McCartney slams KFC in newspaper ad
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (CP) -- Music legend Paul McCartney is joining PETA's battle against fast-food giant KFC, taking out a full page ad in the city's biggest newspaper to accuse the company of mistreating chickens.
"If KFC paid for dogs or cats to be treated the way these unfortunate chickens are treated, they could be charged with cruelty to animals," McCartney, a longtime vegetarian, says in the open letter to KFC that's to appear Thursday in the Courier-Journal in Louisville, KFC's corporate headquarters.
"These remarkable animals are deserving of at least a little kindness."
KFC has long denied claims from PETA, the animal rights group, that it mistreats chickens. A spokesman for KFC could not be immediately reached for comment on Wednesday.
McCartney's letter to KFC's David Novak, the company's chief executive officer, challenges him to improve conditions for millions of KFC birds.
PETA claims KFC raises 750 million chickens each year in overcrowded, feces-filled sheds on "factory farms" and kills them in inhumane ways for KFC restaurants.
McCartney and PETA are calling on KFC to replace electric stunning and throat-slitting with painless gas killing, to phase out the forced rapid growth of chickens, and to implement automated chicken-catching, which they say would reduce the high incidence of bruising and broken wings and legs.
In May, the company said in a news release it would adopt "comprehensive industry-leading guidelines and audits for the humane raising and handling of poultry."
It also said KFC has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to review a proposal on the feasibility of gas-killing chickens following PETA's suggestion.
McCartney's letter is the latest volley in PETA's so-called Kentucky Fried Cruelty Campaign.
Last week, musician Chrissie Hynde was among several people arrested while protesting at a KFC in Paris, where she was performing.
Earlier this month, PETA filed a lawsuit against KFC for allegedly making deceptive statements about the treatment of its birds.
Weezer Toiling On Numerous Projects
Weezer fans wouldn't be blamed for being a bit confused as to the group's working schedule. After releasing only two albums during its first seven years of existence, the band dropped the Geffen sets "Weezer" ("The Green Album") and "Maladroit" in May 2001 and May 2002, respectively. Now the Weezer camp is hard at work on a variety of projects.
First, the group is in the pre-production stages for its fifth studio album, cutting demos and rehearsing. It plans to start recording in the late summer or fall with, as previously reported, celebrated producer Rick Rubin.
Weezer has recorded a number of new tracks for compilations, and is working on a DVD, a special edition reissue of its debut album and a brand-new studio set. As previously reported, the group is contributing an unreleased 1995 demo titled "You Won't Get With Me Tonight" to "Gimme Skelter," a compilation album due in September from Buddyhead Records.
A live recording of "Why Bother" was included on the Petra Haden benefit double 7" on Vegas Records, and Weezer is also readying a newly recorded cover of Green Day's "Worry Rock" for the Green Day tribute "A Different Shade of Green," released this week by Skunk Ape Records.
The DVD is expected to be released by December but no details are yet available as to its content. The group's official Web site says the main content of the disc is finished, with a projected running time of more than three hours. The site also says the band is working on ideas for an expanded reissue of its 1994 Geffen debut, "Weezer" ("The Blue Album").
NBC has sitcom plans for 'Friends' pal Joey
LOS ANGELES — Joey Tribbiani is headed for California — and life without Friends.
NBC today plans to announce a deal with Matt LeBlanc to star in Joey, a Friends spinoff featuring one of the more beloved characters from TV's top-rated comedy.
The series, which won't include any other Friends cast members, will premiere in September 2004, almost certainly in the newly vacated Thursday at 8 p.m. ET/PT time slot, after Friends ends its 10th and final season in May.
No script has been written, but the show is believed to be based on a scenario in which Joey moves to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career, probably to be joined by a love interest and an ensemble cast.
Friends creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane aren't involved in the project — they said last year that they had no interest in a spinoff — but partner and Friends veteran Kevin S. Bright will executive-produce the series along with Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan. They've written recent story lines about soap actor Joey, who has become a more prominent character in the past two seasons.
LeBlanc will take a significant pay cut from the roughly $1 million per episode that he'll make for the final season of Friends. And unlike with other star-driven series, he won't be a producer. But he'll have input into casting and earn a greater share of the show's profits if it's successful.
A Joey spinoff has been in the discussion stages for nearly two years but has been put off each time Friends has been extended for an additional season.
Yet Friends producers, Warner Bros. Television and NBC insist this will be the final season, with only 18 episodes produced instead of the customary 22.
All along they saw LeBlanc — who won his second Emmy nomination last week — as the likeliest spinoff character.
Top candidate Jennifer Aniston expressed zero interest in continuing the role of Rachel, and an idea to pair Joey with Matthew Perry's Chandler Bing in a buddy comedy was rejected as too limiting.
Either way, it's clear that NBC needs some help: The network hasn't found a new comedy hit since Will & Grace premiered in 1998, and both Friends and the fading Frasier will be history in May. With CBS winning Thursdays last season, NBC views Joey as an insurance policy to protect its most important night.
No one expects Joey to capture as large an audience as Friends, which averaged nearly 22 million viewers last season. And the history of successful comedy spinoffs is limited: For every Frasier (spawned from Cheers), there are several After M*A*S*Hes that quickly faded. Joey will be expensive by new-sitcom standards, costing NBC nearly $2 million an episode, but still far short of the $10 million that the network is shelling out for the final year of Friends.
BIG SCREEN-BOUND
Miramax joining forces with Archie Comics Entertainment to make Betty & Veronica, a live-action film based on the classic comic strip featuring the blond and brunette hotties.
HASTA LA VISTA, FILM CAREER?
Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to California from a promotional trip in Europe to file the necessary paperwork to run for governor should state officials certify the Republican-led recall drive against Governor Gray Davis.
Disney Inks Deal on Downloading Movies
LOS ANGELES - Scores of Disney films like "Chicago" and "Monsters Inc." will soon be available for downloading off the Internet through a licensing deal reached between the entertainment giant and online movie service Movielink, the companies said Wednesday.
The agreement between The Walt Disney Co. subsidiary Buena Vista Pay Television and Movielink was finalized last week. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The deal gives Movielink access to film titles from all the major studios except one — Twentieth Century Fox Studios — and boosts its library of digitized films to around 400 from the 175 the company had when it launched eight months ago.
Movies from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone, Miramax and Dimension New Releases will be available through the service. Among the first releases will be "Gangs of New York," "The Recruit" and "The Jungle Book 2."
The first batch of Disney titles won't be available until August because they have to be transferred to a format for downloading, Movielink CEO Jim Ramo said.
Plans by Disney to develop a video-on-demand service called MovieBeam this fall are still on, a Disney spokeswoman said. Unlike Movielink, MovieBeam would deliver films directly to consumers' TVs through a set-top box.
Disney will set the retail price for the movie downloads, which typically range between $2.95 and $4.99, Movielink said.
The movie files can be viewed on a PC or on a television connected to a computer, but customers have a maximum of 30 days to begin watching their downloaded movie. Once they begin to do so, the movie can be viewed only over the next 24 hours.
A computer with a broadband Internet connection is necessary to use the service.