In NYC, the show goes on, even if sans audience

NEW YORK — For the second night in a row, superstorm Sandy and its aftermath forced David Letterman to live out that performer's nightmare: Telling jokes to a vacant theater, or as he called it, "a big ol' empty barn."

Letterman hosting the "Late Show" to an unpeopled Ed Sullivan Theater on Tuesday, as he did on Monday, was the oddest sight of the considerable and continuing cultural fallout of the hurricane that left New York institutions like Broadway, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center no more open for business than the city's damaged subway system.

But the New York entertainment industry was fighting to go on with the show, and none more than several of the city's late-night shows. Though "The Colbert Report" and "The Daily Show" canceled tapings for the second day, the "Late Show," Jimmy Fallon's "Late Night" and a traveling out-of-towner, ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live," went ahead with shows Tuesday.

When "Late Show" band leader Paul Schafer asked Letterman how they were supposed to approach such an awkward situation, Letterman quickly replied: "Just like every night: We pretend the audience isn't here."

When Letterman introduced his first guest, Kate Hudson, the actress didn't stride out; instead appeared a middle-aged bald man — presumably an employee of the "Late Show" — who bantered with Letterman as if he were Hudson.

The three shows took varied approaches to inviting audiences to brave the difficult transportation prospects. Kimmel, a Brooklyn native, had planned to begin a week of shows in the borough on Monday. He began them a day late on Tuesday — with audience — at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

"I was born in Bay Ridge. I grew up in Mill Basin, and tonight I have returned to save my people from the storm," said Kimmel, referring to Brooklyn neighborhoods. "Thank you for ignoring the local authorities to be here tonight."

Like Letterman, Fallon had hosted his show Monday without an audience — an experience that guest Seth Meyers compared to watching Charlie Rose "if he had a band and everybody was a little high" — but he happily welcomed audience members back on Tuesday.

"First off, thanks to our great audience for making it out to the show tonight," Fallon began his monologue Tuesday. "I'm so glad you're here, because last night's audience was the worst."

As the city took account of the damage wrought by the storm, the aftermath of Sandy continued to cause the cancellations of film premieres, film and TV production and even that most unshakable performer: Bruce Springsteen.

The Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band concert scheduled for Tuesday night at the Rochester Blue Cross Arena in upstate New York was postponed until Wednesday because of flight cancellations for the band and ticket holders.

The city revoked film permits for a second day Tuesday. The sets of "Smash," "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit," "30 Rock," "Deception" and "Do No Harm" were closed, NBC said, and "SVU" won't tape Wednesday. Other series temporarily knocked out of production included "666 Park," "Gossip Girl" and "Person of Interest."

Films forced to stop shooting include Darren Aronofsky's "Noah" and Akiva Goldsman's "Winter's Tale," and the Tuesday premiere of Joe Wright's Tolstoy adaptation "Anna Karenina" was canceled.

ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today" show and "CBS This Morning" aired live Tuesday with extensive storm coverage, though "GMA" was forced to cancel its planned Wednesday Halloween special.

Daytime shows were less successful, with production called off for "Live! With Kelly and Michael," "Katie," "The View" and "The Chew." ABC said work on all the programs would resume Wednesday.

All 40 Broadway theaters were closed, and while most hoped to open Wednesday, both "The Lion King" and "Mary Poppins" announced that Wednesday's shows would also be canceled.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Taylor Swift's 'Red' sells 1.2 million copies in debut

NEW YORK — Taylor Swift's new album is called "Red," but its true color is a brilliant platinum. The 22-year-old sold 1.2 million copies of her latest album in its first week — the largest sales week for any album in a decade.

Nielsen SoundScan confirmed the blockbuster sales on Tuesday night. "Red" marks Swift's second straight album to sell more than 1 million copies in its first week; "Speak Now," her third album, sold a little over 1 million copies when it was released in 2010. She is the only woman to have two albums sell more than 1 million copies in its first week.

"They just told me Red sold 1.2 million albums first week. How is this real life?! You are UNREAL. I love you so much. Thanks a million ;)," Swift tweeted Tuesday night.

The only other act to sell more than 1 million copies of an album in its debut week twice was 'N Sync.

Swift isn't a boy band, but she's certainly got the appeal of one: the country crossover has a huge following, particularly among teens who have followed her since she was a teen herself, releasing her first album. But she's also a critic's darling: The Grammy-winner's "Red" garnered plenty of acclaim when it was released last week.

Swift was omnipresent in the week of the album's release, appearing on such shows as "Good Morning America" and "Katie." She also joined with two untraditional partners — Papa John's and Walgreens, which offered the album for sale. And she announced her upcoming tour.

The last album to sell more than 1 million copies in its debut week was Lady Gaga's "Born This Way," which sold 1.1 million copies last year. However, that album was deeply discounted on Amazon.com in its first week.

Swift has the opportunity to celebrate for a second time this week: As the reigning "Entertainer of the Year" at the CMA Awards, she has the chance to capture the trophy again when it is held Thursday in Nashville.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Hurricane Sandy scares Wall Street

After a two-day shutdown caused by Hurricane Sandy, Wall Street will be back in business this morning as experts tally the storm's damage — a figure that could reach as high as $50 billion — and worry about ripple effects on the economy.

"There will be no Halloween costumes on the New York Stock Exchange when the market opens back up because there will be a great deal of tension just in terms of restarting the markets and making sure ... trading goes smoothly," said Peter Andersen, senior portfolio manager at Boston-based Congress Asset Management. "Other than, say, repairing their roofs, money managers have had two additional days to be thinking about portfolios and the stocks they're in, and they may have changed their opinions in the past two days of certain stocks."

Nationwide, Hurricane Sandy could end up costing as much as $20 billion in property damage and up to $30 billion more in lost business, the forecasting firm IHS Global Insight predicted yesterday. Last year's Tropical Storm Irene caused $4.3 billion in insured losses, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

IHS said the short-term blow to the economy could shave about 0.6 percentage point from U.S. economic growth in the October-December quarter, given the hits to retailers, airlines and home construction firms.

"It's going to be felt in the New York City/New Jersey area where they got devastated," said Elliot Winer, chief economist for the Northeast Analyst Group. "In Massachusetts, it's probably not going to be any different than any bad storm that comes in for a day and people don't go out."

Teams from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency fanned out across the state yesterday to assess the damage caused by Sandy, which knocked out power to about 370,000 Bay State households and businesses on Monday.

"We don't know yet if there's enough damage to qualify for (federal) aid," said MEMA spokesman Peter Judge. "The damage has to be large and widespread, with schools closing for the better part of a week and nursing homes having to be evacuated. Those things we're not seeing yet."

As stores reopened and workers returned to their jobs, hurricane damage claims poured into insurance companies yesterday. By mid-afternoon, Eastern Insurance Group had received nearly 200 claims, mostly related to tree and roof damage, said claims manager Roy Grafton.

"These are the types of events that test an insurer's value," said Glenn Greenberg, a Liberty Mutual spokesman.

Greenberg would not disclose how many claims the company had received but said it had several hundred employees handling claims coming in by phone.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac said they will offer help to borrowers whose homes were damaged or destroyed, who live in designated disaster areas and whose loans the mortgage giants own or guarantee.

Barbara Anthony, undersecretary of the Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation, urged people to photograph any damage to their property, shop around for a contractor, ask for references and a written estimate, make sure their insurer will pay for the work, keep all of their receipts and call the state's insurance hot line (1-877-563-4467) with any questions.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.

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US futures rise ahead of week's first trading day

NEW YORK — Stock futures rose Wednesday, the first day of trading this week after Hurricane Sandy shut down Wall Street and darkened a broad swath of the East Coast.

Global markets remained relatively buoyant while U.S. financial markets were shut down, and they rose again ahead of the opening bell on strong earnings from automakers in Europe and the U.S., and also on quarterly results from European airlines.

Dow Jones industrial futures rose 47 points to 13,101. The broader S&P futures tacked on 7.7 points to 1,415.30. Nasdaq futures rose 8.25 points to 2,667.25.

General Motors Co. easily beat most expectations for the third quarter, though profits were dragged down by the debt crisis in Europe. North American warranty costs cut into earnings as well.

Mazda broke free of a long string of losses, posting a $153.3 million profit in the July-September quarter, though it revised downward its sales forecast for the year.

Other corporate earnings coming out Wednesday include, MasterCard and Visa. Dozens of quarterly reports which had been postponed will be arriving over the next two days.

The government releases its comprehensive jobs report for October at the end of the week.

© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Charles River Labs buys stake in Chinese firm

Charles River Laboratories Inc. said it will acquire a 75 percent ownership stake in Vital River, a Chinese provider of research models and related services for nearly $27 million.

Through this acquisition, Charles River will provide research models and associated services to the emerging China market for drug discovery and development. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of next year, subject to customary closing conditions, including Chinese regulatory approvals.

For the last 10 years, Vital River has been a licensee for production and distribution of Charles River research models in China, with sites which reflect Charles River facility design.

The agreement also provides an option for Charles River to acquire the remaining 25 percent of Vital River at a later date.

Earlier this month, Charles River entered into a partnership with AstraZeneca for outsourced regulated safety assessment and drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics development. Last month, Charles River opened a new 60,000-square-foot biomedical diagnostic testing facility in Wilmington.

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Millennium lymphoma drug wins European approval

Drug developer Millennium and Takeda Pharmaceutical said today the European Commission has granted conditional marketing authorization for a drug that treats certain forms of lymphoma.

Takeda, which bought Millennium for $8.8 billion in 2008, said it plans to launch Adcetris across Europe in the coming weeks.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Adcetris to be marketed in the U.S. in August 2011.

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Lowell online payment processor sells for $361M

Vantiv Inc., a Cincinnati-based company focusing on payment processing services and related technology solutions for merchants and financial institutions, said today it will acquire Litle & Co. of Lowell for $361 million.

Litle & Co. is an independent e-commerce payment processor for companies that sell goods and services to consumers over the Internet and through direct response marketing.

Vantiv said the acquisition will significantly increase the company's online sales capabilities and expand its customer base of online merchants.

"Litle & Co. has built a premier e-commerce product in the market, which is supported by an extremely talented leadership team," said Vantiv president and CEO Charles Drucker. "The combination of our two companies will create differentiation in our product offerings and enable us to rapidly capitalize on market opportunities."

The transaction is expected to close by the end of the year. Upon completion, Litle & Co. will become a subsidiary of Vantiv while maintaining its location in Lowell.

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Herald sees readership spike

The reach of the Boston Herald is greater than ever before as the brand of its quality journalism is showing strong growth across digital platforms.

The numbers tell the story: Print readership up 15 percent daily over last year to nearly a half-million. A whopping 47 percent growth in weekly e-edition readers. An impressive 2.6 million unique visitors a month to bostonherald.com, an 18 percent spike over last year.

"The Herald's audience is stronger than ever — and that success is clearly the result of a relevant news-gathering operation and a point of view that starts the conversation every day," said Herald President and Publisher Patrick J. Purcell.

The shift in the media landscape has the Herald counting broadcast and digital platforms as top competitors in the new marketplace as opposed to the Boston Globe, which dropped 11 percent of daily readers in Scarborough Research comparisons.

"The Herald is beyond a paper that you can touch and feel," said longtime advertiser and supporter of the newspaper Ernie Boch Jr., owner of Subaru New England.

"It has a presence on the street. It has a presence online. It has a presence in the minds of the readers.

"I consider Bostonians lucky to be in a two-paper town — thank you, Pat Purcell. The Herald is alive and thriving."

Dan Quirk, owner and CEO of Quirk Auto Group, said, "We've been Herald customers for 30-plus years and the Herald does a good job for us.

"Everybody is impressed with all the new initiatives that have made a difference at the Herald. And even with all of the Internet and digital changes, we find customers who bring in ads right from the paper into our dealerships," Quirk said.

The Herald boasts perhaps the most engaged and interactive readership in New England on its website.

Bostonherald.com offers an array of new features from chats about sports and politics, blogs on everything from entertainment to food and a steady diet of award-winning video presentations.

The Herald's news and sports mobile apps are soaring as well, as readers enjoy their unique content on the go.

"We have completely reinvented ourselves to fit with the needs and preferences of our readers and advertisers," said Brian Cox, the Herald's vice president of advertising/display.

"We are a multiplatform media company, and we offer a vehicle that can match up with the target audience of all our advertisers — including print, online, mobile, email targeting and behavioral targeting.

"We hear many success stories across different verticals — retail, fashion, telecom, automotive, financial, travel," Cox said.

The Herald's initiatives have been recognized locally and nationally.

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Biogen sees positive results from drug study

Biogen Idec of Cambridge and Stockholm-based drug developer Swedish Orphan Biovitrum announced positive results today from a clinical study of a treatment for hemophilia A, a rare inherited disorder that impairs blood clotting.

A total of 165 male patients, aged 12 years and older, were enrolled in the study. Additional analyses of the study are ongoing, and the companies said they anticipate presenting detailed results at a future scientific meeting.

Biogen added that it plans to submit a biologics license application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the first half of 2013.

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FDA approves Thermedical technology

Thermedical, a privately held, Waltham-based medical equipment company, has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration clearance to market its technology for the ablation and coagulation of soft tissue during specific surgical procedures.

FDA clearance of the Thermedical Ablation System was based on substantial preclinical testing carried out under multiple grants from the National Institutes of Health, the company said, adding Thermedical was also awarded a $500,000 grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center.

"Receiving FDA clearance is a significant milestone for Thermedical as it will facilitate our plans to carry out a series of clinical trials to evaluate the efficacy of our system for treating large, solid tumors, including liver cancer," said Thermedical president Michael Curley. "We are in active discussions with leading medical centers in the United States to begin these clinical trials, and we look forward to reporting our results in the future."

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