News

среда, 9 января 2008 г.

Jessica Sierra's Recovery Roadblock

There's a bureaucratic bump on Jessica Sierra's cross-country road to recovery.

The erstwhile American Idol finalist, who was sentenced this week in Florida to a year at an in-house drug treatment center in California, learned Wednesday that it's going to take longer than the usual five or six hours to get out West.

While the Pasadena Recovery Center's door is already wide open, the California Department of Probation has rejected Sierra's emergency transfer and will instead consider a nonemergency transfer, which could take up to 45 days, according to Assistant Florida State Attorney Pam Bondi.

After sentencing Sierra on Monday, Hillsborough County Circuit Judge Daniel Perry ordered her to remain in custody until she was able to board a flight to Los Angeles.

The troubled 22-year-old was supposed to meet with her probation officer earlier today, after which she and her father were scheduled to fly out of Tampa International Airport. But rather than fly the friendly skies, Sierra has to gear up for another court appearance Thursday morning to address this latest development.

At least she was able to go to her family's house in Tampa to wait it out, instead of back to jail. Sierra told reporters gathered outside Falkenborg Road Jail this morning that she was excited to be out and on her way to rehab. (She also declined to discuss her pregnancy, which was confirmed earlier this week by her family.)

She had been in jail since Dec. 1, when she was arrested in Ybor City on charges of disorderly conduct and nonviolently resisting an officer, raising a few questions about VH1's upcoming reality series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, which premieres Thursday featuring a pre-arrest Sierra as one of the celebs in need of help.

Her yearlong sentence also encompassed probation violation stemming from her arrest last April at a local nightclub, after which she was charged with cocaine possession and throwing a glass at a fellow patron.

Doctor and radio-TV host Drew Pinsky appeared in court on Sierra's behalf on Monday, advising Perry that Sierra needed "at least a year" to get her act together.

"My opinion is, after that year, her prognosis would be reasonably good," Pinsky said.

And although Pasadena Recovery Center, where Pinsky's show was taped, is willing to foot the bill for Sierra's treatment, which is expected to run somewhere in the six-figure department, Perry would prefer that Sierra start getting the help she needs further away from the Hollywood scene.

"I don't want this to be some sort of stepping stone for her to have some sort of a career as a recovering addict," the judge said Monday. "I don't want her giving interviews. I don't want her on TV. I don't want anybody glamorizing the fact that she's a drug addict. I'm over that."

But center cofounder Michael Bloom told the Tampa Tribune that they want Pinsky on board when Sierra finally makes it to Pasadena.

Bloom said that the celebrity doc doesn't normally treat in-house patients, because he has his own private practice, but, "in Jessica's case, we want him involved."

Pre-taped People's Choice Awards bombs on TV

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The People's Choice Awards bombed in the television ratings as viewers tuned out the strike-altered CBS broadcast, sounding an alarm for upcoming awards programs including the Oscars.

The two-hour show hosted by Queen Latifah on Tuesday averaged just 6 million viewers overall, down 5.3 million from last year, while ratings among viewers ages 18 to 49 -- the group most coveted by advertisers -- fell to less than half the 2007 level, Nielsen Media Research reported on Wednesday.

The film and television awards show had been scaled back from a traditional ceremony, in which stars accept trophies and make speeches onstage, to a "magazine"-style format in which winners gave thank-you speeches in pre-taped interviews.

"There was no sense of ceremony. It was like something being done in a bunker," TV Guide critic Matt Roush said. "Anybody who made it to the end, I suppose, was somebody who had won a People's Choice Award."

The ratings plunge was an ominous sign for this Sunday's telecast of the Golden Globe Awards -- another film and TV awards show that has been reduced to a news conference on NBC due to the Hollywood writers strike. The Golden Globes show regularly reaches about 20 million viewers.

"I think only the most desperate show business junkie will be tuning in Sunday for what they have to offer," Roush said.

Moreover, it could bode ill for the Oscars, the world's top film awards, if the strike is not settled before that ceremony airs on ABC on February 24. Last year, nearly 40 million viewers watched the star-studded Oscars ceremony.

Radiohead Fans Still Not Over the Rainbow

Now not even the skeptics can say that Radiohead's In Rainbows didn't lead to a pot of gold.

Last October, the U.K. rockers made history by digitally self-releasing In Rainbows with customers choosing how much they wanted to pay, if anything at all. After making the album available online for three months, In Rainbows came offline Dec. 10 in anticipation of the album's physical release. While singer Thom Yorke told the press that over a million digital copies were sold online (generated an estimated $6 million-$10 million for the band), that certainly wasn't the end of the Rainbow.

For the week ended Sunday, In Rainbows topped the Billboard 200 chart selling 122,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan numbers released today. These were not all physical CDs, however, as about 25 percent of the sales came digitally through iTunes.

Because of the nature of the release, the album was not eligible for the charts when it first debuted on the band's Website, but In Rainbows' physical release and distribution changes that. As evidence of the continued demand, several retailers violated street-date restrictions to sell the disc early, allowing it to debut at number 158 on last week's pop chart. In Rainbows made its official U.S. retail debut on New Year's Day.

The album, released on TBC Records, achieved its success without a breakout single. "Jigsaw Falling Into Place," the official single released by the band, reached number 69 on the Modern Rock Chart, while the track "Bodysnatchers" actually charted higher at number 24.

The band's last album, 2003's Hail to the Thief, moved 300,000 first-week copies and topped out at 1 million total in the U.S. That album, along with Radiohead's first five studio efforts, was released by band's former label, EMI.

Radiohead is also gearing up for a North American tour, though exact dates have yet to be announced.

With Radiohead taking the top spot, Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains slipped two spots to number three on 89,000 copies. Alicia Keys' As I Am stayed put at two selling 112,000 copies.

The week's highest debut belonged to the Juno soundtrack, which was only available digitally until yesterday. Still, the soundtrack—featuring several songs by anti-folkster Kimya Dawson—cracked the charts at number eight, selling 38,000 copies, a 48 percent increase from the week previous.

The rest of the Top 10, all holdovers, included Now That's What I Call Music! Vol. 26 at four, Taylor Swift's self-titled at five, Chris Brown's Exclusive at six, Garth Brooks' The Ultimate Hits at seven, Colbie Caillat's Coco at nine and the Eagles' Long Road Out of Eden in the 10 spot.

In its 28th week on the charts, the Hannah Montana 2: Meet Miley Cyrus soundtrack dropped five spots to number 14, marking the Disney soundtrack's first drop from the Top 10 since opening at number one on July 4. (The Mouse still had a reason to celebrate, though, as the High School Musical soundtrack celebrated its two-year chart anniversary at number 76).

Taking an even bigger postholiday hit, Josh Groban's Noël plummeted 55 spots to 58 on 14,000 copies. Two weeks ago, the holiday disc sold 757,000, a 2007 best for a nondebuting week, helping solidify its place as the year's top-selling release.

The week's other notable debut was Grammy Awards: 50th Anniversary Collection selling 16,000 at 54. The official 2008 Grammy Nominees collection is due on Jan. 29.

Overall, sales are down nearly 38 percent from last week, but they are down only 4 percent compared to the same slow week in '07 when Dreamgirls topped the charts with just 66,000 copies.

To recap, the week's Top 10 were as follows:

1. In Rainbows, Radiohead
2. As I Am, Alicia Keys
3. Growing Pains, Mary J. Blige
4. Now That's What I Call Music! 26, various
5. Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift
6. Exclusive, Chris Brown
7. The Ultimate Hits, Garth Brooks
8. Juno soundtrack, various
9. Coco, Colbie Caillat
10. Long Road Out of Eden, the Eagles

People's Choice Awards ratings drop

What happens to an awards show forced to scuttle its live ceremony because of the Hollywood writers strike? For the People's Choice Awards, it meant losing nearly half its TV audience.

The two-hour taped show that aired Tuesday on CBS was watched by 6 million viewers, compared with the 11.3 million that watched last year, according to Nielsen Media Research figures.

The weak ratings reflect the damage being exacted on the entertainment industry awards season by the two-month-old Writers Guild of America strike. The Golden Globes also canceled its ceremony Sunday on NBC, which instead plans to air a news conference to announce winners.

Representatives of the People's Choice Awards did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment Wednesday.

The writers guild refused to grant waivers for its members to work on the awards shows, and the Screen Actors Guild said its members would honor picket lines and refuse to take part -- depriving the ceremonies of their all-important star power.

The People's Choice Awards replaced its traditional live show and with a taped format, hosted by Queen Latifah, that had its crews deliver trophies to music, film and television stars on location.

Winners included Johnny Depp of "Pirates of the Caribbean" and Katherine Heigl of "Grey's Anatomy."

The guild also has refused to grant a waiver for the premier awards ceremony, February's Academy Awards. Its producer has vowed to stage the show as planned.

Talks between the guild and the alliance representing producers broke off in December and have yet to resume, with production on dozens of TV shows and some movies brought to a standstill.