Michael Jackson's This Is It enters The Billboard 200 at #1

Michael Jackson's This Is It enters The Billboard 200 at #1, with first-week sales of 373,000 copies. This is the biggest weekly sales tally for a Jackson album since HIStory: Past, Present And Future-Book I rang up first-week sales of 391,000 in June 1995. This Is It outpaced the impressive tallies that Number Ones rang up in the weeks after Jackson's death. That greatest hits set posted sales of 339,000 and 349,000 in the first two weeks of July. So, Jackson is still setting records: No other artist has topped the 300,000 weekly sales mark twice this year, much less three times.

Jackson is the first artist to top The Billboard 200 posthumously since The Notorious B.I.G., who scored in March 2007 with Greatest Hits. This Is It posted the biggest posthumous weekly sales tally since an earlier Biggie album, Duets: The Final Chapter, which sold 438,000 copies in one week in December 2005.

This Is It reaches #1 by displacing another theatrical movie soundtrack, The Twilight Saga: New Moon. This marks the first time that theatrical movie soundtracks have topped the chart in back-to-back weeks since July 1998, when Armageddon replaced City Of Angels in the top slot.

This Is It is the first soundtrack to a concert movie to reach #1 since U2's Rattle And Hum logged six weeks on top in 1988. Two recent soundtracks from concert movies reached #3: Miley Cyrus' Best Of Both Worlds Concert and Jonas Brothers' Music From The 3D Concert Experience.

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There's bound to be some debate over whether This Is It should be called a soundtrack. The album features studio (and a few demo) versions of the songs heard in the movie. The copy on the album cover is "the music that inspired the movie." The movie credits refer to it a "companion album" rather than a soundtrack. Nonetheless, Nielsen/SoundScan includes the album on its soundtrack chart. I, too, think it should be considered a soundtrack. The album has the same title and artwork as the movie poster and ads. It's not a soundtrack in the classic sense, but it's the closest thing to one that's available. If there were a chart for Top Movie Companion Albums, that would be the place for it. In the absense of that, we can call it a soundtrack.

Jackson long wanted to be a movie star, a sort of modern-day Fred Astaire. In death, he got at least part of his wish: a #1 box-office hit. This Is It topped the box-office in its opening weekend with a domestic gross of more than $23 million. Jackson is only the fifth music star in the last 25 years to star in a movie that came in #1 at the box-office and also spawned a #1 soundtrack (on which the star was featured). The others are Prince, with 1984's Purple Rain; Whitney Houston, with 1995's Waiting To Exhale; Will Smith, with 1997's Men In Black; and Eminem, with 2002's 8 Mile.

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Interview with James Marsden and Cameron Diaz from the movie "The Box"

This preposterous Cameron Diaz thriller offers a promising premise: a mysterious box bestows riches in exchange for killing a stranger. But then it dumps in existentialism, government conspiracies, aliens, nosebleeds, deformities—and dresses it all in ugly '70s polyester fashions and geo-print wallpaper. Blecch.

The Bigger Picture: Bring back the giant rabbit! Director of the lyrical, haunting Donnie Darko (but then the critically panned Southland Tales) Richard Kelly just can't seem to catch lightning again—especially not in this empty Box.

Instead, lightning strikes sinister Arlington Steward (Frank Langella), a smooth-talking, Bond-worthy baddie. Sporting a gaping CGI burn hole in his face, Steward presents a bizarre box and proposition to Virginia couple Arthur and Norma Lewis (James Marsden and Diaz, with an unconvincing Southern accent). If they press the button on top, they'll get $1 million—but also murder someone they don't know.
Of course, this offer comes with rules—and their eventual actions contain consequences.

What should've been a taut suburban fright-fest is a failed morality experiment and Twlight Zone retread. The increasingly ludicrous plot, loosely based on Richard Matheson's classic short story "Button, Button" (as was a Twilight Zone ep), wanders into alien territory—literally—with nonsense involving Mars transmissions, Steward's posse of mind-controlled drones (zombies?), and clunky speeches about humanity and sacrifice.



Unintentionally funny moments abound, including Arthur's face-off with a nose-bleeding Librarian of the Damned, who forces him to choose a pathway to salvation. For some reason, said salvation involves huge water pods—and a later sacrificial ceremony involves a bubbling swimming pool.



Set in 1976, the pic plays like silly '60s sci-fi—but with a sizeable budget for special FX and actors (though none of the above impress). Langella's presence does class things up a bit, but he gets saddled with awful lines like, "I have done nothing. I am just a vessel."

This is one Box that should've been left on the shelf.

Alicia Keys Performs “Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart”, and Confirmed to Sing at 2009 Latin Grammy Awards

Grammy award winning singer and songwriter Alicia Keys will release her highly anticipated fourth album, The Element of Freedom, on December 15th. To promote the set, Alicia recently took part in a special performance at New York University and during the performance, she performed her second single off her new album, Try Sleeping With A Broken Heart, for the first time live. The performance was recorded for Yahoo Music’s Pepsi Smash series.

Alicia also visits her past hits such as Fallin’, If I Ain’t Got You, and You Don’t Know My Name, and performs her current hits Empire State of Mind and Doesn’t Mean Anything.

Alicia Keys is going to perform at the 10th Annual Latin Grammy Awards on November 5. The singer who will release a new album called "The Element of Freedom" on December 15 is confirmed to make a duet with Alejandro Sanz at the annual event.

Joining Alicia and Alejandro in the performers ensemble are Daniela Mercury, Ruben Blades, Wisin & Yandel and Laura Pausini. Ruben will do a musical number with Cirque du Soleil and Calle 13. Laura will perform a Las Vegas acrobatic show dubbed "La Reve", and Calle 13 will return to the stage once again for a duet with Orishas.

2009 Latin Grammy Awards will be held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and broadcast live by Univision. Its presenters include actresses Charytin, Marlene Favela and Eva Longoria, actor Aaron Diaz, Miss Universe 2009 Stefania Fernandez, Latin Grammy winner Alejandra Guzman, songstress Dulce Maria and singer/songwriter Rosana.

Carrie underwood - underwood keeps a food deary “I Feel Like I Can Wear Anything When I’m Onstag

Ever wonder if stars think about their onstage costumes differently than their red carpet fashion? Carrie Underwood certainly does. “I feel like I can wear anything when I’m onstage,” the December cover girl tells Lucky.



And that doesn’t just include clothes. Carrie admits, “I love playing around with makeup–it’s trial and error, mostly error.” So where does this fearless fashion philosophy come from?

Perhaps from Carrie’s country style icon Dolly Parton. “I would never attempt to pull off Dolly’s wardrobe, but her confidence is enviable. She always makes it work!” But she does like to bring her love of country into her wardrobe, explaining “I like pairing cowboy boots with unexpected things, like cute dresses.

You can be ‘country’ and still be stylish–I would wear them regardless of what kind of music I sang.” And while Carrie loves the glitz and the glam onstage, “in my downtime, nothing beats a great pair of sweats.”

Her sweats of choice? “Sweatpants from Victoria’s Secret Pink are my main closet staple–they’re affordable, and they make nine-hour bus rides bearable.” To read more on Carrie’s fashion philosophy and shop her wardrobe must-haves, pick up the December issue of Lucky, on newsstands November 4, and visit luckymag.com.