MUSIC/ NEW DORIS DAY ALBUM SET FOR SEPTEMBER: Beloved Hollywood icon Doris Day is to release her 1st studio album for nearly 20 years, featuring 9 previously unreleased recordings made in 1985. "My Heart," due out in September, is the 87 year old's 1st release since 1994's "Love Album". The unheard recordings were produced by Day's son Terry Melcher prior to his death in 2004. These include cover versions of the Joe Cocker ballad "You Are So Beautiful" and the Beach Boys track "Disney Girls". "I had to sing some modern songs because I had already done all the old ones," the singer said in a statement. The album also features 3 Day classics, among them "My Buddy," a song she sang in her 1951 film "I'll See You In My Dreams" and which she dedicates to her late son. Day had more than 20 Top 10 hits in the UK and US during her recording career, including "Que Sera, Sera" and "Secret Love". She had her 1st hit record in 1945 with "Sentimental Journey" as vocalist for the Les Brown Big Band Orchestra. Day went on be one of the most popular actresses of the 1950s and 1960s, starring in 39 films opposite the likes of Clark Gable and Rock Hudson. She also recorded more than 600 songs and fronted 2 US TV series during her career. Day left the world of showbusiness more than 30 years ago to found the Doris Day Animal Foundation in 1978. Yet she continued to be recognized, receiving a Golden Globe for lifetime achievement in 1989 and an honorary Grammy in 2008.
Lady Gaga's album "Born This Way" debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart today with 1,108,000 copies sold in its 1st week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It's only the 17th album to sell a million in a week since SoundScan began tracking sales data in 1991, and the highest sales week since 2005. The album's bow reaps the largest sales week of any album since 50 Cent's "The Massacre" did 1,141,000 in its 1st week, in March of 2005. The last time we had a million plus frame was when Taylor Swift's "Speak Now" debuted at #1 with 1,047,000 in November of 2010. The SoundScan-era record week is held by NSYNC's "No Strings Attached," when it debuted at #1 with 2,416,000 in 2000. In addition, Gaga is only the 5th woman to notch a million plus week. The record frame for a woman is held by the bow of Britney Spears' "Oops! I Did It Again," which started with 1,319,000 upon its release in May of 2000. "The Bodyguard "soundtrack, driven mostly by Whitney Houston songs, was the 1st SoundScan-era album to shift a million, and it did so over the busy Christmas shopping week of 1992 (1,061,000). Later, Norah Jonas' "Feels Like Home" debuted with 1,022,000 in 2004, and then the aforementioned Swift just last year.
Legendary Pictures is developing and producing a film based on Jackie Robinson, the 1st African American Major League Baseball player. Brian Helgeland ("LA Confidential") will write and direct the project. Legendary executives are among the producers. Robinson’s widow, Rachel Robinson, is consulting on the project, which falls under Legendary's partnership with Warner Bros. "My family and I are thrilled to have this important film on Jack produced by Legendary Pictures," she said in a statement. "We are proud of his lasting impact on our society, and we know that the legacy he left is inspiring and worth preserving". Robinson, who died in 1972, broke the baseball color line when he debuted with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. As the 1st black man to play in the major leagues since the 1880s, he was instrumental in bringing an end to racial segregation in professional baseball, which had relegated black players to the Negro leagues for 6 decades.
The Broadway League has released end-of-season statistics for the 2010-2011 season, which began May 24, 2010, and ended May 29, 2011, and included 42 new shows (14 musicals, 25 plays and 3 special productions). Broadway shows yielded $1,080,562,880 in grosses during that time period, a 53-week "year," and total attendance reached 12,534,595. To account for variances in the calendar year and in an effort to maintain an end-of-May end to the season, a 53rd week is added every 7 years. Grosses were up 5.9% from last season, while attendance was up 5.4% from the 2009-2010 season. “The diversity of shows currently on Broadway succeeds in providing something for everyone, so it's no accident that we're having the biggest season in our history and even in the toughest economic times have over a 5% increase in attendance year-over-year," the executive director of The Broadway League, said in a statement
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