• Bret Michaels appeared on the finale of "American Idol" last week and says he is in the running to replace Simon Cowell as a judge next season. The curmudgeonly Cowell even endorsed the idea that Michaels, who has battled back from a series of health crises, made mention of during a recent concert. Fox won't comment, but the Poison vocalist certainly has the music cred needed. That star-studded season closer is to be the Emmy submission for "Idol" this year. The songfest has lost the best reality-competition series race to "The Amazing Race" for the last seven years in a row. Among the other possible nominees in that category this year is "The Celebrity Apprentice," which Michaels won last month. Donald Trump is determined to avenge his Emmy losses for "The Apprentice" (2004, 2005) with a win this year for the third edition of the celebrity version of the show.

• James Cameron has offered up his private fleet of submersible craft to help BP stop the flow of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. The Oscar champ was part of a group of deep-water experts who met with government officials in the nation's capital Tuesday. Cameron has been interested in oceanography since helming "The Abyss" in 1989. The creator of "Avatar" is also keen on space exploration. In January, he met with Charles Bolden, the head honcho of NASA, to persuade him to include a 3-D camera on Curiosity, a rover headed to Mars next year. PEOPLE

• Patrick Stewart has been dubbed a knight of the British empire by Queen Elizabeth II. The respected British stage veteran, best known stateside for his work on TV ("Star Trek: The Next Generation") and film ("X-Men"), received the honor at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday. Said Stewart, "My heroes were Sir Laurence Olivier, Sir John Gielgud, and Sir Alec Guinness. Being in that company is the grandest thing that has professionally happened to me." AP

• "Two and a Half Men" star Charlie Sheen could well be behind bars when he finds out if he is an Emmy nominee on July 8. He has reaped a lead actor bid for each of the last four seasons of the CBS Monday night staple, but has yet to win. The actor is reportedly set to plead no contest next week to a misdemeanor charge stemming from a domestic dispute in Aspen, Colo., last Christmas. Reports are that Sheen is set to serve his 30-day sentence during this summer's hiatus for the show, which just wrapped Season 7. After initially vowing to bow out of the hit laffer, he just inked a deal for two more seasons for a reported seven-figure-per-episode payday. BBC

• To celebrate the silver anniversary of "Les Miserables" in the West End, producer Cameron Mackintosh is staging a massive concert version in the O2 Arena on Oct. 3. As Alistair Smith reports, this one-time event will boast "a company of more than 300 actors and musicians, including Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean, Nick Jonas (from the Jonas Brothers) as Marius, Norm Lewis as Javert, 'Little Britain' star Matt Lucas as Thenardier, Lea Salonga as Fantine, Jenny Galloway as Madame Thenardier, Camilla Kerslake as Cosette and the casts of the original production at the Queen’s Theatre, the new 25th anniversary production at the Barbican and members of the original 1985 London cast." THE STAGE

• Three-time Grammy champ Keith Urban will headline a July 23 benefit concert in Los Angeles for the charitable wing of the music academy. The evening, dubbed Starry Night, will fund the work of the foundation, which includes music programs for students as well as preservation efforts. Held in conjunction with the Farmers Classic tennis tourney, the event will also support tennis programs in Southern California. Said Urban in a statement, "I was so fortunate to have been exposed to music at such a young age. It touched my heart and opened up a world of adventure and possibilities beyond anything I’d ever known. Being a part of this concert, supporting the efforts of the Grammy Foundation and the Southern California Tennis Association Foundation, is something that I feel very strongly about, because I know firsthand what art, music and sport can do for our youth." GRAMMY AWARDS

• More details are emerging about the June 13 Tony Awards telecast on CBS. As is the custom, the four nominees for best musical -- "American Idiot," "Fela!," "Memphis" and "Million Dollar Quartet" -- will be showcased, as will the two nominees for best musical revival -- "La Cage aux Folles" and "A Little Night Music" -- that are still running. The Tonycast will also feature excerpts from all of the best play and play revival nominees. Previous attempts to present scenes from plays have fallen flat but the star wattage this year is high, including Tony nominees Denzel Washington and Viola Davis ("Fences") and Liev Schreiber and Scarlett Johansson ("A View From the Bridge"). The Tonycast is slated to open with a musical medley of popular songs featured in Broadway tuners and will include appearances by "Glee" stars Matthew Morrison and Lea Michele as well as "American Idiot" composers Green Day.  TONY AWARDS

• Veteran columnist Liz Smith is set to host the seventh annual Theater Hall of Fame luncheon on Thursday that is saluting nine-time Tony Award champ Tommy Tune. Celebrating Tune's golden anniversary in show biz at the Friars Club in Gotham will be fellow hall of famers Angela Lansbury, Frances Sternhagen, Estelle Parsons, Dana Ivey, Roger Berlind, Lois Smith and Charles Strouse. PLAYBILL

Upper photo: Bret Michaels on "American Idol." Credit: Fox

Middle photo: Charlie Sheen on "Two and a Half Men." Credit: CBS

Lower photo: Tony Awards logo. Credit: American Theater Wing

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The Tony Awards administration committee rules on eligibility as well as category placement. On Friday, the committee considered the music scores of various shows. Missing from the list of possible nominees was "American Idiot" which is ineligible for the award because less than 50% of it was written specifically for the Broadway production. The show is based on the 2004 disc of the same name by Green Day, who wrote it as a rock opera in the style of The Who's 1969 smash, "Tommy."

That double disc, written by Pete Townshend, was turned into a film in 1975 and then a stage show in 1992. That production reached Broadway in 1993 and won five Tony Awards including best original score for Townshend, who tied with John Kander and Fred Ebb for "The Kiss of the Spider Woman."

While the trio of musicians in Green Day -- Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt -- won't be in the running for score, Armstrong, who wrote all the lyrics, could contend for the book of the musical. He worked with theater director Michael Mayer to craft the story of three young men from the suburbs who confront adulthood in different ways.

A trio of scores created for plays were deemed eligible to contend: "Enron" -- Adam Cork, music, and Lucy Prebble, lyrics); "Fences" -- Branford Marsalis, music; and "The Royal Family" -- Maury Yeston, music. In 1999, Jeanine Tesori was nominated for the score she created for a production of "Twelfth Night." She lost to Jason Robert Brown for "Parade."

Earlier this season, the score for the new musical "Fela!" was also ineligible, as it featured previously written songs by the subject of the show, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. Yet in 1996, the late Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II contended for their score for "State Fair," which was a combination of the material they wrote for the 1945 movie of the same name and songs cut from their Broadway show "Oklahoma!" (1943) and included in three of their lesser stage hits -- "Allegro" (1947); "Me and Juliet" (1953); and "Pipe Dream" (1955). They lost to Jonathan Larson for "Rent."

Photo: "American Idiot" playbill. Credit: St. James Theater

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On Friday, the administration committee for the Tony Awards convened for the fourth and final time this theater season. The committee is made up of two dozen theater folk, with 10 apiece from the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing -- which jointly host these top theater kudos -- and one each from the Dramatists Guild, Actors' Equity Assn., United Scenic Artists and the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers.

They rule on category placement -- usually only those performers listed above the title contend in the lead categories at the Tony Awards. However, with the increase in equal billing for all, there is a need to separate out the true star turns from the supporting players. Such was the case with Friday's finding that only John Gallagher Jr. gives a leading performance in "American Idiot" while his cast mates are all in featured roles.

Producers can petition the committee to slot certain performers in one category over another. The Roundabout Theater website touts Barbara Cook, Vanessa Williams and Tom Wopat as starring in "Sondheim on Sondheim." However, Friday the committee conceded that they could all contend in the featured races. Cook won the featured actress Tony Award for her role as Marian the librarian in 1958's top  tuner "The Music Man" while Grammy and Emmy nominee Williams nabbed a lead actress Tony nomination for the 2002 revival of Sondheim's "Into the Woods" and Wopat -- best known for TV's "The Dukes of Hazzard" -- is a two-time Tony nominee for his lead roles in the musicals "Annie Get Your Gun" (1999) and "A Catered Affair" (2008). 

Although the committee's decisions about the nature of the roles in new works are debatable, past Tony nominations should guide them when deciding placement for performers in revivals. Yet this is not always the case. On Friday, the committee decided that Viola Davis gives a leading performance in "Fences" in the same role that won Mary Alice the featured actress Tony for the original 1987 production.

In February, the committee ruled that even though Jessica Hecht was playing the same role in a revival of "A View From the Bridge" that netted Allison Janney a lead Tony Awards nomination back in 1998, she should contend in the featured race. That puts her in direct competition with co-star Scarlett Johansson, who impressed the critics with her performance as a nubile niece lusted after by her uncle.

Nominations for the 64th annual Tony Awards will be announced on May 4.

Photo: Tony Award statue. Credit: American Theater Wing

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• Green Day gave the audience at Thursday night's performance of "American Idiot" on Broadway a special treat as they performed two songs during the curtain call. They played the title track from the 2004 album that is the backbone of this new musical and for an encore did "Basket Case" from their first major label disc "Dookie." As Margaret Pesareports, "For a brief moment, it seemed like a mosh pit was going to break out. Instead, it turned into the ultimate punk-rock singalong, with both the crowd and the cast shouting every word right along with Billie Joe Armstrong." MTV

• Jeff Bridgesmay well need to extend his mantlepiece as the awards just keep on coming. AsLee Margulies writes, "Six weeks after winning an Oscar, Jeff Bridges picked up another accolade for 'Crazy Heart' on Thursday night as he and costar Maggie Gyllenhaalwere bestowed Prism Awards, which honor actors, movies and TV shows that 'accurately depict and bring attention to substance abuse and mental health issues.'" Other winners included "The Soloist" for its depiction of mental health issues and both the original "Law & Order" and the spin-off "SVU." THE ENVELOPE

• Dylan Stableford recaps the winners of the National Magazine Awards, noting that "New York magazine captured four Ellies -- the most it’s won since 2007, when it took five -- including one for general excellence, and the New Yorker won three, part of Condé Nast’s impressive bounty.Condé Nast won eight awards in all, including Glamour’s upset of New York and the Atlantic for the first-ever Magazine of the Year award." THE WRAP

• "Lost" will be found everywhere on the ABC prime-time grid as it signs off after six seasons. The penultimate episode airs in the regular Tuesday night time slot on May 18. On Saturday, May 22, the alphabet net will run the two-hour pilot that first screened in Sept. 2004. The following night, the entire four-hour block of prime time will be given over to "Lost." First there will be a two-hour retrospective of the Emmy Award-winning series and then the two-hour finale to (hopefully) wrap up all the mysteries. And after the local news, there will be a special edition of "Jimmy Kimmel Live." TV SQUAD

• Hollie McKay reports on the red carpet woes of actor Michael Avmen, who has filed a $50-million lawsuit against the academy for not letting him into this year's Academy Awards. "On the afternoon of March 7th, the actor and his wife dressed up for the Oscars and an usher for the event transported them from where they were staying at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel to a “resolution desk” where an Academy employee they had been communicating with was working. Avmen alleges that despite repeated requests to be able to return to the Roosevelt, he and his wife were 'held against their will' for six hours in the Academy’s 'detention center,' interrogated about how they were able to get onto the red carpet without tickets, and accused of lying and trespassing. FOX NEWS

• Fans of the Tony Awards who find themselves on the other coast come June 13 can attend a viewing party hosted by nine-time Tony champ Tommy Tune. Capping off the evening will be the presentation of the Julie Harris lifetime achievement award -- named for one of the theater greats who won a record five lead actress Tony Awards in her stellar career -- to Tony champ Brian Stokes Mitchell ("Kiss Me Kate") by Annette Bening. The theater and TV vet serves as president of the Actors Fund, which is holding the fundraiser at the Skirball Center in Los Angeles. ACTORS FUND

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Top photo: "American Idiot" playbill. Credit: St. James Theater

Middle photo: "Lost" logo. Credit: ABC

Bottom photo: Tony Awards logo. Credit: American Theater Wing

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"American Idiot" opened Tuesday night to strong enough reviews in a weak theater season that it is now one of the front-runners to win best musical at the upcoming Tony Awards. The production is based on Green Day's mega-hit CD of the same name, which contended for five awards at the 2005 Grammys. While it won for best rock album, it lost the big prize of album of the year to Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company." However, in 2006, one of its 13 tracks -- "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"-- took home another top Grammy Award as record of the year for longtime bandmates Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool and Mike Dirnt.

Armstrong, who writes all the lyrics, worked with theater director Michael Mayer on the book of this musical in which a trio of young men from the suburbs confront adulthood in different ways. Mayer -- winner of the 2007 Tony for helming best musical champ "Spring Awakening" -- cast John Gallagher, Jr. (who also won a Tony for that show) as one of the three leads. Joining him are Tony nominee Stark Sands ("Journey's End") and rising star Will Esper.

Like "Spring Awakening," "American Idiot" explores the theme of a disenfranchised generation. With their harder edges, both shows harken back to "Rent," which rocked the Tonys in 1996, winning four awards including best musical. And "Rent" also won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for drama, only the seventh musical to do so; this year,"Next to Normal" became the eighth.

Our forums moderator David "Guru" Schnelwar and I have already dished who we think will score bids for best record of the year when Grammy nominations are unveiled on Dec. 2. Below, we duke it out over best album and add the views of our other forums moderator Darrin "DoubleD" Dortch. See his text write-up below; he'll join us in the future for video slugfests. We all agree that top contenders for this Grammy trophy include Beyonce, Black Eyed Peas, Green Day, Kanye West, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, U2 and Whitney Houston.

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: SCHNELWAR'S PREDIX
FRONT-RUNNERS
"Together Through Life," Bob Dylan
"21st Century Breakdown," Green Day
"The Fame," Lady Gaga
"BlackSummers' Night," Maxwell
"Fearless," Taylor Swift

POSSIBLE
"I Am...Sasha Fierce," Beyonce
"The E.N.D. (Energy Never Dies)," Black Eyed Peas
"I Told You So," Whitney Houston
"No Line On The Horizon," U2
"808's And Heartbreak," Kanye West

ALBUM OF THE YEAR: DORTCH'S PREDIX
FRONT-RUNNERS
"21st Century Breakdown," Green Day
"BlackSummers' Night," Maxwell
"Twang," George Strait
"Fearless," Taylor Swift
"No Line on the Horizon," U2
 
POSSIBLE
"Black Ice," AC/DC
"I Am . . . Sasha Fierce," Beyonce
"The E.N.D.," Black Eyed Peas
"Big Whiskey & the Groogrux King," Dave Matthews Band
"Together Through Life," Bob Dylan
"Relapse," Eminem
"I Look to You," Whitney Houston
"The Fame," Lady Gaga
"Dark Horse," Nickelback
"Working on a Dream, Bruce Springsteen
"808s & Heartbreak," Kanye West
"It's Blitz!" Yeah Yeah Yeahs
 
DOUBLED'S COMMENTARY: This category is ridiculously weak this year. ANYONE could get a nomination. Swift is in for obvious reasons and I think the country voting bloc will get George Strait, a well-respected veteran, a nod here as well. Maxwell will get the R&B vote over Beyonce and Whitney Houston since his album has been so well received. Past nominees/winners Green Day and U2 are likely, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lady Gaga or even the BEPs replaced them. Even an under-the-radar act like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose album is critically acclaimed, could surprise with a nod here.

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