Student-made Peas video a hit

MONTREAL - A YouTube video of students at the Universite de Quebec a Montreal lip syncing the Black Eyed Peas hit "I Got a Feeling" is quickly becoming a phenomenon on the web.

Two UQAM communications students created the lip dub video to the popular tune during the first week of school and it has taken on a life of its own, with more than 400,000 views on the video-sharing website as of Wednesday.

The walking, first-person video takes the viewer on a tour of UQAM's downtown Montreal campus, right through the front door and snaking through the hallways as students sing and dance to the hit.

Luc-Olivier Cloutier and Marie-Eve Hebert, the student duo behind the Internet hit say it was a tremendous task to co-ordinate the roughly five-minute video, which was remarkably filmed in just one take.

"We really had to plan everything in advance, starting with the itinerary," said Cloutier, 22, who was the cameraman.

"We had to write, line-by-line, who would do what, everything had to be timed."

Six students worked on the concept for over a month and volunteers were recruited using social networking site Facebook, but they had no idea how many would actually show up until the day of filming.

A total of 172 students took part in the video, which was filmed in the span of about two hours.

According to the Viral Video Chart, the video was ranked number 12 as of Wednesday.

"There was no way we though that it would become as popular as it has," Cloutier said, adding the comments are added minute by minute on YouTube.

Local and international media have also taken notice, with CNN interviewing the creators on Sunday night and an NBC interview in the coming days.

"They are really impressed, that's what is special," said Cloutier of the media attention.

Both students are to graduate next spring and have been receiving job offers since the video went viral, meaning it became a mainstream hit on the Internet through word of mouth.

The clip is available on YouTube right here!

Stewart Copeland Tells Police 'War Stories' In New Book

The Police drummer Stewart Copeland doesn't want to make his new book, "Strange Things Happen: A Life With the Police, Polo, and Pygmies" (HarperStudio) a conventional autobiography. "It really isn't because of all the stuff I left out, the boring stuff -- I was born here, then I moved there, then I went to this school, then that school...Who cares?" Copeland tells Billboard.com. "These are war stories."

Many of those, not surprisingly, come from his days with the Police, though Copeland acknowledges that "the eight years of Police supremacy back in the day (i.e., the 80s) get a little bit of short shrift." But that, he adds, was by design. "The first part (of the Police), I told that story with my movie ("Everyone Stares: The Police Inside Out"). Sting and Andy (Summers) both wrote books about it and covered it very well, I thought," he explains. "But the last third of my book is all about the reunion tour, which, unlike the first eight years, is untold."

Copeland adds that he hopes "Strange Things Happen" also portrays what he feels is a more insightful and accurate view of the famous volatility that is part of the Police's legend.

"I think I did succeed in clarifying the conflict in the band," he explains. "It has always been too easy to assume it was just a clash of egos, and that was always very frustrating for me because it's so far from the truth. In fact, we are very selfless in the Police, all three of us; we really leave our egos at the door and go in there and take a pasting from each other -- and we take it. That's what life in the Police was all about. It was always a clash of musical ideals...We were fighting over the right things."

"Strange Things Happen" isn't solely about the Police, of course. Copeland writes about his CIA agent father, his youth in the Middle East and England, and his other musical experiences, including the all-star Oysterhead with Primus' Les Claypool and Phish's Trey Anastasio, jamming with Rage Against the Machine and Foo Fighters and the time he nearly went on tour conducting an orchestra for the Moody Blues. Copeland also chronicles his transition into film scoring and writing classical and operatic music.

He notes that a large number of his "war stories" didn't make the cut, but rather than a second book Copeland envisions publishing them episodically in magazines -- which, he says, was his original intention for all the tales before he was "persuaded to save them and put them all in a book."

Copeland, whose score for the theatrical production "Ben Hur Live" that's now touring Europe, is currently finishing a concerto for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra that will premiere in 2010. He's also finalizing a commission from a British opera company. As for another Police reunion...

"Who knows," Copeland says. "I mean, I intend to be on the planet here for another 50 years; who knows what'll happen. To escape from the Police we had to melt down the cage and...dismantle the huge behemoth that grew up around the band. The three of us had to get away from it. As to whether or not we do it again, who knows."

Hugh Craig, Daniel Jackman sell out on Broadway

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig, best known for playing big screen action heroes Wolverine and James Bond, have drawn record ticket sales for their play "A Steady Rain," but it drew mixed reviews on Wednesday after opening night.

USA Today raved that the two actors put in "stellar turns," but The New York Times' verdict was "Big names, little show."

The producers said this week the play broke the record for the highest weekly box office gross for a non-musical production on Broadway, taking in $1.17 million in the week ending September 20.

Craig and Jackman are among the big name stars producers hope will boost sales on Broadway at a time of recession.

The play, by playwright Keith Huff, was a hit in Chicago before being brought to Broadway, where Jackman and Craig portray two Windy City cops, Denny and Joey, offering different accounts of a harrowing event that changed their lives.

New York Times critic Ben Brantley wrote that the play "is probably best regarded as a small, wobbly pedestal on which two gods of the screen may stand in order to be worshiped."

He added that the woman he saw the play with likely expressed the feelings of many in the audience when she said: "If only ... the play had been set in a police station locker room, where the characters might frequently change clothes."

New York post critic Elisabeth Vincentelli said Jackman was "vastly appealing" but miscast as a self-destructive troublemaker.

"Craig, his upper lip swallowed whole by a police-issue mustache, fares better and single-handedly lifts up the show," Vincentelli wrote. "Craig and Jackman were clearly eager to appear on stage together. Too bad they picked a clunky squad car for a vehicle."

Daily News critic Joe Dziemianowicz said the British and Australian actors "ooze confidence and charisma" but the play "is a stark and modest work that's all talk and no action."

He said the play underlined a familiar lesson: "Megastars can turn reading the phone book into an event. But that doesn't guarantee a wholly satisfying experience."

Elysa Gardner of USA Today was more generous: "Huff's briskly absorbing script has its cliches and contrivances, but Denny and Joey are drawn with such earthy wit and non-patronizing compassion that Rain never rings false or superficial."

"It's hard to imagine a better vehicle for two actors who clearly don't need larger-than-life characters to deliver grand performances," she wrote.

Jackman, 40, an Australian who starred in Hollywood hits such as "X-Men Origins: Wolverine," has starred on stage in New York before, winning a Tony, Broadway's top honor, for his portrayal of singer/songwriter Peter Allen in "The Boy from Oz" in 2004.

Craig, 41, has a strong record on the London stage but is making his Broadway debut. He is best known for playing British super spy James Bond in recent movie box office hits, "Casino Royale" and "Quantum of Solace."

"A Steady Rain" is scheduled to run until December 6.

Paul McCartney to release CD/DVD of NY shows

NEW YORK (Billboard) – Paul McCartney's recent three-night concert stand in New York City -- during which the rock legend delved into his Beatles, Wings and solo catalogs and brought Billy Joel to the stage -- is coming to CD and DVD.

On November 17, McCartney will release "Good Evening New York City," a multi-disc set featuring nearly three hours of performances from his CitiField Stadium shows in July.

Among the set highlights are Beatles classics "Drive My Car," Eleanor Rigby" and "Hey Jude," a tribute medley to John Lennon, and the Wings staple "Live and Let Die," during which fireworks erupted to open McCartney's shows.

"It was three great nights for the band, and for me personally, it was very exciting to be back opening a new stadium on the site of the old Shea Stadium where we had played 44 years previously," said McCartney, alluding to the Beatles' famous christening of the Mets' original home in 1965. "Even more exciting because this time 'round you could hear us!"

"Good Evening New York City," which will also be made available on vinyl, will include a DVD of footage compiled from Hi-Def cameras and digital Flipcam video shot by fans in the crowd. The release will be McCartney's second on Hear Music, following 2007's "Memory Almost Full."

Bruce Springsteen to perform three classic albums during New Jersey run

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street band will perform complete versions of three of their classic albums during a run of shows starting this week that will mark the last-ever concerts at New Jersey's Giant Stadium.

The rock icon and his longtime backing band will perform their 1975 masterwork "Born to Run" during two nights of the five-night residency in New Jersey, including tomorrow night's (9/30) performance and the Oct. 8 show; 1984's "Born in the USA" will be featured Oct. 3 and the closing Oct. 9 show, while the Oct. 2 concert will be dedicated to a staging of 1978's "Darkness on the Edge of Town." In addition to the complete album performances, the shows will also include a mix of other material from throughout Springsteen's career.

The Giants Stadium run will constitute the final musical concerts to take place at the venue; the sports and entertainment arena is scheduled to close at the end of the 2009/2010 NFL season.

The five New Jersey shows kick off the final 2009 leg of Springsteen's tour in support of his most recent studio album, "Working on a Dream." The trek, which kicked off back in May, included a lengthy romp through Europe this summer. The outing is currently slated to run through a Nov. 22 date in Buffalo, NY. Details are included below.

E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt recently hinted during a conference call with reporters that the current dates could be the last opportunity for fans to see Springsteen and the band for quite some time to come.

"We are going to take a break," Van Zandt said during the teleconference. "I don't know how long, one year, year-and-a-half, two years off. This is a good time to see us. We may not be as pretty, [but] we seem to be getting better in funny ways."

"Working on a Dream," Springsteen's 16th studio set, hit shelves in January and follows his platinum-certified 2007 release, "Magic." The new record debuted at No. 1, becoming the ninth chart-topping album of his 40-year career. Among the 13 tracks is the bonus cut "The Wrestler," the theme song for the 2008 film of the same name, for which The Boss won a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.

September 2009
30 - East Rutherford, NJ - Giants Stadium

October 2009
2, 3 - East Rutherford, NJ - Giants Stadium
8, 9 - East Rutherford, NJ - Giants Stadium
13, 14 - Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum
19, 20 - Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum
25 - St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center
26 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
29 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th (anniversary concert)

November 2009
2 Washington, DC - Verizon Center
3 - Charlotte, NC - Time Warner Cable Arena
7, 8 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden
10 - Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena
13 - Auburn Hills, MI - Palace At Auburn Hills
15 - Milwaukee, WI - Bradley Center
18 - Nashville, TN - Sommett Center
20 - Baltimore, MD - 1st Mariner Arena
22 - Buffalo, NY - HSBC Arena

Palin finishes memoir, 'Going Rogue,' out Nov. 17

NEW YORK – That was fast.

Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate, has finished her memoir just four months after the book deal was announced, and the release date has been moved up from the spring to Nov. 17, her publisher said.

"Governor Palin has been unbelievably conscientious and hands-on at every stage, investing herself deeply and passionately in this project," said Jonathan Burnham, publisher of Harper. "It's her words, her life, and it's all there in full and fascinating detail."

Palin's book, her first, will be 400 pages, said Burnham, who called the fall "the best possible time for a major book of this kind."

The book now has a title, one fitting for a public figure known for the unexpected — "Going Rogue: An American Life."

Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins, has commissioned a huge first printing of 1.5 million copies. Sen. Ted Kennedy's "True Compass," published by Twelve soon after his Aug. 25 death, also had a 1.5 million first printing.

As with the Kennedy book, the digital edition of Palin's memoir will not be released at the same time as the hardcover. "Going Rogue" will not be available as an e-book until Dec. 26 because "we want to maximize hardcover sales over the holidays," Harper spokeswoman Tina Andreadis said Monday.

Publishers have been concerned that e-books, rapidly becoming more popular, might take away sales from hardcover editions, which are more expensive.

Palin, who abruptly resigned as Alaska governor over the summer with more than a year left in her first term, has been an object of fascination since Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, chose her as his running mate, making an instant celebrity out of a once-obscure public official.

During last year's campaign, pundits questioned whether Palin hurt McCain's presidential bid by "going rogue," or defying his campaign's control.

Although Democrat Barack Obama easily won the election and Palin was criticized even by some Republicans for being inexperienced, she remains a favorite among conservatives and is a rumored contender for 2012. Interest in her is so high that a fan recently paid $63,500 to have dinner with her, part of an Internet auction for a charity that aids wounded veterans.

Palin, 45, spent weeks in San Diego shortly after leaving office and worked on the manuscript with collaborator Lynn Vincent, a person close to her said. She was joined in San Diego by her family and her top aide, Meghan Stapleton, then spent several days in New York working around the clock with editors at Harper, said the person, who wasn't authorized to comment and asked not to be identified.

Genesis Preps Live Collections As Hall Of Fame Vote Nears

Genesis keyboardist Tony Banks isn't taking his tuxedo to the dry cleaner yet. But he's hoping that the British prog rockers, who are on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ballot for the first time, wind up collecting trophies at the March 15 induction ceremony in New York City.

"It'll be great if it does happen," Banks tells Billboard.com, "but I can't really tell whether we're going to be one of the ones that goes there. It would be good to happen, I think. It would be nice."

A Genesis induction would, of course, create the potential for a reunion of the Peter Gabriel-fronted 1970-75 lineup, with Phil Collins on drums, that's been rumored for the past five years. Collins recently announced he has a back condition from years of wear and tear that prohibits him from drumming and could complicate such a performance, but Banks says "we'll face that particular hurdle when we get to it." It does, however, render any other future Genesis reunion "a long shot," according to the keyboardist. "I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it."

While the Hall of Fame announcement looms, Genesis is giving fans plenty to tuck into. A new 10-disc box set, "Genesis Live 1973-2007," comes out Sept. 29 featuring four of the group's five concert sets, an open slot for "Live Over Europe 2007," unreleased material from 1973 and 1975, and video footage, all remastered.

Banks, who's been active in compiling Genesis' series of box sets since 2007, says he "wasn't so sure about doing the live stuff" in this fashion but is happy with the result. "I think it's fun to hear the (music) in different versions for fans who like the stuff, anyhow," he explains. "As a first introduction to Genesis I think the studio albums are definitely better, but it's quite interesting to hear how we did these very complex pieces live. They take on a bit more fluency, I think."

Genesis' next release will be a 2010 box that compiles the group's concert videos. There will be no duplication from the box sets, Banks says, but there will be some previously unreleased material, including 40 minutes of "home movie" footage that Collins shot during the making of the 1983 "Genesis" album. Like the new live box, it will feature an empty slot for the "When in Rome 2007" DVD.

Banks, who's also releasing a remastered version of his 1979 solo album "A Curious Feeling," adds that Genesis is still planning to start making individual concerts from the archives available on its web site, though no firm plan is in place yet. "At some point we will do it," he promises. "We've just spent a lot of time recently doing all this other stuff, but I think it will happen. Whether any quality control goes into it, I don't know, really. Perhaps you hang it out, dirty laundry and all. Maybe somebody can get ahold of all this stuff and make a compilation of all the worst bits and stick them together and see what it sounds like. I think it would be quite funny!"

'Dollhouse' returns to lowest ever ratings

The second season of Dollhouse premiered to the show's lowest ever audience last night, according to early ratings data.

The opener, which guest-starred Jamie Bamber, pulled in just 2.57m for Fox in the 9pm hour. The ratings are the lowest ever for the Joss Whedon series but are roughly on par with the 2.75m audience for the first season finale in May.

The season premiere of Medium on CBS won the hour with 8.78m, while Dateline NBC managed 5.82m for the Peacock. Encores of new comedies Modern Family and Cougar Town put in respective audiences of 4.28m and 4.18m for ABC, and on The CW, a rerun of America's Next Top Model grabbed 1.17m.

The fifth season premiere of Ghost Whisperer won the 8pm hour for CBS with 8.58m, while the premiere of Law & Order delivered 6.29m for NBC. An encore of FlashForward took 4.55m for ABC, the series premiere of new Fox comedy Brothers had 2.82m, and the season premiere of Smallville appealed to just 2.5m on The CW.

At 10pm, the season premiere of Numb3rs logged an impressive 7.92m for CBS. ABC was second, with 7.11m for 20/20, while NBC's The Jay Leno Show averaged 5.68m.

Lawyer: Polanski will fight extradition to the U.S.

ZURICH (AP) — Imprisoned director Roman Polanski is in a "fighting mood" and will battle U.S. attempts to have him extradited from Switzerland to face justice in California for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl, his lawyer said Monday.

An international tug-of-war over the 76-year-old director escalated Monday as France and Poland urged Switzerland to free him on bail and pressed U.S. officials all the way up to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the case.

Polanski was in his third day of detention after Swiss police arrested him Saturday on an international warrant as he arrived in Zurich to receive a lifetime achievement award from a film festival.

Polanski has told Swiss officials that he will contest a U.S. request that he be transferred to the United States, attorney Herve Temime said in an e-mail. Temime said Polanski's legal team would try to prove that the U.S. request was illegal and that the Oscar-winning director should be released from Swiss custody.

"Taking into account the extraordinary conditions of his arrest, his Swiss lawyer will seek his freedom without delay," Temime said.

He also told France-Info radio that he was able to speak with Polanski from his Zurich cell.

"He was shocked, dumbfounded, but he is in a fighting mood and he is very determined to defend himself," Temime said.

A complicated legal process awaited all sides. While France expressed hope that Polanski would be freed shortly, Swiss officials said there would be no rash decision.

The Swiss Justice Ministry on Monday did not rule out the possibility that Polanski, director of such classic films as "Chinatown" and "Rosemary's Baby," could be released on bail under very strict conditions that he doesn't flee Switzerland.

Justice spokesman Guido Balmer said such an arrangement is "not entirely excluded" under Swiss law and that Polanski could file a motion on bail. But he said Switzerland's top criminal court would undertake a thorough examination of evidence before deciding on any request, and that would take time.

"This is a legal story," Balmer told The AP. "There is no room for political pressure."

Authorities in Los Angeles consider Polanski a "convicted felon and fugitive."

Polanski at the time had pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse and was sent to prison for 42 days of evaluation. Lawyers agreed that would be his full sentence, but the judge tried to renege on the plea bargain.

On the day of his sentencing in 1978, aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time and require his voluntary deportation, Polanski fled to France.

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said he hoped Polanski could be quickly freed by the Swiss, calling the apprehension a "bit sinister." He also told France-Inter radio that he and his Polish counterpart Radek Sikorski wrote to Clinton on the case.

Polanski was "thrown to the lions," said French Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand. "In the same way that there is a generous America that we like, there is also a scary America that has just shown its face."

Polanski, who has dual French-Polish citizenship, has hired Swiss attorney Lorenz Erni to represent him in Switzerland, according to the law firm Eschmann & Erni.

Polanski seems most likely to spend several months in detention, unless he agrees to forgo any challenge to his extradition to the United States. Under a 1990 accord between Switzerland and the U.S., Washington has 60 days to submit a formal request for his transfer. Rulings in a similar dispute four years ago over Russia's former atomic energy minister Yevgeny Adamov confirmed that subjects should be held in custody throughout the procedure.

That means the procedure for extradition could also be lengthy for the United States. Its request for Polanski's transfer must first be examined by the Swiss Justice Ministry, and once approved it can be appealed at a number of courts.

The 2005 saga over Adamov's extradition, eventually to Russia and not the U.S., took seven months. The case also sets a possible precedent for France, which may wish to try one of its own nationals in a domestic court rather than in Los Angeles.

For now, Polanski is living in a Zurich cell where he receives three meals a day and is allowed outside for one hour of daily exercise.

Rebecca de Silva, spokeswoman for the Zurich prison authorities, refused to say exactly where Polanski was being held for security reasons, but said cells are usually single or double occupancy and that each room contains a table, storage compartment, sink, toilet and television.

Family and friends can only see Polanski for an hour each week, but that does not include official visits from lawyers and consular diplomats, de Silva said.

The Justice Ministry insisted Sunday that politics played no role in its arrest order on Polanski, who lives in France but has spent much time at a chalet in the luxury Swiss resort of Gstaad. That has led to widespread speculation among his friends and even politicians in Switzerland that the neutral country was coerced by Washington into action.

Temime, Polanski's lawyer, told the daily Le Parisien that the filmmaker stayed in Gstaad for months this year.

"He came here, but I have no idea how frequently," said Toni von Gruenigen, deputy mayor of Saarnen, where the famously discreet community is located. "He kept a low profile."

The U.S. has had an outstanding warrant on Polanski since 1978, but the Swiss said American authorities have sought the arrest of the director around the world only since 2005.

Polanski has asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn a judges' refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

His victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago identified herself publicly, has joined in Polanski's bid for dismissal, saying she wants the case to be over. She sued Polanski and reached an undisclosed settlement.

Earlier this year, Superior Court Judge Peter Espinoza in Los Angeles dismissed Polanski's bid to throw out the case because the director failed to appear in court to press his request, but said there was "substantial misconduct" in the handling of the original case.

In his ruling, Espinoza said he reviewed not only legal documents, but also watched the HBO documentary, "Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired," which suggests there was behind-the-scenes manipulations by a now-retired prosecutor not assigned to the case.

Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish; he received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie "The Pianist." He is married to French actress Emanuelle Seigner, with whom he has two children.

He has avoided traveling to countries likely to extradite him. Balmer said the difference during Polanski's visit this time to Zurich was that authorities knew when and where he would arrive. The Alpine country does not perform regular passport checks anymore on arrivals from 24 other European countries.

Balmer also rejected any hint that the arrest was somehow aimed at winning favor with the U.S. after a series of bilateral spats over tax evasion and wealthy Americans stashing money at Swiss banking giant UBS AG.

"There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming. That's why he was taken into custody," Balmer told The AP. "There is no link with any other issues."

The arrest prompted angry criticism Monday from fellow filmmakers and actors across Europe.

"It seems inadmissible ... that an international cultural evening, paying homage to one of the greatest contemporary filmmakers, is used by police to apprehend him," says a petition circulating in France and signed by artists including Costa Gavras, Stefen Frears and Monica Bellucci.

Oscar-winning director Andrzej Wajda and other Polish filmmakers also appealed for the immediate release of Polanski, a native of France who was taken to Poland by his parents, escaped Krakow's Jewish ghetto as a child during World War II and lived off the charity of strangers. His mother died at the Nazis' Auschwitz death camp.

Polanski has already "atoned for the sins of his young years," Jacek Bromski, head of the Polish Filmmakers Association, told The AP. "He has paid for it by not being able to enter the U.S. and in his professional life he has paid for it by not being able to make films in Hollywood."

Lucy of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' fame dies

LONDON – Lucy Vodden, who provided the inspiration for the Beatles' classic song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," has died after a long battle with lupus. She was 46.

Her death was announced Monday by St. Thomas' Hospital in London, where she had been treated for the chronic disease for more than five years, and by her husband, Ross Vodden. Britain's Press Association said she died last Tuesday. Hospital officials said they could not confirm the day of her death.

Vodden's connection to the Beatles dates back to her early days, when she made friends with schoolmate Julian Lennon, John Lennon's son.

Julian Lennon, then 4 years old, came home from school with a drawing one day, showed it to his father, and said it was "Lucy in the sky with diamonds."

At the time, John Lennon was gathering material for his contributions to "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," a landmark album released to worldwide acclaim in 1967.

The elder Lennon seized on the image and developed it into what is widely regarded as a psychedelic masterpiece, replete with haunting images of "newspaper taxis" and a "girl with kaleidoscope eyes."

Rock music critics thought the song's title was a veiled reference to LSD, but John Lennon always claimed the phrase came from his son, not from a desire to spell out the initials LSD in code.

Vodden lost touch with Julian Lennon after he left the school following his parents' divorce, but they were reunited in recent years when Julian Lennon, who lives in France, tried to help her cope with the disease.

He sent her flowers and vouchers for use at a gardening center near her home in Surrey in southeast England, and frequently sent her text messages in an effort to buttress her spirits.

"I wasn't sure at first how to approach her," Julian Lennon told the Associated Press in June. "I wanted at least to get a note to her. Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I'd help with something she's passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face."

In recent months, Vodden was too ill to go out most of the time, except for hospital visits.

She enjoyed her link to the Beatles, but was not particularly fond of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

"I don't relate to the song, to that type of song," she told the Associated Press in June. "As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, 'No, it's not you, my parents said it's about drugs.' And I didn't know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself."

Vodden is the latest in a long line of people connected to the Beatles who died at a relatively young age.

The list includes John Lennon, gunned down at age 40, manager Brian Epstein, who died of a drug overdose when he was 32, and original band member Stuart Sutcliffe, who died of a brain hemorrhage at 21.

A spokeswoman for Julian Lennon and his mother, Cynthia Lennon, said they were "shocked and saddened" by Vodden's death.

Angie Davidson, a lupus sufferer who is campaign director of the St. Thomas' Lupus Trust, said Vodden was "a real fighter" who had worked behind the scenes to support efforts to combat the disease.

"It's so sad that she has finally lost the battle she fought so bravely for so long," said Davidson.

Swiss police: Roman Polanski arrested for 1970s sex case

ZURICH (AP) — Director Roman Polanski was arrested by Swiss police as he flew in for the Zurich Film Festival and faces possible extradition to the United States for having sex in 1977 with a 13-year-old girl, authorities said Sunday.

Polanski was scheduled to receive an honorary award at the festival when he was apprehended Saturday at the airport, the Swiss Justice Ministry said in a statement. It said U.S. authorities have sought the arrest of the 76-year-old director around the world since 2005.

"There was a valid arrest request and we knew when he was coming," ministry spokesman Guido Balmer told The Associated Press. "That's why he was taken into custody."

Balmer said the U.S. would now have to make a formal extradition request.

Polanski fled the U.S. in 1978, a year after pleading guilty to unlawful sexual intercourse with the underage girl. The director of such classic films as Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby has asked a U.S. appeals court in California to overturn a judges' refusal to throw out his case. He claims misconduct by the now-deceased judge who had arranged a plea bargain and then reneged on it.

The Swiss statement said Polanski was in "provisional detention for extradition," but added he would not be transferred to U.S. authorities until all proceedings are completed. Polanski can contest his detention and any extradition decision in the Swiss courts, it said.

Polanski has lived for the past three decades in France, where his career has continued to flourish, and he received a directing Oscar in absentia for the 2002 movie The Pianist.

Polanski has not been extradited from France because his crime reportedly was not covered under treaties between the United States and France.

He has avoided traveling to countries likely to extradite him. For instance, he testified by video link from Paris in a 2005 libel trial in London against Vanity Fair magazine because he did not want to enter Britain for fear of being arrested.

In Paris, Culture Minister Frederic Mitterrand said he was "dumbfounded" by Polanski's arrest, adding that he "strongly regrets that a new ordeal is being inflicted on someone who has already experienced so many of them."

Those comments referred to the fact that Polanski, a native of France who was taken to Poland by his parents, escaped Krakow's Jewish ghetto as a child and lived off the charity of strangers. His mother died at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp.

Mitterrand's ministry said Sunday that he was in contact with French President Nicolas Sarkozy "who is following the case with great attention and shares the minister's hope that the situation can be quickly resolved."

Polanski worked his way into filmmaking in Poland, gaining an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film in 1964 for his Knife in the Water. Offered entry to Hollywood, he directed the classic Rosemary's Baby in 1968.

But his life was shattered again in 1969 when his wife, actress Sharon Tate, and four other people were gruesomely murdered by followers of Charles Manson. She was eight months pregnant.

He went on to make another American classic, Chinatown, released in 1974.

In 1977, he was accused of raping the teenager while photographing her during a modeling session. The girl said Polanski plied her with champagne and part of a Quaalude pill at Jack Nicholson's house while the actor was away. She said that, despite her protests, he performed oral sex, intercourse and sodomy on her.

Polanski was allowed to plead guilty to one of six charges, unlawful sexual intercourse, and was sent to prison for 42 days of evaluation.

Lawyers agreed that would be his full sentence, but the judge tried to renege on the plea bargain. Aware the judge would sentence him to more prison time and require his voluntary deportation, Polanski fled to France.

The victim, Samantha Geimer, who long ago identified herself publicly, has joined in Polanski's bid for dismissal, saying she wants the case to be over. She sued Polanski and reached an undisclosed settlement.

Zurich Film Festival organizers said Polanski's detention had caused "shock and dismay," but said they would go ahead with Sunday's planned retrospective of the director's work.

The Swiss Directors Association sharply criticized authorities for what it deemed "not only a grotesque farce of justice, but also an immense cultural scandal."

'Meatballs' sticks to movie menu top with $24.6M

LOS ANGELES – Movie fans lined up for a second helping of "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," which took in $24.6 million to remain No. 1 at the box office for a second straight weekend.

The Sony animated tale raised its domestic haul to $60 million after 10 days in theaters, according to studio estimates Sunday.

"Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" fended off Bruce Willis' action thriller "Surrogates," a Disney release that debuted at No. 2 with $15 million.

Opening in third place with $10 million was MGM's "Fame," a new take on the 1980s music and dance hit about students at a school for performing arts.

Michael Moore's documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" opened strongly in limited release with a $240,000 weekend haul in just four theaters, raising its total to $306,586 since premiering Wednesday. The Overture Films release expands nationwide Friday.

Overall business dipped, with Hollywood's total domestic gross at $100.5 million, down 4.5 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Eagle Eye" opened at No. 1 with $29.2 million.

While it was generally quiet for new movies, "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" held up strongly, its receipts dropping just 19 percent from a $30.3 million opening weekend. Revenues for many films fall 50 percent or more in their second weekends.

"We've seen that not only families but teens seem to be embracing it, as well," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "To only drop 19 percent, it's just one of those movies that's playing to everybody."

Some Hollywood analysts had expected "Surrogates" to open in first place. With a production budget reported at $80 million, the movie's $15 million weekend was a blow to Disney.

"Unfortunately, I don't think this was a great moviegoing weekend, for whatever reason," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney. "I'm disappointed we're not No. 1, but very happy we beat the other films we opened against."

While "Fame" opened even lower, it cost far less to produce, with a budget of just $18 million.

"Do I wish it was better? Yeah. But are we going to lose money? No," said Erik Lomis, head of distribution for "Fame" distributor MGM.

"Capitalism" opened in four theaters in New York City and Los Angeles, its big weekend putting it on track to become the latest documentary hit from Moore ("Fahrenheit 9/11," "Bowling for Columbine").

With "Capitalism," Moore examines the roots of the economic meltdown, mixing interviews from people losing jobs and homes with his trademark stunts, such as wrapping crime-scene tape around Wall Street.

"People are frustrated, and I think Michael points some things out that are pretty thought-provoking and pretty eye-opening," said Kyle Davies, head of distribution for Overture. "It's timely. People want to see what's going on, but the movie's funny and entertaining at the same time. Michael's one of the unique people able to point to some topical issues and make it extremely interesting."

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

1. "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," $24.6 million.
2. "Surrogates," $15 million.
3. "Fame," $10 million.
4. "The Informant!", $6.9 million.
5. "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself," $4.8 million.
6. "Pandorum," $4.4 million.
7. "Love Happens," $4.3 million.
8. "Jennifer's Body," $3.5 million.
9. "9," $2.8 million.
10. "Inglourious Basterds," $2.7 million.

'Saturday Night Live' starts season with F-bomb

NEW YORK – "Saturday Night Live" has started the season with a bang, or, more precisely, an F-bomb.

Newcomer Jenny Slate let the dreaded word slip during a parody of a talk show by biker women. Called "Biker Chick Chat," the sketch was laden with tough talk from its participants, played by Slate, Kristen Wiig and guest host Megan Fox.

But the most objectionable word was substituted, with rapid-fire comic frequency, with an inoffensive stand-in for that vulgarity.

Then, midway through the sketch, Slate slipped and said the word she meant to avoid.

"You know what? You stood up for yourself," she declared, "and I (expletive) love you for that."

She puffed her cheeks, perhaps realizing her error, but the sketch continued with no interruption or further flubs.

Slate is an actress and comedian who this summer appeared on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon," and is perhaps best-known as half of the comedy duo Gabe and Jenny — until her memorable "SNL" debut this weekend.

NBC declined to comment on the incident, other than to say the word had been restored to the intended "freakin'" for the show's replays in western time zones.

The sketch aired live at about 12:40 a.m. Eastern, well after prime time, when use of expletives can be punished by the FCC.

It wasn't the first time this particular word had been heard on "SNL." Cast member Charles Rocket made the slip in 1981.

But less than two weeks ago, a veteran New York City news anchor created a sensation by accidentally dropping an F-bomb during a newscast while bantering with the weatherman. The clip was soon an Internet favorite. Ernie Anastos of Fox affiliate WNYW apologized on the air the next night.

...Neve Campbell to Star in Scream 4 After All

After Kevin Williamson tweeted that Neve Campbell would not return for Scream 4, we all assumed Courtney Cox and David Arquette would take over as the leads to kick off the new Scream trilogy.

Not so according to Variety who today confirmed Bob Weinstein has brought Neve Campbell back to the Scream franchise for a starring role in Scream 4. With the Arquette's already on board there will be a familiar feel when Scream and the ghoul mask returns.

Wes Craven is currently being courted to direct though no deal is yet in place. Production is expected in begin in April or May which would translate to a late 2010 or early 2011 release.

Mariah Carey is in a happy place with projects, love life

Mariah Carey could really use a nap. After a few hours of restless sleep, she rose at 4:30 a.m. to prepare for a performance in Central Park to promote her new album, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel. In the past, this scenario would have been a source of anxiety for the singer, who has long struggled with insomnia and worried about its effect on her famously fluid, multi-octave-spanning voice.

But sitting in her hotel suite as evening approaches, Carey, 39, seems alert and unruffled. "I felt really good about myself today," she says. For starters, she got positive feedback on the morning gig, taped live for The Oprah Winfrey Show, from her backup singers. "They're really talented, and they don't give me compliments all the time."

Another factor contributing to Carey's contentment is sprawled on the bed behind her, sleeping soundly — or at least pretending to. "Nick, I know you're awake," she says teasingly, as actor/rapper/TV host Nick Cannon, to whom she has been married for 17 months, stirs and mumbles, "Uh-uh."

Before she met Cannon, 28, "I wasted my time with stuff that wasn't really real, in my personal life," Carey says. "I was always more focused on my career. But now I have this support system."

The tracks on Memoirs, out Tuesday, hardly present a unified portrait of a blissed-out newlywed. The album "was going to be about women's empowerment," Carey says. "There are songs on there that are just saying (to men), 'I don't need you.' " The first single, Obsessed, accuses a wannabe beau of "lyin' that you're sexin' me," chiding him, "Finally found a girl that you couldn't impress." The song, which has sold more than 1 million downloads, peaked at No. 7 on Billboard's Hot 100. It recently topped USA TODAY's rhythmic airplay chart and is at No. 12 and rising in top 40 airplay.

In the video, Carey appears both as herself and in a couple of male guises, one of them a goateed, hoodie-wearing chap bearing a suspicious resemblance to Eminem, who launched a media feud in 2003 by suggesting in his Superman single that Carey had unrequited designs on him.

Asked if the rapper inspired the tune, Carey says, a bit coyly, "I wouldn't ever call anyone an inspiration for that song. But I'm happy (that) all the people who have been stalked and abused now have an anthem."

Carey insists, though, that Obsessed was crafted with a generous dose of humor, as was much of the material on Memoirs. Even the angelic reference "is a wink and a nod" to previous album titles, among them Butterfly, Charmbracelet and Rainbow. "People were saying, 'Oh, she's going to call her next album Unicorn.' There are so many jokes on this album. It still makes me laugh thinking of them."

Co-produced by Carey and contemporary urban/pop wizards Christopher "Tricky" Stewart and Terius "The Dream" Nash, Memoirs was "a really fun project. We'd sit around quoting movies, having a really great time. Dream was literally rolling around the studio floor."

Mr. and Mrs. C

The process wasn't entirely lighthearted. Carey points to Languishing, a plaintive interlude preceding the album's closing number and second single: a gospel-flavored reading of the power ballad I Want to Know What Love Is, a hit for the rock band Foreigner 25 years ago. Cannon was instrumental in selecting the cover, which is positioned at No. 20 and No. 30 on the adult-contemporary and urban AC airplay charts, and climbing both.

"Nick and I talk about music a lot, and we were talking about that song. I knew that if I was going to do it, I would have to bring my own thing to it." Carey also credits the track's co-producer James "Big Jim" Wright, who honed his gospel chops with Sounds of Blackness, and American Idol judge Randy Jackson, a veteran musician and longtime Carey confidant who lent additional production. "I wanted more drums, and Randy got a drummer who works predominantly in church, which took it to a different level."

The label has furnished Memoirs with various bells and whistles, including a bonus enhanced disc with four remixes of Obsessed and two versions of the video. The CD booklet consists of 34 pages compiled with Elle magazine, featuring ads for Angel Champagne, Elizabeth Arden and the board of tourism for the Bahamas, where Carey has a home, and where she and Cannon wed after a whirlwind courtship.

Island Def Jam Music Group chairman Antonio "L.A." Reid, who served as co-executive producer of Memoirs, got the idea while reading "one of those niche magazines where they sell ad pages with luxury brands, then give the magazine away. I thought, 'We reach more people with our CDs than these (publications) do,' and we need more ideas for how to generate revenue. I'm having many conversations (about this) with other artists," among them Carey's labelmate Rihanna.

Carey, who approved all the merchandise, says, "I love Elle, and the products are all things that I like. I thought it would be good to incorporate these little bits of my life and share my happiness with fans that way."

Clearly, neither Carey nor Cannon, her second husband (she was married early in her career to Tommy Mottola, then chief of Sony Music, her record company at the time), is reluctant to advertise their domestic beatitude. In conversation, Carey pulls her shirt up ever so slightly to reveal a burnt-orange butterfly tattoo on her lower back, with "Mrs. Cannon" inked delicately down the stem. Cannon, in turn, has "Mariah" branded in sprawling black letters across his upper back.

The couple met in 2005 at the Teen Choice Awards, but started dating in March 2008, when Cannon directed and appeared in the video for Bye Bye, a single off her last studio album, E=MC2. "The first thing I said to him is, 'I'm going to call you Mr. C,' " Carey says. "And the first thing he said was, 'I'm going to call you Mrs. C.' And we just started doing that."

Later that month, it was Mariah's "anniversary." ("I don't call them birthdays," she says. "I refuse birthdays.")

"We were on this island, and my security didn't want people around me — I guess they were being protective — so they planned for him to be on another part of the island that night. But I snuck over to where he was and woke him up with a piece of pineapple, and we stayed up and talked all night. When he had to go in the morning, neither of us wanted to leave." They tied the knot just over a month later.

A precious opportunity

Carey's lucky breaks have not been limited to the romantic arena. Director Lee Daniels, who cast her in last year's Tennessee— one of several films in which she has quietly picked up good notices since 2001's aggressively maligned musical Glitter— thought of her again when he needed an actress to play a dowdy social worker in Precious, his adaptation of Push, Sapphire's acclaimed novel about an abused, underprivileged teenager trying to overcome her wretched circumstances.

Precious, which arrives in theaters Nov. 6, boasts Winfrey and Tyler Perry as executive producers and has already earned top prizes at the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals. Carey's role was originally intended for Helen Mirren, but the younger star, who had read and loved Push, happened to call the director shortly after he learned that Mirren was unavailable.

"A light bulb went off in my head," Daniels recalls. He offered Carey the part, "but I told her, 'The only way you can do this is if you lose your entourage and come to set without any makeup on, and be prepared for me to make you look even plainer.' I actually had somebody on standby, in case she wouldn't do what I wanted. But she gave her spirit to me, and became the Mariah I know: a girl who listens and is loving and nurturing."

Carey concedes that assuming the character's glammed-down appearance wasn't easy. "I was like, keep me away from every mirror! But Lee gave me several gifts. He gave me what I needed to get to the truth of this woman, and he gave me a certain lack of self-consciousness. Because you can't be self-conscious and look like that."

Looking ahead

Still, Carey's confidence has its limits. The negative press surrounding Glitter and her subsequent breakdown stung, despite her ability to defy critics by rebounding with 2005's best-selling album, the-six-times-platinum-plus The Emancipation of Mimi. She would consider doing another movie musical, "but it would have to be with an incredible director, someone who's really a genius, because I've been burned by that."

She's susceptible to stage nerves, as well. Singing I'll Be There at Michael Jackson's memorial service in July, she was still shaken by the pop icon's unexpected death "and didn't know I was going to go on first." She delivered an emotional but vocally tentative performance. "I wish I had done him more justice." (Memoirs is dedicated "to the King of Pop" and Carey's pastor.)

Former Spin and Vibe editor Alan Light says Carey "faces the challenge that all those at her altitude face now. Nobody sells records the way she used to, even as recently as Emancipation of Mimi. How do you scale expectations when that's the field you've played on?"

Light is particularly eager to see how Carey's career progresses as she enters her 40s. "She is so much a pop artist, and has so affiliated herself with urban musicians, and that's a young person's game. It would be good for her to get out and sing in front of people more, re-establish herself as a vocalist, because that's her strength."

Carey, who last toured in 2006, did two Las Vegas shows recently and has another pair scheduled for October, but she still isn't sure when she'll do a concert trek again. She has plainly thought about embracing more grown-up challenges. Having or adopting children is one consideration, "though I'd want to be in a position to handle that as well as possible." As Memoirs' title suggests, she's inclined to look back now and then — but not, these days, with anger or regret.

"There's a little bit of almost every album I've done on this new one," Carey says. "It's like I put everything in a blender and made drinks for my friends. They're festive drinks, though some are bittersweet. I'm at such a good place in my life, and that allows me to be honest. And to enjoy things."

Changes afoot at `Law & Order: Criminal Intent'

LOS ANGELES – Changes are afoot at "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," with charter cast member Vincent D'Onofrio exiting the USA Network series and recent recruit Jeff Goldblum taking over full-time.

D'Onofrio's character, Detective Robert Goren, will say goodbye in a two-hour hand-off episode to open the ninth season early next year, "Criminal Intent" creator and executive producer Dick Wolf said Friday.

Goldblum, who joined the series last season, will continue as Detective Zack Nichols in the NYPD Major Case Squad.

"After eight seasons, and with the addition of Jeff Goldblum, now is the perfect time for me to explore other acting opportunities," D'Onofrio said in a statement.

He added, "I wouldn't be surprised if Goren pops up from time to time."

"Criminal Intent" premiered on NBC in 2001 with D'Onofrio as the series' sole lead. From 2005 through Goldblum's arrival, Chris Noth co-starred on an alternating basis with D'Onofrio.

USA became the series' primary outlet two years ago.

In another possible cast change next season, Goldblum could be joined by Saffron Burrows, replacing Julianne Nicholson, according to a person close to the production who spoke on condition of anonymity. The person, who is not authorized to speak publicly about casting, said Nicholson isn't expected to continue with the series. She has played Detective Megan Wheeler since 2006.

Burrows' credits include the film "The Bank Job."

Singer Anne Murray to promote autobiography with cross-Canada book tour

TORONTO - Anne Murray is hitting the road with a cross-Canada tour, but this time it's to promote her upcoming autobiography, "All of Me."

The singer's publisher, Knopf Canada, says Murray will visit 13 cities beginning Oct. 29 in Toronto. The book is set for release Oct. 27.

It promises to outline Murray's 40-year career, starting with her humble beginnings in the coal-mining town of Springhill, N.S.

Murray achieved her first gold record in 1970 with "Snowbird," and went on to rack up a string of top-selling hits including "Talk It Over in the Morning," "What About Me" and "You Needed Me."

Her book tour will stop at retail outlets across the country, in cities including Dartmouth, N.S., Moncton, N.B., Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Winnipeg, as well as the Ontario cities of London, Burlington, Sault Ste. Marie and Sudbury.

Rogen gets a dream gig: 'Simpsons' writer, voice

Not every man can write for The Simpsons. Since Seth Rogen is not every man, he can — and throw in a voice, too.

Actually, Rogen's creation, with writing partner Evan Goldberg, is superhero Everyman in Sunday's 21st-season premiere (Fox, 8 ET/PT). The inspiration comes from Rogen's preparations to play The Green Hornet, shooting now for release in winter 2010.

In the episode, Comic Book Guy creates Everyman, who can gain superpowers by touching the comic book of any superhero. The Everyman comic is such a success it becomes a film, with Homer in the title role. A trainer-to-the-stars, voiced by Rogen, pushes him to get in shape.

"In a lot of ways it mirrored the situation we were in working with The Green Hornet," Rogen says. "I had to lose weight and do a lot of physical training. It seemed hilarious to us as it was happening."

The writing gig came about after Goldberg met Simpsons executive producer James L. Brooks and learned he was a fan of Superbad, which Rogen and Goldberg wrote. They are "obsessed" with The Simpsons— "the funniest single thing ever created," Rogen says — and decided it would be fun to write an episode.

"We knew Ricky Gervais had written an episode. We thought if he got to write one, maybe we could try," says Rogen, who collaborated with Simpsons writers. They are the only outside celebrities to have penned episodes of the series.

Doing a voice was a bonus, he says. "In one scene, it's just me and Dan Castellaneta talking to each other. All I could think of was, 'I'm acting with Homer right now.' It was the most surreal, amazing experience."

Rogen is one of many stars who will be doing voices for the show, which this season surpasses the Gunsmoke record for most seasons for a scripted prime-time series. Other guests include the Smothers Brothers and Manning brothers (Peyton, Eli and Cooper) in an episode about brothers; Anne Hathaway as an actress who plays a princess character on Krusty the Clown's show ("It's an Audrey Hepburn-style romance," executive producer Al Jean says); Sarah Silverman as a girl Bart likes who loves him, then hates him; and Jonah Hill as a guy who was like Bart 10 years ago and, at 20, still is.

"I think this upcoming season is our best in years," Jean says. But he can't say the same for the Everyman film the characters create: "It is a pretty bad movie."

Kiss, Jimmy Cliff nominated for Rock Hall of Fame

Jimmy Cliff, Kiss, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Donna Summer are among the latest influential musicians vying for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Organizers of the U.S. honour revealed on Wednesday another eclectic list of one dozen contenders for induction in 2010.

Cliff, Kiss and the Chili Peppers are among those nominated for the first time, along with Genesis, the Hollies, LL Cool J and Laura Nyro. On the ballot once again are Summer, Darlene Love, Abba, the Chantels and the Stooges.

Artists are eligible for induction into the Cleveland-based Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25 years after the release of their first single or album.

A group of more than 500 musicians and industry professions will cast votes to decide next year's inductees.

The five acts with the most votes will be announced in January, with their induction ceremony to follow in Manhattan on March 15.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is also celebrating its 25th anniversary with consecutive concerts in New York, on Oct. 29 and 30.

Cox to retire as Braves manager after next season

NEW YORK – After 50 years in baseball, Bobby Cox figured the only way he would ever give up managing was to pick a specific time and announce it publicly.

So that's what he did Wednesday, revealing his plans to retire as manager of the Atlanta Braves after next season.

Now comes the hard part: sticking to it.

"There is a little bit of relief once you come to grips with announcing it," Cox said. "I've never lost the love to manage, period. But you have to make a decision. At my age, you have to make a decision. Somebody a little younger can start up."

The 68-year-old Cox, a four-time Manager of the Year, agreed to a one-year contract extension for 2010, the Braves announced before Wednesday night's game against the New York Mets. He will start a five-year consulting agreement to advise the team in baseball operations after he steps down as manager.

"I'll believe it when I see it," Braves slugger Chipper Jones said.

During an illustrious career on the bench, Cox has guided Atlanta to 14 consecutive postseason appearances (1991-2005) and the 1995 World Series title.

"They asked me to come back, and I said I would do it for one more year, and we'll announce the retirement along with it. It's the only way I think I'm ever going to walk away from the game, is to go ahead and say I'm going to, and then I've got to," Cox said. "There's no turning back now — win, lose or draw.

Whatever happens next year is going to be it."

A cigar-smoking baseball lifer, Cox managed the Braves from 1978-81, switched to manage the Toronto Blue Jays from 1982-85, then returned to manage Atlanta in 1990. He led the Braves to five NL pennants and a record 14 straight division titles from 1991-2005.

"He's one of the greatest — not only managers, but people," Los Angeles Dodgers manager Joe Torre said in Washington. "He's a Hall of Famer."

Cox began Wednesday with 2,408 regular-season wins as a manager, fourth behind Connie Mack (3,731), John McGraw (2,763) and Tony La Russa (2,550). Cox and Joe McCarthy are the only managers with six 100-win regular seasons.

"Bobby's one of the best ever," Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland said in Cleveland.

Braves general manager Frank Wren said he won't start thinking about a successor for Cox until an appropriate time next season. Both men said Cox will have input.

"He's been the one constant through the entire run that we've had over the last 20 years," said Jones, who has played for Cox his entire career. "It'll be a sad day, a sad day when he leaves."

Still feisty, Cox has been ejected seven times this season, extending his major league record to 150.

"What you can always say about Bobby is that he always gets the best out of his players and that he's a class act," umpire Ed Rapuano said in Cleveland. "You could toss him, but the next day all was forgotten."

Jones said the Braves will have added incentive next season to send Cox out a winner. But the 37-year-old third baseman added that he's not sure he'll stick around long enough to play for a different manager.

"I'm just glad he'll be around for one more year," Jones said.

Wren said the agreement was reached last weekend while the Braves were playing Philadelphia, but Cox didn't want an announcement to take the focus off that series. The team had decided to reveal the news when it returned home to Atlanta next week, but Wren said all the public speculation and false information about Cox's future persuaded the club to make an announcement Wednesday.

Cox's entire coaching staff will be retained next season, too.

"We know we're growing older. I know Bobby feels like he's still capable. His mind is as good today as it will be five years from now. But there's a demand of pressure and energy on his job. We all come to that point," Braves president John Schuerholz said at a Turner Field news conference in Atlanta.

"He's comfortable with this. It's his plan. He's at peace managing a team next season to a championship level," Schuerholz added. "He's handled the highs and lows better than any other manager in baseball I've ever seen."

Cox said his role as adviser likely will include visiting Braves farm clubs to offer advice, evaluations and perhaps even hands-on instruction. He said it's a job he's excited about.

Still, many in baseball have a hard time imagining anyone besides ol' No. 6 in the Braves' dugout.

"He may change his mind. Bobby loves the game. It's in his blood," La Russa said in Houston before his Cardinals played the Astros. "He always had his team ready to play."

Mets manager Jerry Manuel called Cox "an icon in the sport."

"Managers look to try to attain that level of status that he has," Manuel said. "I think that's unfortunate for the Braves — probably fortunate for everybody else in the division.

"He's had a tremendous, tremendous run. He has really set the bar tremendously high over there. So anybody that steps in there will have some big, big shoes to fill as far as stability and strategy."

Cox said the person he consulted most about the decision was his wife, Pam, and he acknowledged she was happy about it.

"She's been after me for quite awhile," Cox said with a smile.

Mackenzie Phillips says she had sex with her dad

CHICAGO – Former child star Mackenzie Phillips said Wednesday that she had a decade-long sexual relationship with her father, pop superstar John Phillips, who also taught her how to roll joints and injected her with cocaine.

Mackenzie Phillips, 49, writes in her new book, "High on Arrival," that she had sex with her father on the night before she was to get married in 1979 at age 19.

Phillips wrote in her book: "I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father." John Phillips, who died in 2001, was the leader of the 1960s group the Mamas and the Papas.

She told "The Oprah Winfrey Show" in an interview that aired Wednesday that her siblings "definitely have a problem with this." Winfrey also read a statement from Genevieve Waite, John Phillips' wife at the time of the alleged abuse and Mackenzie's stepmother. Waite's statement said John Phillips was "incapable, no matter how drunk or drugged he was, of having such a relationship with his own child."

Phillips, 49, who starred on TV's "One Day at a Time," said the sexual relationship with her father lasted a decade and ended when she became pregnant and didn't know who had fathered the child. She had an abortion, which her father paid for, and "and I never let him touch me again."

Phillips' mother is Susan Adams, the first of John Phillips' four wives. He was also married for eight years to "Mamas and Papas" singer and co-founder Michelle Phillips.

Phillips has long acknowledged having drug problems, and she told Winfrey that she first tried cocaine when she was 11 years old. Her father did drugs with her, taught her to roll joints and injected her with cocaine. Phillips said she's been clean for a year after pleading guilty to possessing cocaine and entering a drug treatment program.

She said she confronted her father in the early stages of the abuse, which she described as rape.

"My dad said, 'Raped you? Don't you mean when we made love?' And in that moment I thought, 'Wow, I'm really on my own here,'" Phillips said. She learned to turn her anger toward herself and "boxed it away" rather than think about the drug-fueled incest, she said.

Phillips said she doesn't hate her father, who died in 2001 of heart failure at the age of 65.

"I understand that he was a very tortured man and ... passed that torture down to me," she said.

Phillips said the sexual relationship, although she believes it eventually became consensual, was "an abuse of power" and "a betrayal" on her father's part. She said she forgave John Phillips on his deathbed.

"I can't be the only one this has happened to," Phillips said. "Someone needs to put a face on consensual incest."

Half-sister Chynna Phillips told US Weekly that a "part of her died" when Mackenzie Phillips first told her about the sexual relationship in 1997.

"They were both doing drugs together," the former member the 1990s pop group Wilson Phillips told the magazine in Friday editions. "After long nights of heroin use, she's claiming that she once woke up and that my father was on top of her having sex with her. Was he actually raping her? I don't know. Do I believe that they had an incestuous relationship and that it went on for 10 years? Yes."

"Celebrity Rehab" host Dr. Drew Pinsky told "Extra" that the topic of Phillips' incestuous relationship came up while shooting the upcoming third season of the VH1 reality TV series. Pinksy said he and Phillips talked about the relationship, but out of respect for her family, she told him she did not want those discussions televised.

"What's unusual about Mackenzie's case is there's a romantic quality to the relationship," Pinksy said.

Mackenzie Phillips' book was in the top 20 on Amazon.com as of Wednesday afternoon, but it wouldn't be the first popular book about consensual incest. In 1997, novelist Kathryn Harrison had a best-seller with "The Kiss," a memoir about her affair with her father.

John Phillips, who also had an acknowledged history of drug abuse, co-founded the Mamas and the Papas and helped write its biggest hits, including "California Dreamin'" and "Monday Monday." He also helped organize the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which helped introduce Jimi Hendrix to American audiences.

Foo Fighters reveal greatest hits details

The upcoming Foo Fighters' greatest-hits compilation will be available as a 16-track standard edition and as a deluxe version that will include a DVD containing a select videography of the band's classic clips, as well as live performances from Wembley Stadium, Hyde Park and the intimate Skin + Bones theater tour, according to a press release.

The deluxe edition also will include a 28-page book featuring never-before-seen photos chronicling the band's 15-year history.

Both the standard and deluxe editions--as well as a collectors' 180 gram vinyl edition--will be released Nov. 3.

In addition to hits such as "Everlong" and "Times Like These," the set will include two newly recorded songs, "Wheels" and "Word Forward," both of which were recorded with Butch Vig especially for the collection. The deluxe DVD also will feature the soon-to-be-released video for "Wheels," which is the band's newest single.

Zellweger to wear 'Bridget' fatsuit?

Renee Zellweger won't be piling on the pounds to reprise her role as Bridget Jones - the actress is reportedly planning to don a fat suit for filming.

The petite star has signed on for a third film about the hapless diary-keeper, after the first two movies grossed more than $544 million worldwide.

But instead of embarking on a high-fat diet as she did for the 2001 and 2004 pictures, Zellweger will turn to the wardrobe department to make her appear larger.

A source tells Britain's Reveal magazine, "Renee will be wearing a fat suit in the third film as it took her a while to lose the weight last time. She's also thinking about the effect quickly putting on and then losing 30 pounds has on her body."

Colin Firth and Hugh Grant are also expected to return to the movie franchise - the upcoming film is rumoured to chart Jones' quest to have a baby in her 40s.

Miranda Lambert Starting A 'Revolution' This Fall

Miranda Lambert didn't draw the title of her third album, "Revolution," from a song or a lyric; instead, the country-rocker is a bit more philosophical about her new work. "To me, that's an exciting word, that something new is happening. I sort of reinvented myself musically on this record," Lambert tells Billboard.com. "It feels like there's change, that country music is more open-minded. To me, anyways."

Slated for release next Tuesday (Sept. 29) "Revolution" is one of the most hotly anticipated country releases of the fall. The fifteen song set was written and recorded earlier this year, with the first sessions taking place in January, and features 11 new originals and covers of Fred Eaglesmith's "Time To Get A Gun," John Prine's "That's The Way The World Goes 'Round" and Julie Miller's "Somewhere Trouble Don't Go."

Lambert first broke onto the scene after finishing third place on the first season of reality TV show, "Nashville Star." She has since gone on to release two albums, 2005's "Kerosene" and 2007's "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend." Both have been successful commercially and critically, with "Kerosene" selling 979,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend" selling 804,000. "Kerosene" peaked at No. 18 on the Billboard 200 and "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend peaked at No. 6. Both records spawned very successful singles like "Gunpowder & Lead," "Famous In A Small Town," "Me and Charlie," and "Kerosene." Ahead of "Revolution," Lambert released "Dead Flowers" in May, which has since sold 68,000 downloads. The second single, "White Liar," was released to radio this this past August and peaked at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs.

Even with this early roll out, Lambert is gearing up for a week of heavy, high-profile promotional gigs, starting this Thursday (Sept. 24) at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium, where she'll play "Revolution" from start to finish. "I'm actually really nervous," she admits about this show. "I've never been this nervous, probably ever." Television performances are slated for next week, too, including an appearance on Good Morning America and The Late Show with David Letterman on September 29 and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on October 1. From there, she will fly to Los Angeles to tape the Ellen DeGeneres show on October 5 and the Bonnie Hunt show on October 6.

Lambert says "Revolution" expands on her songwriting "because there's more story to tell."

"Sonically, I think this record is a bit more out there in some parts than anything I've ever done," she says. Indeed, the songs on "Revolution" branch out from where her prior two left off- she takes on a driving, country-punk sound during "Only Prettier," is playful sounding during the acoustic swing of "Airstream Song" yet solemn and more reflective during "Makin' Plans." Lambert also expands on her bad-girl streak that lined "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," during the more rock and roll influences of "Heart Like Mine" and "Sin For A Sin."

While "Revolution" contains the most songs on a Lambert album so far, she concedes that it only clocks in at a little over three minutes longer than "Crazy Ex-Girlfriend," with many songs falling in the two or three minute range. "I never use any demos; I usually just play my stuff on the guitar. It's really a quick process," she says. ""I'm writing about more things and branching out in my way of thinking."

Here is the track list for "Revolution":

"White Liar"
"Only Prettier"
"Dead Flowers"
"Me & Your Cigarettes"
"Maintain The Pain"
"Airstream Song"
"Makin' Plans"
"Time To Get A Gun"
"Somewhere Trouble Don't Go"
"The House That Built Me"
"Love Song"
"Heart Like Mine"
"Sin For A Sin"
"That's The Way The World Goes 'Round"
"Virginia Bluebell"

New Dan Brown novel tops 2 million mark

NEW YORK — Dan Brown's new novel has passed the 2 million mark and bested Bill Clinton's My Life in the record books.

Doubleday announced Tuesday that hardcover, audio and e-book sales for The Lost Symbol topped 2 million copies for its first week of release in the United States, Britain and Canada. The total is "well over" 2 million for English-language editions worldwide, according to Doubleday spokeswoman Suzanne Herz, who declined to offer a specific number.

Herz did say that around 5%, or 100,000 copies, of The Lost Symbol were sold as e-books. Doubleday released the digital edition at the same time as the hardcover despite industry worries that e-sales might take away business from the more expensive paper text.

Amazon.com reported last week that first-day sales for The Lost Symbol were higher on its Kindle e-reader than in hard cover. E-books, a fast-growing portion of an otherwise slow market, have been estimated at anywhere between 1% to 5% of total sales.

The Lost Symbol didn't approach the more than 8 million copies that Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows sold in the first 24 hours, but the weekly results were an all-time high in North America for Doubleday's parent company, Random House Inc. Herz said that the previous record holder was Clinton's memoir, published in 2004. The Lost Symbol came out Sept. 15 with an initial print run of 5 million books that was soon raised to 5.6 million.

The book is Brown's first since The Da Vinci Code, an international phenomenon published in 2003. The Da Vinci Code has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide.

Heather Locklear will join updated 'Melrose Place'

NEW YORK (AP) — Heather Locklear is reprising her signature role as scheming Amanda Woodward on its updated version of Melrose Place, the CW network announced Tuesday.

Locklear will make her debut appearance Nov. 17 on the prime-time soap. The revived Melrose Place premiered earlier this month.

The 48-year-old Locklear joined the original Melrose Place in 1993, at the end of the first season. She stayed throughout the series' seven-year run on the Fox network. As Amanda, she was the ruthless head of the D&D advertising agency.

Before Melrose, Locklear had been a regular on the cop show T.J. Hooker and the glamorous melodrama Dynasty. She later co-starred with Michael J. Fox on the sitcom Spin City.

She will now be joining original Melrose castmates Laura Leighton, Thomas Calabro, Josie Bisset and Daphne Zuniga in the CW's updated version.

No details were released on how many appearances Locklear will make on the series.

Sony Will Bring Machete To The Masses

When he first teased his Grindhouse spin-off movie Machete, Robert Rodriguez seemed to think it would never be anything other than a direct-to-DVD feature.

The movie has since become a reality, a much bigger reality than anyone ever really imagined. The picture’s been filming in Austin with a star-studded cast including the likes of Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, and Cheech Marin, and now it has worldwide theatrical distribution. Bottom shelf DVD this isn’t.

Variety says Sony Pictures has acquired the international distribution rights to Machete, which they’ll release through their Hyde Park Entertainment appendage. Apparently the movie is also now about a police officer. How did I miss that?

No really. For some reason I’d thought it was about a Mexican assassin but Variety says the “story centers on a former Mexican police officer who turns the tables on the masterminds who double-crossed him.” I liked this idea better when I (mistakenly) thought it was about hiring illegal immigrants as hired killers. Back your pickup to Home Depot and hire a Mexican ninja is cooler than Federale revenge. It’s also not entirely a Robert Rodriguez film. He’s co-directing again, this time with Ethan Maniquis whose only previous work was as an editor on Rodriguez’s other movies.

Taxi - JUST in Time for Christmas: The 5th and Final Season Drives onto DVD

Fans have had to endure a four-year wait since the third season came to DVD, but tomorrow - September 22nd - sees the long awaited release of Taxi - The 4th Season. It made everybody wonder how long the studio would take before coming out with the 5th and last year of the classic sitcom, but CBS/Paramount isn't going to make it a long wait at all. They've flagged down a December 22nd street date for Taxi - The Final Season on DVD!

With a running time of 571 minutes long, it seems like the set will include all 23 episodes, including the double-length "clip show" from mid-season called "A Taxi Celebration". Guest stars include Marcia Wallace, Ricardo Montalban, Dick Sargent, Vincent Schiavelli, Rhea Perlman, Penny Marshall, Keenan Wynn, "Judo" Gene LeBell, ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Sr., and musician/actor Scatman Crothers, among others.

On the same release date, CBS/Paramount will also release a "complete series" bundle which takes all five seasons and shrink-wraps them together into a "brick" with no special pricing or packaging, just as a convenient way to pick up everything at once (they'll probably make a fancier complete set down the line). No further details for Taxi - The Final Season are available just yet, nor do we have package art. But stay tuned and we'll update you just as soon as we can!

Star Trek: Season Three goes Blu in December

Paramount Home Entertainment has just added a Blu-Ray Disc set of Star Trek: The Original Series: Season Three to their line-up, bringing the show’s final season to high definition in December.

Space. The Final Frontier. The U.S.S. Enterprise embarks on a five year mission to explore the galaxy. The Enterprise is under the command of Captain James T. Kirk. The First Officer is Mr. Spock, from the planet Vulcan. The Chief Medical Officer is Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy. With a determined crew, the Enterprise encounters Klingons, Romulans, time paradoxes, tribbles and genetic supermen lead by Khan Noonian Singh. Their mission is to explore strange new worlds, to seek new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

In addition to presenting the show in 1080p high definition with a DTS 7.1 HD Master Audio language track, the set will once again be filled with bonus materials. Lookf or part 3 of Billy Blackburn’s Treasure chest, as well as the Unaired Alternate Pilot Episode for “Where No Fan Has Gone Before.” Further you will find numerous Featurettes on the release, including “Life Beyond Trek: Walter Koenig,” “"The Anthropology of Star Trek" ComiCon Panel 2009”, “Chief Engineer's Log • Other: "The World of Rod Roddenberry" ComiCon 2009,” “Memoir From Mr. Sulu,” “Captain's Log: Bob Justman,” and others. Further the disc set will contain Trailers and Collectible Trek and more.

“Star Trek: The Original Series: Season Three” will be in stores on December 3 for $129.99.

Doc Walker's Beautiful Life tops WCMA event

Beautiful Life continues to take Doc Walker for one helluva ride.

The song by the Manitoba trio was named country recording of the year Sunday night at the Western Canadian Music Awards.

It capped a triumphant week for band members Chris Thorsteinson, Dave Wasilyw and Murray Pulver. Doc Walker won group of the year at last week's Canadian Country Music Awards, in Vancouver.

Also from Manitoba, Winnipeg's Romi Mayes captured songwriter of the year and roots solo recording of the year — both for the song Achin in Yer Bones.

They were among 22 different artists up for awards in 14 different categories at the seventh annual show, at the Manitoba Centennial Auditorium.

Marianas Trench won pop recording of the year for Masterpiece Theatre, while rock recording of the year went to Scars and Souvenirs by Theory of a Deadman.

Krystle Dos Santos's self-titled work captured the urban recording category. Jerrold Dubyk's The Maverick was jazz recording of the year.

Steve Dawson won instrumental recording for Telescope and Eagle and Hawk's Sirensong won for aboriginal recording.

Among the other winners:

Blues recording: Big Dave McLean, Got 'em from the Bottom.

Children's recording: Bobs and Lolo, Action Packed.

Gospel recording: Steve Bell, Devotion.

Classical composition: T. Patrick Carrabre, A Hammer for Your Thoughts.

Francophone recording: Daniel ROA, Le nombril du monde.

Rap/hip hop recording: Grand Analog, Touch Your Toes.

Independent album: The Waking Eyes, Holding on to Whatever It Is.

Roots group recording: The Deep Dark Woods, Winter Hours.

Classical recording: Windrose Trio, Path of Contact.

Manitoba singer and composer Loreena McKennitt received the Hall of Fame Award for her "eclectic Celtic" music that has won critical acclaim and soaring album sales worldwide.

Sean Connery In Indiana Jones 5?

At one point there were rumors that Sean Connery would show up in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, reprising the role he last played in 1989 as Indy's father Henry Jones. Lucas and Spielberg opted instead to make Henry dead. Now they may want to bring him back.

The website Ireland Online claims to have an inside source with information on the direction being taken with the now all but inevitable Indiana Jones 5. What their shadowy, mysterious, and probably wrong scooper tells them is that Sean Connery is in. He says, “Steven Spielberg has been working on a script with George Lucas and there is an element of the story that could see Sean returning.”

Odds are this rumor’s just what it seems, a load of bunk. But where there’s Indy talk there’s always an anonymous source willing to float out the name of Sir Sean. Still the timing is rather well done. It was only a few days ago that Harrison Ford revealed Spielberg and Lucas are actively working on the fifth Indiana Jones script. It’s just a little hard to believe that after skipping Indy 4 Henry Jones might show up in it.

The fact that his character is rather dead isn’t the only obstacle to Connery’s return. Lucas can invent something, maybe blame his resurrection on midichlorians or something. But would Connery want to return? Last we heard the elderly actor was happily retired. Back in 2007 when rumors swirled that they might write him into Indiana Jones 4 Connery had this to say, “retirement is just too damned much fun.” It’s been a couple of years though and assuming the seventy-nine year old actor is still mobile, he could be getting sick of puttering around in the garage. Maybe he's bored. Maybe they’ll talk him into it and invent something to bring him back from the dead. Indiana Jones and the Zombie Dad? Can't be worse than the last one.

Ceaseless deaths of the famous mark summer `09

NEW YORK – We had been told to expect the deaths of the famous to come in threes, not in the dozens.

But all through the summer of 2009 came a ceaseless and somber drumbeat, as idols of all walks of life passed away. From Walter Cronkite to Sen. Ted Kennedy, the nonstop loss of luminaries continued almost as if a seasonal occurrence — as much a part of summer as hot dogs and humidity.

If a filmmaker were trying to capture the summer of 2009, Michael Jackson news would be playing in the background. Many thought coverage of Jackson's death was too much; a Pew Research Center poll released in July found that 64 percent of those surveyed thought the media blitz was overdone (though none could top MTV Japan, which designated an entire week of mourning for Jackson).

But news outlets went heavy on coverage for the many others who passed. Collectively, it made the constant commemorating hard to escape, especially for anyone active on social networks and the Web.

"It's relentless because of the impact of the Internet," said Adam Bernstein, the obituary editor of the Washington Post. "Twitter feeds go out. Every death seems to become more of a tempest rather than just the simple news of what it is."

Hayes Ferguson, the chief operating officer of Legacy.com, a site dedicated to providing a way for readers to express memories and condolences, believes media and technology can offer comfort to those grieving.

"People are able to reminisce and collect their thoughts after reviewing career highlights of prolific artists such as Michael Jackson," said Ferguson. "The number of Kennedy and Jackson tributes has been particularly large but there is a demand for this type of information."

Even with the media-inflated memorials, the parade of deaths was unusual. The phrase "summer of death" popped up, perhaps first used by New York magazine, which cheekily claimed the trademark. There's no particular reason for such an aberration; the death rate is typically higher during winter.

Early May saw the passing of the beloved Dom DeLuise, 75. But the portly entertainer was only a springtime harbinger of what was to follow.

On June 4, the "Kung Fu" actor David Carradine, 72, was found dead in a Bangkok hotel room. On June 23, Ed McMahon, the loyal "Tonight" show sidekick to Johnny Carson, died at the age of 86.

Just two days later, two icons of Generation X died. First was the news that Farrah Fawcett, the `70s sex symbol and "Charlie's Angels" star had died of cancer at 62. Late in the day, came the more unbelievable reports that Jackson had died.

Jackson's cultural importance alone would have been enough to keep his passing in the news cycle for weeks. But the complex nature of his estate and the murky details surrounding his death (eventually labeled a homicide by the medical examiner's office) insured Jackson remained on front pages and on cable news crawls. He was only buried on Sept. 3. Prosecutors are still investigating.

Before the end of June, the TV pitchman Billy Mays died. Like Jackson, he was just 50.

Early July saw the passing of Robert S. McNamara, 93. The Pentagon chief who directed the escalation of the Vietnam War — and was vilified by many for it.

Cronkite, who memorably commented in 1968 that Vietnam appeared an unwinnable stalemate, died on July 17. A voice of authority and the premier TV anchorman of the century, Cronkite's death was felt across journalism.

Don Hewitt, the TV news pioneer who created "60 Minutes" and was, like Cronkite, a CBS legend, died later in the summer on Aug. 19. That was just a day after the passing of political columnist Robert Novack.

Two days after Cronkite's death was Frank McCourt's. The teacher and "Angela's Ashes" author, died of cancer at the age of 78. Perhaps more than anyone, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer blazed the trail of the popular modern memoir.

August saw the death of writer-director John Hughes, whose films such as "The Breakfast Club," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Sixteen Candles" defined `80s youth. Hughes was 59.

On Aug. 11, Eunice Kennedy Shriver died. Famous to some for being the sister of President John F. Kennedy, Shriver's great accomplishment was founding the Special Olympics.

Two days later, Les Paul died at the age of 94. His contributions to music can't be underestimated; he developed multitrack recording and the solid-body electric guitar.

And just two weeks after Shriver's death, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy died at his home in Hyannis Port at the age of 77 after battling a brain tumor. The liberal lion of the Senate served for 46 years in Washington where he helped pass countless laws on many parts of civic life, from civil rights to health care.

The glamorous New York author Dominick Dunne, who specialized in stories about the rich and famous, died on Aug. 26 at the age of 83. Two days later followed DJ AM, the 36-year-old celebrity disc jockey.

"It feels like there's a lot of interest in celebrities — maybe more interest now than there used to be," said Claire Noland, obituary editor of The Los Angeles Times. "Any time you have someone that's even a moderate celebrity, they make more news now than maybe they would have before."

Last week, Patrick Swayze. The "Dirty Dancing" actor, 57, lost his long fight with pancreatic cancer. But even he wasn't the last.

With just days of summer officially remaining, perhaps — and hopefully — the last star to pass away in the summer of '09 was Mary Travers, who was one-third of the `60s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. She died Wednesday at the age of 72 after battling leukemia for several years.

And that summary still omits the passings of many others, including TV actress Gale Storm, Academy Award-winning actor Karl Malden, music manager Allen Klein, former NFL quarterback Steve McNair, British conductor Sir Edward Downes, the jazz composer George Russell, and Merce Cunningham, the avant-garde dancer and choreographer.

Together, those who died in the summer of 2009 came from seemingly every phase of life. Among them were titans of the news business, moviemaking, television, politics, music and literature.

No one who ever picked up a guitar, danced to "Thriller," watched a quality TV news broadcast, read a gripping memoir or laughed through a coming-of-age comedy could have failed to feel the loss.

Autumn can't come soon enough.

The Couch Potato Report - September 19th, 2009

This week The Couch Potato Report peels a comic book film about a Canadian superhero and some DVDs that were dead on arrival!

The film that started the Summer Movie Season off back in May is now available for you to watch in your homes, and it is our Hot Potato this week.

There have been four now, films based on the X-MEN Marvel Comics characters who are human mutants, each with unique special powers.

The first two X-MEN AND X2 or X-MEN: UNITED - both directed by Bryan Singer - were spectacular!

They were so good, and made the characters so popular, that at least one spin-off film was inevitable, and now we have the first one.

It is called X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

WOLVERINE grossed $180 million at the box office, and was the Number Seven film of the summer, but man, what a mediocre movie.

Hugh Jackman's character has been so appealing and interesting, that this film seemed like an easy slam dunk, a walk-off home run in extra innings, an overtime goal in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, a double-raise jam that rolls to the button for the winning point with the hammer in the 10th end!!

It seemed like there was no way that they could mess it up...this film had box office success written all over it!!

But mess it up, they did, primarily by hiring the wrong director.

Gavin Hood's previous films were the Best Foreign Film Oscar winner Tsotsi (2005) and the boring drama Rendition (2007). Yes, his talents brought emotional weight to the dramatic scenes, but he wasn't able to elevate the majority of the action filled ones to a higher plain...that plain where you see a stunt or scene and think - cool!!!

I don't know anyone who went to see WOLVERINE for it's dramatic elements, and I also don't know anyone who went to see Danny Huston play the villain, Colonel William Stryker.

Huston has been okay in films like The Kingdom, The Number 23, Children of Men, Marie Antoinette and The Aviator, but he just does not have the acting weight or talent to pull off playing a guy you could - in any way - believe would best the superhero who the film is named after.

Yes, despite the wrong director and actior playing the bad guy - I admit, there is a lot to like about WOLVERINE, and not just the fact that he is Canadian.

Liev Schreiber is great as his half-brother, the very beautiful Lynn Collins is sympathetic and passionate as his love interest, and Vancouver born Ryan Reynolds is both menacing and entertaining, but as a whole this film just isn't very good.

However, because those first two X-MEN films were sooo good...I, as someone who is a huge fan of these sorts of films, am willing to overlook the mediocrity.

No, WOLVERINE offers absolutely nothing new, and for the most part just shows us what we found out in the second film...but if you like these types of films, and have seen the other X-MEN movies, then it is a must see.

Otherwise, it is a must skip.

Oh, and if you do watch it...make sure you stay with the film until AFTER the credits.

There is a new feature here on the Report that I will debut for you in a couple of minutes, but before those movies that arrived DOA, let me focus on a show that focuses on people who are dead on arrival.

FRINGE is a television show that is sort of a cross between The X-Files and The Twilight Zone, combined with the film Altered States.

It was co-created by J.J. Abrams, who also gave us ALIAS and LOST.

It is about an unorthodox team, lead by a female FBI agent who works with an institutionalized scientist and his son in order to solve cases that all seem to be connected to a growing series of unexplained phenomena.

FRINGE is a very entertaining show that has a great cast, including Canadian Joshua Jackson from DAWSON'S CREEK, and it is kooky, creepy, odd and interesting...and sometimes it is even all of those things at the same time.

Each episode stands on it's own, but I especially like how everything is also part of a season long storyline that has a great payoff.

FRINGE - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON is a 7 DVD and 5 Blu-ray Set that I really enjoyed!

THE WES CRAVEN COLLECTION is a two-disc DVD set that I also enjoyed, even though it doesn't contain the master director of horror film's best known work.

That would be THE NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET and SCREAM films, but I digress as this COLLECTION does still provide us with some great horror moments through the - entertaining in their own right - films THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, SHOCKER and THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS.

THE WES CRAVEN COLLECTION is primarily for people who saw those films when they first came out, and have just never picked them up on DVD. Well, now you can...and you can get all of the chills and horrific moments they offer, all for about twenty bucks.

It is time for a new feature here on The Report now, and its called DOA DVDs.

Sadly, not every film that is made can be good...even with the best intentions, some films are just not worthy of your time.

And that fact can be subjective. I know I have loved films that you have hated, and vice versa.

But, from time to time there are awful films that do get released, with casts full of people whose work we love and usually look forward to seeing, that are absolutely awful, and they are the films that are DEAD ON ARRIVAL, and are DOA DVDs.

I'll watch them, so you don't have to, and from time to time I'll warm you about them.

This week, I'll warn you about three of them, starting with a film that even the star of it thinks is bad.

Sienna Miller, the late David Carradine, Scott Glenn and James Franco from PINEAPPLE EXPRESS and the SPIDER-MAN films star in CAMILLE, and when Franco was being interviewed on BBC Radio he told Edith Bowman he was shocked it was even coming out and that it was "not good".

He was right, CAMILLE is DOA and you should ignore this one about a young newlywed couple on their way to Niagara Falls at all costs.

The same is true for THE INFORMERS. This one has a cast made up of Academy Award winners Billy Bob Thornton and Kim Basinger, along with Mickey Rourke, Winona Ryder, Amber Heard and Chris Isaak, and it is based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis, who also wrote the screenplay.

Like most of Ellis' work, THE INFORMERS is about excess in the eighties, and it is a stiff. Not worthy of even another word!

So lets move on to our final DOA DVD this week, the film DEAD GIRL.

This absultely awful film is about two teenagers who find an imprisoned woman in an abandoned mental asylum who cannot die.

The things they do to her, the things this film is about...it is dead on arrival. I can't beleive this one even got made, but it did, and you will see it in your local store, and you have been warned. Stay away from DEAD GIRL, it is a DOA DVD.

How about some laughs now? Enough with the DOAs, let's laugh.

Those laughs, and many, many others, can be found in the four DVD Box Set for the COMPLETE SECOND SEASON of THE BIG BANG THEORY.

This is the show that was about a beautiful woman who moved in across the hall from two male science geeks, exposing their inabilities to communicate with the opposite sex, but in season two it just became a show ith a great ensemble cast that provided some great pop culture references, and more that a few laughs.

THE BIG BANG THEORY - THE COMPLETE SECOND SEASON was so much fun, that I am really looking forward to watching SEASON THREE. And I might not even wait for the DVDs...I might actually watch it on TV when it airs.

And one thing is for sure, I will always sit through the show's opening credits, with the theme song from the Barenaked Ladies!!

Finally this week, the BLU-RAY BEACON shines it's light on two westerns with ensemble casts, one from 1985 and the other from 1995.

The one from the eighties is the great SILVERADO, about a group of cowboys who decide to fight the injustices that are taking place in a small town.

It stars Kevin Kline, Scott Glenn, Kevin Costner, Danny Glover and Mr. John Cleese

SILVERADO remains a great film with a cast full of people I like and admire and the Blu-ray comes with some nice retrospective features.

Sam Raimi's 1995 film THE QUICK AND THE DEAD also has a great cast, but that film just doesn't gel as well, and in the end it isn't a good.

THE QUICK AND THE DEAD stars Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe, Leonardo DiCaprio and Gary Sinise.

It is a film that was made by people who admire and respect westerns, and it looks good in high definition on Blu-ray, but it isn't one that I liked when it first came out, and I can't say I like it now. I admire it...but I'll probably never see it again.

The Blu-ray westerns THE QUICK AND THE DEAD and SILVERADO, the DOA DVS CAMILLE and THE INFORMERS and the great COMPLETE FIRST SEASON of FRINGE and the mediocre summer action film WOLVERINE are all now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

The DOA DVD DEAD GIRL, the inexpensive horror release THE WES CRAVEN COLLECTION with THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW, SHOCKER and THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS and the very funny COMPLETE SECOND SEASON of THE BIG BANG THEORY all available now, only on DVD.

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

Canadian actor and writer Seth Rogan stars in the mis-fire OBSERVE AND REPORT, Jenniger Garner and Matthew McConaughey topline THE GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST, Jessica Biel takes on Noel Coward in EASY VIRTUE and there are laughs aplenty in SEASON THREE of 30 ROCK.

I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and several 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!

'Mad Men,' '30 Rock' take top series Emmys

LOS ANGELES – "Mad Men" and "30 Rock" led a pack of Emmy winners who successfully defended their titles at Sunday's show, but the snappy ceremony and a star turn by host Neil Patrick Harris made the evening far from a rerun.

AMC's glossy 1960s Madison Avenue saga "Mad Men," which last year became the first basic cable show to win a top series award, won the best drama trophy for a second time.

"It is an amazing time to work in TV," said "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner. "And, I know that everything is changing, but I'm not afraid of it because I feel like all these different media is just more choice and more entertainment. It's better for the viewers in the end and I'm glad to be a part of it."

NBC's "30 Rock," a satirical take on life inside a TV variety show, was honored for the third time as best comedy series, while star Alec Baldwin won his second award as best comedy actor.

"We want to thank our friends at NBC for keeping us on the air ... even though we are so much more expensive than a talk show," said "30 Rock" creator and star Tina Fey, referring to Jay Leno's new daily prime-time comedy show, which NBC likes to note is cheaper to produce than a scripted series.

Baldwin, accepting his acting trophy for "30 Rock" from "Brothers & Sisters" star Rob Lowe, joked, "I'll be honest with you. I'd trade this to look like him."

Glenn Close's performance as a ruthless trial attorney on "Damages" and Bryan Cranston's turn as a meth-making, cancer-stricken teacher on "Breaking Bad" were honored with the top drama series acting Emmys, the second consecutive trophies for both.

"Oh my goodness," exclaimed Cranston. "I'm a poor kid from the valley. I don't know what I'm doing up here. I feel like Cinderfella."

Close called it a "huge privilege" to be part of entertainment community, then tweaked her show's writers.

Her role is "maybe the character of my lifetime, depending on what they do this season," Close said.

Michael Emerson, who plays the cruelly devious Ben on "Lost," and Cherry Jones, the stalwart U.S. president on "24," were honored as best supporting actors in drama series.

"Wowza," Jones said. Emerson accepted his award for what he called "the role of my lifetime."

Toni Collette of Showtime's "United States of Tara" was honored as best lead actress in a comedy series for her role as a mother with multiple personalities.

"Wow, this is insanely confronting," said a beaming Collette. She thanked series creator Diablo Cody, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of "Juno."

Collette's victory deprived Fey of "30 Rock" of winning a second consecutive award in the category. But Fey took the stage a few moments later to acknowledge a guest actor award she received for her Sarah Palin impersonation on "Saturday Night Live."

Kristin Chenoweth of "Pushing Daisies" and Jon Cryer of "Two and a Half Men" won supporting acting Emmys for their comedies and proved that acceptance speeches can be entertaining.

"I'm not employed now so I'd like to be on `Mad Men.' I also like `The Office' and `24,'" said Chenoweth, alternating between tears and smiles as she accepted for her canceled ABC series. "Thank you so much to the academy for recognizing a show that's no longer on the air."

Backstage, the Tony Award-winning Chenoweth noted that she is appearing on an upcoming episode of Fox's show "Glee," has shot two movies and is doing a series of concerts.

Cryer, whose series is the most-watched comedy on TV, brought a wry tone to his speech.

"I used to think that awards were just shallow tokens of momentary popularity, but now I realize they are the only true measure of a person's worth as a human being," Cryer said.

"The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" won the trophy for best variety, music or comedy series, its seventh in a row.

"Grey Gardens," the story of a reclusive mother and daughter who were relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and the Dickens adaptation "Little Dorrit" won for best movie and miniseries, respectively.

Harris, a nominee as well as host, lost to Cryer for his role on "How I Met Your Mother" but won on-stage accolades for his emcee work, including a heartfelt compliment from Jon Stewart.

Harris, who moved the show along with good-natured humor, started the evening on a lively note, performing "Don't Touch That Remote," a custom-made tune from Broadway composers Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman of "Hairspray" fame. Harris implored viewers to stay glued to the show and called attention to some of the stars in the house.

"I see legends galore, Lange, Barrymore," Harris sang to Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore, later adding, "But like next season on `Idol' I'm not seeing Paula Abdul." Meanwhile, the camera panned to an empty seat at the Nokia Theatre.

Harris' winning turn as host also was lauded by Jeff Probst, honored as best reality show host for CBS' "Survivor." Probst was one of the five reality hosts who emceed the Emmys last year and received scathing reviews.

"Neil Patrick Harris, this is how you host the Emmys. Nice job," Probst said, pointing his Emmy toward him.

"The Amazing Race" won its seventh consecutive Emmy in the outstanding reality-competition category, once again turning top-rated "American Idol" into an also-ran.

An exception to the upbeat mood came in clips from animated series "Family Guy," which showed the dog character Brian beaten bloody, followed by a reality show snippet with barely concealed swearing.

In a bid to give viewers reasons to stick with the show, CBS put advisories on-screen of upcoming moments, including Justin Timberlake's appearance as a presenter.

The TV academy, meanwhile, hoped to avoid an unwanted rerun at the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards: paltry viewership. The 2008 ceremony was the least-watched ever with an audience of 12.3 million.

Acclaimed but low-rated series like "Mad Men" are seen as one reason viewers bypassed the awards, so major categories were expanded to increase the odds for more popular fare. There were as many as seven nominees per category, compared with the traditional five.

Harris and Emmy executive producer Don Mischer promised to keep the scheduled three-hour ceremony snappy, but they had less room to maneuver than planned. A TV academy proposal to pre-tape some acceptances and show them in a truncated version — gaining time for something more entertaining than speeches — was quashed by industry opposition.

Harris also was a supporting actor nominee for "How I Met Your Mother."

HBO went into the ceremony as the awards leader after last weekend's Creative Arts Primetime Emmys ceremony for technical and other achievements. The channel earned 16 trophies, followed by NBC with 11 and Fox and ABC with eight awards each. CBS, PBS and Cartoon Network had six each.

After Sunday, HBO emerged with a leading 21, followed by NBC with 16, ABC with 11 and Fox with 10. CBS and PBS had nine each.

Leonard Cohen OK after fainting on stage

Canadian poet-singer Leonard Cohen is recovering after collapsing on stage while on a music tour in Spain.

Doctor Music Concerts released a statement early Saturday saying Cohen has been released from hospital after suffering stomach problems.

The singer — who turns 75 on Monday — fainted halfway through Bird on the Wire while performing in Valencia on Friday.

Video placed on YouTube by a concertgoer shows Cohen kneeling several times as he sings and then keeling sideways.

Band members rushed to his aid. He was treated on site at first and then sent to hospital, his record company said.

A band member told fans the performer had suffered stomach cramps and vomiting.

Cohen is due to perform Monday in Barcelona to wrap up his Spanish tour.

A spokesman for the Palau Sant Jordi concert hall in Barcelona said trucks bearing Cohen's stage set arrived on Saturday and will be set up.

According to the poet's website, after Spain, he isn't due to perform until Oct. 17 in Sunrise, Florida.

'Chance of Meatballs' tops weekend box-office

NEW YORK – The forecast was bright at the box-office for "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," which earned $30.1 million to lead this weekend's films.

Sony's 3-D animated family comedy was adapted from the popular 1978 children's book by Judi and Ron Barrett. Despite schools being back in session, the film still was able to draw kids and their parents to the multiplexes.

"The meatballs have cleared, so to speak," said Rory Bruer, head of distribution for Sony. "It really is a feature where everything aligned perfectly."

That's good news for other adaptations of classic children's books on the horizon, namely the much anticipated big screen version of Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are." The Spike Jonze directed adaptation will be released Oct. 16.

"It really does pave the way for a really strong opening for that film," said Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian. "It's such a beloved book that the anticipation is really high."

He added that the strength of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" showed that 3-D is proving to be a significant draw for moviegoers. The film also was released on IMAX at 127 venues, which accounted for $2.5 million, or 8 percent of its box-office.

Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant!" came in second with $10.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. That was slightly better than expected for the Warner Bros. comedy, which stars Matt Damon as a bipolar whistle blower.

Last week's box-office topper, Tyler Perry's "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," saw a 57 percent drop for Lionsgate. It still earned $10 million, good enough for third place. That brought its cumulative total to $37.9 million.

Jennifer Aniston's "Love Happens" (Universal) came in fourth with $8.5 million, suggesting that audiences may be tiring of the actress in romantic comedies. It's her third film this year.

Coming in a distant fifth was "Jennifer's Body," the R-rated horror film written by Diablo Cody, the scribe of "Juno" fame. It earned just $6.8 million for 20th Century Fox. "Jennifer's Body" is viewed most significantly as a test of its star, Megan Fox, to headline a movie.

"You always hope for more, but it's a modestly budgeted film that will ultimately be profitable for us," said Chris Aronson, senior vice president of domestic distribution for Fox.

Dergarabedian said the number was somewhat low for what looked like "a fan boy's dream," but said the R-rating and niche potential of "Jennifer's Body" wasn't ideal for a coming-out party for the actress.

"It may be a matter of just choosing the right projects for her," said Dergarabedian. "She's trying to find a world beyond `Transformers,' and she will. She's young and has a lot of promise."

On the whole, it was an "up" weekend for Hollywood, said Dergarabedian. The weekend's total box-office gross was approximately $100 million, which compares favorably with the $88 million that was made on the corresponding weekend last year.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Tuesday.

1. "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs," $30.1 million.
2. "The Informant!" $10.5 million.
3. "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," $10 million.
4. "Love Happens," $8.5 million.
5. "Jennifer's Body," $6.8 million.
6. "9," $5.5 million.
7. "Inglourious Basterds," $3.6 million.
8. "All About Steve," $3.4 million.
9. "Sorority Row," $2.5 million.
10. "The Final Destination," $2.4 million.

Leafs acquire Kessel from Bruins

TORONTO - Brian Burke is turning to Phil Kessel to help speed up his rebuilding of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The Leafs general manager finally acquired the rights to Kessel after months of talks with the Boston Bruins, sources told The Canadian Press on Friday.

Burke is betting the farm that Kessel is a big step in the Leafs' rebuilding. In return for the rights to negotiate with the restricted free agent, Toronto sent a first and second round pick in the 2010 NHL draft to Boston, along with another first-round pick in 2011.

Kessel scored 36 goals and added 24 assists in 70 games with Boston last season.

The 21-year-old restricted free agent, who is in the last year of his entry-level deal, failed to negotiate an contract extension with Boston in the off-season.

The Bruins picked Kessel fifth overall in the 2005 draft.

Mary Travers of 1960s folk anthem trio dies at 72

NEW YORK – Mary Travers, one part of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, which used beautiful, tranquil harmonies to convey the angst and turmoil of the Vietnam anti-war movement, racial discrimination and more, died after a yearslong battle with leukemia. She was 72.

The band's publicist, Heather Lylis, said Travers died Wednesday at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut.

Though their music sounded serene, Peter, Paul and Mary represented the frustration and upheaval of the 1960s, as a generation of liberal activists used their music not only to protest political policies, but also to spark social change. And even as the issues changed, and the fiery protests abated, the group remained immersed in musical activism.

Bandmate Peter Yarrow said that in her final months, Travers handled her declining health with bravery and generosity, showing her love to friends and family "with great dignity and without restraint."

"It was, as Mary always was, honest and completely authentic," he said. "That's the way she sang, too — honestly and with complete authenticity."

Noel "Paul" Stookey, the trio's other member, praised Travers for her inspiring activism, "especially in her defense of the defenseless."

"I am deadened and heartsick beyond words to consider a life without Mary Travers and honored beyond my wildest dreams to have shared her spirit and her career," he said.

Mary Allin Travers was born on Nov. 9, 1936, in Louisville, Ky., the daughter of journalists who moved the family to Manhattan's bohemian Greenwich Village. She quickly became enamored with folk performers like the Weavers and was soon performing with Pete Seeger, a founding member of the Weavers who lived in the same building as the Travers family.

With a group called the Song Swappers, Travers backed Seeger on one album and two shows at Carnegie Hall. She also appeared (as one of a group of folk singers) in a short-lived 1958 Broadway show called "The Next President," starring comedian Mort Sahl.

It wasn't until she met up with Yarrow and Stookey that Travers would taste success on her own. Yarrow was managed by Albert B. Grossman, who later worked in the same capacity for Bob Dylan.

Their beatnik look — a tall blonde flanked by a pair of goateed guitarists — was a part of their initial appeal. As The New York Times critic Robert Shelton put it not long afterward, "Sex appeal as a keystone for a folk-song group was the idea of the group's manager ... who searched for months for `the girl' until he decided on Miss Travers."

The trio mingled their music with liberal politics, both onstage and off. Their version of "If I Had a Hammer" became an anthem for racial equality. Other hits included "Lemon Tree," "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Puff (The Magic Dragon)."

They were early champions of Dylan and performed his "Blowin' in the Wind" at the March on Washington in August 1963.

And they were vehement in their opposition to the Vietnam War, managing to stay true to their liberal beliefs while creating music that resonated in the American mainstream.

Travers was remembered Thursday at the well-known folk venue Club Passim in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. Many of the singers who played there in the '60s were influenced by Peter, Paul and Mary, said Dan Hogan, the club's executive director.

"Mary Travers, especially, had a commitment to social causes and to social justice, and I think that encouraged most of the folk singers at our club to feel that this is really something worth committing to and making a career out of folk music," Hogan said.

The group collected five Grammy Awards for their three-part harmony on enduring songs like "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" and "Blowin' in the Wind," and were near the top of the charts as the biggest stars of the folk revival movement.

It was heady stuff for a trio that had formed in the early 1960s in Greenwich Village, running through simple tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Their debut album came out in 1962, and immediately scored a pair of hits with their versions of "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree." "Moving" was the follow-up, including the hit tale of innocence lost, "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" — which reached No. 2 on the charts, and generated since-discounted reports that it was an ode to marijuana.

Album No. 3, "In the Wind," featured three songs by the then-22-year-old Dylan. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Blowin' in the Wind" both reached the top 10, bringing Dylan's material to a massive audience.

"Blowin' in the Wind" became another civil-rights anthem, and Peter, Paul and Mary fully embraced the cause. They marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., and performed with him in Washington.

In a 1966 Times interview, Travers said the three worked well together because they respected one another. "There has to be a certain amount of love just in order for you to survive together," she said.

With the advent of the Beatles and Dylan's switch to electric guitar, the folk boom disappeared. Travers expressed disdain for folk-rock, telling the Chicago Daily News in 1966 that "it's so badly written. ... When the fad changed from folk to rock, they didn't take along any good writers."

But the trio continued their success, scoring with the tongue-in-cheek single "I Dig Rock and Roll Music," a gentle parody of the Mamas and the Papas, in 1967 and the John Denver-penned "Leaving on a Jet Plane" two years later.

They also continued as boosters for young songwriters, recording numbers written by then-little-known Gordon Lightfoot and Laura Nyro.

In 1969, the group earned their final Grammy for "Peter, Paul and Mommy," which won for best children's album. They disbanded in 1971, launching solo careers — Travers released five albums — that never achieved the heights of their collaborations.

Over the years they enjoyed several reunions. They remained politically active as well, performing in 1995 on the anniversary of the Kent State shootings and performing for California strawberry pickers.

Travers had undergone a successful bone marrow transplant to treat her leukemia and was able to return to performing after that.

"It was like a miracle," Travers told The Associated Press in 2006. "I'm just feeling fabulous."

But by mid-2009, Yarrow told WTOP radio in Washington that her condition had worsened again and he thought she would no longer be able to perform.

Travers lived for many years in Redding, Conn. She is survived by her husband, Ethan Robbins, and daughters, Alicia and Erika.

Joe Perry frustrated over Steven Tyler accident

NEW YORK – Joe Perry is angry that Aerosmith has been sidelined due to Steven Tyler's tour injury.

The group had to cancel their summer tour after the frontman suffered injuries when he fell off the stage during a concert in August.

"The tour was building up to be a great tour, and I was pretty (upset), you know," Perry said in an interview on Wednesday.

The guitarist hasn't even spoken to Tyler recently: "I haven't talked to him in over five weeks. I don't know what's going on with him. I hear he's getting better, but I don't know I really don't know what's going on with him.

The 61-year-old Tyler fell off the stage during an Aug. 5 performance in South Dakota. He broke his left shoulder and needed 20 stitches in his head. Tyler was ordered by doctors to take the time to properly recuperate from his injuries.

"I was pretty (upset), because right before that, he had pulled a muscle in his leg. And we had to take two weeks off and we missed probably seven dates," Perry said.

Even though Aerosmith is idle, Perry has been keeping busy promoting his upcoming album, "Have Guitar, Will Travel." It's the fifth record for his solo endeavor, The Joe Perry Project. Although the CD was already in the works, he put his full focus on it after Tyler was injured. It is out Oct. 6.

"The bottom line is that every hole that Aerosmith left I filled," he said of the CD.

Aerosmith has been together since the early 1970s, and Perry believes they'll be back in action again: "One thing I do know, there's still life left in the old band."
Still, Perry couldn't hide his feelings regarding Tyler.

"All I know is he's got to get his act together. I mean, he and I haven't written a song together alone in the same room in over ten years, so there's been some changes in paradigm of what Aerosmith is," he said.

A representative for Aerosmith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band planning hiatus

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are expected to take one or two years off after performing 26 shows booked though Nov. 22 in Buffalo, NY.

"We are going to take a break," E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt said Wednesday during a conference call with reporters. "I don't know how long, one year, year-and-a-half, two years off. This is a good time to see us. We may not be as pretty, [but] we seem to be getting better in funny ways.

"You never know. This could be be the last tour. We do every show like it's our last show anyway."

Subtly, Van Zandt was pushing the idea that the current tour was a must-see for fans who have put off purchasing tickets. While Springsteen and the E Street Band have sold more than 2 million tickets this year, shows have not sold out as quickly as in the past. Currently, 17 shows--among them the five final concerts at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ--have tickets available. Two shows at Madison Square Garden go on sale Friday (9/18); concerts in Washington, DC, and Baltimore go on sale Sept. 25.

One of the highlights of the current tour has been a "stump the band" segment in which the band plays a cover. Fans submit requests by making signs that Springsteen collects and sorts through onstage.

So far, the band has not been stumped.

"We may mess the song up a bit," Van Zandt says. "We're kind of familiar with all these crazy songs. We may do something a bit unusual from time to time. Nothing too obscure, too schlocky. Honestly, I can say we have not had that train wreck yet. I'm knocking on wood."

August 2009
19 - Hartford, CT - Comcast Theater
22, 23 - Mansfield, MA - Comcast Center
25 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Saratoga Performing Arts Center

September 2009
12 - Tampa, FL - Ford Amphitheatre
13 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - Bank Atlantic Center
16 - Greenville, SC - Bi-Lo Center
20 - Chicago, IL - United Center
21 - Des Moines, IA - Wells Fargo Arena (on sale Aug. 22)
30 - East Rutherford, NJ - Giants Stadium

October 2009
2, 3 - East Rutherford, NJ - Giants Stadium
8, 9 - East Rutherford, NJ - Giants Stadium
13, 14 - Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum
19, 20 - Philadelphia, PA - Spectrum
25 - St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center
26 - Kansas City, MO - Sprint Center
29 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary concert)

November 2009
2 Washington, DC - Verizon Center (on sale Sept. 25)
3 - Charlotte, NC - Time Warner Cable Arena (on sale Aug. 28)
7, 8 - New York, NY - Madison Square Garden (on sale Sept. 18)
10 - Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena (on sale Aug. 22)
13 - Auburn Hills, MI - Palace At Auburn Hills (on sale Aug. 22)
15 - Milwaukee, WI - Bradley Center
18 - Nashville, TN - Sommett Center
20 - Baltimore, MD - 1st Mariner Arena (on sale Sept. 25)
22 - Buffalo, NY - HSBC Arena (on sale Sept. 12)

Obit: 'Laugh-In's' Henry Gibson Dies at 73

Henry Gibson, who came to fame on "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" and went on to act in several Robert Altman films, has died at age 73.

The character actor had recurring roles on the TV series "Boston Legal" and "King of the Hill," and was a regular on "Love, American Style."

For Altman, Gibson had prominent roles in "Nashville" and "The Long Goodbye." He played an bumbling American Nazi leader in "The Blues Brothers."

On "Laugh-In," Gibson was known for his bad poetry, which he recited throughout his career.

He was nominated for two Golden Globe awards -- one for "Nashville" and the other for "Laugh-In" -- as well as a Grammy for the songs he wrote for "Nashville."

Gibson died of cancer on Monday at his home in Malibu, his son James Gibson said Wednesday.

Henry Gibson was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, on Sept. 21, 1935. He started as a child actor, with his break coming in Jerry Lewis' "The Nutty Professor."

Gibson is survived by three sons: Jon, a business affairs executive at Universal Pictures; James, a screenwriter, Charles, a director and visual effects supervisor; and two grandchildren.

Memorial services have not been announced. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Screen Actors Guild Foundation and Friends of the Malibu Public Library.

Winner crowned on CBS TV show 'Big Brother 11'

LOS ANGELES – Jordan Lloyd was served the $500,000 grand prize on "Big Brother 11."

The goofy 22-year-old waitress from Matthews, N.C., bested Natalie Martinez, the scheming 24-year-old recent college graduate from Gilbert, Ariz., on the season finale of the voyeuristic CBS reality show. Lloyd received five votes from the show's seven-member jury, which included viewer votes as the possibly tie-breaking seventh pick for the first time.

Lloyd, who spent most of the season aligned with and romantically linked to charming 31-year-old advertising salesman Jeff Schroeder, defeated Kevin Campbell, the cunning 29-year-old graphic designer from Chula Vista, Calif., in the last round of a three-part Head of Household competition, which allowed her to choose Martinez to battle against for votes.

"It was my fault," Campbell lamented. "I should have won the last competition."

Martinez, who earned a $50,000 second-place prize, had been aligned with several jury members, but her lies in the game apparently caught up to her in the jury house and cost her votes. Her biggest fib? Fooling most of the contestants — or houseguests, as they're referred to on the show — into believing she was an 18-year-old recent high school graduate.

"She acted like she was 12," said Schroeder, who was voted "favorite houseguest" by viewers and won a $25,000 prize.

Lloyd outplayed her 12 competitors, who were all isolated from the outside world and monitored by dozens of cameras and microphones, for 73 days inside the "Big Brother" house.

She cited her unbreakable bond with Schroeder and ability to win competitions after he was eliminated as the main reasons why she should win.

So what is she going to do with the moolah?

"Put a down payment on a house for me, my mom and my brother," she said.

The live two-hour finale also featured the jury's interrogation of the final two and a reunion of the "Big Brother" cast — except for Chima Simone, the 33-year-old freelance journalist who was expelled after tossing a microphone into a whirlpool spa. Because Simone wasn't part of the jury, viewers cast the possibly tie-breaking seventh vote for Lloyd.

Bruno Visits Blu-ray in November

Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno will strut his way onto Blu-ray Disc and DVD on November 17 courtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Bruno will be served up in 1.85:1 1080p video and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio on video with an accompanying digital copy of the standard definition version.

Bonus features have been revealed and include a few Blu-ray exclusives as outlined below.

- Video Commentary with Sacha Baron Cohen and Director Larry Charles (BD exclusive)

- Digital copy (BD exclusive)

- App for iPhone (BD exclusive)

- An hour of Alternative, Deleted and Extended Scenes not shown in theaters
Enhanced Commentary -- Hear in depth stories for selected scenes from Sacha Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles.

- An Interview with Hollywood Agent Lloyd Robinson -- Get the story behind Bruno's real Hollywood agent.

Bruno on Blu-ray will retail for $39.98 and come with an outer o-sleeve. High-res cover art and Amazon pre-order information should be available shortly.

Blockbuster planning to close stores

SAN FRANCISCO - Blockbuster Inc. may close as many as 960 stores by the end of next year, shedding more dead weight as the struggling video rental chain tries to reverse its losses and fend off rapidly growing rivals Netflix Inc. and Redbox.

The cuts outlined in documents filed Tuesday would leave Blockbuster with about 20 per cent fewer U.S. stores. The previously confidential documents didn't identify the locations of the endangered stores.

Blockbuster hasn't made any final decisions on the possible store closures, Chief Executive James Keyes said in an interview Tuesday.

Keyes described the closures as something that Blockbuster is considering as it sets up more DVD-rental kiosks in the stores of other merchants. It's a concept that has been popularized by Coinstar Inc.'s Redbox.

By the middle of next year, Blockbuster hopes to have 10,000 kiosks scattered around the country. It had just 500 kiosks at the end of August.

"We could have fewer physical stores and still have more rental points for our customers," Keyes said.

Blockbuster's shift serves as another reminder of video stores' waning appeal as consumers buy and rent movies through the mail, on the Internet and through cable connections and standalone kiosks.

The shift has threatened to turn once-mighty Blockbuster into a dinosaur. The Dallas-based company has been trying to evolve by embracing kiosks and expanding into rentals delivered through the mail and the Internet.

But it hasn't been enough to justify keeping so many stores open, prompting management to consider cutting much deeper than it anticipated to save money and keep its lenders happy. About 18 per cent of Blockbuster's stores aren't making money, according to the documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Blockbuster is thinking about closing between 810 and 960 of its U.S. stores before 2011, up from the 380 to 425 stores that normally would be closed during that time span, according to Tuesday's filing.

As of mid-August, Blockbuster had closed 276 stores so far this year.

Besides closing stores, Blockbuster indicated that it will convert at least 250 stores into smaller outlets.

If Blockbuster hits the high end of the new target for store closures, it will represent 22 per cent of its 4,356 stores in the United States.

Netflix's DVD-by-mail service, launched a decade ago, has hit Blockbuster particularly hard as more households have embraced the concept of picking out their rental choices online before the DVDs are delivered through the mail for a monthly subscription fee that usually runs from $9 to $17. In the last two years, Netflix lured even more customers by building up its library of movies available for instant viewing over high-speed Internet connections.

Netflix now has 10.6 million subscribers and, unlike Blockbuster, is becoming more profitable. The Los Gatos-based company earned $55 million through the first half of this year while Blockbuster lost $15 million.

Redbox also has been hurting Blockbuster with its red kiosks that rent DVDs for just a $1 per night. That low price has proven particularly compelling during the recession as more people pinched pennies.

In a Tuesday research note, Barclays Capital analyst Douglas Anmuth said Blockbuster's accelerated store closures should bolster Netflix. Investors seemed to agree as Netflix shares surged $1.69, or 3.9 per cent, to close Tuesday at $44.97.

Blockbuster's cost-cutting plans also pleased Wall Street as its shares gained 7 cents, or 5.2 per cent, to $1.40.

Letterman appearance latest for Obama media blitz

NEW YORK – President Barack Obama is visiting David Letterman on Monday, part of a media blitz to sell his health care plan.

CBS says it would make the first visit ever by a sitting president to Letterman's "Late Show." Obama has appeared on Letterman's show five times before, the last during the campaign in September 2008.

The president is scheduled to visit Sunday morning talk shows this weekend on ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN. That's a highly unusual schedule, even for a president eager to get his message across throughout the media.

Obama will be the sole guest on Monday's "Late Show."

Jays open 2010 season in Texas

It will all start in Arlington for the 2010 Blue Jays.

Major League Baseball announced next season's schedule on Tuesday, and Toronto is slated to begin its 34th campaign against Texas at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The two clubs will get it going Monday, April 5, then have an off-day and wrap up the first series of the season over the following couple of days.

It will mark the first time the Blue Jays and Rangers open up together since '01 -- when Toronto beat Texas, 8-1, in Puerto Rico -- and the first time the Blue Jays start a season in Texas since 1990, when Nolan Ryan was the winning pitcher in a 4-2 Toronto loss.

The Blue Jays, 25-8 all-time on Opening Day, will be starting a season on the road for the third time in the past four years.

After that three-game set, Toronto will play three in Baltimore against the Orioles, then come to Canada for its first home series at Rogers Centre. That will begin Monday, April 12, when the Blue Jays play four against the White Sox, three against the Angels and three against the Royals.

Interleague Play will kick off at Rogers Centre in mid-June, when the Blue Jays host the Giants (June 18-20), Cardinals (June 22-24) and Phillies (June 25-27). Toronto will also go on the road to face National League West teams in the D-backs (May 21-23), Rockies (June 11-13) and Padres (June 14-16).

The Blue Jays most famously beat the Phillies in the 1993 World Series, and over the past two years, they're 6-3 against them during the regular season.

The Cardinals, meanwhile, will be making a stop in Toronto for the first time since the Blue Jays took two of three in '05.

As usual, the Blue Jays will play 18 games each -- nine home and nine away -- against the division-rival Yankees, Red Sox, Orioles and Rays. They'll also play at least one home and one road series against each of the remaining AL teams. In addition, the Jays will host two series against the Twins while going on the road for two series against the Indians and Angels.

The Red Sox will first come to town April 26-28, and the Yankees will follow June 4-6.

On the road, the Blue Jays will make their first stop at Fenway Park May 10-12, and they'll be at Yankee Stadium for the first time for a three-game series starting July 2.

The final four series will see the Blue Jays host the Mariners (Sept. 21-23), Orioles (Sept. 24-26) and Yankees (Sept. 27-29) before wrapping up the regular season with a four-game road series against the Twins Sept. 30-Oct. 3.

Spielberg And Company Have Figured Out Indy's Fifth Adventure

I realize that Harrison Ford, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas are constantly being asked about the status of Indiana Jones 5, and therefore must tell us exactly what's happening. But really, I wish they'd just shut up about it already.

Talking to France's Le Figaro magazine, via Fox News, Ford said that he and his co-conspirators are close to having the script in shape and ready to go.

"The story for the new Indiana Jones is in the process of taking form. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and myself are agreed on what the fifth adventure will concern, and George is actively at work. If the script is good, I'll be very happy to put the costume on again."

So there you have it, once again, that this film is actively being developed, and will probably be showing up in theaters well before you're actually ready to see another one. It's the same news we've been reporting for a year now, but we just thought we'd depress you by reminding you that it's all still happening.

Taylor Swift: Kanye hasn't 'personally reached out'

Kanye West may have told Jay Leno last night he wants to apologize in person to Taylor Swift, but she told The View today that "sure," she'd meet up with him, but, "I mean, he has not personally reached out or anything."

Taylor recalled the night and what she was thinking the moment Kanye came onstage, saying, " I think my overall thought process went something like, 'Wow, I can't believe I won. This is awesome. Don't trip and fall. I'm going to get to thank the fans. This is so cool. Oh, Kanye West is here!'" She paused, then added, "'Cool haircut. What are you doing?' And And then 'Ouch.' And then, 'I guess I'm not gonna get to thank the fans."

It might have been worse, she said, but she was surrounded by well-wishers backstage. "All the artists came and showed me love and all the people tweeting about it. and all the fans, I never imagined there were that many people out there looking out for me, defending me so I didn't have to."

Critics slam `Leno Show,' call it `Tonight' rehash

NEW YORK – Jay Leno snagged mostly negative reviews with his entry into prime time as he stuck to familiar ground — just 90 minutes earlier.

Monday's premiere of "The Jay Leno Show," which transports the longtime "Tonight Show" host to 10 p.m. EDT weekdays on NBC, was slammed as a "cut-rate, snooze-inducing, rehashed bore" by Robert Bianco of USA Today. And that was even with the presence of Leno's much-buzzed-about guest Kanye West.

The Associated Press' Frazier Moore identified "the biggest difference between Leno's new show and his old one: With his fade-out at 11 p.m., the local news began."

Of course, Leno has never been the critics' darling. The first response from viewers wouldn't be known until Nielsen ratings are released later Tuesday.

But audience numbers aren't likely to sway The Los Angeles Times' Mary McNamara, who called the show "a strange, shallow puddle of comedy."

"This is the future of television?" she wrote. "This wasn't even a good rendition of television past."

"The future of `The Jay Leno Show' is likely to look almost exactly like `The Tonight Show' past," complained Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times. "So much ink has been devoted to describing how Mr. Leno's new show would depart from his old one that it was startling to see how little difference there was."

Indeed, much ink has been devoted to "The Jay Leno Show" since NBC's announcement last December.

And many questions have swirled: Will a cost-cutting comedy show stripped across weeknights imperil more expensive weekly scripted drama shows? Will the audience embrace this NBC alternative to fictional docs, cops and lawyers? Has fourth-rated NBC found a strategy that not only will improve its fortunes, but also alter the programming landscape on rival networks?

Or will this prove to be NBC's biggest flop yet?

These are questions likely to remain unresolved for months.

The premiere was relentlessly hyped by NBC all summer, even prompting Leno to crack when he arrived on stage, "This isn't another annoying promo. This is the actual show!"

For his debut, he had booked a relatively big name, Jerry Seinfeld, besides lucking into TV's biggest get, Kanye West, who was not only able to perform a song ("Run This Town," along with Jay-Z and Rihanna), but also apologize lugubriously for his bad behavior on an MTV awards show Sunday night.

Giving curious viewers yet more reason to sample Jay's first night was the fact that ABC and CBS were airing retreads during his time slot: the final hour of the 2006 film "Dreamgirls" and a rerun of "CSI: Miami," respectively.

U2 Expanding 'Unforgettable Fire' This Fall

While U2's "360 Tour" just got underway in Chicago this past weekend, fans are in store for another treat this fall as the 25th anniversary of the band's classic 1984 album, "The Unforgettable Fire" will be celebrated with a host of reissue configurations. Due October 27 from Island/Universal, four options will be available that include B-sides, rarities, alternate versions, and previously unreleased songs including "Disappearing Act" (a.k.a. "White City"), a song that was originally started in 1983 with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Only recently the band put the finishing touches on "Disappearing Act" in France, according to an interview with BBC Radio 1.

Handling the re-mastering duties was U2 guitarist The Edge. The four versions will include a 180 gram vinyl album version, a standard re-mastered CD version, a deluxe double version with a 36 page bound book and a limited edition super deluxe box set, which includes the 2 CD version, a 56 page bound book, 5 portfolio prints and a DVD that will feature rare videos, concert footage and a "Making of" documentary of the album.

Although no official announcement has been made on U2.com, fans who have visited the group's merchandise table at recent concerts have received wind of this release from a shopping bag advertisement. In a possible nod to the upcoming anniversary, the band has been playing the title track "The Unforgettable Fire" at recent shows for the first time in many years. "The Unforgettable Fire" continues in a series of deluxe reissues of U2's earlier work. 2007 saw the expanded release of "The Joshua Tree," for that album's 20th anniversary and in 2008 the group reissued "War," "Boy," and "October" in similar deluxe formats.

U2 is currently in the midst of a stadium and arena tour of North America, with the next shows scheduled for September 16 and 17 at Toronto's Rogers Centre. The band's latest album "No Line on the Horizon" was released this past February and has sold 991,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Cyrus goes paperless for all tickets on 45-city tour

When Miley Cyrus hit the road two years ago, many of her young fans' parents were outraged that they couldn't get tickets without paying exorbitant prices to scalpers or resellers. Cyrus hopes to fight that inflation this time around by going paperless with her 45-city Wonder World tour that kicks off tonight in Portland, Ore.

The paperless tickets, which are purchased online through Ticketmaster, require the buyer to provide ID at the venue and swipe the same credit card for entry. The method has been tried out by other tours in recent months, but hers is the first arena tour to admit all concert-goers using the system.

Cyrus' 2007-08 Best of Both Worlds tour grossed $55 million and sold 1 million tickets, according to Billboard Boxscore.

"Miley's (management) thought it was a great way for real Miley fans to get original tickets and pay face value," says David Butler, president of Ticketmaster North America. "That's something she wanted to do for her fans to keep the price reasonable," in the $40 to $80 range.

Ticketmaster started offering the service about four years ago to sports teams. Acts such as AC/DC and Bruce Springsteen have used it recently for high-end seating. In all, Butler says more than 300,000 paperless tickets have been sold this year.

"We started it as a convenience for the fans, similar to the model the airlines follow," Butler says.

It has worked so well at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock that the venue had the equipment permanently installed. "We've done eight or nine concerts," including Brad Paisley and Kenny Chesney, says general manager Michael Marion, who says response has been largely positive. "We've used it only for the prime seats, but it works well."

Gary Bongiovanni, editor of the concert trade publication Pollstar, says it remains to be seen how fans will react as the practice becomes widespread. He says paperless doesn't allow tickets to be sold or transferred, which is a problem for people who need to unload them at the last minute, or must take their kids to the show to get them in.

"There are some less-than-friendly customer aspects to it, and there (could) be some blow-back from that," he says.

And there's anecdotal evidence that resellers aren't being frozen out entirely.

"I've heard stories of ticket brokers throwing (pre-show) parties, then walking everybody to the arena and getting them in with the credit card they used," Bongiovanni says. "If there's a way to game the system, the brokers are going to find it."

Publicist: Patrick Swayze dies at 57

LOS ANGELES – Patrick Swayze, the hunky actor who danced his way into viewers' hearts with "Dirty Dancing" and then broke them with "Ghost," died Monday after a battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 57.

"Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months," said a statement released Monday evening by his publicist, Annett Wolf. No other details were given.

Fans of the actor were saddened to learn in March 2008 that Swayze was suffering from a particularly deadly form of cancer.

He had kept working despite the diagnosis, putting together a memoir with his wife and shooting "The Beast," an A&E drama series for which he had already made the pilot. It drew a respectable 1.3 million viewers when the 13 episodes ran in 2009, but A&E said it had reluctantly decided not to renew it for a second season.

Swayze said he opted not to use painkilling drugs while making "The Beast" because they would have taken the edge off his performance. He acknowledged that time might be running out given the grim nature of the disease.

When he first went public with the illness, some reports gave him only weeks to live, but his doctor said his situation was "considerably more optimistic" than that.

"I'd say five years is pretty wishful thinking," Swayze told ABC's Barbara Walters in early 2009. "Two years seems likely if you're going to believe statistics. I want to last until they find a cure, which means I'd better get a fire under it."

A three-time Golden Globe nominee, Swayze became a star with his performance as the misunderstood bad-boy Johnny Castle in "Dirty Dancing." As the son of a choreographer who began his career in musical theater, he seemed a natural to play the role.

A coming-of-age romance starring Jennifer Grey as an idealistic young woman on vacation with her family and Swayze as the Catskills resort's sexy (and much older) dance instructor, the film made great use of both his grace on his feet and his muscular physique.

It became an international phenomenon in the summer of 1987, spawning albums, an Oscar-winning hit song in "(I've Had) the Time of My Life," stage productions and a sequel, 2004's "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights," in which he made a cameo.

Swayze performed and co-wrote a song on the soundtrack, the ballad "She's Like the Wind," inspired by his wife, Lisa Niemi. The film also gave him the chance to utter the now-classic line, "Nobody puts Baby in a corner."

And it allowed him to poke fun at himself on a "Saturday Night Live" episode, in which he played a wannabe Chippendales dancer alongside the corpulent — and frighteningly shirtless — Chris Farley.

A major crowdpleaser, the film drew only mixed reviews from critics, though Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, "Given the limitations of his role, that of a poor but handsome sex-object abused by the rich women at Kellerman's Mountain House, Mr. Swayze is also good. ... He's at his best — as is the movie — when he's dancing."

Swayze followed that up with the 1989 action flick "Road House," in which he played a bouncer at a rowdy bar. But it was his performance in 1990's "Ghost" that showed his vulnerable, sensitive side. He starred as a murdered man trying to communicate with his fiancee (Demi Moore) — with great frustration and longing — through a psychic played by Whoopi Goldberg.

Swayze said at the time that he fought for the role of Sam Wheat (director Jerry Zucker wanted Kevin Kline) but once he went in for an audition and read six scenes, he got it.

Why did he want the part so badly? "It made me cry four or five times," he said of Bruce Joel Rubin's Oscar-winning script in an AP interview.

"Ghost" provided yet another indelible musical moment: Swayze and Moore sensually molding pottery together to the strains of the Righteous Brothers' "Unchained Melody." It also earned a best-picture nomination and a supporting-actress Oscar for Goldberg, who said she wouldn't have won if it weren't for Swayze.

"When I won my Academy Award, the only person I really thanked was Patrick," Goldberg said in March 2008 on the ABC daytime talk show "The View."

Swayze himself earned three Golden Globe nominations, for "Dirty Dancing," "Ghost" and 1995's "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar," which further allowed him to toy with his masculine image. The role called for him to play a drag queen on a cross-country road trip alongside Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo.

His heartthrob status almost kept him from being considered for the role of Vida Boheme.

"I couldn't get seen on it because everyone viewed me as terminally heterosexually masculine-macho," he told the AP then. But he transformed himself so completely that when his screen test was sent to Steven Spielberg, whose Amblin pictures produced "To Wong Foo," Spielberg didn't recognize him.

Among his earlier films, Swayze was part of the star-studded lineup of up-and-comers in Francis Ford Coppola's 1983 adaptation of S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders," alongside Rob Lowe, Tom Cruise, Matt Dillon, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and Diane Lane. Swayze played Darrel "Dary" Curtis, the oldest of three wayward brothers — and essentially the father figure — in a poor family in small-town Oklahoma.

Other '80s films included "Red Dawn," "Grandview U.S.A." (for which he also provided choreography) and "Youngblood," once more with Lowe, as Canadian hockey teammates.

In the '90s, he made such eclectic films as "Point Break" (1991), in which he played the leader of a band of bank-robbing surfers, and the family Western "Tall Tale" (1995), in which he starred as Pecos Bill. He appeared on the cover of People magazine as its "Sexiest Man Alive" in 1991, but his career tapered off toward the end of the 1990s, when he also had stay in rehab for alcohol abuse.

In 2001, he appeared in the cult favorite "Donnie Darko," and in 2003 he returned to the New York stage with "Chicago"; 2006 found him in the musical "Guys and Dolls" in London.

Swayze was born in 1952 in Houston, the son of Jesse Swayze and choreographer Patsy Swayze, whose films include "Urban Cowboy."

He played football but also was drawn to dance and theater, performing with the Feld, Joffrey and Harkness Ballets and appearing on Broadway as Danny Zuko in "Grease." But he turned to acting in 1978 after a series of injuries.

Within a couple years of moving to Los Angeles, he made his debut in the roller-disco movie "Skatetown, U.S.A." The eclectic cast included Scott Baio, Flip Wilson, Maureen McCormack and Billy Barty.

Swayze had a couple of movies in the works when his diagnosis was announced, including the drama "Powder Blue," starring Jessica Biel, Forest Whitaker and his younger brother, Don, which was scheduled for release this year.

Off-screen, he was an avid conservationist who was moved by his time in Africa to shine a light on "man's greed and absolute unwillingness to operate according to Mother Nature's laws," he told the AP in 2004.

Swayze was married since 1975 to Niemi, a fellow dancer who took lessons with his mother; they met when he was 19 and she was 15. A licensed pilot, Niemi would fly her husband from Los Angeles to Northern California for treatment at Stanford University Medical Center, People magazine reported in a cover story.

Spider-Man 4 Gives Bruce Campbell A Starring Role

I’m still trying to process the idea of another Spider-Man movie being made. Maybe Sam Raimi was aware of the endless amount of flaws in Spider-Man 3 and hopes to erase them with a superior movie. Maybe he just needed to get something like Drag Me To Hell out of his system so he could approach Spider-Man with a clear head. Maybe he got a fatty check that could pay his kids college tuitions twelve times over.

Whatever it is, Raimi seems to be a lot closer to filming than any of us may have realized. According to Raimi’s bro crush Bruce Campbell, who talked to Access Hollywood at the premier of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, filming for the movie will start in January 2010 with a release date projected for May 2011.

That’s not all Bruce revealed, though. It seems as though Spider-Man 4 may have him showing up as more than the announcer at the boxing ring. Campbell told Access Hollywood that Raimi has a “major part” for him in the next movie, but he was given no details as to what the part may be.

Many speculate that Campbell will be playing a villain in the movie, perhaps even Mysterio, but I’m going to put myself out there and predict that he’s playing Spider-Man. Maybe Tobey didn’t come back after all. Maybe Spider-Man 4 takes place 20 years in the future with an aged and tired-of-Mary-Jane Peter Parker. Maybe this movie will be awesome after all.

Kanye West outburst upstages VMA winners

Beyonce took home Video of the Year last night (9/13) at MTV's Video Music Awards ceremonies, an event marred by Kanye West's disruption of another winner's acceptance speech.

Moments after accepting the VMA trophy for Best Female Video, teenage country star and first-time VMA winner Taylor Swift was interrupted by West, who took the microphone from the singer's hands to complain that the statuette should have gone to Beyonce.

"Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time," West said, as the audience at New York City's Radio City Music Hall began to boo and a shocked Swift stood clutching her trophy. West, who did not win an award, was booed whenever his name was mentioned for the remainder of the night.

Later, during her own acceptance speech for Video of the Year (for "Single Ladies,") Beyonce called Swift to the stage to complete her own interrupted speech.

Swift praised Beyonce to reporters backstage. "I thought that I couldn't love Beyonce more and then tonight happened and it was just wonderful." She also said she had never met West and had never been a fan of his music. "I don't know him and I don't want to start anything," the singer told reporters.

For his own part, West--who has disrupted several award shows with similar antics in the past after not receiving trophies, including the Grammy Awards and the American Music Awards--later apologized on his blog, while continuing to maintain that Beyonce should have won the award. "I'M SOOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD'VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED! "BEYONCE'S VIDEO WAS THE BEST OF THIS DECADE!!!! ... EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I'M A FAN OF REAL POP CULTURE!!!," he added.

Aside from Swift's and Beyonce's awards, currently imprisoned rapper T.I. took home the prize for Best Male Video for "Live Your Life," featuring Rihanna, and Eminem continued his comeback by taking the award for Best Hip-Hop Video for "We Made You."

The awards show also featured several nods to the late Michael Jackson, including a musical and dancing tribute from sister Janet Jackson, and a moving speech by Madonna, who recounted her twin rise to superstardom with Jackson in the '80s.

"Sometimes, we have to lose things before we can truly appreciate them," said Madonna, who was dressed all in black. "Yes, Michael Jackson was a human being, but yes, he was a king. Long live the king."

Other winners on the night included Britney Spears, who received Best Pop Video for "Womanizer," and Green Day, which took home the award for Best Rock Video for "21 Guns." Lady GaGa was named Best New Artist, while Matt & Kim won Best Breakthrough Video for the duo's "Lessons Learned."
"Sabotage," a 1994 video from Beastie Boys, won in the Best Video That Should Have Won a Moonman category, which refers to the VMA's iconic astronaut-styled statuette.

Here is a complete list of winners:

Video of the Year
"Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
Beyonce

Best Female Video
"You Belong With Me"
Taylor Swift

Best Male Video
"Live Your Life"
T.I. featuring Rihanna

Best Rock Video
"21 Guns"
Green Day

Best Pop Video
"Womanizer"
Britney Spears

Best Hip-Hop Video
"We Made You"
Eminem

Best Brekthrough Video
"Lessons Learned"
Matt and Kim

Best Video That Should Have Won a Moonman
"Sabotage"
Beastie Boys

Best New Artist
Lady Gaga

"Basketball Diaries" author Jim Carroll dies

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Punk-rock poet and musician Jim Carroll, who chronicled his wild teen years in "The Basketball Diaries," has died of a heart attack, his ex-wife told The New York Times.

Rosemary Klemfuss, who was married to Carroll in 1978 before they divorced in the mid-1980s, said he died on Friday at his Manhattan home. He was 60, the newspaper said on Sunday, although other biographical profiles listed his age as 59.

Carroll's most famous work, "The Basketball Diaries," was published in 1978. In it, he wrote of his wild youth as both a basketball star and a drug abuser during his teen years at Manhattan's private Trinity school, was made into a 1995 film starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Pioneering punk-rock singer Patti Smith told the newspaper "I met him in 1970, and already he was pretty much universally recognized as the best poet of his generation."

"The work was sophisticated and elegant," said Smith, who helped usher Carroll into a music career that included songs such as "People Who Died" and "Catholic Boy."

Carroll also worked with rockers from Lou Reed and The Doors to Pearl Jam and Rancid.

Carroll, a fixture on Manhattan's downtown punk-rock scene, saw his poetry lauded by Beat Generation icons including Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His work was published in The Paris Review, and he worked at Andy Warhol's Factory and on the pop artist's films.

Johnny Reid wins 5 Canadian country music awards

Johnny Reid danced away with five trophies at the Canadian Country Music Association awards Sunday, including album of the year for his release Dance With Me.

Reid also won for video of the year, male artist of the year, the fans' choice award and songwriter of the year for A Woman Like You.

Reid, a Scottish-born Canadian who moved to Ontario with his family as a teenager, thanked his parents for all the sacrifices they've made in his name.

"I was given the opportunity to come to Canada in 1988. My mother and father packed up and sold everything they had in search of opportunity. Thank you for giving me an opportunity," he told the cheering crowd.

Reid, who's known for his romantic songs, also thanked the women in his life — his mother, grandmother, wife and "my wee baby that's going to be here in January," he said in his Scottish burr.

Doc Walker, last year's big winner at the CCMA awards, won again in the group of the year category.

The Manitoba group's Murray Pulver also won in the guitar player of the year category.

Crystal Shawanda, who grew up on Ontario's Manitoulin Island and wrote her first song at nine years old, won the female artist of the year award.

"It feels amazing," Shawanda told the media after winning. I didn't expect it at all."

Tara Oram, the winner of the rising star award, came to the stage in tears.

"I grew up as a little girl in Newfoundland just watching this show," she sobbed.

She went on to thank God, her family, her manager, country radio, everyone in Hare Bay, N.L., and finally her hamster Gertie, her rabbit Jack and her cat Phoebe.

Dean Brody, who grew up in tiny Jaffray, B.C., took home single of the year for his track, Brothers.

Corb Lund and his Hurtin' Albertans took the award for roots artist or group of the year.

Televised on CBC and hosted by Canadian actor and director Jason Priestley, the two-hour show featured performances by Reid, Doc Walker, Shawanda, Aaron Pritchett, Paul Brandt, Terri Clark, George Canyon and Richard Marx.

American country superstars Reba McEntire and Martina McBride also thrilled more than 6,000 fans at Vancouver's GM Place with their performances.

Priestley rumbled into the show on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and after shaking hands with some in the crowd, he saluted his hometown of Vancouver.

He went on to poke fun at some of the nominees, suggesting George Canyon's latest album is not only about how much he loves his kids, but also how much he loves Johnny Reid's wife. Reid's wife was a common target for Priestley on this night.

While he dished out his fair share of jabs, Priestley was also on the receiving end of a poke by McEntire.

In one sketch, he asked McEntire what she was posting on Twitter.

Countered Reba, "I'm so excited to meet Luke Perry" — confusing Priestley with his former Beverly Hills 90210 co-star.

The final award handed out for the night was the fans' choice, which also went to Reid. He told the crowd the award meant the world to him.

"This will be a night that lives for ever in my heart. Thank you very, very much."

Sunday's awards ceremony was the wrap-up of a four-day event of artist showcases, workshops, and country-music industry networking in a city not known for country tunes, but was awash in cowboy hats leading up to the event.

Tina Fey wins Emmy award for Sarah Palin spoof

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Actress Tina Fey won an Emmy on Saturday for her uncanny portrayal of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin on "Saturday Night Live," while pop star Justin Timberlake also was honored for his appearance on the NBC network's veteran sketch-comedy series.

Both won their guest-starring awards at the creative arts portion of the Emmys, where 72 awards mostly in technical categories were handed out. Awards in 28 high-profile races will be given out during a live broadcast on September 20.
The Emmys are the top awards for U.S. television.

The top network was Time Warner Inc's HBO, which won 16 awards led by "Grey Gardens" and the Iraq war miniseries "Generation Kill" with three each.

In winning her Emmy, Fey beat out two contenders from her own NBC comedy, "30 Rock," which leads all shows with 22 nominations. She made reference to Palin, who resigned in July as governor of Alaska less than a year after she was chosen as Senator John McCain's running mate in last year's U.S. presidential election.

"Mrs. Palin is an inspiration to working mothers everywhere because she bailed on her job right before Fourth of July weekend. You are living my dream. Thank you, Mrs. Palin!"

It marked Fey's sixth career win, and she is in contention for two awards at the main ceremony, including best comedy actress.

Timberlake won his second career Emmy, this time for playing various characters on an episode of NBC's "Saturday Night Live" that he hosted. NBC is a unit of General Electric Co.

In the dramatic categories, the guest-starring awards went to veteran actress Ellen Burstyn for NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" and Michael J. Fox for "Rescue Me" on FX.

It marked Burstyn's first Emmy win after four nominations. She previously won an Oscar in 1975 for "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore."

'I WAS A LITTLE LACKING'

"It did seem like I was a little lacking in that side of the mantelpiece. I just felt it would be balanced if I had an Emmy, too," said Burstyn, who appeared in the veteran crime show as the mother of series star Chris Meloni.

Fox, who was not present at the ceremony, now has five Emmys -- including three for "Family Ties" and one for "Spin City." In Denis Leary's firefighter drama "Rescue Me," he played an angry, drug-abusing paraplegic.

A big winner at the ceremony was the Charles Dickens miniseries adaptation "Little Dorrit," whose four wins overshadowed favored contenders "Grey Gardens" and "Into the Storm." "Little Dorrit" aired on U.S. television on PBS.

By the time "Little Dorrit" won its fourth award, for cinematography, cameraman Lukas Strebel succinctly summed up the mood. "I'm speechless and everything's been said," he said.

"Grey Gardens," a TV movie based on the documentary about two socialites who love in squalor, was one of seven shows to pick up three awards. It received 17 nominations overall, second only to "30 Rock," and remains in contention for seven awards.

"30 Rock" won a pair of Emmys, and will compete for 13 at the main ceremony, including best comedy, which it won last year.

Among other big guns, defending best-drama champ "Mad Men" won a single award, but will hope to add up to nine awards at the main ceremony. It airs on the AMC cable network.

"Saturday Night Live," with 13 nominations, won two awards and will compete for six more Emmys.

Comedy Central's "South Park" was named best animated program (for programing less than one hour) for the third time, beating Fox's 10-time winner "The Simpsons." The two shows have taken turns winning the prize since 2005. Dan Castellaneta, who voices Homer Simpson, won his fourth Emmy in the voice-over category.

Host Kathy Griffin lost in both her categories. California first lady Maria Shriver, who was not present, won a pair of Emmys as an executive producer of two documentaries about Alzheimer's disease.

Tyler Perry has good opening with 'Bad'

LOS ANGELES – Being bad is good for Tyler Perry, whose latest movie, "I Can Do Bad All By Myself," opened at the top of the box office this weekend with more than $24 million.

The Lionsgate comedy stars Oscar nominee Taraji P. Henson ("The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") as a hard-drinking nightclub singer forced to care for her delinquent niece and nephews. Besides directing and writing the film, based on his stage play of the same name, Perry co-stars as his brash, cross-dressing alter ego, Madea.

It's Perry's second film this year to open at No. 1. In February, "Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail" debuted at the top spot with $41 million, which stands as the biggest opening of his eight films.

"Tyler Perry has a special way of speaking to his audience, and it's unbelievable," David Spitz, Lionsgate's executive vice president and general sales manager, said Sunday. "He always knows what his audience wants, and I never underestimate him."

Spitz said the presence of the popular Madea character, plus a cast that included Henson, Mary J. Blige, Gladys Knight and Pastor Marvin Winans, helped put the movie on top. It also had the best critical reception of all of Perry's films, with 58 percent positive reviews on the Rotten Tomatoes Web site.

Perry, who's known for his productivity, has the sequel "Why Did I Get Married Too" coming out next spring. And in a rare adaptation of someone else's work, he's preparing to go into production on a film version of the Ntozake Shange stage play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf."

Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian joked that his latest movie should have been called, "Tyler Perry's I Can Do No Wrong at the Box Office."

"Eight theatrical films, five No. 1 debuts — Lionsgate has a perpetually successful franchise in Tyler Perry," Dergarabedian said. "He is the brand. He's a very rare example of a director-writer-actor who is completely synonymous with his work and with the success of his movies."

Coming in second was the dark, animated "9" from Focus Features, which made $10.9 million this weekend, according to Sunday estimates. Since its Wednesday opening — on 9-9-09 — the movie has made about $15.3 million. The voice cast includes Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer and Jennifer Connelly as hand-stitched dolls who represent the last vestige of humanity after a war between man and machine.

In what is traditionally a slow time at the box office between the summer blockbusters and the fall prestige films, two other new releases had so-so openings. The Summit Entertainment horror flick "Sorority Row" came in at No. 6 with about $5.3 million, while the Kate Beckinsale thriller "Whiteout" from Warner Bros. followed in seventh place with $5.1 million.

Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com.

1. "Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself," $24.03 million.
2. "9," $10.9 million.
3. "Inglourious Basterds," $6.5 million.
4. "All About Steve," $5.8 million.
5. "The Final Destination," $5.5 million.
6. "Sorority Row," $5.3 million.
7. "Whiteout," $5.1 million.
8. "District 9," $3.6 million.
9. "Julie & Julia," $3.3 million.
10. "Gamer," $3.15 million.

Madonna, Janet pay tribute to Michael at VMAs

NEW YORK – Michael Jackson, who was not only one of the most influential forces in MTV's history but also provided its Video Music Awards with some of its most irreverent moments, got reverential treatment Sunday as Madonna and his sister Janet provided emotional tributes — one through words, one through song.

Madonna kicked off the show at Radio City Music Hall with a poignant speech about her relationship with Michael Jackson, which began when she was a youngster idolizing the then-child star, then morphed into a friendship when both were at the apex of their careers, and later, grew distant.

Madonna lamented the negative publicity that dogged him in his later years.
"Sometimes, we have to lose things before we can truly appreciate them," said Madonna, dressed in black.

"Yes, Michael Jackson was a human being, but yes, he was a king," she told the celebrity-studded crowd, which included Michael's brother Jermaine and father Joe Jackson. "Long live the king."

The musical tribute began afterward, as Jackson clones dressed in some of his signature outfits recreated his famous dance moves from videos like "Bad," "Smooth Criminal" and "Thriller."

Then, as "Scream," his duet with Janet, appeared on a large screen, his sister came out to recreate the moves from their only video together as the crowd, including Beyonce, cheered her on. Afterward, she looked heavenward, and bowed.

It was a tender, special moment — a rarity for the Video Music Awards — that didn't last for long. Kanye West, known for his awards show outbursts when he doesn't win, had another one — this time, on behalf of Beyonce.

Beyonce, nominated for best female video for "Single Ladies," was bested by country and pop sensation Taylor Swift. The 19-year-old was giddy when she won, saying: "I always wondered what it would be like to maybe win one of these someday, but never actually thought it would happen."

But West ruined her moment when he jumped on stage, and protested.

"Taylor, I'm really happy for you, and I'm gonna let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time," he said, as a shocked Beyonce looked on and the crowd began to boo West.

A crestfallen Swift didn't finish her speech, but the crowd tried to cheer her own and applauded her.

It was another wacky moment for the VMA archives, and a contrast to the tribute to Jackson. Jackson died in Los Angeles on June 25 at age 50. The medical examiner's office has labeled the death a homicide, and prosecutors are still investigating.

Jackson was not only an integral part of MTV's history — his legendary videos changed the way music clips were made and he was the first black artist whose work was aired on the fledgling network — but he also provided the VMAs with some of its most memorable moments, including his infamous smooch with then-wife Lisa Marie Presley, in 1994.

The Jackson tribute wasn't the only moment where Jackson's presence was be felt. The network is also aired a brief premiere of the trailer for "This Is It," the documentary about Jackson's preparations for his comeback concerts that were to be held in London. The film is due to come out in October.

Comedian Russell Brand also paid tribute to Jackson:

"Tonight is dedicated to the great Michael Jackson," Brand, in a top hat, told the audience. "Let's honor Michael tonight by loving one another in his memory."

Last year, Brand made his debut as host by poking fun at the Jonas Brothers' vow of purity, among other ribald moments. This year, he cracked jokes about Katy Perry's posterior.

There were plenty of colorful moments before the show began, as celebrities including Pink and Buzz Aldrin mingled in front of the cameras at Radio City Music Hall.

Lady Gaga made one of the more intriguing entrances, wearing a top hat, a gold mask looking like something out of "Phantom of the Opera" and feathered bodice. She also had some intimate moments with a celebrity date even more famous — Kermit the Frog. They kissed several times, leading Kermit to openly worry about the reaction from longtime galpal Miss Piggy.

Not to be outdone, teen sensation Taylor Swift arrived in a fairy-tale carriage drawn by white horses.

Beyonce and Lady GaGa lead all artists with nine nominations each, but the show's winners aren't nearly as memorable as the wacky and wild moments, and noteworthy performances.

Both superstars are expected to perform, along with Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Green Day and other acts. And the night won't just focus on music: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner, the much fawned-over stars from the vampire film "Twilight," will present clips from the movie's sequel, "New Moon."

The Couch Potato Report - September 12th, 2009

This week The Couch Potato Report peels a little bit of everything…movies, TV shows and foreign films…a little bit of everything.

There is no one huge title that stands above all others this week...no Hot Potato...so instead, I'll just tell you about the 10 new titles that are the most noteworthy.

SEASON FIVE of the American remake of the BBC classic series THE OFFICE is where I'll begin, primarily because this show still makes me laugh out loud, even when I watch the episodes a second or third time!!

THE OFFICE is the show about a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and the people who work there and love there.

In addition to the laughs, SEASON FIVE of the show also featured several shows that were very touching, and one that primarily took place just East of us.

Big laughs, lots of fun, emotionally touching episodes, that was SEASON FIVE of THE OFFICE.

And that was a formula that a new show last year tried to copy. Not emulate, copy.

PARKS & RECREATION was created by some of the same people who produce THE OFFICE, and is shot in mockumentary style like it's predecessor.

The first season of this show wasn't a total failure, but without it's top notch cast, it easily could have been.

PARKS & RECREATION stars Saturday Night's Live's Amy Poehler as an ambitious and hopeful small town government worker, who is trying to have a park built on an abandoned construction site.

The character is pushy and doesn't always listen, and she could have come across as unlikable, but Amy is just such a great comedian, that instead of not liking her, you actually root for her.

Rashida Jones, Aziz Ansari, Paul Schneider, Aubrey Plaza and Nick Offerman round out the cast of PARKS & RECREATION and while SEASON ONE wasn't a complete success, I am looking forward to the second one, because that cast is just so strong that I look forward to seeing if they can succeed.

The cast of this next film, originally a Canadian/German co-production, is the only reason I watched it...actually, the fact that Canadian actress Natasha Henstridge was in it was the reason I watched it...but she is a part of the cast!!

This film is called IMPACT.

IMPACT is in the same vein as ARMAGEDDON, INDEPENDENCE DAY and DEEP IMPACT, but it just doesn't have as big a budget, and as strong a script.

It was filmed in Victoria, B.C. and Berlin and it is about a global crisis caused by an asteroid that has smashed into the moon.

Then, the moon's new orbit has put it on a collision course with Earth and a global team of scientists now only have 39 days to stop it or Earth, and all of mankind, will perish.

Canadian actor David James Elliott of the television series JAG also stars in IMPACT and while it is a bit slow at times, and doesn't really offer anything unique or brand new, I still liked it.

But then again, I will watch just about anything with Natasha Henstridge in it, and IMPACT was no different.

She's a favourite of mine, and action star Jason Statham is a favourite of many others.

They will watch anything that he is in, including the three TRANSPORTER films, THE BANK JOB, and the 2006 film CRANK.

Well, now there is a sequel to that one...it's CRANK 2 - HIGH VOLTAGE.

The original CRANK had Staham playing a professional assassin named Chev Chelios who has been injected with a poison that will kill him if his heart rate drops.

In CRANK 2, a Chinese mobster has stolen his heart and replaced it with a battery-powered one that requires regular jolts of electricity to keep working.

That all said, does it matter?!? Jason Statham is in another action film, and if you like him, you'll like this!!

It is violent, profane, and has a preposterous premise, but CRANK 2 - HIGH VOLTAGE is exactly what you'd expect, and even though I think it could have been better, I enjoyed it for what it was.

Bring on CRANK 3!! And how much do you want to bet it will be CRANK 3-D?!?

I still have six noteworthy releases for you this week, and this next one is narrated by the late, great Paul Newman!!

THE MEERKATS is an 83 minute documentary about a clan of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert, not unlike the ones we met in the great television series MEERKAT MANOR.

The film uses real footage from a series of cameras, many of them underground, to show us the lives of these fascinating creatures.

It is well written and edited and it features some great footage. THE MEERKATS isn't as completely entertaining as MEERKAT MANOR, but the creatures themselves will always be fun to watch, so this movie is one you should see, if you get as much of a kick out of them, or you just enjoy nature documentaries.

From the Kalahari Desert and some meerkats, lets go now to Sweden and a very entertaining movie - based on the true story of Maria Larsson - a working class woman in the early 1900s, who wins a camera in a lottery and - even with seven kids and an abusive husband - managed to carve out a career for herself as a photographer.

It's funny, I have taken over 30,000 pictures in the last couple of years, and yet prior to seeing this film, I never once thought of them as "everlasting moments", and so I think I liked the more more than I should have because it gave me that realization.

In truth, EVERLASTING MOMENTS is not a great movie...but it is a nice one. I liked it.

I also liked LEMON TREE...actually, I really liked this one!!

This is a film that tells us the story of a Palestinian widow whose only means of income is the lemon tree grove that she has beside her house.

But, when the new Israeli Defense Minister moves into the house that is next to her, his security team thinks the field is a potential threat and says that it must be torn down.

However, instead of taking the compensation they are offering, she decides to fight for her lemon trees.

Hiam Abbass won Best Actress at the Israeli Film Academy Awards earlier this year, and she is superb in LEMON TREE I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending of it, but it is still a film that I highly recommend.

If you saw BEDKNOBS & BROOMSTICKS when it forst came out in 1971, then I can also highly recommend this next release to you...it's the ENCHANTED MUSICAL EDITION of BEDKNOBS & BROOMSTICKS!!

The film stars Angela Lansbury as an apprentice witch who is traveling on an enchanted bed along with three kids and a cynical con man. They are searching for the missing part of a magic spell that would be useful in defending Britain.

Yes, if you saw and loved BEDKNOBS & BROOMSTICKS when it first came out, or fell in love with it in 2001 when it was completely restored, then this new version is a must have. I doubt that it will overwhelm today's youngsters, but I always enjoy it when I get to see it again.

Finally this week, two films that are noteworthy as they have just been released on Blu-ray.

The first BLU-RAY BEACON shines on a film that stars Alberta born actress Elisha Cuthbert. This is THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.

Cuthbert stars as an adult film actress who just happens to move next door to a high school guy, and wouldn't you know it, they fall in love.

Every generation has their raunchy comedies...mine had PRIVATE SCHOOL, TOMBOY and FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH and this current one has THE GIRL NEXT DOOR.

I liked this film when it came out in 2004, and I still like it. There is no real benefit in seeing it on blu-ray, I mean how much more beautiful can Elisha Cuthbert get?!?

But that said, it's a good movie.

And you know what...so is the film M*A*S*H.

This is the Academy Award winning 1970 movie about the doctors and staff of a Korean War field hospital.

Now I love the television series, and have seen every episode over a dozen times, and I even own the 26 disc M*A*S*H - Martinis and Medicine Complete Collection...but until this week, I had never seen the film.

I thought I'd seen it, but I hadn't.

And as I said, and you might even know this, it is a good movie!!

I am really glad that I have finally seen the film, and in High Definition on Blu-ray, no less. It looks and sounds great, and comes with a wide array of special features...including one where director Robert Altman is asked about that TV series I - and many others - love so much!

The great films M*A*S*H and THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, the exactly what it should be Jason Statham movie CRANK 2 - HIGH VOLTAGE, the nature documentary THE MEERKATS, narrated by the late, great Paul Newman and SEASON FIVE of the still-very-funny television show THE OFFICE are available on Blu-ray and DVD.

The Disney classic BEDKNOBS & BROOMSTICKS, the great Israeli film LEMON TREE, The Swedish movie EVERLASTING MOMENTS, IMPACT - starring Natasha Henstridge, and SEASON ONE of PARKS & RECREATION are all available now on DVD.

Coming up on the next Couch Potato Report

The failed summer blockbuster WOLVERINE debuts on DVD and Blu-ray.

Plus, I'll tell you about THE WES CRAVEN COLLECTION, CAMILLE starring Sienna Miller and James Franco, THE INFORMERS with Billy Bob Thornton, Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke and Winona Ryder, plus the BLU-RAY BEACON will shine on SILVERADO and Sam Raimi's THE QUICK AND THE DEAD.


I'm Dan Reynish. I'll have more on those, and several 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!

Elvis Costello Launching 'The Costello Show Series'

There's just no slowing down Elvis Costello.

After launching his "Spectacle" TV series last December and releasing his latest studio effort, "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane," this past June, the punk icon is set to debut "The Costello Show Series," a selection of rare live recordings from throughout his career. First up is "Live at the El Mocambo," a heavily bootlegged concert from March 6, 1978 in Toronto. The 14 song set is due September 29 on Hip-O/Universal and originally appeared as a part of the "2 1/2 Years" box set issued by Rykodisc in 1993, but has never stood on its own as an official release.

The concert was originally broadcast on CHUM-FM and was pressed in a limited vinyl run as a promotional item. Costello was touring in support of his landmark debut, "My Aim Is True." The show features several early versions of what are now considered Costello classics, including "Pump It Up," "Watching the Detectives," and a fiery version of "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea." "Live at the El Mocambo" captures Costello at a very young age, with a raw sound in both the quality of the recording as well as the material.

While little information is available on how many shows will be included in future releases, the series is set to roll out concerts over the next year, with a performance from June 4, 1978 at Hollywood High slated next.

Costello has been a rather prolific renaissance man over the last twenty years, releasing a number of recordings with a bevy of different collaborators, including Allen Toussaint, Bill Frisell and Burt Bacharach. "Se ret, Profane & Sugarcane" continued his recent forays outside of the "punk" lexicon, pairing him with Americana legends T Bone Burnett, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Douglas and Stuart Duncan. Since June, it has sold 89,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Costello is currently on break from summer touring activities, resuming on October 5 in Singapore before heading to Australia.

Here is the track list for "Live at the El Mocambo":

"Mystery Dance"
"Waiting For The End Of The World"
"Welcome To The Working Week"
"Less Than Zero"
"The Beat"
"Lip Service"
"(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea"
"Little Triggers"
"Radio, Radio"
"Lipstick Vogue"
"Watching The Detectives"
"Miracle Man"
"You Belong To Me"
"Pump It Up"

The Dude in True Grit Talks

In what is shaping up as a potential “Big Lebowski” reunion, Jeff Bridges is in discussions with Paramount to star for Joel and Ethan Coen in “True Grit,” playing the role that won John Wayne an Oscar in the 1969 film.

Bridges, who last worked with the Coens when he turned in a heralded performance as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, is in talks to play the lead role in the iconic Western that the Coens are mounting as their next project.

The picture, which also reunited the Coens with their “No Country for Old Men” producing partner Scott Rudin, has been redrafted by the Coens to be more faithful to the Charles Portis novel that the original film was based on.

In it, a 14 year old girl tags along with an aging U.S. marshal and another lawman to track the outlaw who killed her father. The trail leads them into hostile Indian territory. The original told the story from Cogburn’s vantage point, but the new version will work from the viewpoint of the young girl. Kim Darby played the young girl in the original, and Glen Campbell played the other lawman.

The Coens premiere “A Serious Man” at the Toronto Film Festival. Bridges most recently starred in “The Men Who Stare At Goats” and reprised in “Tron Legacy.”

Depp back for new 'Pirates' film coming in 2011

ANAHEIM, California – Avast! Disney says a new "Pirates of the Caribbean" film is on the horizon.

Johnny Depp sailed onstage Friday on a pirate ship at the Anaheim Convention Center to help announce the forthcoming installment of Disney's blockbuster film franchise. He was welcomed with a rousing standing ovation.

Depp will reprise his role as Capt. Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," slated for summer of 2011. It's the fourth in a series.

Dressed as Sparrow, Depp staggered around the stage and embraced Walt Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook, who announced the news to about 5,000 fans on hand for the D23 Expo, Disney's answer to Comic-Con.

"Has anyone else witnessed a talking frog?" Depp's Sparrow asked the crowd, who had been treated to a performance by the Muppets moments earlier. "Where has the frog gone?"

Cook noted that it was likely time for some rum.

"Sounds good!" Sparrow predictably replied.

In his presentation of upcoming Disney films, Cook also announced that Depp would play Tonto in an upcoming big-screen adaptation of "The Lone Ranger."
The first all-things-Disney convention runs through Sunday.

'M-A-S-H' writer Larry Gelbart dies at 81

LOS ANGELES – Larry Gelbart, the award-winning writer whose sly, sardonic wit helped create such hits as Broadway's "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," the films "Tootsie" and "Oh, God!" and television's "M-A-S-H," is dead.

Gelbart died at his Beverly Hills home Friday morning after a long battle with cancer, said Creative Artists Agency, which represented him. He was 81.

Gelbart, who won a Tony for "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," an Emmy for "M-A-S-H" and was nominated for two Oscars, is most likely best remembered for the long-running TV show about Army doctors during the Korean War.

Carl Reiner, his longtime friend and colleague, called Gelbart "the Jonathan Swift of our day."

"It's a great, great, great, great, great, great loss. You can't put enough `greats' in front of it," said Reiner, who directed "Oh, God!" from Gelbart's Oscar-nominated script. "The mores of our time were never more dissected and discussed. He had the ability to make an elaborate joke given nothing but one line."

"M-A-S-H" debuted on CBS in 1972, when the nation was still embroiled in the Vietnam War, and some viewers were initially puzzled or offended by its depiction of the cynical, wisecracking physicians who worked frantically to save the lives of soldiers.

By its second season it had caught on, however, and it remained one of television's top-10 rated shows for a decade, until its final episode in 1983. Along the way, it won numerous awards including the Emmy for best comedy series.

"What attracted me to `M-A-S-H' was the theme song, `Suicide is Painless,'" Gelbart once remarked. "It was written in a very minor key and appealed to me emotionally."

The show, based on a book and the 1970 Robert Altman film of the same name, starred Alan Alda. Gelbart was brought into the project by producer-director Gene Reynolds who worked with him shaping the show.

After writing 97 half-hour episodes and winning an Emmy, Gelbart quit during the show's fourth season, saying he was "totally worn out."

His entry into the entertainment business 30 years before had been worthy of a TV script itself.

Gelbart's father was a Los Angeles barber with a clientele of Hollywood notables, including Danny Thomas. While cutting Thomas' hair one day, he bragged of his 16-year-old son's writing ability and the comedian asked to see some of his work. Soon Thomas had hired Gelbart to write for his radio show.

"A comedy prodigy does not exist. A kid can make other kids laugh, but to make adults laugh with sophisticated humor at that age, it's not heard of," Reiner said Friday. "He had an unerring ear and eye for humor. He had a funny mother, which helps, and a father who loved jokes."

He went on to write gags for Bob Hope, Jack Paar, Red Buttons, Jack Carson, Eddie Cantor and Joan Davis. In 1953 he accepted Sid Caesar's offer of $1,000 a week to work for "Caesar's Hour," joining a legendary writing team that included Reiner, Mel Brooks and Neil Simon.

"He's the fastest of the fast, the wittiest man in the business," Brooks once said of him.

Deciding to expand his horizons, Gelbart also co-authored a revue, "My L.A.," which was a local hit in 1948.

His first foray to Broadway was far less successful. His 1961 play, "The Conquering Hero" closed after seven performances.

His next Broadway show, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," written with Burt Shevelove, enjoyed a far better fate the following year. Based loosely on the Roman plays of Plautus with songs by Stephen Sondheim, the show was a runaway hit, resulting in road companies and a 1966 movie with Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers.

After the play's success, Gelbart decided to move with his wife and five children to England, quipping that he wanted "to escape religious freedom in America."
They remained there for nine years, and his only notable work during that time was a script, written with Shevelove, for the 1966 black comedy, "The Wrong Box."

By the time he returned to Hollywood, however, he had a broader view of the world that he said helped him tackle "M-A-S-H."

"I make jokes all the time," Gelbart once said of his penchant for comedy. "It's a tic — a way of making myself comfortable. I can't imagine not having humor to lean on."

Gelbart also returned to the theater with "Sly Fox," which transformed Ben Jonson's Elizabethan "Volpone" to Gold Rush San Francisco. Starring George C. Scott as the devious miser, it was a solid success.

"Mastergate," a scathing treatment of the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals, flopped in 1989, but Gelbart scored the same year with "City of Angels," a musical spoof of Hollywood movies and crime novels.

His films "Oh, God!" with George Burns as a philosophical deity, and "Tootsie," with Dustin Hoffman as a cross-dressing actor, both brought him Academy Award nominations, and the HBO movie "Barbarians at the Gate," about Wall Street chicanery, brought another Emmy.

Larry Simon Gelbart was born in Chicago, moving to Los Angeles while in high school.

He married singer and actress Pat Marshall in 1956 and they raised their two children, Becky and Adam, and her three by a previous marriage, Cathy, Gary and Paul. Cathy died of cancer at age 50.

Nirvana members dismayed by 'Guitar Hero 5'

LOS ANGELES – Kurt Cobain's appearance in the latest "Guitar Hero" video game is not hitting the right notes with the surviving members of Nirvana.

Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl said in a joint statement Thursday that they were "dismayed and very disappointed" that an avatar of the late Nirvana frontman could be used to play songs by other artists.

"While we were aware of Kurt's image being used with two Nirvana songs, we didn't know players have the ability to unlock the character," they said. "This feature allows the character to be used with any kind of song the player wants.
We urge Activision to do the right thing in 're-locking' Kurt's character so that this won't continue in the future."

Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, had been lashing out on Twitter this week about her late husband's inclusion in the game, calling it vile and claiming she would sue Activision, the game's publisher. Love claimed she never approved Cobain's digital likeness, and that she thought the grunge rocker would despise the rhythm game "let alone this avatar."

Activision said in a statement Thursday that they secured the necessary licensing rights from the Cobain estate in a written agreement signed by Love to use the singer's likeness as a fully playable character in "Guitar Hero 5," which includes "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Lithium" among its 85 tracks that can be played with instrument-shaped controllers.

Other real-life rockers featured in the latest edition of the popular rhythm game franchise for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and Wii include Carlos Santana and Johnny Cash. Previous "Guitar Hero" editions have featured the likenesses of Jimi Hendrix, Billy Corgan, Ted Nugent, Sting, Ozzy Osbourne, Travis Barker and members of Aerosmith.

Timothy Dalton Is In Toy Story 3!

Just when you thought that Toy Story 3 couldn’t get any more exciting: enter Timothy Dalton!

The former 007, Hot Fuzz star and all-round nice guy, will be lending his voice to the Disney/Pixar threequel, Disney president John Lasseter announced today at a London-based Disney Animation Showcase.

Dalton will voice Mr. Pricklepants, a hedgehog toy with thespian tendencies. How he fits into the story, we’re not sure (could he be the story’s villain?), but if Dalton is allowed to keep his accent, he will be the first Brit to grace the Toy Story franchise, unless you count Andi Peters’ cameo in Toy Story 2. But we don’t. We really, really don’t. And neither should you.

Lasseter also gave us a sneak peek at a sequence from the film and the as-yet unreleased trailer. The clip showed Andy packing from college, and emptying all his toys into a black bin bag for storage in the attic. He hesitates over Woody and Buzz, finally putting Woody in the box of things to take for college. But all the toys are panicked - especially Woody, who's worried for his friends. When Andy is distracted by his little sister and leaves the garbage bag on the landing instead of upstairs in the attic, his mother takes it out to the kerb - and a frantic Woody has to save his friends from a rapidly approaching bin lorry.

We also saw the as-yet unreleased trailer, which showed bits of the same scene, but developed the story. Clearly the toys end up being sent to a daycare centre, where they are horribly abused by the little kids - and after that it's time for a break-out attempt to find a safe haven, and hopefully a new owner, in a cruel world. It looks every bit as good as its titanic predecessors.

Fans flood stores for Beatles reissues

TORONTO (CP) - It was a bit of Beatlemania all over again today as Canadian record stores faced a flood of fans clamouring for the two new remastered box sets, CD reissues, and a Fab Four-themed "Rock Band" video game.

In Toronto, HMV's flagship store sold out of the limited edition box sets within about 40 minutes, according to an employee.

Both sets include the entire Beatles catalogue remastered on CD for the first time.

One set has the Beatles' classics mixed into stereo, while a super limited-edition mono set is available for purists.

HMV Canada's director of product Ken Kirkwood says sales have been consistently strong right across the country and anything with the Beatles name on it is flying out the door.

He says the chain's Top 15 selling CDs are all Beatles remasters, while the various versions of the new "Rock Band" game are dominating the Top 5 video game chart.

"It's right across the board," Kirkwood said of the Beatles frenzy at HMV stores.

"I don't think there's a place in Canada where there are people that aren't (Beatles) fans."

He said the mono box set would definitely be sold out across the country by the end of the day, while a few stereo sets might still be kicking around.

All the Beatles albums were also rereleased individually for those who didn't want to shell out for the box sets ($189 for the stereo package and $219 for the mono) and Kirkwood said the top seller was "Abbey Road," followed by "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the "White Album," "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul."

"You can see the way the sales have gone that there are customers we've had that bought every single album," Kirkwood added.

Garrison Keillor suffers minor stroke

Prairie Home Companion writer and broadcaster Garrison Keillor has suffered a minor stroke.

He was admitted to Saint Marys Hospital, a Mayo Clinic facility in Minneapolis on Sunday, according to Karl Oestreich, a Mayo Clinic spokesman.

"He is up and moving around, speaking sensibly, working at a laptop, and it's expected he'll be released on Friday," Oestreich said in a statement. "He plans to resume a normal schedule next week."

Keillor, a much-loved humorist who wrote Lake Wobegon Days and Life Among the Lutherans, started his career by poking gentle fun at his fellow countrymen at Minnesota Public Radio.

He was scheduled to open a new season of his radio program Prairie Home Companion on Sept. 26.

The 35th anniversary of the show was celebrated this July in Avon, Minn., the town which inspired the fictional Lake Wobegon.

The remastered Beatles: You've got to get this into your life

"Number nine, number nine, number nine," an engineer's voice intones over Revolution 9, the loopy loops-laden experimental track on The Beatles' self-titled 1968 album.

Little did John Lennon realize that the tune he dubbed "music of the future" would foreshadow Revolution 09/09/09, the day that would usher The Beatles' entire catalog into the future with a substantial engineering overhaul, rendering the most familiar music of the modern age suddenly astonishing and revelatory.

The remastered Beatles catalog, on sale Wednesday, is the remasterpiece fans have been craving since 1987, when the band's albums lost dimension and purity in their only wholesale transfer to CD.

A handful of scrubbed Beatles discs have bubbled up since then, most strikingly 2000's 1 hits compilation and 2006's brazen Love remix, but this is the first thorough catalog upgrade, a long-overdue digital reparation that restores the original vinyl's wider midrange, pin-drop clarity and rhythmic heft. Drum beats crackle with renewed insistence, burnishing Ringo Starr's star. Paul McCartney's bass has more visceral punch.

Abbey Road engineers tweaked the 20th century's most cherished songbook with surgical care, limiting reliance on "limiting," which makes music seem louder while quashing dynamic range.

Results vary from subtle to dramatic, and the mono-stereo debate will find eternal life in the blogosphere (especially regarding Sgt. Pepper), yet the enhancements overall are undeniable.

Even new and casual fans will be tempted to splurge on the $260 16-disc stereo box set (plus DVD) and the pricier $299 13-disc mono box set, which won't return to shelves once the initial pressing sells out.

Only the stereo discs are available individually. Cherry-picking? Start with these:

•The Beatles (1968). The so-called White Album sounds remarkably fresh, especially its unshackled rockers. Back in the U.S.S.R., Helter Skelter and Yer Blues cook with a furious intensity. I Will is stripped to a translucent elegance, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps rises to grander heights (and discloses a kick drum never before audible).

•Abbey Road (1969). Rich details emerge throughout the band's recording swansong, particularly showcasing the phenomenal strengths and interplay of McCartney and Starr. Come Together has a tougher strut, and The End explodes with rhythmic power. The textures and segues of the 16-minute medley are clearer, fully revealing a marvel of sonic architecture.

•Revolver (1966). Every groove is revitalized, brightening Good Day Sunshine and broadening Here, There and Everywhere. The psychedelic effects in Tomorrow Never Knows nearly shimmer. And the string quartet in Eleanor Rigby? It's now in your living room.

•A Hard Day's Night (1964). That opening claaaang! in the title track never sounded so vital. There's a more robust kick to Can't Buy Me Love. And yep, engineers didn't plaster over the catch in McCartney's voice on If I Fell.

•Let It Be(1970). The controversial Phil Spector production (despised by McCartney) benefits from a simple cleansing that brightens the beautifully spacey Across the Universe, plaintive title track and muscular Get Back.

The remasters won't be the last souvenir stop on The Beatles' long and winding road to immortality. Fans are clamoring for a full remix and Blu-ray DVDs of the catalog. That's years away. For now, this magical mystery tour de force breaks enough sound barriers.

Rather than cosmetically tarting up The Beatles, the scrupulous calibration has more honestly conveyed the band's warm, uplifting, indestructible pop. What you hear isn't technology. It's heart.

Springsteen, De Niro among Kennedy Center honorees

WASHINGTON – Dave Brubeck just wishes his mom could see him now: On Dec. 6, the same day the jazz composer and pianist turns 89, he'll be among the leading artists feted at the 32nd Kennedy Center Honors Gala.

Dignitaries from President Barack Obama on down will celebrate Brubeck's career, along with those of Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, Mel Brooks and opera singer Grace Bumbry, the Kennedy Center announced Wednesday.

Brubeck says it's a day that would have delighted his late mother, Elizabeth Ivey Brubeck, a classical pianist who was initially disappointed by her son's interest in jazz. He recalled that when he graduated high school in 1938, his mother wrote in her diary: "I think there is some hope for David after all."

"Both my older brothers were such terrific musicians — classical musicians. And she wanted three sons that would follow in her footsteps ..., and I let her down," Brubeck said in a phone interview from Seattle, where he was touring this week. "She finally came around to what I was doing. She lived long enough to see good results, and she enjoyed going to the concerts."

Obama and the first lady will host the 2009 honorees at the White House before attending the gala with them at the Kennedy Center. Brubeck said he is looking forward to meeting the president, who wrote of going to a Brubeck concert as a child in his memoir "Dreams From My Father."

As usual, the gala will be recorded for broadcast as a two-hour prime-time special on CBS. This year's will air on Dec. 29 at 9 p.m.

The Kennedy Center Honors recognize performing artists for their contributions to American culture.

Brubeck is credited with helping take jazz into the mainstream, and his band popularized music that departed from the traditional 4/4 rhythm. "Time Out" — the classic album by the Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring the hit "Take Five" in 5/4 time_ turned 50 this year. Brubeck has set to music the words of the Old Testament and of Martin Luther King Jr. and, most recently, the photographs of Ansel Adams.

As for the other honorees, Springsteen and De Niro belonged to the category of potential honorees that George Stevens Jr., the creator and producer of the honors show, calls "not if, but when." But both men are relatively young to be receiving the award, Stevens noted. De Niro turned 66 last month, and Springsteen will be 60 on Sept. 23.

"One of America's greatest cinematic actors, Robert De Niro has demonstrated a legendary commitment to his characters and has co-founded one of the world's major film festivals," Kennedy Center Chairman Stephen A. Schwarzman said in the announcement of the 2009 recipients. He was referring to the Tribeca Film Festival, which started in 2002.

"With his gritty and honest songs that speak to the everyman, Bruce Springsteen has always had his finger on the pulse of America," Schwarzman said.

Mel Brooks, 83, is a former standup comedian who made his mark on television with the classic 2000-year-old man routine with Carl Reiner. He soon moved to the big screen, where his hit comedies include "The Producers" and "Blazing Saddles."

For Grace Bumbry, a soprano and mezzo-soprano who became a trailblazer among black singers, being chosen for the award has a special significance. At the first Kennedy Center gala in 1978, Bumbry performed the aria "Vissi d'Arte" from Giacomo Puccini's opera "Tosca" in honor of her mentor, the renowned contralto Marian Anderson.

"It's full circle now," Bumbry, 72, said by telephone from Munich, where she was judging a vocal competition. "It's the most beautiful thing."

Brad Paisley leads with 6 CMA nominations

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Brad Paisley leads Country Music Association Award nominees with six nods announced Wednesday, while Taylor Swift snagged a nomination for entertainer of the year, the show's highest honor.

The 19-year-old sensation is the first female solo artist to be nominated for the top award since 2000.

Swift joins Keith Urban, George Straight, Jamey Johnson and Zac Brown with four nominations each.

The CMAs announced five categories on ABC's "Good Morning America," and the rest later in the morning on the CMT network.

Swift's CD "Fearless" has sold more than three million copies and made her the top selling act in country and in pop. Her competitors in the top category are Kenny Chesney, Strait, Paisley, and Urban. She was also nominated for female vocalist of the year, along with Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Reba McEntire and Carrie Underwood.

Darius Rucker — the former Hootie and the Blowfish singer whose transition to country music was embraced by fans — was nominated for male vocalist of the year, along with veterans like Strait, Paisley, Chesney and Urban.

"It feels great. It feels like I'm part of the family," said Rucker, who along with Lee Ann Womack announced the nominations on ABC.

"I love being in country music because of the accessibility and the relationships you have with fans and with radio is awesome."

Rucker was also nominated for new artist of the year along with Randy Houser, Jamey Johnson, Jake Owen and the Zac Brown Band.

Womack was another nominee Wednesday morning: her song with George Strait, "Everything But Quits," was nominated for vocal event of the year. Also nominated were "Cowgirls Don't Cry," by the soon-to-be disbanded Brooks & Dunn and McEntire; "I Told You So," by Underwood and Randy Travis; "Down the Road" by Chensey and Mac McAnally; and "Old Enough," by the rock group Racounteurs, Ricky Skaggs and Ashley Monroe.

Houser, who announced the rest of the nominations on a live broadcast of "CMT Insider" from a Nashville studio, said getting the nomination for the new artist category is a honor he's been patiently waiting on.

"I've told myself for so many years, 'Maybe next year, maybe next year,'" said Houser, who also was nominated for his music video, "Boots On."

He credited his record label with coming up with the idea of the music video, which featured a toddler rocking out to his song on a toy guitar.

The CMA Awards, now in its 43rd year, are scheduled for Nov. 11 on ABC., with Underwood and Paisley as hosts.

Walter Cronkite celebrated at memorial service

NEW YORK – Former President Bill Clinton remembered Walter Cronkite as "a great citizen and a profoundly good human being" during a memorial service Wednesday for the legendary newsman.

Clinton saluted Cronkite for "an inquiring mind and a caring heart and a careful devotion to the facts."

After watching Cronkite as a youngster, Clinton grew to be friends with him in adulthood, "and I just ended up being crazy about the guy."

Others scheduled to appear included former Cronkite colleagues at CBS News, astronaut Buzz Aldrin, musicians Wynton Marsalis and Mickey Hart, and President Barack Obama.

Jimmy Buffett sang his classic "Son of a Son of a Sailor" for his sailing buddy Cronkite.

But before that, he had a warm recollection of seeking some advice for a mutual friend, the late "60 Minutes" correspondent Ed Bradley.

After a sail, "the sun was down, the rum was out, and I said, 'Walter, Ed called me and he's thinking about wearing an earring on '60 Minutes.'"

Buffett said Cronkite responded: "It doesn't matter if he wears an earring, as long as it's a good story." Then Cronkite added impishly: "If I was going to wear an earring on '60 Minutes,' I'd wear one of those big, long dangly ones."

Cronkite, who died July 17 at 92, anchored "The CBS Evening News" from 1962 until 1981. He came to be known as "the most trusted man in America."

Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw called him "a seminal force in the transformation of this country."

Brokaw, who grew up in South Dakota, said, "Walter Cronkite and all those early (TV news) pioneers lifted a lamp and showed us the wider world and allowed us to understand it more clearly and coherently."

Among those attending the service, at Manhattan's Lincoln Center, were former CBS anchor Dan Rather; ABC's Charles Gibson, Diane Sawyer, Barbara Walters and Bob Woodruff; and NBC's Brian Williams.

Columnist Army Archerd dies at 87

LOS ANGELES – Army Archerd, whose breezy column for the entertainment trade publication Daily Variety kept tabs on various Hollywood doings for more than a half-century, has died. He was 87.

Archerd's wife, Selma, said he died Tuesday at UCLA Medical Center of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lungs strongly tied to asbestos exposure. She said the cancer was the result of his time spent in shipyards while serving in the Navy during World War II. She said he had become very ill over the last two years, especially in the last two weeks.

"He was the love of my life," said Selma.

Over the years, Archerd won praise from the Hollywood establishment for always checking the accuracy of his news tips before printing them. He had an extensive phone directory of much-guarded private numbers that he would use to call movie stars and studio bosses directly to ferret out which rumors were true and which were not.

His biggest scoop came in 1985 when he was first to report that veteran leading man Rock Hudson had AIDS. It was the first time a major Hollywood star was disclosed to be an AIDS victim, and it helped break down some of the secrecy surrounding the disease.

Archerd — born Armand Archerd in New York in 1922 — also broke the story that Julia Roberts had jilted fiance Keifer Sutherland in 1991 and that longtime bachelor Warren Beatty had married Annette Bening in 1992. His source for the Beatty-Bening story was Beatty himself.

"I know it sounds like a cliche," said Selma, "but the time we spent together, it was just an outstanding life of knowing the most gorgeous people in the world, being very well accepted by them, traveling all over the world like millionaires, even though we were poor."

For more than 50 years, Archerd also served as the greeter-interviewer at the Academy Awards. Acting nominees and other celebrities were conducted to a platform alongside the red carpet for a brief chat with Archerd that was heard by the thousands of fans gathered outside the theater.

"I try to give the nominees a little moment in the sun, maybe their last," he explained in 2002.

Archerd's columns were generally mild-mannered, although he could lash out at what he considered wrongdoing. After he excoriated Michael Jackson for including anti-Semitic remarks in his "HIStory" album, the entertainer apologized and took them out.

Archerd's first brush with the studios came in the early 1940s when he worked in the Paramount mailroom while a student at the University of California, Los Angeles.

After wartime service in the Navy, he returned to Los Angeles and began his news career working with longtime entertainment reporter Bob Thomas on a daily Hollywood column for The Associated Press.

Three years later he became an aide to Harrison Carroll, the gossip columnist for the now-defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

In 1953 he was chosen to write Daily Variety's "Just for Variety" column, which was required morning reading for Hollywood's movers and shakers. He later went on to become one of the first journalists to be honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

His marriage to Joan Archerd, which produced two children, Amanda and Evan, ended in divorce in 1969 after 25 years. He married his second wife, Selma, in 1970.

Archerd is survived by his wife, his son and two stepsons.

Shake-up for Cdn. book industry

TORONTO - Canada's book industry is facing a major shake-up with news that a new company will handle some subsidiary rights deals for at least two major publishers, which will result in layoffs.

Random House of Canada and McClelland and Stewart both announced Tuesday that they've inked deals with the Cooke Agency International, a new offshoot of the Cooke Agency, a team of Toronto-based literary representatives working for more than 100 authors.

Both deals involve contracting out work on foreign subsidiary rights, permissions, and domestic book club sales to the Cooke Agency, which will eliminate departments in both publishing companies.

Random House said it could no longer justifying maintaining its subsidiary rights department, which seeks foreign-rights sales for a limited catalogue of titles.

Three employees were laid off: Jennifer Shepherd, vice president and director of rights and contracts; Ron Eckel, rights associate director; and Fiona Harvey, domestic rights associate.

Two McClelland and Stewart employees were laid off: Marilyn Biderman, vice president and director of rights and contracts; and Krista Willis, rights manager.

In a release, Cooke Agency president and co-owner Dean Cooke said the creation of the new company to work on behalf of Canadian publishers will allow rights agreements to be reached in a "more efficient and effective way."

"In speaking to various publishers, it is clear that there are challenges in maintaining a foreign rights business, and that changes were imminent in the way publishers handle this business," he said.

"We're all getting on the same planes to go to the same places to sell a handful of titles. This is an area where success and strength can best be leveraged by a list of titles with greater range and depth."

'Saturday Night Live' subtracts after it adds

The two new hires "Saturday Night Live" made last week won't end up making the cast any bigger after all.

NBC's late-night comedy show added two new female performers, Nasim Pedrad and Jenny Slate, to its cast last week, but we now know that their addition came at the expense of two people who were with the show last year: Michaela Watkins and Casey Wilson. That means the cast will stay at 13 people, with four women -- Pedrad, Slate and returnees Kristen Wiig and Abby Elliott.

As was the case with the hirings of Slate and Pedrad, The Comic's Comic was first with the news about the firings of Wilson, who joined "SNL" in February 2008, and Watkins, who came aboard last November. In an e-mail to the site, Watkins says her tenure on the show, while brief, was "awesome."

"I will say to you now, though, that I had a GREAT time there. Met some of the most truly talented and fantastic people, had the most exciting job and I honestly can say I don't have any regrets I can think of right now," she says. "Although it seems kinda crazy right now, this may shake out to make sense to everyone. ['SNL' executive producer] Lorne [Michaels] isn't known for indulging in any lip-service, and I feel very encouraged by his words last week. I'm working on something I'm very excited about now, so ... the journey continues, and I feel so lucky I got to stop off at 30 Rock. It was awesome."

"Saturday Night Live" begins its season Sept. 26 with host Megan Fox and musical guest U2.

Tolkien estate, New Line settle lawsuit over films

LOS ANGELES – The heirs of J.R.R. Tolkien and a movie studio that produced the blockbuster "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy have settled a lawsuit over the films' profits, it was announced Tuesday.

The out-of-court resolution clears the way for a two-film prequel based on Tolkien's novel "The Hobbit" and will benefit charities around the world, according to a joint press release announcing the settlement.

The lawsuit had sought to rescind New Line Cinema's rights to make films based on the book.

Tolkien's heirs sued New Line Cinema in February 2008, claiming the studio owed it millions in profits from the movies released between 2001 and 2003. The films earned an estimated $6 billion in sales of movie tickets, DVDs and merchandise.

No settlement paperwork has yet been filed with a Los Angeles court. The terms of the deal are being kept confidential.

"We deeply value the contributions of the Tolkien novels to the success of our films and are pleased to have put this litigation behind us," said Alan Horn, president and chief operating officer of Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Warner Bros. acquired New Line in March 2008.

One of the main beneficiaries of the settlement is The Tolkien Trust, a British charity that supports causes around the world.

Christopher Tolkien, one of the author's trustees, said the lawsuit was regrettable, but the estate is "glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow The Tolkien Trust to properly pursue its charitable objectives."

Bonnie Eskenazi, an attorney who handled the lawsuit for the Tolkien estate, said the settlement vindicated the heirs and will touch more than just movie audiences.

The lawsuit claimed Tolkien's trust received only an upfront payment of $62,500 for the three movies before production began but was due 7.5 percent of the gross receipts.

Peter Jackson, who directed "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, will serve as executive producer on "The Hobbit" films. The prequels have already endured a legal path as treacherous as the story's trek by hobbit Bilbo Baggins to the Lonely Mountain.

Jackson and New Line feuded for a year over the trilogy's profits before reaching an agreement in 2007 that cleared the way for work on "The Hobbit."

The two prequels will be directed by Guillermo del Toro, who directed the two "Hellboy" movies and "Pan's Labyrinth."

Rambo 5 Details Revealed By Rambo

After the unexpected success of Rambo, it’s likely that Sylvester Stallone will release Rambo movies until his dying days. Why wouldn’t he? How old is that dude now? Like 76? And he was able to successfully act in, write and direct an action movie? I would do that until I was 105 if I were him. But I’m not.

Now details for Rambo 5 are starting to come out, and they’re straight from Sly’s mouth. As reported by AICN, who got an exclusive interview with Stallone, the movie will take place in the Pacific Northwest, where experiments are being done on soldiers in an effort to tap into man’s inherent “savagery” and create “killer soldiers.” As one can expect, things don’t go entirely well with the experiments, so Rambo is brought in to clean up the government’s mess. But can Rambo take on someone even deadlier than Rambo?

Sure, it isn’t all that creative, but the thought of Rambo hunting down the perfect human killer is completely intriguing. As with all Rambo movies, I’m sure both men (or maybe it will be GASP a woman!) will end up in torn up rags, bandanas and dirty faces, but no one watches a Rambo movie for the plot, character development and direction. You watch them to see people get blown up.

Astronauts pack Buzz Lightyear for ride home

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The astronauts aboard the orbiting shuttle and station packed up Buzz Lightyear on Monday for the ride home from "infinity and beyond."

The 12-inch action figure has been at the international space station for more than a year.

Mission Control asked Discovery's crew to do a final check to make certain Buzz was safely stowed on the shuttle, in advance of the closing of the hatches between the linked spacecraft late Monday night. The shuttle will depart Tuesday.

The Buzz Lightyear toy had kept a relatively low profile at the space station since its June 2008 arrival, but was pulled out for extensive filming over the past week. Some of the movie scenes: Buzz going to sleep with an astronaut who lets go, causing the doll to float away and hit a wall, and Buzz flying through a chamber followed by a real spaceman.

NASA said the video will be used in an educational outreach effort for children and have a "Toy Story" movie spin.

As for Buzz, a Walt Disney World spokesman said the toy will take part in "several debriefing sessions" and then a tickertape parade with Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin at the beginning of October. The spokesman said Buzz has become "the longest serving astronaut in space."

The 13 human astronauts had one last major job to accomplish together Monday before parting company.

A moving van holding a ton of trash and discarded equipment needed to be moved back aboard Discovery. It was delivered by the shuttle, fully loaded with supplies, and moved onto the international space station exactly one week ago.

In a series of Labor Day interviews, shuttle astronaut Jose Hernandez said his presence in space "means hope for all our people that speak Spanish." He grew up in a migrant worker family from Mexico.

"If you work hard and study hard, any dream can be achieved," Hernandez said in Spanish, "and I am the proof of that because I started (with) very little means."

The space station's new resident, Nicole Stott, said she's looking forward to gazing down at her home state of Florida and the rest of the planet over the next three months. She took up a watercolor kit to paint what she sees.

She said the artwork might not be that good, "but it will certainly be fun for me to try."

Stott flew up on Discovery as the replacement for Timothy Kopra, who has been in orbit since mid-July. Kopra will return to Earth on Thursday, along with the six other shuttle astronauts and, of course, Buzz.

'Final Destination' sustains fear factor with $12M

LOS ANGELES – Fear has trumped romance at the box office over Labor Day weekend.

The Warner Bros. fright flick "The Final Destination" remained the No. 1 movie for the second-straight weekend with $12.4 million for the first three days of the long holiday weekend. "The Final Destination" raised its 10-day total to $47.6 million.

It came in ahead of Sandra Bullock's romantic comedy "All About Steve," a 20th Century Fox release which debuted in second-place with $11.2 million from Friday to Sunday. Bullock plays a woman who sets out on the road in pursuit of her soul mate.

Among other new movies, Lionsgate's action tale "Gamer" debuted at No. 4 with $9 million. The movie stars Gerard Butler in a thriller about real humans controlled by players in lethal games.

Opening at No. 10 with $4.2 million was Miramax's comedy "Extract," starring Jason Bateman as a businessman whose personal life heats up just as he's trying to sell his flavor-extract company to General Mills.

Studios will release estimates for the four-day weekend on Monday.

Thom Yorke releases 2-track 12"

Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke has given fans of vinyl a boost - his new solo single will be available on wax two weeks before it hits the internet as a download.

The singer/songwriter will release FeelingPulledApartbyHorses on 21 September as a limited-edition 12-inch single.

The vinyl will include a free digital download of the songs, which will be made available as a paid download in October.

FeelingPulledApartbyHorses is a track Yorke recorded with Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, and is backed by another new song, Hollow Earth.

Poll: 'Batman' No. 1 superhero

Batman has vanquished his comic book rivals Spider-Man and Superman to be named the greatest superhero of all time in a new poll.

The Caped Crusader, who has been fighting crime in comics, on TV and in numerous film adaptations since 1939, beat Peter Parker's arachnid alter-ego into second place in the survey by SFX.co.uk.

The Man of Steel flew into third place ahead of X-Men hero Wolverine, who clawed his way to number four. Iron Man rounds out the top five.

Dave Golder, editor of SFX.co.uk, says, "No matter how often Batman is reinvented - a noir detective in the 40s, a camp icon in the 60s, a Gothic Knight in the 80s - he's always the coolest, most iconic and recognizable superhero there is."

Marvel Exploring Converting Iron Man 2 to 3D

Iron Man has taken flight in 3D. At least he has in a 1-minute demo reel which is said to be "hot" stuff and triggering all sorts of crazy ideas at Marvel, Paramount and now Disney.

Ain't It Cool News broke the news claiming 1 minute from Jon Favreau's Iron Man 2 was recently converted to high quality digital 3D. Everyone who has seen this clip is so enamored by it that Marvel is soliciting bids from three companies to covert not only all of Iron Man 2 into 3D, but the first Iron Man for a spring 2010 re-release as well.

The conversion process utilized would be identical to how Disney is handling Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. The big difference is that film was created with 3D not only in mind but built into the budget. Turning Iron Man 2 into 3D will pile onto what is already probably a budget well north of $100 million.

Of course Iron Man 2 will gobble up mounds of cash next summer so it will be up to the studios to decide whether the investment is worth the up-charge on a ticket to a 3D movie. Now that 2009 has delivered several 3D films that outperformed their 2D counterparts, cinema's future is looking more and more three-dimensional whether filmmakers intend so or not.

Bryan Adams takes acoustic trek into winter

Bryan Adams will return to the road later this week for a North American theater tour that runs through year's end.

The 17-date excursion gets off to a slow start with one performance Friday (9/4) in Edmonton, followed by a three-week hiatus. The Canadian singer/songwriter will then climb aboard the tour bus for a more consistent schedule of shows beginning Sept. 26 in Denver. The outing wraps up along the East Coast with a Dec. 10 appearance in New Brunswick, NJ. Details are below.

Adams most recently released "11," his aptly titled 11th studio set. The musician followed the release with an "11 Days, 11 Cities" acoustic tour of Europe, as well a late-year solo-acoustic run throughout the US.

Earlier this summer, Adams was rewarded for his contributions to both music and philanthropic initiatives with a Canadian postage stamp bearing his image.

"I never thought about it," Adams said of this recognition in a recent interview with LiveDaily. "I got a message from a friend of mine saying, 'Congratulations getting on a stamp, but I'm not sure I'll be too keen about licking the back side of it.'"

September 2009
4 - Edmonton, Alberta - Telus Field
26 - Denver, CO - Paramount Theatre
27 - Salt Lake City, UT - Kingsbury Hall
28 - Missoula, MT - Wilma Theatre
29 - Spokane, WA - Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox
30 - Calgary, Alberta - Calgary Telus Convention Centre

October 2009
1, 2 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum
23 - Miami, FL - Gusman Center for the Performing Arts
24 - Jacksonville, FL - Florida Theatre
25 - Greensboro, NC - Carolina Theatre
26 - Virginia Beach, VA - Sandler Center for the Performing Arts
27 - Charlottesville, VA - Paramount Theater
28 - Roanoke, VA - Jefferson Center
29 - Ashland, KY - Paramount Arts Center

December 2009
9 - Wilkes Barre, PA - Kirby Center
10 - New Brunswick, NJ - State Theatre

Rolling Stones Rep Denies Charlie Watts Quit The Band

Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts has not quit the band, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday, denying a news report from Australia.

The report, from the normally credible online outlet Undercover (www.undercover.com.au), stirred up a worldwide panic among fans, since Watts' departure would likely mean the end of the venerable group.

"Contrary to a fabricated story that ran this morning on a small music web site in Australia, drummer Charlie Watts has not left The Rolling Stones," spokeswoman Fran Curtis said in an emailed statement.

The Undercover report, attributed to "a source within the Stones inner-circle says," said Watts will never record or tour with the band again. It said the Stones were looking to replace him with New York session drummer Charlie Drayton, who has played on solo projects with Stones guitarist Keith Richards.

The Rolling Stones, which Watts joined in 1963 after a stint in the advertising world, have not released a new album since 2005's poor-selling "A Bigger Bang." Their last tour ended in London in August 2007. Future plans are unknown.

Watts, 68, does not contribute to the songwriting, but his spare, jazz-influenced drumming style is considered key to the band's success. He is closely involved in the design of the band's stage sets and merchandising, and gets the loudest cheers when the four members are introduced in concert.

He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2004, but it went into remission, and the band embarked on a three-year world tour the following year. During the 1980s, the famously clean-living drummer fought a drug addiction at a time when the band had essentially broken up.

Watts has traditionally been the most reluctant to tour, since he hates to leave his wife and Arabian horses at the couple's horse-breeding farm in Devonshire. The media-shy grandfather generally avoids the spotlight, and seems disdainful of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.

"Worked five years, and 20 years hangin' around," he glumly told a TV reporter while on tour during the 1980s.

Watts' eccentricities are part of the band's legend, such as tales that he owns a huge vintage-car collection but not a driver license, and allows horses to wander through the house. He also has a darker side, once punching Mick Jagger almost unconscious after the singer referred to him as "my drummer."

Movie sequels lift summer box office to new record

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Summer box office sales narrowly hit a new record in North America -- with a little help from an angry memo written by "Transformers" director Michael Bay.

The filmmaker in May accused Paramount Pictures executives of fumbling the marketing campaign for his June 24 release "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

"Right now we are not an event. We are just a sequel, which is very different," he wrote in the missive that was leaked to the media.

Fortunately for both parties -- if not for the overwhelming majority of critics who eviscerated the big-bang spectacle -- Paramount's marketing plan kicked into high gear and the movie became the top draw at the summer box office in North America.

The movie grossed $399 million in the United States and Canada, well ahead of the No. 2 choice Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" with $294 million.

When overseas sales are included, the rankings are reversed. "Harry Potter" earned $905 million worldwide, and "Transformers" $828 million.

The two franchise pictures helped the summer moviegoing season reach another record -- barely.

North American ticket sales totaled $4.18 billion for all films from May 1 through September 2, according to tracking firm Rentrak Corp. This represents a 0.01 percent rise from the year-ago haul of $4.14 billion.

"Even in a tight economy, consumers seeking a great entertainment value continued to flock to movie theaters to see blockbusters across action, comedy, drama and family-friendly genres," said Ron Giambra, Rentrak's executive vice-president of Theatrical Worldwide.

Summer is the most lucrative season for the studios, with ticket sales accounting for as much as 40 percent of annual theatrical income. With their target audience of young males in mind, they unleash costly "popcorn" pictures loaded with explosions and special effects.

The top five was rounded out by the Pixar cartoon "Up" ($290 million), the surprise Warner Bros. bawdy hit "The Hangover" ($270 million) and Paramount's "Star Trek" reboot ($257 million).

That's not to say other demographic groups were completely ignored.

Counterprogramming efforts such as "The Ugly Truth" ($86 million) and the early Oscar bait "Julie & Julia" ($71 million and counting), both from Columbia Pictures, scored with female audiences. Sandra Bullock enjoyed the biggest movie of her career (before adjusting for inflation) with Disney's "The Proposal" ($160 million), the No. 9 movie of the summer.

At the other end of the scale, notable bombs included Paramount's Eddie Murphy comedy "Imagine That" -- a $55 million project that grossed $16 million.

Universal struck out with such disappointments as the costly Johnny Depp gangster drama "Public Enemies," which grossed $97 million, Sacha Baron Cohen's "Bruno" ($60 million), and Will Ferrell's "Land of the Lost" and director Judd Apatow's "Funny People" with about $50 million each.

Universal, a General Electric Co unit, lags the six major studios in market share so far this year, according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.

Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros, leading in No. 1 openings this year, rules the pack with 20.6 percent, followed by Viacom Inc's Paramount (18 percent), News Corp's 20th Century Fox (12.5 percent), Walt Disney Co (12.1 percent), Sony Corp's Columbia (11.9 percent) and Universal (9 percent).

Kenny and Spenny ask fans for show ideas

Outlandish frenemies Kenny Hotz and Spencer Rice are turning to their fans for ideas for the next season of Kenny vs. Spenny.

The TV duo is known for staging wild and gruelling competitions on their Showcase series like "who can stay tied to a goat the longest?" and "who can wear a dead octopus on their head the longest?"

Now they're inviting viewers to send new ideas to them online through the Showcase website.

Hotz and Rice say they will choose a winning submission and carry it out in an episode this season.

The competition runs now until Sept. 30 at showcase.ca.

The sixth season of Kenny vs. Spenny returns Nov. 15.

"Everyone hates Spenny as much as I do. Please help me give him a nervous breakdown," Hotz said today in a release.

"I trust viewers will submit competition ideas that are fair. Fans, my life and sanity are in your hands, treat them kindly," added Rice.

New rules for Fight Club

The 10th Anniversary of Fight Club is here and the Blu-ray will contain some nice extras.

A lonely, isolated thirty-something young professional in an unidentified, semi-stylized city, seeks an escape from his ordinary life with the help of a devious soap salesman. They find their release from the prison of reality through underground fight clubs, where men can be what the world denies them.

The disc contains the new featurettes A Hit in the Ear: Ren Klyce and the Sound Design of Fight Club, Flogging Fight Club and an Insomniac Mode. Returning features include, behind the scenes vignettes, an Edward Norton interview, four commentaries, deleted scenes, trailers (including the eight rules), TV spots, public service announcements, a music video, internet spots a promotional gallery and an art gallery.

The disc arrives on November 17th for $34.99.

Fox Re-Boots Marvel's Fantastic Four

Some have questioned whether Disney overpaid when it bought Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion. After all, its best known Marvel Comics superhero franchises are parked at other studios, and Universal's Islands of Adventure is as dominated by Marvel attractions as it is Dr. Seuss.

But one thing to remember about Marvel assets is, they don't seem to wear out. We're about to see the second example where successful Marvel movie franchises are going to be reinvented.

20th Century Fox is the latest studio to start the process of overhauling one of its big Marvel Entertainment franchises, “Fantastic Four,” which has already hatched two films. The studio has hired Akiva Goldsman to oversee the re-boot as producer.

New script will be written by Michael Green, the “Heroes” co-executive producer who co-wrote “Green Lantern,” the Martin Campbell-directed Warner Bros. film that will star Ryan Reynolds.

Fox would not comment on its plans, and neither would Columbia Pictures when BFD revealed a couple weeks its plan to potentially re-boot the studio's most valuable franchise, "Spider-Man."

With “Spider-Man 4” moving toward an early 2010 production start, the studio recently hired James Vanderbilt to write a fifth and sixth installment of the web-slinger franchise, with the understanding that one or both could give that franchise a makeover with a new director and cast (Daily Variety, Aug. 16, 2009). Whether director Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire return or not, Sony smartly has given itself the chance to shorten the gap between its superhero installments.

And with state-of-the-art visual effects on superhero franchises pushing these pictures toward the $250 million-$300 million range, reshuffling the creative cast gives the studio a chance to save money, since actors and directors usually have a pre-negotiated option or two before the studio is held over a barrell by talent and their reps.

Marvel Studios has eliminated that problem by making talent sign as many as nine options, which was the case with the supporting cast of "Iron Man 2."

The 2005 “Fantastic Four” and 2007 sequel “Rise of the Silver Surfer” were directed by Tim Story, and starred Ioan Gruffud, Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis. Since the deals are just getting made, it is unclear at present if any of them will return.

Though Marvel Entertainment owns and finances properties like “Iron Man” and “Thor,” Fox controls “Fantastic Four” in perpetuity—as long as it continues making the films. Fox has the same arrangement on Marvel Comics properties “X-Men,” “Daredevil,” and “Silver Surfer” --which, despite an appearance in the "Fantastic Four" sequel, is still a Fox priority for a solo film.

Marvel is a producer and financial participant through a licensing agreement signed before Marvel franchises had the drawing power they have now. In fact, the original deal was made back when Marvel was struggling to pull itself out of bankruptcy in 1997.

Fox has been extraordarily effective in mining its Marvel franchises. The studio made three “X-Men” films, and then a hit summer spinoff in “Wolverine.” Fox is working on a sequel to that film, and has scripts for “X-Men Origins: Magneto," and “X-Men Origins: First Class," the latter of which could bring original "X-Men" helmer Bryan Singer back to the fold. Potential spinoffs for the Gambit and Deadpool characters seen in "Wolverine" have also been discussed.

As producer, Goldsman is involved with several DC Comics transfers, including “Jonah Hex,” “The Losers” and “Teen Titans.” He was also producer on the Will Smith-Charlize Theron-superhero film “Hancock,” a film that has a sequel in development.

'Grand Theft Auto IV' journey will end with a bang

Rockstar Games' grand epic Grand Theft Auto IV writes its final chapter Oct. 29. And the action is as over-the-top as the title: The Ballad of Gay Tony.

Available via download exclusively for owners of the Xbox 360 version of the game ($20, and like all GTA titles, for mature audiences), this second and last add-on episode focuses on Luis Lopez, Dominican-born second-in-command to nightclub magnate Gay Tony. The drug-addled Tony, losing a grip on his empire, puts Luis in dangerous circumstances in an attempt to retain his power.

"Luis has to do some of these favors and see if he can get them out of debt," says Dan Houser, co-founder of Rockstar Games and lead writer of the episode. "The situation with Tony's drug problems gets worse and worse, and Tony gets more and more out of control."

The events happen at the same time as those in GTAIV, which has sold more than 14 million copies worldwide since its release in April 2008 (for Xbox and PS3). It focused on the "coming to America-type story" of former Eastern European soldier Niko Bellic in Liberty City.

The first downloadable episode, The Lost and the Damned, released in February, focused on Johnny Klebitz, a member of biker gang The Lost. It and Gay Tony remain Xbox 360 exclusives. Both also will be out Oct. 29 on a $40 GTA: Episodes From Liberty City disc that can be played without the original game.

"I know, as a consumer, I'm more comfortable buying songs, which are almost like playing a jukebox, than I am buying movies as purely digital items," Houser says. "We all feel that way, so we can surely get more people to experience it if we put it on a disc."

Packed with action set pieces à la films such as Mission: Impossible and Bad Boys, Gay Tony has Luis at one point parachuting from a helicopter onto a glass-windowed skyscraper. Inside he blasts his way to his prey a few floors below and shoots his target, who then topples out of the bullet-ridden window. Luis dives out after him, wearing a parachute that glides him to safety.

In another scene, Luis drops on to the top of a moving subway train from a bridge and unhooks one of the cars for a maniacal high-rolling collector of one-of-a-kind artifacts. A Skyhook chopper airlifts the freed subway car away.

A man of action, Luis is torn between friends and family and his quest for power and riches. But as he climbs higher in Liberty City's social circles, he discovers that the upper crust has some issues.

Gay Tony's cast of out-of-control characters allowed Houser and the game designers to get in touch with their inner Michael Bay. "We definitely wanted it to feel more like the way action films are when they get ridiculous," says Houser.

"Suddenly you're lifting up train cars with helicopters and it looks amazing and ridiculous, and after what you've gone through in the past, you're like, 'wow, this is a really good payoff for completing this journey.' "