In wake of tragedy, ‘Dark Knight' keeps good news to itself

Normally, the folks at Warner Brothers would be backslapping this Monday, thrilled by another colossal opening for their reimagined Batman franchise.

But in the wake of the Aurora, Colo., massacre, noting the huge take of "The Dark Knight Rises" seems trivial — so trivial that even numbers-crazed Hollywood decided not to release figures.

We do know, however, thanks to The New York Times, that the movie did not reach its lofty prerelease projections.

Maybe some fans actually stayed home, not because they were afraid of a similar rampage in their own theater, but because sitting through nearly three hours of loud, dark violence seemed better suited for perhaps another weekend.

So while the nation mourns and pundits pin blame and the 24-hour news cycle hurriedly spins out soon-to-be corrected stories, Tattle would like to make one suggestion before we all end up having to go through metal detectors (which wouldn't have even helped in this case) to go to the movies.

Alarm the exit doors so they will not open except at the end of show and in case of fire. If someone leaves a door ajar, the siren sounds and the lights come on.

Back in the days when movie theaters actually had ushers (Tattle ushered in high school at the now-closed Loews Riverdale), we always had people in the theaters watching the doors. Then it was because kids would prop open a door and sneak in their friends. Now, unfortunately, a man with no friends sneaked in an arsenal.

TATTBITS

Authorities said Sunday that they believe Katherine Jackson, the mother of Michael Jackson and the guardian of his three minor children, is safe in Arizona with family members after she was reported missing.

A person familiar with Katherine's whereabouts said that she is with her daughter Rebbie and following a doctor's orders to rest.

Katherine's whereabouts caused concern for some family members in recent days, and her granddaughter Paris Jackson tweeted early Sunday: "I haven't spoken with her in a week I want her home now."

Russian baritone Evgeny Nikitin, who was due to sing the lead role in Richard Wagner's "The Flying Dutchman" when the Bayreuth opera festival opens next week, withdrew from the event Saturday after it emerged that he had a swastika tattoo.

Organizers made Nikitin aware of "the connotations of these symbols in connection with German history," said a statement from the festival in Bayreuth, in the southeastern state of Bavaria. It added that his decision to pull out is "in line with the festival leadership's consistent rejection of any form of Nazi ideas."

The festival, founded by Richard Wagner in 1872, is currently led by the composer's great-granddaughters, Eva Wagner-Pasquier and Katharina Wagner.

Winifred Wagner, who headed the Bayreuth festival under Nazi rule, was a strong admirer of Adolf Hitler. During her reign, Hitler not only helped fund the festival but was allowed to meddle in artistic decisions.

Nikitin said that he got the tattoos in his youth.

"It was a major mistake in my life and I wish I had never done it," he said. "I was not aware of the extent of the confusion and hurt that these symbols would cause, particularly in Bayreuth and in the context of the festival's history."

PBS president Paula Kerger says the decision to remove Fred Willard as narrator of the new public-TV series "Market Warriors" had to be made quickly.

Kerger said PBS was concerned that Willard's lewd-conduct arrest would be a "distraction" for the show, which starts next week.

Tattle sort of thinks Willard's alleged lewd conduct would only be a distraction for someone sitting near him in the theater.