A-DO'H!-RABLE
Homer Simpson is going to the Super Bowl on Sunday.
The animated star of "The Simpsons" will headline a 30-second MasterCard ad - one of several funky spots airing during Sunday's Big Game.
The Homer spot, part of MasterCard's ongoing "Priceless" campaign, is titled "The Simpsons" and highlights a typical day for Homer, who runs some errands so he'll be able to spend more time with Marge and the kids.
Homer's first stop is the Kwik-E-Mart, where he grabs a six-pack of Duff, a hot dog, potato chips and some doughnuts as the voiceover intones "Diapers, milk and laundry detergent . . . $25" ("Oh yeah, and the stuff he said," Homer responds).
And so it goes, with Homer getting his oil changed (as a swarm of bees eat his doughnut), visiting his barber and ending up at Moe's Tavern - where he's served a beer and toasts the voiceover.
"Getting your errands done quicker to spend more time with your family . . . Priceless," says the voiceover, before repeating itself more sternly a second time.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time," Homer replies. "Stupid voiceover."
Pepsi, meanwhile, will air an ad featuring about 20 teens - including 14-year-old Staten Island resident Annie Leith - who were sued for unauthorized downloading of music from the Internet.
The ad, for the "Pepsi iTunes Giveaway," will inaugurate a new campaign in which Pepsi is offering up to 100 million free (and legal) downloads from Apple's iTunes for a two-month period.
During the ad, Leith holds a Pepsi and says, "We are still going to download music for free off the Internet," according to published reports.
ALL OVER BUT THE CRYING FOR 'FRIENDS'
For the cast and crew of "Friends," the walk-up to the taping of the show's final episode last week was a bittersweet whirlwind.
There were no less than three major parties - an intimate one at star Jennifer Aniston and hubby Brad Pitt's $13.5 million mansion, another at a trendy L.A. restaurant and a pull-out-the stops blowout at a hotel last Saturday night. "The party was beautiful and sweet," Aniston tells the latest edition of People magazine, as part of an inside look at the show's final week. "And sad."
Other treats included gifts. Diamond earrings from the producers to the female cast members and cuff-links to the men. The cast in turn gave each of the show's producers inscribed Cartier watches.
The final episode was taped last Friday in front of an audience of about 250 friends and family of the cast and crew. All were sworn to secrecy about how the series ends, and some scenes were taped ahead of time.
As the audience began to applaud during the opening theme song, the entire cast began to cry and had to go back and have their makeup redone.
Emotions on the set continued to run high throughout the taping, which was also filmed on a small video camera by actor David Arquette, husband of cast member Courteney Cox.
When Cox repeatedly flubbed a line, Matthew Perry joked, "Somebody is gonna get fired," said frequent guest star Maggie Wheeler, who played Janice, Chandler's kooky ex-girlfriend.
But by the time the show finished taping, most of the cast and crew were openly weeping.
R.E.M. Eyes 'Perfect' DVD, New Album
R.E.M.'s July 19, 2003, concert at Bowling Green in Weisbaden, Germany, is captured in its entirety on the DVD "Perfect Square," due March 16 from Warner Bros. The 23-song set sports such performance rarities as "Maps and Legends" from the 1985 album "Fables of the Reconstruction" and the ancient non-album track "Permanent Vacation." Prior to the 2003 tour, the former had not been played live since 1989, while the latter hadn't been unearthed since 1984.
Also featured are "Bad Day" and "Animal," the two new songs included on the recent best-of "In Time," plus such R.E.M. favorites as "The One I Love," "Orange Crush," "Country Feedback" and the show-closing "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)."
"Perfect Square" is bolstered by the documentary "A Stirling Performance," which chronicles the set-up for R.E.M.'s summer 1999 three-night stand in the small Scottish town of Stirling. The film features performance footage, behind-the-scenes clips and interviews with the band.
Meanwhile, work continues in earnest on R.E.M.'s next studio album, extensive sessions for which have already taken place in Vancouver. According to a post on the band's official Web site, group members are in Athens, Ga., writing songs and revisiting some of the previously recorded material. Working titles include "Around the Sun," "Wanderlust," "Magnetic North" and "I Wanted To Be Wrong."
"The band will be heading into the studio in the next few weeks," the post continues. "We're hoping for a fall record and hopefully will be touring some of the places we didn't on the '03 tour (and some of the ones we did)."
Here is the track list for "Perfect Square":
"Begin the Begin"
"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"
"Maps and Legends"
"Drive"
"Animal"
"Daysleeper"
"The Great Beyond"
"Bad Day"
"The One I Love"
"All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)"
"Orange Crush"
"Losing My Religion"
"At My Most Beautiful"
"Electrolite"
"She Just Wants To Be"
"Walk Unafraid"
"Man on the Moon"
"Everybody Hurts"
"So Fast, So Numb"
"Country Feedback"
"Permanent Vacation"
"Imitation of Life"
"It's The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
Murray Joke "Lost in Translation"
Bill Murray's funny. Even when he's not.
On Sunday, the Lost in Translation star opened his Golden Globes acceptance speech by saying, in trademark deadpan, that he'd recently canned his agents and suffered the loss of his personal trainer. He got a big laugh.
Except he wasn't kidding.
Murray is apparently an ex-client of Creative Artists Agency--the Hollywood powerhouse--after having severed ties with agents Jessica Tuchinsky and Rick Kurtzman.
And, according to the blogs The Blueprint and Gawker.com, Murray is an ex-client of the late Raphael Picaud, the founder of Body Maxx, a celeb-catering gym in West Hollywood, California. Picaud died last year.
Murray's New York business office confirmed that Murray "fired" his agents. ("That was the facts," a rep said.) It could not confirm whether the Saturday Night Live alum was a pupil of Picaud's. (Neither could Body Maxx--the current owner was said to be out of the country; Picaud's official biography lists Kelly Lynch, Estelle Getty and Jeff Goldbum amongst his more famous pupils.)
Kurtzman was said to be traveling and unreachable. A message left with Tuchinsky's office was not returned Wednesday.
Murray, 53, won the Globe for Best Actor, Musical or Comedy, for a playing an out-of-sorts Hollywood star in Lost in Translation. On Tuesday, he picked up an Academy Award nomination--his first--for Best Actor.
Murray prefaced his Globe remarks by telling the black-tie Beverly Hilton audience, "You can all relax."
"I fired my agents a couple months ago," he continued. "My trainer, my physical trainer, killed himself."
At that point, Murray segued into a real joke: "I would thank the people at Universal and Focus [the studios behind Lost in Translation], except there's so many people trying to take credit for this I wouldn't know where to begin."
Of course, maybe that wasn't a joke, either.
Singer James Brown Arrested on Violence Charge
MIAMI (Reuters) - The "Godfather of Soul," James Brown, was arrested on Wednesday on suspicion of committing domestic violence, South Carolina law enforcement officials said.
Brown, 70, who has had several run-ins with the law and spent time in prison, was due to appear at a bond hearing on Thursday, a spokesman for the Aiken County detention center said.
Neither the Aiken County Sheriff's office nor the detention center would comment further.
The soul singer, famous for hits including "I Feel Good," was previously accused of beating his wife, Adrienne, in 1995.
Brown served nearly three years in prison after he was arrested in 1988 for leading police on a car chase between South Carolina and Georgia.
He also received a two-year suspended sentence in 1998 and entered a drug treatment program after pleading no contest to firearms charges.
Despite his turbulent past, last month he was among five stars feted in Washington for his contributions to American culture.
Brown appeared at a White House reception before taking part in a gala performance attended by President Bush at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts.
The honor prompted Secretary of State Colin Powell to dub Brown the "Secretary of Soul and the Foreign Minister of Funk."