July 26, 1999
Web posted at: 5:05 p.m. EDT (2105 GMT)

• BBC Radio to air longtime Townshend project
• CBS announces hourlong Martin special
• CBS also talking with DeGeneres
• Gere says 50, fatherhood looking good

Townshend

LONDON (CNN) -- A little-known rock opera by guitarist-composer Pete Townshend is to get its first formal hearing in December. Townshend, 54, premiered the musical "Tommy" in 1969 and started working on "Lifehouse" two years later. "Lifehouse" predicts the development of something akin to the Internet, a kind of digital network called "The Grid."

The BBC says it will debut the work on Radio 3 on December 5.

An early version of "Lifehouse" was performed in 1971 but failed to get enough support, so Townshend put it on hold.

"'Lifehouse' is an apocalyptic journey set across the industrial wastes of Britain on the last day of the millennium," according to a BBC statement. "The play addresses the spiritual consequences of a move away from physical human congregation to digital networking and the power of music."

Townshend talks about the plot's development of the Internet-like feature by describing a scenario in which people are trapped in toxic conditions. "If, in the future," he says, "life itself ever had to be experienced through art -- let's say because of a necessary curfew to avoid the effects of radiation or pollution -- a vast global network would be required."

The music of "Lifehouse" is familiar. The score includes Townshend classics "Won't Get Fooled Again," "Baba O'Riley" and "The Song Is Over."

Martin

PASADENA, California (CNN) -- Puerto Rican pop sensation Ricky Martin is to star in a one-hour special on CBS in November, the network announced Sunday at the Television Critics Association meeting.

"We pursued it hard and fast, and we just got there first," says Nancy Tellem, CBS entertainment president.

Martin, once part of the boy-group Menudo, has seen his solo career take flight since performing at the Grammy Awards last February with the hit single "Livin' La Vida Loca" and his following release, a top-selling, self-titled CD in English.

CBS also plans a new special with Shania Twain and one with Celine Dion. The refurbished Radio City Music Hall at Rockefeller Center is to be the venue for the Dion concert, an event scheduled to be the first single-artist performance in the hall after its current renovation.

DeGeneres

PASADENA, California (CNN) -- Actress Ellen DeGeneres is another talent in talks with CBS.

She's been negotiating with the network for a new comedy in which she'd play the host of a TV variety show, says Leslie Moonves, president and chief executive officer of CBS Television.

The series, slated for the 2000-'01 season, is likely to focus on the character's off- and on-camera life.

Both DeGeneres and her character on "Ellen" came out as lesbians in April 1997. When the show's ratings dropped and ABC canceled it about a year later, DeGeneres accused the network of sabotage.

CBS executives say the new role's sexual orientation hasn't been discussed but that it won't matter to the network if the character is lesbian.

Gere

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Actor Richard Gere says he's looking at his upcoming 50th birthday as a new beginning.

"It feels fine," Gere tells Sunday's Daily News. "I'm thinking that I should do something special on that day (August 31), so I'm trying to figure out what. There's certainly nothing negative associated with it at all.

"I think I always said certain things are going to be happening when I turn 50," he says, "and I would probably be leaving this behind in some way. Which I think I probably will, metaphysically and mentally, and be moving on to some other things."

One "other thing" he expects to be taking on is fatherhood. Gere has said his girlfriend Carrie Lowell, a former "Law & Order" cast member, is to have a baby.

Gere stars in the film "Runaway Bride" -- scheduled for release this week -- in which he's reunited with his "Pretty Woman" co-star Julia Roberts.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.