'Furious 7': The race to $1 billion is on

"FURIOUS 7" kept up its fast pace in its second weekend, racing away with $60.6 million at North American theaters and bringing its box-office total to a high-octane $252.5 million, according to studio estimates yesterday.

Globally, it has already crossed $800 million in its first two weeks of release.

The weekend international total was boosted by the film premiering in China yesterday, where it earned an estimated $68.6 million in just one day.

The Hollywood studios basically ceded the weekend to the revved-up franchise. The only new wide release, the Nicholas Sparks rodeo romance "The Longest Ride," opened with $13.5 million (third place). "Home" finished second with $19 million.

On a much smaller scale, the critically acclaimed sci-fi film "Ex Machina" (opening here April 24) drew the year's largest theater average of $62,489 in four theaters.

Amber Tamblyn ("The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants") writes about dead Hollywood actresses in her new book of poems, Dark Sparkler.

"The book is about the lives and deaths of celebrity women in a certain way, but it's also about voyeurism, it's also about projection, it's also [about] . . . what it's like to be an object for a living," Tamblyn, 31, said in a recent interview.

Each poem is about a female celebrity who died before age 40, including Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield and Rebecca Schaeffer.

It took Tamblyn six years to write, with a year off when, during a poem about the overdose of "Diff'rent Strokes" actress Dana Plato, it became too much for her.

Tamblyn said that the project began with a poem she wrote for Brittany Murphy, who died in 2009 from a combination of pneumonia, anemia and multiple drug intoxication.

Tamblyn said she focused on women because "that's what I know . . . I understood the lives of these women more personally and in a deeper way."

Dark Sparkler is Tamblyn's third book of poetry.

* Nelly (a/k/a Cornell Haynes), was arrested Saturday after a bus he was traveling in was pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Troopers reportedly found five rocks that tested positive for meth, as well as a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Oh, and numerous handguns.

An attorney for Nelly said the hip-hop artist will be exonerated of felony drug charges once the facts are out.

* TMZ.com reports that Lindsay Lohan is once again ticked off at her mother, Dina, because mommy dearest wants to move to London to star in the U.K. version of "Celebrity Big Brother."

TMZ says Lindsay doesn't want Dina in England, because things are going well for a change and she doesn't want mom to screw it up.

* Starpulse.com says Gwyneth Paltrow has accepted the Food Bank New York City Challenge from chef Mario Batali and will live off just $29 worth of groceries a week.

The aim is to raise awareness of a proposed cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).

On her first day, Gwyneth showed that her diet for the week will be made up of a dozen eggs, an avocado, an ear of corn, a tomato, kale, a clove of garlic, a pack of tortillas, rice, beans, peas and . . . that's about it.

Her first thought? I don't eat that much food in a month.

Our first thought? She needs to learn to coupon.

Now, Gwyneth probably bought the groceries at a trendy Manhattan produce stand instead of, say, the Italian Market, but we get the point - $29 doesn't buy you much.

* Angela Lansbury stole the show at London's Olivier Awards (the British Tonys) when she won best supporting actress for her role as Madame Arcati in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit."

"I am so infinitely grateful to have this baby in my hands. You have no idea," said the London native, who already has an honorary Oscar, five Tonys and a damehood.

"Here I am creeping up to 90 and feeling like a million dollars," she said.

"Sunny Afternoon," the story of the Kinks, won four Oliviers, including best new musical.

Mike Bartlett's "King Charles III," which imagines the bad things that might occur if Prince Charles took the throne, was named best new play.

"Thank you to the royal family for not closing us down for treason," Bartlett said.

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.