TELETHON ADD: In addition to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox, networks simulcasting the event include E!, BET, Comedy Central, Court TV, Discovery, Fox Family, FX, HBO, Lifetime, MTV, PAX, PBS, Showtime, Sundance Channel, Telemundo, TLC, TNN, TNT, the WB, Univision, UPN and VH1. E! will also air its own hourlong behind-the-scenes preshow, Hollywood Unites: An E! News Special, at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
ON EDGE: Hollywood studios circulating internal memos Thursday saying the FBI has warned them of some sort of threat. However, the FBI tells E! Online the agency was just alerting the studios to look at their security in the wake of last week's attacks.
SENSITIVITY TRAINING? Bill Maher, host of late-night talk show Politically Incorrect, apologizing Wednesday for saying some U.S. military actions, such as the missiles that hit Afghanistan and the Sudan in 1998, were "cowardly." His televised remarks drew viewer complaints and caused Sears and FedEx Corp. to yank ads for the program.
ONE DAILY AT A TIME: Comedy Central's satirical newscast The Daily Show with Jon Stewart planning to return Thursday with its first episode since last week's attacks. "I think it's likely to be a more somber rendition of the show," a network spokesman says. "The format's still evolving. But it's being described as a 'toe in the water' to get us back on the air."
STRONGER: Britney Spears planning to give $1 from each concert ticket sold to the children of firefighters and police officers killed in the World Trade Center attack. Spears, who returns to the road this fall, also announced that she will sell merchandise and auction front-row seats in an effort to raise up to $2 million.
SPEARS ADD: Spears and boyfriend Justin Timberlake denying a report from Michael Jackson's camp that the twosome had signed on for his all-star song to benefit victims of the terrorist attacks.
TIME FOR GIVING: Jim Carrey, Rosie O'Donnell and rap star Dr. Dre each donating $1 million to the relief efforts. According to a statement from Carrey's publicist, "He hopes this donation encourages other people to contribute as generously as they can."
IMAGINE: Come Together: A Night for John Lennon's Words and Music, TNT's tribute to the late Beatle, rescheduled for October 2 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The concert is now billed as "a concert of prayer and healing for New York City," and proceeds will benefit the American Red Cross and other relief organizations.
FARMERS TO THE RESCUE: Farm Aid President Willie Nelson announcing this year's Farm Aid concert will be dedicated as a "Concert for America," to help restore the farmers markets destroyed in the World Trade Center bombing. Farm Aid 2001 will take place September 29 at the Verizon Wireless Music Center in Noblesville, IN.
MORE WTC FALLOUT: The premiere video for The Cranberries mew song "Analyse" temporarily pulled from video channels after several scenes were eerily similar to the World Trade Center disaster, including a plane flying over two skyscrapers in one scene as well as a featured character walking by the outline of a dead body in another.
BAD TIMING: Disney's Touchstone Pictures delaying the release of Bad Company, an action-comedy starring Anthony Hopkins and Chris Rock because it revolves around a black-market nuclear weapon and humorous CIA-related jokes. The film, due to be released at Christmas time, will now hit theaters in 2002.
IT'S ABOUT TIME: Warner Bros. rereleasing Stanley Kubrick's 1968 digitally restored masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey, in 70mm October 5 at Seattle's Cinerama. December screenings are also slated for Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
LEGAL WEB: The wife of a welder who was killed in March on the set of the upcoming Spider-Man movie suing Columbia Pictures for unspecified damages.
FELLOWSHIP OF THE TUBE: New Line Cinema releasing a new trailer for its upcoming blockbuster, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, during the premiere of Angel Monday night on the WB network.
HUNGRY GREEN GIANT: Shrek gobbling up 12 nominations for the Annie Awards honoring the best achievements in animation. Aside from nods for Best Animated Feature and Director, Eddie Murphy was nominated for his voice-over work as Shrek's sidekick, Donkey. Futurama and The Simpsons picked up nods in the TV category.
WINGS CLIPPED? Aaron Sorkin, creator of NBC's The West Wing, reportedly asking the network to delay the show's season premiere after the recent terrorist attacks. NBC stressed that the request did not have anything to do with the series' storyline in the fictional White House.
FUGHEDDABOUDIT: A judge in Chicago Wednesday dismissing a lawsuit brought against HBO's The Sopranos by the American Italian Defense Association, which accused the show of insulting the dignity of Italian-Americans in its depiction of a New Jersey Mob family.
BIG PIMPIN': New York rapper Jay-Z's latest album, Blueprint, topping this week's album charts by selling 427,000 copies, followed by Nickelback's Silver Side Up in second.
WHO WANTS TO BE A CHEATER? London's the Sun newspaper reporting that Scotland Yard is investigating a claim of cheating on the popular British TV version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. A contestant, who won the $1.47 milion jackpot, was alleged to have been helped by someone coughing in the audience.
ROCK 'N' ROLL LIFESTYLE: Writer-director Cameron Crowe releasing Untitled: The Bootleg Cut, a new DVD version of his Oscar-winning Almost Famous that's much closer to the original script than the theatrical version and allows audiences to get to know the characters in much greater depth. The DVD comes out December 4.