(credit: The Weinstein Company)

 
You can hear KCBS Entertainment Editor Jan Wahl’s movie reviews on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM Fridays at 8:53am & 4:53pm.

(CBS SF) – Director and co-screenwriter Madonna weaves together two stories in W.E.; the romantic tale of Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson merged with a present day story of a young woman in a very unhappy marriage.

KCBS Entertainment Reporter Jan Wahl:

W.E. (R)

Jumping between the 1930′s and modern day Manhattan is not such a large leap after all. Both the Duchess of Windsor (Andrea Riseborough) and the dreamy, wounded modern woman (Abbie Cornish) are very wealthy and privileged, with their clothes and decor often far more interesting than they are.

It is hard to believe the modern woman’s salvation, as well as the innocence and naivety of the Duke and Duchess themselves. Everything feels vacuous, vapid and usually false – except for Madonna’s obvious love and passion for the life of the Duchess of Windsor. Madonna makes sure we see this pivotal woman of history not as a self indulgent and possibly pro-Hitler social climber, but of a woman of great style and missed opportunities for substance.

Jan says dream on, Madonna – and use your own clout and power to make a movie of style and substance next time.

One hat for the beautiful look and directorial flair.

See Right Now: “Hugo,” “The Descendants,” “Albert Nobbs,” “The Artist,” “The Iron Lady,” “My Week With Marilyn.”

Watch On Video/DVD: ”50/50,” ”Midnight in Paris” “Richard III.”

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone (credit: Personal Whosay Photo)

 
(CBS) – Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone have posed for photos together before, but probably not like this.

The aging action stars found themselves side-by-side in a hospital recently, where both were having shoulder surgery.

PHOTOS: Arnold Schwarzenegger

“After all the action, stunts & physical abuse shooting ‘The Expendables 2′ and ‘The Last Stand,’ it was time for a little tune up on my shoulder,” Schwarzenegger wrote alongside the photo on his Whosay account Wednesday. “Look who was coincidentally waiting in line behind me for his shoulder surgery.”

He added, “Now we’re ready for another round of great times and action when we shoot ‘The Tomb.’”

Schwarzenegger is 64, and Stallone is 65.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Lana Del Rey (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

 
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Despite being trashed for her “Saturday Night Live” performance, Lana Del Rey is ready to perform a live free show at Amoeba Music in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury on Thursday, February 9.

Del Rey topped the Billboard chart at No. 2, with her first album (under her stage name) selling 77,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Del Rey’s “Born to Die” is the highest entry for a female artist’s full-length major label debut since Jackie Evancho’s “Dream With Me” in July 2011, reports Billboard.

And Del Rey did it all without a real “hit” under her belt. Her singles “Born to Die” and “Video Games” were both popular on YouTube, logging millions of views, but only “Video Games” made it to the Hot 100 chart – reaching No. 91.

 
The 25-year-old singer’s credibility has been debated online passionately for the months leading up to her album release. The topics included her name change, her lips, her backstory and recently, her “SNL” performance. But, her album sales have proved that “All publicity is good publicity.”

Meanwhile, Adele’s “21″ remained at No. 1 for the 19th nonconsecutive week selling 122,000 copies.

 
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

[ Watch CBS News Interview with Van Zandt ]

It was a “Sopranos” reunion of sorts on the New York red carpet for the North American premiere of the series, where we caught up with Van Zandt, as well as his fellow “Sopranos” alumnus Tony Sirico (aka Paulie Walnuts), to discuss this new show with a unusual fish-out-of-water story.

PHOTOS: The Sopranos

“You hear that expression a lot, but this is the real thing…here you have this amazing clash of cultures,” Van Zandt said of his new series.

The legendary E-Street Band guitarist stars as Frank, a New York gangster who goes into witness protection in Norway. The character fell in love with the Scandinavian country after watching the 1994 Winter Olympics, which were held in the town of Lillehammer.

There was no Hollywood sound stage here. The first season was shoot on location, requiring Van Zandt to move to Norway for six months.

“It was cold,” Van Zandt said, “It was zero, five below, ten below…you feel it every night.”

And with so many of Van Zandt’s “Sopranos” cast members in attendance for the premiere, we couldn’t help but ask if any surprise guest appearances were in the works for “Lilyhammer.” Sirico says it could happen.

“The producer [of "Lilyhammer"] already asked me to fly out to Norway, so that’s something,” Sirico revealed, “I told him, I don’t play a rat. I don’t play a rat!”

And while Sirico told us that he’s still holding on to the possibility of a “Sopranos” movie in the future, Van Zandt says not a chance.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

It’s the first time the Material Girl has gone on tour in three years.

Madonna will kick off her tour with a concert in Tel Aviv, Israel on May 29th and make her way through 26 European cities including London, Paris, Milan and Berlin.

[ COMPLETE LIST OF TOUR DATES ]

She’s also got tour dates in South America and Australia before moving on to North America where she will make her Bay Area stop of the tour at the HP Pavilion in San Jose on October 6.

People who buy tickets online to a U.S. performance will receive their choice of a digital or physical copy of the new MDNA album with every ticket purchased.

Madonna’s previous tour, Sticky & Sweet, ran between 2008 and 2009.

Tickets to see Madonna on October 6th at HP Pavilion on sale Monday February 13th at LiveNation.com.

(L-R) Nicki Minaj, Madonna and MIA perform during the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLVI Halftime Show (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

 
The announcement came just days after Madonna’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl on Feb 5, with a record 114 million people tuning in to watch the glitzy, Cleopatra-themed show, which was lauded by critics but resulted in an apology from television network NBC and the NFL for a rude gesture made by British hip hop star M.I.A. during the show.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

When asked if this service was a bit like Netflix, KCBS Technology Analyst Larry Magid said it’s actually more like what Netflix used to be.

Magid said details were sparse, but that the companies did put together a press release saying that they’ll combine to offer both streaming videos and DVD’s that can be picked up at the kiosks, presumably at grocery stores and other places.

KCBS Tech Report:

“The irony is that Netflix has sort of moved away from that model. They still have DVD’s, but they no longer bundle DVD’s and streaming into a single price plan,” Magid explained.

According to the tech expert, if you want both, you have to pay for them separately at roughly $8 a month for streaming and $8 a month for one DVD at a time.

Magid said the new partnership is logically a move to take advantage of all the Netflix defectors who left in an uproar when they increased their rates by 60 percent last year.

He does point out that Netflix has picked up some of those lost subscribers.

“It’s not clear what the joint venture [Verizon-Redbox] will charge, whether it’s going to be similar to what Netflix used to charge, or similar to what they now charge for the combined plan,”

Magid guessed it will be somewhere in the middle and that, for competitive reasons, it would be smarter for them to come in at a lower price than $16 a month.

“They want to take advantage of the notion that people want the best of both worlds,” Magid said, noting that newer content would be available on DVD.

You can hear Larry Magid’s Tech Report Monday through Friday at 3:50pm on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

An interesting title, perhaps, for Sir Paul McCartney. It comes from the lyrics of the set’s lead song, the 1930s Fats Waller jazz standard, “I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself a Letter.” The former Beatle told the U.K.’s Sunday Times the album title evolved from his love of “mischief.”

PHOTOS: Paul McCartney Celebrated

“It’s good for the soul, it’s always a good idea – if only because people think it’s a bad idea,” McCartney, 69, said.

“Kisses on the Bottom” – McCartney’s 15th solo studio release – marks his first new album in nearly five years. It features 12 covers of songs he grew up listening to in Liverpool, mostly standards, including “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “It’s Only a Paper Moon.”

There’s also two McCartney originals: “Only Our Hearts” and “My Valentine,” which was written for his new wife Nancy Shevell. The collection features guest appearances by Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder, and was recorded with Diana Krall and her band.

And still, after all of this time, McCartney says he has to pinch himself every now and again.

He told the U.K.’s Metro about how he recently checked out the George Harrison book accompanying Martin Scorsese’s “Living in the Material World” documentary.

When he saw a photo of the Beatles, McCartney said, “It took me right back. I was like: “Was I really there, in the Beatles? Bloody hell!” It’s obviously a stupid thought but I’m glad I haven’t got used to it yet.”

McCartney, who has just been named a headliner in the Queen’s jubilee concert in June, will perform at the 54th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday. Two days earlier, he will receive the MusiCares Person of the Year honor.

[ ENTER TO WIN A PAUL McCARTNEY BOX SET FROM KCBS ]

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Phil Sutsos and Jack Schach appeared for about two seconds in Chrysler Group’s “It’s Halftime in America” narrated by Clint Eastwood. The firefighters appear one minute and four seconds into the spot, which aired right after the halftime show that featured Madonna.

>>Gallery: Super Bowl Commercials 2012

The theme of the commercial, shot in black and white and color, is that America and the auto industry are back after tough times, and neither can be knocked out by one punch.

“We get right back up again and when we do, the world’s going to hear the roar of our engines,” Eastwood said.

Schach said he and Sutsos were the only ones in Fire Station 1 at 198 D St. when the film company knocked on the door in early January.

“They asked to take pictures of some fire equipment and if we wanted to be in a Dodge commercial that had the potential to be in the Super Bowl,” Schach recalled.

The shoot lasted about 15 minutes and the film crew was gone in less than an hour. Both battalion chiefs posed with a fire department vehicle in the background.

“They said, ‘Stand here and look serious, don’t smile but don’t look mad’,” Schach said. The chiefs look calm, confident and reassuring in keeping with the car company’s message.

Last Thursday, Schach said he received an email informing him the spot would indeed be broadcast during the game.

Schach, 38, a Rohnert Park resident, watched the game at his mother’s Santa Rosa home.

“My cellphone was blowing up a couple minutes after it (the commercial) ended, he said. “Everyone cheered.”

Schach is the younger man on the right. Sutsos, a Sonoma resident in his early 50s, has been a firefighter 31 years, Schach said.

“He’s very excited. We got emails from all our friends telling us, ‘you owe big time’,” he said.

Part of being a firefighter means buying ice cream for other firefighters if one’s name or photo appear in the media. Schach’s and Sustos’ Super Sunday likely means super sundaes for their brethren.

Each of them earned $100 for the commercial. The money will be put in a general fund for fire equipment or donations.

Schach said he emailed his contact with the film company asking, not entirely unseriously, whether some memorabilia, perhaps a Dodge Challenger, might be in the offering.

“She said probably not,” Schach said.

“We’re very proud to represent Petaluma and the fire services as a whole. It’s cool they wanted to have fire representation and we’re honored to be a part that,” Schach said.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Zoo visitors who bring a valentine for Banana Sam get $1 off admission all weekend, and Banana Sam’s keepers will give talks at 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Zookeepers discovered the 17-year-old monkey missing from his enclosure the morning of Dec. 30. Someone had breached a perimeter gate overnight, climbed onto the roof of the squirrel monkey exhibit, and cut two holes into the mesh there.

An investigation was launched and a $5,000 reward was offered, and the next day, a man came forward with the monkey, claiming to have found Banana Sam in San Francisco’s Stern Grove.

The man told police he had lured the monkey into his backpack.

Police are checking out the man’s story and continuing to investigate the disappearance. In the meantime, the reward money is being withheld.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Norman Wielsch, 50, of Antioch, the former commander of the Central Contra Costa County Narcotics Enforcement Team, known as CNET, faces federal charges of stealing and selling drugs from the program, extortion and conducting phony law enforcement stings.

He is free on $100,000 bail and is required to remain in Northern California while awaiting a not-yet-scheduled trial in U.S. District Court in Oakland.

Last week, Wielsch applied for permission to travel to Los Angeles on Sunday and Monday to tape an appearance on “Dr. Phil,” a daytime reality talk show hosted by psychologist Phil McGraw.

On Thursday, U.S. Magistrate Laurel Beeler granted permission, despite the written objections of prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hartley West argued in a filing that Wielsch might be likely to flee and that the trip was not for the normal family, medical or employment purposes usually allowed for exceptions to travel restrictions.

Prosecutors then appealed to U.S. District Judge Saundra Armstrong, the trial judge assigned to the case, in a telephone hearing held Friday afternoon.

According to a brief order posted on the court’s electronic docket Monday, Armstrong on Friday overturned the magistrate’s approval of the trip and blocked the trip, which had been scheduled to begin Sunday.

The order said Beeler’s ruling granting permission for the trip was set aside “for the reasons stated on the record at the telephonic hearing held on February 3.”

The order gave no information about the judge’s reasons, and prosecution and defense attorneys declined to comment Monday.

U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Jack Gillund said, “I have no comment.”

A spokeswoman for defense attorney Michael Cardoza said, “We’re no longer speaking about that matter until it is resolved at trial.”

Cardoza said last week that Wielsch’s purpose in the planned unpaid television appearance was to reach out to other law enforcement officers who may be under stress and encourage them to seek psychological help.

Wielsch and co-defendant Christopher Butler, a former private investigator from Concord, are scheduled to appear in Armstrong’s court for a status conference March 20.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Eugene Schoenfeld wrote the Hip Pocrates column in the 60s and 70s. ‘Dr. Hip’ doled out advice on sex and drugs in hundreds of newspapers around the country. He’s also credited by some with having the first ever call-in medical show on the radio.

He’s 77-years-old now, and still working as a psychiatrist. He’s also about to become a dad again.

KCBS’ Mike Sugerman Reports:

“I’m very happy and looking forward to having this child,” he declared.

He and his 28-year-old wife Lonie are expecting a child in May. They think it’s a girl.

She and Dr. Hip married 5 years ago and tried to conceive, but were unsuccessful. Doctors told them she would be unable to do so after undergoing medical intervention without luck – including attempts at in-vitro.

“I don’t know what happened,” said Lonie. “I’m very happy.”

Dr. Hip already has one child, a 40- year-old son.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Solomon Kahn, 34, was riding in a taxicab with his fiance, a Santa Cruz woman, when the cab stalled on a Bangkok freeway and a car struck the taxi, according to Ammon Haggerty, Kahn’s older brother.

He died a short time later, and his fiance was seriously injured.

Also known as DJ Solomon, Kahn was renowned in the Bay Area and international music scenes for his hip-hop style turntable skills and his technical ability, Haggerty said.

Over the past six years, the San Francisco resident and Marin County native was also the Golden State Warriors’ in-house DJ and one of three resident DJs for the San Francisco Giants.

He regularly spun records at several San Francisco nightclubs and performed last month at the San Francisco Ballet’s opening night gala.

In recent years, he performed with a range of top hip-hop artists, including the Black Eyed Peas, De La Soul, Digital Underground and Groove Collective, according to Khan’s MySpace page.

Even with his success, Khan “didn’t have an ego,” his brother said. “He was always really enthusiastic about all his gigs, even his small ones. He loved what he did.”

In addition to mastering the bass guitar in a jazz band as a teen, Kahn was also influenced by his parents’ creativity, Haggerty said.

Their mother, Tammam Kahn, is an author and poet, and Kahn’s father, Shabda Kahn, is a prominent classical Indian musician and well-known Sufi spiritual leader.

His brother said that while their musical styles differed, the younger Kahn also brought a sense of spirituality to his performances.

“It was clearly an intent that he had to bring a kind of deeper experience and try to bring joy and positivity to the people he played for,” Haggerty said. “He was really good at reaching a lot of people and he had a really universal appeal, both as a person and through his music.”

The family is planning a public memorial pending the return of Kahn’s fiance, who is being treated in a hospital in Thailand for multiple bone fractures and will likely undergo surgery, he said.

The couple had planned to marry in September.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

A scene from "Coriolanus" (credit: The Weinstein Company)

 
You can hear KCBS Entertainment Editor Jan Wahl’s movie reviews on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM Fridays at 8:53am & 4:53pm.

(KCBS) – Jan Wahl reviews “Coriolanus,” starring Ralph Fiennes, Gerard Butler and Vanessa Redgrave. Plus Jan also reviews Carol Channing’s “Larger Than Life.”

Listen To Jan Wahl’s Movie Review

CORIOLANUS (R)

Ralph Fiennes chose this Shakespearian tragedy as his feature film directorial debut. In “Coriolanus” (R), we meet a capable but extremely arrogant general in Rome, transported here to a fascist state. His mother, (played by the always luminous Vanessa Redgrave) cares about nothing except her son’s rise to power and military glory. Redgrave just gets better as time goes by, says Wahl.

Other great casting choices in this film: Gerard Butler, Jessica Chastain and Brian Cox.

It’s gusty filmmaking and gets 3 hats from Jan.

 

LARGER THAN LIFE

People raised in the Bay Area will surely love Carol Channing’s “Larger Than Life,” a love story considering she ended up married late in life to her early schoolgirl friend.

Perhaps the best part of this documentary is the respect and love the showbiz community has for this veteran entertainer.

Wahl wishes there was more about her long and destructive marriage to her manager/boss, but she’s still giving it three hats.

See Now: “The Artist,” “The Iron Lady,” “The Descendants,” “Hugo,” “A Dangerous Method,” “My Week With Marilyn.”

Watch On Video/DVD:
“Midnight in Paris” and “50/50“

 
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Norman Wielsch, 50, of Antioch, is a former state drug enforcement agent who headed the Central Contra Costa County Narcotics Enforcement Team, known as CNET.

He and former private investigator Christopher Butler of Concord face an array of drug and corruption charges in a federal grand jury indictment issued on Aug. 8.

Wielsch, who is free on $100,000 bail, asked U.S. Magistrate Laurel Beeler in a court filing this morning for permission to travel with defense attorney Michael Cardoza to Southern California on Feb. 5 and 6.

Beeler signed an order granting permission Thursday afternoon.

Although Wielsch didn’t give a reason for the trip, Assistant U.S. Attorney Hartley West, who opposed the request, said in a filing that she learned from the court pretrial services officer supervising Wielsch that the purpose is to appear on the Dr. Phil show.

Cardoza confirmed Thursday that Wielsch’s plan is to appear on the reality talk show hosted by psychologist Phil McGraw in Los Angeles.

“He’s doing it,” said Cardoza, who said Wielsch’s interview will be recorded on Monday for broadcast in mid-February.

The attorney said Wielsch’s aim in the unpaid appearance is to reach out to other law enforcement officers who may be under stress and encourage them to seek psychological help.

“He wants to make a plea to officers who are in the same type of trouble he was in, with physical disabilities and stress, not to let the macho atmosphere of police departments prevent them from getting help,” Cardoza said.

“He will be able to reach a lot of people” on the daytime show, Cardoza said.

“A lot of wives of police officers will be watching and we hope they will have a chit-chat with their husbands in the evening.

“If he can reach just one person, he will feel good,” the defense attorney said.

Cardoza said the stress Wielsch was under at the time of the alleged crimes between 2009 and 2011 included neuropathic problems with his feet and anxiety over a daughter’s medical problems.

Wielsch and Butler are accused in the federal indictment of stealing and then reselling marijuana and methamphetamine seized by CNET, extorting payments from women in an illegal massage parlor they ran, and conducting phony sting operations in which they stole money and cellphones from prostitutes they identified from Internet advertisements.

No trial date has been set. They are due to appear before U.S. District Judge Saundra Armstrong, the trial judge assigned to the case, in Oakland for a status conference on March 20.

Cardoza said Wielsch has admitted to authorities that he carried out some but not all of the crimes he is charged with and said the former officer is currently negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors.

“He knows he will be punished but he wants to be punished fairly,” said Cardoza, who declined to say which charges Wielsch has allegedly admitted to.
Cardoza said he expects that related charges filed by the Contra Costa County district attorney in the state court system will be dismissed after the federal case is resolved.

In papers opposing the travel request, West said that Wielsch, who would face an estimated sentence of 24 to 30 years in prison under federal guidelines if convicted of all charges, might be likely to flee.

She also said the trip was not for the normal family or medical reasons allowed for travel outside the federal trial court’s Northern California jurisdiction.

“Defendant Wielsch faces very serious criminal charges and a very high prison sentence,” West wrote.

“This travel request is not based on family, medical, or employment reasons that typically support government consent.

“It is, instead, an effort to appeal to the public and to exploit his crimes (admittedly alleged at this point) for personal gain,” the prosecutor wrote.

Beeler’s brief order granting the request did not specify her reasons for doing do.

Cardoza said, “The only issue is whether he’s going to come back,” and maintained Wielsch would be unlikely to flee after having informed the pretrial services officer of his airline flights and hotel arrangements.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office was not immediately available for comment.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Daniel Radcliffe in a scene from “The Woman in Black” (credit: CBS Films)

 
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/99.7 NOW) – Harry Potter mega-star, Daniel Radcliffe phoned-in to the Fernando & Greg morning show on 99.7 Now to talk about his new movie, “The Woman in Black,” among other juicy things like his friendships and relationships. His British accent is incredibly hot. Ladies, you’re going to want to listen to this right here if you missed it on the air on Thursday.

LISTEN TO THE INTERVIEW:

WATCH THE PREVIEW:

 
“Woman In Black” in theaters Friday, February 3.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

This year, organizers held two rounds of ticket lotteries, and will hold one round of open ticket sales next month.

In the first random selection round in November and December, 3,000 tickets were sold at $420 each, with a limit of four tickets per person.

In the second random sale round, which ended Wednesday, 40,000 tickets were sold at prices between $240 and $390, with a limit of two tickets per person.

At noon on March 28, 10,000 full-price tickets will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis in the final round of ticket sales.

“Demand for tickets has exceeded supply, but we believe this is due largely to people trying to increase their odds of success by having family and friends sign up as well,” said Marian Goodell, communications director for Black Rock City LLC, which puts on the festival.

Scalping became an issue last year because the event quickly reached capacity, said Goodell, who is also a founding member of the Black Rock Arts Foundation board.

“To address it, we’ve worked with InTicketing to create a Secure Ticket Exchange Program (STEP) that allows people to buy and sell tickets from a central source, without having to be concerned about scalping or counterfeit tickets,” Goodell said.

The STEP system will go live on the Burning Man website later this month. Details about the program will be posted in coming weeks to tickets.burningman.com.

Beginning Feb. 19, participants who demonstrate a financial need can submit an application to the event’s Low Income Ticket Program through the Burning Man website. Only 4,000 reduced-price tickets will be available, at a cost of $160 each.

According to the Burning Man website, tickets will not be available at the event’s box office this year. Instead, participants are urged to plan head and purchase tickets before arriving at the playa.

This year’s event will take place from Aug. 27 to Sep. 3 in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Letterman marked three decades in late-night TV on Wednesday on CBS by bringing Stern, one of his favorite guests, onto his “Late Show.” They congratulated each other on age improving their looks.

Then Letterman proved it, displaying a picture of them from when Stern first appeared on the then-NBC show in May 1984. Letterman had a bushy head of hair. Stern had a mustache.

Letterman said about Stern’s old picture: “It looks like a guy who was on to talk about a career of writing bad checks.”

Stern advised burning the picture but recalled how grateful he had been for the invite.

“Back then, the fact that you asked me to be on a national television show was mind-blowing to me,” he said.

Letterman also brought some of his long-time employees onstage to present the “Top Ten Things Staffers Would Like to Say to Dave on his 30th Anniversary in Late Night.”

One of the cleanest, and most succinct, entries came from veteran executive producer Rob Burnett: “You’re incompetent.”

The “Late Show with David Letterman” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. Eastern time on CBS 5.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Childhood friends Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone grew up in the Berkeley school system and went on to form the highly popular comedy troupe Lonely Island, creators of several viral videos including “Jack Sparrow.”

KCBS’ Mark Seelig Reports:

Samberg is also one of the stars of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”

The group was recently working on a Super Bowl advertisement contest for Doritos called “Crash the Super Bowl.” The competition invites consumer-made ads and one will be chosen to air during the Super Bowl.

The three reached a deal with Doritos to have them donate $250,000 to the charity of their choice, and Lonely Island chose Berkeley Unified School District.

“This can do huge things,” said district spokesman Mark Coplan. “Athletics that have been cut and the arts that we support. It’s pretty phenomenal when someone of their character, really superstars, think about the school district. How often do you hear that?”

It’s still not clear exactly when the school district will receive the money, but Coplan said that when they do, he hopes Lonely Island is in town to help them celebrate.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The “Sex and The City” star’s personal life became an exercise in the politics of sexual orientation last week when The New York Times Magazine quoted Nixon saying that for her, being gay was a conscious choice. Nixon has been in a relationship with a woman for eight years. Before that, she spent 15 years and had two children with a man.

After some gay rights activists complained that Nixon’s remarks could be used to deny a biological basis for homosexuality, the actress on Monday released a statement to The Advocate magazine explaining she is technically bisexual, and not by choice.

Nixon told the magazine: “What I have `chosen’ is to be in a gay relationship.”

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

The premise is that spending a week outside the nicely furnished management bubble will tell a CEO what’s fundamentally wrong with his or her organization—not who’s pilfering the Sharpies, but how the company’s strayed from its founding goals, and how that’s messing up business. In the end—guess what?—we find out we’re all the same, despite shocking income inequalities that are never mentioned. And that our common humanity, while it can’t exactly redeem capitalism, can at least offer a hell of a PR boost.

It’s as creaky and irresistible a premise as The Prince and the Pauper, only it makes you cry more. As I watched the January 29 episode, in which Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates president Rick Tigner pretends to be a Texas grocery-store manager considering a career leap into wine, I forced my own willing suspension of cynicism.

The show had me at “drug overdose.” Tigner, who last year took over from Kendall-Jackson’s late founder Jess Jackson, grew up in modest circumstances. (His dad OD’d when Tigner was a kid.) Also, Tigner’s wife suffers from Parkinson’s disease, and he fears the half-a-billion-dollar wine megalith under his benevolent stewardship will lose its way now that Jackson has ceased to be around.

Tigner’s physical transformation (call it a make-under) takes him from handsome, gray-templed CEO in button-down Oxford to Jake Williams, a NASCAR dad with a Hulk Hogan mustache, a Kenny Chesney hat, and a Borat sense of the absurd only Tigner doesn’t seem to get (Jake is supposedly being filmed for a show about career changers).

Jake fumbles in the vineyard, where the stoic, Spanish-speaking workers seem to know that he’s as phony as his ‘stache. He busts a Kendall-Jackson truck driver who delivers as many F-bombs as he does cases of Chardonnay, fakes an I Love Lucy assembly-line fail in the mobile bottling facility, and makes an emotional connection with the hard-luck manager of a tasting room. It’s all not quite as unbelievable as the notion of Mitt Romney sweating a pink slip from Bain Capital, but it isn’t entirely plausible either.

Since I promised not to deliver a spoiler, I can’t tell you how the show wraps up, how Tigner—Dockers restored, his boardroom face back on—reveals himself to the employees he met, or what he rewards them with, or even how he makes peace with Jackson’s ghost. (“A lot of company presidents fly at 100,000 feet,” Tigner told me in a phone interview about what he took away from the experience. “You have to fly at 3 feet.”) I can tell you the moral of the show, which is that the adversity all of us experience can make us better people, if we don’t let it make us all foul-mouthed and bitter. And that having a workforce of better people who don’t swear is good for a company, or anyway, for spending an hour of TV time.

 
Undercover Boss air Sunday’s 8:00pm PST on CBS 5.

John Birdsall is associate editor at CHOW.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

PHOTOS: SAG Awards 2012

Davis won as best actress and Spencer as supporting actress for “The Help,” while Jean Dujardin was named best actor for the silent film “The Artist” and Christopher Plummer took the supporting-actor award for the father-son tale “Beginners.”

The wins boost the actors’ prospects for the same honors at the Feb. 26 Academy Awards.

In “The Help,” Viola Davis (pictured above) and Octavia Spencer play black maids going public with uneasy truths about their white employers in 1960s Mississippi.

“I just have to say that the stain of racism and sexism is not just for people of color or women. It’s all of our burden, all of us,” Davis said, accepting the ensemble prize on behalf of her “The Help” co-stars.

Accepting her best-actress award, Davis singled out two performers in the audience who inspired her early in her career: “The Help” co-star Cicely Tyson and Meryl Streep, Davis’ co-star in the 2008 drama “Doubt” and one of the nominees she beat out for the SAG prize. Streep had been nominated as Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” a role that won her the dramatic actress award at the Golden Globes over Davis.

A French film star who is a newcomer to Hollywood’s awards scene with “The Artist,” Jean Dujardin played a silent-era screen idol fallen on hard times as talking pictures take over in the late 1920s.

“I was a very bad student. I didn’t listen in class. I was always dreaming,” Dujardin said. “My teachers called me `Jean of the Moon,’ and I realize now that I never stopped dreaming. Thank you very much. Thank you for this dream.”

Christopher Plummer  would become the oldest actor ever to win an Oscar at age 82, two years older than Jessica Tandy when she won best actress for “Driving Miss Daisy.”

Backstage, Plummer joked when asked if he would like to win an Oscar, an honor so elusive during his esteemed 60-year career that he did not even receive his first Academy Award nomination until two years ago, for “The Last Station.”

“No, I think it’s frightfully boring,” Plummer said. “That’s an awful question. Listen, we don’t go into this business preoccupied by awards. If we did, we wouldn’t last five minutes.”

Octavia Spencer, a veteran actress who had toiled in small TV and movie parts previously, had a breakout role in “The Help” as a brassy maid whose mouth continually gets her in trouble.

“I’m going to dedicate this to the downtrodden, the under-served, the underprivileged, overtaxed – whether emotionally, physically or financially,” Spencer said.

On the television side, comedy series awards went to “Modern Family” for best ensemble; Alec Baldwin as best actor for “30 Rock”; and Betty White as best actress for “Hot in Cleveland.”

“You can’t name me, without naming those other wonderful women on `Hot in Cleveland,’” the 90-year-old White said. “This nomination belongs to four of us. Please, please know that I’m dealing them right in with this. I’m not going to let them keep this, but I’ll let them see it.”

The TV drama show winners were: Jessica Lange as best actress for “American Horror Story”; and Steve Buscemi as best actor for “Boardwalk Empire,” which also won the ensemble prize.

For TV movie or miniseries, Kate Winslet won as best actress for “Mildred Pierce,” while Paul Giamatti was named best actor for “Too Big to Fail.”

Before the official ceremony, the Screen Actors Guild presented its honor for best film stunt ensemble to “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.” The TV stunt award went to “Game of Thrones.”

READ MORE: SAG Awards: Complete List of Winners

The winners at the SAG ceremony often go on to earn Oscars. All four acting recipients at SAG last year later took home Oscars – Colin Firth for “The King’s Speech,” Natalie Portman for “Black Swan” and Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for “The Fighter.”

The same generally holds true for the weekend’s other big Hollywood honors, the Directors Guild of America Awards, where Michel Hazanavicius won the feature-film prize Saturday for “The Artist.” The Directors Guild winner has gone on to earn the best-director Oscar 57 times in the 63-year history of the union’s awards show.

The guild’s ensemble prize, considered the ceremony’s equivalent of a best-picture honor, has a spotty record at predicting what will win the top award at the Oscars.

While “The King’s Speech” won both honors a year ago, the SAG ensemble recipient has gone on to claim the top Oscar only eight times in the 16 years since the guild added the category.

Though “The Help” won the ensemble prize this time, “The Artist” and George Clooney’s family drama “The Descendants” are considered stronger contenders for the best-picture Oscar.

Both “The Artist” and “The Descendants” also were nominated for writing and directing Oscars, categories where serious best-picture candidates generally need to be in the running. “The Help” missed out on nominations in both of those Oscar categories.

Mary Tyler Moore received the guild’s lifetime-achievement award, an honor presented to her by Dick Van Dyke, her co-star on the 1960s sit-com “The Dick Van Dyke Show.”

SAG President Ken Howard put in a plug during the show for the guild’s planned merger with another Hollywood union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The boards of both groups have approved the merger, and ballots will be sent to members of each union.

“As one union, SAG-AFTRA will support a future of great entertainment for all of us,” Howard said.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Alcatraz has a starring role on a new TV show, and officials like that – though some problems are emerging as a result.

As the locals know all too well, you visit the real Alcatraz or watch fictional stories about it in the movies.

Sometimes, people seem a bit confused by the real and the fictional. Not surprising, considering the number of films about the one-time prison, coupled with visitors numbering well over one million per year these days.

KCBS’ Mike Sugerman Reports:

“One of the reasons that the island is so famous is because of Hollywood,” reasoned Alcatraz site supervisor Marcus Kohnan. “You know, they’ve made so many films over the years.”

Most recently, the new Fox TV show ‘Alcatraz’ is gathering a loyal following – with some viewers curious enough to try breaking into the facility.

“This is a fortress, a bomb-proof bunker in a sense,” Kohnan described an area where, in the show, characters walk into a spiffy-looking underground control room.

“This is the area that was depicted in the film, they’re coming down these stairs,” he described. “They’re walking back into that area.”

The catch, he points out, is that it’s actually not an underground control room – it’s made up, just like the TV show. But, enough people are jumping over the ropes that he’s had to put a sign up.

“It says ‘the TV show Alcatraz is fictional, many areas depicted in the film are not real, please respect closed areas that are established for visitor safety, historic preservation and to protect nesting birds,’” he read the admonition posted for visitors.

In short, Alcatraz continues to welcome visitors and avid TV viewers, though with the understanding that what’s on TV is nothing more than a TV show.

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

(L-R) Mia Wasikowska & Glenn Close in "Albert Nobbs" (credit: Roadside Attractions)

 
You can hear KCBS Entertainment Editor Jan Wahl’s movie reviews on KCBS All News 740AM and 106.9FM Fridays at 8:53am & 4:53pm.

KCBS Entertainment Reporter Jan Wahl:

ALBERT NOBBS (R)

(CBS SF) – A shabby yet proud, genteel little hotel in Dublin Ireland, circa 1890. A quiet butler hard at work. His job is twice as difficult and demanding because he is hiding a secret.

He is actually she, in disguise as a man because of the lack of protection for women fearing domestic violence, child abuse and rape.

When she meets other women living the same lie, though, her outlook changes. Albert Nobbs actually starts to believe that happiness may be possible.

Three hats – and a special hats off for Glenn Close – getting this movie made, a true passion project for her and enlightening and important for the audience.

SING YOUR SONG (Not Rated)

Harry Belafonte wasn’t satisfied to live his life simply as a movie star and world class singer – he was determined to take his fame and access and use it against his view of social injustice. From the civil rights struggles of the 60′s to hunger and famine here and overseas to apartheid South Africa, this man was marching, speaking, singing and walking the walk as well as talking the talk. Inspiring, intelligent, four hats.

See Now: “The Artist,” “The Iron Lady,” “The Descendants,” “Hugo,” “A Dangerous Method,” “My Week With Marilyn.”

Watch On Video/DVD: “50/50,” “Midnight In Paris.”

(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)