Celebs Bound for Springfield
No one knows for sure where the hell Springfield is, but we're guessing it must be pretty close to Hollywood.
After all, look at the latest batch of celebs set for guest shots on The Simpsons this season.
William H. Macy, Lily Tomlin, Ricky Gervais, Frances McDormand, Richard Dean Anderson, Rob Reiner and Michael York will drop by during the 17th season, which kicks off Sept. 11. Also coming back for more 'toon hijinks are previous guests Alec Baldwin, Kelsey Grammer and Joe Mantegna.
The season opener, titled "Bonfire of the Manatees," will find Homer in serious trouble after allowing Springfield's notorious Mafia don , Fat Tony (voiced once again by Mantegna), to use the Simpsons' living room to shoot a "gentlemen's film" to pay off a gambling debt. Having a cow, Marge runs away from the family to find herself and ends up meeting Caleb Thorn (Baldwin), a handsome marine biologist on a quest to save the endangered manatee--and Marge from her boorish hubby. Homer must figure out how to win back her affections. Baldwin previously appeared on the show as himself in 2002's episode "Gump Roast."
Meanwhile, fans will be treated to the first episode in three years featuring villainous Sideshow Bob (Grammer). When last he popped up in Springfield, Krusty the Clown's former sidekick was released from prison into the custody of the Simpsons to help Homer catch a would-be killer. When Bob finally decided to murder long-time nemesis Bart, he ultimately couldn't because he'd grown to like the kid.
And sure to please Patty and Selma will be the arrival of Richard Dean Anderson, who will undoubtedly use some of his MacGyver know-how to help the family out of yet another jam.
Other big names lending their voices to the show include Yankees' pitcher Randy Johnson, boxing champ Joe Frazier, former basketball star Dennis Rodman and NFL legend turned Fox Sports broadcaster Terry Bradshaw. The latter two will appear as themselves in The Simpsons annual "ghoultide" special, "The Simpsons Tree House of Horror XVI" airing in its traditional post-Halloween slot on Nov. 6.
While unveiling the roster of guest stars, Fox reps and show producers didn't immediately comment on Internet reports that Christina Aguilera turned down a Simpsons slot that would have had the "Dirrty" pop tart competing in an American Idol-esque show.
The Simpsons remains one of TV's biggest franchises, consistently ranking tops in the advertiser-friendly 18-48 demo in its Sunday time slot. With the broadcast of its 350th episode last season, The Simpsons, ranking behind only Ozzie & Harriet as the longest-running comedy series in TV history.
Even though series mastermind Matt Groening has occasionally suggested the show's end might be nigh, there's no sign of stopping.
After some protracted negotiations, Fox agreed to a new four-year deal with the show's six stars, giving each a raise to $250,000 per episode and keeping The Simpsons around for a potential 20th season.
And according to Fox reps, preproduction work is under way on a Simpsons animated movie, though no timetable for its release has been announced.
No levy on IPods, court rules
TORONTO (CP) - The fight over a levy on IPods and other digital music devices ended Thursday when the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear any further arguments on the matter.
That means there will be no levy applied to digital audio recorders such as Apple's popular IPod and IPod Shuffle as well as other MP3 players like IRiver.
"Obviously we're disappointed. We felt it was self-evident that those products are sold for the purpose of copying music," said David Basskin, of the Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC), the non-profit agency which collects tariffs on behalf of musicians and record companies.
The group had wanted the high court to overturn last year's Federal Court of Appeal decision which quashed the levy on the popular gadgets.
The non-profit agency had been collecting the tariff - $2 for non-removable memory capacity of up to one GB, $15 for one to 10 GBs, $25 for more than 10 GB - since December 2003 through a tax built into the price of the devices.
It stopped in December 2004 when the Federal Court overturned the policy at the urging of retailers and manufacturers such as Future Shop, Apple Canada and Dell Computer Corporation of Canada.
The CPCC argued that since the new technology opened yet another avenue to make illegal copies of songs, a levy should be collected on behalf of music creators.
The group said Thursday that approximately $4 million was collected between December 2003 and December 2004.
The money is sitting in an account and will be returned to the importers and manufacturers of the products, said Basskin.
The CPCC is an non-profit agency which collects and distributes tariffs on behalf of performers, songwriters, music producers and record companies. It also collects a levy on blank audio such as CDs and mini-discs.
COUP D'STEW
Sorry Stewie.
The highly anticipated, uncensored "Family Guy" movie doesn't come out on DVD until September, but some Internet whiz-kids are already trading full-length, pirated copies of "Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story" online.
The film is technically three closely related, never-before-aired "Family Guy" episodes linked together.
One tells a tale about Stewie - the evil baby bent on world domination - that closely resembles Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's fall. In it, Stewie, sporting a wild Saddamesque beard, is found hiding in a spider hole - as was the Butcher of Baghdad.
Murray keeps up the good work
NEW YORK — For a self-described retiree, Billy Murray never stops working.
"I'm officially retired," he joked at the premiere of his newest movie. "I officially retired before this!"
"This" is Broken Flowers, which won the Grand Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and stars the soulful Murray as a playboy who finds out that he might have a grown son from a former relationship.
An uncharacteristically gregarious Murray turned up at the film's premiere Wednesday night, telling reporters that he'd just had "a perfectly good cup of ice cream that someone took from me, so I had to do this," meaning red-carpet interviews. Dessert aside, his secret to chilling out on a hot summer night?
"This seersucker's pretty cool," Murray said.
In the film, which opens Aug. 5, Murray's Don Johnston embarks on a cross-country journey to track down the boy and becomes, as his character says, "a stalker in a Taurus." Along the way, he reconnects with old girlfriends played by Jessica Lange, Sharon Stone and Frances Conroy.
Could Murray, a father of five sons, imagine a situation like Johnston's? "It could happen to anyone," he said. "Well, not to a woman. A woman would know."
As for the future: "Now that I'm retired, I'm going to try again to learn guitar. And I'm going to try to work on my Spanish. I can speak some French, but I've got to work on my Spanish."
'Penguins' march defies summer box office trend
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - At summer film box offices plagued by slow ticket sales, the hottest documentary this year is about a very cold topic: Emperor Penguins in Antarctica.
"March of the Penguins" is rising fast up the charts and on Thursday is expected to top $12 million in U.S. and Canadian ticket sales, said Mark Gill, president of domestic distributor, Warner Independent Pictures.
This week, the cinematic tale of the penguins' mating season will surpass hits "Winged Migration" and "Super Size Me" to become the fourth highest-grossing documentary of all time in domestic theaters, according to box office trackers.
Concert film, "Madonna: Truth or Dare," at $15 million, looks destined to succumb, and even No. 2 "Bowling for Columbine," director Michael Moore's Oscar-winner, at $21.6 million could be beaten when "March of the Penguins" expands to 1,400 theaters on Aug. 5 from just under 700 currently.
"It definitely has a shot (at 'Bowling for Columbine')," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking company Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc.
"This is a breath of fresh air in terms of positive news on the box office front, and it also shows that people want something different. They want something unique," he added.
The No. 1 documentary is Moore's 2004 hit "Fahrenheit 9/11" at $120 million, which most industry watchers agree is an anomaly.
"March of the Penguins" tosses away old rules of documentary-making to become more like a narrative feature film with different story lines, plot twists and characters.
The story follows the Emperor Penguins on a long march across frozen expanses from their summer feeding grounds to their winter mating arena. Audiences watch the penguins pair off, the female bear an egg and the male carry it on his feet to keep it from freezing until it hatches.
French director Luc Jacquet, whose four-man crew spent 14 months in Antarctica filming the penguins, likens the film to an Impressionist painting. "I wanted to tell a story that would capture emotional involvement," he said.
In the French version, actors' voices were used to speak the penguin roles much like an animated movie and French pop music was used for the score. Neither, however, worked for U.S. audiences, according to Gill.
For the English version, the distributors trimmed the movie by about five minutes, hired noted screenwriter Jordan Roberts to produce a narration that is read by Morgan Freeman, and commissioned Alex Wurman to write a symphonic score.
"All that seems to have made a difference," Gill said. "What really works is when you get a movie that people are so adamant about that they force their friends to go, and that's what this is. You get one or two of those a year."
Cusack 'Must Love' Romantic Comedies
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)- With apologizes to strong against-type performances in films like "The Grifters" and "Eight Men Out," John Cusack has built a career on playing modern men with very specific ideas about modern romance.
In turn, Cusack characters like Gib in "The Sure Thing," Rob in "High Fidelity" and -- best of all -- Lloyd in "Say Anything," have educated a generation of young males in a specific post-Redford kind of somewhat ironic, entirely self-aware brand of making woo. A bestselling book could be written on his movies and John Cusack's Rules of Love.
"Yeah, but they're wrong," Cusack laughs now. "They're always wrong."
It's true that the typical Cusack hero has to lose the girl -- often in the most emotionally goring way possible -- before finding happiness. Yet, despite those regular failings and despite the actor's regular attempts to branch out, he's become forever associated with a single character type.
"Women keep telling us, 'I wish John would only make these kinds of movies, because I love him in these kinds of movies,'" says Suzanne Todd, one of the producers of "Must Love Dogs," Cusack's latest effort in the genre.
Cusack has often admitted to taking certain obvious crowdpleasers -- appealing, but unremarkable films like "America's Sweethearts" or "Serendipity" -- to then use his stature to assist darker, more independent-minded productions like "Being John Malkovich" or "Max." He chafes at the idea of typecasting, though.
"It seems to be this one thing that people do over and over again which is to try and figure out how to get married, stay married, fall in love, how to rekindle all of this stuff," Cusack explains. "It seems to me to be a pretty eternal thing. So I don't think that you can get typecast into making movies about men relating to women. That kinda seems to be what happens on this planet a lot."
In "Dogs," Cusack plays Jake, an old-fashioned guy whose ethos will be familiar to the actor's devotees. Hurt once too often in love, Jake has retreated into repeated viewings of David Lean's classic "Doctor Zhivago," fearing that the ideal cinematic romance is more satisfying than anything in real life. That all changes when he meets equally lovelorn preschool teacher Sarah (Diane Lane). It's no accident that Jake sounds like something of an evolution of Lloyd or Lane Meyer. Ask Cusack's co-star what he brings to his movies and the answer is swift and warm.
"A lot of rewrites," Lane replies, before adding other adjectives like "freedom," "levity" and "confidence."
Television veteran Gary David Goldberg, who wrote and directed "Dogs," estimates that around half of Cusack's performance came from his own script additions and ad libs.
"I would never deny John Cusack anything that he wanted to do," Goldberg says. "He is an absolute prince. He had some thoughts about this character much deeper and better than mine. I had constructed a much more generic guy."
Surely Cusack, the romantic movie legend and personal script doctor, has some quality recommendations for male readers, or the possibility of hope for females.
"Do I have dating advice?" he ponders. "No. I don't have any dating advice. Except endurance is more important than truth. I don't know what that means, but it sounds cool."
"Must Love Dogs" hits theaters nationwide on Friday, July 29.
Phair Balances Old, New On 'Miracle'
Liz Phair has finalized the track list for her fifth album, "Somebody's Miracle." As previously reported, the 14-track set will arrive Oct. 4 via Capitol. First single "Everything to Me," one of the album's three co-writes with producer John Shanks, will arrive imminently at U.S. radio outlets.
"Somebody's Miracle" is the follow-up to Phair's 2003 self-titled effort, which spawned her first crossover hit in the form of "Why Can't I?," but alienated longtime fans with its glossy sound and mainstream ambitions.
Phair has not exactly returned to her lo-fi, indie-rock roots; streamlined cuts like "Stars and Planets," "Giving It All to You" and "Count on My Love" seem primed for pop radio airplay.
But several tracks here should bring a smile to the face of devotees of her 1993 Matador debut, "Exile in Guyville," and its 1994 follow-up, "Whip-Smart." "Why I Lie" rides a sexy, Stones-style rock groove, while "Got My Own Thing" lopes along on a detuned riff that recalls the "Guyville" touchstone "Stratford-on-Guy."
While not as openly sexual as an earlier single like "Supernova," "Can't Get Out of What I'm Into" is a similarly fast, fun rocker about a relationship that flies in the face of better judgment. "It gives me something to laugh about / because my real life ain't f***in' funny," she sings.
Fresh off an appearance last weekend at Lollapalooza in her Chicago hometown, Phair kicked off a solo acoustic tour last night (July 26) in Boston and will be on the road through Aug. 19 in San Francisco.
Here is the track list for "Somebody's Miracle":
"Leap of Innocence"
"Wind in the Mountain"
"Stars and Planets"
"Somebody's Miracle"
"Got My Own Thing"
"Count on My Love"
"Lazy Dreamer"
"Everything to Me"
"Can't Get Out of What I'm Into"
"Table for One"
"Why I Lie"
"Lost Tonight"
"Everything (Between Us)"
"Giving It All to You"
Madonna Names Comeback Single
Madonna has chosen "Hung Up" as the first single from her new album, "Confessions on a Dancefloor." No release dates have been unveiled for either item, but both are expected in the fall via Warner Bros.
The artist's official Web site says "Hung Up" was produced by Stuart Price, who previously served as the musical director on Madonna's 2004 Re-Invention tour. As previously reported, that outing will be the subject of a DVD due out near year's end.
Madonna told ABC's "The View" in June that the new album is dominated by dance music and will likely be supported by a tour in 2006.
The set will be the follow-up to 2003's critically maligned album "American Life," which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200, but posted the lowest sales of any Madonna album to-date (657,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan).
DAYTIME TO DVD
Oprah Winfrey releasing a 20th anniversary DVD in November featuring highlights from two decades of The Oprah Winfrey Show, per the Hollywood Reporter.
Dark Knight returns on DVD
LAS VEGAS (Hollywood Reporter) - With "Batman Begins" nearing the $200 million mark at the North American box office, fans of the Dark Knight will soon be able to buy double-disc editions of the previous four "Batman" movies.
"Batman," "Batman Returns," "Batman Forever" and "Batman & Robin" will be released Oct. 18 via Warner Home Video. They will be available individually and as a gift set, "Batman: The Motion Picture Anthology 1989-1997."
Each DVD features a new digital transfer of the movie. Bonus features include director commentaries by Joel Schumacher and Tim Burton, cast and crew interviews, several new documentaries, "making of" featurettes and nine music videos from Prince, Seal and the Smashing Pumpkins.
D'Onofrio: Happy to share 'L&O' duties with Noth
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Vincent D'Onofrio, who was hospitalized briefly last year for exhaustion, says he now has "the cushiest job on television."
D'Onofrio will be splitting the workload on NBC's Law & Order: Criminal Intent with Chris Noth, who left the original Law & Order series 10 years ago. Each actor will appear in 11 episodes.
"I wouldn't be doing a fifth season if it wasn't for Dick Wolf stepping in and coming up with a better idea," D'Onofrio told reporters recently, according to AP Radio.
Wolf is the creator and executive producer of the Law & Order crime drama franchise, which also includes Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Kathryn Erbe co-stars with D'Onofrio on Criminal Intent.
The 46-year-old actor fainted on the set of the New York-based crime drama in November and was hospitalized. Several days later, he fainted at home. Medical tests revealed exhaustion.
"It was just too much. Kate and I, we work our butts off," he said. "It's not digging ditches but ..."
With Noth signing on, "Now I have the cushiest job on television. I do," D'Onofrio said. "Eleven episodes a season. I mean, you can't beat that."
D'Onofrio said exhaustion "crept up" on him and put him down "like a rabid dog."
"I was worried. My family was worried. My kids worried. And my exes were worried. Everybody was worried. And the doctors were worried. There were four neurologists and heart guys, specialists at NYU, New York University, that's where I was, at the hospital there."
Noth will again play Detective Mike Logan, his character from Law & Order. His partner will be played by Annabella Sciorra.
McCready Apparently Attempted Suicide
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Mindy McCready apparently attempted suicide, and a man charged last spring with trying to kill her was with the country singer when police found her unconscious in a Florida hotel lobby, authorities said Tuesday.
William McKnight, 39, had been charged with attempted criminal homicide and aggravated burglary in an attack on the 28-year-old entertainer earlier this year. The couple had broken up about two weeks before the attack, which occurred at McCready's Nashville home.
McKnight, who described himself as McCready's fiance, told authorities at the Holiday Inn Harborside in Indian Rocks Beach that she had taken a large amount of two substances and drank a lot of alcohol, according to a Pinellas County Sheriff's Department report.
Sgt. Jim Bordner refused to identify the substances, citing McCready's medical confidentiality rights.
Bordner also refused to release McCready's condition or the hospital where she was taken. He said only that she was "recovering at a local hospital."
According to the report, McKnight told authorities that he "had been having some relationship problems" with McCready and gave them a four-page suicide note he said she had written.
The note wasn't released.
McCready had testified in May that McKnight punched her in the face and choked her after he said she wasn't going to make a fool out of him by seeing other men. He posted $130,000 bail last month.
A few days before the attack, McCready — who had a hit in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time" — was arrested and charged with driving under the influence and driving on a suspended license.
Last year, she pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining the painkiller OxyContin at a suburban Nashville pharmacy and was fined $4,000, sentenced to three years of supervised probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.
Stones Back with a "Bang"
The birth of the universe was a pretty big deal--but not as important as the first new Rolling Stones record in eight years.
The Bigger Bang, the band's first studio effort since 1997's Bridges to Babylon, is set for release Sept. 6 in the United States, Virgin Records announced Tuesday--which not so coincidentally is Mick Jagger's 62nd birthday.
The new disc will bow a day earlier overseas.
In addition to the lead single, "Streets of Love," the album includes two Keith Richards-sung tunes; "This Place Is Empty" and "Infamy."
Among the 16 cuts Bang are: "Rough Justice," "Back of My Hand," "Laugh, I Nearly Died" and "Oh No, Not You Again," which the Stones previewed in May at New York's Juilliard School after announcing their forthcoming world tour.
One track earning some prerelease controversy is "Sweet Neo-Con," which apparently takes aim at the Bush administration and its strong-armed foreign policy.
Don Was, who produced the band's previous two studio sets, Bridges to Babylon and 1994's Voodoo Lounge, was behind the board for Bang. The eight-year lapse between studio albums is the longest in the band's 43-year history, although the Stones did issue the live album No Security in 1998 and the greatest-hits compilation Forty Licks in 2002.
Bang was recorded during late 2004 and early 2005 in France. Drummer Charlie Watts, who spent much of last year receiving treatment for throat cancer, played on all the tracks. (He's fully recovered and will tour with the band.) Although early reports suggested longtime guitarist Ron Wood was missing from many of the recording sessions, a press release Tuesday confirmed Wood was indeed a part of Bang.
The Stones have been working out the new material in an empty airplane hangar in Toronto in advance of their 35-date North American tour (now dubbed the Bigger Bang Tour), which launches Aug. 21 at Boston's Fenway Park. Rumors have been circulating that the Stones may play a warm-up club date or two in advance of their official tour kickoff, most likely in Toronto or New York.
The North American road show will feature rotating A-list opening acts, including Beck, Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5, John Mayer, Pearl Jam and Joss Stone. According to Virgin, fans have already snapped up 97 percent of all tickets currently available for sale.
The band will hit most of the rest of the world next year.
Report: Eminem Says He's 'Taking a Break'
NEW YORK - Is Eminem headed for retirement — or just taking a break? Earlier this month, reports from his hometown of Detroit quoted sources as saying the 32-year-old rapper would play his last concert at Slane Castle in Dublin, Ireland, on Sept. 17, at the end of "Anger Management" tour.
In a posting on its Web site, MTV quotes Eminem as saying, "I'm not retiring," and also denying that "Encore" is his last album.
Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, is quoted as saying: "When I say I'm taking a break, I'm taking a break from my music to go in the studio and produce my other artists and put their albums out."
He is also quoted as saying, "When I know my next move, I'll tell everyone my next move. Not some reporter who writes a story about `This is Eminem's last album.' I never said (`Encore') was my last album."
Phone messages and e-mails left with the rapper's publicist by The Associated Press hadn't been returned Monday.
Eminem has won nine Grammys, including best rap album for "The Slim Shady LP," "The Marshall Mathers LP" and "The Eminem Show." He won an Oscar for the song "Lose Yourself" from the 2002 film "8 Mile," in which he also starred.
The Couch Potato Report - July 26th, 2005
This week The Couch Potato Report features two films I love, one from 2005 and the other from 1979.
Kevin Costner has starred in the baseball themed films FIELD OF DREAMS (1989) FOR LOVE OF THE GAME (1999) and BULL DURHAM (1988).
Since I enjoyed all three of those films, and I love baseball and baseball movies in general, I was excited when I heard that Costner would once again portray a baseball player in the film THE UPSIDE OF ANGER.
I was doubly excited when I heard that he was also playing a radio announcer!
But THE UPSIDE OF ANGER has little to do with baseball, or radio broadcasting for that matter. In fact, Costner's role is a supporting one.
The actual star of this wonderful film is Joan Allen, from THE NOTEBOOK and PLEASANTVILLE.
When THE UPSIDE OF ANGER begins, Allen's character has lost her husband. He has literally vanished without a trace, and she presumes that he has run off to Europe with his secretary.
In addition to dealing with her own anger she has to care for her four teenage daughters, none of whom she is particularly close to.
Along comes Costner, the ex-baseball player turned radio talk show host neighbour who has always had feelings for Joan Allen's character.
Despite his alcoholism, and his refusal to talk baseball with anyone, he turns out to have a bit of a stabilizing effect among the women, and the family.
That all might sound way too dramatic but THE UPSIDE OF ANGER is exceptionally well written and features an abundance of smart dialogue.
It is dramatic, but it is also funny and quite touching at times.
In addition to Allen and Costner THE UPSIDE OF ANGER features four of today's most talented up-and-coming young actresses - Alicia Witt from VANILLA SKY, Keri Russell of TV's FELICITY, Erika Chistensen from TRAFFIC and Evan Rachel Wood, who is best known for the film THIRTEEN.
All four actresses are wonderful, and so is Kevin Costner, but as I mentioned earlier, this is Joan Allen's movie.
She gives her character a unique combination of raw emotion, alcoholism, sex appeal and pain, and the whole time you still aren't sure what to think of her.
From beginning to end THE UPSIDE OF ANGER is a great movie!
It is one of my favourite films of 2005, and I am very happy that it is finally available on video and DVD.
I remember back in the early nineteen eighties when I was excited about another film that had been released in a home viewing format.
That film was THE JERK and I have since owned it on Beta, VHS, Laserdisc and already once on DVD. It remains one of my favourites and one of the funniest films ever made!
And now we have a new widescreen 26TH ANNIVERSARY DVD EDITION of the film to enjoy!
Then stand up comic Steve Martin made his film-starring debut in THE JERK portraying Navin Johnson, the adopted son of a poor sharecropper family.
One of his inventions leads him from rags to riches and then he goes right back to rags.
Along the way, he's smitten with a lady motorcycle racer, survives a series of attacks by a deranged killer, and finds out what his "special purpose" is.
Yes, the film is stupid and idiotic and Martin is more than willing to play the fool.
And yes, I am the fool who has been laughing and following THE JERK for 26 years now!
It was the film that made me realize I had a "special purpose!"
For a few seasons back in the late nineties the special purpose of the television show SLIDERS was to entertain people.
SLIDERS is the show about four people who found a gateway to another dimension, but they forgot one problem... how to get back!
My older sister was a fan of the show, but I only watched it when we were visiting each other.
Since she wasn't with me, I must admit that I wasn't very excited about having to sit and watch the 25 episodes of the show that are contained in the 4-disc box set SLIDERS - THE THIRD SEASON.
In the end, I didn't mind watching the show, but I would never call myself a fan of SLIDERS.
The plots aren't very interesting and the special effects are very low budget.
But, I still enjoyed watching the box set because of the show's cast, namely Jerry O'Connell, John Rhys-Davies, Sabrina Lloyd and Kari Wuhrer.
SLIDERS may not have been the best science fiction TV show of all time, but it is entertaining enough, and if you are a fan, you now have this four-disc box set to enjoy whenever you'd like.
As for the box set that I have, well I am sending it to my sister, so she can enjoy it whenever she'd like.
The box set for THE THIRD SEASON OF SLIDERS, THE JERK and THE UPSIDE OF ANGER are all available now at a store near you.
COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT...
...is a look at the SPECIAL EDITION of the hilarious 1994 film SWIMMING WITH SHARKS.
Kevin Spacey from AMERICAN BEAUTY and SEVEN stars as the "boss from hell."
Spacey also starred in the 1997 film MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL, a movie directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Clint's daughter Alison.
The younger Eastwood ventured away from her Dad's career to star in the horror film THEY ARE AMONG US and it too is now available on video and DVD.
I'm Dan Reynish and I will have more on those films, and some other releases in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next week on The Couch!
'Extras' Special: New Gervais Comedy Premieres Big
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Nobody's saying it's better than "The Office," but the early results for Ricky Gervais' "Extras" seem positive. The comedy, which has earned strong reviews from the British press and positive buzz from American critics, had a rousing premiere last Thursday (July 21) night.
According to the British media, "Extras" drew some 4.6 million viewers to BBC2 on Thursday night. The comedy, which features Gervais as a frustrated actor working as a film extra, was the most watched program on British TV for its 9 p.m. half-hour slot, a somewhat rare occurrence for BBC2.
The opening numbers for "Extras," which premieres on HBO on Sunday, Sept. 25, were only slightly behind figures for the second season premiere of "The Office" in 2002. In both cases, the Gervais premieres captured a 24 percent audience share.
Gervais had insisted that "Extras" air on BBC2 rather than on the BBC mothership in order to give the show a slow build and prevent immediate mainstream success.
'Alias' star's baby won't be covert
LOS ANGELES — Jennifer Garner won't have to hide her pregnancy when Alias returns for its fifth (and probably final) season this fall.
That's because Garner's Sydney Bristow also is expecting with Vaughn (co-star Michael Vartan).
Though Ben Affleck's newlywed bride is due in December, Alias creator J.J. Abrams expects she won't miss work on the series, scheduled to resume production Friday. Producers plan to shoot earlier some scenes that would have been filmed during her short maternity leave: "She'll be in every episode," he says.
The decision to write her pregnancy into the plot also means the show can now air largely uninterrupted in its new home, Thursdays at 8 ET/PT, ABC says. An early plan called for the series to air eight episodes, take a long breather and return in the spring.
'L&O' means $$:
NBC may want to take creative risks, but for Law & Order producer Dick Wolf, it's all about business. He'd prefer that the press focus on the fact that the Law franchise generated $1 billion in ad revenue last season and not on the ratings declines posted by two of the shows and the cancellation of a third (Trial by Jury).
"We're not looking to be the hot show," he says of the series and its spawn. "We're about longevity, we're about repeatability, staying on the air and being a profit center for years to come."
Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which again faces Desperate Housewives this fall, is splitting its season in two with alternating episodes led by Vincent D'Onofrio and Chris Noth, returning as Detective Mike Logan. It's aimed at reducing the actors' schedules. And in a first, a foreign version of CI is in production for French network TF1. It's due next year.
Fame windfall:
Lottery winners aren't the only people who can go a little crazy.
Jason Gedrick (Boomtown) is returning to NBC in Windfall, a midseason soap about instant millionaires who get carried away by riches. But money, he says, isn't the only thing that can throw a person off. So can sudden fame. "When you come in, there are so many things that are promised to you. ... You can fall into the trap of 'Oh, maybe I deserve this.' "
What pulled Gedrick out of the trap? "I had friends in Chicago who said, 'You're just seconds away from being slapped.' "
Birth daze:
Babies are booming at NBC's Inconceivable.
Angie Harmon just had a daughter, and her co-star, Ming-Na, is pregnant. Co-creators Marco Penette and Oliver Goldstick each have used surrogates, and Goldstick and his partner are expecting their second baby in August.
Which explains why Goldstick thinks this NBC drama about a fertility clinic is timely. In the old days on TV, he says, women used to borrow a cup of sugar from a neighbor. "Now they can borrow an egg or a uterus."
Harmon, who joined the show after the pilot was shot, says she also felt a timely pull: She read the script when she was pregnant and fell in love with it. But she says it wasn't the hormones.
"I watched it after I had my baby, and I still liked it."
Spielberg's Olympic saga titled 'Munich'
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Steven Spielberg's next film finally has a title: Munich.
DreamWorks and Universal, which are co-financing the movie, announced the name Monday for the long-untitled thriller, which centers on the aftermath of the killings of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.
Eric Bana (Troy) stars as a Mossad agent who leads a secret Israeli squad assigned to assassinate 11 Palestinians suspected of planning the killings. Munich co-stars Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig and Mathieu Kassovitz.
The film is due out Dec. 23.
Spielberg's War of the Worlds, released in late June, just passed the $200 million mark at the domestic box office.
This marks the second time in recent years that Spielberg will have directed two movies released in the same year. Spielberg's Minority Report and Catch Me If You Can both came out in 2002.
NEW CD RELEASES FOR JULY 26, 2005
3 Doors Down Away from the Sun and Seventeen Days (both DualDiscs) (Universal)
Jason Aldean Jason Aldean (Broken Bow)
Appart Nu Tango (Milan)
Babyface Grown & Sexy (Arista)
Barcode Showdown (Nuclear Blast)
Natasha Bedingfield Unwritten (Epic)
Jeff Black Tin Lily (DualTone)
Blessing the Hogs The Twelve Gauge Solution (w/covers of Quicksand and the Melvins) (Goodfellow)
Boondogs Fever Dreams (Max)
Boys Night Out Trainwreck (Ferret)
Brad Brad vs. Satchel (Establishment Store)
Bratz Rock Angels (Hip-O)
Tom Braxton Bounce (Rendezvous)
Kai Brown Better Now (How Now Brown Cow)
Andy Caldwell Late Night with (house and downtempo mix CD) (Swank)
Caliban vs. Heaven Shall Burn The Split Program II (Lifeforce)
Eddie Cane Presents (PR Records)
Chameleon Struggle to Survive (Solidwave)
The Cherry Valence TCV3 (Bifocal Media)
Chiodos All's Well That Ends Well (Equal Vision)
The Church El Momento Descuidado (acoustic remakes of classic songs w/five new tunes) (Cooking Vinyl)
Cipher Children of God's Fire (Uprising/SideCho)
Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra Live at MCG (MCG Jazz)
Cobra Noir Abode of the Dead (Cyclop Media/Magic Bullet)
The Commercials vs. Shadow Agency The Split EP (Blackout!)
The Concretes Layourbattleaxedown (b-sides and rarities) (Astralwerks)
Cool Calm Pete Lost (Embedded)
Copperpot Chapter Seven Instrumentals (EV Productions)
Cru Jones A Roadside View EP (Undecided)
Brian Culbertson It's On Tonight (Verve)
Daikaiju Daikaiju (Reptile)
Aram Danesh and the Super Human Crew The Spot (Mammoth Entertainment)
Daphne Loves Derby On the Strength of All Convinced (Outlook)
The Dayton Family Family Feud (Koch)
Robert Deeble This Bar Has No One Left EP (Fractured Discs)
deSoL deSoL (Curb)
DJ Williams Projekt Projekt Management (Harmonized)
Dope American Apathy (also available as limited edition two-CD version w/six bonus tracks) (Artemis)
The Dying Light The Killing Plan (Willowtip)
The Early November/I Am the Avalanche Split EP (Drive-Thru)
Lauren Ellis Feels Like Family (Silverline)
Fear My Thoughts Hell Sweet Hell (Lifeforce)
Danny Federici Out of a Dream (V2)
Fight Paris Paradise, Found (Trustkill)
Norman Finkelstein An Issue of Justice (Alternative Tentacles)
Fruit Bats Spelled in Bones (Sub Pop)
Galactic Zoo Dossier #6 Magazine (Drag City)
Garage a Trois Outre Mer (Telarc)
Macy Gray Live in Las Vegas (DVD same day; 2004 performance at House of Blues) (Nutech Digital)
James Hardway Collective Over Easy (Lunaticworks)
Walter Hawkins A Song in My Heart (Coda)
Gary Higgins Red Hash (Drag City)
The High Dials War of the Wakening Phantoms (Rainbow Quartz)
Charlie Hunter and Bobby Previte with DJ Logic Longitude (Thirsty Ear)
Jason Isbell Sirens of the Ditch (New West)
Jan Martens Frustration Jan Martens Frustration (guest members of the Soundtrack of Our Lives and Hellacopters; includes new album plus debut EP and bonus b-side) (Hidden Agenda)
Kids Like Us Outta Control (Eulogy)
King Elementary Kudzu (Sweet Tea/Terminus)
Ani Kyd Evil Needs Candy Too (Alternative Tentacles)
Latin Pimps Me Voy! (Basement Front)
Keith LeBlanc Stop the Confusion (Collision)
Emily Lord Brand New Day (Jungle Queen)
The Love Hall Tryst (John Wesley Harding) Songs of Misfortune (includes traditional British folk songs, originals and a cover of Leonard Cohen's "Joan of Arc") (Appleseed)
Yngwie Malmsteen Unleash the Fury (Eagle Rock)
Mas Rapido Mas Rapido (Parasol)
Mazarin We're Already There (guest members of Lilys, Icarus Line and the Walkmen) (I & Ear)
Mcgowan Mcgowan (Manic Pop Thrill)
Mecca Bodega Skin (Harmonized)
Thee Minks Are You Ready Now? (Steel Cage)
Mon Frere Real Vampires EP (Cake)
Moonbabies War on Sound (Hidden Agenda)
Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill Acoustic (new version to celebrate album's tenth anniversary) (Warner Bros.)
Bob Mould Body of Song (Yep Roc)
Jason Mraz Mr. A-Z (produced by Steve Lillywhite) (Elektra/Atlantic)
Milton Nascimento Pieta (Savoy Jazz)
Nations by the River (Luke Steele of the Sleepy Jackson) Holes in the Valley (Astralwerks)
Odiorne Heavy Wish (guest members of Mercury Rev, Longwave and more) (file13)
Outspoken Spotlight (Indecision)
A Perfect Murder Strength Through Vengeance (Victory)
Mike Phillips Uncommon Denominator (Hidden Beach)
Psalm One Bio Chemistry 2: Esters & Essays (Birthwrite/Ev Productions)
Ian Rankin and Jackie Leven Present Jackie Leven Said (two CDs; live 2004 performance) (Cooking Vinyl)
Emma Rugg Oceans/Depart EP (Indreams)
Brian Setzer Rockabilly Riot Vol. One - A Tribute to Sun Records (hits and rarities made famous by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and more) (Surfdog)
Kevin Sharp Make a Wish (Cupit)
Shawn C This Is My Life (SA Music Group/456/Fontana)
Brian Simpson It's All Good (Rendezvous)
Trey Songz I Gotta Make It (Atlantic)
Space Vacuum from Outer Space Starcade (Dionysus)
Spellbound Encantos (Selfish)
Summer Lawns First We Waited...Then It Started (Stunning Models on Display)
Keith Sweat Candy Store (Sanctuary)
Third World Black, Gold and Green (Shanachie)
This Moment Finding a Voice in the Dark (Uprising)
Twiztid Mutant (Vol. 2) (Psychopathic)
The Unusual Suspects The Unusual Suspects (Teflon Muzik)
Yoko Utsumi Yoko Utsumi (Asian Man)
Gerald Veasley At the Jazz Base (Telarc Jazz)
Veda The Weight of an Empty Room (Second Nature)
Roger Alan Wade All Likkered Up (Oglio)
Lari White Green Eyed Soul (Skinny WhiteGirl)
Chris Whitley Soft Dangerous Shores (Messenger)
Wire The Scottish Play: 2004 (CD/DVD combo; live performance from Scotland's Triptych Festival) (Pinkflag)
Denison Witmer Are You a Dreamer? (w/Sufjan Stevens and members of the Innocence Mission) (The Militia Group)
Jim Yoshii Pile-Up Picks Us Apart (Absolutely Kosher)
Young Jeezy Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101 (w/Trick Daddy, TI, Young Buck and more) (Def Jam)
Young Sicc The Statement (PR Records)
VA Celtic Christmas (Eagle Rock)
VA Chicano Rap Explosion (Thump)
VA Gangbangin' Hits Mix (PR Records)
VA Honey Love - Smooth Jazz Plays R. Kelly (Shanachie)
VA Last Tango in Buenos Aires (Milan)
VA Meditation for Organ and Instruments (Milan)
VA reBOOT: Notes for the Next Generation (previously unreleased tracks from Thievery Corporation, Louie Vega, Mark Farina and more; benefit album for NextAid, which helps African children orphaned by AIDS) (Om)
VA Ruff Ryders - Ryde or Die Volume 4: The Redemption (w/DMX, Jadakiss, N.O.R.E., the Lox, Bunny Wailer and more) (Artemis)
OST Marilyn's Man (Empire)
OST Queer as Folk - Season 5 (Tommy Boy)
OST Sky High (Disney film w/Kurt Russell; w/covers of '80s songs by They Might Be Giants, Elefant, Bowling for Soup and more) (Hollywood)
OST The Island (Dreamworks/Milan)
DVD Maestro (two DVDs; documentary on early dance music from the late '60s through early '80s) (Sanctuary)
DVD Mixtape Legends Volume 2.0 (interviews and performances from underground rap artists) (Warlock)
DVD Death Cab for Cutie Drive Well, Sleep Carefully: On the Road with (tour documentary w/performances and interviews) (Plexiflim)
DVD Bruce Hornsby Three Nights on the Town (performances from three New York shows in October 2004; includes documentary and behind the scenes footage) (Columbia)
DVD Mushroomhead Volume 1 (music videos, live performance and behind the scenes footage) (Filthy Hands)
DVD S.O.D. 20 Years of Dysfunction (includes previously unreleased footage; w/rare live bonus CD, "Pussywhipped") (Megaforce)
Green Day, Stefani, Elliot Lead VMA Nods
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Luxury yachts and tricked-out cars. P. Diddy. And lots and lots of water. MTV announced Monday that its Video Music Awards will feature all of those elements next month as it seeks once again to reinvent an awards show that routinely lures big stars and makes racy headlines.
Punk rockers Green Day led all musical acts with eight nominations. Missy Elliott followed with six, and Stefani and U2 each had five.
P. Diddy will host the Aug. 28 awards show, which comes at the height of Miami's steamy summer and peak of hurricane season. The hip-hop mogul — or someone dressed like him (he was too far away to tell for sure) — swooped into Monday's beachfront announcement on a jet pack.
"One word — hot," said P. Diddy, wearing a white suit and a gray shirt with no tie. "It's hot out here, and it's going to be hot at the show."
P. Diddy promised that the show would include scene-stealing stunts like in the past. While there was plenty of sex appeal last year, there was little shock value compared to the 2003 show that featured the infamous Madonna- Britney Spears kiss.
"I'm going to tell the artists that if you want to get naked and run across the stage, go ahead and do it," P. Diddy said. "I'm not going to do teleprompter reading and corny jokes."
Besides Green Day, scheduled performers at the AmericanAirlines Arena overlooking picturesque Biscayne Bay include Kanye West and Kelly Clarkson. Also, for first-time, the VMAs will be scored with original music composed by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and hip-hop producer Lil Jon. West and Clarkson announced some of the nominees Monday.
Water will be the show's theme, and MTV promised to create the most elaborate water effects ever produced in an awards show. The water show will be engineered in the arena by the same production company that erected the fountain in front of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
"It could be a gigantic waterfall in the arena. It could be remote performances from pools around Miami," said Dave Sirulnick, the show's executive producer.
Celebrities once again will pull up to the arena in gleaming yachts.
But they will receive competition from other stars who will arrive in souped-up cars on the red carpet. As the celebrities arrive, viewers will get tours of those cars from the talent themselves.
"I want to show up in a pimped-out (Ford) Bronco," said Clarkson, a native of Texas. "I want big Texas wheels and I want them to jack it up."
Diddy also said he will be offering a $100,000 prize for the best-dressed who tread the red carpet, which could be changed to white this year at the host's request.
"I'm bringing a suitcase full of cash," he said.
This year's show promises to be different from last year's, when politics played a part because of the presidential campaign: The daughters of Democratic candidate John Kerry and President Bush made appearances to urge people to vote — and were roundly booed.
Green Day's eight nominations include six for their socially conscious song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and two for the "American Idiot," which also is the name of their critically acclaimed album.
"One thing I really want to plan for is ... to play great, of course," Billy Joe Armstrong, Green Day's front man, said in a telephone interview. "If we don't win anything, I know we'll walk away with everyone knowing that we played really hard."
Sony's Mega Payola Pay Out
Not that it's surprising or anything, but apparently getting radio stations to play a Jennifer Lopez song is a crime in New York.
Sony BMG decided to get right with New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, agreeing Monday to pay $10 million to the state in a blockbuster payola settlement that has rocked the music industry.
Among the revelations coming out of the settlement: Sony BMG routinely gave radio deejays and music directors cash or gifts to hype Sony BMG artists like Lopez.
In one email memo obtained in response to the lawsuit, a Sony radio promotions exec wrote: "Please be advised that in this week's Jennifer Lopez Top 40 Spin Increase of 236 we bought 63 spins at a cost of $3,600."
The "Get Right" singer's camp had no immediate comment on the label's pay-for-play practices involving her music. But Sony and its affiliated labels (including Arista, Columbia and Epic) did not limit their aggressive radio campaigns to Lopez.
Audioslave was linked to the scandal in a series of dispatches that showed VPs would do virtually anything to get an add for stations in large markets. "What do I have to do to get Audioslave on WKSS this week?" one missive read. "Whatever you can dream up, I can make it happen."
While outright pay-for-play was thought to be finished after strict legislation was enacted following scandals in the late 1950s, Spitzer characterized the practice as still "pervasive" in the music industry. He threatened to take on other labels in the wake of his success with Sony BMG.
While labels routinely hire independent record promotion companies to secure airplay for their artists in the increasingly competitive corporate-owned radio environment, outright gifts of laptops or trips tied to radio "adds" are prohibited under a 1960 federal law.
Still, Spitzer's suit against Sony BMG said the label was engaged in precisely that kind of payola scheme over the past few years--in a big way.
For its part, Sony BMG tried to move beyond the scandal, saying in a statement some of its employees had engaged in "wrong and improper" practices.
The label, whose market share dipped from 34 percent in the first half of 2004 to just 27 percent this year, also said it looked forward to "defining a new, higher standard in radio promotion" going forward.
One member of the FCC said that the email trail uncovered by Spitzer and his investigators was "a whole arsenal of smoking guns."
"This is a potentially massive scandal," Jonathan Adelstein, a Democratic member of the FCC, told the Associated Press. Spitzer has handed over his evidence against Sony to the commission, which could penalize any stations found to have been willing partners in payola.
Meanwhile, the $10 million penalty will go to nonprofit music-education programs, Spitzer said.
Country Singer Mindy McCready Hospitalized
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Troubled country singer Mindy McCready has been hospitalized in Florida after an overdose.
McCready, 28, was found unconscious Friday in a hotel lobby, according to authorities in Pinellas County, Fla. An incident report did not list the nature of the overdose.
Last week, McCready was charged in Arizona with identity theft and other counts. Within the past two years, she has also faced allegations of driving under the influence and a drug violation.
Dennis Tomlin, who had been her attorney until midday Monday, declined comment on the singer's situation Monday night except to say the singer has retained another lawyer.
Tomlin said earlier Monday that McCready had gone to Florida "to visit her mother when she found out about the potential charges in Arizona. The stress got to her and she ended up in the hospital."
He said then that she was in intensive care.
Details concerning the charges filed last week in Mohave County, Ariz., were not immediately available. Besides identity theft, charges against McCready included attempted fraudulent scheme and artifices, unlawful imprisonment and hindering prosecution.
Tomlin said last week that the singer was helping Arizona authorities apprehend a con artist who had bilked her and other celebrities out of large sums of money.
He did not elaborate on the details and declined to discuss them Monday night.
In May, McCready was charged in Tennessee with driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license.
Last year, she pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining the painkiller OxyContin at a pharmacy. She was fined $4,000, sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.
She was scheduled to be in a Williamson County court Monday for a probation violation hearing. A judge ordered Tomlin to produce an affidavit from her doctor by Wednesday.
McCready had a No. 1 hit in 1996, "Guys Do It All the Time."
Jodie Foster sweet on 'Sugar Kings'
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Jodie Foster is returning to the director's chair for the first time in 10 years with "Sugar Kings," a drama in which she may also star.
The Universal Pictures project centers on a female lawyer, fresh out of law school, who teams with a veteran public-interest attorney to take on a powerful sugar baron on behalf of exploited migrant workers.
It is based on the Vanity Fair article "In the Kingdom of Big Sugar" by Marie Brenner, and the script is being written by Ned Zeman and Daniel Barnz.
The last time Foster directed a film was 1995's "Home for the Holidays." She made her feature directing debut in 1991 with "Little Man Tate."
Foster was last on screen in 2004's French-language "A Very Long Engagement." She returns to theaters in September with the Disney thriller "Flightplan."
'Sith' DVD, game set for Nov. 1 release
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Force will return to retail stores Nov. 1 with a double whammy: "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" will be released on DVD, and "Star Wars Battlefront II" will be made available for all the top video game platforms.
"Sith" is the year's top-grossing movie, with domestic box office earnings of $373.9 million (and an additional $425 million overseas). The two-disc set will include a full-length documentary; two new featurettes, one exploring the prophecy of Anakin Skywalker as the Chosen One and the other on the movie's stunts; and a 15-part collection of "Web documentaries."
The five previous "Star Wars" movies have sold "well in excess" of 100 million units on DVD and VHS, said Steve Feldstein, senior vp marketing communications at 20th Century Fox, which is partnering on the release with "Star Wars" creator George Lucas' Lucasfilm production banner.
Lucas was personally involved in the creation of the "Sith" DVD and its bonus features, said Lucasfilm vp marketing and distribution Jim Ward.
"From the beginning of production, George wanted to be sure we chronicled everything that went into the making of 'Episode III' specifically to create an incredible DVD experience," Ward said. "This DVD has literally been three years in the making."
For video gamers, LucasArts' "Star Wars Battlefront II" will be available for Sony's PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable, Microsoft's Xbox and Windows platforms. It is the sequel to the best-selling "Star Wars" video game of all time and adds all-new space combat, playable Jedi characters and never-before-seen environments from "Sith."
The game also offers a new single-player experience that takes the player through an epic saga centered on Darth Vader's elite 501st Legion of Stormtroopers. Every action the player takes has an impact on the battlefield and, ultimately, on the entire "Star Wars" galaxy.
The "Sith" DVD will include a demo of two levels from the game, playable only on Xbox.
Courtney Love, David Grohl Still Feuding
NEW YORK - Though some have labeled David Grohl of the Foo Fighters the "nicest guy in rock," Courtney Love would beg to differ.
"Dave gets to walk away unscathed and be the happy guy in rock, when he's one of the biggest jerks," Love says in the August issue of Spin, on newsstands Friday. "He's been taking money from my child for years."
Love, the widow of Kurt Cobain, and Grohl, who played drums in Nirvana, have feuded before. Grohl and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic became mired in three years of litigation in a dispute over the timing of the famed grunge band's box set, "With the Lights Out."
They settled their legal issues in September 2002 and the CDs were released last year.
The office of Grohl's manager, John Silva, told The Associated Press Monday that Grohl wouldn't comment on Love's criticism.
As for being the "nicest guy in rock," Grohl wonders where the title came from.
"I don't know. Because I don't do coke?" Grohl asks Spin. "I supposed it's not taking anything for granted and feeling lucky to be here.
"There's ... thousands of nice guys in the world! Maybe it's because I have a goofy smile and people are like, `Ahttp://www, he's like a little kid!' I'm 36!"
The Foo Fighters are on tour of North America in support of their double album, "In Your Honor."
Love, 41, the former lead singer for the band Hole, was praised Friday by a Los Angeles judge for making progress in a court-ordered drug treatment program. The treatment is tied to a misdemeanor count of being under the influence of a controlled substance in 2003 when police said she tried to break into a former boyfriend's home.
Her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, is 12.
Summer Movies Become Winter DVDs
Okay, we've checked in with our industry and retail sources, and have obtained what we believe will be the official street dates for a number of upcoming DVD releases for the end of 2005.
Look for 20th Century Fox's 2-disc Kingdom of Heaven to be released on 10/11.
Lucasfilm and Fox will release Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith on 11/1. They'll also release Star Wars: Clone Wars - Volume 2 on 12/6.
Warner Home Video will debut Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants on 10/11, with Batman Begins following on 10/18. Also, look for the new Batman live action special editions (all four films) to be released on 10/18 as well.
Finally, Sony will release MGM's remake of The Amityville Horror on 10/4.
Watch for official announcements on these titles to be made soon.
'Housewives' producer criticizes CTV
BEVERLY HILLS -- Marc Cherry had no idea that CTV used his hit show Desperate Housewives as a Juno Award promotional stunt last season.
"It sounds horrible," was the Emmy-nominated executive producer's initial reaction when the Sun told him of the brazen programming ploy.
Last February, CTV -- the rights holder to Desperate Housewives in Canada -- took an hour-long episode of the hit ABC soap and broadcast it over 90 minutes. Padding it out was red-carpet coverage from Winnipeg -- the site of The Junos -- at the beginning and end of each commercial break.
"I don't think it's the best way to showcase Desperate Housewives," said Cherry. "I think it takes people out of the moment of the show, so I would question the wisdom of doing that in terms of what the fans would like to see."
Viewers who wrote the Sun at the time felt frustrated and "hijacked" by the CTV stunt.
"It's not how I like my show being viewed," Cherry added, while at the same time acknowledging that CTV "bought it, they paid for it and they can show it however they like."
That being said, CTV's Juno coverage may not be so Desperate next time. Despite the unprecedented use of the imported hit to hype a domestic award show, ratings for the annual music industry salute were down for the second year in a row, according to BBM Canada.
Cherry was all over the Television Critics Association's 21st annual award show Saturday night. Besides accepting the critic's nod for Program Of The Year, he stuck around for the rowdy after party, which has descended of late into a tipsy salute to the most intimidating critic on press tour (The Tony Soprano Award), the purveyor of the most useless knowledge (The Cliff Clavin Award) and other frat house funnies.
Cherry took time out from the hijinx to confirm that some new faces are moving on to Wisteria Lane next season.
Former Partridge Family mom Shirley Knight will appear as Marcia Cross' mother-in-law from Hell. Joely Fisher (Ellen) is also confirmed for next season. And Cherry let slip that he recently had lunch with former Knots Landing diva Donna Mills, who could re-team with hottie Nicolette Sheridan.
Crow Runs 'Wild' On New Album
Sheryl Crow has named her new album "Wildflower" after a track on the album inspired by her boyfriend, championship cyclist Lance Armstrong. As previously reported, the set is due Sept. 27 via A&M/Interscope and will be led by the single "Good Is Good," which will be featured in an ad campaign for computer supplier Dell.
In addition, Crow's Web site reports she has recorded acoustic covers of James Taylor's "You Can Close Your Eyes," Willie Nelson's "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain" and Aretha Franklin's "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Loved You)" for an expanded, Dual Disc edition of her "Artist's Choice" compilation via Hear Music/Starbucks.
Footage of Crow in the studio will be included on the DVD side of the album, which will be available in the fall.
As previously reported, Crow will join such acts as Paul McCartney, Wyclef Jean and Snoop Dogg on a Bee Gees tribute album, due next year via a label yet to be determined.
BROADWAY BOUND
Huey Lewis joining the Broadway production of Chicago as lawyer Billy Flynn, beginning Nov. 1.
Wonka, 'Wedding Crashers' Top Box Office
LOS ANGELES - "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Wedding Crashers" held off a rush of new releases to retain the top two spots at the weekend box office.
But after two straight weekends of rising revenue, Hollywood slid back into the slump that has lingered most of the year. The top 12 movies took in $128.9 million, down 7 percent from the same weekend in 2004.
"The business was there. It just got spread pretty thin among a lot of movies," said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox, whose films include "Fantastic Four."
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," starring Johnny Depp as candyman Willy Wonka, remained the top movie with $28.3 million, bringing its 10-day total to $114.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn's "Wedding Crashers" held on to the No. 2 spot with $26.2 million, raising its 10-day total to $80.9 million. "Wedding Crashers" held up strongly, its revenues off just 23 percent from opening weekend, compared to a 50 percent drop on "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
Michael Bay's cloning thriller "The Island" and the remake of the baseball comedy "The Bad News Bears" both debuted weakly.
"The Island," starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson as clones on the run from a facility that has raised them as spare body parts, took in $12.1 million to finish at No. 4. It came in just behind "Fantastic Four," which grossed $12.3 million to lift its 17-day haul to $122.6 million.
Never a critics' darling, director Bay ("Armageddon," "Pearl Harbor") actually earned somewhat better reviews than usual for "The Island." Distributor DreamWorks was puzzled why Bay's action fans failed to turn up.
"I don't know. Clearly, it's a disappointing opening," said Jim Tharp, DreamWorks' head of distribution. "We can only hope the film finds its audience in the next few weeks."
"Bad New Bears," featuring Billy Bob Thornton as a washed-up ballplayer coaching a team of Little League misfits, came in fifth with $11.5 million.
The acclaimed independent film "Hustle & Flow," starring Terrence Howard as a pimp trying to become a rap singer, debuted at No. 7 with $8.1 million. That was a solid opening compared to "The Island" and "Bad News Bears," which played in more than 3,000 theaters, three times as many as "Hustle & Flow."
Rob Zombie's horror tale "The Devil's Rejects," a follow-up to his 2003 slasher flick "House of 1000 Corpses," opened at No. 8 with $7 million.
The Antarctic documentary "March of the Penguins" expanded to 695 theaters, up from 132 the previous weekend, and cracked the top 10 with $4.3 million.
With an $8.8 million weekend, Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise's "War of the Worlds" climbed to $208.3 million, second-best for the year after "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," which has hit $376 million.
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. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," $28.3 million.
2. "Wedding Crashers," $26.2 million.
3. "Fantastic Four," $12.3 million.
4. "The Island," $12.1 million.
5. "The Bad News Bears," $11.5 million.
6. "War of the Worlds," $8.8 million.
7. "Hustle & Flow," $8.1 million.
8. "The Devil's Rejects," $7 million.
9. "Batman Begins," $4.7 million.
10. "March of the Penguins," $4.3 million.
'Wind' Blowing In New, Rare Young Albums
Neil Young has christened his new studio album "Prairie Wind," which will be released as a CD/DVD package Sept. 20 via Reprise. "The DVD shows us recording the whole record," the artist writes on his Web site. "Every note you hear, you see!" The set is expected to feature contributions from keyboardist Spooner Oldham, pedal steel guitarist Ben Keith and drummer Carl Himmel.
As first reported here, Young will also be the subject of a concert film to be shot during several performances next month at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. The project will be directed by Jonathan Demme ("Stop Making Sense," "The Silence of the Lambs").
And while full touring plans have yet to be confirmed, Young is set to appear at the annual Farm Aid benefit concert Sept. 18 in Tinley Park, Ill., which will feature performances from Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews, Wilco and new addition Kenny Chesney.
Young will also perform at his long-running Bridge School fundraiser Oct. 29-30 in Mountain View, Calif.
Finally, the artist's site says his next major project will be the release of "Archives Vol. 1" on a yet-to-be-announced date. Young has been conceptualizing the release of material from his extensive vaults for decades, and the project has frequently come and gone from release schedules over the years.
Eva Longoria Shrugs Off Emmy Snub
NEW YORK - "Desperate Housewives" star Eva Longoria has shrugged off being snubbed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in this year's Emmy nominations.
"I'm new. I just arrived. I didn't expect at all to be in the minds of the Academy," she tells syndicated TV show "Extra" in an interview set to air Friday night.
Three of the ABC show's stars, Teri Hatcher, Marcia Cross and Felicity Huffman, were nominated for best comedy series actress. (Also overlooked was Nicollette Sheridan, who had gotten a Golden Globe supporting-actress nomination for the show.)
"I was disconnected from newspapers," says Longoria, who was in China when the nominations were announced last week. "I didn't experience the hoopla."
"Desperate Housewives," a dark satire about life in suburbia, cleaned up with 15 nominations. The show asked to be considered in the comedy series category, usually home to half-hour sitcoms.
"I'm so happy that we're in the comedy category," says Longoria. "I love going against the traditional comedy."
On her budding romance with Tony Parker of the San Antonio Spurs, Longoria says: "They (the press) got it right ... it's so hard to keep things private because then you compromise your own lifestyle. It's like I don't want to hide, I don't want to eat in every day ... we have a good time and we don't care what is written."
Longoria says she's decided to learn French, since Parker is a native of France.
"It's a beautiful language. I mean his whole family speaks French and all his friends. I mean I want to be in the conversation," she says. "I am going to have to get with it."
Blues legend Long John Baldry dies
VANCOUVER (CP) -- Vancouver-based blues legend Long John Baldry has died after a four-month battle with a chest infection, his agent said Friday on the musician's website.
The 64-year-old musical giant was admitted to the intensive-care unit of a Vancouver hospital in April after returning from a trip to his native Britain with respiratory problems.
Baldry is credited as one of the main forces in British blues, rock and pop music in the 1960s and first hit the top of the U.K. singles charts in 1967 with Let the Heartaches Begin. He has released over 40 albums.
Baldry, nicknamed Long John because of his six-foot-seven-inch height, had been living in Canada for most of the past 25 years.
He has performed and recorded with such top rock 'n' rollers as Rod Stewart, Elton John, Charlie Watts and Mick Jagger. The Rolling Stones even opened for Baldry in London during an early performance in the 1960s, before the band became a household name.
The British press reported that Stewart considered Baldry a mentor, and was at his bedside when he was first admitted to hospital after he fell ill in March. There were reports Stewart even helped to pay his ailing friend's medical bills.
Baldry claimed blues legends like Big Joe Turner, Muddy Waters and Chuck Berry as his earliest musical influences.
'BB6' contestant's legal past revealed
Contestant Janelle Pierzina was in deep trouble even before entering the ‘Big Brother’ house. According to The Smoking Gun site, Pierzina answered a three and a half year-old arrest warrant just days before starting the ‘Big Brother’ game.
In 2001, Pierzina faced a misdemeanor theft charge after being accused of stealing from a Macy’s store. Court records show that between 2001 and 2004, three warrants were issued for Pierzina’s arrest when she failed to appear in court. On June 24, Pierzina pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor theft charge. She was fined $982 U.S. and ordered to stay at least 100 yards from Macey’s.
The Smoking Gun also reports that Pierzina has faced bench warrants before when she failed to appear for an arraignment on a misdemeanor DWI count. Pierzina was sentenced to a 60-day suspended jail term, placed on a year's probation, fined $1000, and directed to enroll in an alcohol education program. Pierzina failed to complete the alcohol education program and another bench warrant was issued for her arrest. Pierzina later appeared in court and completed the program.
Scotty's ashes to be sent into space
LOS ANGELES (AP) - He made his name in Hollywood beaming his colleagues back to the safety of the Enterprise on Star Trek. Now, actor James Doohan's family is hoping to beam him up to the "final frontier" that Doohan's character Scotty loved so dearly.
The actor, who died Wednesday at age 85, had told relatives he wanted his ashes blasted into outer space, as was done for Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry.
"He'll be there with his buddy, which is wonderful," said Doohan's agent and longtime friend, Steve Stevens.
Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Wash., with his wife of 31 years, Wende, at his side. He had retired from public events last year, not long after announcing he had Alzheimer's disease.
Houston-based Space Services Inc., which specializes in space memorials, plans to send a few grams of Doohan's ashes aboard a rocket later this year. Remains are sealed in an aluminum capsule that stays in orbit up to several hundred years before falling and vaporizing in the Earth's atmosphere, the company has said.
It should be a fitting finale for an actor who, as the Starship Enterprise's frazzled chief engineer, saved the Enterprise almost every week from blowing up, burning up or being overrun by renegade aliens when the warp drive, the phasers, the shields, the power cells or some other futuristic collection of doohickies failed.
As the man who commanded the Enterprise's particle beam transporter, Doohan's character also inspired the phrase, "Beam me up, Scotty." Capt. Kirk and other members of the Enterprise crew never really issued the order quite that way, however, until the fourth Star Trek film when Kirk said, "Scotty, beam me up."
A master of dialects from his early years in radio, the Canadian-born Doohan experimented with seven different accents for the hard-pressed engineer.
"The producers asked me which one I preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years later. "I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, 'If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman.' "
Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, the youngest of four children of William Doohan, a pharmacist, veterinarian and dentist, and his wife, Sarah. He wrote in his autobiography, Beam Me Up, Scotty, that his father was a drunk who made life miserable for his wife and children.
At 19, he escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, where he became a lieutenant in the artillery and was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day.
After the war, Doohan enrolled in a drama class in Toronto on a whim. He showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse, where fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone.
His commanding presence and booming voice brought him steady work as a character actor in films and television in Canada and the United States. Then came Star Trek and fans forever screaming "Beam me up, Scotty."
"Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years," he said in an 1998 interview. "It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun."
Married three times, Doohan was the father of nine children.
"A long and storied career is over," William Shatner, who played Kirk, said Wednesday.
In Toronto, members of Toronto Trek, an annual convention that just wrapped up last weekend, plan to hold a memorial gathering at an east-end pub on Saturday evening.
They will share memories and photos, sign a condolence book to be sent to the family, and will no doubt toast old Scotty with a glass or two of single malt.
'Half-Blood Prince' is a full-on smash
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince blasts to the top of USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list Thursday, the fifth consecutive No. 1 debut for author J.K. Rowling. First-weekend sales of the book, the sixth in the series, were 23% higher than sales of 2003's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, according to the list. A deluxe edition enters the list at No. 3.
U.S. Publisher Scholastic says 6.9 million copies sold in the first 24 hours and 13.5 million are in print.
The buzz over Half-Blood Prince pushed the series' first five books back into the list's top 50 and lifted sales of Harry Potter Schoolbooks and a box set of the first five books into the top 150. But there are indications Potter-mania is reaching saturation. Sales of the Potter back catalog tracked by the list were 41% lower than two years ago, when Phoenix went on sale.
The Couch Potato Report - July 20th, 2005
This week The Couch Potato Report features two films that I nether loved or hated.
It is very rare that an edition of The Couch Potato Report has two films that I am indifferent toward.
Usually I will really like at least one of the films I am reviewing.
But this week, indifference is the order of the day.
Since it doesn't really matter, let me start with the supernatural action film CONSTANTINE.
Keanu Reeves follows up the very successful MATRIX TRILOGY by playing a man who keeps a delicate balance between Heaven and Hell.
CONSTANTINE is based on the very unique comic book Hellblazer. The comic is unique because it is part horror, part action and part fantasy.
Sadly, the film is never horrific enough, doesn't have enough action, and the fantasy elements are okay at best.
Even if you've never read or seen the comic, that statement is true.
The film's title character is John Constantine. He walks the streets of Los Angeles to eradicate those who don't belong on this mortal coil in order to ensure that "the balance" between God and the devil is maintained.
Throw in a police officer who is trying to clear up the mystery surrounding her sister's death and some comments on religion and Catholic salvation, and that is CONSTANTINE.
To its credit, CONSTANTINE is never boring. There is enough things going on in the film - either actually on screen or in your head due to the script - that you will feel like seeing how it ends.
But once it ends, that is when the indifference will come.
The film isn't bad, but it isn't good either.
It is just there, and then its over.
If you like cinematic comic book adaptations, or really loved THE MATRIX TRILOGY, then perhaps your feelings after watching the film will be different than mine.
I however, remain just as indifferent to CONSTANTINE after seeing it twice, as I did after seeing it just once.
Once was enough for this week's other new film, the not great, but not bad ICE PRINCESS.
If you know a young lady who enjoyed THE PRINCESS DIARIES films then this is another movie for her.
It is a fairy tale for girls who dream about what or who they would like to be.
Michelle Trachtenberg of EUROTRIP and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is an A plus student who begins studying the science of figure skating as a project to get a University scholarship.
Along the way she discovers that not only does she have talent, she likes figure skating.
And to simplify the rest of the synopsis, with the help of her coach, her parents, and the boy who drives the Zamboni machine, nothing can stop her from having her dreams come true!
ICE PRINCESS doesn't take itself too seriously, and admittedly it is geared for a younger audience than me, but in the end the film just follows the tried and true movie formula of: dream, go for your dream, dream comes true.
Had it given its audience something more, I might happily recommend it.
As it is, the film isn't bad, but it isn't good either.
It is just there, and then its over.
As for me, I'm just indifferent, toward both of this week's releases.
That said, CONSTANTINE and ICE PRINCESS are both available now at a store near you.
COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT
THE UPSIDE OF ANGER is one of my favourite films of 2005, and it is finally available on video and DVD. Joan Allen from THE NOTEBOOK and PLEASANTVILLE plays a woman who's husband has vanished without a trace. The film is about her attempts to save herself and her family. It is a superb movie!
Another superb film, for a different reason is the one that Steve Martin made his film debut in back in 1979. Now, in 2005, we have a 26th ANNIVERSARY EDITION of THE JERK.
We also have the THIRD SEASON of the late nineties TV show SLIDERS, the show about four people who found a gateway to another dimension, but they forgot one problem... how to get back!
I'm Dan Reynish and I will have more on SLIDERS, THE JERK, THE UPSIDE OF ANGER, and some other releases in seven days.
For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.
Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next week on The Couch!
Cusack's new film a labour of 'Love'
LOS ANGELES (AP) - After some 20 years playing unconventional heroes, it's surprising to discover that John Cusack looks classically heroic in the flesh.
In a hotel promoting the new romantic comedy Must Love Dogs, the beefy six-foot-two actor seems to loom larger than most of his best-known screen characters.
Among them: the romantically challenged, boom-box hoisting Lloyd Dobler in Say Anything (1989); bumbling, stumbling young playwright David Shayne in Woody Allen's Bullets Over Broadway (1994); and the wise-beyond-his-years U.S. Marshal Vince Larkin in the action blockbuster Con Air (1997).
In Must Love Dogs, Cusack is Jake, a down-out divorcee dragged into the world of Internet dating, where he meets another reluctant romantic, played by Diane Lane. Based on Clare Cook's 2002 confection of a novel, the breezy date film is one of the last places you'd expect to find the 39-year-old Cusack, who generally prefers meatier fare.
AP: The character of Jake builds boats that he seems to care more about crafting than selling. It seems as if putting art over commerce is an important tie that binds you with this guy.
Cusack: I think the character has started a small business and made some money and now he's sort of doing what he wants to do, and so I think sometimes that might be kind of what I've done, which is I've tried to do some more commercial movies so that I can go do movies that I want to do. In that sense, I'm like him in a way. You know, he's sort of stubborn in a way. And I think I probably am, too.
AP: You seem to have always favoured artier films over commercial ones. And when you have gone for the blockbusters, there's been surprising artistic integrity. Take Con Air.
Cusack: There's always that balance. I mean, I would be totally disingenuous if I said I didn't always think, Well, can this movie be good and successful. Can this be commercial, but is it going to be a big release? And you think about all those things. It would be a lie if I said I don't. A movie like (Con Air), you know it's going to be a big summer release and it's (produced by) Jerry Bruckheimer ... it's designed to be this big, commercial thing.
AP: Still, it doesn't appear as if you've ever sold your soul.
Cusack: No, I actually think a movie like that is actually more straight up than some movies that pretend to be art-house movies but are really kind of pandering.
AP: How about Must Love Dogs?
Cusack: This is one that's kind of both. I was going to go off and make another film, and it fell apart because the business is so weird these days. ... And then they called and said, Well, there's this romantic comedy with Diane Lane. I went, Wow! I guess that would be pretty good because I hadn't done a lot of romantic comedies lately, and I thought the opportunity to work with her was so great. And then I met (director) Gary Goldberg and he seemed like just the greatest guy in the world: totally collaborative, open, and just this great person. ... And it ended it up being a really great experience - really wonderful, wonderful group of people. You know, it's light fare in the sense that it's not about war and disease or any of that stuff. It's about dating and love and it's a very kind of springtime movie. ... But (Goldberg) very much was intensely interested in these characters, and loved them, and really wanted to give them the biggest stage to work on that he could, flesh them out. So, it was a very, very enjoyable kind of artistic process to go do it.
AP: What do you think the film says about dating and romance?
Cusack: We're all kind of God's fools. The process is going to make fools out of all of us, I think: fools in the best sense, in the sense of struggling and innocent and vulnerable.
AP: Are you a dog guy?
Cusack: Yeah, I love dogs.
AP: It's got to be hard, because you're on the road a lot.
Cusack: Yeah, it's hard for my lifestyle, because you're gone. But one day ...
'Star Trek' Star James Doohan Dies
LOS ANGELES - James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and movies who responded to the command "Beam me up, Scotty," died Wednesday. He was 85.
Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. at his Redmond, Wash., home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.
He had said farewell to public life in August 2004, a few months after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
The Canadian-born Doohan was enjoying a busy career as a character actor when he auditioned for a role as an engineer in a new space adventure on NBC in 1966. A master of dialects from his early years in radio, he tried seven different accents.
"The producers asked me which one I preferred," Doohan recalled 30 years later. "I believed the Scot voice was the most commanding. So I told them, 'If this character is going to be an engineer, you'd better make him a Scotsman.'"
The series, which starred William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the enigmatic Mr. Spock, attracted an enthusiastic following of science fiction fans, especially among teenagers and children, but not enough ratings power. NBC canceled it after three seasons.
When the series ended in 1969, Doohan found himself typecast as Montgomery Scott, the canny engineer with a burr in his voice. In 1973, he complained to his dentist, who advised him: "Jimmy, you're going to be Scotty long after you're dead. If I were you, I'd go with the flow."
"I took his advice," said Doohan, "and since then everything's been just lovely."
"Star Trek" continued in syndication both in the United States and abroad, and its following grew larger and more dedicated. In his later years, Doohan attended 40 "Trekkie" gatherings around the country and lectured at colleges.
The huge success of George Lucas' "Star Wars" in 1977 prompted Paramount Pictures, which had produced "Star Trek" for television, to plan a movie based on the series. The studio brought back the TV cast and hired director Robert Wise. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" was successful enough to spawn five sequels.
The powerfully built Doohan, a veteran of D-Day in Normandy, spoke frankly in 1998 about his employer and his TV commander.
"I started out in the series at basic minimum - plus 10 percent for my agent. That was added a little bit in the second year. When we finally got to our third year, Paramount told us we'd get second-year pay! That's how much they loved us."
He accused Shatner of hogging the camera, adding: "I like Captain Kirk, but I sure don't like Bill. He's so insecure that all he can think about is himself."
James Montgomery Doohan was born March 3, 1920, in Vancouver, British Columbia, youngest of four children of William Doohan, a pharmacist, veterinarian and dentist, and his wife Sarah. As he wrote in his autobiography, "Beam Me Up, Scotty," his father was a drunk who made life miserable for his wife and children.
At 19, James escaped the turmoil at home by joining the Canadian army, becoming a lieutenant in artillery. He was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day. "The sea was rough," he recalled. "We were more afraid of drowning than the Germans."
The Canadians crossed a minefield laid for tanks; the soldiers weren't heavy enough to detonate the bombs. At 11:30 that night, he was machine-gunned, taking six hits: one that took off his middle right finger (he managed to hide the missing finger on screen), four in his leg and one in the chest. Fortunately the chest bullet was stopped by his silver cigarette case.
After the war Doohan on a whim enrolled in a drama class in Toronto. He showed promise and won a two-year scholarship to New York's famed Neighborhood Playhouse, where fellow students included Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall and Richard Boone.
His commanding presence and booming voice brought him work as a character actor in films and television, both in Canada and the United States.
Oddly, his only other TV series besides "Star Trek" was another space adventure, "Space Command," in 1953.
Doohan's first marriage to Judy Doohan produced four children. He had two children by his second marriage to Anita Yagel. Both marriages ended in divorce. In 1974 he married Wende Braunberger, and their children were Eric, Thomas and Sarah, who was born in 2000, when Doohan was 80.
In a 1998 interview, Doohan was asked if he ever got tired of hearing the line "Beam me up, Scotty."
"I'm not tired of it at all," he replied. "Good gracious, it's been said to me for just about 31 years. It's been said to me at 70 miles an hour across four lanes on the freeway. I hear it from just about everybody. It's been fun."
Springsteen 'Storytellers' Headed To DVD
Bruce Springsteen's recent turn on the VH1 series "Storytellers" will emerge on DVD Sept. 6 via Columbia Music Video. The footage has been re-edited, expanding the program from the one-hour version that premiered April 23 on the music channel to nearly two hours for the home video release.
Beyond Springsteen's introductions and anecdotes regarding the eight songs he performed at the April 4 taping at the River Theater in Red Bank, N.J., the DVD includes a Q&A session with the audience that was not part of the VH1 broadcast. The show was recorded in high definition and the DVD boasts a 5.1 Surround Sound mix and a PCM Stereo mix.
The material Springsteen selected to discuss and perform for the show was equally balanced between recent fare and vintage songs. Two songs stemmed from his latest solo album, "Devils & Dust" -- the title track and "Jesus Was an Only Son" -- and two from 2002's "The Rising" -- the title track and "Waitin' on a Sunny Day."
For the older selections, Springsteen reached back to his 1973 debut album, "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.," for "Blinded by the Light" and to his 1975 classic "Born To Run" for the anthem "Thunder Road." He also explained the title track to 1982's spare solo project "Nebraska" and was joined by wife/E Street Band singer/guitarist Patti Scialfa on "Brilliant Disguise," from 1987's "Tunnel of Love."
Springsteen is in the midst of his second leg of solo North American tour dates in support of "Devils & Dust," playing Bridgeport, Conn., tomorrow (July 20). As with the tour's first leg, each show pays dividends to a local food bank through World Hunger Year's (WHY) Artists Against Hunger & Poverty Program.
Each organization receives a pair of tickets to a show to auction, an arrangement that raised more than $50,000 for the 14 groups participating in the tour's first leg, according to WHY. The charities also distribute information and collect donations at their local concert.
Here is the "VH1 Storytellers" DVD track list:
"Devils & Dust"
"Blinded by the Light"
"Brilliant Disguise"
"Nebraska"
"Jesus Was an Only Son"
"Waitin' on a Sunny Day"
"The Rising"
"Thunder Road"
A Smurfin' Movie Deal
Fans of a certain animated tribe of small, blue woodland creatures haven't gotten a lot of love lately: No new TV episodes, no old TV episodes on DVD (outside of a couple of import releases), no real news on a long-rumored movie.
Now, finally, things are looking rather smurfin'.
A 3-D, CGI-animated Smurfs feature film will bow in theaters in 2008, Daily Variety reported Tuesday. The extravaganza from Paramount's Nickelodeon Movies will be the first in a planned trilogy, it said. According to Newsweek, the project has been trying to get off the ground since at least 2003.
Word of the done deal comes a week after DreamWorks and Paramount set a July 4, 2007, release date for The Transformers, another animated TV series due for a big-screen makeover. But while Transformers fandom has thrived, fueled by new series and product, the smaller legions of Smurf faithful have waited.
"Dude, a Smurf movie?" went a message-board post on TheMovieBlog.com last month after Newsweek noted a film was nigh. "That's the smurfing best thing I've heard in smurfing forever."
Like the Transformers, the Smurfs were a phenomenon of the 1980s, unless one lived in Europe, where the characters have been mainstays since 1958, when Belgian artist Pierre Culliford, better known as Peyo, introduced them in the comic pages. The new movie's planned release date supposedly is tied to Smurfdom's upcoming 50th birthday.
Peyo's creations--the aforementioned small, blue woodland creatures who lived in homes shaped like mushrooms, whistled happy tunes, conjugated the word "smurf" in any way they saw fit, and named themselves Ramones-style (Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Grouchy Smurf, etc.)--blew up as big as any Transformer robot in 1981 when The Smurfs debuted on NBC. The Hanna-Barbera-produced series won two Daytime Emmys, moved much merchandise, from Smurf-Berry Crunch cereal to countless figurines, and dominated Saturday morning TV until 1990. A 1983 big-screen adventure, The Smurfs and the Magic Flute, grossed $11 million, per the box-office site The-Numbers.com, even though it was nothing more than a retitled, redubbed version of a 1976 Belgian-produced movie.
There was no word on voice actors for the new film. The Smurfs' family recently lost Gargamel, the bad, and Baby Smurf, the good, in the death of performer Paul Winchell. Don Messick, who voiced Papa Smurf and others, died in 1997. Smurfette, meanwhile, lives. Lucille Bliss, who gave high-pitched voice to the tribe's lone female member, is 76, and still working.
As for Peyo, he died in 1992. His progeny, however, has kept right on their merry way.
'Reader's Digest' reaches 1,000 issues
CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) - If your grandmother claims she's squirrelled away every issue of Reader's Digest, there will soon be an easy way to check: just go up to the attic and count to 1,000.
The 1,000th issue of the 83-year-old mini-magazine comes out this week, and the occasion is likely to prompt thoughts about the Digest's colourful history and its status as an American symbol.
But the magazine, which is celebrating with a party in Manhattan on Thursday night, is studiously looking forward rather than back. The commemorative August issue includes a 95-page section devoted to "the big ideas that will change our lives in the next five to 10 years," such as do-it-yourself doctoring, food as medicine and extreme vacations.
"History can be found anywhere these days, books or the Internet or whatever," editor-in-chief Jacqueline Leo said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We have to tell people that we are not only of their present but of their future, too, and that we're looking out for them."
The cover proclaims Special 1000th Issue, but the magazine barely mentions its own history. There's nothing about founder DeWitt Wallace, who priced the first issue in 1922 at 25 cents - it's now $2.99 US on the newsstand. His magazine was a quick success, and by 1925 the Pleasantville, N.Y., post office was forced to expand to handle all the mail. The Digest moved to Chappaqua in 1939.
There's "Laughter, the Best Medicine" and "Humor in Uniform," but no mention that Reader's Digest has run more than 100,000 jokes and paid more than $25 million for them.
And there's a table of contents, of course, but no mention that until 1998, all the stories were listed on the cover. For its first three-quarters of a century, you didn't have to open up the magazine to see what was inside.
Soon you won't have to open the magazine at all. Beginning July 26, the entire issue will be available on the Reader's Digest website. It's free for now, but Leo said that may become a new way to subscribe. The magazine's small size means it can be seen at actual size on the computer screen, she noted.
"Reader's Digest is going to be available any way the reader wants it," she said. "We find that young people love the size. It fits in their pocket, it fits in their backpack, it fits in their glove compartment."
The Digest, which started as a collection of articles condensed from other sources, is now at least 80 per cent original. It still favours gripping adventures and inspiring human interest pieces but has more consumer-oriented stories than in the past.
"We want to own this century like we owned the last one," Leo said. "We want to help our readers deal with it."
Once considered a conservative magazine, "we now present the issues instead of a strong point of view," said spokeswoman Ellen Morgenstern. She said the Digest now stresses "fairness, decency, hope and optimism."
Circulation, once as high as 17.75 million, was purposely trimmed from 11 million to 10 million in 2004 to focus on the magazine's most loyal readers. That's still enough to make the Digest the largest paid magazine in the world.
There is a Spanish-language edition, Selecciones, sold in the United States, plus 48 editions - including a Canadian edition - in 19 languages sold in more than 60 other countries.
Publishing Director Laura McEwen said readership is 41 million, "and you can't get that even with a Desperate Housewives finale."
Leo said the age of subscribers recently showed "a slight downtick" from 51 to 50.
"It's no longer your grandma's magazine," Leo said. "Or maybe it is, but it's yours, too."
Peas' Fergie still single
You can relax boys.
If you're one of the delusional who likes to fool himself into thinking you actually have a shot -- Fergie is technically still on the market.
Contrary to recent published reports, the member of the Black Eyed Peas is not engaged to Las Vegas star Josh Duhamel.
"Oh, no," Fergie (Stacy Ferguson) told the Calgary Sun on Monday.
"No, no, no -- I'm not engaged.
"That's all a rumour ... it's crazy. (I can) entirely dismiss that right now."
"I'm not engaged -- there's no time to have a wedding right now."
And when and if there finally is, don't expect to see the pictures splashed all over People, Us or any of the other celeb-watching supermarket magazines.
"Josh and I try to stay out of the limelight together," the 30-year-old says.
"It's not like we're the couple that goes down the red carpet and flashes a big smile at the camera -- that's just not our style."
But the fact that people actually care, that gossip columnists would even speculate about it -- and the rest of us would have to follow up on it -- shows exactly how far Fergie has come since joining the veteran Black Eyed Peas prior to their 2003 breakthrough album Elephunk, which yielded seven million copies sold, a Grammy, several hits and high profile gigs.
She is now officially a star -- much photographed, much sought-after -- something she can can acknowledge while at the same time reiterating she's only one member of a successful four-piece act.
"I just think it's really flattering ...," she says."
"But in different areas we all have our different audiences."
Granted, but there is an increasingly larger audience that is waiting for a solo album from the singer -- who could easily have a career comparable to that of Gwen Stefani's.
Fergie admits that's a possibility, but for now, she's happy to be part of the biggest act in hip hop and pop music.
"It's always been transparent and well known that I'm going to do a solo record," says the one-time child star, featured on the TV show Kids Incorporated, as well as a member of the all-girl R&B act Wild Orchid.
"It's just a matter of when. And after Elephunk it just didn't feel right -- it felt right to make another Black Eyed Peas record.
"So mine will come after.
"Everyone's got their time and it's got to be the right time. I wasn't ready to be onstage without my boys."
Good thing, too. Because together, the four-piece from L.A. (Fergie, Will.I.Am, apl.de.ap and Taboo) are responsible for this year's Monkey Business, one of the best summer party albums -- and mainstream records -- to come along in ages.
It is very much the sum of its parts, with the chemistry -- much like on Elephunk -- of all of the Peas coming into play.
All of their unique personalities as well as, rather importantly, the gender makeup contributes a great deal to their wide appeal.
"I think that people can relate with it, the whole female and male perspective -- giving both sides of that is nice," she says.
"Because a lot of times you'll often hear just from the female perspective when you go to a show or you'll see the opposite.
"This is a two-sided perspective on things, like relationships.
"It's nice to have that contrast."
It's also nice that their music and their performances are more about fun than anything else.
Take Monkey Business tracks such as the James Brown collaboration They Don't Want Music and the ridiculously stoopid but wonderfully catchy My Humps -- it's all about the get-up and have a great time.
"The key thing for us is not taking ourselves seriously," she says.
"And we want the people to do the same when they come to the show -- just let loose.
"We're acting like idiots onstage and getting buck wild and not really caring about how we look or trying to be pretentious, it's all about having a good time and that's what the record's like as well."
Of course, with the success, there have been some calling the addition of Fergie -- after several years of BEP in the underground -- and the move towards pop music a calculated stab at stardom.
Of the criticism, Fergie doesn't seem to concerned, merely taking the opportunity and making the most of it.
"People can call it what they want," she says, "but it's just making great music and not really thinking too hard about that."
Foo Fighters, Weezer Tour To Bow In September
Details of the co-headlining Foo Fighters/Weezer tour Foos leader Dave Grohl hinted at in June are beginning to come together. The North American arena tour, with support from Kaiser Chiefs, will open Sept. 8 in Atlanta and run through late October.
A handful of other early shows have been nailed down: Sept. 10 in Sunrise, Fla.; Sept. 11 in Tampa, Fla.; Sept. 13 in Houston; Sept. 14 in Austin, Texas; and Sept. 15 in Dallas.
The trek will then proceed to San Diego and Fresno, Calif.; Phoenix; Denver; Minneapolis; Chicago; Champaign, Ill.; Detroit and Grand Rapids, Mich.; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; Baltimore; Worcester, Mass; New York; Philadelphia; Seattle; and Portland, Ore.
The Foos are in the midst of a slate of international shows that continues July 29 at Japan's Fuji Rock Festival, with Canadian and European dates to follow, including appearances at England's Reading (Aug. 27) and Leeds (Aug. 28) festivals. The band's double album "In Your Honor" (Roswell/RCA) debuted last month at No. 2 on The Billboard 200, where it is No. 9 in its fourth week on the chart. The set has sold nearly 580,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.
Weezer's U.S. tour stops in Orlando, Fla., tomorrow (July 19) and wraps July 23 at the Lollapalooza festival in Chicago. Japanese and European dates will then keep the band busy through August supporting the Geffen album "Make Believe." The set, which debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200, has sold 526,000.
The fourth season of Alias comes to DVD in October
Buena Vista Home Entertainment has just announced the release of Alias: The Complete Fourth Season for October 25.
The DVD box set will feature over 4 hours of bonus features, including extras such as an Interview with Jennifer Garner and a Featurette called “Meet Mia Maestro.” Also included on the box set are Deleted Scenes and Outtakes as well as other features.
“Alias: The Complete Fourth Season” is scheduled for release on October 25 at a suggested retail price of $59.99
Potter sales tallied, author dreads day it's over
LONDON (Reuters) - Bookstores around the world tallied sales of the sixth Harry Potter installment on Sunday, but after the eagerly awaited global launch over the weekend, the magic was wearing off for some.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" is expected to be the fastest-selling book in history, with British retailer Waterstone's forecasting that 10 million copies would have been snapped up worldwide during the first 24 hours of trade.
The early feedback was bullish. British book chain WH Smith reported first-hour sales of 13 books per second across the 391 shops it opened in the early hours of Saturday, compared with eight per second for the fifth Harry Potter adventure.
In the United States, the largest bookseller, Barnes & Noble Inc., said it sold 1.3 million copies in the first 48 hours. In the first hour, the bookstore chain said it sold 379,000 copies or 105 copies per second.
Borders Group, headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said it sold more than 850,000 copies in the first 24 hours. Meanwhile, online bookseller Amazon.com reported that customers had ordered more than 1.5 million copies.
The launch, at one minute past midnight British time on Saturday, ended months of hype and elaborate steps to protect the contents of the penultimate chapter in the seven-story saga.
Children poured into book shops across the globe, dressed as witches, wizards and other favorite Harry Potter characters.
Underlining the anticipation surrounding the book, instant reviews appeared on the Internet within hours of the release, most of them favorable.
Young readers picked up on the darkness of the plot.
"With its dramatic, violent conclusion, this book is by far the darkest and unsettling HP yet," wrote 12-year-old Indigo Ellis in the Sunday Telegraph. "Maybe it will leave a few more seven-year-olds in tears. But it also makes it the best so far."
A sizeable minority of older readers, however, was less than impressed by the 607-page work.
"It's wordy, flabby and not very well edited -- perhaps a bit less inventive than previous ones," wrote Suzi Feay, literary editor of Britain's The Independent on Sunday. "We could have done with some better gags."
AUTHOR "DREADING" DAY IT'S OVER
Author J.K. Rowling, 39, said she had already finished the final chapter of the last book in the series.
Fourteen-year-old Owen Jones, who won a competition to hold a rare interview with the writer, asked Rowling if she was looking forward to completing the Harry Potter series.
"I'm dreading it in some ways, because I do love writing the books and it's going to be a profound shock to me, even though I've known it's coming for the past 15 years," she said in a televised interview.
Eyeing the huge marketing opportunity, publishers issued two hardback versions of the book on Saturday, one for adults and another for children.
Supermarkets, Internet stores and book shops engaged in a fierce round of discounting, with one British outlet offering the book to young buyers for 4.99 pounds ($8.80), less than one third of the recommended retail price.
Rowling has been credited with winning over a new generation of young readers. British newspapers predict that her fortune, already estimated at $1 billion, was set to grow by 20 to 25 million pounds as a result of the first-day sales alone.
The plot of the latest episode was shrouded in secrecy. When a handful of copies were sold before the deadline in Canada, purchasers were ordered not to disclose its contents, and, according to media reports, even to read it.
Rowling defended the security surrounding the launch.
"I find it upsetting and disquieting that some elements are so keen on spoilers because it seems such a mean-spirited thing to do," she said. "This isn't about money or anything other than the pleasure of reading."
Some sought to put the Harry Potter phenomenon into perspective.
"Oh for a timely spell of reality," Roland White wrote in the Sunday Times.
"Let's keep things in perspective. Until Friday, the Harry Potter series had sold about 270 million copies worldwide. Which is considerably less than the one billion shifted by the late, rather unfashionable, Barbara Cartland."
Mandy Moore Set for Scrubs?
Singer/Actress Mandy Moore will having fun on the set of TV’s Scrubs next season. TV Guide says Scrubs actor, Zach Braff, who plays Dr. John 'J.D.' Dorian on the show, has managed to woo his rumored squeeze to appear on the show this fall. The show’s creator, Bill Lawrence, says "The one thing I can tell you is I think we got Mandy Moore on the show. Zach is friends with her, so he got her to come on the show for fun." While Moore hasn’t confirmed her Scrubs appearance, Lawrence says, "She said she'd do it, but nothing's ever definite in acting until someone signs on the dotted line. She's such a talented young lady, she can play whatever the hell she wants to."
Wedding Crashers
At first, it's a little disconcerting hanging out with Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn at Dodger Stadium, in Los Angeles, watching a ballgame. Given what you know about them from their movies, you expect a few things. You expect Owen to act lazy, goofy and stoned-out, and Vince to be tossing off raised- eyebrow wisecracks, and girls to be gathered around, hoping for a ride home. Instead, after ordering two hot dogs, two bottles of water, two Cokes, nachos and a bag of peanuts, they turn to each other and start riffing in a Gauloise-smoking, grad-student kind of way, not a joke in sight.
"What exactly does the word 'circa' mean, do you think?" Vince says to Owen, apropos of nothing, really.
"It means 'around,' " Owen says to Vince.
"Right. But what exactly does it mean?"
"It's just a bullshit kind of thing to say to sound kind of smart. 'Presupposes' is another."
" 'Presupposes.' "
"And 'Cite your sources.' "
" 'Cite your sources.' "
Then Vince offers up an example of his own. " 'Parenthetically speaking.' "
" Oh, yeah," says Owen, savoring the phrase. "That's a good one."
Briefly, both are silent. But then, suddenly, Vince erupts with another random query: "Who was the president of the Confederacy?"
Owen: "Jefferson Davis. Who wouldn't know that?"
This is all very well and good, but it isn't exactly what you want to hear from these two, especially since they've got a movie coming out called Wedding Crashers, about a pair of pickup artists who specialize in hooking up at weddings. Skip the history lesson. Let's talk chicks. But that would be so crass, so expected. So, the conversation veers off in any number of different directions.
They both firmly deny that they, along with Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Will Ferrell and Owen's actor-brother Luke, are part of some highly organized, tightknit, power-consolidating, new- order comedy mafia, as recently postulated by the thinking heads at the New York Times.
Getting back to the game, they both say that as kids they stunk at baseball.
"I just wasn't any good," Owen says, looking a bit down. "I'm afraid of the ball."
Licking nacho goo off his fingers, Vince says, "On my team, they called me Eagle Eye. At first, I was excited, like, 'Hey, Dad, they love my eye!' And then, when I'm at bat, they tell me, 'Come on, Eagle Eye. A walk's as good as a hit.' And then I sort of figure it out: 'Hey, wait a minute. They're not cheering me on to swing but to not swing!' It wasn't exactly flattering."
Owen is about to add more of his two cents when out of the blue a dolled-up, exceedingly top-heavy brunette makes an appearance a few rows away. All talk of childhood traumas comes to an end.
Vince checks her out. "There'll be no babies starving on her shift!" he says.
Owen grins.
And suddenly all is right with the world again.
Owen Wilson is most often seen around L.A. wearing jeans and a T-shirt, chewing peppermint Altoids gum, maybe sitting on the lap of some Playboy Bunny or other, his blunted, twice-broken nose not holding him back any, flopsy- mopsy blond hair looking beach-boy-slacker perfect. On the Internet, Wilson watchers refer to him as "the Butterscotch Stallion," for the color of his hair and his presumed wild, wild ways. It's well known but bears repeating: He's a writer as well as an actor, and with senior-year University of Texas roommate Wes Anderson has penned three great movies, Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and the Oscar-nominated Royal Tenenbaums, all of them featuring the roundabout loopy dialogue that suits him so well when he speaks it. His snappy flapping lip single-handedly saved Armageddon from being totally unwatchable, and he's not a bad flyboy-hero-under-pressure, either (Behind Enemy Lines).
Vince Vaughn is staggeringly tall and pretty beefy, with a sometimes puffy-looking face and an odd penchant for wearing fatherly wingtip shoes. Whereas Wilson's laugh is honk-honk-honk, Vaughn's can be a nearly girlish squeal. His first major movie role, playing fast-talking semi- loutish Trent in 1996's Swingers, made him an instant star, though in the movies that followed (way-serious acting roles in The Locusts, the dreadful Gus Van Sant remake of Psycho, The Cell, etc.) he lost his way, only to find it again starting in 2003, in comedies like Old School and then DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story. Nowadays he's most often seen playing a softer, mellower version of his old Swingers self, a welcome sight.
In the past, Wilson has dated Sheryl Crow and, most recently, Argentine burlesque dancer Carolina Cerisola. Vaughn once dated Ashley Judd, Joey Lauren Adams and Janeane Garofalo. At the moment, however, neither is seeing anybody. They're single, out there, on the loose, a couple of ladies' men who are pleased to be free and, of course, free to be pleased, just like their characters in Wedding Crashers.
On the lush green grounds of the Getty Museum, in Los Angeles, Wilson is sitting in the shade, at a table, munching away on a Rice Krispie Treat, just hanging out and talking about some of his preferences in women. He is, he says, primarily an ass man. "It seems to me if a girl has a good ass, she has a good body," he's saying, "but I'd almost just as soon not have sex if you're going to have to wear one of those, even though it's hard to find the moral high ground when making that argument to a girl. Anyway, there are other ways."
As it turns out, this overall general attitude of his recently made the news, in a half-blind item in the New York Post, as follows: "Which blond stud, nicknamed the 'Butterscotch Stallion,' has a perverse sexual bent? He recently picked up a girl at a wedding [!], and the two went back to his hotel room. When the woman asked if he had a condom, the actor replied, 'I don't want to have sex with you, but I do want to do something else' -- and proceeded to lick her buttocks for 'over two hours.' "
OK, so Wilson's real interest in butts is allegedly as objects to be licked. It's nothing to be ashamed of, really, and Wilson probably isn't, nor is he likely to be upset by his fling's loose talk. It comes with the territory, and he's got a sunny attitude about such things.
"It's like, 'Who cares?' " he says. "I play it as it lays. OK, so I may not be the greatest lover in the world. Well, let's make that angle work. There's lots of different paths to the waterfall. You don't have to be Don Juan. And wasn't it Gloria Steinem who said that women have to be responsible for their own orgasms? Well, I take her at her word. I'll do my best, OK, but at a certain point you've got to, like, you know...."
(Excerpted from RS 979, July 28, 2005)