Box office weekend news… Another Bachelorette wedding… Britney Spears’ devastating news… Whitney Houston’s made-for-Lifetime movie… and A live TV musical of “Grease”

listen to ‘Showbiz – Jan 19, 2015’ on audioBoom

After spreading out into more theaters across the country this weekend, American Sniper was expected to do well but I don’t think the movie studio expected this. American Sniper took in $90.2 million dollars, making it the biggest January weekend performance ever. The previous record was held by Avatar, which earned $68.5 million the first weekend of 2010. Kevin Hart’s The Wedding Ringer debuted in second with $21 million, with Paddington debuting in third with $19.3 million. Being People magazine’s sexiest man alive didn’t help Chris Hemsworth at the box office. His new movie Blackhat just barely made the top 10 with a $4 million opening weekend.

Another Bachelorette wedding and nobody cared?? Yesterday Bachelorette Desiree Hartsock married Chris Siegfriend in Palos Verdes, a year and a half after she gave him that final rose. But ABC wasn’t interested in broadcasting the ceremony, so Des and Chris sold their story to Us Weekly to help cover the wedding costs. You can check it out on newsstands Wednesday.

Britney Spears is said to be devastated after a man she previously dated was killed. Britney met John Sundahl in 2007, when they were both attending AA meetings. They dated briefly but remained friends. For the past year, John had been flying dignitaries in and out of Afghanistan. He was killed last when a missile hit his helicopter.

Whitney Houston’s family was NOT happy about the made-for-Lifetime movie Whitney, which aired this past Saturday night. Her sister-in-law, Pat Houston, posted an open letter on WhitneyHouston.com, saying, “If you watch this movie, watch it knowing that Lifetime is notorious for making bad biopics of deceased celebrities and brace yourself for the worst.” She added, “Never would Whitney allow her story to be told by an inexperienced team and how naive of anyone to think otherwise, unless you’re caught up in illusions of grandeur that you can just do anything and people will accept it. This made for TV movie is certainly not a trailer to Whitney’s life story.”

Fox has announced they will air a live musical production of Grease in January of next year! Already signed to the cast are Julianne Hough, who will play Sandy. Vanessa Hudgens get to play the juicy role of Rizzo.