ENGLEWOOD, Colo., Feb. 12, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- DISH Network Corporation (Nasdaq:DISH), formerly EchoStar Communications Corporation, will host its fourth quarter 2007 earnings conference call on Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2008 at noon ET. The dial-in number is (800) 616-6729.

Roy Scheider was the epitome of the solidly talented journeyman actor who lucked onto a handful of career-defining roles. He wasn't a movie star in the sense of having a starkly defined persona that followed him from film to film, other than a sort of grizzled but vulnerable New York toughness. On the other hand, can you think of anyone else in his two most famous roles, as Police Chief Brody in "Jaws" (and "Jaws 2") and Joe Gideon (aka Bob Fosse), the egomaniacal director of "All That Jazz"?

Scheider famously turned down the role in "The Deer Hunter" that eventually went to DeNiro because he wanted to reprise Brody in "Jaws 2," and that implied conservatism may offer one reason why his film career tapered into character parts and B movies as the 1980s deepened into the 1990s. He may not have minded: a youthful boxer (the broken nose came from an early title bout), Scheider's first and lasting love was the New York stage, and he performed Shakespeare and Pinter with equal relish and finesse.

And part of it's just Hollywood luck: What actor wouldn't want to play the lead in William Friedkin's 1977 follow-up to "The Exorcist," a remake of a classic French action film to boot? It's not Scheider's fault that the result was the overblown "Sorceror." And yet he gives a mean, tangy flavor to two key pre-"Jaws" roles, as Jane Fonda's pimp in "Klute" and Gene Hackman's unlucky partner in "The French Connection." Scheider's later roles could be juicy, too: opposite Ann-Margret in the echt-80s suspense twister "52 Pick-Up," an Elmore Leonard adaptation that's sleazy and hugely entertaining and as Dr. Benway in David Cronenberg's adaptation of "Naked Lunch," cackling as he administers the giant centipede meat. He appeared to have refused sunblock his entire life, and in his later roles, Scheider's face had the texture of a well-tanned alligator handbag from which those ever soulful eyes questioned and burned.

He worked up until the end, it looks like; something called "Iron Cross" is in the editing room as we speak. I recently saw "Chicago 10," a puckish documentary opening in Boston Feb. 29 that mixes archival footage of the riots outside the 1968 Democratic Convention with animated recreations of the ensuing trial of "co-conspirators." It's thoroughly engrossing and it wasn't until the end credits that I realized the actor providing the whining, querulous voice of Judge Julius J. Hoffman was Scheider -- proof of a playfulness that surfaced all too rarely in the man's filmography.

Here's Dave Kehr's excellent obit, which ran in the Times, the Globe, and elsewhere this morning.

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 11, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Just when the world thought there was only one crooner handed the keys to an entire genre, here comes Brian Evans.

So it appears that the writers and producers have agreed to bury the hatchet. People will get paid. TV will get made. And we'll never learn what Gil Cates had up sleeve for Oscar night, since Ellen Page and Javier Bardem are allowed to go to the show and read from the Teleprompter. It feels like an honest relief and an anti-climax. I was getting tired of watching wrestling.

Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy, Exhibition

What on earth is going on with Randy Quaid? He just doesn't seem to be a happy man lately. When Brokeback Mountain came out, he sued Focus Features because he took a huge pay cut to appear in the film and then the film raked in the cash and didn't throw any over to ol' Randy. The suit was dropped with Quaid saying he got a bonus, and Focus saying that he was full of bull ponky. Now we've got something even worse.

Reuters reports that the actor has "been banned for life by Actors' Equity Association" -- the label union for stage actors in America. To top that off, he's been fined over $80,000. Ouch. I hope that mysterious, imagined movie bonus was big enough to pay this off... It seems that he was in a production of Lone Star Love, a country musical based on Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. The production was going to head to Broadway, but got canceled by its producers after this mess.

This is where it gets down-right sad. He ticked off everyone. "All 26 members of the cast brought charges against Quaid, the Post stated, maintaining that he 'physically and verbally abused his fellow performers and that his oddball behavior forced the show to close.'" Meanwhile, Space-Cadet-Quaid says: "I am guilty of only one thing: giving a performance that elicited a response so deeply felt by the actors and producers with little experience of my creative process that they actually think I am Falstaff."

Right. Methinks the man better get over himself before he and wife Evi (who herself had an altercation about the matter in Equity's offices) have to farm potatoes in Idaho or something.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Feb. 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Retro Television Network (RTN), which is nationally owned and distributed by Equity Media Holdings Corporation (Nasdaq:EMDA), announced today that it will partner with GOCOM Media of Illinois to bring RTN programming to Champaign/Springfield/Decatur, IL. The network will launch early next year on one of the digital streams of WRSP/WBUI.

HOUSTON, Feb. 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- The Ensemble Theatre recently held its "8th Annual Heart of the Theatre" celebration at the Wortham Center for their loyal subscribers. The Board of Directors and staff of The Ensemble hosted subscribers, along with students from Kashmere, Smiley and Forest Brook High Schools, to a wonderful evening with veteran actor, director and Emmy award winner Charles Dutton's performance of "From Jail to Yale". Dutton performed his energetic one-man show, a personal narrative combined with excerpts from prolific playwright August Wilson who impacted his life.

CENTENNIAL, Colo., Feb. 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- National CineMedia, Inc. (Nasdaq:NCMI), the managing member and owner of 44.8% of National CineMedia, LLC, the operator of the largest digital in-theatre network in North America, today announced that the company will release its fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2007 results after the market close on Thursday, February 28, 2008, to be followed by a conference call at 5:00 p.m. eastern time.

Some interesting smallish movies in town this weekend: "Caramel" is a sort of Beirut "Beauty Shop," "In Bruges" an uneven but well played tragifarce about British hoodlums (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, both excellent) adrift in Belgium. They're the feature film debuts of, respectively, Lebanese actress/writer/music-vid director Nadine Labaki and Irish playwright Martin McDonagh, both of whom we'll assuredly be hearing more. TMI: Labaki (in photo above) is my new movie crush.

I haven't seen "Taxi to the Dark Side," about the US use of torture in the War against Terrorism, but Wesley likes it even better than "No End in Sight." Cowboy up and check it out; you know you don't want to but you also know you have to, especially when stories like this one are in today's paper.

In a minor miracle of film distribution, Paris Hilton's new movie, "The Hottie and the Nottie," opens in the Boston area today only in Revere. Unfortunately, "Fool's Gold," a classic February dog starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, is opening everywhere.

At the art-houses and institutes: Tonight (Friday), the Harvard Film Archive is welcoming back Cecilia Miniucchi, an alum and distingushed documentarian whose narrative debut, "Expired" stars Samantha Morton and Jason Patric. Saturday and Sunday the HFA hosts Spanish director Jose Luis Guerin and shows a sampling of his luminous, mysterious work about the spaces between people and the world.

The African Film Festival continues at the MFA, and there's a free screening tonight of "The Gates," a documentary about the artist Christo's brilliant assault on New York's Central Park.

Classic romances at the Brattle until Valentine's Day. Tonight is "Harold and Maude," all you suicidal lovebirds.