is "Red Riding Hood," which increased to 29 territories and a weekend international gross of $8 million, giving this re-boot of the classic fairy tale worldwide appeal to the tune of $70.3 million.

Here are the top 20 movies at international theaters last weekend, followed by international gross for the weekend (excluding North America), number of theater locations, number of territories, worldwide gross to date (including North America), and number of weeks in release as compiled Wednesday by Rentrak Theatrical and provided by Hollywood.com:

1. "Rio," $32,150,926, 9,202 locations, 41 territories, $239,303,489, three weeks.

2. "Fast Five," $12,580,556, 437 locations, three territories, $15,433,907, one week.

3. "Red Riding Hood," $7,997,087, 2,472 locations, 29 territories, $70,348,573, seven weeks.

4. "Hop," $7,048,707, 7,016 locations, 34 territories, $145,789,417, four weeks.

5. "Gantz Perfect Answer," $6,740,684, locations NA, one territory, $6,740,684, one week.

6. "Scream 4," $6,581,238, 5,689 locations, 25 territories, $68,010,127, two weeks.

7. "Limitless," $5,374,170, 2,976 locations, 19 territories, $123,416,869, six weeks.

8. "Detective Conan Quarter of Silence," $4,390,868, locations NA, one territory, $13,824,346, two weeks.

9. "Source Code," $3,590,751, 3,512 locations, 18 territories, $70,382,808, four weeks.

10. "Battle: Los Angeles," $3,142,793, 1,639 locations, 38 territories, $99,156,577, seven weeks.

11. "Just Go With It," $3,099,466, 1,486 locations, 43 territories, $137,756,283, 11 weeks.

12. "Hall Pass," $2,453,622, 1,410 locations, 23 territories, $73,512,290, nine weeks.

13. "New Kids Turbo!," $2,275,605, 175 locations, one territory, $15,009,607, one week.

14. "Paul," $1,978,413, 886 locations, 11 territories, $80,660,844, 10 weeks.

15. "Gulliver's Travels," $1,967,788, 49 locations, five territories, $224,137,072, 17 weeks.

16. "Crayon Shin Chan 2011," $1,954,767, locations NA, one territory, $4,781,849, two weeks.

17. "Arthur," $1,876,519, 3,292 locations, five territories, $32,178,439, three weeks.

18. "Aguila Roja, La Pelicula," $1,766,310, 393 locations, one territory, $2,527,611, one week.

19. "Suspiscious Customers," $1,705,550, locations NA, one territory, $4,923,185, two weeks.

20. "The King's Speech," $1,538,799, 1,290 locations, 23 territories, $401,666,237, 22 weeks.

___

Paul Dergarabedian is president of the Box Office Division of Hollywood.com and a longtime box office analyst for The Associated Press. 

Baldwin, Patti Smith featured at NY poetry reading

AP, NEW YORK, April 28: The night of poetry began with the verse of Emily Dickinson set to television music, peaked with a shaman-esque chant by Patti Smith and ended with Alec Baldwin making good on his college English studies with a flawless recital of Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee."

"I was in tears from Alec Baldwin reading `Annabel Lee.' It's such a beautiful poem," Smith said Wednesday night after a gala event at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall, where nine artists and celebrities were featured readers for Poetry & the Creative Mind, a benefit sponsored by the Academy of American Poets and staged in honor of April, National Poetry Month.

Only Smith qualified as an actual poet, but Adrien Brody looked like one in his porkpie hat and dark beard, and all performers honored material that demonstrated the unruly range of American verse. There were standards memorized in classrooms ("Annabel Lee," Walt Whitman's "I Hear America Singing"), the anguish of Delmore Schwartz, the ecstasy of Allen Ginsberg, the street talk of Charles Bukowski and the rap of Christopher Wallace, aka the late Notorious B.I.G.

The classic and the colloquial were paired from the beginning. Master of ceremonies Chip Kidd read a gloomy excerpt by Marilyn Monroe and continued a tradition of fitting Dickinson's compressed verse to contemporary song. Two years ago, he picked the melody of "Yellow Rose of Texas." On Wednesday, he sang some of Dickinson's most morbid lines to the bouncy theme of "Gilligan's Island":

___

Because I could not stop for Death,

He kindly stopped for me;

The carriage held but just ourselves

And Immortality.

____

The readers were aligned in chairs behind the podium, their dress business-casual, from Caroline Kennedy's silk jacket and blouse to the tie-less attire of most of the men. The moods were serious, silly, confessional, righteous.

Kennedy, who has edited several collections of poetry, earnestly explained the importance of hearing verse aloud. Jesse Eisenberg, a picture of self-absorption in "The Social Network," nervously smacked his lips as he acknowledged that his choice of Schwartz's haunted "The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me" was a "veiled way to further my narcissism." Brody slouched at the podium and rasped through Notorious B.I.G.'s "Ten Crack Commandments."

Chef-food writer Dan Barber claimed he didn't bother with poetry, "like never," but so enjoyed Robert Hass' "Meditation at Lagunitas" that he read it twice. Singer Cassandra Wilson introduced herself as a novice but sounded like a natural through an accomplished and emotional tribute reading of Nikky Finney's "Left," an elegy for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Until her turn came, Smith hardly seemed on the same stage, or in the same cosmos. She sat stiffly, arms folded across her chest, her eyes closed as if in solitude. But at the podium, her graying hair in pigtails, her round glasses blinded in the spotlight, she shook and shouted through Ginsberg's "Footnote to Howl," with its rush of "Holies" and its Utopian climax: "Holy the supernatural extra brilliant intelligent kindness of the soul!"

Smith left to applause long and impolite, old news for a rock star. An awed Baldwin began his reading with a chant of his own.

Paris Hilton, boyfriend accosted at LA courthouse

AP, LOS ANGELES, April 28: Police arrested a man who tried to grab the boyfriend of Paris Hilton as the couple arrived Wednesday at a courthouse to testify against a suspect in an attempted break-in at her home last year.

An Associated Press photographer and reporters interviewing the couple saw the man appear to get a hand on the neck of Cy Waits before being seized by a bodyguard and taken away.

James Rainford, 36, was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor battery on a person and was being held on $20,000 bail.

The incident occurred as Hilton and Waits walked into a Superior Court building in Van Nuys to testify against Nathan Parada, 31, who is charged with attempted first-degree felony burglary.

Hilton posted on her Twitter account that a "psycho intruder just punched Cy in the back of the head as we were walking into the court house."

She and Waits testified about being awakened by a man banging on a window at her home last August. They left the courthouse without further incident.

Police Detective Kevin Romine testified that Parada told him and his partner that he had left a halfway house in Redlands, Calif., several days before going to Hilton's home with the intention of robbing it.

Parada told police he found the Hollywood Hills house after purchasing a map of stars' homes, then stayed outside for several hours before going to a back window and pounding on it with the butt of a knife, Romine said.

During his interview, Parada told detectives that he planned to steal whatever he could carry, sell it and move to a deserted island, Romine testified.

Parada also told police that he had not taken his antidepressant medication for several days before going to Hilton's home, the detective said.

He said Parada knew there was at least one person inside but didn't plan to hurt anyone.

Police were told Hilton's home was targeted because she is famous and she was from a rich family, Romine said.

Deputy District Attorney Kaveh Faturechi said he expects to conclude his case Thursday. Parada could face a maximum of three years in prison if convicted.

Western artist Harry Jackson dies at age 87

AP, CODY, Wyo., April 28: Wyoming artist Harry Jackson, known for both his works of abstract expressionism and images of the American West, has died at the age of 87.

Funeral home officials told the Casper-Star Tribune that Jackson died Monday at the veterans' hospital in Sheridan.

He was born in Chicago in 1924 but made his way to Wyoming in his early teens to work on a ranch. He was a combat artist for the Marines during World War II.

His paintings and sculptures can be found at museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum and in collections owned by the Saudi Arabian royal family and Queen Elizabeth.

The Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Wyoming contains the largest museum collection of his work in the United States.

ASCAP honors pop songwriters at 28th annual awards

AP, LOS ANGELES, April 28: Two of the year's most prolific hitmakers, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald and Max Martin, are the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers' songwriters of the year.

The two men, who are responsible for such hits as Miley Cyrus' "Party in the U.S.A." and Katy Perry's "California Gurlz," took top honors Wednesday at ASCAP's 28th annual Pop Music Awards. Train frontman Pat Monahan won song of the year for "Hey, Soul Sister." EMI Music Publishing was named publisher of the year.

Rod Stewart, Band of Horses and Randy Bachman were also honored at the private ceremony at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel.

Ke$ha, Adam Lambert, Taio Cruz and Darren Criss of "Glee" were among the night's presenters and performers.

Tyler joined "Idol" to prove point to bandmates

Reuters, LOS ANGELES, April 28: Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler says he signed on as a judge of "American Idol," a show he had never watched, to defy his estranged bandmates.

The colorful 63-year-old singer, on the promotional trail for his new autobiography, "Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?," had to fight off a legal threat to toss him out of the band he co-founded 40 years ago so that he could join America's top-rated TV show this season.

"Did I take this job to show the band? F---, yeah," he said in a cover story for Rolling Stone magazine. "Not to show them, but that I can't be held hostage anymore. I will be my own hostage. The band can't throw me out."

Relations between Tyler and his four bandmates hit a new low in 2009 after he fell off the stage in a middle of a song and broke his shoulder, forcing their tour to be canceled.

His frustrated bandmates, far from showing any compassion, went public with their threats to find another singer. Tyler, in turn, said he told his manager, "F--- them, get me a job." And he ended up on "Idol" after beating about 40 other contenders, including Who rocker Roger Daltrey, for the job.

His bandmates got even more furious, and even claimed in legal papers that his "Idol" gig was tantamount to a refusal to tour -- a fireable offense by the rules of their partnership, Rolling Stone said. But it noted that Tyler's "Idol" contract specifically gives him the freedom to tour with the band.

In a separate interview with NBC, Tyler said he was still feuding with his bandmates, but has written them a letter seeking a detente and a desire to return to the studio to record the band's first album of new material since 2001.

"Remember, being in a band this big, it's a very heavy marriage," he told NBC anchor Matt Lauer, in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday.

It's not known if his entreaty was heard, though his allegations in Rolling Stone that two unidentified bandmates were using drugs as recently as last year could pose an obstacle on the road to peace.

Additionally, Tyler told Rolling Stone that he and guitarist Joe Perry -- both staunch advocates of sobriety -- snorted pills for the first time in decades during an aborted recording session a few years ago. (Perry did not comment for the story, and a spokesman did not respond to an email sent by Reuters.)

"The Voice" opens big for NBC

Reuters, LOS ANGELES, April 28: After months of sagging ratings, NBC has something to sing about with "The Voice."

The network's new "American Idol" rival -- featuring Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine as musician coaches -- clobbered Fox's supersized "Glee" for a rare evening of dominance.

"The Voice" drew a 5.1 rating in the coveted adults 18-49 demographic, while a 90-minute, Lady Gaga-inspired "Glee" had to make do with a 3.4. Overall, "Voice" averaged 11.8 million viewers during its heavily promoted two-hour premiere, which is about half of what "Idol" pulls in for Fox.

Not surprisingly, "The Voice" skewed heavily female, especially among those aged 25 to 54. The only program to draw an even bigger swath of that middle-aged demo was ABC's older-skewing "Dancing With the Stars."

Among adults 18-49, "The Voice" improved NBC's season average in the time period by 89 percent and it also ranks as the top-rated series premiere on a major network since CBS' "Undercover Boss" debut following the 2010 Super Bowl. It also boosted the fourth-placed network to a rare ratings win for the night, although ABC pulled in more viewers because of "Dancing with the Stars."

William and Kate in final royal wedding rehearsal

Reuters, LONDON, April 28: Prince William and Kate Middleton attended their final wedding rehearsal at Westminster Abbey on Wednesday as the armed forces, media organizations and spectators prepared for the couple's big day.

Roads in central London around Buckingham Palace and along the route of Friday's marriage procession from the abbey were closed from early morning as about 1,000 members of the military held a full-scale practice.

Carriages that will carry members of the wedding party also took part alongside mounted cavalry.

William and Middleton arrived in a fleet of vehicles that swept into the abbey grounds for their rehearsal on Wednesday evening.

They were accompanied at the run-through by William's brother and best man Prince Harry, the Middleton family and senior clergy, a spokesman for the couple said.

Across the capital, bunting has gone up and flags are beginning to be hoisted, with similar preparations around the country where about 5,500 street parties will be held.

A small army of media from around the world has descended on makeshift studios set up outside Buckingham Palace and along the route to cover the ceremony that one British minister predicted would attract a global TV audience of some 2 billion people.

"America and the world is really excited about a piece of great news," said Linda Bell Blue, executive producer of U.S. entertainment news programme Entertainment Tonight, who is heading up a team of 70 staff for the wedding.

"It's been a pretty rough time around the world -- in the Middle East and in Japan and the world economy -- and this is something to be happy about," she told Reuters.

"Americans love a big production. This is the Oscars on steroids. Its the pageantry, the enthusiasm, it's about what people are wearing."

Some royal fans have already begun camping outside the abbey to secure the best spots to watch Friday's events, and hundreds of thousands of people are expected to start arriving in London.

MORE THAN A MILLION VISITORS

VisitBritain, the national tourism agency, is predicting an extra 600,000 tourists in the capital on the day, meaning there would be a total of some 1.1 million visitors with 40 percent of those coming from abroad.

"That could bring anything up to 50 million pounds ($83 million)," a spokesman said, adding the number of in-bound flights to Britain for the weekend had risen by 244 percent.

London and Partners, the agency which promotes the city, said it expected there would be 600,000 people actually lining the streets, the same number as came to watch the 1981 wedding of William's parents Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has said the occasion would be a boon to a nation coping with government austerity measures which have resulted in drastic spending cuts and job losses.

"People across the country, and indeed across the world, are getting excited about the events on Friday," Cameron told parliament.

Archbishop of York John Sentamu, the second most senior cleric in the Church of England, echoed those sentiments.

"This event I hope will give a lot of hope to a lot of people, particularly young people," he said in a TV interview published on his website.

Those who do go to London to watch the procession or camp out could be in for a cold and wet experience, with weather forecasters predicting showers and a brisk wind.

On Tuesday, police appealed to the public to help them spot any potential troublemakers, while promising that they would not tolerate any attempt to disrupt the event.

Some 5,000 police officers will be on duty to deal with potential threats ranging from international Islamist militants to anarchists and stalkers.

Meanwhile the one-and-a-half mile processional route has undergone a deep clean to get it looking spic and span.

A team of 130 street cleaners including 80 sweepers along with 30 vehicles are being lined up to deal with the 140 tonnes of waste expected to be left by those watching on Friday. 

Schwarzenegger to star in proposed new "Terminator"

Reuters, LOS ANGELES, April 28: He said he would be back, and now Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing just that.

The action movie hero turned politician is attached to star in a new "Terminator" movie being shopped to Hollywood studios, an industry source said on Wednesday.

Schwarzenegger, 63, who played the killing machine cyborg in three of the blockbuster movies with the catch phrase "I'll be back", is on board to reprise a role that helped make him one of Hollywood's most successful and recognizable stars, the source said.

The news follows the end in January of Schwarzenegger's two terms as governor of California, and his announcement in February that he was ready to take movie offers again. He has already announced he is developing a TV show and comic book based on his political nickname "The Governator."

Industry website Deadline Hollywood reported that Schwarzenegger's talent agency Creative Arts Agency (CAA) was presenting a proposal regarding the "Terminator" this week to major Hollywood studios that would revive one of the industry's most successful franchises.

CAA declined to comment on the report.

Deadline Hollywood said there was no screenwriter attached so far. It was unclear whether director James Cameron, who wrote and directed the first "Terminator" movie in 1984, would be involved in the proposed new film.

Schwarzenegger starred in three "Terminator" movies but actor Sam Worthington took the main cyborg role in the fourth installment, "Terminator Salvation" in 2009.

The four movies have grossed more than $1.4 billion at worldwide box offices.

Schwarzenegger put most of his movie star life on hold while serving as California's Republican governor from 2003-2010. But he made a well-received cameo appearance in the 2010 movie "The Expendables" along with other aging action heroes Sylvester Stallone and Jet Li.

Katie Holmes settles libel suit on drugs claim

Reuters, LOS ANGELES, April 28: Actress Katie Holmes has reached a settlement in her $50 million defamation lawsuit against celebrity magazine Star over an article that falsely suggested she was a drug addict, her representative said on Wednesday.

Star magazine also published an apology in its May 9 edition, on news stands on Wednesday, and said it was making a "substantial donation" to a nonprofit dance foundation supported by the actress.

Holmes, the wife of Tom Cruise, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles in March over a January edition of the magazine with the coverline "Addiction Nightmare. Katie Drug Shocker!"

The inside story made no allegations of drug use but referred to counseling sessions in the Church of Scientology. Cruise is one of Hollywood's leading Scientology followers, and his five-year marriage to Holmes is a frequent source of speculation in celebrity media.

Star magazine said in its printed apology that the magazine "did not intend to suggest Katie Holmes was a drug addict or was undergoing treatment for a drug addiction."

Holmes was seeking $50 million in damages but the financial terms of the settlement were confidential, her representative said in a statement. Star magazine is published by Florida-based American Media Inc, whose group includes tabloid weekly The National Enquirer.

"I'm pleased that this lawsuit could be resolved amicably and accept American Media's apology. With this dispute out of the way, I look forward to once again focusing my attention on my family and career," Holmes said in a statement.

Holmes' attorney, Aaron Moss, said the lawsuit should serve "as a lesson to other tabloids that if they print false and defamatory stories about Katie, she will stand up for her legal rights."

Star magazine's donation will go to the Dizzy Feet Foundation, a charity that helps underprivileged American youngsters pay for dance classes.