Summer movie preview

Welcome to summer, post-Blart. Excited? Hollywood is, primed by the momentum of an already booming box office.

As 2009’s first smash (Paul Blart: Mall Cop) showed, in times of crisis moviegoers just want to escape — and they’re not terribly discerning about where they escape to. Thus, such lunkheaded hits as Fast & Furious, Hannah Montana: The Movie, Knowing and Race to Witch Mountain.

That’s good news for studios, but bad news for discriminating film goers. Compare last year’s summer line-up — packed with such cross-demo offerings as The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Wall•E and Sex and the City — to this summer’s slate. Can

X-Men Origins: Wolverine really duplicate the dazzling heights of Iron Man? Does anyone think the new Transformers will resonate beyond clang-bang-metal mayhem?

Sure, there may be the odd surprise — J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek or Michael Mann’s Public Enemies — but by and large this is a summer made by the Blarts for the Blarts. Oh well.

So what will hit, and what will miss? Here are 10 we suspect will come up aces with audiences:

Star Trek

(May 8)

In 25 words or less: A vengeful Romulan screws with the space-time continuum so that the early adventures of Kirk and Spock aren’t exactly what fans remember.

Who’s in it: Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Karl Urban (McCoy), Eric Bana and some old dude named Leonard Nimoy.

Who’s directing: Geek god J.J. Abrams, who co-created Lost.

Why do we care? If Abrams can convince kids Trek is cool — thus why the Enterprise looks like an Apple store — then the franchise may well live long and prosper (at least for the already-announced sequel).

We’d pay to see ... William Shatner beam up to shoulder-flip Pine.

Angels & Demons

(May 15)

In 25 words or less: Symbologist Robert Langdon races to foil a plot against the Vatican by a secret society called the Illuminati.

Who’s in it: Tom Hanks, along with Ewan McGregor and Stellan Skarsgaard.

Who’s directing: Ron Howard. One of these pays for a dozen Frost/Nixons.

Why do we care? The Da Vinci Code was a sanctimonious bore, so why make a sequel? Because it still grossed $700 million worldwide, people.

We’d pay to see ... the Fonz turn up as Pope.

Terminator Salvation

(May 21)

In 25 words or less: Grown-up John Connor (Christian Bale) leads resistance fighters in a post-apocalyptic landscape overrun by terminators.

Who’s in it: Aside from Bale, newcomer Sam Worthington (whose character, Marcus, offers a potential link between man and machine), Bryce Dallas Howard and Helena Bonham Carter.

Who’s directing: The reviled McG (Charlie’s Angels) looking for a little street cred.

Why do we care? Bale. The script was rewritten by Jonah Nolan (The Dark Knight, Memento). And if audiences embrace a Terminator flick without creator James Cameron and star Arnold Schwarzenegger, it will mean new life for the series.

We’d pay to see ... a cameo by California’s governor. (And thanks to digital wizardry, we’ll get our wish.)

Up

(May 29)

In 25 words or less: Grumpy old man Carl Fredricksen (Ed Asner) ties thousands of balloons to his house and soars away, seeking adventure.

Who’s in it: The voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer and John Ratzenberger.

Who’s directing: Pete Docter and Bob Peterson.

Why do we care? Pixar hasn’t misfired yet, which makes this a can’t-miss proposition.

We’d pay to see ... whatever Pixar makes.

The Hangover

(June 5)

In 25 words or less: Three groomsmen lose the groom after a night of debauchery in Vegas.

Who’s in it: Up-and-comers Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis and still-hot Heather Graham.

Who’s directing: Todd Phillips (Old School).

Why do we care? Could be the sleeper comedy of the summer — which explains why the studio is already plotting a sequel.

We’d pay to see ... Rollergirl back in her skates.

Year One

(June 19)

In 25 words or less: Two Old Testament bumblers wander through Biblical times.

Who’s in it: Jack Black and Michael Cera, basically playing themselves. Along the way, they encounter such old favourites as Cain and Abel (David Cross and Paul Rudd) and Abraham and Isaac (Hank Azaria and Christopher Mintz-Plasse).

Who’s directing: Ghostbuster Harold Ramis.

Why do we care? Judd Apatow — he of the Midas touch — is the producer.

We’d pay to see ... this turn out to be more Superbad than Walk Hard.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

(June 24)

In 25 words or less: The Decepticons exact their revenge on Optimus Prime after the exhaust-pipe whipping they got in 2007.

Who’s in it: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel and robots. Lots and lots of robots.

Who’s directing: Michael Bay, who never met an explosion he didn’t think was “Awesome!”

Why do we care? The original earned $700 million worldwide and imprinted the small of Fox’s back on the minds of heterosexual men and bi-curious women everywhere.

We’d pay to see ... Shia get squashed.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

(July 15)

In 25 words or less: The boy wizard faces the gathering forces of evil. And his hormones.

Who’s in it: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and the rest of Britain.

Who’s directing: David Yates (The Order of the Phoenix), who will follow this with a two-part adaptation of the final book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Why do we care? You have to ask?

We’d pay to see ... them condense this thing to a brisk two hours.

G.I. Joe:

The Rise of Cobra

(August 7)

In 25 words or less: An elite military unit clashes with a nefarious organization known as Cobra. Based on the 1980s cartoon and toyline.

Who’s in it: Dennis Quaid (Gen. Hawk), Channing Tatum (Duke), Rachel Nichols (Scarlet), Cobra Commander (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Destro (Christopher Eccleston) and the Baroness (Sienna Miller).

Who’s directing: Stephen Sommers, architect of craptaculars The Mummy and Van Helsing.

Why do we care? Aside from Nichols and Miller in dueling skintight body-armour, we don’t. But if this rakes in nearly as much cash as Transformers, look for sequels for years to come.

We’d pay to see ... the Baroness finding ways of making us talk.

Inglourious Basterds

(August 21)

In 25 words or less: Pulp Fiction meets Valkyrie? We can hope.

Who’s in it: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, B.J. Novak, Diane Kruger, Samuel L. Jackson and — as an Allied general — Mike Myers.

Who’s directing: Quentin Tarantino, hoping to show he’s relevant even though it’s not 1994.

Why do we care? Because it sounds bloody and outrageous. Set in the Second World War, a band of Jewish-American soldiers enter German-occupied France looking to collect Nazi scalps.

We’d pay to see ... someone teach Tarantino how to spell.

Bea Arthur dies of cancer at 86

LOS ANGELES - Beatrice Arthur, the tall, deep-voiced actress whose razor-sharp delivery of comedy lines made her a TV star in the hit shows "Maude" and "The Golden Girls" and who won a Tony Award for the musical "Mame," died Saturday. She was 86.

Arthur died peacefully at her Los Angeles home with her family at her side, family spokesman Dan Watt said. She had cancer, Watt said, declining to give further details.

"She was a brilliant and witty woman," said Watt, who was Arthur's personal assistant for six years. "Bea will always have a special place in my heart."

Arthur first appeared in the landmark comedy series "All in the Family" as Edith Bunker's loudly outspoken, liberal cousin, Maude Finley. She proved a perfect foil for blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor), and their blistering exchanges were so entertaining that producer Norman Lear fashioned Arthur's own series.

In a 2008 interview with The Associated Press, Arthur said she was lucky to be discovered by TV after a long stage career, recalling with bemusement CBS executives asking about the new "girl."

"I was already 50 years old. I had done so much off-Broadway, on Broadway, but they said, 'Who is that girl? Let's give her her own series,"' Arthur said.

"Maude" scored with television viewers immediately on its CBS debut in September 1972, and Arthur won an Emmy Award for the role in 1977.

The comedy flowed from Maude's efforts to cast off the traditional restraints that women faced, but the series often had a serious base. Her TV husband Walter (Bill Macy) became an alcoholic, and she underwent an abortion, which drew a torrent of viewer protests. Maude became a standard bearer for the growing feminist movement in America.

The ratings of "Maude" in the early years approached those of its parent, "All in the Family," but by 1977 the audience started to dwindle. A major format change was planned, but in early 1978 Arthur announced she was quitting the show.

"It's been absolutely glorious; I've loved every minute of it," she said. "But it's been six years, and I think it's time to leave."

"Golden Girls" (1985-1992) was another groundbreaking comedy, finding surprising success in a television market increasingly skewed toward a younger, product-buying audience.

The series concerned three retirees - Arthur, Betty White and Rue McClanahan - and the mother of Arthur's character, Estelle Getty, who lived together in a Miami apartment. In contrast to the violent "Miami Vice," the comedy was nicknamed "Miami Nice."

As Dorothy Zbornak, Arthur seemed as caustic and domineering as Maude. She was unconcerned about the similarity of the two roles. "Look - I'm 5-feet-9, I have a deep voice and I have a way with a line," she told an interviewer. "What can I do about it? I can't stay home waiting for something different. I think it's a total waste of energy worrying about typecasting."

The interplay among the four women and their relations with men fuelled the comedy, and the show amassed a big audience and 10 Emmys, including two as best comedy series and individual awards for each of the stars.

In 1992, Arthur announced she was leaving "Golden Girls." The three other stars returned in "The Golden Palace," but it lasted only one season.

Arthur was born Bernice Frankel in New York City in 1922. When she was 11, her family moved to Cambridge, Md., where her father opened a clothing store. At 12 she had grown to full height, and she dreamed of being a petite blond movie star like June Allyson. There was one advantage of being tall and deep-voiced: She was chosen for the male roles in school plays.

Bernice - she hated the name and adopted her mother's nickname of Bea - overcame shyness about her size by winning over her classmates with wisecracks. She was elected the wittiest girl in her class. After two years at a junior college in Virginia, she earned a degree as a medical lab technician, but she "loathed" doing lab work at a hospital.

Acting held more appeal, and she enrolled in a drama course at the New School of Social Research in New York City. To support herself, she sang in a night spot that required her to push drinks on customers.

During this time she had a brief marriage that provided her stage name of Beatrice Arthur. In 1950, she married again, to Broadway actor and future Tony-winning director Gene Saks. They divorces in 1978.

After a few years in off-Broadway and stock company plays and television dramas, Arthur's career gathered momentum with her role as Lucy Brown in the 1955 production of "The Threepenny Opera."

In 2008, when Arthur was inducted in the TV Academy Hall of Fame, she pointed to the role as the highlight of her long career. "A lot of that had to do with the fact that I felt, 'Ah, yes, I belong here,"' Arthur said.

More plays and musicals followed, and she also sang in nightclubs and played small roles in TV comedy shows.

Then, in 1964, Harold Prince cast her as Yente the Matchmaker in the original company of "Fiddler on the Roof."

Arthur's biggest Broadway triumph came in 1966 as Vera Charles, Angela Lansbury's acerbic friend in the musical "Mame," directed by Saks. Richard Watts of the New York Post called her performance "a portrait in acid of a savagely witty, cynical and serpent-tongued woman."

She won the Tony as best supporting actress and repeated the role in the unsuccessful film version that also was directed by Saks, starring Lucille Ball as Mame. Arthur would play a variation of Vera Charles in "Maude" and "The Golden Girls."

In 1983, Arthur attempted another series, "Amanda's," an Americanized version of John Cleese's hilarious "Fawlty Towers." She was cast as owner of a small seaside hotel with a staff of eccentrics. It lasted a mere nine episodes.

Between series, Arthur remained active in films and theatre. Among the movies: "That Kind of Woman" (1959), "Lovers and Other Strangers" (1970), Mel Brooks' "The History of the World: Part I" (1981), "For Better or Worse" (1995).

The plays included Woody Allen's "The Floating Light Bulb" and "The Bermuda Avenue Triangle," written by and co-starring Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna. During 2001 and 2002 she toured the U.S. in a one-woman show of songs and stories, "... And Then There's Bea."

In 1999, Arthur told an interviewer of the three influences in her career: "Sid Caesar taught me the outrageous; (method acting guru) Lee Strasberg taught me what I call reality; and ("Threepenny Opera" star) Lotte Lenya, whom I adored, taught me economy."

In recent years, Arthur made guest appearances on shows including "Curb Your Enthusiasm" and "Malcolm in the Middle." She was chairwoman of the Art Attack Foundation, a non-profit performing arts scholarship organization.

Fans fixate on Beyonce as 'Obsessed' takes in $28M

LOS ANGELES – Audiences were in the mood for some fatal attraction action at the box office. Beyonce Knowles and Idris Elba's "Obsessed" debuted as the top weekend movie with $28.5 million in ticket sales. The Sony Screen Gems thriller stars Knowles and Elba as a couple whose ideal marriage lands on the rocks after a psychotic temp played by Ali Larter begins stalking the husband.

The strong opening for "Obsessed" helped maintain Hollywood's hot streak, with overall revenues at about $112 million, up 23.5 percent from the same weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

The busy summer season starts Friday with 20th Century Fox's spinoff "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," starring Hugh Jackman in the title role he played in three "X-Men" blockbusters.

Studios head into summer on a box-office tear, with receipts running at a record pace. Revenues for the year are at $3.06 billion, up 17.4 percent over last year. Factoring in higher ticket prices, movie attendance is up 15.7 percent.

"We have never been in this strong a position heading into the summer season, ever," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

Zac Efron's "17 Again" and Channing Tatum's "Fighting" were neck-and-neck for the No. 2 spot. With Sunday estimates of $11.7 million, the Warner Bros. comedy "17 Again" had the edge. After debuting in first-place a week earlier, "17 Again" raised its 10-day total to $40 million.

Rogue Pictures' "Fighting," starring Tatum and Terrence Howard in the story of a rising star in New York City's underground bare-knuckle fight circuit, debuted with $11.4 million.

The two movies were close enough that rankings could change when final numbers come out Monday.

Paramount's drama "The Soloist" opened at No. 4 with $9.7 million. It stars Jamie Foxx as a schizophrenic music prodigy living on the streets of Los Angeles and Robert Downey Jr. as a reporter who befriends him.

Disney's nature documentary "Earth" premiered in fifth place with $8.6 million, bringing its total to $14.2 million since opening Wednesday.

"Obsessed" was not screened in advance for critics, and those who reviewed it generally trashed the movie as a lame retread of 1987's "Fatal Attraction," which starred Glenn Close as a demented woman pursuing a married man, played by Michael Douglas.

But "Obsessed" had the lure of singer Knowles stepping out from her pop star image and duking it out with the crazy lady threatening her home and marriage.

"There's something about wanting to see Beyonce kick butt. She's taking on one wacked chick, played very well by Ali Larter," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "Let's face it, everyone loves Beyonce, and to see her in this role is a treat."

Documentaries rarely open in nationwide release or break into the top 10, but Disney aimed for a wide audience with "Earth," which traces families of polar bears, elephants and humpback whales over the course of a year.

Disney pledged to plant a tree for every viewer who sees the movie in the first week, with the number climbing to more than 2 million after five days. The film was tied to Earth Day and was the first release of the studio's Disneynature label.

"We just felt like if we make an event out of this, tied it to this whole plant-a-tree effort, tied it to Earth Day, maybe we could break the mold and come up with the kind of opening that you'd be satisfied with on a regular film," said Mark Zoradi, president of Disney's motion-picture group.

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. "Obsessed," $28.5 million.
2. "17 Again," $11.7 million.
3. "Fighting," $11.4 million.
4. "The Soloist," $9.7 million.
5. "Earth," $8.6 million.
6. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $8.5 million.
7. "State of Play," $6.9 million.
8. "Hannah Montana: The Movie," $6.4 million.
9. "Fast & Furious," $6.1 million.
10. "Crank: High Voltage," $2.4 million.

The Couch Potato Report - April 25th, 2009

This week The Couch Potato Report peels some stories from Toronto, a story about a wrestler, and the last picture show.

Over the years there have been many films made using some of the world's greatest cities as actual characters.

Eighteen of Paris' twenty subdivisions were featured in PARIS JE T'AIME, New York was the main character in most of Woody Allen's films, most notably MANHATTAN, London was a major part of the 1966 film BLOW-UP and The Beatles' A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, LA DOLCE VITA showed us Rome, and Steve Martin's spectacular 1991 comedy L.A. STORY co-starred Los Angeles.

And now the great Canadian city of Toronto has a film that allows it to be a character...and while it this film isn't as good as any of those other releases, it is still great to see a movie like this about one of our nation's cities.

The film is called TORONTO STORIES.

The film begins at Toronto's Pearson International Airport as a young immigrant boy arrives in the city, alone.

Before anyone can figure out who he is and where he is from, he disappears from their custody and manages to find his way downtown.

The rest of TORONTO STORIES is about the places that the kid ends up, and the film features four stories that only have the missing boy in common.

The stories feature two misfit kids trying to find an monster, a budding romance, an escaped con trying to reconnect with his girlfriend, and the final and best of the stories features Gil Bellow from ALLY MCBEAL and PASSCHENDAELE as a homeless man who sees the missing boy and tries to help him.

There are some great moments in TORONTO STORIES, some I really liked, and some stuff I considered to be absolutely awful, but the main complaint I have about is the fact that this movie could have taken place anywhere.

For me, a former decade long resident of the city, they just didn't capture Toronto, and shots of a streetcar, a few unique Toronto apartment buildings and house, and the CN Tower just don't cut it.

There is nothing disctinctly Torontonian about the film, other than the fact that it takes place there, but I still think that TORONTO STORIES has enough to recommend.

This is not a strong recommendation mind you, but the stories are short enough that they are over before you'll lose interest.

Just don't expect a travelogue of Toronto.

From a film that tells some stories from Toronto, let me now tell you a story about THE WRESTLER.

With the fact that his performance won him a Golden Globe and Independant Spirit Award, and garnered him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, I am sure that you have heard by now how Mickey Rourke's performance in this film is quite similar to his real life...a man who had everything and was at the top of his chosen profession who loses it all because of some bad decisions, and is now trying to repair some broken personal and professional fences...so I won't cover all of those bases again, but I will repeat something that I have been saying since this film first came out - I love it! This is a spectacular piece of work!

THE WRESTLER features characters I liked and rooted for, and the performances by Rourke, Marisa Tomei from BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOUR DEAD and MY COUSIN VINNY and Evan Rachel Wood from ACROSS THE UNIVERSE are all top notch!

THE WRESTLER is a great film, and so is Ron Howard's latest FROST/NIXON.

This movie is a very entertaining, and very dramatic retelling of the post-Watergate television interviews that took place between British talk-show host David Frost and former president Richard Nixon.

Michael Sheen gives a great performance as David Frost and Frank Langella received an Oscar nomination for his work as Richard Nixon.

In all, FROST/NIXON received five Academy Award nominations, and I think it is a spectacular film.

Richard Nixon is a notorious person, and I am sure FROST/NIXON won't be the last movie made about his life.

Christopher Wallace is also a person of some notoriety, especially if you like rap music.

Christopher George Latore Wallace gained popularity as Biggie Smalls - named after a fictional gangster in the 1975 film Let's Do It Again - was also known as Big Poppa, but his primary stage name was The Notorious B.I.G.

He was a guy from Brooklyn with a loose, easy way of rapping, and his dark semi-autobiographical lyrics and storytelling abilities were some of the best the music world has ever seen...in fact, MTV ranked him at #3 on their list of The Greatest MCs of All Time.

Then, on March 9, 1997, Biggie was killed by an unknown assailant in a still unsolved drive-by shooting in Los Angeles that many believe to this day was a result of the East Coast - West Coast Hip Hop Music Feud that was going on at the time.

NOTORIOUS is a film about how Christopher Wallace became The Notorious B.I.G.

NOTORIOUS was produced by Biggie's Mother, so at times it does paint this one-time drug dealer in too positive a light, but this film still worked for me, and I liked it.

However, unless you already know who Biggie, Lil Kim, Puff Daddy, Tupac, Faith Evans and Suge Knight are, you should stay away from it. It really is a film for people who already know who they are.

Just like CAPRICA is for people who already know, and love the re-boot of the television series BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

CAPRICA is a spin-off of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA and it is set 58 years before the events of that show.

This film, which is actually the pilot for a new televison series that will debut in 2010, is much more dramatic than GALACTICA and doesn't have much action, instead it focusses on two families - the Graystones and the Adamas - and some of the other people who live on a peaceful planet known as Caprica.

I found the made-in-Vancouver CAPRICA interesting at times, but it ceratinly wasn't as engaging as BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, and so it wasn't something that everyone needs to see.

However, if you already miss the now concluded BATTLESTAR GALACTICA...this might fill the void for you

Our final releases this week are some classic from the 1970s, and I enjoyed spending time with them again this week!

Especially director Peter Bogdanavich's Oscar winning 1971 release THE LAST PICTURE SHOW.

THE LAST PICTURE SHOW stars Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn and Randy Quaid and it remains a classic movie about what it is like to grow up in a very small town.

This newest version of it on DVD arrives as a two-disc set that also features Bogdanavich's 1976 release NICKELODEON.

That film is his tribute to the very early days of the motion picture industry.

NICKELODEON features a cast that includes Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, Tatum O'Neal, Stella Stevens and John Ritter, but it tries way too hard to make you like it, and never really succeeds. It isn't an awful movie, but the director mentions on the commentary track that it was a troubled picture and the plain fact is that it pales in comparison to THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, a film that still succeeds on almost every level even all these years since it's release.

And finally, can you believe it has been 35 years since the show RHODA debuted?

Rhoda Morgenstern was Mary Tyler Moore's neighbour in Minneapolis until she moved back to New York City on her own show, and yes, it was on September 9th, 1974 that it first aired.

And during that first season, Mary was even a guest star from time to time.

And now SEASON ONE of RHODA is available in a new 4-Disc 35th Anniversary Set, co-starring Julie Kavner from THE SIMPSONS as Rhoda's sister Brenda.

It was funny in 1974, and it is funny now, and SEASON ONE of the great show RHODA is now available on DVD...along with Peter Bogdonavich's classic film THE LAST PICTURE SHOW - in a two-disc set with NICKELODEON, the okay but not great BATTLESTAR GALACTICA prequel CAPRICA and the less-than-successful TORONTO STORIES, which could have used more Toronto.

The great for fans of rap music film NOTORIOUS, the Academy Award nominated FROST/NIXON and the great movie THE WRESTLER are available on DVD and in high definition on Blu-ray.

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

The Canadian film HONEY, I'M IN LOVE asks if you can you really forget the past and start anew after 40.

Michael J. Fox is back in SEASON TWO of SPIN CITY.

And The lovely Anne Hathaway stars alongside the lovely Kate Hudson in the ugly film BRIDE WARS

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!

Robert Rodriguez wields 'Machete'

Robert Rodriguez is ready to cut a wide swathe, and his plans include re-launching the "Predator" franchise for Fox and co-directing "Machete."

For the later, the filmmaker will create a feature out of the blade- wielding antihero who appeared in a mock trailer that was part of "Grindhouse."

Rodriguez is eyeing a June start date in Austin for "Machete," a film that is financed and produced by Overnight Productions, with Danny Trejo starring as the title character.

Machete is a Mexican ex-Federale with a gift for wielding a blade, who hides out as a day laborer, who is double-crossed by a corrupt state senator.

Rodriguez wrote the script and will direct the film with Ethan Maniquis, his longtime editor. The film is being produced by Rodriguez, Rick Schwartz of Overnight Productions and Aaron Kaufman.

Not immediately clear is whether Rodriguez and Overnight will find a way to use the irresistible marketing slogan that appeared in the "Grindhouse" trailer: "This time, they fucked with the wrong Mexican." It is the first non-studio movie that Rodriguez has directed since "El Mariachi."

For Fox, Rodriguez has scripted "Predators," a film that will bring back the dreadlock-sporting alien hunter who originated in the 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger hit "Predator." While a sequel didn't become a hit, Fox kept the alien sharp by launching the "Alien Vs. Predator," a wildly profitable series that has racked up strong grosses and DVD sales, wit little or no gross out the door.

While Rodriguez juggles these projects, he's also directing his script "Nerveracker" for Dimension Films, with Bob Weinstein setting a 2010 release for the futuristic action thriller.

New Live Nirvana DVD in the Works

Nirvana's performance at England's Reading Festival on August 30, 1992 is legendary. But it's not one of those "hey, it's Nirvana and everything they did is legendary" deals. The much-bootlegged set saw Kurt Cobain refuting illness rumors by slyly entering the stage in a wheelchair and hospital gown before tearing the festival into teeny tiny bits. Some rudimentary Googling and YouTubing can give you a pretty good idea of the spectacle, but as NME reports, an official DVD of the performance is on the way.

Universal plans to release the disc in November, and NME reports that it has been "officially sanctioned by the remaining members of the band" and features some never-before-seen footage. Opportunistic stocking stuffer or painstaking reissue of an essential rock'n'roll document? Time will tell.

Well Done Warners!

Warner Home Video has just launched an online program to help all those of you who many purchased their previously released HD-DVD titles replace them with new Blu-ray versions.

All you have to do is go to www.red2blu.com and select the titles you wish to exchange (1 per HD-DVD title), then you mail the HD-DVD cover artwork only back to Warner along with $4.95 (per disc) to cover shipping and handling.

They'll send you back the title in question on Blu-ray within 4-6 weeks. This way, you get to keep the HD-DVD disc, but you also get to upgrade to Blu.

Not bad...Universal should do this too!!

Bruce Springsteen photo raffle to benefit FoodBank of New Jersey

HILLSIDE, N.J. - Help fight hunger and you just might end up with a rare Bruce Springsteen photo.

Vintage shots of the famous rocker will be awarded to 14 lucky fans who make donations of $25 or more to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey.

Some of the biggest names in rock photography are participating and will sign prints for the winners. The photographers have made iconic images of Springsteen, including the album covers for "Born to Run," "Darkness on the Edge of Town," "Born in the U.S.A.," "The Rising" and other Springsteen albums.

Once 14,000 donations have been made to the food bank, 14 fans will be chosen at random to each receive a print. The contest starts Thursday morning. Fans can enter at www.backstreets.com/hunger.

Out of tune: global music sales tumble

Global music sales have plunged more than eight per cent in 2008 compared to the year before, according to a record industry organization.

The IFPI, which represents most of the world's music labels including giants such as Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and EMI, says the drop is partly due to the lower price of downloads over the internet.

Sales of CDs and vinyl were hit hard, dropping by 15 per cent.

Meanwhile sales of digital formats like MP3s and ringtones grew by 24 per cent worldwide. However, people who download tend to take single songs rather than entire albums.

And record companies got a massive boost in monies from music used on radio, TV and being played in public.

Asia provided a small bright spot with sales up slightly by one per cent.

The IFPI says any boost they got was not enough to make up for the loss in overall music sales.

Lego Rock Band Coming to PS3, Wii and Xbox 360

There is no typo in that headline. Lego and Rock Band are joining forces in Lego Rock Band which is currently in development at TT Games in partnership with Harmonix for PS3, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.

Lego Rock Band is targeting younger and family-centric audiences who might have shied away from big brother Rock Band.

The use of Lego in Rock Band will allow players to "build" their band from their own personal avatar to the manager, crew and even roadies. Expect Lego's trademark humor found in previously licensed properties to make an appearance as well.

The first screens are below so please click to enlarge for high-res versions. Look for Lego Rock Band in stores this fall.

Louis-Dreyfus wants 'Seinfeld' film

Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus is ready to revive the hit 1990s sitcom for the big screen - after reuniting with her former castmates for guest spots on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Seinfeld fans will get a teaser when Louis-Dreyfus and her former TV co-stars Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards appear together in a number of shows for the upcoming season of Larry David's comedy series.

Returning to the set with her former colleagues brought back fond memories for the actress, 11 years after Seinfeld came to an end in 1998 following a nine-season run.

She tells People.com, "It was wonderful. It was like we never left to be honest with you - so that part of it was quite surreal."

Louis-Dreyfus admits she is keen to reprise her role as Elaine, one of Seinfeld's zany sidekicks, in a movie adaptation of the show - and she's already got some big plans for her character.

She tells reporters, "You get the financing together and I'll work on the script... I would say she'd just be getting out of prison."

Ron James comedy, skating reality show set for CBC-TV schedule

New shows featuring comedian Ron James as well as figure skaters and hockey players taking part in a reality competition will join returning programs like Being Erica and Rick Mercer Report on CBC-TV's new schedule.

The public broadcaster announced new additions to its upcoming fall-winter 2009 programming lineup in a statement issued Tuesday.

For the fall, James is set to offer up his observational comedy in The Ron James Show, while Battle of the Blades will see teams of Canadian figure skaters and hockey stars matched to compete each week in an elimination-style challenge.

Also debuting in the fall will be Super Speller, a competition show for young Canadians hosted by CBC personality Evan Solomon.

Two new shows will premiere during the winter: 18 to Life, a domestic comedy about a couple who marry at 18, and The Republic of Doyle, a one-hour, St. John's-set dramatic comedy about a dysfunctional father-son private investigator team.

Along with Being Erica and Mercer Report, returning to the schedule are The Border, Little Mosque on the Prairie, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, The Tudors, Dragons' Den, Heartland, Coronation Street and The Hour.

In March, CBC announced it would produce fewer episodes of some of its prime-time shows, such as 22 Minutes, Little Mosque and Being Erica, due to overall programming cuts.

Wild Roses cancelled

Wild Roses, the Calgary-based drama about two families duelling over oil, has been cancelled, CBC spokesman Jeff Keay confirmed. Rumours of the show's demise had spread of late, with a group of fans banding together on Facebook to sing its praises in an attempt to save it.

The cancellation of Wild Roses follows that of two-year-old sitcom Sophie and long-running runway chronicle Fashion File, announced in March. Daytime lifestyle chat show Steven & Chris was placed on indefinite hiatus.

There are also no current plans for another instalment of the reality series The Week the Women Went, "but that's really more a function of the fact that we have some resource issues," Keay said, citing "funding reductions" that will also scuttle new editions of occasional, one-off programs such as Test The Nation.

"We'll have more announcements later this summer," he said, adding that there are currently no changes planned for the summer schedule.

CSI movie in the works, says former star, producer Petersen

TV's CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is heading to the movies, according to executive producer and former star William Petersen.

The actor, whose paternal forensic investigator Gil Grissom left the drama earlier this season, told the U.K.'s Radio Times that a movie featuring the Las Vegas team is in the works.

Petersen, who has since returned to the theatre world, acknowledged that some fans might feel "a little trepidatious" about the prospect of a CSI film project.

"Usually people leave it till a series has finished — they did that with The X-Files and Sex and the City," he told the magazine.

"But it's about finding the right story…You don't just do it because you want to make money. You do it because there's a story that can't be told on TV and needs to be told from CSI's perspective, and the audience wants it," Petersen said.

"And we can't wait for CSI to end or Grissom will be about 90."

Petersen had previously expressed a desire to see a CSI movie, quipping "that's the real reason Grissom isn't going to die of a brain tumour."

Having portrayed the show's lead investigator since the series debut in 2000, Petersen made his exit this season — the show's 10th — paving the way for Emmy and Tony Award-winning film, TV and stage actor Laurence Fishburne to join the cast of the top-rated forensics drama.

Petersen has since joined Chicago's celebrated Steppenwolf Theatre Company as a member of its acting ensemble.

Adults steering clear of movies As Recession forces studios to aim younger

Pricey, star-driven thrillers and dramas will struggle for profitability as the recession intensifies a trend toward youth-dominated openings.

That's the consensus after the weekend's soft opening for Universal's Russell Crowe starrer, the latest in a series of misfires by adult-oriented releases. Investigative-journo thriller "State of Play" rung up just $14.1 million over its first frame, meaning the Americanized adaptation of a British miniseries must overperform dramatically overseas for the $60 million production to break even.

The pic's travails reflect this rude awakening in Hollywood: Older demos may be resisting the recent enthusiasm for moviegoing. Certainly it's been months since anything has caught fire at the arthouses.

But it's the ill-fated outings of studios' highest-profile adult fare that's stirred the most concern.

"Not as many adults are going to the movies because of the recession," a highly placed studio exec lamented. "More and more, it's the kids who come out and support the pictures over opening weekend and not as much the older adults."

The good news is that ticket sales are pacing ahead of last year's by a healthy single-digit percentage, and boxoffice is up by a double-digit margin on a calendar-year basis. In fact, the market has been so robust it can produce even the odd adult-driven success: Fox's Liam Neeson starrer "Taken" -- produced for under $30 million -- rang up $218 million in worldwide boxoffice after unspooling in January.

"The success of 'Taken' has a lot to do with the audience rooting so hard for Liam Neeson to find his daughter in the picture," Fox distribution president Bruce Snyder said. "The audience involvement is great. That personal involvement doesn't happen often with these kind of movies. It's more common in the younger movies, but that emotional note is important to hit."

Marketing also figures prominently in any success or failure at the boxoffice.

"Adults are a harder audience to motivate, and the problem with some adult movies is compounded by their not being high-concept films that you can boil down to 30-second spots," a top studio exec said. "With 'Taken,' it was, 'You took my kid, motherfucker, and you're going to pay.' "

A succession of adult-oriented boxoffice laggards has been noticeable for at least six months, though the trend was in evidence with 2007's critically lauded but commercially constrained "Michael Clayton." Warner Bros. rung up less than $93 million worldwide with the George Clooney starrer.

More recently, Uni absorbed a bottom-line hit with its recent Julia Roberts-Clive Owen starrer "Duplicity," a mere $39 million domestic performer through five frames that's unlikely to compensate with outsized foreign coin. Warners registered a similar sum with the thriller "Body of Lies" -- an October opener starring Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio that overperformed only modestly overseas -- while Sony's political thriller "The International" unspooled over Valentine's Day and raked in less than $50 million worldwide.

With films like "State of Play," critical praise is nice but goes only so far. If the kids don't take notice, then it's fingers-crossed for a successful DVD release to stanch some of the inevitable red ink -- though adult thrillers also have been a tough sell on shiny disc.

The worrisome trend is likely to put additional pressure on studios to rein in production costs on adult-skewing films where possible, including talent deals.

"If these things were made for a reasonable cost, it wouldn't be a problem," a studio exec groused.

"Not a lot of them break through," acknowledged another top distribution exec. "With an R-rating you're playing to an older audience, and the subject matter has to be something besides politics. People at the moment are kind of fed up with that stuff."

Warners hit big last year with Clint Eastwood's older-skewing but leggy "Gran Torino," a neighborhood-vigilante tale of personal redemption. Like the avenging-father thriller "Taken," "Torino" was a crowd-pleaser with emotional wallop. The pic grossed $237 million worldwide.

"Material-wise, I thought 'State of Play' was too 'been there, done that,'" a studio exec mused.

The comment echoed sentiment heard repeatedly last week when pre-release interest in the pic prompted forecasts for a limp "Play" bow.

"The opening was better than expected," a Uni publicist noted Monday.

Da Vinci Code sequel set for September

The Lost Symbol, the long-delayed Dan Brown thriller featuring Robert Langdon, the protagonist from The Da Vinci Code, will be in bookstores in September.

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group announced at the London International Book Fair on Monday that Brown's first book since The Da Vinci Code was published six years ago will hit the shelves Sept. 15 with an initial English-language print run of five million copies.

It was originally scheduled to be published in 2005.

Jason Kaufman, executive editor of Doubleday, said the story unfolds over a 12-hour period and follows Harvard symbologist Langdon "through a masterful and unexpected landscape."

In a press release, the American author said he spent five years researching the book. "Robert Langdon's life clearly moves a lot faster than mine," Brown added.

The Da Vinci Code, Brown's fourth novel, was a publishing phenomenon with 81 million hardcover copies in print. The British paperback edition spent more than two years in the Sunday Times Top 10 bestsellers' list, with 68 weeks in the top place, and is Britain's bestselling paperback novel to date. It has been translated into 51 languages.

It also took some heat for its portrayal of the Catholic Church and its license with facts.

After The Da Vinci Code's publication, Brown's earlier novels Angels and Demons, Deception Point and Digital Fortress went on to become international bestsellers.

The 2006 film, The Da Vinci Code, starring Tom Hanks, was a No. 1 box office hit, with receipts of $758 million US. Columbia Pictures will release Angels and Demons on May 15.

New Releases, April 21: Depeche Mode, Jane's Addiction, Pet Shop Boys, Ron White, Black Label Society, more

Depeche Mode "Sounds of the Universe" (Mute)

The legendary British modern-rock troupe is set to unveil its 12th studio album. The 13-track set was produced by Ben Hiller, who also helmed the band's 2005 release, "Playing the Angel."

The first single from "Sounds of the Universe" is the track "Wrong," which was released to radio early last month.

These new-wave pioneers will support the album with a worldwide trek dubbed "Tour of the Universe." The North American portion of the journey is set to begin July 24 in Toronto and will include a stop at Chicago's mammoth Lollapalooza festival, which runs Aug. 7-9.

* * *
Jane's Addiction "Cabinet of Curiosities" (Rhino)

The newly reunited alt-rock icons are ready to treat its fans to a "Cabinet of Curiosities." This box-set includes three CDs and a DVD, bundled together in a case that--quite appropriately--resembles a wooden cabinet.

The first CD features unreleased demos recorded from 1986-87. The second disc also includes demos, as well as previously unreleased live tracks and covers of songs originally recorded by the Grateful Dead, The Stooges and Led Zeppelin, among others. Also featured on the second disc is a live mash-up of sorts called "Bobhouse," that features the lyrics to Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone" over the music from Bauhaus' "Burning From the Inside." The third CD in the set features a live show recorded in December of 1990.

Having kick-started its reunion at the invite-only Playboy Party held during last month's South by Southwest festival in Austin, TX, Jane's Addiction is now set to spend May and June on the road. The tour, a co-headlining jaunt with Nine Inch Nails, will begin May 8 in West Palm Beach, FL. The band will also perform in August at Lollapalooza, the event that was originally founded by Jane's Addiction vocalist, Perry Farrell.

* * *
Pet Shop Boys "Yes" (Astralwerks)

The electronic/dance/pop band, which has sold more than 50 million records worldwide, is back in action with its 10th studio disc. "Yes" is the Pet Shop Boy's first offering since 2006's "Fundamental," although the group did release one remix effort, 2007's "Disco 4," during that break.

The new album was produced by Brian Higgins' crack team, Xenomania, which also co-wrote three tracks on the set. Guitar great Johnny Marr (The Smiths, Modest Mouse) guests on "Yes." The first single is the track "Love etc."

* * *
Ron White "Behavioral Problems" (Capitol)

The mega-popular funnyman, who has made millions laugh with his appearances on Comedy Central, returns with a new live disc that features 27 comedic bits. This CD follows several other successful endeavors for White, who also can put New York Times Best Seller List author and Gold-certified recording artist on his resume.

* * *
Black Label Society "Skullage" (Eagle)

While awaiting a proper studio follow-up to 2006's "Shot to Hell," Black Label's society of fans can pass the time by listening to this new compilation disc. Fans can also hear many of these tracks, no doubt, during Black Label Society's current North American tour.

* * *
More new releases:
Beegie Adair, "Moments to Remember" (Green Hill)
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, "How Big Can You Get?--The Music of Cab Calloway" (Vanguard)
Camera Obscura, "My Maudlin Career" (4ad)
Chester French, "Love the Future" (Interscope)
Empire of the Sun, "Walking on a Dream" (Astralwerks)
Dan Fogelberg, "Live in Colorado 1977" (Store for Music)
Great White, "Rising" (Shrapnel)
Jars Of Clay, "The Long Fall Back to Earth" (Provident)
Booker T. Jones, "Potato Hole" (Anti)
Lacuna Coil, "Shallow Life" (Century Media)
Manchester Orchestra, "Mean Everything to Nothing" (Sony)
Mormon Tabernacle Choir, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" (Mormon Tabernacle)
Rick Ross, "Deeper Than Rap" (Def Jam)
Tinted Windows, "Tinted Windows" (S-Curve)
Allen Toussaint, "The Bright Mississippi" (Nonesuch)

Green Day Announces Summer Tour

Green Day has announced a slate of 38 summer dates that begins July 3 in Seattle and marks the chart-topping rock band's first full North American tour in more than three years.

The summer trek, which will support the trio's May 15 album "21st Century Breakdown" (Reprise Records), heads clockwise through Canada and the U.S. The band plays Midwest, East Coast and southern dates before finishing up in Los Angeles on Aug. 25. Venues will be announced at a later date.

The new album, which follows 2004's Billboard 200-topping "American Idiot," was produced by Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins); the first single, "Know Your Enemy," was released to radio April 16. As Billboard previously reported, Green Day will celebrate the release with a show at New York's Bowery Ballroom on May 18.

Here are Green Day's tour dates:

July 3: Seattle, Wash.
July 4: Vancouver, British Columbia
July 6: Edmonton, Alberta
July 7: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
July 9: Winnipeg, Manitoba
July 10: Fargo, ND
July 11: Minneapolis, Minn.
July 13: Chicago, Ill.
July 14: Detroit, Mich.
July 16: Hamilton, Ont.
July 17: Ottawa, Ont.
July 18: Montreal, Quebec
July 20: Boston, Mass.
July 21: Philadelphia, Penn.
July 22: Pittsburgh, Penn.
July 24: Hartford, Conn.
July 25: Albany, NY
July 27: New York, NY
July 29: Washington, DC
July 31: Nashville, Tenn.
Aug. 1: Atlanta, GA
Aug. 3: Tampa, Fla.
Aug. 4: Miami, Fla.
Aug. 5: Orlando, Fla.
Aug. 7: New Orleans, LA
Aug. 8: Houston, TX
Aug. 9: San Antonio, TX
Aug. 11: St. Louis, MO
Aug. 12: Kansas City, MO
Aug. 13: Omaha, Neb.
Aug. 15: Denver, Colo.
Aug. 16: Salt Lake City, Utah
Aug. 18: San Jose, Calif.
Aug. 20: San Diego, Calif.
Aug. 21: Las Vegas, Nev.
Aug. 22: Phoenix, Ariz.
Aug. 24: Sacramento, Calif.
Aug. 25: Los Angeles, Calif.

Summer heroes: Wolverine, Kirk & Spock, Potter

LOS ANGELES – What a who's who list Hollywood has lined up for its summer action spectacles: Wolverine. Transformers. Harry Potter. James Kirk. G.I. Joe. Terminator.

If there's one word to sum up it all up, it's this: Relentless.

Starting May 1, barely a weekend will pass without another brawny special-effects extravaganza landing in theaters.

Appropriately, summer starts with a couple of prequels.

After co-starring in three "X-Men" adventures about the Marvel Comics mutants, Hugh Jackman steps out from the pack for "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." The film spins the back story of Jackman's metal-clawed loner, a military experiment gone rogue amid a government conspiracy to control his super-freak kinfolk.

Next, the starship Enterprise is relaunched in "Star Trek," with a new cast taking on the characters originated in the 1960s TV show. Chris Pine inherits William Shatner's role as dashing James Kirk, while Zachary Quinto plays Vulcan egghead Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who created the role, pops up as the older Spock).

Like "Star Trek" director J.J. Abrams, Pine grew up more a "Star Wars" kid than a "Star Trek" kid. After snagging the role, Pine started watching the original series but stopped halfway through the first season.

"It was kind of nice to familiarize myself with the world, but it didn't help me much at all to delve any deeper," Pine said. "If anything, it was a hindrance to kind of watch what Mr. Shatner had done, because he'd done it so well, and he was so specific.

"There were certain mannerisms that I think are definitely Kirk-ian things that I wanted to use in my portrayal, but for the most part, I wanted to free myself up to create something new."

The director of the final four "Harry Potter" movies, David Yates, is still giving thanks for the young cast he inherited, led by Daniel Radcliffe as boy wizard Harry and Emma Watson and Rupert Grint as his school pals.

"There was something very, very, very clever in their choices. Not a day goes by I'm not grateful for this bunch they put together," Yates said. "It's a remarkable bunch of kids."

In "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," Harry is charged with uncovering a forgotten memory from a new Hogwarts teacher (Jim Broadbent), information the young sorcerer needs for his final showdown against dark wizard Voldemort.

While Yates marvels over how his youthful cast has blossomed, "Transformers" director Michael Bay was thrilled over the improved acting chops of his computer-animated robots for the sequel.

"We were just touching the surface last time in what they're capable of doing," Bay said. "This time, they really emote."

"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" reunites puny but plucky human Shia LaBeouf with his giant, shape-shifting Autobot buddies in a rematch against the evil Decepticon robot clan.

Also in a rematch are Tom Hanks and Ron Howard with "Angels & Demons," their follow-up to "The Da Vinci Code." This installment hurls Hanks' symbologist into an ancient feud between the Vatican and a secret brotherhood that has kidnapped the cardinals in line to become the next pope.

Howard felt less pressure this time adapting Dan Brown's best-seller than he had with "The Da Vinci Code," a literary phenomenon whose did-Christ-have-kids premise put the movie under a severe microscope by fans and detractors alike.

"Documentaries are being made about `Da Vinci Code.' Theologians develop symposiums around it. Ministers were using it as a way to, frankly, entice people to church," Howard said, adding that the new film "remains provocative, yes, but it doesn't hold that same place at the center of the zeitgeist. So it's really full-on escapism.

Other action highlights:

• "Terminator: Salvation": Christian Bale leads the last shreds of humanity against machine enemies as the franchise reboots without Arnold Schwarzenegger.

• "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra": The action figures get their own movie as the G.I. Joe guys take on an arms dealer and a militant secret organization.

• "Inglourious Basterds": Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino resurrect "Dirty Dozen"-style action as Jewish soldiers dish out chaos among the Nazis.

• "Public Enemies": Johnny Depp is gangster John Dillinger and Christian Bale is G-Man Melvin Purvis in Michael Mann's Depression-era crime saga.

• "The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" — The remake casts Denzel Washington as a subway dispatcher and John Travolta as a bad guy ransoming a trainload of passengers.

• "Drag Me to Hell": "Spider-Man" director Sam Raimi returns to his "Evil Dead" roots with a horror tale about a bank employee (Alison Lohman) tormented by a vengeful customer's supernatural curse.

• "District 9": "Lord of the Rings" overlord Peter Jackson produces a sci-fi tale about a human who becomes an unlikely ally for aliens held in a South African ghetto.

Efron turns '17 Again' into No. 1 hit with $24M

LOS ANGELES – Zac Efron has taken the box-office crown from his Disney teammate Miley Cyrus.

Efron's comedy "17 Again," in which he plays the youthful version of a middle-aged man magically transformed to high school age, debuted as the top weekend movie with $24.1 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The No. 1 opening for the Warner Bros. movie solidifies the big-screen potential for Efron, who rose to fame with Disney's "High School Musical" series.

"There's no question that Zac's a star," said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros. "He's such a hardworking, talented individual. He certainly has given his all to promote this movie."

Universal had the No. 2 movie with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck's Washington thriller "State of Play," which pulled in $14.1 million. Crowe plays a reporter investigating a series of deaths linked to an old college friend (Affleck) who's now a rising star in Congress.

Cyrus' "Hannah Montana: The Movie" slipped from first place to fourth with $12.7 million. That lifted the domestic total for Cyrus' movie spinoff of her Disney Channel show to $56.1 million after 10 days in theaters.

"Hannah Montana" finished just behind DreamWorks Animation's "Monsters vs. Aliens," which took in $12.9 million to raise its domestic haul to $162.7 million.

Estimates for "Hannah Montana" and "Monsters vs. Aliens" were close enough that the movies could switch rankings when final numbers are reported Monday.
Jason Statham had a so-so opening for his action sequel "Crank: High Voltage," which came in at No. 6 with $6.5 million, $4 million less than the first weekend for the 2006 original.

The Lionsgate sequel features Statham in a race to recover his heart, which has been stolen by organ thieves and replaced with a mechanical one.

Hollywood maintained a record box-office pace with just one weekend to go before the busy summer season arrives May 1 with "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," Hugh Jackman's spinoff of the blockbuster "X-Men" franchise.

Overall revenues were at $112 million, up nearly 20 percent from the same weekend last year, according to box-office tracker Media By Numbers.

For the year, Media By Numbers is tracking receipts at $2.92 billion, 17.3 percent ahead of 2008's and well above the box-office pace of 2007, when Hollywood took in a record $9.7 billion. Accounting for higher ticket prices, movie attendance this year is up 15.6 percent compared to last year's.

The movie business is poised to top $10 billion at the box office for the first time in 2009, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

"It's going to be a record year, because we've never had a start to a year this strong," Dergarabedian said. "Unless the world goes off its axis and spins into the sun, I don't see how we're not going to have a $10 billion year."

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. "17 Again," $24.1 million.
2. "State of Play," $14.1 million.
3. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $12.9 million.
4. "Hannah Montana: The Movie," $12.7 million.
5. "Fast & Furious," $12.3 million.
6. "Crank: High Voltage," $6.5 million.
7. "Observe and Report," $4.1 million.
8. "Knowing," $3.5 million.
9. "I Love You, Man," $3.4 million.
10. "The Haunting in Connecticut," $3.2 million.

Actor's union board endorses deal with studios

LOS ANGELES – The Screen Actors Guild's board of directors has voted to recommend that members approve a deal reached with Hollywood studios on movie and prime-time TV show productions.

The Guild says in a statement that the plan approved by board members Sunday would give members a 3 percent wage increase upon ratification and a 3.5 percent increase in the two-year agreement's second year. Members would also get a 0.5 percent pension and health contribution increase.

The new deal follows the Internet provisions earlier agreed to by writers, directors and another actors union. The Guild had waged a yearlong battle for better Internet compensation.

The Guild's interim national executive director David White says in the statement that the union is eager to get members back to work.

The Couch Potato Report - April 18th, 2009

This week The Couch Potato Report peels a Genie Award winning film, two Academy Award winning films, and offers doubt.

I have two very serious films to begin with this week, both of them are about the Holocaust and both of them are very different.

The Oscar winning film THE READER in a moment, but first the Canadian made, Genie Award winning film FUGITIVE PIECES.

FUGITIVE PIECES is based on the book of the same name by Toronto's Anne Michaels that was first published in 1996.

The film begins in 1942 in Poland as a young boy named Jakob witnesses the slaughter of his family by Nazi soldiers.

Jakob escapes into the nearby woods where a sympathetic Greek archeologist finds him buried under some leaves and smuggles him out of Poland to Greece.

Eventually the pair move to Toronto.

FUGITIVE PIECES is a movie about the Holocaust, and so it has some very powerful scenes, but it is also a film about people, relationships, and how you have to give love to get love.

Its a good movie!

FUGITIVE PIECES was nominated in six categories at this year's Genie Awards - which are given out each year to recognize the best of Canadian cinema - and it won the Award for Best Cinematography.

It is a smart and interesting movie, and I easily recommend it.

I also recommend this week's other Holocaust film, even though I didn't like THE READER as much as FUGITIVE PIECES, but even so...THE READER is also a smart, intelligent film with some spectacular performances, mainly the one from Kate Winslet in the role that finally won her an Oscar for Best Picture after four previous nominations.

THE READER is primarily about Michael Berg. We meet him in 1995 Berlin where he has become a German lawyer, and as a teenager in the late 1950s who meets and has an affair with an older woman.

She likes it when he reads to her.

Kate Winslet plays Hanna Schmitz, who disappears from the boys life one day only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in World War II.

As a Law student studying the trials Michael realizes - long after the audience does if you are paying attention - that Hanna is keeping a secret that she believes is worse than her Nazi past.

It is a secret that could set her free.

While her performance is great, and the rest of the cast - which also includes Ralph Finnes - is also above average, I still don't think that Kate Winslet gave her best ever performance in THE READER...but the Academy did, and backstage at this years Oscars she was absolutely beaming after receiving her Award.

Up next this week is a film that received five nominations this year, but left with no Oscars...writer/director John Patrick Shanley's film DOUBT, based on his play of the same name.

DOUBT is set in 1964 and Meryl Streep stars as a nun who confronts a priest after suspecting him of abusing a student.

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Brendan Flynn.

The Father denies the charges, and a young naive nun - played by Amy Adams - isn't sure what to believe.

DOUBT takes on themes of religion, morality, and it is a well-written, incredibly acted film.

I highly recommend this film too...of that I have no doubt.

Of this next film, I have plenty of doubt...I am not even 100% sure how to say the name of the film...and I didn't even see the title or an explanation of it in the film.

I had to go online and do more than a few searches to find out that Vinyan is a spirit world for souls unable to rest because of untimely deaths.

Anyway...this next film is spelled v-i-n-y-a-n and I am pronouncing it VINYAN.

VINYAN features a rich couple whose young son disappeared during the infamous Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

One night at a party, the mother is convinced that she sees her boy on a video shot in Burma, and so they set off on a journey that will take them couple deep into the harsh jungles.

The locations and sets in VINYAN are all unique to look at, and for a time there is enough happening in the film to keep you interested at the start and ending...but the slow and horribly boring middle part of it ultimately makes this film unworthy of your time.

VINYAN isn't a complete waste of time...but of all the films this week, it comes the closest.

So lets move on to this week's BLU-RAY BEACON...a film that won the Academy Award in 2003 for Best Original song...8 MILE.

8 MILE is the 2002 film starring rapper Eminem.

He gives a great performance as a man struggling with every aspect of his life, who is hoping to take what might be his final opportunity at being someone, but his life and the people around him are casing him problems and filling his head with doubts.

8 MILE's debut on High Definition looks and sounds great, but unfortunately this is the same edition that came out on DVD a few years back, with absolutely no new bonus features.

That said, the film is still as good as it has always been, so if you are a fan of underdog stories or Eminem himself...this one is for you!

The great films 8 MILE, DOUBT and THE READER are all available on Blu-ray and DVD.

The not great film VINYAN and the very good Canadian film FUGITIVE PIECES are both available only on DVD.


Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

The movie TORONTO STORIES features several stories about different lives over the course of 48 hours in Toronto.

Also next week, the BATTLESTAR GALACTICA prequel CAPRICA, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, SEASON ONE of the television show RHODA, Mickey Rourke's Oscar nominated peformance in THE WRESTLER, and Ron Howard's FROST/NIXON.

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!

Yes Team With Asia For Super-Prog Summer Tour

The proggiest tour of all time, Yes with special guests Asia, is hitting the road this summer. For prog fans the enormous implications of this tour are quite clear. For others, imagine Wings opening up for the Beatles or the Justice League taking up music and hitting the road. It’s that big. Steve Howe, who plays guitar in both groups, will be doing double duty during the show. Also onstage will be members of King Crimson, Emerson Lake and Palmer, the Buggles, two others members of Yes, the son of former Yes keyboardist Rick Wakeman and the lead singer of a Yes cover band.

As ludicrous as all this sounds, think back to the winter of 1983. Asia’s debut single “The Heat of The Moment” had been all over the radio for a year, and Yes had just reformed and released “Owner Of A Lonely Heart.” Meanwhile, Genesis and Rush had been scoring massive hits with songs about 1/3 the length of their 1970s work. Prog had gone pop and the American public couldn’t have loved it more. Needless to say, the bands not led by Phil Collins soon found it impossible to land songs on the radio and the whole thing fizzled. The intensely loyal prog audience (particularly in the case of Rush) has allowed these bands to tour ever since — but to the best of my knowledge a supergroup has never opened up for the group it spawned from. It’s practically a prog paradox. Tour dates below:

June 26 - Indio, CA @ Fantasy Springs Casino
June 27 - Las Vegas, NV @ Thomas & Mack Center
June 30 - Snoqualmie, WA @ Snoqualmie Casino
July 2 - San Francisco, CA @ Warfield
July 3 - Saratoga, CA @ The Mountain Winery
July 7 - Los Angeles @ Gibson Amphitheatre at City Walk
July 8 - San Diego @ Humphrey’s
July 9 - Phoenix @ Dodge
July 12 - Denver @ Paramount Theatre
July 14 - Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
July 15 - Ft. Worth, TX @ Bass Music Center
July 16 - Muskegee, OK @ Civic Center
July 18 - Walker, MN @ Moondance Jam
July 20 - Detroit @ DTE Energy Music Theatre
July 21 - Pittsburgh @ Chevrolet Amphitheatre
July 22 - Glen Allen, VA @ Insbrook Pavilion
July 23 - National Harbour, MD @ Sunset Concerts
July 25 - Cohassett, MA @ South Shore Music Circus
July 26 - Jackson, NJ @ Great Adventure Amphitheatre
July 28 - Philadelphia @ Tower Theatre
July 29 - Montclair, NJ @ Wellmont Theatre
July 31 - Westbury, NY @ Theatre at Westbury
Aug. 1 - Jamestown, NY @ Savings Bank Arena
Aug. 2 - Bethlehem, PA @ Muskfest

Record Store Day celebrates indie retailers

PORTLAND, Maine – Despite the success of online retailers, explosion of Internet downloads and high-profile closings of Virgin Megastores and Tower Records stores, bricks-and-mortar record stores aren't all spinning toward oblivion.

Although hundreds of independent music retailers have gone out of business in recent years, about 2,000 are still around, and many are thriving.

The survivors will celebrate Saturday, as acts such as Erykah Badu and Franz Ferdinand gather to pay homage to the hometown record store.

Record Store Day was the idea of Chris Brown, a long-haired, goateed music guru from Bull Moose, a chain of 10 record stores in Maine and New Hampshire.
"I wanted to have a fun kind of party event at Bull Moose where we could thank our customers and just have a fun time," he said. "I realized that it would be a much better party if we got the other stores involved, just make it a national thing."

Now in its second year, Record Store Day is being celebrated at more than 1,000 independent record stores in the U.S. and in 17 countries.

Artists like Disturbed and Ani DiFranco — both appearing at Bull Moose — are paying tribute with in-store appearances. Others like Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, The Smiths, Modest Mouse and the Decemberists are offering special-edition vinyl releases.

For retailers, it's very different from the days when kids rushed to the store to thumb through the 45-rpm records. These days, more compact discs are sold despite a resurgence in vinyl. Record stores also have branched out into video games, movies and other merchandise.

Some like the Waterloo in Austin, Texas, Twist and Shout in Denver, and Amoeba in San Francisco are cultural hubs in their communities.

"Music is clearly the centerpiece. It's at the emotional heart of these businesses, but economically they've diversified," said Jim Donio, president of the National Association of Recording Merchandisers, which is sponsoring Record Store Day.

It hasn't been an easy road for the mom-and-pop stores.

About 1,000 indie music retailers have gone out of business since 2003, said Joel Oberstein, president of Almighty Institute of Music Retail, a market research firm based in Studio City, Calif.

But 2,000 independent record stores have survived, and the store closings have leveled off over the past year, Oberstein said.

Indies cling to a small market share. All told, there are 10,000 online retailers, mass merchandisers, national chains and other retailers, in addition to the hometown record stores. Donio estimated that independent stores account for less than 10 percent of overall music sales in the U.S.

Looking to thank customers and promote local stores, Brown tossed out his idea for Record Store Day in 2007 at a conference of indie music retailers in Baltimore.

A year later, heavy-metal band Metallica officially kicked off the first Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco.

Brown is vice president of Bull Moose, a seemingly incongruous corporate title that is nevertheless typical of indie stores that have adapted to marketplace changes. In fact, Bull Moose is coming off a record year and strong first quarter despite the recession, he said.

Its stores feature a variety of compact discs from jazz to metal to rap to world music, but also DVDs and Blu-ray discs, video games and video game systems, vinyl albums, T-shirts, baseball caps and more. There are also used DVDs, CDs and vinyl.

Julian Butler of Standish, who was shopping this week at Bull Moose's Portland store, said he used to download his music and movies — illegally and free of charge — before getting a cease-and-desist letter from his Internet service provider.

These days, he said he prefers the sound of compact discs to the compressed MP3 files, and he likes the social interaction he gets in the store.

"Mostly the sound quality is a lot better on CD and you're supporting the actual makers of the music," Butler said of his decision to give up illegal downloads. "Plus you get to come here and meet some people instead of sitting in front of your computer."

‘Corner Gas’ closing up shop

Brent Butt was asked what the viewing public can expect in the final episode of Corner Gas.

Will you laugh? Will you cry? Will you be angry? Will you get indigestion? All of the above?

“It will make you question your sexuality,” Butt said. “That’s what we were going for.”

Well, if that’s the case, it would be a different direction for Corner Gas, which wraps up its six-year run tomorrow on CTV.

We’re fairly sure that Butt, the creator and star, was just kidding about the sexuality thing. But please note, we said “fairly” sure.

Butt announced last year that this would be the final season for Corner Gas, which by all measures is the most successful sitcom in Canadian history. Actual shooting on the series was completed last fall, so for Butt and the rest of the cast — his wife Nancy Robertson (Wanda), Gabrielle Miller (Lacey), Fred Ewanuick (Hank), Eric Peterson (Oscar), Janet Wright (Emma), Tara Spencer-Nairn (Karen) and Lorne Cardinal (Davis) — Corner Gas already feels like quite a long time ago.

“I don’t watch it every week, because I’m doing a lot of stuff and I’m busy,” Butt said when asked if he follows along with the broadcast dates. “By the time they hit the air, I’ve seen each episode about 50 times, right? So I don’t feel a need to make sure I’m home to watch.

“But if I’m around, there’s something nice about watching it on TV as it airs, knowing that the rest of the country is watching it, too. It’s that shared experience thing. And it has commercials and everything, so it feels more like, ‘Hey, I’m on a TV show,’ as opposed to sitting in an edit suite by yourself.

“It does seem as if it was a while ago. But it was such a big part of my life, a lot of it still seems pretty fresh.”

Butt said he’s happy with the way the final episode turned out, in terms of it being simultaneously kind of the same and kind of different.

“My mandate was, I wanted it to feel like an episode of Corner Gas, but I still wanted to have a special element to it,” Butt said. “I’m very proud of it because I think that was nailed.

“If you’re a fan of Corner Gas, this feels like an episode of Corner Gas. But because it’s the finale, it has a little something different that you’ve never seen before, something we’ve never done, and it worked really well.

“I think it ends in a really good way.”

The pilot has been completed for Butt’s new show Hiccups, which stars Robertson, and he’s waiting to see if it will be picked up as a series by CTV. Butt also is working on a comedy special of his own.

But whatever Brent Butt does from now on, he already is Canadian TV royalty. How many people can say that?

Thanks for the laughs, Corner Gas.

Billy Bob Thornton's band cancels Canadian tour

TORONTO – Billy Bob Thornton's band has canceled the rest of its Canadian tour after the actor compared the country's fans to mashed potatoes with no gravy in a testy interview that caused a sensation online.

The Boxmasters opened for Willie Nelson on Thursday in Toronto, where they reportedly were booed and met with catcalls of "Here comes the gravy."

A note posted on Nelson's Web site Friday said the Boxmasters were canceling the rest of their Canadian dates "due to one band member and several of the crew having the flu."

The cancellation came two days after Thornton made world headlines with a belligerent appearance on CBC radio's "Q."

The actor apparently didn't like that host Jian Ghomeshi started the interview with references to Thornton's Hollywood career.

Thornton refused to answer many of Ghomeshi's questions directly, mumbling: "I don't know what you're talking about." He later said Ghomeshi's producers had been told ahead of time not to talk about his film career.

Thornton also had some unkind words for Canadian crowds.

"Canadian audiences seem to be very reserved," he told Ghomeshi. "We tend to play places where people throw things at each other. Here, they just sort of sit there. And it doesn't matter what you say to 'em. ... It's mashed potatoes but no gravy."

Before his Thursday night gig, Thornton tried to clarify those remarks, saying he loved Canada and his "mashed potatoes" comment had been aimed at Ghomeshi.

Media around the world delighted in the story. Entertainment Weekly's Web site ran the headline, "Billy Bob Thornton: What's his problem?"

NASA to announce module name on `Colbert Report'

NEW YORK – Stephen Colbert is still clinging to hope that NASA will name a new room at the international space station after him.

The space agency said Friday it would announce the name of the module Tuesday on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report." Astronaut Sunita Williams will appear on the program.

The agency held an online contest, letting the public vote on a name for a future addition to the station. "Colbert" beat out NASA's four suggested options: Serenity, Legacy, Earthrise and Venture.

The comedian said in a statement: "I certainly hope NASA does the right thing. Just kidding. I hope they name it after me."

The Couch Potato Report - April 11th, 2009

This week The Couch Potato Report peels a Jim Carrey movie that I want to say yes to, but can't, and two Keanu Reeves films I just can't say no to.

If you are looking for something to watch this loooooong weekend, I have some good stuff for you...but let me get through the two mediocre ones first...including this week's HOT POTATO....the re-imagining of Jim Carrey's great comedy LIAR LIAR.

And Jim Carrey stars is this new version of an old idea, and this one is called YES MAN.

No, YES MAN is not technically a remake of LIAR LIAR...but there are many similarities between the two films...starting with the premise:

In 1997's LIAR LIAR Carrey can't lie for 24 hours, and in YES MAN he has to say yes to absolutely every opportunity, request or invitation that he is presented with, no matter what.

YES MAN isn't a bad film, but it certainly is not a classic, manic Jim Carrey comedy.

But there are a few scenes and scenarios you might laugh at, and it does have some funny supporting characters...so I'll call this one a good rental.

I'd call LIAR LIAR hilarious and IT is guaranteed to give you some BIG laughs, if you have never seen it, I highly recommend it!!

Whichever film you say YES to this Easter weekend is up to you.

If you have been trying to decide which version of the science fiction film THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL to say yes to watching - the 1951 original or the remake from last year - you don't have to choose because the 3-DISC SPECIAL EDITIONS of of the newest release has them both.

In the original, classic sci-fi film THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL an alien named Klaatu lands in Washington and tells the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or be destroyed as a danger to other planets.

In the re-imagining, because Hollywood folks don't use the word "remake" anymore...in the re-imagining Canadian Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu and he lands in New York City and promises global destruction unless drastic measures are undertaken regarding the Earth and how humankind is destroying it.

I can't remember the first time I saw the original 1951 version of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, but I also can't remember a time when I wasn't aware of how great this film is...it is a true science fiction classic.

Since I hold the film in high regard, I expected to completely despise the new version, yet I did not.

No, truth be told, the re-imagining is not as great as the original because the kid is sort of annoying, and some of the special effects aren't very good...but some of them are good, Keanu Reeves worked for me as Klaatu, and Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly gives a good enough performance as the woman fighting on behalf of humankind.

I know I should be able to say no to the new version of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, but I can't...and even though I don't think we needed a re-imagining...I still liked it...but I still love the original...and both of them are available in the 3-DISC SPECIAL EDITION.

The main reason Keanu Reeves stars in action and science fiction films today is because of a movie he made ten years ago...yes, it has already been ten years - it was March 31, 1999, when we first asked: What is The Matrix?

I may not remember the first time I saw the original version of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, but I do remember the first time I saw THE MATRIX...and I didn't care for it at all!!

My friends and I sat and discussed the film for hours after it ended, and they all loved it...and I hated it.

But then I went to see it again....and again...and again...and the simple truth is that the first time I saw it - I was overwhelmed by all of the groundbreaking special effects and characters...but - happily - I soon got over that.

This now-reveared film - by me, and millions of others - is about a computer hacker named Neo - played by Reeves - who learns from some rebels about the true nature of reality and his role in the war against the machines.

THE MATRIX is now available in a special 10th Anniversary Edition on Blu-Ray featuring a 47 page booklet with photos and insider information and a wealth of special effects!

Happy Anniversay, THE MATRIX!! Many happy returns...and viewings!!

Ten years later many folks continue to celebrate and enjoy THE MATRIX...in the year 2018 I doubt many will be doing the same for our next film...but then again, they might.

After all, it has been thirty-eight years since I saw WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, the first film I ever saw as a kid, so who knows...they might.

Yes, they - the youth of today - might be talking about Adam Sandler's BEDTIME STORIES in 2018, or in 2046...they might.

In this film the one time funniest man in films - the star of BILLY MADISON, HAPPY GILMORE and THE WEDDING SINGER has watered his humour down yet again to star in a family comedy about a hotel handyman who dreams of becoming the manager of the hotel he works at, which used to be owned by his father.

His life starts to change for the better when the bedtime stories he tells his previously estranged niece and nephew start to come true.

BEDTIME STORIES is a great film for kids, but adults might not be able to sit through the whole thing as they will probably be thinking "Isn't this really just BILLY MADISON...re-imagined for kids?"

I know I was.

It isn't awful...but there is a better film that I can easily recommend, especially since ther eis a great new version of the film that is available in high definition on Blu-ray!

So, if you are an adult and you want a great film for your kids that you can also watch too...or you are just a person who loves great movies...well, this next film starts with Peter Falk telling a bedtime story to his sick grandson.

It is the story of The Princess Bride.

Rob Reiner's modern day classic story shines in high definition and the remastered sound allows the film's classic lines to continue to shine, almost 21 years after the film debuted.

This week's BLU-RAY BEACON shines on THE PRINCESS BRIDE - a beautiful and fantastoc film that combines comedy, adventure, romance, fantasy...and revenge!

I love this movie...and hope they never try to re-imaginge it.

This one was done absolutely right the first time.

The modern day classic THE PRINCESS BRIDE, the not great but okay for kids Adam Sandler film BEDTIME STORIES, the 10th Anniversary Edition of the fantastic film THE MATRIX, the not-really-necessary, but not bad remake - and the 1951 original version of - THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and YES MAN, Jim Carrey's mostly un-funny remake of his much better movie LIAR LIAR are all available now on Blu-ray and on DVD.

LIAR LIAR is only available on DVD…and that is no lie!!

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

I will tell you about the six-time Genie Award nominated, Best Cinematography award winning Canadian film FUGITIVE PIECES and the five-time Academy Award nominated movie THE READER, that finally allowed Kate Winslet to win an Oscar.

Also next week, I will have some thoughts on the five-time Oscar nominee DOUBT, and the Academy Award winning movie 8 MILE starring rapper Eminem, which is making it's debut on Blu-ray.

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!

Carell, Fey playing 'Date Night' for laughs

So this one time, Steve Carell and Tina Fey had a romantic night out.
"And it goes crazy. Everything that can possibly go wrong goes wrong, and they're caught up in a web of malice and intrigue," Carell says.

He's referring to the comedy Date Night, directed by Night at the Museum's Shawn Levy. The flick starts shooting in a few weeks and stars the comedy dream team of Carell and Fey, who have never done a movie together. The stars of The Office and 30 Rock play a married couple who go out to a trendy Manhattan bistro for some couple bonding time, when things go terribly awry thanks to a case of mistaken identity.

"I'm a huge fan and have known her for some time, so it's great that we finally get to do something," Carell says.

Born to Cheat? No Way, Says Bruce Springsteen

Los Angeles (E! Online) – The Boss is no homewrecker.

Bruce Springsteen has spoken out about being named the other man in a New Jersey man's divorce filing, denying—just as he did when the first round of affair allegations popped up three years ago—any infidelity against his wife of nearly two decades, Patti Scialfa.

A rep for the "Thunder Road" rocker told the New Jersey Star-Ledger that the singer stands by a statement he issued on his website in August 2006.

"Patti and I have been together for 18 years—the best 18 years of my life," he wrote then—and reiterates now. "We have built a beautiful family we love and want to protect and our commitment to one another remains as strong as the day we were married."

In other words, the only place Springsteen's crotch has been that it shouldn't recently is in high definition on millions of TV screens.

"I hesitate to use this website for anything personal believing it should remain a place where fans of my music can come free of the distractions that occasionally arise with the rest of my job," the nearly three-year-old message continues.

"However, due to the unfounded and ugly rumors that have appeared in the papers over the last few days, I felt they shouldn't pass without comment."

This time around, those rumors were sparked by a March 27 divorce filing by a man named Arthur Kelly, who alleged in court papers that his estranged wife of 17 years, Ann C. Kelly, "has committed adultery with one Bruce Springsteen…at various times and places too numerous to mention."

While the news was grabbing headlines yesterday, Springsteen, the consummate pro, made no mention of the brewing brouhaha at a concert last night in Houston.

Ghostbusters Blu-ray to Include Making-Of Game!

Sony's upcoming Ghostbusters Blu-ray will include a making-of featurette for Atari's upcoming Ghostbusters videogame coming to Xbox 360 and PS3!!

The Blu-ray version of Ghostbusters will arrive in 2.4:1 1080p video and 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless audio key for replicating firing up a Proton Accelerator Pack.

Ghostbusters the movie on Blu-ray and Ghostbusters the game are set for a simultaneous June 16 release. The Blu-ray bonus features are as follows.

NEW: Digitally Mastered Audio and Video

NEW: Slimer Mode: Picture-in-Picture Graphical Viewing Experience with an examination of the spook-hunters firehouse headquarters, an in-depth exploration of the creatures in the Ghostbusters mythology, behind-the-scenes discussions of making the movie, new cast, crew and special effects artists interviews and much more! (Blu-ray exclusive)

NEW: Featurette: Ecto-1: Resurrecting the Classic Car (Blu-ray exclusive)

NEW: Ghostbusters Garage: Ecto-1 Gallery (Blu-ray exclusive)

NEW: Making of Ghostbusters The Videogame (Blu-ray exclusive)

Filmmakers' Commentary with Ivan Reitman, Harold Ramis and Joe Medjuck
Featurette: 1984 - The Making of Ghostbusters - Interviews with the cast and crew

Featurette: Interviews with Cast and Crew

Featurette: SFX Team - Includes Before and After Multi-Angle Explorations
Scene Cemetery - 10 Deleted Scenes

Storyboard Comparisons

Billy Bob loves Canada, but not so keen on Jian

A day after Billy Bob Thornton said Canadian audiences were like mashed potatoes without gravy, the actor professed his love for the Great White North.

Thornton talked briefly to reporters before going into Toronto's Massey Hall on Thursday night for a performance with his band, the Boxmasters. The group was opening for Willie Nelson.

"I love Canada, absolutely," said the 53-year-old actor, clad in a sleek black suit and puffing on a cigarette.

The proclamation was a sharp contrast to comments Thornton made Wednesday when he was an unco-operative guest on CBC's Q radio program.

During that appearance, the Oscar-winning star of Sling Blade sparred back and forth with host Jian Ghomeshi and found time to insult Canadian crowds.

"Canadian audiences seem to be very reserved," he told Ghomeshi. "We tend to play places where people throw things at each other. Here, they just sort of sit there. And it doesn't matter what you say to 'em… It's mashed potatoes but no gravy."

On Thursday, Thornton was asked why he made the negative comment about Canada.

"I was talking about the guy who was interviewing me," he said. "I don't know his name."

Taped interview gets 600,000 hits

The actor's belligerent appearance on the show has already become a viral sensation.

More than 600,000 viewers had watched the clip on YouTube by 8 p.m. Thursday, while a CBC spokesperson said the network had received roughly 3,700 blog responses and emails regarding the appearance.

Meanwhile, media around the world delighted in the story.

"If you can't wait for the next season of Curb Your Enthusiasm to start, this video clip should briefly satisfy your hunger for achingly, all-too-real situation comedy," wrote a New York Times blogger.

Entertainment Weekly's website ran the headline, "Billy Bob Thornton: What's his problem?" and the L.A. Times was similarly damning with its own headline, "Billy Bob Thornton, crazier than Joaquin Phoenix — is that possible?"

Indeed, Thornton seemed to have at least temporarily swiped Phoenix's mantle as the most erratic actor-turned-musician.

Phoenix, who abandoned acting to pursue a career in rap music, made headlines when he sulked his way through an interview on Late Show With David Letterman earlier this year. Wearing a heavy beard and dark sunglasses, the uncommunicative Walk the Line star prompted Letterman to crack: "Joaquin, I'm sorry you couldn't be here tonight."

Took issue with Ghomeshi's intro

While Phoenix was aloof in that interview, Thornton managed to be both obtuse and openly antagonistic with Ghomeshi.

Thornton, who was interviewed alongside his Boxmasters bandmates, took issue with Ghomeshi's introduction, which included references to the star's career as a Hollywood actor, director and screenwriter.

For much of the interview, Thornton refused to answer any of Ghomeshi's questions directly, mumbling: "I don't know what you're talking about."

Things came to a head when Ghomeshi mentioned Thornton's passion for music.

"Would you say that to Tom Petty?" Thornton questioned.

Thornton said Ghomeshi's producers had been instructed ahead of time not to talk about his film career at all.

When the radio host suggested that Thornton's past was relevant to provide context for listeners, Thornton fired back: "There's plenty of context without all that."

Thornton mainly seemed sensitive to any comment that implied that his band — which plays what he described as "cosmic cowboy music" — was not his full-time passion.

When pressed for details on his musical influences, Thornton elliptically provided a non sequitur about a magazine he subscribed to called Famous Monsters of Filmland and a model-building contest he once entered.

Kanye says 'South Park' put him in check

NEW YORK – "South Park" may have accomplished the impossible — getting Kanye West to check his ego.

The Comedy Central show skewered the famously self-important rapper on its show Wednesday night, painting him as a narcissistic figure so out of touch with reality he couldn't even take a (very politically incorrect) joke.

West's love of himself and his work has been almost as integral to his image as his music: Just last year, he told The Associated Press that he was the "voice of this generation." Also recently, he was quoted as saying his greatest regret was not being able to see himself perform live.

Yet, on his blog Thursday, West appeared chastened, and ready to turn over a new leaf.

In typical all-caps mode, he wrote: "SOUTH PARK MURDERED ME LAST NIGHT AND IT'S PRETTY FUNNY. IT HURTS MY FEELINGS BUT WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT FROM SOUTH PARK! I ACTUALLY HAVE BEEN WORKING ON MY EGO THOUGH. HAVING THE CRAZY EGO IS PLAYED OUT IN MY LIFE AND CAREER."

West said that he started stroking his ego long ago to build up his self esteem — but he now realizes he needs to "GET PAST MYSELF."

In the self-reflective post, he said that people won't take him seriously if he keeps it up (perhaps referring to his well-documented meltdowns at awards shows when he didn't win what he expected).

"I JUST WANT TO BE A DOPER PERSON WHICH STARTS WITH ME NOT ALWAYS TELLING PEOPLE HOW DOPE I THINK I AM," he said.

And perhaps to show that he's really serious about making that change, he provided a link to one of the most biting moments from the "South Park" show, and thanked the writers as well.

Neeson to star as Zeus in `Clash of the Titans'

LOS ANGELES – Liam Neeson is set to begin work on his first film since the death of his wife, Natasha Richardson.

Neeson will play Zeus, king of the gods, in a remake of "Clash of the Titans" opposite Ralph Fiennes as Hades, ruler of the underworld. Louis Leterrier ("Transporter 2," last year's "The Incredible Hulk") will direct the film, which is scheduled to begin production in the United Kingdom later this month, Warner Bros. said Thursday.

Longtime friends Neeson and Fiennes haven't shared the screen since 1993's "Schindler's List." Also among the cast are "Casino Royale" villain Mads Mikkelsen, Sam Worthington of the upcoming "Terminator Salvation" and Alexa Davalos ("Defiance").

The original "Clash of the Titans" from 1981 starred Laurence Olivier as Zeus.
This marks the first project for Neeson, 56, since Richardson's death in a skiing accident. The 45-year-old actress died March 18 after falling and hitting her head during a lesson at Quebec's Mont Tremblant two days earlier. He had signed on to star in the movie before her death.

Neeson's most recent movie, the kidnapping thriller "Taken," became a surprise hit with nearly $140 million at the domestic box office earlier this year. He just finished work on the Atom Egoyan film "Chloe," which he was in the middle of shooting when his wife died.

Finally Confirmed: Arnold is in Terminator Salvation

MTV caught up with Terry Crews who put all the Arnold Schwarzenegger cameo in Terminator Salvation rumors to rest once and for all.
Unless Crews was drunk or didn't realize the calendar wasn't on April 1 during the interview, Arnold is in the movie. Done deal.

Crews' exact words were "That's it. And so am I" when asked about the possibility of he and Arnold appearing in Terminator Salvation. "There are a lot of guys in that movie. I mean, Terminator 4 is very big."

Crews went on to state that Arnold is also lined up for a cameo in The Expendables which is currently shooting down in Reno with Jason Statham, Sly Stallone, Eric Roberts and Steve Austin. "I am not at liberty to discuss what kind of cameo it is [in The Expendables], but I know for a fact he wants to be down," Crews explained. "Arnold and I did a movie together a long time ago called The 6th Day. Arnold and I are cool; he's the best."

Will Arnold appear in T4 already a T-800 or will we see the human character the T-800 was based off? I'm thinking some CGI wizardry will be put into place so we see a "young" Arnold just as he appeared in the first Terminator. I'd plunk down $10 for that alone.

AC/DC to play Regina's Mosaic Stadium

REGINA -- Australian superstars are invading Regina’s Mosaic Stadium in August, but they won’t be playing that whacky version of football which is so popular Down Under.

Sources have confirmed that legendary hard rockers AC/DC are set to play Mosaic Stadium on Monday, Aug. 24th. The Saskatchewan Roughriders are in Montreal on Aug. 21, allowing Australia’s most famous rock band to strut its stuff in the home of the Green and White, replacing football cheers with slashing guitar chords for what organizers believe will be an unforgettable night of hard rock.

“I think this is going to be huge,” said one organizer, who requested anonymity. “The show is on a Monday night (instead of the weekend) but I don’t think that matters. It’s AC/DC. It’s going to sell.

“It’s a huge stage. The production is on par with the Rolling Stones shows we had here. This is the kind of show Regina has been waiting for since the Stones. This show is worthy of a football stadium.”

Like the two Rolling Stones shows in October 2006, AC/DC’s stage will be located in Mosaic Stadium’s south end zone, allowing the Australian quintet to play to the entire stadium, including thousands of seats on the playing turf. About 38,000 tickets will be sold for the show, for $99 and $69, plus service charges.

Tickets go on sale, Saturday April 18th at all Ticketmaster locations, including the Brandt Centre, Casino Regina and Casino Moose Jaw. Tickets will also be available online.

“I strongly recommend people try to get their tickets online,” one source told the Leader-Post.

Unlike the Rolling Stones shows, there will be no special deals or pre-sale dates for Roughrider season ticket holders. Pick up a copy of Saturday’s printed Leader-Post or return to leaderpost.com on the long weekend for more details on tickets.

This week, AC/DC officially launched a North American football stadium leg to its hugely successful Black Ice World Tour, which began in 2008. Several U.S. dates were announced, but the Canadian dates have not yet been posted to the band’s web site. An official announcement on the Canadian shows is expected today.

Sources tell the Leader-Post AC/DC will be playing four CFL stadiums in Western Canada in late August: Winnipeg, Regina, Edmonton and Vancouver. The shows take place after AC/DC plays Grand Rapids, Mich., on Aug. 18th and before the band returns to the U.S. to play Tacoma, Wash., on August 30.

“For this to work, for those 10 or so days, the western (CFL) teams needed to be off or playing away games, so it’s really fortunate that the CFL schedule worked out that way,” said one organizer.

AC/DC was formed in 1973 in Sydney, Australia by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, the band’s two guitar players. The rest of the lineup includes singer Brian Johnson, bassist Cliff Williams and drummer Phil Rudd.

After a few early albums, in 1979, the band recorded their highly successful album Highway to Hell, bringing their unique brand of hard rock to the masses in North America. But just as the band was ready to launch its most ambitious concert tour, lead singer and co-songwriter Bon Scott died on Feb. 19, 1980, after a night of heavy drinking. The group nearly disbanded, but ex-Geordie singer Brian Johnson was selected as Scott’s replacement. Later that year, the band released their best-selling album, Back in Black, which included the hits “Back in Black” and “You Shook Me All Night Long.”

AC/DC has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide, including 69 million albums in the United States. Back in Black has sold an estimated 42 million units worldwide and 22 million in the United States alone, making it the fifth highest-selling album ever in the United States.

AC/DC ranked fourth on VH1’s list of the “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock” and the seventh “Greatest Heavy Metal Band Of All Time” by MTV. In 2004, the band was ranked number eight in the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.

The band’s latest album, Black Ice, was released in October, 2008.

AC/DC played in Saskatoon nearly 20 years ago, but has never performed in Regina.

Jackman 'heartbroken' over leaked superhero film

SYDNEY (AFP) – Hugh Jackman, who plays superhero Wolverine in the new X-Men movie, said Wednesday he was "heartbroken" that the film was leaked on the Internet a month before its official release.

The Australian star of "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" said the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was on the case and he believed the culprit would be found.

"It's a serious crime and there's no doubt it's very disappointing -- I was heartbroken by it," Jackman told reporters at a promotion for the movie in Sydney.

The leaked version of the 20th Century Fox action movie was reportedly downloaded tens of thousands of times within a day of being posted on file-sharing websites at the end of March.

"Obviously, people are seeing an unfinished film," Jackman said. "It's like a Ferrari without a paint job."

The 40-year-old Hollywood heartthrob, named Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine last year, said he was convinced that whoever had posted the copy would be tracked down.

"The FBI are on to it and they're taking it very, very seriously," he said. "Rest assured that person will be found."

Jackman arrived by helicopter on Cockatoo Island in Sydney Harbour, where some of the movie was filmed, for the first stop of a world promotion tour ahead of its official release at the end of the month.

He then delighted hundreds of invited guests and media by swooping down from a clifftop on a cable before unveiling 20 minutes of completed footage.

Jackman said he was heartened by the fact that most people had condemned the leak and thought fans would still go to see it at the cinema.

The leak has already claimed at least one casualty -- a US entertainment columnist who was fired for reviewing a stolen copy downloaded from the Internet.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which owns both 20th Century Fox Films and Fox News, said writer Roger Friedman had been "promptly terminated" after posting his column on the Fox News website last week.

"We, along with 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, have been a consistent leader in the fight against piracy and have zero tolerance for any action that encourages and promotes piracy," News Corporation said in an emailed statement.

"When we advised Fox News of the facts they took immediate action, removed the post, and promptly terminated Mr Friedman."

The "X-Men" film, based on the eponymous comic book characters, was apparently spread with BitTorrent file-sharing technology that lets people exchange large data files between computers.

New Home for Doctor Who in Canada?

According to the website of the Doctor Who Information Network there's a new home for Doctor Who in Canada. Reports have been received that cable network SPACE is the new permanent home for the series. The first four series of the new Doctor Who aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC was a co-production partner for at least part of those four seasons. Despite an initial strong commitment to Doctor Who the CBC came into criticism from fans and viewers in recent years for delays in broadcasting new episodes, decreasing promotion and failing to air the annual Christmas specials in 2007 and 2008.

Upcoming special Planet of the Dead will air on SPACE on Saturday June 20th, 2009. It is reported that Series Five will follow in 2010.

Doctor Who premiered on SPACE in March when the channel aired The Next Doctor but it was not known at that time if the the move was permanent or just a one-off.

Actor Kal Penn joining the Obama administration

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Actor and longtime Obama supporter Kal Penn is joining the Obama administration, the White House confirmed to CNN Tuesday.

The actor will be part of the White House Office of Public Liaison, which is run by Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Penn will be primarily involved in dealing with Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and the arts community.

Penn's new gig was first reported by EW.com, which shares parent company Time Warner with CNN.

Penn told EW.com that the new position comes after some soul-searching.

There was "'something aching in me to do something completely different and take a break from the acting thing for a while'" Penn said he told the executive producers of the TV series "House" when he explained his decision to get involved with politics full-time.

The actor also said his interest in politics has deep roots. "I've been thinking about [moving into politics] for a while. I love what I do as an actor. I couldn't love it more. . . . .probably from the time I was a kid, I really enjoyed that balance between the arts and public service."

"It's probably because of the value system my grandparents instilled in me. They marched with Gandhi in the Indian independence movement, and that was always in the back of my head. So the past couple of years I thought about it a little more."

But Penn also is leaving the door open to returning to acting at some later point. "Who's to say where any path leads? I still have a passion for it. But for the time being, I won't be acting," Penn told EW.com

Penn endorsed Obama's White House bid in late 2007, and was a frequent campaign surrogate on the trail last year.

Changes take effect in Apple's iTunes prices

NEW YORK – The dominant seller of music on the Internet has a new look: Pricing changes to Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store have gone into effect, with some popular songs now $1.29 apiece.

Apple said in January that it would end its practice of selling all songs for 99 cents a piece and begin offering three tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Record companies can pick the prices.

In exchange for the ability to set prices, record labels agreed to sell all songs on iTunes without "digital rights management" technology that hampers users' abilities to copy tracks or play them on multiple computers.

Hey Now, Garry Shandling Rumored For Iron Man 2

Someone should probably tell them it’s called April Fool’s Day, not April Fool’s Month.

But they’re not kidding around. If you’ve been following director Jon Favreau’s Twitter then you know Iron Man 2 started principal photography today. When they started shooting, IESB says Garry Shandling was there on set participating in what will be the last scene of the film.

As for who he’s playing, while it’d be great if Tony Stark went on the Larry Sanders show or something, probably Garry is playing a senator or reporter. Pick a random profession which requires the wearing of a suit. Maybe he’s filling in for Tim Robbins, who put to rest all those rumors that he’d be in it last week.

Garry’s last film role was as the voice of a pessimistic turtle in Over the Hedge. Don’t laugh, he was good.

Beatles catalog to be digitally remastered

LONDON – The entire catalog of music by The Beatles is being digitally remastered for release in September.

Apple Corps Ltd. and EMI Music say they will release the new discs Sept. 9 on the same day as the release of a video game, "The Beatles: Rock Band."

Each of the dozen new CDs will include the original U.K. album art and expanded liner notes.

Apple and EMI will also release "The Beatles in Mono" with the original monaural versions of 10 albums plus some other bits in mono.

Apple and EMI made no mention in their announcement Tuesday about plans for digital distribution.

Ben Wicks cartoons find home at York University

The archives of Canadian cartoonist Ben Wicks have found a home.

The Clara Thomas Archives & Special Collections at York University will house almost 2,500 cartoons drawn by Wicks in the late 1960s and early '70s.

Wicks's cartoons, once carried in more than 200 newspapers, featured his irreverent take on world events, including the Vietnam War and famine in Africa, and political figures including Pierre Trudeau, Joe Clark and Richard Nixon.

Wicks was born in London in 1926 and immigrated to Canada with his wife, Doreen, in 1957. He worked as a milkman and musician, and served in the Canadian Army before finding fame for his drawings. He died in 2000.

The collection of his cartoons had been mistakenly left behind when a Wicks family member moved homes in the 1990s. The collection became the subject of a legal battle between the family and the home's buyers.

The Wicks family was awarded ownership of the cartoons and donated them to York.

"It was my parents' hope that the cartoons could be shared with as many people as possible, so we are thrilled that an institution such as York University was able to take on this collection for us," daughter Susan Wicks said in a release. "York just felt right, like the type of place where my dad would want his work preserved."

New CD Releases, April 7th: Rascal Flatts, Neil Young, James Taylor, Jason Aldean, The Grateful Dead, The Tragically Hip and more

Rascal Flatts "Unstoppable" (Lyric Street)

The multi-platinum country trio returns with "Unstoppable," the group's first batch of new tunes since 2007's "Still Feels Good." It also follows last year's best-of package, "Greatest Hits Volume 1."

The first single from "Unstoppable" is the track "Here Comes Goodbye," which was co-written by "American Idol" Season 6 finalist Chris Sligh. The song turned out to be a sizable radio hit, spending several weeks in the Top 10 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart.

Rascal Flatts, which won for Favorite Group at the 2009 People's Choice Awards, will support "Unstoppable" with a summer tour of amphitheaters and pavilions throughout the US. The trek will begin June 5 in the St. Louis area and is currently slated for an Oct. 18 wrap-up in Kelseyville, CA.

* * *
Neil Young "Fork in the Road" (Reprise)

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer is set to sing the praises of eco-friendly transportation on his latest release. The themes on "Fork in the Road" are drawn from the musician's dedication to build a commercially viable electric power system for automobiles, according to a Billboard report.

Whether one agrees with Young's views on transportation issues or not, most will be happy to learn that the singer/songwriter is doing more than just talking the talk--he's riding the ride as well. He's retooled his 1959 Lincoln Continental as part of the Lincvolt Project, a joint effort with biodiesel pioneer Johnathan Goodwin. The project and Young's prototype Lincvolt vehicle are reflected in such "Fork in the Road" songs such as "Fuel Line," "Johnny Magic," "Off the Road" and "Get Behind the Wheel."

Young will spend this month supporting the new album, mainly in Canada; the sole US date in April is on the 27th in Denver, CO. He will, however, make time for an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on May 3.

* * *
James Taylor "Other Covers" (Hear Music)

The acclaimed vocalist is set to release a sequel to his popular "Covers" album, which was released last September and debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200 album chart.

That previous outing found Taylor trying out songs originally made famous by such artists as Buddy Holly, the Temptations, George Jones and Leonard Cohen. On "Other Covers," Taylor handles the likes of Eddie Floyd's "Knock on Wood," Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour" and "Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin'," from the "Oklahoma!" songbook.

Taylor will support both "Covers" releases with tour dates scheduled for this month and next. Of note, he'll perform April 25 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

* * *
Jason Aldean "Wide Open" (Broken Bow)

The country star, who has sold more than 2 million copies of his first two albums, gets back in the saddle with his third release. "Wide Open" follows 2007's "Relentless," a work that produced the Top 10 country hits "Johnny Cash" and "Laughed Until We Cried."

The lead-off single from "Wide Open" is the cut "She's Country," which was released to radio in November and quickly rose to become Aldean's latest Top 10 smash.

* * *
Grateful Dead "To Terrapin: May 28, 1977 Hartford, CT" (Rhino)

Recorded just prior to the release of one of the Grateful Dead's more-popular studio offerings, 1977's "Terrapin Station," this three-disc live set finds Jerry Garcia and company performing such fan favorites as "Sugaree," "Candyman" and "Jack Straw." Tapers have long cherished recordings from this night, and now everyone else can enjoy the party as well.

* * *
More new releases:
Bat for Lashes, "Two Suns" (Astralwerks)
Doves, "Kingdom of Rust" (Astralwerks)
Erasure, "Total Pop! Deluxe Box" (Rhino)
The Hold Steady, "A Positive Rage" (Vagrant)
Jadakiss, "The Last Kiss" (Ruff Ryders)
Lady Sovereign, "Jigsaw" (Midget)
Libera, "Eternal: The Best of Libera" (EMI)
Jesse McCartney, "Departure: Recharged" (Hollywood)
Moby Grape, "The Place and the Time" (Sundazed)
Bob Mould, "Life and Times" (Anti)
Oceano, "Depths" (Earache)
Vienna Teng, "Inland Territory" (Zoe)
Tower of Power, "Great American Soulbook" (TOP)
The Tragically Hip, "We Are the Same" (Zoe)

AC/DC Adds Summer Stadium Shows

Following a successful run of North American arenas earlier this year, AC/DC will bring its Black Ice tour back to the United States this summer. New dates begin July 28 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass., and are currently scheduled through Sept. 8 in Anaheim, Calif.

Nine new U.S. dates were confirmed at deadline, and more will be announced shortly. AC/DC is currently touring in Europe through late June.

Tickets for summer concerts in Foxborough; East Rutherford, N.J.; Detroit; Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Tacoma, Wash.; go on sale Saturday (April 11) through ticketmaster.com and the band's Web site, acdc.com. Tickets for the San Diego show go on sale April 18, and the Los Angeles concert goes on sale April 25.

Since starting its tour in late October, most of AC/DC’s North America dates sold out. From October 2008 through March 2009, the band grossed $49.1 million from 36 concerts that drew nearly 561,000 fans, according to Billboard Boxscore.

AC/DC's ongoing Black Ice world tour -- its first outing since 2001, when it grossed $28.5 million from 52 shows, according to Boxscore -- is in support of the rock act's latest album release "Black Ice." The Columbia set, released exclusively through Wal-mart, Sam's Club and AC/DC's Web site last October, has moved 2 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Here are AC/DC's new U.S. tour dates:

July 28: Foxborough, Mass. (Gillette Stadium)
July 31: East Rutherford, N.J. (Giants Stadium)
Aug. 16: Detroit (Palace of Auburn Hills)
Aug. 18: Grand Rapids, Mich. (Van Andel Arena)
Aug. 30: Tacoma, Wash. (Tacoma Dome)
Sept. 2: San Jose, Calif. (HP Pavillion)
Sept. 4: Los Angeles (Staples Center)
Sept. 6: San Diego, Calif. (Sports Arena)
Sept. 8: Anaheim, Calif. (Honda Center)

Spring CD preview

April showers bring May flowers — but they also bring a flood of new spring albums. There are dozens of major releases due in the next few months. Here’s our quick guide to the toppermost of the poppermost. Mark your calendars — but do it in pencil; everything here is subject to change.

April 7

The Hold Steady | A Positive Rage

The world’s greatest bar band serve up their first live CD/DVD. Drinking game: Take a swig every time Craig Finn mentions a location in Minneapolis.

Neil Young | Fork in the Road

Shakey’s latest cut-on-the-fly concept album was inspired by his hybrid LincVolt car. No, seriously. For this he delayed the Archives box yet again.

April 21

Booker T | Potato Hole

The MGs organist and legendary soul man releases his first album in more than a decade — with The Drive-By Truckers and Neil Young as his band.

Depeche Mode | Sounds of the Universe

As is the way nowadays, the British synth-pop trio’s dozenth disc comes in various editions, from a bare-bones CD to a deluxe box set with bonus cuts, demos and a DVD.

Jane's Addiction | A Cabinet of Curiosities

Timed to coincide with Perry Farrell and co.’s new cash-in ... sorry, reunion tour, this box set has three CDs of demos, outtakes and live cuts from the L.A. rockers’ early years, plus a DVD.

April 28

Bob Dylan | Together Through Life

Zimmy’s umpteenth studio album reportedly mixes raucous, hard-driving Chicago blues with plenty of, um, accordion. Because, you know, his vocals aren’t wheezy enough already.

May 5

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band | Outer South

The good news: Barely nine months after his superbly rootsy eponymous album, Oberst is back with another disc. The bad news: He lets his bandmates write and sing some songs.

Cracker | Sunrise in the Land of Milk and Honey

X’s John Doe, Counting Crow’s Adam Durvitz and Drive-By Truckers’ Patterson Hood drop in on the 10th studio set from David Lowery and his long-serving alt-rockers.

New York Dolls | ’Cause I Sez So

David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain reteamed with their original producer Todd Rundgren for their second reunion album — which also features a new version of Trash. Pick it up.

Peaches | I Feel Cream

Electroclash sleaze-mistress Merrill Nisker follows up her 2006 CD Impeach My Bush with more songs whose lyrics we won’t be able to quote in a newspaper.

May 12

Steve Earle | Townes

The hardcore troubadour’s latest studio disc is a tribute album to the late great Townes Van Zandt, his friend, mentor — and the man who gave Earle’s son Justin his middle name.

Green Day | 21st Century Breakdown

Only an American Idiot would try to fix what isn’t broke — so the Bay Area pop-punks are sticking with the ambitious concept-album program for their eighth studio album.

May 19

Eminem | Relapse

He’s baaaaack! And supposedly, Slim Shady’s first album in five long years is just one of two discs he’ll release next year. Guess he’s been cleanin’ out his closet.

June 2

Eels | Hombre Lobo

Yes, that title translates to Wolfman. But for idiosyncratic indie-rocker Mark Everett — the sole permanent member of Eels — that’s barely a blip on the weirdness radar.

Elvis Costello | Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

Apparently, Mr. Krall’s newest CD is heavy on the acoustic vibe of King of America. Not our favourite version of Elvis, but since he never lets us down, we’ll take it.

Iggy Pop | Preliminaires

The world’s forgotten boy and eternal Stooge makes a jazz album inspired by Michel Houellebecq’s controversial novel The Possibility of an Island. Which begs the question: Wha?

Rancid | Let the Dominoes Fall

We’re not sure why it took these California punks six years to follow up Indestructible. But based on all their previous albums, we fully expect this to be well worth the wait.

Neil Young | Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1 | 1963-1972

Yeah, right. At this point, we suspect even Neil doesn’t believe this is ever coming out. Besides, he’ll probably put it off to write a box set about composting.

June 9

Sonic Youth | The Eternal

The New York noise-rock gods return to the indie ranks with their first album for Matador Records. From the snippets floating around the Intertubes, sounds like they haven’t changed a bit.

June 23

Dinosaur Jr. | Farm

Here’s another album from the reunited alt-rock trio of J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph. In a couple of more years, their comeback will have outlasted the original band.

Wilco | TBA

Leslie Feist supposedly guests on Jeff Tweedy and his Chicago experimental roots outfit’s still-untitled seventh studio album — which features the tune Wilco: The Song.

50 Cent | Before I Self-Destruct

Or as we prefer to call it: Before People Realize I Have Run Out of Ideas and Stop Buying My Lousy Albums.

Underwood, Swift, Hough: Women rule the ACMs

LAS VEGAS – The women of country have taken the wheel.

Carrie Underwood captured entertainer of the year Sunday night at the Academy of Country Music Awards, winning the top honor that has eluded women for nearly a decade, while Taylor Swift won album of the year and Julianne Hough snagged top new artist.

Country music's boys' club was adjourned for the year when Underwood broke Kenny Chesney's four-year win streak and became the first woman to hold the title since the Dixie Chicks in 2000. The significance wasn't lost on the 26-year-old superstar.

"I accepted that award on behalf of myself and my fans, but also on behalf of other women who came before me that kicked butt but never got the recognition they deserved," Underwood said. "I can't wait (for) the day, which I hope is in the very near future, where having females in the category is no big deal whatsoever."

In 39 years of recognizing a top entertainer, the academy has granted the honor to a woman seven times, including Underwood. The others were Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Barbara Mandrell, Reba McEntire, Shania Twain and the Dixie Chicks. Each won once.

Chesney, who missed the chance to tie Alabama for most entertainer of the year awards, kissed Underwood as she walked up to accept the honor.

"He told me he was proud of me," said Underwood, who's enjoyed astounding success since winning "American Idol" in 2005 with eight No. 1 country hits including the signature single, "Jesus Take the Wheel."

Swift, another woman dominating not only country music but the entire industry, won album of the year for her sophomore disc "Fearless." Both of Swift's albums have topped the 3 million mark — a rare feat today. She's connected with fans both young and old for her intensely personal songs, which she writes usually on her own or with a co-writer.

Backstage, Swift told reporter that she "obsessed" over making "Fearless."

"I labored over this album for two years," she said. "The fact that you can write songs in your bedroom about your feelings and boys and can win album of the year at the ACMs. I just didn't think that was possible."

Swift, who had four nominations going into Sunday's show, also got a special honor as McEntire presented her with an ACM Crystal Milestone Award for bringing so many young people to country music.

A tearful Hough, who added country singer to her "Dancing with the Stars" credentials, thanked "everybody that has followed me from the beginning and believed in me." She bested Jake Owen and the Zac Brown Band for the honor.

Other winners included Jamey Johnson, Sugarland, Trace Adkins and Brad Paisley, but the evening's most memorable moments came during the performances.

Adkins performed "'Til the Last Shot's Fired," a somber salute to U.S. troops, with the West Point Glee Club in honor of servicemen and women. The performance was introduced by Lt. Andrew Kinard, who had been wounded. He told the crowd, "As you listen to this song, please consider that it's not about the war, it's about the warrior."

John Rich's angry anthem "Shuttin' Detroit Down" also stirred the crowd.
"I'd like to dedicate this song tonight to all the hard-working, taxpaying Americans from coast to coast who love this country as much as I do," Rich said while holding a guitar tagged with a "Made in the U.S.A." sticker.

"We wrote this song specifically for you," he said before launching into his searing song that feeds into taxpayer resentment about the bailouts on Wall Street.

Other performances included teen sensation Miley Cyrus, dancing atop a high staircase on stage; Heidi Newfield singing "Johnny and June," inspired by the late Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, around an appropriate ring of fire; and Underwood in a burgundy dress so overwhelming that it took up most of the stage.

"Can I borrow that?" host Reba McEntire quipped afterward.

Newcomer Johnson beat out veterans like George Strait and Paisley in nabbing the night's first honor, song of the year for his poignant hit about an old man looking back on his life, "In Color."

"Thanks to my band for going in on an off day and producing an off record," Johnson quipped in a brief acceptance speech.

Adkins won single of the year for his heartfelt hit "You're Gonna Miss This." The deep-voiced singer said the song, about how people want to grow up and move on with life when they should slow down and enjoy the moment more, was very personal to him, but he didn't think others would relate to it. When his label said they were going to release it as a single, he said, "Go ahead. Nobody's going play it."

"I'm glad I'm an idiot," Adkins cracked. "Thank you very much."

Sugarland broke Brooks & Dunn's lock on the vocal duo award, and lead singer Jennifer Nettles received an ACM Crystal Milestone Award for her songwriting.

Strait and Paisley led all nominees with six. Paisley was linked up by video from Nashville, where his wife Kimberly Williams-Paisley is expecting their second child, and accepted the trophy for male vocalist of the year from there.

"I wish I could be there but I didn't want to take the chance of missing the birth of our next child. I hope you understand," said Paisley, who also won video of the year for "Waitin' on a Woman" and vocal event of the year for "Start a Band," his guitar-slinging duet with Keith Urban.

Jamie Foxx introduced Strait's performance of "Troubadour," and joked that the country scene was getting more diverse.

"Things are changing," Foxx said, mentioning his repeat appearance at the ACMs and Darius Rucker's success on the country charts. "(An) African-American singing country. Things are changing. Got a black man running the country. Things are changing. ... I mean what's next, white people going to Tyler Perry movies?"

Reports: Farrah Fawcett hospitalized

Cancer-stricken actress Farrah Fawcett has been admitted to hospital in a critical condition, according to reports.

The former Charlie's Angels star, 62, is said to be unconscious but stable after checking into a medical centre in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to People.com.

Her long-term partner Ryan O'Neal is at her bedside, as well as their 24-year-old son Redmond, who quit his stint in a California rehab centre on Wednesday after allegedly failing a drugs test.

Fawcett, who was diagnosed with anal cancer in 2006, recently returned from undergoing experimental stem-cell treatment in Germany.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Star reunite on stage

NEW YORK – An all-star concert on meditation brought Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr together for their first performance together in seven years.

The reunion of McCartney and Starr, the surviving members of the Beatles, was the highlight of the "Change Begins Within" concert on Saturday night. The event was held at Radio City Music Hall to benefit the David Lynch Foundation, which aims to teach at-risk youth meditation techniques.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Shears," McCartney told the crowd, referring to the fictional character on the classic Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," as Starr emerged and immediately launched into his part in the Beatles' classic "With a Little Help from My Friends."

McCartney and Starr last performed together in 2002 at the Concert for George, which honored former Beatles George Harrison at London's Royal Albert Hall a year after Harrison's death.

Saturday's concert, which also featured Sheryl Crow, Eddie Vedder, Donovan and others, ran for about four hours. But McCartney had thousand of fans on their feet as he hit the stage near the show's end. Opening with a spirited version of "Drive My Car," he went through a generous selection of Beatles and Wings classics, from "Can't Buy Me Love" and "Let It Be" to "Jet" and "Band on the Run."

McCartney remembered John Lennon by playing "Here Today," a song he wrote for the former Beatle, slain in 1980.

For the encore, McCartney was joined on stage by Donovan, Crow, Mike Love (of the Beach Boys), Vedder, Paul Horn, and of course, Starr on drums. After an epic version of "Cosmically Conscious," he launched into the crowd-pleasing "I Saw Her Standing There."

Other key moments of the night included an energetic cover of Queen's "Under Pressure" by Vedder and Ben Harper, while Crow paid tribute to Harrison with a harmonious version of his "My Sweet Lord."

Between the music, the night's stars talked about the power of meditation to overcome problems. Howard Stern said he has meditated for 37 years, told the crowd that he credits meditation for saving his mother from depression.

He was followed by Starr's three-song set. Starr introduced the Beatles song "Boys" by saying: "I've been playing this next song longer than Howard Stern has meditated."

Metallica and RUN-D.M.C. inducted into Hall of Fame

CLEVELAND - Metallica shoved the mosh pit into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Heavy metal's heaviest hitters, whose menacing, monstrous sound has banged heads around the globe for decades, were inducted into rock's shrine on Saturday night, capping a star-studded ceremony that felt much more like a concert than an awards show.

For the first time, the no-holds-barred show, back in Cleveland following a 12-year holdover in New York's Waldorf-Astoria ballroom, was open to the public.

And nearly 5,000 fans partied in the balconies inside renovated Public Auditorium as 1,200 VIPs dined below at tables costing as much US$50,000 each.

Many of the came to pay homage to Metallica, which earned top billing in an eclectic 2009 class that included rap pioneers Run-DMC, virtuoso guitarist Jeff Beck, soul singer Bobby Womack and rhythm and blues vocal group Little Anthony and the Imperials.

Metallica's members have survived some of the dark themes - death, destruction and desolation - that threads through its music, and their induction was a chance to celebrate their legacy as perhaps the hardest band to ever walk the earth. The event also served as a reunion as bassist Jason Newsted, who left the group in 2001, joined his former bandmates on stage for searing versions of "Master of Puppets" and "Enter Sandman."

"Whatever the intangibles elements are that make a band the best, Metallica has them," said Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, who delivered a heartfelt speech in presenting the band. He recalled being on tour and hearing Metallica on the radio for the first time.

"My mind was blown. It wasn't punk rock. It wasn't heavy metal. It just stood by itself," he said. "I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was a mighty thing."

In accepting their awards, Metallica's members were joined by Ray Burton, the father of original bassist Cliff Burton, who died tragically in 1986 when the band's tour bus skidded off an icy road in Sweden.

"Dream big and dare to fail, because this is living proof that it is possible to make a dream come true," said frontman-guitarist James Hetfield, who then rattled off a long list of hard-rocking bands he feels deserve induction.

"Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Rush, Kiss, Ted Nugent, Iron Maiden, Motorhead. We'd like to invite them through the door," said Hetfield, who concluded his remarks by wrapping Ulrich in a bear hug.

The evening ended with a jam for the ages as Metallica, Beck, Jimmy Page, Aerosmith's Joe Tyler and Flea brought the house down with a performance of the Yardbirds' "Train Kept A Rollin."

A guitar virtuoso, Beck, who was previously inducted in 1992 with the Yardbirds, was put in for his solo work. Although best known for his rock accomplishments, Beck's career has wandered a fretboard of genres ranging from blues to jazz to electronica.

"Jeff's style is totally unorthodox to the way anyone was taught," said Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, who presented his longtime friend. "He keeps getting better and better and better."

Beck, wearing all white, was joined on stage by Page, a fellow guitar god, who played bass during a searing rendition of Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song."

With two turntables and a microphone, Run-DMC broke down the barriers between rock and rap. With sparse, stripped-down lyrics above pounding beats, the trio of Joseph "DJ Run" Simmons, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels and Jason "Jam Master Jay" Mizell changed rap in the 1980s by taking the realities of the streets to the suburbs.

"They broke away from the pack by being the pack," said rapper Eminem, looking like the band's lost member by sporting the group's trademark black fedora and black leather jacket. "They were the baddest of the bad and the coolest of the cool. Run-DMC changed my life."

"There's three of them and if you grew up with hip hop like I did, they were the Beatles."

Their remake and collaboration with Aerosmith on the rock band's "Walk This Way" changed modern music.

"We were young guys with a new music that people thought was a fad, but we knew the culture was a way of life and we just lived it," McDaniels said. "The music that we made then didn't just impact friends, it impacted a generation. So I guess that's what rock and roll does."

Any chance of a Run reunion ended with Mizell's death in 2002, when he was shot to death outside his studio. His murder remains unsolved.

Mizell's mother, Connie, accepted the award on his behalf.

"My baby is still doing it for me," she said.

Simmons cited "so many smart people and so much help" several times during his speech. He also thanked Mrs. Mizell, who allowed the group to set up their equipment in her Hollis, Queens, living room.

"She never told us to turn the music down once," Simmons said, turning to his late friend's mom. "I'd like to thank you for that."

Cleveland's Womack, the son of a steelworker, is best known for his soulful voice, but he had far greater musical range as a talented songwriter and guitarist.

He also branched into gospel, returning to the roots that got him his start with a family group, the Valentinos. He later played guitar for Sam Cooke.

Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones introduced Womack as "the voice that has always killed me. He brings me to tears." Wood then recalled a night in New York when he and Womack hid as some Hells Angels gang members were roughing up Wilson Pickett.

Little Anthony and the Imperials, who began their career singing on street corners in Brooklyn, N.Y., opened the program with a gorgeous medley of hits "Tears on My Pillow," "Hurt So Bad," and "I'm Alright." Many in the crowd mouthed the familiar tracks as lead singer Anthony "Little Anthony" Gourdine's falsetto filled the room.

Longtime friend Smokey Robinson presented the doo-wop group, calling their induction "long overdue."

Gourdine thanked his music teacher, "wherever you are" during his induction speech.

"We've been in this now for 50 years, and when we were kids we never imagined in our wildest dreams we'd ever be here," he said. "Now that it's here, the one thing we can look at and say is nobody can ever take this away from us."

Dubbed the "Sweet Lady with the Nasty Voice," the 71-year-old Jackson got her start as a country singer. She was a flamboyant dresser, and her choice of skirts and high heels rankled some hard-core fans. It was Elvis Presley, whom she toured with the 1950s, who persuaded her to sing rock songs.

"She could really rock and still kept her femininity intact," said presenter Roseanne Cash. "She's the prototype for so many of us."

Drummer DJ Fontana and the late bassist Bill Black - both of Elvis Presley's backup band - and keyboardist Spooner Oldham made it in the sidemen category.

'Fast & Furious' accelerates to $72.5M opening

LOS ANGELES – "Fast & Furious" left the competition in the dust with a $72.5 million opening weekend, the best so far this year.

That topped last weekend's $59.3 million debut for DreamWorks Animation's "Monsters vs. Aliens," which slipped to second place with $33.5 million, raising its 10-day total to $105.7 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Universal's "Fast & Furious" also raced to a record for April debuts, easily passing the previous best of $42.2 million set in 2003 by "Anger Management."
It was a blockbuster opening more customary to summer. But Hollywood has been extending its busy season more and more by placing summer-style flicks earlier in the year.

"It's summer time in April," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Media By Numbers. "We've seen the summer season stretch from what used to be Memorial Day through Labor Day, then the first of May through Labor Day. Now maybe with `Fast & Furious,' it's going to be early April as the beginning of summer."

The weekend's other new wide release, Miramax's 1980s nostalgia comedy "Adventureland," debuted at No. 6 with $6 million. The movie stars Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart as summer workers at a second-rate theme park in the late '80s.

The fourth installment of the "Fast and the Furious" street-racing franchise brings back the four stars of the 2001 original — Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster. The new movie has Diesel's fugitive driver and Walker's undercover cop reteaming for more illegal races as they take on a murderous drug lord.

The reunion paid off for distributor Universal, which also pulled in $30.1 million in 32 other countries where "Fast & Furious" was playing.

The original was a surprise hit, but the franchise was slowly running out of gas after the sequel "2 Fast 2 Furious," which starred Walker. Part three, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," had a new cast and took in a solid but unremarkable $62.5 million over its entire run.

But "Tokyo Drift" ended with a cameo by Diesel, sparking interest in reviving the series with the "Fast & Furious" reunion.

"The marketing campaign let everyone know it's not what you've seen before. It's the original cast," said Nikki Rocco, head of distribution for Universal. "For the audience, the first main reason to see the movie was the action, then the car racing, then Vin Diesel."

"Fast & Furious" paced Hollywood to another huge weekend, with overall revenues at $160 million, up 68 percent from the same period last year.

For the year, domestic revenues are running at a record pace of $2.57 billion, up 14.5 percent from 2008's, according to Media By Numbers. Factoring in 2009's higher ticket prices, movie attendance is running 12.8 percent ahead of last year's.

"The title of this movie perfectly describes the box office year of 2009. Fast and furious," Dergarabedian said.

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. "Fast & Furious," $72.5 million.
2. "Monsters vs. Aliens," $33.5 million.
3. "The Haunting in Connecticut," $9.6 million.
4. "Knowing," $8.1 million.
5. "I Love You, Man," $7.9 million.
6. "Adventureland," $6 million.
7. "Duplicity," $4.3 million.
8. "Race to Witch Mountain," $3.4 million.
9. "12 Rounds," $2.3 million.
10. "Sunshine Cleaning," $1.9 million.

The Couch Potato Report - April 4th, 2009

This week The Couch Potato Report peels a documentary about a Canadian tragedy, and three films that were Oscar's Best Picture.

I have some very entertaining, heartwarming and fun releases to tell you about this week, but we begin with something a bit more serious...a documentary about a tragic part of Canadian history.

Air India Flight 182.

That crash happened on June 22, 1985.

The bombing was the result of a Vancouver-based conspiracy whose members were under investigation by Canadian Intelligence in the months leading up to the explosion.

The documentary film AIR INDIA 182 is based on court transcipts, wire taps, declassified CSIS intelligence reports, and interviews with family members of the victims.

Those interviews give this film overwhelming emotion, and are very moving.

This is a very thorough documentary, so there are many unsettling stories and images of the crash and victims in AIR INDIA 182, so you shouldn't search it out if you have a weak disposition.

But if you ever wanted to know about the events that ocurred leading up to this disaster, which remains the largest mass murder in modern Canadian history, then this documentary somes highly recommended.

And may all the victims of Air India flight 182 continue to rest in peace.

From a moving and very interesting documentary about a tragic event in Canadian history, let me now switch gears completely.

The Academy Award winning Best Picture SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is up next this week, in fact, I actually now have three films that won the Academy's Best Picture statuette coming up for you!

I will get to the ones from 1951 and 1958 in a moment, but right now, let me rave about the one that took the top prize this year, back on February 22nd.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is about a teenager named Jamal, who grew up in the slums, and becomes a contestant on the Indian version of the game show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"

The film starts off with his arrest under suspicion of cheating, and it is during his interrogation that we flashback to events from his life...event sthat all explain how he knows the answers.

Now I have met and spoken with people who didn't care for the film because it features too many instances of coincidence, and I have disagreed with them all, ususally stating that coincidences happen in films all the time, even in the classics.

At it's core, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is a love story...and for me, that is why I liked it when I first saw it, and when I saw it for a second time, a third and even a fourth.

And you know what, even after that fourth time, it still put a smile on my face.

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE beat The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Reader to win Best Picture...and I wholeheartedly agree with the Academy's choice!

Back in 1951, the Academy named An American in Paris the Best Picture. It beat Decision Before Dawn, A Place in the Sun, Quo Vadis and A Streetcar Named Desire.

And now AN AMERICAN IN PARIS has debuted on Blu-ray, and it looks and sounds spectacular!!

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS is a musical that stars Gene Kelly as Jerry Mulligan, a struggling American painter in Paris, who is discovered by an influential heiress with an interest in more than Jerry's art.

Unfortunately for her, Jerry falls for someone else.

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS has romance, singing, fantastic costumes, and so much dancing that there is even an 18 minute ballet at the end. It is a true classic!! I am not sure if it deserved to win Best Picture in 1951...but I sure do enjoy the film everytime I see it.

I usually also enjoy the film that won Best Picture in 1958, and it too is now available on Blu-ray, and it too looks spectacular!!

In 1958, Gigi beat Auntie Mame, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Defiant Ones and Separate Tables to be named Best Picture, classics one and all!!

GIGI stars Louis Jourdan as a rich playboy who has become friends with a youthful courtesan-in-training, played by the always radiant Leslie Caron.

The two enjoy a platonic friendship, full of singing and dancing, but it may not stay platonic for long.

GIGI won Nine Academy Awards back in 1958, and in 2009 I highly recommend the new Blu-ray version, which is full of special features and a great retrospective look back.

It also includes some great songs!

None of those best picture winners are dogs, they are all great films.

I must admit, before I watched it, I expected that I would have called this next film a dog, with my tongue placed fully in my cheek...but....somehow...I liked it.

I didn't think I would, but I did...in fact, at times I loved it.

Yes, I am about to give a positive review to the Owen Wilson, Jennifer Anniston film MARLEY & ME.

MARLEY & ME is a movie that can be divided into two equal halves.

The first half, is full of cute puppies and slap stick humor, which is good for younger viewers, and the second half is the story of how marriage and having a family isn't easy, a story that might appeal to the more mature viewers and especially parents.

MARLEY & ME is sappy and for a while it relies too much on how cute the dog is....but then it becomes funny and the characters grow into real people, and not just movie people...and I liked it...somehow!

I honestly didn't think I would, but I did...and thus, I have no problems recommending it!

I also have no problems suggesting these next two releases to you...especially if you saw the WATCHMEN film in theatres, or love the Graphic Novel.

WATCHMEN: THE COMPLETE MOTION COMIC and WATCHMEN: TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGHTER are two great titles that supplement the recently released film, and help bring the graphic novel to life.

TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGHTER features an animated short film that is well done, and was very interesting to watch, and it also features a fake documentary on the book UNDER THE HOOD which is featured in the original WATCHMEN comics.

The BLACK FREIGHTER animation will eventually be included in a Director's Cut of the WATCHMEN film, but for now it is a fun stand alone, and THE COMPLETE MOTION COMIC takes all of Dave Gibbons comic Panels from the novel and brings them to life. There is no new animation...the items and characters in the panels just move around...but... they move.

Sadly, there is only one narrator, so even the Silk Spectres are male, but it was still very cool to watch.

I have two more titles to get to this week, and I will start with SEVEN POUNDS...the latest film starring Will Smith.

Will Smith is an engaging actor and whether he is doing drama - in ALI or THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS - out out and out action - in MEN IN BLACK, INDEPENDANCE DAY or BAD BOYS I am a fan of his work.

But I am not a fan of SEVEN POUNDS.

In it Will plays a man with a fateful secret who is trying to help change the lives of seven strangers, but it is utterly predictable, full of pure melodrama and it takes itself way too seriously. Sure, when the film ended, and all of it's secrets were revealed, that was rewarding...but I lost interest in it several times along the way.

If you love Will Smith and feel the need to see everything he is in, perhaps that is a reason to sit through SEVEN POUNDS...otherwise....SKIP IT!!!

The man has done better, and I trust that he will do better again!

Finally this week, is some very funny, not politically correct stand-up comedy from the man who created the classic BBC shows THE OFFICE and EXTRAS.

This is RICKY GERVAIS - OUT OF ENGLAND - THE STAND-UP SPECIAL.

No, not all of it is riotous, and much of it will offend, but if that doesn't bother you, then look for this one in stores or online because it is hilarious!!

Offensive...but hilarious!!

RICKY GERVAIS - OUT OF ENGLAND - THE STAND-UP SPECIAL and the tragic Canadian documentary AIR INDIA 182 ARE BOTH available now on DVD.

The useless SEVEN POUNDS, the great supplements WATCHMEN: THE COMPLETE MOTION COMIC and WATCHMEN: TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGHTER, the surprisingly entertaining MARLEY & ME, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - the Best Picture winner from 1951, GIGI - the Best Picture winner from 1958 and this year's Academy Award winner for Best Picture - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE - are all available now on DVD and in High Definition on Blu-ray!

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

Canadian Jim Carrey tries to be funny again in YES MAN.

Canadian Keanu Reeves appears in two sci-fi films: THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and THE MATRIX; and the BLU-RAY BEACON shines a light on the modern day classic THE PRINCESS BRIDE.

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!

Genies struggle to focus Canadian eyes on homegrown films

The Genie Awards, hosted by comedian Dave Foley of Kids in the Hall fame, are to be handed out in Ottawa Saturday night.

A festival devoted to screening Genie-nominated movies around the national capital region and the four-year-old Reel Canada program that brings Canadian films to high school students have run this week, in advance of the awards.

Both focus attention on what seems to be an uphill battle, trying to get English Canada to watch homegrown movies.

"In some ways we were inspired by the struggle in the '70s to get CanLit into high schools and how hard people fought to make that happen," Jack Blum, executive director of Reel Canada told CBC News. Now in its fourth year, Reel Canada has screened nearly 200 Canadian films to almost 20,000 students across Ontario and in Vancouver, beginning with films like The Red Violin and Away from Her.

"We have a wonderful body of work and it was time kids were introduced to these movies," Blum said.

Actor and former Genie winner for scriptwriting Don McKellar says it is essential that young people be exposed to Canadian film.

"People have to be aware at [an] early age. It's like learning language — there's Canadian language for film. It's exciting, it reflects their culture, experience, it will make huge difference," he said.

Benoît Pilon's Ce Qu'il Faut pour Vivre (The Necessities of Life) goes into the Genie Awards this Saturday with eight nominations and a best picture win at Quebec's Jutra Awards.

The film about an Inuit hunter confined to a Quebec sanatorium in the 1950s has earned star Natar Ungalaaq a best actor nomination and a best director nomination for Pilon.

Bernard Émond is competing for a best screenwriter Genie for his script, which details the cultural dislocation of the sick man and his tender relationship with an Inuit boy, who also has been wrenched from his family to recover from TB.

The film has been a critical darling, but has had nowhere near the box office legs of another best picture nominee, Passchendaele, Paul Gross's story of a Canadian soldier in one of the First World War's most tragic battles.

Passchendaele has already won the Golden Reel award, running for more than 15 weeks in some parts of Canada and earning $4.4 million.

It was a rare box office success for an English Canadian film. Domestic films suffer from inadequate distribution and lack the big-budget promotional hype that accompanies films out of Hollywood.

As always, the Genies attempt to focus attention on some rare gems of Canadian cinemas. This year's best picture nominees include Amal, the story of an auto-rickshaw driver in Delhi who inherits a rich man's estate.

The Hindi-language film directed by Richi Mehta won a dozen awards on the film festival circuit, but is little known by Canadian moviegoers.

Tout est Parfait, the French-language film about teen suicide, just opened in English Canada and Normal, Carl Bessai's film about the fallout from a car accident, has come and gone almost without notice, despite being a best-picture nominee.

Lesser known films among nominees

The best actor and actress categories also highlight some little known films, though this year's crop has drawn criticism for centring on well known names.

Well-knowns include Paul Gross, nominated for Passchendaele, and Christopher Plummer (for Emotional Arithmetic), but a surprise nominee was Aaron Poole in low budget film This Beautiful City.

Poole lost 37 pounds and had a dentist remove a crown in his mouth to play a recovering drug addict in the film, about five characters in Toronto's west end whose lives become interconnected after a woman falls from her balcony.

"Johnny's struggling to rid himself of his addiction and at the same time sustain the love he has for [his girlfriend] Pretty," said Poole, who also acted as producer for the film.

"It's hard to do that, he's sucked back into the world of drugs, he self-medicates his schizophrenia and the combination of those three things is difficult to manage."

Also nominated is Ungalaaq's moving performance in The Necessities of Life, which struck especially close to home for the actor because his grandfather had suffered in the same TB epidemic.

Well-known actresses Ellen Burstyn in The Stone Angel, Susan Sarandon in Emotional Arithmetic have nominations but the awards also focus attention on Quebec's outstanding Isabelle Blais and Bollywood actress Preity Zinta.

Part of the Genie Awards ceremony will be broadcast Saturday at 9 p.m. on Global.

Woody Allen takes Manhattan again

LAS VEGAS - Woody Allen is back on familiar ground with his latest movie, the first shot in his beloved New York City after four made in Europe.

And for "Whatever Works," Allen has found a suitable mouthpiece for his cynical humour in Larry David, star of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

The film received a warm reception and a lot of laughs at a screening Thursday at ShoWest, an annual convention of theatre owners. "Whatever Works" opens the Tribeca Film Festival on April 22 in advance of its theatrical debut in June.

Allen had shot most of his films in New York before doing three straight in London - "Match Point," "Scoop" and "Cassandra's Dream" - then making last year's "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" in Spain, which featured Allen's frequent collaborator, Scarlett Johansson.

Patricia Clarkson, who had a small role in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and takes on a key part in "Whatever Works," said the New York shoot was a pleasure - since she lives there, too.

"It was so nice to be shooting with Woody Allen in New York. It was divine," said Clarkson, who introduced "Whatever Works" to the ShoWest crowd. "There were a couple of days I walked to work. It was beautiful.

"He was definitely on his own turf," Clarkson said. "When we were shooting in Barcelona, it was like shooting with Mick Jagger. I mean, the streets were lined wherever we went for Scarlett and for Woody. It was like they were rock stars. In New York, the crowds gather, but I think because it's Woody, they're actually respectful of him."

"Whatever Works" casts David as a brilliant, misanthropic physicist whose dour outlook drives him to failed suicide attempts. After splitting with his worldly wife and giving up his teaching job, he becomes a cranky chess instructor in a May-December relationship with a naive southern beauty (Evan Rachel Wood), whose mother (Clarkson) schemes to split them up.

David delivers nicely as the sort of eccentric New Yorker that Allen has played himself in past films. But David is more than a stand-in for Allen, Clarkson said.

"They are kissing cousins. They are kindred spirits, absolutely," Clarkson said. "But Larry David is very different in the film. He's very different than he is on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.' People think he's absolutely that person on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' but he's a different man, and he's different in the Woody Allen film.

"It's Larry's own DNA mixed with Woody's writing. Those are two powerful DNAs mixing. It's inspired."

Saskatchewan Declares 'Corner Gas Day'

REGINA - The Saskatchewan government is declaring April 13 "Corner Gas Day" to coincide with the airing of the sitcom's final episode.

The popular CTV show, shot in rural southern Saskatchewan, wrapped up production of its sixth and last season earlier this year.

The series about life in a small prairie town called Dog River has been described as the most successful Canadian comedy ever made.

The show has snagged numerous Gemini awards and airs in syndication in countries around the world, including the United States.

Premier Brad Wall plans to sign a proclamation at the legislature in Regina this Monday.

Also present will be the show's star and creator, Saskatchewan-born Brent Butt.

Boston doesn't want Jay Leno show

The first great NBC-affiliate battle over the new primetime Jay Leno show is poised to take place in Boston -- the host's hometown.

WHDH-TV, Boston's Peacock affiliate, announced via its website Thursday that it plans to launch an hour-long 10 p.m. newscast in the fall.

That would pre-empt Leno's new, still-untitled 10 p.m. series. NBC swiftly responded, warning WHDH that such a move would make them in breach of their pact with the net -- and that the Peacock wouldn't hesitate to yank the station's affiliation.

"WHDH's move is a flagrant violation of the terms of their contract with NBC," John Eck, NBC TV Network president, said in a statement. "If they persist, we will strip WHDH of its NBC affiliation. We have a number of other strong options in the Boston market, including using our existing broadcast license to launch an NBC-owned and operated station."

Insiders said NBC is already looking at contingencies in Boston should WHDH go ahead with its plans -- including turning its Telemundo station in the market, WNEU (Channel 60), into an NBC outlet.

Sunbeam chief Ed Ansin, who owns WHDH, told the Boston Globe that he decided to replace Leno with news because "it fundamentally is a better financial plan for us."

"We don't think the Leno show is going to be effective in primetime," Ansin said. "It will be detrimental to our 11 o'clock (newscast). It will be very adverse to our finances."

Ansin told the paper that WHDH had asked for permission to push Leno to 11 p.m., but the network said no. Instead, he has no plans to run Leno at all, and will continue to air an 11 p.m. newscast leading into "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien" at 11:35.

Ansin also claimed that WHDH held a clause in its affiliation contract that would allow the station to dump the 10 p.m. Leno show -- an assertion that NBC also vehemently denied.

"That is absolutely wrong," said NBC general counsel Rick Cotton. "It is clear that WHDH is contractually required to air NBC programming as scheduled by the network."

The radical move by WHDH comes as several affils nervously wait to see how NBC's primetime Leno series evolves and ultimately impacts their business.

The Peacock affils have been conducting a study to see how viewers actually watch "The Tonight Show" -- and how there might be ways to produce and schedule Leno's new show in order to help out affiliates. NBC has also put a task force in place to work with the stations on the launch.

"We've been engaged in an open dialogue with NBC about the format of the show, and we're looking forward to working with Jay and the entire team," said NBC affiliate board chairman Michael Fiorile, who's also vice chairman of the Dispatch Group.

This isn't the first time NBC has faced the possibility of having to replace a major affiliate in a top market. After failing to come to terms in 2001 with its long-time San Francisco outlet KRON, NBC wound up affiliating with (and later purchasing) San Jose-based KNTV.

Like KNTV, which only covered part of San Francisco, WNEU only reaches a portion of the Boston market. But the Peacock has other options in Boston as well, including WSBK, a one-time superstation that is now an independent owned and operated by CBS.

Effects company denies leaking 'Wolverine' online

LOS ANGELES – An Australian visual effects company that worked on "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" said Thursday it was not responsible for leaking a full-length work print online.

The company's name — Rising Sun Pictures — appears in a caption dated March 2 a few minutes into the high-quality leaked copy of the 20th Century Fox superhero movie.

"As we worked on individual sequences within the film, neither Rising Sun Pictures or its staff members have ever been in possession of a full-length version, so it would have been impossible for the movie to have been leaked from here," Rising Sun Pictures chairman and co-founder Tony Clark said in a statement posted on the company's Web site Thursday.

The "prequel, which focuses on the beginnings of Hugh Jackman's clawed Marvel superhero Wolverine, is not scheduled for release until May 1, but the leaked version began appearing online Tuesday evening. Fox said in a statement Wednesday that it had the original file removed, but copies quickly propagated and continue to appear on several file-sharing Web sites.

According to Rising Sun Pictures' Web site, the visual effects company had been tasked with producing "a number of key effects sequences" in "Wolverine." Rising Sun Pictures is also working on the upcoming "Terminator Salvation" film and had previously created effects for "Watchmen," "Australia," "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" and "Get Smart."

Fox vowed Wednesday that the source of the "stolen, incomplete and early version" of the movie would be prosecuted and said the FBI and MPAA are investigating the leak. The studio also insisted that the version of "Wolverine" posted online had been forensically marked and "was without many effects, had missing and unedited scenes and temporary sound and music."

Legacy of 80s music cloven by new film, musical

NEW YORK – Whitesnake. Cinderella. Flock of Seagulls. These did little to help the legacy of 1980s rock music.

Did The Replacements, Husker Du and Crowded House do enough to save it?

Two new works, the Broadway musical "Rock of Ages" and the new Greg Mottola film "Adventureland," present opposite soundtracks for the Reagan era: While the stage production revels in hair-band kitsch, the more indie-minded "Adventureland" is nostalgic for the sounds of `80s underground.

Together, the two works beg the question: How should `80s music be remembered? As a period of schlock and excess? As a culmination of rock 'n' roll fun? Or were the `80s perhaps more multidimensional than our collective memory generally considers it?

"Adventureland," which opens in theaters Friday, is directed by Mottola, who helmed last year's hit coming-of-age comedy "Superbad." This time, Mottola (who also wrote the script) portrays the awkwardness of his post-college 20s, pulling from his experience working at a Long Island amusement park for a summer.

And to him, the `80s weren't just Warrant and Wham!

"I wore T-shirts and jeans most days in the 1980s," Mottola, 44, said. "I wasn't saying, `What did Emilio Estevez wear in "St. Elmo's Fire?" I'd like to dress like that.'"

The film is stuffed to the tilt with tunes, boasting a pulsating soundtrack of The Replacements, Lou Reed, Big Star, The Cure, Husker Du, the New York Dolls and others (the acclaimed indie band Yo La Tengo, formed in 1984 and still active, fills in the score.)

For Mottola, nothing is as much a criterion to the past as music.

"As I was writing the film, I almost saw the film as my idea of a good pop love song," he said. "The music is the most exciting thing in the movie to me on some level."

Music is woven into "Adventureland," with some 40 songs in total. Characters relate to each other through a taste for similar bands. Mix tapes are exchanged. Ryan Reynolds' character, for example, is not to be trusted because of his boastful lie that he once jammed with Reed.

Mottola recalls discovering the less commercial music of the `80s: "It was only later when I got older and met some cooler kids that they told me, `You know, there is thing called the Velvet Underground. You might want to check it out.'"

"Adventureland" is a reminder that `80s culture wasn't just one note.

"This sounds dorky, but The Replacements are a band that I think saved my life at certain points, when I was really depressed and lonely," said Mottola.

The film isn't dominated by outlandish styles from the period. One character in the film, though, typifies `80s kitsch: Lisa P (Margarita Levieva). With a look straight out of an early Madonna video, she's a roller-skating sexpot as vacant at the music she dances to — like Falco's then-ubiquitous hit "Rock Me Amadeus."

"I needed to have, like, a couple of those huge hits that you couldn't escape," said Mottola. "The song has a special power to get under your skin like a flesh-eating virus."

As much as "Adventureland" is an intimate story filled with personal music, "Rock of Ages," which stars former "American Idol" contestant Constantine Maroulis, is for the crowd. The musical, which officially opens April 7 at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, is a raucous celebration of `80s hair bands.

Ushers hand out fake lighters to hold up during power ballads, while waitresses ask patrons "Are you ready to rock?" before show time.

With an on-stage house band, "Rock of Ages" stitches together numbers of arena bombast from groups like Journey, Poison, Whitesnake, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Quiet Riot and Bon Jovi. It's being promoted as a musical that will do for `80s rock what "Mamma Mia!" did for ABBA.

"This whole era gets pushed to the side as incidental and trite and silly," said Chris D'Arienzo, who wrote the musical's book. "It's only not respected by the critics."

D'Arienzo, who will turn 37 this month, feels both nostalgia for the music of "Rock of Ages" and laughs at it, too. Growing up in rural Michigan, he remembers first seeing the cover of Poison's "Look What the Cat Dragged In."

"I honestly thought, `These are the most beautiful women I've ever seen' — and then realized they were all dudes on the cover," laughed D'Arienzo.

Without a trace of seriousness, "Rock of Ages" exults the trashiness of the period's bleached blonde hair, wine coolers, gratuitous sax solos, leather pants, jean jackets and fog machines.

The theatricality of `80s cheesiness seems oddly befitting to Broadway. For the most part, rock star extravagance became passe once Kurt Cobain's Nirvana and early `90s alternative rock ushered in a new, rawer sensibility.

D'Arienzo (who plays in his own band, Saint America) is also at work on a film adaptation of "Rock of Ages" for New Line Cinema, which he'll both write and direct.

Ultimately, what "Rock of Ages" and "Adventureland" have in common is their interest in peering into the past through the prism of music — be it via Guns N' Roses or Husker Du.

"The touchstones of that time are all defined by this music," said D'Arienzo. "It was the stuff that I was playing when I had my first kiss."

Reznor unleashes April Fool's joke

Trent Reznor has nailed April Fool's Day.

The Nine Inch Nails frontman -- who has released his last couple of albums online with virtually no notice -- pranked his fans Wednesday when he sent out a Twitter message announcing "Brand new FULL LENGTH NIN record available now."

The gag didn't end there: Anyone going to Reznor's website was treated to a hilarious page detailing the fictional disc Strobe Light, complete with a cover shot of Reznor in Kanye-style horizontal-blind sunglasses and a cheeseball synth-drum soundtrack.

"To download NIN's new full-length album Strobe Light, PRODUCED BY TIMBALAND, enter a valid email address in the fields below," the page reads. "A download link will be sent to you immediately. Your credit card will be charged $18.98 plus a $10 digital delivery convenience fee. Your files will arrive as windows media files playable on quite a few players with your name embedded all over them just in case you lose them. You will also receive an exclusive photo and a free email account with our partner Google's Gmail service.

"Your email will be kept confidential and will not be used for spam, unless we can make some money selling it."

He probably could -- but not as much as he could make if he actually put out an album like this.

Check out the supposed track list:

1. Intro Skit
2. Everybody's Doing It (feat. Chris Martin, Jay-Z AND Bono)
3. Black T-Shirt
4. P-----grinder (feat. Sheryl Crow)
5. Coffin on the Dancefloor
6. This Rhythm is Infected
7. Slide to the Dark Side
8. Even Closer (feat. Justin Timberlake and Maynard James Keenan)
9. On the List (She's Not)
10. Clap Trap Crack Slap
11. L--d, Paid and Played (feat. Fergie of Black Eyed Peas and Al Jourgensen)
12. Feel Like Being Dead Again
13. Still Hurts (feat. Alicia Keys)
14. Outro Skit

Bill Cosby to receive Mark Twain prize

WASHINGTON–Bill Cosby will be awarded the 12th annual Mark Twain Prize for humour for his groundbreaking career.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Wednesday that Cosby, 71, will be honoured with what's considered the top U.S. humour prize. Some of the biggest names in comedy will salute Cosby on stage in Washington on Oct. 26.

Cosby said in a statement accepting the award that his mother read Twain's famous stories to him as a child, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

"I would like to apologize to Mr. Twain for falling asleep hundreds of times, but he should understand that I was only four,'' Cosby said.

Still, he said several of Twain's stories inspired his work, including How to Tell a Story and The Mysterious Stranger.

The award honours people who have had an impact on society in ways similar to Twain, a satirist, commentator and storyteller.

"Over the course of his extensive career as a standup comedian, writer, actor, and social activist, Bill Cosby has earned countless accolades for his groundbreaking brand of humour," said Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen Schwarzman.

Perhaps best known as the star and producer of the popular sitcom The Cosby Show during the 1980s, the Philadelphia native started his career as a standup comedian in nightclubs. He caught the eye of TV producers and landed a role in the "I Spy" series in the 1960s, which broke new ground by casting a black man and a white man as equals.

The Cosby Show, portraying an upper middle-class black family and everyday life, ran from 1984 to 1992 as a Thursday night hit for its NBC network. Cosby also produced a second hit sitcom, A Different World, from 1987 to 1993. He brought Cosby back as a sitcom for CBS from 1996 to 2000.

Cosby dropped out of high school to join the U.S. Navy. He earned his diploma while in the service and later enrolled at Temple University with the goal of becoming a physical education teacher. Cosby went on to earn master's and doctorate degrees in education and has been a leading voice on race.

He's proven to be one of the nation's most popular and enduring entertainers. Nine of Cosby's comedy albums have been certified gold, and six went platinum on recording industry charts. He has authored several books, including Fatherhood and Time Flies, that became best sellers.

"Of course we really like that he's a real author of words on paper," which rounds out his profile in the Twain tradition, said Peter Kaminsky, co-executive producer of the Twain prize.

"You don't need to have been a boy who grew up in a small town in Mississippi to understand Mark Twain. That's the particular genius of Bill and the African-American experience," Kaminsky said. "He universalized the African-American experience. Anybody could understand the themes of family, loyalty and obligation – and the human comedy.''

Cosby has homes in Massachusetts, New York and Los Angeles. He married his wife, Camille, in 1964, and they raised four daughters and a son, Ennis, who was shot to death on a Los Angeles freeway in 1997. The Cosbys have three grandchildren.

When Cosby entered the polling booth in his Los Angeles neighbourhood last year to vote for the first black president, he carried with him photographs of his late parents and Jimmy, his brother who died in childhood. Some have argued that Cosby helped pave the way for President Barack Obama by breaking down stereotypes – a credit that Cosby rebuffs.

The Kennedy Center board chooses the prize winner with recommendations from a committee that includes former Twain honourees, the show's producers and others.

Tickets for the award show go on sale to the public Aug. 12. Proceeds benefit the center's education programs.

Last year the Kennedy Center honoured the late George Carlin with the Mark Twain prize. Past honourees have also included Billy Crystal, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg. The first honouree was Richard Pryor in 1998.

Carlos Santana sets up Las Vegas residency

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Carlos Santana has signed a multi-year deal with AEG Live to bring his specially designed stage show to Las Vegas.

The residency, dubbed "Supernatural Santana: A Trip Through the Hits," debuts May 27 at The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel, and will run off and on over the next two years. The Vegas show will be "the only place west of the Mississippi" to see Santana play live through 2010, according to a press release.

Onstage, Santana will be joined by his regular crew of musicians--Chester Thompson (keyboards), Karl Perazzo (timbales), Benny Rietveld (bass), Dennis Chambers (drums), Raul Rekow (congas), Andy Vargas (vocals), Tony Lindsay (vocals), Tommy Anthony (rhythm guitar), Jeff Cressman (trombone) and Bill Ortiz (trumpet)--and will perform on a set designed by the same production team that recently designed Madonna's "Sticky & Sweet" tour set.

The shows will feature a broad selection of tracks from throughout the legendary performer's career, reaching back to Santana's first charting single, 1969's "Jingo." Tickets for the Vegas performances will range in price from $79 to $299, and the first batch of dates are currently on sale. Visit Santana's website for more information.

"Because I still live the principles of the 1960s, and because I'm a hippie at heart, 'A Trip Through The Hits' is designed to bring everyone in the audience together as one," Santana said in a statement. "I invite you to join our experience--we'll mix up a little practical spirituality with a rebel-from-the-street vibe, and with lots of incredible music. My wish is for it to be a night that will move you to dance, to cry, to laugh and to feel the totality and fullness of being alive."

Santana's most recent studio release, "All That I Am," surfaced in 2005. The album debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200 chart, moving more than 140,000 copies in its first week on store shelves.

May 2009
27, 28, 30, 31 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel

June 2009
3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13, 14 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel

August 2009
26, 27, 29, 30 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel

September 2009
2, 4, 5, 6 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint at Hard Rock Hotel

'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' leaks to the Web

This is not an April Fool's Day joke: A full print of the upcoming superhero flick "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" has appeared online.

Worse, we're not talking the sort of blurry, cellphone-quality bootleg normally associated with leaked movies. Drew McWeeny over at HitFix describes it as "a near-finished DVD quality rip, marred only by a few unfinished FX shots." Other commenters who viewed the leaked movie said the CGI was either unfinished or totally absent.

That's bad news for 20th Century Fox, which is hoping "Wolverine" can resurrect its "X-Men" franchise after a relatively disappointing showing by "X-Men: The Last Stand." No matter how unfinished, leaked films hurt box office both directly (obviously, someone who's seen the movie for free may not pay ten bucks for a ticket at the theater) and indirectly (those who see it aren't seeing a theatrical cut, so their word of mouth may prevent others from buying tickets).

Don't expect Fox's lawyers to win this round, either. It's one thing to ask a site to take down leaked clips; it's another to try and fight against the evolving slipperiness of the torrent communities. Just ask all those video-game developers whose pirated products have been played free for years.

Before you go rushing off to HitFix (or Ain't It Cool News or CinemaBlend or the movie news site of your choice), be warned: While the sites themselves are taking a strong stance against leaking details, commenters in several places aren't being nearly as restrained. Spoilers do abound.

After 72 years, TV's `Guiding Light' switching off

NEW YORK – CBS is pulling the plug on the soap opera "Guiding Light" after a 72-year run that predates television, the show a victim of the economy and changed viewing habits.

The drama's final episode will air on Sept. 18.

The Guinness Book of World Records has cited it as the longest-running television drama. It began as a 15-minute serial on NBC Radio on Jan. 25, 1937, and debuted on CBS TV in 1952, focusing on the fictional town of Springfield and the Spaulding, Lewis and Cooper families.

"For many of us, it was the first show we ever watched," said Lynn Leahey, editorial director of Soap Opera Digest. Unlike prime-time shows that came and went, it was a constant in people's lives. "It really is heartbreaking to see something like this go away."

Procter & Gamble Productions, which makes the show, informed cast and crew Wednesday at separate sets in New York and New Jersey. The company isn't giving up on the story, and will explore different ways to keep it going after September, a spokeswoman said.

Soap operas have been in a long, slow decline in popularity, primarily because many of the women who made up their loyal audiences are no longer at home at that hour. They're working, and can find the communal experience that their favorite soaps once gave them elsewhere.

"Guiding Light" had the lowest ratings of the eight daytime dramas on the air. When it leaves, CBS and ABC will have three weekday soap operas, with NBC having one.

"The numbers are really tough for all of these old dramas," said Ron Raines, the actor who portrayed the villain Alan Spaulding in "Guiding Light."

"I don't think any of the other shows want any of us to go off. We're all in this together," he said.

Many successful actors got their start on "Guiding Light," including James Earl Jones, Calista Flockhart, Hayden Panettiere, Kevin Bacon and Taye Diggs.

Faced with extinction a year ago, "Guiding Light" significantly revamped its operations. It ditched its fixed, three-camera set in favor of portable cameras that enabled producers to shoot in different locations. The move saved money and changed the show's look to make it seem more like the reality shows younger viewers are accustomed to.

It didn't work, at least enough for CBS. The network hasn't said what will replace "Guiding Light" on the schedule, but it will almost certainly be a talk or game show, which are much cheaper to make than dramas with a large cast.

The changes also made many of the fans and cast members unhappy, said Carolyn Hinsey, Soap Opera Digest columnist. Two of its biggest stars, Beth Ehlers and Ricky Paull Goldin, quit and now work on ABC's "All My Children."
For fans of the genre, Wednesday's move could be a peek into the future.

Ten years from now, "I absolutely think (daytime dramas) will still be around," Leahey said. "I don't know if you'll be able to watch them from noon to three o'clock on network television."

In fact, the cancellation could be an opportunity for "Guiding Light," she said. Perhaps there's a way to keep the show alive on cable or online; Procter & Gamble says it will have to evaluate whether there's a cost-effective way to do that.

For now, its cast and crew are in mourning.

"What is it? 72 years continuous?" Raines said. "That will never be touched. It's a very sad thing, but these are the times we live in. It's very tough out there."

THE GEORGE FOSTER PEABODY AWARDS

Athens, Ga. – Thirty-six recipients of the 68th Annual Peabody Awards were announced today by the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The winners, chosen by the Peabody board as the best in electronic media for 2008, were named in a ceremony in the Peabody Gallery on the University of Georgia campus.

“The works recognized by the Peabody Board this year not only reflect great diversity of content and genre, but also true technical innovation and the varied roles of new distribution systems,” said Peabody Director Horace Newcomb. “The list of winners this year clearly indicates a changing media environment that will continue to require judgment and evaluation through the Peabody Awards process.”

The recipients included Lost, ABC’s innovative, mind-bending adventure serial; “The Giant Pool of Money,”a remarkably comprehensible explanation of the current financial crisis from public radio’s This American Life; and YouTube, the video-sharing Web site that puts a boundless array of video artifacts, from historic political speeches to cell phone videos, at every Internet user’s fingertips. Black Magic, ESPN’s fascinating examination of the integration of basketball and its impact on the programs of historical black colleges and universities, received a Peabody, as did Saturday Night Live’s campaign-season political satire.

A Peabody went to Sichuan Television for its immediate coverage of the deadly earthquake that struck its Chinese province. For several days, SCTV was the only source of video for television news organizations around the world. National Public Radio was also recognized for its exhaustive and sensitive daily reporting on the quake. Peabodys went to CNN’s coverage of the Presidential primaries and debates, and to the election-year broadcasts of Washington Week with Gwen Ifill. The Hearst-Argyle television-station group was awarded for its extensive Commitment 2008 coverage of local and regional political contests.

In the realm of the arts, Peabodys went to The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series; The Gates, an HBO documentary tracking the 24-year making of a now-celebrated installation in New York’s Central Park; and to NBC’s dazzling telecast of the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony and the ceremony director, Zhang Yimou. An institutional Peabody was awarded to Turner Classic Movies, the cable channel devoted to showing, preserving and fostering a critical appreciation of vintage films.

The entertainment series selected included Breaking Bad, AMC’s thorny drama about a terminally ill science teacher who turns to making and selling methamphetamine to build an estate for his wife and disabled son. John Adams, HBO’s richly detailed miniseries about the lawyerly founding father, his wife, Abigail, and the times in which they lived, received the award. Also cited was HBO’s comedy Entourage, a wicked take on Hollywood and the joys and sorrows of minor stardom. Avatar: The Last Air Bender, an animated, Asian-influenced mythological epic shown on Nickelodeon, received a Peabody, as did Jungle Fish, a handsomely stylized slice of South Korean teen life from the Korean Broadcasting System.

In addition to YouTube, a Peabody was awarded to The New York Times’ Web site (www.nytimes.com). Another went to Onion News Network (www.theonion.com/content/video), where video parodies of newscasts and newsmakers are so shrewdly conceived and produced that they’re often hard to distinguish from the real thing.

“We recognize the great transformations affecting dissemination of news and information,” Newcomb said. “The variety of choices available to citizens does in fact range from the best traditional journalism expanded for the Web, to sharp critiques in the form of parody and satire. Both can achieve a level of excellence that reaches the Peabody standard and both require citizens to respond with careful analysis of their own.”

A Peabody went to NOAH Housing Program Investigation, a series of more than 50 reports by New Orleans’ WWL-TV exposing problems and possible fraud in a multi-million dollar program designed to help homeowners rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina. Awards also went to Failing the Children: Deadly Mistakes, Denver TV station KMGH’s multi-part expose of tragic incompetence in the city’s Department of Human Services. National Public Radio’s 36 Years of Solitary: Murder, Death and Justice on Angola received a Peabody for a gripping investigative report questioning the guilt of two inmates at Louisiana’s notorious prison farm. The two have been kept in solitary confinement for more than three decades.

Newcomb commented on a “stunning array of notable documentaries,” saying “This year the Peabody Board was faced with what can only be described as a renaissance in the form. Our decisions came after difficult, but thorough reviews of one of the best pools of docs ever submitted.”

Among the documentary winners, Shanghai Television Group’s The Red Race provided a shockingly intimate portrait of the rigorous—some would say sadistic—training that Chinese child gymnasts undergo. Campaign, a quirky P.O.V. film, illuminated Japan’s political system by following one guileless candidate’s run for a city-council seat. Hear and Now, shown on HBO, poignantly chronicled the process and consequences of a middle-aged deaf couple who undergo cochlear implant operations. One splendid Independent Lens documentary, Mapping Stem Cell Research, followed a neurologist obsessed with discovering a way to reverse the effects of his beloved daughter’s spinal injury, while another, King Corn, is a deceptively whimsical exploration of what our corn-syrup saturated diet means to our health and the environment.

Peabodys also went to Ape Genius, a NOVA documentary examining the latest research on how the intellectual capacity of gorillas, chimps, bonobos and orangutans compares to ours. Cinemax’s Nankingoffered a wrenching remembrance of a small group of Westerners who tried to save Chinese civilians from the horrors of the 1937 Japanese invasion. Crossfire: Water, Power and Politics, a documentary from Las Vegas’ KLAS-TV that achieved network quality, dared to look hard at a plan to pump massive amounts of water from rural Nevada to its booming, major city and at what this will mean to ranches, farms, Native Americans and the environment.

Depression: Out of the Shadows, a multi-dimensional, ultimately hopeful examination of the devastating disorder that affects millions of Americans, received a Peabody, as did Hopkins, ABC News’ compelling verite series filmed in the halls and operating rooms of the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

A Peabody also was awarded to Richard Engel Reports: Tip of the Spear, a series of reports under-fire by the NBC News correspondent from the deadliest zone in Afghanistan. Lifeline, a CBS News 60 Minutes report, received a Peabody. It memorably encapsulated the plight of America’s 47 million uninsured by showing some of the 18,000 people who showed up when a free-clinic mission, designed for Third World charity, set up shop for a weekend in Tennessee.

The Peabody Awards, the oldest honor in electronic media, do not recognize categories nor are there a set number of awards given each year. Today the Peabody recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by TV and radio stations, networks, cablecasters, Webcasters, producing organizations and individuals.

The Peabody Board is a 16-member group, comprised of television critics, broadcast and cable industry executives, academics and experts in culture and the arts. They make their annual selections with input from special screening committees of UGA faculty, students and staff.

All entries become a permanent part of the Peabody Archive in the University of Georgia Libraries. The collection is one of the nation’s oldest, largest and most respected moving-image archives. For more information about the Peabody Archive or the Peabody Awards, see www.peabody.uga.edu.

Established in 1915, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication offers seven undergraduate majors including advertising, broadcast news, magazines, newspapers, public relations, publication management and telecommunication arts. The college offers two graduate degrees, and is home to WNEG-TV, the Knight Chair in Health and Medical Journalism and the Peabody Awards, internationally recognized as one of the most prestigious prizes for excellence in electronic media. For more information, see www.grady.uga.edu.

Legendary British rocker Elvis Costello launches new TV show

TORONTO - Elvis Costello has never seemed a likely host for a television talk show.

Though as an artist he's been stubbornly impossible to pin down through his 30-plus years in the industry, on a personal level he has always seemed intense, nervy and fiercely intelligent - not necessarily the formula for a successful talk show host.

As he first began putting together his new show "Spectacle: Elvis Costello With..." - a Costello-hosted mixture of interviews with musicians and performances - he admits there was an adjustment period.

"Nobody's born to be a television presenter, you have to gather some skills and confidence about it over a matter of weeks," the legendary musician said over the phone from his Vancouver home. "If you went back and looked at the first appearances of the most practised and confident of TV performers now, you'd find the same thing. You'd find them being more hesitant.

"Little by little the process kind of educates you."

For "Spectacle," which premieres in Canada on Friday (CTV, 10 p.m. ET), Costello interviewed such heavyweights as the Police, Elton John, Tony Bennett and even former U.S. President Bill Clinton.

The show features laid-back interview segments peppered with performances, which often feature Costello himself.

Costello, who was warm, friendly and sharp-witted even when reached early in the morning for an interview, says his participation is important, because it reminds the guests that he too is a performer, not strictly an interviewer.

He opens each show by performing one of his guest's songs. In John's case, Costello performed "Bordertown," while he played a medley of "Please Stay" and "Every Breath You Take" for the Police.

Costello, however, said he ran into trouble when he had a certain Montreal-raised singer on the show.

"Rufus Wainwright's songs are all so difficult, I couldn't possibly sing any of them, you'd need to be as gifted as he is as a vocalist," he said.

Instead, Costello made reference to Wainwright's recreation of a Judy Garland concert by singing "If I Only Had a Brain" from "The Wizard of Oz."

"I thought (it) would amuse him," he said.

Costello has been on the other side of thousands of interviews over his career, and he also had a bit of experience on television, filling in for David Letterman in 2003 when the talk show host fell ill.

Still, it was a skill that Costello honed over the course of the first season.

So how does he describe his interview technique now?

"Like a lion tamer - it's a chair and a whip," he replied.

Costello said that his status as an artist has helped him draw his guests into some surprisingly candid conversations - "They shared a side of themselves where, in some cases, people were quite surprised about it," he said.

Specifically, Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed might have caught viewers off guard, Costello said.

"I think people were surprised that he was as enthusiastic about other people's music as he was," he said. "I think maybe because they have just one image of him, instead of thinking of him as a human being with different moods, you know?"

Costello, meanwhile, hasn't actually had the chance to sit down to a broadcast of the show. Since finishing production of the first season in New York, he's either been in Canada or the U.K., where the show wasn't available yet.

He says he's looking forward to getting to watch it.

"It'll all be new to me," he said. "I'll be sitting there with my cup of tea when it airs on CTV."

Costello also has a new album coming out in June called "Secret, Profane and Sugarcane."

T-Bone Burnett produced the record and co-wrote two songs with Costello, who also collaborated with Loretta Lynn on a track.

Costello said they recorded the album in three days in Nashville.

"People say it's live - of course, everything you do is live," he said. "But it wasn't an overdub record, it was a recording of performances. That's the best way to play the music we were playing.

"It's a really beautiful sounding record, I'm really happy with the way it sounds."

He says he plans to head out on the road between June and August to play some shows in conjunction with the album.

Of course, scheduling such trips isn't easy.

Costello is married to Vancouver singer Diana Krall, and the couple has twin two-year-old sons. He says that he and his wife are so busy, they need to be firm in trying to schedule time together.

"We've spent a lot of time heading in different directions, and there's a master plan of how we retain a sense of family life by grabbing all the available days that we have together, no matter how far flung they are on the map," he said. "We're pretty tenacious about finding the days that we can carve out of a very busy year."

It doesn't help that both need to travel so much, though Costello does note: "I regard Vancouver as close to a hometown as I can have as a travelling musician."

But he implies that they may need to put down roots more firmly in the coming years.

"It is a travelling life, you know," he said. "There might be some decisions to be made about our family in the next year or so because of having twin boys.

Postal Service launching "Simpsons" stamps

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – "The Simpsons" will be immortalized on stamps to be issued by the U.S. Postal Service this year.

The 44-cent first-class mail stamps, designed by Simpsons creator and executive producer Matt Groening, will feature Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie Simpson, the nuclear family at the center of the animated Fox series.

The stamps, a sneak peek of which will be unveiled April 9, also will help celebrate the longest-running primetime comedy's 20th anniversary this year.

Of the 50,000 stamp suggestions the Postal Service receives each year, only about 20 ideas make the cut.

Patrick To Return For Terminator 5?

Terminator 2: Judgement Day actor Robert Patrick is set to thrill sci-fi fans - he is in talks to make a return to his evil robot role in the franchise's next instalment.

Filmmaker McG is taking the helm of the fourth movie, Terminator Salvation, and is lined up to direct the fifth movie in the action series.

And the director is eyeing Patrick for the forthcoming project - who shot to fame for his part as evil metal shapeshifter T-1000 in the first Terminator sequel.

Patrick reveals, "Yeah, he talked to me about it. I’m interested. I was listening to him tell me about it. I had no idea that he thought about that.

"I love McG. He’s a great guy... we saw each other and he talked to me about it, so we'll see what happens. The sci-fi genre, and specifically that character, is something I'm very proud of. It's what broke me out big to the world."