Here's what people are watching, reading, listening to, and learning about...
Top Five Movies (according to box office returns)
1. Prince Caspian (Rated PG)
2. Iron Man (Rated PG-13)
3. What Happens in Vegas (Rated PG-13)
4. Speed Racer (Rated PG)
5. Made of Honor (Rated PG-13)
Notables: As expected, Prince Caspian stuck it to Iron Man. The cash total was a little less than expected, though. The follow-up to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe made $55 million. Now, let's be honest: that's a lot of coin. Still, it's a little over $10 million less than its predecessor made in its first weekend of release. Some wonder if this will do in Disney's plans for doing cinematic treatment to all of the books in Lewis's series. I guess we'll see. In case you want to tackle all things Caspian from pulpit, don't forget about the entry we posted two weeks ago: "Prince Caspian" Storms the Pulpit.
Top Five Books
1. The Hollow, by Nora Roberts
2. The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow
3. Audition, by Barbara Walters
4. The Host, by Stephenie Meyer
5. A New Earth, by Eckhart Tolle
Notables: Barbara Walters reign atop the bestseller list was pretty short. She was no match for the popularity of Nora Roberts and the poignancy of Randy Pausch. Stephenie Meyer is someone to keep an eye. She's a Mormon who writes about vampires. Interesting, eh? Time magazine recently listed her as one of their 100 Most Influential People, and they even deemed her the new J. K. Rowling (author of the Harry Potter series). Here's an interview with the author, in case you're interested. One final note about the bestsellers: Eckhart Tolle's A New Earth refuses to go away. I would guess he fell out of last week's top five because of the sudden rush of summer fiction. The thing is, people are fickle about their fiction. After a quick burst of interest, they stumble back to what's in the news (or, of course, what Oprah is reading).
Top Five Albums
1. Narrow Stairs, by Death Cab for Cutie
2. Nothing But The Best, by Frank Sinatra
3. We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. by Jason Mraz
4. Rockferry, by Duffy
5. Spirit, by Leona Lewis
Notables: Two weeks ago I said the Billboard 200 looked like a chart from the eighties (Madonna and Def Leopard were featured). Last week I said that the Billboard 200 looked like a chart from the sixties or seventies (Neil Diamond took the top spot). This week? One word: Sinatra. This chart could have been ripped right out of the forties and fifties. Given the current trajectory, it would serve Mozart well to powder his wig and tell the kids to clear some space on their iPods.
Top Five Digital Downloads
1. "Take a Bow," by Rihanna
2. "Bleeding Love," by Leona Lewis
3. "Lollipop," by Lil' Wayne (featuring Static Major)
4. "Pocketful of Sunshine," by Natasha Bedingfield
5. "4 Minutes," by Madonna (featuring Justin Timberlake)
Notables: This is exactly the same listing as last week. Rihanna didn't want to take a bow quite yet, Leona's love is still bleeding, Lil' Wayne is in the candy shop and refuses to leave, Natasha is awfully happy, and Madonna's "4 Minutes" is probably starting to feel a lot longer to those who are playing it over and over and over again.
Top Five Web Searches (according to Google Trends)
*Exercise caution when searching; some topics may be inappropriate.
1. memorial day
2. email blunder
3. alanis morissette pregnant
4. brenda sullivan
5. what is inside corn that makes it pop
Notables: When I checked Google Trends this morning, this is the list I found. Let's start with number 5, which offers a question that is about as important as how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie-Pop. In case, you're wondering, moisture inside the kernel is what makes corn pop. As for the all-important Tootsie-Pop issue, that's still up in the air. Back to number 1: I hope people know what Memorial Day is, but maybe they don't. The "e-mail blunder" search is a time-waster sort of deal. If you type the phrase in the Google window, off you go to thousands of sites where people post millions of funny stories about how they misspelled something, misrepresented someone, or were misunderstood through e-mail. I guess alt-rock singer Alanis Morissette is pregnant. We seem to care an awful lot about when celebrities are expecting, don't we? As for Brenda Sullivan, she's the Florida woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for keeping her son and adopted twins in a cage.
Posted by Brian Lowery at 11:35 AM on May 23, 2008
