Bug Movie

You've fixed the air conditioner for the seventh time this week. (And it's only Wednesday!) You've played fetch with the dog, catch with the kids, "Truth or Consequences" with your spouse. You're aiming higher in your summer reading this year. But your eyeballs complain about being buggy-whipped through the first 300 pages of "Bleak House." I know what you're thinking: "Man, I could use me a good giant bug movie just about now!" Couldn't we all? But let's face it.

Bugs Bunny will return to the Hollywood Bowl this week to help carry on two traditions — a tribute to Looney Tunes and other classic cartoons and the Bowl's efforts to showcase movie music and the artists who create it. The Bowl has long been a gateway and gathering place for Hollywood, says Arvind Manocha, chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. "So it's natural that we want to celebrate the music of Hollywood by hearing it performed live while watching the movies for which it was written."

HAVING secured her movie star status with a string of films -- including "Kiss the Girls," "Double Jeopardy" and "High Crimes" -- most often short-handed as "women in peril" pictures, Ashley Judd has more recently seemed to reach a certain armistice with Hollywood, acting less frequently in favor of spending more time on her charitable service work.

IN "Bug," paranoia is a bug. The bugs themselves -- little, tiny aphids burrowing into the skin, growing in egg sacs under teeth, spawning welts across chests -- may or may not be real. But that's a moot point for Agnes, a sad sack honky-tonk waitress (Ashley Judd) who finds the visions of her laconic drifter lover, Peter (Michael Shannon), utterly contagious -- an intoxicating vision of reality that leads into a hellish biosphere of tinfoil, Raid and homemade bug-repellent chandeliers.

IN "Bug," paranoia is a bug. The bugs themselves -- little, tiny aphids burrowing into the skin, growing in egg sacs under teeth, spawning welts across chests -- may or may not be real. But that's a moot point for Agnes, a sad sack honky-tonk waitress (Ashley Judd) who finds the visions of her laconic drifter lover, Peter (Michael Shannon), utterly contagious -- an intoxicating vision of reality that leads into a hellish biosphere of tinfoil, Raid and homemade bug-repellent chandeliers.

Bugs Bunny will return to the Hollywood Bowl this week to help carry on two traditions — a tribute to Looney Tunes and other classic cartoons and the Bowl's efforts to showcase movie music and the artists who create it. The Bowl has long been a gateway and gathering place for Hollywood, says Arvind Manocha, chief operating officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. "So it's natural that we want to celebrate the music of Hollywood by hearing it performed live while watching the movies for which it was written."

Mattel's Barbie doll was the queen of Saturday morning television advertising on Oct. 18, with 20 commercials for 29.4 rating points. Here are the top Saturday morning advertisers that day. *--* x x Household Ads Rank Brand/product rating* shown 1 Mattel's Barbie doll 29.4 20 2 McDonald's restaurants 24.2 16 3 Burger King restaurants 23.3 17 4 Office of National Drug Control Policy 19.2 9 5 Walt Disney Co. "Simba's Pride" video 15.5 9 6 Walt Disney Co. "Bug's Life" movie 15.

Fast Forward: "I was watching the closing of the Olympics, and they had an ad . . . for the Olympic videotape of the Summer Games. Why? Didn't we just watch the whole thing on videotape in the first place?" (Jay Leno) Bitten by L.A. Bug: "Hollywood movie executives testified before the U.S. Senate. They didn't look well at all. After 24 hours in Washington, D.C., they were beginning to get homesick for the depth and sincerity of Los Angeles."

Advertiser: McDonald's Agency: Leo Burnett, Chicago Challenge: Hype the "A Bug's Life" movie tie-in with Walt Disney Co. to boost kids' meal sales. The Ads: Four disjointed television commercials splice pitches for McDonald's with plugs for "A Bug's Life" toys sold at the restaurants. In one spot, a seemingly strict teacher tells her class of grade schoolers they have 10 minutes to finish. But she doesn't mean schoolwork.

HAVING secured her movie star status with a string of films -- including "Kiss the Girls," "Double Jeopardy" and "High Crimes" -- most often short-handed as "women in peril" pictures, Ashley Judd has more recently seemed to reach a certain armistice with Hollywood, acting less frequently in favor of spending more time on her charitable service work.

You've fixed the air conditioner for the seventh time this week. (And it's only Wednesday!) You've played fetch with the dog, catch with the kids, "Truth or Consequences" with your spouse. You're aiming higher in your summer reading this year. But your eyeballs complain about being buggy-whipped through the first 300 pages of "Bleak House." I know what you're thinking: "Man, I could use me a good giant bug movie just about now!" Couldn't we all? But let's face it.

In the mad holiday rush for prime family film release dates, Disney--the studio known for having a lock on Thanksgiving--is the one now juggling dates. Disney's computer-animated movie "A Bug's Life" has been caught between a rock and a hard place, or in this case a pig and a Rugrat. The film was scheduled to open Nov. 20 against Paramount's "Rugrats," the film version of the hit Nickelodeon television children's series. Late Wednesday, Disney bumped its debut to Nov.

Science fiction usually sells well at movie theaters in the summer, but that doesn't guarantee success for a pair of movies headed to the small screen in the next few days. Just a week after its high-minded "Nuremberg," TNT is trotting out the futuristic action flick "Race Against Time," a "Blade Runner"-meets-"Logan's Run" tale of a guy trying to elude a death squad.