What's on TV: Wednesday
-American Idol (Fox, 8 ET/PT) expands its results show to an hour again tonight, even though the number of contestants has dropped. Consider those seemingly incompatible factors, and you'll have some idea of how mercilessly padded this hour is likely to seem. How many recaps can you possibly watch? Really, people: Read a book until 8:50. I promise, you won't miss anything of import. Also, expect Josh, The Mean Marine, to be booted off tonight, followed next week by the female Eddie Griffin (Trenyce), then Kimberly The Cow, leaving Clay and Ruben as the two finalists.
- Matthew Perry completes his guest stint on The West Wing (NBC, 9 p.m. ET/PT), and lands right in the middle of a scandal and a crisis involving the vice president (Tim Matheson). Boy, you combine West Wing with 24, and it just isn't a very good season for vice presidents.
-What's in a name? Angel (WB, 9 p.m. ET/PT) hopes to find out, as this increasingly exciting series moves a step closer to next week's season finale.
-Over at Fox, Wanda at Large (9:30 p.m. ET/PT) ends its try-out run, as Wanda fights with Keith (Dale Godboldo) over an honorary degree. I'm not sure her show deserves a second season so why bother with this episode?
J.Lo Attends Packed Baseball Game
Conan O'Brien joked during his Late Night monologue last night: "The other day, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck surprised fans by showing up at a Boston Red Sox game. That's right. Yeah, apparently the game was packed because it was 'J.Lo Ex-Husband Day'."
Hasselhoff is in the RIDER's Seat
David Hasselhoff talks about his planned film adaption of KNIGHT RIDER.
Former Knight Rider star David Hasselhoff told SCI FI Wire that he's still executive producing a feature-film version of the 1980s TV show and is also developing a new TV series. Formerly known as Super Knight Rider 3000, the feature film is now simply called Knight Rider: The Movie and is in development at Revolution Studios.
Hasselhoff added that he is in talks to produce the new TV series. "Right now it's in this land of 'Which way are we going with it?'" Hasselhoff said in an interview. "I think for the film, we're going to go one way, and for the television series another way." Hasselhoff said that he hopes to have an acting role in both the film and the series. "I figure James Bond's about my age, so I could still be Michael Knight." No start date is announced for either project.
Indiana Jones DVD News?
Here's a bit of interesting Indy news from The Digital Bits
"Word has reached us from a number of independent industry and retail sources that Paramount is preparing their announcement of the Indiana Jones Trilogy DVD box set. The buzz is that the studio will make the news official in the next few weeks. Our sources are telling us that the set will be 4 discs in all - 1 each for the films (all in anamorphic widescreen) along with a 4th disc of bonus content. The films will reportedly only be available in the box set. And the set is expected to see worldwide release in November. Thanks to everyone who's sent in information on this. Keep in mind, that this is still very much in the rumor stage. But even the various talent involved has confirmed that the DVDs are in the works, so we felt it important to post this information as a sort of heads-up. Of course, we'll post any and all official news on this release in the daily column the moment it comes in. Stay tuned..."
Thanks to Chris for the tip.
Falwell Criticizes Dixie Chick's Remarks
JONESBORO, Ark. - The Rev. Jerry Falwell called the Dixie Chicks three "French hens," saying "politics should end at the shore when you leave the country," referring to antiwar remarks made by lead singer Natalie Maines.
At a March 10 concert in London, Maines told the audience in reference to President Bush's push for military action against Iraq: "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."
After Maines' remarks, radio stations began boycotting the Dixie Chicks, even though she publicly apologized for her statement.
Maines and the Texas-based trio's other members — Emily Robison and Martie Maguire — told ABC's Diane Sawyer in a recent interview that the fallout was too harsh for the offense and that they've always supported U.S. troops even though they questioned the war.
Falwell said Maines was wrong to speak critically of the United States while overseas. "You don't talk about your own country, especially during war," he said Monday during an appearance at Jonesboro.
In 2001, Falwell apologized for saying God had allowed terrorists to attack America because of the work of civil liberties groups, abortion rights supporters and feminists.
He said his comments were ill-timed, insensitive and divisive at a time of national mourning. "In the midst of the shock and mourning of a dark week for America, I made a statement that I should not have made and which I sincerely regret."
On Monday, Falwell, a Baptist minister, characterized his statement as a clarification and "not so much as an apology."
"But I don't sell records," he said. "And I don't do it in England and I don't do it in France. I do all of mine head to head, face to face in America as a taxpaying citizen."
Music Industry Sends Warning to Song Swappers
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The record industry opened a new front in its war against online piracy on Tuesday by surprising hundreds of thousands of Internet song swappers with an instant message warning that they could be "easily" identified and face "legal penalties" for their actions.
About 200,000 users of the Grokster and Kazaa file-sharing services received the warning notice on Tuesday and millions more will get notices in coming weeks, said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the music companies.
The message said in part: "It appears that you are offering copyrighted music to others from your computer. ...When you break the law, you risk legal penalties. There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL MUSIC either by offering it to others to copy or downloading it on a 'file-sharing' system like this. When you offer music on these systems, you are not anonymous and you can easily be identified."
The mass messaging came after a federal judge on Friday delivered a setback to the music industry's efforts to shut down song-swapping services, and a day after Apple Computer Inc. unveiled an online music store aimed at wooing users from the free networks.
U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson on Friday ruled the Grokster and Morpheus services should not be shut down because they cannot control what is traded over their systems.
Trade groups for the movie studios and record labels said they would appeal the ruling, the first significant legal setback for the entertainment industry in its battle against the popular "peer-to-peer" services that allow users to download files for free.
The RIAA's Sherman said that while the messaging effort was planned long ago, the timing was fortunate since some song swappers might misinterpret Friday's ruling to mean that copyright infringement was legal.
The move immediately angered some Internet users.
"Way to go, RIAA. Sue and threaten the public, your customers. I think I'll go and download," one posting on Yahoo said.
Sharman Networks Ltd, the Australian firm that owns Kazaa, said in a statement, said that rather than cooperating with the file-sharing network "the RIAA continues to choose to attack some of its most loyal customers."
Sharman said it objected to any effort to enforce copyrights that violated the law, its own user agreements or that would "indiscriminately spam, mislead or confuse."
Meanwhile, Verizon Communications, embroiled in a separate copyright infringement suit with the recording industry, said the move undermined the RIAA's argument in that case.
Last week, Verizon suffered a setback when a U.S. court said the phone company must reveal the names of customers suspected of downloading copyrighted songs from the Internet without permission.
The RIAA argued that Verizon is obligated under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act to help the music industry protect its copyrights. Verizon says it is willing to help, but argued that the law only applies to Web pages stored on its computers, not traffic on the "peer-to-peer" networks that merely travel across its wires.
Sarah Deutsch, an attorney for Verizon on Tuesday, said that the RIAA has said they could not contact users on their own.
"I think this undermines their case because now they are acknowledging they can contact the users on a massive scale," she said.
Its not the first time the recording industry has targeted individual users. In April, the RIAA sued four students who were operating networks on three college campuses where it claims the networks were being used to illegally trade copies of music files.
The warning on Tuesday was sent by the RIAA on behalf of the world's big record labels owned by AOL Time Warner, EMI Group Plc, Bertelsmann AG, Vivendi Universal and Sony Corp.
DON'T STEAL MUSIC
The RIAA said that by using song titles, it was identifying users who were posting copyrighted songs for others to download as targets for the messages, which were sent through the peer-to-peer networks' own systems.
Sherman said the trade group did not plan to take further action against the users it had contacted for now. "There is no next step. We are just letting them know it's illegal and they are not anonymous," said Sherman.
"We're not going to change behavior overnight. The only way we can measure this is to see if fewer people are offering files on Grokster and Kazaa," he said.
Some experts doubted the effectiveness of the campaign.
"I think a small number of users will be deterred by this effort. It's not going to come as a surprise to them the RIAA finds it unlawful," said Jonathan Band, a copyright lawyer for Morrison & Foerster.
Paul McCartney to End World Tour in Liverpool
LONDON (Reuters) - Ex-Beatle Sir Paul McCartney will end his year-long world tour in his home town of Liverpool, birthplace of the Fab Four.
The last show takes place on June 1 near the banks of the River Mersey.
"I've been touring this show all around the world and we've been having a great time -- but it will be very special for me to now bring it on home to Liverpool," McCartney said in a statement on Wednesday.
"I've a feeling it will be a good and emotional ending to a wonderful year," he added.
McCartney began his tour in Oakland, California, in April 2002, playing 58 concerts in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan.
Last month he began the 32-show European leg of the tour which includes concerts in Rome's Colosseum and Moscow's Red Square, before ending in Liverpool.
By the time the tour ends, nearly two million people will have paid to see the ex-Beatle play.