Danny Puff

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Green slime spewed furiously at the Kids Choice Awards on Saturday, where "Twilight Saga" star Kristen Stewart and British boy band One Direction won two awards apiece.

Stewart, 22, escaped the slime but plunged her hands into the green goo, saying she "felt like I have finally found my kindergartner self," as she accepted trophies for movie actress and favorite female butt kicker.

Organizers said more than 350 million votes were cast online in more than 20 categories, spanning film, television, books, music and sport for the stunt-filled annual award show on youth channel Nickelodeon.

Hosted by "Transformers" actor Josh Duhamel, who is married to singer Fergie, the show in Los Angeles featured performances by Pitbull and Christina Aguilera, as well as Ke$ha.

Johnny Depp and Katy Perry accepted orange blimp-shaped trophies for favorite female singer and movie actor respectively and both stars had words of wisdom for the audience of kids and young teens.

"This is such a cool award ... stay safe, stay in school, don't do drugs," Perry told them. Depp said he was "truly honored and humbled. Thank you for what you are, which is the future."

Selena Gomez, 20, the ex-girlfriend of pop star Justin Bieber, took the female TV actress award for her Disney Channel series "Wizards of Waverly Place," even though the show came to an end more than a year ago.

Bieber, who is on tour in Europe, was voted favorite male singer and was among several stars who did not make it to accept their award in person.

No-shows included One Direction, who are also on tour and who won for favorite music group and song for "What Makes You Beautiful," "X Factor" judge Simon Cowell (favorite villain), and Ross Lynch, 17, who was named favorite TV actor for Disney Channel's pop star series "Austin & Ally."

Sandra Bullock, Neil Patrick Harris, Duhamel, Pitbull, Nick Cannon, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and dozens of audience members got covered in slime gushing out from water cannons, presenter's podiums, ceilings, and even the tail of a fake gymnastic horse.

Other awards went to Nickelodeon's "Victorious" for top TV show, "The Hunger Games" for favorite movie, "Wreck-It Ralph" for top animated movie, and race car driver Danica Patrick and basketball player LeBron James for top athletes.

The Kids Choice Awards will be broadcast around the world in more than 25 languages, Nickelodeon said.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by David Brunnstrom)

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By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Joe Weider, the self-made fitness and bodybuilding guru who built a magazine empire that included more than a dozen popular publications such as Muscle and Fitness, Shape and Men's Fitness, died on Saturday at the age of 93.

Weider, also known for starting the Mr Olympia bodybuilding contest in the 1960s and mentoring a young Arnold Schwarzenegger, passed away from heart failure at a Los Angeles area hospital, his longtime publicist Charlotte Parker said.

"Joe Weider was a titan in the fitness industry and one of the kindest men I have ever met," Schwarzenegger said in a statement posted on his official website.

"He leaves behind a fantastic legacy of a fitter world," the film star and former governor of California said. "Very few people can claim to have influenced as many lives as Joe did through his magazines, his supplements, his training equipment and his big-hearted personality."

Born in a tough neighborhood of Montreal in 1920, Weider began lifting weights as a teenager to stand up to bullies and older boys before competing in his first bodybuilding contest at the age of 17, according to a biography provided by Parker.

He started his first magazine, Your Physique, in the early 1940s and with his younger brother Ben rented Montreal's Monument National Theater to host the first Mr Canada contest during that same decade.

The two brothers also founded the International Federation of Bodybuilders and in 1965 Weider created the Mr Olympia competition, the sport's premiere bodybuilding contest.

Weider met Schwarzenegger at a bodybuilding contest in Europe and convinced him to move from his native Austria to the United States to seek wider recognition.

"He saw a lot in Arnold," Parker said. "He felt that the sport needed a star and right away he could see that Arnold was something special."

Schwarzenegger, then nicknamed the "Austrian Oak," first gained fame by winning a string of Mr Olympia titles in the early 1970s before going on to a successful career in such films as "The Terminator" and "Total Recall."

He was elected governor of California in 2003 and served two terms before retiring from politics.

"Joe didn't just inspire my earliest dreams; he made them come true the day he invited me to move to America to pursue my bodybuilding career," Schwarzenegger, who visited Weider in the hospital before his death, said in the statement.

"I will never forget his generosity. One of Joe's greatest qualities is that he wasn't just generous with his money; he freely gave of his time and expertise and became a father figure for me," he said.

Schwarzenegger also credited Weider with getting him his first acting role, in a movie called "Hercules in New York," by claiming that the hulking young Austrian was a Shakespearean actor from Germany.

Weider, who also created a line of sports nutritional supplements and ultimately founded more than a dozen fitness magazines including Fit Pregnancy, Living Fit and Flex, sold his Weider Publicans to American Media Inc. in the early 2000s.

He is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, Betty.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, David Brunnstrom and Jackie Frank)

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NEW YORK (AP) The chemistry is over: rock outfit My Chemical Romance has disbanded.

The New Jersey-based band announced Saturday that "it has come time for it to end." The foursome thanked fans in a statement and said the experience was "a true blessing."

My Chemical Romance's sound is a mix of alternative, punk rock and pop. Band members released their debut album in 2002 but really made a splash on the music scene in 2004 with the platinum-selling "Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge." It featured the top-40 hit "Helena."

They followed that with another platinum effort in 2006, "The Black Parade," earning their first top-10 pop hit with the song "Welcome to the Black Parade."

The group said they've "shared the stage with people we admire, people we look up to, and best of all, our friends."

Group members included vocalist Gerard Way, bassist Mikey Way and guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero. Their last album was 2010's "Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys."

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NEW YORK (AP) The seemingly unstoppable hit "The Book of Mormon" has broken another record this time on the other side of the Atlantic.

The quirky, profane musical opened Thursday night to some critical bashing, but the next day earned the highest one-day gross in London theater history.

Between 10 a.m. and midnight Friday, 2,107,972 million pounds ($3.2 million) worth of tickets were sold at the box office, according to final figures. By comparison, the Broadway version only earned $1.5 million the day after it opened to rapturous reviews.

"London can be tough," Scott Rudin, an influential theater and film producer who has steered "The Book of Mormon," said by phone Friday night after flying back from England. "American musicals tend to get knocked in the teeth in London, by and large. It's a tougher place."

The show is now booked at the Prince of Wales Theatre until January, but Rudin predicts it may be in London for a long time to come.

The $3.2 million windfall is technically higher than the current West End and Broadway one-day record of $3.1 million that poured in the day after "The Producers" opened on Broadway in 2001, but that haul hasn't been adjusted for inflation.

"The Book of Mormon" by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and "Avenue Q" composer Robert Lopez tells the story of two Mormon missionaries sent to spread the word in Uganda.

In New York, "The Book of Mormon" won nine Tony Awards in 2011, including best musical. The show also won a Grammy Award and recouped its $11.4 million capitalization after just nine months. It remains the toughest ticket to get on Broadway.

A production has opened in Chicago it set a house record for the Bank of America Theatre and has been extended three times until September and a national tour kicked off in August in Denver, where it has broken box office records as it crosses the country.

The tour is currently in Detroit where it already has broken the Fisher Theatre's house record for a standard eight-performance week through the weekend, and then goes to Pittsburgh, Boston, Toronto, Cleveland and Washington, D.C.

In London, most critics praised the production's skill and the English cast's energy, though some were left uncharmed, including the Daily Mail critic, who "tired of it after 10 minutes." The Guardian called it "mildly amusing."

Rudin said despite some grousing by London critics, the crowds have been enthusiastic, particularly the English fans of "South Park." Pent-up demand for the show has been roiling since the New York opening. And, unlike in New York, London audiences knew what to expect.

Though Rudin admits he was anxious in the days leading to the London opening, he recognized that the show's humor jokes about African dictatorships, AIDS and poverty would translate.

"The story and humor of 'The Book of Mormon' is deeply influenced by Monty Python's Flying Circus," he said. "I knew that would work over there."

The West End has just enjoyed its ninth successive year of record box office returns and attendance went up slightly in 2012 to 13.9 million. This season, in addition to "The Book of Mormon," the West End is hosting the musicals "Once" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Family" and plays with Helen Mirren and by John Logan.

Rudin, who has also produced the films "No Country for Old Men" and "The Social Network," has been busy on Broadway this season, putting on the Scarlett Johansson-led "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" revival and the upcoming "The Testament of Mary."

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Online:

http://bookofmormonthemusical.com

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Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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NEW YORK (AP) New York City prosecutors will not charge Lindsay Lohan in an alleged fight at a Manhattan nightclub in November, an attorney for the actress said Friday.

Attorney Marc Heller said the Lohan faces no formal charges after prosecutors were unable to gather sufficient evidence to prove the case.

"She's totally clear and exonerated," Heller said. "She has nothing but smooth sailing ahead."

A spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to comment.

Lohan was arrested Nov. 29 on a charge of misdemeanor assault after an encounter with a woman at the club Avenue in the city's trendy Meatpacking District.

Lohan's accuser, Tiffany Mitchell, was "disappointed" that the district attorney's office decided not to prosecute, said her attorney, Gloria Allred.

"Ms. Mitchell is considering all of her legal options in the civil justice system because of what she suffered that night," said Allred.

The district attorney's decision was welcomed news for "Liz and Dick" star, who accepted a plea deal Monday in a misdemeanor car crash case in California.

The troubled 26-year-old actress was sentenced to spend five days in jail, but that time will be served in a locked-down rehabilitation facility. The plea deal also includes 90 days in rehab, 30 days of community labor, 18 months of psychological counseling, a fine and restitution.

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NEW YORK (AP) The seemingly unstoppable hit "The Book of Mormon" has broken another record this time on the other side of the Atlantic.

The quirky, profane musical opened Thursday night to some critical bashing, but the next day earned the highest one-day gross in London theater history.

Between 10 a.m. and midnight Friday, 2,107,972 million pounds ($3.2 million) worth of tickets were sold at the box office, according to final figures. By comparison, the Broadway version only earned $1.5 million the day after it opened to rapturous reviews.

"London can be tough," Scott Rudin, an influential theater and film producer who has steered "The Book of Mormon," said by phone Friday night after flying back from England. "American musicals tend to get knocked in the teeth in London, by and large. It's a tougher place."

The show is now booked at the Prince of Wales Theatre until January, but Rudin predicts it may be in London for a long time to come.

To put the staggering one-day take in perspective, the highest single-week gross in the West End from another Yankee show, "Wicked" was just over 1 million pounds over nine productions during the final week of 2010. The $3.2 million windfall is technically higher than the current West End and Broadway one-day record $3.1 million that poured in the day after "The Producers" opened on Broadway, but that haul hasn't been adjusted for inflation.

"The Book of Mormon" by "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and "Avenue Q" composer Robert Lopez tells the story of two Mormon missionaries sent to spread the word in Uganda.

In New York, "The Book of Mormon" won nine Tony Awards in 2011, including best musical. The show also won a Grammy Award and recouped its $11.4 million capitalization after just nine months. It remains the toughest ticket to get on Broadway.

A production has opened in Chicago it set a house record for the Bank of America Theatre and has been extended three times until September and a national tour kicked off in August in Denver, where it has broken box office records as it crosses the country.

The tour is currently in Detroit where it already has broken the Fisher Theatre's house record for a standard eight-performance week through the weekend, and then goes to Pittsburgh, Boston, Toronto, Cleveland and Washington, D.C.

In London, most critics praised the production's skill and the English cast's energy, though some were left uncharmed, including the Daily Mail critic, who "tired of it after 10 minutes." The Guardian called it "mildly amusing."

Rudin said despite some grousing by London critics, the crowds have been enthusiastic, particularly the English fans of "South Park." Pent-up demand for the show has been roiling since the New York opening. And, unlike in New York, London audiences knew what to expect.

Though Rudin admits he was anxious in the days leading to the London opening, he recognized that the show's humor jokes about African dictatorships, AIDS and poverty would translate.

"The story and humor of 'The Book of Mormon' is deeply influenced by Monty Python's Flying Circus," he said. "I knew that would work over there."

The West End has just enjoyed its ninth successive year of record box office returns and attendance went up slightly in 2012 to 13.9 million. This season, in addition to "The Book of Mormon," the West End is hosting the musicals "Once" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Family" and plays with Helen Mirren and by John Logan.

Rudin, who has also produced the films "No Country for Old Men" and "The Social Network," has been busy on Broadway this season, putting on the Scarlett Johansson-led "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" revival and the upcoming "The Testament of Mary."

___

Online:

http://bookofmormonthemusical.com

___

Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

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SYDNEY (AP) Ellen DeGeneres was applauded by a rapturous Aussie audience like a cherished part of the family as she introduced her Australian-born wife, Portia de Rossi, on a Sydney Harbour-side stage on Saturday to begin pre-recording Down Under segments for her popular U.S. TV show.

The Emmy Award-winning talk-show host arrived in Sydney with her mom, Betty DeGeneres, and de Rossi on Friday after a 14-hour flight from Los Angeles for a six-day filming trip to Australia.

"I'm moving here, it's so beautiful," DeGeneres told 3,000 admirers, who were clearly delighted to be in the sun-bathed Royal Botanic Gardens near the Sydney Opera House for the two-hour recording despite the 30-degree Celsius (86-degree Fahrenheit) early afternoon heat.

Guests included Oscar-winning actor and Sydney local Russell Crowe. He presented the 55-year-old host with two kangaroo-hide cattle whips that he said DeGeneres might need to catch "some brumbies" an Australian term for wild horses when she visits Australia's southeast. The pair took turns at whip cracking.

Asked by one emotional fan whether she and her wife would adopt her, DeGeneres replied, tongue-in-cheek: "We were just saying we should adopt someone. It's so easy for us."

The show was packed with games involving audience members, including an Australia-themed trivia event in which fans had to take a harbor plunge for a wrong answer.

"The Ellen DeGeneres Show" is in its 10th season. DeGeneres was honored with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor last year.

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LONDON (AP) Queen Elizabeth II needed no convincing to appear in a James Bond-themed skit during the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in fact, she volunteered, according to the show's director.

Director Danny Boyle says he had initially thought a lookalike possibly actress Helen Mirren would play the role of Elizabeth alongside Bond actor Daniel Craig.

He tells ITV's Jonathan Ross in an interview to air Saturday night that when he sought permission from officials to film the skit he heard back that not only was the video a go, but the monarch herself wanted to be in it.

Boyle says that when filming began, the queen asked him if he thought she should have a line, to which he replied "O.K., what do you suggest?"

"She said 'I'll do something' and we started shooting and she turned round and she said her lines beautifully," he said, according to excerpts of the interview released in advance.

The queen's star turn in the skit was considered one of the highlights of the opening ceremony last year.

In the skit, a tuxedo-clad 007 strides into Buckingham Palace to escort his VIP guest to the Olympic ceremony. In her acting debut, Elizabeth swivels around in her desk chair to face the legendary spy and declares: "Good evening, Mr. Bond."

Two of the queen's corgi dogs also appeared in the clip.

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LISBON (Reuters) - Portuguese state television channel RTP's plan to give former premier Jose Socrates a weekly commentary spot has sparked outrage, with 100,000 people signing a petition citing his "bad management" that led the country to take a bailout in 2011.

"We, citizens and tax-payers, declare that we reject the presence of former Prime Minister Jose Socrates on any programme at RTP, television paid for by public funds of taxpayers suffering from the bad management of this gentleman," the Internet petition said.

Many comments said the plan was "shameful".

A counter-petition in favour of Socrates' TV commentary, to start next month, and defending the democratic right to free expression, garnered around 5,300 signatures on Friday.

That view was also backed by RTP director Paulo Ferreira who said he understood the controversy but "the pluralism of opinions in public media" was an important democratic principle.

He would not reveal the details of the deal, but Diario de Noticias newspaper said Socrates would be working for free.

By gathering more than 4,000 signatures, both petitions will have to be discussed by parliament.

Socrates' Socialist government collapsed two years ago amid an escalating debt crisis, and one of his last decisions was to request a bailout from the European Union and IMF, forcing the country to implement tough austerity and structural reforms.

Since then, Socrates has mostly lived in Paris, attending a university course.

The big tax hikes and spending cuts applied by the present centre-right government of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho as part of the bailout have pushed the country into its deepest recession since the 1970s and brought the new administration's popularity down towards record lows.

Although the main opposition Socialists are ahead in opinion polls, many Portuguese still associate them with the bailout and the party has largely failed to capitalise on the disappointment with the new administration. Opinion polls show the Socialists would not be able to form a majority government.

(Reporting By Andrei Khalip; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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TORONTO (AP) Apple's iPhone is outdated, according to the chief executive of BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion Ltd.

Thorsten Heins made the comment Thursday on the eve of the much-delayed launch of the new touchscreen BlackBerry in the United States. AT&T begins selling the Z10 touchscreen BlackBerry on Friday, more than six weeks after RIM launched the devices elsewhere.

Heins also told The Associated Press that a new keyboard version of the BlackBerry won't be released in the U.S. until two or three months from now. He previously said it would be eight to 10 weeks, but now he's saying it could be delayed an additional two weeks.

Both the touchscreen and keyboard models are part of RIM's attempt at a comeback after the pioneering brand lost its cachet not long after Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone.

Heins said a lack of innovation at Apple has left iPhone's user interface outdated. He noted iPhone users have to go in and out of applications and the device doesn't allow for multitasking like the new BlackBerry Z10 does.

"It's still the same," Heins said of the iPhone. "It is a sequential way to work and that's not what people want today anymore. They want multitasking."

RIM's new software allows users to have multiple applications open like on a desktop, he said, noting that with BlackBerry you don't have to close an application to check an email.

"We're changing it for the better because we're allowing people to peak in the hub," Heins said.

Heins said the iPhone was revolutionary five years ago, but he said it's now "just kind of sitting there."

Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined comment.

But the delay in selling the new keypad BlackBerry, called the Q10, complicates RIM's efforts to hang on to customers tempted by the iPhone and a range of devices running Google Inc.'s Android operating system. Even as the BlackBerry has fallen behind rivals in recent years, many BlackBerry users have stayed loyal because they prefer a physical keyboard over the touch screen found on the iPhone and most Android devices. But the temptations to switch grow with each additional delay, despite favorable reviews for new system.

Heins said the Q10 keyboard version BlackBerry is just not ready yet and said part of the reason is out of his control.

"It's our job to deliver the right software package and the right software quality to the carriers," he said. "Then it is on the carriers to decide how intense they want their testing cycle to be and that really can range from a few weeks to three months."

U.S. carriers reportedly haven't made testing a priority because RIM, which is based in Based in Waterloo, Ontario, has dramatically lost market share. The U.S. has been one market in which RIM has been particularly hurting, even as the company is doing well overseas. According to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the U.S. market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012. The iPhone and Android now dominate.

Heins said the company has to regain market share in the U.S. for BlackBerry to be successful.

"You got to win here to win everywhere else," he said. "That's just the way it is. We've lost market share quite a bit, to put it mildly, and we absolutely need BlackBerry 10 to turn us around."

Heins said initial sales in other countries are encouraging, but he could not release numbers ahead of RIM's earnings report next Thursday.

"I get more and more excited every day," he said. "I really have to make sure I stay grounded and I don't lose my sense for reality. But for the whole company this is so important to finally be here, and to see people buying it, after we were told 30 months ago when we started that two quarters down the road we would be bankrupt, we would be out of business."

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