Livewire

Aerosmith,the veteran rock band said they were bringing “a little of 1975 back” on a long-delayed album of new material to be released this summer to coincide with a US tour. The band said they were working on finishing up the album—the first of new material since 2001’s Just Push Play—ahead of the tour,but kept the title under wraps. “The camaraderie’s there,there’s some songs that are new rock,and old rock and middle-of-the-road rock,and blues,piano. Joe Perry singing a couple of songs,I’m playing the drums,Joey sings,just all kinds of stuff,” frontman Steven Tyler said. Aerosmith,whose previous attempts to make a new album were dogged by a litany of health problems and internal strife,said they had been working with their long-time producer Jack Douglas to bring “a little bit of 1975 back.”

Billy Crystal,the 64-year-old actor and comedian,for the first time in a decade,is actually a leading man. He plays opposite Bette Midler,66,as Artie Decker,a grandpa who takes charge of his daughter’s three children in Parental Guidance,set for release by 20th Century Fox. Crystal’s new movie is the kind of heartwarming,wisecracking comedy that used to be written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel,the funny guys who turned out Parenthood back in 1989. The script,based on a story by Crystal,was rewritten by Ganz,who is 63,and Mandel,62. The mission,he explained,was to add a couple of antique elements—depth and stronger relationships among characters—that were hallmarks of their work on Crystal’s City Slickers and Mr Saturday Night.

Lionel Shriver,the international best-selling novelist’s latest book was released last week but its not exactly new. She wrote it over 10 years ago. The New Republic tells the story of a corporate lawyer-turned-freelance journalist Edgar Kellogg who takes an assignment reporting about a fictional terrorist group on a Portuguese peninsula after the celebrated reporter before him mysteriously disappears. As Edgar tries to prove his journalism chops and unravel the mystery surrounding his predecessor’s demise,he also struggles to fill the social void left by the charismatic man who came before him and come to terms with his own shortcomings. Shiver said she waited until after the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks to release the novel because she feared that her light approach might be seen as being in poor taste.