The Couch Potato Report - December 1st, 2007

This week on The Couch Potato Report, pack your bags, we are taking a few trips!!

I am a traveller! I love to travel!

Around Saskatchewan, across Canada and throughout the world!!

This week, I went from coast to coast in our home and native land, and I journeyed across the ocean to Paris, and the south of France.

And I did it all, on DVD!

I hope your bags are packed, because this morning we are traveling, and we'll start our trip in Canada as some filmmakers take us from coast to coast through their documentary: LET'S ALL HATE TORONTO.

Toronto is the largest city in Canada.

With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth-most populous municipality in North America, and the 46th most populous in the world, and it is the place that many Canadians love to hate, and love to make fun of.

Heck, even last week, when bad Toronto weather forced the city to cancel some Grey Cup festivities, people were making fun of Toronto....but why do people seem to hate Toronto?

That is the question this film wants to ask.

LET'S ALL HATE TORONTO is co-directed by Canadian documentarians Albert Nerenberg and Robert Spence.

Spence nicknames himself "Mister Toronto" and takes off on a cross-Canada journey to find out why there seems to be so much resentment for Canada's biggest city, all the while promoting the made-up "Toronto Appreciation Day".

Unfortunately "Mister Toronto" is not a likeable guy, and when he is in it that hurts the film.

He doesn't go from Coast To Coast asking people why they don't like Toronto, instead, he arrives at a destination and he acts acts arrogant and rude.

That forces the people he talks with to only react to him, and their dislike for Toronto is only based on his representation of it.

During those scenes, the film is just not very good.

But there are many others where the film is good.

Now, in the spirit of full-enclosure, I love Toronto. I lived there for ten years and I still visit it often and consider it to be one of the greatest places in the world.

And I got a few chuckles over this film, because I know that many people don't like the city, even if they have never been there.

LET'S ALL HATE TORONTO is not a great documentary, but it does have a few great moments.

Plus, it allows us to travel to St. John's, Halifax, P.E.I., Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver and Toronto, and meet some other Canadians.

For that reason, I think it is worthy of your time...especially if you think you hate Toronto.

Okay, let's head across the Atlantic now, to Paris, the city of lights, the city of love - PARIS, JE T'AIME

Tranmslated, the title means "Paris, I love you" and the film consists of eighteen short films written and directed by a wide varirty of filmmakers such as Tom Tykwer - who gave us RUN LOLA RUN, Gus Van Sant of GOOD WILL HUNTING fame, Wes Craven - the creator of the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET FILMS, Alexander Payne - the writer and director fo SIDEWAYS, and Joel and Ethan Coen, the brothers who made FARGO and THE BIG LEBOWSKI.

The ensemble cast of American, British and French movie actors includes Marianne Faithfull, Steve Buscemi, Miranda Richardson, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Nick Nolte, Ludivine Sagnier, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Fanny Ardant, Bob Hoskins, Elijah Wood, Emily Mortimer, Rufus Sewell, Gérard Depardieu, Ben Gazzara, Gena Rowlands and Natalie Portman.

PARIS, JE T'AIME features beautiful shots of Paris in the day and night times, shots and locations that you might only get to see if you actually visit the city.

Some of the short films are very engaging and entertaining, some are outright funny, and some are more than a little weird.

And since there are so many, you can decide which is which, just by watching the film...something I recommend that you do.

I wish I could recommend our next traveling film this week...one that takes us to the very warm, hot, sunny and beautiful south of France...but I just can't.

I love Rowan Atkinson's Mr. Bean character, but I just can't advise you to watch most of MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY.

In this second film based on the beloved character, Mr. Bean wins a holiday to Cannes, a video camera and some cash.

Along the way, I suspect that the hilarity was supposed to ensue, but the story elements here are just too predictable.

You know he is going to leave his luggage on the train when he gets off, you know he will forget his money and passport when he gets back on, and even though he has seemingly kidnapped a young boy, you know that everything is going to work out fine.

What I can advise you to watch, what is always a pleasure to watch when it comes to Mr. Bean are the silent moments when he doesn't get what he wants, is eating, or dancing.

That, that my friends is the Mr. Bean we know, the Mr. Bean we love!!

Rowan Atkinson has said that MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY will be the last Mr. Bean story he appears in, and I for one hope he reneges on that statement, so he can do one more film, and do it better, and make a film that is less predictable and more enjoyable.

Here's hoping they do that, so Mr. Bean can go out on top where he belongs!!

Love than Mr. Bean...I also love that Mr. McCartney!!

The main thing I want to say about this next release is WOW!!

THE MCCARTNEY YEARS is a three DVD set full of Paul McCartney's music since he left The Beatles.

We get concert footage, old and new, interviews, old and new, and almost all of the music videos he has ever made.

Plus, he offers commentaries on those videos too!!

THE MCCARTNEY YEARS is a spectacular release, and offers some great insights into the man's work!

I completely enjoyed it, and if you are a fan of the man, it is a must own!!

Finally this week, and finally every week for the next month, I have a DVD Box Set for you. The studios are releasing an abundance of these sets - just in times for the Holidays - and I will let you know if they are worth your dough...and worthy of your time!

This week's Box Set should have been worthy of both time and money...but it isn't, and I am very disappointed in it!

That Box set is THE NHL GAME SEVEN COLLECTION - THE GREATEST GAMES IN STANLEY CUP HISTORY.

You and I may never get to play in a Game Seven in a Stanley Cup final, so over the years we have lived vicariously through our hockey heroes who have had that opportunity.

Many of those great moments and unforgettable memories are all now available in this Seven-DVD Box Set.

I suspect that the goal of THE NHL GAME SEVEN COLLECTION was to enable us to own these moments in pristine condition on DVD.

Unfortunately, the games haven't been remastered or cleaned up, and they are the American broadcasts of the game.

I hate to sound like a homer, but I can't fathom why they didn't use the Hockey Night In Canada broadcasts of these games. The NHL itself put this set together, so they have access to them, yet they didn't use them.

Luckily the crowd noises are still there, but where is the excitement from the announcers?! And where are the on-ice interviews after the games?!? There are only a few of those, and they are a staple of championship games!!

I wanted more from this set, and I remain very disappointed that I didn't get it!

THE NHL GAME SEVEN COLLECTION does feature the full game sevens from 1987, 1994, 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006.

It also features recaps of the games from 1942 to 1971.

If you - or someone you love - are a fan of the Edmonton Oilers, The New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, Colorado Avalance, Tampa Bay Lightning, Carolina Hurricanes, and you can look past the less then stellar versions of the games that are included here, than this Box Set is a keeper.

The NHL GAME SEVEN COLLECTION - THE GREATEST GAMES IN STANLEY CUP HISTORY, the very entertaining 3-DVD set THE MCCARTNEY YEARS, the mildly entertaining MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY, the enjoyable film PARIS, JE T'AIME and the almost okay documentary LET'S ALL HATE TORONTO are all available now on DVD.


Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

NITRO is a Canadian film about a former drag racer who is forced to return to his criminal past when his girlfriend requires a heart transplant;

THE NANNY DIARIES stars Scarlett Johansson as a upper class Nanny in New York City;

Fans of the television series BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA - myself included - get some answers about past storylines in the movie RAZOR;

Our BOX SET next week is 40-disc set that looks at each team that has won the Superbowl;

And also next week, Johnny Depp and cast return in PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN - AT WORLD'S END.

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!

Kanye, Akon Help Jackson Revisit 'Thriller'

As expected, Michael Jackson will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his iconic "Thriller" album with a new edition of the set, due Feb. 12 via Epic/Legacy Recordings. It will include remixes by Kanye West, Akon and will.i.am, plus rare and unreleased material from the time period.

West remixes "Billie Jean," while will.i.am has revamped "The Girl Is Mine" and "P.Y.T." The album also features a new version of "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'" with both Akon and will.i.am.

Among the unreleased tracks is "For All Time," which was recording during "Thriller" but left on the cutting room floor. Jackson has personally mixed and mastered the song. Also featured is Jackson's original "Billie Jean" demo and the rarities "Someone in the Dark" and "Carousel."

"Thriller" will include a bonus DVD with the "Thriller," "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" videos, plus Jackson's performance of the latter cut during the 1983 NBC special "Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever."

Jackson has been working on and off on his first studio album since 2001, but the status of the project is unknown. There have also been whispers of a tour with his brothers in 2008.

Here is the track list for "Thriller -- 25th Anniversary Edition":

"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'"
"Baby Be Mine"
"The Girl Is Mine"
"Thriller"
"Beat It"
"Billie Jean"
"Human Nature"
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)"
"The Lady in My Life"

"Carousel"
"Someone in the Dark"
"Billie Jean" (demo)

"The Girl Is Mine 2008" with will.i.am
"P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing) 2008" with Michael Jackson and will.i.am
"Wanna Be Startin' Somethin' 2008" with Michael Jackson, Akon and will.i.am
"Billie Jean 2008" with Kanye West
"For All Time"

Iconic daredevil Evel Knievel dies at 69

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Evel Knievel, the red-white-and-blue-spangled motorcycle daredevil whose jumps over crazy obstacles including Greyhound buses, live sharks and Idaho's Snake River Canyon made him an international icon in the 1970s, died Friday. He was 69.

Knievel's death was confirmed by his granddaughter, Krysten Knievel. He had been in failing health for years, suffering from diabetes and pulmonary fibrosis, an incurable condition that scarred his lungs.

Knievel had undergone a liver transplant in 1999 after nearly dying of hepatitis C, likely contracted through a blood transfusion after one of his bone-shattering spills.

Longtime friend and promoter Billy Rundel said Knievel had trouble breathing at his Clearwater condominium and died before an ambulance could get him to a hospital.

"It's been coming for years, but you just don't expect it. Superman just doesn't die, right?" Rundel said.

Immortalized in the Washington's Smithsonian Institution as "America's Legendary Daredevil," Knievel was best known for a failed 1974 attempt to jump Snake River Canyon on a rocket-powered cycle and a spectacular crash at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. He suffered nearly 40 broken bones before he retired in 1980.

"I think he lived 20 years longer than most people would have" after so many injuries, said his son Kelly Knievel, 47. "I think he willed himself into an extra five or six years."

Though Knievel dropped off the pop culture radar in the '80s, the image of the high-flying motorcyclist clad in patriotic, star-studded colors was never erased from public consciousness. He always had fans and enjoyed a resurgence in popularity in recent years.

His death came just two days after it was announced that he and rapper Kanye West had settled a federal lawsuit over the use of Knievel's trademarked image in a popular West music video.

Knievel made a good living selling his autographs and endorsing products. Thousands came to Butte, Mont., every year as his legend was celebrated during the "Evel Knievel Days" festival, which Rundel organizes.

"They started out watching me bust my ass, and I became part of their lives," Knievel said. "People wanted to associate with a winner, not a loser. They wanted to associate with someone who kept trying to be a winner."

For the tall, thin daredevil, the limelight was always comfortable, the gab glib. To Knievel, there always were mountains to climb, feats to conquer.

"No king or prince has lived a better life," he said in a May 2006 interview with The Associated Press. "You're looking at a guy who's really done it all. And there are things I wish I had done better, not only for me but for the ones I loved."

He had a knack for outrageous yarns: "Made $60 million, spent 61. ...Lost $250,000 at blackjack once. ... Had $3 million in the bank, though."

He began his daredevil career in 1965 when he formed a troupe called Evel Knievel's Motorcycle Daredevils, a touring show in which he performed stunts such as riding through fire walls, jumping over live rattlesnakes and mountain lions and being towed at 200 mph behind dragster race cars.

In 1966 he began touring alone, barnstorming the West and doing everything from driving the trucks, erecting the ramps and promoting the shows. In the beginning he charged $500 for a jump over two cars parked between ramps.

He steadily increased the length of the jumps until, on New Year's Day 1968, he was nearly killed when he jumped 151 feet across the fountains in front of Caesar's Palace. He cleared the fountains but the crash landing put him in the hospital in a coma for a month.

His son, Robbie, successfully completed the same jump in April 1989.

In the years after the Caesar's crash, the fee for Evel's performances increased to $1 million for his jump over 13 buses at Wembley Stadium in London — the crash landing broke his pelvis — to more than $6 million for the Sept. 8, 1974, attempt to clear the Snake River Canyon in Idaho in a rocket-powered "Skycycle." The money came from ticket sales, paid sponsors and ABC's "Wide World of Sports."

The parachute malfunctioned and deployed after takeoff. Strong winds blew the cycle into the canyon, landing him close to the swirling river below.

On Oct. 25, 1975, he jumped 14 Greyhound buses at Kings Island in Ohio.

Knievel decided to retire after a jump in the winter of 1976 in which he was again seriously injured. He suffered a concussion and broke both arms in an attempt to jump a tank full of live sharks in the Chicago Amphitheater. He continued to do smaller exhibitions around the country with his son, Robbie.

Many of his records have been broken by daredevil motorcyclist Bubba Blackwell.

Knievel also dabbled in movies and TV, starring as himself in "Viva Knievel" and with Lindsay Wagner in an episode of the 1980s TV series "Bionic Woman." George Hamilton and Sam Elliott each played Knievel in movies about his life.

Evel Knievel toys accounted for more than $300 million in sales for Ideal and other companies in the 1970s and '80s.

Born Robert Craig Knievel in the copper mining town of Butte on Oct. 17, 1938, Knievel was raised by his grandparents. He traced his career choice back to the time he saw Joey Chitwood's Auto Daredevil Show at age 8.

"The phrase one-of-a-kind is often used, but it probably applies best to Bobby Knievel," said U.S. Rep. Pat Williams, D-Mont., who grew up with Knievel. "He was an amazing athlete... He was sharp as a tack, one of the smartest people I've ever known and finally, as the world knows, no one had more guts than Bobby. He was simply unafraid of anything."

Outstanding in track and field, ski jumping and ice hockey at Butte High School, Knievel went on to win the Northern Rocky Mountain Ski Association Class A Men's ski jumping championship in 1957 and played with the Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League in 1959.

He also formed the Butte Bombers semiprofessional hockey team, acting as owner, manager, coach and player.

Knievel also worked in the Montana copper mines, served in the Army, ran his own hunting guide service, sold insurance and ran Honda motorcycle dealerships. As a motorcycle dealer, he drummed up business by offering $100 off the price of a motorcycle to customers who could beat him at arm wrestling.

At various times and in different interviews, Knievel claimed to have been a swindler, a card thief, a safe cracker, a holdup man.

Evel Knievel married hometown girlfriend, Linda Joan Bork, in 1959. They separated in the early 1990s. They had four children, Kelly, Robbie, Tracey and Alicia.

Robbie Knievel followed in his father's footsteps as a daredevil, jumping a moving locomotive in a 200-foot, ramp-to-ramp motorcycle stunt on live television in 2000. He also jumped a 200-foot-wide chasm of the Grand Canyon.

Knievel lived with his longtime partner, Krystal Kennedy-Knievel, splitting his time between their Clearwater condo and Butte. They married in 1999 and divorced a few years later but remained together. Knievel had 10 grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

Jodie Foster to get leadership award

LOS ANGELES - Jodie Foster needs to make more room on her trophy shelf.

The 45-year-old star will add the Sherry Lansing Leadership Award to her collection of Oscars, Golden Globes and other awards.

Lansing, former chief of Paramount Pictures, will present Foster with the award Tuesday at The Hollywood Reporter's 16th annual Women in Entertainment breakfast.

The actress-director-producer "has consistently maintained a sensibility and quality that is not easily sustained in this industry," publisher John Kilcullen said Thursday. "She clearly embodies the qualities of excellence and achievement that this award was created to honor."

Previous recipients include Barbara Walters and Meryl Streep.

Foster's film credits include "Taxi Driver," "The Accused," "The Silence of the Lambs" and this year's "The Brave One."

Movie planned about Bonds and steroids

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — HBO Films is planning to turn a best selling book about Barry Bonds' alleged steroid use and the federal government's wide-ranging probe into performance enhancing drug use in sports into a movie, one of the book's authors said Thursday.

Lance Williams, a reporter at the San Francisco Chronicle, said that Ron Shelton has been tapped to direct the flick and will co-write the script with "Tin Cup" partner John Norville once the Hollywood writers strike is settled.

The planned movie based on the book "Game of Shadows" was first reported Wednesday by Variety.

Williams co-wrote the book with sports writer Mark Fainuru-Wada, who recently left the Chronicle to join ESPN.

Much of the book was based on secret grand jury testimony of Bonds and other famous athletes leaked to them by Troy Ellerman, a disbarred attorney sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison for denying under oath he was the reporters' source.

The book recounts how Bonds allegedly began using steroids in 1999 after becoming jealous of Mark McGwire setting Major League Baseball's single season home run mark the previous season.

An HBO spokesman declined to comment.

O'Brien to pay nonstriking staffers

NEW YORK - With his nonstriking "Late Night" staffers facing layoffs after Friday, Conan O'Brien has promised to cover their salaries next week, an NBC spokeswoman said Thursday.

"He's paying the staffers' salaries out of his own pocket," NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks said. She said O'Brien had informed his staffers earlier in the day. The nonwriting staff numbers about 75.

Production of "Late Night" has been suspended since the writers strike began Nov. 5.

Through this week, NBC had been covering the salaries of its nonwriting staffers, along with those of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Last Call with Carson Daly," which are also in reruns.

But the network thus far has not said whether it intends to continue paying employees of any show on hiatus. All three programs are owned by Universal Media Studios, which, like NBC, is owned by General Electric.

Two weeks ago, before NBC made its initial arrangement, O'Brien had pledged to pay his staffers should the need arise. O'Brien is a member of the striking Writers Guild of America, as are fellow hosts Leno, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel and CBS's David Letterman.

About the same time, staffers of "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" were promised continued payment at least through December by Letterman, whose production company, Worldwide Pants, owns both shows. They continue in reruns.

Staffers for "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" continue to be paid by ABC, according to a network spokesperson.

Earlier this week, Daly, who is not a WGA member, announced "Last Call" was resuming production, with new shows to begin airing next week.

Defending his decision to return to work, Carson said in a statement that, otherwise, "roughly 75 staff and crew would have lost their jobs."

"As a non-WGA member I feel I have supported my four Guild writers and their strike by suspending production for a month," he said.

Negotiations between striking TV and movie writers and producers continued Thursday.

Homme family retrieves Friendly Giant puppets in skit spat

Rusty and Jerome, the two puppets from beloved CBC children's TV show The Friendly Giant, have been returned to the family of late star Bob Homme after a ruckus over their appearance in a satirical skit last month.

Homme's son Richard and daughter Ann picked up the puppets Tuesday from a display at the public broadcaster's downtown Toronto headquarters that also included The Friendly Giant's tunic, boots, castle set and mini furniture.

"I'm sorry this whole thing happened, but we felt we had no choice," Richard Homme told CBC Radio's As It Happens on Tuesday.

"I think it was time for us to take the display back."

The family objected to use of the rooster and giraffe puppets in a videotaped skit that aired during the Gemini Awards broadcast from Regina on Oct. 28. The skit turned up on the video-sharing website Youtube on Tuesday and commentary online about the footage has ranged from indignation to praise for its "daring."

Seemingly created in the vein of Comedy Central's TV program Puppets Who Kill and the hit stage show Avenue Q, the satirical Gemini skit depicted a fictional charity appeal in support of a retirement home for puppets from defunct TV shows.

Featuring a cameo by Canadian actress Camilla Scott, the skit shows a series of children's show puppets — including Rusty and Jerome — complaining of being forgotten. At one point, an actress in the skit adds that the puppets are "bored. All they do is drink and smoke and have sex."

Any media use of the puppets must be approved by the family, Homme said, adding that he felt the skit was "misrepresenting the puppets. They seemed like aliens to me with their different voices. It occurred to me that this is not anything we would have approved of, as far as the script goes."

Homme said that a new employee working at the CBC Museum who didn't know about the permission requirement allowed the puppets to be used.

The CBC apologized to the Homme family on Nov. 2, when they first contacted officials to express their displeasure, according to CBC spokesman Jeff Keay.

"We sincerely regret they feel any trust was breached," Keay said.

"The Friendly Giant pieces will be missed, but we respect the family's decision to have the items returned to them."

He added that as the CBC proceeds with plans to redevelop the Toronto building's main floor space, "we fully intend to include displays, objects and information that will represent CBC's rich history, its programs and its people."

'30 Rock' rolls ads into story lines

In the Nov. 15 episode of NBC's "30 Rock," Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey, in their roles as Jack Donaghy and Liz Lemon, sang the praises of Verizon Wireless before Fey looked right into the camera and asked, "Can we have our money now?"

At least in this case, art did indeed imitate life. Verizon said it handed over an integration fee to NBC, in addition to some marketing support, for the mini-commercial within one of the network's hottest shows.

The scene in question featured Jack saying, "These Verizon Wireless phones are just so popular. I accidentally grabbed one belonging to an acquaintance." Liz responded, "Well, sure that Verizon Wireless service is just unbeatable. If I saw a phone like that on TV, I would be like, 'Where is my nearest retailer so I can get one?' " She then broke the fourth wall and addressed the camera with the plea for cash.

"We talk with NBC on a consistent basis about opportunities," said Lou Rossi, director of media and sponsorships at Verizon Wireless. "We had engaged them to think about some ways we could help increase our presence in the marketplace, and they came back to us with the '30 Rock'-specific opportunity."

Rossi declined to disclose how much Verizon paid for the "30 Rock" integration but said that in addition to fees, it provided marketing support for the show with a co-branded ad in Maxim magazine and promotional content on VerizonWireless.com. "We want an integration to be as organic and natural to a show as it can be," he said. "Certainly with the '30 Rock' humor and writing, this type of integration just works well for them and for Verizon Wireless as well." NBC declined comment on the financial terms of the deal.

It's not the first time the irreverent NBC comedy has made a joke of the increasingly common practice of product integration while at the same time plugging a network advertiser. In fall 2006, there was a similar spoof with Snapple in the episode "Jack-Tor," which featured Lemon and the show-within-a-show's other writers protesting a directive from GE and Donaghy to write product placement into the show all while talking about how much they love Snapple. The dialogue included lines like "I only date guys who drink Snapple" and ended with Donaghy saying, "Yes, everyone loves Snapple. Lord knows I do." There was even a guy in a Snapple suit who walked out of the elevator asking for the human resources department.

Snapple's integration was part of its media buy on the network, a company spokeswoman said.

Despite the integration deals, "30 Rock" has made it onto Nielsen's list of the top 10 shows with product placement only one time since the fall season started. "The Office," another NBC show known for cutting major integration deals with advertisers in the past but which insists it no longer is involved in any such deals, turned up on the Nielsen top 10 list for four of the first five weeks of the fall season.

Through Nov. 18, Nielsen tracked 142 placements this season for a total of 779 seconds, or nearly 13 minutes, for "30 Rock," compared with 381 occurrences for a total of 2,505 seconds, or nearly 42 minutes, for "Office." From Sept. 24-Nov. 11, there were more than 80 brand mentions on "Office," according to Nielsen. But sources at Reveille and NBC insisted the placements were all scripted and viewed as adding to the humor of the show rather than emerging from any media buys or integration deals with NBC Entertainment or Reveille.

"Office" showrunner Greg Daniels has said that the show is no longer doing product integration because he "found it pretty impossible to balance the desires of the ad agencies and their clients with the creative needs of the show."

Among the brands with the most frequent or longest-lasting placements in "Office" this season are Hewlett-Packard, Boise Paper, Cisco Systems, Ever apparel, Microsoft, Vizio televisions, Toyota, Ford and Office Depot.

Staples, which cut a major integration deal with "Office" last season, had only three placements this season, lasting a total of nine seconds, compared with 56 occurrences lasting 334 seconds, or 5 1/2 minutes, in the full 2006-2007 season through Sept. 23, including repeats.

All of last season, including repeats, "Office" tallied 1,463 placements -- 427 verbal and 1,086 visual -- for a total of 9,110 seconds, or slightly more than 2 1/2 hours.

Billie Piper to return to Dr Who

Actress Billie Piper is to return to Doctor Who, the BBC has confirmed.
She will star in three episodes of the sci-fi drama, reprising her role as the Doctor's companion, Rose Tyler.

Rose's return will mean the Doctor has three assistants in next year's series - Donna, played by Catherine Tate, and Freema Agyeman as Martha.

The new series begins in March and will run for 13 episodes. There will be three special editions in 2009 before the show takes a break until 2010.

Piper left Doctor Who last year, when Rose was transported into a parallel universe.

The character had been a hit and Piper won a number of awards for her performances. She was named most popular actress at the National Television Awards in 2005 and 2006.

A separate show based on Rose had been planned by writer and series producer Russell T Davies, but was scrapped when Davies decided the programme was "a spin-off too far".

Filming is currently under way in Cardiff for the new series of Doctor Who, which sees the Doctor meeting an old group of enemies - the Sontarans - 35 years after first encountering them.

Before that, the programme will return to television screens at Christmas with a special episode set on the Titanic, which will co-star singer and actress Kylie Minogue.

Friends puzzle over death of Quiet Riot's Kevin DuBrow

"He did not sound agitated or paranoid or anything at all -- he was just normal Kevin," said former Deep Purple bassist and singer Glenn Hughes.

The life of Quiet Riot singer Kevin DuBrow, who died at age 52 over the weekend in Las Vegas, had not been on a completely even keel after he'd broken up this month with his girlfriend of more than seven years, Las Vegas television personality and KXPT-FM radio DJ Lark Williams, according to friends saddened Monday by the news of his death.

Nevertheless, "his mood the last couple of months was stable," said former Deep Purple bassist and singer Glenn Hughes, who said he had communicated with DuBrow several times a week since they had become reacquainted after a 2001 performance by Hughes in Las Vegas. "He did not sound agitated or paranoid or anything at all -- he was just normal Kevin," Hughes said. He added that Quiet Riot's recent tour had gone well.

Williams said she didn't think DuBrow had any health problems. "He was as strong as an ox, that boy. He ate well, took a lot of vitamins. He worked out, and of course when he performed it was quite a workout," she said Tuesday from Las Vegas. "He never looked better." She said she had last communicated with him about a week ago by text message, with no indications that anything was awry.

As of Tuesday, the Las Vegas police were not investigating the death as a suspicious one. Samantha Charles, the communications officer with the Clark County coroner's office, said that an autopsy was performed Monday on DuBrow and that official determination of the cause of death would depend on results of toxicology tests, which could take six to 12 weeks.

"With everything that's happening," Williams said, "I'm just trying to take care of Kevin's cats."

He had two of them. Said Hughes: "He was crazy about those cats," and Williams agreed -- she said she and DuBrow had picked them out together.

DuBrow was a regular guest at Hughes' ocean-adjacent Los Angeles home. "He was truly like a little brother to me," Hughes said by phone Tuesday. "He was a very, very sweet, generous, kind, sensitive man. Loud and proud, yes, we all know about that, but there was a very personal side to Kevin that I will miss very, very dearly." Hughes helped write the songs on Quiet Riot's 2006 album, "Rehab," and was working on material for DuBrow's next project.

"There's a myth, I guess, if you're a rock 'n' roller, and you're of an age, you're a partyer," said Hughes, his proper English upbringing sounding in his voice. "But I can report that I never saw Kevin out of control, ever."

Hughes said that the residence in which DuBrow's body was discovered Sunday belongs to DuBrow's mother. The Quiet Riot singer lived alone, Hughes noted, and enjoyed the bachelor life, a predilection that contributed to his split with Williams, a tall blond with a photo-op figure who had helped DuBrow try to adopt a healthier lifestyle in recent years.

DuBrow was expected to fly in Friday night for a party at Hughes' house but uncharacteristically had not been in contact for a week. When he didn't show up or respond to messages, Hughes called Williams on Sunday to ask that authorities investigate.

DuBrow led Quiet Riot to the top of the charts in 1983 with the group's hit "Cum on Feel the Noize," which propelled the group's third album, "Metal Health," to sales of more than 6 million copies.

"He was one of the best singers rock has ever seen," said Blackie Lawless, singer-bassist of the L.A. extreme-metal band WASP, contacted Tuesday while on tour in Germany. "He had a voice like a razor blade that just cut right through you. And that voice is now silent."

"He was one of the first people I ever met when I came to L.A.," said Lawless, adding that he'd kept up the acquaintance for 32 years. "Kevin and I had a unique kinship, because our styles were similar, and we were both the same age. The third gig I ever played in L.A. was with him and Quiet Riot, when [guitarist Randy Rhoads] was still in the band."

"Quiet Riot [was] the first real MTV rock band," Lawless observed. "I always used to tell everybody that when people write rock 'n' roll encyclopedias, you'll see your '64 British invasion, the '56 Elvis chapter and the '69 Haight-Ashbury chapter -- well, L.A. will have its own '82-'83 chapter, and Quiet Riot would really be the beginning of that chapter."

CBC says goodbye to Grey Cup

The Grey Cup went out with a bang on CBC, with the network noting a 4% increase over last year's average viewership for Sunday's CFL championship game, which saw the Saskatchewan Roughriders defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23-19.

The game, which got underway at 6 p.m. ET, scored a strong 3.3 million viewers (2+), peaking at 3.7 million between 9 and 9:30 p.m., making it CBC's sixth most-watched Grey Cup since the process of tracking game-only audiences began in 1996.

It marked the pubcaster's final Grey Cup game for at least five years, as rival TSN takes over broadcasting duties of CFL regular season and playoff games next year. CBC had been televising the CFL and Grey Cup for 55 years.

Meanwhile, audiences were down for the East Final last week, as one million viewers tuned in for the Winnipeg-Montreal match-up, while an average 1.5 million viewers watched Saskatchewan take on Calgary in the West Final, for an audience increase of 12%.

The Grey Cup was broadcast in countries including the U.K., Belarus, Denmark and Portugal through NASN (North American Sports Network), and also in Mexico through cable sports channel TVC Deportes. The game aired in Quebec on Réseau des Sports, attracting a reportedly small 202,000.

Meanwhile, CTV continues to grow its viewership for its Sunday afternoon 1-4 p.m. NFL block, which is up 38% since the beginning of the season.

CTV's national average audience was 353,000 for Sunday's broadcast, in which it aired four simultaneous games, including Buffalo vs. Jacksonville in southwestern Ontario, Montreal and Atlantic Canada, while B.C. viewers got to watch neighboring Seattle take on St. Louis.

A spokesperson at the net says the reason the numbers are growing is because it's now airing specific games of interest to specific regions. In week one, when CTV televised one game nationally, it averaged 255,000 viewers for the Denver-Buffalo match-up.

Reitman's Juno among top contenders for Indie Spirit film awards

Jason Reitman's warm and quirky film Juno, which stars rising Canadian stars Ellen Page and Michael Cera, is among the top nominees for the Film Independent Spirit Awards, announced in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

Juno, which was one of the buzz-worthy films at the Toronto International Film Festival and also won the top prize at the Rome Film Festival, netted four nominations, including a best director nod for Montreal-born Reitman, an acting nod for Page and another in the best first screenplay category for debut writer Diablo Cody.

The movie, starring Page as a whip-smart pregnant teen who must find parents for her unborn child, also faces stiff competition in the best feature category.

Other best feature contenders include two other top nominees, French drama The Diving Bell and the Butterfly — which also received four nods — and the Bob Dylan-inspired ensemble film I'm Not There, which won nominations in four categories and will also receive the Robert Altman Award (a new honour paying tribute to the ensemble cast, director and casting director in single film).

Rounding out the best feature nominees are A Mighty Heart and Paranoid Park.

Reitman's rivals for best director include Todd Haynes (I'm Not There), Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), Gus Van Sant (Paranoid Park) and Tamara Jenkins (The Savages).

Actress Tara Podemski, recognized in the best supporting female category for her performance in Four Sheets to the Wind, is also among the Canadian contenders, along with documentarian Jennifer Baichwal for her film Manufactured Landscapes.

Selected nominees include:

Screenplay: Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly; Tarmara Jenkins, The Savages; Fred Parnes and Andrew Wagner, Starting Out in the Evening; Adrienne Shelly, Waitress; Mike White, Year of the Dog.

Female lead: Angelina Jolie, A Mighty Heart; Sienna Miller, Interview; Ellen Page, Juno; Parker Posey, Broken English; Tang Wei, Lust, Caution.

Male lead: Pedro Castaneda, August Evening; Don Cheadle, Talk to Me; Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Savages; Frank Langella, Starting Out in the Evening; Tony Leung, Lust, Caution.

Documentary: Crazy Love; Lake of Fire; Manufactured Landscapes; The Monastery; The Prisoner or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair.

Foreign film: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days; The Band's Visit; Lady Chatterley; Once; Persepolis.

Handed out each year by the Los Angeles-based group Film Independent, the awards pay tribute to low-budget and arthouse filmmakers working outside of the traditional major studio structure or those creating works for smaller, specialty divisions.

The awards have in the past few years been one of several prominent barometers for the Academy Awards, with films such as Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Sideways and Monster taking trophies before going on to Oscar glory.

The Film Independent Spirit Awards are typically presented the day before the Academy Awards telecast at a casual, but still star-studded beachside ceremony in Santa Monica, Calif.

Halifax Doesn’t Want Celine Dion

Celine Dion's scheduled performance in Halifax has been called off due to negative comments about the singer that flooded local media, according to The Canadian Press. Dion's husband and manager, Rene Angelil, said he has been deeply affected by the harsh comments that emerged after it was announced Dion would bring her extravagant show to Halifax's outdoor park, known as the Common.

Apparently some Halifax residents were expecting rock'n'roll shows at the Common and were less-than-pleased to hear they would be seeing Dion rather than U2, for example.

Angelil singled out columnist David Rodenhiser of the Daily News for sparking the Celine-bashing. But Rodenhiser said the media has only reported the expressed opinions of local citizens. He reportedly argued that a successful Dion performance would help build Halifax's reputation as a place for A-list artists.

Angelil said he has kept the brouhaha from reaching Dion in an effort to protect her feelings.

Halifax was among six Canadian cities booked on the “Taking Chances World Tour,” which kicks off next August.

Voyage Of The Damned

The BBC Press Office has released information about the Doctor Who Christmas Special 2007:

Kylie Minogue steps back in time this festive season, as she joins Time Lord David Tennant for a spectacular Doctor Who Christmas Special set on board The Titanic.

At the end of the last series, viewers witnessed the The Titanic crash through the Tardis walls in spectacular style, and the action continues from that moment.

Kylie, who plays Astrid, a waitress on The Titanic, says: "It is an incredible thrill to be joining David and the entire Dr Who production for this year's Christmas special. Dr Who enjoys a unique history and it is going to be very exciting to be a part of that."

Two of Britain's best-loved sitcom actors, Geoffrey Palmer and Clive Swift, also feature in this Christmas episode.

Palmer, perhaps most famous for his roles in the long-running BBC series Butterflies and As Time Goes By, plays the role of Captain of The Titanic.

Kylie Minogue stars as Astrid, alongside David Tennant as The Doctor.

Voyage Of The Damned also features Gray O'Brien, who recently appeared in the Oscar-winning film The Queen; Debbie Chazen, star of the BBC comedy series The Smoking Room; Olivier Award-winner Clive Rowe; Russell Tovey, from the smash-hit film The History Boys; Jimmy Vee, who previously appeared in Doctor Who as the Moxx of Balhoon; and George Costigan, who starred in The Long Firm and the acclaimed film Rita, Sue And Bob Too.

Voyage of the Damned can be seen on BBC1 this Christmas.

'Grandma ... Reindeer' singer is sued

LOS ANGELES - A feud involving the man who sang "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" could wind up in court, just in time for Christmas.

Elmo Shropshire was sued for breach of contract Monday by a company that claims he interfered in a $1 million-plus deal to sell musical trucks, bobblehead dolls, snow globes and cookie jars featuring characters from an animated show based on the novelty song.

The tale about Santa mowing down a tipsy grandma with his sleigh was first heard in 1979 and has become a holiday favorite. It inspired a 2000 animated TV program that continues to run seasonally around the world.

The Fred Rappoport Co. of California contends it has the rights to use the song for products featuring characters from that program. Rappoport claims it got those specific rights under a 2004 settlement of a lawsuit filed by Shropshire.

The new lawsuit, which seeks at least $2 million in damages, was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. It contends that Shropshire this month improperly sent cease-and-desist letters to two companies that made a deal with Rappoport to market products featuring characters from the animated show.

Shropshire, who lives north of San Francisco in Novato, contended Tuesday that he was legally enforcing his rights to the song.

Rappoport "can sell any characters he wants from the movie," Shropshire said. "But I own the copyright from the song. He can't use the song without my permission."

Shropshire continued: "The song preceded the (animated) show by 20 years. There are a number of companies that license that song from us to make toys and to make CDs and to make a number of things. They're not going to feel so good if we allow someone else to use it for free."

Mann Is All 'Smiles' On Spring Album

Aimee Mann has just put the finishing touches on her seventh solo album, which she hopes to release in the spring of 2008 on her own Superego label. Mann tells Billboard.com that the new set, titled "Smilers," is "not a concept album" like 2005's "The Forgotten Arm."

It was produced by Paul Bryan, who also helmed her 2006 holiday album "One More Drifter in the Snow," and Mann says that "the sound is a little bit different for me. It's got a lot of Moog (synthesizer) on it (and) sometimes almost sounds like the Cars a little bit. From song to song, everything gets a different treatment."

Mann also notes that "there's no electric guitar at all, which you weirdly don't miss. It's kind of this all-keyboard situation, which is great. It's an interesting amalgamation of sounds."

Bryan plays bass on the album, with Jay Bellerose on drums and Jamie Edwards on keyboards. "I formed a band that was perfect for this project and stuck with it," Mann says. She also incorporates strings and horns on some songs and duets on one track with San Francisco singer/songwriter Sean Hayes.

Mann plans to preview a couple "Smilers" songs on her upcoming holiday tour, which kicks off Thursday (Nov. 29) in Solana Beach, Calif. She'll also be premiering a short comedy film she made with director Michael Blieden which features appearances by Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo.

"There were a lot of people who were interested in being part of the live show," Mann says, "but they were all either out of town or doing a movie. So there's this kind of cast of stars that for some reason agreed to be in my little, jokey film. I'm excited about that."

New Janet Jackson Album Due In February

Janet Jackson's as-yet-untitled debut album for Island Def Jam will be released in February. The artist is also prepping a worldwide tour to promote the follow-up to 2006's "20 Y.O." In addition, Jackson has signed with the William Morris Agency for representation in all areas.

Jackson comes to the company after a starring role in Tyler Perry's hit "Why Did I Get Married?" She will be repped by a team of agents led by Dave Wirtschafter and Charles King that will run across multiple divisions of the agency, including film, touring, licensing and merchandising, television, theater, publishing and new technology.

Jackson said she was attracted to the agency because of its long history. She continues to be repped by managers Johnny Wright and Kenneth Crear as well as attorney Don Passman.

As for Jackson's new album, it is being executive produced by Def Jam CEO Antonio "L.A." Reid rather than Jackson's boyfriend, Island Urban president Jermaine Dupri.

Dupri is working on Mariah Carey's new album, which should be out next spring. "We're going to make it seem like we're in competition to see who's going to have the biggest album of the year," he told Billboard in July.

Q&A: McCartney channels inspiration into "Full" slate

DETROIT (Billboard) - As far as Paul McCartney is concerned, words like "take it easy" are reserved for the Eagles.

During the past three years alone the ex-Beatle has released a pair of pop albums -- the Grammy-nominated "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" in 2005 and this year's "Memory Almost Full" -- as well as the 2006 classical piece "Ecce Cor Meum." Sir Paul also collaborated on albums by Tony Bennett, George Benson and Al Jarreau, and George Michael.

This fall McCartney released an expanded edition of "Memory Almost Full," adding three bonus tracks and a second disc of videos and live footage, along with a three-DVD retrospective of his solo career, "The McCartney Years," that's loaded with rare and unreleased material. And he had a piece in the DVD rollout of the Beatles' "Help."

There are musicians a third his age (65) who aren't working at nearly the same level, and we can rest assured that the days of "doing the garden, digging the weeds" are still a long way off for this knighted former mop top.

Q: What accounts for the creative spurt you seem to be on the past few years?

Paul McCartney: "It's simple: I really enjoy what I do. And every so often I just get sort of inspired. I never know why or how, but I think one of the great things is that music is a great healer and it's a great sort of therapy. Often if you're going through something difficult -- as you can imagine without me laying too much of a point on it, this last year's been pretty difficult -- to get into your music is a great thing. So I think the last couple years I've been very glad to have my music and I've been putting stuff into it that seems to have added up to something."

Q: Do you feel like you're getting inspiration as well as healing from these hard times?

McCartney: "I think that's true. You look at the lives of the great composers and they were not a lot of fun, some of them. Great painters, too; I was looking at a fantastic painting by Rembrandt the other day in a museum, and I was reminded by the blurb next to it that he died penniless and had a terribly bloody time, but he was one hell of a painter. So that's why I say therapy; you're feeling bad, you skulk off to a corner with your guitar and you write something, and somehow you seem to take yourself through it and you work through it with your music. I thank heaven for that. I feel very, very blessed. People always used to call it a gift, the gift of music, and I think that's very much, more and more, how I see it."

Q: That being said, "Memory Almost Full" isn't exactly "Blood on the Tracks," is it?

McCartney: "That's funny, isn't it? I still seem to come out positive and optimistic. I think that's my character. But (the divorce from Heather Mills) is something I don't want to talk about, and really for one reason. I have a baby daughter ... a 4-year-old, and I do not want to excite the envelope in any direction whatsoever. I'm just sort of keeping the dignified silence."

Q: So, how did "The McCartney Years" come about?

McCartney: "For a long time people have been saying to me, 'When can we get a hold of that video?' or 'Is that video available? Is that released?' And I just sort of thought, 'No ...' I was always a little bit like, 'One day, yeah, I'll do it. Don't worry.' But then a couple of guys got in touch with me and said, 'Look, we think it's time. We want to work on it. Let us put forward a proposal of what we would do for you to look at.'

"It took a long time to put together. They started cleaning it all up, and then they cleaned the sound mixes up and then they started showing me, and that was like, 'Jeez, I've never heard it like this. I've never seen it like this.' So I started to get excited and I fell for the whole idea. I just said, 'Go to it boys, let's do it."'

Q: What did you encounter in doing the project that really blew you away?

McCartney: "I think the short answer is, 'everything.' Obviously, everything with Linda in it was particularly heartwarming, realizing her major contribution to everything once you see it all en masse. I hadn't seen 'Tug of War' in a while, which was lovely. It was good to see things like 'Say Say Say' with Michael Jackson, and of course Linda and our daughter Heather make an appearance in that, so that was really cool."

Q: You used Ringo (Starr) pretty liberally as a guest star in your videos.

McCartney: "Yeah, that was very good. 'Take It Away' and 'Beautiful Night,' he kindly agreed to be the drummer in those, especially as he'd (played on) 'Take It Away.' It was just fabulous. (Beatles producer) George Martin even appears in one of them."

Q: You must have had an interesting perspective on videos in the '80s and beyond because it was no stranger to you. You did videos -- you even did movies -- with the Beatles, so it wasn't quite as revolutionary of a concept as it was in the U.S.

McCartney: "The difference was you suddenly had to be a short filmmaker as well, and not all of us liked it. The process was quite wearing. You'd sort of farm it out to three or four directors who you thought were hot and (one) would come back with -- it was a bit like a comedy sketch -- 'I see you on a mountaintop in Tibet wearing nothing but a loincloth. The Sun God shines down ...' and you're going 'Oh no.' Then the next one was, 'I see you in a scene from the Keystone Cops. You're hanging off the back of a wagon, it's all shot in fast-motion black-and-white.' Or it was, 'I see you as a scene from "Casablanca" ... I see you as the Terminator.' You're just desperate to get something where you can go, 'This looks alright.' Occasionally there would be a good idea ... and the rest of the time there was an element of embarrassment 'cause you thought of yourself as a singer, not a film star."

Q: Was it different when you were doing it in the '60s?

McCartney: "Yeah, it wasn't quite so important, so we would say, 'Oh, look, just get a camera and we'll get girls with grass skirts and we'll just stand there in our Sgt. Pepper's costumes and sing "Hello Goodbye."' There wasn't that much thought that went into it, which made it a little bit more innocent and less precious."

Q: Of the live material on "The McCartney Years," it's kind of brave to include your Live Aid performance in the set.

McCartney: "Oh my God, the Live Aid was just one of those things I'd sooner forget. I came in from the country and sort of drove in and every window in Britain was open with televisions on and Live Aid blaring out. It was a national event and I knew I was gonna be on it, but I didn't take anyone with me. I didn't have a roadie. I didn't even have anyone to make sure my mic or speakers were working. And Bob Geldof just said, 'Well, your piano's behind that curtain. You're on.' There I was in front of the world ... and I heard in my monitor very ominous sounds of roadies talking: 'Is this the plug?' I figured, 'I'll just keep plugging on,' but I couldn't hear myself. I couldn't hear anything. And then it suddenly became clear my mic wasn't on, but the dear old audience helped me out, God bless 'em. They all sang it. So I escaped by the skin of my teeth. It was sort of a nightmare. If you asked me for three nervous moments, I think that'd be top."

Q: Is there any news about the Beatles' catalog going online?

McCartney: "I think it's all happening soon. There are contractual things, and you'll find that someone in the loop maybe doesn't want to give what they should give, so it's negotiating. But I think we're kinda set. I think that Apple is set to do their bit. The whole thing is primed, ready to go. There's just maybe sort of one little sticking point left, and I think that's being cleared up as we speak, so it shouldn't be too long. But, you know, you've got to get these things right. ... So it's down to the fine-tuning, but I'm pretty sure it'll be happening next year, 2008."

Q: What's next for you, musically?

McCartney: "I'm actually doing some recording with my son (James). We're just looking at the idea of him making an album. He's doing it all. He's writing it all ... It's sensational. But there's nothing set yet. ... The plan is for me to just do some recording with him, and it's really exciting. I'm really loving it."

Led Zeppelin 2008 tour confirmed?

Led Zeppelin will tour in 2008, the band that has been booked as their tour support has revealed.

Ian Astbury, lead singer of the Cult, has confirmed that they have been roped in to support the recently-reformed band on a jaunt next year.

According to Billboard, during a gig in Cincinnati on November 17, Astbury said: "We'll be back next year, because we're opening for a band you may have heard of. The name starts with an 'L' and has a 'Z' in it."

Hearing the announcement, a fan in the audience shouted, "Led Zeppelin!" Astbury nodded an affirmative response, and raised an arm into the air.

Led Zeppelin has yet to announce official details of any new tours.

However, speaking about their reunion on December 10, guitarist Jimmy Page has revealed the band will play one of their songs live for the first time ever.

Four folded into "Chain Letter"

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Nikki Reed, Noah Segan, Keith David and "Saw III" and "Saw IV" lead Betsy Russell will star in "Chain Letter," the tale of a maniac who targets teens when they fail to forward chain mail.

"Saw" producer Mark Burg and Roxanne Avent are executive producing the horror feature, which introduces the chain-wielding killer Chain Man (Michael Bailey Smith). Matthew Cohen, Cody Kasch, Michael J. Pagan, Cherilyn Wilson, Reed and Segan play his targets. Clifton Powell will play their high school coach, and Russell and David will play the police officers on the killer's tail.

Director Deon Taylor is writing and producing the film with co-star Pagan.

Since writing and starring in "thirteen," Reed has appeared in "Lords of Dogtown" and "Mini's First Time." Segan had a breakout turn in "Brick" and will be seen in "The Brothers Bloom," a crime drama starring Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo. David has appeared in dozens of films, including "Crash" and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith."

New CD Releases and Re-Releases, November 27th, 2007: Justin Timberlake, Mudvayne, Pitbull

Justin Timberlake "Futuresex/Lovesounds: Special Edition"

The singer who brought "SexyBack" is now ready to bring it back again. This 2-disc special edition includes Timberlake's multi-platinum sophomore set, plus three additional tracks: "Until The End Of Time" (featuring Beyonce), and new versions of "SexyBack" and "Sexy Ladies." The DVD portion of the set includes music videos, behind-the-scenes footage and tapings of various live performances.

* * *
Mudvayne "By the People for the People"

This disc lives up its title; the track listing reportedly was selected by the metal band's fans. It's Mudvayne's second compilation album, and fifth overall release, and it features demo recordings of "Not Falling," "Death Blooms," "Fall Into Sleep" and other fan favorites. It also includes two new songs: "Dull Boy" and a cover of The Police's "King of Pain."

* * *
Pitbull "The Boatlift"

The Miami-based Cuban-American rapper, known for such hit singles as "Culo" and "Toma," returns with a follow-up to last year’s "El Mariel." The hip-hop star is joined by a boatload of guests on this album, including longtime collaborator Lil Jon, Twista, Trick Daddy and Young Boss.

* * *
Westlife "Back Home"

The popular Irish boy-band--featuring Shane Filan, Nicky Byrne, Bryan McFadden, Mark Feehily and Kian Egan--is ready to take their fans "Back Home." The new offering follows 2006's "The Love Album," which has been certified triple-platinum in the UK. The Dublin quintet has an immensely strong track record in the singles department, having charted 14 No. 1 UK singles during its 9-year career.

* * *
Philip Glass "Book of Longing"

The acclaimed avant-garde composer has put together a song-cycle based on the poetry and images of Leonard Cohen, the multi-talented Canadian who many rank as one of the finest songwriters of all time. The tribute ensemble, led by conductor Michael Riesman, includes Daniel Keeling, Wendy Sutter, Andrew Sterman, Eleonore Oppenheim and Kate St. John.

* * *
More new releases:
B Real, "The Gunslinger III: For a Few Dollars More" (Redline)
Buckethead, "Dawn of the Deli Creeps" (TDRS)
Cunninlynguists, "Dirty Acres" (Bad Taste)
Raheem Devaughn, "Love Behind the Melody" (Jive)
Adrienne Frantz, "Anomaly" (Wrong)
Garrison Keillor, "Never Better: Stories of Lake Wobegon" (Highbridge)
Lovemusik, "Lovemusik" (Ghostlight)
Tom Magliozzi, Ray Magliozzi, "Car Talk: The Greatest Stories Ever Told" (Highbridge)
Grady Martin, "Roughneck Blues 1949-1956" (Rev-Ola Bandstand)
The Ocean, "Precambrian" (Metal Blade)
Primordial, "To the Nameless Dead" (Metal Blade)
Various Artists, "NPR Driveway Moments for Dads" (Highbridge)

Soundtracks and scores:
"Guys & Dolls" (Blue Moon)
"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," (Stage Stars)

Van Halen Beefs Up 2008 Itinerary

Van Halen has added 23 new U.S. dates to its reunion tour with original lead singer David Lee Roth, extending the trek into April.

Beyond the five shows added in mid-November, the Live Nation-produced trek featuring Roth, Eddie and Alex Van Halen and Eddie Van Halen's teenage son Wolfgang on bass will visit new markets such as New Orleans and Providence R.I., while making repeat visits to New York, Chicago and East Rutherford, N.J.

The current tour is Roth's first with the Van Halen brothers in more than 20 years and has grossed $25.5 million from 18 shows between Sept. 27 and Nov. 10, according to Billboard Boxscore.

The full slate of 2008 shows is:

Jan. 22: Oklahoma City (Ford Center)
Jan. 24: San Antonio (AT&T Center)
Jan. 26: Dallas (American Airlines Center)
Jan. 28: Houston (Toyota Center)
Feb. 1: Denver (Pepsi Center)
Feb. 4: Omaha, Neb. (Qwest Event Center)
Feb. 8: New Orleans (New Orleans Arena)
Feb. 12: Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. (BankAtlantic Center)
Feb. 14: Orlando, Fla. (Amway Arena)
Feb. 16: Jacksonville, Fla. (Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena)
Feb. 18: Tampa, Fla. (St. Pete Times Forum)
Feb. 22: Charlottesville, Va. (John Paul Jones Arena)
Mar. 5: Cincinnati (US Bank Arena)
Mar. 7: Raleigh, N.C. (RBC Center)
Mar. 9: Baltimore (1st Mariner Arena)
Mar. 11: Manchester, N.H. (Verizon Wireless Arena)
Mar. 13: East Rutherford, N.J. (Izod Center)
Mar. 17: New York (Madison Square Garden)
Mar. 19: Hershey, Pa. (Giant Center)
Mar. 21: Pittsburgh (Mellon Arena)
Mar. 24: Providence, R.I. (Dunkin Donuts Center)
Mar. 26: Uncasville, Conn. (Mohegan Sun Arena)
Mar. 28: Atlantic City, N.J. (Boardwalk Hall)
Mar. 30: St. Louis (Scottrade Center)
Apr. 1: Columbus, Ohio (Value City Arena)
Apr. 3: Chicago (Allstate Arena)
Apr. 5: Grand Rapids, Mich. (Van Andel Arena)
Apr. 7: Milwaukee (Bradley Center)

Quiet Riot singer found dead in Las Vegas

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Kevin DuBrow, lead singer of the popular 1980s U.S. heavy metal band Quiet Riot, has been found dead from unknown causes at his home in Las Vegas, authorities said on Monday.

The body of DuBrow, 52, was discovered on Sunday afternoon, a spokeswoman for the Clark County Coroner's Office said. An autopsy conducted on Monday was inconclusive and more forensic tests were scheduled to establish a cause of death, she said.

Police confirmed that DuBrow's body was found at his home after they were summoned by friends and neighbors who could not find the rocker.

A Las Vegas police spokeswoman declined to say whether there were signs of foul play or violence.

"I can't even find the words to say," Quiet Riot drummer Frankie Banali said on his Web site. "Please respect my privacy as I mourn the passing and honor the memory of my dearest friend, Kevin DuBrow."

Founded in Los Angeles in the mid-1970s, Quiet Riot shot to the top of the Billboard charts with their 1983 album "Metal Health."

It sold more than 6 million copies and is considered by many to be the first heavy metal record to top the pop charts.

The album's sales were spurred by the quartet's monster hit "Cum on Feel the Noize," featuring DuBrow's powerhouse vocals, and the song's video, which was played in heavy rotation on MTV.

Quiet Riot's subsequent albums did not sell nearly as well and DuBrow was essentially fired from the band amid the ensuing rancor.

DuBrow regrouped Quiet Riot in the 1990s and the band has played sporadically, last releasing an album in October 2006.

TV episodes dwindle in writers strike

NEW YORK - The writers strike is in its fourth week, with chilly prospects for viewing ahead.

During December, the schedule will be dominated by holiday specials and series repeats (not unlike any other year).

But come January, a prolonged strike could be all too obvious to viewers, with continuing episodic reruns interspersed with new reality shows.

Even so, a few scripted dramas and comedies are warming up the schedule:

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A FEW TO GO:

• Fox airs a fresh "House" Tuesday. After that, only three more new episodes remain, slotted for January — one of them following Fox's Super Bowl broadcast.

• ABC's new hit comedy "Samantha Who?" has six more episodes in the can.

• Fox's "Family Guy" has scheduled a normal mix of new and repeat episodes at least through January.

• The "Crime Scene Investigation" trio, "NCIS," "Criminal Minds," "Without a Trace" and "Cold Case" are down to four or fewer new episodes apiece on CBS.

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END IN SIGHT:

• ABC's "Ugly Betty," "Pushing Daisies" and "Grey's Anatomy" each have two new episodes to go.

• ABC's "Desperate Housewives" airs the last of its current stock of new episodes Sunday.

• The final new episode of NBC's "Heroes" airs Dec. 3.

• Fox's "K-Ville" has two new episodes left, with dim prospects for production to resume on this low-rated freshman drama.

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STUCK IN REPEATS:

• NBC's "The Office" is closed for business until the strike's end, with only reruns on deck.

• CBS' new hit sitcom "Big Bang Theory" has similarly run dry, along with "How I Met Your Mother," "Two And a Half Men" and "Rules of Engagement."

___

WHO KNOWS WHEN?:

• The planned January return of Fox's "24" has been postponed indefinitely. Since only some of the series' 24 episodes have been shot, Fox didn't want to risk beginning a new season that might be interrupted.

___

MIDSEASON RELIEF:

• Fox's "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" will have a two-night premiere Jan. 13-14. This new drama, a reinvention of the "Terminator" film franchise, arrives with 13 episodes completed.

• Also in January, NBC's "Medium" will return with nine episodes in the can.

• "The New Adventures of Old Christine" will be back with at least eight episodes of this CBS sitcom, and the apocalyptic drama "Jericho" returns with seven episodes.

• "Cashmere Mafia," ABC's new comedy-drama starring Lucy Liu, will arrive with seven episodes completed.

Canada a download haven

A kid and his mother are in a CD store. The kid turns to the mother and asks her to buy him a CD. The mother replies: Can't you just download it?

"I saw it with my own eyes," says an incredulous John Jones, western regional manager for Warner Music Canada. "You expect that from a kid, but this was a 45-year-old woman. I was flabbergasted."

But what he saw was nothing new. The world knows Canada as the Great White North -- but to the music industry it seems more like the Wild West these days.

Toothless copyright legislation and recent court decisions that suggest personal file-sharing may be legal in this country have conspired to create a lawless free-for-all that's siphoning millions of dollars and hurting the music scene, industry officials charge.

"We're in a funny little bubble in Canada," contends Graham Henderson, president of the Canadian Recording Industry Association, which represents the major record labels. "And we're in that bubble because we don't have modern digital laws. We don't have a consensus of what's right and wrong."

It's a stark contrast from the situation south of the border and overseas. In Europe, police have raided and shut down file-sharing sites. In America, the industry has fought back with a series of controversial lawsuits. Just last month, a 30-year-old Minnesota woman was ordered to pay $222,000 to six record companies for sharing 24 songs (though she had more than 1,700).

Here in Canada, where CRIA claims there are more than 1 billion illegal downloads per year, two landmark decisions have hamstrung the industry's efforts to launch 29 similar suits. In 2003, the Copyright Board of Canada ruled that downloading music from P2P networks for personal use was legal. The next year, Federal Court Judge Konrad von Finckenstein took a similar stance, even questioning whether uploading files was breaking the law.

"The mere fact of placing a copy on a shared directory in a computer where that copy can be accessed via a P2P service does not amount to distribution," Finckenstein wrote. "Before it constitutes distribution, there must be a positive act by the owner of the shared directory, such as sending out the copies or advertising that they are available for copying."

More recently, the industry has focused on lobbying Ottawa to put more teeth into Canada's copyright laws -- something the Harper government promised in last month's Throne Speech.

That's good news to CRIA -- but not to many of Canada's musicians who rely on fans' goodwill for their survival.

"We think lawsuits like the one in Minnesota would be terrible for the music business in Canada," wrote Barenaked Ladies frontman Steven Page in a press release on behalf of the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, whose membership includes everyone from Avril Lavigne and Sarah McLachlan to Randy Bachman. "It's shortsighted to say 'see you in court' one day and 'see you at Massey Hall' the next. If the labels want to try and sue fans, we hope that they'll have the courtesy to stop trying to do it in our names."

Henderson says the point of copyright reform is to attract investment and expand the industry.

"Having those sorts of laws in place encourages business investment. And that is absent in Canada. Nobody is interested in putting money into the digital marketplace because we have no laws to safeguard their investment."

For Universal Music president and CEO Randy Lennox, it's also a matter of respect.

"We haven't sued consumers because we're all nice Canadians," he says. "But we're mad as hell and we're not going to take it anymore. What are we, a whipping boy?"

But one expert believes the industry can never achieve a definitive legal victory.

"There are too many lawyers," says Steve Gordon, an entertainment lawyer. "Lawyers have been promising that eventually they'll be able to sue piracy away. And the executives have given the lawyers years now to try to do that. It's a failed strategy. The lawyers have let them down."

The disputes don't end there -- levies on blank DVDs and iPods meant to compensate artists, along with newly proposed taxes on legal digital downloads, are also points of contention in the complex issue. And some artists and labels claim file-sharing actually helps publicize bands, and doesn't hurt sales.

"We hear from people in indie shops who tell us that peple come in who have already downloaded the album and have come in to buy it because they liked it," says Mark Milne, co-founder of Canadian indie record label and distributor Sonic Unyon.

Despite their obvious differences, however, the experts agree on one thing: Education is the real key to solving the file-sharing crisis.

"I do think it begins at home in many respects," Henderson says. "I think you'll start to see in the wake of laws that this will start to become an issue in the home. Parents will start talking to kids about this. And there will be a whole brand new sort of ethic which will grow up about the use of the Internet."

Roughriders win 95th Grey Cup Game

The Saskatchewan Roughriders have come full circle in their quest for Canadian football's most coveted prize.

Eighteen years after winning their last Grey Cup at Toronto's SkyDome, the Riders defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23-19 on Sunday to capture the trophy on the same field at Rogers Centre.

It is Saskatchewan's third Grey Cup win and their first since 1989, when Dave Ridgway's last minute field goal earned a 43-40 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The first quarter was a low-scoring affair, with the Riders held pointless after kicker Luca Congi missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt early in the stanza.

The Bombers got their offence going from there, with defensive back Greg Moss picking off Riders quarterback Kerry Joseph for the first interception of the game. Joseph did not throw a single interception in two games against the Bombers in the regular season.

Bombers quarterback Ryan Dinwiddie then grabbed the spotlight, leading a seven-play, 61-yard drive - including 16 and 42-yard bombs down the middle to Milt Stegall - which led to a 15-yard field goal by Troy Westwood.

After a couple of Winnipeg safeties conceded by Jamie Boreham in the second quarter, the Riders continued to struggle on offence. Joseph ran for 25 yards and hit D.J. Flick with a long pass to get into into the red zone later on, but a fumble recovery by Bombers linebacker Ike Charlton in the end zone left them scoreless.

Saskatchewan finally got in the game on Winnipeg's next possession, Dinwiddie's pass intended for Stegall was picked off by defensive back James Johnson for a 30-yard interception return.

Starting at their own 21-yard line, the Riders capped off the second quarter on a high note. They took advantage of a 24-yard reception by Wes Cates and an 18-yard pass to Andy Fantuz for a 45-yard field goal by Congi to lead by three at the half.

The Bombers' offence in the third quarter was a roller coaster ride to say the least.

The struggles started at 1:51 of the stanza when Saskatchewan lineman John Chick sacked Dinwiddie and forced a fumble recovery for Rider teammate Scott Schultz. Congi split the uprights from 17 yards out for a 13-7 lead. Dinwiddie settled down on the very next possession, hitting receiver Derick Armstrong for a 50-yard touchdown and a 14-13 Winnipeg lead. But later in the quarter, the former Boise State star was picked off by again by Johnson and Congi's third field goal of the game put the Riders ahead by two.

Joseph hit Fantuz with a 29-yard touchdown pass - and the Riders' first offensive touchdown of the game - to pad the lead by nine.

The Bombers showed plenty of fight and came right back, closing the gap with a safety and Westwood's second field goal of the night.

But with just under a minute left in the game, Johnson picked off Dinwiddie again for his third interception of the game and a Rider victory.

Led by the league's most outstanding player in Joseph, the Riders are in their first Grey Cup since 1997, when they lost lost 47-23 to the Toronto Argonauts.

In a storyline that has been stretched out well over the last seven days, Dinwiddie made his first career start on the CFL's biggest stage. He got the start after No. 1 quarterback Kevin Glenn broke his left arm in last weekend's 19-9 East Division final against the Toronto Argonauts.

No quarterback has ever made his first start in the Grey Cup or Super Bowl.

The Bombers are looking for their 11th Grey Cup title, with their last championship won 17 years ago to the day - a 50-11 victory over the Edmonton Eskimos on November 25, 1990. Their last appearance in the Grey Cup was at Montreal's Olympic Stadium in 2001, when they lost 27-19 to the Calgary Stampeders.

The Riders were 11-point favourites, mainly because of Glenn's injury.

Is the CD dead?

CD sales are dropping. Illegal file-sharing is rising. CD stores are closing. Profits and jobs are vanishing. And the biggest bands in the world are deserting labels and giving away their wares.

In the Canadian music industry, the times, they are a-changing — and not always for the better.

But before you start singing the blues for record labels and rock stars, remember that just like an old LP, there are two sides to that story.

On this side: The Canadian Recording Industry Association.

"Things are about as bad as they can possibly get at this point," laments Graham Henderson, president of CRIA. "For the most part, people are really struggling right now."

Looking at some of his numbers, it's not hard to see his point. According to CRIA, which represents the major record labels, the Canadian music industry has been in a slow but steady decline since 1999, losing nearly half its sales and jobs. From 2005 to 2006, CD shipments dropped by 11%, down from $544 million to $482 million. In the first quarter of this year, CRIA reported a 35% drop — what it called "unprecedented" — and a 19% decline between January and August.

On the flip side are critics who say the situation isn't as desperate as the CRIA claims.

"CRIA always says the sky is falling," counters one industry insider. "That's their role."

As a lobby group out to win favourable treatment and tougher legislation for its members, it's in CRIA's best interest to paint the grimmest picture possible.

Other sources such as Neilsen SoundScan Canada — which calculates sales (net) as opposed to shipments (gross), a very different measurement — suggest total album sales dropped less than 5% last year, and business in general is down about 11% so far this year. A recent StatsCan report found sales of sound recordings dropped 3% to $575 million between 2003 and 2005, but the industry still posted healthy profits. While record production dropped 8.6%, expenses fell nearly 15% during the same period, resulting in a 7% profit margin.

Why the difference? According to another industry insider who spoke on condition of anonymity, CRIA's alarming 35% first-quarter drop can mostly be explained by other factors such as post-holiday returns, a lack of big releases and the rising Canadian dollar, which decimated the industry's "secret" export market.

Still, major labels aren't exactly popping the champagne. Not when Canada's last nationwide chain of music stores — Music World — announced earlier this month it is going out of business.

"It's an extremely challenging business right now," says Randy Lennox, president and CEO of Universal Music Canada. "Good people have lost jobs. Talented peple have lost jobs. We're an industry that has a lot less people in it, and it pains us very much."

The cause of the decline? Once again, it depends on who you ask.

Many say the industry has only itself to blame, charging that for years, greedy record companies have been taking advantage of consumers with shoddy, overpriced albums that have only one or two good songs. No less a figure than Island Def Jam Music Group Chairman Antonio (L.A.) Reid recently said, "The decay we are seeing has more to do with the lack of quality in the music."

The CRIA's Henderson disputes those allegations, claiming the real problem is far more obvious: "People have stopped buying music because they can now get it for free."

Illegal file-sharing, which began chipping away at the industry with the advent of Napster in 1999, has now reached epidemic proportions in Canada, with more than 1 billion unlawful downloads per year, CRIA says. Coupled with toothless copyright legislation and legal decisions okaying personal peer-to-peer file-sharing, it has created a perfect storm of piracy that is not only decimating physical CD sales, but also preventing the burgeoning digital market from taking up the slack — and thus deterring new investment throughout the industry.

"It affects the whole music scene," Henderson says.

Again, others aren't so sure. And not surprisingly, they all have their own solutions. Many in the North American industry look at the expanding mobile market as a solution. New Columbia music head Rick Rubin champions a subscription-based approach, with consumers paying a monthly fee to access millions of songs. Some artists, such as Neil Young and Prince, have begun giving away CDs with concert tickets, repurposing music from product to promo tool. Others — such as Radiohead, who let fans download their latest album and name their own price — seem to envision a future without record companies. Still others, such as Madonna and Korn, have signed wide-ranging partnership agreements, which many analysts see as the way of the future.

Here in Canada, CRIA has been concentrating its recent efforts on lobbying Ottawa for copyright reform — which the Harper government promised in the latest Throne Speech. But that doesn't sit well with the Canadian Music Creators Coalition, a group of artists (including everyone from Randy Bachman and Steven Page to Chantal Kreviazuk and Avril Lavigne), who believe CRIA plans to launch American-style lawsuits against fans.

Not every member of the industry is in turmoil, however.

While retail sales are soft and competitors such as Music World are closing stores, HMV Canada is bucking the trend, says president Humphrey Kadaner.

"Despite the suggestion by many that consumers are no longer purchasing CDs, that is not borne out by our experience," he says. "I joined HMV Canada four years ago, and over that period of time we have increased the number of CDs we have sold by 15%. Last year we sold nearly 15 million CDs; that is a lot of CDs."

Kadaner is far from the only optimistic voice in the crowd. Other retailers such as CD Plus and Sunrise have seen similar growth in sales of indie titles, imports and hard-to-find items that chain stores don't carry. And indie labels such as Sonic Unyon haven't faced the same sort of declines as their major-label cousins, thanks to more loyal customers and smaller, more realistic business practices.

"We think this is going to be a great period for independent artists and labels," Sonic Unyon co-owner Mark Milne says. "Change is always good."

Despite the problems of the shrinking market, Universal's Lennox also remains optimistic.

"I'm not some guy feeling like the ship's going down," he says. "It's evolving, it's changing. Those of us that are gonna move with it are gonna win this thing, and there are many of us that are very committed to doing just that."

Still, others fear the industry faces death from 1,000 cuts.

"We've slowed the bleeding but we haven't stopped it," says a worried John Jones, Western Regional Manager for Warner Music Canada. "And you can still bleed to death slowly."

'Enchanted' casts $50M box-office spell

LOS ANGELES - Audiences fell under the spell of "Enchanted," a fairy-tale romance that debuted as the No. 1 movie and led Hollywood out of its recent box-office doldrums with solid business over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Starring Amy Adams as a cartoon princess exiled to real-world Manhattan by her fiance's wicked stepmother (Susan Sarandon), Disney's "Enchanted" took in $35.3 million over the weekend and $50.05 million since debuting Wednesday, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Sony Screen Gems' family reunion holiday tale "This Christmas," whose ensemble cast includes Delroy Lindo, Regina King, Mekhi Phifer and Idris Elba, opened at No. 2 with $18.6 million for the weekend and $27.1 million since Wednesday.

Hollywood had been in a box-office funk this fall, but the two movies paced the industry to a healthy Thanksgiving, with the top-12 movies pulling in $218.1 million from Wednesday to Sunday, up 6 percent from the holiday period last year.

"That's good for an industry that's been in a downtrend for almost two months," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "Thanksgiving sets the tone for the rest of the year and the holiday season in general. This was a key weekend, and it delivered."

"Enchanted" had the second-best five-day Thanksgiving debut ever, behind the $80.1 million haul of Disney's "Toy Story 2." Disney released all five of the top-grossing movie debuts over Thanksgiving, with "Unbreakable," "A Bug's Life" and "101 Dalmatians" trailing "Toy Story 2" and "Enchanted."

"It's a really good place to launch a movie," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney. "When you get a movie as strong and well-playing as this, it bodes well for us right through the Christmas holiday."

Among other new wide releases, 20th Century Fox's video-game adaptation "Hitman" debuted at No. 4 with $13 million over the weekend and $21 million since Wednesday. The movie follows the exploits of a genetically engineered assassin (Timothy Olyphant).

The Warner Bros. drama "August Rush" opened in seventh-place with $9.4 million for the weekend and $13.3 million since Wednesday. "August Rush" stars Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Robin Williams in the tale of an orphaned musical prodigy seeking his parents.

The Stephen King adaptation "The Mist," a fright flick distributed by MGM for the Weinstein Co.'s Dimension Films banner, premiered in ninth-place with $9.1 million for the weekend and $13 million since Wednesday.

The third King adaptation from director Frank Darabont ("The Shawshank Redemption" and "The Green Mile"), "The Mist" stars Thomas Jane, Marcia Gay Harden, Andre Braugher and Toby Jones among residents trapped in a supermarket after their Maine town is engulfed in a haze filled with terrifying creatures.

Horror films generally are trashed by critics, but "The Mist" earned fairly positive reviews, much like Dimension Films' summer hit "1408," also based on a King story. Bob Weinstein, co-founder of the Weinstein Co., said that could mean a longer shelf life for "The Mist" the same way that "1408" hung on in theaters.

"It just stuck around, and hopefully, we'll be around for several weeks," Weinstein said. "We're just so thrilled to be in the Stephen King business."

Expanding nationwide after two weeks in limited release, Miramax's "No Country for Old Men" came in at No. 10 with $8.1 million, raising its total to $16.6 million. Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, the acclaimed crime saga stars Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem and Josh Brolin.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Enchanted," $35.3 million.
2. "This Christmas," $18.6 million.
3. "Beowulf," $16.2 million.
4. "Hitman," $13 million.
5. "Bee Movie," $12 million.
6. "Fred Claus," $10.7 million.
7. "August Rush," $9.4 million.
8. "American Gangster," $9.2 million.
9. "The Mist," $9.1 million.
10. "No Country for Old Men," $8.1 million.

The Couch Potato Report - November 24th, 2007

This week The Couch Potato Report peels a beauty television special, and some music DVDs!

In case you have never heard me say this before, my favourite movie of all time, of all time, is THE ADVENTURES OF BOB & DOUG MCKENZIE: STRANGE BREW.

Yes, of ALL TIME!!

I love CASABLANCA, CITIZEN KANE, THE GODFATHER, STAR WARS, and many other classic films that have stood teh test of time, but the one that still entertains me - and more importantly, makes me laugh the most is STRANGE BREW.

As I am sure you know, Bob and Doug McKenzie were a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who hosted "The Great White North", a sketch which was introduced on SCTV for the show's third season when it moved to the CBC in 1980.

Bob is played by Rick Moranis and Doug is played by Dave Thomas and after their tremendous national success on television, they made STRANGE BREW in 1983.

The film's story is loosely based on the Shakespeare's HAMLET, with the McKenzie Brothers taking the roles of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and I love it!

So, you can imagine the excitement that I was feeling when I sat down on the Victoria Day weekend to watch the reunion slash retrospective show - BOB & DOUG McKENZIE'S TWO-FOUR ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL.

Sadly, that excitement was quickly dashed as the special was not funny, not entertaining, and not very good.

Sure, the bits NEW AND OLD with Bob & Doug were still funny, and former Prime Minister Paul Martin, who hosted the show, had a few good lines, but the special featured way too many testimonials from fans and celebrities like Ben Stiller, Dave Foley, Barry Pepper, Martin Short and Paul Shafer, and not enough Bob & Doug.

But the good new this morning is the fact that the people who produced the TWO-FOUR ANNIVERSARY have fixed their mistake, and the new TRUE HOSER'S COLLECTOR'S EDITION DVD is very, very entertaining!

This DVD is exactly what the TV special should have been!

It is funny, takes a retrospective look back as the history of the characters, and it reminds us of their place in Canadian history.

The DVD version is twice the length of the television version, but it isn't just longer, it is actually better.

Sadly, almost all of the footage that was shot in Saskatoon at the Juno Awards and the Juno Cup practice that was in the TV version has been taken out, but it has been replaced with some very unique features...like a choir performing Bob & Doug's unforgettable anthem.

If you like to laugh, then the one DVD you need to get this week is the very entertaining BOB & DOUG MCKENZIE'S TWO-FOUR ANNIVERSARY: THE TRUE HOSER'S COLLECTOR'S EDITION.

It's a beauty way to go!!

Alright, I have four other releases to tell you about this week, all of them feature music, and all of them are great!!

I'll start with a musical that I didn't expect to enjoy, but I did! I did enjoy HAIRSPRAY, the adaptation of the Tony Award-winning 2002 Broadway musical of the same name, itself adapted from John Waters' 1988 cinematic comedy.

HAIRSPRAY was filmed in Toronto and it is set in Baltimore in 1962.

It follows a "pleasantly-plump" teen named Tracy Turnblad as she simultaneously pursues stardom as a dancer on a local TV show and rallies against racial segregation.

Due to that latter story line, HAIRSPRAY does have some serious overtones, but mostly it is fun!

The songs, the characters, the cast that includes Michelle Pfeiffer, Christopher Walken, Zac Efron, Amanda Bynes and John Travolta... in drag...it all works.

I'm not always the biggest fan of musicals, but I really enjoyed HAIRSPRAY, and if you check it out, make sure you get the Two-Disc "Shake & Shimmy Edition" as it has a great look back at the transformation from film to musical and back to film again.

The whole package is just fun!!

Fun is also an element of our next release, The Beatles:

HELP is a semispoof of the James Bond pictures with John, Paul and George trying to protect Ringo from an Eastern religious cult who want the ring he can't seem to get off of his finger.

As with any Beatles movie, the plot is not important, we will watch these films forty-plus years after the fact because of the songs, and in addition to the title track HELP! features six other Beatles tunes, including "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "Ticket to Ride."

This new 2 Disc Edition of HELP! also includes THE BEATLES IN HELP! - a 30 minute documentary about the making of the film with director Richard Lester, the cast and crew, exclusive behind the scenes footage of The Beatles on set, and more.

THE BEATLES HELP! is still goofy, still clever, and still a great time spent watching a movie!

In addition to the 2-DVD release, there is als a new Deluxe Package that also includes; a reproduction of Richard Lester's original annotated script; 8 lobby cards; a poster and a 60-page book with rarely seen photographs and production notes from the movie.

From a classic sixties band, I will wrap up this week's Couch Potato Report with two new releases from classic seventies bands, starting with the new 2-DVD SPECIAL EDITION of LED ZEPPELIN - THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME.

THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME is a concert film that was recorded over three nights of concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City, during the band's 1973 concert tour.

As with HELP! there is a bonus DVD with a wealth of bonus features including extra songs and interviews.

I never got the chance to see Led Zeppelin live in concert, so I always enjoy watching THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME for that fact. This new version is the best that it has ever looked, sounded, and been presented.

If you enjoy the band, the songs might remain the same, but that is why we like them, isn't it?

No, I never got to see Led Zeppelin live, and I never got to see The Who live in concert either...the real Who, featuring the original line-up of Pete Townshend, Roger Daltery, John Entwistle and Keith Moon.

There have been many Who concerts released on DVD, and I have enjoyed them all, and now there is a great documentary on them available to enjoy as well. It is called AMAZING JOURNEY - THE STORY OF THE WHO.

And if you have ever wondered how they got their name, you will get the definitive answer.

AMAZING JOURNEY looks back at the band's history, right through their origins four decades ago, straight into the work that Townshend and Daltery are doing today under the name.

Sadly, what this documentary, or it's bonus disc, don't have, is an abundance of interviews with the late drummer Keith Moon.

There is a lot of performance footage of him, but I wanted to hear his side of the story as well. But sadly, if it even exists, it isn't included here.

AMAZING JOURNEY - THE STORY OF THE WHO is a spectacular look at a band who are more known today for the fact that their songs open the various CSI shows every week.

It is both informative and entertaining.

AMAZING JOURNEY - THE STORY OF THE WHO, the Special Edition of LED ZEPPELIN - THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME, THE BEATLES HELP!, the surprisingly entertaining HAIRSPRAY and BOB & DOUG MCKENZIE'S TWO-FOUR ANNIVERSARY: THE TRUE HOSER'S COLLECTOR'S EDITION are all available now on DVD.

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

The NHL GAME 7 COLLECTION features some of THE GREATEST GAMES IN STANLEY CUP HISTORY, PARIS, JE T'AIME features well-known actors and directors from around the world showing Paris in a way never before imagined, in MR. BEAN'S HOLIDAY the beloved character takes a trip, THE BOSS OF IT ALL is a Danish film about a man who must produce his fictional boss; and LET'S ALL HATE TORONTO is a documentary that examines the art of Toronto-bashing, and why it happens.

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!

Shatner Fumes Over 'Star Trek' Snub

Actor William Shatner is furious producers of the new Star Trek movie failed to offer him a role. Shatner, who played Captain James Kirk in the original TV series and movies, is desperate for a part in the new version, directed by J.J. Abrams. And the 76-year-old is stunned he has not been offered a lead part in the upcoming film.

He tells TV's Extra, "How could you not put one of the founding figures into a movie that was being resurrected? That doesn't make good business sense to me! I've become even more popular than I was playing Captain Kirk. I'm good box office and I get publicity… But, they are going in a different direction and it'll be a wonderful film."

Shatner's Star Trek sidekick Leonard Nimoy will be the only original cast member on board for the prequel - he'll reprise his role as Mr. Spock in the film.

Rowling dubbed entertainer of the year

NEW YORK - J.K. Rowling's magical, Midas touch has landed her on the cover of Entertainment Weekly as the magazine's entertainer of the year.

The magazine said the "Harry Potter" author, who has sold nearly 400 million copies of her boy-wizard series that's been adapted into a megasuccessful movie franchise, deserved props for getting "people to tote around her big, old-fashioned printed-on-paper books as if they were the hottest new entertainment devices on the planet."

Rowling was in a class by herself on the magazine's list of the year's top entertainers, which was separated by editors into five other categories that evoke school cliques: prodigies, class clowns, most popular, most buzzed-about and valedictorians.

The magazine named George Clooney — actor, director, activist — a valedictorian because he has "deftly balanced box-office viability with personal responsibility." Will Smith, Angelina Jolie and the cast of "The Sopranos" also made the grade, among others.

Matt Damon made the list of most popular, as did Carrie Underwood, Katherine Heigl, Johnny Depp and Kanye West.

The prodigies: Zac Efron, Shia LaBeouf, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus.

Tina Fey, creator and co-star of "30 Rock," was recognized as a class clown for her hilariously cringe-inducing portrayal of comedy-show producer Liz Lemon on the NBC sitcom.

"I love going to those uncomfortable places," she tells the magazine. "I'll go down any weird avenue."

Other clowns: Vanessa Williams, "The Simpsons" and director Judd Apatow and his gang of actor buddies including Seth Rogen and Paul Rudd. Apatow cast his pals in the acclaimed comedies "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and this year's "Knocked Up," which cracked people up with a winning combination of heart and R-rated raunch.

Amy Winehouse, Gerard Butler, Tyler Perry and the A&E series "Mad Men" were named the most buzz-worthy.

CBC to amalgamate English-language operations

The CBC announced on Thursday plans to integrate its English-language services under one executive, its current English television vice-president, Richard Stursberg.

The public broadcaster's board of directors have approved a proposal by CBC president Robert Rabinovitch to integrate the English-language side of the CBC.

Stursberg will assume the newly created role of executive vice-president, English services.

Each of CBC's media streams — online, television and radio — will continue to move forward on their specific paths and "there is no plan whatsoever for any reduction in staff," Stursberg told CBCNews.ca Arts.

"What this is about is actually finding ways of taking the content … and making sure that it is more broadly available across all platforms as they develop."

The decision is part of an overall CBC integration plan, he said.

"As media evolves … one wants to make sure that you can adapt and move forward so you can meet the public on whatever platform they want to be on."

The goal is to find more opportunities for the media lines "to work more closely together," he said, pointing to the current integrated news operation in Vancouver as a model.

"The real trick for media companies over the course of the next little while is to say 'How do we retain the great strengths of the services that we have, but position ourselves so that we can respond effectively as public tastes change?' "

The move — described as a corporate organizational change — comes after CBC Radio vice-president Jane Chalmers announced in early November her intention to retire at the end of the year.

Chalmers' deputy, current CBC Radio programming head Jennifer McGuire, has been promoted to the new post of executive director of CBC Radio.

McGuire, CBC-TV programming head Kirstine Layfield and CBC News publisher John Cruickshank will all now report to Stursberg.

The decision follows a similar organizational amalgamation of CBC's French-language services under Sylvain Lafrance — formerly head of French radio — in 2005 after his French television counterpart, Daniel Gourd, stepped down.

At the time, Rabinovitch had said "we have no plans to make similar structural changes to our English services."

Montreal lawyer Hubert Lacroix is set to succeed Rabinovitch as the president of the CBC and Radio-Canada, its French-language service, on Jan. 1.

Joseph named Most Outstanding Player

TORONTO - Kerry Joseph led a West Division sweep at the CFL's awards banquet Thursday night.

The elusive quarterback, who guided the Saskatchewan Roughriders to their first Grey Cup berth since 1997, was named the CFL's outstanding player and was the only non-B.C. Lions player to be honoured at Roy Thomson Hall.

The other award winners included slot back Jason Clermont (top Canadian), defensive end Cameron Wake (rookie, defensive player), Rob Murphy (lineman) and Ian Smart (special teams).

The East Division finalists included quarterback Kevin Glenn (outstanding player), defensive tackle Doug Brown (Canadian) and tackle Dan Goodspeed (lineman) of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, defensive end Jonathan Brown (defensive player) and returner Dominique Dorsey (special teams) of the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats kicker Nick Setta (rookie).

Voting for the awards was conducted by Football Reporters of Canada as well as the eight CFL head coaches.

Joseph was a surprising winner considering Glenn led the CFL in pass attempts (621), completions (388) and yards (5,114) and was second in TD tosses (25). But Joseph was third overall in passing with 4,002 yards but also was the league's top rushing quarterback with 737 yards and 13 touchdowns.

What's more, Joseph led Saskatchewan to a 12-6 record - second only to the B.C. Lions (14-3-1) in the CFL - that not only earned the Riders second spot in the West Division but also the right to hold their first home playoff game since 1988.

Joseph is the first Roughriders quarterback to win the CFL's top individual award since Ron Lancaster accomplished the feat in 1976.

Wake's two honours accentuated the Lions' dominance of the CFL this season.

The six-foot-three, 241-pound Wake played linebacker at Penn State but was shifted to defensive end by the Lions. The move paid immediate dividends as Wake not only cracked B.C.'s starting lineup but developed into the league's top pass rusher, registering a league-high 16 sacks.

With Wake leading the way, the Lions registered a CFL-high 61 sacks. He also had 69 tackles and three forced fumbles and recorded the only blocked field goal in the CFL during the regular season.

Wake finished his season by registering a CFL playoff-record five sacks in the Lions' loss to Saskatchewan in the West Division semifinal.

Clermont, also named the top Canadian in 2004, finished third in the CFL in receiving this year with 86 catches for 1,158 yards and seven touchdowns.

Murphy was named the top lineman for the second straight year. The former Ohio State buckeye, helped the Lions drastically cut their sacks total - 32 in '07 after allowing 56 last year - while paving the way for running back Joe Smith, who led the CFL in rushing with 1,510 yards.

Smart finished the season with the special-teams triple crown. He led the CFL in punt returns (92, 912 yards, one TD), kickoff returns (53, 1,228 yards, 23.2-yard average) and all-purpose yards (2,440 yards).

Weezer Rallies The 'Ensemble'

Weezer has christened its sixth album "Tout Ensemble," and will release it April 22 via Geffen.

"I have never been so excited about a project in my life," bassist Scott Shriner says. "Weezer fans truly have something to look forward to. The entire band has accomplished some of its most challenging goals as a group and as individuals. It's all coming together on this album."

No other details have been made available about the project, which is the follow-up to 2005's "Make Believe." But there is new music from Rivers Cuomo coming before the end of the year, in the form of the Geffen album "Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo."

Due Dec. 18, the set includes "my favorite home demos from '92 to '07 featuring a lot of never heard before songs, a few covers, a few songs from my unfinished rock musical 'Songs From The Black Hole' and my original demo for 'Buddy Holly,'" Cuomo says.

Springsteen bandmate on hiatus for health reasons

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Keyboardist Danny Federici, an original member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, is taking a leave of absence from the group while underground treatment for melanoma.

Beginning Sunday (November 24) in Madrid, Federici will be replaced by Charles Giordano, who previously played in Springsteen's Sessions band.

On Monday in Boston, the E Street Band's set list was tilted toward material with which Federici is closely associated, including "Kitty's Back," "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" and "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)."

"Danny is one of the pillars of our sound and has played beside me as a great friend for more than 40 years," Springsteen said in a statement. "We all eagerly await his healthy and speedy return."

Besides Springsteen, the other original E Street members are saxophonist Clarence Clemons and bassist Garry Tallent.

Diamond reveals `Caroline' inspiration

LOS ANGELES - Neil Diamond held onto the secret for decades, but he has finally revealed that President Kennedy's daughter was the inspiration for his smash hit "Sweet Caroline."

"I've never discussed it with anybody before — intentionally," the 66-year-old singer-songwriter told The Associated Press on Monday during a break from recording. "I thought maybe I would tell it to Caroline when I met her someday."

He got his chance last week when he performed the song via satellite at Caroline Kennedy's 50th birthday party.

Diamond was a "young, broke songwriter" when a photo of the president's daughter in a news magazine caught his eye.

"It was a picture of a little girl dressed to the nines in her riding gear, next to her pony," Diamond recalled. "It was such an innocent, wonderful picture, I immediately felt there was a song in there."

Years later, holed up in a hotel in Memphis, Tenn., he would write the words and music in less an hour.

"It was a No. 1 record and probably is the biggest, most important song of my career, and I have to thank her for the inspiration," he said. "I'm happy to have gotten it off my chest and to have expressed it to Caroline. I thought she might be embarrassed, but she seemed to be struck by it and really, really happy."

The enduring hit recently reappeared on the singles chart, thanks in part to the Boston Red Sox. "Sweet Caroline" is played at every home game.

"I think they consider it good luck," Diamond said, adding that the Red Sox have become his favorite baseball team.

The tune's return to the charts leaves Diamond "speechless," he said. "That song was written 40 years ago, so I am just overwhelmed by the fact that it has returned and that, more importantly, people have taken it into their hearts for so many years."

Diamond is now at work on a new album, his second collaboration with producer Rick Rubin.

"We're both very excited about it," Diamond said. "I think it's going to be one of my best ever."

Foo Fighters take off to the Great White North

Fresh off a sold-out UK outing, the Foo Fighters are resting up for their 2008 North American tour, which now includes a run through Canada.

The Grammy-winning rockers, who previously announced a half-dozen shows in the southern and eastern US in the new year, recently added a gig in Rosemont, IL, and eight dates across several Canadian provinces. The trek is scheduled to kick off Jan. 23 in Dallas and currently stretches through March 30. Details are listed below.

The US concerts are currently on sale, with the exception of the Rosemont date, which goes up Dec. 1. The Canadian shows will go on sale to the general public beginning this Friday (11/23), and fans who register for the Foo Fighters' email list via the band's website can access pre-sale tickets beginning tomorrow (11/21).

The band is supporting its sixth studio effort, "Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace," which snagged the No. 3 spot on The Billboard 200 when it dropped in September. Lead single "The Pretender" continues to top the modern rock chart after 15 weeks. That song and the Foo Fighters' latest single, "Long Road to Ruin," are streaming at the group's MySpace page.

The album marks the first time the Foos have worked with producer Gil Norton since 1997's double-platinum seller "The Colour and the Shape," which was recently remastered and reissued as a 10th anniversary deluxe edition with six bonus tracks.

"Echoes" follows the Foo Fighters' 2005 double-album, "In Your Honor," which comprises a disc of aggressive hard rock and one of more delicate acoustic tracks. That platinum-selling set spawned the No. 1 mainstream- and modern-rock hit "Best of You" and led to the band's biggest-selling tour to date, according to a press release.

January 2008
23 - Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center
25 - Memphis, TN - FedExForum
26 - Nashville, TN - Municipal Auditorium

February 2008
18 - Worcester, MA - DCU Center
21 - Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Spectrum
24 - Detroit, MI - Joe Louis Arena
25 - Rosemont, IL - Allstate Arena

March 2008
17 - Montreal, Quebec - Bell Centre
19 - Ottawa, Ontario - Scotiabank Place
20 - London, Ontario - John Labatt Centre
22 - Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre
25 - Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre
27 - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Credit Union Centre
28 - Edmonton, Alberta - Rexall Place
30 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Pacific Coliseum

Wii is most-wanted widget in wintertime

NEW YORK - Each holiday season, a couple hard-to-find toys send parents hunting from store to store. And, each season, they're soon forgotten: Has your Elmo gotten any tickles lately?

But this year, it looks like the gift everybody is looking for is the same as last year: the Nintendo Wii.

A year after its launch, the small video game console sells out almost immediately when it reaches stores, even after Nintendo Co. has ramped up production several times.

"Right now, if you work at it, it's not too hard," said John Lawrence, of Fort Worth, Texas, who bought a Wii a few weeks ago for his 9-year-old grandson. It took him some online sleuthing to find one at a local GameStop.

"People have not gotten into the Christmas shopping mode. Once people get into that mindset, this is going to be an impossibility as it was last year," Lawrence said.

With the Wii, Nintendo set out make a console that would entice people who were not hardcore gamers, and it has succeeded. Janet Presti stood an hour in line at the Nintendo World Store in New York on Tuesday last week to get a Wii for her three children, but it wasn't just for them.

"I played it at my sister's house and I loved it," she said. Her household already has three game consoles: an Microsoft Xbox 360, a Sony PlayStation 2 and a Nintendo GameCube.

The Wii responds to the user moving the wand-like wireless controller, while other consoles are controlled by a confusing array of buttons and joysticks. It also comes with an array of casual, nonviolent games that appeal to adults.

Sony and Microsoft have cut the prices of their consoles this fall, but continuing demand for the Wii has meant Nintendo hasn't had to.

Perrin Kaplan, vice president of marketing and corporate affairs at Nintendo of America, said the console was "priced right from the beginning." A look at eBay shows that Kaplan may be wrong: New Wii systems are selling about $100 above the $250 store price.

Some of the demand for Wiis results from trouble in the toy industry, as well as the gadget's cross-generational appeal.

"No one is buying toys right now because of the recalls," said Gerrick Johnson, a toy industry analyst at BMO Capital Markets.

First, toys were recalled because of lead paint and dangerous magnets. Then, Aqua Dots — colored beads that were making their way to must-have status — were pulled because they were coated with a chemical that turned into the date-rape drug gamma hydroxy butyrate if swallowed.

"It's really unfortunate for the toy industry, because the lead issue was starting to subside, was getting off the front page ... and then along comes this, which is totally outrageous," Johnson said.

"Whoever thought that there'd be a day when parents say 'Don't play with your dangerous toys, go play with your video games'?" he asked.

The console has been a tremendous boost for Nintendo, which lost out to Sony Corp. and Microsoft Corp. in the last generation of game consoles. In the quarter ended Sept. 30, it more than doubled its sales to $6.1 billion from a year earlier, just before the launch of the Wii. It sold 5.5 million Wiis in the U.S. since it went on sale on last Nov. 17.

The stock market now values Nintendo at $75 billion, compared to $48 billion for Sony, which has six times the revenue.

Nintendo has increased the pace of production, but acknowledges that it won't be able to satisfy holiday-season demand.

"It's brand new technology, so you can't build it on just any line," said Nintendo's Kaplan.

In an interview last week, Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer said the Wii shortages were "a little fortuitous," and indicated that the PlayStation 3 was poised to benefit from the situation. U.S. sales of the console doubled to 100,000 per week soon after an Oct. 18 price cut, he said.

The issue of demand outstripping supply has dogged Nintendo with the DS handheld game as well, which launched in 2004.

"We've been struggling since launch to keep inventory — we finally have enough of that," said Kaplan.

New CD Releases, November 20: Keith Urban, Nine Inch Nails, U2

Keith Urban "Greatest Hits"

After topping the charts with last year's "Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing," the Grammy-winning country star returns with a best-of package. Urban's "Greatest Hits" features all of the performer's No. 1 hits, two new tracks, a remake of Steve Forbert's 1979 hit "Romeo's Tune" and a new full-band recording of "Got It Right This Time (The Celebration)."

Recently, Urban, who is married to film star Nicole Kidman, announced that he will join with fellow country sensation Carrie Underwood for a 24-city trek across the US in 2008. The "Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Carnival Ride Tour," which combines the names of the Grammy-winners' recent studio albums, is set to launch Jan. 31. Dates and venues have not yet been announced.

* * *
Nine Inch Nails "Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D"

Not crazy about how the songs sounded on Nine Inch Nails' last record, "Year Zero"? Well, do something about it. With "Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D," fans actually have the ability to remix the tracks. There's a DVD-ROM in the package containing every track from "Year Zero" in multi-track format, which fans can use their home Mac and PC computers to rearrange.

That will appeal to the technically savvy folks. The rest of us will be content to just listen to how the pros do it. The regular CD portion of "Y34RZ3R0R3MIX3D" features remixes of "Year Zero" songs by such celebs as New Order's Stephen Morris, The Kronos Quartet, Saul Williams, Interpol's Sam Fogarino and The Faint.

* * *
U2 "The Joshua Tree"

U2 fans will probably want to check out this deluxe edition of the band's signature album, 1987's "The Joshua Tree." It's a 3-disc box set that contains a remastered version of the original CD, a bonus audio CD and a DVD recorded live in Paris in 1987.

The set also includes a 56-page hardback embossed book, featuring previously unseen Anton Corbijn photos, handwritten lyrics by Bono and liner notes by the band members, producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois and other creative forces behind the blockbuster original CD.

* * *
Jordin Sparks "Jordin Sparks"

Back in May, 17-year-old Jordin Sparks became the youngest singer to ever be crowned an "American Idol." Now, the vocalist, who is also known by the nicknames JoJo and J-Speezy, is set to release her self-titled debut CD. The set includes a duet with R&B star Chris Brown on "No Air."

* * *
Amy Winehouse "Frank"

There will surely be a lot of interest in the reissue of Winehouse's 2003 debut CD, "Frank." That's because Winehouse has become one of the biggest stars of the year, thanks to the CD "Back to Black," the single "Rehab" and her constant partying that has made her a favorite of tabloid reporters.

* * *
More new releases:
Sebastian Bach, "Angel Down" (MRV)
Melissa Etheridge, "The Awakening Live" (Island)
Genesis, "1983-1998" (Rhino)
Genesis, "Live Over Europe" (Atlantic)
Gorillaz, "D-Sides" (Virgin)
Led Zeppelin, "The Song Remains the Same" (Rhino)
OneRepublic, "Dreaming Out Loud" (Interscope)
Opeth, "The Roundhouse Tapes: Opeth Live" (Peaceville)
The Traveling Wilburys, "The Traveling Wilburys" (Rhino)
Various Artists, "Brit Box" (Rhino)

Soundtracks and scores:
"Enchanted" (Disney)
"Hairspray (2-Disc Collector's Edition Soundtrack)" (New Line)
"Halo 3" (Sumthing Else)
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (The Complete Recordings)" (Reprise)

Bruce Springsteen nails down more shows

With one show left on their 2007 North American tour, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band continue to roll out dates for another run across the continent early next year.

The veteran rockers have been announcing 2008 shows in drips and drabs, with the latest additions comprising March shows in Hamilton, Ontario; Milwaukee; and Vancouver, British Columbia. Tickets for the Hamilton and Milwaukee shows will hit the box office during the coming week; an on-sale date for the Vancouver show was not available at press time. Details are listed below.

In addition to penciling in the aforementioned handful of new shows, strong ticket sales last weekend in Anaheim, CA, prompted the group to add a second consecutive night in that city, as well.

Springsteen and company are due to wrap up their current North American outing tonight (11/19) in Boston. From there, the group will tackle a European tour that launches in Spain next Sunday (11/25) and runs into mid-December. Details for that jaunt are posted at Springsteen's website.

On Oct. 2, Springsteen and the E Street Band hit the road for the first full-scale tour of the US and Europe since 2003. That same day, the group issued "Magic," its first new studio set since 2002's Grammy-winning "The Rising."

On tour, Springsteen is joined by E Street Band keyboardist Roy Bittan, saxman/percussionist Clarence Clemons, keyboardist Danny Federici, guitarist Nils Lofgren, vocalist/guitarist Patti Scialfa, bassist Garry Tallent, guitarist Steven Van Zandt and drummer Max Weinberg.

November 2007
15 - Albany, NY - Times Union Center
18-19 - Boston, MA - TD Banknorth Garden

February 2008
28 - Hartford, CT - Hartford Civic Center

March 2008
3 - Hamilton, Ontario - Copps Coliseum (on sale 11/23)
6 - Rochester, NY - Blue Cross Arena
7 - Buffalo, NY - HSBC Arena
16 - St. Paul, MN - Xcel Energy Center
17 - Milwaukee, WI - Bradley Center (on sale 11/26)
31 - Vancouver, British Columbia - General Motors Place

April 2008
7, 8 - Anaheim, CA - Honda Center
25 - Atlanta, GA - Philips Arena

Red Hot Chili Peppers sue Showtime

LOS ANGELES - The Red Hot Chili Peppers on Monday sued Showtime Networks over the name of the television series "Californication," which is also the name of the band's 1999 album and a single on it.

The lawsuit alleges unfair competition, dilution of the value of the name and unjust enrichment, claiming the title is "inherently distinctive, famous ... and immediately associated in the mind of the consumer" with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

"Californication is the signature CD, video and song of the band's career, and for some TV show to come along and steal our identity is not right," the band's lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, said in a statement.

The television series stars David Duchovny as a novelist suffering from writers' block and a mid-life crisis.

The show features a character named "Dani California," which is also the title of a Red Hot Chili Peppers song released in 2006, the lawsuit noted.

The suit also names the show's creator and executive producer, Tom Kapinos, and two production companies, Twilight Time Films and Aggressive Mediocrity, Inc.

A call Monday to an attorney for Showtime was not immediately returned. Attempts to find a listing for Kapinos were not successful.

The suit seeks a permanent injunction barring Showtime and the other defendants from using the title "Californication" for the show, damages and restitution and disgorgement of all profits derived by the defendants.

In July 2007, Kapinos told reporters at a Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills that he first heard the term in reference to Oregon.

"Apparently in the '70s there were bumper stickers that said 'Don't Californicate Oregon,' because Californians were coming up there, and I just thought it was a great, great title for this show," said Kapinos.

Lions to face Riders in West Final for the third time in four years

SURREY, B.C. - Facing the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the CFL West final has almost become a tradition for the B.C. Lions.

For the third time in four years the Lions will battle the Riders Sunday with a trip to the Grey Cup on the line.

"It's not by chance the two best teams in the West are going to face off," Wally Buono, the coach and general manager of the defending Grey Cup champion Lions, said Monday.

"We have a history with the Riders. They are going to be a tremendous challenge for us."

The Lions will host their fourth consecutive West Final on Sunday (4:30 p.m. ET). Over 43,000 tickets have already been sold for the game at B.C. Place Stadium.

Last year the Lions embarrassed Saskatchewan 45-18 in the West final. B.C. then defeated Montreal 25-14 in the Grey Cup in Winnipeg.

In 2004, the Lions advanced to the Grey Cup with a 27-25 win in overtime after Saskatchewan kicker Paul McCallum missed a field goal in extra time. The Lions lost 27-19 to Toronto in the championship game.

Quarterback Jarious Jackson, who began the season third on the B.C. depth chart, is expected to start against Saskatchewan. Bruising slotback Jason Clermont, who has been nursing a sore shoulder, will also play.

"Saskatchewan is an excellent football team," said Buono. "The clubs are evenly matched. They are both well rounded as far as they are good on offence, they have very good defences and they are good on special teams. They are both well coached. "

B.C.'s 14-3-1 record was the best in the league. It was the first time the Lions won 14 games in a season.

Saskatchewan finished second in the West with a 12-6-0 record. The Riders defeated Calgary 26-24 in the West semi-final Sunday in Saskatchewan's first home playoff game since 1988.

"Their offensive schemes were really good," said Clermont, who was third in the league this season with 86 catches for 1,158 yards and seven touchdowns. "Calgary did have a chance to win that game a few times.

"We'll look at some of the things they did defensively and we're pretty optimistic on what we can do with the game plan."

The Lions won two of the three games they played against Saskatchewan this year, outscoring them 88-67.

There also has been bad blood between the teams all season.

Lions quarterback Dave Dickenson suffered a concussion in a July 13 game after a hit by Rider defensive end Fred Perry. Dickenson didn't play again until the second last game of the season and Buono wanted Perry disciplined. The CFL investigated but ruled the hit was legal.

A melee broke out in a Sept. 22 match resulting in Lions guard Sherko Haji-Rasouli being suspended for one game while tackle Rob Murphy and receiver Cory Rodgers both were fined.

Clermont said emotions run high when the teams meet.

"They've been meaningful games we've played against them," said the Regina native. "They play us tough and it's always been physical.

"There are professionals on both sides with a lot of pride. You couldn't have scripted a better West Final."

The Lions could be without offensive lineman Jason Jimenez Sunday.

The CFL suspended the right tackle for one game Monday for a hit on Calgary Stampeder defensive lineman Anthony Gargiulo in the final game of the regular season.

Jimenez can appeal the suspension.

New Releases, Nov. 13: Alicia Keys, Celine Dion, Duran Duran

Alicia Keys "As I Am"

The R&B star finally returns with a proper studio follow-up to 2003's "The Diary of Alicia Keys." Keys' last album was 2005's "Unplugged," which was recorded as part of MTV's popular acoustic-oriented series.

Given Keys' tremendous track record--"The Diary of Alicia Keys" won four Grammy Awards at the 2004 ceremony, including for Best R&B Album--expectations are understandably quite high for "As I Am." The work should get a boost from the presence of young pop idol John Mayer, who added some vocals on "As I Am."

* * *
Celine Dion "Taking Chances"

The pop music star has sold some 200 million records worldwide, which, by some reports, makes her the biggest-selling female artist of all time. She hopes to further distance herself from the pack (Barbra Streisand, Madonna, Diana Ross, etc.) with "Taking Chances," her first new studio offering since 2003's "One Heart."

The new disc finds the vocalist, indeed, taking some chances in terms of collaborators. The 14-track CD includes work by such unusual suspects as Ben Moody (formerly of Evanescence), Linda Perry and hip-hop star Ne-Yo.

* * *
Duran Duran "Red Carpet Massacre"

The modern rock legends are back in action--minus Andy Taylor--and are ready to give fans "Red Carpet Massacre." The first single from the record is "Falling Down," which was produced and co-written with Justin Timberlake.

"Red Carpet Massacre," the British pop group's 13th studio album, features production work by hit-maker Timbaland. The album reportedly was completed in late 2006, following the departure of Taylor, who left the band due to the old irreconcilable differences reasoning. Taylor has been replaced by guitarist Dominic Brown, who took part in the recording process.

* * *
Led Zeppelin "Mothership"

Fans of these Rock and Roll Hall of Famers will be thrilled to hear that the "Mothership" is landing. This comprehensive set, which includes two CDs and a DVD, features 24 songs recorded during the band's legendary concerts. All eight of the band's studio efforts are represented here, in songs such as "Whole Lotta Love" and "Ramble On." The tracks reportedly were selected, sequenced and remastered by the band's surviving members themselves.

* * *
James Taylor "One Man Band"

This CD/DVD combo was recorded during a pair of July performances at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA. "One Man Band" features versions of some of Taylor's biggest hits, including "Carolina On My Mind" and "Fire and Rain," interspersed with his anecdotes on the inspiration for the tunes. The DVD portion also includes exclusive interviews, home movies and personal photographs.

* * *
The Killers "Sawdust"

The Las Vegas alt-rock champions return with this collection of B-sides, soundtrack work, cover songs and other fan-friendly tracks. Included in the mix is a cover of the Mel Tellis-penned Kenny Rogers hit "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" as well as the B-side "All the Pretty Faces."

* * *
More new releases:
Boyz II Men, "Motown: A Journey Through Hitsville USA" (Decca)
Dane Cook, "Rough Around the Edges: Live from Madison Square Garden" (Comedy Central)
Aretha Franklin, "Jewels in the Crown: Duets With the Queen of Soul" (Arista)
The Goo Goo Dolls, "Greatest Hits Vol. 1: The Singles" (Warner Bros)
David Gray, "Greatest Hits" (ATO)
The Hives, "Black and White Album" (Interscope)
Queensrÿche, "Take Cover" (Rhino)
Eros Ramazzotti, "E2" (Sony)
Seal, "System" (Warner Bros)
George Strait, "22 More Hits" (MCA Nashville)
Streetlight Manifesto, "Somewhere in the Between" (Victory)
Various artists, "Now That's What I Call Music! 26" (Capitol)
Trisha Yearwood, "Heaven, Heartache, and the Power of Love" (Big Machine)

Soundtracks and scores:
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (The Complete Recordings)" (Reprise)

Marvel puts old comics online

Marvel is putting some of its older comics on the internet hoping to capture the interest of young readers in the exploits of the X-Men and Fantastic Four by featuring the original issues.

"You don't have that spinner rack of comic books sitting in the local five-and-dime any more," said Dan Buckley, president of Marvel Publishing.

"We don't have our product intersecting kids in their lifestyle space as much as we used to."

Comics — such as Wonder Woman and Iron Man — will be proffered online Nov. 13, viewed through a web browser. They will not be downloadable.

Marvel is hoping fans will get hooked and be willing to shell out $9.99 US a month, or $4.99 US a month with an annual membership, for the privilege of viewing old issues online. About 2,500 issues will be available at first with 20 more released each week.

Fans will be treated to the first 100 issues of Stan Lee's 1963 Amazing Spider-Man series and other titles such as House of M and Young Avengers.

The move comes after Marvel's two competitors began showcasing their products online.

Dark Horse comics puts monthly anthologies for free viewing on its MySpace site.

DC Comics offers weekly peeks at the first few pages of upcoming issues. The publisher also gives out PDF files to download of the first issue in a comic series whenever the series is being launched as a book or graphic novel.

Comic shop owner Michael Ring of Portland, Ore., applauded Marvel's move to use the internet, calling it a "feeder system."

"They give people that initial taste."

NBC Mulls Late-Night Replacements

Layoffs at NBC's late-night staples could begin this week -- or the network could keep at least "The Tonight Show" on the air with guest hosts later this month.

Those are two of the possibilities the networks is considering for its top-rated late-night lineup, which was in repeats last week as a result of the Writers Guild strike and will be again this week. "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno and "Late Night's" Conan O'Brien, both of whom also write material for their shows, have refused to cross picket lines. The same is true of CBS' "Late Show" and "Late Late Show" and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

Because the shows are idle, NBC has informed the non-writing employees of both shows that layoffs could begin as soon as Friday. The folks at "Last Call" are in the same boat, according to a number of news outlets.

NBC is also, however, considering bringing at least "The Tonight Show" back onto the air, with guest hosts filling in for Leno, Broadcast & Cable reports. A guest-hosted show -- one still without writers -- could get on the air as soon as Monday, Nov. 19.

"All sorts of things are being discussed, including guest hosts," "Tonight Show" executive producer Debbie Vickers says in a statement. "Our preference is that we return to production of 'The Tonight Show' with Jay as host as soon as possible. We want to protect the staff, who have been loyal to this show for decades, in the same way that Johnny Carson reluctantly returned without his writers in 1988."

Carson returned to "Tonight" during 1988 writers strike, thereby providing work and a paycheck to the camera crew, grips and other staff members of the show. David Letterman followed suit, famously filling time during one writerless show by getting a shave.

If NBC does decide to go the guest-host route, the not-insignificant question will be who would cross the picket line to fill Leno's chair. No names have been floated yet.

Bring on the Lions: Riders edge Stamps

REGINA - The Saskatchewan Roughriders earned their first home playoff win in 30 years Sunday with a 26-24 victory over the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL's Western semifinal.

Kicker Luca Congi kicked six field goals and quarterback Kerry Joseph threw a touchdown pass to D.J. Flick on the second play of the game for the Roughriders, who hosted their first playoff game since 1988 but hadn't won one in Regina in since 1976.

Saskatchewan moves onto the Western final next Sunday in Vancouver against division-winner B.C. Lions.

The Stampeders lost in the Western semifinal for the third straight season.

Trey Young scored off an interception in the first half. Calgary quarterback Henry Burris twice threw touchdown passes to Ken-Yon Rambo in the second half. Stamps kicker Sandro DeAngelis kicked one field goal.

In the Eastern Conference semifinal, Troy Westwood's field goal gave Winnipeg a 24-22 win over the Montreal Alouettes. The Blue Bombers advance to Sunday's Eastern final against the Toronto Argonauts.

The Grey Cup is in Toronto on Nov. 25.

Burris's 16-yard pass to Rambo with 53 seconds left pulled Calgary with two points, but the Stamps weren't able to get the ball back for a field-goal attempt.

Congi was named to the CFL's West Division all-star squad last week, but was removed from it three days later in favour of Calgary's Sandro DeAngelis after a tabulation error was discovered.

He made six of eight attempts Sunday and his sixth, a 10-yarder at 9:29 of the fourth quarter, was the difference.

DeAngelis didn't get out onto the field for a field-goal attempt until late in the third quarter. He was good from 18 yards to pull the visitors within five points.

After a 7-for-13 first half, Burris threw his first touchdown pass early in the third quarter with a 39-yarder to Rambo.

The Stamps' pivot was stopped on a third-and-one-yard attempt for a first down later in the quarter, which gave the ball to Saskatchewan on Calgary's 38-yard line.

Calgary head coach Tom Higgins challenged the call, but the Roughriders kept the ball and Congi kicked his fifth field goal of the game from 37 yards.

Saskatchewan quarterback Kerry Joseph, the West's nominee for the league's MVP, found the holes in Calgary's secondary to work the Roughriders into field-goal position, which drew chants of ``M-V-P'' from the 'Rider faithful.

The Saskatchewan defence was superior in this game as they clamped down on Calgary's receivers and held Calgary running back Joffrey Reynolds to a handful of yards.

The game had been long sold out, with 28,800 tickets sold within 30 minutes of a general call to buy on Oct. 29.<

The temperature at kickoff in Regina was nine degrees and the skies were mostly sunny. The hard northwest wind gusting to 60 kilometres per hour across Mosaic Stadium died to barely a breeze by the fourth quarter.

Congi took advantage of the wind behind him in the first quarter for field goals from 48 and 49 yards and was then wide on a 50-yard attempt. He had the wind against him in the second quarter but was good from 16 and 40 yards.

The Stampeders' offence in the first half was limited to a touchdown off Dwaine Carpenter's interception in their end-zone. Carpenter ran the ball 74 yards out and tossed it over to Young, who finished the major with a 39-yard run.

Burris worked the Stamps 50 yards downfield in the first quarter only to have his attempted touchdown pass to Rambo picked off by Eddie Davis in the end zone.

Saskatchewan scored on the first play after the kickoff when Joseph connected with Flick on a 62-yard play for a touchdown.

Joseph completed 23 of 35 passing attempts for 391 yards and one touchdown pass. He also rushed for 109 yards.

Burris was 20-for-36 for 323 yards and two touchdown passes.

Westwood's field goal gives Winnipeg 24-22 win over Als in East semifinal

WINNIPEG - The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are off to the CFL's East final.

Embattled Blue Bombers kicker Troy Westwood kicked the winning 20-yard field goal on the last play of the game Sunday to give his team a 24-22 win over Montreal in the East Division semifinal.

Winnipeg faces the Toronto Argonauts next weekend for the right to go to the Grey Cup.

Sunday's win was Winnipeg's fourth of the season over the Als, who came into the game with their first losing record (8-10) since they rejoined the CFL in 1996. The Bombers were 10-7-1.

Montreal led for most of the game, which was played with swirling, gusting winds in front of a season-low crowd of 22,843 at Canad Inns Stadium.

The turning point came with 1:35 left in the game when Montreal quarterback Marcus Brady kept the ball on a third-and-one gamble and was stopped. A Montreal challenge was unsuccessful and the Alouettes turned the ball over for the fourth time in the game.

Winnipeg took over at the Als' 44-yard line.

Running back Charles Roberts ran three times for 24 yards and quarterback Kevin Glenn ran for three yards to set up Westwood's kick.

Westwood, whose inconsistency this season put him in head coach Doug Berry's doghouse, had earlier missed a go-ahead 39-yard field-goal attempt with about five minutes left in the game.

The 17-year veteran, who likely won't be back next season, said before the game he relished having the opportunity to make the winning kick.

Winnipeg got its TDs on a 19-yard reception by Milt Stegall and 19-yard run by Roberts, who missed the past two games with a deep thigh bruise.

Westwood also booted field goals from 18 and 33 yards and added a 74-yard punt single.

Westwood now has 45 career playoff field goals, moving him into third place on the CFL's all-time playoff list.

Montreal's scoring came off a one-yard run by fullback Kerry Carter and a 65-yard TD reception by Kerry Watkins. Damon Duval connected on field goals from 43 and 20 yards and Winnipeg conceded a safety.

Montreal led 16-10 at halftime after a first half that featured two Montreal turnovers and one by Winnipeg.

After the Bombers scored on their first possession with the TD toss to Stegall, Montreal receiver Ashlan Davis appeared to score on a reverse early in the second quarter.

However, a Bombers challenge reversed the call and it was ruled Winnipeg linebacker Ike Charlton had pulled Davis down before the ball crossed the goal-line.

With third and one yard to go, Brady handed the ball to running back Jarrett Payton, who was stuffed by Bombers linebacker Barrin Simpson.

Payton left the game late in the third quarter after a rib injury that kept him out of last week's game flared up.

The Bombers used the turnover on downs to claw their way close to midfield, but Glenn's throw to O'Neil Wilson bounced off his gloves into Montreal cornerback Davis Sanchez's hands.

The Als took over at Winnipeg's 50-yard line and it became the Eric Deslauriers show.

The rookie Montreal receiver made a leaping grab and stayed in bounds for a 39-yard reception and then hung onto a low 10-yard throw at the one-yard line.

After Brady was stopped on the next play, fullback Kerry Carter plunged in for the tying TD at 6:15 to make it 7-7.

Late in the second, newly acquired Als kick returner Bashir Levingston fumbled a punt return. Winnipeg linebacker Neil McKinlay recovered the ball at Montreal's 35, leading to Westwood's 18-yarder.

On Montreal's next possession, Brady fired the ball to Watkins, who got a good block from offensive tackle Luke Fritz and ran 65 yards for the TD and 14-10 edge at 13:19.

Westwood, who also did the punting in place of Pat Fleming (sore leg), conceded a safety to finish the first-half scoring.

Turnovers also played a role in the second half.

Glenn threw his second interception of the game (15th of the season) midway through the third quarter when Als DB Randee Drew stepped in front of a pass intended for Stegall.

After a drop by Watkins cut the drive short, Duval booted his 43-yarder and made it 19-10 at 7:48.

Roberts scored his TD at 9:27 of the third to finish off a four-play, 75-yard drive aided by Montreal penalties for a face mask and pass interference.

Bombers cornerback Juran Bolden, who missed the past three games with a back injury, stretched out and intercepted Brady six minutes into the fourth quarter.

Westwood ended up kicking the 33-yarder.

After missing his 39-yard attempt, he closed the lead 22-21 with a 74-yard punt single at 12:52.

Murray to duet with Furtado, Twain, Dion

TORONTO - So much for retirement.

Canadian songstress Anne Murray had pretty much convinced herself she wouldn't put out another album or embark on another cross-Canada tour after releasing her intended swan song disc, "I'll be Seeing You," in 2004.

But now the 62-year-old finds herself on a jam-packed media blitz, promoting an album of 17 duets with some of the biggest names in the music industry and revealing a shrewd marketing acumen that has her praising the likes of such incongruous colleagues as Madonna and Rufus Wainwright.

Nevertheless, Murray frankly admits she "had to be dragged kicking and screaming into this project."

"The last two albums, actually, I've been dragged kicking and screaming," Murray says.

"I thought that the last one that I did was my last, but the record company convinced me that this duets album would be the thing to do and they were right. I'm glad I did it."

The new disc, "Friends and Legends," melds Murray's honeyed vocals with those of music's biggest female performers, including Celine Dion, Nelly Furtado, k.d. lang, Shelby Lynne and Shania Twain.

It's helmed by renowned record producer Phil Ramone, who's diverse body of work includes recordings with Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon and Burt Bacharach.

The eclectic pairings tackle Murray's best-known songs and other pop favourites, such as "You Needed Me" (Twain), "When I Fall In Love" (Dion), "Snowbird" (Sarah Brightman), and "Daydream Believer" (Furtado).

It's a May-December formula that's worked well for other artists in the autumn of their careers, and Murray makes no pretence of knowing where she stands with today's youth-obsessed market.

"At my stage in my career, there's no point in putting out an album with new songs on it because people would just ignore it," Murray says simply.

"It's hard to sell albums in this day and age and I think you have to come up with something new and different every time you're out of the box. And how you do it, I don't know, but the last few records that I've done have been specialty records - one being (the 1999 collection of devotionals) 'What A Wonderful World.'... That album did great. I mean, I was in shock."

After four decades in the business, Murray says she's bewildered by a rapidly changing landscape that can either snuff out or vault careers overnight.

The former gym teacher from Springhill, N.S., says she's learned to sometimes surrender to such unexpected marketing choices as hawking CDs on cable TV.

"There was a time when I never would have considered, ever, doing television commercials for records. I would never do that. That was something that you did for K-Mart," says Murray, whose TV pitch for "What A Wonderful World" helped push sales to more than two million copies worldwide.

"Well now, without television and things like that, I wouldn't have a career. Because that is the way to get to people. People who buy my records don't go into music stores - music stores which are fading before our very eyes."

Murray has built a career on a laid-back country style that's often at odds with the fads of the day, so perhaps it's not surprising when she spontaneously expresses admiration for iconoclasts such as Wainwright and Madonna for carving out a patch in the spotlight.

"She doesn't sing like Barbara Streisand...(but) she dances like a son of a gun," Murray says of the Material Girl.

Canada's other favourite songbird gets good marks, too, for playing the fame game well.

"Nelly Furtado has the right idea in reinventing herself," Murray says of the "Promiscuous Girl"'s sexy comeback last year.

"At first, people were very resistant but you know what? Good for her. Whatever it takes. You want to be in the business? You want to do well? So you do whatever it takes to get people's attention. That's what she's doing. People are paying attention, too."

For her part, Murray says she is throwing herself with gusto into a fresh go-round with the charts, displaying an ambitious drive that betrays her casual delivery and reserved public image.

"Right now, I've got my eye on the ball," says Murray, a golf nut recently named "Golf For Women" magazine's top female celebrity player.

"I've got this album of duets, I'm gonna promote the hell out of it, I'm gonna tour, I'm gonna do all the things that I'm supposed to do when I release an album and then I'll see what happens."

"Friends and Legends" comes out Tuesday, with a cross-Canada tour planned for the spring.

'Great chronicler' and giant of American writing, Norman Mailer dies at 84

Pulitzer Prize-winning American author Norman Mailer, lionized for his creative non-fiction style and his combative nature, died early Saturday at the age of 84, his literary executor said.

Mailer, who had undergone lung surgery in October, died of renal failure at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital, said J. Michael Lennon, who is also the author's official biographer.

Mailer was a prolific writer who explored all forms of the written word, from novels and screenplays to essays, poems and many works of non-fiction.

"Obviously, he was a great American voice," said a tearful Joan Didion, who struggled to speak upon learning of Mailer's death.

"He could do anything he wanted to do — the movie business, writing, theatre, politics," author Gay Talese said Saturday. "He never thought the boundaries were restricted. He'd go anywhere and try anything."

Many other writers weighed in on Mailer's oeuvre as a great American novelist.

"He was really the great chronicler of his time, the champion of personal reportage. His output was prodigious, his range of interests very wide," said writer E.L. Doctorow.

"To me, it's like a thousand people just left the room," noted journalist Pete Hamill, who added that Mailer never repeated himself and "always made us imagine other lives, other choices, other varieties of human folly, grandeur and capacity for evil."

Imagined self as 'Prince of Truth'

"I become an actor, a quick-change artist, as if I can trap the Prince of Truth in the act of switching a style," Mailer wrote in his collection of essays and letters, Advertisements for Myself (1959).

A celebrated author who often courted controversy, Mailer captured the Pulitzer twice and received the National Book Award in 1968 for The Armies of the Night.

In 2005, the National Book Foundation awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

Mailer catapulted to fame in 1948 with The Naked and the Dead, a novel based on his experiences in the U.S. army as a rifleman in the South Pacific. The book stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 11 weeks.

Mailer pioneered, along with Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe and Didion, a new style of non-fiction writing called New Journalism or creative non-fiction. The Naked and the Dead remains one of the classics of New Journalism.

"[Mailer] is a great and obsessed stylist, a writer to whom the shape of the sentence is the story," Didion once said of her friend.

Born Jan. 31, 1923 in New Jersey to Fanny Schneider Mailer and Isaac (Barney) Barnett Mailer, young Norman grew up in the scrappy neighbourhoods of Brooklyn.

He graduated from high school in 1939 and entered Harvard University at the age of 16. Four years later, Mailer had a degree in engineering and in 1944, was drafted into the army.

After the critical acclaim of The Naked and the Dead, Mailer's next two novels — Barbary Shore (1951) and The Deer Park (1955) — floundered critically and commercially. He then turned to journalism and helped found The Village Voice, writing a weekly column.

He returned to the novel with An American Dream in 1965 and Why Are We In Vietnam? (1967), which was nominated for a National Book Award.

"A really great novel does not have something to say," he once said. "It has the ability to stimulate the mind and spirit of the people who come in contact with it."

A year later, The Armies of the Night won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, returning Mailer to form.

Provoked with views on U.S. political life

Over the next decade, Mailer wrote constantly, publishing a book on the Apollo 11 moon landing (Of A Fire on The Moon), a critical essay on the women's liberation movement (The Prisoner of Sex) and a detailed description of the Muhammad Ali-George Foreman fight in Zaire (The Fight) in 1976.

Mailer cemented his iconic New Journalism status during the 1960s with a series of Esquire columns, essays and political reports.

"In America few people will trust you unless you are irreverent," he said, and he satisfied the appetite for irreverence with counter-cultural essays on violence, hysteria, sex and crime.

Always pugnacious and trained as a boxer, he was a thorn in the side of several U.S. administrations. His Armies of the Night is an examination of a celebrated Vietnam war protest in which Mailer himself is arrested.

His coverage of both Democratic and Republican conventions exposed the dark underbelly of American politics. His acid pen castigated corporate greed, plastics, the decline of political debate and the rape of nature.

"America is a hurricane," he once wrote, "and the only people who do not hear the sound are those fortunate, if incredibly stupid and smug, White Protestants who live in the centre, in the serene eye of the big wind."

Challenged leading feminists

His disagreements with feminists are legendary. He took on Germaine Greer, Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem in Prisoner of Sex, defending machismo while criticizing the new political correctness of the 1970s.

He called feminist critic Kate Millet "the Battling Annie of some new prudery" and a "literary Molotov" for questioning the value of writers such as Henry Miller, D.H. Lawrence and Mailer himself.

Mailer was always searching for the next thing to do, to broaden and deepen his skills and to reach out to the public.

"The final purpose of art is to intensify, even, if necessary, to exacerbate, the moral consciousness of people," he said.

In 1979, he published The Executioner's Song, a non-fiction novel on the life and death of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, who would become the first person in the U.S. executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.

It won Mailer his second Pulitzer and many accolades and distinctions.

The book was turned into a TV movie starring Tommy Lee Jones, with a script adapted by Mailer himself. He received an Emmy nomination for his screenplay.

Mailer then waded into the world of films, producing and directing an adaptation of his book The Deer Park. Wild 90 (1967) opened to less-than-stellar reviews. A year later, his second film, Beyond the Law, got better reviews but paltry audiences and his third film, Maidstone (1971), based on The Armies of the Night, had mixed reactions.

His 1973 biography of Marilyn Monroe was contentious because its final chapter contends she was murdered by FBI and CIA agents due to her supposed affair with Robert F. Kennedy.

Mailer had better luck on the screen in 1987, when he wrote and directed Tough Guys Don't Dance, adapted from his murder mystery novel of the same name.

His massive tome, the 1,310-page Harlot's Ghost, was highly lauded if typically sprawling. The novel chronicles the people and the plottings of the CIA during crucial historical moments in American history.

Mailer's first new novel in 10 years was published this year. The Castle in the Forest is a fictional re-telling of Adolf Hitler's boyhood through the eyes of Dieter, a devil assigned by Satan to develop the young Adolf.

The Guardian called the book "electrifying and peculiar" while the New York Times hailed Mailer as a writer who "doesn't inhabit these historical figures so much as possess them."

Mailer's personal life was always sticky. A man who literally and figuratively loved to box and spar, he made enemies in the women's movement, in politics and was involved in many feuds, litigations and imbroglios.

Mailer wed six times and had nine children. He is survived by his sixth wife, painter Norris Church, whom he married in 1980.

Canadian Greenwood to captain Enterprise in new Star Trek film

Canadian actor Bruce Greenwood is the latest team member to be joining the crew of the new Star Trek film, directed by J.J. Abrams.

Reports say the 51-year-old Greenwood will play Capt. Christopher Pike, the first commander of USS Enterprise. Actor Jeffrey Hunter originated the role in the unaired 1966 pilot of the series created by Gene Roddenberry.

Abrams (Lost, Mission: Impossible 3) has kept details of the film under wraps. Shooting is set to begin in November.

Greenwood's addition comes just as Variety reported Friday that Winona Ryder has been brought on to play the mother of a young Spock.

The Quebec-born Greenwood was recently in the HBO surfing series John From Cincinnati and has appeared in numerous television shows and films in his 25-year career including the medical drama St. Elsewhere and movies such as I'm Not There, Being Julia, Double Jeopardy and I, Robot.

The newest instalment of the film franchise will follow James T. Kirk, Spock, engineer Scotty, Uhura and Sulu just after they graduate from Starfleet Academy.

Other stars who have signed on include Zachary Quinto of the TV series Heroes as a young Spock, British comic Simon Pegg as Scotty, John Cho as Sulu, Zoe Saldana as Uhura, Anton Yelchin as a young Chekov and Chris Pine as the young Captain Kirk.

Eric Bana plays the villain Nero and Leonard Nimoy, the original Spock, is also on board.

There's still no word about beaming up William Shatner to reprise his role as Kirk. Shatner recently complained that he hadn't been invited to join the crew. Abrams has remained silent on the issue.

'Bee Movie' stings 'Gangster' again

LOS ANGELES - Jerry Seinfeld turned more honey into money as his animated comedy "Bee Movie" buzzed to the top of the box office in its second weekend.

The DreamWorks-Paramount flick, which had debuted at No. 2 behind Universal's "American Gangster" the previous weekend, packed in family crowds to pull in $26 million, raising its total to $72.2 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"American Gangster," starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, was a strong No. 2 with $24.3 million in sales, lifting its total to $80.7 million.

"We don't often see a movie start out in the No. 2 position then move up to No. 1," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "It just shows how strong the word of mouth is on this movie and that families are really enjoying it."

Adult audiences had put "American Gangster" ahead on Friday, but weekend matinee crowds lifted "Bee Movie" to the top spot. "Bee Movie" is positioned well for Thanksgiving next week, when children will be out of school.

"This is terrific playing time for this movie," said Anne Globe, head of marketing for DreamWorks.

Two of Hollywood's biggest cultural icons — Santa Claus and Tom Cruise — had to settle for also-ran debuts.

The Warner Bros. family comedy "Fred Claus," with Vince Vaughn as the black-sheep brother of Santa (Paul Giamatti), opened at No. 3 with $19.2 million, on par with last November's $19.5 million debut of Tim Allen's holiday tale "The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause."

Cruise's "Lions for Lambs," co-starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep in a drama interlocking three stories in the war on terror, premiered at No. 4 with $6.7 million. The movie directed by Redford was the first release by the rejuvenated MGM banner United Artists since Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner took it over last year.

Costing a modest $35 million to produce, "Lions for Lambs" was aimed at an older, thinking-person's audience compared to the crowds that turn out for Cruise's action movies. Just over two-thirds of the audience was 35 or older, according to MGM.

"Older audiences don't necessarily come out the first weekend, so we're looking to get a very solid run all the way through the Thanksgiving holiday," said Clark Woods, MGM head of distribution.

Summit Entertainment's "P2," starring Wes Bentley and Rachel Nichols in a thriller about a woman trapped in a parking garage and terrorized by the attendant on Christmas Eve, opened at No. 8 with $2.2 million.

Joel and Ethan Coen's crime tale "No Country for Old Men" got off to a great start in limited release, taking in $1.2 million in just 28 theaters for an average of $42,929 a cinema.

By comparison, "Fred Claus" averaged $5,336 in 3,603 theaters and "Lions for Lambs" did $3,029 in 2,215 cinemas.

"No Country for Old Men," a Miramax release, is one of the year's most acclaimed films, starring Tommy Lee Jones as a weary Texas sheriff, Javier Bardem as a ruthless killer and Josh Brolin as a man on the run after making off with $2 million from a drug deal gone violently wrong.

Here is the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "Bee Movie," $26 million.
2. "American Gangster," $24.3 million.
3. "Fred Claus," $19.2 million.
4. "Lions for Lambs," $6.7 million.
5. "Dan in Real Life," $5.9 million.
6. "Saw IV," $5 million.
7. "The Game Plan," $2.4 million.
8. "P2," $2.2 million.
9. "30 Days of Night," $2.1 million.
10. "Martian Child," $1.75 million.

The Couch Potato Report - November 10th, 2007

This week The Couch Potato Report peels a film that might make you proud of Canada's health system, and my so-called life.

I have six new releases to tell you about this week,… so let me jump right into it with the main release this week, the Hot Potato if you will, Michael Moore's SICKO

A film that might actually make you feel good about the health care system in this country, even if you are still on a waiting list.

SICKO is a the latest documentary film by the man who gave us FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, and in this one Moore that investigates the American health care system.

Specifically, he rips apart the for-profit health insurance and pharmaceutical industries and compares the non-universal and for-profit American system with the universal and non-profit systems of Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Cuba.

And even if our country doesn't come off as well as any of the rest of those, and even if you are on a waiting list, we are still better off than the Americans portrayed in this film.

The next time you feel like the Canadian medical system is letting you down...watch this film!

SICKO is not a perfect documentary, mainly because Moore never gives the American companies or doctors the right to defend themselves.

Instead, he just focusses on the systems in those other countries, and how great they are.

What the movie is, is sad, inspiring and heartbreaking. No matter what your health, or your position on any waiting lists, you will be surprised by what you see.

And I mean that in both a good and bad way.

SICKO is a film I highly recommend, as it will definitely get you thinking.

Another movie that will make you use your brain is the foreign film THE BOTHERSOME MAN from Norway.

This is one weird flick!!

This movie starts out with a man waiting for a train while a couple kiss pationately at the other end of the platform.

As the train arrives, the man steps in front of it.

Fade to black...title sequence...and a bus arrives in a desert with nothing there except a gas station and some power lines.

We learn the man's name is Andreas, and as he is driven to a nearby city we find out - as he does - that he has arrived with no memory of how he got there.

He is then given a job, an apartment, even a girlfriend...a girlfriend who doesn't seem to mind when he meets a different woman he likes better.

Eventually he makes an attempt to escape the city, but he discovers there's no way out...and your thoughts on where - exactly - he is will depend on a wide array of things.

Your upbringing, your religious beliefs, your own moral code! They will all play a part in how yoy decide where this BOTHERSOME MAN is.

My thoughts? Get THE BOTHERSOME MAN into your DVD player as soon as you can, and enjoy the mind games it plays with you.

Oh, and watch it with a friend, so you can discuss it afterwards.

Our next release this week is one that you might not want to invite a friend over to watch...or even watch it by yourself.

That release is I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY, a film that features Kevin James from the TV show KING OF QUEENS as Larry, a Brooklyn firefighter whose wife died three years ago and left him to raise their two children alone.

In order for his kids to be protected in the event of his death, he needs to get married so he will have a beneficiary in his will.

So he asks his best friend in the fire department, the very heterosexual Chuck, played by Adam Sandler.

Eventually Chuck agrees, and the problems begin when the state decides to investigate their situation.

Jessica Biel plays a lawyer who gives them some advice.

The two men do get married, and then the comedy ensures...or the filmmakers wish it would.

I admit that I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY has some good intentions, but most of the jokes fall flat.

The first part of the film is entertaining, fun and funny.

The second part is just awful and just a tad too preachy.

I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY isn't the worst film you'll ever see, it isn't even Sandler's worst film, but it is only worth you rtime if there is nothing else you feel like seeing.

I have a couple of TV Shows On DVD Box Sets to tell you about now, and I will get right to them with the beloved - by some - nineties TV series MY SO CALLED LIFE.

This show is making it's debut on DVD and many people are very excited about that. Me? Well, let me use a clip from the show itself that says everything I am thinking right now.

MY SO CALLED LIFE stars Clare Danes from ROMEO & JULIET and SHOPGIRL as a 14-year-old girl who is trying to get through life at home, at school and with her first love.

In the show, we share her ups and downs, as we go through her transitions, and if you relate to this show, I am sure it is one of your all-time favourites.

Personally, I watched a few episodes of this show when it ran from August of 1994 to January of 1995, and when it was cancelled after only 19 episodes, I didn't mind.

And when Entertainment Weekly magazine hailed it as "the greatest cancelled television series of all time." I didn't understand why.

For me "Why" is simple, while the writing, acting and stories are all relateable to anyone who ever went to High School, but it just didn't hold my interest.

If this is your favourite show of all-time, or you are a teenager going through High School right now, or you know someone who is, maybe this is a box set for them.

It isn't one for me.

But our next release this week is a show for me: That release is THE COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON of the SCRUBS.

SCRUBS is the Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning comedy about the professional and personal lives of several characters working at a teaching hospital.

It is one of my all-time favourite shows on TV because it features slapstick, fast-paced dialogue, and surreal moments, and this season there was even a musical.

Even though THE COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON of SCRUBS isn't as good as seasons one through five, I still enjoyed it, although I wouldn't recommend you start with SEASON SIX...go back to the beginning.

And after you and your kids enjoy RATATOUILLE - the latest animated film from PIXAR that is now on DVD - I also suggest you go back to the beginning of Pixar itself with THE PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION - VOLUME 1.

This exceptionally entertaining and interesting disc gives us a look at how the studio got it's start.

The DVD is a 54 minute look at a studio that changed how you and I get to see animated films today and their evolution is very interesting.

Plus, THE PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION also features all of the short films that have played in theatres before TOY STORY, FINDING NEMO, THE INCREDIBLES, and the aforementioned RATATOUILLE.

This disc is a keeper!!


The very entertaining PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION - VOLUME 1, the not as good as the previous seasons COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON of the TV show SCRUBS, the beloved - just not by me - TV show MY SO CALLED LIFE, Adam Sandler's mildly funny I NOW PRONOUNCE YOU CHUCK AND LARRY, the superb foreign film THE BOTHERSOME MAN and the surprisingly effective Michael Moore documentary SICKO are all available now on DVD.

Enjoy!!

HBO Books 'Extras' Finale

HBO has a little pre-Christmas present for fans of its show "Extras": The final episode of the series.

As they did with their version of "The Office," Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant are sending "Extras" out with a special episode titled "The Extra Special Series Finale." The 80-minute special, which checks back in with background actor-turned-sitcom star Andy Millman (Gervais), is scheduled to air Sunday, Dec. 16.

He's found success on a widely viewed but critically savaged sitcom, but Andy still finds he wants something more -- respect. His quest to be taken seriously leads him to take "drastic measures that will turn his life upside down."

Gervais Plans 'Extras'-Special Conclusion

Fellow regulars Merchant, Ashley Jensen and Shaun Williamson (Barry off "EastEnders") will be back for the finale, along with a host of guest stars. Among the famous faces appearing in the special are Clive Owen ("Elizabeth: The Golden Age"), David Tennant ("Doctor Who"), George Michael and TV chef Gordon Ramsay.

Gervais hardly lacks for respect in real life. He won the Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a comedy earlier this year, and both "Extras" and "The Office" have won numerous awards in the U.K.

`Bourne' earns 3 People Choice Nods

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - "The Bourne Ultimatum" was among leading nominees for the 34th annual People's Choice Awards, organizers said Thursday.

The spy thriller was nominated for favorite movie, favorite action movie and favorite "threequel." Leading man Matt Damon was nominated for favorite male action star.

He's up against Johnny Depp, who got nods in the male action star and favorite male movie star categories. Jessica Alba scored nominations for favorite leading lady and favorite female action star.

In music, Justin Timberlake earned nominations for favorite male singer and favorite pop song. "Give It to Me," a Timbaland song on which Timberlake is featured, garnered a nod for favorite hip-hop song.

Other multiple nominees included "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Transformers."

Winners will be announced Jan. 8 during an awards show broadcast on CBS.

The nominees are:

1. Favorite Movie: The Bourne Ultimatum; Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End; Transformers

2. Favorite Family Movie: Evan Almighty, Ratatouille, Shrek the Third

3. Favorite Action Movie: 300; The Bourne Ultimatum; Transformers

4. Favorite Movie Comedy: Knocked Up; The Simpsons Movie; Wild Hogs

5. Favorite Movie Drama: Disturbia; Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix; Premonition

6. Favorite Threequel: The Bourne Ultimatum; Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End; Spider-Man 3

7. Favorite Independent Movie: Becoming Jane; A Mighty Heart; Sicko

8. Favorite Female Movie Star: Halle Berry; Sandra Bullock; Reese Witherspoon

9. Favorite Leading Lady: Jessica Alba; Drew Barrymore; Queen Latifah

10. Favorite Female Action Star: Jessica Alba; Jodie Foster; Keira Knightley

11. Favorite Male Movie Star: Johnny Depp; Denzel Washington; Bruce Willis

12. Favorite Leading Man: Jamie Foxx; Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson; Joaquin Phoenix

13. Favorite Male Action Star: Matt Damon; Johnny Depp; Bruce Willis

14. Favorite On Screen Match Up: Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour 3; George Clooney and Brad Pitt in Ocean's Thirteen; Kirsten Dunst and Tobey Maguire in Spider-Man 3

15. Favorite TV Drama: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation;" "House;" "Law and Order: SVU"

16. Favorite TV Comedy: "The King of Queens;" "My Name is Earl;" "Two and a Half Men"

17. Favorite Animated TV Comedy: "Family Guy;" "King of the Hill;" "The Simpsons"

18. Favorite Sci-Fi Show: "Battlestar Galactica;" "Doctor Who;" "Stargate Atlantis"

19. Favorite Competition/Reality Show: "American Idol;" "Dancing with the Stars;" "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"

20. Favorite Game Show: "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?;" "Deal or No Deal;" "Jeopardy"

21. Favorite Female TV Star: Sally Field; Katherine Heigl; Jennifer Love Hewitt

22. Favorite Male TV Star: Patrick Dempsey; Charlie Sheen; Kiefer Sutherland

23. Favorite Scene Stealing Star: Richard Belzer from "Law & Order: SVU;" Neil Patrick Harris from "How I Met Your Mother;" Chandra Wilson from "Grey's Anatomy"

24. Favorite Funny Female Star: Ellen DeGeneres; Whoopi Goldberg; Wanda Sykes

25. Favorite Funny Male Star: Will Ferrell; Adam Sandler; Robin Williams

26. Favorite Talk Show Host: Ellen DeGeneres; Jay Leno; Oprah Winfrey

27. Favorite Female Singer: Beyonce; Fergie; Gwen Stefani

28. Favorite Male Singer: John Mayer; Tim McGraw; Justin Timberlake

29. Favorite Group: Daughtry; Maroon 5; Rascal Flatts

30. Favorite Rock Song: "Hey There Delilah" by Plain White T's; "Home" by Daughtry; "Makes Me Wonder" by Maroon 5

31. Favorite R&B Song: "Beautiful Liar" by Beyonce with Shakira; "Because of You" by Ne-Yo; "Shut up and Drive" by Rihanna

32. Favorite Country Song: "I Need You" by Tim McGraw with Faith Hill;

"Never Wanted Nothing More" by Kenny Chesney; "Stand" by Rascal Flatts

33. Favorite Hip-Hop Song: "Give It to Me" by Timbaland feat. Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado; "Party Like a Rock Star" by Shop Boyz; "Stronger" by Kanye West

34. Favorite Pop Song: "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie; "Irreplaceable" by Beyonce; "What Goes Around...Comes Around" by Justin Timberlake

35. Favorite Song from a Soundtrack: "Read My Mind" by The Killers from "Friday Night Lights;" "What I've Done" by Linkin Park from Transformers; "You Can't Stop the Beat" by the Cast of Hairspray from Hairspray

36. Favorite Reunion Tour: Genesis; The Police; Van Halen

37. Favorite New TV Comedy: Aliens in America; Back to You; The Big Bang Theory; Carpoolers; Cavemen; Chuck; Reaper; Samantha Who?

38. Favorite New TV Drama: Big Shots; Bionic Woman; Cane; Dirty Sexy Money; Gossip Girl; Journeyman; K-Ville; Life; Life Is Wild; Moonlight; Private Practice; Pushing Daisies; Women's Murder Club

Bees, rats among animated Oscar field

LOS ANGELES - Rats, bees, ogres and penguins are among the stars of the 12 movies competing for the top animation prize at the 80th Academy Awards.

Contenders for the feature-length animation Oscar announced Thursday by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences include the rodent story "Ratatouille," the bug tale "Bee Movie," the ogre sequel "Shrek the Third" and the penguin comedy "Surf's Up."

Also in the running are "The Simpsons Movie," "Beowulf," "Alvin and the Chipmunks, "Meet the Robinsons," "Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters," "TMNT," "Tekkonkinkreet" and "Persepolis."

A committee of academy members will pick three nominees, which will be announced on Jan. 22. The entire academy membership will be eligible to vote on the winner for the Feb. 24 Oscars.

City TV sportcaster leaving!

Kathryn Humphreys is leaving City TV.

The well-known sportscaster failed to come to terms on a new contract with City TV and she will be parting ways with the station after 10 years, Sun Media has learned.

When reached, Humphreys confirmed she is leaving City TV, but she didn't want to get into the specific details of her departure or where she now is headed in the TV world.

"I'm not running off to join a nunnery -- they wouldn't have me," said Humphreys, displaying the typical irreverent humour that has endeared her to TV viewers. "But rest assured, I will be back on TV."

Stephen Hurlbut, City TV's national vice-president of news, also confirmed that Humphreys is leaving.

"She is such a unique and gifted personality, she is going to be difficult to replace," Hurlbut said. "But we do have some proficiency in finding characters and personalities. So the search is on.

"But if you're wondering if we have someone in the wings and this was all part of a grand plan, absolutely not. We wanted a happy ending. But it'll really, really work out for Kathryn. She's a great girl."

Hurlbut admitted it's a sad day for City TV, which is losing one of its most recognizable faces. The 37-year-old Humphreys, who is married to Tragically Hip drummer Johnny Fay, had a knack for attracting viewers who weren't necessarily sports junkies but who enjoyed Humphreys' fun approach.

"We absolutely think Kathryn is a unique and special talent," Hurlbut said. "She had been a part of our newsroom for 10 years. We shouldn't forget the fact that we were the first people to put her on television and develop that talent. But in the course of people's careers and ongoing professional development, perhaps City TV wasn't a big enough stage for Kathryn and where she wanted to be."

The five City TV stations across Canada were to have been part of CTV's $1.7-billion purchase of the CHUM empire. However earlier this year, the CRTC ruled that the City TV stations could not remain with CTV, and subsequently CTV sold them to Rogers for $375 million.

"In our minds, we would have been very happy to have Kathryn with us for another 10 years," Hurlbut added. "But we've had a very clear understanding of our positions and she thanked me very much for everything, and she has a very, very bright future. She leaves with nothing but our best wishes."

Premier-designate Wall confirms date of next election

In his first formal news conference as premier-designate, Brad Wall has confirmed the Saskatchewan Party will proceed with fixed election dates.

The date of the next general provincial election will be November 7, 2011, Wall said at the legislative building in Regina on Thursday.

The Saskatchewan Party won Wednesday's election by taking 38 of 58 constituencies, defeating the NDP, which had been in power since 1991. Before the election was called, the NDP had 30 seats and the Saskatchewan Party had 28.

Results on Wednesday night indicated that Wall's party had won 37 seats, Lorne Calvert's NDP had taken 21 and the Liberals had got none.

However, Elections Saskatchewan said Thursday that there was a mistake in the tally in Meadow Lake, Originally, it was believed that New Democrat Maynard Sonntag won with a narrow margin over the Saskatchewan Party's Jeremy Harrison. However, Elections Saskatchewan said it turns out that Harrison won by 17 votes, dropping the NDP's seat count to 20.

There are still more than 100 absentee ballots to be counted and that could again change the outcome.

A short session of the legislature is expected to be held in December.

Wall said he would spend the next few weeks preparing for the transition to power, selecting a cabinet and spending time with his family.

Among those sending congratulations to Wall was Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Harper issued a statement saying he looked forward to working with Wall. He said Wall's party has been given a mandate to address the issues of importance to Saskatchewan people.

New Radiohead Album Due Dec. 31 On CD

Radiohead has set a Dec. 31 international release date for the physical version of its new album, "In Rainbows."

The album will be released on CD and vinyl, followed by the single "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" on Jan. 14. Formats for the single will be announced shortly.

Both album and single will be released outside the United States on XL Recordings. A spokesperson for the band said that details for the U.S. physical release are not yet finalized, although Side One Recordings/ATO is working the track "Bodysnatchers" to radio there.

A statement issued today (Nov. 7) on the band's behalf poured cold water on reports claiming the "set your own price" approach for the Oct. 10 digital release of "In Rainbows" had resulted in fans only paying an average of £2.93 ($6) for the album.

Those figures were touted in a statement issued by digital measurement group ComScore.com. The Radiohead statement described the ComScore data as "wholly inaccurate" information which "in no way reflect definitive market intelligence or, indeed, the true success of the project."

It continued, "the group's representatives would like to remind people that, as the album could only be downloaded from the band's Web site, it is impossible for outside organizations to have accurate figures on sales."

Sugarland, Swift among big CMA winners

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Sugarland won vocal duo of the year, breaking Brooks & Dunn's long-standing lock on the award, and 17-year-old Taylor Swift won the horizon award for newcomer at the Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday. Rascal Flatts won top vocal group, and George Strait took top album for "It Just Comes Natural."

"If we're standing up here, we have this lofty view because we're standing on the shoulders of giants who've come before us," said Sugarland's Jennifer Nettles.

Brooks & Dunn had won the duo category 14 of the last 15 years, including the last six in a row.

Swift gave a tearful speech in which she joked, "This is definitely the highlight of my senior year."

Rascal Flatts' Gary LeVox thanked country radio for "being our mouthpiece."

"What we do means nothing if no one gets to hear it," he said.

Strait had said that of his five nominations, which tied him with Brad Paisley for the most of the night, he wanted to win the album trophy the most.

"When we made this album it was incredible," Strait said afterward. "We had great material and just kept knocking them out. We ended up with 15 songs and never intended to put 15 songs on the record, but when I started going through the songs there was none I could take off."

Strait's hit "Give It Away" won song of the year.

"You all been letting me do this for 50 years, and I love you," said Bill Anderson, who co-wrote "Give It Away" with Buddy Cannon and Jamey Johnson.

Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" won single of the year.

Other early winners included Tracy Lawrence, featuring Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney, for musical event for "Find Out Who Your Friends Are"; dobro great Jerry Douglas of Union Station as musician of the year; and Paisley's "Online" for music video.

"This was something that we all wanted to sing," Lawrence said of the hit. "It was something that was in our wheelhouse. I think we all related to it."

Paisley performed "Online" with the Brentwood, Tenn., High School marching band. Other performers were Underwood, Rascal Flatts, Miranda Lambert, Strait, Swift, Alison Krauss & Union Station, Big & Rich, Rodney Atkins, Brooks & Dunn, Sugarland, Martina McBride, Keith Urban and the Eagles.

Vince Gill introduced the Eagles, who played their single "How Long" and received a standing ovation.

"For 35 years or more, these next guys have been writing songs like we wished we could write," Gill said.

Rascal Flatts opened the show with the title track to its latest album, "Still Feels Good," while a montage of country stars flashed on large screens behind them, including a photo of Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner. Wagoner died last week of lung cancer.

Dwight Yoakam also paid tribute to Wagoner, calling him a pioneer and a groundbreaker to the end.

The show was broadcast live on ABC and was hosted by James Denton of "Desperate Houswives," Kate Walsh of "Private Practice" and Kimberly Williams-Paisley — Brad Paisley's wife — of "According to Jim."

"I'm like a kid in a candy store here. Lots of good country snacks. I'm all excited and giddy," Walsh cracked.

'24' takes a bullet

The clock has stopped on 24.

USA TODAY reports that Fox confirmed the real-time thriller's seventh season, which was to have run from January through May, will be delayed indefinitely.

It is the first major casualty of the writers' strike, in its third day Wednesday.

The series expects to complete just eight of its 24 episodes, and Fox opted to delay it rather than leave viewers hanging. "We made a pact with fans; this is a show best enjoyed in non-stop fashion," says Fox program planning chief Preston Beckman, adding the network could change its plans with a quick strike settlement.

In 24's place, new drama Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, spun off from the film franchise, will air Mondays at 9 ET/PT beginning Jan. 14. American Idol returns Jan. 15.

High five! Borat is back to amuse -- and offend

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Borat, the fictional Kazakh reporter who caused a diplomatic stir with his movie adventures in the United States, is back -- with a guide book to "the glorious nation of Kazakhstan" and "minor nation of U.S. and A."

Borat Sagdiyev, a clueless and offensive journalist created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, made television and movie audiences laugh and cringe but angered the government of Kazakhstan for portraying the former Soviet country as misogynistic, anti-Semitic and backward.

The character continued in the same vein in a question and answer interview with Reuters via e-mail as the book was released in the United States and Canada this week:

Q: Which country to do you prefer -- Kazakhstan or the USA?

A: "I very much preferring Kazakhstan - it nicest place in the world! Please, you must look on my guidings book and then come visit. Bring your whole family and stay at Astana Funworld Resort - it have beautiful beaches, almost totally free of landmines and the sea is guarantee to have no jellyfish, shark, or any other marine life."

Q: Which people are smarter?

A: "Kazakh peoples is definite has more powerful brains. Government scientist, Dr. Yamak have prove that our glorious leader, Premier Nazarbamshev have IQ of 412 and a brain that extend into most of his chest - it no surprise that he have never fail in complete any jigsaw puzzle. Since 93 percent of Kazakh people is direct relate to him within 3 generations, rest of population also shares this great intellects."

Q: What advice do you have for people traveling around the United States?

A: "My book contains many useful informations for Kazakh peoples traveling to US and A - for example, best places to photograph ladies without their knowledge, location of Grand Canyons if you need place to dispose of a wife and location of Kazakh Embassy and where to go if you want to shoot a Redindians."

Q: When can people expect to see you in Kazakhstan again?

A: "I already in Kazakhstan, living very happilys with my new wife. This morning, I was awoke by my clock-radio (electronic LED), after which I remove my wife from her cage and she make me delicious breakfast of western cereal 'Frosties', which I have with delicious fresh milk from her chests. I then attach her to her plough and send her into the fields before returning to my bed until she come back at luchtimes to feed me again. Life is very nice for us."

Q: Who do you favor for President in the United States?

A: "I cannot believe that it possible a woman can become Premier of US and A - in Kazakhstan, we say that to give a woman power, is like to give a monkey a gun - very dangerous. We do not give monkeys guns any more in Kazakhstan ever since the Astana Zoo massacre of 2003 when Torkin the orang-utan shoot 17 schoolchildrens. I personal would like the basketball player, Barak Obamas to be Premier."

Avril Lavigne set to embark on 2008 tour

Punk-pop princess Avril Lavigne finally is hitting the road next spring to support for her April release, "Best Damn Thing."

The North American outing, which will feature dancers and a live band along with special guests Boys Like Girls, is set to shove off March 5 in Victoria, British Columbia. The initial schedule for her 2008 Best Damn Tour includes stops all over Canada and the US into May, and additional dates will be announced shortly, according to a press release. The current itinerary is listed below.

Tickets go on sale to the general public beginning Nov. 17, and fans can gain access to pre-sale tickets by joining Lavigne's fan club at her website.

"I can't wait to get back out on the road!" Lavigne said in a statement. "I have the most fun when I am performing for the fans. I think that energy comes through in my live show."

The Canadian-born singer/songwriter gave an acoustic concert yesterday (11/6) at West Hollywood, CA's Whisky A Go-Go during a press conference to announce the tour.

Her remaining engagements for 2007 include the United Against AIDS Concert in Montreal this month as well as performances on the Nov. 18 American Music Awards and the Nov. 20 episode of ABC-TV's "Dancing with the Stars." A handful of US concerts are also on the books next month, including three radio-sponsored holiday festivals.

Lavigne is supporting her latest platinum-selling set, "Best Damn Thing," which topped the US album chart when it surfaced in April. The lead single, "Girlfriend," also shot to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album and song recently scored Lavigne two wins each at the World Music Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards.

"Best Damn Thing" follows 2004's triple-platinum-selling "Under My Skin," which spawned the hits ""Don't Tell Me" and "My Happy Ending."

Lavigne burst onto the music scene five years ago, at age 17, with hit singles "Sk8r Boi" and "Complicated." Her debut album, "Let Go," snagged eight Grammy nominations and four Juno Awards. She has since sold close to 30 million albums worldwide, according to a press release.

Last year, Lavigne married Sum 41's Deryck Whibley and branched out into acting, appearing in Richard Linklater's "Fast Food Nation" and lending her voice to the Dreamworks animated film "Over the Hedge."

December 2007
7 - Minneapolis, MN - Target Center (KDWB Jingle Ball)
9 - Houston, TX - Toyota Center (KRBE Jingle Jam)
10 - Duluth, GA - The Arena at Gwinnett Center
16 - Camden, NJ - Tweeter Center at the Waterfront (Q102 Jingle Ball)

March 2008
5 - Victoria, British Columbia - Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre
7 - Vancouver, British Columbia - General Motors Place
8 - Kamloops, British Columbia - Interior Savings Centre
9 - Kelowna, British Columbia - Prospera Place
11 - Prince George, British Columbia - CN Centre
12 - Edmonton, Alberta - Rexall Place
13 - Calgary, Alberta - Pengrowth Saddledome
15 - Regina, Saskatchewan - Brandt Centre
16 - Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - Credit Union Centre
18 - Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre
21 - Chicago, IL - Allstate Arena
22 - Detroit, MI - Palace of Auburn Hills
25 - Pittsburgh, PA - A.J. Palumbo Center
26 - Cleveland, OH - Wolstein Center at Cleveland State University
29 - Buffalo, NY - HSBC Arena

April 2008
3 - Kanata, Ontario - Scotia Bank Place
7 - Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre
9 - London, Ontario - John Labatt Centre
12 - Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena
13 - Manchester, NH - Verizon Arena
15 - Fairfax, VA - Patriot Center
22 - Biloxi, MS - Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
24 - Hidalgo, TX - Dodge Arena
26 - Dallas, TX - Smirnoff Music Centre
27 - San Antonio, TX - Verizon Wireless Amphitheater
29 - Las Vegas, NV - The Pearl
30 - San Diego, CA - Cox Arena at Aztec Bowl

May 2008
2 - Phoenix, AZ - Cricket Wireless Pavilion
3 - Anaheim, CA - Honda Center
4 - Los Angeles, CA - Gibson Amphitheatre
6 - Santa Barbara, CA - Santa Barbara Bowl
9 - Spokane, WA - Spokane Arena

Reports: Strike May Rush 'Big Brother'

Are Julie Chen and her band of summer shut-ins ready for primetime in the regular TV season?

According to Variety and Entertainment Weekly, CBS has already begun casting on the sly for a new season of "Big Brother," which could be rushed to the air as soon as February.

With the Writers Guild strike threatening to impact scripted programs for the spring, "Big Brother" would be a major asset for CBS. The Chen-hosted voyeuristic favorite has traditionally occupied three primetime hours per week during CBS' summer months, bringing in a regular stream of young viewers. The show is filmed in a camera-studded box on the CBS lot, so it would require relatively little production prep (though a spring shoot could impact the show's bikini-filled hot tub scenes).

The Variety story mentions the possibility (buzzed in different online circles for years) that the new "Big Brother" season might be a celebrity edition, capitalizing on the number of TV stars left potentially unemployed by a strike.

The show's eighth installment wrapped in mid-September with Dick Donato topping daughter Daniele Donato for the crown.

CBS' already has episodes of "Jericho" in the can, plus additional installments of the game show "The Power of 10." It's unclear how many episodes of other midseason offerings, like the drama "Swingtown," are finished and available to be plugged into the network's schedule depending on how long a strike were to go.

Paul McCartney linked to NYC woman

NEW YORK - Paul McCartney, who is in the midst of a bitter divorce from his second wife, has been photographed kissing another woman in the Hamptons.

The encounter between McCartney, 65, and Nancy Shevell, 47, a member of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board, was last weekend, according to The Sun of London, which published the pictures.

Shevell, estranged wife of prominent Nassau County lawyer Bruce A. Blakeman, has a home in the Long Island resort, as does the former Beatle.

She was appointed to the MTA board by then-Gov. George E. Pataki in 2001.

Shevell is also a vice president of New England Motor Freight Inc., a New Jersey firm run by her father, Mike Shevell. In 1988, federal officials charged in court papers that Shevell's company was linked to Genovese crime family soldier Anthony "Tony Pro" Provenzano.

Provenzano, a former Teamsters leader, has been identified as a prime suspect in the 1975 disappearance of ex-Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa. The case against Shevell was settled with no admission of wrongdoing by Mike Shevell, according to a report in the Village Voice.

The Sun said McCartney and Shevell were spotted at a sushi restaurant in Amagansett and at an outdoor cafe.

In one photo published by the British tabloid, the couple are seen sitting in the front seat of a car, with McCartney embracing Shevell. In another, they are walking along a breezy shoreline, wearing jackets, their hands in their pockets and their heads lowered.

McCartney spokesman Paul Freundlich said the rock 'n' roll Hall of Famer would say nothing about the reports. "We don't comment, as a policy, on private or business affairs," Freundlich said.

A phone number listed for Shevell on Long Island was disconnected, and Blakeman couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

McCartney is divorcing Heather Mills McCartney.

His first wife, Linda, died of breast cancer in 1998.

Most fans paid $0 for Radiohead album

LOS ANGELES - Radiohead let its fans decide how much to pay for a digital copy of the band's latest release, "In Rainbows," and more than half of those who downloaded the album chose to pay nothing, according to a study by a consumer research firm.

Some 62 percent of the people who downloaded "In Rainbows" in a four-week period last month opted not to pay the British alt-rockers a cent. But the remaining 38 percent voluntarily paid an average of $6, according to the study by comScore Inc.

Radiohead broke with its past practice of releasing its music in CD format and through a major record label when it released its seventh studio album online itself. The biggest wrinkle was the band's decision to let fans pay as much or as little as they wanted to download a copy.

The results of the study were drawn from data gathered from a few hundred people who are part of comScore's database of 2 million computer users worldwide. The firm, which has permission to monitor the computer users' online behavior, did not provide a margin of error for the study's results.

Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 29, about 1.2 million people visited the Web site the band set up for fans to download the album, comScore said Monday. The research firm did not say how many people in its study actually bought the album.

Among U.S. residents, about 40 percent who downloaded the album paid to do so. Their average payment was $8.05, the firm said.

Some 36 percent of the fans outside the U.S. who downloaded the album opted to pay; on average, those fans paid $4.64, according to the study.

Radiohead's U.S.-based publicist said Tuesday the band had no comment on the study.

The online release sent shock waves through the recording industry, with some hailing it as a shrewd move at a time of declining CD sales industrywide and others writing it off as a publicity stunt that amounted to the band giving away its music.

The band, which also offered fans the option of buying a lavish box set for about $82, plans to release the album in CD format some time next year.

Canadian discontent in TV land

Canadians want more Canada on Canadian television.

That's the message 200 angry members of ACTRA, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists, from Ottawa and Toronto delivered loud and clear during a demonstration outside a Canadian Association of Broadcasters' (CAB) convention at the Westin Hotel.

Canadian broadcasters, including CBC, CTV and Global, spent $479 million on U.S. shows in 2006, and just $40 million on Canadian-made English-language dramas. CTV and Global didn't add a single Canadian-made series to their schedules last year.

ACTRA, which primarily represents actors and directors, wants the CRTC to do for television producers what it did for the radio and recording industry when it set Canadian content requirements at 25% in the 1970s, rising to 30% in the 1980s and 35% in the 1990s and helped cultivate an international market for Canadian singer-songwriters.

In 1999, the CRTC relaxed those requirements, hoping to give Canadian producers more opportunities to create Canadian television. Instead, they flooded the market with cheap-to-produce news and reality-based serials.

DESPERATE SITUATION

"We're here to tell some of Canada's richest television corporations in the CAB that they have a shameful record of not giving back to the community," said ACTRA president Karl Pruner. "We're here to tell the CAB that the Canadian airwaves belong to the Canadian people and they're not a licence to print money."

Pruner noted that it's "cheaper for a Canadian network to buy Desperate Housewives from ABC than it is to buy the licence for the Canadian-made Regenesis.

"Americans can dump their shows here more cheaply than it costs us to make and license our own. And now that the Canadian dollar is hitting $1.07 US, we're seeing more work head south. Canadian television is in crisis and we have to do something about it now."

Robb Wells, who plays the dope-smoking schemer Ricky on Trailer Park Boys, flew in from Halifax to lend his voice to the day of action.

"In 1999, there were 12 one-hour Canadian dramas airing every week," said Wells. "Today, that's down to eight half-hour shows. Of the 87 hours they have to fill on their schedule, CTV and Global added zero Canadian shows. None. Big surprise it's getting harder to make a living as an actor in Canadian television. I'm worried. Canadians aren't aware of how much of our culture is going south of the border."

"Canadian broadcasters is an oxymoron," laughed Corner Gas star Eric Peterson.

"How can you be a Canadian broadcaster when you don't broadcast Canadian-made prime-time television, and you spend pennies on the dollar for Canadian programs, while lavishing millions on American shows?

"The CRTC should live up to its obligations and do something to encourage Canadian television production."

YouTube Canada launches

Popular video-sharing website YouTube launched a Canadian version at an event in Toronto on Tuesday. Company officials said the new site will give Canadian users the chance to increase their exposure.

"We're very excited to bring a local version of YouTube to Canada, and are committed to continuing to improve the YouTube experience for our Canadian users," YouTube CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley said in a release. "Our goal is to satisfy the unique needs of the local users and to further strengthen Canada's vibrant YouTube community."

In a blog entry, titled "Hello, Canada!," the YouTube team wrote that some of the site's top users are Canadian, and "in developing a territory-specific YouTube site, we wanted to bring YouTube to you, in your language, while making local talent more visible and getting closer to our users around the world."

Luis Garcia, international product manager for YouTube, said the content on both YouTube.com and YouTube.ca will be the same, but the new site will promote Canadian submissions.

"The only thing that's different is that this is just a Canadian lens into that content, so if a user wants to get the Canada point of view into that global body of content, then they're able to do that," he said.

For launch day, the company asked Canadian user TheWineKone to make a video promoting Canada. The welcome video, boasting a mere 39 views at announcement time and labelled with a "YouTube is now in Canada!" banner, documents TheWineKone's failed search for Canadian flags waving in the wind. Instead, he finds them hanging limply, and after a minute-and-a-half declares, "YouTube Canada's the place to be!"

Other featured videos include "Canada vs. America: who has cuter kittens?," a music video from Vancouver indie-rock band Said the Whale and a submission called "Canada … What does it mean to you?" where a user asked 18 people around the world what they thought about Canada.

In addition to allowing Canadian users the chance to increase their exposure, the site will enable them to better connect with one another, Garcia said.

"Connectivity is another great benefit," said Garcia. "Users who have garnered a worldwide audience on YouTube sometimes have gotten lost in terms of being able to find like-minded users or like-minded content providers who are geographically close," he said.

YouTube has already signed agreements with Canadian content partners including the CBC, the CFL, Dose.ca, NewsCanada and Sony BMG Canada.

The Canadian site is one of 15 country-specific YouTube sites.

Music file sharers also buy more CDs, report says

Contrary to what the music industry has been suggesting, people who download music through file sharing are also more likely to buy CDs, according to a government study.

The report found that for every track downloaded using peer-to-peer (P2P) software, file sharers purchased 0.44 more CDs a year than those who did not use the software.

The Canadian Recording Industry Association says CD sales have massively tumbled since file sharing took off in 1999, but a new report questions the link.
"There is a strong positive relationship between P2P file-sharing and CD purchasing," the report said. "That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file-sharing increases CD purchasing."

The report, prepared by University of London researchers Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz for Industry Canada, stands in stark contrast to positions from recording industry associations, which blame downloading of music — a legal grey area in Canada — for declining CD sales.

The Canadian Recording Industry Association said that in 2007 to the end of July, wholesale sales of CDs, music DVDs and other "physical" music formats fell 20 per cent to $183 million, from $230 million a year earlier. That decline followed on a 48 per cent drop in retail sales of physical formats since the advent of widespread file-swapping in 1999. The association blamed piracy and counterfeiting for the lost sales.

The Industry Canada report, which used data from a Decima Research survey conducted between April and June 2006, also found that when the entire general Canadian population was examined, there was no evidence to suggest that downloads were harming CD sales.

"The analysis of the entire Canadian population does not uncover either a positive or negative relationship between the number of files downloaded from P2P networks and CDs purchased," the report said.

People who bought music electronically, such as through Apple Inc.'s iTunes store, were also more likely to buy music on CDs, the report said.

Also, people who bought a high number of DVDs, video games, movie and concert tickets also purchased a higher number of CDs, indicating that other media were not detracting from CD sales, as has also been suggested by music industry associations.

"Music and other entertainment goods are not substitutes; instead the relationship is linked to a lifestyle choice of certain groups of society," the report said.

White Stripes Shoot Video, Record New Songs

Despite having scrapped their fall tour, the White Stripes have recently been back in the studio. According to the group's Web site, the Stripes have "recorded three never-before-heard original songs (with a special collaboration) and one unique new version of a song" from this year's "Icky Thump."

In addition, the group has filmed "an exciting new video" for an as-yet-unnamed song. No other details about song titles or release dates have been confirmed.

The Stripes abruptly pulled off the road in mid-September, after it was revealed that drummer Meg White "is suffering from acute anxiety and is unable to travel at this time."

Meanwhile, frontman Jack White cameos as Elvis Presley in the upcoming film "Walk Hard," which hits U.S. theaters in December.

Garth Dethrones Elvis

Garth Brooks, who edged out Elvis Presley in 1999 for the title of best-selling solo artist of all time, only to lose it five years later, reclaimed the crown from the King Monday, according to the tab keepers at the Recording Industry Association of America.

The announcement was made, as such announcements are wont to be made, on the eve of the release of Brooks' latest collection, The Ultimate Hits, due out Tuesday. It also came hours before Brooks was to take the stage for the first performance of his sold-out, nine-night stand in Kansas City, Missouri.

Even before the new, three-disc set hits stores, Brooks is in the RIAA's books as having sold more than 123 million albums, more than any other man, woman or band, save for the Beatles.

Presley stood at 118.5 million, per the RIAA Website. The next top-selling solo act was Billy Joel, at 79.5 million.

Brooks, the country singer with the arena-rock sensibility, and Presley, the rock 'n' roller with the down-home roots, have been fighting for supremacy for years.
In 1999, the RIAA declared Brooks the 20th century's most successful male recording artist, and indeed, its biggest selling solo artist. At the time, Brooks clocked in at 89 million albums sold. Presley, who was lauded for releasing the most gold- and platinum-selling albums, came in behind Brooks, and ahead of Barbra Streisand (the top-selling female artist), with 77 million. (All figures reflect only United States sales.)

But then Brooks, who made it big with the help of "Friends in Low Places," retired. And in 2004, the dead but still-working-it Presley was named the RIAA's top solo act, with 117.5 million albums sold.

That announcement was made, as such announcements are wont to be made, on the occasion of what would have been Presley's 69th birthday. It followed a new count of Presley's old albums.

Meanwhile, Brooks took time away from Leisure World in 2005 to seal a deal with Wal-Mart to exclusively peddle all of his recorded wares, including his then-new collection, Garth Brooks: The Limited Series. With the about-to-be released Ultimate Hits, Brooks has released five albums since vowing to enjoy his golden years.

And on Monday, his hard retirement work paid off with the solo sales title.
"I am proud for country music and take honor in playing a part bringing this milestone to rest under the flag of country music," Brooks, 45, said in a statement.

For the love of rock, it sounds as if it's time for dead Elvis to get back in the studio.

New CD Releases, November 6: Garth Brooks, Jay-Z, Jimmy Buffett

Garth Brooks "The Ultimate Hits"

The country crooner is the fastest-selling solo artist in music history, having moved more than 100 million albums in 10 years, according to his website. He should greatly add to that tally with this greatest-hits package, which includes all the fan favorites as well as three new songs. The album's lead single, "More Than a Memory," debuted at the top of Billboard's Country Singles chart back in September.

Fans are hoping that this trio of new songs represents the tip of the iceberg in the way of new material. His last new studio album was 2001's "Scarecrow," which marked his seventh No. 1 debut on The Billboard 200.

There is speculation that the cowboy, who retired from touring in 2001 to spend more time with his family, might finally saddle up the tour bus and do some real road work in the near future. The demand for a Brooks tour is certainly there: his nine-show run scheduled for later this month at the new 18,500-seat Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO , sold some 160,000 ticket in just under two hours, tying Brooks' own record for selling the most tickets in any city in North America, according to a press release.

The final date of the Kansas City engagement (Nov. 14) will be shown at more than 300 movie theaters. For more information on the screening, visit the artist's website.

* * *
Jay-Z "American Gangster"

One assumes that "retirement" didn't really suit the rapper/entrepreneur born Shawn Carter. He ended his short-lived, much-hyped early retirement last year with "Kingdom Come," which became his ninth No. 1 on The Billboard 200, and now quickly returns with another offering.

"American Gangster" is inspired by the film of the same name, which stars Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. That film was released to theaters Nov. 2.

Jay-Z will support "American Gangster" with a short club tour, which launches tomorrow (11/6) at the House of Blues in Los Angeles. In the following days, he'll perform at clubs in Chicago, Baltimore, New York City and Philadelphia. Also, Jay-Z recently told MTV News that he is planning a larger-scale outing next year.

* * *
Jimmy Buffett "Live in Anguilla"

Parrotheads will flock to buy this new concert set. The draw will be all those "songs you know by heart," including "Cheeseburger in Paradise," "Son of a Son of a Sailor," "Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitudes" and, of course, "Margaritaville."

"Live in Anguilla," which includes two CDs and a DVD, was recorded during the multi-media star's shows in the Caribbean on March 23 and 24, 2007. The set includes 30 songs.

* * *
Taylor Swift "Taylor Swift"

The young singer is one of the hottest names in country music. Her eponymous debut, which spent multiple weeks at the top of the country album charts, is now being re-released with added treats for fans. This edition of "Taylor Swift" includes three new studio tracks, two live cuts and a DVD.

* * *
Chris Brown "Exclusive"

The R&B star returns with a follow-up to his popular self-titled debut of 2005, a work that featured the hit single "Run It!" The latest single from "Exclusive" is "Kiss Kiss," a collaboration with T-Pain that has already topped the Billboard Hot 100. Brown will support "Exclusive" during a co-headlining tour with Bow Wow that kicks off Dec. 6 in Cincinnati, OH.

* * *
More new releases:
Angels & Airwaves, "I-Empire" (Geffen)
Barenaked Ladies, "Talk to the Hand: Live in Michigan" (Shout Factory)
David Byrne, "The Knee Plays" (Nonesuch)
Demon Hunter, "Storm the Gates of Hell" (Solid State)
Little Big Town, "A Place to Land" (Equity)
Monster Magnet, "4-Way Diablo" (Steamhammer)
Van Morrison, "Still on Top: The Greatest Hits" (Hip-O)
Gram Parsons with the Flying Burrito Brothers, "Gram Parsons Archive, Vol. 1" (Amoeba)
Saga, "10,000 Days" (Inside Out)
Sigur Ros, "Hvarf/Heim" (XL)
Sissel, "Northern Lights" (Denon)
Rick Springfield, "Christmas With You" (Gomer)
Stevie Ray Vaughan, "Solos, Sessions and Encores" (Sony)
Russell Watson, "The Voice: The Ultimate Collection" (Decca)

Writers strike sends shows into reruns

LOS ANGELES - Americans may be getting more sleep after Hollywood writers went on strike Monday and forced the nation's late-night talk shows to start airing reruns.

NBC said the "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" will immediately air repeats.

Still, Leno made an appearance at the Burbank studio, arriving on a motorcycle to visit strikers walking a picket line.

CBS said "The Late Show with David Letterman" will also offer repeats all week. The list of casualties included every other major late-night show.

The first strike by Hollywood writers in nearly 20 years got under way with noisy pickets on both coasts after last-minute negotiations on Sunday failed to produce a deal on payments to writers from shows offered on the Internet.

No new negotiations were scheduled, although the Writers Guild of America negotiating committee was set to meet Monday afternoon.

Nick Counter, chief negotiator for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, said he expected a long standoff.

"We're hunkered down for a long one," he said. "From our standpoint, we made every good faith effort to negotiate a deal and they went on strike. At some point, conversations will take place. But not now."

The strike will not immediately impact production of movies or prime-time TV programs. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and TV shows have enough scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.

Disruptions by strikers ended filming at a Studio City cafe being used as a location for the CBS show "Cane."

Tom Hogan, a location manager for the show, said he had hired two off-duty Los Angeles police officers in addition to five private security guards to maintain order during the shoot.

He said the filming began hours before the 20 pickets arrived and involved a script that was finished several weeks ago.

No other major problems were reported at studios or filming locations.

At the CBS lot in Studio City, about 40 people hoisted signs and applauded when picketing began.

Robert Port, a writer for the TV show "Numb3rs," said he was as ready as possible for what could be a long walkout.

"We live in Los Angeles, your bank account can never really be ready for this," he said.

Only about half of the pickets wore their official red strike T-shirts.

"Writers aren't the easiest cats to corral," said Don McGill, another writer for "Numb3rs."

The first noisy strikers appeared outside the "Today" show set at Rockefeller Center in New York, where NBC is headquartered. The show is not directly affected by the strike because news writers are part of a different union.

A giant, inflated rat was displayed, as about 40 people shouted, "No contract, no shows!"

"They claim that the new media is still too new to structure a model for compensation," said Jose Arroyo, a writer for "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

"We say give us a percentage so if they make money, we make money," Arroyo said.

Starting TV writers earn about $70,000 per season for full-time work on a show. Veteran writers who move up to a story-editor position make at least a low six-figure salary, with a "written by" credit on an hourlong script paying an additional $30,000 plus residuals.

Diana Son, a writer for "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," said she has three children and getting residuals was the only way she could take time off after giving birth.

"It's an extremely volatile industry," Son said. "There's no job security. Residuals are an important part of our income. There's no cushion."

Millie Kapzen of Memphis, Tenn., who watched the New York pickets from across the street, said she was "disgusted. ... I really think they should try harder to negotiate."

Kapzen said she sells advertising for radio stations. "We've already had cancellations of sweeps weeks ads" by the networks, she said.

Writers have not gone on strike since 1988, when the walkout lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million.

The battle has broad implications for the way Hollywood does business, since whatever deal is struck by writers will likely be used as a template for talks with actors and directors, whose contracts expire next June.

Talks began in July and continued after the writers contract expired last Wednesday.

Producers said writers were not willing to compromise on major issues.

Writers said they withdrew a proposal to increase their share of revenue from the sale of DVDs that had been a stumbling block for producers.

They also said proposals by producers in the area of Internet reuse of TV episodes and films were unacceptable.

In Los Angeles, writers planned to picket 14 studio locations in four-hour shifts from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day until a new deal is reached.

Networks said other late-night show bound for reruns included "The Daily Show," "Colbert Report," "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and "Last Call with Carson Daly."

Ellen DeGeneres was a no-show Monday for filming of her daytime talk show on NBC.

"Ellen did not go to work today in support of her writers," said Kelly Bush, her publicist.

New episodes of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" that were filmed before the strike were set to air Monday and Tuesday. But it was unclear what might happen with the show later in the week, Bush said.

"Dancing With the Stars," one of the country's highest-rated prime-time shows, would air as planned on Monday, ABC said.

One key factor that could determine the damage caused by the strike is whether members of a powerful Hollywood Teamsters local honor the picket lines.

Local 399, which represents truck drivers, casting directors and location managers, had told its members that as a union, it has a legal obligation to honor its contracts with producers.

But the clause does not apply to individuals.

Steve Dayan, business agent of the local, said Monday he had heard of no problems on the picket lines involving his members.

He did not know if members were honoring the lines or crossing them.

"Our members have a choice whether they want to honor it or not," Dayan said. "I'm sure there are people honoring and some that are crossing. It's their individual right."

Radiohead Albums Boxed In Time For Christmas

A Radiohead boxed set, spanning the British band's first six studio albums plus a live record, will be available from Dec. 10 via the band's Web site.

The seven-CD limited edition sets will comprise the band's Parlophone albums "Pablo Honey" (1993), "The Bends" (1995), "OK Computer" (1997), "Kid A" (2000), "Amnesiac" (2001), "Hail to the Thief" (2003) and the live album "I Might Be Wrong" (2001). Purchasers will also have access to stream special footage.

On the same day, the alternative rock outfit will release for pre-order a limited edition USB stick, shaped in the band's iconic "bear" image. The 4GB memory stick will contain Radiohead's entire catalog in WAV files together with digital artwork. Both formats will be available only from Radioheadstore.com.

A digital bundle of all seven albums will also be available from Dec. 10 as DRM-free MP3 files, together with digital artwork.

"We are particularly excited about the USB stick," comments Parlophone's managing director Miles Leonard, "which gives fans an easy and portable way to carry the box set and provides another way of bridging the world between on-line and off-line content."

U.K. charts compiler the Official U.K. Charts Company recently made tweaks to its criteria, allowing the USB format to quality for the album chart.

Radiohead split with Parlophone in 2005 and recently struck a deal enabling indie label XL Recordings to handle the physical release of its new album, "In Rainbows."

That deal is expected to cover territories outside North America, leaving the band free to sign a separate deal there, but no further details have yet been made available.

New Sheryl Crow Album Due In February

Sheryl Crow will return Feb. 5 with her next A&M/Interscope album, "Detours." The first single, "Shine Over Bayblon," is at iTunes now. Crow told Billboard.com this summer that the song "is very environmentally conscious, in the tradition of Bob Dylan."

"I'm really encouraging artists to write about what's going on, because we seem to be very distracted by some lightweight topics," she added. I think it's time to start writing about the reality of what's around us."

In additional comments on her Web site, Crow describes the single as "an every way a desperate cry for understanding. Perhaps it is even a battle song in the face of fear."

"Detours" was recorded at Crow's Nashville farm and will feature "14 or 15" of the 24 songs put to tape. The artist's baby son, Wyatt, makes an appearance on the song "Lullaby for Wyatt," which will be featured in the upcoming movie "Grace Is Gone."

"The songs are very inspired by the last three years of events in my life," Crow said of a time that found her battling breast cancer and splitting with partner Lance Armstrong.

"Detours" is the follow-up to 2005's "Wildflower," which debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200.

'Scrubs' diagnosis unclear

Nothing has been easy or conventional about the NBC comedy "Scrubs," which has been bounced around the network's schedule for most of its seven-year run and was on the verge of cancellation the past two years before landing an 11th hour renewal.

Now, the show's chance to go out on its own terms is being jeopardized by the WGA strike, which could leave the final six installments of the underrated comedy's 18-episode last season in indefinite limbo.

"On a personal level, yeah, it would be nice to finish work on 'Scrubs' the way I wanted to," creator-executive producer Bill Lawrence said. "That it looks like it's not happening is certainly disappointing, I can't lie. But it's also not the end of the world. The last thing anybody wants to hear right now is some idiot saying, 'Hey, I worked really hard on my show, I want to end it the way I want to end it!' It's hard to care right now about any legacy."

Lawrence hasn't done much in the way of stockpiling "Scrubs" episodes in anticipation of a writers walkout. There are two scripts written and ready to shoot, "and with a single-camera show, once a script is locked, you have no real rewrites," he said. That will take "Scrubs" up through Episode 12, six episodes short of the ending Lawrence had envisioned for the show.

Still, giving "Scrubs" a proper sendoff is low on Lawrence's priority list at the moment.

"What I care about more than anything right now is getting this thing settled so it's either a short strike or no strike," he said on Friday. "Right now, I fear that a lot of the writers have no real clue just how tough this is going to be. I'd imagine things will get very grim sometime after Christmas."

Lawrence is quick to point out it's not himself he worries about but his crew and some of his writers.

"I've kind of won the lottery in having a few shows that went to syndication in both 'Scrubs' and 'Spin City,' so anything I say about my own sacrifice would drip with selfishness. This is such a bigger deal for the guys who work below the line and largely live hand-to-mouth and the younger writers who can't go without a paycheck for very long. I'm just a lucky SOB, no matter what happens to my show from here."

Hollywood writers begin strike

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Film and TV writers resolved to put down their pens and take up picket signs after last-ditch talks failed to avert a strike.

The first picket lines were set to appear Monday morning at Rockefeller Center in New York, where NBC is headquartered.

In Los Angeles, writers were planning to picket 14 studio locations in four-hour shifts from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day until a new deal is reached.

The contract between the 12,000-member Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producer expired Oct. 31. Talks that began this summer failed to produce much progress on the writers' key demands for a bigger slice of DVD profits and revenue from the distribution of films and TV shows over the Internet.

Writers and producers gathered for negotiations Sunday at the request of a federal mediator.

The two sides met for nearly 11 hours before East Coast members of the writers union announced on their Web site that the strike had begun for their 4,000 members.

Producers said writers refused a request to "stop the clock" on the planned strike while talks continued.

"It is unfortunate that they choose to take this irresponsible action," producers said in a statement.

Producers said writers were not willing to compromise on their major demands.

Writers said they withdrew a proposal to increase their share of revenue from the sale of DVDs that had been a stumbling block for producers. They also said the proposals by producers in the area of Internet reuse of TV episodes and films were unacceptable.

"The AMPTP made no response to any of the other proposals that the WGA has made since July," writers said in a statement.

The strike is the first walkout by writers since 1988. That work stoppage lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry more than $500 million.

The first casualty of the strike would be late-night talk shows, which are dependent on current events to fuel monologues and other entertainment.

Daytime TV, including live talk shows such as "The View" and soap operas, which typically tape about a week's worth of shows in advance, would be next to feel the impact.

The strike will not immediately impact production of movies or prime-time TV programs. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and TV shows have enough scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.

One key factor that could determine the damage caused by the strike is whether members of a powerful Hollywood Teamsters local honor the picket lines.

Local 399, which represents truck drivers, casting directors and location managers, had told its members that as a union, it has a legal obligation to honor its contracts with producers.

But the clause does not apply to individuals, who are protected by federal law from employer retribution if they decide to honor picket lines, the local said.

The battle has broad implications for the way Hollywood does business, since whatever deal is struck by writers will likely be used as a template for talks with actors and directors, whose contracts expire next June.

"We'll get what they get," Screen Actors Guild president Alan Rosenberg told The Associated Press.

The guilds have been preparing for these negotiations for years, hiring staff with extensive labor union experience, and developing joint strategies and a harder line than producers have seen in decades.

"We haven't shown particular resolve in past negotiations," said John Bowman, the WGA's chief negotiator.

BIG BOX STORIES

Chances are you know somebody who still quotes “Seinfeld." Maybe even a pal who offers Vulcan salutes without irony. Yes, these people can be annoying, but they'll also be easy to shop for this holiday season. On Tuesday, their gifts arrive in stores - as long as you're willing to drop nearly $300. After all, what better to give a TV-show fan than more episodes and extras of that show than they could ever possibly watch.

Case in point: “Seinfeld: The Complete Series" (Sony, $283.99). It comes with 32 discs, all 180 episodes and 104 hours of extras. The truly fanatic will want to hunt down one of the limited-edition faux refrigerators - just like Jerry's! - to store the box in. Inside are all kind of “Seinfeld"-themed edibles, such as muffin tops, Junior Mints and a bottle of Bosco.

“Star Trek: The Next Generation: Complete Series" (Paramount, $455.95) is even more galactically massive, with 178 episodes on 49 discs. It comes in a nifty box that looks like a space station. And that price is liable to make your head explode like a supernova, but it's already been discounted to $297.99 on Amazon.

“Seinfeld" and “Star Trek" join “Everybody Loves Raymond: The Complete Series" (HBO, $279.98), which hit stores last week. Incredibly, it has even more episodes, boasting 210 on 44 discs. Even more amazing, it comes it a nice little suburban house - just like Ray's Long Island digs!

When it comes to ginormous sets, these three are just the beginning.
On Nov. 13, we'll see the arrival of “The Addams Family: The Complete Series" (MGM, $69.98) in a velvet-touch box. Always creepier and slightly funnier than “The Munsters," it's a relatively cheap way to delve insides the minds of Morticia and Cousin Itt.

The same week, a blast of arctic dramedy arrives with “Northern Exposure: The Complete Series" (Universal, $199.98), packaged in a handsomel suede adventure bag.

Teens who love fantasizing about kids much richer than themselves will be thankful for the Nov. 27 release of “The O.C.: The Complete Series Collection" (Warner, $179.98). They can pore over every romantic fling, hissy fit and jail sentence, since the discs come in an illustrated book.

Finally, on Dec. 11, Kelsey Grammer fans will rejoice in “Frasier: Complete Series" (Paramount, $343.99), 44 discs worth of frothy lattes and witty banter.
These are hardly the only “completes" out this season. There's also: “Full House" (Warner, $169.68) and “The King of Queens" (Sony, $232.95), out Tuesday; “The Gilmore Girls" (Warner, $258.82) on Nov. 13; and “Queer as Folk" (Paramount, $249.99) and “Dr. Katz Professional Therapist" (Paramount, $139.99) on Nov. 20.

Yellowbird, Bear dominate at Aboriginal Peoples Choice awards

Fast-rising Alberta country singer Shane Yellowbird tied with British Columbia singer-songwriter Cheryl Bear to win the most trophies at the second annual Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Awards in Winnipeg.

A Cree from Hobbema, Alta., Yellowbird captured best country CD for Life is Calling My Name, best music video for Pickup Truck and aboriginal entertainer of the year during the ceremony at the MTS Centre on Friday night.

Bear, who is from the Nadleh Whut'en First Nation in B.C.'s Central Interior, captured best songwriter, single (Hey Cuzzin'!) and best new artist. Bear did not attend the ceremony.

Yellowbird had also nabbed the most awards, three, at the inaugural gala in 2006. It has been a stellar year for the singer, who had five nominations for the 2007 Canadian Country Music Association Awards. He got the rising star trophy.

Yellowbird thanked family and fans and brought his band onstage.

"These are the guys who put up with me for the last two years, putting up with all my pranks and all my jokes: they stood by me," he told the crowd of 5,000 screaming fans.

The awards, with 20 categories, are sponsored by the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) and winners are chosen through online voting. Both Canadian and American acts are eligible to be nominated.

Other winners include the group Indigenous, whose Chasing the Sun won for best blues album.

"We're from South Dakota so it's great to see this here," said Indigenous front man Mato Manji. "I want to thank my family, my wife and my kids, for putting up with me for so long."

Other award winners include:

Best Aboriginal Music by a Non-aboriginal: Home and Native Land, Little Hawk.
Best Album Cover Design: One More, The Boyz.
Best Fiddle CD: Backroads Fiddlin, Darren Lavallee.
Best Folk CD: Dance With The Wind, Mary Youngblood.
Best Gospel CD: On My Way To Heaven, Yvonne St. Germain.
Best Group: Red Nation, Now or Never.
Best Hand Drum CD: Ami Nicimos, Red Bull.
Best Inuit Traditional CD: Drums of the North, Pamyua.
Best Instrumental CD: Sacred Healing, David R. Maracle.
Best Hip Hop CD: The Answer, Seventh Generation.
Best Pow Wow CD, Contemporary: One More, The Boyz.
Best Pow Wow CD, Traditional: Generations, High Noon.
Best Producer: REZalationzzz…,Kray Z Kree.
Best Rock CD: The Dirty Looks, Derek Miller.

Hollywood set for last-ditch labor talks

LOS ANGELES - A federal mediator was scheduled to meet with Hollywood writers and studio representatives at an undisclosed neutral location Sunday in a last-ditch effort to prevent a strike.

Both sides agreed to the meeting a day before writers say they will picket studios and movie locations. The writers' contract expired Oct. 31.

The writers want more money from the sale of DVDs and a share of revenue generated by the sale of TV shows and films over the Internet. The studios say the demands are unreasonable and would hamper attempts to experiment with new media.

The last time writers went on strike was in 1988. The walkout lasted 22 weeks and cost the industry about $500 million.

Writers Guild of America board members voted unanimously Friday to begin the strike at 12:01 a.m. Monday unless studios offered a more lucrative deal. The two sides have been meeting since July.

"The studios made it clear that they would rather shut down this town than reach a fair and reasonable deal," Patric Verrone, president of the western chapter of the guild, said at a news conference.

The union said it would stage its first pickets in New York and Los Angeles.

J. Nicholas Counter, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, called the writers' strike "precipitous and irresponsible" in a prepared statement.

Producers believe progress can be made on other issues but "it makes absolutely no sense to increase the burden of this additional compensation" involving DVDs and the Internet, he said.

The first casualty of the strike would be late-night talk shows, which are dependent on current events to fuel monologues and other entertainment.

"The Tonight Show" on NBC will go into reruns starting Monday if last-ditch negotiations fail and a strike begins, according to a network official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person lacked authorization to comment publicly.

Comedy Central has said "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" would likely go into repeats as well.

Daytime TV, including live talk shows such as "The View" and soap operas, which typically tape about a week's worth of shows in advance, would be next to feel the impact.

The strike would not immediately affect production of movies or prime-time TV programs. Most studios have stockpiled dozens of movie scripts, and TV shows have enough scripts or completed shows in hand to last until early next year.

Talks between writers and producers will likely affect upcoming negotiations between the studios and unions representing actors and directors.

All those unions believe revenue from content offered on the Internet, cell phones and other platforms will grow tremendously in the years ahead, even though it's now minuscule compared to DVD sales.

Consumers are expected to spend $16.4 billion on DVDs this year, according to Adams Media Research. By contrast, studios could generate about $158 million from selling movies online and about $194 million from selling TV shows over the Web.

Studios argue that it is too early to know how much money they can make from offering entertainment on the Internet, cell phones, iPods and other devices.

Producers are also uncertain whether consumers prefer a pay-per-view model over an advertising-supported system. They want the economic flexibility to experiment as consumer habits change in reaction to technology.

Heroin pusher, honey bee lift box office

LOS ANGELES - A heroin pusher and a honey bee put some sting back into the movie business. Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe's bloody crime saga "American Gangster" took in $46.3 million to lead the weekend box office, with Jerry Seinfeld's family cartoon "Bee Movie" following with $39.1 million. Together, the movies revitalized Hollywood's listless autumn.

"It took three of the biggest stars in the world to get the box office back on track, and they did it in high style with two totally different kinds of movies," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "You had an R-rated movie and a PG-rated movie bringing in a really diverse audience."

After six-straight weekends of declining revenues, overall business rose, with the top-12 movies taking in $127.2 million, up 12 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" was No. 1 with $26.5 million.

Universal's "American Gangster," directed by Ridley Scott and starring Washington as 1970s Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas and Crowe as a Jersey cop on his trail, rode a wave of acclaim and Academy Awards buzz to debut at the top of the box office.

Audiences had been relatively disinterested this fall in serious R-rated films aimed at adults. Many of those earlier movies were box-office underachievers despite critical praise, but "American Gangster" landed with both good reviews and packed theaters.

Washington is known for heroic roles, yet as he did with his Oscar-winning turn as a bad cop in "Training Day," he imbues Lucas with charm and charisma even as the man carries out savage deeds.

"American Gangster" was the biggest opening ever for the film's two stars. Crowe's previous best was $34.8 million for "Gladiator," also directed by Scott, while Washington's was $29 million for "Inside Man."

"These are two great actors telling this true story of Frank Lucas," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution at Universal. "You couldn't have picked a better cast."

DreamWorks and Paramount's "Bee Movie" features Seinfeld in his first big project since his TV sit-com went off the air nine years ago. Co-written by Seinfeld, the movie has him providing the voice of a bee who sues humanity for stealing his species' hard-earned commodity — honey.

"Bee Movie" owned the family crowd, and studio executives said they expect the movie to hold up well through the holidays. It does face direct competition this weekend with Friday's debut of the Warner Bros. holiday comedy "Fred Claus," starring Vince Vaughn as Santa's black-sheep brother and Paul Giamatti as St. Nick.

"We look forward to seeing how it plays out, but it really looks like there's some strong playing time ahead for both movies," said Anne Globe, head of marketing for DreamWorks.

The weekend's other new wide release — New Line Cinema's "Martian Child," starring John Cusack as a widower adopting a troubled boy who thinks he's from Mars — opened weakly with $3.65 million, finishing at No. 7.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Monday.

1. "American Gangster," $46.3 million.
2. "Bee Movie," $39.1 million.
3. "Saw IV," $11 million.
4. "Dan in Real Life," $8.1 million.
5. "30 Days of Night," $4 million.
6. "The Game Plan," $3.85 million.
7. "Martian Child," $3.65 million.
8. "Michael Clayton," $2.9 million.
9. "Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married?", $2.7 million.
10. "Gone Baby Gone," $2.4 million.

The Couch Potato Report - November 3rd, 2007

This week The Couch Potato Report peels a DVD box set that features some unique parts of our country, and four other new releases.

Up first this week is the two-disc DVD box set for a five-part CBC television series that I thought was just fascinating!

That series is called GEOLOGIC JOURNEY and it takes a look at the vast, wild beauty that we call Canada.

GEOLOGIC JOURNEY takes us from coast to coast to coast as it focuses on the science and study of the solid matter that constitutes the Earth.

The series takes us through The Rockies, The Canadian Shield, The Great Lakes, The Appalachians and The Atlantic Coast.

It shows us the beauty of these regions today, and offers some incredible stories about the past.

GEOLOGIC JOURNEY features insightful narration from Dr. David Suzuki and incredible visuals that allows us to go above, and below the ground, lakes and falls that make up our nation.

At times GEOLOGIC JOURNEY does get a little technical, and during those times you'd have to be a scientist or a paleantologist to understand what is being said by the scientists and paleantologists on screen.

But once the camera begins to feature the orange, black, grey, brown and green rocks of the Great Lakes Region, and takes us on helicopter rides through the Rocky Mountains and Niagara Falls, the beauty that is Canada will win you over and forget the rock talk.

I enjoyed GEOLOGIC JOURNEY, and I highly recommend it!!

Up next this week is TALK TO ME is a film - based on the true story - of Petey Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist, in the late sixties and early seventies, and Dewey Hughes, his friend and manager.

If you have ever heard an interview with the two men, or read their story, you would think - as I did - that a great movie was in the offing.

Petey was charasmatic, explosive and he didn't just talk the talk, he walked the walk.

And with Dewey's reluctant help, Petey became the voice and conscience for Black Americans.

With it's interesting true-life story, and acting greats Don Cheadle as Petey and Chiwetel Ejiofor as Dewey giving incredible period performances, TALK TO ME could have been one of the year's best films.

Instead, the filmmakers have taken this engaging story and produced a film that is boring.

I really wanted to like TALK TO ME, especially since it is about a radio personality, but in the end I didn't, and so I don't recommend it to you.

BUT, I do suggest you check out Petey Green's incredible autobiography "Laugh If You Like, Ain't a Damn Thing Funny."

Finally this week, I have three releases for you. Two of which that offer some entertainment value, and one that I didn't care for at all.

I'll save the worst for last, first is MEET THE ROBINSONS an animated film from Walt Disney about a young inventor.

In the film we meet Lewis, a brilliant orphan who wants to know who his mother is, so he invents a time machine. Eventually he heads to the future, and meets a unique family of people, and a mysterious man in a bowler hat.

MEET THE ROBINSONS is close to being very entertaining. It has some great dialogue, unique characters and references.

But in the end, it just wasn't a film I loved. Youngers boys might love it, I only liked MEET THE ROBINSONS.

I used to love the TV show ENTOURAGE, as I have mentioned several times in this forum, but once SEASON THREE, PART TWO started to air, my love for this once great show turned to like.

Another great show has fallen!

Yes, SEASON THREE, PART TWO of ENTOURAGE still features the latest adventures of Vince, E, Turtle and Johnny Drama, but the show is no longer as much fun as it used to be.

We used to live vicariously through this Hollywood star and his friends from Queen's Boulevard, but their latest escapades aren't as enjoyable as their past ones.

This part of SEASON THREE just got way too dramatic, and the boys spend too much apart. When they are together, and when they are with Vince's agent Ari, then the magic happens.

Separated...well...I still like ENTOURAGE, more importantly, I still like these characters, and I will follow them, and their series wherever it goes, but I hope to get the old party hardy Vince, E, Turtle and Johnny Drama back.

I like to live vicariously through them!!

Finally this week is the unfunny comedy LICENSE TO WED.

Normally, when a movie is as bad as this one is, I wouldn't even bother to review it...but in this case, I must include it, so you skip it!

LICENSE TO WED features the great Mandy Moore, John Krasinski from TV's THE OFFICE and Robin Williams, in another one of those awful, over the top performances he has specialized in lately.

Moore and Krasinski are a young couple who want to get married, but before they say I do, Williams Reverend Frank has to say okay.

As you might expect, LICENSE TO WED puts it's young couple through the paces, and makes them question why they even loved each other in the first place, all while Williams mugs, riffs and says line after line of unfunny dialgue.

I admit it, the commercials and the premise sound funny, and very entertaining, but the end result is not.

Great cast, fantastic premise, awful movie!! Skip it, ignore it, just walk away!

Just walk away!

The awful LICENSE TO WED, the okay, but could have been better ENTOURAGE - SEASON THREE, PART TWO, MEET THE ROBINSONS and TALK TO ME and the superbly entertaining GEOLOGIC JOURNEY are all available now on DVD.

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

Before I take off on a week's vacation, I will have six new releases to tell you about, including Michael Moore's SICKO, a film that will make you feel good about health care in this country, maybe even if you are still on a waiting list.

Also next week, the foreign film THE BOTHERSOME MAN will get you thinking; the beloved nineties TV series MY SO CALLED LIFE debuts on DVD along with THE COMPLETE SIXTH SEASON of the SCRUBS.

RATATOUILLE is the latest animated film from PIXAR and THE PIXAR SHORT FILMS COLLECTION - VOLUME 1 gives us a look at how the studio got it's start.

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!

Hollywood writers call Monday strike

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The union representing U.S. screenwriters called for a strike against film and TV studios starting Monday in a move giving negotiators one last weekend to reach a contract deal or shatter 20 years of Hollywood labor peace.

The strike deadline was issued on Friday, a day after a three-year contract covering the 12,000-member Writers Guild of America expired, and it follows months of talks that deadlocked over the union's demands for a greater share of DVD and Internet revenues.

Both sides have accused the other of stonewalling and refusing to budge from unreasonable proposals.

The union's negotiating panel unanimously urged a walkout during a boisterous membership meeting Thursday night, and the Writers Guild's governing board voted to ratify that recommendation.

No further contract talks were immediately scheduled, but union leaders said at a news conference there was still time to avoid a confrontation that, if prolonged, could cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues and wages.

"We have 48 hours, and what we really want to do is negotiate," said John Bowman, chairman of the union's negotiating committee. He said that while reluctant to go on strike, the Writers Guild felt it had to act decisively.

"We have to inflict as much damage as quickly as possible in order to get this thing over," Bowman said.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the bargaining arm of the studios, offered only a brief, terse statement by group president Nick Counter.

"We are very disappointed with their press conference and the action they took," he said, accusing union leaders of "falsehoods, misstatements and inaccuracies."

He added, "We'll respond at an appropriate time."

Union officials said the strike would begin at 3:01 a.m. EST and picket lines would go up in Los Angeles and New York City.

$1 BILLION AT RISK

The last major Hollywood strike was a Writers Guild walkout in 1988 that lasted 22 weeks, delayed the start of the fall TV season and cost the industry an estimated $500 million. Los Angeles economist Jack Kyser said a strike of the same duration today could result in at least $1 billion in economic losses.

Movie and TV audiences would notice little impact at first. The screenplay pipeline of the film studios is well-stocked through 2008. And producers of prime-time sitcoms and dramas are said to have stockpiled enough advance episodes to keep their shows on the air until January or February.

But late-night talks shows will go off the air almost immediately since they rely on a daily supply of topical jokes. On his CBS show on Thursday, David Letterman described the producers as "cowards, cutthroats and weasels."

Prime-time schedules will start filling up with more reruns and game shows after the networks have burned through fresh episodes. The new shows fighting to hold viewers' attention in the first few weeks of the new season face a grim future if they have to leave the schedule for an extended period.

Negotiations on a new writers contract began in July and the two sides have remained far apart. They brought in a federal mediator this week to try to break the deadlock on the key issue issues of compensating writers for the reuse of their work in various digital formats.

The studios have said union demands for higher residuals on DVDs and Internet downloads would stifle growth at a time of rising production costs, tighter profits and piracy. They insist digital distribution of movies and TV remains largely experimental or promotional and new media is just developing.

The union accuses studios of pleading poverty and argues that writers have never gotten a fair deal on lucrative DVDs. They also see more film and TV migrating toward the Web and wireless platforms and want a bigger share of that revenue.

Fox sets date for 'X-Files' sequel

The long-awaited second "X-Files" film is finally a go, with 20th Century Fox setting a July 25, 2008 release date.

Untitled project reunites "X-Files" creator Chris Carter will thesps David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who will reprise their signature roles as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

Carter begins lensing in December in Vancouver from a script he co-wrote with Frank Spotnitz, a veteran scribe of the long-running "X-Files" television series, which became a worldwide hit during its 1993-2002 run on the Fox network. Spotnitz also co-wrote with Carter the screenplay for 1998 feature "X-Files." Carter and Spotnitz will also serve as producers.

Studio is keeping the film's logline under wraps, but stressed the pic is a stand-alone story and supernatural thriller that takes the complicated relationship between Mulder and Scully in new directions.

As of now, there are only two other titles skedded for July 25, both comedies. Sony unspools Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly starrer "Step Brothers," directed by Adam McKay, while MGM has bows untitled Ice Cube family laffer.

Plan to bring the "X-Files" sequel to the bigscreen was waylaid when Chris Carter brought a 2005 lawsuit against Fox over how the "X-Files" syndication profits were divvied up. Suit was later settled.

Earlier this year, the issue seemed to have been resolved, with Duchovny and Anderson both indicating that the film was finally moving forward.

Released in 1998, feature film "The X-Files" grossed $187 million worldwide, including a domestic haul of $83.9 million and an international cume of more than $103 million.

Fox sets date for 'X-Files' sequel

The long-awaited second "X-Files" film is finally a go, with 20th Century Fox setting a July 25, 2008 release date.

Untitled project reunites "X-Files" creator Chris Carter will thesps David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, who will reprise their signature roles as FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully.

Carter begins lensing in December in Vancouver from a script he co-wrote with Frank Spotnitz, a veteran scribe of the long-running "X-Files" television series, which became a worldwide hit during its 1993-2002 run on the Fox network. Spotnitz also co-wrote with Carter the screenplay for 1998 feature "X-Files." Carter and Spotnitz will also serve as producers.

Studio is keeping the film's logline under wraps, but stressed the pic is a stand-alone story and supernatural thriller that takes the complicated relationship between Mulder and Scully in new directions.

As of now, there are only two other titles skedded for July 25, both comedies. Sony unspools Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly starrer "Step Brothers," directed by Adam McKay, while MGM has bows untitled Ice Cube family laffer.

Plan to bring the "X-Files" sequel to the bigscreen was waylaid when Chris Carter brought a 2005 lawsuit against Fox over how the "X-Files" syndication profits were divvied up. Suit was later settled.

Earlier this year, the issue seemed to have been resolved, with Duchovny and Anderson both indicating that the film was finally moving forward.

Released in 1998, feature film "The X-Files" grossed $187 million worldwide, including a domestic haul of $83.9 million and an international cume of more than $103 million.

"Gangster" shoots for top of box office

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe and Jerry Seinfeld are riding to the rescue of the ailing North American box office this weekend.

"American Gangster," a true-life crime tale starring Washington and Crowe, could steal the No. 1 slot with sales north of $40 million. Seinfeld's animated "Bee Movie" will open with $35 million or more, industry pundits forecast.

But some suggest "Bee" could fly past "Gangster."

Either way, ticket sales should be enough to end a losing streak that has seen six consecutive down sessions compared with year-ago grosses. (This time last year, "Borat" and "The Santa Clause 3" led the field with a combined $46 million.)

Universal's "American Gangster" has been going gangbusters in prerelease tracking. Awareness among prospective moviegoers is high, but it's skewing slightly toward older viewers -- a demographic that traditionally does not rush out on the first weekend. Early reviews are solid.

One hurdle is the running time of two hours and 37 minutes, limiting the number of times it can play each day.

Historically, among R-rated films with running times of more than 2 1/2 hours, only two have managed to open in the mid-$30 million range or higher. "Troy" (two hours, 43 minutes) bowed with $46.9 million in May 2004, and "Gladiator" (two hours, 35 minutes) debuted with $34.8 million in May 2000.

"Bee" -- produced by DreamWorks Animation and distributed by Paramount -- is a family-friendly alternative to the beatings, murders and drug abuse of "American Gangster."

It certainly helps that Seinfeld -- who voices the main character and helped write and produce "Bee" -- has worked the talk-show circuit tirelessly.

New Line's "Martian Child," a female-skewing adoption drama starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet, also opens wide Friday, but expectations are more modest. A bow in the high-single-digit millions seems likely.

Cartoon heavyweights animated over Oscar race

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - It all could come down to a chipmunk.

In a year when a number of Hollywood heavyweights -- including Jerry Seinfeld, Matt Groening and Robert Zemeckis -- are duking it out in the unlikely forum of the animated feature film Oscar race, several complicating (and complicated) factors could rob many of their glory.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is expected to announce its eligibility list for the animated category next week. With heavy star power, a deep field and unconventional candidates -- and a rule that could involve the Fox family film "Alvin & the Chipmunks" -- animation players are bracing for the kind of drama and controversy that's never been seen in the award's seven-year history.

"This is finally the year you see the animation category breaking out and telling different kinds of stories," Animation Magazine editor Ramin Zahed said.

As a result, he and other animation watchers say, votes could be split in a way that will make a lot of toon players unhappy.

Seinfeld's "Bee Movie," which opens Friday, Pixar critics favorite "Ratatouille," Groening's "The Simpsons Movie," Sony's technically lauded "Surf's Up" and Oscar-factory DreamWorks' "Shrek the Third" are all in the mix.

That would make for a crowded enough race in any year. But this year they'll be going up against the adult-aimed French-language political movie "Persepolis" and Zemeckis' take on the epic Beowulf tale.

"I could say it's the year of diversity," one Academy member said. "But really it's just the year of chaos."

Contributing to that chaos is an uncertain number of slots. Academy rules state that if 16 animated movies are released in a given year, the committee could nominate five movies instead of three.

By most counts 13 films now make the cut, and a number of other films could make the grade if they get enough qualifying runs. "Chipmunks," a Fox live/animated hybrid whose status as an eligible film remains uncertain, could become an improbable swing vote in whether the 16-release threshold is reached.

"BEOWULF" CONFUSION

Meanwhile, at Paramount, eligibility for "Beowulf" represents an epic saga in its own right.

The studio is expected to make a big push for Zemeckis' performance-capture movie. In the past, similar projects -- including the director's own "The Polar Express" and "Monster House" -- have made the grade.

But the Academy has tightened its rules this year. A seemingly inscrutable change -- it has revised the requirement of "a frame-by-frame technique" to one in which "movement and characters' performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique" -- is said by experts to target performance-capture techniques, potentially eliminating "Beowulf."

Zemeckis has been quoted as saying that he doesn't see performance-capture movies as animated films. "To call performance capture animation is a disservice to the great animators," he said at the International Broadcasting Convention in September.

A Paramount spokesman said the company was "definitely submitting" the movie.

In a way, the explosion of contenders represents what the animated community has long wanted: the moment when animation is acknowledged not so much as a genre but as a format, capable of all sorts of narratives.

But that growth also means intense competition that didn't exist when it was just DreamWorks, Disney and Pixar dominating.

With technology developing even faster than the genres, confusion is inevitable. Jon Bloom, chair of the Academy's short films and feature animation branch, admits that technology is so "constantly and rapidly changing" that "we want to make certain we are not allowing the doors to be so wide open that just about anything that looks like animation qualifies as animation."

What's more, members of the Academy's small eligibility committee could decide without seeing such movies as "Beowulf" and "Persepolis"; studios are required to fill out paperwork by Thursday but aren't obligated to submit prints until mid-November, after the eligibility list is released.

Last year, the Academy gave the nod to Luc Besson's "Arthur and the Invisibles," getting the total to 16. But it revoked that eligibility after more members saw the film, ensuring that 15 movies were released and shrinking the nominee slots to three.

Other factors also heighten the drama.

"Persepolis," also the official French submission for best foreign-language film, could be submitted in its subtitled version instead of its English-language one, a point that could hurt the film with some voters.

In addition, Groening has never been nominated for an Oscar, and a number of animation experts and Academy members polled for this report said that the "Simpsons" creator is likely to sponge up a certain number of votes simply because of who he is, a kind of nod to his career achievements as much as to the movie.

Also, the possibility that "Ratatouille" could land a best picture nomination -- it would be the second animated film to pull off the feat after 1991's "Beauty and the Beast" -- could ding its prospects in the animation category.

Animation players can comfort themselves with one small thought about this year's field: At least there's no anime.