THE LEFT LANE
Quick DVD release for 'Episode II'
Advertiser Staff and News Services
The new "Star Wars" movie is hitting DVD at light speed compared with "The Phantom Menace." "Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones" will be available on DVD this fall, says the franchise's creator, George Lucas.
"Episode I — The Phantom Menace" came out on videotape early in 2000, about 10 months after the film's theatrical premiere. But the DVD version was not released until a year and a half later because Lucas was particular about refining deleted material and other DVD bonuses and was busy working on "Episode II."
Lucas said he would rather hold off also on the "Attack of the Clones" DVD to do some tweaking. "But everybody says, 'Oh, it's so much more powerful if you bring it out in the same year as the movie,' " he said.
Meanwhile, the original trilogy will not land on DVD until after Lucas finishes "Episode III," due out in 2005, he said.
Stuck on photography masters
A tribute to influential photographers is featured on a new pane of 20 37-cent U.S. stamps for release June 13 under the title, "Masters of American Photography." Depicted are many of the major themes and events in U.S. history — immigration, the Great Depression, World War II, to mention a few.
The photographers honored: Timothy H. O'Sullivan, Carleton E. Watkins, Gertrude Kasebier, Lewis W. Hine, Alvin Langdon Coburn, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Edward Weston, James VanDerZee, Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, W. Eugene Smith, Paul Straid, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham, Andre Kertesz, Garry Winograd, Minor White, Sands Southworth and Josiah Johnson Hawes.
Fighting fraud
Tax evasion schemes, scams and cons are so common that the Internal Revenue Service has taken matters into its own hands and created a tax fraud alert page on its Web site. Find civil and criminal actions against promoters of schemes, info on the so-called "Slavery Reparation Scam," abusive trust schemes, employment tax enforcement program, phony tax preparers and the Social Security refund hoax, among others.
'Rainbow' chasing
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| One of Iz's songs was an integral part of an "ER" episode.
Advertiser library photo • May 20, 1995 |
The Mountain Apple Company, which oversees rights to Iz's music, submitted the song and a Web entry that finally helps the uninitiated discover the source of the tune. On the NBC Web site you'll see Iz in his "Alone in IZ World" glory and you can get an aural sampling of the unforgettable song. The buzz is that his estate may have earned about $25,000 for the national exposure.
