Sideshow: Boardinghouse reach mars eat-off
The world's No. 3 eating champion sat out this year's Coney Island Fourth of July hot-dog-eating contest but couldn't resist a little hot-dogging. After competitive eater Joey "Jaws" Chestnut won his fourth consecutive bout Sunday, he was upstaged when six-time champion Takeru "The Tsunami" Kobayashi crashed the stage and wrestled with police before being charged with resisting arrest, trespass, and other things.
The world's No. 3 eating champion sat out this year's Coney Island Fourth of July hot-dog-eating contest but couldn't resist a little hot-dogging. After competitive eater
Joey "Jaws" Chestnut
won his fourth consecutive bout Sunday, he was upstaged when six-time champion
Takeru
"The Tsunami"
Kobayashi
crashed the stage and wrestled with police before being charged with resisting arrest, trespass, and other things.
"Let him eat! Let him eat!" the crowd chanted as cops tackled Kobayashi, 32. He'd refused to sign a contract with Major League Eating, the fast-food equivalent of the NFL, saying he wanted freedom to compete in contests sanctioned by other groups. But last week, he told Japan's Kyodo News, "I really want to compete in the event." Sunday, he slipped onstage to be welcomed by host George Shea before officers dragged him away, resisting vehemently.
Minutes earlier, Chestnut had downed 54 hot dogs in 10 minutes to win the annual Nathan's Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest. (Runner-up: Tim "Eater X" Janus, with 45; third was Patrick "Deep Dish" Bertoletti, 37.) Despite winning $20,000 and a bejeweled belt, the 26-year-old from San Jose, Calif., said he was bummed he hadn't beaten his 2009 record, 68. His excuse: "I was dehydrated going in."
Casting a broad shadow
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
drew an estimated $161 million in North American theaters in its first five days of release, a spectacular if not quite record-breaking result. And in a surprise, audiences defied critics to make
The Last Airbender
No. 2.
Box office analysts said Eclipse's gross was big enough to rank it third on the all-time list of Wednesday-openers, after Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) and Spider-Man 2 (2004). Its studio, Summit Entertainment, projected Eclipse would sell an additional $20 million Monday for a six-day domestic total of about $181 million.
So there
Ex-Miss California
Carrie Prejean
is now Mrs.
Kyle Boller
; she married the Oakland Raiders QB on Friday at San Diego's Grand Del Mar resort.
Prejean caused a ruckus last year after saying at the Miss USA pageant that marriage should be confined to a man and a woman. She eventually surrendered her crown.
Be afraid, Marmite
Jam made from what its maker claims is one of
Princess Diana's
hairs is for sale (a steal at $7.60) at a surrealist art exhibition at London's Barbican Art Gallery. Called "occult jam," it's both art and food, says
Sam Bompas
of caterers Bompas & Parr. Recipe: Infuse gin with a speck of the late princess of Wales' hair ($10 on eBay), add milk and sugar. Purpose: to provoke people to think about food marketing and how language enhances the eating experience. Right.