- Saturday Night Censorship
- Astaire Honored on 100th Birthday
- Star Wars Breaks Opening Day Record
- Film world honors Kubrick
- Air Conditioning
- Rumour of True Things
- SwordBoat
- Lost and Found Sound: Cigar Stories
- 'Star Wars': Premature Reviews
- Unreleased Beatles song due this year

(Real Audio Enabled)

With more news and entertainment organizations being bought up by big corporations, more pressure is being put on reporters, editors and writers to not step on the toes of corporate media. This short media analysis looks at a Saturday Night Live cartoon short called Conspiracy Theory Rock - a satirical assualt on corporate owned media - which was recenltly pulled from the rerun of an April 1998 show.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) - The most eloquent testimonials at a tribute to the late Fred Astaire on the 100th anniversary of his birth came in film clips showing off the dancer's grace. At the Motion Picture Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater, guests watched Astaire climbing up the wall and dancing on the ceiling in ``Royal Wedding,'' twirling cheek-to-cheek with Ginger Rogers in ``Top Hat,'' trading machine-gun steps with Eleanor Powell in ``Broadway Melody of 1940'' and playing a hobo with Judy Garland in ``Easter Parade.''

``Fred made everything seem so easy,'' said Joan Leslie, who danced with Astaire in ``The Sky's the Limit.'' ``But that was the result of hard and constant practice.'' John Forsythe presided Friday at ``A Centennial Tribute to Fred Astaire.'' Three of the dancer's co-stars made appearances, Leslie, Ann Miller and Cyd Charisse. Astaire, who died in 1987, made his name as a song-and-dance man but also tackled dramatic roles, earning an Academy Award nomination for supporting actor in ``The Towering Inferno'' (1974).

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LOS ANGELES (AP) - The new ``Stars Wars'' movie made $28.5 million on its opening day, shattering the box-office record set in 1997 by ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park.'' ``Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace'' opened at 2,970 locations, some of which have been playing the movie round-the-clock since 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. The 24-hour receipts totaling $28,542,349 beat the one-day record of $26.1 million set by ``Lost World'' on a Sunday of Memorial Day weekend in 1997, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. reported Thursday.

``Phantom Menace'' also topped the ``Lost World'' opening-day record of $21.6 million, set on the Friday of that weekend. Analysts said ``Phantom Menace'' should gross $100 million to $140 million by the end of its five-day opening Sunday, setting more records. The movie is so big that some employers decided to not fight the Force and just pay to send their workers to theaters. ``Everyone wants to see this movie, and we thought it would be fun to send our whole company,'' said Steven J. Lund, president and chief executive of Provo, Utah-based cosmetics seller Nu Skin Enterprises, which reserved a theater for all 1,600 employees and one guest each.

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HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Stanley Kubrick called himself a "demented perfectionist" and there were few who disagreed Sunday during a tribute to the late director of gems like "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "A Clockwork Orange." "His eccentricities were the ones of an artist protecting his vision," said movie critic Richard Schickel. "Other men broke under the strain of Stanley's heedless pursuit of perfection. I suppose that, in the end, he did, too." Sitting among the audience at the Directors Guild of America were actors who worked for Kubrick, including Jack Nicholson ("The Shining") and Keir Dullea ("2001"); and admirers like Steven Spielberg and Warren Beatty. Kubrick's final film "Eyes Wide Shut," starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman is expected to be released July 16.

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-- NPR's Susan Stamberg examines the history of air conditioning, the subject of an exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington DC. Without it, there'd be no chocolate, tract homes, or Las Vegas. AC has made the uninhabitable, habitable.

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Rumour of True Things

An 'accidental' portrait of a society constructed entirely from its moving picture ephemera. The Rumour Of True Things is an unnerving composite of found video images and sound. Video and its technology form the work's content, however Bush's urgent concerns are clearly with the personal and how it is represented by the body. (in Real Video!)

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-- Noah talks with Linda Greenlaw, author of "The Hungry Ocean: A SwordBoat Captain's Journey." The book tells the story of one fishing trip that Captain Greenlaw takes with her 5-man crew out to the Grand banks in the Atlantic Ocean in search of swordfish. There's racial tension on board, which disappears when the fishing starts. She describes the tricks the crew likes to play on first timers, and the exhausting 20-hour days of baiting hooks on the 40-mile line and hauling in the fish. Her boat the Hannah Boden was the sister ship to the Andrea Gail, which was lost at sea in 1991, in a voyage described by Sebastian Junger in "The perfect Storm."

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-- Actor Andy Garcia narrates a story about the "readers" who made life in cigar factories tolerable. This story, produced by The Kitchen Sisters -- Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva -- in collaboration with Laura Folger and Tina Pacheco, tells the story of the men who were paid to read aloud to men and women rolling cigars in Tampa and Ybor City, Florida at the beginning of the century and into the 30s. These "Lectors" would read from classics, revolutionary tracts and labor union magazines to keep the worker's informed and amused. LOST AND FOUND SOUND learned about this profession as the result of a phone call to its QUEST FOR SOUND line (202-408-0300) from a man in Florida who had 78 r.p.m. records of his father, who was a Lector. After a labor dispute the job of Lector was eliminated. The radio came to take the place of the reader. We trace the origins of the practice of readers, which started in Spain. The readers would often read all the way through a novel -- a little bit each day. People would gather outside the factory windows to listen in. LOST & FOUND SOUND executive producers are The Kitchen Sisters, Davia Nelson and Nikki Silva, and Jay Allison. Production help from Kate Volkman, Viki Russell, Darcy Bacon and Sandra Wong. NPR coordinating producer is Art Silverman.

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'Star Wars': Premature Reviews

The Star Wars prequel, Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace doesn't open until next Wednesday. And traditionally, reviews don't come out until the day the film is released. But with The Phantom Menace, dozens of critics have already reviewed the film, breaking a "gentleman's agreement" with studios, which prefer that they wait until the eve of the release. Many publications are justifying violation of this longstanding tradition by saying that this film -- coming 22 years after the original Star Wars -- is news, and the reviews are news coverage. Listen as critic Bob Mondello reports for All Things Considered that if studios want to hold early screenings for eager masses, they run the risk of "premature criticulation".

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LONDON (AP) - A previously unreleased single by the Beatles will be put out later this year, along with refurbished versions of the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack and movie. The single is about three minutes long and features all four Beatles singing, said Geoff Baker, a spokesman for Paul McCartney and Apple Records. He wouldn't disclose other details about the song Monday. The 87-minute movie "Yellow Submarine," first released in 1968, is being restored and given a remixed soundtrack, Baker said. The album had six songs by the Beatles and seven instrumental tracks from the film score by George Martin, the group's producer. The remixed version will drop the instrumentals and replace them with previously released Beatles tracks, Baker said.

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As part of NPR's year-long Friday feature collaboration between NPR and independent producers highlighting this century's recordings, they present two anniversaries that fall on this date. Quest for Sound Curator Jay Allison tells us about Derby, Connecticut, Boy Scout Troop 3. Every year for 75 years the troop has performed a "Gang Show" on this date. We hear excerpts from the recordings the Boy Scouts there made. Today is also the 54th anniversary of the day Germany surrendered to Allied Forces in W.W.II. We hear Winston Churchill and a home recording of a woman reflecting on the end of the war.

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The Winslow Boy, the new movie from David Mamet, is an adaptation of British dramatist Terence Rattigan's celebrated play. Set in 1910, the film is based on the real-life story of a young naval cadet who is accused of stealing a five shilling postal order. Convinced of the boy's innocence, the Winslow family undertakes his defense, challenging many long-accepted legal notions, setting off a national frenzy and exacting a heavy price on the family.  Listen as David D'Arcy reports for Morning Edition.

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Centuries before European explorers entered the Pacific Ocean, Polynesian seafarers had already explored the Pacific, and settled on the islands in the middle. They traveled in canoes, navigating -- wayfinding -- without instruments. But over the years, as European influence grew in Hawaii and other islands, the art of long-distance wayfinding was almost lost. In the last 25 years, some people in Hawaii have revived the art. Their story is told in Wayfinders: A Pacific Odyssey, a new documentary which will be broadcast Thursday night on public television to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Find out more as Heidi Chang reports from Hawaii Public Radio for Morning Edition.

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The world's largest music company, Universal Music Group, plans to invest in technology to sell and distribute music over the Internet. Universal Music hopes to solve the growing problem of music piracy on the Web by allowing customers to download music to their computers in a secure format that prevents mass copying. Other companies, including Sony, Microsoft and IBM, are competing to develop secure systems for digital transmission of music as the industry looks to establish a standard encryption system that would curb piracy. Hear more as NPR's John McChesney reports for Morning Edition.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) - Hundreds of silent-movie classics including "The Phantom of the Opera," "The King of Kings" and rare footage of W.C. Fields are heading to the auction block. The prints of more than 1,500 films come from the Silent Movie Showcase in Hollywood, the country's only movie theater dedicated to silent films, which closed in January 1997 after a gunman killed the theater's owner, Lawrence Austin. Other titles expected to be up for auction include "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and a collection of Laurel and Hardy films including "Two Tars" and "Dr. Jack." Many of the 16mm and 35mm silent films were given to the theater's original owner by Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille. The sale was scheduled for May 23-24 by the auction house Butterfield & Butterfield.

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NEW YORK (AP) - A personal computer and an Internet connection will get you into the movie premiere of ``Dead Broke,'' a dark comedy starring Paul Sorvino.   The film is believed to be the first to debut simultaneously on the Internet and the big screen. The film's executives and cast members, which include John Glover, Tony Roberts and Jill Hennessy, will be seeing a digital version, too.

The Tribeca Film Center will download the feed and route it through a digital projector, USA Today reported today. The Edward Vilga-directed ``Dead Broke'' is the first of a four-film series that iFilm Network, in conjunction with Globix, Microsoft and the Tribeca Film Center, will premiere on the Internet. IFilm is an online community of independent filmmakers and fans. PC users will need an ultrafast T-1 connection to watch the movie ``seamlessly,'' but iFilm founder Rodger Raderman said that a fast connection will provide decent images and sound.

Viewers will not have to wait for the entire film to download before seeing it. It takes only a few seconds for the movie to begin to play, Raderman explained. As the movie is being viewed, the rest of it is streaming behind it. ``Dead Broke'' can be seen at www.ifilm.net at 2 p.m. EDT on Wednesday.

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In contemplating the telephone answering machine, what better place to turn than Los Angeles---a town known for its phones.  It's a city that never shuts up, or so the statistics would make you think, with telephones, cell phones, pagers, and voice mail boxes.

Writer, comedian and actor Taylor Negron is from Los Angeles. He's best known as the guy who delivers pizza to Sean Penn in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Taylor averages between 17 and 27 phone messages a day and he's one of those people who saves his tapes. Independent producer Valerie Velardi sifted through two months of Taylor Negron's messages and created this portrait of an artist as an answering machine.

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Amateur hypnotist Morey Bernstein, who died on April 2 at age 79, was the man who conducted in the 1950s a well-known "age regression" experiment. He placed a woman named Jenny Tilgh into a trance. She recounted an earlier life as "Bridie Murphy" in 19th century Ireland. Reporter John McDonough remembers the stunt.

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NEW YORK (AP), Despite hype that had fans lined up to catch a two-minute trailer for the latest ``Star Wars'' installment, Liam Neeson says the movie isn't changing his life. The 46-year-old Irishman told Movieline magazine he can remember braving a dangerous section of Belfast years ago to see the original ``Star Wars.'' Then a young theater actor, Neeson said he found the film ``breathtaking.'' ``It's a simple story, yet with all the complexities of myth. The technology was so understated,'' Neeson said. ``I thought he (George Lucas) was an amazing director who had created this totally believable world.''

That memory was part of what made Neeson jump when offered the chance to meet Lucas in London two decades after ``Star Wars.'' Now he's playing the part of Qui-Gon Jin, a Jedi master in the upcoming ``Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace,'' set for release May 19. But asked whether being part of another potential blockbuster has changed him, Neeson said simply: ``I'm 46 years of age. I'm married with two kids. I love to fly-fish. That will never change. At the end of the day, you know something? It's just a movie.''

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Black Hawk Down

Noah speaks with Mark Bowden, the author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War, a book about the 1993 US military operation in Somalia. He says the efforts to catch a Somali strongman, which resulted in an American soldier being dragged through the streets, have had an effect on American policy in other military operations. The book is published by Atlantic Monthly Press.