Woody Allen jazzes it up

People

Allen jazzes it up

An audience of almost 3,000 gave Woody Allen a standing ovation after he and his jazz band gave their first concert in Poland on Sunday. The filmmaker, playing the clarinet, was accompanied by his New Orleans Jazz Band. The 73-year-old Academy Award winner rarely performs in large venues or outside New York City, where he lives.

Oldest U.S. man dies

George Francis, the nation's oldest man, who lived through both world wars, man's first walk on the moon and the election of the first black president, died Saturday of congestive heart failure in Sacramento, Calif. He was 112. UCLA gerontologist Dr. Stephen Coles, who maintains a list of the world's oldest people, said Francis lived 112 years and 204 days. With Francis' death, Walter Breuning, of Montana, who is 112 years, 98 days old, becomes the country's oldest living man. The world's oldest person is Maria de Jesus, of Portugal, who is 115 years, 109 days old, Coles said.

Box office

Moviegoers adopt "Marley"

Hollywood had a happy holiday with a huge Christmas weekend, as movies from Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson, Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett and Adam Sandler all opened strongly. Aniston and Wilson's dog tale "Marley & Me" debuted at No. 1 with $37 million in weekend ticket sales, according to estimates Sunday from distributor 20th Century Fox. Disney's Sandler comedy "Bedtime Stories" came in second for the weekend with $28.1 million. Paramount's "Benjamin Button," a romantic fantasy with Pitt and Blanchett, ran a close third with $27 million for the weekend.

Critters

Soft-spoken bison

There could be some scientific reasoning behind the attraction of low-key males over the brassy swagger of the loudest guy in the bar. A University of California, Davis, graduate student who studied mating among 325 bison found the quietest bulls scored more mates and offspring than the most bellicose bellowers. The least successful bulls were actually 50 percent louder than their more prolific counterparts.

Passages

Robert Graham, 70, a Los Angeles sculptor who designed major civic monuments across the nation and was married to actress Angelica Huston, died Saturday in Los Angeles after an illness.

Ann Savage, 87, who earned a cult following as a femme fatale in such 1940s pulp-fiction movies as "Detour," died in her sleep Christmas Day after a series of strokes.

Singer-songwriter-producer Delaney Bramlett, 69, who penned such classic rock songs as "Let it Rain" and worked with musicians George Harrison and Eric Clapton, died Saturday in Los Angeles from complications of gallbladder surgery.

Today in History

1851: The first American Young Men's Christian Association was organized, in Boston.

1890: The Wounded Knee massacre took place in South Dakota as an estimated 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them.

1940: During World War II, Germany dropped incendiary bombs on London, setting off what came to be known as "The Second Great Fire of London."

1978: During the Gator Bowl, Ohio State University coach Woody Hayes punched Clemson player Charlie Bauman, who'd intercepted an Ohio pass. (Hayes was fired by Ohio State the next day.)

Today's Birthdays

Actor Clarence Swensen ("The Wizard of Oz"), 91. Actress Inga Swenson, 76. Actress Mary Tyler Moore, 71. Actor Jon Voight, 70. Actor Ted Danson, 61. Comedian Paula Poundstone, 49. Actor Jason Gould, 42. Actor Jude Law, 36. Actor Mekhi Phifer, 34.

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