News

The organiser of legendary English music festival Glastonbury has denied reports ticket sales have been slow due to rapper Shawn 'Jay-z' Carter headlining the event.

Last year's festival sold out within hours of tickets going on sale, however this year, only 100,000 out of a possible 137,500 had been sold by Sunday evening.

But organiser Michael Eavis insists adverse weather conditions in previous years could be to blame for the slow-selling tickets.

He says, "In previous years all tickets were sold out within a couple of hours but I think three years of mud may have taken their toll."

Jay-z's appearance at the more traditionally rock-based Glastonbury was met with a mixed reception when his headline slot was announced last year.

But Eavis remained confident of more sales: "That's without them (ticket-buyers) even knowing who's playing - we haven't announced our full line-up yet. People will be astonished, astounded when they see who's playing."

Muse and The Verve are the other two headliners at the Somerset, England event, which takes place 27-29 June. The full line-up will be announced on 1 May.

She may be months away from giving birth, but first time mom-to-be Minnie Driver is already bracing for those sleepless nights. "I'm going to be a very tired mother, I'm sure!" Driver told People at the season-two premiere of The Riches in West Hollywood Sunday. "No, I'm going to be happy," she corrected. "I'm going to be a happy mother." The 38-year-old has a busy couple of months coming up – she's releasing her album, Seastories in the U.K. and touring Europe, Hawaii and L.A. But after that, Drivers says, she'll be logging plenty of pre-baby R 'n R.

The following piece discusses the series finale of "The Wire" (which aired Sunday on HBO). If you're a "Wire" fan, I recommend watching the finale before reading what's below.

An image has been in my mind since I watched the series finale of “The Wire.” It’s a scene of a character named Dukie preparing to shoot up drugs.

It’s only a brief glimpse at Dukie’s fate, but it’s heartbreaking.

We met Dukie (Jermaine Crawford) and three other eighth-grade boys two years ago, in Season 4 of “The Wire.” He was a shy, smart, gawky youth who didn’t quite fit in on the tough streets of West Baltimore.

He blossomed when his teacher, a former cop, started giving Dukie clean clothes and soap and showing him how to use a computer. As he gained confidence and shed some of his reticence, it was impossible not to care about Dukie,...