Entertainment

(DreamWorks, $26.99) If rookie film director Sam Mendes'

To appreciate what Spike Lee hopes to accomplish with his latest film, look back to 1968, when Mel Brooks made his movie debut with

British directors crank out earthy, warm-hearted comedy-dramas much in the same way that their American counterparts focus on breasts and fireballs. It's worked before, so they keep at it.

The 1984-85 miner's strike in England ended in defeat for unions hoping to take on the Margaret Thatcher-led Conservative government. It's an event that is considered one of the defining moments for Great Britain since World War II, and is still a source of tension in working-class Britain.

The screwball comedy/caper

(Los Angeles Times Syndicate) (MGM, VHS priced for rental, DVD $26.98, rated PG) 2000. Directed by Bonnie Hunt; starring David Duchovny, Minnie Driver, Carroll O'Connor, Robert Loggia, Bonnie Hunt, David Alan Grier, Joely Richardson and James Belushi.

Robert Altman's greatest talent as a director is that he somehow makes sense out of free-flowing jumbles of information. His best movies are onslaughts of meaningless chatter that eventually coalesce into biting essays on everybody's favorite lie, namely that America is the land of the free and the brave.

LONDON, England (CNN) - Want to own your own piece of showbusiness or sporting history?

George Lucas has wrapped principal photography on

When Nicholas Martin first walked into the Huntington Theatre five years ago to see his friend Campbell Scott play Hamlet, he remembers being struck by the stately if ramshackle playhouse.

If pure comedic fluff is your idea of a fun time at the movies, line up for

Country music sales are down from the early '90s, and defenders of the old guard are criticizing the new country sound the best way they know how -- with a hit record.

The Grand Ole Opry turned 75 on Saturday with country music's royalty -- Garth Brooks, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton among them -- leading the party.

Actress Liz Hurley is to be summoned before a disciplinary hearing of America's actors' union following her appearance in a perfume advertisement which broke a guild strike, union officials have told CNN.com.

When it comes to soul music, few artists can top the contributions or influence of James Brown. Combining new rhythms with socially conscious lyrics in the early '60s, he merged soul, gospel and traditional black music into a new style: funk.

After 17 days in Sydney, the Olympic flame has been extinguished.

William Kennard is ticked off. In a scathing op-ed showcased in Tuesday's New York Times, the Federal Communications Commission chair rails against Fox and NBC's decision not to broadcast the first presidential debates. While CBS and ABC will show the 90-minute Bush-Gore slugfest in all its (potentially tedious) glory, the naughtier networks have bowed to the allure of ratings, offering a premiere...

Even as her first single,

(CNN) Mimi Leder's

Karyn Kusama's

The new film

It's an inescapable shame that critics will be referring to Harmony Korine in their coverage of 25-year-old filmmaker David Gordon Green's sometimes startling debut feature, a formless examination of heroism and childhood loyalty called

It seems, at times, that the world can be broken into three groups: those who have seen the most successful independent film of all time,

The nation breathed a sigh of relief last week when the strike of actors in television commercials was settled. After nearly six months, Americans can again watch TV secure in the knowledge that spiels for hemorrhoid remedies will be delivered only by union thespians.

The nation breathed a sigh of relief last week when the strike of actors in television commercials was settled. After nearly six months, Americans can again watch TV secure in the knowledge that spiels for hemorrhoid remedies will be delivered only by union thespians.

Sure, the whole Napster issue is tied up in legal maneuvering, pitting major players in the recording industry against representatives of the groundbreaking peer-to-peer Internet music application.

(CNN) - Pop musicians deflect intimacy by using lyrical metaphors. Jakob Dylan mastered that technique throughout

A recent Web search turned up a page that offered surfers a chance to place their bets on Napster's future.

Forget about that soft-spoken, petite, former Catholic schoolgirl persona. Frances O'Connor sheds it -- and more -- in her latest film.

The witch in the woods cast a weaker spell the second time around.

Benjamin Orr, the bass player of the popular 1980s group The Cars who also sang some of the band's most popular songs, died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer. He was 53.

Actor Rick Jason, who starred as tough infantry officer Lieutenant Gil Hanley on the 1960s television series

(CNN) - Apparently there are scarier things in Martha Stewart's kitchen than overdone lamb chops.

The betrothal comedy

Pelswick Eggert happens to be crippled. Or, as he puts it,

Months before her death, Nancy Campbell-Panitz went on

(Universal, VHS priced for rental, rated PG-13) 2000. Directed by Jonathan Mostow; starring Matthew McConaughey, Bill Paxton, Harvey Keitel, Jon Bon Jovi and David Keith.

In a season with a real presidential contest, so many viewers flocked to the season premiere of

As 98 Degrees burns up the charts with its hit single

Swedish superstars Abba are back together again -- but only in print.

Veteran actor David Dukes died Monday. The 55-year-old actor never regained consciousness after collapsing, according to Helen Glaum, hospital supervisor at St. Claire Hospital in Tacoma.

Actor Richard Farnsworth, a former stuntman and two-time Academy Award nominee, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday night. He was 80.

Negotiators for striking union actors and advertisers will meet again Friday after talking into the night as Hollywood's longest work stoppage reached its 172nd day.

Tennis champion Pete Sampras may have a problem winning the French Open -- but he has another reason not to forget this year in Paris.

Miriam Wolfe, whose long acting career spanned radio, television, and theater, died Sept. 29 at her home in Toronto. She was 78.

I want to compliment Johnson & Johnson for their decency and humanity in sponsoring the premiere of the new medical drama

Sometimes, Joan Allen learned to her frustration, movie casting imitates the movie itself.

Museum officials in Liverpool have launched an appeal to keep the piano John Lennon used to compose

Former Beatles singer Sir Paul McCartney has spoken publicly for the first time of his new romance with model Heather Mills.