Hello, gang! Some news and notes from the past week. Shall we begin?

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COUNTING DOWN
As I write this, there is exactly 40 hours left until major league baseball players go on strike. Good for them! I mean, if my average salary was $2.3 million a year, not including the extra $6000 I get on the road to pay for my meals, plus having to endure the torture of flying first class and staying in four-star hotels, I'd be bitching too! My son has started his college fall ball schedule, and I will be more then happy to sit in the stands and root for him. (UPDATE, 8-30-02, and as we now know, the baseball strike was called off due to manager/player's successful negotiations. I'm sure Mike will have more thoughts on this in next week's Rant!---Nolan)

MOVIE NOTES
Congrats to the producers of "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" for creating the biggest bomb in movie history. Budgeted at over $100 million, the film has barely made $3 million. If you're AOL/TIME WARNER stock is plummeting, you can thank Eddie Murphy.

Sure, he was OK in "Dune" and "Blue Velvet," but the man behind the Man of Steel? Miramax Films is arguing with the producers of the George Reeves' bio film, "Truth, Justice and the American Way," over their choice of Kyle MacLachlin to play Reeves. To me, MacLachlin is way too tall and thin to play the medium-sized Reeves.

After gasping for air all of these years, the Betamax video system will finally be discontinued at the end of this year. A very popular format when home video began, Betamax was quickly surpassed by JVC's VHS system when Sony refused to license their technology to other manufacturers. Though the tapes were smaller and offered a superior picture and sound quality (in fact, some musical artists, including Stevie Wonder, would record their tracks on Beta), the limited numbers of machines and accessories available sent the format to its doom.

MOVING ON
This week saw the passing on of two screenwriters:
   Stanley Greenberg, who received an Emmy nomination for his script about the Cuban Missile Crisis, "The Missiles of October," died this past Sunday at age 74. His best known feature was the Charlton Heston/Edward G. Robinson film, "Soylent Green," which, everyone knows, IS PEOPLE!
   Dean Riesner, who's career ran the gamut from child star to author, passed away August 18 at the age of 83. Riesner began his film career in 1923, when he was billed as "Dinky Dean." He worked with many of the screens comic geniuses, including Chaplin and Keaton. In 1939, his first screenplay credit was produced under the name Dean Franklin. The film was "Code of the Secret Service," and starred a young actor named Ronald Reagan. A stint writing for the television western "Rawhide" introduced Riesner to actor Clint Eastwood. Riesner later penned Eastwood's first directorial effort, the thriller "Play Misty for Me." He later collaborated with Eastwood on "Dirty Harry" and "High Plains Drifter." He adapted Irwin Shaw's epic novel "Rich Man, Poor Man" into televisions first mini series. In later years, he served as a key "rewrite" man on such films as "Das Boot," "Blue Thunder" and "Starman." His last feature script was for the Whoopi Goldberg film "Fatal Beauty."    

Well, that's it for this week. Next week: did they strike or not? My opinion on the outcome. See ya!