My grandmother grew begonias. Her garden was a screened patio that defied the hot Sonoma Valley sun, and in the summer it overflowed with pots and baskets of tuberous begonias.

NEW YORK -- The box-office performance of Peter Jackson's "King Kong" wasn't as chest-thumping as many expected. But to be fair, $217 million isn't terrible, nor was the $520 million worldwide take. It was well received by critics, nominated for four Oscars and won three: visual effects, sound and sound editing.

NEW YORK -- Ever wonder what Bart Simpson would look like in human form?

"Stay Alive" -- If you die in the video game, you die in real life. This is a cool/potentially creepy idea if you're in high school and goofing around with your friends at the movie theater on a Friday (as many were during a recent matinee, which this critic had to attend because the film wasn't screened before opening). For everyone else, this isn't just a preposterous premise for a horror movie, it's a source of unintentional hilarity. Recycling ideas from "The Lawnmower Man," the "Final Destination" movies, the third "Spy Kids" and "Tron," "Stay Alive," features an underground video game that a bunch of teenagers feel compelled to play because it was the last thing one of their friends was doing before he died. The gamers (including Jon Foster, Sophia Bush, Samaire Armstrong and Adam Goldberg) eventually realize that the characters on screen look just like them, and that "Stay Alive" is making them see and hear things even after they've stopped playing. Then when they begin dropping one by one in exactly the manner they die on screen, they get even more freaked out. Dude! PG-13 for horror violence, disturbing images, language, and brief sexual and drug content. 85 min. One star out of four.

LOS ANGELES -- Singer Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like "Act Naturally" and brought the genre to TV on the long-running "Hee Haw," died Saturday. He was 76.

The late-blooming Matthew Bourne is a risk taker.

LOS ANGELES -- Angela Lansbury is thrilled with knee replacement surgery, saying it has allowed her to dance again.

Celebrated throughout Europe -- and more recently on this side of the Atlantic -- for her novel musical talents, soulful singer Cesaria Evora thrilled a cheering throng at the first of two appearances this weekend at UC Berkeley's Zellerbach Hall.