Sheen draws record viewers for "Men" and TV roast (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Dead or alive, Charlie Sheen ruled the TV airwaves on Monday, pulling in record audiences for his Comedy Central roast and more than 28 million Americans to his "Two and A Half Men" TV funeral.

Some 28.7 million watched CBS bury Sheen's wayward TV character Charlie Harper and introduce new star Ashton Kutcher in an all-time series high audience for the lucrative comedy, according to updated figures from research company Nielsen.

And after months of headlines following Sheen's bitter exit from the most-watched comedy on U.S. TV, 6.4 million people watched his sex life, drug use and recent career meltdown draw laughter on Comedy Central's TV roast by fellow celebrities including "Jackass" stuntman Steve-0 and boxer Mike Tyson.

Comedy Central said Sheen's was its most-watched roast ever, while the audience for "Two and A Half Men" was more than double that of last year's season opener and bigger than any episode in the show's first eight seasons with Sheen in the starring role.

Monday's season premiere of "Two and A Half Men" crushed the opening of "Dancing With the Stars" on rival ABC despite a celebrity cast that gave viewers their first glimpse of the ballroom contest's first transgender contestant, Chaz Bono, and TV legal analyst Nancy Grace both doing the cha cha.

Nielsen figures showed that 18.6 million people watched the season premiere of "Dancing with the Stars" -- a 24 percent drop from last year's opening show.

Reviews for Kutcher's debut on "Two and a Half Men," playing a heartbroken Internet billionaire with a penchant for walking around nude, were kind and suggested that the series -- a cash cow for both CBS and program makers Warner Bros television -- was far from dead.

"Kutcher's performance was good, nearly as poker-faced fine as Sheen's was ... Kutcher will probably prove just as skilled," wrote Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker.

TV Guide's Matt Roush said that judging by first impressions the revamped "Men" will "will survive both Charlies just fine for at least a little while longer."

The Los Angeles Times called the premiere "a promising beginning" adding that "Kutcher brings a softness to a series that could be brittle and sour, misanthropic and misogynistic, and temperamentally middle-aged."

Sheen was the highest-paid actor on U.S. television before being fired in March after an insulting tirade against the show's creators and producers that followed months of partying and attempts at rehab.

Sheen and Warner Bros are said to be close to a settlement of the actor's $100 million lawsuit over his firing. Sheen has also made a number of contrite appearances in the past week, including delivering an awkward mea culpa at the Primetime Emmy Awards show on Sunday.

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Mel Gibson film about Jewish hero draws criticism (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A film about a Jewish hero being produced by Mel Gibson, the actor who went on a public anti-Semitic tirade in 2006, drew sharp criticism on Friday from Jewish leaders who felt it was a slap in their faces.

Gibson's company, Icon Productions, is developing the movie about Judah Maccabee in collaboration with the Time Warner Inc-owned Warner Bros studio, but his involvement could include directing as plans move forward.

But participation by Gibson in the film that is expected to bring to life the warrior who is associated with the celebration of Hanukkah is a problem for some Jewish leaders.

"As a hero of the Jewish people and a universal hero in the struggle for religious liberty, Judah Maccabee deserves better," Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement.

Rabbi Marvin Hier of Los Angeles' Simon Wiesenthal Center called Gibson's involvement, "simply an insult to Jews."

A Warner Bros. spokesman said the film is still in early stages and a script has not been completed. No decision has been made about who would star in the film, he said.

The studio spokesman declined to comment on the criticism, and a representative for Gibson did not comment beyond confirming the Hollywood star's participation.

Judah Maccabee was the son of a Jewish priest who in the 2nd century B.C. led a guerrilla revolt in Judea against armies of the Seleucid Empire. The historical figure, whose last name in Hebrew translates as "The Hammer," is revered by many Jews. Hanukkah commemorates his triumphs.

In the past, the Anti-Defamation League also accused Gibson of evoking age-old stereotypes about Jews in his 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ," which made over $600 million at worldwide box offices and was celebrated by many Christians.

Gibson was arrested for drunk driving in Malibu in 2006, and he ranted at the officer: "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," among other comments.

His arrest and tirade made headlines around the world. He later publicly apologized and attended self-help meetings.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis: Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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Haunting New York show draws crowds, masked stars (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A haunted house, it's not. But for theatergoers including many high-profile celebrities hidden behind masks, "Sleep No More" certainly is haunting.

Dubbed "immersive theater" by directors Felix Barrett and Maxine Doyle of British theater company Punchdrunk, the new show compels audience members to roam five floors and almost 100 rooms of the fictional 1930s McKittrick Hotel in search of performances -- small snatches of dance or largely silent scenes between actors -- that will lead them on an adventure.

With nods to the likes of filmmakers Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, the show sends its audience -- all wearing Venetian beak masks -- drifting though graveyards, creepy corridors and sinister hospitals looking for items and performances that interest them.

Attendees, who are prohibited from talking for the length of the performance, might find a bloody letter or two actors in a panic, then follow them on an adventure into the unknown.

"Sleep No More" is "a lifelike experience where you don't know what's around the corner," Doyle told Reuters.

The show, which opened in April, has thrilled theater fans and extended its run Off-Broadway. It also has attracted a long list of celebrities drawn to the kind of voyeurism they often experience in reverse in their own lives. Included among the audience, who are all required to don white masks similar to those in Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut," has been Natalie Portman, Kevin Spacey, Tobey Maguire, Hugh Jackman and Spike Lee.

On one night alone, audience members were unknowingly rubbing elbows with Justin Timberlake, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen and Neil Patrick Harris. The following night Matt Damon, Emma Stone and Emily Blunt wandered among the crowd.

Part of the attraction is that audience members are able to become lost in a world called "a voyeur's delight" and "a lovely evening in hell" by theater critics.

"We wanted to switch on the part of your brain that you aren't normally using in the theater," Barrett told Reuters. "What we want is a 360 experience where you get lost in this parallel world."

PUSHING THEATER BOUNDARIES

Barrett and Doyle believe that the anonymity encourages people to delve deeper into the experience and can bring out more voyeuristic impulses.

"Because you're anonymous, you're empowered to do things you might not do normally," Barrett said.

The performance is inspired by the themes of Shakespeare's Macbeth -- "guilt, betrayal, murder, ambition, suspense," according to Doyle. Items such as a letter from Lady Macbeth on a desk, and a famous quote from that play written in blood on a wall help evoke these themes.

"It is theater, but it's also dance. It's an art installation, it's performance art, it's nightlife," said producer Jonathan Hochwald.

Audiences are free to inspect letters, books, and trinkets sprinkled through the hotel, which was designed with the goal of "making sure there's detail everywhere," said Barrett. No sensory detail is neglected: the smell of dried leaves permeates a taxidermy shop, a forest feels cool and damp, and a candy store smells nostalgically sweet.

"It's the kind of thing that pushes an active experience, and that pushes conventional theater boundaries," Doyle said.

Added Barrett, "It encourages to trust their instincts and to carve out their own evening. There's no right way or wrong way to do it."

Depending on what one looks for and which actors one chooses to follow, "Sleep No More" is a different experience for each audience member -- a defining feature of this sort of immersive theater, said the directors.

"It's all about the individual response," Doyle said.

Some audience members see the production as offering an entirely different experience to the staid formats of musicals and plays shown on Broadway.

"I think there's always a hunger for something that enlivens the mind, that puts the audience into a position of control and power," said Barrett.

(Editing by Christine Kearney and Bob Tourtellotte)

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Fire sale at Vegas' once-iconic Sahara draws crowd (AP)

LAS VEGAS – Hundreds of visitors lined up outside the once-iconic Sahara hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip on Thursday as it reopened for a liquidation sale to get rid of everything inside.

From $10 waste baskets, $3 decks of playing cards and $150 camel lamps, bargain-hunters searched every nook for tagged trinkets and furnishings that let them take home a piece of the iconic joint.

"We don't go to the openings — we go to the closings," said 52-year-old Marc Simon of Las Vegas, who shopped with his wife to furnish a bedroom in his house.

"Each one of my rooms in my house is a suite of a different hotel," Simon said. "Every time one of these goes down, we add on to the house."

He had spent about $400 by midday on two camel lamps, a slot machine chair and smaller items including bar mats and shot glasses.

The Sahara closed last month after 59 years, as owner SBE Entertainment decided it couldn't keep the casino open given the tourism economy in Las Vegas.

Items for sale ranged from $25 toilets to large prints of famous faces in the House of Lords restaurant, including photos of the Beatles, the Rat Pack, and a $550 print of actors Cary Grant and Ray Bolger. Booth and table sets from the restaurant cost $1,225.

The casino's poker room sign sold for $175, while a timeline look at the Sahara's history was tagged for sale at $450.

The historic resort, which opened in 1952, is remembered for attracting big celebrities to its lounges in its heyday. Don Rickles and Louis Prima were regulars, while Sonny and Cher and Judy Garland also took the stage in the casino's showroom.

In recent years, the Sahara became known for cheap blackjack and a NASCAR-themed area that included a cafe and small roller coaster.

SBE hasn't specified future plans for the property, but shoppers on Thursday worried this might be the last they would see of the Sahara and its history.

"I hate to see this go," said 59-year-old Daniel Kohls of Las Vegas. "If they're getting rid of all this, I fear that they're going to level this place."

Kohls, in line to buy three camel lamps, said he planned to spend more time walking the casino floor to pick things to buy.

"I was thinking about the chandeliers, too, but I don't know if they'll fit in my house," he said.

The sale is scheduled to continue until nothing remains, with liquidation firm National Content Liquidators charging $10 a head for entrance during the sale's first four days.

"When we're done, everything will be gone," said Don Hayes, the firm's president.

The property on the north end of the Strip is in the same neighborhood as older casinos like Circus Circus and the Riviera, as well as high-profile multibillion-dollar projects that have been stalled indefinitely, including the Fontainebleau and Echelon.

Steve Stevens, 90, who was shopping with friend Cathy Wyand to help furnish her new farmhouse in Castle Rock, Wash., said it seemed clear in recent years that the Sahara would eventually close.

"Everything changes in this town — fast," he said.

___

Oskar Garcia can be reached at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia

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'Grumpy' Bieber draws tiny Hong Kong welcome (AFP)

HONG KONG (AFP) – Canadian pop sensation Justin Bieber usually draws legions of screaming girls at his sold-out concerts, but the mop-haired teen idol got a hugely disappointing greeting when he arrived in Hong Kong.

Just seven fans showed up at the city's airport to greet Bieber, the Sunday Morning Post reported, calling it an "embarrassingly low-key reception".

In contrast to the tiny turn-out, footage of his arrival posted on YouTube -- where the star made his name -- had been viewed nearly 135,000 times by Sunday, four days after he jetted in to the muted reception.

The paper said there were "three times" more bodyguards than female fans at the airport with the 17-year-old pop sensation "looking grumpy and walking straight past the small group of fans as they yelled out his name".

But some fans defended the heartthrob, saying his gloomy demeanour was due to him falling ill before arriving in the southern Chinese city.

"He didn't acknowledge us but that was probably because he saw more of the photographers," 15-year-old Ruth Boon told the Post, saying the light fan turnout was likely a result of it being a school day.

Bieber's concert on Friday in Hong Kong -- one of the last shows in his "My World" tour -- still saw a 13,500-seat stadium almost packed to capacity, the Post said.

The pop sensation soared to stardom after videos of his performances were posted on YouTube, with his album "My World 2.0" hitting the top of the US charts.

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