NEW YORK (AP) – The Who may be returning, again.

In a posting on his Web site, Pete Townshend says that he and singer Roger Daltrey are planning to get together for the first Who studio album in over two decades.

“Roger and I (will) meet in mid December to play what we have written,” Townshend, the guitarist and primary songwriter of the group, writes. “If we move ahead from there, we may have a CD ready to release in the spring. My working-title for the project – “Who2′ – is only partly tongue-in-cheek.”

Despite famously proclaiming “hope I die before I get old” in the song “My Generation,” The Who have frequently reunited to perform since disbanding in 1983. But the new album would be the British band’s first studio recording since 1982’s “It’s Hard.”

The possible new album, Townshend says, would not be a rock opera like the band’s “Tommy” or “Quadrophenia.” A concept-less album, he says “is, in itself, a concept for me.”

Townshend, 59, is also working on an autobiography, which he says, “offers me a chance to lay down my life story and place recent events in proper context.”

In 2003, Townshend was arrested as part of a crackdown on Internet child pornography – but was eventually cleared of possessing pornographic images of children. The rock guitarist was placed on a national register of sex offenders as part of the formal police caution that he received for accessing a Web site containing images of child abuse. Townshend has said he only visited the site for research purposes.

The other two members of the original Who, drummer Keith Moon and bassist John Entwistle, died in 1978 and 2002, respectively.

NEW YORK (AP) – Just sit right back, and you’ll hear a tale … a tale of a new reality show.

On Monday, “The Real Gilligan’s Island” – a new TBS reality show that drops real people who fit the mold of the original 1960s characters onto an island – announced who will play Ginger, the pampered movie star: Rachel Hunter.

Hunter, the swimsuit model turned actress, “shares the flightiness and aloofness of Ginger,” according to the TBS Web site. “She tends to drift and wander without care for what is going on around her.”

The other contestants of the show are also chosen to reflect the still familiar sitcom characters, including the Professor (here, a New York University prof.) and the Skipper (a Massachusetts small business owner and, well, a skipper).

The “real” Gilligan is a 20-year-old college guy who works at a marina, and, apparently, “has been preparing for this role his entire life because he is Gilligan.”

In the show, the castaways will have to work together to get off an island, and in various contests, will relive scenarios from the classic series.

“The Real Gilligan’s Island” premieres Nov. 30 on TBS.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) – G.I. Joe, an action-figure toy with a love-or-hate history, drew a historic salute from the National Toy Hall of Fame.

“Some people like this toy – a lot, and some don’t like it – a lot,” Strong Museum’s chief executive, G. Rollie Adams, said as the 40-year-old miniature soldier was enshrined last week along with the rocking horse and Scrabble.

They joined 28 classic playthings, from Barbie to Mr. Potato Head, Legos to Lincoln Logs, Slinky to Play-Doh and Crayola crayons, that have been inducted into the six-year-old Hall of Fame.

The museum boasts the world’s largest collection of toys and dolls. One big qualifier for inclusion: toys need to have fostered learning and creativity for multiple generations.

“The most important thing” about G.I. Joe “is its influence as an innovator,” Adams said. “Its creation in 1964 launched an entirely new category of toys … best known as “action figures.”‘

The 11 1/2-inch-tall figure also inspired mixed reactions, its popularity temporarily dented as the Vietnam War transformed American political and cultural values, Adams said.

Some argued that it “fosters violent play, leads to a “might makes right’ perspective and desensitizes us to war,” Adams said. Others said it “inspires patriotism and bravery” and asked whether “its critics confuse fantasy with violence and therefore undervalue play as a means of overcoming fear.”

More than 400 million G.I. Joes representing every branch of the U.S. military have been sold since toy company Hasbro, without ever uttering the dreaded D-word, decided to market a doll to boys.

The rocking horse, which dates to the 16th century, became a popular toy with the rise of horse breeding and racing in Europe. Scrabble was conceived by an unemployed architect in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., later sold to a Connecticut couple and began selling by the millions in the 1950s.

The three honorees were chosen by a national committee. Nine other toys were nominated, including the Wiffle Ball, the Rubik’s Cube and the Big Wheel.

LUCERNE, Switzerland (AP) – American singer Lou Pride was hospitalized following a heart attack, organizers of the Lucerne Blues Festival said Sunday.

The Chicago-born bluesman, 54, was taken to the Lucerne Cantonal Hospital, where he was in a stable condition, said festival organizers in a statement. He is set to return to the United States soon, they added.

Pride’s heart attack forced him to withdraw from the weeklong annual blues festival in this picturesque central Swiss town.

The festival, which ended Sunday, was celebrating its 10th anniversary. This year’s edition drew 9,000 fans from across Europe as well as the United States, and featured artists including the Holmes Brothers, Rod Piazza, James Cotton, Bob Margolin, Hubert Sumlin, Bob Stroger and Jimmy Dawkins.

Pride, known for his touring and electrifying stage presence, has put out several albums, including “Very Special” in 1979, “Twisting the Knife” in 1997 and “I Won’t Give Up” in 2000.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) – The new movie about the life and work of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey has received a thumbs-up from one of Kinsey’s colleagues.

Paul Gebhard, an 87-year-old who was a member of the late scientist’s research team and who is portrayed by Timothy Hutton in “Kinsey,” said he likes the film.

“For artistic reasons, they took some liberties with facts, but basically, it’s an excellent film,” said Gebhard, who directed the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction from 1956 to 1982.

Gebhard, who attended Saturday’s premiere of the movie in Bloomington, even suggested that Irish actor Liam Neeson, who plays Kinsey, should get an Academy Award for his portrayal of the Indiana University sex researcher, who died in 1956.

The local film premiere doubled as a fund-raiser for the Kinsey Institute.

Those who paid $50 for tickets were treated to a cocktail reception before the screening, and those who paid at least $1,000 mingled privately with writer and director Bill Condon, actress Laura Linney and executive producer Gail Mutrux over champagne and asparagus.

Before the lights dimmed, Condon himself got in on the fund-raising action and handed over a check for $25,000 to the Institute. “As a very modest thank you,” he said, adding that he’s grateful people are continuing Kinsey’s work. “I know my life is radically different because of him.”

PODGORICA, Serbia-Montenegro (AP) – Sarajevo-born film director Emir Kusturica has won a slander lawsuit against a Montenegrin writer who accused him of supporting former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

Andrej Nikolaidis, columnist for Montenegrin weekly Monitor, will pay $6,490 to Kusturica for calling the famed director a “media star of Milosevic’s war machinery” in a May commentary.

A court in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica, ruled that Nikolaidis had slandered Kusturica and damaged his reputation, the writer confirmed Saturday.

Nikolaidis said he would appeal the ruling.

Nikolaidis told The Associated Press that “it wasn’t my writing that damaged Emir Kusturica’s reputation – the director did it himself by the way he behaved during the Bosnian war.”

Kusturica left his native Bosnia before the outbreak of the 1992-95 ethnic war and took up self-imposed exile in neighboring Serbia, the dominant republic in then-Yugoslavia.

Kusturica enjoyed support from Milosevic’s government, which agreed to finance his work.

“Underground,” Kusturica’s movie on the war in the former Yugoslavia, won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, the Palme d’Or in 1995.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – One of the top executives behind the Guthrie Theater Association’s construction of the new Guthrie on the River building is leaving for a job managing a Broadway playhouse in New York City.

Associate Manager Mary Ann Ehlshlager’s last day will be Tuesday.

The new Guthrie, a $150 million Jean Nouvel-designed building on the Minneapolis riverfront, is scheduled to be completed at the end of 2005 and open in 2006.

Ehlshlager said she is leaving the theater as construction is proceeding according to plans. “I have no concerns about the project whatsoever – everything is on budget and on schedule,” she said.

Ehlshlager, 33, has been with the Guthrie since 1999, when she came to the theater on a management fellowship. She was promoted to her current position after the yearlong fellowship.

When she starts her job on Dec. 1, Ehlshlager will manage Studio 54, the notorious nightclub that has been transformed into a Broadway playhouse for the Roundabout Theatre.

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