CBC to restore one-hour local news shows, cancel Canada Now

CBC Television will cancel the Canada Now early evening national newscast next February and move to one-hour regional newscasts at 6 p.m. across the country.

The changes were announced to CBC staff on Thursday as part of a restructuring of the news operation at CBC that will include the introduction of "civic journalism."

The Vancouver bureau of the public broadcaster will lead an experiment in strengthening local newscasts on both radio and TV and introducing new technologies to deliver the news.

"CBC will redefine its relationship with its audience," said Tony Burman, editor-in-chief of CBC News.

"We want to further the local voice that we already hear on our local programs."

CBC reduced one-hour regional supper hour programs to half an hour in 2000 to create Canada Now.

But a seven-month study of CBC's news service across the country shows Canadians want more local content, Burman said.

Regional TV newsrooms are not being offered new resources, but will be putting together a one-hour newscast using staff they already have for their half-hour supper show and nationally produced items that cover national and international news.

Resources from the nationally televised Canada Now program, produced in Vancouver, will go toward a new pilot in "news integration," which will combine resources to cover stories on TV, radio, the internet, wireless and other technologies.

Canada Now host Ian Hanomansing will co-anchor the hour-long show in Vancouver.

CBC bureaus across the country will be revamped following Vancouver.

"What we want to build here is the local news service of the 21st century — a news service designed from the beginning to run on all platforms simultaneously," CBC Vice President of English Television Richard Stursberg said from Vancouver during the presentation.

The new integrated service is being called myCBC and will include more opportunities for viewer, reader and listener comments and for users to select the news they want.

'Civic journalism' to solicit public input

Vancouver will also be the first CBC news bureau to pioneer "civic journalism," in which citizens can upload video or images of news events to the CBC.

The CBC has yet to determine how it will vet and use images and information from its viewers and listeners.

However, the BBC and CNN have already begun to experiment with this form of citizen journalism. The BBC, for example, used images forwarded by cellphone users to broadcast up-to-the-minute information of what was happening in parts of London during last year's bombings.

Vancouver could launch new technologies in civic journalism as early as April 2007, with a formal launch planned for September. They will be introduced across the country after being tested on the West Coast.

CBC will spend another $1.5 million on new training and $3-4 million on developing new platforms, Stursberg said, but no other resources have yet been allocated for the restructuring.

CBC eventually plans to have a single news operation in each region for radio, TV and online.

This should help create distinct voices for each region, similar to the distinct formats used on local radio programs, said Jane Chalmers, vice-president of English radio.

"Communities across Canada are all distinct. We want a broader range of perspective between newscasts in different regions," she said.

'Beverly Hills Cop IV' announced

Eddie Murphy is set to his role as Axel Foley in a fourth installment of "Beverly Hills Cop," Variety reports.

"Beverly Hills Cop IV" will be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura, whose credits include "Constantine," "Four Brothers" and "Derailed."

"Axel Foley is one of the great action-comedy characters, a character that Eddie loves. I'm lucky enough to help bring it back," di Bonaventura told Variety. "This genre is missing from the landscape."

The 1984 original earned $234 million in the U.S. alone, and instantly made Murphy a superstar. Three years later, a sequel garnered $153 million.

The third "Beverly Hills Cop" film, however, racked in a relatively meagre $44 million at the box office -- well short of its $50 million budget.

So far, there's no word on a full cast or when the new "Cop" film would go into production.

Murphy will be seen next in "Dreamgirls" with Jamie Foxx and Beyonce Knowles. The film hits Canadian theatres on Christmas Day.

Lindsay Lohan As Stevie Nicks?

Lindsay Lohan could soon be joining the ranks of Hollywood actresses playing famous singers on-screen.

Life & Style magazine says the Mean Girls star is said to be the front-runner to play Stevie Nicks in an upcoming biography about the mystical songbird.

After Reese Witherspoon's Oscar-win playing June Carter Cash in last year's Walk the Line and an upcoming film about Janice Joplin to be played by Zooey Deschanel, it's no wonder the former teen-actress wants to put her money where her mouth is.

With a proven set of vocal chords as heard on her 2004 debut album (she co-wrote the single "Rumors" - the same name as Nick's former band Fleetwood Mac's 1977 hit album), Lohan might just sing her way right into the starring role.

"She feels like she's found a dream role in a story about Stevie Nicks at the height of Fleetwood Mac's fame." says one insider.

"Lindsay loves the music of that era, and people have told her she has the same distinctive gravelly voice as Nicks."

BitTorrent Goes Legit

Paramount, Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox are expected to join Warner Bros. in providing movies over the Internet via BitTorrent, the video web service that they once universally scorned, the Los Angeles Times Times reported on Wednesday.

As part of the deal, BitTorrent has agreed to use filtering software to prevent pirated content from going out over its service.

However, the newspaper indicated, analysts generally believe that the switch-over from an outlet for pirated versions of movies to one where users must pay a fee to receive them is likely to fail; it noted that similar Internet-based movie-download services are struggling.

Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research, told the Times: "The problem is consumers are not convinced that paying for and downloading video is worth it. ... The other problem is it doesn't end up on the TV set. The mechanisms that do get it to the TV, like DVD burning, are not quite what they need to be."

Meanwhile, Wal-Mart on Tuesday launched a new service that allows anyone who buys a DVD copy of certain features to download a copy of it onto their computer or portable digital device. The additional charge will be $2-4 dollars.

Wiggles' lead singer to stop performing

SYDNEY, Australia - The lead singer of the hugely popular children's group The Wiggles announced Thursday he will stop performing because of illness.

In a video-recorded statement, Greg Page said he had been diagnosed with a chronic condition called orthostatic intolerance.

"It's not a life-threatening condition by any means, but it is one that's going to be with me for the rest of my life," said Page, 34, who is known for bright yellow T-shirt. "It means that I'll no longer be able to sing and dance as I want to, and as a result I've decided to stop performing with The Wiggles."

Orthostatic intolerance is a little-understood disorder that causes dizziness, fatigue and nausea.

Page, who helped found The Wiggles in 1991, handed his yellow T-shirt over to his understudy, Sam Moran, who has been performing with the group for more than a decade as a backup singer and dancer.

"I'll miss being a part of The Wiggles very much, but this is the right decision because it will allow me to focus on managing my health," Page said.

Page has been battled health troubles since undergoing a double hernia operation last December. He withdrew from the group's U.S. tour in June after suffering repeated fainting spells and bouts of lethargy.

His fellow band members said they were sad and disappointed by the news at a media conference in the western city of Perth, where they were set to launch an Australian tour.

"It's very surreal that Greg's not going to be with us, very sad," said Blue Wiggle Anthony Field. "I know Greg loved doing the shows, it's just that he can't physically do it anymore."

Field, Page and the group's Red Wiggle, Murray Cook, met while studying early childhood education at Sydney's Macquarie University. They enlisted their fourth member, Purple Wiggle Jeff Fatt, and The Wiggles were born.

The group was rated by Business Review Magazine as Australia's top-earning entertainer last year, ahead of actors Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe. The four men in brightly colored T-shirts, accompanied by a cast of characters including Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog, grossed $39 million last year.

The group has franchised its enormously popular recipe to several non-English speaking countries, including Taiwan.

Nickelback, Blige lead Billboard award finalists

NEW YORK (Billboard) - The past 12 months have been particularly good for one Canadian rock band, three Nashville upstarts, a once-imprisoned southern rapper and an R&B diva in the throes of a major comeback.

Now, Nickelback, Rascal Flatts, T.I. and Mary J. Blige are being recognized for their achievements as finalists in a leading five categories each for the 2006 Billboard Music Awards.

The 17th annual honors will be handed out December 4 live on Fox (for East Coast viewers) from Las Vegas' MGM Grand Garden Arena. The show will boast performances by Janet Jackson, the Killers, Gwen Stefani, Fergie, the Fray, Mary J. Blige and Ludacris featuring Pharrell and Young Jeezy.

The hard-touring Nickelback is up for artist of the year and rock artist of the year, as well as duo/group of the year. Its 2005 release "All the Right Reasons" will vie for album of the year and rock album of the year. The set has sold 4 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Rascal Flatts, which owns the second-highest selling album of 2006 with "Me and My Gang," is a finalist for artist of the year, duo/group of the year and country artist of the year. "Gang" is also up for country album of the year.

Rapper T.I. is up for R&B/hip-hop artist of the year, male R&B/hip-hop artist of the year, rap artist of the year, R&B/hip-hop album of the year and rap album of the year ("King").

Blige, meanwhile, earned finalist nods in the female artist, R&B/hip-hop artist, female R&B/hip-hop artist, R&B/hip-hop album and R&B/hip-hop single categories. Her 2005 album "The Breakthrough" has been one of this year's most consistent sellers, having shifted 2.6 million copies to date.

Among the other multiple award finalists are Chris Brown, Ne-Yo, Jamie Foxx, Kenny Chesney and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sean Paul. In addition, Tony Bennett with receive Century Award, Billboard's highest honor for creative achievement.

Billboard Music Award winners are determined by performance on Billboard's weekly charts.

`Departed' stays put, `Flags' flagging

LOS ANGELES - Timing isn't everything when it comes to the Academy Awards — but it helps.

Two big fall films — Martin Scorsese's box-office success "The Departed" and Clint Eastwood's faltering "Flags of Our Fathers" — are bookends for the benefits and hazards of releasing acclaimed films early in awards season, when they could either get a jump on front-runner status or be forgotten come Oscar time.

Driven by glowing reviews and word-of-mouth that it's a return to Scorsese's old mobster form, the cops-and-gangsters epic "The Departed" opened the first week in October and has shot past $100 million at the box office, becoming the director's biggest hit ever.

The World War II Iwo Jima saga "Flags of Our Fathers" followed two weeks later with similarly positive reviews. But it opened with modest audiences and has limped to a $33 million return, about a third of the eventual haul of Eastwood's last two movies, best-picture nominee "Mystic River" and best-picture winner "Million Dollar Baby."

Two months into its run, "The Departed" still is drawing fair-sized crowds, coming in at No. 15 on last weekend's box-office chart. Meantime, "Flags of Our Fathers" already has dropped out of the top 20.

Not that box-office receipts are or should be a gauge for a film's Oscar merits. But everybody likes to back a winner, Oscar voters included, and commercial underachievers often end up fallen soldiers come nominations morning.

As good and ambitious a film as it is, "Flags of Our Fathers" now has the stench of a noble failure. Why audiences largely have passed on the film is a puzzle, though perhaps its grim, realistic combat footage is too painful a reminder of the military quagmire in Iraq.

"Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby" debuted in limited release in December and rode a wave of accolades into wider release as Oscar season heated up, the awards attention feeding their box-office performance, their commercial success in turn polishing their Oscar glow.

Would "Flags of Our Fathers" have fared better following the same release pattern? We'll never know.

On the other hand, "The Departed" cruises toward the Oscar nominations Jan. 23 looking like a movie that's in for the long haul, like such best-picture winners as "American Beauty" or Eastwood's "Unforgiven," which both came out in late summer or early fall.

Throughout the year, Hollywood executives brood over the best time to release their films to maximize their commercial prospects. Decisions over timing are especially tough late in the year, when studios release the bulk of their prestige films, adult-oriented dramas whose financial fortunes may climb or crash depending on how the movies fare in the Oscar derby.

Best-picture nominations and wins can extend the shelf life of a movie in theaters for weeks or even months, adding tens of millions of dollars to its final take. The trouble is: Everyone's chasing the same dollars and the same awards, leaving theaters overloaded with films that people do not have the time or energy to see.

The deluge is at its worst in December, the month that conventional wisdom dictates is prime time to release awards contenders.

It's the last-shall-be-first philosophy, the notion that the 5,800 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have short attention spans and will not recollect anything they saw way back in September, October or November when it comes time to cast Oscar ballots.

"Shakespeare in Love" swooped in back in December 1998 to bump off early front-runner "Saving Private Ryan" for best picture. Other December arrivals that took the top Oscar include "A Beautiful Mind," "Chicago" and, of course, "Million Dollar Baby."

But exceptions abound. "Gladiator" was released in the spring, 10 months before the Oscars, and "The Silence of the Lambs" came out a year before the ceremony, yet both took the best-picture prize.

At the Oscars last March, virtually everyone expected December release "Brokeback Mountain" to win. In one of the biggest Oscar upsets ever, "Crash" — released the previous May — came away with best picture.

In the awards autopsy that followed, analysts talked about "Brokeback Mountain" "peaking" too soon, performing well commercially and dominating earlier awards but waning at the finish, when people were tired of hearing about the gay-cowboy romance and were looking for a best-picture alternative.

A few years ago, the Oscar ceremony was moved up to late February, about a month earlier than before, shortening the awards season and making the year-end dash even more of a scramble as studios jockeyed their films to find the right slot to catch the most critical attention.

Like "The Departed" and "Flags of Our Fathers," more films have come sooner in the fall to avoid the Christmas rush and try to get a leg up on the competition. "Brokeback Mountain" aside, it's tough to cut into the momentum of a film that gets in early and hangs tough.

That's not to say "The Departed" is a favorite at this point. After a brilliant first two acts, the film meanders through its closing chapter, concluding with abrupt and even repetitive violence.

It's a viable best-picture contender, and "Flags of Our Fathers" could suddenly re-ignite if it catches a wave during the crush of honors from critics groups and other Hollywood prizes announced in December.

As a nice reminder of "Flags of Our Fathers," Eastwood's companion film — "Letters From Iwo Jima," telling the story of the Pacific battle from the perspective of Japanese troops defending the island — has been bumped up to Dec. 20 release, making it eligible for the Oscars.

"Letters From Iwo Jima" had been scheduled for February, but arriving a month before Oscar nominations come out, it could call renewed attention to "Flags of Our Fathers," underscoring Eastwood's remarkable achievement of delivering two epic war films just two months apart.

Then, of course, the spirited "Dreamgirls" — starring Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles, Eddie Murphy and "American Idol" finalist Jennifer Hudson in a scene-stealing role — could pull a "Chicago" as another musical arriving in December and knocking off all the earlier contenders.

In the end, it would be nice to think that the best film will win, and all the machinations over when to put the movies out are just empty gestures by the Hollywood suits.

Reports: The Wiggles' lead singer may quit

SYDNEY, Australia - The hugely popular children's group The Wiggles is expected this week to announce the departure of its lead singer because of a serious illness, media reports said Wednesday.

The Australian supergroup has reportedly scheduled a press conference for Thursday in the western city of Perth to make a "major announcement relating to members of the group," according to the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Associated Press and the online edition of Sydney's The Daily Telegraph newspaper.

The reports said the group was likely to announce the departure of the "Yellow Wiggle," Greg Page, who has been frequently absent from touring since undergoing a double hernia operation in December.

The 34-year-old known for his bright yellow T-shirt has been undergoing medical treatment since June after experiencing fainting spells and lethargy, the reports said.

Calls to the group's publicist were not immediately returned Wednesday.

The Wiggles were Australia's top-earning entertainers last year, ahead of No. 2 AC/DC and No. 3 Nicole Kidman. The four men in brightly colored T-shirts, accompanied by a cast of characters including Dorothy the Dinosaur and Wags the Dog, grossed $39 million last year.

Page, who was replaced by an understudy when he pulled out of The Wiggles' U.S. tour in July, reportedly said he needed to rest and seek medical advice for the fainting spells.

"I have had numerous bouts of this over the past eight months but they are getting more frequent, and more concerning," he was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph. "So I have decided that I must go home, rest and seek further medical advice to assure myself that I will be OK for future tours."

Publicist Dianna O'Neill told The Sydney Morning Herald that doctors had not been able to identify Page's illness.

Page helped found The Wiggles in 1991 after he and two other members met while studying early childhood education at Sydney's Macquarie University.

The group has franchised its enormously popular recipe to several non-English speaking countries, including Taiwan.

Kid Rock angry over Borat gag

PAMELA Anderson's estranged husband Kid Rock was reportedly furious with the star over her appearance in the Borat movie.

Anderson, who has filed for divorce from the musician after just four months of marriage, had a cameo role in the hit film as the fictional Kazakh journalist's dream woman.

Borat, played by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, falls in love with the actress after seeing an old episode of Baywatch and drives across America to propose to her.

Unlike most of Cohen's other targets, Anderson was in on the joke.

But Rock, whose real name is Bob Ritchie, did not find it funny, according to the New York Post.

Universal Studio chief Ron Meyer's held a screening of Borat at his house for a group which included the couple two weeks ago, the newspaper reported.

"It was the first time Bob had seen the movie, and, well, he didn't like it," a friend of Anderson told the Post.

"Bob started screaming at Pam, saying she had humiliated herself."

The friend added: "It was very embarrassing. Pam thought he could have a sense of humour about the movie.

"She was in on the gag from the very beginning and loved doing the movie.

"And on the eve of what was supposed to be a very positive thing, he made it an awful night."

Rock's spokesman did not return the Post's calls, while Anderson's manager declined to comment.

Yesterday it emerged that both stars had filed for divorce citing irreconcilable differences.

Anderson, 39, wrote on her website: "Divorce. Yes, it's true. Unfortunately impossible."

Earlier this year she suffered a miscarriage in the early stages of pregnancy.

Friends of the couple expressed support – and in some cases surprise – after the news.

Denise Richards, who has just finished filming Blonde and Blonder with Anderson in Vancouver, told People: "My thoughts are with her and her boys.

"Pam is a very strong woman and will get through this difficult time."

Traver Rains and Richie Rich, designers who made Anderson's wedding dress, said they were caught off guard by news of the divorce.

"Maybe it's a spat," Rich told the magazine.

"They're so in love, and I'd be surprised if it was over forever. I don't think she'd let her prince go."

He added that he spoke to the actress recently and she showed no signs that anything was wrong in the marriage.

Plans for ABBA Museum Unveiled in Sweden

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- An ABBA museum dedicated to the music, clothing and history of the legendary Swedish pop group and its four members will open in Stockholm in 2008, organizers said Tuesday.

The interactive museum will feature original outfits and instruments used by the group, handwritten song lyrics, a display of different awards, and "all other things we can think of and find," said Ulf Westman, an event consultant who is spearheading the project with his wife Ewa Wigenheim-Westman.

The museum will also feature a studio where visitors can record their own ABBA songs, and an interactive experience that "will recreate the feeling of being at Wembley stadium and seeing ABBA live with 50,000 others," Westman said.

Organizers are still searching for a suitable location for the museum, but said it will open somewhere in central Stockholm during 2008.

Wigenheim-Westman said the idea was inspired by the Beatles museum in London, but that it took nearly two years to convince the former ABBA members -- Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad -- that it was a good idea.

"It is nice that someone feels compelled to take on our musical history," the four members said in a joint statement. "We think this will be a fun and swinging museum to visit."

The band members will donate the material for the exhibits, but will otherwise not be involved in the project, which will be funded by company sponsors, Westman said.

Stockholm's mayor Kristina Axen Olin said the museum -- which is expected to draw 500,000 visitors a year -- will make the Swedish capital a more popular tourist attraction for the millions of ABBA fans around the world.

"As a Stockholmer, this is what you have been missing," Axen Ohlin said at a news conference to unveil the plan. "We are convinced that this is important both for Stockholm citizens and for marketing the city."

ABBA is one of the most successful bands in history, having sold more than 370 million albums. While the group has not performed together since 1982, it continues to sell nearly 3 million records a year and the musical "Mamma Mia!" -- written by Andersson and Ulvaeus and based on the group's hits -- has been seen by more than 27 million people around the world.

'Sunshine,' 'Nelson' lead indie field

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The road-trip romp Little Miss Sunshine and the gritty classroom drama Half Nelson led contenders Tuesday for the Spirit Awards honoring independent films, each earning five nominations, including best picture.

Other best-picture nominees were American Gun, a drama about the proliferation of firearms in America; The Dead Girl, a thriller centered on a serial killer's female victims; and Pan's Labyrinth, a Spanish-language tale about a girl's dark fantasy life in Fascist Spain.

Maverick filmmaker Robert Altman, who died last week, earned a best-director nomination for his final film, A Prairie Home Companion. The new James Bond, Daniel Craig, received a supporting-male actor nomination for the Truman Capote drama Infamous, in which he plays a death-row inmate.

The Spirit Awards, formerly known as the Independent Spirit Awards, honor films produced on comparatively small budgets of less than $20 million. The awards will be presented Feb. 24, the day before the Academy Awards.

Little Miss Sunshine, the summer mini-hit about a dysfunctional family's comic trek to a child's beauty pageant, also earned two supporting-actor nominations, for Alan Arkin and Paul Dano. Stars Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Steve Carell were shut out in the lead-acting categories.

The film also was nominated for best director (husband and wife Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) and best first screenplay (Michael Arndt).

Half Nelson earned lead-acting nominations for Ryan Gosling, who plays an inspiring inner-city teacher with a drug problem, and Shareeka Epps, who plays a promising student who becomes both his pupil and counselor.

Ryan Fleck earned two nominations for Half Nelson, for best director and first screenplay, co-written with Anna Boden.

Other nominees for best female lead were Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration ; Elizabeth Reaser, Sweet Land ; Michelle Williams, Land of Plenty ; and Robin Wright Penn, Sorry, Haters.

Joining Gosling in the best male lead category were Aaron Eckhart, Thank You for Smoking ; Edward Norton, The Painted Veil ; Ahmad Razvi, Man Push Cart ; and Forest Whitaker, American Gun.

Supporting-actress nominees: Melonie Diaz, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints ; Marcia Gay Harden, American Gun ; Mary Beth Hurt, The Dead Girl ; Frances McDormand, Friends with Money ; and Amber Tamblyn, Stephanie Daley.

Along with Arkin, Craig and Dano, supporting-actor nominees were Raymond J. Barry, Steel City, and Channing Tatum, A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints.

The Spirit Award nominations mark the beginning of a flurry of key awards announcements leading up to Jan. 23's Oscar nominations. December brings Golden Globe nominations, best-of-the-year picks from major critics groups and other film honors.

Since they honor independent and sometimes obscure films, the Spirit Awards often do not reflect the overall field that will compete for the Oscars and other high-profile Hollywood awards. Last year, though, many key Spirit and Oscar nominees overlapped, including Capote,Brokeback Mountain and Good Night, and Good Luck.

Nominees were chosen by members of the non-profit cinema groups Film Independent and the Independent Film Project.

New Releases, Nov. 28: Incubus, Clipse, Mark Kozelek

Incubus "Light Grenades"

The alt-metal act returns with its follow-up to 2004's "A Crow Left of the Murder."

"Light Grenades," the band's sixth studio effort, was produced by Brendan O'Brien, the studio wiz known for his work with the likes of Pearl Jam and Korn. The first single from the album is "Anna Molly."

Incubus will support "Light Grenades" with a 25-city tour that is set to kick off Jan. 5 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The trek currently stretches through a Feb. 11 date at the Wiltern in Los Angeles.

* * *
Clipse "Hell Hath No Fury"

After numerous delays, the Virginia-based hip-hop duo known as the Clipse is finally set to drop "Hell Hath No Fury."

The record--which follows 2002's "Lord Willin'"--features a number of guest stars. Notably, Pharrell Williams shows up on "Mr. Me Too" and Slim Thug makes an appearance on "Wamp Wamp (What It Do)."

* * *
Mark Kozelek "Little Drummer Boy Live"

Mark Kozelek, a singer/songwriter best known for his work with the Red House Painters, furthers his solo career with the release of this two-disc, in-concert set.

"Little Drummer Boy Live" features 20 tunes taken from recent shows in both North America and Europe. The set includes covers of songs originally performed by the likes of The Cars, AC/DC and Modest Mouse.

* * *
Jamiroquai "High Times: Singles 1992-2006"

This 19-track collection features all of the best-known songs from funky dance act Jamiroquai. The set includes such fan favorites as "When You Gonna Learn," "Canned Heat," "Too Young to Die," "Cosmic Girl" and "Blow Your Mind." The album also offers two new tracks: "Runaway" and "Radio."

* * *
Ying Yang Twins "Chemically Imbalanced"

The duo that brought us "Wait (The Whisper Song)" and "Bedroom Boom" is back with "Chemically Imbalanced." The record includes the single "Dangerous," which features Wyclef Jean.

* * *
Other new releases:
April Wine, "Roughly Speaking" (April Wine)
Crime in Choir, "Trumpery Metier" (Gold Standard Labora)
Faithless, "To All New Arrivals" (Sony)
Figgs, "Follow Jean Through the Sea" (Gern Blandsten)
Aled Jones, "You Raise Me Up: The Best of Aled Jones" (Universal)
The King's Singers, "Landscape & Time" (Signum)
Little Diesel, "No Lie" (Telstar)
Pilot Speed, "Into the West" (Wind-Up)
Reset, "No Limits No Worries" (Union Local 2112)
Max Richter, "Songs From Before" (Fat Cat)
Rick Springfield, "Catch Me If You Can" (Renaissance)
Kate Taylor, "It's in There" (Sony)
Too $hort, "Mack of the Century: Too $horts Greatest Hits" (Jive)
Various Artists, "Cream Anthems 2007" (Cream)
Young Buck, "Buck Tha World" (Interscope)

No Seinfeld for You?

Jerry, Elaine and George could end up paying for Michael Richards' rant.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson called for a boycott Monday of the latest Seinfeld DVD, a way of exacting economic punishment for Richards' racist meltdown.

In a bit of bad timing for Jerry Seinfeld, et al., the seventh season of Seinfeld was released as a four-disc set last week, just as Richards' caught-on-video, Nov. 17 Los Angeles comedy club raving was made public.

The new Seinfeld package, featuring much quoted episodes such as "The Soup Nazi" ("No soup for you!"), was Amazon.com's 11th-biggest-selling DVD on Monday and was expected to be a big stocking-stuffer for Christmas.

Richards, 57, won three Emmys for playing the wired Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld, which ran from 1990-98 on NBC.

In the last week, Richards has become better known for hurling the N-word at black hecklers after attempting a lynching joke during the same riff and, later, for apologizing—or trying to, anyway.

"My best friends were African-Americans," Richards said Sunday on Jackson's Premiere Radio Network show.

The Jackson gig was the latest in Richards' reaching-out effort to African-American men who have run for president. Before the radio appearance, the actor was said to have placed contrite phone calls to Jackson and the Reverend Al Sharpton. There was no word if Alan Keyes, a 1996 and 2000 Republican presidential candidate, was sought out.

On his show, Jackson said he hoped the Richards "crisis" would create an opportunity.

On Monday, the civil-rights leader joined others in calling on everyone—blacks, whites, Seinfeld players, presumably included—to refrain from using the N-word, on stage and off.

"Its roots are rooted in hatred and pain and degradation," Jackson told a Los Angeles press conference. "And whether it's hatred toward African-Americans or whether it's self-hatred, a concession toward it is still wrong."

At the Laugh Factory, the Sunset Boulevard scene of Richards' off-the-rails routine, owner Jamie Masada announced Monday that the N-word would be banned at the club.

Masada called on Richards to donate millions to charities serving black neighborhoods and reiterated that the actor would remain barred from the Laugh Factory until he personally apologized to the patrons who bore the brunt of his racial epithets.

Last week, Frank McBride and Kyle Doss, the two men whose observations of Richards' act sent the performer into a racist rage, teamed up with camera-ready attorney Gloria Allred to seek out their own formal apology—and perhaps some judge-ordered financial compensation.

"It's not enough to say 'I'm sorry' on Letterman," Allred said.

Richards appeared on Letterman's Late Show on Nov. 20 to offer his first public apology. The mea culpa, which drew laughs from a confused studio audience, was criticized as not being enough.

In the Los Angeles Daily News, Najee Ali of Los Angeles' Project Islamic H.O.P.E. slammed the Letterman apology, which came on the same night as an appearance by scheduled guest Jerry Seinfeld, as "damage control in light of the DVD of the seventh season of Seinfeld."

Even Kenny Kramer, Seinfeld cocreator Larry David's former neighbor and inspiration for Cosmo Kramer, moved to distance himself from the actor who made his surname famous.

"In no way do I condone or endorse what Michael Richards said or did," Kramer said on his official Website. "It is really annoying, and sad, that people are saying that Kramer is a racist."

"Michael Richards ceased being Kramer eight years ago."

Richards has appeared infrequently on camera since Seinfeld ended. Per his new PR guru, the actor is now appearing regularly in a psychiatrist's office for counseling.

"I have been trying to get to the source of where that anger comes from," Richards said on Jackson's radio show.

According to Richards, he grew up in a predominantly black neighborhood and never attempted to find the fun in lynching until the infamous Laugh Factory routine.

"That's not an image I carry around every day, [that] every time I look at an African-American I think he should be upside down and hung from a tree," Richards told Jackson. "I have too much love for the African-American."

Richards also denied previously dropping the N-bomb.

"I haven't spoken like this to an African-American before," Richards said. "It's a first time for me to talk to an African-American like this."

In an entry on the Huffington Post, blogger Trey Ellis, who is black, advised Richards to stop apologizing, especially to the likes of Jackson and Sharpton.

"Calling up Jesse and Al as if they were the co-Popes of black folks is almost as dumb as your lame, racist onstage repartee," wrote Ellis.

According to Ellis, Richards should just wait for another celebrity to star in an embarrassing videotape.

"There is nothing you can do to win back black fans," Ellis wrote. "That ship has sailed."

Dyn-O-Mite! TV Land lists catchphrases

NEW YORK - Sometimes it takes only a word, or just a few, to become immortalized in television history. The TV Land cable network has compiled a list of the 100 greatest catchphrases in TV, from the serious — Walter Cronkite's nightly signoff "And that's the way it is" — to the silly: "We are two wild and crazy guys!"

The network will air a countdown special, "The 100 Greatest TV Quotes & Catch Phrases," over five days starting Dec. 11.

"We have found that television is such a huge part of baby boomers' DNA that it makes sense that so much of America's pop culture jargon has come from TV," said Larry Jones, TV Land president.

The greatest number of moments, 26, come from the 1970s. TV Land identified nine moments from this decade. Ten are from commercials, and 28 from comedies, including six from "Saturday Night Live."

In alphabetical order, TV Land's list:

_"Aaay" (Fonzie, "Happy Days")

_"And that's the way it is" (Walter Cronkite, "CBS Evening News")

_"Ask not what your country can do for you ..." (John F. Kennedy)

_"Baby, you're the greatest" (Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden, "The Honeymooners")

_"Bam!" (Emeril Lagasse, "Emeril Live")

_"Book 'em, Danno" (Steve McGarrett, "Hawaii Five-O")

_"Come on down!" (Johnny Olson, "The Price is Right")

_"Danger, Will Robinson" (Robot, "Lost in Space")

_"De plane! De plane!" (Tattoo, "Fantasy Island")

_"Denny Crane" (Denny Crane, "Boston Legal")

_"Do you believe in miracles?" (Al Michaels, 1980 Winter Olympics)

_"D'oh!" (Homer Simpson, "The Simpsons")

_"Don't make me angry ..." (David Banner, "The Incredible Hulk")

_"Dyn-o-mite" (J.J., "Good Times")

_"Elizabeth, I'm coming!" (Fred Sanford, "Sanford and Son")

_"Gee, Mrs. Cleaver ..." (Eddie Haskell, "Leave it to Beaver")

_"God'll get you for that" (Maude, "Maude")

_"Good grief" (Charlie Brown, "Peanuts" specials)

_"Good night, and good luck" (Edward R. Murrow, "See It Now")

_"Good night, John Boy" ("The Waltons")

_"Have you no sense of decency?" (Joseph Welch to Sen. McCarthy)

_"Heh heh" (Beavis and Butt-head, "Beavis and Butthead")

_"Here it is, your moment of Zen" ( Jon Stewart, "The Daily Show")

_"Here's Johnny!" ( Ed McMahon, "The Tonight Show")

_"Hey now!" (Hank Kingsley, "The Larry Sanders Show")

_"Hey hey hey!" (Dwayne Nelson, "What's Happening!!")

_"Hey hey hey!" (Fat Albert, "Fat Albert")

_"Holy (whatever), Batman!" (Robin, "Batman")

_"Holy crap!" (Frank Barone, "Everybody Loves Raymond")

_"Homey don't play that!" (Homey the Clown, "In Living Color")

_"How sweet it is!" (Jackie Gleason, "The Jackie Gleason Show")

_"How you doin'?" (Joey Tribbiani, "Friends")

_"I can't believe I ate the whole thing" (Alka Seltzer ad)

_"I know nothing!" (Sgt. Schultz, "Hogan's Heroes")

_"I love it when a plan comes together" (Hannibal, "The A-Team")

_"I want my MTV!" (MTV ad)

_"I'm Larry, this is my brother Darryl ..." (Larry, "Newhart")

_"I'm not a crook ..." ( Richard Nixon)

_"I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV" (Vicks Formula 44 ad)

_"I'm Rick James, bitch!" (Dave Chappelle as Rick James, "Chappelle's Show")

_"Is that your final answer?" ( Regis Philbin, "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire")

_"It keeps going and going and going ..." (Energizer Batteries ad)

_"It takes a licking ..." (Timex ad)

_"Jane, you ignorant slut" ( Dan Aykroyd to Jane Curtin, "Saturday Night Live")

_"Just one more thing ..." (Columbo, "Columbo")

_"Let's be careful out there" (Sgt. Esterhaus, "Hill Street Blues")

_"Let's get ready to rumble!" (Michael Buffer, various sports events)

_"Live long and prosper" (Spock, "Star Trek")

_"Makin' whoopie" (Bob Eubanks, "The Newlywed Game")

_"Mom always liked you best" (Tommy Smothers, "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour")

_"Never assume ..." (Felix Unger, "The Odd Couple")

_"Nip it!" (Barney Fife, "The Andy Griffith Show")

_"No soup for you!" (The Soup Nazi, "Seinfeld")

_"Norm!" ("Cheers")

_"Now cut that out!" (Jack Benny, "The Jack Benny Program")

_"Oh, my God! They killed Kenny!" (Stan and Kyle, "South Park")

_"Oh, my nose!" (Marcia Brady, "The Brady Bunch")

_"One small step for man ..." (Neil Armstrong)

_"Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?" (Grey Poupon ad)

_"Read my lips: No new taxes!" (George H.W. Bush)

_"Resistance is futile" (Picard as Borg, "Star Trek: The Next Generation")

_"Say good night, Gracie" (George Burns, "The Burns & Allen Show")

_"Schwing!" ( Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as Wayne and Garth, "Saturday Night Live")

_"Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy" (Lloyd Bentsen to Dan Quayle)

_"Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids" (Trix cereal ad)

_"Smile, you're on `Candid Camera'" ("Candid Camera")

_"Sock it to me" ("Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In")

_"Space, the final frontier ..." (Capt. Kirk, "Star Trek")

_"Stifle!" (Archie Bunker, "All in the Family")

_"Suit up!" (Barney Stinson, "How I Met Your Mother")

_"Tastes great! Less filling!" (Miller Lite beer ad)

_"Tell me what you don't like about yourself" (Dr. McNamara and Dr. Troy, "Nip/Tuck")

_"That's hot" ( Paris Hilton, "The Simple Life")

_"The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat" (Jim McKay, "ABC's Wide World of Sports")

_"The tribe has spoken" (Jeff Probst, "Survivor")

_"The truth is out there" (Fox Mulder, "The X-Files")

_"This is the city ..." (Sgt. Joe Friday, "Dragnet")

_"Time to make the donuts" ("Dunkin' Donuts" ad)

_"Two thumbs up" (Siskel & Ebert, "Siskel & Ebert")

_"Up your nose with a rubber hose" (Vinnie Barbarino, "Welcome Back, Kotter")

_"We are two wild and crazy guys!" ( Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd as Czech playboys, "Saturday Night Live")

_"Welcome to the O.C., bitch" (Luke, "The O.C.")

_"Well, isn't that special?" (Dana Carvey as the Church Lady, "Saturday Night Live")

_"We've got a really big show!" (Ed Sullivan, "The Ed Sullivan Show")

_"Whassup?" (Budweiser ad)

_"What you see is what you get!" (Geraldine, "The Flip Wilson Show")

_"Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" (Arnold Drummond, "Diff'rent Strokes")

_"Where's the beef?" (Wendy's ad)

_"Who loves you, baby?" (Kojak, "Kojak")

_"Would you believe?" (Maxwell Smart, "Get Smart")

_"Yabba dabba do!" (Fred Flintstone, "The Flintstones")

_"Yada, yada, yada" ("Seinfeld")

_"Yeah, that's the ticket" ( Jon Lovitz as the pathological liar, "Saturday Night Live")

_"You eeeediot!" (Ren, "Ren & Stimpy")

_"You look mahvelous!" ( Billy Crystal as Fernando, "Saturday Night Live")

_"You rang?" (Lurch, "The Addams Family")

_"You're fired!" (Donald Trump, "The Apprentice")

_"You've got spunk ..." (Lou Grant, "The Mary Taylor Moore Show")

...Riders part ways with Barrett

Danny Barrett will not return as head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders next season, the CFL club announced on Monday.

At a news conference at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, General Manager Eric Tillman said the team would not be renewing Barrett's expiring contract, ending Barrett's seven-year tenure with Saskatchewan.

Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Danny Barrett will not be back behind the bench next season.

"The decision that was made … it's one I've come to accept," said Barrett, who owns a career coaching record of 57-68-1. "You don't always have to agree with things but you have to accept things in life."

Led by Barrett, the Roughriders endured a difficult season in 2006, culminating in a 45-18 loss to the B.C. Lions in the Western Division final.

It marked the third time in four years the Roughriders reached the Western Division championship. However, the team has posted only one winning season and has not held a home playoff game during Barrett's time behind the bench.

After the Western final loss on Nov. 12, Barrett, whose contract expires at the end of December, pegged his chances of returning in 2007 at "50-50."

Tillman wanted to move in new direction

Tillman said he did consider bringing back Barrett for one more season, but in the end felt that it was time to go in another direction.

"In the final analysis I had to take emotion out of the equation and look at the internal turmoil that this organization has faced the last couple of years … I realized as much as I have affection and respect for Danny, that we had to either make a multi-year commitment or stabilize the ship."

It had been speculated that Tillman, who took over from the fired Roy Shivers in late August, had planned to make changes to the Roughriders coaching staff in the off-season.

At least publicly, Barrett had the support of his players, but many in the media had speculated that Tillman wanted to put a new stamp on the franchise.

Though Tillman did not name a replacement for Barrett at Monday's news conference, it's believed he's interested in hiring Kent Austin. The former Saskatchewan quarterback spent three seasons as the offensive co-ordinator for the Toronto Argonauts before being fired last August.

Kevin Smith: 'Degrassi' inspired 'Clerks' sequel

TORONTO (CP) - Filmmaker Kevin Smith's ardour for Canada's "Degrassi: The Next Generation" is well-documented - he's written and appeared in five episodes - but he has a new revelation: the CTV series prompted him to make a sequel to his beloved "Clerks."

"I was a huge fan of 'Degrassi High' and 'Degrassi Junior High' but when they kick-started 'Degrassi: The Next Generation,' I was like: 'Oh man, I don't know,"' Smith said in a recent interview to launch Tuesday's DVD release of "Clerks II."

"I wondered if they should leave well enough alone. Where's the wisdom in revisiting characters that people used to love? But then I finally saw 'Next Generation' and not only were they able to go back to the well with it, but they drew fresh water."

In fact, Smith says, Linda Schuyler and the creative team behind "Degrassi" were so triumphant in melding old characters with fresh blood and "Degrassi's" trademark cutting-edge storylines, it convinced him he could successfully revisit Dante, Randal and the rest of the "Clerks" gang.

"It was so inspiring that it really was largely responsible for me winding up doing 'Clerks II.' I thought if they can go back to those characters and find something new in them, I can do the same thing with mine."

"Clerks II" is indeed an affectionate and funny return to the convenience store slackers of the 1994 original - but this time they're in their 30s and grappling with typical thirtysomething angst over what to do with the rest of their lives, both personally and professionally.

"If 'Clerks' was a flick about what I felt it was like to be in my 20s, 'Clerks II' was a flick about what I felt it was like to be in my 30s and settling down," says Smith, the happily married father of a seven-year-old girl.

Fatherhood, he says, hasn't otherwise seriously affected his filmmaking - with the exception of "Jersey Girl," Smith's romantic comedy that featured Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in the frenzied midst of their ultimately doomed romance.

"If I didn't have a kid I probably wouldn't have written 'Jersey Girl' - I like to blame the kid, by the way, for anyone who didn't like the movie," he says with a laugh before adding ruefully: "I took a world of crap for that movie. If you read the reviews, a lot of people just faulted me for making the movie in the first place, and said it was the kind of movie that Dante and Randal would have made fun of in 'Clerks."'

The 2004 film was released at a time when the public's fascination with all things celebrity-related was moving into serious overdrive as "Bennifer" was routinely making headlines.

That continuing obsession with celebrity culture continues to puzzle Smith, but he thinks there might be an unexpected fringe benefit to the world's fixation on the private lives of stars.

"It's been formed by Sept. 11, I think, in terms of wouldn't you rather think about who Paris Hilton's screwing rather than when the first suitcase bomb is going to go off?" he says. "It's just a diversion - 'let's forget about the real problems and concentrate on stuff that means nothing."'

"Maybe the terrorists are watching the news as well, and they're all so fascinated by Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes that they're not thinking about where to strike next. The celebrities that we mock so much - maybe they're the people who are saving our asses. Now that would be a great cosmic joke."

It would be an irony, in fact, that Dante and Randal would take great pleasure in discussing if they ever return to the big screen - something Smith is not ruling out.

"I could conceive of going back to Dante and Randal sometime in my mid-40s. If I had something to say about being in my 40s, I would totally think about it and I'd immediately think of Dante and Randal."

A return to "Degrassi," too, is something Smith dreams about. He played himself in a three-episode arc from Season 4 and then appeared in two more episodes last season. The sixth season of the show premieres Tuesday night on CTV.

"I don't know how they would fit me in logically again, but if they figure out a way I'd do it again in a heartbeat," he says. "I did say at one point let's skew the reality even further and say that I've given up filmmaking and I've decided to teach at Degrassi, so I could be on every episode - but they didn't go for that."

Christmas DVD gift guide

Boffo Box Sets

- Superman: Ultimate Collector's Edition

For the 'I-want-it-all!' fan. Housed in a burnished silver metal box, this super-sensational set has 14 discs, a vintage comic repro and a coupon for five posters. On disc are seven editions of the five movies: Superman The Movie, the 1978 original and its 2000 extended version; Superman II, the original and Richard Donner's new revised cut (the movie he would have made if he hadn't been dumped for Richard Lester); Superman III, Superman IV: The Quest For Peace (the series was dying and Christopher Reeve was looking ridiculous); plus Bryan Singer's franchise revival, Superman Returns. Among extras is doomed George Reeves in Superman And the Mole-Men (1951) plus all of Fleischer's gaudy 1940s cartoons. Release date is Nov. 28.

- King Kong: Deluxe Extended Edition Gift Set:

Peter Jackson loves serving his fans, and cashing in. So he repeats his Lord Of The Rings pattern with a Deluxe Extended Edition, although only 13 new minutes have been edited in. Another 38 minutes is in the deleted scenes section, along with a truly exhaustive set of extras. Like the Ring cycle, the three-disc Kong set is available in a boxed Gift Set, which offers the three-disc DVD set plus a WETA statuette of Kong climbing the Empire State building with Ann Darrow clutched tenderly in his hand. Available now.

- M*A*S*H: The Martinis & Medicine Collection

The entire M*A*S*H season-by-season series was completed this month. So it was inevitable that one of the classic American TV shows would then repackage itself into another of those total immersion sets for people who did not buy the individual seasons. This spectacular box, in a pseudo military design, contains 36 discs with everything anyone could want, including all 11 seasons on 33 discs, two discs of extra extras, plus Robert Altman's terrific Sutherland-Gould movie that started it all in 1970. War is hell. But M*A*S*H is heaven-sent, especially in one kit bag. Available now.

- Six Feet Under: The Complete Series 2001-2005

Like Larry Gelbart's pioneering M*A*S*H, Alan Ball's droll series made an impact beyond the sitcom zeitgeist.

"Why do people have to die?" a mourner asks.

"To make life important!"

So it is that this dirt-brown box set, topped with fuzzy fake grass and a tombstone plaque, contains everything related to the series' five seasons.

It is presented in memoriam and cherished by hardcore fans. Available now.

FOR OLDTIMERS (AND YOUTH SMART ENOUGH TO LOOK TO THE PAST)

- The Rogers & Hammerstein Collection

Their musicals harkened to a bygone era, and now the musicals themselves are quaintly old-fashioned. So what? That is their charm. "Somebody has to keep saying that there are beautiful meadows bathed in sunlight," Oscar Hammerstein II says in a vintage interview. This box set contains six R&H classic titles, each in a two-disc version containing strong extras: State Fair (both the 1945 and 1962 versions), Oklahoma!, Carousel (both the 1956 version and Fritz Lang's dark French original, a surreal 1934 drama based on the Hungarian play), plus South Pacific, The King And I and, of course, The Sound Of Music. Available now.

- Preston Sturges: The Filmmaker Collection

Unlike Frank Capra, Sturges has been (unfairly) moved to the fringes. But he was a sometimes savage, always incisive satirist who rattled the cage of Americana with screwball comedies and political dramas. This primo seven-disc set offers seven titles from 1940-44, four of which make their DVD debut. Included are classics, such as Sullivan's Travels, The Palm Beach Story and The Lady Eve. Just as worthy is the lesser known gem, The Great McGinty, about a Depression hobo who ascends to the state governor's office by collaborating with crooks.

The other titles: Christmas In July, The Great Moment and the brilliant, frenetic, war-aftermath film, Hail The Conquering Hero. Available now.

- The Premiere Frank Capra Collection

The stylish Capra raised populism to a fine art in American cinema. This absolutely essential, six-disc collection has a major doc on his career and five of his all-star classics of the '30s: American Madness (underrated and similar in theme to It's A Wonderful Life), It Happened One Night (spectacularly won Oscars for picture, actor, actress and director), Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, You Can't Take It With You and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

Capra is a genre as well as a legend and his son, Frank Jr., helps to explain the legacy. Release date is Dec. 5.

- Norman McLaren: The Master's Edition

On seven discs in a sublime box set, we get everything this Scottish-born Canadian genius ever did at the National Film Board Of Canada. Even experiments. No fan of classic animation, nor of Canadian cinema and heritage, nor of surrealistic film art, should leave this unwatched. If any proof is needed, first watch his loopy Blinkity Blank, then the live-action, Oscar-winning classic, Neighbours (as a caustic comment on aggression and war, it is as relevant now as it was in 1952). You'll quickly catch McLaren fever and have to see more. Available now.

ALSO AVAILABLE:

The Screen Legend Collection

Rock Hudson

Bing Crosby

Cary Grant

FOR PUCKHEADS (AND DISCERNING JOCKS)

- The Rocket: Maurice Richard

Even for Leafs fans, Charles Biname's drama about the hard life and triumphant times of the fiercely driven NHL star is fascinating. As the heart & soul of Montreal Canadiens hockey history, Richard also represented the rise of working class Francophones in an era of English paternalism or racism -- and that's all here. With subtle craft, actor Roy Dupuis captures The Rocket's essence and the DVD extends the mythology with a tribute doc. Available now.

- Canada Russia '72

Still the greatest spectacle in Canadian sports history, and essential to how Canada defined itself for a generation, the 1972 Summit Series led to this surprisingly good, epic-length drama. The three-disc DVD set, housed in a cool red-metal case, offers two versions. One is the broadcast cut at 184 minutes; the second is T.W. Peacocke's slightly extended version at 193 minutes. The third disc has limited extras (missing and missed is a stats packs and actor-player bios). Available now.

- Torino 2006: Canada's Quest For Success

It is big on sappy sentiment and official gear ads, but it is still packed with info and terrific highlights. This six-disc set covers Canada's participation at the Winter Olympics, where Canadians earned a record 24 medals, including seven gold. The DVDs focus on each day's events, celebrating winners and listing losers, with special intense coverage of hockey and curling. Offbeat, humanizing insights include backstage moments with Jennifer Heil -- and her giggles after getting the call from the PM for winning her gold. Available now.

ANIMATION MADNESS

- South Park: The Hits: Volume 1

Included are 10 of Stone & Parker's faves, plus four bonus episodes and the infamous damned-for-all-eternity short, The Spirit Of Christmas. Heck, I'd buy this for film buff just to share the charming (if twisted) riffs in The Return Of the Fellowship Of The Ring To The Two Towers, not to mention Trapped In The Closet and the sicko Scott Tenorman Must Die.

- Beavis And Butt-Head: The Mike Judge Collection

Speaking of sicko, Judge gives us three volumes (nine discs) of his favourite juvenile nonsense and offers his movie, Beavis And Butt-Head Do America, as a Special Collector's Edition bonus. Available now.

- Nick Picks: Volumes 1-3

Nickelodeon packages three DVDs into a box set full of excerpts from various cartoon shows, including SpongeBob SquarePants and his prehistoric, cave-sponge episode, SpongeBob B.C. Other shows sampled range from All Grown Up to Rugrats. Available now.

JUST IN TIME FOR CHRISTMAS

A selection of major titles set for release leading up to the holidays:

NOVEMBER 28

Superman Returns

Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition

Clerks II

A Star Is Born (1976)

The Ant Bully

DECEMBER 5

Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season

Miami Vice: Unrated Director's Cut

1900: Special Collector's Edition

Charlie Chan Collection: Volume 2

DECEMBER 12

James Bond: Ultimate Edition: Volumes 3 & 4

The Devil Wears Prada

Talladega Nights: The Legend Of Ricky Bobby

The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe: Four-Disc Extended Edition

Barnyard: The Original Party Animals

DECEMBER 19

Little Miss Sunshine

My Super Ex-Girlfriend

Invincible

Lady In The Water

Step Up

DECEMBER 26

The Black Dahlia

The Last Kiss

The Descent

Jackass: Number Two: Unrated Edition

Dane Cook's Tougasm

Princes to organize Wembley concert to honour Diana

Princes William and Harry plan to mark the 10th anniversary of the death of their mother, Diana, with a massive concert featuring pop superstars, according to several British newspapers.

Both the Sunday Mirror and the Mail say the brothers are arranging the event themselves. They said it is to take place in London's Wembley Stadium on July 1, 2007 — on what would have been the 46th birthday of the late Princess of Wales.

"We're considering a number of options on how best to commemorate next year," said Paddy Harverson, a spokesperson for Prince Charles.

"William and Harry will make a decision in due course."

The stadium can hold 90,000 people. Proceeds from the concert, expected to be shown live on television, are said to be going to several charities supported by Diana.

Elton John, a friend of Diana who performed Candle In The Wind at her funeral, is expected to be invited. Other artists who are likely to take part include Beyonce, George Michael and Kylie Minogue, according to the Sunday Times.

Diana, boyfriend Dodi Fayed and their driver, Henri Paul, died when their car smashed into a concrete wall in a tunnel in Paris on Aug. 31, 1997. At the time, Diana had already been divorced from Charles for a year.

A French judge ruled in 1999 the crash was an accident and concluded Paul had been drinking and taking prescription drugs as well as driving too fast.

However, conspiracy theories kept cropping up and a British inquest into their deaths is expected to begin in the new year.

Lord John Stevens, the former head of London's Metropolitan Police, has been investigating the crash for two years and will table his report at the inquest.

Fan restores 'Christmas Story' house

CLEVELAND (AP) — Ralphie Parker and Brian Jones know what it's like to want something.

For Ralphie, the object of desire was an official Red Ryder, carbine-action, 200-shot, range model air rifle. (Go ahead, say it, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid.") For Jones, the gotta-have-it item was Ralphie's house — the one in A Christmas Story, the quirky film that's found a niche alongside holiday classics like It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street.

Jones has restored the three-story, wood-frame house to its appearance in the movie and will open it for tours beginning Saturday. His hope is that it will become a tourist stop alongside the city's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and other destinations.

He's unsure whether he'll make enough money to cover his $500,000 investment, but as sure as a kid's tongue will stick to a frozen flag pole, he's committed to the project.

"I just want people to come and enjoy it as I have," said Jones, a 30-year-old former Navy lieutenant.

A Christmas Story wasn't a big hit when released in 1983 but repeat TV airings and, in recent years, a 24-hour run on TBS starting Christmas Eve have made its story of boy's quest to get a BB gun for Christmas as infectious as the bespectacled Ralphie's eager grin.

"It just kind of sets the mood. In the Jones household, it's on all day once the marathon comes on," said Jones, who's married with an 8-month-old daughter.

Jones first saw the movie in the late 1980s and he and his parents became fans.

When the San Diego resident's dream of a becoming a Navy pilot like his father was denied because of his eyesight, his parents sent him a package to lift his spirits. Marked "FRAGILE" on the outside, it contained a leg lamp his parents built to look just like the one received by Ralphie's father, who proudly displayed it in the living room window, boasting, "It's a major award!"

Jones' mom noted that he could probably make a business out of selling them. In 2003, he started doing just that.

"I tooled together 500 lamps in my 1,000-square-foot condo in San Diego and sold them all in the first year," Jones said.

And he's still making and selling them — $129.99 for the 45-inch model, $159.99 for the 53-inch "deluxe full size" leg lamp.

When the house from the film was put up for sale on eBay in December 2004, it seemed like destiny to Jones.

"I said, 'Ooh, I gotta have that.'"

The auction price got up to $115,000. Jones, who shares Ralphie's unflinching enthusiasm, less than 20/20 eyesight and ability to speak at a breakneck pace, said he'd pay $150,000 if the owner stopped the bidding.

"It was mine. I sent him a deposit and flew out two days after Christmas just to make sure it wasn't a falling-down shack," Jones said.

He put in new windows and replaced the 111-year-old house's gray aluminum siding with mustard yellow painted wood and green trim that perfectly matches Ralphie's house.

Although only a couple interior shots were filmed there, Jones has recreated the '40s feel of Ralphie's home with a brown-and-white tile kitchen floor, a wide cast-iron sink in the kitchen, a claw-foot bathtub and, of course, a leg lamp in the window.

He also bought the house across the street — Ralphie runs past it in the film's opening scene — to serve as a museum and gift shop. Several original items from the film are on display, including the infamous snowsuit ("I can't put my arms down!") worn by Ralphie's brother, Randy.

The house is located in Cleveland's Tremont neighborhood, just a few minutes from downtown where the exterior department store shots were filmed at the former Higbee's.

The cooperation of the department store is what brought the filmmakers to Cleveland for the film based on author Jean Shepherd's stories of his upbringing in Hammond, Ind.

The house is well known in the neighborhood and neighbors like Marlene Childers have watched the house change owners and go through ups and downs over the years. She's excited about Jones' tribute — even if it means more cars and traffic.

"I love that story," she said.

Jones knows the feeling. And he says stepping onto Ralphie's old street makes him feel like he's in the movie.

Standing in front of the house holding a replica Red Ryder rifle, he discusses his future plans — which could include a nearby bed and breakfast — when, seemingly on a director's cue, a motorist passes, stops his car, rolls down the window and shouts, "You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

WGN fills up on Canadian "Corner Gas"

TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - Canadian broadcaster CTV Inc. on Friday cracked the U.S. market by selling "Corner Gas," Canada's top homegrown sitcom, to Superstation WGN.

Under the two-year deal Tribune Broadcasting's Superstation WGN will air four seasons of "Corner Gas," an ensemble comedy set in the fictional prairie town of Dog River, Saskatchewan. The 88 episodes will be available in around 70 million homes via cable or satellite beginning in 2007.

The deal marks a coup for CTV, which fully financed the first two seasons of the series with no government subsidies. CTV then bankrolled the third and fourth seasons of "Corner Gas" with the Comedy Network.

Terms of the deal with Superstation WGN were not disclosed, but CTV will split the proceeds of the U.S. distribution deal with the series' producers, Prairie Pants Productions.

"Corner Gas" has consistently been the top-rated comedy on Canadian TV, beating out American competition and pulling in an average of around 1.5 million viewers weekly.

The series was created by Canadian comic Brent Butt, David Storey and Virginia Thompson. The ensemble cast includes Butt, veteran Canadian actors Eric Peterson Janet Wright, Cavan Cunningham, Gabrielle Miller and Fred Ewanuick.

Canadian-originated dramas have long aired in the U.S. market on cable channels. But homegrown sitcoms breaking through south of the border have been rarities, despite the prominence of Canadian standup and sketch comedy talent working in New York City and Los Angeles.

"Trailer Park Boys," a comedy about low life in a Halifax trailer park, earlier became a cult classic on BBC America after bowing on Showcase in Canada.

On radio, comic apologizes for tirade

NEW YORK - Comedian Michael Richards said Sunday he did not consider himself a racist, and that he was "shattered" by the comments he made to two young black men during a tirade at a Los Angeles comedy club.

Richards appeared on the Rev. Jesse Jackson's nationally syndicated radio program, "Keep Hope Alive," as a part of a series of apologies for the incident. He said he knew his comments hurt the black community, and hoped to meet with the two men.

He told Jackson that he had not used the language before.

"That's why I'm shattered by it. The way this came through me was like a freight train. After it was over, when I went to look for them, they had gone. And I've tried to meet them, to talk to them, to get some healing," he said.

Richards, who played Jerry Seinfeld's wacky neighbor Kramer on the TV sitcom "Seinfeld," was performing at West Hollywood's Laugh Factory last week when he lashed out at hecklers with a string of racial obscenities and profane language. A cell phone video camera captured the outburst, and the incident later appeared on TMZ.com.

Richards told Jackson the tirade was fueled by anger, not bigotry. He said he wanted to hurt those who had hurt him.

"I was in a place of humiliation," he said.

Richards' publicist, Howard Rubenstein, said Saturday that Richards has begun psychiatric counseling in Los Angeles to learn how to manage his anger.

"He acknowledged that his statements were harmful and opened a terrible racial wound in our nation," Rubenstein said. "He pledges never ever to say anything like that again. He's quite remorseful."

Jackson, who has called Richards' words "hateful," "sick," and "deep-seated," said the comedian's inclusion on the show was a chance for a broader discussion about "cultural isolation" in the entertainment industry.

Richards noted that the racial epithet he used is frequent in the entertainment industry, and acknowledged that it could have consequences.

"I fear that young whites will think it's cool to go around and use that word because they see very cool people in the show business using that word so freely," he said. "Perhaps that's what came through in that ... the vernacular is so accessible."

'Happy Feet' dances atop box office

LOS ANGELES - A dancing penguin was king of the Thanksgiving birds among movie-goers. The animated penguin romp "Happy Feet" remained the No. 1 movie with $37.9 million in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, while the James Bond adventure "Casino Royale" stayed in second place with $31 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Over the Wednesday-to-Sunday holiday period, "Happy Feet," from Warner Bros., took in $51.5 million while Sony's "Casino Royale" did $45.1 million.

Disney's thriller "Deja Vu," starring Denzel Washington as a police officer bouncing back in time to try to prevent a deadly ferry explosion, led new movies with $20.8 million for the weekend and $29 million since opening Wednesday.

The 20th Century Fox comedy "Deck the Halls," with Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito as neighbors feuding over excessive Christmas lights, debuted at No. 4 with a $12 million weekend and $16.9 million since it premiered Wednesday.

It was a sturdy but unremarkable holiday weekend overall, with the top 12 movies taking in $208.1 million from Wednesday to Sunday, down 3.4 percent from last year, when " Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" took in $81 million to lead Hollywood to its second-best Thanksgiving ever. The best Thanksgiving period was in 2000, when the top 12 films grossed $232.1 million.

A flurry of movies debuted or expanded from limited release, led by writer-director Emilio Estevez's "Bobby," weaving together the stories of 22 characters gathered at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel the night Robert Kennedy was assassinated in 1968.

"Bobby," from MGM and the Weinstein Co., came in at No. 9 over the weekend with $4.9 million.

Warner Bros. debuted director Darren Aronofsky's fantasy "The Fountain," starring "Happy Feet" co-star Hugh Jackman as a man who lives a 1,000-year adventure. "The Fountain" had a $3.7 million weekend to finish at No. 10.

New Line's "Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny," with Jack Black and musical partner Kyle Gass in a spoof of how their folk-rock duo came to be, opened at No. 11 with $3.3 million over the weekend.

Christopher Guest's Hollywood satire "For Your Consideration" pulled in $2 million in its first weekend of wide release.

Debuting in limited release, Fox Searchlight's "The History Boys" took in a solid $100,721 in just seven theaters. Adapted from the Tony-winning stage play about British teens angling for acceptance to Oxford and Cambridge, the film gradually expands to nationwide release through Dec. 22.

While "Happy Feet" started out mainly a family film, good reviews and word-of-mouth pulled in more adults without children, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution at Warner Bros.

Along with ravishing computer-animated visuals, the adult appeal of "Happy Feet" includes a positive environmental statement and wall-to-wall pop tunes reinterpreted by its vocal cast, led by Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Jackman and Robin Williams.

"I think it's just a good message, and it's just well made. And we all like the music," Fellman said. "Happy Feet" raised its 10-day total to $100.1 million.

With a 10-day domestic total of $94.2 million and a worldwide haul of $224 million, "Casino Royale" is on course to pass 2002's "Die Another Day ($161 million domestically and $432 million worldwide) to become the top-grossing Bond flick, said Rory Bruer, head of distribution at Sony.

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. "Happy Feet," $37.9 million.
2. "Casino Royale," $31 million.
3. "Deja Vu," $20.8 million.
4. "Deck the Halls," $12 million.
5. "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," $10.4 million.
6. "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," $10 million.
7. "Stranger Than Fiction," $6 million.
8. "Flushed Away," $5.8 million.
9. "Bobby," $4.9 million.
10. "The Fountain," $3.7 million.

Lawyer wants Simpson book off eBay

LOS ANGELES - An attorney representing the family of Nicole Brown Simpson accused eBay on Thursday of not moving quickly enough to yank auctions of "If I Did It," O.J. Simpson's hypothetical story of how he would have killed his ex-wife.

The book had been scheduled for release Nov. 30 following a two-part Simpson interview on Fox, but News Corp., owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, canceled the project after an outcry condemning it as revolting and exploitive.

Responding to concerns from HarperCollins, eBay spokesman Hani Durzy said Thursday that the online auction house has been removing offers to sell purported copies of the book from the site. In one case, bids had topped $1 million.

"Once HarperCollins reports to us, we take the auctions down," Durzy said. "We appreciate the concern of the Brown family, but this is a procedure that has to be followed."

Brown family attorney Natasha Roit said the site's deadline-style auctions means some transactions could finish before eBay acts. HarperCollins has said all copies of the book would be destroyed, but there is always a chance some could get out.

"The voice of the American public was heard loud and clear by News Corp. and HarperCollins in recalling the books," Roit said. "We really need to stem the tide and get these books out of circulation because anything that's out there now is really hurtful to the family."

Simpson, 59, was acquitted of the double murder of his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman in 1995 but was later found liable in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Goldman's family. The former football star has not paid the $33.5 million civil judgment, and his NFL pension and Florida home cannot be seized.

In interviews with The Associated Press, Simpson denied committing the murders. He also disputed his publisher's contention that the book amounts to a confession, insisted the title was not his idea, and said the hypothetical sections were written by a ghostwriter.

News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher said the company paid $880,000 to a third party in connection with the project. Of that amount, $100,000 was to go to the ghostwriter and the rest to Simpson's children.

"Absolutely no money was ever given to O.J. Simpson by us," Butcher said Wednesday.

Simpson said any profit from the book would be "blood money," but he said he needed to pay his bills.

"It's all blood money, and unfortunately I had to join the jackals," Simpson said, referring to authors of books about him. "It helped me get out of debt and secure my homestead."

Simpson would not say how much he was paid in advance, but he said it was less than the $3.5 million that has been reported. He said the money already has been spent, some of it on tax obligations.

Butcher said News Corp. cannot recoup any of the money because Simpson honored his end of the contract by producing the book.

Simpson said he was convinced the book would have been a best-seller.

"If I Did It" cracked the top 20 of Amazon.com last weekend in prepublication sales, but by Monday, when it was canceled, the book had fallen to No. 51.

Heritage committee launches review of CBC

After waiting months for the Conservative government to launch a review of the CBC, the House of Commons heritage committee has decided to start without it, passing a motion on Monday to look closely at the public broadcaster.

The motion to initiate the review was put forward by NDP heritage critic Charlie Angus, who first called for a review of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the spring.

He has also demanded that Ottawa commit to "stable and improved funding" and a "clear mandate" for the public broadcaster.

The standing committee on Canadian heritage had been expecting Heritage Minister Bev Oda to launch a review of the CBC and its role as a public broadcaster all year.

Instead, Oda asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission in June to look at new broadcasting technologies and how they'll affect all broadcasting policies.

Speaking to the House of Commons, Oda committed to looking at the CBC but said an overall look all broadcast platforms was a priority.

Angus told the Globe and Mail the heritage committee is tired of waiting for the government to act.

"There's been rising frustration at the committee. Basically, nothing's been done at this committee throughout this session," he said.

The committee met in September with CBC executives, who have also been calling for a review of their mandate.

Among the issues expected to be dealt with are questions of the overall mandate of the broadcaster and the amount and kind of Canadian content it should produce.

Richard Stursberg, CBC executive vice-president of English television, said in an October speech that government support on a per-capita basis for the CBC is one-third of what the BBC gets from the British government. He said taxpayer dollars account for just 45 per cent of English-language television's total revenue.

The review is scheduled to begin in February, committee spokesman Jacques Lahaie told CBC Arts Online. After hearings with witnesses, the committee will prepare a report to be tabled in the House. Oda will then have 125 days to respond to any recommendations made in the report, says Lahaie.

The advocacy group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting welcomed the announcement of the review and called for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to participate and explain his stance on the public broadcaster.

"Stephen Harper's agenda for CBC remains hidden. We hope the heritage committee calls the prime minister as its first witness to explain his position on the future of CBC," spokesman Ian Morrison said in a statement.

Romber's Amazing Return

It definitely worked for Survivor. It sort of worked for Big Brother. Now, The Amazing Race is getting in on the all-star act.

CBS has confirmed that the 11th edition of the round the world reality show will bring back some—though not all—of the series' biggest names, for The Amazing Race: All-Stars. And the excluded teams have had no qualms in expressing their outrage.

Perennial reality show also-ran Rob Mariano and former Survivor champ Amber Brkich have been tapped to return for yet another shot at unscripted glory, as has Amazing duo David and Mary Conley, aka Team Kentucky from the most recent edition of the Emmy-winning series.

Strongly rumored to be joining the foursome are season five faves, couple Colin Guinn and Christie Woods (that season's runners-up) and cousins Mirna Hindoyan and Charla Faddoul.

Generating far more reaction, however, is who has not been chosen to compete.

The perpetually bickering season six couple Jonathan Baker and Victoria Fuller, who landed their own Dr. Phil prime-time special such was the interest in their relationship, will not return, nor will season nine winners BJ Averell and Tyler MacNiven, or season five winners, married couple Chip and Kim McAllister, arguably one of the most popular teams from the series' 10 seasons.

At least to hear them tell it.

A video post to their joint MySpace blog last month, which was removed after less than a day, lashed out at Amazing Race producers for excluding them from the all-star installment.

"I don't want to sugarcoat this or anything, there is definitely going to be an Amazing Race: All-Stars, they will be starting within the next few days and Kim and I never got a phone call from anyone, not from [the executive producers], not from CBS, not from anyone," Chip said.

"We have run the gamut of emotions. I hate to be one of these kind of people that thinks he's entitled to be an All-Star—I may not actually, Kim and I may not be All-Stars material—but to be completely forgotten by CBS and the CBS decision makers...it really doesn't feel good. We could have been contacted."

While he may have got the sentiment right, his timeline was slightly off.

According to Variety, Amazing Race: All-Stars began filming just last week in Miami. But Chip and Kim weren't the only non-invitees to express their disappointment.

Season nine winners BJ and Tyler, who incidentally sent fan forums into a frenzy this spring when homoerotic photos of them with fellow Racers Jeremy Ryan and Eric Sanchez were leaked online, sounded off on their exclusion via CBS.com's Former Racers Blog, where the duo were meant to be offering commentary on the show's 10th season.

"What would be ironic is if someone were putting together an all-star version of the race and contacted teams like [season seven teams] Lynn & Alex and Brian & Greg, but did not contact us, the most popular and amazing team of all time, about it," Tyler wrote in a post last month.

"Trust me, if they were doing that, they would contact us," BJ added. "We were the most well-liked team ever to compete on the Race...I'm sure they wouldn't just pick a gimmicky team like Rob & Amber, or a 'competitive' team like Colin & Christie, and turn their backs on friendly winning teams like us and Chip & Kim, leaving us to find out about it from some gossip site."

Richards apologizes, hires crisis expert

LOS ANGELES - Michael Richards is doing damage control. In the aftermath of his racist tirade against two black hecklers during a standup comedy routine, Richards on Wednesday hired a publicist with strong ties to the black community who set up calls to the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.

New York publicist Howard Rubenstein took on Richards as a client, then arranged for the actor to call the black leaders.

"Michael apologized profusely," Rubenstein said. "He wants to heal the tremendous wound that he's inflicted on the American public, and on the African-American community. ... I think it was a positive discussion."

Jackson said Richards called "expressing his remorse and his confusion."

"He's embarrassed. He got caught on tape. That's a big part of his anxiety now," said Jackson.

"Clearly he needs some race sensibility training, and some psychiatric help. His anger is volatile and dangerous to himself and others," Jackson said. "I hope he gets the help he needs. But the culture that's producing this kind of animosity toward blacks must be addressed. ... We're increasingly facing cultural isolation in Hollywood, in the movies and in TV."

Calls to Sharpton's home and to his National Action Network on Wednesday were not immediately returned.

Richards, who played kooky neighbor Kramer on "Seinfeld," lashed out at the hecklers last week during a performance at West Hollywood's Laugh Factory. A video of his rant then appeared on TMZ.com.

The video shows him calling one of the hecklers a racial epithet, and repeating it over and over again.

In a subsequent satellite appearance on the "Late Show with David Letterman," Richards said his tirade was fueled by anger, not bigotry.

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said in a statement Wednesday that Richards' comments and anti-Semitic ones by Mel Gibson this year point to a trend in American culture, and that Richards' declaration "is indicative of the type of denial that too often accompanies racist rhetoric."

Rubenstein, whose media relations firm specializes in "crisis management," according to its Web site, said he had never met or spoken to Richards before the actor called him.

"He convinced me that he was sincere in his repentance and would do what's right," Rubenstein said.

"I've been very involved in the African-American community for 25 to 30 years," Rubenstein continued. "It would be a tragedy if this exacerbated our race relations. I hope I can help. ... It's always been an effort on my part to improve African-American and Jewish ethnic relations."

As for reports that Richards shouted out anti-Semitic remarks during another standup comedy routine in April, Rubenstein confirmed that Richards did, but that he was only role-playing.

"He's Jewish. He's not anti-Semitic at all. He was role-playing, he was playing a part. He did use inappropriate language, but he doesn't have any anti-Semitic feelings whatsoever," Rubenstein said.

"Michael says that he has a very hot temper, and that he says inappropriate things from time to time. Yes, there's no excuse for that."

Canadian Performer John Allan Cameron Has Died

John Allan Cameron, who helped spread the gospel of Celtic music across Canada and beyond, has died after a lengthy struggle with cancer.

He was 67.

His brother, John Donald Cameron, says the legendary Cape Breton entertainer died on Wednesday morning in a Toronto hospital.

A native of Mabou, Nova Scotia, John Allan Cameron was diagnosed five years ago with bone marrow cancer and leukemia.

Known as "Mabou's ministering minstrel," Cameron tirelessly promoted Celtic music long before the Rankin Family, the Barra MacNeils and Natalie MacMaster became known to Canadian listeners.

Cameron began his career with the Don Messer Show and Singalong Jubilee, then as the opening act for Anne Murray, and again with his own half-hour show.

In 1970, Cameron got a standing ovation at the Grand Ole Opry.

He was a resident of Pickering, Ontario when he died.

Justin edges Jeter

Prior to his big-league debut on June 10, 2003, Justin Morneau gathered with Minnesota Twins teammate Corey Koskie and Colorado Rockies star Larry Walker for an all-Canadian photo behind home plate at the Metrodome.

Afterwards Walker sent an autographed bat over to the Twins clubhouse with a message for the young phenom: "To Justin, Make Canada Proud."

The hulking 25-year-old first baseman from New Westminster, B.C., did just that Tuesday when he won the American League Most Valuable Player award in a tight vote over New York Yankees superstar Derek Jeter.

"I never asked for that, he did that on his own," Morneau said of Walker's gesture that day. "I thought that was pretty cool for a guy that's been around that long to do that for me. It's something I'll never forget."

The feat links Morneau, raised among the generation of B.C. baseball players inspired by Walker, with the star he grew up idolizing as the only Canadians to win the award in the majors. Walker was the National League MVP in 1997.

"Justin's breakthrough, his ability to get the big-leagues fast and do as well as he did, will really open up the doors for a lot of other kids to emulate him," said Ari Mellios, Morneau's coach with the North Delta Blue Jays in the B.C. Premier League in 1998 and '99. "It changes a lot of people's perceptions and attitudes toward Canadian kids."

Walker, of course, was the first player to accomplish that with his emergence as a Montreal Expos star in the early 1990s. Ryan Dempster, Jason Bay, Jeff Francis and Adam Loewen, to name a few, credit Walker for making them believe they could make a career in baseball and Morneau's award should inspire a new group of kids.

But Walker's help for Morneau went well beyond serving as a hero. At the World Baseball Classic this past spring, the Maple Ridge, B.C., native mentored Morneau as a coach. And when Morneau struggled out of the gate in April, text messages to Walker helped keep him straight.

"I'd say I don't feel that good and he'd give me something simple to try and not make me think. That was the biggest thing for him, just go up there and just hit," said Morneau. "For him to even care about what I'm doing makes you feel pretty good."

Advice came from other places, too.

Teammate Torii Hunter pressed on him to not get so down on himself when he struggled. Manager Ron Gardenhire did the same, giving him a stern talking to in an early May meeting that helped pull him from and capitalize on his vast talents.

The message eventually got through, as after a slow start in April (.208, five homers, 15 RBIs) on the heels of a disappointing 2005 that left some questioning his future, he tore up the league.

Morneau finished batting .321 with 40 homers and 130 RBIs. He became the first Twins player to hit 30 or more home runs in a season since 1987 and his 130 RBIs are the second-best in team history to Harmon Killebrew's 140 in 1969, when he won the MVP award.

"You can say he lit a fire under me maybe," Morneau of the meeting with Gardenhire. "I just felt better in my swing and all of a sudden something just clicked, I got a little confidence going and after that just kind of took off. I don't know if it was from that meeting getting me more focused and tuned in on what I needed to do on the field or not, it definitely woke me up."

The reigning MVPs in the AL, NBA (Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash of Victoria) and NHL (San Jose Sharks centre Joe Thornton of London, Ont.) are now all Canadian.

Morneau picked up 15 of the 28 first-place votes and 320 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, to finish 14 points ahead of Jeter, who had 12 first-place votes.

Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz finished third with 193 points, followed by Frank Thomas, who recently left the Oakland Athletics for the Toronto Blue Jays, and Chicago White Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye.

Morneau slept little Monday night while awaiting word on the vote and spent a tense morning at his girlfriend's Minneapolis apartment when the phone call came.

"Last night even I was saying I don't expect to get it. I might have given myself maybe a 50-50 chance," Morneau said. "I didn't want to set myself up for disappointment if I didn't get it."

Morneau is the second member of his team to win a major award this season, joining AL Cy Young Award winner Johan Santana.

"I'm putting my money on Justin Morneau," Santana said after his win last week. "Hopefully, he'll have a chance for everything he did for our team."

Morneau is returning home this weekend and will serve as Marshall for the Santa Claus Parade in New Westminster. He's also changing his off-season routine and will spend the winter in Vancouver working out with Loewen, Aaron Guiel and Adam Stern.

"I have to go out and prove myself again," said Morneau. "There's going to be a lot more eyes on me now, teams are going to be paying a little more attention and I just have to build on this year and get better."

Morneau can also now look his boyhood hero in the eye from more level footing with the MVP award on his resume. Walker was among the first to call him and congratulate him.

"He said he thought he was more excited than I was. He said, 'Just wait, it's going to be crazy, just have fun with it,"' said Morneau. "To be put next to a guy, who in my opinion should be in the Hall of Fame, the greatest Canadian position player that's ever played, to be alongside him is a real honour."

Toronto's Triumph heading for Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame

Triumph, a Toronto-based hard-rock trio formed in 1975, will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame in March 2007.

Producer David Foster will be inducted into the Hall of Fame during the same ceremony, scheduled for Canadian Music Week.

Triumph, whose hits included Never Surrender and Just One Night, was known for its hard-rock power chords and intricate light shows.

The members are guitarist/singer Rik Emmett, drummer/singer Gil Moore and bassist/keyboardist Mike Levine.

They first recorded with the independent Attic label and then caught the eye of RCA, which re-released their second album, Rock & Roll Machine.

They continued to record throughout the 1980s with Progressions of Power (1980), Allied Forces (1981), Thunder Seven (1984), Stages (1985), The Sport of Kings (1986) and Surveillance (1987).

Emmett left for a solo career in 1988 and the group continued with a new guitarist, finally splitting up in 1993. Another album, Classics, was issued in 1989 after Emmett left.

Moore is the owner of Metalworks Studios, based in Mississauga, Ont., and continues in the production end of the music business.

Levine is pursuing internet-based business interests related to the entertainment field.

Triumph will be inducted into the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame on March 10 in Toronto during the Canadian Radio Music Awards.

200,000 'Casino Royale' Bootlegs Downloaded, Says Report

From Russia with love -- and perhaps a degree of malice as well -- came the first bootleg copies of Casino Royale, the latest James Bond flick.

According to Envisional, an online company that monitors Internet piracy, a poor-quality copy of the film, apparently captured with a camcorder in a Russian theater, first popped up on Internet file-sharing sites on Friday, the day the movie opened.

But sound and picture quality were said to be poor.

However, on Saturday a higher-quality copy, uploaded in Italy, also became available. By the end of the weekend, the two copies were being spread around, and by Sunday they had been downloaded some 200,000 times, Envisional claimed.

Meanwhile the Motion Picture Association of America and the Recording Industry Association of America announced Monday that they are launching a joint campaign called Holiday Blitz aimed at fighting movie and music piracy.

The campaign will include heightened security at movie theaters to prevent camcording and a crackdown on bootleg production. The trade organizations said Monday that during last year's Holiday Blitz some 1.3 million illegal CDs and DVDs were confiscated.

O.J. Simpson project may turn up on Web

NEW YORK - The O.J. Simpson project is dead, but the book and the TV interview could turn up in bootleg form in this age of YouTube and eBay, when scandalous information seldom stays secret for long.

News Corp., owner of Fox Broadcasting and publisher HarperCollins, called off Simpson's "confession" Monday after advertisers, booksellers and even Fox personality Bill O'Reilly branded the project sick and exploitive.

A two-part interview had been scheduled to air Nov. 27 and Nov. 29 on Fox, with the book, "If I Did It," to follow on Nov. 30.

HarperCollins spokeswoman Erin Crum said some copies had already been shipped to stores but would be recalled, and all copies would be destroyed. She would not say how long that would take, although industry insiders believe several days would be needed to destroy a print run that was likely in the hundreds of thousands.

But with the interview already taped, and truckloads of books either sitting in warehouses or headed back to the publisher, Simpson's supposedly hypothetical account of how he would have committed the murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman appears all but certain to surface.

"A book becomes collectible when it's hard to find, and this will become very, very collectible, surely worth four figures," said Richard Davies, a spokesman for AbeBooks.com, an online seller that specializes in used and collectible books.

Steve Ross, senior vice president and publisher of the Crown Publishing Group, said tens of thousands of returned books are destroyed every day.

But it's entirely possible that the Simpson TV interview will get out in some form, said Jeff Jarvis, operator of the BuzzMachine Web log and a journalism professor at City University of New York.

"All life is on the record now," he said. "Anything you can do can get out there and get out there quickly."

The Simpson book will also almost certainly remain underground, with another publisher unlikely to take on "If I Did It."

Even Michael Viner, whose previous releases include a memoir by disgraced New York Times reporter Jayson Blair and a tell-all by four Hollywood call girls, said his Beverly Hills-based Phoenix Books was not interested.

"It's the public equivalent of doing a snuff film," said Viner, referring to films that claim to show a person being killed. "People can make money by doing snuff films, but no one wants to be associated with it."

The Simpson saga took another twist Tuesday when his former sister-in-law, Denise Brown, accused News Corp. of trying to buy her family's silence for millions of dollars.

A News Corp. spokesman confirmed that the company had conversations with representatives of the Brown and Goldman families over the past week and said that they were offered all profits from the book and TV show, but he denied it was hush money.

"There were no strings attached," News Corp. spokesman Andrew Butcher said.

Denise Brown told NBC's "Today" show that her family's response was: "Absolutely not."

"They wanted to offer us millions of dollars. Millions of dollars for, like, 'Oh, I'm sorry' money. But they were still going to air the show," Brown said. "We just thought, `Oh my god.' What they're trying to do is trying to keep us quiet, trying to make this like hush money, trying to go around the civil verdict, giving us this money to keep our mouths shut."

Pre-publication sales for "If I Did It," had been strong but not exceptional. It cracked the top 20 of Amazon.com last weekend, but by Monday afternoon, at the time its elimination was announced, the book had fallen to No. 51.

Clarkson, Rascal Flatts win big at AMAs

LOS ANGELES - The Black Eyed Peas, Kelly Clarkson, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rascal Flatts were double-winners Tuesday at the 2006 American Music Awards.

The Black Eyed Peas were named favorite group in the rap/hip hop and soul/rhythm & blues categories. Clarkson captured trophies for pop/rock female and adult contemporary artist, categories presented before the televised presentations began in the performance-filled show.

Red Hot Chili Peppers were named favorite alternative artist and favorite pop/rock group. Rascal Flatts won favorite country group and the T-Mobile Text-In award, which is chosen by fans.

Blige accepted the female soul/rhythm & blues artist award from surprise presenter Britney Spears.

The newly single Spears looked sleek in a knee-length cream-colored frock and long blond hair.

Oscar winner Jamie Foxx was named favorite male soul/rhythm & blues artist.

"I'm like a rookie in this music thing," he said. "This means a lot more than you think, man."

Foxx wore a white tuxedo and sat behind a grand piano to perform "Wish U Were Here" from his 2005 album, "Unpredictable."

Nickelback took home the trophy for pop/rock album. Dancehall singer Sean Paul was named favorite male artist in the category.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers accepted their awards via satellite from London, with bass player Flea beat-boxing as lead singer Anthony Kiedis thanked "the American people." The Black Eyed Peas also accepted their awards from abroad, thanking fans via satellite from Costa Rica.

Among country honors, favorite female artist went to Faith Hill and Tim McGraw's "Greatest Hits Volume 2" was favorite album. Country singer and American Idol Carrie Underwood was named favorite new breakthrough artist.

Eminem was favorite male rap/hip-hop artist. Shakira won favorite Latin artist and Kirk Franklin captured the award for contemporary inspirational music.

"I know that a lot of people that say that they're Christians — you know, we don't always represent, and we don't always live it and we do sometimes some very stupid things, and you know we're not doing a good job," said Franklin, wearing blue jeans with a black velvet tuxedo jacket. "I want to make sure that when you see my life that it's a life that I'm gonna be proud of."

Talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel kicked off the three-hour ceremony at the Shrine Auditorium, televised live on ABC, with a skit that placed Spears' ex, Kevin Federline, into a wooden crate dumped into the ocean. Kimmel cracked that Federline was the world's first "no-hit wonder."

Beyonce began the show, belting out her single "Irreplaceable" while vamping around the stage in a sparkly sequined minidress. The Pussycat Dolls also chose sequins for their performance, while Nelly Furtado opted for a skin-tight white dress and stick-straight hair.

Gwen Stefani made a stylish return to the music scene, performing the single "Wind It Up" from her forthcoming album, "The Sweet Escape." The new mom, wearing a skimpy sequined shift and a shoulder-length platinum bob, yodeled and rapped convincingly throughout the tune.

Not to be outdone, rapper Jay-Z stepped out of retirement and back into the spotlight, accompanied by scantily clad dancers as he performed the single "Show Me What You Got" from his new record, "Kingdom Come."

Lionel Richie made a festive return to the American Music Awards. Introduced by his diminutive daughter, Nicole Richie, the former Commodore performed a medley that included his '80s party anthem, "All Night Long."

Barry Manilow performed a medley of favorites from his latest collection, "The Greatest Songs of the Sixties."

Some awards were announced off camera before the broadcast presentations.

The American Music Awards honor the best in pop/rock, country, soul/rhythm & blues, rap/hip hop, Latin, alternative, adult contemporary and contemporary inspirational music. Nominees were chosen based on record sales and winners were selected by a survey of about 20,000 listeners.

Hathaway eyes 'Get Smart' role

Anne Hathaway is in negotiations to take the female lead in the big screen version of "Get Smart."

Star Steve Carell has been attached to the Peter Segal-directed project for a long time and production is finally expected to begin in March.

According to Variety, Hathaway ("The Princess Diaries") is close to signing on to play Agent 99 opposite Carell's Maxwell Smart. The parts were played by Barbara Feldon and Don Adams in the original television series, which was created by Mel Brooks and Buck Henry.

The latest incarnation of the "Get Smart" script was written by "Failure to Launch" scribes Tom Astle and Matt Ember.

After appearing last winter in the Oscar-winning drama "Brokeback Mountain," Hathaway had a surprise smash this summer with "The Devil Wears Prada."

Film director Robert Altman dies

LOS ANGELES - Robert Altman, the caustic and irreverent satirist behind "M-A-S-H," "Nashville" and "The Player" who made a career out of bucking Hollywood management and story conventions, died at a Los Angeles Hospital, his Sandcastle 5 Productions Company said Tuesday. He was 81.

The director died Monday night, Joshua Astrachan, a producer at Altman's Sandcastle 5 Productions in New York City, told The Associated Press.

The cause of death wasn't disclosed. A news release was expected later in the day, Astrachan said.

A five-time Academy Award nominee for best director, most recently for 2001's "Gosford Park," he finally won a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2006.

"No other filmmaker has gotten a better shake than I have," Altman said while accepting the award. "I'm very fortunate in my career. I've never had to direct a film I didn't choose or develop. My love for filmmaking has given me an entree to the world and to the human condition."

Altman had one of the most distinctive styles among modern filmmakers. He often employed huge ensemble casts, encouraged improvisation and overlapping dialogue and filmed scenes in long tracking shots that would flit from character to character.

Perpetually in and out of favor with audiences and critics, Altman worked ceaselessly since his anti-war black comedy "M-A-S-H" established his reputation in 1970, but he would go for years at a time directing obscure movies before roaring back with a hit.

After a string of commercial duds including "The Gingerbread Man" in 1998, "Cookie's Fortune" in 1999 and "Dr. T & the Women" in 2000, Altman took his all-American cynicism to Britain for 2001's "Gosford Park."

A combination murder-mystery and class-war satire set among snobbish socialites and their servants on an English estate in the 1930s, "Gosford Park" was Altman's biggest box-office success since "M-A-S-H."

Besides best-director, "Gosford Park" earned six other Oscar nominations, including best picture and best supporting actress for both Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith. It won the original-screenplay Oscar, and Altman took the best-director prize at the Golden Globes for "Gosford Park."

Altman's other best-director Oscar nominations came for "M-A-S-H," the country-music saga "Nashville" from 1975, the movie-business satire "The Player" from 1992 and the ensemble character study "Short Cuts" from 1993. He also earned a best-picture nomination as producer of "Nashville."

No director ever got more best-director nominations without winning a regular Oscar, though four other men — Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese, Clarence Brown and King Vidor — tied with Altman at five.

In May, Altman brought out "A Prairie Home Companion," with Garrison Keillor starring as the announcer of a folksy musical show — with the same name as Keillor's own long-running show — about to be shut down by new owners. Among those in the cast were Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Kevin Kline, Woody Harrelson and Tommy Lee Jones.

"This film is about death," Altman said at a May 3 news conference in St. Paul, Minn., also attended by Keillor and many of the movie's stars.

He often took on Hollywood genres with a revisionist's eye, de-romanticizing the Western hero in 1971's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller" and 1976's "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson," the film-noir gumshoe in 1973's "The Long Goodbye" and outlaw gangsters in "Thieves Like Us."

"M-A-S-H" was Altman's first big success after years of directing television, commercials, industrial films and generally unremarkable feature films. The film starring Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould was set during the Korean War but was Altman's thinly veiled attack on U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

"That was my intention entirely. If you look at that film, there's no mention of what war it is," Altman said in an Associated Press interview in 2001, adding that the studio made him put a disclaimer at the beginning to identify the setting as Korea.

"Our mandate was bad taste. If anybody had a joke in the worst taste, it had a better chance of getting into the film, because nothing was in worse taste than that war itself," Altman said.

The film spawned the long-running TV sitcom starring Alan Alda, a show Altman would refer to with distaste as "that series." Unlike the social message of the film, the series was prompted by greed, Altman said.

"They made millions and millions of dollars by bringing an Asian war into Americans' homes every Sunday night," Altman said in 2001. "I thought that was the worst taste."

Altman never minced words about reproaching Hollywood. After the Sept. 11 attacks, he said Hollywood served as a source of inspiration for the terrorists by making violent action movies that amounted to training films for such attacks.

"Nobody would have thought to commit an atrocity like that unless they'd seen it in a movie," Altman said.

Altman was written off repeatedly by the Hollywood establishment, and his reputation for arrogance and hard drinking — a habit he eventually gave up — hindered his efforts to raise money for his idiosyncratic films.

While critical of studio executives, Altman held actors in the highest esteem. He joked that on "Gosford Park," he was there mainly to turn the lights on and off for the performers.

The respect was mutual. Top-name actors would clamor for even bit parts in his films. Altman generally worked on shoestring budgets, yet he continually landed marquee performers who signed on for a fraction of their normal salaries.

After the mid-1970s, the quality of Altman's films became increasingly erratic. His 1980 musical "Popeye," with Robin Williams, was trashed by critics, and Altman took some time off from film.

He directed the Broadway production of "Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean," following it with a movie adaptation in 1982. Altman went back and forth from TV to theatrical films over the next decade, but even when his films earned critical praise, such as 1990's "Vincent & Theo," they remained largely unseen.

"The Player" and "Short Cuts" re-established Altman's reputation and commercial viability. But other 1990s films — including his fashion-industry farce "Ready to Wear" and "Kansas City," his reverie on the 1930s jazz and gangster scene of his hometown — fell flat.

Born Feb. 20, 1925, Altman hung out in his teen years at the jazz clubs of Kansas City, Mo., where his father was an insurance salesman.

Altman was a bomber pilot in World War II and studied engineering at the University of Missouri in Columbia before taking a job making industrial films in Kansas City. He moved into feature films with "The Delinquents" in 1957, then worked largely in television through the mid 1960s, directing episodes of such series as "Bonanza" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents."

Altman and his wife, Kathryn, had two sons, Robert and Matthew, and he had a daughter, Christine, and two other sons, Michael and Stephen, from two previous marriages.

When he received his honorary Oscar in 2006, Altman revealed he had a heart transplant a decade earlier.

"I didn't make a big secret out of it, but I thought nobody would hire me again," he said after the ceremony. "You know, there's such a stigma about heart transplants, and there's a lot of us out there."

Beatles project a labour of Love

Famed Beatle producer's son had no idea where remixing Fab Four songs would take him, or whether anyone would approve of the result

You might expect the son of legendary Beatles producer George Martin to treat the Fab Four's master recordings with kid gloves.

But not Giles Martin, who worked with his 80-year-old father on experimental remixes of existing recordings made by the Liverpool foursome at Abbey Road for the 'new' Beatles record, LOVE, which hits stores today.

"It's funny. The Beatles didn't really mean much to me as a kid -- at all -- because I was born in the wrong era," said Martin, 37, while in Toronto recently for an invitation-only playback of the 26-track LOVE.

"I didn't really hear the White Album until I was 22. When you're a teenager you kind of rebel against your parents anyway. And my dad, at the time, wasn't against the Beatles, but wanted to move on from that. It's only now, it's only recently, for him -- and I think for the Beatles as well -- that they can look back on this era and say, 'That's when they were at their peak.' It's a remarkable seven years of imagination and collaboration and inspiration. It really was."

The genesis of LOVE was to provide the soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas show of the same name at The Mirage, which opened earlier this year.

Although some Beatles fans might consider it sacriligious to fiddle with Fab Four songs, Martin said his job was to "change things."

"They wanted to do something that was different, which is very Beatles in a way, so that's what I was employed to do," said Martin, whose early production credits include albums for Kulashaker, Monorail and Hayley Westenra. "I just thought I was going to get fired while I was doing it. I'm surprised it got as far as it did."

Martin said it was quite nerve-wracking when he first played a 25-minute demo of Beatles remixes for Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono.

"I probably knew Paul best, but I was most wary of Paul just playing things to him, 'cause he's a great musician -- and not that Ringo isn't, or Yoko or Olivia don't care.

"They heard the first demo we did, and they really liked it. And I don't think they really believed that it was ever going to fully reach its full course. But they loved the idea of it. And my risk involved was upsetting them. And upsetting my dad. So the nervous thing wasn't actually doing it. The nervous thing was letting it go. I thought I was going to be absolutely (criticized) for it. And I probably still will be."

Strangely enough, Martin was born in 1969, the same year The Beatles were breaking up, and he shares Lennon's birthday -- Oct. 9.

"(Lennon) turned around to my dad and said, 'Now you know what kind of a--hole he's going to turn out to be!'" Martin said with a smile. "I found it really interesting to talk to Yoko, actually. I didn't know Yoko very well before this project. I now know her quite well. And she's a fascinating woman, she really is. But you know she's very, very, very intelligent and she knows her stuff. And the same with Paul. You can't get anything by them."

In the end, Martin is most proud of the musicianship that LOVE evokes. Some songs are drastically remixed, with snippets of other Beatles tunes inserted in a collage effect, while others sound largely unchanged.

"You hear the complexity of what they're doing, linked at the same time, with the fact that they were the world's greatest pop band," Martin said. "And I don't like all the history side of it because, I suppose, of my dad being who he is. I find it a bit boring, I suppose, in a way. And what really interests me was the fact that they were a good band."

'Casino Royale' tops Canadian box office

While the animated penguins of Happy Feet beat out Bond in the US, it was a different story in Canada. Casino Royale more than doubled the take of Feet, earning $5.2 million over the weekend.

Royale, the 21st James Bond film and the first featuring new lead Daniel Craig, grossed a total of $46.8 million in North America and $96.5 worldwide.

Back in Canada, the aforementioned Happy Feet earned $2.4 million, to place at a distant second.

In third place, the reality-comedy Borat took in $1.9 million, and has earned $11.3 million in three weeks of theatrical release.

On November 22, wide-release openings include Denzel Washington in Deja Vu, Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick in Deck the Halls, Hugh Jackman in The Fountain and Jack Black in Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny.

On November 23, Emilio Estevez's Bobby opens in over 1,600 screens.

All box office figures provided are estimates provided by film studios for the weekend of November 17-19, 2006. All grosses in Canadian dollars unless noted. Generally speaking, studios earn about 55 percent of a film's gross.

1 - Casino Royale - 5,236,603 (Total gross - 5,236,603)

2 - Happy Feet - 2,457,969 (Total gross - 2,457,969)

3 - Borat - 1,961,498 (Total gross - 11,386,270)

4 - The Santa Clause 3 - 857,552 (Total gross - 4,185,454)

5 - Stranger than Fiction - 688,631 (Total gross - 2,480,561)

6 - Flushed Away - 599,580 (Total gross - 3,608,264)

7 - Babel - 415,766 (Total gross - 1,710,232)

8 - The Queen - 307,380 (Total gross - 3,239,243)

9 - The Prestige - 261,972 (Total gross - 5,763,562)

10 - The Departed - 223,374 (Total gross - 11,389,090)

Slight Delay for Get Smart

We've already received a few emails from customers that preordered Get Smart from Time-Life asking why the set has been delayed until next week. We called our contact over there to find out, and he gave us the low-down on what caused the delay.

The sets are comprised of three pieces; the cardboard digipak, the plastic "O" case that goes over the digipack, and the cardboard box that holds all 5 sets. When Time-Life got all the pieces together they noticed that the 5 sets had a tight fit to get into the box, and this caused the front of the sets to bow a bit. They looked into it further and discovered the company that printed the plastic "O" case used a slightly thicker plastic, and this was causing the problems. The cases have been reprinted, but now they have to be assembled before the sets can ship, so the shipping date was moved back a week.

It's too bad there's a delay for the set, but at least this glitch was caught before the sets shipped out and people complained that they didn't fit in the box properly. I can verify that the sets are tight once my phone booth box arrives; I have the thicker plastic on my sets.

The set can only be ordered directly from Time-Life, and will now ship next Tuesday, November 21.

Dr. Who to Appear on TV's "Heroes"

IMDB.com reports that Christopher Eccleston, who previously was the lead in Doctor Who, will be joining the cast of NBC's popular show, Heroes.

The actor won't say what part he will be playing but there is speculation that he will play the part of Syler, a serial killer whose identity has not yet been revealed.

A show insider told the Daily Star, "Chris is a fantastic actor and we're delighted to have him on board. No one has seen Syler and Christopher could be perfect as the bad guy."

New Releases, Nov. 21: Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, U2

Jay-Z "Kingdom Come"

Merriam-Webster defines retirement as "withdrawal from one's position or occupation or from active working life." That's not, however, how many pop stars (see KISS, Cher, Barbra Streisand, etc.) define the word.

Jay-Z is the latest celeb to put retirement on hold. The rapper returns to action with the release of "Kingdom Come," a work that features the hit single "Show Me What You Got."

The hip-hop mogul kicked off a promotional campaign in support of the new CD on Saturday (11/18) by performing concerts in seven cities in just 17 hours.

* * *
Snoop Dogg "Tha Blue Carpet Treatment"

It seems like hardly a day goes by without Snoop Dogg in the news. Recently, he's made headlines for being busted on charges of drugs and weapon possession at California airports. Then came word that official Snoop Dogg pet products will be sold on Amazon.com (great idea--why'd it take so long?).

Now, the man born Calvin Broadus will attempt to make news with something musical as he releases "Tha Blue Carpet Treatment." The album finds Snoop back in the lab (finally) with old partner Dr. Dre. The dynamic duo collaborated on three new tracks, ending a nearly five-year drought in Snoop-Dre works.

* * *
U2 "18 Singles"

The legendary Irish band releases the first single-disc set to collect singles from its entire 26-year career, which began with 1980's "Boy" and has continued through 2004's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." The disc houses 16 past hits, including "With or Without You," "New Year's Day" and "Mysterious Ways." It also features two new songs: "Window in the Skies" and "The Saints are Coming" (recorded with Green Day).

* * *
Il Divo "Siempre"

The platinum-selling vocal quartet returns with another batch of classical-crossover tunes. One of the more interesting numbers on "Siempre" is sure to be the lead-off track, a cover of the Moody Blues' classic "Nights in White Satin." Moody Blues fans might not like the rendition, but the Moodies will surely dig it--especially once the royalty checks start streaming in.

* * *
Sufjan Stevens "Songs for Christmas"

There have been a number of unexpected holiday-music offerings this season--including discs by Twisted Sister and Bootsy Collins. Add to that list "Songs for Christmas," a five-CD box set from indie-pop sensation Sufjan Stevens. The collection features many familiar yuletide classics, including "Silent Night," "We Three Kings" and "The Little Drummer Boy."

* * *
Other new releases:
The Beatles, "Love" (Capitol)
Brand New, "The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me" (Interscope)
Daughtry, "Daughtry" (RCA)
The Doors, "Perception" (Rhino)
Kenny G, "I'm in the Mood For Love ... The Most Romantic Melodies of All Time" (Arista)
Great Big Sea, "Courage & Patience & Grit--Great Big Sea in Concert" (Zoe)
Killswitch Engage, "As Daylight Dies" (Roadrunner)
KISS, "Alive! 1975-2000" (Island)
Loreena McKennitt, "An Ancient Muse" (Verve)
Oasis, "Stop the Clocks" (Sony)
Robert Plant, "Nine Lives" (Rhino)
Rammstein, "Voelkerball: Bildband" (Universal)
RBD, "Celestial" (EMI)
2pac, "Pac's Life" (Interscope)
Tom Waits, "Orphans" (Anti)

The Sopranos Goes Long

The Sopranos won't be sleeping with the fishes as soon as we thought.

HBO plans to air an extra episode of the series after creator David Chase and his fellow producers decided that eight wasn't enough to tie up all the loose ends of the seminal mobster drama before it goes to the great Bada Bing in the sky, a network rep confirmed.

"They going to give it a bonus episode, so fans are getting a bit of a holiday gift," HBO spokesman Quentin Schaffer tells E! Online. "They were originally going to do eight, but David Chase wanted the added episode to tell the story, and we obviously said, 'Sure.' "

The extra episode was green-lighted "several weeks ago," Schaffer says, adding that shooting is complete on the first six episodes.

Castmember Steve Schirripa, who plays Bobby "Bacala" Baccaleri, the husband of Tony's sister Janice, first broke the news about the surprise ninth episode to Celebrity Week at last weekend's Comedy Festival in Las Vegas. The actor, a Las Vegas native, also revealed that his character has so far avoided getting whacked.

With The Sopranos' small-screen goombas preparing for their collective swan song, Schirripa isn't about to go quietly, telling the online magazine he's currently developing a late-night talk-show pilot for Fox. Several other castmembers have deals in the works as well, including mob boss James Gandolfini, who has inked a development deal with HBO.

The Sopranos' final season is slated to begin airing Apr. 8, with the extension meaning the series finale airs in early June.

And for those who can't get enough of The Sopranos, Gandolfini and the rest of his crew have lent their voices to Sopranos: The Road to Respect, a videogame for PlayStation 2 that hit stores two weeks ago. (A version for the Xbox 360 is slated to be released early next year.)

Peter Jackson dropped from "Hobbit" film: letter

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Where is Frodo when you need him? Director Peter Jackson has been told he will not be hired to direct a movie based on J.R.R. Tolkien novel "The Hobbit," despite the nearly $3 billion global box office success of his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, according to a letter Jackson wrote to fan site TheOneRing.net.

The trilogy of movies is based on Tolkien's fantastic tale of an epic war among wizards, sorcerers, elves, villainous orcs and friendly little hobbits of whom the novel's hero, Frodo, is one. It is Frodo who eventually saves the day. "The Hobbit" is a fairy tale-like story that Tolkien wrote before the "Rings" trilogy.

In Jackson's letter, which was posted on the Web site late on Sunday, the director said last week a top executive with Los Angeles-based New Line Cinema called him to say the studio was moving ahead on "The Hobbit" movie without Jackson.

"This was a courtesy call to let us know that the studio was now actively looking to hire another filmmaker," Jackson wrote.

A spokesman for New Line declined to comment citing company policy, and a Los Angeles representative for New Zealand-based Jackson was not immediately available.

Chris Pirrotta, co-founder of TheOneRing.net, said the fan site has a long-running relationship with Jackson. Since posting the letter, he said the site has received some 100,000 visitors, far above the more normal 15,000 per day.

"They are very upset," Pirrotta told Reuters. "We are seeing calls for everything from letter writing campaigns to a boycott of the studio."

New Line and Jackson's production company, Wingnut Films, are currently embroiled in a lawsuit over income from 2001's "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," which is the first film in the trilogy.

In his letter, Jackson said he and his producing partners have refused to discuss a "Hobbit" film until the lawsuit is settled, and he added that New Line informed him the studio had limited time to make the film so it must move on.

"Given that New Line are committed to this course of action, we felt at the very least, we owed you, the fans, a straightforward account of events as they have unfolded for us," Jackson wrote.

The other two films in the trilogy are 2002's "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" and 2003's final installment, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," which earned 11 Oscars including best film and best director.

New Line is a unit of New York-based media company Time Warner Inc.

Richards apologizes for racial slurs

LOS ANGELES - Michael Richards said Monday he spewed racial epithets during a stand-up comedy routine because he lost his cool while being heckled and not because he's a bigot.

"For me to be at a comedy club and flip out and say this crap, I'm deeply, deeply sorry," the former "Seinfeld" co-star said during a satellite appearance for David Letterman's "Late Show" in New York.

"I'm not a racist. That's what's so insane about this," Richards said, his tone becoming angry and frustrated as he defended himself. A clip from the show played on CBS before the "Late Show" aired Monday night.

Richards described himself as going into "a rage" over the two audience members who interrupted his act Friday at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood. Richards responded to the black hecklers with repeated use of the "n word" and profanities.

Jerry Seinfeld, who had issued a statement saying he was "sick over this horrible, horrible mistake" and calling it offensive, was scheduled as a Letterman guest Monday. He encouraged Richards to make a satellite appearance to talk about the incident, a CBS publicist said.

Richards deserved the chance to apologize, Seinfeld said on the "Late Show." Seinfeld said, "He's someone that I love, and I know how shattered he is about" the incident.

At one point, however, Richards grew flustered and expressed second thoughts about appearing on the "Late Show" when his use of the term "Afro-American" proved funny to some audience members.

"I'm hearing your audience laugh, and I'm not even sure that this is where I should be addressing the situation," he said in a tape of his appearance shown by CBS to reporters.

Richards, 57, who played Seinfeld's eccentric neighbor Kramer on the hit 1989-98 sitcom and whose major credit since was a failed 2000 comedy, hadn't spoken publicly about his remarks before "Late Show." Calls to his representatives were not returned Monday.

His onstage remarks were condemned by industry colleagues.

Comedian Paul Rodriguez, who was at the Laugh Factory during Richards' performance, said he was shocked.

"Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don't happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining," Rodriguez told CNN. "Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations."

His Laugh Factory tirade began after the two clubgoers shouted at him that he wasn't funny. Video of the incident was posted on TMZ.com.

Richards retorted: "Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f------ fork up your a--."

He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.

"You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now mother------. Throw his a-- out. He's a n-----!" Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.

Moderating his tone at one point, Richards tells the audience, "It shocks you, it shocks you" and refers to "what lays buried."

While there is some chuckling in the audience throughout the outburst, someone can be heard gasping "Oh my God" and people respond with "ooh" after Richards uses the n-word.

Eventually someone calls out: "It's not funny. That's why you're a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies. 'Seinfeld,' that's it."

On Monday, about a half-dozen community activists gathered at the club to denounce Richards' remarks and demand an apology.

"These kind of comments hurt all of us," said protester Lita Sister Herron of the Youth Advocacy Coalition. She called Richards' comments hate speech.

The protesters also demanded an apology from the Laugh Factory. At a news conference a short time later, club owner Jamie Masada expressed remorse and said Richards will not be back at the club until he says he's sorry.

"This is one thing we don't tolerate. ... I personally apologize. I apologize from my heart," Masada said Monday.

Richards did appear at the club Saturday, without incident, but that was because he had told the club he intended to apologize, according to a Laugh Factory statement Monday.

Rodriguez, also at the news conference, said: "I kept expecting a punch line. It didn't come."

Veteran publicist Michael Levine, whose clients have included comedians George Carlin, Sam Kinison and Rodney Dangerfield, called Richards' remarks inexcusable. Comics often face hecklers without losing their cool, he said.

"I've never seen anything like this in my life," Levine said Monday. "I think it's a career ruiner for him. ... It's going to be a long road back for him, if at all."

Daryl Pitts, a Laugh Factory audience member interviewed by CNN, compared the incident to another recent celebrity controversy.

"You think about Mel Gibson and what he said, and put that in the context of this, it's very upsetting," Pitts said, referring to Gibson's anti-Semitic outburst during his arrest for drunken driving.

Scrutiny of Richards' remarks likely will continue but won't match the level prompted by Gibson's behavior because Richards is far less famous, Levine said.

Comedian George Lopez told Los Angeles television station KTLA that he thought Richards' lack of stand-up experience may have been a factor.

"The question is you have an actor who is trying to be a comedian who doesn't know what to do when an audience is disruptive," Lopez said. "He's an actor whose show has been off the air, he shouldn't ever be on a stand-up gig."

Richards has angry outburst at club

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A barrage of racial epithets unleashed by former Seinfeld star Michael Richards during a stand-up comedy routine drew condemnation from Richards' industry colleagues.

Comedian Paul Rodriguez, who was at the Laugh Factory in West Hollywood on Friday when Richards responded to two black hecklers with the "n" word and profanities, said he was shocked by Richards' remarks.

"Once the word comes out of your mouth and you don't happen to be African-American, then you have a whole lot of explaining," Rodriguez told CNN. "Freedom of speech has its limitations and I think Michael Richards found those limitations."

Jerry Seinfeld issued a statement saying he was "sick over this."

"I'm sure Michael is also sick over this horrible, horrible mistake. It is so extremely offensive. I feel terrible for all the people who have been hurt," Seinfeld said of Richards, 57, who played eccentric Kramer on the hit 1989-98 sitcom and whose major credit since was the failed 2000 comedy series, The Michael Richards Show.

Calls to Richards' representatives were not returned Monday.

His Laugh Factory tirade began after the two clubgoers shouted at him that he wasn't funny. A videotape of the incident was posted on TMZ.com.

Richards retorted: "Shut up! Fifty years ago we'd have you upside down with a f——— fork up your a—."

He then paced across the stage taunting the men for interrupting his show, peppering his speech with racial slurs and profanities.

"You can talk, you can talk, you're brave now mother———. Throw his a— out. He's a n——-!" Richards shouts before repeating the racial epithet over and over again.

Moderating his tone at one point, Richards tells the audience: "It shocks you. It shocks you" and refers to "what lays buried."

While there is some chuckling in the audience throughout the outburst, someone can be heard gasping "Oh my God" and people respond with "ooh" after Richards uses the n-word.

Eventually someone calls out: "It's not funny. That's why you're a reject, never had no shows, never had no movies. Seinfeld, that's it."

On Monday, about a half-dozen community activists gathered at the club to denounce Richards' remarks and demand an apology.

"These kind of comments hurt all of us," said protester Lita Sister Herron of the Youth Advocacy Coalition. She called Richards' comments hate speech.

The protesters also demanded an apology from the Laugh Factory. At a news conference a short time later, club owner Jamie Masada expressed remorse and said Richards will not be back at the club until he says he's sorry.

"This is one thing we don't tolerate. ... I personally apologize. I apologize from my heart," Masada said Monday.

Richards did appear at the club Saturday, without incident, but that was because he had told the club he intended to apologize, according to a Laugh Factory statement Monday.

Rodriguez, also at the news conference, said: "I kept expecting a punch line. It didn't come."

Veteran publicist Michael Levine, whose clients have included famed comedians George Carlin, Sam Kinison and Rodney Dangerfield, called Richards' remarks inexcusable. Comics often face hecklers without losing their cool, he said.

"It's never seen anything like this is my life," Levine said Monday. "I think it's a career ruiner for him. ... It's going to be a long road back for him, if at all."

Daryl Pitts, a Laugh Factory audience member interviewed by CNN, compared the incident to another recent celebrity controversy.

"You think about Mel Gibson and what he said, and put that in the context of this, it's very upsetting," Pitts said, referring to Gibson's anti-Semitic outburst during his arrest for drunken driving.

Scrutiny of Richards' remarks likely will continue but won't match the level prompted by Gibson's behavior because Richards is far less famous, Levine said.

Comedian George Lopez told Los Angeles television station KTLA that he thought Richards' lack of stand-up experience may have been a factor.

"The question is you have an actor who is trying to be a comedian who doesn't know what to do when an audience is disruptive," Lopez said. "He's an actor whose show has been off the air, he shouldn't ever be on a stand-up gig."

O.J. Simpson book, TV special canceled

NEW YORK - After a firestorm of criticism, News. Corp. said Monday that it has canceled the O.J. Simpson book and TV special "If I Did It."

"I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson."

A dozen Fox affiliates had already said they would not air the two-part sweeps month special, planned for next week before the Nov. 30 publication of the book by ReganBooks. The publishing house is a HarperCollins imprint owned — like the Fox network — by News Corp.

In both the book and show, Simpson speaks in hypothetical terms about how he would have committed the 1994 slayings of his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Goldman.

Relatives of the victims have lashed out at the now scuttled publication and broadcast plans.

"He destroyed my son and took from my family Ron's future and life. And for that I'll hate him always and find him despicable," Fred Goldman told ABC last week.

The industry trade publication Broadcasting & Cable editorialized against the show Monday, saying "Fox should cancel this evil sweeps stunt."

One of the nation's largest superstore chains, Borders Group Inc., said last week it would donate any profits on the book to charity.

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murder in a case that became its own TV drama. The former football star and announcer was later found liable for the deaths in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the Goldman family.

Judith Regan, publisher of "If I Did It," said she considered the book to be Simpson's confession.

The television special was to air on two of the final three nights of the November sweeps, when ratings are watched closely to set local advertising rates. It has been a particularly tough fall for Fox, which has seen none of its new shows catch on and is waiting for the January bows of "American Idol" and "24."

The closest precedent for such an about-face came when CBS yanked a miniseries about Ronald Reagan from its schedule in 2003 when complaints were raised about its accuracy. The Reagan series was seen on its sister premium-cable channel, Showtime, instead.

One station manager who had said he wasn't airing the special said he was concerned that whether or not Simpson was guilty, he'd still be profiting from murders.

"I have my own moral compass and this was easy," said Bill Lamb, general manager of WDRB in Louisville.

For the publishing industry, the cancellation of "If I Did It" was an astonishing end to a story like no other. Numerous books have been withdrawn over the years because of possible plagiarism, most recently Kaavya Viswanathan's "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life," but a book's removal simply for objectionable content is virtually unheard of.

Sales had been strong, but not sensational. "If I Did It" cracked the top 20 of Amazon.com last weekend, but by Monday afternoon, at the time its cancellation had been announced, the book had fallen to No. 51.

Lions upend Alouettes to win Grey Cup

WINNIPEG (CP) - Paul McCallum kicked a record six field goals as the British Columbia Lions defeated the Montreal Alouettes 25-14 to claim the Grey Cup in a defensive battle Sunday.

Ian Smart had a touchdown for the Lions, the CFL's best team in the regular season, who won their fifth Grey Cup and their first since they beat Montreal in the 2000 championship game.

''I can't even describe it, it's just feels so good,'' Lions receiver Geroy Simon, the CFL's most outstanding player who made four catches for 41 yards, told CBC. ''They did as great job of covering me, but we knew our big guys were going to step up and make some plays, they did a great job.''

Robert Edwards ran in a TD for the Alouettes, but fumbled on the one-yard line to kill a late comeback attempt with 4:06 left in the game. Otis Floyd recovered for B.C.

Damon Duval booted a field goal and the defence forced two safeties for Montreal, which was in its fifth Grey Cup in seven years and remains with only a win in 2002 to show for it.

McCallum, named the game's outstanding Canadian, tied a record for Grey Cup games shared by three other kickers, including his kicking coach Don Sweet, who booted six in 1977, Hamilton's Paul Osbaldiston in 1986 and Edmonton's Edmonton's Sean Fleming in 1993.

''The guys did really well, they got me in position I just did my job,'' McCallum told CBC. ''I don't know what to say it hasn't really sunk in yet.''

In a losing cause Montreal's Anthony Calvillo was 20-of-41 for 234 yards, pushing his career yardage total in the championship game to 1,468 yards. That broke Doug Flutie's record of 1,421.

And slotback Ben Cahoon made 11 receptions to break Als great Hal Patterson's record of 29 career Grey Cup catches, upping it to 31.

A full house of 44,786 turned out in clear, -3 C cold to see a game that unfolded as predicted - a clear B.C. win.

The Lions entered the game as seven-point favourites and showed it in a dominant first half in which Montreal only twice moved the ball into B.C. territory.

But the Alouettes defence limited first-half damage to a 19-3 Lions lead on Smart's TD and four McCallum field goals. Paris Jackson caught five passes for 65 yards and Ryan Thelwell had four for 39 yards in the opening 30 minutes alone.

Lions quarterback Dave Dickenson - named the game's outstanding player after going 18-for-129 yards for 184 yards and ran for 53 more - led a long opening drive that resulted in a 34-yard McCallum field goal and then took his team from his own 18 into range for a 35-yard McCallum boot.

''I was going to do what it takes,'' Dickenson told CBC. ''We deserved this.''

CFL outstanding rookie Aaron Hunt forced a Calvillo fumble at the Montreal 23, setting up yet another McCallum field goal.

Smart scored the game's first TD on a 25-yard run untouched around the left side 4:12 into the second quarter.

''This is a very emotional night and an emotional game for me,'' Smart told CBC. ''Yhis is a team that let me go early in the season, they told me I wasn't good enough so I felt like I had something to prove.''

Montreal finally got into the B.C. end midway through the quarter, Duval's 46-yard attempt was wide left. On Montreal's next possession, Duval was good from 43 yards to put Montreal on the board.

Dickenson led a final drive for a 30-yard field goal as time expired in the half.

The Montreal defence returned with renewed resolve in the second half and momentum shifted as it forced a Dickenson fumble at the Als' 46 that stood up after a challenge and video review.

The offence was stopped, but Duval angled a punt out at the B.C. one and two plays later, McCallum conceded a safety at 8:47.

Getting the ball back, Calvillo led his best drive to that point and Edwards scored on a two-yard run to cut B.C.'s lead to seven points.

The Lions are 5-4 in Grey Cup games while the Alouettes are 5-10. B.C coach Wally Buono, going against Grey Cup rookie Jim Popp, improved his record in championship games to 4-4.

It was a fifth trip in seven years to the Grey Cup game for the Alouettes, but their only win was in 2002 in Edmonton. The Lions lost a Grey Cup to Toronto in 2004.

As they have done often this season, the Lions used all three quarterbacks, with backups Buck Pierce and Jarious Jackson going in for short running plays.

There was some nastiness before the game as Montreal's Avon Cobourne and B.C.'s Floyd got into a jawing match and others joined in as the teams passed each other for player introductions.

Next year's Grey Cup is to be played indoors at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

Beatles' 'Love' Looming As Christmas Hit

A masterclass in studio creativity, the new Beatles album project "Love" (Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol) is also shaping up to be a massive commercial success.

U.K. retailers are confident the album will prove a sales winner in the lead-up to Christmas. "Any Beatles recording will always have wide appeal -- both with the hardcore fans and more mainstream music buyers," says HMV U.K. & Ireland London-based head of music Gary Rolfe. "Obviously, the Christmas gift market means it will have the potential to reach an even wider audience this time around, particularly as the packaging is so well presented and there is much anticipation around George Martin's production of the album."

Initial shipments ahead of the Monday (Nov. 20) international release are "great," and the recording has achieved No. 1 pre-sale status on Amazon.com, EMI Music U.K. & Ireland chairman/CEO Tony Wadsworth tells Billboard.com.

As previously reported, "Love" is the soundtrack to Cirque du Soleil's Beatles show of the same name in Las Vegas. It encompasses "mash-ups" of elements from throughout the Beatles' storied career, reconstituted by the band's producer, George Martin, and his son Giles.

The album was premiered for journalists this morning (Nov. 17) at London's Abbey Road Studios. "The first score I did with the Beatles was for 'Yesterday'. This is the final one," said George Martin, who was inducted Tuesday (Nov. 14) into the U.K. Music Hall of Fame. "It's top and tail. And it's very important to me."

When asked by host Paul Gambaccini how he felt on completing the two-year project, Martin quipped, "great relief. I'm too old for this lark now." Martin went on to explain, "It's been an odyssey, a journey and it's been a lot of fun along the way. This music is to convey the unanimity of the Beatles. It was a great privilege for me."

"It's a unique album, there's nothing to measure it by," added Wadsworth. "It will be interesting to see how other artists take it on board and recreate their own works."

Heroes Recruits Captain Sulu

Superman had Jor-El. Batman has Wayne Manor. And now Hiro Nakamura has Captain Sulu.

Figuring all great Heroes need to have come from somewhere, the hit NBC series has tapped Star Trek icon George Takei to play the father of Hiro Nakamura, the plucky Japanese office worker who happens to be able to bend the space-time continuum.

E! Online's Kristin Veitch reported Monday that a new character "who has been around a lot longer" was joining the serialized drama, which has become one of the few solid new hits of the 2006 television season, attracting more than 14.4 million viewers a week.

"This is absolutely brilliant," Masi Oka, who plays Hiro, told TV Guide. "Hiro's father is this big honcho who shows up in America with his bodyguard. He has this whole elaborate scheme to kidnap his son and take him back to Japan."

Which probably won't go over too well with Hiro, who, after traveling five weeks into the future just in time to see New York go boom, has journeyed to the States to save the world.

"I just hope I get to say, 'Dad! Sulu is my hero, not you!' The sci-fi fans would love it!" Oka said.

Takei, 69, a cult figure among Trekkies and currently the unlikely official voice of The Howard Stern Show, will show up on Heroes in a Jan. 29 cliffhanger episode.

"It was just one of those lightning-bolt ideas," series creator Tim Kring told TV Guide.

After his steady gig piloting the starship Enterprise came to an end after 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Takei busied himself with a host of voiceover work in TV, films and videogames and guest spots on shows ranging from The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle to Scrubs and Will & Grace.

In fact, it was Takei's trademark deep voice and flair for enunciation that made him a favorite on The Howard Stern Show back when the morning shock-jock was still on terrestrial radio. After a few engaging interviews that proved just how open-minded Takei's sense of humor is, he was tapped to be the show's announcer when it made the jump to Sirius Satellite Radio.

BRIAN WILSON'S BACK TO CELEBRATE 40 YEARS OF 'PET SOUNDS'

Some days are just too good to be true. When Brian Wilson gets on the phone to talk about "Pet Sounds," in the background are his new pet sounds: dogs barking. It's no wonder - he has 13.

The once-beleaguered Beach Boy, a much-heralded musical genius felled by drug abuse, psychotic withdrawal and other mental illnesses, is now in a happy place, about to celebrate the album's 40th anniversary.

"It's quite an event because it's the best album the Beach Boys ever made," Wilson tells The New York Post.

While critically lauded - Paul McCartney said it influenced "Sgt. Pepper" - "Pet Sounds" wasn't well received by the American pop-buying public when released.

But decades later, the new CD/DVD set (with the tracks in their original mono and remixed stereo formats) hit No. 8 on Billboard's Pop Catalog charts and debuted in iTunes' Top 100.

The Beach Boys' music and Brian Wilson are both having a sun-kissed comeback. 2003's greatest hits compilation "Sounds of Summer" went double platinum, and in 2004, Wilson, working with Van Dyke Parks and Darian Sahanaja of the Wondermints (which essentially became Brian Wilson's backing band), recorded and performed "Smile," finishing the legendary aborted Beach Boys project.

And on Tuesday and Wednesday, Wilson performs the complete "Pet Sounds" at the Beacon Theatre in New York City.

Looking back on making the album, Wilson says, "We took our time and recorded it on a four-track machine, and we had a good time working with so many wonderful musicians.

"The beautiful 'God Only Knows,'" he adds, "is a very sentimental song because of my brothers' deaths." (Dennis Wilson drowned at 39 in 1983, and Carl Wilson died of cancer in 1998.)

But he doesn't time travel too much. "I like to think about [those days], but I think about today more."

Even though fans adore him when he plays, an insecure Wilson still suffers from stage fright. "I get very nervous before a show, real nervous," he admits.

But Sahanaja, Wilson's bandleader, says it's fleeting: "Once we hit stage and he feels the love from the audience, the fear seems to just slip away.

"Without sounding too corny," he adds, "I really do feel that the best medicine is the music."

Wilson, 64, says he continues to perform to support his wife, his three adopted children (ages 9, 8 and 2) and himself, but it's clearly not just about the money.

"I need to be in front of people and I need to express myself artistically," he explains. "I was going to retire because I was tired of the business, but when 'Smile' came along, I couldn't because I liked it too much. Same with 'Pet Sounds.' I'm very proud of it, so I can't stop working."

He was richly rewarded when he overpowered his stage jitters at the 2004 "Smile" concert debut in London. Wilson is still thrilled by the experience.

"I got standing ovations that you wouldn't have believed - people standing and clapping for five and 10 minutes. They loved it," he says with childlike wonder.

"I almost cried, I was so darn relieved. I just knew the record would be great based on their reaction."

Despite the nerves, performing does give Wilson a high. And a low.

"You know when you take an upper pill, you feel fantastic for hours and all of a sudden you start to come down?" he says. "It's just like that at a concert. As soon as the concert's over - pssshhhhew, dip, dip, way down there."

Sahanaja recalls worrying about Wilson when he played with him at that first solo show eight years ago.

"I'd be thinking that each next song would be the one where he'd bolt off the stage from stage fright. But he never did leave the stage, and I could see that each performance would help build that comfort zone," he says.

Some of the last 40 years have been hard on Wilson, whose childlike happiness and directness is apparent even over phone lines. And even more apparent, of course, when you work with him.

"He's incapable of being phony in any way. Whatever he says at any given time will be the absolute truth at that particular moment, which by the way may change within the hour," says Sahanaja, who calls him the Chauncey Gardiner of rock 'n' roll.

Ironically, the scene at a British Awards event could've been straight out of "Being There."

"U2's Bono got down on one knee to express how much Brian had moved and inspired him," says Sahanaja. "Brian's reply was 'Thanks. Can you get me a Diet Coke?'"

'Happy Feet' dances to top of box office

LOS ANGELES - James Bond has met his match — not a fellow spy but a tap-dancing penguin. The Warner Bros. animated penguin romp "Happy Feet" debuted with $42.3 million, grabbing an edge for the weekend's No. 1 slot over Sony's Bond adventure "Casino Royale," which opened with $40.6 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The two films were close enough that their rankings could change when final numbers are released Monday.

"'Happy Feet' is just ahead by a flipper," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "It's unusual to have two movies this close, battling for that No. 1 position."

Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner, said "Happy Feet" was solidly ahead and that the rankings would not flip-flop on Monday.

"It's not going to happen," Fellman said. "It's a clear victory here."

"Casino Royale" took an early lead over "Happy Feet" on opening day because of strong adult audiences Friday night. "Happy Feet" dominated the rest of the weekend, drawing big crowds on Saturday and Sunday when family films do their best business.

The box-office leader the last two weekends, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," slipped to third with $14.35 million, lifting its total to $90.5 million.

With the rarity of two movies in the $40 million range, Hollywood had a robust weekend, the top 12 movies taking in $133.6 million. Still, that could not measure up to the same weekend a year ago, when the $102.3 million debut of " Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" paced the top 12 to a $171.9 million total.

"Happy Feet" features the voices of Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman, Hugh Jackman and Robin Williams in the story of an penguin who cannot carry a tune like his brethren but can tap-dance up a storm.

"Casino Royale," introducing Daniel Craig as British super-spy Bond, fell right between the debuts of the previous two 007 flicks, which had been No. 1 and 2 among the franchise's openings.

The last Bond movie, Pierce Brosnan's "Die Another Day," holds the franchise record with $47.1 million in November 2002. Brosnan's 1999 Bond adventure "The World Is Not Enough" premiered with $35.5 million in November 1999.

"I think a $40 million-plus start for a new series of Bonds with Daniel Craig is a great beginning," said Jeff Blake, Sony vice chairman. "Casino Royale" also brought in $42.2 million in Great Britain, Russia and 25 other countries where it opened this weekend, Blake said.

In narrower release, two other new movies bombed, Universal's jailhouse comedy "Let's Go to Prison" taking in $2.1 million and Fox Searchlight's junk-food chronicle "Fast Food Nation" grossing $390,000.

Christopher Guest's Hollywood spoof "For Your Consideration" debuted strongly in limited release with $394,000 at 23 theaters. The film released by Warner Independent features a huge ensemble including director Guest, co-writer Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara in a comedy about Academy Awards fever among the cast of a small Hollywood drama.

Emilio Estevez's Robert Kennedy saga "Bobby" opened well with $67,000 in just two theaters. From the Weinstein Co. and MGM, "Bobby" features an all-star cast including Sharon Stone, Demi Moore, Anthony Hopkins and Lindsay Lohan in the story of people gathered at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles the night Kennedy was assassinated there in 1968.

"Bobby" and "For Your Consideration" expand to nationwide release this week.

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. "Happy Feet," $42.3 million.
2. "Casino Royale," $40.6 million.
3. "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," $14.35 million.
4. "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," $8.2 million.
5. "Flushed Away," $6.8 million.
6. "Stranger Than Fiction," $6.6 million.
7. "Babel," $2.9 million.
8. "Saw III," $2.8 million.
9. "The Departed," $2.6 million.
10. "The Queen," $2.3 million.

Canadian retailers divided over O.J. Simpson book

The controversial release of O.J. Simpson's quasi-confessional book about the killing of his ex-wife and her friend has divided book retailers in Canada, some of whom plan not to stock it.

If I Did It, in which Simpson speculates on how, hypothetically, he could have killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman, has been at the centre of controversy since its release was announced earlier this week.

While Canadian retail giant Chapters Indigo has indicated it plans to stock the book, other smaller chains say they plan to avoid it. The book is scheduled for release Nov. 30.

Nicholas Hoare, who runs retail chain Nicholas Hoare Books, told CBC Radio the book has no place in his stores.

"I don't think our customers want to be turned off. I think they want to be turned on," he said. "If you really want the details of O.J. Simpson, you just have to stand in the check-out line of a supermarket and you can see the whole thing plastered in front of the National Enquirer.

"This is not our bag at all," he said.

Toronto-based retailer Book City is also not planning to stock the book, according to the Toronto Star.

A spokeswoman for McNally Robinson, which owns retail chains in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Calgary, told CBC Arts Online the owners are still discussing the decision whether to stock the book.

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of murdering Brown Simpson and Goldman in a widely viewed and controversial case. He was later found liable in a wrongful-death suit filed by the Goldman family but has failed to pay the $33.5 million judgment.

HarperCollins Canada had reportedly been offering the book to retailers without revealing the author, subject or title. This practice tipped Hoare off as to what kind of content to expect, he said.

"That puts the hackles up immediately in the sense that one takes to the hills instinctively," he said. The last time a publisher tried this technique it was for a tell-all book about Diana, Princess of Wales, from her former boyfriend, he said.

Hoare said while his bookstores won't be stocking If I Did It, it would be available if customers asked to have it ordered. He also admitted the book will likely "sell like a rocket."

Earlier this week, Fox News announced the former football player would be appearing on the network to do a two-part interview in conjunction with the release of the book, to be published by HarperCollins imprint ReganBooks.

'It was personal'

Under a storm of criticism, ReganBooks publisher Judith Regan said in a release issued Friday she chose to go ahead with the book because she was a victim of domestic violence and thought proceeds of the sale would go to Simpson's kids.

"I didn't know what to expect when I got the call that the killer wanted to confess," Regan said in an eight-page statement titled "Why I Did It."

"But I knew one thing. I wanted the confession for my own selfish reasons and for the symbolism of that act. For me, it was personal."

She said she was in an abusive relationship in her 20s and saw Simpson's confessional as a way to get closure. "I made the decision to publish this book, and to sit face to face with the killer, because I wanted him, and the men who broke my heart and your hearts, to tell the truth, to confess their sins, to do penance and to amend their lives," she said.

Though Simpson does not actually admit to the killings, Regan said she considers the book a confession.

ReganBooks has published other controversial books like former baseball player Jose Canseco's steroid-confessional Juiced and Jenna Jameson's How To Make Love Like A Porn Star.

Penguins set to beat Bond at U.S. box office

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Animated penguins will fight a new James Bond at the weekend box office, with "Happy Feet" likely to take the crown, potentially reaching the $50 million mark.

"Babe" filmmaker George Miller's PG-rated animated odyssey has been marketed to the hilt by Warner Bros., with children all over the country ready to beg their parents for admittance into the world of emperor penguins.

But Sony Pictures' "Casino Royale," a co-production with MGM, will put up a decent fight. Armed with strong reviews and a debonair new Bond in British actor Daniel Craig, the PG-13 film should open strongly in the $40 million range.

Universal Pictures' "Let's Go to Prison," starring Will Arnett and Dax Shepard, is unlikely to debut with much muscle. The R-rated jailhouse comedy is not expected to cross the $5 million mark.

"Happy Feet," featuring the voices of Robin Williams, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman and Elijah Wood, will open in 3,804 theaters. With strong comedic timing from Williams -- who takes on two roles in the film set in the Antarctic wilderness -- and choreographed musical numbers, the movie is looking to draw a larger audience than just children and their parents; some think it will be the date movie of the weekend.

"Happy Feet" is likely to bow to about $40 million, but with strong tracking across all demographics, it could reach $50 million.

The new Bond film -- from director Martin Campbell, who ushered Pierce Brosnan into his first 007 role in 1995's "GoldenEye" -- marks Craig's debut as the suave agent. Considering there hasn't been a big, glossy action movie in a long time, "Casino" is looking to land in the sweet spot for Sony. The film has received positive early reviews -- much stronger than the most recent Bond films. "Die Another Day" opened in 2002 to $47 million and featured Halle Berry in the Bond girl role. This time, relative unknown Eva Green plays 007's love interest, Vesper Lynd.

A slew of films open in limited release. Warner Independent Pictures launches Christopher Guest's latest improv-heavy comedy "For Your Consideration." The PG-13 film stars such Guest regulars as Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara. This time, Guest's target is Hollywood and the absurd race for Oscar glory. The film will open in 23 theaters.

After Dark Films presents "Horror Fest: 8 Films to Die For" in 488 theaters. Complete with celebrity appearances, signings and giveaways, the festival is expected to be a boon for horror fans.

Fox Searchlight will unveil Richard Linklater's "Fast Food Nation," a fictionalized account of the book by Eric Schlosser. The R-rated drama starring Greg Kinnear and Bruce Willis examines the toxic relationships among the meatpacking industry, fast-food franchises and obesity in the U.S. It opens in 321 theaters.

MGM opens the Weinstein Co.'s "Bobby" on two screens in Los Angeles and New York. The R-rated political drama from director Emilio Estevez features a cast including Anthony Hopkins, Lindsay Lohan, William H. Macy, Demi Moore and Sharon Stone.

"Stu" is next target for Brosnan

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Pierce Brosnan can't get enough of playing a spy.

The former James Bond is going back to the spy world, signing on to star in "Spy vs. Stu," a comedy for New Line Cinema. Brosnan also will produce the movie.

The comedy centers on Stu, a commitment-phobe who plans to propose to his girlfriend during an island vacation. Unbeknownst to him, a handsome, debonair spy (Brosnan) is on the other end of the island, having just finished saving the world. When the bored spy takes a serious liking to Stu's girl, Stu is forced to compete with the ultrasuave superspy in order to win the heart of his true love.

No director is on board yet. The project is based on an original screenplay by Keith Mitchell and Allie Dvorin.

Brosnan portrayed Bond in four high-grossing films, beginning with 1995's "GoldenEye." He did a send up the classic suave spy character with last year's "The Matador," in which he played an assassin having a slow nervous breakdown.

Bond songs feature over-the-top sass, bravado

(CP) - James Bond is a trained assassin, and his celluloid adventures are usually set to killer music. Bond songs have become a genre unto themselves, calling on an artist-of-the-day to set the mood for the ageless superspy's latest mission. Some notable tunes that have served as a musical backdrop for 007 over the years:

"James Bond Theme," John Barry Orchestra (1962) - The signature theme of the franchise, featured in every film since "Dr. No" in one form or another.

"Goldfinger," Shirley Bassey (1964) - The first of three Bond songs by this Welsh singer, who went on to sing "Diamonds Are Forever" (1971) and "Moonraker" (1979).

"Live and Let Die," Paul McCartney and Wings (1973) - Targeted for parody in the mid-'80s by Weird Al Yankovic, who wanted to record "Chicken Pot Pie." A staunch vegetarian, McCartney refused permission saying he didn't want to promote the killing of animals.

"Nobody Does It Better," Carly Simon (1977), composed by Marvin Hamlisch, with lyrics by Carole Bayer Sager - The first Bond theme to bear a different name from the film, although the phrase "the spy who loved me" is in the lyrics.

"For Your Eyes Only," Sheena Easton (1981) - The only theme song to be performed onscreen by the artist during the opening title sequence; nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe in 1982.

"A View to a Kill," Duran Duran (1985) - The only Bond theme to hit No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100; it also made it to No. 2 on the U.K. singles chart. The campy music video cast band members as spies running up and down the Eiffel Tower. Duran Duran's front man unforgettably introduced himself to viewers as: "Bon. Simon Le Bon."

"Die Another Day," Madonna (2002) - A boffo Bond theme. Madonna also took an uncredited cameo role in the film.

"You Know My Name," Chris Cornell (2006) - Featured in "Casino Royale," it's the first Bond theme to be sung by a male vocalist since A-ha's "The Living Daylights" in 1987. Like "Nobody Does It Better" and Octopussy's "All Time High" (Rita Coolidge in 1983), it bears a different title than the film, but the lyrics refer to themes in the story.

Queen reigns as best seller on U.K. top 100 chart

Queen's Greatest Hits, a 1981 release from the British band fronted by Freddie Mercury, has been named Britain's best-selling album of all time.

A list of the top 100 best-sold albums in Britain released Thursday has two albums by Queen in the top 10. It was compiled by the Official U.K. Charts Co. and music channel VH1.

Queen's Greatest Hits, with tracks of the ubiquitous Bohemian Rhapsody and We Will Rock You, sold 5.4 million albums.

Greatest Hits II is in seventh place with 3.6 million in sales.

The Queen musical We Will Rock You, scheduled to open in Toronto soon, is a long-running hit in London.

The Beatles 1967 release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band came second, selling 4.8 million albums.

The list, compiled for the first time by totting up sales figures from the last 50 years, is surprisingly pop-oriented.

Albums by Dire Straits, ABBA, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson and Madonna are also in the top 10, but critically acclaimed and long-lasting musicians, including Bob Dylan, Sting and The Rolling Stones, have nothing in the top 100.

Canadian diva Celine Dion has three albums in the top 100, as do Oasis and Michael Jackson.

Jackson's Thriller ranks as the biggest-selling album of all time, according to the Guinness Book of Records, but is eighth on the U.K. chart.

Pink Floyd, left off Time's list of 100 greatest albums released this week, makes a respectable showing among the top sellers with 3.8 million copies of Dark Side of the Moon selling in the U.K.

Relative newcomers such as James Blunt, Eminem and Justin Timberlake make up a substantial chunk of the list. Boy band singer turned soloist Robbie Williams has six albums.

The top 10 best-selling albums in Britain:

Queen, Greatest Hits.
Beatles, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Oasis, (What's the Story) Morning Glory.
Dire Straits, Brothers in Arms.
Abba Gold, Greatest Hits.
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon.
Queen, Greatest Hits II.
Michael Jackson, Thriller.
Michael Jackson, Bad.
Madonna, The Immaculate Collection.

THE $25 MOVIE

First, the $6 cup of coffee - now brace yourself for the $25 movie ticket.

That's the record sum that will be charged to see "Dreamgirls" for the first 10 days of its theatrical run, beginning on Dec. 15.

The highly anticipated film version of the 1981 Broadway musical about a singing group resembling the Supremes stars Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx and Eddie Murphy.

It will be showing exclusively at the Ziegfeld in Manhattan, as well as at single theaters in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The $25 ticket buys a reserved seat, a 50-page color souvenir program and a look at a lobby exhibition of costume and set designs.

Moviegoers will also have "the opportunity to purchase exclusive merchandise and the film's soundtrack in the lobby," according to the movie's Web site.

The film will be shown without commercials or coming-attraction trailers. There will be only one showing per evening, with an added matinee on weekends.

Paramount, the film's distributor, is reaching back into movie history to bring back the "road show" - or reserved-seat engagements at higher-than-usual prices.

The practice was standard for big-budget Hollywood pictures into the 1960s, with blockbusters like "The Ten Commandments," "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Sound of Music" running six months or more at a single theater with higher prices.

The last official road show was "Man of La Mancha," another film based on a Broadway musical, in 1972.

"Dreamgirls" is being treated much like a live theatrical presentation - although $25 is a bargain compared with the $110 and up charged for orchestra tickets to Broadway musicals - to build buzz and the film's Oscar chances.

"We wanted to bring it to audiences in a special way, and we think this road show does the film justice," Jim Tharp, Paramount's president of distribution, told Variety.

There's one difference - road-show movies generally had an intermission. "Dreamgirls," which runs 125 minutes, will not. The last movie with an intermission was "Gandhi," in 1982.

Theater owners and studios have debated for years whether tickets to popular and expensive movies should carry a premium, as well as whether prices should be dropped after a movie is running for a few weeks.

Last year, the Ziegfeld, a 1,131-seat single-screen theater on West 54th Street that is often used for movie premieres, charged $12.50 - instead of the usual $10.75 - for its exclusive run of "The Producers," a Broadway hit that flopped on the big screen.

"Dreamgirls" will be showing at regular prices - even at the Ziegfeld - when it goes into wide national release on Christmas Day.

Eastwood's 'Iwo Jima' Enters Oscar Battle

"Letters From Iwo Jima," Clint Eastwood's Japanese-language follow-up to "Flags of Our Fathers," will get a limited release on Dec. 20.

By teasing "Letters From Iwo Jima" in New York and Los Angeles, the DreamWorks/Warner Bros. film will be eligible for Golden Globe and Oscar consideration, as well as possible critics' prizes.

The original plan had been to hold "Letters From Iwo Jima" until Feb. 9, 2007. That would have prevented the film, a retelling of the battle of Iwo Jima from the Japanese perspective, from splitting the Oscar buzz for "Flags of Our Fathers," which opened in October.

Buzz of the "Letters" release shift began spreading on the Internet early in the week, with many observers theorizing that potential acclaim for the second film might somehow boost the fortunes of "Flags," which premiered to admiring, but hardly rapturous reviews and has taken in just over $31 million to date.

Eastwood is no stranger to late pre-Oscar release shifts. In 2004, "Million Dollar Baby" went from off-the-radar production to best picture winner after a mid-fall decision to sneak the film at the end of December.

Slight Delay for Get Smart

We've already received a few emails from customers that preordered Get Smart from Time-Life asking why the set has been delayed until next week. We called our contact over there to find out, and he gave us the low-down on what caused the delay.

The sets are comprised of three pieces; the cardboard digipak, the plastic "O" case that goes over the digipack, and the cardboard box that holds all 5 sets. When Time-Life got all the pieces together they noticed that the 5 sets had a tight fit to get into the box, and this caused the front of the sets to bow a bit. They looked into it further and discovered the company that printed the plastic "O" case used a slightly thicker plastic, and this was causing the problems. The cases have been reprinted, but now they have to be assembled before the sets can ship, so the shipping date was moved back a week.

It's too bad there's a delay for the set, but at least this glitch was caught before the sets shipped out and people complained that they didn't fit in the box properly. I can verify that the sets are tight once my phone booth box arrives; I have the thicker plastic on my sets.

The set can only be ordered directly from Time-Life, and will now ship next Tuesday, November 21.

Mercer, former PMs, to host political star search on CBC

Comedian Rick Mercer will host a televised search for aspiring politicians featuring a judging panel composed of former prime ministers Brian Mulroney, John Turner, Kim Campbell and Joe Clark, the CBC announced Wednesday.

The Next Great Prime Minister, set to air in the spring, pits five young Canadians in a question period with Canada's former leaders on how they would make Canada a better, stronger nation, with a winner chosen at the end of the show.

"This hunt for our future leader will engage our youth while providing our audiences with an early glimpse at the political leaders of tomorrow," said Kirstine Layfield, executive director of network programming for CBC Television.

"And having Rick Mercer as host guarantees the whole process will be engaging, provocative and entertaining.”

Canadians aged 18 to 25 wishing to enter must submit a three to five minute videotaped speech with their prime ministerial message. The judges will narrow the field to 20 applicants, who must then complete an interview process.

Five contenders will make the one-hour finale, to air Sunday, March 18, at 7 p.m.

The special is based on a popular nationwide competition started in 1995 by Frank Stronach, founder and chairman of Magna International. Originally contestants were required to submit an essay for review, but last year the contest was changed to the video format.

This is the second season on television for the annual award. Last year's broadcast on CTV was hosted by Seamus O'Regan.

Mercer, host of the Rick Mercer Report, takes over the hosting duties and is no stranger to politics. The comedian's popular show often features interviews with politicians in unusual circumstances, like skinny-dipping with Liberal leadership hopeful Bob Rae or harness racing with Alberta Premier Ralph Klein.

The panel of past prime ministers Clark, Turner, Mulroney and Campbell is returning for a second year.

The winner of the award will receive a $50,000 cash prize and a six-month Dominion, Magna, Fulbright (DMF) Fair Enterprise and Public Policy Internship. The remaining four finalists each receive $5,000 and three-month internships.

The deadline for applicants is Dec. 8, 2006.

Last year's winner was Montreal resident Deirdra McCracken, a political science graduate student at Laval University.

Time does the unthinkable: a top 100 albums list with no Pink Floyd

A list of the 100 greatest and most influential albums compiled by Time magazine has five Beatles selections, but nothing by Pink Floyd.

Sergeant Pepper, Abbey Road, The White Album, Revolver and Rubber Soul are all on the list, published in the current issue of Time.

The 1970 album John Lennon, by the Plastic Ono band also is included, with the comment that "Lennon's writing was never sharper, and his still-underrated singing stands with rock's finest."

But Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, one of the bestselling albums of all time and one that continues to get airplay 33 years after it was recorded, didn't make the cut.

"And that's how it should be," Time scribes write in their introduction to the list, which is categorized by decade rather than by degree of influence.

Other prominent no-shows — The Doors, Elvis Costello and Jay-Z.

Each selection is accompanied by a written justification and a podcast that tells readers how the selection committee decided.

Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has one album, Blue, and Canadian rocker Neil Young has After the Gold Rush.

The list covers a range of musical styles, from Delta blues and country, to rock and hip hop.

Thus The Clash's London Calling appears in the same decade as Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors.

The 1950s has four selections, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Here's Little Richard by Little Richard and two Frank Sinatra recordings, Songs for Swingin' Lovers and In the Wee Small Hours.

But Hank Williams and Elvis Presley appear, inexplicably, in the 2000s, with Elvis at the Sun and Elvis 30 No. 1 Hits, recorded in the 1950s but released in 2004, and The Essential Hank Williams Collection, recorded before the advent of the long-playing album but released in 2005, both making the list.

Similarly, posthumous collections from Bob Marley and Muddy Waters are chosen ahead of albums they recorded in their lifetimes.

In more modern choices for the 2000s, Eminem's The Marshall Mathers LP, Kanye West's The College Dropout and Radiohead's Kid A were also on Time's list.

The greatest number of albums was from the 1970s, with Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols bumping shoulders with Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road up against Black Sabbath's Paranoid, which is honoured as "the birthplace of heavy metal."

O.J. Simpson to promote "If I Did It" on Fox

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Fox said Tuesday it will air a two-part interview with O.J. Simpson at month's end in which he describes the 1994 murders of his ex-wife and her friend that he says he didn't commit.

The interview will be conducted by editor and book publisher Judith Regan. On November 30, her Regan Books is publishing a book Simpson wrote with the working title "If I Did It, Here's How It Happened."

Fox said Simpson's book "hypothetically describes" how he would have committed the murders. The special will air at 9 p.m. November 27 and 29 on Fox.

Fox executives declined comment about the show Tuesday. In a statement released Tuesday, executive vp/alternative programming Mike Darnell said: "This is an interview that no one thought would ever happen. It's the definitive last chapter in the trial of the century."

Fox is a subsidiary of News Corp., which also owns Regan Books.

A spokeswoman for Regan Books didn't return a phone call or an e-mail seeking comment Tuesday.

Simpson was acquitted in 1995 of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman; he can't be tried again for those crimes. In 1997, a civil court found him responsible for the slayings and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to the victims' families.

Sinatra in Vegas out in CD-DVD box set

NEW YORK - Frank Sinatra was never happier, his daughter Tina says, than when he was working in Las Vegas. Those years are now captured in song by "Sinatra in Vegas," a box set of four concert CDs, and one DVD, ranging from the Rat Pack peak of the early 1960s to the late 1980s, just before his voice and memory began to give way.

As Tina Sinatra remembers it, you could pretty much tell how her dad was feeling on stage by the musicians he chose to sing with.

"If he was happy, he would use a larger swing band, a lot of brass," she said during a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. "If he was feeling melancholy, he might work with something a little more intimate, like the sextet he performed with in Paris in the `50s. He would stick closer to saloon songs."

Sinatra, who died in 1998 at age 82, didn't have a Vegas theme song, the way "New York, New York" and "My Kind of Town" (Chicago is) worked for other cities. But his real home in concert was the desert haven of gambling and other recreation that he as much as anybody made famous. "Those were the magic years, his senior statesman years," Tina Sinatra says. "He was the sassy cat in Vegas."

Working with bands led by such favorites as Count Basie, and Sinatra's son, Frank Sinatra, Jr., he comes on sassy for most the Vegas tracks, camping "The Lady is the Tramp" to the point of obscenity; cracking up during the most sensitive of ballads, "I've Got a Crush on You," and warning "Hold on to your handbags" as the Basie band kicks into the break of "I've Got You Under My Skin." Even on a disc from 1987, when he's in his early 70s, he can open with "I've Got the World on a String" and never hint that he doesn't believe it.

Vegas was hardly the place for protest music, but the box set does include a Sinatra interview in which he recalls his anger that the black musicians in his group were told to stay in a separate hotel.

"I did make some demand on some people and, said, `If they all have to live on the other side of town, then you don't need me,'" he says. "I guess I was the biggest mouth in town."

Listening to the Vegas tracks brought back musical and nonmusical memories for Tina Sinatra, who explains how her dad loved the desert because it was good for his throat, and was bothered when all the hotels became air conditioned and he needed a humidifier to keep the rasp out of his voice.

Tina Sinatra has worked on numerous projects about her father, serving as executive producer of the 1992 miniseries, "Sinatra," and writing a memoir, "My Father's Daughter." She still listens to his music all the time — "he's always one of six CDs I have in the player in my car" — and remembers the calls she would receive at 6 o'clock every night, from Vegas or anywhere else.

"I miss his humor, his way of dealing with things. He had a way of saying, `You're wasting your energy," she recalls. "I know he had that other side, but I remember him being soothing and wise. He gave me room to grow. He understood the meaning of seek and search."

Bond is back for London world premiere

LONDON - Fans lined up in the London rain Tuesday to catch a glimpse of the new blond Bond, as sandy-haired Daniel Craig made his screen debut as suave secret agent 007.

"Casino Royale," the 21st James Bond film and the grittiest to date, was receiving its world premiere before an audience including Queen Elizabeth II. The movie opens in Britain and North America on Friday.

Stars including Elton John and Beyonce Knowles were expected in the audience in London's Leicester Square for Craig's date with double-O destiny.

Craig, 38, is already being praised in some quarters as the best Bond since Sean Connery, who originated the role in 1962's "Dr. No." His debut has restored the buzz around a franchise that many felt was past its prime.

"With `Casino Royale,' we've not only got a new Bond, we've also got a new approach to the genre," said James Chapman, author of "Licence to Thrill: A Cultural History of the James Bond Films." "It's revisionist. It's going back to the roots of Bond's character."

The buzz is quite a turnaround. Last year's announcement that Craig would be the sixth actor to play Bond triggered gripes from many fans of the franchise, which has earned an estimated $4 billion worldwide. They said Craig — whose recent screen credits include "Munich" and "The Jacket" — was too blond, too craggy, too obscure to play the world's greatest spy.

An anti-Craig Web site — www.danielcraigisnotbond.com — urged a boycott of the movie. Craig supporters hit back with http://danielcraigisbond.com.

An adaptation of Ian Fleming's first-ever Bond novel, "Casino Royale," was previously filmed as a 1967 spoof starring Peter Sellers. It is one of the few Bond adventures not to feature the MI6 gadget-maker Q or the sharp-witted secretary Miss Moneypenny, although Judi Dench is a welcome return as spy master M.

The Sony Pictures film retains many of the essential Bond elements, including sharp suits, gravity-defying chase sequences and spectacular locations that range from the Bahamas to Montenegro.

But the screenplay, partly written by "Crash" writer-director Paul Haggis, provides a grittier-than-usual take on Bond, showing how he earns his license to kill. When asked if he prefers his martini shaken or stirred, he replies, "Do I look like I give a damn?"

Judging by early reviews, many of the doubters have been won over.

"His sex appeal is off the scale," said critic Wendy Ide in The Times of London.

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw praised Craig's "effortless presence and lethal danger."

"Daniel Craig is a fantastic Bond," he wrote.

Craig has already signed up for the 22nd Bond film, due for release in November 2008.

Barrett unsure of his future

REGINA (CP) - Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Danny Barrett waxed philosophically when asked Monday about his future.

"I feel good about my future," Barrett told reporters, a wide, toothy smile shooting across his face. "I'm alive, I'm breathing, I've got a beautiful family. Future looks good." Asked whether his future includes the CFL team he has led for the last seven years and he's a little less sunny.

"I would say 50-50," Barrett said. "I'm an open-minded individual, always have been.

"I know a lot of things have been said out there about different things, but right now it is 50-50 and I look forward to sitting down sometime in the next couple of days and seeing what is going to happen."

Barrett's future was the question on everyone's mind as the Roughriders gathered to clean out their lockers Monday. The team was dispatched from the playoffs in humiliating fashion by the B.C. Lions 48-18 in Sunday's Western final.

It was a less-than-storybook ending to a tumultuous season for a team that has lost three times in the Grey Cup precursor since 2003.

While the players lined up to support their coach, there was a subtle sense of resignation in the locker-room that things could be different next year.

"I don't know if there should be changes, but I anticipate changes," said linebacker Reggie Hunt, a five-year veteran with the club. "Who knows what's going to happen? We got a new general manager in the middle of the season so anything's possible."

Speculation about how long Barrett would remain with the Roughriders has been rampant since the middle of the season when the team fired his friend and mentor Roy Shivers as general manager.

Shivers and Barrett joined the Roughriders following a disastrous 3-15 season in 1999, forming the first African-American management team in pro football history.

While the two have been credited with restoring respectability to the community-owned franchise they have also been criticized for never being able to rise above the level of mediocre.

Barrett's regular season record as a head coach is 57-68-1 including 9-9 finishes in each of the last three seasons. The team has never finished higher than third, meaning Barrett never achieved the oft-stated goal of hosting a home playoff game.

The Roughriders' new general manager Eric Tillman, who has said his priorities are quarterbacks, Canadians and the kicking game, has been diplomatic about the Barrett situation saying the two enjoy a good relationship.

After Sunday's loss, Tillman said he would sit down with his coach over the next three days and decide what direction the team will head.

Barrett is quick to point out that it's a two-way street.

His contract expired at the end of the season and he will have to decide if he even wants to come back.

"I am a free agent," he said. "I'm open for anything and everything. I'm not going to pigeon hole myself. Obviously you want to stay at the highest level that you can. I'm not going to even rule out being a general manager."

The players - Barrett's biggest allies over the last few months - want him back.

"He's a father figure," said defensive back Omarr Morgan, a free agent who has spent seven years with the club.

"Anytime any of the players get into something in the community they come back and tell Danny. He's like a father figure and to deal with what he has been dealing with the last seven years, most coaches can't do that. I'd love to see the next coach they bring in and how he handles it, because it's hard."

Whatever happens in the off-season, wide receiver Matt Dominguez said he hopes the changes are not catastrophic.

"I'd like to see Danny back. I think some things need to be tweaked, but I don't think our team needs to be overhauled," Dominguez said.

"You don't need to renovate the house. You just need to fix the basement and that is the kind of team that we've got."

New Releases, Nov. 14: Neil Young and Crazy Horse, The Game, Damien Rice

Neil Young (music) and Crazy Horse "Live at the Fillmore East"

Many would say that Stephen Stills was the finest partner to ever collaborate on guitar with Young. Crazy Horse fans, however, would probably disagree and offer up instead the late Danny Whitten.

This 1970 live set, recorded at one of the most storied venues in rock history, features Young (vocals/guitar), Billy Talbot (bass), Ralph Molina (drums), Jack Nitzsche (electric piano) and Whitten (guitar). It includes versions of such classics as "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Down By the River."

* * *
The Game "Doctor's Advocate"

The heavily tattooed Compton rapper returns with the follow-up to 2005's "The Documentary," a work that produced such big tracks as "Higher" and "Fresh '83." The Game recently made headlines when he reportedly admitted to being the one responsible for leaking the clean version of "Doctor's Advocate."

* * *
Damien Rice "9"

This Irish singer/songwriter delivers his second album, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2002's highly acclaimed "O." The set features a number of guest stars, including jazz great Herbie Hancock and vocalist/pianist Tori Amos. Rice is supporting "9" with a short theater tour that currently stretches through a Nov. 20 date in Minneapolis.

* * *
Yusuf "An Other Cup"

You might not know the name. But you'll know the voice. Yusef is the man formerly known as Cat Stevens. Equally significant, "An Other Cup" is his first record of modern pop tunes since 1978's "Back to Earth."

* * *
Tenacious D "The Pick of Destiny"

Rockers/comedians Jack Black and Kyle Gass will kick off a very busy fall season with the release of "Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny." The album is the soundtrack to the film of the same name, which hits theaters on Nov. 17. Tenacious D will also hit the road that same day on a tour that lasts through early December.

* * *
Emmylou Harris and Carl Jackson "I've Always Needed You"

Having recently wowed critics and fans alike with guitarist/vocalist Mark Knopfler on "All the Roadrunning," Emmylou Harris now delivers another duet offering, this time with Carl Jackson. "I've Always Needed You," which features early recordings from the pair, and includes appearances by the likes of Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas and Melba Montgomery. In related news, Harris and Knopfler are also releasing the concert recording "Real Live Roadrunning" on the same day.

* * *
Other new releases:
(+44), "When Your Heart Stops Beating" (Interscope)
Akon, "Konvicted" (Universal)
... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, "So Divided" (Interscope)
Army of Anyone, "Army of Anyone" (Firm)
Depeche Mode, "Best of Depeche Mode, Vol. 1" (Reprise)
Nanci Griffith, "Ruby's Torch" (Rounder)
Luis Miguel, "Navidades" (Warner Bros.)
Joanna Newsom, "Ys" (Drag City)
Nickel Creek, "Reasons Why: The Very Best" (Sugarhill)
Joan Osborne, "Pretty Little Stranger" (Vanguard)
Laura Pausini, "Io Canto" (Warner Bros.)
Bianca Ryan, "Bianca Ryan" (Sony)
Staind, "Greatest Hits" (Atlantic)
Sublime, "Everything Under the Sun" (Box set) (Geffen)

Soundtracks and scores:
"Casino Royale" (Sony)

Country music fans vote for Faith Hill

NASHVILLE (AP) — Country music fans apparently got Faith Hill's joke.

Nearly 25,800, or 65%, of respondents to a new online poll by Country Weekly magazine said Hill was just joking when cameras showed her screaming "WHAT?" in apparent anger when she lost the female vocalist of the year award to newcomer Carrie Underwood at the Country Music Association Awards ceremony last week.

Her reaction was caught on camera and caused an uproar, with Hill releasing a statement afterward saying it was all a joke. She also called Underwood to clear up any misunderstanding.

"The idea that I would act disrespectful towards a fellow musician is unimaginable to me," Hill said in her statement. "For this to become a focus of attention given the talent gathered is utterly ridiculous. Carrie is a talented and deserving female vocalist of the year."

The poll, which was conducted on the magazine's website from Wednesday through Sunday, drew 39,553 total responses to the question "What do you think of Faith Hill's reaction to Carrie Underwood's CMA victory?"

Nearly 13,000, or about 33%, said Hill was disrespectful, while a scant 842 (2 percent) said the incident was a big deal about nothing.

Country Weekly Editor in Chief Bill Gubbins said fans were very interested in the issue and were still trying to respond after the poll closed.

"Country music fans are very passionate about their stars and always like to participate in things going on in Nashville," he said.

The Couch Potato Report - November 13th, 2006

This week The Couch Potato Report shines the spotlight on hockey and a squad of inept police.

On Sunday evenings this past September and October many Canadians gathered around their television sets to watch HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY.

The ten-part HOCKEY series traced the history of the game in Canada with re-enactments, rarely seen footage, and the voices and words of some of the pioneers of the game.

It was a superb series that is now available on DVD in a superb six-disc box set.

HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY tells the story of the game's inventors, innovators and the people who built the teams, and the rinks.

I enjoyed watching the series when it first began, and now that I have seen it a second time on DVD, I still enjoyed it, but I have to admit that I do have a few reservations.

Those reservations come from the fact that I wanted more!

Yes, I completely enjoyed what I got, but I wanted a fully comprehensive documentary about hockey, in the same manner as Ken Burn's BASEBALL.

That series looks at the game of baseball as a whole, from inception onward, as does the HOCKEY series, but even though BASEBALL was an American series, it still featured the Canadian team who won the championship.

(Way to go Blue Jays!!!!!)

Meanwhile HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY is only a comprehensive look at Canadian hockey, and while that is the hockey we know and the hockey we love, there are also some American based teams who have been quite successful over the years that are part of hockey history as well, and they are ignored in the series.

For instance, the New York Islanders, a team that won four Stanley Cups in a row from 1980 - 1984, yet they are not mentioned at all in the series.

There also should have been more done on and with Bobby Orr, Steve Yzerman, Guy Laflleur, Peter Statsny, just to name a few players, and the winningest coach in hockey history - Scotty Bowman, who isn't featured at all in the series. Instead he only shows up in an interview on the Bonus disc in the set.

But I happily digress, because while I do have a few reservations about the series, I still think that HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY is superb and it accomplishes what the producers set out to do - to make a series that is a comprehensive look at hockey in Canada, and the parallels between the birth of our nation and the game.

The game that is played by men, and women.

No, HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY isn't perfect, but it is a well written, well produced and superbly entertaining series.

I am pleased to own it and I will keep it on my shelf alongside my box set for Ken Burn's BASEBALL.

HOCKEY: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY did leave me wanting more, but I am still quite pleased that it is now available on DVD.

I am also quite pleased that POLICE SQUAD is also now available on DVD!!

After the success of the movie AIRPLANE! Leslie William Nielsen, a member of the Order Of Canada who was born on February 11th, 1926 in Regina, was cast by the same filmmakers as Sgt. Frank Drebin, a police officer who always gets his man, but doesn't always get why.

POLICE SQUAD is possibly the funniest, short-lived TV show in history. It only lasted 6 episodes, but everyone of them was full of wit, sight gags, and incredible writing.

POLICE SQUAD was a TV show that was a parody of all of the ultra serious police shows that came before it.

Only a few people actually watched it, including me. I loved it and when they made THE NAKED GUN films after the cancellation of the series, I was more than pleased.

And now that POLICE SQUAD is finally available on DVD, I am over the moon!!

Ah yes, I am quite pleased as the hilarious POLICE SQUAD is now available on DVD, and is HOCKEY: A PEOPLE'S HISTORY, a great box set, even if it did leave me wanting more.

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

SCTV - THE EARLY YEARS looks back at the origins of the classic series, LEONARD COHEN - I'M YOUR MAN is a documentary on the legendary Canadian, with performances by those musicians he has influenced; SOPHIE SCHOLL is the film about one courageous young woman who stood up to the Nazis in 1943 Germany; and WORDPLAY takes an in-depth look at crossword puzzles and the people who do them.

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!

Prince debuts Vegas show

Prince unveiled a pared-down weekly show Friday in something of an unlikely place.

The pop star, known for his grandiose arena shows, put on a low-production but high-energy performance Friday in the intimate 3121 club at the Rio hotel and casino just off the Las Vegas Strip.

Under a deal made public this month, Prince will play shows for the next several Friday and Saturday nights at the club. The announcement surprised some fans who still consider Prince a musical innovator and think of Las Vegas as a place for stars in the twilight of their careers.

"I just didn't think he was at the has-been stage, yet," Pat Ellen, a 36-year-old social worker from Chicago, said before Friday's show.

But bandmates say Prince, who is more than 20 years removed from his megahit album and movie Purple Rain, remains on the cutting edge.

"I think he wants to bring a new element to Vegas; that's the whole point, to bring a new, fresh vibe," said Maya McClean, a Prince spokeswoman and half of The Twinz, the backup group performing with the star.

The Prince shows are expected to run "a couple of months" before the group goes on tour, McLean said.

Private-party feel

The 3121 club — renamed from Club Rio — and an album released in March are named after the street address of the Los Angeles home where Prince once held intimate, private performances. The new show is intended to recapture that private-party feel in the club, which seats about 700.

Prince will also book performers for Wednesday night at the club, and holds a stake in the new 3121 Jazz Cuisine restaurant at the Rio.

Friday's performance started at midnight and ran nearly two hours, later and longer than most Vegas shows. Tickets cost $125 US.

The show featured an even mix of classics and new material, guitar solos, soulful ballads and funk. Prince's racier hits, such as Cream and Kiss, offered a contrast to the tamer songs released since the star became a Jehovah's Witness.

"You don't have to be dirty to be sexy," Prince advised the Sin City audience before launching into a sweet love song. "Let me show you."

Eminem Won't Need To "Travel" For New Movie

Eminem is in talks to star in a modern feature film re-telling of the famous '50s TV western, Have Gun Will Travel.

Moviehole.net says the 8 Mile actor plans on giving his movie career another shot and is rumored to be gunning for the role of Paladin, originally played by Richard Boone.

The television series ran for six seasons, from 1957 to 1963 and told the tale of a West Point graduate and gentleman who refused to use his unbeatable gun skills unless absolutely necessary.

Eminem also plans to produce and record the music for the upcoming movie which plans to shoot in his hometown of Detroit.

Gervais-Penned 'Office' Ready to Go

LOS ANGELES -- "The Office" will go back to its British roots, at least behind the camera, with an episode set for the end of November.

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who created the BBC series on which the NBC Emmy winner is based, wrote the episode scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 30. It's their first original script for the series, although the pilot was based on the first episode of the British version.

The episode, titled "The Convict," has Michael (Steve Carell) trying to be supportive when he finds out one of his new employees -- presumably someone from the Stamford branch -- has a prison record. Given the way Michael's attempts at empathy usually work out, we're guessing the results are less than ideal.

The newly returned Jim (John Krasinski) also gives Andy (Ed Helms) some dubious coaching when Andy decides to make a move on Pam (Jenna Fischer).

NBC announced early this year that Gervais and Merchant, who are also behind the BBC/HBO series "Extras," would be writing an episode of "The Office." Speaking to reporters in late February, Gervais said he and his partner were nearly finished with the script.

"It was remarkably fast," he said then. "I suppose that's because we'd been away from those characters for two or three years. It's one of our favorite shows, the American 'Office.'"

The Gervais and Merchant episode of "The Office" will be the show's 38th -- which is nearly three times as many as the duo produced for the Beeb. The British "Office" ran for two six-episode seasons and wrapped things up with a two-part Christmas special in December 2003.

'Whiter Shade of Pale' now a court case

LONDON - Two former '60s rock stars appeared before a music-loving judge on Monday for a showdown over authorship of one of the decade's most iconic songs.

The organ strains of Procol Harum's "A Whiter Shade of Pale" sounded through Court 56 of Britain's High Court as the band's former organ player, Matthew Fisher, sued an ex-bandmate for a share of copyright in the multimillion-selling song.

Fisher's lawyer, Iain Purvis, said the song "defined what is sometimes called the Summer of Love in 1967" and had achieved cult status.

He said Fisher had composed the organ melody, and particularly the eight-bar Hammond organ solo, which gives the song its distinctive baroque flavor.

Purvis said the solo "is a brilliant piece of work and it is crucial to the success of the song."

"Our case, in essence, is that Mr. Fisher wrote the entirety of the organ tune," he said.

Fisher is suing Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker and publisher Onward Music Ltd. for a co-author credit and a share of the song's copyright and royalties.

Brooker, who is credited as the song's author with lyricist Keith Reid, says the pair wrote the song before Fisher joined the band in March 1967.

Brooker has said the melody was inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's "Air on a G-string" and "Sleepers Awake."

Defense lawyers said the fact Fisher had waited almost four decades to bring his claim was "bizarre and obviously prejudicial."

"Mr. Fisher's claim should fail on that ground alone," they said in court papers.

The song, renowned for its mystifying lyrics — beginning "We skipped the light fandango, turned cartwheels cross the floor" — topped the British singles chart for five weeks and was a top 10 hit in the United States. Rolling Stone magazine has ranked it 57th in a list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Purvis said a Web site compiled by a fan lists 771 recorded cover versions, "most of them, sad to say, disastrous."

Fisher, now a computer programmer, left the band in 1969. Brooker, 61, still tours with Procol Harum. The two sat facing the judge and did not look at one another on the first day of the five-day hearing.

A Yamaha electric keyboard sat near the witness box, where Fisher is due to appear later in the case.

The case is being heard by judge William Blackburne, who studied both music and law at Cambridge University.

The judge requested access to the keyboard and sheet music of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" so he could run through the song after court hours.

Judges are not always familiar with popular music, and Purvis noted that "one always risks in these cases a 'what are The Beatles' moment" — a reference to a famous but possibly apocryphal story of a judge who purportedly asked that question during a case in the 1960s.

"But I'll hazard that your lordship is familiar," with "A Whiter Shade of Pale," Purvis said.

"I am of an age, yes," said the judge, 62.

Lions win West final in a rout

A healthy and hungry Dave Dickenson will have a third chance to complete what he started but couldn't finish against the Montreal Alouettes earlier this season.

The B.C. Lions quarterback shredded Saskatchewan's defence for 273 yards through the air and tossed a pair of touchdown passes to Paris Jackson on the way to a 45-18 victory over the visiting Roughriders in Sunday's CFL West final.

"We feel like it's our year. We feel we are the best team," Dickenson said. "You have to finish it. It doesn't mean anything if you don't win [the Grey Cup]."

Dickenson will lead the Lions into the 94th Canadian Football League championship on Nov. 19 in Winnipeg against Montreal, 33-24 winners over the Toronto Argonauts in the East final earlier on Sunday.

It will mark B.C.'s second Grey Cup appearance in the last three years and second versus the Alouettes in league history.

The Lions upset Montreal 28-26 in the 2000 championship at McMahon Stadium in Calgary.

This season, B.C. dominated the East champions, posting a 2-0 record and outscoring the Alouettes 84-33. However, Dickenson was forced to leave both contests early due to injury.

But he made an impression, connecting on 28 of 37 passes for 468 yards and three touchdowns in a combined five quarters of work.

On Sunday, Dickenson completed 27 of 37 pass attempts, including 19 in a 29-point first half.

The veteran CFLer was masterful at avoiding a Roughriders front four that caused havoc for Calgary quarterback Henry Burris in the West semifinal a week ago.

A scrambling Dickenson amassed 211 yards and three touchdown passes in the first half alone and let running back Joe Smith and a swarming Lions defence do the rest.

"They've got a lot of weapons," Saskatchewan coach Danny Barrett said. "I thought Jackson and [Lions slotback Jason] Clermont, they stepped up their play well today. I thought Dave threw the ball outstanding."

Smith added a pair of majors on a five-yard reception and six-yard run, while former Roughriders kicker Paul McCallum booted five field goals to tie Lui Passaglia for the club playoff record.

A Lions defence that led the league with 59 sacks this season brought quarterback Kerry Joseph down five times and made him hurry throws.

The ear-piercing noise of 50,084 fans at B.C. Place Stadium also resulted in Saskatchewan taking several time-count and procedure penalties.

Down and seemingly out, the Riders awoke late in the third quarterback and cut into a 32-4 B.C. advantage with two touchdowns.

After the visitors converted a third-and-five near midfield, running back Kenton Keith hooked up with Joseph on a 39-yard pass-and-run to make it 32-11.

Shortly thereafter, Saskatchewan defensive back Davin Bush forced a fumble by Geroy Simon — the CFL's top receiver in 2006 — that was recovered by linebacker Jackie Mitchell.

A few plays and a Dante Marsh pass interference call later and Keith made it a two-touchdown game with a four-yard plunge.

Controlled the clock

Undaunted, Dickenson controlled the clock and put McCallum in position to increase the margin with field goals of 18 and 41 yards in the fourth quarter.

McCallum, who signed with the Lions as a free agent last winter, was the goat of the 2004 West final at B.C. Place Stadium when he missed two field goals, including an 18-yarder in overtime, in a 27-25 B.C. triumph over the Roughriders.

The Lions broke Sunday's game open in the first 30 minutes, scoring 26 unanswered points after Saskatchewan rookie kicker Luca Congi connected on a 40-yard field goal to answer McCallum's 21-yarder early in the first quarter.

With the Riders smothering Simon, Dickenson spread the wealth or kept the ball himself.

He exposed Saskatchewan rookie James Johnson on numerous occasions and made the defensive back pay at both ends of the second quarter.

With the game tied 3-3, Dickenson eluded pressure and found the outstretched hands of Jackson, who outran Johnson and hauled in a 14-yard pass deep in the end zone to cap an 11-play, 75-yard drive.

"We have different receivers that can do different things," said Jackson, who finished the game with five catches for 66 yards. "I just try and do what I can do."

With 21 seconds left in the half, Jackson shrugged off double coverage from Bush and Johnson to haul in a 35-yard pass to give B.C. a 29-3 lead.

Alouettes returning to Grey Cup

The Montreal Alouettes will make a return trip to the Grey Cup following a 33-24 victory over the Toronto Argonauts Sunday at Olympic Stadium.

The Alouettes used a key turnover at the start of the second half to help defeat the Argonauts in the East final for the second straight season.

"Some funny bounces happened," said Argonauts head coach Mike (Pinball) Clemons. "But we certainly thought that, disproportionately, we didn't get the breaks.

"Both teams could have played the same game and we could have been on top."

It was the fifth consecutive year the two teams met in the East final, with Montreal holding a 4-1 advantage.

The Alouettes now head to Winnipeg for the 94th Grey Cup and will play the B.C. Lions, who won Sunday's West final over Saskatchewan.

The Alouettes are looking to win their first title since 2002 and hope to erase last year's demoralizing defeat to the Edmonton Eskimos — 38-35 in overtime.

"We're excited, but man, I'm tired of losing [to] them," said quarterback Anthony Calvillo, who will lead Montreal into the Grey Cup game for the fifth time in seven years. "I'm going to stress that.

"I'm going to go out and win because I remember 2002 — that parade and that feeling. The last two times we lost it wasn't a good feeling. We've been here so many dang times it shouldn't bother us anymore. That's how I'm going to approach it."

Calvillo threw for 252 yards and a touchdown, while running back Robert Edwards balanced Montreal's attack with 137 yards rushing and a touchdown.

"I'm a little dehydrated now, but it was worth it," Edwards said in a raucous Montreal dressing room. "I get to rehydrate with a little champagne."

Estelle's major touches off shouting match

Montreal broke open the game at the start of the second half, taking advantage of a Toronto turnover to lead 23-3 just 43 seconds into the third quarter.

On the first play from scrimmage, Toronto quarterback Damon Allen was intercepted by cornerback Mark Estelle, who scampered 78 yards for the touchdown.

Estelle's major touched off a shouting match between frustrated Argos linebacker Mike O'Shea and receiver Arland Bruce at the sideline.

The interception was also enough for Clemons to pull Allen in favour of backup Michael Bishop for the second consecutive post-season game.

Allen, who was also benched last week in the East semifinal for the more athletic Bishop, was sacked twice in the first half and pressured on several other occasions.

The change made little difference initially.

Bishop was sacked by Dario Romero on Toronto's next drive, forcing the Argos to punt.

Bruce's TD reduces Als' lead

However, Montreal's Avon Cobourne fumbled Noel Prefontaine's punt that was recovered by Chris Hardy. Bishop hit Bruce three plays later with a 23-yard touchdown at 9:52 of the third, reducing Montreal's lead to 23-10.

Yet any momentum gained on Bruce's touchdown ended on the team's ensuing possession. Running back Ricky Williams was stripped of the ball by defensive back Ricky Bell, setting up Montreal's next score.

Calvillo hit receiver Thyron Anderson with a 52-yard touchdown strike on the following play to give Montreal a commanding 30-10 lead with less two minutes remaining in the third.

Bishop, who finished the game throwing for 181 yards and a pair of touchdowns, rallied Toronto in the fourth quarter with two touchdowns drives, bringing the Argos to within striking distance.

He first found receiver Michael Palmer alone for a 10-yard score at 3:13. Bishop then led the Argos on an 84-yard scoring march that resulted in a one-yard touchdown plunge by Williams, cutting Montreal's to 30-24 at 12:27.

The comeback fell short as Damon Duval iced the game for Montreal, nailing a clutch 44-yard field goal with 51 seconds remaining.

The loss signals the end of Williams's brief CFL career. The 29-year-old veteran, banished for one season for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy, was on loan by the Miami Dolphins and is expected to return next season.

Meanwhile, the Alouettes snapped a 3-3 tie at 6:29 of the second quarter on a 41-yard field goal by Duval at 6:29. The drive was made possible after Cobourne returned a missed field goal attempt by Prefontaine 77 yards, taking the Alouettes into Toronto territory.

Montreal increased its lead to 13-3 on the next drive with less than three minutes remaining in the first half.

Edwards broke a tackle and pushed across the goal-line for the game's first touchdown.

Duval put Montreal in front 16-3 following a 29-yard field goal to end the first half.

The Alouettes took control from the opening quarter, but a pair of turnovers killed early drives despite gaining 111 yards through the air.

Holiday movie preview

The decorations are up in the malls. The flyers are arriving in the newspapers. All we need now is the first appearance of a Canadian Tire Scrooge commercial and it's official: The holiday season is upon us. Ho-frickin'-ho-ho.

If there's an upside to only 46 shopping days remaining 'til Christmas, it's that a new glut of movies is hitting theatres between now and the end of the year. This is usually the period when studios slip their Oscar hopefuls into the release schedule, while balancing them out with the odd bit of blockbustery fluff.

But since we haven't actually seen most of these flicks yet, we have to rely on someone with decades of holiday movie experience (not to mention slightly creepy omniscient powers) to help us pick 10 of the most interesting-looking movies of the season, and separate the naughty from the nice.

Take it away, Santa Claus.

10: THE GOOD SHEPHERD (Dec. 22)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: The untold story of the origins of the CIA, with Matt Damon as an up-and-coming agent under the tutelage of a cagey vet (Robert De Niro, who also directs.) Angelina Jolie plays Damon's wifey.

SANTA SAYS: "Ho ho ho! Bobby De Niro, you say? Why, me and Mrs. Claus would see anything with that wonderful young man in it. And Angelina Jolie warms my North Pole! My South Pole, too!"

Naughty or Nice? Nice

9: HAPPY FEET (Nov. 17)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Computer-animated penguins, and lots of them. They sing! They dance! They sound just like Elijah Wood, Nicole Kidman and Robin Williams!

SANTA SAYS: "Why, we don't see any penguins up around my workshop, being as they are indigenous to the Antarctic! Ho ho ho! You didn't know Santa knew a big word like indigenous, did you? That's what happens when you spend your 364 days off every year sitting on the couch watching Discovery Channel on satellite!"

Naughty or Nice? Nice

8: ROCKY BALBOA (Dec. 22)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: The sixth instalment in the Rocky series sees the Italian Stallion coming out of retirement to fight the reviled boxer Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver), after a computer simulation shows Balboa in his prime could have beat the young bruiser.

SANTA SAYS: "Oh dear, I'm afraid young Sylvester has wasted all the nice gifts I've given him over the years. Such a greedy little boy, and now he expects to be given another career comeback? No, I'm afraid not. And I still don't like that ex-wife of his, the tall one who dates the strange man with the clock around his neck. Tut-tut."

Naughty or Nice? Naughty

7: BLOOD DIAMOND (Dec. 8)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: A South African mercenary (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a Mende fisherman (Djimon Hounsou) join forces to search for a legendary lost diamond against the backdrop of Sierra Leone's bloody civil war. Jennifer Connelly stars as DiCaprio's love interest.

SANTA SAYS: "My my, this sounds like a very serious story, doesn't it? But rest assured Santa never trades in conflict diamonds when he gives good little girls necklaces full of bling! Ho ho ho!"

Naughty or Nice? Nice

6: ERAGON (Dec. 15)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Based on the novel by 15-year-old Christopher Paolini, this is a swords-and-sorcery fantasy about a boy who discovers his heritage as a dragon rider and strives to avenge the death of his uncle. Critics have called the books derivative of familiar fare like Lord Of The Rings and Star Wars.

SANTA SAYS: "A fantasy movie for the whole family, and you know what that means -- merchandising! Santa loves merchandising, because it means I can give kids cheap plastic action figures made in Taiwan and save on local labour costs! Ho ho ho!"

Naughty or Nice? Naughty

5: WE ARE MARSHALL (Dec. 22)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: A football coach (Josh Lucas) tries to rebuild his team and heal his town after a plane crash claims the lives of 37 players and eight coaches. Based on the true story of the 1970 tragedy that devastated the Marshall University football team.

SANTA SAYS: "Now now, why would anyone want to watch such a sad story so close to Christmas? Christmas isn't about sacrifice and death and rebirth! It's about presents! Ho ho ho!"

Naughty or Nice? Naughty

4: THE FOUNTAIN (Nov. 22)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: A cancer scientist (Hugh Jackman) tries to save his dying wife (Rachel Weisz) in a story that also connects to events 500 years in the past and 500 years in the future, revolving around a tree that gives eternal life to those who eat its bark. Directed by Requiem For A Dream's Darren Aronofsky.

SANTA SAYS: "Eating bark? Why, I usually give Blitzen a good crack with the whip when I catch him chewing on a Christmas tree while I'm trying to put presents underneath it. This sounds like a lot of claptrap and nonsense."

Naughty or Nice? Naughty

3: TENACIOUS D IN THE PICK OF DESTINY (Nov. 22)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Jack Black and Kyle Gass -- together known as Tenacious D -- look for a magical pick that will make them rock like a hurricane, or at least a very strong gale.

SANTA SAYS: "Jack Black is always on my good boy list! Though to be perfectly frank this movie doesn't look to be as funny as he clearly thinks it is. Nacho Libre only buys you so much goodwill, my roly-poly friend! Ho ho ho!"

Naughty or Nice? Naughty

2: DEJA VU (Nov. 22)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: A federal agent (Denzel Washington) uses top secret technology to travel back in time in a bid to prevent a ferry bombing in New Orleans. In the process, he falls in love with one of the potential victims.

SANTA SAYS: "Dear, oh dear, I certainly did enjoy that Tony Scott movie with that pleasant Mr. Washington fellow where the little girl got kidnapped. Watching his movies is like drinking five cups of coffee in a row, and Santa needs his pep!"

Naughty or Nice? Nice

1: APOCALYPTO (Dec. 8)

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: A historical myth set 600 years ago, on the cusp of the decline of the Maya civilization. It's director Mel Gibson's follow-up to The Passion Of The Christ, with all dialogue spoken in the Yucatec Maya tongue and subtitled in English.

SANTA SAYS: "Santa had to buy an extra big sleigh this year to carry all the coal for Mel Gibson's stocking! But even I can admit that this movie looks very intriguing. At least they won't be beating up that nice Jesus man in this one! Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas!"

Naughty or Nice? Nice.

Timberlake works on Duran-Duran album

NEW YORK - Justin Timberlake is working on Duran Duran's new album, along with superproducer Timbaland, who created recent smash hits for both Timberlake and Nelly Furtado, the British band said.

"We've got some good stuff happening," said lead singer Simon LeBon. "We've done three tracks with Timbaland; we've collaborated in a writing and production manner on one of those tracks with Justin Timberlake. We've got a lot really hot producers who are hotly interested in working with us at the moment. We are in a very good space."

Duran Duran, who had its biggest hits in the '80s with such songs as "Rio" and "The Reflex," was in New York last Tuesday to perform at Cipriani's at a benefit for the AIDS research organization AmFar. The night also featured an auction, led by Sharon Stone, of luxury items.

The performance was without one of its founding members: Guitarist Andy Taylor left the group late last month.

Bassist Josh Taylor likened the split to a divorce. He said, "There were many strong differences of feeling within the band for some time now."

However, he said, Taylor's departure has been "empowering, quite freeing" for Duran Duran.

"We've been playing over the last few weeks around Europe and in the States, and we're just putting it into the music," he said.

'Borat' banks $29M, keeps top movie spot

LOS ANGELES - A make-believe son of the glorious nation of Kazakhstan continues to rule the American box office. Sacha Baron Cohen's "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" took in $29 million to remain the No. 1 movie for a second straight weekend, distributor 20th Century Fox said Sunday. "Borat" raised its 10-day total to $67.8 million.

The top three movies remained unchanged from the previous weekend, with Disney's "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause" still in second place with $16.9 million and the Paramount-DreamWorks animated tale "Flushed Away" in third with $16.7 million.

Sony's Will Ferrell comedy "Stranger Than Fiction" debuted as the best of the weekend's newcomers, placing fourth with $14.1 million. Ferrell plays a meek tax auditor suddenly able to hear the voice of a narrator ( Emma Thompson) chronicling his life and impending death.

While 20th Century Fox could crow about "Borat," the studio's Russell Crowe- Ridley Scott reunion "A Good Year" flopped, coming in at No. 10 with $3.8 million. "A Good Year" was a departure for the star and director of "Gladiator," a soft romance with Crowe as a London investment shark seduced by the laid-back life at a French vineyard he inherits.

The movie generally was panned by critics, and audiences apparently were not willing to accept broody actor Crowe in a romantic lead, said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution for 20th Century Fox.

Audiences were willing to accept Cohen as Borat, the Kazakh TV journalist he originated on "Da Ali G Show," who jumps to the big screen in a mock documentary about his journey across America.

Crudely funny and raucously satiric, "Borat" was a surprise winner at the box office with a $26.5 million opening weekend, even though it played in only 837 theaters, fewer than one-fourth the number of cinemas for "The Santa Clause 3" and "Flushed Away."

Some box-office analysts had questioned whether 20th Century Fox missed the boat by launching "Borat" in so few theaters, saying the movie could have rung up millions more on opening weekend if it had gone wider.

But Snyder said the buzz from the movie's huge debut proved a great prelude to wider release in its second weekend, when it expanded to 2,566 theaters.

"When a picture takes off like this, you can do it any way you want and you can't screw it up, quite honestly, when a picture becomes a part of the culture like this," Snyder said.

Expanding nationwide after two weekends in limited release, Paramount Vantage's drama "Babel" was No. 6 with $5.65 million. With an ensemble cast that includes Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, "Babel" traces the repercussions of a shooting in the African desert on families around the globe.

Sarah Michelle Gellar's supernatural thriller "The Return" opened weakly with $4.8 million to come in at No. 8. Released by Focus Features, the movie was not screened beforehand for critics, generally a sign the distributor expects bad reviews.

MGM's "Harsh Times," a gritty street drama starring Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez, also had a poor debut of $1.8 million, finishing out of the top 10.

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. "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," $29 million.
2. "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," $16.9 million.
3. "Flushed Away," $16.7 million.
4. "Stranger Than Fiction," $14.1 million.
5. "Saw III," $6.6 million.
6. "Babel," $5.65 million.
7. "The Departed," $5.2 million.
8. "The Return," $4.8 million.
9. "The Prestige," $4.6 million.
10. "A Good Year," $3.8 million.

'60 Minutes' will pay tribute to Bradley

NEW YORK (AP) - "60 Minutes" will give its late correspondent Ed Bradley a send-off on Sunday with an hour-long tribute that features interviews with close friends and a solo by jazz musician Wynton Marsalis.

Bradley, a 26-year veteran of the CBS newsmagazine, died of leukemia on Thursday.

Sunday's special includes Steve Kroft's interviews with some of Bradley's closest friends, musician Jimmy Buffett, journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Marsalis. Morley Safer will review the legacy of Bradley's estimated 500 "60 Minutes" stories.

Lesley Stahl will do a profile of Bradley, from his childhood in Philadelphia to his job at "60 Minutes."

It will air in the "60 Minutes" time slot of 7 p.m. ET.

Oscar-winning actor Jack Palance dies

LOS ANGELES - Jack Palance, the craggy-faced menace in "Shane," "Sudden Fear" and other films who turned successfully to comedy in his 70s with his Oscar-winning self-parody in "City Slickers," died Friday.

Palance died of natural causes at his home in Montecito, Calif., surrounded by family, said spokesman Dick Guttman. He was 87.

When Palance accepted his Oscar for best supporting actor he delighted viewers of the 1992 Academy Awards by dropping to the stage and performing one-armed push-ups to demonstrate his physical prowess.

"That's nothing, really," he said slyly. "As far as two-handed push-ups, you can do that all night, and it doesn't make a difference whether she's there or not."

That year's Oscar host, Billy Crystal, turned the moment into a running joke, making increasingly outlandish remarks about Palance's accomplishments throughout the show.

It was a magic moment that epitomized the actor's 40 years in films. Always the iconoclast, Palance had scorned most of his movie roles.

"Most of the stuff I do is garbage," he once told a reporter, adding that most of the directors he worked with were incompetent, too.

"Most of them shouldn't even be directing traffic," he said.

Movie audiences, though, were electrified by the actor's chiseled face, hulking presence and the calm, low voice that made his screen presence all the more intimidating.

His film debut came in 1950, playing a murderer named Blackie in "Panic in the Streets."

After a war picture, "Halls of Montezuma," he portrayed the ardent lover who stalks the terrified Joan Crawford in 1952's "Sudden Fear." The role earned him his first Academy Award nomination for supporting actor.

The following year brought his second nomination when he portrayed Jack Wilson, the swaggering gunslinger who bullies peace-loving Alan Ladd into a barroom duel in the Western classic "Shane."

That role cemented Palance's reputation as Hollywood's favorite menace, and he went on to appear in such films as "Arrowhead" (as a renegade Apache), "Man in the Attic" (as Jack the Ripper), "Sign of the Pagan" (as Attila the Hun) and "The Silver Chalice" (as a fictional challenger to Jesus).

Other prominent films included "Kiss of Fire," "The Big Knife," "I Died a Thousand Deaths," "Attack!" "The Lonely Man" and "House of Numbers."

Weary of being typecast, Palance moved with his wife and three young children to Lausanne, Switzerland, at the height of his career.

He spent six years abroad but returned home complaining that his European film roles were "the same kind of roles I left Hollywood because of."

His career failed to regain momentum upon his return, and his later films included "The Professionals," "The Desperadoes," "Monte Walsh," "Chato's Land" and "Oklahoma Crude."

When he appeared as Fidel Castro in 1969's "Che!" about Latin American revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara, he told a reporter: "At this stage of my career, I don't formulate reasons why I take roles — the price was right."

He also appeared frequently on television in the 1960s and `70s, winning an Emmy in 1965 for his portrayal of an end-of-the-line boxer in "Requiem for a Heavyweight."

He and his daughter Holly Palance hosted the oddity show "Ripley's Believe It or Not" and he starred in the short-lived series "The Greatest Show on Earth" and "Bronk."

Forty-one years after his auspicious film debut, Palance played against type, to a degree. His "City Slickers" character, Curly, was still a menacing figure to dude ranch visitors Crystal, Daniel Stern and Bruno Kirby, but with a comic twist. And Palance delivered his one-liners with surgeon-like precision.

Through most of his career, Palance maintained his distance from the Hollywood scene. In the late 1960s he bought a sprawling cattle and horse ranch north of Los Angeles. He also owned a bean farm near his home town of Lattimer, Pa.

Although most of his film portrayals were as primitives, Palance was well-spoken and college-educated. His favorite pastimes away from the movie world were painting and writing poetry and fiction.

A strapping 6-feet-4 and 210 pounds, Palance excelled at sports and won a football scholarship to the University of North Carolina. He left after two years, disgusted by commercialization of the sport.

He decided to use his size and strength as a prizefighter, but after two hapless years that resulted in little more than a broken nose that would serve him well as a screen villain, he joined the Army Air Corps in 1942.

A year later he was discharged after his B-24 lost power on takeoff and he was knocked unconscious.

The GI Bill of Rights provided Palance's tuition at Stanford University, where he studied journalism. But the drama club lured him, and he appeared in 10 comedies. Just before graduation he left school to try acting professionally in New York.

"I had always wanted to express myself through words," he said in a 1957 interview. "But I always thought I was too big to be an actor. I could see myself knocking over tables. I thought acting was for little ... guys."

He made his Broadway debut in a comedy, "The Big Two," in which he had but one line, spoken in Russian, a language his parents spoke at home.

The play lasted only a few weeks, and he supported himself as a short-order cook, waiter, lifeguard and hot dog seller between other small roles in the theater.

His career breakthrough came when he was chosen as Anthony Quinn's understudy in the road company of "A Streetcar Named Desire," then replaced Marlon Brando in the Stanley Kowalski role on Broadway. The show's director, Elia Kazan, chose him in 1950 to for "Panic in the Streets."

Born Walter Jack Palahnuik in Pennsylvania coal country on Feb. 18, 1919, Palance was the third of five children of Ukrainian immigrants. His father worked the mines for 39 years until he died of black lung disease in 1955.

In interviews, Palance recalled bitterly that his family had to buy groceries at the company store, though prices were cheaper elsewhere.

Yet, he told a Saturday Evening Post writer, he had "a good childhood, like most kids think they have."

"It was fine to play there in the third-growth birch and aspen, along the sides of slag piles," he said.

'Bourne' sequel finds bad guy

Given that production has been underway for a while now, it's good that "The Bourne Ultimatum" has finally found its big villain.

After an extended flirtation with Gael Garcia Bernal, the "Bourne" sequel has at least stayed in the Spanish-speaking world, hiring Venezuelan thespian Edgar Ramirez to play a character described as a "superkiller."

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the "Ultimatum" plot once again finds Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) looking for answers about his past, which brings the aforementioned superkiller into play.

Joan Allen and Julia Stiles are returning, along with "Bourne Supremacy" director Paul Greengrass. New additions to the gang include David Strathairn and Paddy Considine.

If viewers know Ramirez at all, it's from his co-starring role in 2005's "Domino." He's also set to appear in the upcoming thriller "Vantage Point."

Cameron Diaz wants a nose job

Cameron Diaz, who stars as a woman who finds new love in the upcoming comedy "The Holiday," says that she needs a new nose.

The actress tells W magazine that she needs surgery to correct her deviated septum.

"I'm getting it fixed. I can't take it. I cannot breathe at all," says Diaz. "One side of my nose is totally shattered -- my septum is basically like a train derailed."

Diaz, 34, broke her nose for the fourth time on her birthday in 2003 while surfing in Waikiki. It was the first day of her two-week Hawaiian vacation.

The actress also has to watch her diet and deal with other body issues as she ages.

"I used to be able to eat anything I wanted and then go right to bed. Fried chicken, onion rings, half a bottle of wine," she says. "As you get older, your insides rebel. You've asked so much of them for so many years, and then they just go, 'Uh-uh, bi-atch! Gonna eat cheese fries? See how you sleep!' And you're tossing and turning all night."

"The Holiday," which also stars Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Jack Black, opens nationwide on Friday, Dec. 8.

R&B crooner Gerald Levert dies, 40

NEW YORK - Gerald Levert, the fiery singer of passionate R&B love songs and the son of O'Jays singer Eddie Levert, died on Friday. He was 40.

His label, Atlantic Records, confirmed that Levert died at his home in Cleveland, Ohio.

"All of us at Atlantic are shocked and deeply saddened by his untimely death. He was one of the greatest voices of our time, who sang with unmatched soulfulness and power, as well as a tremendously gifted composer and an accomplished producer," the statement read.

Dan Bomeli, public relations manager at University Hospitals Geauga Medical Center in suburban Cleveland, said Levert had been brought to the hospital. Bomeli said Levert had died but he had no further details.

Over his two-decade music career, Levert sold millions of albums and had numerous R&B hits.

Levert first gained fame in 1986 as a member of the R&B trio LeVert, which also included his brother, Sean, and childhood friend Marc Gordon. They quickly racked up hits like "(Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind," "Casanova," and "Baby I'm Ready."

But Gerald Levert's voice — powerful and soulful, almost a carbon copy of his father's — was always the focal point, and in 1991, he made his solo debut with the album "Private Line," which included a hit duet with his dad, "Baby Hold on to Me." His father also recorded the successful album "Father & Son."

Levert was known for his sensual, romantic songs, but unlike a Luther Vandross, whose voice and songs were more genteel, Levert's music was explosive and raw — his 2002 album was titled "The G Spot."

Though Levert was successful as a solo singer, in 1997 he got into group mode again — joining with R&B singers Johnny Gill and Keith Sweat for the supergroup of LSG. The self-titled album sold more than two million copies, and their hits included the sensual "My Body." Levert also worked with other artists as a songwriter and producer.

His most recent album was 2005's "Voices."

Levert had four children.

Humiliated frat boys sue 'Borat'

SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Two fraternity boys want to make lawsuit against "Borat" over their drunken appearance in the hit movie.

The legal action filed Thursday on their behalf claims they were duped into appearing in the spoof documentary "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," in which they made racist and sexist comments on camera.

The young men "engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in," the lawsuit says.

"Borat" follows the adventures of comedian Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh journalist character in a blend of fiction and improvised comic encounters as he travels across the United States and mocks Americans.

The plaintiffs were not named in the lawsuit "to protect themselves from any additional and unnecessary embarrassment." They were identified in the movie as fraternity members from a South Carolina university, and appeared drunk as they made insulting comments about women and minorities to Cohen's character.

The lawsuit claims that in October 2005, a production crew took the students to a bar to drink and "loosen up" before participating in what they were told would be a documentary to be shown outside of the United States.

"They were induced to agree to participate and were told the name of the fraternity and the name of their school wouldn't be used," said the plaintiffs' attorney, Olivier Taillieu. "They were put into an RV and were made to believe they were picking up Borat the hitchhiker."

After a bout of heavy drinking, the plaintiffs signed a release form they were told "had something to do with reliability issues with being in the RV," Taillieu said.

The film "made plaintiffs the object of ridicule, humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, loss of reputation, goodwill and standing in the community," the lawsuit said.

It names 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp., and three production companies as defendants.

Studio spokesman Gregg Brilliant said the lawsuit "has no merit."

The plaintiffs were seeking an injunction to stop the studio from displaying their image and likeness, along with unspecified monetary damages.

"Borat" debuted as the top movie last weekend with $26.5 million.

The New Spider-Man 3 Trailer!

Sony Pictures has launched the new Spider-Man 3 trailer at IFILM.

The Sam Raimi-directed sequel kicks-off next summer on May 4.

In Spider-Man 3, based on the legendary Marvel Comics series, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) has finally managed to strike a balance between his devotion to M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) and his duties as a superhero.

But there is a storm brewing on the horizon.

As Spider-Man basks in the public's adulation for his accomplishments and he is pursued by Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), who rivals M.J. for his affections, Peter becomes overconfident and starts to neglect the people who care about him most.

His newfound self-assuredness is jeopardized when he faces the battle of his life against two of the most feared villains ever (Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace), whose unparalleled power and thirst for retribution threaten Peter and everyone he loves.

Eddie Van Halen Taps Teenage Son As New Bassist

Eddie Van Halen has tapped his 15-year-old son, Wolfgang, as the replacement for Michael Anthony in Van Halen, a spokesperson confirms to Billboard.com. Father and son, along with Eddie's drummer brother Alex, have been rehearsing for a 2007 tour, but it is unknown who will serve as the band's vocalist.

Rumors continue to swirl that David Lee Roth will be back in the fold for the first time in more than 20 years. Roth told Billboard.com in May that he hadn't seen Eddie Van Halen in "a couple of years" but that he was up for reuniting with his old mate.

"I see it absolutely as an inevitability," said Roth. "To me, it's not rocket surgery. It's very simple to put together. And as far as hurt feelings and water under the dam, like what's-her-name says to what's-her-name at the end of the movie 'Chicago' -- 'So what? It's showbiz!' So I definitely see it happening."

No details have been provided about Anthony's departure, although Van Halen knocked the bassist for aligning himself with Sammy Hagar during a September appearance on "The Howard Stern Show."

"I got no problem with these guys, but they're billing themselves as the other half of Van Halen," he said. "My brother is the other half of Van Halen. They're out there selling hot sauce and tequila and playing all my songs. It doesn't bother me. It just makes them a cover band."

As for the musical acumen of Wolfgang, he enthused, "If I excel at the speed of sound, he excels at the speed of light. This kid is just a natural."

As previously reported, Van Halen is one of nine acts on the ballot for the 2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.

'Studio 60' picked up for season

LOS ANGELES - The show will go on for "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip," despite its failure to lure viewers. NBC said Thursday it has ordered an additional nine episodes of the backstage drama from "The West Wing" creator Aaron Sorkin for a full season's worth of shows, or 22 weeks.

"I am pleased to show our support for this outstanding and ambitious effort from executive producers Aaron Sorkin and Thomas Schlamme," Kevin Reilly, NBC Entertainment president, said in a statement, citing the series' critical support and "passionate core audience."

Among the most expensive and high-profile shows for fall 2006, with a star-studded ensemble cast including Matthew Perry and Amanda Peet, glossy "Studio 60" hasn't come close to fulfilling expectations about its viewer appeal.

This week, it drew an estimated 7.7 million viewers in its 10-11 p.m. EST Monday time period. By comparison, the top competitor in that slot, "CSI: Miami" on CBS, was watched by an estimated 16.8 million viewers.

Searching for a silver ratings lining, NBC noted that the audience for "Studio 60" is among prime-time TV's highest concentrations of affluent and college-educated viewers, those in homes with incomes of $75,000 and up.

The series, set behind the scenes of a "Saturday Night Live"-like variety series, focuses both on relationships and network politics. Sorkin's acclaimed and Emmy-winning White House drama performed a similar balancing act but proved more popular.

NBC tried to protect "Studio 60" from the outset. Initially scheduled to air on Thursday, it was moved in the preseason when ABC said it was relocating its hit "Grey's Anatomy" opposite it on that night.

Other "Studio 60" cast members include Bradley Whitford, Sarah Paulson, D.L. Hughley, Nathan Corddry, Timothy Busfield and Steven Weber.

'Borat' to be banned in Russia

MOSCOW (AP) - A government agency said it would refuse to grant permission for Sacha Baron Cohen's controversial comedy "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" to be shown in theatres in neighbouring Russia, its distributor here said Thursday.

The Federal Agency for Culture and Cinematography said the film could offend some viewers and contained material that "might seem disparaging in relation to certain ethnic groups and religions," according to Vadim Ivanov, theatrical sales director at Twentieth Century Fox C.I.S.

Ivanov said he hoped the agency would relent and that the film, which packed theatres to debut as the top weekend movie in the United States, will premiere in Russia as scheduled on Nov. 30.

The agency informed the company in a letter that it would not grant the permission required to show the film in theatres, but later said the decision was not official, Ivanov noted. "This story is not over," he said.

Ivanov said he was unaware of an instance in which Russian authorities have banned a non-pornographic movie. Officials at the government agency did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.

Cohen's comic character Borat Sagdiyev has told the world that Kazakhs are addicted to drinking horse urine, enjoy shooting dogs, view rape and incest as respectable hobbies and are fond of pursuits such as "running of the Jew" festivals.

Russia has close political ties with Kazakhstan, whose officials - and citizens - have long seethed at the depiction of their country.

The move comes as Kremlin critics accuse President Vladimir Putin's government of restricting freedoms and tightening control over society. Amid a growing wave of extreme nationalism and hate crimes, it appears to reflect efforts by Russian authorities - long accused of turning a blind eye - to show that they are cracking down on intolerance.

Mitchell gets Songwriters nod

TORONTO (CP) - Folk music icon Joni Mitchell and country pioneer Wilf Carter are among artists to be inducted next year into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Organizers say the music legends are among four songwriters and 25 songs to be celebrated at a black-tie gala in Toronto on Jan. 28.

Raymond Egan, who wrote songs for films and Broadway musicals, and Quebec chanteur Jean-Pierre Ferland are the two other artists to be honoured.

Classic songs to be inducted include Mitchell's "Help Me" and "Big Yellow Taxi" and Sylvia Tyson's "You Were on My Mind," recorded with her then-husband Ian Tyson.

Canadian tenor Henry Burr and folk music impresario Sam Gesser will each receive a legacy award.

Songs must be more than 25 years old to be considered for the awards, launched four years ago.

"Like previous honourees, the 2007 inductees have made an invaluable contribution to Canada's cultural legacy through the timeless art of song," hall of fame chairman Peter Steinmetz said in a release.

The honour comes as Mitchell is said to be working on her first new album in eight years.

The acknowledgment for Carter, regarded as the father of country music in Canada, comes 10 years after his death in December 1996.

His 1932 recording of "My Swiss Moonlight Lullaby" - which showcased his yodelling - is considered the first hit by a Canadian country performer.

Carter, born in Port Hilford, N.S., pursued a parallel career in the United States under the name Montana Slim and performed well into his 80s.

The gala performance will be broadcast on CBC Radio the following day and on CBC-TV in March 2007.

-

A list of the 2007 inductees into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, announced Thursday:

Songwriters: Folk music icon Joni Mitchell, country pioneer Wilf Carter, Quebec chanteur Jean-Pierre Ferland, Broadway and film composer Raymond Egan.

Legacy Awards: Canadian tenor Henry Burr, folk music impresario Sam Gesser.

Songs:

-"Ain't We Got Fun" - Raymond Egan (co-wrote with Gus Kahn and Richard Whiting).

-"Sleepy Time Gal" - Raymond Egan (co-wrote with Richard Whiting, Joseph R. Alden, Ange Lorenzo).

-"Un Canadien errant" - Antoine Gerin-Lajoie.

-"Dans nos vieilles maisons" - Muriel Millard.

-"How About You" - Ralph Freed, Burton Lane.

-"My Old Canadian Home" - Wilf Carter (co-wrote with John Klenner, Bob Miller).

-"My Swiss Moonlight Lullaby" - Wilf Carter.

-"There's a Love Knot in My Lariat" - Wilf Carter (co-wrote with Clark Harrington).

-"Big Yellow Taxi" - Joni Mitchell.

-"Both Sides Now" - Joni Mitchell.

-"Comme j'ai toujours envie d'aimer" - Marc Hamilton.

-"Des croissants de soleil" - Jean Robitaille, Lee Gagnon.

-"Help Me" - Joni Mitchell.

-"Je ne suis qu'une chanson" - Diane Juster.

-"Je reviens chez nous" - Jean-Pierre Ferland.

-"Le Frigidaire" - Georges Langford.

-"Le petit roi" - Jean-Pierre Ferland (co-wrote with Michel Robidoux).

-"Paquetville" - Lise Aubut (co-wrote with Edith Butler).

-"Spinning Wheel" - David Clayton-Thomas.

-" T'es mon amour, t'es ma maitresse" - Jean-Pierre Ferland (co-wrote with Jean-Pierre Lauzon).

-"Ton visage" - Jean-Pierre Ferland (co-wrote with Paul de Margerie).

-"Un peu plus haut un peu plus loin" - Jean-Pierre Ferland.

-"Woodstock" - Joni Mitchell.

-"You Turn Me on, I'm a Radio" - Joni Mitchell.

-"You Were on My Mind" - Sylvia Fricker (Tyson).

'60 Minutes' reporter Ed Bradley dies

NEW YORK - Ed Bradley, the award-winning television journalist who broke racial barriers at CBS News and created a distinctive, powerful body of work during his 26 years on "60 Minutes," died Thursday. He was 65.

Bradley died of leukemia at Mount Sinai hospital, CBS News announced.

He landed many memorable interviews, including the Duke lacrosse players accused of rape, Michael Jackson and the only TV interview with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Bradley "was tough in an interview, he was insistent on getting an interview," said former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite, "and at the same time when the interview was over, when the subject had taken a pretty heavy lashing by him — they left as friends. He was that kind of guy."

With his signature earring and beard, Bradley was "considered intelligent, smooth, cool, a great reporter, beloved and respected by all his colleagues here at CBS News," Katie Couric said in a special report.

"A reporter's reporter," fellow "60 Minutes" correspondent Mike Wallace told CBS News Radio.

Bradley's consummate skills were recognized with numerous awards, including four George Foster Peabody awards and 19 Emmys, the latest for a segment on the reopening of the 50-year-old racial murder case of Emmett Till.

Three of his Emmys came at the 2003 awards: for lifetime achievement; a report on brain cancer patients; and a report about sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. He also won a lifetime achievement award from the National Association of Black Journalists.

Bradley joined "60 Minutes" in 1981 when Dan Rather left to replace Cronkite as anchor of "The CBS Evening News."

His reporting ability was matched by his interviewing finesse. When he spoke with McVeigh in February 2000 at the federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind., the convicted bomber told Bradley that he was angry and bitter after fighting in the Gulf War. In December 2003, Jackson said he had been "manhandled" when arrested on child molestation charges a few weeks earlier.

"Ed could get people to say the damndest thing because he put them at ease," said former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw said Thursday. "It was like talking not to a reporter, but talking to an interested counselor of some kind. ... He had this wonderful way of stroking his beard and saying, `Well, what do you mean by that?"

Though he had been ill and had undergone heart bypass surgery about a year ago, he remained active on "60 Minutes." In one of his last reports, an investigation of the Duke case that aired last month, he broke new ground with the first interviews with the accused.

Born June 22, 1941, Bradley grew up in a tough section of Philadelphia, where he once recalled that his parents worked 20-hour days at two jobs apiece. "I was told, `You can be anything you want, kid,'" he once told an interviewer. "When you hear that often enough, you believe it."

After graduating from the historically black Cheyney State College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania), he launched his career as a jazz DJ — he was a lifelong jazz fan — and news reporter for a Philadelphia radio station in 1963. He moved to New York's WCBS radio four years later.

He joined CBS News as a stringer in the Paris bureau in 1971, transferring a year later to the Saigon bureau during the Vietnam War. He was wounded while on assignment in Cambodia. He was named a CBS News correspondent in early 1973 and moved to the Washington bureau in June 1974. He later returned to Vietnam, covering the fall of that country and Cambodia.

Cronkite recalled first meeting Bradley in Vietnam: "He seemed to be fearless, an incredibly smart reporter in getting the story."

After Southeast Asia, Bradley returned to the United States and covered Jimmy Carter's successful campaign for the White House. He followed Carter to Washington, in 1976 becoming CBS' first black White House correspondent — a prestigious position that Bradley didn't enjoy.

He jumped from Washington to doing pieces for "CBS Reports," traveling to Cambodia, China, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia. It was his Emmy-winning 1979 piece on Vietnamese boat refugees that eventually landed his work on "60 Minutes."

"60 Minutes" producer Don Hewitt, in his book "Minute by Minute," was quick to appreciate Bradley. "He's so good and so savvy and so lights up the tube every time he's on it that I wonder what took us so long," Hewitt wrote.

Bradley recently served as a radio host for "Jazz at Lincoln Center," where he won one of his four Peabody awards.

Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Lincoln Center's jazz department, called Bradley "one of our definitive cultural figures, a man of unsurpassed curiosity, intelligence, dignity and heart."

Accepting his lifetime achievement award from the black journalists association, Bradley remembered being present at some of the organization's first meetings in New York.

"I look around this room tonight and I can see how much our profession has changed and our numbers have grown," he said. "I also see it every day as I travel the country reporting stories for '60 Minutes.' All I have to do is turn on the TV and I can see the progress that has been made."

But, he added, "There are many more rivers to cross, and many more stories to cover and, I hope, a lot left in this lifetime."

Bradley is survived by his wife, Patricia Blanchet.

"Spidey 3" trailer to hit Viacom's web

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Spider-Man 3" will receive a TV and online blitz Thursday night when Columbia Pictures unveils a 2-1/2-minute trailer at 10 p.m. in a "road block" across Viacom's online brands and CBS' TV network -- six months before the film's May 4 premiere.

On CBS, the spot will air after "CSI" and before the James Woods legal drama "Shark." On Comedy Central, the trailer will run before a new "South Park" episode, while MTV will show the spot before a new "Real World/Road Rules Challenge." Other TV networks airing the trailer include BET, Logo, MTV2, Spike TV and VH1, with each supporting the event with custom promotions.

In addition, 14 online destinations from Viacom's networks are supporting the airing, including AddictingGames.com, AddictingClips.com, BET.com, MTV.com, IFilm.com, Nick.com, ComedyCentral.com, GameTrailers.com, LogoOnline.com, Neopets.com, SpikeTV.com, The-N.com, VH1.com, and Xfire.com.

Immediately after the television premiere, a high-definition version of the trailer will be available exclusively on MTV Networks' IFilm.com.

No Redemption for 'Indy 4' Writer

The latest effort to bring back Indiana Jones appears doomed, according to writer-director Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption).

Darabont told a movie website that focuses on films in development that although Steven Spielberg had praised his script for Indiana Jones 4 as "the best draft of anything since Raiders of the Lost Ark, " his excitement was not shared by fellow producer George Lucas.

In the interview with Devin Faraci of CHUD.com, Darabont said Spielberg's praise "gave me a real sense of accomplishment, especially when you love the material you're working on as much as I love the Indiana Jones films. And then you have George Lucas read it and say, 'Yeah, I don't think so, I don't like it.' And then he resets it to zero."

Asked whether he believes Indy 4 will ever be filmed, Darabont replied, "I don't think so. ... I just think it's fantastically bizarre that for a project that people have been trying to crack for ten years and have a writer come in and finally crack it and then ... [for Lucas to] say, 'No, I don't think so...' It's just bizarre to me. I can't get into George's head."

Captain Sundin out 3-4 weeks

The Maple Leafs will be without their captain and most valuable player for the next 3-4 weeks.

The team announced today that Mats Sundin suffered a ligament tear in his right elbow during a 4-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Monday.

The veteran Swede seemed to hurt himself during a second-period collision with the Flyers' Ben Eager, yet shook off the pain to set up the game winner one period later.

"It could have been worse," GM John Ferguson said. "At least no surgery is required.

"I'm confident we can get through this."

Nik Antropov will take Sundin’s spot on the top line with Alexei Ponikarovsky and Kyle Wellwood.

"I know there is more pressure to pick up the offensive slack," Wellwood said. "I welcome the challenge."

Last season Sundin was hit in the eye by the puck in the opener against Ottawa and missed the next six weeks. The Leafs rallied in his absence and played above .500 hockey until he returned.

The Muppet Show Season 2 slated for early 2007 release

Numerous issues have delayed the DVD box set, but release is expected during the first quarter of 2007

Fifteen months ago "The Muppet Show Season 1" was released on DVD, and ever since fans have been asking when they would be able to get their hands on season 2.

Pinning down the release hasn't been simple for Disney. Originally it was slated for February, then bumped to a tentative slot in late Summer and then inexplicably delayed again. Legal clearances, material creation/restoration, marketing schemes, leadership changes, production priority schedules -- the reasons are complex and numerous.

Brain Henson said earlier this year when IGN asked about the Muppet Show Season 2, that "Disney is so formulaic and careful and secretive about their DVD release plans" that even he didn't know when the set would be out.

Back in July Muppets.com launched a poll to allow fans to vote on the cover art for the upcoming second season release. Just a few weeks ago the poll was taken down, and the fans' speculation started up again. What does it mean? Is it coming? Was it canceled? What's going on?

Well, we just got word from a reliable source within Buena-Vista Home Entertainment that there is no need to panic. The set is indeed coming. It's taken a while but it will be worth the wait. We were told they are "expecting release in the first quarter of 2007" (after the holidays' DVD production pushes).

They'd like to tell more about it, but everything is "top secret" right now. An official announcement with all the details is around the corner.

The set will be out in 2007 and season 3 is also expected for the future (although there are no details on timing).

CBC VP makes impassioned plea to Cdns

TORONTO (CP) - There have been some bright spots on CBC-TV's fall schedule this year - "The Rick Mercer Report" is a prime example - but overall, ratings at the public broadcaster have been in a free fall.

The dismal performances of such highly anticipated fare as "Hockey: A People's History" stand in stark contrast to the cash and viewers that private broadcasters are ringing up on the strength of the wildly popular American shows that Canadian viewers crave - programs like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Desperate Housewives."

Richard Stursberg, executive vice-president of CBC English television, is endlessly frustrated when people laud the success of CTV and Global compared to the struggles of his network.

"You hear people say 'Wow, CTV's doing great!' " Stursberg said after a speech Tuesday to the Economic Club of Toronto. "But how can CTV lose? They go down to the U.S. and go shopping for the highest-rated shows on American television."

American TV is great, Stursberg is quick to point out. But the networks that buy it don't have to pay to produce it, and they make hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour in ad revenue with each broadcast.

And, he adds, American shows have "nothing to do with our Canadian life, values, mores and culture."

Stursberg's speech to a business crowd of about 150 was a clarion call to Canadians to give home-grown television a chance.

"While English Canadians enjoy more choice in television programming than almost anyone else in the world, millions of Canadians tune in weekly to foreign - essentially American - content," he said.

"The result is that English Canadians are the only people in the industrialized world who seem to prefer the content of another country to their own. We believe this is the most important cultural challenge facing English Canada."

The CBC is crucial to winning that battle, Stursberg said, saying the public broadcaster "plays many roles in the public life of our country" while having its budget slashed repeatedly by the federal government.

Some in attendance were impressed by Stursberg's impassioned appeal to Canadians to start taking pride in the CBC.

"It's been many years since a CBC executive publicly defended the cultural importance of the network," said Patrick Gossage, head of the public relations firm Media Profile, which handles much of the publicity for CBC shows. "It's great to see."

Canadians listen to Canadian music and read Canadian novels and newspapers, Stursberg pointed out.

"But when it comes to the most popular forms of narrative - television and feature films - Canadians overwhelmingly prefer the stories of another country."

In an effort to buck the trend, Stursberg said the CBC is making more programming by, for and about Canadians.

"Canadians will watch home-grown programming when it is beautifully made, engaging and designed for them, when it is rooted in their sense of humour, their values, their lives and their history," he said.

The network is also cutting back on the number of specials and miniseries, and instead focusing on longer running series.

Hiring a new executive programming team and conducting a massive audience study is helping the CBC achieve its goals, he said.

But Stursberg acknowledged that turning the situation around is a tremendously difficult battle given that Canada is third-last - just ahead of New Zealand and the U.S. - in the lowest rank of per capita taxpayer support for public networks. At $33, that's less than a third of the $124 per capita that the BBC gets.

"How do we do it? By hiring the cleverest and most creative people we can and see if we can get there by being smart, because we sure can't get there by being rich."

Strummer Documentary To Premiere At Sundance

"The Future is Unwritten," Julien Temple's new film on the life and career of late Clash frontman Joe Strummer, will have its U.S. premiere in mid-January at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Taking its name from one of Strummer's favorite phrases, the film includes interviews with such Strummer disciples as Bono, actors Johnny Depp and John Cusack, members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Clash, old friends and those who squatted with him in condemned buildings in London before the Clash took off.

Also featured is unseen footage of Strummer's early life, as well as unearthed clips of the Clash and the Mescaleros, the band he fronted in the years prior to his 2002 death.

Using a combination of old interviews collected from journalists, as well as tapes of Strummer's BBC radio show, "The Future is Unwritten" finds Strummer "very much narrating and DJing his life story," says Temple, renown for his Sex Pistols movie "The Filth and the Fury."

The film is slated to debut in theaters via Sony Pictures in the U.S. by early summer, followed by a DVD and soundtrack release. Temple tells Billboard.com the music in the film spans Strummer's record collection, and includes techno, Hawaiian and Latin American music, as well as songs by his own bands and tracks from Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, rockabilly hero Eddie Cochran and Jamaica's Ernest Ranglin.

In a nod to one of Strummer's favorite late-life pastimes, the movie finds friends and admirers remembering the singer around campfires all over the world. Says Temple, "We had to have a bonfire on Mulholland Drive in L.A., where you can't put out a cigarette without getting dragged off by the fire brigade, and it didn't look very good until the fire officer said, 'What's the project?' We said, 'It's Joe Strummer,' and he said, 'In that case, you can have the license.'"

"And that was the effect all around: We had a runner on the shoot in New York, who got stopped by a cop for not having a safety belt and talking on a mobile phone," Temple continues. "The cop was just about to give him a ticket, when he saw the production thing on the dashboard, looked at it, and said, 'No fine. No ticket. This is for Joe.'"

"He had that effect on people," he says. "They really have a great deal of love and respect for this guy. But this is not a hero-worship film. Hopefully it does show a real human being, because that's what Joe was, first and foremost. He certainly wasn't a saint of any kind. Hopefully, the film does give you a rounded portrait of the man and his life."

"The Future is Unwritten" comes on the heels of a special Clash exhibit at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which opened last month, and the Nov. 14 release of "The Singles," a Legacy box set collecting the band's 19 U.K. singles.

TV series get bundled up

Just as TV sets are getting bigger and bigger, so are DVD collections.
After years of selling season sets of popular shows, suppliers now are packaging more box sets of complete TV series.

Stronger-than-expected sales of HBO Video's $300, 20-disc, six-season set of Sex and the City in November gave the marketing team a whole new strategy to use with other series: releasing the set in the lucrative fourth quarter after the series' run had ended.

"We experienced tremendous success with Sex and the City, and it has continued selling at a steady pace," HBO's Sofia Chang says.

The pricey sets generally are released in limited editions of 10,000 to 50,000 and cost $30-$40 a set to produce. With list prices from $200 to $300, the profit potential for a complete series set can be 10 times that of a single DVD.

Bringing out a full-series set is "not unlike numerous releases of a film: a special edition, a director's cut, an ultimate collector's edition," says Twentieth Century Fox's Steve Feldstein.

A&E was one of the first to bundle an entire series in one box with The Avengers in 2001. Since then the company has released complete series of such cult shows as Kids in the Hall, The Prisoner and Monty Python's Flying Circus.

"We've always been about collectors," A&E's Kate Winn says. "The customer base for our megasets is not price-sensitive; they want to take ownership of a program that has meaning to them."

And the sets make great gifts.

But Gord Lacey, who runs the popular website TVShowsOnDVD.com, says the sets can "deliver a big blow to the loyal customers who have purchased all the season sets over the last three to five years."

That complaint won't be heard with Get Smart.

HBO is releasing all five seasons of the classic spy spoof in a 25-disc set. Get Smart: The Complete Collection ($200) goes on sale Nov. 15 exclusively through the Time-Life website. It will arrive in stores next fall.

Will Borat's Glory Extend Through Week 2?

Twentieth Century Fox film executives are insisting that they were justified in reducing the number of theaters showing Borat to 837 prior to last weekend's opening.

The film took in $26.5 million, an unprecedented figure for a film opening in so few theaters.

Fox distribution chief Bruce Snyder claims that the decision to cut the number of theaters by nearly two thirds will work in favor of the movie next weekend because its initial success will increase awareness of it.

Daily Variety reported on Tuesday that even now, only 57 percent of people surveyed at theaters are aware of the film versus 90 percent for The Santa Clause 3.

However, other industry observers contend that the box-office results for Borat over the weekend exposed the shortcomings of tracking surveys and the risk of relying too heavily on them.

Fox is planning to expand Borat to about 2,400 theaters next weekend.

Meanwhile, The Santa Clause 3 turned out to be something of a disappointment.

Earning $19.5 million on 3,458 screens, it was off 32.8 percent from the $29-million debut of 2002's The Santa Clause 2, which eventually earned $139 million.

However, it was duly noted that this time around, the Disney film faced competition for the family audience from Aardman/DreamWorks Animation's Flushed Away, which exceeded analysts' expectations by opening in third place with $18.9 million.

Johnny Depp plunders People's Choice nominations

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Pirates of the Caribbean" star Johnny Depp, Hollywood's top-grossing leading man this year, led the field of People's Choice Award contenders announced on Tuesday as he snatched up three nominations.

Depp, the flamboyant buccaneer Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," was nominated as favorite male movie star, along with Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, and clinched a separate bid as best male action star, competing in that category with Samuel L. Jackson and Jet Li.

Depp, 43, voted favorite male star last year, shared a third nomination with "Pirates" co-star Keira Knightley in the category for favorite on-screen match-up.

"Dead Man's Chest" ranks as the highest-grossing film of 2006, raking in nearly $422 million domestically and more than $1 billion worldwide in theatrical ticket sales.

The film was a sequel to 2003's "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," which earned Depp his first Oscar nomination for his Jack Sparrow performance, one of the signature roles of his career.

Unlike the Oscars and other entertainment awards in which nominees and winners are chosen by industry peers, the People's Choice Awards are determined by the public. In previous years, polling for the awards was conducted by the Gallup Organization.

This year and last, Web-based market research group Knowledge Networks recruited a sample of "pop culture-involved" men and women to nominate their favorites from pre-selected candidates in various categories.

The top three selections for each category became nominees, and the winners will be chosen by a majority of online votes cast at the Web site www.pcavote.com. The 33rd Annual People's Choice Awards will be presented on January 9 in a nationally televised ceremony.

Other multiple nominees this year include Halle Berry, who starred in the blockbuster, "X-Men: The Last Stand," and picked up bids in two categories.

The Oscar winner faces off against Jennifer Aniston and last year's winner, Sandra Bullock, in the race for favorite female movie star. Berry's competitors in the race for favorite female action star are Kate Beckinsale and Uma Thurman.

Aniston also shared a nomination with Vince Vaughn, her off-screen paramour and co-star in "The Break-Up," in the race for best on-screen match-up, while Vaughn picked up a second nomination as favorite leading man, competing with Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.

Damon and his "The Departed" co-stars Jack Nicholson and Leonardo DiCaprio rounded out the roster of nominees in the favorite match-up category.

Country stars dominated the nominations for favorite male and female singers, with Faith Hill, Carrie Underwood, Trace Adkins, Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith among the contenders vying in those categories. Nominated for favorite musical group were Black Eyed Peas, Nickelback and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

New Releases, Nov. 7: Keith Urban, J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton, Josh Groban

Keith Urban "Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing"

The New Zealand-born country singer has received much publicity for stuff that has nothing to do with music over recent months. First, there was his marriage to Tom Cruise's ex, Nicole Kidman. More recently, he made headlines when he checked into a rehab center last month.

Now, he will try to make news with the release of his fifth CD, "Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing." The record follows the immensely successful "Be Here" (2004). Many folks are predicting that "Love, Pain and the Whole Crazy Thing" will top the country charts and, quite possibly, the overall Billboard 200 album chart as well.

* * *
J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton "The Road to Escondido"

The two great guitarists team up on this new set of original tunes. The artists have enjoyed success together in the past--most notably when Cale penned two of Clapton's best-known hits, "After Midnight" and "Cocaine."

Cale wrote 11 of the 14 tracks on the new album. The record features a number of guest musicians, including guitarist/vocalist John Mayer, who turns up on the blues number "Hard to Thrill."

* * *
Josh Groban "Awake"

The multi-platinum-selling pop/classical vocalist returns with the follow-up to 2003's "Closer."

Most are expecting big things from "Awake," Groban's third studio recording. His previous studio sets, 2001's eponymous debut and "Closer," have each sold more than five million copies.

* * *
Andrea Bocelli "Under the Desert Sky"

This two-disc CD/DVD set captures Bocelli's first-ever pop concert, which was performed on a floating stage in Lake Las Vegas. "Under the Desert Sky" features the Tuscan-born superstar singing such songs as "Somos Novios" (a tune that Perry Como recorded as "It's Impossible") and "Can't Help Falling in Love," the old Elvis Presley hit done here as a duet with Katharine McPhee.

* * *
Sugarland "Enjoy the Ride"

The popular country act is hoping for another successful spin on the charts with its sophomore outing, "Enjoy the Ride." The set follows 2004's "Twice the Speed of Life," a work that featured the smash hit "Baby Girl.

* * *
Other new releases:
Mickey Avalon, "Mickey Avalon" (Myspace)
Blackmore's Night, "Winter Carols" (Locomotive)
Bowling for Soup, "Great Burrito Extortion Case" (Jive)
Karen Dalton, "In My Own Time" (Light in the Attic)
Foo Fighters, "Skin and Bones" (RCA)
PJ Harvey, "Peel Sessions 1991-2004" (Island)
Ricky Martin, "MTV Unplugged" (Panda Local)
Dave Matthews Band, "The Best of What's Around, Vol. 1" (RCA)
Pavement, "Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition" (Matador)
Pet Shop Boys, "Concrete: In Concert at the Mermaid Theatre" (EMI)
Alejandro Sanz, "El Tren de los Momentos" (Warner Bros.)
Shortbus, "Shortbus" (Team Love)
Michael W. Smith, "Stand" (Reunion)
Various artists, "Now That's What I Call Music 23" (Sony)
Frank Zappa, "Trance-Fusion" (Zappa)

Soundtracks and scores:
"The Departed" (Warner Bros.)

New 'Hulk' smash in 2008

Marvel has set a release date for its latest revamp of "The Incredible Hulk," aiming the big green guy at a key weekend in the summer of 2008.

In a press release the comic and multimedia giant announced that the newest "Hulk" film will open on Friday, June 27, 2008. That release date puts "Hulk" less than two months after the company's "Iron Man" opens on May 2.

Both movies are set to begin production next year, though "Hulk" is currently lacking a leading man, while the Jon Favreau-directed "Iron Man" will star Robert Downey Jr. and Terrence Howard.

The Ang Lee-directed "Hulk" opened to $62 million domestically in 2003, but word-of-mouth quickly set in and the worldwide total for the film stands at only $245 million. The confusingly titled remake/sequel/reimagining -- Marvel's press release alternates between calling it "The Hulk" and "The Incredible Hulk" -- will be directed by Louis Leterrier ("Unleashed").

Marvel also gave vague updates on a slew of other properties, noting that writers have been hired to work on "Captain America," "Nick Fury," "Thor" and "The Avengers" features, while a writer-director (Edgar Wright) is at work on "Ant-Man." "Black Panther," "Cloak & Dagger," "Doctor Strange," "Hawkeye," "Power Pack" and "Shang-Chi" were listed as potential post-2009 ventures.

Genesis to reunite for European tour

LONDON - Genesis will reunite next year for a "Turn It on Again" tour of Europe, their first tour in 15 years. The 20-date stadium tour, announced Tuesday, will open in Helsinki, Finland, on June 11 and end with a free concert in front of the Colosseum in Rome on July 14.

Genesis last toured in 1991. Phil Collins, who quit the band to go solo in 1996, said the reunion wasn't motivated by money.

"I think we are all loaded enough not to worry about where the next million or two is coming from," the 55-year-old singer said Tuesday. "I just felt now was the right time to have a go at it."

A series of U.S. dates will follow the European tour, said Collins, Mike Rutherford, 56, and Tony Banks, 56.

Genesis was founded in the mid-1960s by Rutherford, Banks, Anthony Phillips and Peter Gabriel, who left the group in 1975 and was replaced on vocals by drummer Collins. They became one of the biggest bands of the 1970s and `80s, with hits such as "Turn It on Again," "Follow You, Follow Me," "That's All" and "Invisible Touch."

Banks said the tour would let fans hear a side of the band that went beyond their hits.

"Genesis has another side to it, a more complex area of music," he said. "One side gets slightly more attention than the other. We are trying to reacquaint people. Genesis is not particularly a group mentioned very much these days and we want to remind people we did do a lot of things."

Faith Hill says CMA freakout was a joke

NEW YORK - Faith Hill insists she's no Kanye West. The country music superstar says she was just joking when cameras showed her screaming "WHAT?" in apparent anger when she lost the female vocalist of the year award to newcomer Carrie Underwood at the Country Music Association Awards on Monday night in Nashville.

"The idea that I would act disrespectful towards a fellow musician is unimaginable to me," Hill said in a statement. "For this to become a focus of attention given the talent gathered is utterly ridiculous. Carrie is a talented and deserving Female Vocalist of The Year."

Media outlets and blogs zeroed in on Hill's reaction after Underwood's name was announced at the ceremony. While other nominees — Sara Evans, Gretchen Wilson, Martina McBride — gave the typical gracious loser smile, Hill, who was standing backstage, turned to the camera and shouted "WHAT?"

Although her voice could not be heard, it was clear from her lips what she said. She looked visibly upset and then it looked as if she was storming off. The incident has been replayed endlessly on sites like YouTube.com.

However, Hill said it was all a joke, and her manager, Gary Borman, echoed that: "I've worked with Faith for many years now and the idea that she would ever insult or undermine another artist, let alone another human being's success is absolutely preposterous. Those who know her know that she's incapable of such actions," he said in a statement.

"She was being playful while the nominations were being read and playful after."

Underwood also didn't take it seriously, according to her publicist, Jessie Schmidt, who said that Hill spoke to Underwood after the show and that the two were fine.

Underwood, the 2005 "American Idol" champ, has become a triple platinum success since releasing her debut album late last year. Hill is a longtime darling of country music with crossover pop appeal.

This is the second time in less than a week that an awards show loss has resulted in an (apparent) on-camera freakout by a loser. Last week, Kanye West stormed the stage at the MTV Europe Music Awards and interrupted the speech of the winners, claiming his video deserved the honor.

...Spears files for divorce from Federline

LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears filed for divorced Tuesday from Kevin Federline, officials said. The Los Angeles County Superior Court filing cites "irreconcible differences," said court spokeswoman Kathy Roberts.

Spears, 24, married rapper Kevin Federline, 28, in 2004. They have a 1-year-old son, Sean Preston, and an infant son who was born Sept. 12. The couple have not confirmed the infant's name, which is reportedly Jayden James.

Actors group demands more Canadian drama on TV

The organization representing Canadian actors has called on the country's private broadcasters to invest more in homegrown television dramas.

"Canadian TV drama is still disappearing while our private broadcasters are spending at an all-time high on American programming," actor Howard Storey, the president of the British Columbia chapter of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists, said in a news release.

ACTRA issued their challenge to private broadcasters during the annual Canadian Association of Broadcasters convention in Vancouver on Monday.

Gabrielle Miller, who plays diner proprietress Lacey Burrows on Corner Gas, said her show's success proves it is possible to appeal to Canadians with Canadian content.

"The support and commitment that this television series continues to receive has been critical and we need to build on this success by increased funding and scheduling support for more Canadian dramatic programming," she said.

"We're focusing on more reality television, when what we need is new rules to protect our Canadian cultural sovereignty and to get more homegrown dramas on our televisions."

ACTRA has already made a submission to the federal communications watchdog, the CRTC, calling for private broadcasters to spend at least seven per cent of advertising revenues on Canadian English-language dramas and schedule at least two more hours in prime time between Sunday and Thursday.

Appeal made amid stalled labour talks

The organization's stand comes at an awkward time, as it is currently embroiled in a protracted labour dispute with the Canadian Film & Television Production Association and its Quebec equivalent.

Talks on a new Independent Production Agreement broke down after producers called for pay cuts of 10 to 25 per cent on film and TV productions shot in Canada.

ACTRA responded by calling on the producers to withdraw the demands before they would return to the bargaining table.

The producers association shot back by filing an 110-page complaint to the Ontario Labour Board accusing ACTRA of unfair labour practices.

Both sides in the acrimonious dispute are already blaming the other in the event of a work stoppage, which would occur if an agreement isn't reached when the current labour pact ends on Dec. 31, 2006.

Separate mediators have been appointed for both Quebec and Ontario and sidebar discussions geared to getting the sides talking again have been planned for Nov. 14.

Brooks & Dunn dominate at the CMA Awards

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Kenny Chesney won entertainer of the year and Brooks & Dunn's inspirational song "Believe" won three trophies, including single and song of the year, at the 40th Annual Country Music Association Awards Monday night.

"This year has in ways been the most emotionally satisfying year and also the most emotionally draining year of my life," said Chesney, who went through a high-profile marriage and split with actress Renee Zellweger last year. "There have been so many ups and downs, it's been like a huge emotional roller coaster ride."

Chesney also won the honor two years ago.

One of the night's more poignant moments came from a winner who wasn't even there — Keith Urban. The Aussie country star, who last month entered a rehabilitation center for alcohol abuse, won male vocalist of the year for the second year in a row.

When Urban's name was announced, he received a standing ovation, and his award was accepted by Ronnie Dunn. Dunn read a letter from Urban in which he thanked his friends and family and actress-wife Nicole Kidman, whom he married earlier this year: "To my wife, Nicole, I love you."

"I'm looking forward to coming home and seeing you all soon," Urban said in the letter.

Dunn added: "We love you Keith — good luck, brother."

Besides accepting the award for Urban, Dunn was busy accepting awards and also hosting the show along with his partner, Kix Brooks. The pair also won music video of the year for "Believe" and opened the night by performing "Building Bridges" with guests Vince Gill and Sheryl Crow.

"This has been another huge year for country music," Kix Brooks said. "Tonight, we're here together to show off what it's really all about, and that's the greatest music on the face of the Earth."

The gospel-tinged "Believe" was co-written by Ronnie Dunn and Craig Wiseman, who also co-wrote Tim McGraw's smash "Live Like You Were Dying." Both won song of the year honors for "Believe."

"Every time it comes on the radio now I have to pull over, like I'm hearing it for the first time," Wiseman said backstage of "Believe." "Ronnie really brought something to that song that's something beyond."

As expected, Brooks & Dunn also won vocal duo award. The group has owned the category since 1992, winning every year except in 2000 when Montgomery Gentry won.

"I'm sincerely shocked the voters haven't gotten tired of seeing us walk up there," Brooks said backstage.

"American Idol" winner Carrie Underwood won female vocalist and the Horizon Award.

"Two years ago I was sitting at home watching these very awards and watching all these other people win and having the best night of their life, and this is the best year of my life," Underwood said through tears.

Backstage, she said she was pleased to be nominated, let alone win two. "I would have taken male vocalist if they had given it to me," she joked.

The multiplatinum band Rascal Flatts took the vocal group award, capping what singer Gary LeVox described as an "amazing year."

"I thank God for giving us a stage to stand on and perform on every night," LeVox said.

Brad Paisley, who was shut out last year despite six nomination, won album of the year for "Time Well Wasted."

Before Monday's show, he and Dolly Parton also won musical event of the year for their spiritual song "When I Get Where I'm Going." It was Parton's first CMA award since 1996.

"I thank her so much for raising the bar on this song," Paisley said of the music icon, who was not there to accept. "Any time Dolly Parton sings on a song it becomes instantly better in every way."

The show returned to Nashville after one year in New York City. Brooks & Dunn and Paisley led all nominees with six.

Other multiple nominees included Chesney and Underwood with four each, and Rascal Flatts and Parton with three apiece.

All three of Parton's nods were for her vocals on Paisley's "When I Get Where I'm Going." The song was one of three spiritually themed tunes up for awards, the others being Brooks & Dunn's "Believe" and Underwood's "Jesus Take the Wheel."

The evening's performers included Underwood, Gretchen Wilson, Paisley, Chesney and Martina McBride. Miranda Lambert performed her rocking "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" then smashed her guitar at the end of the performance.

Much offstage talk centered on two high-profile nominees: Sara Evans and Urban.

Evans dropped out of the reality TV show "Dancing with the Stars" and filed for a divorce a few weeks ago. She and her husband traded charges of infidelity and the estrangement made tabloid headlines.

Evans, 35, was nominated for female vocalist of the year and sang her hit, "Real Fine Place to Start."

This year's show also was notable for superstar George Strait's induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Strait, 54, broke onto the charts in 1981 with "Unwound" and is still having hits. He performed his latest No. 1 single, "Give It Away."

"Who would have thought it?" Strait said in accepting the honor. He got a big cheer when he thanked his fans and remarked, "Don't think I don't realize why I'm here."

The nominees and winners are determined by the 6,000 members of the CMA.

...FOX sets 'Idol' saturation sked

Bruised and battered from a difficult fall, FOX has cause for optimism: "American Idol" will premiere on Tuesday, Jan. 16.

Currently mired in fourth place among adults 18-49, FOX execs can begin the countdown to mid-January, when "American Idol" will return to rescue the network from the doldrums with a four-hour, two-night audition spectacular.

On Jan. 16 and Jan. 17, FOX will air "Idol" audition footage -- shrieking hacks with the occasional talented singer mixed in -- from 8:00-10:00 p.m. ET. Starting the following week, regularly scheduled hours of "Idol" will air at 8 p.m. on Tuesday and 9 p.m. on Wednesday.

That means that the sixth season of "Idol" will kick off the day after "24" finishes its own two-night, four-hour opening. Those two programs should be enough to help FOX forget about a fall that has included "Vanished," "Standoff," "Happy Hour," "The Rich List" and the least watched World Series in television history.

The audition shows, from Los Angeles, San Antonio, Birmingham, Memphis, Minneapolis, New York City and Seattle, will be spread over six episodes, showing on Jan. 16, 17, 23, 24, 30 and 31. Guest judges for that leg of the process included Olivia Newton John, Carol Bayer Sager and Jewel.

The semifinal episodes will air on Feb. 6, 7, 13 and 14. In theory that means that the Top 32 will begin vying for America's affections starting on Feb. 20.

If history has taught us anything, FOX may attempt to sneak a few extra "Idol" hours into the mix in February, perhaps highlighting the best and worst auditioners?

'Office' Works Overtime Online

Can't get enough of "The Office"? NBC sure hopes so.

After Thursday's episode of the Emmy-winning comedy airs on television, fans will be able to go online to see a different version of the episode: a "producer's cut" that will include additional scenes that had to be cut to fit the show's half-hour running time.

Streaming video of the show will go live on NBC.com at 9 p.m. Pacific time (midnight ET) Thursday, right after West Coast viewers see the episode. NBC already offers deleted scenes from the show online, but the network has never streamed a full episode with extra scenes before.

"This is a first-of-its-kind and a real bonus for fans of 'The Office,'" says Vivi Zigler, who oversees new media for NBC. "It's also a natural for this show which has continually pushed the envelope in the digital landscape. We're seeing an incredible audience reaction to the evolving digital extensions of our programming and anticipate this being one of their favorites."

Thursday's episode of "The Office" could be worthy of the extra material, at least in terms of plot development. It's called "Branch Closing," and true to its title, Jan (Melora Hardin) tells Michael (Steve Carell) that the Scranton office of Dunder Mifflin will be shutting down, and he desperately tries to keep his employees from getting depressed. Meanwhile, the staff starts thinking about their lives outside the office.

The webcast will remain online for a week.

...Better 'Late' Than Never: Norah Preps New CD

Norah Jones will return Jan. 30 with her third studio album, "Not Too Late."

The 13-track Blue Note set comprises songs all written or co-written by the artist. Production was handled by Jones' songwriting partner and bassist Lee Alexander; indie singer/songwriter M. Ward, Kronos Quartet cellist Jeff Ziegler and organist Larry Goldings make guest appearances.

"Not Too Late" is the follow-up to 2004's "Feels Like Home," which debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 4.3 million copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Jones has kept a lower profile than usual in 2006, guesting on the self-titled Ipecac album from Mike Patton's Peeping Tom project and recording a collaborative album with New York-based musician friends as the Little Willies.

Here is the track list for "Not Too Late":

"Wish I Could"
"Sinkin' Soon"
"The Sun Doesn't Like You"
"Until the End"
"Not My Friend"
"Thinkin' About You"
"Broken"
"My Dear Country"
"Wake Me Up"
"Be My Somebody
"Little Room"
"Rosie's Lullaby"
"Not Too Late”

New documentary shows another side of Orson Welles

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Apparently we are entering a season of Orson Welles discoveries. Two major biographies have hit bookstores, Joseph McBride's "What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?" and Simon Callow's second volume of his three-book work on Welles.

At AFI Fest in Los Angeles, Peter Bogdanovich is reprising his Sacred Monsters monologue about his legendary Hollywood friends including Welles. Also at AFI is the world premiere of "Searching for Orson," a documentary by Croatian filmmakers Jakov and Dominik Sedlar.

The Croatian connection is no surprise to Welles scholars and admirers who know that Welles spent his declining years -- despite being married to another woman -- with a beautiful, exotic and much younger Croatian actress-sculptress-writer, Oja Kodar, who helped write many of his scripts and appeared in his films.

Naturally, Kodar gave her fellow countrymen access to her Welles film archives and herself for an interview. The Sedlars return the favor by never mentioning Welles' wife or the battles Kodar has had with one of Welles' surviving daughters over the ownership of his most legendary unfinished film, "The Other Side of the Wind."

"Orson" devotes much of its running time to this love affair, ignoring nearly all of Welles' early life and career. By default then, this is a film about Welles' late life and the saga of "Other Side." In an interview, Bogdanovich insists that "Other Side" is the one film of Welles' many unfinished projects that could be completed without the master and indeed that Welles once asked him to do so after his death. (Bogdanovich plays dual roles in this film as its narrator and an interviewer, which confuses the issue of the film's point of view.)

At the first screening Thursday night, Dominik Sedlar claimed that Showtime is poised to sign documents to fund completion of the film by Bogdanovich but was vague about the ownership of the footage. But hope springs eternal. "Orson" contains much tantalizing footage from "Other Side," originally shot about 36 years ago, but it appears in a disjointed manner, making any critical judgment impossible.

The film's other "revelation" is that Welles had a grandson he never knew existed. Daughter Rebecca Welles Manning, who died in 2004, apparently had an illegitimate son, Marc, she gave up for adoption. This fact actually does appear in McBride's book but isn't given as much weight as it is in this film. Marc appears onscreen, his face unmistakably reminiscent of his grandfather's. Tragically, a car crash has impaired his mental facilities.

Of the talking heads, Steven Spielberg offers the most cogent and articulate assessment of Welles' greatness and his influence on current image-makers. Paul Mazursky and cameraman Gary Graver, among others, supply amusing anecdotes but never fully put their finger on what made him great.

The film mentions things like Welles' belief that he was Jewish despite all evidence to the contrary but never follows up. Nor does it get to the heart of why so many projects were left unrealized. Nevertheless, "Orson" is often fascinating. Nothing about Welles was ordinary, and this film does capture the love and admiration so many people still maintain for this Renaissance man, who was so adept in radio, stage, film, art and the art of living.

Inside look at Pixar Animation Studios

EMERYVILLE, Calif. -- Like Jonah in the Biblical tale, the Pixar Animation Studios has been swallowed by a whale.

But it will be business as usual, even in the corporate belly of the Walt Disney Company, which bought the now legendary Pixar in a $7.4-billion share swap earlier this year.

"I'm not worried," John Lasseter, the creative heart of Pixar and the director of four of its seven feature films so far, told the Toronto Sun this week.

"It's funny," he said at the Pixar Animation Studios in this funky industrial town across the Bay from San Francisco, "I'm the least worried of everybody outside of here because I know these people. I know what this place is built upon. It is built upon this passion -- that people love what they do.

"Culture is very important here. I think we recognize that what we do have at Pixar is a unique culture. Frankly, when Disney decided they wanted to buy Pixar, the entire deal was predicated upon the protection of that culture, so Pixar culture could continue exactly that way off into the future."

That can only be good news for audiences, the families who thrilled as Pixar became one of the most phenomenal success stories in Hollywood history. Like Disney used to be, Pixar is now a guaranteed entertainment brand name in animation. The studio boasts a string of seven all-original features, each a huge hit.

The Pixar films are: Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004) and now Cars (2006), which is coming to DVD on Tuesday. The next theatrical release is Brad Bird's Ratatouille, due June 29, 2007.

The first seven earned a total worldwide box office of nearly $3.7 billion. The per-picture average is the highest ever (albeit with a limited number of titles compared to other studios). The lowest, by a whisker, is the still impressive $362 million worldwide for Toy Story, the ground-breaking film that was Hollywood's first all-digital animated feature. The highest Pixar box office tally (second only to Shrek 2 -- all-time among animated films) was the $864.6 million worldwide for Finding Nemo. Pixar has generated mega-millions more in DVD sales, although exact figures are not available. But Finding Nemo vaulted into place as the best-selling DVD ever when it was first released.

The first six titles were also all Academy Award nominees, with four winning at least one Oscar each. Cars is expected to generate a best animated feature nomination for 2006. Lasseter is optimistic that Ratatouille will continue the golden streak because Bird, a college buddy who conjured The Incredibles for Pixar, is a filmmaking genius who has fashioned another dazzler. "It's about a rat who wants to be a fine chef in Paris, France, and it's fantastic," Lasseter said.

Working as a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney will not change a single frame of Ratatouille or any other future project, Lasseter promises. Nor will it change the physical environment. Pixar people will remain ensconced in their own studios here. It is a free-spirited place where the breakfast nook has a dozen-plus different cereals, where there is no time clock to punch, where there is no dress code, and where people amuse or refresh themselves in a gym, at a massage centre, at a movie theatre, on outdoor volleyball and soccer fields, in the Olympic-like pool with its swimming lanes, or on walkabout in the acres of green space surrounding the new but retro-built studio.

"It hasn't changed at all," Lasseter repeated about the way Pixar does its creative work. "The whole merger was based on (how) the culture here is so special. Everything is protected. It is meant to be exactly the way it is."

Despite Lasseter's confidence, the concern over Pixar is legitimate. Disney invested heavily in Miramax, the "indie" mini-major studio founded by Harvey and Bob Weinstein. Disney's parenting under CEO Michael Eisner proved to be thorny. Censorship intruded on some risque titles. Interference became the norm. The relationship soured. Eventually, the bombastic brothers were pushed out of The House of Mouse and started a fresh enterprise, the Weinstein Company. But Disney now owns the valuable Miramax film catalogue and its clutch of Oscar winners.

In the case of Pixar, the relationship with Disney head office soured long before the merger because of the contentious terms of the distribution deal Pixar had with Disney. While Pixar made its films in splendid isolation, Disney distributed them, took 50% of the profits and owned the sequel rights. Among the hot button issues was Disney's plan to make Toy Story 3 independent of Pixar. Under Eisner, the distribution deal was also going to end after Cars.

But, when Eisner was pushed out in a palace revolt, which was fuelled among other reasons by the Pixar blowup, the landscape changed. New Disney CEO Robert Iger was eager to find common ground. That became the complicated merger. Some observers believe that, while Disney technically owns Pixar, it is Pixar people who will eventually end up running all of Disney.

Pixar certainly has a huge stake in Disney. Pixar original Edwin Catmull, who joined it when it was still a high-tech computer graphics research group within George Lucas' empire, is now president of both Pixar and of Disney Studios. Lasseter, who was fired by Disney as a young animator before coming to Pixar two decades ago, is now chief creative officer of both Pixar and Disney animation.

Steve Jobs (famous both as a co-founder of Apple and as the one who revitalized the computer company) is the man who bought Pixar from Lucas in 1986, giving it the Pixar brand name. As a result of the Pixar stock swap, Jobs is now the largest individual stockholder in Disney. So the elements are in place to keep Pixar from going down the slippery slope that doomed Miramax.

Lasseter said he is not in a position yet to make any pronouncements about what will happen at Pixar past Ratatouille, although four other unnamed features are already in production. Nor is he free to talk about what he will do with the faltering Disney animation studio, although he stopped work on the rogue version of Toy Story 3 and is rumoured to have started it up again as a legit Pixar production with Tom Hanks and Tim Allen reprising their roles. The one confirmed Disney animated release is Meet The Robertsons, due next March.

"I'm busy at Pixar and at Disney animation helping with the new movies," Lasseter said. As for details, he added, "I'm not really ready to talk about that right now."

On a personal basis, Lasseter is stretched for time, he admitted, but that is nothing new. "Time has always been a challenge for John Lasseter. It's like, no matter what I do, it seems like there is not enough time." That made his commitment of a day to help launch the Cars DVD extraordinary because Lasseter has made few media statements about the new world order at Disney and Pixar since the Disney acquisition was first announced in January and then completed in May.

A lot of the Cars animators and artists are true believers in the Pixar culture. In an interview for the Cars DVD, production designer Bob Pauley called the studio zeitgeist "the Church of Pixar -- you just have faith." That means, no matter what problem arises in the making of a film, the Pixar creative team will find a solution, he said. "You just have faith that we're going to be able to push through it."

As for the Disney merger specifically, Pauley says he has no fear at all: "No! the biggest fear is that there's just too many good things to work on. They know. They're not going to change this, not with John. He cares so much. I'm just so excited because there's a lot of good stuff happening. We all know we're very lucky, that's the thing."

For Thomas Jordan, the character shading supervisor on Cars, the merger is a positive thing for the artists at both studios. "I think we've learned a lot more about each other since the merger. So it's been fun to learn how to do things and share with them how we do things."

Part of how Pixar does things is the attention to detail, an exhausting process that takes four to six years on each feature film, from idea to theatrical release. While Disney tried to shave that process to two years, Pixar will not.

Bill Cone, a production designer on Cars, said that Lasseter, the co-director, set the tone on that project. "One of his constant statements on this film was: 'The devil is in the details!' And it's true ... It's because they don't stop. We get the time."

One animator spent six months producing the complex lighting for traffic in a five-second scene during which the lead character, Owen Wilson's race car Lightning McQueen, returns to L.A. at night on the freeway. Another team spent seven months working on dust storms the cars kick up when driving on dirt in Arizona.

"It's a cultural thing," Cars effects supervisor Steve May said of the Pixar way of doing things. "We kind of envision ourselves as craftsmen. We want to build things in a way that shows we care.... This studio is kind of unique because it's built around the directors. I would say that that is the most important thing -- and that the studio is creatively oriented, rather than being driven by schedules and monetary goals."

PIXAR'S STORY

1979: George Lucas launches the Computer Graphics Group with Edwin Catmull from the New York Institute of Technology as the ideas man. Develops futuristic but not ultimately successful Pixar Image Computer.

1984: Catmull hires animator John Lasseter after he is fired by Disney.

1985: Lucas sells the unit to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs for $5 million and he re-launches it as Pixar, a word that combines "pixel" with "art".

1986: Lasseter directs his first Pixar film, the short Luxo Jr., which is nominated for an Oscar.

1989: Lasseter's short Tin Toy wins an Oscar and inspires the development of Toy Story as a feature.

1995: Toy Story, directed by Lasseter, launches the Pixar success story.

2006: Disney buys Pixar in a stock swap valued at $7.4 billion.

This Hour Has 22 Minutes, Slings & Arrows winners in Geminis final gala

Major awards honouring the best in Canadian English television were doled out Saturday night in a live broadcast from a Vancouver-area resort.

The 21st Annual Gemini Awards were held for the first time outside of Toronto at the River Rock Show Theatre in Richmond, B.C.

Comedian Shaun Majumder from CBC's This Hour Has 22 Minutes got the show rolling, extolling the natural virtues of the West Coast — namely the fresh air and Vancouver's nude beach.

Martha Burns captured the first award of the night — best actress in a continuing leading dramatic role — for her part in the comedy Slings & Arrows, Season 2.

"Everyone on that show was either very, very funny or very patient," Burns said in her speech, adding that she would thank her "leading man" at home. Husband Paul Gross also starred in the series as the main character, eccentric theatrical artistic director Geoffrey Tennant.

Mark McKinney made it a stellar night for Slings & Arrows: He was awarded best actor in a continuing drama.

The former Kid in the Hall read off a list of producers, actors and directors in his speedy acceptance speech, while declaring that "I am so glad to be a Canadian actor."

McKinney was also a writer on the show, which garnered three other Geminis prior to the Vancouver gala: best direction in a drama, best writing in a drama and best supporting actress for Susan Coyne.

It then grabbed best drama, beating out Moccasin Flats, ReGenesis and CBC's This Is Wonderland.

Majumder thanks 'the people of Canada' for Gemini

Majumder and fellow comedian Mark Critch took the stage to accept the Gemini for best comedy ensemble for their work on This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

The pair effusively thanked their producers "who could fire us at any moment."

Human Trafficking, about the modern-day slave trade, nabbed the best miniseries honour.

Kevin Newman captured the top award for Best News Anchor, his second Gemini, beating out the CBC's Peter Mansbridge and Norma Lee McCleod.

Meanwhile, the CBC's Ron MacLean was honoured as best sports host for Hockey Day in Canada.

Actress Evangeline Lilly, of ABC’s Lost, handed Marilyn Denis the award for best lifestyle host. Denis hosts the local Toronto daytime show Cityline.

Other awards given out include:

- Best comedy program or series: Corner Gas.
- Best social/political documentary: House Calls.
- Best direction in a dramatic program or miniseries: Tim Southam – One Dead Indian.
- Best writing in a dramatic program or miniseries: Andrew Wreggitt, Hugh Graham – One Dead Indian.
- Best writing in a comedy or variety program or series: Mary Walsh, Ed MacDonald – Hatching, Matching & Dispatching, Episode 5.
- Best performance by an actor in a leading role in a dramatic program or miniseries: Tom McCamus – Waking Up Wally: The Walter Gretzky Story.
- Best performance by an actress in a leading role in a dramatic program or miniseries: Wendy Crewson – The Man Who Lost Himself.

Winners are voted by members of The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, a professional association of 4,000 industry professionals.

Saturday night's gala marked the fourth night of awards for the Geminis.

Awards were also given out in Toronto on Oct. 16, 17 and 18 in various categories, including acting, directing, writing, editing as well as news, documentary, lifestyle and youth programming.

The winners of documentary, news and sports awards are:

- Best history documentary program: Breaking Point – CBC Television, Jacqueline Corkery.
- Best biography documentary program: Braindamadj'd, Take II – Apartment 11 Productions, CBC Newsworld; Jonathan Finkelstein, Allan Joli-Cur.
- Best science, technology, nature, environment or adventure documentary program: Being Caribou – National Film Board of Canada; Tracey Friesen, Rina Fraticelli.
- Best performing arts program or series or arts documentary program or series: Prisoners of Age – the Eyes Project Development Corp.; Stan Feingold.
- Best sports program or series: Hockey Brawl: Battle on Thin Ice – Ocular Productions Inc., Behind the Brawl Inc., Numan Films, Ocular Productions; Jeff Newman, Robert Sauvey, Shawn Watson.
- Best live sporting event: 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship: Gold Medal Game – TSN; Mark Milliere, Jon Hynes.
- Best news special event coverage: CBC News: 60th Anniversary of V-E Day – Mark Bulgutch, Tom Dinsmore, Fred Parker.
- Best direction in a news information program or series: Michael Gruzuk, CBC News: Marketplace,for Chasing the Cancer Answer.
- Best direction in a documentary program: Paul Nadler – Braindamadj'd, Take II.
- Best direction in a documentary series: David Rabinovitch – Secret Files of the Inquisition — Tears of Spain.
- Best direction in a live sporting event: Paul Hemming, 2006 World Junior Hockey Championship: Gold Medal Game.
- Best photography in an information program or series: J. P. Locherer C.S.C., Damir Chytil C.S.C. – Forensic Factor, Betrayed.
- Best photography in a documentary program or series: François Dagenais C.S.C. – No More Tears Sister.
- Best picture editing in an information program or series: Aileen McBride – CBC News: Marketplace, for Chasing the Cancer Answer.
- Best picture editing in a documentary program or series: Howard Goldberg – How William Shatner Changed the World.
- Best sound in an information/documentary program or series: Steve Cupani – Extreme Weather: Wind and Water.
- Best original music score for a documentary program or series: Bertrand Chenie, Perreault Dancer.
- Best news magazine segment: CBC News: The National for Suzanne – Paul Kennedy, Eric Foss, Catherine McIsaac, Alex Shprintsen.
- Best sports play-by-play or analyst: Chris Cuthbert, Glen Suitor – CFL on TSN: Wendy's CFL Live: Calgary at Saskatchewan.
- Outstanding technical achievement: OpenGear Multi-Definition/Multi-Function Terminal Equipment Platform.

The winners of lifestyle, children's and youth awards are as follows:

- Best General/Human Interest Series: Stuntdawgs – Omni Film Productions Limited, David Gullason, Gabriela Schonbach.
- Best Lifestyle/Practical Information Series: Til Debt Do Us Part – Money Test Productions Inc., Jamie Brown.
- Best Animated Program or Series: Bromwell High – Decode Entertainment Inc., Hat Trick Productions Ltd., Steven DeNure, Neil Court, Anil Gupta, Jimmy Mullville, Beth Stevenson, Mario Stylianides, Cheryl Taylor.
- Best Pre-School Program or Series: Gisèle's Big Backyard: Here, There and Everywhere – TVOntario, Marie McCann, Gisèle Corinthios, Pat Ellingson, Ericka Evans.
- Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series: The Morgan Waters Show – CBC Television, Martin Markle, Rachel Bartels, Jonathan Farber.
- Best Cross Platform Project: www.regenesistv.com, Xenophile Media Inc., Patrick Crowe, Keith Clarkson, Evan Jones, Shane Kinnear, Thomas Wallner.
- Best Direction in a Lifestyle/Practical Information Program or Series: Trevor Grant – Chef At Home - Hors d'Oeuvres Party.
- Best Direction in a Children's or Youth Program or Series: Paolo Barzman – 15/Love - Volley of the Dolls.
- Best Writing in a Children's or Youth Program or Series: Jordan Wheeler, renegadepress.com - The Rez.
- Best Production Design or Art Direction in a Non-Dramatic Program or Series: Andrew Kinsella – Canadian Country Music Awards.
- Best Original Music Score for an Animated Program or Series: Jeff Danna, Steve Sullivan – Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends: The Prince, the Princess and the Bee.
- Best Lifestyle/Practical Information Segment: On The Road Again - Film Club, CBC Television, Malcolm Hamilton, Louisa Battistelli, Aldo Columpsi, Roger Lefebvre.
- Best Performance in a Childrens' or Youth Program or Series: Ksenia Solo, renegadepress.com - Fear.
- Best Host in a Lifestyle/Practical Information, or Performing Arts Program or Series: Sean Cullen – What Were They Thinking? Big Breakfast.

Award winners for acting, directing and technical categories include:

- Best Direction in a Variety Program or Series: Mario Rouleau – Voices of Soul.
- Best Direction in a Performing Arts Program or Series: Tim Southam – Perreault Dancer.
- Best Direction in a Comedy Program or Series: James Allodi – Naked Josh II: Fake It Till You Make It.
- Best Photography in a Dramatic Program or Series: Danny Nowak, CSC – The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess.
- Best Photography in a Comedy, Variety or Performing Arts Program or Series: David Franco –Burnt Toast.
- Best Picture Editing in a Dramatic Program or Series: Dean Soltys – Canada Russia '72.
- Best Picture Editing in a Comedy, Variety or Performing Arts Program or Series: Allan MacLean, Miles Davren – The Rick Mercer Report: Episode 13.
- Best Sound in a Dramatic Program: Lou Solakofski, Yvon Benoit, Garrett Kerr, Martin Lee, Sid Lieberman, David McCallum – One Dead Indian.
- Best Sound in a Dramatic Series: Sylvain Bourgault, Eric Ladouceur, Charlie Jade – Spin.
- Best Sound in a Comedy, Variety or Performing Arts Program or Series: Dave Rose, Michael Lacroix, Kirk Lynds, Donna Powell, Lou Solakofski – Burnt Toast.
- Best Production Design or Art Direction in a Dramatic Program or Series: Guy Lalande – Human Trafficking.
- Best Costume Design: Mariane Carter – Human Trafficking.
- Best Achievement in Makeup: Donald J. Mowat, Paula Fleet, Jane Meade – Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story.
- Best Visual Effects: Tom Turnbull, Ian Britton, Robert Crowther, Graham Cunningham, Matthew Hansen, Mary Holding, Ariel Joson – Terry.
- Best Original Music Score for a Program or Miniseries: Jonathan Goldsmith – Trudeau II: Maverick in the Making.
- Best Original Music Score for a Dramatic Series: Jim McGrath – Degrassi: The Next Generation 5, Our Lips Are Sealed, Part I.
- Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Miniseries: Judah Katz – Canada Russia '72.
- Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Program or Miniseries: Lushin Dubey – Murder Unveiled.
- Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series: Paul Soles – Terminal City: Episode 6.
- Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series: Susan Coyne – Slings and Arrows Season 2: Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair.
- Best Individual Performance in a Comedy Program or Series: Mark McKinney, Robson Arms Season 1: Material Breach.
- Best Performance or Host in a Variety Program or Series: k.d. lang, Words to Music: The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame.
- Best Performance in a Performing Arts Program or Series: Johnny Wright, Tara Birtwhistle, Jesus Corrales, Dmitri Dovgoselets, Amanda Green, Vanessa Lawson, Chelsey Lindsay, Sarah Murphy-Dyson, Janet Sartore-De Luca, CindyMarie Small, Jo-Ann Sundermeier, Zhang Wei-Qiang –The Tale of the Magic Flute.
- Best Achievement in Casting: Jenny Lewis, Sara Kay – Heyday!

'Borat' earns glorious $26.4M in debut

LOS ANGELES - Sacha Baron Cohen's Kazakh alter-ego Borat made glorious returns at the box office, surprising Hollywood with a No. 1 debut.

"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," 20th Century Fox's big-screen incarnation of Cohen's Kazakh journalist from "Da Ali G Show," took in $26.4 million during its opening weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"This picture was playing to full houses," said Bruce Snyder, head of distribution at 20th Century Fox. "The planets aligned, the moons aligned, the stars aligned, and everything came together perfectly for us on this weekend."

Box-office analysts had expected Disney's "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," with Tim Allen returning as St. Nicholas, to win the weekend. It was No. 2 with $20 million, followed by the Paramount-DreamWorks animated comedy "Flushed Away" in third place with $19.1 million.

With great Internet buzz and a built-in following from "Da Ali G Show," "Borat" succeeded where another cyber-sensation, "Snakes on a Plane," failed. "Snakes" opened last summer to modest crowds despite months of Internet hoopla.

The raucous, raunchy "Borat" follows the adventures of British comedian Cohen's TV journalist from Kazakhstan in a blend of fiction and improvised comic encounters as he travels the United States, meets and mocks Americans and reports back to his home country.

"It is what you go to the theater for," said Hutch Parker, the studio's head of production. "You get that infectious, outrageous, interactive experience. There are people yelling at the screen, there are cheers."

"Borat" played in only 837 theaters, fewer than one-fourth the count for "The Santa Clause 3" and "Flushed Away." Averaging a whopping $31,511 a theater, "Borat" easily outdistanced "The Santa Clause 3," which averaged $5,784 in 3,458 cinemas and "Flushed Away," which averaged $5,152 in 3,707 theaters.

Fox plans to expand "Borat" to as many as 2,500 theaters this Friday.

"The Santa Clause 3" pits Allen's St. Nick against Jack Frost ( Martin Short) as they battle for control of Christmas. "Flushed Away" features the voices of Hugh Jackman and Kate Winslet in the story of a pampered pet mouse forced to make his way among sewer rats.

The two movies split the family audience, but their opening weekends were solid starts for the holiday season. Disney and Paramount expect their movies to hang tough through year's end, even with the Warner Bros. animated penguin tale "Happy Feet" coming just before Thanksgiving.

"The Thanksgiving holiday is going to be just rocking," said Disney head of distribution Chuck Viane.

The previous weekend's top movie, Lionsgate's horror sequel "Saw III," held up solidly at No. 4 with $15.5 million, raising its 10-day total to $60.1 million.

However, the strong crop of new movies and holdovers did not quite stack up to the same weekend a year ago, when "Chicken Little" opened at No. 1 with $40 million and "Jarhead" debuted at No. 2 with $27.7 million. This weekend's top 12 movies took in $116.2 million, down 3 percent from the same period last year.

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. "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," $26.4 million.
2. "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause," $20 million.
3. "Flushed Away," $19.1 million.
4. "Saw III," $15.5 million.
5. "The Departed," $8 million.
6. "The Prestige," $7.8 million.
7. "Flags of Our Fathers," $4.5 million.
8. "Man of the Year," $3.8 million.
9. "Open Season," $3.1 million.
10. "The Queen," $3 million.

Ellen Burstyn sounds off on Emmy nod for 14-second cameo in 'Mrs Harris'

WASHINGTON (AP) - Ellen Burstyn was just as flabbergasted as everyone else when she heard she'd been nominated for an Emmy this year for her blink-and-you-miss-it role in the TV movie "Mrs. Harris."

In an interview with AP Radio, the 73-year-old Academy Award winner spoke publicly for the first time about her Emmy nod: "When they told me I was nominated for that I went, 'What, are you kidding?' "

Burstyn's cameo in "Mrs. Harris" lasted 14 seconds, with her speaking a total of 38 words.

"I thought it was fabulous," she said. "My next ambition is to get nominated for seven seconds, and, ultimately, I want to be nominated for a picture in which I don't even appear."

Her nomination drew the ire of those who felt she hadn't logged enough screen time to deserve it. Last August, Burstyn wound up losing the Emmy to her "Mrs Harris" co-star, Cloris Leachman.

"The brouhaha around it, you know, they tried to reach me for a statement," she recalled. "I said, 'This doesn't have anything to do with me. I don't even want to know about this. You people work it out yourself.' "

Burstyn, who has starred in such as movies "The Exorcist" and "The Last Picture Show," won a best actress Oscar for her role in 1974's "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.

Genesis Reuniting With Phil Collins For Tour

Mega-selling pop trio Genesis is reuniting with Phil Collins for its first tour with him since the summer of 1992. An official announcement will be made Monday (Nov. 7) in London. Genesis hasn't toured since 1998, during which Ray Wilson replaced Collins on lead vocals alongside principal members Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford.

Former frontman Peter Gabriel will not be participating in the reunion with the group he exited in 1975. "Tony, Mike and Phil are rehearsing now," he said in a recent video message on his Web site. "I'm not involved in this round or this year. I haven't ruled out the possibility of doing something in the future, but right now I'm going to focus on my own work."

Also apparently not involved is guitarist Steve Hackett, who played with the band in the Gabriel era but left in 1977.

Collins hasn't toured since 2004, an outing billed as his First Farewell tour. Of late, he's been busy writing the music for Disney's "Tarzan the Musical" on Broadway; his contribution to the animated film's 1999 soundtrack, "You'll Be in My Heart," won the Oscar for song of the year.

And while he now seems ready to tour with Genesis again, Collins sang quite a different tune in a 1996 interview with Billboard, when he declared, "How interested am I in old Genesis material? Not very interested, to be honest."

"If I'm to be completely candid, I've never been our biggest fan," he continued. "I have no reverence for the older material, apart from the fun we had making it. I never really felt like we quite got it right on record, especially in the olden days. I can see Genesis fans sticking pins in my effigy as I say this, but you know, I have to be honest -- there's no point in being anything else in life. I'm very proud of some of it, and I could take or leave some other stuff."

'Titanic' success bittersweet to Winslet

NEW YORK - The release of the blockbuster that made her a household name, "Titanic," should have been a happy time for Kate Winslet. Instead, she was mourning the loss of her first love, Stephen Tredre. "Looking back, I see what I was dealing with when `Titanic' came out," the 31-year-old actress says in Sunday's Parade magazine. "I had a lot of pain, and I was confused about who I was."

The Britain-born Winslet, who's married to director Sam Mendes, met Tredre in London when she was 15 and he was 28. "He was the most important person in my life, next to my family," she says of Tredre, who worked as a TV writer and actor.

"I was very shy," she says. "I was vulnerable ... Other girls teased me horribly. I was bullied. I'd just put my head down and get on with it. That was my means of survival. Stephen made me feel secure and embraced."

Tredre was diagnosed with bone cancer in 1994, and died three years later during the opening week of "Titanic." The two had ended their relationship but "talked every day," she says. "This was not somebody I'd turn my back on."

His death was "unbelievably heartbreaking," says Winslet, who went on to star in such movies as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" and "Finding Neverland."

She found love anew with Mendes, 41, whom she wed in 2003. The two have a 2-year-old son, Joe, and Winslet has a 6-year-old daughter, Mia, from her first marriage (to James Threapleton).

"I believe in fate," she says. "I know it sounds corny, but it was like Sam and I were from the same tribe. We were meant to meet: Both of us from Reading, both born in the same tiny hospital, Dellwood.

"Then suddenly, years later, this totally gorgeous, sexy, talented man is in my life? That's fate."

Boy George's ex-bandmates slam singer

LONDON - Their infectious melodies, flamboyant frontman and multiracial mix made Culture Club a sunny beacon of 1980s pop. Now, though, it's war.

Two of the band's founding members told The Associated Press on Thursday that they're furious with Boy George, who recently accepted a songwriting award without telling them, labeled their new vocalist "dreadful" and, they claim, made their lives a misery.

"We've never said anything about George, because George has always been George," said Jon Moss, the band's drummer and Boy George's former boyfriend. "But this has gone too far."

Later this year, Moss, bassist Mikey Craig and keyboard player Phil Pickett will be back on the road as Culture Club Reborn. Boy George will not be joining them.

Culture Club topped charts around the world in the 80s with songs like "Karma Chameleon," "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" and "Church of the Poison Mind." The androgynous George, with his broad-brimmed hats, makeup and beribboned hair, became an early MTV star and a global style icon.

By the late 80s, the band split, plagued by flagging sales and Boy George's well-publicized heroin addiction.

While the other members have since combined music careers with reasonably quiet lives, George has stayed in the headlines — most recently during an August stint sweeping streets in New York as punishment for falsely reporting a burglary at his apartment.

Culture Club reunited successfully in 1998, but George — real name George O'Dowd — declined to participate in another tour this year. The band recruited 29-year-old unknown Sam Butcher for a British tour that starts Dec. 7.

Boy George was not impressed, telling an audience at a music awards ceremony that he thought the new singer was "dreadful."

"I wanted to like it," he said of the group's new sound, "but I couldn't."

Earlier this week he picked up a classic songwriting award at the Q Music Awards for 'Karma Chameleon' — a song credited to all the original band members. None of the other band members were invited to the ceremony.

"We should have been there," said Craig, 46. "George wasn't the sole writer of the song. We wrote collectively.

"At the end of the day, Culture Club was very much ours as well as George's. He was the visual impact that everyone got, but there was a hell of a lot behind it."

Even the singer's iconic name, Moss said, was his bandmates' doing.

"He wanted to call himself Papa George," said Moss, 49. "It doesn't have the same ring to it. And he wanted to call us Caravan Club."

Moss, now married with three children, has a particularly volatile relationship with the singer. He and George were lovers at the height of the band's success, though the relationship was not made public at the time.

In his autobiography "Take It Like a Man," Boy George said many Culture Club lyrics were about his feelings for Moss and claimed the band's breakup was driven by the collapse of their relationship.

Moss says the book is misleading.

"He says I was ashamed" of the relationship, Moss said. "I'm not ashamed of anything. My parents know, all my friends knew. There's no problem there."

He said George's claim the band split "because he was distraught and broken-hearted over our love affair" was "complete and utter cobbler's (rubbish)."

"The only person George loves is George ... He's like a nightmare ex-wife," Moss said. "This guy's being rude about me all the time. I've lived with it for years and I've just had enough."

Moss and Craig, now fortysomething fathers, sound — well, like middle-aged dads — when they discuss their former bandmate. Moss recalls with embarrassment how George swore at the audience during the band's reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2002.

"Here's a man who's got the audience that put him where he is, bought his house for him and made him Boy George," said Moss. "It's not acceptable."

They say George's griping is spoiling the legacy of a band whose pan-sexual, multiracial makeup helped transform social attitudes in the 1980s.

"The whole idea of Culture Club was multiculturalism, the spirit of tolerance, the spirit of all as one," Moss said.

"Think of the diversity in our band — a Jew, a black person, an English person from Essex and a Catholic homosexual. That was Culture Club."

Microsoft, Peter Jackson shelve Halo film

Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Microsoft have announced a halt to plans for a movie based on the popular video game Halo.

The announcement Wednesday comes less than two weeks after the film’s major studio backers, Fox and Universal, pulled out of financing. Pre-production had already begun at Weta, the New Zealand-based company run by Jackson and his partner, Fran Walsh.

"At this time Microsoft, Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh have mutually agreed to postpone making a feature film based on the Halo video game," Microsoft said in a statement.

"While it will undoubtedly take a little longer for Halo to reach the big screen, we are confident that the final feature film will be well worth the wait," the company said.

The film was due to be released in 2008.

Fox and Universal pulled out in mid-October after trying to renegotiate the film’s budget and Jackson’s take of the profits.

The original budget was pegged at about $135 million US but reports say it could balloon to $200 million US.

At the time the two studios pulled out of the project, both Microsoft and Jackson released statements saying they would forge ahead, based on the software company’s video game. A Weta spokesperson also said at the time that work was continuing on the film, although no crew or stars had been cast.

The game concerns future super-soldier Master Chief as he battles to save mankind from an alien race. A sequel is expected next year for Microsoft's video game console Xbox 360.

Jackson is currently working on the adaptation of Alice Sebold’s book The Lovely Bones, and a remake of the 1954 Second World War battle drama, The Dambusters.

'Superman II': The Other Director's Cut

Time Warner plans to issue a director's cut of Superman II on Nov. 20 that will feature the work of director Richard Donner, who was fired from the movie and replaced by Richard Lester midway through the movie in 1979.

According to Wednesday's London Times, the film will include 15 minutes of previously unseen footage of Marlon Brando as Superman's father, Jor-El.

The film also employs footage from Donner's screen tests and numerous alternate sequences. In fact, according to the Times, the film uses less than 20 percent of the footage shot by Lester.

A spokeswoman for Warner Home Video told the newspaper that the new film was made possible because producers Alexander and Ilya Salkind, who fired Donner, sold their interest in the film to Time Warner.

A critic for Britain's Empire magazine who viewed the new version said that it was plagued with continuity problems arising from the fact that Donner was forced to make do with footage on hand, including the screen-test footage.

"It's patchy (Reeve's hairstyle changes from shot to shot), badly lit and stagy, but watching Reeve's performance is electrifying," according to the Empire review.

Weinsteins Wonder What Would Have Happened If...

Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein have suggested that they might have remained with the Disney Co. had Robert Iger been running it while they were there instead of Michael Eisner. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Bob Weinstein said that they now "have a very good relationship with Bob Iger ... He's set a fantastic tone. There's no animosity. It's actually been good. We've wondered if we'd still be there." Weinstein said that what caused "friction" with the previous regime was that "we walked in every day with the attitude that we were running our own company." The Weinsteins also told the newspaper that their recently acquired Genius video distribution unit has already produced a profits bonanza for their company, putting it ahead of analysts' projections. "When people read Genius's profit statement next year, and the size of the company that we're building, I think they'll weep," Harvey Weinstein told the Journal.

Paramount Snaps Up Scorsese's Stones Documentary

On Wednesday Paramount Pictures acquired North American rights to Martin Scorsese's long-planned Rolling Stones feature documentary, due in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Scorsese started filming the untitled project Sunday (Oct. 30) in New York during the Stones' performance at President Clinton's celebrity-packed birthday bash at New York's Beacon Theatre, and will also film at the Beacon tonight. Clinton's remarks at the event are expected to be included in the film, which will also include historical and contemporary behind-the-scenes footage and interviews.

At the first Beacon show, the White Stripes’ Jack White guested on “Loving Cup,” while Christina Aguilera sang “Live With Me” and Buddy Guy played guitar on “Champagne & Reefer.”

Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Richardson ("The Aviator," "JFK") is supervising the photography. Veteran docu filmmaker Albert Maysles also will provide backstage coverage, while the A-list cinematographers operating cameras in the auditorium will include Mitch Amundsen (2nd unit, "Mission: Impossible III"), Stuart Dryburgh ("The Piano"), Robert Elswit ("Good Night, and Good Luck"), Ellen Kuras ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), Andrew Lesnie ("The Lord of the Rings" trilogy), Emmanuel Chivo Lubezki ("The New World"), Anastas Michos ("Mona Lisa Smile"), Declan Quinn ("In America") and John Toll ("Braveheart").

Financed by Steve Bing's Shangri-La Entertainment and longtime Stones tour promoter Michael Cohl's Concert Promotions International, the film is being sold by Fortissimo Films in foreign territories at the American Film Market, which opens today.

David Tedeschi, who most recently worked with Scorsese on "No Direction Home," will edit the film; Tom Fleischman ("Departed") is the rerecording mixer, with Bob Clearmountain ("Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Hammersmith Odeon, London '75") mixing the music.

Miami Vice - Universal makes up for the long wait with double the Vice

2005 saw the first and seasons seasons of Miami Vice released on DVD, but the studio held off on releasing anything new in 2006 (except for a combo pack with both seasons), even though there was a movie in theaters (and coming to DVD in December).

We just heard a rumor that'll make up for the lack of releases in 2006 - the studio currently has plans to release seasons three and four in March, 2007.

Of course that's subject to change, as any announced title is, but it's a darn good sign!