Off The Record...

Better Than Ezra

How Does Your Garden Grow

After a string of radio hits and two successful albums, Better Than Ezra strays from their conventional mainstream sound, gravitating towards a deeply experimental, lush and melodious work that veers away from the solid rock that first garnered the trio major radio airplay. The single At the Stars, sounds most like vintage Better Than Ezra, but otherwise, the album is a pretty major departure. Solid songwriting, new sounds, ideas, and focus comprise this album.

At The Movies...

Cruel Intentions

Deciding to venture where few films have had the nerve to go recently, Cruel Intentions is a luscious, truly nasty look at rich kids from hell. Two step siblings, Kathryn and Sebastian, have the hots for each other but haven't acted upon that impulse yet. Instead, the two hatch little plots where Sebastian deflowers various debutantes. His school's new headmaster's daughter Annette Hargrove provides him with the ultimate challenge. This film creates a new teen genre for the coming millennium, a daring step in the right direction.

On Video...

Living Out Loud

A pair of losers, Holly Hunter as the spurned and divorced wife of a philandering surgeon, and Danny DeVito an apartment building doorman, move through post-marriage life rudderless, isolated and alone, until the unlikely duo come together to console each other for life's failings. Because of the fine acting and intelligent script, we come to care for the leads.  A thoughtful, mature relationship film that is at once funny and sad, and Queen Latifah is superb as a friendly nightclub torch singer.

The Buzz...

The latest animation-to-film adaptation is Josie and the Pussycats, to be written and directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont (Can't Hardly Wait) for Universal. It's been described as Clueless meets The Men in Black, and it's about a rock band which saves the world.

Warner Brothers is close to securing a distribution deal for a film version of Pokemon, based on the Japanese animated television show that has become a phenomenon in the U.S.

With her #1's disc topping the 3 million-unit plateau, Mariah Carey is the first female artist to have eight consecutive albums to reach that threshold.

After Black Sabbath headline this year's Ozzfest, they'll disband for good.  Other bands set for the festival are the Deftones, Rob Zombie and Godsmack. Rage Against the Machine, Foo Fighters, Ministry and Kid Rock have all declined Ozzfest offers.

Sammy Hagar will appear on the March 30 episode of chef Emeril Lagasse's Food Network show, Emeril Live.  Together they'll make drunken ribs, prepared with Hagar's Cabo Wabo brand tequila. Hagar also will play with Lagasse's band.

The X-Files will be picked up for another year on Fox, likely its last, and the highly-rated Third Rock From the Sun will return to NBC.

Todd Moyer (Wing Commander) and Glen Larson, creators of the original Battlestar Galactica television series will soon bring the Galactica to the big screen. Mike Finch, who wrote several drafts of the Wing Commander screenplay is attached as screenwriter.

Trauma Records Friday filed a $40 million breach-of-contract suit against Bush in Los Angeles. Trauma charges Bush's third album, The Science of Things, is overdue and that the band is holding out while it seeks another label to distribute the disc.

The Rolling Stones are No. 9 on Forbes magazine's list of highest-paid entertainers. The band earned $57 million last year. Metallica are No. 38, with $32 million, and the Dave Matthews Band are No. 40, with $30 million.

Japanese newspapers are reporting that their nation's defense minister resigned Sunday following the revelation that he pocketed a government form signed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. The actor filled out the paperwork after losing his passport during a trip to Japan last year.

Sony insiders report that the entertainment conglomerate is looking to make a Spider-Man film on its own, rather than team with the James Cameron-friendly 20th Century Fox.

Heavy metal hair bands Poison, Ratt, Cinderella and Great White are expected to hit the road with a package tour that will start Memorial Day.  The tour is jokingly titled Exile From Mainstream.

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