HOLLYWOOD - Top Story: Idol Whittles Down to Clay and Ruben
And then there were two. Viewers voted Kimberly Locke off Fox's American Idol competition Wednesday night, which narrows the field down to crowd favorites Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard. A spokesman for the show told The Associated Press that Aiken and Studdard had been friends with Locke throughout the competition and added they were in tears after she was voted out. Aiken, of Raleigh, N.C., and Studdard, a Birmingham, Ala., native, will go head-to-head on the show's May 21 finale, with the winner getting a recording contract. Last year's American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson, saw her album debut at No. 1 on Billboard last month.
Presenters Set for MTV Awards
Presenters for the 12th annual MTV Movie Awards were announced yesterday, with Brittany Murphy, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Mark Wahlberg and Kate Hudson headlining the ceremony. Rapper 50 Cent, the Russian girl duo t.A.t.U and pop singer Pink are set to perform. The awards ceremony, hosted by Justin Timberlake and Seann William Scott, will be taped May 31 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles and will air on MTV at 9 p.m. EDT June 5.
CBS Unveils Fall Slate
CBS will introduce seven new series this fall, including Jerry Bruckheimer's Cold Case, a drama about a Philadelphia detective assigned to track unsolved crimes. Former Sopranos star Joe Pantoliano will star in The Handler as an FBI agent training undercover agents in Los Angeles, while Charlie Sheen will star as a bachelor with a Malibu beach house in Two and a Half Men. Others on the slate include Navy CIS, about special agents fighting crimes within the military; an all-star version of Survivor with Richard Hatch, Rudy Boesch, Tina Wesson, Ethan Zohn and Jerri Manthey; the small-town drama The Brotherhood of Poland, N.H.; and the comedyThe Stones.
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Video Game Star
Arnold Schwarzenegger, star of this summer's Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, will also star in an Atari video game due out this fall based on the movie, the AP reports. The 55-year-old action star said other companies are approaching him with ideas, including a pitch to make a game based on the 1977 weightlifting documentary Pumping Iron. "Two companies came to me with that idea to make it interactive, to have pose-offs," Schwarzenegger said Monday at an Atari party. "It can be something very educational but at the same time inspirational for kids to work out rather than become a couch potato," he added.
Spears and Skechers Settle Lawsuits
Lawyers for Britney Spears and the Skechers footwear company have settled competing lawsuits over a deal for the singer to market a line of roller skates and accessories, the AP reports. In December, Spears filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against Skechers, claiming the company did not pay her adequately for marketing a line of skates, failed to find outside businesses to make accessories for her line and used her presence in ads to increase sales of its own skate products. Skechers responded with a $10 million lawsuit, accusing Spears of fraud and breach of contract, claiming Spears refused to cooperate with designers and marketers in rolling out her products. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.
Claudia Schiffer in Car Accident
Supermodel Claudia Schiffer and her three-month old son Caspar escaped injury following a car accident in London. Schiffer was traveling with her husband, film producer Matthew Vaughn, and their son Wednesday when their Range Rover collided with a white van. Schiffer's assistant was driving the car when they hit another vehicle. Newspaper photos showed a calm-looking Schiffer cradling Caspar after the accident near fashionable Kensington High Street in West London, Reuters reports.
Role Call: Snoop Dogg, Method Man in Soul Plane, Farrell's Anchor Man
Rapper-actors Snoop Dogg and Method Man are set to star in Soul Plane, MGM's urban version of the 1980 comedy Airplane! for director Jessy Terrero. Snoop Dogg will play the plane's pilot, and Method Man will portray the airline owner's best friend Muggsy, who is put in charge of the plane's business class ... Christina Applegate will star alongside Will Ferrell in the DreamWorks comedy Anchor Man: The Legend of Ron Burgundy for director Adam McKay. In the 1970s-set pic, Ferrell will play a local news anchorman ready for a national network job who falls in love with a cutthroat feminist reporter played by Applegate.