May 17, 2002 - World Entertainment News Network
Movie couple Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson's sleeper hit "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" is to be turned into a TV series.
The romantic comedy, which Hanks and Wilson's Playtone company produced and star's 'N Sync singer Joey Fatone, has become a smash-hit, despite little advertising and now the film is to be given the TV treatment.
Network bosses at CBS are in negotiations with the film's writer and star Nia Vardalos with a view to airing a new series later this year.
Posted by Jen on Saturday, May 18, 2002 @ 05:17 p.m.
Latin superstar Ricky Martin is planning to release two new Columbia albums by year-end: one in English and one in Spanish, with a few songs overlapping from disc-to-disc. In an exclusive interview at the recent Billboard Latin Music Conference in Miami, Martin revealed that he will have writing input in the entire process. The sets will follow 2000's "Sound Loaded," which debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.6 million copies in the U.S., according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The artist, who has been writing for the past 18 months, said, "At this point, it was necessary for me to be able to create some sort of cathartic process through my music. And it's good. For new artists, hey, you know what? It would be great if you can just force yourself and dare to find that vulnerability and write and dare to suck. You have to dare to suck in order to be great."
Martin also spoke about the importance of recording in Spanish, even as more and more crossovers take place. "It's valid to have Latin artists who want to come to the United States and record in English," he said. But, he added, those artists should not forget about recording in Spanish. "Because there's a very large industry we have to support, there's great Latin American composers, great musicians, great labels, and we can't leave that to one side," he said. "It's very important to assert what we have."
As previously reported, Martin has joined the star-studded lineup for Queen Elizabeth's Golden Jubilee concert June 3 at Buckingham Palace. Ozzy Osbourne, Paul McCartney, Brian Wilson, and Eric Clapton are also on the bill.
Martin is also up for three honors at the 2002 American Latino Media Arts (ALMA) Awards, including outstanding male performer and outstanding music video for "Nobody Wants To Be Lonely" with Christina Aguilera. The ceremony will be held Saturday (May 18) at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium and taped by ABC for a scheduled June 1 broadcast.
-- Leila Cobo, Miami
Posted by Jen on Saturday, May 18, 2002 @ 04:16 p.m.
No Doubt will lend its songs and voices to the character-based action video game Malice, which is due this fall on the Xbox and PlayStation 2 game systems.
The game, which was developed by Argonaut Games and published by Sierra Entertainment, will feature Gwen Stefani as the voice of the hammer-wielding lead character named Malice, who is described as a tough and feisty teenage heroine. The voices of band members Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont, and Adrian Young will be used as her cohorts.
In addition, three No Doubt songs from its current album, Rock Steady -- "Platinum Blonde Life," "In My Head," and "Detective," will be used in the game and in the television commercials to promote it either in their original form or as remixed versions.
"Being a band that grew up in the video game generation, the fusing of video games and music is exciting to us," said Kanal in a statement released Friday (May 17). "To be involved with a game during its creative development was a cool opportunity, so we jumped at the chance to be part of Malice."
-- Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna
Posted by Jen on Saturday, May 18, 2002 @ 04:11 p.m.
Looks like The Eminem (news - web sites) Show is opening early.
The rapper announced late Friday that the much-anticipated follow-up to his Grammy-winning, megaselling The Marshall Mathers LP will be in stores on May 28--a week earlier than planned.
The reason for the sudden switcheroo: illicit MP3 swapping. The album has been leaked on the Internet and is widely available through song-sharing applications like Morpheus.
"Due to the rampant Internet piracy and illegal bootlegging, Aftermath/Interscope, in conjunction with Eminem and his manager, have decided to push the release date up a week to May 28," reads a statement on the hip-hopster's official site, eminem.com.
"We had no choice."
The disc, featuring production from Em's mentor, Dr. Dre, is the rapper's first solo studio album in two years, and like its controversial predecessor, The Eminem Show is already making waves.
"Without Me," the first single and video off the album, was released two weeks ago and mocks everyone from Sally Jessy Raphael to Moby to 'N Syncer Chris Kirkpatrick to Limp Bizkit to Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites). Eminem even dresses as Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) in the video. Another cut, "White America," disses Cheney's wife (and outspoken rap critic), Lynne.
Despite being sneaked on the Web, The Eminem Show is expected to be a monster hit. "Without Me" has already climbed to number 20 on Billboard's latest Hot 100 singles chart.
The rapper and his label are also giving fans an incentive to hit stores early. The first 2 million copies will include a special limited-edition DVD featuring video clips and the trailer to the rapper's big-screen debut, the semiautobiographical 8 Mile, which is due November 8.
Meantime, Eminem (real name: Marshall Mathers III) is also putting the finishing touches on the 8 Mile soundtrack, which should hit stores in July. That is, of course, unless it winds up on the Internet first.
Posted by Jen on Saturday, May 18, 2002 @ 04:08 p.m.
MOSCOW - Russia's space agency is still waiting for an official applicant to be the world's third space tourist on a flight to the International Space Station (news - web sites) scheduled this fall, an official said Saturday.
But with time running out for the necessary training, the agency likely won't find anyone and the chance is virtually zero that a tourist will come along on the flight, agency spokesman Sergei Gorbunov told Interfax news agency.
Still, the Russian space agency hopes to find a tourist to join the mission with commander Sergei Zaletin and European Space Agency astronaut Frank DeWinne of Belgium, Gorbunov said. A Russian cosmonaut will start training for the mission when it becomes clear that no space tourist will join the trip.
There have been some who have expressed interest in joining the October trip, including Lance Bass of pop group 'N Sync (news - web sites). Also interested is Lori Garver, a former NASA (news - web sites) official who is seeking sponsors to cover the cost of the trip.
The world's second space tourist, South African Internet mogul Mark Shuttleworth, returned to Earth earlier this month. Like the world's first space tourist, Dennis Tito, he paid dlrs 20 million for the ride.
Posted by Jen on Saturday, May 18, 2002 @ 04:07 p.m.
In The News is a site devoted to Entertainment news found from various
sources on the Internet. In The News will mostly focus on Top-40 music news (mostly pop music
news) and news on the hottest celebrities. In The News cannot
guarantee the credibility of the articles found within the site. We are
only as credible as our sources make us. If an article has been found to
be false, we will make sure it is known as soon as possible.
In The News is archived daily, so to view news from past days updates, check the Archives.