Saturday, October 31, 2009

MOVIE NEWS - MAD MAX RETURNS

MOVIE NEWS - MAD MAX RETURNS
It's been 24 years since the release of the last movie - but Mad Max is back. Aussie star Mel Gibson is in the running to reprise his leading role in the fourth instalment of the hugely successful franchise, which will be called Fury Road and is due to begin filming in Sydney in August next year. But director George Miller, who was at the helm for the previous Mad Max movies, stressed Gibson had not yet been cast and that new faces were likely to feature. "I'm still in the middle of casting, despite all the stuff we see on the net and so on. I don't even know who the final cast will be," Miller told reporters at a press conference in Sydney on Saturday. The story for Fury Road is already fully formed and Miller says it will modernise the franchise and take it in a new direction. The film will be shot in Broken Hill, in outback NSW, and in Sydney.

TRIVIA BITS - HALLOWEEN - JACK-O-LANTERN

TRIVIA BITS - HALLOWEEN - JACK-O-LANTERN
According to folklore, the jack-o-lantern got his name from a man named Jack. Jack o lanterns originated in Ireland where people placed candles in hollowed-out turnips to keep away spirits and ghosts on the Samhain holiday. Turnips and beets served as the original jack-o-lanterns. A burning a candle inside a jack-o-lantern on Halloween keeps evil spirits and demons at bay.

REMINISCING ... PEGGY LEE

REMINISCING ... PEGGY LEE
Of Swedish and Norwegian heritage, Peggy Lee commenced singing at a very early age. Coming to the attention of Benny Goodman and became his vocalist in 1941. Her sultry vocals were at their height with Fever. The year?? 1958.

TODAY IS ... 31 OCTOBER

TODAY IS ... 31 OCTOBER
BIRTHDAYS: 1980 - Eddie Kaye Thomas - American film, television, and stage actor who rose to prominence in 1999 as Paul Finch in American Pie, a film that spawned two sequels and four direct-to-video spin-offs
Eddie Kaye Thomas
1961 - Peter Jackson - undertook one of the most daunting tasks in Hollywood history—not just bringing J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved The Lord of the Rings to the silver screen successfully, but also creating three epic—and epically budgeted—films at the same time.
Peter Jackson
1961 - U2 Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. - the drummer for the Irish rock band U2. He is the founder of U2, which was originally known as "The Larry Mullen Band" at its inception. He has worked on numerous side projects during his career, including a collaboration with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills of R.E.M. to form Automatic Baby in 1993 and working with bandmate Adam Clayton on the re-recording of the theme to Mission: Impossible, in 1996. He and U2 have won many awards, including 22 Grammy awards.
Larry Mullen Jr.
1942 – David Ogden Steirs - an American actor, voice actor, and musician, noted for his role in the television sitcom M*A*S*H as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III and the science fiction drama The Dead Zone as Reverend Gene Purdy. A connoisseur of classical music, Stiers has been a guest conductor for over 50 orchestras in North America and maintained a position as associate conductor of the Newport Symphony Orchestra and the Ernest Bloch Music Festival
David Ogden Steirs
1964 - Rob Schneider: an American actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. A stand-up comic and veteran of the NBC sketch-comedy series Saturday Night Live, Schneider went on to a career in feature films, including starring roles in the comedies Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo and The Hot Chick. OTHER EVENTS: 2005 – The Honeymooners starring Cedric the Entertainer, Mike Epps and Gabrielle Union was released in Australia. Working class New York bus driver Ralph Kramden is always coming up with get-rich-quick schemes for him and his best friend, Ed Norton, who's always around to help him get in (and out of) trouble 2003 - On the final night of her Farewell Tour, Cher is named the year’s biggest touring female by Billboard. She grossed $145 million and drew 2.2 million fans to over 200 concerts. 1998 – Kiss kicks off its Psycho-Circus tour with a Halloween extravaganza in Los Angeles that dazzles thousands of fans, many of whom arrive in costumes. Appropriately enough, the Smashing Pumpkins opens the show. 1991 – Released in Australia is Regarding Henry starring Harrison Ford and Annette Bening. Henry is a lawyer who survives a shooting only to find he cannot remember anything. If that weren't enough, Henry also has to recover his speech and mobility, in a life he no longer fits into. Fortunately, Henry has a loving wife and daughter to help him. 1985 – No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Part-Time Lover,” Stevie Wonder. The song hits No. 1 22 years and three months after Wonder’s first No. 1, the longest span to date 1983 - Frankie Goes to Hollywood release 'Relax' 1975 - Queen release 'Bohemian Rhapsody' 1964 - Barbra Streisand's "People," album goes #1 for 5 weeks 1954 - No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit: ``This Ole House,'' Rosemary Clooney.

Friday, October 30, 2009

MOVIE NEWS … AFI AWARD NOMINEES 2009

MOVIE NEWS … AFI AWARD NOMINEES 2009
The Australian Film Institute has just announced all the nominees for the 2009 awards. The 2009 Samsung Mobile AFI Awards will be hosted by Julia Zemiro and staged at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on 12th December 2009. Amongst the nominees are: BEST FILM Balibo Beautiful Kate Blessed Mao’s Last Dancer Mary and Max Samson and Delilah BEST ACTOR Anthony LaPaglia : Balibo Ben Mendelsohn: Beautiful Kate Hugo Weaving: Last Ride Rowan McNamara: Samson & Delilah
Hugo Weaving
BEST ACTRESS Sophie Lowe: Beautiful Kate Frances O’Connor: Blessed Sacha Horler: My Year Without Sex Marissa Gibson: Samson & Delilah
Marissa Gibson
YOUNG ACTOR AWARD Brendon Walters: Australia Sebastian Gregory: Beautiful Tom Russell: Last Ride Toby Wallace: Lucky Country Marissa Gibson: Samson & Delilah Rowan McNamara: Samson & Delilah
Tom Russell
For more information on The AFI Awards click here.

TRIVIA BITS - HALLOWEEN - COLOURS

TRIVIA BITS - HALLOWEEN - COLOURS
Black cats were once believed to be witch's familiars who protected their powers. Chocolate candy bars top the list as the most popular candy for trick-or-treaters with Snickers . Halloween candy sales average about 2 billion dollars annually in the United States. Orange and black are Halloween colors because orange is associated with the Fall harvest and black is associated with darkness and death. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, the color of pumpkin.
REMINISCING ... BARBRA STREISAND
Barbra Streisand an American singer, film and theatre actress. She has also achieved note as a composer, liberal political activist, film producer, and film director. She has won two Academy Awards, ten Grammy Awards, four Emmy Awards, a Special Tony Award, and a Peabody all by the age of 28. She is the only entertainer to have won all of these honors. In 2008 she was inducted as a Kennedy Center Honoree. Streisand received the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2001. The Way We Were - a most outstanding movie and title song hit for her.
THE YEAR?? 1979

MOVIE NEWS - MAMA MIA 2

MOVIE NEWS - MAMA MIA 2
Mamma Mia! star Amanda Seyfried has confirmed there are plans for a follow-up to the hugely successful movie. The actress, who played Sophie in the musical, has denied knowledge of a sequel in the past. However, she has now suggested that there are serious talks underway about releasing a second film. She told Newsbeat: "I've been talking to some insiders and it's not something that they haven't been working on. I don't actually know anything other than that. "I know it's still going to be Abba music, because what else would it be. Come on, I wouldn't do Mamma Mia 2 without Benny and Bjorn. The 2008 film version of the West End musical grossed more than half a billion dollars worldwide. Seyfried, who's currently promoting new movie Chloe, admitted that she was slightly intimidated by some of her co-stars on Mamma Mia! who included Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth. She said: "I've got to say that was a big cast. It was so much fun that nothing was very serious on that so it was a completely different type of project. "Maybe it would give me an opportunity to not be intimidated by Meryl any more. Especially because now after doing Chloe I feel so much more capable than I've ever felt before. "If I go back I'll probably have enough confidence in myself to not be so intimidated by anybody." However, the 23-year-old admitted that they all had fun on the Greek Island set. She said: "I think we all had the best time and we all got along so well. It was like some days it felt like we were just people on vacation." "I will do it. And I know Meryl's game as well, so bring it on. It will be so cool."
TODAY IS ... 30 OCTOBER
BIRTHDAYS: 1988 - Janel Parrish - an American actress, singer, Broadway performer, songwriter and pianist. She is best known for playing Jade in the 2007 film Bratz: The Movie, she currently landed a recurring role in the hit NBC TV series Heroes as the character "May". 1960 - Diego Maradona - Maradona is best remembered for helping Argentina win the 1986 World Cup with two goals in a quarterfinal match against England; on the first he punched the ball in with his hand, a sneaky maneuver that went unseen by the referee. (Maradona wryly credited the goal to "a little bit of Maradona's head, a little bit of the hand of God.") Maradona was a goal-scoring midfielder for Argentina in four World Cups (1982, 1986, 1990 and 1994) and played professionally for more than two decades. 1951 - Harry Hamlin - an American film and television actor, known for his role as Perseus in the 1981 fantasy film Clash of the Titans, and as Michael Kuzak in the legal drama series L.A. Law. 1948 - Australian actor and comedian, Garry McDonald aka Norman Gunston, is born 1945 - Henry Winkler - Winkler is best known for his role as Fonzie on the 1970s American sitcom Happy Days. "The Fonz", a leather-clad greaser and auto mechanic, started out as a minor character at the show's beginning, but had achieved top billing by the time the show ended. OTHER EVENTS: 2008 - Rachele Brooke-Smith, Kenny Wormald and Sarah Jayne Jensen starred in Center Stage : Turn It Up had its Australian release. 2005 - British pop star Robbie Williams tops the U.K. album charts with Intensive Care. The No. 1 single is boy band Westlife’s “You Raise Me Up.” 2005 - The rebuilt Dresden Frauenkirche (destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden during World War II) is reconsecrated after a thirteen-year rebuilding project. 2003 – Jennifer Lopez unveils her new line of perfume – Still Jennifer Lopez. She describes the scent as “very true to my passions and my relationship to the public.” 2001 – Songstress Barbra Streisand releases her first holiday album in 34 years, Christmas Memories. The album is the artists first studio release since 1999’s “A Love Like Ours.” 1998 - Bryan Adams shoots the video to "When You're Gone" with Sporty Spice of the Spice Girls in New York. She sang back-up on the song. 1997 - L. A. Confidential starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce is released in Australia. 1990 - Workers digging the rail tunnel under the English Channel linked up between England and France at a point forty meters beneath the seabed. The "Chunnel", connecting Folkestone, England, with Calais, France, opened for traffic in May 1994. 1988 - Whitney Houston scores her tenth straight Top 10 single as 'One Moment in Time' moves to No. 9 1984 - Barry Manilow opened at Radio City Music Hall in New York. The shows sold out for $1.9 million. Manilow beat the previous record by $100,000 that was held by Diana Ross. 1972 - Elton John gives a command performance for Queen Elizabeth II, making him the first rock & roller to be asked to appear in a royal variety performance since the Beatles in November 1963. 1965 - The Supremes' "I Hear a Symphony" enters the Hot 100, where in ten weeks on the chart it will become the Motown girl group's sixth Number One record of their last seven releases. It would be their last Number One hit until "You Can't Hurry Love" in August 1966 1964 - Roy Orbison's "Oh! Pretty Woman" becomes a gold record. His ninth and last Top Ten single, the song entered the Hot 100 on August 29th. The song stays on the charts for 15 weeks. 1938 - Actor Orson Welles creates panic as his radio broadcast of 'War of the Worlds' is taken as live action.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

TRIVIA BITS - PRE-HALLOWEEN HAPPENING

TRIVIA BITS - PRE-HALLOWEEN HAPPENING
If you happen to live in New York, this looks like a fun night!
For the very first time ever, a pre-Halloween music/dance/happening/presentation/event entitled "Masquerade Vampire Fetish Ball," a very dark affair from Killer B'z & House of The Black Rose, takes place in New York, hosted by Lady Victoria Rose. Features include the NYC band "Imbolg," the live act of "The Lady Aye" {sword swallowing/bed of nails/other exciting fascinations}, partying, mingling, special guest film-maker Pepper Negron with his dark art shown on the large screen, DJ Jen-E-Voltz spinning dark music, costume contest, door prize, etc.
Date: Thursday, October 29, 2009 Time: 10:00 PM to 04:00 AM Location: The Element/Bank Building Address: 225 East Houston Str@ Essex Street/Avenue A Cost: $30 at the door, $25 in advance Must be 21 or over only to enter with proper legal ID. ID required for admittance (1st hour drink special tba) Dress code: Vampire, fetish, dark styles, all black, masks, costumes (no total nudity/no street wear no colors)
*******************
I will just have to stay at home and watch the TV!

JUST FOR FUN - LIFE IS TOO SHORT

JUST FOR FUN - LIFE IS TOO SHORT TOO HAVE THE WRONG JOB!

MOVIE NEWS - HARRY POTTER

MOVIE NEWS - HARRY POTTER
Working weekends, the stars of “Harry Potter” were busy on the set as they filmed “Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows” in London. With Emma Watson alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, the trio are busily working to finish up both Parts I and II. Meanwhile, Miss Watson has made clear her plans to go to college after finishing up the “Harry Potter” series - also noting that she’s unsure of a return to acting once she gets her degree. “I need to go away and figure out what I want to do.” Watson told Elle Magazine. “I just want to take a step back and not rush into stuff. I need university to give me that break. Maybe I’ll keep acting, maybe I won’t.”

TRIVIA BITS - HALLOWEEN - PUMKPKINS

TRIVIA BITS - HALLOWEEN - PUMKPKINS
A pumpkin is a berry in the cucurbitaceae family, which also includes melons, cucumbers, squash and gourds. All these plants are native to the Americas. Growing big pumpkins is a big time hobby. Top prize money for the biggest giant pumpkin is as much as $25,000 dollars at fall festivals. Pumpkins also come in white, blue and green. Great for unique monster carvings! Pumpkins originated in Central America. When Europeans arrived in the New World, they found pumpkins plentiful and used in cooking by Native Americans. They took seeds back to Europe where they quickly became popular.

REMINISCING ... TOM JONES

REMINISCING ... TOM JONES
Tom Jones
Sir Thomas Jones Woodward, (born 7 June 1940), is known by his stage name Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer. Since 1965, Jones has sold over 100 million records. His signature tune is It's Not Unusual recorded in 1965.

TODAY IS ... 29 OCTOBER

TODAY IS ... 29 OCTOBER

BIRTHDAYS:

1972 – Gabrielle Union - Stately, smart and stylish, Gabrielle Union may be best known for her turn as cheer captain Isis in the dueling-cheerleaders flick Bring It On. Union began modelling shortly before her graduation from UCLA, and after graduation the modelling jobs turned into acting jobs. She made guest appearances on more than a dozen TV shows, including Friends, Deep Space Nine, and 7th Heaven.

Gabrielle Union

1971 - Winonia Ryder - Having grown up on a commune with hippie parents and godfather Timothy Leary, Ryder had ample opportunity to observe the quirky teens she would portray on screen in Lucas (1986), Beetlejuice (1988), Mermaids (1990), and Edward Scissorhands (1990). Ryder turned in Oscar-nominated performances in The Age of Innocence (1993) and Little Women (1994)

1947 - American actor Richard Dreyfuss - In the late 1970s Richard Dreyfuss was a top box office star, thanks to starring roles in the Steven Spielberg blockbusters Jaws (1975) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).

Richard Dreyfus from “Who’s Life Is It Anway?” 1981

1930 - The Big Bopper (J.P. Richardson) is born in Sabine Pass, Texas. He later dies in the same 1959 plane crash that claims the lives of Buddy Holly and Richie Valens.

Big Bopper

OTHER EVENTS:

2005 – The four original wax heads of The Beatles that were used for the cover of their Sgt. Pepper album were auctioned off after being discovered in a back room at Madame Tussauds Wax Museum in London. The winning bidder paid £81,500 for the set.

2004 - Osama bin Laden, in a videotaped statement, directly admitted for the first time that he'd ordered the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S.

2003 - The highest new entry on the charts is Rod Stewart at No. 2 with As Time Goes By … Great American Songbook: Vol. II.

2003 – Research by Professor James Kellaris of the University of Cincinnati College of Business Administration, found that songs get stuck in our heads because they create a ‘brain itch’ that can only be scratched by repeating a tune over and over. Songs such as the Village People’s “YMCA” and the Baha Men’s “Who Let The Dogs Out”, owe their success to their ability to create a ‘cognitive itch’.

2002 - Christina Aguilera's album "Stripped" was released.

2000 – The Spice Girls score their ninth U.K. No. 1 single as a group, as the double-sided "Holler/”Let Love Lead The Way” hits the top with first-week sales of 140,000 copies.

1998 - Space Shuttle Discovery blasts off on STS-95 with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space.

John Glenn

1995 – Paul Anka is the featured guest on an episode of Fox-TV’s The Simpsons.

1991 - The American space probe Galileo takes the first close-up photograph of an asteroid in space

1983 – Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” marks its 491st week on the Billboard album chart, surpassing the previous record holder, “Johnny’s Greatest Hits” by Johnny Mathis. When it finally fell off of list in October 1988, “Dark Side” had set a record of 741 weeks on the chart.

1983 - Today the song "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers & Dolly Parton topped the charts and stayed there for 2 weeks.

1982 – Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson released “The Girl is Mine”, which will rise to #2 on the Billboard Pop chart.

1982 - Lindy Chamberlain is convicted of the murder of her baby daughter after the child's disappearance at Ayers Rock

1977 - A 30 year old Rocker named Marvin Lee Aday, who uses the stage name Meat Loaf, releases his landmark album “Bat Out Of Hell”. Since that time, the LP has sold over 43 million copies worldwide.

1967 - "Hair," advertised as the "The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical " opens off-Broadway at the Public Theater in New York's East Village. The musical will eventually move to Broadway for a successful run. The play's original cast recording album spawns hit singles "Aquarius," "Let the Sun Shine In" and "Good Morning Starshine."

1961 - The top, pop song on the charts belonged to Dion (DiMucci). "Runaround Sue" was in its second week at the tiptop of the top-tune tabulation (it was in the top 40 for three months).

1957 - Buddy Holly & the Crickets "Oh Boy!" is put out by Brunswick Records. It peaks at #10 in December.

1945 - First U.S. made ball-point pen goes on sale at Gimbel's department store. A bargain at $12.50 each, they sold nearly 10,000 the first day

1863 - Red Cross -Delegates from fourteen nations, led by Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant, approve plans for an international organization to help the wounded in time of war.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS ... RONAN KEATING TO TOUR AUSTRALIA

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS ... RONAN KEATING TO TOUR AUSTRALIA
Showbiz has announced that International superstar Ronan Keating will undertake his first concert tour of Australia in eight years when he returns to our shores in January 2010. The charismatic Irish star will perform indoor concerts in Melbourne and Sydney, and seven a day on the green winery events around the country. Touring with Ronan will be very special guest Tina Arena. Following two sold-out seasons of performances here in 2008 and 2009 and with sales of her recent album Songs Of Love and Loss close to 200,000 units, Tina is looking forward to touring again and especially with Ronan. Singer/songwriter Damien Leith will also perform at all the a day on the green concerts.
Tina Arena
The 2010 tour through Australia, New Zealand and the UK is his first solo outing since 2004 and Ronan is incredibly excited about putting the show together and having the opportunity to perform all his classic hits like Life Is A Rollercoaster, Lovin Each Day, When You Say Nothing At All, If Tomorrow Never Comes, The Long Goodbye, and I Love It When We Do plus the songs from Stay. This year he has climbed Kilimanjaro for the UK charity Comic Relief, raising an outstanding 3.5 million, ran the London Marathon, completed a hugely successful two month arena tour with Boyzone, and was honoured with a Special Achievement Award from Cancer Research UK to recognise his ongoing work for The Marie Keating Charity (began after his mothers death from breast cancer in 1998).

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS - SIR ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber will take a break from working on the sequel to Phantom of the Opera to undergo treatment for prostate cancer. Sir Andrew's rep told the BBC that they caught the cancer in its early stages. His rep added that he will be back to work by the end of the year. Next year will be a busy year for Sir Andrew. He will be the head judge on a reality show searching for the next Dorothy and Toto to star in a revival of The Wizard of Oz in the West End. And the sequel to Phantom called Love Never Dies is expected to open in London this February. I hope, along with you, that it won't be long before Sir Andrew is back to composing songs for all of us to enjoy in the years to come.

TRIVIA BITS - HALLOWEEN - CANDLES

TRIVIA BITS - HALLOWEEN - CANDLES
Always burn new candles on Halloween to ensure the best of luck. It is not a good idea to burn Halloween candles at any other time of the year. It may bring bad luck or strange things will happen to you, over which you will have no control. Gazing into a flame of a candle on Halloween night will enable you to peer into the future. Girls who carry a lamp to a spring of water on this night can see their future husband in the reflection. If a candle suddenly goes out by itself on Halloween, as though by breath or wind, it is believed that a ghost has come to call. It is believed that if a person lights a new orange colored candle at midnight on Halloween and lets it burn until sunrise, he or she will be the recipient of good luck.

REMINISCING ... DORIS DAY

REMINISCING .... DORIS DAY
Doris Day 2006
Regarded as the most of innocent of all Hollywood stars, Doris Day had an incredible career. Making 39 movies between 1948 and 1968, including The Man Who Knew Too Much with Alfred Hitchcock and her most famous of all - Calamity Jane.
The Year? 1953

TODAY IS ... 28 OCTOBER

TODAY IS ... 28 OCTOBER
BIRTHDAYS: 1988 - Devon Michael Murray - is an Irish actor known for playing Seamus Finnigan in the Harry Potter films. Before Harry Potter, Murray had played Christy in This is My Father, Malachy in Angela's Ashes, and Geoffrey in Yesterday's Children.
Devon Michael Murray
1974 - Joaquin Phoenix - is best known as the villainous Commodus in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000), and as country singer Johnny Cash in the movie Walk The Line (2005). The younger brother of actors Rain and River Phoenix, Joaquin got his start in the entertainment business when he was a kid. Like the other kids in his family, Joaquin (who went by the name Leaf for a time) began making commercials and appearing in the movies in the early 1980s.
Joaquin Phoenix
1967 - Julia Roberts - Julia first grabbed the public's attention as a small-town Connecticut teen in the 1988 film Mystic Pizza. After box office successes like Steel Magnolias (1989, with Dolly Parton) and Pretty Woman (1990, with Richard Gere), Roberts was among the highest paid actresses in the business and one of Hollywood's most bankable movie stars. In 2001 she won the Academy Award as best actress for playing the title role in the 2000 Steven Soderbergh film Erin Brockovich.
Julia Roberts
1955 - Bill Gates (William Henry Gates 3d),–, American business executive, b. Seattle, Wash. Gates founded in 1974 the Microsoft Corp., a computer software firm, with Paul Allen. They began by purchasing the rights to convert an existing software package. In 1980 they agreed to produce the operating system for the personal computer being developed by International Business Machines (IBM). That system, MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System), and subsequent programs (including the Windows operating systems) made Microsoft the world's largest producer of software for microcomputers.
Bill Gates
1941 - Hank Marvin of the Shadows is born in Newcastle, England. 1927 - Cleo Laine - is a jazz singer and an actress, noted for her scat singing and vocal range. She is the only female performer to have received Grammy nominations in the jazz, popular and classical music categories. OTHER EVENTS: 2004 - The Manchurian Candidate is released in Australia. It starred Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, Pablo Schreiber and Anthony Mackie. In the midst of the Gulf War, soldiers are kidnapped and brainwashed for sinister purposes. 2004 – The third time is the charm for Rod Stewart, who with his third collection of standards sits at No. 1 on The Chart Toppers 200 for the first time in more than 25 years. The artist’s J Records release, “Stardust…The Great American Songbook, Vol. 3,” opened with first-week sales of 240,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Stewart’s last chart-topping album was his 1978 set “Blondes Have More Fun,” which sat at the summit for three weeks. 2003 – David Bowie and his wife Iman sign with Tommy Hilfiger as the clothing designer’s new spokesmodels. 2003 – Tonight’s the Night, a musical based around the songs of Rod Stewart, opens in London’s West End. 2003 – Mayor Mike Bloomberg makes Jennifer Lopez the honorary chairwoman of a council to draw more Latin-based entertainers to New Y 1975 – US No. 1 Chart Toppers Pop Hit: “Island Girl,” Elton John. The song is John’s third No. 1 song in 1975. 1961 - Brian Epstein serving in his record shop in Whitechapel, Liverpoool, is asked for 'My Bonnie' by Beatles. He discovers that the disc is available only in Germany and sets out to see the group for himself. Raymond Jones is the customer 1956 - Elvis Presley's song "Love Me Tender" became the No. 1 Billboard Pop Hit. He became the first artist to follow himself into the No. 1 position. The song "Don't Be Cruel/Hound Dog" had been the No. 1 song for 11 weeks. 1927 - First scheduled international passenger flight: Pan Am begins flying a route from Key West to Havana. 1886 - The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor by U.S. President Cleveland. The statue weighs 225 tons and is 152 feet tall. It was originally known as "Liberty Enlightening the World." 1636 - Harvard College was founded in Massachusetts. The original name was Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony. It was the first school of higher education in America.