Storm hosts parade after serious burns
ESPN anchor Hannah Storm will return to the air today, exactly three weeks after she was seriously burned in a propane gas grill accident at her home.
Storm suffered second-degree burns on her chest and hands and first-degree burns to her face and neck. She lost her eyebrows and eyelashes and roughly half her hair.
Storm will host ABC’s telecast of the 2013 Rose Parade today. Her left hand will be bandaged, and she said viewers might notice a difference in her hair texture where extensions have been added.
“I’m a little nervous about things I used to take for granted,” she said by phone from Pasadena, Calif. “Little things like putting on makeup and even turning pages on my script.”
The award-winning sportscaster and producer was preparing dinner outside her home in Connecticut on the night of Dec. 11 when she noticed the flame on the grill had gone out. She turned off the gas and when she reignited it “there was an explosion and a wall of fire came at me.”
Madonna racks up nearly $300 million
Madonna was queen of the world in 2012, at least as far as touring pop music performers, delivering the highest-grossing concert tour of the year and raking in nearly $300 million at the box office worldwide, according to Pollstar, the concert-industry tracking magazine.
Madonna’s MDNA tour visited 67 cities for 88 performances that grossed $296.1 million, an average of $4.4 million a night, Pollstar’s data shows. Her average ticket price was just over $140, far from the priciest concert tickets of the year.
Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band came in at No. 2, grossing $210.2 million from 81 shows in 66 cities on the Wrecking Ball tour.
Green Day returns, has new tour dates
Green Day is going back on the road.
The Grammy-winning punk band announced new tour dates Monday.
The band canceled the rest of its 2012 club schedule and postponed the start of a 2013 arena tour after singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong’s substance abuse problems emerged publicly in September when he had a profane meltdown on the stage of the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas. The band’s rep announced later that Armstrong was headed to treatment for substance abuse.
“I just want to thank you all for the love and support you’ve shown for the past few months,” Armstrong told fans in a statement Monday.
The tour is scheduled to begin March 28 at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago area.
The birthday bunch
Actor Frank Langella is 75. Rapper Grandmaster Flash is 55. Actress Ren Woods is 55. Actress Dedee Pfeiffer (“Cybill”) is 49. Actor Morris Chestnut (“The Best Man”) is 44. Actor Verne Troyer is 44.