Adams, Lavigne, Dion & Others On Peace Compilation
Avril Lavigne, Celine Dion, Gord Downie, Bruce Cockburn, k-os, Our Lady Peace, Jarvis Church, Chantal Kreviazuk, Bryan Adams, and David Usher are among the artists that will appear on "Peace Songs," a double-CD that is being rushed out to stores April 15 to benefit War Child Canada.
"We have projects that benefit war-affected children all around the world," says Dr. Samantha Nutt, executive director of War Child Canada in Toronto. "In terms of this album, there will be a special focus on children in Iraq. We support a children's hospital in Karbala and have done for the last couple of years.
"As soon as it's safe and we can get access, we're going to be launching a psycho-social support program that responds to the trauma that they have lived through, not just recently, but also the last several years, and helping them to cope and rebuild their lives."
The "Peace Songs" initiative grew out of War Child U.K.'s idea for a single CD, entitled "Hope," which includes contributions from such international names as Paul McCartney and David Bowie. Those tracks will also be on the Canadian version, a joint venture between War Child Canada, Sony Music Canada and BMG Music Canada.
The charity compilation is comprised of classic or original peace songs. Kreviazuk has cut Bob Marley's "Redemption Song," Lavigne recorded Bob Dylan's "Knockin' On Heaven's Door," and Church a version of U2's "One."
'Breathe' Snuffs Out Julia
Julia DeMato's luck ran out Wednesday night. The 23-year-old hairstylist from Brookfield, Conn., one of the bottom three vote-getters from viewers of Fox's American Idol for the third straight week, was finally sent packing Wednesday night.
DeMato had sung Faith Hill's Breathe on Tuesday's country-rock program, and judges said she was slightly off-pitch.
Rounding out the three contestants were two Texans: Rickey Smith, 23, a student teacher from Keene, who sang Larry Gatlin's I've Done Enough Dyin' Today, and talent-show veteran Kimberly Caldwell, 21, of Katy, who sang Travis Tritt's Anymore. Judge Simon Cowell called it her best performance.
Caldwell also has appeared on the syndicated Star Search and on the WB series Pop Stars, where she made it into the final 15.
Cowell conceded that he didn't much care for country music, leading one to believe that he has never heard the classic Take an Old Cold Tater (And Wait).
Dixie Chicks to Forgo Issuing Apologies
NEW YORK - People shouldn't expect to hear anymore apologies from the Dixie Chicks.
The country trio's manager, Simon Renshaw, tells Radio and Records that lead singer Natalie Maines has released two strongly worded statements and that right now, he doesn't think she can win.
"If she goes on microphone and apologizes, they'll say she doesn't sound contrite enough," he said.
Maines reportedly told a London audience earlier this month, in reference to President Bush's push for military action against Iraq, that she was ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas. She later apologized, saying her remark was disrespectful.
Meanwhile, radio talk show host Mike Gallagher says he's close to booking Charlie Daniels to perform at an alternative concert to the Dixie Chicks' show in Greenville, S.C., on May 1.
Also on Gallagher's wish list of performers are Toby Keith, Travis Tritt, Darryl Worley and Garth Brooks, according to Radio and Records.
Gallagher says all of the proceeds will help provide food and personal care items to the families of military personnel. He's also holding a block of free VIP seats and a backstage reception for Dixie Chicks ticket-holders, because he says the Chicks' promoters are not offering refunds.
Asked for his reaction to Gallagher's plans, Renshaw said it will be fantastic to see who he gets to play.
"If he thinks there should be a counter-show, I wish him good luck."
The group may need it, especially now that they have reportedly also ruffled the feathers of animal activists at PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
MSNBC reports Maines and fellow members Martie Maguire and Emily Robison posed in a field of flowers for one of PETA's "I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur" ads. They were wearing strategically placed instruments.
MSNBC says the group's management heard about PETA's plan and killed the ad.
Killer Virus Licks Rolling Stones' HK Concerts
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The lethal pneumonia outbreak in Southeast Asia has forced the Rolling Stones to postpone two concerts scheduled for this weekend in Hong Kong, a spokeswoman for the band said on Wednesday.
The veteran British rockers, currently on the Asian leg of their Licks world tour, were scheduled to perform at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center on Friday and Saturday.
But increasing fears about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which is reported to have killed 50 people and made more than 1,300 sick, prompted the band to change its plans.
"Increases in the number of cases of SARS in Hong Kong and Southern China and continued concern over large gatherings have created apprehension among fans and concern for their safety," a statement said. "The Stones plan to reschedule the concerts as soon as possible."
A spokeswoman said the rest of the tour will proceed. The next scheduled show is in Shanghai on April 1, marking the band's first ever performance in China. Other first-time shows will follow in Beijing, Bangkok and the Indian cities of Bangalore and Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay.
Two viruses have emerged as suspects in the still-mysterious pneumonia, but health experts say the actual culprit is far from being identified.
Experts believe the disease originated in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where people have been getting sick with the symptoms of severe fever, unexplained pneumonia and difficulty breathing since November. International travelers have inadvertently carried the bug to other parts of the world.
The Rolling Stones earlier this week played two shows in Singapore, their first in the city state since 1965.
Networks Turn On Star Power
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
Networks are going star-crazy plotting their new fall lineups. After a stretch when programmers sought to make their own stars instead of paying for established ones, familiar faces are again popping up in pilots being produced in the next few weeks and being touted to advertisers in New York this week.
Some are big names rarely seen on TV; others are small-screen veterans.
* NBC, which has long preferred the Friends model of discovering new talent, this year has potential new series led by Heather Locklear, Tom Selleck, Rob Lowe, Rupert Everett and Whoopi Goldberg. And another candidate, drama Miss/Match, stars Alicia Silverstone as a divorce attorney who plays matchmaker for her newly single clients. (Ryan O'Neal plays her dad.)
* CBS, usually the most star-struck of the major networks, has projects with Charlie Sheen (a comedy about two brothers), Matthew Modine (a forensic psychologist), Mark Harmon (a Navy counterintelligence officer), Randy Quaid, Andy Richter, Joe Mantegna and Party of Five's Scott Wolf.
* ABC, seeking more family comedies and cop series, has lined up Regis' co-host (and former All My Children star) Kelly Ripa for a proposed sitcom about a washed-up soap star who returns home to live with her twin sister (Murphy Brown's Faith Ford). Also on tap are other series featuring Wendie Malick (Just Shoot Me), Steven Weber, Kristen Johnston (3rd Rock From the Sun) and Mario Van Peebles.
* Fox has potential series with Norm Macdonald, Patrick Dempsey, Rebecca De Mornay and Peter Gallagher.
Viewers are more apt to try out a show with a recognizable star. "Those shows are often a little easier to launch," NBC Entertainment president Jeff Zucker says.
Last fall, John Ritter (Three's Company) helped ABC kick-start its retro family comedy 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.
But stars don't guarantee hits: Just ask Bette Midler, Ellen DeGeneres or Geena Davis, all of whom flopped in their latest tries as TV-series leads.
The major networks are desperate for enduring new sitcom and drama standouts at a time when the few new hits are short-lived reality shows like Joe Millionaire. They have ordered about 135 pilots, slightly more than last year. Last fall, about 30 new shows were picked up; the number that make the cut this time depends on how many shows are canceled — and how many time slots go to news magazines and reality shows (expected to be more than last fall).
"There is greater pressure to come up with scripted shows," says Magna Global USA analyst Steve Sternberg. "You can't continue going with constant barrages of short-term (reality) fixes."
But many of the pilots tread safe, familiar ground, with an abundance of cop, forensics and law dramas, and family comedies. A couple feature characters reluctantly returning home such as a former baseball player (Selleck) or hockey player (Craig Bierko, in an ABC comedy).
Among other development trends:
* Sure bets, with 13-episode orders or on-air commitments: Line of Duty (ABC), a drama following the interlocking stories of a young female FBI agent and a mobster; The Brotherhood of Poland (CBS), a drama from producer David E. Kelley (The Practice, Ally McBeal), about three brothers (one is Quaid) running a small New England town; 2069 (Fox), a futuristic drama from Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue) about a present-day cop who suddenly fast-forwards into the future.
* Terrorism. No longer squeamish about tackling world events head-on, there's Threat Matrix (ABC), about a task force dealing with domestic terror threats, and Homeland Security (NBC), a similar tale starring Scott Glenn and Tom Skerritt, about a group of government agents who form the homeland security office after 9/11.
* Remakes. Family Affair bombed, Twilight Zone faded and Dragnet is no hit, but the networks are pressing ahead with revamped versions of other familiar titles.
There's The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS), done up as a reality series despite protests from rural groups; Eddie's Father (WB), about a widowed dad whose son tries to get him remarried, based on the 1960s Bill Bixby comedy; Young MacGyver (WB), about the 23-year-old nephew of the unconventional crime-stopper; and Tarzan and Jane (WB), an adventure drama that finds the jungle couple relocated to New York and Jane a detective. Plus: fresh takes on Mr. Ed (Fox), the 1960s sitcom about a talking horse, and Hotel (UPN), the 1980s soap from producer Aaron Spelling.
On the feature-film side, Fox will try a comedy-pilot remake of About a Boy, with Patrick Dempsey in the Hugh Grant role.
ADDING THEIR TWO CENTS
R.E.M. launching their own anti-war song "Last Straw" on the band's website.
BACK SOON
Tim Allen's ABC reunion special A User's Guide to Home Improvement postponed due to war coverage. Instead of airing in April the show will bow later this year.
TAKE MY WIFE
Halle Berry's hubby Eric Benet is reportedly "not mad at all" that Oscar winner Adrien Brody planted a wet one on his wife, reports People. The trio are friends.
Loving A Spy
Attention, fans of uber-agent Sydney Bristow! Mark September 2nd on your calendar, for that is the top secret date when Buena Vista Home Entertainment will release Alias: The Complete First Season. This six-disc set features the entire first season lineup, plus plenty of extras: audio commentaries on select episodes (TBA), deleted scenes, a production diary on the pilot, the "A Mission Around The World" featurette, "Marshall Finkman's Gadget Gallery," audition footage, and season 2 and 3 previews. Alas, despite being broadcast in HD, the information announced on the transfers is that they will be full frame only, along with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround tracks. (Stay tuned for an update.) Retail is $69.95.
Buena Vista has also just announced the July 22nd arrival of Felicity: The Complete Second Season. This one also features full screen transfers and Dolby 2.0 surround tracks, plus audio commentaries by the series creators on select episodes, the never-before-seen half-hour pilot presentation, and cast audition footage. Retail is $59.95.
For you action fans, Buena Vista will debut the hit sequel Shanghai Knights on July 22nd. Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1 surround, extras include two audio commentaries with director David Dobkin and screenwriters Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, deleted scenes, the "Fight Manual" and "Action Overload" featurettes, and trailers Retail is $29.95.
Want more big sequels? How about The Santa Clause 2, which will be available in separate anamorphic widescreen and full screen editions on November 18th. Extras include audio commentary by stars Tim Allen and Spencer Breslin, the "Naughty And Nice" interactive game, the "Tour the North Pole" and "Special Effects" featurettes, additional interviews, deleted scenes, a gag reel, trailers and ROM extras including E-Cards. Retail is $29.95.
For the family crowd, Disney has just revealed the full specs for the recent theatrical release The Jungle Book 2, which makes its way to DVD on June 10th. This one comes complete with a 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks, deleted scenes, the "Mowgli's Jungle Ruins Maze" interactive game, "The Legacy Of The Jungle Book" featurette, and three music videos: "I Wanna Be Like You" music video by Smash Mouth; "W-I-L-D" music video; "Jungle Rhythm" music video. From the direct-to-video department we have George of the Jungle 2, streeting on October 21st. This one is also presented in 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1, with extras including deleted scenes with director commentary, the "George Of The Jungle 2: Behind-The-Scenes" featurette, "Jungle Bungles" bloopers and sneak peeks. Next we have the Roberto Benigni's remake of Pinocchio, which was a huge bust this past fall at the box office. This one streets on July 15th and features a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks, plus minimal extras: just "The Voices Of Pinocchio: Creating The English Dubbed Version" featurette and trailers. Retail is $29.95 each.
Last but certainly not least we have a new two-discs special edition of the 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty, arriving on September 9th. This perennial favorite comes complete with a new 2.20:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 remix, and tons of extras. Supplements include the "Once Upon A Dream: The Making Of Sleeping Beauty," "The Design" featurettes, the "Sleeping Beauty 3-D Virtual Galleries," various story reels, the "Helene Stanley Dance Reference" footage, additional sections with featurettes on "The Music," "The Restoration," a "Widescreen-to-Fullscreen Comparison," the TV show excerpt "The Peter Tchaikovsky Story" from the 1959 "Disneyland" program, a "Grand Canyon" short film, the "Four Artists Paint One Tree" special hosted by Walt Disney, two interactive games "Rescue Aurora Set-Top Adventure" and "Sleeping Beauty Ink And Paint," plus trailers. Retail is $29.95.
Buying DVD's In A Blaze Of Glory
And now for something completely different. Newly-minted Oscar winner Eminem comes home in Da Hip Hop Witch (seriously), coming June 17th from Artisan Entertainment. This early Marshall Mathers appearance is presented in full screen and 2.0 Dolby surround only, with only bonus trailers as extras. Retail is $14.95.
Also just announced from Artisan are updated specs for the new Young Guns Special Edition, due April 22nd. The disc features a new anamorphic widescreen transfer and Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround tracks, plus audio commentary by cast members Dermot Mulroney, Casey Siemaszko and Lou Diamond Phillips, "The Real Billy the Kid" documentary, the "Gunning for the Facts" trivia track, and trailers. Retail remains $24.95.
Paramount readies The Hours
Heavy Oscar contender THE HOURS is about ready to come to DVD this summer thanks to the folks at Paramount Home Entertainment.
Taking place simultaneously in 1929, 1951 and and 2001, three women are interconnected through the Virginia Woolf. Woolf herself writes the novel as Laura Brown reads the novel thirty years later and Clarissa Vaughn lives the story.
Separate fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen releases will both carry Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. The extras will be the same on both with an introduction by the filmmakers, an audio commentary with director Stephen Daldry and novelist Michael Cunningham. A second audio commentary features the great collection of Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman. The featurettes "Three Women," "The Mind And Times Of Virginia Woolf," "The Music Of The Hours" and "The Lives Of Mrs. Dalloway" and a theatrical trailer are also included.
The disc will arrive on June 24th.
Hahn: 'Rabbit' Sequel Not Going to Happen
LOS ANGELES - Don't expect to see Roger Rabbit in a sequel — getting co-stars Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Betty Boop and Porky Pig together again would be too difficult for producers.
"It was never in the cards, we could never get the planets back into alignment," co-producer Don Hahn said in an interview to promote Tuesday's DVD release of the original film. "There was something very special about that time when animation was not as much in the forefront as it is now."
"Who Framed Roger Rabbit," directed by Robert Zemeckis, became a $156 million hit in 1988 with its mix of live-action detective noir and cartoon silliness.
Bob Hoskins starred as a gumshoe investigating a murder case to prove the innocence of the rambunctious bunny (voiced by Charles Fleischer). Kathleen Turner supplied the smoky voice of Roger's bombshell cartoon wife, Jessica.
Although Roger was an original character conceived by author Gary K. Wolf, the Disney film was populated with some of Hollywood's most celebrated ink-and-paint actors, including the rival Warner Bros. studio's Daffy Duck, Yosemite Sam and Tweety Bird.
Steven Spielberg executive-produced the project and helped secure the rights to many of those characters.
The success of "Roger Rabbit," however, made it more complicated — and expensive — to get those properties again, although the studio continued to develop sequel ideas for years.
"There were ideas about how Roger got to Los Angeles, how he met Jessica. Musical ideas, how he came to the Broadway stage," Hahn said. "There were lots of ideas knocking around but nothing that ever got far enough to develop and make into a movie."
Roger appeared in three short films, 1989's "Tummy Trouble," 1990's "Roller Coaster Rabbit" and 1993's "Trail Mix-Up," but Hahn said there are no longer plans to bring the character back for a feature film.
Lisa Marie Presley Talks
Lisa Marie Presley really loved Michael Jackson - but now wonders whether he married her just to improve his public image.
Usually tight-lipped about her love life, Elvis Presley's only child has finally found a reason to talk.
Her recording debut, "To Whom It May Concern," will be out April 8, and the mysterious Presley is coming out, too, in the new Rolling Stone, on newsstands Friday.
"I did fall in love with him," she told writer Chris Heath.
"I can't tell you what his intentions were, but I can tell you I absolutely fell in love with him and fell into this whole thing which I'm not proud of now."
During their two-year marriage, Presley, 35, says they had sex - "for a while."
"And then it became 'Def Con 2,' " she said. "It just got really ugly at the end."
Jackson, 44, first tried to get in touch with her when she was a teen, but she "thought he was weird," she says.
Fast forward a few years: Jackson sent word through a friend he wanted Presley to hear a demo record he made.
"He was very real with me off the bat," she says. "He immediately went into this whole explanation of what he knew people thought of him and what the truth was.
"He was very real - he was cursing, he was funny. . ."
Presley continues, "I was always saying, 'People wouldn't think I was so crazy [for marrying Jackson] if they saw who the hell you really are; that you sit around and you drink and you curse and you're f - - - ing funny, and you have a bad mouth and you don't have that high voice all the time . . ."
They became friends; she was still married to her first husband, rocker Danny Keough (with whom she has two children, Danielle, 13, and Ben, 10). Jackson confided in her during a costly lawsuit and a police investigation of claims he sexually molested a 13-year-old boy.
"I got into this whole 'I'm going to save you' thing. I thought all that stuff he was doing - philanthropy and the children thing and all this stuff - was awesome . . . OK. Hello. I was delusionary. I got some romantic idea in my head I could save him and we could save the world."
Jackson began courting her with candy and flowers, and she left her marriage to Keough "probably quicker than I would have, and that was probably one of the bigger mistakes of my whole life," she says.
Remember that famous Jacko-Lisa lip-lock at the MTV Music Awards?
"It was his manager's idea," she said. "I thought it was stupid. All of a sudden, I became part of a p.r. machine."
Still, she went on TV to defend him to Diane Sawyer.
"I was really in this lioness thing with him - I wanted to protect him. Naive as hell. I never thought for a moment someone like him could actually use me."
His mind, she says, was "constantly at work, calculating, manipulating. And he scared me like that."
Toward the end of their marriage, he would disappear for weeks at a time, she says.
The last straw came when he dissed Elvis in a TV Guide story. "He was quoting me: " 'Presley told me Elvis had a nose job,' which is absolute bulls - - -. I read that and I threw it across the kitchen. 'I told you what?' "
She demanded a divorce and plunged into depression.
"My body started to deteriorate. I started to have panic attacks."
Finally, a homeopathic doctor told her to get her fillings removed, which cured her. "Mercury [in the fillings] can make you go f - - - ing crazy" she says.
She blames their volatile personalities on her short-lived marriage to Nicolas Cage.
Labeling him a "hothead," Presley says " . . . we're both so dramatic and dynamic that when it was good, it was unbelievably good, and when it was bad, it was just a f - - - ing bloody nightmare for everybody. It was just Mr. Toad's Wild Ride."
Even Presley shakes her head at her troubles with men.
"If you lined up all the men I've been with in a row, you'd think that I was completely psychotic," she says.
Presley still visits Graceland, parts of which, she says, hasn't changed at all.
"Upstairs, which has never been open to the public, is my room and his [Elvis'] room, next to each other, and an attic. It's pretty creepy. It's a shrine."
As for her own new record, Presley at first says, "I don't give a crap about hits," then backtracks, saying, "I mean, I do, of course. But as long as people know it's for real, it's not BS, it's me, my spirit, my heart, my head. You bare your ass for everybody and go, 'What do you think?' It's scary, but it's me."