Superman Returns in November
We just got word that Warner Home Video has scheduled Brian Singer’s Superman Returns for release on DVD in November in two separate versions.
After a long visit to the lost remains of the planet Krypton, the Man of Steel returns to earth to become the people’s savior once again and reclaim the love of Lois Lane.
The first DVD version will be a Standard Release featuring the movie in its widescreen presentation with 5.1 channel Dolby Digital audio in English and French. This version of the film will no contain any extras.
The second version will be a 2-disc Special Edition that contains the film as above, but also includes an additional disc with Deleted Scenes and the Full-length Documentary “Requiem For Krypton: The Making Of Superman Returns.”
Both DVDs will be in stores on November 28 and cost $28.98 and $34.98 respectively.
Canadian Rossi officially a Rock Star
Lukas Rossi became the latest Canadian to be named a rock star on Wednesday night.
The Toronto native was one of four contestants on Rock Star: Supernova vying to become the singer for a hard rock supergroup featuring drummer Tommy Lee (Motley Crue), guitarist Gilby Clarke (Guns N' Roses) and bassist Jason Newsted (Metallica).
Rossi is slated to front his more famous bandmates for the first time in a full show on Jan. 1 in Las Vegas.
The newly formed group is to record an album and embark on a 28-city North American tour.
Supernova may not stick as their name, however, as an existing California band is mounting a legal challenge.
Just hours before the show aired, a United States District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction barring the reality band from performing, recording or selling music under the Supernova name pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
In contention with Rossi were Iceland's Magni Asgeirsson, Australian Toby Rand and Dilana Robichaux, a South African living in Houston. Eleven other contestants were eliminated over a 13-week period prior to the final show.
In the end it came down to Robichaux and Rossi, with the winner a Canadian for the second time in as many seasons. J.D. Fortune of Oakville, Ont., won the contest last year to become lead singer of popular '80s band INXS.
"I wouldn't have come here if I wanted second or third place." Rossi told CBC News before the final.
It's a trip the 29-year-old former fry cook at Hooters almost didn't make, according to Barbara Sedun, an executive with EMI Music Publishing Canada.
"We heard about the Rock Star: Supernova auditions from a friend of ours in L.A. and we knew right away that Lukas was the right guy for it," she said.
"I called him up and he was not interested ... So we didn't send him to the first audition in Toronto," she said.
But Sedun was insistent and bought Rossi a plane ticket to Los Angeles.
"We called Lukas up and said, 'Lukas, you have to go.' There was no 'No.' "
Rossi had been working at part-time jobs and playing with his own band, Rise Electric. But those close to him knew he could do more, said bandmate Dominic Cifarelli.
"He's a rock star, period. He has the voice," said Cifarelli.
With racial split, 'Survivor' returns
NEW YORK - If viewers had been taking "Survivor" for granted, here was an idea guaranteed to catch their eye: organize the players by race.
For "Survivor: Cook Islands," the 20 castaways will initially be split into four tribes along ethnic lines (black, white, Asian-American and Hispanic). The 13th cycle of the CBS adventure challenge premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. EDT, arriving on the heels of a burst of attention — including outrage that creator Mark Burnett had played the race card with his players.
From the first announcement of the show's new concept in late August, pundits were fulminating.
A Wall Street Journal editorial accused the show of "playing up identity-politics in a crude and potentially rancorous way."
In the Hollywood Reporter, Ray Richmond blasted Burnett for "tapping a raw segregationist nerve and exploiting America's obsession with race for personal gain."
Meanwhile, several members of the New York City Council were denouncing the show for promoting divisiveness. "How could anybody be so desperate for ratings?" posed Councilman John Liu, who is Asian-American.
Then New York Times columnist Clyde Haberman observed that these city officials included members of the Black, Latino and Asian Caucus.
"In other words," wrote Haberman, "leading the condemnation of CBS for creating teams defined by race and ethnicity was a team that created itself using race and ethnicity as the definition."
When asked by The Associated Press his reaction to all the flack, Burnett replied, "I'm not shocked. I just think truly any rational person would wait to see what happens."
The harshest critics, he said, "could look pretty stupid if it becomes the most positive thing for removing stereotypes. And I hope that the people who've made the loudest comments will, in the adverse, also be the loudest congratulators if they're wrong."
Detractors and other interested parties have to wait until Thursday to see if the show deserved all the fuss: Though shooting on the Cook Islands in the South Pacific has wrapped, CBS kept the episodes under wraps from the press. No point in killing the pre-launch buzz.
Last week, the show's host, Jeff Probst, joined Burnett in asking viewers to withhold judgment until they've taken a peek.
The new series is featuring "the most ethnic-diverse cast in the history of TV, as far as I know," Probst said during a teleconference with reporters — and, he added, the freshest, least "Survivor"-savvy group of players since the pioneering castaways of season one.
As they compete for the $1 million prize, they won't be modeling the same old game plans that have worked before, he said. "We don't have people coming in saying, `I'm gonna be just like Colby.'"
Last season, the show divided contestants into groups of older men, younger men, older women and younger women. This season's organizing principal, Probst said, was conceived "in terms of ethnic pride, not discrimination.
"But then you have to vote somebody out from your own group, and that complicates things," he went on. "How are you going to do it? Because now it's going to come down to who's contributing and who isn't."
Later, when a number of players have been voted off, the thinned-out ranks will be consolidated and integrated. Then, Probst explained, the issue becomes whether to stay loyal to members of your own ethnic group, "because you've already made bonds based simply on skin color.
"Or, more likely, will you look to make alliances with people who ... will help you to the end, so you can win?"
Extras returns to sour actor's dream
Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are back with a second series of the BBC Two comedy Extras.
While Gervais and Merchant claim to have enjoyed total creative freedom making hit sitcoms The Office and Extras, they afford nothing like the same luxury to Gervais's character Andy Millman in the second series of Extras.
The former "background artiste" should be overjoyed to be filming his own sitcom, but is horrified that producers' interference has turned it into a comedy that Hi-De-Hi!'s Paul Shane rejects for being too broad.
Forced to wear "funny" glasses and curly wig for his character, Andy is dismayed to observe the first episode's recording being enjoyed by audience members in It's Chico Time! T-shirts.
"We wanted it to be like a real sitcom that wasn't our taste," explains Gervais.
"We wanted it to be a good 'bad sitcom'. We worked so hard on it."
Gervais and Merchant approached the sitcom-within-a-sitcom with the same thoroughness as the film and TV scenes in Extras.
They worked out back stories and discussed who would be making them - a process Merchant admits was "very labour intensive".
Horror
Both are quick to point out that they have not shared Andy Millman's experience of seeing his artistic vision compromised.
However, Gervais admits it is surprising the BBC was so trusting of the relative newcomers who made The Office.
"It's certainly not based on our experience - we didn't have any interference," says Gervais.
"They really let us auteur it."
Merchant adds: "This is the horror version of what could have happened to us."
The first series of Extras managed to overcome the massive level of expectation that followed the phenomenal success of The Office.
The BBC Two series averaged 3.9 million viewers an episode and won the Rose d'Or international award for best sitcom.
Gervais's co-star Ashley Jensen, playing fellow extra Maggie Jacobs, won the best sitcom actress Rose d'Or and two British Comedy Awards.
Celebrity cameos
After stars including Samuel L Jackson, Ben Stiller and Kate Winslet lampooned themselves in the first series, the six new episodes will include appearances by Sir Ian McKellen, David Bowie, Chris Martin of Coldplay and Daniel "Harry Potter" Radcliffe.
But Gervais says his performance of the series "comes from a little, fat scouser called Keith Chegwin".
He adds: "It's not like we are just trying to get points for celebrity chums - there has to be something we can deconstruct."
The first episode of the new series sees a vain Orlando Bloom showing off magazine articles that name him the world's sexiest movie star, and incredulous when Maggie reveals she is not attracted to him.
"He did say when we got him the first draft he loved it and said we can go further if we want," says Gervais.
"They either get it or they don't. If they get it, they trust us and we can go anywhere. It's never happened that someone has said, 'I just can't do this.'"
Drama
Gervais and Merchant admit they would like to produce "something more dramatic" in the future.
The pair admit to being inspired by US dramas such as The Sopranos, 24 and The Shield.
"All the things we like at the moment are coming out of America," says Gervais.
"They are innovative, audacious and done brilliantly and taking on film."
Currently, though, all their energies are focused on finishing editing Extras.
"We get so exhausted at this stage that we say we are never going to do anything else ever again," concedes Merchant.
The second series of Extras starts on BBC Two on Thursday 14 September at 9pm.
Whitney Houston to end rocky marriage
LOS ANGELES - The tumultuous marriage of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown — which withstood drug addiction, Brown's numerous arrests, the decline of Houston's once-sparkling image and domestic abuse allegations — is coming to an end.
A publicist for Houston confirmed to The Associated Press that the Grammy-winning, superstar singer had filed for divorce after 14 years of marriage.
Publicist Nancy Seltzer declined to reveal where or when Houston filed the divorce papers, and said the singer had no statement to make.
"I can just confirm that she has filed for divorce," Seltzer said Wednesday.
Brown's lawyer said Houston had filed papers for a legal separation.
Houston and Brown, who had a home in Alpharetta, Ga., have one child, a 13-year-old daughter, Bobbi Kristina.
When they wed in 1992 the union seemed to outsiders to be a mismatch. Houston — once one of the best-selling singers in history — was a glamorous, pop superstar with a super-clean, princess-like persona, whereas Brown, who rose to fame as a member of the boy band New Edition before striking out on his own, was a sometimes coarse R&B singer with a more street-wise image.
But as the years wore on, it would become hard to determine which one was more troubled. Brown — best known for hits like "My Prerogative" and "Every Little Step" — would be arrested numerous times for drugs and alcohol, while Houston's own battles with substance abuse sullied her image.
Together, the two were a tabloid editor's dream. When Brown was released from a stretch in jail a few years ago, an ecstatic Houston greeted him by jumping into his arms and throwing her arms and legs around him before a throng of fans and media.
And in a 2002 ABC interview with Diane Sawyer, an erratic-sounding and wan-looking Houston, with a profusely sweating Brown by her side, admitted dabbling in drugs but denied using crack, then uttered the now famous phrase: "Crack is wack."
Houston checked into a drug rehabilitation program in 2004 and again in 2005, announcing the second time that she was also using prayer to help overcome her drug problems. Brown said at the time he was doing what he could to help her.
"It takes two to make things work, so I have to be there for her just like she was there for me when I went through my rehab stint," he told "Access Hollywood".
The couple did separate for a time a few years ago, but their marriage endured, despite rumors and speculation. Their life was put on display last year with Brown's reality series, "Being Bobby Brown" on Bravo. The show actually made Brown look like a stable influence, while a jittery Houston was on display; the couple often crudely talked about their marriage and love life.
But earlier this year, the speculation of a possible split intensified. Brown's sister made headlines when she alleged in a National Enquirer interview that Houston was addicted to crack. She also supplied photos of what she said was Houston's bathroom, littered with garbage and evidence of drug use.
Phaedra Parks, an entertainment lawyer in Atlanta who represents Brown, said he told her Wednesday that Houston recently filed paperwork in California seeking a separation.
"It is a legal separation. It is not a divorce or a divorce petition," Parks said.
Parks said she has not seen the documents and didn't know which court they were filed in.
Asked about speaking with Brown, Parks said, "Bobby's not speaking with anyone at this time."
Recently, Houston has made attempts to clean up her public image. On Tuesday night, she attended a public event with cousin Dionne Warwick and mogul and mentor Clive Davis in Beverly Hills. And she is working on an album of new material; she hasn't released a record since 2002.
Houston, 43, won multiple Grammys in the 1980s and 1990s, including two for the megahit "I Will Always Love You," from the 1992 film "The Bodyguard," in which she also starred opposite Kevin Costner.
"I Will Always Love You," won Grammys for record of the year and best female pop vocal, and "The Bodyguard" soundtrack won album of the year.
Houston also won Grammys in 1985 and 1987 for best female pop vocal for "Saving All my Love for You" and "I Want to Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)." She won a Grammy for best female R&B vocal in 1999 for "It's Not Right But It's Okay."
Her musician husband recently reunited with New Edition for a show at July's Essence Musical Festival. The show got mixed reviews from the audience when Brown jumped suggestively around the stage and made vulgar remarks about his sex life with Houston.