Simon Cowell shoots down Beyonce ‘X Factor’ rumors

LOS ANGELES: Time will tell who will fill the recently vacated judge’s chairs on “The X Factor,” but one thing’s for sure — it won’t be Beyonce Knowles. At least, if Simon Cowell is to be believed.

Fox’s recently minted competition series had a major shakeup last week, with judges Nicole Scherzinger and Paul Abdul — along with host Steve Jones — getting the heave-ho. And while the rumor mill swirled with scuttlebutt about Cowell offering “Single Ladies” singer Knowles an astronomical sum to come aboard, the famously cantankerous Brit says it’s not happening.

“I have no idea where this rumor came from,” Cowell said in an interview with “Extra.” “I read it online that I offered her $100 million a year. It’s complete nonsense.”

Cowell also revealed that executives at Fox began talking to him about a shakeup “t the beginning of the year– and we were told it had to happen straight away.”

He also took responsibility for the perception that “X Factor” has been a lukewarm success, admitting that his declaration that the show would be bigger than his last gig, “American Idol,” set the bar too high.

“It’s only because I opened my big mouth and said we were going to get 20 million,” Cowell said. “If I hadn’t said that, everybody would be saying the show was a huge success.” AGENCIES

“The Grey” Tops Weekend Box Office. “One For the Money” and “Man On a Ledge” stumble.

TrendPK.com:In a somewhat refreshing turn of events, this weekend had three wide releases, all budgeted below $45 million and all technically geared towards adults. And for the fourth straight weekend this month, an R-rated new release topped the box office yet again. The top film of the weekend was Joe Carnahan’s wilderness survival drama, The Grey. The Liam Neeson vehicle, concerning plane crash survivors struggling to fend off death by various forms of nature (including wolves), opened with a solid $20 million. Yes, that’s slightly below the $21 million debut of Unknown and the $24 million debut of Taken around this time in 2011 and 2009, but those films were PG-13 while The Grey was rated R. The picture scored a B- from Cinemascore, which is not surprising. On one hand, it’s a good movie, a thoughtful and introspective mediation on several men coming to terms with their forthcoming demise. On the other hand, the film was sold as an action picture featuring Liam Neeson fighting wolves with his bare hands. Without going into spoilers, that’s not entirely accurate. Still the film obviously has fans, as the picture scored a relatively rare 3x weekend multiplier. Anyway, the film cost Open Road Films just $35 million, so this should be a solid moneymaker for the mini distributor even if the somewhat false advertising causes it to drop hard next weekend.

Coming in at second place was the Katherine Heigl vehicle, One For the Money. The long-delayed adaptation of the first of seventeen Stephanie Plum novels was not screened for critics, and the Friday morning smack-down seemed to imply that Lionsgate chose wisely. Despite awful reviews, poor buzz, and inexplicable tracking that predicted the film to open with just $5 million (huh?), the picture opened on the low end of Katherine Heigl’s standard opening weekend comfort zone, with $11.7 million. Say what you will about Heigl and her taste in projects, but she is an opener. Killers with Ashton Kutcher opened to $16 million, Life As We Know It opened with $14.5 million last year and New Year’s Eve (an ensemble piece where she was arguably the biggest box office star). And the novels have been around since 1994, so whomever at Lionsgate was able to convince the pundits that the picture was only going to open with $5 million deserves a raise for successful management of expectations. Now the meme is that the film ‘over-performed’ despite opening lower than any prior Katherine Heigl-as-lead movie in her relatively short career as a movie star. Anyway, the film cost $40 million, so whether or not we see a sequel will depend on legs and overseas business.

The third and final new release was a qualified whiff. The Summit Entertainment release, Man On a Ledge, opened with $8.3 million. It’s basically a B-movie thriller filled with the kind of stars that audiences have heard of but not the kind that put butts in the seats (Sam Worthington, Ed Harris, Anthony Mackie, Elizabeth Banks, etc). But the picture cost $40 million, which is a bit much for a film without any real box office draws, so the film will have to have inexplicably strong overseas numbers to make a profit anytime soon. On the plus side, Summit has plenty of foreign pre-sales locked up, and it’s the sort of film that will play on TNT for the next 300 years. For what it’s worth, the film scored a B+ from Cinemascore, played 50% female, with 70% under 35 years old. Of note in this case is the strange fact that Lionsgate now owns Summit Entertainment, a partnership that happened so fast that there was no time to move the respective release dates this weekend. This will be a problem as several Summit releases will be going head-to-head with Lionsgate releases over 2012. Another bit of trivia… both of the above films did have a promotion with discount-coupon site. Groupon was offering discount tickets for One For the Money while Social Living with paired with Man On A Ledge. Whether or not that affected the weekend take (more tickets purchased due to the discount, although studios report the full value of all tickets sold) is not information I am privy to, but it is worth mentioning none-the-less.

There’s frankly not much to report in holdover news, so I’ll try to keep this short. Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol not only crossed the $200 million mark in the US this weekend, it surpassed the $545 million worldwide gross of Mission: Impossible II to become Tom Cruise’s second-biggest worldwide hit. The $591 cume for War of the Worlds is still within reach. With a surprise Best Picture Oscar nomination, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close dropped a decent 25% in weekend two. The picture has $20 million in its second weekend of wide release and will surpass its $25 million budget this coming week. The biggest beneficiary of Oscar nominations was The Descendants, which added 1400 new screens and jumped up 176% for a $6.5 million weekend. The Alexander Payne-helmed George Clooney drama now has $58 million, which means it will surely surpass the $72 million gross for Sideways and probably the $81 million gross for Up in the Air. The Artist may be the presumptive front runner for Best Picture, but it is still struggling past $15 million (it grossed $3.3 million this weekend and now has $16 million) and may not break $30 million even with the win. Still, the film cost just $15 million so it will make money in the end, especially with overseas business factored in.

All three of last weekend’s releases took hardy drops. Haywire tumbled hardest, falling 55% in weekend two for a $4 million second weekend and a $15.5 million ten-day total. It may not even reach its $23 million production budget, although the arty Steven Soderbergh action picture should have better luck overseas. Red Tails dropped a decent 44%, for a $10.4 million second weekend. With $32 million after ten days, the film may will likely recoup its $58 million production budget domestically. Here’s hoping that Fox can work its overseas magic. Last weekend’s box office champ, Underworld: Awakening, dropped an encouraging 50% in weekend two, for a $12.5 million second weekend and a ten day total of $44.6 million. All three figures are high-water marks for the Underworld franchise, meaning that this should easily be the biggest grosser in the series even without that overseas 3D bump we discussed last weekend. It’s already pretty much matched the $45 million total gross of Rise of the Lycans, while it barely trails the $51 million total domestic gross of the first Underworld and is catching up to the final $62 million domestic gross of Underworld: Evolution. In other news, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo sits with $98 million, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows crossed the $180 million mark, Beauty and the Beast crossed $40 million, and Contraband sits with $56 million.

That’s it for this weekend. Join us next time when CBS Films debuts the Daniel Radcliffe period ghost story The Woman In Black, Fox releases the ‘found-footage’ super hero drama Chronicle, and Universal marshals Drew Barrymore, Kristen Bell, Dermot Mulroney, Ted Danson, Stephen Root, Tim Blake Nelson, and Rob Riggle to save a beached whale in Big Miracle. Until then, take care and keep reading.

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Apex court seeks text of Mirza’s statements

ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry has directed Supreme Court of Pakistan (SC) to obtain detailed text of the robust statement of senior Sindh minister Dr. Zulfiqar Mirza which the latter stated addressing a press conference in Karachi on Sunday afternoon, TrendPK reported.

SC is all set to hear suo motto case concerning fresh spate of violence and target killings in metropolis at its Karachi Registry today (Monday).

Meanwhile, stern security arrangements have been adopted in and around SC’s Karachi building to ensure peaceful and secure hearing of the case.

According to details, routes, leading to registry building, have been clogged with mammoth containers while heavy police and Rangers’ contingents have been put in place in the area. TrendPK

Taseer abduction: Servant’s finger prints found from car

LAHORE: Important development was achieved in Shahbaz Taseer kidnapping case through finger prints.

Police sources said the finger prints garnered from the vehicle, belonged to Shahbaz Taseer’s servant.

According to sources, police are making progress in the light of finger prints reports; however,  police said it could not be said for sure that Taseer’s servant whose finger prints had been found was involved in the abduction or not.

It should be mentioned here that some unidentified miscreants abducted Shahbaz Taseer, son of former Punjab Governor Salman Taseer on Friday while he was on his way to office. TrendPK

What happened to Kara DioGuardi?

TrendPK.com: Former “American Idol” judge Kara DioGuardi returns to tube as a TV music competition judge May 30 — but on a brand-new show, Bravo’s “Platinum Hit.” She tells us she didn’t think she’d be back “so fast, but I really loved the idea that songwriters were going to get some attention.”

Songwriter Evan Bogart (whose credits include Beyoncé, Britney Spears and Rihanna)” is one of the executive producers and creators of the show, she relates, and “he came to me about it. I thought a songwriting show would be interesting, but how do you do it?”

Good question. Watching contestants noodle around on a piano and scribble down ideas doesn’t sound like much of a show. But that’s not what “Platinum Hit” is like, assures DioGuardi, who toplines with Jewel. “Bravo is really great at creating drama and character development. Part of what makes great songwriters is where they come from — their truth. When you get to know their journey, you start to get emotionally involved. There were some character revelations along the way of people’s back stories that were really compelling. When they write from their truth — that’s when they really connect.”

DioGuardi wrote from her truth in her recently released “A Helluva High Note” memoir, including going through the hell of being molested as a young girl, and date raped when she was new in the music business. Going public with her past has proven to be exceptionally moving — particularly in response from readers who said they were inspired to deal with, or talk about, their own similar traumas.

“That’s really why I wrote it,” she says. “A lot of people write, ‘I’m glad you spoke about that.’ When you know someone else has gone through something, it helps to know you can get through it. You’ve got to keep moving, keep going on. You can’t let it get you down and stop you from living your life as you want, from pursuing your dreams.”

It’s an intense time for DioGuardi, who’s also awaiting word on the future of the USA Network “Big in Japan” series pilot on which she serves as producer. “It’s about an old boy band, 10 years later, after the peak of their fame. But they’re still always big in Japan,” she explains with a laugh. Besides that, “I’ve been doing a lot of country writing,” says Kara, whose songwriting credits include tunes for the likes of Pink, Carrie Underwood, Gwen Stefani, Christina Aguilera and Céline Dion. “I’m loving it down in Nashville. It’s a very song-centric industry. Songwriters are revered down there.”
With it all, she admits, “I haven’t watched that much” of the current season of “American Idol.” “It’s not because I’m not a big fan of them. I am. But that’s what I do every day — I have artists coming into my office all the time,” says Kara, executive vice president of talent development at Warner Bros. Records. She’s quick to add, however, “I’ve been hearing great things about the show this season, especially about Steven Tyler.”

Britney Spears loses agent, keeps boyfriend

TrendPK.com: Britney Spears can no longer call her boyfriend her agent as Jason Trawick has stepped down from the role.

Trawick has reportedly left William Morris Endeavor all together and will be starting up an entertainment division for Famos LLC, states TMZ.

Trawick’s new company will reportedly specialize in artists who have a digital reach.

Spears and Trawick are still dating and seem very happy together.

Find out when Britney Spears’ album will be released

TrendPK.com: Since Britney Spears released her song “Hold It Against Me,” people are anxiously awaiting her next album and now it has a release date.

It has reportedly been revealed that Spears’ upcoming album will be released on March 15th, states MTV. Spears has been working hard with Max Martin and Dr. Luke on her seventh studio album.

The singer will reportedly be going big with this release and has already done a photoshoot for the album package.

Will you check out Britney Spears’ album?

Britney Spears getting a Glee-full makeover

LOS ANGELES: Britney Spears is the latest mega pop star to be getting a Glee-full makeover.

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Britney Spears getting a Glee-full makeover

Goa – Emraans home away from home

MUMBAI: Actor Emraan Hashmi has zeroed in on a home away from home at his favorite place in the world, Goa.

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Goa – Emraans home away from home

UN, US and EU sanctions on Iran

NEW YORK: The United Nations Security Council voted to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran on Wednesday.

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UN, US and EU sanctions on Iran

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