Jerry Curl

[ Editor’s note ] This year I did some things, went some places, saw some shows, I met some boys, and knocked a few back at Magnum. I built some new friendships and strengthened some old ones. I met and learned a lot from monogamous gays. They took me to Epcot, and a spirit-lifting gospel Drag brunch that “will drive you to your knees”, and made me drink Patron. I discussed Broadway shows and acting dynasties ‘til 1am. I talked about upcoming weddings and brutal breakups. I drove drunk friends home and sober friends crazy. I listened to the excitement of others moving out or moving away-- all the while being quietly and painfully jealous. I wrote and I sang. I played and prayed. I flirted and flounced. I asked for a lot forgiveness. I also climbed a rock wall and took a Duck Tour. I reversed my policy on gay pride parades and went to 2 of them. I got a lot of beads for my troubles. Jerry Curl turned 4 in relative obscurity, but I remain ever prouder. I learned the mysteries of the pho...

An obviously faked People magazine cover on which Taylor Lautner supposedly announced that he's "out and proud" ricocheted across the internet Monday, tricking fans and even celebs like Russell Simmons. The Photoshopped image of the purported Jan. 7, 2012 People issue shows the Twilight star announcing he's gay and "tired of the rumors." The fake cover goes on to fake-quote Lautner as saying his decision to come out has left him feeling "more liberated, and happier than I've ever been." While the internet was abuzz, celebs like Def Jam's Simmons even fell prey to the hoax, tweeting Taylor a congratulatory tweet: "proud of Taylor Lautner for his bravery and his courage." Once realizing the mistake, Simmons tweeted: "disappointed that people would joke about someone coming out about their sexuality. Let Taylor Lautner be whoever he wants to be...." A rep for People magazine confirmed the cover a hoax, saying the cover ...

Reuters reports : That Adele's 21 will rank as the year's top-selling album is no surprise, What is surprising is that 21 , released by independent British label XL Recordings, sold more than 5 million copies. To put Adele's sales figures in context, the more than 3.5 million physical albums she sold this year would have been good enough to take the top spot in each of the last three years without even adding in digital sales. Album sales include LPs, compact discs and digital albums. "Adele's performance this year shows the demand for great original music," said Nielsen analyst David Bakula. "Here's an artist that had moderate success before, but nothing of this magnitude, and she's doing it all on two singles." Amy Winehouse's death from alcohol poisoning in July also factored into Adele's sales performance. Bakula said the attention Winehouse's death received stoked interest among fans to sample other soulful, jazz-infused fem...

From their Facebook page : "We've spent 2011 making an album that we're really proud of and can't wait to share with you. Because you've been such good boys and girls, we'll be kicking off 2012 with a sneak peek of a brand new song to whet your appetite for what's to come. You will be able to catch the world exclusive play of Shady Love on the 2nd of January with our pal Annie Mac on BBC Radio One ( www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/ ) between 10am-1pm You will be able to listen on (97-99 FM) and also online too. Come on over to our Facebook, Twitter & Google + pages to let us know what you think once you hear it!" --> They know how to spoil us. So excited!

The Videodrome Discothèque Vault Presents: The New Absolutely Fabulous Episode!!! from Videodrome Discothèque on Vimeo .

[ Editor's note ] I have never been a big fan of Christmas day. I'm not a Scrooge or a Grinch, I just happen to think it's a very boring and lonely day. That notwithstanding, I'd like to send a cyber message of good will toward all. There is a lot of hate and intolerance in the world nowadays-- much of it is covered on the Curl on a daily basis. But I hope the joys of today melt away some of the sadness and sorrow of yesterday. I wish for happiness, I wish for hope, I wish for peace and love to touch your hearts, where ever you are. Together, we will endure.

Proceeds from the song download on iTunes will go to crisis management programs to help youth in need.

Matthieu Charneau as featured on Homotography .

In related news: I'd like to go to Disney at some point this holiday season! A how-to guide on visiting the park and more pics here .

According to Stitch Kingdom , the Atlanta Braves aren't big fans of upcoming animated film “Brave.” This summer, the Atlanta National League Baseball Club (owners of the Atlanta Braves), reportedly filed an objection to Disney’s attempts to trademark the title Brave . The team claims that the upcoming animated film’s moniker is already being used by their organization. Although the Braves don’t own any trademarks for the word “Brave” (only “Braves”), they insist that damages will occur as a result of the trademarks being approved. The team claims that they’ve used the singular form of Braves on merchandise, and say that “Brave” is used when referring to a single player (as opposed to the whole team being the “Braves.”) The Walt Disney Company and the Atlanta National League Ball Club are said to be currently involved in private negotiations. The 3-D fantasy adventure movie – produced by Pixar and released by Disney – will hit theaters June 22. The kids flick follows a courageous gi...

The Academy has released a short list of film songs that are in contention for Oscar nomination consideration, according to New York Magazine’s Vulture . Notably absent from the list is Madonna’s “Masterpiece,” from her film W.E. Turns out Madge’s song sounds too far into the movie’s closing credits to qualify for a nomination in the category. Celebs who did make the cut include Zooey Deschanel (who sings a Winnie the Pooh tune), Mary J. Blige (“The Living Proof” is featured in The Help ), and Glenn Close (the actress co-wrote “Lay Your Head Down” for Albert Nobbs ). Three songs from The Muppets - “Life's a Happy Song,” “Man or Muppet,” and “Pictures in My Head” - are included on the list of 39 tunes. As for which of the songs will be performed on the Academy Awards telecast, we’ll just have to wait until February 26. For the full list of eligible songs, visit Oscars.org . (Via the Marquee Blog )

ArtsBeat reports : Steve Jobs was not a musician, and opinions are mixed about whether the invention of iTunes will be good for the recording industry in the long run, but his mark on how music is distributed appears indelible, and so the National Academy of Recording Arts has decided to give Mr. Jobs a Grammy award in February. Mr. Jobs, who died Oct. 5, will be given a Trustees Award, which honors “outstanding contributions to the industry in a nonperforming capacity.” The academy’s national board of trustees decided to honor Mr. Jobs because he “helped create products and technology that transformed the way we consume music, TV, movies, and books,” the announcement said. “A creative visionary, Jobs’ innovations such as the iPod and its counterpart, the online iTunes store, revolutionized the industry and how music was distributed and purchased,” the announcement said. (The academy already gave Apple Computer Inc. a Technical Grammy Award in 2002 for contributions of outstanding tec...

Towleroad reports : Adam Lambert has been arrested and jailed in Finland after a fight with his Finnish boyfriend Sauli Koskinen outside a gay bar in Helsinki. According to the tabloid Ilta - Sanomat : Lambert and Koskinen got into a heated fight between each other when they were partying in Helsinki. Lambert and Koskinen were taken into jail. They will be questioned during this morning after they have sobered up. We have to wait until that, police officer Petri Juvonen told the Finnish newspaper Ilta - Sanomat . Both men will be held in custody during interrogations. After questioning Adam Lambert and Sauli Koskinen will be released. The reason of the quarrel between the two lovers has not yet been confirmed. According to the police possible injuries are not severe. The irrepressible Michael K adds: This morning, Sauli wrote this on his blog: "Publicity is not easy, but also celebrities are just human. Love is not easy either, but it lasts forever!" Err, nope. Lo...

(Via Towleroad )

Hyper Vocal reports : It’s only been three months since the discriminatory military policy known as Don’t Ask Don’t Tell was officially repealed. Yet it feels like we’ve come a long way since September. Openly gay service men and women are already laying waste to the 17-year itch. And a proud Navy tradition led to a major barrier being broken: When a ship comes in, one crew member is selected to be first across the bow in order to be the first kiss their loved one. On Wednesday, a first for the U.S. military, that couple was a pair of women. As the Oak Hill docked in Virginia after three months away from U.S. shores, Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta proudly stepped up and planted a reunion-level kiss on her girlfriend of two years, Petty Officer 3rd Class Citlalic Snell. The Virginian-Pilot has more: As the homecoming drew near, the crew and ship’s family readiness group sold $1 raffle tickets for the first kiss. Petty Officer 2nd Class Marissa Gaeta bought 50 – which is actually...

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Josh Cassidy as featured on Homotography .

The gray wolf populations in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin have recovered from near extinction and as a result will be removed from the endangered species list, the Obama administration announced Wednesday. Citing a "robust, self-sustaining wolf population" in those states, the Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a proposal first made last May. The formal delisting will take place next month. The decision follows a trend of the federal government wanting to get out of the wolf protection business after devoting four decades and tens of millions of dollars to saving the species. Instead, individual states are being given control over the future of the legendary predator. Wolf populations will be monitored for at least five years and can be relisted at any time if it appears they cannot sustain themselves, the Interior Department stated. More at MSNBC .

Playbill reports : Emmy Award winner Betty White will celebrate her 90th birthday with the NBC special Betty White's 90th Birthday: A Tribute to America's Golden Girl , airing Jan. 16, 2012, at 8PM ET. The special, which will be taped at the Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, will include musical performances and surprise appearances, as well as a trip down memory lane with White. Celebrities who will be in attendance include Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, William Shatner, Hugh Jackman, Jay Leno, Amy Poehler and Joel McHale. White will also be joined by her Mary Tyler Moore Show co-stars Ed Asner, Valerie Harper and Gavin MacLeod and Hot in Cleveland ladies Valerie Bertinelli, Wendie Malick and Jane Leeves. Following the special, a sneak preview will air of White's hidden-camera reality series Betty White's Off Their Rockers .

Coming Soon reports : Though some of the cast has previously been photographed on the set of Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby , these images represent the first official stills from the Christmas Day, 2012 release. The film follows would-be writer Nick Carraway (Tobey Maguire) as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922, an era of loosening morals, glittering jazz and bootleg kings. Chasing his own American Dream, Nick lands next door to a mysterious, party-giving millionaire, Jay Gatsby (Leonardo DiCaprio), and across the bay from his cousin, Daisy (Carey Mulligan), and her philandering, blue-blooded husband, Tom Buchanan (Joel Edgerton). It is then when Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich, their illusions, loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness, within and without the world he inhabits, he pens a tale of impossible love, incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy, and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles. --...

Nearly ten years to the day that the first The Lord of the Rings film hit theaters, the first trailer for its prequel, The Hobbit , has been revealed. Peter Jackson returns to Middle Earth for the first time since he won three Oscars for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King to tell the story of Bilbo Baggins and his adventure to reclaim the Dwarf Kingdom of Erebor from the dragon Smaug. The film, out next December, is one of two Hobbit pictures Jackson will put out, with The Hobbit: There and Back Again slated for release in 2013.

A Canadian research team received a green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on yesterday to begin human trials on a potential HIV vaccine, the National Post reports . Dr. Chil-Yong Kang, virologist at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont., is leading the research team that will conduct the clinical trials. After the group’s potential vaccine showed no side effects on rats and monkeys, the FDA agreed to advance it to the first of three phases of human trials, which can begin next month. The FDA is involved because Kang’s team is working with a Korean pharmaceutical company with patents in the U.S.; the company likely hopes to market the vaccine, if successful, in America. The possible vaccine, in the works since 1987, is actually a dead HIV virus infected into cells. “So we infect the cells with a virus and then the infected cells will produce lots of virus and we can collect them, purify them and then inactivate them,” Kang said in a video posted on the Univ...

The Wall Street Journal editorial page attacked congressional Republicans today for possibly losing the payroll tax cut standoff to President Barack Obama. The editorial begins: GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell famously said a year ago that his main task in the 112th Congress was to make sure that President Obama would not be re-elected. Given how he and House Speaker John Boehner have handled the payroll tax debate, we wonder if they might end up re-electing the President before the 2012 campaign even begins in earnest. House Republicans killed a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits and a provision avoiding Medicare payment cuts to to doctors yesterday by a 229-193 vote. The Senate voted Saturday by an 89-10 margin to extend all three for two months. All three provisions expire on Jan. 1. House Republicans want the Senate to return and negotiate over a compromise plan. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he won't negotiate until the House...

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Today reports : Orson Welles's Oscar for writing Citizen Kan e — regarded as one of the best films ever made — sold for $861,542 on Tuesday as a hot market for Hollywood memorabilia helped erase memories of an unsuccessful auction four years ago. The best screenplay statuette awarded in 1942 — the only Oscar given to Citizen Kane — failed to meet its undisclosed reserve price when it was last up for auction at Sotheby's New York in 2007. At that time it was expected to sell for around $1 million. Although tarnished by age, the Oscar, sold by Los Angeles auction house Nate D. Saunders on behalf of its anonymous seller, carried a reserve price of between $600,000 and $1 million. Bids came in from around the world in what the auction house termed an "exciting" sale. This is a testament to the popularity of Orson Welles and his magnum opus 'Citizen Kane,'" said Nate D. Saunders, owner of the auction house, in a statement.

ArtsBeat reports : Not unlike the ending of a certain hit movie that found the Muppets mobbed by fans they didn’t realize they had, the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, has learned that a lot of people really like Jim Henson’s creations – enough that it is extending the retrospective on that artist and puppeteer by almost two months. Yesterday, the museum said that Jim Henson’s Fantastic World , the traveling Smithsonian exhibition on the life and work of the Muppets creator, will now run through March 4; it was originally scheduled to close on Jan. 16. The exhibition features artwork, props and puppets from Henson’s work on films and television shows like Sesame Street , The Dark Crystal and Fraggle Rock , and has hosted special guests like the longtime Henson colleague Frank Oz; family members Brian and Cheryl Henson; and Kevin Clash, the Muppeteer who performs Elmo. It has drawn nearly 90,000 visitors since its opening on July 16, the museum said, and is expected to ...

Tristan Hamilton as featured on DNA .

The Dark Knight Rises opens next July.

The Marquee Blog reports : Ryan Gosling is coming to the aid of egg-laying hens. According to Change.org , the actor is petitioning McDonald's on behalf of the animals that help make the chain's breakfast sandwiches. The Drive star has joined celebs like Zooey Deschanel, Bryan Adams and Alicia Silverstone in the campaign to convince McDonald's to stop using “battery cage” hens to obtain their eggs and other products. Ryan and his fellow animal-loving actors have partnered with Mercy For Animals to write McDonald’s CEO Jim Skinner about the issue. According to the Washington Post , the fast food chain recently cut ties with a supplier that was found to display cruelty against chickens (thanks to a video released by MFA), but Gosling wants Mickey D’s to do more. The petition urges McDonald’s to “stop torturing hens for McMuffins" and asks for comprehensive changes across the board, including switching to a cage-free system it says are better for birds. At the time of th...

video platform video management video solutions video player Towleroad reports : Former American Idol runner-up David Archuleta broke down on stage last night as he announced that he's putting his music career on hold to devote his life to a full time mission to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. "It's not because somebody told me that I was supposed to do it, not because that I no longer want to do music anymore, but it's because it's the feeling that I felt that I need to do next in my life." In February, Archuleta was dropped by his record label . --> This is such a sad waste. I'm gonna get his second album on the way home today.

Michelangelo Signorile writes for the Huffington Post : There are many stories to be told about the collapse of the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile merger . One of them underscores, once again, the vitality of an advocacy press and bloggers who ask questions and hammer away at the truth in a way that much of the media simply does not. And while there were many involved in that effort, LGBT bloggers and gay media in particular were critical. The merger blew up for a variety of reasons: AT&T's timing was horrible, with Occupy Wall Street focusing on corporate injustice as President Obama heads into a tough reelection; the promise of massive job creation just didn't add up; and the Justice Department was on a winning streak with antitrust cases. But another reason attributed is the backfiring of AT&T's aggressive lobbying, getting nonprofit organizations and civil rights groups to support the merger -- in what looked like an exchange for cold, hard cash. It was in early Jun...

Next up in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is Darren Criss (January 3, 2012 - January 22, 2012). But Nick Jonas follows, (January 24, 2012 - July 1, 2012), and here's the poster! Beau Bridges will replace 2011 Tony Award and Drama Desk Award winner John Larroquette, who will play his final performance along with co-star Daniel Radcliffe on Sunday, January 1, 2012. (Via Broadway World )

In surprising news: Chaz Bono has announced that his engagement to girlfriend Jennider Elia is off - and so is the relationship. According to a statement from Bono's rep, the 42-year-old Dancing With the Stars contestant and his fiancee "leave this relationship with great love, respect and affection towards one another." Bono posted a tweet Monday thanking fans for their concern about the split. "I'm doing fine," he assured everyone, adding that he and Elia "remain on good terms with nothing but respect and affection 4 each other." The former couple's relationship previously played out for the cameras on the documentary Becoming Chaz , which captured Bono's gender transition. In 2009 he said of Elia, who supported the decision, "She's been amazing. I feel really grateful to be going through this with a partner." (Via the Marquee Blog )

In programming news: funny lady Kathy Griffin has a new Bravo special tonight entitled "Tired Hooker!" It airs at 10/9.

HLN reports : Cody Jackson is just eight-years-old, but he's been patriotic almost as long as he can remember. It all began when, as a four-year-old he asked his parents a simple question, "Why is it so hard to get on a plane?" They felt it was important to tell Cody about September 11th and how that day changed travel for people around the world. They also told him about the wars American men and women were fighting as a result of those attacks. Ever since then, Cody has has a new passion -- now known as the "One Boy USO." Two or three times a month, he goes to Hartsfield–Jackson International Airport in Atlanta and thanks returning serviceman and women for their protection. Cody (and his mom Kelly and dad Ken) would love to hear from you on his One Boy USO Facebook page , where they also collect donations to send care packages to deployed military. "We would love to do more and we need support," Kelly tells HLN. "Direct donating can be done at W...

Photo caption: A polar bear swims underwater in the St-Felicien Wildlife Zoo in Quebec on Oct. 31. According to Environment Canada, Canada is home to around 15,000 of the estimated 20,000 polar bears in the world. The United States (Alaska), Russia, Greenland and Norway are the other four countries where polar bears can be found. [ Editor's note ] MSNBC has compiled some of the most gripping images of the past year. As we near the end of a tumulous and noteworthy year, it seems fitting to pause and reflect on some of the things that-- for better or worse-- kept us riveted. Below are some more of my favorites: Photo caption: Bridesmaid Grace Van Cutsem, 3, reacts to the noise of the cheering crowd as Britain's Prince William kisses his wife Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, on the balcony of Buckingham Palace after the royal wedding in London on April 29. Photo caption: President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, along with members of the national security team, receive...

A gay can dream...

The poet Maya Angelou said she was “surprised and disappointed” to find that a track she appears on in a coming album by the rapper Common frequently uses a racial epithet, The New York Post reported . Ms. Angelou, a National Medal of Arts winner and author of the memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings , is heard reciting a poem that she wrote on Common’s song “The Dreamer,” from his album The Dreamer, The Believer . In her verses, she says: “Dare to let your dreams reach beyond you / Know that history holds more than it seems / We are here alive today because our ancestors dared to dream.” The lyrics performed by Common use an epithet heard frequently in rap and hip-hop songs, as when the rapper boasts to Kanye West, “I’m about to win the Grammys now.” Ms. Angelou told The Post that she had “no idea” her contribution would appear on a song in which Common “used the ‘N’ word numerous times.” She added that the word was “vulgar and dangerous” and that she had respected him “because he ...

In who-cares news: Britney is now officially engaged to Jason Trawick. This'll be the singer's (ha!) third trip down the aisle. More, if you care, at the Marquee Blog .

Today's Pick Me Up of the Day comes with a story. As it turns out, during the Australian leg of her recent Les Folies Tour , Kylie's sexy dancers took over one hotel room in Sydney for a shoot that simply sizzles! Fernando Barraza was the mastermind behind the lens for this shoot, titled Aphrodite's Men . Two NSFW teaser videos have been released giving you a little taste of what you can expect from the shoot. You can view the videos here and here .

Willy as featured on DNA .

More than 7,000 people have signed an online petition urging Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback who has starred in PSAs for Focus on the Family, to join the “It Gets Better” project on LGBT youth. "The campaign is reaching people and changing lives," Andy Szekeres, a political fundraiser in Denver who launched the petition, told USA Today . "It would really be an amazing thing for Tebow and the Broncos to do to really say 'We may have differences on abortion and gay marriage, but stopping kids from killing themselves is an issue we can all get behind.'" Read the USA Today story here . In related news: Jesus visited Tim Tebow and gave him some advice-- "If we're going to keep doing this, you guys gotta meet me halfway out there. Let's face it: It's not a good week if every week, I have to come in, drop everything, and bail out the Denver Broncos in the fourth quarter. I'm a busy guy."

The Advocate reports : Bradley Manning kept a folder of articles on gender identity disorder and used a female alias in online chats, according to Saturday testimony in a pretrial court hearing for the Army private accused of leaking thousands of classified documents. Manning, 24, had used the name Breanna Manning online, an Army special agent testified by phone from Germany under questioning by one of Manning’s defense attorneys. Two special agents with the Army Criminal Investigation Command testified Saturday during Manning’s Article 32 hearing at Fort Meade in Maryland, CNN reports . Manning's gender identity has been the subject of media attention in the past, including a New York magazine profile in July. CNN writes that Manning's attorneys are seeking to "establish his state of mind at the time of the alleged crimes." Charged with 22 counts of violating military code, Manning, the alleged Wikileaks source, wasn’t the only person who had leaked classified mater...

The World Trade Center's Twitter feed has been pumping out some brand new HDR views from One World Trade this week. A few more shots at Towleroad .

In lighter news: Results from the Czech Republic's new census unveiled this month reveal that 15,070 citizens of the country listed their religion as Knights of the Jedi. While that may pale in comparison to the 1.08 million people who self-identified as Catholics and over four million who declined to list their faith, it's still a sizable portion of people who believe -- or jokingly claim to, in reaction to an intrusive census -- in the intangible energy made famous by the Star Wars films. Though the Czech Knights of the Jedi wrote in their choice, other nations, such as New Zealand and Great Britain, already list the Jedi Church amongst the formal religion options. According to Time Magazine , over 390,000 Britons said that they practiced the religion in 2001. The Church of the Jedi's website pitches their faith as less bizarre than it may seem. The Force, they say, is "an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the gala...

TG Daily reports : By 2100, nearly 40 percent of land-based ecosystems - forest, grassland or tundra, for example - will have moved from one type to another. According to a modeling study from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, global climate change will modify plant communities covering almost half of Earth's land surface. The projections indicate that many plant and animal species face increasing competition for survival. Most land that's not covered by ice or desert is projected to undergo at least a 30 percent change in plant cover - meaning humans and animals will need to adapt and often relocate. "For more than 25 years, scientists have warned of the dangers of human-induced climate change," says Caltech scientist Jon Bergengren. "While warnings of melting glaciers, rising sea levels and other environmental changes are illustrative and important, ultimately, it's the ecological consequences that matter most....

The Wall Street Journal reports : Talks on asset sales intended to help AT&T Inc. win approval for its acquisition of T-Mobile USA have gone cold, according to people familiar with the matter, the strongest sign yet that AT&T may abandon the $39 billion deal. While AT&T could still try to fight the Justice Department in court, alternatives to a full-blown merger are looking more likely, the people said. Those options include AT&T's taking a stake in the smaller carrier or doing a joint venture to share network technology, they said. These people cautioned that while a divestiture deal to get the acquisition done seemed increasingly remote, all options remain on the table. AT&T, in the biggest deal struck this year, agreed in March to buy rival T-Mobile, in a bid to ensure it had enough rights to the airwaves to satisfy the wireless-data demands of smartphone-toting consumers. Germany's Deutsche Telekom AG, which owns T-Mobile, has said it wants to exit the U...

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, an investor in some of the world's top companies, has bought a stake in Twitter for $300 million, gaining another foothold in the global media industry. Alwaleed, a nephew of Saudi Arabia's king and estimated by Forbes magazine to be the 26th richest person in the world with a $19.6 billion fortune, already owns a 7 percent stake in News Corp and plans to start a cable news channel. The purchase is remarkable because Twitter was a key means of communication for protesters in the Arab Spring revolts this year, violence that threatened Saudi Arabia until the kingdom unveiled a populist $130 billion social spending package. The Twitter stake, bought jointly by Alwaleed and his Kingdom Holding Co investment firm, resulted from "months of negotiations", Kingdom said. Bernhard Warner, co-founder of analysis and advisory firm Social Media Influence, said: "The Arab world, of course, knows full well the value of Twitter. In th...

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Weekend Top Five: #1 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows ($40M) #2 Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chip-Wrecked ($23.5M) #3 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol ($13M) #4 New Year's Eve ($7.42M) #5 The Sitter ($4.4M)

Alejandro Salgueiro as featured on Homotography .

Bonnie & Clyde , the composer Frank Wildhorn’s latest bid for Broadway success after several flops, won’t end his unlucky streak. Producers announced today that the show, starring Jeremy Jordan and Laura Osnes, will close on Dec. 30. After tryouts at two regional theaters, the $6 million musical opened to mixed reviews at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theater. Upon its closing, it will have played 69 performances. After success on Broadway with Jekyll & Hyde , Mr. Wildhorn has seen short runs of his recent shows Wonderland and Dracula . Despite that track record, producers took a chance on Bonnie & Clyde , arguing that its music and promising young stars would help it find an audience. Mr. Jordan, who earned strong reviews as Clyde, took to social networks to try to drum up support for the show, to no avail. He rehearsed the part while finishing a well-received run of Newsies at Paper Mill Playhouse, a show that has since announced it will move to Broadway in the spring. Whether ...