Celebrity Circuit

Sales for "Fifty Shades" trilogy top 10 million

Book covers from the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy.

/ AP/Vintage Books

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - The "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy is making lots of green.

Sales for E.L. James' erotic novels are at 10 million and counting, making it among the fastest-selling series of all time.

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Marvel Comics plans wedding for gay hero Northstar

This comic book cover image released by Marvel shows "Astonishing X-Men," No 51, due out June 20.

/ AP/Marvel Comics

(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA - This summer, wedding bells will ring for Marvel Comics' first openly gay hero.

The New York-based publisher said Tuesday that Canadian character Jean-Paul Beaubier - also known as the super speedster Northstar - will marry his beau, Kyle Jinadu, in the pages of "Astonishing X-Men" No. 51, due out June 20.

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Actress Garcelle Beauvais signs deal for children's books

Actress Garcelle Beauvais with her children, Jaid Nilon, left, and and Jax Nilon at the "Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked" Blu-ray and DVD release party in Los Angeles on March 26, 2012.

/ Alberto E. Rodriguez

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - Haitian-American model and actress Garcelle Beauvais will dig into her own background for the life lessons she is planning to share in a series of children's books.

A statement released Monday says the 45-year-old "Franklin & Bash" star has an agreement with Stranger Comics for three books that will "address identity issues relevant to many children today."

Pictures: Children's books by celebrities

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Best Bets: "DWTS," "Idol" and "Men in Black 3"

"American Idol's" final two: Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez.

/ Michael Becker / FOX.

(CBS) It's summer! The calendar may say the season doesn't start for another month, but pop culture pegs it at Memorial Day weekend.

That means summer action blockbusters are coming to your local cineplex and summer replacement shows will be popping up on your TV. But before those summer shows can start, regular-season series have to wind up their seasons.

Most did that last week, but there still are a few season finales this week, most notably for the reality competitions. Winners will be crowned this week on "Dancing with the Stars" (Monday and Tuesday) and "American Idol" (Tuesday and Wednesday).

There are also are season finales scheduled for "Glee" (Tuesday) and "The Middle," "Modern Family," "Don't Trust the B---," "Revenge, " and "Law & Order: SVU," all on Wednesday.

Hugh Laurie is hanging up his stethoscope on "House," wrapping the show up after an eight-season run Monday with a series finale, preceded by a one-hour retrospective. Also ending this week (Thursday) is "Awake," which was canceled by NBC last week after just one season.

The Fox network's summer dance competition, "So You Think You Can Dance," launches a new season Thursday and then moves to Wednesdays the following week. That's the same night ABC enters the singing show competition with "Duets," starring Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Nettles, Lionel Richie, and Robin Thicke.

On the big screen, "Men in Black 3," which has been premiering around the world for the last two weeks, opens in theaters Friday. It stars Will Smith, who has built a reputation for big-grossing summer films, Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin as a younger Jones. "MIB3" will need to clear more than $52,000,000 at the domestic box office to beat its predecessors.

Also opening Friday is Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom," which opened the Cannes Film Festival last week. The whimsical coming-of-age tale stars Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, Bruce Willis, Edward Norton and Tilda Swinton.

Cannes continues all week with the prestigious Palme d'Or being awarded on Saturday. Among the week's premieres will be Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly" (Tuesday) with Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Richard Jenkins, Ray Liotta, and Sam Shepard; Walter Salles' "On the Road" (Wednesday) with Kirsten Dunst, Amy Adams, Viggo Mortensen, Kristen Stewart, Terrence Howard, Steve Buscemi, and Elizabeth Moss; Lee Daniels' "The Paperboy" (Thursday) with Zac Efron, John Cusack, Nicole Kidman, and Matthew McConaughey; and David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis" (Friday) with Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Paul Giamatti, and Samantha Morton.

Music lovers can look forward to a new album Tuesday from John Mayer. "Born and Raised" was completed before Mayer was diagnosed with a throat nodule that has temporarily silenced him. The singer-guitarist can't tour to promote the album or even sing its material in live performances.

To be published Tuesday is talk show host Jimmy Fallon's paperback book, "Thank You Notes 2" and "Canada," a new novel from Richard Ford, whose "Independence Day" became the first novel to win both the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Jolie pens forward for ex Thornton's new book

Angelina Jolie and then-husband Billy Bob Thornton on June 5, 2000.

/ AP Photo

(CBS News) Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie were crazy about each other when they were married, carrying each other's blood in vials around their necks.

Now,  10 years after their divorce, Jolie still has nothing but good things to say about Thornton in the forward for his new book "The Billy Bob Tapes: A Cave Full of Ghosts."

Pictures: Angelina Jolie
Pictures: Billy Bob Thornton

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Which town is best-read? Alexandria, Va.

(CBS/AP) There are a lot of readers in Alexandria, Va.

The historic suburb outside of Washington, D.C. tops Amazon.com's list of best-read cities over the past year, based on per capita sales of books, newspapers and magazines.

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Kirk Douglas to come out with e-book in June

Actor Kirk Douglas arrives at the 2012 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at Sunset Tower on Feb. 26, 2012, in West Hollywood, Calif.

/ Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

(CBS/AP) At age 95, Kirk Douglas is getting in on the e-book craze.

The legendary actor has an e-memoir coming out in June.

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Best Bets: Season finales on TV, "Battleship," and an Occupy Wall Street album

Season finales include the CBS show "Mike & Molly" tonight.

/ CBS Photo

(CBS News) It's all about TV this week as network honchos meet with advertisers in New York to unveil their fall schedules in a series of meetings dubbed the "upfronts."

Some networks have already tipped their hands, renewing favored shows for another season or cancelling ones with low ratings. But many shows - and their casts - are sweating it out until the upfront announcements.

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Free Potter e-books to be offered through Kindle

J.K. Rowling buries a time capsule to mark the start of building work on a research clinic for patients with multiple sclerosis on Nov. 7, 2011, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

/ Getty

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - The "Harry Potter" series has joined the Kindle lending library.

Amazon.com announced Thursday that on June 19, the e-book editions of J.K. Rowling's seven Potter novels will become part of the Kindle service available to Amazon Prime subscribers. Members can download a book for free once a month. Amazon's library has more than 145,000 books.

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"Wild Things" author Maurice Sendak dead at 83

(CBS/AP) DANBURY, Conn. - Maurice Sendak, the children's book author and illustrator who saw the sometimes-dark side of childhood in books like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "In the Night Kitchen," died early Tuesday. He was 83.

Longtime friend and caretaker Lynn Caponera said she was with him when Sendak died at a hospital in Danbury, Conn. She said he had a stroke on Friday and never regained consciousness.

Pictures: Maurice Sendak: 1928-2012
Watch: 60 Minutes 1973 Maurice Sendak profile
Read more: Maurice Sendak tackles Hanukkah
Read more: Maurice Sendak on "The Colbert Report"

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Best Bets: Depp and "Desperate Housewives"

Johnny Depp as Barnabas Collins in "Dark Shadows."

/ Warner Bros.

(CBS News) In this Janus-like week in entertainment, viewers will be looking forward to the summer blockbusters on the big screen and saying goodbye to the favorite shows on the small screen.

Believe it or not, summer moviegoing started last weekend with the arrival of that box-office bonanza "Marvel's The Avengers." It continues this weekend with "Dark Shadows," the Gothic soap opera starring Johnny Depp as the vampire Barnabas Collins.

Also opening is the less ambitious "Girl in Progress," starring Eva Mendes as an overwhelmed single mother dealing with a teen who wants to skip adolescence and go directly to adulthood.

"Survivor: One World" will get a winner on Sunday after a two-hour finale that concludes with a reunion show.

Also ending their seasons this week are "Castle" and "Two Broke Girls" on Monday, "Unforgettable" and "New Girl" on Tuesday, "CSI" on Wednesday, "The Big Bang Theory" - with a wedding - and "The Vampire Diaries" on Thursday and "Undercover Boss," "Fringe" and "Blue Bloods" on Friday.

"Desperate Housewives" will end not only its season but its eight-season run on ABC Sunday night. Producers promise a heart-stopping end plot for the ladies of Wisteria Lane.

Movies coming out on DVD this week include "The Vow" with Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams and Kate Beckinsale in "Underwarter Awakenings."

On Tuesday, a book by Bravo exec and "Real Housewives" host Andy Cohen hits store shelves. It's called "Most Talkative: Stories from the Front Lines of Pop Culture."

Also coming out with new books are literary giants Toni Morrison ("Home") and John Irving ("One Person"). Historian David McCullough also has a book ("The Great Bridge") coming out about the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

And finally the worlds of fashion and entertainment intersect tonight when stars pair up with designers for the Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Gala. The New York red carpet is considered the Oscars of the fashion industry.

Queen Mother at center of new book

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in a 1993 photo.

/ AP

(CBS News) Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, is the subject of a new book, and it's full of revelations about the late royal.

In "The Queen Mother: The Untold Story of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Who Became Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother," which was released last week, author Lady Colin Campbell reportedly claims that Queen Mother was the daughter of her family's French cook and that her daughters, Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret, were conceived by artificial insemination.

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"Little Prince" discovery offers new insight

A manuscript draft for classic children's book "The Little Prince," by French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery is presented by auction house Art Curial in Paris, May 3, 2012.

/ AP
(CBS/AP) The only known draft pages of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's classic children's book "The Little Prince" are on display at a Paris auction house, ahead of their sale this month.

The two fragile handwritten sheets, brimming with original musings and even a new character, were discovered two months ago in France in private hands.

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"Gods, Gangsters & Honour": An industry tell-all

"Gods, Gangsters & Honour" by Steven Machat

/ Beautiful Books

(CBS News) Steven Machat, son of famous entertainment lawyer Marty Machat, decided to follow in his father's footsteps and pursue a career in what he thought was an industry of glitz and glamour.

But, in his "tell-all" book, "Gods, Gangsters & Honour," he exposes the reality behind the industry and how those who are seen as gods can also be seen as gangsters.

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DC adds 6 new titles, including modern "GI Combat"

Two versions of the cover of the first issue of "G.I. Combat."

/ AP/DC Comics

(CBS/AP) PHILADELPHIA - DC Entertainment is bringing six more titles to readers, including a contemporary take on its vintage war comic, "G.I. Combat," more than eight months after upending its universe of classic heroes and ongoing titles.

The book, one of six new titles in comic shops on Wednesday, features a pair of stories that focus on modern-day U.S. soldiers in situations both fantastic, chaotic and, in some cases, out of time, too.

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