Danny Puff

NEW YORK (AP) "Oz the Great and Powerful" is living up to its name at the box office.

Walt Disney's 3-D blockbuster has led all films for the second week in a row, taking in $42.2 million according to studio estimates Sunday. Sam Raimi's prequel to the L. Frank Baum classic "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" also took in $46.6 million overseas, leading to a two-week worldwide total of $281.8 million.

That makes "Oz" easily the biggest hit of 2013 so far.

Among the weekend's debuts, the Halle Berry thriller "The Call" far exceeded expectations with a $17.1 million opening for Sony. The Steve Carell magician comedy "The Incredible Burt Wonderstone" fared worse, opening with $10.3 million for Warner Bros.

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By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After making the transition from child star and boy band heartthrob to movie star, Justin Timberlake is returning to music with his first album since 2006, cementing his grown-up status with a record inspired by his new marriage.

Timberlake, 32, officially releases "The 20/20 Experience" on Tuesday. But the 10-track record of smooth love songs with a throwback R&B sound is already No. 1 on the iTunes charts after it was streamed online last week.

The album is Timberlake's first since "FutureSex/LoveSounds" which spawned hit pop singles "Sexyback" and "What Goes Around...Comes Around."

Although lead single "Suit & Tie," featuring rapper Jay-Z, failed to meet sales expectations on its first week of release in January, the album is expected to sell well following weeks of promotion including a Grammy Awards show performance and a stint by Timberlake on TV sketch show "Saturday Night Live."

Industry sources cited by Billboard said "The 20/20 Experience" could sell 500,000 copies in its first week, and easily give Timberlake the No. 1 spot on the Billboard 200 album charts.

"The 20/20 Experience" sees Timberlake embracing his status as a married man after his wedding to actress Jessica Biel in October 2012.

The singer draws on lazy summer romances for the majority of his songs, with slow-tempo swing rhythms on tracks such as "Pusher Girl Love," where Timberlake describes his addiction to a girl.

Jason Lipshutz at Billboard magazine gave the album an 88 out of 100 rating, saying that while the singer did not replicate the edgy pop sounds of earlier hits on his "FutureSex" album, he "has offered us something more complicated, although no less accessible."

Rolling Stone magazine's Jody Rosen praised the singer for being "such a charismatic and effortlessly appealing singer, dancer and showman," and called the album "Timberlake's neo-soul record."

FROM HEARTTHROB TO ENTREPRENEUR

Timberlake has barely put a foot wrong in his transition from child star in the "Mickey Mouse Club" to popular boy band N'Sync, through to solo entertainer, actor and entrepreneur.

He has appeared in movies "The Social Network" and "Bad Teacher;" launched his own record label, Tennman Records; added clothing designer to his credits with label William Rast; and invested in social networking site MySpace.

His all-rounder status was showcased last week on "Saturday Night Live," where he sang, danced and acted - and boosted ratings for the NBC show to a 14-month high.

In July he will embark on a "Legends of the Summer" tour of North American stadiums along with Jay-Z, and the pair will headline a London music festival in the same month.

While "Don't Hold The Wall" - a steamy dance floor track with explicit connotations - harkens back to Timberlake's "Sexyback" days, Biel is often at the forefront of the singer's mind in the new album. "That Girl" is a sweet throwback R&B love song, while new single "Mirrors" is an ode to his new wife.

Los Angeles Times reviewer Mikael Wood gave the album three out of four stars, saying "Timberlake holds (the album) together too, with lyrics that stay resolutely on the topic of romance."

Not all critics are swooning. Alexis Petridis of Britain's Guardian newspaper gave "The 20/20 Experience" three out of five stars, but slammed Timberlake's lyrics, which he called "awful."

"It's not that the lyrics are exclusively about sex; it's that Timberlake writes about it in a way that suggests he's desperate to add some kind of musical equivalent of the Bad Sex award to his six Grammys and four Emmys," Petridis said.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) The third season of "American Horror Story" will be subtitled "Coven," and add actress Kathy Bates to the series' ensemble, according to the TV anthology's co-creator, Ryan Murphy.

"We're far enough along in the writing that I can tell you what it's about," Murphy announced to more than 1000 of the show's fans who attended the PaleyFest panel on the series Friday night at the Saban Theatre in Los Angeles.

Murphy ("Nip/Tuck," ''Glee," ''The New Normal") confirmed there would be witches in the new season, but failed to reveal any more plot specifics. "It's a really cool story that we've been talking about for a couple of years, actually, and this seemed the year to do it," he continued, dropping one more tidbit:

After filming the first two seasons on lots and soundstages, parts of the series three will be shot in New Orleans.

"The fun thing about doing the show is researching what are the really haunted places in America, because every year the institution is one of the lead characters," Murphy explained. "The first year was Murder House, and this year was Asylum. We have another couple doozy locales."

Joining Murphy on the panel were "American Horror Story: Asylum" cast members Frances Conroy, Naomi Grossman, Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Lily Rabe as well as executive producers Dante Di Loreto, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear. Before the event, it had been reported that Conroy, Lange, Paulson, Peters and Rabe were confirmed to be a part of the third season.

Previously, Murphy had also said Lange would be playing a "glamor cat" in her latest "Story" role. When Lange was asked about that new character, she replied, laughing, "I don't know what a 'glamor cat' is, but I am excited about it."

Late in the event, the ensemble's latest major cast addition was introduced to the audience: the Oscar-winning Bates ("Misery"), who said she was a big fan of the series and a longtime friend of Lange. Joked Murphy, "You know, I love a good Oscar winner," referring to two-time Academy Award honoree Lange, and adding that he and Lange had thought of Bates as this season-three character for some time. "So I pitched (Bates) this cuckoo-for-Cocoa-Puffs character. I said, 'I know you have a lot going on. And we're way, way, way far ahead, but think about it for a couple weeks, and call me or write me.' And my phone rang an hour later: 'I'm in.'"

"I've always been fast," Bates injected, chuckling.

Continued Murphy, "The only thing I'll say about the part is, you know, I wanted to see a lot of scenes with Jessica Lange and Kathy Bates going at it. So, that's what you're going to see."

Murphy also said he was considering a vampire-themed 'Horror Story,' and that "I have been talking to John (FX network president and general manager John Landgraf) about doing a companion piece to 'American Horror Story,' so I think it would be really cool to do a couple different incarnations of the idea. So, we've been talking about that, but I can't talk about it."

"American Horror Story: Coven" will premiere this fall on FX.

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Online:

http://www.fxnetworks.com/ahs

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Follow Michael Cidoni Lennox on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeCLennox

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By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis took on the role of a simple parish priest on Sunday, saying Mass for the Vatican's resident community and urging listeners to not to be so quick to condemn others for their failings.

Francis, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, said Mass for a few hundred people in Santa Anna, a church just inside the Vatican walls that is used as the parish church for workers in the city-state.

Before he entered the tiny church, Francis stopped to greet cheering well-wishers who had lined up outside a nearby Vatican gate shouting "Francesco, Francesco, Francesco," his name in Italian.

He chatted and laughed with many of them before pointing to his black plastic wrist watch and saying: "It's almost 10 o'clock. I have to go inside to say Mass. They are waiting for me."

Wearing the purple vestments of the liturgical season of Lent, which ends in two weeks on Easter Sunday, he delivered a short homily in Italian, without notes, centered on the gospel story of the crowd that wanted to stone a woman who had committed adultery.

Jesus told them "let him among you who is without sin, cast the first stone" and then told the woman "go and sin no more".

"I think even we are sometimes like these people, who on the one hand want to listen to Jesus, but on the other hand, sometimes we like to stone others and condemn others. The message of Jesus is this: mercy," he said.

"I say in all humility that this is the strongest message of the Lord: mercy," Francis said, speaking in a soft voice.

The pope, who was due to give his first Sunday address and blessing from the window of the papal apartments to tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square, said people should be open to God's mercy, even those who have committed grave sins.

"The Lord never tires of forgiving, never! It is we who tire of asking for forgiveness," he said.

"Let us ask for the grace of never tiring of asking for forgiveness because he never tires of forgiving," he said.

At the end of the Mass, he waited outside the church and greeted people as they left the building, like a parish priest.

He asked many of them as they emerged: "Pray for me".

(Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)

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MIAMI (AP) Stars are born at Ultra Music Festival.

The electronic dance music festival that begins Friday will draw internationally renowned disc jockeys, producers and tens of thousands of revelers as one of the largest dance music gatherings in the world super-sizes to two weekends. It also will draw the expanding genre's great unknowns, the next big acts who catch the attention of the 330,000 revelers expected to attend.

"Ultra Fest is important because a lot of kids who go there don't even know who's playing," said the producer Diplo, who will be performing with his group Major Lazer. "Two years ago Skrillex went and played for free. He just wanted to be part of that lineup, part of the Ultra thing. Then next year he headlined. That's how big you can get in the DJ world within a year."

This year's festival attracts most of the genres top names, including Swedish House Mafia, which will be playing its final show as a trio Friday night three years after making their North American debut at the festival. David Guetta, DeadMau5, Afrojack, Avicii and scores more were scheduled to perform though preparation of the festival's main stage remained incomplete following an accident Thursday that injured three workers.

The festival is now in its 15th year, but has gained rapidly in prominence as EDM has flourished. Long popular in Europe, house music has taken root in popular music in the U.S., climbing into top 40 radio and propelling DJs, once faceless figures behind the turntables, center stage. Pop artists like Rihanna, Pitbull and Lady Gaga have found enormous success incorporating the electronic sound into their music.

The proliferation of hits has changed the way some artists present their music at Ultra, said Chad Cisneros of Tritonal. DJs still come to the event to showcase new tracks, but more frequently they play sets their fans already know well.

"It's changed from a technology and a fan perspective," Cisneros said. "They know what to expect. And they know what tracks they want to hear."

Ultra has served as a taste-making force during EDM's ascent into the popular consciousness.

"Without the input of Ultra, I doubt EDM would have become the established culture and mainstream success it has become today," said Rick Snoman, a producer involved in dance music since 1989 who has done remixes for artists like Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue.

It was unclear Friday afternoon how long the main stage might be delayed. One of the three workers hurt suffered critical injuries when one of several large LED screens fell while being hoisted in the air. City engineers, fire rescue officials and Occupational Safety and Health Administration representatives were inspecting all of the stages at the festival Friday as a precaution.

"The main stage is still not operational," Miami Fire Rescue spokesman Lt. Ignatius Carroll said. "There's still no work being done there. "

The festival will attract a strong police presence. City of Miami police said they have more than 200 uniformed officers on patrol, as well as undercover officers within the event. The increased security was part of the festival's agreement after city commissioners raised objections to the event's expansion into a second weekend. There have been multiple drug arrests in previous years and for many who live in the downtown area the festival is seen as a major nuisance.

Last year, a video of an Ultra partygoer dancing, clearly inebriated, with a palm tree went viral on YouTube, symbolizing the revelry that's become associated with the festival and the music.

Festival organizers insisted the event will be safe.

"We got together and addressed everyone's concerns and spent a lot of money on extra security and police," said Russell Faibisch, one of the founders of Ultra.

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AP Music Writer Chris Talbott in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

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Online:

http://ultramusicfestival.com

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Follow Christine Armario on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cearmario

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) A fast-food burrito chain in Albuquerque has become an international tourist attraction as people come from all over the world to see the spot where a fictional drug trafficker runs his organization. A pastry shop sells doughnuts topped with blue candy designed to resemble crystal meth. A beauty store has a similar product crystal blue bathing salts.

As "Breaking Bad" finishes filming its fifth and final season in Albuquerque, the popularity of the show is providing a boost to the economy and creating a dilemma for local tourism officials as they walk the fine line of profiting from a show that centers around drug trafficking, addiction and violence. "Breaking Bad" follows the fictional character Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher turned meth lord.

Albuquerque has seen an unexpected jump in tourists visiting popular sites from the show and local businesses cashing in on its popularity. Tourists are also flocking to sites that before the show were unknown and unimportant: the suburban home of White, played by Bryan Cranston; a car wash that is a front for a money-laundering operation on the series; a rundown motel used frequently for filming; and the real-life burrito joint, which is a fast food chicken restaurant on the show. The Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau has even created a website of the show's most popular places around town to help tourists navigate, and ABQ Trolley Company sold out all its "BaD" tours last year at $60 a ticket.

"They ask if they can take pictures. They ask if Gus is here," said Rachel Johnson, 19, a shift manager at the Twisters burrito restaurant in Albuquerque's South Valley, referring to the show's character Gus Fring, played by actor Giancarlo Esposito. The eatery has served as the location for the "Los Pollos Hermanos" restaurant where Fring runs his drug operation on "Breaking Bad."

Other popular shows over the past decade like "Sex and the City" and "The Sopranos" have generated tours and widespread interest in the filming locations, but "Breaking Bad" has seen a unique twist with drug-themed products that have been springing up around Albuquerque.

Debbie Ball, owner of The Candy Lady store, recently capitalized on the show's popularity by selling blue "Breaking Bad" meth treats sugar rock candy that looks like the meth sold on the show. Ball provided her candy as props of the show in the first two seasons and said she has sold 20,000 bags of the stuff at $1 apiece. She also launched her own "Breaking Bad" limo tours this year with a driver dressed as Walter White.

"The show is amazing," said Ball. "I don't live too far from Walter White's house."

A pastry shop called the Rebel Donut has among its specialties "Blue Sky" Breaking Bad doughnuts, pieces decorated with blue rock candy. And the Great Face & Body shop recently developed a new line of blue bath salts called "Bathing Bad." (It's actually bath salts used to bathe, not the street drug also known as "bath salt.")

Meanwhile, Masks y Mas Mexican folk art store near the University of New Mexico sells papier mache statues of La Santa Muerte Mexico's folk Death Saint who counts drug traffickers among her devotees. During the chilling opening scene of the show's third season, a pair of cartel assassins is shown crawling to the saint's shrine in Mexico to request some divine help.

"We provided the Santa Muerte statues for that shrine in that episode," said store owner Kiko Torres. "The stuff now sells out all of the time."

Tania Armenta, a vice president for the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau, said the city has seen positive benefits from the show's popularity, from demands for tours to inquiries from other production companies seeking to film in Albuquerque. The Legislature also passed what has been labeled the "Breaking Bad" bill this year that provides tax breaks to TV shows that film in New Mexico.

"It's raised the visibility of the city," said Armenta. "They are intrigued by the scenic images that they see."

Still, tourism officials and business owners are quick to point out that they are walking a fine line in trying not to promote the dark themes from "Breaking Bad." But their pride in the show taking place in Albuquerque and the money that it brings in is often enough to offset their concerns.

Ball said the show doesn't glorify the drug war but rather educates the public on its dangers.

"Watch it with your children. Yes, it's dark," said Ball. "It actually educates you about meth, about making it and what actually happens to you when you walk down that road."

The show's themes prompted Miguel Jaramillo, 28, and Kim Shay, 38, both of Albuquerque, to take their own tour of the "Breaking Bad" sites around town during a recent afternoon.

While at the Crossroads Motel, known on the show as a den for meth use and prostitution, Jaramillo took photos with a smartphone and uploaded them to his Instagram account. In a day's time, the pair had visited more than six sites and planned on seeing more.

"This is part of my geekiness, I guess," said Jaramillo, who recently fell in love with the show before realizing how big of a role Albuquerque played in it. "I'm geeking out today."

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If You Go...

ALBUQUERQUE BREAKING BAD LOCATIONS: http://www.itsatrip.org/albuquerque/arts/breaking-bad-in-albuquerque.aspx offers map for self-guided tour and other information from the Albuquerque Convention & Visitors Bureau.

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Follow Russell Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras

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MIAMI (AP) Stars are born at Ultra Music Festival.

The electronic dance music festival that began Friday will draw internationally renowned disc jockeys, producers and tens of thousands of revelers as one of the largest dance music gatherings in the world super-sizes to two weekends. It also will draw the expanding genre's great unknowns, the next big acts who catch the attention of the 330,000 revelers expected to attend.

"Ultra Fest is important because a lot of kids who go there don't even know who's playing," said the producer Diplo, who will be performing with his group Major Lazer. "Two years ago Skrillex went and played for free. He just wanted to be part of that lineup, part of the Ultra thing. Then next year he headlined. That's how big you can get in the DJ world within a year."

This year's festival attracts most of the genres top names, including Swedish House Mafia, which will be playing its final show as a trio three years after making their North American debut at the festival. David Guetta, DeadMau5, Afrojack, Avicii and scores more were scheduled to perform though preparation of the festival's main stage was temporarily halted following an accident Thursday that injured three workers, two seriously.

The festival is now in its 15th year, but has gained rapidly in prominence as EDM has flourished. Long popular in Europe, house music has taken root in popular music in the U.S., climbing into top 40 radio and propelling DJs, once faceless figures behind the turntables, center stage. Pop artists like Rihanna, Pitbull and Lady Gaga have found enormous success incorporating the electronic sound into their music.

The proliferation of hits has changed the way some artists present their music at Ultra, said Chad Cisneros of Tritonal. DJs still come to the event to showcase new tracks, but more frequently they play sets their fans already know well.

"It's changed from a technology and a fan perspective," Cisneros said. "They know what to expect. And they know what tracks they want to hear."

Ultra has served as a taste-making force during EDM's ascent into the popular consciousness.

"Without the input of Ultra, I doubt EDM would have become the established culture and mainstream success it has become today," said Rick Snoman, a producer involved in dance music since 1989 who has done remixes for artists like Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue.

Engineers were inspecting stages right up to the start of the festival, which began slightly later than expected as a final run through was being made. One of the three workers hurt suffered critical injuries when one of several large LED screens fell while being hoisted in the air on Thursday. Miami Fire Rescue spokesman Lt. Ignatius Carroll said all the stages were checked as a precaution. The main stage was also opened, though without all of the extra lighting festival organizers had planned on adding, Carroll said.

The festival will attract a strong police presence. City of Miami police said they have more than 200 uniformed officers on patrol, as well as undercover officers within the event. The increased security was part of the festival's agreement after city commissioners raised objections to the event's expansion into a second weekend. There have been multiple drug arrests in previous years and for many who live in the downtown area the festival is seen as a major nuisance.

Last year, a video of an Ultra partygoer dancing, clearly inebriated, with a palm tree went viral on YouTube, symbolizing the revelry that's become associated with the festival and the music.

Festival organizers insisted the event will be safe.

"We got together and addressed everyone's concerns and spent a lot of money on extra security and police," said Russell Faibisch, one of the founders of Ultra.

___

AP Music Writer Chris Talbott in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://ultramusicfestival.com

___

Follow Christine Armario on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/cearmario

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By Chris Michaud

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Pop star Madonna on Saturday presented CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper with a gay media watchdog's top honors in recognition of his stature and accomplishment as an openly gay journalist.

"Love thy neighbor as thyself," she said, decrying anti-gay bullying that sometimes has led to suicide. "It's an atrocity to me, and I don't accept it," she added to enthusiastic applause.

The annual Vito Russo Award is named after the activist and film historian who was one of the founding member of media watchdog group GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

"I am only here tonight because I've benefited from what they and so many others have done," said Cooper, who came out last summer, referring to activists like Russo and Larry Kramer.

The newsman said that "being gay is certainly one of the greatest blessings" of his life, adding that "it opened my head and heart in ways that I never could have predicted."

Past winners have included Suze Orman, Rosie O'Donnell, Elton John and Tom Ford.

Film director Bret Ratner received the ignoble Ally Award, a little over a year after he used a pejorative term for gays at a news conference promoting his stint producing the Oscars.

He quickly stepped down, then worked with GLAAD on a pro-gay public service announcement campaign.

In other awards handed out at the 24th annual ceremony, NBC's "Smash" was named outstanding television drama, and the film about 1980s AIDS activists, "How to Survive a Plague" won for outstanding documentary.

CBS' "The Amazing Race," which has been won by gay couples during its long run, received the award for reality program, while MSNBC's "Being Transgender in America" and "Good Morning America's report "Obama Endorses Marriage Equality" won awards for television journalism.

The Boston Globe, Rolling Stone magazine, City Pages' Andy Mannix, The New York Times' Frank Bruni and The Advocate/Out were among winners for print journalism. "The Whale" and "From White Plains" took the theater honors.

Awards also went to Spanish media including Telemundo, People en Espa ol, voces.huffingtonpost.com and ElDiarioNY.com.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

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ROME (Reuters) - The same "hand of God" brought the papacy to Argentina as helped it to the 1986 World Cup, says Diego Maradona, the football legend whose famously illicit, handled goal against England still excites passions at home and abroad.

In a letter to Rome's Il Messaggero newspaper on Wednesday from his base in Dubai, Maradona, 52, described himself as a devout Roman Catholic and said he rejoiced at the election of his compatriot Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as Pope Francis.

"I am truly very happy and I am certain that my enthusiasm is shared by the whole Argentinian people," he wrote.

"Everybody in Argentina can remember 'the hand of God' in the England match in the 1986 World Cup. Now, in my country, the 'hand of God' has brought us an Argentinian pope."

In a quarter-final tie in 1986, Maradona eliminated England with two goals, one a brilliant solo run through the defence, the other a handball that the referee mistook for a header.

He said afterwards that the goal was scored "a little with the head of Maradona, a little with the hand of God".

That remark still rankles in England, where the top-selling Sun newspaper's splash on the Argentinian pope showed Francis raising his arm in benediction with the headline: "Hand of God".

(Writing by Barry Moody; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Italian bishops were so convinced that one of their own would become pope that they sent a congratulatory message to the media thanking God for the election of a prelate from Milan.

The trouble was, the new pope had already been named as Argentinian cardinal Jorge Bergoglio.

The secretary-general of the Italian conference, Monsignor Mariano Crociata, expressed "joy and thanks" to God for the election of Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan in a statement sent to reporters at 8:23 p.m. (7:23 p.m. British time) on Wednesday night.

About 10 minutes earlier, Bergoglio had made his first appearance before the crowds in St. Peter's Square.

At 9:08 p.m. (8:08 p.m. British time), the Italian bishops conference sent another statement thanking God for the election of the pope, but this time got the name right.

In the days leading up the secret conclave, many Italian newspapers openly promoted Scola as the next pope.

The newspapers - and the bishops conference - appear to have missed the warning contained in a traditional Italian saying that front-runners at a papal conclave are often disappointed.

"He who enters a conclave as a pope, leaves it as a cardinal," the saying goes. Perhaps it was never more true in the modern age than in the conclave that elected Bergoglio instead of the Italian favourite Scola.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Peter Graff)

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