Will Smith plays for crowd

LONDON (AP) – Will Smith delighted fans with an outdoor concert before the British premiere of his latest film, “I, Robot.”

Accompanied by DJ Jazzy Jeff, Smith performed for about 3,000 people Wednesday outside the Odeon theater in London’s Leicester Square. The set included hits “Summertime” and “Men in Black,” and Smith’s latest single, “Switch.”

“When you have these kind of events everybody can’t get in. I wanted to give the people who came to support me a little treat out here,” the 35-year-old actor-rapper said.

“I, Robot,” a sci-fi thriller in which Smith plays a detective investigating androids run amok, allowed him to blend two of his long-standing interests, he said.

“From 5 years old I wanted to be a scientist. When I got to 11 or 12 years old I got interested in entertainment. So being in a sci-fi film is a perfect blend of the two,” Smith said.

Dr. Who’s Daleks dispute

LONDON (AP) – The Daleks, metallic enemies of sci-fi hero Doctor Who, have lived to fight another day.

The British Broadcasting Corp. announced Wednesday that it had resolved a dispute with the estate of the Daleks’ creator that had threatened to keep the tinny villains out of a new series of the popular sci-fi program.

“Doctor Who” ran on the BBC between 1963 and 1996, building up a huge following among generations of British children.

The broadcaster is now filming a new series starring Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor, an enigmatic Time Lord who travels space and time battling evil. It is due to be broadcast next year.

In the original series, his most feared opponents were the Daleks, metal assassins on wheels whose vocabulary consisted of the command “Exterminate.”

The BBC had earlier said the Daleks would not be in the new series because of a dispute about editorial control with the estate of their creator, Terry Nation.

Tim Hancock, agent for the Terry Nation Estate, said Wednesday he was “absolutely delighted that the Terry Nation Estate and the BBC have been able to reach agreement on terms for the use of the Daleks in the new “Doctor Who’ series.”

Antony Wainer of the Doctor Who Appreciation Society also expressed delight at the outcome.

“Not having the Daleks is like not having strawberries and cream at Wimbledon,” he said. “They’re absolutely synonymous. You can’t have one without the other.”

Kerry getting double play

John Kerry did the rock-and-roll thing in prep school by playing bass in the Electras, a band that managed to release an album. Now the album is being re-released in two versions – one for Democrats and one for Republicans.

According to the New York Daily News, Kerry’s band mates – Jack Radcliffe, Larry Rand, John Prouty, Peter Lang and Andy Gagarin, who all attended St. Paul’s in Concord, N.H., with the Democratic presidential candidate – discussed reissuing the album.

They squabbled about how to spend the profits – some want the money to go to Kerry’s campaign, while others balked. Thus the compromise: Two separate albums – of the same album – will be released.

Stars lining up for festival

TORONTO (AP) – Eric Stoltz and Jennifer Tilly are among the stars featured in movies by emerging Canadian filmmakers at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

The festival, which will run Sept. 9-18, will include Don McKellar’s “Childstar,” starring Stoltz, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Dave Foley and Gill Bellows, and “Saint Ralph,” directed by Michael McGowan and starring Tilly, Campbell Scott and Gordon Pinsent.

The festival puts Canadian “cinema and emerging filmmakers at the very front and center of one of the grandest stages for films today,” Noah Cowan, co-director of the festival, said Tuesday.

Other Canadian films include Bruce McDonald’s “The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess” and Andre Forcier’s “Acapulco Gold.” Organizers also announced that Olivier Assayas’ “Clean,” starring Nick Nolte, would have its North American premiere at the festival.

On The Web: www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2004/default.asp

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