Letterman ending Friday breaks
NEW YORK (AP) -- David Letterman is going back on the air Fridays.
After a month of the veteran "Late Show" host turning Friday nights over to guest hosts, Jimmy Fallon's stint Friday was going to be the last, spokesman Tom Keaney said.
Tom Green, Tom Arnold and Kelsey Grammer had also filled in for Letterman.
"I've worked since I was 11 years old," Letterman, 56, had said on his CBS show. "And I just feel like it's summer now, I'd like to take a day off."
Oddly, Letterman didn't even get a day off. He usually tapes his Friday shows on Thursday evenings, after taping Thursday's show; so he just left work early during this stretch.
Although ratings in the summer aren't watched as closely as those during the regular TV season, "Tonight" host Jay Leno's lead over Letterman has increased in the past month.
Rush added to Stones T.O. gig
Canadian rock legends Rush have been confirmed for the Rolling Stones concert in Toronto on July 30 at Downsview Park.
The announcement was made on the band's official website, where in a one-sentence blurb they confirmed they will be joining the ever-growing list of artists for the special gig to help Toronto's SARS-scarred economy.
The concert also features AC/DC, The Guess Who, Justin Timberlake, Sam Roberts, The Flaming Lips, Kathleen Edwards, The Isley Brothers, Sass Jordan and La Chicane.
Organizers hinted that more artists are likely to be added to the bill, although they wouldn't comment on rumours of who else will be added.
Tickets for the nine-hour show -- which went on sale Friday -- are available through all Ticketmater outlets for $21.50 plus service charges. Starting July 4, tickets can also be purchased at A&P and Dominion stores in Ontario.
The bash will be hosted by Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi and organizers hope to draw 300,000 revellers, including 100,000 from outside Ontario.
MTV Won't Play Foo Fighters' New Video
MTV has announced that they won't be airing The Foo Fighters' new video for their song "Low" because of two controversial pieces. In the video, actor Jack Black and lead singer Dave Grohl dress up in women's clothes and dance around. The first objectionable part is when the two begin spanking each other. The second objectionable part sees Black and Grohl going horizontal and "intermingling with each other," i.e., implying sex. Because of the announcement, TFF says that they will release a DVD of the video on July 1. The DVD will contain "Low," plus three different video versions of "Times Like These." It will retail for $5.95.
Travolta Up for BRIDGET JONES 2
John Travolta is apparently in talks to play Rene Zellwegger's love interest in BRIDGET JONES: THE EDGE OF REASON. Apparently the producers wanted George Clooney, but Zellwegger nixed that choice. Says a source, "Renee was adamant on this point, and would not be swayed. The producers had toyed with the idea of getting a new leading actress, and keeping Gorgeous George, but how many actresses are likely to put on two stone? Not very many."
SUPERGIRL Begins the Casting Merry Go-Round
Akiva Goldsman (BATMAN & ROBIN) is gearing up to script a new version of SUPERGIRL. Naomi Watts (THE RING) and Alicia Silverstone (BATMAN & ROBIN) are apparently in the lead to play the lead role.
Samuel L. Jackson talks Mace Windu's fate in STAR WARS EPISODE III.
Samuel L. Jackson revealed the fate of his Star Wars: Episode III character, Mace Windu, in a spoiler-filled interview with MTV.com. "I'm just going to die, you know?" Jackson told the site. "I'm basically going down there, hoping that I'm going to have this really awesome lightsaber battle with somebody that takes me out in the proper way. You know, the way a Jedi of my status deserves to be taken out."
Jackson said that he travels to Australia next month to begin work on George Lucas' third and final Star Wars prequel. "I never realized I would end up with some kind of franchise character that's in the middle of a big franchise of its own, but it's very cool," Jackson said. "Mace is kind of evolving for me. And it's been a wonderful experience, being able to be in Star Wars, first of all because I was a huge fan. I used to sit around and wonder how you got into something like that, and how great it would be to be in it. Fortunately for me, somebody must have heard me, and I'm in it!" Star Wars: Episode III is scheduled to hit theaters in 2005.
Waterston on 'Law' Docket Through 2005
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - It'll be at least an even 10 years on the "Law & Order" beat for Sam Waterston, who plays a hard-charging assistant district attorney on the veteran NBC crime drama.
Waterston signed on as "Law & Order" in 1994, and the show's producers have picked up his option to stick with the Emmy-winning series at least the 2004-05 season.
He ranks as the third-longest-serving actor currently on the show -- which is famous for periodically overhauling its cast -- behind Jerry Orbach, who has played Detective Lennie Briscoe since 1992, and S. Epatha Merkerson, who has played Lt. Anita Van Buren since 1993.
Waterston has earned three lead actor Emmy nominations (in 1997, 1999 and 2000) for his work as Jack McCoy on "Law & Order." He also garnered a lead actor Oscar nomination in 1985 for his role in "The Killing Fields."
"Law & Order," which bowed in 1990, has defied the laws of primetime gravity by gaining audience share in recent years. The series will begin its 14th season in the fall. NBC and producer Universal Network Television are expected to begin negotiating a long-term renewal deal for "Law & Order" and its spinoffs, "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," later this year. It's understood that a possible fourth "Law & Order" series will be included as part of those negotiations.
R.E.M. sets date for hits album
R.E.M. has booked October 28 as the release date for their second compilation, "In Time: The Best Of R.E.M. 1998-2003," according to their official website.
The set will feature two brand new tracks, "Bad Day" (which is slated as the single) and "Animal."
Tim Hope, who has directed videos for Coldplay and Jimmy Eat World, recently shot a video for "Bad Day" in Vancouver.
The Athens, Georgia band has been recording its new album with "Reveal" producers Patrick McCarthy and Jamie Candiloro since November. The album will be released sometime in 2004.
Boston Sues Artemis For Breach Of Contract
Veteran rock act Boston has filed a breach-of-contract suit against New York-based indie label Artemis Records and CEO Danny Goldberg, seeking damages in excess of $1 million, Billboard Bulletin reports.
Artemis last year released Boston's album "Corporate America." The action, filed Tuesday in New York Supreme Court, claims that Goldberg assured Boston the album would be "the highest priority" for Artemis, but the company "[provided] more smoke and mirrors than commitment to its artists."
The suit claims that a round of layoffs at Artemis eliminated key staff members necessary to fulfill the label's obligations to the group. It also says Artemis "[failed] to execute almost every element of [the Boston marketing] plan," and claims that the success of the band's summer tour is in jeopardy due to the label's failure to properly promote the album.
An Artemis spokesperson had no comment at deadline, saying the label had not yet seen the suit.
"Corporate America," Boston's first Artemis album, was released Nov. 5, 2002, and has sold 119,000 copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. Boston's self-titled 1976 debut is one of the best-selling albums of all time; it has been certified for U.S. shipments of 16 million units by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Boston's suit marks the second time this year Artemis has been hit with litigation by one of its acts. In March, female rock act Kittie lodged a breach-of-contract action against the label in federal court in New York.
Boston leader and guitarist Tom Scholz has a long history of litigation: in 1983, he began a protracted legal battle with CBS Records over unpaid royalties. A federal jury awarded Scholz $20 million in 1990.
Crow, Blige, Dixie Chicks, Carlton, Others Back RIAA's Plan To Sue File Traders
The Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) is vowing to sue those who illegally download music, and some of the biggest names in music are supporting the idea. In a statement issued on Wednesday (June 25), RIAA President Cary Sherman warned, "This activity is illegal, you are not anonymous when you do it, and engaging in it can have real consequences."
Sherman says the RIAA has begun gathering evidence against swappers, and expects to begin filing suits as early as mid-August.
Several big-name artists have issued statements supporting the RIAA's harsh stance against file swapping. Grammy-winner Sheryl Crow said, "Music fans cannot expect their favorite musicians to continue to produce quality albums if they are not willing to pay. People, including musicians, expect to be rewarded for a job well done. It's all about supply and demand. If there is not demand, there will eventually be no supply."
Mary J. Blige said, "If you create something and then someone takes it without your permission, that is stealing. It may sound harsh, but it is true."
According to the Dixie Chicks, "It may seem innocent enough, but every time you illegally download music a songwriter doesn't get paid. And, every time you swap that music with your friends a new artist doesn't get a chance. Respect the artists you love by not stealing their music."
Vanessa Carlton said, "I'm all for getting a taste of something before you buy it, but when it becomes more than a taste and people begin hoarding the entire work, it becomes piracy which results in a system in which artists are not being rewarded for their works."
Other artists siding with the RIAA include Brooks & Dunn, Mandy Moore, Shakira, Peter Gabriel, and songwriter Lamont Dozier.
Leguizamo Ready for ICE AGE 2
John Leguizamo says that he expects to sign on soon for ICE AGE 2. Apparently Ray Romano and Dennis Leary are already on board for the project. Leguizamo will resume his role as Sid, the giant sloth. Voice work will begin later this year.
GAINING RESPECT
MGM planning to remake the 1986 Rodney Dangerfield comedy Back to School. The comedian will help develop the picture and will likely do a cameo.
Blockbuster Debuts Have Hollywood Heads Shaking
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - As the summer movie season nears its second half and "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" cranks up for a Friday debut, Hollywood heads are shaking at what appears to be a new gold standard of blockbuster success -- the $50 million debut.
If "Full Throttle" tops that mark, it would be the seventh weekend out of nine since the May 2 release of "X2: X-Men United" that the No. 1 film in the United States has beaten what box office watchers are saying is the new benchmark.
"It is the threshold. It is the mark," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Inc.
In all of 2002, only eight films saw a $50 million weekend debut and in 2000, only three did, according to Exhibitor Relations. Given their star power, summer 2003's films look to easily eclipse all of 2002's $50 million openers.
Major films like "Bad Boys II" with Will Smith, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" with Johnny Depp, "Seabiscuit" with Tobey Maguire and "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life" are still to come in July.
August has the "American Pie" kids returning in comedy "American Wedding," Nicolas Cage in "Matchstick Men," and Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck pairing up in "Gigli."
"Not only do you have pictures that are potentially huge debuts," said Jeff Blake, vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, "But several have terrific playability." That means the films could play well in theaters for weeks.
Chuck Viane, film distribution chief at Walt Disney Co. said the studios have done a good job of programming theaters each weekend with different films for dissimilar audience tastes.
For instance, during the long Independence Day holiday -- the start of Hollywood's second half of summer -- three new movies debut: "Terminator 3; Rise of the Machines" aimed at men, "Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde" for women and animated "Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas" for kids.
SCARY PROPOSITION
Still, Blake, Viane and Nikki Rocco, distribution president for Universal Pictures whose "Hulk" set a June record last week with a $63 million opening, are all concerned by the notion they must mount a $50 million debut to be judged a success.
Blake calls it a "scary proposition." Rocco said it is "unfortunate," and Viane added "the bar is too high."
Achieving a $50 million opening is no easy trick. It takes placing the right movie in the right number of theaters and spending tens of millions of dollars on marketing that will create must-see audience awareness.
Low-budget films or less hyped films can easily be overlooked. Often, successful films are deemed unsuccessful simply because they did not open at No. 1.
"Anytime a movie exceeds $30 million, you can still have a major picture," Viane said.
A good example is "The Italian Job," a crime caper that debuted against gargantuan fish tale, "Finding Nemo." It was No. 3 its first weekend with $19 million to "Nemo's" $70 million. Yet, the well-liked "Job" had "playability," and it has gone on to rack up a respectable $70 million since late May.
The reason for the new bar is pretty simple. More first-run movies are playing in more theaters than ever before, and there are plenty of seats and show times available at new mega-plex theaters.
The downside is that big debuts generally lead to big ticket sales drop-offs of 50 percent or more in a film's second week. "2 Fast 2 Furious" opened to $52 million, and in its second weekend fell to $19 million.
"The bigger you open, the bigger the erosion," said Rocco, but of the "Hulk," she added, "I'll open to $63 million and drop off 50 percent and be thrilled with that."
'Hillbillies' Star Buddy Ebsen in Calif. Hospital
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former "Beverly Hillbillies" star Buddy Ebsen was in a southern California hospital on Thursday with an undisclosed illness.
Hospital officials said Ebsen, 95, was admitted to the Torrance Memorial Medical Center earlier this week. No details of his illness were available but a hospital spokeswoman said his condition was "good."
Ebsen started his career as a dancer on Broadway and later starred in a number of MGM musicals. He became known to a new generation in the 1960s in his role as family patriarch Jed Clampett in the television sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies" and later as a private investigator in the 1970s TV show "Barnaby Jones."
Ex-S.C. Sen. Strom Thurmond Dies at 100
WASHINGTON - Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a one-time Democratic segregationist who helped fuel the rise of the modern conservative Republican Party in the South, died Thursday. He was 100 and the longest-serving senator in history.
Thurmond died at 9:45 p.m. after having been in poor health in recent weeks, his son Strom Thurmond Jr. said. He had been living in a newly renovated wing of a hospital in his hometown of Edgefield, S.C., since he returned to the state from Washington earlier this year.
"Surrounded by family, my father was resting comfortably, without pain, and in total peace," Thurmond Jr. said in a statement released by the hospital.
The Senate temporarily suspended debate on Medicare legislation to pay tribute to Thurmond. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said, "Strom Thurmond will forever be a symbol of what one person can accomplish when they live life, as we all know he did, to the fullest." Frist, R-Tenn., then led the Senate in a moment of silence.
"He had enthusiasm and passion like no one I've ever met in my life," said Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who replaced Thurmond in the Senate. "South Carolina's favorite son is gone but he'll never be forgotten."
Thurmond, whose physical and political endurance were legendary — he holds the record for solo Senate filibustering — retired on Jan. 5, 2003, after more than 48 years in office.
Age took its inevitable toll on Thurmond as he neared retirement, and he was guided through the Capitol in a wheelchair. Yet he wielded political power virtually to the end, prevailing upon President Bush to appoint his 29-year-old son, Strom Jr., as U.S. Attorney in South Carolina in 2001.
Thurmond is "beyond criticism" in South Carolina, Furman University political scientist Don Aiesi said as the senator's health declined and he underwent a series of hospitalizations late in his congressional tenure. "Strom is the most venerable of institutions here."
In a political career that spanned seven decades, Thurmond won his first election in 1928, to local office, and his last in 1996, to his eighth Senate term. "We cannot and I shall not give up on our mission to right the 40-year wrongs of liberalism," he said during his last campaign. "The people of South Carolina know that Strom Thurmond doesn't like unfinished business."
His voting record was pro-defense, anti-communist and staunchly conservative. His devotion to constituent services was legendary. He was a lifelong physical fitness buff, who shunned tobacco and alcohol and was known for his vigorous handshake. He had a storied, lifelong reputation as a ladies' man.
Thurmond ran for president as a Dixiecrat in 1948 and won 39 Southern electoral votes as part of a states-rights uprising against President Harry Truman's support for civil rights. Nearly a decade later, he set the Senate record for filibustering when he spoke for a straight 24 hours and 18 minutes against a bill to end discrimination in housing.
Ironically, his presidential campaign sparked controversy more than a half-century later, when then-Majority Leader Trent Lott declared at Thurmond's 100th birthday party that voters of Mississippi were proud to have supported the South Carolinian when he ran for the White House. "If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either," added Lott, who was forced to step down as the Senate's Republican leader in the ensuing uproar.
Thurmond's racial politics changed over the years as blacks began voting in large numbers. He beccame the first Southern senator to hire a black aide, supported the appointment of a black Southern federal judge and voted to make Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday.
His outlook seemed far different a half century ago, when he ran for president.
"I want to tell you," he declared in one speech in 1948, "that there's not enough troops in the Army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the Negro race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes and into our churches."
Thurmond grew up a Democrat — his father once ran for office — but switched to the GOP in 1964 to support Barry Goldwater's conservative campaign for the White House.
He said at the time he had made the move because Democrats were "leading the evolution of our nation to a socialistic dictatorship."
Like other Southern states, South Carolina had been a one-party Democratic state since the end of Reconstruction nearly a century earlier. Thurmond's switch anticipated a broader trend. By the 1990s, the South favored the GOP, and Republican candidates generally triumphed in statewide races in South Carolina.
The first time he ran as a Republican, in 1966, he won easily.
In 1968, Thurmond played a pivotal role in executing the "Southern Strategy" that helped Richard Nixon win the White House. The South Carolinian helped hold Southern delegates in line at the GOP convention when a charismatic conservative, Ronald Reagan, made a late play for the nomination. In the general election, he sought to blunt George Wallace's third-party candidacy in the South, arguing that anything but a vote for Nixon would help elect a liberal Democrat, Hubert Humphrey.
Born Dec. 5, 1902, in Edgefield, S.C., James Strom Thurmond — Strom was his mother's maiden name — was elected county school superintendent, state senator and circuit judge before enlisting in the Army in World War II. He landed in Normandy as part of the 82nd Airborne Division assault on D-Day, and won five battle stars and numerous other awards.
The war over, he returned home to resume his political career and won election as governor in 1946. His record was progressive by contemporary standards for a Southern Democrat. He pushed for repeal of the poll tax and boosted education spending.
He lost a race in South Carolina for the only time in his career four years later, when he challenged incumbent Sen. Olin Johnston for renomination. In defeat, he returned home to practice law.
But in 1954, Sen. Burnet Maybank died unexpectedly. When party officials tapped a state lawmaker to run for the post, Thurmond challenged as a write-in candidate, saying the voters, not the party's leaders, should decide who got the nomination. To underscore his credentials as an insurgent, he pledged to resign his seat before seeking re-election in 1956.
He won, the only person in history to capture a seat in Congress by write-in. Two years later, he kept his pledge to resign before running for the four years remaining in the term.
His presidential race and write-in victory behind him, Thurmond arrived in Washington with a nationwide reputation. The civil rights movement was gathering steam, but he held fast to his segregationist views for years.
He was a leader in drafting the Southern Manifesto of 1956, in which Southern lawmakers vowed resistance to the Supreme Court's unanimous school desegregation order. In 1957, he staged his record nonstop filibuster against housing legislation that he denounced as "race mixing."
Ironically, in earlier decades, Thurmond's segregationist views were more nuanced than those held by other Southern politicians.
As governor, he called for forceful prosecution after a black man, a murder suspect, was lynched by a mob. The result was a trial at which 31 white men were defendants.
His 1950 defeat came at the hands of an opponent who made an issue of Thurmond's gubernatorial appointment of a black physician to a state medical advisory board.
Like many one-time segregationists, Thurmond insisted the issue wasn't race but "federal power vs. state power" — though the state power he wanted to preserve was the power to segregate.
"The question of integration was only one facet of that matter," he said in a November 1992 interview.
Showing how much his world had changed, in 1977, Thurmond's young daughter, Nancy, 6, enrolled in a public school in Columbia, S.C., that was 50 percent black. The girl's teacher also was black.
Thurmond's first wife, Jean Crouch, was 23 years his junior. The couple married in 1947, and she died of a brain tumor in 1960.
His second wife, former beauty queen Nancy Moore, was 44 years younger than Thurmond when they were married in 1968. Thurmond was 68 when their first child, Nancy, was born. The couple had three other children before separating in 1991: Strom Jr., Juliana and Paul. His daughter Nancy died in 1993 after being struck by a car.