The D isney-owned and -operated network ABC will offer a small selection of shows including the ultra-popular Desperate Housewives available for free download on the internet. Disney hopes that by offering for free (with commercials irremovably embedded in them) what everyone is already downloading, illegally will increase viewership and ad revenue.

As many as a dozen other networks and content providers are watching with bated breath to see if it is worth jumping on the bandwagon, as advertising agencies fall all over themselves to be involved. Of course you can have the shows ad-free, if you like, but that will cost you LE 12 per episode. The et guide suggests just using the fast-forward button to get to the good parts — and yes, when we say, “good parts,” we mean Eva Longoria. The service went live May 1 on abc.go.com/fes/, with episodes set to air via streaming video after each is broadcast in the United States.

D irector Omar El-Moataz Bel’lah won the prize of best director in the Arab world last month at the sixth Philadelphia Theater Festival in Amman, Jordan, for the play An Takoun Adam Al-Hakim (Being Adam).

It was Egypt’s first-ever entry into the important regional theater festival.

El-Moataz Bel’lah, a member of Tiatro group, wrote the script two years ago.

“The script looks at man’s suffering, man’s existence. The script was classed as a classical one because it is written in classical Arabic. It discussed the issue of taboos: the taboos of religion, thinking and philosophy,” El-Moataz Bel’lah says.

The play made its debut at the Hanager Theater during last year’s Experimental Theater Festival. “One of the audience members liked our show and told us he would like us to participate in the Amman festival,” the director remembers.

As the first Egyptian troupe to participate at the Philadelphia, Tiatro was celebrated in Amman even before the curtain rose. The play, chosen to run at the festival’s closing ceremony, won broad acclaim in Jordanian media and earned nominations for Best Comprehensive Work and Best Musical Score. Mohamed Pasha also won a nomination for Best Actor.

In addition to El-Moataz Bel’lah’s directing prize, the production clinched the award for Best Arab Play.

“Even before our play was shown, we were in the Jordanian press daily,” he says. “They asked us our opinion of daily shows and made quite a big deal over us. When we won, the newspapers and magazines covered our work extensively, so we expected similar treatment when we got back home. Unfortunately, there was nothing. Newspapers like Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar knew nothing about us, although we won in the name of Egypt. It was quite discouraging,” the winner says.

To learn more about the independent Tiatro group, log on to tiatro.net.

W hen Time magazine puts together a list of anything, it is a kind of de facto recognition of greatness. Their latest issue, “The People Who Shape Our World,” which lists what Time considers the 100 most influential people of the year, is no exception.

What is different about this particular listing is that Time has finally included one of Egypt’s greatest treasures, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Dr. Zahi Hawass.

Now we at et have been trumpeting Hawass’s impact on the world of Egyptology for years, but through his hard work and power of personality he has taken his place among the world’s most influential scientists and thinkers and, frankly, we’re darn proud of the accomplishment.

Look for Dr. Hawass, a regular et contributor, to continue to restore Egypt’s lost and endangered treasures to the nation as he has for the last quarter century.

S tars Adel Imam and Youssra recently flew to the Tribeca Film Festival in New York to attend the screening of their latest release Omaret Yacoubian (The Yacoubian Building), one of this year’s most hotly anticipated films.

During their visit, they were invited to the office of screen legend (and Tribeca Festival founder) Robert De Niro; surprisingly, there’s no word on what went down over coffee. The real highlight for the Yacoubian stars, though, was Marwan Wahid Hamed clinching the best director trophy for this, his debut. The screening expanded to include not only critics, but also a general audience and a few stars including John Malkovich. It was generally well received by all parties.

The festival — founded in the wake of September 11 to revitalize lower Manhattan and celebrating its fifth anniversary this year — opened with the premiere of United 93, a Hollywood dramatization of the hijacked plane that crashed in Pennsylvania after the passengers overtook their hijackers (see page 82 for our preview).

The only other ‘Egyptian’ film to hit the Tribeca Festival was Civic Duty, a low-budget American thriller. Local boy Khaled Abul Naga, hot off a brief turn in Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, has a fantastic role in this film about life in post-9/11 America, which is winning wide critical appeal.

Speaking about the movie at a press conference in New York, Abul Naga said, “For many Middle Eastern people, Egyptians, Arabs, they feel misunderstood, misrepresented. They feel their voices are unheard in the Western world.”

Civic Duty is an independent production budgeted at a mere $1.2 million and stars Peter Krause, who is best known for his lead role as paranoid accountant Terry Allen in HBO’s hit drama series Six Feet Under.

Director Jeff Renfroe said he was determined not to tell people what to think. “If we’d gone out and made this really heavy, dark, political movie I’d be afraid that people wouldn’t go to see it and that it would preach.”

Lebanese bombshell Haifa Wahby may not be renewing her recording contract with Rotana, as it is rumored that from now on she will have a new producer: herself.

The sultry singer’s decision reportedly stems from her desire to air her new music videos on all the satellite channels, not exclusively on Rotana’s private-label broadcasters.

Another piece of gossip circulating in the showbiz arenas this past month was that of singer Shereen’s soon-to-be announced engagement to a wealthy Arab businessman. Until it is officially confirmed, Shereen is working hard to release her new album next month in time for the summer vacation season.

Belorussian boxer Alesia Graf won the GBU World Championship belt this last month after pummeling Hungarian Beatrix Farago. The junior bantam weight fight was cut short after a referee stepped in to rescue the brutalized Farago. (DLW)

W ith the twenty-fifth anniversary of his assassination coming up in October, the family of Anwar Sadat is about to launch a new website dedicated to the late president’s memory.

Funded by the late president’s nephew, Anwar Talaat Sadat, and his wife Gihan Dessouky, the well designed Arabic-only website (www.anwarsadat.org) includes rare photographs and documentaries about Sadat’s life.

Those who have watched the film Ayam El-Sadat (The Days of Sadat) starring the late Ahmed Zaki and directed by Sherif Arafa, probably know a lot about the president’s early life and struggle to make peace in the region, but the website includes additional information that may surprise many.

For example, few know that Sadat was a prolific writer, with a number of historical and political works to his name, including Al-Qaeda Al-Shabiyya (The People as the Base, 1954), Safahat Maghoula (Obscure Pages, 1954), Ya Waladi Hatha Ammak Gamal (This Is Your Uncle Gamal, 1964), and 30 Shahr fil Sign (Thirty Months in Prison, 1970).

Even more surprising is Sadat’s 1954 short story “The Night the Devil Lost,” which was later published in Al-Musawwar magazine. The story delves into the protagonist’s internal struggle as he tries to make sense of his employer’s advances toward him. The protagonist, a gardener, is approached by his beautiful female boss. Eventually, he finds her waiting in his room, dressed in her most transparent nightgown, “which showed more than it covered.” At this crucial moment. when he hugged her tightly, the miniature Qur’an she wore around her neck fell to the ground, reminding him that he must heed God.

The website includes a section about former First Lady Jihan Sadat, a virtual tour of the Mit Aboul Kom museum, which used to be the president’s village home, and a section specially designed for children.

A fter decades in the business, veteran actress Nabila Ebeid is rumored to be about to sing in the musical Mafeesh Gheir Keddah (There’s Nothing Else).

The production, currently shooting, co-stars young actresses Arwa and Rola Mahmoud, who play the role of her two daughters.

Worth a mention: Nabila Ebeid never had a shot at singing before — even during her debut as a leading role in Rab’aa El-Adaweya, the infamous film in which the songs were dubbed by the great Om Kolthoum. At least now she’s done it all and ‘there’s nothing else’ left for the veteran star to do.

I t is rumored that singer Tamer Hosny, who is currently under a one-year suspended sentence for forging his military service papers in order to obtain a passport, is thinking of leaving the country after paying his dues — dues in the form of serving in the military, of course. At the same time, word is making the rounds that several film and television producers are waiting for his release from active service in the hope they can convince him to star in a film or serial about his case.

As those of you who take the Sixth of October Bridge may have noticed last month, the hype surrounding the young singer has reached epic proportions. Allegedly, a group of Hosny’s friends booked the exceptionally large billboard with the word Wahashtena (We Miss You) written on it next to a dramatic picture of the singer to show their support. Influential TV anchorwoman Mona El-Shazly claimed in her program Al-Ashera Massa’an (10 o’Clock in the Evening) that the cost of building the sign and renting the space would come to no less than a hefty LE 100,000.

Many Cairenes have received one of the many e mails circulating with photos snapped on a mobile phone that claim to be of Hosny. The pictures (which we’ve elected not to run with this piece) show Hosny in a blue prison uniform during a visit with family and friends, among them star actor Hany Salama.

T he film adaptation of Omaret Yacoubian is still jostling with the original novel for headline space as one of the building’s real-life residents filed an LE 10 million defamation suit against dentist-turned-novelist Alaa El Aswany.

Hatem Hussein Karam, an engineer, alleges that El Aswany named the novel’s gay character after him. In the novel, the character Hatem Rashid is a conflicted homosexual journalist and son of a law professor. In court papers, Karam claimed his own father was a prominent lawyer who worked in the Yacoubian Building. The plaintiff added that his father was a friend of El Aswany’s dad and that he and Alaa were themselves well acquainted.

Omar Haggag, El Aswany’s lawyer, says his client has been on the receiving end of attacks “because of his political positions and stance on corruption. They are trying to attack his political stances by blemishing his literary work.”

Rumor has it that Nabil Agram (yes, he really is the sibling of superstar Nancy) is currently planning to step in front of the camera to get a feel for what it’s like to be an actor after the recent release of his debut single entitled Bayaa El-Wafaa (Seller of Loyalty) for which he composed the music.

Last month, sister Nancy was busy making a surprise appearance as a member of the jury on the MBC series El-Andaleeb Man Yakoon? (Who’s the Nightingale?). The program is dedicated to tracking down and hiring an amateur actor-singer from a long list of contestants from across the Arab world to play the role of legendary singer Abdel Halim Hafez in a new TV serial.

Nancy Agram’s live performance on the show turned out not to be that great an idea as she stole the thunder and totally diverted the audience’s attention from the Halim candidates.

Having found no contentment (nor embarrassment) in his status as a disco-dancing legend as a result of his performances in Saturday Night Fever and Grease, John Travolta is set to return to the dance floor in the remake of the 1998 John Waters film Hairspray. Travolta is set to play the role of Edna Turnblad and will appear opposite rapper-actress Queen Latifah, who won praise for her performance in the movie adaptation of Broadway’s Chicago. Hairspray began its stage run in 2002 and won eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical.

After 17 seasons as the only dysfunctional television family not to suffer a divorce, death or dismemberment, The Simpsons will make the move to the big screen next summer.

Tentatively scheduled for release on July 27, 2007, Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie will embark on some kind of adventure with a deep and twisted moral that will surely enrapture each generation of the cartoon family’s fans. The project is shrouded in secrecy, but rumors have a healthy list of guest appearances from a who’s who of Hollywood including the ever-weirder Tom Cruise. The et guide says, “Doh!”

Hurghada will soon be home to a the first national museum on the Red Sea coast, the Ministry of Culture announced last month, saying the facility will house antiquities discovered in the Eastern Desert.

Located on the water’s edge to encompass submerged monuments as well, the 22,000-square-meter facility will have four display halls, artists’ studios and performance spaces. The museum will give tourists heading to Hurghada from abroad the chance to sample the complete spectrum of Egyptian history — from Pharaonic through Islamic eras — at one destination.

A lice Cooper has been electrocuted, decapitated, hung and dismembered on stage as part of his rock-and-roll horror show, but when he goes home he is a church-going, golfing, conservative dad.

This contradiction between his public persona and his private life has seen him win a few dozen gold albums and, more recently, the key to the city of Alice, North Dakota. Only in the USA, you say? Nope, Cooper has also been awarded the keys to cities across Europe, Australia and Japan.

Could Egypt be next?

S creenwriter Mohamed Hefzy is a huge film buff. This is not a rumor, but a fact that probably helped him become one of the hottest writers in the business. His debut film El-Selem Wel Tho’ban (Snakes and Ladders) was based on the movie About Last Night starring Demi Moore and Rob Lowe. His recent release Malaky Eskendria (Private Alexandria) was little more than a rip-off of Jagged Edge, starring Jeff Bridges and Glenn Close — only he (very creatively) switched the sexes of the two main characters.

Sadly, Hefzy’s next project, a film entitled El-Torbeiny (The Turbine Train), is based on the classic Rain Man, with Ahmed El-Sakka and Sherif Mounir filling in the shoes of Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, respectively.

O f course the FIFA World Cup is important, but when held up to the rivalry between Zamalek and Al-Ahly’s respective football clubs, it is likely to be a yawn. In the latest battle on the Cairo Stadium pitch it was Al-Ahly that came away the victor, inciting chants and car honking into the wee hours of the morning.

Mohammed Aboutrika foils an attempt on goal by Mohamed Sediq in this AP photo that perfectly captures the intensity of the action between these two clubs.

The government of Japan last month finalized a $300 million loan to Egypt for the construction of the new Grand Egyptian Museum on the Giza Plateau. Japan’s ambassador to Cairo and Minister of International Cooperation Fayza Abul Naga inked the loan agreement at a public signing ceremony.

The Ministry of Culture had initially said that construction of the GEM should wrap up by the end of 2009, but the only building block now in place is the foundation stone set by President Hosni Mubarak in 2002.

Farouk Abdel Salam, first undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, says that construction will start soon, adding that he expects the GEM to be ready for its first guests in 2011.

Guests at the opening of the Second Egyptian Amateur Theater Festival, dedicated to the victims of the September 5, 2005, Beni Sueif theater fire, got a scare last month when an electrical cable exploded, showering the stage in sparks and causing a half-hour delay in the proceedings.

Theater guru Samiha Ayyoub apologized for the glitch that she said turned a night meant to celebrate the memories of the dead into one that reminded the families of how their loved ones perished. (MJ)

C omedian-turned-television personality Ellen DeGeneres swept the this year’s Daytime Emmy Awards as she won the prestigious Best Talk Show Award for the second time.

Not many people gave DeGeneres a chance in the field after she piloted many a show to cancellation following her declaration about her sexuality (she’s an open lesbian) and protested against the Iraq war.

Said DeGeneres of this year’s honors, “I feel lucky I found something that I feel comfortable doing and people seem to like.”

Next year, DeGeneres will have ample competition on the talk show circuit as Rosie O’Donnell plots her daytime comeback as part of a revamped The View. DeGeneres and O’Donnell both share a similar audience and an affinity for controversy. Despite going head to head next season, both seem set to continue their shared love of unpopular causes.

Other Emmy nods went to Kim Zimmer of Guiding Light for best lead actress and to Jeopardy’s Alex Trebek for best game-show host. Best drama series went to the long-running General Hospital.

A n innocent Los Angeles Times newspaper box was destroyed by members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office’s bomb squad last month in a publicity stunt gone terribly awry.

Apparently as part of a promotion for Tom Cruise’s new Mission Impossible: III, news boxes in the Santa Clarita, California, area were outfitted with motion sensors that activated the theme to the then-upcoming movie when people opened the boxes to retrieve a newspaper. A concerned citizen notified the police, who subsequently spent several hours and an unknown amount of explosives blowing up the box.

Meanwhile, we here at et promise to never endanger the public peace with any promotion of our venerable publication. But we must say that the movie certainly did explode from the screen on May 16 when it premiered at the star-studded, DHL-sponsored gala at the new Renaissance Cinema in Cairo’s Nile Towers.

L egendary Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards is still in recovery and all Rolling Stones tour plans were scrapped after Richards fell from a palm tree in Fiji last month.

The 62-year-old author of Stones hits Satisfaction and Start me Up was vacationing with his family during a small respite from the “A Bigger Bang Tour,” which has been one of the most ambitious and lucrative concert sojourns in music history.

No word on whether or not Keef got those coconuts he was after.