Clash's 'London Calling' gets reissued

TORONTO -- London Calling by the Clash has been described as "one of rock's best albums ever," "the greatest album of its time" and "scientifically proven to be the best album of the 70s."

While the scientific method used to determine that last accolade can only be guessed at, London Calling does more than stand the test of time.

The album sounds as relevant today as it did when it was first released in September 1979.

But while London Calling's frantic fusion of rock and politics can still be heard in today's young punks, bassist Paul Simonon says the album's longevity is due to something much simpler.

"What seems to count these days with the album is that there's some really great songs," Simonon says from London. "I think at the end of the day that's what counts -- great songs. Songs that were recorded by four human beings with a passion and not over-produced."

To mark the 25th anniversary of the Clash's third album, Sony will reissue a special edition of London Calling on Sept. 21. When Sony first approached the surviving band members about doing a reissue, Simonon says he, guitarist Mick Jones and drummer Topper Headon offered more than just their support.

"We figured we'd like to get involved and maybe add something to it," Simonon says. "And at the same time, Mick Jones was moving homes and he had a lot of boxes. In one of these boxes he discovered the demo tapes that we'd prepared before we went to make the album that we thought had been lost."

Simonon says the band also found film footage that had been shot during the recording of the album by a friend in New York. That footage has been included as part of a 45-minute documentary DVD along with the two-CD digipack reissue. Disc one contains the original album, while disc two features the Vanilla Tapes demos.

Simonon credits the semi-live sound to unorthodox studio methods by producer Guy Stevens.

"He would, in the middle of recording a song, charge into the room and start throwing chairs around or swinging a ladder around," says Simonon. "It was not the normal producing procedure. So it's what you would call a live injection of enthusiasm and energy."

When the Clash arrived on the music scene in the late 1970s, they fused politics with punk to create songs that combined rock, reggae, soul and funk. Simonon is modest about the band's impact on the history of popular music.

Simonon says London Calling's innovative style came about quite by accident and they "were just four blokes in a rehearsal room or a studio just making our music."

As for the album's political overtones, Simonon said the Clash was not a political band.

"We never thought of it at the time. We were just reacting accordingly to our own environment," he says.

"When you're talking about London Calling or the Clash, generally it was always sort of personal politics really," he continues. "We're four blokes from London with guitars so we're not politicians but we respond as a human being would to an injustice one way or another."

Clash frontman Joe Strummer died of a heart attack at his home in southwest England in December 2002 at the age of 50. In March 2003, the other members of the Clash dedicated the band's long overdue induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame to his memory.

Twenty-five years on, Simonon is still impressed when new fans discover the Clash, as he hears from his 12-year-old son.

"He said to me the other day, Dad there's some friend of mine in school, he's just bought your album," says Simonon, now 48. "So there's obviously a new generation of kids that are buying our records and for them it's like a badge of saying, 'Well actually I adhere to this idea, this is where I stand.' "

So how does Simonon feel about today's so-called resurgence of punk: is it the real thing or just a reaction to the prevalence of pop?

"The whole idea of punk is that there are no rules. You just have to follow your own heart and your own mind and make your own course," he says. "Categories are all fine, but truly if you're a creative person, it is to sort of transcend that."

These days, Simonon is more likely to be found painting than playing music. "I went to art college to be a painter and Mick Jones went to art college to get a group together, and we met halfway," he said.

"Mick's still making music because that's his passion. I've jumped ship and I paint pictures and that's my passion."

"We arrived, we turned up, we played what we felt, and we've gone," says Simonon, although he admits the Clash and London Calling will always be an important chapter of his life. "People seem to be affected by it and that's good because if you can move people emotionally one way or the other that is a positive thing."

'Wait' Is Over For Stefani Solo Single

Gwen Stefani will unveil her first solo material early next month in the form of the single "What You Waiting For?" The No Doubt frontwoman's as-yet-untitled album will arrive Nov. 23 via Interscope. The set sports contributions from OutKast's Andre 3000, Linda Perry, Nellee Hooper and No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal, who co-wrote the tracks "Serious" and "Crash."

Stefani is also readying the fall collection in her L.A.M.B. clothing line and will make her big-screen debut in December playing actress Jean Harlow in the Howard Hughes biopic "The Aviator."

The other members of No Doubt are busy with a variety of projects. Kanal is working with new artist Elan Atias on his debut album, due next year via Interscope. Sessions have been undertaken in Jamaica and Miami with such producers as Sly & Robbie and Steven "Lenky" Marsden.

Drummer Adrian Young has lent his talents to Unwritten Law on tracks intended for the group's next Lava studio album, while guitarist Tom Dumont is working "on a environmentally friendly home landscaping project," according to No Doubt's official Web site.

Amid all this activity, Interscope will on Oct. 12 release the DVD "Live in the Tragic Kingdom" and the B-sides/rarities collection "Everything in Time." Both items were previously only available as part last year's "Boom Box" boxed set.

Unreleased Tracks Bolster Jackson Box Set

More than a dozen previously unreleased tracks plus a host of rarities will be found on the career-spanning Michael Jackson box set, "The Ultimate Collection." Due Nov. 16 via Epic and executive-produced by Jackson, the set features 57 audio tracks spread over four discs plus a DVD with a 1992 concert from Bucharest, Romania, that was originally broadcast on HBO.

Making their debut on "The Ultimate Collection" will be demo recordings of the previously unreleased songs "Scared of the Moon," "Cheater" and "Sunset Driver," plus demos of the No. 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)," the title track to 1991's "Dangerous" and "Shake a Body," an early version of the Jacksons' 1978 No. 3 R&B smash "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)."

Jackson has also dusted off his solo demo of "We Are the World," a No. 1 hit recorded by the all-star gathering USA For Africa as a benefit for African famine relief. In addition, five previously unreleased tracks recorded between 1994 and 2004 can be found on disc four: "Fall Again," "In the Back," "Beautiful Girl," "The Way You Love Me" and "We've Had Enough."

Other rarities include the Diana Ross duet "Ease on Down the Road" from "The Wiz," a song written for the out-of-print "The E.T. Storybook" titled "Someone in the Dark," "We Are Here To Change the World" from the 1986 IMAX 3-D film "Captain Eo," an edit of the Teddy Riley collaboration "Someone Put Your Hand Out" from a Pepsi-sponsored promo cassette and the soundtrack collaborations "Childhood" (from "Free Willy 2") and "On the Line" (from "Get on the Bus").

Rounding out the box will be Jackson's biggest hits, dating back to such Jackson 5 classics as "I Want You Back" and "I'll Be There" through to solo smashes like "Thriller," "Beat It," "The Way You Make Me Feel," "Black or White" and "You Are Not Alone."

Journalist Nelson George has penned liner notes for a 64-page booklet featuring rare photos and a discography.

As for the DVD, it chronicles a Sept. 19, 1992, show as part of the tour in support of that year's "Dangerous" release. Beyond album tracks like "Jam," "Will You Be There" and "Black or White," the performance includes "Man in the Mirror," "Beat It," "Human Nature," "Smooth Criminal" and a medley of the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" and "The Love You Save."

Here is the track list for "The Ultimate Collection":

Disc one:

"I Want You Back," Jackson 5
"ABC," Jackson 5
"I'll Be There," Jackson 5
"Got To Be There"
"I Wanna Be Where You Are"
"Ben"
"Dancing Machine," Jackson 5
"Enjoy Yourself," the Jacksons
"Ease on Down the Road" with Diana Ross ("The Wiz" soundtrack)
"You Can't Win" (12" U.K. single, from "The Wiz")
"Shake a Body" (unreleased early demo), the Jacksons
"Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)," the Jacksons
"Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough"
"Rock With You"
"Off the Wall"
"She's Out of My Life"
"Sunset Driver" (unreleased demo)
"Lovely One," the Jacksons
"This Place Hotel," the Jacksons

Disc two:

"Wanna Be Startin' Something"
"The Girl Is Mine" with Paul McCartney
"Thriller"
"Beat It"
"Billie Jean"
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"
"Someone in the Dark" (from "The E.T. Storybook")
"State of Shock," the Jacksons with Mick Jagger
"Scared of the Moon" (unreleased demo)
"We Are the World" (unreleased demo)
"We Are Here To Change the World" (from "Captain Eo")

Disc three:

"Bad"
"The Way You Make Me Feel"
"Man in the Mirror"
"I Just Can't Stop Loving You"
"Dirty Diana"
"Smooth Criminal"
"Cheater" (unreleased demo)
"Dangerous" (unreleased version)
"Monkey Business" (unreleased track)
"Jam"
"Remember the Time"
"Black or White"
"Who Is It" (ISH mix)
"Someone Put Your Hand Out" (Dangerous tour/Pepsi promo cassette)

Disc four:

"You Are Not Alone"
"Stranger in Moscow"
"Childhood" (from "Free Willy 2")
"On the Line" (from "Get on the Bus")
"Blood on the Dancefloor"
"Fall Again" (unreleased demo)
"In the Black" (unreleased track)
"Unbreakable"
"You Rock My World"
"Butterflies"
"Beautiful Girl" (unreleased demo)
"The Way You Love Me" (unreleased demo)
"We've Had Enough" (unreleased track)

Disc five, "Live in Bucharest":

"Jam"
"Wanna Be Startin' Something"
"Human Nature"
"Smooth Criminal"
"I Just Can't Stop Loving You"
"She's Out of My Life"
"I Want You Back"/"The Love You Save"
"I'll Be There"
"Thriller"
"Billie Jean"
"Working Day & Night"
"Beat It"
"Will You Be There"
"Black or White"
"Heal the World"
"Man in the Mirror"

HERO'S WELCOME

Miramax announcing it will release its martial arts hit, Hero, starring Jet Li, on DVD November 30.

The ''Happy Days'' Gang Will Reunite!

The entire cast will gather for 30th-anniversary reunion special, including the two actors who played Chuck, Richie's forgotten older brother.

It's one of the enduring mysteries of 1970s TV: What ever happened to Chuck Cunningham? The older brother of Richie and Joanie, he could be seen occasionally during the earliest episodes of Happy Days, usually carrying a basketball. Apparently, the character was such an afterthought that no one noticed when the role was recast, and no one mourned him when he inexplicably vanished from the family after the first season. But now, 30 years later, Chuck Cunningham is finally resurfacing.

Chuck will live again in The Happy Days 30, a two-hour reunion special marking the three-decade anniversary of the debut of the 1974-84 ABC sitcom. Variety reports that the special, to be coproduced by Henry ''The Fonz'' Winkler himself, will reunite the entire cast, including Winkler, Ron Howard (Richie), Erin Moran (Joanie), Tom Bosley (Mr. C), Marion Ross (Mrs. C), Anson Williams (Potsie), Don Most (Ralph), Pat Morita (Arnold), Scott Baio (Chachi), Cathy Silvers (Jenny Piccalo), and the two actors who played Chuck: Gavin O'Herlihy and Randolph Roberts. Even Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, who created the spinoff characters of Laverne and Shirley on Happy Days, will be there.

Production begins this weekend with the revival of an off-camera Happy Days tradition, a cast softball game, which will be filmed for the reunion show. ABC hasn't set an airdate for the special, but it could air as soon as November's ratings sweeps period.

HEAVENLY NUMBERS

Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ selling nearly 9 million combined DVD and VHS copies in its first week in video stores, surpassing the record set by the debut of The Lord of the Rings trilogy. The religious flick took in an estimated $9.45 million in rentals.

Jacob eliminated on Canadian Idol; Kalan Porter, Theresa Sokyrka remain

TORONTO (CP) - Jacob Hoggard, one of the most outrageous and entertaining singers to take the stage on Canadian Idol, gave a performance that "rocked" Thursday night before becoming the latest contestant to be eliminated from the program.

Hoggard, 19, an apprentice carpenter from Abbotsford, B.C., was praised for his energetic rendition of I Want You To Want Me, and several of the judges urged him to call as soon as he's ready to start recording.

"I've been doing this for 23 years, and nobody, nobody excites me the way you've been exciting me every single week, and we're really going to miss you," said judge Jake Gold.

"Anytime you want to make a record, you know where to find me, buddy."

Hoggard, who sports a lip ring and has been known to shock and surprise by, for instance, licking loser host Ben Mulroney's ear on the show and wearing unusual outfits, thanked his supporters, adding "don't stop supporting me because the end of the show is the beginning of me."

With Hoggard's departure, the stage is now set for next week's finale, pitting Theresa Sokyrka, 23, the "prairie girl" from Saskatoon, against Kalan Porter, 18, who comes from a ranch near Medicine Hat, Alta.

Altogether, about 3.7 million votes were cast Wednesday night by viewers via telephone and text messaging. Mulroney said the tally broke the Canadian Idol record.

Noah Wyle to Leave 'ER' at Season's End

NEW YORK - Noah Wyle, the last continuous on-air link to the NBC medical drama "ER's" freshman season in 1994, seems headed for the doctor's retirement home.

Wyle, who plays Dr. John Carter, told E! Entertainment Television on Thursday that he plans to leave the show at the end of this season.

"I've just got other stuff going in my life right now," Wyle told "E! News Live.'. "I've got a son, I've got family and friends that said goodbye to me 12 years ago and are wondering when I'm coming back, and this little urge to scratch a different kind of itch in my career, and it's just coming to the end of the character's run."

Wyle was the impressionable young resident among a powerhouse cast that included Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Eriq La Salle and Julianna Margulies. As they all left around him, Wyle became the show's promotional centerpiece.

He may have talked to E! about leaving, but he hasn't told series creator John Wells or the producers, Warner Bros. Television, said Wyle's spokesman, Eddie George.

"He's clear on what he said," George said. "That's where his head is at. That could change. There's a lot of things that could happen between now and the end of the season."

A Warner Bros. spokeswoman said only, "people are going to have to stay tuned to see what's happening."

The five-time Emmy Award nominee's contract expires at the end of this season. This spring he watched as another popular Warner Bros. show that debuted the same season, "Friends," made its goodbye.

"The day the cast filmed their last episode, I saw them in the commissary. It was heavy," he told The Associated Press. "Here they were, closing a defining chapter in each of their lives, and all I could do was think: `The end of that chapter's coming, for me.'"

Earlier in the year he said he thought about leaving several times.

What made him stay?

"The money, probably," he said.

"ER" will outlast him. NBC has locked up the show for another season past this one and, barring an unexpected downturn in the ratings, it will likely continue beyond that.

"It feels like the show is on the edge of reinventing itself," Wyle told E!. "It's time to take it to that next evolutionary place, where names like George and Tony, Eriq, Julianna and Noah are a thing of the past, and names like Shane (West), Linda (Cardellini) and Parminder (Nagra) are a thing of the future."

Famed Disney Animator Frank Thomas Dies at 92

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Legendary Walt Disney Co. animator Frank Thomas, whose work ranged from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" to "Pinocchio " and "Bambi," has died at age 92, the studio said on Thursday.

One of Disney's original "nine old men," the key group that helped make Disney an animation powerhouse from the 1930s onward, Thomas died on Wednesday after months of declining health following a brain hemorrhage. He died at his home in Flintridge, California, outside Los Angeles, Disney said.

Thomas joined Disney in 1934 when the studio had only just begun working on "Snow White," its first full-length animated feature film. The costly movie nearly drove Disney into bankruptcy, but became the company's foundation after it turned into a huge hit in theaters.

"Frank helped to invent animation as an art form and took it to incredible new heights," film critic Leonard Maltin said.

He was known for emotional scenes, romance and deeply felt work early in his 43-year career at Disney, but in the late 1940s switched to villains.

Thomas created the spaghetti dinner scene between Lady and Rover in "Lady and the Tramp" and dreamed up Thumper showing Bambi how to ice skate in "Bambi." He helped design Pinocchio and was responsible for the scene in which the marionette gets trapped inside a birdcage by the evil Stromboli.

In 1941, Thomas joined Walt Disney on a trip through South America that resulted in "The Three Caballeros."

In 1949, he created the superstitious Ichabod Crane of Sleepy Hollow fame and one year later dreamed up the wicked stepmother in "Cinderella."

Other films on which he worked were "The Jungle Book," The Aristocats," and "Robin Hood." He retired in 1978.

Thomas was born in Santa Monica, California, and went to college at Stanford University, where he met his lifelong friend and another one of the "nine old men," Ollie Johnston, who is the last of those original animators still alive.

Thomas' son, Theodore, made a documentary based on the lifelong friendship between Thomas and Johnston, titled "Frank and Ollie" and released in 1995.

Thomas is survived by his wife of 58 years, Jeanette, their children and grandchildren.

Knoxville, Scott Hot for 'Hazzard'

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Jackass" star Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott will play Luke and Bo Duke, respectively, in "The Dukes of Hazzard," a big-screen version of the 1980s television series.

Jessica Simpson has screen-tested for the role of Daisy Duke. Jay Chandrasekhar is directing the Warner Bros. project. A start date has not yet been set.

The series, which ran on CBS from 1979 to 1985, followed the weekly adventures of southern cousins Bo and Luke -- "just two good ol' boys, never meaning no harm," according to the Waylon Jennings theme song -- who raised hell driving their souped-up Dodge Charger, the General Lee, in fictional Hazzard County. They, along with their cousin Daisy and Uncle Jesse, staged running battles with the corrupt authorities, Boss Hogg and Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane.

Broken Lizard, the comedy troupe that includes Chandrasekhar as well as Erik Stolhanske, Steve Lemme, Paul Soter and Kevin Heffernan, are writing the feature. The troupe was behind the 2001 cult hit "Super Troopers."

Knoxville, in theaters briefly over the summer with the Gram Parsons movie "Grand Theft Parsons, is filming the skate-punk movie "Lords of Dogtown." Scott last starred in "The Rundown" and is shooting Richard Kelly's "Southland Tales."

MUPPET MADNESS

Muppets Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker named the United Kingdom's favorite screen scientists in an online poll conducted by the BBC.

Kevin Smith's Clerks: icon of indie film still at work after a 10-year shift

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ten years ago, Kevin Smith became the patron saint of the slothful.

The aspiring New Jersey filmmaker proved that if a guy worked hard enough, he could still make his dreams come true while spending a lot of time collecting comic books, debating the merits of peculiar sex, and selling cigarettes and candy to dead-eyed consumers.

Clerks, a $27,000 US black-and-white film he shot mainly with friends in their spare time, became an icon of independent cinema by inspiring a generation of homegrown filmmakers.

"It's the kind of movie where you go, 'If that counts, I can make a movie, too,' " said Smith, who makes self-deprecation a kind of second career. "It's flattering on one level, but it's also a backhanded compliment because it's like, 'Dude, your movie looks so bad, that even a chimp can make a movie at this point.' "

A new three-disc DVD titled Clerks X commemorates the 10-year anniversary, documenting the movie's entire history, from Smith's birth to the audition tapes to the day Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein purchased the film at the Sundance Film Festival.

Working on the DVD inspired Smith to write a sequel, The Passion of the Clerks, which he plans to begin filming in January.

After creating a cult-fanbase with his later films - Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back and Jersey Girl - Smith said he wanted to go back to his super-low-budget roots and revisit his fictional cash-register dwellers.

Smith's original movie centred on two 20-something guys - one from a convenience store, the other from a video store - and their disintegrating morale over the course of a day as they endure customers from hell.

It's no coincidence that the main character's name was Dante.

"I just wanted to make a movie that I thought was representative of me and my friends," Smith said. "A lot of movies I went to see were fun to watch and totally entertaining and escapist. But what - I'm going to identify with John McClane in Die Hard? I would never jump off a building, I would never shoot a terrorist, I would never take my shirt off in public."

He wanted to make a movie about what wanders into the mind of a guy who feels like he's going nowhere: Star Wars, ex-girlfriends, hockey, porn movies.

The humour in Smith's movie was the kind of shameless joking guys do around a poker game, or in the back of a classroom, wherever they think no one else is listening.

Before the gross-out comedy craze of There's Something About Mary, American Pie and MTV's Jackass, Clerks opened the door.

Although it featured no violence, no nudity and no on-screen sex, the coarse dialogue earned it an NC-17 rating and Miramax hired attorney Alan Dershowitz to successfully argue the ratings board down to an R.

Before that, even Brian O'Halloran, a community theatre actor who won the role of Dante, said he never thought the movie would make it to the big screen.

"I thought it was hysterical, but the vulgarity of certain things, the shock value at that time in 1993 . . . I didn't think it would become a feature film," he said. "If anything, it was just something I would have a copy of on VHS to show friends. 'Hey, look what I got cast in once . . .' "

Smith used his environment to craft a story, taking a lesson from Robert Rodriguez, another homegrown director who made his breakthrough in 1992 with the $7,000 shoot-'em-up El Mariachi (later glossily remade as Desperado.)

Here's what Smith had at his disposal: a convenience store, a lascivious stoner friend, and a comic book collection. All he needed were the cameras - so he sold the comic books. That made him a few thousand dollars.

He also ran up dozens of credit cards and collected several thousand in flood relief money after a storm washed over his New Jersey neighbourhood.

Smith's other means of investment: mom and dad, who gave him $3,000.

"It was pretty huge, because my old man at that point was a government employee. He worked at the post office and he didn't make much more than 15 or 20 grand, tops," Smith said. "That was a big chunk for them."

He talked the owner of the convenience store into letting him shoot the movie there after closing time. The solid metal security gate stayed down over the main windows to make it simpler to control interior lighting and enable them to shoot at night when the story was supposed to take place during the day.

Smith adjusted the script to explain the shutters: part of Dante's terrible day involved being unable to open the gate. He paints a sign with shoe polish that reads: "I assure you we're open."

O'Halloran and his co-star Jeff Anderson, who played the rude video store clerk Randal, worked the midnight shift for the movie, and never expected to get paid.

"It was definitely fun, and yet we all had real jobs," said O'Halloran. "And we all got done with our real jobs and then got down to the store around 10:30 at night, and by the time we got into makeup and into costume, and we were ready to shoot after everything was lit, it was 11:30. Then we'd shoot until five in the morning or straight up until six when the store would open. Then we'd help Kevin open the store and move all the film equipment."

Other story points were also dictated by circumstance.

Smith wanted to put his friend Jason Mewes in the movie as Jay, a trash-talking stoner who perpetually ornaments the parking lot. The character was basically Mewes as himself, but he was jittery about playing the part.

"He needed somebody to talk to, but I didn't want anyone to take away from this one-man show," Smith said. Thus was born Silent Bob, and the director played the role himself.

Clerks played no more than 96 theatres and earned only $3.1 million, but it became a hit on video and spawned an animated series, while making cult stars out of Jay and Silent Bob.

The duo will return with Dante and Randal in the Clerks sequel, but Smith said they'll be more realistic than the slapstick buffoons they became in recent years, reflecting Mewes real-life sobriety after battling drug addiction.

No celebrities, no big budget. Just another shift at the shop. Only this time, the film will be partly in colour as well as black and white.

"Just like The Wizard of Oz," Smith cracked, with a snap of his chewing gum.

A year after Johnny Cash's death, Kris Kristofferson still mourns

NASHVILLE (AP) - Kris Kristofferson says he still grieves the loss of his friend Johnny Cash.

"It's hard to believe that it's been a year," Kristofferson said recently from his home in Hawaii. "It's still painful that he's gone. I think about him a lot." Kristofferson contributes to a new Country Music Television special, Controversy: Johnny Cash vs. Music Row, which airs 8 p.m. EDT Saturday and again Sunday afternoon. The show explores the uneasy relationship between the country music establishment and the singer, who died on Sept. 12, 2003.

Cash, one of the genre's biggest stars, had a hard time getting his music on country radio in his later years - despite critical acclaim and Grammy Awards.

After a lull in his career in the 1970s and '80s, he found success with a series of albums he recorded with noted rap/rock producer Rick Rubin. Backed by rock acts such as Tom Petty (news) and the Heartbreakers, Cash reached a new, younger audience drawn by his stark songs and rebellious spirit.

"I'm sure it gave him satisfaction to be out there knocking out a room full of kids," Kristofferson said. "He was always a little bit more experimental than other people in country music. He was doing stuff that wasn't being done back when he was singing, The Ballad of Ira Hayes," in 1964.

After winning a Grammy, Cash and Rubin put together a now infamous full-page music industry trade ad in 1998 that showed Cash flipping off the Nashville music establishment and country radio.

Cash was always a rebel, Kristofferson said.

"He was unlike anybody else," he said. "He was absolutely his own person. He went his own way and spoke his own words."

Bacall Balks After Kidman Called 'Legend'

LONDON - How old is a movie legend? Definitely older than 37-year-old Nicole Kidman, according to screen veteran Lauren Bacall. Bacall became irritated during an interview with Britain's GMTV Wednesday when the younger actress was described as "a legend."

"She's not a legend," Bacall said, cutting off interviewer Jenni Falconer in mid-sentence.

"She's a beginner. What is this 'legend'? She can't be a legend at whatever age she is. She can't be a legend, you have to be older."

The two actresses were in Venice, Italy to promote their new film "Birth," in which 79-year-old Bacall plays Kidman's mother.

At a joint interview, reporters peppered Kidman with questions and, embarrassed, she finally suggested they direct their questions elsewhere.

Bacall, the former wife of Humphrey Bogart and star of such films as "The Big Sleep" and "Key Largo," insisted she and Kidman get along famously.

The two women acted together once before, with Bacall playing a supporting role in Kidman's star vehicle "Dogville" last year.

"I love working with a young actress," Bacall said. "Nicole and I worked together on Dogville and we were friends when we started this. That laid the groundwork for our fabulous relationship on screen and off."

In the film, Kidman plays a woman who believes her dead husband has been reincarnated in the body of a 10-year-old boy.

The assembled stars and the film's director and producer, were asked who they would like to come back as if they could be reincarnated.

The others gamely tried to answer the question but Bacall snapped: "It's not a fascinating question. No offense."

ABC Calls Delay for NFL Kickoff

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - ABC and the NFL aren't taking any chances with this week's kickoff show, the first time football has had an entertainment-style revue since the notorious "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl halftime show in February.

There will be a 10-second delay in the telecast of the hourlong "NFL Opening Kickoff," an otherwise live musical event from Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., and Jacksonville, Fla. The season's first game has last year's champions, the New England Patriots, playing host to the Indianapolis Colts.

ABC insisted on a five-second delay in the broadcast, according to Charles Coplin, the kickoff show's co-executive producer and vp programing at the NFL. ABC requires all live entertainment programing carried on the network to have a five-second delay, ABC Sports spokesman Mark Mandel said. "That was in effect before the Super Bowl (controversy)," he said.

Added Coplin on his way to Foxboro on Tuesday to oversee the production: "I think it's a precaution. I have no plans on using it. I would be surprised by using it, but there are always things that could go out of control."

Performers include Mary J. Blige, Elton John, Lenny Kravitz and Toby Keith, along with a newly reunited Destiny's Child.

Burned by the experience at the last Super Bowl, when Janet Jackson bared a breast during a performance with Justin Timberlake, the NFL took control over its entertainment destiny. The league now develops the content and works directly with the performers; it has control over song selection, wardrobe and staging, for instance. Coplin said the NFL wants to make sure that everything's appropriate.

"(The performers) understand what's appropriate and what's not appropriate, and that's very much a part of who we chose" to perform, Coplin said.

The NFL, which is always a ratings winner for ABC on Monday night, is going to face some tough competition when it bows Thursday. Leading the competition will be the premieres of "Joey" and "The Apprentice," both on NBC.

But that's not the only storm Thursday's game and show will face. Coplin said it isn't clear whether damage from Hurricane Frances, which hit Jacksonville over the weekend, will alter the plans to have Jessica Simpson sing from there as scheduled. Coplin wasn't sure about that, but he had other weather-related concerns in mind, too. It isn't supposed to stop raining in Massachusetts until Thursday at the earliest.

"We could really use a clear night and clear rehearsals," Coplin said. "I don't think we're going to have any luck."

Linklater Will Coach Thornton in 'Bears' Redo

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "School of Rock" director Richard Linklater has signed on to shoot the remake of "The Bad News Bears," starring Billy Bob Thornton.

The Paramount Pictures project is due to start shooting in November. The original 1976 feature starred Walter Matthau as a beer-chugging manager who transforms a group of Little League misfits into a winning team.

Linklater, a stalwart of the indie scene, scored a solid commercial hit when he directed Paramount's 2003 comedy "School of Rock," which grossed $81 million domestically. He is currently in theaters with "Before Sunset," starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.

He also has been tapped to direct "The Smoker" for Paramount. That project was scheduled to begin production in the fall, but it will likely move back to film after "Bears," with an exact date still to be determined.

Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, the writers and creative team behind the Thornton hit "Bad Santa," are writing the screenplay for "Bears."