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.