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CASTING Salma Hayek will play the strong, sexy type (not what you'd call a stretch) in the comedy ''Shiny New Enemies,'' starring as a nude-model- CHEAP TRIBUTE Freehold, N.J., will only spend so much to honor its hometown hero, Bruce Springsteen. The town had planned to erect a statue in honor of the Jersey boy, but when the cost grew to $200,000, the council decided that kind of cash could be better spent on other things.
FREE MUSIC The remaining members of the Grateful Dead are embracing MP3 technology, but in true hippie tradition, only if no one uses it to profit, man. The band, which has always allowed taping at their concerts, have permitted websites to post MP3 recordings of their past live shows provided the webmasters aren't selling the music or earning money for commercial space on their sites. However, the band still won't permit anyone to post their commercially available albums, because that's copyright infringement.
EMCEEING MTV has named the host of its Movie Awards show this year, and it's Lisa Kudrow. The informal affair will be held on June 5, and MTV will air it on June 10... and repeat it countless times after that. Scheduled to appear on the show so far are Ricky Martin, Mike Myers, Heather Graham, and Brendan Fraser.
REEL DEALS David Mamet is hoping to write and direct a remake of Akira Kurosawa's ''High and Low,'' a drama about a tycoon who shells out all of his cash to rescue his chauffeur's son from kidnappers. Mamet is talking to Steve Martin, William H. Macy, and Joe Mantegna -- all veterans of his past films -- to star.... Kenneth Branagh hasn't come close to getting all the ''forsooth''s out of his system: He is currently
adapting ''Macbeth'' into a movie script to start shooting this fall. The Shakespeare-phile will play the lead, but he's not sure whether he'll direct.... Renaissance cowboy Dwight Yoakam is adding directing to his resume for the western ''South of Heaven, West of Hell.'' He'll also
star as a U.S. Marshal who squares off against a law-breaking gang whose members once took him in as part of the family. He's enlisted his ''Sling Blade'' director and costar, Billy Bob Thornton, to join his cast, as
well as Bridget Fonda and Vince Vaughn.... John Landis's comedies haven't been faring too well lately (''Blues Brothers 2000,'' anyone?), so the ''American Werewolf in London'' director is trying his hand at horror again. He is planning to direct ''Really Scary,'' an anthology of creepy tales... Former teen dream Shaun Cassidy has done well in his old age. Studios USA has signed Cassidy, now a TV producer, to a three-year, $6 million deal to create dramas, according to Variety. In the past few years he has created the shows ''Players'' and ''American Gothic.''
TECH BOY David Bowie continues to embrace computer technology tighter and tighter. He'll appear as a character in the CD-ROM game ''Omikron: The Nomad Soul,'' and will also write and record eight new songs for it, which
won't be available on any of his albums.
STAYING HOME Robert Cray was supposed to perform his first concert in China Sunday, but he has canceled because of the anti-American sentiment building since NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. The U.S. State
Department has given stern warnings to all American not to travel to Beijing right now, where citizens have been throwing rocks at the U.S. embassy.
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