Asbury Park Press from Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 39

ASBURY PARK PRESS I WEDNESDAY, JUNE 1, 2005 Trm Networks prepare a flood of reality shows Bob Geldof unveils plans for new charity concerts -J if SI. Wilson in Berlin; Jamiroquai, Youssou N'Dour, Yannick Noah and Placebo in Paris; and Duran Duran in Rome. The events are aimed at raising awareness of poverty in developing countries just days before G8 leaders meet in Britain. Geldof said the G8 meeting provided a "unique opportunity for Britain to do something unparalleled in the world to tilt the world a little bit on its axis in favor of the poor." Elton John, who sat beside Geldof at the news conference, said he was very proud to be involved. "Now I'm fully aware of what's going on and seeing the injustices going on," John said.

The 58-year-old pop star said he hadn't been mature enough to appreciate the last concert 20 years ago and its ramifications. The Associated Press London's Hyde Park, Circus Maximus in Rome and the Museum of Art in Philadelphia are among the venues for Live 8, a series of concerts being organized by Bob Geldof, the driving force behind the 1985 Band Aid and Live Aid campaigns for African famine relief. The July 2 concerts, which will be free, also will be held near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and in Paris. "We don't want people's money. We want them," Geldof told a news conference Tuesday.

He said negotiations for the Paris venue were continuing. Performers will include Coldplay, Madonna, Paul McCartney, R.E.M. and U2 in London; Will Smith, Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band, Stevie Wonder and P. Diddy in Philadelphia; Crosby, Stills and Nash, Lauryn Hill and Brian fj lki vrt. New System of a Down disc downplays band's political side "fit- TYjW "Dancing With the Stars" will pair six celebrities, like boxer Evander Holyfield, with professional dancers to compete in a ballroom dancing contest.

Premieres today on ABC (Channels 6 and 7). "Hit Me Baby" exhumes has-been music stars who try to show a live audience they still have what it takes. The Knack, Vanilla Ice, Cameo, Tiffany, Wang Chung, Loverboy and Arrested Development are among the acts competing for charity in the series, which premieres Thursday on NBC (Channels 4 and 10). "The Scholar" will feature bright students competing for a college scholarship they might not otherwise be able to afford. No, they won't have to eat bugs: they have to show book smarts, compete in oral exams and defend themselves to an Ivy League scholarship committee.

Starts June 6 on ABC (Channels 6 and 7). "Fire Me Please" films two people starting new jobs on the same day doing everything they can to be fired by midday. The person who wins will earn more than he could ever hope for from the job. Starts June 7 on CBS (Channels 2 and 3). "The Cut" brings 16 aspiring fashion designers to compete for a job with Tommy Hilfiger.

The winner gets the opportunity to design a fashion collection under Hilfiger's label. Starts June 9 on CBS (Channels 2 and 3). "I Want to Be a Hilton." Fox still has Paris, but NBC has matriarch Kathy Hilton guiding 14 young contestants through the New York society scene. Whoever emerges as the winner of Hilton's contests gets to live the live of a rich person for a year. Debuts June 21.

"The Princes of Malibu" is an show that follows music producer David Foster, his new wife and adult stepsons Brandon and Brody Jenner, who move into Foster's 22-acre waterfront estate. The Fox series premieres July 10. "Rock Star: INXS." Super-producer Mark Burnett is behind this contest, where amateur singers compete for a job with the Australian rock band INXS, whose former singer Michael Hutchence died in 1997. a good lie ri iT 'M, 1 Competitors in ABC's "Dancing publicity shot, (associated press) The winner goes on tour and records an album with the band. Premieres July 11 on CBS (Channels 2 and 3), which will air the show three times a week until it's done.

"Brat Camp," a remake of a popular British series, sends six out-of-control teens to a boot-camp style program in the Oregon wilderness. The series premieres July 13 on ABC (Channels 6 and 7). "So You Think You Can Dance." Fox failed miserably with' an attempt to hold a junior version of "American Idol," so now that show's creators are trying a dance version. You know the drill: embarrassing tryouts, pressure-filled performances and, finally, a winner. Starts July 20.

"The Law Firm" on NBC is By DAVID BAUDER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Get ready for Tommy Lee as an undergrad, two separate dance contests and apprentice rock stars, apprentice chefs, apprentice fashion designers, apprentice scholars, apprentice slackers and apprentice Hiltons. With your favorite television series hibernating for the summer, television networks are uncorking a flood of reality programming. i ,1 Rocker Tommy Lee wears a University of Nebraska marching band uniform as he prepares to perform while filming "Tommy Lee Goes to College." (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Broadcast networks want to do more than show reruns all summer but they don't want to spend much money, either. The result is reality-clogged schedules. If the networks are lucky, one or two might capture the public imagination.

Summer stalls soon; the WB begins its heavily promoted "Beauty the Geek" today. As the title suggests, the series takes some socially challenged smart guys and couples them up with dimwitted lookers. The couple that works best together in various contests could share $250,000, and who knows what else? Other new series in the works: "Hell's Kitchen" stars tightly wound British chef Gordon Ramsay, who's opening a new Los Angeles restaurant and chooses between contestants who want to cook there. Premiered Monday on Fox (Channels 5 and 29). 'Pants" is MOVIE REVIEW By ELEANOR O'SULLIVAN MOVIE WRITER While the guys fight star wars, prison guards and brutish boxers, the girls get their moment this summer in "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." It's a lively serio-comedy about four friends of different girth who share a pair of blue jeans while they go their separate ways one summer.

Each girl gets to wear the jeans one week at a time, then mails it to the next friend. Presumably, each girl's life will change with the wearing. The movie begins with some bite the friends are annoying Valley Girl-ish types all wound up in their own worlds and concerns and ends on a tearful note, with the girls becoming women over the summer, via life-changing experiences. Director Ken Kwapis has his editor split the movie evenly between the tales of the four friends: one gets stuck working in a boring franchise store at home, while another goes to a soccer camp at a beach resort, a third joins her estranged father in the South and, most exoti-cally, the fourth hangs out on an island in Greece with her grandparents. This girl has the best deal: great weather, gorgeous vistas and an even better looking fisherman.

Plus all that brain-invigorating fresh fish. The casting has been well thought out so we can keep the actresses separate and clear in our minds: the local girl is portrayed by Amber Tamblyn, a husky performer with a sweet fit as a chick flick By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS System of a Down's members wants you to know they are not a political band. Yes, they came out against the war in Iraq. And yes, they hand-picked ultraliberal gadfly Michael Moore to direct their 2003 protest video, "Boom!" And yes, their latest single, the frenetic, guitar-crunching "B.Y.O.B.," contains angry rants like "Why don't presidents fight the war? Why do they always send the poor?" But still, singer Serj Tank-ian and guitarist Daron Mal-akian one half of the eclectic metal quartet fiercely resist when people try to define them as the band with the left-leaning agenda. "The fact that journalists have so made us into a political band, it's forcing us to be apolitical in some ways as a reaction to it," says Tankian.

"I mean, we do say things that are on our minds, but most of what we say is from a social perspective more than a political perspective," he adds. "Even though we have things that we touch upon, you know, social issues or political issues, it's a small percentage of what we do, compared to personal narratives, songs about life, theories, sex, humor." Besides the politically charged first single, there's plenty of material on their latest album, "Mezmerize," to back up Tankian's contention. The CD, part of an outpouring of material that will continue in the form of a second album, "Hypnotize," in the fall, is at times mournful, romantic, hysterical and bizarre and may ft With the Stars" pose for a produced by David E. Kelley, who with "The Practice" and "Ally McBeal" is familiar with fictional lawyers. This show takes actual lawyers trying actual cases in front of judges and juries.

Trial attorney Roy Black is the host for the series, which starts July 28. "Meet Mister Mom" sends stay-at-home moms on vacation and leaves clueless dads in charge of the house. Mom gets to watch the fun on closed-circuit TV. Premieres Aug. 2 on NBC (Channels 4 and 10).

"Tommy Lee Goes to College" trails the photogenic rock star as he enrolls in the University of Nebraska trying out for the marching band and cramming for exams. It starts Aug. 16 on NBC (Channels 4 and 10). THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS Starring Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel, America Ferrera and Blake Lively Opens today Ken Kwapis directed PG kictrk the little girl, with a mixture of perkiness and obnoxiousness. The four leads are equally talented, the supporting cast of adults is capable and the production values are sound.

"The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" is much better than that other movie about sisterhood (with Sandra Bullock), but less zingy than the exhaling women's movie or the Southern steel magnolias' comedy. Can we see two of these girls becoming Thelma and Louise and really raising the hair on our neck? That may be asking too much of Hollywood these days. vmttLOPAHK MALL CINEMAS RAMSEY CINEMA ikjcmo Mira owf mas MONMOUTH MAIL iOOJANOANOO 710 PLAZA smwmAWSIOi SiACOURl PAVRJOm MO' SOUTH COVE STADtUM II NEW BRUNSWICK If Mtif NONGO NEW PARK CINEMAS SUCCASUNNA CINEMA SUMMnOUAB 'tENARY CINEMA 4 NEWARK METROPLEX WTOffTcHimHr UNION SEVENPLEX NEWTON TWtN iWl PARSIPPANY CINEMA 12 WSCAC WfSTWpOQ be the best synopsis of System of a Down in the band's history. "There was a time when they had to write songs very specifically to define who they were," says longtime producer Rick Rubin, who worked with the band on its latest album. "Now, we know who they are, so now they can write their best songs, and they don't have to fit in such narrow guideline.

It seems like people are more willing to go along the trip with them." Hard to classify Not that they didn't have plenty onboard for their first trip on the charts. Since the group's self-titled debut CD in 1998, System of a Down has sold millions of albums with their amped-up metal sound anchored by bursts of melody and Tankian's voice, which ranges from soaring to screeching (the other band members are bassist Shavo Odadjian and drummer John Dolmayan). The new album, like previous System of a Down efforts, is hard to classify or describe: Middle Eastern-musical influences mix with almost operatic melodies and guitars thrashing at breakneck speed. Malakian says the band's tilt toward the political is only one part of what the musicians stand for. "It's funny: You'll write a few songs about politics and that's what people will focus on," Malakian says.

"All we're doing is expressing the world around us. Politics is a part of that. If we didn't sing about it, then we'd be leaving something else out." HK.Al ONFMAS MARLBORO CINEMA I TO LOEWS MONMOUTH MAU EATONTOWN MO-FANDANGO 1750 TOLOFWS NEW BRUNSWICK HIGHWAY (1 B0O-FANDANOO 7S8 TO LOEWS SEACOURT TOMS RIVER flOO-fANOANQO 7M CLEAFMEW CINEMAS CO STRATHMORE CINEMA 4 MATAiVAh 77" ILM (WANT TO MEGA MOVIES AT BRUNSWICK SQUARE E.BRUNSWt0 65'-MEliA flNFEHODFON TOMENIO PARK MALL CINEMAS HXSON 900ANDNQO M20 CtEiFW C1NF1AAS "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" stars (from left) America Ferrera, Amber Tamblyn, Alexis Bledel and Blake Lively, (associated press) i ni -til TT Sfr What can we as an audience learn from "The Sisterhood of the Traveling That staying at home isn't such a terrible thing: The franchise-store clerk makes documentaries in her spare time, meets a pesky little girl while filming and becomes a buddy of the girl's. The girl has a secret that accounts for our tears. Jenna Boyd portrays ABBEY dNEMAS mCllFTtm Lift MA tIM aosmi ohema 4 NF1 All JERSEY MULTIPLEX CtoEAUM COmiOMB HIADQUAKWtS musBono face and soulful eyes (she's the daughter of movie star Russ Tamblyn).

The soccer camp athlete is acted by tall, lithe blond Blake Lively, who looks like a million other blond beauties but has a distinctive voice and personality on screen. Full-figured and cute America Ferrera is the character who visits her father, with unpleasant consequences: He is not living alone and being lonely in his new home. The fact that she's Puerto Rican on her mother's side, and her father's new world is very pale WASPy accounts for Ferrera's angst. Lastly, there is artsy Alexis Bledel as the tourist in Greece. She is a rail thin gamine, putting us in mind of Audrey Hepburn in "Roman Holiday." Ble-del's problem is that her grandparents loathe her new boyfriend (Michael Rady), a hunky guy with prominent ears and an even more prominent rmile.

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