‘PI’ Trying to Pace Election Saga

Some big-name stars and their handlers are said to be reluctant to appear on “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher,” given its host’s combative style. In fact, a source at a competing late-night show has noted that producers jokingly refer to the series as “Politically Incorrect With Bill Maher and . . . Who the Heck Is That?” So it was notable Thursday to see a press release for this week’s five episodes that listed “TBA” (or “to be announced”) for 16 of the week’s 20 guest slots. According to an ABC spokeswoman, however, there is no conspiracy afoot, but rather a concerted effort at “PI” to book guests at the last minute, trying to keep the show as up to date as possible in discussing daily developments surrounding the post-election turmoil. Toward that end, the late-night program will tape episodes every night this week, departing from its usual practice of shooting an episode Monday and then two more on both Tuesdays and Thursdays. Ratings for “Politically Incorrect” have increased during the uncertainty surrounding the election, as have other late-night series and news/discussion shows. So in this case, keeping ratings up may have less to do with who’s doing the talking than the nature of what it is Maher and his guests have to talk about.

Is ODB Helping or Hindering ‘The W’?

Can the pop music equivalent of a high-speed freeway chase help album sales? We could find out Wednesday, when we see how the Wu-Tang Clan’s new album, “The W,” fares on the chart. The album debuted at No. 4 on Billboard’s Top 200 Albums chart last week on strong sales of 302,000 copies. Rap albums that bolt out of the gate often see a second-week sales drop of 50% or more, but Wu-Tang member Ol’ Dirty Bastard has been busy generating loads of publicity for the band--though not the kind record companies typically seek. ODB, who had been on the lam since escaping on Oct. 17 from a court-ordered drug rehab program in Pasadena, has kept his name--and the group’s--in the news almost daily since coming out of hiding for a surprise appearance with his Wu-Tang cohorts at a Nov. 21 concert in New York. Now, after being captured and jailed last week in Philadelphia, ODB (real name Russell Jones) is due for an extradition hearing on Friday on warrants from California and New York for drug-related offenses in both states. Will that kind of publicity help or hurt the Wu-Tang album? “I would say that probably doesn’t hurt,” says Tower Records buyer Bob Feterl. “Any type of publicity, good or bad, is still publicity.” Feterl and other retailers expect second-week sales of “The W” to drop from the figure it posted last week, but one rap journalist believes the album will stand or fall on its own merits. “I don’t think [the ODB saga] has helped or hurt the album’s sales, but I think it may have hurt during production, because ODB’s presence wasn’t felt as strongly as it could have had he not had all these legal problems,” says Erik Parker, music editor of the hip-hop magazine the Source. “Fans would like to hear more. . . . I was at the Hammerstein Ballroom when he performed before he was arrested, and when ODB got on stage, the crowd went wild. He’s very charismatic, and the fans love to see him perform. But pretty much since the beginning of Wu-Tang Clan’s existence, ODB has had many legal woes, so this is nothing new for them.”

A New Ritchie Offspring, Sans Madonna

British director Guy Ritchie has been much in the news lately in England. As everyone who reads the Fleet Street tabloids knows, Ritchie and pop singer Madonna are rumored to be getting hitched at the end of this month, followed--again this is tabloid fodder--by a party at a castle that will run about $1.6 million. The couple, who have a 4-month-old son, Rocco, plan to have the boy christened at the same ceremony, one paper reports. So it’s understandable if people forget that Ritchie actually has a movie coming out in America this week: his highly anticipated follow-up to the 1998 quirky British crime flick “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.” The film is called “Snatch,” and it will be showcased for one week only beginning Wednesday at the Sunset 5 in Hollywood, so that it can qualify for Academy Award consideration. The film, which is being released under Sony’s Screen Gems label, will then be released nationwide Jan. 19. Whether Ritchie can meet or beat expectations remains to be seen, but the heat generated by “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” gave him the cushion to work with bigger stars and, presumably, a bigger budget. When “Lock, Stock” arrived on American shores, critics immediately invoked comparisons with the bullets-and-blood baths formula pioneered by John Woo in the late 1980s and by Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction.” For his new film, Ritchie takes audiences into London’s rollicking gangster world, its bustling diamond district and a rowdy Gypsy camp. The plot centers on a diamond heist gone helter-skelter. One sign of Hollywood’s fascination with Ritchie came when screen heartthrob Brad Pitt, who seems to be perennially trying to shed his lover-boy image, signed on to “Snatch,” playing the role of Mickey O’Neil, an Irish bare-knuckle boxer.

--Compiled by Times staff writers