Diana's Loyal Fans Mark Somber Anniversary

LONDON - Princess Diana's most loyal fans gathered outside her former home Wednesday to remember the eighth anniversary of her death and to revile the woman who succeeded her as the wife of Prince Charles.

Britain's royal family planned no special observances. Her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry, "will be going about their business as normal," said a spokesman at Clarence House, Prince Charles' official residence. The spokesman declined to be identified, in keeping with royal policy.

Outside Kensington Palace, Diana's home after her divorce from Charles, bouquets of roses, carnations and lilies were placed on the fence by her fans. The number of people at the site at any one time was in the dozens, in contrast to the throngs who piled up mounds of flowers in the days after Diana's death.

There were messages from Australia, Argentina and the United States, and pictures of Diana from every stage of her life. Some of the mourners wiped tears from their eyes; even more wiped sweat from their foreheads on a warm summer morning.

Diana died in a car crash in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997, along with boyfriend Dodi Fayed and chauffeur Henri Paul. The only survivor was Diana's bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, who was badly hurt.

Many of those who came to Kensington Palace Wednesday were upset that Charles in April married the former Camilla Parker Bowles — the woman the princess had blamed for the failure of the marriage.

In a gesture to the sensitivities of the Dianaphiles, Camilla took the title of Duchess of Cornwall rather than using Diana's title of Princess of Wales.

"Every year is hard but it's been more so this year because Charles married. I can't even say her name," said Julie Cain.

"She (Diana) is our queen of hearts. You never forget your queen of hearts," said delivery driver Raymond Nurse, 44. "Camilla — they will forget her, she's rubbish — but not our Diana."

Nurse and his wife, Lisa, 37, are members of the Diana Circle, a group set up to honor her memory, and came bearing pink lilies and a photo of Diana. "We'll be here next year and the year after that," Nurse said.

One of the many anti-Camilla messages taped to the gates at Kensington Palace said, "Adulterers will be punished on judgment day."

Cain, 42, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, spent the night in a London park next to the palace waiting to pay her respects.

"We camped out overnight and we do it every year because we have to try to keep Diana's memory alive," said Cain. "There's certain people within a certain family that just want to eradicate her from history. As long as I've got breath in my body I'll be coming here."

About 50 people gathered to hear Father Frank Gelli, the former curate of St. Mary Abbots Church nearby, conduct a brief prayer service.

The priest said afterward he believed it had been a difficult year for some of the Diana supporters.

"I want to say of course that a priest must be a reconciler, not a divider, I don't want to say anything that would be antagonistic but I do realize that there has been some hurt and hurt should be catered for."

Standing near Gelli was retired clown Edward Larki, 85, who came in white face makeup, plaid suit, a magenta tie and a yellow bowler hat. He came dressed that way, he said, because he had met the princess several times and "this is the only way Diana knew me — as a clown."

Joining in the bitterness which marked the occasion, Larki said that he never got close to Charles, "I would knife him for what he did to Di."

'Virgin' Waxing Scene Easy - for Co-Stars

LOS ANGELES - The day that had to be Steve Carell's most difficult while filming "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" was the easiest for the guys who played his friends.

In a scene where Carell gets his chest hair waxed, the former "Daily Show" star wasn't acting. His co-stars weren't either.

"It was really like the easiest day of filming for us because we just had to stand there and watch, and all of the reactions were pretty organic," Paul Rudd told reporters.

Rudd, best known as Phoebe's husband in the last season of "Friends," also co-starred with Carell in last year's "Anchorman."

Carell — who punctuated the painful rips by shouting things like " Kelly Clarkson!" — made the "Jackass"-style scene funnier with his reactions, Rudd said.

"The first few times it was just like, oh my God. What makes it funny was also Steve's reaction, because it takes a second for the pain to hit," he said.

Studios Hope to Salvage Disappointing Year

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood's long, dreary summer finally is over. Now it's on to the good stuff. And it better be good, if film studios hope to salvage what's shaping up as the worst year for movie attendance since the late 1990s.

After a summer season that left audiences generally uninterested, the fall and holiday lineup offers the promise of fresh films with an exotic cast of characters that includes country music legends, a great ape, teen wizards and a Japanese geisha.

The long-awaited adaptation of the best seller "Memoirs of a Geisha," director Rob Marshall's follow-up to "Chicago," stars Ziyi Zhang as a poor Japanese girl who becomes a geisha goddess.

Many people define "geisha" as a high-end prostitute, but Zhang discovered a rich artistic and social fabric behind the geisha culture.

"From my opinion, `geisha' means a woman skilled in the arts. Like dancing, singing and playing musical instruments," said Zhang, making her first English-language movie after such Chinese martial-arts hits as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero."

"They are also skilled in the art of conversation," said Zhang, who underwent two months of geisha "boot camp" to learn complicated dances, the proper way to wear kimonos and the art of pouring tea.

Other big films include Steven Spielberg's "Munich," a thriller about the slayings of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics; "All the King's Men," starring Sean Penn as the Southern political boss of Robert Penn Warren's classic novel; "Jarhead," a Gulf War tale with Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx; " Tim Burton's Corpse Bride," an animated yarn featuring the voices of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter; "The New World," Terrence Malick's epic set in colonial America with Colin Farrell; and "Elizabethtown," Cameron Crowe's romance starring Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom.

Also, "The Weather Man," with Nicolas Cage as a TV forecaster who has a stormy personal life; "Get Rich or Die Tryin'," starring 50 Cent as a street hood aiming for a rap-music career; "Oliver Twist," Roman Polanski's fresh take on the Charles Dickens orphan-boy classic, featuring Ben Kingsley; the animated "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," the big-screen debut of TV's cheese-loving Brit and his faithful dog; and "In Her Shoes," a sister-act tale from director Curtis Hanson ("Wonder Boys," "L.A. Confidential").

"In Her Shoes" follows two sisters, one a knockout ( Cameron Diaz) who has leeched all her life off her workaholic sibling ( Toni Collette), and the grandma ( Shirley MacLaine) who helps them reconnect after a bitter estrangement.

"My character, she's kind of gotten away with her looks, gotten away with her ability to charm people and find her way without having to work," Diaz said. "And she's kind of coming to the end of that rope, as well as having nothing to fall back on, having bitten the hand that's always fed her."

Science-fiction and fantasy are shaping up as some of the season's biggest attractions, led by "The Lord of the Rings" mastermind Peter Jackson's new take on "King Kong," starring Naomi Watts as the beauty who steals the heart of the gigantic primate.

The fourth " Harry Potter" tale casts the young hero (Daniel Radcliffe) into an international wizardry competition that leads him to another showdown with dark sorcerer Voldemort ( Ralph Fiennes).

The British fantasy franchise gets its first English director in Mike Newell ("Four Weddings and a Funeral"). For all the magical trappings of "Harry Potter," Newell enjoyed injecting a sense of his own classroom days into Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"Aside from everything else, these are school stories," Newell said. "In a middle-of-the-road English education, the teachers are embattled, the school is a very kind of anarchic place and a very funny place, as well. Where two sets of people — one of which is becoming adults and one of which is trying to avoid going back to becoming children — clash.

"The anarchy of youth, it is really rich stuff. I loved that. I loved doing the school side of it."

Hollywood's current love affair for fantasy continues with "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," adapted from C.S. Lewis' "Chronicles of Narnia" series.

The film, whose cast includes Tilda Swinton and Jim Broadbent, follows the adventures of four English children in World War II who battle an evil witch enslaving a magical land of giants, talking animals and centaurs.

"Narnia" director Andrew Adamson (the "Shrek" movies) figures the recent surge in fantastical stories has something to do with the real-world stories audiences see all the time on TV and on the big screen.

"There has been an awfully lot of reality programming in the last 10 years and natural-disaster movies. I do think there's somewhat of a backlash," Adamson said. "People do want to be taken to new worlds. They're kind of tired of this one and want to go somewhere where they can let their imagination run free a little bit."

Fall's fantasyscape also includes the video-game adaptation "Doom," starring The Rock as part of a commando force taking on creatures from another realm on Mars; and "Serenity," a sci-fi adventure whose behind-the-scenes story is a drama unto itself.

After scoring with the TV version of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," Joss Whedon created a smart, funny show called "Firefly," about misfits living on the edge of the law aboard the rickety space ship Serenity 500 years in the future.

"Firefly" lasted only 14 episodes but its cult audience kept interest alive. Now Whedon has directed the big-screen continuation "Serenity," reuniting the "Firefly" cast.

"I took the overreaching arc I was headed toward in the TV show and made that the plot of the movie," Whedon said. "I had to jettison or streamline plenty of things. It's two totally different mediums, and you've got to respect that. A TV show can kind of meander its way along and find a little piece of something for everybody. A movie is more about the momentum of the main story."

Sarah Jessica Parker also returns to the big screen in "The Family Stone." After her TV series "Sex and the City," Parker is on familiar turf as a Manhattan woman in love, though her character is the flipside of Carrie Bradshaw. Parker plays a career woman who makes a terrible impression on her fiance's relatives when meeting them for the first time.

Unlike loose and lively Carrie, Parker's character is a tightly wound woman who "is really at a loss to navigate basic interactions that so many of us feel confident about," the actress said. "So many people feel fairly comfortable around new people. They can figure out a room or say something inappropriate then navigate back from it. She doesn't have those skills."

Also trying something different are Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon as Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash in director James Mangold's "Walk the Line," a portrait of the early years of the country star who died in 2003.

"I'm not a singer by any means," said Phoenix, who did his own singing (as did Witherspoon). "If it was a fictional character where it was a made-up voice, it might have been harder. But I had a specific voice to go after, so I had to work specific muscles and really work at hitting certain notes. It was nice to have a recognizable voice as a goal."

Also on the musical front: "Rent," director Chris Columbus' follow-up after making the first two "Harry Potter" flicks; and "The Producers," Susan Stroman's adaptation of Mel Brooks' Broadway show that won a record 12 Tonys. Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick reprise their roles.

Charlize Theron and Keira Knightley each have two wildly different films coming. Both actresses step into full action mode, Theron with "Aeon Flux," adapted from the animated sci-fi TV show, Knightley with "Domino," a casino-heist caper inspired by the real-life story of actor Laurence Harvey's daughter, who quit her modeling career to become a bounty hunter.

"It's one of those things you hear about and think, `God, this is an absolutely insane story. It's so crazy it has to be true,'" said Knightley, noting that while Domino Harvey's career switch is true, the casino heist is make-believe. "She's an amazing woman to turn her back on everything that certainly we in today's society would think she could want."

Knightley also headlines the 18th century period piece "Pride & Prejudice," a new adaptation of Jane Austen's classic about love, marriage and Britain's rigid social-class structure.

Theron also stars in "North Country," a drama about a single mother who takes groundbreaking legal action over sexual harassment by co-workers at a Minnesota mining company in 1989.

"If you were a single mom, there's no way to support yourself and your kids by working in a hair salon," Theron said. "It's about a woman who decides to go and do what was considered a man's job, but was treated quite horribly for it and decides she has to fight for her rights when everyone thinks she should just shut up and take it."

Steve Martin also has a twofer season with "Cheaper By the Dozen 2," reprising his role from the 2003 family hit as patriarch of a family of 12 kids, and "Shopgirl," adapted from his short novel.

"Shopgirl" stars Claire Danes as a Saks clerk wooed by a rich older man (Martin) and a younger guy ( Jason Schwartzman). The story originated with Martin's long-held interest in how people go about looking for love.

"There was a time in my life when I was very interested in relationship psychology," Martin said. "Relationships end, but they don't end your life. But people do often spending more time finding out about failed relationships than finding successful ones."

Though he had not envisioned any movie prospects when he wrote the book, Martin said once he had adapted it into a screenplay, he felt should go ahead and act in the film, as well.

"I would have felt a little funny if another actor was playing this role," Martin said.

CBC, union to resume labour talks

TORONTO (CP) -- In the first major break in the two-week-old CBC lockout, both sides will sit down for "some preliminary talks" Wednesday, says CBC spokesman Jason MacDonald.

The development was confirmed by chief Canadian Media Guild negotiator Arnold Amber on Tuesday afternoon.

The public broadcaster locked out 5,500 of its employees, who are members of the CMG, on Aug. 15 after negotiations on a new contract broke down.

"The parties, through their chief negotiators, have had some good discussions over the last few days and have agreed it's time to get the negotiating committees back together," says a message on the guild website.

The union says smaller groups from both committees will begin the work to create the necessary dialogue to move towards agreement on the key outstanding issues.

"Talking's always better than walking," said Amber with a chuckle. "You know, you have to start somewhere. This is a start. It's all to the good."

Juliana Hatfield on a twisted trip to 'China'

BOSTON (Reuters) - Even when she's in love, Juliana Hatfield is miserable. Not that she always realizes it.

The durable singer-songwriter, who says she is "always frustrated and anxious and pissed-off and depressed," has just released a cathartic, aggressive album with sonic dissonance worthy of Neil Young or John Cale.

Life was actually going well when Hatfield, 38, recorded "Made in China," a low-budget effort on her own label, Ye Olde Records. She collaborated on the project with her boyfriend, a guitarist 15 years her junior, and says she was "having a great time" with the youngster. But her subconscious had other ideas.

"In looking back at the relationship, I can see that there are all these things happening, that I didn't want to admit or acknowledge, and I think that stuff got into the music," Hatfield told Reuters in a recent interview before playing to a small but ardent hometown crowd at the Paradise club.

"You can feel that in the music, just the unease and the distrust of the things that satisfy people, and make people feel good."

ALONE AGAIN, NATURALLY

Several months after the album was recorded, Hatfield and her boyfriend, Joe Keefe, ended their 18-month romance, by mutual consent, she says. It was her longest and most fulfilling relationship, and now she has a lasting souvenir: he played on eight of the 12 tracks alongside his bandmates in local band the Unbusted, and co-wrote two of the songs.

Hanging out with Keefe and his equally youthful buddies was a pleasant experience for Hatfield, who sought his help in harnessing a deep source of energy she says has been trapped inside her since she was 12 years old.

Now she is back to her default setting: alone, sharing her digs in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her Labrador retriever and tomato plants. Her eerie, newfound skinniness notwithstanding, she swears she is not miserable, and has even cut her therapy sessions to twice a month.

Only one song on the new album is about Keefe, "Digital Penetration," a joyous ode to her "island boy." Keefe is from Martha's Vineyard, and he saw her perform there when he was 14, though Hatfield stresses they did not meet then.

Her favorite song from the album is "Oh," one of four tracks on which she plays all the instruments. It sounds as if it could be a Neil Young outtake, which was not a conscious style choice. But she cites Young, as well as the Rolling Stones' Keith Richards and Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis as her favorite guitarists "in that they're all sorta sloppy."

Hatfield claims to be a "disgrace to guitar players everywhere" because she never practices and is insecure about her inability to play fast.

ALIVE, NOT BITTER

The album title is drawn from a line in the song "What Do I Care," in which she disdainfully recalls her days as a commodity on Atlantic Records in the 1990s.

Back then, she enjoyed such hits as "My Sister" and "Spin the Bottle," and it seemed that Hatfield -- along with female rockers like Liz Phair, Aimee Mann and Bjork -- might become a permanent resident on radio playlists.

That was not to be. Hatfield returned to the indie world, and an accordingly more selective audience, but she doesn't mind. It's another theme that comes through in the song, with the line "You're over me, but I'm alive. So what do I care?"

"I'm totally fine with my place in the universe, even though sometimes I question it and I get frustrated," she said in the interview. "I still think that the path I'm on is the path I'm supposed to be on. I really do. I'm not bitter."

Still, she is sick of touring -- which is not really a big money-earner anyway -- and plans to focus more on recording, writing and drawing, as well as "my own development as a person, just getting healthier in my head and heart."

Her talents as a photographer are evident on the sleeve for "Made in China." The cover is a shot of her torso, one of a series taken a few years back as part of a bizarre experiment "to lose weight just to see what happens." Inside the sleeve, she is sitting naked in the bathtub of a posh European hotel, having just had a good cry because she was, yes, miserable.

MTV Brings Back 'Unplugged' for Keys

MIAMI - Alicia Keys has resurrected "MTV Unplugged." The singer and pianist has performed an acoustic set for the dormant MTV series, to air Sept. 23 (10 p.m. ET). MTV also announced Tuesday that the show will first premiere Sept. 15 on Overdrive, MTV's broadband network.

"I've always been a very big fan of the show and when they stopped doing it, I was like, what happened to 'MTV Unplugged?' I specifically went in there and said we have to do an 'Unplugged,'" Keys told AP Radio.

Keys' performance, filmed July 14 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is a group effort. Mos Def, Common and Damian Marley are her guests, as well as Maroon 5's Adam Levine.

"Adam Levine and I remade the Rolling Stones' classic 'Wild Horses' and it is right up my alley, that whole style" Keys said. "It has a style of its own but still stays very true to the classic arrangement and I love it."

Previous bare-bones performances on "Unplugged," which debuted in 1989, include those by Eric Clapton, Nirvana and Jay-Z. Dashboard Confessional and Shakira were two of the most recent acts on the series back in 2002.

After Keys' "MTV Unplugged" episode airs, it will be released as a CD and DVD on October 11.

Hollywood turns dramatic, talks Oscar for fall

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After a summer when weary action flicks and television remakes failed to fire up movie fans, Hollywood hopes to turn things around this autumn with films that put new faces and the Oscar race in the spotlight.

The summer season ends this weekend and box office experts expect ticket sales to be down about 10 percent from last year's record $3.9 billion as films like "Stealth," "The Island" and to a lesser extent "Bewitched" failed to be big hits.

One refrain heard around Hollywood was that this summer's films were just not good enough and that fans want originality rather than reruns.

The upcoming schedule features only two sequels officially designated as "part two" -- thriller "Saw II" in October and family comedy "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" in December -- although titles like November's " Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" certainly qualify as follow-ons.

"Lords of the Rings" director Peter Jackson's remake of a signature Hollywood film, "King Kong" opens in December and he promises a fresh take on the beauty and the beast classic.

As is typical of fall when teens head to school, the film industry goes light on the comic book action and kid comedy that fill the summer and focus more heavily on human dramas that appeal to older audiences.

October's "The Weather Man" starring Nicolas Cage fits in the drama niche with a tale about a father in a mid-life crisis. It is funny, but the humor is dark. And, though its message is life affirming, it could make audiences uneasy.

"'The Weatherman' is like a mirror," director Gore Verbinski told reporters. "You see yourself in it, and some people don't like to look at themselves.

In September, Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role in the award-winning play "Proof" as a woman caring for her mentally ill father played by Anthony Hopkins. Early buzz for the long-awaited film has Paltrow rehoning the acting skills that earned her a best actress Oscar for "Shakespeare in Love."

Also in September, former "Lord of the Rings" king Viggo Mortensen is a small town husband who gets targeted by the mob in thriller "A History of Violence," Nicolas Cage has "Lord of War" in which he plays an arms dealer with a moral conscience.

WAR-WORRIED TINSELTOWN

War and Middle East politics seem to be weighing on Hollywood's mind with widely anticipated "Jarhead" hitting screens in early November followed later that month by "Syriana" and in December Steven Spielberg's "Munich."

"Jarhead" is based on Anthony Swofford's best-selling book, and it details his days as a U.S. sniper in the 1991 Gulf War. Directed by Sam Mendes of Oscar-winning "American Beauty" fame, it stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx and Peter Sarsgaard.

Another Oscar winner, Stephen Gaghan who wrote drug dealing drama "Traffic," gives audiences "Syriana," which tells three disparate stories that revolve around oil and Arab politics. It stars George Clooney, Matt Damon and Amanda Peet.

For "Munich," Spielberg re-visits the 1972 massacre of 11 Israeli athletes after they were taken hostage by Palestinians

during the Munich Olympics. Like the other two war films, it is high on this year's award watchlist.

Several low-budget and independent films venture into the war and politics as well including "The War Within" about a Pakistani engineer turned terrorist. "Paradise Now" looks at two Palestinians recruited to be suicide bombers.

Director Tim Burton whose "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was one of this summer's fresh surprises brings out a tale of tortured love in September with "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride." It uses the stop-action puppetry -- not computer generated animation -- he employed in "Nightmare Before Christmas."

"The technique reminds me more of an art form and less of a business in a sort of way," Burton told Reuters.

OSCAR RACES, NEW FACES

Art, not commerce, is the key driving force in the Oscar race, and George Clooney's October movie "Good Night and Good Luck," a black-and-white film about newsman Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joe McCarthy's war on communism, figures prominently.

On September's watchlist are "The Constant Gardner" and "Capote" with Philip Seymour Hoffman as the American writer. Must-see October titles are Cameron Crowe's "Elizabethtown" and "Shopgirl," based on the novel by comedian Steve Martin.

The Oscar race picks up in November with former 007 Pierce Brosnan in "The Matador," Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix in the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line" and musical "Rent."

December features the widely anticipated "Memoirs of a Geisha," "Brokeback Mountain," "All the Kings Men" and a film based on Mel Brooks popular Broadway musical "The Producers," which in turn was based on Mel Brooks' popular film.

The star-making machinery also uses awards season to launch new talent, and Hollywood is watching Sundance festival sensations such as writer/director Noah Baumbach and his "The Squid and the Whale" in October and actor Lou Pucci in September's "Thumbsucker."

Autumn is not only about serious dramas and Oscars. Hollywood has some fun, too. Big budget thrillers like "Flight Plan" with Jodie Foster, sci-fi adventure "Serenity," Roman Polanski's "Oliver Twist" and comedy "The Man" fill screens in September. October has animated "Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" for kids, "In Her Shoes" for adults, and "The Fog" and "Saw II" for Halloween frights.

In November and December, Hollywood and its box office watchers have high hopes for movies like animated "Chicken Little," the fourth "Harry Potter" movie and "The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," based on the beloved C.S. Lewis fantasy novel for children.

'Napoleon' Says Role Unleashed Inner Nerd

DELAWARE, Ohio - The star of the cult hit "Napoleon Dynamite" said making the film gave him the chance to "celebrate the nerd within me."

Jon Heder, who plays the film's curly haired, awkward namesake, appeared with Aaron Ruell, who plays Napoleon's older brother Kip, at Ohio Wesleyan University in nearby Columbus Sunday.

They said they could relate to the movie, which follows Idaho outcasts trying to find their place in the world.

"We created Kip and Napoleon from ourselves and from people we knew and experiences we had," said Heder, 27. "It was fun to celebrate the nerd within me."

The movie's low budget — it was made for $400,000 over 22 days — forced the cast and crew to improvise.

"All of our clothing came from thrift stores or Wal-Mart, and we did our own stunts," said Ruell, 29.

"Napoleon Dynamite" grossed more than $45 million at the box office and has made more than $104 million in DVD sales.

The movie also has opened new opportunities for Heder and Ruell, both Mormons who met at Brigham Young University's film school.

Heder stars alongside Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo in "Just Like Heaven," which is to be released Sept. 16. Ruell is working on an untitled feature film that he wrote and will direct.

Longoria Voted Sexiest TV Star Of All Time

Desperate Housewives actress Eva Longoria has beaten off competition from Jennifer Aniston to be voted the sexiest TV beauty of all time.

The 30-year-old Latina, who claims she was the "ugly duckling" of her family growing up, was honoured for her sexy performance as Gabrielle Solis in the hit US drama.

Aniston, who played Friends's Rachel Green for ten years, came second in the survey by British supermarket Sainsbury's, followed by Sex And The City's Kim Cattrall as man-eating Samantha Jones in third place.

The Top Five Sexiest Female TV Stars Of All-Time are: 1. Eva Longoria - Desperate Housewives 2. Jennifer Aniston - Friends 3. Kim Cattrall - Sex And The City 4. Pamela Anderson - Baywatch 5. Sarah Michelle Gellar - Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Apple plans announcement; some see new music player

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. on Monday said it will announce a new product in early September and fanned expectations it will introduce an updated iPod Shuffle music player with much more capacity.

Apple is known for its marketing prowess and keeps new products under tight wraps before unveiling them at carefully staged events.

The company is widely expected to introduce a relatively roomy four-gigabyte iPod which uses sticks of flash memory, the type of storage used in digital cameras, rather than a hard disk drive. That would hold about 1,000 songs.

In an email invitation showing a picture of a jeans pocket, Apple alluded to its original 2001 announcement for the portable iPod, saying, "1,000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again."

Apple plans a San Francisco news conference on September 7 at 10 a.m. PDT (1700 GMT). Apple spokeswoman Natalie Kerris declined to comment further.

Apple introduced its portable music player in late 2001 with the promise that it could hold 1,000 songs. The first iPod was powered by a hard disk drive, but this year Apple introduced the "Shuffle" with flash memory to hold data.

Industry analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies Inc. in Campbell, California, said the news could be a new 4-gigabyte Shuffle, which would have four times the memory of the current model.

"The obvious news may be the higher density iPod Shuffle," he said. "But (Apple CEO Steve Jobs) may have something else up his sleeve. Steve loves surprises," he said.

Recent analyst reports out of Asia have noted that Apple plans to buy as much as 40 percent of the flash memory chips produced by South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the world's second largest chip maker and the largest maker of flash memory used in music players.

Apple currently sells three types of iPods: the classic high-capacity hard-disk iPod capable of storing up to 15,000 songs on 60 gigabytes; the iPod Mini, which comes in two versions, either four- or six-gigabyte hard disk models; and the Shuffle.

Cupertino, California-based Apple has come to dominate the digital music player market, accounting for some three-quarters of industry sales this year, according to analysts estimates.

Apple shipped 6.2 million iPods in its latest quarter.

McCartney's publishing catalog is a pop treasury

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Paul McCartney founded MPL Communications, one of the world's biggest privately owned music publishing companies, as the home to his solo compositions following the 1970 breakup of the Beatles.

And while MPL -- the acronym stands for "McCartney Productions Ltd." -- has certainly focused on McCartney's work, it has grown to represent almost a century of copyrights from the likes of Buddy Holly, Jerry Herman, Frank Loesser, Meredith Willson and Harold Arlen.

MPL's catalog holdings include Nor-Va-Jak (which contains many of Holly's songs), Desilu Music (Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball's company), Edwin H. Morris & Co. (a major standards catalog), Meredith Willson Music and Frank Music (which includes songs by Loesser).

"We've been predominantly a catalog company, and catalog is still the cornerstone of the company and will still be in the future since there's no substitute for incredible standards and classic songs that are timeless," says Bill Porricelli, senior VP of promotion and new product development.

"But we felt we needed a new dimension in the last few years, so we signed a couple of staff writers, Russ DeSalvo and Martin Briley, and they've had some good success with us in film projects and various artist covers -- and have added a new dimension to the company."

Porricelli notes that MPL has been "very successful and consistent" in working with movie studios, TV producers, ad agencies and sheet music companies in exploiting its copyrights. Recent noteworthy catalog placements in films have included MPL songs "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Route 66" in "Ray"; "After You've Gone," "Bugle Call Rag" and "Milenburg Joys" in "The Aviator"; "Sitting on Top of the World" in "Cold Mountain"; "Grazing in the Grass" in "Anchorman"; "Unchained Melody" in "Alfie"; and "The Christmas Song" in "Christmas With the Kranks."

Upcoming film placements include "It's So Easy" in "Brokeback Mountain" and "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" in "The Matador."

But MPL is seeking newer means of exposing its catalog besides traditional methods.

"Like every publisher, we're taking a more proactive approach to the new media," Porricelli says, "which is very critical. We're in the process of redoing our Web site to make it more user friendly for industry people and fans alike in acquiring information. And you can license MPL material on the Internet. There will be links to our sheet music partners like Hal Leonard, and if you want to buy Paul McCartney CDs, you can do that through the Web site as well."

Porricelli also cites increased licensing of MPL copyrights to ringtone companies.

"Every publisher has to look at alternate means of revenue, and with new media it seems another market is opening up every few months -- and we want to be part of it," he says.

But he adds that the company is still geared toward more traditional means of promotion.

"It's very important to put out promotional samplers of both our new and existing and recognizable songs," he says. "We've received so much good response in the past (with samplers) and continue to do them on a regular basis to keep our songs in people's consciousness and introduce new material to the industry."

Porricelli notes that there's "only a couple handfuls of really exceptional projects every year" in film and TV production, "and every publisher desperately wants to be part of them. We rely on our relationships, but we also need to stay ahead of the curve and know about things right from the outset since competition is so stiff on these special licensing opportunities."

Nowhere is this more important at MPL than with its founder's catalog. MPL for the first time just placed a McCartney song in a TV commercial. "Fine Line" -- the first single from McCartney's album "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," which bows September 13 via Capitol Records -- is part of a national Lexus campaign that began in late August.

"Having a national spot with Lexus gives us enormous exposure and gets more people aware of the album and tour, which MTV and VH1 simply can't do at this point due to the nature of their programing," says Porricelli, who notes that Lexus is sponsoring McCartney's ensuing U.S. tour."

But MPL also wants to maintain its successful record of placing McCartney catalog copyrights in major films like "Jerry Maguire" ("Junk"), "50 First Dates" ("Another Day") and "The In-Laws" ("Live and Let Die," "I'm Carrying" and "A Love for You").

The company recently produced "Listen to What the Man Said," a 20-song McCartney sampler spanning the writer's entire post-Beatles career up to his last album, 2001's "Driving Rain."

Porricelli says McCartney's catalog has potential beyond placement in film and TV. He points to Jenn Cuneta's dance hit "Come Rain Come Shine," which employed a rare McCartney-authorized usage of "Silly Love Songs" -- with producers Andy & the Lamboy sharing co-writing credit with Paul and Linda McCartney.

"They did a completely new lyric and turned ("Silly Love Songs") into a dance track," Porricelli says. "Paul liked it a lot and gave them authorization to release it. But it's basically 'Silly Love Songs' with a new lyric, so we experiment with new things now and we're much more open to licensing opportunities that make sense."

THE HOT SEAT WITH CAMERON CROWE

"I gave her my heart, and she gave me a pen." "Show me the money!" "All I need are some tasty waves, a cool buzz, and I'm fine."

When it comes to penning highly quotable lines, director and writer Cameron Crowe had us at hello. His knack for tapping into the Zeitgeist turned movies like "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "Say Anything," "Almost Famous" and "Jerry Maguire" into instant pop culture classics.

On October 14th Crowe will be back with his first feature film in four years: "Elizabethtown," in which a young man (Orlando Bloom) heads back to Kentucky - and an eccentric group of relatives - for his dad's funeral. Along the way, he meets flight attendant Kirsten Dunst and, as you might imaginge, witty romantic complications ensue.

Q: In "Almost Famous," you chronicled your past as a young rock writer. Is "Elizabethtown" autobiographical too?

A: Sort of. It's inspired by things that happened when my dad died, but it's kind of a banquet plate full of characters.

Q: So what's it about, in a nutshell?

A: It's a bunch of different things. It's a love story and a folk tale about how loss can open doors to the greatest things in life, and it's four days in life of this guy who goes back to Kentucky to bury his dad he didn't really know very well.

Q: How did the idea first come about?

A: My wife [Nancy Wilson] is a musician - she plays in Heart - and she talked me into joining her on her tour bus. I woke up one morning on the bus, and looked out the window, and there was Kentucky. This is a place that's a big part of my family history - I hadn't been back since my dad's funeral. And I just had to get off the bus.

I rented a car, and I just got lost in Kentucky for days, with no intention of writing. Of course, that's when the ideas really come. The whole idea of this movie really arrived there. It's a story about discovering your family roots, and who you are, and your whole lineage. And how this feeling of what it's like to be truly alive can come from tragedy, or chaos, or failure.

Q: So then how'd you end up with a British actor, Orlando Bloom, in the lead role?

A: I auditioned a lot of guys and Orlando I had worked with before. The one commercial I had ever done was with him, and I really enjoyed working with him. He really soaks up music, and I knew I wanted that. There's a lot of music in this movie, even more than in "Almost Famous," which is all about rock.

Q: So you didn't have trouble thinking of Orlando as an elf.

A: I didn't have any archery associations - he's simply a man. [laughs]

Q: Before you settled on Orlando, Ashton Kutcher was up for the role. What happened?

A: I did have a detour with Ashton. This has happened to me before - I think the part ends up in the hands of the guy who's destined to play it. Tom Hanks was originally Jerry Maguire. Brad Pitt was originally Billy Crudup's character in "Almost Famous." With Ashton, it seemed like it was going to work out, and I think we just figured it wasn't quite the right thing. I think there's a big performance in Ashton, and he's inching toward it.

Q: Did Orlando have problems with the accent?

A: He really worked on it, he's completely diligent and only spoke in the [American] accent. It was wild because he basically left "Kingdom of Heaven," got off the plane in Kentucky and started being this rather un-bronzed guy. He pretty immediately fell into it.

Q: Country musician Patti Griffin has a cameo in this movie - any others?

A: Loudon Wainwright plays Uncle Dale, Orlando's uncle. And My Morning Jacket play the band Ruckus in the movie - that's his cousin's band.

Q: Will we spot any shout-outs to your other movies?

A: There are some motifs in the movie that kinda call back other movies I've done. Like the phone call. For me, John Cusack in "Say Anything" is the king of the phone call scene. And in tribute to him, I've written other phone call scenes. I started writing this one, and it got longer and longer, and it was like, either cut it out or turn it into something big.

Q: And you did the latter.

A: Yeah, it's this big conversation - one of those all-night calls where you're getting to know someone, and you go into deeper water where you're admitting all these truths. And then you agree to meet the next day, and it's that kind of thing where you don't really know the person yet and you're kind of embarrassed to have admitted all these things. And now you have to deal with fact that you've told them all these secrets. And you kind of don't remember what they look like, and here they are in different clothes.

Q: How is your directing style changing as you get older?

A: I'm trying get more visual, to not depend on dialogue all the time. Hal Ashby was a music lover, and Wes Anderson is the same way - they're music lovers who also paint with visuals, and the two come together in their stuff. I like visuals that tell the story more than I used to. Say what you will about "Vanilla Sky," it was a turning point for me in terms of using visuals. And on this movie, I think we really shot Kentucky in a cool way.

Q: You tend to include an airport scene in your movies. Why?

A: I guess the appeal is that it's kind of a passageway. It's this hermetically sealed capsule where you've come from someplace, and you're going someplace and you're stuck in time with other people. I've done that so much, just sitting and watching the flow of human traffic. It's my favorite thing to do. I've gotta stop writing it into scripts! But I've really enjoyed shooting airports and doing scenes in airports. It sort of peaks with Kirsten playing a flight attendant, I think.

Q: So are you a good flier?

A: I'm a terrible flier - but I'm great in the airport.

The score
Name: Cameron B. Crowe
Birthdate: July 13, 1957
Born in: Palm Springs, CA
Married to: Musician Nancy Wilson of rock group Heart
Big break: Writing for Rolling Stone magazine while in high school
First script: "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" (1982)
Awards: Best Original Screenplay Oscar for "Almost Famous" (2000)
Cameos: Club interviewer in his own film, "Singles" (1992); bus passenger in Spielberg's "Minority Report" (2002)

ODDS ON OSCARS

Two-thirds of the way through the year, only two serious candidates for the Best Picture Oscar have yet emerged: "Crash" and "Cinderella Man." But the next four months are Hollywood's favorite time for prestige pictures, bringing us the return of Oscar favorites Steven Spielberg, Jamie Foxx, Cameron Crowe and Sean Penn. Here's a tip sheet for the early Oscar favorites.

Good Night. And Good Luck (Oct. 7)

George Clooney's second effort as a director tackles up-to-the-minute issues, taking on Sen. Joe McCarthy through the eyes of Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn). Though the film is small in scale and shot in black and white, no political story gets Hollywood more excited than an attack on McCarthyism.

Prospects: Best Picture and Screenplay, Clooney for Best Director

Elizabethtown (Oct. 14)

Crowe's first film since the uneven "Vanilla Sky" is a hugely anticipated return to semi-autobiography for the writer-director of "Almost Famous," which won him a screenwriting Oscar. Orlando Bloom stars in this comedy-drama about a workaholic who buries his father but is cheered up by a stewardess (Kirsten Dunst). "Lord of the Rings" elf Bloom hasn't proven he's an actor yet, but with all the armor he's been lugging around lately, he hasn't had a chance.

Prospects: Crowe for Best Director and Best Screenplay

Northcountry (Oct. 14)/Walk the Line (Nov. 18)

This year's "Ray" wannabe is "Walk the Line," starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Nashville-bred Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash. Phoenix got an Oscar nomination for his campy work in "Gladiator," but can he rule the screen the way Cash ruled country music? Director James Mangold's films have been hyped before ("Cop Land," "Girl, Interrupted") but he's never had much success. An equally juicy role goes to Charlize Theron in "North Country," about a landmark sexual harassment suit among miners that features Oscar favorite Frances McDormand. Beautiful women who play deglamorized blue-collar types are practically guaranteed Oscar glory.

Prospects: "North Country" for Best Picture, Phoenix for Best Actor, Witherspoon and Theron for Best Actress, McDormand for Best Supporting Actress

Jarhead (Nov. 4)

Based on Marine sniper Anthony Swofford's memoir of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, "Jarhead" has everything you look for in an Oscar film: a literary pedigree, an Oscar-winning director ("American Beauty" helmer Sam Mendes) and an acclaimed cast featuring Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard and Jake Gyllenhaal.

Prospects: Best Picture, Foxx and Sarsgaard for Best Supporting Actor, Mendes for Best Director

The New World (Nov. 9)

Reclusive director Terrence Malick ("Badlands," "The Thin Red Line") retells the story of Capt. John Smith and Pocahontas (newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher). But Malick's films are weirdly muted, and Hollywood's been tiring of perennial almost-star Colin Farrell.

Prospects: Best Screenplay, Malick for Best Director, Kilcher for Best Actress

Breakfast on Pluto (Nov. 18)

Neil Jordan's latest will make Cillian Murphy a star, if he isn't one already on the strength of his attention-grabbing turns in "Batman Begins" and "Red Eye." Murphy is said to be spectacular as a rocking Irish drag queen in the IRA-themed drama. Ever since 1992's "The Crying Game," Jordan pretty much owns the IRA cross-dressing subgenre.

Prospects: Best Picture and Screenplay, Murphy for Best Actor, Jordan for Best Director

Rent (Nov. 23)/The Producers (Dec. 21)

Inspired by the success of "Chicago," two big Broadway musicals are coming to the screen. The tragic, AIDS-themed "Rent" is directed by "Harry Potter" helmer Chris Columbus with Rosario Dawson and Taye Diggs as stars. There's also "The Producers," which brings back stage stars Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, and adds Will Ferrell and Uma Thurman.

Prospects: Best Picture for either, Lane for Best Actor, Dawson for Best Actress

Memoirs of A Geisha (Dec. 9)/Brokeback Mountain (Dec. 9)

A film Spielberg originally was set to direct went to Chicago's Rob Marshall instead: "Geisha," another literary adaptation, stars the indestructible "Crouching Tiger" star Ziyi Zhang. And "Crouching Tiger" director Ang Lee is back, too, with the gay-cowboy drama "Brokeback Mountain," starring Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in a film that has to be better than its log line.

Prospects: Best Picture, Ang for Best Director, Zhang for Best Actress

All The King's Men (Dec. 16)

Another politically hot December film, this remake of the 1949 Best Picture winner about sleazy politics is sure to take a whack at the Bush White House. It stars another committed lefty, Sean Penn, along with Jude Law and Anthony Hopkins. Top screenwriter Steven Zaillian takes his first directing job.

Prospects: Best Picture, Zaillian for Best Director and nods for Oscar favorites Penn, Law and/or Hopkins

Munich (Dec. 23)

The Christmas season brings out the really big gun: Steven Spielberg, who examines the Israeli agents assigned to assassinate the terrorists who killed Israeli athletes during the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. Originally titled "Vengeance," the script is tightly guarded. But it's written by leftist playwright Tony Kushner and is said to have found inspiration in a book slanted against the Israelis. So observers assume it's going to cast a harsh eye on the Mossad's actions. The star is "Layer Cake" breakout Daniel Craig.

Prospects: Best Picture and Screenplay, Spielberg for Best Director

Studios Mull Changes to Movie 'Windows'

LOS ANGELES - Someday the phrase "Coming soon to a theater near you" could be replaced with "Coming soon to a Wal-Mart near you." The tradition of major films debuting first in theaters, then across staggered release "windows," including pay-per-view, home video, cable and, finally, broadcast TV, is being openly questioned.

Robert Iger, CEO-elect of The Walt Disney Co., recently suggested the day could come when a DVD is released while the movie is still in theaters. The millions of dollars that studios spend marketing first-run movies would serve double duty promoting the more profitable DVDs, making for a faster and more efficient return on investment.

"Consumers have a lot more authority these days and they know that by using technology they can gain access to content and they want to use the power that they have..." Iger told financial analysts earlier this month. "We can't stand in the way and we can't allow tradition to stand in the way of where the consumer can go or wants to go."

Iger's remarks are heresy to theater owners who fear people with flat screen, high-definition, surround sound systems in their living rooms will abandon the megaplex.

"Mr. Iger knows better than to tell consumers — or Wall Street analysts — that they can have it all, everywhere, at the same time," said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners. "He knows there would be no viable movie theater industry in that new world — at least not a theater industry devoted to the entertainment products of Hollywood."

Theaters have already seen profits shrink as movies move more quickly to home video. Studios and theaters split profits in the early weeks of a movie's run, with the theater making most of its money from concessions. The theater's split gets larger the longer the movie plays, giving studios an incentive to release films on DVD even earlier.

Studios make the majority of their profits from home video sales, with theatrical runs serving largely as marketing for the DVD.

That has led some to question business models that have not kept pace with technology or consumer demands.

"Why do we make the assumption that five months later people are still interested in your product?" said Todd Wagner, co-owner with Mark Cuban of 2929 Entertainment.

"If I hear a song on the radio, they don't say, `Five months from now you can buy the CD.'"

The gap between a movie's opening weekend in theaters and its debut on home video has been narrowing from about six months in 1994 to about four months in 2004.

Some studios release their DVDs even sooner. The action sequel "XXX: State of the Union," which fizzled at the box office, hit video shelves 11 weeks after its theatrical debut.

Many studios announce the release date of a movie on home video while the film is still in theaters — a practice that infuriates theater owners.

"This is something that drives us nuts," Fithian said. "When Wal-Mart starts putting up signs a month and a half or two months into the movie's run, that just kind of tells the consumer: 'Wait — it's coming.'"

Before Iger's remarks, studio executives spoke of releasing DVDs simultaneous with a theatrical run only in the context of fighting piracy. Many studios are already premiering films around the world on the same date to undercut pirates who distribute illegal copies of films in China, Eastern Europe and elsewhere.

In the United States, studios are pressured by a box office slump and a DVD glut that has led to a sharp decline in sales for new releases that compete for shelf space with old TV show box sets and older hits.

New technology is adding to the competition as cable operators promote video-on-demand services and phone companies, such as SBC and Verizon, are creating high-speed Internet networks that will make on-demand viewing even easier.

Advances in wireless are also challenging old business models. In Europe, Sony Pictures has released a full-length version of "Spider-Man II" for viewing on a cell phone.

For some industry players, simultaneously releasing a movie in theaters and on DVD makes perfect sense.

"Most packaged entertainment — books, CDs, games — most all of these make their debut at retail," said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer of Netflix Inc., which rents DVDs by mail. "It isn't that radical a proposition that movies could follow that same path."

In April, 2929 Entertainment, which owns two television networks, a chain of movie theaters and film and television distribution companies, announced a partnership with Oscar-winning film director Steven Soderbergh to direct six films and release them simultaneously in theaters, on TV and on DVD.

Wagner, the company's co-owner, said under his model, theater owners share in the revenue made from distributing films on DVD and other media.

"We want the exhibitors to be a part of this because they should be and from my perspective, they always should have been," Wagner said.

Wagner also disputes the notion that people would stay away from theaters if they could watch the same movie at home.

Wagner and Cuban own the NBA's Dallas Mavericks, which still draws a crowd when games are broadcast on radio and TV.

"It didn't kill professional sports when it was available simultaneously on different mediums," he said. "They cross promote each other and they're all doing just fine."

MTV Video Music Awards Splash Down in Fla.

MIAMI - MTV dodged two major disasters — one from nature, the other from the barrel of a gun — as the Video Music Awards unfolded Sunday night with flashy performances, over-the-top bling and a few blasts from the past.

The annual bash was briefly overshadowed by Hurricane Katrina, which hit southern Florida on Thursday and killed several people. As the storm passed, a celebratory mood took over the city — until early Sunday morning, when rap mogul Suge Knight was targeted by gunfire at a Kanye West party.

MTV vowed that neither event would affect the ceremonies — and they didn't.

"The theme of tonight is, anything can happen," proclaimed host Diddy, whose entrance included dancers, pyrotechnics and a cascading waterfall — a spectacle that rivaled the show's actual performances.

Ludacris managed to turn his hedonistic "Pimpin' All Over the World" into a multicultural Mardi Gras-like extravaganza, complete with steel drummers, African dancers and, of course, around-the-way booty-shaking girls.

When it comes to booty shaking, Luke of 2 Live Crew fame is the king with his infamous dancers, and he brought a bevy of women a dance with Diddy and R&B heartthrob Omarion.

But one of the biggest surprises was a performance from MC Hammer, recapturing some of his glory while shaking to his '90s hit, "U Can't Touch This."

Another flashback moment came in a tribute to Diddy's protege, the late Notorious B.I.G., that featured Diddy "conducting" a string orchestra as the legendary rapper's songs played. Snoop Dogg came out at the end and delivered a verse on the B.I.G. hit "Warning."

West and Kelly Clarkson were among the early winners. Clarkson won for best female video for "Since U Been Gone," while West won for "Jesus Walks."

"I guess they're saying, 'We're going to give him his award early so we don't have to worry about nothin'," said West, referencing his infamous American Music Awards tantrum last year.

Green Day, who arrived in the vintage green convertible from their "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" video, won best rock video for the clip — one of the eight awards they were nominated for, making them the most nominated act of the year.

"It's great to know that rock music still has a place at MTV," said lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong, speaking of hip-hop's recent takeover.

The evening's most inexplicable moment may have come from R. Kelly, who remains a chart-topper even though he's awaiting trial on child pornography charges.

On a bedroom set that looked like a scene from a Tyler Perry play, Kelly deliberately lip-synced highlights of his five-part soap opera infidelity song, "Trapped In The Closet," then debuted a new chapter involving a cheating wife, a cheating husband and his boyfriend.

Some of the night's more decadent moments came during the pre-show arrivals. Lil Jon came by sea, on what looked to be a three-story, pimp-my-yacht contraption. The prison-bound Lil' Kim arrived on the white carpet in a Rolls Royce Phantom, though she looked somewhat demure in her low-cut mauve dress — no pasties or dangling appendages this year from the diminutive rapper.

"I might show some leg," teased the star, who is due to start serving a year-and-a-day sentence in September on a perjury charge. When MTV personality Sway delicately asked if she had anything to say to fans who "might not see you for a while," Lil Kim said: "You can write me letters."

"Entourage" star Jeremy Piven couldn't help but tease her about her upcoming bid as they presented best rap video, which was won by Ludacris.

"You know, she's about to go to the big house, for lying," he said of Lil Kim. "I'd like to place a call to the warden and upgrade your situation."

The much-hyped white carpet was one of one of the Diddy-designed elements of the show. Another was the "Diddy Fashion Challenge" — in which he vowed to give away $50,000 each to the charities of the best dressed female and male at the event. Amerie, Gwen Stefani and Eva Longoria were the three female finalists; Usher, West and a pimped-out Snoop Dogg were the male finalists. Diddy himself was out of the running, though you wouldn't know it — he made three wardrobe changes in the first half-hour.

The awards typically snowball into a weeklong party with decadent A-list bashes, but Hurricane Katrina forced the cancellation of some events. Several stars, like West, were late arriving to Miami because of the weather.

Knight, the Death Row Records founder who has been at the center of some of hip-hop's most violent moments, was shot in the leg early Sunday morning at a star-studded party thrown by West. His injuries were not life-threatening; no arrests were made.

2005 Video Music Awards Winner's list:

Video Of The Year
Green Day, "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"

Best Male Video
Kanye West, "Jesus Walks"

Best Female Video
Kelly Clarkson, "Since U Been Gone"

Best Rock Video
Green Day, "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"

Best R&B Video
Alicia Keys, "Karma"

Best Dance Video
Missy Elliott with Ciara & Fat Man Scoop, "Lose Control"

Best Rap Video
Ludacris, "Number One Spot"

MTV2 Award
Fall Out Boy, "Sugar, We're Going Down"

Best Hip-Hop Video
Missy Elliott with Ciara & Fat Man Scoop, "Lose Control"

Best Special Effects In A Video
Gorillaz, "Feel Good Inc."

Best Pop Video
Kelly Clarkson, "Since U Been Gone"

Best Group Video
Green Day, "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"

Best Choreography In A Video
Gwen Stefani, "Hollaback Girl"

Best Art Direction In A Video
Gwen Stefani, "What You Waiting For?"

Best Editing In A Video
Green Day, "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"

Best New Artist In A Video
The Killers, "Mr. Brightside"

Best Cinematography In A Video
Green Day, "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams"

Breakthrough Video
Gorillaz, "Feel Good Inc."

'40-Year-Old Virgin' Retains No. 1 Spot

LOS ANGELES - Steve Carell's second time at the top of the box office was almost as good as the first. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," starring Carell as a middle-aged man who has never had sex, remained the No. 1 movie with $16.4 million, a strong hold from its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Terry Gilliam's "The Brothers Grimm," a fantasy starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger as the 19th century fairy-tale siblings, debuted in second place with $15.1 million.

"The Cave," an underground monster movie featuring Morris Chestnut, Piper Perabo and Cole Hauser, opened weakly at No. 6 with $6.2 million.

The weekend's other new wide release — the romance "Undiscovered," featuring Ashlee Simpson and Pell James as gal pals who fabricate media buzz to help a friend's music career — flopped with just $690,000, finishing far out of the top 10.

A movie slump continued, with the top-12 films taking in $82.8 million, down 2.5 percent from the same weekend last year.

Hollywood is having its worst year since the late 1990s, with summer attendance expected to come in 12 percent behind last year, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

There have been bright spots amid the slump, notably the racy R-rated comedies "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Wedding Crashers," which are holding well on the strength of good reviews and word of mouth.

"Wedding Crashers," starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn as buddies who intrude on strangers' nuptials to pick up women, remained the No. 5 film with $6.25 million, lifting its seven-week total to $187.7 million.

The release of "The Brothers Grimm" was delayed for a year as Gilliam feuded over the final version with brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the heads of Miramax Films, whose Dimension banner released the movie.

"The Brothers Grimm" is among a rush of long-delayed Miramax movies now being released as the Weinsteins prepare to depart Disney-owned Miramax for a new film company they have formed.

For Gilliam ("The Fisher King," "Twelve Monkeys"), it was his first film since 1998's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas." "Brothers Grimm" got mixed reviews at best, though.

"It's a respectable opening," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations. "You can't underestimate the following that Terry Gilliam has."

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Exhibitor Relations Co. Inc. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," $16.4 million.

2. "The Brothers Grimm," $15.1 million.

3. "Red Eye," $10.4 million.

4. "Four Brothers," $7.8 million.

5. "Wedding Crashers," $6.25 million.

6. "The Cave," $6.2 million.

7. "March of the Penguins," $4.6 million.

8. "The Skeleton Key," $4.4 million.

9. "Valiant," $3.35 million.

10. "The Dukes of Hazzard," $3.05 million.

McCready Accused of Violating Probation

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Country music singer Mindy McCready is accused of violating her probation on a drug conviction, authorities said.

A spokeswoman for the Pinellas County sheriff's department said McCready was jailed Friday on an arrest warrant issued earlier this month.

According to the warrant, McCready left Tennessee without getting permission from her probation officer and didn't report to the officer during July.

Authorities said it is McCready's second probation violation, which means she cannot post bail this time and likely will have to serve time in jail.

The probation violations stem from charges brought against the singer last year, when she pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining the painkiller OxyContin. She was fined $4,000, sentenced to three years of supervised probation and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

McCready violated her probation in May when she was charged with driving under the influence in Nashville.

A few days later, McCready's boyfriend, William McKnight, was charged with attempted murder after allegedly breaking into her home and beating her.

McCready was released from a Florida hospital last month after an apparent suicide attempt at an Indian Rocks Beach hotel, authorities said.

The 28-year-old singer had a No. 1 hit in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time."

Farley Gets Posthumous Walk of Fame Star

LOS ANGELES - Comedian Chris Farley was a motivational speaker, a rabid fan and a topless dancer on "Saturday Night Live." On Friday, the late comic was the toast of his castmates as they honored him with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

"I think it's sweet that everyone still has a real nice place in their hearts for him, they still remember him," said actor-comedian David Spade, who appeared with Farley during his 1990-95 reign on the show.

"He goes down as one of the greats. And I still think about him every day," Spade said.

Fans, friends and family surrounded Farley's star, the walk's 2,289th, in front of the Improv Olympic West theater where the actor used to perform. Among other celebrities in attendance were "SNL" alums Chris Rock and Adam Sandler.

"I think every fat comedian owes him 80 bucks that's working today," Rock said.

Farley, whose physical comedy, wild antics and large appetite lent comparisons to another "SNL" alum, John Belushi, died on Dec. 18, 1997, from an accidental overdose of morphine and cocaine. He was 33.

Best known on "SNL" for his characterization of a slovenly motivational speaker named Matt Foley, Farley also drew laughs as an obsessed Chicago Bears football fan and a topless Chippendales dancer.

Born on Feb. 15, 1964, Farley grew up in Madison, Wis. He joined the Second City Theatre troupe before joining "SNL."

Farley later starred in several movies, including "Black Sheep" (1996), "Beverly Hills Ninja" (1997) and "Wayne's World" (1992).

A special DVD edition of Farley and Spade's 1995 hit "Tommy Boy" will be released Tuesday.

A happy beginning for 'Grimm' at box office

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - With summer drawing to a close in Hollywood, the studios will try to draw weekend crowds at a time when the focus is more on back to school than moviegoing.

"The Brothers Grimm," from Miramax Films' Dimension label, at one point looked as if it might become just another throwaway film quickly released by Miramax before company founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein officially depart at the end of next month. But now it's in a position to lead the box office with an opening in the mid- to high-teen millions.

Instead of appealing only to film buffs and fans of director Terry Gilliam, "Grimm" looks as if it will lure in the highly coveted young female audience -- those wanting a glimpse of Matt Damon and Heath Ledger in period garb.

Damon and Ledger play sibling con artists who travel the countryside telling villagers that they will protect them from unseen nasties -- for a price. But their mettle is tested when they come across a too-real curse in a haunted forest. Monica Bellucci co-stars in the PG-13 film.

Sony Pictures' Screen Gems division will open "The Cave" using a release date strategy that benefited its end-of-summer release "Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid" last year. But insiders are not expecting the new horror picture to beat the $13 million opening that "Anacondas" registered: a bow in the $8 million-$10 million range seems more likely.

The PG-13 film from director Bruce Hunt and starring Cole Hauser, Piper Perabo and Morris Chestnut revolves around bloodthirsty creatures threatening a group of divers trapped in an underwater network of caves.

Lions Gate was banking on the rising success of Ashlee Simpson as the catalyst for box office grosses for its "Undiscovered." But with her career stalling somewhat during the past year after a few media slip-ups, industry insiders are not placing many bets on the teenage romantic comedy from Irish music video director Meiert Avis.

The film follows a group of aspiring entertainers trying to establish careers in Los Angeles. Pell James, Steven Strait and Shannyn Sossamon co-star. With teen girls showing more interest in "Grimm," "Undiscovered" is unlikely to generate much heat. Insiders say the PG-13 film isn't expected to top $5 million.

As far as holdovers go, Universal Pictures' "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," which opened at No. 1 last weekend with $21.4 million, is likely to hang in there for its sophomore session amid good reviews and word-of-mouth, while DreamWorks Pictures' "Red Eye" and Disney's "Valiant" are likely to drop more precipitously in their second sessions.

In limited release, Freestyle Releasing will unveil "American Pie" knockoff "Dirty Deeds" in 64 theaters. Starring Milo Ventimiglia, Lacey Chabert and Charles Durning, the PG-13 film centers on a high school senior who tries to become the first student ever to complete a series of twisted challenges called the "dirty deeds."

Sony Pictures Classics will bow "The Memory of a Killer" in Los Angeles and New York. The R-rated crime thriller that played at last year's Toronto International Film Festival centers on an aging contract killer from Italy who has the first signs of Alzheimer's disease.

Crowe Reaches Settlement With Hotel Worker

LOS ANGELES - Russell Crowe has reached a settlement with a Manhattan hotel employee who claimed the actor threw a phone at him, according to a statement released Thursday by the actor's publicist.

The Academy Award winner allegedly struck concierge Nestor Estrada in June while Crowe was in New York to promote his movie "Cinderella Man," in which he portrayed a boxer.

"Both sides expressed satisfaction at the resolution," the statement said.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The 41-year-old Australian movie star publicly apologized on the "Late Show with David Letterman" shortly after the incident, saying it was "possibly the most shameful situation that I've ever gotten myself in in my life, and I've done some pretty dumb things in my life."

Crowe was angered by a malfunctioning phone at the Mercer Hotel and at 4 a.m. threw it and struck Estrada in the face.

Crowe is married to actress Danielle Spencer and they have a young son together. He was trying to call home to Australia and got mad because the phone wasn't working.

Prosecutors charged Crowe with second-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon — the telephone. Crowe, who's free on his own recognizance, is scheduled to return to court Sept. 14.

Dr. Dre Hoping To 'Shock' On Next Album

It's been six years since hip-hop legend Dr. Dre's last studio album, and its planned follow-up, reportedly titled "Detox," seems no closer to completion. But one of his key collaborators tells Billboard.com Dre is continuing to work on new music and still plans to release another album, even if it takes several more years to do the job right.

"There will be another Dr. Dre solo album, without a doubt," says bassist Mike Elizondo, who began working with the artist on the 1999 album "Dr. Dre -- 2001" and has since been a fixture on Dre-produced recordings by Xzibit, Eminem and the Game.

"Dre has very high standards," Elizondo responded when asked what is taking so long. "He wants to shock the world and put something out that no one would have ever thought possible from a hip-hop artist. He's definitely going to take his time and make sure it's right, but there will be a collection of songs that will come out as a Dr. Dre solo album."

However, the timetable for finishing the album remains murky. Asked if Elizondo had played on any of the tracks to date, he replied, "We've been working. There's a team assembled and we'll definitely continue moving forward on that."

"Dr. Dre -- 2001" debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 7 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Seinfeld a dad for third time

NEW YORK (AP) - Jerry Seinfeld and his wife, Jessica, have a new addition to the family.

A son, Shepherd Kellen Seinfeld, was born Monday morning, Seinfeld's publicist, Stephen Rubenstein, said Thursday. The couple, who were married in 1999, have a two-year-old son, Julian, and a four-year-old daughter, Sascha.

"Jerry and Jessica are both thrilled," said Rubenstein. "The baby is great; they are all home now."

The 51-year-old comedian has in the past worked babies into his standup routine: "Make no mistake about why these babies are here - they are here to replace us."

Brad Pitt gets bounty on his head

CALGARY - A pair of Edmonton radio stations have put a bounty on Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Sister radio stations K-Rock and 96X have offered $10,000 if Pitt will come alone to one of their stations, an additional $10,000 if he's accompanied by Jolie and $50,000 if Jennifer Aniston arrives as well.

In the unlikely event any of the superstars actually appear, the money will be donated to the charity of their choice.

The stunt has angered the Edmonton acting community and the Edmonton chapter of ACTRA has insisted the station stop the promotion. The production moves to Edmonton for three weeks on Sept. 5.

Rumours abound that Newcap Radio management, owners of K-Rock and 96X, have received a cease-and-desist order from Warner Bros., the company releasing The Assassination of Jesse James.

Rob Mise, operations manager for Newcap Radio, says he hasn't received a cease-and-desist order, but adds "we won't be surprised when it arrives. We have our legal department on standby."

Mise insists his stations aren't doing anything illegal.

"This was always meant as a way to raise money for charity. It's an old radio stunt that has traditionally brought stars to radio and TV stations."

Calgary stations Vibe and CJAY92 have a low-key version of the Edmonton promotion.

Morning man Jerry Forbes says he's offered to "send $5,000 to Angelina's international children's charity if Brad will just phone in and say hello to our listeners. We have had word from people close to Brad that this could possibly happen."

Chad Martin of Vibe 98.5's Poghouse morning show says his station is also willing to donate cash if Pitt calls.

"We're not getting people saying they will try to get Brad to do this," says Martin. "What we're getting are hundreds of e-mails from listeners telling us where they've sighted Brad."

'Alias' Fans Fight for Vartan

Fans of hit TV series Alias have launched a campaign to save Michael Vartan's character, even though producers have failed to confirm they're killing him off. Vartan, who plays his former girlfriend Jennifer Garner's on-screen lover Michael Vaughn on the show, reportedly shot his final scenes last week, according to the New York Post. Insiders claim Vaughn will be killed off in the upcoming series, which will also see pregnant Garner coping with impending motherhood both in real life and on the crime drama. The news has prompted some fans to launch www.mvcampaign.com, which has been set up to stop any potential Vartan departure. In a posting on the fansite, one devotee states, "Many of us feel that if this were to occur, it would be showing the show, the viewers, and Mr. Vartan a huge lack of both respect and loyalty. We have decided to take action and do something to express our feelings."

Cruise Speared on Cover of New Magazine

Movie star Tom Cruise is bracing for his most savage critical attack yet in a new magazine article about his loyalty to Scientology. A doctored photograph of the actor in his underwear appears on the front cover of US pop and politics magazine Radar with five arrows appearing to pierce his skin, suggesting the article inside, by investigative journalist Kim Masters, will leave him wounded. The controversial piece is headlined, 'Risky Business: the untold story of Scientology's movie-star martyr.' In the accompanying article, Masters speaks to a handful of former Scientologists and business acquaintances of Cruise, who all link the actor's recent passion for the controversial religion to the fact he has risen through the Church to a level just under leaders like his close friend and Scientology chief David Miscavige. One former Scientologist, who worked closely with the religion's celebrity members, claims Cruise is close to becoming a member of the Church's mythical Sea Org level or something similar. She says, "You feel so good, it's like you're high on coke. If you look at him, he has that dedicated glare that Sea Org members have." High-level Scientologists insist the Sea Org level never existed and such claims are ridiculous. The article also suggests Cruise's War Of The Worlds director, Steven Spielberg, was far from happy about the actor's Scientology-heavy interviews and romantic gestures for new girlfriend Katie Holmes at a time when he should have been promoting the summer blockbuster. Producer Marvin Levy coyly remarks, "It (the non-War of The Worlds talk) certainly took some of the emphasis away from where we would have liked it." Levy also tells Masters that Spielberg was upset when he saw Cruise's famous sofa leaping episode on Oprah in May, as he declared his love for Holmes. Masters writes, "When Spielberg later watched Cruise's manic declaration of love, Levy says, he sensed that the film's carefully orchestrated media plan might be slipping off the rails."

New Robbie Williams album due in October

LONDON (Billboard) - British pop star Robbie Williams, a virtual unknown in America despite huge international success, will release his sixth solo album in Europe on October 24.

"Intensive Care" (EMI), which Williams has been recording in Los Angeles for the past two years, marks the follow-up to the 2003 chart-topper release "Escapology."

It is unknown when, or if, "Intensive Care" will be released in North America. Despite a strong promotional push in an attempt to expand Williams' global reach, "Escapology" flopped across the Atlantic, selling just 136,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The new album's first single, "Tripping," is described by Williams on his Web site as "something like a mini-gangster opera." It will be issued to European radio outlets beginning September 5 ahead of its October 3 release at retail.

Williams, a former member of boy-band Take That, is one of Europe's biggest hit-makers, with 18 top 10 singles and six No. 1 albums in the United Kingdom alone. According to EMI, he has shifted 35 million albums worldwide.

Williams will play a one-off show October 9 at the 12,000 capacity Velodrom in Berlin. The concert will be simultaneously broadcast at cinemas across Europe. Television broadcasts are also being lined up.

Talking Heads Refurbish Catalog For DualDisc

The Talking Heads have expanded their eight studio albums with previously unreleased content for their release as DualDiscs. Due Oct. 4 via Rhino, the sets will be packaged together in a white molded plastic box that holds eight jewel cases. Each album has also been remastered by Talking Heads keyboardist Jerry Harrison.

The group's 1977 debut, the appropriately named "Talking Heads: 77," will include a 5.1 mix of a previously unreleased acoustic version of "Psycho Killer" and an alternate 5.1 mix of "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town." The DVD side sports a live clip of "Pulled Up" taped in 1978 in Berkeley, Calif., and "I Feel It in My Heart" shot in 1976 at New York's now-defunct the Kitchen.

The follow-up, "More Songs About Buildings and Food," is bolstered by alternate versions of "The Big Country," "I'm Not in Love" and "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel," as well as a "1977 version" of "Stay Hungry." The DVD pulls "Warning Sign" from the aforementioned Berkeley show plus "Found a Job" from a 1978 gig at New York's Entermedia Theatre.

Best known for "Cities" and "Life During Wartime," 1979's "Fear of Music" is expanded here with alternate versions of those tracks as well as "Mind," and an unfinished outtake of "Dancing for Money." The DVD side includes performances of "Cities" and "I Zimba" from the German TV show "Rockpop" in 1980.

"Remain in Light" is beefed up with four unfinished outtakes: "Fela's Riff," "Unison," "Double Groove" and "Right Start." "Rockpop" performances of "Once in a Lifetime" and "Crosseyed and Painless" are utilized for the DVD side. The 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues" features an alternate 5.1 mix of "Burning Down the House" as well as videos for that tune and "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)."

"Little Creatures" is filled out with previously unreleased early versions of its most notable tracks, "Road to Nowhere" and "And She Was," plus videos for both songs. The 1986 companion to "True Stories," directed by Heads vocalist David Byrne, includes a bonus Pop Staples Vocal Version 5.1 mix of "Papa Legba" and videos for "Wild Wild Life" and "Love for Sale."

The Heads' final studio album, "Naked," tacks on a 5.1 mix of "Sax and Violins" as well as its video and a clip for "Blind."

As previously reported, the Talking Heads and the spin-off group the Tom Tom Club are represented on the Sire Records box set "Just Say Sire," due Sept. 13 via Rhino.

'Old School' sequel gets go-ahead

"Old School" writers Todd Phillips and Scot Armstrong are getting ready for a reunion.

Variety reports DreamWorks has given the duo the go-ahead for "Old School 2," a follow-up to the hit 2003 comedy starring Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn and Luke Wilson as middle-aged frat boys.

Phillips and Armstrong previously collaborated on the original "Old School" and last year's "Starsky & Hutch."

Casting for the planned sequel has yet to be announced.

"Wake Me Up" video shows young couple torn apart by the conflict in Iraq

Green Day are making their most powerful anti-war statement yet with the riveting video for American Idiot's fourth single, "Wake Me Up When September Ends." Starring Evan Rachel Wood of Thirteen and Jamie Bell of Billy Elliot, the seven-minute clip chronicles a young man's decision to leave his girlfriend and join the Army -- which deploys him to Iraq, where he watches terrified and helpless as his fellow soldiers are wounded in battle.

"I didn't do it to be political," says director Samuel Bayer. "I did it to be emotional. I find it extremely tragic that eighteen-year-old kids with their whole lives ahead of them are joining the military and seeing horrors that, even if they survive this, they may never get over."

MTV premiered the video this month, and it's been airing since in a five-minute edited version (MTV2 plays the uncut original). It's the fourth MTV hit off American Idiot, which came out last September and has sold 3.9 million copies to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan. "It's just a really well-structured, thought-out clip," says Peter Baron, vice president of label relations at MTV.

"There is a message in the video, but I don't think it's really an overt message -- it's about these kids and their relationship. I think that's why it works with our audience. It's just a story that's tugging the heart."

Although singer Billie Joe Armstrong wrote "Wake Me Up" for his father, who died of cancer in 1982, the band had no problem letting Bayer turn the ballad into an anti-war statement. "It's my interpretation," says Bayer, who also directed Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. "I sent the idea to them, and they loved it. I'm not taking a political stance about whether the war in Iraq is right or wrong, but I'm definitely saying war is a terrible thing."

Crowe Finalizes 'Elizabethtown' Soundtrack

The full track list has been confirmed for the soundtrack to "Elizabethtown," Cameron Crowe's highly anticipated new film. Due Sept. 13 via RCA, the project features exclusive tracks from Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac guitarist Lindsey Buckingham, and, as previously reported, My Morning Jacket.

Previously released cuts are turned in by Wheat, Ryan Adams, Elton John ("My Father's Gun," which is also used in an extended trailer on the Elizabethtown Web site) and the Hollies, among others.

Another track, "Same in Any Language," was written for the film by Crowe and his wife, Nancy Wilson, who also supplied original music. It is performed here by Atlanta band I Nine, which recently signed to J Records.

Members of My Morning Jacket also appear in "Elizabethtown" as the band Ruckus, which performs the Lynyrd Syknyrd favorite "Freebird" with disastrous results during one scene.

"Elizabethtown" stars Orlando Bloom as a down-on-his-luck shoe designer who turns over a new page when he returns to his Kentucky hometown for his father's funeral. It will open Oct. 14 in U.S. theaters.

Here is the "Elizabethtown" track list:

"60B (etown theme)," Nancy Wilson
"It'll All Work Out," Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
"My Father's Gun," Elton John
"io (This Time Around)," Helen Stellar
"Come Pick Me Up," Ryan Adams
"Where To Begin," My Morning Jacket
"Long Ride Home," Patti Griffin
"Sugar Blue," Jeff Finlin
"Don't I Hold You," Wheat
"Shut Us Down," Lindsey Buckingham
"Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out)," the Hombres
"Hard Times," eastmountainsouth
"Jesus Was a Crossmaker," the Hollies
"Square One," Tom Petty
"Same in Any Language," I Nine

The MTV Video Music Awards could be minus a certain Hollaback Girl.

Despite six nominations, Gwen Stefani is going to skip this year's awards because, according to the New York Daily News, she is miffed about not getting a performance slot.

Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" is up for Moon Men for Video of the Year, Best Female Video, Best Pop Video and Best Choreography; her clip for "What You Waiting For?" is in contention for Best Art Direction and Best Editing. Her half-dozen nods tie her with Missy Elliott and are second only to Green Day's eight nominations.

Still, Stefani was not among those listed on MTV's latest rundown of performers, a slate that includes Green Day, Coldplay, the Killers, Shakira, Kanye West, Ludacris, Mariah Carey, 50 Cent and Kelly Clarkson; but the Daily News says Stefani and rocker hubby Gavin Rossdale won't be jetting to Miami for the Aug. 28 shindig.

Reps for Stefani's label and management issued no comments on the report Friday. An MTV spokesperson is quoted in the Daily News saying, "We love Gwen, and we hope she will be able to join us, as we know her fans would love to see her on this big night--especially since she's heavily nominated."

Us Weekly music editor Shirley Halperin has a theory on the behind-the-scenes drama.

Halperin reports her sources say Stefani and her band would "love to play the show, but as of now, [they] aren't planning on even being there because they know MTV won't let them play after they performed at the Teen Choice Awards."

Those awards were televised Tuesday on Fox.

"I think that for the last few years there has been some competition between the MTV Awards and the Teen Choice awards," Halperin says. "The MTV Awards obviously has more cachet, and MTV expects its performers not to play a competing broadcast event around the time of the VMAs."

Stefani, whose solo release, Love, Angel, Music, Baby, has gone double platinum, apparently signed on to the Teen Choice Awards months ago and wanted to honor that commitment. She has won five trophies with her band, No Doubt, and shared another with Eve in 2001 for "Let Me Blow Ya Mind."

Even if Stefani does not show, MTV expects around 10,000 fans for the awards, which will take place at Miami's American Airlines Arena with the recently renamed Diddy as host

MPAA Axes "Saw II" Poster

Talk about giving--and taking--the finger.

The Motion Picture Association of America has given a thumbs down to the poster for the upcoming slice-and-dice horror sequel Saw II featuring severed fingers as the Roman numerals.

The film's distributor had already sent out an advance poster, or one-sheet, with the graphic image to online media.

But now the MPAA, a trade group whose decency guidelines not only result in movie ratings but also apply to promotion materials, says the posters and other promotional material with the severed fingers are "unacceptable."

In a statement, the organization said it had not cleared the image and had asked the distributor to recall the artwork.

Marilyn Gordon, director of the MPAA's Advertising Administration, said if her department had been able to review the one-sheets before they were disseminated, it would have deemed the "materials for the film Saw II [that] display dismembered fingers is unacceptable."

If that wasn't bad enough, the MPAA says that some Websites were selling the unauthorized poster and others had begun running an unapproved theatrical trailer. The trailer was accompanied by an R rating, but it had not been vetted by the MPAA's Classification and Rating Administration, or CARA.

"It is essential that film distributors comply with the rules of the Advertising Administration so that parents retain the confidence they have in the ratings certified by CARA and that advertising and publicity material associated with rated films is appropriate for all audiences," says Gordon.

While reps for Lions Gate declined to comment, Gordon says the company has begun to comply with the MPAA's request and contacted Websites asking them to take down the images in question.

"We thank Lions Gate for its actions taken to correct the issues for the advertising for Saw II," Gordon added.

However, as of Tuesday morning, the official movie site, www.saw2.com, still displayed the severed fingers, along with the tag line: "Oh yes, there will be blood." And EBay had more than a dozen auctions featuring Saw II posters and even T-shirts with the offending digits.

The sequel was green-lighted just days after Saw opened last year and became a surprise hit. Directed by James Wan and starring Cary Elwes, Danny Glover, Leigh Wannell and Monica Potter, the indie thriller about a sadistic serial killer known as Jigsaw cost just $1.2 million and raked in more $100 million worldwide.

Saw II picks up with a new detective trying to track down Jigsaw. The sequel stars former New Kid on the Block Donnie Wahlberg, along with Tobin Bell and Shawnee Smith. It hits theaters on Oct. 28, just in time for Halloween.

Meanwhile, in related news, Elwes sued the producers of Saw last week, accusing them of screwing him out of a slice of the movie's back-end profits. The British actor seeks a percentage of grosses "equal to the highest-paid actor" on the production, as well as $500,000 in damages.

Home Video Isn't Just for the Home Anymore

"Home video" or "home entertainment" are quickly being obsolete terms given the proliferation of devices that now allow consumers to watch video on-the-go.

According to Home Media Retailing magazine (whose title may also be heading for obsolescence just months after it was adopted to replace Video Store magazine) portable entertainment has become a major growth area.

The magazine quoted Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment as saying, "Whether it's a business traveler with a laptop or kids in the back of the family minivan, people are creating their own personal entertainment environments wherever they go."

The magazine also cited figures from Autobytel's Automotive Information Center indicating that 22 car models now offer DVD players as standard features and another 20 percent offer them as options.

Sales of portable DVD players, it noted, rose 50 percent in the 12-month period ended June 30 from the same period a year ago.

Jessica Alba To Star In "I Dream Of Jeannie"

Jessica Alba has been cast in the upcoming big screen production of "I Dream of Jeannie." Ananova.com is reporting the 24-year-old former star of TV’s "Dark Angel," will be joined by Saturday Night Live’s Jimmy Fallon, as the new Jeannie and Major Nelson, originally played by Barbara Eden and Larry Hagman during the 1960’s. Other actresses considered for the part of the magical blonde bombshell, were Lindsay Lohan, Kate Hudson and Jessica Simpson, however producers ultimately chose Alba for the role.

Jodie Foster eyes 'Brave' new role

Jodie Foster is in talks for the lead role in the urban thriller "The Brave One," Variety reports.

The movie centres on a woman who struggles to recover from a brutal attack and sets out for revenge and justice.

The role would see Foster in familiar territory -- she played rape victim Sarah Tobias in 1988's "The Accused," for which she won the Best Actress Oscar in 1999.

"The Brave One" is tentatively scheduled to begin shooting this winter.

Foster will next be seen in the airline thriller "Flightplan," and is currently shooting the new Spike Lee film "The Inside Man" with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen.

Summer shows fail to excite viewers

The chill hasn't been for lack of trying. Through June and July, broadcast and cable networks generated a blizzard of premieres. Yet combined, they've created only one true blockbuster: ABC's Dancing with the Stars.

Granted, getting even one hit the size of Dancing is no small accomplishment. But while Dancing was huge while it lasted, it lasted only six weeks, and there's been precious little to sustain viewers' interest since it exited in July. What's missing are longer-running, midlevel hits like Amazing Race and Simple Life, which were top 10 performers last August.

Instead, this year we've been treated to a dismal array of reality shows that either start well and then fade, such as Fox's So You Think You Can Dance, or start badly and vanish, such as Fox's Princes of Malibu and NBC's The Law Firm. And, of course, there's ABC's Welcome to the Neighborhood, which didn't start at all. Who can blame viewers for sitting the summer out? (Related story: Summer of TV's disconnect)

Nor has reality provided the only disappointments. Fox failed with The Inside, a dark drama that went dark after a handful of episodes. ABC flopped with Empire, a huge project that was perceived as a desperate summer dump. And to make matters worse, the network bungled the repeat run of Lost, chasing viewers away by skipping episodes.

In other summers, you could have turned to HBO for relief. But this year, the network crashed with The Comeback. And it lessened whatever momentum it might have gotten out of the final season of Six Feet Under by starting the so-over Under on Monday before moving it back to Sunday.

Things on TV are never all bright or all bleak. TNT's The Closer may not be a blockbuster, but its 6 million viewers have put it on top of the cable ratings. And you have to give FX credit for Over There, a wonderful series that probably was ill-timed.

So what went wrong? For starters, too many networks gave us too much of the same thing, as everyone from ABC to VH1 clogged the airwaves with variations on The Apprentice and The Osbournes. On some nights, it seemed as if every camera that wasn't recording the faux life of some C-list celebrity was helping some fame-seeking contestant compete for a job. Next summer, leave the want ads to newspapers.

To be fair, we all may have been a little bit spoiled by success. In June, we had just come away from a wonderful season, climaxed by the much-discussed finales of 24, Lost, Desperate Housewives and American Idol. Many viewers apparently needed a rest, and those who didn't probably had unfair expectations of what summer could provide.

So we'll make the networks a deal. You don't have to be hot next summer. Just try not to freeze us out.

The Couch Potato Report - August 22nd, 2005

This week The Couch Potato Report features a sequel that isn't very good, a TV show that is, and an extended version of a film that is even better!

Up first is THE RING TWO. The film isn't as good as the original as an unmarked videotape continues its cycle of violence. Naomi Watts is back in the lead role, but the film offers nothing that is worth seeing, Watch the original, skip the sequel.

The sequel to ALF - SEASON ONE is ALF - SEASON TWO! The show remains one of my favourites from the 1980s and this four disc set includes all 25 episodes from the TV series about an Alien Life Form living on earth.

It still makes me laugh!!

I never laughed at Russell Crowe in GLADIATOR, but I did enjoy it!

Now the GLADIATOR - EXTENDED EDITION DVD offers us an all-new, widescreen extended version of the film, including 17 minutes of additional footage, and a three hour and twenty minute documentary that includes some never-before-seen footage.

The film is awesome, and this version is great. It doesn't make the film better, but you have more of it to enjoy.

And enjoy it you will!

The GLADIATOR - EXTENDED EDITION, ALF - SEASON TWO, and THE RING TWO are all available right now.

COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT

One of my all-time favourite films finally debuts on DVD! So, expect me to gush about QUICK CHANGE.

The classic film THE BLUES BROTHERS is celebrating its 25th Anniversary with a new edition. I suspect I will gush about that as well.

I know I will gush about the HOLY SCHNIKE EDITION of TOMMY BOY. I will also explain the phrase "Holy Schnike."

I'm Dan Reynish and I will have more on those, 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!

Influential synth pioneer Robert Moog dead at 71

Robert A. Moog, the synthesizer pioneer who invented the Moog, has died at the age of 71.

Moog had been diagnosed with brain cancer in April. He received radiation treatment and chemotherapy, but died Sunday at his home in Asheville, N.C.

Moog (which rhymes with vogue) created and marketed the first commercial modular synthesizer in 1964, while studying engineering physics at Cornell University.

The instrument allowed musicians to generate a range of sounds - both naturalistic and otherworldly. It was small, light and versatile, and was quickly embraced by musicians.

The first record to feature a Moog was Cosmic Sounds by the Zodiac. The instrument was quickly picked up by other musicians, such as the Beatles, looking for ways to fuse their psychedelic drug experiences with their music. The Beatles used a Moog on their 1969 album Abbey Road, and a Moog was the source of the eerie sound on the soundtrack to the 1971 movie A Clockwork Orange.

Keyboardist Walter (later Wendy) Carlos, a friend of Bob Moog, demonstrated the range of the synthesizer by using it as his only instrument on the 1968 album Switched-On Bach - one of the best-selling classical music recordings of all time.

"Suddenly, there was a whole group of people in the world looking for a new sound in music, and it picked up very quickly," composer Herb Deutsch said Monday. He is the Hofstra University music professor emeritus who helped develop the Moog prototype back in the 1960s.

"The Moog came at the right time," he said.

Popularity of the Moog surged in the 1970s, being used in extended keyboard solos in songs by groups like Manfred Mann, Yes and Pink Floyd.

"The sound defined progressive music as we know it," said Keith Emerson, keyboardist for the rock band Emerson, Lake and Palmer.

It also heavily influenced the development of 1970s funk, hip-hop, disco, and early techno.

In the 1980s, the Moog was used less, as digital synthesizers took over, but later the instrument experienced a bit of a revival. In 2004, a New York concert promoter staged the first Moogfest, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Moog, and featuring members of Yes and Parliament/Funkadelic.

In 1973, Robert Moog, who had initially set up shop in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., sold his company. Five years later, he moved to a remote plot outside Asheville N.C. - a scenic Appalachian Mountain city and centre for new-age pursuits that Rolling Stone magazine once dubbed "America's new freak capital."

Despite traveling in circles that included jet-setting rockers, he always considered himself a technician.

"I'm an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers," he said in 2000. "They use the tools."

Robert Moog is survived by his wife Ileana and five children.

Some influential or memorable albums featuring the Moog:

Cosmic Sounds, the Zodiac
Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn, & Jones, the Monkees
Switched-On Bach, Walter Carlos
The Well-Tempered Synthesizer, Walter Carlos
Moog Power, Hugo Montenegro
Abbey Road, the Beatles
The In Sound from Way Out, Perrey and Kingsley
Christmas Becomes Electric, the Moog Machine
Popcorn, Hot Butter
A Clockwork Orange (soundtrack), Walter Carlos
Star Wars (soundtrack), Patrick Gleeson
Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Emerson, Lake & Palmer
Ricochet, Tangerine Dream
Innervisions, Stevie Wonder
X, Klaus Schulze
Funkentelechy vs. The Placebo Syndrome, Parliament
Who's Next, the Who
Pet Sounds, Beach Boys
Beggar's Banquet, Rolling Stones
Moving Pictures, Rush

Shania, Phair Rock 'Housewives' Soundtrack

The new Shania Twain single "Shoes" will lead the album "Music From and Inspired by Desperate Housewives," due Sept. 20 via Hollywood. Its accompanying video will feature Twain alongside "Desperate Housewives" cast members Teri Hatcher, Eva Longoria, Felicity Huffman and Marcia Cross.

The album features a host of previously unreleased covers, including the Indigo Girls' version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson," Liz Phair's take on the Rolling Stones' "Mother's Little Helper," Gloria Estefan's recasting of the Candi Staton-popularized "Young Hearts Run Free" and Martina McBride's cover of the Tom T. Hall-penned country favorite "Harper Valley P.T.A."

In addition, there are newly recorded tracks from Anna Nalick, Leann Rimes, Macy Gray, Joss Stone and k.d. lang, plus a new original from SheDaisy ("God Bless the American Housewife") and interspersed dialog from the "Housewives" stars.

The new season the show premieres Sept. 25 on ABC.

Here is the track list for "Music From and Inspired by Desperate Housewives":

"Dialog / Mary Alice"
"God Bless the American Housewife," SheDaisy
"Dialog / Edie"
"Shoes," Shania Twain
"Band of Gold," Anna Nalick
"Dialog / Lynette"
"Mother's Little Helper," Liz Phair
"Mrs. Robinson," Indigo Girls
"Harper Valley P.T.A.," Martina McBride
"Dialog / Bree"
"Running Out of Time," Leann Rimes
"Treat Me Right (I'm Yours for Life)," Joss Stone
"One's on the Way," Sara Evans
"Dialog / Gabrielle"
"Boom Boom," Macy Gray
"Young Hearts Run Free," Gloria Estefan
"Dialog / Susan"
"Damsel in Distress," Idina Menzel
"Dreams of the Everyday Housewife," k.d. lang
"Dialog / Mary Alice"
"Theme," Danny Elfman

Olivia Newton-John's Boyfriend Missing

LOS ANGELES - The Coast Guard is investigating the disappearance of Olivia Newton-John's longtime boyfriend, who failed to return from a sport-fishing trip off the California coast seven weeks ago.

Patrick Kim McDermott, 48, was listed as missing after he left San Pedro, 20 miles south of Los Angeles, on June 30 for the overnight trip.

Coast Guard officer Nathan Henise told The Associated Press on Monday that McDermott's personal belongings were found on the commercial vessel.

"We're treating it as a missing person case," Henise said. "Everyone is being interviewed, everyone on the boat."

McDermott was aboard the "Freedom," which embarked with 23 passengers and three crew members, said Frank Liversedge, landing manager at the boat's pier.

Liversedge said he called police and the Coast Guard after learning McDermott was missing and found his wallet and the other belongings in a fanny pack on the boat.

McDermott signed the passenger manifest when he boarded and was last seen eating in the galley, Chief Warrant Officer Scott Epperson told a news conference Monday afternoon. No one has told investigators they saw McDermott getting off, Epperson said.

Investigators have no leading theory of what happened and have not developed any meaningful leads, he added.

Newton-John urged anyone with information on McDermott's disappearance to contact authorities.

"I'm hopeful that my treasured friend is safe and well, and I'm grateful to the officials who are working so hard to find Patrick, whom I love very much," she said in a statement. "I ask anybody with information that could help to please, please come forward."

Gavin de Becker, a spokesman for Newton-John, said the singer was in "close and frequent contact" with McDermott's family and friends, as well as investigators.

Authorities said McDermott's family became concerned when he didn't attend a July 6 event. They contacted the Coast Guard after his car was found in the marina's parking lot on July 11.

McDermott, a cameraman, and Newton-John, 56, have been together for nine years.

Newton-John, who starred in the 1978 film "Grease" opposite John Travolta, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992. After she beat the disease, she recorded the album "Gaia," documenting her experience.

'Gladiator' DVD a real killer

It is fascinating, five years later, to see how well Ridley Scott's Gladiator stands up as it matures: It is a masterwork, a thrilling if brutally violent entertainment with a rich storyline and deep character development. And despite the ancient setting in the Roman Empire of 180 A.D., the film's contemporary themes of power abuse and military recklessness ripen in the light of current affairs.

As a result, the new three-disc DVD set, Gladiator: Extended Edition, is important because it reinforces the historical significance of the film. Tomorrow's release, in a gorgeous new enhanced widescreen transfer, boasts an expanded set of extras, including a new documentary that runs longer than the film itself.

There is controversy, however. The film has been extended by 15 minutes and 56 seconds (not the full 17 minutes promised). Is this just a blatant cash grab, a push to sell more DVDs of a movie already well served in the digital format?

In an intro, Scott seems to distance himself: "This is not the director's cut," he says, adding that the true director's cut is the theatrical version (also presented in the new set as an alternative). "This has a lot of scenes in it that were removed during the editing process and might be worth seeing."

Some of the 13 new scenes are worth seeing, especially when best actor winner Russell Crowe, as Maximus, visits the field hospital to survey the carnage in the aftermath of the victory over Germania. Serving "the glory of Rome" exacts a toll. There are other more subtle yet key additions, such as showing Joaquin Phoenix, as Commodus, attack the bust of his murdered father with a sword, or letting Tomas Arana, as Quintus, explain to Maximus why he obeyed bad orders as a soldier. The scenes enrich the meaning of later events.

Also new is a commentary that teams Scott with Crowe. The two feed off each other beautifully, giving Crowe the platform for intelligent insight into the acting and filmmaking process and into the layers of meaning in the film.

Crowe, that rapscallion, also makes mischief, revealing that the hapless goof caught wearing jeans on screen in the Germania battle scene was the second assistant director Adam Somner. "You little bastard," Crowe says with a laugh, "I'd recognize that squatty walk anywhere."

Even better is his anecdote about how he conspired with Scott to pump up Phoenix's shattered confidence when the actor wanted to quit in his first days on set. The therapy included verbal shock therapy, at the victim's request: "Why don't you just try acting, you little maggot," Crowe says he told Phoenix from off-camera just before Phoenix was to perform. Meanwhile, Richard Harris plied Phoenix with drinks. It worked. The reluctant co-star became an Oscar nominee.

The documentary, Strength And Honour: Creating The World Of Gladiator, is a major addition, too. The piece is authoritive and thorough and not just self-promotion.

On the third disc, there is a collection of more conventional extras, most of them already familiar. Put it all together and fans of Gladiator are caught in a dilemma. You may own the earlier DVD -- but this new one is significantly better.

AN UN-ORIGINAL 'SIN'

Robert Rodriguez doesn't just write and direct such dazzling-looking movies as "Sin City" and "Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D." He does everything but serve lunch to the crew, working as an editor, director of photography, special effects supervisor and even composer.

He told The New York Post about the upcoming "Sin City" director's cut DVD and his next project with his friend Quentin Tarantino, who served as guest director of one segment on "Sin City."

What's cool on the "Sin City'' DVD?

There's two of them. The first one [out last week] is sort of the standard bare-bones one. The real one I'm still putting together. We shot all the material from three different "Sin City" books knowing I would have to take stuff out to make it flow as a single feature. The second disc will have all three stories separated with their own title cards. Each is like a 45-, 50-minute movie, so it's got its full length put back in. It could be a total of an extra 20 to 30 minutes."

Then there'll be a 20-minute film school [featurette] about how I did the lighting and the special effects and all the green-screen stuff. There's also an 18-minute uninterrupted take when Quentin's there directing and it feels like you're sitting there on the set.

You direct, edit, write and produce your films. Why take on so many roles?

You just love your material so much you just want to be hands-on and give it all that tender loving care. [The jobs] are all different and they all pull at different parts of your creativity and it's all going towards the master project. You try to make it as personal as you can especially in this day and age where movies have just gotten so much bigger. You go in the other direction, making it as homemade as you can.

How do you direct actors in a digitally enhanced movie?

They totally trust you if you prove to them that you know what you're doing. It's also very freeing for them. You just present to them in the context that it's like theater. They're gonna be on a blank stage with a few minimal props. And the rest is imagined. That they can relate to very easily.

You make films for Miramax, but Bob and Harvey Weinstein are leaving to start a new company. Will you go with them?

Yeah, they just give us that freedom when I go to them and say, "I got a movie I want to do; it's really strange, it's all the stuff you're not supposed to do," they say good, go do it. It's just that simple.

What are you working on for your next project?

I'm doing another crazy movie with Quentin for the Weinstein company called "Grindhouse." It's a double-feature horror film. He directs one, and I direct the other, and we have fake trailers in between. It's like a late-'60s, early-'70s exploitation double feature. We're writing it right now over at Quentin's house. We watch old movies, old horror-thriller exploitation movies, and get lots of ideas. We're gonna be shooting it in the fall.

SHE WENT NUDE FOR BILL MURRAY

'Broken Flowers," Jim Jarmusch's charming comedy, features Bill Murray, Sharon Stone, Julie Delpy and Tilda Swinton.

But the scene that has everybody talking stars a 20-ish (she won't give her age) New York actress named Alexis Dziena.

Murray is Don Johnston, a ladies' man who sets off on a journey to find the ex-girlfriend who sent him a disturbing letter about a 19-year-old son he knows nothing about.

One stop is the home of ex-lover Laura (Stone) and her sex-kitten daughter, Lolita (Dziena).

It's here that the young woman provides brief but explicit nudity — front and back.

The scene lasts maybe 10 seconds, but it elicits gasps from audiences, not to mention hot buzz on the Internet.

So, Cine File asked Dziena, how did Bill Murray — the man, not the character — react to seeing so much of her?

"I can't really answer," she says with a girlish giggle. "Probably he was feeling whatever he portrayed on screen."

And how did Dziena (pronounced Da-zeena) feel seeing herself naked on the big screen?

"My manager and my mom were sitting next to me, and I was biting my manager's hand and putting my foot in my mom's lap," she confesses.

"Then it was over, and I said it wasn't so bad. It's a lot scarier in concept."

Dziena spoke with Cine File from L.A., where she's shooting an ABC-TV dramatic series, "Invasion," debuting Sept. 21.

Her character: "The wild daughter of the local sheriff."

Dziena used to be an item with Michael Pitt, the hunky actor who plays the Kurt Cobain character in "Last Days."

They split up a year ago, "but we're still friends."

She has a new boyfriend, but doesn't want to talk about him.

Dziena was born and raised in Manhattan, where she lives with her real-estate-selling mother.

In her spare time, the actress writes plays, paints and plays piano and cello.

She's also learning drums. "I like it, but I don't think my neighbors do."

Oh, yes. The small tattoo we see on her butt in "Broken Flowers" was painted on just for the movie.

Yearwood Returns With New Album, Tour

Save for a handful of one-off performances and appearances, Trisha Yearwood has not been on the road in three years. That will change this fall with a 27-date tour that will open Sept. 29 in Mesa, Ariz., and run through a Nov. 19 show in Robinsonville, Miss.

Yearwood will be touring in support of her new album, "Jasper County," due Sept. 13 from MCA Nashville. The Garth Fundis-produced set is the follow-up to 2001's "Inside Out."

"I've never taken this long to make a record," Yearwood says. "I've never recorded as many songs. I'd never completely started over on an album like I did on this one. Overall, it was a two-year process to make this record."

In fact, Yearwood and Fundis scrapped an album's worth of material and decided they could do better. "Once we did that, we were able to get to the next layer of songs, to dig a little deeper," she says. "When we got into the second set of sessions, it felt instantly right. That's when I knew. You could just feel that it was special."

The album is led by the single "Georgia Rain," which is No. 18 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. The song features a harmony vocal by Yearwood's fiancée, country superstar Garth Brooks. Fans who pre-order the album through Apple's iTunes music store beginning Aug. 30 will receive a bonus acoustic version of the single.

Also contributing guest vocals to the album are Brooks & Dunn's Ronnie Dunn ("Try Me") and Beth Nielsen Chapman, who sings on the ballad she co-wrote, "Trying to Love You." Other "Jasper County" cuts include the bluesy opener "Who Invented the Wheel" and the upbeat songs "Baby Don't You Let Go," "Gimme the Good Stuff" and "Pistol."

Yearwood has a few appearances planned prior to the tour's kick off. Tomorrow (Aug. 20) she'll be in St. Paul, Minn., to perform at the Starkey Hearing Foundation's So the World May Hear Awards Gala, which Brooks will also attend. Michael Bolton, Donny Osmond and Paul Williams will also perform at the event, which aims to raise $3 million for the charity.

As previously reported, Yearwood has been tapped to sing the National Anthem Sept. 8 as part of the NFL Kickoff 2005 ABC special before the opening game of the professional football season.

Also on tap are appearances on NBC's "Today" morning show, as well as the network's "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," CBS' "The Late Show With David Letterman," ABC's "Good Morning America" and "The View" and the syndicated "Ellen DeGeneres Show" and "Martha."

Yearwood is expected to be on hand in January for Nashville's inaugural Sound and Speed Presented by SunTrust, a Motorsports and Music Celebration.

Here is the "Jasper County" track list:

"Who Invented the Wheel"
"Pistol"
"Trying to Love You"
"River of You"
"Baby Don't You Let Go"
"Standing Out in a Crowd"
"Georgia Rain"
"Sweet Love"
"Try Me"
"Gimme the Good Stuff"
"It's Alright"

Here are Yearwood's tour dates:

Sept. 29: Mesa, Ariz. (Mesa Performing Arts Center)
Sept. 30-Oct. 1: Las Vegas (Las Vegas Hilton)
Oct. 2: Pomona, Calif. (Los Angeles County Fairgrounds)
Oct. 4: Palm Desert, Calif. (McCallum Theatre for Performing Arts)
Oct. 5: Escondido, Calif. (California Center for the Arts)
Oct. 7: Santa Rosa, Calif. (Luther Burbank Center for the Arts)
Oct. 8: Reno, Nev. (Reno Hilton Theater)
Oct. 9: Jackson, Calif. (Jackson Rancheria Casino)
Oct. 15: Norfolk, Va. (Fleet Rec. Park)
Oct. 17: Atlanta (Symphony Hall)
Oct. 18: Jacksonville, Fla. (Florida Theatre)
Oct. 20: Melbourne, Fla. (King Center)
Oct. 21: West Palm Beach, Fla. (Kravis Center for the Performing Arts)
Oct. 22: Clearwater, Fla. (Ruth Eckerd Hall)
Oct. 23: Fort Myers, Fla. (Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall)
Oct. 27: Prior Lake, Minn. (Celebrity Palace)
Oct. 28: Joliet, Ill. (Rialto Square Theatre)
Nov. 2: Glenside, Pa. (Keswick Theatre)
Nov. 3: Easton, Pa. (State Theatre)
Nov. 4: Mashantucket, Conn. (Foxwoods Resort and Casino)
Nov. 5: Albany, N.Y. (Palace Theatre)
Nov. 6: Waterbury, Conn. (Palace Theatre)
Nov. 10: Baltimore (France-Merrick Performing Arts Center)
Nov. 11: Atlantic City, N.J. (Atlantic City Hilton Casino)
Nov. 18: Shreveport, La. (Sam's Town)
Nov. 19: Robinsonville, Miss. (Sam's Town)

'Virgin' Wins Box Office With $20.6M

LOS ANGELES - Steve Carell scored in his maiden voyage as a leading man, with his comedy "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" taking in $20.6 million to debut at the top of the box office.

Opening in second place was Wes Craven's airplane thriller "Red Eye," which raked in $16.5 million in its first weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The two new movies bumped the previous weekend's top flick, "Four Brothers," to third place with $13 million. "Four Brothers" lifted its 10-day total to $43.6 million.

The weekend's other wide releases tanked. Disney's "Valiant," an animated tale about the exploits of heroic homing pigeons during World War II, came in at No. 7 with $6.1 million.

The motorcycle-racing flick "Supercross: The Movie" opened well out of the top 10 with $1.3 million.

The overall box office was down slightly, with the top 12 movies grossing $98.8 million, off 3 percent from the same weekend last year. Hollywood receipts have sagged for most of the year, running about 7 percent behind 2004's revenues.

"The 40-Year-Old Virgin," which Carell co-wrote, casts him as a middle-aged electronics-store clerk whose co-workers discover he's never had sex and set out to find him an easy woman, only to see him begin dating a single mom ( Catherine Keener) with a mutual a no-sex policy.

"Forty-year-old virgins everywhere are celebrating the No. 1 opening of their hero," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Distributor Universal hopes "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" can muster the same good word of mouth that made another R-rated sex romp, "Wedding Crashers," one of summer's biggest successes.

"Our racy little R-rated comedies are making a hit this year," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal.

Critics warmly embraced "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," a sign the movie could get talked up enough by audiences to hold up well in subsequent weekends.

"This is a movie that's a conversation piece. People are going to be telling other people, quoting different lines and scenes," Dergarabedian said. "That's what's going to sustain it in the marketplace."

"Red Eye" stars Rachel McAdams as a woman on an overnight flight who's forced to assist in an assassination plot by her seat mate ( Cillian Murphy), a man threatening to have her father killed unless she complies.

An understated departure for horror master Craven ("A Nightmare on Elm Street," the "Scream" movies), "Red Eye" also received high marks from critics.

"What's most impressive to me was Wes' successful transition from horror films to the suspense genre," said Jim Tharp, head of distribution for DreamWorks, which released "Red Eye."

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. "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," $20.6 million.

2. "Red Eye," $16.5 million.

3. "Four Brothers," $13 million.

4. "Wedding Crashers," $8.3 million.

5. "The Skeleton Key," $7.4 million.

6. "March of the Penguins," $6.7 million.

7. "Valiant," $6.1 million.

8. "Dukes of Hazzard," $5.7 million.

9. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," $4.5 million.

10. "Sky High," $4 million.

LAST LAUGH

'Big Brother 6" still has another month to go — but it's already earned its stripes among "BB" fans.

"For me, [the strength of this season] has been the unknowable aspect, the twists, and the ability of America to influence events in the house," says Margie Antonetti, who runs the reality Web site realitytvtalk.com.

"The show has al ways had a bit of that [involvement] element, but in this version, America got to vote somebody back into the house — and that was satisfactory on so many levels."

That "somebody" was Kaysar, the Iraqi-American who's one of the most popular "BB" contestants in show history (his second stint in the "BB" house lasted only a week — he was evicted, again, last night).

"It was fun to see what Kaysar would come up with next, who he was going to sweet-talk next and then come up with some pretty ingenious plan," says Brian Scheffler, who runs welove bigbrother.com.

In this season's "twist," each houseguest entered the house with a secret partner, thinking they were the only partners in the house.

"This season the twist is simple, yet fun," Scheffler says. "I think that's a big part [of the appeal]. It's easy to understand.

"But I think another factor [in the show's popularity] is that it airs three times a week — it's not like 'Survivor,' which was taped months ago," Scheffler says.

"It's happening as we speak . . . it's like an addiction factor."

Part of that viewer addiction lies in watching the behavior of the houseguests — and this year's bunch is a doozy.

Let's just say no one here is very, well, truthful. Alliances made quickly the first week were easily broken; houseguests realign on a daily basis.

"Jen and April have been particularly masterful in the art of lying and turning their situations around through their web of lies," says Antonetti.

"Even though it's part of the game, it's frustrating to watch if you're not rooting for them.

"And Janelle doesn't take guff from anyone. She has so much going for her and she's funny as heck," Antonetti says. "I'd really love to see her make it all the way through."

Movie theater owners fire back at studios

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Tired of being blamed for the box office slump, the nation's movie theater owners returned fire Thursday, accusing the studios of delivering sub-standard product.

"Here's what we know about 2005: The movies are not as good," said John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theater Owners.

"They're not terrible; they're just not as good. And so the industry has experienced a temporary drop-off compared to 2004, the biggest box office year in movie history."

His remarks were part of a direct rebuke to Robert Iger, who is about to take over as CEO of the Walt Disney Co. Iger said last week during the firm's third-quarter conference call that the industry should move toward the simultaneous release of theatrical films and videos. In 2004, the average gap between a film's release in theaters and on video was four months, 16 days.

Fithian said that compressing windows "to placate this instant-everywhere appetite" would result in a world with "no viable movie theater industry ... at least not a theater industry devoted to the entertainment products of Hollywood.

"(Iger) should know that Hollywood studios would be merely one shriveled vendor among many in that new world of movies-as-commodities-only," he added.

Neither Iger nor Disney chose to respond to Fithian's comments.

Year-to-date box office sales stand at $5.57 billion compared with $6.05 billion at the same time in 2004. Pundits have cited exhibitors' pumped-up onscreen advertising, rising ticket prices and rude patrons as primary reasons moviegoers are staying home.

During the earnings call, Iger said, "I don't think it's out of the question that a DVD can be released in effect in the same window as a theatrical release. Although I'm sure we will get a fair amount of push-back on this from the industry, it's not out of the question. I think that all the old rules should be called into question because the rules in terms of consumption have changed so dramatically."

While no major exhibitor has suggested taking aggressive action against Disney based on Iger's comments, theater owners in the past have shown tremendous resistance to anyone who advocates a compressed windows strategy. Many in the industry believe it's just a matter of time until a major studio attempts such an experiment in the hope of reducing marketing costs and maximizing profits across the various platforms.

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Billy Crystal brings '700 Sundays' to Toronto

Billy Crystal is bringing his bittersweet autobiographical one-man show to Toronto next month.

700 Sundays will play at the Canon Theatre from Sept. 28 to Oct. 9, Mirvish Productions announced Thursday. Tickets are only available to subscribers.

The show has been a huge hit on Broadway, where it closed June 12. It outsold many other Broadway plays last year, and set a sales record for a solo show. It also won a Tony Award for best theatrical event.

The title refers to the number of Sundays Crystal figures he got to spend with his hard-working father, Jack Crystal. He died when Billy Crystal was 15.

"The best work I've ever done in my life has been 700 Sundays," he said at the Tony Award ceremony in June. "It's reconnected me with myself and reminded me of what I do best, which is performing in front of people."

Crystal is perhaps best known for hosting the Academy Awards, which he has done eight times. A former Saturday Night Live cast member, he has also had roles in movies like When Harry Met Sally and City Slickers.

NHL Games Skate to OLN

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Even back when the National Hockey League was still playing games, its TV ratings weren't exactly stratospheric. But telecasts on ESPN and ESPN2 could at least draw a million viewers, maybe 2 million on a good night during the playoffs.

If an NHL game pulls in 2 million people on OLN, the league's new cable home, it will be a record for the channel.

The network previously best known for its Tour de France coverage, outdoor sports and "Survivor" reruns has ponied up a reported $200 million to become hockey's cable home for the next three seasons. It's the first foray into professional team sports by the network, which is owned by cable giant Comcast (which also owns the NHL's Philadelphia Flyers and several regional sports networks).

"We are proud to be the new national television home of the NHL when the puck drops on Oct. 5," OLN President Gavin Harvey says. "Adding hockey to our lineup when the NHL returns to the ice with a fresh season, new energy, new players and a new attitude adds tremendous value to OLN."

If you don't remember the last time you saw an NHL game on TV, that may be because there haven't been any since June 2004. The league lost its entire 2004-05 season to a labor dispute after the owners locked out players.

OLN will televise at least 58 regular-season games on Monday and Tuesday nights, along with the NHL All-Star Game and most of the Stanley Cup playoffs, including the first two games of the Finals. NBC has the rights to a handful of weekend regular-season games and games three through seven of the Finals, in a deal for which it paid no rights fees.

OLN grabbed its biggest audience ever -- 1.7 million viewers -- last month for the final stage of Lance Armstrong's record seventh Tour de France victory. The network, which is available in about 64 million homes, averages fewer than a half-million viewers in primetime.

Garth Brooks Inks Exclusive Deal With Wal-Mart

Garth Brooks has signed a multi-year, exclusive pact with Wal-Mart, making the retailer and its Sam's Clubs and Walmart.com outlets the only places where his music will be commercially available.

The deal with Brooks marks the first time an artist -- and certainly a superstar -- has aligned himself and his entire catalog with one chain. (A number of other retailers have started labels, but they were never exclusive to the retailer and most have shut down).

Speculation about a pact brewing between Brooks and Wal-Mart grew after the artist performed at a Wal-Mart shareholders meeting June 3 in Bentonville, Ark. However, until now, both sides have declined to acknowledge that they had made a deal.

Brooks tells Billboard that he's not ready to discuss details of the marriage until "we get our ducks a row," but adds that the forthcoming releases, "in everything from cost to content, will be an amazing deal for the Garth fan."

The initial deal is believed to cover only catalog since Brooks had vowed to remain retired from performing and recording new material until his youngest daughter graduates from high school in 2015. Then, he has said he'll reevaluate the marketplace and his desire to return to the music recording industry. Brooks' last studio album, 2001's "Scarecrow," has sold 2.9 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Although neither Brooks nor Wal-Mart would comment on the first arrival under the pact, industry sources say that it will be a multiple-disc box set including previously unreleased material. The set will street in late fall and will retail at around $25.

While other superstars, such as Elton John and the Rolling Stones have released exclusive box sets through Best Buy, they were DVD projects. This is the first time an artist has released an audio box set exclusively through a traditional retailer.

Brooks' departure from Capitol Nashville, his label home since 1989, paved the way for the Wal-Mart deal. Capitol and Brooks dissolved their licensing deal in June. Brooks owns his masters, leaving him free to shop for a new deal. His catalog includes 15 projects. Capitol parent EMI can sell remaining Brooks' titles it already had in the pipeline to retailers prior to the June deal, but it can manufacture no more units.

'Virgin' should get lucky at box office

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - As Hollywood's summer coasts to its Labor Day close, box office expectations tend to diminish along with summer work hours. But this weekend, four films will try to overcome the end-of-summer malaise with fresh offerings to four distinct demographics.

The likely winner of the frame is "The 40-Year-Old Virgin," which should top the $20 million mark for the three-day period.

Hot on the heels of "Wedding Crashers," the Universal Pictures release already is receiving the highest of compliments from reviewers, who are saying the film is on par with if not better than the hit Vince Vaughn- Owen Wilson starrer.

Starring Steve Carell, "Virgin" centers on a 40-year-old retail clerk who never got around to having sex. His friends, including Paul Rudd, are committed to getting this average Joe deflowered. Catherine Keener co-stars in a well-reviewed role as Carell's love interest.

The R-rated film -- director Judd Apatow's theatrical debut -- should open well in these dog days of summer, luring those elusive young men who have been avoiding the megaplex.

Hoping for a rebound after the fatal release of "The Island," DreamWorks Pictures will bow Wes Craven's "Red Eye," which insiders predict will bow in the mid-teen-millions.

The PG-13 film marks Craven's transition from horror to thriller. The film stars up-and-comers Rachel McAdams ("Wedding Crashers") and Cillian Murphy, the Irish actor who shone in "Batman Begins." "Red Eye" centers on a woman held captive on an airplane by a stranger who threatens to kill her father unless she helps him arrange the assassination of a wealthy businessman. It cost less than $30 million to produce.

Disney will bow the British computer-animated film "Valiant," from Vanguard Animation, the company founded by "Shrek" producer John Williams.

"Valiant" follows the adventures of a World War II carrier pigeon. Directed by first-timer Gary Chapman, the film features the voices of Ewan McGregor, Ricky Gervais, John Cleese and Jim Broadbent. The $40 million, G-rated film opened in March in the U.K. and has grossed $15 million. With limited publicity in the U.S. compared with the huge animated blockbusters that flood multiplexes here, "Valiant" will find it difficult to take flight. Industry insiders put the film's weekend gross at $10 million.

20th Century Fox opened "Supercross: The Movie" on Wednesday. The film revolves around two brothers who, after the suspicious death of their father, must motivate each other to get back on their bikes for the Supercross championships in Las Vegas. Aiming at fans of extreme sports, the PG-13 film is unlikely to cross the $10 million mark for the five-day frame.

In limited release, Wellspring opened the indie documentary "Reel Paradise" on Wednesday in New York. The R-rated film centers on indie film guru John Pierson, who moves his family to Fiji for one year to run the world's most remote movie theater.

Tartan Films bows "Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance" on three screens in New York. The R-rated South Korean film tells the story of a deaf mute who struggles to find a way to help his sister, who requires a kidney transplant.

Monaco, O'Hurley: "Dancing" Rematch!

Not only can controversy be good for business, sometimes it can inspire a two-part special.

Kelly Monaco and John O'Hurley will return to the Dancing with the Stars ballroom for a so-called "dance-off" on Sept. 20, ABC announced Thursday. The results, based solely on viewer voting, will be announced in a Sept. 22 telecast.

Monaco, the daytime soap star, took the first round against O'Hurley, the former Seinfeld player, back on July 6 when she and professional dance partner Alec Mazo were named champs of the six-week made-for-TV contest.

Coming in the wake of early shaky efforts, Monaco's win was greeted with suspicion by O'Hurley die-hards who thought the show's elder statesman had samba-d circles around the competition with the help of partner Charlotte Jorgensen. One conspiracy theory had ABC plotting to put Monaco on top in the name of corporate synergy--the actress' day job is on the network's General Hospital.

At the Television Critics Association press tour last month, ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson told reporters the network was considering a Monaco-O'Hurley rematch. To the exec, a show returning the two rivals to the dance floor was a "great idea," not an admission that funny business had marred the initial results.

"The voting was not fixed whatsoever," McPherson said.

The newly sure-footed Monaco, meanwhile, refused to be tripped up by talk that she didn't earn her victory, and welcomed a rematch.

"Bring it on," the actress said at the ABC press conference last month. "You want a dance-off, come on up here. I'll give you a dance-off."

And so the dance-off: The Monaco and O'Hurley teams will compete in Latin, ballroom and freestyle. The 90-minute special will be filled out with "dance demonstrations" by: Ashly Delgrosso, Joey McIntyre's former partner; Jonathan Roberts, Rachel Hunter's ringer; Edyta Sliwinska, survivor of Evander Holyfield's moves; and, Louis van Amstel, Trista Sutter's harsh taskmaster.

The results show, airing two nights later, will be kept to a relatively spare 30 minutes.

No decision has been made as to whether a separate results show will be part of Dancing with the Stars' second season. And, no, no decision has been made as to when Dancing with the Stars' second season will launch.

In its inaugural run, summer's biggest TV hit aired once a week, for six consecutive weeks, starting June 1. One dance team was eliminated at the end of each episode, except the first episode, on account of no team got eliminated until a lousy performance was at least one week old. (The logistics and math made a bit, but not a lot, more sense as the series played out.)

While Dancing's trio of judges will be on hand for next month's dance-off, they'll only serve as sideline observers, a la the Simon-Paula-Randy troika on American Idol. The Monaco-O'Hurley winner be determined by audience-generated online and phone voting.

Results will be final. Presumably until the next dance-off.

Eminem in Rehab for Sleep Medication

DETROIT - Eminem is undergoing treatment for dependency to sleep medication, his publicist said Thursday, two days after the Grammy-winning rapper canceled his European tour citing exhaustion.

In a brief statement, Dennis Dennehy said Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, "is in the hospital under doctors' care."

Eminem wrapped up his nationwide "Anger Management" tour last week, then on Tuesday canceled 10 European concerts that were to kick off Sept. 1 in Hamburg, Germany.

Interscope Records released a statement at the time saying Eminem was being treated for exhaustion, complicated by other medical issues.

Last month, the 32-year-old denied a report that he was planning to retire. But he did say he might be taking a breather after releasing four multi-platinum albums, including his latest, "Encore."

BBC orders more 'Extras'

LONDON (Hollywood Reporter) - The BBC has commissioned a second season of "Extras" -- Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's comedy follow-up to hit satire "The Office."

"Extras," which averages 3.9 million viewers in its Thursday airings on BBC 2, is due to premiere on HBO September 25.

Gervais stars as a background actor with dim hopes of screen stardom, while Merchant plays his bumbling agent. Ben Stiller, Vinnie Jones and Kate Winslet have made cameos.

'Toy Story' Co-Writer Reportedly Dies

UKIAH, Calif. - Joe Ranft, who was nominated for an Oscar for co-writing "Toy Story" for Pixar Animation Studios, died when the car he was riding in veered off a Mendocino County highway and into the water, the Hollywood Reporter reported Wednesday. He was 45.

An unidentified spokeswoman for the Mendocino County Sheriff-Coroner's Office confirmed to the trade publication that Ranft was one of two people who died Tuesday in the crash on Highway 1.

"Joe was an important and beloved member of the Pixar family, and his loss is of great sorrow to all of us and to the animation industry as a whole," the company said in a statement to the Hollywood Reporter.

Hundreds of Pixar employees gathered Wednesday in the animation company's atrium to share their grief, according to blogs written by several Pixar animators.

An accident report from the California Highway Patrol confirmed the crash but said only the coroner's office could release the names of the two fatalities. No one was available at the coroner's office late Wednesday night.

Ranft, the head of story for more than a decade at Pixar, also co-wrote "A Bug's Life" and was the voice for such characters as Heimlich in "A Bug's Life" and Wheezy the Penguin in "Toy Story 2."

Before joining Pixar, Ranft worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation, where he was a writer on "Beauty and the Beast" and "The Lion King."

The CHP said the car was traveling north on Highway 1 on Tuesday afternoon when the driver overcorrected and veered over the cliff at about 30 mph, overturning twice and landing near where the Navarro River meets the Pacific Ocean.

The driver and the front passenger were killed. The rear passenger, identified as Eric T. Frierson, 39 of Los Angeles, escaped with moderate injuries.

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Miami Vice - Here's a Hot Heads-Up For Ya!

Fans (old and new) of Miami Vice have thoroughly enjoyed the first season set of the show. That includes myself, and - like the rest of you! - I have been hungry for news of the second season release. Now I'm very pleased to have great news for you!

I have learned from retail sources that Miami Vice - Season 2, a 3-DVD set, is tentatively scheduled for release in the USA on December 13th, 2005. No other information is available yet, and since Universal has not made an official announcement, please understand that this date could change. Stay tuned, though, and we'll keep you posted with updates and developments.

Don’t like Simpsons packaging? Fox is listening

In a wonderful move a listening to customers, Twentieth Century Fox is offering to replace the boxes for the current sixth season of The Simpsons on DVD.

Many people griped about the change of packaging on the Simpsons DVD sets starting with the sixth season set, which now resembles Homer Simpsons head. Fox has offered that anyone who wishes to have old-style packaging to match the earlier seasons can call 1 (800) 223-2369 or visit www.simpsonsbox.com for a replacement.

All it will cost the consumer is shipping and handling and a little good natured ribbing from the website.

Program director Slawko Klymkiw leaves CBC TV

CBC announced Wednesday that its head of network TV, Slawko Klymkiw, is leaving the public broadcaster at the end of the month.

Klymkiw has been the head of programming for nine years.

In a note to staff, CBC TV VP Richard Stursberg said Klymkiw is leaving to take up a "new, exciting and very different professional opportunity."

Klymkiw, in his own note, said his new role will allow him to "give something back to the industry in a way that I hope will leave a lasting legacy in terms of developing future talent in this country."

There is speculation he may become executive director of the Canadian Film Centre.

The announcement came on the third day of the CBC lockout, with 5,500 Canadian Media Guild employees off work and on the picket line, although Klymkiw said his decision "has absolutely nothing to do with our current labour situation."

Klymkiw has been program director since 1996. Some of his successes include Canada: a People's History, The Greatest Canadian, and Rick Mercer's Monday Report. He was also responsible for CBC's Movie Night in Canada strategy, which replaced Hockey Night in Canada when last year's NHL season was cancelled.

He had previously been in charge of CBC Newsworld, the CBC's 24-hour news and information specialty channel. He also ran the CBC News special program unit, where he developed the Gemini Award-nominated National Town Hall specials. Before that, he ran TV news for CBC in Toronto, and Winnipeg.

He started with the CBC in Winnipeg in 1980.

In July 2004, Richard Stursberg was appointed VP of CBC TV. At the time, there was widespread speculation that Klymkiw was unhappy at having been passed over, with CBC President and CEO Robert Rabinovitch telling the media he was "sure [Klymkiw] was disappointed."

Stursberg said Eva Czigler will take on Klymkiw's former role on an acting basis, which will ensure "strong continuity during the transition." She is currently senior director of network programming at CBC TV.

Garofalo Joins 'West Wing' Campaign

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Janeane Garofalo, who's not shy about airing her real-life political views, will enter the fictional political world of "The West Wing" this fall.

The "Reality Bites" star will appear in three episodes of the NBC drama this season, playing a media strategist hired by Democratic presidential hopeful Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits). Her advice to move away from political gamesmanship and start speaking directly to voters ruffles feathers within the Santos campaign, including those of Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford).

Her first episode is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 2 ("The West Wing" is moving away from its long-time Wednesday home this season to 8 p.m. ET Sundays).

Garofalo, who first gained notice as part of "The Ben Stiller Show," earned two Emmy nominations for her role as Paula on "The Larry Sanders Show" and also did a short stint on "Saturday Night Live" in the mid-1990s. This spring, she starred in an NBC comedy pilot called "All In," which wasn't picked up.
In addition to "Reality Bites," her movie credits include "Cop Land," "The Truth about Cats & Dogs," "The Matchmaker" and "Wonderland." She also co-hosts a show on the liberal Air America radio network.

'Batman Begins' Sets Record for IMAX

The IMAX 2-D version of Warner Bros.' Batman Begins generated $14.5 million worldwide, making it the biggest gross for a 2-D Hollywood title ever exhibited by the giant-screen company. The previous record holder was The Matrix Reloaded: The IMAX Experience, which produced $14 million in total ticket sales.

Highlights of Fall Books Releases

Fiction

"An Atomic Romance" (Random House), Bobbie Ann Mason's novel is set in a uranium enrichment plant.

"Christ the Lord" (Alfred A. Knopf), Anne Rice leaves vampires behind for this story of the young Jesus.

"The Diviners" (Little, Brown), "Ice Storm" author Rick Moody sets his new book during the 2000 presidential election.

"Get a Life" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), a South African ecologist ill with cancer is the main character in Nadine Gordimer's new novel.

"Goodnight Nobody" (Atria), Jennifer Weiner's story of a young mother in a Connecticut town.

"The Lighthouse" (Alfred A. Knopf), the latest mystery from P.D. James.

"Lipstick" (Hyperion), "Sex and the City" writer Candace Bushnell offer more urban tales.

"The March" (Random House), E.L. Doctorow's fictionalized version of General Sherman's advance through the South during the Civil War.

"Memories of My Melancholy Whores" (Alfred A. Knopf), Gabriel Garcia Marquez's short novel, translated from the Spanish text, tells of an old man's night with a virgin.

"Ordinary Heroes" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), courtroom master Scott Turow looks into the past of a World War II veteran.

"The Painted Drum" (HarperCollins), Louise Erdrich's novel follows the history of a painted drum.

"Predator" (Putnam), Patricia Cornwell's latest Kay Scarpetta mystery.

"S Is for Silence" (Putnam), Sue Grafton's Kinsey Milhone is back on the job.

"Saving Fish From Drowning" (Putnam), Amy Tan's story of American tourists in Burma.

"Shalimar the Clown" (Random House), a parable about terrorism and religious warfare from "Satanic Verses" author Salman Rushdie.

"Slow Man" (Viking), J.M. Coetzee's novel features a photographer who loses his leg in a bicycle accident.

"Son of a Witch" (Regan), Gregory Maguire's sequel to "Wicked," the basis for the Broadway musical.

"Vita" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), Melania G. Mazzucco's story of Italian immigrants in New York.

"Wickett's Remedy" (Doubleday), Myla Goldberg's new novel is set during the 1918 influenza epidemic.

"The Widow of the South" (Warner), Robert Hicks' debut is a Civil War novel.

Nonfiction

"Bait and Switch" (Henry Holt), Barbara Ehrenreich takes on the white collar job market.

"The Beatles" (Little, Brown), an 800-plus page biography by Bob Spitz, based on hundreds of interviews.

"The City of Falling Angels (Penguin Press), John Berendt, who immortalized Savannah, Ga., in "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil," attempts the same for Venice, Italy.

"Dean and Me" (Doubleday), Jerry Lewis remembers his old partner, Dean Martin.

"Here's Johnny" (Rutledge Hill Press), sidekick Ed McMahon remembers talk-show king Johnny Carson.

"Julie and Julia" (Little, Brown), Julie Powell's adventures with the recipes of Julia Child.

"The Lost Painting" (Random House), Jonathan Harr, author of "A Civil Action," seeks out a lost Caravaggio painting.

"Memories of John Lennon" (Harper Entertainment), reflections from Yoko Ono upon the 25th anniversary of her husband's murder.

"Mirror to America" (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), the memoir by historian and civil rights advocate John Hope Franklin.

"My Detachment" (Random House), Tracy Kidder, a Vietnam War memoir from the author of "Soul of a New Machine."

"Team of Rivals" (Simon & Schuster), Doris Kearns Goodwin's biography of Abraham Lincoln.

"The Tender Bar" (Hyperion), J.R. Moehringer's memoir about coming age in a saloon.

"The Truth (With Jokes)" (Dutton), Al Franken serves it up, again, from the left.

"Mark Twain" (Free Press), a 800-page biography by Ron Powers.

"The Year of Magical Thinking" (Alfred A. Knopf), Joan Didion reflects on the death of her husband, author John Gregory Dunne.

'Best Of' Albums Not So Great These Days

NEW YORK - A greatest-hits album once stood as a watershed — a milestone chronicling a collection of top-rated hits, culturally significant songs or the end of a stellar career.

But in recent years, a flood of "best of" titles from acts with only few years in the business — and performers with even fewer hits — have called into question how great a greatest-hits collection is.

Last fall, Britney Spears released "Greatest Hits: My Prerogative," a retrospective of her chart-topping, multiplatinum recording career — all six years of it. The Backstreet Boys put out "The Hits: Chapter One" in 2001 — just four years after releasing their first album.

"I don't know what you'd put on a record if you've only been making records for five years. I don't know what those greatest hits would be," said veteran rocker John Mellencamp.

At least Spears and the Boys had a steady collection of hits — or can say they have more than just one.

Among the more questionable greatest-hits collections that have popped up in recent years: "Toy Soldiers: The Best of Martika" (with one hit from the 1980s); "The Best of Mandy Moore," from an entertainer who had more success as an actress than she ever did as a singer; and "The Best of O.D.B.," from the late rapper who will best be remembered for his wild behavior and legal troubles than his chart-topping hits (or lack thereof).

And while teen queen Hilary Duff has sold millions of albums, she's only released two discs — the first one in 2003 — and neither spawned a top 10 hit. Her "best of" collection, "Most Wanted," hit record stores Tuesday.

"I guess with music becoming so disposable, things just happen so much faster now," said Collective Soul singer Dean Roland, whose band put out a greatest-hits album of its own in 2001. "The short answer to the whole thing is it comes out to a money issue. The labels can put a greatest-hits album out and it's going to sell."

They can be wildly popular. The Eagles' "Their Greatest Hits: 1971-1975" is the best-selling album in U.S. history, selling more than 28 million copies. They're also cheap to produce and promote.

Sheryl Crow, whose "The Very Best of Sheryl Crow," was a multiplatinum hit in 2003, agrees that in some cases, thoughts of profits weigh heavily. "Part of that is record labels continually try to work their catalog so they always have money coming in," Crow said.

But Kevin Gore, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Rhino Entertainment, which puts out various greatest-hits packages, compilations and boxed sets, says a "Best of Sugar Ray" — which they recently released — is valid, even if some may sneer.

"At the end of the day, there's a larger audience that will buy a greatest-hits collection than might buy the individual albums just because they've chosen not to buy the original albums," Gore said.

"Let's say there's two hit songs on a record from five years ago, and then there's another two hit songs from a record that's three years ago," he said. "You have a greater opportunity to bring in a larger audience because you're putting all the hits in one place."

It's an idea the Backstreet Boys agree with — even though, initially, they balked at the idea of putting one out.

"For me as an artist, like, when I see somebody put out a greatest-hits record, they're either finished, or they need some time (off)," said Brian Littrell. "I kind of felt it was too soon to put those great songs on a CD. I think I wanted our fans to miss them a little bit."

However, Howie Dorough said in many ways, the greatest-hits album — which sold more than 1 million copies and contained a few new tunes — may have drawn the casual fan who had never brought a Backstreet Boys CD.

"We've had, knock on wood, over 12 singles," Dorough said. "But for somebody who's not a truly Backstreet fan, (who) wants to go out and buy five different records? ... To be able to go and buy their greatest hits, I'd do that in a heartbeat."

A more critical issue, record companies say, is the decreasing shelf space to carry an artist's catalog. With the advent of Wal-Mart and Target as major record stores, there are fewer outlets where you might find several different albums from one artist.

"If an artist has five or six or seven albums in his or her catalog, a lot of times many retailers are only carrying two or three. Perhaps songs that were included on albums one, three and five might no longer get the kind of visibility or shelf space that a hits record will provide those particular songs," said Jeff Jones, executive vice president of Sony BMG's catalog division Legacy Recordings (whose catalog releases this year range from Miles Davis to Bob Dylan to ... Martika).

Which brings us back to Martika's "Best Of ..." collection.

At the time, her "Toy Soldiers" was enjoying a resurgence after Eminem sampled it on his song, "Like Toy Soldiers." Fans searching for the original song may have been out of luck, Jones said.

Stores weren't carrying her records anymore, he said, adding: "So without creating a new hits collection, there's no visibility."

Besides, just because the average person can't name more than one Martika song doesn't mean there aren't fans out there.

"A hits collection doesn't necessarily always have to be 16 No. 1 songs," Jones said.

Not anymore.

Which is good news for the PM Dawns, Lisa Stansfields and Color Me Badds of the world — who all have greatest-hits albums.

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Edward Scissorhands celebrates fifteen years

Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment is celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of Edward Scissorhands with a special edition coming out this year.

The film will be available in separate fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen releases with audio commentary from Tim Burton a second commentarywith Danny Elfman, a featurette, interviews, trailers, TV spots and concept art.

Scheduled to be out on November 8th, the discs will be $14.98. A separate collectors edition will come in a tin and be priced at $19.98.

New details for Batman Begins

A single disc and two disc version of Batman Begins are both coming from Warner Home Entertainment.

Batman Begins explores the origins of the Batman legend and the Dark Knight's emergence as a force for good in Gotham. In the wake of his parents' murder, disillusioned industrial heir Bruce Wayne travels the world seeking the means to fight injustice and turn fear against those who prey on the fearful. He returns to Gotham and unveils his alter-ego: Batman, a masked crusader who uses his strength, intellect and an array of high tech deceptions to fight the sinister forces that threaten the city.

The single disc version looks to contain no extras, save for some DVD-ROM content.

The two disc version contains eight documentaries, character and gadget based featurettes, an interactive comic, theatrical trailers, a photo gallery, easter eggs, the DVD-ROM features. Also included are reprintings of three Batman comics that influenced the creation of the film.

The one and two disc versions will both be available on October 18th for $28.98 and $30.97 respectively.

Fabulous TV flops now out on DVD

Holy Lord, there's NOTHING on TV this summer. Once upon a time that was a real bummer. Like, you had to go outside and stuff.

Now, thanks to DVDs, you never have to leave your La-Z-Boy again. Avoid the great outdoors by enjoying some fabulous TV flops in special collector's edition sets. All without commercials!

These series never really "opened." Too odd or unusual for the masses, they're like little independent films. Some only aired two or three times before being cancelled. None produced more than 17 episodes:

PROFIT

So bizarre, creepy and ahead of its time it should have been an HBO show. Instead it somehow snuck on the air while the Fox censors were asleep for a few weeks in April, 1996.

Adrian Pasdar stars as Jim Profit, the ultimate, back-stabbing, corporate weasel, a totally amoral dude who worms his way up the ladder at fictional Gracen & Gracen.

Bad enough that he is constantly plotting against co-workers on his home computer. He also has an incestuous relationship with his white trash stepmother who is constantly blackmailing him. (She knows he once set fire to his dad).

The payoff comes at the end of the two-hour movie debut. Profit is shown curling up nude inside a cardboard box and going to sleep. That's how he was raised, nude in a box, with only a peep hole to watch his one and only window on the outside world -- television. No wonder he's so screwed up!

Said the New York Daily News at the time: "May well be the most unremittingly evil character ever to serve as the protagonist and principal voice of a network TV series."

Four episodes that never aired are included on the set. Time has blunted some of the shock (HBO and FX series such as Six Feet Under and Nip/Tuck have gone further) and the computer graphics look quaint today, but Profit is still worth a look just to see how far TV once strayed on the dark side. Among the producers -- John MacNamara, who just flamed out with a future addition to this list: ABC's stylish and unjustly abandoned Tim Daly caper Eyes.

UNDECLARED

This 2001 followup to another one-year-wonder, Freaks And Geeks -- stars Montreal-native Jay Baruchel (teamed with Don Johnson in the new WB series Just Legal) as a dorky college freshman. The DVD set includes a 17th, never-before-seen episode, bloopers and outtakes plus tons of commentary from brilliant showrunner Judd Apatow.

KEEN EDDIE

Before she was getting screwed over by Jude Law, Sienna Miller co-starred (opposite Boston Legal's Mark Valley) in this smash-and-grab 2003 detective series set and shot in London. There is nothing this bratty, original or stylish on TV this fall. All 13 episodes, but no commentary or other extras. Cheapskates!

GOD, THE DEVIL AND BOB

Another 13-episode wonder, with James Garner as the voice of God (who looks just like Jerry Garcia of The Grateful Dead) in this wry, animated gem from Matthew Carlson (About A Boy, Malcolm In The Middle). Alan Cumming voices the Devil (natch) with French Stewart as Bob (natch again). Only three episodes aired on NBC in 2000. Why, God, why?

WONDERFALLS

There is nobody on TV this fall as adorable as Montreal native Caroline Dhavernas. Here she's Jaye, a screwed up clerk who keeps hearing voices from trinkets in her Niagara Falls souvenir shop. Besides the 13 episodes (Fox only showed four before cancelling this in 2004), this collection is loaded with commentary, a music video and enough other extras to keep fans panting for a still hoped-for big screen sequel.

THE TICK

Wicked men, beware! Patrick Warburton is the big blue bug of justice in this loopy, laugh-out-loud superhero sendup from 2001. Eight precious episodes. Four crime fighters. One Batmanuel (Nestor Carbonell). Worth it just for the "Death Of The Immortal" episode.

'Virgin' star Carell gets 'High'

"The 40 Year Old Virgin" star Steve Carell has scored his next major movie role.

Variety reports Carell has signed on for the tentatively-titled comedy "High T," written by "50 First Dates" scribe George Wing.

The film, produced by Bob Cooper ("Sleepover," "Mr. Woodcock") centres on a man who, after giving himself testosterone shots, begins to have wild mood swings based on his hormonal levels.

Carell's other movie credits include "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy," "Bewitched" and "Bruce Almighty." He will also star as Maxwell Smart in the upcoming big screen remake of the 1960s espionage sitcom "Get Smart."

"The 40 Year Old Virgin" hits Canadian theatres on Friday.

A&E'S 'BIO' HAZARD

'BIOGRAPHY" could be history.

The long-running cornerstone show that put A&E on the map 18 years ago has lost more than half its audience, had its on-air schedule cut in half and could be in danger of going out of production, reports industry trade magazine TV Week.

At one time, as many as 3 million viewers tuned in to watch the famed warts-and-all documentary show, which inspired an army of copycats ranging from VH1's "Behind the Music" to "The E! True Hollywood Story."

The program became so popular that, in 1998, A&E was able to spin off an entire cable network, the Biography Channel.

But lately, "Biography" has averaged less than 700,000 viewers — a number even A&E programming chief Robert DiBitetto says wouldn't be acceptable for a new series. Even more glaring is the fact that other A&E shows are more than doubling the "Biography" audience.

"Dog the Bounty Hunter" which delves into the seedy world of a New York-based bounty hunter, regularly averages 1.6 million viewers, while "Cold Case Files" draws about 1.5 million.

Yet tales of the impending death of "Biography" may be greatly exaggerated, say A&E execs.

That's because despite its low ratings, "Biography" still makes money for A&E — and that may be its ultimate lifeline for at least one more season.

"There are also blue chip [advertising] clients of A&E that love the series," DiBitetto says. "It drives business disproportionate to the ratings — there's a financial consequence to canceling it."

A&E officials say that whatever the future of "Biography," it won't affect The Biography Channel.

And even if A&E stops making new "Biography" episodes, a spinoff called "Being" — produced by Mick Jagger — is already waiting in the wings.

Pierce Brosnan Out As James Bond, 007

NEW YORK - A single, surprising phone call and it was over. That's how Pierce Brosnan says he learned that his services as James Bond would no longer be required.

"One phone call, that's all it took!" the 52-year-old actor tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Aug. 19 issue.

Brosnan starred in four Bond films. He says that before they stopped negotiations, the producers had invited him back for a fifth time.

"You know, the movie career for me really started with Bond," says Brosnan, acknowledging that by the time "GoldenEye" premiered in 1995, he was already 42.

He then starred as 007 in "Tomorrow Never Dies" (1997), "The World Is Not Enough" (1999) and "Die Another Day" (2002).

His departure from the role was a "titanic jolt to the system," says Brosnan, followed by "a great sense of calm."

"I thought. ... I can do anything I want to do now. I'm not beholden to them or anyone. I'm not shackled by some contracted image. So there was a sense of liberation."

Brosnan says he's grateful to have had the role, but adds: "It never felt real to me. I never felt I had complete ownership over Bond. Because you'd have these stupid one-liners — which I loathed — and I always felt phony doing them."

He plays a foulmouthed, skirt-chasing hit man in the upcoming film "The Matador."

"(For this) to come on the heels of my departure from the world of Bond is sweet grace, to play this one as a farewell to that chapter in time — it certainly wasn't planned."

BEST BEHIND

British moviegoers voting Jude Law's butt the sexiest in a poll of the top tushes in show business. Renée Zellweger rounded out the top 10.

Exhausted Eminem Cancels European Tour

Citing exhaustion, rapper Eminem has canceled a planned 12-date tour of Europe as part of the Anger Management outing with 50 Cent, D12, G-Unit and other acts. The tour was to get underway Sept. 1 in Hamburg, Germany and wrap Sept. 17 in Meath, Ireland.

According to a statement from Interscope Records, "Eminem is currently being treated for exhaustion, complicated by other medical issues." The canceled European shows are not expected to be rescheduled, according to the label.

An Interscope spokesperson says that plans for 50 Cent to potentially continue the tour alone are still being determined.

Rumors have recently swirled that this round of the Anger Management tour would be Eminem's last, although the artist himself has made no definitive statement on the subject. Footage from the trek's recent stand at New York's Madison Square Garden will air as a special in December on Showtime.

Microsoft beats Apple, files iPod patents

There are likely some red faces at Apple Computer.

Apple took too long to file a patent on part of its blockbuster iPod music players, so Microsoft jumped in and beat Apple to it.

Tech pundits are snickering at the prospect of Apple having to pay Bill Gates big royalties on the hugely popular iPods, which account for more than a third of Apple's revenue.

On Tuesday, technology lawyer John Ferrell said Apple still has a lot of options, and this isn't a knockout blow. He said Apple could file a declaration stating it invented the technology before Microsoft filed its patent request.

The company could also alter the patent claims so they don't overlap Microsoft's. Ferrell estimates it could be at least another six months before it's all sorted out.

AP Casts Its Ballot for MTV's VMAs

NEW YORK - When MTV descends on Miami on Aug. 28 for the annual Video Music Awards, it will bring a seemingly endless lineup of rappers, rockers, teeny boppers and even Killers.

Which might make you think MTV still shows music videos.

While the Music Television network long ago refocused on original programming, those three-minute bursts of camera crooning are finding new life on Web sites like IFilm.com and Yahoo's "Launch." And recent reports that videos could be coming to iPods might make videos a consumer product in their own right.

But in the meantime, MTV still needs to hand out those awards. Here's a prediction of who will take home the bling — and who SHOULD win.

BEST FEMALE VIDEO

Nominees: Amerie, "1 Thing"; Mariah Carey, "We Belong Together"; Gwen Stefani, "Hollaback Girl"; Shakira featuring Alejandro Sanz, "La Tortura"; Kelly Clarkson, "Since U Been Gone."

Will Win: Gwen Stefani in a cheerleading outfit will beat just about anything.

Should win: Missy Elliot is the undisputed queen of the hip-hop video. Her clip for "Lose Control" is as jerky and incomprehensible as anything she's done before. She looks like a cover to an old Funkadelic album — especially when buried neck-deep in sand. Honorable mention to the dive bar performance of "Portland, Oregon" by Loretta Lynn and Jack White. You've got to give it up to the real life version of Harold and Maude.

BEST MALE VIDEO

Nominees: 50 Cent, "Candy Shop"; Kanye West, "Jesus Walks"; Beck, "E-Pro"; Usher, "Caught Up"; John Legend, "Ordinary People."

Will Win: The smart money is on Kanye, but (like Maroon 5 at the Grammys) West may again get upset by a skinny white guy — this time courtesy of Beck, whose digital "E-Pro" is like "Beck: The Video Game." Sonic the Hedgehog, look out.

Should Win: John Mellencamp's "Walk Tall" — and not just because anybody who once took a deadly feline for his middle name deserves an award. Actor Peter Dinklage stars in the black-and-white version of a prejudiced 1950s where height — not race — is the basis of discrimination.

BEST GROUP VIDEO

Nominees: Black Eyed Peas, "Don't Phunk With My Heart"; The Killers, "Mr. Brightside"; Destiny's Child featuring T.I. & Lil' Wayne, "Soldier"; U2, "Vertigo"; Green Day, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams."

Will Win: Destiny's Child. Beyonce and the gang aren't looking for a Marine, but a tough dude who "carries big things" and may or may not own a Doberman.

Should Win: Everybody loves to see geeks score hot chicks, but rarely has the match been taken to such extremes. In Weezer's "Beverly Hills," the bespectacled band and a hundred of their fans party it up at the Playboy Mansion. But if Charlie Sheen and Fred Durst are welcome at Hef's house, why not Rivers Cuomo?

BEST RAP VIDEO

Nominees: Eminem, "Just Lose It"; T.I., "U Don't Know Me"; The Game & 50 Cent, "Hate It Or Love It"; Ying Yang Twins, "Wait (The Whisper Song)"; Ludacris, "Number One Spot."

Will Win: Ludacris as Austin Powers in "Number One Spot." He's as funny as Eminem is angry.

Should Win: How about Mase's "Welcome Back"? Who missed P. Diddy's mumbling sidekick? Well, nobody. But the now Christian Ma$e nevertheless returned with a sunny "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood"-style vid that was more fun than any other rap video.

BEST HIP-HOP VIDEO

Nominees: Common, "Go"; Nas featuring Olu Dara, "Bridging The Gap"; Kanye West, "Jesus Walks"; Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell, "Drop It Like It's Hot"; Missy Elliott featuring Ciara & Fat Man Scoop, "Lose Control."

Will Win: Forgetting the possible overlap between having both hip-hop and rap categories, this one goes to "Drop It Like It's Hot." It's really just Snoop and Pharrell in black and white groovin' to their beat and clicking their tongues, but the minimalism matches the sparse song.

Should Win: Common's video for "Go" might be the smoothest of the year. Filmed with a Jay-Z "Big Pimpin'"-style white letterbox, it's full of retro browns and whites and cool digital transitions.

BEST R&B VIDEO

Nominees: Alicia Keys, "Karma"; Mariah Carey, "We Belong Together"; Ciara featuring Ludacris, "Oh"; Usher & Alicia Keys, "My Boo"; John Legend, "Ordinary People."

Will Win: Usher and Alicia Keys. Their back and forth vocals are the '00s answer to Positive K's "I Got a Man."

Should Win: Alicia Keys is great and all, but she's a little too earnest, too well-meaning for a contemporary R&B crooner. Give me R.Kelly. Or Prince. They're plenty weird. The Artist's "Cinnamon Girl" also might have been the only genuinely thought-provoking video in the past 12 months. It stars Keisha "Whale Rider" Castle-Hughes as a girl contemplating terrorism.

BEST ROCK VIDEO

Nominees: Foo Fighters, "Best of You"; My Chemical Romance, "Helena"; Green Day, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"; Weezer, "Beverly Hills"; The Killers, "Mr. Brightside."

Will Win: The band of the year, Green Day. The group walks down a downtrodden street, superimposed (like actors driving cars in old movies) to show their disconnect to America.

Should Win: Modest Mouse is the best band you only recently heard of. One of the top indie bands of the past decade, they broke through last year with "Float On" — but their more memorable video was "Ocean Breathes Salty." Isaac Brock plays a wounded crow temporarily nurtured back to health by a young boy. It seems the perfect role for Brock, who sings, "You wasted life, why wouldn't you waste the afterlife?" Perhaps the only clip this year to inexplicably give you a lump in your throat.

VIDEO OF THE YEAR

Nominees: Coldplay, "Speed of Sound"; Kanye West, "Jesus Walks"; Green Day, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"; Snoop Dogg featuring Pharrell, "Drop It Like It's Hot"; Gwen Stefani, "Hollaback Girl."

Will Win: Kanye West. No other video was even close to as audacious as West's fury of slavery, chain gangs and crucifixes. Though his martyrdom is something to behold, it's nevertheless unforgettable. Besides, after the Grammys dis, Kanye might hurt somebody if he loses again.

Should Win: While many bands opt to make cartoon videos simply because it means less work for them, it's the whole point for the Gorillaz. The virtual hip-hop group's "Feel Good Inc." achieves what almost no music videos do: a marriage of song and visual — even if the flying windmill seems a copy of famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's "Moving Castle."

But let's face it. The video of the year wasn't in the running, even though it's been seen on MTV hundreds of times — the singing and dancing silhouettes of the iPod commercials have been the best marriage of music and video on television.

Leonard Cohen virtually broke: report

TORONTO (CP) - Poet, singer and songwriter Leonard Cohen has discovered that his retirement savings, which he thought were worth more than $5 million US, have been depleted, Macleans magazine reports.

The famous troubadour, who has homes in Montreal and Los Angeles, is virtually broke, faces a whopping tax bill and has had to take out a mortgage to pay legal costs, the magazine reported in an exclusive cover story this week.

A forensic audit of his holdings found "massive improprieties."

"I was devastated," Cohen says of discovering last fall that his savings had been reduced to about $150,000. "You know, God gave me a strong inner core, so I wasn't shattered. But I was deeply concerned."

Cohen, 70, has raised questions about how his money was managed by a longtime trusted personal manager, who had signing authority on his accounts, and a financial adviser.

Cohen will release a new album soon with his current girlfriend, Anjani Thomas.

"This has propelled us into incessant work," he says of his financial troubles, adding: "It's one of the best albums I've heard."

Cdn. news lacking during CBC lockout

TORONTO (CP) - Two days into its controversial lockout of 5,500 unionized employees, the CBC has been operating on autopilot with plenty of reruns and pared-down programs.

But the most noticeable change has been the absence of any apparent effort to mount a management-produced television newscast, relying in prime time and over the supper hour on imported feeds of the BBC World News service. Newsworld has been limited to one-minute roundups of Canadian news read by managers before handing things off to the BBC.

"That's certainly the plan right now," Jason MacDonald, the CBC's official spokesman, said Tuesday of the news programming from the public broadcaster, although another publicist suggested it wasn't the network's original plan.

"The BBC as lockout-breaker. It's a very interesting model," said Ian Morrison, spokesman for the independent media watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

Bob Hurst, president of CTV News, declined to speculate on the chances of the private network incurring a ratings windfall from the lack of domestic news by its public rival. But he was willing to deliver a plug for CTV's 11 p.m. news with Lloyd Robertson, noting that the live Atlantic version is available at 10 p.m. in Ontario and Quebec on CTV Newsnet.

"So there is an option for Canadians who don't want to stay up till 11," Hurst said. "Perhaps this is an opportunity for Canadians who have long been CBC traditionalists to find out that there is another very credible newscast, which is Canada's most-watched newscast."

Media observers said Tuesday they're stunned the CBC hasn't tried to provide any kind of news package from non-union staff or from all the incoming feeds that are available in any broadcast newsroom.

Patricia Bell, head of the school of journalism at the University of Regina, said the situation is even worse for radio, especially in places like Saskatchewan, where there are few alternatives to CBC Radio. She adds that managers have been shipped to Toronto to keep the central operation going.

"Who are they going to send (to cover news)?" Bell asks. "I just don't think they planned."

Bell noted that David Kyle, one of her school's graduates and a Regina-based CBC manager, was reading national radio news from Toronto on Monday night.

And because the current lockout, unlike labour disruptions in the past, involves one union that now comprises both journalists and technicians, Bell said the situation confirms who really brings programming to air.

"We have graduates from here who have been working, especially in radio, for four, five years, doing very solid work and they're still not even on contract. They're casual. And you don't build a strong ongoing presence if you don't nurture people and let them grow."

Normally a strong booster of the CBC, Morrison said he finds fault with both sides. He said both union and management went to the industrial relations board a couple of years ago and supported amalgamation of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers (technicians) and Canadian Media Guild (journalists) into a single bargaining unit, a move that has resulted in the significant impact the current lockout has generated.

After 15 months of negotiations, the CBC locked out the bulk of its unionized employees at 12:01 a.m. Monday. At issue is the broadcaster's wish for more flexibility to hire contract and part-time employees, something the CMG says is a danger to job security for full-time staff.

In other lockout developments Tuesday:

-Security officials at the Ontario legislature have changed the locks on the doors of the CBC media offices there at the request of CBC management. Reporters have not been in their Queen's Park offices all week anyway but are now officially locked out.

-NDP leader Jack Layton is urging Heritage Minister Liza Frulla to protect Canadian programming by ending years of neglect of the public broadcaster. The New Democrats say the current lockout is the direct result of a lack of commitment from the Liberal government to protect and promote public broadcasting.

-In an open letter to the CBC president, Ontario NDP Leader Howard Hampton expressed his disappointment with what he says was a short-sighted decision to go the lockout route. And he said that for the duration of the dispute, Ontario New Democrats would boycott all CBC requests for interviews or information.

-In the Far North, in Iqaluit, programming in Inuktitut went off the air, leaving listeners needing vital weather information in a vacuum. But a CBC spokesperson says as of Tuesday afternoon, an Inuktitut announcer was back on the air.

-CBC management paid for a second full-page newspaper ad outling their position. It again expresses regret that the lockout became a necessity to break the deadlock with the union. It says only five per cent of CBC employees are on contract, including some of its most respected on-air personalities, and that they are represented by the CMG and are well compensated.

-A prolonged dispute could be particularly damaging to CBC Radio. In recent years, the radio networks have enjoyed a new ratings high, according to recent results compiled by the Bureau of Broadcast Measurement. In the Toronto market, Metro Morning, for example, has sustained a two point jump in market share to 12.6 per cent with an audience increase of 22 per cent.

Madonna Suffers Broken Bones in Accident

NEW YORK - Madonna's 47th birthday celebration was marred when she suffered several broken bones in a horse riding accident at her country home outside London, her publicist told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

The superstar was hospitalized with three cracked ribs, a broken collarbone and a broken hand, according to Liz Rosenberg, her spokeswoman based in New York.

The accident occurred Tuesday at Ashcombe house, her estate outside of London.

Madonna and an assistant were riding horses, when Madonna, on a new horse she wasn't accustomed to riding, took a tumble. Her children, Rocco and Lourdes, were at the home but were not with their mother at the time, Rosenberg said.

"The whole family was out in the country, celebrating her birthday," Rosenberg said.

Her husband, director Guy Ritchie, took Madonna to an undisclosed hospital, where she was treated. Rosenberg said the entertainer was expected to be released later in the evening.

CBC workers locked out

TORONTO (CP) - Documentaries, world news from Britain and reruns of Antiques Roadshow dominated the CBC airwaves Monday as locked-out workers took to the picket lines in what was billed as the largest labour dispute in the national public broadcaster's history.

Shortly after midnight Sunday night, some 5,500 workers across the country, members of the Canadian Media Guild, found themselves locked out of their offices in a dispute over the network's desire to hire more contract workers.

Viewers who switched on the CBC's main network, Newsworld or CBC Radio were greeted by documentaries, reruns and BBC World News broadcasts, separated by brief newscasts that were delivered by decidedly unfamiliar voices and faces.

Football fans won't be pleased to hear they will likely see a pared-down broadcast of a CFL game between the Toronto Argonauts and the Edmonton Eskimos on Saturday night.

"I don't know exactly what it's going to look like yet," said Chris McCracken, the CFL's director of broadcasting. "But at this point we're yet to be satisfied by the CBC and their plan to ensure our broadcast is not compromised in any way."

He said the game may be aired without play-by-play or colour commentary - which would be a CFL first.

Dozens of CBC workers marched outside the iconic Canadian Broadcasting Centre in downtown Toronto, many sporting signs that read Locked Out.

"There's no reason we're out on the street today," said Arnold Amber, president of the CBC arm of the guild, which now represents between 80 and 90 per cent of the broadcaster's workers after technical staff opted to join the union in 2004.

CBC Radio host Anna Maria Tremonti called it "heartbreaking" to be kept off Canada's airwaves as she paced the sidewalk beneath the corporation's distinctive logo. Others fretted about how to pay their bills amid speculation the lockout could be a long one.

Christian Bailey, an associate producer with the CBC, said the worst part for him and many others was really just not getting to do a job they love.

"I think a lot of people are bewildered," Bailey said. "They just want to be working."

Local radio morning shows were replaced by a single national broadcast, while TV newscasts were dramatically pared down. Workers with the broadcaster's French-language operations, Radio-Canada and Radio-Canada International, were also locked out, except in Quebec and Moncton, N.B., where staff belong to a different union.

That gave a decidedly Quebecois flavour to much of the CBC programming in other parts of the country throughout the day.

Some of the CBC's most prominent personalities are members of the guild and remained locked out of their offices Monday, including Peter Mansbridge, anchor of the broadcaster's flagship national newscast, The National.

The main issue at stake is job security; the broadcaster wants more freedom to designate new employees as either permanent employees, contract workers with set starting and ending dates, or temporary workers, who are called in to fill openings as needed.

Arthur Lewis, executive director of the lobby group Our Public Airwaves, placed blame for the dispute squarely at the feet of the federal government.

"The insistence by CBC on the need to be able to hire more temporary workers can be traced directly to the corporation's serious funding shortfall," Lewis said in a statement.

"This lockout is a direct result of the underfunding of CBC by the federal government - creating a situation where CBC managers feel forced to take desperate but, in our view, short-sighted measures to try to best utilize limited resources."

The corporation currently consists of 70 per cent permanent workers, 20 per cent temporary workers and five per cent contractors.

The dispute centres on what kind of changes would be made to that formula, one Amber said is fairly standard in the broadcasting industry.

Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC Television, said management wants the ability to classify employees based on the needs of the corporation at any given point. In many cases, contract employees are hired strictly for a specific program, event or project, and the CBC wants those contracts to better reflect the project's schedule, he said.

"I think it's very healthy for an organization to be able to bring some people, small numbers, into an organization with their ideas and whatnot, and have them leave and bring in new people," said Jane Chalmers, vice-president of CBC Radio.

"I don't think it's uncommon in work life in Canada, in the broadcast industry or out."

Workers aren't opposed to contract work, but merely want some criteria put in place to ensure that they are used only under specific circumstances, Amber said.

Management's assurances that no one who currently holds a permanent job will end up as a contractor doesn't help when young employees are always asking the union to help them find permanent positions, he added.

"We are talking about the next generation of the CBC," Amber said. "We are a family, and the family goes from generation to generation."

Much of the dispute is rooted in long-standing questions about whether the government-funded CBC should operate like a private business, one that can make - and lose - money.

Amber said the CBC is a special institution in Canada because it's a Crown corporation.

"This is not a fast-food restaurant," he said. "The CBC is not a cable company, it isn't speciality programming - it's the national broadcaster."

CBC producers, newsroom staff and technicians have been without a contract for more than a year. Last month, guild members voted 87.3 per cent in favour of a strike mandate.

Amber said the Canadian public is in for a shock for the duration of the lockout, which marks the first time a labour dispute has left enough people off the job to dramatically impact the broadcaster's public face.

"Up until today, nobody knew what it meant to miss the CBC," he said.

The Couch Potato Report - August 15th, 2005

This week The Couch Potato Report features four, count 'em four, TV show releases, and Sin City!

I have said it before, and I will say it again, I love watching TV.

Especially good TV.

And this week I have four good television shows that are now available on DVD to tell you about.

As much as I love TV, and good TV, I love good TV shows on DVD!!

One of the greatest things about the invention of DVDs is the fact that a lot of shows that might otherwise air and then be forgotten, no matter how beloved they are, get released for us to buy!

Once such example is the show UNDECLARED. This show is beloved by many, but forgotten by many more.

UNDECLARED aired in 1001 and 2002 and it is about University freshman Steve Karp and his fellow freshman dorm-mates.

They are about to embark on one the greatest experiences of their lives...unfortunately for Steve, the girl he slept with last night has a boyfriend, and his lonely and recently divorced father is tagging along for the ride.

If you were a fan of the under appreciated FREAKS AND GEEKS then you will enjoy the humour and honesty that is front and centre in UNDECLARED.

And now UNDECLARED- THE COMPLETE SERIES is now available in a 4-disc box set with an array of extras.

Those extras include an unaired episode and a bonus director's cut, 18 commentaries with directors, writers & cast, deleted scenes, auditions, outtakes, and a 28-page booklet!

I never went to University, but I have visited more than a few friends over the years at various schools.

In addition to its realistic portrayal of dorm life, UNDECLARED is a show that is full of a likeable and talented cast.

I do declare that I love UNDECLARED, and I am quite pleased that I now own THE COMPLETE SERIES on DVD.

I don't yet own the complete series of THE SIMPSONS, but I do proudly own seasons one through six. Six is the latest one to be released and THE SIMPSONS- THE COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON is another tremendous set from the creators of the show.

This set features all 25 episodes from the sixth season, including Part One of the season cliffhanger "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", "Homer Badman" where a gummy Venus de Milo makes Homer the object of feminist protest and tabloid TV fodder, "Homer The Great" featuring The Stonecutters ("Who holds back the electric car/Who made Steve Guttenberg a star?/We do!"), "Lisa's Wedding", "Bart's Girlfriend" and "Itchy and Scratchy Land".

There are also commentaries on every episode from Matt Groening, David Mirkin, Mike Scully, Dan Castellaneta, Yeardley Smith, and other members of the creative team.

Even if you think THE SIMPSONS isn't as funny now as it was then, this box set represents then, so enjoy!

For most of its run THE SIMPSONS has aired on Sunday nights, but at one time it was moved to Thursdays to try and compete with THE COSBY SHOW.

Happily, both shows thrived and we didn't lose either one.

The first season of THE SIMPSONS debuted on DVD in 2001.

Now, in 2005, Season One of THE COSBY SHOW is on DVD as well.

THE COSBY SHOW ran from 1984 to 1992 and it since it is one of the most popular programs in TV history I will only briefly recap the premise:

Bill Cosby stars as a happily married doctor who, along with his attorney wife, raise their five children in an supportive, loving, very funny environment.

Okay, back to me giving you the full details, all 24 episodes from the 1984-85 season are now available in the 4-disc box set THE COSBY SHOW - SEASON ONE.

The set also includes the 90-minute 2002 TV special "A Look Back" including deleted scenes, bloopers, audition footage and more.

It was fun to go back and watch the first season of THE COSBY SHOW! I don't think I've seen some of the episodes in this set since they first aired, and I especially liked how the writers changed a few things as the show went along.

For instance, in the pilot episode, the parents discuss their "four" children. That wasn't a mistake, when the show began they had four children.

But as I mentioned above, the family has five kids.

The changes were minor because THE COSBY SHOW was good right from the start.

And this great new box set is proof of that. Enjoy it!

The final TV show to cover this week is THE OFFICE.

Now if you are thinking that maybe there are more episodes of the BBC series THE OFFICE coming out, sorry but that is not the case.

THE OFFICE that I am referring to is the American remake of that classic BBC series. A series I love, admire, respect and revere.

That said, I don't hate this remake.

The BBC version was two and a half perfect seasons, but this version gives us some extra episodes, even if it is just a copy.

But for a copy, there are some very unique and inspired moments.

Many people will view this version of THE OFFICE with disdain and apprehension due to the fact that Ricky Gervais' original masterpiece is so incredible, but I say watch it and give it a chance.

The writing is good, the cast is worth getting to know and even if it makes you long for the original, well so what! Funny is funny!

It made me laugh and I like it! Yes, I like the American version of THE OFFICE. But I must admit that I love the original BBC version.

And as I mentioned, I love watching TV and TV shows on DVD!

I also like reading comic books, or as many of them are known today "graphic novels", and I very much enjoy movies based on graphic novels and comic books.

Our final release this week is SIN CITY.

SIN CITY is director Robert Rodriguez's realistically realized vision of three of Frank Miller's books.

This film is possibly the most faithful comic book movie ever made with many shots coming right from the books themselves.

Rodriguez has actually referred to the film as a "translation" rather than an adaptation.

Like the books it is based on SIN CITY is almost entirely in black and white, with only a few bits of colour popping up from time to time.

The movie is a treat for the eyes, unless you have a problem with graphic violence. The film is quite violent in parts, and most of the film's population are less than reputable, and thus I can't call it a must see, unless those sort of issues don't bother you.

They don't bother me, and I think this is one of the best films of 2005. It certainly is one of the most unique.

The story is engrossing and the huge cast includes Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke, Josh Hartnett and Michael Madsen.

While not for everyone, SIN CITY is an incredible cinematic experience.

But be aware, the DVD comes with only a few special features. Robert Rodriguez is a huge fan of DVDs and his films usually are released with an incredible array of features. The fact that this one has so little means that there will be a SPECIAL EDITION coming out soon.

So beware!

But if you must have it right away, like I must, SIN CITY is available in stores now. So are THE SIMPSONS - THE COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON DVD COLLECTION, THE COSY SHOW - SEASON ONE and the incredible UNDECLARED.

COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT

In THE RING TWO an unmarked videotape continues its cycle of violence. This is the less than successful sequel to THE RING with the lovely Naomi Watts back in the lead role.

Amanda Peet is lovely as well but her film A LOT LIKE LOVE sinks due to the presence of male star Ashton Kutcher. They play a couple who struggle to find a way to make their relationship work.

ALF- SEASON TWO is a four disc set with all 25 episodes from the TV series about an Alien Life Form living on earth.

And the GLADIATOR - EXTENDED EDITION has an all-new, widescreen extended version of the film, including 17 minutes of additional footage, and a three hour and twenty minute documentary that includes some never-before-seen footage.

I'm Dan Reynish and I will have more on those, 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!

Cinderella DVD

It sure got clobbered this summer, but Cinderella Man will find a much more deserving audience on DVD this fall when it's released on 6 December (when Universal should have released the film theatrically). We'll get both full-frame and widescreen versions of the film as well as a nice 5.1 sound mix, two commentaries - one with director Ron Howard and another with writers Akiva Goldsman and Cliff Hollingsworth - deleted scenes, a few featurettes, and some trailers. This one will run you $29.98. There will also be a Collector's Edition, which will come with an extra disc of deleted scenes and featurettes that aren't included on the single-disc edition, and a collectible booklet. That one will cost you $44.98.

Canada Post, Diana Krall help mark Oscar Peterson's 80th birthday

For the first time ever, a living Canadian has been honoured with a postage stamp. On Monday hundreds of fans crowded into a downtown Toronto music store to see Canada Post formally unveil its new Oscar Peterson stamp. They also saw Diana Krall and husband Elvis Costello offer their own tribute to Peterson.

It was a special 80th birthday tribute to Canada's legendary jazz pianist. Peterson said he always considered himself proud to be a Canadian, "But to have the honour of this stamp issued in my likeness goes beyond my wildest dreams."

Diana Krall told how, as a teenager, she had first seen Peterson performing with Ella Fitzgerald and how it had changed her life. Krall performed a Peterson instrumental with lyrics penned specially by Costello, then led the crowd in a jazzy rendition of Happy Birthday.

After the cake cutting, Peterson surprised everyone by playing a number he wrote entitled Requiem, which he called a tribute to the many jazz artists who have died in recent years.

The 50-cent stamp, a large version of which was presented to Peterson, bears a sepia-coloured photo of the smiling musician with a keyboard motif behind him. He said he didn't have much room left on his wall for awards, but would definitely find room for this one.

Four million of the stamps and 500,000 souvenir sheets have been printed and went on sale immediately. After a 50-year career in music, Peterson is regarded as one of the world's greatest jazz pianists.

He first learned music from his father, a West Indian immigrant who worked at CN Rail as a porter. Early breaks came when he won a CBC Radio amateur contest, followed by appearances on the Happy Gang variety show.

Peterson was discovered performing in a Montreal club in the 1940s, played Carnegie Hall in 1949 and has performed with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. He's recorded more than 300 albums. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1984, has two Juno Awards and seven Grammys -- including the 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award -- as well as several honorary doctorates from educational institutions in both Canada and the United States.

Fiona Apple's New Album to Be Released

SAN FRANCISCO - Fiona Apple is ending her curiously long hiatus from the business of making music. A year after 11 tracks were leaked onto the Internet, drawing praise from critics and fans, Epic Records announced Monday that Apple's "Extraordinary Machine" will be released Oct. 4.

It's been six years since Apple's last album, "When the Pawn...," was released in 1999. Since then, the young Grammy-winning singer has been treated to a deluxe serving of the frustrations of modern music: It isn't always easy to make a beautiful songs, and creative control is a nebulous concept at best.

Last year, Apple and the multitalented producer Jon Brion came up with a wonderfully complex construction of Brion's vision and Apple's voice. But after months of silence from Apple and Epic parent Sony on a release date, all 11 songs popped up on the Internet, in high-quality MP3s, freely available for anyone who couldn't wait another minute. And there was not an iTunes link to be seen.

The Internet had proved to be the most extraordinary machine of all.

Moreover, the album was very good. Tracks titled "Oh Sailor" and "Please, Please, Please" ooze the same sullen sultriness that made Apple's debut album, "Tidal," triple-platinum.

How the album got online is a question that gets fingers pointing in all directions. What is known is that only Apple, Brion, recording engineers and the label had access to the songs — and Apple is now moving forward without Brion.

The album now has 12 songs. One is new, and nine are reworked versions of leaked tracks.

"Now that my album is finally finished, I am very, very excited to have people hear what we did. I am so proud of it, and all of us who worked on it," Apple said in a short statement released Monday.

Through Epic, Apple refused several interview requests from The Associated Press.

Mike Elizondo is Apple's new producer, a curious departure from Brion, who has worked with artists such as Aimee Mann and David Byrne. Elizondo cut his teeth working under superproducer Dr. Dre, and most of his work has been with rappers such as 50 Cent and Obie Trice.

Brion also wouldn't talk about his involvement with Apple's upcoming album. But his publicist, Ray Costa, denies Brion leaked the album.

"That's one sore subject with him," Costa said, acknowledging the persistent rumors. And Brion insists that the version of "Extraordinary Machine" available online has been tweaked, and does not represent the music he and Apple created.

"The version that's out there right now has been additionally manipulated even from what Jon had done before," Costa said. "Whether the album comes out, Jon's done his part."

Some die-hard Apple fans say what they've already heard was plenty good enough. Many of them posted links to the MP3s songs on their personal web pages. Other released the entire album — including some homespun album cover art — over the Bittorrent file-sharing network.

Nadja Dee Tanaka of Seattle posted all 11 of the "Extraordinary Machine" MP3s on her Web site. She even went a step further to get Apple's music out to fans.

"A lot of people, I would burn a disc and send it to them if they would cover the postage for me," said Tanaka, a 42-year-old film industry professional. She said the Apple downloads reached about 5,000 per day at its peak.

Tanaka begrudgingly took the links down after receiving a notice from the Recording Industry Association of America.

"I was scared. I was angry," Tanaka said.

She might have been a bit confused as well. At the time it was made, no one would confirm Apple had even made the recordings, much less delivered them to the label.

If no new Apple material existed, what were downloaders being asked to stop downloading?

And it remains unclear if the RIAA went after the original album leaker with the same vigor it went after Tanaka and other Apple fans, like Lane Collins of San Francisco, who saw the long delay in bringing "Extraordinary Machine" to stores as an extraordinary pain.

"From a fan perspective, what I see is that they put a lot of money into having her record this music," said Collins, a 23-year-old photography student. "I think it's silly to leave it on the shelf, when they've already invested in it."

All eyes on Rachel McAdams

HOLLYWOOD -- It took horror king Wes Craven to rekindle Rachel McAdams' darker side.

McAdams, 28, is best known as the nasty girl in Mean Girls, the romantic heroine of The Notebook and the girl who tames playboy Owen Wilson in Wedding Crashers.

In Craven's thriller Red Eye that opens Friday, McAdams plays a woman who becomes the pawn of an assassin played by Irish actor Cillian Murphy.

"I was flattered out of my mind that Wes Craven even knew who I was. I was so excited he wanted me for Red Eye because the thriller is a genre I've never done before," says McAdams.

Well at least not on screen.

"Ironically one of the first plays I did when I was 12 was Woody Allen's Death. I started this acting thing out in a dark moment and it took Wes to bring me back to those themes."

McAdams who was born and raised in London, Ont., joined the city's Original Kids Theatre Company when she was in elementary school.

"We took classes during the school year and then went to summer drama camps. It was at the summer camp when I was 12 that we did Death.

"In retrospect it seems like an awfully strange play for children to be doing but it was a great experience for many reasons," she recalls.

Not the least was that McAdams got to wear high heels for the first time. "I danced around my room in heels for hours. I felt so grown up."

McAdams is talking heels because in Red Eye her character ends up running through a busy airport in high heels.

"I tried out dozens of pairs before we found one that made the whole run look more precarious than it actually was."

Far more precarious were the two scenes in which she is first head-butted by Murphy and then later retaliates by head-butting him. "Cillian was far more worried about the scenes than I was. He was so afraid he'd actually hurt me that we practised for hours the day we were set to film the head-butt on the plane."

McAdams says she is thrilled that her character in Red Eye is an ordinary person who must call upon all her resources to thwart this killer who has targeted her and her father.

"I was so relieved that she was not some sweaty, tank-top-wearing, Uzi-carrying super woman. I think it makes it easier for audiences to share her terror and fear."

McAdams who was a brunette in Wedding Crashers and Red Eye is back to her blond look from The Hot Chick, Mean Girls and The Notebook. "I've not done this for a movie role. Going blond again is for me. I was born blond. More of a dishwater blond than this but still a blond."

In Red Eye, McAdams' character is a super efficient senior hotel employee.

"She's very much the woman I envisioned myself being when I was growing up.

"I always saw myself as a really efficient secretary. I loved the whole idea of paper clips, staplers and filing cabinets. The trouble was I was a terrible typist so that kind of sidelined that career. The arts were a much better route for me."

McAdams admits her parents where "hesitant and worried for me but they were always very supportive. They are immensely happy for me that my career is doing so well."

That's a bit of an understatement. She is one of the stars of the hit summer comedy Wedding Crashers and shares top billing for Red Eye with Murphy, one of the stars of Batman Begins. "It's definitely empowering to be in a string of hit movies. Mean Girls and The Notebook did very well and now Wedding Crashers is turning out to be one of the biggest successes of the summer. I finally feel somewhat in charge of my career. I'm getting to read some very interesting scripts."

Her next outing is a role in the ensemble drama The Family Stone scheduled for release Nov. 4. "It's never about line counts for me. It's about the people I get to work with. In the case of The Family Stone that meant working with Diane Keaton. I went to the set when I wasn't needed just to watch her work. It's awe-inspiring. It was like sitting in on a master class in acting."

McAdams still lives in Toronto, the city she says "feels like home. It's where I feel most like Rachel McAdams. It's where I can be myself."

McAdams insists it's not a even a casual relationship let alone a serious one that grounds her in Toronto. "Because my career is so intense, I hardly have time for ME these days.

"It wouldn't be fair to enter into a serious relationship because that takes a lot of time, commitment and choice. I've chosen to be an actress and I've been given so many great opportunities that I owe it to myself to make acting my priority these days."

She is quick to point out this doesn't mean she's "not open to love. If it happens that will be wonderful. I've definitely not closed the door on love."

Costello Commentary Spiffs DVD Retrospective

Originally expected earlier this year, the DVD "The Right Spectacle: The Very Best of Elvis Costello -- The Videos" will arrive Sept. 6 in the United Kingdom via demonVision. A North American release date has not yet been finalized for the project, which rounds up all of the artist's classic promo clips plus a wealth of rare European TV appearances.

Of perhaps most interest to fans is the fact that Costello provides commentary for each of the 27 videos, including such early MTV favorites as "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding" and "Everyday I Write the Book."

But securing the artist's services for the project nearly didn't happen, according to DVD producer Sophie Coolbaugh. "Elvis was completely booked up last summer and no matter how we looked at his schedule, there was no way he could spare us a few hours," she tells Billboard.com. "We had given up on the idea when the call came late on a Thursday afternoon -- we could have him for a couple of hours on the following Sunday in New York."

Due to short notice, the producers were forced to rent a studio without air conditioning "on a muggy September evening," Coolbaugh recalls. "Elvis had not dabbled in the art of the DVD audio commentary before, and he took to it like a fish takes to water. It is both witty and interesting, and definitely a key highlight of the disc."

Coolbaugh delighted in "finding bits and pieces that we knew no one had seen in over 20 years, if at all," including an extra song from a 1983 performance on the U.K. show "The Tube" and clips from Holland's Pink Pop Festival ("fabulous pink suit").

However, one classic piece of film eluded "The Right Spectacle." Says Coolbaugh: "The master of Elvis' first-ever TV appearance [performing 'Alison' for 'Granada Reports' in July 1977] has gone missing sometime between 1977 and now. It was very, very lucky that the producers of [the show] 'So It Goes' lifted a clip from it for their show later that year, so the excerpt we have on the disc is the only surviving clip from [Costello's] TV debut."

Since there are no U.S. TV appearances on the collection, could a follow-up "Elvis in the U.S." compilation see the light of day in the future? "We had access to a large number of archives and in the end it was a question of finding clips that were most representative of the period," Coolbaugh says. "Who knows what the future holds -- there are certainly plenty of great clips to consider for a follow up."

Here is "The Right Spectacle" track list:

"(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea"
"Pump It Up"
"Radio Radio"
"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding"
"Oliver's Army"
"Accidents Will Happen"
"I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down"
"High Fidelity"
"Love for Tender"
"Possession"
"New Amsterdam"
"Clubland"
"New Lace Sleeves"
"Good Year for the Roses"
"Sweet Dreams"
"You Little Fool"
"Everyday I Write the Book"
"Let Them All Talk"
"The Only Flame in Town"
"I Wanna Be Loved"
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood"
"Veronica"
"This Town"
"The Other Side if Summer"
"So Like Candy"
"Sulky Girl"
"13 Steps Lead Down"

Bonus Material:

"Granada Reports" / "So It Goes" (U.K.):
"Alison" (excerpt), "Lip Service," "No Dancing"

"Revolver" (U.K.):
"This Year's Girl," "Radio Radio"

"Countdown" (Holland):
"Oliver's Army," "Accidents Will Happen," "Watching the Detectives," "You Belong To Me"

"Pink Pop" (Holland):
"Lipstick Vogue," "Watching the Detectives"

"What's In" (U.K.):
"Shot With His Own Gun"

"The Tube" (U.K.):
"Shipbuilding," "Everyday I Write the Book," "Clowntime Is Over," "TKO (Boxing Day)"

"Mandagsboren":
"Big Sister's Clothes," "Peace in Our Time"

Ashlee Planning 'SNL' Redux?

Ashlee Simpson is ready to return to the scene of the crime. She is in talks with "Saturday Night Live" to host and perform on the NBC show around the Oct. 11 release of her sophomore Geffen album, "I Am Me."

"It's not confirmed yet, but I want to do it," she tells Billboard in her first interview about the new album. "I've battled those demons. I'm ready to go back out and do it again."

Lest anyone has forgotten, Simpson, on the back of her Geffen debut "Autobiography" -- which bowed at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 last year and has sold 2.9 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan -- appeared on the show last October. As she prepared to sing her second song, a prerecorded vocal track of her first performance erroneously began playing, revealing that she had been lip-syncing. Simpson, who said she had to use prerecorded vocals because her acid reflux had left her unable to sing, was vilified for passing off her performance as live.

Not surprisingly, that event and the aftermath found their way onto the new album, which, like "Autobiography," she wrote with Kara Dioguardi and John Shanks, who also produced.

The tune "Beautifully Broken" most clearly references those events. "I've obviously fallen on my face before in front of a bunch of people, but I've learned it's a beautiful thing and it's OK for people to be broken," she says. "That song is about the moment where it's like, 'God, I don't even know if I'm going to be able to get out of my bed tomorrow.' But you have to get yourself to get up and continue."

Musically, the album is more aggressive than "Autobiography" and also shows the 1980s influence of such female rockers as Joan Jett and Terri Nunn, which is surprising, since Simpson is only 20. "I just love '80s music," she says. "It's just so light and fun, and that was a lot of what I wanted to do on this record."

Simpson knows that after her "SNL" snafu, some folks won't be willing to give her a second chance, but she left the ghosts of her naysayers outside the recording studio.

"The first two days, I was like, 'What am I gonna [do]'... and then I was like, 'Who cares? I'm going to make a record that's true to myself and if people get that I can sing off of it, great, but if it's just a record that my fans love, then that's great for me too.' I'm not afraid of criticism anymore, must I say?"

'Four Brothers' Tops Amid Box-Office Slump

LOS ANGELES - The John Singleton revenge flick "Four Brothers" beat its cinematic siblings to take the top spot at the weekend box office.

However, the R-rated action film's three-day ticket sales of $20.7 million did little to stem a prolonged box office slump, which entered its third week after a brief respite.

The total box office take for the top 12 films was down 16 percent over the same weekend last year, when the horror movie "Alien vs. Predator" reaped a three-day gross of $38 million.

"It was a fairly unremarkable weekend at the box office," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office-tracker Exhibitor Relations. "August usually is a slowdown month."

Box office revenues slumped for 19 straight weeks until being lifted briefly last month with the help of hits such as "Fantastic Four."

The supernatural thriller "The Skeleton Key," starring Kate Hudson, came in second with $15.8 million. The big screen remake of the TV show "The Dukes of Hazzard" fell 58 percent in its second week, but that was good enough for third place with $13 million.

The other debut in wide release, the gross-out sequel "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," finished a distant fifth with $9.4 million.

"Four Brothers," directed by Singleton and distributed by Paramount, stars Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000 of OutKast) and Garrett Hedlund as adopted siblings reunited in grief and anger after their mother is slain.

"Deuce Bigalow," starring Rob Schneider, did worse than the first film, which opened with $12.2 million in 1999. But that movie went on to earn $65 million domestically, giving hope to distributor Sony.

The Morgan Freeman-narrated documentary "March of the Penguins" continued to do well, dropping only one spot and bringing its cumulative ticket sales to $37.6 million.

The other new release this weekend, "The Great Raid," from Miramax, earned $3.4 million. Half of the World War II tale's audience was over age 50, unusual for an industry that strains to appeal to a younger audience.

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. "Four Brothers," $20.7 million

2. "The Skeleton Key," $15.8 million

3. "The Dukes of Hazzard," $13 million

4. "Wedding Crashers," $12 million

5. "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo," $9.4 million

6. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," $7.3 million

7. "March of the Penguins," $6.7 million.

8. "Sky High," $6.1 million

9. "Must Love Dogs," $4.6 million

10. "The Great Raid," $3.4 million

'Notebook' Wins Eight Teen Choice Awards

LOS ANGELES - A story told by an old man proved popular with young people as the multigenerational love story "The Notebook" took eight categories Sunday at the 2005 Teen Choice Awards.

The tear-evoking tale, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, was the favorite drama and date movie among teens.

The film's young male lead, Ryan Gosling, won for actor in a drama, and his co-star, Rachel McAdams, won for actress in a drama.

Gosling and McAdams won for best movie chemistry, and their rain-soaked kiss in the film earned awards for best movie liplock and best movie love scene.

Ashton Kutcher took home three of the awards, including favorite TV actor in a comedy. The perennial teen favorite has won 11 of the awards, more than anyone else.

The awards show, hosted by Rob Schneider and Hilary Duff at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, will be broadcast at 8 p.m. EDT Tuesday on Fox.

A complete list of winners of the 2005 Teen Choice Awards:

Movies:

Actor, Action/Thriller - Chad Michael Murray ("House of Wax")

Actor, Drama - Ryan Gosling ("The Notebook")

Actress, Comedy - Sandra Bullock ("Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous")

Actress, Drama - Rachel McAdams ("The Notebook")

Bad Guy - Jim Carrey ("Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events")

Blush Scene - Hilary Duff ("A Cinderella Story")

Breakout, Female - Haylie Duff ("Napoleon Dynamite")

Breakout, Male - Ryan Gosling ("The Notebook")

Chemistry - Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams ("The Notebook")

Comedy - "Napoleon Dynamite"

Dance - Jon Heder ("Napoleon Dynamite")

Date Movie - "The Notebook"

Drama - "The Notebook"

Hissy Fit - Jon Heder ("Napoleon Dynamite")

Liplock - Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams ("The Notebook")

Love Scene - Ryan Gosling & Rachel McAdams ("The Notebook")

Rockstar Moment - Ashton Kutcher ("A Lot Like Love")

Scream - Paris Hilton ("House of Wax")

Sleazebag - Jennifer Coolidge ("A Cinderella Story")

Thriller - "House of Wax"

Television:

Actor, Comedy - Ashton Kutcher (That '70s Show.)

Actor, Drama - Adam Brody (The O.C.)

Actress, Comedy - Alexis Bledel ("Gilmore Girls")

Actress, Drama - Rachel Bilson (The O.C.)

Breakout, Female - Eva Longoria ("Desperate Housewives")

Breakout Show - "Desperate Housewives"

Chemistry - Adam Brody & Rachel Bilson (The O.C.)

Parental Unit - Lauren Graham (Lorelai Gilmore "Gilmore Girls")

Personality, Male - Ashton Kutcher ("Punk'd")

Sidekick - Wilmer Valderrama (That '70s Show)

Comedy - "Gilmore Girls"

Drama - The O.C.

Reality - American Idol

Cast - "Desperate Housewives"

Music:

Album - Kelly Clarkson ("Breakaway")

Breakout, Female - Gwen Stefani

Breakout, Male - Jesse McCartney

Collaboration - Gwen Stefani featuring Eve ("Rich Girl")

Female Artist - Kelly Clarkson

Love Song - Mariah Carey ("We Belong Together")

Make-out Song - Ciara featuring Ludacris ("Oh")

Male Artist - Jesse McCartney

Party Starter - Black Eyed Peas ("Don't Phunk With My Heart")

Rap Artist - Eminem

Rap Track - Eminem ("Mockingbird")

R&B Hip-Hop Track - Ciara ("1 - 2 Step")

R&B Artist - Mariah Carey

Rock Group - Simple Plan

Single - Kelly Clarkson ("Since U Been Gone")

Additional Awards

Comedian - Adam Sandler

Crossover Artist - Jesse McCartney

Hottie, Female - Rachel Bilson

Hottie, Male - Chad Michael Murray

It Girl - Alexis Bledel

CBC, union fail to reach deal

TORONTO (CP) - Viewers and listeners across the country tuned in to unfamiliar faces and voices on the airwaves Monday morning after the CBC locked out 5,500 of its workers.

Negotiators for the broadcaster and the Canadian Media Guild could not agree on a contract by the CBC-imposed lockout deadline of 12:01 a.m. ET Monday. Lise Lareau, president of the Canadian Media Guild, called the lockout a dark day for viewers of Canadian television. "It won't really be the CBC because the people who are the CBC are outside the doors," she said.

Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC Television, said the network will rely on contingency plans and the 10 per cent of its workforce that is not unionized to maintain programming.

"The truth is it is still going to be a reasonably interesting service, but it's not going to be the service we hoped to offer Canadians," he said.

The lockout will mean local radio morning shows will be replaced by a single national broadcast, and TV newscasts will be pared down, although the network can rely on BBC newscasts for coverage of international events.

Television coverage of sporting events such as CFL games will also have a much different look and sound.

TV content may not be familiar, but the CBC has indicated programming on all services - radio, television and online - will continue.

Union negotiator Arnold Amber said the work stoppage will likely result in "an incredible backlash" from the Canadian public.

"The CBC doesn't know what's in store for it," Amber said from a picket line in front of the CBC building in Toronto shortly after the lockout was announced.

"You don't suddenly do this and expect the Canadian public to say, 'Oh isn't that lovely - I'm not getting any service.' "

Lareau said it will be interesting to see how the CBC replaces high-profile personalities like Peter Mansbridge, anchor of The National, the network's flagship television newscast.

Stursberg would not speculate on who would be filling in for Mansbridge or other well-known personalities for the duration of the lockout.

He said the major sticking point is that the CBC wants the flexibility to hire more non-permanent workers.

Stursberg said the last offer the corporation put forth guaranteed all permanent CBC workers would retain their jobs.

"What stands between us and the union is a theoretical point in the sense that nothing that we have asked for applies to anybody who works here now, in terms of their employment status."

Stursberg said the CBC is 90 per cent unionized - a rate he said is much higher than in the private broadcasting sector.

"We owe a duty to the Canadian public ... who actually pay for the CBC to have a set of arrangements that are not only as effective and as efficient as the private sector, but indeed are more so."

But Lareau said 30 per cent of the CBC's workforce is already non-permanent, giving the network all the flexibility it needs.

"We believe the CBC intended this dispute from the outset," she said. "It's a very aggressive senior management team, and this was part of the plan."

Stursberg said the CBC is willing to get back to negotiations at "any time."

"We are prepared to stay up all night long to get this concluded," he said.

Amber said it was too early to determine when talks might resume, but said the union also wants to get back to the table.

"Fifty-five hundred members of our union are out," he said. "We are taking a service away from Canadians across the country. It's awful."

Lareau said locked-out workers are hoping to have an Internet presence for the duration of the labour disruption as an alternative to CBC broadcasts.

She said workers will know within a couple of days what types of web programming are possible.

The producers, newsroom staff and technicians have been without a contract for more than a year.

Last month, guild members voted 87.3 per cent in favour of a strike mandate.

Employees in Quebec and Moncton, N.B., belong to different unions and are expected to continue working but not to cross over into Ontario to help out.

The broadcaster's last major dispute was late in 2001, when technical staff were locked out across the country. In some cases, the sound and lighting was not up to usual standards, newscasts were pared down, and there were plenty of repeats.

ACTRA, the 21,000-member actors' union, will not perform CBC work during the pending lockout, but that's not expected to have an immediate impact onscreen since many shows are not currently in production.

CBC files 72-hour lockout notice

CBC management has filed a 72-hour lockout notice, meaning job action could take place Monday morning if an agreement is not reached with the union representing 5,500 workers.

"CBC doesn't want a work stoppage and we are extremely disappointed to have to take this action," the corporation said in a communiqué Thursday night. "However, after almost 15 months of negotiations, our key issues remain unresolved."

The notice does not automatically mean that a work stoppage will occur Monday. The corporation acknowledged that both sides are still at the bargaining table.

Earlier, the corporation presented the union with a revised offer. But the Canadian Media Guild, representing the CBC, said the proposal does not resolve the critical issues, namely the CBC's insistence on a new contract that will allow it to hire most new employees on a casual basis.

The corporation says it needs greater flexibility when it comes to hiring.

CBC spokesman Jason MacDonald said management filed the lockout notice to impress upon the Guild that the "deadline is real."

"They came back to the table with nothing in hand and a 'we'll get back to you.' The deadline is coming fast. At this point, that's not good enough. We have to be negotiating," MacDonald said.

But Arnold Amber, the president of the CBC branch of the CMG, said the union needed time to analyze the corporation's latest offer. He also said that in the middle of negotiations, the corporation sent out a communiqué to the employees detailing the latest offer, forcing the union to take time out to respond to their members with their own communiqué.

As for the lockout notice, Amber said the corporation has been building up to a lockout for weeks.

" We were not surprised by this," Amber said.

"I don't know why they followed this strategy and tactic."

Labour action could have a significant impact on program schedules, particularly its radio and online coverage. CFL football and NHL hockey would remain on the broadcast schedule, along with acquired programming and movies.

Last month, the union voted 87.3 per cent endorsing the union, including calling a strike if necessary, if its negotiators couldn't get a deal with the corporation. The earliest date for a strike or a lockout would be Aug. 15.

Negotiations for a new contract began in May 2004.

MacDonald said that while negotiations are ongoing, "we have a steep to hill to climb."

Beloved Kermit the Frog Approaching 50

LOS ANGELES - Kermit the Frog, that Muppet of all Muppets, has got to have other Hollywood stars green with envy.

He's turning 50 years old next month but doesn't look a day over... well, he looks pretty much the same as in the mid-'50s, when he made some of his earliest appearances with puppeteer pal Jim Henson on the local Washington, D.C. TV show, "Sam and Friends."

And Kermit doesn't seem to have aged a day since getting his star-making breaks in the late 1960s, in the telefilm "Hey Cinderella" and on the children's TV series "Sesame Street."

"Well, you know, it's interesting being 50," Kermit said in a recent interview with AP Television News. "You start to reflect on your life. And you look back over the years at everything you've ever done. And, with age, middle age, comes wisdom. But I have to say that I'm not sure that 50 for me is the same as 50 in people years."

In honor of Kermit's birthday, Buena Vista Home Entertainment has just released "The Muppet Show: Season One," a four-DVD box set that delivers all 24 episodes of the first season of the variety series, which originally aired from 1976-81.

"(It) has never been released in its entirety before; this is the first time," Kermit noted. "And, on there, not only do we have all those amazing guest stars like Sandy Duncan and Candice Bergen and Ruth Buzzi, Florence Henderson — all those original folks who worked with us back in the '70s. But we also have the original tape that we did to try to sell 'The Muppet Show,' as an extra, which I don't think the public has seen before."

Other DVD bonuses include the original "Muppet Show" pilot, in which Kermit barely appeared, as well as a first-season gag reel.

Besides the Muppets themselves, "The Muppet Show: Season One's" star attractions are, indeed, the star attractions, including such legends as Lena Horne, Vincent Price and Ethel Merman.

"I'd have to say one of the memorable ones was probably the first guest we had, which was Juliet Prowse: a beautiful lady and talented performer," Kermit said. "She probably took a big chance coming on with a lot of farm animals."

The frog also appears in another new DVD release, the telefilm "The Muppets Wizard of Oz," which originally aired in May.

"It stars Queen Latifah, David Alan Grier, and Jeffrey Tambor, along with Ashanti as Dorothy," said Kermit. "And Gonzo plays The Tin Thing, because he's not really a man. Fozzie is The Cowardly Lion. I am The Scarecrow. So, it's sort of a Muppet adaptation."

The DVD delivers an extended cut of the film, running 20 minutes longer than the broadcast version. And if that wasn't enough, we're likely to see a lot more of the green guy over the next year.

"I will be celebrating my 50th year in show business starting this September, and that's going to be like a yearlong celebration," he said. "And it'll be a whole year filled with things having to do with being green and frogs and all that sort of stuff."

As for Kermit's own private birthday bash? He's unsure what to expect, but he's prepared for anything from that wacky Muppet menagerie — even exotic dancers.

"Listen, you can send a stripper to my party if you like," he said. "It won't affect me because, as you can see, I am appearing naked, which I always try to do because I'm kind of a natural guy."

Lucille Ball Tops List of Dead Celebs

NEW YORK - Lucille Ball is America's most beloved dead star. The company that developed the "Q score" that broadcasters and advertisers quietly consult to measure a personality's popularity has done a survey that tests the reputation of performers who have gone on to that big soundstage in the sky.

The redheaded sitcom star of the 1950s and '60s, who died in 1989, has topped past "Dead Q" lists as her comedies seemingly live forever on television, said Steve Levitt, president of Marketing Evaluations, Inc., which conducts the tests.

"What is there not to like about Lucy?" he said.

Bob Hope, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Red Skelton follow her on the popularity list.

For 41 years, Levitt's company has given consumers a list of names and asked if they know the people and to rate how much they like them. From their responses they calculate the Q score, a measure of both familiarity and likability.

Advertising executives use the information to make sponsorship decisions, while broadcasters check Q scores to see how well their news and entertainment stars are connecting.

Tom Hanks has been the most popular live star in the last few surveys.

Dead stars still do business, though. Coors used film clips of Wayne in a popular commercial, while Fred Astaire has danced to hawk a vacuum cleaner.

"Some of these deceased personalities have Q scores equal to or greater than some of the live personalities we measure," Levitt said.

Two performers are relatively new to the list: Johnny Carson and John Ritter were both ranked among the 10 most popular dead stars.

Others offer a reminder of television's power to keep people figuratively alive; "The Honeymooners" star Jackie Gleason, who died in 1987, is still remembered and beloved.

"Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz and Michael Landon fill out the top 10.

Out of 169 personalities tested, diet doctor Robert Atkins had the lowest score. Tupac Shakur and Johnnie Cochran also have high negative ratings, Levitt said.

The national survey was conducted by mail questionnaire.

'Survivor: Guatemala' cast announced

Former NFL quarterback Gary Hogeboom is looking to score a touchdown on 'Survivor: Guatemala - The Maya Empire'. The former Dallas Cowboy, Indianapolis Colt and Phoenix Cardinal was one of 16 new castaways announced by CBS on Thursday.

CBS also revealed that the players will start their adventure with an 11 mile hike through the jungle and will face two surprises right off the bat which will change the game in a major way. Rumour has it that Stephenie Lagrossa and Bobby Jon Drinkard from 'Survivor Palau' will be returning to captain the two rival tribes.

'Survivor: Guatemala' will take place amid the ancient Mayan ruins and ceremonial sites located in the northern area of Guatemala. The series just wrapped up filming. 'Guatemala', the eleventh installment, will premiere Thursday, Sept. 15th.

The Castaways who will be competing on the series are:

BRANDON BELLINGER
22
Manhattan, Kan.
Farmer/Rancher

DANNI BOATWRIGHT
30
Tonganoxie, Kan.
Sports Radio Talk Show Host

MARGARET BOBONICH
43
Chardon, Ohio
Family Nurse Practitioner

BRIAN CORRIDAN
22
New York City (originally from New Milford, Conn.)
Ivy League Student

CINDY HALL
31
Naples, Fla.
Zoo Keeper

GARY HOGEBOOM
46 (turns 47 on August 21)
Grand Haven, Mich.
Ex-NFL Quarterback/Real Estate Developer

RAFE JUDKINS
22
Providence, R.I. (originally from Pittsburgh)
Ivy League Student

JIM LYNCH
63
Northglenn, Colo.
Retired Fire Captain

MORGAN McDEVITT
21
Decatur, Ill.
Magician's Assistant/Waitress

LYDIA MORALES
42
Lakewood, Wash. (originally from Okinawa)
Fishmonger

JAMIE NEWTON
24
N. Hollywood, Calif. (originally from Douglas, Ga.)
Water Ski Instructor

AMY O'HARA
39
Revere, Mass.
Police Sergeant

JUDD SERGEANT
34 (turns 35 on September 13)
Ridgefield, N.J.
Hotel Doorman

BROOKE STRUCK
26
Santa Monica, Calif. (originally from Hood River, Ore.)
Law Student

BLAKE TOWSLEY
24
Dallas, Texas
Commercial Real Estate Broker/Model

BRIANNA VARELA
21 (turns 22 on Oct. 29)
Edmonds, Wash.
Retail Sales/Make-Up Artist

DVD titans set for November clash By Thomas K. Arnold

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The landscape of the fourth-quarter DVD-selling season is rapidly taking shape as summer starts to wind down and studios race each other to snag prime release dates.

November will see a clash of the DVD titans, with four $100 million-plus theatricals already slotted and a fifth deemed likely.

DreamWorks is set to announce Thursday a Nov. 15 release date for "Madagascar," the animated feature that grossed $189 million theatrically. That gives it a one-week jump on another animated feature geared toward the same family demographic, Warner's November 2004 release "The Polar Express."

20th Century Fox reserved Nov. 29 for "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," which grossed $178.5 million in theaters and is one of the summer's top-grossing live-action theatricals.

Fox also is releasing the year's No. 1 movie, "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" ($377 million domestic gross), Nov. 1.

That leaves only Nov. 8 untapped, though industry sources peg that as a likely date for Warner's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," which has grossed nearly $150 million since its July 15 opening.

October also is almost fully loaded, but with more moderate box office performers. Universal's "The Interpreter" ($72.4 million) and MGM's "Amityville Horror" ($64.3 million) will be out Oct. 4, and Universal's "Kicking & Screaming" ($52.6 million) and Fox's "Kingdom of Heaven" ($47.3 million) share Oct. 11.

Oct. 25 will find Disney releasing "Herbie: Fully Loaded" ($62.7 million) and Warner issuing "House of Wax" ($32 million). Industry sources expect Warner to drop "Batman Begins" ($195.9 million) on Oct. 18, the month's only open date, noting that the studio already has slotted for that date a series of two-disc special editions of the four original "Batman" movies from the 1980s and '90s.

The only true wild card in the fourth quarter is December, with no confirmed releases.

'Sopranos' may extend final run By Cynthia Littleton

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The upcoming season of "The Sopranos" might well be a whopper, at least in terms of the number of episodes.

Sources said series creator/executive producer David Chase is close to finalizing a pact with HBO to produce as many as 10 additional episodes for the upcoming sixth season, set to bow in March. Sources said the tentative game plan is for HBO to stretch out the mob drama's swan-song season over many months, much as it did with the final batch of "Sex and the City" episodes by running a batch of 12 from June-September 2003 and the final eight in January-February 2004.

It's understood that the "Sopranos" cast and crew went into the sixth season, which recently began production on the East Coast, expecting to film at least 10 but no more than 13 episodes for Season 6. Details were sketchy late Tuesday, but sources said that Chase was close to signing on to produce at least seven more installments of the Emmy-winning series.

Of course, when it comes to long-term planning for "Sopranos," the other X factor is the wishes of star James Gandolfini. It was unclear whether the extended-season plan would trigger new contract negotiations for Gandolfini, who was embroiled in litigation with HBO in early 2003 when he sought to renegotiate his pact before starting work on the fifth season.

Reps for HBO and Chase declined comment on the matter Wednesday.

Emmys Preserve Live Thank Yous

On second thought, the Emmy Awards will be totally, completely live, even the potentially long-winded parts.

Organizers of the 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards have ditched a plan to ostensibly speed up the telecast by trading live acceptance speeches by winners in several categories for pretaped thank yous.

In a meeting Monday night by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences' board of governors, it was decided that the change would not save time. It was further decided that the change would drive up production costs. It was then decided the change would go--and the live speeches would stay.

"What we found was that some of the initial assumptions were not accurate," the academy said in a statement.

The academy was driven to assumptions after last September's Emmy telecast was watched by 13.8 million, the second-lowest tally on record since a then-fledgling Fox aired the show back in 1990. In April, the show's powers that be decided that pretaping acceptance speeches would reduce "travel time to the stage," and, in the process, make the award distribution process "more compelling and entertaining for the television viewer."

But not everyone's "travel time" was on the chopping block. Speeches by stars in the comedy and drama series acting categories were golden; speeches by writers and directors were not.

As announced last spring, the Emmys was looking to cut live camera time for writers and directors in all categories. Also relegated to the B-list were the Outstanding Variety/Music and Outstanding Miniseries and TV Movie categories. Even the Supporting Actor and Actress categories in the miniseries/TV movie division were to be "subject to overall time considerations."

Following Monday's vote, though, all Emmy winners in the 27 featured races will be treated equally come awards night.

In reversing course, the Emmys should avoid the grumblings that were heard at the Academy Awards, when certain categories--i.e., those not involving the main attractions of the red carpet--were subject to group or in-your-seat presentations. Like the Emmys, the Oscars was looking to pick up the pace, and pick up viewers. In the end, the ratings were marginally down from the previous year.

The 57th annual Primetime Emmy Awards are scheduled to be presented Sept. 18 on CBS.

Film, Stage Star Barbara Bel Geddes Dies

LOS ANGELES - Barbara Bel Geddes, the winsome actress who rose to stage and movie stardom but reached her greatest fame as Miss Ellie Ewing in the long-running TV series "Dallas," has died. She was 82.

The San Francisco Chronicle said Bel Geddes, a longtime smoker, died Monday of lung cancer at her home in Northeast Harbor, Maine. Jordan-Fernald Funeral Home in Mount Desert, Maine, confirmed the death Wednesday, but owner Bill Fernald said the family asked that no further information be given out.

Bel Geddes was nominated for an Academy Award for best supporting actress for the 1948 drama "I Remember Mama" and was the original Maggie the Cat on Broadway in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

But she was best known as the matriarch of the rambunctious Ewing oil family on "Dallas," which hurtled to the top of the ratings despite negative reviews. Bel Geddes won an Emmy in 1980 as best lead actress in a drama series and remains the only nighttime soap star to be so honored.

"She was the rock of 'Dallas,'" Larry Hagman, who played J.R. Ewing, told The Associated Press. "She was just a really nice woman and a wonderful actress. She was kind of the glue that held the whole thing together."

Bel Geddes called "Dallas "real fun," but it was also marked by tragedy. In 1981, Jim Davis, who played Miss Ellie's husband, Jock Ewing, died.

"It was like losing her own husband again," said "Dallas" producer Leonard Katzman. "It was a terribly difficult and emotional time for Barbara."

In March 1984, Bel Geddes was stricken with a major heart attack. Miss Ellie was played by Donna Reed for six months, then Bel Geddes returned to "Dallas," remaining until 1990, a year before CBS canceled the show.

Hagman said he had encouraged Bel Geddes to give up the smoking habit, but it was doctors who got her to quit after the heart attack, he said. He recalled the makeup room on the "Dallas" set as being so filled with her cigarette smoke that he would ask to be made up in his dressing room.

Of the lung cancer deaths of Peter Jennings and Bel Geddes, Hagman said: "I hope it's a wake-up call to a lot of people."

"Dallas" came late in her career. She had retired to take care of her husband, Windsor Lewis, after he fell ill with cancer in 1966. He died in 1972.

Her earnings depleted by his long illness, she found work scarce for a middle-aged actress and said she was "flat broke" in 1978 when she accepted the role as Miss Ellie.

In 1945, Bel Geddes made a splash on Broadway at 23 with her first important role in "Deep Are the Roots," winning the New York Drama Critics Award as best actress.

She announced to a reporter: "My ambition is to be a good screen actress. I think it would be much more exciting to work for Frank Capra, George Cukor, Alfred Hitchcock or Elia Kazan than to stay on Broadway."

Hollywood was quick to notice. In 1946 she signed a contract with RKO that granted her unusual request to be committed to only one picture a year. In her first movie she costarred with Henry Fonda in "The Long Night," a disappointing remake of a French film.

Her second film was a hit playing a budding writer in George Stevens' "I Remember Mama," the touching story of an immigrant family in San Francisco starring Irene Dunne as Mama. With her delicate features and patrician manner, Bel Geddes became a popular leading lady in films.

"I went out to California awfully young," she remarked. "I remember Lillian Hellman and Elia Kazan telling me, 'Don't go, learn your craft.' But I loved films." After four movies, Howard Hughes, who had bought control of RKO in 1948, dropped her contract because "she wasn't sexy enough."

Bel Geddes was devastated. But it turned out to be a good happenstance. She had time to return to the stage, and she scored a triumph in 1955 as Maggie the Cat in Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

Yet her biggest Broadway success was "Mary, Mary," a frothy marital comedy by Jean Kerr, which opened in 1961 and ran for more than 1,500 performances.

In her film career, Bel Geddes was able to work with great filmmakers such as Kazan ("Panic in the Streets") and Alfred Hitchcock ("Vertigo"). She also costarred with Danny Kaye in "The Five Pennies" and with Jeanne Moreau in "Five Branded Women."

"By Love Possessed" in 1961 was her last film for 10 years. She made her final films in 1971 — "Summertree" and "The Todd Killings."

Among Bel Geddes' other major theater credits were roles in Terence Rattigan's "The Sleeping Prince" (1956); Robert Anderson's "Silent Night, Lonely Night" (1959), which co-starred Henry Fonda; and Edward Albee's "Everything in the Garden" (1967).

She was born in New York City on Oct. 31, 1922, the daughter of renowned industrial designer Norman Bel Geddes.

"I didn't see much of my father," she said, "but I absolutely adored him." After her education in private schools, he found her a job at a summer theater and used his connections with stage people to help her get work.

Early in her stage career Bel Geddes married Carl Schreuer, an electrical engineer, and they had a daughter, Susan. The marriage ended after seven years in 1951, and that year she married director Lewis. They had a daughter, Betsy.

Reeve's Widow Battling Lung Cancer

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - After helping her famous husband turn his paralysis into a gracefully productive last nine years, Dana Reeve is fighting for her own life with the resolve and optimism that have already attracted worldwide admiration.

Christopher Reeve's widow announced Tuesday that she has lung cancer, then quickly added: "I hope before too long to be sharing news of my good health and recovery."

"Now, more than ever, I feel Chris with me as I face this challenge," said the 44-year-old actress. "As always, I look to him as the ultimate example of defying the odds with strength, courage, and hope."

Christopher Reeve, the star of the "Superman" movies who was paralyzed in a horse-riding accident in 1995, died last year. The Reeves have a 13-year-old son, Will.

Dana Reeve, chairwoman of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, said Tuesday that her lung cancer was recently diagnosed and is being treated, but she did not reveal the extent of the cancer or her prognosis, except to say that she and her doctors were optimistic. She did not say where she is being treated.

Dr. Scott Swanson, chief of thoracic surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, said that depending on the extent of the cancer, Reeve would be treated with surgery, chemotherapy, radiation or a combination.

When cancer is confined to the lung, the survival rate after five years is 49 percent; but only 2 percent live five years if it has spread to other organs.

Though most victims of lung cancer are smokers, Reeve is not, said foundation spokeswoman Maggie Goldberg.

Reeve's announcement came two days after the lung cancer death of ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings, a smoker, at age 67.

The foundation would not comment on whether Reeve's cancer is restricting her activities.

"Dana will tackle this challenge with the grace, courage, and determination that have become her hallmark," said Kathy Lewis, the foundation's president and chief executive officer.

A month ago, Reeve cited "family reasons" when she canceled an appearance in Washington with actor Michael J. Fox in support of embryonic stem cell research, which advocates say might someday cure spinal cord injuries like Christopher Reeve's.

Comedian Robin Williams, a close friend of the Reeves, issued a statement with his wife, Marsha, sending "all of our love and support to Dana and her family during this challenging time."

Reeve, who lives in Westchester County, near New York City, with her son, has appeared on Broadway, off-Broadway and regional stages and on the TV shows "Law & Order," "Oz," and "All My Children."

In February, she won a Mother of the Year award from the American Cancer Society.

A society vice president, Dr. Michael Thun, said Tuesday that Reeve "has shown strength and courage in the face of tremendous adversity in the past, and that strength will serve her well during this time."

2 jurors now say Jackson is guilty

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Two of the jurors who voted to acquit singer Michael Jackson of child molestation and other charges say they regret their decisions.

Eleanor Cook and Ray Hultman, who both have pending book deals, said in a televised interview Monday night that they believed the singer's young accuser was sexually assaulted.

"No doubt in my mind whatsoever, that boy was molested, and I also think he enjoyed to some degree being Michael Jackson's toy," Cook said on Rita Cosby: Live and Direct.

Jackson defence lawyer Tom Mesereau dismissed the jurors' comments as "embarrassing and outrageous"during an interview with The Associated Press.

"The bottom line is it makes no difference what they're saying. It really is a non-event," he said. "Twelve people deliberated and out of that process justice is supposed to result. Now two months later these jurors are changing their tunes. They clearly like being on TV. I'm very suspicious."

The jurors' comments will have no bearing on the verdict, which prosecutors cannot appeal.

Cook and Hultman said they agreed to go along with the other jurors when it became apparent that they would never convict Jackson.

Cosby asked Cook if the other jurors will be angry with her.

"They can be as angry as they want to. They ought to be ashamed. They're the ones that let a pedophile go," responded Cook, 79.

Hultman, 62, told Cosby he was upset with the way other jurors approached the case: "The thing that really got me the most was the fact that people just wouldn't take those blinders off long enough to really look at all the evidence that was there."

The New York Daily News first reported Aug. 4 that Hultman and Cook planned books and believed Jackson was guilty.

A call Monday to jury foreman Paul Rodriguez was not immediately returned.

Hultman has said that when jurors took an anonymous poll early in their deliberations he was one of three jurors who voted for conviction.

On June 13, the jurors unanimously acquitted Jackson of all charges, which alleged that he molested a 13-year-old boy, plied the boy with wine and conspired to hold him and his family captive so they would make a video rebutting a damaging television documentary.

Cook told Cosby: "The air reeked of hatred and people were angry and I had never been in an atmosphere like that before."

In June, Hultman told The AP about the verdict: "That's not to say he's an innocent man. He's just not guilty of the crimes he's been charged with."

During an appearance on Good Morning America with five other jurors in June, Cook was one of three who raised their hands when asked if they thought Jackson may have molested other children but not the 13-year-old boy.

"We had our suspicions, but we couldn't judge on that because it wasn't what we were there to do," she said at the time.

Hultman's book will be called The Deliberator and Cook's is Guilty as Sin, Free as a Bird, said Larry Garrison, a producer who is working with both on their separate books and a combined television movie. Part of the profits from their book sales will go to charity, he said.

The Couch Potato Report - August 9, 2005

This week The Couch Potato Report features The Muppets, and man am I excited!!

I was born at the right time. Some people wish they had been alive in the fifties, the twenties, the renaissance or the age of innocence, or some time other then when they were born, but I was born at the right time.

I was born in 1968. A year later a great family show called SESAME STREET began. In my early years I learned how to share, count and much more from Bert, Ernie, Big Bird, Mr Hooper, Kermit and all of my friends at SESAME STREET. I enjoyed every sunny day, sweepin' the clouds away, on my way to where the air was sweet.

No one had to tell me how to get to SESAME STREET, I knew the way.

As I was getting older and began to search for a new show to call my own, along came a program made by some of the same people responsible for SESAME STREET, namely Jim Henson.

This new show also featured Kermit The Frog, one of my favourite characters from SESAME STREET.

Once I had graduated from Sesame Street, another great family show, THE MUPPET SHOW was waiting right there to entertain me!

Yes, I was born at exactly the right time!

Now, after years of having to suffice with just "Best Of" compilations the entire first season of THE MUPPET SHOW is available on DVD!!

And I am trying to remain calm, because it is my favourite TV show of all time!!

I completely enjoyed playing the music, lighting the lights, and meeting the Muppets on The Muppet Show again this week.

THE MUPPET SHOW - SEASON ONE is a four-disc box set that features all 24 episodes from the 1976 season. Each episode has been completely restored and remastered. The set also features the original pilot, the original pitch of the show and a great trivia filled feature called "Muppet Morsels".

I am happy to report that all of the charm, the craziness, the bad jokes, the running gags, and every element of THE MUPPET SHOW still holds up almost thirty years after it's debut.

Of course, that is said as someone who is a fan. If you or your children are people who have never seen the show, and finds the films that The Muppets are making these days less than entertaining, I can't say that you will share my excitement.

I also say that because a friend of mine was watching some of the episodes with me and she wasn't enjoying them at all. She then asked me what I enjoy about the show. I explained that I like the characters, the jokes and the music, but I the main reason that I enjoy it was because of the fact that I loved it as a child.

Yes, I still enjoy the show a great deal, but since it was a part of my youth Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear, Animal, and the rest of The Muppets are sort of like people I grew up with, maybe even like family.

Of course, while watching them, I admit I don't feel like I have grown up at all!

Some of The Muppets' guest stars in SEASON ONE are Charles Aznavour, Candice Bergen, Ruth Buzzi, Phyllis Diller, Joel Grey, Florence Henderson, Lena Horne, Harvey Korman, Jim Nabors, Vincent Price and Peter Ustinov.

The highlights are too numerous to list, but what I truly love is Charles Aznavour singing the song "Inchworm"; the Koozbanian Mating Ritual; Lena Horne's rendition of "I Got a Name"; Muppet Robin's version of "Halfway Down the Stairs"; Kermit singing "It's Not Easy Being Green"; and then there's the Muppet classic "Mahna, Mahna."

Whether it is due to the fact that I have loved THE MUPPET SHOW since I was a kid or whether it is due to the fact that I am still entertained by it, I suppose I will never be able to say.

But I completely enjoyed watching this SEASON ONE box set and I will be just as excited when SEASONS TWO through FIVE come out.

I will also be just as excited when FRAGGLE ROCK - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON comes out on September 6th, but I digress.

Now, in case you think I will recommend anything that The Muppets do, you need to know my thoughts on THE MUPPETS' WIZARD OF OZ. This is the TV movie from May based on the classic story.

On the Friday it aired three months ago, I rushed home after work to watch it.

When it was over, I wasn't disappointed, as I am a fan, but it wasn't very good.

I am sure you know the story behind THE WIZARD OF OZ, so I will just tell you that singer Ashanti stars as Dorothy, Pepe the King Prawn is Toto, Kermit is the Scarecrow, Gonzo is the Tin Man and Fozzie plays The Cowardly Lion.

It still seems like a great idea, but the film isn't as good as the work that is The Muppets' legacy and, in the end, THE MUPPETS' WIZARD OF OZ just isn't very entertaining.

If you're not a Muppet fan and you'd like to watch THE WIZARD OF OZ, look for the Judy Garland version. If you are a Muppet fan, I'm sure you already own it, whether you think it is good or bad.

Either way THE MUPPETS' WIZARD OF OZ and THE MUPPET SHOW - SEASON ONE are all available right now.

COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT

UNDECLARED is one of the best, under-rated, and least watched TV shows off all times. Next week the entire series debuts on DVD and I will tell you all about it!

On the other hand is THE SIMPSONS, one of the highest-rated, most watched shows of all time. THE COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON DVD COLLECTION has all 25 episodes from the sixth season, including Part One of the season cliffhanger "Who Shot Mr. Burns?"

Another high-rated, popular show is also new on DVD. Our other featured television title next week is THE COSBY SHOW - SEASON ONE.

Finally next week is the film SIN CITY. This is the very unique film based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller. Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino share directing credits with Miller and the movie about a city full of hard luck cases is a treat for the eyes! Bruce Willis, Jessica Alba, Mickey Rourke and Clive Owen lead the all-star cast.

I'm Dan Reynish and I will have more on those, 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!

Apple to give levy back to iPod owners

Music lovers who paid extra for their iPods because of a levy will soon be able to get their money back, Apple Canada announced Monday.

"Apple is pleased that the Supreme Court of Canada let stand a lower court ruling that blank media levies on iPods are invalid, and will shortly announce a claims process so consumers can request a refund for the levies they paid," the company said in a release.

In July, the Supreme Court refused to overturn a Federal Court of Canada ruling that quashed the levy, which was applied to iPods and similar digital music players.

The tax had been passed on to consumers by companies like Apple and was collected by the Canadian Private Copying Collective, a non-profit agency that works on behalf of musicians and record companies.

The levy was in effect from December 2003 until a year later, when the Federal Court overturned it.

The Canadian Coalition for Fair Digital Access, which represents retailers and manufactures like Future Shop, Wal-Mart Canada, Apple Canada, Sony Canada and Dell Computer Corporation of Canada, had lobbied to have it abolished.

The tariff was $2 for non-removable memory capacity of up to one gigabyte, $15 for one to 10 GB, and $25 for more than 10 GB.

About $4 million was collected by the CPCC from sales of iPods and the like during the tariff's one-year life.

The CPCC got the levy instituted in the first place because it successfully argued that iPod users were making illegal copies of songs, so money should be collected on behalf of the copyright holders.

Details of how to apply for the refund from Apple were not announced on Monday.

NEW CD RELEASES FOR AUGUST 9, 2005

3 Doors Down Away from the Sun (DualDisc) (Universal)

3 Fox Drive Listen to the Music (Koch Nashville)

Jasy Andrews Little Girl (Versailles)

Black Mountain Black Mountain (reissue of 2004 album) (ADA)

Bottom of the Hudson Holiday Machine EP (Absolutely Kosher)

Kaci Brown Instigator (Interscope)

Chimaira Chimaira (Roadrunner)

Chin Up Chin Up Chin Up Chin Up (Flameshovel)

Cordova Lie Until It Becomes the Truth EP (Limekiln)

Krishna Das All One (co-produced by and featuring Walter Becker of Steely Dan; w/Def Leppard's Rick Allen on drums) (Artemis)

Thaisone Davis Situation Renaissance (EV Productions)

Day of Contempt The Will to Live (Epitaph)

Mark DeCerbo & Four Eyes Sweet on the Vine (Zip)

Deviltones Riding the High Horse (Steel Cage)

The Fleshtones Beachhead (Yep Roc)

The Get Quick How the Story Goes (Rainbow Quartz)

Eliza Gilkyson Paradise Hotel (ICE #221) (Red House)

Gogol Bordello Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike (SideOneDummy)

The Groovie Ghoulies Berry'd Alive! EP (Green Door)

Hail Social Hail Social (Polyvinyl)

Wil Hart Fonic Zone (Thump)

Juliana Hatfield Made in China (Ye Olde)

Holopaw Quit +/or Fight (Sub Pop)

Ellis Hooks Godson of Soul (guests Bobby Womack and Steve Cropper; ICE #221) (Evidence)

Hootie & the Blowfish Looking for Lucky (Vanguard)

JC Hopkins Biggish Band Underneath a Brooklyn Moon (Tigerlily)

Jack's Mannequin (Andrew McMahon of Something Corporate) Everything in Transit (guest Tommy Lee on drums) (Maverick)

Jim Jones Harlem: Diary of a Summer (DualDisc same day; guests Cam'ron, Juelz Santana, Paul Wall and more) (Koch)

The Juan Maclean Less Than Human (Astralwerks)

Kill Your Idols Live at CBGB's (Blackout!)

Earl Klugh Naked Guitar (Koch)

Koufax Hard Times Are in Fashion (Doghouse)

Boris Kovac World After History (Piranha Musik)

Lackthereof Christian the Christian (FilmGuerrero)

Tommy Lee Tommyland: The Ride (no record label, direct to retail; w/members of Sum 41, Nickelback, Fuel, Good Charlotte and the Backstreet Boys) (Handleman Company)

The Life and Times (ex-Shiner members) Suburban Hymns (produced by ex-Jawbox's J. Robbins) (DeSoto)

Lunascape (ex-Hooverphonic vocalist Kyoko Baertsoen) Reminiscence (remixes of title track) (Dancing Ferret)

Mad Ro The Foul Stench of Something Good (Noc-on-Wood)

Maker Honestly (EV Productions)

Bill Mays Trio Live at the Jazz Standard (Palmetto)

Minotaur Shock Maritime (Beggars Banquet)

Mobius Band The Loving Sounds of Static (Ghostly International)

Modern Traditions Ensemble New Old Music (Adventure Music)

Moggs The White Bell Is Not Enough (Absolutely Kosher)

Mouse on Mars Autoditacker (Beggars Group)

The Nelsonics Ruins of Rome (Hammondbeat/Tiki Tone)

Carrie Newcomer Regulars and Refugees (Rounder)

Nickel Creek Why Should the Fire Die? (Sugar Hill)

Nural Weight of the World (Hopeless)

David Pack The Secret of Moving On (Peak)

Pennywise The Fuse (Epitaph)

The Plimsouls One Night in America (live) (Oglio)

Proof (of D12) Searching for Jerry Garcia (guests Eminem, 50 Cent, Method Man and more) (Iron Fist)

Daniel Patrick Quinn Ridin' the Stang (Suilven)

Razer Born 2 Die (PR Records)

Raymond Redd Scars & Memories (Elephant Size Productions)

Tim Ries The Rolling Stones Project (Concord)

Poncho Sanchez Do It! (w/Tower of Power horns) (Concord)

Saxon Shore The Exquisite Death of (produced by David Fridmann) (Burnt Toast Vinyl)

Scars of Life What We Reflect (Rock Ridge)

Somerset Pandora (Epitaph)

Sons & Daughters The Repulsion Box (Domino)

Southern Bitch Snake in the Grass (Captiva)

Staind Chapter V (Atlantic)

Stephen Stills Man Alive (guests Neil Young, Graham Nash and Herbie Hancock) (Pyramid)

Suicide Machines War Profiteering Is Killing Us All (SideOneDummy)

Swinging Steaks Sunday Best (Platterpus)

Sybris Sybris (Flameshovel)

Richard Thompson Front Parlour Ballads (solo acoustic album) (Cooking Vinyl)

Tom & Joy Antigua (Tommy Boy)

Tremolo Love Is the Greatest Revenge (Flagship/Fontana)

Unknown Component From Anywhere but Here (Unknown Component)

Ying Yang Twins U.S.A. (United State of Atlanta) (Chopped and Screwed) (TVT)

VA Def Jazz (smooth jazz versions of classic Def Jam hip-hop and R&B songs) (Verve)

VA Happy Land: Musical Tributes to Laura Ingalls Wilder (new versions of songs of 1800s America) (Pa's Fiddle)

VA Hazy Dreams: (Not Just) A Jimi Hendrix Tribute (Koch)

VA Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen (w/Los Lobos, Joss Stone, Flaming Lips and more) (Hollywood)

VA New American Folk (Putumayo)

VA Pure Chill (electronica compilation) (Water Music)

VA Re:Made Volume 1 (dance remakes/remixes of hit songs by U2, Tears for Fears, Nelly and more) (Koch)

VA Re-Made Compilation (Koch)

VA Stairway to Rock: (Not Just) A Led Zeppelin Tribute (Koch)

VA The Art of Seduction...Belly Dance Music (Empire)

OST Lipstick & Dynamite (film about professional female wrestling in the '40s and '50s) (Koch)

OST The Heights (w/songs by Underworld, Los Amigos Invisibles and Wax Poetic featuring Norah Jones) (Tommy Boy)

DVD Cuba Feliz (documentary on Cuban musicians) (Koch)

DVD Music Box Biographical Collection: Mariah Carey and The Rolling Stones (MVB Films)

DVD Chris Isaak and Raul Malo Soundstage Presents (live performance w/bonus features) (Koch)

DVD Lunachicks Naked! (live performance, interviews, backstage footage and music videos) (Go Kart)

DVD That's What's Up That's What's Up (CD/DVD combo) (Thump)

DVD Steve Winwood Soundstage Presents (live concert w/bonus features) (Koch Vision)

DVD Yes Songs from Tsongas: The 35th Anniversary Concert (Image) Thanks to Ice Magazine

Jennings' Death Ushers in Uncertain Era

NEW YORK - The death of Peter Jennings means an era in television news has ended with stunning swiftness, giving broadcasters the challenge of reimagining the nightly news in an age of instant Internet updates.

Jennings, 67, died Sunday at his Manhattan home. He hadn't been seen by viewers of ABC's "World News Tonight" since announcing in April he had lung cancer.

For more than 20 years, many American television viewers learned the day's news at the dinner hour from either Jennings, NBC's Tom Brokaw and CBS's Dan Rather — covering the Reagan era, communism's fall, O.J. Simpson and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The triumvirate held steady as the world of news changed around them, driven by the spread of cable and the Internet. Today, people can get news headlines simply by flipping open their cell phones.

Brokaw, 65, retired from the "Nightly News" in November, and Rather, 73, signed off in March. With Jennings gone, the days of name-brand anchors serving as the public face of their news networks may be disappearing as well.

"It's a cruel twist of fate in that Jennings was suddenly going to have the network (evening) news to himself after 20 years of long service," said William Lord, a Boston University journalism professor and one of Jennings' producers in the 1980s. "This was going to be Peter's time to reclaim that No. 1 ranking."

Jennings, a former smoker, spoke bravely of keeping up with work when he revealed his cancer diagnosis on April 5. But he wasn't seen at ABC's Manhattan offices after late May.

Charles Gibson and Elizabeth Vargas filled in for him at "World News Tonight," a role both will continue indefinitely. ABC wasn't talking about the broadcast's future on Monday.

"There will be a time to discuss that," ABC News spokesman Jeffrey Schneider said. "This is not that time. When we emerge from this difficult time and are prepared to say something, we will."

It's almost certain the next "World News Tonight" anchor will come from within ABC News.

Gibson, 62, is a solid contender, familiar to ABC viewers as the longtime anchor of "Good Morning America." He anchored ABC's live coverage of Pope Benedict XVI's selection and the space shuttle Discovery's takeoff last month.

However, moving Gibson into that role would take him off "Good Morning America," which has been surging in the ratings and giving NBC's "Today" its first serious fight in a decade. Leaving him in the morning would signal the increased importance of that time slot to news divisions; it's already a big profit center.

Vargas, 42, lacks Gibson's experience but could attract some younger viewers. The evening news, a tradition born at a time when evening newspapers were important, has one of television's oldest audiences.

ABC's anchor bench also includes people like Bob Woodruff, John Donvan, George Stephanopoulos, Dan Harris and Cynthia McFadden — all of whom have also tested as potential "Nightline" anchors for when Ted Koppel leaves at the end of the year.

One approach could be to give Vargas the "World News Tonight" job and have Gibson anchor many of the big breaking stories. On CBS, evening news substitute anchor Bob Schieffer has occasionally given way to John Roberts and others on big stories.

ABC's rivals have shown sharply different approaches in their transitions to new anchors. NBC planned the switch from Brokaw to Brian Williams with machinelike efficiency, and Williams has kept Brokaw's top spot in the ratings, with nearly 10 million people tuning in each weeknight.

CBS appointed Schieffer as Rather's temporary replacement for a few months while promising "revolutionary" change at the third-ranked newscast. But a few months has now become six, and no permanent plan has been announced.

What the network has announced are detailed plans to turn its Web site into a 24-hour broadband service with dedicated video content.

Jennings' death, together with the departures of Brokaw and Rather, means "a whole bunch of people are going to be writing obits about the network evening newscasts," said Joseph Angotti, a former NBC News producer and lecturer at Monmouth College in Illinois.

"And, as they have been in the past 30 years, they're premature," Angotti said.

With many of journalism's trends pointing away from the evening news, the three networks still draw more than 25 million viewers each night combined. That's down from about 34 million a decade ago, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Jennings had five decades of longevity in network news that might never be matched: He anchored ABC's evening news briefly in the 1960s, came back in the 1970s, then became the face of ABC News for good in the 1980s.

The Canadian-born Jennings' father, Charles Jennings, was a famous anchorman back home. His son had his first broadcasting job, a radio show in Ottawa, at age 9.

"Peter was born to be an anchor," Brokaw said on NBC's "Today" show on Monday.

Jennings could speak smoothly and authoritatively on many subjects — the best ad-libber in the business, colleague Barbara Walters said. The former London correspondent had a suave, debonair appeal; Brokaw joked about wearing an ascot in tribute on Monday.

Beneath the outside eloquence "beat the heart of a fierce competitor," Rather said on "Good Morning America."

A high school dropout, Jennings was restlessly curious — an attitude Walters said was born of a journalist's natural skepticism and a hint of insecurity.

After his brief, unsuccessful stint as ABC evening news anchor in the 1960s, Jennings became one of a three-person team to anchor the new "World News Tonight" in 1978. The job became his alone in 1983.

He marked his final birthday on July 29, an occasion his ABC News colleagues noted by sending a plane with a birthday banner over his home in Long Island, N.Y. A jazz lover, Jennings loved to host birthday concerts with friends at his home.

This year, too sick to celebrate in his traditional manner, ABC colleagues sent a small jazz group into his home to perform.

Grammy Winner Marc Cohn Shot in Head

DENVER - A Grammy-winning musician and husband of ABC news reporter Elizabeth Vargas was treated at a hospital and released Monday after being shot in the head during an attempted carjacking following a performance.

Marc Cohn, who had a hit with the song "Walking in Memphis" and won the Grammy for best new artist in 1992, was struck in the temple Sunday night when a man fired into his band's van in a parking garage. A suspect was being sought.

Police spokesman Sonny Jackson said the bullet appeared to have been slowed by the van's windshield and by striking the vehicle's driver first.

"Frankly, I can't tell you how he survived," Jackson said.

Cohn was alert and talking when emergency workers took him to the hospital from the concert site at Botanic Gardens. The bullet grazed Cohn's driver and tour manager Thomas Dube, who also was treated and released.

No arrests were made, but police identified a suspect. Joseph W. Yacteen, 26, allegedly tried to stop Cohn's van in the parking garage after allegedly fleeing a downtown hotel Sunday night, where he had tried to pay his bill with a stolen credit card.

Police said Yacteen fired one bullet into the van after Dube, who saw that he had a gun, sped up and swerved trying to avoid Yacteen. The van was carrying four people at the time.

Yacteen also allegedly fired several shots while fleeing security guards and trying to take a car from a woman. He eventually disappeared in a stolen SUV.

Yacteen is being sought on attempted first-degree murder, robbery and other charges. Authorities said he missed a court date July 15 on a drug and weapons charge.

SCTV Network 90 - 4th Volume (5th Season) Cover Art & Complete Details

Coming September 13th release!!

Here is the press release and the info on the back of the box:

SCTV'S INCREDIBLE 5TH SEASON (Yes, that's Volume 4) finds the show renewed on NBC and still in the 90-minute format. Three cast members have departed, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis and Catherine O'Hara-although Catherine makes a memorable return in "The Christmas Show," but Martin Short's star rose in their absence. His inimitable character Ed Grimley finds his way into many of the sketches. The Shmenges are back and John Candy introduces Mr. Mambo.

The Volume 4 box set features four Emmy-nominated shows ("Towering Inferno," "Christmas Special," "Midnight Cowboy" and "Sweeps Week"), plus Robin Williams as a guest in the "Jane Eyrehead" episode; it also includes musical guests John Mellencamp, Joe Walsh, and Crystal Gayle.

Includes an extra DVD with 3 extra episodes-12 episodes total- 33% more content at the same price as the first 3 volumes! Also includes a collectible set of character trading cards.

(From the back cover)

The Complete Fifth Season - 12 Full Episodes

SCTV IS ON THE AIR!

SCTV's incredible fifth season finds them renewed and back on NBC.

Martin Short explodes in this season with his characters Ed Grimley, Jackie Rogers, Jr., and Brock Linehan. Plus, the Shmenges are back and John Candy does Divine doing Peter Pan.

Robin Williams guest stars in the "Jane Eyrehead" episode, and later in the season Martin Short does a fabulous send-up of him doing a "Taing" commercial. Also guesting and performing are Joe Walsh, John Cougar Mellencamp, Harold Ramis, Fred Willard, America and more. And Catherine O'Hara returns for a special guest appearance in the "Christmas" episode.

Look for Vic Arpeggio, Private Investigator and parodies of Midnight Cowbay (John Candy as Joe Buck), The Towering Inferno, A Star Is Born and What Ever Happened To Baby Jane (Ed)? - more proof that these shows just kept getting better.

Never Available On Video Or DVD - Until Now.

Total Running Time +/- 14 Hours

Bonus Features
SCTV Remembers: Interview with Martin Short
SCTV At Play - Home movies of cast and crew
Sammy Maudlin At Second City
SCTV - The Producers
Canadian TV references revealed

Hollywood is ready to say goodbye to its summer of discontent.

This was to be the season that helped the industry turn around the attendance slide that began in winter and continued through spring. Showcase films — from Star Wars to Batman Begins to War of the Worlds— would get the studios back on track.

Though those movies were blockbusters, few other films delivered. Instead of reviving studios and theaters, summer hosted the longest losing streak in Hollywood history; 19 consecutive weekends in which ticket sales lagged behind the comparable weekends in 2004.

Action fizzled. An Oscar hopeful gained little steam. Little films stayed that way.

The slump left studio execs baffled. In Cinderella Man, distributor Universal Pictures felt confident it had not only an Academy Award contender, but also a hit comparable to its Seabiscuit, the 2003 horseracing film that raked in $120.3 million. Instead, the Depression-era boxing film managed $60.4 million — respectable, but hardly a champ.

The film's disappointing returns, along with the extended summer slump, have prompted Universal to examine the way the studio markets its films.

"We're going to go back to the drawing board," says Nikki Rocco, Universal's head of distribution. "Good movies are supposed to buck this trend. You hear how it's all about the product, but we have an excellent movie that people just aren't turning out for. It's something bigger."

Moviegoers would agree. In various surveys, they cite rising ticket and concession prices, noisy audiences and a lackluster film slate as reasons to stay away from theaters.

"I'd have to give the summer a C or a C-minus in terms of going to the movies," says Mike Orton, 38, of Dearborn, Mich. "Everything seemed like a remake or a sequel or a TV show. It felt like I'd seen everything they were putting out."

Film fans echoed that sentiment this summer as ticket sales for the season fell 10% behind last summer's pace. Overall this year, ticket sales are down about 8% and attendance is down 10%, threatening to make this year the lowest-grossing since 2001.

The news wasn't all bad. Nuptials were a hit, and documentaries continue to play well. And Darth Vader gave us a fitting farewell.

"It might not be a great year for movies," says Gitesh Pandya of boxofficemojo.com. "But there's still time left for it to be a good one."

It's time to dispense the grades in our annual summer report card for Hollywood. Here's our our take on where the action — and wasn't.

Here's where the action was — and wasn't

Marriage: A

Who says the institution is dead? Marriage-minded movies were about the only solid hits ofsummer, beginning in May with the surprising success of Monster-in-Law. The Jennifer Lopez-Jane Fonda comedy racked up $82.5 million.Mr. & Mrs. Smith demonstrated that marriage counseling can be worth the effort: Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie took in $179.1 million.And Wedding Crashers took the cake last weekend by nabbing the top spot at the box office in its third weekend. The buddy comedy has managed$144.1 million."A wedding is such a dramatic event in any person's life that it's the perfect fodder for the movies," says Kim Morgan, a columnist for the filmsite fandango.com. Audiences, she says, relate to something in any wedding film, "from picture perfect rituals to those chaos-ridden family affairs."

Documentaries: B+

Though the summer lacked a monster documentary such as last year's Fahrenheit 9/11, documentaries were still one of the safest filmmaking bets this season.March of the Penguins waddled to the second spot among highest-grossing documentaries ever with $26.2 million and counting. And Mad HotBallroom waltzed to the No. 10 spot with $6.5 million.Not bad, considering that both films cost about $1 million to the studios distributing them.The only thing stopping docs from a straight A was Murderball, the story about quadriplegic rugbyplayers that brought in only $870,000, probably because of its serious tone.Still, audiences are flocking to virtually anything that feels fresh to them, says Robert Bucksbaum of industry tracking firm Reelsource. "The feeling among audiences is that Hollywood has run out of ideas," he says. "The studios that come up with the original films have the advantage."

Superheroes: B

After the lackluster performance of comic-book adaptations such as Elektra and Catwoman, some pundits predicted doom for the superheroes.But Batman Begins silenced the naysayers by taking in $196.6 million. And despite some savage reviews,Fantastic Four has collected $143.8 million.Even Sky High, the low-on-the-radar Disney film about a high school for superheroes, has managed $32.1 million, and its debut was the best for a new film last weekend.The showing bodes well for upcoming comic-book fare, which includes next year's Ghost Rider, X-Men 3and Superman Returns."The comic books had gotten a little too serious, a little too dark," says Rob Worley of comics2film.com.The newer movies weren't afraid "to lighten up a little.Not every comic-book film has to be a dark psychological study."

Science fiction: B

Let's hear it for the stars. The real ones.Science fiction is typically a hard sell for studios, but not when you have Anakin Skywalker, aka DarthVader, who led Star Wars, Episode III:Revenge of the Sith to $377.3 million.And the tripod-driving aliens from War of the Worlds helped power that movie to $224.6 million, Tom Cruise's biggest film.Even spaced-out aliens sold: TheHitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy did a respectable $51.1 million."Sci-fi is not the easiest thing to market," says Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo. "But if the story is strong enough, it will do well, regardless of the genre."

Remakes: B-

Say what you want about remakes, sequels, spinoffs and franchises: Audiences still flock to what's familiar.How else to explain the relative success of this summer's deja-view, in which no fewer than nine remakes hit the big screen? Three of the year's top 10 films were re-dos: War of the Worlds, The Longest Yard ($155.9 million) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory ($169 million and counting).And The Dukes of Hazzard opened to a healthy $30.6 million.Not all movies were worth doing over. Houseof Wax mustered only $32.1 million, while The Honeymooners crashed at $12.8 million.Let's face it, says Gray of Box Office Mojo: Hollywood has given us too many retreads. "But if the storytelling is strong, a remake will be as gooda movie as an original. If the storytelling is bad, the movie will stink."

Action: D

Remember when summer was about action and special effects? Neither do audiences, who turned their backs on movies built on speed and spectacle.The Island went mostly uninhabited with $30.9 million so far, and XXX: State of the Union fizzled to a meager $26 million. Stealth has flown under the radar to just $24.5 million."I don't know what's going on," says Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony Pictures, which released Union and Stealth. "But these things tend to be cyclical. I'm sure action is going to make a comeback."

Sleepers: C+

Wake up, little guy. Hollywood could use a hit. Where is The Passion of the Christ? My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Nearly every summer, a small movie catches fire. Not this season. Lords of Dogtown skated to a meager $11 million. The horror film High Tension provided little with only $3.7 million. And the gangster film Layer Cake shot up screens for a measly $2.3 million. At least two movies got more of audiences' attention, most notably Crash ($52.3 million) and the $3 million Hustle & Flow ($18.7 million). But nothing came close to the blockbuster mark, and the lack of a little movie playing big was a key in this summer's weak performance, says Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations. "It's not enough to have one big movie every weekend," he says. "You need a deep slate of films, and that just didn't happen most of the time."

'Dukes' Are Boss at Weekend Box Office

LOS ANGELES - The good ol' boys of "The Dukes of Hazzard" crashed past another pair of joke-cracking buddies to the top of the weekend box office.

The adventure comedy, which stars Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott as the mischievous Duke cousins, rounded up $30.6 million in its first three days of release, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn's "The Wedding Crashers," which held the top spot last weekend after two weeks as runner-up, slipped back to No. 2 with $16.5 million. Johnny Depp's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" dropped to third with $10.6 million.

Set in a southern county called Hazzard, "Dukes" chronicles the adventures of Bo and Luke, who try to save the family farm from crooked politician Boss Hogg with the help of their orange 1969 Dodge Charger and denim short shorts-wearing cousin Daisy, played in her film debut by singer Jessica Simpson.

The film weathered largely nasty reviews with a savvy marketing campaign. Its stars appeared on GQ magazine covers two months in a row, and Simpson drew attention with a sexy video for her cover of "These Boots are Made for Walkin'." Willie Nelson, who plays Uncle Jesse in the film, also makes a cameo in the video.

"The combination of the cast and the name recognition of the television show combined with the sex appeal and car chases was irresistible to movie-goers," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office-tracker Exhibitor Relations.

The audience for "The Dukes of Hazzard" was evenly split in gender and two-thirds were under age 25, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros.

"I was very pleased with the opening. It exceeded our expectations," Fellman said.

The little big film of the summer, "March of the Penguins," was No. 6 after taking in $6.9 million over the weekend for a cumulative total of $26.2 million. It became the second highest-grossing non-concert and non-IMAX documentary ever, surpassing Michael Moore's "Bowling For Columbine," which had $21.6 million — but still far from Moore's $119 million "Fahrenheit 9/11."

"There's really no way to figure where this thing's gonna end. These numbers keep going up," said Steven Friedlander of Warner Independent Pictures, which released the Morgan Freeman-narrated "Penguins."

The superhero action comedy "Sky High," starring Kurt Russell and Kelly Preston, came in fourth with $9 million. The romantic comedy "Must Love Dogs," featuring Diane Lane and John Cusack, remained steady at fifth with $7.4 million.

After a two-week downturn, the box office saw a slight uptick this weekend. The top 12 movies grossed $102.5 million, up about 5 percent from the same weekend last year, when Tom Cruise's "Collateral" was No. 1 with $24.7 million.

"Broken Flowers," which opened in limited release in 27 theaters, had a strong showing with $745,000. The Jim Jarmusch film stars Bill Murray as a lonely single man who embarks on a cross-country road trip to track down four old lovers.

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. "The Dukes of Hazzard," $30.6 million

2. "The Wedding Crashers," $16.5 million

3. "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," $10.6 million

4. "Sky High," $9.0 million

5. "Must Love Dogs," $7.4 million

6. "March of the Penguins," $6.9 million

7. "Stealth," $5.8 million

8. "Fantastic Four," $4.1 million

9. "War of the Worlds," $3.6 million

10. "The Island," $3.1 million

Summertime blues -- action pics lack kick

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - In any other summer, "The Island" and "Stealth" might have struck box office gold because they represent the kind of fare that has come to define the lucrative moviegoing season.

DreamWorks' "The Island" is an explosive, Michael Bay-directed sci-fi adventure, and Sony's "Stealth" offers sexy young leads in a soaring special effects extravaganza armed with the latest in computer technology.

Nevertheless, both films hit turbulence right out of the gate. "The Island" opened three weekends ago to a disappointing $12.4 million; this weekend it pulled in just $3.1 million for an estimated gross to date of $30.9 million. "Stealth," which opened last weekend to $13.3 million has pulled in an estimated $24.5 million so far.

Hollywood is wondering just what, precisely, is going wrong -- not just with "The Island" and "Stealth" but with the whole high-octane action/adventure/sci-fi genre to which they belong.

"The scariest part (of these past few weeks) is that usually you can rely on there being a hit every week of the summer or at least every week in July," Sony Pictures Entertainment vice chairman Jeff Blake said. "The biggest concern in the industry is two out of four weeks in our best month, there were no major openings. Clearly 'Stealth' did share a lot of the same problems that 'The Island' did. It just seemed that both were typical summer action fare that did not seem to resonate at all."

Bay's "The Island," co-produced by DreamWorks and Warner Bros. Pictures, opened to the lowest gross ever for the action-oriented filmmaker behind "Armageddon" and "Pearl Harbor." And director Rob Cohen, after hitting it big with "The Fast and the Furious" and "XXX," failed to get liftoff with "Stealth."

In addition to their high-profile directors, both films featured state-of-the-art visual effects and splashy marketing campaigns. With budgets for both movies in the $120 million range, little was compromised in an effort to wow audiences. Now, those expensive investments will require costly write-downs for their respective studios.

Both films were based on original screenplays, and, in retrospect, that might have been a handicap because neither was developed from such promotable franchise properties as Warners' "Batman Begins" and 20th Century Fox's "Fantastic Four." And neither boasted a mammoth concept coupled with a global celebrity and star, as was the case with Paramount Pictures/DreamWorks' "War of the Worlds," starring Tom Cruise and directed by Steven Spielberg.

Explaining the original concepts behind "The Island" and "Stealth" made for difficult marketing challenges. Critics compared "The Island" to the 1976 sci-fi film "Logan's Run," while "Stealth," which centers on a computer-controlled fighter jet, was measured against "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Top Gun." And the critics' comparisons seldom were favorable.

Said one studio marketer: "I think today (a movie) needs to feel original and unique, not just original. Audiences are making a distinction between new and unique, rather than new and still-feels-like-a-rehash."

With all the focus on special effects, neither movie had a guaranteed star, but instead relied on promising up-and-comers. But that gamble, at least this summer, did not pay off.

Although Sony marketers could publicize co-star Jamie Foxx because "Stealth" was his first film since he won the best actor Oscar for "Ray," he shared the screen with Josh Lucas and Jessica Biel, and the movie couldn't be positioned as a pure Foxx vehicle. All three were out in force to market "Stealth," but Lucas and Biel don't yet resonate with the public.

DreamWorks also had trouble building interest in its two stars, Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. McGregor, who has three "Star Wars" movies to his credit, was appearing onstage in London in the musical "Guys and Dolls" and was absent from most of the studio's national publicity. And though Johansson showed up for the junket and the premiere, her indie cred did not translate into a box office force.

The studio, therefore, was forced to build its campaign around the marquee appeal of director Bay. But, as one marketing executive put it, "When you are selling a director, the only one that matters is Spielberg."

Added one high-level manager: "The idea that Michael Bay had a fan base is nuts. It's one thing to be a successful director, but to be a brand name? I can name four of those directors: Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, Peter Jackson and Spielberg. Bay has not risen to the level where he himself draws an audience base."

The two movies are not the first this summer that have suffered from a lack of star power. Sony and production partner Revolution Studios stumbled in April with the sequel "XXX: State of the Union," in which Ice Cube took over the lead role from Vin Diesel, who starred in the original. While Ice Cube enjoyed success earlier this year with the kid-friendly "Are We There Yet?" which grossed $83 million domestically, he was unable to expand on his developing fan base with "XXX," which opened to $12 million on its way to a mere $26 million.

"You can make an Ice Cube movie for $40 million and succeed, but blowing it up to the $120 million level does not guarantee you added box office dollars," the manager said. "It seems that the new dead zone is the $120 million-$150 million no-star movie."

Some industry observers predict Hollywood will be less eager to risk movies based on original concepts with unproven stars.

"This is going to become more and more a brand business," the manager said. "Studios will be looking for a prebuilt audience, whether it's a book, a video game or a comic book audience."

Blake and the other executives at Sony, who have had difficulties throughout the summer -- the studio's biggest summer film, "Bewitched," has grossed just more than $60 million -- insist they are not going to alter their development plans drastically, though the idea of a sure thing now seems a bit less sure.

"It does feel that there is going to be a sea change in the business, that there isn't going to be a hit every week of the summer," Blake said. "It's a concern, and the bar for the movies that are going to do well seems to have been raised this summer. I don't think anyone wants to live in a world where you have to have one of the biggest movie stars, with one of the biggest directors with a giant concept like aliens invading earth, as your criteria for a hit. It's a pretty high place to put the bar."

ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings Dies at 67

NEW YORK - Peter Jennings, the urbane, Canadian-born broadcaster who delivered the news to Americans each night in five separate decades, died Sunday. He was 67.

Jennings, who announced in April that he had lung cancer, died at his New York home, ABC News President David Westin said late Sunday.

"Peter has been our colleague, our friend, and our leader in so many ways. None of us will be the same without him," Westin said.

With Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, Jennings was part of a triumvirate that dominated network news for more than two decades, through the birth of cable news and the Internet. His smooth delivery and years of international reporting experience made him particularly popular among urban dwellers.

"Peter was born to be an anchor," Brokaw said Monday on NBC's "Today." He said he met Jennings in 1966 covering Ronald Reagan's campaign for California governor and "we had an instant friendship."

"Peter, of the three of us, was our prince. He seemed so timeless. He had such elan and style," Brokaw said.

Rather, appearing on ABC's "Good Morning America" tribute to Jennings, noted that beneath Jennings' polished exterior was a fierce competitor.

"If Peter was in the area code, I didn't sleep," Rather said.

Jennings dominated the ratings from the late 1980s to the mid-'90s, when Brokaw surpassed him. He remained a Canadian until 2003, when he became a U.S. citizen, saying it had nothing to do with his politics — he did it for his family.

"He was a warm and loving and surprisingly sentimental man," said Ted Koppel, a longtime friend and fellow anchor.

Jennings deeply regretted not finishing school, and he would have wanted that lesson passed along, Koppel said. He made up for it by becoming a student of the world, studying cultures and their people for the rest of his life.

"No one could ad lib like Peter," said Barbara Walters. "Sometimes he drove me crazy because he knew so many details.

"He just died much too young."

Jennings was the face of ABC News whenever a big story broke. He logged more than 60 hours on the air during the week of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, offering a soothing sense of continuity during a troubled time.

"There are a lot of people who think our job is to reassure the public every night that their home, their community and their nation is safe," he told author Jeff Alan. "I don't subscribe to that at all. I subscribe to leaving people with essentially — sorry it's a cliche — a rough draft of history. Some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destructive."

Jennings' announcement four months ago that the longtime smoker would begin treatment for lung cancer came as a shock.

"I will continue to do the broadcast," he said, his voice husky, in a taped message that night. "On good days, my voice will not always be like this."

But although Jennings occasionally came to the office between chemotherapy treatments, he never again appeared on the air.

"He knew that it was an uphill struggle. But he faced it with realism, courage, and a firm hope that he would be one of the fortunate ones," Westin said. "In the end, he was not."

Broadcasting was the family business for Jennings. His father, Charles Jennings, was the first person to anchor a nightly national news program in Canada and later became head of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s news division. A picture of his father was displayed prominently in Jennings' office off ABC's newsroom.

Charles Jennings' son had a Saturday morning radio show in Ottawa at age 9. Jennings never completed high school or college, and began his career as a news reporter at a radio station in Brockton, Ontario. He quickly earned an anchor job at Canadian Television.

Sent south to cover the Democratic national convention in 1964, the handsome, dashing correspondent was noticed by ABC's news president. Jennings was offered a reporting job and left Canada for New York.

As the third-place news network, ABC figured its only chance was to go after young viewers. Jennings was picked to anchor the evening news and debuted on Feb. 1, 1965. He was 26.

"It was a little ridiculous when you think about it," Jennings told author Barbara Matusow. "A twenty-six-year-old trying to compete with Cronkite, Huntley and Brinkley. I was simply unqualified."

Critics savaged him as a pretty face unfit for the promotion. Using the Canadian pronunciations for some words and once misidentifying the Marine Corps' anthem as "Anchors Aweigh" didn't help his reputation. The experiment ended three years later.

He later described the humbling experience as an opportunity, "because I was obliged to figure out who I was and what I really wanted to be."

Assigned as a foreign correspondent, Jennings thrived. He established an ABC News bureau in Beirut, and became an expert on the Middle East. He won a Peabody Award for a 1974 profile of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat.

On the scene at the Munich Olympics in 1972, Jennings was perfectly placed to cover the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes by an Arab terrorist group. He and a crew hid in the athletes' quarters for a close-in view of the drama.

Jennings returned to the evening news a decade after his unceremonious departure. In 1978, ABC renamed its broadcast "World News Tonight," and instituted a three-person anchor team: Frank Reynolds based in Washington, Max Robinson from Chicago and Jennings, by then ABC's chief foreign correspondent, from London.

Following Reynolds' death from cancer, ABC abandoned the multi-anchor format and Jennings became sole anchor on Sept. 5, 1983. Brokaw became solo anchor at NBC just days later. Rather had taken the CBS anchor job in 1981.

Starting in 1986, Jennings began a decade on top of the ratings. His international experience served him well explaining stories like the collapse of European communism, the first Gulf War and the terrorist bombing of an airplane over Lockerbie, Scotland. He took pride that "World News Tonight," as its name suggested, took a more worldly view than its rivals. Fans responded to his smart, controlled style.

"When it's clearly an emotional experience for the audience, the anchor should not add his or her emotional layers," Jennings said in an interview with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis.

Two-thirds of local broadcasters responding to a 1993 survey by Broadcasting & Cable magazine said Jennings was the best network news anchor. Washington Journalism Review named him anchor of the year three straight years.

With Americans looking more inward in the mid to late-1990s, NBC's Tom Brokaw surpassed Jennings in the ratings. ABC was still a close No. 2, however. When Brokaw stepped down in December 2004, followed shortly by Rather, ABC began an advertising campaign stressing Jennings' experience — an ironic twist given how his ABC News career began.

But ABC was never able to learn whether Jennings could take advantage of his role as an elder statesman; his cancer diagnosis came only a month after Rather left the anchor chair.

Jennings was proud of his Canadian citizenship, although it was occasionally a sore point with some critics. When Jennings spoke at the dedication of a museum celebrating the U.S. Constitution in 2003, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told him, "not bad for a Canadian."

Jennings whispered back his secret: He had just passed a test earning him dual citizenship in the United States.

"My decision to do this has nothing to do with politics," Jennings told The Associated Press at the time. "It has nothing to do with my profession. It has everything to do with my family."

Restlessly curious, Jennings pushed ABC News to use the turn of the century for a massive historical study. He co-wrote a book, "The Century," with Todd Brewster and anchored a marathon 25-hour special ending Jan. 1, 2000. Jennings and Brewster also traveled the backroads to write "In Search of America."

Jennings also led a documentary team at ABC News, which struck a chord in 2000 with the high-rated spiritual special "The Search for Jesus."

"I have never spent a day in my adult life where I didn't learn something," Jennings told the Saturday Evening Post. "And if there is a born-again quality to me, that's it."

Like Rather and Brokaw, Jennings wasn't entirely comfortable stuck to a studio. He traveled around the world to cover stories and, when he didn't journey to Asia to cover the aftermath of the tsunami less than four months before his cancer diagnosis, it was noticed.

He is survived by his wife, Kayce Freed, and his two children, Elizabeth, 25, and Christopher, 23.

Hip to release hits package

The Tragically Hip will release their first ever greatest hits package, Hipeponymous, on Nov. 1.

The limited edition box set includes a double CD, Yer Favourites, and a live concert DVD, That Night In Toronto, plus a bonus DVD that includes all of the band's 23 music videos.

The double CD will feature 35 remastered Hip classics chosen by 150,000 fans online plus two new tracks, No Threat and The New Maybe.

The concert DVD catches The Hip in concert at Toronto's Air Canada Centre last November and was filmed in high definition and mixed in PCM Stereo and 5.1 surround sound.

The limited edition package also includes a 48-page bound book.

Jackson Going Ape on DVD

We always knew Peter Jackson was a multi-tasker. Now we can add overachiever to the list.

Despite nearly going bananas working round the clock to finish up post-production on his highly anticipated remake of King Kong before its Dec. 14 bow, the Lord of the Rings ringmaster has somehow found the time and energy to lord over a two-disc DVD set of the 1933 original that Warner Home Video is set to unleash on Nov. 22.

Jackson has filmed a two-hour, seven-part feature documentary entitled RKO Production 601: The Making of Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World that will unearth much of the production history of the black-and-white classic that starred Fay Wray as the Great Ape's object d'amore.

Among the tantalizing tidbits the doc will cover is the fate of the mysterious "spider pit" scene that was cut from the film before its big premiere in New York and Los Angeles because it was considered too terrifying.

"For years, there has always been speculation, does this footage exist, so we have a piece that actually explains what it was and we do a recreation of it," George Feltenstein, Warner's Senior VP overseeing its classic catalog, told the Hollywood Reporter. "For fans of the film, that's a big, important thing."

And Jackson certainly counts himself among the film's fans. Bringing a new appreciation to the monster movie fulfills a lifelong dream for the Oscar-winning director, who credits seeing the original King Kong as a child with inspiring him to monkey around as a teenager with stop-motion animation shorts and become a filmmaker.

The Warner DVD happens to arrive in stores before Jackson's own update for Universal swings into theaters, but Feltenstein is quick to note the studio has no intention of cross-promoting its rival's blockbuster.

Among the DVD goodies cineastes will savor are the long-lost frames of Wray at the flick's climax when she falls from the Empire State building; a bonus documentary by Turner Classic Movies on Kong director and creator Merian C. Cooper; audio commentary featuring archival recordings of the cast and crew; commentary from stop-motion animation legend Ray Harryhausen along with special effects masters Ken Ralston and Terry Moore; and a trailer gallery of Coooper's other movies.

Two versions of the DVD will go on sale. The first will be a two-disc special edition while the second will package the set in a collectible tin that also includes a 20-page reproduction of the original souvenir program, postcard reproductions of the original one sheets and a mail-in offer for a reproduction of a vintage 27-by-41-inch movie poster.

Additionally, Warner Home Video plans to issue a four-disc collector's set that packages the special edition Kong along for the first time with two new-to-DVD titles, the sequels The Son of Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949).

Simpson Puts Up Her 'Dukes' in New York

NEW YORK - In the eyes of Jessica Simpson, Daisy Duke is an "iconish" figure. During her co-hosting gig Friday on the syndicated TV show "Live With Regis and Kelly," Simpson said she had to "step into those shorts and the red bikinis and I had to do Catherine Bach proud" for her role in "The Dukes of Hazzard" movie.

Bach played Daisy Duke on the '70s TV series.

"To play Daisy Duke, I mean, that's like an iconish ... is that a word ... iconic figure," she said.

Simpson said she hired a trainer to get in shape for the film, which stars Johnny Knoxville as Luke Duke and Seann William Scott as Bo Duke.

"I was running sprints and doing all kinds of stuff. All I was thinking was bikini, bikini, bikini," the 25-year-old singer-actress said. "It was strange to actually be in the shorts. By the way, I tried on over a hundred pair."

Simpson also appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" summer concert series in Bryant Park singing "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'," the Nancy Sinatra song she rerecorded for "Dukes."

"The Dukes of Hazzard" opened in theaters on Friday.

'Lost' websites intriguing as series

Fans of ABC's Lost are likely to agree on one thing: It is a weekly hour of television as frustrating as it is absorbing.

In addition to wondering just what is up with the mysterious, not-really deserted island, viewers can ponder dozens of dangling threads associated with each of the show's plane crash survivors.

Threads like how Locke got in his wheelchair, what did Kate do to make her mother freak out so badly on that hospital stretcher and why, exactly, does Jack's stubble always stay the same?

The show's Sept. 21 second season premiere still sits a tantalizing six weeks away. But for fans eager to learn or see or read anything Lost, there are compelling websites out there ready to whet the appetite and feed the mystery.

Take the official-looking website for Oceanic Air, owner of the ill-fated Flight 815. Or a fansite dedicated to fictional rock band Drive Shaft, and by extension, its heroin-snorting bassist Charlie Pace, played by Dominic Monaghan.

While ABC is clearly behind the airline site, Drive Shaft seems to be the work of fans. Either way, both are examples of Lost in cyberspace: Extensive, fun, peekaboo-style places for hungry fans to play.

And as Lost writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach told the Sun yesterday via e-mail, that's exactly the way those behind the show like it.

Creator J.J. Abrams sponsored a fan community dubbed "The Fuselage" very early on in the first season, said Grillo-Marxuach. Others -- he wouldn't say which, or how many -- came as Lost gathered steam.

"Clearly, the success of the show was a motivating factor in getting an expanded Web presence out there, but one of the things that sets us apart is a sensitivity to fandom," wrote Grillo-Marxuach. "So we always looked to the Web as a great place to find a deeper involvement with our audience."

The Oceanic Air site is an example of how the show has translated its confounding appeal to the Web. Visitors can read a statement from Michael Orteig, airline president.

"After 25 years of service, we are forced to close our doors," reads the statement. "Due to financial difficulties in the wake of the Flight 815 tragedy, we are no longer able to sustain service."

Try to track flight 815 and you'll only see an eerie looking "alert" in the "arrival" section. Or spend several long minutes playing around on the plane's seating plan, finding out where the main characters sat and what visuals pop up once they are clicked.

"The sites are designed as puzzles -- they are very environmental -- you are supposed to go in, poke around, and see what you find," confirmed Grillo-Marxuach.

Over at the Drive Shaft site, a "media" section turns up several articles about Flight 815.

One article features an interview with the Martha Stewart-style wedding guru mother of killed-off character Boone Carlyle.

A techie piece indicates one passenger carried on his laptop all the research for a revolutionary communication device; another spun from a show plot suggests several of the passengers aboard the plane had no "history" or background.

Grillo-Marxuach says that kind of "noise" -- truthful or not -- actually helps the show.

"At the end of the day, the only truly canonical information about the show is what you see on primetime," he said.

Grillo-Marxuach said response to the sites has been overwhelming, keeping staff working constantly to refresh content and provide new experiences for visitors.

"We are in the business of entertaining people and the Web has become another way -- one that's a little looser and playful in structure -- for us to do that."

Elton John slams Live 8

Rocker Elton John, known in recent years as much for his periodic outbursts as his musical output, has slammed Live 8 as an "anticlimax."

John was one of the featured performers at the benefit, which took place at several venues around the world on July 2.

"Oh God, here I go," he said in an interview with Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper when asked his opinion of Live 8. "I thought it was a bit of an anticlimax, to be honest."

"There was no sense of occasion and from a musical point, I didn't think there were too many highlights," he said, adding that he was nonetheless "very pleased" to be included as one of Live 8's headliners.

In the days leading up to the global gig, organizer Bob Geldof – who also spearheaded 1985's Live Aid – said the simultaneous shows represented "all the promise of rock 'n' roll."

"You will never see it again. You will never see this happen again. It will be the greatest concert ever," Geldof boasted.

John says he had no quibbles with Geldof's stated goal – to raise awareness of global poverty and put pressure on the leaders of the G-8 nations; however, he said the venue of the London concert itself might have sapped energy from the performers.

"The thought behind it was fantastic, but Hyde Park is a charisma-free zone," he said.

The Canadian edition of Live 8 took place in Barrie, Ont. Organizers spoke out beforehand to defend the lineup, which included the likes of Randy Bachman and Blue Rodeo. According to some critics, more young acts should have been included.

John says the bottom line is that Live 8 could never have been as exciting as the original Live Aid concerts 20 years ago: "How could it be?"

The flamboyant entertainer built a career in the 1970s out of hits like Daniel and Rocket Man. In the latter stage of his life he has found success penning stage musicals, but his verbal barrages have at times overshadowed his musicianship.

Last year, John made headlines when he attacked Madonna for allegedly lip-synching during live shows. He also called photographers in Taiwan "rude, vile pigs."

John says now that the source of his outspokenness is not chemical. "I haven't got Tourette's syndrome, but I can't censor myself. Why should I?" he said, adding that his most recent remarks will probably make people think he is a "grumpy old sod."

Hagar Happy Without Van Halen On Summer Tour

Sammy Hagar has titled his latest tour "The Tequila Made Me Do It." And his fans are hoping he keeps the bottle open.

Rather than a traditional concert, Hagar, who's done stints fronting the bands Montrose and Van Halen in addition to his solo work, has created what he calls a "lifestyle concept." It's basically a Sammypalooza, a harder-rocking version of what Jimmy Buffett does, with gates opening in the afternoon and a variety of activities -- including beach volleyball, a "Sammy-oke" karaoke stage and photo ops with donkeys wearing sombreros -- preceding the music.

"We have a direction and a lifestyle and a way we want to live," explains Hagar, 57, a Monterey, Calif., native. "It's beach by day and dancing all night, tank tops and flip flops. It's all about keeping my fans happy, giving them a little direction if I can find it for them and turning them on to anything I get turned onto, and that's it."

Hagar also hopes to turn them on to some new music of his own soon. He's five songs into his next album, which he says will be a "lifestyle concept record" that will include cover songs and possibly new recordings of his older material by Hagar and his band, the Waboritas.

A year ago, however, Hagar wasn't entirely sure he'd be back to his solo enterprise. In 2004 he was in the midst of a reunion by Van Halen, who recorded three new songs for a greatest hits album and were doing big business at the box office. All indications were that the band was a going concern again.

But, Hagar, whose first run with the group was from 1985-96, says things didn't work out as planned, and he places the blame almost solely with guitarist Edward Van Halen.

"The Van Halen thing wasn't a horrible experience, but it wasn't a great experience," he recalls. "I don't get along with Eddie anymore, and that's all there is to it. I think the whole world knows that he's changed. He used to be a great guy, a fun guy, but now he's miserable and he likes to make everyone around him miserable.

He continues: "And I'm the happiest guy on the planet, y'know? Anybody who makes me miserable, I don't want to be around. That's a simple way to put it; I don't like being around Eddie. He's not any fun."

Hagar says, hopefully, that "maybe he'll change back, and then we can do it again." But he adds that things definitely ended badly. "We almost got into it after the last show," he says. "They just pulled him one way and me the other. We didn't even say goodbye to each other. It was a horrible way to end the whole thing, so I just said 'Man, that's it for me. I'm not playing with people like this."

Hagar still plays with Van Halen bassist Michael Anthony in the covers band Los Tres Guzanos. And in addition to the Waboritas, he's re-formed Montrose to play some of The Tequila Made Me Do It shows -- a model for more "special events" he'd like to be part of his future festivals.

"I like to do 'An Evening With;' I'm not interested in bringing Joe Blow & the Goofballs out to open for me," Hagar explains. "My dream come true would be to have a guy like Eddie [Van Halen] be buddies with me and go out with the Wabos and have Montrose and ... everybody, man. That's my dream situation, and I think the fans would be real happy with that."

'Dukes of Hazzard' set to hog box office glory

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Teenagers and nostalgic filmgoers will ensure a No. 1 bow at the box office for "The Dukes of Hazzard," the only new wide release this weekend.

Industry sources are putting the opening gross for the film version of the popular '70s show in the $25 million-$30 million range. Most have said that if the market weren't in its depressed state, it would likely gross more than $30 million.

Current champ "Wedding Crashers" again should be able to hold strong. The Vince Vaughn- Owen Wilson comedy should grab the No. 2 spot with $15 million-$16 million. The film has grossed $125 million to date.

"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" is expected to take the No. 3 spot with $11 million-$12 million. The Tim Burton fantasy has grossed $156 million to date.

All three films come from the Time Warner Inc. stable: Warner Bros. Pictures is handling "Dukes" and "Charlie," while New Line Cinema has "Wedding Crashers."

Starring Johnny Knoxville and Seann William Scott as the "closer than brothers" cousins, the PG-13 "Dukes" is looking to bring in the teenage crowd and people looking for a little nostalgia.

The real lure of the film seems to be the 1969 orange Dodge Charger named the General Lee and singer Jessica Simpson as the scantily clad Daisy Duke -- both likely to appeal to the NASCAR demographic. Willie Nelson co-stars as Uncle Jesse, while Burt Reynolds plays the boys' nemesis, Boss Hogg. Also returning to the big screen is Lynda Carter, playing Uncle Jesse's love interest. Jay Chandrasekhar ("Super Troopers") directs.

In limited release, Focus Features will bow the Cannes favorite "Broken Flowers" in 27 theaters Friday. From screenwriter-director Jim Jarmusch, the R-rated "Flowers" stars Bill Murray as a consummate bachelor who receives an anonymous pink letter with news that he has a son who might be looking for him. Julie Delpy, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange and Tilda Swinton co-star.

Picturehouse will open "The Chumscrubber" on 28 screens. The R-rated drama from director Arie Posin centers on a suburban neighborhood that is shaken up when a student is abducted. The indie film, which premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival, was written by Zac Stanford.

Wong Kar Wai will debut his sci-fi-flavored film "2046" on four screens in Los Angeles and New York. From Sony Pictures Classics, the film centers on a writer holed up in a hotel room writing a futuristic novel and recalling his past loves.

IDP will release the Samuel Goldwyn film "Saint Ralph" in 61 theaters. The PG-13 film, directed by Michael McGowan, centers on Ralph Walker, a ninth-grader who outran everyone's expectations in his quest to win the 1954 Boston Marathon.

Slow Hand Releasing is opening "My Date With Drew" in 58 theaters. It centers on aspiring filmmaker Brian Herzlinger, who, equipped with a video camera, spends 30 days and $1,100 on a quest to ask out Drew Barrymore.

Montreal fest pulls Homolka film

MONTREAL (CP) - The Montreal World Film Festival has cancelled its premiere of a film based on the slayings of two Ontario schoolgirls by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka.

In a tersely worded statement released late Wednesday, the festival said it had decided to cancel the showing of Karla scheduled for the opening of the festival on Aug. 26, citing opposition to the film.

"Following the debate raised by the announcement of a showing of Karla during the festival, as well as the discomfort expressed by a number of the sponsors concerning their clients, the management of the World Film Festival has decided to not present this film at the festival," the statement said.

The film, originally titled Deadly, has been subjected to vocal opposition in Ontario from the public and politicians alike with numerous calls for a boycott.

Karla, set for release this fall, chronicles the ominous courtship of Homolka and Bernardo and their sordid murders of Ontario teens Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy in the 1990s.

It stars Laura Prepon, best known for playing Donna on the TV comedy That '70s Show. The film's website suggests the storyline is sympathetic to Homolka, who was released from prison in Montreal last month.

She is said to be living in Montreal and has kept a low profile since her release with the exception of one interview with Radio-Canada, the French-language network of the CBC.

Tim Danson, lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families, has called the film exploitive and sensational and criticized the festival's initial decision to book it.

The French and Mahaffy families have been assured by the film's producer, Michael Sellers, that an exclusive screening would be arranged for them in Toronto and that some of the film's more explicit scenes have already been edited out.

Roger Waters

Pink Floyd's bass man on the blues and the Floyd reunion at Live 8 (From Rolling Stone Online)

God bless the global success that was Live 8 -- not least of all for reuniting acrimonious ex-bandmates Roger Waters and David Gilmour to perform Pink Floyd songs for the first time since 1981. "I was very happy -- I definitely felt warm and cuddly toward everyone in the band," says Waters, sipping white wine in his forty-ninth-floor midtown-Manhattan apartment. "I decided that if anything came up in rehearsals -- any difference of opinion -- I would just roll over. And I did." Not only has Waters -- the Floyd's chief songwriter during the band's Seventies heyday -- closed a bitter chapter in the history of the group, he has completed a full-on opera, Ca Ira, which he began in 1989. Ca Ira is set against the backdrop of the French Revolution; a CD comes out in September, and the concert debut is slated for November 17th in Rome. But with Pink Floyd on the minds of rock fans, Waters flatly denies talk of a future tour in the U.S., even for the reported $150 million payday. "I don't really need it," he says. "It would be a very hot ticket. That said, I didn't mind rolling over for one day, but I couldn't roll over for a whole fucking tour."

Growing up, what record changed your life?

Like everyone else in England, I listened to Radio Luxembourg, a pirate station. They played rock & roll, like Bill Haley and English acts with stupid invented names like Tommy Steele and Billy Fury. Seven or eight years later, the Beatles changed all that. In the meantime I fell in love with Lead Belly, Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Art Blakey, Monk and Mingus. The blues is at the root of everything I do.

Did you sing in choir?

Before my voice broke, I used to sing treble in a combined choir.

Children's choirs surface in your opera, and in Pink Floyd.

My great friend Nick Griffiths -- who died this year -- was entirely responsible for recording the kids on "Another Brick in the Wall." The sound those kids make was brilliant, but we were 6,000 miles away, in Los Angeles. Last year some ambulance chaser desperately tried to find the kids -- I think there were about a dozen or so -- and ask them, "Why haven't you gotten any royalties? Why don't you sue Pink Floyd?" He found a few of them, and a couple said that singing on it was the best thing that's ever happened to them.

You were an architecture student. What venue looks the best from the stage?

Most of my career has been in sports arenas, and those are awful places. Those old theaters are really nice, like the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, where they recorded the Chuck Berry movie [Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll]. I've played there, and the weird-red-plush, slightly decaying vibe is really cool.

Do you have the handwritten lyrics to the Floyd classics?

I don't keep anything. No T-shirts or backstage passes -- I have nothing at all of my past. I've been divorced so many times and moved so often.... I think I've still got the drawing I did of "The Wall." It's just on a piece of legal pad -- a perspective view of an auditorium with a wall drawn across it, coming down through the seats. [Whispers] "Hey, what a great idea."

What other band would you have liked to play bass in?

What's always great is playing the blues.

Twelve-bar blues, straight up. Nothing better than that. When Eric [Clapton] was in my band, back in '85, we'd play the blues during soundcheck. In Pink Floyd I was being savaged -- because Dave [Gilmour] and Rick [Wright] were kind of insecure, they'd always try to attack me, saying I sang out of tune or I couldn't really play. I said something about that to Eric, and he said, "Are you fucking crazy? You're a great bass player." I went, "Oh, yeah, maybe I am." I would be totally happy to be standing at the back of a stage playing the blues hour after hour.... I enjoyed playing bass [at Live 8].

It looked like you were having the time of your life.

It was more fun than I can remember having with Pink Floyd twenty-five years ago. When we did The Wall, we'd have four Winnebagos parked in a circle, with all the doors facing away from the circle. It was really, really bad. Everybody was kind of jealous -- definitely Dave. He was so pissed off that I was writing everything and doing all the work. He wanted to be that person, but he wasn't. But at Live 8 everything was easy. I was there to enjoy myself.

How do you think Dave felt?

He did send me an e-mail afterward, saying, "Hi, Rog, I'm glad you made that phone call. It was fun, wasn't it?" So he obviously had fun.

Can you think of a better band name than Pink Floyd?

Brand name or band name? It's a great brand name. Dave and Rick did tours [as Pink Floyd] and made huge fortunes. I've seen videos of those tours. With all due respect, it was sort of muck.

I heard you've been working on a rock & roll record.

I've written a bunch of songs. When I discover what it's actually about, I'll finish it and put it out for better or worse. I just always seem so busy. I have a new woman in my life. I can't believe I'm fucking sixty-one years old, and my golf game is such shit.

I hear you're a pretty good pool player, though. What musician has been the toughest to beat?

There's no musician out there who could hold a candle to me at pool.

Kelly Clarkson Chooses Track Written With Ben Moody As Next Single

Way back when Kelly Clarkson was best known as the "American Idol," she sang a few tunes she had written into a tape recorder and stashed it away. Fortunately, she remembered the tape when it came time to start her second album, as one of the tunes,

"Because of You," will now be her next single.

"They were just unbelievable, how structured [the songs] were and her understanding of music, which is not something you would expect from a pop artist," said former Evanescence guitarist Ben Moody, who co-wrote and produced the songs after Clarkson sent him the tape. "She had these ideas already in place for songs; all I really had to do was build music around them and develop them. It was quite easy."

Clarkson chose Moody, as well as his songwriting partner David Hodges, because of the sound of the band they once worked with.

"Hearing the Evanescence album you can obviously tell that David and Ben have a real passion for that big kind of background and I have a big voice and I like the music to match it, so it was a real dream team," Clarkson told MTV News last fall. "They're both so different from each other and so different from me, but I think the three of us getting together just created such great songs."

"Because of You" is a power ballad of sorts, with a chorus that includes breakup lines like "I find it hard to trust not only me, but everyone around me" and "Because of you I am afraid."

"Her album is very much what she wanted to say, and it's funny going through the process with her and knowing what these songs are about and watching her mature into what she is now — an artist as opposed to an 'American Idol' winner," added Moody, who has also worked with Avril Lavigne. "That was probably the most fun I've had on a session. She was so much fun and very laid-back, but very sincere."

Clarkson is currently reading treatments for the video, which she will shoot in the next three weeks, according to her publicist.

Meanwhile, she's midway through her Hazel Eyes Tour, which hits Manchester, New Hampshire, on Thursday and runs through September 10 in Las Vegas.

Clarkson is also slated to perform August 28 at the MTV Video Music Awards, where "Since U Been Gone" is nominated for Best Pop Video and Best Female Video.

Breakaway, the fifth-best-selling album of the year, according to SoundScan, was also just certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America and has remained in the top 20 of the Billboard albums chart every week since it was released on November 30.

'Shrek 3' Character Has Philbin Feeling Feminine

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)- Regis Philbin's part in the animated blockbuster sequel "Shrek 3" may not be very big, but it's certainly the television personality as you've never heard him before.

Philbin revealed on Tuesday (Aug. 2) that he's voicing a woman named Mabel in the DreamWorks CG-comedy already slated for a May 18, 2007 release.

Fans of "Live With Regis and Kelly" heard about the Philbin cameo on the same day the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" host was set to record his dialogue, which is apparently limited to only two lines.

There's some precedent for distinctively voiced talk show hosts playing women in the "Shrek" universe. Larry King was Doris in "Shrek 2" and is rumored to be returning for the third film.

Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz, Eddie Murphy and Antonio Banderas will all be back in "Shrek 3," along with new voice Justin Timberlake, who plays the rebellious, a prince who bears a strong resemblance to King Arthur.

Gervais Ready to 'Swap' with Homer Simpson

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) Meeting "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening was like being granted "an audience with the pope," Ricky Gervais says.

Gervais, the creator of "The Office" and an avowed fan of "The Simpsons," wrote and will guest star in an episode of the long-running FOX series this season. He says his appearance on the show fulfills a goal he set when he started his career.

"When I first got into comedy it was my ambition to get a joke on The Simpsons," he tells the BBC. "Now I've got a whole episode. I can just imagine waking up one day and finding out it's all been a dream."

The episode, tentatively scheduled for early 2006, will find Gervais playing a character similar to his clueless "Office" manager, David Brent. He and Homer (voiced by Dan Castellaneta) will trade places for a week as part of a "Wife Swap"-style show.

Speaking to reporters last month at the summer TV press tour, Gervais joked that the "Simpsons" team had initially approached him about doing a guest spot, "and then I think they got bored and said, 'Do you want to write it as well?'

"I went, 'All right.' So I put a few things down, sent it to them. They made it really good, and they just gave me the credit."

In the BBC interview, though, he allows that things were maybe a little more collegial.

"They quoted 'The Office' to me, and to show them I was just as good, I quoted 'The Simpsons' back at them," he says. "We were slapping each other's backs so hard we were red raw."

Gervais' latest live-action project, the showbiz comedy "Extras," is currently airing on BBC2 and will premiere on HBO in this country in September.

START THEM UP

Metallica opening for the Rolling Stones at both the Stones' November concert dates in San Francisco.

Road Hammers lead country noms

TORONTO (CP) - Traditional, trucker-loving country rock is poised to take centre stage at next month's Country Music Association awards with Jason McCoy's Road Hammers and Paul Brandt leading the pack of nominees at six nods apiece.

On the strength of the group's debut self-titled record, the Road Hammers are up for best group, rising star and album, and their hit song I'm a Road Hammer is contending for best single, video and song of the year.

"This started off as a side-project . . . it's exploded beyond any of our wildest dreams," said frontman McCoy, a singer-songwriter who splits his time between Nashville and his hometown of Minesing, Ont. "This is a big nod to the truckers, the people who make their living on the roads."

Calgary-born Brandt, who will once again host the awards show, faces off against the rambunctious trio in all the same categories except best group and rising star. He's also nominated in the fan's choice category as well as best male artist, where he's up against McCoy, George Canyon, Aaron Pritchett and Deric Ruttan.

Brandt made a huge splash in the country world last year with his remake of Convoy, the 1975 country classic about high fuel costs and border tolls.

The show will be held Sept. 12 at Calgary's Pengrowth Saddledome and broadcast live on CBC.

With Alberta celebrating its centennial, Brandt promised country music fans an "amazing" show, "probably the best year that we've ever had."

He said he's even put in a few calls to his famous friends and is pushing to include a Big Rig somehow.

"Anytime I can incorporate a truck, I'm there," said Brandt, who recently moved back to Calgary from Nashville.

Canyon rose to prominence after finishing second in Nashville Star, a country talent search in the U.S. Among the New Glasgow, N.S., singer's five nominations are song of the year for My Name, co-written with Cape Breton's Gordie Sampson.

Singer-songwriter Caroyln Dawn Johnson of Westlock, Alta., was nominated in four categories, as were roots-country outfits Corb Lund Band of Edmonton and Poverty Plainsmen of Tilston, Man.

Pritchett, Lisa Brokop, Gord Bamford and Terri Clark received three nods each.

Country superstars Keith Urban, Shania Twain, Toby Keith, Gretchen Wilson and Tim McGraw will duke it out in the top-selling album category.

Bamford, Lisa Hewitt, Johnny Reid and Amanda Wilkinson are nominated in the coveted rising star category along with the Road Hammers.

The award bash will wrap up a week-long country music festival featuring showcase performances by up-comers and an autograph session at the Calgary Zoo.

Awards are voted on by members of the Canadian Country Music Association, with the exception of the top-selling album category and the fan's choice award.

Some of the nominees for the 2005 Canadian Country Music Association awards, to be handed out Sept. 12 in Calgary:

Fans' choice: Paul Brandt, George Canyon, Terri Clark, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Jason McCoy.

Single: Convoy, Paul Brandt; Die of a Broken Heart, Carolyn Dawn Johnson; I'm a Road Hammer, the Road Hammers; My Name, George Canyon; Sister Golden Hair, the Poverty Plainsmen.

Album: Hey, Do You Know Me, Lisa Brokop; Lap of Luxury, the Poverty Plainsmen; One Good Friend, George Canyon; The Road Hammers, the Road Hammers; This Time Around, Paul Brandt.

Song: Dress Rehearsal (written by Carolyn Dawn Johnson and Troy Verges; recorded by Carolyn Dawn Johnson); Hey, Do You Know Me (written by Lisa Brokop and Kim McLean; recorded by Lisa Brokop); Home (written by Paul Brandt; recorded by Paul Brandt); I'm a Road Hammer (written by Denny Carr and Jason McCoy; recorded by the Road Hammers); My Name (written by George Canyon and Gordie Sampson; recorded by George Canyon).

Video: Convoy, Paul Brandt; Girls Lie Too, Terri Clark; I'm a Road Hammer, the Road Hammers; John Roland Wood, Aaron Pritchett; Roughest Neck Around, Corb Lund Band.

Top-selling album: Be Here, Keith Urban; Greatest Hits, Shania Twain; Greatest Hits 2, Toby Keith; Here for the Party, Gretchen Wilson; Live Like You Were Dying, Tim McGraw.

Female artist: Lisa Brokop, Terri Clark, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Shania Twain, Amanda Wilkinson.

Male artist: Paul Brandt, George Canyon, Jason McCoy, Aaron Pritchett, Deric Ruttan.

Group of duo: Corb Lund Band, Doc Walker, Emerson Drive, the Poverty Plainsmen, the Road Hammers.

Roots artist or group: Corb Lund Band, the Cruzeros, Kathleen Edwards, the Good Brothers, Ian Tyson.

Rising star: Gord Bamford, Lisa Hewitt, Johnny Reid, the Road Hammers, Amanda Wilkinson.

Legal Duel Over "Zorro" By Josh Grossberg

As if Zorro doesn't have enough to worry about while helping the peoples, now he's gotta contend with lawyers.

With just a couple of months to go before the studio unspools The Legend of Zorro, Sony Pictures and its TriStar Pictures division has found themselves the target of a lawsuit filed by a Hollywood film company contesting the rights to the swashbuckling swordsman.

Sobrini Films, a subsidiary of producer Mark Armin's Maroda Inc., sued Sony on Tuesday, accusing the distributor of squashing the shingle's attempts to get its own Zorro film off the ground.

In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Sobrini claims it alone owns the exclusive rights to the 1919 Johnston McCulley serial, The Curse of Capistrano, from which the classic Zorro character was born. Sony, the suit claims, controls the rights to later stories.

As result, the company says it is free to proceed in producing its own version of the masked avenger, a futuristic tale called Zorro 2110.

According to court documents, Sobrini initiated the legal action after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Sony that asserted the studio had the exclusive rights to all film and TV productions created from the Zorro property.

Sobrini's attorney, Bruce Isaacs, said the letter was an attempt to sabotage his client from making its own Zorro flick because it can't get the requisite insurance.

"We have a Zorro script that we're really excited about and we're planning to go forward with our movie, but Sony TriStar is under the impression that they have the exclusive rights to make Zorro movies and we think they're wrong, so we're going to the court asking them to agree with us," Isaacs told E! Online.

"So it's really a fight over whether they have the exclusive rights to Zorro."

The lawsuit also seeks a court ruling affirming that Zorro's Mexican bandito getup--the black mask, cape, hat and sword--is in the public domain and cannot be claimed for private use under copyright or trademark laws.

A Sony rep declined to comment on the suit, pending litigation.

Meanwhile, The Legend of Zorro, the long-awaited sequel to 1998's blockbuster, The Mask of Zorro reuniting smoldering stars Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones with director Martin Campbell, will be swinging into theaters Oct. 28—just in time for Halloween.

Chappelle's Show Is 'Done,' Murphy Says Wed Aug 3, 2:26 PM ET

NEW YORK - Time to face the facts: Dave Chappelle's hit Comedy Central series isn't coming back, says one of its stars. "`Chappelle's Show' is over, man. Done," comic Charlie Murphy told TV Guide. "It took me a long time to be able to say those words, but I can say it pretty easy now, because it's the truth."

Chappelle's sudden "spiritual retreat" to South Africa on the eve of his show's third season has left the series in limbo since May. About half of a new season had been filmed before Chappelle left, Murphy said.

"I'm disappointed it ended the way it did, but I'm not angry with anybody," he said. "`Chappelle's Show' was like the Tupac of TV shows. It came out, it got everybody's attention, it was a bright shining star, but it burned out and for some strange reason, it burned out quick."

Comedy Central has always said the door is open for Chappelle to return, spokeswoman Aileen Budow said Wednesday.

Network chief Doug Herzog met with Chappelle on June 3, but that has been their last communication, she said.

Murphy, the older brother of comic Eddie Murphy, said his two seasons with Chappelle made him a star.

"Now I can go out and do stand-up," he said. "I'm getting movie offers. It's off the hook. Me getting to the next level or whatever's going to happen is going to come from the next things I do, but `Chappelle's Show' served its purpose and I'll always be grateful."

The Couch Potato Report - August 6th, 2005

This week The Couch Potato Report another "Special Edition" DVD I would buy and one bad science fiction film that you should at least watch.

Ah, the "Deluxe", "Extended", "Super Platinum", "Director's Cut" and "Special Edition" DVD!

Sometimes they are a wonderful thing, sometimes they are the worst thing to ever happen to a money hungry DVD industry.

When they are wonderful, they are truly wonderful! In those instances a "Special Edition" DVD can take us behind-the-scenes with the actors and inside the minds of the people who make our favourite films.

When it is the worst thing, a "Special Edition" can just be a reissue of a film that has already been released on DVD, with only a few extras and hardly any participation from the actors or the people who wrote or directed the movie.

Back in June when the film STRIPES was re-released on DVD as an EXTENDED CUT I bought it and here on The Couch Potato Report I stated that "...if I love a movie, if it is a classic to me, and it is cheap, I will buy a reissue".

Now, along comes the SPECIAL EDITION of the hilarious 1994 film SWIMMING WITH SHARKS, starring Kevin Spacey from AMERICAN BEAUTY, THE USUAL SUSPECTS and SEVEN as the "boss from hell."

It isn't as inexpensive as STRIPES, but I love the movie, and it is a classic to me, so I now own it, and I highly recommend it to you as well.

SWIMMING WITH SHARKS is an intelligent, very funny comedy about Hollywood that was released in theatres in 1994.

Kevin Spacey stars as a movie studio executive who's entry-level assistants have all gone on to bigger and better things in Hollywood.

Frank Whaley from CAREER OPPORTUNITIES and PULP FICTION is the naive and eager assistant who learns from day one that this dream job doesn't come with a dream boss.

Spacey immediately begins to wear down his new assistant with unreasonable requests, ego tantrums and verbal abuse, all the while promising "bigger and better things" to his young charge.

Spacey is incredibly delicious as Buddy Ackerman, the "boss from hell." At times, you can even see him - and the character he's playing - having a fun time with the role.

Whaley also does a great job in the film. His career post SWIMMING WITH SHARKS hasn't equaled that of two-time Oscar Winner Spacey's, but in this film they are equals.

In addition to offering a unique inside view of Hollywood, SWIMMING WITH SHARKS is also a great revenge film for everyone who has ever been abused by their "boss from hell."

Some of the special features on this SPECIAL EDITION DVD include three audio commentaries, including one by Kevin Spacey, and a great retrospective documentary called "Back to the Tank: Swimming Ten Years Later."

Yes, ten years later, SWIMMING WITH SHARKS is worthy or a retrospective look back.

In 2015, it is doubtful that anyone will be looking back on the film THEY ARE AMONG US, unless they starred in it, know someone who starred in it, or were part of the creative team responsible for this cheesy science fiction film.

But then again, there are many other cheesy science fiction films that I continue to look back on more than ten years later, so who knows.

That is the best thing about this type of sci-fi film, it doesn't hope to win an Academy Award, it just wants to entertain you.

And as long as you turn off your brain, don't expect much, and have the time to kill, why not give THEY ARE AMONG US a chance?

The film is about a guy named Daniel. Daniel lives in a small town, a small town that seems just like any other small town..., but it isn't.

As Daniel is getting ready to turn eighteen and move away to begin a new life he starts to notice that some things are different.

In fact, what is different is the fact that a Colony of aliens is waiting for its leader to take his place among them.

That is a classic cheesy science fiction film premise, and the film puts it to good use.

If you do watch THEY ARE AMONG US - and I recommend that you do - the one thing that is for sure is the fact that you will recognize at least one member of the cast. It is populated by actors who are former TV stars.

Those actors include Corbin Bernsen from L.A. LAW, Bruce Boxleitner of SCARECROW AND MRS. KING, Hunter Tylo from ALL MY CHILDREN and DAYS OF OUR LIVES and Nana Visitor from STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE.

Plus, the film also features Clint Eastwood's daughter Alison - who starred in her Dad's MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL and was in Regina back in 2003 filming a movie called THE LOST ANGEL.

THEY ARE AMONG US isn't a perfect, or even great film. But it is the perfect film for you if you like cheesy science fiction films, and you are able to turn off your brain, don't expect much, and have the time to kill.

That is the same criteria that allowed films like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (1981), OMEGA MAN (1971), LOGAN'S RUN (1976), FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966), PLANET OF THE APES (1968), and my personal favourite THE WRAITH (1986) become the science fiction "classics" they are regarded as today!

All of those films, along with THEY ARE AMONG US, and the special edition of SWIMMING WITH SHARKS are available now at a store near you.

COMING UP IN THE NEXT COUCH POTATO REPORT

Well, I am trying to remain calm as I write that THE MUPPET SHOW - SEASON ONE IS COMING OUT NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!

Woo hoo!!!!

This four-disc box set features all 24 episodes from the 1976 season completely restored and remastered along with the original pilot, the original pitch of the show and more!!

It is possibly the greatest TV show of all time and I can't wait to sit down for 12 hours and watch this set!!

I will also sit still in order to watch THE MUPPETS' WIZARD OF OZ one more time. This is the gang's 2005 TV movie from May retelling of the classic Frank L. Baum story.

I'm Dan Reynish and I will have more on THE MUPPETS, and maybe even 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!

Season Two Of Scrubs Is On The Way!

The Emmy-nominated Scrubs has a second-season DVD release from Buena Vista on 15 November. All 22 episodes of the show will be included in the set, 5.1 Dolby Digital sound mixes, as well as a ton of commentaries and featurettes, similar in quantity to its first-season release. Retail price will be $39.99.

Fans to vote in 'Big Brother' twist

CBS has announced that on this week’s live eviction broadcast, host Julie Chen will be bringing back the ‘America’s Choice’ option to ‘Big Brother’.

Through cell phone text messaging, viewers will be able to “influence the course of the game” and vote on a crucial poll after the episode airs. Fans will also be able to cast their votes on the official CBS Internet site as well. The twist comes at a time when the 'Big Brother' house is clearly divided into two separate alliances which will be dead even at five per side once this week's eviction takes place.

Rumours on what the actual twist will be range from viewers getting to pick who wins the Head of Household title this week, which evicted HouseGuest should re-enter the house to continue playing the game or even who is given immunity from eviction or which player should be awarded the Power of Veto.

CBS will also be offering wallpapers and ring tones through the wireless service.

In the original U.S. edition of 'Big Brother' the viewing public voted off the contestants. That option was removed during the second season when the new and current producers revamped the series and changed how the game was played.

Teri Hatcher to offer lessons in book

NEW YORK (AP) — Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher will serve up life lessons in Burnt Toast, a book of advice and inspiration Hyperion plans to publish in the spring of 2006.

"I have had many women approach me, sharing their own stories, and ask me how it feels to have a second chance at 40," Hatcher said in a statement released Tuesday by Hyperion. "With this book, I truly hope to reach everyone that I don't bump into on the street and share my story."

Hatcher, 40, won a Golden Globe in January and recently received an Emmy nomination for her role as single mom Susan Mayer in Desperate Housewives, a dark satire about suburbia that became a hit in its debut season on ABC.

Hatcher's film credits include Soapdish,Tomorrow Never Dies and Spy Kids.

NEW CD RELEASES FOR AUGUST 2, 2005

Amadou & Mariam Dimanche a Bamako (Nonesuch)

Amen Gun of a Preacher Man (live 2003 concert) (Snapper)

Animal Liberation Orchestra Fly Between Falls (w/guest Jack Johnson) (LagMusic)

BA Sports (Rah)

Danny Barnes Get Myself Together (Terminus)

Bass Freq Neon Skyline (Neurodisc)

Bliss Quiet Letters (guest Sophie Barker of Zero 7) (Quango)

Bootcut Hammond vs. Drums (Gadfly)

Brazen Abbot My Resurrection (Locomotive)

Michael Brooks & Royal Priesthood Michael Brooks & Royal Priesthood (Comin' Atcha)

Bruford Tapes (Voiceprint)

Bill Bruford's Earthworks All Heaven Broke Loose (Voiceprint)

Careen Crash Couture

Common Be (instrumental version) (Geffen)

Cook, Dixon & Young Volume One (live 2004 concert) (RCA Victor)

Alice Cooper Dirty Diamonds (New West)

D'Nell 1st Magic (BBE)

Alan Davey Bedouin (Voiceprint)

Deadman Our Eternal Ghosts (One Little Indian)

Benjamin Diamond Out of Myself (!K7)

Downchild Blues Band Come on in (ICE #221) (Blue Wave)

Dungen Ta Det Lugnt (two CDs) (Kemado)

Ebony Eyez Seven Day Cycle (Capitol)

Electric Eel Shock Beat Me (enhanced CD; w/cover of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man") (Gearhead)

Fizzle Like a Flood Golden Sand and the Grandstand (Ernest Jenning)

Don Friedman VIP Trio Timeless (441)

Get Him Eat Him Geography Cones (Absolutely Kosher)

Githead (members of Wire and Scanner) Profile (Swim)

The Greenhornes East Grand Blues EP (produced by Brendan Benson) (V2)

The Grouch (of Living Legends) My Baddest B*tches (DualDisc; w/Zion I and Murs) (Myutopia)

Headrush Headrush (Locomotive)

Matthew Herbert Plat Du Jour (Accidental)

Faith Hill Fireflies (guest Tim McGraw) (Warner Bros.)

Stan Hope Put on a Happy Face (Savant/HighNote)

Houston Calls A Collection of Short Stories (Drive-Thru)

I Self Divine Self Destruction (Rhymesayers)

Isobella Surrogate Emotions of the Silverscreen (New Granada)

The Jones Gang (w/ex-members of Faces and Small Faces) Any Day Now (guests Ron Wood and Ian McLagan; ICE #220) (Reality)

Bert Lams Nascent (InnerKnot)

Lenny B. featuring Kristy Kay I Touch Myself EP (remixes) (Radikal)

Eric Lewis Hopscotch (DVD same day) (Fortress)

Lights Out Overload (Youngblood)

Lil Jon & the East Side Boyz Crunk Juice (Chopped and Screwed) (TVT)

Lorene Drive Romantic Wealth (Lobster)

Madball Legacy (w/limited edition bonus DVD of live and studio footage) (Ferret)

Madredeus Faluas do Tejo (Metro Blue)

Teairra Marí Roc-A-Fella Presents (Def Jam)

Milk Inc Closer (Water Music)

Mossyrock The Zero to One Session (Nice + Smooth)

Maria Muldaur Sweet Lovin' Old Soul (Old Highway 61 Revisited) (guests Taj Mahal, Pinetop Perkins, Alvin Youngblood Hart and more) (Stony Plain)

N.O.R.E. 1 Fan a Day (Def Jam)

Greg Osby Channel Three (Blue Note)

Michael Penn Mr. Hollywood, Jr. - 1947 (w/Aimee Mann and ex-Jayhawk's Gary Louris) (spinART)

Bernadette Peters Sondheim, Etc., Etc. (Angel)

Anthony Phillips Slow Dance (Voiceprint)

Dug Pinnick (of King's X) Emotional Animal (w/bonus interview and MP3's) (Magna Carta)

Tristan Prettyman twentythree (guests G. Love, Jason Mraz and more) (Virgin)

The Prom Kings The Prom Kings (guest the Game on "Down") (Three Kings/Geffen)

Mark Rae Ode to a Dying DJ (mix CD) (Trust the DJ)

Riddle of Steel Got This Feelin' (Ascetic)

Darryl Lee Rush Llano Avenue (Infinity)

Jim Self Innerplay (Basset Hound)

Jake Shimabukuro Dragon (Hitchhike)

Six Feet Under 13 + Graveyard Classics 2 (two CDs) (Metal Blade)

Sons of the Never Wrong Nuthatch Suite (Gadfly)

Spacehead Hawkfest 2003 (Voiceprint)

Ron Spencer & Jumpstart Livin' Low (Blue Wave)

Spiral Realms Trip to G9 (Voiceprint)

Stereotactic The Dawning (Avebury)

Angela Strehli Blue Highway (w/Maria Muldaur and Stevie Ray Vaughan) (MC)

B.J. Thomas Hooked on a Feeling - The Best of (DualDisc; new recordings of hits) (Goldenlane)

Through You Silhouette (ParaFora)

Turning Point Matador (Native Language)

The Warren Brothers Barely Famous Hits (BNA)

Abigail Washburn Song of the Traveling Daughter (Nettwerk)

Westbrook and Company The Lift (Voiceprint)

Reuben Wilson Fun House (Savant/HighNote)

Ying Yang Twins U.S.A. (United State of Atlanta) (Chopped and Screwed) (TVT)

Madelin Zero Gotta Know (remixes) (Indecent Media)

VA A Tribute to Insane Clown Posse (Tributized)

VA Bolero Gypsies Volume 1 (new flamenco artists) (Bolero)

VA Desire: Piano Tribute to U2 (Vitamin)

VA Fusion for Miles (Tone Center)

VA Killer Queen: A Tribute to Queen (w/Los Lobos, Joss Stone, Flaming Lips and more) (Hollywood)

VA NuJazz - Brasilia (Sunswept)

VA Pickin' on Beck (CMH)

VA Pickin' on Eric Clapton Vol. 2 (CMH)

VA Pickin' on Franz Ferdinand (CMH)

VA Pickin' on Nickelback (CMH)

VA Smooth Sax Tribute to Mariah Carey's Greatest Hits (Tribute Sounds)

VA The Free Design: The Now Sound Redesigned (remixes by Danger Mouse, Stereolab, Madlib and more) (Light in the Attic)

VA The Piano Tribute to Iron Maiden (Vitamin)

VA The String Quartet Tribute to Queens of the Stone Age Volume 2 (Vitamin)

VA Vocal Jazz Here and Now! (Concord)

OST Broken Flowers (score by Mulatu Astatke) (Decca)

OST Rainbow Six: Lockdown (DualDisc; video game soundtrack w/previously unreleased songs from Deftones, Fear Factory, Puddle of Mudd and more) (Calvin)

OST Skeleton Key (score by Edward Shearmer) (Varèse Sarabande)

DVD Cool Runnings: The Reggae Movie (Xenon)

DVD The Industry (hip-hop documentary w/behind the scenes footage of Outkast, Kanye West, Ludacris and more) (Image)

DVD Beulah A Good Band Is Easy to Kill (Music Video Distributors)

DVD Celly Cel Rap Life: Behind the Scenes (w/Snoop Dogg, Busta Rhymes, Jamie Foxx and more) (33rd Street/Bayside)

DVD Desdemona Live 3.0 (w/bonus footage) (Music Video Distributors)

DVD Impotent Sea Snakes Live in Germany (Music Video Distributors)

DVD Sacriversum Saevitius Draconis - Live in Krakow 2005 (includes bonus footage w/documentary) (Music Video Distributors)

DVD That's What's Up That's What's Up (w/bonus CD) (Thump)

DVD VA Give 'Em the Boot (film by Rancid's Tim Armstrong) (Epitaph)

Reynolds Still Regrets James Bond Snub

Veteran actor Burt Reynolds holds such a deep regret about turning down the role of James Bond in the 1970s, he still wakes up in a cold sweat thinking about it.

Late James Bond producer Albert R 'Cubby' Broccoli offered Reynolds the chance to follow Sir Sean Connery as the slick sleuth, but the actor rejected the opportunity - an action he has lived to regret ever since.

He says, "Sean Connery had said he wanted more money and left and (Cubby Broccoli) came to visit me and said, 'We want you to play James Bond.' "And I said, in my infinite wisdom, 'An American can't play James Bond. It just can't be done.'

"Now, in the middle of the night, you hear me wake up in this cold sweat going, 'Bond, James Bond.'"

Phair unplugs new songs in rushed New York show

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Liz Phair unveiled three tracks from her forthcoming album, "Somebody's Miracle" Monday during the first of two shows at New York's intimate Joe's Pub.

Backed only by guitarist Dino Meneghin, Phair opened with the new song "Table for One" and also played the title track, the single "Everything to Me" and "Closer to You," which didn't make the final cut for the 14-track set.

"I'm getting into the whole supper club thing," Phair said with a laugh. "I could have a fallback career." Later, she quizzed the audience, "Are you guys enjoying your dinner? Are you having fish?"

Because another show was booked in the club later in the evening, the artist was forced to rush through the last portion of the set, which clocked in at less than an hour. As fans began to shout out requests, Phair committed to playing "Everything to Me," telling the crowd, "Come on, come on, I love my single."

The show featured such older favorites as "Divorce Song," "Supernova," "F*** and Run," "Never Said" and "Polyester Bride," as well as the rarity "If I Ever Pay You Back" and "Extraordinary," an oft-licensed track from Phair's 2003 self-titled album.

"Somebody's Miracle" is due Oct. 4 via Capitol. In support, Phair will tour North America with a full band beginning around the release date. Her current acoustic jaunt will wrap with an Aug. 24-26 stand at Blue Orchid in her Chicago hometown.

Aniston Resilient in First Interview

NEW YORK - In her first interview since splitting with Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston says she was "shocked" by the breakup and is trying to "pick up the pieces in the midst of this media circus."

Aniston broke down twice during the interview for the September issue of Vanity Fair, on newsstands nationally Aug. 9. Mostly, though, the actress comes across as resilient.

"Am I lonely? Yes. Am I upset? Yes. Am I confused? Yes. Do I have my days when I've thrown a little pity party for myself? Absolutely. But I'm also doing really well."

Holed up in her Malibu, Calif., bungalow, the 36-year-old actress says the media coverage and tabloid rumors have been hard to deal with — especially reports that she didn't want to start a family.

"A man divorcing would never be accused of choosing career over children," she says. "I've never in my life said I didn't want children. I did and I do and I will!"

Aniston filed for divorce in March, citing irreconcilable differences after 4 1/2 years of marriage. The couple separated in January.

Aniston says she was aware of Pitt's attraction to Angelina Jolie, his "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" co-star, but doesn't blame their split on her.

"It's just complicated," Aniston says. "There are all these levels of growth — and when you stop growing together, that's when the problems happen."

But when pictures showing Pitt and Jolie together with her 3-year-old son, Maddox, on a beach in Africa were published, the former "Friends" star says, "the world was shocked and I was shocked."

She was also hurt by a fashion spread in W magazine — a concept of Pitt's — that showed the actor and Jolie as a 1960's-style married couple.

"There's a sensitivity chip that's missing," Aniston says of Pitt.

Says Aniston: "I just don't know what happened. ... I feel as if I'm trying to scrounge around and pick up the pieces in the midst of this media circus."

Otherwise refusing to talk badly of Pitt, the actress says she doesn't want to mimic the bitterness of her parents' divorce.

"I love Brad; I really love him. I will love him for the rest of my life," says Aniston. "I don't regret any of it, and I'm not going to beat myself up about it."

"The sad thing, for me, is the way it's been reduced to a Hollywood cliche — or maybe it's just a human cliche."

Another false report, Aniston says, is her relationship with Vince Vaughn, her co-star in the upcoming movie "The Break Up."

"I like a lot of people, but I'm sooo not `in like' with anybody."

Aniston also hasn't lost her sense of humor. On Pitt's recently dyed blond hair, she says, " Billy Idol called — he wants his look back."