New U2 Album Could Arrive By October
U2 manager Paul McGuinness, in an interview this week with BBC 6 Music, suggested that a new album from the band could be just around the corner.
McGuinness said that the exact release date for a new release was "not clear yet but I would think towards the end of October."
He added, "We will obviously work with whatever technology is available to make the release of the new record as interesting as possible."
Plant, Krauss 'In No Hurry' To End Collaboration
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss are hoping to turn their platinum-certified, Grammy Award-winning "Raising Sand" into a going concern.
"I'm in no hurry to go anywhere," Plant told Billboard.com during a teleconference with reporters today (June 12). "I want to stay very close. This is a font of knowledge, and I'm sticking as close to it as I can."
Krauss concurred, "we're all having a wonderful time, and I hope and I think all three of us are hoping to continue this and that it go on and on." But she added that the duo's association shouldn't bring the curtain down on any of their other projects.
"That doesn't mean we've lost any love for who we've played for and play with," she said. "The guys in Union Station, that's like home. So I hope to continue this and go back home, too."
And while no firm plans are in motion yet for a "Raising Sand" sequel, producer T-Bone Burnett, who's also the musical director for the current Plant-Krauss concert tour, said in a separate conversation that he hopes to get another shot at the collaboration.
"I feel like we're just starting to know what we can do with it," Burnett said. "The two of them are so incredibly good that I would hate to not continue to work with both of them."
For the moment, Plant and Krauss are definitely working together through July 19, when the tour wraps up in Nashville (they also stop at the Bonnaroo Music Festival on Sunday). And both said that they're enjoying the opportunity to expand and enhance their musical partnership on the road.
"I'm surprised at the varying of the performances show to show," Krauss said. "Because of the personalities within the band, it has changed the show night to night, not only the show overall but each tune takes on a different character. Everything has its own identity from night to that. That's very exciting for all of us."
Plant, meanwhile, says performing the album's rootsy music, as well as revamped versions of some Led Zeppelin songs, live has "become quite an illumination, really. What has been created with the chemistry between the three of us has its down kind of genre, really. I'm a very fortunate man. I couldn't wish for anything better than this."
Newman dismisses cancer rumor
"Newman says he's doing nicely."
With that statement from his spokesman, screen icon Paul Newman employed his characteristic laid-back style to brush off reports that he is ailing with cancer.
The 83-year-old star of The Sting and Cool Hand Luke has appeared gaunt in recent photographs. Then on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported that A.E. Hotchner, who partnered with Newman to start Newman's Own food company in the 1980s, confirmed that the actor had been fighting cancer.
But Hotchner later told Access Hollywood he didn't know anything for sure.
The actor's spokesman, Jeff Sanderson, deliverer of the "doing nicely" statement, would not elaborate on the remark Wednesday or comment on Hotchner's statements.
Fans posted messages on blogs and in the comments section of news stories, offering prayers and well-wishes for the actor, whatever his health status.
Shawn Levy, who covers film for The (Portland) Oregonian and is working on a Newman biography, says rumors of illness have been circulating since the beginning of the year but are only now gathering mass attention. He notes a previous dismissal of the cancer rumor: Newman's statement joked that he was being treated "for athlete's foot and hair loss."
Seeing photos of an aged Newman can be startling to fans, he points out. "People forget. Even though the number 83 is staring them in the face, they think of Newman as younger than he is. We think of him as a 1960s guy because of Butch Cassidy and Cool Hand Luke, but he was in his 40s when those came out."
But for a man in his 80s, Newman has been very active, Levy says. "We're talking about this guy like he's dying, but last year at 82, he finished fourth place in a car race in Watkins Glen, N.Y."
Feeling the "Love": Mike Myers and Friends at "The Love Guru" Premiere
Los Angeles - "The Love Guru" brought the crowds out to Grauman's Chinese Theater on Wednesday night, June 11, as Mike Myers premiered his latest comedy to the delight of a gaggle of fans. Was it Myers that drew the hordes of fans to Hollywood's famed movie palace, or was Justin Timberlake, Myers' co-star in the silly spiritual comedy, the big draw? As Justin mugged with his adoring fans, Mike greeted the other stars of his film (he wrote and produced the movie, which marks his first new character creation since Austin Powers), including Verne Troyer, Meagan Good, Telma Hopkins, Romany Malco, director Marco Schnabel, and fans Mariska Hargitay, Tila Tequila, and Joanne Garcia. Jessica Alba also stars, but she stayed home with her brand-new baby girl, born June 7.
"The Love Guru" tells the tale of Guru Pitka, an American raised by Indian gurus who returns to the U. S. to begin a self-help business. His first challenge is to help a pro hockey player get back on track; that plot line explains why Detroit Red Wings goalie Chris Osgood made the red-carpet trek with the Stanley Cup in tow at the premiere. Leave it to Myers, a lifelong hockey fanatic, to incorporate his passion for the game into his flick.
The actor, who spoke to reporters earlier in the week about the new film, revealed that "The Love Guru" actually came from the same source as his "Austin Powers" movies.
"My father passed away in 1991," Myers recalled. "Two things emerged from that creatively. One of those was 'Austin Powers'. That was a tribute to my father and all the British comedy that he'd introduced to me during his lifetime and my lifetime and the other thing that emerged was the Guru Pitka. In 1994 I did a stage show where I did five characters. I did Austin Powers for the first time. I did the Guru Pitka for the first time too. The Guru Pitka was me kind of dealing with his death."
But don't get him wrong; "The Love Guru" is definitely a comedy, not a drama.
"My father always used to say that nothing is so painful that it can't be laughed at," Myers grinned. "I do very silly movies and in the Venn diagram of life I don't know where creativity and philosophy and science, spirituality, I don't know where they quite merge. But I hope that this movie is a nice fun delivery system of some ideas that actually mean a lot to me."
Hulk, Shyamalan seek second chance at the movies
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - This weekend's lineup at the U.S. box office might well be called a showdown between two Hollywood second-chances -- a remake of a superhero flop and a new film from an acclaimed director whose last movie bombed.
But if early reviews are any indication, the hands-down favorite to dominate megaplexes heading into the seventh week of the lucrative summer movie season is "The Incredible Hulk," a revival of the oversized green brute Marvel Studios first brought to theaters in 2003.
Critics say the new version, emphasizing action over introspection, is markedly superior to the brooding "Hulk" forerunner that got off to a strong commercial start but quickly fizzled as comic book fans found it lacking.
Reviews are less than kind to the only other wide release this coming weekend, "The Happening," the first offering from filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan since his "Lady in the Water" drew critical sneers and sputtered at box offices in 2006.
Still, industry watchers say Shyamalan, whose 1999 sleeper hit "The Sixth Sense" made him a filmmaking sensation, will likely give the Hulk a run for his money with his latest thriller about the outbreak of a mysterious plague.
"There's a lot of interest in this weekend because these two films have a lot to prove for very different reasons," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of the box office tracking service Media By Numbers.
Much is at stake for Marvel, which is seeking to build on the recent blockbuster success of "Iron Man" with what it calls a "re-boot" of another one of its most popular superhero characters, the Hulk.
BIG BUCKS AT STAKE
The movie is believed to have cost upward of $150 million to make with a marketing budget approaching $100 million. And the focus has been "differentiating this film from the first," said Adam Fogelson, Universal's head of marketing.
"It was about knowing ... that there would be many eyebrows raised and many questions asked about why you would make a sequel to a movie that many people didn't like," he said.
Like the original directed by Ang Lee, the new incarnation from French filmmaker Louis Leterrier mixes a computer-animated Hulk with real actors playing other characters.
Edward Norton stars as the former scientist Bruce Banner who turns into the green man-beast whenever he loses his temper. Critics say the new film stays truer to the comic book character and to the 1970s hit TV series it spawned, favoring adventure over psychological conflict.
"Hulk" marks only the second fully self-financed production from Marvel Studios, which paid General Electric Co's Universal Pictures a fee to market and distribute the film. Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc, released "Iron Man" for Marvel.
The first "Hulk," a Marvel co-production with Universal, grossed a hefty $62 million domestically its first weekend but dropped off quickly after that.
Dergarabedian said the remake should top the original, making it likely to beat "The Happening," from News Corp's 20th Century Fox, as the No. 1 film this weekend.
Shyamalan's five previous wide-release films grossed opening weekend tallies ranging from $18 million for "Lady in the Water" two years ago to $60 million for "Signs" in 2002.
But "Happening" is his first to receive an R-rating in the United States, which limits admissions to moviegoers 17 and older unless accompanied by an adult.
Still, Dergarabedian said no one should count Shyamalan out, given the curiosity that usually accompanies his work.
Albert Brooks is high on his `Weeds' role
LOS ANGELES - Albert Brooks' mordant on-screen neuroticism has lifted his films and characters to comedic heights, with "Defending Your Life," "Lost in America" and his Oscar-nominated turn in "Broadcast News" among the prime examples.
But it's difficult to find evidence of personal torment during an interview prompted by Brooks' guest role on Showtime's "Weeds." He's relaxed, congenial and wears no furrowed brow, looking younger than any true worrywart has a right to.
"I'll be honest with you," offers Brooks, 60, in that familiar, rhythmically whiny cadence that can presage a riff, or a meltdown. "I've always felt that the word `neurotic' was really `Jew.' ... It's a legal way of saying, `That Jew over there,'" he said, with a mild chuckle.
He's on a roll: "I thought of it years ago, when someone said, `You dirty neurotic. Get the hell out of here.' Then there was the sign at the Los Angeles Country Club: `No neurotics allowed.' I knew what that meant."
Brooks, who is Jewish, is busting up now and it's impossible not to do the same. He's an ex-comic who still revels in leaving 'em laughing, even when he's got an audience of one.
Brooks' reputation, as recently and lovingly detailed in "Comedy at the Edge," Richard Zoglin's book on groundbreaking 1970s comedians, is of a brilliant standup whose departure from the field left a void.
It's a talent Brooks acknowledges but when he pursued to get what he really wanted. Watch "Weeds," which features him in a four-episode arc starting with Monday's season premiere (10 p.m. EDT), and you see where his heart lies.
An actor, he says, "is all I wanted to be."
"Weeds" marks Brooks' first return to series TV since he made short films for the inaugural 1975-76 season of "Saturday Night Live," excepting a handful of voice-over turns on "The Simpsons." (He also had voice roles in "The Simpsons" movie and in "Finding Nemo.")
As Lenny Botwin, father-in-law of single mom and pot merchant Nancy (Mary-Louise Parker), Brooks is a key part of the drama's relocation from suburbia to the fictional Southern California border town of Ren Mar.
His work on "Weeds" was as satisfying as being in a fine independent film, Brooks said. He's a fan of the show's writing and the cast, especially Parker ("at the top of her game; everything she does is interesting") and Justin Kirk, who plays brother-in-law Andy Botwin.
And, he said, the role of the grizzled Lenny was a welcome change.
"He's not the part I normally play," he says. "He's a gambler, a guy who never made anything of his life and hates his son. He's a fusty curmudgeon. If you isolated the part and said, `Is this going to be a movie, or on Showtime?' it doesn't matter because the part is great."
He'd like to find such roles on the big screen as well, but current fare doesn't lend itself to that possibility. Studios are too busy cultivating projects that pass what Brooks calls the "14-year-old/Korea test."
"This is a generalization, because there are always good movies that pop up, but for the most part movies need to appeal to very young people and to foreign people, and that's not a dynamite combination for smart, intellectual comedy," he said.
Which is exactly what writer-director Brooks traffics in; not blockbusters but films with distinctly singular themes that have the added bonus of showcasing familiar actors in new, sometimes startling ways (think Debbie Reynolds as the overbearing parent in 1996's "Mother").
Besides 1991's "Defending Your Life," in which he and Meryl Streep explore a Brooksian vision of the afterlife, and 1985's "Lost in America," a skewering of yuppiedom, there's his latest, "Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World" (2005).
His big-screen directorial debut was 1979's "Real Life," a prescient take on then-nascent reality TV — PBS, of all things, was the groundbreaker in 1973 with its "An American Family" documentary series. In "Real Life," a filmmaker (played by Brooks, who wrote the script with Harry Shearer and Monica Johnson) persuades a family to let him record their daily life and ends up a home-wrecker, literally; he burns their house down for a big finish.
His movies often tap into the zeitgeist or even foreshadow it, and his comedy was the same. One Brooks routine recounted in Zoglin's book is "Rewriting the National Anthem," in which open auditions are held for average Americans to warble their proposed replacement.
"American Idol" come to mind?
"I was friends with (singer-songwriter) Harry Nilsson, who said the job of the artist is to get way ahead and sort of scout," Brooks said. "It's like Davy Crockett."
"Not all entertainment does that," he continued. "And, by the way, the entertainment that makes the most money is entertainment that doesn't do that. Somebody said to me, `You're always ahead of your time.' I said, `Go to the bank. There's no window there for that.'"
His next film project?
"I'm going to think of something done 10 years ago," he jokes.
Brooks said he enjoys the luxury of working in a movie without being responsible for it as a director. But the pull of a story idea, once born, often won't let go. He turned down "Big" after his "Broadcast News" role because "Defending Your Life" had begun gestating.
He admits to routinely letting obsession take hold.
"So much so that when my wife and I bought a new mattress a number of years ago — and I'm not proud of this — but I think I knew more about mattresses than the guys at Sit 'n Sleep," Brooks said. "I went to a mattress store and in four minutes the salesman was afraid of me."
The comic patter flows so easily in conversation it provokes the idea that he might someday want to give standup another try. He abruptly exited the game in the mid-'70s, with his many appearances on Johnny Carson's "Tonight" show and two comedy albums, "Comedy Minus One" from 1973 and "A Star Is Bought" from 1975, serving as evidence of his artistry.
Turns out that his buddy, Richard Lewis, has suggested that Brooks stroll in sometime and share one of Lewis' gigs.
But Lewis "is another guy more worried about life than I am," Brooks said, then imagines how their pairing would be billed: "Spend an extra-neurotic evening. Or, as we call them, Orthodox neurotics!"
Sean Connery to unveil autobiography at festival
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - Sean Connery is set to shake and stir this year's Edinburgh Book Festival by unveiling an autobiography on his 78th birthday.
The Scottish actor who defined the role of British secret agent James Bond and his literary collaborator, film maker Murray Grigor, discuss the book at the festival on August 25, organizers said on Thursday.
Connery, a passionate Scottish nationalist who has sworn not to live in his home country until it is independent, has titled his memoirs "Being a Scot."
As the book festival celebrates its 25th anniversary, director Catherine Lockerbie told Reuters she had been keeping an eye on Connery's autobiography through its various incarnations.
Edinburgh-born, Connery once delivered milk in the city and posed as a model at the College of Art before hitting the big time.
"His book obviously had to be launched with us," Lockerbie said.
BIGGEST IN THE WORLD
The literary feast, with a record 800 authors participating in 750 events from August 9-25, runs alongside the international arts festival, the anarchic fringe and a series of exhibitions in the biggest annual celebration of its kind in the world.
Connery's appearance also coincides with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ian Fleming, creator of British superspy James Bond, otherwise known as agent 007.
Author and comedian Charlie Higson will launch the fifth and final episode of his successful Young Bond series, while the authorized biography of Fleming, "For Your Eyes Only," will feature at the festival.
Lockerbie has sought to attract authors from around the world.
Focus on China brings writers from the world's most populous nation, while themes on the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel and fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq are covered in the festival's "East and West" and "War and Terror" series.
Lockerbie said the international aspect was key to the festival.
"I have been steadily working to increase the number of nations and cultures represented ... I think there's a strange disjunction between a globalize, homogenized, shrinking world, in one respect, and the fact that we still don't understand other cultures, points of view.
"And it seems to me that with the arts in general, and literature in particular, is a key vehicle for understanding, and that's been a mission of mine."
Tickets can be booked online at www.edbookfest.co.uk.
Heigl says no thanks, Emmy, it's undeserved
LOS ANGELES - Katherine Heigl won't be chewing her manicure at this year's Emmy ceremony: She says she didn't seek a nomination because "Grey's Anatomy" failed to deliver the goods for an award-worthy performance.
Heigl, who was honored as best supporting actress in a drama last year for the ABC series, declined to put her name in consideration for a bid, a spokeswoman for the actress said Wednesday.
"I did not feel that I was given the material this season to warrant an Emmy nomination and in an effort to maintain the integrity of the academy organization" decided against competing, Heigl said in a written statement provided by her publicist, Melissa Kates, who was contacted by the AP.
"In addition, I did not want to potentially take away an opportunity from an actress who was given such materials," added Heigl. She plays Dr. Izzie Stevens on "Grey's Anatomy," which slipped in the ratings this past season but remained a top 10 show.
An after-hours message left with a publicist for "Grey's Anatomy" creator and executive producer Shonda Rhimes was not immediately returned Wednesday night.
Heigl, who shot to box-office success last summer with the comedy "Knocked Up," has established herself as one of Hollywood's rare voices of candor.
In a Vanity Fair magazine interview published in January, she called the hit film "a little sexist" and said that it painted women as "shrews, as humorless and uptight," while the male characters were lovable and goofy.
Heigl also was outspoken when "Grey's" castmates Isaiah Washington and T.R. Knight clashed last year over Washington's alleged use of a homophobic slur.
"I'm going to be really honest right now, he needs to just not speak in public. Period," Heigl said at one point of Washington, who ended up being booted from the medical drama.
Nominations for the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced July 17. The ceremony is Sept. 21.