Jack White on making beautiful music with his ex-wife Meg

“Is it possible for a brother and sister to dress in only red, white and black, play blues music with no computers or samples, travel across the Arctic to places other bands would be scared to venture, play free shows everyday at random locations, and not be the biggest thing since The Beatles?” asks Jack White.

“The answer,” he says, “is clear.”

Since the duo’s first Detroit gig at an open-mike night back in 1997 and across six studio albums, the White Stripes — singer-guitarist Jack and his drummer and ex-wife Meg White (they now weirdly describe themselves as siblings) — have dutifully abided by Jack’s Rules of Threes. All clothes, gear, instruments and accoutrements are limited to three colors: red, black and white. Songs have just three sounds: guitar, drums and vocals. Roadies wear three-piece suits. It all feels a bit O-C-D.

Tuesday’s “Under Great White Northern Lights,” the duo’s first release since 2007’s “Icky Thump,” conforms to the code, too. It’s even issued in three different formats: audio (CDs and a double LP), video (concert and documentary DVDs) and print (a 208-page book, plus a silk-screened photo).

It’s issued by Warner Bros. and Third Man, Jack’s Nashville-based boutique label that specializes in handmade vinyl. (And, yes, it derives its name from the number 3).

“It’s us having a plethora of film and music at our table that we decided to put in a curry and bake it at 300 degrees,” Jack, 34, tells The Post. “There are dessert treats in there, too, for those fans that hate their vegetables. All kinds of exclusive vinyl and artwork. This isn’t some Internet mirage, either — you can hold these things in your hands just like Grandpa did.”

Audiowise, it’s the band’s first-ever live release, documenting a tour through every province and territory in Canada, including: a five-pin bowling alley in Saskatoon; a 40-foot fishing boat called the “Annandale Light” off of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; and a rec-center acoustic jam in Nunnavut with Inuit elders, who fed Jack raw caribou.

“The strange locations made for the most intriguing and inspiring moments for us,” Jack says. “You tend to play songs in a bowling alley that you wouldn’t at home with mother in the parlor.”

His favorite performance?

“I like the show that was only one note,” he says, referring to a ridiculously brief, albeit free show in St. John, New Brunswick. “The crowd got their money’s worth on that one.”

The concert footage captures unhinged performances of songs that span the band’s career, demonstrating why Meg’s minimalist percussion and Jack’s colicky blues guitar have earned the Stripes respect from critics and rock titans alike. Jack jammed with Jimmy Page and U2’s The Edge in the film “It Might Get Loud” and shared a stage with the Rolling Stones in Martin Scorsese’s “Shine a Light.” The duo has won three Grammys and sold more than 12 million records.

The box set is also a multimedia monument to the bond between a former husband and wife whose music outlasted their romance.

The Canada tour did, however, end in cancellations and the painfully shy Meg suffering from acute anxiety. In the rare moments when she whispers, viewers need subtitles to understand what she’s muttering. By the end, the cracks in her psyche are showing. Following their 10th anniversary concert in Nova Scotia, Meg sits next to Jack at a piano while he plays “White Moon.” Tears stream down her face.

“Her femininity and extreme minimalism are too much to take for some metal heads and reverse-contrarian hipsters,” Jack says. “She can do what those with ‘technical prowess’ can’t. She inspires people to bash on pots and pans. For that, they repay her with gossip and judgment. In the end she’s laughing all the way to the Prada handbag store. She wins every time.”

The Clash stars to tour with Gorillaz?

Two members of British punk icons The Clash are set to hit the stage together for the first time since 1983 if reports linking them to an upcoming Gorillaz tour are to be believed.

Mick Jones and Paul Simonon both feature on the band's new album Plastic Beach, and Spinner.com reports the pair has accepted an invitation from group leader Damon Albarn to tour.

Simonon and former Blur star Albarn have toured together before as members of The Good, The Bad & The Queen.

ABBA's Rock Hall induction won't be a reunion

ABBA fans can stop holding their breath: The fab four of Swedish pop, who haven't played together since 1982, will not reunite Monday night, when the group is inducted — finally — into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Two ABBA alumni, Benny Andersson and ex-wife Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstad, are scheduled to attend the 25th annual induction ceremony at New York's Waldorf-Astoria, and just one is likely to perform. "I may play something on the piano, with someone else singing," Andersson says. He doesn't disclose the crooner, except to say that it won't be Lyngstad. "I don't think she wants to. It's been so long."

Andersson's co-songwriter, Bjorn Ulvaeus, can't make it because of "a big family thing," and Agnetha Faltskog, Ulvaeus' ex-spouse and Lyngstad's former vocal partner, "doesn't like to fly."

The band has turned down numerous offers to reunite through the years, though not because of interpersonal tension. Andersson, 63, and Ulveaus, 64, have continued to work together on several musical theater projects since ABBA dissolved — including, of course, the international smash Mamma Mia! "We were never tempted" to revisit the group, Andersson explains, "because we've been so busy doing other things."

ABBA has been eligible for induction since 1999, 25 years after its first U.S.-released album, Waterloo. The writing team that crafted such hits as Dancing Queen, SOS and The Winner Takes It All isn't surprised ABBA was overlooked for a decade, even as less commercially successful acts were welcomed. "Critics suspected we weren't quite as serious as some other bands from the '70s," Ulvaeus says.

The band's recordings, with pristine melodies and ear-candy production, don't fit everyone's definition of rock 'n' roll. "Their musical vocabulary drew from many types of pop music," says J.D. Considine, a music contributor to Canada's The Globe and Mail. "But there weren't traditional rock mannerisms, like a strong blues base or Chuck Berry guitar."

As time has passed, though, ABBA's influence has been cited by many younger rock acts, "so there's a revisionist appreciation," Considine says. Hall president Joel Peresman agrees that "the respect ABBA has from rock 'n' roll musicians" was a factor, and points to the recent inductions of Madonna and Run-D.M.C. as signs of growing inclusiveness.

Andersson remains a working musician; his Benny Andersson Band just released Story of a Heart in the USA. But neither he nor Ulvaeus, who no longer performs ("He's a pensioner, a senior citizen," Andersson quips), longs to revive ABBA.

"Let people remember us as an ambitious, energetic young group," Ulvaeus says. "A wonderful memory."

'Alice' extends her No. 1 stay with $62 million

LOS ANGELES – Alice is still ruling the movie palace.

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland" easily remained the No. 1 weekend draw with $62 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Disney fantasy has climbed to a $208.6 million total domestically, becoming the first $200 million hit released this year.

In its second weekend in theaters, "Alice in Wonderland" pulled ahead of the $206.5 million domestic haul of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" to become the top-grossing of Depp and Burton's seven films together, which include "Edward Scissorhands," "Sweeney Todd" and "Corpse Bride."

"I believe it's literally the magical, if you would, pairing of Tim and Johnny," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney. "When you take those two, they always seem to make something really out of the ordinary."

"Alice in Wonderland" added $76 million overseas to bring its international total to $221 million and its worldwide gross to $430 million.

A rush of new movies had so-so openings, led by Matt Damon's Iraq War thriller "Green Zone," which debuted at No. 2 with $14.5 million domestically. Released by Universal, "Green Zone" stars Damon as the leader of a U.S. Army team who stumbles onto a conspiracy over the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Paramount's romantic comedy "She's Out of My League" debuted at No. 3 with $9.6 million. The movie stars Jay Baruchel as a geek in an unlikely romance with a babe.

"Twilight" star Robert Pattinson's romantic drama "Remember Me" opened at No. 4 with $8.3 million. The Summit Entertainment release stars Pattinson and "Lost" co-star Emilie de Ravin in a dark story of young lovers with tragedy in their past.

In its fourth weekend, Paramount's "Shutter Island," the latest collaboration between Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, was No. 5 with $8.1 million, raising its domestic total to $108 million.

Debuting at No. 6 with $7.6 million was Fox Searchlight's comedy "Our Family Wedding," starring America Ferrera as a Hispanic bride marrying a black man.

"Alice in Wonderland" took in nearly as much as the rest of the top-10 movies combined.

"It's like this great divide between the No. 1 and 2 films, which says that without `Alice in Wonderland' in the marketplace, we'd be hurting right now," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "By itself, it's really propelling huge box office."

Hollywood's business soared, with overall revenues at $144 million, up 43 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Race to Witch Mountain" led with a $24.4 million debut.

For the year, revenues are at $2.24 billion, up 9 percent compared to receipts last year, when Hollywood took in a record $10.6 billion.

Factoring in higher admission prices, movie attendance this year is running 6.7 percent ahead of 2009's, according to Hollywood.com. Before "Alice in Wonderland" opened, attendance was lagging slightly behind last year's.

"In just a couple of weeks, `Alice' has turned the entire marketplace around almost single-handedly," Dergarabedian said.

James Cameron's science-fiction sensation remained a strong draw after nearly three months in theaters, taking in $6.6 million to raise its domestic total to $730.3 million. The 20th Century Fox release has topped $2.6 billion worldwide.

Summit Entertainment's "The Hurt Locker," which beat "Avatar" for best picture at the Academy Awards, got a slight box-office bump from its Oscar triumph. The Iraq War drama, which is out on DVD but came back to theaters for Oscar season, pulled in $828,000, raising its box-office total to $15.7 million.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Alice in Wonderland," $62 million.
2. "Green Zone," $14.5 million.
3. "She's Out of My League," $9.6 million.
4. "Remember Me," $8.3 million.
5. "Shutter Island," $8.1 million.
6. "Our Family Wedding," $7.6 million.
7. "Avatar," $6.6 million.
8. "Brooklyn's Finest," $4.3 million.
9. "Cop Out," $4.2 million.
10. "The Crazies," $3.7 million.

Haim to be buried in Toronto

Corey Haim will be buried where he was born — in Toronto.

Haim's manager told Us Weekly the 80s icon's family "want to do it back home" but there will also be a memorial service in Los Angeles.

No date has been set for the funeral or memorial service, but the magazine reports the family is planning to ask the Hollywood community for donations to fund the burial and service.

It was reported Haim was in Los Angeles helping to take care of his mother Judy, who has cancer. Haim's sister Cari told the magazine her mother is not doing well.

"This is really hitting her hard," she said.

TMZ.com reported the L.A. County Coroner's Office said Haim had pulmonary congestion, and enlarged heart and water in his lungs, but the coroner could not say if these conditions caused his death. The coroner will not determine a cause of death until a toxicology report is completed.

Haim, who is best known for his roles in the movies The Lost Boys, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream, as well as being the "other" Corey alongside Corey Feldman, died Wednesday. It was well-known he suffered from drug addictions for most of his adult life.

Feldman has said he expects there will be a large memorial service for Haim.

"You see these people making great statements and that's wonderful and I hope they're all there for the memorial and I hope they're all there for the funeral," he told talk show host Larry King. "But where were they during his life?

Conan O'Brien will take his show to theaters

NEW YORK – Without a TV show to do every night, Conan O'Brien is taking his act on the road.

The former host of "The Tonight Show" announced a 30-city theater tour on Thursday. Sidekick Andy Richter and the former "Tonight Show" band will join O'Brien for what he promises to be "a night of music, comedy, hugging and the occasional awkward silence."

The "Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour" begins April 12 in Eugene, Ore., and concludes June 14 in Atlanta. It will visit theaters in at least 20 states and two Canadian provinces. Additional dates may be added.

O'Brien quipped: "It was either a massive 30-city tour or start helping out around the house."

On the itinerary is New York's Radio City Music Hall, just steps from where O'Brien first gained fame hosting "Late Night," and the Gibson Amphitheater in Universal City, Calif., near the studio where he presided over "The Tonight Show" for eight months.

The tour also will make a stop at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, the annual festival that takes place June 10-13 in Tennessee. Aside from performing in the comedy tent, O'Brien will emcee the festival's largest music stage on June 11 and 12, the festival said.

O'Brien quit "The Tonight Show" in January instead of taking NBC's offer to move his start time back by a half-hour to make room for "Tonight Show" veteran Jay Leno's return to late night from a failed prime-time show. He hasn't announced any future television plans.

Leno now is back in his old "Tonight" slot, which he had bequeathed to O'Brien last June.

'South Park' begins 14th season by taking on Tiger

NEW YORK – Golf clubs in hands or not, the kids of "South Park" are ready to take on Tiger Woods.

Creators of the Comedy Central cartoon have long since proven that no subject is sacred to them. So for the opening of its 14th season on Wednesday, the troubled golfer encounters Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman in their animated Colorado town.

"It's such an important issue in America right now — the sex addiction outbreak," Matt Stone, who makes the series with partner Trey Parker, said on Friday. "We're all really concerned about him and hope he gets better."

Sex addiction, the intersection of powerful men and willing women, late-night phone calls to the police and bad public relations gave them so much fodder they could have made an entire Tiger-centric season, Stone said.

Since the Peabody Award-winning show's first episode in 1997, Parker and Stone haven't worried about lines between good taste and bad if they can get a laugh. They mocked the Church of Scientology to the point of annoying Tom Cruise, and depicted Jesus Christ defecating on President Bush and the American flag.

"There's a delicacy in talking about (Woods) that we don't have to worry about," Stone said.

He wouldn't give many details about the episode, in part because he and Parker were still writing it on Friday. Stone said he was fascinated and disgusted by Woods' public apology, so it's likely that will be worked in.

"South Park" is airing its 200th episode next month.

"We can't even believe we're still here doing this," he said.

Strong ratings for Leno's return to late-night

NEW YORK – After a smashing return, Jay Leno appears headed to a battle with David Letterman for late-night television supremacy.

The Nielsen Co. says Leno averaged 5.6 million viewers last week, his first back at NBC's "The Tonight Show" following the ill-fated prime time experiment. Letterman had 3.7 million at CBS. Leno took advantage of curiosity over his return and a strong lineup of guests, including Olympic stars and Sarah Palin. It was a half-million more than he averaged his last season at "Tonight."

It's been much closer the second week. Through four nights, Leno is averaging 4.3 million viewers and Letterman has 4 million.

Considering Leno usually beat Letterman by a million and a half during their last season of competition, that's a sign of erosion for NBC's late-night franchise. Letterman consistently beat Conan O'Brien after O'Brien took over last year.

Underwood finds love and snow

Nashville is about as different from Ottawa as two places can be on one planet, but living in two capitals -- the capital of Canada and the other the country music capital -- is a challenge that country superstar Carrie Underwood is learning to balance.

One thing is certain: Underwood is in love.

The singer, who got engaged to Ottawa Senators centre Mike Fisher in December and is nominated for six Academy of Country Music Awards (ACM), including entertainer of the tear, top female vocalist and album of the year for her latest release, Play On, quietly makes the trip for a snowy weekend to watch the 29-year-old hockey star play at Scotiabank Place, hang out at Fratelli's restaurant (one of their favourite haunts in Kanata), or laze around Fisher's home in Carp.

Yes, we might be seeing a lot more of this self-professed "southern girl," if it weren't for one major obstacle.

Snow.

They don't get a lot of the white stuff back home in Oklahoma, where the Grammy Award-winning singer is originally from. It's not something she's used to.

"It's another world here," she says with a laugh during a break in final rehearsals for her Play On tour, which begins Thursday in Reading, Pa.

"Don't forget, we're just north of Texas. So when it snows in Oklahoma, we close everything, but it doesn't seem to bother people here. I'm waiting for the day I drive my truck into a snow bank."

A Christian whose traditional southern values matched well with Fisher's own devout upbringing, Underwood was pleasantly surprised to find that Ottawans are every bit as welcoming as people back home.

"The people I've met here are great, helping me to adjust to life in Canada. And they love Mike. That warms my heart."

However, she recently discovered that marrying a fan favourite like No. 12 puts a lot of competitive romantic pressure on the new bride-to-be.

"A woman came up to me at the grocery store and chewed me out, telling me if I thought I was going to take Mike away from Ottawa, I had another thing coming, and she wasn't kidding. She let me know she loved him and he was going to stay here, period, no matter what I said. She might have been kidding, but she wasn't being funny."

When the glamourous couple do tie the knot (when, she won't say), they'll split their time between Nashville in the summer and Ottawa during hockey season when she's not touring.

She loves living in the country music capital because she can hang out with family and friends, go to tailgate parties and watch NFL football.

Underwood, who calls herself a huge football fan, sang the American national anthem at Super Bowl XLIV.

"I like hockey now. I'm still learning the game, but I grew up watching football.

"Mike's right at home in Nashville. He's got friends there long before he met me."

The couple met when Fisher visited Underwood backstage following her concert at Scotiabank Place in March 2008.

"We took our time to become friends first. Our relationship grew organically. Now I know that this is the one God's chosen for me."

The ACM awards will air live from Las Vegas on April 18 at 8 p.m. on CBS.

Adam Shankman's (conflicted) Oscar Twitter thoughts

Throughout awards season, this year's Oscars co-producer Adam Shankman kept his nearly 55,000 Twitter followers amused by sharing behind-the-scenes tidbits about working on the telecast, making up with enthusiasm what he lacked in punctuation and spelling.

It began in December: "Had dinner last night with Oscar cohosts steve martin and Alec Baldwin. Laughed so hard I almost passed out. This is gonna b goooood..."

The remark was followed by a number of other show-related Tweets. In many he queried his fans about whom they would most like to see appear on the Oscars. Some responded with tween favorites like Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus, both of whom ended up presenting awards at this year's ceremony.

So it's no surprise that, post-Oscars, Shankman has taken to his Twitter account to take on those -- like the Times' own Mary McNamara -- who criticized the show's pace, montage omissions, and dancing sections.

"did the best i could last night with so many perameters," he tweeted on Monday. "just so everyone knows the horror tribute was linked 2 roger cormans govs oscar."

Earlier today, he took to his page again with a more positive message, thanking a slew of people, including hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, co-producer Bill Mechanic, and set designer David Rockwell.

"I'm spool tired stilli cnt believe I just produced 1 of the most successful Academy Awards of all time. Humbling," he wrote.

When we met with the show's co-producer before the Oscars, Shankman was clearly as tired as he came across in today's misspelled Tweet. After coming from the gym (also one of his favorite Twitter topics) two weeks ago, he ignored the never-ending buzz of his cellphone while quickly chowing down on lunch.

"It's like living with a 24-hour-a-day panic attack," he said with a sigh.

But Shankman is, it seems, still a bit stressed even though the ceremony is over. In a response to the controversial omission of "Charlie's Angels" star Farrah Fawcett from the In Memoriam section of the show, the "So You Think You Can Dance" star tweeted today:

"Farah ommission: not us," he said. "The in memorium recipients R decided on by an academy committee."

He ended the day with a series of conflicting thoughts.

"If I ever am asked to produce the oscars again, I would do them totally different," he first wrote.

Four hours later, he amended his statement: "when I said i wld change, I mean I livedwht we did, Alec & steve were brilliant."

He soon added: "Clarify: I loved ths years #oscars. Best experience of my life. I'd just do things differently if I did them again 2 surprise ppl. dont wanna repeat."