SYRIANA

EXPLODES ONTO DVD JUNE 20 FROM WARNER HOME VIDEO

Set against the extensive global oil industry network, Syriana unfolds a complex series of interconnecting stories that challenge the morality and integrity of all those involved. From the wealthy oil executives, to the politicians in Washington, and the field worker in Pakistan, no one’s intentions are left unquestioned. Syriana presents the corruption that exists in order to deliver the oil that the world runs on and forces viewers to confront the issue head on.
SYNOPSIS
Big oil means big money. Very big money. And that fact unleashes corruption that stretches from Houston to Washington to the Mideast and ensnares industrialists, princes, spies, politicos, oilfield laborers and terrorists in a deadly, deceptive web of move and countermove. This lightning-paced, whip-smart action thriller grips your mind and nerves with an intensity that doesn't let go for an instant.

BONUS FEATURES
• A Conversation with George Clooney
• Deleted Scenes
• Make a Change, Make a Difference Featurette

BASICS
Price: $28.98
Street Date: June 20, 2006
Video: 2.40:1 widescreen
Audio: Dolby 5.1 Surround (English, French)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Run Time: 128 min
Rating: R (for violence and language)

Despite rumors that Paramount was planning to deep freeze the Trek fanchise for several years, the studio announced Thursday that J.J. Abrams (Lost, MI:3) will produce and direct the 11th feature feature, for a 2008 release. Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burk will co-produce. The script, to be written by MI:3 screenwriters Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, will center on the early days of James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer space mission.

Source: Variety

CANNES 2006
The official dance card has been released. The festival will kick off with The Da Vinci Code and close with Transylvania. Neither of the two are in competition. Those films vying for respect and glory include The Weakest Is Always Right (d. Lucas Belvaux), Summer Palace (d. Lou Ye), Lights at the Edge of the City (d. Aki Kaurismaki), Flandres (d. Bruno Dumont), Selon Charlie (d. Nicole Garcia), Quand j'etais chanteur (d. Xavier Giannoli), Days of Glory (d. Rachid Bouchareb), The Wind That Shakes the Barley (d. Ken Loach), The Cayman (d. Nanni Moretti), The Family Friend (d. Paolo Sorrentino), Pan's Labyrinth (d. Guillermo Del Toro), Youth on the March (d. Pedro Costa), Volver (d. Pedro Almodovar), Climates (d. Nuri Bilge Ceylan), Red Road (d. Andrea Arnold), Fast Food Nation (d. Richard Linklater), Marie-Antoinette (d. Sofia Coppola), Southland Tales (d. Richard Kelly), and Babel (d. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu). Special Gala screenings include United 93, X-Men: The Last Stand, A Scanner Darkly, and Over the Hedge.

GEORGIA RULE
Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, and Felicity Huffman will star in Georgia Rule. Garry Marshall (Princess Diaries) is writing, directing, and producing. The story centers on a rebellious young woman (Lohan) who has a dysfunctional relationship with her mother (Huffman) and is sent to spend a summer with her grandmother (Fonda).

PARADISE LOST
Legendary Pictures is developing a live-action film version of John Milton's epic poem, Paradise Lost. Scott Derrickson, who studied theology as an undergrad, will direct. Vincent Newman will produce. First published in 1667, the story centers on Lucifer's failed rebellion in heaven and subsequent role in Adam and Eve's fall from grace. Phil DiBlasi and Byron Willinger wrote the adaptation. Stuart Hazeldine and Derrickson will compelte the screenplay. Legendary's Chairman Thomas Tull said there is no target release date, "Given the gravity of the source material, it's really important to get it right. It will be ready when it's ready."

CAMILLE
Sienna Miller and James Franco will star in the indie feature Camille, a mythical love story. Gregory Mackenzie will direct from a script by Nick Pustay.

DRIVER
Rogue Pictures has picked up the rights to writer/director Roger Avary's bigscreen adaptation of Driver, the Atari videogame. The film centers on the world's best getaway driver who's skills put to the test on a job gone bad. Jeremy Bolt and Paul W.S. Anderson are producing.

PREY
Laurence Fishburne has signed on to headline the psychological thriller Prey. The Jerrold Brown script follows a man who sets out on a solo hunting expedition and severely injures his leg, only to be rescued by a mysterious trapper with secretly sinister intentions. James Marsh will direct. Mark Amin, Robin Schorr, and Cami Winikoff are producing. A fall start date is being planned.

JACK OF ALL TRADES
Walt Disney Pictures has acquired the script outline Jack of All Trades, by King of the Hill writers Alan Freedland and Alan R. Cohen. The story revolved around a married dermatologist with a fondness for taking the easy way out. When he hires a handyman to cater to his wife and two children, the doc finds himself squeezed out of the picture. Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot will produce.

GONE, BABY, GONE
Ed Harris has joined the cast of Ben Affleck's directorial debut Gone, Baby, Gone. Ben himself adapted the Dennis Lehane novel, which begins shooting next month in Boston. Harris will play a cop, opposite two private investigators (Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan) hunting for an abducted 4-year-old in Boston's underworld.

UNTITLED COMEDY
Director Noah Baumbach has added John Turturro to the cast of his untitled comedy, alongside Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Jack Black. Kidman plays a woman who brings her pre-teen son with her to visit the upstate home of her sister (Leigh) and brother-in-law (Black). Scott Rudin is producing.

Source: Variety

TV GUIDE SCOOPAGE: **SPOILERS** from insider Michael Ausiello
Gilmore Girls -- Contrary to rumors, Rory and Logan do not elope in the season finale.
Rescue Me -- Marisa Tomei may sign on to play Tommy's former sister-in-law-cum-love-interest.
One Tree Hill -- Nathan and Haley will finally have their dream wedding, but a tragic accident will leave one character fighting for his/her life. It will also be revealed that not one, but two characters are preggers.
Charmed -- Someone with sorceress blood coursing through her veins makes the ultimate sacrifice.
The OC -- Kaitlin (Willa Holland) will move back to town full-time, sparking a repopulation of the high-school universe. The older kids will segue into a twentysomething world beyond just the bait shop. Autumn Reeser (Taylor) will be made a series regular.

BIG LOVE
Variety reports that HBO is commiting to another season of Big Love, the polygamy drama from Tom Hanks Playtone Productions. An exact episode count has not been released, but new shows wil begin airing in August 2007 airing. HBO entertainment president Carolyn Strauss said, "It's striking a chord with viewers and critics, so it was a fairly uncomplicated decision to move forward."

Everyone's favorite scoopster, TV Guide's Michael Ausiello, has revealed that the LOST two-hour season finale "is basically one big Desmond flashback."

MAMMA MIA
Tom Hanks and producing partner Gary Goetzman are finalizing plans for a big screen version of the Broadway musical Mamma Mia! for holiday 2007 release. Playwrite Catherine Johnson, is writing the screenplay. Show producer Judy Craymer had rebuffed film offers for years but liked what Hanks, Goetzman, and Rita Wilson had done to turn Nia Vardalos' one-woman stage show into My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

ME, ME, ME
New Line is developing Johnny Rosenthal's comedy Me, Me, Me. Shawn Levy (Pink Panther) will direct and produce. The story centers on the world's most obnoxious narcissist, who wishes people could be more like him and then enters a living hell when his dream becomes a reality.

DEATH AT A FUNERAL
MGM has gotten behind the comedy Death at a Funeral. Frank Oz is direct from a screenplay by Dean Craig. Matthew Macfadyen, Peter Dinklage, and Ewen Bremner will star. The story revolves around a dysfunctional Brit family as they gather to mourn the passing of their patriarch, but a sober, heartfelt goodbye turns into calamity.

LARKLIGHT
Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to British author Philip Reeve's fantasy-adventure Larklight for Denise Di Novi to produce. Larklight is the first in a Victorian-era space adventure trilogy in which a brother and sister team with a band of renegade space pirates to save the world from destruction at the hands of a madman.

TENDERNESS
Russell Crowe has signed to star in director John Polson's indie thriller Tenderness, adapted by Emil Stern from the Robert Cormier's novel. The tale follows a violent teenager whose life intertwines with a 16-year-old runaway who can't resist his charm. Crowe will play a cop who sets out to unravel the teen's complex past.

CASE 39
Renee Zellweger has signed on for Paramount's horror-thriller Case 39. The screenplay by Ray Wright centers around a social worker who saves an abused 10-year-old girl from her parents, only to discover that the parents are not the real problem. Kevin Misher and Steve Golin are producing. The studio is still looing for a director.

NORBIT
Thandie Newton, Cuba Gooding Jr, and Eddie Griffin join Eddie Murphy in DreamWorks' Norbit. Brian Robbins (Smallville) is directing. John Davis, Mike Tollin, and Eddie Murphy are producing. The comedy focused on a meek guy (Murphy) pressed into marrying a monstrous woman (also Murphy), only to meet the woman of his dreams (Newton). Gooding plays Newton's boyfriend, with Griffin as a retired pimp.

Source: Variety

KIDNAPPED
Angel co-creator David Greenwalt has signed onboard as showrunner for NBC's Kidnapped. The Michael Dinner-helmed drama pilot -- starring Jeremy Sisto and Dana Delany as kidnapping experts who works outside the legal system -- received early greenlight with a 13 episode commitment of the skein created by Jason Smilovic. Greenwalt will work closely with creator Jason Smilovic, who exec produced the pilot. Each season of the show will feature a different kidnapping victim.

THE DARLENE WESTGOR PROJECT
Comedian/writer Carol Leifer has partnered with Nick at Nite to create an original sitcom -- The Darlene Westgor Project, based on the life of Westgor, who won Nick at Nite's "Search for the Funniest Mom in America" last year. Westgor will star as herself in the pilot, to be directed by legendary sitcom director Gil Junger (Soap, Benson, Golden Girls).

AMPED
Spike TV is locking in former X-Files scribes Frank Spotnitz and Vince Gilligan for the new drama Amped, an event series about a mysterious epidemic that hits Los Angeles.

AMERICA'S NEXT TOP GIRL BAND
Four members of 1980s pop groups The Go-Go's and The Bangles -- Kathy Valentine, Charlotte Caffey, Susanna Hoffs, and Vicki Peterson -- are teaming with the CW for a reality show designed to launch America's next top girl band. The project is in development for the CW's inaugural 2006-07 season. Unlike Pop Stars -- the pioneering WB reality series -- this project will search for aspiring femme rockers who can also play their own instruments.

HD-DVD players and software went on sale Tuesday at Best Buy and other select retailers, and a trickle of early adopters came to buy, even though only three movies are available. "The only people who bought are the hard-cores," one industry observer said. More high-definition titles will begin hitting stores next week, but with only three -- The Last Samurai, Phantom of the Opera, and Serenity -- in stores when players hit the shelves, there was hardly a stampede of consumers.

Toshiba, in the process of shipping about 10,000 players to retailers, had no firm first-day sales tally. Marketing VP Jodi Sally would only say, "Retailers who have received players to date have reported very positive sales. I am very pleased to see the demand for high-definition content being fulfilled to the early adopters with our HD-DVD players." Meanwhile, elaborate kiosks with huge widescreen TVs, explanatory boards and a handful of players and movies are going into about 100 Wal-Mart stores during the next two weeks, an unusually aggressive move by a retailer focused on the masses. The discount chain didn't begin selling DVD players until spring 1999, two years after the DVD format was launched. Wal-Mart also has begun selling the cheaper of the two Toshiba players, the HD-D1, on its Web site, listing an anticipated delivery date of Friday. The player is on sale for $498, one dollar off the list price.

Source: Reuters

Tuesday was a big birthday for a trio of high profile babies.

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes welcomed daughter Suri, weighing in at 7 pounds, 7 ounces. "Both mother and daughter are doing well," publicist Arnold Robinson said in a prepared statement. The name Suri has Hebrew origins meaning "princess."

Brooke Shields and husband Chris Henchy welcomed 7 pound daughter, Grier.

Completing the hat trick is my niece Aubrey, the smallest of the trio, at six and a half pounds.

Happy Birthday ladies!

In other baby news, singer Melissa Etheridge and actress Tammy Lynn Michaels are expecting twins this fall. "To answer the obvious question: we used an anonymous donor from a (sperm) bank." The Grammy-winning singer has two children from her relationship with former partner Julie Cypher: daughter Bailey Jean and son Beckett. Cypher had the children through artificial insemination using the sperm of rock legend David Crosby.

JOEY: COMPLETE FIRST SEASON

Available on DVD May 30, from Warner Home Video

Goodbye Broadway, Hello Hollywood! Joey: The Complete First Season, features Emmy-nominee Matt LeBlanc in the first 24 episodes of this spin-off that continues the beloved Friends tradition.

SYNOPSIS
Joey leaves New York for Hollywood in order to take his acting career to the next level. He also says goodbye to a time when his friends were his family and welcomes the chance to turn his family into his friends. After reuniting with his high-strung sister Gina (Drea de Matteo), Joey moves in with his 20-year-old nephew, Michael (Paulo Costanzo), who is literally a rocket scientist. However, what Joey lacks in book smarts he makes up for with people smarts -- making him the best new friend his nephew could ask for. Joey also copes with his sexy but uptight neighbor Alex (Andrea Anders) and his tact-challenged agent Bobbie (Jennifer Coolidge).

BONUS FEATURES
* None

BASICS
Price: May 30, 2006
Street Date: $39.98
Video: 1.33:1 full screen
Audio: Dolby 2.0 Surround (English)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Run Time: 525 min