Showbiz Today

Oscar Winners Are Busy at Box Office; Vivid Entertainment Transforms X-Rated Business; Norwegian Teen Pop Duo M2M Enjoys Early Success

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

LAURIN SYDNEY, HOST: Hi, everybody. I'm Laurin Sydney in Hollywood. Jim Moret is on assignment today.

More details are emerging about Whitney Houston's absence from the Oscars. The Academy says that the decision to drop her from a musical segment was reached by the show's producers, musical directors Burt Bacharach and Don Was, and Houston herself. All involved say that the singer's throat problems were to blame, despite reports that she was unprofessional and out of it during rehearsals. The Academy confirms Garth Brooks was indeed upset that his friend Whitney could not perform. She was replaced by Faith Hill.

The Oscars may have been Whitney-less, but they weren't witless, not with Billy Crystal hosting. He helped push the show's ratings to their second highest level in five years. ABC estimates that 79 million people watched at least part of the telecast, up a little from last year, when Whoopi Goldberg hosted.

Now, a crystal ball would not be needed to see into Kevin Spacey's future. Like his fellow Oscar winners, he is going to be very busy at the box office.

Paul Vercammen discovers what is next for Sunday's champs.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The 1999 Oscar- winning class is graduating into a busy schedule for 2000. Best actor winner Kevin Spacey will portray the life of a blunt-spoken salesman in "The Big Kahuna," out next month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE BIG KAHUNA")

KEVIN SPACEY, ACTOR: I don't exactly relish the idea of going out on the road with somebody new.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: He's now shooting in Las Vegas with nominee Haley Joel Osment in "Pay It Forward."

SPACEY: I play Haley's teacher and Helen Hunt plays Haley's mother, and it's a really nice story about a relationship that goes on between the charter that Helen plays and myself.

VERCAMMEN: Hilary Swank from "Boys Don't Cry" just wrapped up shooting "The Gift," directed by "A Simple Plan"'s Sam Rami. She'll film "The Affair Of The Necklace" in Europe in summer. They're not big-budget affairs.

HILARY SWANK, ACTRESS: It's not that I chose to be in a movie that didn't have money. It was because I followed my heart, and I can only hope that throughout my career I can follow my heart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE CIDER HOUSE RULES")

MICHAEL CAINE, ACTOR: Good night, you princess of Maine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: From "The Cider House Rules," perpetually-working best supporting actor winner Michael Caine just wound up shooting "Quills," a Marquis de Sade tale, and he'll be in "Shiner," a British gangster movie with Martin Landau.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "GONE IN 60 SECONDS")

ANGELINA JOLIE, ACTRESS: Got any hot fudge?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VERCAMMEN: "Girl, Interrupted"'s Angelina Jolie joins Nicolas Cage in the action film "Gone In 60 Seconds," out in June, and is shooting thriller "Dancing In The Dark" in Mexico. Plus, Jolie will embody Lara Croft when the "Tomb Raider" cyberheroine goes into film production in the summer.

On the subject of production, "The Matrix" won four Academy Awards, all in technical categories.

(on camera): The four Oscar wins for "The Matrix" are a huge boost to Sydney, Australia, which is trying to establish itself as a major international film production center.

(voice-over): The Sydney-made "Matrix" will be followed by two sequels from down under. And in two months, look for another Aussie export: "Mission Impossible II" with Tom Cruise. First-time film director Sam Mendes won for "American Beauty." He's developing a look out for DreamWorks, and vows to return to the English stage.

SAM MENDES, DIRECTOR: The next thing I'll do will be a play, and then I'll try and do a film after that.

VERCAMMEN: The 1999 Academy Award winners can expect to receive more scripts and job offers at least temporarily.

MARTIN GROVE, "THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER": Winning an Oscar puts you in demand and that's really what matters. Instead of having to hunt for projects, people with projects are out there hunting for you.

VERCAMMEN: Oscar is a golden nugget for the resume.

Paul Vercammen, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYDNEY: Charlie Sheen's resume includes a few lowlights, but things are looking up. A judge cut his probation short Monday, citing the actor's progress battling drug addiction. Sheen was placed on probation in 1996 for attacking his girlfriend. He's been able to turn his life around recently, and this fall will take over for Michael J. Fox on "Spin City."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE SHEEN, ACTOR: They say that the longest journey begins with the first step and this -- the first step was taken in this courtroom almost two years ago and since that day my life has improved drastically and my career has improved, and my relationships, most importantly, you know, health, family, friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYDNEY: Charlie Sheen is no stranger to porn, having once dated an adult film star. The X-rated business is being transformed at the moment, with the emergence of Vivid.

Dennis Michael reports the company's even giving "Playboy" a run for its bunny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DENNIS MICHAEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On talk shows, award shows and videos, a new species of voluptuous woman has begun to appear, something called a Vivid girl. Vivid they are indeed, but that's not the point. The 15-year-old Vivid Entertainment Company is achieving its long-term goal of becoming a brand name in adult entertainment.

STEVEN HARSH, PRES., VIVID ENTERTAINMENT: It has always been our idea to brand the name. We want people to know when they go out and rent, or buy, or log on to our site that Vivid stands for quality product on a consistent basis with the most beautiful girls.

MICHAEL: Those girls and that name have long been a staple of adult video, and now they're a major force in cable and pay per view. The Hot Network and the Hot Zone are now available in 25 million homes, even though they're barely a year old. Vivid was one of the first to put adult content on DVD and to utilize such interactive DVD features as multiple camera angles. The Internet is next.

HARSH: On our site, vividvideo.com, we currently have over 350 Vivid feature films online to be viewed at any time. We jumped on that as quickly as possible.

MICHAEL: Marci Hirsh is the head of film production for Vivid and she pays little attention to the 20th-century claims that the adult entertainment industries exploit and victimize women.

MARCI HIRSH, PRODUCTION CHIEF: This business is about the women. It may be the only business around that -- where the women have the control. The women choose who they work with and it's always been that way. And the women make more money, and they are promoted more, and in the mainstream, they're more accepted a lot more than they ever have been.

MICHAEL: The people at Vivid often compare themselves to the mainstream, but they know that's not where they're going.

J. PAUL THOMAS, DIRECTOR: We are the closest thing to mainstream, both in business and in art. But it is pornography. There is real sex going on -- real sex. There are real orgasms going on. And if I soft sell my stuff too much -- a famous quote I like to use is "if we come out of the gutter completely, we're going to go down the drain."

MICHAEL: In other words, they can't be part of the mainstream and be this vivid.

Dennis Michael, CNN Entertainment News, Hollywood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYDNEY: Hollywood continues to court a younger audience with two new movies, and these teens from Norway are climbing the pop charts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYDNEY: Stars of "The Skulls" put their heads together in Hollywood. Joshua Jackson of "Dawson's Creek" and Paul Walker appeared at the premiere of their new movie about strange initiation rites. The stars are familiar with hazing rituals. Walker says that he was once forced to streak before his high school classmates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL WALKER, ACTOR: They made me strip down to my bare essentials and run through, so I got to run through naked and just about every girl in our high school was in there at that time, so it was a lot of fun.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A little humiliating experience, I'd say.

WALKER: No, I had several dates after that.

JOSHUA JACKSON, ACTOR: I did have some hockey initiation that will go unreported upon, but I've never had to do anything quite like you have to do to get in "The Skulls." (END VIDEO CLIP)

SYDNEY: And not in my sorority.

Jackson is going into action for the teen market. So are Leelee Sobieski and Chris Klein in "Here On Earth," and the stars of the new romantic film "Waking The Dead."

We have separate reports on these youth-movement films.

First, Sherri Sylvester reports on "Here On Earth" from here in Hollywood.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHERRI SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It is a familiar theme explored in "Here On Earth" -- one of young love and the emotions and heartaches that go with it.

LEELEE SOBIESKI, ACTRESS: Love is really a feeling that makes you feel the most wonderful that you could ever feel. It's like the height of all of your senses, you know. It's, you know, it's the shivering in your stomach, the shaking of your knees, the excitement behind your eyes. It's everything.

SYLVESTER: The serious dramatic tone of "Here On Earth" sets it apart from the recent teen flick clique. Chris Klein knows that genre well after his role in last summer's piping-hot "American Pie."

CHRIS KLEIN, ACTOR: It is different than the pop culture, bubbly teen movies with the high miniskirts and the lime green and hot pink colors.

JOSH HARTNETT, ACTOR: I think all the teen love stories take a simpler angle, which is to, you know, make everything low-brow comedy.

SYLVESTER: The film is set in a fictional Massachusetts town, home to a well-to-do prep school students who don't mix well with the locals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HERE ON EARTH")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Richie Rich, that's your name, isn't it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: A classic case of testosterone-induced showmanship leads to disaster and an unusual method of punishment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HERE ON EARTH")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: To dismiss all charges in this case if the guys work with the crew rebuilding Mable's Table (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: His summer plans on hold, Klein's character soon becomes the object of Sobieski's affections.

The on-screen kiss was nothing new to the young stars, but still proved challenging.

KLEIN: The first time you do it, it's weird and it's awkward, and then -- and -- you know, but I tend to make light of it.

SOBIESKI: It's very difficult because you walk around and you feel like you've kissed every single person on the set because they've been focusing on your lips and theirs, and everything's perfect, and the lighting. So, everybody's been like focusing on this one kind of part of you and it's just kind of -- it's kind of scary.

SYLVESTER: If there is a moral to this modern story, it is the age old saying: it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "HERE ON EARTH")

SOBIESKI: Some people live their whole lives and never fall in love. I fell in love.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SYLVESTER: Sherri Sylvester, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WAKING THE DEAD")

JENNIFER CONNELLY, ACTRESS: Do you know how much I love you?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONNELLY: The process of making the film was so fulfilling and rewarding. I loved everything about it. I loved working with Keith. I loved working with Billy. I loved the crew. I loved the script. I loved -- we shot it in Montreal. The whole experience was really magical.

CYNTHIA TORNQUIST, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Magic that turns tragic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WAKING THE DEAD")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: As for the young American woman, we have learned that she was Sarah Williams, a activist from Chicago who was also working with the Sanctuary Movement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TORNQUIST: "Waking The Dead" tells the tale of star-crossed lovers, Fielding Pierce, the conservative politician; Sarah Williams, the political active, and the ultimate obstacle: death.

KEITH GORDON, DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: The basic story is about a lot of things, but it's about the conflicts that we have in life between love and where we think we fit in the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WAKING THE DEAD") CONNELLY: Be careful.

Ambition is the ice on the lake of emotion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BILLY CRUDUP, ACTOR: It's about passion, it's about how people connect to life in a passionate way, and it manifests itself in several different ways in the film. One of which is political ideology. The other is what it means to love another person passionately.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WAKING THE DEAD")

CONNELLY: I'm afraid of everything that separates us, OK.

CRUDUP: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONNELLY: It's not really a clear cut ending. It's really sad, but in a way I don't find it so tragic. I mean, they both take so much away from what they had, you know, and it really seems to continue in some way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WAKING THE DEAD")

CONNELLY: It's so infuriating loving you sometimes.

CRUDUP: The feeling is mutual.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORDON: Real life is both the tragedy and the victories, and having those two things simultaneously and I think all the great films, all the great love stories always have to have both sides.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "WAKING THE DEAD")

CONNELLY: You can't be everything to me.

CRUDUP: I want to be.

CONNELLY: I love that you said that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TORNQUIST: Cynthia Tornquist, CNN Entertainment News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYDNEY: It's war in the weekly magazine world, and surfing the Web with Whoopi Goldberg.

(BEGIN VIDEO GRAPHIC) SYDNEY: Two-time Oscar winner Dianne Wiest is 52 today. Hollywood hot hunk Vince Vaughn is 30. And country fireball Reba McEntire is 45.

(END VIDEO GRAPHIC)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SYDNEY: "Rolling Stone" publisher Jann Wenner has started a battle of the glossies, turning his monthly magazine, "US," into a weekly. And that means war, as he competes for readers with "People" magazine and "Entertainment Weekly," among others.

Mark Scheerer looks at Wenner's risky move.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK SCHEERER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Julia Roberts is enlisted as the cover girl as "US Weekly" is launched and publisher Jann Wenner fires the first salvo in a magazine circulation war. As a monthly, "US" was languishing.

JANN WENNER, CHMN./EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, WENNER MEDIA: It was so frustrating. You'd see great pictures, you know, really fun stuff, and it wasn't running in any other magazines, but we couldn't use it because of the time we came out. So now, you know, we close on Monday night, it's on the stands on Thursday and Friday. You got the latest parties from the weekend.

ANN MARIE KERWIN, N.Y. BUREAU CHIEF, "ADVERTISING AGE": Usually when someone increases frequency it's because ad pages are going up and circulation is going up, but at "US Monthly," everything was going down.

SCHEERER: Wenner says in addition to fashion and beauty features, "US" is going to emphasize entertainment and celebrities, which is good news for the marketing and publicity machinery of showbiz.

KERWIN: The movies, the TV shows -- they need to have that weekly outlet to be able to promote whatever's coming out.

SCHEERER (on camera): Now, is "People" magazine going to perceive you as their direct competitor now?

WENNER: Very much so. I think "People" is very concerned about "US" and perceives "US" as very much competition.

SCHEERER (voice-over): But "People" managing editor Carol Wallace said in a statement that "People" is only: "50 percent celebrity and entertainment coverage," and, "everyone is jumping on the celebrity bandwagon these days. We'll just keep putting out a great magazine every week, no matter who enters the field."

At "Entertainment Weekly," all their their president John Squires would say, also in the form of a statement, is the magazine is "proud to be nominated for general excellence, the national magazine award's highest honor for the third time in the past six years."

(on camera): The battleground in this war is not so much newsstands, because they're limited to large cities, but rather supermarket checkout counters, like this one at D'Agostino's here in New York City.

KERWIN: Wenner made a huge investment in the supermarket checkout racks, where he increased to about 50,000 where they had had about 20,000 before, and they also went from mop level to eye level.

SCHEERER (voice-over): That mop-level to eye-level journey may not be quite complete yet, but Wenner's war of the weeklies is definitely on.

Mark Scheerer, CNN Entertainment News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYDNEY: Whoopi Goldberg has graced a few magazine covers in her time, and now she is gracing on her own Web site.

Lauren Hunter takes us there and to other celebrity sites in "SHOWBIZ Online."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAUREN HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Whoopi Goldberg has jumped on the dot.com bandwagon. Her newly launched Web site features the latest news on the comedienne, links to her favorite Web destinations, even a special section for kids. Original jokes and classic Whoopi moments from her talk show round out the site.

Wired 'N Sync fans received this cybertreat in their e-mail boxes. Produced by e-commercial.com, this interactive plug for the release of the boy band's new album also lets fans order it online.

The Oscars may be over for another year, but the misadventures of "The Seat Fillers" have just begun. Cybercast by Entertaindom.com, the first episode of this animated series follows the seat fillers as they prepare for the big awards.

This is "SHOWBIZ Online."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYDNEY: Wednesday on SHOWBIZ, Japan's most popular cooking game show makes the cut in the U.S. And country's hottest new act, Montgomery Gentry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN GRAPHIC)

Oscar nominee Haley Joel Osment is nearing a deal to join the cast of Steven Spielberg's upcoming movie, "A.I."

(END GRAPHIC)

SYDNEY: Not a bad gig for an 11-year-old kid. Anyway, the girls of M2M are just a couple of years older than Haley Joel Osment and they are doing pretty well for themselves also. The Norwegian teen pop duo met before they were school age, and by age 10, they even had a hit record.

Rachel Wells caught up with the duo at a photo shoot.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARION RAVEN, M2M SINGER: Oh, we just didn't really know what to be named. We thought of like M&M, since we're two M's. But you know, it's candy, and so we just ran this contest and this girl wrote in with the name M2M, and we loved it.

RACHEL WELLS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): You guys are -- what? How old are you?

WELLS: Fifteen.

MARIT LARSEN, M2M SINGER: Fifteen and 16.

WELLS: And you've been playing music for how long?

RAVEN: We met when we were 5 years old and we always loved music. And we were, like, singing with our hairbrush instead of playing with Barbies kind of. I don't know, we were just friends and we saw that both liked to sing.

WELLS: And your first album was a children's release in Norway?

RAVEN: Yes.

WELLS: You won the equivalent of a Grammy in Norway. What's it called there?

LARSEN: We were actually just nominated. It's called Spetamoncisi (ph).

WELLS: Oh, you were just nominated. I'm sorry!

LARSEN: No, but we were -- we were like the first kids ever nominated, so it was really cool.

RAVEN: We didn't write anything on that album, so that's why we moved over to pop, and we like to write our own songs.

WELLS: The album is called "Shades of Purple."

LARSEN: Purple is like, yes, my favorite color, I guess.

RAVEN: We designed our own Web site. We decide which -- how it's going to look like, so it's purple.

WELLS: Now, you've got a little single that's on the "Pokemon" soundtrack.

RAVEN: It's called "Don't You Love Me?" It's like just about how you don't have to rush into anything just because the boy says, I love you, and you don't have to go to bed with him and stuff like that.

WELLS: Still best friends?

LARSEN: We're just like sisters. We have a lot of fun together, and we -- we work really well together too.

WELLS (voice-over): Rachel Wells, CNN Entertainment News, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SYDNEY: Tomorrow on SHOWBIZ, John Cusack has finished "Being John Malkovich," and now he's starring in the new movie "High Fidelity." We hope to see you then.

In Los Angeles, I'm Laurin Sydney. Here is more "High Fidelity" music from M2M. So long for now.

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