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Current TV debuts Monday

By CHRISTOPHER COSENZA, Times wires
Published July 30, 2005

Get ready for Gore TV. . . . Well, Current TV to be exact. Former Vice President Al Gore's new youth-oriented, populist TV news and information channel is coming Monday to Bright House Networks.

The channel, targeted for 18- to 34-year-olds, will take over the digital channel once held by NewsWorld International (Ch. 128 in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties) and will broadcast to roughly 20-million viewers nationwide.

The premise is simple. Given its target audience's hunger for quick, on-demand information, Current TV will offer bite-sized video packages no more than 7 to 10 minutes long, allow viewers to submit pieces via the Internet, and vote on favorite amateur video online.

Those searching for a predictable political message may be disappointed, given that Gore's channel has gone out of its way to distance itself from talk that it's just DNC-TV. For more information go to www.current.tv

NEW YORK - Julia Roberts, movie star, is heading to Broadway next spring.

The 37-year-old actress will make her Broadway debut in a revival of Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain.

The announcement by producers Marc Platt and David Stone was first reported Friday in The New York Times. Platt and Stone are the team responsible for the megahit musical Wicked.

The production will begin a limited 12-week engagement next March at a theater to be named, the Times said, and will be directed by Joe Mantello, one of the theater's most sought-after directors. No other details, including other cast members, were announced.

Mantello directed the Broadway and touring productions of Wicked as well as Take Me Out, Greenberg's Tony-winning drama about a gay baseball player. He will also direct the Nathan Lane-Matthew Broderick revival of The Odd Couple, opening on Broadway in October.

Three Days of Rain was first done in New York in 1997 at off-Broadway's Manhattan Theatre Club. The three-character play, a mysterious family drama, starred Patricia Clarkson, John Slattery and Bradley Whitford.

It is one of the first acting gigs Roberts has committed to since giving birth to twins last December. Her screen hits include Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias and Erin Brockovich - for which she won an Oscar in 2001.

KINGMAN, Ariz. - The arraignment for country singer Mindy McCready has been postponed until Aug. 30.

The troubled singer had been scheduled for arraignment Friday on charges of unlawful use of a means of transportation and hindering prosecution in Mohave County Superior Court, but she did not appear. A McCready representative had contacted prosecutors in advance.

On Tuesday, the 29-year-old was released from a Florida hospital after an apparant suicide attempt. She had reportedly taken large amounts of two unidentified substances, consumed a lot of alcohol and left a four-page suicide note.

During the arraignment Monday, McCready's co-defendant, Guillan Cissin-Deangelo, pleaded innocent. He faces the same charges as McCready in addition to unlawful imprisonment, identity theft and attemped fraud.

Lake Havasu City police have said some of the charges stem from alleged theft of a pickup truck and forcing a woman to accompany them against her will.

McCready had a No. 1 hit in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time."

NEW YORK - Lindsay Lohan missed her own premiere in London Thursday to fly home to her mother for the start of her parents' divorce proceedings.

Lohan was meant to join her co-star Michael Keaton at the premiere of the Disney film "Herbie: Fully Loaded." Instead, the 19-year-old actress flew to New York to be with her mother and siblings.

"She's having some troubles at home," Angela Robinson, director of "Herbie," told AP Television News. "She wanted to go back and deal with her family because she had some personal stuff going on, so we definitely miss her here but I think it's best that she do that."

Her parents have had a public divorce battle, with Lohan's mother and co-manager Dina suing for divorce and her father, Michael, asking for a cut of his daughter's earnings in response.

"He didn't do anything for my career except go out and not come home at night," Lohan told W magazine in April. "So I don't think he deserves anything. He doesn't even deserve my respect."

Michael Lohan, 44, was sentenced in late May to 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison on guilty pleas to a variety of crimes, including driving while impaired and attempted assault.

Lohan's mother is seeking full custody of the couple's children, alimony and $1 million in damages.

[Last modified July 30, 2005, 01:31:29]