Robert Downey Jr. Is Iron Man

Robert Downey Jr. is ready to become one serious metalhead--the actor has signed on to play the title role in Iron Man, Paramount Pictures' feature film based on the famed Marvel superhero.

Downey will play Tony Stark, a billionaire industrialist and brilliant inventor, who, after a near-fatal accident, builds a high-tech, nearly impenetrable suit of armor that gives him superhuman strength and other powers, which he uses to fight the baddies.

Jon Favreau, a longtime comic buff (and costar of another Marvel adaption, Daredevil), will helm Iron Man. Marvel Entertainment is producing the $100 million action-adventure, the first time the company is fully financing a film based on one of its characters. Paramount will serve as distributor.

The idea for a screen version of Iron Man has been kicking around Hollywood for nearly a decade, but despite the interest of Tom Cruise and Nicolas Cage to don the armor, the project never got off the drawing board until now.

Iron Man was created by Larry Lieber, Stan Lee, Don Lee and Jack Kirby and premiered in Marvel Comics' Tales of Suspense #39 in March 1963. Stark's red-and-gold-hued metallic alter ego originally battled Communists during the early years of the Vietnam War, often appearing alongside Captain America.

But Stark evolved into a more complicated comic book figure, whose fought crime and personal demons, including alcoholism--something to which Downey can no doubt relate.

The actor's well documented battles with booze and drug addiction landed him behind bars and nearly wrecked a career that includes a Best Actor Oscar nominee for 1992's Chaplin.

Downey reportedly lobbied hard for the role, working out and growing a goatee styled like the one Stark sports in the comic book. Iron Man will mark the actor's first big-budget action flick.

"In every casting announcement we've done, people in their mind's eye have their own view of it and let us know about it. We're used to it," Kevin Feige, Marvel's president of production, told the Hollywood Reporter. "The point is, we looked at everybody, and we found the best person for the role. It's as confident a casting move as we've ever done. The proof will be in the pudding, but he is Tony Stark."

According to trade reports, Iron Man's initial outing won't focus on Stark's drinking problem, but producers say those issues may be covered in sequels, should the franchise take off. Instead, Iron Man's plot is expected to contemporize the storyline and likely include the hero battling terrorists.

Downey most appeared in a quartet of 2005 releases: George Clooney's Oscar-nominated Good Night, and Good Luck, Shane Black's off-kilter indie thriller Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, Disney's remake of The Shaggy Dog, and Richard Linklater's trippy sci-fi flick, A Scanner Darkly.

The actor's upcoming projects include the indie caper A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints; Lucky You, a drama which reunites him with Wonder Boys director Curtis Hanson; David Fincher's crime caper Zodiac, starring opposite Jake Gyllenhaal; and the Diane Arbus biopic Fur, starring Nicole Kidman and due out Nov. 10.

Downey also recently inked a deal with HarperCollins to publish a memoir.

Iron Man starts shooting in February and is scheduled to hit in theaters in May 2008.

Esquire: Scarlett Johansson `Sexiest'

NEW YORK - Scarlett Johansson's hourglass figure and plum movie roles have brought her many fans. Among them, clearly, the editors at Esquire. The magazine has just crowned her "Sexiest Woman Alive."

The 21-year-old actress poses in come-hither garb on the cover and inside pages of the magazine's November issue, on newsstands Oct. 18.

On the cover, she wears a bra and a white Calvin Klein mini-dress; In a series of photos inside (showing her as an "enigmatic trailer-park temptress," the magazine says), she wears cleavage-baring black lingerie paired with an open white robe, among other get-ups.

Johansson, whose screen credits include "The Black Dahlia," "Lost in Translation" and "Match Point," says she would rather be admired for attributes other than sex appeal.

"What about my brain? What about my heart? What about my kidneys and my gallbladder?" she asks, addressing all the hoopla about her curves in an interview in the magazine.

She is no stranger to the paparazzi's cameras, and once flashed a sign proclaiming, "the person taking this picture is harrassing me."

"Apparently I spelled `harass' wrong," she recalls. "It was horrible. I couldn't remember whether it was one `r' or two, and I asked like four people, and they said two."

Heritage committee grills CBC bosses on reality TV, hockey

CBC management was on the hot seat in Ottawa Wednesday, as the committee on Canadian Heritage questioned senior managers about programming decisions and rumours the network could lose hockey.

CBC president Robert Rabinovitch, English television executive vice president Richard Stursberg, English radio vice president Jane Chalmers and Sylvain Lafrance, executive vice president of French services, appeared before the all-party standing committee Wednesday afternoon.

Two high profile CBC-TV projects that made national headlines this year were discussed: the decision to simulcast U.S. reality singing contest The One, and the furor over inaccuracies in the miniseries Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story.

NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus had been a vocal opponent of the reality show simulcast, which bumped flagship evening newscast The National out of its slot. The One was ultimately cancelled by U.S. broadcaster ABC.

On Wednesday, Angus reminded Rabinovitch that just a year ago, he had told the committee that CBC would not do reality television.

"Did something change dramatically in the six or seven months between deciding on that show and when you told us you wouldn't have reality TV?" Angus demanded.

Reality, but no bug-eating: CBC president

Rabinovitch said that he had been ambiguous last year and stressed that the network would not do "shows that stress plastic surgery, sex and humiliation [and the] eating of insects."

The committee also grilled the managers about Prairie Giant. A re-broadcast of the two-part miniseries was pulled and DVD sales stopped after the family of Jimmy Gardiner bristled at the artistic license taken in depicting the former Saskatchewan premier and Douglas rival.

Aside from the Gardiner family's outrage, the move drew ire from the miniseries creators and several production unions.

Concern about local news, hockey

However, the CBC management team focused on outlining its current and future challenges.

Rabinovitch said English television's local supper-hour newscast pilot project had proved disappointing and is going back to the drawing board for re-evaluation.

"The numbers, quite frankly, are unacceptable. They're too low by a long-shot," he said. "We have to ask ourselves some very fundamental questions about what it is we want to do."

The senior managers also were frank about reports that core CBC show Hockey Night in Canada — which the network has broadcast for more than 70 years on radio and then television — is at risk. Rumours have arisen that CBC could lose its broadcasting deal with the National Hockey League to private sector competitors CTV and TSN.

Hockey loss would mean complete TV re-evaluation

Rabinovitch said it was "distinctly possible" that the NHL could go to CTV and if it were to happen, "we will have to seriously re-evaluate almost everything about English television."

An absence of the hockey broadcasts would create several enormous challenges: the need to fill a 400-hour programming hole on Saturday nights from October through April and a significant loss of revenue.

According to Stursberg, professional sports broadcasts contribute about $100 million a year to the CBC.

"If this piece were to move out in a significant way, then the economics of English television are challenged at the most fundamental kind of level," he said.

Urge for stable funding

Faced with this unstable situation, the senior managers are calling for a long-term funding commitment from the federal government, for instance a 10-year funding plan versus the current system of year-to-year approval.

Other suggestions they made to the Canadian Heritage committee include regular mandate reviews and the ability to collect fees from cable and satellite subscribers.

Sci fi series "Doctor Who" zooms into record books

LONDON (Reuters) - The cult science fiction series "Doctor Who" has won a place in the record books as the longest-running television show of its type, a fitting accolade for the time-travelling adventurer.

The book "Guinness World Records" said on Friday more than 700 episodes of the program, which first aired on the BBC in 1963, had been broadcast, covering 173 story lines and showcasing 10 different actors in the role of the Time Lord.

A spokeswoman for the book said the category of longest-running sci-fi series had been newly introduced for the 2007 edition.

The latest actor to play the Doctor, David Tennant, told the book he decided to become an actor after watching an earlier incarnation -- Tom Baker -- during the 1970s.

"I took one look at his Doctor Who and decided it was the job for me. I was convinced that when I was old enough I was going to play the part of the Doctor on TV," he said.

While fans of the different series may have their favorite Doctors, the concept has endured and the program attracts more than 7 million viewers in Britain and many more abroad.

That the series has lasted so long is partly thanks to iconic villains such the "Daleks" and the Cybermen, and also because the main character can regenerate, allowing the series to keep fresh by bringing a new lead actor.

Helping maintain consistency are props such as the Doctor's time traveling machine the Tardis, his companion -- usually young and female -- and his robot dog K-9.

Terri Irwin: Footage of Steve's Death Won't Air

There's going to be one less morbid tape soiling the airwaves these days.

In her first interview since her husband's death, Steve Irwin's widow, Terri, said that the video footage captured of the Crocodile Hunter's run-in with the stingray that killed him will never be broadcast on television.

"No. No. What purpose would that serve," Terri Irwin told ABC's 20/20 in a segment set to air Wednesday, adding that she has never watched the tape, either. "It was an accident so stupid. It was like running with a pencil. It was not risk he was taking. It was just an accident."

Irwin, 44, was killed Sept. 4 while filming a documentary near Australia's Great Barrier Reef when he was stung in the heart by a stingray. Wildlife experts have called the TV star and conservationist's death a "freak accident."

More than 5,000 people gathered last Tuesday at Irwin's Australia Zoo to pay tribute to the man known the world over for his "Crikey" outbursts and enthusiasm for some of nature's deadliest creatures.

"I have to make sure the zoo keeps running," Terri Irwin told 20/20's Barbara Walters. "He planned all that masterfully. He planned this wonderful business so that it could continue if anything happened to him."

Despite Irwin's jovial demeanor, Terri Irwin said that her late husband had a feeling he wasn't going to live to a ripe old age, and not just because he bucked the odds every day, cozying up to poisonous snakes and wrestling with creatures from the deep. "He'd talk about it often," she said. "But it wasn't because of any danger from wildlife. That was never a consideration. He just felt life could be dangerous."

Terri, who's from Oregon, and Steve Irwin tied the knot in 1992, six months after meeting in Australia, where Terri was on vacation. "I fell then and there, love at first sight," she said.

The khaki-clad Croc Hunter told the pretty American that he had a girlfriend, though.

"I was a little bit devastated," she told Walters. But, luckily that "girlfriend" turned out to be Irwin's pet dog, Sue.

"I had romance like I didn't think existed anymore, a wonderful romance," Terri Irwin, who frequently traveled with her mate on his adventures and costarred in the 2002 film The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course, said. "He was passionate and determined and enthusiastic."

It wasn't always paradise in the Outback, of course, but the Irwins made it work. "There were so many things that made me crazy," Terri recalled, "like his desire to do everything now. He had a real sense of urgency with his life and no side-view business plan. If you got plans, we'll do them now."

The Croc Hunter's other half said that she is coping with her husband's death "one minute at a time, sometimes an hour at a time."

"With great faith, great determination," she said. "I have two beautiful children. And they really are my strength."

Eight-year-old Bindi told the crowd at her father's public memorial service that she plans to carry on his conservationist efforts and promote his love for nature. The little girl's speech, which she studiously read from a piece of notepaper, prompted a standing ovation from the thousands in attendance.

Bindi, who also has a two-year-old brother, Robert, is already making good on her word, hosting a series on the Discovery Network called Bindi the Jungle Girl.

"Bindi has a spirituality about her that I've seen with Steve," Terri Irwin said. "She has unbelievable sensitivity. She has an uncanny connection with wildlife. She has a love for them that was just like her dad's."

New 'Lost' season reveals The Others

HONOLULU (AP) - Henry Gale wasn't supposed to survive this long.

The cunning, bug-eyed character on ABC's castaway drama "Lost," played by Michael Emerson, was hired for three episodes midway through Season 2. But once producers saw Emerson in action, he was made into a key character and is now leading The Others in the highly anticipated third season.

"The reason The Others seem so frightening is like everything in the real world - it's frightening when it's unknown," Emerson told The Associated Press. "Their agenda is unknown to us; therefore we fill it up with terrible imaginings."

The former Broadway actor is best known to TV audiences for his Emmy-winning performance as a serial killer in "The Practice." Damon Lindelof, co-creator and executive producer of "Lost" (season premiere Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET), said the original plan was to have Henry escape after the three episodes. But Season 2 ended with Henry and his armed cadre on a dock, holding plane crash survivors Jack, Kate and Sawyer captive.

"Who are you people?" asked Michael, who had betrayed his fellow castaways in exchange for his son.

"We're the good guys," Henry replies.

"I think he means it," Emerson said of his character (actors are typically kept in the dark about future plot developments). "We may not agree with him, but I think he believes it."

Season 3 opens with Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lily) and Sawyer (Josh Holloway) in captivity. This season will explore why they were targeted; whether Sun's baby is really Jin's; Charlie trying to gain Claire's trust, a new woman catching Jack's attention; Locke and Sayid leading a group to rescue the three captives; and Desmond's wealthy lover trying to locate the island.

"In Season 3, the show moves geographically and spiritually to another place," Emerson said. "We will be with The Others more. They will become more three-dimensional."

He said viewers may even come to sympathize with The Others, who were on island long before the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815.

"Who's really the intruder? Who's the bad guys? Who's upsetting who? Who has the right to be there?" Emerson said.

Despite most of his scenes occurring in a small cell, Henry Gale has become one of the most compelling figures on "Lost." With a piercing stare, he transitions from victim to villain, keeping viewers guessing whether they should be sympathetic or scared.

And while Locke was pushing buttons to save the world, Henry was busy pushing Locke's buttons. Could Henry be a psychologist, or just well read?

"He seems to have a strong background in psychology, I would say," Emerson said. "He's beyond well read. He's really well read. That psychology stuff? That sounds good to me. He's not playing around when it comes to behaviour."

Like his character, Emerson is articulate and intelligent. Unlike Henry, Emerson is personable and warm.

While honing his skills on stage, he held several odd jobs as a landscaper, teacher, carpenter and illustrator while honing his skills on stage.

"You know those Social Security statements that tell you what you made every year? I look back on that and think, 'This is insanely little money,"' Emerson said. "But I don't remember feeling very desperate about it. ... Despite my poverty, I was always sort of doing what I wanted to do."

Emerson, 52, grew up in the small farming town of Toledo, Iowa, where he spent a lot of his unstructured childhood reading, drawing and day dreaming. He majored in theatre at Drake University and quickly became known as the small guy with a big voice.

He then moved to New York City.

"I thought Des Moines (Iowa) was this crazy big town. New York just knocked the wind out of me," he said. "I was looking for a big challenge and I found it."

He moved to the South and eventually met his future wife, actress Carrie Preston, during a production of "Hamlet" at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. He followed her to New York and got his first major break as the lead in Moises Kaufman's "Gross Indecency."

The name "Henry Gale" is as puzzling as Emerson's character.

It's not even the character's real name. He at first presents himself as a rich businessman who crash landed on the island on a hot air balloon with his wife, who allegedly died.

Henry Gale was Dorothy Gale's uncle in the film "The Wizard of Oz." In the 1938 classic, a hot air balloon was the mode of transportation for the Wizard and supposed to return Dorothy home to Kansas.

"What does all that mean? Is it just fun or is it a clue?" Emerson asked. "Dorothy is sort of shipwrecked in a strange place far from home, but hers was a fantasy. It wasn't real.

"It was a place where the moral order was sort of turned upside down or seen from a different perspective. On some level, it was a test of her as a person."

The real Henry Gale on "Lost" is a dead black man who is buried near the damaged hot air balloon.

That leaves even Emerson perplexed about who his character is.

"I'm not sure how that's going to work out," he said. "It seems everybody kind of knows him as Henry now, but sooner or later, we're going to have to put a real name on him, aren't we?

MEL'S NOT ABOVE 'LAW'

The story of Mel Gibson's drunk-driving arrest and subsequent anti-Semitic tirade is being adapted for a "Law & Order" episode starring Chevy Chase.

The episode - titled "In Vino Veritas" - has Chase, 62, guest-starring "as a television celebrity who is pulled over for drunk driving while wearing blood-soaked clothes, and whose religious prejudice comes out after his arrest," according to an announcement from NBC yesterday.

While the network did not reveal the nature of the character's prejudice, it is anti-Semitism, said a source who requested anonymity.

Filming of the episode is under way this week in New York. The dramatic role is a rarity for Chase, the long-ago star of "Saturday Night Live," two "Fletch" movies and four "National Lampoon" films.

Gibson, 50, was pulled over for speeding July 27 near his home in Malibu, Calif. He was subsequently arrested for driving while intoxicated after he became belligerent with police officers. That was when he unleashed an anti-Semitic rant in which, among other things, he blamed Jews for "all the wars in the world."

"Law & Order" often uses real-life news stories as a jumping-off point for its own stories. One significant difference between the Gibson and "Law & Order" stories is the blood on the Chase character's shirt, indicating that he was involved in a violent crime. In real-life, Gibson was not splattered with blood when he was stopped for speeding.

The episode is scheduled to air Friday, Nov. 3, at 10 p.m. on NBC.

For Trekkies, something to cling on to

Christie's next week will sell a spaceship-load of Star Trek stuff in the first — and probably last — official auction of artifacts from the TV series turned pop-culture phenomenon.

CBS Paramount, which owns the Trek franchise, has decided to sell more than 1,000 of the tens of thousands of costumes, props, weapons and set dressings accumulated during the production of five live-action series and 10 theatrical films since 1966, when William Shatner's Captain Kirk first uttered his now-familiar "Space, the final frontier" on national television.

Trekkies, who are famous for their mania for collecting, are said to be over the moon at the chance to bid six-figure sums on Kirk's Starfleet uniform or that holy of holies, the Starship Enterprise-A model.

"Smaller collections have come on the market before, but this is the largest, the only one from studio archives and from all the films and series, and it's the 40th anniversary, so there's definitely a fervor about this," says Cathy Elkies, Christie's director of specialty auctions.

The entire hoard, grandly titled 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection, will open for public viewing Saturday at Christie's Rockefeller Plaza in New York with the auction Oct. 5-7. Buyers also will be able to bid live online at Christies.com. Throngs of people are expected; some might be in costume.

Christie's is betting the sale will be huge, and the $3-million-plus estimated take probably is conservative.

Why? Because contrary to reputation, Trekkies are not just geeks with too much time on their hands. After all, Paul Allen collects Star Trek. In 2002, he bought Kirk's captain's chair from the original series for $250,000 for his Science Fiction Museum in Seattle.

"There is not a stereotypical Star Trek fan; they represent a wide spectrum of the population — attorneys, doctors, engineers, teachers and astronauts," says Denise Okuda, who with husband Michael worked on the series and films as scenic artists and wrote The Star Trek Encyclopedia.

The Okudas were hired as auction consultants and for the past six months have combed through five vast studio warehouses to pick out "the most valuable, iconic and coveted" items for the sale.

The Okudas expect that the items most prized by Trekkies will be the spaceship models, costumes (Elkies says some surviving cast members are interested in buying theirs) and behind-the-scenes items such as costumer's continuity notes.

The Couch Potato Report - September 26th, 2006

This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on Canada, our home and native land.

Douglas Coupland is a Canadian fiction writer, playwright and visual artist.

His first book, the 1991 novel “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”, became an international bestseller and popularized the term ‘Generation X’.

Most of Coupland's work explores the unexpected cultural shifts created by the impact of new technologies on middle class North American culture.

“Souvenir of Canada” was a book Coupland wrote in 2002.

In the book's introduction, Coupland states his intention was to author a book about Canada “…that only Canadians would get.”

The book profiles bilingualism, beer bottles, cigarette warning labels, the Trans-Canada Highway, Terry Fox’s prosthetic leg, the Canadarm, stubby beer bottles, bilingual cereal boxes, Ookpik, and many other things that are uniquely Canadian.

In addition to being a book, SOUVENIR OF CANADA is now a documentary film as well.

In the film Coupland shows us some of the things that “only Canadians would get” as he puts together an interactive art exhibit called Canada House with Canadian content front and center.

As the author build’s his Canada House there are stories and features on some of the things that make Canadians, Canadians, and some of the things that were designed years ago to try and make us more Canadian.

For instance, he brings back the greeting “chimo”, an Inuit word that was supposed to become Canada's version of “Aloha”.

SOUVENIR OF CANADA is just that, a souvenir of a Canada full of memories that we all collectively share, and I really, really enjoyed the film.

The one negative thing that I have to say about SOUVENIR OF CANADA is the fact that at times there is too much of a focus put on Douglas Coupland and his family and thus the things that “only Canadians would get” take a back seat

However, as someone who has had his entire family on his show at one point or another, I guess I shouldn’t talk.

SOUVENIR OF CANADA is a wonderfully enjoyable trip down memory lane and if you are a Canadian who grew up in the sixties and seventies it is a must see.

And SOUVENIR OF CANADA is available now on DVD at a store near you.

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

CORNER GAS: SEASON THREE features all 19 episodes of the made-in-Saskatchewan series, including one of my favourites: “The Littlest Yarbo” where Hank is outwitted by a German Shepherd while trying to prove it’s the dog from the legendary TV show – The Littlest Hobo.

Also next week THANK YOU FOR SMOKING is a satirical comedy about a tobacco spokesman, who is trying to remain a role model for his twelve-year-old son; and the Disney classic THE LITTLE MERMAID is being released in a two-disc special edition with a wide array of special features!

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 time on The Couch!

New Muppet CD coming for Christmas

Disney is planning to release an all-new Muppet album just in time for Christmas. The album is entitled "A Green (and Red) Christmas" and is set for release on October 17, 2006.

The album will feature 12 newly recorded holiday songs (both old favorites and newly written songs) by all your favorite Muppets. The CD is already up for preorder at Amazon.com for the low price of $9.99.

So be sure to set your calendars because this year you'll be able to bring in the holidays with some special (and new) Muppet cheer.

"A Green and Red Christmas" Track Listing

'Zat You, Santa Claus? - The Electric Mayhem
A Red and Green Christmas - Kermit & Miss Piggy
The Christmas Party Sing-Along - Rowlf
Merry Christmas Baby - Pepe
The Man with the Bag - Floyd, Animal & Zoot
Santa Baby - Miss Piggy
It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year - Gonzo & Rizzo
North Pole Comedy Club - Fozzie, Statler & Waldorf
Run, Run Rudolph - The Electric Mayhem
Christmas Smorgasbord - Swedish Chef
The Christmas Queen - Miss Piggy
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas - Kermit

This will be the third CD Disney has released since they bought the Muppets in February 2004. The Muppet Christmas Carol Soundtrack was reissued last Christmas while a Best of the Muppets/Muppets' Wizard of Oz CD was released in May 2005.

New Releases, Sept. 26: Janet Jackson, Tony Bennett, Jerry Lee Lewis

Janet Jackson "20 Y.O."

Twenty years ago, Janet Jackson kicked off her solo career with 1986's groundbreaking "Control." Since that point, it's been all platinum records, big radio hits and glitzy videos. Of course, there was also that famed "slip" at the Super Bowl.

Jackson celebrates the milestone anniversary with the release of "20 Y.O." The album features guest appearances by Khia (on "So Excited") and Nelly ("Call on Me").

* * *
Tony Bennett "Duets"

One of the greatest careers in music history just keeps right on rolling along, as Tony Bennett delivers yet another new album. The classy vocalist, who celebrated his 80th birthday last month, returns this time with the star-studded "Duets."

The album features the timeless crooner sharing the mic with such big-name celebs as Bono, Elvis Costello, Celine Dion, the Dixie Chicks, Billy Joel, Elton John, Diana Krall, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.

* * *
Jerry Lee Lewis "Last Man Standing"

The piano legend, who will mark his 71st birthday on Friday (9/29), returns with his own celeb-heavy affair, "Last Man Standing."

An amazing number of rock and country legends--more than 20 in all--have participated in this recording, making it, indeed, a true musical event. Notable names include Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Toby Keith, Little Richard, Merle Haggard and Neil Young.

* * *
Alan Jackson "Like Red on a Rose"

The platinum-selling cowboy gets a helping hand on this new album from Alison Krauss, the angelic voiced bluegrass star who produced "Like Red on a Rose." Krauss also joins in on harmony vocals, as does Lee Ann Womack. The first single from the record is "Anywhere on Earth You Are."

* * *
Weird Al Yankovic "Straight Outta Lynwood"

The ultimate pop-music pundit is back with another collection of comedic songs. "Straight Outta Lynwood"--a reference to Weird Al's hometown of Lynwood, CA--features such humorously named songs as "Weasel Stomping Day," "Polkarama!" and "Do I Creep You Out."

* * *
More new releases:
Tori Amos, "A Piano: The Collection" (Atlantic)
Solomon Burke, "Nashville" (Shout Factory)
Depeche Mode, "Touring the Angel: Live in Milan" (Reprise)
Enigma, "A Posteriori" (Virgin)
Amy Grant, "Time Again: Amy Grant Live" (Word)
Ludacris, "Release Therapy" (Def Jam)
Vanessa Hudgens, "V" (Hollywood)
Boney James, "Shine" (Concord)
Keith Jarrett, "Carnegie Hall Concert" (ECM)
Lemonheads, "Lemonheads" (Vagrant)
Paul McCartney, "Ecce Cor Meum" (EMI)
Audra McDonald, "Build a Bridge" (Nonesuch)
Medeski Scofield Martin and Wood, "Out Louder" (Indirecto)
Andre Rieu, "The Homecoming" (Denon)
Scissor Sisters, "Ta Dah!" (Universal)
Chris Tomlin, "See the Morning" (Sparrow)

Soundtracks and scores:
"The U.S. vs. John Lennon" (Capitol)

Tenacious D Still Arguing As 'Destiny' Draws Near

It wouldn't be a conversation with Tenacious D if principal members Jack Black and Kyle Gass weren't arguing with one another about anything and everything.

For instance, still up for debate is just how many songs will be featured on the soundtrack to the group's film "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny," due Nov. 14 via Epic.

"I think it's around 12," Gass tells Billboard.com. "I think it's 18," Black replies. "Well, it depends on what you count as a song," Gass insists. "But tracks. How many numbers," Black says. "Yeah, I'm not counting numbers," Gass retorts. "Ten to 12 new songs."

The duo can agree on a few tracks sure to make the cut, including first single "Pick of Destiny," the video for which premieres today (Sept. 25) on MTV. "This is basically just a retelling of what you just saw," Gass says of the clip. "Jack and I go see our own movie but we ruin the movie for the people watching."

Fans can also look forward to "Master Exploder" ("Jack dreams how kick-ass we're going to be once we have the Pick of Destiny," Gass says), opener "Kickapoo" (which features Meat Loaf and Ronnie James Dio) and "Classico" ("It's about when Jack and I first meet at Venice Beach, and a spontaneous jam happens," Gass offers. "Jack starts singing along a classical riff to my classical guitar solo").

"Destiny," which opens Nov. 17, sports "one of the strongest openings and title sequences ever. I'm not even joking," Black says. "We kick it off with a kick-ass animation, actually. What is a better one, Kyle, that you can think of? 'North by Northwest' by Alfred Hitchcock. That's a good one, but is it better than the D?"

The question remains: with the movie and soundtrack about to be unleashed, is Tenacious D's "destiny" now fulfilled? "In terms of brass rings, or quests for power and validation, yeah, this was it, except for one little piece of the puzzle: the cover of Rolling Stone," Black says. "I think they're waiting for the first week's box office," Gass quips.

Still, the D has a couple of pet projects in line, should "Pick of Destiny" fail to cement the group as one of rock's all-time greats. "I'd love to make a sequel," Gass says. "I'd like to do a complete album of covers with no songs written after 1937. I'd like to do a concept album, with the concept being about me. I'd like to do a third part, which is actually part six of a nine-part nine-ogy." Says Black, alarmed, "A nine-part nine-ogy? I think that makes it an 81-ogy."

Tenacious D will hit the road in late November for a North American tour, followed by dates in the United Kingdom. More touring is planned for early next year, including shows in Australia, according to Black.

"Scrubs" Nurse Needs Doctoring

Unfortunately, Judy Reyes' latest trip to the ER wasn't as a guest-star.

Reyes, who plays feisty nurse Carla Espinosa on Scrubs, suffered a fractured pelvis last Wednesday after falling down at her home, NBC spokesman David Gardner confirmed to E! Online.

"She's going to be fine," the 37-year-old actress' rep, Monique Ward, told People magazine. "She had surgery to repair it on Thursday. She didn't realize it was as bad as it was and still went to work. Once there, she realized she needed medical treatment. She went to a hospital from the set." Reyes, who's also known for her work on HBO's prison drama, Oz, was expected to be released from the hospital Monday.

Scrubs' filming schedule has been reworked for the time being to accommodate Reyes' healing process, which is going to include about six weeks of hobbling around on crutches. In the meantime she'll shoot some of her less strenuous scenes.

Last season on Scrubs, Carla and her husband, Turk ( Donald Faison), learned that they would be having their first child together and embarked on your usual sitcom pregnancy--an announcement that didn't go according to plan, lots of misunderstandings and insecurities, and many thwarted sexual advances.

Season six will pick up with Carla a very uncomfortable nine and a half-months pregnant (so maybe some sitting-down scenes will do both Reyes and her character a world of good). Zach Braff's J.D. will be dealing with his own girlfriend's "I'm pregnant" announcement, while Dr. Cox ( John C. McGinley) and his beloved ex-wife Jordan ( Christa Miller) are expecting baby number two, as well.

Although Scrubs was renewed in May for another full season, the Emmy nominee for Outstanding Comedy won't show up on NBC's lineup until 2007, at a date to be announced.

Actor Crowe doesn't "do charity work" for studios

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Russell Crowe said on Monday he quit an epic movie about the Australian outback co-starring Nicole Kidman because he doesn't do "charity work" for major studios.

The New Zealand-born Australian actor had been scheduled to star in the as-yet untitled film directed by Baz Luhrmann, but dropped out and was replaced by another Australian actor, Hugh Jackman, in June. At the time, no reason for the cast change was announced.

"I just didn't want to work on that movie in the type of environment that was being created because of the needs of the budget," Crowe told reporters while promoting his new movie, director Ridley Scott's "A Good Year," in New York.

"I do charity work, but I don't do charity work for major studios."

The Luhrmann movie was due to begin production this month, but has been pushed back to February because of scheduling conflicts and budget debates with 20th Century Fox, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

A spokesman for 20th Century Fox had no immediate comment.

Media reports have put the budget for the ambitious film at between $150 million and $175 million.

Luhrmann, director of the hit musical "Moulin Rouge," has described the film to Australian newspapers as a sweeping romance in the same vein as "Gone with the Wind" and on the scale of David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia."

He said the film would be set in Australia from the mid-1930s leading up to the Japanese bombing of the tropical northern city of Darwin in World War Two.

Crowe and Kidman were scheduled to have starred together in another Australian movie, based on the novel "Eucalyptus," but the project collapsed last year because of difficulties with the script.

"It will come around when it's supposed to come around," Crowe said of filming a movie in Australia.

"The unfortunate thing about the way the media works these days, before the idea is even really solidified in people's heads it's already front page news. The film business is very complicated."

Saints march in as Superdome comes alive

NEW ORLEANS - As rock bands blasted and tailgate parties served up barbecue and brew, thousands of people poured into the streets Monday night, hoping to forget about Hurricane Katrina during a Mardi Gras-like celebration of the Saints' first home game since the storm.

Crowds swamped the area around the Louisiana Superdome in a human sea, creating a huge traffic jam for the team's emotional return and the reopening of the stadium, which underwent $185 million in repairs to erase damage done during and after Katrina.

"This is exactly what the city needs," said Saints season ticket holder Clara Donate, 58, who lost her home and all her possessions to Katrina's floodwaters. "We all need something else to think about."

The Saints and the Atlanta Falcons were both undefeated at 2-0 early in the NFL season, and the game received Super Bowl buildup. The Goo Goo Dolls played to the crowd outside the dome. Green Day and U2 performed for the crowd of more than 68,000 inside.

Harold Johnson couldn't get into the Superdome, but he planned to sit with his neighbors outside his government-issue trailer and watch the game on television.

"I don't want to talk about Katrina. I don't want to talk about insurance. I don't want to talk about anything but kicking Falcon butt," Johnson said as he stocked up on beer at a grocery store for the cookout with his neighbors.

Even with its gleaming new cover, the Superdome remained a symbol of Katrina's misery. Tens of thousands of storm victims suffered there in withering heat after last summer's hurricane filled the city with stinking floodwaters.

The Saints have not played a regular-season home game since 2004. They last played in the Superdome in a 2005 preseason game a few days before Katrina.

After the storm, the Saints became the NFL's traveling show, establishing a base in San Antonio and playing every game on the road amid speculation that owner Tom Benson might not bring them back to New Orleans.

Even now, a high-rise hotel, an office tower and an upscale shopping center stand empty just a few hundred feet from the stadium, with white boards covering blown-out windows. A few miles away, entire neighborhoods are wastelands of decaying houses.

Johnson and his neighbors were holding the party outdoors because none of them had room inside their trailers.

Amid the desolation, some residents could not bring themselves to celebrate the team's return.

Irma Warner, 71, and her husband, Pascal Warner, 80, live in an apartment in suburban Metairie while working six days a week to restore a home flooded by 7 feet of water in New Orleans' Lakeview neighborhood.

"We rode around through the Ninth Ward yesterday," Irma Warner said. "When I saw that, I thought, how can they spend $185 million on the Superdome. What about all these poor people?"

But she appeared to be in the minority. Downtown offices and City Hall shut down early in anticipation of crowds at the Superdome. Teachers promised to assign little Monday night homework so students could watch the game on television.

Tanyha Brown of Metairie said her husband was leaving work early so they could attend the festivities outside the Superdome. With no tickets to the game, they planned to watch from a nearby bar.

"This is the best holiday since Mardi Gras," Brown said.

Get Smart - It's here - Canadian Ordering Info!

Alright my fellow Canucks, we can order the Get Smart DVD set from Time-Life in Canada, but we'll have to do it via phone for now.

The set, which sells for $199.96 US, is $249.95 CAN (a reasonable conversion rate), plus a shipping and handling charge of $19.99 CAN and taxes (but if you whine a bit they may give you free shipping).

Just call Time Life Canada at 1-800-950-7887 and place your order. They still don't know when the set will be added to their website.

Sony Cuts Price of PS3 in Japan

Company cuts the price by 20% in response to complaints about high cost.

Sony Corp., the world's biggest maker of video game players, cut the price in Japan of its PlayStation 3 by about 20%, responding to complaints that it cost twice as much as rival consoles.

The game player will retail for $430 when it goes on sale in Japan on Nov. 11, Ken Kutaragi, head of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., said Friday at the Tokyo Game Show. The company previously said it would sell models for $540.

"They had to cut it because rivals have lower prices, and they may lower the price again if sales don't go well," said Yoku Ihara, head of equity research at Retela Crea Securities Co. in Tokyo. Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer is relying on the PlayStation 3 to revive a company that has lost half its market value in the last six years. The price cut leaves the console, which comes equipped with a high-definition Blu-ray DVD player and a fast processor called the Cell, as the most expensive game box on the market.

"If you consider the PlayStation 3 a toy, then yes, it is an expensive toy," Kutaragi said in an interview with Japanese game magazine Famitsu in May. "The PlayStation and PlayStation 2 were both 10,000 yen more than their competitors at launch, yet they both sold to shortages."

Microsoft this month said it would start selling a cheaper version of its Xbox 360 in Japan for 29,800 yen Nov. 2, while Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo is offering its Wii console for 25,000 yen.

The surprise price cut comes after Sony on Sept. 6 said it would delay the European release of its PlayStation 3 by four months until March and cut its 2006 global shipment target by half to 2 million.

The PlayStation 3 will make its debut in Japan on Nov. 11 and in the U.S. on Nov. 17. Nintendo's Wii console will go on sale Nov. 19 in the U.S. and Dec. 2 in Japan.

North America Series Two DVD Release

Sci Fi Wire, the news service of the US Sci Fi Channel, has announced the North American release of the second series on DVD on 16 January 2007, according to BBC Worldwide Americas.

"We're over the moon with Doctor Who," said Megan Branigan, vice president of BBC video marketing, in an interview with Sci-Fi Wire.

"We're really pleased with the results this year. We're very excited to continue the momentum with [season] two as we did with [season] one."

The DVD release will be exactly the same as the UK version, including video diaries, the cut-down versions of Doctor Who Confidential, and the lenticular box cover.

The second series of Doctor Who starring David Tennant will begin airing one week from today, Friday 29 September on Sci Fi in the US, and on 9 October in Canada on CBC; the release states that the DVD set will be released on the Tuesday after the series finale in the US, meaning that the season will finish later than was originally expected and will likely skip several weekends late in 2006.

The Stones rock Halifax

HALIFAX - In a shower of raindrops and red fireworks, the Rolling Stones took to the Commons stage for their Halifax debut Saturday night.

"Good evening Halifax!" Mick Jagger yelled to the crowd of close to 50,000 screaming fans.

Dressed in an ankle-length metallic trench coat and matching brimmed hat, Mick gyrated his bony hips — much to the pleasure of the females in the crowd — as he belted out Paint It Black.

"It’s happy time now, baby!" one man screamed, pumping his fists in the air. "We’re at a Rolling Stones concert!"

He repeated the phrase again and again during the Stones two-hour set, overwhelmed by how close he was to his rock idols.

"I can’t believe we’re here! That’s the Rolling Stones!" he shouted, a goofy grin on his face as he pointed at the flashing eight-storey stage.

The man’s mood was contagious, sweeping through the slicker-swathed crowd that braved the cool, wet weather to see Mick and the boys, along with opening acts Sloan, Alice Cooper and Kanye West.

Several people managed to sneak in umbrellas, while most huddled together under tarps or the dripping hoods of their raincoats — or even green garbage bags.

Although the Stones were clearly the crowd favourite, rapper Kanye West had many fans throwing their diamonds in the sky during his 45-minutes set.

As he opened with Diamonds Are Forever, the younger fans swayed to the thumping beat, their fingers pressed together to form the shape of diamonds.

"It’s just like Woodstock," one man said of the concert atmosphere and wide range of music.

And in many ways it was. Amid the clouds of cigarette smoke and rockin’ tunes, the smell of marijuana hung heavy in the wet air and empty plastic baggies littered the muddy ground.

The streets surrounding the Commons were blanketed with police officers dressed in orange rainsuits, and private security guards roamed the grounds — but many fans still found ways to sneak in restricted items, including drugs, cameras and alcohol.

One young woman admitted she and her friends went so far as to bury several bottles of liquor near the fountain more than a week before the concert and planned to dig them up once they got inside.

But police were ready for anything, it seemed — although they had little to deal with.

"Everything is fine," Staff Sgt. Joe Collins of Halifax Regional Police said at 11 p.m. "The ferries are packed full; mass transit is working wonderful. I just drove through the downtown core, and it’s virtually empty."

He said he figured the weather was to thank for the tame crowds.

"Considering the number of people, the amount of alcohol and other substances, it’s been very, very good," he said.

Paramedics at the concert site were somewhat busier, but they didn’t face anything they weren’t expecting, a spokesman for Emergency Health Services said.

"A lot of headaches, a little bit of nausea, people passing out here and there, but nothing overly serious," operations supervisor Jonathon Pippy said at about 7 p.m.

A few hours later there were reports that an unconscious woman was taken away by ambulance, but her condition was not believed to be serious. Sources said another young woman slipped on the sidewalk outside the site and broke her arm.

Scott Ferguson, executive vice-president of Trade Centre Ltd., said there’s no doubt the concert was a success.

"It went fabulous, actually — it was quite an amazing night," he said at about 10:45 p.m. Saturday. "There was probably close to 50,000 people here, and for the most part they were all dressed for the evening and having a great time."

He said the next step is for the concert organizers to sit down and discuss what they can do to make the next time even better — and there will be a next time, he said confidently.

"We’ve proven that the site is a top concert site and can certainly accommodate many more people," Mr. Ferguson said.

But the sobering question earlier in the day was this: What was the traffic like on peninsular Halifax on a day when metro mirrored a major metropolis and actually had more than one big event on tap?

Pretty smooth, as it turned out.

Talk about a fiesta of fun — the Rolling Stones, a National Hockey League exhibition game, homecoming weekend at Saint Mary’s University, the closing night gala for the Atlantic Film Festival, a Sarah Harmer performance at Dalhousie University, Neptune Theatre’s production of A Few Good Men, four cruise ships scheduled to be in port — events that obviously required a lot of people-moving in and around the city’s central district.

A survey of potential traffic hot spots, done on a bicycle by The Chronicle Herald, showed the peninsula was busy in some areas. But it seemed many concert-goers took note of the advance message about public transit — and used it. Metro Transit buses appeared to be doing a brisk business.

At the Halifax Commons concert site, there was a bit of a traffic buzz — albeit the pedestrian variety — as early as 11:30 a.m., because general-admission ticket holders wanted to be there the moment the gates opened at 1 p.m. to grab a premium spot near the stage. Streets by the concert site were well staffed by Halifax Regional Police.

'Jackass' boys deliver winner in debut

LOS ANGELES - Johnny Knoxville and his pals pulled another prank on Hollywood as their sequel of crazy stunts, "Jackass Number Two," beat a rush of serious movies to take the top spot at the weekend box office.

Paramount's "Jackass Number Two" debuted with $28.1 million, with Focus Features' " Jet Li's Fearless," featuring the martial-arts master in a saga set in China a century ago, opening in second place with $10.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The weekend's other new wide releases debuted weakly, with MGM's World War I tale "Flyboys" opening at No. 4 with $6 million and Sean Penn's political drama "All the King's Men" from Sony premiering at No. 7 with $3.8 million.

Overall box office receipts declined for the third-straight weekend, the top-12 movies taking in $81.9 million, down 7 percent from the same period last year. That follows a solid summer for Hollywood, whereas movie attendance began picking up this time last year after a prolonged summer slump.

"After a weak summer last year, we had a fairly strong fall," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "This year, we're seeing a reversal of what happened last year."

Based on the MTV show that featured Knoxville and his gang doing reckless stunts and dares, "Jackass Number Two" outstripped the opening weekend of 2002's "Jackass," which debuted with $22.8 million.

"Jackass Number Two" cost just $11.5 million to make and took in slightly more than that on Friday alone. Males accounted for two-thirds of the movie's audience, with 71 percent of the crowd younger than 25, according to Paramount.

Van Toffler, president of MTV's music and film group, said Knoxville and his "Jackass" cohorts were elated by the sequel's success.

"I think it was, 'Holy blank, we've done it again. What is wrong with the country?'" Toffler said.

"All the King's Men" stars Penn as a Southern demagogue inspired by Louisiana political kingpin Huey Long in a new adaptation of Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The film co-stars Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, James Gandolfini and Patricia Clarkson.

Sony originally scheduled "All the King's Men" for release last December amid Academy Awards season but postponed it. Studio executives said the filmmakers would have had to rush to finish the film.

The extra time did not help the film, which generally was trashed by critics, with some reviewers calling Penn's flamboyant performance too over-the-top.

With such a luminous cast and pedigree (the 1949 version of "All the King's Men" won the best-picture Oscar and best-actor prize for Broderick Crawford), what went wrong with the new adaptation?

"I'm not sure," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It's a movie that we love and believe in, and we hoped that it would perform better."

Warner Independent's whimsical fantasy "The Science of Sleep" opened strongly in limited release with $347,000 in 14 theaters.

Directed by Michel Gondry ("The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), "The Science of Sleep" stars Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg in the story of a young man whose weird dream life spills over into his waking world. The film expands to about 200 theaters this Friday.

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. "Jackass Number Two," $28.1 million.
2. "Jet Li's Fearless," $10.6 million.
3. "Gridiron Gang," $9.7 million.
4. "Flyboys," $6 million.
5. "Everyone's Hero," $4.75 million.
6. "The Black Dahlia," $4.4 million.
7. "All the King's Men," $3.8 million.
8. "The Covenant," $3.3 million.
9. "The Illusionist," $3.28 million.
10. "Little Miss Sunshine," $2.9 million.

CTV airs wrong episode of 'Anatomy'

TORONTO (CP) -- When did Dr. McDreamy finally profess his love for Meredith Grey? What happened to Izzie in the hours after her fiance Denny died? And is it finally curtains for The Chief and his wife?

Many Canadian fans of "Grey's Anatomy" were left puzzled by plot gaps and apparent inconsistencies Thursday night when CTV inadvertently aired the second episode of the season rather than the hotly anticipated premiere.

While the network blamed the mistake on a "satellite feed error," it was little consolation for viewers who had waited an entire summer to learn the fate of the libidinous interns at Seattle Grace Hospital.

"Can I just say that CTV is a crappy irresponsible network?" wrote one blogger, carmen16.

"I know errors happen, but this is one of the biggest shows on TV these days. (I'm) just not impressed."

"Stupid people who don't know how to push buttons right. I am most seriously displeased," posted another who identified herself as Lynda.

On CTV, the show airs at 8 p.m. ET, while the U.S. version airs at 9 p.m. ET on ABC.

Many fans who tuned in to CTV said they couldn't quite put their finger on what was wrong with the show.

"We were trying to figure out if they were just artfully leaving some gaps for the viewers to figure out what happened, or if indeed they were airing the wrong episode," said one blogger.

After the mistake became clear (ABC aired the correct version), fans took to the Internet, begging viewers who watched the CTV episode not to ruin it for them.

"Now that I know that Canada got next week's episode, I'm going to be frightened of spoilers constantly until next week!" wrote jasminelily.

"If you live in Canada, please don't include any spoilers about the second episode!" implored a blog on the USA Today website.

CTV spokesman Mike Cosentino said the network took in its regular satellite feed of the show thinking it was the season premiere.

"We were fed an incorrect show," he said Friday. "We recognize the scope of this situation."

The network has announced it will air the season premiere next Thursday, when it would have aired Episode 2.

The error came as "Grey's Anatomy" made its much-anticipated debut in a new Thursday night timeslot, a fact not lost on fans.

"After a whole summer of pimping the new timeslot, CTV showed the wrong episode of 'Grey's Anatomy' last night," said alias-elaina.

"How did they screw THAT up? Someone is so fired."

Cosentino called the CTV glitch a "good news/bad news scenario."

"The bad news is viewers missed Episode 1 and we're working on the right solution to remedy that, and the good news is -- Episode 2 is fantastic."

"South Park" creators look back 10 years

LOS ANGELES - Talk about a star-studded arrivals line. There they were: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Lopez, Steven Spielberg and Paris Hilton. Mel Gibson even showed up.

But this was the launch party for the 10th season of "South Park" and the celebrities were A-List — A for artificial. As in cardboard.

No matter, the smiling caricatures still loomed large along the red carpet at the Thursday-night affair to celebrate the controversial Emmy- and Peabody-winning animated Comedy Central series. The program first aired Aug. 13, 1997, and begins its new season Oct. 4.

Series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone topped the Hollywood back-lot party's real A-List, as in authentic.

"I remember when we started the show, we had an order for six episodes, and we're like, `This is great, because, when we're older, we'll always have these six shows,'" Parker told AP Television.

"And, it was actually Brian Graden (the executive who commissioned the original short film that became "South Park") who told us, `I think some day these will be six of 100.' And we're like, `You're crazy. There's no way.' And we're up to 150-something."

"South Park" spins around four elementary-school boys who slog out their days and nights in the quiet Colorado mountain town of South Park. Over the last decade, the boys have had to grapple with everything from problematic parents to the apocalypse.

Virtually everything and everyone in politics, pop culture and religion have been fair game for Parker and Stone's sharp satire. Tom Cruise and John Travolta got it on the chin in last season's Emmy-nominated "Trapped in the Closet" episode, which took on the Church of Scientology.

"We have not personally heard from any of them," Stone said.

"No, Tom hasn't called," Parker added.

"No, hasn't called us. We used to go over to his house for Friday-night dinners, but not any more," Stone joked.

Yet for all its craziness and cussin', the "South Park" franchise is nothing to laugh at, with top-selling DVDs, CDs, dolls, albums, a movie, reruns in worldwide syndication and soon-to-be 10 years and counting on Comedy Central's prime-time schedule.

Coinciding with next month's 10th-season launch is a DVD of Stone and Parker's 10 favorite "South Park" episodes, "South Park the Hits: Volume 1," which arrives in stores Oct. 3.

"We've said in a lot of interviews, `There's no way we're going to be 35 or 40 doing this show,' and here we are at 35, and we're doing the show," Stone said. "Now we'll say, `There's no way we're going to be 45 to 50 doing this show.'"

"I think when I have kids, it'll be over," Parker added. "Because that'll be the day, we'll have kids, and then one of us will come in the office and be like, `I think we should take the show in a different direction. I think we offended some people last night, and I don't know that that's good.'"

Stone: "Once we have kids, we'll do the George Lucas thing, and we'll go back and change all the old episodes."

Parker: "All the guns out of people's hands and stuff."

Stone: "Get all weird and wimpy."

Rupert Everett spills beans on Hollywood

LONDON - Rupert Everett hates Hollywood. The British actor, whose screen hits include "Another Country," "Shrek" and "My Best Friend's Wedding," says he's sick of the movie industry's hypocrisy and homophobia. He's even tired of celebrity — the whole glittering illusion deliciously evoked and eviscerated in his candid new autobiography "Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins."

"Hollywood is a mirage," said Everett, 47, reclining in jeans and plaid shirt on the sofa of a London hotel suite.

Movie stars are "blobs who don't say anything, aren't allowed to say anything. They are paid to shut up."

Fortunately, Everett can't help talking.

The book, for which he reportedly received a seven-figure advance, is a string of glittering anecdotes with edge, bonbons with a bitter center.

Everett is a waspish observer of the celebrity A-list, from Madonna ("she oozed sex appeal") to Julia Roberts ("beautiful and tinged with madness") to Sharon Stone ("utterly unhinged").

The book is a sort of Rough Guide to late 20th-century highlife — and lowlife — that moves from London to Paris, New York, St. Tropez, L.A.'s Laurel Canyon and Miami's South Beach. There are walk-on parts for Andy Warhol, Elizabeth Taylor, Orson Welles, Bob Dylan, Donatella Versace and a host of other luminaries. Everett seems to know everyone, remember all and recount everything.

Almost everything. Everett skates quickly over his brief stint as a London rent boy, although he cheerfully admits that he stalked the actor Ian McKellen.

The openly gay actor also discloses his handful of heterosexual affairs — with Paula Yates, wife of Bob Geldof, French actress Beatrice Dalle and Hollywood star Susan Sarandon.

The book is a feast for gossip fans, and Everett is an articulate and charming raconteur with a knack for a memorable image. At one point, a swimming pool is described as "shaped like a Xanax."

"I think what people will be really surprised about is the writing," said Antonia Hodgson, Everett's editor at British publisher Little, Brown. "It's not just another celebrity book.

"He's not so much interested in spilling the beans about a particular celebrity, but about showing what celebrity does to those people."

Everett says he was inspired by "The Moon's A Balloon," David Niven's literate, witty memoir of Hollywood's golden age.

"I also loved the prewar frenzy of Evelyn Waugh, that feeling of the end of the world coming," said Everett. "It seems to me that, especially through show business, everything is getting more and more feverish and faster and nastier and scarier.

"Entertainment is becoming the great decoy — we are so entertained, it's almost impossible for us to think about anything else. The only thing that has continuity in the news is Jennifer Lopez's bottom."

The book is also the story of Everett's lifelong flight from the conformity of an upper-class English upbringing that saw him sent away to a Catholic boarding school at the age of 7.

He recounts his early career as a youthful rebel and party animal, friend of prostitutes, addicts, divas and thieves. He says he has always been drawn to "the freaks, the overdoses and the suicides."

He says being gay "certainly wasn't acceptable in any of the arenas that were on offer to me. So I think I had an instinct to escape into a world that I thought would be more friendly."

Everett was disappointed to find showbiz "as middle-class and provincial" as the private school world he'd left behind.

"My imagination of show business was this red plush netherworld of drunks and sex maniacs and killers and freaks," he said. "It's not. My world is, because I've doggedly tried to create that world. But it's not in general."

Everett has often complained of Hollywood's homophobia, arguing his sexuality has stopped him getting the leading-man roles offered to his countryman Hugh Grant.

But he's also highly self-critical. Everett emerges from the book as ruthless and driven, a bit of a monster who confesses he "lied about everything. My age. My name. My background."

"I think the actor's geography, there's a hole in it somewhere," he said. "There's a hole in your identity, a black hole that you try and fill up with posturing."

For all his drive to be a star, Everett is ambivalent about success. The book recounts his highs — his breakthrough as an English schoolboy turned Soviet spy in "Another Country," his Hollywood triumph as Julia Roberts' gay pal "My Best Friend's Wedding" — and the many lows. These include the disastrous rock'n'roll saga "Hearts of Fire" and "The Next Best Thing," a limp comedy-drama co-starring Madonna.

At the height of his fame, after "My Best Friend's Wedding," he is recognized on the street as "the gay guy from that movie."

He yearns to be taken seriously as an actor, laments the superficiality of Hollywood, yet has reportedly resorted to Botox injections to maintain his lean, unlined good looks. It's working. The sculpted cheekbones are intact, the big, dark eyes as luminous as ever.

These days, he travels the world on behalf of the Global Fund against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and declares showbiz "not very relevant."

"To be honest, for me it's not the time for show business," he said — although he's got a play, a movie and "a couple of TV things" in the works.

"Life behind a velvet rope — I never enjoyed it. I like going out, going to bars, going to clubs, hanging out on the street.

"I always thought an actor should be like a bodybuilder. His life should be like a muscle — it should be exercised and flexed and worked. Doing everything, experiencing as much as you can.

"It was a conscious decision for me to exist like the people I really admired on-screen — the Marlon Brandos, the Montgomery Clifts, the James Deans.

"You felt they had experienced everything. Their eyes were shocked and dead and alive and glowing like coals at the same time. And I think that was through experience, using your life as a tool. That's the way I wanted to conduct myself."

Halifax preps for Stones concert

HALIFAX (CP) - From her perch overlooking the Halifax Commons, Norma Boggs can see a beehive of roadies slaving over a tangle of rising steel. For days, Boggs has watched from her eighth-floor apartment balcony as preparations for the biggest rock concert in the city's history have gone on below.

On Saturday night, up to 60,000 people are expected to gather on the Commons to see the legendary Rolling Stones and three other acts perform.

"I never thought they would ever play here, let alone practically in my backyard," said Boggs, who will watch the show with family and friends from her balcony across from the park.

"We were out there with binoculars today watching them set up. It's like a small city being built out there."

For the past week, about 100 roadies have unloaded 78 tractor-trailer loads of equipment, including an 8 1/2-storey stage being erected by four heavy-lift cranes.

The Commons, a sprawling recreational greenspace in the heart of Halifax, isn't your typical setting for a large, loud rock show.

Thousands of people live in the Victorian-style homes and high-rise apartments ringing the park, or on surrounding tree-lined streets.

Many have complained about the congestion and noise the concert will produce.

Others worry that 60,000 pairs of feet and thousands of tonnes of equipment will destroy the Commons' verdant sports fields, especially if it rains.

Jill Ceccolini likes the Stones and even travelled to Toronto in the 1990s to see them. But she isn't thrilled to see them again in what amounts to her front yard.

"This is a mixed residential neighbourhood of homeowners, businesses and people who are renting," she said. "Having this kind of event going on across the street really impacts our lives."

Ceccolini and her family live in a house almost directly behind the massive stage. For days, they've listened to the hum of generators and round-the-clock construction work.

But more than that, Ceccolini has a philosophical problem with a public space being used for a money-making venture.

"I love that about the Commons," she said. "It's not for any one group of people and people don't need to pay to use it."

By contrast, newspaper columnist Marilla Stephenson said she's glad the Stones are coming to town.

"If all the groaners, whiners and complainers don't stop trying to make this city as dead as the people in the historic graveyards, there's going to be no future for this city," said Stephenson, who writes for the Halifax Chronicle-Herald.

"Any time someone tries to do something here, people seem to line up and put their hands out for compensation after complaining. I get pretty fed up with it. It's really starting to hold this city back."

In 1984, about 30,000 people stood in driving rain as Pope John Paul II held at papal mass on the Commons.

But there has never been a rock concert on the site and organizers are hinting more could follow if this one is a hit.

"It's an absolutely beautiful site," Ken Craig of Donald K. Donald, the show's Montreal promoter, told the Halifax Daily News. "The whole industry is seeing how this show goes because it's a new site."

The Nova Scotia and municipal governments are forking over $240,000 to help pay for the concert, which will include performances by rapper Kanye West, shock-rocker Alice Cooper and alt-rockers Sloan.

The money will help cover the cost of extra policing that night and to repair any damage.

Joan Massey, the provincial NDP's tourism critic, believes the money would be better spent elsewhere.

"The government increased tourism funding by just $388,000 in the summer budget and has blown a large chunk of that on cleaning up after the Rolling Stones - some of the richest musicians in the world," she said.

For Boggs, though, it's all about the thrill of seeing a band that typically shuns smaller places like Halifax.

"It's only one day, right? Then everything is back to normal," she said of the inconvenience.

"I've never seen them in person and I never thought I ever would, so this is quite a treat."

Sloan excited to open for Stones

HALIFAX - It's a big deal when guitar pop quartet Sloan returns home to Halifax to play a show, but opening for The Rolling Stones on the Halifax Common has to be the biggest deal yet.

Not only is it exciting, but there's something poetic about the event and the locale for guitarist Jay Ferguson, who began his musical career 20 years ago with his first band Deluxe Boys just, if you'll excuse the pun, a stone's throw away.

"I got an e-mail from Walter Kemp the other day, who was the first drummer for the Deluxe Boys," Ferguson explains over the phone from Toronto. "He couldn't believe we're playing with The Rolling Stones, because kitty-corner to the Commons is Walter's house, where we had our very first practice in the living room, right behind the Holiday Inn on Pepperell.

"It was John Gould, Walter and myself, with Walter's grandfather sitting in the dining room very disgruntled while we plowed through

Route 66. So it's kind of come full circle, from covering the Stones in Walter's living room to opening for them across the street."

Saturday's show won't be Sloan's first encounter with the Stones the band was asked to open for them for two nights in Boston in January -- but playing in front of tens of thousands of fellow Maritimers is still not the sort of experience you take lightly.

"It's surreal for me, for sure, but pretty exciting. My joke is, 'Yeah, the Stones, we already played with them, whatever,' " laughs Ferguson. "But those two shows in Boston were fantastic. We got to meet them, and it was outrageous seeing them face to face, it's a pretty big thing. Obviously to them it's "Yeah, whatever.' But to me, who's been a Stones fan for the better part of 25 years or something like that, it's pretty exciting. I mean, they were lovely, and they were gentlemen, and it was very thoughtful that we got on the Halifax lineup.

"I'm sure it's not like Mick Jagger's pounding the table saying, "We must have Sloan back! They were such lovely lads!' It has more to do with promoters and all that. But I think our band was easy to deal with, and we got along with their crew, and it was more like, "Hey, it's Sloan's hometown, let's have them back.' So it's a very nice feeling being invited back to play with The Rolling Stones."

The other big news for Sloan this week is the release on Tuesday of its first CD of new material in three years, the mammoth 30-song collection Never Hear the End of It.

The album sees the return of drummer Andrew Scott to the songwriting fold and bears a cornucopia of styles ranging from pop to psychedelia, in a broader display of the members' personal tastes than the power-chord packed Action Pact, released in 2003.

After having a couple of years to write new songs, Sloan started making the record in February in its warehouse rehearsal space with live soundman Nick Detoro taking over production duties. Recording continued over the summer, with new songs being added all the time, and then it was time to take care of the artwork and photos, followed by rehearsing for the upcoming shows.

"I'm actually looking forward to touring, because it'll be like a vacation," says Ferguson. " I'm just going to zone out and watch movies and relax when we're not playing. I have to get out of town to relax, basically."

The first taste of Never Hear the End of It was Ferguson's catchy single Who Taught You to Live Like That, which he describes as a cross between T-Rex and Instant Karma. But the record also veers from the pure aggression of Patrick Pentland's Hardcore ("Patrick was wondering if we should do it, and we said, "Yeah!' ") to Scott's trippy Golden Eyes. "It might take longer to get into, but that doesn't bother me," says Ferguson of the record whose title is a sly wink at its 72-minute length. "I think it'll have a longer life because of that.

"I like the idea that on the White Album, The Beatles did things that were really outside of the box, like Honey Pie, which sounded like something from the '20s. So doing something like Hardcore is the other extreme. I was really into the idea of making an album that is all over the place, changing from song to song, with really short songs, and some longer songs, and having it all connected up.

"I think we wanted to do something new, for fun, and it made sense because there were so many songs to choose from. And Chris and I had both fantasized about doing a double album at some point."

So this week Sloan fans get two fantasies at the same time.

'U2byU2': A portrait by the artists

Arguably the greatest rock band on the planet, U2 now offers the definitive version of how it got there.

U2byU2 (HarperCollins, $39.95) has 1,500-plus images and a rich band autobiography culled from 150 hours of interviews with singer Bono, guitarist The Edge, bassist Adam Clayton, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and manager Paul McGuinness.

"We felt it was important to get the story on record, but that's not to say we're not going to go on a good many more years," he says. "This is the story thus far."

In this exclusive excerpt, the band has decamped to Berlin to record Achtung Baby. They arrive Oct. 3, 1990, the official day of Germany's reunification, but soon realize their vision and brotherhood is anything but unified.

Edge: We went to Berlin with a lot of ideas but most of them were very skeletal and undeveloped. They were directions and hints that we hoped would become fully-fledged songs when we kicked them around in rehearsal but unfortunately, since a lot of them started out from unusual origins, sometimes drum machines, sometimes just strange sounds, they didn't sound very good when the band tried to play them. There was an awkward phase where things weren't working out and there were two ways to analyze it. Adam and Larry were convinced the song ideas were crap and Bono and I thought the fault lay with the band.

Larry: I thought this might be the end. We had been through tough circumstances before and found our way out, but it was always outside influences that we were fighting against. For the first time ever it felt like the cracks were within. And that was a much more difficult situation to negotiate.

Bono: What we thought were just hairline cracks that could be easily fixed turned out to be more serious, the walls needed underpinning, we had to put down new foundations or the house would fall down. In fact it was falling down all around us. We were running up hotel bills and we had professional people, the U2 crew, staring at our averageness and scratching their heads and wondering if maybe they'd have been better off working for Bruce Springsteen. We came face to face with our limitations as a group on a lot of levels, playing and songwriting. When you're at sea the smartest thing to do is to find some dry land as quick as possible. So I think Larry and Adam were just anxious: "Stop messing around with all this electronica, let's get back to doing what we do. Because all this experimental stuff isn't working very well, is it? And, by the way, Clockwork Orange was (expletive)." There was a bit of that going on. "Did somebody say we were a rock band?" As you were walking down the corridor, you'd overhear that kind of remark.

Larry: In the past, when we were writing music, we would be in a room playing and the discussion was always along the lines of: "I don't like that particular part, try something else." There seemed to be consensus. We were starting on a blank page to a large degree, perhaps with just a guitar or melody or a riff or a vocal idea. So we started at the same place and ended at the same place. This time around, it wasn't a blank page. The parameters were already set, by drum machines, loops and synth pads. And it's kind of hard to embrace new rules when you don't understand them.

Adam: We weren't getting anywhere until One fell into our laps and suddenly we hit a groove.

Bono: Maybe "great" is what happens when "very good" gets tired. We kind of out-stared the average, it blinked first and One arrived.

Edge: I was trying to take one of our half finished ideas and give it some inspiration. I went off into another room and developed a couple of different chord progressions, neither of which actually worked where they were supposed to. (Producer) Danny Lanois said, "What happens if you play both of them, one into the next?" I was playing acoustic guitar and Bono got on the microphone and started improvising melodies and within a few minutes we had the bones of the song, melodically, structurally and even lyrically.

Bono: The words just fell out of the sky, a gift. We had a request from the Dalai Lama to participate in a festival called Oneness. I love and respect the Dalai Lama but there was something a little bit "let's hold hands" hippie to me about this particular event. I am in awe of the Tibetan position on non-violence but this event didn't strike a chord. I sent him back a note saying, "One — but not the same."

Edge: At the instant we were recording it, I got a very strong sense of its power. We were all playing together in the big recording room, a huge, eerie ballroom full of ghosts of the war, and everything fell into place. It was a reassuring moment, when everyone finally went, "Oh, great, this album has started." It's the reason you're in a band — when the spirit descends upon you and you create something truly affecting. One is an incredibly moving piece. It hits straight into the heart.

Larry: It was similar to the way we had recorded in the past. In some ways it was a sign that the blank page approach was still valid. Everything was not broken.

New cast members add spice to "Law & Order"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Yes, "Law & Order" is back for another season (its 17th), which is a bit like saying the sun is back for another rise. Four more seasons and it ties "Gunsmoke" as the longest-running drama in primetime history, and it would be a mistake to bet against precisely that ultimately happening. Creator Dick Wolf, in fact, has said he is determined to achieve nothing less.

It's easy to see why this procedural is virtually trend-proof and cancel-resistant. You get crime, punishment, action, solid character interplay and a nice, generally tidy resolution within the space of 48 minutes. Life itself should be so uncannily reliable. And we have one more detail that is nothing if not splendidly redundant: There's new regular cast incorporated seamlessly into the "L&O" neighborhood. Out are Dennis Farina and Annie Parisse, in are Milena Govich and Alana De La Garza in moves that carry a nice little dollop of diversity.

Govich (a regular on Wolf's short-lived "Conviction") plays Detective Nina Cassady. Meanwhile, De La Garza (who logged a season on "CSI: Miami") portrays assistant DA Connie Rubirosa, the show's first Latina prosecutor. It's notable that a show on the air this long can still achieve "firsts" of anything.

The season opener, titled "Fame," carries forward the comfy and compelling "L&O" formula, with a cop killing story line that dances around the edges of headline issues: paparazzi, immature young starlets a la Lindsay Lohan, a self-involved white rapper and knotty details of journalistic shield laws. Jesse L. Martin, S. Epatha Merkerson and Sam Waterston are back to provide the guiding backbone of a clockwork concept that just keeps rolling along, a singular oasis of creative stability in a notoriously fickle television world. Long live the king.

Oh boy! "Jackass" set to lead U.S. box office

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Between new releases "Jackass Number Two," the sure winner at the weekend box office, and " Jet Li's Fearless," male youngsters are again the primary target of Hollywood studios.

The question is, can the coveted demographic possibly support both films, as well as reigning champ "Gridiron Gang," which opened to $14.4 million last weekend?

Add on the fact that the World War One aerial drama "Flyboys" is targeting older males and the political saga "All the King's Men" is out to reach adults, and one must wonder what teenage girls will be doing this weekend.

Paramount Pictures' "Jackass" stars Johnny Knoxville and his gang of knuckleheads, who will stun audiences again with their stupid human tricks. Industry insiders expect the R-rated film to open in the neighborhood of the $22.7 million garnered by 2002's "Jackass: The Movie." But with the box office down the past two weekends, underperforming is a possibility. Directed by Jeff Tremaine, who shot the original, "Jackass" reunites Knoxville with cohorts Bam Margera, Chris Pontius and Steve-O, among others.

"Fearless," a martial arts film from Rogue Pictures, the genre unit of Focus Features, is expected to open in the $9 million-$11 million range. Based on the true-life tale of Huo Yuanjia (Li), the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation, the PG-13 film is directed by Ronny Yu. Jet Li most recently starred in last year's "Unleashed," which opened to $10.9 million.

Sony Pictures' "King's Men," from director Steven Zaillian, originally was set to bow last year at this time but was delayed in postproduction. The critics' early response has not been kind, and handicappers are putting the opening gross in the $8 million-$10 million range.

A remake of the 1949 film based on Robert Penn Warren's novel about a fictional Louisiana governor modeled on Huey Long, "King's Men" stars Sean Penn as populist governor Willie Stark. With a cast that includes Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet, Mark Ruffalo and James Gandolfini, the film has been touted for awards consideration, though its reception at this month's Toronto International Film Festival could present problems.

MGM's "Flyboys" centers on the Lafayette Escadrille -- Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered the war. The PG-13 release stars James Franco and Jean Reno. Producer Dean Devlin was hoping for a bow in the $10 million range, but tracking, strongest with older males, is showing that about $6 million is more likely.

In limited release, the Weinstein Co. will open the R-rated "Feast" in 146 theaters. A Project Greenlight production, the film will play only Friday and Saturday night. Directed by John Gulager, the story revolves around a group of drinkers in a remote bar who are trapped and preyed upon by a band of creatures.

Warner Independent Pictures will open Michel Gondry's "The Science of Sleep" in 14 theaters. The R-rated film stars Gael Garcia Bernal as a man whose dreams invade his waking life. Charlotte Gainsbourg co-stars in the film, which received primarily positive reviews at its festival screenings.

Sony Pictures Classics will open the documentary "American Hardcore" in New York. From director Paul Rachman and writer Steven Blush, the film chronicles the U.S. punk movement from 1980-86.

Sven Nykvist, cinematographer for Bergman, dead at 83

Cinematographer Sven Nykvist, who helped create the distinctive look of films by director Ingmar Bergman, has died.

Nykvist, 83, died Wednesday at a Stockholm nursing home where he was being treated for aphasia, a form of dementia, according to his son, Carl-Gusaf Nykvist.

The Swedish cinematographer won Academy Awards for his work on the 1973 Bergman film Cries and Whispers and 1982's Fanny and Alexander.

His partnership with Bergman lasted 30 years, beginning in 1954 with Sawdust and Tinsel.

Nykvist was a master of lighting and expressing emotion through the camera throughout his career.

"He was called 'the master of light' because of the moods and atmospheres he could create with light. It was a near impossibility to create the moods he created," said Carl-Gustaf Nykvist, who directed a documentary on his father called Light Keeps Me Company.

Born to a missionary couple, Nykvist was raised in a religious household where his access to the movies was restricted.

He became an assistant cameraman in 1941 at the age of 19 and worked on a series of small films that didn't make it out of Sweden before his collaboration with Bergman.

He first gained acclaim for his work on Bergman's frightening and atmospheric Virgin Spring.

Nykvist is known for his naturalistic approach to light, allowing characters to walk in and out of shadow.

His work strongly influenced Hollywood in its move toward more a realistic look in film.

Nykvist also worked with Canadian director Norman Jewison on Agnes of God and with Bergman admirer Woody Allen on Crimes and Misdemeanors and Celebrity.

Among Nykvist's last movies were Sleepless in Seattle, What's Eating Gilbert Grape, directed by Swede Lasse Hallstrom, and 1999's Curtain Call.

"Sven Nykvist was somewhat of a father figure for me," Hallstrom said in an interview with Swedish news agency TT.

"He taught me very much during the movies we made together. He was the one who got Americans and the world to realize that lighting could be simple and realistic."

Nykvist is survived by his son, daughter-in-law, Helena Berlin, and grandchildren, Sonia Sondell and Marilde Nykvist. His wife, Ulrika, died in 1982.

"SNL" Drops Sanz, Parnell, Mitchell

Come next week, Studio 8H is going to be a little emptier than usual.

After nearly a month of speculation regarding the fates of several Saturday Night Live castmembers, roundabout confirmation finally arrives from NBC: Regulars Chris Parnell, Horatio Sanz and Finesse Mitchell won't be returning to the late night staple.

The non-announcement was made by simply omitting the players' names from a press release touting the start of the show's 32nd season, though a rep for the network denied there was any bad blood between the M.I.A. cast and Svengali producer Lorne Michaels--or that their departure was the result
of a firing.

"I believe there were mutual choices made," NBC rep Marc Liepis told E! Online. "When you're on the show for eight years, I don't think you look at it as a firing."

Parnell, Sanz and Mitchell, who have been part of the show for eight years, eight years and three years, respectively, have yet to comment on their non-return, though if past remarks are any indication, the decision to part hardly seems mutual.

"I haven't been approached with anything that's led me to believe I won't be back," Sanz told the Chicago Sun-Times less than a month ago. "I definitely enjoy the job and would like to stick with it."

As for Mitchell, his alleged axing is the most surprising, as speculation has pegged fellow castmember Kenan Thompson, who returns this fall, as the third man out. Darrell Hammond, whose 11 seasons on the show mark a series best, is also in the clear, returning to the show despite murmurs that he, too, may have performed his last impression.

The triple departure creates something of a mass exodus from the show of longtime cast, though the others appear to be slightly more voluntary--at least on the surface.

Over the summer, Tina Fey and Rachel Dratch confirmed they were leaving the show to star in the NBC comedy 30 Rock, set behind the scenes at a SNL-like variety show produced by Michaels and costarring fellow alum Tracy Morgan.

Of course, some departees are bouncing back quicker than others.

According to NBC's Website, Parnell, whose "Lazy Sunday" rap with Andy Samberg was one of last season's highlights, is currently shooting the sitcom Thick & Thin for the Peacock net. As for Mitchell and Sanz, neither appears to have a new project in the works.

While Rockefeller Center will be without five of its most familiar faces this fall, there are no current plans to fill the gap.

According to a statement from NBC, no new regular players have been added to the late night mix, though several of the remaining funnymen and women will see various changes to their onscreen roles.

Fey's departure paves the way for a new face to join Amy Poehler at the "Weekend Update" desk, and while no successors have been formally named, early reports peg Jason Sudeikis and Seth Meyers as the top candidates.

Meyers also returns as head writer for the show, a title he previously shared with Fey.

Saturday Night Live kicks off its new season Sept. 30, with host Dane Cook and musical guest The Killers.

"Smart" marketing: Time-Life sells entire series

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - HBO Video is bucking TV-DVD tradition when it releases "Get Smart" on DVD this year.

Instead of rolling out season sets to retailers, HBO is issuing the entire series, all at once, and giving mail-order giant Time-Life a one-year exclusive.

"'Get Smart' is among the most-requested classic TV series, yet because of the retail space squeeze we needed a way to make the series stand out," HBO Video president Henry McGee said.

"Get Smart: The Complete Collection" goes on sale November 15 exclusively through the Time-Life Web site. The collection includes all 138 episodes from the spy spoof series' 1965-70 network run, spread out over 25 discs. It is priced at $199.96. The series will be released to retail stores in fall 2007.

Time-Life and HBO spent nearly a year restoring and digitally remastering each original episode, not the shorter cuts that have lived on in syndication.

"This incredible restoration means that finally 'Get Smart' can be seen the way it was meant to be seen," said Leonard Stern, executive producer of the series.

DVD producer Paul Brownstein was hired to oversee production of the DVD package, and he came up with more than 10 hours of bonus materials, including rare bloopers, network promotional spots, commercials and the hourlong 75th birthday roast of star Don Adams at the Playboy Mansion in 1998. Adams died last year.

Gord Lacey, who runs the popular http://www.TVShowsOnDVD.com Web site, said "Get Smart" is No. 3 on the site's list of most-requested TV shows not yet out, behind "The Wonder Years" and the live-action "Batman."

"Fans have been waiting to get their hands on 'Get Smart' for years, and now they're being rewarded with the complete series loaded with special features," Lacey said. "I can't imagine anyone complaining about the release Time-Life has put together -- it sounds amazing."

Other bonus materials on the "Get Smart" collection include commentaries by Stern, series co-creators Mel Brooks and Buck Henry, actors Barbara Feldon, Bernie Kopell and Bill Dana, and guest stars Don Rickles and James Caan. Also included will be clips from the 2003 Museum of Television & Radio's "Get Smart Reunion" seminar, the last time the series' key alumni were together on the same stage.

Sirius to launch Metropolitan Opera channel

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. on Wednesday said it will launch a channel programmed primarily by New York's Metropolitan Opera, which will feature live and archived broadcasts.

Terms were not disclosed, but Sirius said it was a multiyear

deal. The channel debuts on September 25, and will replace Sirius' current "Classical Voices" channel.

Sirius and rival XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. are seeking to woo consumers to their pay-radio services, which cost about $13 a month. XM's channels include "VOX," which showcases vocal classical music selections.

Sirius said: "This is a significant step in our plans to use digital technology to relay our extraordinary content," said Peter Gelb, General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera.

Additional vocal content will complement the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, Sirius added.

Fergie chats about solo album

NEW YORK (AP) - In the basement of a trendy downtown hotel, Fergie sits waiting at the head of a large wooden table, scribbling notes on a yellow legal pad.

The sexy, spicy element of the Black Eyed Peas apologizes for wanting to meet in this stuffy, angular room rather than the trendy Asian restaurant first suggested.

"I just couldn't deal with a New York night out," she says.

She also apologizes for wearing a black Adidas track suit and knit cap - she's simply not up for glamour today. Her nails are scuffed and bitten. She apologizes for that, too.

It's a different image of a performer more often seen strutting her stuff in something small, expensive and tight, her hips wiggling, boasting about her "lovely lady lumps."

"Maybe I'll get on the table and dance," she says with a smile.

The 31-year-old is preoccupied these days with her solo debut CD "The Dutchess," an eclectic collection of 13 songs she hopes will prove she's more than just a pretty Pea.

Containing everything from torch songs ("All That I Got," "Finally") to bouncy pop ("Fergalicious," "Clumsy"), reggae ("Voodoo Doll") and even techno ("Glamorous"), the album has germinated for years and represents her wide musical influences.

"That is my truth and makes me who I am," says Fergie, born Stacy Ann Ferguson. "If I'd only done one style, that wouldn't have been a truthful representation of me."

Lyric-wise, "The Dutchess" - a riff on how her name is similar to that of Britain's Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson - offers a more introspective Fergie, a woman willing to talk about her loves, her critics and her former meth addiction.

"There are a lot of times when I really dig deep on this album whereas, with the guys, I don't know if there's enough of a platform to go into all of my drama or love affairs," she says.

"I think it's important to represent who I am in all facets," she adds. "That's why I've talked about my struggle with drugs. I don't want to talk about it all the time because it's not a part of my life any more but I'm not running from it."

Based on the success of the saucy first single "London Bridge," Fergie shouldn't stress. A late entry for song of the summer, it sat atop the Billboard singles chart for three weeks - not to mention all it did for Anglo-American relations.

"It was a huge landmark day for me. I was crying - happy crying - and running around the house calling everybody," she says when the song hit No. 1. "For it to finally happen and for the song to be successful, it's really rewarding."

The rest of the CD - co-written by Fergie and produced by Ron Fair, DJ Mormile and will.i.am, the Peas' lead lyricist - features samples from Little Richard, The Commodores and The Temptations. Guests include John Legend, Ludacris and Rita Marley.

"Once people get this album and hear what she's capable of as a singer and writer, I think that's when the roof blows off it," says Fair, chairman of Geffen Records. "That's when she's not just a little trifling pop girl doing disposable hits."

Fergie, raised in Whittier, Calif., may have seemed destined for that fate when she emerged at age seven in the kiddie TV band Kids Incorporated, later graduating to the pop girl group Wild Orchid in the 1990s.

Wanting to make it on her own, she approached will.i.am with the hope of convincing him to help create a solo CD. She had seen the Peas live in 1998 - before they were multiplatinum sensations - and was an enormous fan.

She started off in a kind of apprenticeship, adding her booming, soulful backing vocals to what would be the band's third album, "Elephunk," which had hits like "Where's the Love" and the Grammy Award-winning "Let's Get It Started." By the time will.i.am - together with bandmates Taboo and apl.de.ap - left for a tour of Australia in 2003, Fergie was their fourth member.

"I didn't plan to ever be in the band, but as things organically grew, and I started working with them for my solo album, there was some point where we made that decision," she says. "I just went with my gut."

Joining a tight hip-hop band that thrived onstage was more difficult than it seemed. Fergie held back at first until she could learn how to roll with the ad-libs and pick her spots.

There were also the catcalls and ire from long-term fans of the Peas who didn't like the band's blossoming mainstream popularity - blaming it, in part, on the newest blond Pea.

"It does get painful sometimes," she says. "I actually really had to pep-talk myself so that I could overcome those fears. It's hard when someone's sitting there staring at you. Or even mad-dogging you.

"Now I just get in their face."

In 2005, the group's "Monkey Business" turned into another multiplatinum success thanks to "My Humps," "Pump It" and "Don't Phunk with My Heart," which won another Grammy.

Despite the Peas' triumphs since she came aboard, she's loathe to single out herself as the reason behind their success: "I think it has to do with us. I think we all are responsible for the success of these albums," she says. "It's a team effort."

But it's all about Fergie on "The Dutchess." On the new album, she mixes her vulnerable and fierce sides. "Would you love me/If I didn't work out/Or didn't change my natural hair?" she asks a lover in "All That I Got." On "London Bridge," she threatens to mace pushy photographers and boasts: "I'm such a lady, but I'm dancin' like a ho."

"It's poking fun at certain things. I'm really not going to spray the paparazzi with mace - I don't know if you know that about me," she says, smiling.

"I'm not a promiscuous girl - like I talk about in 'Clumsy,' I'm always the girl with the boyfriend in serious relationships - but I do like to play with my sexuality. I don't think that means I have to live in a morgue," she says (Fergie and "Las Vegas" hunk Josh Duhamel have been dating for some time).

Fergie thinks she'll be able to open up even more on the next Black Eyed Peas album - no, she insists, they're not breaking up - because her solo CD will let fans "get me and know who I am."

"Sometimes I feel like the underdog. But I like that because then more people will be surprised when they do see something that they like from me," she says. "I've learned that I can't please everybody."

Pitt to Replace Cruise On Next Mission?

Brad Pitt has been rumored to be the next star of the Mission Impossible movie franchise.

The British tabloid This Is London reports the next chapter in the Mission Impossible film series has Brad Pitt replacing Tom Cruise, which will reportedly give Pitt the biggest paycheque in the history of Hollywood film-making.

One source tells the publication, "MI:IV will not include Cruise's character, agent Ethan Hunt. They're considering a brief mention, saying Hunt retired to live a safe life with his new wife.

They're set on Brad taking over as a gutsy new head operative who puts together his own unique team of specialists."

The news comes just one month after Paramount Pictures ended their 14-year relationship with Cruise and his production company, stating the actor's recent behavior as the reason for the separation.

Def Leppard Expands 'Hysteria' For 20th Anniversary

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of its best-selling album, Def Leppard will reissue "Hysteria" as a two-CD package Oct. 24 via Bludgeon Riffola/Island/UME. Beyond a remastered edition of the original album, the new edition includes a bonus disc with a host of non-album tracks first issued during the period.

Among them are the studio B-sides "Tear It Down," "Ride Into the Sun," "I Wanna Be Your Hero" and "Ring of Fire," live versions of "Elected," "Love And Affection" and "Billy's Got a Gun" recorded in Holland in July 1987 and extended mixes of five tracks.

"Hysteria" has sold more than 18 million copies worldwide, according to the label, and spawned six top 20 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, including the top 10s "Love Bites," "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Armageddon It," and "Hysteria."

Def Leppard is on the road with Journey through mid-November in support of its recent covers album, "Yeah!," which debuted at No. 16 on The Billboard 200.

Hannibal Lecter returns for holiday season

TORONTO (Reuters) - Call it "Hannibal Lecter, the early years." After a silence of seven years, author Thomas Harris has written a new book featuring fictional serial killer/cannibal Hannibal Lecter, famously played in films by Anthony Hopkins.

The book, "Hannibal Rising," will be in stores on December 5 with a first printing of 1.5 million copies and just in time for the Christmas sales season, Delacorte Press, an imprint of the Bantam Dell Publishing Group, said on Tuesday.

The 356-page novel, a last-minute addition to Delacorte's list of new books for the holiday season, is the fourth book dealing with the cannibalistic doctor and chronicles his early years, Bantam publisher Irwyn Applebaum said.

Applebaum said the book was an eagerly awaited part of the story but had taken seven years since the last novel in the series, "Hannibal," as Harris, a native of Mississippi, does not write at a "prolific pace" for a popular novelist.

"This villain has fascinated readers. It's very unusual for a character to stay alive that long in the imagination of readers," Applebaum told Reuters.

Lecter first appeared in print in Harris' 1981 book "Red Dragon" and then in 1988 in "Silence of the Lambs."

But he became widely known through the 1991 Oscar-winning movie "Silence of the Lambs," starring Hopkins and Jodie Foster as FBI trainee-turned-agent Clarice Starling.

The film ends with Lecter, who enjoys a glass of Chianti as he devours human liver, saying he has to go: "I do wish we could chat longer, but I'm having an old friend for dinner."

In "Hannibal Rising" readers learn about Lecter's early life in Eastern Europe from age 6 to 20, following the death of his entire family during World War Two.

A film version of the new novel from a screenplay by Harris is expected to be released in February 2007.

Harris' only novel not dealing with Lecter is his first, "Black Sunday" in 1975, a best seller about a terrorist plot to blow up the Super Bowl with a bomb-laden blimp.

'South Park' celebrates with best-of DVD

LOS ANGELES - "South Park" creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker say that choosing their favorite episode would be like choosing between their children. Not that they're above that.

Stone and Parker hand-picked their 10 most beloved episodes of the long-running Comedy Central show to appear on the new "South Park The Hits: Volume 1" DVD, in stores Oct. 3.

The new DVD also includes four bonus episodes and "The Spirit of Christmas," a never-released animated short.

"South Park" first aired Aug. 13, 1997. It begins its tenth season on Comedy Central on Oct. 4.

Mariah, Chilis, Peas, Nickelback Top AMA Noms

With three nominations each, Mariah Carey, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Black Eyed Peas and Nickelback lead the field for the 2006 American Music Awards, to be broadcast live by ABC on Nov. 21 from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium. Mary J. Blige, Kelly Clarkson, Eminem, Jamie Foxx, Pussycat Dolls, Rascal Flatts, T.I., Carrie Underwood and Kanye West snared two nominations each.

Carey is up for favorite female pop/rock and soul/R&B artist as well as favorite soul/R&B album for "The Emancipation of Mimi," while the Chili Peppers and Nickelback both scored nods for favorite band, duo or group and favorite pop/rock album.

Chamillionaire, Pussycat Dolls and Carrie Underwood will vie for favorite new breakthrough artist. Winners will be chosen by a 20,000-strong sampling of U.S. residents.

Here are the 2006 American Music Awards nominees:

Pop/Rock

Favorite male artist:
Nick Lachey
Sean Paul
Kanye West

Favorite female artist:
Mariah Carey
Kelly Clarkson
Nelly Furtado

Favorite band, duo or group:
Nickelback
Pussycat Dolls
Red Hot Chili Peppers

Favorite album:
"All the Right Reasons," Nickelback
"Stadium Arcadium," Red Hot Chili Peppers
"High School Musical," Various Artists

Country

Favorite male artist:
Kenny Chesney
Toby Keith
Keith Urban

Favorite female artist:
Faith Hill
Carrie Underwood
Gretchen Wilson

Favorite band, duo or group:
Brooks & Dunn
Montgomery Gentry
Rascal Flatts

Favorite album:
"Legend of Johnny Cash," Johnny Cash
"Greatest Hits Volume 2," Tim McGraw
"Me And My Gang," Rascal Flatts

Soul/R&B

Favorite male artist:
Chris Brown
Jamie Foxx
NE-YO

Favorite female artist:
Mary J. Blige
Mariah Carey
Keyshia Cole

Favorite band, duo or group:
Black Eyed Peas
The Isley Brothers
Jagged Edge

Favorite album
"The Breakthrough," Mary J. Blige
"The Emancipation of Mimi," Mariah Carey
"Unpredictable," Jamie Foxx

Rap/hip-hop

Favorite male artist:
Eminem
T.I.
Kanye West

Favorite band, duo or group:
Black Eyed Peas
Dem Franchize Boyz
Three 6 Mafia

Favorite album:
"Monkey Business," Black Eyed Peas
"Curtain Call," Eminem
"King," T.I.

Adult contemporary

Favorite Artist:
Michael Buble
Kelly Clarkson
Rob Thomas

Alternative

Favorite artist:
Nickelback
Pearl Jam
Red Hot Chili Peppers

Latin

Favorite artist:
Daddy Yankee
Don Omar
Shakira

Contemporary inspirational

Favorite artist:
Aly & AJ
Casting Crowns
Kirk Franklin

Favorite new breakthrough artist:

Chamillionaire
Pussycat Dolls
Carrie Underwood

The Couch Potato Report - September 23rd, 2006

This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on the rocket and some hard candy.

Last week on The Couch Potato Report I stated “One of the hardest types of films to make are biographies.”

I went on to say that “Movies are movies and since they are made to entertain and make money, sometimes facts and situations have to be changed for "cinematic" reasons.” And I explained that filmmakers call this "creative license."

When you are oblivious to what is fact and what is fiction, the story of a person’s life mixed with “creative license” can make for a very entertaining movie.

For instance, the Johnny Cash Biography WALK THE LINE features several very engaging scenes with Cash on tour with Elvis.

But, while the two did know each other in real life, they were never on tour together.

Since I didn’t know that, and it seemed plausible, I was entertained by it.

I was also entertained by the Canadian film THE ROCKET about Maurice “The Rocket” Richard.

This is a perfect example of how when you are oblivious to what is fact and what is fiction, the story of a person’s life mixed with “creative license” can make for a very entertaining movie.

And THE ROCKET is a very entertaining movie.

The first time I saw this film about the great Montreal Canadiens right-winger was at the theatre in Montreal that stands on the land where The Forum used to be. In that same space hockey fans watched Richard from his debut in 1942 until he retired in 1960. It was a unique feeling.

A feeling that I was sure had added to the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed the film, even though I am a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, and as such I can never acknowledge the greatness of the Montreal Canadiens or their players.

Then this week I sat down in my living room, far away from Montreal, and I watched THE ROCKET again.

And I was thoroughly entertained…again.

And even if you don’t like the Montreal Canadiens either, or you aren’t a fan of sports at all, I still think you will enjoy THE ROCKET.

It isn’t just the story of an athlete; it is the story of a person.

In the film THE ROCKET Maurice Richard is a man with a sole passion – playing hockey. After spending his days working at the factory, he throws himself body and soul into the game to pursue his dream.

He isn’t the biggest player on the ice, and he isn’t the most talented, but through his passion he becomes the best.

His coach, former Regina Capitals player Dick Irvin, Sr., pushes Richard just enough to get that best, and he also fuels The Rocket’s obsession to win.

As I mentioned, THE ROCKET isn’t just a sports movie. Personally, I found the film most effective when it was showing how Richard was treated by the other players in the league, not because he was on the Canadiens, but because he was French.

Yes, Maurice Richard was the first to score 50 goals in one season, doing so in 50 games, and the first to score 500 goals in a career.

And yes, he also played on eight Stanley Cup teams, was captain of 5 straight, and played in every National Hockey League All-Star Game from 1947 to 1959, and today he is an honoured member of The Hockey Hall Of Fame, but he was also so much more.

He was a husband, a father, and a proud French-Canadian.

His life and his accomplishments are inspirational and the film about him starring Roy Dupuis as Maurice Richard - is superb!

I can’t wait to watch it again, even if he is a member of the Montreal Canadiens.

Go Leafs, go!!!

Our next film this week isn’t as good as THE ROCKET, and I’m not sure I would even use the word good to describe it.

As a film, it kept me intrigued the whole time, and at one time I even wanted to fast-forward to the end just to see what was going to happen, but the characters in the movie are so disturbing that I could never say it is a good film.

The movie in question is called HARD CANDY.

It is about a 14-year-old girl who meets a 32 year-old man on the internet…and it turns out that she is the predator.

After spending time chatting online the girl agrees to meet the man at a local coffee shop, and that results in a trip to his home.

However, Jeff soon learns that Hayley isn't as innocent as she appears and I can’t say very much else without giving away some of the film’s many plot twists..., or disgusting you.

Now that is a word I would use to describe HARD CANDY: disgusting. Parts of the film actually disgusted me, but not for the reasons you might think.

At times during the movie both the girl and the man are at fault, and deserve punishment.

HARD CANDY is a film that challenges you to watch, and for that reason it succeeds as a film, regardless of the subject matter.

However, eventually that subject matter must come up, and it is for that reason that I am reluctant to recommend the film.

Now, if you enjoy seeing a film that you will want to discuss afterward, then you should definitely see HARD CANDY. Otherwise, look for something else.

I hear THE ROCKET is really good.

And THE ROCKET is now available on DVD along with HARD CANDY.

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

In Douglas Copeland’s SOUVENIR OF CANADA he tries to find out what makes Canadians, Canadians.

The legendary children’s character CURIOUS GEORGE finally gets his own movie!

And BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA – SEASON 2.5 will finally debut on DVD!!

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 time on The Couch!

Sloan's bassist looks for feedback

TORONTO (CP) - Sloan bassist Chris Murphy won't be upset if some fans don't like the band's new album, as long as they're honest about it.

"Never Hear The End Of It," the Halifax foursome's first studio album since 2003, includes a whopping 30 songs, ranging in length from just over 50 seconds to more than five minutes.

While Murphy says some listeners may have a hard time getting through the entire album, which clocks in at more than 76 minutes, he's just hoping it generates some passionate feedback once it hits shelves Sept. 19.

"I don't mind if this record is polarizing," he said during a recent phone interview from his Toronto home. "I'd rather get reaction - whether positive or negative - that's more extreme.

"There are going to be a lot of people who can't get through the whole thing," he said. "It's dense."

Murphy says the response to the band's music has often been somewhere in the middle because "we're nice enough guys and everybody wants us to do well."

"I want people to say (about the new album) 'This is totally what I love' or 'What the hell do they think they're doing, those obnoxious assholes?"' he said. "I'd rather just generate talk."

The album has a bit of everything, including upbeat pop, slower ballads and even a punk-influenced song. The first single, "Who Taught You To Live Like That?," has a '70s rock feel to it. The band's trademark harmonies are also prevalent on the disc.

"We tried to make it so that it was varied enough so that it didn't get boring to listen to so that one would want to listen to it the whole way through," said Murphy.

All 30 songs are squeezed on one CD but the vinyl version had to be split into a dual-disc collection.

"Never Hear The End Of It," recorded on the band's label Murderecords, is Sloan's eighth studio album and first new material since 2003's 12-song disc "Action Pact." Murphy said he was anxious to do something different this time.

"The last record we made, for what it's worth, was quite succinct and short and very straight-ahead rock 'n roll," he said. "I just wanted to be as eclectic as we wanted to be on this record and not talk about what kind of songs were supposed to have - just sort of like whatever happens, happens.

Murphy said he liked "Action Pact," but that it lacked something.

"It's just not very eclectic, it's just pretty straight-ahead," he said. "And that wouldn't have bothered me except for that that's been our last record for three years or more."

Murphy and bandmates Jay Ferguson, Andrew Scott and Patrick Pentland stuck to their traditional routine, each writing their own songs for the new album. Murphy alone contributed more than 10 tunes.

"I have a whole solo album hidden in this record," said Murphy.

The album could almost be considered a compilation, a criticism that has been directed toward the band in the past. But Murphy doesn't find that description offensive.

"It never bothers me," he said. "For our last record, we tried to beat the compilation rap and make a cohesive-sounding record but to me it just ends up sounding very