Weekend News Roundup: Winehouse, Norway, and Some Happier Items
By
July 25, 2011
REST IN PEACE, AMY.
Happy Monday! Here’s our compendium of pop-culture news you may have missed while you were doing more important things over the weekend.
• Amy Winehouse was found dead at 27 in her London flat on Saturday afternoon; the cause of death is still unconfirmed, but People reports this morning that she died in bed with no drug paraphernalia or sign of drugs nearby and had been checked by a doctor the day before. Tributes for the late singer have poured in on Twitter and elsewhere; one of the most touching, surprisingly, was written by Russell Brand. [People; RB]
• The man thought to be responsible for the bombing and shooting in Oslo, Norway that killed 92 on Friday, has allegedly confessed to his acts. Anders Behring Breivik is a Norwegian nationalist who wrote and posted a 1,518-page manifesto, “2083—A European Declaration of Independence,” before committing his crimes. [Gawker]
• Yesterday marked the first day that gay couples could legally marry in New York; 659 couples picked up licenses and 484 got married in New York City alone. The rainbow was projected on Niagara Falls, where couples could marry starting just after midnight. The Times‘ slideshow of 20 of the couples who wed in New York yesterday is a little weep-inducing; their Sunday Styles section was dedicated to gay marriage. [Times]
• Kanye West and Jay-Z will tour for their Watch the Throne collaboration album (available August 8 on iTunes). The tour kicks off September 22 in Detroit and has 24 dates so far, including Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Boston—but nothing in New York. (For shame, boys!) New Yorkers will have to trek out to East Rutherford, New Jersey for dates at the Izod Center there on September 27 and 28. It’s not that it’s so far—about a half hour by car—it’s just the principle of the thing. [THR]
• Captain America won the heat-wave weekend box office with a healthy $65.8M; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 fell to second with $48M, bringing its total gross to a mere bajillion dollars. Friends with Benefits opened in third place with $18.5M, followed by Transformers and Horrible Bosses at $12M and $11.7M, respectively. [BOM]
• Comic Con, the annual gathering of the nerds in San Diego, happened over the weekend. A lot of stuff happened there, apparently, but frankly, we have a hard time processing it all. We did, however, really enjoy this story about how Werner Herzog was spotted wandering around the convention, having a lovely time. “I have never seen the collective dreams all in one place,” he said. [ArtsBeat/NYT]
• Matt Damon shaved his head. But why?! [EW]
