The year in DVD

From collector's editions to favourite shows, Hollywood brought it home

DVD sales have long been Hollywood's crutch of choice. While movie audiences have been shrinking for years, the home entertainment business has assured robust profit margins for studios that now rake in more cash from DVDs than box office. 2005 leaves us, however, with the industry facing an uncertain future. In question is who will win the critical battle to determine what next-generation DVD technology looks like. Sony, which backs Blue-ray high-definition discs, appears to be the likely victor because it has the support of both Hollywood studios -- and will be built into next year's PlayStation 3 game console.

Opposing the Blu-ray group (not to be confused with the Blue Man Group) is a consortium, including Toshiba, that has developed the HD DVD format. Time is of the essence because sales of flat-screen high-definition television sets are spiking.

Worrisome, too, are recent reports that DVD sales may be peaking amid a pop culture landscape exploding with entertainment choices and ever-new technologies.

We say -- let the suits do the fretting. We're happy to kick back and pop in our favourite movie. Here are the Calgary Sun's picks for the best movies released in 2005 on DVD.

1) SIDEWAYS: Alexander Payne's keenly-observed follow-up to About Schmidt is both a mellow character study and a high farce drunk with emotion. The commentary by Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church reveals the easy rapport they share on-screen translates off-camera too.

2) MILLION DOLLAR BABY: "I'm just doing what feels right," Clint Eastwood tells effusive interviewer James Lipton (Inside The Actors Studio) during a chat with Oscar-winning trio Eastwood, Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman on the DVD. "I don't think too much about it." True, as a director, Eastwood makes every blow count. His wrenching, Oscar-winning Million Dollar Baby is as spare and economical as the screen icon himself. Eastwood's drama is as much about faith, sacrifice and contrition as exchanging left hooks.

3) STAR WARS EPISODE III: REVENGE OF THE SITH: The year's biggest DVD -- and movie -- redeemed creator George Lucas with its sinister tale of how Anakin Skywalker finally fell to the dark side of the Force to become Darth Vader. The DVD's bounty of extras is a Wookiee-like shout-out to fanboys.

4) CINDERELLA MAN: Ron Howard's biography of Depression-era boxing legend James Braddock is a crowd-pleaser that entertains more than it illuminates. That said, it's also packs a sucker punch thanks to an Oscar-worthy turn by Russell Crowe. For fans, the DVD goes so far to provide analysis of the actual Braddock-Baer fight that concludes Howard's drama.

5) THE INCREDIBLES: Smart, sly, sleek and sophisticated entertainment that continues Pixar's unprecedented dominance of all that is animated (Toy Story, Monsters Inc., A Bug's Life and Finding Nemo). The two-disc DVD is crammed with extras -- the standout being the Brad Bird-directed short film Jack Jack Attack.

6) BATMAN BEGINS: Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins scraps the neon gaudiness of Joel Schumacher's movies and puts Bats (Christian Bale) back in black. It's darker, fiercer and far more ambitious than the previous films.

7) FAMILY GUY PRESENTS STEWIE GRIFFIN: THE UNTOLD STORY: Punctuated by cheerfully offensive humour that wouldn't have flown on Fox, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story plays very much like an extended episode as the matricidal infant searches for his real father.

8) MARCH OF THE PENGUINS: Think mating is hard for humans? Try being an emperor penguin in the South Pole. Or better still, watch this spectacular documentary from the warmth of your living room.

9) KUNG FU HUSTLE: Imagine The Matrix's Morpheus discovering Wile E. Coyote is "The One" and you begin to understand the over-the-top zaniness actor-director Stephen Chow's go-for-broke live-action cartoon comedy achieves. Chow knows that just because your film is fun, doesn't mean it has to be stupid.

10) THE UPSIDE OF ANGER: Joan Allen provides the fiery centre of Mike Binder's hilarious, human comedy, but it's Kevin Costner -- delivering his best performance in eons as Allen's neighbour -- who steals the show as a has-been baseball star turned talk-radio DJ who begins a boozy romance with the simmering widow.

BEST TV ON DVD

DAILY SHOW INDECISION 2004: The most hilarious DVD of 2005 is this collection of memorable election-themed bits from The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. Included is correspondent Stephen Colbert's featurette: Requiem for a Show That Was Daily.

SCRUBS -- THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON: In praising Arrested Development, critics often overlook this medical comedy starring Zach Braff. It's whimsical, sweet and consistently funny.

LOST -- THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON: Among eight hours of buried bonus treasure are audition tapes, fun facts (Evangeline Lilly almost didn't get the part of Kate because they couldn't get the Canadian actress a work visa) and what-might-have-beens (producers wanted Michael Keaton to play Jack -- and then kill him off).

THE OFFICE SEASON 1: A worthy remake of the British original thanks largely to Steve Carell's fitfully funny performance as a boss whose incompetence approaches the superhuman.

MUPPETS: THE MUPPET SHOW: SEASON 1: It's Muppet-ational. Each episode in this boxset features optional pop-up "Muppet morsels" that teach you about the show as you go.

MIAMI VICE SEASONS 1 AND 2: Enough '80s goodness to make you want to gag yourself with a spoon. This cop drama fused an MTV aesthetic to genre television, changing the look and sound of the small screen.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA SEASON 1: This dark, gritty remake has reimagined the cheesy show into a space-bound parable for today's anxiety-ridden paranoid world.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: Nobody ever did comic noir better than Hitchcock, as evidenced by these engrossing 39 episodes of this 1950s series.

NIP/TUCK: SEASON 2: It's as silly as it is sinful, but this drama about cosmetic surgeons is heartlessly addictive.

EMERGENCY: SEASON 1: Before ER, there was this 1970s drama about paramedics.

BEST COLLECTORS EDITIONS

GLADIATOR EXTENDED EDITION: After the likes of Alexander and Troy, Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning epic Gladiator only looks better than it did in 2000. The three-disc DVD includes a new widescreen edition of the film that's 17 minutes longer, along with new commentary by Scott and star Russell Crowe -- who won an Oscar for his role -- and an embarrassment of behind-the-scenes riches.

VINTAGE MICKEY: This 90-minute disc continues the recent Disney trend of releasing classic animated footage on DVD. Vintage Mickey contains nine cartoons, including The Birthday Party, Plane Crazy, Mickey's Revue, Building A Building and the legendary Steamboat Willie.

THE JAMES DEAN COLLECTION: James Dean has been dead for half-a-century, but the actor remains a pop culture icon. The Complete James Dean Collection includes two-disc special editions of Dean's best-known films: East of Eden (1955), Rebel Without a Cause (1955), and Giant (1956). This is the first time East of Eden has been out on DVD. The set even includes the "Drive Safely" ad Dean shot before his death in a car crash.

TOY STORY ANNIVERSARY EDITION AND TOY STORY 2 SPECIAL EDITION: It's been a decade since this pioneering CG-animated comedy from Pixar Studios about the secret lives of toys revolutionized the industry. But Toy Story and its sequel are much more than just a landmark in cinematic technology -- they're deliriously joyous movies that, for sheer entertainment value, are unparalleled. The two-disc special edition of the original includes deleted scenes, games, making-of featurettes and a preview of Pixar's next film Cars.

GHOSTBUSTERS GIFT SET: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis are superbly deadpan as a trio of paranormal investigators who get a lot more than they bargained for when New York is overrun by ghoulish spirits in the sublime 1984 original. Too bad the 1989 sequel is a letdown -- a tepid, misguided retread. This gift set includes both films as well as a host of extras, including three featurettes, deleted scenes and commentary from Ramis and director Ivan Reitman.

JAWS 30TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION: Steven Spielberg was just 26 years old when he directed Jaws. He lurched into the project, almost sank with the difficulties of shooting a scary drama at sea, and then found himself with a hit movie that remains as shocking today as it was in 1975. The 30th Anniversary Edition DVD is a classy two-disc set which includes an excellent two-hour documentary.

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD: The two-disc edition of this classic features Gregory Peck's Oscar acceptance speech, commentary from director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan J. Pakula, the theatrical trailer as well as a documentary about the legendary leading man. There's also an introduction penned by author Harper Lee.

THE DEER HUNTER: The last thing this five-time Oscar-winner needed was a longer version, yet the film, collected here in a two-disc set, provides keen insight into a particular time in the American psyche. A very young Robert DeNiro and Christopher Walken are superb as life-long friends torn apart by the tragedy of the Vietnam war.

THE STING: This sly and wickedly smart Oscar-winner stars Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who established the standard by which all cinematic buddy flicks are measured. A comedy and caper set in the 1930s about two con men, it remains a vast entertainment.

CINDERELLA PLATINUM EDITION: Cinderella, the downtrodden maid-turned-glass-slipper-wearing-princess, has a fairy godmother to make her gorgeous. Cinderella, the Walt Disney musical, has digital wizards to restore its shimmering beauty -- something that's abundantly evident in the studio's sparkling new Platinum Edition release of the 1950 animated musical based on the Grimms' fairy tale. Along with the restored picture and sound, the two-disc DVD features an embarrassment of extras.

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS 10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION: Tim Burton's enchanting fable about a boy (Johnny Depp) who is blessed but mostly cursed with razor-sharp scissors for hands. Since its release in 1990, Edward Scissorhands has been hailed as Burton's most personal film, possibly explaining why it's his best.

THE BRUCE LEE ULTIMATE COLLECTION: Five of Bruce Lee's martial arts movies -- The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon, Game of Death and Game of Death II -- are collected in this informative must for fans of the superstar.

BILL & TED'S MOST EXCELLENT COLLECTION: For some, Marlon Brando will always be Stanley Kowalski. For others, Robert De Niro is Travis Bickle. And for others, Keanu Reeves will always be Ted of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and its sequel, which starred Reeves and Alex Winter, as a pair of affable '80s-era dufuses. This Excellent Collection features an air guitar tutorial, interviews and even a cartoon episode of Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures. To this we say, "Whoa."

DONNIE DARKO: DIRECTOR'S CUT: Since its 2001 release ,this surreal drama starring a pre-Brokeback Mountain Jake Gyllenhaal, developed enough of a cult following to justify a director's cut. It remains one of the odder American films not directed by David Lynch in the past 20 years.

Entertainment 2005: What Might Have Been

NEW YORK - It may not have been evident at the time, but when Tom Cruise was leaping up and down on Oprah Winfrey's couch, he was like a piston, churning the wheels of fate.

Had Cruise not chosen to express his love for Katie Holmes on that momentous May day, 2005 might have been very different. Just imagine:

Hurt by Cruise's cold, somber manner on "Oprah," Holmes storms out of the studio and announces that she's leaving the "War of the Worlds" star.

"He could have at least hugged an ottoman," Holmes says.

Spurned by the 27-year-old beauty, Cruise undergoes a period of self-examination and gives up Scientology. Devastated over losing its most famous member, the church quickly recruits Russell Crowe.

Enlightenment soothes Crowe's anger, and the notorious phone-tossing incident never happens (although there are reports of the actor flicking a Cheez-It at a hotel bellboy).

His good reputation takes a hit, though, when Crowe (promoting "Cinderella Man") calls "Today" host Matt Lauer "glib" while discussing medication. The word is apparently central to Scientology beliefs — like "sin" is for Catholics.

Crowe's "Cinderella Man" co-star, Renee Zellweger, thrown by the brouhaha, seeks solace not in country star Kenny Chesney, but someone just as surprising. She marries "American Idol" finalist Bo Bice, a decision criticized by Simon Cowell.

The wedding news breaks just as the circulatory dating of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn hits full stride. It becomes too much for tabloid editors, who begin referring to them as Brangelinastonaughn.

The partner-swapping also elicits fierce debate over whether each relationship is based on true love or strategic image-making and movie-selling. The theory — dubbed "intelligent design" — doesn't quite make it to the Supreme Court.

One case that does make it to a courtroom, though, is Anna Nicole Smith's suit against Kanye West alleging that his hit song "Gold Digger" is about her. The trial is dismissed, though, after Smith shows up late to court in her pajamas.

West remains bitter, a feeling intensified by the mishandling of Hurricane Katrina. At a telethon, his co-presenter, Mike Myers, is replaced at the last minute by Michael Jackson. A confused West then proclaims: "George Bush hates white people."

Distraught over his mistake, West joins Dave Chappelle in South Africa.

Paris Hilton never meets her would-be fiance, Paris Latsis. Instead, she becomes engaged to herself. "That's hot," she claims.

The engagement lasts three weeks before splintering amid a dispute over the prenuptial agreement.

Jessica Simpson, witnessing Hilton's breakup drama, opts to stay married to
Nick Lachey. Their "Newlyweds" show is renamed "Mildly Satisfied, Sort of Unhappy Married Couple, Remaining Together for Financial Reasons — Like Everyone Else."

By some strange coincidence, Martha Stewart and New York Times reporter Judith Miller end up at the same prison. Stewart brightens up Miller's cell with curtains and Miller helps Stewart with her "Apprentice" catch phrase.

The pair rules the jail, forming the "Valerie Plame Gang" in which each member must get a tattoo reading "VPG for Life: Disclose this!"

In this alternate reality, though, Britney Spears and Kevin Federline remain together. Even history's left-hand turns can't stop true love.

2005: The 10 Biggest Tabloid Stories of the Year

Hell hath no well-crafted PR campaign like a woman scorned Jilted former Friends star Jennifer Aniston kept a dignified silence at the beginning of the year, letting the love triangle clichés do the talking for her. Her ex, Brad Pitt, came off as a heartless cad who left her for a younger woman who would have his babies. As the other woman, Angelina Jolie’s bisexual, brother-kissing and blood-fetishizing past made her the kind of villainess that no amount of United Nations do-gooding could redeem. When Aniston finally went public in a Vanity Fair cover story, it was essentially a deification of the star. She ended 2005, topless, on the cover of GQ, as the magazine’s first female Man of the Year. But even the best spin can’t overcome everything: Derailed did just that and Rumour Has It that her latest film really sucks, too.

“I love this woman!”
Let’s reminisce: Approximately 10 minutes after meeting Katie Holmes, Tom Cruise leapt on Oprah’s couch, declaring his love for the former Dawson’s Creek star, who is 16 years his junior. Holmes subsequently dumped her friends, began her conversion to the Church of Scientology and sprouted strange facial sores. Cruise then appeared on the Today show and tore into Endless Love co-star Brooke Shields for taking drugs for her post-partum depression. Then, eight weeks into his relationship with Holmes, he proposed on the top of the Eiffel Tower, announcing it at a conveniently assembled press conference just moments later. Within weeks, Holmes was pregnant and Cruise bought her a sonogram machine (er, flowers would have been nice, too). Then, in November, he fired his sister, Lee Anne DeVette, who had been working as his publicist. Even the most ga-ga entertainment media couldn’t keep up with Cruise’s aggressively manic antics, and normally off-limits questions about his ties to Scientology and rumours about his sexuality began to emerge, souring the public on the formerly bankable star. Dude, when celebrity-molesting US Weekly doubts the authenticity of your relationship, you’re really screwed.

Skinnier is the new skinny
The incredible shrinking figures of Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Mary-Kate Olsen had the entertainment media raising concerns about eating disorders — and, yes, that would be the same entertainment media that once congratulated Renée Zellweger for being “courageous” enough to gain 30 pounds in order to wear a size 10 in Bridget Jones’s Diary. After making a comeback of sorts in the so-so TV series Fat Actress (which skewered Hollywood for its obsession with women’s weight), Kirstie Alley became a spokesperson for Jenny Craig and lost 50 pounds. And just 10 weeks after giving birth, model Heidi Klum strutted the Victoria’s Secret catwalk. In a thong. Her secret? She just “naturally” lost a pound a week.

Finding Neverland
It’s hard to decide who’s stranger. Is it Michael Jackson, who showed up to his child molestation trial in pyjamas and admitted in his own defense that he had sleepovers with young children, then moved to Bahrain, where he caused a scene in a Dubai shopping mall by entering a woman’s washroom? Or is it the fan who released a crateful of white doves when Jackson was acquitted?
Kate Moss. Photo Evan Agostini/Getty Images.
Kate Moss. Photo Evan Agostini/Getty Images.

Scandal Alert: Sex, drugs and… spiritual quests?
Despite the open secret of widespread drug use (how else could the models remain so licorice-stick thin?), the fashion industry demonstrated its haute hypocrisy when Kate Moss lost several contracts — H&M and Burberry among them — after being featured on the cover of a British tabloid snorting coke. Post-treatment, Moss’s real rehab has already begun: she’s been featured on the cover of Vanity Fair and stars in a new commercial for Virgin cell phones that is a sly send-up of her fall from grace. Jude Law has almost completed his own public opinion probation. After being caught by one of his kids getting busy with the nanny, Law was dumped by his fiancée, Alfie co-star Sienna Miller. The pair have since reportedly reconciled. Finally, just before he was to start shooting the third season of his hit sketch show (a deal worth $50 million US), comedian Dave Chappelle went AWOL. He later surfaced in South Africa, where he said he was on a spiritual retreat.

What’s in a name?
Oh, Ben Affleck and J.Lo, what have you wrought? At first, the Bennifer thing was kind of clever, but now, after TomKat, Brangelina and Vaughniston, the whole cutesy name meld is just annoying. (Granted, the dubbing of the Lindsay Lohan-Jared Leto relationship as “Jordan Catalohan,” after Leto’s My So-Called Life heartthrob character, is pretty inspired.) Can there also be a moratorium on weirdo celebrity baby names in 2006? Nicolas Cage (father of Kal-el) and Penn Jillette (father of Moxie Crimefighter), that means you.

Flirting with disaster
The year began with the world stunned by the aftermath of the tsunami and ended with it reeling from another year of tragedy that included the London terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in Kashmir. Celebrities stepped up by getting political, in big-scale charity events, like Bono and Bob Geldof’s series of Live 8 concerts to raise awareness about poverty. Oprah Winfrey gave $10 million of her own money to hurricane relief efforts and put FEMA to shame by getting water, food and other supplies to survivors often faster than the federal agency. An increasingly earnest Sean Penn filed news reports from the Middle East and New Orleans. And CNN newsman Anderson Cooper broke the code of journalistic objectivity with his emotional and often critical reporting of the U.S. administration’s handling of Hurricane Katrina. But it was Kanye West who really summed up the unprecedentedly political year of celebrity with a little ad-libbing during a televised Hurricane Katrina benefit (see Celebrity Quotes of the Year below).

They said it wouldn’t last and, well, it didn’t
Couples who called it quits in 2005 included: Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, Nicole Richie and DJ AM, Paris Hilton and Paris Latsis, Reneé Zellweger and Kenny Chesney.

When life gives you lemons, make lemon-zest and herb-encrusted trout
How many people can get out of jail and immediately star in two television shows, land a book contract, turn a handmade, prison-crocheted poncho into an instant fashion classic and become even more popular as an ex-con than they were before? Say what you will about Martha Stewart’s ambition, perfectionism and drive (and if you were being completely honest, you know if she were a man all those qualities would be seen as “good things”), but no scandal-plagued celebrity has ever had such a comeback. Sure, her version of The Apprentice tanked, but the domestic goddess is bound to have many more tricks up her perfectly ironed sleeve. As she recently explained to Fortune magazine, “I cannot be destroyed.”

Canada is in the hizz-ouse. Show it some love!
Canadian exports like Nickelback, Arcade Fire, Lost’s Evangeline Lilly, Arrested Development’s Will Arnett and The Family Stone’s Rachel McAdams made a splash in the U.S. this year. And fellow Canadian J.D. Fortune, a former Elvis impersonator, turned out to be a pretty good Michael Hutchence impersonator as well. He beat out 14 other competitors to front Australian band INXS on the reality show Rock Star: INXS. At the Canadian Live 8 concert, geezer rockers like Gordon Lightfoot and Neil Young stole the show. And to keep you up-to-date on all these Canuck celebrities, the country now boasts four daily entertainment shows — Global’s ET Canada, CHUM’s Star! Daily, Sun TV’s Inside Jam and CTV’s eTalk Daily — which to many people feels like four too many.

CELEBRITY QUOTES OF THE YEAR

“There’s a sensitivity chip that’s missing.”
Jennifer Aniston on ex-husband Brad Pitt posing with Angelina Jolie as a married couple for W magazine

“Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, you don’t even—you’re glib. You don’t even know what Ritalin is... You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.”
Tom Cruise to Today host Matt Lauer

“The two of us were on fire every time we sat down [to write music].”
Paul McCartney on John Lennon

“I think my work — the activism — will be forgotten. And I hope it will. Because I hope those problems will have gone away.”
Bono, Time magazine’s Man of the Year (along with Bill and Melinda Gates), on his political activism

"If you can't get a star, wait, you want Tom Cruise and all you get is Jude Law, wait, it's not the same thing. Who is Jude Law? Why is he in every movie I have seen in the last four years? Even if he's not acting in it, if you look at the credits he makes the cupcakes or something."
Oscar host Chris Rock

"Forgive my lack of humour. Jude Law is one of our finest actors."
Oscar presenter Sean Penn defends his fellow thespian’s honour

“The time has finally come to share our wonderful news that we are expecting our first child together.”
Proud parents-to-be Britney Spears and Kevin Federline

“Hopefully mine and Nick’s story will continue for the rest of our lives, like what we vowed, through sickness and in health.”
Jessica Simpson, denying rumors of marital trouble, just weeks before she separated from Nick Lachey

“This is possibly the most shameful situation I've ever gotten myself in my life, and I've done some pretty dumb things in my life. So to actually make a new number one is spectacularly stupid.”
Russell Crowe apologizes for going Cinderella Man on a hotel concierge

“This frozen embryo that is in New York is my child waiting to be brought to life.”
Celine Dion on her desire to expand her family

“You’re just not right for our band, INXS.”
Band member Tim Farriss on Rock Star: INXS

“I do.”
Prince Charles to Camilla Parker Bowles

“George Bush doesn’t care about black people.”
Kanye West, at a televised benefit show for Katrina victims

U.S. Music Album Sales Down 7 Percent

LOS ANGELES - U.S. album sales were down about 7 percent as 2005 drew to a close, but the budding market for music downloads, which more than doubled over last year, helped narrow the revenue gap, according to figures released Wednesday.

Album sales from January through the week ending Dec. 25 stood at 602.2 million, compared with 650.8 million for the same period last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Combined, album and singles sales fell about 8 percent over the same time last year. More than 95 percent of music is sold in CD format.

Downloaded tracks from online retailers soared to 332.7 million this year, compared with 134.2 million in 2004, an increase of 148 percent.

While good news for recording companies looking to expand download sales, it doesn't bode well for music retailers relying on customers to buy music CDs rather than digital downloads to turn a profit amid declining sales.

"More and more we're seeing customers switch to downloads or burning CDs from their friends," said Jesse Klempner, owner of Aron's Records in Hollywood. "The last couple of years we've been hanging on by our teeth."

The top three best-selling albums of 2005 through Dec. 21 were rapper 50 Cent's "The Massacre," which had sold 4.8 million copies, followed by
Mariah Carey's "The Emancipation of Mimi" with 4.6 million sold, and
Kelly Clarkson's "Breakaway," which sold 3.3 million units, Nielsen SoundScan said.

Full-album downloads are counted under album sales along with other formats. Most digital downloads reflect single-track purchases.

Sales of music-related videos, another key revenue source for brick-and-mortar retailers, plunged 23 percent over the same time last year, Nielsen SoundScan said.

Holiday shoppers helped pump up music download sales figures with some last-minute shopping, buying 9.6 million downloads — the biggest sales week ever for digital downloads, according to the company.

Music lovers bought 5 million tracks during the same week last year.

Final 2005 figures won't be available until Jan. 4, 2006. The last week of the year typically sees a boost in music sales as gift certificates or other promotions given out for the holidays are spent. Those additional sales could help narrow the sales gap further.

Happy Holidays and all the best in 2006!!!

Dan and Dave

Paul, Ringo sue EMI over royalties

LONDON (AP) -- Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and relatives of their Beatles' bandmates are suing EMI to recover what they claim is more than $53 million in unpaid royalties, their company said Friday.

McCartney, Starr and relatives of John Lennon and George Harrison are pursuing the case both in New York and London.

"We have tried to reach a settlement through good faith negotiations and regret that our efforts have been in vain," said Neil Aspinall, who heads Apple Corps Ltd.

"Despite very clear provisions in our contracts, EMI persists in ignoring their obligations and duty to account fairly and with transparency," Aspinall said.

EMI declined to comment on the case.

'West Wing' Actor John Spencer Dies at 58

LOS ANGELES - John Spencer, who played a tough and dedicated politico on "The West Wing" who survived a serious illness to run for vice president, died of a heart attack Friday. He was 58.

Spencer died after being admitted to a Los Angeles hospital during the night, said his publicist, Ron Hofmann. He would have been 59 on Tuesday.

He was "one of those rare combinations of divinely gifted and incredibly generous," said Richard Schiff, who plays Toby Ziegler on the NBC series.

"There are very few personal treasures that you put in your knapsack to carry with you for the rest of your life, and he's one of those," Schiff said. He said Spencer had been struggling with health issues but seemed to have rebounded.

Spencer played Leo McGarry, the savvy and powerful chief of staff to President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet ( Martin Sheen). In a sad parallel to life, Spencer's character suffered a heart attack that forced him to give up his White House job.

McGarry recovered and was picked as a running mate for Democratic presidential contender Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits; the campaign against Republican Arnold Vinick ( Alan Alda) has been a central theme for the drama this season.

"John was an uncommonly good man, an exceptional role model and a brilliant actor," said Aaron Sorkin, who created the series, and Tommy Schlamme, one of the original executive producers, in a joint statement.

"We feel privileged to have known him and worked with him. He'll be missed and remembered every day by his many, many friends," they said.

Actress Allison Janney, C.J. Cregg on the series, described Spencer as a consummate professional actor. "Everyone adored him," she said.

"We have all lost a dear, dear brother," said Bradley Whitford, who plays Josh Lyman.

NBC and producer Warner Bros. Television praised Spencer's talent but did not address how his death would affect the Emmy Award-winning series, in production on its seventh season.

Spencer, who also starred on "L.A. Law" as attorney Tommy Mullaney, received an Emmy Award for his performance on "The West Wing" in 2002 and was nominated four other times for the series.

The actor, whose world-weary countenance was perfect for the role of McGarry, mirrored his character in several ways: Both were recovering alcoholics and both, Spencer once said, were driven.

"Like Leo, I've always been a workaholic, too," he told The Associated Press in a 2000 interview. "Through good times and bad, acting has been my escape, my joy, my nourishment. The drug for me, even better than alcohol, was acting."

Spencer grew up in Paterson, N.J., the son of blue-collar parents. With his enrollment at the Professional Children's School in Manhattan at age 16, he was sharing classes with the likes of Liza Minnelli and budding violinist Pinchas Zukerman.

As a teenager, he landed a recurring role on "The Patty Duke Show" as the boyfriend of English twin Cathy. Stage and film work followed. Then his big break: playing Harrison Ford's detective sidekick in the 1990 courtroom thriller "Presumed Innocent." That role led to his hiring for the final four years of "L.A. Law."

Spencer played a streetwise lawyer on the David E. Kelley drama that was in sharp contrast to the show's otherwise glamorous cast and setting.

After attending the Manhattan performing arts school, Spencer studied at Fairleigh Dickenson University. He then began working on stage in New York and in regional theaters, in plays including David Mamet's "Lakeboat" and Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie."

Spencer won an Obie Award for the 1981 off-Broadway production of "Still Life," about a Vietnam veteran, and received a Drama Desk nomination for "The Day Room."

His made his feature film debut with a small role in "War Games," which was followed by roles in "Sea of Love" and "Black Rain." Spencer said his work in "Presumed Innocent" represented a "watershed role."

In recent years, he worked both in studio and independent films, including "The Rock," "The Negotiator," "Albino Alligator," "Lesser Prophets" and "Cold Heart."

Spencer, an only child, is survived by "cousins, aunts, uncles, and wonderful friends," Hofmann said.

Barenaked Ladies, Bryan Adams up for song Oscars

The Barenaked Ladies and Bryan Adams are in the running for Oscars.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released its list of the 42 songs being considered for best original song.

Adams, a three-time Oscar nominee, has been named for It Ain’t Over Yet, a song he wrote for the movie, Racing Stripes.

Vancouver-based Adams was previously nominated for his work on Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (for which he also won a Grammy), Don Juan DeMarco and The Mirror Has Two Faces.

The Toronto-based Barenaked Ladies have been named for One Little Slip. The song was used in the Disney animated film Chicken Little.

The long list of 42 songs will be whittled down to five final choices to be announced January 31st.

Among the competition is Carly Simon's Shoulder to Shoulder from Pooh's Heffalump Movie, and 50 Cent's song I'll Whip Ya Head Boy from Get Rich or Die Tryin’.

Other artists with movie songs under consideration are Fountains of Wayne, Leigh Nash of Sixpence None The Richer, Polyphonic Spree, Sting and members of Radiohead.

Hollywood Has Dismal Year at Box Office

LOS ANGELES - A box-office jolt from the magic kingdoms of Kong, Narnia and Hogwarts will close Hollywood's year with some holiday cheer, though not enough to offset the biggest decline in movie attendance in 20 years.

Domestic revenues at movie theaters may fall below $9 billion for the first time since 2001 after averaging $9.3 billion over the last three years. Factoring in higher admission prices, the number of tickets sold is expected to finish at about 1.4 billion, the lowest since 1997.

Before Thanksgiving, attendance had been running 8 percent behind 2004's. Huge crowds for " Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," the fourth installment of the boy conjurer's adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, helped to whittle that deficit down to 7.3 percent by early December, according to box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Even with the last-minute surge from two other fantasy epics, "King Kong" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," movie attendance likely will be down 6 percent or more for the year.

That marks the largest drop since admissions fell 12 percent in 1985.

Some studio executives and Hollywood analysts say 2005 just brought a generally weaker lineup of films. Others insist movie-goers are abandoning ship in favor of home theaters with big screens and booming sound, where fans can watch films on DVD only a few months after their theatrical release.

Driving to a multiplex, finding a parking spot, fighting for a seat and putting up with high concessions prices and other cinema hassles makes the comfort of home sound ever more appealing.

"One thing we sometimes overlook, especially people in the business, is the quality of the moviegoing experience," said Richard Roeper, a Chicago Sun-Times critic and Roger Ebert's co-host on TV's "Ebert & Roeper and the Movies."

"If someone's waiting through 20 minutes of commercials, you've got people behind you kicking your seat and talking on cell phones, do you think a lot of people might say, `You know what? I've got a great sound system, I've got a 50-inch plasma screen. I'm just going to wait three months until the DVD comes out'?"

In an Associated Press-AOL News poll last summer, 73 percent of adults said they preferred watching movies at home on DVD, videotape or pay-per-view than going to theaters. And if the 2005 lineup of films truly looked less appealing, it's no wonder so many people stayed home.

"I think it's all of the above, really. There's certainly a lot of competition for those entertainment dollars," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony, which scored an early 2005 hit with "Hitch" but delivered such flops as "XXX: State of the Union," "Stealth," "Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo" and "Rent."

"I hate to sound Pollyanna about it, but I do believe that this is an anomaly," Bruer said. "Business will bounce back and over a period of time it'll fight its way back."

While studio honchos say it's premature to predict audiences will keep dwindling, 2005 marks the third-straight year attendance has fallen and the fifth year out of the last seven that theater crowds have shrunk.

But those declines came amid a broader upswing in movie attendance since the mid 1980s, with the number of tickets sold rising from just over 1 billion in 1986 to a modern high of 1.6 billion in 2002.

"When you look back over a long period of time, you find dips that are due to content," said Jeff Goldstein, general sales manager for Warner Bros., which released the "Harry Potter" and "Batman Begins" blockbusters but also the 2005 duds "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous" and "House of Wax." "To have the type of growth we've had, it's not realistic for that to continue. You're going to have some good years and some bad."

This past year started well with early hits that produced a box-office upswing before a prolonged slump began in February. Most weekends since, revenues have been down compared to the corresponding period in 2004, with the downturn stretching to a modern record of 19 weekends in a row during one stretch.

Some Hollywood apologists note that 2004 had an expected $370 million infusion from "The Passion of the Christ," which lured millions of conservative Christians who ordinarily do not go to movies. Discount 2004's grosses by that amount and 2005 is right on par, they say.

On the other hand, the "Passion" bonus that padded 2004 revenues may have disguised the fact that the box-office slump actually started then and has now lingered almost two years. That would be a clearer signal that audiences could be growing tired of movie theaters — for good.

"I think it's too early to make that call. We'll have to wait and see the quality of the product for next year," said Wayne Lewellen, head of distribution for Paramount, which scored with "War of the Worlds" and "The Longest Yard" but struck out with "The Honeymooners" and "The Bad News Bears." "At least on paper, it looks like a strong kickoff next summer."

To be sure, early summer 2006 seems to have a lot more muscle than the weak lineup that preceded "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith," the season's first major hit.

Early May 2005 presented such uncharacteristically mute fare as "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Kicking & Screaming," a far cry from the popcorn flicks like "The Mummy" movies that typically open in that time frame to kick off summer.

Next May starts with Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible III" and "Poseidon," a remake of the disaster flick "The Poseidon Adventure," with Tom Hanks' "The Da Vinci Code," the superhero sequel "X-Men 3" and the animated tales "Cars" and "Over the Hedge" quickly following.

And with "King Kong" and "Chronicles of Narnia" likely to carry strong business over into January, the industry could be on a much better footing through the first half of 2006. Some critics have said "King Kong" could be the next "Titanic," the modern box-office champ with $600 million domestically and $1.8 billion worldwide.

"The attention devoted to box office this year has been negative, so I think it'll be a psychological boost for Hollywood to end the year on a positive note with `Kong' and `Narnia,'" said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations. "Also, the audience tends to follow the money, so if these movies really do well, they tend to get excited and want to go back to the theater."

"Kong" Opens--But How Will It Close?

King Kong is here. The jury is still out.

Peter Jackson's monster-sized, $200 million monster-movie remake grossed $9.8 million in its Wednesday debut, box-office analysts said.

Is that good? Is that bad? Is that Adrien Brody's biggest opening ever?

The last question can be answered with an unqualified no. (The Village holds that distinction.) As for the others...

"It's too early to tell whether Kong is a success or not," BoxOfficeMojo.com's Brandon Gray said.

Paul Dergarabedian of the box-office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations Co. agreed. "It's just the beginning," he said. "To me, it's just the start of something."

That Kong's opening was neither flashy--it ranks 21st on the list of all-time Wednesday openers, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com--nor a fiasco arguably can be chalked up to the calendar. Of the top 20 Wednesday openers, only five bowed in December, including all three parts of Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and of those, none bowed as early as Kong, with schools still in session and office vacations still days off.

"We'll have a much better picture on Sunday morning," Dergarabedian said.

While Gray wouldn't offer a prediction as to Kong's Friday-Sunday gross, he did guess that it wouldn't top the stunning $65.6 million posted last weekend by The Chronicles of Narnia. Compared to Jackson's ape epic, Narnia is shorter (two hours compared to three) and more kid-friendly (PG compared to PG-13), factors that generate more screenings, more potential audience members and, just maybe, more money.

If Kong's opening weekend turns out to be less than king-sized, and it already is far off the pace of Jackson's most recent movie, 2003's Return of the King, box-office analysts still might not be ready to write it off as a disappointment. "It's a different kind of beast," Gray said.

Specifically, Dergarabedian referred to Kong, a 1930s-set adventure, as a "long-haul movie," one that will rely on word of mouth and maybe some Oscar nominations to make a $200 million investment worthwhile. In other words, he said, the Titanic model.

Kong and Titanic have been linked a lot of late. Both movies were expensive to make, and time-consuming to watch. In the end, Titanic was a winner--with 11 Oscars, and the title as the world's reigning box office champ.

But in the beginning? Titanic set sail with a solid, not spectacular, $28.6 million opening weekend. It needed 14 days to cross the $100 million mark. By comparison, Spider-Man 2 needed only eight days to break $200 million. The race, however, went to the tortoise that was Titanic, which grossed $600.8 million during an eight-month theatrical run.

To read their notices, most critics wouldn't be troubled if Kong, starring Brody, Jack Black and beast-magnet Naomi Watts, took up a lengthy residence at the multiplex. Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News called the movie "brilliant." Todd McCarthy of Variety called it "stupendous." The typically understated Gene Shalit of NBC's Today called it, um, "fabularious."

Reviews, however, don't necessarily sell tickets. The problem is, 2005 Hollywood isn't sure what does. If King Kong, with its strong reviews and iconic source material, can't turn around the studios' year of box-office discontent, are executives bound to take headers off the Empire State Building themselves?

"I think people would be if this doesn't bring [audiences] in," Dergarabedian said. "But I think it's going to perform."

Freeman Criticizes Black History Month

NEW YORK - Morgan Freeman says the concept of a month dedicated to black history is "ridiculous." "You're going to relegate my history to a month?" the 68-year-old actor says in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" to air Sunday (7 p.m. EST). "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history."

Black History Month has roots in historian Carter G. Woodson's Negro History Week, which he designated in 1926 as the second week in February to mark the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln.

Woodson said he hoped the week could one day be eliminated — when black history would become fundamental to American history.

Freeman notes there is no "white history month," and says the only way to get rid of racism is to "stop talking about it."

The actor says he believes the labels "black" and "white" are an obstacle to beating racism.

"I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man," Freeman says.

Freeman received Oscar nominations for his roles in 1987's "Street Smart," 1989's "Driving Miss Daisy" and 1994's "The Shawshank Redemption." He finally won earlier this year for "Million Dollar Baby."

Farrellys' "South Park" Smackdown

Is Cartman a crook?

Peter and Bobby Farrelly, the gross-out gurus behind Dumb and Dumber and There's Something About Mary are accusing South Park masterminds Trey Parker and Matt Stone of ripping off a movie idea.

Per Daily Variety, the Farrellys claim a 2004 South Park episode, in which Cartman pretends to be mentally disabled to compete in the Special Olympics, blatantly copied The Ringer, the brother's upcoming movie about, yes, a guy who feigns a mental disability to win the Special Olympics.

Parker and Stone's story line pissed off the Farrellys and Ringer writer Ricky Blitt so much that it sparked ill will between the two comedy teams.

"When you think of a premise so radical it's unmakable, you hang in for seven years to see it through, it is a shock to the system to have people on Websites saying, 'You hack, you stole this from South Park,' " Blitt tells Variety. "I set this up so long before that episode was conceived. It is bad enough to have your idea taken: It's 1,000 times worse when you are then accused of stealing."

The Ringer, starring ex-Jackass Johnny Knoxville as the faux Special Olympian, is scheduled for release Dec. 23.

There's been no mention of a lawsuit, but Peter Farrelly, who produces the film with his brother, believes the plot similarities weren't an accident.

"There is no way those guys didn't know we were making this very movie as they took it upon themselves to do that episode," he tells Variety. "They know what they did and they know it was wrong. Period. These are guys I have always respected, but what they did was very creepy."

Blitt says he had shopped his screenplay all over town, including to Parker and Stone, before the Farrellys and their Connundrum Entertainment snapped it up.

But veteran producer Bob Kosberg (Twelve Monkeys), who pitched The Ringer to the South Park brain trust, tells the trade he never actually spoke to Parker and Stone about the screenplay, and the pair themselves have denied ever hearing about the concept.

"I can totally see why Ricky would be bummed about people accusing him of stealing an idea he came up with himself," Stone says in Variety. "But this is a matter of people having the same idea, and I assure you we weren't aware of the movie when we did that episode. And I don't agree with Peter's point that you should back off if you have an idea and find someone else has it too."

"It should be a race to the market," he adds. "I don't think that is all their movie has going for it Getting the Special Olympics to take part, now that is a cool thing."

The Farrellys, who volunteer for Best Buddies, a mentoring program for people with mental retardation, wanted to make sure the film didn't stigmatize the athletes and sought counsel from the Special Olympics. The brothers even went so far as giving the organization final script approval.

Parker and Stone's take-no-prisoners comedy has targeted everything from the war in Iraq to The Passion of the Christ to Michael Jackson's legal problems to a recent episode lampooning Tom Cruise's affiliation with the Church of Scientology.

When discussing the origins of their puppet flick, Team America: World Police, Parker and Stone went on saying they had intended to use a purloined copy of The Day After Tomorrow script and shoot it word for word with puppets and release it the same day the live-action version. Their lawyers convinced them otherwise.

However, Parker and Stone are themselves involved with the disabled, financing and executive producing How's Your News?, a series of documentaries featuring mentally challenged reporters interviewing high-profile celebs, politicians and regular folk.

Sensitive to the Farrellys' accusations, the two maintain their innocence.

"It's hard for Trey and I to hear them come down on us like we ripped off an idea," Stone says in Variety. "I met Bob Farrelly once for about four minutes. I never met anybody else, neither has Trey, and we knew nothing about their movie. We thought of the idea for that episode early on, but we couldn't make it for two or three seasons. When the show expanded, we were able to make it.

"I don't think it means that much; if The Ringer is a good movie; it will do well. And I remember wanting to remake King Kong, 10 years ago. Does that mean I was ripped off? I wish wouldn't attack us, and 'creepy' is kind of harsh."

Parker and Stone just inked a three-year production deal with Paramount to write and direct movies. They're signed to produce new episodes of South Park for Comedy Central through 2008.

The Farrellys, meanwhile, are attempting to stage their long-gestating update of The Three Stooges.

Showtime, ABC Try Getting "Arrested"

Although Fox has stunted Arrested Development's development, the show's obituary might have to wait: Both Showtime and ABC have expressed interest at heading into the wild Bluth yonder.

The two networks are in preliminary talks to pick up the critically acclaimed yet consistently low-rated show after it ends its run on Fox early next year, per trade reports.

All three networks have refused to comment on the talks, except to say that no formal negotiations have taken place.

And for good reason: Fox has yet to officially cancel the show.

Though the network recently cut the series' season order from 22 to 13, no official axing has taken place, making it difficult for producer 20th Century Fox Television to engage in any closed-door deal-making.

Besides, there are other potential hiccups to the Emmy-winner's would-be network jump.

The Jason Bateman-led series comes with a hefty $1.6 million price tag per half-hour. According to Daily Variety, the high cost means the studio is in the hole $400,000 per episode produced, which is part of the reason why the season's episodes were so drastically cut.

That, and the fact that the show averages just 4 million viewers per week, despite recent efforts to boost the ratings with the stunt castings of Scott Baio, Charlize Theron and most recently, Justine Bateman.

But 4 million viewers is nearly twice the amount that a bona fide cable hit draws, a key should the series jump to Showtime and keep its audience intact. But Showtime would likely try to find a way to rein in the per-episode cost.

To help offset the cost, 20th Century Fox TV may push for any bidders to pick up at least 22 episodes. The studio needs just 36 more to reach 88 total--the magic number required to sell into syndication. (Of course, a lucrative syndication deal is not guaranteed.) There's also speculation that 20th Century Fox TV might be willing to share home-entertainment revenues as an enticement--Development is a strong performer on DVD.

News of networks putting out feelers for Arrested Development comes just two weeks after executive producer Brian Grazer told CNN he was working to make sure this season wouldn't be the series' last.

"I can't tell you anything other than I'm hoping it works out in the way that we want it to," Grazer said. "But I'm optimistic."

The cast, meanwhile, has mixed feelings about a possible network jump.

"Obviously, we would all do it until we're dead," Jason Bateman told E! Online last week. "But you don't want to be the last guy at the bar.

"I think we're getting out just in time," he continued. "We may have screwed it up if we stayed any longer."

Barring any last-minute reprieves, Arrested Development's season--and series--finale is expected to air on Fox in late January or early February.

NBC unveils Sunday night NFL plans

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Nine months before it takes over the Sunday night NFL game from ESPN, NBC is making more moves to brand that night its own.

NBC Sports said Wednesday that the name of the studio show will be "Football Night in America."

NBC's multiyear rights deal begins in early September with a Thursday night extravaganza and game. The details of the first Sunday night game won't be announced until April, but the four-hour coverage will be anchored by NBC Olympics and sports personality Bob Costas.

He also will host the studio show, which NBC Sports said is the first primetime Sunday broadcast TV show about the NFL. The one-hour show will begin at 7 p.m. ET, around the same time games on CBS and NBC will conclude. Kickoff is set for 8:15 p.m. ET.

Several other pieces of the broadcast already are in place, with the naming of John Madden as on-air analyst and Cris Collinsworth as in-studio analyst. A play-by-play announcer hasn't been picked, though the natural -- Al Michaels -- agreed during the summer to remain with ABC and move to ESPN when it takes over "Monday Night Football" in the fall.

Dylan To Host Weekly Music Show On XM

You can call him Bobby and you can call him Zimmie. And come March 2006, you can call him DJ. Bob Dylan has agreed to host a weekly, one-hour music show for XM Satellite Radio's Deep Tracks channel. It marks the first time the music legend will have hosted a radio show.

Featuring an eclectic mix of music hand-picked by the cultural icon, the program will also include commentary from Dylan on music and other topics, along with Dylan interviewing guests and taking emails from XM subscribers.

"Songs and music have always inspired me," Dylan said in a statement. "A lot of my own songs have been played on the radio, but this is the first time I've ever been on the other side of the mic. It'll be as exciting for me as it is for XM."

XM currently has more than 5 million subscribers and expects to end the year with 6 million. Dylan has released more than 44 albums, containing more than 600 songs covered by more than 2,000 artists, ranging from Rage Against The Machine to Duke Ellington to Garth Brooks.

Prince Happy With New Record Deal

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Prince, who famously scrawled "slave" on his face during a dispute with his record company in the mid-1990s, said Tuesday he received everything he wanted in his latest deal with Universal Records.

"I got a chance to structure an agreement the way I saw fit instead of the other way around," Prince said during a news conference to promote a video for his new single,"Te Amo Corazon."

The 47-year-old superstar has signed a one-album deal with Universal to release his upcoming album, "3121," early next year.

Prince declined to give financial details of the agreement, but said it was similar to the joint venture he struck with Columbia Records in 2003. In that deal, the label manufactured and distributed his 2004 hit album "Musicology," for NPG Records, Prince's label.

Asked why he would sign on with the biggest record company in the world given his past clashes with major labels, Prince said, "I don't consider Universal a slave ship. I did my own agreement ... I got exactly what I wanted."

The singer had some advice for new artists. He challenged them to read the fine print on their record contracts.

On Tuesday, VH1 and its affiliated networks, including Tempo and VH1 Soul, premiered "Te Amo Corazon," directed by Salma Hayek.

VH1 will also make the song available on its Vspot broadband channel and VH1 Mobile.

Prince said the sultry ballad is not indicative of what the album sounds like. He also said a tour was in the works but declined to give details.

'Brokeback' nabs 7 Golden Globe noms

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif (AP) - The gay cowboy romance Brokeback Mountain positioned itself as a key Oscar competitor Tuesday, roping in seven Golden Globe nominations, including best dramatic picture and honours for actor Heath Ledger and director Ang Lee.

Other best drama picture contenders were the murder thriller The Constant Gardener, the Edward R. Murrow tale Good Night, and Good Luck, the mobster story A History of Violence and Match Point, a drama about infidelity.

The Globes were a triumph for smaller budgeted films over big studio productions.

"This is the first time in the history of the Golden Globes that all of the best (dramatic) film nominees are independent movies made for under $30 million," said Philip Berk, president of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the awards.

The Globes have a separate category for musical or comedy films. Nominated were the theatre tale Mrs. Henderson Presents, the Jane Austen costume pageant Pride & Prejudice, the Broadway musical The Producers, the divorce story The Squid and the Whale, and the Johnny Cash film biography Walk the Line.

The Globes were the latest recognition for Brokeback Mountain, a critical darling that has received top honours from critics groups in New York City, Los Angeles and Boston.

Still, the film has an uphill trail to the Oscars, whose voters may hesitate to anoint a gay-themed movie as its champion.

"It's going to be a front-runner, but it really has a mountain to climb, because never have we seen a gay romance in the best-picture race before," said Tom O'Neil, who runs theenvelope.com, an awards website.

Movies with gay angles have earned acting honours, Tom Hanks winning for Philadelphia and Hilary Swank for Boys Don't Cry, but those movies did not break into the best-picture pack.

Yet Brokeback Mountain has proved a favourite at film festivals and debuted with huge box-office grosses last weekend, taking in almost $550,000 in just five theatres. The movie goes into wider release over the next few weeks, its backers hoping it will find a broad audience despite the subject matter.

"Clearly, we felt that because the film speaks a very universal emotional language; it's going to surprise people, when it comes out, how accessible it is," said James Schamus, a producer on Brokeback Mountain and co-president of Focus Features, the NBC Universal banner that released the film.

Best dramatic actor nominee Ledger plays a husband concealing a homosexual affair with an old sheep herding buddy from his family. Other nominees included three actors playing real-life figures: Russell Crowe as Depression-era boxer Jim Braddock in Cinderella Man, Philip Seymour Hoffman as author Truman Capote in Capote, and David Strathairn as newsman Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck. The fifth nominee was Terrence Howard as a small-time pimp-turned-rap singer in Hustle & Flow.

Good Night, and Good Luck was tied for second-most film nominations with four, along with Match Point and The Producers. The Murrow tale earned a best-director nomination for George Clooney, who also had a supporting actor movie nomination for the oil industry thriller Syriana.

Felicity Huffman received two nominations - best dramatic actress in a film for her role as a man preparing for sex-change surgery in Transamerica and best actress in a TV musical or comedy for Desperate Housewives. Her Desperate Housewives co-stars Marcia Cross, Teri Hatcher and Eva Longoria also were nominated, and the ABC show earned a best TV comedy bid.

ABC also scored three nominations for best dramatic TV series: Commander in Chief, Grey's Anatomy and Lost. Bids also went to Fox's Prison Break and HBO's Rome. Other nominees for best comedy or musical TV series were HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage, UPN's Everybody Hates Chris, NBC's My Name is Earl and Showtime's Weeds.

Other best dramatic film actress nominees were Maria Bello as a wife learning painful secrets about her husband in A History of Violence, Gwyneth Paltrow as an unstable math genius's daughter in Proof, Charlize Theron as a woman leading a sexual harassment lawsuit in North Country and Ziyi Zhang as a poor girl who becomes the belle of Japan's geisha houses in Memoirs of a Geisha.

Based on a short story by Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain grabbed a supporting actress nomination for Michelle Williams as Ledger's wife, who chooses to ignore his affair with a man (Jake Gyllenhaal) to hold her family together. The movie also scored a directing nomination for Lee and received nominations for best screenplay, score and song.

For best actor in a movie, musical or comedy, Globe voters nominated Pierce Brosnan as a burned-out hit man in The Matador, Jeff Daniels as a husband unglued by divorce in The Squid and the Whale, Johnny Depp as candyman Willy Wonka in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Nathan Lane as a Broadway con man in The Producers, Cillian Murphy as a cross-dressing Irishman in Breakfast on Pluto, and Joaquin Phoenix as country legend Cash in Walk the Line.

Best musical or comedy film actress nominees: Judi Dench as a 1930s British dame who opens a nude theatrical review in Mrs. Henderson Presents, Keira Knightley as the romantic heroine in Pride & Prejudice, Laura Linney as a divorcing wife in The Squid and the Whale, Sarah Jessica Parker as a woman hated by her fiance's relatives in The Family Stone, and Reese Witherspoon as country singer June Carter in Walk the Line.

Besides Lee and Clooney, the directing contenders were Woody Allen for Match Point, Peter Jackson for King Kong, Fernando Meirelles for The Constant Gardener, and Steven Spielberg for Munich.

In addition to Clooney, supporting movie actor nominees were Matt Dillon for Crash, Will Ferrell for The Producers, Paul Giamatti for Cinderella Man, and Bob Hoskins for Mrs. Henderson Presents.

Playing a bigoted cop who dotes on his sickly dad, Dillon was the lone acting nominee from an ensemble of great performances in Crash, which interweaves multiple story lines on a single tension-filled day in Los Angeles.

"It was honest and truthful to what I believed was an L.A. cop, not typical of what every cop is," Dillon said. "It went and explored these two extremes ... bitter racist cop and really loving son who cares about his sick father. These are the complicated things we see in life."

Supporting actress nominees: Scarlett Johansson for Match Point, Shirley MacLaine for In Her Shoes, Frances McDormand for North Country, Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener, and Williams for Brokeback Mountain.

Two years ago, the Golden Globes correctly predicted Oscar winners in all key categories, including best-picture champ The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.

But a year ago, the Globes missed the mark, picking The Aviator as best picture, an honour that went to Million Dollar Baby at the Oscars.

Winners of the Golden Globes will be announced Jan. 16, five days before polls close for Oscar voters. Oscar nominations come out Jan. 31, and the awards will be presented March 5.

Here is the list of nominees for 63rd annual Golden Globe Awards

Motion picture and television nominees for the 63rd annual Golden Globe Awards announced Tuesday in Beverly Hills, Calif:

MOTION PICTURES

Picture, Drama: Brokeback Mountain, The Constant Gardener, Good Night, and Good Luck, A History of Violence, Match Point.

Actress, Drama: Maria Bello, A History of Violence; Felicity Huffman, Transamerica; Gwyneth Paltrow, Proof; Charlize Theron, North Country; Ziyi Zhang, Memoirs of a Geisha.

Actor, Drama: Russell Crowe, Cinderella Man; Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote; Terrence Howard, Hustle & Flow; Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain; David Strathairn, Good Night, and Good Luck.

Picture, Musical or Comedy: Mrs. Henderson Presents, Pride & Prejudice, The Producers, The Squid and the Whale, Walk the Line.

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Judi Dench, Mrs. Henderson Presents; Keira Knightley, Pride & Prejudice; Laura Linney, The Squid and the Whale; Sarah Jessica Parker, The Family Stone; Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line.

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Pierce Brosnan, The Matador; Jeff Daniels, The Squid and the Whale; Johnny Depp, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; Nathan Lane, The Producers; Cillian Murphy, Breakfast on Pluto; Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line.

Supporting Actress: Scarlett Johansson, Match Point; Shirley MacLaine, In Her Shoes; Frances McDormand, North Country; Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener; Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain.

Supporting Actor: George Clooney, Syriana; Matt Dillon, Crash; Will Ferrell, The Producers; Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man; Bob Hoskins, Mrs. Henderson Presents.

Director: Woody Allen, Match Point; George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck; Peter Jackson, King Kong; Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain; Fernando Meirelles, The Constant Gardener; Steven Spielberg, Munich.

Screenplay: Woody Allen, Match Point; George Clooney and Grant Heslov, Good Night, and Good Luck; Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco, Crash; Tony Kushner and Eric Roth, Munich; Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, Brokeback Mountain.

Foreign Language: Kung Fu Hustle, China; Master of the Crimson Armor aka The Promise, China; Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noel), France; Paradise Now, Palestine; Tsotsi, South Africa.

Original Score: Alexandre Desplat, Syriana; James Newton Howard, King Kong; Gustavo Santaolalla, Brokeback Mountain; Harry Gregson-Williams, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; John Williams, Memoirs of a Geisha;

Original Song: A Love That Will Never Grow Old from Brokeback Mountain; Christmas in Love from Christmas in Love; There's Nothing Like a Show on Broadway from The Producers; Travelin' Thru from Transamerica; Wunderkind from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

TELEVISION:

Series, Drama: Commander in Chief, ABC; Grey's Anatomy, ABC; Lost, ABC; Prison Break, Fox; Rome, HBO.

Actress, Drama: Patricia Arquette, Medium; Glenn Close, The Shield; Geena Davis, Commander in Chief; Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer; Polly Walker, Rome.

Actor, Drama: Patrick Dempsey, Grey's Anatomy; Matthew Fox, Lost; Hugh Laurie, House; Wentworth Miller, Prison Break; Kiefer Sutherland, 24.

Series, Musical or Comedy: Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO; Desperate Housewives, ABC; Entourage, HBO; Everybody Hates Chris, UPN; My Name is Earl, NBC; Weeds, Showtime.

Actress, Musical or Comedy: Marcia Cross, Desperate Housewives; Teri Hatcher, Desperate Housewives; Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives; Eva Longoria, Desperate Housewives; Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds.

Actor, Musical or Comedy: Zach Braff, Scrubs; Steve Carell, The Office; Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm; Jason Lee, My Name is Earl; Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men.

Miniseries or movie: Empire Falls, HBO; Into the West, TNT; Lackawanna Blues, HBO; Sleeper Cell, Showtime; Viva Blackpool, BBC America; Warm Springs, HBO.

Actress, Miniseries or Movie: Halle Berry, Their Eyes Were Watching God; Kelly MacDonald, The Girl in the Cafe; S. Epatha Merkerson, Lackawanna Blues; Cynthia Nixon, Warm Springs; Mira Sorvino, Human Trafficking.

Actor, Miniseries or Movie: Kenneth Branagh, Warm Springs; Ed Harris, Empire Falls; Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Elvis; Bill Nighy, The Girl in the Cafe; Donald Sutherland, Human Trafficking.

Supporting Actress, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Candice Bergen, Boston Legal; Camryn Manheim, Elvis; Sandra Oh, Grey's Anatomy; Elizabeth Perkins, Weeds; Joanne Woodward, Empire Falls.

Supporting Actor, Series, Miniseries or Movie: Naveen Andrews, Lost; Paul Newman, Empire Falls; Jeremy Piven, Entourage; Randy Quaid, Elvis; Donald Sutherland, Commander in Chief.

'Kong' sets sight on box office throne

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - He's already 25 feet tall and 8,000 pounds, but if Universal Pictures has its way, great ape King Kong is only going to get bigger.

The movie studio on Tuesday said its gargantuan film "King Kong" will play in 3,568 U.S. and Canadian theaters and another 6,000-plus venues in 55 regions around the world when it hits screens just after midnight on December 14.

While that's not a record -- several films have seen wider debuts and "Shrek 2" holds the record at 4,163 U.S. and Canadian theaters -- the number nevertheless is huge.

"(Theater owners) want it, and they want it in as many play dates as they can get it," said Nikki Rocco, Universal film distribution president.

Rocco declined to predict just how much business the widely anticipated film from "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson can scare up at box offices, but she did say Universal hopes for a figure that would rival the first "Rings" movie.

"The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" debuted in December 2001 to initial five-day ticket sales of more than $75 million, and that appears to be easy pickings for "Kong."

More recently, "Spider-Man" and the final two "Rings" movies all took in more than $100 million in their first five days, according to box office tracker www.Boxofficemojo.com.

Brandon Gray, president of Boxofficemojo.com, also declined to predict debut ticket sales for "Kong," saying many variables would have an impact.

He cited its PG-13 rating, which might restrict the number of younger moviegoers, and the roughly three-hour running time, which reduces the number of times it can screen in one day compared with a standard, two-hour movie.

"The question is not: 'Will it be big?' The question is: 'how big it will be?'," he said. "It is poised to be the highest grossing picture of December."

At a cost of more than $200 million to make and tens of millions more to market, Universal needs "King Kong" to play big in order to make a profit.

So far Jackson's remake of the 1933 classic about a giant ape plucked from a mysterious island and transported back to the United States has a lot of factors working in its favor.

The movie has been widely anticipated and Jackson has a stellar reputation and huge fan base from the three "Rings" movies, which have raked in more than $2.6 billion combined.

Moreover, critics have raved about "Kong." Kirk Honeycutt, reviewer for show business newspaper The Hollywood Reporter, called it "spectacle filmmaking at its best."

The Couch Potato Report - December 13th, 2005

This week The Couch Potato Report features one of the best, and one of the worst films of the year.

It has been said that laughter is the best medicine.

I put that theory to the test one week in late August when I was in need of some hilarity.

Luckily I wasn't disappointed, and I felt better after one dose, but I went back for two more.

The medicine I took was a movie called THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN.

Steve Carell from ANCHORMAN and BRUCE ALMIGHTY is THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN.

The plot of the film is exactly what the titles suggests, it's about how a 40-year-old virgin named Andy looks for love.

Not just sex, but love.

Along the way Andy discovers chest waxing, speed dating, and he is encouraged by his friends and co-workers.

THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN is incredibly funny, all of the main and supporting characters are personable and interesting, and the dialogue is always entertaining, and sometimes insightful.

When I needed to laugh, this movie made me laugh, and every time I have watched it since, I still laugh just as hard.

I don't think you can ask for more from a comedy than that.

THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN is one of my favourite films of the year.

On the other hand is THE ISLAND.

I wouldn't call THE ISLAND the worst film of 2005, but it is definitely close.

In the film Ewan McGregor from BIG FISH and Scarlett Johansson of LOST IN TRANSLATION star as clones.

They are residents of what they perceive to be a utopian facility sometime in the mid 21st century.

Every resident of this carefully controlled environment hope that they are chosen to go to the "The Island" - reportedly the last uncontaminated location on the planet.

But soon McGregor's character finds out that he, and everyone else in the facility are clones.

After that, the film's interesting premise is thrown aside and THE ISLAND becomes a run and hide, explosion and chase film.

That isn't too big of a surprise as the movie was directed by Michael Bay, the man responsible for the less-than-subtle films ARMAGEDDON and PEARL HARBOUR.

McGregor and Johansson are both talented, personable actors with great physical appeal, but they are wasted in THE ISLAND and if you watch the movie your time will be wasted as well.

To recap, I think THE ISLAND is a waste of your time.

Some other people think that sitting and watching TV is the ultimate waste of time.

For others - like me - watching TV is an enjoyable way to relax and be entertained.

When I was in high school I used to relax and be entertained by MIAMI VICE. Soon after I completed my education, THE SIMPSONS became a staple of my daily and weekly TV watching.

Now, there are new box sets available for both shows!

MIAMI VICE: SEASON TWO and THE SIMPSONS: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH SEASON.

The former continues to follow the adventures of the vice squad detectives of the Miami Police Department; specifically the adventures of Crockett and Tubbs.

The 3-disc set for SEASON TWO features the 22 episodes of the 1985-86 season and begins with "Prodigal Son," a two-hour episode that transplants Crockett and Tubbs to New York.

Along the way are guest stars Peter Allen, Gene Simmons, Pam Grier, Phil Collins, Bruce McGill, David Strathairn, Little Richard, Bob Balaban, and G. Gordon Liddy.

MIAMI VICE is a TV show that is a product of the 80s, and many of the episodes reflect the period so effectively that at times it does seem a bit dated.

But that is also a part of its charm. I enjoyed MIAMI VICE in the 80s and I still recommend MIAMI VICE now because it remains a great show and a great waste of time.

MIAMI VICE ran from 1984 to 1989 and the year it went off the air was the same year THE SIMPSONS debuted.

THE SIMPSONS: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH SEASON contains all 25 original episodes, and another incredible array of commentaries, deleted scenes and extras.

Some of the episodes in the season include the answer to "Who Shot Mr. Burns?", the Radioactive Man movie, Bart selling his soul for five dollars, "Lisa the Vegetarian", featuring Paul and the late Linda McCartney, "King-Size Homer", Sideshow Bob returns, former President George Bush moves next door, "Homerpalooza", and "The Treehouse of Horror' special features Homer in 3-D.

My favourite is "The Simpsons 138th Show Spectacular', hosted by Troy McClure - who is voiced by the late, great Phil Hartman.

THE SIMPSONS is still airing new episodes, and will be back next year for it's eighteenth season, but it is the episodes in the seasons that are already available on DVD that make it worth watching, owning, and laughing at.

And even if watching TV is a waste of time, remember laughter is the best medicine.

THE SIMPSONS: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH SEASON, MIAMI VICE: SEASON TWO, THE ISLAND and THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN are all now available at a store near you.

Coming up in three weeks on the next Couch Potato Report

Bill Murray stars as a man who travels across the country to find his son in BROKEN FLOWERS, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are WEDDING CRASHERS, and the TV show FIREFLY becomes the movie SERENITY.

Also on the next Report, Jennifer Connelly's talent and beauty can't save DARK WATER and Jessica Alba only has her beauty on display in INTO THE BLUE.

And then there is the documentary GRIZZLY MAN about two grizzly bear activists who were killed in October of 2003 while living among grizzlies in Alaska.

I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and some other releases, in twenty-one days.

For now, that's this week's COUCH POTATO REPORT.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS, Enjoy the movies and I'll see you back here next time on The Couch!

Bateman, Ostriches Set for 'Scrubs' Appearances

Completing a "trade" that began more than eight months ago with Zach Braff appearing on "Arrested Development," Jason Bateman is set to guest-star on an episode of "Scrubs" later this season.

Along with a handful of ornery ostriches.

Bateman's appearance on the NBC show, which is about to begin its fifth season, has been in the works for some time. "Scrubs" creator Bill Lawrence is an avowed "Arrested Development" fan, and Bateman is friendly with several "Scrubs" writers. Schedule conflicts, however, meant that he wasn't able to do a guest spot last season.

The plan then called for Bateman to work on an episode shot earlier this fall, but his scenes had to be delayed after he had surgery to remove a benign polyp from his throat (production on "Arrested" also stopped while he recuperated). The "Scrubs" crew shot the rest of the episode and will film Bateman's scenes in January, Lawrence says. Provided Braff is over his ostrich-induced trauma by then.

About the birds: In the episode, Braff's J.D. is miffed that a patient (Bateman) whom he worked hard to treat didn't offer so much as a thank you. J.D. and Turk (Donald Faison) decide to track him down and extract a word of gratitude from him. What ensues "will be a sign of how weird the show has gotten on some level," Lawrence says.

"So we go by his house, and he has a sign on his gate that says 'Beware of birds.' And when we go into his gated property, we see about 10 ostriches," Braff says, laughing.

"He's a domestic ostrich farmer," Lawrence adds. Braff, still laughing, picks up the thread: "He's got 10 domestic ostriches, and they surround us. One of him puts his hoof, or whatever you call it, on the gate and locks it. And they surround us and beat the hell out of us."

Lawrence: "By the way, on a real note, if you're ever doing a TV show or movie, ostriches are the scariest animals on earth. They kick with the power of a horse [but] with a claw on the end" of their feet."

"So Bill thought it would be funny to place me in a gated area with 12 of them," Braff says. "Anyway, to make a long story short, the ostriches beat the hell out of us and hurl me through a plate-glass window into his home, where we find Jason Bateman, who's the keeper of them. And he's a pretty crazy guy."

An airdate for Bateman's "Scrubs" episode hasn't been scheduled yet. The show returns to NBC Tuesday, Jan. 3.

NEW CD RELEASES FOR DECEMBER 13, 2005

Anti-Social Music (members of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Hold Steady and more) Sings the Great American Songbook (Peacock)

Beck Guerolito (remixes of all songs from "Guero"; w/the Beastie Boys' Ad Rock, Boards of Canada, the Dust Brothers' John King and more) (Interscope)

Bo Bice (from 2005 American Idol) The Real Thing (DualDisc same day; w/Nickelback's Chad Kroeger, Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora and ex-Evanescense guitarist Ben Moody) (RCA)

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan Ramblin' Man EP (V2)

Coheed & Cambria Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV: Volume 1. From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (CD/DVD combo; Special Edition) (Columbia)

Disturbing tha Peace Ludacris Presents (limited-edition CD/DVD combo available same day) (Def Jam)

Flipsyde We the People (Interscope)

James Friedman Go Commando! (mix CD w/tracks by the Rapture, Bloc Party and more) (Defend)

Jaheim Ghetto Classics (Warner Bros.)

Josie Mel Rasta Still De ‘Bout (Minor7Flat5)

Lamb of God Killadelphia (CD/DVD combo) (Epic)

Dave Matthews Band The Complete Weekend on the Rocks (eight CDs/DVD; live album from September 2005 shows at Red Rocks) (RCA)

Slim Thug Already Platinum (Chopped and Screwed) (Geffen)

Tyra Introducing (Universal)

Youngbloodz Ev'rybody Know Me (w/Lil Jon, Young Buck, TLC's T-Boz and more) (LaFace/Zomba)

VA Draft Radio Volume One (two CDs; mixed by the X-Ecutioners' Total Eclipse and Bad Seed) (Draft)

VA Snoop Dogg Presents: Welcome to tha Chuuch - Tha Album (Koch)

OST Aeon Flux (score by Graeme Revell) (Varése Sarabande)

OST King Kong (Peter Jackson remake w/Naomi Watts and Jack Black) (Decca)

OST Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - the Complete Recordings (four CDs; w/new artwork, packaging and extensive liner notes) (Reprise)

OST The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (two-CD special edition available same day; live-action adaptation of C.S. Lewis classic; w/songs from Alanis Morrissette, Tim Finn and Imogen Heap plus original score by Harry Gregson-Williams) (Disney)

OST Water (score by Mychael Danna) (Varèse Sarabande)

DVD Bow Wow/Omarion Scream Tour IV: Hearthrobs Live (Columbia)

DVD Erasure The Show - Live in Cologne (Mute)

"Kong" Crowned by AFI

King Kong has crashed award-show season.

The great ape's outsized new movie--that would be King Kong--towered above the competition as the American Film Institute on Sunday unveiled its year-end picks for Movies of the Year.

Because the AFI doesn't play favorites among its favorites, Kong only towered above the likes of action-figure collector Andy Stitzer because he's taller. But as far as the institute is concerned, King Kong and The 40-Year-Old Virgin are created equal, and are equally good.

Even more than the critics awards unveiled in the last few days, the AFI's take on what made for great cinema in 2005 ran the gamut of proven crowd-pleasers (40-Year-Old Virgin) and expected crowd-pleasers (the as-yet unreleased Kong) to quiet art-house fare (the divorce drama The Squid and the Whale).

The list also includes the quickly established usual suspects: Brokeback Mountain; Good Night, and Good Luck; Capote; and A History of Violence.

Brokeback, the gay cowboy western, won Best Picture honors from the Los Angeles and New York critics. Good Night, George Clooney's docudrama about CBS Newsman Edward R. Murrow during the McCarthy Era, claimed the Best Film title from the National Board of Review. Capote has earned multiple kudos for its star (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and its screenplay. A History of Violence has William Hurt in Oscar play with Supporting Actor kudos from the L.A. and New York critics.

Rounding out the AFI's Movies of the Year selections: Crash, the Oprah Winfrey-boostered look at extreme racial tensions in Los Angeles; Munich, Steven Spielberg's upcoming take on the birth of modern terrorism at the 1972 Summer Olympics; and, Syriana, the political thriller starring Good Night director Clooney.

All but Kong and Munich are currently in theaters. Kong tries to tramp into Titanic territory starting Wednesday; Munich opens Christmas Day.

The film picks were voted on by a 13-member panel of filmmakers, critics, historians and the guy who directed all the Austin Powers movies.

Forever fond of lists, AFI empowered a second jury panel to compile a list of the year's 10 best TV shows. Among the atypical award winners: Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica; UPN's Veronica Mars; and, Showtime's Sleeper Cell.

Ensuring that no Oscar aspirant will want for a free chicken meal between now and March, AFI will fete its honorees at Jan. 13 luncheon in Los Angeles.

Here's a complete look at the group's official selections for Movies of the Year (listed alphabetically):

Brokeback Mountain
Capote
Crash
The 40-Year-Old Virgin
Good Night, and Good Luck
A History of Violence
King Kong
Munich
The Squid and the Whale
Syriana

And here are AFI's official selections for TV Programs of the Year (listed alphabetically):

24
Battlestar Galactica
Deadwood
Grey's Anatomy
House
Lost
Rescue Me
Sleeper Cell
Sometimes in April
Veronica Mars

DreamWorks Sale Highlights Studio Obstacles

LOS ANGELES - Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen tried to harness their collective star power in 1994 to do what hadn't been done in more than 70 years — start a Hollywood studio from scratch. They called it DreamWorks SKG, the letters standing for the last names of the founders.

Sunday, DreamWorks ended its 11-year run as an independent company by agreeing to be sold to Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc., in a deal valued at $1.6 billion. The sale highlights the enormous, perhaps insurmountable, challenges facing an independent company with hopes of competing against massive media conglomerates.

"It's very hard for anyone to enter the business from the ground up," said Harold Vogel, author of the book "Entertainment Industry Economics."

"It's not the talent of the individuals. They were superb, they had a brilliant idea, they had connections. But the costs of running the business ran much faster than they expected."

DreamWorks accomplished much in its short life, including winning several Academy Awards, producing a hit TV series and making the most successful animated movie in history.

The company, under Geffen and Spielberg, will continue to make films that will be distributed by Paramount.

DreamWorks Animation SKG, under the leadership of Katzenberg, was spun off into a public company last year and is not included in the Paramount deal, although it will distribute its films through Paramount.

DreamWorks had grand plans to become a major player in music, film, television, video games and the Internet. But over the years, it scrapped plans to build a high-tech studio lot in Los Angeles, sold DreamWorks Records to Universal Music Group and curtailed its TV production.

"When Steven, Jeffrey and I started the company and had to put an entire infrastructure together from day one, we had hoped to be able to make enough films to rationalize the cost of being our own distributor," Geffen said Sunday.

"Sadly, we were never able to make enough films to make that economically sound."

Distributing is a fixed cost that runs into the tens of millions of dollars for a staff that can sell films to theaters in the U.S. and abroad.

A handful of independent film companies still remain, including the Canadian company Lion's Gate Films.

Lion's Gate has been able to build a substantial library of films, in part through acquisitions. An extensive film library from which to sell pictures on DVD and to cable and television is key to producing the kind of cash that can reduce the risks of box office flops.

"Library values are like real estate in Southern California — they generally go up every year," said David Miller, an analyst at brokerage firm Sanders Morris Harris.

DreamWorks was able to build a library of only 59 live-action film titles. Ownership of the more lucrative animated films was transferred to DreamWorks Animation.

A number of production companies make films but distribute them through third parties. Those companies include Pixar Animation Studios, which produces one film a year and distributes through The Walt Disney Co. Revolution Studios, which made such movies as "The Fog" and "Rent," distributes its movies through Sony Pictures.

One company trying to succeed where DreamWorks failed is The Weinstein Co., formed by brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein.

The brothers formed Miramax in 1979 and sold it to Disney in 1993. Earlier this year, they left Disney to form their own company after disagreements with Disney's management.

The pair left behind their library of around 800 films and, like DreamWorks, is starting from scratch to make and acquire films and build their own distribution network.

The Weinstein Co. does have the right to make sequels of some of its Dimension films, including "Sin City" and "Scary Movie." And it just entered a joint venture to distribute its own DVDs, which will save it potentially millions of dollars in fees over the years.

The Weinstein Co. has raised about $500 million in cash and an equal amount in debt financing. That might not be enough. Vogel says a minimum of $2 billion is needed to comfortably finance both the production of a full film slate and distribution.

"The barriers to entry are high, which is why guys like the Weinsteins and anyone else who wants to go out and start this has to find external financing," Miller said.

"The risk remains very high that businesses like this will crash and burn," he said.

Prince Signs Deal to Release New Album

NEW YORK - Prince, who has put out most of his music on his own record label over the past decade, is aligning himself with a major label once again. The 47-year-old superstar has signed a deal with Universal Records to release his upcoming album, "3121," early next year. A press conference was scheduled Tuesday in Los Angeles.

Prince had a similar deal with Columbia Records in 2003; that label distributed his acclaimed comeback album, "Musicology," for NPG Records, Prince's label.

Also Tuesday, VH1 and its affiliated networks, including Tempo and VH1 Soul, are scheduled to premiere the singer's new video, "Te Amo Corazon (I Love You Sweetheart)," directed by Salma Hayek.

"Salma heard the song and came up with the original concept," Prince said of the actress in a statement. "Salma is the most thoughtful, attentive director I have ever worked with. An absolute joy."

VH1 will also make the song available on its Vspot broadband channel and VH1 Mobile.

'Brokeback Mountain' Leads Globe Pack

NEW YORK - Wildly varying films have received kudos from critics during this busy awards season, from biopics about Johnny Cash and Truman Capote to classic stories about romance and a royal ape.

But one appears to be riding to the front of the pack heading into Tuesday's Golden Globe nominations: "Brokeback Mountain."

The story of cowboys who fall into forbidden love in Wyoming has been named the year's best picture in recent days by critics groups in New York, Los Angeles and Boston; its director, Ang Lee, has received top honors from all three and from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.

One of the film's stars, Heath Ledger, won the best-actor award Monday from the New York Film Critics Circle, and his co-star, Jake Gyllenhaal, was named best supporting actor by the National Board of Review. "Brokeback Mountain" also appears on the American Film Institute's list of the top 10 movies of the year.

Tom O'Neil, a columnist for the awards Web site theenvelope.com, said "Brokeback Mountain" is one of only two shoo-in nominees for best drama at the Golden Globes, scheduled for Jan. 16; "Good Night, and Good Luck," about Edward R. Murrow's battles with Sen. Joseph McCarthy, is the other. The film from director George Clooney received the best-picture award Monday from the National Board of Review, which described it as "extraordinary."

"There is a curious consensus building behind `Brokeback Mountain,'" O'Neil said. "At the same time, we're seeing previous front-runners like `Munich' and '(Memoirs of a) Geisha' fall behind. Neither film has gotten the enthusiastic support of film critics, which is a crucial element behind a best-picture rival."

"Brokeback" also has all the key ingredients needed for a best-picture Oscar nominee, O'Neil said — and the Golden Globes increasingly have been a predictor for Academy Awards success in recent years.

"It is epic, it's a wide-screen, big-canvas movie. Oscar voters frequently confuse best picture with big picture. This is big in its ideas, in its cinematic range, in its landscape views of Wyoming in the '60s," he said. "It feels important — it's making a social statement about something that's becoming more acceptable in America but is still slightly dangerous."

Similarly, the fact that Lee has received so much praise could bode well for him. The veteran Taiwanese helmer lost the best-picture and best-director Oscars for his 2000 martial arts epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," though the movie did win for best foreign-language film, and Lee won a Golden Globe from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for best director.

"There is a feeling that this is a director who is overdue for his laurels," O'Neil said.

Beyond "Brokeback" and "Good Night," about six other movies could sneak into the best drama category, he predicted. One of them is "Capote," which has earned Philip Seymour Hoffman rave reviews and best-actor honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, the Boston Society of Film Critics and the New York Film Critics Online.

O'Neil said "King Kong," Peter Jackson's epic remake and one of the year's most anticipated films, probably won't get a Globe nod, but it should be a best-picture nominee at the Oscars.

In the musical or comedy category at the Golden Globes, "Walk the Line" is a likely contender. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Cash, but Reese Witherspoon runs away with the movie as his on- and off-stage partner, June Carter Cash. The performance has earned Witherspoon best-actress awards from reviewers in New York and Boston.

"Even in the Hollywood, commercial, popcorn genre she's worked in, she has extraordinary respect from a cross-section of critics here," said Gene Seymour, film critic for Newsday and president of the New York Film Critics Circle. "She's very, very engaged in her character — she really knows what to do in front of a camera, always. She has an amazing capacity to connect with people."

Other possible nominees, O'Neil said, include "Pride and Prejudice," "Casanova" (which also stars Ledger), "Mrs. Henderson Presents" and "The Squid and the Whale," a dark comedy about divorce which has earned writer-director Noah Baumbach top screenplay honors from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. The New York Film Critics Online named "Squid" the year's best movie.

"There were a lot of quality films and I think you're seeing it in all different genres," said Annie Schulhof, National Board of Review president. "If you're in the mood for a biopic, go see `Capote,' go see `Good Night, and Good Luck.' If you're in the mood for a political thriller, you have `Syriana.'"

Reaction to the Death of Richard Pryor

Comments on comedian Richard Pryor, who died Saturday:

"By expressing his heart, anger and joy, Richard Pryor took comedy to its highest form." — comedian Steve Martin.

___

"Richard Pryor was one of the true pioneers of his art form. He was the Charlie Parker of comedy, a master of telling the truth that influenced every comedian that came after him. Our friendship went back to his days as a young comedian at Cafe Wha in New York, and although I will miss him like a brother, the legacy that he leaves will forever be with us." — music producer Quincy Jones.

___

"He was the single most seminal, comedic influence in the last 50 years. It was so appropriate that he received the inaugural Mark Twain prize, as they both did the same thing. Mark Twain showed us what it was like on the frontier and living on the Mississippi and what it was like living at the turn of the century, and Richard Pryor showed us what it was like to live in the inner city. His concepts are so hysterically funny and unique." — comedian Bob Newhart.

___

"I wish that every new and young comedian would understand what Richard was about and not confuse his genius with his language usage." — comedian Bill Cosby.

___

"The Comedy Store could never thank you enough for the gift you gave us all — the gift of yourself ... to the audience, to the other comics and the elevation of your humor to a one-man art form." — Mitzi Shore, owner of The Comedy Store club in Los Angeles.

Shooting Suspect Was Once a Rising Star

NEW YORK - A dozen years ago, Lillo Brancato Jr. was going to be a star. The unknown actor earned critical acclaim opposite his idol, Robert De Niro, in the 1993 movie "A Bronx Tale." He played the Oscar winner's son in the story of a teen torn between two role models — a local mobster and his dad — in a heavily Italian Bronx neighborhood.

From there, Brancato went on to appear in more than a dozen films, including "Renaissance Man," "Crimson Tide," "Enemy of the State" and "The Adventures of Pluto Nash." He later had a recurring role on "The Sopranos," where his character was eventually executed by fictional mob boss Tony Soprano in one of the series' more memorable departures.

But on Saturday, the actor was far from the bright lights and red carpets of Hollywood. Instead, police said, he was breaking into a vacant house with another man when a gunfight erupted. An off-duty police officer who responded was killed, and Brancato, who police said was unarmed, was in critical condition after being shot twice.

Brancato was just 16 when De Niro launched a search for nonprofessionals to appear in his 1993 directorial debut, the film version of Chazz Palminteri's play "A Bronx Tale." Brancato was discovered by a casting director strolling along a New York beach; he came out of the water and wowed him with impressions of De Niro and Joe Pesci.

In a New York Times profile, Brancato was described as "friendly, earnest, sweet-tempered, a fast talker, a salesman, the kind of goofy tough guy who once upon a time used to hang out on a city street corner."

Brancato, now 29, was born in Bogota, Colombia, and adopted when he was 4 months old. He was raised in Yonkers and still lived in the city just north of the Bronx.

In 1999-2000, he appeared in a half-dozen episodes of "The Sopranos" as the dim-witted aspiring mobster Matt Bevilacqua. In one episode, his character worked a high-stakes card game where the players included Frank Sinatra Jr.

Brancato also starred in the short-lived TV mob show "Falcone" and guest-starred in a 2002 episode of "NYPD Blue."

His most recent appearance in the headlines came in June, when Brancato was arrested by Yonkers police who discovered four bags of heroin during a traffic stop.

'Narnia' Enchants Moviegoers Out of $67M

LOS ANGELES - Another fantasy world has joined Hollywood's instant-blockbuster club. Disney's "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" — adapted from C.S. Lewis' tale of enchantment, epic battles and talking animals — debuted as the weekend's top movie with $67.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Expanding nationwide after two weekends in limited release, the Warner Bros. thriller "Syriana," an oil-industry saga whose ensemble cast includes George Clooney and Matt Damon, ran second with $12 million.

Warner's " Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," the No. 1 film the previous two weekends, slipped to third with $10.3 million, raising its domestic total to $244.1 million.

"Chronicles of Narnia" kicked off what is likely to be a strong finish for Hollywood after a box-office slump that has lingered most of the year, leaving attendance down 7 percent compared to 2004.

The top 12 movies took in $117.8 million, up 17 percent from the same weekend last year.

Right behind "Chronicles of Narnia" comes Peter Jackson's remake of "King Kong," expected to open to huge audiences Wednesday.

"We've never needed two films like this more than we do now," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "It's the knockout punch that Hollywood needs."

"Chronicles of Narnia" follows the "Harry Potter" and "The Lord of the Rings" films as the latest fantasy franchise making the leap from book to screen courtesy of dazzling computer animation.

The three "Lord of the Rings" movies had respective debuts of $47.2 million, $62 million and $72.6 million. The first three "Harry Potter" flicks each opened in the $90 million range, with the fourth film, "Goblet of Fire," debuting in November with $102 million.

"Chronicles of Narnia" follows four siblings who cross into an alternate world, where they join unicorns, centaurs, a talking lion and other beasts to battle an evil witch.

Though Universal's "King Kong" will compete for much of the same audience, distributor Disney expects business to remain strong for "Chronicles of Narnia."

"I think there's more than enough room for two major hits in a season, and because of the length of the holidays, both films are going to be here for a long, long time," said Chuck Viane, Disney head of distribution.

In limited release, Academy Awards hopefuls "Brokeback Mountain" and "Memoirs of a Geisha" had stellar debuts.

Focus Features' "Brokeback Mountain," starring Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal as sheepherders who share a summer of love then conceal an ongoing affair from their families, took in $544,549 in just five theaters. On Saturday, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association picked "Brokeback Mountain" as the year's best movie.

Sony's "Memoirs of a Geisha," starring Ziyi Zhang as a woman born into poverty who becomes a queen bee in the last days of Japan's tradition-bound geisha houses, grossed $674,000 in eight theaters.

Both films go into more theaters Friday and continue to expand through awards season.

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 Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," $67.1 million.
2. "Syriana," $12 million.
3. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," $10.3 million.
4. "Walk the Line," $5.75 million.
5. "Yours, Mine & Ours," $5.15 million.
6. "Aeon Flux," $4.6 million.
7. "Just Friends," $3.9 million.
8. "Pride & Prejudice," $2.5 million.
9. "Chicken Little," $2.3 million.
10. "Rent," $2 million.

Country Music Stars Brooks, Yearwood Wed

CLAREMORE, Okla. - Country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood said "I do" on Saturday in a private ceremony at their Oklahoma home.

Brooks, an Oklahoma native, and Yearwood exchanged vows before family members, said Nancy Seltzer, a publicist for the couple.

"They said it is the perfect Christmas gift to each other and they couldn't be happier," Seltzer said. She declined to provide any other details.

Brooks, 43, got down on one knee and proposed to Yearwood, 41, in May in front of 7,000 fans at the "Legends in Bronze" event at Buck Owens' Crystal Palace in Bakersfield, Calif. Ten larger-than-life bronze statues honoring country stars were unveiled during that event, including one of Brooks.

The marriage is the second for Brooks, who has three children, and the third for Yearwood.

Brooks is credited with widening the genre's appeal in the 1990s by merging traditional country with honky tonk, pop, folk and rock. His "Ropin' the Wind" album was the first such country recording to debut at the top of the pop music charts. His latest album, "Scarecrow," went triple platinum.

Yearwood was named the Country Music Awards female vocalist of the year in 1997 and 1998. Her latest album is "Jasper County."

Pathbreaking Comedian Richard Pryor Dies

LOS ANGELES - Richard Pryor, the groundbreaking comedian whose profanely personal insights into race relations and modern life made him one of Hollywood's biggest black stars, died of a heart attack Saturday. He was 65.

Pryor died shortly before 8 a.m. after being taken to a hospital from his home in the San Fernando Valley, said his business manager, Karen Finch. He had been ill for years with multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease of the nervous system.

"We loved him and will miss you," his ex-wife, Flynn Pryor, said from her Florida home.

Pryor lived dangerously close to the edge both on stage and off.

He was regarded early in his career as one of the most foul-mouthed comics in the business, but he gained a wide following for his universal and frequently personal routines. After nearly losing his life in 1980 when he caught on fire while freebasing cocaine, he incorporated the ordeal into his later routines.

His audacious style influenced generations of stand-up artists, from Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock to Robin Williams and David Letterman, among others.

A series of hit comedies and concert films in the '70s and '80s helped make Pryor one of the highest paid stars in Hollywood, and he was one of the first black performers to have enough leverage to cut his own deals. In 1983, he signed a $40 million, five-year contract with Columbia Pictures.

His films included "Stir Crazy," "Silver Streak," "Which Way Is Up?" and "Richard Pryor Live on the Sunset Strip."

Throughout his career, Pryor focused on racial inequality, once joking as the host of the Academy Awards in 1977 that Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier were the only black members of the Academy.

Pryor once marveled "that I live in racist America and I'm uneducated, yet a lot of people love me and like what I do, and I can make a living from it. You can't do much better than that."

But he battled drug and alcohol addictions for years, most notably when he suffered severe burns over 50 percent of his body while freebasing at his home. An admitted "junkie" at the time, Pryor spent six weeks recovering from the burns and much longer from his addictions.

He battled multiple sclerosis throughout the '90s.

In his last movie, the 1991 bomb "Another You," Pryor's poor health was clearly evident. Pryor made a comeback attempt the following year, returning to standup comedy in clubs and on television while looking thin and frail, and with noticeable speech and movement difficulties.

In 1995, he played an embittered multiple sclerosis patient in an episode of the television series "Chicago Hope." The role earned him an Emmy nomination as best guest actor in a drama series.

"To be diagnosed was the hardest thing because I didn't know what they were talking about," he said. "And the doctor said `Don't worry, in three months you'll know.'

"So I went about my business and then, one day, it jumped me. I couldn't get up. ... Your muscles trick you; they did me."

While Pryor's material sounds modest when compared with some of today's raunchier comedians, it was startling material when first introduced. He never apologized for it.

Pryor was fired by one Las Vegas hotel for "obscenities" directed at the audience. In 1970, tired of compromising his act, he quit in the middle of another Vegas stage show with the words, "What the (blank) am I doing here?" The audience was left staring at an empty stage.

He didn't tone things down after he became famous. In his 1977 NBC television series "The Richard Pryor Show," he threatened to cancel his contract with the network. NBC's censors objected to a skit in which Pryor appeared naked save for a flesh-colored loincloth to suggest he was emasculated.

In his later years, Pryor mellowed considerably, and his film roles looked more like easy paychecks than artistic endeavors. His robust work gave way to torpid efforts like "Harlem Nights," "Brewster's Millions" and "Hear No Evil, See No Evil."

"I didn't think `Brewster's Millions' was good to begin with," Pryor once said. "I'm sorry, but they offered us the money. I was a pig, I got greedy."

"I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the worst," he said in 1995. "In other words, I had a life."

Recognition came in 1998 from an unlikely source: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington gave Pryor the first Mark Twain Prize for humor. He said in a statement that he was proud that, "like Mark Twain, I have been able to use humor to lessen people's hatred."

Born in 1940 in Peoria, Ill., Pryor grew up in his grandmother's brothel. His first professional performance came at age 7, when he played drums at a night club.

Following high school and two years of Army service, he launched his performing career, honing his comedy in bars throughout the United States. By the mid-'60s, he was appearing in Las Vegas clubs and on the television shows of Ed Sullivan, Merv Griffin and Johnny Carson.

His first film role came with a small part in 1967's "The Busy Body." He made his starring debut as Diana Ross' piano man in 1972's "Lady Sings the Blues."

Pryor also wrote scripts for the television series "Sanford and Son," "The Flip Wilson Show" and two specials for Lily Tomlin. He collaborated with Mel Brooks on the script for the movie "Blazing Saddles."

Later in his career, Pryor used his films as therapy. "Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling," was an autobiographical account of a popular comedian re-examining his life while lying delirious in a hospital burn ward. Pryor directed, co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the film.

"I'm glad I did `Jo Jo,'" Pryor once said. "It helped me get rid of a lot of stuff."

Pryor also had legal problems over the years. In 1974, he was sentenced to three years' probation for failing to file federal income tax returns. In 1978, he allegedly fired shots and rammed his car into a vehicle occupied by two of his wife's friends.

Even in poor health, his comedy was vital. At a 1992 performance, he asked the room, "Is there a doctor in the audience?" All he got was nervous laughter. "No, I'm serious. I want to know if there's a doctor here."

A hand finally went up.

"Doctor," Pryor said, "I need to know one thing. What the (blank) is MS?"

Pryor was married six times. His children include sons Richard and Steven, and daughters Elizabeth, Rain and Renee.

Daughter Rain became an actress. In an interview in 2005, she told the Philadelphia Inquirer that her father always "put his life right out there for you to look at. I took that approach because I saw how well audiences respond to it. I try to make you laugh at life."

Chris Rock Won't Host Next Academy Awards

LOS ANGELES - Chris Rock won't be back cracking wise as the host of next year's Oscars telecast.

"He is not hosting the Academy Awards," the comedian's publicist, Matt Labov, said Friday in a brief statement e-mailed to The Associated Press. He did not elaborate.

Labov told The New York Times that Rock didn't want to do the show "in perpetuity" but would "like to do it again down the road."

The 2005 telecast was Rock's first as host. He drew younger viewers, but his barbs skewering stars like Jude Law, Tobey Maguire and others alienated some members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In one bit, Rock suggested filmmakers should wait for better talent instead of rushing bad movies into theaters.

"You want Tom Cruise and all you can get is Jude Law. Wait," Rock joked. "You want Russell Crowe and all you can get is Colin Farrell? Wait. `Alexander' is not `Gladiator.'"

He also poked fun at himself.

"You want Denzel (Washington) and all you can get is me? Wait," he joked.

Rock's comments prompted Sean Penn, when he took the stage later, to defend Law as "one of our finest actors."

Rock is currently producing and narrating "Everybody Hates Chris," a sitcom on UPN based on his life.

A spokesman for the Academy declined to comment about the hosting duties. Longtime Academy Awards producer Gil Cates is expected to announce his selection in the next few weeks.

Frequently mentioned candidates include four-time host Whoopi Goldberg, two-timer Steve Martin and late-night hosts Jay Leno and Conan O'Brien.

The 78th annual Academy Awards will air March 5 on ABC from Hollywood.

Matt Damon Marries Girlfriend in NYC

LOS ANGELES - Matt Damon married girlfriend Luciana Bozan in a private ceremony Friday in New York City, his publicist said.

Damon, 35, and his bride exchanged wedding vows during a small ceremony at an undisclosed location, spokeswoman Jennifer Allen said. Bozan's 7-year-old daughter witnessed the ceremony. In a previous marriage Bozan went by the name Luciana Barroso.

There were no other details. Asked if Damon's friend and "Good Will Hunting" co-star Ben Affleck witnessed the wedding, Allen said no.

It was the first marriage for Damon, the second for Bozan. They will split their time between homes in New York and Florida.

Damon's publicist wouldn't discuss an "Access Hollywood" report that Damon's bride is pregnant.

Damon and Affleck won a best screenwriting Oscar for 1997's "Good Will Hunting."

Damon's screen credits also include roles in "Saving Private Ryan," "The Talented Mr. Ripley," "Ocean's Eleven" and "Syriana." He met Bozan while she was working as a bartender in Florida, Allen said.

Damon is in New York shooting the Robert De Niro-directed film "The Good Shepherd" with Angelina Jolie.

Bateman vs. Bateman on 'Arrested Development'

If "Arrested Development" is indeed going down, then it's going down on its own defiantly left-field terms.

In the show's latest bit of inside-joke casting, Justine Bateman -- the older sister of star Jason Bateman -- will guest-star on the FOX series scheduled for Monday, Jan. 9. She's filming the episode this week.

Some time ago, "Arrested" creator Mitch Hurwitz joked that he'd like to bring Justine Bateman on the show as a love interest for her brother's character, Michael Bluth. That won't be the case in this episode. Instead, she'll play the far less cringe-inducing role of Michael's long-lost older sister Nellie.

After discovering he has another sister, Michael tracks Nellie down and hires her as a consultant for The Bluth Co. As with most things related to the business, though, the plan doesn't quite work out the way Michael envisioned, and he discovers Nellie might not be who she says she is.

Justine Bateman, who became famous as Mallory Keaton on "Family Ties" in the 1980s, more recently starred in the Showtime miniseries "Out of Order" and the Hallmark Channel movie "The Hollywood Mom's Mystery." She's also put in a couple of guest appearances on CBS' "Still Standing" over the past two seasons.

Her episode of "Arrested Development" may be one of the show's last. FOX has decided against a full season of the show, which has aired six episodes so far this fall. The week following Bateman's episode will bring two hours' worth of "24," and the unscripted show "Skating with Celebrities" takes up residence in the 8 p.m. Monday timeslot after that.

Aronofsky Directs 'Lost'

Rachel Weisz's film director fiance Darren Aronofsky is such a huge fan of hit TV drama Lost - he has signed up to direct an episode. The Requiem For A Dream director made a call to the desert island show's bosses to ask if he could head an episode, and was thrilled when they agreed. Aronofsky's episode will be broadcast in the US in May.

Theron Steps In As Bond Babe Favorite?

Charlize Theron has reportedly replaced Angelina Jolie as director Martin Campbell's first choice for the latest Bond girl role.

The Monster star has bewitched Campbell and executives at Sony, according to website Scotsman.com, and now she's the favorite to follow in the footsteps of Bond babes like Honor Blackman, Jane Seymour and Teri Hatcher.

If selected, the South African beauty would become the second actress to star in a Bond film following an Oscar win - Halle Berry appeared in Die Another Day after picking up a golden statue for her role in Monster's Ball.

Jolie has reportedly been offered the role of Vesper Lynd in the new 007 adventure, Casino Royale, but suggested the character should be "toughened up."

Jeff Probst Signs New 'Survivor' Contract

LOS ANGELES - Jeff Probst said he's decided that life without "Survivor" wouldn't be as much fun and he's sticking with the CBS reality series.

"I was thinking about retiring and spending my time traveling to exotic locations around the world, meeting new and interesting people. Then I realized, uh, wait a second, I'm already doing that with 'Survivor' and getting paid for it, as well," Probst, 44, said in a statement Thursday.

He has signed a new multiyear deal, CBS spokesman Chris Ender said.

In October, Probst had said he was weighing whether to continue with the show. He's served as host since "Survivor" debuted in summer 2000 and his current contract was through the edition now in production.

Mark Burnett, the show's executive producer, welcomed Probst's decision to remain as host and producer, lauding his contributions to the "ever-evolving game" in which players face physical and mental challenges in a bid to win $1 million.

"I consider him a friend and look forward to continuing to keep 'Survivor' fresh with Jeff for many more seasons," Burnett said in a statement.

Last month, CBS announced that it will air the 13th and 14th versions of "Survivor" in the 2006-07 season.

That 12th edition, being filmed at an undisclosed location, is to be broadcast next spring. The finale for the current show, "Survivor: Guatemala," is Sunday, Dec. 11.

Snoop Dogg takes reins at XM channel

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - XM Satellite Radio said Thursday it named rapper Snoop Dogg the executive producer of XM's classic hip-hop channel, the Rhyme. The channel already is the home of an exclusive Snoop Dogg radio show. "I will play music that people have never heard and music that they haven't heard in a long time," said Snoop Dogg, a.k.a. Calvin Broadus.

Fans Mark Anniversary of Lennon's Murder

NEW YORK - Some met John Lennon in person, others knew him from the television, still others never knew him at all. On Thursday, they gathered by the hundreds in Central Park's Strawberry Fields to remember the pacifist rock star murdered 25 years ago by a deranged Beatles fan.

Generations from across the world, if not quite the universe, united to celebrate Lennon's life and his message of peace — playing his music, singing his songs, imagining what might have been if the ex-Beatle had survived the Dec. 8, 1980, shooting outside his Manhattan apartment building.

Yoko Ono was among those at Strawberry Fields, walking through a horde of hundreds of Lennon fans before stopping at a flower-covered mosaic paying tribute to Lennon with its one-word message: "IMAGINE."

"His message is still the same: peace and love and live the best you can," said Martha Wagner, who came into Manhattan from Dover, N.J., with a scrapbook full of newspaper clippings about Lennon. She remembered hearing news of the slaying on television: "My heart stopped. I screamed."

Kim Polson, 50, of Manhattan, recalled seeing Lennon in an Upper West Side coffee shop four months before the shooting. She was late for work that day, hanging around and listening to Lennon's conversation.

"I'll be late for work again today," said Polson, one of the early arrivals at Strawberry Fields on the anniversary — a bitterly cold day. "John Lennon made me late again."

The scene was much the same in Lennon's hometown of Liverpool, England, where scores of fans from around the world remembered him with white balloons, flowers and prayers. The balloons, carrying written tributes to Lennon, were released into the sky.

"I just wrote 'Merry Christmas John' on my balloon," said James Andrews, a 9-year-old from Bournemouth, England. "I love the Beatles, and especially John Lennon."

A short service was also held beside a statue of Lennon on Liverpool's Mathew Street, where the Beatles played early in their career at the Cavern Club.

Lennon's songwriting partner, Paul McCartney, told the British Broadcasting Corp. that Lennon was "one of the great men of the 20th century ... I will always feel some kind of link with John."

In New York, locals and tourists stood side-by-side near the Lennon-inspired Central Park mosaic. One man played Beatles' music on an acoustic guitar, as visitors piled off tour buses to stop at Strawberry Fields. They brought flowers, candles and bittersweet memories.

"He entered people's hearts, and made us softer toward each other," said Cummings Dass, 65, who came to Manhattan from Trinidad for the anniversary. "When he died, a part of the music died with him."

If Lennon were alive, he would have turned 65 in October.

Across the street at the Dakota, the apartment house where Lennon was killed, fans walked respectfully past police and security guards. Traditionally, Ono lights a candle in her apartment window in the evening as a show of solidarity with the crowd gathered in the park.

Lennon, who had turned 40 just two months before, was returning with Ono from a recording studio when he was gunned down at about 10:50 p.m. — the time that a moment of silence was planned in Central Park.

A second moment of silence was planned for 11:15 p.m., the approximate time of Lennon's death. City officials planned to close the park at 1 a.m., as they have for several years over the objection of fans who want an all-night vigil.

Lennon's killer, Mark David Chapman, comes up for parole next year. His bids for freedom have already been rejected three times.

For 16-year-old Sarah Koflan, of Bernardston, Mass., her Thursday trip to Central Park was as close as she would ever get to Lennon. Although born nearly a decade after his death, the teen still considers Lennon a role model.

"John Lennon is my hero," she said. "He's the coolest guy. ... Just being here today, with everyone who loves him, is awesome. It's a beautiful feeling."

McCartney's reaction was a 'drag'

Statement left Beatles fans irate

After John Lennon was shot dead, a grieving world wanted -- indeed, needed -- to see Paul McCartney, with a wrenched heart, struggling to cope with the sudden loss of his dear friend.

Like the rest of us.

But pretty much the opposite transpired. Caught by a camera crew leaving a London recording studio a day after Lennon's assassination in New York City, McCartney said with all matter-of-factness: "It's a drag."

No emotion. No "I can't believe my best mate is gone." No sign of love behind the missing tears.

Just: "It's a drag."

If millions of people worldwide found themselves sobbing, unable to come to grips with the tragedy, how was it that McCartney -- Lennon's soulmate for more than a decade -- could be so seemingly cold and unaffected? His reaction still outrages many Beatles fans.

In 1984 McCartney and his then-wife Linda gave Playboy magazine an in-depth interview, during which he explained his infamous public utterance.

"What happened was we heard the news that morning and, strangely enough, all of us ... the three Beatles, friends of John's ... all of us reacted in the same way. Separately," McCartney told Playboy. "Everyone just went to work that day ... Nobody could stay home with that news.

"As I was coming out of the studio later, there was a reporter, and as we were driving away, he just stuck the microphone in the window and shouted, 'What do you think about John's death?' I had just finished a whole day in shock and I said, 'It's a drag.' I meant drag in the heaviest sense of the word, you know: 'It's a -- DRAG.' But when you look at that in print, it says, 'Yes, it's a drag.' Matter of fact.

"What could you say? ... I still haven't taken it in. I don't want to."

He was in denial. Just as when his mother died when he was 14. His way of dealing with that enormous loss was to lock up his emotions in public, and not talk about it even in private. The same thing was happening again.

"(Linda and I) just looked at all the news on the telly, and we sat there with all the kids, just crying all evening. Just couldn't handle it, really."

McCartney said it was "a consoling factor" to know that his last phone chat with Lennon was pleasant and didn't end, as so many of their post-Beatles conversations had, with them blowing up at each other and slamming down the phone.

To Rolling Stone magazine in 1986, McCartney elaborated.

"The last couple of phone calls (John and I) had were getting very nice. I remember once he said to me, 'Do they play me against you like they play you against me?' Because there were always people in the background pitting us against each other. And I said, 'Yeah, they do. They sure do.' That was a couple of months before he ... it's still weird even to say, 'before he died.' I still can't come to terms with that. I still don't believe it. It's like, you know, those dreams you have where he's still alive, then you wake up and ... 'Oh.' "

Fans Mark Anniverary of Lennon's Murder 21 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Fans brought flowers, candles and their own bittersweet memories Thursday as they gathered to mark the day 25 years ago when John Lennon was murdered.

"With the country at war, his work and philosophy seem more poignant and more desperately needed than ever," said Kim Polson, who said she fell in love with the Beatles when she saw them on television at age 8.

She was an early morning visitor to Strawberry Fields, the section of Central Park just outside the Dakota apartment building where Lennon was gunned down by a deranged fan on Dec. 8, 1980.

Several dozen people had gathered by midmorning, some local residents, some tourists. One woman sat with scrapbook she had assembled over the years. Among the floral offerings were a half-dozen white roses and a bough of holly.

On that night 25 years ago, Lennon — who had just turned 40 — was returning from a midtown Manhattan recording studio with his wife, Yoko Ono. In an instant, Mark David Chapman, a fan carrying a copy of J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye," opened fire on Lennon. Police officers put the mortally wounded singer in the back of a squad car, but shortly after arriving a hospital, Lennon was dead.

Tom Leighton, one of the organizers of an ad-hoc memorial committee, said people attend the vigil for different personal reasons, but "primarily it's to pay our respects and share our grief collectively."

Fans hold a moment of silence is held at 10:50 p.m. — the time he was shot — and again at 11:15 — the time he is believed to have died. Despite protests, city officials planned to close the park at 1 a.m., as they have for several years.

Polson, who lives a block from the Dakota, recalled seeing Lennon in a coffee shop four months before he was killed. She stuck around to listen to him talk to a colleague.

"I came to the office two hours late that morning and my boss was furious, so I said, 'Ask me why I'm late.' When I told him, he was no longer angry."

"I'll be late for work again today. John Lennon made me late again," she said.

Chapman remains in New York's Attica state prison, where his third request for parole was denied in October.

Carey, West, Legend top Grammy noms

NEW YORK (AP) - Mariah Carey's comeback came full circle Thursday as she was nominated for eight Grammys, including album of the year for The Emancipation of Mimi and song and record of the year for her torch ballad We Belong Together.

Carey's eight nominations tied John Legend and Kanye West. Soul crooner Legend's nominations included best new artist, while his mentor West is up for album of the year for Late Registration and song of the year for Gold Digger.

Other multiple nominees included 50 Cent, Gwen Stefani, U2 and Bruce Springsteen.

Springsteen was among the surprises - his Devils & Dust was nominated for song of the year, along with Rascal Flatts' Bless the Broken Road, Legend's Ordinary People, Carey's We Belong Together and U2's Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own.

U2, nominated for five awards, was also represented in the album of the year category for How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. Besides Carey and West, other nominees in the category were Stefani for Love. Angel. Music. Baby and Paul McCartney's Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.

Besides We Belong Together and Goldigger, record of the year nominees included the Gorillaz' Feel Good Inc. featuring De La Soul, Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Stefani's Hollaback Girl.

One of the big snubs: Coldplay, who's "X&Y," one of the year's biggest albums with hits like "Fix You," was shut out of the album, song and record of the year categories. But they were nominated for rock album of the year.

Montreal's the Arcade Fire scored a nomination for best alternative music album for Funeral while rocker Neil Young received two nods: one for best rock album for Prairie Wind and best solo rock performance for The Painter.

Vancouvers Michael Buble received a nomination for best traditional pop album for his record Its Time.

Daniel Lanois, who was raised in Hamilton, Ont., was a double nominee in the categories of best pop instrumental performance and album.

The Grammys will be handed out in Los Angeles on Feb. 8.

An Unhappy 25th Anniversary

Music, activism, vigils.

Things that were so much a part of John Lennon's life are being used to mark the 25th anniversary of his death.

In New York City, fans of former Beatle will gather Thursday night outside the apartment building where he was shot to death on the evening of Dec. 8, 1980.

Not far from the imposing facade of the Dakota, others will pay their respects at Strawberry Fields, the Central Park oasis dedicated in 1985 to the memory of Lennon.

In London and New York, Dave Matthews, Paul Weller, 1960s pop star Lulu ("To Sir With Love") and others will perform Lennon music in a live concert Thursday for Sirius satellite radio and the BBC. Lennon Live, a planned four-hour event, padded with an hourlong documentary, is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. (ET).

ABC News Radio has put together its own special, Lennon: The Loss, the Legacy, for non-paying customers of over-the-air radio. The hourlong show has been airing on various ABC Radio outlets since last week.

For those who like their Lennon with a New Age twist, flautist Michael Rose has weaved "Imagine" and "Give Peace a Chance" into the first movement of his new opus, Imagine: A Flute Serenade. The 12-minute cut will be available for free download from Thursday through Jan. 2 at www.SapphireRecording.com.

While the Amnesty International downloads of a batch of new Lennon covers aren't free--they're 99 cents each--the proceeds will benefit the non-profit human rights organization.

Downloads of the Black Eyed Peas' version of "Power to the People," the Cure's take on "Love," and more will be available starting Friday at www.amnesty.org/noise--their releases timed to International Human Rights Day. An Avril Lavigne Lennon cover will be released by the Make Some Noise project early next year.

With Lennon raking in $22 million annually, per Forbes' most recent ranking of the top-earning dead celebrities, a certain amount of commerce is also part of the tributes.

Tuesday saw the DVD release of Imagine: John Lennon--Deluxe Edition, the disc debut of the 1988 documentary which allowed its late subject to tell his own life story.

Also relatively new to stores, issued earlier this fall to coincide, in part, with what would have been Lennon's 65th birthday in October: Working Class Hero: The Definitive Lennon, a double-CD set of his greatest post-Beatles hits; Life: Remembering John Lennon: 25 Years Later, one of countless coffee-table tributes suitable for gift wrap; and, John, a warts-and-all look at the icon from ex-wife Cynthia Lennon.

Cynthia Lennon, as Amazon.com points out, is not one of those to offer observations on her former husband in Memories of John Lennon, yet another new book title, released just last week. Edited by Lennon widow Yoko Ono, the collection of reminisces also notably does not include those by surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. It does, however, feature contributions from Elton John, Bono, "fifth Beatle" Billy Preston and more.

In the introduction to Memories of John Lennon, according to Amazon.com, Ono, now 72, writes that she wasn't yet up to writing at length about her late husband, bandmate and bed-in partner: "I could not open that part of my heart while it's still shaking."

Ono was with Lennon when he was shot four times by former Boy Scout leader Mark David Chapman, then 25. Lennon was pronounced dead at a New York hospital within a half-hour of the attack. He was 40.

"I still miss him massively," McCartney recently told The Associated Press. "It was a horrific day for all of us."

Ono will have make no statements or appearances on Thursday, her spokesman told the A.P.

In Britain, meanwhile, Lennon's killer will be the subject of his own TV special.

I Killed John Lennon features newly released tapes of Chapman discussing his muddled motives for the shooting. The tapes were heard by stateside audiences last month on Dateline NBC.

At the time, Ono denounced the NBC special as "macabre." And according to the BBC, the Chapman tapes aren't playing any better to Lennon's family in the United Kingdom.

"It's very sad for the family when it's all brought up again," Stanley Parkes told the BBC. "The anniversary of his death is upsetting enough without this as well."

'Corner Gas' star releases Yule tune

TORONTO (CP) - First he conquered Canadian TV prime time, now comic Brent Butt is taking aim at the music industry.

Butt, the star of CTV's sitcom hit Corner Gas, is releasing a record single to the nation's radio stations called Christmas in Dog River.

It's not so much a carol, or even a song, but basically Butt, in a recording studio, trying to convince the audio engineers that his riffing on some classic holiday tunes is an original composition and not just a plug for his show's upcoming Christmas special episode, Merry Gasmas.

The three-minute track was written by Craig Northey who is also heard on the recording as Butt tries to disguise his version of Jingle Bells and other familiar seasonal tunes.

Disney gives Pooh a makeover for 80th anniversary

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Winnie the Pooh is getting a makeover as the Walt Disney Co presses its second-largest franchise into play for a larger share of the $21 billion preschool market, the company said on Wednesday.

Disney is readying a yearlong marketing push in 2006 to commemorate and capitalize on the 80th anniversary of the publication of "Winnie-the-Pooh" and expand the brand beyond The Forest and infant toys, clothing and furniture.

The tubby yellow bear will appear in brighter colors and Disney will emphasize the active side of Pooh's adventures as described in A.A. Milne's 1926 book to appeal to activity loving preschoolers, said Preston Kevin Lewis, global director of the Winnie the Pooh franchise.

"Trust, friendship and happiness -- Pooh doesn't lose any of those things, it just changes how we talk about him," Lewis said.

Disney is still battling an appeal of a 14-year-old Los Angeles lawsuit by heirs of Milne's agent, who claim they are owed millions in royalties.

The company won a dismissal of the lawsuit last year but had warned investors that it could be on the hook for "hundreds of millions" of dollars if it eventually loses the case.

In its December report on the U.S. market for infant, toddler and preschool toys, Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, said the sector has outperformed the general toy market.

"The single greatest reason for the overall toy market's decline has been that kids now have access to many other amusements, especially video and videogames," the report said. "The good news is that the infant/toddler/preschooler population will trend higher in the long term, unstoppable, forever and ever and ever..."

Pooh and his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood generated $5.3 billion in retail sales in 2004 -- topped only by Mickey Mouse among the Disney stable. Disney gets a portion of those revenues through its licensing agreements.

Martin Brochstein, an analyst for EPM Communications, said the growing preschool market is one of the most competitive and Disney will by competitive only if it convinces retailers to feature the Pooh products prominently.

"Pooh has a wonderful thing going for it in that it is a heritage brand. It's just a matter of them as marketers making it important enough so that retailers will commit to it," Brochstein said.

Disney plans to toast the honey-loving bear throughout the year with a Broadway show, a weekly radio show, a new animated television series in 2007 and toys and collectibles.

Major international retailers such as Sears and Toys 'R Us in the United States, Takashimaya in Japan, Carrefour in France, BVG in Germany as well as corporate partners Coca-Cola and Fuji have also signed on to do promotions with Pooh, Disney said.

"This is the first type of retail promotion that the Walt Disney Co has done across the company with promotions taking place worldwide," Lewis said.

The festivities start December 24, 2005 -- the 80th anniversary of publication of Milne's first Winnie the Pooh story in the London Evening News. The next year Milne published the first "Winnie the Pooh" book and followed it in 1928 with "The House at Pooh Corner."

Simon Waters, vice president of infant/toddler/pre-school franchises for Disney Consumer Products said 2- to 5-year-olds generate an average of $1 billion in retail sales across all product categories.

Disney will add the Pooh cartoon to a mix of Disney Channel programs that target preschoolers and spur sales of other consumer products -- including Little Einstein and the new Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Lohan Misses 'Regis and Kelly' Appearance

NEW YORK - Even in absence, Lindsay Lohan makes news. The teen starlet missed a scheduled appearance on "Live with Regis and Kelly" Tuesday morning. Though stars frequently change appointments with TV shows, Lohan's no-show was unusual because the live program was informed minutes after showtime.

On air, Regis Philbin announced: "Lindsay Lohan is sick. She's not coming. Well, that's kind of a blow."

"She has food poisoning," Philbin said. "What'd they find out, about (9:05)? ... She tried to make it."

The talk show filled time with an interview and performance by Ashanti.

The 19-year-old actress-pop star did make it to MTV's "TRL" Tuesday afternoon. In an interview with The Associated Press on Monday, Lohan acknowledged feeling very tired having only gotten two hours sleep; she arrived in New York early that morning after her plane from Los Angeles was delayed several hours. Later Monday, she was seen at the "King Kong" premiere.

On Wednesday, Lohan told syndicated entertainment show "Access Hollywood" that, "I had some food poisoning, which wasn't really fun."

She apologized to Philbin and co-host Kelly Ripa on "Access": "I know it came across really bad ... I'll make it up to you, I swear!"

Lohan is currently promoting her sophomore album, "A Little More Personal (Raw)," which was released Tuesday.

Carey, West Among Likely Grammy Nominees

NEW YORK - Mariah had a comeback year, 50 Cent dropped another multiplatinum album, Coldplay was hot and Kanye West beat the sophomore jinx. Gwen Stefani made us holla, Kelly Clarkson reveled in being free and the Black Eyed Peas celebrated those lovely lady lumps.

But while a lot of artists combined for some memorable music this year, few dominated the music scene like in years past. So it's unlikely that one name will dominate the Grammy nominations on Thursday.

"I think Mariah Carey, Gwen Stefani and Kanye West are going to be going at it for who has the most awards," says Steve Stoute, a former music industry executive who remains tapped into the scene through his company Translations, which links music superstars with commercial products. "They have songs that have song-of-the-year potential on their albums."

Although U2's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" came out late last year and the album wasn't much of a presence on the charts this year, the perennial Grammy favorites are assured of multiple nominations, according to People magazine music critic Chuck Arnold. "Just the cache of U2 being U2, being around all year with the tour, is enough to get them at least five or six nominations," he said.

Coldplay's name is also likely to pop up a few times. The group, which won record of the year in 2003 for "Clocks," arguably had the top rock album with "X&Y" this year, along with hits like "Fix Me."

"Coldplay has a lot of buzz going for it," said Arnold. "(Lead singer) Chris Martin has definitely emerged as a rock star, and it's a great record and they've already proved to be favorites with the academy."

Clarkson, who proved her artistic worth with songs like "Since U Been Gone" and "Because of You" may be one of the surprise multiple nominees, says Arnold. "She's now a major star, a proven star, and now people don't even associate her with 'American Idol' too much."

Still, Carey is likely to lead the pack. Her career had been languishing in recent years, and some insiders doubted whether the multi-octave singer could return to her multiplatinum ways after a series of debacles, including a breakdown and being bought out of her record contract with Virgin Records.

"The Emancipation of Mimi" proved the skeptics wrong. Not only did it sell more than 4 million copies, making it the No. 2 best-selling album of the year, it also spawned one of the year's most popular songs, the torch ballad "We Belong Together."

Carey is expected to be nominated in the top categories, including album of the year and perhaps song and record of the year for "We Belong Together."

The year's top-selling disc belongs to rapper 50 Cent for "The Massacre." But while he's expected to get nods in the rap categories, it is unlikely the album will get any serious consideration elsewhere.

The rapper more likely to get an album of the year nod is West, who earned an album-of-the-year nomination at the last Grammys for his 2004 debut, "The College Dropout." His follow-up, "Late Registration," also garnered glowing reviews; in addition, he had one of the year's biggest singles with the Ray Charles-inspired "Gold Digger."

Other likely nominees for album of the year include Stefani's "Love. Angel. Music. Baby." The No Doubt frontwoman's kitschy solo debut mined '80s pop and soul and was a fan favorite thanks to her nonsensical but irresistible hit, "Hollaback Girl."

Another top nonsensical hit was the Black Eyed Peas "My Humps," a celebration of the female body. Though it's unlikely that song will merit song or record of the year nods, the group's "Monkey Business" was a top-seller and the group has twice before been nominated for record of the year and may get nominated in other categories this year.

While there are many favorites, there are likely to be surprise acts that surface from beneath the radar to garner key nominations.

"Every year, the Grammys make it their business to find an act that people are not potentially looking at or paying attention to, and it's almost like 'Wow,'" says Stoute. "It's something truly artistic driven and not necessarily relying on sales."

A possibility this year: Raul Midon, a soulful, blind, singer-songwriter who garnered plenty of acclaim for his debut, "A State of Mind."

Though the Grammy nominations will be held in New York, the actual awards are scheduled for Los Angeles on Feb. 8. They will be broadcast on CBS.

Cash, Kong and Capote May Join Oscar List

LOS ANGELES — The theme for Academy Awards night is a costume ball, but the following costumes are already spoken for: geisha, giant ape, country crooner, 18th century British belle, transsexual and gay cowboy.

A wealth of performance-driven films, costume pageants and visual spectacles are in the Oscar hunt, among them the cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain"; the great-ape flick "King Kong"; the Oriental pageant "Memoirs of a Geisha"; the Jane Austen adaptation "Pride & Prejudice"; and the road-trip chronicle "Transamerica." Then there are three films centering on illustrious figures in the 1950s and '60s, the Johnny Cash saga "Walk the Line," the Truman Capote drama "Capote" and the Edward R. Murrow story "Good Night, and Good Luck."

Other films jockeying for attention include the colonial epic "The New World"; the gangster tale "A History of Violence"; and two dramas dealing with Middle East turmoil, the oil-industry thriller "Syriana" and "Munich," about the massacre of Israelis at the 1972 Olympics.

After last season's showdown between eventual Oscar champ "Million Dollar Baby" and runner-up "The Aviator," clear frontrunners have yet to merge for the March 5 Oscars. The nominees will be announced Jan. 31.

In the best-picture race, Steven Spielberg returns with "Munich," his most serious film since Oscar winner "Schindler's List" and runner-up "Saving Private Ryan." It recounts an Israeli assassination squad's manhunt for Palestinians suspected of plotting the massacre of 11 athletes and coaches at the 1972 Olympics.

Yet "Munich" could be a tough sell for Oscar voters, a disturbing reminder of unresolvable conflicts in the Middle East. Critics speculated that Spielberg was too pro- Israel to make a fair movie, but along with angering Muslims, "Munich" could vex Jews for its depiction of Israel's Machiavellian machine of vengeance and the human face put on the assassins' Arab targets.

Still, this is a Spielberg film, and a very good one.

Peter Jackson delivered a best-picture winner two years ago with "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," the most otherworldly film ever to win the top Oscar.

Can Jackson do it again with the return of "King Kong," his three-hour remake of the 1933 adventure about a 25-foot gorilla who falls hard for a perky blonde?

Classic that it is, the original "King Kong" earned no Oscar nominations. But like "The Lord of the Rings" films, all of them best-picture nominees, Jackson treats his primate story with utter seriousness, capturing a sense of tragic love that leaves a strong dramatic impression amid the film's amazing visual effects and action sequences.

Terrence Malick, the reclusive director whose 1998 war saga "The Thin Red Line" was a best-picture nominee, is back with "The New World," a work of high art on the big screen.

Malick's portrait of colonial leaders John Smith and John Rolfe and their romances with Indian princess Pocahontas is a hypnotic feast of sight and sound with almost a silent-movie feel, much of the conventional dialogue replaced by poetic voice-overs.

Other leading best-picture candidates include "Brokeback Mountain," "Walk the Line," "Pride & Prejudice," "Syriana," "Cinderella Man" and "Memoirs of a Geisha."

A year ago, Jamie Foxx had an early lock on the bst actor prize for his remarkable emulation of Ray Charles. This time, Joaquin Phoenix has a good shot for his portrayal of another beloved musician, country maestro Johnny Cash.

Phoenix illuminates the gloomy corners of Cash's life and the singer's sheer joy in music, life and love as his long courtship with soul mate June Carter unfolds. And Phoenix does a fine job doing his own singing, something Foxx didn't do.

Philip Seymour Hoffman bursts into the Oscar forefront in the title role of "Capote." Hoffman uncannily replicates the effete mannerisms of Truman Capote and presents a remarkable portrait of an artist torn between human affection and the call of his art as he crafts his true-crime book "In Cold Blood."

George Clooney of "Syriana" and Colin Farrell of "The New World" are being pushed by their films' distributors in the supporting-actor field, but they could end up drawing votes in the lead category from the actors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which will choose nominees.

Other top possibilities: Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in "The Producers," David Strathairn in "Good Night, and Good Luck," Viggo Mortensen in "A History of Violence"; Russell Crowe in "Cinderella Man," Eric Bana in "Munich" and Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain."

In the best-actress race, Felicity Huffman won an Emmy in September for "Desperate Housewives." Now she's a key Oscar prospect for "Transamerica," in which she undergoes an extraordinary metamorphosis as a man preparing for the final surgery to become a woman.

A rush of twentysomething actresses are in the running for their first Oscar nominations: Keira Knightley in "Pride & Prejudice," Reese Witherspoon in "Walk the Line," Ziyi Zhang in "Memoirs of a Geisha" and Claire Danes in "Shopgirl."

The directing prize could go to past winners Steven Spielberg for "Munich," Ron Howard for "Cinderella Man," Woody Allen for "Match Point" or Peter Jackson for "King Kong."

Other prospects: Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"; Terrence Malick, "The New World"; Stephen Gaghan, "Syriana"; James Mangold, "Walk the Line"; Joe Wright, "Pride & Prejudice"; Rob Marshall, "Memoirs of a Geisha"; Susan Stroman, "The Producers"; David Cronenberg, "A History of Violence"; Fernando Mereilles, "The Constant Gardener"; Stephen Frears, "Mrs. Henderson Presents"; Bennett Miller, "Capote"; Tommy Lee Jones, "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada"; and Paul Haggis, "Crash."

Seinfeld: Season 5

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has also added some hidden features on 'Seinfeld: Season 5' for you to uncover. Here is how to get to them.

Insert the third disc of the DVD set and from the Main Menu go to the 'Extras' section. There, highlight the menu entry 'Setup' and then press the 'Right' arrow key on your remote control. This will highlight the zig-zagging lifeline on the screen. Now press the 'Enter' key and you will see the Seinfeld cast discuss the 1994 Northridge Earthquake.

Now insert the fourth disc of the DVD set and from the Main Menu go to the 'Setup' section. Highlight the menu entry 'subtitles' here and then press the 'Left' arrow key on your remote control. This will highlight the heart symbol and if you press the 'Enter' key now you will get to observe a suggested camera angle of the ugly baby.

Seinfeld: Season 6

A number of Easter Eggs can also be found on the season 6 DVD set of 'Seinfeld' from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Insert the first disc of the set in your DVD player and form the Main Menu go to the 'Setup' section. There, highlight the 'Main Menu' entry and press the 'Left' arrow key on your remote control to highlight the enter key on the keyboard. Press 'enter' now and you will see a clip of the Seinfeld cast talking about the Rob Reiner tribute.

Now go to the 'Extras' section of the disc and highlight the entry' Running With The Egg: Part 1. Press the 'Up' arrow key to highlight the poison spray can.

Press the 'Enter' button and you will get to see the Seinfeld-imation.

Now insert the second disc and go to the 'Extras 'section, accessible from the Main Menu. There, highlight the menu entry 'Setup' and press the 'Right' arrow key on your remote control twice to highlight the pecan. You will now see a small clip featuring Jerry Seinfeld talking about the little things in the show.

Time to insert the third disc of the set. There, go to the 'Extras 'section and highlight the 'episodes 'menu entry. Then press the 'Left' arrow key on your remote control to highlight the pencil, which will take you to a clip of Jerry Seinfeld talking about the Dark Side.

Finally, insert the fourth disc of the DVD set and go to the 'Extras' section. Highlight the menu entry 'Cramer vs. The Monkey' and then press the 'Up' arrow key on your remote control. This will highlight the hot dog and if you press 'Enter' now you will get to view a clip of Jerry discussing the pain he caused on the show.

NBC Jumps on ViPod Bandwagon

Following the lead of Disney and ABC, NBC Universal is bringing some of its shows to an iPod near you.

Episodes of several current NBC shows -- "Law & Order," "The Office" and "Surface" -- will become available for download on Apple's iTunes service, to play on a video iPod or personal computer. NBC Universal is also offering up episodes of USA's "Monk," Sci Fi's "Battlestar Galactica," segments from "The Tonight Show" and "Late Night" and a handful of shows from its library, including "Dragnet" and "Knight Rider."

"We are committed to helping viewers enjoy the wide breadth of our programs across an equally wide range of devices and distribution models," NBC Universal chairman and CEO Bob Wright says. "Apple has developed a distribution platform that is attractive to consumers while at the same time providing the safeguards against theft that are so important to us and to every content provider."

Episodes of current shows will be available for download the day after they air, for $1.99 each. Older shows are available anytime.

Disney was the first media giant to offer some of its content on iTunes, pairing up with Apple as soon as the video iPod was released in October. Episodes of its hits "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives," along with the now-cancelled "Night Stalker" and two Disney Channel shows, are available on the service, along with several thousand music videos and short films.

Apple says iTunes customers have downloaded more than 3 million videos since the service's introduction on Oct. 12.

Spielberg's 'Munich' gets a look

After weeks of secrecy and speculation, Munich, Steven Spielberg's story about the aftermath of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics, began screening this week for the press and awards voters.

And though the movie doesn't open until Dec. 23, it is gaining steam among some analysts as the film to beat.

"It's long, it's serious, and it's not a typical Spielberg film," says David Poland of moviecitynews.com, which polls more than a dozen film writers for their Oscar picks. "It's more understated than we've come to expect from him, which I think will help it."

Munich is the last of the movies considered best-picture candidates to begin screening.

But Entertainment Weekly's Dave Karger says it's too early to crown any film a favorite. "This is an unusually open race," he says. "If Munich splits voters for not being political enough, it's anyone's race."

Other films considered contenders: Memoirs of a Geisha, Brokeback Mountain, Walk the Line, Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck

Academy Award nominations will be announced Jan. 31. The Oscars will be presented March 5.

Ex-"Idol" Star Busted

Former American Idol contestant Julia DeMato has hit a low note in her post-reality TV existence.

DeMato, who was a top 10 finalist in season two of the talent competition, was arrested early Saturday in Brookfield, Connecticut, and charged with possessing marijuana and cocaine, as well as driving under the influence of alcohol, according to police reports.

Members of the Brookfield police force became suspicious after seeing DeMato's SUV pull into the parking lot of a local Mexican restaurant around 2 a.m., more than an hour after the restaurant had closed.

After approaching the would-be crooner, the officers determined DeMato had been drinking and administered a series of field sobriety tests, which she failed.

DeMato, 26, was subsequently arrested and police went on to search her car, turning up two marijuana pipes, a small quantity of marijuana and a small plastic bag that tested positive for cocaine.

The erstwhile Idol competitor was charged with possession of narcotics, two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of less than 4 ounces of marijuana.

She was released on $10,000 bail and ordered to appear in court on Dec. 16.

Speaking from her home Saturday night, DeMato claimed that her arrest was a mistake and denied that she was a drug user.

"I am not a drug user," DeMato told the News-Times of Danbury, Connecticut. "This was just a misunderstanding. It's going to be taken care of in court and that's that."

DeMato, who worked as a hair stylist before appearing on Idol, gave birth to her first child in July, a baby boy she named James Peter.

She and her fiancé, electrician Jim Polches, were said to be planning to marry next year.

DeMato's arrest adds her to a lengthy list of Idol alumni who have run into problems with the law, including, but not limited to: Bo Bice, Corey Clark, Scott Savol, Jaered Andrews and Trenyce.

The next season of the talent contest kicks off on Fox in January.

'King Kong': The First Reviews

International reviewers scrambled Monday night to post reviews of Peter Jackson's King Kong after it premiered on 38 screens at two Times Square multiplexes. All appeared to agree that the film will pack 'em in. John Hiscock wrote in the London Daily Telegraph: "Hokey and clichéed in parts, thrilling and dramatic at other times, King Kong is reminiscent of both Jurassic Park and Titanic. And like those two record-setting epics, it is certain to be a huge hit." Baz Bamigboye in Britain's Daily Mail described it as "jaw-droppingly brilliant: the most entertaining blockbuster movie this year." Kevin Maher in the London Times commented: "That Jackson's King Kong upgrades the now hammy original with wit, heart and humor is a pleasant surprise. That it does so by reinventing the action blockbuster, in form and emotional impact, is nothing less than an act of cinematic alchemy." But several writers also noted that the film will have to become one of the top-ten box-office earners of all time in order to be considered a success. Geoffrey Macnab of Britain's Independent, who noted that director Peter Jackson poured $32 million of his own money into the film to cover budget overruns, commented, "Even with Jackson opening his check book, King Kong remains a monumental risk." The New York Daily News is running reviews from each of its lead film critics, Jami Bernard and Jack Mathews. Bernard calls it, "the most thrilling, soulful monster picture ever made. At last, it can be said without irony -- I laughed, I cried. ... It's brilliant." Mathews concludes that it "will further Jackson's reputation as the leading visionary among fantasy filmmakers and it restores the Empire State Building to the stately glory of its past."

Cameron seeks agile actress for 'Titanic' follow-up

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - James Cameron is moving forward on his long-awaited follow-up to "Titanic," with a casting call going out for an agile young actress to star in his sci-fi thriller "Battle Angel."

The project is in development at 20th Century Fox, which declined comment. But Mali Finn Casting has placed an online ad seeking women aged 16 to mid-20s who are athletic and agile with graceful movement and have an ear for languages and dialects. Submissions are due December 19, the firm said.

"Battle Angel" is described as a big-budget adaptation of a 12-part Japanese manga series set in the 26th century that centers on 14-year-old female cyborg named Alita. Production is scheduled to begin in February.

Cameron has said publicly that he is planning to direct two movies back-to-back using a virtual-reality production process he refined and developed with visual effects cameraman and second unit director Rob Legato. The process is based on a photo-real version of the performance-capture technology used by filmmaker Robert Zemeckis in "The Polar Express."

"Battle Angel" is the first project to employ the process and is set to come out in summer 2007. The second -- known in Cameron circles as "Project 880" -- is slated for 2009, the director has said.

Early last month, Fox executives visited a Los Angeles stage set up by Cameron's company, Lightstorm Entertainment, to view his proof-of-concept. They reviewed the director's latest digital-production process that includes 3-D high-definition digital-camera systems in a virtual production studio, allowing Cameron to make camera choices, edit, work with computer-generated objects and direct actors on a stage within a virtual environment.

The frame-by-frame production setup allows Cameron to envision the entire film digitally before he shoots actors in live-action, performance-capture material.

Cameron demonstrated a real-world test of the technique on the stage to show the infinite digital production possibilities the system enables. The director had worked to debug and refine the system since early spring to get it to finished quality before demonstrating it to studio executives.

"Titanic," which came out in 1997, grossed $1.8 billion at the worldwide box office, and won 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and director. Since then, he has directed a few maritime documentaries.

Bertinelli Divorcing Rocker Eddie Van Halen

LOS ANGELES - Valerie Bertinelli and her rock star husband, Eddie Van Halen, are divorcing after 24 years of marriage, Bertinelli's publicist confirmed Tuesday.

"Yes, that's true. They have been separated for four years and it's amicable," Bertinelli spokeswoman Heidi Schaeffer told The Associated Press. She said the actress would have no further comment.

A divorce petition that Bertinelli, 45, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday cited irreconcilable differences.

The couple wed on April 11, 1981, and have one son, 14-year-old Wolfgang Van Halen. According to the petition, they separated on Oct. 15, 2001.

Bertinelli shot to fame as the sexy 15-year-old daughter of Bonnie Franklin on the hit television show "One Day at a Time," which aired from 1975 to 1984. She rejoined Franklin and Mackenzie Phillips, who played her sister, for a reunion show earlier this year. She was also a regular on television's "Touched by an Angel" from 2001 to 2003.

Van Halen, 50, is one of the most celebrated lead guitarists in rock music. He rose to fame in the late 1970s, along with his brother, drummer Alex Van Halen, vocalist David Lee Roth and bassist Michael Anthony as members of Van Halen.

The group was known for wild excess both on and offstage in its early years, and Van Halen, once a heavy smoker, was treated for cancer in 2000 and 2001.

Eminem Says He's Back With Ex-Wife

DETROIT - Rap superstar Eminem told a radio show Tuesday that he is back together with his ex-wife and may remarry. Eminem went through an ugly divorce and custody battle over his young daughter with Kimberly Mathers. They married in 1999, and their divorce was finalized in 2001.

"We have reconciled and are probably going to remarry," Eminem told Detroit radio station WKQI-FM's "Mojo in the Morning" show.

During the interview, he referred to Kimberly Mathers, 30, as "my wife Kim."

Eminem's label Interscope Records said the interview was the only one that Eminem had planned for now. The rapper's greatest-hits album titled "Curtain Call" was released Tuesday.

Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers III, also discussed his stay earlier this year at a hospital to undergo treatment for sleep medication dependency. Word of the hospitalization came in August after he canceled his European tour.

"When I went into rehab, I kind of went into it ... with the notion of 'I'm gonna get clean, I'm gonna get off this stuff before it gets too out of hand,'" he said.

In July, Eminem denied an impending retirement but hinted at taking a breather. On Tuesday, the 33-year-old, who lives in suburban Detroit, spoke more about his uncertain future.

"I'm at a point in my life right now where I feel like I don't know where my career is going," he said. "This is the reason that we called it 'Curtain Call,' because this could be the final thing. We don't know."

WE WERE ALL THERE ON THE AWFUL NIGHT LENNON WAS SHOT

It was a warmer than usual December day in New York, up in the 50s on Dec. 8, 1980. But the city was buzzing, as usual - "Stir Crazy" stars Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder would hold court at Tavern on the Green. Neil Diamond would host a gala for his film "The Jazz Singer." Paul McCartney's "Rockshow," a Wings tour documentary, was held over for another week at the Ziegfeld.

John Lennon woke up and went to the barber before returning to his home at the Dakota, 72nd and Central Park West, to pose with Yoko Ono in their "morning room" for Rolling Stone photographer Annie Leibovitz. That day they would learn that the album he had released three weeks earlier, "Double Fantasy," had gone gold.

Meanwhile, a misfit from Hawaii, Mark David Chapman, 25, had flown into town a week earlier, camped out in front of Lennon's building and was looking for trouble.

Shortly before 11 p.m. - just a few hours after getting Lennon to autograph a "Double Fantasy" album - Chapman shot John Lennon four times with a .38 caliber pistol, killing him at age 40. Afterward, he said he murdered Lennon because he hated phonies, a hatred he said he absorbed from reading J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye." He had a copy of the book on him when he committed the murder.

On the eve of the 25th anniversary of Lennon's death, the people who were eyewitnesses to his final moments, who tried to save his life, and who were charged with telling the world of his death, recall that day in never-before-revealed detail.

These are John Lennon's final hours:

KARIN SILVERSTEIN, Rolling Stone magazine's picture editor: [Annie Leibovitz's] photo shoot [with Lennon] was the day he died. That morning. It was at the Dakota.

She usually had one assistant and somebody that helped her with lighting. I think they were there for at least a couple of hours.

Annie Leibovitz has recalled arriving at John and Yoko's apartment.

John told her, "Listen, I know they want to run me by myself on the cover, but I really want Yoko to be on the cover with me. It's really important."

He posed lying naked in a full-body embrace of Yoko, who was dressed in black.

DAVE SHOLIN, reporter for RK radio, who interviewed Lennon that afternoon: We spent probably from 1 p.m. to around 4:15 or so together in their apartment at the Dakota. Yoko was on one chair, and John was on a separate chair. He was wearing jeans and a dark sweater.

You walk in [to the apartment] and take your shoes off. There were clouds painted on the ceiling. And I was in this incredible space with, you know, these two amazing people who had a lot to say and wanted to talk that day.

This was the only interview they were giving to radio, and I was producing the special.

He really wanted to talk about the last years, his views on life, love, politics, the world at large - what happened in those years between, and his relationship with Sean.

He was just bubbling over with enthusiasm with everything in his life. He felt like that was it; he had turned the page and was starting another chapter.

He said, "I'm ready to start all over again and get this thing going. Who knows what's going to happen next?"

John was outside when we walked out to load the equipment, the audio stuff. We were standing on the lower steps in front of the Dakota entrance. Our car was around the corner, and then it showed up.

John was out there waiting for a good 10 minutes. I don't know if nobody had called for his car. John asked me, "Where are you heading?"

I said I was going to JFK, and he said, "Can you give us a lift?" Yoko was either there or there within seconds. It was certainly quick.

There were just a couple of people across the street waiting to see John. Then a man came up for an autograph. It had to be Mark David Chapman.

On the way to the studio, John talked about his relationship with all the Beatles and his musical taste. I had a 6 p.m. flight home to San Francisco, which I barely made.

STEVE MARCANTONIO, 46, recording engineer assistant at the Record Plant, who was wrapping up a week of working with John and Yoko on a new single, "Walking on Thin Ice": He and Yoko came in sometime in the early evening to listen to the final mix.

SAM GINSBERG, 50, engineer at the Record Plant: I remember [John and Yoko's producer] David Geffen came over and said, "[Double Fantasy] has gone gold."

["Walking on Thin Ice"] was going to be the next single. And John was happy that it was going to be Yoko's single instead of his single.

We just finished mixing that song, and they left. The one thing that stuck in my mind was John saying, "I'm hungry. Should we stop at Wolf's deli?"

He said - its kind of an English thing - "If I ate, it would go right to my knee," meaning he was starving.

He didn't go to Wolf's.

JIM MORAN, 70, NYPD officer on a 4-to-midnight shift on the Upper West Side that night: When John and Yoko arrived back [at the Dakota], they came with the limousine. But there was a car parked there, so they couldn't pull into the driveway. They pulled up on the street and they got out of the car, double-parked. They went in that way.

STEVE SPIRO, 59, the first NYPD officer on the scene of the shooting: When we got the call, about 5 minutes to 11, something like that, it said, "Shots fired, 1 West 72nd Street." We were on Broadway and 72nd.

The first thing that came to my mind is, oh, they're shooting fireworks off over in Central Park.

When we got to the scene, we pulled up and this guy's standing in the middle of the street, pointing into the archway, saying, "That's the guy doing the shooting."

MORAN: I drove to the Dakota and there were several cars, and a crowd. There was always like five, six, 10 people because they knew they could get signatures from John and Yoko. But they never had any problems; it was a quiet crowd.

SPIRO: We got out of the car and went up against the building and looked into the archway. Here's this guy - I'm sticking my head into the archway - and he's got his hands up. He had dropped the gun; the gun had been kicked away by the doorman and he had his hands up. He had taken off all his outer garments.

I figured there was a robbery going down. I didn't know how many guys were there. I wheeled him around. I saw the holes in the glass vestibule, and then off to my right, Jose, the doorman, who I know for years working there, says, "No, he's the only one."

So I said great, OK. Now I throw him up against the wall. Then Jose yells out, "He shot John Lennon." And I just went, "You what?"

MORAN: There were other radio cars there, and my partner Bill [Gamble] and I went through the archway and up the steps going up, and they said a man was shot. We said we'll take him to the hospital.

I went back to get the car to pull right up. They carried him out, the police officers. There was a crowd there and they were saying it was John Lennon, and I didn't know - I'll be honest with you, you couldn't tell.

SPIRO: I grabbed the guy, Mark David Chapman. I wheeled him around. I'm cuffing him. I had his nose up against the wall so he couldn't see anything.

I turn to my right, and I see John Lennon being carried out of the building. They carried him face-up, shoulder-high. I saw the blood gurgling out of his mouth. I'm just saying, "Oh my God, this guy's drowning in his own blood, he's hit in the lungs."

MORAN: I said, "Are you John Lennon?"

And I think he said, I heard a moan, and he nodded and he said yes, and they laid him across the back seat [of the patrol car].

SPIRO: I wasn't looking for an answer, but Chapman says, "I acted alone."

MORAN: There's like two, three steps to go in the vestibule outside the lobby of the Dakota. Chapman would have got him there, he would have seen his back, that's how he got him, when he went up the stairs. Chapman was on the sidewalk.

They were trying to get Yoko to go in on the other side of my patrol car next to Lennon, but it was too crowded.

They decided to put her in another car, and then we just went off down to Columbus Avenue.

DAVID GEFFEN, writing in the Jan. 22 issue of Rolling Stone about that night: I went home and turned the phone off. I was sort of hanging around the apartment and I noticed the light on the phone flashing. So I picked it up and this woman said, "I'm a friend of Yoko's. John's just been shot. They're at Roosevelt Hospital. Run right over."

I said, "Sure," and hung up the phone, and thought, gee, what a crank phone call. When I tell Yoko, she'll be real upset.

But then I thought, "Is it possible?" So I called the Record Plant, and they said, no, it's impossible, he just left here ten minutes ago.

DR. STEPHAN LYNN, 58, director of Roosevelt Hospital emergency room, at 58th Street and Ninth Avenue, who was called back to the hospital that night: I had left the hospital at 10:30, and I was watching the commercial before the 11 o'clock news, so it was probably 10:57.

I got a call from the emergency department. The nurses got a call from the police that they were bringing in an individual with a gunshot wound to the chest. I ran out, got a cab, and actually got to the hospital before he did.

And, in fact, one of our cardiovascular surgeons, Richard Marks, he lived near the Dakota and he was parking his car. He saw what was going on across the street, and he simply decided to turn around and come back.

We didn't know who it was. The police were not 100 percent certain who it was. When the victim came in, he had three gunshot wounds in his left upper chest and one through his left arm. He also had no blood pressure, no pulse, no respirations and he was unresponsive.

ALAN WEISS, 54, a producer of ABC's 6 o'clock news with Roger Grimsby and Bill Beutel, who had had a motorcycle accident in Central Park and was in the E.R. when Lennon arrived: The door slammed open and six cops - I think it was four or six - come trotting in with a stretcher between them. And they go into the bay that I am literally lying outside of.

Two of the cops come out and they're standing over my gurney, and one says to the other, "Jesus, can you believe it, John Lennon?"

LYNN: An emergency department clerk took his wallet out of his pocket. There was a John Lennon ID card. And he had a very large amount of cash in his wallet. When Yoko Ono came in, I was 100 percent certain who we had. She was taken down to the other end of the emergency department. She was never brought into the room where he was treated.

WEISS: I hear crying. And I crane my head around, and there's Yoko in a full-length mink coat on the arms of a leather-jacketed police officer, hysterical.

LYNN: To provide any chance for him to survive, we needed to do an emergency thoracotomy. So we made an incision in the left chest and separated the ribs and found a very large amount of blood. We looked for an injury to the heart or to the blood vessels. But what we discovered was that all of the major blood vessels leaving the heart were simply destroyed.

There was no way that we could repair them.

MORAN: Yoko came in. They were going to leave her out in the waiting room, and we decided to put her into one of the rooms that were vacant in the back, and I stayed with her for five, 10 minutes.

I said, "You have the best doctors."

WEISS: There's this guy sweeping the floor. I call him over and say, "Look, do me a favor. Here's my press card, here's 20 bucks. Call this number, ask for Neil, tell him Alan's in the hospital and I believe John Lennon's been shot."

He said sure. Five minutes go by and a voice says, "Mr. Weiss, No personal phone calls are allowed to be made by the staff."

I said, "Sir." He said, "Mr. Weiss, would you just be quiet please. We have a situation here, and you can't ask the staff to do anything."

So I get up and I can't walk, but I sort of hop my way down. There's a pay phone outside the door. I'm opening the door when a vice grip grabs me on my biceps. A security guy asks me, "Where you going?"

I said, "Just to make a phone call."

He said, "You can't."

One of the cops who brought me in miraculously arrives. I ask him, "Do me a favor. Can I just make a phone call?"

He takes the phone off the nursing stand, gives it to me. I get [assignment editor] Neil Goldstein on the phone.

"Neil, I think John Lennon's been shot."

Neil calls ABC Network. ABC News called Howard Cosell [who was on the air doing "Monday Night Football"].

FRANK GIFFORD, 75, co-announcer of the Patriots-Dolphins "Monday Night Football" game that night: We were in Miami. I was doing the play-by-play at the time. I could hear Cosell talking to the producer in the truck.

I knew something big was going on. I could tell by Howard's intensity, and he wasn't paying any attention to the game all of a sudden.

Then we go to a commercial. I said, "Howard, what the hell's going on?"

Then he said, "They just shot John Lennon."

He said, "I'll take it from here, Gifford," and, "We're going to announce this," or something to that effect.

I said, "Bulls--t, we're not, either."

I said, "We're going to get confirmation from New York."

Cosell was really pissed off - and he was right, it had just happened.

BOB GOODRICH, 60, ABC "Monday Night Football" producer, who told Howard Cosell about Lennon: I said, "Howard, it's been confirmed. It's unfortunate, but you need to report it to the country."

VIN SCELSA, 57, WNEW-FM DJ, who was on the air when Lennon was shot: "The bank of telephone lines started lighting up. First one and then 20. I picked one up, and the voice said: "Howard Cosell said John Lennon's been shot."

[Bruce Springsteen's] "Jungleland" was on the turntable. So I faded it out, I read this news bulletin and brought the record back up again.

In "The Operator," late author Tom King revealed that Yoko had a friend waken Geffen and he rushed to her side at the hospital, fighting his way through the throng of camera crews, photographers and reporters that had gathered at Roosevelt's entrance.

WEISS: I'm back on the gurney, and I'm watching in the room, John Lennon stark naked, he's laying on his back, his feet are facing me and there's like 10 people in the room. There's blood on his chest.

The door opens and every security guard comes flying in, "Are you Weiss? Lay down."

They wheel me out of the emergency room, right outside the doors.

LYNN: I literally held his heart in my hand and I pumped. But every time I pumped, most of what I pumped simply came out of all the holes. It was totally ineffective, and after about 20 minutes, he was declared dead.

WEISS: At about 11:05, 11:10, the Muzak that's playing in the hospital plays the Beatles' "All My Loving." It was a very freaky coincidence.

About a minute or two after that, there's a scream: "No, no. Oh, no, no." A woman's voice.

LYNN: I walked in, and I told Yoko what had happened. And she completely refused to accept what I said.

She said, "No, it's not true. You're lying. It can't be true. You're not telling me the truth. He can't be dead, he was just alive. You're lying. No."

After about five minutes, a long time, she finally understood what had happened.

And the first thing that she said was, "Don't make the announcement immediately. Delay the announcement for about 20 minutes, because I want to go home and make certain that my son Sean is not sitting in front of a TV set."

HOWARD COSELL, speaking live on ABC at 11:30 p.m.: "Remember, this is just a football game, no matter who wins or loses. An unspeakable tragedy that came to us from ABC News in New York City: John Lennon, outside of his apartment building on the West Side of New York City, the most famous perhaps of all the Beatles, shot twice in the back, rushed to Roosevelt Hospital.

"Dead on arrival."

SCELSA: The news clerk came back in the room, white as a ghost. I said, "What?"

He said, "He's dead, it's him. He's dead."

And I said, "I'm not saying that on the air. Get verification."

I played "Let It Be." I had that cued up.

GEFFEN, in Rolling Stone: Eddie Rosenblatt, my partner and the president of the company, called me up and said, "John was just shot. They just interrupted [Monday Night Football]."

I said, "Meet me downstairs," and we ran out and got in a cab, and rushed to the hospital. It was such a scene. There were cops everywhere, big cops, you know. You feel so intimidated, and all I could think was that I had to get to Yoko.

I kept saying, "I'm David Geffen. I'm expected. Yoko's expecting me." But they wouldn't let me in. I was banging on the door and I just felt so helpless. I kept shouting, "You've got to let me in. You've got to let me in."

Finally, someone opened the door and I ran in.

Yoko was in this little room, hysterical, and I just picked her up in my arms.

LYNN: We made arrangements to allow Yoko to leave the emergency departmen, but when [her car] pulled up to that entrance, all the press and everybody on the scene ran around the corner, and we literally could not push the door open.

MORAN: When Lennon was shot, [he and Yoko had] just came back from the studio, so he had miscellaneous papers. I think he had glasses, a wallet, and then papers, which I had to just voucher.

JOE DEMARIA, New York Post photographer who caught Yoko and Geffen leaving Roosevelt: We were hanging around outside the emergency room. There was rustling going on. There were a lot of police.

I got a tip that Yoko would be coming out a side door. I sort of backed off and slid around to 58th Street. I stopped at the first door. I was about 10, 15 feet away. There was a car sitting there.

I wasn't there 15 minutes; two people came out before her. Then she came out, looking very solemn, didn't say a word. [Geffen] was holding on to her.

GERALDO RIVERA, 62, then investigative reporter for ABC news and friend and neighbor of Lennon: I definitely heard the shots that night at 72nd Street [from my apartment at 64th and Central Park West]. I didn't know what it was, but gunshots weren't that uncommon in those days. Or I thought it was a car backfiring.

But it wasn't more than five minutes later that I got a call from the ABC network news desk. They said, Can you come on and do "Nightline?"

I said, "Why?" And they said, "John Lennon's just been shot."

The newsroom is only two blocks away, so I rushed over there and found out he had died.

It was a crushing, crushing moment, and I remember saying at one point to Ted Koppel, "I'm just trying to keep my thoughts organized and coherent and not break down."

We stayed on live for three hours, basically redoing the show for every time zone.

BOB GRUEN, 60, author of "John Lennon: the New York Years" published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, who was Lennon's personal photographer and one of his closest friends in the city: I was here in my darkroom. I had taken some pictures [at the Record Factory] the last weekend he was alive. I was printing those pictures when the doorman called up and said, "Do you have a radio on? I just heard on the radio that John Lennon was shot."

My first thought was that maybe he'd been mugged, because that's what happened once in a while if you had bad luck. It didn't occur to me that someone would travel across the world to shoot him on purpose. It just didn't. It still doesn't make sense. It will never make sense.

LYNN: We then made arrangements to take John Lennon's body out of the hospital, because this was the type of case that would go to the New York City Medical Examiner.

There was a receiving dock farther down 58th Street, toward the back of the hospital, that had a double entrance where you could close the outer door or the inner door, or both.

They [pulled the car in, closed the outer doors] and then opened the inner door and we put his body in the morgue ambulance. There was actually another body in there at the time. I have no idea [who that was].

Then we closed the inner door and opened the outer door. The police had completely cordoned off 58th Street, and there was no traffic and no people on the street. And the medical examiner's vehicle left.

I made the announcement in what was then the lobby to the hospital. There was a small staircase of about three or four steps that led up to the admissions office.

I stood at the top of the steps, and the first thing that I saw was about 200 or 300 press people with microphones, mostly radio, and some TV cameras, all pointing in my direction.

I put my head down and sort of put my hands out to the side to motion that I had something to say and for them to be quiet.

Annie Leibovitz took a picture of me.

DENNIS ORTIZ-LOPEZ, 56, Rolling Stone magazine typographer: Annie Leibovitz came in the office the next morning the same time I did. I took the elevator up to the 23rd floor with her. I could see she was really messed up over it, so we didn't discuss it.

We had all been called up and told he had died. They said to come in quick because we had an editorial nightmare coming up. We had finished the magazine completely. The cover was going to be Warren Zevon.

Jann wanted that picture [that Liebovitz had taken the morning before he was killed of John naked with Yoko] to run on the cover. We had to completely do the issue over in two days.

We all knew what we had to do.

ANNIE LIEBOVITZ, writing in the Jan. 22 issue of Rolling Stone about the cover shot: I promised John that this would be the cover. It was taken a few hours before he died. I shot some test Polaroids first, and, when I showed them to John and Yoko, John said, "You've captured our relationship exactly."

I looked him in the eye and we shook on it. The next day, Yoko asked to see the prints and she made the final selection.

SHOLIN: When [my plane] landed in San Francisco, I turned on the radio. I don't remember what song, but it was an older Beatles ballad, like "Yesterday."

It was really odd. He played two songs back to back. And then he made the announcement.

I just stopped the car and realized it wasn't a nightmare or bad dream.

The Couch Potato Report - December 6th, 2005

This week The Couch Potato Report features a Cinderella man, and a man who is no longer with us.

It is rare when a film that is as good as CINDERELLA MAN fails to find an audience.

And make no mistake, CINDERELLA MAN is good, and it did fail to find its audience when it was released in theatres in June.

Now that it is available on video and DVD I hope the film finds it's audience, because it is a film that is worth seeing.

In CINDERELLA MAN Russell Crowe from GLADIATOR plays James J. Braddock, a real person who lived and was a boxer in the early 1930's and during The Great Depression.

As the depression takes away his money, and injuries take away his career, almost everyone in his inner circle turns their back on Braddock. Eventually his injuries end his boxing career and he struggles to support his family.

Renee Zellweger from COLD MOUNTAIN plays Braddock's loving and supportive wife.

Unable to fight, Braddock looks for any kind of work he can get, but he also believes that he will box again.

Through a twist of fate, the day does arrive, and he gets a second chance at success.

CINDERELLA MAN is a complex film with great acting from Crowe, Zellweger and Paul Giamatti from SIDEWAYS. The movie also benefits from the experienced direction of Ron Howard.

Be warned though, if you are looking for the type of sentimental melodrama that Howard brought to A BEAUTIFUL MIND, THE MISSING, and some of his other films, you won't find that here.

The desperate struggle of the Depression is on plain view, and the boxing scenes are very realistic and at times they are very violent.

No, CINDERELLA MAN didn't find its audience in theatres, but I hope that people who enjoy well made, quality movies will ensure it finds success on video and DVD, because this is a film that should be seen.

As a side note, CINDERELLA MAN was filmed in Toronto, partially at Maple Leaf Gardens. The theatre where I first saw it in was on the site of where the Montreal Forum used to stand. Thus, for me, in addition to enjoying this boxing film, I was enjoying memories of hockey's greatest rivals as well.

But I digress, and we move on now to a film that has been available on video for years but is now - finally - debuting on DVD.

That film is 1988's IMAGINE: JOHN LENNON.

With the world pausing to remember that it has been 25 years since we lost the man, the time is right for this film to be released again.

The film is part documentary, part biography, and all Lennon and it was put together using nearly 240 hours of film and videotape that Lennon took during his life.

Director Andrew Solt took that material and created a fascinating story of one of the most complex and fascinating people in music history.

If you are fan of John Lennon, or The Beatles, this movie is a must have.

And if you are curious about why people are making such a big deal about this guy twenty-five years after he died, then IMAGINE: JOHN LENNON is a great place to start.

I have worn out my video copy, so I am pleased to now own IMAGINE: JOHN LENNON on DVD.

For the record, I will never own the movie versions of FANTASTIC FOUR or THE DUKES OF HAZZARD on DVD, or video for that matter.

That isn't because the films are horrible, but just because I will never need to see them a second time. Yes, each one does have parts that are worth seeing, just not a second time.

As far as FANTASTIC FOUR is concerned, that is too bad as I remain a huge fan of the comic book to this day. But films based on comic books have to be judged by their source material and this film doesn't hold up.

The source material in the film sees Reed Richards, Victor Von Doom, Ben Grimm, and Sue and Johnny Storm travel into outer-space in order to do research into human DNA.

Things don't go as planned, and the result is superhuman powers. Four of the five use their powers for good, Victor Von Doom does not.

To its credit, FANTASTIC FOUR is a light-hearted and funny adventure that doesn't take itself too seriously, but that also works against it. If the people making the film took it more seriously then a better movie could have been the result.

Since they don't, the character development is only mildly interesting, and there isn't much action in the movie until towards the end.

FANTASTIC FOUR isn't horrible, but it could have been great.

Great like the X-MEN films and THE INCREDIBLES.

The film version of the 1970s and 80s TV show THE DUKES OF HAZZARD isn't horrible either, and it also doesn't take itself too seriously either, but unlike FANTASTIC FOUR, THE DUKES OF HAZZARD is just stupid - and not always in a good way.

The plot of the film, as it is, centers around Cousins Bo and Luke Duke, their sexy cousin Daisy, and their Uncle Jesse's attempts to save the family farm from destruction by the town's corrupt and evil commissioner Boss Hogg.

In order to save the farm the cousins must elude the authorities over and over again in their car "The General Lee."

But as I said, the film is just stupid, and so are many of the characters in it. On occasions when that stupidity involves Deputy Enos, or pop star Jessica Simpson as Daisy, the film is mildly entertaining.

All other times, it isn't.

No, the film version of THE DUKES OF HAZZARD isn't horrible, but it is definitely the last, and least of this week's new releases.

And it is now available at a store near you along with FANTASTIC FOUR, IMAGINE: JOHN LENNON, and the overlooked in theatres CINDERELLA MAN.

Coming up in the next Couch Potato Report

Steve Carell from THE DAILY SHOW is THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN. Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johanson star as clones in THE ISLAND, and there will be new box sets available for MIAMI VICE: SEASON TWO and THE SIMPSONS: THE COMPLETE SEVENTH SEASON.

I'm Dan Reynish. I'll 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!

DVD-Only Prequel Fills in '24' Gaps

The DVD set of season four of "24" will include at least one nifty little extra: a 10-minute mini-episode that helps bridge the time gap between the end of Jack Bauer's fourth really long day as a counter-terrorism agent and the coming season, which premieres in January.

For the pleasure of knowing where Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) went after faking his own death, fans of the show can expect to pay a retail price of about $70. Which is about $70 more than the gap-bridging extra cost the show's producers to make.

That's because Toyota picked up the tab for the cost of shooting via a product-placement/sponsorship deal -- commonplace on TV but novel for DVD content. The prequel segment ends with a high-speed chase that will doubtless feature the automaker's vehicles tearing through the streets of Los Angeles, or wherever it is that Bauer's hiding out.

"The prequel was a great opportunity to address some unanswered questions from the end of last season," executive producer and Howard Gordon says, "and to give fans some clues from the season ahead -- and to deliver a really exciting car chase."

The preview takes place four months before the opening of season five and features Jack meeting covertly with CTU operative Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub), one of the few people inside CTU who knows Bauer is still alive. FOX says the prequel will also give clues about the coming season's bad guys and how Jack has been keeping his real identity a secret.

The "24" season four DVD set hits stores Tuesday (Dec. 6). Season five premieres Sunday, Jan. 15.

Your 2005 Film Quiz

Some movie buffs say this year has been one to forget. Agree or disagree? Here's a test to see how much you truly remember (And yes, the answers are all below)

By JOE LEYDON - The New York Daily News

Name Games

1. In "Batman Returns," Christian Bale became the fifth actor to play the Caped Crusader in a feature film. Name the other four.
2. Name three actors who played Dakota Fanning's father in 2005.

3. Who played the title roles in "Four Brothers"?

4. People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive 2005" starred in two '05 films. Name them.

5. Name two John Carpenter movies that were remade in 2005.

Whereabouts

6. "Hustle & Flow" takes place in what Southern city? (A) New Orleans (B) Nashville (C) Memphis (D) Mobile

7. In what city do the vengeful "Four Brothers" seek their mother's killer? (A) Detroit (B) Boston (C) Chicago (D) Newark

8. "The Skeleton Key" was set in the dark backwoods just outside what city? (A) Atlanta (B) Charlotte (C) New Orleans (D) Savannah

9. Just where is Ice Cube taking those two troublesome kids in "Are We There Yet?" (A) San Francisco (B) Seattle (C) Portland (D) Vancouver

10. Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette co-starred in "In Her Shoes" as estranged sisters in what city? (A) Boston (B) Philadelphia (C) Seattle (D) Chicago

Catch a falling star

11. What native Texan played a Texas Ranger in the little-seen "Man of the House"? (A) Dennis Quaid (B) Tommy Lee Jones (C) Matthew McConaughey (D) Steve Martin

12. What star of a 2005 blockbuster also voiced the title toon character in the underwhelming "Valiant"? (A) Christian Bale (B) Johnny Depp (C) Tom Cruise (D) Ewan McGregor

13. What former "Law & Order" star fought the good fight in a long-delayed World War II drama last summer? (A) Jerry Orbach (B) Benjamin Bratt (C) Chris Noth (D) Michael Moriarty

14. She was hyped as a hottie and was notorious for nude scenes in the 1980s. In "Flightplan," however, she cameoed as a drab and bespectacled psychologist. Who is she? (A) Greta Scacchi (B) Kim Basinger (C) Kathleen Turner (D) Sean Young

15. What actor best known for his New York-based movies stumbled badly while time-tripping through Chicago in "A Sound of Thunder"? (A) Edward Burns (B) Woody Allen (C) Robert De Niro (D) John Turturro

Real characters

16. Who is Johnny Storm? (A) The pimp-turned-hip-hopper in "Hustle & Flow" (B) "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (C) The flaming superhero in "Fantastic Four" (D) The vengeful hulk in "Sin City"

17. What were the first names of "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"? (A) John and Mary(B) Paul and Paula (C) John and Jane (D) Dick and Jane

18.Who is Gracie Hart? (A) The crusading coal miner of "North Country" (B) The plucky FBI agent of "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous" (C) The mother-in-law from hell in "Monster-in-Law" (D) The curvy stripper of "Sin City"

19. Tyler Perry donned drag to play what character in his "Diary of a Mad Black Woman"? (A) Madea (B) Medea (C) Madonna (D) Medusa

20. Who is Ray Ferrier? (A) The heavyweight rival of the "Cinderella Man" (B) The divorced dad fleeing alien invaders in "War of the Worlds"(C) A "Wedding Crasher" (D) "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"

Snappy patter

Who said it?

21. "Does it come in black?" (A) Johnny Depp in "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" (B) Bruno Ganz in "Downfall" (C) Christian Bale in "Batman Begins" (D) Morgan Freeman in "March of the Penguins"

22. "For the past year, I ain't had nothing twixt my nethers that didn't run on batteries." (A) Jessica Simpson in "The Dukes of Hazzard" (B) Keira Knightley in "Domino" (C) Jewell Staite in "Serenity" (D) Drea de Matteo in "Assault on Precinct 13"

23. "A thong would look ridiculous on me." (A) Michelle Monaghan in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" (B) Val Kilmer in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" (C) Toni Collette in "In Her Shoes" (D) Shirley MacLaine in "In Her Shoes"

24. "Trust me: Everyone is less mysterious than they think they are."(A) Kirsten Dunst in "Elizabethtown"(B) Claire Danes in "Shopgirl" (C) Steve Carell in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"(D) Jessica Alba in "Fantastic Four"

25. "God loves you just the way you are, but too much to let you stay that way." (A) Michael Caine in "Batman Begins" (B) Cameron Diaz in "In Her Shoes" (C) Amy Adams in "Junebug" (D) Reese Witherspoon in "Walk the Line"

26. "You're not stalking me, are you?" (A) Cillian Murphy in "Red Eye" (B) Orlando Bloom in "Elizabethtown" (C) Rob Schneider in "Deuce Bigalow, European Gigolo" (D) Brad Pitt in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"

27. "There are two types of people: Those that talk the talk and those that walk the walk. People who walk the walk sometimes talk the talk but most times they don't talk at all, 'cause they walkin'. Now, people who talk the talk, when it comes time for them to walk the walk, you know what they do? They talk people like me into walkin' for them." (A) Terrence Howard in "Get Rich or Die Tryin'" (B) Joaquin Phoenix in "Walk the Line" (C) Toni Collette in "In Her Shoes" (D) Anthony Anderson in "Hustle & Flow"

28. "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in." (A) Joe Pantoliano in "Racing Stripes" (B) Tim Curry in "Valiant" (C) Robin Williams in "Robots" (D) Cedric the Entertainer in "Madagascar"

29. "Know how I knew you were gay? You like Coldplay." (A) Terrence Howard in "Hustle & Flow" (B) Paul Rudd in "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" (C) Mark Wahlberg in "Four Brothers" (D) Mickey Rourke in "Sin City"

30. "Tattoo on the lower back? Might as well be a bull's-eye." (A) Angelina Jolie in "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (B) Chris Rock in "The Longest Yard" (C) Vince Vaughn in "Wedding Crashers"(D) Jennifer Garner in "Elektra"

Answers

NAME GAMES

1. Adam West ("Batman," 1966), Michael Keaton ("Batman," 1989; "Batman Returns," 1992), Val Kilmer ("Batman Forever," 1995) and George Clooney ("Batman & Robin," 1997).

2. Robert De Niro ("Hide and Seek"), Tom Cruise ("War of the Worlds") and Kurt Russell ("Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story").

3. Mark Wahlberg, Tyrese Gibson, Andre Benjamin and Garrett Hedlund.

4. Matthew McConaughey appeared in "Sahara" and "Two for the Money."

5. "Assault on Precinct 13" and "The Fog."

WHEREABOUTS

6. (C) Memphis

7. (A) Detroit

8. (C) New Orleans

9. (D) Vancouver

10. (B) Philadelphia

CATCH A FALLING STAR

11. (B) Tommy Lee Jones

12. (D) Ewan McGregor

13. (B) Benjamin Bratt (in "The Great Raid")

14. (A) Greta Scacchi

15. (A) Edward Burns

REAL CHARACTERS

16. (C) Superhero in "Fantastic Four"

17. (C) John and Jane

18. (B) FBI agent in "Miss Congeniality 2"

19. (A) Madea

20. (B) Divorced dad in "War of the Worlds"

SNAPPY PATTER

21. (C) Christian Bale

22. (C) Jewell Staite

23. (C) Toni Collette

24. (A) Kirsten Dunst

25. (C) Amy Adams

26. (A) Cillian Murphy

27. (D) Anthony Anderson

28. (A) Joe Pantoliano

29. (B) Paul Rudd

30. (C) Vince Vaughn

Same old song, but with a different package

Mariah Carey's The Emancipation of Mimi was brand-new on April 12. It got newer on Nov. 15.

Adopting the DVD formula of following an initial release with a coveted "director's cut," the music industry has taken to revamping hit CDs months after release to reboot sales. It's gravy for artists and labels and a bargain for consumers who didn't get the original.

But fans who already have the album can feel resentful and shortchanged. They're either stuck with the minor version or forced to buy the same title again to get the extras.

Carey's Mimi was closing in on 4 million copies when the enhanced "Ultra Platinum Edition," with four new tracks, replaced it 32 weeks later to pad sales by 185,000 copies and bump it 11 notches to No. 4 in Billboard.

She's not the first to repackage a big seller. A special edition of Usher's Confessions, 2004's top seller, came 6½ months after the slimmer original. The Killers' Hot Fuss, released in mid-2004, returned Aug. 16 in limited-edition form with three added tracks. 50 Cent's The Massacre, already on course as this year's best seller, got a second wind in September as a reissue with videos for all 21 tracks. And Elton John's Peachtree Road, released a year ago, is back as a collector's edition with bonus tracks and a DVD.

Artists cite various creative impulses as reasons for the follow-ups. But the consensus, particularly in a year of declining CD sales, points to a profit boost achieved by prolonging an album's life span.

"The record companies are trying to go to the same well again and again," says George Varga, pop music critic for the San Diego Union-Tribune. "The obvious question in my mind is: If the newly added material is so great, why wasn't it on the album in the first place? If the artist really had a surge of inspiration after the album came out, they have plenty of ways to make that music available, be it on their website or an EP.

"You don't need to be a trial lawyer to be a little suspicious of the motives. Yet, whatever the record industry can do to motivate people to buy anything is in their best interest."

Carey fanatic Alex Kaplan of Chino Hills, Calif., wants to add the Mimi upgrade to her collection, though she believes the altered disc benefits latecomers and punishes devotees who shop early.

"If I want the new songs, I have to buy an album I already have," says Kaplan, 30. "I'd rather see the new stuff sold separately, like a mini-album with a different cover.

"I'll probably end up buying it again, but I'm not too happy about it."

The Christmas classic that almost wasn't

When CBS bigwigs saw a rough cut of A Charlie Brown Christmas in November 1965, they hated it.

"They said it was slow," executive producer Lee Mendelson remembers with a laugh. There were concerns that the show was almost defiantly different: There was no laugh track, real children provided the voices, and there was a swinging score by jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi.

Mendelson and animator Bill Melendez fretted about the insistence by Peanuts creator Charles Schulz that his first-ever TV spinoff end with a reading of the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke by a lisping little boy named Linus.

"We told Schulz, 'Look, you can't read from the Bible on network television,' " Mendelson says. "When we finished the show and watched it, Melendez and I looked at each other and I said, 'We've ruined Charlie Brown.' "

Good grief, were they wrong. The first broadcast was watched by almost 50% of the nation's viewers. "When I started reading the reviews, I was absolutely shocked," says Melendez, 89. "They actually liked it!"

And when the program airs Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET on ABC, it will mark its 40th anniversary — a run that has made it a staple of family holiday traditions and an icon of American pop culture. The show won an Emmy and a Peabody award and began a string of more than two dozen Peanuts specials.

Last year, 13.6 million people watched it, making it the 18th-most-popular show on television the week it aired; CSI was first. One advertiser on the show, financial services giant MetLife, has contracted to use Peanuts characters in its advertising since 1985 and will continue through at least 2012.

Schulz, who died in 2000, never doubted the power of his tale of Charlie Brown's quest for the true meaning of Christmas amid the garish trappings of a commercialized holiday. "It comes across in the voice of a child," says Jeannie Schulz, the wife of the cartoonist, whose friends called him Sparky. "Sparky used to say there will always be a market for innocence."

Peter Robbins, now 49, was the voice of Charlie Brown. "This show poses a question that I don't think had been asked before on television: Does anybody know the meaning of Christmas?"

Parents like Molly Kremidas, 39, who grew up adoring A Charlie Brown Christmas, watch it with their kids. "It's the values in the story," says Kremidas, of Winston-Salem, N.C. She'll watch tonight with daughter Sofia, 6. "Would there be any programs for children on today that could get away with talking about the real meaning of Christmas? I don't think so."

Erin Kane, 36, is eager for her 3-year-old son Tommy to watch the program for the first time tonight in their Boston home. "The Christmas season doesn't start," Kane says, "until Charlie Brown is on."

Hip but wholesome

On paper, the show's bare-bones script would seem to offer few clues to its enduring popularity. Mendelson says the show was written in several weeks, after Coca-Cola called him just six months before the program aired to ask if Schulz could come up with a Peanuts Christmas special.

Charlie Brown, depressed as always, can't seem to get into the Christmas spirit. His friend and nemesis Lucy suggests that he direct the gang's Christmas play. But the Peanuts crew is focused on how many presents they're going to get, not on putting on a show.

"Just send money. How about tens and twenties?" says Charlie's sister Sally as she dictates a letter to Santa Claus.

Charlie goes to find a Christmas tree to set the mood. He returns with a scrawny specimen that prompts his cohorts to mock him as a blockhead. In desperation, Charlie asks if anyone can explain to him what Christmas is all about.

"Sure, I can," says his friend Linus, who proceeds to recite the story of the birth of Jesus from the book of Luke in the King James Version of the Bible. "And suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the Highest, and on Earth peace, and goodwill toward men,' " Linus says. "And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Scholars of pop culture say that shining through the program's skeletal plot is the quirky and sophisticated genius that fueled the phenomenal popularity of Schulz's work, still carried by 2,400 newspapers worldwide even though it's repeating old comic strips.

The Christmas special epitomizes the nostalgic appeal of holiday television classics for baby boomers raised as that medium gained prominence, says Robert Thompson, a professor of television and popular culture at Syracuse University.

Thompson notes that other Christmas specials made during the same era — such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty The Snowman - also air each year to strong ratings.

"This is the only time in the year when TV programs from the LBJ years play on network television and do very, very well," he says. "For millions of baby boomers, these things became as much a holiday tradition as hanging a stocking or putting up a tree."

What makes A Charlie Brown Christmas the "gold standard" in Thompson's view is that it somehow manages to convey an old-fashioned, overtly religious holiday theme that's coupled with Schulz's trademark sardonic, even hip, sense of humor.

While Schulz centers the piece on verses from the Bible, laced throughout are biting references to the modern materialism of the Christmas season. Lucy complains to Charlie that she never gets wants she really wants. "What is it you want?" Charlie asks. "Real estate," she answers.

"A key element in all of Schulz's work is his sense of man's place in the scheme of things in a theological sense as well as a psychological sense," says Thomas Inge, an English and humanities professor at Randolph-Macon College who edited a series of interviews with Schulz released in 2000. "Then there's this slightly cynical attitude that makes everything work."

Parents say the combination of humor and bedrock values is what draws them and their children to the show. "It does provide a balance, but it's a balance that we as a society have forgotten about," says Patrick Lemp, 43, of West Hartford, Conn. He'll watch tonight with son Brendan, 13.

"This is one of the last shows that actually comes out and talks about the meaning of Christmas. As a society, we're taking religion out of a lot of the trappings of the holiday. This one is different."

A cultural footprint

Much about A Charlie Brown Christmas was revolutionary for network TV, even beyond its religious themes.

The voices of children had not been used before in animation, a technique Mendelson, Melendez and Schulz all wanted to try.

"Lee didn't want to use Hollywood kids. He wanted the sound of kids who didn't have training," says Sally Dryer, 48, who did the voice of Violet — the little girl who mocks Charlie Brown for not getting any Christmas cards. In later specials, she was Lucy's voice.

Mendelson sent tape recorders home with all his employees in Burlingame, Calif. Dryer, then 8, was chosen because her sister worked for the Mendelson crew. Robbins and Christopher Shea, the voice of Linus, were the only children with professional acting experience in the cast.

The show was also novel in that it used no laugh track, an omnipresent device in animated and live-action comedies of the era. Schulz strongly believed that his audience could figure out when to laugh.

Perhaps the most enduring aspect of the show has been its score — a piano-driven jazz suite that was absolutely unheard-of for children's programming in 1965.

Guaraldi, the composer and pianist, was best known for a 1962 hit called Cast Your Fate To the Wind. Mendelson liked it so much that he hired Guaraldi to score a documentary about Schulz that never aired. When the Christmas program was sold, parts of that music were incorporated.

The driving tune that the Peanuts children keep dancing to in the special, called Linus and Lucy, has become a pop staple that's been recorded countless time in the intervening decades.

A new version of the soundtrack was released last month for the 40th anniversary. It features Vanessa Williams, Christian McBride, David Benoit and others.

The song that opens the program, Christmas Time is Here, was written only for piano by Guaraldi, but Mendelson decided to add words to appease other network concerns. When he found his songwriter friends in California were all tied up, Mendelson wrote the words himself on the back of an envelope.

"So now it's a standard," says Mendelson, now 72. "Who knew? I tell people that I'm old and I'm lucky."

Jazz pianist George Winston, recorded a 1996 tribute album to Guaraldi, who died in 1976. He says that when he plays Guaraldi tunes at concerts, young children come up later and say, "Hey, that's the Peanuts music!"

Says Winston: "Vince made a stamp on our popular culture that will never go away. For an artist, that's the ultimate tribute."

A sweet memory

The Christmas special has become a key part of the Peanuts marketing empire, which racks up $1.2 billion in annual retail sales, $350 million of which come in the USA. Millions of VCR tapes and DVDs of the program are in circulation worldwide.

The 40th anniversary has spawned a long list of spinoff products, including a "Charlie Brown Christmas Tree" at Urban Outfitters and a paperback version of a book Mendelson wrote, The Making of a Tradition: A Charlie Brown Christmas. And the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., where Schulz lived, plans a special commemoration on Dec. 17 with Mendelson and several cast members. The museum also has an exhibit on the Christmas show that runs through Jan. 9.

"It's a tradition, along with White Christmas, A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life," says Marion Hull, 77, who toured the exhibit on Friday. "It's simple, it tells a simple story, and it's something that both adults and children can get something out of."

For those who worked to make the program — as well as fans who watch it — its material success seems ancillary. The word that keeps coming up is "sweet."

Robbins, who is single, has no children and manages an apartment building in Encino, Calif., loves that kids of friends squeal with delight each Christmas that "Uncle Pete used to be Charlie Brown."

Jeannie Schulz, who was the artist's second wife when they married in 1973, says their five children, 25 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren see the show as a holiday tradition as well.

"The reason it's endured is because of its simplicity and its very basic honesty to real life," she says. "Who would have thought this would last 40 years? How did that happen?"

For many viewers, it is the speech by Linus from Luke near the end that packs the biggest emotional wallop.

Christopher Shea was just 7 when he did the part and credits Melendez's coaching and his mom's doctorate in 17th-century British literature for Linus' lilting eloquence with a Biblical text.

Shea, who now lives in Eureka, Calif., with two daughters, 11 and 16, answers quickly when asked why the special has proved so enduring. "It's the words," he says.

Shea says that for years, in his teens and 20s, he didn't quite understand his soliloquy's impact.

"People kept coming up to me and saying, 'Every time I watch that, I cry,' " he says. "But as I got older, I understood the words more, and I understood the power of what was going on. Now I cry, too."

NEW CD RELEASES FOR DECEMBER 6, 2005

Alkaline Trio Crimson - Deluxe Edition (Vagrant)

Tori Amos The Original Bootlegs (box set of previously online-only concerts from 2005; includes one previously unreleased concert disc) (Epic)

Paul Armfield Evermine (Sat-On)

Ashanti Collectables by (remixes w/four new tracks) (Def Jam)

Bang Sugar Bang Thwak Thwak Go Crazy (SOS)

Chris Botti To Love Again (Columbia)

Bow Wow Wanted Reloaded (DualDisc) (Columbia)

Foxy Brown Black Roses (guests Jay-Z and Sizzla) (Def Jam)

Eddie Cane Presents (CD/DVD combo) (Thump)

Carl Craig Fabric 25 (mix CD) (Fabric)

Howie Day Live (Epic)

Faun Renaissance (Dancing Ferret)

Michael Franti & Spearhead Live in Sydney (DualDisc) (Music Video Distributors)

Funkmaster Flex Car Show Tour (CD/DVD combo) (Koch)

J.T. Gray It's About Time (Station Inn)

The Gunshy Souls (Latest Flame)

Bill Harley Blah Blah Blah: Stories About Clams, Swamp Monsters and Pirates (Empyrean)

Jackie-O Motherfucker Flags of the Sacred Harp (Touch and Go)

KoRn See You on the Other Side (Virgin)

Michel Lambert Le Passant (Jazz from Rant)

Ray LaMontagne Live from Bonnaroo 2005 EP (limited edition; includes previously unreleased song) (RCA)

John Legend Get Lifted - Special Edition (CD/DVD combo) (Columbia)

Lil' Wayne Tha Carter 2 (deluxe two-CD edition available same day) (Universal Motown)

Lindsay Lohan A Little More Personal (Raw) (Casablanca/Universal)

M.O.P. Salutes the St. Marxmen (Koch)

Milman-Brignall Enigma Bafflemania (Florence/Light in the Attic)

Mississippi Heat One Eye Open - Live at Rosa's Lounge, Chicago (CD/DVD combo) (Delmark)

Mt. Eerie 11 Old Songs by (Secretly Canadian)

David Murray 4Tet with Strings Waltz Again (JustinTime)

Don Omar Da Hit Man Presents Reggaetón Latino (Universal)

Patrick Phelan Pills (Jagjaguwar)

Shooting at Unarmed Men Soon There Will Be EP (Too Pure)

Sonic Youth SYR 6: Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui (2003 concert w/percussionist Tim Barnes) (Smells Like Records)

Tail Dragger My Head Is Bald - Live at Vern's Friendly Lounge, Chicago (CD/DVD combo) (Delmark)

Tender Forever The Soft and the Hardcore (K Records)

White Stripes Walking with a Ghost EP (includes cover ot Tegan and Sara's title track, plus live songs) (V2)

Zora Young Tore Up from the Floor Up (Delmark)

VA Our New Orleans (hurricane benefit album) (Nonesuch)

OST Born Into Brothels (score by John McDowell, featuring members of Brazilian Girls and Krishna Das; includes previously unreleased tracks) (Koch)

OST Boss'n Up (CD/DVD combo; action-adventure film w/Snoop Dogg) (CodeBlack Entertainment)

OST Inside Deep Throat (documentary about controversial '70s adult film; w/dialogue clips, original movie score excerpts, songs by Kool & the Gang, Alice Cooper, Supertramp and more) (Koch)

OST Jarhead (Jake Gyllenhaal/Jamie Foxx war drama; score by Thomas Newman) (Decca)

OST The Aristocrats (all-star comedy documentary w/George Carlin, Robin Williams, Chris Rock and many more) (V2)

OST Water (score by Mychael Danna) (Varèse Sarabande)

DVD The Happy Elf (animated Christmas special w/narration, two new songs and original score by Harry Connick, Jr.) (Anchor Bay Entertainment)

DVD Paul Anka Rock Swings: Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival (Verve)

DVD Ben Folds and WASO Live in Perth (live March 2005 performance w/the Western Australia Symphony Orchestra) (Epic)

DVD Gordon Haskell The Road to Harry's Bar (Music Video Distributors)

DVD Kraftwerk Minimum-Maximum (two DVDs; Special Edition two-DVD/two-CD box set w/hardcover book available same day; live sets from 2003-2005 world tour) (Astralwerks)

DVD John Legend Live at House of Blues (includes interview and behind-the-scenes footage) (Columbia)

A "Fantastic Four" Follow-Up

It's clobbering time...again.

Fox has green-lighted a sequel to Fantastic Four that will bring back the quartet of squabbling superheroes on July 4, 2007.

Ioan Gruffudd (Mr. Fantastic), Jessica Alba (Invisible Woman), Chris Evans (Human Torch) and Michael Chiklis (the Thing) are all expected to return for the second go-round, having signed initial three-picture deals.

Not coming back, however, is their nemesis, Julian McMahon, aka the magnetically charged, steely-eyed Dr. Victor Von Doom. Per trade reports, he's already signed to star in the thriller Premonition with Sandra Bullock.

And every comic book flick needs a good story; hence, Fox is bringing back director Tim Story, who guided the film to $320 million in worldwide ticket sales. Story, whose previous credits included the comedies Barbershop and Taxi, reportedly was wooed back with a seven-figure deal.

No word on the plot, but Story promises to deliver the mutant goods, and then some.

"We tried to do something different than the brooding, dark setting you usually get in superhero films," Story tells Daily Variety. "The key to that movie was how to play with a comedic tone and the action and have it feel respectable to the genre and the franchise and still be fun.

"By the end [of the first movie], we'd found the right note and then you want to put the band back together," he continues. "The universe of villains is vast, and now that everyone's been introduced, you can just get right to it. That's why so many superhero sequels improve on the original."

While Story wouldn't divulge details on the new nemesis, Fantastic Four 2's biggest foe could be Spider-Man 3, which is opening two months earlier, in May 2007, and is projected to be one of the juggernauts of the year.

This is the second time the superhero foursome has staked out a July 4 debut. The film was supposed to open last Independence Day weekend, but Fox pushed the film back to July 8 to avoid facing off against Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds remake for Paramount.

Story is currently working on two small-screen pilots for 20th Century Fox TV. The first, The 12th Man, is a half-hour comedy inspired by NBA scrub Paul Shirley, who keeps a blog about his experiences keeping the bench warm on the Phoenix Suns. He's also helming Primary, an hourlong drama focusing on a couple who also happen to be hostage negotiators.

If all goes well with the script, Story expects to roll cameras on Fantastic Four 2 early next year. And for those jonesing for more of the quartet, the DVD of the original drops Tuesday.

Comedy Central to Show Chappelle Sketches

NEW YORK - Dave Chappelle is back on Comedy Central — well, kind of. The wildly popular comedian, who last spring walked off his show just weeks before its season premiere, will be on view in four episodes' worth of sketches he filmed before his startling exit, the cable channel announced Monday.

The four half-hours of "Chappelle's Show" will premiere in weekly showings next April, May or June, the network said.

A 2 1/2-minute preview of this never-before-seen footage will be included in "Comedy Central's Last Laugh '05" special, which premieres Sunday, 9 p.m. EST.

Still to be determined is how the sketches will be packaged, since Chappelle's on-stage introductions were never produced. A full season would have been between 10 and 13 episodes.

"It's great material, and we think our audience is hungry for it," said Comedy Central President Doug Herzog, noting that the last original episode of "Chappelle's Show" aired in May 2004. "Chappelle's Show," a raw, satirical comedy show that was both a critical and popular hit, was one of the network's most valuable properties.

The announcement resolves — well, kind of — Chappelle's dangling status at Comedy Central, with whom he signed a deal in August 2004 reportedly worth $50 million for a third and fourth season. But last May, with the premiere date looming for that third season, Chappelle stunned his fans by ditching the show in mid-production.

His disappearance — announced by Comedy Central on May 4 — spurred reports that he had mental or drug problems, but Chappelle later said he was unhappy with the show's creative direction.

"I'm definitely stressed out," he told Time magazine a few days after Comedy Central announced the show was indefinitely postponed. "I'm not crazy, I'm not smoking crack."

He spent two weeks in South Africa before returning home to his farm near Yellow Springs, about 75 miles northeast of Cincinnati. Chappelle, now 32, has since resumed performing live standup.

In the meantime, "Chappelle's Show" has hung in limbo.

"We had reached out several times to Dave's camp and asked, `What would you like to do?'" Herzog said. "But we never received a definitive response. ... We thought it was time to start unearthing the material we had." He laughed. "It's kind of like Bob Dylan's 'Basement Tapes.'"

ABC Names 'World News Tonight' Anchors

NEW YORK - In choosing the anchor team of Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff to replace the late Peter Jennings at "World News Tonight," ABC News President David Westin concluded the job was too big for one person in an age when news is available instantly.

ABC also said Monday that "World News Tonight" would be the first network evening newscast to broadcast live for three different time zones — Eastern, Mountain and Pacific. Its anchors will travel frequently to the site of major news and update stories during the day on the Internet and for cell-phone users.

"You need more than one anchor," Westin said. "One person can't do all of this."

Left out of the mix was veteran ABC newsman Charles Gibson, co-host of "Good Morning America." Gibson, Vargas and Woodruff have been the main substitutes since Jennings announced in April that he had lung cancer. Jennings died on Aug. 7.

Vargas, 43, and Woodruff, 44, give ABC News the opportunity to establish an anchor team with the potential to match Jennings — sole anchor for nearly 22 years — in longevity. Gibson is 64. The new team could also attract younger viewers to a format that has one of the oldest audiences in television.

"This is the right team to take us forward," Westin said. "My clear goal is to make sure we have the strategy for the future and not just the past."

Their official start date will be Jan. 3.

Although declining in viewers and influence, the evening newscasts are still considered the flagships of the broadcast networks with their anchors the most visible faces. It's the first time since the brief mid-1990s pairing of Dan Rather and Connie Chung on CBS that a network has used an anchor team.

Vargas, a self-described Army brat who is married to singer-songwriter Marc Cohn, will keep her job as co-anchor of the ABC newsmagazine "20/20." She will be the first chief network anchor with Hispanic heritage. Her father is from Puerto Rico and her mother is Irish.

"I am so proud," she said. "I know what this means to Hispanics in this country ... to have people who look like you and talk like you in positions of importance."

Woodruff, from outside of Detroit, is a father of four and lawyer who turned to journalism after working in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square uprising. His first evening news experience came on CBS — a seven-second evening news sound bite as an interview subject. He's covered the Justice Department for ABC and was the weekend "World News Tonight" anchor.

"I am ecstatic at having been given this opportunity," he said.

The selection enabled ABC to leave Gibson at "Good Morning America" and not disrupt a broadcast that has become more competitive with NBC's "Today," which this week marked 10 years on top of the ratings. The morning shows are the most lucrative and chief area of growth for broadcast networks.

"I think ABC decided to take one risk instead of two," said Bob Zelnick, former ABC newsman and now dean of Boston University's journalism school.

Westin said his anchor decision was made solely with "World News Tonight," not other broadcasts, in mind. Although Gibson was interested in the evening job, he told Westin that "`I have a great job now and I will be perfectly happy whichever way this goes,'" the news chief said. "He's been steadfast about that."

Gibson did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

Westin wouldn't discuss the factors that went into his decision, which he said was communicated last Thursday to the new anchors, or whether Gibson was ever considered part of the mix. "I looked hard at all of these issues and felt like this was the way to go," he said.

"World News Tonight" has been second in the ratings to NBC's "Nightly News" with Brian Williams, 47, who just completed his first year since replacing Tom Brokaw.

"Bob and Elizabeth are very familiar competitors," Williams said. "I'm looking forward to many years of friendship while we chase each other around the globe."

ABC kept its ratings strong while Jennings was sick and in the immediate aftermath of his death, but has recently fallen further behind NBC. Despite Jennings' illness, Westin said he refused to consider the question of a successor until after his death and, even then, said he wanted to leave a proper time for mourning. He called Jennings' widow Sunday to tell her of his decision.

It leaves only CBS undecided on its direction for the anchor era following Jennings, Brokaw and Dan Rather. Rather has been replaced by Bob Schieffer since leaving in March, and CBS is wooing NBC's Katie Couric as its permanent evening anchor.

Even though they will be a team, Vargas and Woodruff frequently won't be in the same studio. Westin said ABC News intends to be more aggressive in sending an anchor to the site of major stories.

"When a big story breaks, one person will take the (anchor) seat and the other will head to the airport," Woodruff said.

With its plans to remake "World News Tonight" for separate time zones, ABC is making an aggressive effort to seek West Coast viewers. ABC occasionally updates "World News Tonight" for later time zones when there are changes to a major story, but generally cities like Los Angeles see a broadcast that is three hours old.

Woodruff and Vargas will anchor separate broadcasts at 6:30, 8:30 and 9:30 in the Eastern time zone. ABC will also be able to tailor the newscasts, for example airing a story with particular West Coast interest that might not be on the eastern newscast, said Jon Banner, "World News Tonight" executive producer.

"Our audience on the West Coast has had to put up with decades of stale news," he said, "and we intend to change that."

Woodruff and Vargas will also anchor a daily Webcast with top stories and a preview of "World News Tonight" that will be offered to wireless phone users. They'll contribute to "The Blue Sheet," a daily blog produced by the evening news team.

ABC is part of entertainment and media company The Walt Disney Co. CBS is part of Viacom Inc., while NBC is owned by General Electric Co. Westin said Disney chief Robert Iger, a former ABC executive, and Anne Sweeney, head of ABC, both offered their ideas on the transition but that the decision was his.

Adams, Pamela Anderson sing duet

TORONTO (CP) - Bryan Adams has paired his famously raspy voice with Tina Turner, Sting and Rod Stewart.

But when he wanted to set up a duet with sexpot actress Pamela Anderson, the rocker ran into a roadblock.

"I must have called her five times before she even returned my call. When she finally returned the call it was like 'Am I being Punk'd?' " recalled Adams from his home in London, England, referring to Ashton Kutcher's MTV show.

They eventually recorded When You're Gone - the 1998 song he sang with Spice Girl Mel C.

The new version appears on Adams's Anthology, a two-disc retrospective released in October, 25 years after he put out his first album.

"I thought it would be fun to have her," said the 46-year-old musician, who is embarking on his first comprehensive Canadian tour in more than a decade.

"She's pretty rock 'n' roll."

Anderson, who grew up in Ladysmith, B.C., was reluctant because she'd never tried her hand at singing, but Adams says the beauty of the song is that anybody can sing it.

"I take this song every night and I drag somebody from the audience on stage. Pretty much half the time someone comes up it sounds pretty decent. I figured if anybody can walk up on stage, certainly Pam can make it work in the studio."

Born in Kingston, Ont., Adams launched his career in 1980 with a self-titled album. He became a household name a few years later thanks to a slew of catchy, arena anthems like Heaven, Straight for the Heart, Run to You and Summer of '69.

Since then, he's sold millions of records, toured the world and launched a successful photography career. His most recent visit to Canada saw him perform at last summer's Live 8 bash in Barrie, Ont.

The two-disc Anthology begins with Remember, written in 1978 with his then songwriting partner, Jim Vallance. It concludes 35 songs later with So Far So Good, a new song written with Mutt Lange. The liner notes include some factual information culled from his personal diaries.

"I liked the idea of doing it as long as (the CD) was historical and wasn't just slapped together," explained Adams.

"I was able to go and dig up all my old diaries that I'd kept during the '80s and late '70s. I'd sort of forgotten when I'd done a lot of that."

He also unearthed a batch of old photographs in which he's wearing trademark white T-shirt and blue jeans.

After the Canadian dates, which will see him perform in towns big and small, Adams heads to South Africa and then to India and Pakistan.

"Because the songs have transcended boundaries and languages and borders, I can pretty much throw a dart at the map and play anywhere in the world now, which is fantastic because there's a lot of places I want to go to," he said with a hearty laugh.

So why not head to warmer climates instead of touring Canada in the dead of winter?

Adams says it was the best way for a true Canadian to cap off his 25th anniversary.

Besides, he says, winter doesn't scare him.

"I've got everything ready," he said. "I'm packing some longjohns, some down-filled stuff. I'm not going to be shovelling snow so I'll be OK, although if we get stuck I might be. All right boys, forget the gig! We're shovelling!"

On his latest Canadian tour, Bryan Adams will play cities large and small. They are:

Dec. 6: Quebec City, Colisee de Quebec

Dec. 7: Montreal, Bell Centre

Dec. 8: Ottawa, Corel Centre

Dec. 9: Peterborough, Ont., Memorial Centre

Dec. 10: London, Ont., John Labatt Centre

Dec. 11: Kitchener, Ont., Kitchener Auditorium

Dec. 14: Sudbury, Ont., Sudbury Arena

Dec. 15: Toronto, Air Canada Centre

Jan. 11: Winnipeg, MTS Centre

Jan. 12: Saskatoon, Credit Union Centre

Jan. 13: Lethbridge, Alta., Enmax Centre

Jan. 14: Red Deer, Alta., Westerner Park, ENMAX Centrium Arena

Jan. 15: Edmonton, Rexall Place

Jan. 16: Calgary, Pengrowth Saddledome

Jan. 18: Vancouver, General Motors Place

Jan. 19: Victoria, B.C., Save On Foods Centre

Jan. 20: Victoria, B.C. Save On Foods Centre

Mel Brooks Mulling Broadway 'Frankenstein'

As Mel Brooks prepares to introduce the movie remake of "The Producers" next month, the legendary entertainer is mulling a return to his cult classic 1974 comedy, "Young Frankenstein," this time for a possible Broadway version.

"Me and [Thomas Meehan], who wrote the book with me on the original musical of 'The Producers,' we're working on 'Young Frankenstein' for Broadway," Brooks tells Billboard. "Whether it comes out or not, I don't know, but we're having fun working on it. I have six or seven songs written for it."

Asked if this would then lead to an updated film version of "Frankenstein,” much as the Broadway run of "The Producers" has now spawned a film, Brooks says, "As soon as it's a musical, they'll want to remake it!”

In the new "Producers" film, Broadway cast members Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick return alongside Will Ferrell as playwright Franz Liebkind and Uma Thurman as Swedish secretary Ulla.

Brooks wrote a new end-credit track, "There's Nothing Like a Show on Broadway," which is featured on the Sony Classical soundtrack along with a Celine Dion-style power ballad performance of "Der Guten Tag Hop-Clop" by Ferrell.

Brooks cautions audiences to stay in their seats for the credits: "So many things are going to happen and the audience will be unsuspecting. They'll get up and leave and miss three or four minutes of wacky, heavenly stuff."

John Lennon's Death Lingers for Witnesses

NEW YORK - A television news producer. An emergency room doctor. Two NYPD beat cops. Before that December night 25 years ago, they shared little but this: As children of the '60s, the soundtrack of their lives came courtesy of the Beatles.

Alan Weiss, a two-time Emmy winner before his 30th birthday, was working at WABC-TV. His teen years were the time of "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." In his 20s, Weiss admired John Lennon's music and politics.

Dr. Stephan Lynn was starting his second year as head of the Roosevelt Hospital emergency room. He remembered the Beatles playing "The Ed Sullivan Show," although he didn't quite get the resultant hysteria.

Officer Pete Cullen, with partner Steve Spiro, did the night shift on Manhattan's Upper West Side. They'd occasionally run into Lennon walking through the neighborhood with his son, Sean. "The Beatles were a big part of my life," Cullen said.

On the night of Dec. 8, 1980, Lynn was in the ER, Weiss was heading home from the newsroom, Cullen and Spiro were on the job — and Mark David Chapman was lurking outside Lennon's home.

The chubby man with the wire-rimmed glasses stood patiently in the dark outside the Dakota apartment house. He carried a copy of "The Catcher In the Rye," the J.D. Salinger tale of disaffected youth, and a five-shot Charter Arms .38-caliber revolver.

Lennon, just two months past his 40th birthday, returned from a midtown Manhattan recording studio at 10:50 p.m with wife Yoko Ono. The limousine stopped at the ornate 72nd Street gate; John and Yoko emerged. Chapman's voice, the same one that had beseeched the ex-Beatle for an autograph hours earlier, rang out: "Mr. Lennon!"

The handgun was leveled at the rock world's foremost pacifist. Four bullets pierced their famous target.

The voice of a generation was reduced to a final gasp: "I'm shot."

"Do you know what you just did?" screamed the Dakota's doorman.

"I just shot John Lennon," Chapman replied softly.

___

THE COPS

Back in 1965, while still in the Police Academy, 23-year-old Pete Cullen's first real assignment was working security outside the Warwick Hotel on West 54th Street. Upstairs, safe from the insanity below, were the Beatles.

Fifteen years later, the officer was staring at a dying John Lennon within minutes after Chapman opened fire. Cullen and Spiro were first to answer the report of shots fired.

Cullen was struck by the lack of movement: the doorman, a building handyman and the killer, all standing as if frozen.

"Somebody just shot John Lennon!" the doorman finally shouted, pointing at Chapman.

"Where's Lennon?" Cullen asked. The rock star was crumpled inside a nearby vestibule, blood pouring from his chest. There were bullet holes in the glass; Cullen went to Lennon's side as Spiro cuffed the gunman.

Two other officers lugged Lennon's limp body to a waiting police car, which sped downtown to Roosevelt Hospital. The cuffed suspect directed Spiro to his copy of "The Catcher in the Rye," which was lying on the ground nearby with the inscription, "This is my statement." And then he spoke: "I acted alone," Chapman said.

"That blew my mind," said Spiro, who suddenly felt like he was in a movie. The veteran officer later thought about Lennon's 5-year-old son, Sean, who was sitting a few floors above. Spiro had a boy the same age.

In the midst of the chaos, Cullen spotted Yoko Ono. "Can I go, too?" she asked as her husband disappeared. A ride was quickly arranged. Cullen and Spiro then loaded Chapman into their car for a trip to the 20th Precinct.

"He was apologetic," Cullen recalled — but not for shooting Lennon. "I remember that he was apologizing for giving us a hard time."

___

THE PRODUCER

As the wounded Lennon made the one-mile trip to Roosevelt Hospital, Alan Weiss was already there. The TV news producer's Honda motorcycle collided with a taxi around 10 p.m., and he was awaiting X-rays.

A sudden buzz filled the room: A gunshot victim was coming in.

The ER doors opened with a crash as a half-dozen police officers burst through, carrying a stretcher with the victim. Doctors and nurses flew into action. Two of the cops paused alongside Weiss' gurney.

"Jesus, can you believe it?" one asked. "John Lennon."

Weiss was incredulous. He bribed a hospital worker $20 to call the WABC-TV newsroom with a tip that Lennon was shot. The money disappeared, and the call was never made.

Five minutes passed, and Weiss heard a strangled sound. "I twist around and there is Yoko Ono in a full-length fur coat on the arm of a police officer, and she's sobbing," he said. Weiss finally persuaded another cop to let him use a hospital phone, and he reached the WABC-TV assignment editor with his tip around 11 p.m.

The editor confirmed a reported shooting at Lennon's address. Weiss returned to his gurney, watching in disbelief as the doctors frantically worked on the rock icon. A familiar tune came over the hospital's Muzak: the Beatles' "All My Loving."

It was surreal. And then too real.

"The song ends. And within a minute or two, I hear a scream: `No, oh no, no no no,'" Weiss said. "The door opens, and Yoko comes out crying hysterically."

Weiss' tip was confirmed and given to Howard Cosell, who told the nation of Lennon's death during "Monday Night Football."

___

THE DOCTOR

Dr. Stephan Lynn walked to the end of the emergency room hall where Yoko Ono was waiting in an otherwise empty room. It was his job to deliver the word that John Lennon, her soulmate and spouse, was dead.

"She refused to accept or believe that," Lynn recalled. "For five minutes, she kept repeating, `It's not true. I don't believe you. You're lying.'"

Lynn listened quietly.

His 15 1/2-hour shift had ended at 10:30 p.m., with Lynn returning to his home in Lennon's neighborhood. His phone was soon ringing; could he come back to help out? A man with a gunshot to the chest was coming to Roosevelt.

Lynn arrived by cab just before his patient did. The victim had no pulse, no blood pressure, no breathing. Lynn, joined by two other doctors, worked frantically. Gradually, they came to realize that they were trying to save the life of one of the world's most famous men.

Twenty minutes later, they gave up.

Ono left the hospital to tell her son the news, leaving Lynn to inform the media throng that Lennon was gone.

Back in the emergency room, Lynn arranged for the disposal of all medical supplies and equipment used on Lennon — a move to thwart ghoulish collectors.

It was almost 3 a.m. when he began walking home up Columbus Avenue. His wife and two daughters were there; one of them attended the same school as Lennon's son Sean. Many nights, the Lynns and the Lennons sat in the same restaurant eating sushi. Often, the famous family strolled down 72nd Street.

That world was gone along with Lennon.

"I never again saw Yoko and Sean walking the streets," the doctor said. "Going out in public? That ceased to take place."

___

Yoko Ono never remarried, and still lives in the Dakota. She tends to the Lennon legacy, which includes convincing the state parole board that Chapman should die behind bars. He comes up for parole next year.

The cops from the 20th Precinct hold a reunion every two years. Cullen comes up from his home in Naples, Fla., to hang out with the old gang. They don't talk about the Lennon shooting.

Weiss, after getting the scoop of his career, wound up leaving the ultra-competitive news business. "The major events of my professional career all had to do with other people's tragedy," he said. He now produces a syndicated show with teens reporting the news for teens.

Lynn is still working at Roosevelt Hospital, still the director of the department. As Dec. 8 approaches each year, he gets phone calls from reporters, from fans, from kids born years after Lennon's murder.

"It's hard to imagine it's 25 years," he said.

Imagine.

'Harry Potter' Conjures $20M Over Weekend

LOS ANGELES - The third weekend was still a charm for " Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," which remained the top movie with $20.45 million.

Charlize Theron's sci-fi tale "Aeon Flux," a movie apparently so bad distributor Paramount did not screen it beforehand for critics, still managed to debut in second place with $13.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

With "Aeon Flux" the only notable new wide release, the remainder of the top 10 was filled out with holdover flicks, led by 20th Century Fox's Johnny Cash chronicle "Walk the Line," the No. 3 movie with $10 million.

It was a quiet weekend at theaters compared to the busy Thanksgiving period. The top 12 movies took in $79 million, virtually the same as the corresponding weekend a year ago.

Hollywood is in the midst of a prolonged slump, with attendance down 8 percent compared to 2004, though studios are preparing for a brisk December with such films as "King Kong," "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," "The Producers" and Steven Spielberg's "Munich."

Warner Bros. lifted its domestic total for "Harry Potter" to $229.8 million. Worldwide, the latest adventure of boy wizard Harry has taken in $560 million.

"`Harry Potter' is clearly dominating the business," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "It's the movie that everybody hoped it would be. The box-office performance is living up to, and maybe at this point, exceeding expectations."

"Aeon Flux" stars Theron in an action adventure based on the 1990s animated series about a rogue anti-hero battling a government leader in a post-apocalyptic world. The movie cost $60 million to make, and it was uncertain if box office combined with DVD and television rentals will recoup that investment.

Still, the movie's opening weekend came in at the high end of Paramount's expectations, said Wayne Lewellen, the studio's head of distribution. The fact that Paramount did not screen "Aeon Flux" for reviewers probably did not affect the outcome, he said.

"The audience was young males, and they don't really respond to reviews, anyway," Lewellen said.

In limited release, the road-trip tale "Transamerica" opened strongly with $45,269 in two theaters, averaging $22,635 a cinema. By comparison, "Aeon Flux" averaged $5,023 in 2,608 theaters.

"Transamerica" has drawn Academy Awards buzz for Felicity Huffman, who gives a remarkable performance as a man preparing for the final surgical procedures to become a woman.

The Weinstein Co. plans to expand "Transamerica" to the top 20 markets during Christmas week then continue rolling the movie out to more theaters as Oscar nominations approach in January.

Also in narrower release, the snowboarding documentary "First Descent" debuted weakly with just $423,000 in 243 theaters for a $1,741 average.

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. "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," $20.45 million.
2. "Aeon Flux," $13.1 million.
3. "Walk the Line," $10 million.
4. "Yours, Mine & Ours," $8.4 million.
5. "Just Friends," $5.9 million.
6. "Pride & Prejudice," $4.62 million.
7. "Rent," $4.6 million.
8. "Chicken Little," $4.5 million.
9. "Derailed," $2.4 million.
10. "In the Mix," $1.9 million.

Springfield Back on 'General Hospital'

LOS ANGELES - For singer Rick Springfield, it's a little strange to be back on his old soap-opera stomping grounds.

"I don't know if there has ever been a character that reoccurred after 23 years," he says.

Springfield is back as Dr. Noah Drake on "General Hospital," a role he first played in the early 1980s, when his hit song "Jessie's Girl" was a radio staple.

The singer-actor was looking for innovative ways to promote his new album, "The Day After Yesterday," and started pursuing guest appearances on several soaps. "General Hospital" liked the idea of his return but asked him to leave the band at home.

"I thought about it," Springfield says, "and it seemed like it was too good an opportunity to miss."

He made his first appearance Friday and is set to be in about a dozen episodes. He'll save the singing for his tour dates in Japan this month and in the United States next year.

Spielberg Film Looks at Munich Olympics

NEW YORK - Steven Spielberg is taking on terror. His latest film, "Munich," centers on the aftermath of the killings of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany.

"I don't think any movie or any book or any work of art can solve the stalemate in the Middle East today," Spielberg tells Time magazine in its Dec. 12 issue. "But it's certainly worth a try."

Eric Bana ("Troy") stars as a Mossad agent who leads a secret Israeli squad assigned to assassinate 11 Palestinians suspected of planning the killings.

"We don't demonize our targets," Spielberg says. "They're individuals. They have families. Although what happened in Munich, I condemn."

Spielberg and screenwriter Tony Kushner would not reveal the identity of the man Bana portrays, whom they interviewed at length.

"There is something about killing people at close range that is excruciating," Spielberg tells the magazine. "It's bound to try a man's soul."

"Munich" co-stars Geoffrey Rush, Daniel Craig and Mathieu Kassovitz. It is due out Dec. 23.

CBS tries to lure Couric from NBC's 'Today'-report

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - CBS is trying to change the face of network news by luring Katie Couric, co-host of NBC's top-rated morning show "Today," to the evening news anchor seat vacated by Dan Rather, the Los Angeles Times said on Friday.

Citing senior editorial staffers at both networks, the Times said newly installed CBS News President Sean McManus had determinedly wooed Couric in recent weeks to take over as permanent anchor of the CBS Evening News and that Couric was seriously considering such a move.

CBS and NBC both declined comment on the story. Media reports began circulating in January that CBS executives had made overtures to Couric to lure her away from NBC to the CBS Evening News desk.

Taking Rather's spot would make Couric the first woman named as the sole permanent anchor of a major network evening newscast, unless ABC's Elizabeth Vargas beats her to the punch. Vargas, a "20/20," host, has filled in on a regular basis for the late Peter Jennings at ABC's World News Tonight and is regarded as a candidate to permanently replace him.

Connie Chung co-anchored the CBS Evening News with Rather for about 18 months in the 1990s, and Barbara Walters co-hosted ABC's newscast with Harry Reasoner for two years in the 1970s.

Veteran correspondent Bob Schieffer has served as temporary CBS News anchor since Rather stepped down in March, six months after coming under fire for a botched "60 Minutes II" report on President George W. Bush's military record.

Last month, McManus named "60 Minutes" veteran Rome Hartman as executive producer of the CBS Evening News, which has long trailed NBC Nightly News and ABC World News Tonight in the ratings.

CBS EAGER TO LURE YOUNGER VIEWERS

Leslie Moonves, chairman of CBS and co-president of parent company Viacom Inc., has repeatedly expressed eagerness to revamp the Evening News to lure younger viewers and boost ratings.

Couric, who turns 49 next month, has been co-anchor of "Today" since 1991, including the show's decade-long reign at No. 1 that has made the program one of the most important assets at NBC, a unit of General Electric Co .

"Today" airs three hours a day, Monday through Friday, for a total of 780 hours of programing a year, more than any other show on NBC, and reportedly earns more than $250 million a year for the network.

NBC News President Steve Capus told the Times that speculation about Couric's next step was "premature."

"I don't think she's decided what to do," he was quoted as saying. "We're still sitting here with many months to go before this is going to be in front of us."

One network insider told Reuters that Couric was barred from entering formal negotiations with another network until her NBC contract expires in May.

Keeping Couric in place is widely seen as crucial to efforts by "Today" to hold its own against competition from ABC's "Good Morning America," which narrowed the ratings gap between the two shows earlier this year. ABC is a unit of the Walt Disney Co .

NBC already is struggling to rebuild its prime-time schedule after losing two popular sitcoms, "Friends" and Frasier," last year, falling to third place in ratings for its target audience.

Couric last renewed her contract with NBC in December 2001, signing a 4 1/2-year deal that sources said was worth about $60 million, one of the most lucrative in U.S. television.

Sean Connery OKs New James Bond

LONDON - Sean Connery thinks a blond Bond is just fine.

The former 007 says Daniel Craig is a "terrific choice" as the new British superspy.

Some eyebrows were raised in October when producers cast the sandy-haired, relatively unknown Craig in the next James Bond film, "Casino Royale."

But Connery, 75, told British Broadcasting Corp. television that he approved.

"Craig's a great choice, really interesting — different," Connery said in comments released Friday by the broadcaster. The full interview is due to air Monday.

"He's a good actor. It's a completely new departure," he added.

The respect is mutual. Craig told a news conference in October that Connery was his favorite 007.

Connery was the first actor to play Bond, appearing in six films beginning with "Dr. No" in 1962 and ending in 1971 with "Diamonds Are Forever."

Roger Moore, George Lazenby, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan have also starred as the womanizing, gadget-loving spy.

Connery said he'd left the role in part "because I got really fed up with the space stuff and special effects. I just found it getting more and more influential in the movies."

"Casino Royale" is due in theaters next November.

Winfrey Spot Earns Letterman Big Audience

NEW YORK - David Letterman has learned the Power of Oprah: her "Late Show" appearance Thursday earned him his biggest audience in more than a decade.

An estimated 13.5 million people stayed up late to watch Winfrey's first visit to Letterman in 16 years, Nielsen Media Research said on Friday. Only three times has Letterman had a bigger audience on CBS — for his network premiere in 1993 and twice in 1994 in the midst of the Nancy Kerrigan- Tonya Harding ice skating melodrama.

Winfrey's appearance more than tripled Letterman's typical audience of 4.3 million viewers, Nielsen said.

Letterman escorted Winfrey to the nearby Broadway premiere of "The Color Purple" after their chat. Winfrey co-produced the musical, at least partly explaining the timing of her Letterman appearance.

During the interview, Winfrey said she thought Letterman's infamous 1995 joke on the Academy Awards ("Oprah, Uma. Uma, Oprah") was funny — although she did pointedly present him with a signed portrait of herself with Uma Thurman.

"I have never for a moment had a feud with you," she said.

The summit between the talk titans was set up by years of Letterman jokes about Winfrey, mixed in with years of her rejecting offers to appear on the show, and endless promotion promotion since her visit was announced.

The "Late Show" audience was larger than that of most prime-time programs and appeared to consist almost entirely of people who usually don't watch late-night TV. Incredibly, Jay Leno on NBC's "Tonight" show was seen by 6.2 million people on Thursday — more than his season average of 5.8 million — evidence that Leno's usual fans didn't abandon him.

"Late Late Show" host Craig Ferguson basked in Letterman's glow. His show, which directly follows Letterman, had its biggest audience ever early Friday, Nielsen said.

Satellite radio on the air in Canada

Canadian satellite radio has hit the airwaves with the launch of XM Radio Canada and Sirius Canada, which are now broadcasting more than 100 new channels across the country.

Sirius Canada, a partnership between the CBC, Standard Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio U.S., launched Thursday, about a week after the launch of its main competitor XM Radio Canada, owned by former Raptors owner John Bitove and XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. of the U.S.

To celebrate its launch, Sirius Canada has planned two concerts that will be broadcast live next week and feature buzzworthy Canadian musicians.

Rockers the Trews and singers Feist, Kathleen Edwards and Ron Sexsmith will perform at Toronto's Mod Club Dec. 6, with the concert broadcast on Sirius channels CBC Radio 3 and Iceberg. Les Pistolets Roses, Anik Jean and aKido will perform at Montreal's Spectrum on Dec. 7, with the concert of emerging francophone artists broadcast on Sirius channels Bande Ça part, Energie2 and Rock Velours.

While it is too early to gauge the number of actual subscribers, XM Radio Canada says 4,500 interested people signed up to a database before its launch. Sirius Canada says it has received about 7,000 inquiries.

A brief comparison:

XM Radio Canada

Number of channels: more than 80, eight of which are Canadian-produced.
Monthly subscription cost: $12.99.
Receiver cost: prices start at $79.99 (after rebate).
Run by Canadian Satellite Radio in partnership with XM Radio in the U.S.
Sirius Canada

Number of channels: 100, 10 of which are Canadian produced.
Monthly subscription cost: $14.99.
Receiver cost: prices start at $69.99.
A partnership between the CBC, Standard Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio U.S.

Adoption of satellite radio in the U.S. was slow when XM first introduced its service there four years ago. However, interest has definitely been increasing, with XM estimating it has more than five million subscribers and Sirius calculating it had upwards of 2.1 million in September (Sirius is predicting a dramatic rise in U.S. subscriptions this winter as controversial radio host Howard Stern shifts to satellite radio Jan. 1).

American satellite signals have spilled over into Canadian border regions since the services debuted in the U.S. and a small number of border-dwelling Canadians who wanted to listen purchased receivers from the U.S. However, it wasn't until June of this year, after two years of meetings, consultations and deliberation, that Canada's broadcast regulator finally approved three domestic proposals to launch satellite radio here.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission decision, with its provision that more Canadian content be added to the proposals, was then approved by the federal government in September.

XM Radio Canada offers 17 categories of programming, including 13 musical genres, news and talk channels, sports stations, stand-up comedy and a children's station. It also offers a channel targeted to truck drivers and has secured a 10-year deal, beginning in 2007, to be the NHL's exclusive satellite radio broadcast partner.

Sirius Canada offers 60 commercial-free music stations, 12 news and information channels, 10 talk, entertainment and specialty channels and a variety of play-by-play sports programming. Though Sirius U.S. may have fewer subscribers, the Canadian version will benefit from its cousin's high profile programming, including Martha Stewart Living Radio, Stephen Van Zandt's Underground Garage, Jimmy Buffet's Radio Margaritaville and Eminem's Shade 45.

Sirius Canada officials have said, however, that shock jock Stern will not be in the company's initial lineup.

Rowan Atkinson Keen On More "Bean"

Rowan Atkinson is planning to reprise his lovable accident-prone nerd for a sequel to Bean.

Moviehole.net reports the British funnyman is currently wrapping his head around the screenplay for a follow-up film to the 1997 comedy.

Despite having found it difficult to whip up a story with his co-writer, Richard Curtis, Atkinson says he's keen on jumping back into Bean.

While the first film saw Americans play host to the bumbling Brit, the next film will see Bean back at home in jolly 'old England, no doubt getting into a heap of trouble back across the pond.

Fans of the character will have to wait however, at least until Atkinson and Curtis get over their writers block.

Woo hoo!

The changes at NBC opens up Tuesday nights for the return of "Scrubs," which will begin its fifth season on Jan. 3.

The network plans to run back-to-back new episodes of the show in January, leading up to the start of the Winter Olympics on Feb. 10.

"Joey" and "The Apprentice" will return following the Olympics, with the former possibly becoming a "Scrubs" companion on Tuesdays.

NBC Has Bad Month, Kicks "Joey"

The good news for Joey is that it won't go up against American Idol on Thursday nights. The bad news for Joey is that won't go up against anybody.

Not for a while, anyway.

With NBC staggering across the November sweeps finish line, the network began December by looking ahead to January, and announcing long-anticipated schedule changes that will find My Name Is Earl and The Office on Thursdays, and Joey and The Apprentice on the bench.

Fox, meanwhile, dealt with its own lowly sweeps results in an NBC-ian way: Avoiding the discussion and starting a new one.

As such, Fox's chief talking point was American Idol. Ending speculation that the blockbuster franchise was on the move--with the results show possibly headed for Thursdays--the network declared Idol was staying put on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The show's first scheduled air date is Jan. 17.

For their parts, CBS, ABC, and UPN had nice Novembers, which each chose to discuss and analyze at length.

According to CBS, it was the most watched network in November among viewers of all ages, as well as 18- to 49-year-old ones. But the matter of which network won the all-important young-adult demographic was open to interpretation. CBS claimed it beat ABC by 16,000 viewers; ABC, choosing to round to the nearest decimal, as is tradition, claimed it tied CBS. In doing so, the formerly spelled-out ABC declared its first such sweeps win in more than five years.

Uncontested were stats that had NBC finishing a distant third in the demo and Fox falling to fourth.

In terms of eyeball pairs, CBS shows averaged 14.6 million for the month, followed by ABC (11.7 million), NBC (9.6 million) and Fox (7.7 million). NBC was the biggest loser--down 11 percent from a year ago.

Among the netlets, UPN said it edged the WB in total viewers (3.7 million to 3.6 million), and in demographically desirable ones aged 18 to 49. As its fall has gone, so has its November: UPN benefited from steady work from America's Next Top Model and Everybody Hates Chris, and improved numbers from Veronica Mars.

NBC will be looking for improved numbers come January. That's when Operation Hide Joey goes into effect.

Starting Jan. 5, Will & Grace will slide into Joey's 8 p.m., Thursday slot. The new sitcom Four Kings will debut at 8:30 p.m. Former Tuesday night residents My Name Is Earl and The Office will hold down the 9-10 p.m. hour, formerly occupied by Donald Trump's Apprentice.

The moves will allow the network, said NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly in a statement that added insult to Joey's injury, to "bring back a block of quality comedy to Thursday nights."

Although Joey seems canceled, it isn't. The sitcom and The Apprentice will return after NBC's Winter Olympics coverage ends in late February, the network promised. The network did not promise to which night the shows will return.

In its second season, Joey is the weakest link in NBC's weak Thursday. The Matt LeBlanc-led Friends spinoff is averaging 7.5 million viewers--off 65 percent from what its storied ancestor averaged in its final year.

During its winter hibernation, Joey will live on via Most Outrageous TV Moments, a clip show featuring "hilarious" outtakes from NBC shows. One outtake not likely to make the cut: Amy Grant's reaction when she finds out Most Outrageous TV Moments is taking up an hour's worth of real estate on Friday nights--and Three Wishes isn't. The inspirational reality series also is not part of NBC's January plans. Or possibly its February, March and April plans. Although previously pegged for a full season run, the show could see its final air date in December.

Julia Roberts Still Hollywood's Top Woman

Julia Roberts is still Tinseltown's leading Pretty Woman, according to trade magazine The Hollywood Reporter's annual 10 Most Powerful Women list. The actress has sheltered from the limelight following the birth of her twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, but remains the only actress who can command a $20 million salary.

The poll marks Roberts' fourth year in first place, but she has Nicole Kidman snapping at her heels and Reese Witherspoon in third place. With Halle Berry slipping off the list, Jennifer Aniston comes in at number 10.

The list, based on movie earnings, awards and visibility, is: 1. Julia Roberts, 2. Nicole Kidman, 3. Reese Witherspoon, 4. Drew Barrymore, 5. Renee Zellweger, 6. Angelina Jolie, 7. Cameron Diaz, 8. Jodie Foster, 9. Charlize Theron, 10. Jennifer Aniston.

Letterman, Winfrey Bury Hatchet

NEW YORK - Oprah Winfrey and David Letterman buried the hatchet Thursday on "The Late Show" and wondered just how their 16-year feud started in the first place.

"Could you tell me please what has transpired?" Winfrey asked Letterman during the show. "I have never for a moment had a feud with you."

It was Winfrey's first guest appearance on "The Late Show" with Letterman, although she twice appeared on his NBC show before the comic moved to CBS in 1993.

While presenting Letterman with a gift, she alluded to his much-maligned joke as an Academy Awards host in 1995 — the awkward "Oprah, Uma. Uma, Oprah" introduction.

The gift, wrapped in purple to coincide with the opening of the Winfrey-produced Broadway musical "The Color Purple," was a signed, framed photograph of herself and Uma Thurman.

"I want you to know, it's really over, whatever you thought was happening," Winfrey said.

Letterman, seeing the photo, responded: "Are you sure it's over?"

Letterman has frequently joked about Winfrey through the years, and he devoted plenty of time this week to hyping the Thursday appearance. In 2003, Winfrey told Time magazine she wouldn't go on his show because she's been "completely uncomfortable" as the target of his jokes.

"I can't thank you enough," Letterman said Thursday. "It means a great deal to me and I'm just very happy you're here."

"Does it really?" asked Winfrey. "I've been hearing for the past week you talking about it, and I didn't know if you were really serious or you were just doing your `Dave thing.'"

But Letterman proved his intentions were earnest, discussing in-depth Winfrey's efforts to lend support to communities in Africa and the good intentions of her syndicated program, "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

"You have meant something to the lives of people," Letterman said. "We're just a TV show."

The approach clearly caught Winfrey off guard, as she repeatedly exclaimed, "I can't believe you're being this serious!"

"What do you want, Tony Danza?" quipped Letterman, alluding to another fellow talk show host who waited in the wings as a "stand-in host."

To cap off his gallant reception of Winfrey, Letterman escorted her during the show taping to the premiere of "The Color Purple," which opened Thursday across the street at the Broadway Theater.

Before walking her out, Letterman said, "I think we'll just pencil you in for the next 16 years."

Affleck, Garner--and Baby

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner's new favorite color: Violet.

The shade of purple also happens to be the name of the baby girl born to Garner, E! News has learned. The child made her debut at a Los Angeles hospital after labor was induced Wednesday night, Us Weekly reported Thursday.

"Ben was with her the entire time," a source told the magazine.

The child is the first for both. Affleck, 33, and Garner, 34, wed June 29, almost two months after their expectant news was leaked.

In completing her labor day, Garner beats her prime-time alter ego to the nursery. Sydney Bristow, the Alias secret agent that made Garner a star, also is with child. Producers of the ABC spy series wrote in the pregnancy after Garner's was confirmed.

Alias was canceled last week by ABC. It'll finish its fifth and final season in May, after a previously scheduled eight-week-long maternity leave of sorts starting in January.

TV show or no, Garner's plate is full. In addition to the baby, she has a new movie, Catch and Release, due out next year. It's her first shot at headlining a real-people drama (from Erin Brockovich writer Susannah Grant) as opposed to a fantasy comedy (13 Going on 30) or a superhero adventure (Elektra).

Meanwhile, no bad reviews are good reviews for Father Affleck, who will not appear on the big screen in 2005--the first time that's happened since 1994. While it might seem as if romance, marriage and pregnancy has kept the actor otherwise occupied, he might have as many as three films out next year, including Truth, Justice and the American Way, about the 1959 death of TV Superman George Reeves.

Before marrying Garner, Affleck endured the worst box office and worst publicity of his career. When he wasn't making headlines for his overexposed, and eventually scuttled, engagement to Jennifer Lopez, he was launching dud (Gigli) after dud (Paycheck) after dud (Jersey Girl) after dud (Surviving Christmas).

Affleck and Garner met on the set of 2003's Daredevil--he was the titular hero; she was Elektra. The two began dating in 2004, after Affleck had moved on from Lopez, and after Garner had moved on from Alias costar Michael Vartan and first-husband Scott Foley.