Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe 'AMERICAN IDOL' REACHES OUT Plans are under way to cash in further on the summer's big TV hit "American Idol," with an interactive CD-ROM and possibly a feature film. Advertisement Vivendi Universal Publishing will put out the CD-ROM. The package will include 20 backing music tracks and a computer microphone for players to record their singing performances, which they can post online in a national competition. Simon Fuller -- who created "Idol" -- seems to be on the same page with 20th Century Fox, contemplating a feature film project based on the show. There has been speculation that Fuller was developing a movie that would feature "Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson and finalist Justin Guarini. According to Daily Variety, studio co-chair Tom Rothman told investors in Miami there is a "good chance" that Fox will develop an "Idol" film. Advertisement 9-11 COVERAGE DOMINATES NEWS EMMYS PBS led the competition with 14 Emmys Tuesday, when the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences handed out its News and Documentary Emmy Awards -- with many of the top awards going to programs and stories about Sept. 11. CBS Evening News with Dan Rather" took three news awards -- including two for best story in a newscast. Besides a trophy for its "McVeigh Papers" report, CBS won for the coverage of correspondent Byron Pitts from the World Trade Center. "World News Tonight with Peter Jennings" earned two Emmys for ABC News for its Sept. 11 coverage -- for best continuing story and investigative journalism in a newscast. Overall, CBS won seven Emmys. ABC won six, CNN took four, and NBC and HBO took three each. PBS' 14 Emmys included four for the network's "P.O.V." series. The academy also honored ABC news chairman Roone Arledge with its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. Arledge is reportedly ill and didn't pick up the honor in person. BUSINESS IS PICKING UP Entertainment industry analysts -- looking for signs that the slump in ad sales is ending -- may find some encouragement in a report that CBS has already sold 80 percent of its advertising inventory for its 2002 NFL telecasts. Advertisement Last year, it wasn't until the end of October that the network had sold that much of its commercial time for the 2001 season. Sumner Redstone, top executive at CBS' parent company Viacom, told investors in Miami Tuesday that ad sales at other Viacom units has also been growing -- in some cases, at levels the company hasn't enjoyed for two years. CASTING NOTES Kelly Ripa ("Live with Regis and Kelly," "All My Children") will reprise her guest-starring role on as the free-spirited Jennifer Bradley on the NBC comedy-drama "Ed." Ripa -- a two-time Daytime Emmy Award nominee for "All My Children" -- will appear in three episodes of "Ed" as the strange but alluring woman who caught the interest of the title character (Tom Cavanagh) last season. NBC has also announced that Roy Scheider ("The French Connection," "All That Jazz," "Jaws") will appear in "Third Watch" for several episodes this fall, returning as a ruthless Russian mobster. FIRE ON THE SET Fire investigators in Burbank, Calif. are trying to determine the cause of a fire that caused an estimated $350,000 damage to a soundstage on the Walt Disney Co. studio lot on Tuesday. Advertisement The fire broke out while crews were constructing a set for the upcoming movie version of the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Disneyland. There were no injuries and no other buildings on the lot were damaged. "Pirates of the Caribbean," starring Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush, is scheduled to arrive in U.S. theaters next summer.
