UNVEILED: "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" held its American premiere at New York's Ziegfeld Theater Sunday night, with its stars calling it "a billion times better than the first movie," Daniel Radcliffe, 13 (aka Harry Potter) tells NBC News. Director Chris Columbus describes the new film as "darker and funnier" than its predecessor, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." Robin Williams and his children were also among the attendees (as were Joan Allen, Susan Sarandon, Liam Neeson and their broods). Williams, 40, tells NBC the movie was good, too, though without the abundant enthusiasm that Radcliffe showed.
ANNOUNCED: Former British rock legends the Police, whose hits included "Roxanne" and "Message in a Bottle," will get together for a one-show reunion, the band's drummer Stewart Copeland told a news conference in Milan, according to Reuters. "I am a dinosaur of rock," said Copeland, 50, revealing that he, Sting and Andy Summers have agreed to play three songs at a ceremony in New York in March to mark the band's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He said the group also was invited to perform at a concert organized by former South African president Nelson Mandela, but the band's former frontman Sting had not yet said whether he'd be there, too.
KILLED: Actor Merlin Santana, 26, who appeared in this year's Eddie Murphy movie "Showtime," was shot to death early Saturday in South Los Angeles while sitting in a parked car, police tell the Associated Press. No arrests were immediately made and investigators had not determined a motive for the attack, Lt. Clay Farrell said. Santana also had guest roles on "The Cosby Show" and "Moesha."
REVIVED: A fourth installment of the lucrative dinosaur franchise "Jurassic Park" is in development, Universal Pictures has confirmed. Steven Spielberg, 56, who directed the first two "Jurassic Park" films and produced the third, has not yet determined his role in the new project, said his spokesman. Of "Jurassic III," PEOPLE said in its review: "Despite the fact that the digitally generated creatures look more ferociously real than ever as they thunder across the screen to chomp on yet another human ... you sit there and yawn, 'Oh, yeah, more monsters.'"
CANCELED: Guns N' Roses' opening night concert for its first U.S. tour in nine years was abruptly canceled Thursday when a riot ensued before the doors to the Vancouver, British Columbia, venue were even opened, MTV News reports. The cancellation was due to a delay in the L.A.-to-Vancouver flight of frontman Axl Rose, 40, due to mechanical problems. Upon hearing that the show was off, fans (who had paid up to $80 for the show, says MTV) reportedly displayed their disappointment in bursts of anger. Some threw rocks and bottles. The aborted Vancouver show may be rescheduled.
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