Al Green turns back to soul
MEMPHIS -- Soul music giant Al Green has returned to the studio, the
producer and the music that catapulted him to stardom in the 1970s. Green gave up soul music in the late 1970s to become a gospel singer and preacher and has spent the ensuing years running a church he founded in Memphis, the Full Gospel Tabernacle. Earlier this year Green returned to Royal Studios in Memphis, the same studio that gave birth to Green's string of hits in the 1970s, with legendary producer Willie Mitchell, whose collaborations with Green accounted for record sales in excess of 20 million copies. The result is "I Can't Stop," the first collaboration between Green and Mitchell on secular recordings in 27 years. In addition to producing and arranging the album, Mitchell also co-wrote eight of the album's 12 original tracks with Green. "I Can't Stop" also features many of the same musicians that who recorded with Green at Royal in the 1970s: guitarist Mabon "Teenie" Hodges; bassist Leroy Hodges; backing vocalists Donna Rhodes, Charlie Chalmers, and Sandra Rhodes; and the Royal Horns. The album will be released on the Blue Note label Nov. 18.
Spears, Timberlake on 'SNL'
NEW YORK -- Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake are scheduled to appear on NBC's "Saturday Night Live," in October, Billboard reported. Timberlake will serve as both the host and musical guest on the show's Oct. 11 edition. The singer is on a break from touring but will return to the road beginning Nov. 16 in Ghent, Belgium. A DVD featuring music videos from Timberlake's "Justified" as well as live performance footage was released last week, Billboard said. Spears will perform on the Oct. 18 episode, to be hosted by Halle Berry. She's expected to perform songs from her upcoming album "Get in the Zone," due to be released on Nov. 18. Her first single "More Than the Music," featuring Madonna, was scheduled to hit U.S. radio outlets Tuesday. The 29th season of "Saturday Night Live" begins Saturday with host Jack Black and musical gu=
est John Mayer.
Pearl Jam's 'Lost Dogs' has rare tunes
LOS ANGELES -- Pearl Jam's two-disc set "Lost Dogs" will include 31 rare and previously unreleased tracks from its archives, Billboard reported. "Lost Dogs," scheduled to be released Nov. 11, includes 11 songs that have never been released in any form including: "All Night," which appeared on preliminary track lists for the 1996 album "No Code," the "Binaural"-era outtakes "In the Moonlight," "Fatal," "Sweet Lew" and "Education," and several songs of unknown origin, such as "Sad," "Hitchhiker" and "Don't Gimme No Lip," Billboard.com reported. The album is rounded out by studio B-sides spanning the group's 13-year career, such as "Alone," "Wash," "U," "Down" and "Undone." Concert closer "Yellow Ledbetter" is also included as is "Hard To Imagine," which appeared on the 1998 Loosegroove soundtrack to "Chicago Cab" but never on a Pearl Jam studio release, Billboard said.
HBO sells 'Sex & the City' reruns
HOLLYWOOD -- HBO made a truckload of cash by selling reruns of "Sex & the City" to TBS for a cash license fee of $450,000 for each of the 94 half-hours. HBO stands to make close to $100 million in the deal. In a joint deal with TBS, Tribune-owned TV stations are also buyers of the series, but TBS gets the show in June 2004, well before it reaches Tribune in the fall of 2005, Daily Variety reported. In addition to the license fee, three 30-second spots within each show will be sold to national advertisers, which could add $300,000 of revenue per episode. TBS plans to run the show four times a week in prime time, probably one hour a night over two nights in mid-week, Variety said. Steve Koonin, chief operating officer of TBS and TNT, said he's optimistic about the ratings potential of "Sex & the City" because only about 30 million households buy HBO every month. "Everybody's heard about the show, but not that many people have seen it," he told Variety.
Pop/jazz to join Country at CMA awards
NASHVILLE -- In its second cross-genre pairing, the Country Music Association announced Dolly Parton will sing with Norah Jones at the upcoming awards ceremony. Parton, a Female Vocalist of the Year nominee will perform her song, "The Grass is Blue," with pop/jazz/folk singer Norah Jones on the 37th Annual CMA Awards Nov. 5, the association said Tuesday. It was recently announced reigning CMA Entertainer of the Year Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett will open the festivities with their first televised performance of their massive hit duet, "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere." The event airs live from the Grand Ole Opry House in Nashville, Tenn., on CBS. Also performing are Brooks & Dunn, Kenny Chesney and Patty Loveless. All-time leading CMA Award winner Vince Gill will host the gala event for the 12th consecutive year. Gill has received 18 C=
MA Awards since his first in 1990. The awards show will be seen around the world, including on the BBC in Britain.
'The Anderson Tapes' remake being made
HOLLYWOOD -- An updated version of its 1971 high-tech thriller, "The Anderson Tapes," based on a Lawrence Sanders novel, is being made by Columbia Pictures. "With all the innovations that have been made over the past three decades and the technology of the future, 'The Anderson T=
apes' will make for a great modern-day retelling," said Columbia co-president of production Matt Tolmach, who is overseeing the project with Rachel O'Connor, production vice president. "Jerry Maguire" producer Laurence Mark is set to produce from a script by the writing team of Lau=
rence Malkin and Chad Thumann, the Hollywood Reporter said. The original film, directed by Sidney Lume, starred Sean Connery, Christopher Walken and Dyan Cannon and centered on a career thief paroled from prison who lived in a toney apartment building with his girlfriend. The th=
ief plans to rob the building, with financing from organized crime, unaware police are watching his every move in an effort to arrest the mobsters.
'GREEK WEDDING' TO BE CBS SIT-COM
Nia Vardalos has said "I do" to CBS.
The star of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" will reprise her role as a harried bride-to-be in a half-hour, mid-season replacement, based on this summer's surprise hit film.
According to Variety, the network officially has ordered seven episodes of the comedy, but that number may increase to 13 if the series' producers get their way.
Once again, Vardalos will play a woman whose life revolves around a traditional Greek family. The series will begin as Vardalos' character starts dating a non-Greek man behind her parents' back.
In addition to originating and starring in the one-woman stage show of the same name, which Tom Hanks' Playtone Productions company turned into the feature picture, Vardalos also wrote the series' pilot with Marsh McCall -- "Just Shoot Me".
McCall will executive produce, along with Vardalos' manager, Brad Gray, and Hanks' wife, Rita Wilson, while Vardalos will serve as co-executive producer, Variety reports.
The film, which cost about $5 million to make, has grossed more than $110 million at the North American box office.
JUDGE SETS DATE FOR WINONA TRIAL
Winona Ryder's shoplifting trial is set to begin Oct. 7.
In setting the date, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elden Fox also made it very clear the Oscar-nominated actress, who was absent from the hearing, must attend the trial.
Ryder was arrested Dec. 12 after allegedly stealing almost $6,000 worth of merchandise from a Beverly Hills boutique. If convicted, she faces three years in jail on charges of grand theft, second-degree burglary, vandalism and unlawful possession of the pain reliever Oxycodone.
Ryder's attorney, Shepard Kopp, is quoted in the New York Daily News as saying, "Winona is looking forward to the chance to prove herself innocent."
So, is a plea deal still possible? Kopp isn't ruling it out just yet. "You never say never," he says.
DISNEY FLICK IS 'MONSTER' SUCCESS
The Disney/Pixar hit, "Monsters, Inc.," broke the first-day sales record when it was released on video and DVD earlier this week.
The movie, which features the vocal talents of Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi and Jennifer Tilly, sold more than 5 million combined VHS and DVD units Tuesday. The previous record for first-day sales was Disney's "The Lion King," which sold 4.5 million VHS units on March 3, 1995, prior to the advent of DVD.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, DreamWorks Home Entertainment's animated blockbuster, "Shrek," was another huge winner, selling 7 million units during its first three days and 9 million units during its first week in release.
Although Warner Home Video didn't release first-day sales figures for its box-office smash "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," studio executives say they sold about 10 million VHS and DVD units during "Potter's" first week in release.
DIRECTOR: BEN, J.LO 'SMOLDER'
Just as "Clerks" and "Dogma" writer/director Kevin Smith is gushing about Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez' "smoldering" affair, the diva's ex-father-in-law is trashing her in the tabloids.
Lopez, who was briefly married to dancer Cris Judd, is now dating Affleck, her co-star in Smith's new movie, "Jersey Girl."
"If you're ever shooting a movie about two people falling in love, I can't urge you strongly enough to cast a pair of people who are actually falling in love," Smith writes on the Web site, moviepoopshoot.com.
"The chemistry between Ben and Jen is so palpable, you could almost bottle it and sell it as an aphrodisiac. Take after take, we watched Ben and Jen (who we couldn't have cast as love-at-first-sighters at a better time in their lives) flirt through a rapid-fire-dialogue dance of movie meet-cute," he says.
All is not warm and fuzzy in Lopez's world, however.
Her ex-father-in-law, Larry Judd, apparently has revealed all to the National Enquirer, claiming Lopez started cheating on her husband with Affleck just five months into her marriage. Papa Judd also states Lopez was seeing his son long before she broke up with rap mogul Sean "Puffy" Combs.
Larry Judd doesn't blame Lopez entirely for the situation; he holds Affleck responsible for his son's heartbreak, as well.
"She was leaving the house at 5 a.m. and she wouldn't return until after 10 p.m. ... Jennifer was spending more time with Ben, and Ben made (Cris) feel unwelcome...," he claims. "Jennifer did not conduct herself as a married woman, and Ben did not respect the fact that she was my son's wife."
Lopez and Affleck have spent a lot of time together during the past year, having filmed two movies back-to-back, "Gigli" and "Jersey Girl."
HERE WE GO AGAIN...
'N Sync singer Lance Bass has returned to Russia's cosmonaut center for a new training session, but space officials say he still won't be flying to the International Space Station next month.
The pop star was ordered to leave the Star City cosmonaut training ground earlier this month after failing to pay the $20 million airfare.
Space officials say Bass won't be leaving Earth any time soon, but admit they are allowing Bass to continue training in the event he comes up with the cash for a later space mission.
Bass had agreed to star in a seven-part television documentary in exchange for corporate sponsorship to help pay for the trip. Unfortunately, the sponsors could not raise the $20 million fee.
At 23, Bass would have been the youngest person ever in space, as well as only the third paying space tourist.
ROSIE: MY KIDS ARE SPOILED
Rosie O'Donnell says she left her Emmy-winning talk show because her children were getting spoiled by all the attention they got.
"I quit my show because it was getting to be where I'd say I'm thirsty and 14 people in tuxedos showed up with every flavor of Snapple there ever was," the mother of three tells "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno.
O'Donnell says her kids are so accustomed to four-star hotels, limousines and constant attention they now refuse to do even the most basic tasks, including cutting the crust off their own slices of bread.
"I said to (my kid) 'What's so horrible about your life? Just tell me one bad thing about your life,' and he said, 'I've never been in a submarine.' I said, 'Oh are you suffering? I can hardly believe the torture of your existence,'" she explains.
KEITH RICHARDS GOES SUBURBAN
Guitar great Keith Richards is reportedly embracing the joys of suburban Connecticut life.
The Rolling Stones' legendary bad-boy, who soon will celebrate his 59th birthday, tells Rolling Stone magazine much of his time is spent reading, sailing around Long Island Sound and driving his teen-age daughters to school, not partying all night and ingesting every type of drug imaginable like he used to.
"Patti (Hansen) and I go out once a week if there's something on in town -- take the old lady out for dinner with a bunch of flowers,"