Alaska in filmmaking pipeline with new incentives (Reuters)
Reuters - Alaska was one of the last states to join the United States of America, and after enacting a bill last week it became one of the last to join the United States of Film Incentives. More »
Boy George to perform for NYC sanitation workers (AP)
AP - Boy George is returning some good karma to New York City's sanitation workers: Two years after sweeping the city streets as part of community service, he has decided to perform a free concert for his former co-workers. More »
Gannett to freeze employee pension plan (Reuters)
Reuters - Gannett Co Inc will freeze its employee pension plan and enhance its 401(k) retirement plan as the USA Today publisher tries to save money in a rough business environment. More »
Lil Wayne's new CD sells 423,000 in a day (AP)
AP - The excessive leaks and bootlegging of Lil Wayne's new album haven't prevented it from being a hot seller: The rapper's "Tha Carter III" sold 423,000 copies in its first day of release, according to Billboard magazine, citing figures from Nielsen SoundScan. More »
Carrie Underwood extends "Carnival" tour (Reuters)
Reuters - Carrie Underwood has extended her maiden headlining tour, dubbed Carnival Ride, through mid-December. More »
Maroon 5 expands new album with DVD, B-sides (Reuters)
Reuters - Maroon 5's 2007 album, "It Won't Be Soon Before Long," will be reissued in expanded form July 8. More »
Memoir coming from Madonna's brother (AP)
AP - The mystery is solved: Madonna's brother, Christopher Ciccone, is writing a memoir about his sister, to be released in mid-July by Simon & Schuster with a first printing of 350,000, the publisher told The Associated Press on Wednesday. More »
Bonnaroo opens amid summer festival revival (AP)
AP - When the tens of thousands of music-crazy fans gather in the Tennessee countryside this weekend for Bonnaroo, they'll be part of not just one of the summer's biggest music festival, but a nationwide revival. More »
News network for blacks eyed (AP)
AP - J.C. Watts thinks the uproar over statements by Barack Obama's one-time pastor illustrates the need for a national black TV news channel. More »
Funding boost for Canadian TV sought as Banff wraps (Reuters)
Reuters - After a flurry of early deals Monday, the Banff World Television Festival concluded Wednesday with a chorus calling for aid to Canada's indigenous producers in the battle against Hollywood. More »
Lifetime in tune with "Rita Rocks" (Reuters)
Reuters - Lifetime is adding the half-hour comedy "Rita Rocks" to its schedule. More »
Heidi and Spencer's Television Wedding? (E! Online)
E! Online - Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt want to do it on live television. More »
Transport Group Lines Up Divas Murney, Blazer, Hoty, Walsh and More to Teach Master Classes (Playbill)
Playbill - Transport Group, the winner of 2007 Drama Desk and Obie awards, will offer Diva Master Classes, its second series of master classes taught by some of the leading singing actresses in Broadway musicals, starting June 30. More »
'This Beautiful City', a Look at Evangelical America, Makes DC Bow June 11 Prior to L.A. and NYC (Playbill)
Playbill - This Beautiful City, the new theatrical portrait of Colorado Springs, CO, as the center of the evangelical Christian movement in America, gets its Washington, DC, premiere June 11 at The Studio Theatre. More »
Lloyd Webber's 'Tell Me On a Sunday' to Make Chicago Debut (Playbill)
Playbill - Bailiwick Repertory, in association with Blue Moon Studio Theater, will present the Chicago premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's one-woman musical Tell Me On a Sunday, opening Aug. 11. More »
National Tour of 'August: Osage County' Launches in Summer 2009 (Playbill)
Playbill - The dysfunctional family of Tracy Letts' August: Osage County will tour the nation beginning in San Francisco in summer 2009. More »
Fonzie and Friends Will Tour in 'Happy Days'; Cast Album Now in Stores (Playbill)
Playbill - The new national tour of Happy Days - A New Musical, with Fonzie, the Cunninghams and malt shop owner Arnold singing about life in the fifties, will launch at La Mirada Theatre in California Oct. 31-Nov. 16. More »
Chicago's Touring Musicals Will Offer a "Taste" of Show Tunes in Free Outdoor Concert (Playbill)
Playbill - Jersey Boys, Wicked and other commercial musicals under the umbrella of presenter Broadway in Chicago will be represented June 30 in the free concert dubbed Broadway in Chicago Concert in the Park, during the city's popular Taste of Chicago food festival. More »
'Phantom' Tour to Welcome Adams to Title Role (Playbill)
Playbill - Richard Todd Adams will don the mask of the national tour of The Phantom of the Opera starting June 11 in Sacramento, CA. More »
PLAYBILL.COM'S BRIEF ENCOUNTER With Mark Rylance (Playbill)
Playbill - Given his pedigree, one would expect that actor Mark Rylance's long-awaited Broadway debut would be in a high-minded production of some work of the Bard's. More »
René Auberjonois Makes DC Shakespeare Theatre Debut as 'Invalid' (Playbill)
Playbill - Tony Award-winning actor René Auberjonois is hypochondriac Argan in The Shakespeare Theatre Company's new production of MoliËre's The Imaginary Invalid, adapted by Alan Drury and directed by Keith Baxter, beginning June 10. More »
'Edward Albee's Occupant' Extended Again in NYC (Playbill)
Playbill - Signature Theatre Company announced June 10 that its critically acclaimed world-premiere production of Edward Albee's Occupant has been extended again by popular demand through July 13. More »
Bagley Mischka's Riviera Revery (Fashion Wire Daily)
Fashion Wire Daily - Sometimes Cruise, or Resort, collections have little to do with warm weather vacations in exotic locals during the cold winter months following the purchase of one's fall wardrobe – it's simply a retail signifier that new merchandise will be hitting the floor pre-spring. More »
Rate-a-Trailer: Vin Diesel Saves Us All in Babylon A.D. (E! Online)
E! Online - You kinda have to respect Vin Diesel for sticking to what he loves: stylish sci-fi movies that don't exactly make bank (see The Chronicles of Riddick?or don't). So check out this new trailer for Babylon A.D., due Aug. 29, which looks a bit like Children of Men remade on the Blade Runner set. More »