Daily Record from Morristown, New Jersey • 49

Aim SECTION How To Reach Us FEATURES EDITOR: Jim Bohen (973)428-6632 featuresdailyrecord.com IP a 0 Crossword E6 A SUNDAYJULY 23, 2000 DAILY RECORD, MORRIS COUNTY INSIDE Is rapper Eminem another Elvis? BY WENDY CASE THE DETROIT NEWS Tf jL JUL 1 Astor on 1 on USB They both grew up poor. They both put their imprint on traditionally black music. They were both attacked as snarling corrupters of American youth. They both became stars and they both found celebrity can have a high price. One is Elvis Presley.

The other is 27-year-old rapper Eminem. Not since the mid '50s, Rock legend Pioneer music producer Sam Phillips, right, greets Jerry Lee Lewis at the recent premiere of an episode of 'Biography' about Phillips' life. Music, E3 Vernon woman, bound for, bigger things, prepares for last show in 'second home' at Brundage Park BY DEBRA SCACCIAFERRO DAILY RECORD when the King wiggled and sneered his way into the American mainstream, has the music industry seen such a potent marriage of a white performer to a black musical style as has BRIEFING Today's tip GONE FISHIN': An introduction to fishing for children ages 5 to 7 will be held today at 1 p.m. at the Division of Fish and Wildlife's Pequest Trout Hatchery and Natural Resource Education Center, Route 46, Oxford. Admission is free.

To register, call (908) 637-4125. If you've been to a show at the Brundage Park Playhouse in the last six years, you've probably couldn't help noticing Bridget Beirne. The petite, 21-year-old brunette from Highland Lakes in Vernon Township has a singing voice that could almost blow the roof off the tiny place. Her first role at age 15 was Little Buttercup in the Gilbert Sullivan operetta "HMS Pinafore." Her most recent was Mary Rapper Eminem is controversial and popular. Magdelene in "Jesus Christ Superstar" in July of 1999 and Sheila in "A Chorus Line" in August of 1999.

Over the years, she's wowed audiences in musical roles including Catherine in "Pippin," Katisha in "The Mikado," Martha in "The Secret Garden," the baker's wife in "Into the Woods" and Nancy in "Oliver!" Now, she's playing the charismatic Eva Peron in the Reel news imnmwrA ft mm a Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Evita." The show, which opened on July 14, runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. through August 5 at the playhouse on Carrell Road in Randolph. Thp rnlo nlnvorl nripinnltv hv Pnttv T.nnone on fiuj 'D 1 Broadway, spans the tumultuous life of the wife of Beirne stars Argentina dictator, Gen Juan Perez, played by another a yhouse RandoS Peron in 'Ewta a 'daily record "here Berne's last shn Park Brundage veteran, jay weDer. it starts wun ner aeam in alle nas performe 1952 from cancer, at the age of 33, as the people revere her ror ber. It starts with her death in she has perfvnZ years.

ie tneater name in the streets. Then it flashes back to 1934, to tell the story of the illegitimate girl from a poor town who traveled to Buenos Aires to transform herself into a model and actress, then First Lady and, ultimately, noDular saint. i .1, iMiaaijtja a u.j.l. LiJ 1 It's the most musically challenging role of Beirne's young career. And likely to be her last appearance at the playhouse.

She's returning for her senior year as a voice and musical theater student at the prestigious Boston Conservatory, a private music college.in happened with Eminem. So could he be the next Elvis? "Sales-wise, respectability and shock-wise, yeah," said Harry Bunner, singles buyer for an underground music store in Roseville, Mich. Bunner used to stock Eminem's self-released cassettes before the rapper became famous. "I do think in some ways there's a comparison to be made," said Alan Light, editor in chief of the music magazine Spin, which features Eminem on its August cover. Like Elvis in his heyday, Eminem is everywhere.

His new album, "The Marshall Mathers LP" has just entered its seventh week at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. His "Up In Smoke" rap tour, with Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and other top rappers, is touring nationwide. Eminem is featured in numerous print and online magazines including gracing the cover of the July issue of hip-hop monthly the Source.

He is the first white artist so featured since the magazine's inception 12 years ago. At least one full-blown biography is planned for this fall from St. Martin's Press. And his legal problems have made headlines nationally. Elvis seems pretty tame by today's standards.

Eminem, on the other hand, is the modern embodiment of every mother's nightmare. Lyrics filled with vio-' lent messages, misogyny and homophobia have sent activist groups and censors into a frenzy. 1 'V I September. She was chosen to sing with the Boston Pops in May And she's been signed to play a major role andSi at a new musical, Moya Collins" about miners conflicts, scheduled for February at the SpeakEasy Stage Company at the Boston Center for the Arts in Boston. She won rave 'U92 reviews there last February (even if the musical itself didn't) for her performance in the title role of "Violet." "She won't be back," said Peter Lubrecht, founder and director at the Brundage Park Playhouse.

"She'll be doing showcases and we expect her to have no trouble finding an agent and plunging right into professional theater." He knows the signs, he said, having seen several Brundage Park performers go on professionally including Elizabeth Swaydos, who sang at Lincoln Center; Andrew Varella, who understudied the lead role of Jean Valjean in "Les Miserables" on Broadway; Brian Maillard, who appeared in the off-Broadway show LJ JOHN GALAYDA DAILY RECORD Bridget Beirne, 21, instructs young acting students at Brundage Park Playhouse's summer theater program. SEE STAR E4 SEE EMINEM E4 MARVELOUS MONTH: This is a marvelous month for Marvel Comics, thanks to "X-Men's" victory at the box office. So it's no wonder that Marvel Studios president Avi Arad is striking while the heroes are hot. Before accountants could finish counting the receipts on "X-Men's" X-cit-ing $54.5 million opening last weekend, Arad was in Los Angeles, looking to get a Hollywood deal for Lunatik, one of his company's most obscure comic book crusaders. This week Arad had meetings with several studios, including Sony, Paramount and MGM, about "Lunatik," to which Adam Rifkin Rock is attached to write and direct.

If "Lunatik" gets a deal, it will join such movie-bound Marvel titles as "Spider-Man" (Sony), "Fantastic Four" (20th Century Fox), "Captain America" (Artisan Entertainment) and "Ghost Rider" (Crystal Sky Entertainment). One of Marvel's first titles also could find movie stardom: "Sub-Mariner," which features an underwater prince. Arad is recruiting potential talent before taking the project to studios. CLOTHES MAKE THE MOVIE: Call it one-stop shopping. You go to the mall, you see the movie, and you come home in the costumes.

Miramax's Dimension division, which once outfitted the cast of "The Faculty" in Tommy Hilfiger designs, has struck a deal with American Eagle Outfitters, which sells casual clothing to the 16-to-34 set, to costume its upcoming films. That's why Jason Biggs wears an American Eagle T-shirt throughout the fast-fading "Boys and Girls" and why characters in the upcoming "Getting Over Allison" (with Kirsten Dunst) and "Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000" will be similarly attired. Meanwhile, American Eagle will plug the movies in its catalogmagazines, on leaflets dropped in shoppers' bags and around its 500 stores, says Lori Sale of the studio's promotions department. POKEMON HOT -OR NOT? The first Pokemon movie stunned many with its monstrous box office ($85.7 million in North America), thanks to a red-hot card-trading phenomenon that attracted children and their parents to a movie that many critics said was not worth anyone's time. Can "Pokemon: The Movie 2000," which opened Friday recapture the magic, or has kids' interest declined? Warner Bros, isn't talking, but Nintendo executives have predicted the sequel will break $100 million in North America.

'Scooby-doo, Where Are is everywhere they would need a fresh way to entice viewers and marketers to the show. In a stroke of savvy repackaging, it hitched the dog to a marketing event Halloween one of the biggest snack- and candy-selling occasions of the year. The Scooby-Halloween link made a compelling hook for advertisers trying to reach the grade-school audience through their stomachs. Last year, sales of Scooby-Doo plush toys, linens, apparel, lunch boxes and other products hit the $800 million mark at retail. Sales have increased eight-fold in four years, said Dan Romanelli, president of worldwide consumer products at Warner Bros.

The marketing machine just keeps chugging. Time Warner's Warner Bros, studio, which has produced several direct-to-video Scooby-Doo feature films, now has a movie for theatrical release in development, expected as early as 2002. Coming to freezers this summer are two Scooby-related ice cream flavors, produced under a licensing agreement with Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Inc. By the fall, Scooby will be Cartoon Network fuels new generation of series' faithful BY SALLY BEATTY THE WALL STREET JOURNAL Scooby-Doo, where aren't you? It's been 31 years since the crime-solving canine made his debut in television's cartoon series "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" Today, appearing on Time Warner Cartoon Network, he is giving other animated characters a run for their money. As the top dog in an $800 million empire of licensed merchandise and one of television's longer-lived properties, Scooby is, in fact, a marketing phenomenon and a testament to the power of recycling.

Vintage cartoon properties were core programming for the Cartoon Network back when it launched in 1992. Now, newer and edgier animated shows "Dexter's laboratory," "Johnny Bravo" and the network's top-rated show, "Powerpuff Girls" get more play and bigger audiences. Scooby, however, is among the older properties that regularly nip at their heels: It usually ranks among the network's top 10 pro grams and often makes it to the top five. This year, ratings for Scooby are running 5 percent ahead of last year. Scooby-Doo's comeback, six years in the making, was as calculated as a Hollywood starlet's.

Dozens of meticulously planned promotions and publicity stunts have helped the character tap not just children's interest but also their parents' nostalgia. This year, with a new video feature to promote and a theatrical release in the works, the goofy Great Dane is expected to be a ubiquitous advertising presence on TV, in fast food outlets, and on candy wrappers and bags of chips. How'd It happen? How did a dusty cartoon character get to be so popular? The answer says a lot about how today's vertically integrated media giants manufacture demand for their TV shows and the toys, videos and other merchandise they spin out of them. Created by the old Hanna-Barbera animation house, Scooby-Doo appeared on TV continuously for 22 years until 1991, when the ABC network, facing declining ratings, packed the dog into mothballs. In 1991, Turner Broadcasting System agreed WARNER HOME VIDEO Shaggy and Scooby-doo are in a tight spot as Thelma and Daphne scramble away for help in a frame from the cartoon 'Scooby-doo! And the Witch's The Cartoon Network has given the 31-year-old series new life.

Lazzo, Cartoon Network senior vice president of programming. The original Scooby vehicle, "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" became a programming centerpiece for the fledgling network in 1994. Still, the executives saw to acquire Scooby, including 150 hours of programming comprising 310 episodes, as part of its purchase of the Hanna-Barbera library for $320 million. Time Warner Inc. would later acquire Turner Broadcasting.

Given such a rich pro gramming trove, programming executives at Time Warner's fledgling Cartoon Network soon were itching to dust the dog off. "The longevity alone of that show told us it was an evergreen, a la 'Cheers' or Andy Griffith' or said Mike SEE SCOOBY-DOO E4.