Richard Marx Signs With EMI
Hot on the heels of his song of the year Grammy win earlier this month for the Luther Vandross-sung "Dance With My Father," singer/songwriter Richard Marx has signed with EMI/Manhattan Records.
Marx, famed for late '80s hits such as "Hold on to the Nights" and "Right Here Waiting," is putting the finishing touches on an album slated for a summer release. Over the past few years, he has been writing songs and producing records for such top acts as 'N Sync and Josh Groban.
This marks a reunion for Marx and EMI Jaxx & Classics president/CEO Bruce Lundvall, who first signed Marx to Capitol Records in 1987.
"I asked him if he wanted to make a record, and his first response was, 'For whom?"' Lundvall said. "There is no question that Richard is a first-rate songwriter and performer with an inimitable voice."
Marx, who in the course of his career has sold about 30 million albums, landed on the music scene in 1987 with his self-titled debut. He released his most recent studio album, "Days in Avalon," independently in 2000.
Grohl Looks Ahead To Next Foos Album
With the long-festering self-titled debut from his metal-worshipping Probot project finally out in stores, Dave Grohl is looking ahead to the next Foo Fighters album. "We've got a couple of songs," he tells Billboard. "The thing is, we always get excited to make a new record, because it means we'll go back out on the road and have a good time for a year-and-a-half."
Unlike past albums that have been recorded in Grohl's Virginia basement, he says the upcoming RCA set will be captured in more upscale accommodations. "We're going to make the best balls-out record we've ever made, and we're going to make it in a studio. We're not used to studios, only basements."
The album will be the follow-up to 2002's "One by One," which debuted at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.05 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was named best rock album earlier this month at the 46th Grammy Awards.
"It doesn't really even matter that you win," Grohl told Billboard in January. "It's just the fact that you've been nominated. I've got enough of these things. Spread the love. Winning is great, but it's just being there. I fly my family in, we go to the parties afterward. It's really about being recognized that we worked hard on this thing."
For now, two members of the group are focusing on other projects. Bassist Nate Mendel is touring with two ex-Sunny Day Real Estate mates in the Fire Theft through April 17 in Los Angeles, while guitarist Chris Shifflet is on the road with Jackson United through March 8 in Anaheim, Calif.
'First Dates' Scores Again at Box Office
LOS ANGELES - Movie-goers have not forgotten "50 First Dates." The Adam Sandler-Drew Barrymore romance about a man wooing a memory-challenged woman took in $21 million to remain the top movie for a second weekend, easily fending off a rush of new flicks, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Lindsay Lohan's girl-power comedy "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" led the weak batch of newcomers, grossing $9.2 million for the No. 2 spot.
Kurt Russell's hockey holdover "Miracle," the second-place movie the previous two weekends, slipped to No. 3 with $8 million.
Three other new wide releases debuted poorly. Gene Hackman and Ray Romano's political farce "Welcome to Mooseport," about an ex-president running for small-town mayor against a plumber, was No. 4 with $7 million.
The teen-raunch comedy "Eurotrip," about a high school graduate's quest to find his dream girl in Germany, opened in fifth place with $6.6 million.
Meg Ryan's "Against the Ropes," in which she plays female boxing manager Jackie Kallen, premiered a distant No. 8 with $3 million.
All of the new movies received generally harsh reviews.
The overall box office tumbled, with the top 12 movies grossing $75.1 million, down 21 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when "Daredevil" and "Old School" led the pack.
February typically is a quiet month for movies, but the slump this week was bigger than usual.
"The level of audience disinterest is pretty stunning. They're just kind of checked out right now," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "You had four brand-new attractions, and they really could not make a dent. If not for '50 First Dates,' this would be an abysmal weekend."
Playing in 3,612 theaters, "50 First Dates" averaged $5,814 a cinema, a strong number for a movie in its second weekend and by far the best average among the top 10 films. The movie pushed its 10-day gross to $72.3 million.
The box office should get a boost next weekend with the Ash Wednesday debut of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," opening in about 3,000 theaters, a huge release for a religious-themed movie. Gibson orchestrated a grass-roots marketing campaign to promote the film, with Christian leaders spreading the word and church groups buying out theaters.
The movie, starring Jim Caviezel as Jesus, bloodily re-enacts Christ's final hours. It has drawn a storm of criticism from some Jewish and Christian leaders who say it could revive the notion that Jews collectively were responsible for the death of Christ.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "50 First Dates," $21 million.
2. "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen," $9.2 million.
3. "Miracle," $8 million.
4. "Welcome to Mooseport," $7 million.
5. "Eurotrip," $6.6 million.
6. "Barbershop 2: Back in Business," $6.3 million.
7. "Mystic River," $3.1 million.
8. "Against the Ropes," $3 million.
9. "The Butterfly Effect," $2.9 million.
10. "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," $2.8 million.
Carrie Ends Up With Big in 'Sex' Finale
NEW YORK - It took them six years to realize it, but Carrie Bradshaw and Mr. Big were meant for each other.
Many fans knew that all along, of course, despite numerous other men Carrie dated during the romantic, raunchy run of "Sex and the City."
So Sunday's finale was an answered prayer for viewers who, as the big day approached, had rooted for Carrie to choose Big over Aleksandr, the self-involved artist who enticed her to leave her beloved New York and move with him to Paris.
After almost 100 installments, this top-secret, much-hyped conclusion made good on its pledge to resolve the love life of New York sex columnist Carrie. Played by series star Sarah Jessica Parker, she returned to Manhattan with Big (Chris Noth), the on-again/off-again businessman beau with whom she first struck sparks on the HBO series' premiere.
With "Sex" the first of three long-running comedies (along with "Friends" and "Frasier" on NBC) coming to an end to this season, its finale set a standard theirs will be hardpressed to attain.
Meanwhile, it nicely tied up some loose ends concerning Carrie's three gal pals:
- Miranda, the hard-nosed realist played by Cynthia Nixon, remained a happy mother and the wife of bartender Steve, living in Brooklyn (where she opened her heart, and home, to Steve's ailing mother, inviting her to come live with them).
- Charlotte, the idealist (Kristin Davis) and her husband, Harry (formerly her divorce lawyer), got their wish after many disappointments: They'll be adopting a baby girl from China.
- And hot-blooded Samantha (Kim Cattrall) was solid with her boy-toy hunk, Smith, despite the loss of her sex drive from her successful treatment for breast cancer. In a tender exchange, he declared his love for her and she tearfully replied, "You've meant more to me than any man I've ever known."
Voila! A few scenes later, Samantha was her lusty self, nude in the sack astride Smith. Her final line on "Sex and the City" was a protracted howl of pleasure.
But first, Carrie had to confront her mistake in abandoning her city, her friends and her sense of herself to be with Aleksandr (played by Mikhail Baryshnikov).
"I am someone who's looking for love, real love ... can't-live-without-each-other love," Carrie told him, "and I don't think that love is here."
Moments later, Big, who had come to his senses and raced across the ocean to bring her home, found her alone in her Paris hotel lobby.
"It took me a really long time to get here," said Big, "but I'm here: Carrie, you're the one."
Once back in New York, Carrie surprised her friends at the coffee shop where they've exchanged so many confidences with one another over the years.
Then, as a special scoop at the fade-out, Big, the man known only by his Carrie-bestowed moniker, phoned her and, at long last, viewers learned his real name. There it was, displayed as the cell phone's caller ID: John.
Glorifying Manhattan, shopping and relationships, the series, which premiered in June 1998, was based on real-life sex columnist Candace Bushnell and created by Darren Star, then best known for concocting the Fox soap "Melrose Place."
It became a cultural phenomenon, defining a new breed of modern woman who wasn't afraid to talk about men — and her desire for them — with raw honesty, even as she gave top priority to her friendships with other women. (The show's four leading ladies graced a Time magazine cover that asked the question "Who Needs a Husband?")
But as Sunday's end neared, accompanied by eulogies for the series that soon would be over, a contradictory message was gaining strength: Maybe this isn't the end, after all.
Turns out the series' top executive, Michael Patrick King, and the show's cast are in discussions with HBO about a movie that would continue the saga, a network spokeswoman confirmed.
But in addressing the question two weeks ago, co-producer Parker waffled like a politician on the stump.
"I haven't made any decisions about how we might revisit this show and in what medium," she said, citing several projects that might keep her busy for the immediate future.
"It's very important to me that we are dignified and graceful in our exit from the (current) series," she added. "After that, if we hear a cry from the public, I think we have to respond to that, if we can do right by them."
So maybe more "Sex and the City" lies ahead. But until then, at least, the ladies are living happily ever after.
'Lost' Finds Top Writers Guild Award
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Sofia Coppola's Oscar momentum got a big boost Saturday when the Writers Guild of America awarded "Lost in Translation" its top honor for original screenplay.
Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman earned the laurel for adapted screenplay for bringing comic book cult hero Harvey Pekar's life to the screen in "American Splendor," which also is an underdog favorite for adapted screenplay in Sunday's awards season grand finale, the Academy Awards.
The guild embraced the auteur at the 56th annual WGA Awards, held at the Century Plaza Hotel, as both "Lost" and "Splendor" were also directed by their screenwriters.
In accepting her award, Coppola thanked her brother Roman and other friends she called for encouragement "when I was stuck" while writing "Lost," a story of loneliness and longing between strangers in a strange land.
Coppola's win makes her one of a handful of women to take the guild's top film honor. It also came 33 years after her father, Francis Ford Coppola, won his first WGA award, for 1970's "Patton" (which also earned the elder Coppola his first Oscar).
Coppola told reporters after the ceremony that she has been humbled by all the accolades showered on "Lost," but she allowed that the thumbs up from her fellow scribes might just give her "a little extra strut to my step" at Sunday's Oscar ceremony.
On the television side, Evan Katz won the drama series laurel for the "7 p.m.-8 p.m." episode of Fox's "24." Bob Daily won his second consecutive WGA trophy for NBC's "Frasier," this time for the episode "No Sex, Please, We're Skittish."
Katz quipped he was happy to be recognized by the WGA because he knew that winning "the Humanitas was a long shot" with an episode that involved "24's" Jack Bauer torturing a man and pretending to murder his children. (The Humanitas Awards honor writers for works that, among other things, "help liberate, enrich and unify human society.")
Larry Gelbart was not there to accept his award for original longform screenplay for HBO's "And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself." But Gelbart did send along prepared remarks, which duly noted his "chutzpah" at writing an acceptance speech "on spec."
Anne Meredith won adapted longform honors for Showtime's "Out of the Ashes," about a female doctor forced to work at Auschwitz.
Matt Selman of Fox's "The Simpsons" took the animation prize for "The Dad Who Knew Too Little" episode.
George Stevens Jr., Sara Lukinson and David Leaf won comedy/variety special for CBS' "Kennedy Center Honors" telecast.
Agnes Nixon and her team on ABC's "All My Children" earned their fifth WGA laurel for daytime serial. Paul Cooper was recognized in the children's script category for Showtime's "The Maldonado Miracle."
The current events documentary laurel went to Martin Smith for the "Truth, War and Consequences" installment of PBS' "Frontline." PBS' "American Experience" won the noncurrent events docu award for Marcia Smith's "The Murder of Emmett Till."
CBS News' John Craig Wilson prevailed in the TV news category for the "Showdown with Saddam" report. Michael Winship and Bill Moyers won in the news -- analysis/feature/commentary award for the "Wall Street" segment of Moyers' PBS series "Now With Bill Moyers."
In accepting the guild's Paddy Chayefsky lifetime achievement honor, veteran TV scribe Loring Mandel urged the crowd to think about the influence TV writers have as teachers in a culture where kids and teenagers often spend more time in a day watching TV than they do in school. Mandel's long list of credits stretches from "Studio One" and "Playhouse 90" to HBO's 2001 Emmy winner "Conspiracy."
"We can do better by holding ourselves to a higher standard," Mandel said.
The Screen Laurel achievement award went to John Michael Hayes, whose feature career was distinguished by collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock on "Rear Window," "To Catch a Thief," "The Trouble With Harry" and "The Man Who Knew Too Much."
Accepting the Paul Selvin Award for work that celebrates constitutional freedoms, Jason Horwitch, who penned the FX telefilm "The Pentagon Papers," quoted from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black's famed 1971 decision on the New York Times' right to publish classified Vietnam war documents.
"Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people," Horwitch recited, adding that in his own view, "the relevance of these words unfortunately echoes today."
'Rings,' Depp, Theron Win Top Actors Guild Awards
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A cast of Hollywood hobbits and a "Monster" killer played by Charlize Theron won top honors at the Screen Actors Guild awards on Sunday, but a fishy pirate portrayed by Johnny Depp stole the show in an upset best actor victory.
The award for best film actress solidified Theron's position as a front-runner for an Oscar, the U.S. film industry's top honors to be given out on Feb. 29. It also cemented the bid for the best movie Oscar from the hobbits of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
But Depp's victory added an element of suspense to next week's Oscars by giving him an award no one expected over favorites Bill Murray and Sean Penn.
The actors of "Rings" were named best cast, and last year's winner in the same group, "Chicago," earned the Oscar.
The SAG awards often provide strong clues to potential Oscar winners because actors make up the largest branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars. It has some 1,300 members, of the 5,800 voters for the Academy Awards.
Onstage, Theron thanked "my angel and my date tonight, my mom, who put me on a plane with a one-way ticket to Hollywood when I was 19 years old. Thank you for being so brave and for letting me go to make my dreams come true."
30 POUNDS & SAG AWARD
In the low-budget film "Monster," South African-born Theron plays serial killer and former prostitute Aileen Wuornos, who was executed for murdering men who picked her up.
Theron gained 30 pounds for the part, and her makeup and posturing masked her true beauty.
"I knew we were working on something very special. It felt different than anything I have ever done before," Theron told reporters backstage.
Speaking for "Rings," John Rhys-Davies, Gimli in the movie, said, "At the risk of sounding immodest, we deserved this award. This is the most enormous undertaking in film history."
Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" and Sean Penn in "Mystic River" were believed to have had a lock on the favorite's position for best actor after earning Golden Globe awards for acting in January.
Depp, who played the wild-eyed and fanciful Captain Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," was not on hand, but backstage Al Pacino, who won the actor award for his role in cable TV mini-series "Angels in America," amplified the shock of everybody in the crowd.
He lifted an eyebrow and declared himself "really surprised" and "really thrilled."
"He's done so many interesting parts over the years that he got a reputation for being quirky, but he really wasn't. He's a fine actor," Pacino said.
Tim Robbins won best supporting actor for crime thriller "Mystic River" and Renee Zellweger won supporting actress in Civil War drama "Cold Mountain." It was her second straight SAG award after winning best actress for "Chicago."
SAG also gives out trophies for television and HBO's shows earned five awards including "Sex and the City," which won the best ensemble cast in a TV comedy on the very night it was airing its last episode.
"We will all miss you so much," said "Sex" star Kristin Davis. Davis, who plays Charlotte on the series about the love lives of four single women in New York, also thanked HBO for being so daring in letting the sexually frank show on the air.
HBO drama "Six Feet Under" earned the award for best cast in a drama for the second consecutive year.
Meryl Streep was named best actress in a TV movie or mini-series for cable TV network HBO's "Angels in America," about the AIDS epidemic in New York in the early 1980s.
Tony Shalhoub won the SAG trophy for best actor in a TV comedy, and Megan Mullally earned the honor of best actress in a comedy. Kiefer Sutherland earned the SAG award for best actor in a TV drama for "24," and Frances Conroy was named best actress in a drama for HBO's "Six Feet Under."
Coupling Times Three
Coming out on June 1st is Coupling: The Complete Third Season.
This two-disc set features seven episodes (of the UK series, not the dismal US update) in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby 2.0 surround, plus audio commentaries on each episode, outtakes and a still gallery.
Retail will list for $34.95.