Buzz News Roundup, 2/18
- Jordin Sparks will open for Alicia Keys on her North American As I Am tour that kicks off April 19 in Hampton, Virginia, E! Online reports.
- HBO's long-awaited adaptation of David McCullough's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography John Adams has a premiere date, according to Zap2It. The seven-part miniseries starring Paul Giamatti will start on Sunday, March 16.
- ComingSoon has news that the same guys who wrote Saw IV and Saw V will write the Hellraiser remake Clive Barker Presents: Hellraiser.
- French writer and filmmaker Alain Robbe-Grillet has died today at age 85, Reuters reports. Robbe-Grillet first came to fame as a novelist who rejected conventional writing structures in a style that came to be known as the "new novel."
- Variety writes that Persepolis was screened legally in Iran, despite the fact that the way the film presents the Iranian Revolution had originally outraged the government.
- MTV will run a 22-minute sneak peek of Internet series Quarterlife prior to the show's premiere on NBC. The Futon Critic has the details.
- A national autism group is demanding an apology from CBS over a remark a contestant on Big Brother made, writes the Associated Press. The contestant who made the remark said he works for an autism foundation.
- Billboard has the news that American Idol is teaming up with iTunes to offer downloads of every performance from the top 24 contestants. Full songs will be 99 cents, while full videos of the final 12 contestants will be $1.99. Don't we get this kind of thing for free from other networks?
