Off The Record...
Violent Femmes
Freak Magnet
The band's first new studio album in five years, the Femmes seem content with what they do best. There is an electric guitar present on many of the tracks, but other than Gano occasionally plugging in, the approach is basically true-to-form. Brian Ritchie’s elastic bass and Guy Hoffman’s frenetic drumming back Gano’s elemental strumming and angsty raving. The albums many contradictions jerk you back and forth enough to make you still care about a band that peaked during the mid eighties. No mean feat for a bunch of punk rock geeks.

Play It...
Urban Chaos
Urban Chaos does a fantastic job of combining various elements of game styles into one simple, fun and satisfying title. The game is basically a third-person action game set in the crime-infested town of Union City. As D'arci Stern, a tough rookie cop, it's your job to clean house. Not only must you deal with the day-to-day crime and routine calls, but you must also contend with a massive street gang known as the Wildcats. If you're looking for a pretty safe bet in terms of entertainment value, then Urban Chaos is probably a good call.

On Video...
Drive Me Crazy
Sweet teen comedy with a twist: A popular female high school senior (Melissa Joan Hart) in need of a date for the school's big dance makes over the grunge-loving boy next door (instead of the other way around). Naturally these two from different cliques end up falling for each other. And as in most teen comedies, weirdo’s face off against the jocks, but at least here the kids all end up learning a valuable lesson about friendship.

The Buzz...

In order to take advantage of the lack of competing comedies during the early summer, Universal Pictures has bumped up the release date of Screwed from Aug. 25 to May 12. The comedy about a chauffeur kidnapping a dog stars Norm Macdonald, Dave Chappelle and Danny DeVito.

ABC is producing a new animated series featuring one of the characters from the hugely popular Toy Story films. It was announced that Seinfeld's Patrick Warburton would provide the voice for the title character in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

The makers of South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut are seeking a creative way to clean up the lyrics of the Oscar nominated song Blame Canada so that ABC can include it in the annual Academy Awards broadcast. The ditty in question contains several offensive words, some not so kind to singer Anne Murray. South Park begins its new season on Wednesday, April 5.

Eddie Murphy and Will Smith are in negotiations with DreamWorks and Imagine Entertainment to create content for a comedic-themed Netcaster called Pop.com. Pop.com will feature 5-minute webcast shows created and starring the actors. The sites are expected to start running in June and will include one to six minute animated and live action short films, games and pay-per-view programs.

James Cameron stated that of all the action films that he has been associated with (including Terminator, Aliens, and True Lies), True Lies is the one he is most likely to make a sequel of right now. Cameron went on to say that a True Lies 2 script is already in the early stages.

Comedian Robert Schimmel may have found a home on Fox. The network greenlighted a half-hour comedy pilot featuring Schimmel to be developmed by The Simpsons executive producer Mike Scully.

The Cartoon Network won't be going away anytime soon. The network has committed $350 million to original programming through 2001, adding four new shows as well as ordering nearly 120 new episodes of existing shows.

Secret love letters from screen goddess Greta Garbo to female playwright and reported lover Mercedes de Acosta are to be shown for the first time at a U.S. museum next month.  

The Detroit Institute of Arts and the family of late puppeteer Rufus Rose are involved in a legal struggle over who owns a Howdy Doody marionette used in the 1950s Howdy Doody Show. The marionette in question is one of at least three that appeared on the popular children's TV series.

Green Day's drummer Tre Cool tied the knot. After he returns from their honeymoon, Green Day will start recording their fourth Reprise Records album on March 27 in a studio in Oakland, Calif.

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