Tattle: 'Twilight' eclipses 'New Moon' opener at box office
"THE TWILIGHT SAGA" has rung up another record, proving once again that nothing rings a cash register like teenage girls.
"THE TWILIGHT SAGA" has rung up another record, proving once again that nothing rings a cash register like teenage girls.
"The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" took in more than $30 million from midnight screenings yesterday, according to distributor Summit Entertainment.
That surpassed the previous midnight record of $26.3 million set on opening day last November by its predecessor, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon."
The huge start for "Eclipse" puts the latest chapter in the vampire-romance series on track for one of the biggest opening days ever.
"New Moon" also holds that record, taking in $72.7 million in its first day.
* Also doing big business, but probably thanks to a slightly different audience, was Eminem.
Billboard.com says that Eminem's "Recovery" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with a massive 741,000 copies sold in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's the biggest sales week for a single album since October 2008, when AC/DC's "Black Ice" debuted with 784,000 in its first week.
"Recovery" is Eminem's sixth straight No. 1 debut. In the hip-hop/rap world, only Jay-Z has more No. 1 albums, with 11.
The chart's second-highest debut came from Miley Cyrus' "Can't Be Tamed," which enters at No. 3 with 102,000. It seems as if Miley can be tamed by audiences - her last proper full-length studio album was 2008's "Breakout," which started at 371,000.
Doctor moves practice
First the syndication market kills "Little Orphan Annie" and now this:
After nearly 40 years on radio, by summer's end Dr. Demento's oddball musical prescriptions will be heard only on the Internet. Terrestrial radio has no place for "There's a Fungus Among Us," "Fish Heads" and "Dead Puppies," as they don't fit into formats such as classic rock, smooth jazz or the most mediocre songs from the '70s, '80s, '90s and Today.
Demento (aka Barret Hansen) had planned to stop syndicating the show this month until he learned that a college station in Amarillo, Texas, had committed to airing it through the summer.
"With the increasingly narrowcasting, as they call it, of radio, where stations will pick one relatively restricted format and stick with it 24 hours a day, especially in the music area, my show just got perhaps a little too odd of a duck to fit in," Demento said.
On the Web (drdemento.com), Demento said, he can play even a wider selection of music, including tunes too raunchy or outrageous for FCC-regulated radio.
Tattbits
* The National Enquirer has nabbed the first interview with Molly Haggerty, the massage therapist who accused Al Gore of sexually assaulting her in 2006.
In a new interview Molly says, "Al Gore is a pervert and sexual predator. He's not what people think he is. He's a sick man."
The Enquirer reports that Haggerty may also have surveillance video and DNA evidence to prove her point.
A possible Gore defense: "I didn't say ball warming, I said global warming."
Oh, Al, when it comes to your environment there's no happy ending.
* Britain's new health minister Andrew Lansley has rejected celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's approach to improving school food and tackling childhood obesity.
Lansley has told the British Medical Association that the chef's campaign to improve nutrition among students did not result in more children eating school meals.
Oliver has campaigned since 2004 to ban junk food in Britain's schools and reform children's unhealthy diet.
Lansley, who's obviously never been a mother, said yesterday that "constantly lecturing people" and telling them what to eat is counterproductive.
Thus, British schools can now go back to serving their regular fare: Fish and chips, plum pudding and a pint of Guinness.
* U.S. officials yesterday announced a major crackdown on movie piracy that involved seizing several Web sites offering downloads of pirated movies just hours after they appeared in theaters.
The nine Web sites seized include TVShack.net, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org and Movies-Links.TV.
Officials also seized assets from 15 bank, investment and advertising accounts, and executed residential search warrants in North Carolina, New Jersey, New York and Washington.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials worked with the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
Homeland Security? Really?
Maybe we could catch Osama bin Laden if he sold a bootlegged copy of "Eclipse."
* Being Lindsay Lohan's lawyer is like being a bankruptcy lawyer for Philadelphia Media Holdings - the gravy train goes on and on.
In the latest suit against Lindsay, TMZ.com reports that the upscale L.A. boutique Tough as Nails has sued the former star for not paying them.
The suit claims that Lindsay shopped at the store between November 2009 and February 2010 and accumulated bills of more than $17,000. Since she was mistaken for a big-time celeb, Lindsay somehow convinced the store's owners that her business manager would pay the bill.
The store claims that Lindsay's manager paid them only $180.
The manager must have thought the items were all purchased at Tough as Nails' "99 Percent Off Sale!"
* "Avatar" star Zoe Saldana is capping off a string of hit films with another big engagement - to her longtime boyfriend, Keith Britton.
The "Something Blue" part is sure taken care of.
Daily News wire services contributed to this report.
E-mail gensleh@phillynews.com.