Chuck Lakefield and the Sunrise Show

Actress Brittany Murphy died early Sunday after going into cardiac arrest at her home in Los Angeles. Attempts by paramedics to revive her at the scene were unsuccessful, and she was pronounced dead on arrival at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Murphy was 32 years old. A child actress from the age of nine, Murphy's breakthrough role came in 1995's Clueless, and she later appeared in Just Married, Eight Mile and Little Black Book. She had been the voice of Luanne on the cartoon King of the Hill since 1997. She married screenwriter Simon Monjack in May 2007.

The 3-D science-fiction epic Avatar opened big in first place at the weekend box office, taking in $73 million domestically and $159.2 million overseas. Director James Cameron's first film since 1997's blockbuster Titanic stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver in a 22nd century story about a paraplegic ex-Marine sent from Earth to infiltrate an alien race of 10-foot-tall blue people on the distant moon Pandora. The movie was made using motion-capture technology that captured actors' performances blended in with computer animation.

The romantic comedy Did You Hear About the Morgans? opened in fourth place. It stars Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant as a couple whose crumbling marriage gets a fresh chance when they are sent into the witness protection program after seeing a murder. Oscar buzz-heavy Up in the Air, starring George Clooney as a corporate hit man addicted to the frequent-flyer life as he travels the country firing people for downsizing companies, moved up into the top 10, in eighth place, as it widened to more theaters ahead of its nationwide expansion this week.

    * Last week's top movie, Disney's animated The Princess and the Frog, fell to second place.

THIS WEEKEND'S TOP TEN MOVIES -- DECEMBER 18-20

   1. Avatar, $73 million
   2. The Princess and the Frog, $12.2 million
   3. The Blind Side, $10 million
   4. Did You Hear About the Morgans?, $7 million
   5. The Twilight Saga: New Moon, $4.4 million
   6. Invictus, $4.2 million
   7. A Christmas Carol, $3.4 million
   8. Up in the Air, $3.1 million
   9. Brothers, $2.6 million
  10. Old Dogs, $2.3 million

About 700,000 packages of Vicks Dayquil cold medicine were recalled Friday because the packaging was not child-resistant, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. The recall is of Vicks Dayquil Cold & Flu 24-Count Bonus Pack Liquicaps with the UPC no. 3 23900 01087 1. The packages were sold between September 2008 and December 2009. The caps were not child-resistant, and did not have the statements: "This package for households without young children" and "should be kept out of the reach of young children." No injuries have been reported, but the commission says that serious illness or death could occur if a child swallows several of the pills. If you bought the product, get a refund or coupon from Proctor and Gamble Co. by calling 800-251-3374.

A study finds that on average, Americans spend 56 hours per week sitting, Women's Health Magazine reported. According to the magazine, the "sitting disease is literally killing us." Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic said, "Our bodies have evolved over millions of years to do one thing: move. As human beings, we evolved to stand upright. For thousands of generations, our environment demanded nearly constant physical activity."

Yale University librarian Fred Shapiro has released his fourth annual list of the year's top 10 most memorable quotes. Shapiro picks quotes for his list that are famous, important or revealing of the spirit of the times.

   1. "Keep your government hands off my Medicare." -- Attendee at a health care reform town hall meeting in South Carolina, quoted by The Washington Post
   2. "We're going to be in the Hudson." -- Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger telling air traffic controllers he was going have to land his crippled US Airways jet in the Hudson River.
   3. "There's an app for that." -- Apple's iPhone advertising slogan
   4. "You lie!" -- GOP Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina, shouting out during President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress in September.
   5. "The Cambridge police acted stupidly." -- President Obama commenting on the arrest of black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. at his Massachusetts home.
   6. "I'm going to let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!" -- Kanye West, interrupting Taylor Swift's acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards.
   7. "Um, you guys said that we, um, did this for the show." -- "Balloon Boy" Falcon Heene, during a CNN interview before it was known his parents' had pulled off a hoax.
   8. "The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel.'" -- Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, posting on her Facebook page about health insurance reform
   9. "The governor is hiking the Appalachian Trial." -- Spokesman for South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, regarding Sanford's disappearance in June The governor was actually visiting his mistress in Argentina.
  10. "You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders." -- Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, during a CNN interview.

The Rolling Stones are the top grossing touring act of the 2000's earning an astounding $869,471,325 and playing in front of 8,236,586 people. The Stones are hardly the only heavyweights on the list, with U2 following at Number Two with a total gross of $844,157,925, and Madonna rounding out the top three with a whopping total gross of $801,299,671.
The Top 10 Touring Acts Of The Decade (courtesy of Billboard.com)

    * 1. The Rolling Stones
      Total Gross: $869,471,325
      Number of Shows: 264
      Total Attendance: 8,236,586
      Number of Sell-Outs: 190

    * 2. U2
      Total Gross: $844,157,925
      Number of Sell-Outs: 288
      Total Attendance: 9,869,953
      Number of Shows: 288

    * 3.Madonna
      Total Gross: $801,299,671
      Number of Shows: 248
      Total Attendance: 6,387,124
      Number of Sell-Outs: 244

    * 4. Bruce Springsteen
      Total Gross: $688,136,476
      Number of Shows: 403
      Total Attendance: 8,605,238
      Number of Sell-Outs: 248

    * 5. Elton John
      Total Gross: $603,804,670
      Number of Shows: 541
      Total Attendance: 5,789,833
      Number of Sell-Outs: 470

    * 6. Celine Dion
      Total Gross: $536,593,262
      Number of Shows: 792
      Total Attendance: 4,099,963
      Number of Sell-Outs: 597

    * 7. Dave Matthews
      Total Gross: $505,447,901
      Number of Shows: 547
      Total Attendance: 11,230,696
      Number of Sell-Outs: 282

    * 8. Kenny Chesney
      Total Gross: $477,931,760
      Number of Shows: 622
      Total Attendance: 9,210,288 Number of Sell-Outs: 409

    * 9. Bon Jovi
      Total Gross: $419,481,741
      Number of Shows: 249
      Total Attendance: 5,384,747
      Number of Sell-Outs: 224

    * 10. Billy Joel
      Total Gross: $418,421,266
      Number of Shows: 241
      Total Attendance: 4,141,287
      Number of Sell-Outs: 213

Zogby International, the people who will ask you just about anything, recently took a strange little poll about holiday songs. According to Netscape's Home & Living section, Zogby asked a group of 2,330 Americans to rank their favorite three holiday songs from a field of nine.
The winner? "O, Holy Night" with 58% of the vote. Apparently, it made the top three for 67% of Republicans, 56% of independents, and 50% of Democrats. Apparently, it is also very popular with religious people. Oddly more so than Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24." Go figure.

The rest of the field:

2. "White Christmas" - 41%
3. "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" - 38%
4. "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas" - 28%
5. "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" - 24%
6. Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" - 17%
7. "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" - 15%
8. "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" - 10%
9. Adam Sandler's "The Hanukkah Song" - 9%

(from Holidash.com)

Two online polls currently running on Popeater.com show which way the popularity winds are blowing for a number of Hollywood stars. As of last night (Sunday) the site's "Breakthrough Star of the Year" poll garnered the most votes, in order, for the following:
Taylor Swift, Susan Boyle, Lady Gaga and, far behind, the Kardashians and Chris Pine.

Actually, the Kardashians and Pine got so few votes that it's possible that only people named Kardashian and Pine are voting for them.

And in another poll, Popeater asked which celebrities you would want to spend Christmas with. In order of vote numbers, they are:
Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Aniston, Taylor Swift and, far behind, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, or Brangelina. Presumably no one wants to spend Christmas in company with that many noisy kids.

Your thoughts???