Quick Takes: RottenTomatoes.com’s tomato-tossers disarmed

The aggregating website RottenTomatoes.com suspended user comments on movie reviews of “The Dark Knight Rises” on Tuesday after commenters reacted harshly to negative reviews of the film and made profane and threatening remarks about the critics who wrote them.

Matt Atchity, the site’s editor in chief, said it was the first time RottenTomatoes.com has suspended user comments, adding that postings about “Dark Knight” reviews would likely be restored by the end of the week.

The final film in director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy opens Friday.

The job of policing the comments became more than his staff could handle, Atchity said. “It just got to be too much hate based on reactions to reviews of movies that people hadn’t even seen,” he said.

—Associated Press

Backstreet’s back, all right?

All the fuss over a new crop of boy bands such as One Direction must have spurred the Backstreet Boys to get to work.

Even if they’re more of an Encroaching-on-Prime-Adulthood Band these days, the ‘90s O.G.s of billowing white suits and frosted-tip haircuts announced big new plans Tuesday on “Good Morning America,” including a new album that will feature all five original members.

The yet-untitled work will be the band’s first with its founding lineup of Nick Carter, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough, A.J. McLean and Kevin Richardson since 2005. Richardson had left the group in 2006.

They are currently working in a London studio, and the album release is planned to coincide with the band’s 20th anniversary next April.

—August Brown

‘Tempest’ could be Dylan’s last

Fifty years ago, Bob Dylan released his first album, “Bob Dylan.” And on Sept. 11, the singer will release his 35th, called “Tempest,” his record label announced Tuesday.

The album features 10 new songs and is his first (non-Christmas) studio album since 2009’s “Together Through Life.”

For a man who’s been called America’s bard more than once, it bears noting that the title of the new work is strikingly similar to the title of William Shakespeare’s final play, “The Tempest.” Is this a sign from the 71-year-old singer-songwriter that his album days are ending? Only he knows for sure — but if anyone understands the power of words, it’s Bob Dylan.

—Randall Roberts

It’s the motet of the moment

As the “Fifty Shades of Grey” series continues to be the trashy summer read of the decade — 20 million copies and counting sold in the United States — the repercussions are rippling into other cultural arenas.

Benefiting from what could be called “The Grey Effect,” the Renaissance-era “Spem in alium,” a 40-part motet performed by the Tallis Scholars, experienced a spike in sales that is being attributed to its use in one of the erotic books’ many provocative scenes. It hit the top of the classical singles chart in Britain.

—Chris Barton

‘Motown’ needs a major minor

Producers of a musical based on the life of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy are seeking an exceptionally talented young actor — one who can play a preteen Gordy, a young Michael Jackson and a precocious Stevie Wonder.

Gordy launched an audition website Tuesday to help find someone between the ages of 8 and 11 who can sing, dance and act like the King of Pop in his Jackson 5 days and Wonder at about age 11.

“Motown” will open on Broadway next spring.

—Associated Press

Dissident will dissent in print

Blind Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng will have a memoir coming out next year, Henry Holt & Co. imprint Times Books announced Tuesday.

Chen, 40, made international headlines in April when he escaped from house arrest in China and sought refuge in the U.S. embassy in Beijing. He currently is a student at the U.S.-Asia Law Institute at the New York University School of Law.

—Associated Press