Eminem breaks Spears’ record

Just one week after teen pop star Britney Spears set the record for the most albums sold in a week by a solo artist with 1.3 million, rapper Eminem broke her record by selling 1.76 million copies of “The Marshall Mathers LP” in his first week, according to MTV Online and Sound Scan.

The sales will propel Eminem to number one on the Billboard album charts next week, pushing Spears to number two.

“A lot of times I get grouped with the whole ‘TRL’ crowd — the Backstreet [Boys] and Britney Spears — and I have to separate myself from that crowd because I’m not pop,” Eminem told MTV. “No matter how many albums I sell, I feel like my music is underground.”

AT&T to carry sex channel

AT&T Cable Systems, soon to be America’s largest cable television operator, said Wednesday that it plans to carry adult movies provided by the hard-core adult movie channel The Hot Network on its systems, according to Reuters.

“It will be more explicit than you see on the Playboy channel, but not like the [X-rated] stuff you see in the video store,” said Tracy Hollingsworth, spokeswoman for AT&T Broadband.

The films will be available as pay-per-view on digital systems and parents will be able to block the programs as well as other unwanted channels.

Time Warner and Comcast Corp. have refused to include The Hot Network in their lineups. Hollingsworth said the decision to show adult programming was to “remain competitive in the market.”

German television filming Holocaust comedy

In production for the fall of 2001, German television station Suedwestrundfunk is filming a comedy about the Holocaust.

According to The Associated Press, the film, “Goebbels and Geduldig,” is about a Jew named Harry Geduldig who poses as Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels to free the woman he loves. At one point he finds himself in a compromising position with Goebbels wife, Magda, at Hitler’s southern mountain retreat.

“I think such a subject also has to be possible today,” said lead actor Ulrich Muehe. “It’s already been done abroad.”

Eddie Van Halen undergoes treatment to prevent cancer

Guitar virtuoso and founding member of the rock group Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen, has been undergoing outpatient treatment to prevent cancer at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, according to Sonicnet.

“Eddie Van Halen did visit as an outpatient and was evaluated by the doctors and has decided to begin an outpatient clinical trial to prevent cancer,” M.D. Anderson Cancer Center’s Jane Brust said. “He is not being treated for cancer.”

Reports had been confused as to whether or not the rockstar had cancer or not. Brust said that cancer-prevention clinics are fairly common.

Van Halen is a recovering alcoholic and a longtime smoker.

CBS summer schedule banks on ‘Survivor’

CBS’ new summer replacement series, which has been called “Gilligan’s Island” meets “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” was seen as such an important part of the new summer line-up that the network’s top executive helped cast the show, according to Reuters.

Sixteen contestants who are “marooned” on a desert island off the coast of Malaysian Borneo vie for $1 million over a 39-day period.

CBS President Les Moonves said his network is counting heavily on the shows voyeuristic appeal made popular by such shows as MTV’s “The Real World” and Fox’s “Cops.”

“There is a fascination with seeing the average guy, the guy next door, in extraordinary situations,” Moonves told reporters recently. “I think there will be part of each and every one of us that will say, ‘How would I react in that situation?”‘

Moonves helped choose the 16 cast members from 6,000 applicants over a 5-month period.

“I was involved when they were down to 50 people, getting that down to the final 16,” Moonves said. “It was more interesting than casting any pilot we’ve ever done.”

The show’s cast will include a 38-year-old preschool teacher from Tennessee, a 30-year-old basketball coach from New Jersey, a neurosurgeon and an ex-Navy seal.

Each week, the cast members vote to see who stays and who goes, making good social skills a necessity for “survival.”

Figgis breaks rules in ‘Time Code’

In British director Mike Figgis’ new film, “Time Code,” the director shows four versions of one story at one time on one screen, according to Reuters.

After a series of films with little in common — indie films, critical flops and Oscar-nominated “Leaving Las Vegas” — his new movie, “Time Code,” fits in by not fitting in.

“Time Code” tells the story of daily life at a Los Angeles film production company. The plot is not groundbreaking, but the manner in which it is filmed has had critics buzzing since it opened a few weeks ago in a handful of cities around the country.

The movie was produced using low-end digital cameras in one long take while the action unfolds in four different screens like a security camera giving audience members all the angles and perspectives.

“From ‘Leaving Las Vegas’ onward, I’ve kind of been pulling away, making small films — fairly experimental — and trying things out,” Figgis said in a recent interview. “I’m really interested in how far I can push the envelope.”

Notable quotes

The following quotes are taken from various stories reported in Reuters:

“The project unites two of my great passions: conquering England and making movies.” — Mel Brooks, on his plans to make a movie about the 11th century English Battle of Hastings.

“When you do a solo album, how can you go back? If he does a solo album, then Oasis is dead.”— Oasis singer Liam Gallagher, on brother Noel, the group’s MIA guitarist/songwriter, in Britain’s Sun tabloid.

“If you do not commit yourself to sobriety, dotting the i’s, crossing the t’s as it relates to this round of probation, then you’re going to come back to this court and it will be a very unhappy experience for you.” — Malibu Superior Court judge Lawrence Mira to Tommy Lee, after the rocker spent five days in jail for drinking while on probation.