Martha Stewart to stop publishing Blueprint magazine

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc said on Monday it will stop publishing Blueprint magazine as a standalone publication early next year to invest more heavily in its digital and weddings divisions.

Blueprint will continue to exist online as a blog and will be published as special-interest issues within its home category.

The company said it will cut jobs, but also anticipates reassigning some employees to other divisions.

Radiohead prepares for physical release of CD

London-based indie label XL Recordings is living up to its name by playing an extra-large role in one of 2007's biggest music industry stories after snagging the physical release of Radiohead's "In Rainbows."

The left-field rock band effectively threw the recording industry rule book out the window when it released the studio set through its own Web site October 10, allowing downloaders to set their own price.

Speculation over who would issue the album physically spiraled until October 31, when XL announced it would release the CD on New Year's Eve worldwide -- excluding the United States, where it lands the following day through Dave Matthews' ATO Records, and Japan, which sees a December 26 release through Hostess.

XL now faces several unknown factors -- not the least of which is finding out how a new album performs after being available digitally for three months.

Radiohead "have done the radical," XL co-founder/CEO Richard Russell said. "Now we're doing the traditional, with singles and videos. But I don't know how it's going to perform; we will evaluate and re-evaluate as it goes on and see how the record develops."

That "traditional" approach sees lead single "Jigsaw Falling Into Place" landing January 14 in the United Kingdom, while the first European dates of a world tour, beginning next June and including key festival shows, have just been announced.

'Cold Case' extends rerun deal

"Cold Case" will be on the hunt for two more years in broadcast syndication.

The crime show's distributor, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, said CBS stations in 16 markets, including WCBS New York, KCBS Los Angeles and WBBM Chicago, have renewed weekly rerun rights for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons.

"Cold Case" -- in its fifth firstrun season on CBS -- stars Kathryn Morris, Danny Pino, John Finn, Jeremy Ratchford, Thom Barry and Tracie

Smith brings sci-fi action film to screen

For more than a decade, various directors and actors tried to bring the sci-fi action film I Am Legend to the screen. Only Will Smith managed to get the job done because he didn't give up.

You can experience the results starting on Friday as he defines the role of a scientist alone in Manhattan fending for himself after a bizarre pandemic.

Three previous movie versions of the classic 1954 Richard Matheson novel have made their way to the silver screen.

The more memorable films include 1964's The Last Man on Earth with Vincent Price and The Omega Man, seven years later. Starring Charlton Heston, The Omega Man still has a cult following enamoured with its post-nuclear war fatalism.

Now make way for Mr. Smith Goes to Flesh-Eater Town. In the latest Francis Lawrence-directed rendition, I Am Legend comes across as a hybrid monster mash mixed with sci-fi cautionary tale.

Smith plays virologist Robert Neville trying to survive in New York City after a man-made virus wipes out its population and maybe most of the inhabitants of the globe. Naturally immune, he's running out of time to find a cure as cannibalistic mutants, who suffer from side effects, close in on him.

Almost as challenging as redefining a classic was filming the movie in bustling Manhattan. It made for some interesting logistical problems -- lots of snarled traffic jams and angry New Yorkers, who expressed themselves on a daily basis.

"I would say it's the most middle fingers I've ever received in my career," says Smith of shooting there. "I'm used to people liking me, but I was starting to think 'f -- you' was my name."

On the other hand, the 39-year-old confirms that filming on the usually busy but empty streets provided an easy way to get into his role as the last man standing.

Kiefer Sutherland reports to jail

Kiefer Sutherland, star of the hit television series "24," was formally sentenced on Wednesday to 48 days in jail for drunken driving, and his lawyer said the actor would begin doing time immediately.

Sutherland will serve the 48 days consecutively rather than in two separate stints as had been previously planned in order to prevent a conflict with the production schedule of the Fox network show.

Fox announced last month it was suspending production on the series due to the screenwriters' strike, so there was no longer any need for Sutherland to break up his jail term into two parts.

Urban draws from Australia's robust country scene

Keith Urban, the hunky Aussie country music superstar and hubby of Hollywood's Nicole Kidman, owes a lot to scruffy United Kingdom convicts banished to Australia two and a half centuries ago.

They're the folks who, at the end of a day of back-breaking labour, found the energy to sing. From those songs about loneliness and endurance grew a musical tradition that eventually fed directly into Australia's robust country scene.

"Those early strains are still prevalent in Australian country music, but I don't know specific songs," says the country rocker by telephone from Jacksonville, Fla., his accent largely intact despite having lived in Nashville for 15 years.

Backstreet Boy weds longtime girlfriend

Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough is single no more. He wed his longtime girlfriend Saturday in his hometown, the band's attorney confirmed.

Fellow Backstreet Boys bandmates were in attendance as Dorough, 34, married Leigh Boniello at St. James Cathedral in a traditional Catholic ceremony, People and OK! magazine reported on their Web sites.

"The wedding took place as planned and all went well," attorney Jason L. Turner said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.

Dorough, also known as Howie D, proposed to his girlfriend of six years last New Year's.

"She wasn't expecting it, and I was quite nervous -- more nervous about proposing to her in front of 40 family and friends than about performing in front of 40,000 people onstage," Dorough told People earlier this year.