Dollywood Coverage From The Weekend Continues

'Noise' Still In Top 5 DVDs
Dolly's latest film remained in the top five for last week's home video sales, it was announced Wednesday. The previous week's No. 1 debut, Joyful Noise slipped four spots to No. 5 in its second week on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, The Hollywood Reporter reported here. New releases The Vow and Underworld: Awakening debuted at No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, while Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Thor came in at No. 3 and No. 4, respectively.

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May 16:
Dollywood Homecoming Pictures Begin
The first gallery of images from Dolly's weekend Homecoming appearances at Dollywood has been posted in your official Dollymania.net continuing coverage. Check it out here.

Dolly's 'Bachelorette' Airs May 28
The air date for Dolly's episode of The Bachelorette has been revealed. Knoxville News Sentinel columnist Terry Morrow announced it will be seen on ABC May 28. See what Dolly had to say about her guest appearance on the program in his column here.

Tenn. First Lady Plugs Library
Tennessee First Lady Crissy Haslam is out and about promoting Dolly's Imagination Library literacy program. Check out a story about her appearance in Jackson, Tenn., from The Jackson Sun here.

Nephew's Roadside Fight Makes News
Dolly's nephew and head of security, Bryan Seaver, was involved in a roadside altercation two months ago on I-40 west of Knoxville that made the news this week. The Knoxville News Sentinel reported on the incident here. The incident remains under investigation.

May 15:
Cracker Barrell DVD Certified Gold
An Evening With . . . Dolly has shipped 50,000 units to Cracker Barrel stores nationwide for sale, resulting in its certification as a gold longform video on May 11, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) announced on Monday. The DVD/CD set, a re-issue of her original 2008 Dolly: Live From London collection, had sold 34,204 copies as of its fifth week of release, and as of today it has likely sold about 40,000 copies, meaning about 10,000 unsold copies are waiting for purchasers at the chain's 612 stores, as gold and platinum awards are for units shipped regardless of whether or not they have sold. It marks Dolly's 27th gold or platinum award from the RIAA but her first ever video award for U.S. sales and her first RIAA award since a gold digital sales certification of her duet "When I Get Where I'm Going" with Brad Paisley in 2006.

Dolly Appearance Video Posted

ABC Teases Dolly's 'Bachelorette' Appearance

May 14:
Dolly Wraps Up Latest Dollywood Stop
Dolly continued her Homecoming appearances at Dollywood on Saturday, popping into her Kinfolks show and the James Rogers show, singing "Red White And Bluegrass" at both. She also toured the park again on Saturday afternoon. Look for continuing coverage here throughout the next week with photo galleries, audio files and a video report all coming soon! Photo at left from Dolly's Saturday Kinfolks appearance is © copyright 2012 T. Duane Gordon/www.dollymania.net. May not be reproduced without prior written consent. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. More to come!

Overseas Chart Updates
The late Whitney Houston's Essential, with her cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You," this week drops off the 50-position Australian pop albums chart, down from No. 44 last week. Also Down Under, her Ultimate loses three to No. 12 catalog albums and Greatest Hits falls 14 to No. 34 on that same tally. Also overseas, The Little Willies' For The Good Times, featuring Norah Jones' cover of Dolly's "Jolene," dips four to No. 16 country in its 18th week on the U.K. albums charts.

Chenoweth Channels Dolly In Concert
Thanks to Manuel for alerting me to some Dolly connections in Kristin Chenoweth's current concert tour. He attended her Berkley, Calif., show and says during her Dolly tribute number "What Would Dolly Do?" she stops mid-song to consult with a pre-recorded Dolly on screen discussing what she should do about the guy in the song, followed by her back-up singers holding up Dolly cut-out masks over their faces during the chorus. Then at the concert's end, she came back on stage for an encore of "I Will Always Love You" accompanied only by a guitar in an arrangement very similar to Dolly's 1974 original version.

May 12:
Dolly Homecoming Comes To Dollywood
Dolly made her annual Homecoming appearance at Dollywood on Friday to kick off the annual tourism season in Pigeon Forge and to recognize American armed forces in advance of Memorial Day. Her first appearance, featuring a performance of "Color Me America," came in the Kingdom Heirs show, where she brought on stage former prisoner of war Jessica Lynch, who now serves as the Imagination Library spokesperson for the state of West Virginia. Next, she was seen under a tent outside of her Chasing Rainbows Museum where she took the unusual step of holding her local television interviews outside instead of indoors, as fans watched four back-to-back interviews. Then she popped in at the Dreamland Drive-In show for a performance of "Red White and Bluegrass" before a park tour. The day concluded with her annual parade through Pigeon Forge. She returns to the park on Saturday for show appearances and a scheduled park tour at 4 p.m. Check out coverage from WCVB here, Volunteer TV here and WLOS here. In addition, Sevier County News reports here that the parade was filmed for Operation Pigeon Forge: A Family's Story, a Great American Country (GAC) program to air this summer following one family as a member ships out for overseas duty. Photo at left from Dolly's Friday interviews is © copyright 2012 T. Duane Gordon/www.dollymania.net. May not be reproduced without prior written consent. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. More to come!

'Evening' Sales Another 4,500 Copies
Dolly's An Evening With . . . Dolly sold another 4,446 units at Cracker Barrels last week, a 13 percent drop from the previous week's sales, bringing its cumulative total for the five weeks since its release to 34,204. The week's No. 1 music video DVD from George Harrison moved nearly 22,000 copies, while Adele lost 3 percent for a No. 2 finish with about 10,000 units and Whitney Houston lost 5 percent at No. 4 with about 2,100 copies sold.

Irish Chart Update
Whitney Houston's Ultimate Collection, featuring her cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You," rises four places to No. 13 on the Irish pop albums chart, it was announced Friday.

May 11:
Dolly Returns To Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Dolly on Thursday celebrated the 25th anniversary of her Dixie Stampede dinner theatre chain's flagship restaurant in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., appearing during the venue's pre-show entertainment portion of its first performance of the evening. She received flowers and a plaque from the mayor and city manager as well as spoke about the venue's birthday and sang "Red, White, and Bluegrass" for the fans present. The appearance was supposed to be a surprise, and most media outlets kept the secret, but Knoxville Volunteer TV on Thursday morning let the cat out of the bag with a report here, although I understand the show had already been sold out for a couple of weeks. She will be at Dollywood on Friday and Saturday for various other surprise appearances in addition to scheduled park tours at 4 p.m. each day and her annual Pigeon Forge parade down the Parkway at 6 p.m. Friday. WBIR reports here they'll have her on Live at Five at Four for an interview. Then on Saturday night, Knoxville gay bar Club XYZ (1215 North Central) on Saturday night kicks off its annual unofficial Dolly party, Night of 1,000 Dollys, which is not affiliated with Dolly or the park in any way. A drag cast performs at 11:30 p.m., with the Dolly look-a-like contest at about midnight. Photo at left from Dolly's Thursday night appearance is © copyright 2012 T. Duane Gordon/www.dollymania.net. May not be reproduced without prior written consent. Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. More to come!

'Evening' Slips To No. 3
In its fifth chart week, the Cracker Barrel exclusive CD/DVD set An Evening With . . . Dolly, a re-issue of her Dolly: Live From London set, slips from the No. 2 spot it has held since its release. The fall was due to the George Harrison DVD Living In A Material World landing at No. 1, which pushed longtime chart-topper Adele to No. 2 and Dolly to No. 3. Elsewhere on the Billboard May 19 charts, renewed attention to Dolly's film Joyful Noise thanks to its DVD release prompted four songs from the movie to re-enter the gospel digital songs sales chart: "Man In The Mirror" by Keke Palmer at No. 10 for a sixth week, "Higher Medley" by Dolly, Queen Latifah and cast at No. 12 for a sixth week, "Here To The Moon And Back" by Dolly, Kris Kristofferson and Jeremy Jordan at No. 13 for a fifth week and "Maybe I'm Amazed" by Palmer and Jordan at No. 16 for a fifth week. The Joyful Noise Soundtrack re-enters at No. 149 of the top 200 pop albums chart for a seventh week, No. 120 current pop albums for a ninth week, No. 22 of the independent label albums chart for an 11th week and No. 8 soundtracks for a 12th week. The collection shoots up 42 spots to No. 6 Christian albums in its 16th week there, 18 places to No. 3 gospel albums in its 17th week there and 58 digits to No. 8 Christian and gospel albums in its 16th week there. The late Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits, featuring her cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You," sold just under 11,000 copies for the week, which dropped it 13 to No. 41 pop, two to No. 3 pop catalog albums and one to No. 2 R&B/hip-hop catalog albums. The Bodyguard soundtrack, which also includes the song, loses 47 to No. 156 pop, 18 to No. 24 pop catalog albums, seven to No. 13 R&B/hip-hop catalog albums and four to No. 10 soundtracks. The Grascals' Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin, with Dolly on three tracks, falls back off the 15-position bluegrass albums list, down from No. 12 in its 55th chart week. The Little Willies' For The Good Times, featuring Norah Jones' cover of Dolly's "Jolene," re-enters the 75-position country albums chart at No. 75 to garner a 12th chart week. Overall, Carrie Underwood's Blown Away debuts at No. 1 country and pop, while Lionel Richie's Tuskegee slips one to No. 2 country and three to No. 6 pop in its sixth week.

May 10:
'Joyful Noise' Debuts At No. 1
Dolly was at the top of last week's home video sales, it was revealed Wednesday. Her film Joyful Noise debuted at No. 1 on the Nielsen VideoScan First Alert sales chart, The Hollywood Reporter reported here, selling more DVDs and Blu-ray Discs combined than any other title in the past week. The week's other new releases, New Year's Eve and Haywire, debuted at No. 2 and No. 3 respectively. Dolly's flick with Queen Latifah came in at No. 2 on the Blu-ray only chart, since just 23 percent of its first-week sales were on Blu-Ray compared to nearly 50 percent of that chart's No. 1 Haywire's and 19 percent of its No. 3 New Year's Eve's. The report did not disclose how many copies of the film were sold in its first week. In related news, a couple more reviews of the film came out Wednesday. Isthmus gave it a "C" here, repeating the sentiment I've seen in a couple of other reviews that it is made up of two movies: one good (the music sequences) and one bad (the plot and script). Likewise, Hollywood Chicago offered a similar take on it here.

Fla. High School Readies '9 To 5'
Another high school is doing Dolly's 9 To 5: The Musical. Tampa Bay Online reports here on Riverview High School in Riverview, Fla., performing it May 18-20 and 24-26.

Off To Dollywood!
Your webmaster is about to head off to the true happiest place on earth: Dollywood! Dolly will be making "surprise" appearances around the park on Friday and Saturday as well as park tours at 4 p.m. each day, weather permitting. In addition, her 27th annual Homecoming Parade through Pigeon Forge takes place at 6 p.m. Friday. The parade starts at traffic light No. 6 and ends at traffic light No. 3. She'll also make a surprise appearance somewhere in Pigeon Forge but not on the park grounds Thursday night, teased Terry Morrow of The Knoxville News Sentinel here.Watch for complete coverage of that appearance and others here on Dollymania.net!

May 9:
Watch Dolly's Lifetime Interview

May 8:
'Joyful Noise' Blu-ray Contest Winners Announced
Congratulations to the winners of Warner Brothers' contest with Dollymania.net to give away five copies of the Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack with UltraViolet Digital Copy of Dolly's film Joyful Noise! The winners are Dan Krolow of Wittenberg, Wisc.; Brian Matthews of Endicott, N.Y.; Dorothy Patterson of Hiawassee, Ga.; Ruth Bryan of Liberty Township, Ohio; and Justin Frazier of Gray, Tenn. Thanks to Warner Brothers for providing the prizes. They will be shipped to each of the winners shortly. If you don't have your copy of the movie yet, get it here! Also, check out another review, this time from Blog Critics.org here.

Remember Dolly On Lifetime Tuesday
Don't forget to watch Dolly Tuesday morning on Lifetime's 7 a.m. Eastern morning show, The Balancing Act, featuring perhaps her final spot to air from the An Evening With . . . Dolly Cracker Barrel interviews she conducted last month.

May 7:
'Evening' Just Below 30K In Sales
An Evening With . . . Dolly, the Cracker Barrel-exclusive CD/DVD re-issue of Dolly: Live From London, sold 5,146 copies the previous week to retain its No. 2 position on last week's music video DVD chart, the sales totals revealed. That was a 31 percent drop from the week before and brings its four-week total sales to 29,738.

Paper: Dolly's UT Commencement Ranks High
With college graduations coming up over the next few weeks, The Washington Post compiled excerpts from what it considered the eight funniest commencement speeches of all time over the weekend and included Dolly's 2009 address to the University of Tennessee. Read more here.

Overseas Chart Updates
Whitney Houston's Essential, featuring her cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You," appeared about to drop off the 50-position Australian pop albums chart, but the collection gains two this week to No. 44. Also Down Under, two other collections with the song remain on the catalog albums tally: Ultimate slips one to No. 9 and Greatest Hits rises two to No. 19. Also overseas, The Little Willies' For The Good Times, with Norah Jones' cover of Dolly's "Jolene," holds steady at No. 12 country in its 17th week on the U.K. albums charts.

May 5:
Get Your 'Joyful' Contest Entries Submitted
You still have a few days to get your entries in for the Dollymania.net contest with Warner Brothers to give five lucky winners free copies of the Blu-ray and DVD Combo Pack with UltraViolet Digital Copy of Dolly's film Joyful Noise. Entries are limited to one per e-mail address, but it's available for U.S. addresses only and no P.O. boxes. The entry deadline is Sunday night. Enter here. In related news, Monsters & Critics gave the DVD release three out of five stars here, and Seattle Post Intelligencer offered two-and-a-half stars here. Both publications praised Dolly's chemistry with co-star Queen Latifah and the music, but they said the remainder of the film is lackluster.

Irish Chart Update
Whitney Houston's Ultimate Collection, which includes her cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You," rises three places to No. 17 on the Irish pop albums chart, it was announced Friday.

May 4:
'Evening' Remains At No. 2
Dolly's Cracker Barrel-exclusive An Evening With . . . Dolly spends its fourth consecutive week at No. 2 on the Billboard music video DVD chart, it was revealed in the May 12 numbers released Thursday. Elsewhere on the charts, the Joyful Noise Soundtrack with Dolly rises three spots to No. 21 gospel albums in its 16th chart week and re-enters the 50-position Christian albums list at No. 49 and 75-position Christian and gospel albums tally at No. 66 in its 15th week on both. Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits, with her cover of Dolly's "I Will Always Love You," sold another 14,500 copies to rise two to No. 28 pop and one to No. 1 pop catalog albums and No. 1 R&B/hip-hop catalog albums. The Bodyguard soundtrack, also featuring the song, gains seven to No. 109 pop and 10 to No. 6 pop catalog albums, holding steady at No. 6 R&B/hip-hop catalog albums and No. 6 soundtracks. The Grascals' Country Classics With A Bluegrass Spin, featuring Dolly on three tracks, re-enters the 15-position bluegrass albums list at No. 12 in its 55th chart week. Overall, Lionel Richie's Tuskegee remains at No. 1 country and dips two to No. 3 pop in its fifth week with 8,000 copies sold, while Lee Brice's Hard 2 Love debuts at No. 2 country and No. 5 pop with 46,000 units moved in its first week.

Another 'Joyful' Mini-Review Posted
The San Francisco Chronicle weighs in on Dolly's film Joyful Noise, which hit DVD and Blu-ray this week. The paper says here the film is "Weird, with lots of cornpone dialogue, but it makes a happy ruckus." (And remember to enter our contest here to win one of five free Blu-rays of the film.)

'9 To 5' Heads To Bay Area
Dolly's 9 To 5: The Musical is heading to Concord, Calif., Broadway World reports here. The show will be performed there May 21 through June 23.

May 3:
Auction: Meet Dolly, Support NYC Library
A new charity auction has launched to meet Dolly and support her Imagination Library expansion in New York City. The winner and a guest will receive a photo with Dolly, accommodations at a Dollywood Cabin, passes to Dollywood and tickets to Dolly's Dixie Stampede dinner theater. Dates for the prize, which will take place sometime within the next year, will be determined in the future based on Dolly's availability. As of press time, bids were up to $1,800 with the next minimum bid being $2,050. The auction ends at 3 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, May 23. Check it out here. Thanks, John!

Latest On 'Joyful Noise' DVD
The DVD and Blu-ray release of Dolly's latest film, Joyful Noise, continued to get noticed in the press this week. The Amarillo Globe News noted the release here and called it a "charming underdog film." AOL's The Boot country music blog took the opportunity to share its favorite Dolly one-liners here. Lead actor Jeremy Jordan was celebrating, as the day the discs hit stores this week he also scored a Tony nomination for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for his work is the Disney production Newsies. And you still have a few days to enter the Dollymania.net contest with Warner Brothers Entertainment to win one of five free Blu-ray Combo Packs of the film. Entries will be accepted here through Sunday night. Limit of one entry per e-mail address. Due to restrictions by Warner Brothers, only U.S. residents may enter and you must provide a street address, no post office boxes.

'9 To 5' Used At Runner's Funeral
I've never thought of Dolly's "9 To 5" as a somber funeral song, but a hairdresser who died during this year's London Marathon, and whose passing resulted in more than £1 million being raised for charity in her memory, was remembered with the tune at her services this week. The British media reports that the song was played at the funeral for 30-year-old Claire Squires. Read more from The Irish Independent here.

May 1:
Win One Of Five Free 'Joyful Noise' Blu-ray Combos
The big day is here with the arrival on DVD and Blu-ray of Dolly's film Joyful Noise, and you can win a free copy. Thanks to Warner Brothers Entertainment, Dollymania.net is pleased to give five lucky readers a free Blu-ray Combo Pack with UltraViolet Digital Copy. Enter here through Sunday night to be considered in the drawing. Winners will be announced next Monday night. In related news: