MUSIC
-- Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair, which is billed as a "celebration of women in music," just keeps rolling up marquee female-fronted acts almost as fast as Lollapalooza repels them. In addition to McLachlan, who will play all the dates, the Lilith Fair main stage lineup will feature select appearances from Fiona Apple, the Cardigans, Suzanne Vega, Indigo Girls, Jewel, Paula Cole, Aimee Mann and Mary Chapin Carpenter, according to the Lilith web site. And, Neneh Cherry and Lisa Loeb are expected to drop in for at least a few dates. Confirmed second stage acts include Victoria Williams, Kelly Willis, the Wild Colonials and Parisian quartet Autour De Lucie. Although no dates have been announced yet, the approximately 35-date tour is expected to make its way across the U.S. and Canada in July and August.
-- According to Addicted To Noise, Fishbone's Norwood Fisher will be taking his roving, roaming P-Funk-inspired funk circus on the road from mid-April through early June with a lineup of bands that includes everyone from ska upkeepers the Skeletones to the reformed Thelonious Monster. Nuttstalk '97, which will feature DJ sets in between bands, finds Fisher sharing the stage with Joi, Weapon of Choice, Super 8, former Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante, the Street Walkin' Cheetas and the supergroup Trulio Disgracias. This time around Trulio will include three members of Fishbone, three ex-Red Hot Chili Peppers and past and current members of Weapon of Choice, Spearhead, the Untouchables, Super 8, Circle Jerks and P-Funk.
-- The final recordings by Chicago's Material Issue, "Telecommando Americano," will be released in late May, according to a Rykodisc press release. The album, recorded between mid-1995 and early-1996, was finished, except for the mixing, before band leader Jim Ellison took his own life on June 21, 1996. For now, the two remaining members of Material Issue have moved on and begun work with several other bands. Drummer Mike Zelenko has been playing with Scat Records' Specula, in addition to playing live with the Chicago band Hummer. Bassist Ted Ansani has also been playing live with Hummer and has joined Chicago's Teenage Frames, whose punk/pop stylings are at times even more infectious than Material Issue's.
FILM
-- After taking a break for three years, acting badly and escorting Mira Sorvino around, Quentin Tarantino finally has concrete plans to direct a follow-up to the now classic "Pulp Fiction." Adapted from Elmore Leonard's gangster comedy "Rum Punch," Tarantino's "Jackie Brown" is the story of one woman's struggles to escape her sordid life of sex and the mob. Tarantino has recruited blaxploitation legend Pam Grier to portray the title character with support likely from Bridget Fonda and Samuel L. Jackson. Look for "Jackie Brown" as soon as December, according to Entertainment Weekly.
-- On the same blaxploitation note, a remake of the kitsch cop classic "Get Christie Love!" is being furiously planned in Hollywood. No details yet on cast or director, though the top choice to play the butt-kicking lady cop is unlikely ass-kicker Whitney Houston. What'll the diva sing, "I Will Always Cap You"? USA Today reports that "Christie Love" plans to arrest next summer, sugar.
-- "Yeah, yeah, definitely no panties, yeah." Hopefully this will not be a piece of dialogue heard when erstwhile "Rain Man" Dustin Hoffman teams up with briefless wonder Sharon Stone for the long-delayed adaptation of Michael Crichton's "Sphere." Slated for release next summer, says Moveline, since no summer can be complete without a Crichton movie, the sci-fi thriller revolves around a group of scientists who study a strange, extra-terrestrial orb, with strange outcomes. Indie leading man Liev Schreiber is also on board.
-- According to Variety, Sean Connery will once again play a villainous character in a major motion picture in the upcoming update of the '60s TV series "The Avengers." With Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman already generating heat in the lead good-guy roles, Connery will bring a certain silver fox-type heat to his bad-guy.
Sharon Stone will appear in "Sphere."
04-10-97
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