Alanis lyric censored in U.S.
Alanis Morissette's Canadian record label has decided not to service a cleaner version of her new single, "Everything," to radio stations next week. The song from her forthcoming album, "So-Called Chaos," begins with the line, "I can be an asshole of the grandest kind."
In America, Morissette has replaced the a-word with the n-word -- nightmare. The original version will still be on the album.
"We've decided here that we're sticking with 'asshole,' " says Warner Music Canada's Steve Coady, vice-president, radio promotion. "I think her home really is at Hot AC and CHR, and the song will cross over to AC, but if there's backlash -- and there will be at AC radio -- and we get people saying, 'I love the track but I can't (play it) because of...' then we'll service an edit. But out of the gate, we'll go with the original version."
The Ottawa-born Morissette, who boldly sang about about wine, dining and 69-ing and if you're thinking of her when you f**k her on 1995's "Jagged Little Pill," originally resisted making the change to her song.
"It did get to the point, post-nipplegate Janet Jackson, where they were basically saying that they wouldn't play the song," she says. "The thought of people not hearing the song, based on my shooting myself in the foot, by taking a stance of 'my artistic integrity will not be f**ked with and I will not sing another word,' it really isn't a huge compromise for me to have one version that's played on radio and then have the original version on the record.
"And I understand some parents not wanting their seven year old son or daughter hearing the word 'asshole' even though they probably use it already (laughs)."
The word 'asshole' seems so tame considering what radio stations did play (albeit bleeped) from "You Oughta Know," Morissette's breakthrough hit in 1995 which propelled "Jagged Little Pill" to sales of more than 30 million copies worldwide. Comedian Denis Leary had a cult hit back in 1993 with his single/video "Asshole" and Gene Simmons' solo album, also due May 18, is entitled "Asshole."
The word is just a tiny point in the "Everything" lyric, which is actually about Morissette's focus on being a whole person, as opposed to a good person, to be all parts of herself, including the "asshole" or "nightmare."
The video, shot in Los Angeles with director Meirt Avis (U2, Bruce Springsteen), was inspired by Spanish band Jarabe de Palo's "Bonito," whose video was sent to Morissette by Maverick's Guy Oseary.
"We flew lead singer (Paul Donés) and his brother (Marc Donés), who directed it, into LA from Spain and they collaborated with Meirt, who directed my video," says Morissette. "We all sat around, all four of us, and came up with a bunch of ideas. The main crux of it is my walking down a street and all these people and situations come in and out while I'm walking and singing the song."
Morissette is resigned to the silliness of it all, and admits it was actually quite comedic throwing out ideas for an "asshole" substitute. "One of them was 'crack ho,'" she laughs uproariously. "I won't be using that one."
She finally settled on "nightmare."
"One of my worst fears would be for an old boyfriend of mine to consider me a nightmare," explains Morissette. "I just feel like men use that word so much more than women do. Men say 'Oh God , she's a nightmare,' I just want to shake them, and say, 'What specifically are you talking about, that she required that you tap into your emotional self?' (laughs). So it was good to use that word in the spirit of busting my own resistance for it."
Global TV cancels low-rated Mike Bullard Show effective immediately
TORONTO (CP) - Global doesn't got him anymore.
Late-night talk show host Mike Bullard, who jumped from CTV to Global television last year only to see his ratings plummet, has had his show cancelled.
"Unfortunately, and in spite of a major promotion effort by Global, the program has not demonstrated the degree of success that merits a continued run," Doug Hoover, senior programming vice-president at Global, said in a statement Friday. "We continue to hold Mike in the highest of esteem and wish him much well-deserved success in the future."
The news was broken to Bullard on the studio set Friday morning. The cancellation was effective immediately, with reruns scheduled to air Friday night and all next week. Bullard was not immediately available for comment.
Rick Camilleri, chief operating officer at CanWest Global Communications Corp., said the broadcaster is still fully committed to the production of variety and entertainment programming that showcases Canadian talent. But he had no details Friday on the eventual replacement for Bullard's show.
Camilleri added only that in the weeks ahead Global would be developing "a different type of program" that would be used in Bullard's old midnight time-slot.
Ed Robinson, programming vice-president at CTV and Bullard's former boss, declined comment, preferring to stay out of it.
"It's just that the ratings weren't very good," said David Hamilton, Global's vice-president of publicity. Recent national numbers were in the 72,000 range.
Bullard debuted on Global November 24, five months after his high-profile departure from rival CTV where for six years his show aired in prime time on the Comedy Network and late night on the main network.
Critics offered several reasons for the gruff comic's slide. First, there was the five-month wait to return to the air, during which time many of his fans became hooked on CTV's replacement, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a news parody import from the U.S. Then there was Bullard's open criticism of his former employer.
"I was the scapegoat for every mistake and didn't get credit for anything else," Bullard was quoted as saying in the days before he launched on Global in November. "The response was always 'Mike's nuts.' " He said he even had to use his own money to buy a plane ticket to visit some network affiliate stations.
His move to Global was also encouraged by CanWest president Leonard Asper's promise of 195 episodes a year, compared to 140 at CTV.
But his Global debut was less than stellar, drawing just 82,000 viewers across Canada, compared to 130,000 or so he enjoyed at CTV.
After a three-week hiatus over the Christmas holidays, Bullard came back January 12 with a new set and a new executive producer in veteran David Rosen, but still netted ratings in the 85,000 range compared to Stewart's 250,000-300,000. Asper admitted he was stumped but chalked it up to the new show still trying to find its legs.
There have also been suggestions that Bullard's sarcastic style, which included picking on members of the studio audience, was not embraced as well as the more self-effacing approach of American counterparts like Conan O'Brien. But at one point, Bullard was quoted as saying he didn't care about the dwindling numbers because he had a multi-year contract at Global.
Michael Nolan, a media expert at the University of Western Ontario, recalled a history of failed Canadian attempts to mount a late-night talkfest - with such CBC hosts as Peter Gzowski, Ralph Benmergui and Alex Barris - and said he doubted whether the all-American genre has caught on in Canada.
"I think (Bullard's) quite good but he has a style that may not go over with everybody," Nolan said.
"I sort of wonder, if you compare him to American talk shows, if he has too much edge for a consistent night talk show. I think he's got too much bite sometimes."
Nolan added that the Canadian audience is used to a high-quality American product with major Hollywood personalities as guests. Canadian counterparts to Jay Leno and David Letterman are viewed as simply outclassed.
Seven years ago, while still working as a Bell Canada employee and part-time stand-up comic, Bullard, a native of Mississauga, Ont., landed the job as host of Open Mike in prime time on the fledgling Comedy Network. Warmly received at the outset, Bullard's show moved to the main CTV network for a late-night rebroadcast.
After initial telecasts from a cramped studio at the back of Wayne Gretzky's downtown restaurant, CTV later provided him with a more spacious facility in its new mid-town studio, the refurbished former Masonic Temple.
Almighty 'Passion' to Stay Atop Weekend Box Office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As moviegoers continue to render unto Mel Gibson the things that are Gibson's, the director's "The Passion of the Christ" should once again reign as the king of kings atop the box office mountain -- despite the arrival of three new films.
Newmarket Films' R-rated passion play fell just 36% in its second weekend, pulling in another $53.2 million to bring its 12-day gross to $213.9 million.
As of Wednesday, "Passion's" purse had grown to $228.1 million, and it ranked No. 39 among all-time domestic box office grossers. If its momentum holds this weekend, a 35%-40% decline would see the film pick up another $32 million-$36 million. That, in turn, will boost its cumulative grosses to the $265 million range, kicking it up the all-time chart by at least 15 notches.
In the process, it will surpass IFC Films' 2002 "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," which has held the record as the most successful independent film ever with its $241.4 million tally. For Bob Berney, who oversaw "Wedding's" rollout, and now, as president of Newmarket, is handling the "Passion" play, it should be a particularly sweet weekend.
Meanwhile, Sony Pictures is eyeing the No. 2 spot for its new thriller "Secret Window," starring Johnny Depp. The PG-13 suspense tale about a solitary writer who is stalked by a stranger accusing him of plagiarism is based on a novella by Stephen King and is written and directed by David Koepp, who cut his teeth as a director on 1996's "The Trigger Effect" and 1999's "Stir of Echoes."
But the movie's not-so-secret calling card is Depp. After his Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," Depp is on a roll. Sony moved up the film's scheduled release from April 23 -- in part, it said, because of strong test scores and also to capitalize on Depp's current heat -- and is hoping the movie can break out in what is quickly becoming a cluttered field.
"Secret Window" should open with a take that could range from high-teen millions to low-$20 millions.
Last weekend's No. 2, "Starsky & Hutch," Warner Bros. Pictures' comic riff on the '70s crime-fighting duo, will probably check in at the third position. "Starsky" opened to a very muscular $29.1 million, and even if it coasts downward as much as 50%, it could well bring in another $15 million.
That would leave last weekend's opener from Disney, "Hidalgo," and this weekend's new arrival from MGM, "Agent Cody Banks 2: Destination London," fighting it out for fourth and fifth position as both aim at the kid market. With the first wave of spring vacations beginning to kick in around the country, it could be a heated contest as more school-age kidsdecide how to spend their free time at the multiplex.
"Banks" stars Frankie Muniz of Fox's "Malcolm in the Middle" as a teenage spy who, this time around, is dispatched to London to save the world in a PG adventure directed by Kevin Allen ("The Big Tease"). It follows the original "Cody Banks" by exactly one year. On March 14 last year, the first "Banks" film opened to $14 million and went on to take in $47.8 million to become what MGM hopes is a budget franchise. The new film, however, is probably looking at a first-weekend gross in the $10 million-plus range.
That could put it in a dead heat with "Hidalgo," which opened last weekend to $18.8 million. A 40% drop would find the equine saga running in the low-teen millions as it enters its second stretch.
Finally, Warners is launching "Spartan," a suspense thriller written and directed by David Mamet. The R-rated tale follows a government agent, played by Val Kilmer, as he attempts to rescue the U.S. president's kidnapped daughter, played by Kristen Bell. The clever Mamet can be an acquired taste, though, as he demonstrated with films like "Heist" and "The Spanish Prisoner."
Nirvana's Cobain Considered Quitting Before Suicide
LONDON (Reuters) - In the months before he shot himself, American rock legend Kurt Cobain was considering quitting his band Nirvana to work with his wife, singer Courtney Love, according to a previously unpublished interview.
Nirvana's tragic frontman said he had a stronger musical affinity with Love's own band, Hole, than he had found with any other musicians, according to Britain's "Uncut" magazine, which will publish the interview next Monday ahead of the 10th anniversary of his death.
"I'd like to (collaborate with Love)," he said in the interview eight months before his suicide. "But to tell you the truth, I would rather just quit my band and join Hole.
"When I have played music with them, there's a level of connection that's a little bit higher than with anyone else I ever played with," he added.
Nirvana's surviving founders, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, have had a turbulent relationship with Cobain's widow, clashing with her in court over the band's musical legacy.
Cobain, 27, killed himself with a shotgun in April 1994 in his Seattle home, where he was recovering from a drug and alcohol overdose.
With punk-influenced music and angst-ridden lyrics, Nirvana led the grunge movement that emerged from Seattle to become one of the most powerful forces in 1990s rock.
Cobain said in the interview, originally intended for French television, that he was thinking of moving away from his grunge roots toward acoustic music.
"It might be nice to start playing acoustic guitar and be thought of as a singer and a songwriter, rather than a grunge rocker," he said. "I could sit down on a chair and play acoustic guitar like Johnny Cash or something, and it won't be a big joke."
Barbra Streisand Heads Back to the Big Screen
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - She may have given up singing in public, but Barbra Streisand hasn't bowed out of the limelight altogether.
The 61-year-old performer seems headed back to movie screens for the first time in eight years to play Ben Stiller's mom in a sequel to the hit comedy "Meet the Parents." A spokesman for Universal Pictures said Friday Streisand is in final negotiations for the role.
The sequel, "Meet the Fockers," is set to go into production April 5 with Jay Roach back as director. The film is slated for release on Dec. 22, the studio spokesman said.
All the principal cast members from "Meet the Parents" -- Stiller, Robert De Niro, Blythe Danner and Teri Polo -- are returning for the sequel, along with Dustin Hoffman, who has been cast as Stiller's father.
Stiller starred in the original box office hit film as accident-prone male nurse Greg Focker, who goes through hell when he visits the childhood home of his intended fiance, Pam Byrnes (Polo) to meet her mother (Danner) and father (De Niro), an overly protective former CIA agent with a lie-detector in the basement. Greg ultimately wins them over.
In the sequel, a clash of cultures ensues when the straight-laced, conservative Byrnes family meets the liberal, relaxed Fockers.
Streisand's last movie performance was in the 1996 feature "The Mirror Has Two Faces," which she produced, directed and starred in opposite Jeff Bridges. Before that, she starred in, directed and produced the 1991 drama "The Prince of Tides," with Nick Nolte.
The veteran entertainer won an Academy Award as best actress for her 1968 film debut as Fanny Brice in the musical "Funny Girl," tying the Oscar vote that year with Katharine Hepburn for "The Lion in Winter." Streisand was nominated again for her role opposite Robert Redford in the bittersweet 1973 romantic drama "The Way We Were."
Streisand bid farewell in September 2000 to her sell-out career as a public performer, though she emerged two years later to sing at a Hollywood fund-raiser for the Democratic Party. She released her 58th album, "The Movie Album," last October.
Janet Jackson to Perform on ABC Morning Show
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Janet Jackson is set to perform live -- well, with a time delay -- on ABC's "Good Morning America" later this month in what would be her first televised concert since baring her breast at the Super Bowl.
The announcement on Friday, a week after Jackson was booked on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," comes even as ABC said it is sticking with plans to develop a prime-time interview special hosted by another combatant in the current broadcast culture wars, radio "shock jock" Howard Stern.
ABC, owned by Walt Disney Co., said Jackson will perform several songs at a free, outdoor concert to be telecast from Manhattan's Battery Park on "Good Morning America" March 31, one day after her new album, "Damita Jo," is released.
She also will be interviewed by "GMA" hosts Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson for a segment that is bound to give the nation's No. 2 morning program a boost in its bid to close the ratings gap with the top-ranked "Today" show on NBC.
One source said "GMA" producers had been planning to have Jackson on the show since November, months before she shook up the broadcast industry by exposing her right breast at the end of her notorious Super Bowl halftime duet with Justin Timberlake, carried live on CBS on Feb. 1.
In light of that controversy, ABC will present the concert portion of Jackson's appearance on a five-second delay, a rare step for a network news show, a network spokesman said.
The tape-delay has become de rigueur for many high-profile entertainment broadcasts in the aftermath of Jackson's flash of nudity, which sparked a Federal Communications Commission probe, congressional action to stiffen fines for broadcast indecency and an industry-wide crackdown on sexually explicit material on TV and radio.
Jackson herself was effectively barred by Viacom Inc.-owned CBS from the Grammy Awards telecast a week after the Super Bowl. She subsequently bowed out of plans to star in an ABC TV movie about singing great Lena Horne after Horne objected to being portrayed by Jackson.
CONTROVERSY CUTS BOTH WAYS
Still, the broadcast networks have not shied completely away from the radioactive hype surrounding Jackson.
Last week, NBC, a unit of General Electric Co., announced that it had booked Jackson as host and musical guest for the April 10 broadcast of "Saturday Night Live."
An ABC spokeswoman said it is going ahead with plans, first revealed in January, to develop an hourlong prime-time interview special moderated by Stern, who reportedly has been singled out by federal regulators planning to impose heavy fines on broadcasters in a number of indecency cases.
Stern's New York-based show was dumped last month from six radio stations owned by Clear Channel Communications Inc., which said the ribald radio host had violated the media giant's new "zero tolerance" policy toward indecency.
Stern has fought back, saying Clear Channel buckled under pressure from the FCC and that he is the victim of a conservative backlash inspired by Jackson's breast-baring stunt. On Friday's show, Stern said that this past Monday he had invited FCC Chairman Michael Powell to be a guest on his upcoming ABC show, but Powell declined.
An ABC spokeswoman said she did not know if any other guests have been lined up for Stern to interview, and no air date for the program has been set.
Magazine Names Chris Rock As Funniest Man
NEW YORK - He's not on television regularly anymore, but Entertainment Weekly has judged Chris Rock to be the funniest man in America.
The 38-year-old comedian is now on a stand-up concert tour, which will culminate in an HBO special.
"Watching Rock in 2004 — 21 years into his comedy career — is like watching a great prize-fighter in peak condition," the magazine said.
Comedy Central's Jon Stewart was second on Entertainment Weekly's list of the 25 funniest Americans, and Will Ferrell came in third.
Larry David, Dave Chappelle, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Murray, Jim Carrey and Jack Black also were praised by the magazine.
And here's a Top 10 list David Letterman isn't going to like: He was No. 11. Of course, it might make him feel better to know Jay Leno wasn't mentioned at all.