Moore Releases 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Trailer
LOS ANGELES - The trailer for Michael Moore's incendiary new documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" debuts in theaters Friday, but the curious can find it on his Web site right now.
The Academy Award-winning filmmaker's new movie criticizes President Bush's response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, portrays the Iraq war as a conflict that has unnecessarily endangered the American military, and connects the Bush family to Osama bin Laden's.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" recently won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Before it was ever screened, it attracted controversy when Moore announced the Walt Disney Co. had refused to let its Miramax Films division distribute the movie.
Miramax chiefs Bob and Harvey Weinstein bought the $6 million movie personally and are distributing it through a partnership with Lions Gate Films and IFC Films.
The trailer is now posted on Moore's Web site, www.michaelmoore.com.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" debuts in theaters June 25.
SCTV on DVD set for release
Johnny LaRue, Edith Prickley, Bob and Doug, Guy Cabellero, Bobby Bittman, Lola Heatherton.
Those memorable characters from the now-iconic SCTV comedy shows of the late 1970s and early '80s are coming to DVD, with the first of four boxed sets to be released Tuesday, and the remainder over the next year.
SCTV began as a cheesy little syndicated comedy show in a cheesy little Global TV studio in Toronto. And then in 1981 it got picked up by NBC as a late-night companion to Saturday Night Live. But unlike SNL, the Canadian-based show developed more of a cult following, seen as absolutely brilliant by such future comics as a young Conan O'Brien, while network suits of the day scratched their heads in bewilderment.
But over the years just about anyone who has ever watched television can recall a favourite SCTV sketch, whether it was the widely popular McKenzie Brothers or Count Floyd, or more obscure but inspired pop-culture cross-referencing fare like Polynesiantown, NASA's Mercury III players' version of Murder in the Cathedral or the cast performing a Chekhov play only to be interrupted by Star Trek's Chekov beaming onto the set.
Who could ever forget the multi-layered content of the Merv Griffith Show Special Edition, a perverse combination of Merv Griffin, Andy Griffith and Close Encounters of the Third Kind? Or The Midnight Express Special, featuring Wolfman Jack in a blend of the drug-smuggling movie and the old TV music variety show?
One of the first such sketches was a parody of Casablanca with John Candy and Catherine O'Hara in the Bogart-Bergman roles. But it soon morphed into a Bob Hope-Bing Crosby road movie with a dash of Fantasy Island thrown in (with Candy as the diminutive Tattoo!).
Cast members recall the days when the whole production packed up and moved to Edmonton where they wrote and taped some of their most inspired material. The fact that they were in Alberta kept the suits away and allowed them to be creative.
"No executives could really come up there to keep tabs on us because if they left their chairs in L.A. empty too long someone would take them," says Dave Thomas about the creative freedom they had.
Thomas says NBC became furious at some of the material that got through because they were delivering the episodes at the very last minute with no time for screening. He recalls doing a parody of Al Pacino's Cruising in which he was a butch chef fist-stuffing a turkey that had its legs spread apart with chains. After that one, the network sent a censor to live full-time in Edmonton.
"At first he was very standoffish and dictatorial, then ultimately he became one of the gang. And then he became a co-conspirator with us!"
Joe Flaherty agrees that the location fuelled their creativity because there weren't as many distractions as in a larger city, leaving them more time to write and perform the sketches.
"I still remember talking to someone down there about the show, somebody from NBC, and they were saying `Now what coast is Edmonton on?'"
Executive producer Andrew Alexander also recalls how being in Edmonton meant the cast members did their best work 24/7.
"Yeah, there's no drugs, no managers, no agents, no outside temptations like you have in L.A. and New York."
At the time, there was the perception of a long-running rivalry with Saturday Night Live. While both shows had strong Canadian roots and both dipped into the Second City theatre casts in Chicago and Toronto for talent, it's agreed now that there was a vast difference between the two.
SNL was performed live with a studio audience and limited by the cramped facilities of NBC's famed Studio 8-H in New York. SCTV was taped single-camera-style, like a movie, was able to shoot exteriors and for the most part shied away from timely subject matter, a fortunate decision because most of the DVD material has not been outdated.
"They did have a much more rigorous schedule," concedes Flaherty. "They had to get that show out every week live, and just in doing that you're not going to get a chance to get all the quality stuff in that you want to."
Alexander says it was only in the last 10 years that it became apparent SCTV had found a special place in the annals of TV comedy, right up there with Monty Python. And he attributes that largely to its Canadian sensibility, because its cast members were not only intelligent but steeped in American pop culture by watching it from a distance across the border.
"So there was never any sense of wanting to talk down to the audience," he says, despite frequent pressure from NBC to try and make the humour acceptable to a wider audience.
Each DVD set includes five discs, the first set offering episodes of the 90-minute NBC shows that began in 1981. Earlier half-hour episodes will be released later. Also included are look-back interviews by the cast, a tribute to the late John Candy, the 1999 SCTV reunion event at the Aspen Comedy Arts Festival, plus commentaries and a 24-page photo booklet.
Former child star Brian Bonsall arrested for alleged drunken driving
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - Brian Bonsall, the youngest member of the Keaton clan on television's Family Ties, was arrested last week on suspicion of drunken driving.
Bonsall, 22, was arrested early Friday by police who said they saw someone vomit out the passenger side window of his car. Asked how much he had to drink, Bonsall responded, "plenty," then failed a roadside test.
Police said a blood test showed he had "excess alcohol content" but did not disclose the exact amount.
Bonsall, who lives in Boulder, starred as Andy Keaton for three seasons on the NBC sitcom in the late 1980s that helped launch the career of Michael J. Fox. Bonsall later appeared in episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the 1993 film Father Hood.
Bonsall was convicted of drunken driving in 2001 and his licence was suspended, police said.
'Sopranos' to Air Its Season Finale
NEW YORK - Poor Adriana: Scuttling on all fours across dead leaves in a forest until Silvio, Tony Soprano's consigliere, popped her with two shots. That was Adriana's ghastly end on the most recent episode of "The Sopranos," underlining how business is business in a mob family — even for Ade, a terribly reluctant FBI informant whose own fiance, Soprano soldier Christopher Moltisanti, set in motion the hit Tony ordered.
"The Sopranos" airs its fifth-season finale Sunday at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO. Then 10 more episodes in 2005 will close this magnificent saga.
Exactly what awaits Tony, his New Jersey mob and the family at home is known to only one man: series creator David Chase. But mounting evidence ensures that few, if any, of these characters will dodge some measure of damnation. Or deserve to.
Just consider their accelerating moral slide this season.
Early on, Tony (James Gandolfini) welcomed back from prison his cousin Tony Blundetto (Steve Buscemi), who resolved to go straight, but quickly caved. Then, after joining the Soprano mob, he betrayed that cause, too, by settling a grudge against a member of another gang. "Tony B." has now put "Tony S." in the grim position of sacrificing him to appease New York boss Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola).
The season found Tony in turmoil over his separation from wife Carmela (Edie Falco), while their sulky teenage son, A.J. (Robert Iler), sank further into life as a hump. Spoiled daughter Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Discala) became engaged to Finn, a squeaky-clean fellow college student whose health has already been endangered by his ties to her.
And in the most recent episode, Tony made a successful bid to reconcile with Carmela, vowing that "my mid-life crisis problems will no longer intrude on you anymore." Dubbioso. Nonetheless, Carmela has reclaimed her place in his world just in time, it seems, to join him as he swirls down the drain.
Ever since the show's first episode, when he had a panic attack beside his swimming pool, Tony has lived on shaky ground. This season, viewers got new information why.
He's been plagued by guilt since missing the heist that sent Tony B. away for 15 years. And, worse, his absence wasn't from a mugging hours earlier that put him in the hospital, as he always claimed, but, shamefully, because he had a panic attack after an argument with his mother — then collapsed and cut his head.
He is still pained by memories of high school sports, which inspires one of the season's most touching moments: He tries to reason with Alzheimer's-afflicted Uncle Junior (Dominic Chianese), who keeps bringing up Tony's failures as a jock.
"Why does it gotta be something mean? Why can't you repeat something good?" Tony asks. "Don't you love me?"
And he discovers, to his shock, that his cherished childhood dog ended up in the home of his father's mistress and her kid, after his monstrous mother made his father get rid of it.
One measure of the greatness of "The Sopranos" is how Tony's increasingly stark image as a fiend is counterbalanced by these new revelations into what shaped the fiendishness.
From the beginning, Tony has wrestled with his tortured psyche in therapy sessions with Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco). But during a memorable episode this year, his psyche was laid bare in a 21-minute dream sequence that, among other startling sights, found Tony in his living room astride the racehorse that last season perished in a fire. From the sofa, Carmela laid down a condition for his moving back home: "You can't have your horse in here."
This season, as usual, "The Sopranos" has been rich with violence and blood, and, even more, with brooding tension. But, as always, it's been funny, too.
Poor Adriana (Drea de Matteo), tormented by her status as a snitch! She fretted herself into a case of irritable bowel syndrome. Sad — but funny.
Meanwhile, not-so-wise-guy Paulie Walnuts (Tony Sirico) was good for an inadvertent howler, such as when he counseled Tony B. against doing business with Koreans: "Word to the wise: Remember Pearl Harbor!"
And maybe the funniest line of all came from serial screw-up Christopher (Michael Imperioli). Summoned by his Uncle Tony for a reaming, he came armed with excuses, but for the wrong offense: "This about the Easter baskets?"
"I don't even know what THAT is," Tony sighed. "And to tell you the truth, I don't want to know."
What is awaiting Tony this Sunday, and beyond, that he doesn't want to know? Viewers, me included, are itching to find out!
Avril Adds Another No. 1 Album
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Following a No. 1 debut in the United Kingdom, Avril Lavigne bowed on top of the U.S. pop albums chart with her sophomore effort "Under My Skin," according to Nielsen SoundScan data issued Wednesday.
The Arista/RCA Records set sold 381,500 copies in the week ended May 30, ending the eight-week reign of Usher's "Confessions," which fell to No. 3 on the Billboard 200, also behind the new Slipknot album.
The Canadian pop maverick promoted the set with a 21-date North American promotional mall tour in March. The album's first single, "Don't Tell Me," is in the top 30 on the Hot 100 singles chart.
Lavigne's 2002 debut, "Let Go," entered the album chart at No. 8 with sales of just 62,000 copies. The set climbed to No. 2 and has since moved 6.1 million copies in the United States and 14 million copies worldwide, according to Arista.
Masked hard rock act Slipknot sold 243,000 copies of its third Roadrunner studio album, "Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses." Its previous set, "Iowa," debuted at No. 3 in 2001 with 255,000 copies; it has sold 855,000 copies to date.
Bounced by Lavigne and Slipknot, Usher's LaFace/Zomba set dropped to No. 3 on an 8% dip to sales of nearly 197,000 copies this week; the album has sold 3.8 million copies to date.
Method Man, who debuted at No. 2 last week with "Tical 0: The Prequel," fell to No. 5 on a 49% drop to 84,000 copies. New Found Glory's "Catalyst" (Drive-Thru) tumbled seven places to No. 10 on a 57% drop to 63,000 copies.
Prince's "Musicology," a copy of which is included with each ticket to his current tour, shot up eight places to No. 16 on a 41% increase to sales of 71,000. This number includes copies fans received during two major Southern California dates for the tracking week ending May 26.
Geffen's soundtrack to the No. 1 movie at the box office, "Shrek 2," rose three places to No. 9 as sales jumped 30% to 70,000 copies.
Filling in the rest of the top 10, Gretchen Wilson held at No. 4 for the second week with her Epic album "Here for the Party," Hoobastank gained one spot to No. 6 with "The Reason" (Island) and D12 dipped 6-7 with "D12 World" (Shady/Interscope).
Lonestar's fifth studio effort "Let's Be Us Again" (BNA) entered the chart at No. 14 slot with 54,000 copies. The Texas act's "I'm Already There" opened at No. 9 with 112,000 copies in 2001, while last year's greatest hits compilation bowed at No. 7 with 86,000 copies. The albums have sold 1.2 million and 947,000 copies to date, respectively.
First season "American Idol" alumna Tamyra Gray entered the chart at No. 23 with her 19 Recordings debut, "The Dreamer." The set, which features collaborations with Babyface, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Scott Storch and Diane Warren, sold 39,000 copies in its first week.
Pop trio Wilson Phillips marked its comeback with a No. 35 debut for "California" (Columbia). Other notable debuts included Julie Roberts' self-titled Mercury set (No. 51), Everlast's "White Trash Beautiful" (Island Def Jam, No. 56) and Selah's "Hiding Places" (Curb, No. 61).
After taking his turn on the "The Oprah Winfrey Show" couch, George Michael's Epic album "Patience" was The Billboard 200's greatest gainer. Following the tradition of recent Winfrey guests Wynonna Judd and Lionel Richie, Michael's set jumped 17 places to No. 12 this week on a 72% sales spike to 62,000 copies.
Overall U.S. album sales were up 9% to 11.5 million, about 11% ahead of the comparable week last year. Sales for the year edged out those of 2003 by 7.7%.