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week 39-01
ShowBiz Weekly: news from the UK & US...

A terrorist-driven plot has led to the postponement of JENNIFER LOPEZ's next film. Tick-Tock, which involves an FBI hunt for a series of hidden bombs in Los Angeles, has been shelved until mid-2002 and will be re-examined for sensitive story elements. But this has allowed Lopez's co-star, SAMUEL L JACKSON, to join VIN DIESEL in the action drama XXX. Jackson, who has just finished filming the thriller Changing Lanes with BEN AFFLECK, will play a government agent who recruits and trains Diesel's character to infiltrate a Russian crime ring. The film is described as an extreme sports version of a James Bond adventure and will feature Diesel's character performing a series of daredevil stunts.

When an American network rejected the pilot episode of a proposed TV series from DAVID LYNCH, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the controversial film-maker. Lynch, who previously created and wrote the television series Twin Peaks, persevered with his idea. Now Mulholland Drive, which won Lynch best director at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is a feature film starring British-born actress NAOMI WATTS. It goes on limited release in US cinemas on October 12. ``When ABC executives saw it they hated it and scrapped the series so it looked as if the idea was dead, but it really was a blessing,'' says Lynch in an interview in Los Angeles. ``The opportunity then arose to restructure it as a feature film so I had some ideas and did a whole new bunch of shooting and made it what it is today. ``I see it as something that was intended always to be a feature film but took a strange route to get there.''

PETER FONDA will be donning the Stars and Stripes jacket he wore in the 1969 classic film Easy Rider to lead this year's Hollywood Christmas Parade. He joins a list of grand marshals that in the past has included ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, JOHN WAYNE, NATALIE WOOD and CHARLTON HESTON. Fonda will greet an expected one million fans along the two-mile parade route. ``I think it's a good time to be playing Captain America,'' says Fonda, who is returning to the screen in a comedy, Stamp and Deliver, about the US postal system. ``The way I see it, this holiday season will be one of hope and a time to pull together and remember the value of the American dream.''

BARBRA STREISAND has removed all anti-President Bush comments from her website amid the patriotic fervour that has engulfed America following the terrorist attacks. Earlier this year she sent a memo to Democrats calling Bush ``a destructive man'' who ``stole the election through family ties, arrogance and intimidation''. Now, says Streisand: ``In the light of recent events I strongly believe we must support our government despite our disagreement on certain policies, such as those relating to environmental, educational, social and other specific issues. ``My past concerns about such matters still pertain but at this point in time I have removed several articles from my website in an effort to encourage national unity instead of partisan divisions.''

MARIAH CAREY has failed to strike box office gold with her first starring role in Glitter, which has opened to poor reviews in America. The film, which co-stars British actor MAX BEESLEY, tells of a pop music diva's rise to fame. Its opening was previously postponed because of Carey's illness. While Glitter was the only major film opening across America, it could only reach No 11 in the charts, with a paltry 1 million take at the box office. It was easily beaten by NICOLE KIDMAN's The Others, which took in almost 4 million at the weekend despite having been in release for several weeks.

Fans are protesting against reported plans to cut singer-actress AALIYAH from The Matrix Reloaded following her death in a plane crash last month. Warner Bros executives are grappling with whether to recast her role and risk alienating her fans. Aaliyah, who had the role of Zee in the highly anticipated sequel to the 1999 blockbuster The Matrix, had already filmed some scenes in the US and was due to go to Australia to resume filming next month. A petition is circulating on the internet urging Warner Bros ``to honour the memory of Aaliyah's life and keep her scenes''. The film-makers are remaining tight-lipped about the project and producer JOEL SILVER has declined to discuss how they will deal with the dilemma.

The latest Star Trek film is being pushed into production to allow its star PATRICK STEWART to finish work on it in time for his next film, X-Men 2. Star Trek: Nemesis, the 10th in the Start Trek series, begins shooting next month with the crew of the Star Trek: Next Generation television series. The film, which has been written by Gladiator screenwriter JOHN LOGAN, is due to be released at the end of next year.

BRAD PITT confesses he went week at the knees when he met his idol, famed architect FRANK GEHRY. A keen student of architecture, Pitt tells W magazine: ``It was about as much fun as I've ever had,'' adding that the meeting left him ``salivating''. Pitt, who helped design his and wife JENNIFER ANISTON's new home in the Hollywood Hills, says: ``Right now Gehry's the voice, the pioneer. He's completely reinventing construction.'' Gehry tells the magazine that Pitt was ``like a kid in a candy story'' when he visited the architect's office.

BEN STILLER has made his new film a family affair. Zoolander, a comedy about a male model, stars co-writer and director Stiller, who also hired his wife, CHRISTINE TAYLOR, and his parents, ANNE MEARA and JERRY STILLER, as co-stars. ``It turned out to be a great way for us to connect on a lot of levels,'' he says. ``I now understand more about what my parents went through.'' The worldwide hit quiz show Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? is now to become a children's television cartoon series. It will follow the adventures of fictional Millionaire winners as they pursue their dreams in far-flung destinations such as the Amazon and the Himalayas. ADRIAN WOOLFE, commercial director of Celdaor International, the show's creator, tells Daily Variety: ``The animated series will take the Millionaire brand in an exciting new direction.''

CATHERINE ZETA-JONES could not restrain herself from interrupting her brother-in-law Eric's comedy act at New York's Comic Strip. She and husband Michael had gone to support his brother Eric's return to the comedy stage after a long struggle with drink and drugs. But the actress could not stop herself from interrupting when Eric cracked a joke about their backgrounds. ``Michael's Jewish and she's Scottish,'' he said. ``Together they're the world's cheapest couple.'' To which the indignant actress replied: ``I'm Welsh!''

British author DOUGLAS THOMPSON is moving from one musical phenomenon to another with a book about the early days of the Beatles. It follows his biography of pop superstar Madonna, which is soon to be made into a multi million-dollar film by Miramax. Thompson is focusing on the ``fifth Beatle'', STUART SUTCLIFFE, in The Beatles Shadow: Stuart Sutcliffe and his Lonely Hearts' Club, which reveals untold exploits of the band in Hamburg. Sutcliffe was the Beatles' bass guitarist when they played seedy nightclubs in Hamburg's red-light district in 1960. He left the band the next year after falling in love with German photographer ASTRID KIRCHHER but died of brain haemorrhage in 1962 aged only 21. The book's release next month will coincide with an auction of Sutcliffe's letters and art, including his designs for the Beatles' famous buttoned-up suits and moptop haircuts.

JASON BIGGS, who found fame playing Jim in the teen comedy American Pie, is heading to Broadway to star in the stage adaptation of The Graduate. Biggs, who also stars in American Pie 2, will portray Benjamin Braddock in the role DUSTIN HOFFMAN originally played in the 1967 film. It marks a return to Broadway for Biggs - as a child actor he co-starred opposite JUDD HIRSCH in Conversations With My Father 10 years ago. AL ICIA SILVERSTONE has already been cast as his girlfriend and KATHLEEN TURNER will play her mother, Mrs Robinson, a role she has played on the London stage.

British stars KATRIN CARTLIDGE and PAUL BETTANY are joining NICOLE KIDMAN in Danish director LARS VON TRIER's upcoming thriller Dogville. Kidman plays a woman on the run who takes refuge in a small town populated by an assortment of strange characters. Cartlidge has been cast as a mother of seven children and Bettany, who was last seen in A Knight's Tale, will portray one of the villagers. Dogville is set in California but will be filmed entirely in Sweden, beginning in the New Year.

LUCIE ARNAZ and her brother DESI ARNAZ JR will star in a 50th anniversary television tribute to their parents, LUCILLE BALL and DESI ARNAZ. Together they will recreate some of the classic scenes from the original I Love Lucy television series. The show will include celebrities, including ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER and ANTONIO BANDERAS, telling of growing up watching I Love Lucy in their native lands. The I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary special will air in America during the November Thanksgiving holiday and will be seen in Britain next year.

ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER is suing one of America's leading makers of slot machines for 20 million dollars. The actor says International Game Technology has used his voice and image as the Terminator on slot and video gaming machines. But Schwarzenegger does not associate himself with products he does not support or believe in, according to his lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. He is also ``particularly circumspect to avoid using his name, likeness or image for certain industries such as gambling''. His lawyer, Marty Singer, said: ``He's turned down offers as high as 20 million dollars in the United States so if someone uses his likeness for a product without his authorisation, then he should get paid a fee commensurate to what he has previously been offered.'' The company is contesting the lawsuit, saying it had received permission and a licence to market a Terminator slot machine.

British director SIMON WEST has postponed the big-screen version of the cult TV series The Prisoner to produce and direct the pirate film Black Flag. ``Ever since I was a child I have been obsessed with classic high seas adventure films,'' West tells Daily Variety. ``For some time now I have been looking for a story that reinvents the genre and I knew this was the one. ``It isn't the swashbuckling, men-in-tights version of yesteryear but a realistic, less idealised version.'' West, whose films include Con Air, The General's Daughter and Tomb Raider has a reputation for his skills with big-budget, epic-style material. Set in the Indian Ocean in the 17th century, Black Flag centres on a former Royal Naval officer who is unjustly marooned after a mutiny and becomes a pirate. The West Wing is delaying the start of its new season to produce an episode exploring the issues raised by the New York terrorist attacks. The show's creator, AARON SORKIN, says he wants to confront recent events and encourage tolerance of other cultures and ideas. Executive producer JOHN WELLS adds: ``I don't think it was possible for us to proceed without pausing to acknowledge what happened.'' Details of the topical episode are being kept secret until it is aired on October 3. The Emmy award-winning drama chronicles the lives of a fictitious White House staff and administration.

The release of SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS' new film, a comedy in which terrorists threaten New York with a nuclear holocaust, has been indefinitely postponed by the Walt Disney company. Bad Company, which was completed earlier this year, stars Hopkins as a CIA agent who recruits a rookie, played by CHRIS ROCK, to negotiate ``a sensitive nuclear weapons deal with terrorists'', according to an official synopsis. The 70 million production reportedly contains a scene in which a terrorist named Omid tells Rock's character that he will use a nuclear device to ``turn Wall Street into a piece of charcoal''.

A judge has thrown out a lawsuit which accused the producers of the acclaimed television drama The Sopranos of insulting the dignity of Italian-Americans by depicting them as mobsters. Judge Richard Siebel ruled in Chicago that the American Italian Defence Association suffered no harm at the hands of the Sopranos, despite its claims to the contrary. He said the show's producers have the right to make Tony Soprano and his family as bad as they want to, but the association has said it will appeal against the decision. It is not seeking financial damages but wants a ruling condemning the series for harming the image of Italian-Americans by portraying them as criminally and morally corrupt.

The planned sequel to the comedy hit Meet the Parents, to be called Meet the Fockers, has been delayed by the problems of finding a suitable script. Both its stars, ROBERT DE NIRO and BEN STILLER, have taken other film work and the director JAY ROACH has signed on to direct the third Austin Powers instalment, Goldmember. ``I don't know what's going on with it,'' Stiller tells Entertainment Weekly magazine. ``Comedy sequels are tough because so much is based on the freshness of it. So if they can figure out a way to do it, it would b e great. ``But no one wants to make something that's just going out there to do the same things again.''

The team behind the acclaimed drug smuggling expose Traffic is working on a film about the Belgian king Leopold II, whose rubber-producing factory was responsible for the deaths of millions of people in Africa's Congo basin. Traffic's Oscar-winning director STEVEN SODERBERGH and its producer LAURA BICKFORD are basing the film on a book by NEAL ASCHERSON. It tells of a group of young workers who tried to expose the enslavement, torture and dismemberment of Congo natives who were forced to harvest rubber. King Leopold, who reigned from 1856 to 1909, cultivated an image as a benevolent philanthropist, yet paid his brutal foremen based on the number of hands they cut off from workers who resisted them. No casting has yet been announced but GEORGE CLOONEY is reportedly talking to Soderbergh about the project.

Patriotic songs are topping the list of best selling records in America this week with LEE GREENWOOD's Grammy-winning 1984 tune God Bless the USA in particular demand. It re-entered Billboard magazine's country charts at No 16 after receiving 2,605 plays on radio stations during the week, compared with 47 the week before. Retailers said other in-demand songs include BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's Born in the USA and We Shall Overcome, WHITNEY HOUSTON's Star-Spangled Banner, RAY CHARLES's America the Beautiful and KATE SMITH's 1938 recording of IRVING BERLIN's God Bless America.