Culturite

Rock stars Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel are teaming up for their first joint concert to benefit Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Obama plans to attend the concert at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City on Oct. 16, the day after his final debate with Republican John McCain at Hofstra University, located in Hempstead, N.Y.

Seeing the two superstars together won’t come cheap. Tickets start at US$500 and range up to $10,000.

After months of speculation about his political future, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg plans to announce on Thursday morning that he will seek a third term as mayor, according to three people who have been told of his plans.

Besides acting, Kevin Costner has a whole field of dreams he wants to fulfill — and he will realize one of them this November with the release of his first country music album, says People magazine.

While his musical aspirations may come as a bit of a surprise to some, Costner has been playing music with some of his Modern West band mates for nearly 20 years, he tells People.

“I remember looking into the crowd, thinking, ‘This just feels right,’” he previously said about performing with his band.

The 53-year-old has co-written six songs from the 12-track album, some of which will be available to country music radio this week, People reports.

The album is set for release Nov. 11, and the band plans tour dates later this year through 2009, says the mag.

But if life has taught me anything it was not be stopped by the question or the unknown. “F… it what did I have to lose but maybe some of the best times of my life”…It was a feeling that I had been unable to articulate. For along time now I have felt the need to connect with people in a more meaningful way than just the autograph. I have found myself here and around the world in different situations where the only exchange has been just that. A quick signature on the run followed usually by a “gee he’s taller than I thought”. I always thought that music could build a stronger more personal moment for me.

AC/DC…will lend 18 songs to AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack. The stand-alone game will be playable on both Rock Band and Rock Band 2 and will feature live versions of hits like “Thunderstruck,” “Highway to Hell” and “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.” The full track list is below. The game will be released this December and, like Black Ice, will be available exclusively at Wal-Mart.

AC/DC Black Ice Tour
December 20 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ Bank Atlantic Center
December 21 – Tampa, FL @ St. Pete Times Forum
January 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena
January 7 – Pittsburgh, PA@ Mellon Arena
January 9 – Toronto, ONT @ Rogers Centre
January 11 – Cincinnati, OH @ U.S. Bank Arena
January 13 – St. Louis, MO @ Scottrade Center
January 15 – Omaha, NE @ Qwest Center Omaha
January 17 – Fargo, ND @ Fargodome
January 19 – Minneapolis, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
January 21 – Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
January 23 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
January 26 – Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center
January 28 – Little Rock, AR @ ALLTELL Arena
January 30 – Memphis, TN @ FedEx Forum
January 31 – Nashville, TN @ Sommet Center

Marvel announced a massive releasing partnership with Paramount, the studio that shepherded the aforementioned Iron Man into theaters. Over the next eight years, Marvel could deliver ten movies to the studio, including the previously announced Iron Man sequel (May 7th, 2010), Thor (July 16th, 2010), The First Avenger: Captain America (May 6th 2011) and The Avengers (July 15th, 2011). You read the release dates of the latter two films correctly; they’ll be released within six weeks of each other.

Marvel Studios has renegotiated its distribution pact with Par, under which it will now pay out 8% of its film grosses to the studio for its next five films, rather than the 10% it previously ponied up for “Iron Man.”

Marvel successfully launched its film division this year with the release of “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk,” through Universal; the pics went on to earn a combined $824 million worldwide this summer.

PC manufacturer Dell and Paramount Pictures are opening a new front in digital distribution with an offering allowing consumers to order “Iron Man” preloaded into newly purchased computers.

For now, Paramount is the only studio that has signed on, and “Iron Man” — which will be available accompanied by exclusive bonus footage for $20 beginning Tuesday (September 30), the same day as its DVD release — is the only film being offered.

The offering is the first step Dell is taking toward setting up a broader digital content storefront that could create significant competition for Apple’s dominant iTunes Store.

A representative for Janet Jackson says the singer has been hospitalized after falling ill shortly before a concert.

Jackson has complained of exhaustion, a source close to boyfriend Jermaine Dupri tells PEOPLE. “A 42-year-old body can’t handle what a 22-year-old body can,” says the source. “I can tell you that she’s definitely tired. It was probably exhaustion. She is doing back-to-back, three-hour shows, and her body isn’t the same as it used to be.”

Janet Jackson has been released from the Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, according to a hospital rep.

“Yesterday evening she was checked into the Royal Victoria Hospital and left a couple of hours later,” Rebecca Burns, the spokeswoman for the McGill University Health Centre, which operates the hospital, told PEOPLE

Jackson, 42, cancelled her show in Montreal on Monday and was taken to the hospital after she “got suddenly ill” during her sound check, according to a statement from W&W Public Relations.

Further details of the singer’s condition were not immediately available, and reps for Jackson did not return requests for additional comment.

Jackson kicked off her Rock Witchu tour promoting her latest album, Discipline, in Vancouver on Sept. 10.

Los Angeles officials on Friday declined to press felony charges against rap singer Kanye West stemming from his arrest after a scuffle with photographers at Los Angeles International Airport this month.

Philip Glass, the Academy Award-nominated classical/experimental composer who’s collaborated with artists ranging from Errol Morris to David Bowie to Allen Ginsberg, will compose an opera based on the life and career of Walt Disney, the New York City Opera announced today. Based on the Peter Stephan Jungk novel Der König von Amerika, the opera—named, The Perfect American, for the English translation of Mr. Jungk’s work—will be Mr. Glass’ 24th, and is scheduled to open City Opera’s 2012-2013 season. It will also coincide with Mr. Glass’ 75th birthday.

According to a press release, “Peter Stephan Jungk’s novel The Perfect American imagines the final months of Walt Disney’s life as recounted by the fictional Austrian cartoonist Wilhelm Dantine, who worked for Disney in the 1940s and 50s. Through the prism of Dantine’s European sensibility, and his feelings of admiration and resentment toward his boss, the novel presents a multilayered image of the mid-20th-century American dream.”

Of The Perfect American, Mr. Glass said in a statement: “The story of the last days of Walt Disney, American Icon and creator of perhaps the most pervasive fantasy world on our planet, is surprisingly gripping and at times disturbing. But, on the face of it, how could it be anything else? The pulse of his life has to be the pulse of our own American culture. And, like other aspects of life here, it is unimaginable, alarming, and truly frightening.”

Heath Ledger’s 2-year-old daughter Matilda Rose will inherit all of her father’s estate, Ledger’s father says.

The Australian actor, who died from an accidental prescription drug overdose in January, signed a will before his daughter was born leaving everything to his parents and three sisters. Some had speculated his former partner Michelle Williams would lodge a claim for the money.

But Ledger’s father, Kim Ledger, told the Australian newspaper The Sunday Times that the family had given all the money to Matilda and that there had been no challenge from Williams.

“There is no claim,” the newspaper quoted Kim Ledger as saying in a report published Sunday. “Our family has gifted everything to Matilda.”

The actor signed the will on April 12, 2003. It lists assets and cash of just $118,000, but the actor’s estate is believed to be worth more than $16.3 million, the newspaper said.

According to Variety, Shakespearian theatre and film veteran Kenneth Branagh is in talks to direct Marvel Studios’ “Thor” feature film.

There’s no certainty that Branagh will get the nod to direct “Thor,” as the article states that the “Much Ado About Nothing” and “Hamlet” director is simply in the negotiation phase, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room to speculate about what a Branagh-directed “Thor” might involve. If the pairing does become official, it would put one of the primary ambassadors of Shakespeare’s work to mainstream culture behind the camera for the live-action debut of Marvel’s favorite Norse superhero — a character who, like many of Branagh’s roles, doesn’t shy away from using “thee” and “thou” in conversation.

“Thor” is currently scheduled for release on June 4, 2010, and as one of the founding members of the Marvel Comics superteam “The Avengers,” the character could be making another appearance (alongside Iron Man, Hulk and Captain America, among other characters) in Marvel Studios’ live-action “Avengers” feature film scheduled for release July 4, 2011. The script for the film was written by Mark Protosevich.