Two Coreys Together Again
Call it a Dream a Little Dream come true for fans of 1980s teen cinema. Or connoisseurs of 21st century celebrity curios.
Corey Feldman and Corey Haim, who in their prime Tiger Beat years costarred in three movies together, are being reunited for a proposed comedy series, Daily Variety reported Wednesday.
Although Feldman and Haim are best known collectively as "The Two Coreys," their new TV venture simply would be called The Coreys.
The show doesn't yet have a network home. The Variety article seemed designed to drum up interest in such a home being found--it noted that producers, the same people behind ABC's Wife Swap and the WB's Survival of the Richest, will begin peddling The Coreys on Thursday.
Speaking to Variety, RDF USA executive Greg Goldman teased that Feldman and Haim possess a chemistry that "just pops off the screen."
The Coreys would find the Coreys playing fictionalized versions of themselves, presumably because it would be funnier and less sad that way. Feldman would play Corey Feldman, married father of one son; Haim would play Corey Haim, single man. While both play those roles in real life, too, the TV show would ratchet up the comedy in the situation by having Haim, as Variety put it, "[shake] life up for the Feldmans."
Feldman and Haim, both 34, last teamed up, per IMDb.com, for two recent episodes of the Cartoon Network series, Robot Chicken. They also both appeared in the cameo-laden 2003 David Spade film, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star.
A feathered-hair generation ago, Feldman and Haim earned their "Two Coreys" title in The Lost Boys, License to Drive and Dream a Little Dream. Later, and to lesser acclaim, they costarred in Busted (directed by Feldman), Blown Away, National Lampoon's Last Resort and Dream a Little Dream 2. Not one of those films, all made in the 1990s, were released in theaters.
While both Feldman and Haim have struggled to recapture the careers they had in the 1980s, Haim has just plain struggled, with drugs, with finances, with eBay regulations (in 2001, the site pulled an auction by the actor in which he was selling off one of his molars).
Last March, London's Daily Star quoted a "close pal" of Haim as saying the former idol was "clean and sober and ready to put his life in perspective." As such, the paper said, Haim was planning to write a tell-all about an affair he had with U.K. tab magnet Victoria Beckham during her Posh Spice/Spice Girls phase.
Feldman, meanwhile, has dabbled in music, renounced childhood friend Michael Jackson, and amassed more than 100 IMDb.com TV and film credits, many of them recent. Often, he appears as himself (see: The Surreal Life); at least once, he appeared as Store Clerk (see: Serial Killing 4 Dummys).
Senate to call for commercial-free CBC-TV
A Senate report is to recommend CBC-TV become completely commercial-free and that Ottawa boost CBC funding to make up for the loss of ad revenue, Canadian Press has learned.
The report on the state of Canada's media is to be released Wednesday.
A committee headed by Senator Joan Fraser, a former journalist, has been working on the report for the last three years, with hearings held across the country.
It will recommend boosting CBC's annual $1-billion budget to make it possible to get rid of ads, the wire service said.
The report also examined private-sector newspaper, radio and television concentration.
It will recommend measures to prevent private media conglomerates from dominating any single market, with a review triggered whenever a media company acquires above a certain percentage of audience share.
According to sources, the report of the Senate's transport and communications committee will recommend that the Competition Act be beefed up.
The review was spurred by CanWest Global's decision to publish national editorials throughout its Southam newspaper chain without allowing local editors to opt out.
CanWest owns several big city daily newspapers and is the country's second biggest private broadcaster after CTV. The BCE group owns CTV and controls The Globe and Mail.
BBC Pulls Plug On 'Top Of The Pops'
The BBC's venerable weekly TV chart show "Top of the Pops," one of the longest-running programs and most iconic musical institutions in British television history, is to be axed after 42 years on air.
A statement released by the state broadcaster today (June 20) cites "ever-increasing competition" from multimedia outlets that, it says, makes it impossible for the show to continue in its current weekly form.
BBC director of television Jana Bennett says "the time has come to bring the show to its natural conclusion." The last edition of the program will air in the United Kingdom July 30.
"Top of the Pops" was first aired on Jan. 1, 1964, from a converted church in Manchester, in an edition presented by DJ Jimmy Savile that featured performances by Dusty Springfield, the Rolling Stones, the Dave Clark 5, the Hollies, Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Beatles and others. It was originally commissioned for a mere six-week run, but the show proved to be hugely instructive as a weekly barometer of musical popularity.
By the 1970s, "TOTP" had a weekly audience of 15 million viewers. It marked its 2,000th edition in 2002.
In recent years, the show had struggled to maintain its audience in the face of greatly increased competition from other broadcast outlets. In 2005, it was moved from its traditional weekday slot on BBC1 to a Sunday night slot on BBC2, after viewing figures fell below three million. The new broadcast time failed to improve audience numbers.
OutKast Out in the "Wild"...Finally
Can we get a hey ya! OutKast is finally coming out with a new album.
The Atlanta hip hop-duo, who've been MIA from the music scene since 2003's multiplatinum-selling, Grammy-winning double disc, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, announced Tuesday that the hugely anticipated follow-up album, Idlewild, will hit store shelves on Aug. 22.
"Mighty-O," the lead single and first collaborative track for Andre "Andre 3000" Benjamin and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton in over six years, will drop two weeks earlier.
The album will also serve as the soundtrack to their big-screen musical of the same name, which will unspool nationwide Aug. 25.
Idlewild the movie is a period piece set in a 1930s Georgia speakeasy. Benjamin and Patton play Percival and Rooster, a club owner and his piano-playing partner who fend off gangsters while pursuing their dreams of show-biz success.
Ving Rhames, Ben Vereen, Cicely Tyson, Patti LaBelle and Macy Gray also star. OutKast music video director and longtime pal Bryan Barber is making his feature writing and directing debut on the project.
The movie and album mark the first professional teaming of Dre, 31, and Big Boi, 30, since 2000's Stankonia. The rappers produced Speakerboxxx/The Love Below as two solo albums packaged together but branded with the OutKast moniker.
Despite the disc's massive success--selling more than 10 million copies, winning three Grammys, including Album of the Year and Best Rap Album, and spawning two massive hits--Dre's "Hey Ya!" and Big Boi's "The Way You Move"--the childhood pals seemed to drift apart, with success and shifting priorities putting a strain on their relationship.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Patton wanted to hit the road in support of Speakerboxxx, but Benjamin opted to move to Los Angeles and launch his acting career with roles in Be Cool and Four Brothers. Ultimately, Big Boi toured without him.
Benjamin eventually moved back to Atlanta and the two began working on Idlewild. The film has been in the can for nearly two years, its release postponed while OutKast perfected the accompanying album, which the distributor (Universal and HBO Films)and label (LaFace/Zomba) wanted to release jointly.
The delays have generated some bad buzz on the Internet, with several fans believing that the studio is dumping the film in the dog days of summer. OutKast and the filmmakers insist otherwise.
Aside from box-office receipts and Billboard bullets, the real question is whether Idlewild will serve as OutKast's swan song--something the duo has definitely hinted it.
"The business has put a strain on our relationship," Benjamin told EW. "We're like brothers, though. We can argue, but we're still gonna be together. I want Big Boi to do well inside and outside of OutKast. Because certain things don't last forever, and you have to start preparing for that."