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By Josh Wolk
Josh Wolk
Josh Wolk
Josh Wolk is a senior writer at EW and the author of ''Cabin Pressure: One Man's Desparate Attempt to Recapture His Youth as a Camp Counselor''

TOY BLITZ Such toy-store chains as KayBee and Toys 'R' Us are opening their stores early on Monday, because George Lucas has allowed them to start selling ''Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace'' merchandise at 12:01 a.m. Monday morning. Large crowds of obsessive fans are expected to show up with wallets a-bulging to buy the new talking action figures, LEGO ''Star Wars'' sets, and ''Phantom Menace'' video games and educational software.

ROCK UPHEAVALS Is Pamela Anderson Lee Motley Crue's Yoko Ono? Drummer Tommy Lee is leaving the metal band after reconciling with his ex-wife, saying that ''it's time for me to totally embrace my family and my new projects.'' Lee has also been working on a solo album since December. Motley Crue will go on tour without him this summer with the Scorpions, and the band has asked former Guns N' Roses drummer Matt Sorum to take his place.... The Goo Goo Dolls have canceled four concerts after guitarist and singer Johnny Rzeznik developed a severe hematoma on his left vocal chord. A doctor ordered him to rest his voice for a week until the swelling goes down. The band hopes to reschedule the lost concerts after the end of their tour in May.... After 14 years together, the British trio Love and Rockets is splitting up. The band will play two farewell concerts at the Roxy in Los Angeles on May 9 and 10.

NEW MUSIC If it ain't broke, Will Smith won't fix it: He's recording a title track for his July 4 weekend movie, ''Wild Wild West,'' and is currently filming a video where he appears as his movie character, sticking to the blueprint of his hit from ''Men in Black'' (which also opened on the Fourth of July weekend, in 1997). The tune from ''West'' has been largely lifted from Stevie Wonder's ''I Wish,'' just like his ''Black'' hit was copped from Patrice Rushen's ''Forget Me Nots.'' Kool Moe Dee and Dru Hill also make guest appearances on the new song.... Pearl Jam is releasing a single, ''The Last Kiss,'' to benefit Kosovo refugees. It's not a new song per se, as the band originally recorded this cover of the J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers tune in 1998 and made it available on vinyl only to its fan-club members on Christmas.

CASTING David Schwimmer is shucking his dorky Ross demeanor to play a wayward priest in the black comedy ''Picking up the Pieces.'' Schwimmer's character rediscovers God after meeting up with Woody Allen, a butcher who has made ground chuck out of his wife (Sharon Stone).... Who's the villain battling the black private dick that's a sex machine with all the chicks? John Leguizamo! You're damn right. He will likely play Shaft's nemesis in the remake of the 1971 movie, which stars Samuel L. Jackson as the supercool detective.... Jake Lloyd is following ''The Phantom Menace'' with the indie film ''Madison,'' a family drama set against the thrillfest that is hydroplane boat racing. Get to the stores early...those ''Madison'' action figures are going to go like hotcakes!

HERALDED Man-of-a-million-personalities Jonathan Winters will be awarded the second annual Mark Twain Prize on Oct. 20. Comedy Central will air the tribute sometime in January, as it did last year when Richard Pryor took home the fledgling award.

REEL DEAL UPN has ordered 13 episodes of a new cop show, ''The Beat,'' created by the team behind ''Homicide'' and ''Oz.'' Tom Fontana and Barry Levinson's series centers around a group of young NYPD officers, and they insist it is not ''an earnest cop show'' and will have ''a swagger to it and a sense of humor''.... Director Bronwen Hughes (''Forces of Nature'') will shoot an as-yet-untitled biopic of photojournalist Dan Eldon, who was stoned to death in Somalia by an anti-American mob in 1993.


Posted Apr 30, 1999 | Order Article Reprints