'CHICAGO' WINS MORE TOP AWARDS

"Chicago" razzle-dazzled two key film industry groups over the weekend, widening its Oscar lead with awards from the Producers Guild of America and the Directors Guild of America.

The producers gave Martin Richards the Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year award at ceremonies last night in Los Angeles. The award has matched up with the Best Picture Oscar in four of its six previous years.

In an even more significant omen, "Chicago" director Rob Marshall pulled out an upset victory to capture the Directors Guild award late Saturday night.

The winner of the DGA award has gone on to win the Best Director Oscar all but five times in its 55-year-history.

First-time director Marshall took the honors over the heavily favored veteran Martin Scorsese, nominated for "Gangs of New York."

The DGA field also included fugitive director Roman Polanski, whose Holocaust drama "The Pianist" seemed to be gaining momentum after he and the film won top awards in London and Paris last weekend.

Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Apatow Teaming for Cop Comedy

Jack Black (ORANGE COUNTY) and Will Ferrell (OLD SCHOOL) have sold an untitled comedy pitch to New Line that will see them star as motorcycle cops in Los Angeles. In the film, Ferrell will play a cop that moves to Los Angeles because there is no crime in his hometown. Black will play the youngest in a family of cops that is wholly unsuited for the job. Judd Apatow (FREAKS AND GEEKS) has agreed to direct and write the film. "Jack, Will and I are old friends," Apatow said. "We've been looking for an opportunity to collaborate on a project, and this idea really makes us laugh. The idea of getting these two comedians to work as a team has always been very exciting to me."

MAD MAX 4 Delayed

20th Century Fox has announced that they are officially postponing production of MAD MAX 4: FURY ROAD until Fall 2003, because of fears of a war with Iraq.

"Any time you do a show like this, it is a massive undertaking with enormous prep time," Jim Gianopulos, chairman of Fox Filmed Entertainment, told Variety.

"In this case, it is about the movement of huge vehicles and a mass of people, and with the pending war and all the potential logistical consequences, we had the latitude to wait and let some of this stuff blow over before going into full-bore production. What we do have firmly in place is Mel and George." FURY ROAD may not make its summer 2004 debut now.

Man Complains Bad Rope Spoiled His Suicide

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - A Romanian man plans to complain to consumer authorities about the poor quality of a rope he used in a failed attempt to hang himself, Romanian papers reported Thursday.

"You can't even die in this country," 45-year-old Victor Dodoi was quoted as saying in the daily Adevarul.

The newspaper said Dodoi's relatives found him hanging from a tree in his garden and managed to cut the rope with a knife. He was taken by horse-drawn cart and then by ambulance to a hospital in the northern town of Botosani.

Dodoi said he would file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Authority about the quality of the rope, which was easily cut, as soon as he is released.

Rolling Stones to Play First China Shows

BEIJING (AP) — It's official: Beijing and Shanghai will get their own taste of the Rolling Stones' "Forty Licks" tour.

Two Rolling Stones concert dates have been confirmed for Beijing and Shanghai, an organizer said Sunday. The shows, part of the band's 40th anniversary tour, will be the band's first in the world's most populous country.

The British band will perform in Shanghai on April 1 and in Beijing on April 4, said Wang Long, an organizer for the Beijing Time New Century Entertainment Co.

Cui Jian, China's most famous rocker, will open for the Stones in Beijing. Cui is hugely popular in China but has rarely been allowed to play big shows in the capital because he performed on Tiananmen Square during the 1989 pro-democracy protests.

Cui, 42, said he taught himself to play the guitar in the 1980s by learning Rolling Stones and Beatles songs.

"They are my heroes," Cui told the Associated Press on Sunday. "It's a big honor for me."

When the Rolling Stones first rose to fame in the 1960s, China was on the verge of the radical 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, which reviled Western pop culture as spiritual pollution.

Their music first became available in China only after the start of economic and social reforms in the late 1970s.

In Beijing, the Stones will play the 7,000-seat Workers' Gymnasium.

A few hundred front-row seats will be available for $750, Wang said. That's about the same as the average Chinese person's annual income.

Clash Won't Play Hall of Fame Ceremony

LONDON (AP) — The surviving members of legendary punk group The Clash will not perform when they are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame later this month, bass player Paul Simonon said Saturday.

One of the most influential bands to emerge from the British punk movement of the 1970s, The Clash split up in the mid-1980s and never reformed. The band's lead singer, Joe Strummer, died of a heart attack in December at age 50.

Simonon scotched rumors that Bruce Springsteen — who sang the band's "London Calling" in tribute to Strummer at the Grammy Awards last week — would join the three surviving band members onstage at the March 10 Hall of Fame ceremony in New York.

"We're not going to play or anything. We really haven't got anything planned," Simonon told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

He said that just before he died Strummer had mentioned the idea of performing at the ceremony, but that Simonon was opposed.

"I didn't have a chance to reply unfortunately, but I just wanted to let him know, `Are you aware that the tickets are $1,500?'" Simonon said.

"I think it's better for The Clash to play in front of their public, rather than a seated and booted audience."

Myers Accepts Film Institute Star Award

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) — When comedian Mike Myers was growing up, anyone who wanted to be invited to his home more than once had to be funny.

"My dad was very like, if somebody came in the house that wasn't funny, it was like, 'Can't come anymore,'" said Myers, accepting the 2003 American Film Institute Star Award.

Myers, who grew up in Toronto, told the audience at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival that his characters — on the big screen and on "Saturday Night Live" — were all based on his family members.

"Wayne is me," Myers said Friday of the film "Wayne's World," while the 1960s swinger Austin Powers resembles his father, a native of Liverpool, England, who never let his son forget his roots.

"It would be 11 o'clock at night and the local TV station would have something with Peter Sellers or Alec Guinness and he'd say 'You're going to bloody watch this and you're going to bloody enjoy it. It's your bloody heritage.'"

When his father died in 1993, Myers took a two-year break from acting because "nothing seemed funny to me." It was then that he crafted what would be the basis for his "Austin Powers" character.

Action Film 'Cradle' Tops Box Office

LOS ANGELES - The pairing of a rap star and a martial arts heavyweight pushed "Cradle 2 The Grave" to the top of the box office.

The high-octane action-adventure film featuring rapper DMX as a gang leader and martial arts star Jet Li as a Taiwanese intelligence officer took in $17.1 million in its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"Cradle" follows DMX and Li as they form an unlikely alliance in a film that mixes stolen diamonds, kidnapping and a plot to distribute a deadly new weapon of war.

"That combination of rap and martial arts stars equals big box office pretty consistently," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

"Old School" aged well in its second weekend, holding onto second place with $13.9 million. The comedy stars "Saturday Night Live" alum Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson as thirtysomething partiers who form a college fraternity.

"Daredevil," Ben Affleck's superhero adventure, dropped to third place with $11 million after two weeks in the No. 1 slot.

The romantic comedy "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days," with $10.1 million, and the musical "Chicago," with $8.1 million, rounded out the top five.

"Chicago," a front-runner for a best picture Oscar, crossed the $100 million mark over the weekend, making it the highest-grossing musical since "Grease" in 1978. It's now earned $105.2 million in North American theaters.

Serious films continued to struggle against lighter fare.

"People are still enjoying the escapism," Dergarabedian said.

"The Life of David Gale," starring Kevin Spacey as a capital-punishment opponent who lands on death row, earned $4.4 million, finishing in eighth place. The Civil War epic "Gods and Generals" earned $2.8 million to finish ninth.

The weekend's top 12 films grossed an estimated $85.8 million. With just one major studio debut for the weekend, that was a drop of almost 10 percent from last weekend, when four big films opened in the top 10. The weekend box office was up 4.6 percent from the same weekend last year.

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. "Cradle 2 The Grave," $17.1 million.
2. "Old School," $13.9 million.
3. "Daredevil," $11 million.
4. "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days," $10.1 million.
5. "Chicago," $8.1 million.
6. "The Jungle Book 2," $6.8 million.
7. "Shanghai Knights," $4.8 million.
8. "The Life of David Gale," $4.4 million.
9. "Gods and Generals, $2.8 million.
10. "The Recruit," $2.6 million.

Nirvana Scraps Still Left, Says Garbage Drummer Butch Vig

Butch Vig, who produced Nirvana's classic album Nevermind, didn't work on the single "You Know You're Right," but he did say he was glad the Scott Litt-produced track was released. Vig also added that "You Know You're Right" was the best, but not the last, of Kurt Cobain's unreleased music.

"It's a great song. I mean, the first time I heard it, a chill went down my neck. It's like, I heard Kurt's voice again and, I miss him. I mean, he'd still be making great music if he was out here," said Vig. "It's a shame that there's...that's like, maybe, the last great track. There's still a few raw things that I know haven't come out yet. But there's not a lot of stuff left out there that is as good as that. So I think it's great. You know, I worked on that boxed set that got put on the table and there's some really cool stuff on that--a lot of weird outtakes, some jams, and some acoustic demos--and I hope that comes out sometime in the near future."

Butch Vig is working on a new album with his own band, Garbage. Vig has also produced records for Sonic Youth and Smashing Pumpkins.

‘CHICAGO' HELMER COPS FILM PRIZE

Freshman moviemaker Rob Marshall razzle-dazzled the Directors Guild of America with his musical "Chicago" last night, claiming the top honor and defeating directors Martin Scorsese and Roman Polanski.

In the 55 years since the guild began presenting its top honor, the winner has gone on to receive the Academy Award for best director all but five times.

Marshall, 42, a Tony-winning Broadway director and choreographer, appeared as shaken as he was grateful after claiming the award. "This is something I didn't quite expect," he said.

Asked where he was going to place the trophy, a gold-plated disc about the size of a serving dish, Marshall replied: "I'm going to have to get another apartment in New York. It's huge!"