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Tuesday, 15 May 2012 08:22

Written by Maria Sciullo

Last year, it was Batman. This summer, Superman comes in for a landing at Pittsburgh's Steel City Con.

Dean Cain -- star of "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" -- will be the headlining guest at the Monroeville Convention Center. The Con runs July 27-29.

It was recently announced that Cain would be appearing on a new Fox dating show, "The Choice," where celebrities choose potential dates, sight unseen. "Voice," "Choice," it's all about the revolving chairs.... Cain also has hosted TV's "Ripley's Believe It or Not!"

Among the other Steel City Con guests are Mini-Me himself, actor Verne Troyer, as well as Burt Ward, who will always be Robin The Boy Wonder, to us. His Batman, Adam West, appeared at the Steel City Con last year.

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Monday, 14 May 2012 13:08

Written by Barbara Vancheri

John du Pont was the great-great-grandson of E.I. du Pont, the French-born industrialist who founded the chemical company, and one of hundreds of heirs to the family fortune.

In January 1996, he shot and killed David Schultz, a 1984 gold medal winner who came to live and train at the state-of-the-art Foxcatcher National Training Center that Mr. du Pont had built on his 800-acre property in Newtown Square.

After the shooting, Mr. du Pont barricaded himself inside his home for two days, but was taken into custody when he left his mansion to fix a boiler police had shut off.

The trade publication says Steve Carell would play John du Pont, Mark Ruffalo from "The Avengers" is in talks to portray the wrestler and Channing Tatum — soon to be seen in "Magic Mike" and the "G.I. Joe" sequel — is attached to play Mark Schultz, David's younger brother and also an Olympic champion wrestler.

Bennett Miller, the thoughtful, smart director of "Capote" and "Moneyball," has been developing the project for four years, according to Variety. E. Max Frye and Dan Futterman are writing the story.

John du Pont died Dec. 8, 2010, after being found unresponsive in his prison cell. He was 72.

Here's some background about du Pont from the AP:

At the time of his trial, Mr. du Pont was one of the wealthiest murder defendants in American history. The trial exposed his bizarre, paranoid behavior and his many delusions, from his body being inhabited by bugs to his being spied on.

Mr. du Pont had a reputation for acting erratically, including once driving two new Lincoln Continentals into a pond on his property, one after the other. Wrestlers who had trained at Foxcatcher alleged that Mr. du Pont pointed guns at them, drank too much and once kicked out a wrestler because he was black.

His lawyers contended Mr. du Pont was insane and suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. At his arraignment, he told the judge he was the Dalai Lama. Meanwhile, a psychiatrist testified at his trial that it was cocaine, not mental illness, that fueled his rampage.

Months later, nearby Villanova University removed Mr. du Pont's name from its basketball arena. The building had been named after him when he pledged $5 million for its construction, though he apparently never fully followed through on the funding.

Mr. du Pont had founded a wrestling program at Villanova in 1986 and even named himself head coach. The program was dropped two years later after the National Collegiate Athletic Association began investigating reports that Mr. du Pont was flying wrestlers in his private plane and letting them stay at his mansion.

A former Villanova assistant coach, Andre Metzger, claimed in a 1988 lawsuit that he was fired after nine months because he refused to become Mr. du Pont's lover. The case was settled out of court.

Over the years, Mr. du Pont lost several appeals of his murder conviction, including one to the Supreme Court in 2000 in which he was represented by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz.

Mr. du Pont had sought an acquittal on insanity grounds, and the appeal challenged the Pennsylvania law that allowed the jury to find him guilty of third-degree murder but mentally ill in 1997. It contended the legal standard for finding someone legally insane is the same as the one for finding him guilty but mentally ill. The justices rejected the challenge without comment.

Monday, 14 May 2012 12:31

Written by Scott Mervis

Stage AE has added four concerts, three of them outdoors, to its already hectic schedule. They all go on sale Friday through Ticketmaster:

• Counting Crows, which just released "Underwater Sunshine," its first album in four years, will make its first appearance at the venue on July 23. Tickets are $32 advance/$35 day of show.

• Lamb of God and Dethklok team up for a hard-hitting metal bill on Aug. 23. Tickets are $35.

• Scream it Like You Mean It tour featuring Attack Attack!, We Came As Romans, The Acacia Strain, Woe Is Me arrives on Aug. 9. Tickets are 23.50.

• Jane's Addiction will take its big sound indoors on Aug. 22. Tickets are $42.50 advance/$45.

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• Barry Manilow, who's sold 80 million records and scored such hits as "I Write the Songs," "Mandy" and "Could it be Magic," will perform at Consol Energy at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 16.
Tickets ($129.99, $79.99, $59.99, $39.99, $19.99, $9.99) go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at CONSOL Energy Center, all Ticketmaster Outlets, at Ticketmaster.com and by telephone at 800-745-3000.

The singer-songwriter recently released "Live in London."

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• Elsewhere, British art-rock bands Yes and Procol Harum will perform at Carnegie Library Music Hall of Homestead on July 24. Tickets ($65, $85 and $120) go on sale at noon Friday: 412-368-5225.

• Blues legend B.B. King will play Benedum Center on Nov. 21. Tickets ($55, $65 and $100) go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at the venue box office, TrustArts.org, or 412-456-6666.

• Noise-rock duo Sleigh Bells plays Mr. Smalls on July 18. Tickets are $22, through www.ticketweb.com