Pick Hits

Hole - Celebrity Skin

Although Hole's first album was a critical and commercial success, a lot of insiders attributed  Courtney Love's marriage to former Nirvana leader, Kurt Cobain, as the reason for the groups success. Love storms out of his formidable shadow and cuts a new musical edge that can only be her own. With music co-written by the Smashing Pumpkins' Billy Corgan, Love puts forth a bold new direction that mixes the angst of grunge with the forward momentum of today's musical scene. Sure to please current fans, while appealing to a new massive market, Celebrity Skin is right on the mark.

At The Movies

Why Do Fools Fall in Love

Based on the remarkable life of teen singing sensation Frankie Lymon whom refused to take his own musical advice and fell in love and married three times. The courtroom battle between the widows for his fortune is interplayed with flashbacks to chapters of Lymon's amazing rise and early demise. The backdrop of doo-wop music, changing hairstyles and retro-clothing are overlaid by strong performances by the lead actors. Not just a movie for parents or musical historians, this film has broad appeal.

On Video

Primary Colors

Based on the best selling novel, and featuring a role call of past Oscar nominees and winners, including John Travolta, Billy Bob Thorton, Emma Thompson and Kathy Bates, Primary Colors is an engaging comedy/drama that follows a well meaning southern presidential hopeful through a campaign full of hope and sexual scandal. Well written and acted, Primary Colors only shortcoming may be it's comparison to what's actually happening in truth is stranger than fiction Washington.

The Buzz...

Paramount shipped 20 million video sets of the Titanic and industry analysts say it easily will become the biggest-selling live-action video of all time. The only question is whether it will surpass the 30 million sales of the reigning video champ, Disney's animated The Lion King.

Mark McGwire isn't the only one hitting home runs in baseball. Fox's broadcast of his record breaking 62nd homer delivered the best regular season numbers for a baseball game in over 16 years.

Screen rights for a live action version of the Dr. Seuss classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas will be auctioned off this week, with Fox, Universal, Paramount and New Line lining up to bid. 

Though their hit movie Something About Mary has finally topped the box office after 8 weeks of release for the first time, Matt Dillon and Cameron Diaz have reportedly ended their relationship. 

Who else would KISS have open their Psycho Circus tour launch on Halloween in Dodger Stadium other than the aptly named Smashing Pumpkins. It will be a preview for a 200 city tour that will follow in November. And get ready for another marketing blitz. The band has already released a new set of 2ft high dolls that will sell for over $200.

Fans of the Mad Max saga can expect a fourth installment of the series, but it's doubtful that Mel Gibson will appear. Mel may be all sequeled out after this summers Lethal Weapon 4.

Keiko, the killer whale of Free Willy fame, was returned to his native Icelandic waters last week, ending a four year $12.5 million campaign to have the mammoth celebrity released. 

U2 has signed a $50 million deal with Polygram for three greatest hits albums with the first, 1980-1990 due out in November. 

Pierce Brosnan revealed the working title for the upcoming 19th Bond film will be The World is Not Enough.

A newly re-mastered version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show will be available September 15 from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. The new version will also include never before seen footage.

George Michael has canceled his planned 1999 World Tour. The singer could not go on tour because he is still coping with his personal traumas. This would have been Michael's first tour in more than eight years.

On October 6, Mute-Reprise Records will release The Singles 86-98, a 21-track collection of Depeche Mode's A-sides from 1986 to the present. Depeche Mode also will embark on a 64-city world tour, its first tour since 1993.