Chatterbox: Dido due to drop in

Well, Australia got an Eminem tour but, hey, we're getting his back-up singer. To be fair, English songstress Dido isn't just one of the biggest selling female artists in the world because the rapper pinched quite a bit of her song Thank You for his hit Stan. But it and her subsequent singles have helped make her album No Angel sell very big numbers worldwide - and more than 60,000 New Zealanders have a copy. Which makes you think that when tickets go on sale on Monday for her October 15 show at Auckland's St James, there's going to be bit of a rush.

LOMU AT NUMBER 007?: Now that Lee Tamahori is directing the next James Bond flick does that mean that we should revive that amusing rumour about Jonah Lomu playing a baddie? Let's ask his mouthpiece, Phil Kingsley-Jones: "Could be. That's something that we would look at. It doesn't only promote Jonah, it promotes New Zealand, which he's proud to do, and rugby, his game. If Arnold Schwarzenegger can be a film star, then Jonah Lomu can." Quite.

SILLIEST THING WE'VE HEARD ALL WEEK: That goes to the version of R.E.M.'s Losing My Religion which appears on the new album Gregorian - Masters of Chant. Though there's stiff competition from the rest of the CD, which features other old hits getting the Abbey-ambience and choral treatment, such as Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven (well, he was once nicknamed "God"), Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms, Simon and Garfunkel's The Sound of Silence and, of course, Duran Duran's Save a Prayer. No real Gregorian monks were harmed in the making of the album from the same German whizz-kids behind Enigma. Instead, they used "12 singers trained in the art". No, the songs aren't translated into Latin, more's the pity. Yes, we know it's just in time for Mother's Day but surely no one's tastes are that Catholic?

INHUMAN TOUCH: If you're ever a contestant, you poor fool, on The Weakest Link, here's some advice: bone up on your Bruce Springsteen trivia. We noted watching the strangely compelling quiz show the other night that whoever is writing the questions for Louise Wallace to bark is obviously something of a Springsteen fan - two of the interrogations concerned the rocker. Funny that - given Wallace's hilarious domineering style you would think there's only room for one "Boss" on the show. Goodbye!

DEATH WARMS UP: Time for an update on the "blockbuster season" body count, which stood at 276 at the end of June. Since then, we've had the release in New Zealand cinemas of Evolution (26), Final Fantasy (14, but all digital), and this week's latest arrival, Planet of the Apes, which adds an estimated 30 or so simians and humans to the equation. Total so far: 346.

SEND IN THE CLONES: George Lucas has named the fifth instalment - but really the second chapter because it's the second prequel, gottit? - Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Fair trips off the tongue doesn't it? Just like, say, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes or Killer Klowns from Outer Space - neither of which let clunky titles stop them from becoming fine examples of the cinematic arts.