Weeds Reaches A High

Showtime's comedy series Weeds was positively smoking this week as its season debut at 10:00 p.m. Monday attracted 1.3 million viewers -- the biggest audience ever to watch any telecast on the channel. A repeat at 11:00 p.m. drew an additional 406,000, according to Nielsen Media Research. Meanwhile Lifetime Cable Channel reported that its Army Wives was the highest-rated show on basic cable last week.


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Courteeners fancy festive Duffy duet

The Courteeners singer Liam Fray has said that he would like to collaborate with Duffy.

Fray claimed the Welsh soul singer is a "dangerous talent" and proposed that his band record a Christmas duet with her.

"I wouldn't mind doing something with Duffy," he told Orange. "She's got a fantastic voice.

"She's a dangerous talent. We're labelmates as well so we're not ruling anything out at this early stage. Christmas single perhaps."

The Manchester band release their new single 'No You Didn't, No You Don't' on June 23.



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Tributes Pour In For Sydney Pollack

Tributes from Hollywood's biggest names have poured in for director and actor Sydney Pollack, who died of cancer on Monday (May 26) aged 73. Publicist Leslie Dart made the announcement, explaining that the Oscar winner was diagnosed with cancer about nine months ago. Pollack, who started his directing career in 1965, recently directed and starred alongside George Clooney in 'Michael Clayton'. "Sydney made the world a little better, movies a little better and even dinner a little better. A tip of the hat to a class act. He'll be missed terribly," Clooney said. Sally Field also paid tribute to her 'Abscence of Malice' co-star, saying, "Having the opportunity to know Sydney and work with him was a great gift in my life. He was a good friend and a phenomenal director and I will cherish every moment that I ever spent with him." Pollack, who won the Best Director Oscar for the 1986 film 'Out of Africa', also featured in an ongoing role in television's 'Will and Grace' as the father of Will Truman (Eric McCormack). The Directors Guild of America paid tribute to one of their own in a statement, saying, "Sydney let the dialogue and the emotion of a scene speak for itself. Not given to cinematic tricks, his gentle and thoughtful touch and his focus on the story let us inhabit the world he created in each film." Pollack passed away in his Los Angeles home, surrounded by his wife Claire and two daughters Rebecca and Rachael.Photo courtesy of THINKFilm. 

Weezer's power pop reaches higher but does the job on self-titled album

"Weezer"

Weezer (Geffen/Interscope)

Rest easy slacker geeks - Weezer have gotten it right once again.

Plowing through another set of snarky power pop, Weezer's self-titled sixth studio disc is a bit audacious without skimping on what makes this band great - popping riffs, infectious choruses and an almost silly nostalgia for youth.

Frontman Rivers Cuomo relinquishes lead vocal and songwriting duties here and there, which may turn off some fans, but Weezer remain smarter than most acts and Cuomo and his mates still pen some of the best power pop ditties you're likely to find.

Opening track "Troublemaker" is a kicking tongue-in-cheek knock on rock star misconceptions: "I'm gonna be a star and people will crane necks/to get a glimpse of me to see if I am having sex/and studying my moves to try and understand/why I am so unlike the singers in the other bands."

Lead single "Pork and Beans" is already pleasing fans of previous hits, "Everybody Get Dangerous" tackles the risks of youth that we manage to survive and "Heart Songs" is Cuomo's sweet ode to his myriad influences that references everyone from Gordon Lightfoot and Bruce Springsteen to Rob Bass (yes, really) and Kurt Cobain.

Other standouts include an homage to boyhood escape on "Dreamin'," diverse, pulsating rockers in "Thought I Knew" and "Automatic," and the gloomy synth freak-out of "Cold Dark World."

With their most challenging disc since 1996's "Pinkerton," it would seem Cuomo and Weezer have grown up a bit - but thankfully not too much.

Check out this track: "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" may be the most ambitious song in the Weezer canon. Piano, acoustic and electric guitars, choir chants and Beach Boy-esque falsetto harmonies (among other elements) propel continual switches from punk, folk and metal over the course of six jaw-dropping minutes.

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Jessica Simpson To Be Ashlee's Maid Of Honour

Jessica Simpson has confirmed she will act as maid of honour at her sister Ashlee’s upcoming wedding.

The singer and actress’ younger sibling is marrying Fall Out Boy rocker Pete Wentz, and Jessica intends on being heavily involved in proceedings - despite Ashlee recently commenting Jessica’s music would be banned from the reception.

When asked if she would be the maid of honour after performing for 35,000 members of the Marine Corps at Camp Pendleton on Thursday night, Jessica replied, "Of course!"


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Robert Downey Jr - Iron Man Still Rules Us Box Office

Robert Downey Jr - Iron Man Still Rules Us Box Office

Branding iron Man has held on to the issue 1 touch in the North American box office as the summer smash hit season endures.The comic book adaptation added $50.5 ...

Album Review: Craig David, "Trust Me" (Reprise Records)

Album Review: Craig David, "Trust Me" (Reprise Records)

In the United Kingdom, R&B artist Craig Jacques Louis David [ tickets ] ranks among the country's top century richest people in music younger than years 30. However, in the United States, euphony fans barely blinked an eye at his fabulous 2001 debut, "Born to Do It," as well as deuce subsequent releases.That should variety with "Trust Me," the 27-year-old Brits phenom's twenty-five percent collection since introducing the humanity to two-stepping. Recorded in Cuban capital, Republic of Cuba, with producer Mary Martin Terefe (James IV James Douglas Morrison, KT Tunstall) and mixer/producer/writer Fraser T. Kate Smith (Beyonce, Jamelia), "Trust Me" opens with trine potential drop golf-club hits. St. David unleashes a clunk freshly spin on Jacques Louis David Bowie's "Let's Saltation" with "Hot Stuff (Let's Dance)," featuring his speedy vocals; meanwhile, every bit manic horns lace "6 of 1 Thing," and "Fri Night" is a musically moral force blue funk lead. Recording in Cuba proved to be inspirational, as shown on the Latin-fused "Don't Play With Our Passion." The legal age of the 11-song solicitation is shivering, still. "Awkward" starts off with David, harshly, repeating the word "awkward." Merely the meat of the song is institute in the Motown-like harmonies during the chorus. "Officially Yours" could make its path onto wedding playlists, "She's on Fire" is sultry, and "Don't Play With Our Making love" is a straight-up soul rack up in the making. Lyrically, Jacques Louis David doesn't stray far from his style of vocalizing about love, sexual urge and partying. On "Hot Stuff (Let's Dancing)," he describes an nonpareil woman he sees at a cabaret: "(Let's dance) become on the base no need to hold back/Sexy lash, mini, stilettos on, shakin' completely that (let's dance)." St. David compares his lover to a "pot melody" on "Kind of Girl for Me." The compendium overall is strong. Jacques Louis David may non get sold many albums in the United States, only his music is rich.