Chappelle won't say why show's suspended
NEW YORK (AP) - Comedian Dave Chappelle wants to set things straight: "I'm not crazy, I'm not smoking crack," he told Time magazine more than a week after his hit Comedy Central show was suspended and the rumours started to fly.
"I'm definitely stressed out," said Chappelle, who took off last month for South Africa for a "spiritual retreat," leaving his fans - and even his agent and publicist - wondering where he went.
"You hear so many voices jockeying for position in your mind that you want to make sure that you hear your own voice," he said. "So I figured, let me just cut myself off from everybody, take a minute and pull a Flintstone - stop a speeding car by using my bare feet as the brakes."
After Comedy Central announced the planned May 31 debut of the third season of Chappelle's Show had been postponed, the magazine Entertainment Weekly reported the comedian had checked himself into a mental health facility in South Africa.
"I'm not in a mental facility," said Chappelle, who also said he did not have a drug problem but had consulted a psychiatrist for one 40-minute session.
The comedian, 31, said he fled to stay with friends in Durban because he wasn't happy with the direction of the show, which trails only South Park as Comedy Central's most-watched program.
"There's a lot of resistance to my opinions, so I decided, 'Let me remove myself from this situation,' " Chappelle said.
Comedy Central president Doug Herzog told Time that the star has "complete creative freedom."
He has told staff he believes there won't be a Chappelle's Show in 2005, but leaves the option open for the comedian's return.
Chappelle, whose wife and two children live in Ohio, said he hopes to start up the show again, but did not indicate when he would return.
Comedy Central had inked a reported deal equivalent to $63 million Cdn to keep Chappelle's Show for two more seasons.
Meanwhile, the comedian hinted to Time about struggles associated with the power and fame that come with that kind of success.
"If you don't have the right people around you, and you're moving at a million miles an hour, you can lose yourself," he said. "Everyone around me says, 'You're a genius, you're great, that's your voice,' but I'm not sure that they're right."
BACK TO THE FUTURE
The new "Star Wars" movie, "Revenge of the Sith," could be titled "That '70s Show."
Though made 28 years after the original, the story of "Sith" actually happens before the original "Star Wars." So creator George Lucas and his crew made sure the new film resembled that 1977 classic.
Designers rebuilt sets from "Star Wars" and gave characters similar costumes and hairstyles. Lucas wanted to make sure that "Sith," also known as "Episode III" transitions smoothly into "Star Wars," also known as "Episode IV: A New Hope"
"I'm hoping that people will see it as a six-part series," George Lucas says. "In the future, I'd like people to watch the movies in order, from episodes I to VI."
The story of "Sith" is how Jedi hero Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader, and how Anakin's children, Luke and Leia, are hidden from him. The original "Star Wars" happens 20 years after "Sith," when those twins are grown and battle their evil father.
There's a scene on Alderaan - the lovely planet where Princess Leia grows up with her adoptive parents, Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) and his wife, Alderaan's queen. Alderaan is the planet that gets blown to smithereens by the Death Star in the original "Star Wars."
And the final scene of the "Sith" takes place on Tatooine, with the baby Luke in the arms of the people who will raise him, his Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. They stand and look out at a double sunset just like the one Luke himself stares wistfully at in that classic scene from the original "Star Wars."
Lucas was aware that future generations might be thrown off by the shift in tone between the prequel trilogy and the originals, so he had staff of special-effects wizards go retro from time to time, even though most of the effects in "Sith" are in a completely different league from what Lucas was able to do in 1977.
While the most important aliens in "Sith," including Yoda, were created on a computer, some of the others, including the Trade Federation representatives and some of the Wookiees, were made the old-fashioned way.
"We put people in rubber heads to make sure there'd be some continuity," explains the film's animation director, Rob Coleman.
"We could have made them all in the computer. But sometimes you actually want that feeling of an actor in a suit. "
Lucas' crew also used costumes and hairstyles that give the new film a '70s veneer - like Leia's famous cinnamon-bun hair swirls.
Here are some of the links, both in design and story, that bring "Revenge of the Sith" full circle back to "A New Hope."
nSenator Bail Organa's ship. Several scenes at the end of "Sith" take place in the familiar white hallways of Organa's spaceship - the same one we see at the beginning of "A New Hope," when Darth Vader comes aboard looking for the stolen Death Star plans and finds Leia. One of the scenes ties up a loose end that has always bugged "Star Wars" geeks: Why doesn't C-3PO seem to recognize Tatooine when he arrives at the beginning of "A New Hope," even though he was created there? Lucas takes care of the concern with a single line of dialogue, as Organa tells a deputy to "have the protocol droid's memory wiped."
n Chewbacca. According to the official "Star Wars" timeline, Wookiees can live up to 200 years, so it makes sense that Han Solo's shaggy sidekick from "A New Hope" would be around and in fighting shape for "Sith," which takes place some 20 years before the original trilogy. Chewie helps lead a battle against the droids on the Wookiee home planet of Kashyyyk. Peter Mayhew, the 7-foot-4 actor who played the walking carpet in the original trilogy, reprises his role.
nProto-Storm Troopers. Up until now, the clone warriors of the prequel trilogy have supposedly been good guys, fighting alongside Jedi Knights to defend the Republic against the separatists' droid army. But they've always looked suspiciously like the fascist storm troopers from the original "Star Wars." They look even more like storm troopers in "Sith," and (thanks to a plot point that we'll skip over for spoiler reasons) it turns out that they are related to them. By the way, that means that most of the storm troopers in the original trilogy were clones. That was Boba Fett's father, Jango Fett, under all those helmets.
nObi-Wan Kenobi. "Sith" finally explains why all of the Jedis except Obi-Wan and Yoda were wiped out before "A New Hope" began, as well as why Obi-Wan came to be living on Tatooine, so close to Luke Skywalker. Ewan McGregor, in playing the Jedi master, also studied the voice patterns of the original Obi-Wan, Alec Guinness. "It wouldn't be right to just do an Alec Guinness impersonation," McGregor has said. "I had to make the character somehow my own but at the same time make it believable that I become Alec Guinness."
n Jedi immortality. "Sith" also answers a question that has led to countless late-night bull sessions: What happened to Obi-Wan and Yoda when they seemed to die, but reappeared as glowing blue shapes? At the very end of "Sith," Yoda quickly tells Obi-Wan something about Qui-Gon Jinn, his old master, played by Liam Neeson in "The Phantom Menace." The "Sith" graphic novel, already in stores, explains that Qui-Gon didn't die - he discovered a path to immortality that he is going to teach to Yoda and Obi-Wan.
Tom Westman Wins 'Survivor: Palau'
NEW YORK - New York City firefighter Tom Westman won "Survivor: Palau" on Sunday night, picking up a million dollars in the live finale of the CBS hit.
Westman, a lieutenant with a Brooklyn ladder company, bested Katie Gallagher, Ian Rosenberger and Jennifer Lyon on the final night of competition. Many of his fellow firefighters were in the audience cheering him on as the Survivor votes were counted.
Gallagher, a radio ad saleswoman from Merced, Calif., won $100,000 as the runner-up.
In a game where over-the-radar power players are usually booted way before the finale, Westman was an anomaly. He dominated the individual immunity challenges, but his strong alliances and strategic relationships kept him from coming under fire.
The 41-year-old father of three from Sayville, N.Y., led the Koror tribe to demolish the Ulongs in every immunity challenge — a "Survivor" first.
Westman said he won by simply being himself.
Red tape could kill stores' CD-burning kiosks
NEW YORK (Billboard) - The concept seems great: Place CD-burning kiosks that can manufacture out-of-stock albums in retail stores and offer customized compilations, too.
But after numerous false starts, retailers, hardware suppliers and the major labels say a quagmire of issues still threatens to overwhelm the initiative.
Even with the momentum of Starbucks leading the way with Hewlett-Packard kiosks, and despite numerous other hardware suppliers flocking to stake a claim in the market, retailers say that in-store CD manufacturing still has one big problem: an unprofitable business model.
Key to the equation are significant hardware costs and stringent content-usage requirements from the majors.
Installing a CD-burning kiosk in a store can run $18,000-$35,000, hardware suppliers and retailers say. The actual cost depends on which hardware supplier is chosen and how many viewing screens or tablets are placed with each machine.
The machines also require software systems to manage in-store CD burning and provide accounting. These systems add thousands of dollars in costs.
Still, at least a dozen hardware suppliers have licensed music for kiosks or are in talks to do so, and more are popping up every day.
While all parties agree costs could decline if CD-burning kiosks are mass produced, other expenses still have to be dealt with to achieve a profitable model.
As it turns out, each major label is licensing music for kiosks with its own set of strings attached.
For example, Universal Music Group wants kiosks to use only special blank CDs sold by General Electric that, depending on who you ask, cost two to five times as much as normal blank CDs.
And EMI Music wants the cover art printed on paper to be installed as the front sleeve of the jewelbox. Another major is said to have limitations on when and how much music can be made available for in-store burning.
"Each content company has its own set of rules, which when explained makes sense. But when you put them all together, it's a mess" -- and an expensive one, Mike Dreese says. The CEO of Brighton, Mass.-based Newbury Comics is a member of the CD-burning task force of the National Assn. of Recording Merchandisers.
A Feb. 24 meeting in New Orleans that brought together merchants, hardware suppliers and labels to discuss CD-burning kiosks was an eye-opener for all, as each camp aired its issues.
Following that meeting, NARM's task force created a 52-item punch list that could facilitate the CD-burning initiative. It was delivered to the majors April 1 for review. NARM spokeswoman Susan L'Ecuyer declines to comment on the list, which she describes as "preliminary."
Nevertheless, task force member Ish Cuebas, director of merchandising operations at Trans World Entertainment, says, "I see signs that retail can make this a business, but we need cooperation from the hardware, software and content people."
Without some compromises, "why waste all this time and money to find out if this is a business?" Dreese asks. He suggests, "Give us one year with no barriers to find out if it's a business. Then let's talk about the rules."
So far, the 6,400-unit Starbucks chain is testing HP kiosks in dozens of stores in Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and its company base, Seattle.
Also, Mix & Burn, a unit of New Hope, Minn.-based Navarre, is running tests in about a dozen stores, company executive Bob French reports.
Test sites include two Trans World Entertainment stores; two Best Buy stores; one Borders Books & Music store; one Newbury Comics store; one Electric Fetus outlet; one store in the Musicland Group; one in Bound to Be Read, an independent bookstore in Minneapolis; one in a Nordstrom department store; and two at the U.S. naval base in Norfolk, Va., under the auspices of Eurpac.
John Marmaduke, chairman/CEO/president of Amarillo, Texas-based Hastings Entertainment, is all for testing CD-burning kiosks. But, he says, "we want somebody to prove there is a business model that works. We want to be a fast second but don't want to be a pioneer. I am real happy to let someone else plow that furrow."
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is taking a different route, at least initially. It will allow customers to use their home computers to create their own compilations. Sources suggest that Anderson Merchandisers' Liquid Digital Media will make those compilations.
The Redwood, Calif.-based company was one of the first to enter into the CD-burning kiosk business back in 1999, along with RedDotNet. But that effort failed because the majors were reluctant to license their music.
Some other hardware suppliers -- including MICS (based in Cambridge, Mass.); Digital Kiosk Technologies (Indianapolis); Burn a Song (Los Angeles); VMS (London); Mediaport (Salt Lake City); Starbox (Orlando, Fla.); and Touchstand, a unit of Denver-based Synergy Media Group -- say they are either on the verge of placing kiosks in test stores, signing licensing deals with the majors or lining up financing.
While the field is crowded, it is clear that not all the hardware companies are ready to field kiosks with a full array of hoped-for capabilities, merchants say.
One kiosk company's system cannot handle variable pricing. Another company's unit so far can only make compilations, but not full albums. Still other companies that can manufacture albums are not ready to handle album cover artwork.
Still to be answered by all hardware suppliers is whether their kiosks will have industrial strength to withstand the wear and tear of the marketplace.
"Some seem ready to go and have their licenses in order, and others are struggling to get either the license and/or technology right, while still others are not even there," Dreese says. "But how much of it will be rubber that can meet a road somewhere is unclear."
As for the majors, it "remains to be seen how much creativity the rights holders will allow us to experiment (with) so that we can see what the consumer wants," Dreese says. "I am afraid that the labels are going to choke the golden goose before they know what kind of egg they have."
Jordan Katz, co-president of Sony BMG Sales Enterprise, agrees. "Some are overthinking it. It's a new market, and the egg has just been fertilized. Let's see what happens when retail puts marketing experience into it and we can learn together and see how it all pans out." If CD-burning kiosks works, there will be time later to revisit things and make changes, he says.
Dreese acknowledges that some standard-setting is important on the front end. "You can argue about what the standards should be, but their existence gives people something to focus on."
But Dreese thinks that the standards should be as simple as possible for the first year or two, with minimal sound and artwork requirements.
While the majors would like burned CDs to be as near to red-book quality as possible, retailers also wonder if the labels will allow the kiosk companies to equalize sound levels on customer-made compilations.
NO ONE PRICE FITS ALL
Getting pricing right is also proving to be daunting.
Naturally, pricing is tied to what the labels are charging for their content. It appears that EMI Music and Warner Music Group are applying their iTunes pricing model, with some variations, to the kiosk vendors, meaning they are charging them about 71 cents for most tracks, sources say.
Universal Music & Video Distribution also is charging 71 cents per track, but if a vendor or retailer charges more than 99 cents per track or $9.99 an album, then UMVD gets a 71% wholesale cut, sources say.
But while some think 99 cents should be the main price point for individual tracks to customers, others say there should be variable pricing on a per-track basis. For example, a superstar track would be priced at 99 cents, an established act at 79 cents and developing artists at 59 cents.
Some suggest that classics like Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" or the newest track from Eminem might cost $1.49, with other tracks by those acts costing 99 cents and tracks from older catalog albums running 49 cents.
"Pricing would vary depending on where the album or the artist is in their life cycle," one distribution executive says. Pricing would also depend on whether a track is going to be burned to a CD or downloaded to a portable device, other executives say.
When all the wholesale pricing models are taken into account for the kiosk, the cost for albums can range from $5.50 to $9.10, sources say. That means the top pricing tier for kiosks is about $3 below the $12.02-$12.07 that the majors charge direct accounts for prepackaged, front-line CDs.
But as things stood when NARM issued its punch list, all of the costs involved were threatening to saddle CD-burning kiosks with pricing equivalent to existing CDs.
If that's the case, Harper says, "the consumer will not adopt and buy the product, and the kiosk will fail."
Fonda-Lopez Faceoff Tops at Box Office
LOS ANGELES - Moviegoers rewarded Jane Fonda's return to the big screen by making "Monster-in-Law" the weekend's top movie, though the comedy was short of a monster hit.
The total box office slump continued for a 12th straight week, but the force is expected to return next week when the final chapter in the Star Wars saga — "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," — hits theaters.
"Monster-in-Law," which pits Jennifer Lopez against Fonda as her villainous prospective mother-in-law, took in $24 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Fonda's first major film role in 15 years was also Lopez's strongest box office opening performance, ahead of 2002's "Maid in Manhattan," which opened with $18.7 million.
J.Lo versus J.Fo earned $3 million more than another comedic take on familial combat, "Kicking & Screaming," in which Will Ferrell faces off against his father and youth soccer coaching rival Robert Duvall.
The weekend's other major opener, the Jet Li action flick "Unleashed," took in a respectable $10.6 million. Last week's box office champ, the Orlando Bloom Crusades epic "Kingdom of Heaven," slipped to fourth place with $9.6 million, a 51 percent drop from its opening weekend.
The total box office take was down 6.7 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Troy" debuted with $46.8 million, but it was up 21.7 percent from last weekend.
"I'm encouraged by these numbers," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "This shows there is an audience out there. As we head into the week of 'Star Wars,' this is definitely a positive-looking marketplace."
Studio executives said they were not worried with the box office results so far. "Star Wars" will be followed by several big films, including the animated "Madagascar" and the Adam Sandler-Chris Rock remake of "The Longest Yard."
"There's nothing wrong with our business that a good movie won't fix," said David Tuckerman, head of distribution for New Line Cinema, which released "Monster-in-Law." "'Star Wars' will jump-start us."
None of the major studios are planning any wide releases next weekend, figuring that any new movie will be buried by the sixth and final episode of George Lucas' influential sci-fi saga.
"Because it's the final installment, it's going to go beyond the typical sci-fi audience. It's a cultural phenomenon. Virtually everyone has a vested interest in this movie," Dergarabedian said.
The only contest will be for second place.
"Hopefully we'll still be a choice for families," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal, which released "Kicking & Screaming."
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Monster-in-Law," $24 million.
2. "Kicking & Screaming," $21 million.
3. "Unleashed," $10.6 million.
4. "Kingdom of Heaven," $9.6 million.
5. "Crash," $7.2 million.
6. "House of Wax," $6.3 million.
7. "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," $4.8 million.
8. "The Interpreter," $4.4 million.
9. "XXX: State of the Union," $2.2 million.
10. "Mindhunters," $2 million.
Gumby Making Comeback on 50th Anniversary
SAN FRANCISCO - Five decades after Gumby first captured the nation's imagination, the little green guy and his chums are starring in a new art exhibit — the first in a series of events to mark the 50th anniversary of the television icon's creation and launch his comeback.
"Gumby and Friends: The First 50 Years" attracted fans of all ages at Saturday's opening at the historic Lynn House Gallery in Antioch, about 45 miles northeast of San Francisco. Creator Art Clokey, now 83, signed Gumby figurines at the two-story exhibit, which featured photographs, toys and other memorabilia.
"Gumby is an icon," said Diane Gibson-Gray, 49, executive director of the Arts and Cultural Foundation of Antioch, which is sponsoring the monthlong exhibit. "He's a cultural icon that many of us grew up with. And there's another wave coming. There's a whole new generation that's going to embrace and love Gumby as much as I did."
The Antioch exhibit is the first event planned this year to commemorate the 50 years since Clokey made a short art film called "Gumbasia," featuring clay animation set to jazz music, that inspired the beloved television series that debuted a year later in 1956.
Over the next four decades, Clokey, along with his first wife and later his second wife, produced 223 episodes chronicling the adventures of wide-eyed Gumby, horse Pokey and other pals as they traveled to the moon, the Wild West and Toyland.
In mid-June, the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City will open a six-month exhibit about Gumby and creator Clokey. Later that month, Clokey's family will celebrate Gumby's 50 years at a birthday extravaganza in San Francisco, said Joe Clokey, 43, who now runs the family's Gumby business, Premavision/Clokey Productions.
The first Gumby video game and a DVD of Gumby shows from the 1980s are scheduled for release this summer. And the family hopes a documentary film about Art Clokey's life will be broadcast on television.
Joe Clokey, who owns a company that produces educational videos, said his father asked him to take over the Gumby business six years ago and bring the gingerbread-shaped hero back to children.
"My dad wanted Gumby back on TV," said Joe Clokey, who lives just outside San Luis Obispo near his father. "He did Gumby because he loves children. He wants children to have something of value on TV."
The Gumby story can be traced back to the creator's troubled childhood, his son said. After Art Clokey's father died when he was 10 years old, he moved from Michigan to California to live with his mother. But his new stepfather did not want anything to do with him, and his mother agreed to send Clokey to an orphanage.
"It was really hard for my dad psychologically," said Joe Clokey. "That's one of the reasons why he stayed an 11-year-old boy for so many years."
Happily, Art Clokey was adopted by a well-known musician, Joseph Clokey, who encouraged Art's creativity and artistic interests. After college, he joined a seminary to become an Episcopalian priest, but soon met his first wife, Ruth.
The couple decided to move to Southern California to join the film business. Besides Gumby, they also created the clay animation series "Davey and Goliath."
Animators who worked on the Gumby series have gone on to work for Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks and director Tim Burton. Joe Clokey said animators are developing new episodes of Gumby as well as a new movie.
"The goal has always been about what's good for kids and what's fun for kids," Clokey said. "If you've got a heart, then Gumby's a part of you. That's what it's all about."