MOSCOW – A technician for an American telephone company has won the top prize of 1 million Russian dumplings in the Karaoke World Championships.
Edward Pimentel won the unusual prize early Sunday in Moscow after getting the most votes from audience members. Organizers said the dumplings could last 27 years if someone eats 100 a day.
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Judges chose Finns Sam Moudden and Maria Saarima-Ylitalo as the male and female champions. They were awarded karaoke machines.
Amateur singers from 16 countries took part in the three-day competition.
Pimentel, from Albuquerque, N.M., favors the R-and-B genre. For his song in the final round, he chose Usher’s “DJ’s got Us Fallin’ In Love.”
Frequent target on ‘SNL,’ N.Y. governor gets in jabs
NEW YORK – Mocked for years on “Saturday Night Live” as a clueless blind man, the governor of New York appeared on the show’s season premiere to dish right back.
Gov. David Paterson came on the show’s “Weekend Update” segment early Sunday and interrupted cast member Fred Armisen, who was in character as the governor. Armisen plays Paterson as a buffoon with a past of youthful drug use and womanizing who loves to razz neighboring New Jersey.
In an earlier season, Armisen held a chart illustrating the state’s job losses upside down.
During “Weekend Update,” Armisen launched into a clownish take on the New York governor’s race — “It’s like ordering at the Olive Garden. No matter what you get, it’s going to be a greasy mess,” he said of the two candidates — before segueing into a crack about New Jersey and then Paterson’s driving.
He was interrupted with a cry of “Stop!” from Paterson, who came onto the set amid cheers from the audience.
Paterson has said the show’s parodies hurt disabled people who can’t fight back. He said during the show that he has a good sense of humor but jokes about the disabled are “sophomoric and stupid.”
But Paterson held his own with Armisen and cast member Seth Meyers, poking fun at Armisen for playing Paterson with a beard. The governor said he’d shaved his a year ago.
“Are you blind?” he asked Armisen, getting a laugh from the audience.
Paterson, who is not running for election in November, joked that being governor is a lot like “Saturday Night Live”: “There are a lot of characters, it’s funny for 10 minutes and then you just want it to be over.”
Bidders turn up nose at Lady Liberty auction
NEW YORK – Lady Liberty has been jilted at an auction of iconic items in New York City.
A copper cast of the tip of the Statue of Liberty’s nose that was up for sale Friday went unsold. The nose, expected to fetch between $150,000 and $200,000, was one of four made during a restoration effort in the 1980s.
Among the items that did sell was the falcon statuette in the 1941 film-noir classic “The Maltese Falcon.” A spokeswoman for Guernsey’s auction house says it was sold for $325,000 to a group of buyers that included actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Two prop tablets from the movie “The Ten Commandments” carried by actor Charlton Heston during his portrayal of Moses sold for $18,000. The buyer’s identity wasn’t immediately known.
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