Taking Names

Rulin’ the roost

The country’s goin’ country.

At least seven of the 25 top-grossing tours this year are likely to be country artists, up from five in 2003 and only two a few years ago, according to Billboard magazine.

Among the hot tickets: Kenny Chesney, Shania Twain, Toby Keith and Tim McGraw.

Mr. McGraw is on pace to gross $50 million this year, said his manager, Scott Siman.

Mr. McGraw’s ticket prices range from about $25 to $65, which is cheaper than many rock and pop acts and among the reasons for country’s strong showing, Mr. Siman said.

“I think the economy still is a huge factor,” he speculated. “The pundits say it’s getting better, but it’s not getting better everywhere. We certainly notice it in certain markets where unemployment is higher.”

And then there’s country’s appeal to the heartland.

“Don’t discount the fact that our music speaks to people’s core values and feelings,” Mr. Siman said.

Unto the least

Mel Gibson is sitting on piles of money from “The Passion of the Christ,” which has the industry wondering what he’ll do next.

Meanwhile, the actor donated $10 million to be split between Mattel Children’s Hospital at the University of California at Los Angeles and the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in L.A. to help care for children from foreign countries, officials said.

The donation will help children with serious medical conditions who are unable to be treated in their own countries, Associated Press reports.

Dr. Edward McCabe, physician in chief of the Mattel hospital, said the money will have a big impact.

“[T]he generosity of Mr. Gibson will transform the lives of children throughout the world,” he said.

Runaway mouth

Paris Hilton may finally have earned herself some bad publicity.

It’s a videotape again, but in this one — according to reports in the New York Daily News and the San Francisco Examiner, among other publications — the hotel heiress is heard uttering the N-word. Miss Hilton is shown chatting with two black men who ask if she would model their fashion line.

The men leave, and that’s when Miss Hilton drops the nasty epithet — or so says British journalist Carole Aye Maung, who claims to have reviewed the tape.

Miss Hilton hasn’t explicitly denied using the word, but she issued this statement through her publicist: “I am deeply hurt by recent reports. Anyone who knows me knows that this is not me. I love everybody and am not a person who discriminates against anyone — ever,” the Denver Post quoted Miss Hilton as saying in Sunday’s editions.

’Miss’ Virginia

Sandra Bullock, an Arlington native, will be honored Oct. 30 at the Virginia Film Festival, which will also pay homage to the late director Russ Meyer.

AP reports that Miss Bullock will receive the Virginia Film Award at the festival in Charlottesville. A preview clip from “Miss Congeniality 2” will be screened during the event.

Miss Bullock will also participate in an acting workshop with drama students at the University of Virginia.

The festival, now in its 17th year, runs from Oct. 28 through Oct. 31.

Maiden voyage

In other famous-young-blonde news, Britney Spears said yesterday that she wants to change her name after marrying 26-year-old dancer Kevin Federline last month.

“I probably will. Britney Federline — I like that,” Miss Spears told Germany’s Bunte magazine. “Society probably won’t allow me, but I would like to change it.”

She also told Bunte she hopes to start having children soon.

“I’d love to have a baby already. But I’ve got to take care of some things first,” she said. “I want to become a mother. I’m crazy about children. … Next year, when I’m 23, I’ll be ready.”

Compiled by Scott Galupo from Web and wire reports.