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.