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.

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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.

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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 pre