Thirty-screen megaplexes, virtually all anchoring shopping malls, will become the norm over the next decade, industry executives predicted at the NATO-ShoWest convention in Las Vegas Wednesday. AMC president Phil Singleton forecast that within five years the number of theaters nationwide will fall to about 2000 while the number of total screens will increase from 30, 000 to 40, 000. Today's (Thursday) Los Angeles Daily News, quoted Cinemark CEO Leroy Mitchell as saying, "All of a sudden, theaters have become the magnet pulling people to retail centers." (A recent report by the Los Angeles Times indicated that such theater complexes represent, at best, a mixed blessing for retail centers, whose merchants often complain that the crowds of mostly young moviegoers clog parking facilities and rarely frequent upscale merchants.) The heads of several chains, appearing at a seminar, all agreed that "massive consolidation" will occur during the next few years.

The Tangier (VA) Island Town Council has told Warner Bros. that it will not allow the island to be used for filming the upcoming Kevin Costner-Paul Newman movie Message in a Bottle (1998) unless the script is altered to remove objectionable language and sex scenes, the Washington Post reported today (Thursday). Tangier Mayor Dewey Crockett told the newspaper, "Our Town Council is made up of Christian people. We just couldn't accept the script." The decision, said the Post, has split the community. It quoted Linda Wheatley, who has lived on Tangier for 17 years, as calling the council's action "narrow minded" and hypocritical." She added, "They want to make us out to be something we aren't. We have unwed mothers here. We have alcohol problems. ... We are like any other community. ... I believe in the Lord, but I also believe in giving opportunity to those that would benefit from making the film in Tangier."

In a case of art imitating art, Willard Morgan is making a film about his efforts to meet Michael Moore, who gained fame with Roger & Me (1989), a film about Moore's efforts to meet and interview General Motors chairman Roger Smith. As reported by today's (Thursday) Hollywood Reporter, the project began two years ago when Morgan learned that Moore was interested in seeing his film Festival Fever -- but failed to respond when Morgan sent him a copy. According to the Reporter, Moore describes Morgan as "a stalker" and has called police to remove him from his office and had him ejected from an appearance in West Hollywood. All of which, presumably, should generate a lively film, which Morgan has titled Michael and Me.

Not even a highly promoted (and critically praised) album from Madonna could slow sales of the Titanic (1997) soundtrack, which topped the album charts again last week for the ninth consecutive time. Another 478, 000 copies were picked up by record buyers -- as Madonna's Ray of Light debuted at No. 2 with sales of 371, 000.

Air Force One (1997) remained at the top of the Video Software Dealers Assn.'s VidTrac rental chart for the fourth consecutive week last week with $5.5 million, down about 22 percent from the previous week. The Columbia/TriStar Home Video release has now earned $35 million in rentals.

A Los Angeles judge Wednesday granted a request by the motion picture Academy for an injunction to bar Scott Kerman from attempting to crash this month's Oscars presentations. Kerman is the author of No Ticket? No Problem! in which he boasts of his gate-crashing prowess. "We don't want wild cards in there, " Academy exec Rick Robertson told today's (Thursday) Daily Variety. "Given his history of trying this kind of thing, and actually writing a book about it, we particularly don't want him in there and then trumpeting the fact."

Disney plans to re-release its 1955 animated feature Lady and the Tramp (1955) on home video for a limited time on Sept. 15. The film, which has been digitized and remastered, was last available in 1986. The long delay between releases was presumably due in part to a suit over music royalties involving the film launched by songwriter-singer Peggy Lee. The suit was settled in 1996.

Tim Doyle, the exec producer of Ellen, is planning to meet with "another network" next week to discuss moving the show there next season, the New York Daily News reported today (Thursday). "It's all very tentative and hush-hush, " Doyle told the newspaper, which said that Fox had already been approached but had turned the show down. Doyle said that this season's finale was completed Wednesday. ABC has until May to decide whether to renew the show. Meanwhile, in an interview appearing in today's Philadelphia Inquirer, Ellen DeGeneres' mother, Betty, defended the show's content. When critics call Ellen "too gay, " she said, "what they're really saying is that it's gay, and they just don't want to see that. ... Not every episode is gay, and besides, how many shows on television have a gay lead character? One." Since her daughter's coming out, DeGeneres mère, a retired speech pathologist, has become a spokeswoman for the gay-rights group Human Rights Campaign. "This is sort of my mission in life, " she told the Inquirer. "I was born to do this."

ABC received the largest numbers of Daytime Emmy nominations Wednesday -- 53, including 17 for its long-running All My Children (one of which was an 18th nod for Susan Lucci in the best-actress category, which she has never won). CBS, the daytime ratings leader, received 49 nominations, including 18 for The Young and the Restless, the most for any single show. Reflecting its poor showing in the daytime ratings, NBC -- which will air the awards presentations on May 15 -- was far behind with 26 nominations. Syndicated shows received a total of 53 nods, led by The Rosie O'Donnell Show with 13. The top-rated Jerry Springer Show received none.

Entertainment attorney Bert Fields has threatened to sue publicist Linda Robinson over a news release she issued last week concerning client Garry Shandling's suit against his manager, Brad Grey the New York Post reported today (Thursday). In a statement issued to the newspaper, Shandling's attorney, Jonathan Schiller, denounced Fields' threat (Fields represents Grey) as a "transparent attempt at strong-arming."

In what today's (Thursday) Washington Post described as "perhaps the most comprehensive study of local news shows ever, " a survey conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs, a Washington, D.C.-based group that studies programming, and the Kaiser Family Foundation has found that crime stories overwhelmingly dominate local newscasts, amounting to 20 percent of their content. An analysis of more than 17, 000 local news reports broadcast in 13 top-rated markets between October and December of 1996 found that 2, 035 dealt with violent crime, three times the number of foreign news reports, four times the number of education stories and twice the number of health stories. In fact, the report found, in a typical local newscast, after time is allocated for coverage of crime, sports and weather, only seven minutes is left for everything else.

Disney's syndication unit, Buena Vista Television, has pulled the plug on the late-night Keenan Ivory Wayans Show. The show, which debuted last August, was reportedly canceled after Disney executives concluded that the ratings and income that the show generated could not justify its $1-million-a-week cost. (Production of the show has already been closed down, and it was not clear how many unaired segments were in The Can) Moreover, Wayans reportedly failed to attract the young, white, hip crowd that had earlier been drawn to the Arsenio Hall show. That audience is expected to be snatched by 20th Television's Magic Johnson's new late-nighter, The Magic Hour, when it debuts on June 8. The show may also pick up stations and time periods being vacated by Wayans. 20th Television's chief, Rick Jacobson told today's New York Daily News that shows like Wayans and Vibe are bound to fail because "they're not broad-based enough to get ratings."

The debut of ABC's blue-collar sitcom That's Life scored only an 8.4 rating and a 13 share in its time period following Home Improvement Tuesday, according to Nielsen overnights. The results were well below ABC's season average for the 9:30 slot.

The FCC is expected to take final action today (Thursday) to adopt standards for V-chip program-blocking technology, carrying out orders from Congress contained in the 1996 telecommunications reform act. The chips, to become part of virtually all new sets sold in the U.S., would operate in conjunction with the ratings systems now in use by all of the major over-the-air and cable networks, including the less detailed NBC ratings. "This will give parents a powerful tool to protect their kids from programs that might be harmful to them, " FCC chairman William E. Kennard told today's Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile an advisory panel set up by Japan's Education Ministry is reportedly preparing a report calling for a ratings code and mandatory V-chip TV sets, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported today. Under the proposed rule, TV stations would be required to rate the level of violence in programs they broadcast. Parents would then be able to choose the level that they deem acceptable and program that information into their V-chip-equipped TV sets.

The former East Asia editor of the London Times resigned Wednesday following reports of his comments at a London forum that the newspaper had curtailed its coverage of China because of Rupert Murdoch's interests there. Those interests include the Hong Kong-based STAR TV satellite channel. The charges by Jonathan Mirsky, which have been denied by the Times' editor, have touched off debate in the British Parliament over whether Murdoch has violated conditions of an agreement in 1981 -- when he bought the paper -- that were designed to preserve the newspaper's editorial independence.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and rival publisher John Fairfax Holdings have joined leaders of the Australian telecommunications industry and consumer groups to oppose plans by the Australian government to grant free digital channels to the country's TV networks. Meanwhile, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today (Friday) that the minister of communications is considering a plan that would allow the TV networks to use the digital channels only to simulcast existing programs in the wide-screen, high-definition format. Use of the channels for all other purposes, including multiple programs and Internet delivery, would be barred. The government reportedly is looking for ways to reclaim any unused capacity and auction it off.