Quick Takes: Sonia Sotomayor gets nearly $1.2 million for memoir

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor says she received nearly $1.2 million to write a memoir of her rise from a South Bronx housing project to the nation’s highest court.

Sotomayor reported the payment for the as-yet untitled book from Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group in an annual report of personal finances, released Friday for the justice and her eight colleagues. Knopf revealed last July that Sotomayor had agreed to write the memoir, but the size of the advance had not been public.

The book will come out simultaneously in English and in Spanish, but no release date has been set. Sotomayor is the court’s first Latino justice. Her parents moved from Puerto Rico to New York after World War II.

Justice Clarence Thomas also received more than

$1 million in advance of the publication of his book, “My Grandfather’s Son,” in 2007.

—Associated Press

Amy Winehouse reenters rehab

Troubled British singer Amy Winehouse is back in rehab, her spokeswoman said Friday.

Winehouse, 27, checked herself in to a United Kingdom clinic on Wednesday. “She wants to be ready for performances in Europe this summer,” her publicist, Tracey Miller, said in a statement.

The Grammy-award winning Winehouse has had an ongoing battle with substance abuse and health issues. She has yet to release a follow-up album to her 2006 breakout album, “Back to Black.”

—Reuters

Film doesn’t get greatest turnout

In exchange for a $25,000 donation from filmmaker Morgan Spurlock, the city of Altoona, Pa., agreed last month to rename itself temporarily after his latest documentary, “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.”

But when the film finally arrived there this week, people weren’t exactly lined up to see it.

The Altoona Mirror reported that four people attended the city’s first paid showing Thursday afternoon: Gary and Daphne Gordon and their two sons.

The city, which is 85 miles east of Pittsburgh, also hosted a premiere when the renaming took effect, but it was invitation-only.

On a positive note, 15-year-old Nicholas Gordon found the movie “flat-out fun and hilarious.”

—Associated Press

3-D ‘Lion King’ due Sept. 16

First, we learned that “Titanic” is returning to theaters in 3-D, and now 1994’s “The Lion King” is following suit.

The Oscar-winning film will arrive in 3-D for the first time on Sept. 16 but will be in theaters for only two weeks. Disney will release “The Lion King” in Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3-D starting Oct. 4.

—CNN

Joshua Bell gets Marriner’s post

American violin virtuoso Joshua Bell was named music director of the world-renowned Academy of St Martin in the Fields chamber

orchestra on Friday, replacing Neville Marriner, who founded it half a century ago.

Marriner, 87, said that Bell would take up the post in September as only the second music director since Marriner founded the London-based ensemble in 1958.

Bell, 43, who has risen to the top ranks of world violinists since making his orchestral debut at the age of 14, said he’d admired and enjoyed working with the ensemble since he made his first recording with it 25 years ago.

Bell said he may have to curtail some of his appearances performing concertos with major orchestras but felt it was a good trade-off to work more intimately with the ensemble.

—Associated Press

Russell leaves ‘Drake’s’ project

David O. Russell, who earned accolades last year for his film “The Fighter,” is no longer going to direct “Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune,” based on the video game.

Russell had turned in a script for the project, but it was so long and so ambitious that it was at least partly responsible for Sony and him parting ways, according to two people familiar with the situation who were not authorized to talk about it publicly. (Sony declined to comment, as did a spokeswoman for Russell.)

Among the many flourishes Russell had added were several characters not in the video game. The game centers on a lone adventurer, Nathan Drake.

The studio still wants to make the movie and will bring on a new writer and director. It’s not expected that Mark Wahlberg, who had been Russell’s choice, will star in the film.

—Steven Zeitchik

Finally

Helping hands: Country music stars Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton raised $500,000 at two concerts earlier this week benefiting victims of recent tornadoes in Oklahoma.