Off The Record

Christina Aguilera - Stripped 

It's being noted that Christina Aguilera grows up on her new album. This effort is an elaborately designed collection of songs that uses the talents of many notable industry vets, from Glen Ballard to Alicia Keys to Linda Perry. The album's first single, Dirrty, shocked the usually unshockable audience for music videos by featuring the former Mousketeer, dressed in a tiny bikini, grinding against other dancers. The cover of her new disc shows her topless, covered only by her long locks. And she's completely naked on the new cover of Rolling Stone save for a strategically placed guitar.  She's always had better pipes than her contemporaries and the chance to promote her as a diva allows for a potentially longer-lasting career than just focusing on that ultra-tight tummy.

At The Movies

Femme Fatale

Laure Ash, a master of manipulation and guile, plays a crucial role in a jewel theft and then abruptly leaves her life of crime behind her. Reinvented in the guise of a respectable married woman, Laure soon captures the attention of Nicolas. Attracted to the enigmatic Laure but serving an agenda of his own, Nicolas shatters her carefully crafted world with one shutter click of his camera. Suddenly exposed to the world and vulnerable to her enemies, Laure is determined to use her considerable assets and Nicolas’ voyeuristic instincts to transform her identity and once again escape her past. Brian De Palma loads up Femme Fatale with visual tricks, story turns and a terrific score.

On TV

Martin and Lewis (CBS)

Sean Hayes stars as Jerry Lewis and Jeremy Northam portrays Dean Martin in this made-for-TV bio that depicts the famed comedy duo's rise to stardom and turbulent friendship. We see them meeting at a nightclub in 1945, foretelling the dynamics of a relationship and rivalry that would burn bright for the next decade before ending in a bitter breakup; they would become a blockbuster act on the nightclub circuit and star together in 16 films. Check it out on Nov. 24.

The Buzz...

Jimmy Kimmel won't be going it alone with his new ABC late-night entertainment show. Jimmy Kimmel Live, scheduled to debut with a special on Super Bowl Sunday, Jan. 26, will feature rotating co-hosts. The show will air after Nightline.

SPIDER-MAN SLINGS MORE RECORDS

Spider-Man, the year's top-grossing movie, set another record with 7 million DVD and videotape copies sold in its first day of video release.

Rocker Ozzy Osbourne is close to signing a deal with a major studio for a biopic about his wild life and times. His wife is helping write the script and her top choice of actors to play Ozzy is Johnny Depp.

Fox is ordering up a TV pilot based on last spring's box office hit, About a Boy, which starred Hugh Grant as an immature British bachelor whose life is forever altered after he meets a 12-year-old boy and his depressed mom. The TV series is expected to air in fall 2003.

Sean Penn and Woody Allen are re-teaming to co-star in Why Men Shouldn't Marry, a marital comedy that will mark the directorial debut of playboy producer Steve Bing, perhaps best known for fathering Elizabeth Hurley's baby.

Mindfire Entertainment is securing the film rights to Sega's ninja video game franchise Shinobi, which is expected to have a $40 million budget and hit the big screen in 2004.

Thin Lizzy is releasing a deluxe two CD long box including unreleased studio recordings by Phil

Lynott's post Thin Lizzy act Grand Slam. The release will also feature previously unseen photographs, extended sleeve notes and was compiled by Thin Lizzy Keyboardist Mark Stanway's private collection.

Phil Collins has been having hearing problems for the past two years and may have to give up touring. Collins reveals that he can only manage the odd concert, due to his hearing loss.

Blockbuster has become synonymous with movie rentals, but most customers go elsewhere to buy DVDs and VHS tapes. Aiming for a bigger slice of the for-sale market, Blockbuster is remodeling about half of its 8,000 stores to put sales racks front and center. 

Howard Stern is developing modern-day remakes of the classic teen pictures Porky's and Rock 'n' Roll High School. The titles will be presented under the banner Howard Stern Presents.

Paramount Pictures has given a go to a computer-animated version of Mighty Mouse for its Nickelodeon Films banner to produce.

Jonathan Harris, the actor who portrayed Dr. Zachary Smith on the 1960's sci-fi show Lost in Space, has died. He was 87.

Fox is canceling David E. Kelley's legal drama Girls Club after just two airings. The barely watched show ranked 82nd out of 131 programs.

Adam Sandler is signing on to star in and produce Fifty First Kisses, a romantic comedy that may reunite him with his Wedding Singer costar Drew Barrymore. The film follows a man who falls in love with a woman after a memorable encounter, only to find that she suffers from severe short-term memory loss and has no idea who he is.

Mariah Carey covers Def Leppard's 1980's song Bringin' On The Heartbreak on her upcoming album, Charmbracelet.

UPN has given an eight-episode midseason order to an hourlong reality series tentatively titled

Supermodel, with Tyra Banks serving as an executive producer and judge.

The family of Audrey Hepburn is blasting a Swiss museum dedicated to the late actress and wants it shut down for exploiting her good name.