Posted on Mon, Jun. 30, 2008
Bridgeton, N.J., native
Melinda Watts beat out two competitors to take the top prize on the finale of the
American Idol-style
Gospel Dream 2008, which aired last night on cable's Gospel Music Channel. After her performance of "In Christ Alone," producer
Big Jim Wright - the
Simon Cowell of GD08 - told the singer, now based in California, that "you look like you're an artist that people are running to arenas to see." Watts, 29, who beat out
Kymm Lowery and
John McKoy Jr. in the finale, won a record and music-video deal, and a Caribbean cruise.
- Dan DeLuca
Model's fall called suicide
The death of a fashion model who plunged from the ninth floor of a Manhattan building Saturday has been ruled a suicide. The medical examiner's office said yesterday that
Ruslana Korshunova, 20, died in the fall from her apartment in the Financial District. A native of Kazakhstan, Korshunova appeared in advertisements and on runways for such designers as
Marc Jacobs,
Nina Ricci and DKNY. British Vogue hailed her as "a face to be excited about" in 2005.
Her break came when modeling booker
Debbie Jones noticed her while perusing an in-flight magazine article about Korushnova's hometown of Almaty, according to Vogue. "She looked like something out of a fairytale!" Jones said. "We had to find her and we searched high and low until we did!"
Beeping all the way to the bank
A lonely little robot made millions of friends over the weekend - and even outgunned
Angelina Jolie.
WALLE, the Pixar Animation tale of a robot toiling on a long-abandoned Earth, debuted as the No. 1 movie with $62.5 million in ticket sales, with Jolie's assassin thriller
Wanted opening second with $51.1 million, according to studio estimates yesterday.
The top 12 movies took in $179.2 million, up 22 percent from the same weekend last year, when Pixar's
Ratatouille opened with $47 million. It was the fifth straight weekend that revenues climbed.
The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, Warner Bros.'
Get Smart, slipped to third place with $20 million, raising its total to $77.3 million.
The rest of the top 10:
Kung Fu Panda, $11.7 million;
The Incredible Hulk, $9.2 million;
The Love Guru, $5.4 million;
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, $5 million;
The Happening, $3.9 million;
Sex and the City, $3.8 million;
You Don't Mess With the Zohan, $3.2 million.
Former 'Idol' ties the knot
Past
American Idol winner
Ruben Studdard, nicknamed the "Velvet Teddy Bear" for his big frame and sonorous voice, married
Surata Zuri McCants at a church outside Birmingham, Ala. No singing at Saturday's ceremony - just vows, prayers and a string ensemble.
This report contains information from Inquirer wire services and Web sites. Contact "Sideshow" at sideshow@phillynews.com.
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