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Sting plays Rockefeller Plaza

Sting performed Friday on NBC's "Today" show Friday in New York's Rockefeller Plaza.

Today, Sting kicks off his third North American tour since the release of his most recent album in 1999, "Brand New Day." "Brand New Day" sold more than 7 million copies and won two Grammy awards.

36 million tune in to 'Survivor'

Tina Wesson got her $1 million, Colby Donaldson is picking out a new motorcycle � which she's buying for him � and CBS has 36.4 million reasons to be thankful for "Survivor."

That's how many people tuned in to the final episode of the Outback "Survivor" on Thursday night, according to Nielsen Media Research. In August, 51 million watched the first "Survivor" finale. The second finale was up against tougher competition during a ratings "sweeps" period.

Not just another guy in bandages

The first time around, "The Mummy" director and co-writer Stephen Sommers recalled, "our film was really thought of as just some guy wrapped in bandages."

Then "The Mummy" grossed $420 million worldwide.

So the pressure's greater this time. "The Mummy Returns," which opened Friday, had a budget of nearly $100 million, compared to $80 million for the 1999 original.

Yet Sommers, speaking by phone recently from his Los Angeles home, said it's still just "a big commercial popcorn movie."

Jackson too hot for Singapore

Singapore has banned Janet Jackson's latest album, "All For You," because of lyrics deemed too steamy for the conservative Southeast Asian city-state.

Government censors imposed the ban because the song "Would You Mind" has "sexually explicit lyrics," the Films and Publications Department said in a statement.

The album's distributor, EMI, has filed an appeal against the ban. Authorities also banned Jackson's previous album, "The Velvet Rope," because of its references to homosexuality and other issues considered touchy in the tightly controlled country.

Singapore has a long history of banning Western popular songs, dating to Peter, Paul and Mary's 1963 hit "Puff, the Magic Dragon," which censors believed contained references to marijuana.

One of the beautiful people

U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr. has another line to add to his resume: One of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World."

Ford, 30, is the son of Harold Ford Sr., the first black congressman from Tennessee. The younger Ford was elected to represent Memphis' 9th district in 1996 when his father decided not to run.