US-ENTERTAINMENT Summary

Ex-wife's custody bid looms over Jackson memorial

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Pop star Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe cast a shadow over the unveiling of plans on Friday for the King of Pop's memorial service next week, as a legal battle shapes up over custody of their kids. Rowe told a Los Angeles TV station on Thursday she wanted to care for her two children with Jackson, and a court hearing over guardianship -- temporarily awarded to Jackson's 79-year-old mother Katherine Jackson -- was delayed one week.

Jay Leno wins cybersquatting case

GENEVA (Reuters) - Comedian and talk show host Jay Leno has won a cybersquatting case against a Texas man found by a U.N. agency to have misused the domain name thejaylenoshow.com to direct Internet users to a real estate website. In a ruling issued on Thursday, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) said Leno had common law trademark rights to his name after a 30-year career in entertainment, even though Guadalupe Zambrano registered the site in 2004.

Alice in Chains reunion "Gives Way" to album, tour

CLEVELAND (Billboard) - Alice in Chains singer-guitarist Jerry Cantrell and drummer Sean Kinney say the band's new album, their first in nearly 14 years, doesn't stray too far from the Seattle band's influential catalog. "Black Gives Way to Blue," due out September 29 on Virgin/EMI,is also the group's first effort with new singer-guitarist William DuVall.

Unscripted TV fare balances real with "reality"

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - When the Oxygen network green-lighted the reality series "Addicted to Beauty," the idea was to chronicle the day-to-day workings of a trendy California medical spa via the lives of its married co-owners, a socialite and a doctor. That was the plan, anyway.

"Ice Age" heats up box office with record opening

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" grossed a cool $13.8 million in North American theaters on Wednesday, marking Hollywood's biggest mid-week opening for an animated film. The previous record Wednesday opening in the United States and Canada for a cartoon feature was "Shrek 2," which sold $11.8 million its first day in May 2004, according to the film tracking service Hollywood.com Box-Office.

Deal chatter heats up in Hollywood

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dealmaking in Hollywood could get hot and heavy in coming months as movie studios explore ways to fight tumbling DVD sales and distribute entertainment in new formats. Even as the recession squeezes financing from Wall Street banks and funds, the deal chatter has picked up because studios have already cut expenses and are looking for new growth opportunities for their movies, TV series and other content.

Aerosmith's Joe Perry turns to fans for album title

DETROIT (Billboard) - Aerosmith's next album might be "on the bench, in pieces," waiting for the group to resume recording after it finishes touring in mid-September, but guitarist Joe Perry's next solo album is just about ready to go. Perry tells Billboard.com that he's finishing mixing the follow-up to 2005's Grammy-nominated "Joe Perry." He plans to release a single in late July or early August, and the album will come out in the fall.

Hipster factor poses challenges for movie marketers

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - Batten down the hatches -- the hipsters are coming. Even as Hollywood studios increasingly aim at the broadest possible audience, a few companies are experimenting with the opposite approach in these summer months and beyond: They're making smart, quirky movies for a sophisticated young audience.

Just A Minute With: Ray Romano on "Ice Age"

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Ray Romano, who became a major U.S. television star in the 1990s with his sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond," has found another kind of fame -- as the voice of a woolly mammoth in the film "Ice Age." In the third film in the franchise, 3D animated adventure "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," which debuted in theaters on Wednesday, Romano's character Manny is starting a family when he and his motley clan of animals find a world filled with dinosaurs.

Author Vikram Seth writing "A Suitable Boy" sequel

LONDON (Reuters) - Indian poet and novelist Vikram Seth is writing a sequel to his acclaimed, monumental story "A Suitable Boy" to be titled "A Suitable Girl." Penguin imprint Hamish Hamilton bought the English language rights to the new novel, excluding the United States, from Seth's agent David Godwin, and expects it to be published in 2013, 20 years after the original book.