People news 10/7/03

'Newlyweds' tale good for second season

NEW YORK -- Television's guiltiest pleasure, "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica," is coming back for a second season.

MTV announced Monday that it has renewed the reality series, which follows pop singers Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson as they muddle through married life.

The series has made the 23-year-old Simpson infamous for her inability to do even the most basic housework and for her dippy-blonde moments, like the time she confused the tuna she was eating for chicken.

"Is this chicken, what I have, or is this fish?" she asked Lachey, 29, in the show's first episode. "I know it's tuna, but it says 'Chicken by the Sea."'

The finale of the first season of "Newlyweds" is scheduled to air at 9:30 p.m. Oct. 21, five days before the couple's one-year anniversary. New episodes will begin in 2004.

Also on Monday, MTV announced it was bringing back "Doggy Fizzle Televizzle," Snoop Dogg's variety show, for a second season next year.

Movie director criticizes quality of recent films

ASPEN, Colo. -- The quality of films seems to have deteriorated in the last 20 years, a panel of producers and directors said during a salute to American filmmaking in the 1970s.

"It was a different time in the 1970s. Movies didn't have to make as much money," director and producer Sydney Pollack said.

He also said the American public is driven by short attention spans.

"If you don't get the clothes off fast or the gun out quick, you're in trouble. Audiences want to feel something intense, quickly, without wasting a lot of time," said Pollack, whose films include "The Way We Were," "Tootsie" and the Oscar-winning "Out of Africa."

Pollack was part of a panel discussion that included production and costume designer Polly Platt, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs and director William Friedkin as part of a tribute to the 25th anniversary of the Aspen Filmfest Saturday.

Idea for "KillBill" film fermented over drinks

SAN FRANCISCO -- Director Quentin Tarantino and actress Uma Thurman came up with the idea for "Kill Bill," their latest film, over an after-work cocktail during the shooting of "Pulp Fiction" a decade ago.

"I told him I had this idea about a character -- she's an assassin -- and we went back and forth," Thurman told the San Francisco Chronicle for its Sunday editions. "And Quentin goes, 'Yes! And the guy at the head of it all, his name is Bill! He's a pimp for assassins! .... He's the bad guy and the movie's called 'Kill Bill'!"

Tarantino immediately wrote the opening scene for "Kill Bill" but set aside the screenplay for other writing, directing and acting projects after the release of "Pulp Fiction."

He didn't pick up his long-abandoned story until 2000, when he ran into Thurman at an Academy Awards party. Tarantino, 40, told the newspaper, "I just wrote and rewrote for a whole year."

"Kill Bill" turned into Tarantino's biggest undertaking to date: a three-hour tale of an elite assassin, played by the 33-year-old Thurman, who's on a mission of revenge against her former employer, Bill.

Last summer, Tarantino agreed with distributor Miramax to split "Kill Bill" into two installments. The first part opens Friday; the second is scheduled to come out early next year.

Country singer Lovett explains seven-year delay

DALLAS -- Lyle Lovett is ready to answer the question on the minds of his fans: Why did it take him seven years to release "My Baby Don't Tolerate," an album of new, original songs?

"These last seven years for me have been really busy," Lovett, 45, said in an interview last week with The Dallas Morning News. "It just took me awhile."

And, as he pointed out: "It's our sixth release in seven years."

Lovett released 1998's "Step Inside This House," a collection of tunes by his favorite Texas songwriters; 1999's "Live in Texas," a concert gig recording; 2000's "Dr. T & the Women," a mostly instrumental soundtrack; 2001's "Anthology Volume One: Cowboy Man;" and this year's "Smile," a compilation of tunes he recorded for movies.

He toured to promote those releases, spent months rehabilitating his right leg broken in March 2002 by a bull and got engaged to April Kimble, whom he met at a Dallas-area radio station.

The new album arrived in stores Tuesday and Lovett began a 30-city tour Saturday in Las Vegas. The last concert is set for Nov. 23 in San Antonio.

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On the Net:

Lyle Lovett: http://www.mcarecords.com/artistMain.asp?artistid46

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Fans of director Peter Jackson are lining up to buy a seat in a movie theater where the world premiere of the third "The Lord of the Rings" film will be screened in December.

Wellington's Embassy Theater Trust said Monday it had accidentally tapped into worldwide interest in the trilogy when it advertised its sponsor-a-seat program on a fan Web site.

"There's a huge number of 'Lord of the Rings' fans circling looking for any kind of connection with the films -- here's one they can put their names on," said Trust chairman Bill Sheat.

People from Japan to the United States and Canada have been sponsoring a seat in the theater currently being refurbished for the premiere of "The Return of the King," the third movie.

Already, 613 of the total 748 sponsored seats have been snapped up, some for as much as $1,104.

Payment gives the seat owner the right to a name plaque, showing they helped rebuild the 1920s classic cinema, a refurbishment project that Jackson championed. However, sponsoring a seat doesn't mean they get to sit in it for the premiere.