Out for a Sunday Drive
Bill Murray could face a drunken driving charge after cruising through downtown Stockholm in a golf cart and, citing United States law, refusing police requests that he take a breath test, The Associated Press reported yesterday. The police spotted Mr. Murray, 56, early Sunday in the slow-moving vehicle and noticed he smelled of alcohol when they pulled him over. “He refused to blow in the instrument, citing American legislation,” said Detective Inspector Christer Holmlund of the Stockholm police on Wednesday. “So we applied the old method: a blood test. It will take 14 days before the results are in.” Mr. Murray, who had been at a golf tournament in Sweden, signed a document admitting that he had been driving under the influence, and agreed to let a police officer plead guilty for him if the case goes to court. Detective Holmlund said it was not clear where Mr. Murray had picked up the vehicle or to whom it belonged. “It was a golf cart,” the detective said. “How it ended up in this predicament I don’t know.” Mr. Murray is not facing theft charges, he added.
Rapper Jailed
A New York City judge has ordered the hip-hop artist Foxy Brown jailed for violating her probation, The Associated Press reported yesterday. Officials had sought to have her probation revoked after she was arrested on charges that she hit a Brooklyn neighbor with her cellphone, said Jack Ryan, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Probation. They also complained that Ms. Brown had skipped her anger management classes and failed to get permission before traveling outside the city. Judge Melissa Jackson of Manhattan Criminal Court ruled on Wednesday that Ms. Brown would remain behind bars until a Sept. 5 hearing. Ms. Brown, whose real name is Inga Marchand, was on probation for attacking two manicurists at a nail salon in 2004. She was arrested for allegedly assaulting Arlene Raymond on July 30, after the two got into a fight over the volume at which Ms. Brown was playing her car stereo.
Resting Up
The British singer Amy Winehouse has pulled out of concerts in the United States and Canada next month to “address her health,” BBC News reported yesterday. Ms. Winehouse, 23, recently canceled performances amid reports that she had been in and out of rehab. Her spokeswoman, Tracy Miller, said Ms. Winehouse had been advised to postpone her North American shows until next year. “Until then, Amy has been ordered to rest and is working with medical professionals to address her health,” she said. Ms. Winehouse was hospitalized earlier this month for “severe exhaustion,” and recently canceled concerts, including two with the Rolling Stones in Germany. It is unclear whether she will appear as at the MTV Music Video Awards in Las Vegas on Sept. 9.
‘High School Musical’
Is No. 1 With a Bullet
Music sales may be slow these days, but last week the soundtrack to Disney’s “High School Musical 2” — whose premiere on Friday on the Disney Channel set a cable ratings record — sold 615,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, the second-best sales week for any album this year. (Linkin Park’s “Minutes to Midnight” sold 623,000 in May.) Miley Cyrus’s “Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus,” also a Disney release, rose two spots on the Billboard chart to No. 2, with 83,000 copies sold. The first “High School Musical” album sold 30,000 to reach No. 16; its total sales now stand at 4.1 million. Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds’s “Live at Radio City” (RCA), recorded in April, opened at No. 3 with 70,000, and last week’s No. 1, UGK’s “Underground Kingz” (Jive), fell to No. 6 with 60,000, a 62 percent drop. BEN SISARIO
Being Read to at the Y
The 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center announced its 2007-8 lineup of readings yesterday. Among the writers scheduled to appear are Derek Walcott, the Nobel Prize-winning West Indian poet, on Sept. 17, and the Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat and the South African novelist Zakes Mda on Sept. 20. (Ms. Danticat will read from her new memoir, “Brother, I’m Dying.”) Mario Vargas Llosa is to appear on Oct. 15, reading from his new novel, and the Polish poet and essayist Adam Zagajewski on Dec. 6. On Jan. 7 the Nigerian novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will read, along with Dave Eggers. (After the reading, they will talk with the Sudanese civil war refugee Valentino Achak Deng, on whom Mr. Eggers based his latest fictionalized biography, “What Is the What.”) Roddy Doyle, from Ireland, and A. L. Kennedy, from Scotland, will read on Jan. 23; the Turkish novelist Elif Shafak reads from her latest novel, “The Bastard of Istanbul,” on Feb. 11. Andrew Motion, the poet laureate of Britain, will appear on April 7, and the Nobel Prize winner Imre Kertesz, from Hungary, will share the stage with the pianist Andras Schiff on April 17. The full schedule of readings is available at 92y.org.
Footnotes
Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello will tour together this fall, Billboard.com reported. The 13-date tour, on which Amos Lee will also perform, begins on Sept. 22 in Duluth, Ga., and ends on Oct. 9 in Rochester, N.Y. Information and tickets: bobdylan.com/index.html. ... The Metropolitan Opera announced yesterday that Joseph Kaiser will make his Met debut Oct. 3, taking over from the tenor Rolando Villazón opposite Anna Netrebko in Gounod’s “Roméo et Juliette.” Mr. Kaiser will also sing at the Met on Oct. 6 and Oct. 11. The Met announced last week that Roberto Alagna would sing on Sept. 25 and Sept. 29 in place of Mr. Villazón, who has canceled several months of performances. Mr. Kaiser had been scheduled to sing Steva in Janacek’s “Jenufa” at the Los Angeles Opera from Sept. 27 to Oct. 13; he has been replaced by Jorma Silvasti.
Winning It All
A ventriloquist, Terry Fator, took home the million-dollar prize on Tuesday on the finale of NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.” Nielsen estimated that the show attracted the largest audience of this summer on any network, drawing an average of 13.9 million total viewers from 8 to 10 p.m., with a 17 percent increase among those 18 to 49. An hourlong “Singing Bee” (9.1 million) kept NBC on top during the 10 p.m. hour, ahead of ABC’s “Primetime: Crime” (6.4 million) and CBS’s “NCIS” repeat (6.5 million). CBS and ABC finished roughly tied for second for the night. “Big Brother” on CBS delivered a solid 7.3 million viewers at 9, while “iCaught” on ABC trailed with 5 million during that hour. At 8, two episodes of ABC’s “Just for Laughs,” averaging 7.2 million viewers, outdrew CBS’s rerun of “Power of 10” (6.1 million) and the second part of Fox’s “On the Lot” finale (2.5 million). Fox ranked fourth over all. BENJAMIN TOFF
