Entertainment Briefs for March 31, 2010
Rapper arrested at Ohio show
CLEVELAND - A rap artist from the group Bone Thugs-N-Harmony has been arrested during an Ohio concert on 12-year-old charges that he roughed up his mother with a gun.
Thirty-six-year-old Stanley Howse - whose stage name is Flesh-N-Bone - was in jail Monday, a day after he was taken into custody during a show in the group's hometown of Cleveland.
Sheriff's spokesman John O'Brien says deputies didn't wait until after the show because Howse seemed to notice them, invited audience members to the stage and tried to slip out. He was arrested backstage.
O'Brien says Howse was wanted on domestic violence and felonious assault charges. The rapper is accused of striking his mother with a gun in 1998, leaving a 1-inch gash on her head.
Court records do not list an attorney for Howse.
Superman comic sells for $1.5M
NEW YORK - The record price for a comic book, already broken twice this year, has been shattered again.
A copy of the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1 sold Monday for $1.5 million on the auction Web site ComicConnect.com. The issue, which features Superman's debut and originally sold for 10 cents, is widely considered the Holy Grail of comic books.
The same issue sold in February for $1 million, though that copy wasn't in as good condition as the issue that sold Monday. That number was bested just days later when a 1939 comic book featuring Batman's debut sold for $75,000 more at an auction in Dallas.
There are about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 believed to be in existence, and only a handful in good condition. The issue that sold Monday was rated slightly higher than the one that sold in February; it had been tucked inside an old movie magazine for years before being discovered.
The issue was bought from a private collector and then sold by Stephen Fishler and Vincent Zurzolo, the co-owners of ComicConnect.com. It was bought minutes after being posted Monday at the asking price of $1.5 million by "a hardcore comic book fan," Fishler said.
"There's been a lot of attempts to acquire this book over the last 15 years," he said. "The recent activity, I guess, did the trick."
Fishler speculated that the sudden burst of record-priced sales are due to "pent-up demand." Issues of such prized comic books rarely become available for purchase. Rarer still are issues in such good condition.
Dance show plans changes
LOS ANGELES - "So You Think You Can Dance" is getting some new moves.
The Fox network said Monday that multiple changes are planned for the dance competition's upcoming seventh season.
The series is narrowing the finalist field from 20 dancers to 10 - five women, five men - with one contestant eliminated each week instead of two. Dancers will also be partnered with past contestants instead of each other for the first time. "So You Think You Can Dance" is scheduled to premiere May 27.
Krump dancer Russell Ferguson won the sixth season's $250,000 grand prize.
Apple pushes back shipping of iPad
Apple Inc.'s iPad tablet computer hits U.S. shelves on Saturday, but fans who want the new touch-screen gadget shipped directly to them must wait a week.
The company began taking preorders for the iPad on March 12, promising to get the device to eager buyers by its store launch date of April 3. Customers who placed pre-orders by March 27 will receive the device by that date, where Saturday delivery is available, but Apple said Sunday that new pre-orders won't be shipped out until April 12.
The Cupertino, California, company declined to give a reason for the shipping delay, but said would-be customers can still pre-order the iPad for in-store pickup on April 3, or purchase the device in stores that day.
The iPads going on sale will connect to Wi-Fi networks only and cost $499, $599 or $699, depending on the data storage capacity.
Versions that also can connect to "3G" cellular networks are expected to go on sale in late April for $629, $729 or $829. International releases also are planned for later in April.