Moviegoing increasingly looks like it didn’t die during the pandemic. It just went into hibernation.   John Krasinski’s thriller sequel “A Quiet Place Part II” opened over the Memorial Day weekend to a pandemic-best $48.4 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Including the Monday holiday, the studio forecasts the film will gross $58.5 million in North America. It added another $22 million in ticket sales overseas.   The film’s performance cheered a movie industry that has been punished and transformed by the pandemic. Paramount Pictures’ “A Quiet Place Part II,” which was on the cusp of opening in March 2021 before theaters shut, was the first big film this year — and one of the only larger budget COVID-era releases beside Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” — to open exclusively in theaters.   Chris Aronson, distribution chief for Paramount, called the opening “an unqualified success.” “It’s a huge sigh of a relief and a sense of optimism for sure,” Aronson said. “Movies, moviegoing, movie theaters aren’t dead. Yes, they’ve been threatened but they’re proving once again that they’re resilient and that people do want to have that communal experience.”   Many studios have trotted out hybrid release plans during the pandemic, debuting …

All seven passengers aboard a plane, including “Tarzan” actor Joe Lara and his diet guru wife, are presumed dead after it crashed in a lake near the U.S. city of Nashville, authorities said.   The small business jet crashed at around 11:00 am local time Saturday, shortly after taking off from the Smyrna, Tennessee airport for Palm Beach, Florida, Rutherford County Fire & Rescue (RCFR) said on Facebook.   The plane went down into Percy Priest Lake, about 19 kilometers south of Nashville.   The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed seven people had been aboard the plane, CNN reported.   By Saturday night, operations had switched from search and rescue to recovery efforts, RCFR incident commander Captain Joshua Sanders told a press conference.   “We are no longer in an attempt to (look) for live victims at this point so we’re now recovering as much as we can from the crash site,” he said.   On Sunday afternoon, RCFR said on Facebook that recovery operations had found “several components of the aircraft as well as human remains” in a debris field about half a mile wide.   Operations would continue until dark and resume Monday morning, RCFR wrote.   Lara played …

Helio Castroneves won the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday for a record-equaling fourth time, in front of the largest crowd to attend a sporting event in the United States since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.The 46-year-old Brazilian surged to the front with two laps to go and held off a challenge from hard-charging Spanish young gun Alex Palou to claim victory and join AJ Foyt, Rick Mears and Al Unser as the only four-time winners of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing.”It was the 21st Indy 500 start for Castroneves but his first with Meyer Shank Racing, his other wins in 2001, 2002 and 2009 all coming with Team Penske.With the race back in its traditional U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend slot, after last year’s event was moved to August and held at an empty track because of the pandemic, a sold-out crowd of 135,000 excited fans flocked to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.While the crowd was well shy of the nearly 400,000 that the speedway can accommodate, the roars returned to the Brickyard as fans partied in the sunshine.   …

Workers dig and ferry wheelbarrows laden with sand to open a new shaft at a bustling archaeological site outside of Cairo, while a handful of Egyptian archaeologists supervise from garden chairs. The dig is at the foot of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, arguably the world’s oldest pyramid, and is one of many recent excavations that are yielding troves of ancient artifacts from the country’s largest archaeological site.   As some European countries re-open to international tourists, Egypt has already been trying for months to attract them to its archaeological sites and museums. Officials are betting that the new ancient discoveries will set it apart on the mid- and post-pandemic tourism market. They need visitors to come back in force to inject cash into the tourism industry, a pillar of the economy.   But like countries elsewhere, Egypt continues to battle the coronavirus, and is struggling to get its people vaccinated. The country has, up until now, received only 5 million vaccines for its population of 100 million people, according to its Health Ministry. In early May, the government announced that 1 million people had been vaccinated, though that number is believed to be higher now.   In the meantime, authorities have kept the publicity machine …

Gavin MacLeod, the veteran supporting actor who achieved stardom as Murray Slaughter, the sardonic TV news writer on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” before going on to even bigger fame as the cheerful Captain Stubing on “The Love Boat,” has died. He was 90. MacLeod died early Saturday, his nephew, Mark See, told Variety. MacLeod’s health had been poor recently, but no cause of death was given, the trade publication reported. Known to sitcom fans for his bald head and wide smile, MacLeod toiled in near anonymity for more than a decade, appearing on dozens of TV shows and in several movies before landing his “Mary Tyler Moore” role in 1970. He had originally tested for Moore’s TV boss, Lou Grant, a part that went to Ed Asner. Realizing he wasn’t right for playing the blustery, short-tempered TV newsroom leader, MacLeod asked if he could try instead for the wisecracking TV news writer, whose jokes were often made at the expense of dimwitted anchorman Ted Baxter. “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was a smash from the start and remains a classic of situation comedies. It produced two spinoffs, “Rhoda” and “Phyllis,” starring Valerie Harper and Cloris Leachman, who had portrayed Mary’s neighbors. It was still top-rated …

As French cultural institutions reopen after months of coronavirus restrictions, a spectacular new museum has made its debut in Paris, housing the contemporary art collection of French billionaire Francois Pinault, including a number of prominent Black artists.A wax replica of The Rape of the Sabine Women by 16th century artist Giambologna at the Pinault Collection. (L. Bryant/VOA)A chandelier shaped like a basketball net, by American artist David Hammons, a slow-burning wax replica of a 16th century sculpture aimed to melt completely in six months, the works of Chinese-born painter Xinyi Cheng and British artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye — the Pinault Collection is an eclectic mix of contemporary art.A crystal chandelier shaped as a basketball net by Black American artist David Hammons. (L. Bryant/VOA)”It’s giving different kind of offers to a general public in Paris, but being more of today, so to speak,” said Curator Caroline Bourgeois. “We are focused on today’s question. Even David Hammons is 70s years old, but he speaks a lot of today.”Bourgeois says the private Pinault Collection complements the raft of other Paris museums, offering completely contemporary works focusing on young artists. This opening exhibit is just a taste of the 10,000 artworks 84-year-old Francois Pinault has …

In the Heights, a film about the dreams and struggles of the Latino community in a New York neighborhood, is Lin Manuel Miranda’s love letter to the place where he grew up. It also represents Miranda’s high-stakes bet that people will flock to the theater after months of COVID restrictions. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more from the cast and the filmmaker.   Camera: Penelope Poulou      Producer: Penelope Poulou …

Some veteran Hollywood actors say a law intended to help gig economy workers has the unintended consequence of threatening nonprofit theaters.  Mike O’Sullivan has the story from Los Angeles. Camera: Roy Kim, Rodmy Dorcil and Arturo Martinez …

After so many years — and episode re-watches — could there BE anything left to learn about “Friends”?As the highly-anticipated, almost two-hour reunion special for HBO Max shows (and with apologies to Matthew Perry for continuing to borrow his lines), “Yes, yes, a thousand times, yes.”One thing that we didn’t need to learn (because we already knew it) was just how truly there these six characters were for the audience.In the 1990s and early-aughts, the cast of “Friends” provided hours of joy — first just on Thursday nights when new episodes aired, but soon enough five nights a week in syndication. Within the past decade, diehard and casual fans alike could spend any time of any day with Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Perry and David Schwimmer, as the show became available on streaming services. This sextet has helped their audience get through so much, now including the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only did “Friends” see a spike in viewership in the earliest lockdown days according to Nielsen, but also, just before the world fully reopens, they gathered together to shoot “Friends: The Reunion.””It was life-changing, not only for us but for whoever watched it, and that’s just …

Actor and professional wrestler John Cena has apologized to fans in China after he called Taiwan a country in a promotional interview for his upcoming film and became the latest celebrity to face the fury of Chinese nationalists. In a short video posted Tuesday on Chinese social media site Weibo, Cena did not refer to Taiwan or go into much detail about the incident, which occurred earlier this month when he was doing a promotion for “Fast & Furious 9” with Taiwanese media. “In one interview, I made a mistake,” he said in heavily accented Mandarin Chinese. “I need to say now that this is very, very, very, very, very important. I love and respect China and the Chinese people. I’m very, very sorry. As for my mistake, I really apologize for it.”FILE – Actor John Cena attends the Road to “Fast & Furious 9” Concert at Maurice A. Ferre Park in Miami Beach, Fla.In his interview with TVBS, a Taiwanese cable channel, Cena was also speaking in Mandarin when he said Taiwan would be the first “country” to be able to see the film. That led to an uproar in China, which considers the self-governing democracy its own territory to be …

While studying at Howard University, young Chadwick Boseman helped lead a student protest against plans to merge his beloved College of Fine Arts into the College of Arts and Sciences.   He failed in that goal, but 20 years later, the acclaimed actor is being posthumously honored as the namesake of Howard’s newly re-established Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.   Boseman, who graduated in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in directing, died in August at 43 of colon cancer. He rose to prominence playing a succession of Black icons in biographical films: Jackie Robinson, singer James Brown and Thurgood Marshall. The South Carolina native’s portrayal of African superhero Black Panther spawned a thousand memes and its cultural impact launched him to broader stardom. At the time of his death, Boseman’s character was poised to become an anchor of the Marvel Comics movie machine, with multiple sequels planned.   Howard University President Wayne Frederick said he and Boseman discussed ways of reviving the College of Fine Arts multiple times.   “It was always important to him,” Frederick told The Associated Press. “His commitment was very strong.” The announcement comes a few weeks after fellow Howard alum Phylicia Rashad was …

Amazon is going Hollywood. The online shopping giant is buying MGM, the movie and TV studio behind James Bond, “Legally Blonde” and “Shark Tank,” with the hopes of filling its video streaming service with more stuff to watch. Amazon is paying $8.45 billion for MGM, making it the company’s second-largest acquisition after it bought grocer Whole Foods for nearly $14 billion in 2017.   The deal is the latest in the media industry that’s aimed at boosting streaming services to compete against Netflix and Disney+. AT&T and Discovery announced on May 17 that they would combine media companies, creating a powerhouse that includes HGTV, CNN, Food Network and HBO.   Amazon doesn’t say how many people watch its Prime Video service. But more than 200 million have access to it because they’re signed up for its Prime membership, which gives them faster shipping and other perks. Besides Prime Video, Amazon also has a free streaming service called IMDb TV, where Amazon makes money by playing ads during movies and shows. Buying MGM would give Amazon access to more films, shows and famous characters, including Rocky, RoboCop and Pink Panther. Amazon will also get a cable channel: Epix, which MGM owns. …

The Japanese government Tuesday was quick to deny a U.S. warning for Americans to avoid traveling to Japan would have an impact on Olympians wanting to compete in the postponed Tokyo Games. U.S. officials cited a surge in coronavirus cases in Japan caused by virus variants that may even be risks to vaccinated people. They didn’t ban Americans from visiting Japan, but the warnings could affect insurance rates and whether Olympic athletes and other participants decide to join the Games that begin July 23. Most metro areas in Japan are under a state of emergency and expected to remain so through mid-June because of rising serious COVID-19 cases that are putting pressure on the country’s medical care systems. That raises concern about how the country could cope with the arrival of tens of thousands of Olympic participants if its hospitals remain stressed and little of its population is vaccinated. Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told a regular news conference Tuesday that the U.S. warning does not prohibit essential travel and Japan believes the U.S. support for Tokyo’s effort to hold the Olympics is unchanged. “We believe there is no change to the U.S. position supporting the Japanese government’s determination to achieve the Games,” Kato said, …

The Italian glam rock band that won the Eurovision Song Contest returned home Sunday to the adulation of fans, congratulations from the government and so much speculation that the lead singer had snorted cocaine during the show that he vowed to take a drug test. “We want to shut down the rumors,” Maneskin lead singer Damiano David told reporters at Rome’s Leonardo da Vinci airport as the band arrived home after their victory in Rotterdam, Netherlands.   Rumors spread on social media after David was seen bending over a table during the Saturday night live television broadcast. Asked at a post-victory news conference whether he’d snorted cocaine, David said he doesn’t use drugs and that he’d bent over because another band member had broken a glass at their feet.   Eurovision confirmed that broken glass was found under the table in question, but announced David had offered to take the test, which is scheduled for Monday. In Italy, the drug claim didn’t mar the praise that poured in Sunday from the Italian establishment for the victory of the rather anti-establishment Maneskin, a glam rock band that got its start busking on Rome’s main shopping drag. Their win gave Italy a …

It was a family affair at the Billboard Music Awards: Pink twirled in the air in a powerful performance with her daughter, and Drake was named artist of the decade, accepting the honor alongside his 3-year-old son. Drake, who extended his record as the most decorated winner in the history of the awards show to 29 wins Sunday, was surrounded by family and friends who presented him with the Artist of the Decade Award. He walked onstage outside the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles with his son Adonis holding his hand. “I wanna dedicate this award to my friends, to my longtime collaborators … to my beautiful family, and to you,” he said, looking to Adonis and picking him up to kiss him. Drake placed his first song on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2009, and since has logged the most songs ever on the chart, with 232 entrees. He’s also logged a record 45 Top 10 hits on the Hot 100 and a record 22 No. 1s on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop songs chart. He was also named top streaming songs artist Sunday. Pink received the Icon Award and was joined onstage by her 9-year-old daughter — showing off …

An investigation was underway Monday into the deaths of 21 runners during a mountain ultra-marathon in northwest China, as harrowing testimony emerged from survivors who battled to safety through freezing temperatures and bone-chilling winds. The extreme weather struck a high-altitude section of the 100-kilometer (62-mile) race held in the scenic Yellow River Stone Forest in Gansu province Saturday afternoon. Provincial authorities have set up an investigation team to look into the cause of the incident, state media reported, as questions swirled over why organizers apparently ignored extreme weather warnings from the city’s Early Warning Information Center in the lead up to the race, which attracted 172 runners. China’s top sports body also vowed to tighten safety rules on holding events across the country. Survivors gave shocking testimony of events on the rugged mountainside, where unconfirmed meteorological reports to local media said temperatures had plunged to as low as minus 24 degrees Celsius (minus 11 degrees Fahrenheit). “The wind was too strong, and I repeatedly fell over,” wrote race participant Zhang Xiaotao in a Weibo post. “My limbs were frozen stiff, and I felt like I was slowly losing control of my body… I wrapped my insulation blanket around me, took out my GPS tracker, pressed the SOS button and lost consciousness.” He said when he came round he discovered a shepherd had carried him to a cave, …

Phil Mickelson has delivered so many thrills and spills over 30 years of pure theater that no one ever knows what he will do next.His latest act was a real stunner: A major champion at age 50.Mickelson captured his sixth major and by far the most surprising Sunday at the PGA Championship. He made two early birdies with that magical wedge game and let a cast of contenders fall too far behind to catch him in the shifting wind of Kiawah Island.He closed with a 1-over 73, building a five-shot lead on the back nine and not making any critical mistakes that kept him from his place in history.“This is just an incredible feeling because I believed it was possible, but everything was saying it wasn’t,” said Mickelson, who had gone more than two years since his last win and had not won a major in nearly eight years. He had not even contended in a major in five years.Julius Boros for 53 years held the distinction of golf’s oldest major champion. He was 48 when he won the 1968 PGA Championship in San Antonio.Pure chaos broke out along the 18th hole after Mickelson hit 9-iron safely to just outside …

The singer for Italy’s Eurovision Song Contest winning rockers Maneskin will take a voluntary drug test after denying speculation that he was snorting cocaine during the broadcast, organizers said Sunday. Red lederhosen-clad vocalist Damiano David will be tested after going back to Italy, following viral footage of him leaning over a table in the hospitality area of the competition in Rotterdam.  “We are aware of the speculation surrounding the video clip of the Italian winners of the Eurovision Song Contest in the Green Room last night,” the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) said in a statement.  “The band have strongly refuted the allegations of drug use and the singer in question will take a voluntary drug test after arriving home,” it added.  “This was requested by them last night but could not be immediately organized by the EBU.”  The Maneskin singer was asked about the footage during the winners’ press conference early on Sunday, and said he had been looking down because guitarist Thomas Raggi had broken a glass.  “I don’t use drugs. Please, guys. Don’t say that really, no cocaine. Please, don’t say that,” David said.  The band later said on their Instagram stories that they were “ready to get tested …

Italy woke up Sunday to news that a glam rock band who got their start busking on Rome’s main shopping drag had won the Eurovision Song Contest and was bringing next year’s competition back to the place where Europe’s song contests began. From the premier’s office on down, congratulations poured in Sunday from the Italian establishment for the rather anti-establishment group Maneskin, giving Italy a sorely needed boost after a dreadful year as one of the countries worst hit by the coronavirus. The band was the bookmakers’ favorite going into the Eurovision finale and sealed the win early Sunday with the highest popular vote in the enormously entertaining, and incredibly kitsch, annual song festival. “We are out of our minds!” Florence’s Uffizi Galleries tweeted, echoing Maneskin’s winning song lyrics, along with an image of a Caravaggio Medusa and the hashtag #Uffizirock. Maneskin, Danish for “moonlight” and a tribute to bass player Victoria De Angelis’ Danish ancestry, won with a total of 529 points. France was second while Switzerland, which led after national juries had voted, finished third. “Rock’n’roll never dies, tonight we made history. We love u,” the band tweeted before heading back home from Rotterdam, Netherlands, where this year’s contest was held. The band got …

Move over sequins, disco beats and power ballads. A four-piece band of Italian rockers won the Eurovision Song Contest in the early hours of Sunday.Maneskin’s win was only the third victory for Italy in the immensely popular contest and the first since Toto Cutugno took the honor in 1990.Italy, the bookmakers’ favorite, trailed Switzerland, France and Malta after the national juries delivered their votes but were propelled to victory by votes from the viewing public.Ahead of the show, crowds gathered outside the Ahoy arena in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Drag queens mingled with families as a man in a gold suit waited to get into the venue.The hugely popular music festival that oozes flamboyance is seen as a significant step toward a post-pandemic return to live entertainment, but not everybody managed to avoid the virus.The popular Icelandic band Dadi og Gagnamagnid, known for its kitsch dance moves and green leisurewear costumes, is in the final, but can’t perform live because one member tested positive for the virus earlier in the week. Instead, viewers will see a recording of one of the band’s dress rehearsals.”The point was to go and actually experience how it was to compete in Eurovision, and …

The IOC vice president in charge of the postponed Tokyo Olympics said Friday the games would open in just over two months even if the city and other parts of Japan were under a state of emergency because of rising COVID-19 cases.   John Coates, speaking from Australia in a virtual news conference with Tokyo organizers at the end of three days of meetings, said this would be the case even if local medical experts advised against holding the Olympics.   “The advice we have from the [World Health Organization] and all other scientific and medical advice that we have is that — all the measures we have outlined, all of those measures that we are undertaking are satisfactory and will ensure a safe and secure games in terms of health,” Coates said. “And that’s the case whether there is a state of emergency or not.”   Public opinion in Japan has been running at 60-80% against opening the Olympics on July 23, depending on how the question is phrased. Coates suggested public opinion might improve as more Japanese get fully vaccinated. That figure is now about 2%.   “If it doesn’t then our position is that we have to …

An inquiry into how the BBC secured the 1995 interview with Britain’s Princess Diana in which she disclosed intimate details of her failed marriage concluded on Thursday that the journalist involved had acted deceitfully. The BBC set up the investigation, headed by former senior Court judge John Dyson, in November following allegations from Diana’s brother Charles Spencer that forged documents and “other deceit” were used to trick him to introduce Diana to journalist Martin Bashir. FILE – Martin Bashir, then one of the anchors of the ABC news program ‘Nightline’, taking part in a panel discussion at the ABC television network Summer press tour for television critics in Beverly Hills, California, July 26, 2007. ​Dyson’s report found that Bashir, then a little known reporter, had shown Spencer fake bank statements to induce him to arrange a meeting with Diana. “Mr Bashir acted inappropriately and in serious breach of the 1993 edition of the Producers’ Guidelines on straight dealing,” the report said. He also concluded the BBC had fallen short of “the high standards of integrity and transparency which are its hallmark” in its response to allegations of impropriety. During the explosive interview, watched by more than 20 million viewers in Britain, Diana shocked the nation …

The Ivory Coast resort town of Grand-Bassam is known for its beaches and French colonial architecture. Recent flooding and the passage of time have taken a toll on the city’s historic buildings, but some people are determined to fix things, as Yassin Ciyow found in this report narrated by Carol Guensberg.Camera: Yassin Ciyow  Produced by: Robert Raffaele  …

Charles Grodin, the droll, offbeat actor and writer who scored as a caddish newlywed in “The Heartbreak Kid” and later had roles ranging from Robert De Niro’s counterpart in the comic thriller “Midnight Run” to the bedeviled father in the “Beethoven” comedies, has died. He was 86. Grodin died Tuesday in Wilton, Connecticut, from bone marrow cancer, his son, Nicholas Grodin, said. Known for his dead-pan style and everyday looks, Grodin also appeared in “Dave,” “The Woman in Red,” “Rosemary’s Baby” and “Heaven Can Wait.” On Broadway, he starred with Ellen Burstyn in the long-running 1970s comedy “Same Time, Next Year,” and he found many other outlets for his talents. With bone-dry understatement, Grodin could steal entire scenes with just a look. His commitment, whether acting across De Niro or Missy Piggy, was unsurpassed. In his many late-night appearances, he once brought a lawyer with him to threaten David Letterman for defamation. (The lawyer instead took a shine to Letterman.) Hosting “Saturday Night Live,” he pretended to not understand live television, ruining all the sketches. Steve Martin, who co-starred with Grodin in 1984’s “The Lonely Guy,” remembered him as “one of the funniest people I ever met.” In the 1990s, Grodin made his mark …