STAYING UP LATE
Craig Ferguson will make his debut as new host of CBS' Late Late Show on Monday with David Duchonvy as his inaugural guest. Other first-week guests include Jason Alexander, Jon Cryer and Nip/Tuck's Julian McMahon.
New "Law" Will Go On Sans Orbach
The show will go on.
That's the word from producers of NBC's Law & Order: Trial by Jury after the death of star Jerry Orbach, who played wisecracking NYPD Detective Lennie Briscoe on the new cops-and-lawyers drama.
Orbach, 69, died Tuesday at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center after battling prostate cancer since last spring.
His illness wasn't disclosed until just this month, however, when his manager, Robert Malcolm, told the New York Daily News that the actor had been receiving treatment for the disease and that his prognosis was good.
Upon news of his passing Wednesday, a publicist for Trial by Jury confirmed that NBC would continue production on the series and will air episodes featuring Orbach. The actor appeared in three of the six episodes shot so far. The network has not announced an air date for the new show, but it is expected to debut in early 2005, most likely in late February or March.
The fourth edition of the Law & Order franchise, Trial by Jury costars Bebe Neuwirth, former Senator Fred Thompson (reprising his L&O role of D.A. Arthur Branch), Amy Carlson and Kirk Acevedo, and devotes many its ripped-from-the-headlines formula to the inner workings of the Big Apple's judicial system.
L&O mastermind Dick Wolf told the New York Times that Orbach's declining health was the main reason producers retired his tough-talking top cop from active duty on the original series after 12 seasons and transferred him to the new spinoff, where he would appear less frequently as an investigator for the district attorney's office.
Orbach agreed to the switch earlier this year to give him more time to focus on his recovery--the shooting schedule on Trial by Jury called for him to work the beat only two days a week. Wolf tapped Dennis Farina to replace Orbach on the original L&O this season.
NBC says it will soon begin the search for an actor to fill Orbach's slot on the new series.
Meanwhile, friends and former colleagues remembered the late TV star, who, before taking the L&O gig, was known for work on the big screen (Dirty Dancing, Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors) and stage, where he got his start as a song-and-dance man and eventually headlined hit musicals and won a Tony Award.
Chita Rivera, who costarred with him in the original Broadway production of Chicago, in which Orbach created the role of slick lawyer Billy Flynn, considered him one of her best musical partners.
"Jerry's strong spirit will be with me forever," she told the Associated Press on Tuesday. "He was an anchor who brought style, security and razzle-dazzle to our original Chicago company. He was a swell guy, and I'll sure miss him."
Wolf said Orbach's "loss is irreplaceable" and called the actor "a legendary figure of 20th century show business."
Former New York City Mayor Rudi Giuliani also paid tribute to Orbach, hailing him a "friend to all New Yorkers" and a "devoted ambassador of the city."
And S. Epatha Merkerson, who acted alongside Orbach for years on Law & Order told USA Today, said, "He was always such a feisty and strong character and person. It never occurred to me [his cancer] would go this far."
Broadway marquee lights were dimmed for one minute Wednesday night in tribute to Orbach, who was survived by his second wife, Elaine, and two adult sons from his first marriage.
100 THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS PARTY
When the first band of revelers gathered in Times Square to welcome in the New Year, there wasn’t even a ball — just firecrackers, homemade noisemakers, and the start of what would become the most famous First Night in the world. Believe it or not, that was 100 years ago. Indeed, what most of us don’t know about New Year’s Eve and Times Square could fill a book — or at least these pages. So here goes: one tidbit for every year we’ve celebrated in that heralded square.
1 Before Times Square, New Yorkers rang in the new year at Trinity Church by shaking tin cans with bricks inside them.
2 The tradition of dropping the ball began in 1906.
3 Until 1995, the ball was lowered manually, by six men and a guy with a stopwatch.
4 One year in the mid-’50s, the ball got stuck halfway down and took a while to untangle. The new year came anyway.
5 A worldwide audience of more than 1 billion watches the ball drop each year.
6 The first ball, made of iron and wood and adorned with 100 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet across and 700 pounds.
7 At the time, 25-watt bulbs were considered very high tech.
8 Some 20 to 30 tons of trash are left behind by New Year’scrowds each year.
9 At the first celebration in 1904, Times Tower, at Seventh Avenue and 42nd Street, was, at 400 feet high, Manhattan's tallest building.
10 Back then, the subway cost a nickel.
11 Estimates of the 1904 Times Square crowd vary from 100,000 to 200,000.
12 Early revelers used homemade noisemakers and a bottle-shaped horn that sold for 10 cents.
13 In 1920, a 400-pound iron ball replaced the original.
14 When the first automated ball dropped, in 1995, it was two or three seconds late.
15 The Post's headline on Jan. 1, 1996: "First screw-up of 1996" — with a photo of the ball.
16 That day, Jeff Straus — president of Countdown Entertainment, which represents the ball — stopped telling people what he did for a living.
17 Straus spends all year planning the celebration.
18 In 1943 and '44, there was no ball, for fear it could prompt an enemy strike.
19 In 1955, the aluminum ball debuted.
20 The ball had a total of 180 lightbulbs.
21 The ball wasn't always a ball. For five years in the '80s — the height of the "I love NY" campaign — it was an apple.
22 It was the same ball — with a green stem pasted on the top. It turned back into a ball in 1987.
23 This New Year's Eve, ev eryone in Times Square can have a say in how the festivities unfold — thanks to cell-phone text messaging, by voting for their choice of song out of a selection of three. The one with the most votes will be played.
24 The actual symbol of a ball dropping to signal the passage of time dates back to 1833 when a time-ball was installed atop England's Royal Observatory at Greenwich.
25 Around 150 public time- balls were installed around the world thereafter, but few survive.
26 There have been six different balls since 1906.
27 In 1995, the aluminum ball got upgraded — with 10,000 rhinestones.
28 The current ball was first dropped on Dec. 31, 1999.
29 It's six feet across and some 1,070 pounds.
30 To celebrate the 100th anniversary, 100 "white comet" candles will be lit and will rocket into the sky shortly after 11 p.m.
31 In the late '90s, someone suggested the crowd dance to "YMCA" to entertain themselves. Police said no.
32 In the 1990s, various corporate logos were suggested in place of the ball.
33 They included a giant Bayer Aspirin bottle and a Pepsi can.
34 In "When Harry Met Sally . . ." (1989), a lonely Harry (Billy Crystal) watches Dick Clark emcee the ball drop.
35 These days, Billy Crystal's playing Broadway.
36 Woody Allen's "Radio Days" features a 1944 New Year's Eve party on a Times Square rooftop.
37 Dick Clark was 43 when he made his original New Year's Eve TV show from Times Square in 1972.
38 Clark has nothing on Guy Lombardo, the bandleader who presided over Times Square New Year's Eves from 1929 to 1972.
39 In 1931, the celebration was broadcast via radio around the world.
40 Times Square's most famous billboard — the Camel cigarette sign — was installed in 1941.
41 In 1946, Times Square got its famed Armed Forces Recruiting Station — nicknamed "The Booth."
42 In 1998, "The Booth" got its first bathroom.
43 Public drinking was prohibited at the celebration after Mayor Giuliani took office.
44 New Year's cleanups got easier after that.
45 Mayor Giuliani was the first mayor to officially join the celebration.
46 Contrary to some media reports at the time, Sarah Ferguson did not oversee the dropping of the ball.
47 In 1996, the first guest invited to flip the switch was Oseola McCarty, a poor, Mississippi laundress who donated her entire life savings — $150,000 — to a scholarship fund.
48 Before she flipped the switch, McCarty, 88, spent the night wrapped in a blanket, touring the square in a golf cart.
49 In 2002, Christopher Reeve had his hand on the button that signaled the ball drop.
50 Other honorees included Chinese gymnast Sang Lan (1998) and Muhammad Ali (2000).
51 In 1997, a monstrous Astro- Vision TV screen above 50th Street and Broadway gave crowds a clear view.
52 New Year's Eve '97 also marked the 100th anniversary of the unification of NYC's five boroughs.
53 The estimated revenue from that '97 bash? $57.7 million — including fines for ignoring the ban on drinking.
54 In 1949, a fuse on the roof of Times Tower blew at 10 minutes to midnight, and the side of the ball facing the crowd went dark. The crew turned off the ball, spun it around, and hoisted it back up. Nobody noticed the back wasn't lit.
55 In the mid-1950s, a windstorm caused the ball to be pushed back up the pole. An electrician leaped for a tag line and held on for dear life.
56 The exterior of the current ball ball is illuminated by 168 crystal bulbs.
57 The interior has 432 light bulbs and 96 high-intensity strobes.
58 The exterior features 90 rotating pyramid mirrors.
59 In 1980, the ball went dark from 11:58 to 11:59 p.m., tohonor hostages in Iran.
60 This year, more than 2,000 pounds of multicolored, fire-proof confetti will drop from six rooftops.
61 Confetti master Treb Heining supervises six volunteers to drop it.
62 The biggest problem? Avoiding clumping and ensuring even distribution.
63 Dick Clark hosted American Bandstand for 32 years before it went off air in 1989.
64 Regis Philbin will step in this year for Clark. The Bronx-born Philbin has never been to Times Square on New Year's.
65 This year's special guest: Secretary of State Colin Powell.
66 A seat for the 2000 Millennium drop was booked 15 years ahead of time. An Armonk, N.Y. man made a reservation at the Marriott Marquis in 1985, before the building was even built.
67 The confetti drop started in the early 1990s.
68 Zoning rules approved in 1987 create a new unit to measure the brightness of lights in Times Square.
69 Manhattan, Kansas, is having its second annual Little Apple New Year's Eve Celebration, for crowd of 5,000.
70 Times Square celebrated its 100th birthday last April 8.
71 Mylar streamers and giant balloons started in the 1990s, when the Times Square Alliance feared the festivities weren't festive enough.
72 Ten to 15 minutes after the ball drops, 38 sanitation workers start picking up every drop of confetti.
73 Beginning in 1996, televised feed of New Year's Eve in Times Square was distributed for free, worldwide.
74 Viewership seems to in crease during crisis.
75 In 1999, for fear of terrorism, there were 8,000 police officers and national guardsmen on duty.
76 The ball is raised at 6 p.m. on New Year's Eve.
77 It drops 77 feet in 60 seconds.
78 When the weather's good, revelers arrive at 4 p.m.
79 Area in question: 43rd to 47th streets.
80 This year's handouts include 25,000 hats, 150,000 pompoms, 9,000 pair of 2005 glasses, and 10,000 2012 Olympic flags.
81 Times Square isn't even square — it's a bowtie.
82 Before 1904, the area known as Times Square was Longacre Square.
83 After 9/11, Mayor Giuliani encouraged the celebration to continue.
84 The crowd at that first post-9/11 New Year's Eve was the most polite ever.
85 The most raucous revelers were in the early '70s.
86 This year's celebrants can practice the countdown, starting at 7 p.m.
87 All 696 lights and 90 rotating pyramid mirrors on the ball are computer controlled.
88 When the ball isn't being lowered, it rests in the "Ball Vault," feet below 1 Times Square.
89 Stored with it is the glitterball that was retired in '99, plastic rhinestones and all.
90 Covered with a total of 504 Waterford crystal triangles, the current ball cost more than $1 million.
91 From his hospital bed, Dick Clark told his wife, Kari, that he wanted Regis to host.
92 Ashlee Simpson will perform at this year's "Rockin Eve" special on ABC. She promises not to lip-sync.
93 Even the button that will be pushed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Secretary of State Colin Powell is made from Waterford crystal.
94 Recent celebrations generated about 57 tons of litter per night.
95 Some would-be ball- nap pers from New Jersey once tried to get their own ball from Artkraft Strauss.
96More than a million revelers welcomed in the new millennium on Jan. 1, 2000.
97 The sanitation department uses garden rakes.
98 Wet confetti is a lot harder to pick up than dry.
99 Also picked up, says a Sanitation spokesman: "The first kiss, a ton of broken resolutions, and a lot of personal effects."
100 After the millennium celebration, workers found two kilts, still unclaimed.
Jazz Giant Artie Shaw Dies at Age 94
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Jazz clarinetist Artie Shaw, famed for classic recordings of "Begin the Beguine" and "Oh, Lady Be Good" as well as turbulent marriages to movie stars Lana Turner and Ava Gardner, died on Thursday at age 94, his manager Will Curtis said.
Shaw, who died at his Los Angeles-area home, had been in ill health for several years since he fell and broke a hip while walking his dog, Curtis said.
"He was in tremendous pain," he added.
Born Arnold Jacob Arshawsky to a seamstress mother and photographer father in New York City on May 23, 1910, Shaw was about as restless a jazz star as one could find.
He formed and reformed bands, married and divorced eight times, gave up music for more than 30 years and put down his clarinet in 1954 never to play it in public again, quitting at age 44.
Critics dismissed his work at first. But soon they hailed him as a unique voice in swing-era jazz, especially for his beautiful tone and control of his instrument's top register.
The Down Beat critic Howard Mandel once wrote: "In Shaw's lips and hands the clarinet bent as pliantly as a blade of grass; it thrilled him to make glissandi, fast or sad melodies, and wonderful virtuosic turns."
Among his famous songs were a 1938 rendition of "Begin the Beguine," which made him a national star and chief rival to legendary clarinetist Benny Goodman, "Oh, Lady Be Good," "Stardust," "Indian Love Call" and "Frenesi."
He once said the success of "Begin the Beguine" was like an anchor around his neck.
As smooth as his tone was, Shaw was a man at war with himself. A crusty, self-declared perfectionist, Shaw gave up the clarinet because he said could not reach the level of artistry he desired.
In 1981, he ended a long musical intermission by reorganizing a band that bore his name and played his music -- but with another clarinetist, Dick Johnson, leading the orchestra and playing the solos Shaw made famous.
Shaw traveled with the orchestra as a guest host and sometime conductor of the band's signature opening number, "Nightmare."
WHO'S WHO
Shaw's bands in the 1930s and 1940s featured a who's who of jazz greats including Billie Holiday, Buddy Rich, Roy Eldridge and "Hot Lips" Page. At the height of his popularity, he earned $30,000 a week, a huge sum for the Depression Era.
He was one of the few white bandleaders who sought out black talent. Decades after Billie Holiday sang with him, Shaw still marveled at the sound of her voice.
"When she sang something, it came alive. I mean that is what jazz is all about," he once said.
Shaw called himself a difficult man, a view his eight former wives, including novelist Kathleen Winsor and actresses Evelyn Keyes, Ava Gardner and Lana Turner might have agreed with. He recalled once almost erupting when a woman asked if he could play something with a Latin beat.
Of Shaw's string of former wives, manager Curtis recalled, "He said he never had to pay any alimony because they were all as rich as he was."
It was once a national joke to have as many wives as Artie Shaw had.
In a 1985 interview with Reuters, Shaw said he gave up playing when he decided he was aiming for a perfection that could kill him.
"I am compulsive. I sought perfection. I was constantly miserable. I was seeking a constantly receding horizon. So I quit," he said.
"It was like cutting off an arm that had gangrene. I had to cut it off to live. I'd be dead if I didn't stop. The better I got, the higher I aimed. People loved what I did, but I had grown past it. I got to the point where I was walking in my own footsteps," he said in that interview.
Shaw spent his time as a guest on television game shows, writing an autobiography and a novel, traveling and lecturing.
But starting in the 1980s, Shaw returned to the road with his revived band as its host and sometime conductor of its opening number before turning over to Johnson.
'Law & Order' Star Jerry Orbach Dies
NEW YORK - Actor Jerry Orbach, who played a sardonic, seen-it-all cop on TV's "Law & Order" and scored on Broadway as a song-and-dance man, has died of prostate cancer at 69, a representative of the show said Wednesday.
Orbach died Tuesday night in Manhattan after several weeks of treatment, Audrey Davis of the public relations agency Lippin Group said.
When his illness was diagnosed, he had begun production on NBC's upcoming spinoff "Law & Order: Trial By Jury," after 12 seasons playing Detective Lennie Briscoe in the original series. His return to the new show had been expected early next year.
On Broadway, the Bronx-born Orbach starred in hit musicals including "Carnival," "Promises, Promises" (for which he won a Tony Award), "Chicago" and "42nd Street."
Earlier, he was in the original cast of the off-off-Broadway hit "The Fantasticks," playing the narrator. The show went on to run for more than 40 years.
Among his film appearances were roles in "Dirty Dancing," "Prince of the City" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Orbach is expected to appear in early episodes of "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," for which he continued as Briscoe in a secondary role, when the series premieres later this season, Davis said.
"I'm immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th Century show business," said Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the "Law & Order" series, in a statement. "He was one of the most honored performers of his generation. His loss is irreplaceable."
In a 2000 Associated Press interview, Orbach said the role in the acclaimed "Law & Order" brought him "wonderful security" rare in the life of an actor.
"All my life, since I was 16, I've been wondering where that next job was gonna come from," he explained. "Now I take the summer off, relax, and I know that at the end of July we're gonna start another season."
He said he didn't know "where I stop and Lennie starts, really. ... I know he's tougher than me and he carries a gun. And I'm not an alcoholic."
"I know I wouldn't want to be him," Orbach sums up. "I guess THAT'S where I stop and he starts."
In 1987-88, he starred in the series "The Law and Harry McGraw," a spinoff featuring a character he created in "Murder, She Wrote." In 1990, a shot on "The Golden Girls" brought him an Emmy nomination as best guest actor in a comedy series.
"There's a pace in TV I like," he said in a 1993 interview. "I like to work fast. I don't like to dwell all day over one scene as you do in a big feature. Big feature films are another world."
Jet Li Survives Tsunami
Jet Li just got through playing Hero on the big screen. Now, he's one for real.
The international action star managed to save his daughter--and himself--from the deadly tsunami that wreaked havoc on southern Asia and parts of Africa over the weekend, leaving more than 52,000 dead.
Li and his daughter were vacationing in a resort in the Maldives when the 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck near Sumatra early Sunday. The temblor generated waves up to 40 feet high which swamped coastal areas in nearly a dozen countries, including Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia and as far away as Somalia and Tanzania.
According to Hong Kong's Apple Daily newspaper, which quoted an unnamed friend of Li's, the martial artist and his daughter were in their hotel lobby when a wall of water surged into the building. Li was dinged by a piece of floating furniture and sustained an foot injury, according to the Ming Pao Daily News, but managed to scoop up his daughter and escape relatively unharmed. After reaching higher ground, he was able to call his agent and let him know they were all right.
A rep for Li confirmed to E! on Monday that the actor was vacationing in the Maldives and had managed to avoid injury.
The Maldives are a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean about eight feet above sea level. The tidal waves, which were traveling at 500 miles per hour, engulfed the islands--some almost entirely--sweeping away whole towns and villages before finally receding.
Nearly 50 deaths have been reported in the Maldives, as of Tuesday, but as with most of the places ravaged by the tsunamis, the casualty numbers are expected to rise.
Li, one of Hong Kong's premiere action exports, played the villain in Lethal Weapon 4 before landing his first major American starring role in Romeo Must Die; his other Hollywood credits include Cradle 2 the Grave, Kiss of the Dragon and The One.
Li wasn't the only celeb caught up in the tsunami tragedy.
Czech supermodel and 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue covergirl Petra Nemcova was on holiday across the Indian Ocean in Phuket, Thailand, with her British photographer boyfriend, Simon Atlee, when the raging surf tore through their beachfront bungalow at the resort of Kaho Lak.
According to the New York Daily News, Nemcova was able to keep her head above water and grab a palm tree. She clung to the tree for eight hours while the water swept other victims out to sea. At sunset, the 25-year-old beauty was eventually discovered by rescuers and hospitalized for a broken pelvis and internal injuries.
Atlee, however, is still missing.
"This huge wave just pulled us out of the house," Nemcova recounted the Daily News from her hospital bed. "It was so powerful I couldn't get up. I couldn't get out of it. People were screaming, and kids were screaming all over the place, screaming, 'Help, help.' And after a few minutes, you didn't hear the kids anymore."
She was transported via stretcher to a local hospital and then airlifted to an inland hospital.
"I was so broken, I couldn't walk," Nemcova said. "There were so many people with horrible injuries, with blood everywhere. It was like a war movie."
The killer waves also beseiged Nate Berkus, a celebrity interior decorator and frequent guest of The Oprah Winfrey Show. Berkus and his companion, Fernando Bengoechea, were asleep in their hotel in Sri Lanka when the tsunamis hit.
The two got hold of a telephone pole, before another strong wave pulled them off. Berkus, 33, managed to climb up onto a rooftop, but the fate of his friend remains unclear. After reaching safety on Sunday, Berkus managed to call his family and alert them that he was alive.
"I'm sitting here with nothing--no passport, no money, no anything, in shorts that somebody gave me," he told CNN. "The bottom line is, we desperately need help here."
Meanwhile, from the film world, Oscar-winning British director Richard Attenborough is mourning the death of his 14-year-old granddaughter, Lucy, who was killed when the waves crashed into Phuket. Attenborough's daughter Jane and Jane's mother-in-law, Jane Holland, remained unaccounted for, according to a statement from family friend Diana Hawkins.
Another granddaughter, 17-year-old Alice, survived the tsunami along with her father, Michael, and her brother Sam. Alice was being treated at a local hospital. The Attenboroughs were staying at the Thai beach on a two-week holiday.
So far, more than 80 Westerners have been confirmed dead in the catastrophe, with many still missing.
Hoping to fend off a deepening crisis, aid workers are rushing to contain the outbreak of waterborne diseases and restore basic sanitation and running water to the tsunami-effected areas.
Susan Sontag, Writer and Critic, Dies at 71
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Author and social critic Susan Sontag, one of the most powerful thinkers of her generation and a leading voice of intellectual opposition to U.S. policy after the Sept. 11 attacks, died on Tuesday at a New York cancer hospital. She was 71.
Sontag, who had been suffering from cancer for some time, was known for interests that ranged from French existentialist writers to ballet, photography and politics. She once said a writer should be "someone who is interested in everything."
She was a lifelong human rights activist and the author of 17 books, including a novel, "In America," that won a U.S. National Book award.
Her work has been translated into more than 30 languages. Among her best known works was a 1964 study of homosexual aesthetics called "Notes on Camp."
Fellow author and friend Salman Rushdie described her as "a great literary artist, a fearless and original thinker, ever valiant for truth" who insisted "that with literary talent came an obligation to speak out on the great issues of the day."
Sontag was among the first to raise a dissenting voice after Sept. 11, 2001, in a controversial New Yorker magazine essay arguing that talk of an "attack on civilization" was "drivel."
A tall and imposing figure with white-streaked, long black hair and a severe demeanor, Sontag was a fixture on the New York intellectual scene. She played herself in Woody Allen's 1983 comedy "Zelig," and directed four films of her own.
She ignited a firestorm of criticism when she declared that the Sept. 11 attacks were not a "cowardly attack" on civilization but "an act undertaken as a consequence of specific American alliances and actions."
With much of America still too shocked to consider such views, she was vilified in some quarters. An op-ed piece in the Boston Globe contended the comments confirmed what many already thought about her: "high IQ, but a few quarts low on compassion and common sense."
Sontag has since been an outspoken critic of President Bush over his response to the Sept. 11 attacks and particularly the U.S. war in Iraq.
In May this year she wrote an essay in the New York Times about the prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib jail in Baghdad, arguing that the shocking photographs of the abuse would likely becoming the defining images of the war.
The piece prompted an editorial writer at Britain's Financial Times newspaper to describe her as "the liberal lioness ... the pride of hand-wringing elitist liberalism."
Novelist E.L. Doctorow described her as "quite fearless."
"She was engaged as a writer. I remember she went to Sarajevo to do theater while the fighting was going on. She just marched right on in there," he said.
Born in New York in 1933, Sontag grew up in Arizona and Los Angeles before going to the University of Chicago, and later Harvard and Oxford. She wrote novels, non-fiction books, plays and film-scripts as well as essays for The New Yorker, Granta, the New York Review of Books and other literary titles.
"She was brilliant and put her brilliance to work on behalf of human rights and creativity for everybody else," said Victor Navasky, publisher of liberal weekly magazine The Nation.
Sontag was married at the age of 17 to Philip Rieff, an academic in Chicago, with whom she had a son in 1952.
A longtime opponent of war and a human rights activist, Sontag made several visits to Sarajevo and staged Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" there under siege in the summer of 1993.
From 1987 to 1989 she was president of the American Center of PEN, an international writers' organization dedicated to freedom of expression, where she led a number of campaigns on behalf of persecuted and imprisoned writers.
Rushdie, current PEN president, expressed his gratitude for her support over the fatwa issued against him in 1989 for his book "The Satanic Verses." "Her resolute support, at a time when some wavered, helped to turn the tide against what she called 'an act of terrorism against the life of the mind."'
FILLING OUT THE 'LOST' FAT KID
Despite all the beautiful people trapped on the mysterious island on ABC's hit drama, "Lost," fans are increasingly obsessed with the back story of the lovable fat kid, Hurley.
But they're probably going to be forced to wait until the end of the season to find out who he really is.
Web sites like Ain't It Cool News — typically a very reliable place for inside information about movies and TV shows — report that viewers probably won't learn Hurley's past until the end of the season.
Even Jorge Garcia, the actor who plays Hurley, doesn't know for sure, but thinks it could be as early as February.
Speculation on the 'Net about Hurley's past has ranged from him being a Dungeons & Dragons role-playing gamer to a deadly saboteur. A cryptic remark he made, "Back home, I'm a warrior myself," has kept fans guessing.
"I think I get to shoot it in January, and you all will see it in February," Garcia wrote on the cast and crew's official Web site, The Fuselage, about his episode.
But plans sometimes change, especially on "Lost," a hit show with a storyline so cloaked in secrecy, it rivals that of the "X-Files," in which producers distributed scripts to the actors on colored paper so it couldn't be photocopied.
Even the cast of "Lost" doesn't know in which direction the series is headed.
"We find out a few weeks earlier when we read the script [or if someone's really ambitious they sneak a peek at the treatment]," Garcia wrote. "We read it and get the new revelations, but then we can't wait to watch because little things get cut or changed from our draft.
"I assure you we are just as into it as you guys — we're just few chapters ahead," wrote the amicable actor, who has become known on the Web site for his frequent, friendly interaction with fans.
Jim Cuddy, Diana Krall say first concert can be a life-changing event
TORONTO (CP) - Do you remember the first concert you ever attended?
The crush of people, the bright lights and the ear-splitting sound? Many of us remember the night as vividly we do our first kiss. And when that first gig comes up in conversation with friends or co-workers, most of us eagerly contribute our own memory - whether it was a legendary band or the bubblegum pop act du jour.
It's because music defines our personalities, explains Jacqueline Warwick, assistant professor of music at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
"It's such an important part of how we make ourselves up and how we present ourselves to the world," she said.
The inaugural concert typically represents a snapshot of yourself and who you considered to be part of your community at that time in your life, added Warwick.
"You've made this investment of time and energy and money. You think 'These people understand me somehow. They speak to me. They get me,' " she said. "All of that is heavily freighted and becomes incredibly significant . . . making up their identity and figuring out what kind of man or woman they're going to be."
The Canadian Press asked a few musicians about their first concert.
Billy Talent's Ben Kowalewicz:
It was John Denver with my mom (in Montreal). I fell asleep half way through because it was John Denver. I was just a little one, a wee lad. But the first concert that really resonated with me and meant something to me would be the '92 Lollapalooza (at Molson Park in Barrie, Ont.) with Pearl Jam, Chili Peppers, Ministry, Ice Cube and Soundgarden. I just remember thinking it was the greatest day of my life. I was probably 16 and I was stoned out of my gourd. I was walking around thinking "This is amazing. This is what I want to do."
Blue Rodeo's Jim Cuddy:
The Lovin' Spoonful at the Autostad at Expo 67 (in Montreal). I was in the very, very back row and I have never been so excited in my life. When they first started I thought I was going to scream. It was the first time I realized why people scream. Obviously I'd been listening to music for a while. I was a really huge Beatles fan and I saw all the screaming on Ed Sullivan but when I was in that concert, it was almost more than I could handle.
Blue Rodeo's Greg Keelor:
Beach Boys in Montreal. I can't remember where. I was very young. Maybe '64. It was an outdoor thing.
Jazz singer Diana Krall:
Trooper was the first concert. I got gum thrown in my hair. That's when I said "No, I'm sticking with jazz." Then I went to Oscar Peterson with Ella Fitzgerald at the Orpheum (in Vancouver) when I was 16 years old. My mother made me a blue satin jacket. It was one of those life changing things. My cousin took me. I'll never forget it.
"Singer" Shawn Desman:
It's a little embarrassing but New Kids on the Block at the Exhibition (in Toronto). I was about nine years old. I loved New Kids. I'm being honest, I don't care, whatever ya'll think, I loved New Kids on the Block. It was surreal. I couldn't believe that the guys that I see on my TV everyday are actually there and I saw them in person. Hopefully my fans get that same kind of feeling. I didn't have the best seats but I could see the stage.
Singer Jann Arden:
It was Kiss, 1976. The opening act was Pat Benatar. It was in Calgary at the Corral. I went with my friend Patty. I was 14. Where I grew up, Springbank, there were 30 kids in my entire school. So you can imagine how naive we all were. My mom dropped us off. She had no idea what she was dropping us off to. I'm sure I had jeans with chicken shit on them and a T-shirt because we lived in the sticks and it was so loud I was kind of scared. People were drunk and smoking pot. Gene Simmons was drunk and would spit blood out at the crowd and there were all these pyrotechnics.
Actor and part-time singer William Shatner:
It was a Rolling Stones concert in Toronto. I was more a Frank Sinatra fan. I wasn't connected with rock and roll until much later.
Collective Soul's Ed Roland:
My dad took me to see Johnny Cash and I thought that was the coolest cat I ever saw in my life - all black, and that guitar. He was cool. I love Johnny. And then it was Liberace second. My dad took me to Liberace and then he took me to Elton John (news) and I'm like, "What is going on?" I was like, "Alright, this is what I want to do dad!"
Collective Soul's Joel Kosche:
It was Sammy Hagar on the I Can't Drive 55 tour. That was the first big rock show for me and I was already playing guitar and stuff by then. It was fun. It was an arena . . . where you get that real nervous feeling like, "Wow, something's gonna happen." Those were the good old days. A lot of shows used to give you that feeling.
Singer Leslie Feist:
Tina Turner at the Saddledome (in Calgary). I remember it exactly, the whole thing. It was the Private Dancer era. Her hair was enormous. I was a million metres away and her hair was still completely enormous.
When I played the Saddledome in 1999 with By Divine Right I was standing on the stage at the same spot. I was just looking left to right remembering exactly where I sat for Tina Turner and then Janet Jackson and Tiffany.
Singer Andy Kim:
I remember it because music was and still is my sanity. Having seen Roy Orbison play in Montreal was absolutely phenomenal. My older brother took me. I remember the first time I heard Only the Lonely. It was a moment. It was the first time you heard the moan of someone. It's like the first time you hear a bird sing. He was one of those remarkable musical spirits. He was almost operatic to me. I think I was about 12. I remember two things. The seats were not that great but it didn't matter. It was my first time in a crowd. Just to hear him, was, I can't explain it.
Man Auctions Water From Cup Elvis Used
BELMONT, N.C. - Wade Jones is a fan of Elvis Presley, but says he's not a fanatic. That's why — after a grilled cheese sandwich said to bear the image of the Virgin Mary sold on eBay for $28,000 — he decided to sell three tablespoons of water from a cup that Jones said was used by Presley during a 1977 concert.
"It's one thing to be an Elvis fan, but then you tell them you have this cup of water and they think you're a fanatic," he said. "I'm not like the people bidding on this water."
The water fetched $455 Saturday at the online auction.
Jones was 13 when he watched Presley perform in February 1977 at the Charlotte Coliseum, now the Cricket Arena. He says he watched Elvis drink from the cup while he introduced the band.
After the show, Jones went to the stage to snag a souvenir — perhaps a scarf that Presley would throw to his audience. When police wouldn't give him one, he asked for the cup and water. He stored the cup in a deep freezer for eight years, then melted the ice and transferred the water to a glass vial.
As proof of the water's authenticity, Jones provides photos of Presley during the concert in which several plastic foam cups can be seen on a stand behind him. Another photo shows Presley holding a cup.
"I'm kind of attached to the cup," Jones said. "I thought it was a little quirkier to sell the water."
Usher Leads 2004 Album Shipments
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - To his eight Grammy nominations and slew of No. 1 singles, R&B singer Usher has added the honor of most-shipped U.S. album of 2004 for "Confessions," according to year-end certifications from the Recording Industry Assn. of America.
With 8 million units shipped to retailers (but not necessarily sold through to consumers), the set is the highest-certified album in the star's catalog. His previous best was 1997's "My Way," which is six times platinum.
Usher also picked up three honors under the RIAA's new digital awards program. "Yeah!" featuring Lil Jon and Ludacris, which spent 12 weeks atop the Hot 100 singles chart, was certified digital platinum for more than 200,000 downloads. The No. 1 singles "Burn" and "My Boo" with Alicia Keys went digital gold for more than 100,000 downloads.
George Strait earned this year's second-highest certified album, and top country album, for "50 Number Ones," which was certified five times platinum. Strait's career has yielded more than 60 million total U.S. shipments.
Norah Jones was the top female in 2004, with her sophomore effort, "Feels Like Home," shipping 4 million units. Her 2002 debut "Come Away With Me" is nine times platinum. Jones' "Sunrise" earned a digital gold award.
Top debut by a female artist went to Gretchen Wilson's "Here for the Party" and Ashlee Simpson's "Autobiography," both with 3 million shipments.
Kanye West was the year's leading male newcomer, with double-platinum honors for "The College Dropout."
In addition to earning the RIAA Diamond Award for 10 million shipments of last year's "Speakerboxxx/The Love Below," OutKast joined Usher with three digital awards. "Hey Ya!" grabbed the only multi-platinum award, while "Roses" and "The Way You Move" went platinum.
Another 2004 highlight was Ray Charles' posthumous "Genius Loves Company," which earned the artist his first platinum and multi-platinum honors.
Several other artists picked up their first multiplatinum awards in 2004, including Maroon 5, whose "Songs About Jane" went triple platinum. Earning their first double-platinum nods were Black Eyed Peas for "Elephunk"; Brad Paisley, "Mud on the Tires"; Jill Scott, "Who Is Jill Scott?: Words and Sounds, Volume 1"; Keith Urban, "Golden Road"; Pantera, "Vulgar Display of Power"; and Switchfoot, "Beautiful Letdown."
First-time platinum winners included Ciara, Five for Fighting, Anthony Hamilton, Jet, Josh Turner, Velvet Revolver, Michael McDonald, Yellowcard, Los Lonely Boys and JoJo.
Profile: Kate Bush: Can she pull off the big sway-back?
In the cluttered loft that houses the memory of the average middle-aged bloke, a video flickers dully. It displays a child-woman of ethereal yet sexual allure who sways with beguiling swimming motions as her voice leaps the octaves of her 1978 hit Wuthering Heights.
The news that Kate Bush is planning a comeback after 12 years has lit up the captured moment when she erupted on the music scene as a 19-year-old, tangle-haired gypsy with a dazzling talent and a totally original approach to pop.
So agonisingly have devotees awaited her return that the writer John Mendelssohn penned a novel entitled Waiting for Kate Bush, published last month, featuring a Bush obsessive who has sent her 2,000 unanswered e-mails and is tormented by self-loathing.
Nobody would believe that Bush’s long silence was about to end had she not posted these words on a fan club’s website: “The album is nearly finished and will be out next year.” In a rare burst of garrulousness she added: “I hope you will all feel it’s been worth the wait.”
Now 46, the elusive Bush spent the interval at her home near Reading making sculptures, planning films and enjoying the company of Bertie, her six-year-old son, and his father, the guitarist Danny McIntosh, who played on Bush’s last record The Red Shoes.
A little more light was thrown on her absence by Peter Gabriel, her friend and collaborator on the hit single Don’t Give Up, who recently told a Canadian interviewer: “She’s being a mum and loving it. So music’s gone from being full-time to part-time (and) that slows you down.”
The doctor’s daughter from the London suburb of Bexleyheath altered the chemistry of pop in a career that produced nine albums and 13 hit singles, including The Man with the Child in His Eyes, written when she was only 13. Her unique performances combined musical theatre, dance, poetry and rock, crowned with a voice that could scale the upper registers with what has been described as a captivating screech.
Nobody had seen or heard anything quite like her before. One reviewer wrote: “It beggars belief . . . a stunningly original stage performance . . . it is devastatingly effective . . . a dazzling testimony to a remarkable talent.”
Her success was all the more notable because she was one of the few women to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of pop, governed at the time by the aggressive sounds of punk. This 5ft 3in nip-waisted shy sprite not only composed and arranged her songs and produced her stage shows, but she also designed her costumes and was managing director of her management company.
Many female artists have claimed Bush as an inspiration, including Madonna, Björk, kd lang, PJ Harvey and Katie Melua. OutKast, the US hip-hop duo, want to do a song with her if they can track her down.
Male singers, too, owe a debt to Bush — perhaps none more so than Sir Cliff Richard. When he first saw her perform Wuthering Heights he was so impressed with her arm- flailing and gyratory motions that he incorporated them into his own static stage act. Like other Brontë aficionados, he probably imagined she had a detailed knowledge of the book, but it turned out she had not read it. The song was apparently based on her memory of the last moments of a television film.
In the studio, however, her perfectionism verged on control freakery. Recording the song Wow, she reportedly performed hundreds of vocals over several weeks, despite the producer’s insistence that he was perfectly content with the first take.
The experience led her to assume control of producing the album The Dreaming in 1982. Characterised by sound effects and animal cries, the record was not a success. Some blamed Rolf Harris’s contribution on the didgeridoo.
Catherine Bush was born in 1958, when British pop was waiting to be rescued by Elvis Presley. Her father was an English GP who played jazz piano, married to an Irishwoman who had been an accomplished folk dancer in Co Waterford. She was brought up in a comfortable home with two older brothers, John and Paddy. Both were fanatical about folk music and Kate imbibed their records of folk, sea shanties and Irish jigs.
She liked Buddy Holly and Presley, but her main inspiration was traditional music. “Irish airs, the uillean pipes — music like that affects me physically,” she said.
She also enjoyed hymns and took violin lessons at convent school, St Joseph’s at Abbey Wood, near Woolwich. “We lived in a farmhouse. I used to play hymns on an old organ in the barn till it was eaten out by mice,” she recalled.
By 11 she was writing poems; at 13 she was mixing music with the words. Her songs were intensely emotional, drawn from personal terrors and nightmares. “Horrible things fire my imagination,” she admitted. She had a particular fascination for films such as Don’t Look Now and The Cruel Sea, with “watery” themes.
Through her brothers, she joined a folk group called the KP Bush Band, playing pub gigs in the Lewisham area. When she was 15 she was introduced to Dave Gilmour, the lead guitarist with Pink Floyd, who encouraged young talent. “Absolutely terrified and trembling like a leaf, I sat down and played for him.” Gilmour liked her songs and put up some money for her to make three tracks.
The next year she was signed to Floyd’s record company, EMI, which was at first reluctant to let her record her preferred song, Wuthering Heights, until she felt ready to “handle the situation”.
She left school with a stack of O-levels, a recording contract and a windfall legacy from an aunt.
While getting more experience with the folk band, she started dance and mime classes. Emulating David Bowie, she studied with Lindsay Kemp, the mime artist and choreographer, and began to conceive of performing Wuthering Heights as a windblown figure with over-theatrical gestures.
The result was a sensation. On reflection, Bush said she was never too young to be a musician and her only ambition had been to get 10 songs onto a piece of plastic. “It couldn’t have happened fast enough. School inhibited me. It wasn’t until I left school that I found the real strength inside. All the rest was karma. It was meant to be.”
Ironically, the icon of Top of the Pops did not particularly like pop music, citing Chopin, Debussy, Sibelius and Erik Satie as her favourite listening. She also seemed oblivious to the effect her sultry performances had on audiences.
“I don’t deliberately try to be sexy when I perform,” she said. “I just concentrate on getting as much emotion and feeling into it as I can. I can feel myself switching on in front of an audience. It’s a very physical thing.”
The single’s success helped power her debut album, The Kick Inside, to the top of the charts and her sudden riches enabled her to set up home in south London with her cats Pywackit and Zoodle. In January 1979, accompanied by a troupe of dancers, jugglers and musicians, she set off on a scintillating tour. It was to be her last.
Instead she concentrated on studio work during the following decade and her hit albums included Never for Ever in 1980, the highly acclaimed Hounds of Love in 1985, and The Sensual World in 1989. There followed a four-year break until her collaboration with Eric Clapton on The Red Shoes in 1993, but the album was not well received and she vanished from view.
In recent years she has appeared in public a few times. She sang on stage with Gilmour at the Albert Hall in 2002 and appeared at the Q magazine awards. The industry tried to lure her back with the offer of a Brits lifetime achievement award but she turned it down because she would have had to have performed live.
Now she is ready to face the spotlight again. This, remember, is a female star whose versatility has perhaps never been surpassed, who pioneered the fusion of dance and circus entertainment in pop and conjured a new persona with each song. For fans, the anticipation is palpable.
SMALL TALK!
PIXIES are set to release a DVD while chronicles their sensational comeback year.
The band have completed an eight-month tour in New York on Saturday night (December 18), and during the jaunt they have been followed by a film crew. The footage will be used for a documentary on the band and possibly an in-concert DVD, according to Billboard.
The group's manager Ken Goes said: "I have collected film from about six or seven full concerts which we plan to edit for a compilation concert DVD.
"There is a possibility that these two DVDs will be combined into one double-disc set, but that is not yet confirmed."
Pixies reformed earlier this year, and the subsequent live shows were the band's first since 1992.
Director Michael Mann Talks Collateral
NEW YORK (CNN) -- "Collateral" has paid off.
The film, which starred Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx, was both a critical favorite and box office success when it was released in August. Now the kudos are paying off in award nominations, including a recent best director award for the film's helmer, Michael Mann, from the National Board of Review, and a Golden Globe nomination for co-star Jamie Foxx.
"Collateral" was released on DVD December 14. CNN's Doug Ganley sat down with Mann to talk about the film and the extras on the DVD release.
CNN: What does it mean to you to get an award like the National Board of Review's?
MICHAEL MANN: I think ... it's very significant to be honored this way by the National Board of Review. Particularly ... because they've been around for a long time. It's a really responsive group and it's very significant.
CNN: What does an award mean to the movie nowadays?
MANN: It makes your day. ... If something truly moves me and I did my job and well enough, it moves other people too, and that's nice to know. ...
You have to have your eye on the ball and the eye on the ball is the work, so ultimately the validation must come from the work. You have to do the work for the work. But it's great, you know."
CNN: What does the DVD offer?
MANN: DVDs offer us this fabulous ability to get behind the experience of the film. [You] see some of the thinking that went behind some of the craft work and some of the dedication and all this. In a way, you could almost become part of the group that's making it.
I [wanted to] do a documentary that's really about [how a film is really made]: why I'm trying to make you feel a certain way without knowing you're feeling that way by manipulating the background that's going past Tom's head just before he dies ... or how we wanted to see in the dark in ways that motion picture film can't do and here's how we went about [it]. (Mann shot much of the film in digital video and wanted to give Los Angeles a particularly colorful neon look.) ...
And it's got a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff with Tom's training and Jaime's training so that he could get the sense of driving a cab for 14 years everyday of the week [and get a feel for the vehicle]. ... And then Tom gaining the physical skills ... a lot of the weapons training.
But the other skills are also in this too. ... We had exercises in which [Cruise] was a FedEx delivery man and we'd have hidden cameras and his mission was to pick something up, make a delivery to somebody in, say, a very crowded central market in downtown Los Angeles, without that person realizing he was Tom Cruise. All of that's in there.
CNN: So you're opening up the curtain and letting the audience see in the back. Do you enjoy that?
MANN: I do if it's interesting. If it's just "everybody's wonderful," no. But if it's substantial, yeah, I do. [And so we] try to make it substantial.
CNN: You're not afraid of exposing any trade secrets?
MANN: I don't think [they're] secrets as it is. [They're] a fascinating look into how people do this and what's on their mind and what they really care about and the frustrations of it and the difficulty of it. It's not easy. And I'm not talking about myself, I'm talking about everybody, everybody working on the picture.
CNN: What was the biggest challenge for you as a director?
MANN: In this film there were three. One was how much could I get you to understand that you feel all the dimensions of the other person. ... How much can I manipulate this short, intense 10 hours to make you feel all the dimensions, all the history about Vincent without necessarily you knowing that you're doing it, but still you feel that you know. ...
Secondly was the change of registers. The film goes from pretty, I think pretty moving -- and it's in the screenplay this way -- pretty moving events like the death of Daniel. [But] when [Cruise's character] shoots him, and it goes from uh real pathetic tragedy to some outrageous comedy without any transition, and could I change registers without compromising either one.
And maybe the third challenge for me was evolving the hardware, the technology to be able to see into the night and I could get that on a video monitor.
CNN: Jamie Foxx is really coming into his own ...
MANN: This is Jamie's year. I mean, [Golden Globe nomination for] supporting actor in "Collateral," and his work in "Ray" is wonderful, it's just wonderful.
CNN: How good of a villain is Tom Cruise?
MANN: He's great. It's a great prescription to have an actor explore places he's not been, to be on a frontier because it just charges everything up, so Tom's work in "Magnolia," for example, is terrific, and I think his work in "Collateral" is just fabulous. It's way more dimensional than people realize. He's doing three things in some of these scenes at the same time. It's very, very complex and very difficult and I just think he did a spectacular job.
Contest searches for best resident DJ in Canada; winner to be crowned in May
TORONTO (CP) - Like mad scientists in dark laboratories, nightclub DJs across the country are experimenting with tunes to get the body moving as they take part in a Canada-wide competition.
"Hopefully it will expose Canadian talent internationally a bit more," Mark Oliver, a Toronto-based DJ, said of the contest.
"We're already doing well on the international scene but I think it can actually help Canadians appreciate what we have on our own doorstep."
The Smirnoff Vinyl Warriors showdown opened in October, inviting resident DJs - DJs who have contracts at clubs - to submit one original mix.
The tunes are played every Saturday night on the University of Toronto radio station CIUT and posted online at www.mysmirnoff.ca.
Listeners vote for their favourite mix online or through text messaging until Feb. 28. They must be of legal drinking age to do so.
The judges will ultimately narrow the top 10 vote-getters down to three finalists who will spin their stuff at a Toronto event in May.
"It's going to be tough," says Oliver, a contest judge. "A lot of these resident DJs have been playing for at least 10 years."
Oliver says selection of music, spinning style and stage presence will be considered in choosing a winner.
"I'll be looking at the crowd and if no one's dancing then obviously they're going to lose points," he explains.
"I'm sure if there are certain tracks that are played and the crowd starts screaming then that's going to be a big plus for that DJ."
Oliver looks forward to hearing the different spinning styles.
"You go to certain towns, say London, Ont., for example, and the clubs there might be more into break-beats and techno. And then you come to Toronto and those scenes aren't really as big on a whole," he explains.
Oliver says the U.K. dominates the electronic music scene but Canada isn't too far behind. He also says the industry itself has come a long way.
"For a long time DJ's were sort of frowned upon. When I started playing ... it was almost like DJ's were not viewed as real musicians."
A date and location for the final spinoff has yet to be determined.
TV QUIZ
1 What song was Janet Jackson singing when she had her infamous "wardrobe malfunction" during last year's Super Bowl? And who was she singing with?
2 How many people watched the finale of "Friends" on NBC?
3 Dan Rather announced last month that he's retiring from the "CBS Evening News" in March 2005. How many years will he have anchored the newscast by then?
4 Who was the runner-up to Fantasia Barrino on "American Idol 3"?
5 What's the name of the paper company in the British version of "The Office"?
6 What model car did Oprah Winfrey give away to each audience member on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" last September?
7 Who was the only "Desperate Housewives" star not to earn a Golden Globe nomination?
8 Who was the first winner of "The Swan" on Fox?
9 Who was the first person to be "fired" from the first edition of "The Apprentice"?
10 What's the name of "Late Show" host David Letterman's child, who turned 1 this year?
11 Who replaced Pat O'Brien as co-host of "Access Hollywood"?
12 How many consecutive games did "Jeopardy!" whiz Ken Jennings win, and how much money did he earn before he finally lost?
13 What show finally knocked "ER" off its perch as the top-rated show at 10 p.m. on Thursdays?
14 How many editions of "Survivor" have now aired since the first show in 2000?
15 How much were the stars of "Friends" being paid, per episode, by the time the show went off the air?
16 Who was the singer accused of lip-synching on "Saturday Night Live"?
17 What's the name of the most recent cast member to leave "Law & Order"?
18 What well-known radio personality signed a deal to host a daytime talk show?
19 What former "Friends" cast member will star in a show for HBO?
20 What old-time comedian played Larry's nearly-blind father on "Curb Your Enthusiasm"?
21 What 1960s TV star will anchor a morning radio show here in New York?
22 What former "Apprentice" contestant now works on a morning TV show?
23 On "The Sopranos" this past season, what was Carmine doing when he suffered his fatal heart attack at the country club?
24 What World War II movie did many stations refuse to air because they considered it to be "indecent" in parts?
25 Which classic TV series was remade as a reality show?
ANSWERS
1. "Rock Your Body" with Justin Timberlake 2. 52.3 million 3. Twenty-four years. 4. Diana DeGarmo 5. Wernham-Hogg 6. Pontiac G6. 7. Eva Longoria, who plays Gabrielle Solis. 8. Rachel Love Frasier 9. David Gould, a doctor-turned-real estate developer. 10. Harry 11. Billy Bush, who's a first-cousin to President George W. Bush. 12. 74 games and a total of $2.5 million 13. "Without a Trace," CBS 14. Nine so far. 15. $1 million per episode each. 16. Ashlee Simpson, sister of Jessica Simpson. 17. Elisabeth Rohm 18. Robin Quivers from "The Howard Stern Show." 19. Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe, will headline "Comeback" as a former sitcom star trying to revive her career. 20. Shelley Berman 21. Mickey Dolenz, who starred in "The Monkees," begins on WCBS-FM Jan. 10. 22. Ereka Vetrini on "The Tony Danza Show." 23. He was eating an egg-salad sandwich. 24. "Saving Private Ryan," ABC. 25. "Gilligan's Island" was transformed into "The Real Gilligan's Island" on TBS.
HOMER MEETS HIS MAKER
Homer is going to die.
"Simpsons" creator Matt Groening says he is going to kill off Daddy Simpson so that the star can go to heaven to argue with God.
Fear not.
Homer comes back at the end of the episode, he says, after deciding he misses wife Marge and kids Bart, Lisa and Maggie too much.
"Homer gets into an argument with God," Groening told reporters late last week at an award show in London.
"He tells God he should go back in time and change things that are wrong in the world.
"Homer says Superman could do it," the show's creator says.
This will not be Homer's first confrontation with the Almighty.
He has, in an earlier episode, argued with God about the relative merits of football and chuch ("Hey, what's the big deal about going to some building every Sunday? I mean, isn't God everywhere?")
But this will be the first time he dies in order to meet the Lord.
The creator of "The Simpsons" also said that he was excited that TV comic Ricky Gervais — the writer and star of "The Office" — had agreed to pen a "Simpsons" episode.
"It is the first time anyone has been given free rein to write an episode.
"We trust Ricky because we'll take his scripts and just rip it apart."
EYES ON THE PRIZE
Until this year, actor Zach Braff had never won any award. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
"Not even a Little League award," laughs the New Jersey native and star of NBC's "Scrubs."
"I joked when I got my first award of this year that I was going to glue a little guy playing baseball to the top of it," says Braff, "so I could have an award like my brothers."
He's going to need a steady supply of those little plastic guys in the future.
Braff scored a Humanitas Award nomination for the screenplay to "Garden State," his directorial debut, which comes out on DVD tomorrow.
It's a fitting place to start since the Humanitas is one of the few awards scored by the critically acclaimed "Scrubs" (Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m.) after four seasons of being mostly ignored by the Emmys.
But it's not the last award he's gotten.
"Garden State" — the story of a fitfully successful actor headed back to New Jersey to bury his mother, make peace with his estranged father, and make out with Natalie Portman (not in that order) — was also singled out by the National Board of Review, got two Independent Spirit Awards, and two People's Choice Awards.
And the soundtrack Braff oversaw (featuring everyone from critical faves The Shins to suicidally sad, cult-figure Nick Drake) just went gold and is nominated for a Grammy.
So maybe he should have sensed something was in the air this year come Golden Globes time?
"Yeah!" says Braff, who was nominated for Best Actor in a sitcom for "Scrubs." "But I didn't even wake up early this year. I wasn't expecting it."
Fans worry all the success will make Braff step away from the clever medical comedy that started it all.
But Braff is delighted that "Scrubs" is still on the air despite never scoring huge ratings. His co-star, Donald Faison, is one of his best friends in real life and he's in no mood to see it end.
"The show is so much fun to do," says the 29-year-old Braff. "We don't have a huge fan base but we have a really loyal one. It looks like we're going to be around a little while longer. I know it will go another year. I don't want it to be over. It's a job where you come to work and make your friends laugh a lot."
So despite some New Year's resolutions posted on his blog ("Forego all exercise — including walking" and "Learn to smoke — something thin like Capris"), Braff seems unlikely to let this sudden success change him.
Just ask who his date will be to the Golden Globes on Jan. 16.
"I'm bringing my mom," says Braff.
Subplots Abound for New Year's on TV
NEW YORK (AP) — Let the surfing begin. With an ailing king, two would-be successors and a ubiquitous substitute, New Year's Eve on television has more subplots than a party with three ex-girlfriends.
Dick Clark and his "New Year's Rockin' Eve" on ABC has been the go-to party for 32 years, but he'll be away from Times Square this Friday as he continues recovering from a stroke. Regis Philbin will fill in for him.
NBC is launching its own party show from Rockefeller Center with Carson Daly. Ryan Seacrest, in his third year for Fox, is bringing his show east to New York for the first time. Even gray-haired hipster Anderson Cooper will emcee a CNN New Year's show from Times Square with the rock band Green Day.
Both Daly and Seacrest were booked before Clark took ill, an indication of an approaching generational shift. Much like Clark took over from Guy Lombardo as television's most popular New Year's Eve host, Daly and Seacrest are jockeying to be the next in line.
"When it's time to say, `OK, here's the show and the guy that is going to be around on New Year's Eve for years to come,' I would definitely like to be the one that the baton gets passed to," Seacrest said.
Don't expect Clark, health permitting, and ABC to give it up easily. "New Year's Rockin' Eve" is annually ABC's second most popular entertainment special after the Oscars.
"There's never been anything to put a dent in it," said Andrea Wong, ABC's senior vice president for alternative series and specials. "There continues to be a huge appetite for the show."
Even in his mid-70s, as he introduces artists young enough to be his grandchildren, Clark's perpetual teenage image has kept the fogey factor at bay. In recent years, he's brought on a younger co-host from Hollywood, a role filled this week by Ashlee Simpson.
The ABC New Year's Eve special will run three and a half hours, starting at 10 p.m. EDT, breaking after an hour for local news and returning from 11:35 p.m. to 2:05 a.m. Besides Simpson, performers include Big & Rich; Ciara; Earth, Wind & Fire; Fabolous; Kenny G; Billy Idol; Los Lonely Boys and Simple Plan.
Philbin, who's yet to find a TV job he can't do, was Clark's choice, Wong said. Between that endorsement and Philbin's own popularity, ABC doesn't expect to relinquish its crown.
Daly and Seacrest are both big fans of Clark. They've used his career as a model, and speak of him ever-so-respectfully.
But is that the sound of a door creaking open?
"Things could perhaps be up in the air now in light of the recent circumstances, the unfortunate circumstances with Dick," Seacrest said. "They had to put Regis in at the last minute, and I'm not quite sure what that show will be like or feel like without Dick Clark. He certainly will be missed by America."
"It really won't feel the same without him in Times Square," he said.
Seacrest, now a radio host of "America's Top 40," will run his show (airing from 11 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. ET) like a countdown. Not only will the year's best songs be played, he'll incorporate pop culture lists like the top five bitter breakups of the year. It's his first year as executive producer, and Seacrest is looking for ways to make the show distinctive.
Hoobastank and Evanescence will perform, and the show will include the world premiere of a 20-minute Usher video featuring four of his hits.
Usher fans may be delirious, but there's a danger others could see that time as a huge indulgence. But Seacrest points out it will happen after midnight, when many people stop paying attention to these shows or can't see straight anyway.
Daly spent five years as host of MTV's New Year's Eve party (which, by the way, has Lindsay Lohan as host this year) before taking last year off. He has re-emerged to inaugurate NBC's pre-party, which airs from 10 to 11 p.m. Jay Leno will have a live "Tonight" show when the Times Square ball drops.
If Daly is disappointed at leaving the air an hour before midnight, he's not letting on.
"I didn't really look past the fact that they said `you'll be on the air live from 10 to 11 and here's the money,'" he said. "Maybe next year."
He wants the chance to establish himself as a potential New Year's Eve franchise for NBC.
"This is not about me trying to steal something from Dick Clark," he said.
His show will feature performances by Avril Lavigne, Maroon 5 and Duran Duran. Ever the good corporate soldier, Daly will also include a guest shot by "The Apprentice" star Donald Trump via satellite from Trump's own New Year's party in Florida and an appearance by "Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams.
CBS, by the way, is essentially punting on New Year's Eve, running a prime-time lineup of reruns and a repeat "Late Show" with David Letterman.
The closest Daly comes to trash talking with his rivals is calling Duran Duran a bigger act than "White Wedding" singer Idol, who's on ABC.
"There will be something younger and, in my opinion, a little cooler to watch that night," he said.
Cool. That's the territory that Fox and Seacrest is also trying to stake out.
Could a New Year's duel be far behind?
Since Seacrest will be in Times Square and Daly a few blocks away in Rockefeller Center, perhaps they could duke it out somewhere in the middle — say, Sixth Avenue.
"He's much taller and a little bit bigger than me," Seacrest said. "I think he'd probably be able to beat me up."
Letterman Tapes Christmas Eve Show in Iraq
David Letterman brought his late-night show to Marines serving in Iraq on Friday, loosening up the Camp Taqaddum crowd with the line, "Anybody here from out of town?"
Letterman brought along musical director Paul Shaffer, stage manager Biff Henderson, comedian Tom Dreesen and the band Off the Wall.
When hands flew in the air in response to requests for a volunteer to help deliver the opening monologue, he asked: "Isn't that how you got here?"
With the help of cue cards held by an Army soldier, Letterman ran off a series of crowd-pleasers:
"Iraqi elections are in January. Hurry up and pick somebody so we can get the hell out of here," he said.
And: "If I wanted to face insurgents I would've spent Christmas with my relatives."
Letterman has repeatedly featured Marines on "The Late Show."
"Paul and I were in Afghanistan three years ago, and last year we were in Baghdad," Letterman told the crowd. "We wouldn't want it any other way. We're sorry we keep having to come back. If you ever come to New York City, come see us and we'll treat you like big shots."
The Marines, most of who have been deployed since late summer, welcomed the visit.
"It was great, all of the Marines getting together having a good time," said Gunnery Sgt. Ronald Trignano, 32, a tech-controller with Communication Squadron 48. "It almost makes you forget where you are for a little while."
'Fockers' Sets Mark for Christmas Weekend
LOS ANGELES - Millions of Americans went shopping for comedy this weekend, giving the star-studded "Meet the Fockers" the record for the best Christmas weekend opening ever.
The sequel, reuniting Ben Stiller and Robert DeNiro and adding Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand as Stiller's parents, earned $44.7 million over the holiday weekend, beating the previous record of $30 million, set in 2002 by "Catch Me if You Can." The movie's performance was even more impressive when measured against the overall weekend box office, which was down 26.5 percent from last year.
"When Christmas falls on a weekend, it's bad for business," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
This weekend's top 12 films grossed an estimated $121.9 million, compared to last year's $165.8 million when Christmas fell on a Thursday. Last year's figure was skewed a bit by the third "Lord of the Rings" movie, which earned $50.6 million in its second weekend last year.
"Meet the Fockers" knocked last week's top film — "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" — to third place, with $12.5 million. Second place was taken by the live-action version of "Fat Albert," which debuted Saturday with a two-day total of $12.7 million, according to studio estimates.
Final figures were to be released Monday.
"Meet the Fockers" succeeded in part because of an aggressive ad campaign, including the release of the DVD of the original "Meet the Parents" as well as the return of Streisand to the big screen after an eight-year absence.
It also captured the clash between families, which resonates at the holidays.
"It's a clash of cultures," said Marc Shmuger, vice chairman of Universal Pictures. "It's about the coming together of completely different families, but that's exactly what the world is going through right now."
"Meet the Fockers" opened Wednesday, bringing its five-day total to $68.5 million.
"The Aviator," the epic tale of billionaire Howard Hughes, did well enough in limited release to take fourth place with $9.4 million. The movie, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, expanded from 40 theaters to 1,796 on Christmas Day.
The small budget horror flick "Darkness" went against the slew of family films on the market now and attracted $6.4 million in its opening weekend. The movie opened Saturday.
The lavish Andrew Lloyd Weber musical "The Phantom of the Opera" also debuted in limited release, bringing in $4.2 million from 622 theaters. It debuted Wednesday, bringing its five-day total to $6.5 million.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.
1. "Meet the Fockers," $44.7 million
2. "Fat Albert," 12.7 million.
3. "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events," $12.5 million
4. "The Aviator," $9.4 million.
5. "Ocean's Twelve," $8.6 million.
6. "Darkness," $6.4 million.
7. "The Polar Express," $6.3 million.
8. "Spanglish," $5 million
9. "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," $4.8 million.
10. "Andrew Lloyd Weber's The Phantom of the Opera," $4.2 million.
Ho Ho Ho!
All the best to you and yours this Holiday Season!
Party hard, hug snugly and stay alive!
Happy New Year and good wishes for 2005 as well!
Dave and Dan
Winnipeg Sun's top CDs of 2004
The Sun's Darryl Sterdan picks the best 75 albums of the year
Well, it's that time again -- time to look back at all the music of the past year. Despite our best efforts, we weren't able to listen to every album that came out in 2004. But we did manage to get through more than 1,000. Here are the ones we'll still be listening to next year. And the ones you might want to seek out at those Boxing Day sales.
1. Marah
20,000 STREETS UNDER THE SKY
YEP ROC / OUTSIDE
The boys are back in town. Singer-guitarists Dave and Serge Bielanko return to the streets of their beloved Philadelphia on this fourth album -- and it's a homecoming bash not to be missed. Like their 2000 masterpiece Kids in Philly, 20,000 Streets Under the Sky raises a Friday-night toast to the street-poet romance and wide-eyed exuberance of early Springsteen. And as usual, the eclectic Bielanko brothers can't resist spiking the punch with Philly soul, girl-group pop, Van Morrison troubadourism, Layla's instrumental grandeur, The Faces' scrappy folk-rock, Motown melodies, tenement-stoop doo-wop, plucky banjos, punky guitars, R&B grooves and even jump-rope rhymes. Equally intoxicating, though, are the tales told over this heady homebrew -- sad sagas of doomed love, cokehead trannies, drug-dealing pizzerias, gunshot children and undercover busts gone bad. So much for the City of Brotherly Love. But don't take this disc for some pity party. Even when the Bielankos are standing in the gutter, they're gazing at the stars, searching for the lost chord that will open the gates to the promised land. As they guide us through the backstreets and back alleys of their stomping grounds, spinning everyday moments of quiet perseverance into life-affirming epics of valiant struggle, it's impossible not to fall under their seductive spell -- and find your faith in rock renewed in the process.
2. Green Day
AMERICAN IDIOT
REPRISE / WARNER
These days, everyone has their own definition of punk. Who's right? Who knows? But here's what we do know: In an era when music is disposable, the album is becoming an antiquated curio and pop culture is under assault from the right, Billie Joe Armstrong and Green Day have unveiled the most unlikely work of their career -- a full-blown rock opera with nine-minute songs, a narrative arc, classic rock influences from Mott to Meat Loaf, and a political message worn boldly on its sleeve. And if that sort of individuality, originality and defiance isn't punk, maybe it's time to redefine the concept.
3. The Streets
A GRAND DON'T COME FOR FREE
LOCKED ON / WARNER
Even rap stars have bad days. And on this stellar sophomore set, Mike Skinner is having one from hell: He's got an overdue video, his cell phone has died, his TV is on the fritz, he's breaking up with his girlfriend -- and worst of all, he suspects a mate of swiping L1,000. Over the stumbling garage grooves and stark keyboards that are his trademark, we follow Skinner from his bedsit to the bar and back. And as his mundane misadventures become a life-changing journey, this disc emerges as one of the most creative, personal and fully realized records of the year -- and another smashing success for Mike.
4. Beastie Boys
TO THE 5 BOROUGHS
CAPITOL / EMI
"We're gonna party for the right to fight," says Mike D. on the sixth album from New York's Beastie Boys -- and we couldn't sum up their musical evolution and current state of mind any tidier than that. With this long-awaited comeback disc, the Beasties turn back the clock and kick it old-school, toning down their smartalec antics and sonic silliness in favour of basic beats, simple samples and plenty of pointedly political rhymes. But even if it's a political album, at least it's a political party album. And we'll fight for our right to that any day.
5. Steve Earle
THE REVOLUTION STARTS ... NOW
E-SQUARED / SONY
When Steve Earle says Now, he means N-O-W, now!, damnit. The idealistic and irascible roots-rock rabble-rouser has never sounded more urgent than on his latest politically charged manifesto. Picking up where he left off on 2002's Jerusalem, Earle interweaves his activist rhetoric with moving narratives, setting stories of individual heroism and sacrifice against a backdrop of political hypocrisy and economic exploitation. That is, when he isn't pitching woo to Condoleeza Rice on the reggaefied serenade of seduction Condi, Condi. Hey, even revolutionaries need a laugh.
6. Elvis Costello & The Imposters
THE DELIVERY MAN
LOST HIGHWAY / UNIVERSAL
Last year, he went North to croon piano ballads for his sweetie. This year, the unpredictable Costello makes another left turn, plugging in his axe and making a beeline for the Deep South (literally and musically). Recorded in the Mississippi Delta, Mr. E's 21st set is a narrative concept disc of romantic betrayal and Biblical overtones, set against a backdrop of rawboned juke joint blues, tearstained country waltzes, twangy honky-tonk, sweet Memphis soul, funky R&B and even bluegrass. Damned if it doesn't deliver the goods.
7. Modest Mouse
GOOD NEWS FOR PEOPLE WHO LOVE BAD NEWS
EPIC / SONY
Washington indie-rockers Modest Mouse finally broke through to the mainstream with this weird, wonderful jewel of a sixth album. Donning a banjo and cranking up the grooves, yawping singer-guitarist Isaac Brock and his mighty Mouse recall the disjointed white-boy funk of Talking Heads, the retro-swing of Squirrel Nut Zippers, the gothic Americana of Dock Boggs and even the distorted psychobilly of The Cramps. Good news for people who love great music.
8. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists
SHAKE THE SHEETS
LOOKOUT
Continuing to single-handedly raise the indie-rock bar, New Jersey singer-guitarist Leo fuses power trio guitar-rock, pop, punk, ska, soul and reggae into a dynamic hybrid. With his clanging guitar and high-register vocals, Leo sounds like the love child of Joe Jackson, Mick Jones and Paul Weller, with a dash of Dexy's on the side. Even better, he's a songwriter who can namedrop Joe Strummer, soundcheck Smoky Robinson and bash Bush -- all to a groove and a chorus that'll stick in your head for days.
9. TV on the Radio
DESPERATE YOUTH, BLOOD THIRSTY BABES
TOUCH & GO
If you think you've heard everything, you haven't heard this. One of the most exciting and adventurous bands to emerge this year, Brooklyn's TV on the Radio cross musical styles, generation gaps, cultural boundaries and racial lines with equal ease. The supple and mellifluous vocals are rooted in soul, gospel, blues and doo-wop. The noisy, fuzzy soundscapes recall everything from Sonic Youth and Suicide to No Wave and Brian Eno. Combine them with poetically political lyrics and what emerges is a mesmerizing hybrid that dares to be different and refuses to be ignored.
10. Loretta Lynn
VAN LEAR ROSE
INTERSCOPE / UNIVERSAL
Call it The Blue Kentucky Girl meets the White Stripe. Country legend Lynn pairs up with singer-guitarist Jack White on her first major disc in 15 years. And as Rick Rubin did for Johnny Cash, the young rocker helps a beloved country icon produce a career-revitalizing work. Loretta delivers the simple melodies and sassy lyrics. Jack sets them to immediate, earthy cuts that hew closer to rustic, ragged alt-country than Nashville syrup. Call it a match made in heaven.
11. Elliott Smith
FROM A BASEMENT ON THE HILL
ANTI / EPITAPH OCT 22
A year after he died from a pair of supposedly self-inflicted knife wounds to the chest, singer-songwriter Smith bequeathed us the sweetest, saddest gift possible: The transfixing From a Basement on the Hill, a haunting last will and testament of soaring beauty born of the depths of his bottomless despair.
12. Tom Waits
REAL GONE
ANTI- / EPITAPH
Human beatboxing? Turntable scratching? No piano? This is a Tom Waits CD? You better believe it, mac. And it's a monster. The aptly titled Real Gone finds the locomotive-breath genius welding hip-hop tools to his home-built thingamajig of rusted car parts, old bones and broken dreams.
13. The Hives
TYRANNOSAURUS HIVES
POLYDOR / UNIVERSAL
With this garage-rocking sequel to their breakthrough Veni Vidi Vicious, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist and The Hives prove they understand the Golden Rule of successful followups: They made the same album over again -- only better.
14. Drive-By Truckers
THE DIRTY SOUTH
NEW WEST / RED
"We ain't never gonna change," vows DBT singer-guitarist Patterson Hood. As long as Hood and his good ole boys keep writing gritty southern rockers like these two-fisted tales of killer tornadoes, moonshiners and Buford Pusser, that's just fine by us.
15. Gluecifer
AUTOMATIC THRILL
STEAMHAMMER / FUSION III
These Norwegian riffmeisters deliver the sonic equivalent of a dirty needle of adrenaline straight in the eyeball with this 36-minute pelvic thrust of sleazy sex, illegal drugs and unhinged rawk. Featuring the revolutionary anthem of the year: Here Come the Pigs.
16. Neil Young
GREENDALE
SANCTUARY / EMI
For years, people have accused Neil Young of living in a world of his own. With the ambitious and theatrical concept album Greendale -- an environmentally themed allegorical narrative set in a fictional coastal community -- the shape-shifting singer-guitarist makes it official.
17. The Libertines
THE LIBERTINES
ROUGH TRADE / EMI
Punchups, breakups, break-ins and breakdowns. Rehab, reformation, relapse and resurrection. It would be impossible for London's Libertines to write songs half as riveting as the endless slo-mo car wreck of their career. But damned if these trouble-plagued post-punks don't give it their best shot.
18. Zeke
'TIL THE LIVING END
RELAPSE
The reunited Seattle speed-punk sleazeballs embrace their metal roots on this seventh studio salvo, hotwiring classic rock licks and song titles into 15 grenades of turbocharged power-chord mayhem that are truly a blast from the past.
19. The Walkmen
BOWS & ARROWS
RECORD COLLECTION / WARNER
The choppy guitars, walkie-talkie vocals and angular retro grooves share common ground with The Strokes, but edgy, propulsive cuts like The Rat and keyboard dirges like No Christmas While I'm Talking confirm The Walkmen are their own men-- and uncommonly good.
20. U2
HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB
ISLAND / UNIVERSAL
Sticking to the game plan that worked so well on All That You Can't Leave Behind, Bono and the boys crank up the guitars, belt out the chorus and wave the giant white flag at the back of the stadium. Not their best, but even second-string U2 is a cut above most of the rest.
21. The Von Bondies
PAWN SHOPPE HEART
SIRE / WARNER
Jason Stollsteimer got more ink for being Jack White's punching bag. But anybody who can pen garage-punk fuzzbombs like C'Mon C'Mon and Broken Man can't be beat.
22. Eminem
ENCORE
AFTERMATH / UNIVERSAL
For his fourth CD, Marshall Mathers delivers more of the sex, scatology, silliness, satire and shock you'd expect, along with something you don't: Serious political content in the anti-Dubya Mosh. Looks like the real Slim Shady has finally stood up -- and taken a stand.
23. Morrissey
YOU ARE THE QUARRY
SANCTUARY / EMI
The velvet-voiced Pope of Mope returns with a vengeance, lobbing poisonous lyrical barbs at Jesus, love, his fans and humanity in general -- and taking the award for lyrical couplet of the year: "America, your head's too big / Because America, your belly's too big."
24. The Icarus Line
PENANCE SOIREE
V2 / BMG
These L.A. post-punk provocateurs weld the primal guitar-rock nihilism of The Stooges to the feedback-worshipping art-punk of Sonic Youth -- with dashes of Black Flag's complex intensity and Suicide's bleak synthcore tossed in for the hell of it. Be very afraid.
25. Nirvana
WITH THE LIGHTS OUT
GEFFEN / UNIVERSAL
OK, maybe it's not technically new material. But with three CDs and one DVD of unreleased tracks from Kurt Cobain and co., it's undeniably one of the most significant releases of the year.
Celebrities Talk About Christmas Memories
LOS ANGELES - It isn't the smell of a Douglas fir or baking cookies that reminds Renee Zellweger of Christmas; it's the smell of cigars. For Tom Hanks, it's the smell of banana bread. He says he always took the bus to visit his mom on Christmas, and if he was lucky, he'd sit next to an old lady who'd give him banana bread.
Several celebrities this holiday season spoke about what makes their Christmas past and present special.
"My godfather smoked cigars, and anytime I smell a cigar, it brings Christmas Eve right here," Zellweger told reporters at a recent news conference.
The holiday means Christmas carols for many, but for Hugh Grant, the memory was less than perfect.
"Each family in turn would sing their carol, and then it would get to the Grant boys, me and my brother, and us singing 'Good King Wenceslas' way out of key," Grant told reporters recently. "It was so bad that the pianist had to stop. That, to me, is a starring Christmas memory."
Then there are Christmas gifts.
Angelina Jolie's present to her son, Maddox, wouldn't fit into his Christmas stocking.
"I ended up deciding that I would show him the world every Christmas, and so I took him to see the Pyramids on Christmas Day. And I've decided every Christmas I will take him somewhere else," she told reporters.
Off-beat movie director John Waters dreams of a weird winter wonderland.
"My Christmas ornament I gave out last year had a dead roach in it, but it was fake. It was plastic," he told AP Radio in a recent interview. "I have weird Christmas bowls that people gave me. My mom gave me 'cereal killer' Christmas bowls. I have some odd things."
Despite his character's stalwart support of the holiday in his recent film "Christmas with the Kranks," Dan Aykroyd recently told reporters he is more of a procrastinator.
"I get really Grinchy right up until Christmas morning, when the fire's lit in the log cabin," he said. "Then I put on my cardigan and my sweater, and I put on the Frank Sinatra Christmas music, and yes, I get into it at the last second just like everybody else."
Joe Pantoliano, star of TV's "Dr. Vegas" and a cast member of "The Matrix," is quite the opposite.
"Christmas morning is always a drag for me. Leading up to the day, I love," he recently told AP Radio. "But Christmas morning, you have to open up the presents and it's just a mess."
For actress Nona Gaye ("The Polar Express," "The Matrix: Revolutions"), Christmas is forever linked with a compliment she heard when she was 7. She and her father, the late R&B legend Marvin Gaye, were outside their beachfront home in Belgium.
"It was snowing, so you couldn't see the sand. You could only see just this stark white over the ocean," she told reporters. "And I was standing outside with my father and he said, 'Isn't that the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?' And I said, 'Yes, Daddy, it is.' And he said, 'It's almost the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.'"
'OFFICE' STAR GOING HOMER
Ricky Gervais, the mastermind behind the BBC's cult hit "The Office," will write an episode of "The Simpsons."
"I had lunch with [series creator] Matt Groening and we chatted over some bits and pieces," Gervais told The Post yesterday.
"I'd already been in talks with [executive producer] Al Jean about doing a voice for the show, and he said it might be a good idea for me to have a go," he said.
Gervais, who called "The Simpsons" "the greatest TV show of all time," also called the assignment "intimidating."
"It's like improving the Mona Lisa, you know, 'Give her a bigger smile,' " he said, adding that he's got some ideas for the episode.
"It's not so much a plot as a theme," said Gervais, who's also gearing up for his first post-"Office" series, "Extras."
"I got some sample bits and pieces that might happen; what I'm doing is banging it down as I go along and sending it to Al [Jean]," Gervais said.
Gervais said the show's writers will help whip his ideas into shape.
"Me banging down a couple of ideas is one thing, but it's not an episode of 'The Simpsons' until it's had the full treatment from the show's writers," he said.
"But whatever happens — if they look at it and say, 'Sorry, it's rubbish,' or if it gets on the air — they asked," he said.
"It's a pleasure for me to do things like this. The awards, money and fame are secondary — I still get to do exactly what I want and I get offers from people like Al Jean."
Gervais said he has "no idea" when his "Simpsons" episode will air on Fox.
"There are so many 'ifs' along the way," he said. "I could just burst into tears and have a breakdown and say I can't do it."
THANKS '04 THE SONGS
The year in music may have begun with that now infamous "wardrobe malfunc tion," but 2004 also brought countless more moments we'd rather remember — from concerts planned (Devo) and impromptu (U2) to welcome comebacks (Morrissey, Prince) and the long-awaited re-emergence of the master himself, Dylan.
* Devo and Suicide: When pop-punk band Devo reunited at Central Park SummerStage in its full glory of flowerpot hats/energy domes and yellow jumpsuits, the rains miraculously held out until after the evening's last note.
Ripping up guitars, the musicians of Devo ably displayed their relevance and their influence in today's rock world.
Flashback night continued with original synth-pop duo Suicide at the Knitting Factory.
* U2: All Manhattan was abuzz as the Irish rockers lit up Seventh Avenue on a flatbed truck, performing songs from their new album all the way to DUMBO, where they gave fans a free show — beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
* Morrissey at the Apollo: The middle-aged Brit pop diva poured out his latest tunes as well as the old crowd-pleasers.
And the so-called mope rocker was happy! Thus were we.
* "The Grey Album": Deejay/producer Danger Mouse mixed Jay-Z's "Black Album" with The Beatles' "White Album" to create an Internet phenomenon and let the world know just exactly what a "mash up" is.
* Dig! and Brian Jonestown Massacre:
Rock-umentary "Dig!" followed the rivalry between Brian Jonestown Massacre's fierce frontman, Anton Newcombe, and the Dandy Warhols' Courtney Taylor-Taylor.
With newly generated interest in the band, BJM performed several hypnotic New York shows to re-emphasize its brilliant psych-garage '60s rock and de-emphasize the violent, unstable images of the film.
* Guided by Voices at Irving Plaza:
The last GBV New York show ever was a mosh pit full of warm-hearted, 30-something indie rockers and the jovial, smashed Robert Pollard bashing Brian Wilson and singing his heart out.
* Prince comeback: Through his online fan club, his purple magistrate offered tix to a late-night show after his Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame induction as well as an intimate concert to celebrate the release of "Musicology."
Live, the funk-pop master delivered, wowing crowds at six sold-out New York area shows.
* Jay-Z's "99 Problems":
Mark Romanek (who shot Johnny Cash's poignant "Hurt" video) did the "99 Problems" video in gritty black and white for a reality tour of Brooklyn, Jigga's hometown.
City living catches up with Jay-Z at the end, when he gets shot — a chilling nod to his alleged retirement.
* Scotland, "the new Sweden": The success of Franz Ferdinand refocused the spotlight on bands from Glasgow. Such Scottish bands as Dogs Die in Hot Cars, the Delgados and Snow Patrol, have been breaking out. It's not all about Belle & Sebastian anymore.
* Bob Dylan: After years of the silent treatment, Dylan won't shut up — and we don't want him to.
The legendary songwriter, who dismisses the label the "voice of a generation," penned "Chronicles," the first installment of his autobiography, and appeared on "60 Minutes."
Despite Ed Bradley's lame questions, Dylan managed to come up with zany and fascinating answers.
Bill Murray Sports Tiny Trunks for Film
LOS ANGELES - Bill Murray's choice of swimwear in his new movie leaves little to the imagination. But the star of "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou" says he wasn't embarrassed to be seen in a tiny bathing suit.
"Being in a Speedo with other men in Speedos is, you know, is like you're on a swimming team," he told reporters recently, according to AP Radio. "It's the other men that are not in Speedos that are the problem because they're kind of going like, `Can you get a load of the guy in the Speedo?'"
Wes Anderson's gleeful takeoff on undersea adventure movies stars Murray as the Jacques-Yves Cousteau-like explorer of the film's title.
The 54-year-old actor said he didn't see his character as being physically vain.
"I like to say I made the acting choice to have a little bit of a belly. I could've gotten really in shape, but I didn't think that Steve Zissou would be a guy who'd be like completely buff," he said. "I actually had to get a little bit out of shape."
Several Anderson regulars are back for the film, including Owen Wilson and Anjelica Huston.
SPRINGTIME FOR UMA?
Variety reporting that Uma Thurman is in talks to replace Nicole Kidman as bombshell Swedish secretary Ulla in Mel Brooks' movie version of his hit Broadway musical, The Producers.
WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE THING TO DO ON NEW YEAR'S?
Bill Murray: It used to be to find a girl, drink and hopefully get lucky. Those truly were the good old days. Wait a minute - maybe I'll try it again this New Year's Eve!
Minnie Driver: Any warm beach in the Caribbean will do, with a good book and a group of friends to catch up on old times.
Samuel L. Jackson: Go to church - there's no better place to be. I give thanks for all that I have been blessed with, which is a lot, over the year.
Ashanti: Perform onstage. When you love to sing, there's nothing more exciting than entertaining a crowd on New Year's Eve. The audiences are always great and up for a good time, and for me it's the ultimate party.
Kevin Bacon: I like to go somewhere exotic, but Kyra, my wife, usually convinces me to just hang out in New York. This year I won. We're all going to Costa Rica. Yes!
Owen Wilson: I love to get drunk by an ocean with my family. It's the best and only way for me to celebrate the coming year.
Emmy Rossum: Wherever I am working in the world, it's great to come home to New York, the best city in the world, and be with those I love the most.
Kate Bosworth: At home, being romantic with the one I love.
'Fockers' Gets Early Start at Christmas Box Office
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - With the arrival of Christmas weekend, it's Hollywood's last chance to open a box office bonanza or two before the calendar year ends.
Universal Pictures' family comedy "Meet the Fockers," which opened Wednesday, already has staked its claim in hopes of attracting big audiences -- many of them presumably fleeing family gatherings.
On Christmas Day, 20th Century Fox will make a bid for younger audiences -- as well as nostalgia freaks -- when it bows its live-action comedy "Fat Albert."
Dimension Films, counterprograming against the seasonal merriment, is betting on the horror thriller "Darkness," while Warner Bros. Pictures unleashed the musical adaptation "Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera" in limited release Wednesday.
This is the first time since 2000 that holiday moviegoers haven't been abuzz about a "Lord of the Rings" movie. Back then, the big film was Jim Carrey's "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," which ended up with $260 million.
This year, the best year-end performer has been Disney/Pixar's "The Incredibles," which opened Nov. 5 and has collected $238.5 million so far.
As moviegoers approach the year's final, 10-day moviegoing rush, there's still plenty of potential cash for the contenders to divvy among themselves. Yet, this year's particular calendar configuration is apt to make for an unpredictable frame: Many theaters close early Christmas Eve, and in many locations, audiences probably won't rebound until sometime late Saturday, with Sunday likely to play strongly.
"Meet the Fockers" is in position to better the opening of its predecessor "Meet the Parents," which bowed to $28.6 million in October 2000.
Directed by Jay Roach, who also shot the prequel, the PG-13 film adds Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand to the cast, which is headed by Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller. As Streisand makes her first film appearance in eight years, even hard-edged critics appear to be extending her a warm welcome back, and that could help to pull in older as well as younger moviegoers.
Last year, Fox demonstrated a knack for luring in the family audience with its Christmas Day opening of "Cheaper by the Dozen," starring Steve Martin, which bowed to $27.5 million. This year, it's offering the PG-rated "Fat Albert," director Joel Zwick's ("My Big Fat Greek Wedding") adaptation of the vintage animated series "Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids."
"Fat Albert" lacks "Cheaper's" star appeal -- even though Cosby does make an appearance as himself -- and the fact that it doesn't open until Saturday will limit its grosses, at least on its first weekend.
"Albert" also will be squaring off for some of the family audience against reigning champ "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events." Paramount's Jim Carrey vehicle, based on Daniel Handler's books, bowed to $30 million last weekend and easily maintained its No. 1 status Monday and Tuesday.
Dimension Films will make a bid for disaffected teens on Christmas Day with "Darkness," an R-rated terror tale filmed in Spain by Juame Balaguero ("The Nameless") and starring Anna Paquin and Lena Olin.
Meanwhile, Warners. is pumping up the volume on the sumptuous, PG-13-rated "Phantom," directed by Joel Schumacher.
Although it opened in just 622 theaters Wednesday, that should be enough to accommodate the first rush of the "Phantom" faithful; the true test of the movie's appeal won't take place until it expands during the new year.
This weekend, Miramax Films will open up the throttle on "The Aviator," Martin Scorsese's biopic of Howard Hughes starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Having opened Friday in just 40 theaters, the movie is expanding into 1,796 locations. Additionally, Disney will expand Wes Anderson's "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou" into 1,105 theaters after two weekends playing in just New York and Los Angeles.
Among exclusive openers, two films with Oscar aspirations are arriving in Los Angeles and New York. United Artists opened Terry George's drama "Hotel Rwanda," starring Golden Globe nominee Don Cheadle, on Wednesday, and Newmarket Films will bow Nicole Kassell's "The Woodsman," starring Kevin Bacon as a pedophile, on Christmas Eve.
Hollywood '04 Box Office Take Poised to Hit Record
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hollywood's studios are expected to rake in a possibly record $9.4 billion at domestic box offices this year, but the lack of a Christmas season smash like last year's final "Lord of the Rings" film will crimp overall ticket sales.
The estimated box office figure for the United States and Canada should beat 2003's $9.27 billion by about 1.4 percent, and may squeak by 2002's record $9.3 billion, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc., a box office tracking service.
But admissions, or the number of tickets actually sold, are seen falling to roughly 1.5 billion from 1.53 billion last year and 1.6 billion in 2002.
The higher box office take is being fueled by a rise in average ticket prices, which Exhibitor Relations President Paul Dergarabedian said may wind up between $6.10 and $6.25 per ticket in 2004, up from $6.03 in 2003 and $5.80 in 2002.
"Many of the films that did well (with audiences) are not necessarily the films that made a lot of money," said Dergarabedian, noting art-house fare like "Napoleon Dynamite" and the current critical hit "Sideways."
He added that two big hits, "The Passion of the Christ" and "Fahrenheit 9/11," were released outside the major studios, where the $100 million-plus blockbusters normally come from.
The holidays, in which 20 percent of total annual ticket sales are made, has many crowd pleasers but lacks a mega-movie like 2003's "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," which went on to win an Oscar for best picture.
SONY NO. 1
Sony Pictures Entertainment, a unit of Japanese electronics maker Sony Corp., is on the way to ending the year at No. 1 in domestic market share with more than $1.3 billion at box offices. Next is Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Bros. with $1.25 billion, according to studio estimates.
It is the second time in three years Sony has been No. 1 and the third straight year of a $1 billion-plus box office. It is Warner's fourth straight year of $1 billion-plus in sales.
Sony had a combination of big-budget hits like "Spider-Man 2" and low-budget stars such as horror flick "The Grudge," which cost Sony $10 million and racked up $11O million.
"We had a really diverse slate this year, and...certainly we pulled off one of the surprises with 'Grudge,"' said Jeff Blake, Sony Pictures Entertainment vice chairman.
Funding movies at the high and low ends of the cost range -- avoiding the middle -- marks a trend of recent years that studio executives expect will continue in 2005.
"Spider-Man 2" was the No. 2 U.S. film of 2004 with $373 million in domestic ticket sales, behind $436 million for DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek 2."
Rounding out the top five were "Passion" with $370 million, Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" with $249 million and Disney/Pixar's "The Incredibles" at $236 million and climbing.
After a tough start with "The Alamo," Disney will likely end at No. 3 in market share with $1.1 billion, crossing the $1 billion threshold for the ninth time in 11 years.
The year also was marked by production budgets for major films in the $150 million to $200 million range, and studio executives expect high costs to continue into 2005.
Other events to look for in 2005 will be a new studio chief at Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures, a new film distribution partner for one-time Disney ally Pixar Animation Studios Inc., and the way in which a Sony-led investor group plans to run Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. .
Hollywood's other major studios include Universal Pictures, owned by General Electric Co. and France's Vivendi Universal, as well as Twentieth Century Fox, controlled by News Corp. Inc. . A major independent is Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.
'SpongeBob' an absorbing role for Kenny
MONTREAL (CP) - Tom Kenny never expected to be soaking up the adulation of fans for so long as the voice of cartoon icon SpongeBob SquarePants.
He admits he didn't really expect the cheerful little yellow sponge be so successful he'd go from household item to household name. "No one did," Kenny said in a telephone interview as he battled gridlock on a freeway in Los Angeles. "That was a complete, flukish crazy happenstance.
"It definitely was not designed with that in mind and in fact Steve Hillenburg, the creator, is I think a little ambivalent about how huge it's become.
"Most people are waiting for that day where something they've created is on lunch boxes and sheets and he is flattered by it to some degree but feels a little bit like Dr. Frankenstein on the other hand."
SpongeBob, who has cleaned up with the cartoon set and a hefty number of adults and teens, jumped to the movie screen from the TV screen earlier this month.
In the big screen adventure, SpongeBob and his pal Patrick the starfish - "the time-honoured doofus," as Kenny describes him - set out to recover King Neptune's purloined crown and save the good folk of Bikini Bottom from the nefarious plans of the villanous Plankton.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Movie is an absorbing, goofy romp that boasts an impressive voice cast including Alec Baldwin and Scarlett Johansson and a hilarious send-up of Baywatch legend David Hasselhoff.
"It's definitely weird, strange, which is part of the goal," said Kenny of the movie with a laugh. "To make a kids movie that was as odd and crazy and stuff as Willy Wonka and stuff like that, that blew our minds when we were kids, that fascinated and somewhat traumatized us at the same time."
He acknowledged that SpongeBob's animation style is a nod to the surrealistic Fleischer cartoons of the 1930s and 1940s, which boasted such characters as Popeye, Betty Boop and an art-deco looking Superman.
"I think it has a lot of laughs in it," Kenny said of the SpongeBob movie, comparing SpongeBob and Patrick's adventure to the old road movies by comedians Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. "It really was fun to play something in that genre."
Kenny, an accomplished voice actor and standup comedian who has played at Montreal's Just for Laughs comedy festival, was the immediate choice of creator Hillenburg to give SpongeBob his trademark voice.
"He heard me do this voice as the voice of a very obscure character in the background of a crowd scene on a different animated series and remembered it," Kenny said.
"I had totally forgotten the voice. It was something I did once and never really went back to it. I had to look at the show again."
Then came the tweaking to get the voice perfect.
"He was such a distinctive looking character and the character design was so evocative, we wanted a voice that did the drawing justice and seemed to believably come out of the mouth of this drawing."
He said he was also chosen because Hillenburg seemed to see "some SpongeBobian characteristics" in him - like being an enthusiastic, hyperactive, hard worker.
"I never complain," Kenny said. "I'm like SpongeBob. I'm just happy to have a job. SpongeBob and I have that in common. We can't believe we're actually employed doing something that we enjoy, which seems to be a rare situation these days for people."
Kenny said SpongeBob's success likely stems from the fact there's something in each character everyone can identify with. As well, there's SpongeBob's unbridled sunny disposition.
"He just has this incredible, deep beatific energy," Kenny said. "He's just raring to go all the time and life is great and he loves whatever the day throws at him for the most part.
"He wakes up every morning convinced that it's going to be the best morning ever and works hard despite the fact that he's underappreciated and underpaid, which I think is a situation most people can identify with."
Kenny, who like all the people on the show gets a certain amount of inspiration for plots from their own kids, said the show and movie were not crafted with any sort of particular message in mind, saying they'll leave that to PBS.
"I guess if SpongeBob has anything at all to offer children I think (it's) the message that it's OK to be a square peg, it's OK to not really fit the mould.
"SpongeBob is a complete oddball in his world but pretty much everyone likes him, he likes himself, he embraces his inner Goofy Goober.
"That's even underscored more in the movie, that 'OK, I'm a dork, so what? I like being a dork and being a dork is sort of fun and a lot of dorks wind up doing pretty well in life'."
TWO-HOUR 'BLUE' FINALE SET FOR MARCH
The date has been set for the final episode of "NYPD Blue" — March 1.
One of the most celebrated series of all time will go out after 12 years in a single, two-hour show without the hoopla that has surrounded other finales in recent years.
ABC said earlier this year that that this would be "Blue's" final season.
The network will also make good on the promise to broadcast all 22 episodes straight through without repeats.
The show has been careful to keep details of the final episode secret.
"NYPD Blue" debuted on ABC in 1993.
Bad boy Robbie Williams admits difficulty in staying away from drugs
LONDON (AP) - Pop singer Robbie Williams said he would still be taking drugs if they didn't make him fat.
"I'd still be doing it if I didn't blow up to the size of an aircraft hangar, you know, because it was a great time," the bad-boy British pop star told Real Radio.
"Some of the best times in my life happened under the influence of drugs ... and I'm not saying 'Go out and do drugs, kids' but I enjoyed them," Williams said in the interview to air on Christmas Day.
Williams first made a name for himself on the British pop scene as a member of Take That, one of the most successful boy bands of the '90s.
He reportedly fell into drugs after splitting from the group to launch a solo career. His addiction became so bad that fellow pop star Elton John intervened to send him to a rehabilitation clinic.
Asked whether he was confident about staying away from drugs and alcohol, Williams, now 30, replied: "No, I'm not confident at all."
J.K. Rowling Completes 6th Potter Novel
NEW YORK - Harry Potter readers, here's an extra special holiday gift: J.K. Rowling announced Monday that she has completed the sixth Potter novel, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince."
"I know you all expected this to happen on Christmas Day, but I was sure that those of you who celebrate Christmas have better things to do on the day itself than fight your way into my study, whereas those of you who DON'T celebrate Christmas would definitely prefer not to wait until the 25th," the British author wrote in a message posted on her Web site.
Rowling noted that while she is pregnant with her third child, she has had the time "needed to tinker with the manuscript to my satisfaction and I am as happy as I have ever been with the end result. I only hope you feel it was worth the wait when you finally read it."
Rowling's U.S. publisher, Scholastic Inc., said a release date would be announced Tuesday morning.
With the new Potter book almost certain to come out in 2005, fans should be spared the seemingly interminable three-year wait between Potter IV, "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," and Potter V, "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," which came out in the summer of 2003. Rowling did not say whether the new book's length would top the industrial-sized 870 pages of "Order of the Phoenix."
Rowling's announcement is also great news for booksellers, who have endured another year of slow sales. More than 100 million copies of the fantasy series, which debuted in 1997, are in print, and "Order of the Phoenix" sold an astonishing 5 million copies within 24 hours of publication. Sales have remained phenomenal even as Rowling's books have grown longer and darker, reflecting the boy wizard's maturation into adolescence.
Hollywood has benefited, too; the first three Potter books have been made into hit movies. The books have also inspired countless Potter paraphernalia, including candy, cakes, capes and toys.
Rowling has said that one of her characters will not survive her sixth book, but she refused to identify that character.
Potter himself is safe, at least for now. Rowling has said her teenage hero will survive until the seventh and final book in the series, but has refused to say whether he will reach adulthood.
Only recently, the book's completion seemed far away. In a message posted Dec. 10, Rowling said she had nothing "noteworthy to report, because I have been spending nearly all my time sitting in front of my computer writing, rewriting and taking the occasional break to bang my head off the desk in frustration or else rub my hands together in fiendish glee (I think the latter has happened once)."
'Lemony Snicket' Tops Box Office in Debut
LOS ANGELES - "Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events" brought in $30.2 million of good fortune to debut in first place at the weekend box office.
The film based on the first three children's books by Lemony Snicket, who is actually author Daniel Handler, knocked the star-driven sequel "Ocean's Twelve" to second place, according to studio estimates released Sunday.
"Spanglish," a new Sony film starring Tea Leoni, Adam Sandler and Spanish actress Paz Vega, made its debut at third with an estimated weekend haul of $9 million.
Final figures were to be released Monday.
"Lemony Snicket" tells the story of a trio of orphans who try to defend themselves from greedy Count Olaf, played by Jim Carrey, who pursues the children by concealing himself as a variety of thinly veiled characters.
Playing in wide release at 3,620 theaters, "Lemony Snicket" averaged $8,343 a cinema.
"Jim Carrey and the books are really the primary driving forces behind it and the marketing seems to have worked very well," said Wayne Lewellen, president of distribution for Paramount.
"The Aviator," starring Leonardo DiCaprio as eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, opened in 40 theaters in New York, Los Angeles and "resort towns" — near ski resorts and in Hawaii and Palm Springs — in an attempt to catch vacationing Academy Awards voters, said Mike Rudnitsky, head of domestic distribution at Miramax.
The film earned $831,124 with a per screen average of $20,778.
"The Aviator," which also features Cate Blanchett as Hughes' legendary love Katharine Hepburn, will expand to about 1,750 screens on Christmas Day.
Other films in limited release that have been receiving Oscar buzz include Bill Murray's quirky oceanography tale "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," and "Million Dollar Baby," with Hilary Swank portraying a woman who tries to improve her life of hard knocks by training as a boxer.
In its second week, "Life Aquatic" played on two screens in New York and Los Angeles and