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Weird Al Yankovic,the 51-year-old singer,music producer and parodist whos been poking fun at pop stars and popular culture for over three decades,has decided that success in parody rock isnt that hard to figure out. Yankovic who turned Michael Jacksons Beat It into Eat It and Madonnas Like a Virgin into Like a Surgeon,to name only a couple of his hits,says its pretty simple. My albums are more successful if they are released concurrently with a single thats very topical and maybe celebrates a pop-culture event of serious magnitude, he says. His latest album Alpocalypse has a parody of Lady Gagas Born This Way,which he has recast as Perform This Way.

Bradley Cooper,the Hangover star,will now portray Lucifer,the fallen angel turned ruler of Hell,in a film version of Miltons Paradise Lost,The Associated Press reported. The original epic,told the story of mans first disobedience,and the fruit of that forbidden tree that was used by Satan to tempt Adam and Eve away from God. Australian government officials said last week that the special-effects-heavy Paradise Lost film would be directed by Alex Proyas,the director of big-budget action features including I,Robot and Knowing,and would be filmed largely at the Fox Studios in Sydney with some financial incentives from the government of New South Wales.

Frank Langella,who has memorably played Richard Nixon on screen in Frost/Nixon (and Count Dracula in the film Dracula),and whose long career has included films like Dave,Starting Out in the Evening and The Ninth Gate,will write about his up-close-and-personal encounters with Elizabeth Taylor,Laurence Olivier,William Styron,Marilyn Monroe,Arthur Miller and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,among others,in a memoir to be released next year,his publisher said last week. HarperCollins acquired the rights to Dropped Names,Langellas first book,said Jonathan Burnham,the publisher of the Harper imprint.