Shania, Neil Young May Join SARS Concert

TORONTO (AP) — According to Canadian reports, Shania Twain and Neil Young are both rumored to be considering participating in a concert billed as "the music event of a lifetime."

It's all part of countering the problem of SARS. Toronto officials are hoping the star-studded June 21 show will restore the city's reputation as a fun, safe place to visit and bring much-needed tourism dollars to the city.

Pop artists Sarah McLachlan, Avril Lavigne and the Barenaked Ladies are already onboard for six hours of music spread across two venues to accommodate 70,0000 people. The two venues will be linked by video feed, so that fans can watch live performances from one stage and video from the other. This project is a separate one from the push to bring the Rolling Stones there for a free show to bring tourists to the city.

Officials say that while the SARS outbreak is far from over, a high-profile event is needed to demonstrate that Toronto is open for business.

Disney Uses Night Goggles to Guard 'Nemo'

ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - With the widely anticipated computer animated movie "Finding Nemo" set to debut in theaters on Friday, The Walt Disney Co. has found a novel way to guard against people illegally taping the film in advance showings.

Disney has hired security firm Burns Pinkerton, a unit of Sweden's Securitas AB, to screen audiences using metal detectors and night-vision goggles. The aim is to catch people using video cameras to make bootleg copies of the movie for resale on the black market.

"Most people think the extra security is just for terrorism reasons," said Robert Kendrick, a Burns security guard at a recent screening for "Finding Nemo" in Albany.

The practice is relatively new. Twentieth Century Fox, a unit of News Corp. Ltd.'s Fox Entertainment Group also used night-vision goggles in early screenings of May's "X2: X-Men United" and more recently with "Down With Love," starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor.

The heightened measures point to increased scrutiny the studios are taking in early screenings to prevent black market tapes from ending up for sale on city streets around the world.

"It's estimated we lose between $3 billion to $4 billion a year to this problem despite strong anti-piracy actions by the movie industry," said Rich Taylor, a spokesman for the Motion Picture Association of America which represents Hollywood's major motion picture studios including Disney and Fox.

A warning about unauthorized recording has been printed on preview tickets for the last nine months telling violators that if they enter with their video equipment they will be denied admission. If the devices are used, they will be confiscated.

In April, a 33-year-old California man was arrested and charged with illegally videotaping movies in sneak previews. If convicted, he faces up to 26 years in federal prison.

Kendrick and his partner first check movie patrons using the metal-detecting wands because digital cameras are small and compact but they do contain metal parts.

Once inside, the guards sit 25-minute shifts monitoring the projection room's camera and the entire theater. The night-vision goggles are used to span the audience to see if there are any strong lights coming from a video recorder.

"These goggles magnify the light and make the image glow," Kendrick said.

A New PS2!

At E3, Sony unveiled a new Playstation 2 that will be debuting in Japan this year and early next year in America and Europe. Dubbed, the PSX, the new PS2 comes with a hard drive (a la the XBox) and a DVD burner. "We want an extreme product to represent a new platform out of Sony," said Sony executive deputy president Ken Kutaragi. Industry analysts think that the move may be a bad one for Sony, because of the lack of overlap between those who want a DVD burner and those who play video games; it may add to the $945 million loss that Sony experienced January through March 2003. Kutaragi refused to name a price for the new system.

U2 album, tour in '04

U2 apparently hasn't left all of its songwriting talent behind.

Guitarist The Edge this week said the band has been hard at work in a Dublin studio recording the followup to 2000's smash All That You Can't Leave Behind. He said the Irish rockers will tour to support the CD's expected 2004 release.

BEST SONGS

According to the British online music site nme.com, The Edge told XFM: "It's going really well. And we're writing some of the best songs we've ever written ... It's encouraging to kick even harder and make sure that the next batch of songs are as good as anything we've ever done.

"It's hard to describe (the new CD), other than it's just a very raw rock 'n' roll. A band in its primary colours of guitar, bass, drums, voice and a lot of vitality and energy ... so far, anyway. By the time it comes out it could be a country and western album."

The Edge said U2 likely would spend the rest of 2003 finishing the record, ostensibly for an early '04 release.

"Will we tour the album? I'm sure we will," he told XFM.

'Bruce Almighty' Phone Number Annoys Many

TAMPA, Fla. - A lot of mortals who happen to share God's telephone number — or at least the one He uses in the new movie "Bruce Almighty" — have spent days now taking calls from curious dialers, snickering cranks and desperate souls.

In the hit movie, a TV newsman played by Jim Carrey is endowed by God with divine powers, allowing him to perform such feats as parting a bowl of tomato soup like the Red Sea. God's phone number is repeatedly displayed on the newsman's pager whenever the Lord tries to summon him.

Usually, movies and TV shows use the telephone exchange 555, which is not used for homes and businesses. But "Bruce Almighty" used a seven-digit number valid in many parts of the country.

Many moviegoers have remembered the number and put it to work in their own area codes.

A woman in Pinellas Park, Fla., has threatened to sue the movie studio because of the 20 calls per hour clogging her cell phone. A Colorado radio network was getting dozens a day Wednesday, five days after the movie hit theaters, and is planning to build a contest around the phenomenon.

In Sanford, N.C., the listing belongs to a church whose minister is actually named Bruce. And he is not amused.

"It's a movie that mocks God and makes a mockery of religion," said the Rev. Bruce MacInnes, pastor of Turner's Chapel Church. "I'm not too thrilled with it at all. But the Lord God is one that could use something that's meant for evil and turn it around for good. So this may very well be the reason that that number showed up."

Universal Pictures, which produced the film, said in a statement Wednesday that the phone number was chosen because it does not exist in the Buffalo, N.Y., area, where the movie is set. The studio offered no further comment.

A database search turned up more than 30 listings nationwide for the number in the movie.

In Cornelia, Ga., the number belongs to the Rev. Patrick Collington, an evangelist who runs Souls for Christ Ministries. His wife, Tracy, said they have gotten about 100 calls since Friday — mostly people asking for God and hanging up — but they are not bothered.

The family went to see the movie Tuesday night and loved it.

"It was funny, and knowing God's phone number was our number was really something to be excited about," she said.

Donna Augustin of Parrish, Fla., said her family has gotten about 200 God calls since Friday. Her three children think it is hilarious. A new message on their answering machine informs callers that they have reached "God's messenger" and should "call Jim Carrey" instead.

Some callers of the Augustin home leave messages ranging from sweet to obscene. Most try to come up with something funny. One guy wanted to know when God would answer his prayers and make him a porn star.

In Longmont, Colo., the Colorado Radio Network's nine lines started lighting up Monday with God callers, a good number of whom actually seemed to think they found a direct line to the Lord, according to Ron Nickel, the network's senior vice president.

"God, I really need to talk to you," one woman said in a message. "I need to repent because I've cheated on my husband five times, but I guess all of us people who are prostitutes eventually cheat on our husbands."

Nickel said the network of five stations plans to turn the whole thing into a contest. Listeners will be asked what they would say to God if they could call Him. The host of the stations' only religious show will pick the winner.

"This just dropped right out of the sky into our lap," Nickel said. "We would have to be stupid to get angry."

David Lee Roth Pressing Forward With Lawsuit Against Van Halen

Former Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth is continuing to move forward with his lawsuit against the band over unpaid royalties. Roth filed his suit on December 11 in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming the group didn't include him in a 1996 renegotiation of its contract with Warner Brothers Records.

Roth said the result is a financial inequity. "If you buy Van Halen I now, if I make 10 cents, the bass player (Michael Anthony) makes 30 cents. And if I make a hundred dollars, the drummer (Alex Van Halen) will make close to three hundred dollars. And I've always maintained since I wrote all the words, and all the lyrics, and all of the harmonies, and structured the tunes, designed most of the album covers--and when MTV happened for everybody, I wrote and directed the videos--with all of that, I should make 25 percent. What do you think?"

Roth's suit is still pending while both sides file legal briefs. Neither Van Halen Music LLC nor Warner Bros., who are co-defendants, would comment on the suit.

Roth left Van Halen in 1985 and was replaced by Sammy Hagar. Roth sang on the two new songs from the group's 1996 Best Of Volume 1, but the reunion didn't last.

Van Halen left Warner Bros. in 2001 and is currently without a label.

Roth's new album, Diamond Dave, comes out July 8. It features cover versions of songs by the Beatles, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Savoy Brown, and Steve Miller.

Roth next performs Thursday (May 29) at the Turning Stone Casino in Verona, New York.

Stars come out to aid T.O.

TORONTO -- Sarah McLachlan, Avril Lavigne and the Barenaked Ladies will lend their popularity to a concert billed as "the music event of a lifetime," as part of the ongoing effort to counter the taint of SARS.

Officials are hoping the star-studded show next month will restore the city's reputation as a fun, safe place to visit and bring much-needed tourism dollars to the city.

"We want summer to start with a real bang, something that's going to bring a lot of livelihood, rockin' and poppin' and all that," Brian Coburn, Ontario's minister of tourism, said Wednesday as he announced the June 21 show.

Six hours of music will be spread across two venues -- SkyDome and the Air Canada Centre -- to accommodate 70,000 people. Tickets, $29.50 and $19.50, go on sale Thursday at noon through Ticketmaster.

Other acts on the bill for the Concert For Toronto include the Tragically Hip, Swollen Members, Remy Shand, Glenn Lewis, Sum 41 and Our Lady Peace.

Officials said more performers will be added in the coming weeks. Neil Young and Shania Twain are among those rumoured to be considering participating in the show.

The two venues will be linked by video feed so that fans at one place can watch performances at the other. Performers will be spread out so no one is on the stage at the same time.

"It's going to be a historic event. We've never presented two shows like this simultaneously," said Shane Bourbonnais, senior vice-president of ClearChannel Entertainment, which is producing the show. "It's going to be one long six-hour show that goes back and forth between both venues."

The announcement comes after weeks of speculation that the Rolling Stones would headline a free "everybody loves Toronto" show at a large park north of the city.

Coburn said the Lavigne-McLachlan show was not the same project.

"There's ongoing discussions (for the Stones show)," he said. "If something like that happens it's one more big plus for us."

Liberal MP Dennis Mills, who has been trying to organize the Stones show, has said private-sector backers are willing to offer up half of the $10 million cost to stage the event, but that government support was needed for the rest.

The concert announcement was made amid the ongoing battle to contain severe acute respiratory syndrome, which escalated late last week in the form of several clusters emanating from North York General Hospital. Thousands of people have been quarantined.

While officials recognize that the SARS outbreak is far from over, Coburn said a high-profile event is needed to demonstrate that Toronto is open for business.

"It's to get people back up on top again, get the juices flowing," Coburn said. "We believe it's time to get on with some of these events, these celebrations to showcase Toronto."

The province is pitching in $5.2 million for the show, and as previously announced, lifting the provincial sales tax on entertainment attractions and hotel accommodations, which lasts through to Sept. 30. The federal government has yet to contribute financially, Coburn said.

The concert will run from 3:30 to 9:30 p.m. Officials hope the crowd will then spread across the downtown core and spend money at restaurants and bars that have taken a huge financial hit ever since the SARS outbreak began in mid-March.

The concert industry has also suffered with many high-profile acts, including Elton John, Billy Joel and Lisa Marie Presley, cancelling trips and shows.

"We've lost over $600,000 during this period," Bourbonnais said. "It's our duty and our job to make sure we tell the artists of the world that Toronto is a safe place to come."

To help promote the city and the event, Roots Canada will create a Concert For Toronto T-shirt, with a portion of proceeds going to SARS research.

"This concert has the possibility of being the single, greatest musical event in the history of Toronto," said Don Green, one of the founders of the clothing company.

"It's really going to show the world that Torontonians are not hibernating and they're not hiding at home . . .they're really coming out and enjoying this fine city that we live in."

Lavigne's SK8ER BOI Goes to Film

Paramount Pictures and MTV Films have acquired the film adaption rights to Avril Lavigne's song "Sk8er Boi." David Zabel (ER) is set to adapt the song into a film about a teenage girl that rejects a potential boyfriend because her friends disapprove of him. Later in life, he becomes a rock star and she begins feeling regret. Music production team The Matrix will consult on the screenplay and will create an event album for the film with new songs.

'Idol' Movie Slows Its Rush to DVD

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - The profits from the "American Idol" franchise are coming so fast and furious that Fox Studios can be forgiven for almost putting the cart before the horse in its latest run for the money. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fox was prepared to blitz the first "Idol" -related film, "From Justin to Kelly" onto video and DVD within six weeks of its theatrical release, scheduled for Friday, June 13.

Not surprisingly, nationwide exhibitors balked at this possibility. Exhibitors typically receive a miniscule percentage of the box office proceeds from early in their run, relying on longevity and shelf-life (as well as popcorn and beverages) to make money.

Longevity and shelf-life haven't necessarily been the watchwords of the "American Idol" franchise. With twice-weekly airings, regular specials, CDs by the winners, CDs by the finalists, concert tours, a spin-off ("American Juniors," starting Tuesday, June 3), and now a film, Fox has realized the importance of capitalizing as quickly as possible on a product that has very little second-run syndicated value.

"From Justin to Kelly," starring the show's first two finalists, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini, has already been moved from a proposed spring release to its current early summer slot in order to cash in on the show's sustained popularity and to maintain the show's buzz. An additional dose of aural methadone comes courtesy of Guarini's new album, which is schedule to drop just days before the film. Citing anonymous sources, the HR says that Fox intended to get the film into theaters as quickly as possible and then have the DVDs on shelves before the end of the summer.

Any dead air around that time would be filled by the "American Idol" tour and with the release of singles by this season's winner, Ruben Studdard, and Clay Aiken, the popular runner-up. The DVD momentum then might carry into hypothetical Christmas releases for their full albums, which would flow into the new season of "American Idol" starting next winter. That could gush into the inevitable feature film starring Ruben and Clay, which could be swiftly followed by its own release on DVD.

Exhibitor concerns have reportedly slowed this "Idol" circle of life somewhat and the DVDs of "From Justin to Kelly" won't hit shelves until September.

A Fox spokesperson denies the whole fracas, saying, "As with all of our films, no home entertainment release date has been set prior to the opening in theaters."

...THE NEXT INDY?

Nicolas Cage signing on to star in director Jon Turteltaub's National Treasure, playing an archaelogist-historian who believes a treasure map is hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Jerry Bruckheimer is producing.

Funnyman Bill Murray to play fat cat "Garfield" in new movie

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - US comedian Bill Murray will incarnate the dry-witted and prickly comic book cat "Garfield" in a new live-action Hollywood movie, the entertainment press said.

Murray, 52, will give the fat cat feline his voice in the upcoming feature film that -- like last year's "Scooby-Doo" movie -- will use a combination of live actors and a computer-generated cat, Daily Variety said.

Production on the 20th Century Fox movie coincides with next month's 25th anniversary of the comic strip written by Jim Davis.

The film, to be directed by Peter Hewitt, will recount the adventures of the smart-alec feline who suffers living with a geeky owner and dim-witted dog.

"Toy Story" authors Joel Cohen and Alec Sokolow have written the screenplay of the new "Garfield" movie that hopes to cash in on the success of the cartoon that is one of the most widely syndicated strips in the world, appearing in 2,570 newspapers in 111 countries.