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Shaq: It’s All About Winning Championships
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Buckeyes Roll 100-60 / Season Outlook
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Muffle Your Muffler
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Clock Tender- Extending the Life of Collector Car Clocks
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Rumors: Akron Starbucks Closing
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Jack is looking for a trip to Southern Ohio the week of November 16.
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Aeromsith looking for new singer as Steven Tyler contemplates solo career
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Personal Rant – Why People Do Not Live in Northeast Ohio
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Video: 'Modern Warfare 2' hits the streets
Published on Monday, Jun 30, 2008
Good Weekend for ''W'' Movies. WALL-E, the delightful film from the animated aces at Pixar, topped the weekend box office with an estimated $62.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo. And in second place was Wanted, the new action movie with Angelina Jolie, with $51.1 million.
While WALL-E was not the biggest animated film ever, EW.com said that ''the robot romance bowed bigger than DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda did earlier this month ($60.2 mil) and bigger than Pixar's own Ratatouille did on this weekend last year ($47 mil).
''It succeeded on the strength of near-universal adoration from critics and audiences,'' EW.com added. But Wanted also did very well, making more than experts had projected. If Monday's final numbers are equal or better than the estimate, EW.com said, ''it'll mark Angelina Jolie's top live-action opening ever, eking past the $50.3 mil debut of Mr. & Mrs. Smith three years ago.''
And it had the second-best opening weekend ever for a movie that did not premiere at No. 1 Yes, people keep track of such things. According to Box Office Mojo, the highest-grossing second-place debut was The Day After Tomorrow, which took in $68 million and change — but opened the same weekend as topper Shrek 2.
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More on Movies. Finishing third for the weekend was last weekend's champ, Get Smart, followed by Kung Fu Panda and The Incredible Hulk. The rest of the top 10, in descending order: The Love Guru, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Happening, Sex and the City and You Don't Mess With the Zohan.
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Baby Talk. ''Mother-to-be Nicole Kidman has planned the birth of her first child, due in the next fortnight, right down to the smallest detail,'' says England's Daily Mail. ''The Oscar winner has reserved a private room at a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, lined up the finest medical care for the natural birth — and even put together a compilation of music for the happy event.''
While musician hubby Keith Urban is on the playlist, there's even more of flutist James Galway. ''She has always loved James Galway, particularly his classical albums,'' a friend told the newspaper. ''Whenever you go to her house, she has Galway on. There is one Prokofiev sonata that is her favorite.''
But Galway has also dipped into jazz and pop, the latter including a famous recording of John Denver's Annie's Song.
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Model Dies. New York authorities are calling Saturday's death of fashion model Ruslana Korshunova a suicide, according to press reports. She had been on the cover of French Elle and Russian Vogue as well as featured in ads for Marc Jacobs, DKNY, Vera Wang and Christian Dior, said the New York Post.
The native of Kazakhstan apparently jumped from her ninth-floor apartment in her Water Street building in the Financial District.
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6 Rms, Riv Vu, Luv. The Associated Press says a Florida woman is looking for love — with someone who will buy her house. ''After a year of trying to sell her four-bedroom home and eight years of singledom, Deven Trabosh is offering her South Florida home and a shot at marrying her on the Internet,'' says AP.
''I figured, let's combine the ad, because I'm looking for love and I'm looking to sell the house,'' said Trabosh, a Barbie-esque blonde who teeters around the nearly 2,000-square-foot house in patent leather heels. She's posted an ad on Craigslist and is working on the wording for one on eBay (which doesn't let you sell people or relationships).
But where you're usually allowed to have an inspector check a house before buying, whom do you get to give Trabosh a once-over?
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Celeb Buddies. Usmagazine.com has a new gallery of celebrities and their best friends forever, including dynamic duos like Mariah Carey and Da Brat, Christina Applegate and Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Garner and Reese Witherspoon. Also, Mariska Hargitay and Hilary Swank, Jennifer Lopez and Leah Remini, Liv Tyler and Kate Hudson, Angelina Jolie and Gwen Stefani, and Brad Pitt and Catherine Keener.
After all, stars may run into each other on the red carpet or in the checkout line at Promises, but that's nothing more than a photo op. The famous also need someone to sit around with in their jammies, eat pizza and share a good cry while watching What Women Want for the thousandth time. And why can't that BFF be a celeb, too?
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Don't Forget. The duo of Laura Fedor and Sophie Zalokar, both of Willoughby, continue to compete on Nashville Star at 9 tonight on NBC. They have outlasted three other acts, with nine still in contention.
Rich Heldenfels writes about popular culture for the Beacon Journal and in the HeldenFiles Online blog at http://www.ohio.com. He can be reached at 330-996-3582 or rheldenfels@thebeaconjournal.com.
Good Weekend for ''W'' Movies. WALL-E, the delightful film from the animated aces at Pixar, topped the weekend box office with an estimated $62.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo. And in second place was Wanted, the new action movie with Angelina Jolie, with $51.1 million.
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