In her debut appearance on NBC “The Tonight Show” as first lady, Mrs. Obama told host Jay Leno that her husband sings to her all the time.  She said she even knew what song it would be when she heard about his singing a line from Al Green's "Let's Stay Together." Mrs. Obama gave a very tiny demonstration before conceding that the president was the better singer. Obama said her husband has a beautiful voice.

Asked about the performance turned in by Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney singing "America the Beautiful" on the campaign trail in Florida, Mrs. Obama said "its beautiful."

Here's a clip from NBC

(Video clip courtesy: NBC/ Photo credit: NBC “The Tonight Show”/Stacie McChesney)

The new "Twilight" vampire movie opened with a massive $283.5 million in worldwide ticket sales over the weekend as passionate fans filled theaters for the beginning of a two-part finale for the hugely popular supernatural love story.

"The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn: Part 1" captured an estimated $139.5 million in the United States and Canada, distributor Summit Entertainment said on Sunday. That ranked as the fifth biggest domestic opening of all time.

The movie's performance beat studio forecasts for the film, which shows young lovestruck human Bella wedding vampire Edward and becoming pregnant. Summit had predicted as much as $125 million domestically while other box-office analysts had estimated $140 million.

Internationally, "Breaking Dawn" added $144 million in 54 countries over the weekend.

The movie cost about $110 million to make.

The domestic opening ranked as the year's second-highest, behind only the "Harry Potter" finale over the summer. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2" pulled in a record $169 million during its debut weekend in July.

But "Breaking Dawn," the fourth movie in the series, failed to top the previous domestic opening-weekend record for a "Twilight" film. "New Moon" debuted to $142.8 million in 2009.

Eighty percent of the film's audience was female, the core fan base for the story based on novels from Stephanie Meyer. Diehard fans of the books have embraced the screen adaptations including the latest movie, said Richie Fay, Summit's president of domestic distribution.

"We delivered to the audience ... exactly what they wanted to see," Fay said. He said the movie's success "bodes well for Breaking Dawn - Part 2," which hits theaters in 2012.

"Breaking Dawn" brought in an average of $34,351 at more than 4,000 screens in North America (U.S. and Canada) from midnight showings early on Friday through Sunday.

The "Twilight" series is one of Hollywood's most lucrative franchises. To date, the franchise has rung up more than $2 billion from box offices worldwide, according to Hollywood.com Box Office.

The series stars Kristen Stewart as human Bella Swan and Robert Pattinson as her blood-sucking vampire love, Edward Cullen. Taylor Lautner plays Jacob Black, a werewolf who competes for Bella's affection.

Critics generally disliked "Breaking Dawn," with just 27 percent giving a favorable review on aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences were far more upbeat, scoring the movie a B+ on average, according to survey firm CinemaScore. Females gave the movie an A-.

'TWILIGHT' ECLIPSES OTHER FILMS

The "Twilight" phenomenon overshadowed all other movies over the weekend. Dancing penguin sequel "Happy Feet Two" earned $22.0 million, below studio forecasts for the 3D animated film.

"It was a very difficult weekend. Twilight certainly controlled the marketplace, especially the female audience," said Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. Fellman said he had hoped for an opening around $30 million but expected the movie would gain ground during next week's Thanksgiving holiday and throughout the holiday season.

Action movie "Immortals," last weekend's box-office leader, finished in third place with $12.3 million. Comedy "Jack and Jill," starring Adam Sandler playing a brother and sister, earned $12.0 million to take fourth place for the weekend.

Fifth place belonged to animated family movie "Puss in Boots," a spinoff from the blockbuster "Shrek" series. "Puss" pulled in $10.7 million domestically over the weekend.

Also this weekend, "The Descendants" starring George Clooney as a father reconnecting with his daughters opened in a small number of theaters. Touted as an Oscar contender, the film brought in $1.2 million from 29 locations, or $42,150 per theater. Distributor Fox Searchlight, a unit of News Corp, will bring the movie to more than 400 theaters next weekend.

"Breaking Dawn" was released by independent studio Summit Entertainment. Time Warner Inc unit Warner Bros. released "Happy Feet Two." Privately held Relativity Media released "Immortals." "Puss in Boots" was produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom.

When it comes to urban economic development, Ashley Capps isn’t the kind of businessman that comes to the mind of most local politicians. After all, he’s a rock-and-roll promoter. He puts on big, rollicking festivals, like the Bonnaroo Festival, where tens of thousands of music fans camp, dance and party in the middle of the Tennessee countryside. So what’s a guy like Capps doing in a city like Asheville, North Carolina?

Well, from the looks of the past weekend, he’s making serious coin for the people of this town in the mountains of western North Carolina. The second annual Moogfest, which Capps’ firm AC Entertainment puts together in homage to the godfather/inventor of the electronic synthesizer Bob Moog, brought as many as 30,000 people into downtown Asheville, to sample music, art and electronic geekery at a handful of venues.

Capps, you see, is a new kind of conventioneer. Events like Moogfest are precisely the kind of thing that smaller cities, particularly those with adequate tourism infrastructure and underutilized performing arts spaces, can look to as a transformative way to bring in fresh tourist dollars and promote a new form of economic development.

Take Moogfest in Asheville. The three-day festival was held in ten different locations around the city. Among these, a concrete park served as an outdoor amphitheater dubbed the “Animoog Playground” where larger acts like Flaming Lips and Passion Pit rocked the crowd. The Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, home of the local symphony (and named for the novelist whose home is now a museum dedicated to his work downtown), hosted more sedate acts like St. Vincent and Tangerine Dream, and a two-hour talk from Brian Eno, the artist and producer of seminal Talking Heads and U2 records.

Other music venues included the Asheville Civic Center, the Asheville Music Hall and Orange Peel nightclubs and the Diana Wortham Theatre. The Moog Foundation naturally played its part to promote the inventions of its namesake. The factory where Moog synthesizers are manufactured, opened its doors over the weekend to visiting musicians, like the electronic impresario Moby.

And a nondescript shopping mall on Haywood Street became the Moogaplex, a space where demonstrations and workshops like “Journey to the center of the Theremin with Neon Indian” were held. Nearby, the YMI Cultural Center showcased Eno’s “77 Million Paintings” video art installation.

If it sounds like a sort of Star Trek convention for synthesizer geeks (they “air knob” invisible electronic equipment instead of pretend-Stratocasters), in a way it is. But that’s precisely why Moogfest, after just two years, looks likely to become an annual fixture for Asheville — and a model for other towns and cities. “There is so much opportunity for smaller, boutique festivals,” says Capps. “There is an endless variety of ideas to explore as a collaboration of artists, musicians and the local environment.”

Of course, not every city can accommodate a happening like Moogfest. In some ways, Asheville makes for a special case. It already does a decent job of attracting visitors, from leaf-peepers in the fall to Appalachian Trail climbers during the spring. Its downtown is lined with restaurants, boutiques and galleries. And the River Arts District makes use of former warehouses and factories for pottery, glass blowing and other artists’ studios.

Moreover, besides being home to all things Moog, the area has a historical link with the arts. Avant-garde composer John Cage taught experimental music at the nearby Black Mountain College. Before closing in 1957 after just 24 years, this progressive school attracted faculty and students including Buckminster Fuller, painters Robert Motherwell, Cy Twombly and Willem de Kooning, and dance pioneer Merce Cunningham.

Of course, the gathering of thousands of rockers, even of the electronic-obsessed variety, creates problems of its own for a city as well equipped to handle them as Asheville. For instance, the town has little in the way of public transportation. It also has woefully few downtown eateries open late in the evening. The combination made for visibly unsatisfied crowds after the music ended on Friday and Saturday nights.

There were other lost opportunities, too. Despite the crowds milling around town, many galleries and local shops didn’t bother to extend their opening hours. Most perplexing of all, the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center downtown decided for whatever reason not to extend its opening hours to include Sunday.

And while townsfolk are happy to have the visitors, even the tamest of music tourists bring their own set of specific issues, from outlandish costumes (well, it was Halloween) to the ever-present hint of cannabis in the air. Yet even this spelled opportunity for some: the Four Points by Sheraton busily charged stoned guests $200 smoking fees.

These are all relatively minor growing pains, most of which are apparent to Capps: “From the behind the scenes perspective, there are many things I’d like to tweak.” But he’s determined to make Moogfest an annual pilgrimage with a big economic impact. And he’s not stopping there. He’s got ideas for similar music-and-art happenings elsewhere. Look out Louisville, Kentucky.

PHOTOS: Characters at Animoog; Crowd reacts to Dan Deacon. Reuters/Rob Cox

Pitt and Damon play Will and Bill, the krill, in "Happy Feet Two," the sequel to the 2006 dancing-penguins animated feature. Both films have conservation themes. The latest movie  opens  in mid-November.

These Hollywood names might help shine a spotlight on krill at a time when the species is under pressure, according to the Pew Environment Group. An international meeting under way now in Hobart, Tasmania, is expected to consider more protection for these tiny animals, which penguins, seals and whales depend on to survive.

Increasing demand for krill as feed for industrially farmed fish and for nutritional supplements has pushed the krill fishery beyond a sustainable level, the conservation group said in a statement. Krill fishing in some areas could outpace efforts to protect the well-known animals that rely on it.

“Existing efforts to regulate krill catch must be sustained and enforced, so that animals such as penguins and seals are not competing against industrial fishing vessels just to survive,” said Gerry Leape, a senior officer at the Pew group.

New fishing technologies enable fleets from multiple countries process krill continuously, bringing in much higher catches than a decade ago. An accelerating loss of sea ice that provides essential habitat for krill adds to the problem and threatens to deplete stocks in key feeding areas for penguins, seals and whales.

The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources is meeting in Tasmania from October 24 through November 4, and the Pew Environment Group is asking delegates to the commission to require observers on all krill-fishing vessels, set up a dedicated fund to monitor krill predators, and maintain smaller divisions of the ocean to manage krill to prevent local depletion that will harm penguins and other animals.

Photo credits: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch (Matt Damon and Brad Pitt  arrive for the screening of their movie 'Ocean's Twelve' in a Berlin cinema December 15, 2004.)

REUTERS/Mike Blake (baby green sea turtles eat krill from the hand of senior aquarist Bryan Mercer, Sea World, San Diego, July 2, 2003)

But today's Worldwide  Trends was particularly unusual.

#ThingsStrongerThanTheKenyaShilling was right up there near the top.

As the graph here shows, the shilling has taken a heavy beating since the Lehman Brother collapse. This is one reason for the Twitter outburst.  "Kenyans are getting fed up," said @oreo_junkie, whose Twitter feed states it is from Nairobi.

And judging by some of the other "answers" to the trendline, it is not a matter for levity in Kenya. "Government's resolve to fight Corruption" was one;  "Stupidity of Kenyans to  reelect the same MPs" was another.

But other Tweeters are taking advantage of the trend to broaden the answers out.  Chances  that "Jerry Springer weds Oprah Winfrey" is apparently stronger than the shilling, as is   "Arsenal's chances of winning the League, Champions League and the FA Cup".

Looking back at images from more than a decade ago, you could be forgiven for thinking that the job of covering catwalk season was once far less demanding, but just as fashions change, so do the demands on photographers.

When I made my Fashion Week debut at a DKNY show in New York in the spring of 1999, all I had to worry about was getting a well-exposed, in-focus photo of every outfit on the catwalk. Since we were still shooting in film, this came with its own stresses. Every time I finished a roll, there was a desperate scramble to rewind and change before the next model paraded by.

To ensure I didn’t miss anything, I adopted my own Fashion Week fashion: A particular leather jacket that had two pockets at chest level; the left side for unexposed films and the right side for exposed.

Because I then had to dash back and forth to the darkroom to develop the films between shows, there was no time to focus on the hullabaloo surrounding the shows. The circus sideshow of celebrities, influential fashion figures and trend watchers was largely ignored by the cameras.

Since the advent of digital, the stresses of juggling rolls of film have long gone (as has my leather jacket) but that hasn’t made the job any easier. While shooting the creations on the catwalk is still important, the appetite for different kinds of pictures has grown. Now in addition to shooting straight-up-and-down images of outfits during the show, Reuters photographers are also on the look-out for interesting details or wide angles.

Liberated by our digital cameras and laptops, we are able to capture the flavor of Fashion Week’s particular brand of flamboyant theater: the frenzied scenes backstage as models get dressed, the game of spot-the-celebrity in the front row and the street style of freakishly-coiffed fashion bloggers. I even get to write blogs myself.

Although we have more freedom these days, fashion week is still bound by routines. As the onset of digital and the spread of the internet has fueled the appetite for fashion images, the competition among photographers has also increased. To survive the scrum of photographers that crowd the end of the catwalk, preparation is everything.

At London Fashion Week, I usually arrive at a show one or two hours before it starts. Once I get through the gauntlet of security guards and public relations women armed with clipboards and wristbands, I secure a spot on an elevated platform built for photographers. This entails marking off a square foot with tape printed with the Reuters logo which I then slash into strips with a knife to make it too fiddly for a rival photographer to remove (it happens!).

Next, if I’ve been given access, I go backstage to photograph the models getting ready. This often produces some of the most striking images of Fashion Week – young girls lost in a sea of hands armed with lipstick, eyeliner, crimpers, hairspray and curling tongs.

Then it’s back to the catwalk to watch the models do a run-through with show lighting. This is a last chance to check my camera’s white balance settings and make sure no one is trying to steal my spot.

When the doors open to guests, I prime my flash, change my camera settings and prepare myself to compete with the paparazzi and showbiz photographers as the celebrities make their way to their seats. This is a tricky balancing act. If you spend too long chasing the fashionably late famous faces, you won’t make it back to the spot you’ve so carefully marked out. At the Matthew Williamson show this year, actress Sienna Miller arrived only seconds before the models’ high heels hit the catwalk.

Once I am settled into my place, the lights dim, I once again change my camera settings and wait for the music to start. When the show is over I scramble out of my position and find a place to file my pictures. Usually this is on the floor near the catwalk of the next show.

Fashions change, technology changes and so do the demands on photographers, but one thing remains constant: there’s no time for glamor in photojournalism.

By Marie-Louise Gumuchian
I am usually accustomed to sitting far away from the catwalk, rows behind the fashion elite and squeezed between other reporters. Sometimes, I don’t even have a seat but stand with media or production crews, straining my neck to see a designer’s offerings for next season.
But this fashion week in London, I got to taste the real deal as I was catapulted onto the catwalk itself, strutting with other models. Not exactly something I had ever imagined doing.
As part of our coverage of London Fashion Week this weekend, I had just finished interviewing British designer Paul Smith backstage ahead of his spring/summer 2012 womenswear show.
I chatted with my colleagues about how friendly he had been with us and how with 40 minutes to go until show time, how amazingly calm everyone backstage was – a rare sight during the fashion week frenzy. We watched as models lined up preparing for their rehearsal with music blaring in the background — a required ritual ahead of any show. Suddenly the lady lining them up called out loudly: “You! Come over here.”
I was not sure who she was talking, but it seemed she was facing my direction — “You, come here” she said, now clearly looking at me.
“But I’m not a model,” I protested as my TV producer colleague held onto me to prove we were part of the same team. “I’m a journalist, I’m here to cover the show.”
“Doesn’t matter, come here, we need one of you here,” she answered, waving me over. Confused, I obliged, not quite sure what she wanted me to do.
“Stand here,” she said, placing me between two young models. And then she walked off. I looked in front and I could see models, one by one, making their entrance on the catwalk just behind the screen.
HORRIFIED
I was horrified. “What do I do now? Do I actually have to walk down?” I cried out to my colleagues. They laughed, one even whipped out her phone and told our cameraman, in place at the end of the catwalk, to get ready to film.
I desperately looked for the lady who had placed me in the line of models, questioning myself as to why I had come over, but she was busy fussing getting other girls in place. She even placed another girl — not a model — in the queue. Phew I thought, I’m not the only one. But this girl seemed a lot calmer than I was, clearly accustomed to such impromptu moves in fashion show rehearsals.
“What do I do,” I asked when the choreographer lady finally came round to me, noticing the line in front of me was getting alarmingly shorter.
“Walk down the catwalk, just enjoy it!” she said.
Okay I thought, I’m not 100 percent sure about the ethics of hitting the catwalk, but to avoid any drama, I’ll play along.
I thought, this will be fine, as three, then two, then one and then no more models were in front of me anymore. And so my turn came. A friendly looking man, who was timing the rehearsal, held onto my arm, clearly seeing I looked a little nervous: “Just enjoy it, it’s only a rehearsal,” he said. “Now go.”
STRUT? SWAY? POUT?
And so I went. And there was the huge catwalk in front of me. A dozen thoughts suddenly crammed my head — Where do I look? Do I strut down? Do I sway my hips? Do I pout? Do I smile? Panic spread so I just held on tightly to my blackberry.
I must have walked three steps when a new message arrived – not now I thought! I quickly looked down at it but realised that was not very model-like behaviour so I looked back up and straight ahead.
I could see the few people sitting on the sidelines looked confused at my presence as I clearly was not a model. While I like to think I had made a stylish effort for Fashion Week, I clearly was not wearing designer clothes. But I stared straight ahead, thinking what a surreal experience this was — – especially as only weeks ago I was in North Africa helping out on our coverage of the Libyan conflict with fashion the last thing on my mind.
The lights were blazing and I could not make out the photographers nor cameramen in front of me. So this is what it feels like to be a catwalk model, I thought, it’s quite easy. Then I recalled I was actually wearing comfortable wedges and not skyscraper heels.
The catwalk was not an average up and down runway, but a rectangle shaped around a central seating space. As I approached the TV and picture crews, I looked straight ahead –and swiftly turned my heel round.
Phew, I thought, halfway done. The walking back down the catwalk was a lot easier – mainly because this part of the huge room was practically empty. Although I must have walked a little too fast as I could see I was cutting into the approaching model’s space. I held back, let her do her thing, and then calmly made my exit.
My colleagues greeted me with beaming smiles and applause. Our cameraman rushed back, confused: “What was that all about?” he asked. “I have no idea,” I replied, laughing. “But it was fun.”

Held twice yearly in February and September, New York Fashion Week features designers from all over the world, displaying their creations on the runways. A small venue of tents pops up in Lincoln Center to house the crowd of celebrities, designers and models who descend upon the city. The event also draws its own share of notable and outrageous personalities, fashionistas, and those who come just to be seen on the scene.

I am now into my fourth year of covering the event and have started to recognize a group of colorful, sassy characters who come to Fashion Week each year. Some are former models, some are bloggers, and others seem to be famous just for their outlandish outfits or feline sidekicks. A few of them stand out because they are decked out in the same colorful suits, ostentatious hair styles and eye catching accessories year after year, appearing in the lobby or on the pavilion like clockwork. Most of them seem to be there for the same reasons, to network and be part of the scene.

While most New Yorkers are sitting at their desks or following their daily routines on a Monday morning, ten blocks away, an entirely different scene is unfolding. Backstage, there is a flurry of hairspray, lipstick, clothes, shoes and champagne. On the runway, Anna Wintour is perched on her front row seat next to Nicki Minaj, watching the show to the boom of house music. Meanwhile, out front in the lobby, Janet Finkel is walking her cat, Natasha, while Cognac Wellerlane struts by, coiffed in her beehive.

It's all just another crazy day in the game called Fashion Week.

(Click here or on any of the images above to view a slideshow)

When we want to see what famous people look like all we have to do is sit down at a computer or TV and we can find out more than we ever really needed to know. We can find out what they look like, where they eat, who they are dating, who they are not dating, or even what they did last night.

With all this information out there why do wax figures of famous people still have the ability to draw us in?

Personally, I don’t know, although the robust line to take a photograph with Captain Jack Sparrow was probably a pretty good clue. I hadn’t thought much about it until Reuters television producer Alicia Powell called me to ask if we were interested in doing a picture package along with a television package on how these figures are made. The pictures department agreed that it was a rare chance to cover the process and we agreed that it could make a nice package.

I was curious to see how they manage to make such realistic likenesses of everyone from famous despots to the latest and greatest in Hollywood glitterati. The process is quite detail-oriented and unbelievably thorough. We met with producers from Anderson Cooper’s new daytime talk show, Anderson, and the people from Madame Tussauds in a hotel room in New York in June. At first glance it looked like pretty much every other hotel room I have been in for press availability portraits; the off-white satin covered walls, big gold curtains, windows with a fascinating view, and lots of really nice wooden furniture was all par for the course.

Then I noticed the box of eyeballs. Nothing says unusual situation like a box full of dozens of unblinking blue eyeballs staring at you. It was here that I realized just how thorough this process was and that I was going to be in for a little more than the half an hour I imagined this would take.

Anderson arrived and after introductions the process began almost immediately. The crew from Tussauds, consisting of a sculptor, a company representative who assisted in the measuring, and a photographer, along with assorted helpers, began working right away.

One of the first tasks at hand was looking through the aforementioned eyeballs to choose a pair that would stand up to what is commonly known as one of Cooper’s finer physical traits. This was followed by the matching of details like teeth and hair by comparing them to dozens of samples that the crew had brought with them. A relatively simple task and one that Anderson seemed to quite enjoy as he held up eyeballs pointed in odd directions in front of his own peepers.

Once the sample matching was over it was time to get down to brass tacks. Cooper was placed upon a revolving circular disc that was on the ground and was photographed from every angle as he rotated around multiple times. The crew then made measurements of particulars like height, length of individual leg segments, arm segments, feet, hands, wingspan, chest, waist; I don’t even remember what else.

Once the big measurements were made the Tussauds crew had Anderson sit and they marked roughly a dozen small dots on his face with which to make more detailed measurements. The distances between these were measured with massive calipers that looked fairly frightening but were actually designed to measure the distance from Anderson’s nose to his cheekbone, his eyebrow to his chin, his forehead to his ear, his... well you get the picture.

There are a LOT of measurements that go into this process. I kind of lost track of time at this point as I was working hard to get the right image with the calipers in it. It is rare to have large menacing metallic objects near my subjects face (I know, boring!) so I was probably a little over-excited about the possibilities. In fact, it was probably around an hour later when it became time for Anderson to make his hand imprint, sign a signature, then head off for work.

The manufacture of the figure took over three months from the measuring of Anderson to the point where he would see it for the first time. Reuters managed to coordinate with Tussauds in London and photographer Toby Melville was able to document the final coloring and painting of his face that would give the figure its lifelike ‘skin’ before the unveiling in New York.

Fortunately, the Reuters television crew and myself were able to come to a taping of his talk show, Anderson, and photograph the unveiling of the statue for the first time. Anderson looked quite amazed by the three dimensional mirror image that stood staring back at him after the raising of the curtain. It was a rare moment of genuine emotion that I was happy to have captured.

It was amusing watching him prod the statue while declaring over and over how odd it was to be staring at a three dimensional copy of yourself. I suppose it’s this tactile ability to compare oneself to the personalities you see all over media that maintains the allure of Tussauds wax figures. You can watch as much video of your favorite star as you want but it is only thanks to this still thriving art that you can literally stand next to them all while on a trip to a wax museum.