Consider this a "Spoiler Warning" for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. After the next couple sentences, which I am intentionally padding for the sake of the social network feed, I will be discussing, in detail, a couple major plot turns in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. For those who don’t know and don’t want to know, make haste in 3… 2… 1…


The good news is that no one cheered. I’ve written before of my concern that the inevitable death of Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (from the Sony Corporation) would bring cheers from the audience, as hardcore fans would applaud the somewhat iconic story turn. They didn’t cheer. Even with painfully obvious foreshadowing starting with Emma Stone’s "I could die at any moment!" high school graduation speech, it stands to reason that the vast majority of general audience members who saw the film this weekend were actually surprised when Spider-Man tried but failed to save his girlfriend from said death plunge inside a clock tower. But in terms of killing off Peter Parker’s girlfriend to mimic a story that was groundbreaking 41 years ago, Marc Webb, Emma Stone, and company spent so much time being excited that they could that they didn’t stop to wonder whether they should.

I made a point not to discuss said plot turn in my initial review, both because it was a massive spoiler and because it was a plot turn that I disapproved of on principle, and thus it would be unfair to be too hard on a film offering what many fans in fact wanted to see in one form or another. Truth be told, it was a ripping action climax, with Spidey and newly established Green Goblin doing swift and brutal combat as Gwen kept falling in and out of mortal peril. The moment offered the best kind of suspense, which is the horror of knowing how a moment is going to play out even while hoping that things go differently. But the adherence to comics dogma opens up a gigantic can of worms for upcoming Amazing Spider-Man films, harming the would-be appeal of future installments by turning its most popular character into a "woman in refrigerator."

The phrase "woman in refrigerator", coined by future comic book writer Gail Simone 1999, referred to the tendency of comic books to do harm upon the girlfriends, wives, or female siblings of a male hero for the sole purpose of making the hero feel bad and/or seek vengeance. It was named after an incident in a 1994 Green Lantern comic where Kyle Rayner’s girlfriend was murdered and stuffed in a refrigerator. It soon became the de-facto phrase for the pattern in comic books by which the female supporting character in a male-centric title would be raped, murdered, assaulted and/or de-powered so that the male here could "have a sad." And that’s really all the death of Ms. Stacy is for this second Spider-Man film. Emma Stone gave us a rather amusing and engaging female character, the filmmakers did their best to sell the notion that she was her own character with her own agency, then she got chucked down a clock tower so that Peter could feel bad.

Never mind the young woman who was on her way to Oxford, a perfect example of how to realistically write out a major character without having to resort to a now-cliched "shocking death". Never mind the fact that Gwen helped Spidey save the day from Electro’s blackout and then was immediately murdered as de-facto punishment for her heroic pluck. The most important thing about Gwen Stacy will be that she died. Her death only matters in how it affects the male superhero and how he grows or changes as a result. Even as the somewhat fantastically perfect girlfriend, her life was meaningless save how her murder affected Peter and established the Green Goblin as an arch-villain for The Amazing Spider-Man 3. Filmmakers like to talk up the allegedly positive qualities of the hero’s girlfriend as an excuse for not having female superheroes, but in the end Gwen lived only to die violently.

The "Woman In Refrigerator" trope is a constant presence in mainstream entertainment, even in entertainment I would classify as "really good." It’s how 24 chose to end its first and last seasons. The Blacklist recently dispatched of a supporting character’s estranged wife just a few episodes after introducing her. Lost killed off two major female characters in season 2 purely to make their respective island boyfriends feel bad. I love Chris Nolan films as much as the next critic, but Memento, The Prestige, and Inception eventually revolved around the violent death of a female character solely so that the hero could be tormented by said violence. The sheer number of films that start or end with a male hero traumatized over the recent death of his wife and/or kids is too numerous to count (Dante’s Peak, Law-Abiding Citizen, Casino Royale, End of Days, Lethal Weapon, just to name a few). I don’t accuse Marc Webb and company of any ill-intent, and I defend on principle their rights as artists to tell any story they choose, but what was groundbreaking 41 years ago is not just cliched but indicative of a cultural issue, in terms of how females are utilized and valued in pop entertainment.

But even if you’re not bothered on a broader cultural sense about the commonplace treatment of female characters as injured/raped/murdered props in the male-centric narratives of mainstream entertainment, or you think I’m picking on Amazing Spider-Man 2 in a way that I didn’t pick on, for example, The Dark Knight, the implications for this franchise are specific and problematic. Thanks to the violent murder of Gwen Stacy, the third Amazing Spider-Man is left without the very thing that audiences and critics claim to love most about the first two films. Even those who didn’t like either of the films will tell you that they enjoyed the quirky romantic banter between real-life couple Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. Stone is dead, which means that we won’t get that key component the next time around.

There is a reason why Han Solo didn’t stay frozen in Return of the Jedi,why Jack Sparrow eventually came back in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, or why Optimus Prime didn’t stay dead in Revenge of the Fallen. You don’t make a sequel by taking away the very thing the audience came to see.  And this film was all about setting up future sequels. With Gwen now deceased, the third film will find a new replacement girlfriend for Peter (because nothing takes the mind off your murdered ex like bumping into your hot red head neighbor who calls you "tiger") and/or put even more emphasis on its villains, which is the one thing most everybody agreed was most problematic. Few moviegoers walking out of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 were excited about the prospect of seeing more of the Green Goblin, more of the Rhino, a resurrection for Electro and/or a return of the Lizard.

Sony's obsessive focus on crafting a kind of "universe" around the various Spidey foes is both the core narrative flaw of this sequel (Peter had no real arc) and the likely path for a third film. The choice to write out Emma Stone was (to my knowledge) an artistic one as opposed to a corporate one. But the gaping hole left in her absence allows future installments to further set up what Sony desperately wants to be the end game for this franchise, a big "Sinister Six" smack down. The problem is that no one particularly likes the villains in this specific franchise. They like the hero and they like the hero’s plucky girlfriend. But said girlfriend just bit the dust, which means that the third Amazing Spider-Man movie, which in turn follows two installments that were somewhat liked or tolerated without being loved, will enter theaters in June 2016 with less of what you liked and more of what you disliked.

The fact that Amazing Spider-Man 2 made $369 million in 19 days of worldwide play with no buzz shows how potent the Spider-Man character still is. But Sony and company just played their trump card, offering the iconic "death of Gwen Stacy" scene that many hardcore fans were waiting for ever since the character was announced. And unlike Iron Man 2 or Star Trek Into Darkness, which were also somewhat dispassionately received sequels that made about as much as the original worldwide, there is no would-be Avengers or 50th anniversary to boost interest for the third installment. The Amazing Spider-Man 3 will live or die by the cards it has dealt itself, and, like Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, it just gave away its trump card. I won’t predict box office doom for Amazing Spider-Man 3, but at some point audiences are going to notice that they aren’t all that crazy about these films.

And on a cultural level, millions of young audience members, male and female alike, just got a profound lesson on the value of female human life in pop-culture entertainment. You can talk all you want creating "strong", "independent", female characters who are "strong role models" for young girls in otherwise male-centric entertainments, but if the plot negates those qualities by turning her into a victim, taking away her agency, and/or punishing her for those very qualities, it doesn’t make a bit of difference. Gwen Stacy may be a great character, mostly only because Emma Stone is a great actress.  But in the end she’s irrelevant save for the fact that she died.

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ROME (AP) A friend of "Sopranos" star James Gandolfini said Thursday the actor was discovered by a family member in his hotel room in Rome before he was pronounced dead of cardiac arrest at a hospital.

Michael Kobold, who described himself as a close family friend, read a short statement to reporters, but said little more about the circumstances of Gandolfini's death on Wednesday night.

He did not say who discovered Gandolfini, 51, but NBC quoted Antonio D'Amore, manager of the Boscolo Excedra hotel, as saying it was the actor's 13-year-old son, Michael.

Gandolfini had appeared in advertisements for Kobold's company, Kobold Watches.

Gandolfini was pronounced dead at 11 p.m. Wednesday in Rome after being taken by ambulance to the Policlinic Umberto I hospital.

Dr. Claudio Modini, head of the hospital emergency room, said Gandolfini arrived at the hospital at 10:40 p.m. (2040 GMT; 4:40 p.m. EDT) and was pronounced dead after resuscitation efforts in the ambulance and hospital failed.

An autopsy would be performed starting 24 hours after the death, as required by law, Modini told The Associated Press.

The actor, known for his portrayal of the tortured Italian-American mob boss Tony Soprano, was to have received an award and taken part in the closing ceremony Saturday of the Taormina Film Festival, which takes place against the backdrop of Taormina's spectacular Roman amphitheater.

He also was to have given a special class Saturday morning at the festival, as was done by actor Jeremy Irons earlier in the week.

Festival organizers Mario Sesti and Tiziana Rocca said instead they would organize a tribute "to celebrate his great achievement and talent." They said they had heard from Gandolfini a few hours before he died, and "he was very happy to receive this award and be able to travel to Italy."

"The Sopranos" was a hit when it first aired in Italy in 2001, with critics giving it rave reviews, despite some criticism from Italian-Americans across the Atlantic who thought it stereotyped them.

"Rarely does one see fiction so intelligent, ironic, full of psychological and narrative subtleties. And the dialogue! The photography!" Italy's most prominent TV critic, Aldo Grasso, gushed in the leading daily Corriere della Sera after the first episode aired. "Trust me, don't miss 'The Sopranos!'"

The daily La Repubblica called the show a "masterpiece." The paper deplored that it was being "hidden" from viewers by being aired at the unenviable 12:30 a.m. timeslot and urged it to be moved up something former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's Mediaset network eventually did, showing it at 11:30 p.m.

Gandolfini's death was one of the top news stories in Italy on Thursday, with American tourists outside his hotel well aware of the tragedy.

"I thought he was a great actor," said William Capece, visiting Rome from Houston, Texas. "Pretty sad because it is a big loss to the field of acting."

The U.S. Embassy in Rome, which said it had learned about the death from the media, said it would be available to provide a death certificate and help prepare the body for return to the United States. The embassy said it can often take between four and seven days to arrange for it to be sent outside of Italy.

The embassy spokesman declined further comment, directing inquiries to the family.

It isn't yet known yet what caused his heart to stop beating. Sudden cardiac arrest can be due to a heart attack, a heart rhythm problem, or a result of trauma. The chance of cardiac arrest increases as people get older; men over age 45 have a greater risk. Men in general are up to three times more likely to have a sudden cardiac arrest than women.

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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NEW YORK (AP) Breaking up is hard to do. That is, unless you're "Mad Men," which this season has been free-and-easy in its fragmentation.

By now Peggy Olson and her radical beau are splitsville. So are Pete Campbell and wife Trudy, who caught him philandering one too many times.

Twice-wed Roger Sterling, currently solo, saw his knotty relationship with his mom torn asunder with her death this season, and he's alienated from his daughter and grandson.

And don't forget the latest romantic entanglement of Don Draper, whose marriage to winsome Megan seemed on suicide watch as, every chance he got, he scorched the sheets with downstairs neighbor Sylvia (wife of Don's presumed friend Dr. Arnold Rosen).

The only notable coming-together: the stormy merger of Sterling, Cooper, Draper and Pryce with former rival ad agency Cutler, Gleason and Chaough, which has assembled a bickering band of ad execs only slightly more collegial than either house of Congress.

Is the unmoored zeitgeist of 1968 to blame for this season's pattern of upheavals? Does the Vietnam War, the assassinations and riots help account for the turmoil on the show? Or the '60s drug culture (they smoke pot at the office, and on one episode, a Dr. Feelgood arrives with a hypodermic needle to keep everybody energized)?

Whatever, the psyches on "Mad Men" in this, its sixth and penultimate season, seem to be unraveling as the season finale approaches (Sunday at 10 p.m. EDT on AMC). The male psyches, anyway.

On the other hand, the sisters increasingly are doin' it for themselves.

Peggy Olson is stronger, more clear-eyed and outspoken than ever. (In last week's episode, she read Don the riot act: "You're a monster!")

Tough, pneumatic Joan Harris, who since the series began has fashioned an unlikely rise from office manager to agency partner, has truly come into her own in recent weeks, notably when she went rogue and landed a major account all by herself (a no-no for a woman in this Alpha Male shop).

Don's ex, the remarried Betty Francis, seemed to step outside her pouty state of victimhood in a recent episode to forcefully remind Don that he still has feelings for her.

But who knows what awaits Megan, Don's devoted wife? In love with Don but unsettled by his growing detachment (even as she remains oblivious to his cheating), she seems poised to become the latest Draper roadkill.

"That poor girl," said been-there Betty to Don. "She doesn't know that loving you is the worst way to get to you."

All in all, it's been a satisfying, illuminating season well served by the superb cast, including Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, John Slattery, Vincent Kartheiser, Christina Hendricks and Jessica Pare.

In his new supporting role, Harry Hamlin as a courtly, quirky agency partner has been a delight in his every scene. Likewise, eager-beaver enigma Bob Benson (James Wolk) has been fun to watch while raising questions from the audience (Just what's his game at the agency?) and inspiring wild speculation (a government spy?!).

And Linda Cardellini has been a revelation as Sylvia, the latest woman Don believed he had to have, and did, with a calamitous outcome.

"Mad Men," which arguably has never really been about advertising, seems this season to have taken a step further back from the nuts-and-bolts of Madison Avenue. At the office, the internecine bickering, politics and posturing seem to leave little time for creating ads. Even conference-room sparring about butter versus margarine seemed more about one-upmanship than selling a product.

This season, as usual, "Mad Men" stuck to its elliptical ways, rarely saying too much or gobsmacking the viewer with an OMG moment.

All the more shocking, then, when in a recent episode by the worst mischance Don's teenage daughter, Sally, caught Don in the sack with Sylvia.

For a girl already alienated by her parents' divorce, by her own roiling adolescence and perhaps who knows? by the youth rebellion the '60s are fomenting, this sight is clearly traumatic (and perhaps all the more so, since Sally was nursing a crush on the Rosens' teenage son). It's a lot to bear for this member of the youth generation already conditioned not to trust anybody over 30.

And Don knows it. Throughout the season, he seems to have hastened a downward slide. Not only has his private life been extra messy, he has also sabotaged his agency's campaigns and messed up a stock offering that stood to make him and his partners rich.

Now, after Sally barged in on him, his shame is beyond measure. At last week's fade-out, viewers left him in a state of surrender: on his office couch, curled in a fetal position.

Among the questions for the season finale: How can Don begin the process of redeeming himself? And will he?

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Online:

http://www.amctv.com

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EDITOR'S NOTE Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier

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NEW YORK (AP) James Gandolfini would have hated all this fuss.

He was an actor who shrank from attention for anything but the roles he brought to life. No false modesty. He simply did his best to remain a private citizen behind his public characters. These included, of course, Tony Soprano, the fiendish, tormented mobster who the world came to know and revere as a towering dramatic achievement.

Now, out of the blue, this flood of tributes to Gandolfini upon his untimely death? This would likely have struck him as excessive and needless, upstaging for a moment his lifetime of work.

In a too-brief career that ended Wednesday at age 51 while he was vacationing in Rome, Gandolfini can be celebrated for performances on TV, on stage and in films that reached beyond the obvious triumph of "The Sopranos" and the unsought celebrity it brought him. Before, during and after "The Sopranos," he remained defiantly a character actor, by all indications spared a leading man's ego as he tackled roles that piqued his interest, not roles meant to guarantee the spotlight.

"I'm much more comfortable doing smaller things," he declared not long ago. And in the past year, his film appearances included supporting (or smaller) roles in Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden manhunt docudrama "Zero Dark Thirty," ''Sopranos" creator David Chase's '60s period drama "Not Fade Away," and Andrew Dominick's crime flick "Killing Them Softly."

It was all part of an acting career as unlikely to which TV has given rise.

How to account for the providential choice of Gandolfini to headline a high-profile HBO drama series playing an anguished mob boss and family man? Balding and beefy, he seemed the antithesis of an actor who could sustain viewers' interest, amusing them, horrifying them and compelling them to love him in a way they had never loved a TV hero before.

Gandolfini made the character monstrous yet sympathetic, a man with a murderously chilling gaze yet a mischievous smile. Thus did Tony Soprano become part of the culture, taking Gandolfini, reluctantly, with him.

By the end of the series' run, Gandolfini was suitably grateful for the role he had embodied for six seasons. But he had lent such authenticity to Tony that the character by then weighed heavily upon him. No actor stops identifying with the character he plays, no matter how repellant or villainous. An actor is required to be complicit with the man he portrays.

And yet, Gandolfini said he struggled to like Tony.

"Let's just say, it was a lot easier to like him in the beginning, than in the last few years," he told The Associated Press a few days before the series' finale in June 2007.

It was a remarkable admission by Gandolfini as he looked ahead, brightly, to new challenges.

"I don't even think I've proven myself, yet," he said. "I have yet to begin the fight, I think."

In that rare interview, Gandolfini, famously press-shy ever since "The Sopranos" blindsided him with stardom, was as gracious as he was uncomfortable discussing himself.

There was one too many questions delving into his acting process.

"Oh, please! Who gives a crap!" he scoffed (though he didn't say "crap"). Then he quickly apologized. "I'm sorry," he said. "I didn't mean to be abrupt."

Despite his formidable presence in person as on film, there was no confusing him with Tony Soprano. He was his own man, down-to-earth, accommodating and no-nonsense when it counted. Once glimpsed by a reporter filming a scene on the set of the Soprano family's plush New Jersey home, he bobbled a line of dialogue, whereupon he let out a growl, not at anyone else but directed unsparingly at himself before the cameras rolled again.

On the other hand, he clearly knew the difference between what was serious as an actor and what was deadly serious.

Marshaling his unbidden clout as a star, Gandolfini produced (though only sparingly appeared in) a pair of documentaries for HBO focused on a cause he held dear: veterans affairs.

"Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq" (2007) profiled soldiers and Marines who had cheated death in war but continued to wage personal battles back at home. Four years later, "Wartorn: 1861-2010" charted victims of post-traumatic stress disorder from the U.S. invasion of Iraq all the way back to the Civil War.

"Do I think a documentary is going to change the world?" Gandolfini said about the latter film. "No, but I think there will be individuals who will learn things from it, so that's enough."

There were no grand pronouncements that day. No lofty goals voiced. No showboating by an actor who will never be forgotten as Tony Soprano, and then some, for the work he leaves behind.

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EDITOR'S NOTE Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore@ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier

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By Belinda Goldsmith

LONDON (Reuters) - Art collector Charles Saatchi has been cautioned by police for assaulting his wife, the celebrity chef Nigella Lawson, after being photographed grabbing her by the throat in an incident that has fueled a debate in Britain about domestic violence.

Photographs of Saatchi, 70, a former advertising tycoon, grasping a tearful Lawson around the neck while the couple were having dinner outside a London restaurant about a week ago were published in a tabloid newspaper on Sunday.

On Monday he downplayed the images, saying it was just a "playful tiff" and he was holding her neck to make his point, sparking fury from women's rights group. He said the couple made up although Lawson had moved out while "the dust settled".

A spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday that they were aware of the photographs that appeared in the Sunday People on June 16 and had carried out an investigation.

"Yesterday afternoon, Monday June 17, a 70-year-old man voluntarily attended a central London police station and accepted a caution for assault," the spokesman said. "That would normally be the end of the matter."

Under English law, a caution can be given to an adult who admits a minor offence and this is not a criminal conviction but can be used as evidence of bad character in court for another crime. The suspect can be arrested or charged if they do not agree to be cautioned.

Lawson, 53, dubbed the domestic goddess after the title of one of her cook books and known for her flirtatious kitchen manner, has made no public comment on the incident that happened outside a seafood restaurant in upmarket Mayfair on June 9.

Her publicist said she would not be commenting on Tuesday.

"TREATED TOO LENIENTLY"

Lawson, daughter of former Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) Nigel Lawson, married Saatchi in 2003 after her first husband, journalist John Diamond, died of throat cancer. She has two teenage children, Cosima and Bruno, from her first marriage.

Saatchi's comments on Monday downplaying the incident unleashed a storm of comments on Twitter and in the print media, describing his defence of his behavior as "bizarre" while others criticized the lack of action taken against him.

Saatchi told London's Evening Standard, for which he writes a column, that he recognized the impact of the pictures but said they conveyed the wrong impression.

"There was no grip. It was a playful tiff. The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place," said Saatchi, who ran the world's largest advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi with his brother in the 1980s.

"Nigella's tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt."

Saatchi, who opened the Saatchi Gallery in London in 1985, said he had made up with Lawson, his third wife, by the time they had reached home but acknowledged she had moved out, saying that was due to the paparazzi outside their house.

Polly Neate of the charity Women's Aid said perpetrators of domestic violence would often try to excuse or minimize their behavior and the caution given to Saatchi showed that these cases were often not dealt with severely enough.

"Often, women living with abuse at home do not speak out because they are worried they won't be believed or feel ashamed that their partner has been violent towards them," Neate said in a statement.

"We must take every case of domestic violence seriously, and ensure that the abusers receive appropriate sentences."

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden, Editing by Gareth Jones)

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STOCKHOLM (AP) Swedish Princess Madeleine fell in love in the Big Apple. Now she has said "yes" to New York banker Christopher O'Neill in a lavish and emotional wedding ceremony in Stockholm.

Madeleine, 30, was wearing a stunning silk organza dress with a lace top and four-meter (13-foot) trail, designed by Valentino Garavani, when she tied the knot with British-American O'Neill on Saturday. Around 470 European royals, top New York socialites and celebrities were in attendance.

The 38-year-old O'Neill fought back tears as the princess walked down the aisle with her father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, to a traditional Swedish wedding march performed by a children's choir. The bride and groom were visibly moved as the ceremony proceeded with hymns in both Swedish and English, and performances by Roxette singer Marie Fredriksson and Broadway's "Phantom of the Opera" star Peter Joback.

With a smile on her face, Madeleine read out the wedding vows in Swedish while O'Neill read his in English in the Royal Chapel, decorated with typical Swedish summer flowers. After the wedding, the couple kissed on the steps of the palace in front of a cheering crowd of several thousand who had gathered in the sunshine waving Swedish flags.

"We hope she will be very happy in the future, the princess Madeleine," Julia Huelsman, who had traveled from Munich, Germany, for the occasion, said.

Later, the newlyweds travelled in a procession through the crowded streets of the capital in a special horse and carriage. They then sailed to the royal residence and UNESCO World Heritage site Drottningholm Palace, 10 kilometers (6 miles) west of the city center, where a private wedding reception will be held.

Madeleine is the youngest of Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia's three children and fourth in line to the throne. She became known as Sweden's party princess in her early 20s, when she was frequently spotted at Stockholm's high-end nightclubs, and has attracted widespread attention for her stylish clothes.

But her life hasn't always been a fairytale. Madeleine's extravagant lifestyle has often been criticized by Swedes, who prefer the down-to-earth attitude of her sister, Crown Princess Victoria, who married a commoner. And in 2010, she fled to New York after breaking off her first engagement to Swedish attorney Jonas Bergstrom amid media reports that he had cheated on her.

Since then, Madeleine has held a lower profile, working for the nonprofit World Childhood Foundation in New York, where she met O'Neill through mutual friends. The couple was first spotted together having lunch at the Central Park Boathouse in January 2011 and they announced their engagement in October 2012.

O'Neill was born into a wealthy family. His late father, Paul O'Neill, set up the European head office of Oppenheimer & Co. in London in the 1960s and his mother, Eva Maria O'Neill, is involved in several charities. He studied at a boarding school in St. Gallen, Switzerland, and holds a bachelor's degree in international relations from Boston University and a master's degree from Columbia Business School in New York.

O'Neill, who holds dual American and British citizenship, has declined a royal rank in Sweden, which would have required him to become a Swedish citizen. He has chosen to continue working and the newlyweds are expected to move back to their apartment in Manhattan.

Guests at the wedding included the U.K.'s Earl and Countess of Wessex, Prince Edward and Sophie; Princess Takamado of Japan and princes and princesses from Norway, Denmark, Greece, Luxembourg and Monaco.

O'Neill had also invited many of his super-rich friends, such as Opel heir Georg von Opel, Cadbury chocolate heir Joel Cadbury, Colombian billionaire Alejandro Santo Domingo, and Aidan and Fizzy Barclay. Other well-known invitees were Duran Duran band member John Taylor, the CEO of fashion retailer H&M, Karl-Johan Persson, and golfer Jesper Parnevik.

The marriage is the latest in a series of glamorous royal weddings that have mesmerized Europe in the past few years. In June 2010, Madeleine's older sister Crown Princess Victoria wed her personal trainer Daniel Westling in a grand ceremony in Stockholm and the year after, Britain's Prince William and Kate Middleton tied the knot in extravagant fashion in front of an estimated 2 billion television viewers. Also in 2011, Prince Albert II of Monaco wed Charlene Lynette Wittstock and in 2012, Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg united with Belgian Countess Stephanie de Lannoy.

The Swedish royal family has only ceremonial duties, such as attending award ceremonies, promoting Swedish businesses abroad and supporting charities. As the head of state, the king also receives foreign dignitaries on formal visits to Sweden.

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AP Television Producer Yesica Fisch contributed to this report.

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CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) A judge accepted James Holmes' long-awaited plea of not guilty by reason of insanity Tuesday and ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation an examination that could be a decisive factor in whether the Colorado theater shooting suspect is convicted and sentenced to die.

The judge also granted prosecutors access to a hotly contested notebook that Holmes sent to a psychiatrist shortly before the July 20 rampage, which left 12 people dead and 70 injured in a bloody, bullet-riddled movie theater in suburban Denver.

Taken together, the three developments marked a major step forward in the 10-month-old case, which at times has inched along through thickets of legal arguments or veered off on tangents.

Holmes faces more than 160 counts of murder and attempted murder, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

He will now be examined by the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo, but it's not certain when the evaluation will begin or how long it will take. Hospital officials have said that before they meet with Holmes, they want to review evidence in the case, which prosecutors said totals nearly 40,000 pages.

Judge Carlos Samour Jr. set a tentative date of Aug. 2 for the exam to be complete but said he would push that back if hospital officials request more time. Samour indicated he still hopes to begin Holmes' trial in February.

Holmes, 25, shuffled into court with his wrists and ankles shackled, wearing a long, bushy beard and dark, curly hair that was slicked back.

Samour read Holmes a five-page list of consequences of the insanity plea and asked if he had any questions.

"No," Holmes answered in a clear, firm voice. It was only the second time since his arrest that he has spoken in court, other than occasional whispered exchanges with his attorneys.

The findings of the mental evaluation will become evidence in Homes' trial, but they are not the final word on whether he was legally insane at the time of the shootings. The jurors will determine that.

If their verdict is not guilty by reason of insanity, Holmes would be committed to the Mental Health Institute indefinitely. He could theoretically be released one day if doctors determine his sanity has been restored, but that is considered unlikely.

If their verdict is guilty, jurors would then decide whether Holmes will be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Colorado law defines insanity as the inability to distinguish right from wrong caused by a diseased or defective mind.

Marcus Weaver, who was wounded and lost his friend Rebecca Wingo in the shooting, doesn't believe Holmes is insane but is grateful the case is moving forward.

"As we've seen evidence and seen the case unfold, it's become more evident that Mr. Holmes did what he did, and it had nothing to do with his mental state," he said.

The insanity plea is widely seen as Holmes' best chance of avoiding execution, but his lawyers delayed it for weeks, saying Colorado's laws on the insanity plea and the death penalty could work in combination to violate his constitutional rights.

The judge overruled their objections last week, but on Tuesday he conceded one point: Neither Holmes nor his lawyers had to sign a statement or say in court that they understood the five-page list of consequences of the insanity plea.

Samour originally planned to require Holmes and the defense to acknowledge they understood those consequences before he accepted the plea. But Samour said Tuesday he had determined that wasn't required by law.

Holmes needed Samour's approval to enter the insanity plea because a judge had entered a standard not guilty plea on Holmes' behalf in March.

Prosecutors first sought access to the notebook when its existence was made public days after the shooting. Holmes had mailed it to Dr. Lynn Fenton, a University of Colorado, Denver psychiatrist who had treated Holmes. Holmes had been a graduate student in neuroscience at the university.

The notebook's contents have never been officially made public, but media reports have said it contains drawings depicting violence.

The defense argued the notebook was protected by doctor-patient privilege. But Samour ruled Tuesday that under Colorado law, Holmes waived that privilege when he entered the insanity plea.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that in addition to reviewing the contents of the notebook, they would ask police to do unspecified "additional processing" of it.

Court officials also released nearly 100 pretrial motions Tuesday, most of them from the defense.

One signaled that Holmes will seek a change of venue because of pretrial publicity. Others challenged the admissibility of ballistics, handwriting and mountains of other evidence and demanded that prosecutors hand over as many as 2,000 pieces of physical evidence.

Holmes' lawyers appear to be trying to humanize their client, who made his first court appearances with a mop of dyed orange hair. They filed motions asking that he be allowed to appear before jurors in civilian clothes, instead of a jail uniform, and without shackles. They also asked that authorities ratchet back courthouse security, including armed guards on the roof.

Defense lawyers want Holmes' parents to be allowed to witness the entire trial in support of their son and not be sequestered like other possible witnesses.

___

Associated Press writer Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.

___

Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP

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(Reuters) - Former Beatle Ringo Starr is lifting the lid on a collection of previously unseen photographs of the Fab Four in their heyday from his personal collection, in a new photography book due out next month.

"Photograph," which will be released as an e-book on Apple's iBookstore on June 12, will coincide with a Grammy Museum exhibit on Starr, entitled "Ringo: Peace & Love," the book's publishers said on Wednesday.

A limited-edition hand-bound book signed by Starr will be available for purchase in December.

The book will include photographs from the musician's childhood in Liverpool, England, to his road to fame as part of the Fab Four, with Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison.

"These are shots that no one else could have," Starr, 72, said in a statement.

Highlights from the collection include behind-the-scenes candids of the Beatles in their daily lives and Starr's travel photography as the band toured the world.

Starr has also recorded videos featuring commentary to accompany the e-book.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

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By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The doors of Dunder Mifflin's Scranton branch closed for the last time on Thursday as NBC's "The Office" wrapped up after a nine-season run with a nostalgic finale featuring a long-awaited wedding and the return of the show's biggest star, Steve Carell.

Emmy-winning mockumentary "The Office," adapted from Ricky Gervais' British series of the same name, saw a documentary crew filming the daily lives of employees at the Dunder Mifflin paper company, led for several years by hapless boss Michael Scott, played by Carell.

On Thursday's 75-minute finale, set six months after the fictional documentary was released, the colleagues all reunite for the marriage of Machiavellian office manager Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), and accountant Angela Martin (Angela Kingsley).

Carell entered the episode as a surprise guest at the wedding, uttering one of Michael Scott's best-known phrases - "That's what she said."

Later as he considered the romances that had formed at the workplace, Carell's character told the camera, "It's like all my children grew up and they married each other."

Over nine seasons, audiences have been treated to numerous office fights, friendships and romances on the NBC sitcom. One of the most compelling storylines was the growing romance of Jim and Pam, played by John Krasinski and Jenna Fischer, as audiences watched them transition from friendship to marriage and parenthood.

For fans of the show, the season finale saw most of the long-standing cast members get their happy ending.

Stanley finally retires, Erin finds her birth parents, Andy capitalizes on becoming an unwilling viral video star, Kelly and Ryan run off into the sunset (albeit abandoning a baby in the process) and Jim and Pam decide to move to Austin, Texas.

The final scenes featured a montage of key moments, including Jim and Pam's romance and the numerous friendships that developed over the years.

"I wish there was a way to know you were in the good old days before you've actually left them," Andy Bernard, played by Ed Helms, said wistfully.

The cast also reflected on the documentary that captured nine years of their lives at the company, which Jim described as "this stupid, wonderful, boring, amazing job."

"Imagine going back and watching a tape of your life. You can see yourself change ... watch yourself fall in love, become a husband, a father. You guys gave that to me," Jim said to the cameras.

LAUNCHING STARS, FALLING AUDIENCES

"The Office," which first aired in 2005, began with a relatively unknown cast, led by Carell, whose breakout film "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" came out the same year.

The show made stars of many of its cast members, leading to high-profile movie roles, and its producers said last year that the outside success of "The Office" actors played a role in the decision to wind it down.

Carell left the show in season seven to focus on his rising film career, which has included roles in "Crazy, Stupid, Love" and "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone."

Helms also made the move to the big screen with roles in "The Hangover" franchise, and Krasinski starred in the recent film "The Promised Land" with Matt Damon.

Mindy Kaling, who plays office mean girl Kelly Kapoor, landed her own Fox sitcom "The Mindy Project," while Craig Robinson, who plays warehouse manager Darryl, scored film roles in "Pineapple Express" and upcoming "This Is the End."

After Carell's exit in 2011, audiences began to turn away from "The Office" and viewership fell to about 4 million last year per episode from a high of about 8 million in 2008.

The show's culmination comes on the heels of another NBC comedy, "30 Rock," bowing out after seven seasons in February.

Prior to the finale, an hourlong retrospective of the show featured cast members and producers talking about the impact of "The Office" on their careers and why fans were drawn to it.

"This is a perfect time for the show to come to a close," Wilson said. "There's a finality to it and a sadness to it."

Wilson had sought to create a spin-off show led by his character Dwight, but it was not picked up for broadcast.

The unlikely star of the show has been the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which prior to the show was known for coal mining but not anymore.

As the series drew to a close, tens of thousands of people gathered in Scranton earlier this month to give a rousing send-off to the sitcom that changed the image of the city forever.

"Thank you, Scranton," Carell told the crowd. "This all is because of you."

NBC is a unit of Comcast Corp.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Bill Trott)

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LONDON (Reuters) - The wedding dress worn by film star Elizabeth Taylor for her first marriage to hotel heir Conrad Hilton in 1950 will go up for sale next month, auction house Christie's said on Friday.

The simple, but elegant garment created by Hollywood costume designer Helen Rose for the then 18-year-old Taylor is an oyster shell-colored, floor-length satin gown with a fine silk gauze off-the-shoulder illusion neckline.

The dress, which was a gift from MGM film studios, has a top estimate of 50,000 pounds ($75,300). Rose also designed Grace Kelly's wedding dress for her marriage to the Prince of Monaco.

By the time Taylor married Hilton she was already a veteran actress and was just a year away from her Oscar-nominated performance in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's "A Place in the Sun".

The A-list of old Hollywood - Greer Garson, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire, Esther Williams, and Van Johnson - were among the many stars who came to congratulate the bride.

The star of "Cleopatra" surpassed Michael Jackson as the highest-earning deceased celebrity in a survey released by Forbes in October 2012, with her estate pulling in $210 million, much of it from a 2011 auction of jewels, costumes and art work.

The auction of Taylor's jewels took in $116 million, more than double the record for a single collection, and set new marks for pearls, colorless diamonds and Indian jewels.

Taylor, who died in 2011 at the age of 79, was married eight times, twice to actor Richard Burton, and had a career spanning seven decades.

She first gained fame in 1944's "National Velvet" at age 12, and was nominated for five Oscars, winning best actress for "Butterfield 8" (1960) and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966), which also starred Burton.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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By Chris Francescani

NEW YORK (Reuters) - American actress Amanda Bynes appeared in court on Friday and denied charges of possessing marijuana and tossing a bong out of the window of her 36th-floor Manhattan apartment.

The former Nickelodeon child star, who appeared in court dressed in gray sweatpants, a long-sleeved black shirt and a disheveled platinum blonde wig, was released on her own recognizance after spending a night in jail after her arrest on Thursday.

She was charged with unlawful possession of marijuana, reckless endangerment and attempted tampering with physical evidence, according to court documents. All the alleged offenses are classified as misdemeanors rather than felonies.

Her attorney at the hearing denied the charges and accused police of entering the actress' apartment illegally.

"Clearly a search was made for the bong and nothing was recovered," attorney Andrew Friedman told the court. "My client completely denies ever having thrown anything out the window. She was followed illegally into her apartment for no reason."

The actress, 27, who has had several brushes with the law in the past year and is on probation for driving on a suspended license in California, was ordered to return to court on July 9.

Bynes said, "Thank you, sir," to the judge before leaving court and entering a taxi cab, flanked by paparazzi.

New York police were called to Bynes' 47th Street midtown high-rise building after an employee there reported that someone was smoking marijuana in the building's lobby.

Police said they were then directed to Bynes' apartment, where the actress invited them in.

Officers said they detected a strong smell of marijuana in the apartment and observed the bong - a tube-shaped water pipe commonly used for smoking marijuana - in the apartment.

Bynes then grabbed the bong and threw it out the window and the actress was taken into custody, police said.

Bynes, who had her own TV comedy sketch show on Nickelodeon at the age of 13, has gained a strong Internet following for her recent bizarre behavior and statements on her Twitter social media account.

The actress has not appeared in a film since 2010's "Easy A" and has appeared in court over a slew of driving violations in the past year, including drunk driving, and hit and run.

(Additional reporting by Eric Kelsey in Los Angeles; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - An 80-year-old Japanese mountain climber who has had four heart surgeries reached the top of Mount Everest on Thursday becoming the oldest person to conquer the world's highest mountain.

Yuichiro Miura, who took the standard southeast ridge route pioneered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay 60 years ago, reached the top of the 8,848 meter (29,028 feet) mountain at about 9:00 a.m. (0315 GMT). He was accompanied by three other Japanese, including his son, and six Nepali sherpas.

"This is the greatest feeling in the world," he told family members and supporters gathered in Tokyo, speaking from the summit by satellite phone.

"I never thought I'd get to the summit of Everest at the age of 80. It was the best feeling to get here, but now I'm completely exhausted."

Miura, who first climbed Everest in 2003 and repeated the feat five years later, takes the oldest climber record from Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, who reached the summit at the age of 76 in 2008.

"The record is not so important to me," Miura told Reuters in April, before setting off for Everest. "It is important to get to the top."

Miura spent the night at 8,500 meters (27,887 ft) at the Balcony in the so-called death zone before launching his final ascent, rather than the 8,000 meter South Col which is used as a resting place by most climbers before the summit climb, said Gyanendra Shrestha, a Nepal Tourism Ministry official.

His ascent had been watched closely in Japan, with daily broadcasts of phone calls and photographs from the climb - including one night when he and his fellow climbers drank green Japanese tea and ate hand-rolled sushi in their tent high on the mountain.

A noted adventurer, Miura skied down Everest from the South Col in 1970, a feat that became the subject of a documentary. He has since skied down the highest mountains on each of the seven continents, following the tradition of his late father Keizo, who skied down Europe's Mont Blanc at the age of 99.

He trained for the Everest climb by hiking in Tokyo with weighted packs and working out on a treadmill in a special low-oxygen room in his home.

Nearly 4,000 climbers have reached the Everest summit since the pioneering May 1953 climb, while 240 have lost their lives on its slopes.

Miura is not the first record-setter on Everest this climbing season.

Raha Moharrak became the first Saudi Arabian woman to conquer the peak, while Sudarshan Gautam, a 30-year-old Nepali-born Canadian who lost both arms in an accident, became the first double amputee to summit.

Miura's record may only be his to savor briefly. Nepal's Min Bahadur Sherchan, now 81, plans to start climbing the peak this weekend.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma and Elaine Lies, editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)

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PARIS (Reuters) - French singer and songwriter Georges Moustaki, beloved in France for his songs celebrating liberty and collaborations with Edith Piaf, died on Thursday after a long illness. He was 79.

The Greek-born singer grew up in Alexandria, Egypt, and arrived in Paris in 1951, where he began to play guitar at nightclubs and met some of the period's best-known singers.

He was introduced to Edith Piaf in the late 1950s and started to write songs for the Parisian star, the most famous of which was "Milord" about a lower-class girl who falls in love with an upper-class British traveler.

Developing a reputation as a singer in his own right in the mid-1960s, the hirsute and heavily bearded Moustaki achieved fame with songs including the immigrant ballad "Le Meteque" and "Ma Liberte", a hymn to the 1960s free-living spirit.

Moustaki, a life-long advocate of left-wing causes, ended his singing career in 2009, later telling newspaper La Croix that he was suffering from an irreversible bronchial illness that made it impossible to carry on.

French Culture Minister Aurelie Filippetti hailed an "artist with convictions who conveyed humanist values... and a great poet", and Twitter was flooded with tributes to a singer who many said had defined their childhoods.

(Reporting By Marine Pennetier and Elizabeth Pineau; Writing Nicholas Vinocur, editing by Paul Casciato)

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By Zorianna Kit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Zachary Quinto has transitioned swiftly from a television villain into an unlikely action film star in J.J Abrams' rebooted "Star Trek" franchise, playing the series' most recognizable half-Vulcan, Spock.

The 35-year-old actor, who gained fame as super-villain Sylar in sci-fi television series "Heroes," will reprise his role as the pointy-eared first officer of the starship Enterprise in "Star Trek Into Darkness," which will be released in theaters on Friday.

The actor spoke to Reuters about the challenges of playing Spock and why he chose to go public about being gay.

Q: "Star Trek Into Darkness" has more action, set pieces and destinations than the 2009 reboot. Is that right?

A: You're right. It's a larger scale version of the "Star Trek" story. The first one was about re-conceiving people's perceptions of "Star Trek," and trying to infuse it with new energy. The self-contained and more intimate nature of that film made sense. Now, people are more familiar with us as these characters so this movie builds on that and expands on it.

Q: What is Spock struggling with in this film?

A: I think he's learning how to be accountable and responsible to the people he loves and cares about. He is learning to embody and live the qualities of what it means to be a friend and what it means to be responsible to other people emotionally, because that's not the place from which he leads. He needs to learn how to integrate that part of himself and honor the feelings he has for the people he loves.

Q: What do you learn from Spock on a personal level?

A: I have an inherent understanding to his nature, which is one of duality - the head versus the heart. That is certainly something I can relate to. As someone who has been considered pretty intellectual and wordy, I also have a deep well of emotional life. I understand what it means to be in constant relationship to both of those aspects of myself.

Q: Which of Spock's qualities do you aspire for yourself?

A: The equanimity with which he deals with every situation in front of him, and the thoughtfulness and care he gives to measure his reactions. Sometimes I can be a little extreme in my reaction to something. I respect his reservedness and pensive consideration, which is an aspect of me but outweighed by my instinctual or impulsive reactions to things sometimes.

Q: In this film you're jumping into volcanoes and off of barges. You're fighting, running, chasing. Did you ever think of yourself as an action star?

A: I can't say I ever planned on that. But I will say I really thrived in that environment. I enjoyed those specific challenges and the relentlessness of it. I don't necessarily know I want every movie to be that way, but I wouldn't mind revisiting that again at some point down the line.

Q: How close are you with the cast?

A: We are very, very good friends in real life. When the first movie happened, it was a life changing experience for all of us. We were going through it at the same time and relied on each other for support and for the excitement of that time. That energy is starting to kick back up again. We look forward to spending time together on these extended periods where we're traveling around the world.

Q: You used your "Star Trek" clout to form a production company, Before the Door Pictures, whose first film, 2011's "Margin Call," was nominated for a best screenplay Oscar. Did that change things for you?

A: I think "Margin Call" did similar things for my production company that "Star Trek" did for me as an actor. The way that film was received really did authenticate my company and allowed us more access and more connections than we might have had otherwise.

Q: In between the two "Star Trek" films, you made some headlines when you said you were gay. Was coming out a big deal?

A: It was obviously a very big deal. It wasn't about formality or stopping rumors because I don't really pay attention to rumors in the first place. It was a very specific move that I made because there was a rash of teen suicides at the time (the victims were gay).

Q: How did that relate to you?

A: I felt it incumbent upon me to do something about that if it was in my power, which is was. So for me that was a very specific and emotional time. I felt very grateful for the response that it generated and the work on behalf of the LGBT community it has allowed me to do subsequently.

Q: Some actors feel that by coming out it could impact the roles they get to play. Did you feel it hindered your career?

A: Not one bit.

(Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy, Patricia Reaney and Vicki Allen)

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LONDON (Reuters) - British singer George Michael has received medical treatment after a car crash on Thursday, his publicist said.

The 49-year-old former Wham! frontman was being treated for "minor cuts and bruises" after the accident, Michael's spokeswoman said.

"George Michael was a passenger in a vehicle involved in a traffic accident yesterday evening, no third party was involved," a spokeswoman said on Friday. "He is being treated for superficial cuts and bruises but is fine."

British media reported that the accident occurred just outside London on a motorway during rush hour.

The "Careless Whisper" singer has suffered a string of accidents and health scares recently.

Last year he canceled his tour of Australia due to "major anxiety" brought on by a 2011 battle with severe pneumonia in Vienna, where he was treated in intensive care for a month for a life-threatening illness.

Michael has sold an estimated 100 million records over his career, but has hit headlines in recent years for his personal life more often than for his music.

In 1998 he was arrested in California for "engaging in a lewd act" in a public toilet and also had a number of run-ins with British police for possession of narcotics. He served a term in jail for driving under the influence of cannabis.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; editing by Mike Collett-White)

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(Reuters) - Pop stars Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift won the big prizes on Sunday at the Billboard Music Awards, which also honored legendary performers Madonna and Prince.

Bieber, who was named top male artist, also performed at the show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. He also took home Billboard's first Milestone Award, chosen by fans, for musical innovation and ingenuity.

"I'm 19 years old. I think I'm doing a pretty good job, Bieber said. "It should really be about the music. This is not a gimmick. I'm an artist and I should be taken seriously. And all this other bull should not be spoken of."

The teen heartthrob did not elaborate, but in recent months he has been involved in several high-profile incidents ranging from driving offenses to reports of hard partying and drugs being found on his tour bus in Sweden.

Swift won the top award of the night, artist of the year. She thanked her fans by telling them: "You are the longest and best relationship I've ever had."

Pop diva Madonna was named top touring artist for her "MDNA Tour," 2012's highest-grossing concert series.

Madonna strode onstage to accept the accolade from will.i.am, wearing black fishnet stockings, garters and a padlock choker.

The MDNA tour grossed more than $305 million from 88 sold-out shows and attracted an audience of 2.2 million people. Madonna acknowledged her fans, saying: "A showgirl needs her fans. Thank you for supporting me for three decades."

She also thanked her four children for being "incredibly supportive."

The Billboard Music Awards, hosted by "30 Rock" star Tracy Morgan, opened with Bruno Mars performing "Treasure."

Early awards went to Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, who won top rap song for "Thrift Shop," and Nicki Minaj, who took home the top rap artist honor.

Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" was named top digital song, while Swift took home the top Billboard 200 album award for "Red."

French producer and DJ David Guetta was named top electric dance music artist.

Among musical highlights, Bieber performed "Take You," which was chosen by his fans via Twitter, before pairing up with will.i.am for "#ThatPOWER."

Other musical pairings included Jennifer Lopez and Pitbull singing "#LiveItUp," Minaj and Lil Wayne who performed "High School," and Christina Aguilera and Pitbull singing "Feel This Moment."

Selena Gomez, Chris Brown, Icona Pop, South Korea rap sensation Psy and Swift, who was nominated for 11 Billboard awards and received eight, performed as well.

In an apparently unscripted moment, Miguel, performing "Adorn," leapt from the stage and landed feet-first atop two young women. No mention was made on the broadcast as to whether they were injured.

The show ended with the Icon Award for Prince, in recognition of his unique career and accomplishments in the music industry. Prince performed a medley to close the show, but did not deliver an acceptance speech.

(Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Stacey Joyce)

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By Patricia Reaney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie's auction house raised $38.8 million through a charity art auction and donations, Christie's said on Tuesday, with proceeds to benefit environmental and conservation causes.

The 33 works in The 11th Hour Auction organized by the star of the new film "The Great Gatsby" sold for $31.74 million on Monday evening and set 13 records for artists including Carol Bove, Joe Bradley, Mark Grotjahn, Raymond Pettibon and Mark Ryden among others.

A $5 million matching donation for three of the lots and additional gifts from donors brought the overall total to $38.8 million for The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, according to Christie's.

"All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you," DiCaprio told the audience at the end of the auction.

Many of the works, which were created for and donated to the auction by the artists, sold in spirited bidding in a packed auction house. Art collectors from around the globe also placed bids by telephone.

"Christie's is thrilled with the exceptional results of the sale, which realized $38.8 million," said Loic Gouzer, international specialist at Christie's and the head of the sale.

"The works of art were of incredible quality and range, and highlight the generosity of the many artists who donated," he added.

A panel of environmental experts and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation will decide which conservation projects will benefit from the proceeds of the sale.

At the opening of the auction, DiCaprio, who has supported environmental issues through his foundation since 1988 and also produced and narrated the 2007 documentary "The 11th Hour" about the state of the environment, urged the audience to dig deep into their pockets.

"Bid as if the fate of the planet depended on us," he said.

And they did. All of the 33 works were sold and many fetched prices that were three or four times their pre-sale estimates.

The top lot of the sale was an oil on cardboard mounted on canvas by Mark Grotjahn called "Untitled (Standard Lotus No. II, Bird of Paradise, Tiger Mouth Face 44.01)," which sold for $6.2 million as two determined bidders pushed up the price.

Zeng Fanzhi's "The Tiger," an oil on canvas, fetched nearly double its high estimate with a price of $4.8 million, and Bharti Kher's sculpture "The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own" went for $1.7 million.

Each of the three works had a pre-sale estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million.

DiCaprio donated "Ocean V" by Andreas Gursky, which sold for $600,000, and he bought an acrylic on canvas by Takashi Murakami for $700,000.

A portrait of DiCaprio painted by Elizabeth Peyton sold for $1 million.

Gouzer and DiCaprio had approached the artists and explained what they had hoped to accomplish with the auction, which they have been planning for a year.

"We explained that we wanted great works and they were very reactive because of the cause. The artists are very sensitive to the fact that we are destroying our planet," Gouzer said in an interview ahead of the sale.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Vicki Allen)

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NEW YORK (AP) As the Twitterverse expands with millions of users, it can be hard to have a unique voice. Nicole Richie doesn't have that problem.

Some examples:

"'It's 8:30am & I've already gotten into 5 fights' - thugs, and parents of toddlers."

"This therapist is going to be GREAT for me once I stop lying to him."

"I'm gonna dress up as an iPhone so my husband pays attention to me."

Tweets like that earned her not only millions of followers but the attention of production company Telepictures, which was already aware of Richie's popularity and wanted to work with her.

"As soon as we began pursuing her we also began following her on Twitter," recalls Sheila Bouttier, Sr. Vice President of Development of Telepictures. "We were struck by how funny and candid she was and wanted to really showcase that side of her personality, which we haven't seen in a long time."

They teamed up with AOL to create the web series (hash)CandidlyNicole. Each video is about five minutes and a new one is posted every Tuesday morning.

The first webisode, where 31-year-old Richie consults with a doctor about having her "tramp stamp" (or tattoo on her lower back) removed, earned 1 million views in just its first week. (Try not to at least smirk as she keeps referring to the doctor as "Dr. Tatt-off.")

In a recent phone interview, Richie said she's "thrilled" by the response but still has a hard time grasping that she's funny.

"My husband (musician Joel Madden) doesn't think I'm funny at all," she said. "He has not laughed at a joke of mine since 2006. I don't necessarily always just mean to be funny. I just kind of say whatever's on my mind but I do know that I have a very specific way of looking at my life."

Of course, Richie is no stranger to television. She first appeared alongside Paris Hilton on "The Simple Life," where they were filmed working in fish-out-of-water situations as interns or camp counselors. Richie also just wrapped a second season as a mentor on the competition show "Fashion Star" on NBC.

But Richie appreciates the format of the webisode.

"We are living in a world where everything needs to be a little bit shorter to keep people's attention," she said. "Especially the younger audience, which is why I think Twitter is so great."

She gets together once a week to film with a small camera crew. They go over ideas of what to shoot, but each video really is born from a Tweet she has posted. When the video gets posted she says she looks to her little sister for reassurance.

"I have a very hard time watching myself, which is another reason why I'm glad it's only five minutes. I let my sister watch them first. She's 14 (years-old) and the harshest critic so I kind of wait in the other room and see if her and her friends laugh."

Bouttier says even though viewers could see Richie on TV each week on "Fashion Star," it was just a glimpse of who she is and "her fans have been dying to hear from her for a long time."

Now that (hash)CandidlyNicole is a hit online, the next question is, could it be reformatted for television?

Both Telepictures and Richie say they're game. Bouttier says they've already received calls from various networks.

"No matter what, this will be a developmental tool for me to build my brand so whether it's TV or whatever, I think doing it in a digital space is a nice way to experiment," added Richie.

___

Online:

http://on.aol.com/show/517742769/episode/517775397

___

Alicia Rancilio covers entertainment for The Associated Press. Follow her online at http://www.twitter.com/aliciar

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NEW YORK (AP) Beyonce is canceling her Tuesday concert in Belgium because of dehydration and exhaustion.

In an email to The Associated Press, the singer's publicist says Beyonce has been advised by her doctors to rest. She was scheduled to perform at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp. The show will be rescheduled and tickets can be used at that show.

Her next tour date is Wednesday at the same arena. The statement says "she is awaiting word from her doctors before making a decision."

Beyonce, 31, launched her "Mrs. Carter World Tour" last month in Belgrade, Serbia. It wraps Aug. 5 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

___

Online:

http://www.beyonceonline.com/us/home

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By Kevin Murphy

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - When a racist pitcher beans Jackie Robinson in the head in the new movie about the first black man to play major league baseball, Sherrill Duesterhaus wants everybody in the theater to know it's a lie.

Duesterhaus' father, Fritz Ostermueller, threw the pitch, but it did not hit Robinson in the head and there is no evidence he uttered, "You don't belong here and you never will," as shown in "42," the Warner Bros. Pictures film that opened in April.

"I respect Jackie Robinson, his story is so inspiring and it's good that it is out there, but not at the expense of someone's good name," said Duesterhaus, 66, of Joplin, Missouri.

Duesterhaus said she had been warned by a friend that the film was unflattering to her father, who died of cancer at age 50 when she was 11 years old.

But the scene in which he taunts Robinson and throws at his head was still a shock, she said.

"It just took my breath away," Duesterhaus said. "I thought, 'All these people are sitting here believing this and it didn't happen.' It broke my heart."

She said her father was a "kind and loving man" and neither she nor her mother can recall him talking badly about Robinson or any black player.

Duesterhaus produced an article from a Pittsburgh newspaper in 1947 in which her father said Robinson crowded the plate, making pitching to him difficult. Ostermueller played for the Pittsburgh Pirates at the time.

"I told my wife the night before I pitched that I might have trouble with Robinson - that one of my pitches would hit him, if he didn't move back," Ostermueller said in the article.

"I knew, too, some people would say it was intentional. It wasn't at all, but in his first trip to the plate I hit him. After that, he moved back a couple of inches and showed me some respect."

TRUTH 'WENT SOUTH'

The pitch early in the 1947 season - Robinson's rookie year - sailed toward his head but he deflected it with his arm before falling to the ground, according to several accounts.

Robinson's teammates on the Brooklyn Dodgers yelled at Ostermueller, but no fight broke out on the field as shown in the movie.

A Warner Bros. spokesman, Paul McGuire, had no comment in response to questions about the film and Duesterhaus' concerns.

She said the movie contained other errors, such as showing Ostermueller as a right-handed pitcher, when he threw left-handed.

"I enjoyed the movie," Duesterhaus said, "up until the truth went south."

Jonathan Eig, author of the 2007 book "Opening Day: The Story of Jackie Robinson's First Season," said Robinson took verbal abuse from some players but there is no indication Ostermueller wanted to drive him out of baseball or threw at him because he was breaking the game's color barrier.

"I was surprised they chose that moment to dramatize the issue and picked Ostermueller of all people to be the villain," Eig said. "Even as I was watching the movie, I wondered if any of Ostermueller's kids will see this and what they would think."

Eig said Robinson was known to lean into pitches and swing wildly, making him vulnerable to getting hit.

Robinson was hit by more pitches than all but one other National League batter in 1947, and led the league in that category in 1948, according to baseball-reference.com.

Robert Butler, a former film critic for the Kansas City Star who now has an online movie review site, said the movie unnecessarily tainted Ostermueller's reputation.

"In my opinion, it's the result of bad research, laziness or outright malice," Butler said. "It would have been the easiest thing in the world to give (Ostermueller) a different name in the film. That said, anyone who goes to movies looking for true history is fighting a losing battle."

(Editing by David Bailey and Xavier Briand)

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