The Malaysian Insider

LONDON Nov 22 — British singer Robbie Williams may sell the right to half his future album, touring and sponsorship earnings in a £50 million (RM270 million) deal, one of his managers was reported to say yesterday.

Managers for Williams, whose hits including “Angels” and “Let Me Entertain You,” will court investors as a possible alternative to signing up with a record label, The Times newspaper said.

The former Take That singer is nearing the end of a £55 million, four-album deal with British music group EMI.

LOS ANGELES, Nov 22 — “The Twilight Saga: New Moon” smashed the record for a single-day opening at the North American box office, and was on track to score one of the biggest weekend tallies of all time, according to preliminary data issued today.

The vampire romance sequel earned US$72.7 million (RM247 million) across the United States and Canada on Friday, a figure that includes record-breaking midnight sales of US$26.3 million, said the film’s closely held distributor Summit Entertainment.

The old record for a single-day opening was US$62.2 million, held by last year’s “Batman” sequel “The Dark Knight,” which went on to become the second-biggest grossing movie of all time in North America before accounting for inflation.

NEW YORK, Nov 22 — Michael Jackson’s famous white glove sold for US$350,000 (RM1.19 million) at a memorabilia auction yesterday, soaring far past pre-sale estimates, while a black jacket he wore during a 1989 world tour fetched US$225,000.

The Jackson memorabilia was the highlight of an auction of hundreds of rock’n’roll items, including many not associated with the “King of Pop,” who died in June.

Darren Julien, CEO of Julien’s Auctions, which ran the auction, called the glove “the Holy Grail of Michael Jackson,” and many expected it to sell for far more than its pre-sale estimate of about US$50,000.

LOS ANGELES, Nov 21 —Michael Jackson's personal physician told investigators he was not the first doctor to give the pop star propofol, the powerful anesthetic that was one of the drugs to cause his death, according to court papers unsealed yesterday.

Dr. Conrad Murray, a target of the criminal probe into Jackson's death, recounted under questioning by a Los Angeles police detective that Jackson told him he was given propofol by two unnamed doctors in Germany, the affidavit states.

Murray, a heart specialist with offices in Houston and Las Vegas, was hired to care for Jackson while the singer prepared for a series of comeback concerts in the weeks before his sudden death in Los Angeles on June 25 at age 50.

BUDAPEST, Nov 21 —US-based radio broadcaster Emmis Communications Corp has said it will leave Hungary after losing a commercial radio licence it had held for 12 years in a tender that it said was politically influenced.

In a statement on its website yesterday, Hungarian Slager Radio, which was taken off the air on Wednesday, said its owner Emmis “made a difficult decision today, and at present it does not wish to continue analogue broadcast services in Hungary.”

Late last month Hungary’s National Radio and Television Board (ORTT) awarded two commercial frequencies to stations that industry critics and Emmis said were close to major political parties.