News from the entertainment capital

CAUSE OF DEATH

According to a report on E! Online, film director Ted Demme appears to have died of natural causes.

E! reported that the Los Angeles Coroner's Office will conduct toxicology tests on the body of the 37-year-old Demme and have a thorough look at his medical history, now that a preliminary autopsy has failed to suggest a cause of death.

The director of "Blow," "Life" and "Beautiful Girls" died Sunday at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, where he had been taken in full cardiac arrest after collapsing at a celebrity basketball game nearby. Demme carried more than 200 pounds on his less-than-six-foot frame, and reportedly played basketball as much as five times a week.

According to E! Online, a Hollywood preview audience gasped when Demme showed up onscreen Monday -- in a cameo appearance in the new Denzel Washington movie, "John Q."

In a scene featuring a TV montage of celebrities reacting to the death of a young boy -- by a heart attack -- Demme shows up in a clip. He isn't heard speaking, but he is identified by name in a caption on the TV screen.

AND NOW, HERE'S YOUR HOST ...

Producers of the upcoming 44th Annual Grammy Awards have announced that Jon Stewart will return as host.

The host of MTV's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" earned excellent reviews for his work on last year's Grammy show. This year's telecast is scheduled for Feb. 27 on CBS.

Organizers of the upcoming NAACP Image Awards have announced that Chris Tucker ("Rush Hour," "Rush Hour 2") will host the ceremonies. The Image Awards will be presented on Feb. 23 in Los Angeles, and televised March 1 on Fox.

FANS TUNE IN TO AWARDS SHOWS

TV viewers have been tuning in to televised awards shows so far this awards season, giving decent ratings to the People's Choice Awards on Sunday and the American Music Awards last Wednesday.

According to Nielsen Media Research, the AMAs finished just slightly under last year's ratings on ABC, while the People's Choice Awards improved their year-to-year ratings on CBS by 4 percent. That not only ended a two-year decline in People's Choice ratings, it also gave CBS some upbeat awards show ratings news -- following the abominable ratings for the American Film Institute's first ever AFI Awards on Jan. 5.

WILL IT FLY?

Boeing Co. and one of Hollywood's major talent and literary agencies -- Creative Artists Agency -- have announced plans to launch the aviation company's new direct-to-cinema movie delivery system.

Now they need to see if there will be enough demand for the system to make it commercially viable.

The technology is called Boeing Digital Cinema. It uses much of the same technology that Boeing uses to deliver encrypted national security information to the U.S. Air Force, but for a much different purpose -- to transmit movies, concerts, ball games, ads and corporate events directly to audiences via satellite.

CAA will advise Boeing on business and marketing aspects of the system.

One of the main challenges the system faces is answering the question: Who will pay to have it installed in movie theaters?

Exhibitors have already expressed reluctance to spend upwards of $150,000 for new digital projection gear, especially when they can exhibit movies on state-of-the-art 35mm projectors costing less than one-fourth of that amount. Even if studios wanted to pay for installing the technology, exhibitors have said they don't want to be beholden to studios and producers to that degree.

Studios and distributors envision digital delivery as a way of saving on the considerable cost involved in distributing a movie -- for such items as striking prints, and shipping them to theaters and back again after a movie's run.

TOBY WHO?

Producers of the upcoming James Bond movie have unveiled another secret -- not the actual title of the 20th MGM Bond feature -- but the name of the actor who will play the villain.

It's British actor Toby Stephens, the 32-year-old son of Oscar-winning actress Maggie Smith and the late Sir Robert Stephens. He joins a cast that includes Halle Berry, Judi Dench, John Cleese and Pierce Brosnan -- back for his fourth turn as Agent 007.

Stephens is appearing on the London stage with Dench in "The Royal Family." He also co-stars with Gwyneth Paltrow in "Possession," the upcoming romance by writer-director Neil LaBute ("Your Friends & Neighbors," "Nurse Betty").

CHRIS ROCK WILL DIRECT

Chris Rock is all set to make his feature directing debut with "Head of State," in which he will also star as a Washington, D.C., city councilman who unexpectedly finds himself on the presidential ticket after the death of a national candidate.

Rock co-wrote the screenplay with Ali LeRoi, who was nominated three times and won the Emmy Award in 1999 for writing "The Chris Rock Show" on HBO.

STALLONE'S TV DEAL?

According to a report in Daily Variety, CBS is developing pilots for dramas produced by Sylvester Stallone and writer-director Allison Anders ("Gas Food Lodging," "Mi Vida Loca").

Stallone will produce "Lefty," described as the account of a war hero who becomes a priest.

Anders' pilot -- "Into the Echo" -- is about a parole officer who adopts the child of one of her parolees. Variety reported that Laurie Metcalf ("Roseanne," "The Norm Show") has been mentioned as a possible star for the show.

The project came out of a real-life experience. Anders adopted the child of a young girl she befriended while making "La Vida Loca," after the young mother died of a drug overdose.

Anders' most recent project, the Showtime movie "Things Behind the Sun," is nominated for best feature at the upcoming 17th annual Independent Spirit Awards.

'ONCE' OFF THE SCHEDULE AGAIN

Fans of the ABC family drama, "Once and Again," are circulating petitions online and organizing letter-writing campaigns to the network in an effort to save the show.

Although ABC has not announced plans to cancel the show, it has reduced its episode order this season from 22 to 17, and has taken the show off the air, just two weeks after moving it to 9 p.m. Friday. Plans call for the series to be back on the air on March 4, when it returns to its 10 p.m. Monday time slot.

Sela Ward won the best drama actress Emmy in 2000 for her performance as a woman trying to make her second marriage work.