Brendan Moriarty - who produced and directed another war movie "The Road to Freedom" - is producing from a script by James Larson - son of legendary television writer and producer Glen A. Larson.

The film is based on real events that occurred in the last official battle in the Vietnam War in 1975 when the Khmer Rouge seized the container ship the SS Mayaguez.

Mayaguez is scheduled for release in June 2012 from bajan Vista Productions.

The original version of the film was rated R for a colorful string of explitives. The MPAA and the National Association of Theater Owners also waved a rule requiring the 90-day withdrawal of a film from theaters before replacing it with the new version.

But everything isn't rosy.

Overall, the domestic box office was up a bit at of $10.6 billion, but attendance at home actually dropped by 5% with 1.34 billion tickets sold. 3D helped offset the lack of bottoms in seats, accounting for 21 percent of revenue, with $2.2 billion.

MPAA president Bob Pisano blamed the lower attendance on baby boomers aging.

"There's an obvious trend when audiences get older; they go to the movies less," Pisano said.

Sure, or maybe boomers don't want to drag themselves out to see some of the overblown under-imagined 3D trash the studios have tried to foist on the public. Even young people are already wary of shelling out the extras bucks. But if Hollywood doesn't mix in more creativity with the technology, 3D will be last year's gimmick and more people will be happy sitting home watching "Justified."

Lead singer Josh Ostrander explains why it took four years to finish their second album: "We knew this was going be a very important record for us when we started demoing and collecting songs. Every record and EP we released up until this point was truly a stepping-stone to this record. We wanted Speak-ahh to hit on every level. For the most part the band has adapted itself to getting things on their first or second takes whilst recording. I cant for the life of me tell you why this is our darkest record to date, it's not something we planned, we didn't even realize it until we looked at what we had finished."

Recorded in downtown Los Angeles, The ten-track album is a departure from the sound of their debut album. "After we recorded Ameritown with Owen Morris, we had a hell of a time pulling off some of the songs live, it just got away from us in the studio," Josh reflected. "Since we began recording on our own, we always go into recording a song with a 'are we gonna be able to pull this off live' mentality. We never put two guitars down when one will do the job. We prefer the bones of it to an orchestra. We love the rawness."

Eastern Conference Champions made waves last year when they were tapped to contribute an exclusive song "for the third installment of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The unsigned act was chosen from more than 400 bands competing for the coveted soundtrack slot, and the resulting song, "A Million Miles An Hour," received rave reviews and raised the band's profile considerably.

"Twilight was ridiculously good for us," Josh commented. "If anything it showed a million kids out there that you don't need a label or even proper representation to get a foot in the door. We had two songs in the running for the movie, but they just weren't right. The band was taking me to Vegas for my birthday when we got the call that wanted something else. It was the night before we were leaving, nobody wanted to go in, but we did, we powered through, wrote, recorded, and mixed the song in about six hours, then left for Vegas. We would find out a week later that we got it."

Eastern Conference Champions are planning to tour around the release of Speak-ahh. Dates will be announced shortly.

The presentation will be a musical examination and discussion of the details of Zappa's statement 'Music is the Best!" which will include audio and visual elements, electronica and live music presented by Gail Zappa with Todd Yvega and Joe Travers (drummer with Dweezil Zappa for over 18 years and archivist of the Zappa Family and Frank Zappa material).

The Grammy Museum's Scott Goldman will be the moderator of the event that starts at 7:30

The museum is located at 800 W Olympic Boulevard, downtown in the LA Live complex.

You can view more about Zappa here and more about the Grammy Museum here.

Dweezil Zappa - one of Frank's sons - is currently touring with the band Zappa Plays Zappa, which plays re-arranged Zappa tunes with a bigger band. For more on ZPZ, go here.

Born Marie Christine Brockert, Teena Marie -- famously known as Rick James' protegee as well as her nickname 'The Ivory Queen of Soul' -- rose to fame in the late 70s and 80s. The Grammy nominated singer-songwriter released her debut 'Wild and Peaceful' via Motown Records in 1979. The album featured 'I'm a Sucker for Your Love,' Marie's first Top Ten hit, but Marie would go on to have many more hits, including 'Square Biz,' 'Lovergirl' and 'Ooo La La La.'

Hax's column, which was called 'Tell Me About It' and now it's just known by her name, is much like the Dear Abby-type of question-and-advice/answer format and it originates from the Washington Post. The column is mainly about relationships, marriage, sex and interpersonal relationships among friends, family and incidental family, for the most part. In the presentation of the column, Hax posts the question or problem and answers it and a Galifianakis cartoon that paints a visual version of the problem or solution appears next to it. Sometimes the cartoon has a dialogue and sometimes it doesn't, but every column is matched visually with a cartoon.

Along with illustrating Hax's writing, Galifianakis also does his own separate work and has illustrated for other people, many times drawing cartoons about angst-filled men and women and relationships but also about he and his dog Zuzu. He's done what most pet-owners would want to do, drawing and incorporating their pets into everyday life with the pets expressing their thoughts and/or conversing with their human counterparts. (Who doesn't project a voice or more of a personality onto their dog or cat at any given time? Everyone does that).

Although Galifianiakis' cartoons of and with his dog are fairly well-known, his new book is compiled mainly of cartoons that relate to relationships, men and women, family and marriage with only one pencil drawing of he and Zuzu in the front. The cartoonist has divided the book into themes with 'The Bastard Files,' 'Unfair Sex,' 'Finding the One(s),' 'So This Was the One,' 'Bridal Industry Complex,' 'Putting the Eff in Family' and 'Just Kidding' being several of the categories. The section called 'When We're Five, We're All Artists' changes the format a bit and features one cartoon on the left side and then a blown up version of the most complex part of the drawing on the right side. Every cartoon is intricately done and this section shows the grave detail of what Galifianakis does. You can see how great an artist he is when you see the blown-up pictures.

The book is humorous from start to finish and many times the reader sees a cartoon or a line and says to themselves 'I've always wanted to say that.' Galifianakis has captured men's and women's feelings and has his subjects say what everyone else always thinks but never says out loud. Most of the time, he hits it right on the head.

Nick's visual style has a bit of Bill Plympton (just not as surreal) and a smidge of Bill Watterson and Garry Trudeau, but his style is original. The humor and realism is what draws you in as well as the fact that most readers will find themselves somewhere in one of the cartoons. Many times, I saw a cartoon and I said 'I've done that.' (Extra credit to Galifianakis for drawing a diverse population of characters from white to black to Asian and other ethnicities in his frames).

The book is a great find for anyone who likes to make light of relationship scenarios or the ridiculousness of people and enjoys well-drawn, intricately-detailed, one-frame cartoons.

There is also a foreword by actor/comedian Zach Galifianakis (Nick's cousin) and a preface by Hax.

To see more of his work, you can go to his still-being-constructed site here on online with Hax's column here. You can also google his name and see a variety of his work or get his and Hax's first book called Tell Me About It: Lying, Sulking, Getting Fat ... and 56 Other Things NOT to Do While Looking for Love.

He also has a gallery exhibit showing in Falls Church, Virginia that runs until November 28 - if you find yourself in that part of the country over the Thanksgiving holiday.

If you get a chance, check out Simons. He's not in town too often these days and he's something to hear and see. The last time he played the Hotel, it was a packed house, so get tickets as far ahead as you can.

The same night also features performances by Jakob Martin (midnight), Raining Jane (10pm) and Connie Lim (9), among others.

This is Simon's site to follow his tour schedule and get onto the mailing list.

Here is an example of what he does.

In case you missed it the first time, go see him and his band Woodbelly play. Really fun and a great live show. He plays many tunes from his new album called Connection (available on iTunes here), as well as some reggae versions of other songs, including 'Easy' by the Commodores and 'No One' by Alicia Keys. Three of his standout originals include "Release Me (The Fear)," "Better" and "Take a Chance," which are the first three songs on the album.

Go check them out tonight or get the CD.

Haley, who hails from the small town of Paris, Texas, has a brilliant new record called "Connection" - his first major label release, which is on Easy Star Records (hence the tour with the Easy Star All Stars). Connection - which was released on Sept. 14 (look for a CD review in The Daily News in the coming week or so.) starts with three consecutive fantastically catchy tunes: '"Release Me (The Fear)," "Better" and "Take a Chance" and continues the good vibes throughout, showcasing Haley's pure joy in singing and performing.

The new album follows his self-titled debut (on another label), released in 2008, which featured a few tunes that he covered on the television show, including reggae versions of 'Message in a Bottle' by The Police and 'Easy' by The Commodores.

Haley's music is a happy, Caribbean-sounding reggae that evokes joy and positivity. His voice lands in the medium-to-high register, but is flawless in its movement within the ranges and gives the listener chills when he harmonizes with himself - sometimes four and five layers on top of each other. The singer himself is an infectious, likable entertainer with a bright smile and personality, who obviously enjoys what he does - and it rubs off on the audience.

After finishing second in America's Got Talent, Haley returned to Texas and instead of immediately capitalizing on his new found fame and perhaps rushing into something, he resumed his extensive touring with his band in Texas called Woodbelly. For several years thereafter, he played solo shows and with Woodbelly in and around the south.

After taking his time, he finally signed with Easy Star and recorded and released Connection - which is now available on his site and on iTunes. You can also see some of his performances on youtube.

For more on Haley, you can go to his website, his myspace or his facebook page and he has a twitter account, where he blogs about his tour and talks to his fans.

For more on the Easy Star All Stars, check out their website here.

To see what introduced Haley to the country, here is his first audition on America's Got Talent.

The Lost alum will guest-star on Matthew Perry's midseason comedy, Mr. Sunshine, Entertainment Weekly reports.

Garcia will play a staffer at the Sunshine Center, a second-rate San Diego sports arena managed by Perry's self-involved character, Ben. Garcia's character will also be added to the retooled pilot.

Perry -- a self-professed Lost fanatic -- also serves as executive producer on Mr. Sunshine, which stars Allison Janney, Andrea Anders and James Lesure as well.

Garcia recently crossed over into music when Rivers Cuomo of the band Weezer selected a photo of the actor as the cover of his new album - called 'Hurley' (nickname of Garcia's character Hugo Reyes) - which was released Sept 14th. Garcia also recently appeared onstage with Weezer at a show - and here is some of the video of it.

This is the album cover. Pretty cool. Like the episode says; Everybody Loves Hugo.