'Doonesbury' still feisty after 35 years
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - Not long after the dust settled from the Iraqi explosion that took Doonesbury comic strip character B.D.'s left leg last year, the Pentagon was on the phone.
The frequent target of Doonesbury creator Garry Trudeau, the Defence Department offered the satirist extensive access to soldiers wounded while fighting in Iraq and the doctors and caregivers trying to put their bodies - and psyches - back together.
"There are so many ways to get it wrong," Trudeau said of portraying the soldiers' struggles accurately during a recent meeting of the American Association of Sunday and Features Editors. "They figured, correctly, I could use all the help I could get."
It also spoke to the fact that Doonesbury, an often funny, sometimes frustrating and frequently controversial comic strip born in syndication 35 years ago, is still considered weighty enough to get the government's attention.
Over the years, the strip - which started as a cartoon that Yale graduate Trudeau, 57, wrote for the college paper - has used humour and biting commentary to address a broad sweep of society, from race relations and AIDS to same-sex marriage and stem cells.
His huge cast of characters have aged along the way: Mike Doonesbury, the strip's lead character, has gone from idealistic college student to befuddled dad of a college-age daughter; Zonker Harris, the former professional tanner is now a nanny; Uncle Duke, the Hunter S. Thompsonesque mercenary, ran for the presidency in 2000 and, until recently, was serving as mayor of the fictional Iraqi city of Al-Amok.
But he's always come back to raw politics, taking a page of Walt Kelly's Pogo, which pioneered the use of poking fun at politicians on the funny pages. Most recently, he has relentlessly hammered the war and U.S. President George W. Bush, who's depicted as an asterisk wearing an increasingly battered Roman helmet.
"Well, it's a humour strip, so my first responsibility has always been to entertain the reader," Trudeau said in response to e-mailed questions from the Associated Press. "But if, in addition, I can help move readers to thought and judgment about issues that concern me, so much the better."
Many times, those efforts have landed him in trouble with newspaper editors who have pulled or edited his strips because of salty language, uncomfortable images or controversial subjects.
Last fall, 20 newspapers objected to a strip that had Vice-President Dick Cheney using a profanity as he remotely coached Bush through a press conference. The strip married two real-life controversies - a similar profanity Cheney used on the Senate floor and rumours denied by the White House that a mysterious bulge under the president's suit jacket was an audio receiver, designed to help him through a debate.
His subjects often claim he's unfair and trying to score political points for liberals.
In 1984, a week of Doonesbury strips depicting then-vice-president George Bush placing his "manhood in a blind trust" so he could serve in the Reagan White House led to this Bush retort: "Doonesbury's carrying water for the opposition. Trudeau is coming out of deep left field."
In a column last year criticizing the B.D. story line in Doonesbury, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly said Trudeau was using "someone's personal tragedy" to generate opposition to the war. He led off the column with an anecdote about Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels using images of fallen soldiers to encourage war against Poland.
Trudeau, who describes his politics as "stone dull moderate," said he's supported Republicans in the past but has felt compelled to go after "mindless ideologues like the ones who've had a stranglehold on power the past five years."
Some observers say the war has given Doonesbury a new energy, one that they say was largely absent during the 1990s, when American politics and culture didn't deliver the high-stakes issues that experts say satire needs to thrive.
"I think Doonesbury was really of the Vietnam generation and became a voice of the Vietnam generation, and what's interesting to me is that decades later (Trudeau) tapped into that exact same thing with the Iraq war," said Matt Davies, a Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist for The Journal News in Westchester, N.Y. "Because of his reputation and perhaps his infamy, he rose to the challenge with the Iraq war and was back throwing barbs on the comics page. He's still got it. He's still an angry young man."
Of course, Doonesbury is no longer the oddity it once was. In the 1970s, the idea of using humour to skewer the political and social issues of the day was still rare in popular culture.
"Those were very self-serious times," said Trudeau, who won a Pulitzer in 1975. "The end of the Vietnam War changed all that. The nation exhaled, Saturday Night Live hit big, and satire really took off."
Christopher Lamb, an associate professor of communication at the College of Charleston in South Carolina, dedicated a chapter to Doonesbury in his book Drawn to Extremes: The Use and Abuse of Political Cartoons.
"He rides the cultural, political and social waves," said Lamb. "He's a heck of an observer."
Reason magazine Managing Editor Jesse Walker, on the other hand, said the strip has become more Democrat polemic than satire.
"Ultimately what happened to Trudeau was he got older, no longer had his finger on the pulse and started writing as an outsider," Walker said.
Another Grim Development for 'Arrested'
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) "Arrested Development" has escaped the cancellation ax through two award-winning but low-rated seasons, but the show's future looks more tenuous than ever now.
Earlier this week, FOX bumped the Emmy-winning "Arrested" (along with its Monday-night mate, "Kitchen Confidential") from its schedule for the remainder of November sweeps. Now comes word that the network has cut the show's episode order from a full season of 22 to 13, which a source close to the show confirms.
The reduced order, and the schedule commitments FOX already has for midseason -- most notably "American Idol" and "24" -- could well mean that "Arrested Development" is on its final legs at FOX. The network hasn't officially said the series is done, but the c-word -- cancellation -- has already popped up in news reports about the reduced order.
The series hasn't found many new viewers in its Monday-night home, averaging only 4.3 million viewers per week so far this season. In its first two seasons, it drew about 6 million viewers per episode as part of FOX's Sunday lineup.
"Arrested Development" has won six Emmys, including the award for outstanding comedy series in 2004. It and "Kitchen Confidential" are scheduled to return to FOX Monday, Dec. 5.
The latter show may not be long for the world either. It hasn't aired since the first week of October and generated little ratings heat in the brief time it was on.
Brooks Boxed Set Details Revealed
Country superstar Garth Brooks, who retired from music in 2001, will be back in the spotlight later this month with the release of the "Limited Series" boxed set. As first revealed here in August, it will be available exclusively through Walmart and Sam's Club stores, as well as Walmart.com.
Due Nov. 25, the project rounds up three prior albums, a previously unreleased DVD and a disc of never-before-heard songs from the Brooks vaults. In addition to 1997's "Sevens," the following year's "Double Live" and 2001's "Scarecrow," the box sports the 90-minute "All Access" DVD, consisting of interviews, videos and live performances from throughout Brooks' career.
Fans will be most pleased by "The Lost Sessions," which includes 11 songs Brooks handpicked from his archives. Among them is the Chris LeDoux tribute "Good Ride Cowboy," which is No. 6 this week on Billboard's Top Country Songs chart. Brooks had not had a new single on the radio since 2003's "Why Ain't I Running," which reached No. 24 on the same tally.
Because it is not available to all retailers, "Limited Series" will not be eligible for The Billboard 200 album chart, but is eligible for the Billboard Comprehensive Albums chart, which appears on Billboard.com. However, it appears that wholesalers Anderson Merchandisers and Handleman, which supply CDs to Walmart, may not report sales of the box to Nielsen SoundScan.
Brooks has recently been answering questions from fans about the deal on Walmart's Web site and hinting at future releases, including the DVD debuts of his prior home video titles.
"One of the greatest gifts of the Wal-Mart deal is that it allows me to bring something to the people and stay at home with my children," he said. "One of the other great things about the deal is it will bring us out of VHS and take us into the DVD era. But again, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's talk Christmas 2006."
He also said he'd love to make a duets album with his fiancee, fellow country star Trisha Yearwood, something that would not have been possible when he was signed to Capitol.
"It took me forever to ask Miss Yearwood to marry me. I won't wait that long to ask her to do a duet record with me," he said. "My red tape ... is gone. However, she is her own artist and has her own contractual agreements to abide by. Only time will tell, but if the opportunity comes along, I'd love to do it ... for my sake."
Costello, Toussaint Teaming For New Album
Elvis Costello is slated to head into the studio the week of Thanksgiving to begin a collaboration with songwriter/arranger/pianist Allen Toussaint. Joe Henry will produce the album for Verve Records.
Henry likens the project to Costello's 1998 pairing with Burt Bacharach, "Painted from Memory" (Mercury/Universal). "That project was a very legitimate collaboration between the two artists, and this will feature Elvis as a singer doing both classic songs that Allen has written as well as new material [the two are writing]," Henry tells Billboard.com.
New Orleans veteran Toussaint recently performed with Costello at a number of New York benefits for the victims of hurricane Katrina. Toussaint, who has written such songs as Dr. John's "Right Place, Wrong Time" and Lee Dorsey's "Workin' in a Coal Mine," appeared as a pianist on some of Costello's early 1980s albums.
"Elvis, like a lot of people, re-committed himself to the importance of the legacy of [New Orleans] music," Henry says. "I was talking to Allen about doing a solo record, and Elvis had appeared with Allen on stage at various benefits in New York, and the wheels were turning."
Henry, who has toured with Costello in support of his own solo releases, recently produced Bettye LaVette's "I've Got My Own Hell To Raise" for Epitaph's Anti- imprint, as well as the multi-artist "I Believe to My Soul" for his newly formed Work Song label. The latter was released via a partnership with Rhino Records and Starbucks' Hear Music, and features Toussaint, Billy Preston, Mavis Staples, Ann Peebles and Irma Thomas.
Henry says he and Costello have discussed working together for a few years now, and Henry had been prodding Toussaint to record a solo effort for Work Song. "Elvis and I talked off and on about working together," Henry says. "He's been a big booster of 'I Believe to My Soul' and he's a big a Bettye LaVette fan. After the hurricane, it brought home to him how significant that relationship with Allen was."
Barenaked Ladies Enjoying Indie-pendence
After officially leaving Reprise following its 2003 release "Everything to Everyone," the members of the Barenaked Ladies are finding the indie world to be filled with new opportunities for releasing music. The group is now aligned with Nettwerk Music Group via its own imprint, Desperation Records.
Singer/guitarist Ed Robertson tells Billboard.com the band is currently working on 30 new songs and fans should expect to hear them all sooner rather than later, or never.
"We're not whittling it down to what we think are the 12 or 14 songs that are going to be the next record," Robertson says. "We're recording everything and we're going to put out everything. And not a big double or triple album, but [we'll] put out an album and go out on tour. And the next tour leg, put out an EP, another five or six songs, and just keep putting stuff out because I think that keeps us fresh and it keeps the fans interested and aware of what we're doing. It's just a new era."
Robertson is most excited about new tracks "Down to Earth" and "Everything Had Changed," He says these could be among the many unreleased songs that receive stage time on the band's upcoming holiday run, which begins Nov. 21 in Montreal.
Speaking of which, the quintet known for its quirky live shows is giving fans full access to concert recordings via its Web site as well as Apple's iTunes Music Store, which is selling more than 30 concerts.
"Another function of what we do these days is we record all of our shows on a full Pro Tools rig and mix them the next day," Robertson says. "We bring an engineer on the road with us, then those shows are uploaded and available for fans to get."
Robertson says the band may do some touring in the late spring or summer of 2006, with a full outing to coincide with the release of BNL's next, still untitled, album, due in about a year. As for where the group is headed sonically, he says, "I think we're going rawer, less slick sounding and more rock. We really want the record to sound like the band and not like this magical moment that happened in the studio and can never happen anywhere else. We want people to hear the five of us playing a rock song."
"Chicken" Rules Roost
The sky didn't fall on Chicken Little.
For the second straight weekend, the Disney 'toon remained the top draw at the megaplex, feathering its news with a very big egg: $32 million from Friday through Sunday, according to estimates from Exhibitor Relations.
The G-rated update of the classic fable, with Zach Braff voicing the lead clucker, only dropped 20 percent from its opening weekend and has now earned an estimated $80.7 million.
With Chicken Little earning a lot, the weekend's major newcomers had to wrestle over the crumbs.
Opening in second place was Sony's PG-rated Zathura with $14 million--on par with studio expectations. A sequel of sorts to Jumanji, this F/X-heavy tale about a pair of brothers who get sucked into a sci-fi fantasy world via a magical board game stars Tim Robbins and is directed by Jon Favreau.
Derailed, the Weinstein Co.'s R-rated thriller starring Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen as an imperiled adulterous couple, never got fully on track, opening with $12.8 million in third place. The studio says the film pulled in a solid female audience.
Get Rich or Die Tryin', the semi-authentic 50 Cent biopic, had the best per-site figures of all the three wide-release newcomers: $7,567. But at just 1,652 theaters, the action drama about the gangsta rap world, directed by Jim Sheridan and costarring Terrence Howard and Viola Davis, only drummed up $12.5 million in fourth place. The film played mainly to young urban audiences, but opened slightly below industry epectations, perhaps impacted by the fatal shooting at a Pittsburgh theater. Since its Wednesday debut, the R-rated Paramount film has earned $18.2 million.
In limited release, Pride and Prejudice, starring Keira Knightley as the Jane Austen's heroine, had a whopping $13,043 per-site average at just 215 theaters to open with $2.8 million--good enough for tenth place on the weekend list. The PG Focus Features release also features Matthew Macfadyen as Mr. Darcy and ensemble that includes Donald Sutherland, Brenda Blethyn, Rosamund Pike, Jena Malone and Tom Hollander.
In contrast, Chicken Little averaged $8,755 at 3,658 locations; Zathura, $4,344 at 3,223 sites; and Derailed, $5,250 at 2,441 sites.
In really limited release--at just 21 sites--the PG-13 Fox Searchlight release Bee Season, starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche as the emotionally and spiritually conflicted parents of a spelling bee champ, averaged $6,039 for $126,811.
Meanwhile, in its second week, Jarhead dropped 56 percent to $12.3 million, retreating from second to fifth place. The Universal release has grossed $47.1 million.
Still in limited release but gradually expanding, the critically acclaimed biopic Capote, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, earned $1.3 million at 264 theaters. That's up 31 percent from last week. Now in its seventh week of release, the Sony Pictures release has totaled $6.6 million.
Also gaining more exposure and bigger business was Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, the satirical pulp fiction mystery starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Val Kilmer. Adding 89 sites to play at 169, the Warner Bros release earned $830,000--up 109 percent--to bring its four-week gross to $2.1 million.
The overall box office continued its yearlong downward trend. The top 12 movies grossed $114 million, down 4 percent from last weekend and 15 percent from last year, when The Incredibles was reining. Hollywood is hoping for a jolt next weekend with the opening of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Here's a recap of the top 10 films, based on studio estimates compiled by Exhibitor Relations (final figures are due Monday):
1. Chicken Little, $32 million
2. Zathura, $14 million
3. Derailed, $12.8 million
4. Get Rich or Die Tryin', $12.5 million
5. Jarhead, $12.3 million
6. Saw II, $9.4 million
7. The Legend of Zorro, $6.6 million
8. Prime, $4 million
9. Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story, $3.8 million
10. Pride & Prejudice, $2.8 million
'WWE Smackdown!' Star Guerrero Dies
MINNEAPOLIS - A World Wrestling Entertainment star was found dead in his hotel room Sunday in Minneapolis, where he was scheduled to appear that evening in a WWE show.
Eduardo Gory Guerrero, 38, didn't respond to a wake-up call Sunday morning, authorities said. His nephew, fellow WWE wrestler Chavo Guerrero, and hotel security at the Minneapolis Marriott City Center forced their way into the room and found him.
There were no apparent signs of foul play, police said. An autopsy was planned to determine how Guerrero died.
His nephew said Guerrero was open about past drug and alcohol abuse but had been sober for four years. Guerrero was married and had three children.
"This is a huge loss," said WWE chairman Vince McMahon. "Eddie was a wonderful, fun-loving human being. Eddie was a consummate performer."
Guerrero was a featured star on the UPN series "WWE Smackdown!" and son of Mexican wrestler Gory Guerrero. Last year, he became the second wrestler of Hispanic heritage to be WWE champion, though he lost the title four months later.
UPN also aired a special last year on his life, "Cheating Death, Stealing Life: The Eddie Guerrero Story." The program chronicled Guerrero's childhood and his struggle with drug addiction that almost cost him his job, family and life.