'I, Robot,' 'Mad Max' Set 2004 Release Dates

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Twentieth Century Fox has announced release dates for summer tentpoles "I, Robot" and "Mad Max: Fury Road" -- the cornerstones of the 2004 slate.

"Robot," starring Will Smith, will march out on July 2.

Meanwhile, the fourth installment in the "Mad Max" series, with Mel Gibson reprising the starring role, will roll into theaters nationwide on July 23.

In "Robot," based on the classic story collection by famed sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov, Smith will play a detective investigating a crime by a robot. The crime is considered unthinkable, for as robots proliferated in the future, the Three Laws of Robotics allowed them to be completely trustworthy companions. (The first law states that a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.) Alex Proyas (news) ("Dark City") directs.

Fox is mum on the details of the new George Miller-penned "Max" picture, which had been previously set up at Warner Bros.

I'm Not Sure This Story Is Post Worthy, But I Really Liked This Picture:

Anyway, Claudia Schiffer gives birth to boy

LONDON (AP) -- German supermodel Claudia Schiffer gave birth to her first child Thursday -- a boy by Caesarean section at a London hospital.

Schiffer's husband, British film producer Matthew Vaughn, was by her side as she underwent the procedure.

"Both parents are utterly thrilled at the birth of their first child and both mother and baby are doing very well," a spokeswoman for Schiffer said on condition of anonymity.

The spokeswoman said the couple had not yet decided on a name for the baby, who weighed in at 7 lbs.

New White Stripes album due in April

The White Stripes will release their fourth studio album, "Elephant," on April 15, Billboard reports.

The follow up to the Detroit rockers' breakthrough record, "White Blood Cells," will be released on their imprint, "Third Man," through V2 Records.

The 14-track album will include "In Cold, Cold Night," a song showcasing Meg's vocal talents, and "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself," and a Burt Bacharach cover.

In a effort to curb Internet leaks, the media received double vinyl copies of "Elephant" instead of CDs. Vinyl copies of the album will be available publicly at the same time as the CD version.

The band is not expected to tour until the April. Whirlwind Heat, the first act signed to the "Third Man" imprint, will also release its debut album this spring.

New Beatles 'Let It Be' coming

The Beatles' Apple Records is releasing a new, stripped down version of the group's last record, "Let It Be" this fall, Rolling Stone reports.

While the track listing will stay true to the original 1970 record, the newer album will lack the orchestration added by legendary producer Phil Spector. A more bare bones sound will recapture the "back to basics" concept Paul McCartney originally intended for it.

"It's the de-Spectorized version," Ringo Starr told Rolling Stone. "I was listening to it recently, and it was really great. I've been away from it a long time too. It fills my heart with joy to hear that band that I was a member of. They were just great. And also, the quietness of the tracks: It's a beautiful CD," he said.

Most of the material for the album was recorded in early 1969 for the film eventually titled "Let It Be," but the sessions were turbulent and the album was temporarily abandoned. After the group had effectively disbanded, John Lennon brought Spector in to compile the album, a move that irritated McCartney.

"Paul was always totally opposed to Phil," said Starr. "I told him on the phone, "You're bloody right again: It sounds great without Phil.' Which it does. Now we'll have to put up with him telling us over and over, 'I told you.'"

Glyn Johns, who engineered the original sessions will also take part in the project. "My version of 'Get Back' actually was released fairly quickly as a single, and my version of 'Let it Be' was also released, before Phil Spector puked all over it," he said, and added: "And I hope you quote me on that. If you hear 'The Long and Winding Road' without all that schlock on it, it's fabulous just like it is."

The re-release project has been in the works for a least two years already -- George Harrison approved the idea before his death in 2001, and it prompted the investigation that led to the January recovery of the original session tapes stolen more than 30 years ago.

"Let It Be" the film, will also be released on DVD at the same time as the new CD, although details are forthcoming.

Streep SAG snub caused by error

Meryl Streep's acclaimed performances in both "Adaptation" and "The Hours" will go unrecognized by the Screen Actors Guild due to a mistake by Sony Pictures, reports the Los Angeles Times.

An unidentified Sony Pictures' employee erroneously placed Streep's name on the Best Actress ballot for what was in fact a supporting role in "Adaptation." The mistake meant her name appeared twice in the same category - a second time for her part in "The Hours" - on the ballots sent to SAG voters.

Sony contends vote-splitting occurred and Streep was subsequentially not nominated for her performance in either film.

The studio offered to pay for the printing and mailing of new ballots in order to correct their slip up, but SAG declined the appeal over fear that it would set a bad precedent for a situation that has occurred before.

Last year a Universal employee wrongfully placed Jennifer Connelly's name in the lead actress category for her supporting role in "A Beautiful Mind." Connelly still received a nomination, but did not win. Although, she took home both the Golden Globe and the Oscar for the same performance categorized correctly.

Streep won the Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe earlier this month for "Adaptation", and was also nominated in the Best Dramatic Actress category for her role in "The Hours." The Academy Award ballots were due yesterday and it's likely she will receive a nomination in both categories.

The Oscar nominees will be announced on February 11. The SAG awards will be handed out on March 9.

Liz Phair To Release first album in five years this May

Liz Phair debuted three new tunes during a nine-song set at the Ray-Ban Visionary Awards party at the Sundance Film Festival last week. The new material was a preview for her upcoming album, Happy Tragic Thing, due May 20th on Capitol Records.

It had been nearly five years since Phair released an album, and about three since she'd played in public. Despite so much time out of the spotlight, Phair -- known for paralyzing stage fright in her early years -- was confident and warm in delivering six older songs along with the soothing, upbeat "Extraordinary," the acoustic love song "Why Can't I?" and the name-checking rocker "Rock Me."

Her recognizable, husky delivery, which previously seemed a lo-fi instrument of dissonance, has grown and changed into an almost girlish alto. "My voice is so much better because I'm not as self-conscious as I used to be," she said afterwards. "Somewhere along the way I got rid of a lot of my fear about singing, and I've really been working hard on developing my voice."

Phair has been writing and recording with producers including Walt Vincent, Michael Penn and pop production team the Matrix (Avril Lavigne, Nick Carter), and reports that theme-wise "a lot of the songs have to do with my own personal gender issues." Phair plans to release some alternate mixes of the Happy Tragic Thing tunes over the Internet, keeping the straight-ahead rockers for the album. "The songs that made it onto the album are the ones that rock," she says. "I wanna sell some records, goddammit!"

Jason Newsted & Metallica Settle Legal Issues

It's been a bit more than two years now since bassist Jason Newsted announced he was leaving Metallica. However, Newsted says that leaving and actually having left are two different things, and that the legal aspects of the separation have just now been fully resolved.

Nevertheless, Newsted adds that he wishes Metallica nothing but the best in the future. "We're just now actually coming to a resolution on all of our agreements for our business things and stuff," Newsted said. "It took awhile to pull all that together. Man, they sound strong, and I've heard, you know, reports from my little spies and stuff that everybody's kicking ass and they're doing some hours in the studio, so I hope that they can do it. I hope they can do what they say they can do, man. If (James) Hetfield's determined, it will happen."

Metallica is planning to release an album in the spring or summer--its first since Newsted's departure and Hetfield's stay in rehab. Newsted, meanwhile, has joined the Canadian heavy metal band Voivod, which will release a self-titled album in March.

CBS Plans Springsteen Concert Special

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Bruce Springsteen will appear in a concert special for CBS five days after he performs at the Grammy Awards.

The special, taped at one of the Boss' shows in Barcelona last year, will air with limited ad breaks. CBS is working with Springsteen and his management to sign an exclusive sponsor for the show.

"This is the guy who is one of the greatest live performers in the history of rock 'n' roll," Jack Sussman, who oversees specials for CBS, tells the New York Daily News. "This television show is an unbelievable translation of his live event."

HBO aired a Springsteen/E Street Band concert in 2001, but they've never done a special for a commercial network. The show will include songs from "The Rising," which is up for five Grammys, as well as some of the band's older material.

The special is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET Friday, Feb. 28.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL, HOMER!

HOMER Simpson is ready to answer your e-mails.

Honest.

Earlier this month, fans of the show began sending email to Homer at an on-line address - chunkylover53@aol.com - shown during the Jan. 12 epsiode.

In the episode, a private-eye hired by Homer to keep tabs on his daughter emailed him at that address.

After the episode, thousands of fans began sending e-mail to the address as a joke, but were surprised when Homer answered them.

Well, sort of.

It's actually "Simpsons" writer/producer, Matt Selman, who registered the e-mail address before the episode aired.

"He logged in the night that the episode aired and it was immediately filled with the maximum number of responses," "Simpsons" executive producer Al Jean told The Post yesterday.

"He's tried to answer every one of them and then as soon as he answers a hundred, a hundred more pop in - it's like Sisyphus."

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus was condemned to an eternity of rolling a boulder uphill then watching it roll back down again.

"It's like letters to Santa Claus, he's trying to answer them as Homer and give advice," Jean says.

'8 Mile' DVD to Boast Exclusive Eminem Video

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - The new Eminem music video "Superman" will be made available only on the "8 Mile" DVD, to be released March 18.

The move represents the latest precedent-setting strategy by a record company in an effort to encourage consumers to buy music once more rather than download it.

Interscope Geffen A&M (IGA) chairman Jimmy Iovine said that not putting the video on MTV or anywhere else is just another step record companies are taking to bring added value to packaged material as the industry defines a new relationship among consumers, artists and record companies.

The album on which "Superman" appears, "The Eminem Show," was the top seller last year, and "8 Mile" was the top soundtrack. IGA and "8 Mile" movie distributor Universal Pictures are both units of Vivendi Universal.

The Universal Studios Home Video (USHV) release also will include about 25 minutes of deleted scenes featuring Eminem spontaneously rising to the challenge in five "rap battle" sequences filmed by director Curtis Hanson, who introduces and describes the scenes on the DVD.

USHV president Craig Kornblau said it was important to reignite the heat for the movie, which had an opening weekend of $51 million on its way to $116 million in domestic box office.

Although terms were not disclosed, Iovine said a mutually satisfying deal was struck with Universal for the exclusive "Superman" video. The clip for "Lose Yourself," the enormously popular Eminem song from the movie, will not be included on the DVD, however.

The multimillion-dollar national media promotion for the DVD will kick off during the broadcast of the Grammys on Feb. 23. Eminem is competing for five Grammys.

Schwarzenegger Undergoes Surgery for 'T3' Injury

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It appears The Terminator isn't as indestructible as he used to be.

Action star Arnold Schwarzenegger was released on Thursday from a Santa Monica hospital where he underwent surgery to repair a shoulder injury suffered while performing a stunt on the set of his upcoming film "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines."

The 55-year-old actor tore the rotator cuff in his left shoulder last fall but put off surgery at the time to avoid holding up production on the film, according to a statement from his publicist.

Schwarzenegger was admitted to St. John's Health Center for the operation on Wednesday and left the hospital "feeling great and in very good spirits," the statement said.

Although he will have to keep his shoulder immobilized in a tight sling for the next three to four weeks, he plans to go ahead with previously scheduled appearances, including a multi-state tour of his Inner-City Games Foundation next week.

"I'm feeling great. I am very fortunate to have had such fantastic surgeons at St. John's work on my shoulder," the actor said in the statement.

The Austrian-born former body-builder reportedly earned $30 million to reprise his role as the unstoppable, lead-slinging, man-machine from the future in "Terminator 3," which is due for release next July.

It seems they don't make cyborgs like they used to. In December 2001, Schwarzenegger broke several ribs when he took a spill from his motorcycle.

Spears, Farrell officially an item?

By Cesar G. Soriano, USA TODAY

Holy hormones! Pop princess Britney Spears and Gaelic gigolo Colin Farrell are Hollywood's hottest new item.

And just when we were getting used to the idea of Britney and Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst and Farrell and seductive older woman Demi Moore. But that was so yesterday.

Farrell, 26, and Spears, 21, made a grand red carpet entrance at Tuesday's Hollywood premiere of The Recruit, which stars Farrell and Al Pacino and opens Friday. They held hands for flashing cameras and TV crews.

After the screening, Spears, wearing what could best be described as a camisole, hooked up again with Farrell at Chateau Marmont, where they snuggled and kissed into the wee hours.

It wasn't their first date. On Saturday, the lip-locked lovers were seen at L.A.'s Troubadour nightclub, the New York Post reports. They met last week when Spears visited the set of Farrell's movie S.W.A.T.

But why, Britney, why? Colin has made it no secret he's a Tinseltown tomcat.

In the March issue of Playboy, Farrell says: "I've always been a firm believer that casual sex is a (expletive) good thing. Sometimes ... all I'm looking for is the simple act of sexual intimacy. It's like ordering a (expletive) pizza."

The foul-mouthed Irish actor also brags about his love for porn, beer, Ecstacy and prostitutes: "I have never been with a prostitute that I haven't been completely polite to and just treated like a (expletive) human being."

Farrell, who was married for four months in 2001 to British actress Amelia Warner and still has her nickname, "Millie," tattooed on his ring finger, says he has no interest in a serious relationship.

"Girl trouble, for me, is when you fall in love," he told Playboy.

Farrell has been linked to a laundry list of women, including model Josie Maran, Playboy Playmate Nicole Narain and actress Maeve Quinlan (Tom Sizemore's ex-wife).

"If I really slept with every woman they've said I've slept with, I'd be a happy man," Farrell recently told USA TODAY.

So, are Farrell and Spears officially dating?

"They're friends," says Spears' publicist Lisa Kasteler.

What about Durst? Or rumors that Britney was back with Justin Timberlake?

"That I can't tell you," Kasteler said. "She's young, she's single, she's beautiful. What guy in his right mind wouldn't want to date her?"

At Tuesday's premiere, Farrell echoed the party line. "She's just a mate," he told Entertainment Tonight. "Seriously, we just met a week ago, (we're) having a laugh."

Limp Bizkit's Durst Tries To One-Up Borland

Fred Durst and Limp Bizkit are finishing up their forthcoming album, Less Is More, with the first single "Crack Addict" slated to hit radio in the next few months. Durst is still looking to impress Wes Borland, his former mate, with the first complete original album since the guitarist's departure.

"Today I'm definitely gonna wrap up this last song," wrote Durst on the Limp Bizkit website. "It's a hard one to nail down. I wish I could have all of your ears in the studio with me to get your opinions. I've finished 18 songs and only 10 to 12 are going on the album. Its a doozy. There will be a lot of surprised people when they hear this, especially Mr. Borland. Aw yeah!! Just like [LL] Cool J said, 'don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years.'"

Less Is More is slated to be released April 1. It's the band's first album since 2000's multi-platinum release Chocolate Starfish And The Hot Dog Flavored Water.

Wanna Groove On My Hackey Sack Vibe?

Are you a hipster?

I Remember Her From The Movie "Zapped"

Ever wonder what Heather Thomas, the babe from "The Fall Guy", has been up to?

Fox Is No Alien To Milking A Cash Cow

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment has just announced a new massive box set of all four Alien films in an incredible nine disc set!

No details have arrived on the oddly dubbed Alien Quadrilogy set, but all four films; Alien, Aliens, Alien3 and Alien Resurrection will be included with several hours of extras, (hopefully including the legendary lost footage from Alien3.

As soon as more information arrives, you'll see it here.

Seriously, do we really need this?

Former Beach Boy Can't Use Band's Name

SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court ruled that former Beach Boys singer-guitarist Al Jardine can't use the term "Beach Boys" in his touring band.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday upheld a federal judge who ruled two years ago that Jardine was infringing on the trademark of Brother Records Inc., which owns the rights of the Beach Boys works. The Beach Boys rode a wave of popularity from hits such as "Surfin' USA."

Brother Records is jointly held by Jardine, Mike Love, Brian Wilson and the estate of Carl Wilson.

In 1998, Jardine, 60, began touring as "Beach Boys Family and Friends" and as other names that included "Beach Boys." Brother Records sued.

Web Site: 'Millionaire' Finalist Is Bondage Star

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of three women finalists on the hit Fox reality show "Joe Millionaire" has starred under another name in dozens of bondage and fetish films, a Web site reported on Wednesday.

Sarah Kozer (pictured above) has appeared -- often bound and gagged but fully clothed -- in such movies as "Hogtied" and "Helpless Heroines" under the stage name "Cindy Schubert," according to The Smoking Gun.

In pictures on the Web site Kozer is seen bound and gagged in various poses, in some cases dressed as a cheerleader or nurse. In other photos she is seen tying up men.

Kozer, 29, could not be reached for comment. A spokesman for Fox, which describes her occupation as "sales and design" on the show's Web site, said only, "We do not comment on the personal lives of our reality show contestants."

In "Joe Millionaire," 20 women compete for the affections of a 28-year-old construction worker, Evan Marriott, who poses as the heir to a $50 million fortune. They learn of the dupe at the end of the show.

The program, which was secretly taped in France late last year, has drawn unexpectedly high ratings for Fox on Monday night.

While you are mulling this over, "bare" in mind that a former male porno star won the last edition of Survivor.

Actor Peter O'Toole Rebuffs Honorary Oscar

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - For all the accolades handed out in Hollywood, it's rare to find a performer who is unwilling to accept one. But Peter O'Toole is no ordinary entertainer.

Academy Award organizers want to present the eccentric 70-year-old Irish actor with an honorary Oscar, but he says he won't be ready to accept such an award for at least another decade.

In a brief, hand-written open letter to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, O'Toole politely suggested that receiving an honorary Oscar might preclude him from eventually winning a competitive statuette.

O'Toole has earned seven Oscar nominations as best actor, starting with his 1962 title role in "Lawrence of Arabia," but has never won.

Describing what he thought about an honorary Oscar being in the offing, he wrote: "I was enchanted but said that as I was still in the game and might yet win the lovely bugger outright, would the Academy please defer the honor until I am 80?"

Academy President Frank Pierson responded by saying the award was for "achievement and contribution to the art of the motion picture, not for retirement," and that the academy's Board of Governors had "unanimously and enthusiastically voted you the honorary because you've earned and deserve it."

"It will be there for you at the awards ceremony March 23, and we hope you'll be there with us," Pierson wrote. "If not, it will be at the academy for you to pick up when you're 80, or whenever you're ready."

Academy spokesman John Pavlik told Reuters on Thursday the academy chooses its award designees regardless of whether they plan to show up. And while winning actors such as Marlon Brando and George C. Scott have snubbed the Oscars, no one can remember an honorary recipient refusing to accept one.

Academy officials also noted that other movie greats, among them Henry Fonda and Paul Newman, have received an honorary award and gone on to win a statuette competitively.

"There's an inaccurate perception out there that if you get one of these things, that your career is over, and we don't feel that way at all," Pavlik said.

National Geographic Reveals Swimsuit Issue

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - There are bare breasts, naked bottoms and a cover girl wearing three well-placed shells and a bit of sand, but this is no girlie magazine. It's historical. It's national. It's cultural. And it's definitely geographic.

It's National Geographic.

The venerable yellow-bordered magazine, long a repository of gorgeous family-friendly photography, is publishing its first swimsuit issue, on newsstands and online Saturday.

Timed to roughly coincide with the publication of a racy annual look at bathing beauties by Sports Illustrated, the National Geographic issue is meant to offer lighthearted diversion when that seems to be in distinctly short supply.

"We just wanted to have a little fun, especially when it's so cold in the winter," said Bill Allen, National Geographic's editor in chief. "And I think that this country could use a little bit of lightness and fun right now. We've had a pretty tough year and a half in this country."

So as the United States girds for war and weathers a shaky economy, here comes Hanna Hobensack, a fashion design student in Sydney, Australia, who posed for the cover shot in Hawaii wearing three scallop shells and partially submerged in slightly sandy water.

The cover is one of the few pictures specifically shot for the special large-format edition, Allen said. Most are from the magazine's archives, showing how people dressed for swimming over the last 100 years.

"We had looked at all of the pictures that were coming in for this out of the archives, literally tens of thousands ... none of us were really satisfied that it was bringing things up to date," Allen said in a telephone interview, explaining why they sought a new photo for the cover.

'CLOTHING OPTIONAL'

He sent veteran National Geographic photographer Susan Leen to Hawaii "to find something that would really show what the contemporary feeling of bathing suits and the whole enjoyment of fun in a natural setting would be, sort of bring us all the way from our history back in the 1900s to the present."

One of the earliest photographs is from 1900, showing a Red Cross swimming instructor demonstrating strokes while propped up on a stool, wearing the cover-up swimsuit of the day, with only her head and arms uncovered. When wet, such a costume would have weighed about 22 pounds (10 kg), the magazine said.

A pair of bare backsides from Cable Beach's "clothing optional" zone at Broome, Australia, is a more modern archival image, from 1988. Two more posteriors were shown in a 1908 shot of surveyors near a rocky pool along the Canada-Alaska border.

A photo from 1917 showed two bare-breasted women from the Marquesas Islands, "where women dressed simply for the Polynesian weather -- to the dismay of Western missionaries."

This is the sort of partial nudity that made National Geographic a must-read, or at least a must-ogle, for generations of curious adolescents, but Allen said he saw no problem with this image or any other in the collection.

Readers may be surprised that the 112-year-old magazine is making a seeming departure from such sober-sided topics as the outcast Nuba of Sudan and the environmental consequences of global warming -- two recent articles -- but Allen said a history of swimsuits is in line with National Geographic's mission.

"The whole issue is just a retrospective of how people have dressed to have fun in the water over the last century," he said. "If you look through the magazine, you'll see that there are people in all stages of dress and all kinds of bathing costumes, so it's very much in keeping with the whole cultural history of the world, which is what National Geographic portrays."

Sports Illustrated's Rick McCabe said he had not seen the special issue but graciously observed, "As the pioneers of the swimsuit genre, we welcome National Geographic into the fold."

'Matrix' Reloads For Rabbit Hole

Mum is generally the word on any details of the top-secret Matrix movies.

What can Laurence Fishburne say about this year's two highly anticipated sequels to the 1999 special-effects trailblazer?

The Matrix Reloaded arrives in theaters May 15; Revolutions is due in November.

"I can tell we're going to see how deep the rabbit hole goes," he says, referring to the origin of the Matrix world. "And I can tell the you the technology is as ground-breaking as the first time around. I can tell you there's going to be two animated shorts released on the Internet in February that explain some of the origins of the Matrix.

"I'm as excited as anybody else is to see it, because I have not."

Headed by writing/directing brothers Larry and Andy Wachowski, filming in Sydney began in August 2001 for 10 months. But Fishburne had begun training with Keanu Reeves and other cast members in November 2000.

"It was a very long, very long time for the same character, very long to be away from home, to shave one's head every day. Most people don't remember I have hair.

"We lost people. We lost Aaliyah (who died in a plane crash), and Nona Gaye, Marvin Gaye's daughter, replaced her. Gloria Foster (who died of cancer), who is the Oracle, she's in Reloaded but not in Revolutions. So we lost our oldest, and we lost our youngest."

Did it feel as if the production had a Greek curse or something equally mythic?

"If you asked the Wachowskis, I'm sure they'd say it felt like a Greek thing. I don't know, man. I'm happy I'm a part of something that is cinematically historical. Again."

Eternal Youth Keeps 'The Simpsons' Fresh

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - For more than a decade they have reigned as television's favorite dysfunctional family, and now "The Simpsons" will soon enter the record books as the longest-running sitcom in prime-time history.

Now in their 14th season of animated social satire on Fox television, that beer-guzzling, doughnut-scarfing family man Homer Simpson and all the good citizens of Springfield have shown no signs of aging as they near their 300th episode.

With its ratings on the rise, "The Simpsons" remains one of the most watched TV shows on Sunday night and was one of the rare bright spots on the Fox lineup during an overall slump in the News Corp.-owned network's viewership earlier this season.

It also remains a perennial favorite among critics and in December earned its first Golden Globe nomination in the race for best comedy series, a rare feat for a cartoon show, even though it didn't win.

Earlier this month, the network announced that it had renewed the series for two more years, through May 2005, meaning "The Simpsons" will stay on the air for at least 16 seasons. By then, they will have easily eclipsed the real-life Nelson family on "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" as the longest-running weekly comedy series on TV. The Nelsons left ABC in 1966 after 14 seasons on the air.

But long before a very different Ozzy came to MTV as head of "The Osbournes" unruly household on MTV, "The Simpsons" had established itself as a worldwide pop culture phenomenon seen in more than 70 countries.

AGELESS CARTOON

And according to creator and executive producer Matt Groening, eternal youth is a key ingredient of the show's enduring success.

"I didn't expect to be on the air this long," Groening said at Fox's winter showcase for critics in California recently. "One of the great things about doing an animated show is your characters don't age. So your show stays fresh, and you keep the audience fresh. I love '60 Minutes,' but the people who make it are starting to look like the people who watch it."

For Harry Shearer, the voice of Homer's tyrannical boss, Mr. Burns, and the saccharin, Bible-thumping neighbor, Ned Flanders, the challenge of performing several characters is what keeps the show interesting.

"I would get enormously bored, even after seven years, just coming in and doing this one character every week," Shearer said. "For the actors, one of the great things about making this show fun after all these years is all the different characters we do."

One thing is certain. It isn't big bucks that keeps the ensemble coming back year after year.

"Altogether, we still don't make as much as one 'Friend,"' joked Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer, alluding to the reported $1 million per episode earned by each of the six principal members of NBC's hit comedy "Friends."

The actors clearly enjoy their work, even if they have to suffer silly questions from fans at public appearances.

"The strangest question I ever got is: Do I sound like Lisa Simpson when I'm having sex? And the answer is no," said voice actress Yeardley Smith.

D'OH!

Beginning as a string of cartoon shorts on the "Tracey Ullman Show" in 1987, "The Simpsons" debuted as a half-hour series on the then-fledgling Fox network in January 1990.

At the outset, the series centered on the hijinks of the wisecracking, underachieving 10-year-old Bart Simpson, a spike-haired misfit who darts around town on his skateboard and drives his fourth-grade teacher nuts.

But as the show evolved, its focus shifted to Bart's bone-headed father, Homer, who works at a nuclear power plant and punctuates his frequent mistakes with the anguished, half-syllable utterance "D'Oh!" Castellaneta said he adopted Homer's signature expletive from a character in an old Laurel and Hardy film. "I think it's a euphemism for 'damn."'

Rounding out the Simpsons clan are beehive-haired mother Marge, the sensible, good-natured anchor of the family, and Bart's two sisters -- pacifier-sucking baby Maggie, a silent observer of all, and second-grade prodigy Lisa, a baritone saxophone virtuoso and intellectual of the family.

Behind them is a huge cast of regulars who populate the fictional town of Springfield -- extended family members, neighbors, teachers, classmates, Homer's co-workers, his pals at Moe's Tavern, Apu the convenience store clerk, police chief Wiggum and even the Comic Book Guy.

The show derives much of its humor from sharp-edged social commentary, skewering authority figures and such hallowed institutions as public education, politics, the medical profession, law enforcement and the entertainment industry. The series also is known for the steady parade of guest celebrities who lend their voices, and in many cases their animated caricatures, to cameo appearances.

Actress Jane Kaczmarek of "Malcolm in the Middle" will reprise her role as Judge Harm for the upcoming 300th episode of "The Simpsons," in which Bart goes to court to win emancipation from his parents after learning that he starred in a commercial as a baby and that Homer squandered all of his earnings. George Plimpton will appear as himself in a 301st original episode airing the same night.

Those two segments, and a rerun of an episode featuring guest stars Tom Petty, Lenny Kravitz, Elvis Costello and Brian Setzer, will air in a 90-minute block on Feb. 16.

Long live The Simpsons!

Congratulations Are Due, And So Is Mags!

Two of the people I love most in this world told me on Tuesday that they are expecting their first child later this year. Dave and Margaret Chant (seen above) are family to me and I couldn't be happier for them.

I remain worried for the baby.

Congrats you guys, and remember that Daniel is a great name for a boy and Danielle is a beautiful name for a girl! I'm just saying, is all!

Make your mark!

More DIE HARD Britney Rumors

More details on Britney Spears' supposed role in the movie have emerged: "The movie is going to take place in the Caribbean, where John McClane accidently runs into his daughter, Lucy, who is a cabaret dancer. McClane has had very little contact with his daughter in the past 10 years. The movie will involve an villain of Japanese origin and an all-out rescue of Spears' character. (if she's confirmed to play the daughter). The surprising thing about the movie is that John McClane will use one gun in the movie and will fire itonly twice, the rest will be fist-fights".

UP IN SMOKE, OR STILL IN DEBT?

Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong reuniting for Cheech and Chong Get Blunt, a new movie in the famed stoner franchise. The flick, written and produced by Chong's daughter, actress Rae Dawn Chong, sees the pair performing community service as anti-drug preachers in a boys' home.

LEGAL EAGLE

Rob Lowe close to signing a deal to produce and star in Lyon's Den, a new NBC ensemble legal drama being readied for next fall. The former West Wing star would play an idealistic attorney trying to make a difference in the world while struggling to escape the shadow of his famous father, a state Senator.

'Batman' Captures Director

NEW YORK (Variety) - "Memento" director Chris Nolan has made a deal to revive the "Batman" franchise.

It was unclear whether he would write the script for the Warner Bros. project.

"All I can say is that I grew up with Batman, I've been fascinated by him and I'm excited to contribute to the lore surrounding the character," said Nolan, who last directed the studio's "Insomnia."

"He is the most credible and realistic of the superheroes, and has the most complex human psychology. His superhero qualities come from within. He's not a magical character. I had a fantastic experience with the studio on 'Insomnia,' and I'm keen to repeat that experience."

Nolan's emergence is an unexpected plot twist for the Caped Crusader, since it appeared that the superhero had flagged after four movies that grossed more than $1 billion. Warner Bros. has been trying to exploit the franchise through reinventions and spinoffs. They include "Batman Vs. Superman," "Batman: Year One" and "Catwoman."

"Batman Vs. Superman," nearly went into production with director Wolfgang Petersen and a script by Andrew Kevin Walker ("Seven") until Petersen instead moved to the Greek epic "Troy," set to star Brad Pitt and Eric Bana.

"Batman: Year One," a Gen-X version of the crimefighter, is being developed by Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream") and creator Frank Stack. "Catwoman," with Ashley Judd expected to play the title role, is a spinoff of the character introduced in the Tim Burton- directed "Batman Returns."

The WB superhero project closest to the starting line is "Superman," with Brett Ratner directing from a script by J.J. Abrams ("Alias") for producer Jon Peters. The film will reintroduce a franchise that sputtered after four Christopher Reeve films, and WB is currently testing actors for its Man of Steel, with Josh Hartnett (Boo!), Jude Law (Boo!), Ashton Kutcher (HUGE BOO!) and Brendan Fraser (Masked indifference) among those rumored as aspirants to be fitted in cape and spandex.

Nolan would not divulge the contents of his Batproject, but he'll undoubtedly bring the wildly inventive style that so quickly brought him to the directing A-list after "Insomnia" and "Memento," whose star Guy Pearce (Sweet!) is among the actors who might make an interesting Bruce Wayne.

Nolan recently turned in his script for a Howard Hughes film that he hopes to direct for Castle Rock, with Jim Carrey in the starring role. Timing of that film is unclear, since the Martin Scorsese- Leonardo DiCaprio Hughes rival pic "The Aviator" could be in production first. Nolan wouldn't say what his next feature would be.

SAG Gives 'Chicago' a Push in Oscar Race

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Looking more and more like the film to beat in this year's Oscar race, musical "Chicago" scored the most nominations -- five -- for the prestigious Screen Actors Guild awards on Tuesday, including the top honor for best performing cast.

It was followed by dark drama "The Hours," which also landed in the category for best performance by a cast and receiving four nominations overall, including one for its star Nicole Kidman in the best actress group.

The nominations come off big victories for both films at the Golden Globe Awards earlier this month where "The Hours" was named best drama and "Chicago" was named the best movie among musicals and comedies.

But the Screen Actors Guild, or SAG, nominations coupled with "Chicago" outpacing "The Hours" by far at U.S. box offices could just push the musical about a struggling actress who commits murder past the drama in the race for Oscars.

The Motion Picture Academy voting on the nominees ends on Wednesday, January 29.

Richard Gere and Renee Zellweger of "Chicago," were nominated for best actor and best actress, respectively. Co-stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Queen Latifah were nominated for best female actor in a supporting role.

Along with nominations for best cast and Kidman, "The Hours" scored nominations for Ed Harris as best actor in a supporting role and Julianne Moore as best actress in a supporting role.

Moore, too, was nominated for best actress in a lead role for her performance in the drama "Far From Heaven," in which she portrays a 1950's housewife who is forced to deal with her husband's homosexuality.

Joining Moore, Kidman and Zellweger as best actress nominees were Salma Hayek in "Frida" and Diane Lane in "Unfaithful.

TV PERFORMANCES ALSO SINGLED OUT

With Gere in the best actor group were Adrian Brody of "The Pianist," Nicolas Cage for "Adaptation," Daniel Day-Lewis in "Gangs of New York," and Jack Nicholson for "About Schmidt."

Rounding out the supporting actor group were Chris Cooper for "Adaptation," Alfred Molina in "Frida," Dennis Quaid in "Far From Heaven," and Christopher Walken for "Catch Me If You Can." Joining Zeta-Jones, Moore and Queen Latifah in the best supporting actress grouping were Kathy Bates in "About Schmidt," Michelle Pfeiffer for "White Oleander."

"Adaptation" scored three nominations overall to two apiece for "About Schmidt," "Far From Heaven" and "Frida."

SAG also singles out performances for television, and in that arena, the casts of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "24," "Six Feet Under," "The Sopranos" and "The West Wing" were nominated for top performers in a drama series.

The casts of "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Frasier," "Friends," "Sex and the City," and "Will & Grace" were nominated for best performances in a comedy series.

The 9th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony will take place on March 9 and be broadcast by cable TV channel TNT starting at 8 p.m. EDT

Academy Award nominees will be named on Feb. 11 and the Oscar ceremony is set for March 23.

Springsteen, Jones to Goose Grammycast

NEW YORK (Variety) - The Recording Academy scored an early coup this week for its upcoming 45th annual Grammy broadcast by signing a group of big-name acts -- including Grammy nominees Bruce Springsteen and Norah Jones -- to perform at the kudofest.

Also scheduled to hit the stage during the Feb. 23 show at Madison Square Garden are Brit rockers Coldplay, country star Faith Hill and rapper Nelly (featuring Destiny's Child's Kelly Rowland). All five of the acts confirmed to date are Grammy nominees.

That star power should give ratings for the Grammy broadcast on CBS a healthy shot in the arm. Nelly's latest LP "Nellyville" (Universal) has sold more than 5 million units, while Jones' "Come Away With Me" (Blue Note) has moved 3 million and Springsteen's "The Rising" (Columbia) just under 2 million.

At the same time, an artist that puts on a good show at the Grammys will often see his or her sales numbers jump in the following week; a good live performance often has even more effect on sales than a victory at the podium.

Jones, Springsteen and Nelly have all received five nominations from the Academy, including one each for album of the year. Coldplay is up for two statuettes, while Hill got a nomination for female country vocal performance.

My Apologies!

Sorry, I forgot to mention yesterday that the 10th Anniversary Edition of "Free Willy" is now available.

"Free Willy": 10th Anniversary Edition

The story of a boy and his whale remains harmless fare for kids and the adults who have to sit through it (though the charm is long gone by the time you've watched both sequels). Still, they missed a great opportunity to tell the full, Dickensian adventures of the real Willy in a making-of documentary - a story about media obsession and how people who don't focus on large environmental issues can become passionately involved in the plight of one poor creature.

Can you spot where I became sarcastic?

'Alias' Becomes a Video Game

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Come fall, video gamers will have the chance to make Sydney Bristow do whatever they want.

Video-game maker Acclaim has reached an agreement with Disney Interactive to release a game based on ABC's spy thriller "Alias." The game will be released across all platforms.

Details of the "Alias" game are few at this point. Acclaim says players will be able to control Sydney (played by Jennifer Garner on the series) and attempt to complete a number of missions involving espionage, combat and stealth tactics.

Acclaim says the show, with its multiple locations and high levels of action, "lends itself perfectly to interactive entertainment."

The "Alias" game is scheduled for release in the fall.

Robbie Williams: Music piracy 'great'

CANNES, France (Variety) -- British pop star Robbie Williams shocked attendees Sunday at music industry confab Midem by declaring piracy a good idea.

"I think it's great, really I do," Williams, who recently signed a reported $120 million deal with EMI/Capitol, said at a press conference. "There's nothing anyone can do about it. I'm sure my record label would hate me saying it, and my management and accountants."

In the past, Williams has supported moves to prevent the illegal downloading of music. He signed a petition in July 2000 that called on the European Union Copyright Directive to allow artists to use technology to protect their work and to stop Net piracy.

Music execs infuriated

Williams' views infuriated music execs and his remarks drew a response from Jay Berman, chief executive of the International Federation of Phonographic Industries, in his keynote speech.

Berman said it was a myth that the Internet would kill the music industry. "On the contrary, in 2003 we are going to be working the Internet much harder, to promote new legitimate services while at the same time actively targeting the sources of online piracy."

The Recording Industry Association of America, sister body of IFPI, released figures Sunday that claimed revenue lost to the music industry through CD and online piracy was up by 20 percent to more than $5 billion.

Marketing tool?

Hip-hop star Wyclef Jean told Daily Variety that while piracy was bad for the industry, he recognized its potential as a marketing tool. "It affects artists, but (downloading) still gives us the credibility factor. But they have got to find a way to control it, as it is killing the business."

Chris Schwartz, chief executive of Ruffhouse Nation, the Columbia-backed label responsible for the success of the Fugees, agreed with Jean. "Piracy is the quickest way to get a record out," he said. "There was a time early in my days with Columbia Records, when I was glad if my record got bootlegged."

Schwartz made it clear he was against mass copying or organized piracy: "I'm not condoning piracy in any way."

KaZaA fights back; files countersuit

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The owners of the KaZaA file-sharing network are suing the movie and recording industries, claiming that they don't understand the digital age and are monopolizing entertainment.

Sharman Networks Ltd. filed its counterclaim Monday in response to a copyright-infringement lawsuit brought by several recording labels and movie studios. That lawsuit accuses Sharman of providing free access to copyright music and films to millions of Internet users in the United States.

The latest filing came two weeks after U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson dismissed Sharman's claim that it could not be sued in the United States because it is based in Australia and incorporated in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu.

Monopolization?

Wilson had found Sharman subject to U.S. copyright laws because it has substantial usage by Californians and its actions are alleged to contribute to commercial piracy within the United States.

Sharman's counterclaim alleges copyright misuse, monopolization, and deceptive acts and practices.

"In seeking to simultaneously stop illegal copying and to maintain their dominant position in the distribution of musical and movie content, the industry plaintiffs have obscenely overreached," Sharman said.

It seeks a jury trial, damages, attorney fees and a permanent injunction against the entertainment industry so that it can't "enforce any of their United States copyrights against any person or entity."

Claims called 'laughable'

Sharman said the entertainment companies are behind the times and don't realize that consumers need not buy CDs, DVDs or videotapes to enjoy music or films.

Sharman also claimed that movie studios "dominate and, when they act in concert, have monopoly power" for the aftermarket distribution of first-run major motion pictures. Likewise, the company said, recording labels "when they act in concert, have monopoly power in the distribution of recorded music."

Movie studios involved in the lawsuit include Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., Columbia Pictures Industries Inc., Disney Enterprises Inc., Paramount Pictures Corp. The recording labels are BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner. (Warner Music is a division of AOL Time Warner, CNN's parent company.)

In a statement, the Recording Industry Association of America called Sharman's arguments "laughable."

"Sharman's claims are akin to the thief who plunders Fort Knox and then claims she's not responsible because Fort Knox declined to buy her second-rate security system," the RIAA said.

The case is one of the largest in the recent online copyright wars testing the international reach of U.S. courts.

Moby Horrified By Celine's Super Bowl Performance

Moby writes on his official website on Sunday, "So I actually did end up watching some of the Super Bowl... I know, I know, I'm a hypocrite. I ended up in an apartment with a bunch of people who were watching the Super Bowl, so I figured I'd give it a try. I only watched about 20 minutes of it, so I guess that I missed the exciting stuff. But the pre-show with Celine Dion made my skin crawl. Ugh. It was so creepy. I felt like I was livingin 'Starship Troopers' minus the giant bugs and cool uniforms. Not to be too much of a lefty loudmouth, but since when has patriotism come to only mean flags and songs and soldiers? Isn't that a bit worrisome and a bit redolent of the fascist regimes that we fought against 60 years ago? I like the U.S.A, but what I like about the U.S.A are the freedoms that are enshrined in the bill of rights." He added, "I guess I have this fantasy that at some big, corporate sporting event they'll have a reading of the Bill of Rights instead of Celine Dion butchering a song while zombified backing singers smile like poster children for Xanax with military jets flying overhead."

Ringo Album To Feature Guests & Harrison Tribute

Ringo Rama, the upcoming solo album from Ringo Starr, is due March 25 from Koch Records. The project features guest appearances from Eric Clapton, Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, Willie Nelson, Eagles bassist Timothy B. Schmit, Shawn Colvin, and others.

The album's first single will be "Never Without You," a tribute to Starr's late Beatles mate George Harrison that features a guitar solo by Clapton.

In a statement, Starr said the song is "my way...to say how much George meant to me and how much he will be remembered...I really wanted (Clapton) on this song because George loved Eric, and Eric loved George. I wanted Eric to come and play that solo because I only wanted people on the track who George knew and loved."

Written by Starr, Ringo Rama producer Mark Hudson, and Gary Nicholson, the song's chorus tells Harrison that "your song will play on/Without you/And this world/Won't forget/About you/Every part of you was in your song...'Here Comes The Sun' is about you."

Starr said he also tried to pay tribute to his other late bandmate, John Lennon, and good friend Harry Nilsson in the song, but that "it got too busy."

The song will be released to radio on February 17.

Ringo Rama was recorded mostly in England, although some work was done at Hudson's studio in Los Angeles. The first song, "Eye To Eye," makes a sonic reference to "It Don't Come Easy," Starr's first solo hit from 1971, while "Elizabeth Reigns" was inspired by Queen Elizabeth II's Jubilee celebrations, which took place last June while Starr was recording the album.

Other songs on Ringo Rama include: "I Think Therefore I Rock & Roll" (with Gilmour), "Missouri Loves Company" (with Gilmour), "English Garden," "Write One For Me" (with Nelson), "Memphis In Your Mind," and "I Really Love Her," a short bonus track included on the end of the album.

Starr will tour this summer with a new edition of his All-Starr Band that includes 2001 All-Starr drummer Sheila E., Men At Work frontman Colin Hay on guitar, ex-Babys/Bad English frontman and solo star John Waite on bass, and Squeeze/Mike + the Mechanics keyboardist-vocalist Paul Carrack. More members of the band and tour dates are expected to be announced soon.

Today's New Music Releases

I am so excited! The Smashing Pumpkins are no more, but Billy Corgan is back with a band that sounds as great as The Pumpkins ever did! Enjoy!

ZWAN- MARY STAR OF THE SEA: Billy Corgan, the wonder boy of mid-'90s alternative rock, sounded bitter and spent after the disintegration of Smashing Pumpkins three years ago. He sounds positively reborn on this lovesick and faith-based revival. Corgan recruited Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and players from fringe bands Tortoise, Chavez and Slint to construct Zwan, a phoenix with less plumage and a simpler flight plan than its ambitious predecessor. While Corgan applies the Smashing formula of tension and catharsis to Zwan songs, the material delivers more zip and optimism, less sludge and bombast, and the taut nasal whine has been replaced by robust, relaxed vocals. Wistful ballad Of a Broken Heart and the grand hook-filled Endless Summer are radio-friendly triumphs, but the album's coup is Jesus, I/Mary Star of the Sea, an amazing 14-minute epic that sways from hypnotic hymn to cascades of guitar sizzle and starch before easing into the pretty harmonica-laced Come With Me — an irresistible invitation.

ERASURE- OTHER PEOPLE'S SONGS: Can you get too much of a good thing? Yes, if the thing in question is this duo's bubbly, breezy electronic fare. Erasure is hardly the tinniest of techno-pop outfits, but this collection of cover tunes proves that, for all its imagination, its musical and emotional range is inherently limited. As on their previous Abba-esque EP, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke deliver some delightfully pop-savvy interpretations, especially of Peter Gabriel's wistful Solsbury Hill and Buddy Holly's pining True Love Ways. But after a while, all the carbonation begins to sound like too much cool air.

GROOVE ARMADA- LOVEBOX: The British duo's fourth full album is a heady tonic of dance-injected rock, hip-hop and funk. Zesty electronica and a beat-crazy undertow erase the iciness of Armada's sample fixation and machines. Neneh Cherry's warble adds warmth to piano ballad Think Twice. Elsewhere, uncorked energy takes charge in a stylistic free-for-all, yielding such winners as crackling thumper The Final Shakedown and retro-disco Easy.

So crank it up!

TOUCHDOWN!

ABC's coverage of Super Bowl XXXVII drew some 138 million viewers--the second biggest audience ever for the NFL championship. About 17 million viewers stuck around for the post-game airing of Alias, the best numbers ever for the spy series.

Norah Jones Low-Key After Nominations

LOS ANGELES - Norah Jones' debut album picked up eight Grammy nominations, sold more than 6 million copies around the world and has been No. 1 in the U.S. for the last two weeks — but it's not thanks to self-promotion or publicity-seeking by the 23-year-old singer.

In an age of pop divas, Jones avoids flashy videos, doesn't pose for pinup photos to get better play in music magazines, prefers quiet neighborhood restaurants to celebrity hotspots and travels without an entourage.

"The record industry has gotten so into image that image becomes more important than the singer," she told the Los Angeles Times for an article published Sunday. "I don't know if there are any less good singers than ever, but most don't use their voices in ways that feel honest. Everyone just seems to go for the fast buck."

When her soulful, melancholy album, "Come Away With Me," reached the 1 million sales mark, Jones asked Bruce Lundvall, the head of jazz label Blue Note Records, if he could stop selling it.

"I know it was naive, but I was starting to panic," she said.

About the same time, Jones said, executives at Virgin Records took over radio promotion of the album and startled her with a remix of 'Don't Know Why.'

"I have no problem with techno music and remixes, but this one was horrible. They had drum machines on it and it was going, 'Don't know why ... why ... why.' It was the most absurd thing I've ever heard."

Lundvall supported Jones' decision to nix the remix.

Now her success is pushing record executives, always on the lookout for the next big thing, to search for singers again, not just hit formulas.

"One of my colleagues told me that Norah was so far from what his bosses were looking for last year that he would have been fired if he had signed her," said Arif Mardin, who was nominated for the producer of the year Grammy for his work on Jones' album. "Now, his bosses are saying, 'Go out and find me a Norah Jones.' "

Jude Law Is Film Fans' Pick for Next 007

LONDON (Reuters) - English actor Jude Law topped a poll of film fans Monday to find the next incarnation of suave secret agent James Bond.

The 30-year-old star took more than a quarter of votes in the Total Film magazine survey, finishing just ahead of Scottish "Star Wars" actor Ewan McGregor.

Total Film editor Matt Mueller felt Law had that "posh" edge over the competition.

"I think Jude Law has that upper class, debonair sophistication about him that people associate with James Bond," he said. "More so than Ewan McGregor and Christian Bale who came close."

But he said McGregor's close second place was interesting because, like Sean Connery, he is Scottish.

Current 007 actor Pierce Brosnan has committed himself to a fifth outing as Bond, but has said he may be too old for a sixth.

"It takes stamina to play this role. I would like to get off the stage with grace," he told a news conference last year.

The list of actors, and even pop stars, who have been linked with the role of Bond is a long one.

They range from Oscar winner Russell Crowe and English actor Clive Owen to cheeky British singer Robbie Williams.

Comedian Richard Blackwood is even reported to have offered his services as the first black Bond.

"American Psycho" star Christian Bale came in third in Monday's poll, followed by Owen. Hugh Grant, famous for playing a foppish Englishman in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," took just two percent of votes.

Supreme Court Rejects Mattel Appeal on Barbie Song

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court rejected on Monday an appeal by Mattel Inc. over its lawsuit against MCA Records Inc. claiming the 1997 pop hit "Barbie Girl" had infringed on the toy maker's doll trademark.

Without comment, the justices let stand a federal appeals court ruling dismissing the lawsuit on the ground the song by the Danish band "Aqua" was parody and social commentary covered by the U.S. Constitution's free-speech protections.

Mattel, the world's largest toy maker which has made the doll since 1959, sued MCA Records, its parent and other units of Universal Music, a subsidiary of French media giant Vivendi Universal . MCA produced, marketed and sold "Barbie Girl."

The song featured a doll-like female voice impersonating Barbie, calling herself a "blonde bimbo girl" and saying "life in plastic, it's fantastic." A male singer, who called himself Ken, exhorted Barbie to "go party."

Mattel, based in El Segundo, California, argued the song, which sold more than 1.4 million copies in the United States, could confuse consumers and dilute the power of the Barbie brand.

MCA defended the song as "social commentary," saying the album "Aquarium" that included the song also featured a disclaimer noting the song was not sanctioned by the maker of Barbie dolls.

Mattel appealed to the Supreme Court. It said the appeals court cast aside the command of Congress in the Lanham Act to protect consumers against unauthorized use of trademarks in ways likely to cause confusion.

MCA replied that the appeal should be denied, saying it had "put out a classic form of parody in a light-hearted pop song that poked fun at one of the most famous and ubiquitous 'cultural icons' in the world."

The appeals court and a federal judge in California determined the song's title was not misleading and that consumers would not be confused, MCA told the justices.

He's Huge!

Here's the trailer for The Hulk

Jim Carrey plays "God" in 'Bruce Almighty.' (Please notice how I resisted the urge to put "Well allllllllll-mighty then!" in there!)

Jay Mohr, Amy Smart Check In with 'Scrubs'

NBC's hospital comedy "Scrubs" is admitting more guest stars for February sweeps and extending the run of a previously announced guest.

Jay Mohr ("Action," "Jerry Maguire" ) will play a doctor who studied under Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) in the Thursday, Feb. 13 episode. Mohr's character will help J.D. (Zach Braff) gain some insight into Cox's badly damaged psyche.

The following week, Amy Smart ("Felicity," "Road Trip" ) will begin a three-episode arc as the wife of a coma patient at the hospital. J.D. faces a moral dilemma when he finds himself falling for her.

The show will also keep Rick Schroder around for at least four episodes, up from the two shows on which he was originally slated to appear. His character, a male nurse, will be introduced in Thursday's (Jan. 30) 40-minute "super-sized" episode.

The character, Paul, becomes an object of infatuation for Elliot (Sarah Chalke) -- who at first thinks he's a doctor. Once she gets over the fact that he's not, they decide to go out.

Schroder says the decision to do more episodes came from a conversation he had with series creator Bill Lawrence.

"The decision was just a very hang-loose personal relationship where he just asked me if I was having fun," Schroder says. "And obviously they like what I'm doing to Sarah's character. She's so funny with the way she relates to me. It's just hysterical what it's done for her character."

Here's today's most fun time waster!

Why Is This Not A National Holiday?!?

Did you know that today is Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day?

Academy won't thank Oscar voters who sell DVDs on eBay

By Thomas K. Arnold, Special for USA TODAY

If Punch-Drunk Love isn't playing in your town, you can probably get a DVD copy on eBay, the online auction house.

One just sold for $122.

Antwone Fisher was up to $22.50 Sunday. Two weeks ago, a single copy of Gangs of New York fetched $150.

These films are still in theaters; none has been officially released on video or DVD. Bidders are vying for coveted "screeners," or advance DVD copies, sent out by the Hollywood movie studios to members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the press in hopes a film will be nominated for Oscars.

Selling screeners is not something the studios condone. "They are on loan from the studio, so they cannot be sold," says Benjamin Feingold, president of Columbia/TriStar Home Entertainment, which released Punch-Drunk Love.

Still, eBay won't do anything about screener sales unless the studio complains. Phone calls to eBay were not returned, but according to a statement on the auction site, "eBay policy does not specifically prohibit the listing of promotional items, but you should be aware that many rights owners take the position that the listing of such items is a copyright infringement. Listing such items could therefore result in the ending of your listing if the verified rights owner reports the items as infringing their rights."

Feingold says he plans to contact Columbia/TriStar's legal department. Columbia sent out more than 6,000 screeners.

"Screeners are for viewing by academy members only, and their right to view does not include the right to sell it," Feingold says. "Any sale or purchase is illegal."

An Oscar screener of DreamWorks' The Ring sold for $41, but the auction for Catch Me If You Can was shut down a day after USA TODAY contacted DreamWorks.

But new auctions keep popping up, including one from a seller of Gangs of New York: "Due to eBay shutting down auctions I am selling this NOT as a DVD but as a FRISBEE. You may use is it however you wish, BUT I AM SELLING IT AS A FRISBEE."

Though sellers contacted via e-mail did not respond, judging from item descriptions, they're aware of what they're doing.

"This special DVD is a collector's item," read the description for the copy of Catch Me If You Can that was shut down by eBay on Thursday. "Imagine watching the awards shows and knowing you actually watched a DVD that helped cast the vote."

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences calls screener sales "problematic," says spokeswoman Leslie Unger. "That's why we don't send them out from here. The studios develop their own lists."

Motion Picture Association of America spokeswoman Marta Grutka says her organization is very concerned about the sale of illegal copies of movies online.

"If a movie has not been released on video or is still in theaters, and (consumers are) finding it for sale on an auction site, it's more than likely an illegal copy."

SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL WINNERS

Indie drama "American Splendor" about the life of comic artist Harvey Pekar, and the documentary "Capturing The Friedmans" scored best film honors at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival on Saturday.

Also winning audience awards in the drama and documentary categories respectively was "The Station Agent" and "My Flesh and Blood."

Radio Station Guilty in Dry Ice Stunt

LONDON (Reuters) - A British radio station pleaded guilty Friday to injuring four listeners who suffered severe frostbite after sitting on dry ice for a competition.

After the "Coolest Seats In Town" challenge by BRMB radio in Birmingham, the participants -- aged between 15 and 30 -- had to be hospitalized and suffered scarring.

"We pleaded guilty and have been fined 15,000 pounds ($25,000)," a spokesman for BRMB told Reuters.

The Health and Safety Executive, the safety watchdog which brought the prosecution, said the temperature of the dry ice -- frozen carbon dioxide -- was minus 108.40 degrees Fahrenheit.

The prize for the contest held in August 2001 was tickets to a music festival called "Party in the Park."

The radio station said it was sorry about what had happened.

"We deeply regret the consequences," said Paul Davies, operations director for the Capital Radio Group.

"It was never our intention to place anyone in jeopardy and we sincerely apologies to the participants and their families for their injuries and distress."

Davies said an internal investigation had been carried out to ensure a similar incident did not occur again.

Over the last few years the station has run several publicity stunts which have aroused controversy.

One promotion led to two strangers getting married, winning cash, an exotic honeymoon and the use of an luxury apartment. The competition prompted criticism from church groups which said it demeaned the dignity of marriage vows.

The couple separated after a few months.

Springsteen, Zeppelin Records Honored as Classics

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - From Bruce Springsteen's breakthrough "Born to Run" to Led Zeppelin's hit "Stairway to Heaven," some of the biggest classic-rock titles of the 1970s were inducted on Friday into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

The 1975 album that launched Springsteen as a superstar and the 1971 Zeppelin ballad that became one of the most heavily played tracks of the rock era were among 21 recordings to gain Hall of Fame status this year.

The eight albums and 13 singles bring to 606 the number of titles recognized since 1973 by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences for their enduring artistic quality and cultural influence.

The lion's share of this year's entries -- 11 in all -- dominated record collections and radio airplay during the 1970s and endure on classic-rock stations today. Among the album selections were Elton John's double-set "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road," Fleetwood Mac's blockbuster "Rumors," the Eagles' smash release "Hotel California," Paul Simon's introspective "Still Crazy After All These Years" and Steely Dan's jazz-rock masterpiece "Aja."

Hit '70s singles making the list included one of the most popular songs of the decade, Carole King's "It's Too Late," along with Eric Clapton's cover of the Bob Marley classic "I Shot the Sheriff" and Ike & Tina Turner's take on the John Fogerty song "Proud Mary."

Six other entries hail from the 1960s, notably Peter, Paul & Mary's hit version of the Bob Dylan protest song "Blowin' in the Wind," Petula Clark's winsome 1964 single "Downtown," Judy Collins' generational touchstone "Both Sides Now" and "Up-UP And Away" by the 5th Dimension.

Jazz made the list with two titles -- Thelonious Monk's 1949 release "The Genius of Modern Music, Vols. 1 & 2," and the oldest entry from this year's crop, Ethel Waters' 1933 rendering of "Stormy Weather."

O'Toole to Get Honorary Academy Award

LOS ANGELES - Peter O'Toole, nominated seven times for an Oscar for films as diverse as the epic "Lawrence of Arabia" and the nostalgic comedy "My Favorite Year," will receive an honorary Academy Award this year.

"O'Toole's performances have ignited the screen for more than four decades," Frank Pierson, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said Friday in announcing the award.

It will be presented during the 75th annual Oscars ceremony March 23 at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Its citation will read: "Peter O'Toole — whose remarkable talents have provided cinema history with some of its most memorable characters."

O'Toole, 70, made his stage debut at 17 before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his film debut 10 years later with a bit part in the 1959 film "The Savage Innocents."

The Irish-born actor shot to international fame three years later, portraying legendary British adventurer T.E. Lawrence in David Lean's landmark film "Lawrence of Arabia." The performance brought him the first of his seven best actor Oscar nominations.

The others were for "Becket" (1964), "The Lion in Winter" (1968), "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969), "The Ruling Class" (1972), "The Stunt Man" (1980) and "My Favorite Year" (1982).

"He's seven times been nominated as best actor, which puts him in extremely rarified air for a performer," Pierson said. "The Board of Governors felt it was time for him to hold his own Oscar in his hands."

'Darkness Falls' Rises To Number One At Weekend Box Office

LOS ANGELES - The horror flick "Darkness Falls," about a vengeful spirit tormenting the town that lynched her, scared up $12.5 million in its opening weekend to debut as the No. 1 movie.

Last weekend's top movie, the comedy "Kangaroo Jack," fell to second place with $11.9 million.

The musical "Chicago" continued to climb the charts in narrower release. It expanded to 616 theaters, an increase of 59, and took in $8.5 million to finish at No. 3, up from sixth place the previous weekend.

"Chicago" averaged an impressive $13,721 a theater, compared with $4,406 in 2,837 theaters for "Darkness Falls."

With $40.6 million already in the bank and solid Academy Awards prospects, "Chicago" is well poised to expand into wide release Feb. 7, four days before the Oscar nominations come out.

"It's a very enviable position to be in," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "Musicals have been out of favor for so long, but `Chicago' is beating all the odds and performing better and better as it rolls out."

George Clooney's directing debut "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" broke into the top 10 in its first weekend of wide release after a limited debut in December to qualify for the Oscars. Starring Sam Rockwell as game-show host Chuck Barris in a fictionalized film biography, "Confessions" grossed $6 million and came in at No. 8.

Other awards contenders held well as they expanded to more theaters, including "About Schmidt," which came in at No. 9 with $5.5 million, and "The Hours," which was No. 10 with $4 million.

Overall, the box office dropped sharply compared to the same weekend last year, when "Black Hawk Down" was the No. 1 film. The top 12 movies grossed $82.9 million, down 25 percent from the same weekend in 2002.

Some of that decrease resulted from movie-goers staying home for the Super Bowl, which came a weekend later last year.

"Darkness Falls" benefited from a slow weekend in which it was the only wide-release debut. It stars Emma Caulfield of TV's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as a woman battling a ghost-hag that's slicing and dicing people in her town.

Horror movies typically do well in their first weekend as fans of the genre turn out in big numbers, but business tends to drop off steeply in subsequent weeks. With a tight $11 million budget, though, "Darkness Falls" will turn a solid profit, said Tom Sherak, a partner at Revolution Studios, which produced the movie for distributor Sony.

Like last year's horror hit "The Ring," a PG-13 rating might give "Darkness Falls" more staying power than fright flicks with an R rating, Sherak said.

"PG-13 is a little bit broader than the hard Rs," said Sherak, whose son, William, made his debut as a producer on "Darkness Falls." "It's the kind of horror movie that people felt safe in bringing younger kids to."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Darkness Falls," $12.5 million.
2. "Kangaroo Jack," $11.9 million.
3. "Chicago," $8.5 million.
4. "Just Married," $7.5 million.
5. "National Security," $7.4 million.
6. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," $6.9 million.
7. "Catch Me If You Can," $6.6 million.
8. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," $6 million.
9. "About Schmidt," $5.5 million.
10. "The Hours," $4 million.

'Piano Man' Joel Released From Hospital

SAG HARBOR, New York - "Piano Man" Billy Joel was hospitalized for several hours early Sunday after smashing his car into a tree along a highway on far eastern Long Island.

A hospital spokesman confirmed that the singer was released Sunday morning but would not comment on Joel's injuries.

The 53-year-old Rock and Roll Hall of Famer had swerved into the tree as he was driving his Mercedes-Benz in Sag Harbor late Saturday, Sag Harbor Village Police Chief Thomas Fabiano said.

No charges were filed, police Officer Hugh Caulfield said Sunday. Joel wasn't given a Breathalyzer test, which measures blood alcohol levels, he said.

Joel was taken to Stony Brook University Hospital, where a hospital spokesman said he arrived around midnight and was released around 7:30 a.m.

Joel has had more than two dozen Top Ten hits in his career, including his signature 1974 song "Piano Man." His music, including the title song "Movin' Out," is currently the subject of a Broadway musical.

Last summer, he voluntarily checked into a substance abuse and psychiatric center at New Canaan, Connecticut, reportedly after becoming "very depressed" when a respiratory infection forced him to cut short a tour with fellow piano player Elton John.

He told People magazine in July that he had begun "what I ultimately realized was a prolonged period of overindulgence. I don't want to get any more specific."

Joel was also involved in a motorcycle accident on Long Island in 1983. He and model Christie Brinkley have one daughter, Alexa Ray. The couple divorced in 1994.

Super Bowl Advertisers Stick With Humor

NEW YORK - Advertising's auteurs kept it quirky on Super Bowl Sunday, with humor a prime ingredient in most commercials as Americans weary of war talk and a gloomy economy were given a chance to chuckle.

AT&T Wireless offered a parody of the PBS series, "Antiques Roadshow," with the traditional telephone ridiculed as a useless relic. "Do you know how much this is worth?" the host asks his guest. "Diddly-squat."

The game's biggest ad buyer, Anheuser-Busch Inc., tweaked pro football's review rule and the league's troubled officiating this season with a zebra pulling referee duty during a game between horses. (The ad aired, coincidentally, right before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers sought a successful review of a turnover call.)

Super Bowl commercials are traditionally among the most coveted and prestigious in the advertising world, with a television audience topping 100 million people and few channel surfers. The night offers advertisers a forum for exhibiting their skills to a huge, diverse group of people — some of whom watch solely for the ads.

This year's 30-second slots sold for between $2.1 million and $2.2 million, about 10 percent more than last year. For the second consecutive year, Anheuser-Busch was the game's largest advertiser, with 11 spots.

Around the ads, Tampa Bay won its first Super Bowl, 48-21. The splashiest commercials typically air earlier in the game, which fit well with listless offense through much of the first half.

About 40 percent of the game's commercial spots were bought by four advertising behemoths: Anheuser-Busch, General Motors Corp., Sony Corp. and PepsiCo.

MasterCard used a trio of "dead presidents" to extol the convenience of its debit cards. Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Jackson wait impatiently at home as a man has a dinner-and-movie date, paid for with his debit card.

Michael Jordan showed up in two campaigns.

In Gatorade's Super Bowl debut, Jordan of today plays against his younger self, the No. 23 icon of the Chicago Bulls. In a spot for Hanes, Jordan smirks as actor Jackie Chan scratches at the shirt tag rubbing his neck. The ad shows off Hanes' new tagless T-shirts.

Pepsi hired Ozzy Osbourne's prominent clan to push Pepsi Twist, although none of the oft-deleted-expletive bunch was bleeped, even once, in the 45-second spot.

Big-budget movies played their usual role, with Arnold Schwarzenegger on hand to tout his summer action flick, "Terminator 3," and Warner Bros. offering many viewers their first peeks of the two new "Matrix" movies scheduled to be released this year.

McDonald's offered a humorous twist on the bad day of a bedraggled middle-aged Dad: his equally frazzled young son forced to contend with a flat tire on his bike and a surprise math quiz at school. Then Mom offers McDonald's, to which the precocious adolescent replies, "That's what I love about that woman."

In a spoof of his past tax problems, country crooner Willie Nelson decides to shoot a shaving cream commercial to help pay a $30 million tax bill. The ad was for H&R Block, the tax preparation company.

HotJobs.com, the job-search company that's part of Yahoo! Inc., bucked the trend with a somber commercial showing people at work singing about rainbows.

"We just feel that this year, given what's going on in the economy and in the environment in general, that a more respectful point of view and approach of job search is what's needed," said Marc Karasu, HotJobs' vice president of advertising.

Dodge offered perhaps the grossest commercial moment, using the power of its new truck engine and quick braking to help a choking man expel a hunk of beef jerky — directly onto the windshield, slime and all.

Gollum At The Golden Globes

Source: Ringer Spy Cat

Super 'Alias' will bowl you over

Here's an image that should grab a Super Bowl fan's attention: Jennifer Garner in black scanties.

Oh, there's much more to Sunday's fabulous post-Bowl episode of Alias than those opening shots of Garner, undercover and underdressed as CIA agent Sydney Bristow. But the scene, and the humorous twist it takes, is a prime example of how knowing and witty this show can be, and how eager it is to get the kind of ratings it has long deserved.

Besides, if there's a TV star who can carry off that opening (and that outfit) with more style than Garner, I don't know who she is. Garner is not just the sexiest spy since Emma Peel, she's one of the few actresses who can stand up to comparison with Diana Rigg.

Sunday, she has the kind of showcase that actors dream about: a heart-stopping, plot-packed adventure that lets her hit just about every emotional note. And the good news extends beyond Garner. Seldom has Alias produced a more exciting hour or one more user-friendly for newcomers to the show.

Conveniently enough, Sydney is introduced to a new class of CIA recruits, which allows Alias to reintroduce its premise: Sydney and her father, Jack (the invaluable Victor Garber), are double agents assigned to destroy SD-6, one of 12 cells that make up the criminal syndicate The Alliance. And they have just been handed a new tool: a secret computer that can reveal the location of all Alliance agents.

Naturally, there are complications. The Bristows have a new boss at SD-6 (played with cool authority by Rutger Hauer- who IS still alive), and he has questions about their job performance.

Revealing much more would spoil the fun.

What sets Alias apart? For one thing, there's writer J.J. Abrams (Felicity), who knows how to surprise you without making you feel as if you've been duped. He also has been smart enough to hire actors who are as talented as they are attractive and who are able to keep the often outrageous plots grounded. This week, watch Carl Lumbly as Sydney's partner and see if you don't believe every move he makes.

Action, suspense and a last-minute twist: Sunday's Alias provides everything you'd want from a show following the Super Bowl and, for that matter, from the Super Bowl itself. Whether the game will deliver, I can't say, but the postgame show is a champ.

Seriously!

If this is you, if you are Melody Lewis, I have a crush on you! Please email me!

Melody Lewis was on the Wednesday edition of Fox's "American Idol" dressed as Dorothy from "The Wizard Of Oz" and sang "Somewhere Overe The Rainbow." It wasn't her outfit, or the singing, that has me smitten, it was her.

She possesses the attributes preferred by the superficial male, of which I am one.

Melody, baby, email me! Seriously!

Your new friend,

Dan

TRAINSPOTTING Sequel Finds Trouble in Face Cream

According to director Danny Boyle, PORNO, the sequel to TRAINSPOTTING, is having problems because the original cast of Ewan McGregor, Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller look too healthy; the film takes place ten years after the first film. "None of them look any different," Boyle said. "I need them to look like they've burned themselves out, but they have all been using face cream and Vitamin E lotion."

No Cypher For THE MATRIX: RELOADED

Actor Joe Pantoliano (THE SOPRANOS) talks about why he won't be returning as Cypher in the sequels to THE MATRIX.

Joe Pantoliano told SCI FI Wire that money wasn't the reason he won't reprise the role of Cypher in the upcoming sequel films The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions. "I wanted to come back," Pantoliano said in an interview. "You ain't kidding. The Wachowskis put a restraining order on me. It was never a money issue," he added, joking about directors Andy and Larry Wachowski.

Pantoliano added, "They never wanted me. I called them up and said, 'Listen, I'm going to make it sound like I turned down $6 million, because you don't want to pay me.' And they said, 'Hold out for $10 million, Joe. You're worth much more than that.' I love those guys. They're my favorite, favorite people in the world. It's not like I've been sitting around for two years waiting for them to make the sequels. In fact, they actually asked me to do a cameo in (Reloaded and Revolutions), but we couldn't work it out (because of scheduling conflicts)."

Pantoliano said that he's still eager to see the finished sequels. "I'm still so excited to see Reloaded and Revolutions," he said. "I think that group is so bright that everything you see after that is an imitation of what they invented. And I know the Wachowskis well enough to know they're probably going to invent themselves again (with the Matrix sequels)."

EPISODE III Name Hints

Details about what George Lucas might be thinking about for the title of STAR WARS EPISODE III, as well as a set that's being built for the film.

Appearantly TheForce.net received a tip a week ago about what word may be included in the official chapter title for Episode III. The site's source states that the current most popular working title for the film uses the word "circle", and it apparently has some direct connection to a line that Vader spoke in Episode IV: "The circle is now complete."

TheForce.net also has a recent report from an individual who claims to know that one of the sets Lucas wants built for the new Star Wars film is that of a lava planet.

See "This Is CNN...It's Me Simba.." post from January 23rd, 2003, for more details!

Steely Dan Embraces 'Everything'

Legendary jazz/rock act Steely Dan has put the finishing touches on a new studio album, "Everything Must Go," due May 6 via Reprise. The set is the follow-up to 2000's "Two Against Nature," which was the Donald Fagen/Walter Becker-led group's first album since 1980's "Gaucho." "Two Against Nature" went on to win the Grammy for album of the year and has sold 1 million copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

In marked contrast to Fagen and Becker's notoriously methodical recording pace, "Everything Must Go" was wrapped up in about a year. "We went for live tracking this time and got great, in-the-pocket tracks," Becker said in a statement, adding that the album was recorded on analog tape. "It's mad: it's wiggy: I love it," Fagen concurred.

Fagen and Becker are backed on the new set by drummer Keith Carlock, keyboardists Ted Baker and Bill Charlap, and guitarists Jon Herrington and Hugh McCracken. Beyond his usual bass and guitar duties, Becker takes the mic on one as-yet-unnamed tune, marking his first lead vocal in Steely Dan's history.

Despite its critical acclaim, "Two Against Nature" didn't generate any hits along the lines of the "Gaucho" favorites "Hey Nineteen" (No. 10 on The Billboard Hot 100) and "Time Out of Mind" (No. 22). Indeed, backstage at the 2000 Grammys, Fagen told Billboard any new Steely Dan music wouldn't likely be influenced by any modern tunes. "I haven't listened to the radio for, like, 30 years," he admitted. "I still listen to the same jazz records I listened to in high school, basically."

The group is expected to tour in support of "Everything Must Go," but no dates have yet been unveiled.

New DVD Announcements

Boom!

Yep, yet another edition of Sam Raimi's cult classic Army of Darkness is on the way. On March 4th, the money grubbing bastards at Anchor Bay Home Entertainment will release The Boomstick Edition, a two-disc set that virtually replicates the two-disc set originally released a few years back (not to mention the myriad of single-disc permutations released since.) Featuring new packaging and an 8-page booklet, extras are plentiful. Disc one features anamorphic widescreen and full screen versions, the original ending presented as a supplement, the featurette "The Men Behind The Army" narrated by Bruce Campbell, talent bios and the trailer. Disc two features the extended cut of the film with 15 minutes of additional footage presented in anamorphic widescreen, an audio commentary by Raimi, Campbell and co-writer Ivan Raimi, and four deleted scenes. Retail is $29.95 but I don't care as I won't be buying it!

What About Miles One Through Seven?

Just in are the full specs for Eminem's smash motion picture debut 8 Mile, due March 18th from Universal Studios Home Video. Available in separate anamorphic widescreen and full screen versions, each will come with Dolby Digital English and French 5.1 surround tracks, an interview with Eminem, a tour of 8 Mile Road in Detroit with director Curtis Hanson, "The Music of 8 Mile" featurette, never-before-seen "rap battles," a new music video from "The Eminem Show," and trailers.

And Then...

Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment has finally announced the full specs and episode lists for Married...With Children - The Most Outrageous Episodes, Volume 1 and Volume 2. Each includes five episodes presented in full screen and English 2.0 Dolby stereo, plus the featurette "A Salute to Sinatra" (on both volumes) and bonus trailers. Episodes on Volume 1 include "A Dump of My Own," "You Better Shop Around (Parts 1 & 2)," "No Chicken, No Check," and the "I'll See You in Court (The Lost Episode)," while Volume 2 includes "A Man's Castle," "Raingirl," "Have You Driven a Ford Lately," "If Al Had a Hammer," and "Who'll Stop the Rain?" Retail is $19.95 each.

Seriously, they are money grubbing bastards!

Limp Bizkit's Fred Durst Defends Feelings For Britney Spears

Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst is taking some heat for his relationship with pop star Britney Spears, both in the posts by fans in the band's web folders and by members of the media.

"Well I'm sure we've had it up to our necks with all the hype. Isn't it amazing how something very simple, pure, sweet, and innocent can be blown so far out of proportion?" wrote Durst in an online letter on the Limp Bizkit website. "Who really gives a sh-t that I wanna be with Britney Spears? It seems as if everyone does. The only person that should give a sh-t is Britney. I never meant to be in this situation. Sh-t happens. What's the big deal? Yeah, she is a big POP star and her last relationship with another big POP star was a big deal, but damn y'all need to chill. Do you think I should not like someone because you don't want me to? F--k that!! You people are my family and I respect you and as you should me. I never meant to fall into all of this."

Durst then blamed the media, "All the media is doing is trying to create a lot of controversy. To them its just more interesting to make up lies and crazy dramatic sh-t. I've heard and seen some unbelievable things since I've been liking her. Now all the media has done is twisted the whole thing around and made other people come back running. And I assure you that anything besides that fact that I definitely have feelings for Britney isn't true. It is simple, honest, and pure. That's that. I feel bad for Britney having to have her life put on blast and manipulated by the media like this. Now I've been brought into it. I don't give a f--k about anything anyone thinks and definitely the media. Let's just drop this right here in the Bizkit camp. Let's move on...We don't need to be wasting our time worrying about some birds and bees sh-t!! Next time I'll fall in love with a tree."

Tupperware Says the Party Is Over in Britain

LONDON (Reuters) - The party's over for a generation of housewives after Tupperware said on Thursday its army of sales agents will be scrapped.

For around half a century, British women used to hold get-togethers in their front rooms, so-called Tupperware parties, to sell the plastic food containers.

But 21st century life has sounded the death knell for one of the country's most enduring -- and mocked -- traditions.

"We needed to update our business model," said Jane Garrard, vice president for investor relations at Orlando-based Tupperware.

About 1,500 sales demonstrators in Britain will have their contracts ended on March 30.

Terence Cosgrave, editor of Retail Intelligence said he believed the waning popularity of Tupperware parties was due to changes in eating habits.

"Tupperware was primarily used for storing food. Nowadays more people buy convenience foods and have less use for containers," he told Reuters.

He added that Tupperware, which was seen as a revolution in food hygiene and kitchen style when it was introduced, had faced increasing competition from other manufacturers.

In recent years Tupperware parties have also had to compete with the glamour of lingerie and wrinkle-smoothing Botox parties.

Tupperware said it may focus on selling through retailers.

MOURNED BY SOME

Although the Tupperware party, a sign of sophistication in the 1960s and 1970s, had become a butt of satirists in later years, the end is still likely to be missed by some.

Helen Fairweather, 64, said she attended Tupperware parties in the 1960s.

"You would get a group of friends together -- bit like an Ann Summers lingerie party -- and a person from Tupperware would come along to show their wares."

"You'd provide some nibbles and then, to lighten up the mood a bit, you used to have a little general knowledge quiz and the winner would get a piece of Tupperware," the London pensioner said.

But Fairweather said Tupperware was expensive and in time it discolored.

"You might as well buy the cheap ones and throw them away."

Geoff Jones, 72, a retired railway worker, from London, remembered his wife regularly hosted Tupperware parties.

"It used to be a social thing, something for the ladies to get together," he said, quickly adding he had never attended one himself.

Perhaps summing up the problem Tupperware faces was a comment from a member of the younger generation:

"Tupper-what party? Never heard of it. Sounds kinky," said 25-year-old office administrator Sally Wilkes from Croydon.

Fincher Boards 'Lords' Picture

NEW YORK (Variety) - It could be an endless summer for director David Fincher.

He's committed to shoot "The Lords of Dogtown," a film about the surf and skate culture that took root in a blighted area of Venice in the 1970s.

Sony Pictures has acquired the picture, which has a long development history. Fincher's shingle, Indelible Pictures, set up an earlier version at New Line, where it was to be the directorial debut of Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst. At the time, Fincher was on board only as a producer.

The acquisition by Sony puts it in the same family as "Dogtown and Z-Boys," a documentary directed by Stacy Peralta and released by Sony Pictures Classics in 2001. "Z-Boys" portrayed the Dogtown teenagers, including Peralta, who began skateboarding in empty swimming pools around Los Angeles, inventing the daredevil aerial style that prevails today.

Peralta wrote an earlier draft of Fincher's picture. Now Roger Avary ("The Rules of Attraction") is doing a rewrite, which is likely to be Fincher's next stint in the director's chair, beginning production in late 2003.

Fincher's picture will be a coming-of-age story -- a departure for the director of gritty thrillers like "The Panic Room" and "Seven." It's likely to treat '70s skateboarding as a cultural movement that helped usher in a revolution in fashion and music.

Fincher is also in line to direct "Mission: Impossible 3" for Paramount, but that's not likely to start production until 2004.

"Dogtown" is one of several skateboarding projects in development in Hollywood.

Warner Bros. plans to distribute Gaylord Films' "The Grind" later this year, featuring popular boarder Colin McKay.

Disney is prepping a biopic on skateboarding icon Tony Hawk -- a figure considered big enough to also have projects set up around him at Revolution Studios and Universal Pictures.

Jimmy Kimmel Premieres Sunday on ABC

NEW YORK (AP) — Jimmy Kimmel is live, devouring a burger at a Manhattan steakhouse and talking about his ABC late-night show.

"Jimmy Kimmel Live" premieres with a special post-Super Bowl telecast Sunday night, then continues Mondays through Fridays in the time slot right after "Nightline," which in no way it resembles. (For starters, "Nightline" isn't always live and anchorman Ted Koppel doesn't fancy flannel shirts.)

"Jimmy Kimmel Live" will air from Hollywood's El Capitan Theater as "the first live nightly talk show in over 40 years," according to ABC publicity. (Which maybe it is, if you don't count Joan Rivers on Fox 16 years ago, for all of six months.)

The late-night failure rate is high. Think of Chevy Chase, canned after six miserable weeks in 1993.

"When he came on, a lot of people thought he was going to be really good," says Kimmel. "That's what worries me, about ME!"

But he doesn't look worried. As Kimmel speaks between bites, he seems relaxed, perhaps a little sleepy (jet lag). Even though just days remain before opening night.

And even though his specialty, up to now, has been bad-boy talk radio and, more recently on cable, playing guru to the guy brigade — most notably, as a creator and host of Comedy Central's "The Man Show," where he reveled in something he promises he won't bring to his new show: buxom girls on trampolines.

Despite this note of restraint, he aims to bring an unaccustomed bounce to late-night talk-variety. And he guarantees his studio audience an open bar.

The challenge: broadening his appeal beyond his guy laity and viewers who know him from Comedy Central's "Win Ben Stein's Money" and Fox's NFL pregame show — and maybe even holding on to "Nightline" nerds with his maverick style.

"I don't believe that lack of intelligence and appreciation for lowbrow comedy go hand-in-hand necessarily," he says.

Meanwhile, ABC is promoting Kimmel as "Late Night Fresh."

"Fresh?!" he groans. "There's nothing less fresh than the word `fresh.'"

Maybe he's just feeling a little pressure.

"I feel a lot," he says. "It's like when I was in college and I was a wedding DJ. Even though it was just a job for me, each time I knew if I screw it up, if my record skips or my equipment blows out, I've screwed up someone's wedding. The pressure was really intense."

Now 35, Kimmel is still a hard worker, a trait that contradicts the party-hardy image he took to cartoonish extremes on "The Man Show."

"You want to make it look easy and fun," he says. "The best time I had this year was my buddy's bachelor party. We went up to Lake Tahoe — 12 guys in a cabin for three days. I think that's what people imagine that I am, and it's what I like to be.

"But when I'm at work, there's stuff that has to be taken care of, and I'm involved in every little thing."

So maybe it's like Fred Astaire gliding across the floor with Ginger Rogers in all those movies — whereas, behind the scenes, he painstakingly choreographed every step.

"Yeah," says Kimmel gamely. "A hairy, fat Fred Astaire — that's a good analogy.

"But the only responsibility I feel is to try to be as original as possible, and not to ever steal anything. And that's been a challenge for me, through my whole career, to not be overly derivative of Letterman. I have to make sure that I don't. Because everybody that matters will know it."

Kimmel is an unabashed fan of David Letterman. But there are other broadcasters he admires — particularly Mike Douglas, a daytime TV talk pioneer whose guests ran the gamut and who, to keep things fresh, teamed up with a different celebrity co-host for a week at a time.

Kimmel, too, will book weeklong celebrity co-hosts. (First week: Snoop Dogg.)

Another policy he's borrowing: "No cards with questions on them! Mike Douglas just did the interview, just went with things. It's not like that on talk shows anymore. They're pretty regimented, very highly produced.

"He was real good," Kimmel affectionately says. "I remember pretending to be sick because Steve Garvey was gonna be on `Mike Douglas' and I wanted to see it. Staying home from school is a great association with Mike Douglas."

A Brooklyn native, Kimmel grew up in Las Vegas, where he and his pals "took advantage of everything the city has to offer. There was no rule that said you had to be a tourist to eat a $2 steak dinner at the Horseshoe — every night for like 35 nights in a row one summer. That's Vegas!"

Leap forward a few years and Kimmel is a rising TV star about to invade the late-night kingdom. But fame and fortune can't undo those formative years or compromise the inner guy that got him where he is. Not Kimmel, who savors memories of a $2 steak while feasting on a burger that costs 12 bucks.

Are TV Fans Sick of the Osbournes?

NEW YORK (AP) — There's some bleepin' bad news for the Osbourne family: Television viewers may be getting sick of them.

Ratings for MTV's hit reality sitcom have been tumbling in its second season, from a high of 6.6 million viewers for its Nov. 26 premiere, to 3.5 million on Jan. 14. This week's episode climbed back to 3.8 million.

Ozzy, Sharon, Kelly and Jack Osbourne were also hosts of last week's American Music Awards, which suffered its worst ratings ever.

Less than a year after "The Osbournes" began airing and the family became ubiquitous, are the Osbournes burning out?

"The people came in, they tried it and they just haven't gotten back on it," Harry Keeshan, senior vice president of broadcasting for the ad buying firm PHD, said on Thursday. "I don't think a lot of these people will return."

The show's tone is different this second season because the family's life is different. Instead of showing the eccentric home life of a marginal celebrity and his family, the latest episodes depict them coping with sudden fame, as well as Sharon's bout with cancer.

Brian Graden, chief programming executive at MTV, said he's not worried about the numbers. The first season started slow and built into a phenomenon while the second season started fast and faded, roughly even in viewers.

"The same number of eyeballs are seeing this season on both a premiere and repeat basis," Graden said. "If you're in my shoes, you're not complaining."

Although the show may not be as popular as it was last spring, MTV says it's still doing well among the 12-to-34-year-old viewership. Executives also privately say MTV's business model relies on quick sensations that burn out fast.

Keeshan also points out that his clients that bought advertising time on "The Osbournes" are still happy.

After the current 10-episode season ends, another set of shows are planned for this summer. After that, who knows?

MTV may be ready to move on to something new. Graden is touting a new series about life makeovers, "Made," that premiered strongly last week.

The Osbournes' heavily bleeped host stint on the American Music Awards was not only unpopular with viewers, it reportedly caused one celebrity, "Everybody Loves Raymond" actress Patricia Heaton, to walk out of the theater in disgust.

Don't blame the family for its ratings, suggested Jim Paratore, head of Telepictures Productions.

"The American Music Awards' problems are more indicative of where music is today than who the host of the show is," he said.

Paratore has reasons to hope that's true. Telepictures has signed Sharon Osbourne to be host of a new syndicated talk show set to premiere in the fall. He doubts viewers will be tired of her by the time the talk show premieres.

Telepictures' research shows that viewers feel warmly toward Sharon and appreciates what she's been through with a tumultuous marriage and substance abuse, he said.

"She has lived just about every topic that these shows cover," he said.

Stations representing about two-thirds of the country's population have agreed to air her talk show starting this fall, he said. By comparison, a new talk show by Ellen DeGeneres, also created by Telepictures, already has 78 percent clearance.

Super Halftime Show Lined Up

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - The halftime entertainment for Super Bowl I was handled by the University of Michigan and Arizona marching bands and cost the NFL almost nothing.

Thirty-six Super Bowls later, this year's halftime show will require a budget in the millions, it's own title sponsor, an Emmy Award-winning producer, a production crew that numbers in the hundreds and some of the record industry's hottest acts.

Sultry Grammy-winning singer and country diva, Shania Twain, will front Sunday's extravaganza between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders.

The Canadian will add her name to a long list of Super Bowl halftime alumni that includes Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey, Backstreet Boys, Cher, the Beach Boys, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney and U2.

Over the years, former-presidents, astronauts, Olympic figure skaters and even OJ Simpson have played varying roles in Super Bowl halftime and pregame shows.

"We are connecting the music world with the world of sport," declared producer Joel Gallen.

As the Super Bowl has grown in stature, so have the halftime shows -- in many cases rivaling the game itself for the spotlight.

A media conference Thursday with this year's headliners attracted over 40 television crews, or about four times as many as those who attended the NFL's rookie of year announcement one day earlier.

In an adjoining room, a press briefing jointly held by Milt Ahlerich, NFL vice-president for security, and the San Diego police chief could attract only 15 reporters.

Twain will perform two songs and producers have assured that the singer would not lip synch her hits as she did last November during her performance at the Grey Cup -- Canada's version of the Super Bowl.

The Canadian diva will certainly have a tough act to follow when she steps on stage in front of a worldwide television audience that is expected to exceed 800 million.

International superstars Paul McCartney and U2 appeared at last year's halftime show to offer their support to the American public at the first Super Bowl to be staged after the September 11 attacks in 2001.

'Six Million Dollar Man' Lee Majors Sues Universal

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Lee Majors, best known as television's "Six Million Dollar Man," is locked in a bionic legal battle with the producers of his 1970s series.

The 63-year-old actor, who starred as a physically enhanced test pilot on the ABC series while married to actress Farrah Fawcett, has sued Universal Television Group for breach of contract and fraud, claiming he was short-changed on profits from the show.

The suit seeks a full audit of Universal's books and financial records relating to the show dating back to its inception and payment of unspecified sums found to be owed him.

A spokesman for the studio, a unit of Vivendi Universal, said the company never comments on pending litigation.

According to the suit, Universal agreed in 1975, after the show had been on the air for two years, to pay Majors 15 percent of net profits earned from the series and its post-network syndication.

The profit-sharing was supposed to commence from the first year of production, but Majors has never received any money from profit participation, the suit says.

The suit, filed Dec. 31 in Los Angeles Superior Court, disputes the accuracy of an accounting provided to Majors at his request last year. In particular, the suit says Universal miscalculated the amount of interest it was allowed to charge on certain production costs.

Majors starred in "The Six Million Dollar Man" as astronaut and test pilot Steve Austin, who was gravely injured in the crash of an experimental aircraft but was retrofitted with "bionic" prosthetics to replace the eye, arm and both legs he lost in the accident.

The high-tech enhancements leave him with superhuman speed, strength and vision, which Austin puts to good use as a covert agent for the fictional Office of Scientific Information (OSI), battling international villains, mad scientists and even alien monsters. The adventure series first appeared in the fall of 1973 as a made-for-TV movie, then returned as a series in January 1974, running on ABC until March 1978.

The popularity of the series sparked a wave of superhero TV shows in the 1970s and spawned the spin-off "The Bionic Woman," starring Lindsay Wagner.

Universal's cable network, USA Network, recently announced plans to develop a remake of "The Bionic Woman."

Canadians won't see hyped Super Bowl ads

TORONTO -- Canadians tuning into Sunday's Super Bowl telecast will see the football game. They'll also see the pre-game and halftime shows, with Shania Twain and Celine Dion among the big stars.

But they won't get to see Ozzy Osbourne waking up in bed with Florence Henderson to pitch Pepsi Twist. Nor the orangutan doing the backstroke on behalf of Sierra Mist, a new soft drink. Nor the $85,000 diamond-laden pair of Levi Strauss jeans.

They'll also miss Michael Jordan who, thanks to digital special effects, will play some basketball with his younger self in a Gatorade ad.

That's because in Canada, Global TV has the broadcast rights to the ABC-TV program, including the right to insert its own commercials which, more often than not, are the same old ads one sees during the rest of the TV week, not the so-called "new creative" content airing south of the border.

Dave Hamilton, vice-president of promotions and publicity for Global, concedes the network always takes viewer heat for the arrangement.

"People complain all the time about not seeing these ads," he says. "We don't apologize because we do have the Canadian rights for the game, and it would be great if the Canadian chapters of these companies who are producing them could buy the time and air the creative here, but in most cases that's not the case."

Hamilton laughs at the odd prospect of viewer complaints over the issue.

"It's the only time of year where we actually get people calling to say I WANT to see commercials!"

Truly determined viewers who live near a U.S. border signal could foil the override, though, by disconnecting their cable or satellite service. In Toronto, for example, the ABC affiliate in Buffalo, N.Y. can be received with an old-fashioned antenna.

South of the border, of course, Super Bowl Sunday is more than a sporting event. It has become a national holiday viewed through the electronic stadium of television. And sponsors traditionally pull out all stops to debut imaginative, prestigious and very expensive ads for which they're paying more than $2 million US for a mere 30 seconds of airtime.

That sounds expensive until you consider that an estimated 130 million people in the U.S. will be tuned in to the game and may catch most of the 61 half-minute ad slots. There's also an acknowledged prestige factor. In today's fragmented TV universe, the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards are among the few scheduled programs left that can promise and deliver a truly mass audience.

Global TV expects to lure some three million pairs of eyeballs to the game coverage. Hamilton says Global has sold all its ad time, but won't say how much it's charging. He stresses that the old 10-to-one economic ratio doesn't apply, though. In other words, a spot going for $2 million on ABC would not go for $200,000 in this country.

"Something less than $100,000," is all he would say.

Hamilton says at least one of the U.S. sponsors, Pepsi, may also run its new ad on Global's game telecast, but that would be an exception. Generally, Canadian ads will be seen only in Canada and U.S. ads in the U.S.

One Toronto agency, Downtown Partners DDB, has produced a couple of the American spots, including one for Bud Light beer. The Anheuser-Busch brewery has the most Super Bowl ads -- 10 of the 30-second slots -- including the most coveted and costliest -- the first ad after the kickoff. Anheuser-Busch is also the game's exclusive beer advertiser for the 15th year in a row.

Nell Carter dead at 54

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -- Nell Carter, who played the sassy, matronly housekeeper on the 1980s sitcom "Gimme a Break!" and received a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway musical "Ain't Misbehavin'," died Thursday, her publicist said. She was 54.

The singer-actress collapsed in her Beverly Hills home and was found by one of her 13-year-old sons, spokesman Roger Lane said.

Carter had suffered from diabetes for years, Lane added, and underwent brain surgery in 1992 to remove an aneurysm. She recovered and continued to perform, mostly on stage.

Carter was in rehearsals at a Long Beach theater for "Raisin," the musical version of "Raisin in the Sun."

In addition to Carter's Tony win for "Ain't Misbehavin'," she won an Emmy in 1982 for the TV version. One of the highlights of the show -- a revue based on the music of Fats Waller -- was her soulful rendition of "Mean to Me."

Her NBC comedy "Gimme a Break!" ran from 1981 to 1987, and garnered her two more Emmy nominations, in 1982 and 1983.

In February 1985, an episode of the show was broadcast live -- the first for a situation comedy in nearly 30 years. Carter and her costars performed flawlessly, and at the end, she threw up her arms and yelled, "We did it!"

She played the housekeeper to a family headed by a widower who was the town police chief, played by Dolph Sweet. After Sweet died in May 1985, his character "died" too and the show went through a series of plot and cast changes.

Blessed with a big voice and stage presence, the heavyset Carter prided herself on her range as a performer, doing musicals and drama as well as comedy.

Early in her career, she performed as a singer on the gospel circuit. She moved on to coffeehouses and nightclubs in her native Birmingham, Ala., before going on to New York.

She aspired to be a belter: a singer who gave her all. "You're afraid you might hyperventilate or crack, but you do it for the excitement of it," she said. "Head singers have to hold everything tight to get the note. I like belters, people who have that non-control but control."

Growing up, Carter listened to her mother's recordings of Dinah Washington and B.B. King, and her brother's Elvis Presley records. She liked Doris Day, the Andrews Sisters, Johnny Mathis, and admired the work of Cleo Laine and Barbra Streisand.

Carter said she would have preferred to be an opera singer.

"When I was growing up, (performing) was not something you aspired to," she said in 1988. "I was a weirdo to want to be in show business. Most kids wanted to be teachers or nurses."

Vader voice talks 'Star Wars'

Actor James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, answered some questions about "Star Wars" during a recent guest lecture to honour Martin Luther King Jr., in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

In an audio clip of the lecture's question and answer period, posted on TheForce.net, Jones is asked why he devoted only one paragraph of his autobiography to "Star Wars." Jones responds: "There is not much to say. I was just a special effect."

Jones also explained that he was ultimately chosen for the famous part because David Prowse, the actor behind Vader's mask, had a tenor voice, but George Lucas wanted the character to be a baritone.

"He [Lucas] thought of using Orsen Welles but then had second thoughts that Orsen Welles might be too recognizable. So, he picks a guy who stutters and was born in Mississippi," Jones joked.

Jones's booming voice will grace theatres once again during "Star Wars: Episode III." "I talked to George [Lucas] not too long ago and he only asked me to do the voicing for about five minutes, after Anakin Skywalker falls into a volcano and becomes bionic," Jones said, leaking a potentially important bit of the plot.

"Star Wars: Episode III" will begin filming this summer in Sydney, Australia, and is expected to be released in 2005.

Jessica Simpson Readying Third Studio Album

Singer Jessica Simpson is currently working on the follow-up to her 2001 album Irresistible. The still-untitled album will be her third on Columbia Records.

Simpson said that this time around she's trying her hand at production, as well as writing and singing. "I'm more nervous about it this time," Simpson said, "because I'm like, 'Oh, my gosh, are people gonna like what I have to say? Are they gonna like how I sing it?' You know, because I'm doing some of the vocal production, and, you know, I'm a lot more hands-on. My label actually has stepped back and let me do that, so I'm very excited about it."

Simpson and husband Nick Lachey of 98 Degrees were one of several celebrity couples featured on the NBC special InStyle: Celebrity Weddings, which aired Tuesday (January 21) on NBC. In addition, Simpson is featured on the cover of the current InStyle magazine weddings issue.

Shannon Elizabeth (American Pie), Kyle MacLachlan (Sex And The City), and Latin singer Marc Anthony and his wife Dayanara Torres's romantic vow renewal are also featured on the special. Anthony and his wife said "I do" for a second time in San Juan, Puerto Rico on December 2, 2002.

The claws are coming out in Hollywood

Gwyneth Paltrow recently made some observations about wedded bliss. "Marriage isn't something that should be taken lightly," she told an interviewer. "I don't want to be married for six months, then say: 'Oh, well, never mind. On to No. 2.' "

A dig at Jennifer Lopez?

Maybe. After all, Lopez is about to marry Ben Affleck, with whom Paltrow had an intense relationship that ended in 1999. And when Lopez does marry Affleck, he'll be No. 3. Cris Judd, No. 2, lasted eight months before they separated. Cuban waiter Ojani Noa was her first husband. They wed in 1997 and divorced in 1998.

And Paltrow probably still hasn't forgotten some remarks Lopez made in 1998 in Movieline magazine, dissing her acting ability. When asked about Paltrow, Lopez said in the piece: "I don't remember anything she was in. Some people get hot by association. I heard more about her and (former boyfriend) Brad Pitt than I ever heard about her work."

From Gwynnie's crack to the new Miller Lite beer ad, catfights are in the news right now. There's just something about two women going at each other — think back to the glory days of Dynasty.

So just what's in a celebrity catfight?

* Sometimes T-shirts do the talking.

Julia Roberts was caught by photographers wearing an "A Low Vera" T-shirt, a reference to husband Danny Moder's now ex-wife, Vera, who was not happy about her husband taking up with the movie star.

Then there was Britney Spears wearing a "Dump Him" T-shirt just a few months ago. It was taken to be a message for Alyssa Milano, who had taken up with her ex-boyfriend Justin Timberlake.

* Sometimes it's highbrow.

Katie Couric and political commentator Ann Coulter, author of Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right, went at each other on the Today show last year. Coulter made a reference to Couric as Hitler's mistress, "the affable Eva Braun of morning TV."

"The 'affable,' " Couric snorted. "Thanks. That makes me feel sooo much better."

It was the buzz of media circles for days.

* Sometimes it gets physical.

The hot Miller Lite beer ad running now titled "Catfight" shows women wrestling in a pit of cement. The closest thing stars have done might be the now-legendary reports of tense times two years ago on the set of Wise Girls, a movie starring Mariah Carey and Mira Sorvino. People magazine quoted a producer saying the two had such disagreements that one day they went at each other, with Mariah throwing a salt shaker at Mira and the two wrestling to the floor. The actresses immediately issued denials.

Meow!

Fishburne Talks MATRIX Sequel Differences

Laurence Fishburne, who reprises the role of Morpheus in the upcoming two Matrix sequels, told SCI FI Wire that the two movies won't be like other sequels. "It's not like a regular sequel," Fishburne said in an interview. "These things are huge, and there's more characters [and] more people."

Fishburne added that he appreciated the chance to play an ambiguous character. "My overall experience was that it was wonderful," he said. "I'm eternally grateful to be a part of The Matrix. It's this huge juggernaut of a thing. It's the Star Wars of its time. I get to be Obi-Wan and f-cking Darth Vader all at the same time. When you meet Morpheus, I don't know about you, but when I saw Morpheus in the movie, I wasn't taking no f-cking red-pill, blue-pill sh-t. I wasn't drinking the water. I was like, 'DON'T TRUST HIM!' He's not all good; he's not all bad. He's not like the white knight or the black knight. He's a combination, and therefore he is a real being."

The first sequel, The Matrix Reloaded, opens May 15. The next film, The Matrix Revolutions, opens Nov. 7, both 2003.

Will Britney Spears Be Joining The Cast Of DIE HARD 4?

Sharp-eyed readers in Dallas sent word today about a bizarre entertainment story that appeared in yesterday's Morning News newspaper. According to our scoopers, the news story stated that none other than pop song starlet Britney Spears is being considered to play Bruce Willis' daughter in the new Die Hard movie. The Texan newspaper claimed they got their info from a source close to the singer, and that the setting for the film would be on a Carribean holiday. Also mentioned by the source was that Willis wants to kill off his character of supercop John McClane in the picture. The spectacular story later appeared on Tuesday's edition of Entertainment Tonight. Before you start screaming in the streets, bear in mind that this story hasn't been confirmed by anyone from Spears' or Willis' two camps.

Methinks that is a sign of the global apocalypse, but I am holding out hope for the human race.

Band: 'Bee Gees' Name Died With Gibb

LONDON - The Bee Gees name died with Maurice Gibb, one of the surviving band members said Wednesday.

Robin Gibb said he and older brother Barry would no longer use the name under which they and their brother Maurice performed for more than 30 years.

"Anything we do, we will do together, but it'll be as brothers — not under the name of the Bee Gees, that will be reserved in history as the three of us," Robin Gibb told Britain's GMTV television show.

But, he said, the surviving siblings would continue to make music. "I think Maurice would want that."

Maurice Gibb died Jan. 12 at 53 after suffering a heart attack prior to undergoing emergency surgery for an intestinal blockage.

Robin Gibb said the death of his twin brother was like "losing your soul mate."

The brothers formed the Bee Gees — short for the Brothers Gibb — in the 1960s and recorded a string of No. 1 hits, selling more than 110 million records

They became a falsetto-voiced disco sensation during the 1970s with hits from the movie "Saturday Night Fever," including "Stayin' Alive" and "Night Fever."

'American Idol' Gets Storming Start

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A new edition of "American Idol," the hit reality TV show that teams dreams with screams, got off to a storming start, giving Fox television one of its highest audience ratings ever.

The 2003 season premiere of the amateur talent search for the next instant pop star averaged 26.5 million viewers -- the biggest audience for any network show Tuesday night -- according to preliminary figures on Wednesday from Nielsen Media Research.

The winning formula of barbed comments from British record executive and judge Simon Cowell ("Go back to your vocal coach and demand a refund") and the hopes of thousands of young wannabe stars grabbed a 30 percent share of viewers younger than 50, the key demographic most prized by advertisers.

Delighted Fox executives said Tuesday evening's 90-minute show gave the News Corp. Ltd. -owned network its highest-rated night ever, excluding sports telecasts.

The first edition of "American Idol" proved an unexpected hit last summer and made household names of its eventual winner, former cocktail waitress Kelly Clarkson, and runner-up Justin Guarini. Clarkson won an instant contract with RCA Records and scored a No. 1 hit single with "A Moment Like This," the song she performed on the show.

The second series enters a prime-time landscape bustling with new "reality" favorites, including ABC's "The Bachelorette," which features a bevy of young males vying for the attention of a leggy, blond cheerleader, and Fox's own reality dating show "Joe Millionaire."

Cowell, dubbed "Mr. Nasty" by the American media last year, returned to the judging panel for the second edition along with music industry executive Randy Jackson and singer-choreographer Paula Abdul.

Tens of thousands of singers in six U.S. cities auditioned for the second series, with many of them getting the sharp end of Cowell's tongue for their efforts.

"This says you went to the Fame high school," Cowell told one nervous contestant. "Did you get thrown out?"

"If you lived 2,000 years ago and sang like that, I think they would have stoned you," he told another.

The season finale, in which the winner will be announced, will be broadcast in May.

Super Bowl Ads Aim for Sensation, but Not Too Much

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Osbournes, Osmonds, Clydesdales, and rabid squirrels are on tap for this year's Super Bowl commercials, as marketers desperately vie to make an impression in front of the biggest television audience of the year.

In a high-stakes game where each 30-second spot goes for more than $2 million, smaller advertisers like HotJobs, a unit of Yahoo Inc. are putting all of their marketing eggs in one commercial, while giants like brewer Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. and PepsiCo Inc. are fielding as many as 11 ads.

With under five days remaining, Walt Disney Co.'s ABC Network still has "less than five" commercial spots yet to be sold, according to a spokeswoman. That suggests that some former Super Bowl advertisers like Electronic Data Systems Corp. and Masterlock decided the game's exposure just wasn't worth the money this year.

The HotJobs ad, featuring a variety of workers singing Kermit the Frog's signature song "The Rainbow Connection," is a straightforward ad without high-tech gimmickry or gross-out hijinks.

At the other extreme are a series of slapstick ads for Pfizer Inc.'s Trident, which explain why only four of five dentists recommend the gum. (One Trident ad, guaranteed to cause wincing among male viewers, blames it on a bloodthirsty squirrel). And Pepsi's special effects-laden ad for its Pepsi Twist drink features the borderline-overexposed Osbourne clan, in which Ozzie has a trippy dream featuring the mirror-image Osmond family.

CROSSING THE LINE

Advertising in the Super Bowl must strike a delicate balance: an overly extreme commercial will alienate the public, but an overly cautious ad will sink without a trace.

"We try to find humor that's broadly appealing," said Bob Lachky, Anheuser-Busch's vice president for brand management. "It can be out there and edgy, but as soon as it crosses the line, you're running a gauntlet."

Anheuser-Busch will run one timely spot featuring its trademark Clydesdales playing football in a game marred by an instant-replay debacle. The NFL has had several hotly contested playoff games this year that hinged on questionable calls, including one where the league admitted officials made an error that cost the New York Giants a chance to win their game against the San Francisco 49ers.

The ad was shot before that game, Lachky said. He has been working since September to winnow down 25 to 30 contenders to the 11 spots that will run on Sunday.

Other Anheuser-Busch commercials, which are perennial viewer favorites, include a parody of "Tough Man" competitions and a spot where a man tries to woo women with a seashell with "hilarious consequences," Lachky said. He refused to speculate whether any of this year's ads would become franchises like the some of the company's past Super Bowl spots.

"You would always hope you'd have lightning in a bottle like you did with "Frogs," "Lizards," "Wassup" or "I love you, man," he said, "but that's dangerous to start predicting."

"If it's great work it tends to resonate, and the consumer will lead you to what's a franchise."

Other advertisers in the big game include the sandwich chain Quizno's Corp., Levi's, General Motors Corp.'s Cadillac unit, TMP Worldwide Inc.'s Monster.com. and Reebok International Ltd., which is returning to the game after several years' absence.

Sitting out the game this year, as with most years, will be Reebok's arch competitor Nike Inc., whose commercials are almost always a hit with viewers. Nike did, however, score a major hit with an ad during the NFL's conference championship game last week that depicted a streaker at an English soccer match who eluded a squad of police -- all thanks, naturally, to his Nike sneakers.

DMC happy with Jam Master Jay probe

NEW YORK (AP) -- Police investigating the killing of Jam Master Jay are doing "an excellent job," said DMC of the rap group Run-DMC.

No arrests have been made in the shooting death of the group's disc jockey, whose real name was Jason Mizell. The 37-year-old was shot execution-style on Oct. 30 in his Queens recording studio.

DMC, whose real name is Darryl McDaniels, was optimistic that the killer would be caught.

"You know a lot of people think that cops are the enemy and they really don't care. But the police that are working on Jay's death are doing an excellent job," DMC said in an interview with MTV News, airing Tuesday.

"You got hope that if the cops don't catch them, the streets will. Whoever did it, 'cause the streets talk. Eventually we will know who did it and boom bang."
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday he had nothing new to report on the case.

DMC also said that he and Joseph "Run" Simmons have retired from performing since Jay's death.

"When you see Run-DMC and Jam Master Jay it was something that was original, it was something unique, it was something special," he said.

"Out of respect to Jay, we looked at it like, all right, he served his purpose, he served his purpose and his job was done."

Will Smith And Columbia Records Split

Rapper-actor Will Smith and his label, Columbia Records, which is distributed by Sony, have reportedly parted ways. Several reports have surfaced, with some stating that Smith was dropped by the label while others maintain that he didn't renew his contract. When we contacted Columbia, the label would not comment on Smith or whether or not he was still on their roster.

Smith's last release, 2002's Born To Reign, was a commercial disappointment, but 1997's Big Willie Style sold more than 8 million copies, and its follow-up, 1999's Willennium, sold better than 2 million copies.

Smith also enjoyed success as one-half of DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince in the late '80s and early '90s. The duo's debut set, 1987's Rock The House, was certified gold. They returned with their breakthrough set in 1988, He's The D.J., I'm The Rapper, which sold more than three million copies. The 1989 follow-up, And In This Corner..., was a commercial disappointment, selling only about 500,000 copies.

DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince returned to prominence in 1991 with the release of Homebase, which went platinum. The duo's last release, 1993's Code Red, was certified gold.

Smith is scheduled to turn up next on the big screen this summer in Bad Boys 2, opposite Martin Lawrence. The film is the sequel to 1995's Bad Boys.

AGING ACTION HERO

Jackie Chan outed in a Chinese newspaper admitting he occasionally used a stunt double in The Tuxedo.

Big New Titles To Buy, Own And Spend Your Money On

The Farrelly Brothers' There's Something About Mary was a blockbuster with audiences.

Now Fox will give the smash sleeper comedy a new two-disc special edition, available in separate 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and full screen versions, each with tons of extras.

Disc one features audio commentary by the Farrelly Brothers (taken from the previous DVD) plus a brand-new commentary by the pair, another commentary by writers Ed Decter and John J. Strauss, 13 deleted and extended scenes with commentary accessible via seamless branching, plus the original claymation opening credits. Disc two includes the "Getting Behind Mary" documentary with diary footage, the AMC Backstory: There's Something About Mary, Comedy Central's Reel Comedy featurettes "Best Fight: Ben Stiller and Puffy the Dog," "Up a tree with Jonathan Richmond," "Franks & Beans: A Conversation with W. Earl Brown," "Exposing Themselves: Ben Stiller Cameron Diaz, Matt Dillon, Chris Elliot," "Touchdown: A Conversation with Brett Favre," "Interview Roulette with Harland Williams," a˜d "Puffy, Boobs and Balls," the "Mary Marketing" still gallery, foreign language clips, "Everyday Should Be A Holiday" music video, outtakes, a karaoke version of "Buttercup," something called "Behind the Zipper," trailers and 13 TV spots.

Retail is $26.95 and street date May 13th.

Other New Titles Coming Soon

Hitting stores on April 8th are the recent indie dramas Paid in Full and The Other Side of Heaven, and streeting April 15th, the acclaimed drama Rabbit-Proof Fence from director Philip Noyce.

And although everyone knew it was coming, Disney has officially announced an October 2003 arrival for the third in its Platinum Collection of animated classics, The Lion King. Currently enjoying an IMAX theatrical re-release, expect another feature-packed two-disc set.

Last but not least, bad news for P.T. Anderson fans. Originally scheduled for an April 1st release from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, the auteur's latest quirky comedy Punch-Drunk Love has been pulled off the schedule until further notice.

'Chicago,' 'Hours' Get Directors Guild Nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The directors of "Chicago," "The Hours," "Gangs of New York," "The Pianist" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" were nominated on Tuesday for the Directors Guild of America's top award, one of the film industry's most reliable barometers of Oscar gold.

It was the first time that British theater director Stephen Daldry ("The Hours) and American choreographer turned film director Rob Marshall ("Chicago") have been nominated for the DGA's outstanding directorial achievement award.

The award was established in 1949 and except on five occasions, it has gone to the director who later went on to win the Academy Award for best directing.

"The Hours"' and "Chicago"' were named best drama and best musical or comedy, respectively, at the Golden Globes on Sunday night.

Martin Scorsese, director of "Gangs of New York," has been nominated four previous times even though he has never won. His nominations include "Taxi Driver" in 1976, "Raging Bull" in 19980, "Goodfellas" in 1990 and "The Age of Innocence" in 1993.

New Zealander Peter Jackson, director of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," was nominated last year for the first film in his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.

The nomination for Polanski, the Polish-born director of "The Pianist," is his third but first since 1974 when he was nominated for "Chinatown." He was also nominated in 1968 for "Rosemary's Baby."

In a statement he said, "Nothing can be more gratifying than recognition by one's peers. My nomination by the DGA for 'The Pianist" gives me the great pleasure . However, it would not have been possible without the collaboration of my magnificent crew. I am grateful to them and to the DGA."

The winner of the DGA Award for 2002 will be announced at a gala dinner on March 1.

P. Diddy Near Contract Deal with Universal-Sources

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, the rap music mogul-turned-actor who has produced such hit acts as Faith Evans and the late Notorious B.I.G., is close to a new record deal with music giant Vivendi Universal,sources close to the negotiations said on Tuesday.

The terms of the proposed deal were still being discussed, the sources said. But other industry insiders said that given the hard times for the music business, even a star like Combs was unlikely to command the $100 million he once vowed to earn and more likely to be offered between $20 million and $50 million for a multiyear contract.

"I've been quoted as saying I would not sell any part of my company for less than $100 million and I still feel that way," Combs told Reuters back in June when he bought back control of his Bad Boy Entertainment company, ending a 10-year 50-50 joint venture with Bertelsmann AG's Arista.

Combs, formerly known as Puff Daddy, would not be the first star to see his bargaining power undercut by market weakness.

Pop diva Mariah Carey, for instance, got a more modest $20 million three-album deal with Universal's Island Def Jam after a fallout with EMI Group Plc, which paid her $28 million to walk away from an estimated $100-million contract,

Combs in June announced he was talking with several labels including Vivendi, AOL Time Warner Inc. and Sony Corp.

One source close to the talks on Tuesday said Universal was the front-runner in negotiations, and could possibly announce a deal with Combs in the next two weeks, barring any last-minute snags. The source said terms were for below $100 million.

"I don't think any company is going to pay that kind of money," he said. "Who would get that today, except for maybe Eminem, who has the sales to back it up."

BAD BOY SAYS REPORTS 'INACCURATE'

The New York Times on Tuesday, citing people close to the talks, said Combs' best offer had been $10 million for three years from Universal/Motown Records, with incentives to encourage him to find new artists.

A spokeswoman for Combs said recent reports about the contract talks had been inaccurate.

"There have been numerous inaccurate reports on Mr. Combs' pending label deal. Bad Boy is in serious negotiations with several companies. The financial details and terms reported are totally inaccurate. Once we have a signed deal, we will be issuing a press release," the spokeswoman said in a statement.

The hip-hop star and media mogul who starred in the critically acclaimed film, "Monster's Ball," is reportedly worth more than $200 million and is the owner of businesses ranging from clothing to publishing and restaurants.

Bad Boy retains ownership of its catalogs, including works by Evans and the teen pop quartet Dream. The label made its mark in the early 1990s with hits by Combs himself as well as rapper Christopher Wallace, also known as Notorious B.I.G.

Wallace was killed in 1997 and Combs' faced several legal challenges of his own as the label's success started to flag.

Some reports said the Bad Boy label was losing tens of millions of dollars for Arista, but had started to turn around at the time that the two parted ways.

A highly publicized romance between Combs and Jennifer Lopez came to an end in 2001 as Combs was on trial in New York on weapons charges. He was later acquitted.

Only months after their split, actress/singer Lopez married choreographer Cris Judd, but the two have since split and Lopez is now engaged to actor Ben Affleck.

Today is my good friend Dave Chant's birthday, I think he's like 40 or something.

So happy Birthday Dave! Enjoy yourself and remember the simpler times when you were a little kid relaxing at home! Boy, how times change!

(For the record, I don't have any pictures of Dave as a young kid, so above is a picture of my nephew Griffin.)

Calgary gets Bossed

It was made official yesterday that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are going to Calgary.
Springsteen et all will make an April 13 stop at the Saddledome to promote his latest release The Rising.

Tickets for the show go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster locations.

The $115 (plus service charges) ticket price is a blanket one, with floor tickets being general admission and those in the stands reserved. Unlike many other concerts, the ticket limit is four per person.

There will be no opening act, with Springsteen and Co. rumoured to play almost three hours.

The Rising, Springsteen's first album with the E Streeters in 15 years, recently earned five Grammy nominations including for album of the year and best rock album.

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce!!

ANASTACIA HAS BREAST CANCER

Soulful-voiced pop singer Anastacia is battling breast cancer, according to a published report.

The 29-year-old performer, who lives in San Diego, was diagnosed over the weekend, a Sony Music veep told The Sun of London.

"They have caught it early," said Gary Farrow, who added that Anastacia "has commitments this week, including filming her new video. Then she will have to address these issues full on."

Anastacia, best known for her hit "I'm Outta Love," is a possible Oscar nominee this year for her song "Love is a Crime," which is featured in the movie "Chicago."

RENÉE TO BULK UP FOR ‘BRIDGET 2'

Renée Zellweger says she's ready to pack on the pounds again - in the sequel to "Bridget Jones's Diary."

"I'm ready, willing and able. Bridget's a character I really identify with," a beaming Zellweger said yesterday.

"I'll put the weight back on with pleasure."

That means the sexy blonde will purposely gain as many as 20 pounds over the next few months as she prepares to shoot "The Edge of Reason."

And at an estimated salary of $20 million for her services, that means Zellweger will earn about $1 million for every pound.

The first Jones flick, based on Helen Fielding's best-seller about a love-hungry British girl with a string of bad luck, was a smash around the world and was immediately pegged for a sequel.

But until yesterday, there was doubt that Zellweger, now starring in the Golden Globe-winning "Chicago," would take another crack at the character.

Last year, she fumed to a reporter: "There is no way I am going to put on all that weight again."

But she was apparently persuaded by Colin Firth, her on-screen lover in the first film, who is expected to reprise his role as Mark Darcy.

She may also have to gain a bit less weight than she did first time around - since the plot involves her doing time in a Thai jail for drug smuggling, slimming her down.

"The Edge of Reason" is expected to be released in summer 2004.

FRIENDS May See a Joey Spinoff After All

Rumors flared up last season that NBC was looking to make a spinoff of FRIENDS that would star Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani. They died down quickly, however, when the FRIENDS cast began negotiating for a tenth season. Now, they're coming back again, as NBC is expected, according to industry sources, to seek ou the Joey spinoff once again. A concept for the show must still be hammered out - would Joey move out of New York or stay? Also, sources say that "several" members of the current FRIENDS cast would be invited to join the show.

FRASIER Preparing for The End

Although no official announcement has been made yet, insiders at Paramount TV and NBC have begun reporting that next season (2003-2004) will indeed be the last for FRASIER. NBC's contract for the show is up in May 2004 and there have been no moves to renew it. The show has experienced weaker ratings this season and a $5 million per show fee doesn't help FRASIER's cause. Should the show end next season, it will close with eleven seasons, exactly the same number of seasons for CHEERS, which it spun off of.

POTTER DVD To Hit in April

According to Warner Home Video, HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS will hit on DVD and VHS on April 11. The DVD will be a two-disc set that will include 19 additional and extended scenes.

Aerosmith And Kiss Are Set To Rock 'n' Roll All Night! (Their Days Will Be Free)

Aerosmith and Kiss will embark on a co-headlining North American tour beginning in August and running through October, sources confirm. The tour of approximately 40 dates will be produced by Clear Channel Entertainment and is expected to play 90% amphitheaters, with arenas and possibly a couple of stadiums also in the mix. Kiss will perform in full makeup, sources say, and Aerosmith will be touring in support of a new Columbia blues album.

"We want to really try to get everybody in a room at the same time," bassist Tom Hamilton told Billboard.com about the album last September. "It's funny because it triggers all of the competition and uncomfortableness that we've always had going into the studio, and it's going to mean everybody is going to have to be open, vulnerable, and brave, and go in there and do that process like we used to do it."

Aerosmith grossed nearly $40 million from touring in 2002. The group was recently nominated for the best rock performance by a duo or group with vocal for "Girls of Summer," drawn from last year's "O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits" compilation. Aerosmith has also signed on to appear at the Feb. 7 Salute to the Blues concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall.

As for Kiss, the group grossed more than $60 million from its 2000-2001 "farewell" tour. As previously reported, Kiss will join the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra for a one-off Feb. 28 concert at the city's 48,000-capacity Telestra Dome. The group has also scheduled a March 11-13 stand at Tokyo's Budokan Hall.

Boring Live Band Our Lady Peace Is Set To Release A Live Set

Our Lady Peace will release its very first live album "as early as" April. A live DVD will follow.

"We're going to be filming two shows and recording live those two shows, to ultimately have a whole DVD package, but the DVD package is going to be preceded by a live album," says OLP's co-manager Eric Lawrence of Coalition Entertainment.

The Toronto-based rock band is currently on a Canadian arena tour dubbed Fear Of The Trailer Park. Management-mates Finger Eleven are opening as well as television comedy cult figures Trailer Park Boys and South African band Seether.

The Canadian tour runs from January 24 to Feb. 6 and hits eight cities. The live tapings will take place at Calgary's Saddledome on January 27 and Edmonton's Skyreach Centre on the 28th.

The band won't be readjusting its set in anticipation of the recording. "It's going to be the live show that they've been on the road with," says Lawrence.

As for what else will be on the DVD besides footage of those two concerts, the details have not yet been decided. "We want it to be a very strong package, so it may be archival stuff and behind-the-scenes stuff," Lawrence says.

OLP's fifth and latest album, "Gravity," has scanned just over 153,000 copies in Canada, and the band was recently recognized with plaques signifying combined certifications in Canada of 2 million units. "Gravity" is gold in the U.S. with sales over 500,000.

Asked if the release of a live album so soon might cut into sales of "Gravity," Lawrence says, "We're just strategizing on how we can make it work for both or hold off. That's why I say as early as April."

The band play college dates in Rochester and Connecticut on Feb. 7th and 8th respectively, then hit Europe a few weeks later for 19 dates with Avril Lavigne.

The tour, at venues ranging from 1500 to 3500 capacities, begins at Vega in Copenhagen on March 3 and ends with three back-to-back shows at London's Brixton Academy from the 25th to 27th.

Our Lady Peace's Canadian tour dates:
1/24 - Kelowna, BC @Skyreach Place
1/25 - Vancouver, BC @GM Place
1/27 - Calgary, AB @Saddledome
1/28 - Edmonton, AB @Skyreach Centre
1/30 - Winnipeg, MB @Winnipeg Arena
2/3 - Ottawa, ON @Civic Centre
2/5 - Montreal, PQ @Bell Centre
2/6 -St. John's, NF @Mile One

"The Bourne Identity" Is Bourne For Home Viewing

In the end you will make your own decisions, but if you aren't able to decide for yourself, here are my thoughts on the biggest video titles that are being bourne today.

The Bourne Identity- An amnesiac tries to figure out his past while staying alive in this great thrill ride of an adventure caper. (Matt Damon, Franka Potente, Julia Stiles)

Simone- A director gets second chance with a digital star. This movie bytes! (Al Pacino, Catherine Keener, Jay Mohr)

Harrison's Flowers- A journalist disapears and his wife goes on search to find him in this too close to being a true story to enjoy a movie about it film. (Andie MacDowell, David Strathairn, Elias Koteas)

Tadpole- A Boy falls in love with his step-mom, who looks alot like Lilith from "Cheers." (Sigourney Weaver, Aaron Stanford, John Ritter)

101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure- The bastardization of Disney's glorious past continues.

Enjoy the movies!

Jessica Simpson Returns to 'That '70s Show'

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - Pop singer Jessica Simpson and Osbourne scion Jack will be doing some TV time traveling in the next couple of weeks.

Both will guest-star in episodes of "That '70s Show," which is moving to Wednesdays beginning this week to accommodate the return of "American Idol" to the FOX schedule.

Simpson, who appeared on the show's season premiere as Annette, Kelso's (Ashton Kutcher) California fantasy girl, reprises her part in two episodes beginning tonight. Annette comes to Point Place to see Kelso, which sparks feelings of jealousy in former girlfriend Jackie (Mila Kunis). She then tries to hide those feelings from her current beau, Hyde (Danny Masterson).

Osbourne will appear in a later episode, playing a DMV customer who has a disagreement with Fez (Wilmer Valderrama).

FOX also announced that comic Bob Goldthwait will appear on the show Wednesday, Feb. 26. The episode will also feature Seth Green and Fred Willard.

In Case You Were Wondering (SPOILER WARNING- Spoilers contained!)

Someone recently asked me for a comparison between the current box office treat "The Ring" and the original Japanese version, "Ringu."

I'm told the two films are remarkably similiar. There are several scenes from the original precisely duplicated in the remake. But there are several large differences in the overall plot which bear mentioning. I will concentrate on Ringu, assuming that you've either seen the remake or read the reviews.

Ringu is much lower budget film, and it shows. It looks like a 70s B-movie. The better to creep you out with, my dear.

In Ringu, several of the characters have psychic powers and this is integral to the plotline. There is no 'horse farm' subplot. The little girl's mother is a psychic who becomes famous for predicting the eruption of a volcano. A Dr. Ikuma becomes her 'manager' as she tries to make some money off the publicity. The little girl, called Sadako in this version, inherits her mother's psychic ability but is far more powerful - she can kill a person by willing it to happen (she also doesn't speak in Ringu, adding to her mystery). And the reporter's husband is also psychic, which aids him in solving the riddle of the videotape.

The videotape itself looks better in the new version but is far more effective in Ringu. It is limited to a series of six or so nonrepetitive images. The oval mirror scene occurs in both, as does the well scene. Other than that the two videotapes are very different.

Ringu relies on sound effects to create mood, much moreso than Ring. The sound effects in Ringu, especially during the videotape, enhance the creepiness factor immensely.

As to the actors...well, the acting in Ringu is pretty low-key. The direction is fast-paced and the screenplay doesn't haveot a great deal of character development.

But as a horror/suspense film, Ringu is the better of the two. If you want to see it, you can get the VCDs and VHS tapes on Ebay now. I have also heard that next year there will be a Region 1 DVD produced.

And there you go!

Matchbox Twenty Members To Go Solo

In spite of studio acrimony during the making of More Than You Think You Are, Matchbox Twenty remains together. "Disease" is continuing the band's run of hit singles, but singer-songwriter Rob Thomas told us that members of the band are involved in making music outside the band.

"There might be a longer break in between these two records--this record and the next record, I think. (Guitarist) Kyle (Cook) has a solo band, the New Left, that's out touring around; and (drummer) Paul (Doucette) has a solo project; and I'm going to make a solo record; but these are all just in-betweens until the next Matchbox record. Now, we can say officially that there will be another record and that we're glad to make it and we're ready to tour. But you have to go through those things."

Thomas has already established himself as a songwriter and solo artist outside of Matchbox Twenty, but the band does plan to tour in 2003. The band is set to travel to Europe for a handful of dates starting March 25 in Cologne, and a U.S. tour is in the works.

Caricaturist Al Hirschfeld Dies at 99

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Albert Hirschfeld, a caricaturist known for his drawings of performers from the Marx Brothers to Johnny Carson, died on Monday. He was 99.

Hirschfeld died in his sleep at his Manhattan home, his wife, Louise Kerz, told Reuters.

Hirschfeld, whose witty and graceful drawings appeared on the pages of The New York Times for seven decades, was known for instantly recognizable caricatures of Broadway and Hollywood stars.

"I come out of the theater with a lot of abstract little markings that I then translate into line. The important thing is that the drawing look a little bit like the actor I am drawing. There is a lot of trial and error and a lot of erasing until I can get it as far as I can, before the final inking. It is not a pretty process," Hirschfeld told Reuters in a 1999 interview.

His work also appeared in books and the collections of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.

Then 95, he said in the 1999 interview that he was finally getting good at his work.

"After 70 years of drawing you have to improve, otherwise you are a dolt. It is a question of elimination and understanding, of trial and error, and suddenly something happens, an epiphany," he said.

The artist also was known for playfully hiding the word "Nina," the name of his daughter, in the lines of his drawings.

Finding the "Ninas" in his newspaper caricatures became an American ritual. The U.S. Department of Defense once used his drawings in an exercise, blowing them up on a giant screen and giving 100 pilots 20 seconds to find the hidden names.

MARK OF STATUS

For performers, being drawn by Hirschfeld was a mark of status, said Arthur Gelb, former managing editor of The New York Times and a long-time friend of the artist.

"Every major star, Broadway or Hollywood, here or abroad, when they reached the point that they were drawn by Al Hirschfeld, they knew in their hearts that they had arrived," Gelb told Reuters on Monday.

Hirschfeld won a special Tony award for his art. The 1996 film documentary "The Line King" told the story of his life.

Hirschfeld was born on June 21, 1903, in St. Louis. His family moved to New York when he was 12.

In 1924, he went to live in Paris, joining the American expatriate community there. His first theatrical caricature appeared in 1926 in the now defunct New York Herald Tribune.

His drawings have been compared to the work of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who Hirschfeld called a major influence on his work.

Besides his drawings, Hirschfeld also was a wonderful raconteur, Gelb said. "His stories about New York, about Paris, about Broadway and Hollywood were funny, and always packed with detail," he said.

In late 2002, plans were announced to rename the Martin Beck Theater on West 45th Street in Manhattan for Hirschfeld. The theater will become the Al Hirschfeld this June, on what would have been his 100th birthday.

Survivors include his wife, daughter Nina, who is the daughter of Hirschfeld's late wife Dolly Haas, and two step-sons, Jonathan and Antony Kerz.

ANGELS TOUCH DOWN

Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu star in an action-packed ad for "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle." The ad is set to air Super Bowl Sunday.

The 30-second ad for the Angels sequel, subtitled "Full Throttle" and starring Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore, will cost a whopping $2.1 million to air.

That's the going rate for Super Bowl ads this year - a rate that's up 10 percent from last year.

And at that price, ad agencies are pulling out all the stops to catch viewers' attention and get the most bang for their buck.

The girl crime fighters' only serious competition in a lineup otherwise lacking in babes could be Destiny's Child's Beyoncé Knowles.

Knowles is shooting a Pepsi ad with director Spike Lee - although it's not certain to be ready by game time.

No matter. Pepsi bought three ad slots, one of which is set "at home" with the Ozzy Osbourne clan.

Meanwhile, Anheuser-Busch heir August Busch IV is waiting until the last minute to choose from the 20 ads that the beer company produced (at $250,000 each) for the Super Bowl telecast. He has 11 slots to fill.

One will feature Busch himself talking beer; another has country singer Tim McGraw saying, "Drink responsibly"; Cedric the Entertainer is certain to appear again for Bud Light, and the company's trademark Clydesdales will also be trotted out.

Celine Dion, who will perform "God Bless America" live before the game in San Diego (Shania Twain is on at halftime), will also star in three new black-and-white spots as part of her $14 million, long-term deal with car manufacturer Chrysler.

Endorsement king Michael Jordan is the only celebrity slated to appear for two brands during the game: Gatorade and Hanes T-shirts.

Also look out for Reebok's first Super Bowl spot in nine years, and Willie Nelson talking about tax problems for H&R Block.

Ads you won't see include one for Las Vegas tourism, which the NFL deemed inappropriate because it promotes gambling, and the controversial Miller Lite spot with two hot women mud-wrestling in their underwear, since Budweiser is the "exclusive" beer advertiser of the Super Bowl.

Curious?

Ever wonder what the price of the "satisfaction of helping someone" was?

WILL & GRACE & FRIENDS

Madonna, Demi Moore and Minnie Driver among the big-name guest stars appearing on Will & Grace this season. Moore and Driver will show up during the upcoming February sweeps, and Madonna will pop in for May sweeps.

ROCK ROYALTY

Lisa Marie Presley's debut pop effort, To Whom It May Concern, will be released by Capitol Records on April 8.

SUPER TEAM-UP

A rare 1973 recording featuring John Lennon and Mick Jagger dueting on the old blues tune "Too Many Cooks" will be auctioned off in London on February 20.

Show to Examine Michael Jackson's Face

LOS ANGELES - The face of pop singer Michael Jackson will be the subject of a special edition of NBC's news magazine "Dateline" next month.

"Michael Jackson Unmasked," set to air at 10 p.m. EST Feb. 17, will be "the inside story as told by some of the people who knew him best," according to a network statement. Further details about the program weren't given.

For years, Jackson's appearance — particularly his increasingly smaller nose and lighter skin tone — has been the subject of intense scrutiny and speculation.

In announcing the program to television critics last week, NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker said "Dateline" can encompass a variety of stories in its three hours each week.

The series can "run the gamut from important, serious shows like Tom Brokaw's fantastic hour on Iraq to ridiculous but fascinating hours on Michael Jackson's face," Zucker told the Television Critics Association.

Jackson, 44, last made headlines in November when he dangled his son, Prince Michael II, from a fourth-floor balcony in Germany. The baby wasn't hurt and Jackson quickly apologized, calling it "a terrible mistake."

Weekend Box Office Results

LOS ANGELES - A kangaroo hopped past comedian Martin Lawrence to score at the top of the weekend box office.

"Kangaroo Jack," a comedy about two hapless pals trying to retrieve missing mob money from a kangaroo in Australia, edged into first place in its debut weekend, taking in $17.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"National Security," an action comedy starring Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn as ex-cops who crack a smuggling ring, opened at No. 2, earning an estimated $15.7 million.

Last weekend's No. 1 film, "Just Married," fell to third place with an estimated $12.5 million. The romantic comedy starring Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher as mismatched newlyweds has taken in $34 million since opening last weekend.

With Hollywood awaiting the upcoming Oscar nominations and the outcome of Sunday's Golden Globe awards, light comedy ruled the weekend box office.

"At this time of year when we are used to seeing all these Oscar contenders, we forget that something like this can be very popular and take the No. 1 spot at the box office," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

"People must really be in the mood to laugh."

Overall the weekend's top 12 films took in $105.9 million, up a fraction of a percent from the same weekend last year and down 2.6 percent from last weekend.

"It's not a record-breaking Martin Luther King weekend, but it is a solid weekend," Dergarabedian said.

Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released "Kangaroo Jack," said the film starring Jerry O'Connell and Anthony Anderson appealed to a wide audience — from ages "8 to 80."

"It's not just one of those cases where they drag the kids to the movies," Fellman said.

"National Security" proved popular with a broad, ethnically mixed audience, said Rory Bruer, president of distribution for Sony Pictures.

Bruer attributed the film's appeal to "Martin, who's a very funny man, and it's a really good vehicle for him."

In fourth place was "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," which brought in an estimated $11.4 million in its fifth week out for a total of $299 million.

The film is poised to make movie history Monday when studio officials predict it will surpass the $300 million mark, said John Smith of Newline Cinema's publicity department.

Of the films released in 2002, only two others have topped the $300 million mark, Dergarabedian said. "Spider-Man" brought in $403.7 million and "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones," brought in $310.3, he said.

Among films expected to do well at the award shows, "The Hours," starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore, earned an estimated $4.7 million in its fourth week, for a total of $7.4 million.

Released by Paramount Studios in late 2002, "The Hours" broadened to 402 theaters and took in an estimated $11,754 per-screen.

"We are just thrilled with its performance," said Nancy Kirkpatrick, Paramount's executive vice president of worldwide publicity.

The strategy is similar to the approach used for films such as "Chicago," "About Schmidt" and "Antwone Fisher," Dergarabedian said.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Tuesday.

1. "Kangaroo Jack," $17.7 million.
2. "National Security," $15.7 million.
3. "Just Married," $12.5 million.
4. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," $11.4 million.
5. "Catch Me If You Can," $11.3 million.
6. "Chicago," $8 million.
7. "A Guy Thing," $7.1 million.
8. "About Schmidt," $6.3 million.
9. "The Hours," $4.7 million.
10. "Two Weeks Notice," $4.1 million.

Richard Crenna, Actor Who Was Rambo's Colonel, Dies

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Richard Crenna, who broke into the entertainment business as a squeaky-voiced adolescent on a radio comedy and inspired tough guys as an adult, playing Sylvester Stallone's former commander in the "Rambo" movies, died on Friday, his family said. He was 76.

Crenna, whose six-decade career spanned drama and comedy in radio, television and the movies, died of heart failure that was a complication of pancreatic cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center near Beverly Hills.

The Los Angeles native made a name for himself playing adolescent Walter Denton on the radio series "Our Miss Brooks." When the radio show moved to television, Crenna moved with it.

"He loved the camaraderie of a crew. He loved the creative process. He's been working in it pretty much from the beginning," said his son, actor Richard Anthony Crenna.

In the middle of his career, Crenna started playing dramatic roles. He won an Emmy Award in 1985 for his role as a macho cop who is sexually assaulted in the TV movie "The Rape of Richard Beck."

He was also nominated once for his supporting role in the 1950s situation comedy "The Real McCoys," about a West Virginia family that moved to a farm in southern California, and twice for his lead role in the 1960s drama "Slattery's People," about a state legislator crusading against injustice.

Action movie fans probably know him best for his role as Col. Trautman in the three Rambo movies, "First Blood," (1982) "Rambo: First Blood II" (1985) and "Rambo III" (1988). He brought his comic sense to bear by parodying his tough-guy "Rambo" role in the 1993 spoof "Hot Shots! Part Deux."

Crenna kept busy in his later years with a succession of television movies, including the 2001 Showtime cable project "The Day Reagan Was Shot," and regular guest appearances on the television drama "Judging Amy."

MIXING FAMILY AND ACTING

Crenna strove to balance work and family, bringing his wife and children with him on film shoots, including a year-long adventure in Hong Kong and Taiwan to film the 1966 naval epic "The Sand Pebbles." Crenna played a courageous gunboat captain in the movie, which starred Steve McQueen.

Crenna's son remembers arriving at a Taiwanese hotel for Christmas to find his father had imported and set up a Christmas tree.

The actor had beat cancer once. He was diagnosed with thyroid cancer about five years ago. The fatal pancreatic cancer struck late in 2002.

Crenna, who is survived by his wife, Penni, daughters Seana and Maria, son Richard and three granddaughters, was often described as a down-to-earth man who loved to act.

"There was no grump. I grew up seeing a man love to go to work," said his daughter, Seana. She remembered her father pitching in on a family gardening project with workers who were never told they were working with a star.

"I would not be surprised if he took a lunch pail to work," said Crenna's son.

'The Hours,' 'Chicago' Take Top Golden Globes

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - In one of the tightest races in recent years, "The Hours" won the Golden Globe award for best drama while musical "Chicago" swept two top acting categories and took the trophy for best musical or comedy.

Jack Nicholson won his sixth Golden Globe for best dramatic actor as a retired and lonely insurance actuary wondering whether his life was wasted in "About Schmidt," and Nicole Kidman claimed her third Golden Globe for best actress playing suicidal British writer Virginia Woolfe as she sits down to pen her classic novel, "Mrs. Dalloway."

To play the part, Kidman wore a prosthetic nose that gave even her most ardent fans a hard time recognizing the Australian-raised beauty.

Accepting his award onstage, a joking Nicholson took note of the difference in Kidman, who had just introduced him:

"Doesn't Nicole look lovely with her own nose," he said.

As for his own award, Nicholson said, "I don't know whether to be happy or ashamed because I thought we made a comedy."

Richard Gere, who plays a slick lawyer tap dancing around a jury to help Renee Zellweger's character beat a murder rap, won the trophy for best actor in a musical or comedy and Zellweger took the honor for best actress in a musical or comedy.

"I don't win anything. I never win," said an apparently astonished Gere after taking the stage to accept his award. "And I didn't even want to do this movie. That's what I know."

In television awards, cop show "The Shield" won the Golden Globe award for best drama, Beverly Hills satire "Curb Your Enthusiasm" was favorite comedy and "The Gathering Storm," a drama of Winston Churchill's wartime leadership, was named best TV movie or mini-series.

OSCAR RACE NARROWS

The movie categories, however, enjoy the spotlight at the Golden Globe Awards because they come at the start of a long awards-show season in Hollywood and are often a strong indicator of who will win Oscars, the film industry's top honors handed out in March.

Their victories, therefore, catapulted "Hours" and "Chicago" to the top of the Oscar list.

Comedy "Adaptation" took two early Golden Globes for Meryl Streep as best supporting actress and her co-star Chris Cooper as best supporting actor, and legendary director Martin Scorsese was given his due with a best director trophy for his epic "Gangs of New York."

Streep, who has won three Golden Globes and been nominated many times before, also appeared to be genuinely surprised at winning a best supporting actress Golden Globe.

"Oh my God, I have just been nominated 789 times," she said on stage. "And I was getting settled over there for a long winter's nap."

Spanish director Pedro Almodovar's quirky drama "Talk to Her" was named best foreign language film.

TV'S "SHIELD" HAS BIG NIGHT

In television, cable TV shows nearly knocked the broadcast networks out of the show. "The Shield," on FX, claimed the award for best drama and HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm" won the Golden Globe for best drama.

The wins immediately put "The Shield" on the list of shows to watch, because as much as the Golden Globes indicate Oscar choices for movies, they also serve as a strong promotional platform for relatively new shows.

The program's star Michael Chiklis was named best actor in a drama, marking his second major victory after claiming an Emmy last September. Edie Falco, of HBO's "The Sopranos" took the award for best actress in a TV drama, but whispered her acceptance speech because of a bad case of laryngitis.

"Friends" star Jennifer Aniston was named best actress in a TV comedy, and she took the stage walking with a cane due to a broken toe. Tony Shalhoub was named best actor in a TV comedy for his role as the frantic private detective in "Monk."

Kim Cattrall was named best supporting actress in a TV series for her role as the sexpot in "Sex and the City." She said, "You have no idea how many men I've had to sleep with to get this award."

Microsoft Introduces CD Copy-Protection 'Fix'

CANNES, France (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. announced on Saturday the introduction of new digital rights software aimed at helping music labels control unauthorized copying of CDs, one of the biggest thorns in the ailing industry's side.

Stung by the common practice of consumers copying, or "burning," new versions of a store-bought CD onto recordable CDs, music companies have invested heavily in copy-protection technologies that have mainly backfired or annoyed customers.

For example, most copy-proof CDs are designed so that they cannot be played on a PC, but often this prevents playback on portable devices and car stereos too.

Last year, some resourceful software enthusiasts cracked Sony Music's proprietary technology simply by scribbling a magic marker pen around the edges of the disc, thus enabling playback on any device.

Microsoft believes it may have come up with a solution. The new software is called the Windows Media Data Session Toolkit.

It enables music labels to lay songs onto a copy-controlled CD in multiple layers, one that would permit normal playback on a stereo and a PC.

$500 MILLION INVESTMENT

The PC layer, laid digitally on the same disc, can be modified by the content provider, so that they could prevent, for example, burning songs onto another CD, said David Fester, general manager, digital media entertainment for Microsoft.

Universal Music and EMI, two of the biggest record labels in the world, "are very excited about this because it enables the industry to build a CD with their own protections built in," he said, speaking at the Midem music conference in southern France.

Microsoft has invested $500 million in digital rights management, or DRM, for music, Fester said. The Toolkit was co-developed with technology partners Phoenix-based SunnComm Technologies and France's MPO International Group, he added.

Microsoft is making a concerted push into DRM, a hotly contested new field.

Technology and media companies, such as Microsoft, Sony, Philips and Real Networks, are looking to build a business out of securing copyright protections across the Internet and other digital media.

Microsoft has discussed plans for an upcoming operating system, code-named "Palladium," that will seek to put user controls on all bits of information they store on a computer document, from medical records to billing information.

Britney's Love Life Stirs Speculation

NEW YORK (AP) — For those keeping score on Britney Spears' love life, she's either back with Justin Timberlake or she's dating Fred Durst.

News reports and the Limp Bizkit front man's postings on his band's Web site have fed the rumor mill about the 21-year-old pop star's recent romances.

Ex-boyfriend Timberlake, 21, said he was "definitely single" during a taping of the "Wayne Brady Show" Monday. But he was reunited with Spears Monday night at the American Music Awards, and the New York Post reported the two were seen kissing later that night.

Meanwhile, Durst's comments on his band's website address the 32-year-old rocker's rumored romance with Spears.

In a Jan. 9 posting Durst wrote, "I really like her and that's about all I should say. She's a sweet amazing girl and I'm happy to know her right now."

Two days later, Durst added another posting.

"Anybody out there who has a serious problem with my feelings for Britney should just chill and worry about your own feelings for a minute. You can't help what happens in life because everything happens for a reason," Durst wrote. "I am a good judge of character and so is she. It just happens to be a person that I would have thought could make me feel this way. And believe that I have never felt this way, so there. If you think I'm going soft then you go ahead and think it."

Publicists for Spears and Durst were not available to comment.

Here's hoping that SHE did it all for the nookie.

Fox Renews Homer, Hank

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Mmm ... renewal!

Fox has greenlit two more seasons of animated powerhouse "The Simpsons" and another year of its Sunday benchmate "King of the Hill."

The "Simpsons" renewal through May 2005 means the show -- Sunday night's top-rated series among adults 18-49 -- will make it through a jaw-dropping 16th full season and roughly 360 episodes, allowing Homer and Co. to edge past "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriet" to claim the mantle of longest-running laffer in TV history.

"Watch out, 'Gunsmoke,' you're next," quipped Al Jean, showrunner and executive producer of "The Simpsons." ("Gunsmoke" ran for a record 20 years.)

For "King of the Hill," the one-year extension through May 2004 will bring Hank Hill and his Texas brood to the end of their eighth season.

"I don't feel like we're an aged show at all," said Greg Daniels, co-creator and exec producer of "King." "I view it like dog years, so I'm hoping we're in our prime ... (on the way) to 15 years."

Fox Entertainment president Gail Berman praised both shows, claiming "The Simpsons" could be "the most extraordinary television show maybe even in the history of the medium.

"In its 14th season, the show is doing some of its funniest episodes and best numbers," she said.

"King of the Hill," meanwhile, has "aided in the branding of our network as the only broadcaster that's been able to tackle primetime animation," she said.

"This show does anything we ask it to do," Berman said, noting its ability to draw an audience in many different time slots. "And they consistently put out one of the funniest shows on TV."

Indeed, "King" is expected to move back to 7:30 p.m. Sundays from 8:30 p.m. in March to make room for new Fox comedy "Oliver Beene." Daniels said he's OK with the shift.

"I'm not surprised if we have to step aside and make room for new shows; I hope one day to be back if they have the need," he said.

Reality show offers shot at Tyson

A reality show starring Mike Tyson and a brave member of the public is being shopped around by a California Production company, the Hollywood Reporter says.

Triage Entertainment, the outfit behind the "Victoria's Secret Fashion Show" special the aired last year, is in talks with Tyson's management to finalize an agreement that would pair an ordinary man against the former world heavyweight champion.

Several U.S. networks are said to be interested in the show, which would follow the contestant through intense training before the match.

Tyson is infamous for his bad behaviour both inside and outside of the ring. After serving 3 years in jail for rape in the 90s, he shocked audiences when he bit off part of rival Evander Holyfield's ear during a 1997 fight.

Last year, he was denied a Nevada boxing licence after attacking competitor Lennox Lewis at a press conference. The current world champ beat Tyson when the bout eventually took place in Memphis.

Tyson is set to face Clifford Etienne on February 22, in his first fight since the defeat.

Queen, Phil Collins, Van Morrison & Little Richard In Songwriters Hall Of Fame?

The Songwriters Hall Of Fame hasn't made an official announcement of its 2003 inductees, but the word might have been leaked by a nominee. This year's list of possibilities includes David Bowie, Tom Petty, Queen, Pete Townshend, John Fogerty, Van Morrison, Neil Young, Phil Collins, Little Richard and the '70s-era Fleetwood Mac (Lindsay Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie, and Christine McVie)

Queen appears to have been the artist that let the news slip about who the new honorees could be. A post on the band's official website reads: "As previously announced, Queen have been elected for induction into the Songwriters Hall Of Fame. When Brian (May) and Roger (Taylor) attend the 34th Annual Awards Dinner on June 12, 2003, they will also be joined by other 2003 honorees including Phil Collins, Van Morrison, Little Richard, and Jimmy Webb."

Webb--famous for "MacArthur Park," "Wichita Lineman," "By The Time I Get To Phoenix," and "Up, Up And Away," among others--was actually inducted into the Hall in 1986.

A spokesperson for the Songwriters Hall Of Fame could not confirm the report.

Others up for induction include Billy Sherrill ("The Most Beautiful Girl In The World," "Stand By Your Man"), Charles Fox ("I Got A Name," "Killing Me Softly With His Song," and the themes for the TV shows Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley), Henry Cosby & Sylvia Moy ("My Cherie Amour," "Tears Of A Clown," "Love Child"), Barrett Strong & Norman Whitfield ("I Can't Get Next To You," "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," "Ain't Too Proud To Beg," "I Know I'm Losing You," "Papa Was A Rolling Stone"), Robert Wright & George Forrest ("Stranger In Paradise," "Sands Of Time"), Joe South ("Hush," "I Never Promised You A Rose Garden"), Mac Davis ("In The Ghetto," "Baby, Don't Get Hooked On Me"), Michael Masser ("Didn't We Almost Have It All," "Saving All My Love For You," "Touch Me In The Morning," "Tonight, I Celebrate My Love for You," "(The) Greatest Love Of All"), Harvey Schmidt & Tom Jones (The Fantasticks, "Try To Remember"), Stephen Schwartz ("Day By Day," "Godspell"), and Sunny Skylar ("Besame Mucho," "It Must Be Jelly Cause Jam Don't Shake Like That").

Mariah's 'Through The Rain' Set For U.S. Release

Mariah Carey's "Through The Rain" will be released as a commercial single in the U.S. on February 4. MonarC Music and Island Def Jam, Carey's record label, initially had no plans to release "Through The Rain," the first radio single from her Charmbracelet album, as a commercial single in the U.S. However, following the singer's stellar performance of the song at the American Music Awards in Los Angeles on Monday (January 13), the label reversed its decision.

The single release will feature three tracks, including the "Through The Rain" (Album Version), "Through The Rain" (Hex Hector/Mac Quayle Radio Edit), and a live version of her Def Leppard cover, "Bringin' On The Heartbreak" (which is perhaps the worst cover version of any song, EVER!).

Meanwhile, Carey has moved on to promoting Charmbracelet's second single and accompanying music video, "Boy (I Need You)" featuring Cam'ron.

In related news, Carey received the Recording Industry Association Of America Commemorative Award while attending the American Music Awards. The award recognizes the more than 100 gold, platinum, and multiplatinum certifications that Carey has earned throughout her career. Island Def Jam Music Group chairman and CEO Lyor Cohen personally presented the award to Carey.

Oscar Watchers Foresee Golden Globes for 'Chicago' and 'The Hours'

Oscar could be headed to Chicago, but first it will get a Golden Globe.

Though Golden Globes voters — they are the members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association — and Academy Award voters do not overlap, the Globes are a major influence.

Tom O'Neil, author of Movie Awards, calls the Globes "an uncanny Oscar crystal ball. In the past 59 years, 43 of Oscar's best pictures had previously won one of those two best picture awards at the Globes. That's a remarkable overlap, and no mere coincidence."

Up for best drama Globes are: About Schmidt, Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and The Pianist. The best musical or comedy nominees are About A Boy, Adaptation, Chicago, My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Nicholas Nickleby.

"Chicago is the clear front-runner," for the Oscar, says Damien Bona, author of Inside Oscar 2.

Especially if the musical, starring Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere, wins the Golden Globe Sunday (8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC).

"It's vastly entertaining," explains Jim Piazza, co-writer with Gail Kinn of The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar. "And it's the first musical in many years to grab a huge popular base at the box office."

O'Neil adds: "It's got mega-buzz. It's got the box office potential to break $100 million, which is often a key component. It's packed with stars. And the Oscar voters will like the message: 'The musical is back.' "

But there's at least one Chicago bear among the experts. Though agreeing that it is a front-runner, Emanuel Levy, author of All About Oscar, says that The Hours has a slight edge over Chicago for the Academy Award.

"The Hours is the prestige movie that will become the must-see film," predicts Levy, who believes that this drama starring the triple-threat Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep is likely to win best drama at the Globes. "The Hours has some pluses that Chicago does not have. It has a literary cachet because it is based on a Pulitzer Prize (winning) novel by Michael Cunningham. (And) it may win more nominations because it will also get supporting awards and writing awards.

"And Nicole Kidman," he concludes, "is the hottest actress in Hollywood."

O'Neil concedes, "No musical has won best picture since 1968," when Oliver! won. "Even though Chicago seems to be out front, it's very vulnerable. Keep your eye on the best drama category at the Globes Sunday. It will probably decide the chief rival to Chicago."

At his award-tracking Web site, goldderby.com, O'Neil predicts that The Hours will win best drama.

Not Bona. "I have a sneaking feeling that The Pianist will win best drama," he says. The Pianist is a story about the Holocaust from director Roman Polanski.

All agree that the Globes are likely to exert more influence on the Oscars this year than in the past. Early awards from critics' groups have been all over the map, indicating a lack of consensus.

The Globes' unusual practice of giving out two best picture awards means that it can propel two films to the forefront. The Oscars tend to overlook comedies and musicals, but not this year.

The musical and comedy nominees include not only Chicago but critics' favorite Adaptation and the record-breaking crowd pleaser My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

GANG LEADER

Martin Scorsese to receive the Directors Guild of America's Lifetime Achievement Award on March 1, it was announced Thursday. He becomes just the 29th recipient of the guild's most prestigious honor.

For Some Reason "Red Dragon" Gets A Triple Release

Hannibal Lecter makes his third outing in the prequel to Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon. Universal Studios Home Entertainment is preparing no less than three releases for the title in April.

Will Graham has been called out of early retirement to catch a serial killer, known by authorities as "The Tooth Fairy". He knows that the best route to the mind of a psychopath is through the mind of another and he must ask for help from the prisoner who brought him the greatest difficulty, Hannibal Lecter. But The Tooth Fairy is getting info on Graham as well setting up a tricky game of cat and mouse.

Two barebones versions of the film will be released, on in fullscreen and one in anamorphic widescreen. A seperate two disc special edition will be available, also in widescreen. No other details are available.

Arriving on April Fool's Day, the regular and special editions will cost $26.95 and $34.95 respectively.

...a Georgia Judge Orders Arrest Of Singer Bobby Brown

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Georgia judge has issued a warrant for the arrest of entertainer Bobby Brown, saying the rhythm and blues singer's performance this week at a televised awards show violated his bond.

DeKalb County State Court Judge Wayne M. Purdom issued the warrant after Brown's live performance Monday at the American Music Awards program in Los Angeles, his secretary said on Thursday.

Brown, the 33-year-old husband of pop diva Whitney Houston, faced trial on 1996 misdemeanor charges in DeKalb County that included driving under the influence of alcohol. He had been ordered not to leave Georgia and to report to DeKalb authorities each week until his trial under terms of bond set in November.

Until Monday, Brown had reported to the court each week, the judge's secretary said.

"As far as the court is concerned, he is now a fugitive," Purdom's secretary said. "We understand from his attorney that (Brown) is going to surrender himself tomorrow."

She said Brown could face fines and jail time as a result of his failure to report. His trial, originally scheduled for next week, has been postponed, she said.

Brown was arrested in DeKalb County in 1996 and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to show proof of insurance, speeding and failing to maintain a lane while driving.

The old charges came to light when the singer was arrested in Atlanta in early November and charged with possessing less than an ounce of marijuana, speeding and having no driver's license or proof of insurance. After Brown posted bond in the Atlanta case, he was transferred to neighboring DeKalb County.

Brown's lawyer, Xavier Dicks, was not immediately available to comment.

Maurice Gibb's Death Blamed on Birth Defect

MIAMI (Reuters) - Bee Gees band member Maurice Gibb died from a congenital condition that caused his small intestine to twist, cutting off the blood supply, according to an autopsy report released on Thursday.

Gibb, 53, was hospitalized last week and went into cardiac arrest before undergoing surgery for a blocked intestine. He died on Sunday at Mount Sinai Medical Center.

According to the autopsy report released by the Miami-Dade County medical examiner's office, Gibb suffered from a volvulus, a twisting of the intestine that restricts blood flow and obstructs the bowel.

The report said the condition was present from birth, but it was unclear whether Gibb was aware of the condition.

Doctors said it sometimes causes severe pain but sometimes produces no symptoms.

With brothers Robin and Barry, Maurice helped create one of the best-selling bands of the disco era, known around the world for its 1977 soundtrack to the film "Saturday Night Fever."

In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, Barry Gibb questioned his brother's treatment. Mount Sinai Medical Center said it was discussing the case with Gibb's family but would not give details, citing patient privacy laws.

The autopsy report indicated that doctors had removed most of Gibb's small intestine in an operation but did not cite a cause for the cardiac arrest that occurred before the surgery.

Gibb was born on the Isle of Man and raised in Manchester, England. The family emigrated to Australia in 1958.

Maurice Gibb had lived in Miami Beach for years with his wife Yvonne. Hundreds of relatives and friends attended a private memorial service on Wednesday in Miami Beach.

Harry Potter Magic! New Book Already Best-Seller

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Its magic!

The long-awaited fifth book in the Harry Potter series has become an instant best-seller less than 24 hours after the June publication date was announced, online book stores said on Thursday.

Amazon.com said it took only two hours after becoming available for pre-order for "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" to reach the top-selling spot.

Amazon.com's British arm, Amazon.co.uk, said more than 30,000 customers had placed orders in 24 hours for author J.K. Rowling's latest tale of the boy wizard and his adventures.

Barnes and Noble.com said orders had been pouring in since the announcement on Wednesday by Rowling's publishers that the 255,000 word book would be published on June 21.

Harry Potter fans have had to wait three years for "Order of the Phoenix," which was delayed by Rowling's marriage and her subsequent pregnancy.

Amazon.com declined to release pre-order figures for "Order of the Phoenix" but said that day one figures were 100 times those for the first day of pre-orders for the last book, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which was published in July 2000.

"Goblet of Fire" was Amazon.com's largest book pre-order in history with more than 400,000 advance orders worldwide.

"Our customers are loyal and rabid Harry Potter fans, and we are delighted to offer them the simplest, most convenient way to reserve their copies immediately," said Amazon.com's book division vice-president Steve Kessel.

Barnes and Noble, the world's largest book seller, said that its stores across the United States would remain open late on Friday night, June 20, and start selling the book at midnight. Special in-store events and parties are also being planned.

The first four Harry Potter books are still on best-seller lists around the world and movie versions of the first two books have grossed more than $1.7 billion.

Lollapalooza to return this summer?

Lollapalooza may be returning the road this summer, MTV.com reports.

The festival's official web site is sparsely adorned with a Lollapalooza 2003 heading, a logo, and the phrase "are you playing with me?"

A source close to the organization has told MTV the committee is in talks with bands and promoters.

The once-annual travelling concert event has been dormant since 1997. It almost re-launched last summer, but was postponed when organizers had trouble securing a quality line-up.

Sources say the organization is looking at possible corporate sponsorship for funds to book this year's pricey A-list bands.

Co-founded by Jane's Addiction leader Perry Farrell, Lollapalooza debuted in 1991 and has been a model for other packaged tours like Warped and Ozzfest.

Past line-ups have included Soundgarden, Metallica, Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Korn, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole, and the Beastie Boys.

Celine's new album due in March

Celine Dion's forthcoming album, "One Heart," will be pumping into Canadian retail stores on March 25, Sony Music Canada confirms.

The album comes out on the same day as Dion's three-year stint at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas kicks off, and almost one year after the release of her last studio effort, "A New Day Has Come."

"I Drove All Night" will be the album's first single and should hit Canadian airwaves in the next few weeks, according to Dion's web site. The Roy Orbison classic, written by Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly, is the only track listing information disclosed so far.

The Canadian chanteuse took home an American Music Award for Favorite Artist -- Adult Contemporary on Monday night, and is scheduled to kick off Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego on January 26, with her rendition of "God Bless America."

"A New Day Has Come" debuted at No. 1 in Canada, and has sold over 548,000 copies since its release, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Dion has sold more than 150 million records during the course of her career.

Linkin Park Readying METEORA

Linkin Park have finished their new album, named METEORA, and given it a drop date of March 25. "There's definitely a thread that runs throughout all the songs on METEORA, and also between HYBRID THEORY, REANIMATION and the new record," said guitarist Brad Delson. "I think having worked with all those great artists on REANIMATION and having toured for so long, we really learned a lot and wanted to integrate that into where we are today. Not necessarily talk about entirely new things, but give our new perspective on that. It's still heavy, a very dark record." The album was produced by Don Gilmore and Andy Wallace. The first single will be "Somewhere I Belong."

Frasier And Sam To Reunite

Kelsey Grammer has agreed to make a guest appearance on the February 16 episode of CBS' BECKER.

ONE DVD TO RULE THEM ALL

New Line's extended DVD version of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring snagging five trophies at Tuesday's second annual DVD Premiere Awards, including Best Special Edition, New Release. Meanwhile, Universal's Back to the Future trilogy box set won the award for Best Special Edition, Classic Movie.

BUSTING OUT: ABC upsizing its January 22 episode of The Bachelorette to 90 minutes to face off against the 90 minute premiere of Fox's American Idol. Also, the Alphabet confirmed the third installment of The Bachelor will premiere on March 26.

GET GONGED: The WB planning to air a new version of The Gong Show, the late-1970s series that showcased the worst that talent had to offer, though the show's original cocreator and host, Chuck Barris, will have nothing to do with this update--he sold the rights to the show long ago.

TOOL TIME: Tim Allen agreeing to star in a Home Improvement reunion show on ABC that will show clips and bloopers and take questions from the studio audience. No air date has been set yet.

PROTECTING MICKEY

The Supreme Court on Wednesday affirming a 1998 law extending copyright protection by 20 years. The decision is a victory for big media companies like the Walt Disney Company, who successfully delayed Mickey Mouse and other creative properties from entering the public domain.

Street Date News

Buena Vista Home Entertainment has set an April 29th street date for "Treasure Planet." While the film was a huge theatrical bust for Disney expect a big marketing push to try and recoup some profits with the DVD release.

In other Disney news, the studio has added Toy Story and Toy Story 2 to its "Disappearing Classics" lineup, when both titles will go on moratorium starting April 15th. While the titles will remain on store shelves until current inventory is sold, retailers can no longer place new orders for the titles after that date. Get 'em while you can.

A Ring Update

Just is some more news on the highly-anticipated upcoming release of The Ring, the blockbuster thriller coming this March from DreamWorks Home Entertainment. The disc will have more cool features than originally thought, and DreamWorks will unveil the full press release next week, along with details on the simultaneous release of the Japanese original, Ringu.

Sequels to Dominate 2003 Movie Lineup

LOS ANGELES - Sequels succeeded so well in 2002 that film studios have decided to do an encore.

2003 will see about two dozen followup movies, along with a few prequels — some craved by audiences for a decade or more, others hitting theaters less than a year after their predecessors.

The four-year wait for a followup to the sci-fi smash "The Matrix" ends in a big way: In May, Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss continue to battle Earth's machine conquerers in "The Matrix Reloaded," followed just six months later by "The Matrix Revolutions," the trilogy's end.

Those sequels were shot simultaneously, like the three installments of Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings," whose current chapter, "The Two Towers," is on track to surpass the box-office results of 2001's "The Fellowship of the Ring."

There's only about 330 days of impatient pacing left till the final chapter of the fantasy epic, based on J.R.R. Tolkien's novels, arrives. "The Return of the King" opens just before Christmas.

By contrast, it's been 12 years since Arnold Schwarzenegger's cyborg-from-the-future promised he'd be back. He returns over the Fourth of July in "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," battling a female cyborg sent back by evil machines to snuff the now-adult savior of humanity, John Connor.

Given the success of 2002 franchises such as "The Lord of the Rings," "Star Wars," "Harry Potter," "Austin Powers" and "Men in Black," it's hard to knock the business sense in giving audiences more of the same.

"Studios want to make movies people want to see. It's all about getting butts in the seats," said John Singleton, director of the upcoming "The Fast and the Furious 2." "People respond to characters they admire and love. If you've had a successful film with characters like that, why not make a followup?"

Other 2003 sequels include: Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and the rest of the superhuman mutants in the new "X-Men" chapter, "X2"; "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle," reuniting Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu; "American Wedding," in which some of the "American Pie" gang attend the nuptials of gross-gag victim Jason Biggs and band geek Alyson Hannigan; and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider — The Cradle of Life," with Angelina Jolie back in action as the roaming hero of the video game.

Antonio Banderas reprises his gunslinging "Desperado" role in "Once Upon a Time in Mexico"; Reese Witherspoon has a new day in court with "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde"; Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson follow up "Shanghai Noon" with "Shanghai Knights"; and Bruce Willis and Matthew Perry of "The Whole Nine Yards" make a new hitman comedy, "The Whole Ten Yards."

There's also "Barbershop 2," "Bad Boys II," "Jungle Book 2," "Spy Kids 3" and "Scary Movie 3."

This year brings some cross-breeding among series: There's the animated "The Rugrats Meet the Wild Thornberrys," and the slasher duel "Freddy Vs. Jason," matching the killers of "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th."

On the prequel front are "Gods and Generals," with Robert Duvall in a forerunner to "Gettysburg"; "Exorcist: The Beginning," with Stellan Skarsgard as the priest of the horror smash in his first satanic encounter, in Africa; and "When Harold Met Lloyd: Dumb & Dumberer," set in the teen years of the idiot brothers of "Dumb and Dumber."

Other movie highlights for winter and spring, generally Hollywood's slowest period, include:

Ben Affleck as the superhero of the comic-book adaptation "Daredevil"; "National Security," pairing Martin Lawrence and Steve Zahn as ex-cops relegated to guard jobs; and "The Hunted," with Tommy Lee Jones as a tracker chasing an assassin (Benicio Del Toro).

Also, "Veronica Guerin," starring Cate Blanchett as the slain Irish reporter who crusaded against crime; Al Pacino in the CIA thriller "The Recruit"; "The Life of David Gale," featuring Kevin Spacey as a death-penalty opponent who lands on Death Row; and "Tears of the Sun," with Bruce Willis as a Navy SEAL on a rescue mission.

Adam Sandler offers a spring prelude to the busy summer season with "Anger Management," playing a peaceable man whose outburst on an airplane puts him under the care of a rage adviser (Jack Nicholson).

For Nicholson, "Anger Management" offered a slapstick respite from the dark humor of his current film, "About Schmidt."

"I just went in the opposite direction, and I often do that. I just like to blow it out the other side," Nicholson said. "This one is antic comedy. That's everything I always get bad reviews for, but hopefully it's also what the public loves."

Along with the rush of sequels, which generally start arriving just before Memorial Day, summer flicks include:

The animated under-the-sea tale "Finding Nemo," from the creators of "Toy Story" and "Monsters, Inc.", and the animated above-the-water adventure "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas"; Jim Carrey's comedy "Bruce Almighty," about a man given God's omnipotent powers; the comic-book adaptation "The Hulk"; and Russell Crowe in the high-seas adventure "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."

Also, Ridley Scott's con-man caper "Matchstick Men," starring Nicolas Cage; Eddie Murphy's comedy among the kiddies, "Daddy Day Care"; Kevin Costner's return to directing with "Open Range," co-starring Robert Duvall; and the unusual hybrid "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," starring Sean Connery in a meeting of Victorian literary characters from the works of Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoker and others.

Among 2003's big fall and holiday releases:

Mike Myers in "Dr. Seuss' the Cat in the Hat"; Tom Cruise in "The Last Samurai," about a U.S. soldier teaching modern warfare in 1870s Japan; "Cold Mountain," starring Nicole Kidman in an adaptation of the best-seller set during the Civil War; the Coen brothers' battle-of-the-sexes story "Intolerable Cruelty," with George Clooney; Julia Roberts as a freethinking art professor in "Mona Lisa Smile"; "Out of Time," starring Denzel Washington as a cop troubled by a double homicide; Uma Thurman as a vengeful former assassin in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill"; and "The Alamo," with Billy Bob Thornton and Dennis Quaid in a new dramatization of the infamous last stand.

Tom Cruise Wins $10 Million in Gay Lawsuit

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Tom Cruise has won a $10 million judgment in a 2001 lawsuit against a gay porn star who claimed he had a homosexual encounter with the "Mission: Impossible" actor, Cruise's attorney said on Wednesday.

A Los Angeles judge entered the default judgment in late December after defendant Chad Slater admitted that his story was false and said he would not actively defend himself against the lawsuit, said Cruise's attorney Ricardo Cestero.

"He is very, very pleased with getting this judgment and is happy to have another ruling by a court that these stories are false and defamatory," Cestero said.

Slater could not be reached for comment.

The judgment marks the second time Cruise has prevailed in lawsuits he filed to quash rumors that he is gay.

In 2001, the 40-year-old actor sued Michael Davis, the Los Angeles publisher of "Bold Magazine," for $100 million after Davis claimed to have a videotape of Cruise engaged in homosexual acts.

The actor dropped the suit later that year after Davis retracted his claim and agreed to a stipulation that Cruise "is not, and never has been, homosexual and has never had a homosexual affair."

Cestero said Cruise has not decided whether to press Slater, also known as Kyle Bradford, to pay the latest judgment.

In his lawsuit, Cruise said Slater falsely told a French magazine called Actustar that his gay love affair with Cruise led to the actor's August 2001 divorce from actress Nicole Kidman.

The actor said he would donate any proceeds of the lawsuit to charity.

Cestero said Cruise intends to file defamation actions against anyone who spreads false rumors about him.

"He is very concerned and very protective about his personal reputation," Cestero told Reuters. "To the extent that people are writing stories that defame him, he is going to go after them."

'SOPRANOS' SHOOT FOR JANUARY

HBO is gunning for a January '04 return for "The Sopranos" - 13 months after the fourth season ended.

And this is after making its fans wait 16 months between seasons the last time around.

"We are planning on January," show producer Brad Grey told reporters yesterday.

Grey attributed the yearlong delay to series star James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano), who will be filming a movie.

"Jim's going to go do a picture . . . It may push us a little bit, but we were planning on January," he said.

"Maybe even [starting] a little earlier, but I'm thinking with Jim doing the picture, we may have to wait a little on that."

Production on the fifth season is set to kick off in March.

"The Sopranos" ended its third season in May 2001 - then took 16 months off before returning last September in what was viewed by many fans to be somewhat of a disappointing season.

Elvis Tune Voted 'Song That Changed the World'

LONDON (Reuters) - An Elvis Presley cover version of an obscure blues track has been voted the song that did most to change the world.

"That's All Right" was recorded by Elvis as a teen-ager in 1954 during an experimental jamming session in Memphis. The track launched the King's career and is regarded by some as marking the start of rock 'n' roll.

A panel of music journalists, commissioned by Britain's Q Magazine, put "That's All Right" top of a list of "100 ground-breaking, world-altering songs that changed music and the world forever."

It beat dozens of better known tracks including The Beatles' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" and "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys.

"I Wanna Hold Your Hand," the song which launched The Beatles in the United States, came second, while the Sex Pistols' provocative punk anthem "God Save the Queen" was third.

The results of the poll raised a few eyebrows.

"'That's All Right' is a wonderful track and we all hail it for starting Elvis's recording career but it didn't change anything," veteran music journalist Paul Gambaccini told BBC TV.

"When it was released it wasn't even released in this country and it was never a hit in the United States.

"But we look back to Elvis because he is the credible founder of rock 'n' roll ..."

Grunge gurus Nirvana were fifth with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" while British band New Order came in ninth with their celebrated dance track "Blue Monday" -- the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time.

The earliest release was Billie Holiday's 1939 rendition of "Strange Fruit" while the most recent was rapper Eminem "My Name Is" from 1999.

A special edition of Q Magazine -- 100 Songs that Changed the World -- is due to be released Wednesday.

Top ten:

1. That's All Right (Elvis Presley)
2. I Wanna Hold Your Hand (The Beatles)
3. God Save the Queen (The Sex Pistols)
4. Rapper's Delight (Sugarhill Gang)
5. Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana)
6. Strange Fruit (Billie Holiday)
7. Like a Rolling Stone (Bob Dylan)
8. Walk This Way (Run DMC)
9. Blue Monday (New Order)
10. Do They Know it's Christmas (Band Aid)

Ring-Tone Sales Near $1 Billion

LONDON (Reuters) - Ring tones, those ubiquitous, monophonic song recordings programmed into seemingly every teenager's mobile phone, are quietly becoming a money-maker for the music industry.

A new study released Wednesday by London-based Informa Media Group said that authors' collection societies collected $71 million in royalties from ring-tone sales in 2002, up 58 percent from the previous year.

Informa's senior analyst Simon Dyson said the royalties figure -- which is typically 10 percent to 15 percent of the total sales from ring tones -- would suggest that the overall market is over $700 million annually, and quite possibly as high as $1 billion.

The proceeds are divided between operators, labels and the artists.

"This is probably the only upside for the music industry at the moment," said Dyson.

Stung by rampant online piracy and CD-copying, recorded music sales have fallen for two straight years, and industry watchers believe it is in for another drop this year.

Critics blame the big five music giants -- Universal, Sony, Warner, EMI and BMG -- for failing to meet a burgeoning consumer demand to download songs onto portable devices or onto a PC's hard drive.

Ring tones are a different story entirely. They started off as a promotional gimmick, with labels offering up decidedly low-fidelity renditions of new singles to Web sites and mobile phone operators as a way to keep fans humming along to their favorite artists.

Despite the poor sound quality, the practice of customizing one's mobile phone with a favorite song grew with surprising speed.

Now record labels regularly grant rights to mobile operators and Web sites to sell ring tones.

Informa said download costs vary widely by country. For example, Russia's largest mobile phone operator, MTS, charges 30 cents per download, while Vodafone in Australia charges $1.83.

Informa predicts the segment will expand significantly, particularly as more handsets with stereophonic playback hit the market.

Fifth Harry Potter Book Due on June 21

LONDON (Reuters) - "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," the fifth book of adventures of the boy wizard by author J.K. Rowling, is due to be published on June 21, its British publisher said Wednesday.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is absolutely superb and will delight all J.K. Rowling's fans. She has written a brilliant and utterly compelling new adventure," Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. chief executive Nigel Newton said in a statement.

The book, which at 38 chapters and 255,000 words, will be a third longer than the last book -- "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" -- is also being published by U.S. children's book publisher Scholastic Corp.

Fans will have had a three-year wait for "Order of the Phoenix." "Goblet of Fire" was published Saturday, July 8, 2000, and was the fastest-selling book in history on the first weekend of its publication.

Like "Goblet of Fire," "Order of the Phoenix" is being published on a Saturday, meaning eager fans will not have to miss a day off school or work to buy the new book.

By then, most will likely know the first few sentences by heart. They are: "The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive ... The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four."

The book may have a darker side than the earlier escapades.

Bloomsbury said Rowling also writes: "Dumbledore lowered his hands and surveyed Harry through his half-moon glasses. "It is time," he said, "for me to tell you what I should have told you five years ago, Harry.

"Please sit down. I am going to tell you everything."

All four Harry Potter books -- "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone," "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," as well as "Goblet of Fire" -- have been No. 1 bestsellers and are still on bestseller lists around the world.

Rowling has got married since "Goblet of Fire" was published and is pregnant, with the baby due this spring.

REACHING OUT

The late Jam Master Jay will appear in upcoming ads for Dr. Pepper. The soda spots were shot last fall while Jay (real name Jason Mizell) was on tour with Run-D.M.C. Mizell was murdered in his New York City studio last October.

DELAYED

Production on the fifth season of HBO's The Sopranos could be pushed back as star James Gandolfini has inked a movie deal to star in the DreamWorks' comedy Surviving Christmas with Ben Affleck. HBO is now looking at a January 2004 airdate at the earliest for the Mafia drama.

Can a Giant Lava Lamp Save the Town?

SOAP LAKE, Wash. (Reuters) - Build a giant lava lamp and they will come?

Worried that visitors don't stop at Soap Lake any more even though its medicinal waters reputedly can cure anything from sheep parasites to snake bite, civic leaders are seriously considering trying to revive the tourist trade with a psychedelic blast from the past: a towering 60-foot-high lava lamp in the center of downtown, complete with viewing platform.

After all, look what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris and the Space Needle for Seattle.

"Whether it will ever be finalized, I don't know, but a lot of people are interested in it," Mayor Ken Lee told Reuters by telephone. "I'm for anything that will bring tourism back into our city."

Soap Lake in eastern Washington state has been shrinking since the 1930s, when a devastating drought and the Great Depression nearly erased it from the map. The massive Grand Coulee Dam project nearby brought highways and irrigation channels that kept some businesses alive through the 1960s.

But now two-thirds of its 1,700 inhabitants live in subsidized low-income housing. With little help available from the town, the lava lamp's champion, architect Brent Blake, is shopping the idea to big glass makers and philanthropists. The price tag, still as nebulous as the goo that would drift around in the lamp, could reach several million dollars.

Microsoft Corp. co-founder and billionaire Paul Allen could make an ideal benefactor, though Blake has yet to speak with him. Among many projects, Allen built a rock 'n' roll museum in an unusual colored-blob building next to Seattle's Space Needle.

"There's nothing difficult about building this thing, except for the glass vessel, which is basically a giant pop bottle," Blake said.

There is also no guarantee that drivers will stop for lunch or shopping in nearly deserted downtown Soap Lake. But the glistening hippie throwback would certainly get their attention.

"I just thought: how can we stop the cars driving by on the highway? Then I drew a lava lamp and just thought, this was really cool," Blake said.

So cool it even has its own web site.

Shania Twain to host Junos

Juno organizers have corralled babe-alicious Shania Twain to host and perform at this year's Juno Awards in Ottawa at the infamous Corel Centre on April 6.

Word that Twain will host the annual celebration of Canadian music came last night during the American Music Awards broadcast as CTV played Shania's new video, along with a teaser, during every commercial break to hype the event.

The teaser was taped last month in Spain.

"I can't wait," Twain said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

That's what Juno organizers are hoping for.

"She's a spectacular talent, a wonderful person and an outstanding ambassador for Canadian music," said Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS) chairman Ross Reynolds.

Having won hundreds of music awards since the mid-1990s, she's also become an authority in the art of presenting and accepting the gold.

Twain's won eight Junos but has never hosted the prestigious music awards administered by CARAS.

Twain is also scheduled to perform at halftime at this year's Super Bowl.

She's also taken 22 Canadian Country Music Awards, two American Country Music Awards, six Grammys, six American Music Awards and four Billboard Music Awards, just to name a few.

The Timmins-born Twain's back in the public eye after a two-year exile. Her latest album, Up!, debuted at No. 1 and was the highest-selling album in 2002.

Twain's last album, 1997's Come On Over, sold more than 34 million copies worldwide to become the biggest-selling album by a female artist.

Full details of this year's Junos will be announced in February.

Creed Apologizes For Bizarre Chicago Gig

Hot off tying the Dixie Chicks for the favorite group or band honor at the People's Choice Awards, Creed has issued an apology to disappointed attendees of the band's Dec. 29 concert at Chicago's Allstate Arena. The statement from the band's management comes in response to several weeks worth of complaint letters from fans demanding refunds or a make-up show. Posts to the Creed Pit message board have alleged that frontman Scott Stapp was "high out of his mind" during the performance.

"The band has heard that you are unhappy with the quality of the recent Creed show in Chicago," reads the letter sent to fans from Jeff Hanson Management. "We apologize if you don't feel that the show was up to the very high standards set by our previous shows in Chicago. We also understand and appreciate the fact that there has been much concern about Scott's health and we want to assure everyone that he is doing very well and is taking a much needed break at home in Orlando after a very long and rigorous touring year."

Of the gig, which reportedly saw Stapp leave the stage for 10 minutes, forget the words to songs, and fall down several times, the band's management says, "For now we hope that you can take some solace in the fact that you definitely experienced the most unique of all Creed shows and may have become part of the unusual world of rock'n'roll history! Again, we apologize if you didn't enjoy the show but remember, 'It's only rock'n'roll but we like it!'"

The letter also reveals that Creed will start writing material for its next Wind-Up album later this year and plans to return to Chicago next year to play a show that will "hopefully be better than any of the numerous shows we've played there."

"Let me take you higher", indeed!

Today's New DVD And Video Releases

My favourite film of 2002 is now available for everyone to see. Released theatrically in May, this long delayed home bow is a great flick worth seeing.

Hugh Grant is perfectly cast as Will, a self-absorbed trust-fund slacker who tries to improve his romantic odds by preying on desperate single mothers. His cynical strategy backfires when he recruits the misfit son (Nicholas Hoult) of a suicidal mother (Toni Collette) to pose as his own son, thus proving his parental prowess to his latest single-mom target (Rachel Weisz). The kid has a warming effect on this ultimate cad, and what could have been a sappy tearjerker turns into a subtle, frequently hilarious portrait of familial quirks and elevated self-esteem.

From start to finish, it's a genuine treat, and my favourite film of 2002. Enjoy the popcorn and the movie!

Dumb But Worth A Rental

Undercover Brother is stupid fun. Plain and simple. It isn't great, but I quite enjoyed it!

Now you can too!

Also, here's the complete list of today's new DVD and Video Releases.

Brian Wilson helps out Styx

Brian Wilson, Tenacious D, Billy Bob Thornton, and former Bad English singer John Waite all add vocal contributions to the new Styx record, "Cyclorama," due out on February 18, according to Rolling Stone.

Wilson, who singer/guitarist Tommy Shaw calls "one of the top six most important figures in modern music," on the band's web site, sings vocal harmonies on "Palm of Your Hand." Tenacious D duo Jack Black and Kyle Glass sing backing vocals on "Kiss Your Ass Goodbye," Waite backs on "Genji Des Ka," and Thornton performs lead vocals on "Bourgeois Pig."

Styx was formed in 1970, but found major success in the late '70s and early '80s with a slew of hits including "Come Sail Away," "Babe," and "Mr. Roboto."

"Cyclorama" will be the first release from the arena rockers since former frontman Dennis DeYoung split with the band in 1999. DeYoung was subsequently replaced by Canadian singer Lawrence Gowan.

Only guitarist James Young remain from the band's original lineup. Shaw joined the group in 1975.

Can't Even Bother Making A Comment

Nothing here interests me. How about you?

Here are the new CD releases for Tuesday, January 14, 2003:

* 25TH HOUR OST 25th Hour OST (Hollywood)
* 3 DOORS DOWN When I'm Gone (CD Single) (Universal)
* BENZINO Redemption (Elektra)
* BON JOVI Misunderstood (CD Single) (Island)
* CANDY DULFER Dulfer & Dulfer (Spitfire)
* CHICAGO OST Chicago OST (Sony)
* HEART Essential Heart (Sony)
* JIM WITTER Forgiveness (Curb)
* KANGAROO JACK OST Kangaroo Jack OST (Hip-O)
* KENNY LOGGINS The Essential Kenny Loggins (Sony)
* MARVIN GAYE Let's Get It On (Remastered) (Motown)
* MARVIN GAYE What's Going On (Remastered) (Motown)
* NEW ORDER Live At Finsbury Park (DVD) (Warner International)
* NEW ORDER Retro (Box set) (Warner)
* OPEN HEARTS OST Open Hearts OST (Sony)
* PAUL WELLER Illumination (Sony)
* PETER GABRIEL Long Walk Home: Music From The Rabbit Proof Fence (Real World/Narada)
* PHISH Live In Las Vegas (DVD Video) (Elektra)
* TERRI CLARK Pain To Kill (Mercury Nashville)
* THE CORRS The Best Of The Corrs (DVD) (Atlantic)
* THEORY OF A DEADMAN Make Up Your Mind (CD Single) (604 Records)
* THICKE Cherry Blue Skies (Interscope)

'Married With Children' cast to reunite

The Bundys, America's raunchiest television family, will be at it again.

The cast of "Married... with Children" will reunite for a one-hour special to air on February 16, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The show will air on the same night as the similarly dysfunctional "Simpson" family marks its 300th episode.

The often vulgar sitcom gained just as many attackers as devoted fans during its successful 11-year run on Fox, which ended in 1997.

Original cast members Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, and David Faustino will all be in tow when the special airs in its old Sunday 9 p.m. timeslot.

The Bundys' distinctively crude antics will also be commemorated with a pair of "Most Outrageous Episodes" DVDs, the first of which will be released on February 4.

Great Big Sea Bassist Quits

East Coast Celtic pop act Great Big Sea has gotten a little smaller.

A news release on the Newfoundland group's web site reports that bassist Darrell Power has decided to leave.

"I have chosen to pursue interests, musical and otherwise, off the road and closer to home for the foreseeable future," said Power, who added that the decision was amicable.

"Darrell has been a great driving force in the band and will be missed," said frontman Alan Doyle.

The band's remaining members, Bob Hallett, Sean McCann, and Doyle will continue to record and a replacement bassist will be hired for performances.

Great Big Sea was formed in 1991, and released their self-titled first album in 1992. Their fifth and latest release, "Sea of No Cares," debuted at No. 1 in Canada.

The band recently returned from a 40-date Canadian tour, and is currently up for seven East Coast Music Awards, including nominations for Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year, and Group of the Year.

The Songs We Love To Hate (Or Vice Versa)

You don’t want to admit it, but you love these songs. Or, at the very least, you know all the words. In no particular order, here are the picks for the Guiltiest Pleasures of 2002.

Shakira, “Whenever, Wherever.” The problem with Shakira is that she can’t speak English, yet she writes her own lyrics. Still, it had us shaking our booties whenever and wherever it was played.

Vanessa Carlton, “A Thousand Miles.” The perfect pop song. Really.

Avril Lavigne, “Complicated.” Yes, the teen star deserves to be slaughtered and hung up by her trifling striped tie, but I bet you know every word to her mega-hit.

Jennifer Lopez, “Jenny From the Block.” We get it, J.Lo; you’re real. A regular ol’ singing, acting,perfume-and-clothes-designing, restaurant-owning, Ben Affleck-dating Girl Next Door.

Nelly, “Hot in Herre.” The most successful pickup line of the year. Boy says, “It’s getting hot in herre, so take off all your clothes.” Girl says, “I am getting so hot, I wanna take my clothes off.”

Christina Aguilera, “Dirrty.” Confession: Most boys really do like sluts.

Bowling for Soup, “The Girl All the Bad Guys Want.” We don’t know what a two-way is either.

Pink, “Don’t Let Me Get Me.” Sniff. You can’t help but feel for the sensitive exploited pop stars.

Michelle Branch, “All You Wanted.” We can save you, Michelle. We can take you away from here.

Nickelback, “How You Remind Me.” Once upon a time, this was actually a decent song. Then it was played on every single radio station for all of eternity.

Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow, “Picture.” Lynyrd Skynyrd would be proud.

Kylie Minogue, “Can’t Get You Outta My Head.” No matter how hard we try.

Men Vs. Women On CBS' 'Survivor'

Amid a glut of reality programs, Survivor: The Amazon has found a new wrinkle to keep viewers: a battle of the sexes pitting an all-male tribe against women.

TV's top unscripted series, returning for a sixth season with a 90-minute premiere Feb. 13 on CBS (8 p.m. ET/PT), is waging its own kind of battle. Though it is still hugely popular and has more than 20 million viewers each week, Survivor's age, lost novelty and new competition threaten to undermine fan interest.

"With all the stuff on the air this spring and probably next fall, we probably will have overdone it," CBS Television president Leslie Moonves told TV critics Monday in Los Angeles.

"Everybody's looking for that quick fix, and a lot of times these shows do give you that. Hopefully the cream will rise to the top, as it did with Survivor."

Survivor producer Mark Burnett says he isn't worried, although for the first time the usually secretive CBS screened 12 minutes of the premiere episode for critics a month before the premiere.

"We're in another world compared to these other shows," he says. "We have this core audience, and as long as we remain true to our dramatic arcs, we'll be fine."

So why the change? "It's like any whodunit: If it's too predictable, it's not fair to the audience."

The Amazon tribe split, Tambaqui (men) and Jaburu (women), forced producers to design a broader mix of challenges to avoid men getting an unfair advantage by using physical strength. Burnett said a similar adjustment occurred in the last Survivor, in Thailand, when older members were concentrated in one tribe.

The same-sex grouping presented its own challenges: At least initially, women couldn't flaunt "string bikinis to show off" and gain advantage, host Jeff Probst says. And male egos threatened their tribe even as the women bonded.

"Keeping them separated, the sexual tension kept building," Probst says. "When they met for challenges, it was like a mixer."

The tribes include a deaf woman — Christy Smith, an adventure guide from Colorado — and the series' first Asian man, Daniel Lue, an accountant in Houston. And the usual threatening elements await, including schools of piranha and crocodiles.

Wanna meet the new "castaways"?

BIG FAT WEDDING Series Gets a Launch Date

CBS will announce to day that MY BIG FAT GREEK LIFE, the series spun off of the hit movie MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, will premiere on February 24 at 8:30 PM ET. However, beginning March 2, the show will take a Sunday slot at 8 PM ET; BECKER will move to 8:30 PM ET. Most of the cast from the film will be on board for the show.

SUPER BOWL SHOWDOWN

NBC plans to air a 20 minute Saturday Night Live special at the Super Bowl halftime mark. Guests have not been announced. SNL will air mid-way through a special 90 minute Fear Factor scheduled for that evening on the Peacock network.

LEAN ON ME

Jennifer Aniston, who hobbled up to collect her People's Choice Award for Favorite Female Television Performer leaning on a cane, broke her toe in a run-in with some unruly furniture says the actress' rep.

Street Date Alert

Perhaps the past fall's biggest theatrical wild card, Eminem hit it big with his first foray on the silver screen, 8 Mile. Universal Studios Home Entertainment will premiere the rap drama March 18th in separate full screen and anamorphic widescreen versions.

Jenny From The DVD Block

J.Lo returns in Maid in Manhattan, streeting on March 25th. This one comes generally devoid of extras, featuring anamorphic widescreen and full screen transfers, English and French 5.1 Dolby surround tracks, a blooper reel, and trailers.

Nicole Kidman Gets Hollywood Walk of Fame Star

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (Reuters) - Actress Nicole Kidman on Monday declared herself "thrilled" to be the newest star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, adding that she doesn't care if "people walk all over me for the rest of my life."

The Golden Globe-winning actress claimed the 2,211th star on the fabled sidewalk beside the Kodak Theater, home to the Academy Awards, with a whispered "Wow!"

Dressed in a black knit suit and spiked heels, the flame-haired Australian-raised actress attended the dedication ceremony with a gaggle of executives from Paramount Studios, which produced her latest film, "The Hours."

Her critically acclaimed portrayal of British writer Virginia Woolf in "The Hours" won Kidman a Golden Globe nomination and spawned talk of a second Oscar nomination for Kidman, who earned her first nod last year for "Moulin Rouge!"

Kidman, 35, won best actress Golden Globes for her performances as a fame-obsessed housewife in 1995's "To Die For," and as a consumption- and love-wracked courtesan in "Moulin Rouge!"

"I don't think anyone deserves this award more than Nicole does," Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing said, adding that in "The Hours," Kidman "literally disappears and all you see is her performance." In the film, Kidman wears a false nose to make her look more like the real life Woolf.

Kidman raised her eyebrows and smiled doubtfully when Lansing said the actress "could have become a giant star based on her looks."

BACK TO WORK

When her turn came to speak, the tall, slender star looked out over crowds thronging the barricades, and said, "Thank you everyone for showing up. I didn't think anybody would come."

"This is sort of amazing to be standing here and to be part of a Hollywood tradition that has been around for so long and will be around for so much longer. This is the icing on the cake ... I have never been so excited to have people walk all over me for the rest of my life."

Kidman, who not only wore a prosthetic nose but adopted striking physical mannerisms to transform herself into Woolf, insisted that her much-discussed dowdiness was not a handicap.

"It wasn't distracting at all," she said. "The physical and the emotional happened at the same time ... everything came into play at the same time with the confidence of (director Stephen) Daldry to say, 'Listen, I think we should do this' and to help me through it."

Kidman planned to ride out her second awards season -- and speculation over whether she'll get a second Oscar nod -- by working.

"It's the focus at the moment, but I am actually going on to my next film which I am starting in February ... so I get to put my head down and do what I love to do best."

Kidman has cemented her status as a top box-office draw with hits like "The Others," "Moulin Rouge" and "The Hours," all released in the 18 months since she split from husband Tom Cruise, now linked to Spanish actress Penelope Cruz.

Who's Townshend Released on Bail in Porn Probe

LONDON (Reuters) - British rock star Pete Townshend was released on police bail after being questioned by detectives on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children but has not been charged, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Police said the 57-year-old guitarist with legendary band The Who had been bailed to reappear at a police station in late January after being quizzed by officers for more than an hour on Monday night.

"Mr. Townshend has been at the station this evening answering questions from police. He has not been charged," the musician's lawyer John Cohen told reporters. "He's been bailed to come back perhaps at a future occasion if they want him to answer more questions."

Townshend was arrested Monday after police involved in Britain's largest-ever operation against pedophilia descended on the rock star's mansion in Richmond, southwest London. They took away boxes full of computers and other equipment.

Later Townshend looked stony-faced as he was driven away by detectives after being held on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, suspicion of making indecent images of children and on suspicion of incitement to distribute indecent images of children.

Townshend, who has said he believes he was abused as a child, acknowledged Saturday he had downloaded child pornography from the Internet but insisted he had done it for research purposes.

"I am not a pedophile. I think pedophilia is appalling," the guitarist, who is married with three children, said in a statement.

Hours before he was arrested he told the Sun newspaper he had worked "tirelessly" to help the abused but had been foolish to wage a one-man battle against child pornography.

He said he was outraged when he first came across child pornography Web sites six years ago when surfing the Internet with his son Joseph, now 16.

Townshend is the most prominent figure to have been questioned as part of the Operation Ore police inquiry which has resulted in more than 1,300 arrests so far in Britain.

The probe, which began 10 months ago, was launched after U.S. law enforcement agencies identified about 7,000 British suspects as users of child pornography Web sites.

CELEBRITIES UNDER SUSPICION

The British media hinted that other British celebrities and some politicians may also be under suspicion.

The Who shot to fame in the late 1960s with its zeitgeist anthem "My Generation" and cemented its reputation with such albums as "Tommy," "Who's Next" and "Quadrophenia."

Townshend, who wrote most of the band's songs, was renowned for smashing his guitars during live stage performances.

Despite its many musical highs, the band has also been dogged by tragedy. Townshend and lead singer Roger Daltrey are the only two surviving original members of the band.

Bass player John Entwistle died in a Las Vegas hotel room last year from a heart attack triggered by cocaine use while the band's original drummer Keith Moon died of an accidental pill overdose in 1978.

American Music Awards Winners Notable by Absence

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Eminem swept the American Music Awards Monday, winning all four categories in which he was nominated, but he was one of several key winners who did not appear at the event.

Other no-shows included country trio the Dixie Chicks and rock band Creed, who each won two prizes.

Another double winner, Ashanti, who led the field with five nominations, did attend the Shrine Auditorium event. She was named favorite new artist in both the pop/rock and hip-hop/R&B categories.

But she lost album races in those categories to Eminem, who was also named favorite male artist in those races. Eminem's album "The Eminem Show" was the biggest release of 2002, with U.S. sales to date of 7.7 million copies.

Rapper Nelly received four nominations, but had the misfortune to be going head-to-head with Eminem. Nelly did, however, win an Internet-based fans' choice award.

The Dixie Chicks dominated the country category, winning the prizes for album ("Home") and group. Creed won for alternative and pop/rock group.

Ashanti was bested in the favorite female hip-hop/R&B category by Mary J. Blige, yet another no-show.

MCGRAW LEAVES BEFORE AWARD

Tim McGraw, who opened the show by singing a duet with Elton John on John's "Tiny Dancer," left the venue before he was named favorite male country artist.

Backstage, Ashanti told reporters she felt "excellent" about winning two prizes.

"I'm happy to be here, happy to be nominated. It's a very prestigious award, so it's a great night."

Ashanti (last name Douglas) was one of the big breakthrough stories of 2002. Her chart-topping debut, "Ashanti," has sold 3.1 million copies, and is also nominated for favorite pop/rock album.

Sheryl Crow, winning the first American Music Award of her career for female pop/rock artist, accepted a prize while wearing a T-shirt declaring "War is not the answer" -- a nod to a line from Marvin Gaye song "What's Going On?"

"War is based on greed, and there are huge karmic retributions that will follow," Crow explained backstage. "And I think war is never the answer to solving our problems. I think the best way to solving problems is to not have enemies."

Other winners included R&B duo OutKast for hip-hop/R&B group, Martina McBride for female country artist, Carolyn Dawn Johnson for country newcomer, Enrique Iglesias for Latin music artist, Celine Dion for adult contemporary artist, and Avalon for contemporary inspirational artist.

JOHN "SHOCKED" BY TOWNSHEND'S PORN ARREST

Veteran country band Alabama received a special award of merit; former U.S. President George Bush sent his congratulations via video.

Performers included heavy metal scion Kelly Osbourne -- whose family hosted the show -- rapper Missy Elliott, pop star Mariah Carey, Canadian rock band Nickelback, country-pop singer Shania Twain and Christina Aguilera.

Backstage, Elton John said he was "very shocked" by news of rocker Pete Townshend's child pornography arrest in London.

"I'm a friend of Pete's. I love Pete, and my thoughts are with him," he added.

Townshend, 57-year-old guitarist and primary songwriter for the Who, was arrested by police Monday on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children. He has admitted to viewing Internet child pornography but only in the name of research.

Veteran artist Pat Boone, a presenter, said backstage it was "human nature to be curious about things that exist," but added it was a "big mistake" for anyone to have anything to do with child pornography.

John said he was also "really, really upset and sad" about Sunday's death of his friend, Bee Gee Maurice Gibb. Twain also paid tribute to Gibb, who died of cardiac arrest.

"We all grew up listening to their music, so it's a pretty sad time," she told reporters.

Winners of the American Music Awards are determined by a poll of about 20,000 record buyers; the nominees are compiled from radio airplay and retail sales data.

Kournikova Says She Doesn't Have a Tattoo

MELBOURNE, Australia (Reuters) - Anna Kournikova has settled one of the debates at this year's Australian Open -- the fabled tattoo on her back does not exist.

Speculation has been rife after Kournikova was photographed with a large plaster on her back just above the waistband of her skirt.

But laughing at reports the plaster was to cover up the name of a boyfriend or some body art, the blonde Russian said: "I don't think I have anything on my body, no.

"It is a heat patch ... I have had chronic back pain and it is a heat patch I have worn for some years.

"My skirt is a little lower this year which is why you can now see it."

Bee Gee Brothers Demand Answers

MIAMI BEACH, Florida -- The family of Bee Gee Maurice Gibb, who died on Sunday after abdominal surgery, is questioning the hospital treatment he received prior to his death.

The 53-year-old had been critically ill since an operation to remove an intestinal blockage after he collapsed at his Florida home last week.

The Mount Sinai Medical Centre said that before his surgery he had "experienced cardiac arrest."

Brother Barry Gibb, 55, said the family would fight to discover the truth about Maurice's death.

"From the fact that they had to operate on Maurice during the shock of cardiac arrest, is very questionable, and we will pursue every factor, every element, every second of the timeline of the final hours of Maurice's life," Barry Gibb told the BBC.

"We will pursue that relentlessly. That will be our quest from now on," he said.

A statement released by his family said: "It is with great sadness and sorrow that we regretfully announce the passing of Maurice Gibb.

"His love and enthusiasm and energy for life remain an inspiration to all of us. We will all deeply miss him."

Gibb's twin brother, Robin, said in a television interview on Friday in Britain that his brother's collapse took everyone by surprise but that Maurice's "vital organs are A-1 and he's recovering."

But he had also warned doctors had told the family that the following 48 hours would be crucial.

Pete Bassett, Robin Gibb's spokesman, said on Sunday: "It's a huge shock to us all. It's the worst possible news anyone could have expected. There's just complete and utter shock. This is an unbelievable blow."

Maurice played bass and keyboard for the group, whose name is short for the Brothers Gibb.

The Bee Gees -- Maurice, Robin and their older brother Barry -- have lived in South Florida since the late 1970s. Their younger brother, Andy, who had a successful solo career, died in 1988 at age 30 from a heart ailment.

Known for their close harmonies and original sound, the Bee Gees are members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and their 1977 contributions to the "Saturday Night Fever" album made it one of the best selling movie soundtracks ever. Among their disco hits on that album are "Stayin' Alive," "More Than a Woman" and "How Deep Is Your Love."

They also had hits in other genres, including the haunting "New York Mining Disaster 1941" and "I Started a Joke."

The group won seven Grammy Awards together. The Bee Gees last album was in 2001, titled "This Is Where I Came In."

Here's Something To Make You Feel Old

It was twenty years ago this month that "Hungry Like The Wolf" toped the North American music charts!

Twenty years!!!

Ouch!

Bee Gees brother Maurice Gibb dies

When Maurice Gibb died at 53 Sunday following a cardiac arrest before undergoing emergency surgery for a blocked intestine, pop music lost a member of one of its most famous and prolific families.

The career of the Bee Gees, the group Maurice (pronounced "Morris") Gibb formed with twin brother Robin and elder sibling Barry in the late '50s, spanned more than four decades and a wide array of musical styles and eras. They first found fame with Beatlesque pop nuggets, then gained attention for lush, ambitious orchestral-rock tunes, most distinguished by their trademark high-pitched vocal harmonies.

But the Brothers Gibb scored their most conspicuous success with delirious disco hits such as Stayin' Alive and Night Fever, which helped make 1977's Saturday Night Fever the best-selling soundtrack album of all time. The photo of the three brothers in snazzy white outfits on the album cover remains one of the era's most indelible images.

"In a weird way, the worst thing that ever happened to the Bee Gees was their disco success," says veteran music journalist J.D. Considine. "It saddled them with an identity that the group could never shake. As a result, even though they continued to make polished and often very interesting music after the disco era, practically nobody heard it."

Indeed, the Bee Gees continued to release albums after their Fever heyday, and did enjoy hits outside the USA, particularly in their native U.K. and Germany. They also earned seven Grammy Awards and nine U.S. No. 1 hits, and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. Their most recent studio outing was 2001's This Is Where I Came In, which garnered good notices for its mix of elegant production and earthy, rock-based textures.

Though never as visible a presence as Barry — whose hirsute good looks, keening falsetto and collaborations with such other stars as Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick kept him in the post-disco-era limelight — Maurice contributed to the group's ever-evolving but always pop-savvy sound as a bassist, keyboardist and singer. He also played a role in writing the trio's material, particuarly its pre-disco efforts.

Gibb was especially proud of This Is Where I Came In, which included songs each band member had penned individually. He said to USA TODAY in 2001, "Now our audience can get more of a perspective on each brother. That made it a new adventure for all of us."

Delaney 'didn't fit' CBS' plans

The sudden departure of Kim Delaney from CSI: Miami didn't just disrupt the show; it fueled tabloid stories that David Caruso had pushed her out.

Absolutely not, executive producer Ann Donahue says. "He was good to her and she was good to him.

"We never had one conversation with him about Kim. In fact, when Kim's time on the show ended, he didn't know it had been done. The network made the call, and then they called us, and then we called David."

Caruso says the feuding-stars story makes no sense. "Think about the magnitude of who Kim is and her track record, and then ask yourself, 'Would David Caruso have the power to disrupt a show that was this important to CBS?' A show that is this valuable to the various parties certainly wouldn't give the power to David Caruso to play around with the format."

So why was Delaney let go? "It was just a question of fit," Donahue says. "She's an Emmy winner. She's a gorgeous woman. She's a very good actress. But when you look at the film, it just didn't fit. And I think it probably speaks to how quickly we pulled the show together."

Delaney's spokeswoman declined to comment.

...There Is A New Release Date for PHONE BOOTH

The much delayed PHONE BOOTH has been rescheduled again. This time, it will shift from a February premiere date to March 21. 20th Century Fox says this is likely the final date. The film, which examines a sniper and his next victim trapped in a phone booth, was delayed in November by the US sniper shootings.

IN THE MAIL

Nomination ballots have been mailed to the 5,816 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this week. The completed ballots are due back at PricewaterhouseCoopers by January 29 to be tabulated for the nominations February 11.

HER BIG FAT LAWSUIT

Nia Vardalos sued by her ex-manager who claims he's owned 15 percent of her profits from My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Vardalos' lawyers say the man violated California labor laws and is therefore owed nothing.

Sarcasm Not Funny to Kids?

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - When parents use sarcasm to playfully tease their young children, do the kids see the humor?

Not likely, according to a Canadian researcher who has completed a study showing that children need to be 10 or older before fully grasping the concept that sarcasm can be funny or even insulting.

The results have implications for everything from the content of children's television programming to interpreting bullying behavior, University of Calgary psychologist Penny Pexman said on Thursday.

"Our study suggests that the 5-year-olds are beginning to understand the simplest form of sarcasm and are getting better at it, but still by the age of eight they really don't find it funny, so there's still a dissociation there," said Pexman, who has been studying sarcasm for the past six years.

"They can appreciate that the person means the opposite of what they're saying, but they don't find it humorous."

She and a colleague tested 64 children, presenting them with various scenarios played out with puppets using "counter-factual communication."

One featured a bumbling gardener who pulls all the flowers out of a garden and leaves only the "yucky" weeds, prompting a miffed homeowner to remark: "You're a great gardener."

"Half the younger kids say, 'No, he means he's a good gardener,' so they really take it literally. Even though the intonation is there and the gardener totally messed up, they really do think it's a positive remark," Pexman said.

In addition, children under the age of about 10 almost always interpreted a sarcastic remark as serious, even when it was intended to be humorous, she said.

The findings should help researchers understand reactions to teasing and bullying, especially since the young subjects often identified with the character who was the target of the sarcastic jibe, Pexman said.

It is still not completely clear what determines how children comprehend sarcasm, but Pexman said factors could include the amount used at home, their social milieu and the types of television shows they watch.

In fact, since adults write kids' television programs, much of the humor may be lost on the intended audience, she said.

'Just Married' Honeymoons at No. 1

LOS ANGELES - Audiences ignored the critics and propelled the Brittany Murphy and Ashton Kutcher comedy "Just Married" to the top of the weekend box office.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," which had been No. 1 for three straight weekends, slipped to second place with $15 million in receipts, but that pushed its total domestic gross to $283.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"Just Married" stars Murphy and Kutcher as mismatched newlyweds on a chaotic, slapstick honeymoon in Europe.

Generally disliked by critics, "Just Married" appealed solidly to young movie-goers, with people younger than 21 making up 65 percent of the audience, according to distributor 20th Century Fox.

The movie debuted with $18 million, the amount it cost to shoot.

"I can't say too often I've actually grossed the budget on opening weekend," said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox.

Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can" came in third with $14.8 million, raising its total to $119.5 million. It was the 23rd movie released in 2002 to top $100 million, beating the previous record of 22 set in 2000.

Expanding from narrow release, Denzel Washington's "Antwone Fisher" and Nicolas Cage's "Adaptation" broke into the top 10.

"Antwone Fisher," directed by Washington and starring Derek Luke as a violent sailor confronting childhood traumas, widened to 1,006 theaters and came in at No. 9 with $3.8 million.

The offbeat Hollywood tale "Adaptation," reteaming "Being John Malkovich" writer Charlie Kaufman and director Spike Jonze, was No. 10 with $2.9 million in 560 theaters.

Also expanding from limited release were Ray Liotta's cop thriller "Narc," which grossed $2.74 million in 822 theaters, and Spike Lee's Manhattan drug-dealer drama "The 25th Hour," which did $2.7 million in 490 theaters.

"The Two Towers" remains on track to shoot past the $313 million total of 2001's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

Director Peter Jackson and distributor New Line approached the J.R.R. Tolkien adaptation as three chapters in a single saga, culminating with next December's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

Treating the project as one story has given it an edge that other movie franchises lack, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

"This serialized approach, it just forces movie-goers if they like the movie to see all three," Dergarabedian said. "There's a built-in must-see factor that most stand-alone sequels don't have."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Just Married," $18 million.

2. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," $15 million.

3. "Catch Me If You Can," $14.8 million.

4. "Two Weeks Notice," $6.7 million.

5. "About Schmidt," $6.3 million.

6. "Chicago," $5.6 million.

7 (tie). "Maid in Manhattan," $5 million.

7 (tie). "Gangs of New York," $5 million.

9. "Antwone Fisher," $3.8 million.

10. "Adaptation," $2.9 million.

'Lord of the Rings' Tops People's Choice

PASADENA, Calif. - With its sequel doing healthy business at the box office, "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" captured two top honors Sunday during the 29th Annual People's Choice Awards.

The "Fellowship of the Ring" shared the favorite motion picture award with co-nominee "Spiderman" and also won in the best dramatic motion picture category.

Mel Gibson was named favorite motion picture actor, while Julia Roberts won the favorite actress award, her ninth win in the category.

Jennifer Aniston also made a return engagement as favorite female television performer for her role as Rachel on "Friends," which also won in the favorite comedy series category.

Ray Romano took home the favorite male television performer prize, and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" dethroned longtime top vote-getter "ER" in the favorite television drama series.

Country singer Faith Hill and rap sensation Eminem were named as favorite musical performers.

The People's Choice Awards were presented at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium with Tony Danza hosting the live CBS broadcast. The awards cover 16 categories in film, television and drama.

A nationwide poll conducted by the Gallup Organization determined both the open-ended nominees and the winners.

Fans also could vote on the Internet in two categories, and named "Eight Simple Rules for Dating Your Teenage Daughter" the best new comedy series, and "CSI: Miami" the best new television drama.

The complete list of winners:

-Motion picture: (tie) "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" and "Spiderman."

-Dramatic motion picture: "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring."

-Comedy motion picture: "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."

-Motion picture actor: Mel Gibson.

-Motion picture actress: Julia Roberts.

-Television dramatic series: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."

-Television comedy series: "Friends."

-Female television performer: Jennifer Aniston.

-Male television performer: Ray Romano.

-Reality-based television program: "Survivor: Thailand."

-Daytime dramatic series: "Days of Our Lives."

-New television comedy series: "8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter."

-New television dramatic series: "CSI: Miami."

-Female musical performer: Faith Hill.

-Male musical performer: Eminem.

-Favorite group or band: (tie) Dixie Chicks and Creed.

'A Beautiful Mind' Co-Stars Marry

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jennifer Connelly, who won an Oscar as the long-suffering wife of a crazy genius in "A Beautiful Mind," is giving real-life marriage a try with the actor who played a figment of her movie husband's imagination.

Connelly and British actor Paul Bettany, who portrayed the imaginary college roommate of Russell Crowe's character in the psychological drama, were married in a small private ceremony in Scotland over the Christmas holidays, her spokeswoman said on Friday.

The couple had been dating since April of last year, she said.

Connelly, 32, won an Academy Award as best supporting actress for her role opposite Crowe as the spouse of the brilliant but schizophrenic mathematician John Nash in "A Beautiful Mind," which won the Oscar for best picture.

Her big-screen credits also include "The Rocketeer" and "Requiem for a Dream." Connelly will next be seen in the upcoming comic book adventure "The Hulk."

Bettany is slated to co-star with Crowe again in the upcoming period drama "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World." And he's a bastard for stealing my woman!

The Who's Townshend Defends Pedophile 'Research'

LONDON (Reuters) - British rock star Peter Townshend, who has admitted paying to view Internet child pornography, urged police on Monday to examine his computer to prove he only looked at the Web sites for research.

Townshend, guitarist with legendary band The Who, told Britain's Sun newspaper he worked "tirelessly" to help the abused but had been foolish in trying to wage a one-man battle against child pornography.

"I would be prepared to have the hard drive of my computer analyzed by the police," he was quoted as saying.

"It is important they are able to convince themselves that, if I did anything illegal, I did it purely for research. I am not a pedophile."

Townshend admitted in a statement on Saturday that he had gone online to research child pornography after a newspaper reported that an unnamed rock star was being investigated by police as part of a massive child pornography inquiry.

The Operation Ore inquiry has resulted in more than 1,300 arrests in Britain, and is partly based on information supplied by American law enforcement agencies.

Townshend, 57, said he had yet to hear from police.

"I have looked at child porn sites maybe three or four times in all, the front pages and previews," he told the Sun.

"But I have only entered once using a credit card and I have never downloaded.

"With hindsight, it was very foolish but I felt so angered about what was going on it blurred my judgment."

Townshend said he was outraged when he first came across child pornography Web sites six years ago when surfing the Internet with his son Joseph, now 16.

"I have never purchased any forms of child pornography or wished to own any, " he told the Sun.

"I saw the first awful photo by accident. It repelled me and shocked me to my very core."

Roger Daltrey, lead singer with The Who, told the paper he believed Townshend was innocent.

"Pete was very angry about how easy it was to get hold of child pornography on the Internet.

"My gut instinct is that he is not a pedophile and I know him better than most."

Model Jerry Hall, ex-wife of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger, also backed Townshend, saying he had advised her on how to prevent her children accidentally accessing child pornography sites.

"Peter Townshend is the least likely profile of a child abuser it is possible to construct and that is because he isn't one," she said in a statement reported by British media.

Police refused to comment on the matter, saying they did not discuss individual cases and were not able to confirm they were investigating the rock star.

DVD Sales Surpass VHS In 2002

It may seem strange to early adopters of the DVD that the format only five years ago we had to beg stores to carry, has now surpassed VHS in total market sales.

Despite four times the lifespan and nearly 100% market penetration, VHS sales were unable to compete with DVD sales in 2002 according to VSDA reports. 2002 saw $8 billion in sales from DVD, roughly 65 percent of the $12.4 generated from all video sales. The rental market remains the domain of VHS with DVD only accounting for 35 percent of the market, but this is more than double the rentals from 2001.

Awesome DVD News

Last fall's surprise horror blockbuster "The Ring" will finally make its DVD debut on March 4 from DreamWorks Home Entertainment.

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen with Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks, and includes the featurette "The Mystery of the Ring," production notes, filmographies and trailers for both the Japanese original and the US remake.

Perhaps the best news of all for Ring-ites is that DreamWorks will also release the Japanese original Ringu on the same day, although specs have not yet been announced.

Bee Gees' Maurice Gibb Dies at Age 53

MIAMI (Reuters) - Singer Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, one of the disco sounds of the 1970s, has died after undergoing abdominal surgery last week, his family said on Sunday. He was 53.

Gibb, whose high-pitched harmonies with his twin Robin and older brother Barry helped create one of the best-selling musical groups, collapsed on Thursday at his Miami home after suffering intense stomach pain and was rushed to the hospital.

He "experienced cardiac arrest" before his surgery on an intestinal blockage, the hospital said. After the operation and until he died he was listed in critical but stable condition.

"His love, enthusiasm and energy for life remain an inspiration to all of us," the family said in a statement issued at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami, where he was treated.

A hospital spokeswoman, Kathleen Dorkowski, said Gibb had passed away but gave no details. She said the hospital planned no further comment at this time.

No time of death was given but it appeared Gibb died late on Saturday or very early on Sunday.

The British-born Gibb brothers formed the Bee Gees as youngsters in 1958 in Brisbane, Australia. The group hit the height of their fame during the disco craze with the soundtrack to the film "Saturday Night Fever."

They dominated record charts worldwide in the 1970s with such hits as "Stayin' Alive," "More Than A Woman," and "How Deep Is Your Love."

'THE QUIET BEE GEE'

Gibb's family and friends had expressed hope just two days ago that he would survive.

Robin Gibb, said in a television interview aired on Friday in Britain, his brother's collapse took everyone by surprise but that Maurice's "vital organs are A-1 and he's recovering."

Maurice Gibb, whose voice was perhaps least familiar to the public, usually focused on back-up and harmony vocals.

"He was the quiet Bee Gee, the one who was always in the background," leading British Radio DJ Pat Sharp told Sky News.

"They are the one of the few acts to have had hits in every decade. They were a gang, you pictured them together and so now he's not here it is very sad," he said.

Music journalist Paul Gambaccini told BBC News: "Maurice was an integral part of the No. 5 best-selling act of all time. It's a major loss to music. He was one third of that unique vocal blend, so close it could only have come from brothers."

The siblings reside in the Miami area and have long been a part of the city's life, first moving to the region in the 1970s.

Maurice Gibb was married, to Yvonne, and the couple had two children. He lived in a waterfront house in Miami Beach and owned a local paintball shop called Commander Mo's.

A younger sibling, Andy, who did not sing with the Bee Gees but had a brief burst of fame in the late 1970s with hits such as "I Just Want To Be Your Everything" and "Shadow Dancing," died of a heart infection in 1988, aged 29.

Ving Rhames to play Kojak, baby

Who loves ya baby?

That's what Ving Rhames will soon be saying, as star of a potential series of "Kojak" movies for cable's USA Network.

Rhames has agreed to take the title role, Lt. Theo Kojak, in a re-envisioning of the classic police drama. The late Telly Savalas originated the lollipop-sucking crime fighter role in the TV series, which last aired on ABC in 1990 but spent the majority of its run on CBS, where it debuted in 1973.

"Ving is such a versatile actor, with a powerful presence and unique persona, so it seemed like a great marriage," said Jeff Wachtel, USA Network's executive VP of series and longform programming. "Telly Savalas is so closely identified with the role, we needed someone this unique and powerful."

Rhames just completed a multi-episode arc of CBS drama "The District," and stars in Barry Levinson's upcoming DreamWorks film "Envy" as well as Ron Shelton's "Dark Blue" for MGM.

He earned a Golden Globe Award for his portrayal of Don King in HBO's "Don King: Only in America" and was widely recognized for his role in "Pulp Fiction."

Wachtel said that deals with both a top writer and director are in the works for the project, which will start out as a two-hour TV movie, with an option to do a series of movies.

"What's interesting about classic titles is they often attract unexpected fans," Wachtel said, "including people who might not normally think about doing television.

"Most people have heard of 'Kojak' -- so it's a great brand that we can reinvent and bring something contemporary and special to, to take it to the next level," Wachtel added.

Here's A Story Behind "The Bachelor" You'll Never See On TV

Alex Michel chose Amanda Marsh in the 'Bachelor' - then reportedly went behind her back with runnerup Trista Rehn (above).

The first "Bachelor," Alex Michel - who snubbed "Bachelorette" Trista Rehn for a younger woman at the end of the first series - continued to carry a torch for Trista, writing and phoning her for months after the show ended.

And when the girl Alex had proposed to on national TV, Amanda Marsh, learned about his double-dealing, she left Alex, according to a sizzling report in the upcoming issue of TV Guide.

So how lucky is Trista that she was not the girl to whom Alex proposed?

Very lucky, according to the Nielsen ratings, which indicate that Trista is a huge hit as the star of the new show, "The Bachelorette," which debuted Wednesday night with top-drawer ratings. A staggering 17.4 million viewers watched the first episode, steamrolling over an original episode of NBC's "The West Wing."

Now Trista is telling the story of how Alex came down with a bad case of buyer's remorse almost immediately after proposing to the other woman.

Last May, "basically he told me that he thought he had made a mistake," she tells TV Guide.

Alex and Trista conducted a sort-of secret relationship from there, as he dogged her with letters and repeated phone calls - even though he was in Los Angeles living with Marsh.

"He'll probably deny that he said [that he'd made a mistake], but that's the reason I continued to correspond [with him]," Trista says. "Going by what he told me, I didn't see anything wrong" with writing to him.

When TV Guide contacted Alex for comment, he replied: "I don't have one."

Trista says she broke off the correspondence with Alex for several reasons.

For starters, her family and friends didn't like him, telling her she'd "lucked out" by losing to Amanda.

Even Amanda seems to agree with that assessment, telling TV Guide that, when she watched "The Bachelor" finale on TV, she couldn't believe her eyes.

"Alex was on the air, telling Trista she could be the one. And I was like, 'Are you kidding?' " Amanda told the magazine

Trista says she was also upset when she saw Alex and Amanda at last May's Kentucky Derby. Even though she says she still "really wanted to be with Alex," she began to question her attachment to him.

When Amanda discovered that Alex had been talking and writing to Trista behind her back, she caught the first plane back home to Kansas, the magazine reports.

Meanwhile, Rehn's turning-the-tables role on "The Bachelorette" paid huge dividends for ABC. Not only did the show swamp "The West Wing" by 3.4 million viewers (9-10 p.m.), but it snagged the coveted adults 18-49 demo for the night.

All of that still wasn't enough, however, to top the week's other big reality show debut - Fox's "Joe Millionaire," which grabbed 18.6 million viewers this past Monday.

Winslet Airbrushed on GQ Cover to Appear Thinner

Gentleman's Quarterly magazine has admitted to airbrushing images of Kate Winslet to make her look much thinner than she really is.

The star of "Iris" appears on the front cover of the latest issue sporting accentuated cheekbones and noticeably smaller breasts and legs. But according to editor Dylan Jones, the actress loves the "digitally manipulated" shots.

In an interview with the London Evening Standard he says, "Kate saw the pictures before publication and loved them. Various parts have been improved, including her stomach and legs. As far as I remember she was aware of the alterations.

"I'll be very surprised and a little disappointed if she is anything other than completely happy. I don't think we've gone too far — I think she looks magnificent," the editor adds.

Winslet’s New York publicist Robert Garlock, confirms the actress had approved the photos before publication.

Winslet gained considerable weight following the birth of her daughter Mia. In the GQ interview she says: "What is sexy? All I know from the men I've spoken to is that women think in order to be adored they have to be thin. Very thin. I just don't understand that way of thinking."

Winslet, 27, will be next appearing in Alan Parker’s "The Life of David Gale" with Kevin Spacey. She’ll be appearing next in Marc Foster’s "Neverland" with Johnny Depp, and will soon begin work on Michel Gondry’s "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" opposite Jim Carrey.

Bleeth breaks her silence on battle against cocaine

"I never expected to get into drugs," Yasmine Bleeth says.

But the former Baywatch actress has spent the past five years battling cocaine. She chronicles her addiction in the February issue of Glamour, which arrives on newsstands Tuesday.

At first, in 1998, cocaine was a social thing, says Bleeth, 34. Then she realized she could call a dealer and have it delivered to her home, "like ordering Chinese food."

It soon became all she could think about: coming home from work to do lines. Baywatch ended in 1997; she was living in San Francisco playing opposite Don Johnson on Nash Bridges.

"I'd spend hours plucking my eyebrows, putting on tanning cream, doing a facial. But mostly, I'd shop on the Internet," she says. "Shopping was instant gratification. Just like the drugs."

Bleeth stopped seeing friends. She often had bloody noses. "And if I was sniffling, my publicist would tell people I had sinus problems, which I do."

By the end of 1999, she "looked like an alien," she says. Normally a size 6, she was down to size 0.

In July 2000, she collapsed at a Glamour photo shoot. Five months later she checked into Promises rehab center in Malibu. There she met Paul Cerrito, a club owner in Michigan. Life was looking up.

Two weeks later, she was taking cocaine again.

Then, in September 2001, she drove off a highway in Detroit while high on cocaine and hit a median. As part of a plea agreement, she must serve two years of probation and submit to regular drug tests.

Bleeth spent the next few months after the accident at Paul's mother's house in Michigan, staying sober and eating. She gained 20 pounds. In August 2002, she and Paul were married in Santa Barbara. It's been a struggle, Bleeth writes, but she realizes that "consciously trying to stay off drugs is now part of my life and always will be."

Coke Mounts Ad Campaign for Classic Brand

ATLANTA (Reuters) - Coca-Cola Co. on Thursday unveiled a new advertising campaign for its slumping Coke Classic brand in the United States, the latest offensive in the soft drink maker's bitter battle with PepsiCo. Inc. for control of the $30 billion U.S. cola market.

The world's No. 1 soft drink maker said the campaign, which features actresses Penelope Cruz and Courteney Cox, boxing legend Muhammad Ali and R&B singer Mya, could be adapted and extended to its more than 200 markets around the world later in the year.

The United States is the largest and most important market for Atlanta-based Coca-Cola and its main rival PepsiCo.

Coca-Cola, which has been criticized for poor marketing in recent years, said it attempted to design a unique advertising platform that would strike an authentic, emotional and contemporary chord with consumers, especially teenagers and young adults, who are the key target audience of the campaign.

The tagline "Coca-Cola Real," a throwback to the 1960's slogan, "It's the real thing," has been added as part of the campaign. The television ads will debut on Monday during the American Music Awards program on the ABC network.

"These ads convey what consumers told us it means to 'be real' -- being true to yourself, plugging in to life and connecting with others with a natural optimism," said Esther Lee, chief creative officer with Coca-Cola's North American division.

More than a dozen new Coke Classic television ads and a number of print and radio spots are scheduled to appear in the first quarter of 2003, including several aimed at the African-American and Hispanic communities, Coca-Cola said.

Some ads will be tied to Coke's sponsorship of NASCAR racing and NCAA sports.

World-class cyclist Lance Armstrong and NASCAR driver Tony Stewart are among the athletes who appear in the U.S. commercials, most of which were crafted by WPP Group's Berlin Cameron/Red Cell rather than Coke's lead ad agency, Interpublic Group of Cos.' McCann-Erickson.

A BELCHING CRUZ

Industry insiders said the soft drink maker's ads revealed a more playful and humorous side, as well as a desire to connect to everyday people by portraying celebrities and others in real life situations.

One of the celebrity spots shows the dazzling Cruz entering a diner and belching after chugging a bottle of Coke.

"These ads represent a quantum leap forward for Coke Classic advertising," said John Sicher, editor of Beverage Digest, a leading industry newsletter. "They put as much or more emphasis on the consumer's relationship to the brand as they do the brand itself."

The campaign, which also includes a graphics and packaging make-over, will be the first comprehensive promotional push on behalf of Coke Classic since the poorly received "Life Tastes Good" campaign two years ago.

That advertising blitz was pulled in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon complex in Washington, D.C.

Chris Lowe, chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola North America, would not disclose how much Coca-Cola intended to spend on its new marketing campaign, although he did say it would be the company's main advertising effort this year.

Purchase, New York-based PepsiCo. is expected to launch an ad campaign for its core Pepsi-Cola brand later this year.

Although Coke Classic remains the most popular soft drink in the United States, its volume in supermarkets and other retail stores dropped 0.8 percent in the first 11 months of 2002, according to Beverage Digest.

FOLLOWS SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH OF VANILLA COKE

Other leading soft drink brands experienced even sharper volume drops than the Classic brand. Pepsi's namesake brand saw its volumes drop 1.5 percent and Coke's Sprite brand fell 4 percent in the same period, according to Beverage Digest.

While retailers are not the only source of cola sales, analysts said it was important that Coca-Cola mount a solid marketing campaign for its best-selling and most profitable brand in order to keep the momentum generated by the successful launch last year of the Vanilla Coke brand.

"I think they have shown with Vanilla Coke that they can breathe life back into the Coca-Cola trademark," J.P. Morgan analyst John Faucher said. "This is a key factor in terms of them maintaining the momentum in North America," added Faucher, who has a neutral rating on Coca-Cola's stock.

Coke shares, which have been mired in a prolonged slump, rose 46 cents to close at $44.53 on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. PepsiCo. was 44 cents higher at $43.14 on the NYSE.

Analysts said a successful Coke Classic campaign also would take some pressure off Coca-Cola Chairman and Chief Executive Douglas Daft, who pledged to improve the company's performance after formally taking over in February 2000.

Daft and the rest of the Coca-Cola management team have grappled in the past year with the impact of an economic slowdown in key markets, most notably Latin America.

Thomas Mottola Resigns as Sony Music Head

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Record mogul Thomas Mottola, who helped guide the careers of veteran acts like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen while overseeing the rise of Jennifer Lopez and ex-wife Mariah Carey, "resigned" on Thursday as chairman and CEO of Sony Music Entertainment to start his own label.

Mottola's contract with Sony had been set to run for another two years, but rumors of his departure had circulated following a reported fallout over his contract renewal amid a prolonged slump in the music industry.

Mottola reportedly had earned $7 million a year plus a percentage of Sony Music's revenue.

His exit comes after a turbulent year punctuated by the settlement of a bitter contract dispute with the Dixie Chicks, leading to release of their hit album and Sony's biggest commercial success, "Home," and a highly publicized rift between Sony and pop star Michael Jackson. Mottolla, 52, spent much of the past several months preparing Sony Music for an overhaul that he envisioned would take the label into the talent management business. He recently announced a promotional venture with Pepsi, a marketing deal between Celine Dion and Chrysler and the acquisition of veteran rock band AC/DC's catalog.

The recording industry veteran, who signed Carey and then married her, will resign his posts, effective immediately, to launch a new venture to be formed in partnership with Sony Music, a unit of Sony Corp., the company said.

Mottola, now divorced from Carey and married to Latin recording artist Thalia, was highly regarded as a talent spotter who ran his division at Sony with a tight-knit circle of hand-picked executives.

"I have been thinking about taking up this new challenge for about a year, and really made the decision to go forward only recently," Mottola said in a statement.

Sony said it expected to name a successor within the next few days.

Potential candidates cited by industry sources included Bob Pittman, former chief operating officer of AOL Time Warner Inc. , and Warren Lieberfarb, former president for AOL Time Warner's Warner Bros. home video. Daily Variety reported another possible successor was Doug Morris, chairman and CEO of recording rival Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi Universal .

Sony, which ranks third in the U.S. music market behind Universal and Bertelsmann, incurred operating losses exceeding $100 million in the past year. Earlier Thursday, Bertelsmann's RCA Music cut about 50 people from its staff.

HELPED LAUNCH STARS

Mottola helped revive Dylan's career in 1997 with key support for the Grammy-winning "Time Out of Mind" and brought Dion and Barbra Streisand together the same year for a Christmas duet on an album that became a big hit.

Mottola also scored a coup when he bought rights to the soundtrack to the hit film "Titanic," which became the hottest-selling soundtrack of the decade.

But perhaps his greatest single success at Sony was Mariah Carey. According to music industry legend, Mottola listened to Carey's demo tape in his limo on the way home from a party and was so taken by it, that he doubled back to track her down.

Mottola's stormy relationship with another icon, Michael Jackson, also grabbed headlines last year when the self-described "King of Pop" denounced Mottola as "racist" and "devilish." Sony responded at the time with a statement saying it was "deeply offended by the outrageous comments."

Mottola first joined CBS records in 1988 at age 37 as president and a year later was named president of Sony. He was named president and chief operating officer of Sony Music in 1993 and chairman and chief executive in 1998.

DVD Dollar Derby for Home Video Biz

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Not bad for an "ancillary" business: last year, DVDs helped drive the domestic video industry to a monstrous $20.3 billion.

Consumers spent $12.1 billion to buy movies on DVD or VHS, and $8.2 billion more renting them.

Total spending was up 11.5%. Combined with theatrical ticket purchases, consumers spent more than $30 billion buying, renting, and going to see movies in 2002, making it one of the largest business sectors and certainly one of the highest growth areas in an otherwise moribund economy. (The $12.1 billion spent on the purchase of videos exceeds the record-setting amount spent on the movie theater tickets last year.)

Purchases of DVDs grew 52.6% to $8.7 billion. The growth in rentals was even more astonishing -- 106% to $2.9 billion. In comparison, $3.7 billion was spent buying videocassettes, $5.3 billion renting.

While DVD sparked a 23.5% growth in sales, that new interest in purchasing movies led to a decline in rentals, which were down 3% overall to $8.2 billion, with 144 million fewer copies rented, according to VSDA VidTrac.

Warner Home Video easily dominated, with its 21.7% share of the sales-and-rental market. The public spent $4.4 billion on Warner titles (which include New Line Home Video releases), according to Daily Variety sister publication Video Business.

Warner was the leader in nearly every category including DVD sales and rentals (though it was runner-up to Disney in VHS sales).

Disney, which also distributes Miramax and Dimension videos, was a strong second overall -- $3.7 billion and 18.2% of the market -- and was runner-up in most categories. While Warner was leading the charge to lower prices, more sales and fewer rentals, the Mouse House stuck to its strategy of higher pricing and more profitability as it enjoyed a huge surge in the purchase of family movies on DVD. The studio had a 40% share of the family market (which experienced a huge growth of 94% last year to $2.3 billion).

Disney executives said their titles generally earn more in video sell-through than from box office. For instance, Disney's "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" earned $84.1 million at the box office but $130 million from video (6.1 million copies on video and DVD). Disney says its video-to-box office ratio is 60% higher than at other studios.

By comparison, Warner's "Scooby-Doo" collared $153.3 million at the box office, but earned $118 million in video (selling 6.8 million copies).

Still, a few other titles found greater success on video than at the box office. DreamWorks' "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron," earned $73.2 million at the box office but generated sales of $100 million on video (with sales of nearly 6 million units) via video distributor Universal.

The top title of 2002 was Disney's "Monsters, Inc." -- consumers spent $384.8 million renting and buying DVD and VHS editions (21 million copies were sold). Impressive as that is, it doesn't match the 24 million units that DreamWorks' "Shrek" sold in 2001.

Ranking second and fourth, respectively, were 2001 titans "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." They raked in $380.1 million and $343.88 million for New Line and Warner, respectively.

Columbia TriStar's Halloween release "Spider-Man" was the third-biggest title of the year as consumers spent $348 million on DVD and VHS versions of the movie. Still, the title won't meet the company's exceedingly high hopes -- the studio shipped a record 27 million copies of the biggest box office hit of the year and 17.5 million have been purchased so far.

Without any distributed labels like New Line, DreamWorks or Miramax to help overall market share, Fox ran close to Universal on the strength of two theatrical hits, "Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones" and "Ice Age." The two ran neck and neck, each generating in excess of $200 million on video.

Top rental titles last year include Fox's "Don't Say a Word," with $83.97 million in total rental spending for DVD and VHS versions, followed by Warner's "Ocean's Eleven" ($82.2 million), "Training Day" ($79.5 million) and "The Fast and the Furious" ($70.71 million).

SIX FEET Rises Again in March

HBO has marked March 2 as the premiere date for the third season of the award winning SIX FEET UNDER.

Kathy Bates (ABOUT SCHMIDT), Dan Attias (THE SOPRANOS), Michael Cuesta (L.I.E.), Michael Engler (SEX AND THE CITY), Rodrigo Garcia (THINGS YOU CAN TELL JUST BY LOOKING AT HER), Jeremy Podeswa (THE FIVE SENSES), and Nicole Holfocener (LOVELY AND AMAZING) will all be directing an episode this season.

NO MORE SEX

HBO announced yesterday that next year will be the sixth and final season of the cable net's seductive urban comedy Sex and the City (unless the creators change their minds).

Twenty episodes will be shot this spring, with 12 of the half-hour episodes airing this summer and the final eight launching in January 2004.

Springsteen To Play Calgary And Edmonton?

Sources have confirmed that perennial American rocker Bruce Springsteen will make some Alberta stops on his current tour with the E Street Band.

Wooo hoooo!

The tentative Calgary date is April 13, with an official announcement expected in the coming weeks.

The Boss' jaunt would kick off in Vancouver on April 11, before heading to Calgary, Edmonton (April 14), Ottawa (April 18) and Montreal (April 19).

Springsteen and his band already played Toronto in early December, so it's not known whether another date would be added.

When contacted, representatives from House of Blues Canada confirmed that while nothing is official, they have been working on a local Springsteen show and the April 13 date was definitely "in the window" they were looking at.

Bring it on and come on up to The Rising!

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce!!

Blue, Blanc Et Rouge!

Buena Vista has just announced the full specs for Krzysztof Kieslowski's epic trilogy Red, White and Blue, due in stores on March 4th.

This three-disc set featuers plenty of extras.

On BLUE: an audio commentary by film scholar Annette Insdorf and selected scene commentary with producer Marin Karmitz, actress Juliette Binoche and film editor Jacques Witta, the featurettes "Reflections On Bleu," "A Discussion On Kieslowski's Early Years," "A Conversation With Juliette Binoche on Kieslowski" and "Krzysztof Kieslowski: Cinema Lesson."

On WHITE: an audio commentary by film scholar Jacques Witta and selected scene commentary with producer Marin Karmitz, actress Julie Delpy, and film editor Jacques Witta, the featurettes "A Look At Blanc," "A Discussion On Kieslowski's Later Years,", "A Conversation With Julie Delpy On Kieslowski," "Krzysztof Kieslowski's Cinema Lesson" and "Behind The Scenes Of White With Krzysztof Kieslowski;"

And on RED: an audio commentary by film scholar Annette Insdorf and selected scene commentary with producer Marin Karmitz, actress Irene Jacob, and film editor Jacques Witta, the featurettes "Insights Int Troi Coleurs: Rouge," "A Discussion On Working With Kieslowski," "A Conversation With Irene Jacob On Kieslowski," "Krzysztof Kieslowski's Cinema Lesson," "Behind The Scenes With Kryzsztof Kieslowski" and "Red At Cannes 1994."

All three films feature multiple theatrical trailers, and retail is $39.95.

Sweeeeeeeeeet!

Corey Feldman: No Longer Lost

Former child star hopes upcoming reality show jumpstarts career.

(PEOPLE) -- Much of Corey Feldman's life has played out in front of the cameras. So it's fitting, then, that he would take part in a reality show a la "The Real World" called "The Surreal Life."

Feldman sees the WB realityfest -- in which he shares a home with other celebrities including Motley Crue's Vince Neil and the former MC Hammer for 10 days -- as a strategic career move. "I'm all about image repair at this point," he told The Boston Globe recently.

He's also hoping "The Surreal Life" will help him promote his album "Former Child Actor," which he released in August. He co-wrote the title song with his friend, another 1980s teen idol, Rick Springfield. "I don't want to be lumped into any categories," Feldman, 31, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in June. "That's what the album's all about -- 'Former Child Actor.' I've been labeled all my life."

Feldman has been in the spotlight since he landed a McDonald's commercial at age 3. By the time he was 8 he had made his movie debut (in 1979's "Time After Time"), and by his teen years, he had become one of Hollywood's busiest young actors, starring in movies such as 1985's "The Goonies" and 1986's "Stand By Me."

The constant work was an escape from an abusive household, says Feldman. "I couldn't be abused too badly when I was working because they didn't want me to have bruises, you know," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in June. At 15, he was granted legal emancipation from his parents, Sheila and Robert Feldman.

Troubles didn't end there

Feldman, right, uncovers a mystery in 1986's "Stand By Me," along with costars Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix and Jerry O'Connell.

But the young actor's troubles didn't end there. A growing addiction to drugs culminated in a 1990 arrest for heroin possession. "It took people a long, long time to forgive me. I was just a kid making mistakes like any other kid," he told the Phoenix New Times in 2000. Feldman has been drug-free for more than a decade.

Despite his clean-and-sober status, getting his career back on track was tough. "It took about six years for me to get my foot back in the door," Feldman told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "And then once I did get my foot back in, the work was there again, but it was just in drips and drabs," in low-profile films such as 1994's "National Lampoon's Last Resort."

Today, the L.A.-based Feldman is still acting: He has appeared in independent films such as the recently released "Bikini Bandits" and as a guest on CBS's "The Guardian." He plays himself in the upcoming David Spade comedy "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star." In addition to the acting work, Feldman is busy touring to support his album, the follow-up to 1999's "Still Searching for Soul."

As for living "The Surreal Life," audiences will be treated to his on-camera marriage to college student Susie Sprague, 20, during the show's final episode. He hopes the show is a springboard for his career. "The long-range goal is for, obviously, the music to take off, for my film career to resurrect itself," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently. "I would like, in the long term, to be recognized as a writer-director-actor."

Kylie Minogue Scores Hat Trick in Polls

LONDON (Reuters) - Princess of pop Kylie Minogue scored a triple hit when she was voted the sexiest female celebrity, most beautiful woman and favorite pop star of 2002 in polls released Tuesday.

The petite Australian singer, famous for her skimpy hotpants, was named the sexiest star, beating Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears in a readers' poll for Heat magazine, which will be published next week. She was also declared the most popular pop star and most beautiful woman of the past year in an annual survey organized by the London wax museum Madame Tussaud's.

Singers Robbie Williams and Gareth Gates came in second and third in Tussaud's popularity category, while actress Halle Berry landed in second position among the most beautiful.

Anna Nicole Smith Named Worst Dressed of 2002

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Now we know why she made her living as a stripper -- her clothes are just too ugly to wear.

Hollywood's fast-talking fashion designer Mr. Blackwell named former Playboy Playmate, and current cow, Anna Nicole Smith on Tuesday as the worst dressed woman of 2002. But she was not alone.

She was followed closely on the annual list that has become a Hollywood favorite by a bevy of pop singers including Christina Aguilera and Shakira, actresses Meg Ryan and Cameron Diaz, Britain's Princess Anne and Kelly Osbourne, the daughter of British rocker Ozzy Osbourne.

Mr. Blackwell, a one-time designer for Jayne Mansfield, Jane Russell and Dorothy Lamour, said Smith topped his 43rd annual list because "Anna's fashion follies are the worst of the year ... don't bother with a new designer Anna, just hire a structural engineer!"

Smith, a Texas native who worked as a stripper when she met her late millionaire octogenarian husband, has been starring in her own TV reality series that has been savaged by the critics for its inane content, poor fashion sense and embarrassing portrayal of its bumbling, overweight heroine.

Smith joins a select list of fashion failures that in past years has included Judy Garland, Cher and Barbra Streisand, whom Mr. Blackwell compared to Ringo Starr in drag.

SCARY BABY DOLL

In second place on the latest Blackwell list was another star of a reality series, Kelly Osbourne. Mr. Blackwell described her as "A fright-wigged Baby Doll, stuck in a goth prom gown. Now we know what happened to Ozzy's hand-me-downs!"

Named third was pop singer Shakira, whom Mr. Blackwell described as "overwrought and underdressed."

Film star Cameron Diaz nabbed fourth place with Mr. Blackwell opining that she "looks like she was dressed by a color-blind circus clown." Britain's Princess Anne wound up in fifth place because: "Her Royal Dowager Drag is dreary, drab and dour." Her mother, Queen Elizabeth, and her aunt, PrincessMargaret, have previously appeared on the list -- talk about "All in the Family."

In sixth place was "Interview with A Vampire" author Anne Rice whom Mr. Blackwell said "looks like a cross between Queen Victoria and the Vampire Lestat." He was not much nicer to designer Donatella Versace whom he said "resembles a flash-fried Venus, stuck in a Miami Strip Mall."

Actress Meg Ryan was eighth because Mr. Blackwell deemed her "a total fashion wreck" who "looks like a Swap-Meet Fashion Queen in Beverly Hills."

A pair of pop stars, Christina Aguilera and Pink, finished ninth and 10th respectively, Aguilera because "her barely-there bimbo bombs wouldn't cover a gnat" and Pink because "out of the blue, pops Pink, and I'm seeing red."

Summing it all up Mr. Blackwell said 2002 represented "not a pretty picture ... fashion flip-flopped all over the place."

Murray, Carter Elected to Hall of Fame

NEW YORK - When Cooperstown came calling for Gary Carter and Eddie Murray, they answered in vastly different ways.

Carter shouted and punched the air in joy when he heard the words "Hall of Fame."

Murray could hardly speak, but for a much more somber reason.

The only switch-hitter with 500 home runs and 3,000 hits, Murray became just the 38th player to be elected to the Hall in his first year of eligibility Tuesday.

The steady, silent first baseman of the Baltimore Orioles could not enjoy the moment. Later in the day in Southern California, he was to attend the funeral of his sister, who died Jan. 2 at 38.

"Unfortunately, I cannot speak with you today because of the passing of my younger sister, Tanja, after her long-fought battle with kidney disease," Murray said in a statement.

"Although I dedicated my professional career to the game, I have dedicated my life to my family. The elation I feel by being recognized for my achievements on the field is overshadowed by the anguish of losing someone so dear to me," he said.

Always exuberant, Carter finally made it on his sixth try. An 11-time All-Star catcher with Montreal and the New York Mets, he may become the first player inducted with an Expos cap on his plaque.

"I got overly excited and screamed," Carter said. "Now we can do a little celebrating."

Murray easily exceeded the 75 percent necessary for election, getting chosen on 85 percent of the ballots (423 of 496).

Carter got in with 78 percent (387). He fell 11 votes short last year at 72.7 percent.

Murray and Carter played together for Los Angeles in 1991. They became the sixth set of teammates to be elected together; Minnesota's Kirby Puckett and Dave Winfield made it in 2001.

No one else came close in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Carry-over candidates Bruce Sutter, Jim Rice and Andre Dawson were right around 50 percent, and first-timers Ryne Sandberg and Lee Smith didn't even reach that mark. Darryl Kile, the St. Louis pitcher who died last season, got token support.

Pete Rose, ineligible for the ballot because he's on baseball's permanently banned list, got 18 write-in votes — the same as last year. Rose and commissioner Bud Selig's aides have been negotiating terms of a possible reinstatement for the career hits leader.

Kile, who got seven votes, was among several players who did not receive the necessary 5 percent to stay on the ballot. Mitch "Wild Thing" Williams was among four players who did not get a vote.

Schroder Scrubs Up

Rick Schroder (SILVER SPOONS) has agreed to guest star in two February sweeps episode of NBC's SCRUBS. Schroder will play Paul, a potential love interest for Elliot. However, she has a problem with him when she finds out he's just a nurse and not a doctor. The two episoodes will air January 30 and February 6.

Springsteen, newcomers lead Grammy nods

The Grammys played it right down the middle Tuesday morning, honoring veterans -- such as previous Grammy winners Bruce Springsteen, Sheryl Crow and Eminem -- and a host of newcomers as the Recording Academy announced the nominations for the 45th Annual Grammy Awards.

Springsteen, Eminem, Crow and Nelly, and newcomers Ashanti, Norah Jones, and Avril Lavigne all tied for the lead with five Grammy nominations apiece.

Springsteen was nominated for album of the year for "The Rising" and song of the year for that September 11-inspired album's title song.

Also nominated for album of the year were Eminem for "The Eminem Show," 2002's best-selling record; the Dixie Chicks for "Home"; Nelly for "Nellyville"; and Jones for her jazzy "Come Away With Me."

Jones also was nominated for best new artist. Joining her in that category were Ashanti, Michelle Branch, Lavigne and John Mayer.

The nominees for record of the year were "A Thousand Miles" by Vanessa Carlton, "Without Me" by Eminem, "Don't Know Why" by Norah Jones, "Dilemma" by Nelly featuring Kelly Rowland, and "How You Remind Me" by Nickleback.

Tuesday's nods were announced by several musicians, including Ashanti, Lavigne, Mayer and Nelly, from New York's Madison Square Garden. The 45th annual Grammy Awards are scheduled to take place February 23 at Madison Square Garden.

In total there are over 75 categories for Grammy Awards, so if you want to see all the nominees, here's the complete list.

'Seinfeld' Prime for TBS

NEW YORK (Variety) - TBS will experiment for the first time ever with a sitcom in primetime, scheduling reruns of "Seinfeld" Wednesdays at 8 and 8:30 ET.

The cable network has chosen Wednesday, said senior VP of programming Bill Cox, because "it's the one night of the week we don't have any sports. 'Seinfeld' will run consistently, without interruption."

TBS' original deal with "Seinfeld" distributor Sony Pictures TV allows the network to play two half-hours in primetime. But up until now, TBS has filled the 8-10 slot on Wednesday with two firstrun reality hours from Sony, "Ripley's Believe It or Not" at 8 and "Worst Case Scenario" at 9.

Under the new schedule, "Ripley's" shifts to 9, the two-hour Wednesday movie continues at 10 and "Worst Case" gets pushed back to midnight.

But Cox said the midnight slot doesn't mean TBS is planning to cancel "Worst Case." TBS, unlike most cable networks, has not set up a dual feed, so cable subscribers on the West Coast will get "Worst Case" at 9 p.m. The final nine episodes of the 22-hour rookie season of "Worst Case" begin this month, and TBS will scrutinize the show's West Coast ratings.

Reruns of "Seinfeld" continue on TBS twice every weeknight, at 6:30 and 7:30, sandwiched around "Friends" reruns at 7.

Today's New Releases!

One of 2002's best films gets the home treatment today as Signs comes out on DVD and Video. Oh, and there are some other goodies too!

Here are the new video and DVD releases for Tuesday, January 7th, 2003:

Signs- Mysterious patterns begin to appear on family farm. (Mel Gibson, Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin)

Martin Lawrence Live: RunTelDat- The latest Martin Lawrence stand-up comedy tour from 2001. (Martin Lawrence)

The Good Girl- ABored wife has relationship with teenage co-worker. (Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reilly)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The 3rd Season- The complete third season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. (Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hanigan)

OZ: The Complete Second Season- The complete second season of the TV show.

The Shield: The Complete First Season- The First season of the FX police drama (Michael Chiklis, CCH Pounder, Catherine Dent).

New Music Releases

There isn't much new music being released today, but here are the pickins.

NEW ORDER Retro Box Set- A must for any NEW ORDER fan, "Retro," features four CDS selected by influential fans of the band like journalists Miranda Sawyer & John McCready, HACIENDA DJ Mike Pickering, and PRIMAL SCREAM frontman Bobby Gillespie. A special 5-disc version can be ordered directly from the RHINO website.

MELLOWDRONE a demonstration of intellectual property EP
CHER You Better Sit Down (Disky)
AARON LINES Living Out Loud (RCA)

Plus... JANE BUNNETT, THE EXIES, THE JTG IMPLOSION, AARON LINES, SADAHARU, BRAD SHEPIK TRIO, and soundtracks to MAN OF LA MANCHA, FLOWER DRUM SONG, CIRQUE DU SOLEIL: VAREKAI.

Geri Halliwell's 'Therapy' cancelled

Plans for a $15 million romantic comedy starring former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell have been abandoned because producers could not find a suitable actor willing to play her love interest.

British director David Green decided to cancel financing for "Therapy" because big name actors including Hugh Grant, Kenneth Branagh, Ben Chaplin, and others all turned down the role.

Green told the UK Mirror that nobody complained about the film script, saying, "one can only conclude that maybe they didn't want to work with a pop star attempting an acting career."

Halliwell was to play a London woman who falls for her therapist. She announced her intentions for the role nearly 3 years ago at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000, and was originally supposed to begin filming that year.

Green still hopes to make the film this summer, with a recast leading lady.

Since leaving the Spice Girls in 1998, Halliwell has released two solo albums and despite eluding the big screen, has starred in two instructional yoga videos.

Shania to play at Super Bowl

Shania Twain will be getting her football kicks once again -- this time at Super Bowl XXXVII.

Fresh off her Grey Cup half-time performance last November, Twain is now set to play the half-time show at Super Bowl XXXVII at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, Jan. 26.

So far, Shania is the only artist announced for this year's game, although other acts are expected. Last year's Super Bowl included performances by U2, Paul McCartney, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Marc Anthony, Barry Manilow, Wynonna, Yolanda Adams, James Ingram and Patti LaBelle.

The annual sporting extravaganza is perennially the most-watched TV show of the year, and FOX boasts that up to 131 million people in the U.S. will watch at least a portion of the contest that should claim a total of 800 million viewers worldwide.

Twain's latest album "Up!" is currently sitting at No. 1 on the Canadian charts for a sixth straight week.

Lisa Marie Presley's Debut Album Due In April

Elvis Presley's daughter Lisa Marie Presley is following in her father's footsteps: Her debut solo album is due out April 8 via Capitol Records, according to her official website. The 34-year-old singer penned all of the songs on the collection.

The project has been in the works for several years. Producer and label head Glen Ballard told us nearly three years ago that Presley's debut would be a diverse offering: "I think that it's a pop record, but it also has elements of blues, funk, country, R&B, hip-hop--it's sort of the confluence of whatever modern-day Memphis is right now." He added, "It has a lot of influences, and it continues to grow and evolve. It sort of grew up in the soil from which she sprang."

In August of 2002, Presley was a presenter at the MTV Video Music Awards, where she and Canadian singer Avril Lavigne presented the honor for best female video to Pink.

Madonna Working On New Set

Madonna's as-yet-untitled next studio album is scheduled for release in April. The music video for the set's first single will be shot in February and it will be directed by Jonas Ackerlund, according to the singer's website.

In related news, Madonna is currently nominated for a Golden Globe for best original song for her title theme for the latest James Bond film, Die Another Day. Madonna has been nominated for best original song seven times since 1987, and she's only won once--in 1996 for "You Must Love Me" from the musical movie Evita.

Other Golden Globes nominations for best original song in a film are: U2 for 'The Hands That Built America," which featured on the soundtrack to the new Martin Scorsese film, Gangs Of New York; Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from 8 Mile, which is currently Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 for a tenth consecutive week; Paul Simon's "Father And Daughter" from The Wild Thornberrys Movie, based on the Nickelodeon TV cartoon series; and Hans Zimmer's "Here I Am" from the animated feature Spirit: Stallion Of The Cimarron, performed by Bryan Adams, who co-wrote the lyrics with songwriter Gretchen Peters.

The Golden Globes will be awarded at a star-studded event that will air January 19 on NBC.

Oh, Yeah!

Finally, a trailer for Quentin Tarantino's long-anticipated Kill Bill is online!

Britney Spears as Sherlock Holmes?!?

Britney Spears is in talks to play a modern-day Sherlock Holmes in a new movie. The movie, cringingly called 221bCAUSE, is about a disgraced cop who turns detective and saves the US President's kidnapped son. According to a movie mole, 'Britney is a New Yorker working there and she notices letters arriving for Sherlock Holmes. She starts to answer them as the detective and it leads her back to New York trying to trace the President's son.' Britters has also signed up to play the daughter of the boss of a team in the US Nascar motor racing series in an as yet untitled movie. Filming for the project is due to start this year.

Superman Actor Reeve Lands Back in 'Smallville'

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Christopher Reeve, the now- paralyzed actor who soared to movie fame as Superman, will soon lend some guidance to a young Clark Kent in an upcoming episode of the WB television series "Smallville."

WB spokesman Paul McGuire on Monday confirmed a report by TV Guide that Reeve will guest star in February as a brilliant scientist who provides Clark with "revelatory insight into his superhero destiny."

"Smallville," now in its second season as one of the WB's top-rated shows, stars Tom Welling as a teenaged Clark Kent coming to grips with his superhuman strength in the years before he grows up to become a mild-mannered reporter who moonlights as the red-caped Man of Steel.

The episode with Reeve is slated to run during the key ratings "sweep" in late February, McGuire said.

According to the report in TV Guide's next edition, which hits newsstands next Monday, the Vancouver-based production will be shot in New York City to accommodate Reeve, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a 1995 horseback riding accident.

Reeve was best known for playing the title role in the 1978 hit film "Superman" and in two movie sequels.

As part of the deal for him to guest star on "Smallville," the WB will run a public service announcement at the end of the episode for the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.

TV Guide columnist J. Max Robins quoted a "Smallville" insider as saying Reeve is a fan of the show and has told friends that Welling reminds him of a young Chris Reeve.

NO HOBBIT FOR PETER JACKSON

LORD OF THE RINGS director Peter Jackson says he will not likely follow up the current Tolkien trilogy with its prequel, THE HOBBIT.

Cinematographer Conrad Hall dies at 76

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Cinematographer Conrad L. Hall, a master artist of the camera who was nominated for nine Oscars and won two, has died. He was 76.

Hall died Saturday at a Santa Monica hospital of complications of bladder cancer, said his wife, Susan Hall.

Considered an expert in the use of light, Hall filmed nearly three dozen movies in a career that stretched over 50 years. He won Academy Awards for 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and 1999's American Beauty.

"Every film that he worked on was something beautiful to the eye and very imaginative," said producer Richard Zanuck, who was head of production at Twentieth Century Fox when Hall made Butch Cassidy and worked with him on last year's Irish-American mob tale, Road to Perdition.

"With Road to Perdition, you could virtually take every frame of his work and blow it up and hang it over your fireplace. It was like Rembrandt at work," Zanuck said. "Connie was not known for speed, but neither was Rembrandt. He was known for incredible genius."

Hall's other films included The Professionals (1966), In Cold Blood (1967), The Day of the Locust (1975) and Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993).

His many honours included a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Cinematography in 1994 and an outstanding achievement award in 1988 for Tequila Sunrise. He served last year as Kodak cinematographer in residence at the University of California, Los Angeles' School of Theater, Film and Television.

Hall was to be honoured later this month with a lifetime achievement award from the National Board of Review, Susan Hall said.

Born and raised in Tahiti, Hall was the son of James Norman Hall, co-author of the novels Mutiny on the Bounty and The Hurricane. He initially wanted to go into journalism, but after doing poorly in a creative writing class at the University of Southern California, he looked for a new major by flipping through the course catalogue, he told the Los Angeles Times last year.

"It started with A for astronomy, B for biology and C for cinema. I thought 'Cinema? You mean like movies? Rubbing elbows with stars? Making all that money?' For all the wrong reasons, I signed up, and then had a love affair with the visual language and learned to tell stories like my dad," Hall said.

Hall's son, Conrad W. Hall, followed him in the profession, most recently filming Panic Room.

Here are some of cinematographer Conrad L. Hall's films:

Road to Perdition, 2002
American Beauty, 1999
A Civil Action, 1998
Without Limits, 1998
Love Affair, 1994
Searching For Bobby Fischer, 1993
Class Action, 1991
Tequila Sunrise, 1988
The Day Of the Locust, 1975
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, 1969
In Cold Blood, 1967
Cool Hand Luke, 1967
The Professionals, 1966
Morituri!, 1965

Rest In Peace, Sir.

Female Musicians Lead Domestic Violence Benefit

A host of female musicians have donated "special and previously unreleased tracks" to "Respond II," a two-disc compilation that will benefit families affected by domestic violence. Featuring songs by Sarah McLachlan, Dolly Parton, Joan Baez, the Indigo Girls, Angelique Kidjo, and Suzanne Vega, the 32-track set is currently available directly from the Signature Sounds label's Web site, and will be released Jan. 21 through traditional and online retailers via distribution from Koch.

Like its 1999 predecessor "Respond," proceeds from the set will be donated to RESPOND Inc., and this time will be shared with the Family Violence Prevention Fund. Recognizing the support that late Billboard editor in chief Timothy White gave to the first project, "Respond II" is dedicated to his memory. "We thank him for his heart, generosity of spirit, and support," the dedication reads. "We couldn't have done it without him."

Vega contributes one of the most well-known songs about abuse, her 1987 No. 3 Billboard Hot 100 hit "Luka," while McLachlan gives over the compassionate "Witness," from her 1997 set "Surfacing." While a fair share of other singer/songwriters are represented (including Baez, Larkin, Aimee Mann, and Ani DiFranco), the set stretches into several genres, including bluegrass (Parton's "Endless Stream of Tears"), Latin pop (Bebel Gilberto's "Sem Contencao"), soul (Kidjo's "Tumba"; Sweet Honey In The Rock's "Run"), and indie rock (Sleater-Kinney's "You're No Rock'N'Roll Fun").

As the set is shepherded by the Somerville, Mass.-based Respond, Inc., many Boston-area artists have donated their work, including Letters To Cleo singer Kay Hanley ("Sheltering Sky"), former Belly/Throwing Muses principal Tanya Donelly ("Last Rain") and her Muses mate Kristin Hersh ("Spain"), Tracy Bonham ("I'm No Giant"), Jonatha Brooke ("Steady Pull"), and blues belter Susan Tedeschi ("Looking for Answers").

More information on the disc and the benefiting organizations can be found at the project's official Web site.

Here is the full "Respond II" track list:

Disc one:
"Lily," Joan Baez
"Steady Pull," Jonatha Brooke
"She's Saving Me" (acoustic version), Indigo Girls
"Lost in Space," Aimee Mann
"You're No Rock'N'Roll Fun," Sleater-Kinney
"Yo No," Ely Guerra
"So What," Ani DiFranco
"Good things Come to Those Who Wait," Toni Lynn Washington
"Tumba," Angelique Kidjo
"Chief," Patty Griffin
"Buffalo," Karaugh Brown
"Sheltering Sky," Kay Hanley
"Silver," Meghan Toohey and the So and So's
"Spain," Kristin Hersh
"Looking for Answers," Susan Tedeschi
"Last Rain," Tanya Donelly

Disc two:
"Luka," Suzanne Vega
"Mountain Top," Toshi Reagon
"Witness," Sarah McLachlan
"I Wish I Was the Moon," Neko Case
"Endless Stream of Tears," Dolly Parton
"Too Many Troubles," Julie Miller
"Lonely When You're Gone," Rachael Davis
"You Gotta Know How," Odetta
"Como Hacemos," Mili Bermejo
"Ashes on Your Eyes," Deb Talan
"Sem Contencao," Bebel Gilberto
"I'm No Giant," Tracy Bonham
"Black Feather Wings," Monique Ortiz
"Queen of Quiet" (fancy radio mix), Erin McKeown
"Run," Sweet Honey In The Rock
"More Love," Wannetta Jackson

'Monty Python' director dies at 76

LONDON -- Ian MacNaughton, a television director who helped bring "Monty Python's Flying Circus" to the screen, has died. He was 76.

MacNaughton died Dec. 10 in Munich, Germany from injuries sustained in a 2001 car accident, Monty Python member Terry Jones said.

MacNaughton directed all but the first four episodes of "Monty Python's Flying Circus," which ran on BBC television from 1969 to 1974.

In an obituary published in The Guardian newspaper, Jones said the series began with "a certain amount of friction" between the director and the strong-willed comedians. But MacNaughton soon became a valued member of the Monty Python team, credited with helping give shape to the troupe's unruly talents -- and defending them to skeptical BBC executives.

"He appreciated the spirit of Python: the subversiveness and a touch of anarchy struck a chord with him, and being a bit of a wild Scotsman, he loved the fact that we were trying something new," troupe member Michael Palin told The Times newspaper.

MacNaughton also directed the first Python feature film, "And Now For Something Completely Different," in 1971, and a German version of the series, "Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus," in 1971-72.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, MacNaughton spent time in medical school and the Royal Marines before becoming an actor. He appeared on television and had minor roles in films including "Lawrence of Arabia."

In the 1960s he moved into directing and carved out a niche in comedy. MacNaughton was highly regarded by comedians; he also worked with volatile comic genius Spike Milligan on the television series "Q5" and four sequels, and collaborated on the classic 1970s sitcom "Rising Damp."

MacNaughton spent his final years in Germany, the home of his second wife, Ike Ott. He directed the popular English-language series "Follow Me!" for German television and mounted theater and opera productions around the world.

He was returning from the opening night of his production of Alan Ayckbourn's "Season's Greetings" in Hall, Austria when he was injured in the car crash, Jones said.

He is survived by his wife, his ex-wife Rita and two children from his first marriage.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

Nomination ballots for the 75th Academy Awards being sent out to members this week with 279 feature films eligible for Best Picture of 2002 consideration. Nominations will be announced February 11.

Inept Car Thieves Couldn't Drive

EDMONTON, Alberta (Reuters) - Two would-be Canadian thieves learned the hard way on New Year's Day that knowing how to drive a car is a prerequisite for stealing one.

Police said the two males accosted a pizza delivery man in northeast Edmonton, Alberta, early Wednesday and demanded the four pizzas he was carrying as well as cash.

The bandits, aged 17 and 18, apparently changed their minds at one point and jumped into the man's car.

But their getaway was foiled because the 17-year-old behind the wheel did not know how to drive a stick shift.

Flummoxed by the manual transmission and clutch, the duo then went back to their original plan to commandeer the pizzas, Edmonton Police spokesman Wes Bellmore said.

"It was a toss-up between pizzas and the car, and they knew how to operate pizzas," Bellmore said.

When officers soon arrived on the scene, they spotted one of the suspects entering the home where the pizzas were to be delivered.

Both were arrested and have been charged with robbery and theft under $3,000.

Police also recovered the pizzas.

'Lord of the Rings' Is Box-Office King

LOS ANGELES - "The Two Towers" has scored a triple. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" was the top film for a third weekend, taking in $25.65 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The middle chapter of J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy epic, "The Two Towers" pushed its 19-day total to $261.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

With no big new films, box-office rankings shaped up much the same as last weekend. Steven Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks in a cat-and-mouse chase between a con man and an FBI agent, remained in second place with $21.3 million, lifting its 12-day total to $97.6 million.

Romantic comedies again held the No. 3 and 4 spots, with "Two Weeks Notice" grossing $11.6 million and "Maid in Manhattan" taking in $9 million.

In its first weekend of wide release after debuting in a handful of theaters last month, Jack Nicholson's acclaimed black comedy "About Schmidt" climbed to No. 5 with $8.75 million. Nicholson plays a retired insurance actuary reassessing his life after his wife dies.

Also expanding was the musical "Chicago," with Renee Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere, which came in at No. 9 with $5 million.

Playing in relatively narrow release at 816 theaters, "About Schmidt" averaged a healthy $10,723, while "Chicago" averaged $16,500 in 304 theaters. "The Two Towers" averaged $7,082 in 3,622 theaters, while "Catch Me If You Can" averaged $6,719 in 3,170 theaters.

"The Two Towers" has passed "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," which came out a month earlier and has reached a total gross of $252 million.

Worldwide, "Two Towers" has hit $560 million, and distributor New Line hopes it will top $1 billion and become the No. 2 film behind "Titanic," which climbed to $1.8 billion.

"Two Towers" picks up where "Fellowship of the Ring" left off and leaves viewers hanging, awaiting the conclusion next December with "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

"This is a movie without a beginning and an end. It's not a sequel but a continuation of a story," said David Tuckerman, New Line head of distribution.

Several films that opened over the holidays to qualify for the Academy Awards continued to do well in limited release. "The Hours," starring Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Julianne Moore, grossed $326,000 in 11 theaters for a $29,636 average.

Spike Lee's "The 25th Hour," starring Edward Norton as a drug dealer on his last day of freedom before going to prison, earned $131,000 at five theaters to average $26,281.

George Clooney's directing debut, "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind," with Sam Rockwell as game-show host Chuck Barris in a fictionalized thriller, took in $91,789 at four theaters for a $22,947 average.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers," $25.65 million.

2. "Catch Me If You Can," $21.3 million.

3. "Two Weeks Notice," $11.6 million.

4. "Maid in Manhattan," $9 million.

5. "About Schmidt," $8.75 million.

6. "Gangs of New York," $7.4 million.

7. "Drumline," $5.6 million.

8. "The Wild Thornberrys Movie," $5.5 million.

9. "Chicago," $5 million.

10. "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," $4.5 million.

Oldies Acts Drive Concert Ticket Sales to Record

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran pop stars such as Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, the Rolling Stones and Cher helped drive North American concert ticket sales to a record $2.1 billion last year, thanks to fans who forked out up to $350 each for the privilege of seeing their idols.

According to data collated by concert trade publication Pollstar, sales hit a record for the fourth consecutive year, and rose about 20 percent from 2001's tally of $1.75 billion.

Ticket prices for the top 100 acts averaged $46.56, a six percent increase over 2001's $43.86 average.

But the major acts charged sky-high prices. McCartney, on tour for the first time in nine years, was the top grosser with $103.3 million, Pollstar said. The former Beatle charged an average of $129.92 per ticket at his 53 shows, but his top price was about $250.

McCartney now ranks No. 4 on the all-time North American concert charts, behind the Rolling Stones ($121 million, 1994), U2 ($109.7 million, 2001) and Pink Floyd ($103.5 million, 1994).

The Rolling Stones, who were the No. 2 earners in 2002 with $87.9 million, averaged $119.20 per ticket. But tickets in the major cities cost as much as $350. On the other hand, fans in the front rows paid much less, about $90 each.

Pollstar editor Gary Bongiovanni said greedy rock stars were crippling the industry by demanding hefty guarantees from promoters, which results in high ticket prices and many empty seats.

"It would be difficult to find an industry insider who could pronounce overall business as healthy," he said.

The gross figures do not include merchandising sales, where rock stars earn a mint from such costly souvenirs as $35 T-shirts and $10 flashing buttons.

Pop diva Cher's supposed farewell tour was No. 3 on the list with total sales of $73.6 million, and an average ticket price of $71.89. Her maximum was about $80.

SLIDING STONES

The ever-popular pairing of Billy Joel and Elton John grossed $65.5 million. Their average ticket cost $107.88, but fans could shell out up to $175.

The Dave Matthews Band was fifth with $60.1 million. Their average ticket was a relative bargain at just $39.84. The group was also the most popular in terms of number of tickets sold, with more than 1.5 million fans paying to see their 77 shows.

By that measure, Cher was No. 2 with 1.1 million fans at 93 shows, and rock band Creed third with 953,000 fans at 83 shows, but No. 8 on the grosses list with $39.2 million.

For the first time, a Rolling Stones tour did not top the year-end charts. But the band played only 34 concerts, of which five were small theater gigs where tickets went for just $68. They resume their North American tour on Wednesday in Montreal, and are unlikely to top the 2003 list because they have only 14 concerts scheduled, including one free show.

Other major acts lined up for 2003 include 1970s veterans Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles. There are also unconfirmed reports of a reunion by the three surviving members of English rock group Led Zeppelin, which broke up after the 1980 death of drummer John Bonham.

Rounding out the year's top 10 were: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at No. 6 with $42.6 million, Aerosmith at No. 7 with $41.4 million, Creed at No. 8, Neil Diamond at No. 9 with $36.5 million, and the Eagles at No. 10 with $35.4 million.

Michelle Branch Working With Crow, Navarro, Others

MTV reports Michelle Branch has recently collaborated with both Sheryl Crow and Dave Navarro for the new album she's expected to release in April. Others who may appear on the album include Scott Weiland (STP), new JANE'S bassist Chris Chaney, and Beck's father, composer David Campbell. Navarro, who has been in the same studio as Branch, working on JANE'S ADDICTION's new album "Hypersonic," due out this summer, plays guitar on a number of the tracks that Branch is considering for the disc.

Canada Rocks!

Shania Twain, Alanis Morissette, Metallica, and the Backstreet Boys have the top albums of the Soundscan era, according to the service's parent company, Nielsen.

Soundscan has been tracking album sales since 1991 and Twain's 1997 release, Come On Over reigns on top, selling 14.4 million-plus copies, with Morissette's 1995 debut, Jagged Little Pill at Number Two with more than 14 million sold.

At Number Three is Metallica's self-titled album from 1991 at more than 13 million. Number Four belongs to the Backstreet Boys' 1999 Millennium, topping 13 million units; while Number Five is the 1992 soundtrack from Whitney Houston's film, The Bodyguard, with 11.7 million in sales.

The remaining top five on the list come in at around the 11 and 10 million sales mark. At Number Six is 1999's Supernatural by Santana and the Number Seven spot is held by Creed's 1999 second album, Human Clay. Number Eight belongs to *NSYNC's 2000 second album, No Strings Attached. Number Nine is claimed by Celine Dion's 1996 set Falling Into You. Rounding out the list at Number 10 is Britney Spears's 1999 album debut, ...Baby One More Time.

Here Are The Nominees For Hollywood's Best Performances In A Defending Role

2002 was the year that the celebrity mea culpa became an art form.

In fact, Whitney Houston's recent interview with Diane Sawyer provided enough classic excuses to fill a top-10 list all by itself. However, we didn't want to shortchange the creativity, ingenuity, and chutzpah of the many worthy stars who spent so much of the year explaining away their misdeeds.

So, in that giving spirit, EW.com offers the 10 best celebrity excuses of the year:

10) ''I've killed enough of the world's trees.''

-- Stephen King, on his planned retirement from publishing

9) ''People think it's s---.''

-- Guy Ritchie, telling Oxford students why his ''Swept Away,'' starring wife Madonna, is going straight to video in England

8) ''Tom Sizemore is a popular and nice guy. An individual became unruly when asked to leave and was escorted out of Mr. Sizemore's house. Subsequently, the individual asked me, Mr. Sizemore's attorney, for money. This is a shakedown and we are confident that it will go away.''

-- Robert Barta, attorney for Tom Sizemore, on the actor's misdemeanor battery charge for allegedly assaulting a woman claiming to be his fiancee

7) ''All I needed was, like, five hours' sleep.''

-- Mariah Carey, on her hospitalization for ''exhaustion'' last year

6) ''All I know is, I woke up and I am covered in cream.''

-- R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, testifying that he couldn't remember an alleged air-rage incident in which he was accused of overturning a breakfast cart, because of a blackout he blamed on a drink and a sleeping pill taken on an empty stomach; he was ultimately acquitted

5) ''Sometimes when I'm sleeping, you know, it's, like, in the middle of the night I'm not, like, totally clear. I'm thinking I'm sleeping with my wife.... I'm not even attracted to you! I am 150 to 200 percent happy with the wife that I have.''

-- ''Survivor: Thailand'' castaway Ted Rogers Jr., apologizing to tribemate Ghandia Johnson, in response to her accusation that he was ''grinding'' against her in her sleep

4) ''It was the goal of these people to eliminate me. This business would have worked except for these five or six guys. They wanted to kill Michael Ovitz. If they could have taken my wife and kids, they would have.''

-- Former Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz, blaming his fall from grace on what he called the industry's ''gay mafia''

3) ''Crack is cheap. I make too much money to use crack. Crack is wack.''

-- Whitney Houston, on why crack was absent from the otherwise lengthy list of drugs she admitted to having used

2) ''I made a terrible mistake. I got caught up in the excitement of the moment. I would never intentionally endanger the lives of my children.''

-- Michael Jackson, apologizing for dangling his baby outside a Berlin hotel window, several stories above a crowd of fans on the street

1) ''I was told that I should shoplift. The director said I should try it out.''

-- Saks Fifth Avenue guard Colleen Rainey, testifying during Winona Ryder's trial, quoting the actress' explanation that she was preparing for a movie role.

Columbia Wants More MIB

According to producer Walter Parkes, Columbia Pictures is hankering for a MEN IN BLACK III. Says Parkes, "The studio wants one. We're trying to figure out the auspices of it and what to do to freshen that franchise up a little bit." Parkes also says he was rather disenchanted with the sequel, "It was a heartbreaking thing. There were many disagreements among the different principals, and what came out was not a movie worthy of the franchise." It is clear that Barry Sonnenfeld will not direct the third, as he did the first two; another director will be chosen.

A sequel to SEVEN may be in the works - sans Brad Pitt.

A sequel to hit film Seven is to be made - with original star Morgan Freeman but minus hunk Brad Pitt. The grisly serial killer movie wowed audiences in the 1995 who watched as Pitt's character Detective David Mills was left bereft after his wife and unborn baby became the last victims of Kevin Spacey's eerie psycho.

Instead the action will center on Freeman's character William Somerset, who partnered Pitt in the first film, as he comes up against another serial killer - who has psychic abilities. An insider says, "The gruesome climax had previously ruled out a sequel. But bosses think they have the right script now. Brad's character will be mentioned, but he will not appear. He will be in a mental hospital."

Parkes Wants a WAR GAMES 2

Writer/producer Walter Parkes wants to do a follow-up to his hit 80s movie WAR GAMES.

Producer Walter Parkes recently talked with Screenwriting magazine about "Catch Me If You Can" and was asked whether he would write anything ever again. He's only ever penned two scripts - "WarGames" & "Sneakers" which became excellent films, and surprisingly enough Parkes seems keen on following up on one of them: "I'm actually writing a follow-up to WarGames. The idea's actually been floating around up there - in my head - for years, but it's just been finding time to sit down and write it.

Anyway, we're doing that right now. I'd like to keep most of it secret for the moment but it'd definiely deal with the information age explosion we've been dealt in years to come. We're hoping Matthew (Broderick) and Ally (Sheedy) will come back to play David and Jennifer. We'd love John (Boorman) to direct of course. War Games 2 will take us up to about 2004. I'll be producing another of Hanks films then. But early days on that".

FRIENDS: THE MOVIE

A movie based on NBC's FRIENDS has hit the rumor mill - the supposed script involves raunchiness and nudity.

The sitcom Friends may make its big screen debut next year - complete with all six famous cast members and a raunchier adult slant. The Emmy-winning show has already had its television run extended by a year after all six stars agreed to a tenth season and it is thought that the promise of a movie spin-off convinced them all to stay on board. The film antics of the New York buddies will be far more risque than the televised shows and could include sex and nudity.

A studio source says, "Without those pesky American television network censors, it will be much more adult and will even include nudity." Reports suggest that hunky air head Joey Tribbiani played by Matt LeBlanc will be the one to disrobe first. The source says, "Matt has a huge female following, not to mention gay men. They will likely flock to the movie to see him bare all." Actors Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer were already willing to extend the show's award winning run but both Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston had misgivings due to their outside success in Hollywood. A source says, "They all agreed to do one more year after the movie deal was struck. They all want to be movie stars - that's why they caved in." However, the tenth season will run slightly shorter than its predecessors with only 18 episodes compared to the usual 22. All cast members will be paid $930,000 per episode and will net a percentage of the film's profits. The source continues, "They're being paid $9 million each for the film, plus a percentage of the profits and since it will likely be a major hit, they stand to walk away with a fortune."

Jack Ass Sues Over 'Jackass' TV Show

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jack Ass says "Jackass" has given him a bad name.

A Montana man who legally changed his name to "Jack Ass" in 1997 has sued media giant Viacom Inc., claiming its stunt-heavy, gross-out TV show and movie "Jackass" had defamed his character.

In a suit filed in November in Montana and posted this week on a legal Web site, Jack Ass, who said he changed his name to raise awareness about the dangers of drunk driving, claimed Viacom was "liable for injury to my reputation that I have built and defamation of my character which I have worked so hard to create."

The suit asks for damages of $10 million or more. Jack Ass is representing himself.

Jack Ass, a journeyman power lineman by trade, said he changed his name from Bob Craft in late 1997 as part of a personal crusade against drunk driving after his brother and a friend were killed in a car crash. Theirs was the only vehicle involved.

Jack Ass runs a Web site centered around a donkey-like cartoon character "Andi Ass," which touts T-shirts, baseball caps, souvenir beer bottles and a message of responsible drinking.

Rap, Country Dominate Year of Slumping Music Sales

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Slumping music sales left the recording industry with a whopping New Year's hangover, but rap star Eminem has plenty to celebrate.

In a year that saw CD sales overall plunge by nearly 9 percent, the Detroit-based rapper-turned-actor sold 7.6 million copies of his latest album, "The Eminem Show," making it the biggest commercial hit of 2002, according to year-end retail figures issued Thursday by Nielsen SoundScan.

At the same time, the soundtrack to Eminem's movie debut, "8 Mile," ranked No. 5 for the year with nearly 3.5 million units sold.

Featuring songs from Eminem and other recording artists, "8 Mile" also returned Thursday to the top of SoundScan's latest weekly sales chart (ended Dec. 29), dislodging country pop diva Shania Twain from the No. 1 spot for the first time since the debut of her new album "Up!" in late November.

The movie "8 Mile," loosely based on Eminem's life, opened at No. 1 at the U.S. box office in November to generally warm reviews and went on to gross more than $114 million, making the Grammy-winning rapper one of the few recording stars in recent years to successfully cross over to the big screen.

Eminem's double triumph came in a year of music dominated by hip-hop and country music acts, which according to a recent tally by the New York Times jointly accounted for three-fifths of the year's No. 1 rankings on the pop album charts.

Indeed, most of the top 10 albums of 2002 fell into one of those two classes as rap and country encroached further into the pop mainstream. But country music was the only genre to post an increase in sales last year, rising 12 percent over 2001 levels, according to SoundScan.

Industrywide, total album sales fell 8.7 percent from 2001 to nearly 650 million units, the second year-to-year decline in a row. A slump of nearly 3 percent the previous year marked the first sales drop in at least a decade. The major labels have blamed the sluggish economy and online music piracy for weak sales.

Eminem was the only artist in 2002 to surpass the 5 million mark. Fellow rap artist Nelly's "Nellyville" release was No. 2 for the year, with sales of 4.9 million copies, followed by the debut album of Canadian teen pop ingenue Avril Lavigne, "Let Go," at No. 3 with sales of 4.1 million units. Country pop trio the Dixie Chicks finished the year in fourth place, selling nearly 3.7 million copies of their latest album, "Home."

Rounding out the top 10 were "Missundaztood" from pop-rocker Pink at No. 6, followed by hip-hop songstress Ashanti's self-titled album, country star Alan Jackson's "Drive," Shania Twain's "Up!" and the bluegrass-heavysoundtrack to the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"

In terms of market share, Universal Music Group, a unit of Vivendi Universal, continued to lead the pack, accounting for nearly 29 percent of total album sales in 2002. Warner Music, owned by Time Warner Inc., was No. 2 with 15.9 percent market share, followed by Sony Corp's Sony Music Entertainment (15.7 percent), Bertelsmann AG's BMG (14.8 percent) and EMI Group Plc's EMI (8.4 percent). Independent labels accounted for the balance.

AIRWAVES HIGH ON NICKELBACK

THE most popular radio tunes of 2002 are in - and megastars Eminem, J.Lo and Justin Timberlake didn't make the list.

Nor did the much-hyped neo-garage acts the White Stripes, the Hives and the Vines.

Instead, songs by Nickelback, Puddle of Mudd and Linkin Park dominated the airwaves this past year, according to Nielsen Broadcast Data System, which tracks radio airplay.

Nickelback's "How You Remind Me" was the most-played song of all, with 421,770 spins. Here's the rest of the top 10:

2) Puddle of Mudd, "Blurry"

3) Linkin Park, "In the End"

4) Jimmy Eat World, "The Middle"

5) The Calling, "Wherever You Will Go"

6) Vanessa Carlton, "A Thousand Miles"

7) Avril Lavigne, "Complicated"

8) Ashanti, "Foolish"

9) Nelly, "Dilemma"

10) Nelly, "Hot in Herre"

TO MARKET, TO MARKET

Product placement has come a long way since E.T. got his long, skinny fingers on Reeses Pieces.

Firms vie to peddle their goods not only in movies and TV shows, but also in video games - and even books.

Now come the first-ever Product Placement Awards.

"Product placement is increasingly becoming a more relevant way for marketers to reach consumers," says Anthony Dever, who organized the Australian-based honors using judges in the marketing, entertainment and ad fields from the United States, United Kingdom and Australia.

While the award winners may not be crazy about this kind of attention, their corporate sponsors aren't complaining:

1) "Minority Report"

Lexus designed a futuristic car for Steven Spielberg's sci-fi thriller, which also promoted Nokia, Oakley, Reebok, Burger King, the Gap, American Express and others.

2) "Die Another Day"

Some wags dubbed the Bond flick "Buy Another Day" for its blatant rollout of cars - Aston Martin Vanquish, Ford Thunderbirds, Jaguars . . . - a newly favored vodka (Finlandia), Omega watches and a shopping list of other goodies.

3) The Sims Online

You'll find Intel's logo all over the game, while the characters chomp on McDonald's chow. Want some virtual french fries while you wait for a download?

4) "Liberation Day"

British novelist Andy McNab loaded his latest thriller with mentions of Traser U.K.'s Swiss-made watch - and collected about $150,000 for the plug, in a deal widely criticized by the literary crowd.

5) "Spider-Man"

The box-office beauty took place in New York, land of giant billboards. What better way to place an ad in the film than to digitally alter real signs to fit in ads for Cingular, Hershey, Kellogg's and USA Today.

6) "Goldmember"

Jaguar scored bigger than Beyonce Knowles' afro with its starring role in this year's Austin Powers installment.

7) "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"

Windex cleans up in this little film that could, since the bride's Greek father uses it as a cure-all for everything from warts to baldness.

8) "All My Children"

For three months, Revlon paid several million dollars to be written into the story line of ABC's soap operas. The cosmetics giant had a starring part as a rival to the fictitious "Enchantment" makeup line run by Susan Lucci's Erica Kane.

9) Starburst

In Australia, the Mars candy company released a hit CD single titled "Get Your Juices Going." It reached No. 28 on the charts there.

10) "American Idol"

The amateur talent show was the real thing as far as Coca-Cola was concerned - with frequently seen curvy red, logo-like couches in the waiting room for contestants.

Cutting Crew guitarist loses battle with cancer

HALIFAX (CP) -- Kevin Macmichael, a well-known guitarist and founding member of the 80's rock band Cutting Crew, died on Tuesday after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 51.

Macmichael, a well-known artist on the East Coast music scene, formed Cutting Crew in England in 1985 with vocalist Nick Van Eede after performing with the bands Chalice, Spice and Fast Forward in the Maritimes.

Cutting Crew went to the top of the charts worldwide with the hit single (I Just) Died in Your Arms. The group produced four albums, sold over 3.5 million albums and nominated for the Best New Artist Grammy in 1987.

In 1992, Macmichael began working with Robert Plant, former front man of Led Zeppelin, on his million-selling comeback album, Fate of Nations.

He also continued to write and produce music from his Halifax home for East Coast musicians Jimmy Rankin and Ashley MacIsaac.

Funeral arrangements have yet to be made because of the holidays.

An Awesome Game To Start The New Year With

Save Michael Jackson's kids!

Test Your Pop Culture Knowledge

Prove that all that time spent following celebrities last year wasn't wasted.

Top 10 Box-Office Films of 2002

Here are the Top 10 box-office films of 2002, according to Exhibitor Relations figures:

1. SPIDER-MAN, $406 million.
2. STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES, $310 million.
3. HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS, $240 million.
4. SIGNS, $227 million.
5. MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, $218 million.
6. AUSTIN POWERS IN GOLDMEMBER, $213 million.
7. THE LORD OF THE RINGS - THE TWO TOWERS, $200 million.
8. MEN IN BLACK 2, $192 million.
9. ICE AGE, $176 million.
10. SCOOBY-DOO, $153 million.

KNIGHT'S TALE

Director Ridley Scott (Gladiator) and actor Alan Bates (Gosford Park) receiving knighthoods in Britain today. Recipients were honored by Queen Elizabeth II for contributions to their professions.

Bushisms Added to List of Banned Words

SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (Reuters) - Overused cliches, wordy redundancies and hyperbolic phrases -- including the Bushism "make no mistake about it" -- were declared banished on Wednesday by the university overseers of an annual list of banned words.

Other favored utterances of President Bush such as "material breach," "weapons of mass destruction," and "homeland security," were the tired targets of the New Year's Day list compiled by the public relations staff at Lake Superior State University.

This year's list of 23 worn-out words and phrases was whittled down from 3,000 entries submitted to the school from around the world to its Web site.

"Make no mistake about it" was nominated by several contributors, one of whom commented, "Who's mistaken, anyway?"

As usual, the media and advertising worlds came in for ridicule.

In response to the catch-phrase "must-see TV," contributor Nan Heflin of Colorado wrote: "Must find remote. Must change channel." The list-writers added: "Television once pitched entertainment. Apparently now it's taken on a greater imperative. (It) assumes herd mentality over program taste."

Another linguistic target was "now, more than ever," which contributor Matthew Lowe of New Jersey said "has become overused since the (Sept. 11) terrorist attacks ... from warnings to be safe, to stores having sales ... It has to go."

Advertisers would be better off finding another superlative other than "extreme," which contributors complained had evolved from an adjective denoting dangerous sports into a promotional tag for products from cars to deodorant.

"Branding" too has morphed from something burned into a cow's rump into "any activity that supports a company's desire to clearly define its products," said Nancy Hicks of Virginia.

Irritating to many contributors were the overused "having said that" and "that said," to which David Patrick of Indiana said: "I heard you the first time."

To those who trumpet facing one "challenge" after another in their lives, Ray Lucas of Michigan suggested keeping quiet and locating a solution.

Sports cliches such as "got game" -- referring to a player with skills -- and "mental mistake" -- is there any other kind? -- also came in for criticism. And "There is no score," is merely a misnomer for a score of 0-0, a contributor opined.

Tautologies such as "frozen tundra," which by definition is frozen, and "an undisclosed, secret location," as in references to Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites)'s position, repeat themselves.

Finally, the list gave the heave-ho to the self-important obituary writer's phrase, "untimely death," which seems to suggest some deaths are more tragic than others. "Has anyone yet died a timely death?" asked Donald Burgess of California.

Gordon Becomes First Driver to Host 'SNL'

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Live from New York ... it's Jeff Gordon!

The four-time Winston Cup champion will become the first NASCAR driver to host NBC's "Saturday Night Live" when he headlines the Jan. 11 show.

"It will probably be a lot like The Winston — 90 minutes of controlled chaos," he said recently, referring to NASCAR's all-star race.

Gordon, one of auto racing's most popular drivers, has appeared in numerous commercials and is an occasional fill-in host on "Live With Regis and Kelly."

Fran Tarkenton, O.J. Simpson, Wayne Gretzky, Chris Evert, Michael Jordan and Derek Jeter are among the athletes who have hosted "SNL."

'Rings' Likely to Lord Again Over Weekend Box Office

HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - The new year is ringing in much the same way as the old one -- with a "Lord of the Rings" movie atop the box office and showing no signs of budging.

New Line's second installment in the action-fantasy trilogy is likely to three-peat this weekend, with no other wide releases set to unspool. "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" towered over competition last weekend with $48.9 million in ticket sales compared with $30.1 million for runner-up "Catch Me if You Can" from DreamWorks.

December 2001 opener and franchise original "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings" managed to top the box office heap four times, well into January 2002. "Fellowship" was finally displaced by Sony's platforming "Black Hawk Down."

"Two Towers" could well match its predecessor's winning streak. But it's tough to say whether "Towers" ultimately will be overrun by a new wide opener or by a limited release reaching wide distribution -- something that's particularly common in awards season.

To date, "Towers" has rung up 28% more biz than "Fellowship" in a comparable span of time. And New Line executives say it appears a lock to do at least 10% more than the $860 million in worldwide box office rung up overall by "Fellowship."

Just on the face of it, that would be quite an accomplishment. But the sequel's box office surge is even more impressive when one considers that Warner Bros. now projects its "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" to underperform franchise original "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" by about 10%.

One notable difference between the franchises is a greater continuity among the "Rings" projects, and that's translated into a lower must-see quotient for the new "Potter" picture.

"Towers" and "Fellowship" share a narrative thread -- along with next year's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" -- because they are based on books written as a literary trilogy. "Harry Potter" pictures are based on individual children's books that have characters in common but only incidental narrative connection.

"'Potter' is a marathon for Warners, not a sprint, because they plan to release seven 'Potter' pictures in all and have to sustain a continuing momentum," observed David Davis, senior VP and box office analyst at Houlihan, Lokey, Howard & Zukin. "With 'Rings,' New Line knows that as well as they're doing with 'Two Towers,' the next picture will do even better because it's the final one in the trilogy."

SCHOOL'S OUT

Moviegoing is expected to remain robust through the coming weekend, as most kids won't head back to school from holiday breaks until at least Monday. That should help both "Towers" and "Chamber," along with midpackers such as Miramax's "Gangs of New York" and Paramount's "The Wild Thornberrys," which will be looking to sustain decent sales in a rare weekend free from newly bowing competish.

Twentieth Century Fox's Denzel Washington vehicle "Antwone Fisher" had been set to cruise into wide release this weekend. But the platforming picture's next expansion was recently postponed until Jan. 10.

"We wanted to give it more time to build," Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said.

TOWERING TOTAL

"Two Towers" has collected north of $200 million domestically and $400 million worldwide so far. The pricey tentpole got a day-and-date bow in the U.S. and many foreign territories on Dec. 18 but has yet to bow in Italy or Japan (where it's set to unspool in mid-January and February, respectively).

"Our goal is to be the No. 2 film of all time after 'Titanic,' and so far it looks like we're on track," said Rolf Mittweg, worldwide marketing and distribution president at New Line. "But from here on, it's all about longevity."

The lofty aspiration means "Towers" will have to gross more than the $986 million in worldwide sales rung up by the first "Harry Potter," or do 15% better than the first "Rings" pic. "Titanic" grossed $1.8 billion worldwide.

"Indications are that we should be between 10% and 15% higher than ('Fellowship')," Mittweg estimated.

Golden Globe or Oscar wins could prove important to the picture's further success, he said. But Mittweg added that there's little chance of "Towers" sustaining its current torrid pace in any event.

If "Towers" were to continue to outpace "Fellowship" by 28%, the sequel would see a total $1.1 billion in worldwide coin.

"I'd take a billion," Mittweg said.

And he just may get his wish.