Asbury Park Press du lieu suivant : Asbury Park, New Jersey • Page 79

ASBURY PARK PRESS I SUNDAY, MAY 15, 2005 Hi -f, CALLUS: Kathy Dzielak Entertainment Editor (732) 643-4265 HI CELEBS BEST BETS A guide to fun and interesting FOOD Dining out in Hoboken uis MUSIC DEVLS'III THE DETAILS Tyra meets Movies 3 Columns 4 New York 8 Books 10 Puzzles i LONG, 'RAYMOND' romance things to do and see blooms for Hollywood couples SO By MIKE HUGHES Gannett News Service By EDNA GUNDERSEN USA Today 0 if i 59 0 WHAT COULD BOND Bruce Springsteen, one of the most famous, admired and influential figures in American culture, to the inconsequential men haunting his "Devils Dust" album? The gnawing sensation of insignificance that permeates those lonely and anguished tales didn't spring from Springsteen's imagination. "The connection I have to a lot of the characters is understanding what it feels IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE now, but once upon a time, "Everybody Loves Raymond" was skidding toward extinction. The show recovered and prospered and its final new episode (9 p.m. Monday on CBS, Channels 2 and 3) will wrap up a strong, nine-year run. But back in 1997, that seemed unlikely.

"Raymond" aired on Fridays thoroughly unnoticed. That's when CBS President Leslie Moonves told producer Phil Rosenthal that he had one more chance. "Raymond" could borrow a Monday spot tucked between "Cosby" and "Murphy Brown" for six weeks. "He said, "The critics love the show; we love the show. But if you don't perform better here, we can't help you Rosenthal recalls.

"That's when I was actually the most nervous." Fretting is a natural state for many of the show's key people. "It never ends," says star Ray Romano. "Now I'm worried: 'Well, nobody really wants to watch the finale. It's not going to get the fanfare that the other ones got' It will get some attention, anyway. CBS is planning an hour-long documentary at 8 p.m.

The network wanted an extra-long finale but didn't get one. "(We) didn't want to milk a half-hour into an hour," Romano says. (MBS (TfltEJTQp 1 1 i Act- luk 1 f. it! Iffo updating Wells' 19th-century story that also was broadcast, in 1938, by Orson Welles. Welles' radio broadcast of the Wells' story panicked New Jersey and New York listeners; they thought the account of Martians landing on Earth including Grovers Mill, where a plaque now commemorates the event was real.

Cruise, Spielberg and Dakota Fanning, 10, signed autographs and talked to fans during a break in filming. Nearly 40 onlookers were on hand, many of them teenagers. Howell resident Elaine Thermos baked desserts for the cast and crew. "The production people were ri A. -cii Christensen in "Star Wars: Episode Ill Revenge of the Sith." Dakota Faanlug Cruise, above, in "War of the Worlds." Anociate PrM Bruce Springsteen brings his "Devils Dust" tour to his home state of New Jersey this week.

DANNY CUNCHSpecial to the Preti like to be invisible, which once you've experienced you never forget," says Springsteen, 55, who will perform in Upper Darby, on Tuesday and in East Rutherford on Thursday. "My whole life was this enormous effort to become visible and to have some impact and to reach people and be reached by the world that's around me." He succeeded, to say the least. "Devils," Springsteen's 19th album and seventh chart-topper, is his third acoustic detour from blockbuster arena rock. Like 1982's "Nebraska" and 1995's "The Ghost of Tom Joad," "Devils" examines marginalized figures in society's lean fringes. In harsh stories told with a romantic's empathy, he assumes the identities of weary misfits seeking dignity, second chances and recognition.

Invisibility' from past The album's inspiration began with his own father's struggle. "It went back to my experience as a child," says Springsteen, who grew up in Freehold. "There was a lot of invisibility, and my recollection of it was painful. Most of my characters aren't rebels. They're trying to be included.

They just want their little piece of the promise that the world has to offer. I experienced it through my father's life. He had struggled with that terribly his whole life. And if you're a child watching it, you feel its effects so directly, and it's a traumatic event for a household. You carry it with you." An hour before curtain, Springsteen is finishing a bowl of chili in his dressing room at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, where he has just rehearsed a pump-organ version of "My Beautiful Reward," one of several reworked early tunes cycling into the set list.

The show's blues, country and folk hues bear not only the imprints of Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams and Bob Dylan, but also evoke the parched geography of John Steinbeck and Howard Hawks. Springsteen says "Devils' dusty setting "probably goes back to Westerns and the size of those landscapes. It opened up your imagination." He was also stirred by See Bruce, Page E7 "sr-es. I 'v. if Ray Romano is the star of "Everybody Loves Raymond." TRUMP 0I0PIC CHECK OUT THE NEW Donald Trump and Maria Maples.

The real-life twosome made endless scandalous headlines in the 1980s when the New York mogul dumped longtime wife Ivana for model Maples and sparked a nasty divorce. Now the story will be retold, along with the rest of Trump's life, in the upcoming May sweeps biopic "Trump Unauthorized," airing on ABC at 9 p.m. May 24. It's based on Gwenda Blair's biographies, "Donald Trump: Master Apprentice" and "The Trumps: Three Generations that Built an Empire," as well as other sources. Maples is played by Jennifer Baxter; she portrayed Lauren Bessette, the sister of John F.

Kennedy wife, Carolyn Bessette, in a JFK Jr. biopic. Trump is portrayed by Justin Louis, a regular on the Lifetime series "Missing." Ivana is played by Katheryn Winnick, whose guest-star credits include "CSI: Miami." Not only did Louis capture Trump's commanding presence, says executive producer Barbara Lieber-man, but he had long hair just what was needed to re-create Trump's swooping locks. USA Today filmed at several New Jersey locations including a neighborhood in Howell, is scheduled to open on June 29. "At least we're six weeks apart, so we won't be competing against each other," Spielberg told The Associated Press.

Other big summer movies include Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell's "Bewitched," Adam Sandler's "The Longest Yard," Christian Bale's "Batman Begins," Johnny Depp's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory," Russell Crowe and Renee Zellweger's "Cinderella Man," Cedric the Entertainer's "The Koneymooners," the cartoon tale "Madagascar" and the comic-book adaptation "Fantastic Four." With "Revenge of the Sith," Lucas concludes the prequel See War, Page E2 By DAVID GERMAIN The Associated Press his summer means war between old buddies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. Colleagues on the "Indiana Jones" franchise, the two will duke it out for the title of galactic overlord on the 2005 science fiction front, Lucas with the final installment of his "Star Wars" saga, Spielberg with his remake of "War of the Worlds," starring Tom Cruise. "Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith" is scheduled to open Wednesday. "War of the Worlds," which was MARTIANS AMONG US: HOWELL IS READY FOR ITS CLOSE-UP Ridge, so the Ironbound section of Newark, where filming took place in November 2004, wasn't all that new to him. Police mark the spot at Tudor and Camelot drives in Howell where Steven Spielberg filmed portions of "War of the Worlds" last November.

Pratt file photo gracious and Steven Spielberg complimented me on my baking," Thomas said. Also starring in the film are Tim Robbins, Miranda Otto and Justin Chatwin. The film centers on one family's struggle to survive an attack of machines from outer space. One more local tie-in: Cruise's sister, Cass Lesavoy, formerly ran the Santa Fe Cafe in Freehold. The Howell location includes a house he visits that is owned by his ex-wife.

Earlier shooting was done in Newark, Bayonne and on soundstages at the Jersey City Armory. Cruise grew up in Glen By ELEANOR O'SULUVAN Movie Writer At least a dozen families from Howell are more than ready for the June 29 opening of Steven Spielberg's version of H. G. Wells' "War of the Worlds." Howell residents were delighted to see a big-time movie star and director just before Thanksgiving Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, who were in town shooting scenes for the upcoming release "War of the Worlds." The Ardena Acres development of Howell and a nearby farm were used by Spielberg in i i 1.