Motown Spruces Up Supremes' 'No. 1's

In the wake of top-selling collections of chart-toppers by the Beatles and Elvis Presley, Motown will on Feb. 3 release a similar album by Diana Ross and the Supremes, "The No. 1s." The 24-track set sports 11 Supremes No. 1s, four cuts from the period when the group was billed as Diana Ross and the Supremes, eight Ross solo tracks and a new remix of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by the Almighty Associates.

Producer Harry Weinger went back to the original master tapes to create slightly longer mixes of a number of tracks, resulting in what is touted as "the best fidelity in any Supremes and/or Diana Ross collection ever."

The album kicks off with the August 1964 No. 1 hit "Where Did Our Love Go," and runs the gamut from such evergreens as "Stop! In the Name of Love," "I Hear a Symphony" and the group's final No. 1 R&B hit, 1970's "Stoned Love."

Ross' solo selections include "Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)," "Love Hangover," "I'm Coming Out" and her 1981 duet with Lionel Richie, "Endless Love." The package is rounded out by rare photos, a track-by-track recap and an essay by Brian Chin, who has contributed to two prior Supremes best-ofs collections.

Here is "The No. 1s" track list:

"Where Did Our Love Go"
"Baby Love"
"Come See About Me"
"Stop! In the Name of Love"
"Back in My Arms Again"
"I Hear a Symphony"
"You Can't Hurry Love"
"You Keep Me Hangin' On"
"Love Is Here and Now You're Gone"
"The Happening"
"Reflections"
"Love Child"
"I'm Gonna Make You Love Me"
"Someday We'll Be Together"
"Stoned Love"
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
"Touch Me in the Morning"
"Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)"
"Love Hangover"
"The Boss"
"Upside Down"
"I'm Coming Out"
"Endless Love"
"You Keep Me Hangin' On (The Almighty Mix)"

Beatles DVD Spotlights First U.S. Visit

A new DVD due next month will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' initial trip to the U.S. "The Beatles First U.S. Visit" will be released Feb. 3 in the U.S. on Apple Corps/EMI, and Feb. 9 internationally.

The DVD, which includes footage previously unseen by the public, was lensed by Albert and David Maysles, who had all-areas access to the band as its plane touched down in New York Feb. 7, 1964, and during the ensuing two-week tour of the country at the height of Beatlemania.

The Maysles brothers captured behind-the-scenes moments of the band in dressing rooms, hotels and nightclubs, at press conferences, in limos and on trains, and such footage. Also included is the group's first concert at the Washington Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and its three performances on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Songs on the DVD include "All My Loving," "Till There Was You," "She Loves You," "From Me to You," "This Boy," "Twist and Shout," "Please Please Me," "I Saw Her Standing There," "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand." The 80-minute documentary is also accompanied by a 50-minute making-of feature that includes an interview with Albert Maysles.

As previously reported, the Beatles' "Ed Sullivan Show" performances were compiled on a separate DVD released in October by Sofa Home Entertainment.

Wilson Phillips hits the 'Highway'

After more than a decade away from the recording studio, second-generation pop supergroup Wilson Phillips is re-exploring its roots.

In May, the trio — Brian Wilson's daughters Carnie and Wendy, and John and Michelle Phillips' daughter, Chynna — will release Pacific Coast Highway, their first CD of new material since 1992's Shadows and Light. As its title suggests, the new album, which will be the band's first for Columbia Records, has a West Coast theme.

The California girls will pay homage to their parents by covering the Beach Boys' In My Room and the Mamas and the Papas' Monday Monday. Songs made famous by Linda Ronstadt (You'reNo Good), Fleetwood Mac (Go Your Own Way), Jackson Browne and The Eagles will also appear.

Veteran producer Peter Asher, whose previous clients include Ronstadt, James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt, will produce the collection, and papa Brian Wilson is scheduled for a guest spot.

'Die Hard 4'? Maybe ...

LOS ANGELES — As Bruce Willis dives into new projects, an upcoming movie role (Hostage) and a producing credit on a USA cable series (Touching Evil, premiering in March), the actor still plans to revisit an old one via Die Hard 4.

"We're working on it. Fox wants to do it. I want to do it. It depends on the script," says Willis, 48, whose tough, wise-cracking cop, John McClane, became a pop culture favorite.

Willis, sporting a full, salt-and-pepper beard for his role as a hostage negotiator in Hostage, wouldn't say that the project, which would be the first Die Hard movie since 1995, is a done deal.

"After the first Die Hard, I said I wasn't going to do any more Die Hards, and I did two more. So I don't make predictions anymore. If they get the script right and it seems like an interesting story ... "

However, that's a challenge for the franchise in the post-9/11 world, said the actor, who appeared at the semi-annual TV press tour in Los Angeles to promote Touching Evil, which he's executive-producing.

"It's hard today to do. The whole Die Hard trilogy so far has been based on some element of terrorism, and it's difficult in today's world to do stories that fictionally portray terrorism," Willis says.

As for his romance with Brooke Burns, 25, the actor says: "It's going great."

McGuinty defends spending $1 million to bring U.S. talk show to Toronto

TORONTO (CP) - Spending $1 million to bring NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien show to Toronto for one week is a "great investment," says Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty.

"Given the media coverage that we're going to get and the viewing audience, given the fact they're going to provide some great exposure to some Canadian talent, I think it's a great investment," McGuinty told reporters Thursday.

The federal and Ontario governments each kicked in $500,000 to relocate the cast and crew of the popular talk show to Toronto for the week of Feb. 10.

The provincial money is coming from a special fund to help the city's tourism industry recover from the impact of last year's deadly SARS outbreak.

"This city has gone through one heck of a year," said McGuinty, referring to the devastating impact on tourism from SARS, mad cow, a higher dollar and even the Iraq war.

An official of the Canadian Taxpayers' Federation had criticized the use of taxpayers' money to pay some of the costs to relocate the NBC show to Toronto, rhetorically asking if the governments would want O'Brien to go out west next to help with the mad cow crisis.

Ontario's Tourism Ministry expects the expenditure will help boost tourist visits to Toronto because of the five hours of American TV network exposure for the city.

"There's going to be 20 million U.S. viewers there, and we look at that as a pretty good investment," said ministry spokesman Jim McPeak.

'Bourne Identity' Tops 2003 Home Video Rentals

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "The Bourne Identity," an espionage thriller starring Matt Damon as a CIA assassin on the run with amnesia, was the top-renting U.S. home video of 2003, according to year-end figures issued on Thursday.

Combined revenues from DVD and VHS rentals of "Bourne Identity," released on video last January, totaled nearly $79.2 million for the year, said Rentrack Corp., which tracks point-of-retail data for the industry.

Close behind at No. 2 for the year was the Leonardo DiCaprio con-artist caper "Catch Me If You Can," which was released on video in May 2003 and generated rental revenues of $75.5 million, Rentrack said.

"Signs," the crop circle mystery starring Mel Gibson, ranked third with rentals totaling more than $74.9 million since its video release in January 2003.

In part due to the lag time between theatrical and video releases of films, home rental patterns differ considerably from box office business in any given year. And many movie fans who miss a film in cinemas for one reason or another will catch up with it once it's out on video.

The top-grossing theatrical release in the United States for 2003 was the computer-animated underwater adventure "Finding Nemo," which has grossed about $340 million.

The Johnny Depp swashbuckler "The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," was No. 2 at the U.S. box office last year with more than $305 million in ticket sales.

By comparison, "The Bourne Identity," which was released in theaters in June 2002, grossed about $121 million at the U.S. box office. "Catch Me If You Can" grossed $164 million in theaters after its release in December 2002.

Rounding out the top-renting videos of 2003 were: "Sweet Home Alabama" ($74.8 million), "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" ($74.2 million), "The Ring" ($68.9 million), "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days" ($66.2 million), "Bringing Down the House" ($64.2 million), "Maid in Manhattan" ($62.3 million) and "Two Weeks Notice" ($62.1 million).