MONDAY, JULY 29

NATIONAL HEADLINES:

POPE FRANCIS DRAWS MASSIVE CROWD IN RIO

A massive crowd of about three million people gathered on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach yesterday to witness Pope Francis lead Mass. It was reportedly one of the largest turnouts for a papal Mass in recent history. During the service, Pope Francis called on young people participating in World Youth Day to touch others with their Catholic faith, no matter how far away or indifferent. “The church needs you, your enthusiasm, your creativity and the joy that is so characteristic of you,” the pontiff said. The celebration of Mass capped off a week-long trip to the capital of Brazil and neighboring Sao Paulo, and brought World Youth Day celebrations to an end. During the pope’s visit, he laid out his top papal priorities: charity for the poor, bringing priests closer to the people, and re-evangelizing regions where Catholics have left the church — particularly Latin America. Francis also announced yesterday that the next World Youth Day would be in Krakow, Polandin 2016.

AMANDA BERRY MAKES SURPRISE PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN CLEVELAND

Amanda Berry, one of the three women held captive in a Cleveland home for 10 years, made a surprise public appearance Saturday night. Berry, 27, showed up at the daylong concert RoverFest in Cleveland, walking on stage with her family and waving to the crowd. She was met with cheers and applause. The rapperNelly then called Berry back on stage after his music set. Her rare public appearance came just a day after her abductor, 53-year-old Ariel Castro, pleaded guilty to 937 counts, including multiple charges of kidnapping and rape. The plea deal will send him to prison for life without parole, plus 1,000 years. Berry, Gina DeJesusand Michelle Knight were rescued from Castro back in May.

WEINER’S CAMPAIGN MANAGER QUITS

Anthony Weiner’s campaign manager has quit, following the new sexting revelations from the New York Citymayoral candidate. The New York Times reported Saturday that 31-year-old Danny Kedem informed Weiner that he could no longer run his campaign after Weiner admitted Tuesday that he continued to send lewd photos and messages to women online even after resigning from Congress in 2011 for doing that very thing. Kedem’s resignation further hurts Weiner’s struggling campaign, which has failed to rebound in the polls after Weiner’s disclosures last week. Weiner, 48, confessed to the explicit communications after a gossip website published texts and photos it said were from 2002. The site alleged Weiner used the alias “Carlos Danger” while communicating with at least one of the women.  Weiner’s wife, former Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, continues to stand by him.

MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR JEWEL HEIST IN CANNES

A Cannes, France hotel was the scene of a multi-million dollar jewel heist yesterday. Authorities said a gunman walked into the luxury Carlton Intercontinental Hotel at around noon and headed for “La Cote,” a room containing a temporary exhibit of jewelry by the prestigious Leviev diamond house. The thief pulled the gun on employees, then stuffed a bag with about $53 million in gems before fleeing. Police were still hunting the suspect, who was said to be a man in his mid-40s. It was the third such heist in the French Riviera resort in as many months. Ironically, the same hotel served as a movie set hotel for To Catch a Thief, the 1955 Alfred Hitchcock film starring Cary Grant as a former jewel thief.

2ND BODY RECOVERED IN HUDSON RIVER BOATING ACCIDENT/BUS CRASH KILLS 3 IN INDIANA

A second body was pulled from the Hudson River yesterday, after a tragic pre-wedding boat crash Friday night. The body was believed to belong to missing best man Mark Lennon, 30. Both he and bride-to-beLindsey Stewart were thrown overboard when the 21-foot Stingray crashed into a construction barge. Stewart's body was believed to have been recovered Saturday. Stewart, 30, was set to be married Aug. 10. Her fiance, Brian Bond, 36, was also injured in the crash near the Tappan Zee Bridge, along with three others including the driver. Authorities said the 35-year-old driver, an acquaintance of the couple, has been charged with first-degree vehicular manslaughter and second-degree vehicular assault. Police said there was probable cause that he was intoxicated.

In another tragic accident, a pastor and his pregnant wife were among three killed when a bus returning from a church camp crashed on Interstate 465 in Indianapolis Saturday night. The victims were identified as youth pastor Chad Phelps and his wife, Courtney Phelps. The couple was expecting their second child next month. A third victim was identified as Tonya Weindorf, a mother of five who was a chaperone on the trip to the northern Michigan youth camp. Dozens of others were injured. The driver of the bus  said the brakes failed, causing the vehicle to hit a retaining wall and flip on its side. Authorities were investigating.

THE WEEKEND BOX OFFICE FROM YAHOO! MOVIES

SHOWBIZ NEWS:

THE LATEST  AMANDA BYNES NEWS

On Friday, Amanda Bynes’ parents were due in court for a hearing regarding their request for a conservatorship of their daughter, who is currently on a 5150 psych hold in Los Angeles. In their court documents, Rick and Lynn Bynes say Amanda has become “extremely paranoid about being watched,” so much so that she disconnects smoke alarms wherever she goes because she thinks people are watching her. They also say she is delusional, and that she is bleeding money, claiming she had $4 million in her bank account, but has spent $1.2 of it in a very short time. Her parents also believe she may be homeless, and that could be true. TMZ posted pictures of the Four Seasons hotel suite she recently trashed (she disconnected the smoke alarms there too), forcing management to kick her out of the facility. The judge in the case delayed granting the conservatorship, saying he wanted more information on the case. He didn’t believe he had to rush things because Amanda will be in psychiatric care for two more weeks. Amanda had originally planned to fight the two-week psych hold extension, but cancelled the hearing she had requested Friday. According to TMZ, she wants to wait until her medications kick in before making her case to the judge. A hearing on her request is set for August 1^st. Another hearing on her parents’ conservatorship is set for August 9^th.

LINDSAY HEADED TO LONDON POST REHAB

Lindsay Lohan reportedly has some big post-rehab plans. According to TMZ, the Mean Girls star is planning a European vacation once her court-ordered 90-day stint is over. A source claims Lindsay’s pal offered to take her to London as a gift for a “job well done in rehab,” and since Lindsay doesn’t begin filming her OWN reality show right away, she decided to take her up on the offer.

ANISTON DENIES CANCELLED WEDDING RUMORS

Jennifer Aniston has finally addressed the many rumors that claimed she and fiancé Justin Theroux had cancelled their wedding plans. “We have yet to set any dates,” she said, while doing press for her new movie We Are The Millers. “There have been no cancelled weddings. There have been no postponed weddings. There have been no arguments about where to get married.” She explained, “We just want to do it when it’s perfect, and we’re not rushed, and no one is rushing from a job or rushing to a job,” adding, “And, you know, we already feel married.”

NENE SUED BY WEDDING PLANNER

Real Housewives of Atlanta’s NeNe Leakes is being sued by her wedding planner. NeNe and her ex-husband Gregg remarried in June, in a lavish affair that will be turned into a reality show for Bravo. Tiffany Cook of Dream Design Weddings claims NeNe promised to pay her 15% of the wedding budget, but only gave her an $18,000 down payment and never paid the rest. She is asking for $2.5 million. Leakes took to Twitter Friday to deny Cook’s allegations. “Girl go sit down somewhere! Stop using my name 2 try an bring ur broke down wedding business up!,” NeNe tweeted. “What wedding planner get a million $ 2 plan a wedding! We n the wrong business! Please show me a contract I sign! Show me a check I wrote u.” A rep for NeNe says her wedding planner was Tony Conway, and that Cook’s company was fired very early in the wedding planning process. Nene is planning to countersue for defamation.

NBC WANTS TO KEEP LENO

NBC may be booting Jay Leno from the Tonight Show in favor of Jimmy Fallon next year but that doesn’t mean they want Jay to go away completely. “Nothing would make us happier than to have [Leno] — a la Bob Hope — stay at the network,” NBC entertainment chief Robert Greenblatt told the Television Critics’ Association Saturday. He added that Leno has “a lot of ideas” about what he wants to do for the network, although no details were mentioned.

SCARLETT NOT ENGAGED

Scarlett Johansson is not walking down the aisle anytime soon. Rumors that she had gotten engaged to boyfriend Roman Dauriac started last week when she was spotted with a ringWednesday, but her rep tells People the 28-year-old “is not engaged nor close to being engaged.” The rep adds that the gold ring, which has both a diamond and a ruby, is “simply a piece of jewelry.”

ANARCHY STAR TURNS DOWN GREY

Sons of Anarchy’s Garrett Hedlund has reportedly turned down the lead role in the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey movie. And it wasn’t the racy content that turned him off. “Doing a possible trilogy was too big a commitment and producers wouldn’t let him do just one film,” a source tells Us Weekly. So far the only person confirmed for the movie is director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who was hired in June.

NOT-SO REAL HOUSEWIVES

As if you didn’t already know reality shows aren’t real, Vicki Gunvalson’s on-again/off-again boyfriend, Brooks Ayers, admitted in court to staging a scene for The Real Housewives of Orange County. Ayers told a Las Vegas court last week Gunvalson actually negotiated a scene into her contract that would feature her vodka product. The scene aired just last week, and it featured Brooks and Vicki traveling to California’s Napa Valley to sample orange and bacon flavored vodkas. Brooks’ testimony was in response to a lawsuit filed against him related to the vodka business.

THE FULL MILEY

Miley Cyrus has certainly shed her Disney image, and now she’s also shed her clothing. The 20-year-old has posed completely naked for fashion designer Marc Jacobs’ “Protect The Skin You’re In” campaign, which raises money for NYU’s Skin Cancer Institute. The photo, in which Cyrus covers her genitals with both hands, and words hide her nipples, will be featured on a T-shirt that will be sold at Marc Jacobs boutiques in New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Savannah, GA. Meanwhile, a recent post on Twitter appears to show that Miley isn’t as happy as she wants everyone to believe. Last week she posted a screen grab of a text conversation she was having with someone named Fefe, in which she claimed to be “miserable.” “Been crying myself to sleep,” she wrote, adding, “taking a zany (Xanax) trying to pass out.” Miley eventually deleted the post, and claimed she was just talking about being sick, writing “never mind, realized I’m just an idiot & somehow I butt tweeted my conversation. Missing home #foodpoisoningsabitch.”  Finally, MTV announced Friday  they will air a one-hour Miley documentary in the fall, that will follow her as she works on her latest album, and delve into the transformation she’s experienced over the past few years. 

SNOOKI BANNED FROM JERSEY TOWN

Looks like Snooki is going to have to make new summer plans. The Jersey Shore star was hoping to shoot a segment for Snooki & JWoww on New Jersey’s Pelican Island, but locals objected to the plans, citing worries she’d be a distraction to an island still rebuilding after Hurricane Sandy. Well, last week officials in Berkeley Township denied MTV a permit to film on the island, citing zoning ordinances. According to town officials, the home Snooki planned to stay in “is in a residential zone and is in violation of their ordinance” for commercial endeavors.

POTTER STAR HEADS TO STAGE

Harry Potter star Rupert Grint is headed to the stage. The 24-year-old, who played Ron Weasleyin the Potter flicks, will star in a West End revival of Jez Butterworth’s Mojo. Grint will play a pill-popping gangster in the play, which was originally staged in 1995 at the Royal Court Theater.

GOO GOO DOLLS FRONTMAN WEDS

Goo Goo Dolls frontman Johnny Rzeznik married longtime girlfriend Melina Gallo at the Calamigos Ranch in Malibu on Friday. Approximately 120 guests, including Rzeznik’s bandmates, attended the wedding. The couple has been together since 2005.

TV TIDBITS

● Diane Lane has been cast to play Hillary Clinton in an upcoming four-hour miniseries for NBC titled Hillary. The program will look at Clinton’s life as “a wife, mother, politician and cabinet member from 1998 to the present,” read a press release from the network.

● NBC has cancelled Fashion Star after two seasons.

● Disney has announced that the current third season of Shake it Up, starring Zendaya (a.k.a. Zendaya Coleman) and Bella Thorne, will be the show’s last. Zendaya, who competed on season sixteen of Dancing with the Stars, will still be employed by Disney. She’s expected to star in a new original TV movie based on the novel Boys are Dogs.

● Former ER star Parminder Nagra has joined the cast of NBC’s freshman drama The Blacklist. The series stars James Spader as an ex-government agent on the FBI’s Most Wanted list who surrenders and offers to help catch terrorists. Nagra will play a smart and strong FBI agent. The Blacklist premieres September 23^rd.

MISCELLANEOUS MOVIE NEWS

● Melissa McCarthy will reteam with her Bridesmaids/The Heat director Paul Feig for Susan Cooper, a spy comedy about a female James Bond-type character.

● X-Men’s James McAvoy is in talks to join Daniel Radcliffe in Fox’s upcoming Frankenstein film. Radcliffe is set to play Igor, with McAvoy in talks to play Dr. Frankenstein.

● The Hunger Games’ Wes Bentley will join Anne Hathaway, Matthew McConaughey, Michael Caine and Topher Grace in Christopher Nolan’s new time travel flick, Interstellar. The film is due in theaters November 2014.

● Syfy’s Sharknado was such a hit, it’s coming to the big screen. Two hundred theaters across the country will show midnight screenings of the B-movie, starring Ian Ziering and Tara Reid, on August 2^nd.

ROCK NEWS:

HOMECOMING QUEEN HOPEFUL ASKS NIRVANA TO FILM CAMPAIGN VIDEO

Lots of people have either read or heard the slogan “Virginia is for Lovers,” but assuming a recent rather bizarre request sent to Seattle-based Sub Pop Records is not a prank, one Virginia Tech Homecoming Queen candidate may be a lover of Nirvana but completely clueless to the fact that singer Kurt Cobain committed suicide 19 years ago. Last week, Sub Pop posted a message from the Homecoming Queen wannabe asking if Nirvana could record a video and simply say, “What’s up Virginia Tech? This is Nirvana! Just wanted to wish you guys a Happy Homecoming Week and good luck at the game this Saturday. LET’S GO KOKIES!” Sub Pop decided to grant the college student’s request by dressing up some staffers to look like Nirvana, and recorded the message she’d asked for, which they then sent back as a video.

WATERS CRITICIZED FOR DISPLAYING STAR OF DAVID ON FLYING PIG

Former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has come under attack for his use of the Jewish Star of David and various fascist symbols emblazoned on a pig-shaped balloon during a concert last Thursday in Belgium, with one prominent Rabbi labeling him “an open hater of Jews.” One Jewish fan in attendance said afterwards, “I had a lot of fun, until I noticed the Star of David on the inflatable pig. Waters crossed the line and gave expression to an anti-Semitic message, beyond all his messages of anti-militancy.” Meanwhile, Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the human rights group Simon Wiesenthal Center called it a “grotesque display of Jew-hatred,” adding, “With this disgusting display Roger Waters has made it crystal clear. Forget Israel, never mind ‘limited boycotts promoting Middle East Peace.’ Waters is an open hater of Jews.”

DISTURBED’S DRAIMAN CALLS WATERS ‘BLATANTLY ANTI-SEMITIC’

At least one rocker has ripped Roger Waters for placing a Star of David on an inflatable pig.Disturbed frontman David Draiman, who is Jewish, issued an extensive statement which reads in part: “Wether (sic) or not you agree with the policies of the Israeli government (and there are times where I myself, a half Israeli Jew, with a large number of relatives still living in Israel…do not agree with some of their policies), nothing excuses the usage of the Star of David (the symbol of the Jewish people as a whole, not Israel or its government) emblazoned on a flying pig/zeppelin… It is uncalled for, abhorrent, and blatantly Anti-Semitic.”

BAD RELIGION’S HETSON, WIFE BOTH SEEK RESTRAINING ORDERS

In a rather unusual move, Bad Religion guitarist Greg Hetson and his estranged wife, Alia, are entangled in a bizarre battle in which each is fighting to obtain a restraining order against the other. TMZ reports Alia, 28, obtained a protective order against her rocker spouse claiming he became violent and tossed her to the ground during a heated argument. Meanwhile, Hetson, 52, has filed legal documents alleging he is the victim of his wife’s “unstable and violent” behavior and is seeking his own restraining order. Hetson also alleges Alia pinched $18,000 from their joint bank account.

MCKAGAN JOINS SEATTLE SUPERGROUP WALKING PAPERS

Seattle native Duff McKagan has added yet another band to is already impressive resume after joining the new Jet City supergroup Walking Papers along with fellow Seattle all-stars Barrett Martin of Screaming Trees and Jeff Angell of the Missionary Position. McKagan is already a veteran of Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver, and fronts his own band Loaded. McKagan’s involvement in Walking Papers was far from planned, as he told Billboard, “When Jeff and Barrett started putting some of these (Walking Papers) songs together, Jeff called me and said, ‘Would you come up and play bass on some songs’ and one thing led to another after that…it wasn’t like a pre-planned, ‘We’re gonna put a group together’ thing.” Walking Papers debut single is the slinky “A Place Like This.”

PIXIES PLAN FOUR-NIGHT STANDS IN LOS ANGELES AND NEW YORK

The recently reactivated Pixies have announced a couple of mini-residency scheduled in September in Los Angeles and New York City. The alternative rock icons will set up shop September 9-11 at the El Rey Theatre in L.A. and then move across town on the 12^th for a show at the historic Mayan Theatre in downtown. Following a five-day respite, the band will pack its bags and head east for three shows September 17, 18 and 20 at the Bowery Ballroom in the Big Apple, while squeezing in a September 19 performance at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg.

QUEEN’S MAY TO UNDERGO KNEE REPLACEMENT SURGERY

It appears another veteran rock star’s knee is ready to bite the dust as Queen guitarist Brian Mayhas revealed he is on his way to having his “deteriorating” knee replaced. The 66-year old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer announced he has been battling knee issues for some time and has been undergoing physical therapy, but now admits a more aggressive course of action is needed. He tweeted: “My knee is deteriorating in spite of intensive physical therapy. I’m heading for the knee replacement op.”

SINGER/SONGWRITER KAPLAN DIGS UP A GEM IN SPARKLE AND SHINE

Having already sold stacks of discs and countless concert tickets in Europe for over a decade, American singer/songwriter Jonny Kaplan along with his band the Lazy Starswill deliver his initial US release Sparkle and Shine on October 8. The record’s title track is a straight ahead bluesy rocker reminiscent of the best the Rolling Stones, Black Crowes,Tom Petty, Gram Parsons or The Band have to offer. Ahead of the release of his stateside debut disc, Kaplan says, “It seems as if we’ve been soaring just under the radar in the U.S. for years. Luckily for me, traveling and singing my songs for people are my two favorite things to do. There’s nothing bad about this life.”